[00 Months: 01 Days: 06 Hours]

A little over two hours in, and I was plenty amazed already.

I had never been in a Party before, so I didn't know how it worked.

I had thought it would be a bunch of people just firing off their attacks without any kind of coordination among one another.

....I was wrong!

Byron, being the one who dealt the most damage and acted as a source of defense, stood at the vanguard.

He would take on the assaults of the Demons head-on, while everyone else would provide backup.

Daniel took the right wing, and I took the left one.

Jeff and Jesus stayed at the rear, while Lu provided immediate support to the front.

Our attacks mostly consisted the use of Skills, and but I was able to notice a lot of details, thanks to <Focus>, which gave me an idea of the general abilities of my team members.

'Byron seems to have freakish strength, and it's constantly on. It could be the effect of his Item or high stats, but not Non-Exclusive Skills.'

Most Skills had cool-down periods, but the guy didn't seem to tire, neither did he seem weakened as time went on.

It felt like a permanent effect.

'I think it's based on his Authority. An Exclusive Skill perhaps?'

Then there was Daniel, who seemed to be able to turn invisible for an indefinite period of time.

'He keeps fighting while being invisible, and he's expending a lot of energy due to coating his dagger with it.'

There seemed to be a strong indication that it couldn't simply be an Item's effect due to the length of time he was using it, and the fraudulent amount of Energy he would need use to maintain it.

'Maybe he has an Item he uses to provide him Energy so it never runs out, but that would be very expensive!'

Considering how he isn't wearing extremely high-grade equipment, and he is mostly based on agility-focused attacks, if he had that much Currency, he would have gotten better equipment for fighting.

Jesus, as I expected, was using Magic-like attacks.

It was mostly something known as Magic Missile, and he kept spamming the stuff like crazy.

I had many theories about it, but I certainly knew he had an authority that was similar to a Mage, and his Skills had to have complimented that.

Sometimes, he would create barriers to defend us, and other times, he would create constraints for the Demons around.

He seemed versatile enough to pull his own weight.

Beside him was Jeff, and he was mostly in charge of debuffs with his poisonous attacks.

The enemies would get slower, or some even paralyzed thanks to his attacks, and he often used this before we started fighting, or even during the fight.

'He sprays poison, huh? That's dangerous.' I had thought.

To my surprise, though, the Poison didn't work on us.

He told us that his poison Skill only affected Demons, so we didn't have to worry. And true to his word, I felt no different after inhaling the bitter-smelling substance.

Ask for Lu, I couldn't really figure her out.

Why?

She was just... too good!

Her movements were fast, but not too fast. Her blows were heavy, but not too powerful. She never got hit directly by a monster, and while she never used any skill or weapon—just her bare fist—she never slowed the Part down.

Somehow I felt like she was even matching our pace.

'Am I overthinking this?' I thought to myself, deciding simply to observe her more.

As for me, I mostly used <Sprint> and <Visualize> in sync to fight. <Focus> allowed me to watch my allies, but I wasn't particularly drawing them back.

However...

'These things are quite tough.'

They were slow, sure. However, it took too long to defeat one, and this was even after Jeff poisoned them already.

'It would be much easier with Energy Rock, but I'm not going to reveal that card yet.'

I could decide to wear my Enchanted Speedo in a special way to boost my Stats, but did I really want to go down that route?

'Everyone will look at me like a pervert! The situation isn't that dire yet...'

I was doing just fine.

My contribution to the team was also pretty average. To be honest, I was trying my best just to keep up and not hold anyone back.

'Everyone here is quite strong. Even though I'm a Ranker, and they're not...'

When I introduced myself as Mikey, they all asked me if I was the one on the Leaderboard, and I told them I wasn't.

Perhaps some of them would have been skeptical of my response back then, but upon seeing how I fought, I was certain they would be convinced of my words by now.

I wasn't that special. I was just like everyone else.

******

[00 Months: 01 Days: 11 Hours]

We took some breaks, but everyone kept advancing at a fast pace in order to clear the Dungeon as fast as we could—especially before nightfall.

The Dungeon Of Stone most likely took place underground, and while it mostly just felt like we were walking in a very straight and wide line throughout the journey, perhaps we were already several feet underneath the earth.

It didn't bother anyone currently, but this place would be getting rather cold by nightfall.

'It's better we end this really quickly...'

And as if the Dungeon heard me loud and clear, we finally got to the very first obstruction to our path since we started our journey.

It was...

"The Boss Room, huh?" Byron's voice echoed in the massive expanse as his face formed a massive grin.

"We're finally here..." Daniel nodded in relief, his slanted eyes opening slowly.

"Almost done. A shame indeed." Jesus chuckled.

"I'm tired. Let's get this over with quickly." Jeff muttered in a huff.

"I agree." Lu smiled.

With everyone already prepared to face the opponent that stood on the other side of the huge double door before us, I also nodded and took a step forward.

"I'm ready."

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[A/N]

What do you think of Mikey's adventure with the party members thus far?

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!