Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Although it was only for a moment, the "Seventh Squad" did indeed put Lefia's teachings into practice, making the most correct choice and successfully causing the floor owner to suffer a hidden loss.

However──

They are ultimately students with insufficient "experience".

"Oooooo ...

"────"

A "fanged lion-tiger" launched a surprise attack from behind the boy who was responsible for bringing up the rear.

"Cole!?"

Cole hurriedly turned his head to look, but was bitten on the gauntlet by the monster and knocked to the ground. Nano and Mililia, who were about to rush into the connecting passage, stopped in their tracks.

Hearing the girls' screams, Cole desperately resisted the monster that was about to bite him with brute force.

(They actually caught up with it!? Only one!? They were so far away just now! What on earth is going on!?)

The evidence is that the large number of monsters chasing behind are still far away.

A bewildered Cole finally noticed.

The gripping gauntlet made a gradually deforming sound, demonstrating an astonishing bite force that seemed intent on severing its own arm.

The monster's fur stood up like a mountain of swords, and its eyes were filled with a mad, completely irrational look.

The flesh and blood stuck to the corners of their mouths, and the shimmering "blue-purple crystals".

("Enhanced Species" --!!)

While Cole was deeply shocked, he quickly came to understand the whole situation.

The monsters we encountered earlier—

After Cole and his team won, they simply ignored it.

The Seventh Squad was too exhausted to properly handle the "magic stones" inside the corpses.

"—Damn it!!"

Cole continued to resist, and couldn't help but curse himself.

Because Cole and the others did not dispose of the monster's corpse, the "Fanged Lion-Tiger" ate a large amount of "magic stones" from its own kind. Then, using its enhanced potential, it successfully caught Cole, who was at the back of the group.

Excessive physical exertion and immense mental stress caused them to completely forget about postwar management.

Mistakes made under extreme circumstances.

It was a trivial mistake that shouldn't have been mentioned.

However, it caused a "fatal" result in the dungeon, just as the name suggests.

Cole couldn't help but curse himself inwardly for his oversight.

Senior Sister Mingming (Lefia) had repeatedly told me, "No matter what, you must at least clean up the magic stone!"

“Hmm!?”

Mililia, who had turned back, shot an arrow that pierced the temple of the "Fanged Lion Tiger".

Seeing that the monster had not yet fallen, Nano swung her staff and finally killed it.

The battle ended in the blink of an eye.

Nano and the others who rushed to the rescue quickly helped Cole up, but it was too late.

"Ooh o ...

Whether intentionally or not, Goliath, flailing its arms in agony, suddenly fell backward—crashing into the wall connecting the passageway.

"Ugh, ugh ...

The fierce-looking male adventurer was stunned for a moment, then screamed as the huge black shadow gradually descended, and hurriedly fled into the connecting passage.

With a deafening roar, the wall at the deepest part of the great chamber was smashed to pieces in the next instant.

"...No, no way..."

Amid the aftershocks of the shattering sound and the vibrations, Nano murmured to herself.

When the giant slowly stood up, all that remained before him was the mangled connecting passageway. The only entrance to the lower level was completely deformed, and even the interior of the passageway had collapsed, with fallen rocks blocking the surrounding area.

The labyrinth walls seemed unable to withstand the giant's weight and collapsed.

Having lost her last chance of survival, Nano's legs gave way and she collapsed to her knees.

Cole and Miria, who had forgotten to breathe, had expressions of despair on their faces.

"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh..."

Goliath, having regained his sight, stood up and looked down at the poor students.

A large number of monsters also caught up with them.

Ahead lay terrifying giants, behind lay countless monsters.

Faced with this seemingly inescapable encirclement, Nano and the others felt as if they heard the sound of their inner pillars snapping.

As Goliath approached with the rumbling of the earth, the monsters' encirclement continued to shrink.

The merciless monsters are about to brutally tear the students apart, body and soul.

"[Volley of Fire Javelin]!"

Just then—

The magic bullets transformed into a torrential downpour more ferocious than the monsters, pelting down inside the cavern.

"~ ...

Countless rockets pierced the monsters' backs, detonated, and burned them to a crisp.

The overwhelming firepower forced Goliath to halt in his tracks. In an instant, cries of agony rose and fell, and the students who had been standing frozen in place quickly looked back.

A boy wielding a longsword and an elf extending a short staff forward were seen—

I stood at the entrance to the large cave in the distance.

"Luke~~ Lefia-senpai~ ...

While Mililia and Cole were both stunned, Nano burst into tears first.

*

Caught up.

After confirming that none of Nano and the others were missing, Lefia quickly rushed out.

"Luke, go heal Nano and the others! It doesn't matter if you run out of supplies!"

"knew!"

The distance between Lv.4 and Lv.3 was eliminated in an instant.

Lefia abandoned Luke, who was walking alongside her, and continued to accelerate, slashing at the monsters who were thrown into disarray by the sneak attack.

"drink!"

"quack!?"

With her short sword, "Tears of Ash," she cleaved the Minotaur in two. Then, she leaped high into the air, gracefully dismembering the Unicorn Rabbits as she danced through the air. Facing the fanged lion-tiger, which charged at her with a howl of agony and its body ablaze, she mercilessly kicked its neck, snapping it in two.

Despite being seen as a thorn in the side by the monsters that survived the barrage of fireballs, Lefia still managed to wreak havoc with her Lv.4 stats.

"Mi Li, this is a miraculous medicine! Drink it quickly!"

"...Okay, okay!"

"Nano, stop crying! Get up quickly!"

"Luke!"

While Lefia draws the enemy's attention, Luke quickly breaks through part of the monsters' encirclement and reunites with his team members.

Luke's face was visibly injured, and his armor was damaged in several places.

Presumably, after hearing Goliath's roar, the two fought their way through the 17th floor without regard for anything else. Mililia, having received the elixir, had tears welling in her eyes, while Nano wiped her tear-stained face with her arm.

"Luke..."

"What? Cole, you've become so manly after just a short separation!"

Looking at the blood-stained bandage on the werewolf boy's head, Luke raised the corners of his mouth.

Cole paused for a moment, then smiled back and poured the elixir over his head.

To protect his injured companions, Luke, his smile gone, unleashed a furious sword strike, slaying the approaching monsters.

(Although the medicines available at hand are not enough to fully recover Nano and the others, Luke can handle things on his own for the time being.)

Lefia glanced at Luke and the others out of the corner of her eye and calmly analyzed the battle situation.

There are a total of fifteen minions (monsters) around, plus one floor master.

Putting aside the original poster, Lefia is now capable of quickly dealing with the remaining enemies.

(It has been watching me all along.)

Goliath did not launch an attack immediately, but instead stared intently at Lefia.

They initially thought it was spying on Lefia and the others like a newly enlightened "infant," but it suddenly puffed out its thick chest and roared loudly.

"Ooh o ...

The piercing roar, so loud it made you want to cover your ears, echoed throughout every corner of the maze.

This was the "summoning" that had just put Nano and the others in dire straits, and it was also the roar that Lefia and the others heard before they arrived here.

The next second, through her Level 2 adventurer perception, Lefia sensed the changing aura of the monsters as they began to move. They gradually gathered in groups of three or five in front of the entrance to the Great Cavern.

The enemy turned the tide of the battle with a single action.

(This Goliath... is exceptionally intelligent.)

If Nano and the others heard Lefia's conclusion, they would definitely nod their heads in agreement.

The floor master in front of us, who knows how to attack mages with rocks and block the opponent's retreat, is indeed a special individual.

If there are weak individuals among the same type of monsters born in the dungeon, there will naturally also be strong individuals. This rule can also be applied to floor masters whose production intervals are long.

It seems that this Goliath belongs to the category of "powerful individuals".

Lefia frowned, cursing inwardly that it had come at the worst possible time.

(Since the monsters are flocking to this large cavern, it means that escaping through the rear entrance will be futile, and they will inevitably be caught by the monster army along the way.)

Even though Nano and the others regained their physical strength, the mental strain could not be alleviated. Lefia wanted to avoid the "Seventh Squad" being forced to face a forced march (death battle) that would not end in any time while in such a state.

Furthermore, the passageway connecting to the "Wall of Sighs" is so wide that Goliath could move through it. However, Lefia would rather not fight with giants (Goliath) and minions (monsters) in a narrower space.

The connecting passage to the 18th floor has been destroyed. The best way to break the current stalemate is to kill the "enemy leader".

Lefia met the gaze of the giant who was staring at her.

(The only "magic" to be chanted so far is a summoning spell. From now on, I'm entering a super long incantation... No, that Goliath is waiting for me to start chanting...)

To be on the safe side, Lefia had already attached a bracelet-shaped magic circle to her left hand using the Double Pursuit skill before entering the Great Cavern.

The monsters are gradually gathering in the present tense.

The giants, on the other hand, have kept their sights on themselves until now.

Taking all factors into account, Rafia abandoned the "bombardment" that could have turned the tide in one fell swoop.

With the giant (Goliath) and his minions (monsters) attacking from both sides, it was too difficult to cover the "Seventh Squad" while performing an extremely long chant. So Lefia made a decision and set a "priority order".

"Luke, quickly take Nano and the others to the Wailing Wall!"

"The Wailing Wall!? What are you planning to do, senior!?"

"That wall won't spawn any monsters except Goliath! Please stay by the wall and use your formation to engage the enemy!"

Luke slays the monsters that keep attacking him, then turns to look at Lefia.

The boy guessed that he did this to prevent being attacked from behind by the enemy.

Even though Nano and the others received treatment, leaving them behind at this moment was far too dangerous. In fact, Luke was already panting heavily. This was understandable, considering that everyone had been fighting monsters in the dungeon for over a whole day, including the time before the disaster. Just like Cole and the others, whose resources were being used up rapidly, Luke was also under immense potential pressure.