It had been a week since Amon gathered the people who had failed to form a party and made one himself.
This party, with two front-line attackers, was surprisingly perfect.
“Uwooo!!”
A buffalo beastman leaped into a group of skeletons.
Torso was the buffalo beastman tank.
He had modified both of his hands to store foldable shields, which could be extended into weapons when swung and expanded into walls to protect his allies.
There was also a small telepathic node attached to his head.
With the ability to disrupt enemy formations, protect allies, and command the battlefield all at once, he was an ideal tank.
Thanks to his efforts, when the enemy formation collapsed, a hidden sniper took aim at the commander.
[Bingo]
Bang!
The party’s sniper, Bens, pulled the trigger, and the commander’s head vanished.
She was an ordinary human, but it was hard to find any human parts in her body.
An artificial lung for breath stability, mechanical arms and legs for aiming steadiness, and an optical enhancement magic tattoo for targeting assistance.
She was equipped with high specs, so much so that it was hard to understand why she was even a mercenary.
Once she destroyed the commander’s head, it was the front-line attackers’ turn.
Amon and Cassie swung their swords and spears, quickly dealing with the elite skeletons.
The only remaining enemies were the commander’s barely surviving form and a few ordinary skeleton soldiers.
This was the responsibility of the heavy artillery.
“Step back. It’s Vox’ time.”
Vox, the party’s ogre heavy artillery, unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire.
Thanks to his ogre physical abilities, Vox carried not only large ammo drums but also numerous bombs on his back.
Though his speech was clumsy, he was an elite ogre with a bomb disposal certification.
However, Vox’ knowledge of explosives didn’t come into play in this battle.
The ordinary skeletons were shattered before they could even resist against modern conventional weapons.
With the skeletons briefly incapacitated, the remaining task was to destroy their heads and spines.
Normally, this would be the role of the party’s mage, but Amon’s party’s mage was a little different.
Should they be called “he,” or “she”? The mage’s name was Henn.
“Good job. Let me take care of this.”
The dual-element mage flicked a finger, and the heads and spines were neatly separated and placed in the corner.
Then, after charging his staff with magic, he crushed each of the bones like pestle grinding in a mortar.
The dual-element mage was particularly unique in Amon’s already eccentric party.
Though capable of using attack, defense, and support magic, each of his spells was vastly different from the standard approach.
He used barriers to crush enemies and called it attack magic, or manipulated projectile paths with flight magic and claimed it as a defense spell.
The reason was simple—he aimed to achieve maximum efficiency with minimal mana.
Once the dual-element mage finished his work, the battle ended smoothly.
“Great work, everyone.”
***
After the battle, the party immediately began weapon checks and feedback sessions.
Unlike the previous useless parties, this one was fully committed to checking weapons and discussing safer methods.
Six members, each inspecting their weapons and discussing improvements.
They were a party that didn’t rest on their laurels after a victory.
They were perfect in every sense.
The more Amon observed this party, the more his unease grew.
‘What is this? Is it a curse?’
In his past life, an Eastern sage once said, “When five humans gather, there will always be one piece of trash among them.”
Amon had kept these words close to his heart.
No matter how the world changed, he believed this saying would never be wrong.
At least, that’s what he thought until a week ago.
‘Why is this a dream team?’
It became clear after a week of dungeon runs together.
Not a single person in this party was a waste.
Of course, the party members weren’t without flaws.
Amon and Cassie wanted to work together, but their positions overlapped, which was a logistical problem, not a personal one.
However, the other members each had their own disqualifications that made it hard for them to find a party.
Torso, the buffalo tank, had a flaw due to side effects from genetic modification—he became extremely excited when he saw the red blood of his allies.
Bens, the human sniper, couldn’t speak due to surgical side effects.
Vox, the ogre heavy artillery, had a tendency to destroy even the loot with his powerful equipment.
Finally, Henn, the dual-element mage, had excellent utility, but her firepower was too weak for a mage.
Amon could understand why each of them struggled to find a party.
But when they came together, they could cover each other’s flaws.
Torso’s problem with blood could be solved by Bens’ optical magic, which made the blood invisible.
On the other hand, Bens’ inability to speak was easily remedied by Torso’s telepathic ability.
Even when Vox firepower caused loot to get caught in explosions, Henn could easily retrieve it.
And Henn’s lack of firepower was compensated by Vox devastating artillery.
At this point, it seemed like synergy, so perfect it could only be fate.
This synergy was so effective that, within just a week, Amon’s party had gained enough combat power to reach the dungeon’s mid-levels.
Yet, the reason they were still fighting skeletons at the entrance…
‘What exactly is going to happen later…?’
If there were no issues within the party, it was highly likely that problems awaited them outside the party.
That’s why Amon wanted to be doubly prepared.
“At least let’s be ready in case something crazy happens. Let’s go down prepared.”
Nods of agreement came from all around.
No one in the party disagreed.
In fact, the members agreed with Amon’s opinion enthusiastically.
“I like this party too. I really want to break this terrible curse.”
The dual-element mage lamented.
Coincidentally, the party members, like Amon, had a bad track record—whenever they joined a party, it would get destroyed after a single exploration.
This was the first time in their careers that they had been in a party for over a week.
It was such a precious team to them, and they felt they couldn’t be too careful.
Amon smiled bitterly, realizing that the others shared his thoughts.
“As much as I think about it, we really get along too well.”
The party members chuckled quietly.
After that, they continued their exploration of the dungeon entrance.
It was after the 13th exploration that they decided to push into the mid-levels.
***
The dungeon that Amon’s party ran through daily was called Howling Darkness.
For convenience, they referred to it as “Wormdoom” (Saddark).
The theme of the dungeon was undead.
Deep in the dungeon, the lich constantly created undead creatures to protect itself.
If a specific adventurer died fighting these undead, the lich would use their corpse as a material for further undead creations.
This phenomenon became more prominent in the middle levels of the dungeon, where adventurers began to die in greater numbers.
The death rate in the middle levels was high, not only because the risks increased as they went deeper, but mainly due to overconfidence.
Adventurers, having just escaped the entrance, often thought the middle levels couldn’t be that dangerous, which led to many sudden deaths due to carelessness.
That’s why veterans repeatedly warned those heading into the middle levels.
Never let your guard down.
And there was one party that took that advice seriously.
“Enemies ahead. Death Knights and Ghouls. We’ll fight them in the formation we discussed.”
At Amon’s command, the party members moved in perfect unison.
There was no sign of carelessness on their faces as they stepped out of the dungeon entrance.
They faithfully carried out their roles and dealt with the Ghouls and Death Knights in an instant.
Breaking formations, sniping the commander, and mowing down groups at once.
“Situation cleared. Let’s take a short break.”
Upon hearing Amon’s words, the party members sat down and checked their weapons.
As they took feedback time, Cassie pointed to a Death Knight’s corpse and asked, “Do you think they were adventurers too?”
“Probably.”
As the two of them reflected on the corpse of the adventurer-turned-Death Knight, the dual-element mage casually flicked a finger and retrieved a mercenary ID from the body.
“This one’s a pretty decent source of income.”
The frugal dual-element mage smiled, and Amon’s party stood up again.
Despite their previous success, the expressions of the party members as they roamed the middle levels weren’t exactly cheerful.
They looked uneasy, as if something were chasing them.
Battling the Ghouls and Death Knights had been easy.
Amon’s party was overpowered for the middle levels, and considering their coordination, they were more than capable of venturing into the deeper parts of the dungeon.
Yet, they were still uneasy.
The reason was simple.
“If things are going this smoothly… something’s definitely wrong.”
It was going too smoothly.
The more smoothly the exploration went, the greater their unease became.
The party members shared Amon’s feelings.
In that anxiety, they doubted everything and were cautious of everything.
It was then that a group was spotted by Amon’s party.
A group, clad in armor resembling hazmat suits, was using flamethrowers to scorch the dungeon interior.
They had no interest in loot or any spoils, instead setting everything ablaze.
Suddenly, the eyes of this mysterious group met Amon’s party.
One of the mysterious group members whispered something to their comrades and pointed directly at Amon.
At that, the group stopped burning everything and drew rifles and swords instead.
Amon, watching the scene, shrugged and said, “What do you think the chances are that they’re friendly?”
The ogre heavy artillery replied, “To be honest, I hope not. If we deal with them, our party will be safe.”
Despite the ogre’s limited vocabulary, the party members understood the meaning.
“It’s been too smooth so far.”
Cassie also readied her spear.
At that, Amon’s party, as if waiting for this moment, prepared to face the mysterious group.