Thud, thud, thud...
Boot soles ground against loose stone, leaving shallow prints along the dim corridor.
As the party pressed deeper, the terrain around them gradually opened up.
After carefully picking their way through a treacherous pass, where one side hugged the rock wall and the other dropped away into a bottomless shaft, they finally arrived at a massive cavern chamber.
Leon raised the Magic Stone lantern high, scanned their surroundings by its light, and let out a breath.
"Phew... this middle-floor terrain really is something else."
"One side's solid rock wall, the other's a deadly bottomless pit! One slip of the foot down there... tch, god knows which floor you'd end up on."
Leon plopped down on a jutting rock, uncapped his waterskin, and took several long gulps before he started grumbling.
Beside him, the two young elves' faces had gone a little pale, clearly still shaken by the stretch of road they'd just crossed.
"That shaft..."
Aura's voice carried a lingering trace of lingering dread as she hesitantly asked:
"The records mention it might go all the way down to Floor 17?"
Leon put the waterskin away and nodded seriously.
"Yeah. Assuming nothing weird happens, there are indeed express drops that take you straight to Floor 17, though they're pretty rare. Most of them are more like sightseeing elevators between Floors 14 and 16."
"If someone manages to land on one of those direct-to-17 traps out of all the shafts down here, I can only say... they've got to be the unluckiest bastard alive."
"Yeah, someone like that? I'd recommend they change careers as soon as possible. They're not cut out to be an Adventurer."
Leon's dark humor did the trick, dispelling some of the tension and drawing quiet laughs from both Laurier and Aura.
Jeanne's lips also curved up faintly, and she nodded in agreement.
"Adventurers do need a bit of luck."
Just as she was saying that, all of a sudden...
A series of roaring growls came from around the bend in the corridor ahead.
In the next moment, pairs of crimson eyes, brimming with savage intent, lit up densely in the darkness, locked firmly onto these intruders.
"Ho, these are... Lygerfangs?"
Leon narrowed his eyes and slowly rose, leaning on his staff, his tone certain.
Jeanne calmly drew her Adventurer's manual from her belt pouch and, right in front of the monster pack, flipped through it briskly without missing a beat.
"Lygerfang, Lygerfang... ah, found it."
Her eyes scanned a few lines, and she snapped the manual shut, turning her head to speak to the rest of them.
"The entry says Lygerfangs don't have any special abilities, but their strength and speed are fairly balanced, and they have a size advantage over humans. Textbook all-rounder monsters."
"The key tactic against them is just one thing: don't let yourself get surrounded!"
With that, Jeanne hefted her Banner Lance and strode forward...
One step, two steps...
She picked up speed, eventually breaking into a run.
When she was about halfway there, she suddenly dropped low, her center of gravity tipping forward. Her combat boots slammed into the ground with a heavy "thud"! Using the explosive force, she shot forward like a silver arrow loosed from a bowstring, crashing headlong into the restless pack of monsters!
"Skssh! Skssh skssh skssh!"
Combat erupted in an instant and hit full tempo.
Jeanne's figure wove nimbly through the monster pack, her silver Banner Lance spinning in her hands, parrying one moment, thrusting the next, clashing with the monsters in a fierce melee.
"Gwaaaaah!"
The heavy spearhead, controlled by her astonishing wrist strength, combined reach with precision.
She whirled the Banner Lance into streaks of afterimages, like a storm of silver light, endlessly reaping the monsters' lives. Line after line of blood and gaping wounds were carved into their hides by Jeanne, drawing shrieks from them.
In just a few breaths, blood had already stained Jeanne's silver armor and combat boots red, yet her austere figure only looked more sacred and untouchable, like a saint bathed in blood.
Watching Jeanne's Valkyrie-like figure, Leon called out to Laurier and Aura:
"Laurier! Aura! Support with your bows. Prioritize picking off the ones trying to flank her from the outside."
"Yes!"
The two elven girls answered in unison, their eyes turning sharp as hawks.
The way they looked, it was as if they'd been waiting for the order all along.
There were about a dozen or so monsters this time, and Jeanne's ferocious charge had already thrown their formation into chaos.
So Leon just topped himself off with Frost Armor for safety and didn't engage.
After all, his Fireball's power and range now were nothing like what they'd been back at Lv. 1. If he slipped up and caught Jeanne in the blast, he'd be doing more harm than good.
That was exactly why, in their usual tactics, Jeanne handled the front and he covered the flanks.
"Twang! Twang!"
Laurier's and Aura's movements were smooth as art.
In perfect sync, they drew arrows from the quivers on their backs, nocking, drawing, and aiming in one fluid motion.
As their bowstrings gave off their trembling twang, arrows sliced through the air one after another with sharp whistling sounds, burying themselves in the monsters' weak points in the blink of an eye.
Eye sockets, throats, joints, those arrows were absurdly accurate, every single one of them.
"That's really something."
Leon couldn't help but murmur in admiration.
"Truly the elves' signature specialty. That level of archery is honestly enviable."
The two elf girls hit their marks with near-perfect consistency.
Nothing to be done about it. Racial talent was racial talent. They were born for this line of work.
You could see it just from the baseline potential of their abilities.
Besides boasting the highest Magic affinity among all races, the elves' next-tier innate talents were their natural Agility and Dexterity.
So it only stood to reason they handled precision weapons like bows with such ease.
"Haaa!"
Right then, Jeanne let out a crisp shout!
The Banner Lance in her hand flashed with silver light, cleanly flicking the massive body of a lunging Lion-Tiger into the air!
Before the monster could even hit the ground, the spear tip darted forward, and with a force that could pierce stone and metal, plunged straight into the exposed Magic Stone core in its chest!
"Crack..."
The Magic Stone shattered.
The monster...
Crumbled to dust and vanished.
"..."
Staring at the Magic Stone she'd just blown away, Leon fell into a long silence.
That was a Magic Stone from a monster with Lv. 2 potential! And a fair-sized Lygerfang at that!
With that one thrust, Jeanne had just obliterated a few hundred Valis.
Not a huge sum, but enough to buy dozens of potato puffs or a plate of pasta. It hurt to watch.
"Jeanne, nice work."
"Hm?"
Jeanne paused wiping blood off her Banner Lance, those violet eyes narrowing. "Is there something you want to say?"
She already knew. Leon didn't bother dancing around it.
"The one-shot through the skull is cool, but we don't actually need finishers on these Lygerfangs. They're not pressing us. Could you aim for body shots instead? That way the Magic Stone survives."
The moment the words left his mouth, Leon saw Jeanne's lips curve into a half-smile that wasn't quite a smile, her eyes practically saying, "I knew it."
"Relax, I wasn't planning on making it a regular thing."
"The manual just mentioned this technique is pretty rare, and I got the urge to try it out in the moment."
As she said this, she stepped closer, her breath warm against Leon's ear as she murmured softly:
"If you can't bear to lose the Magic Stone, just say so. It's not like we just met you yesterday. Who doesn't know what goes on in that head of yours?"
"..."
Leon looked over at Laurier and Aura. The two elves were gathering spoils, pretending not to listen, but their shoulders were shaking.
Great. His reputation as a penny-pincher was officially cemented.
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