CHAPTER 41: DUNGEON BOSS!

He stood there, panting, the sound of his breathing sharp in the silence. His heart thundered in his chest, the adrenaline still flooding him.

He wiped the blood off his face, blinking the sting of sweat and gore from his eyes.

"Is it over?" he muttered.

The dungeon answered him only with silence. He sheathed his daggers, letting a wave of relief wash over him.

The goblin was never truly a threat—but Xavier had treated it like one. He hadn’t let his guard down for even a second.

"You did well, Xavier. Congratulations upon reaching D rank. There’s one last enemy left."

It was Lily that spoke.

Xavier smiled faintly. The fight had been worth it.

Brutal—but worth it. He’d learned a lot. The goblins were perfect for training. With them, he who had never once held a real weapon was slowly mastering the way of the dagger... and the art of an assassin.

He had learned to listen, to feel, to kill.

He needed to be more aware of his surroundings. Trust his instincts. That [Goblin Intuition] skill had saved his life more than once today.

Xavier took a deep breath, feeling the mana still circulating inside him—like a warm river of power coursing through his bones.

He stood over the fallen goblin, chest heaving. Pain laced his muscles, but he didn’t care. He was intoxicated by the victory—by the rush of combat. He had done it.

He had learned to circulate the mana within—and it had changed everything.

He wiped the sweat from his brow, his body aching in every inch.

"Lily... what’s this last foe? The dungeon boss?"

"As expected of you, my love. You guessed correctly, it’s indeed the dungeon boss..."

Xavier sighed, tilting his head back slightly.

One more fight. Then it would all be over.

’I wonder if she’s awake by now...’ he thought.

Seraphina’s sleeping face flashed across his mind—so serene, so beautiful.

The dungeon boss would be stronger than anything he had faced so far. Far stronger than the Goblin Commander. But Xavier wasn’t afraid.

He looked around.

The forest dungeon was quiet again. Corpses of goblins littered the clearing. Green blood pooled like toxic puddles beneath them. And there he stood—Xavier—the sole survivor.

He hadn’t yet entered the goblin village. That would come next.

But first... there were things to take care of.

The loot. But not only that... Strangling survivors, they didn’t escape his notice.

In this battlefield, there were still survivors—he was sure of it. During his fight with the goblin horde, there were some that he had disabled but not finished off. While battling the goblin commander, he could feel their gazes on him, silent and waiting.

Now, with his eyes open, he could see that they had disguised themselves among the corpses. Unless they moved, it would be difficult to distinguish the living goblins from the dead ones.

As he re-opened his eyes, the battlefield was eerily quiet, the goblin corpses lay strewn about, their green blood mingling with the dirt. He scanned the area, his senses heightened.

"There," he whispered to himself, spotting a slight twitch among the bodies.

With swift precision, Xavier moved. He approached the twitching corpse cautiously, his daggers ready. Suddenly, a goblin sprang to life, thrusting a spear at him.

Xavier twisted sideways, deflecting the spear with the flat edge of one dagger and sliding the other swiftly across the goblin’s throat. Everything connected smoothly. The creature gurgled and fell—truly dead this time.

From behind, another goblin—one he had overlooked—lunged at him with a short sword. Xavier’s intuition flared; he spun around just in time to meet the attack.

Clang—!!!

Their blades clashed, metal ringing out across the silent battlefield. The goblin snarled, trying to overpower him, but Xavier, with a deft twist of his wrist, disarmed it and drove his dagger into its chest.

As he stood over the fallen goblin, he sensed another presence. A faint shuffling sound came from his right. He turned, throwing a dagger in one fluid motion. It struck fast, embedding itself into a goblin’s eye. The creature dropped, twitching and convulsing before becoming still.

"They’ve still got the courage to attack in their weakened state even after seeing me kill their commander..." Xavier scoffed.

His eyes then moved to the interior of the village. Looking through the open gate, he couldn’t spot any goblin. Sighing, he silently walked in.

The whole place was deserted. There were no other goblins. He checked the primitive houses, but there were none hiding inside. It seemed he had slaughtered them all in the dungeon.

"It seems I’ve already killed them all," Xavier thought. But then, from the other end of the village, he saw a green beam of light suddenly shoot up to the sky.

"Huh?"

[Defeat the Dungeon Boss to gain the dungeon’s ultimate skill.]

It was the system.

Xavier sighed and began sprinting down a path in the middle of the empty goblin village.

He passed through the village, eventually exiting through the other side, sprinting straight for the beam of light. Soon, he reached the far end of the dungeon.

There, the goblin boss stood frozen, surrounded by a red, fiery energy. The creature wore leather armor and wielded two short swords. Unlike Xavier’s expectations, it looked lean and nimble, and taller than any other goblin he had encountered so far.

The green beam of light that shot into the sky came from a massive stone with intricate patterns, and the goblin boss was frozen in front of the rune stone.

As soon as Xavier laid eyes on the goblin from a distance, it unfroze. In an instant, it reached him with insane speed, slashing its two short swords at him simultaneously—and silently.

Xavier felt a chill crawl down his spine. He was shocked, overwhelmed by the goblin’s speed. Luckily, his body had already moved on its own, both daggers crossing to block the dual slash.

CLANG-!

His muscles went numb and his eyes widened in shock as he was sent flying by the force of the goblin’s strike.