Chapter 28 - Ch.28 Towards The 18th Floor

The following morning, Aidan once again woke up Ais, who seemed to have taken a liking to sleep with him. It was pretty early in the morning, and Aidan was quite tired from the previous night at the Hostess of Fertility. However, he knew that he would fully wake up after a morning shower.

Taking his shower while Ais took her time to get up, he pushed her in once he got out and started to verify their supplies. He wanted to make sure that they didn't miss anything.​​

He continued to verify everything while Ais got ready, and once the boy confirmed everything, he started to wear his armour, something he quite liked.

Since he had trained with Riviera, he continued working on his magical control by inserting more magic in his card. Especially after the last fight with the man, he understood that having only numerous weak cards wasn't going to work out. As such, after that event, he had started to strengthen three fireballs and five magic arrows. He wanted to make sure to be prepared for the next time something of this kind happened.

Seeing Ais finally ready, Aidan looked at her with a smile. "Good morning, Ais. Now that you are completely awake, we should go." He said with happiness in his eyes that Ais had managed to overcome the previous event in the dungeon.

"Good morning, Aidan." She said, much to his surprise. "Yes, we should go." She continued while a small smile but a smile nonetheless graced her face.

Seeing her smile, Aidan was slightly stunned before he nodded and left the room along with Ais, who somehow kept holding his left hand as he held his sheath in his right. He didn't know why but he had taken a liking to hold his sword over his shoulder.

After a hearty breakfast, the two walked out of the manor and waited at the gate as the previous location agreed with the elf.

"Good morning, you two." She said as she appeared behind them.

"Good morning." Answered Ais, this time without any movement on her face.

"Good morning." Answered Aidan, who, on the contrary, showed a friendly smile on his face.

"Alright, today we will go down the dungeon to the 18th floor. I have a business to deal with, which will take the day once we reach there. Afterwards, I will train the two of you for the next two weeks. We will stay on the 18th floor during the night, and during the day, the two of you will fight on the 8th and 9th floor to train while I supervise you. Finally, a week later, a team of the familia will go down to the 17th floor to fight the Goliath, and you will be watching them." Explained Riviera as she started to walk towards the dungeon entrance.

"To fight on those two floors, don't we need at least E in our abilities?" Asked Aidan as he was sure he had read this somewhere.

"It is mostly due to the high number of monsters on those floors. As long as someone can block most of those monsters, you will be able to have a difficult fight and win. Of course, the two of you will have to work hard to beat them." Explained the elf as they rapidly reached the dungeon entrance.

It was early in the morning, and even the early risers were still asleep. As such, there weren't many adventurers at the entrance. It mainly was the adventurers who had worked during the night. There were a few adventurers who preferred that since there were fewer adventurers for more monsters.

"Alright, the two of you will lead the way until the fifth floor. Afterwards, the two of you will continue to fight the monsters while I show you the way to the next floor. Consider this an early training as I'll see how strong you are." Said Riviera after a few adventurers moved out of their way.

With a nod, they took out their swords and started to run towards the next floor. Currently, the first to fourth floors was too easy for them, and they didn't bother to continue fighting with them. After all, it took less than five seconds to kill a monster on those few floors.

The three of them passed the first floor without encountering any monsters, which was quite lucky since there weren't many adventurers currently to kill them on the passageway to the second floor.

On the second floor, they met a few monsters but still nothing major as they killed a few dungeon lizards on the way along with three kobolds who seemed lost.

On the third floor, the same thing happened. However, the group was unlucky enough to meet a group of goblins and kobolds, which didn't survive after a single weak fireball from Aidan. He didn't continue to hold back his spells against the monsters. After all, they were weak and would be inadequate in the next few floors. As for the future, he would work harder to create more potent spells.

On the fourth floor, Aidan once again killed a group of monsters with a fireball while slashing with his sword the few who still struggled to breathe.

Finally, reaching the stairs to the fifth floor, they looked at Riviera, who would lead them in.

"Alright, let's go." She said as she brought the two youngsters to the new floor of the dungeon. This time, however, the two of them didn't even have time to fight in the dungeon as they met another group of adventurers who seemed to be coming back from the dungeon, and they mainly had killed the monsters on the way. As such, except for a few frog shooters and war shadows, they quickly made it to the sixth floor, much to the disappointment of Ais, who seemed more active than usual.

Following the executive to the sixth floor, they once again met a few monsters which the two had the chance to fight against.

"Alright, Aidan, I want you to fight this war shadow alone with only your sword." Said the elf as she held back Ais, who was preparing to throw herself into the melee.

"Alright." Answered Aidan as he brandished his sword and rushed towards the enemy, who had weirdly long arms and was quite flexible.

As Aidan approached the monster, it immediately attacked with a finger strike which he rapidly blocked with his sword. Surprised, Aidan retreated slightly, which allowed him to dodge the strike of its second arm before slashing it straight at the waist and killing it instantly.

"Alright, Aidan, what do you think of your fight?" Asked Riviera as they restarted to walk towards the next set of stairs once Aidan regulated his breath.

"I think it was pretty good. However, if I had evaded the first strike of the enemy, I would have managed to end the fight directly at the beginning." Answered Aidan as he was aware of the errors he had made.

"Indeed. Next time you fight a monster, make sure to consider all of the monster's physical aspects. Its long arms took you by surprise, which could have been fatal had you not reacted fast enough." Said the elf as she reprimanded Aidan a little.

"I see. I will work harder." Nodded Aidan as he was aware that she wasn't lying as it could indeed have been life-threatening had it not been for the monster being alone.

"Ais, you will fight next. Just like Aidan, you will fight the monster without magic." She said as she looked at the girl who seemed a little too enthusiastic about killing the monsters.

With a nod of her head, she walked in front while looking out for any monsters in the surroundings. And the moment she found her enemy, she directly rushed towards the enemy, much to Aidan's surprise as it was the first time she acted this way.

'Could it have something to do with the last time we came to the dungeon?' Wondered Aidan as he continued to carefully watch Ais's fight as she dodged and pierced the monster a few times before killing it.

After Riviera gave her comments about Ais's fight, Aidan approached her and asked. "Ais, are you alright? You seem slightly different from the last time we came to the dungeon?"

"I'm fine. I just want to become stronger faster." She explained with a smile on her face, which blinded Aidan for a second.

'Is this the same, Ais? How did she change so much? She never smile that much.' He thought as he looked at her smile. However, he didn't let his thoughts show as he didn't mind her new attitude. As such he replied to her. "In that case, that's good. However, remember to be careful, all right?"

"Yes! No problem!" She replied as she walked almost shoulder to shoulder with him while sneaking a few glances his way.