The great chandelier groaned above, its chain snapping with a scream of metal before it plummeted toward the floor.
Beneath it, the Goblin Lord—his tendons slashed and legs ruined—could no longer move. Yet even facing death, he did not yield. A lord remained a lord until the very end.
"Grrrroooaaahh!!"
With his single remaining arm, he tore a slab of rock from the fractured ground and raised it high, a crude shield between him and the falling mass. With his monstrous strength, perhaps he truly meant to catch it.
(...Not yet. It's not checkmate yet.)
Against the far wall, Yuuto's consciousness flickered like a dying flame. His HP was nearly gone. A red warning light pulsed at the edge of his vision. Still, he refused to stop thinlord.
(...That slab—it's solid, but fragile against a single, focused blow.)
He gathered what remained of his MP into his final skill. His target wasn't the chandelier itself—it was the stone shield the Goblin Lord held aloft. One point. One breath.
"[Break]."
His whisper barely reached his own ears. The skill flared, unraveling the molecular bonds at the slab's center. Its strength faltered.
A heartbeat later, the chandelier slammed into it.
CRASH!!
The sound was catastrophic. Had Yuuto not weakened it, the shield might have held. But robbed of its core, it shattered outward in a storm of stone and iron. The iron mass above had nothing left to stop it.
The chandelier came down like judgment.
CRUNCH.
Flesh gave way. The Goblin Lord—the tyrant of this dungeon—was crushed beneath the ruin of his own throne hall. There was no final roar, and no curse. Only silence.
[You have defeated the Goblin Lord]
[You gained 3,500 experience points]
Dust settled. Yuuto, barely conscious, stared at the flickering messages hovering in his vision.
(...Did I... win?)
He couldn't feel triumph. Only pain and exhaustion filled his body. The debris from the collapse rained toward him, and he had no strength left to move.
So this was how it would end—buried alongside the lord he'd slain.
But Yuuto had never once stopped fighting to live.
Just before the impact, some part of him—driven by pure instinct—had triggered another skill.
"[Keep]."
Its target: himself. His position, the coordinates of his body just before the collapse, were locked in space. The laws of physics bent around the skill's command.
The falling wreckage passed through him like mist, phasing harmlessly through his fixed form. He remained untouched—immovable—while the world shattered around him.
When it was finally over, the effect faded. Yuuto emerged from the rubble like a ghost returning from the grave.
He could barely lift a finger. Letting go of consciousness would be bliss.
Then—
Ping.
Warm, golden light wrapped around him, brighter than anything before.
[Level up: 5]
[All stats have significantly increased]
[Skill Points gained: 4]
[Title earned: "Novice Dungeon Conqueror"]
A level up. Its blessing was overwhelming.
Bones knit back together. Torn flesh sealed. His strength returned like a rising tide.
Yuuto pushed himself upright, slow but steady.
"Six points total... Let's spend them now."
Even drained and bloodied, his mind stayed sharp. The battle had proven it—information and prediction had saved him more than brute strength. He chose to fortify that.
[3 Skill Points spent. Skill [Sort] has risen to Level 3]
Knowledge surged into his mind—the outline of a new ability, glimpses of probability and flashes of possible futures. He exhaled, a faint smile touching his lips.
He opened his updated status window.
－－－－－－－－－－
[Status]
Name: Tajima Yuuto
Rank: E
Level: 5
Job: None
HP: 180/180 (+50)
MP: 110/110 (+35)
STR: 22 (+5)
VIT: 32 (+8)
DEX: 42 (+6)
AGI: 36 (+7)
INT: 48 (+8)
LUK: 11 (+1)
[Skills]
[Sort] Lv.3
[Keep] Lv.2
[Break] Lv.2
[Skill Points]
3
[Titles]
Solo Challenger
Vanquisher of Strong Foes
New! → Novice Dungeon Conqueror
－－－－－－－－－－
(...These gains... they're insane.)
The growth was explosive—beyond any previous level-up. Even his stagnant Luck had increased for the first time.
(...So that's it. My victory wasn't luck. I bent fate itself—forced probability to my side.)
It felt as though the system itself had acknowledged that truth.
Yuuto looked toward the crushed body of the Goblin Lord. The monster that had filled him with despair now lay still beneath the wreckage.
He had won.
An E-rank errand boy had slain the lord of the dungeon—alone.
"...Heh."
His dry laugh echoed softly through the ruined hall—not bitter, not moclord. It was the sound of pure, exhausted joy.