Episode 43.4

The room's exist led them into a small room covered in rocks, the other four were already waiting.

Once you get to this point, any one member of the group can warp out of the dungeon. You can also warp to the next floor if all five shafts have been conquered.

"You're late."

Ui looks at Lecan with her usual chilly and sharp gaze.

"Yea, sorry for the wait."

"Julius hasn't been hurt or anything, has he."

"Yes. I'm fine Ui-oneesan."

"Oneesan?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. That's impolite of me."

"No. You're not being impolite. How could you be. There is nothing wrong at all with that calling."

"I'd like to get to the next floor."

"Oho. I see you're full of motivation. Well, shallow floors are well suited for swords after all, so swordsmen would have an easier time taking on chain battles compared to mages here."

The seven joined hands and warped to floor 2.

Afterward, they got through three floors, up to floor 4.

The magic beasts were all ashen-colored <Magic Wolf>, spawning one in each room, but they've been gradually getting bigger and faster.

Julius's movements are still as awkward as ever. Aiming at a wolf's neck proves to be quite a tall order to him.

(Now this is curios.)

(And he moved so well in Dungeon Tsubolt.)

Though when you think about it, the boy had been fighting nothing but <Black Body> even up to Dungeon Tsubolt's depths. Humanoid magic beasts carrying weapons. Julius could afford to unleash his full power against such foes.

But not so against wolf-type. Their biting fangs look frightening up close. Fighting against that fearsome attacks while trying to slash at their necks with your sword is a whole different level of difficult than fighting humans.

Lecan himself majorly dealt with animal-type magic beasts when he first started out dungeon diving. He had a hard time against insect and plant types as well. It's not until he began diving in large scale dungeons that he faced his first humans and humanoid magic beasts. Hence he doesn't think much of wolf-type beasts as tough opponents.

"<Recovery>."

"Thank you very much, master."

"Splendidly done."

"Thank you."

"How you parried the <Magic Wolf>'s right leg attack with your sword to then proceed to slashing at its neck was especially well done."

"Yes."

"However, the way you swing your sword when you went for the neck lacked sharpness."

"Ah."

"Your father never lets up with the sharpness of his slashes no matter what enemy he's facing. It's one thing if your fighting style is like me, brute forcing sword swings akin to striking, but if you aim to cut your foes with skills, you must not forget to focus on your slashes."

Due to the shallowness of Julius's slash, he failed to kill off the beast with that hit and suffered a counterattack.

"Y-yes."

"Hm. How you did not falter even after the claw cut your right cheek and proceeded to finish it off was splendid."

"Yes."

Lecan ended up showing his <Recovery> to the elderly mage, Jiza, but he had already anticipated this would happen beforehand. Showing off that much of his ability is no big deal.

"In a fight, don't forget to fear against the weak, don't falter against the strong."

"Don't forget to fear against the weak, don't falter against the strong."

"Indeed."

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"I understand master."

Jiza watched over the two while being all smiles.

Afterward they met up with other members and had lunch together.

Ui and the other mages were astonished when Lecan started taking out firewood from <Storage> and ignited them with <Ignition> magic, though in the end they all sit around the camp fire.

Surprisingly enough, Ui and the mages had <Free Box> on them.

Though the same could be said to them.

"Who could have thought Lecan-dono and Julius-dono also have <Free Box> on you. Even at Palcimo, only senior members of the Magic Knights and Magic Research Institute have them. I believe only a handful of them have been sold outside. No forget it, that's not my place to say."

Lecan handed the <Free Box> he got from the courtship duel to Eda, but Eda lent it to Julius, thinking it would come in handy for him in the dungeon exploration.

Lecan doesn't actually have a <Free Box>. Ui came to believe that on her own after watching Lecan taking out things after things by putting his hands inside his chest pocket.

"Julius. Want a bite of this boiled food?"

"Yes. Ui-oneesan."

"Julius-kun. This fruit is pretty tasty too."

"Thank you, Miru-oneesan."

"You must give this snack a try."

"Please have it for yourself Fuan-oneesan."

"Dango, sweet."

"I can't accept it when Kimu-oneesan likes it so much."

"Here, the soup is warm already, I'll get it for you."

"Thank you, Miru-oneesan. Ah, please leave some for master too."

The one who brought out the pot and warmed the soup was Lecan and they were all free to scoop for themselves, but the women were all eager to spoil Julius.

"But still, I can't believe we're having warm soup over a campfire inside a dungeon. Lecan-dono, you're quite odd."

"Yeah? Where I come, campfire is a given when camping no matter if you're in a dungeon or a forest."

"That's only applicable to dungeons where you can fetch materials to make a campfire. Hm? Julius, there's blood."

"Eh."

"What."

"My goodness."

Blood from the cheek wound Julius suffered earlier had spilled onto his shoulder and chest. Ui noticed that.

"Ah. It's okay. It was just a scratch."

"Where. Where are you hurt?"

"It's on my right cheek."

"Let me have a look. No wound mark... huh. I see you have Red Potions on you nicely. Ah, there's blood here and there too."

"Oh those are magic beasts' blood. It spilled on me."

"Lecan-dono. You're making Julius fight."

"Of course. Rather, I haven't fought once thus far."

"What!"

Ui frowned as she glared at Lecan. The other mages also sent a harsh glance.

"Lecan-dono. If you don't mind, would you let Julius go with me from here on? I'm sure you alone can explore these shallow floors. And you have Obaba-sama with you too."

"No."

"Why do you refuse."

"Looking after Julius's training is one of my goals. I don't believe you can handle that."

"However."

"Ui."

Jiza who had been staying silent while working on her meal called out the magic knight's name. Ui turned a meaningful look at Jiza's face but then she sighed out loud and apologized to Lecan.

"Pardon me, Lecan-dono. I said too much."

"Yea."