Jiwon gasped, "Is this... what it's like to grow muscles?"
"I think my spine just reset," Min-ho whimpered.
"I'm seeing stars," Min-ji moaned.
Jae-hyun snarled, "I'm going to punch him as soon as I stop vibrating."
Meanwhile, Hwajin and Heechan observed from a safe rock a few meters away, sharing snacks like two retired veterans watching new recruits break under pressure.
"They'll live," Hwajin said.
"Barely," Heechan nodded, biting into dried fruit. "I remember my first meltdown."
Bitna arrived with water bottles and raised a brow. "Did he do the pill thing again?"
"Yes," Eo-ra said flatly.
Bitna just nodded like that explained everything.
The four new members eventually stopped flailing.
They were sweaty, sore, red-eyed, and slightly traumatized—but alive.
And when they sat up—shaky, breathing hard—they felt it.
Their limbs felt... stronger.
The tremors had faded, but their bodies felt denser, more responsive. Mana flowed smoother. Movements were sharper.
"...What the hell," Min-ho whispered. "It actually worked?"
"My posture isn't trash anymore," Min-ji blinked.
"I can feel my blood flexing," Jae-hyun muttered.
"I can hear the forest apologizing for judging me," Jiwon said dreamily.
Byeol-ha clapped once. "Congratulations! You survived phase one."
"Phase one?!" they all shouted.
"Shhh," he whispered, sipping his tea. "Don't ruin the progress."
The dungeon's first floor had once been a terrifying nightmare of growling shadows, snapping teeth, and very real trauma. Now?
It was a playground.
Well—if your idea of a playground involved stabbing things repeatedly, commanding plants like a druid overlord, and screaming war cries while your friends used you as bait.
But for Kim Byeol-ha's ragtag group?
This was progress.
Bitna stood at the center of the battlefield, bow drawn with perfect tension. Her arrows whistled through the air, pinning wolves mid-leap. Her aura shimmered faint gold, sharp and clear like morning light.
Beside her, Eo-ra danced through the chaos, sword swinging in wide arcs. Her footwork was silent, her blindfold fluttering with every twist. Her blade—dark and sleek—cut through shadows like it had something to prove.
They didn't speak.
They didn't need to.
When Bitna stepped forward, Eo-ra moved left. When Eo-ra struck, Bitna's arrow followed the path a heartbeat later. Light and dark. Timing and intuition.
"Okay, creepy twin synchro," Seo-jin muttered from somewhere nearby, "you're making the rest of us look like underachievers."
He said this, of course, while phasing through a wolf's back, emerging behind it like a polite assassin ghost and casually stabbing it in the spine.
He dusted off his hands. "Next."
Behind him, Hwajin stood with his arms raised, vines snaking out from beneath the stone floor, whipping and curling around the legs of a charging silver wolf.
"Entangle!" he shouted.
The vines obeyed.
The wolf tripped.
"Bonk!" Hwajin yelled and dropped a small boulder on its head.
Heechan stood behind a tree, trying to look fearsome. A faint glow of ocean-blue aura swirled around his hands. When he focused, a jet of high-pressure water blasted forward—enough to push a wolf back or soak someone's socks if aimed poorly.
"Sea Lance!" Heechan cried.
A long spear of water formed and flew. It... grazed a wolf's tail.
"Okay," he mumbled. "It's a start."
A short distance away, Kim Byeol-ha sat on a large rock sipping some very questionable tea made from dungeon herbs.
Behind him were the new recruits—Jae-hyun, Min-ho, Min-ji, and Jiwon—stretching, groaning, and still mildly traumatized from the body strengthening pills.
"You're not allowed to scream this time," Byeol-ha warned, not looking up. "The wolves are starting to think it's a mating call."
Min-ho groaned. "My bones still buzz. I can hear my knees."
"That means your mana flow's better," Byeol-ha said cheerfully. "Now up. You're going to kill something."
Jiwon raised a hand. "Question: what if it's... cute?"
"Then you make it ugly," Byeol-ha said.
Min-ji cracked her knuckles. "What if it makes me ugly?"
"I promise, a little blood will only enhance your danger aesthetic."
Jae-hyun, still rubbing his side from where a muscle tore mid-stretch, sighed. "He's not a coach. He's a cursed fortune cookie."
Byeol-ha stood. "Today's goal: kill one wolf each. I don't care how. You can sing it to death if you want."
"...Can we get a tutorial?" Min-ho asked.
"Yes," Byeol-ha said. "Here it is."
He pointed to the battlefield.
"Don't die."
Back on the front lines, Seo-jin slid in next to Bitna and Eo-ra just in time to dodge a lunging wolf.
"Five down," he muttered. "Four to go."
Eo-ra raised a brow. "Only four?"
"Hwajin tripped on a vine he summoned. We had a... pause."
Bitna loosed another arrow. "Heechan?"
"Trying. He did splash one into a tree."
"That's better than setting one on fire by accident."
"Oh god, don't remind me—"
Just then, a massive silver alpha emerged, snarling and glowing with faint white energy. The pack's leader.
Bitna and Eo-ra readied their weapons, but Byeol-ha's voice rang out lazily from afar:
"Let the new ones handle this one."
"What?!" came the collective scream.
Byeol-ha sipped his tea. "Trial by fur."
The four new recruits stood in formation, very shaky, very aware of the large angry wolf watching them like a lunch menu.
"Jiwon," Byeol-ha called. "Support spells only."
She nodded, hands trembling as she activated a low-tier shield barrier around the group. "Go go bubble dome... please hold..."
Min-ji took the lead, launching herself forward with impressive speed and punching the wolf in the jaw. It staggered.
"Oh my god I hit it," she gasped.
"Don't celebrate too early!" Jae-hyun yelled, swinging his blade at its side.
Min-ho followed up with a burst of wind magic, knocking the wolf sideways into a tree.
For a moment... it looked like teamwork.
Then the wolf got up.
Very mad.
And then—
"Entangle!" shouted Hwajin from the rear, vines exploding around the wolf's legs.
"Sea Lance!" Heechan fired again—this time piercing its thigh.
Then, with perfect timing, Seo-jin emerged from the shadows, blade glinting, and finished it with a clean stab to the neck.
Silence.
The wolf collapsed.
Everyone stared.
Jae-hyun, panting, whispered, "Did we... did we just kill the boss?"
Byeol-ha strolled over, hands in his pockets, smiling lazily.
"Congratulations," he said. "You've officially committed wolfslaughter. I'm proud of you."
Jiwon sat down immediately. "I need water. And therapy."