Calamity Upon This World

20 minutes before the awakening of William.

"What just happened?" Max asked, still shaken by everything they had just gone through.

Everything was going smoothly before, but then they encountered a boss who was way above the A rank level, like it was supposed to be, and basically at S rank.

After encountering it, Max basically thought his life had been forfeited, but he didn't want to go down with a fight. Discover more on m|vl|e|mp|y|r

However, just when he was about to die, John appeared out of nowhere and killed the S-rank dungeon boss on his own.

It was really shocking how John was basically holding back, even when facing one of the strongest humans alive.

Max hadn't known John for a long time, but he was a very social person and easily made friends.

Max was almost worried, thinking he was about to see another friend of his die, and that too while saving him.

But surprisingly, John managed to win even without his help.

However, while he was glad that he didn't die, nor did he see his friend die, that still didn't help the feeling of uselessness that he was feeling.

Before this mission, Max thought he was doing pretty well, but it was only after experiencing the dangers involved in his career as an adventurer.

Ever since he was a child, Max has always dreamed about becoming an adventurer.

His older brother was one before he went missing, but despite knowing all the risks and dangers involved, Max still wanted to give the job a shot.

And if possible, maybe even try to find his brother.

And after adventuring for months at this point, Max could say with certainty that this was the profession for him.

He really enjoyed meeting all the new people his job allowed him to meet, and he even liked the thrill.

With each mission, he could feel himself growing stronger.

But it was only now that he realised his growth still wasn't enough, and he planned to devote himself to training after this mission before he took another mission.

However, before that, he wanted to treat his party to a fancy meal and thank John for saving his life, and if possible, he wanted to extend the duration of their party and keep taking missions together.

Out of all the people he had worked with in the past, he had the best chemistry with the cleansers, and they all complimented each other.

But more than that everyone in his new party seemed to be genuinely nice people who Max wanted to get closer to.

Sadly, it seems life had other plans for them, and their first ever dungeon turned out to be a S-rank double dungeon.

Even with the overpowered Edge Lord by their side, the chances of them clearing such a dungeon were close to zero.

And as if that alone wasn't bad enough, they were even betrayed by their porter, Sung, who somehow managed to take out John and prematurely started the second part of the dungeon when all of them still hadn't fully recovered.

Speaking of which, Max had very little hope for actually surviving their current predicament and getting out alive.

Without Edge Lord, the responsibility of protecting everyone naturally fell on his shoulders, as he was the original leader of the party.

Unlike Edge Lord, Max didn't have overpowered magic or unnatural combat sense and experience for his age.

But what he did have were his unwavering spirit and leadership qualities.

However, Max was mainly focused on getting out alive while minimising the casualties.

That didn't mean he had forgotten about John or Sung.

Max planned to be actively looking for John as he cleared the dungeon.

Afrer all, he couldn't just abandon the man who saved his life and also someone he considered a friend.

And as for Sung, every time Max thought about him, he was filled with rage, but he was still doing a pretty good job of containing himself and instead focusing on what was really important right now.

However, that didn't mean that, if given the chance, he wouldn't crush the skull of that bastard.

'Ok, this should be enough for now,' Max thought as he finally stood up.

For the past few minutes, cleansers and the few miners were using their breathing techniques to recover as much mana as they could before they started exploring the second part of this dungeon.

**

The atmosphere was gloomy and eerily silent in the room where the cleansers and miners had fallen.

Being forced to challenge a S-rank double dungeon without their leader and the strongest member by their side was no different from a death sentence.

Most of them had originally thought that they were extremely lucky after they discovered this dungeon, which was a 'goldmine' of luminous blue stones.

With just one of these stones capable of completely turning their lives around,.

Almost all the miners wanted to retire from their current shitty life of constantly risking their lives and entering the death traps that were dungeons just to have a roof over their heads and food on their plates.

However, now these were the same people who were cursing their luck for having ever entered this death trap of a dungeon.

All the riches and gems were useless to them if they never made it out alive, and by the look of things they were all going to, he was buried alive in this dungeon, just like their leader.

Due to the constant feeling of dread in the air and uncertainty about their own fate, one of the miners finally broke down as he fell to the ground and cried.

"I don't want to die; please someone save me," he cried.

"This is all that black-haired kid's fault; he promised to protect us, and yet he let Tony die."

"And then he went ahead and died himself, leaving all of us to follow him to his grave."

"I have a daughter waiting for me at home that I need to look after"

"God of Mana, please save us. My family has been praying to you religiously for generations. Please save your devotee in his time of need."

Jasmine was disgusted to see a grown man like him breaking down and wanted to beat him up for saying John was dead when he obviously wasn't.

Jasmine didn't know why, but she just knew that he was still alive; he had to be alive.

However, before she could reach the man breaking down on the floor, he was already knocked out, with Max standing behind him.

"Everyone stay silent and follow my lead. I won't be making any promises like John did, as I'm not as strong as him, but I will give you my reassurance to do everything in my power to get us out of here safe and sound."

His tone was cold and authoritarian, completely contrasting with his previous warm and easy-to-approach personality. However, his authoritarian voice was what everyone needed in this situation, as morale finally increased with the people once again willing to follow a leader to get them out of the hellhole life had thrown their way.