Dominic Kane realized, with perfect clarity, that he had never actually been part of the team.
Three months of dungeon runs together. Three months of Marcus positioning him at the front, Kade making jokes he didn't quite understand, Sera saving her best healing spells for everyone but him, and Rael…Rael, who'd shared a dorm building with him, who'd borrowed his notes and repaid him in stolen pastries, calling him "Dom" like they were friends.
They weren't friends.
They'd been tolerating him, using him, and now, standing in a dungeon twenty miles outside Academy grounds, deep in Sinas city dungeon, with a Level 18 Wraith circling them like a predator that had already chosen its meal, they were done.
His mana had hit zero five minutes ago.
He'd been their shield for the last three encounters, weak ice magic that could barely scratch a Level 8 monster, but they could distract, and distraction bought time. He'd positioned himself between Sera and a clawed swipe that would have opened her throat. He'd burned his last reserves holding a barrier while Kade lined up a shot.
He'd done his job.
Now he had nothing left.
Kade spoke first.
"Alright, we're moving fast!"
He didn't even glance at Dominic. He was already backing toward the corridor that led to the exit, eyes locked on the Wraith.
Sera's voice came out high and thin. "W-what about Dominic?"
She wasn't really concerned; she was just checking on the plan, like asking what they were doing with a piece of luggage.
Kade shrugged. "What about him?"
He said it casually, like it was a stupid question.
Marcus, the leader, the one with the commander's voice, the one Dominic had trusted to make the calls, looked at him with a cold expression.
"He's out of mana," Marcus said, his tone was cold and flat. "Dead weight."
Dominic's throat tightened.
"Someone needs to hold it off," Marcus continued, as if Dominic were easily disposable. "You're the obvious choice."
Rael clapped him on the shoulder.
The touch was light and familiar. The same casual contact he'd used all semester when they studied together, when they grabbed food after lectures, when Rael had promised, every single time, that they'd get Dominic stronger.
"Hey, it's just thirty seconds, Dom. We'll come back."
He said it with a smile.
Kade snorted. "Sure. We'll 'come back.'"
He used air quotes, didn't even have the courtesy to hide their obvious plan to abandon him.
Marcus shot Kade a look, not because it was wrong, but because it was rude; in his mind, cruelty should be polite.
Sera giggled, high-pitched, nervous. She covered her mouth immediately. "Sorry, I just—sorry."
Not apologizing to Dominic, but apologizing for laughing at the wrong time.
Dominic looked at Rael. The one he'd thought was different. The one who'd acted like they were building something.
"Rael—"
He didn't even know what he was asking for, help? Honesty? acknowledgement that this was wrong?
Rael's smile didn't reach his eyes. "You got this, Dom."
He patted his shoulder once more. Removed his hand. Stepped back.
"Move," Marcus said. "Now."
They ran.
Sera went first, already halfway to the corridor before Marcus finished speaking, relief flooding her face; she wouldn't have to watch.
Kade called back over his shoulder. "Thanks for the carry, F-Rank!"
He laughed. Genuinely, like it was funny.
Marcus paused at the corridor entrance, turned back, and met Dominic's eyes for one last second.
"For what it's worth—"
He stopped. Shook his head.
"Actually, no. It's not worth anything."
He left.
Rael was last.
He stopped at the mouth of the corridor. Turned fully, not just a glance back, and looked Dominic in the eye.
Dominic tried one more time. Reached for his mana reserves—nothing, his F-Rank Crest pulsed weakly on his wrist, a flicker of amber light, and produced nothing.
"Rael, I can't—I don't have—"
His voice cracked; he hated how desperate he sounded.
An expression crossed Rael's face, for half a second, Dominic thought: Maybe—
Then Rael smiled, small, almost apologetic.
"You were always going to end up here, Dom."
It didn't seem like an attempt at being cruel, just honest.
"Fallen nobility, F-Rank, no connections, no power." He shrugged. "Someone had to be the sacrifice. Better you than us."
The words landed harder than any blow.
"Thanks for the help this semester. Really."
He tipped his head, like a salute, as they'd just finished a group project.
"See you around. Maybe."
He knew he wouldn't.
Rael turned and ran.
From the corridor, voices echoed back.
Kade: "Think he bought the 'we'll come back' bit?"
Sera: "He wanted to, at least."
Rael: "Does it matter?"
Marcus: "Keep moving. We're not clear yet."
Their voices faded. Then it disappeared.
They were laughing, the whole time, they were laughing, and he never noticed.
The Wraith stopped circling. With the others gone, it didn't have any need to be wary; now it fixed its attention entirely on Dominic.
Dominic didn't move, because there was nowhere to go, a part of him, the part that had spent two years being the least important person in every room, thought Maybe they're right, maybe this was where he'd always been headed.
A disposable.
The Wraith shrieked, a sound like metal tearing, and lunged at him.
Dominic even didn't try to dodge.
The claws slid through his ribs, causing pain to flare up, the kind of pain that erased thought and left only sensation. The force of the hit threw him backwards a few feet then slamming hard into one of the pillars, His hands came up instinctively, pressing against the wound, blood flowing down and out through his fingers.
The Wraith pulled back, not finishing off just to watch him die slowly.
Dominic tried to breathe and couldn't, he tried to speak and tasted iron, his vision fractured at the edges, gray creeping inward, narrowing his world to the dungeon floor and the growing pool of his own blood.
"Of course…of course it ends like this, of course I'd die in a dungeon I shouldn't have been in, for people who never cared whether I lived." He thought to himself
The cold came next, his body had started to fail him, his Crest pulsed once, faint, the amber light flickered, then dimmed.
He closed his eyes, thinking. "At least no one will use me again."
Then suddenly he started to feel more warm. It began in his chest, then filled him up, like something being poured into a space that had been empty. His ribs knit back together, he felt it, bones sliding into place with a good sensation, torn flesh was sealing with impossible speed.
Dominic gasped. His eyes snapped open, he was healed, he was fine, and floating in the air before him, written in molten-gold light, were the words.
INFINITY GACHA SYSTEM:
INITIALIZING...
The Wraith stopped moving, as though it had been paused, with its eyeless face looking directly at the golden light emanating from where Dominic was.
Dominic stared at the words, not understanding what was going on, but he didn't care, he was alive and that was what mattered more.
At the entrance of the dungeon, back at the dungeon city of Sinas, the four students stumbled out using the warp gate from the floor of the dungeon they were at, gasping and shaking.
"Told you it'd work," Kade said, grinning despite the exhaustion.
Sera's hands were still trembling. "I feel bad—"
"Don't," Rael cut in. "He knew what he signed up for."
It was a lie, maybe to make themselves feel better.
Marcus straightened, rolling his shoulders. "We don't talk about this, any of it. Understood?"
The three nodded in agreement. They were already moving toward the open city when the ground shook, a single, deep tremor.
They paused for a moment, turned around looking at the dungeon entrance then at each other. After a few seconds they turned and walked away, as fast as they could, putting distance between themselves and the entrance.Whatever had caused that tremor, they wanted no part of it.
But deep in the dungeon, a huge change was starting to happen, a change that would overturn everything.