CHAPTER 78: A SMALL MISTAKE

Vanessa pulled her lips back, her eyes wide.

’That was my first...’ she thought, her heart pounding as a faint blush crept over her cheeks.

She would never tell him that, of course.

Better to keep her composure, act as if it were nothing.

She straightened her back quickly, smoothing her expression into calm.

"Are you okay?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

Lucius sighed, rubbing the corner of his mouth as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"You know, even if that arrow hit me, it wouldn’t have mattered. It wouldn’t even scratch me."

He pointed ahead, and Vanessa’s eyes followed.

She blinked in surprise.

Countless arrows were suspended midair, frozen in distorted space just inches from where Lucius had been standing.

They hung there, trembling faintly, as though reality itself held its breath.

Her cheeks heated further.

"Hmph! I was just trying to be nice," she muttered, biting her lip before turning to the shimmering wall that separated them from the rest of the floor. "Forget it. Let it down."

Lucius studied her expression, but didn’t comment.

With a flick of his fingers, the space dissolved, and in the blink of an eye, several whizzed toward them.

The two split apart smoothly, dodging with ease, though it was clear the enemy wasn’t planning to give them a second to breathe.

On the other side of the chamber, the goblins were waiting.

A lot of them.

These weren’t the scrawny cave-rats Lucius had crushed before, but armored variants.

Brown-skinned, lean and vicious, they rode beasts that looked like a cross between wolves and panthers, their glowing yellow eyes hungry for blood.

In the sky, others circled on grotesque batlike mounts, brandishing jagged crystal weapons that hummed with mana.

Lucius exhaled through his nose, unimpressed. "So much for romance."

He kicked the head off the first charging goblin, crimson spraying through the air.

Without hesitation, he landed on the back of the beast it had been riding, seizing the reins.

The mount snarled but obeyed, and Lucius rode forward, slicing with blades invisible to the naked eye.

Space itself shifted, turning edges sharper than steel, and every swing sent goblin limbs scattering.

"Though I really have to ask," he called over the chaos, "what did you think was romantic about this?"

Vanessa didn’t hesitate to answer. Her heel slammed into the stone floor, and scarlet erupted in a violent wave.

Blades of blood arced outward, splitting a group of flying goblins clean in half.

Their shrieks echoed as they fell like stones from the sky.

"Well... like I said, it was from a blog," she admitted, cheeks coloring again even as she split another rider in two. "It was a Beastkin couple. They said they had their best date raiding together — dining over the boss’s body, enjoying the thrill of fighting side by side, and..." She coughed, embarrassed, "...making love in the open afterward."

Lucius’s gaze snapped to her, incredulous.

His expression alone said everything.

’Seriously? Everyone in this world is a pervert?’ he thought bitterly.

"But!" Vanessa rushed to defend herself, slamming her fist into a goblin shaman’s skull, splattering brain matter across the cavern wall. "I wasn’t planning on doing all that... perverted stuff. I just thought the fighting part sounded fun."

Lucius sighed, cutting down the last of his attackers with a ripple of space that erased them from existence.

"If we clear this fast enough, we can still get to a resort for a massage. My bones hurt."

She stepped closer, suddenly serious, and clasped his hands in hers.

"I’m sorry," she whispered. "I only wanted to do something different for us. I’ll make it up to you, I promise."

Lucius looked at her for a moment, her crimson eyes glowing under the dungeon’s false moonlight.

He could never stay mad at her.

Not really.

With another sigh, he nodded, and they moved together toward the staircase spiraling upward.

The next floor greeted them with a roar.

The chamber was wider, lit by eerie green torches.

Their prize awaited them.

A hulking hobgoblin stepped into view, its bloated form towering nearly twice their height.

Its skin was mottled green, thick with fat and muscle but mostly fat, its jagged teeth bared in a hungry grin.

In its hands, it dragged a massive iron blade that scraped across the stone with a hideous screech.

"Fuck..." Lucius muttered, rolling his shoulders.

He remembered the last time he had fought one.

It had taken him two full space attacks to bring it down. "Let’s see if I can take you out with one this time."

He raised his hands, space rippling around his fists.

The air itself began to tear, small black slits forming like cracks in glass.

But before he could unleash it, a crimson beam shot past him.

Vanessa’s blood tore straight through the hobgoblin’s chest, blowing out its back in a geyser of gore.

The oversized monster dropped with a wet thud, shaking the floor.

Lucius froze, his unfinished attack dispersing.

Then he exhaled, rubbing his forehead. "You could’ve at least let me try."

Vanessa smirked, pretending to blow the smoke off her fingers before grabbing his wrist and tugging him toward the glowing exit gate. "Too slow. Come on. We’re done here."

The gate shimmered open, swallowing them in light.

When they stepped back into reality, they were in the field again.

Their car was parked exactly where they had left it, sunlight gleaming off its roof.

Lucius’s shoulders sagged with visible relief.

’Finally out of the dungeon.’

"Great," Vanessa said brightly, pushing her hair back as she smiled at him. "Hop in. Let’s go find that resort. I owe you a massage."

Lucius couldn’t stop the small grin tugging at his lips. "Finally, something normal."

They both slid into the car, Vanessa behind the wheel, Lucius settling into the passenger seat with a satisfied groan.

The engine roared to life, and soon they were driving off, leaving the dungeon behind.

But in the grass near the gate, someone else remained.

A young man crouched low, holding up a phone with shaking hands.

The phone was still focused, its lens aimed right at where Lucius and Vanessa had emerged.

His eyes glittered with greedy excitement as he checked the pictures.

"I just hit the jackpot," he whispered, grinning ear to ear. "This is definitely going online."