"Why did so many Minotaurs show up all at once?" Ryoji looked at the more than twenty Minotaurs in front of him and couldn't help but grumble internally.
'Good grief, could you guys have picked a worse time to be born? Spawning right when a whole group of Level 5s is walking by? That's basically asking to die, like a birthday boy chugging poison, or bringing a lantern into the toilet.'
"It's a Monster Feast. A rare event. Sometimes the Dungeon just spawns a large number of monsters all at once." Riveria casually explained with a hum, unconcerned.
So that's how it is.
Like a rare chance of having twins when rolling the dice, except this time, the Dungeon gave birth to way too many at once.
"Wipe them out!"
"Yeah!"
Finn didn't even bother giving detailed orders, just let everyone move freely.
Tiona stepped forward with a radiant smile and, without missing a beat, high-kicked the head of the first Minotaur, smashing it to pieces without even glancing back.
The Minotaurs' faces perfectly captured what it meant to be stricken with utter terror. Then, without hesitation, they turned and ran.
"Aren't you guys supposed to be monsters? Why are you running?" Tiona pouted, clearly annoyed.
The more than twenty Minotaurs ran like a panicked herd being chased by a shepherd's whip, totally lacking the aura of terrifying beasts that even Level 2 adventurers would normally fear.
"Chase them down!" Finn's expression suddenly tightened.
"They're headed toward the upper floors! We can't let them hurt other adventurers!"
"Oh right! Don't run!" Tiona immediately snapped back to her senses and took off at full speed.
"Tch, can't believe trouble shows up even this late in the game." Bete shot Ryoji a glare, like saying we'll settle this later, then chased after them too.
Finn, Ais, Tione, all of them rushed up in pursuit.
"I'll go too." Ryoji stepped forward. "My intuition is especially good when it comes to tracking."
"…Very well." Riveria had originally intended to say there was no need, but after hearing that, she reconsidered.
After all, she needed to stay behind. There were others in the party, like Line the priestess, carrying precious loot on their backs. At least one executive had to stay to protect them.
Riveria, having seen Ryoji go toe-to-toe with Level 4 monsters before, wasn't especially worried about his safety.
Ais silently chased down the fleeing Minotaurs.
"Seen any Minotaurs?"
She had been sprinting nonstop from the middle floors, asking everyone she passed. By now, she had already slain seven of them.
"There were two more, they headed to the upper floors!"
Ais gave a nod, then kicked off the ground. Like a raging wind, she surged ahead, wordless, racing upward.
At the 9th Floor, she finally caught up to and killed another Minotaur, then continued climbing.
Middle-floor monsters, making it this far up into the Dungeon? That was definitely not normal.
'I hope no one's been hurt…' Ais silently prayed.
If anyone was injured, or worse, killed, because of these Minotaurs, she would never forgive herself.
7th Floor.
This was the domain of rookies, adventurers who had only joined a few months ago. The dungeon layout here was much more level and regular. The maze's scale had dramatically shrunk, and the corridors were no wider than a public plaza.
"Waaaahhh, !"
A blood-curdling scream echoed from one of the passages ahead.
Ais's eyes sharpened. She instantly changed direction.
In a dead-end corridor, she finally spotted the last Minotaur, and deep in that same corridor, the faint outline of a young adventurer, trembling in fear.
"Shhlack!"
Without hesitation, Ais charged forward, Desperate in hand. Like a hot knife through butter, she sliced into the Minotaur's body, leaving a storm of sword marks in her wake.
"Graaah…!"
The Minotaur let out a guttural, rough sound from its throat. Shortly afterward, all the color drained from its body as it instantly turned pale, and then its entire figure shattered into black smoke and vanished into thin air.
"...Are you alright?" Ais sheathed her sword and stepped forward.
In the corner of the dead-end passage sat a boy who looked to be no more than fourteen or fifteen years old.
He seemed about the same age as Ryoji.
'Ryoji was also fifteen, but much taller than this kid.'
Ais thought to herself.
The boy was covered in blood and looked completely stunned, eyes wide and unblinking like he'd been scared out of his wits. It wasn't clear whether he was injured.
"--Woah, Waaah!"
Just as Ais kindly approached him,
The boy, who had seemed petrified and helpless a second ago, suddenly let out a sharp scream and bolted past Ais like a frightened rabbit, disappearing without a trace.
"..."
Ais stood there frozen, not knowing what to say.
"Huff... Huff! Ais... You, slow down a bit... geez!"
After a while, another boy came running up, panting heavily and dripping with sweat from his forehead.
Cha!
I got careless!
He'd been so focused on tracking the monsters with his intuition that he forgot the fact that Level 5s could run ten times faster than him. Even at full sprint, he'd only caught glimpses of their distant backs.
Ais turned to him, silent.
Her eyelids drooped slightly.
"What happened? You look upset." Ryoji instantly picked up on her downcast mood.
'So easy to read.'
"...I just saved an adventurer from a Minotaur, but... he screamed and ran away." Ais lifted her head, looking at Ryoji with confused eyes.
"Am I scary?"
Huh?
Saved an adventurer from a Minotaur, and he still screamed and ran?
Why does this sound so familiar…?
Sigh, plot development or not, what does that have to do with me?
"Who said that? I'll smash his dog head in!" Ryoji, full of righteous fury, reached out and gave Ais's golden hair a rough rub.
"Our Ais is so cute! Anyone who says otherwise is just lying through their teeth. I'm not letting that slide!"
"...Mhm."
Ais couldn't help but lower her head.
She felt the warmth rising rapidly to her cheeks, making her feel a bit flustered. Her heartbeat started to accelerate uncontrollably.
Getting head-patted by Ryoji felt completely different from when Riveria did it. She didn't know why... but she didn't dislike it.
"Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
"Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
At some point, the black-haired Amazoness and the white-haired wolfman had arrived behind them, both glaring daggers.
"Damn it!"
The two cursed in unison.
Tiona wore an expression of pure grief; she felt like her best friend was stealing the guy she liked.
Bete looked straight-up murderous. He seemed just about ready to kill someone.
…
Guild Headquarters.
"Miss Eina! Please tell me everything about Sword Princess Ais!"
A blood-soaked young adventurer burst into the Guild hall, looking at his advisor with eyes full of stars.
"Bell, what happened to you?!"
The popular half-elf advisor Eina quickly began tending to Bell's injuries.
"Sword Princess Ais, huh? She's a first-class Level 5 adventurer, super popular in all of Orario. Whether she has a boyfriend, though... I'm not sure. But... lately, their Familia's had a very hot-topic rookie."
Eina flipped through a report on Ais and the rookie with a slightly helpless expression.
"The legendary strongest rookie, you've probably heard the rumors, right? He leveled up from 1 to 2 in just twenty days, officially recognized by Chief God Loki. Almost no one doubts it. And supposedly, his beauty is so radiant that it puts even the gods to shame. If you're aiming for Miss Ais... I'd say it's going to be really tough!"
(End of Chapter)
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