Today's raid started well.
Raiders were a headache for me since I could fully read the chaos they caused, but Anna covered for me whenever I overextended.
Our levels were also high enough that we had wiggle room for a few mistakes, though thanks to Mia's training, my judgment was better and I adapted faster to roadblocks in my tactics.
But perhaps because we were so successful, before anyone had noticed it, we reached uncharted territory.
Miwen: "Hm... Just in case, do you guys wanna head back?"
It was still early to call it a day, but Claire, Licia, and I had already reached the level cap for the floor, while Beatrice and the new girls had all reached level 10.
Thanks to [Increased Drop Chance], we should have also made plenty already.
Though I felt like passing up on an opportunity to explore an unmapped area was a bit of a shame.
Licia: "I think it's fine, moreover..."
She casually reached her arm over my left shoulder, letting it hang there.
On her face, I saw an incredibly warm grin.
Mia: "You seem to really want to do it."
Her head bumped into my right arm, but she quickly took a step away.
I thought I had presented it as a neutral choice, but seeing their teasing smiles, I realized I had failed to hide my bias from them.
Anna: "It might be dangerous, but..."
Just as she gripped her sword, Claire appeared behind her and patted her back.
Claire: "No need to worry. Just stick with me, and you'll be fine!"
Anna's stare barely hid the mix of emotions she felt.
It was impossible to blame her for it, though. Claire was half of the reason we had to worry in the first place.
Miwen: "Ever so confident, huh?"
At the slightest hint of a challenge, she crossed her arms and lifted her chin.
Claire: "Of course! I'm the strongest after all~"
The pair of white wolf ears beside me twitched upon hearing those words.
Mia: "Oh, yeah? Since when?"
Every level up increased Claire's confidence even more, and her rivalry with Mia followed a similar trend.
With the two having their levels capped by the floor, it was actually hard to tell which one was stronger, though Mia still had an advantage thanks to her skill levels.
Still, that never stopped Claire, and sparks flew from their eyes.
Ellie: "Those two get along so well..."
As we made our way deeper into the floor, I took a small notepad from my backpack and roughly drew the path we were taking.
I included a rough step count and asked Mia and Claire to scout any turns they could without going too far, so I could rule them out as dead ends.
Miwen: "...You think so?"
Since I was so focused on the map, I missed most of their discussion, but when I turned towards them...
Claire: "I'm starting to lose count, so... How about whoever kills the strongest monster wins?"
The sparks in her eyes had turned to flames.
Mia: "You're just gonna throw a big dumb fireball at the toughest monster you see. I'd rather race for kill count."
I stared at Ellie behind me, and she stared back, seemingly not noticing anything wrong with the situation.
Before I could scold the two idiots, a lunar glowstriker appeared before our party, and the two were already on the hunt.
Their eyes were scarier than those of the monster, and as they leaped forward, the beast flinched.
As it opened its mouth to bite Mia, a vertical flame pillar burned its face, turning the monster's head charcoal black.
If Mia had taken a single step to the left, she could've earned herself a burn on her back, but the heat was a big tell, and she dodged to the right.
Miwen: "You were saying?"
Ellie: "W-well..."
Seeing her so flustered, I couldn't resist patting her head. Somehow, she always looked even cuter with her hair messy.
Despite cutting it close, I was actually relieved to see the control Claire had over her magic.
Licia also seemed proud of her. The two had been spending some time together, and since her control is so good, maybe she'd been helping Claire improve in that department.
Though when Beatrice showed the same expression, Claire narrowed her eyes at her.
As the flames subsided, Mia clicked her tongue and straightened her back. She stood still for a few seconds, her ears twitching as she sniffed the air.
The rest of the group passed by her, and Claire even provoked her a little.
But then, in the blink of an eye, she bolted forward.
It took us a few seconds to catch up to her after she beelined past us, and when we found her, she sat atop the corpses of three glowstrikers, waiting for us with her back turned to the path they came from.
Mia: "Gather their drops. There's more coming this way."
Her words were directed at Claire, who didn't even consider picking anything from the ground and ran ahead, brandishing her sword.
Mia made the distance in a second, and as the next group came our way, the two resumed their competition.
As Claire fired her spells and split the monsters apart with a slash of her sword, Mia threw one against the other, impaling as many as she could with a single kick.
Meanwhile, Anna helped me gather the loot.
Licia followed after the two idiots, securing her third place in the race and forcing the rest of us to pick up the pace as well.
However, even though we were so deep into the floor, instead of orcs and hobgoblin raiders, all we found were glowstrikers.
That was strange, but I wasn't given much time to dwell on it.
With the growing excitement of our frontline, we gradually ran into bigger groups, almost all of them at the Dungeon's level cap.
Beatrice: "The last three groups included a [Lord]..."
Groups with a [Noble] monster were rarely seen so close to each other outside of boss rooms since they tended to fight and merge under the stronger monster.
The lack of other types of monsters, the presence of so many [Lords], and the increasing numbers in their groups...
Anna: "Should we stop?"
The air thickened, and for the first time, Claire and Mia stopped fooling around.
A chilling silence settled in the dark corridors.
Miwen: "...It's still fine for now."
Exploring uncharted territory, despite the danger, had been quite fun.
Thanks to Mia's sharp nose, we never walked in circles, and my map was close to the same size as the Third Floor's most explored path.
While I was excited about it, I let the girls consider it for a second, but of course, no complaints came from Claire and Mia.
After Licia and the others silently nodded, our raid continued until we reached an ample chamber.
Without any natural light, the room was as dark as any other corridor of the Dungeon.
However, in the walls at the end of the chamber, a silver spot glowed.
Then another.
A couple more.
Finally, dozens of dots illuminated the room, revealing a horde of glowstrikers.
The lizard-like monsters dropped from the walls and the ceiling before our eyes. The faint light their glowing tails emitted was so strong that it hurt the eyes.
Gradually, that mass of light appeared to grow.
Miwen: "Licia! Funnel them!"
Since the corridor behind us was narrow and there were no branching paths, I decided to try to stand our ground.
As a cold breath escaped her lips, two translucent, thick ice walls closed in from either side.
We retreated a few steps, with Mia and Claire standing at the front, killing as many monsters as they could with our help.
Miwen: "Don't overextend yourselves!"
The corpses started piling up before the ice walls, but the monsters kept coming.
While there was little downtime between our attacks, we were slowly being pushed back as Licia had to stop attacking to reinforce her magic.
Even though we only took care of the gaps and the few monsters that slipped past Mia and Claire, Anna and I struggled to keep up.
Thankfully, our trusted little elf was like a machine gun, and arrows raced past us one after another.
Whenever it became too much even for her, Beatrice let a blast of her fire magic in front of Licia's ice walls, buying us a few seconds of breathing room.
Beatrice: "Fuuh... This is so much better than running everywhere... If only it could be like this every time..."
She was the only one among us with a satisfied expression, and while she could keep going, Licia and Claire's mana was starting to become a concern.
In one of the rare chances I had to appraise the enemies, I noticed several [Nobles].
Among them, I found a giant Lunar Glowstriker, almost a meter taller than even the [Lords] around it.
Miwen: "A [Duke]..."
No wonder there weren't any other monsters around.
Even an entire group of hobgoblins probably wouldn't be a match for a monster with that rank.
Anna: "So, um... What should we do?"
The horde seemed endless.
There might've been hundreds of them when we started.
Miwen: "Claire..."
I leaned forward, whispering into her ears.
Miwen: "No breaks."
There was a chance I'd come to regret this decision, but...
Claire: "Finally!"
Her excited shout brought a sigh of relief from Licia, and even Beatrice giggled at it.
She held one hand over the other, and between them, a small, orange flower burst into existence.
As the flower grew, flames spread through the room, creating a sea of fire before our eyes.
The heat of the blossoming flowers in the room alone was enough to kill the normal glowstrikers, but even more flowers sprawled beneath the feet of the lords, forcing them to run aimlessly.
Mia and I, the two fastest in our party, dashed forward.
We fought our way through the monsters that leaped through the fire and fell from the ceiling, until we came face to face with the Duke Lunar Glowstriker.
Suddenly, Mia disappeared from my side, only to appear behind the Duke's back.
The floor trembled with the impact as her knees met the monster.
Thick water tentacles then sprawled from the ground, pulling the glowstriker's limbs in all directions.
Almost at the same time, as if Ellie knew it, her arrows flew beside me, paralyzing two monsters in my way.
As its cries echoed, I ignited my blade, using a combination of my [Fire Magic], [Physical Prowess], [Focused Strike], and [X Slash] to cut its chest.
It was the strongest combo I could think of, and it paid off.
Flames engulfed the monster, almost instantly reducing it to ash.
The few remaining parts not caught by the fire slowly faded, absorbed by the Dungeon.
Mia: "Hrnh... Good job. But it was mine! If you had left it for me, I would've defeated the pyromaniac!"
It never crossed my mind that my attack could've gotten her injured, but thankfully, she seemed to have dodged the-
Miwen: "Get back!"
There were three tunnels in the chamber.
The one we came from, one to the right, and one to the left.
Monsters started pouring in from both tunnels on the sides, and trailing right behind them were two even bigger Lunar Glowstrikers.
As we ran back to the corridor behind us, I used [Appraisal] on them, and as expected, the two weren't [Dukes].
They were a [King] and [Queen] pair.
Mia caught up to me in an instant and caught me by the collar of my shirt, carrying me like a basket as she dodged the monsters in her way.
Mia: "Ice girl! A hand! Please!"
Just as she jumped through the ice walls, they closed behind her.
Miwen: "We are going back! Full speed until we reach the settlement!"
We already got more than what we bargained for.
While the exploration was incredibly fun, I definitely didn't want to lose my life over it.
As we sped through the Dungeon, Licia occasionally created more ice walls behind us until we reached a fork in our way.
With the last of her mana, she conjured an ice wall that would hopefully lead the mindless beasts into charging in the wrong direction.
Not that we took any chances.
For almost an hour, all we did was run for our lives as fast as we could.
Once we finally arrived at the settlement, instead of a sigh of relief, we shared a nervous laugh.