The E-rank dungeon's final chamber was larger than any room they'd encountered so far. Stone pillars stretched toward a ceiling lost in darkness, and the air was thick with smell of blood.
Kenji moved forward cautiously, his sword held ready. Behind him, Aria prepared a spell, frost already gathering around her fingertips. Marcus brought up the rear, shield raised, divine energy glowing faintly along the edges.
"Boss room," Kenji said quietly. "Stay alert."
"No shit," Aria muttered. "What gave it away? The ominous architecture or the complete silence?"
A roar answered her question.
The creature emerged from behind one of the pillars, a corrupted bear, easily twice the size of a normal one. Its fur was matted and falling out in patches, revealing rotting flesh beneath. One eye was missing, the socket filled with writhing maggots. Its claws were overgrown, twisted into jagged hooks.
"Level–16," Marcus called out, his divine sense reading the creature's strength. "Undead classification. Weak to holy magic and fire."
"I'm sick of Undead monsters." Aria said frustrated.
The bear charged.
Kenji moved to intercept, positioning himself between the creature and his party members. The bear was fast despite its size, closing the distance in seconds. Its massive paw swept toward him in a wide arc.
He ducked under the attack and slashed at the bear's exposed side. His blade bit deep, cutting through rotted flesh, but the creature barely reacted. Undead didn't feel pain the way living things did.
The bear's other paw came around in a backhand that caught Kenji's shoulder and sent him stumbling. His armor absorbed most of the impact but the force behind it was immense.
"Ice Lance!" Aria's spell shot past him, three spears of frozen water that slammed into the bear's chest. They punched through the rotted flesh and embedded themselves deep. The bear roared again, more angry than hurt.
Marcus moved in from the side, his mace glowing with holy light. He swung at the bear's leg, the blessed weapon connecting with bone. The divine energy flared on contact and the bear's leg buckled slightly.
"Weak points are the joints and spine!"Marcus called out.
Kenji recovered his stance and attacked again, this time aiming for the bear's remaining eye. The creature twisted its head and his blade scraped along its skull instead of finding the target.
The bear lunged at him, jaws snapping. Kenji threw himself sideways, rolled, came up in a crouch. The thing was relentless, giving no time to breathe or plan.
"Frost Nova!" Aria's voice rang out.
A wave of freezing air exploded outward from her position, covering the floor in a sheet of ice. The bear's footing slipped and it crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact.
"Now!" Marcus shouted.
Kenji rushed in while the creature was down, driving his sword toward its spine. The blade punched through vertebrae and the bear's back legs went limp, paralyzed.
But it wasn't dead. Not even close.
The bear twisted its upper body with horrifying flexibility, jaws snapping at Kenji. He barely pulled back in time, the teeth closing inches from his face. The stench from the creature's mouth was overwhelming, rot and death and something worse.
Marcus slammed his shield into the bear's head, divine energy flaring. The blessed metal seared undead flesh and the bear recoiled, thrashing wildly.
"Ice Spear!" Aria's largest spell yet materialized above her, a massive projectile of frozen water the size of a man. She thrust her hand forward and the spear shot toward the bear's exposed neck.
The impact was devastating. The ice spear punched clean through the bear's throat and shattered against the floor beyond, leaving a gaping hole where the creature's neck had been.
The bear's roar cut off mid-sound. Its body convulsed once, twice, then finally went still.
For a long moment, none of them moved. They stood breathing hard, weapons ready, waiting to see if the creature would rise again.
It didn't.
"Clear," Marcus said finally, lowering his shield. "It's done."
Kenji straightened and wiped his blade clean. "That was harder than the assessment suggested."
"They're always harder than the assessment suggests," Aria said, dismissing her magic. "When are you going to learn that?"
"Still. Level–16 boss for an E-rank dungeon? That's on the high end."
Marcus moved to the far side of the room where the dungeon core pulsed with purple light. "Doesn't matter now. We cleared it. That's three F-ranks and one E-rank in two weeks. Good progress."
"Would've been better with proper support," Aria muttered.
Kenji glanced at her. "You mean Hiroshi?"
"I mean anyone. We've been running without support since he went to recover. Do you know how much mana I'm burning through without someone handling the small threats? I had to use Frost Nova on trash mobs twice just to create breathing room."
"He wasn't effective support anyway," Marcus said, not looking up from examining the core. "His combat ability was minimal. We were basically running with three people already."
"He kept us alive in the wraith chamber," Kenji pointed out.
"He got lucky in the wraith chamber. There's a difference."
Aria crossed her arms. "So what, we just leave him behind permanently? Find a different support?"
"That's the plan, yes." Marcus pulled out a hammer from his pack and raised it above the core. "The Church will assign us someone more capable once we hit D-rank. Someone actually trained for support roles."
He brought the hammer down and the core shattered.
The dungeon shuddered as the space began to collapse. They moved quickly toward the entrance, the walls already starting to dissolve around them.
They emerged into late afternoon sunlight. The dungeon entrance faded behind them, purple light guttering out as the temporary dimension ceased to exist.
Kenji sheathed his sword and stretched, his shoulder still aching from the bear's hit. "We should at least tell him we're running dungeons without him. It's courtesy."
"Why?" Marcus asked. "He's not part of the party anymore. We don't owe him updates on our activities."
"He fought with us in the undead dungeon. Nearly died with us. That counts for something."
"It counts for one mission. One." Marcus started walking toward the road that led back to the city. "Look, I understand the sentiment. But we're trying to advance, to climb ranks and become actual heroes. We can't afford to carry dead weight out of misplaced loyalty."
"Dead weight," Aria repeated. "That's harsh."
"It's accurate. His ability is interesting in theory but useless in practice. He can copy skills from defeated enemies, but he can barely defeat anything. He's level nine after two dungeons. We're all above level–17 now. The gap is only going to get wider."
Kenji walked in silence for a moment. Marcus wasn't wrong, the gap was widening. Every dungeon they cleared pushed them further ahead while Hiroshi recovered from injuries or took whatever scraps the Church threw his way.
Still, something about abandoning him completely felt wrong.
"We could bring him on easier runs," Kenji suggested. "F-rank dungeons. Let him build experience gradually."
"We don't run F-rank dungeons anymore," Marcus said. "We've moved past that. And I'm not going to slow our progress just to babysit someone who can't keep up."
"He survived the E-rank dungeon with us."
"Barely. And with full party support." Marcus stopped and turned to face them both. "Listen, I get it. You feel bad. But this is how it works. Heroes advance at different rates. The strong move forward. The weak fall behind. That's reality."
Aria frowned but didn't argue. Kenji wanted to push back more but couldn't find the words. Because part of him knew Marcus was right.
They were getting stronger. Faster than Hiroshi could hope to match without serious intervention or training he wasn't receiving.
It was just how things worked.
"Fine," Kenji said finally. "But if we see him again, I'm at least telling him in person why we moved on. He deserves that much."
"Agreed," Aria added.
Marcus shrugged. "Do what you want. Just don't expect it to change anything."
They continued walking toward the city, their conversation shifting to plans for their next dungeon run, strategies for hitting D-rank, speculation about what rewards they might earn.
None of them mentioned Hiroshi again.
Behind them, the collapsed dungeon site slowly faded, leaving only scorched earth where the entrance had been. Another mission completed. Another step forward in their advancement.
And somewhere in the city ahead, in a healing house bed, Hiroshi lay recovering from his own solo dungeon, unaware that the party he'd fought beside had already decided to leave him behind.
The gap between them was widening.
And none of them realized just how much things were about to change.