Everything hurt. I had no idea what was going on under my armour, and I was too terrified to take it off to check. I really hoped the village outside had a healer, because there was no way I could function well enough to travel.

  The goblins, along with the entire village, decomposed into motes of light, forming a teleporter and chest. Apparently, slaying that version of the chieftain counted as clearing the dungeon. Or, rather than clearing, conquering.

  The experience boost was double what I'd obtained from other dungeons, so presumably it was a superior form of the Mark. Did other dungeons have similar secrets? Had I missed out on my full reward from the Slime Pit and the Fungal Garden?

  No, I hadn't. Whether or not superior forms of their Marks existed, if obtaining them had required a fight like this, I'd have died. I wasn't entirely sure I was going to survive this one.

  Despite my situation, I couldn't resist looting the chest before using the teleporter to escape. It contained another crystal, a different colour from either a skill or experience crystal.

  "Yes please!" I told it, spending the points before the crystal had even finished crumbling to dust.

  It didn't help much, but I'd take what I could get.

  And with those few extra points of Constitution aiding my steps, I stumbled into the teleporter. White light flickered, and I found myself standing in the moonlight.

  "What the hell?!" came an exclamation from behind me.

  "Why is everyone always surprised when I use teleporters?" I complained, and then I fell over. "Uh... Will anyone tell me off if I take a little nap here?"

  Why did a basic health potion cost an entire gold coin, for goodness' sake? Couldn't the bandits' camp have had a few lying around? Given the price, they were probably in those chests I couldn't open.

  "What happened to you?" continued the guard. "Did you blow the boss up along with yourself?"

  "No, it was the other way around! He blew me up!"

  "But the monsters in there don't use fire... They..."

  At that point, the guard was interrupted by the floor lighting up.

  "Ooo, pretty," I commented, and then I screamed on account of someone stepping on my head.

  The person doing the stepping also screamed, and then tripped over, on account of my head not being the world's most stable footing. The scream spread like a disease through the other four people who'd just appeared.

  I recognised them; the party that was in the dungeon ahead of me. They must have defeated the real boss. Or was the one I'd beaten the real boss?

  "What the heck?!" said one of them, raising his hands in front of me. "Hey... What's going on?"

  He was staring at the guard.

  ... Who had drawn a sword.

  "It wasn't them!" I hastily shouted, guessing what assumption he'd made despite my befuddled state. "They fought the other boss!"

  "What do you mean the 'other' boss?" asked the guard, still eyeing the adventuring party with suspicion.

  "What do you think we did?" asked the one with hands raised, as he turned to see who was talking to the guard. "What the heck?! Who are you?! Where did you come from?!"

  "Like I said, the other boss. And I would really appreciate it if everyone would stop shouting. I had a headache even before you stepped on me, and I kinda need to rest."

  "Heal!" exclaimed another voice, and the pain lessened somewhat, taken away by a warm yellow glow.

  "Oh, that was useful. Thanks," I said, pulling myself into a sitting position. Standing still seemed like a step too far, but at least it didn't feel like the world was spinning quite so badly. "Wait, you're a healer?"

  "Yes, I am," replied the same voice. "But who are you and why were you lying injured in the middle of the dungeon's teleporter exit? That's dangerous!"

  "I went to clear the dungeon, but you got in there first, so I tried using the secret goblin tunnels as a shortcut. They led to a second version of the boss, except that he had minions and magic."

  "Clear the dungeon? Alone, at your age?" asked one of the adventurers, aghast. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "The bonus room?" asked the guard, equally aghast, but for different reasons. "You cleared the bonus room at D-rank? There are almost fifty goblins in there, including higher tiers!"

  "Ah, so you do know about it!" I said. "Why wasn't it mentioned in the guild library, then?"

  "It is! But I bet you just read the booklet on dungeons for new adventurers. Of course something aimed at new adventurers isn't going to mention a room that's supposed to require a party of C-ranks to beat!"

  "Well, that's stupid. It should at least offer a warning not to sneak into the secret tunnels."

  "... Possibly, but I suspect the authors never imagined a rookie adventurer would even think to attempt such a thing. That they might have to warn against it probably never crossed their minds."

  "Hang on," said the first adventurer, who, for some reason, still had his hands in the air. He finally seemed to notice, and nonchalantly lowered them, acting like it had been completely intentional. "What's this about a bonus room and a second boss? We all got the Mark for clearing the dungeon, but are you saying we missed something?"

  "You and your obsession with Marks," sighed the healer, clapping her teammate over the back of the head. "Introductions first. My name is Felicity, and I'm sorry I can't offer more healing, but I don't have enough Mana. I should be able to cast it again in half an hour or so."

  "My name is Robin, and I'm thankful for the first cast. You don't need to worry about more."

  She looked in her low twenties, dressed in bright white leather armour that [Expert Stealth] was horrified by, unless she happened to be fighting in a blizzard. She wore a necklace on top of the armour, a large symbol wrought from silver hanging from it. I had no idea what the symbol represented, but my Memory let me know I'd seen it before in the temple. Her hair was a light blond, styled in a pixie cut, and she held a staff in one hand, wooden and as tall as she was, with a jewel the same colour as her hair set into its tip.

  "Don't need to worry about you?" said the first adventurer. "Sheesh... You should look at yourself in a mirror. I have no idea how you're still alive. Most living people have skin! But my name is Daniel, the leader of this party, and I'd like to know about that bonus room."

  He was taller than Felicity, dressed in more conventional coloured leather, along with a steel helm, greaves, gauntlets and breastplate. Definitely a couple of steps up from the guild-provided kit, but still far from what I'd seen high-level people equipped with, or even the bastard prince's party. He had brown hair, and a long pole-axe was strapped to his back.

  Also, wasn't I completely covered in armour? How could he comment on my skin?

  I looked down.

  "Oh..." I said. There wasn't much more to say, really. The fireball had blasted most of the front of my armour out of existence, and from neck to waist was just charred flesh.

  Where was I going to get replacement armour without returning to the capital?

  "Please don't," said a third of the adventurers. "I have no desire to fight whatever did that to you, but if he finds out about it, Daniel will insist. My name is Lee, by the way. Nice to meet you and... err... I hope that doesn't end your career."

  "No chance," I answered, looking at the third member of the party. He wore the same armour as Daniel, with the same brown hair, but he had a longbow slung over his back and a short sword at his waist. He also had the same symbol as Felicity hanging around his neck.

  "I'm Ryan," said the fourth party member, eyeing me critically. This one was in lighter armour that looked more like my guild-issued kit. Like the others, he looked a little over twenty. He had a staff similar to Felicity's, except that his was smoother and straighter, more obviously crafted rather than simply a polished branch that happened to be the correct shape. A black orb sat in its tip, caged by delicately fashioned bands of wood. It seemed to suck in the light, casting anything around it into unphysical shadows, including Ryan's face.

  "Stacy," added the final member of the party. She offered no further elaboration, but from the name and voice, I assumed she was a girl. I couldn't tell for sure, on account of the way she was enclosed in full plate armour, without a single scrap of skin on display. However, while she had a massive shield strapped to her back, she didn't appear to be carrying anything I could identify as a weapon, unless I counted the spikes on her knees, elbows, shoulders, head, feet, the backs and knuckles of her hands...

  ... Okay, so on second thoughts, she had quite a lot of weapons.

  "Nice to meet you all," I said. "Just to confirm, you've already got [Clearer of the Goblin Den], right? A five percent boost to experience when killing humanoid monsters?"

  "Yes," said Daniel. "Aww. So you don't get anything else for clearing the bonus room?"

  "Uh..." I said, not really wanting to say anything when the rest of his party was obviously against it.

  "You might as well," sighed Felicity. "He's only going to look it up the moment we get back to the capital."

  "But at least we might gain a level or two before then," said Lee.

  "Well, Felicity was the one who healed me, so I'll side with her," I said. "I have [Conqueror of the Goblin Den], and it gives ten percent instead of five. I also got a stat crystal as a treasure drop, that gave me five extra stat points."

  Lee facepalmed.

  "Oh, come on," said Daniel. "We have to do it! The regular boss was trivial, and if that kid can beat the bonus room solo, then of course we can."

  "I'm not quite sold on who beat who, but I suggest we hear him out on what exactly we'll face in there," said Ryan.

  "A goblin chieftain who can use magic to throw fireballs, make his skin as hard as steel and boost his strength to what we'd consider triple digits. Four goblin shamans who can throw fireballs. Eight goblin brawlers, which are just slightly bigger regular goblins armed with clubs, thirty-four regular goblins, all unarmed. It's possible the chieftain and shamans knew other spells, but didn't use them in our fight."

  "... Yeah, no," said Lee.

  "Oh, come on. It's a perfect opportunity to get another experience boost!" countered Daniel.

  "Experience points don't mean anything to a corpse," said Ryan.

  "Okay, how about this: we ask Robin to come with us. Since he can clear the room on his own, we should have no trouble at all with six of us."

  "Uh... I was kinda planning on touring all the dungeons..." I said. "I can't really stop here."

  "Are you joking?" asked Felicity angrily. "You aren't going anywhere! Not until that is healed."

  "Touring the dungeons is what we're doing," pointed out Daniel. "Heck, it's what everyone is doing, now that we get paid for it. Stacking up all those little experience boosts really makes a difference. I just wish I had them at your age."

  "But I already have the one from this dungeon."

  "Ah, but you ended up in the bonus room because we already had dibs on the regular boss, right? Well, you're just going to run into the same problem at every dungeon you visit. They're popular now. If you join us, we could clear the bonus rooms of every dungeon."

  Felicity and Lee both facepalmed. I had the feeling that Lee in particular was going to resent me for spilling the secret of [Conqueror of the Goblin Den].

  I didn't really want to join a party—the experience sharing sucked—but there was a good argument for it if every E and D-rank dungeon in the canton would be swarmed with rookies. I could end up slowed down so badly waiting for bosses to respawn that even sharing the experience between six would be more efficient.

  On the other hand, it would break my rule against attempting the unknown. Ideally, I'd need to despatch this group back to the guild library to read up on whatever documentation they had. I'd certainly never dare to face another fight like that on my own even if I had read up, so grouping up was the only way I was going to get those stronger Marks, at least until the next growth milestone.

  "Fine, I'll help you with this bonus room. And depending how well it goes... we can at least talk."