Lunar Glowstrikers Nest

This time's expedition was going pretty well, we managed to reach far into the floor quite quickly, and thanks to everyone's high level, most monsters didn't pose a problem.

The raiders are a bit hard for me to deal with due to the chaos they bring to a battle, but Anna covers for me pretty well whenever I overextend myself.

Not only levels though, I feel like I understand my own limits better now thanks to Mia's training. It's hard to notice from an outsider's perspective, but I'm sure my judgment when it comes to battles has increased.

All things considered, our party wasn't going to have trouble with this floor by any means. Or that's what I expected at least.

Without noticing, we were so deep in our current path, that we entered uncharted territory.

Miwen: "Hm... just in case, do you guys wanna head back?"

Even though it was early to call it a day, thanks to the [Increased Drop Chance] we had made quite a bountiful harvest already, so when it comes to money, there wouldn't be a problem ending it here.

Level-wise, Claire, Licia, and I had reached the level cap for this floor, and the other girls were at level 10, so there was progress on that front as well.

Still, on an early floor like this one, it was rare to encounter an unmapped area, so I was a bit excited to try it out.

Licia: "I think it's fine, moreover..."

Mia: "It seems like you really want to do it."

Guess I wasn't able to hide it from them. But yeah, I was very excited about this, even though it was an early floor of a beginner dungeon, who knows what we might find?

Anna: "It might be dangerous though..."

Claire: "Just stick with me and you'll be fine~"

Miwen: "Ever so confident huh?"

Claire: "Of course, I'm the strongest after all~"

Mia: "Yeah? Since when?"

With every level, Claire's confidence grew alongside her rivalry with Mia, and now that they are both capped by the floor, it's actually hard to tell which one is stronger, if anything, they seem to be in parity.

Ellie: "Those two really get along..."

Miwen: "Eh, you think so?"

I was focused on making some registers and notes about the path we were on, so I didn't catch much of their discussion, but it seemed to still be going on even while we walked through unknown territory.

Claire: "Then, whoever kills the strongest monster wins, alright?"

Miwen: "I'd rather you guys fall back so that we could make a plan against a stronger monster."

I don't mind them playing these games, but it's troublesome if they put themselves and others at risk.

Mia: "It's better if it's a race. Whoever kills the most stands at the top."

Miwen: "Please don't."

Even though I was against both ideas, the moment a Lunar Glowstriker appeared in front of us, before I could even check his status, both idiots jumped at it without a second thought.

The bloodthirst in them was so strong that even a monster's first reaction was to run away.

Alas, it didn't manage to escape before flames coming from a sword slash made him into charcoal.

It was impressive how precise this magic was, even more so considering that, had it been a bit wider, it would have hit a certain wolf girl who was very close to hitting the same target with her fists.

Miwen: "I'm not sure they are such good friends..."

Ellie: "W-well..."

Even though I say that, I know that Claire took a lot of care with that attack, she's been making a real effort to better control her fire magic lately and it's been paying off.

Both Licia and Beatrice seem to be really proud of her because of this.

I've noticed that they are spending more time together, so I guess she must've been asking for some tips from Licia who has incredible control over her magic, and also from Beatrice who has deep knowledge of the topic.

As soon as the flames subsided, Mia clicked her tongue and started looking in every direction for an enemy, which she eventually found. This time, a Lunar Glowstriker was coming directly at her.

Mia is faster than Claire as of right now, knowing that, Claire ran and took a close enough position to fire at that first Lunar Glowstriker, which left Mia closer to this next one.

It was clear that Claire wasn't capable of using her fire magic before Mia reached this one, so instead, she also ran to the front, searching for her next target while Mia dealt with this one.

Of course, thanks to that, our entire party had to accompany them, and a race really began.

I thought we'd be finding more orcs and hobgoblins raiders due to being this deep, but surprisingly, there were only Glowstrikers coming at us. 

Even though sometimes they'd come in bigger groups, and even have a [Noble] one amongst them, our frontlines were really giving it their all today, meaning we didn't have much trouble and most of my job was to collect the drops actually.

Beatrice: "The [Nobles] are becoming more and more common... it's a bit strange, don't you think?"

Miwen: "Yeah, I was beginning to think the same."

It's pretty rare for so many groups of monsters of the same rank to be in such close proximity with each other outside of a boss room, normally, one group ends up absorbing the other...

Anna: "Should we stop?"

Miwen: "It's still fine for now."

I was having a lot of fun exploring this path, and the girls were very excited about their competition, since we could handle the [Nobles], it really wasn't going to be a problem if things stayed like this.

But alas, it didn't take long for things to take a turn.

The lack of natural light in the dungeon made it somewhat dark, but then, in front of us stood a wide chamber, and from it, a faint source of silvery light suddenly appeared, revealing the form of a Glowstriker...

Then a couple more...

And then tens more...

These beasts came running at us as fast as they possibly could, and the light they emitted from that chamber became so strong it could hurt the eyes of whoever looked directly at it.

It was so wide an area that it could probably hold hundreds of them, meaning at the very least, we would be dealing with a small army.

We found ourselves in a narrow corridor with no branching paths, and the only way out was behind us. Further ahead, the chamber was teeming with these creatures, so our best option was to stand our ground.

For that purpose, I gave Licia an order with a shout.

Miwen: "Licia! Funnel them with ice walls!"

Without a second thought, she puts her hands on the ground and rapidly creates thick ice walls, making the remaining corridor in front of us tighter and the enemies having only a small opening to pass through.

Mia and Claire rushed to the front to face the enemies.

Miwen: "Don't overextend yourselves!"

Even though they were competing with each other, in such a high-stakes situation, I was sure they'd drop it and put on a proper act.

From all that I've seen from them, they aren't the type to drop the ball like that.

Yet, it felt necessary to me to give instructions to everyone, so that we all knew what we were going to do, myself included.

And with that, our incessant stand began.

Claire, Licia, and Mia stood in the front, dealing with the rush of enemies. Slightly behind them, Anna and I were taking care of the gaps and monsters that managed to get past them.

Further behind, Ellie was taking shots at everything that moved, and thanks to the effects of their arrows, the frequency of enemies coming was diminished.

All the while, Beatrice cast fire magic against the chamber in front of us, causing a lot of damage in a wide area.

Even though we were doing fine physically, it was clear that we weren't going to be able to keep this up for too long, and there wasn't an end in sight.

With the rare chances I had to appraise the enemies, I saw a bunch of [Nobles] among them, and then, in the chamber in front of us, a giant Lunar Glowstriker of approximately 3 meters tall appeared.

Appraising it revealed its rank to us...

Miwen: "It's a [Duke]..."

Now it made sense why so many [Nobles] were roaming around each other, they were all part of the same group under a monster of a higher rank.

Anna: "What should we do?"

Miwen: "..."

It took me a moment to think. Even if we defeated the [Duke] there's no guarantee that the other monsters were going to scatter....

But...

Miwen: "Claire, all breaks are off, burn everything in front of us."

Claire: "Finally!"

For a moment, even her eyes seemed to burn, and her flames created a path in front of us and engulfed the entire chamber.

It was doubtful that it would be enough to defeat the Duke, so, Mia and I, the two fastest among us and the ones who had the best chance at getting in and getting out dashed out to quickly put an end to whatever remained of the monster.

As soon as we entered the chamber, the stench of burnt meat filled the air, and Mia jumped high to the wall at our side, using it as a platform to jump at the [Duke Lunar Glowstriker] that was still alive even after Claire's full power magic.

She jumped to its back and gave it the strongest punch this entire floor must've ever seen, enough that blood started to gush out from it.

His body parts were grabbed by water tentacles, locking him in place. I didn't even have the time to be impressed by how quickly Beatrice's support came, as Ellie's arrows also hit the target before I could, giving him an unknown status ailment.

At the first cry of the monster, I ignited my blades with flames, using [Physical Prowess], [Focused Strike], and [X Slash] to deliver the most devastating strikes possible.

The monster was engulfed in flames almost instantly, reducing it to ash, and the few remaining body parts were swiftly absorbed by the dungeon.

The moment Mia saw my blades igniting, she jumped to the right and came back to me with a mana orb in hand.

Mia: "Phew... You should've left it to me, It was the prey that would guarantee my victory against the redhead..."

So she was still thinking about that, I can't belie-

Miwen: "Get back!"

The chamber had pathways to both the left and the right and from it, more monsters started to rush in.

And with them, two new giant Glowstrikers, even bigger than the one before.

With appraisal, I saw that they were a [King] and a [Queen].

Not that I stayed long to watch it, as I was already running towards the corridor.

Mia with her full speed managed to catch up to me in no time, grabbed me by the shirt, and actually carried me out of the chamber faster than I could've run from it.

It was a bit embarrassing, to be honest, but I'm glad she did that.

Mia: "Ice girl, give me a hand."

She calls upon Licia to close the opening to the chamber with ice walls, and I give everyone an order.

Miwen: "We are going back, full charge until we reach the settlement."

I wasn't going to take any chances with this, even if we could defeat them, it wasn't a risk worth taking.

We were all very tired and had spent a lot of mana, it would be foolish to keep at it.

It's doubtful that the ice walls were going to give us too much time either, so we kept creating more of them until we reached a fork in the paths, using an ice wall to block the way we went.

Hopefully, this would make the mindless beasts rush towards the path that wasn't blocked, but that possibility wasn't enough to make us slow down even for a second, and so, we continued to run towards the settlements as fast as we could.