Dungeon, 27th Floor.
The sounds of intense battle rang out continuously.
Accompanied by an unwilling roar, Lynn reappeared at the edge of the waterfall pool.
"Phew~ As expected of a Labyrinth King, its strength is even greater than I imagined."
"If the corner of your clothes had even a drop of water on it, I might actually believe you."
Tiona's retort came from behind.
Swimming all the way to the edge of the waterfall pool, the Amazon girl crawled out looking like a drowned rat.
"Seriously, if I'd known it would turn out like this, I would've let Tione go first."
"With your personality, you would've fallen into the water regardless of when you went in; there's no difference."
Tione jumped over from the ice surface.
Compared to the disheveled Tiona, she looked much better, only stained with a bit of blood.
"Aiz, how do you feel?"
After tidying his somewhat messy hair, Lynn looked toward Aiz, who had returned right behind them.
Since he wasn't lacking in deeds, he didn't actually need to fight the Labyrinth King.
The main reason he attacked Amphisbaena was to train Aiz, letting her maintain Ripple during high-intensity combat.
"I've grasped some patterns."
Facing Lynn's question, Aiz, who was still wearing high-heeled shoes, thought for a moment before replying.
Even with only one head left, Amphisbaena's pressure was still very strong.
Combined with fighting in the water, she had indeed gained a lot of practice throughout the battle.
If there was any shortcoming, it was that the battle was too short.
Because of Lynn's powerful performance, Amphisbaena was suppressed with almost no room to act, and the rest of the fight was just a beatdown.
"Don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities."
Seemingly seeing through Aiz's thoughts, Lynn pointed at the ground beneath his feet.
"This battle was just for you to adapt; our next destination is the main course."
Hearing this, Tiona nearby asked curiously, "Where are you going next? You aren't taking us to deal with Udaeus, are you?"
Lynn shook his head: "Udaeus's respawn time is still a while away, so we won't make it for this expedition. We'll talk about it next time."
"Wait... wait a minute!" Lefiya, who was eavesdropping nearby, couldn't help but join the discussion. "Amphisbaena is one thing, but Udaeus is definitely over the top no matter how you look at it!"
If Amphisbaena only reached Level 6 danger levels by relying on terrain advantage.
Then as the Floor Boss of the 37th floor, Udaeus's basic abilities alone were comparable to Level 6.
Combined with the Floor Boss's special abilities, even a Level 6 could potentially be injured while fighting it.
"If you want to deal with Udaeus, I think it's better to report to Captain Finn and the others and have a Level 6 lead the team."
Lynn flatly rejected the idea:
"The effect wouldn't be as good with a Level 6 leading. We're here to train and farm deeds, not for a tour."
"And you don't need to worry that much. Once I break through to Level 3, I'll be able to hold back Udaeus head-on. If we're lucky, I might even reach Level 4 by the next expedition, making the fight even easier."
Tiona nodded in agreement:
"That's right, and when that time comes, Lefiya, you can just hide in the back and cast some magic like this time."
Lefiya: "..."
Wait! That's not the point!
If she remembered correctly, Lynn had only broken through to Level 2 a few days ago.
Just how lucky would one have to be to break through to Level 4 in such a short period of time!
Lefiya looked at Lynn for two seconds, hesitating to speak, but finally dismissed his words as a joke and didn't think about it further.
On the other side, after wringing the water out of the hem of her skirt, Tiona brought the topic back:
"Since the next goal isn't Udaeus, where do you plan to take Aiz for training?"
"37th Floor, the Arena."
"The Arena?"
Tiona tilted her head.
She had some impression of that name.
"Are you referring to that place where monsters respawn infinitely?"
"Yes."
"That's a bit too dangerous."
Tione nearby frowned, her expression turning serious.
The Arena was a special area in the Dungeon where monsters would respawn infinitely.
This wasn't an exaggerated description; it was literal infinite respawning.
With a certain number as the upper limit, once the monsters inside are defeated, the Arena will immediately spawn new monsters as supplements.
As a deep-level area, most of the monsters on the 37th Floor are LV4.
Fighting in the Arena is equivalent to facing an endless siege of LV4 monsters.
To some extent, it's an area even more dangerous than a Labyrinth King.
Under normal circumstances, even a First Class Adventurer party wouldn't go near it.
Tione: "If it's just for training, I don't think it's necessary to go to the Arena."
"If it really doesn't work out, we could go to deeper floors or find rare monsters to fight."
Lynn shaking his head: "Ripple requires maintaining composure under any circumstances; ordinary battles cannot satisfy the training requirements."
As an LV5 Adventurer, the benefit of Aiz's high starting point is that she learns Ripple quickly enough.
But correspondingly, it's not that simple to gain enough of a sense of pressure in battle.
If he wanted her to graduate, the Arena could be said to be the best choice at the moment.
Furthermore, he also needed a large number of battles to grind his ability values.
Compared to running around looking for monsters, going directly to the Arena is more efficient.
"Aiz, what do you think?"
Seeing that Lynn's mind was made up, Tione thought for a moment and looked toward the Blonde Girl beside her.
"I want to go."
Aiz replied without a moment's hesitation.
After a day of fighting, she had already begun to experience the benefits of Ripple.
To become stronger and kill the Black Dragon, she had to learn this Breathing Technique.
"Let's go, we're heading to the 37th Floor."
...
Orario, Night Quarter.
At the same time Lynn and the others were exploring the Dungeon.
Wearing a borrowed Invisibility Helmet, Ryuu successfully infiltrated the Ishtar Familia.
"Not here either."
Ryuu walked out of the room somewhat awkwardly.
It was still early; the Amazon Girls, who had worked all night, had just seen off their guests.
Occasionally, when she slipped into a room, she would even see some indescribable 'cream bread.'
As a conservative Elf, the impact of these images was a bit too much.
Maybe she should have Lynn send someone else.
Standing in the empty corridor, Ryuu rarely had the thought of giving up on the mission.
But just then, the sound of footsteps came from not far away.
Ryuu turned her head to look, her gaze meeting that of an approaching Amazon.
"Hmm?"
Aisha paused in her tracks.
Staring at the empty space beside her for two seconds, she suddenly reached out and struck forward.
A crisp sound of breaking air rang out, and the heavy blow stopped in front of the wall.
"...An illusion?"
Aisha felt around the surroundings once more.
After finding nothing, she treated the sensation of being peeked at as a hallucination from a hard night's work and continued walking forward.
Ryuu: "..."
With her hands and feet pressed against the ceiling, Ryuu breathed a sigh of relief after watching the other party leave.
That was careless.
Because things had gone too smoothly before, she almost forgot that this was the headquarters of the Ishtar Familia.
Adjusting her mindset, she jumped down from the ceiling and looked in the direction Aisha had left.
That Amazon... seemed to be an executive of the Ishtar Familia, Aisha Belka.
According to Lynn, she had a good relationship with the mission target, Sanjono Haruhime.
"This might be a good opportunity."
After a little thought, Ryuu walked in the direction Aisha had left.
...