"Lightning, burst!"
In the green forest, as a silver-white blade light flashed, purple lightning mercilessly streaked through space. The goblins in front of her screamed and turned into black particles, dissipating into the air, leaving only a magic stone on the ground.
Letting out a long breath and returning her sword to its sheath, Mei had just bent down to pick up the fallen magic stone when a girl with moon-white hair pounced onto her back and wrapped her arms around Mei's neck.
"Mei, you're so amazing! Have you mastered the power of the Herrscher Core so quickly?"
Kiana pounced onto Mei's back, looking like she wouldn't get off.
"Not yet, I can only use a little of the Herrscher's power."
Mei didn't object to Kiana hanging on her, but others did.
"Idiot Kiana, get off Mei now, or I'll poke your butt."
Bronya poked Kiana's butt with a short sword from behind Kiana.
"You're already poking it!"
Meanwhile, the other Raiden floated in the air like a queen on a throne, appearing before the group: "Coward, you're too slow to master it. Even if there's no Honkai Energy in this world, you've only mastered less than one percent of the core's power."
"As for you…"
Raiden's words shifted, and she poked Kiana's forehead: "You still haven't mastered that guy Void's power. Do you even count as a Herrscher like that?"
"What the heck! Do you think I want to be this Herrscher?"
Kiana said, feeling quite indignant at Raiden's accusation.
"Then if you don't want it, give it to Mei. That Sirin was once a multi-core Herrscher, so we can naturally do it too."
Hearing Raiden start to provoke her, Mei quickly interjected: "Kiana, Raiden, don't argue. A Herrscher Core isn't something you can just discard, is it?"
Hearing Mei's words, Kiana remembered that if a Herrscher Core was lost, the holder would very likely die, but Raiden snorted.
"Coward, have you forgotten? Takatsuki, that human, doesn't he have a method to directly extract power?"
Raiden and Mei's memories are one-sidedly shared, so Raiden has all of Mei's memories and naturally knows the power Takatsuki once displayed.
After Raiden mentioned it, Mei remembered that Takatsuki indeed had an ability called Love Train. However, remembering that experience, Mei subconsciously blushed.
"Oh my, coward, you're blushing. Could it be that at that time…"
Raiden's words were cut off by a blushing Mei covering her mouth.
"At that time? At that time what?"
Kiana looked at Mei strangely, and Mei just said with an embarrassed smile: "Nothing, nothing."
Only Bronya stood by, looking unhappy, and then poked Kiana's butt again with the short sword in her hand.
"Ah! What are you doing! Shorty!"
Fu Hua, carrying a large bag, walked over from a short distance away. She placed both hands on Kiana and Bronya's heads, successfully separating them, and then said: "It's already noon. Let's eat something and rest."
"Okay, Class Monitor."
Fu Hua wanted to say that they didn't need to call her Class Monitor, but she still didn't say it. After all, it was just a title.
She put down the large bag. When Takatsuki wasn't around, all supplies could only be carried by backpack, so she had to take on the role of supporter. It wasn't that everyone was making things difficult for her, but Fu Hua felt that others needed more training than herself.
Not to mention Fu Hua herself had the strength of an A-rank Valkyrie, her unique skills alone allowed her to continuously increase her ability values.
"I wonder how Takatsuki is doing. We haven't heard from him in several days, even though we've already descended to the 22nd floor."
The 22nd floor was still within the range of the Large Tree Labryinth. After Takatsuki lost contact with the surface again due to exceeding the range of his Nen some time ago, Kiana thought that since Takatsuki couldn't contact the surface, they should just go underground.
Unfortunately, they had no way to contact Takatsuki, and Takatsuki hadn't tried to contact the surface via Nen later either. After all, this wasn't some automatic sensing device that would automatically notify Takatsuki that the other party had entered the "signal range."
"Don't worry, the Loki Familia also went on an expedition some time ago. At Takatsuki's speed, he might even meet them."
After neatly spreading the picnic cloth on the ground, Fu Hua took out the sandwiches and other food containers prepared that morning from the lunchbox in her bag and placed them one by one on the picnic cloth.
"Besides, he's a sensible person; nothing will go wrong."
"Compared to Takatsuki, I'm more worried about that child, Bell."
After setting everything up, Fu Hua looked at the others around her: "Bell seems to have found a teammate recently. Do any of you know anything about it?"
Mei and Kiana both shook their heads, but Bronya raised her hand.
"Bronya saw Bell walking with a little Pallum girl. She should be his supporter, but that girl's reputation doesn't seem very good."
"Not very good? What kind of reputation?"
Although she had only known Bell for a few days, as a fellow member of the Hestia Familia, Fu Hua already felt like she was back at St. Freya Academy, wanting to take care of her junior.
"I'm not exactly sure, but that girl is from the Soma Familia, and the Soma Familia is notorious in Orario for being greedy for money."
"Soma Familia? I haven't heard that name before."
Kiana couldn't recall any related information after hearing the name. Bronya looked at Kiana with disdain and said: "Idiot Kiana only knows how to eat and sleep all day, of course you wouldn't know."
"Ah ah ah! Shorty, you called me an idiot again! I just arrived in Orario, how would I know?"
Bronya didn't say anything about Kiana's words, but Fu Hua coughed beside them: "Soma is the god of wine in Indian mythology, but I'm not very familiar with his image in this world."
Bronya nodded, affirming Fu Hua's words: "Yes, the Soma Familia also primarily sells alcohol, but their adventurers seem to be extremely greedy for money. They often cause trouble over the acquisition price of Dungeon materials, and it's said that there have been cases of them harming members of other Familia in the Dungeon."
"That's true. Then, regarding the Soma Familia, Bronya, could I trouble you to investigate? If the person Bell knows is like that, it's better to resolve it sooner rather than later."
Bronya nodded: "Bronya understands. I've also been inquiring about the Soma Familia recently, but there's no internet in this world, so it will take some time."
Just as the group was enjoying their food, suddenly, a familiar passage opened beside Mei.
Mei had just put a sandwich in her mouth when she saw the passage and immediately cried out in surprise: "Takatsuki!"