CH 139

I was thinking about resting for a while longer, but we’re going back to the dungeon.

All because Hikari said she wants to go to the dungeon again, even though she never showed much interest in anything besides food.

The reason is pretty obvious. She wants to see the results of her training.

Her control of magic energy went up a notch thanks to the magic energy seeing glasses. Hikari had an interest in magic anyway, so she started working harder than the others. Because of this, and the fact that she has been practicing even before I made the glasses, she was able to get the hang of controlling magic energy pretty quickly.

She can now envelop her knife in magic energy as easily as she breathes, and can also maintain it. Now we just have to see if she can still do it while fighting. If she can do that, I think it’s safe to say she mastered it.

Right now, we’re preparing to explore the dungeon again.

I told everyone to get ready, instead of leaving everything to me. I want to give them a chance to think for themselves and get what they need. I’m sure this will be a good thing going forward.

That said, I’m still the one in charge of meals for the most part.

There’s something else I need to check, if I’m going to the dungeon again. The current position of Rurika and Chris.

I’m going to leave a message before entering the dungeon, but I still need to know how close they are.

I send magic energy to the emitter, and receive a response on the receptor. Map shows me they’re already in the Magic State of Efa.

They’re up north, so in the direction of Mahia?

Hn, the reaction is gone all of a sudden. Did it reach its limit?

They’re closer than I expected. They might very well get here while we’re in the dungeon.

I tell Taliyah that Rurika and Chris might come by asking for Sera, and to let them stay here if we’re still out.

Of course, when we reach the guild I make sure to leave a message again too.

And right after that, we go straight to the dungeon, and I can feel a few eyes on us as we go.

We head to the entrance to the dungeon, request to enter it, register our party, and pick a floor.

This time we’re starting from the sixth floor. Map turns to a map of the cave again, and we advance through the labyrinth.

“Hikari, you’re walking too far. Bring your pace down a little.”

I warn Hikari, and ask Sera to take the reins so to speak.

Hikari’s attentiveness is kind of all over the place now. She should be focusing, but I guess at her age she can’t help but be impulsive. It’s fine on a floor that doesn’t have traps, but if it wasn’t for that, we would have to stop and have a talk about it.

She wasn’t like this when we were traveling together, but thinking back, was she just tense? It kind of feels like she’s loosened up and is acting her age more.

Her elders are just going to have to pick up the slack.

Killer bees appear on this floor, but their characteristic wing noise means we most likely won’t get caught off guard. Superior species of killer bee don’t make noise, and approach their victims like assassins, but I doubt they can make full use of that ability in a cave with such good visibility. I guess they could wait around a corner and attack.

After advancing for a bit, we start hearing those noises.

They’re very noticeable, but the echo makes it hard to tell where they are exactly. This path has many twists and turns, so we can’t see them. We just hear that creepy noise echoing.

We start walking slower and more carefully, and Hikari also switches to her monster hunting mode. The bubbly air around her is gone now, and she’s paying close attention to her surroundings.

After turning a corner, Sera suddenly stops and peeks ahead.

She tells us via hand signals that there are monsters ahead.

Hikari looks at me. She remembers what I said to do in the first monster encounter of this exploration.

First, Sera will jump forward and attract their attention. Then, Mia will fire a Holy Arrow from a distance, and then Hikari will attack. Sera will back them up in the meantime.

Sera gives the signal and jumps out, banging her axes together to purposefully make noise.

The killer bees turn around to face us, and Mia fires an Holy Arrow. I told her before that she doesn’t have to hit, because the targets are so small. What matters is activating her magic well.

Hikari is already approaching the killer bees and calculating how to take them down, but contrary to what we expected, Mia fires three Holy Arrows in a row and takes out all the killer bees.

I guess it’s because her magic is stable, but the time it takes between shots has been shortened by a lot.

Mia is surprised and Hikari looks annoyed, as she puffs her cheeks.

She walks over here with her shoulders drooping. All that excitement is gone.

“You’ll get another opportunity. Mia’s magic was just too good this time. You should compliment her.”

“Yes. That was great, big sister Mia.”

I pat her head, and her mood improves a little.

We keep exploring, but don’t come across any more enemies, because we find the staircase pretty quickly.

The next floor has blood snakes. When I tell that to Hikari, I feel like she gets a little more motivated.