You know that feeling when you wake up, stretch, and think,"Ah, today’s going to be peaceful. Maybe I’ll read, sip tea, and not almost die."Yeah. That’s what I thought this morning.

  And then Rielle kicked my door open and said,“Dungeon time. Wear something that won’t melt.”

  Welcome to the Rift Dungeon (Where Rules are Optional If You're Us)Let me back up.

  The Rift Dungeon is an ancient relic of the world-ending catastrophe that shook this continent 100 years ago. Apparently, some hole in space opened up and just vomited out a tower that leads to Hell—or as our dear educators like to call it, "a controlled combat environment for magical and martial advancement."

  It’s got 100 floors.They’ve explored up to floor 46.Monsters regenerate every day because the dungeon hates peace.First-year students, like us? We're only allowed to explore up to floor five.

  Simple, right?

  Except...

  “Let’s go to floor ten,” Rielle said, full of adrenaline and bad ideas.

  “Why?!” I asked, mid-stretch. “The school explicitly told us not to. They gave a whole slide presentation on why floor five is our limit. There were safety graphics. Animations. A Golem in a tie expined it.”

  She grinned. “Exactly. Which means the real stuff starts after five.”

  Gram cpped. “I brought glowsticks and six different bombs!”

  Eli was already checking her sword for rust like this was her pre-gym ritual.

  And me?I sighed.Because I knew the moment I agreed to this squad, I sold my peaceful afterlife for chaos in formalwear.

  Floor 1–5: The Legally Sanctioned Stroll of DeathThe first five floors were honestly underwhelming. Giant rats, basic goblins, some flying jellyfish that tried to drain our mana and got roasted by my Spiral Fme Lash.

  We even saw other squads—squeaky-clean first-years pretending they were in an epic saga. They waved. We nodded.

  They stayed on Floor 4 like good children.

  We did not.

  Floor 6–9: Regret Rises Like HeatstrokeFloor 6 introduced a new enemy: Wraith Spiders.Imagine if someone took a tarantu, dipped it in shadow magic, gave it the ability to teleport and scream in Latin, and dropped them from the ceiling without warning.

  Rielle tanked them.Eli cut off legs midair.I incinerated nests with firebolts and used Wind Pressure Arcs to sweep the ones behind us.Gram? He threw a glowing powder at one that caused it to turn inside out.

  That was Floor 6.

  By Floor 8, we were dealing with Spectral Bdes—ghost knights armed with weapons that phased through armor and sliced your mana control.

  You ever get your magic core sliced?It’s like a brain freeze, migraine, and kidney stone had a baby and that baby screamed in mana code.

  Eli almost passed out.Rielle’s armor started to crack.I was burning through mana potions like a mid-exam caffeine addict.

  I wanted to turn back.

  But Rielle looked at me—bloodied, bruised, grinning like a berserker—and said,“Just one more.”

  And I?Like the idiot I am, I said:“Fine. But if I die, I’m haunting you. Naked.”

  Floor 10 – Oh Look, A Boss Room. Fantastic.The air changed the second we hit floor ten.

  It got cold. Stale.Not just “dungeon spooky,” but that deep, primal kind of wrong that makes your stomach clench.

  The walls shifted. The hallway narrowed.

  And then we saw it:

  A stone door, twenty feet tall, covered in runes that glowed with necrotic magic.

  “Well,” Gram whispered, “that’s never good.”

  Rielle pushed the door open.

  And there he was.

  The Lich – The Dead Guy with a PhD in PainThe room was circur, lined with skeletal statues, and at its center stood a Lich—robes of deep violet, crown of bone, eyes like dying stars.

  He didn’t move.

  He just raised his hand, and the statues turned their heads.

  Oh no.

  “Defense formation!” I yelled, voice already cracking.

  Eli vanished left. Rielle took point. Gram started prepping bombs like a chef in a live cooking show.

  The Lich snapped his fingers.

  And the fight began.

  The Battle – How to Die Artistically in 100 Moves or LessHis first attack?Soulfire Lance.

  It tore through the space where I’d been standing half a second ago.

  I countered with Scorching Chains, trying to trap his movement. He blinked—literally teleported—and reappeared behind Gram, hand raised.

  “Gram, MOVE!”

  Gram did a backflip and dropped a fshbomb.

  Eli came in from the side—sliced through the Lich’s ribs—and her bde just passed through like air.

  Illusion.He was projecting multiple bodies at once.

  “REAL ONE’S IN THE CENTER!” I screamed.

  Rielle tackled the central Lich form—smmed him with a mana-coated punch—and finally, he staggered.

  I charged my strongest spell:Vire Fre Cannon—concentrated fire compressed into a nce of explosive heat.

  Problem? Took 6 seconds to charge.The Lich noticed.

  He lifted his staff.

  A wave of necrotic energy shot toward me.

  Rielle intercepted it—her armor shattered—and she hit the wall, unconscious.

  Shit.

  Gram activated something he called “mana candy ultra”—which I’m 99% sure was illegal—and turned his skin briefly green while throwing four bombs in sequence.

  Two exploded with lightning.

  Two exploded with... glitter?

  “Dazzle powder!” he shouted.

  The Lich hesitated. I didn’t.

  VIRE FLARE CANNON!

  I let the spell go.

  It smmed into the Lich—melting half his torso and bsting him across the chamber.

  Eli moved in for the finish—dodging bone spikes, parrying his staff, until she drove her bde into the center of his skull.

  There was a scream.

  Not from the Lich.

  From the dungeon.

  The room shook.

  Walls cracked.

  And the Lich disintegrated.

  Aftermath – Lying On The Floor Contempting My Life ChoicesI y on the stone floor, smoke still rising from my cloak.

  Rielle groaned from the corner.

  Eli was sitting, wiping blood off her sword.

  Gram was humming and chewing something glowing.

  We didn’t speak.

  We just y there, processing the fact that we—four first-years—killed a Floor Ten boss we weren’t supposed to even see until year three.

  “You know what?” I said finally. “I want a raise. I don’t care that we’re students. I want a dungeon hazard pay cuse.”

  Eli coughed. “Do we... tell the school?”

  “No,” Rielle muttered, still woozy. “We just say we got lost.”

  “Into a sealed floor,” I said dryly.

  She smiled, bloodied and proud. “Exactly.”

  I sighed. Stared at the cracked ceiling.

  One day, I told myself.One day I’ll live a quiet life.

  But today...We killed a Lich.And I was 80% sure the dungeon now remembered my name.