"Snipe. Snipe. Snipe." Kazuma was standing on a tree branch with his bow in hand casually picking off goblins. He had never touched a bow before coming to this world and no one had given him lessons. It didn't matter. If he used his Snipe skill he instantly became a marksman who couldn't miss.

It was the tenth day since setting out from Axel and they were just a few miles from their destination. Seeing new sights, camping out, hunting, and fishing for food… all of it had been fun. Then, as they were walking he'd senses the approach of a large group of enemies. He'd had enough time to climb up a tree while his teammates set up an impromptu ambush. About twenty goblins had then stumbled into their area.

"Don't let any of them get away," Roland called out. He was literally standing there cutting them into pieces. Their clubs and pointy sticks couldn't even scratch his armor.

"As if I would," Katrina was swinging around her two swords at once in a blur. Half a dozen goblins were dead at her feet.

"Fire Arrow," a single sphere of fire about the size of a marble appeared in Timothy's palm. It shot out and hit one of the goblins. It set the little monster on fire but didn't kill it immediately. It ran about howling for a bit before the flames spread and it eventually fell over dead.

Having witnessed explosion magic Kazuma wasn't too impressed.

"Don't waste your MP," Roland said. "Save it for the dungeon."

"It's a base spell, it only uses one point."

"I know, save it anyway."

The little crowd of goblins was quickly exterminated without any more spells. The last two threw their clubs down and ran away screaming.

"Snipe. Snipe." Kazuma put arrows through both their necks. He once more found that as with the giant toads and flying cabbages, killing was no problem for him. As he started climbing down Katrina went over to one or the many corpses and nudged it with her boot. She didn't bother to actually reach down with a hand.

"Nothing even worth looting," she muttered and started cleaning off her swords.

"I'm sure there'll be plenty in the dungeon," Roland said. He gave a nod as Kazuma walk over to join them. "Good work, Kazuma. Not just with the bow but with detecting them." He made a point to look at Katrina and Timothy. "That's the sort of skill we'll need inside Kasmir's Sorrow."

Timothy didn't say anything.

"They were just goblins," Katrina grunted.

On the way here the two of them had remained a bit stand offish while Roland kept trying to bring everyone together. They weren't deliberately rude or insulting, like a certain lazy goddess, but they kept their distance. Kazuma had noticed Timothy staring longingly at Katrina whenever she was looking in a different direction.

Kazuma was busy recovering arrows. Despite the treatment Kazuma was enjoying himself and felt like a part of the team. Roland was a really great guy and his efforts made up for the awkward silences and the occasional glares from Katrina and complaints about him staring at her ears. Camping out under the stars, eating fresh caught rabbit or fish, talking as they walked for mile after mile. It felt like he was really doing something. It felt like he belonged. And the little bit of danger from the goblins just now only made that feeling stronger. This was what adventuring in a fantasy world was supposed to be like.

They soon arrived at a plain cave entrance in the side of a barren hill. Someone had built a wooden cabin a short distance from it. Right next to the cave was a wooden post with a human skull on top of it. On the post was a sign board with the warning, 'You'll be sorry.'

Seeing it Kazuma gulped and felt just a little nervous.

Katrina spotted his reaction and gave him a little grin. "Let me guess, this your first time in a dungeon?"

"Yeah, actually."

"Well try not to get killed by the very first trap, that would be embarrassing."

Kazuma gulped.

"She's just teasing you, Kazuma." Roland said. He gave her a look and she kept grinning. "With your skills I'm sure it will be fine. This is a new dungeon and it hasn't been fully explored yet. That means there is a lot of treasure in here."

"It also means there are a lot of monsters and traps," Timothy added.

"Well if it were easy it wouldn't be worth doing." Roland turned back to Kazuma. "As the scout your job is to stay about twenty yards ahead of us and warn us about any danger. We'll be depending on you."

"So, don't screw up and do anything stupid," Katrina said.

He took a deep breath. His party was counting on him. "No problem, I've got this. Vanish." He disappeared and entered the dungeon. The others slowly followed.

"We can't see you, so let us know when you're twenty yards in front and if you stop so we can keep the same distance. Obviously warn us if you find any traps or sense monsters coming." Roland said.

"Got it."

Kazuma's Detect Traps ability triggered for the first time just a hundred yards from the cave entrance. A spot right in the middle of the corridor was setting it off. He thought it might be pretty dangerous as the feeling he got was rather intense.

"There's a trap in the middle of the floor up here. If you just walk closer to the sides it should be fine."

"Okay," Roland said. The rest of the party moved closer to the wall and passed it with no issue.

About two hundred yards further in they came across their first enemy, about a dozen animated skeletons. The way Kazuma's Detect Enemy ability worked was that when something came into range he got a rough sense of the distance, direction, and number of enemies. He had no idea as what they enemy might be or how dangerous. When they'd come across the goblins all he'd been able to tell them was that there were about twenty enemies approaching from the same direction they were headed in. Since he has no idea how dangerous the encounter might be he immediately halted and whispered his warning. Since there were no side tunnels and no place to hide everyone just got ready to fight.

When they saw it was just skeletons they all relaxed. They were taken down quickly and with no trouble. Swords weren't the ideal weapons for undead, but the skeletons were so weak it didn't really matter. That done Kazuma scouted up ahead again.

The next enemy he discovered were a pair of green slimes. These were also disposed of without issue. After that were several goblins. Before long they had cleared the dungeon's first level without running into anything really dangerous.

"I think they should change the name of this place from Kasmir's Sorrow to Kasmir's Funhouse," Katrina said.

"The first level of a dungeon is always the easiest," Roland said. "Don't let your guard down."

There was a downward sloping tunnel that led to the second level. Kazuma again took the point and acted as scout. As he got he exited the tunnel onto the second level he suddenly felt a large group of thirty so enemies up ahead. He stopped and called out a warning. As they got ready the shuffling forms came into view.

"Zombies," Roland said with a grimace. "Their more dangerous than skeletons, but not too bad."

"I've got this!" Timothy stepped forward. "Fireball!" As with the previous spell a sphere of fire materialized in his palm. This time it was about the size of a baseball. It flew from his hand towards the moaning and trudging undead.

The second the spell made contract there was an explosion and the hall in front of them was consumed with flame. It happened far enough away that they were untouched by the fire, but Kazuma and the others felt a hot gush of wind slam into their faces.

Timothy was smiling from ear to ear and looked over his shoulder at Katrina. "Not bad, huh?"

She nodded. "Good job!"

Well that's probably not even one tenth as powerful as Explosion. Kazuma thought. Of course, if it were the tunnel would collapse or we'd be killed in the blast too.

The zombies were all destroyed with that one spell. They had to wait a moment for the fire to go out before continuing. As Kazuma led the way he spotted something that grabbed his attention.

"Hey! I found a treasure chest!"

"About time!" Katrina said excitedly.

"Make sure it's not trapped or a mimic in disguise," Roland said.

"It's not," Kazuma assured them. "My skills say it's just a chest." By this point the party had gathered around. When he tried to open it, he discovered it was locked. "Sorry, but I don't have the Pick Locks ability yet."

"Don't worry about it." Roland brought his sword down with all his might and broke the lock in one shot.

Flipping the lid, they saw the chest was filled with silver coins! Kazuma picked one up and saw the familiar face of Eris winking at him.

"Okay! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Katrina said. "Kazuma, you find a few more of these and I might just let you touch my ears later."

"You serious?!"

"Calm down, I said might. Geez, you seriously are a perv, huh?"

"We'll do a proper count and divide the treasure up later," Roland was starting to toss the coins into four different sacks. "For right now we'll each take one bag's worth and carry it."

"It's not officially your share until we do the count at the end," Timothy said. "Until then it belongs to all of us. You better not steal any of it, Kazuma."

"Hey! I would never steal from my own party!"

"We're not a party, you're working freelance."

"Well maybe that'll change," Roland handed Kazuma one of the sacks.

It was heavy and Kazuma stored it in his backpack. Once everyone had put away a bag of silver they got ready to continue.

"Come on," Katrina said. "There's plenty more where this came from."

Kazuma was about to agree with her when his Detect Enemy ability triggered. "Uh, guys? There's one enemy coming straight at us."

The three of them looked at one another. "Just one? And moving towards us?" Roland asked.

"Yep."

Roland drew his sword and Katrina drew both of hers. Timothy took a few steps back.

"Then it's probably a strong enemy who was drawn by the sound of the blast."

"Sorry," Timothy said.

Roland shook his head. "Your fireball did the job; it was the right choice. It's not like we could clear this dungeon without fighting something stronger than zombies and goblins anyway."

"Vanish." Kazuma was invisible again and had his sword in his hands.

That was when he spotted it. The monster was about eight feet tall and built like a bull. Its horns were scraping the top of the tunnel and in its hands was a massive double-sided battle axe.

"A minotaur!" Roland's voice was higher than Kazuma had ever heard before.

"Fuck! They're really strong!" Katrina said.

Kazuma was about to try and slide behind it to set up for a backstab when Timothy gave a panicked shout.

"Fireball!" The ball of fire materialized in his hands and shot out instantly.

"No! Too close!" Roland cried but it was too late.

The minotaur was maybe ten yards in front of them when the spell struck and detonated. They were all caught in the blast and knocked off their feet. Kazuma landed hard and his side hurt like hell. Luckily, he had not been set on fire as well. He scrambled up to his feet, grabbing the side of the cave to steady himself. He opened his eyes to see a furious monster come charging out of the flames. Part of his chest was blackened, and there was blood, but the monster was obviously not badly hurt. It charged straight at Roland.

The knight swung his sword and landed a blow to the beast's ribs, but it didn't do much.

The minotaur hacked off Roland's head.

Kazuma froze. He stared and saw his new friend's head tossed through the air. Saw a sudden fountain of blood gush up out of his neck. Saw Roland's body still standing holding a sword. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, he just stared not believing it. This was supposed to be an adventure, right? Roland was one of the heroes wasn't he? He couldn't really be dead, right? Right? Kazuma stood there invisible and still as stone.

"Roland!" Katrina screamed and dove in fearlessly, swords whirling.

Kazuma didn't move. He was still standing there frozen as she saw the minotaur's axe gut her like a fish.

"Nooo!" Timothy howled and turned to run. The wizard made it about three steps before being cut in half.

And so, in the space of maybe thirty seconds, Kazuma watched his entire party get slaughtered right in front of his eyes as he just stood there.

With Timothy dead the minotaur halted and turned back around, eyes darting back and forth. Kazuma could hear it take a deep breath through its nostrils. Its head turned from one side to the other, searching. Kazuma could feel his heart pounding so fast he thought it would explode. He was afraid to breathe. He was shaking so hard he was SURE the monster would hear him. He wanted to run but didn't think his legs would let him. He just stood there watching as the thing looked about.

Then, after maybe a minute, it put down its axe and grabbed the lower half of Timothy's body. It began to eat. Kazuma could do nothing but watch.

XXX

The minotaur ate all three of his party members. The beast must have been somewhat intelligent though as it made a point to collect all the weapons and coins when it was done. When it was over it just walked back down the tunnel in the direction it had come.

When Kazuma could no longer sense it through Enemy Detection he ran.

He made it out of the dungeon without encountering anything else. As soon as he was outside in the sunlight he fell over and began to cry.