"Heal," said Felicity the next morning, and the resulting yellow glow finally took away the last of my lingering aches.

  "One more skill point, and I can get that Skill to the third stage," she mumbled, seemingly unhappy with the way it had taken more than one cast to take me all the way from half-dead to perfect health.

  "Still, what sort of Constitution do you have to need five casts to fully heal?" complained Daniel.

  "I've never cast it on someone so badly injured before," pointed out Felicity.

  "Yeah, but you've never needed more than two casts to heal us."

  "A hundred and ten," I answered.

  "Sheesh! That's almost as high as Stacy's."

  "I'm having second thoughts about this, if the chieftain can injure someone that badly through Constitution that high with a single spell," said Lee.

  "Really? Only second thoughts?" asked Ryan. "I'm fairly sure you were having second thoughts yesterday. You must be up to fourth or fifth thoughts by now."

  "Ha ha. Very funny," said Lee, not at all amused.

  "More pertinently, I don't suppose anyone has a spell that fixes up armour?" I asked, picking up my leather chest-piece and peering through the gaping hole, its blackened edges still smelling distinctly smoky.

  "Uh... Do you need it?" asked Daniel.

  The rest of his party gave him a look.

  "Without my armour in the way, that fireball would have killed me outright," I pointed out. "I'm not going back in there without something equivalent."

  "There aren't any leather workers in this village, though," complained Daniel. "That damage isn't repairable, and you can't get a replacement here."

  "Is there a blacksmith?"

  "Yes, but he's hardly going to knock out a set of armour in one morning."

  "I don't need a full suit of armour. I just need a breastplate that covers the gaping hole."

  With my knowledge from [Blacksmithing], I knew it wouldn't take that long to hammer something into a shape that would patch up the hole and attach a couple of straps to it. Heck, I could do it myself, if he'd lend me the use of a forge.

  "Just lend him yours if you don't think armour is a requirement of fighting the goblins," said Lee.

  "... Fine," said Daniel, much to the surprise of the rest of his party. "I still have my leather underneath. It'll be a little big for him, but it'll cover up that hole."

  "Huh. I wasn't expecting you to actually agree."

  "What sort of leader do you think I am? I don't want to get anyone in my party killed, you know, even temporary members. But let's stop by the blacksmith on the way in, and hope he can have it ready by this evening."

  "Fine by me," I agreed.

  And so we set off from the inn, stopping by the village blacksmith, who was happy enough to bash some curves into a metal plate for me. Not exactly what I was hoping for my first armour upgrade, but needs must.

  I was a little surprised the blacksmith had steel plates to hand, though. Boris back in my village certainly wouldn't have. It seemed even the villages here in the royal canton were richer than back home.

  "Going back in?" asked the guard at the dungeon, still the same one as yesterday. Hopefully, he'd slept at some point in between, and just happened to be doing a morning shift today. "Oh well. At least this time it's with a C-rank party."

  "Wait, what?" I asked, surprised. "You're all C-rank?"

  "Of course," said Daniel. "Didn't you hear me earlier? I said I don't want to get anyone in my party killed, and he said yesterday that the bonus room took a C-rank party to clear. Why are you surprised?"

  "... I suppose I just didn't think about it," I admitted. "Oh well. Let's go for it."

  "Just to warn you, another party went in ten minutes ago, so don't expect to run into any goblins," called the guard as we descended the steps.

  No-one complained at that. We weren't here for the regular goblins, anyway.

  Half an hour later, though, everyone was complaining.

  "I still think we should blast our way through," declared Ryan, glaring at the secret door, that remained resolutely closed.

  "The guild literature warned about goblin ambushes, but it didn't say what triggered them," I said, listening at the door and failing to hear any gibbering beyond.

  "Well, what did you do last time?" asked Daniel, who was growing increasingly impatient.

  "Just walked back and fore along the passage a few times."

  "That's what we've been doing! There must have been something extra."

  "There really wasn't, unless the dungeon thinks this party is too big to ambush."

  "That could be it, actually," said Lee. "We didn't have any ambushes in our first run of the dungeon. It's not like they're that common, so I'd put it down to chance, but..."

  "Seriously? So the bonus room doesn't open for any party capable of beating it?" complained Daniel.

  "Then we just need to repeat what happened last time," I said.

  "Huh?" said Daniel. "But the whole point is that we can't."

  Felicity slapped him over the head.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "Why do people keep doing that?" he whined.

  "Because, as the party leader, you should damn well be using your Reasoning," she answered. "He's saying that we should move ahead to the next chamber, then he walks back and fore until an ambush happens. Then, once we don't see him for five minutes, we head back here ourselves and knock, and he lets us in."

  "Exactly," I agreed, although if this many hoops were needed to get in, I wasn't looking forward to finding any equivalents in other dungeons. No wonder I hadn't noticed anything while clearing the others.

  "... I still don't see why we couldn't have just blown the door up," grumbled Ryan, who I was starting to develop suspicions about.

  Stacy didn't say a word, merely striding in front of the other four as they returned up the passage. I gave them a couple of minutes before following after them.

  It only took two more loops until a pack of three goblins spilled out of the secret door, straight into my waiting daggers.

  "That was... kinda anticlimactic," said Felicity as I let my five temporary party members into the secret passage.

  "Makes you wonder who first discovered this," said Lee.

  "Someone like Robin, presumably," answered Daniel. "So, shall we get going?"

  ... But despite my level, I had the abilities of someone at level fifty. Maybe not quite as high as a real level fifty adventurer, because I'd spent skill points on non-combat stuff, but it wasn't far off. Someone my level without my doubled skill and stat points wouldn't stand a chance.

  What about a really big group of lower levelled adventurers? It kinda fit with the large numbers of weak goblins. Were dungeons designed to cater for larger parties than adventurers tended to operate in? The cramped corridors in this one suggested otherwise. Besides, that theory had the rather interesting prerequisite that dungeons were designed.

  That much thought was enough for the passageway's exit to come into view, distant gibbering audible from beyond it.

  "Everyone remember the plan?" asked Daniel, who had, thankfully, discussed our strategy earlier while waiting for Felicity's mana to recover.

  Not that it was complicated. I'd owned up to [Expert Stealth], so they were going to charge in and fight as normal, while I snuck in a few seconds later and took advantage of the distraction to assassinate their back line. The only difference to their usual fighting style was that Ryan couldn't launch long range, wide-area spells, much to his disappointment.

  Not that he had any that were that wide area, and even the one that he did—[Earthquake]—consumed too much mana to use more than once a fight.

  "Yes," I nodded.

  For a few more seconds, there was nothing but silence.

  "Ryan?" prompted Daniel.

  "Yes," he snapped back. "Why are you singling me out?"

  "I can't possibly imagine, mister I-want-to-collapse-the-entire-cave-system-on-our-heads. Anyway, let's go."

  The party of five charged into the chamber, and instantly the goblin screeches began. Goblins started pouring out of the village, and most of the party charged towards them. Lee was the only exception, spinning around and drawing his short sword to deal with the pair of sentries, who in turn charged him, while still screeching.

  I stepped in behind them.

  "Stab," I whispered. The skill name reverberated oddly, trying to voice itself at a far louder volume than I'd intended, but [Expert Stealth] seemed to fight it, cutting the volume back down. The experience was odd, and left my throat feeling distinctly prickly, but the Skill activated regardless.

  Lee gave me a thankful nod—seemingly unbothered by me taking the kills—and then turned back and joined the charge towards what had already become the goblins' front line, despite the bow strapped to his back. Daniel was already there, with only Ryan's magic preventing him from getting surrounded, while Stacy charged straight at the goblin chieftain. A brave choice, to engage him alone, but given her Constitution and armour, she was the best placed to hold him at bay while the others dealt with the mobs.

  The 'others' of whom I was now one, so I leant on [Expert Stealth] and hurriedly circled the group of combatants.

  I spotted the goblin shamans instantly. They were hanging back, waiting for line of sight or other opportunities. With the way Daniel's party had charged straight in, they hadn't had the chance to get a single fireball off.

  I made sure they never would. With a dagger in each hand, I slit a pair of throats. "Stab," I whispered, employing my Skill to take out the second pair before the first even hit the floor.

  And then it was straight into the goblins' back line, ignoring the level-up for now. It was tempting to attempt an assassination of the chieftain, but given his skin hardening magic—which I knew he'd activated, because he was parrying Stacy's spiky punches with his forearms—it wasn't worth risking it. I'd give myself away, and probably wouldn't even take him out.

  Instead, I simply took out one regular goblin after another, the brawlers having forced themselves closer to the front, out of my range.

  In all this, Felicity seemed to be hanging back. Could she not do anything other than heal? But if she didn't take part in combat, how was she going to earn any experience?

  Lee and Daniel fought back to back, with Ryan distracted from providing support by the constant stream of goblins circling around the melee and coming after him. He handled himself well, though, and it wasn't long until all the mobs were cleaned up, leaving only the chieftain.

  This fight had been completely different from my own. With the chieftain distracted, he was unable to order the mobs around. He'd also been Stacy's equal, and hadn't felt the need to launch a suicide attack, as with me. Now he no longer had the chance. Daniel and Lee flanked him, not even stopping to catch their breath.

  "Slice!" shouted Lee, resulting in a loud clang and a splatter of blood from the goblin's neck, even if the attack didn't bite deeply. Something didn't need to bite deeply into a neck to do lots of damage, but the goblin seemed more angered than alarmed.

  So, Lee had an active Skill related to bladed weapons? Maybe I'd read him wrong, and the bow was the backup, rather than the sword. Or only for occasions when ranged attacks were particularly advantageous? Party dynamics were something of a mystery to me.

  The goblin chieftain spun around, relatively unharmed despite the surprise attack from behind. Unfortunately for him, Lee wasn't the only one behind him. "Stab!" shouted Daniel, stabbing his spear directly into the chieftain's throat the moment it presented itself. More blood splattered, and this one penetrated further, causing the goblin to gurgle unhealthily.

  Stacy kicked hard into the back of the chieftain's knee, and while the spike at the tip of her boot didn't pierce, the weight of the blow caused his leg to buckle.

  "Slice!" repeated Lee as the chieftain fell, spinning and catching him in the throat. This time, his sword cut halfway through.

  The goblin fell to the floor, motes of light rising up as he died.

  "We really need to give Robin a real party invite," complained Ryan. "He just took, like, a quarter of the experience!"

  I peered in polite incomprehension. "A what?"

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