"Remember, Awakeners!" the Announcer’s voice boomed over the stadium as the squad leaders led their teams toward the colossal, swirling vortex of the Dungeon Gate. "Although every squad from Class Group-D is stepping into the exact same Gate at the exact same time, they will not have the same starting point!"

The students walking towards the portal took deep breaths of preparation. "The spatial magic of the Dungeon will scatter you!" the announcer went on. "You will be dropped into entirely different drawing boards and forced to navigate completely different routes!"

The roar of the crowd swelled, vibrating the bluish floor beneath their feet.

"But that doesn’t mean your objectives are different. No, it is still the same: the first squad to execute the Boss and more importantly, secure the Dungeon Artifact takes the crown for this trial!"

"However, as some of you know, winning the race does not guarantee you the lion’s share of the Tributes! A squad that meticulously farms loot, kills more beasts or shows better teamwork could earn more Tributes than a team that simply sprinted to the finish line!"

Cheers rang even higher. An applause filled the air.

"With that said, build your strategy, defeat the threat of Gloom, and fight for your Class Groups!"

Now only a few feet from the Gate, Lancet took a deep breath, the purple light washing over his face. He glanced over his shoulder.

Across the staging area, the Elementalist-D squad were also very close to the Gate. Rather than focusing on the portal, Kallan Kallahan and Cecil Darkmatter were staring directly at Lancet.

Kallan’s eyes burned intensely, faint sparks of static trailing from his fingertips, promising some kind of revenge. Cecil did a small throat-slitting gesture that only Lancet saw. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

With a half-bored, half-worried sigh, Lancet turned back to the swirling vortex. His guess was that Instructor Phiodor Blaze had definitely given them specific instructions.

They weren’t just going to focus on clearing the Dungeon; they had strategies to hunt him down and take Summoner-D out of the running entirely.

Either that or it was the Serpent Society. Or just these morons acting on their own in search of revenge.

Lancet couldn’t care less. He steeled himself, signaling his squad. "Let’s go."

Together, the five First Years stepped through the Gate.

"There they go!!!"

Lancet heard the deafening cheers of the stadium slowly fade into background noise. The crisp air and the blinding stadium lights vanished, and immediately taking over was a thick humidity that clung to their skin.

Lancet looked down at his legs, realizing his boots were sinking into soft, rotting moss. He immediately pulled away and stepped on drier land.

Then, he raised his head and gazed into the view before them. They were standing on a high, precarious cliff ledge, overlooking an incredibly massive expanse of untamed wilderness.

This Dungeon was called the Primate Monster Jungle.

The canopy above was impossibly thick, with giant trees weaving all of it together and as a result, choking out the sky. The environment was hence plunged into a perpetual, ominous twilight.

Bioluminescent fungi and toxic-looking flora poured sickly green and purple light across the damp bark. And even though the visuals were terrifying enough, the noise was what made everyone’s blood run cold.

The jungle was alive with hoots, haunting and strange sounding hoots, then there were these violent rustling in the high branches, and the terrifying, bone-chilling screeches of primate beasts echoing from the deep shadows.

Every shadow felt like it was watching them.

"That looks..." Kasto gulped, staring low from the cliff. "... terrifying."

Lancet walked away from the cliff. Not wanting his voice to carry into the treacherous canopy, he spoke quietly. "Form up."

The squad seamlessly shifted into the formation they had spent the last few days drilling.

Taking the front was Kasto, operating as their Guardian. Kasto wasn’t the bravest or the toughest, yet this was an undeniable choice.

Kasto now had two mecha Summons: Metalhead and Overdrive. Metalhead could shoot out its head and fists at targets with super sonic speed, and Overdrive could change literally anything around it into energy to boost its powers and launchers.

Since they were huge, iron-armored monsters, basically walking fortresses, they were perfectly suited to tank the erratic, heavy-hitting attacks of the jungle beasts.

Flanking the right was Min Tu, locked in as their Striker. She had recently evolved her summoning repertoire to command three distinct Undead Summons.

Even better, between all three of those skeletal warriors, she possessed a combined total of seven different Class powers. With them, her damage output was going to be relentless, which was necessary to break down enemy lines.

At the center-back was Vera, the squad’s Healer. As a Druid, her powerful Forest Stag had gotten more attuned with the world around her. With the beast, she could siphon the rampant nature energy of the jungle to heal their wounds and clear out the inevitable toxic afflictions they would encounter.

Guarding the left flank was Dane, acting as the Disruptor. His summon, the Astral-Claw Ursine that had now grown massively, possessed the terrifying ability to tear temporary portals through space, allowing it to leap behind enemy lines and shatter defensive formations in the blink of an eye.

Whenever the squad found themselves pinned, Dane would be the one to break the deadlock.

Finally, standing at the center, overseeing it all, was Lancet. Taking the role of Leader hadn’t been much of a debate.

His performance in the Hebthej raid and in the other Dungeon expeditions made him the obvious tactical anchor.

They huddled tightly on the cliffside ledge, the hovering brass camera drones buzzing quietly a few feet above their heads.

"So," Dane whispered, his eyes scanning the dense foliage below. "Do we have any sub-strategies before we jump into the thick of it?"

"That’s what I want to know," Kasto said, nervously playing with his belt. "Are we playing it clean, or are we playing dirty? Should we actively try to sabotage the other squads, focus entirely on our own objectives, or wait and make decisions based on how the other teams are moving?"

Vera raised a hand, pointing a slender finger toward one of the floating brass spheres tracking them. "If we want to track them, we don’t have to guess. The cameras. If we keep an eye out for them and where they go, we can pinpoint exactly where the other Class Groups are and how close they’re getting to the Boss."

Lancet looked at Vera and nodded. "That’s a really good idea, Vera. We’ll definitely use that." He looked around the circle, his expression serious. "But keeping our eyes glued to the canopy looking for our opponents is only going to slow us down right now. If we let paranoia dictate our pace, we’ll lose Tributes. For now, we stick to our own route."

He gave his teammates serious looks. "We kill fast, we move quietly, and we loot as much as we can. We’ll worry about sabotage when the map forces us closer together."

Dane cracked a confident smile. "Works for me. You’re the one who picked these squad positions, and you were surprisingly dead right about the Dungeon being a Difficult one. I trust your judgment. No need to second-guess you now."

"Alright," Lancet said, turning away from the huddle and walking to the very edge of the vantage point. He gazed down into the terrifying, shifting shadows of the jungle below, feeling the ominous weight of the Gloom pressing against his chest. "Let’s get going."

As Kasto, Vera, and Dane began checking their gear and prepping their initial summons, Min Tu quietly broke off from the group and stepped up beside Lancet.

She stood there for a moment, her eyes fixed on the treeline. "So," she murmured softly, ensuring the others couldn’t hear. "How are you doing?"

Lancet glanced at her for a second, then returned his gaze to the jungle, shrugging normally. "I’m great," he replied.

Min Tu cut her eyes toward him, her gaze sharp and entirely unconvinced. "You know exactly what I mean, Lancet."

Lancet’s jaw tightened. A sigh escaped him and he met her gaze again. "It’s still fluctuating," he admitted quietly. "But... I think I can handle it."

Min Tu’s expression didn’t soften. "You have to," she said firmly. "Because if you lose control of it in the middle of a battle, you could put the entire team in jeopardy."

Right after that, she turned on her heel and walked back to join Kasto and Dane.

Lancet stood alone at the edge of the drop, staring down into emerald evil below.

"Hah," he sighed. "No good deed goes unpunished, huh?"

Lancet mentally commanded his system interface to materialize in his vision, showing him his status.

⸢ Profile: Lancet Leogardt ⸥

⸢ Class: Architect (Brilliant) ⸥

⸢ Rank: 1✯ Gold ⸥

⸢ Level: 19/150 ⸥

⸢ Grace: 2250/2250 (Defective) ⸥

Lancet read his Grace again, his eyes locked at that one word.

DEFECTIVE.