Chapter 45 Strongest Sage, Finds Again

 

The day after Ruli and Alma acquired new magic.
We went to the labyrinth again.

"Let's try going to the next floor today."

The preparation for barrier magic will start tomorrow if chantless magic lessons by the teachers have gone well.
We need a lot of small magic stones for that.
I'd also like to raise my magic output and quantity. Beating monsters is the best way for that.

"The second floor at last..."

"Nope. We're gonna get to the 10th floor today. It's just going to be a day trip though."

"10!?"

"True, the second floor might not be enough with our strength now....?"

"Let alone 10, Mathi-kun will probably alright on even the last floor.... floor 20, but will Alma and I be alright too? "

"I think we can do it! And Ruli, you have those sword and armor with you!"

We made an armor from the leftover mithril during yesterday's practice.
To be frank, I don't think it's needed if we're just going to floor 10, but since it's not too heavy, Ruli has it with her today.
By the way, the armor's been augmented with 【Lightening】, and 【Toughening】, I made the magic circles but it was Ruli who augmented it.

"Well that's true.... But I'm afraid I'd be a drag...."

"It's just floor 10, you're nothing of that sort. Even Alma can probably go alone as long as she doesn't step into a Monster House."

Fundamentally, the strength of monsters that appear until floor 25 are mostly the same in most dungeons.
After floor 25, monsters with traits peculiar to a dungeon start to appear, and from floor 30 on, their traits become obviously specific.
And Alma's strength already surpasses floor 10 monsters.

"Magic bows are amazing...."

"Well, Ruli, you can also fight on floor 10 just fine. Even though Glory Crest isn't suited for combat, that doesn't mean it's useless in a fight."

It's normal for bearers of First Crest in my past life to be able to clear a dungeon up until floor 30.
Rather, it's stranger if they can't clear floor 30 as long as they train properly.
It's still too hard for Ruli though, since she's only been training properly for a month.

"Well, we'll be counting on Ruli not as a firepower but as a magic augmenter. Use this."

I take out a log small enough to carry from Storage magic.
The weight is around 3kg.

"....What is this?"

"That's just a log. Alma will probably run out of arrows halfway through. Ruli should create arrows and hand them over to Alma to prevent that. The way to do it is a bit different than with metal.... You can probably manage with your intuition. Since you've got the basic nailed down."

"No way, asking me to make arrows all of a sudden.... huh?!"

The dubious Ruli tried to stream her mana into the log, gradually shaving it off.
And after about 10 seconds, one part of the log turned into an arrow without feathers attached.

"I did it!"

"Processing magic has many uses. By the way, you can do more than making it one by one."

I took out another log and shaved it, turning it into 30 arrows in a few seconds.

"I, I don't think I can do that...."

Ruli tried to do it, but it doesn't seem to be going well.
Well, processing multiple things at once needs experience after all.

"No need to rush, you should do it little by little starting from one arrow. I've got a lot of logs in my Storage magic, just tell me if you need more."

"I understand!"

"That means, first we aim at floor 2."

We reached the stairway toward the next floor while we were talking.
By the way, according to the principal, this school has successfully cleared 20 floors of this dungeon, and it seems they were able to get down that deep through stairways.
Well, that was a long time ago and the present time graduates can't even clear floor 12 now.

"....Huh? It doesn't really feel that different?"

After engaging in a few battles on floor 2, Alma uttered that.

"There's more monsters, but it's still basically the same.... Ah, there's a different type of monster over there."

"Uwaah, gross..."

"But it's weak right?"

"....You're right."

An arrow Alma shot pierced through three slug monsters altogether, killing them.
They're just small fry weaker than even hermit crabs as they don't have a shell.

Snail monsters came out on floor 4, and bivalve ones appeared starting from floor 6, but all of them were small fry and became victims of Alma's arrows.
The atmosphere changed on floor 8.

"....Is that, a dog over there?"

"Yeah. It's Killer Dog. The real thing starts here."

The new monsters that appeared among the bivalve monsters on floor 8 were of dog-type, Killer Dogs.
Unlike hermit crab and snail monsters, dog-type monsters are relatively fast and offensive.
They're not high ranked monsters at all, but they're unlike any other monsters we've encountered so far.

"For now, try to beat them. I'm sure Alma can manage a few of them."

"Let me try!"

The Killer Dog dodged the arrow Alma shot.

"GAAAA!"

The Killer Dog came running toward us while growling.

"Waa, it dodged!"

"You've still got time to shoot two arrows! Calm down and attach a guide on them!"

I wanted to help her a bit, but fighting alone is an experience too.
If they always fight in a safe environment, they might misunderstand that combat is a safe thing to do.

There were times when such a thing was practiced at Magic Academies in my past life, and as it turned out, the graduates were mostly useless in real combat.
--That said, I plan to intervene if they really get in danger.

"Guide... Ei!"

However, it appears that's unnecessary.
The second arrow Alma shot was almost dodged by the Killer Dog but it homed in deep into the dog's legs, stopping it on track.

"It's not over yet! Finish it well!"

"Got it!"

The third arrow pierced the Killer Dog's head, killing it.

"Yay!"

Subjugation complete.
She missed once, but I'm sure she could finish another with just an arrow soon at this rate.

"Alright, next let's go to that room."

"Room?　...Don't tell me..."

"Yea. It's a Monster House."

"Noo! We're gonna die if we step into a Monster House on this floor!"


















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