I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

The academy cafeteria was deafening. Hundreds of cadets packed the massive dining hall, the noise of clattering trays and overlapping conversations echoing off the vaulted ceilings.

Arthur sat at a corner table, cutting into his steak.

His squad sat around him. The dynamic had completely shifted since last week. They weren’t a group of randomized rejects anymore. They had survived a Level 45 Death Knight together, and they had the gear to prove it.

Emily sat across from him, rapidly inhaling a massive plate of grilled chicken. She was wearing her new B-Rank Titan Knuckles—heavy, dark-metal gauntlets she practically refused to take off since Professor Elena’s armory delivery arrived.

Felix sat next to her. He was eating with his right hand because his left arm was resting comfortably on his new B-Rank Aegis Bulwark, a heavily enchanted kite shield that easily weighed sixty pounds.

Chloe sat quietly on Arthur’s right, sipping a bowl of soup. The glowing blue gem of a B-Rank Sage’s Pendant hung proudly around her neck, a top-tier mana regeneration artifact.

Arthur took a bite of his steak, swallowed, and set his fork down.

”What’s the schedule for the weekend?” Arthur asked, looking around the table.

Emily swallowed hard, slamming her fork down. ”Nothing. I’ve spent all week punching training dummies.”

Felix nodded in agreement. ”I’m free. I’ve been doing stance drills with the new shield, but I can’t really test its kinetic absorption in the academy yards. They restrict the impact levels.”

Arthur turned his head. ”Chloe?”

Chloe blinked, looking up from her soup. A small, genuine smile spread across her face. Before last week, she had spent every weekend entirely alone in her dorm room. Being casually included in weekend plans made her chest feel warm.

”I’m free,” Chloe said softly. ”I’ve been practicing my physical buffing spells. I’d like to test them out.”

”Good,” Arthur said smoothly. He leaned back, spinning the sleek silver Ring of the Night Walker on his right index finger. ”Let’s go on a hunt. A real dungeon expedition. We have B-Rank gear, but we don’t have the squad coordination to match it. We need a live bootcamp.”

Emily grinned, her metal gauntlets clinking together. ”Just tell me where we’re dropping.”

”Library. Tonight at eight,” Arthur instructed. ”We’ll map it out.”

The private study room in the academy library was dead silent.

Arthur stood at the head of the circular wooden table. His phone was sitting flat on the surface, projecting a glowing holographic map of the surrounding territories.

Emily, Felix, and Chloe leaned over the table, analyzing the projection.

Arthur tapped the screen. The map zoomed in on a dense, rocky terrain located a few hours north of the academy walls.

”The Iron-Vein Mines,” Arthur announced. ”It’s an unsealed F-Rank dungeon. Cavern layout. It’s heavily populated by Hobgoblins and Cave Spiders.”

Felix frowned, studying the terrain. ”Hobgoblins use blunt weapons. Clubs and hammers. They hit hard, but they’re slow.”

”And the Cave Spiders use ambush tactics,” Emily added, leaning closer to the map. ”They drop from the ceilings and use paralyzing venom.”

”Exactly,” Arthur confirmed. ”It’s the perfect environment to test our new loadout. It’s an F-Rank, so the baseline danger is low, but the monster variety will force us to adapt. We get to practice holding a frontline against the Hobgoblins, and checking our blind spots for the Spiders.”

Chloe nervously gripped her mahogany staff. ”If there are Cave Spiders, we’re going to need a lot of antidotes. My cleansing magic takes a few seconds to cast, and if someone gets fully paralyzed before I finish, it could be bad.”

”Good catch,” Arthur nodded. ”We’ll pool our credits for supplies. We need a dozen standard antidotes, basic health potions, and field rations for a two-day trip. We’re not just going in to kill a few monsters and leave. We are going to camp inside the safe zones and clear the tunnels until our inventories are full of mana cores.”

Emily cracked her knuckles. ”Sounds like a proper bootcamp to me.”

Arthur shut off the holographic projector and picked up his phone.

”Pack your bags tonight,” Arthur ordered. ”Get some sleep tomorrow. We meet at the eastern academy gates on Saturday morning at 6:00 AM sharp.”

”See you Saturday,” Emily grinned.

*****

Saturday morning was freezing. Mist clung to the academy cobblestones like wet cotton.

It was 5:50 AM. The squad was already at the eastern gates.

Felix looked like a brick wall. His massive Aegis Bulwark shield was strapped tightly to his healthy right arm. Emily bounced on her heels, her Titan Knuckles clinking with restless energy. Chloe stood behind them, her belt loaded with red and green vials.

”Got everything?” Arthur asked, adjusting the straps on his readymade leather armor.

”Potions, antidotes, and rations,” Chloe nodded.

”Let’s ride.”

Two hours later, the magi-transport dumped them in the wild.

The Iron-Vein Mines gaped open at the base of a jagged mountain. But it wasn’t a quiet, desolate cave. It was an absolute circus.

Dozens of tents were pitched outside the massive stone entrance. Cheap merchants sat on wooden crates, loudly bartering for low-grade monster cores. Scuffed-up mercenary bands smoked cigarettes around campfires, while other academy rookie squads nervously checked their gear.

The mines were famous for one reason: the spawn rate.

It was a literal monster factory. Hobgoblins and Cave Spiders bred in the dark and respawned endlessly from the ambient mana. The ceiling for the dungeon was strictly F-Rank, making it the ultimate playground for rookies looking to grind levels and farm cheap cores.

Emily scoffed, looking at a group of mercenaries arguing over a single goblin ear. ”Place is packed. We’re going to be fighting for scraps.”

”Only at the entrance,” Arthur corrected, walking past the crowds. ”The casuals stay in the upper tunnels where it’s safe. We’re dropping straight to the lower levels.”

”Get in formation.”

The squad immediately snapped into position as they entered the dark maw of the cave.

Felix took the absolute front. Emily guarded his flank. Chloe held the center. Arthur took the rear.

Arthur pumped a sliver of mana into the Ring of the Night Walker. The pitch-black tunnel instantly washed out into crisp, high-res grayscale. His [Perception: 103] flared to life.

They bypassed the crowded upper caverns, descending deeper into the damp, sulfur-smelling dark.

Five minutes later, the chatter of other hunters completely faded.

Arthur threw up his fist.

The squad froze. Felix dropped into a low stance.

Fifty yards down the tunnel. Three Hobgoblins. Seven feet of pure, ugly muscle gnawing on a pile of bones.

But Arthur looked up. Clinging to the cavern ceiling was a massive Cave Spider, its mandibles dripping venom. A textbook ambush.

”Three goblins. One spider on the ceiling,” Arthur whispered. ”I’ll pin the bug and take the third goblin. Felix, Emily—let them come to you.”

Emily cracked her metal knuckles. ”Got it.”

Arthur drew his bow. Nocked an arrow. Exhaled.

Thwip.

The steel-tipped shaft crossed the dark in a fraction of a second. It slammed into the spider’s center mass, pinning the screeching arachnid violently to the rock. Viscous fluid rained down on the goblins.

The Hobgoblins snapped their heads up. They let out a wet, guttural roar, hefted their iron-studded clubs, and charged. The ground shook.

”Shield wall!” Arthur yelled.

He dropped his bow into the dirt and drew his hunting knife. No more hiding.

”Got your buffs!” Chloe shouted. Golden mana washed over the squad. Stamina topped off. Muscles primed.

The first Hobgoblin reached Felix. It swung its club in a brutal, two-handed arc meant to crush his skull.

CLANG.

The B-Rank shield ate the kinetic force entirely. Felix didn’t budge an inch. The weapon violently deflected, leaving the monster wide open.

Emily exploded forward. She dropped low.

CRACK.

Her metal gauntlet pulverized the goblin’s knee. The joint shattered like glass. Before the roaring monster even hit the floor, Emily pivoted. She drove a mana-laced right hook straight into its temple.

Brains and teeth sprayed the cavern wall. Dead instantly.

Ten feet away, Arthur met the third Hobgoblin head-on.

The monster towered over him. It brought its heavy club down in a devastating overhead smash.

Arthur didn’t block. He sidestepped. The club pulverized the gravel right where he had just been standing.

Arthur lunged inside its guard.

It was pure, messy violence. He grabbed the beast’s thick forearm with his left hand. His Troll Blood strength locked the monster perfectly in place. With his right hand, he drove the six-inch steel blade straight up under its jaw.

The knife buried itself to the hilt.

Hot, foul-smelling blood sprayed across Arthur’s face. The goblin violently gagged, clawing wildly at his shoulders in a blind panic.

”Die,” Arthur grunted, twisting the handle viciously.

He severed the windpipe and the major arteries in one motion. The massive goblin went limp, crashing heavily into the dirt.

Silence fell over the tunnel. Just the sound of heavy breathing and dripping blood.

Arthur wiped the hot gore from his eyes with his forearm. It wasn’t clean, but it was real.

Emily grinned, flicking bone fragments off her knuckles. ”Okay. I like this loadout.”

”Didn’t even feel the hit,” Felix breathed, staring at his shield.

”No poison,” Chloe sighed, lowering her staff.

Arthur didn’t celebrate. He knelt next to his fresh kill.

”Don’t get comfortable. Monsters respawn fast down here,” Arthur said pragmatically.

He gripped his bloody knife and drove it directly into the monster’s sternum.

CRUNCH.

He used his raw strength to saw through the thick bone and cartilage. He shoved his bare hand into the hot, steaming chest cavity, pushing past the lungs.

With a wet schluck, he pulled his hand out.

A murky, gray F-Rank mana core sat in his bloody palm.

Arthur tossed it into his inventory and wiped his hand on his pants. He scooped up his bow and pointed his dripping knife deeper into the dark.