CH 155

“First of all, it’s great that you made it here safely. But about tomorrow? Are the three of you going to join us, Fred?”

I ask, just to check again.

If they’re going to fight alongside us, we need to decide some things beforehand. I don’t think we’re going to be well coordinated, and there’s really nothing we can do about that, but we still need to agree on basic things like formation, or we won’t be able to react in time if anything happens.

Fred and the others say they also want to fight. As a result, Fred, Gown, and Rurika will be in front, with me and the three mages in the middle. Hikari and Sera are going to be behind us, partially to watch out for any sneak attacks from the back.

We get going, and manage to go through the sixth and seventh floors without any issues.

We move forward carefully while searching for enemies, with Rurika taking the lead. Fred and Gown ask her questions from time to time, and she points things out to them too.

Rurika is walking in front with them, but she’s more of a scout, and I think Gown has realized he can learn from her. I see him throwing her a lot of questions, even though he usually doesn’t talk much.

Edel looks pretty surprised by that.

“She’s making him talk so much.”

He whispers.

“There are wolf packs on the eighth floor, right?”

Rurika asks Fred and Gown before we go down to the eighth floor.

“Yes. And it can be annoying because they call their friends if they’re not taken down quickly.”

“So should we try to fight in the middle of passages instead of crossroads?”

“Why? Shouldn’t we stay where they appear and fight them there?”

“Hn… If there’s no other way, and we can position ourselves well, yes. But fighting in crossroads means we could be attacked from all sides. If we fight in the middle of passages, we just have to watch out for the front and back, and that puts less pressure on us.”

“Hm, you have a point.”

“But wouldn’t it be better if we had somewhere to retreat to?”

“That would make us feel safer, but what if it leads to a dead end? Although that would mean we’d only have to worry about one direction.”

“So it depends on our forces?”

“We have five people that can go in front, six if we count Sora. If we’re attacked from multiple directions, we’re probably going to be shorthanded.

And since this will be our first time fighting a pack of wolves, I think we should fight in a passage and see how it goes. Let’s see if we can coordinate well with each other.”

It sounds like that’s settled.

We go down to the eighth floor, and just like before, we start hearing wolf growls echoing from the front. We make sure to stop when we reach crossroads to check ahead, and advance slowly.

Our first encounter comes as we advance through a passage. A pack of wolves jumps out from the front, and comes running.

“Edel and Chris, go for it.”

Says Fred, and Edel and Chris fire magic.

This narrow passage means magic travels well.

“Sera, please watch our backs. Tell us if you see anything.”

The monsters that manage to slip through the magic come to attack.

Fred and Gown stand next to each other in front, and Rurika sometimes goes out in front of them to do hit-and-run attacks on the wolves.

If the three of them stand together, they might hurt each other in this narrow place.

With this position, even the mages in the back can deal with the wolves that slip through, unless there are a lot of them.

This pack had twelve wolves, but the preemptive magic attack took down half of them. That means we are more than capable of handling what’s left without even a single one getting past the front line.

“It’s pretty easy when you reduce their numbers with magic.”

“But we shouldn’t depend on that too much, because firing magic consecutively is going to exhaust their magic energy. Being able to use it at critical times makes all the difference.”

“That’s right. Next time, let’s see if we can deal with them without magic. But just the fact that we have more than one mage with us makes this pretty easy.”

It looks like it went well between them, and they’re discussing their issues right away. That’s a nice attitude, but we need to start collecting the corpses. I guess that’s my job.

Of the six wolves defeated with magic, four were hit with fire magic and had their fur burned, meaning it can’t be used. The other two were taken down with wind magic, so there aren’t any issues. Fire magic is powerful, but also destructive, and makes it harder to collect materials.

I ask Mia to collect magic stones. I feel like she’s gotten better at that than me, apparently because Hikari taught her.

Most of the wolves taken down by Rurika and the others were defeated in a single slash, so their materials are in great condition.

But it’d be hard to take them apart here, so I collect everything.

“It’s incredible how much can fit in your item bag, Sora.”

I’ve been using an item bag to disguise the fact that I’m putting things in my Item Box.

“Parties that don’t have item bags don’t waste time taking monsters apart here. And taking basic magic stones and proof of defeat isn’t worth the effort, so people tend to avoid that.”

Says Fred, but that probably plays a part in them not getting real combat experience.

I’ve heard them talk about going from the fifth floor to the tenth floor, but most people just travel straight to the tenth floor. It’s not like treasure chests appear every single time, but if there’s a chance to make a lot of money easily, it’s guaranteed that most people will take it. It’s good business too.

Goblin kings are supposed to be strong, right? But the goblins that come with it don’t have any materials to collect, so people can take them down without worrying about it.

But it’s not like most parties can afford to care about materials when taking down the monsters that accompany bosses anyway.

It takes us a couple of days to get through the eighth floor, and we end up avoiding fighting in crossroads, and trying to fight in passages.

We use magic as a preemptive attack sparingly, and mostly take down monsters with physical attacks. We only use magic when we are attacked from two sides, or when we take too long to defeat a pack and more wolves show up.

By the time we find the staircase, everyone’s tired, so we need to take it easy and rest.

“The four of you got through this place before?”

Is Fred being reminded of this floor’s difficulty because he hasn’t been here in a long time? He’s looking at me like that’s unbelievable.

Last time, when monsters attacked us from two sides, I used magic to burn the whole passage.

I don’t want to say that though, so I try to pass it off by vaguely smiling back.