On the other side of the gate, we found ourselves in a long tunnel, its depths vanishing into a dark abyss. The atmosphere carried an oppressive, moist, sour odour. The stone walls of the tunnel were green and reeked of decay.

"Ughh! What is this disgusting smell!?" Shreya, one of the girls, muttered as she entered the gate behind me.

"Yeek! I almost puked!" Nisha added, covering her nose.

"This is a common E-Ranked dungeon. It's called the Goblin's Cave," Payal informed as she arrived as well. "Stay close to me. You can be attacked from anywhere."

The girls' group immediately moved closer to Payal, while Dhruva and his group stayed just behind Ashish, who had already drawn his spear at the front. Meanwhile, the teenager in the hoodie stayed closer to me—the same position he was in when we entered inside.

Slowly, we began moving forward on the rocky path towards the darkened cave.

While we were moving, Payal informed us about the nature, weaknesses, and fighting style of the goblins, which I obviously heard from one ear and let out from the other. I couldn't care less about this lecture, as my mind was more focused on finding a way to clear this gate with maximum contribution.

Over fifteen minutes had passed since we started moving. Our eyes had also adjusted to the darkness of the cave, yet strangely, we didn't find a single goblin on our path.

"Instructor Ashish, why aren't there any goblins here?" Dhruva asked, his voice laced with annoyance.

"The scouters that came yesterday have slain most of the goblins to ensure the safety of students today," Instructor Ashish informed, his eyes locked ahead.

"Tsk! It seems like they went overboard and killed all of them," Dhruva muttered, clearly unhappy.

Strangely, another ten minutes passed, then another twenty, and we still didn't see any monsters in the cave. Hell—forget about monsters, there wasn't even a sign of a soul in the large, deep tunnel.

"That's strange," Ashish said, a frown appearing on his face. "Instructor Payal, check what depth of the cave was recorded by the scouters before they reached the boss room."

Payal quickly drew a small diary from her pocket, turned its pages, and suddenly gasped after reading the details.

"It—it mentions that the boss room is at a distance of 500 metres inside the tunnel."

"Huh!? But we have already travelled more than four kilometres and didn't reach anywhere," Nisha mumbled, her lips shivering.

"Instructor Ashish, we should immediately return," Payal said. "There is something wrong with this place."

Ashish nodded, and just as he was about to turn, Dhruva spoke up.

"Why are you all getting so worked up? The scouters must have mistakenly written 500 metres instead of 5000 metres. Besides, this is only an E-Ranked gate. There's nothing here that can pose a threat—"

Tang!

While he was talking, a creature about four feet tall, with a green body, bald face, pointed ears, and a body structure similar to that of a human, suddenly ambushed us from the cave's ceiling with a knife aimed at Dhruva's head.

It was only me, Instructor Payal, and Instructor Ashish who sensed this sudden ambush and blocked the goblin's knife.

However, Dhruva also reacted quickly, slamming the goblin's head with his heavy greatsword.

The impact crushed the goblin's head, and it fell to the ground lifeless.

"As I said, Instructors, the scouts must have made a mistake in writing their report," Dhruva said, his voice laced with pride from killing the goblin.

"Instructor Payal, it's your call whether to move forward or return," Ashish said, turning to Payal.

She stayed silent for a brief moment, trying to make an optical judgement before announcing, "The scouts are experienced individuals who have been doing this work since gates first began appearing. It's highly unlikely that they made a mistake. If it were only the two of us, we would have definitely explored the dungeon further. However, with students here, I don't want to take any chances. Let's return."

Since the order was given, everyone turned back, including Dhruva, who was clearly pissed by this decision. He had just had his first monster kill, so he was definitely craving more. Alas, he could not defy Payal's order and had to move reluctantly as well.

After moving dozens of feet, we were again ambushed by a goblin hiding behind an extended rock on the wall of the tunnel.

The monster was quickly dealt with by a single swing of Ashish's spear, but it was still very strange.

There hadn't been any monsters when we moved along the same path earlier, so how could a goblin suddenly appear out of nowhere? Both Ashish and Payal were having the same thought, but they didn't say anything, as it would only spread fear among the freshers.

"We will be moving a bit faster," Ashish ordered as he began taking quicker steps at the front.

Once again, when we moved a few feet ahead, this time two goblins attacked from either side of the tunnel. One was instantly killed by Ashish, but before he could kill the other, Dhruva jumped in, slicing the goblin into two with a vertical swing of his heavy sword.

"Haha! This is fun! Instructor Ashish, did you see how I sliced that monster into two?" Dhruva asked, obviously looking for praise.

What is he, five or something? I sighed inwardly.

"Dhruva, don't get distracted," Instructor Ashish said as he began moving again.

This time, he had only taken a single step forward when a horde of over five goblins suddenly fell from the ceiling, their weapons pointed at the group below.

"Let me take care of these monsters, Instructor Ashish!" Dhruva shouted, rushing towards the horde.

"Hey, wait, Dhruva!"

Before Ashish could stop him, Dhruva had already swung his massive sword in a circular arc, smashing the goblins into the wall.

Wiping the sweat from his proud face, he turned and gave a smug look to me, who was standing at the back with widened eyes and parted lips.

"Raj, are you scared of these tiny goblins?" he asked, his voice carrying mockery. "Or are you so stunned by my movements that you couldn't react at all?"

Ignoring his offensive remarks, I instantly shouted towards Ashish, who was about to move again.

"Don't take a step forward, Instructor Ashish."

He halted, turned, and asked, "What happened, Raj?"

"Does anyone have a torch?" I demanded, clearly ignoring his question, which made him feel a little offended.

"What are you up to now, attention seeker?" Dhruva scoffed. "You must be desperate since you aren't the centre of attention now."

"Does anyone have a torch or not?" I demanded in a louder voice, completely ignoring him.

"Y-you—"

"I have one," Nisha said, taking a torch out of her bag.

Before she could even take it out fully, I snatched it from her hands and pressed its button.

"Raj, is there something wrong—"

Payal was about to ask but stayed stunned when I moved the torchlight towards the ceiling of the tunnel, revealing thousands of goblins staring down at us, their eyes shining and wide, horrifying smiles covering their faces.

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