Yuno's wind boat moved automatically to the other side of the tunnel Brian had created. Their group of five arrived at the location of the treasure exactly as Brian had told everyone it would be.
The whole group landed, and Yuno dispelled his wind boat. Klaus and Mimosa's eyes moved between Yuno and Brian as the two of them stepped forward together.
Enormous mana reserves, exceptional ability to use and sense mana, and most importantly of all, the four-leaf clover Grimoire floating right beside Brian. Klaus and Mimosa now understood the reason why Yuno had been so willing to cooperate with Brian so actively and of his own accord.
The sight of two four-leaf clover Grimoires appearing before them at the same time made it impossible for the two of them to look away, and Noelle standing close by was no exception either.
The four-leaf clover was an extraordinarily meaningful symbol in the Clover Kingdom to begin with, and yet now there were two four-leaf clover Grimoires standing right in front of them. Feeling surprised and filled with admiration was simply unavoidable.
Even the captains of the Magic Knight squads across the kingdom, or the Magic Emperor himself, had he been standing in this very spot, would have felt exactly the same emotions as these three were feeling right now.
"This is the room where the treasure is being kept."
Brian stepped forward, paying little attention to the eyes watching him and Yuno from behind. After all, both he and Yuno had long since grown accustomed to looks like these from other people.
"All we need to do is use magic to destroy this door and we can get inside."
Standing before Brian now was the door to the treasure storage room. It looked sturdy at a glance, having been constructed from thick slabs of stone formed by mana, but in truth the door was not sturdy in the least. With nothing more than a sufficiently powerful offensive spell, Brian could easily destroy it without any trouble.
But before doing that, there was something more important Brian still needed to take care of first.
"Earth Creation Magic: Mini Golem!"
Following the rapid flip of his Grimoire floating in the air, a swarm of tiny Golems appeared from beneath the ground where Brian was standing. Their numbers reached into the dozens, and they continued multiplying further in response to the additional mana Brian was pouring in.
Brian could sense everything happening inside the Dungeon, and he naturally knew that he could use his Golems to exert some degree of control over events unfolding within it.
While his group of five had been making their way to the treasure room, Luck and the mages from the Diamond Kingdom had already begun fighting. He could send some of his Golems over to provide support for Luck, avoiding the scenario in which Luck might get himself killed by the Diamond Kingdom's people because of his reckless and battle-hungry nature.
In the original story, Luck had nearly been defeated by the scheming of the mage who used Smoke Magic, and had it not been for the help of Asta and Noelle, he might very well have actually been killed.
With his Golems at hand, Brian was confident that Luck would not run into any serious trouble with a little support sent his way. Sending around a dozen Golems over to where Luck was to help him out would be more than enough.
These Golems were capable of using a handful of simple spells, and with their sheer numbers on top of that, Brian had no concerns about supporting Luck from a distance.
"Off you go..."
At Brian's command, a group of Golems immediately flew off. They already had the map of the Dungeon stored in their minds, so finding Luck was not going to be any difficulty at all.
The matter of Luck was settled. Now it was time for Brian to prepare for something else.
Besides his own group of five currently standing before the door to the treasure room, he was also sensing small vibrations within the Dungeon caused by the footsteps of someone making their way toward this location.
That someone was none other than Mars, one of the members of the Diamond Eight Generals of the Diamond Kingdom, and also the strongest among those who had infiltrated this Dungeon.
The distance between Mars and his group was no longer great. In just a few more minutes, Mars would arrive at their location.
Despite already knowing Mars's true strength and capabilities from the original story, Brian was not arrogant enough to think he could defeat Mars with any ease.
If the two of them were to fight each other, Brian believed he could win against Mars by virtue of knowing his opponent while his opponent knew nothing about him, but even with that advantage, any victory would certainly be a hard-fought one.
Mars was one of the Diamond Eight Generals, among the strongest mages in the Diamond Kingdom. His actual combat strength and battle experience would unquestionably be a notch above Brian's own.
A member of the Diamond Eight Generals was said to be roughly equal in strength to a Magic Knight captain. That statement might no longer hold perfectly true at this point in time, but it still conveyed something meaningful about the true level of the Diamond Eight Generals.
To ensure the best chance of successfully defeating Mars, Brian would do best to cooperate with the others around him.
"Hey, get ready for a fight."
Brian turned and informed the rest of the group. "There's an extremely powerful enemy making their way here. Based on the amount of mana and the strength radiating from it, this person is close to a Magic Knight captain in terms of power."
"What...?"
Hearing that an extremely powerful enemy was closing in on them, the whole group immediately tensed up and focused every bit of their attention into being on guard.
Klaus reacted immediately, his eyes sweeping around the surrounding area, trying to locate the figure Brian had just mentioned. But with Mars actively concealing his own mana, the idea of Klaus pinpointing Mars's location through something as straightforward as that was simply impossible.
"Mimosa...!"
"Yes, leave it to me."
Mimosa understood what Klaus meant without him needing to say more. She immediately cast her spell to search for Mars. With her own spell, Mimosa was capable of detecting enemies far more effectively than Klaus could.
"Plant Creation Magic: Magic Flower Guidepost!"
Several vines wound around each other, and from their tips bloomed a flower radiating light, projecting an image of the entire Dungeon for everyone present to see.
This spell of Mimosa's could be used to survey the terrain, and could also be used to detect the positions of enemies within the detection range of the spell.
Through the projected image, Brian's group of five immediately saw small dots of light scattered across every part of the miniature map of the Dungeon. Apart from the dots representing themselves, there were also smaller dots moving around, and two dots in particular were moving continuously not far from where their group was standing.
"I can't detect any powerful mana source at all..."
Beyond the run-of-the-mill mages from the Diamond Kingdom, Luck, and the enemy currently fighting Luck, Mimosa's spell detected no other mana source anywhere else within the Dungeon.
"That person is actively concealing their own mana. An ordinary spell won't be able to detect them."
Brian spoke up, drawing the attention of the others toward a different direction. "They're approaching from that way. Get ready."
Even though Brian had no concrete proof to show, everyone present trusted his words. Whether it was because they were carrying out an important mission, or because Brian had already demonstrated something of his abilities to Klaus and Mimosa, everyone here had come to acknowledge and take his words seriously.
All five of their Grimoires had opened, ready to launch offensive spells the moment the enemy Brian had mentioned came into sight.
In the tense silence, everyone in the group gradually began to hear the sound of footsteps echoing clearly from the direction Brian had pointed toward. From within the darkened corridor, a figure appeared before the eyes of Brian's group.
A young man with several magic stones embedded in his forehead and chest, his style of dress and the magic stones adorning his body alike, these identifying features told Brian's group at once that this person was from the Diamond Kingdom.
"You detected me...?"
Murmuring that quietly to himself, Mars fixed his gaze on Brian's group as he stepped toward them.
Having already been detected by Brian's group, Mars no longer had any need to continue concealing his own mana. He calmly released the full weight of his enormous mana reserves for the others to sense, and the purpose behind this action was clearly to weaken their will to fight before the battle even began.
"This person's mana..."
Klaus broke into a cold sweat as he felt the overwhelming pressure radiating from Mars's mana. It was not only Klaus; Mimosa and Noelle at this moment both wore expressions that had gone quite pale under the pressure bearing down on them from Mars.
Judging from the sheer volume of mana alone, they could say with certainty that Mars was the most powerfully charged individual Klaus had ever sensed in his entire life. And it was not only the mana itself, but also the killing intent Mars was radiating alongside it. It was abundantly clear that he had every intention of killing all of them.
"Fair warning, he is one of the Eight Shining Generals. So it would be best if all of you brought out 200% of your true strength to deal with him."
Despite being in a rather dangerous situation facing Mars, Brian maintained his composure and kept his voice steady as he warned the others. With the exception of Yuno, who was still relatively calm, everyone else unconsciously swallowed a dry lump in their throat upon hearing about Mars's identity.
In the minds of Klaus, Mimosa, and Noelle, the person standing before them was someone equal in strength to a Magic Knight captain, so the fact that they felt a degree of dread was entirely understandable.
And yet, when one thought about it... who could ever have imagined that the Magic Emperor would give the order, and agree, to send a group of rookies out on an important mission like this one?