More Dungeon Crawling

During the abrupt break, Line had to take in everything she had seen while drinking the offered warm tea.

She dare not to think where the warm tea came from as she had enough.

"...Is that magic too?" Line asked her first question.

"Since everything that constitutes manipulation of Mind or Mana is Magic, yes, it is," Kisuke answered while enjoying her troubled expression.

"...How is that even possible?"

Kisuke stayed silent for a moment to think of a way to explain the logic behind body strengthening, "Imagine a normal Adventurer. He goes to the Dungeon to gather excelia. After that, his God would update his status raising his parameters according to the amount of the excelia he gathered.

"The act of updating the status is the act of converting those excelia to Mana... or Mind, that will permanently mix with your body to strengthen it. Hence, your parameters are raised."

Line nodded as she somehow understands his explanation.

"Of course, not every Mana goes to the body to strengthen it as some or more of them just floats around the body and you could probably guess what represents those."

Line thought about it for a moment and her eyes lit up as she came into a realization, "...The Magic parameter..."

"Correct. It's probably due to the way the excelia is gathered or the said Adventurer's aptitude that Magic parameter increases. But this is the main reason why a Mage's physical ability is a lot weaker than a Warrior counterpart. And there's just so much Mana you could fit in the body in a Level."

"I see!" It is as Kisuke said. Everyone already accepted that it's due to aptitude and the way they fight in the Dungeon is the reason for a Mage's development in the Magic parameter. However, no one thought of it as just excess excelia that couldn't strengthen the body like Kisuke is saying.

"Obviously, it's a lot more complicated than that due to the existence of Skills, Magic, Developmental Abilities, and most importantly, the Level ups themselves."

"Level ups? Ah... So it's like adding another barrel to the body when the first one is already full..." Line muttered.

"Haha," Kisuke chuckled and patted her head after hearing her words, "Looks like you're gullible enough for me to teach you some magic."

Line was startled and felt embarrassed when his hand landed on her head, but when she heard what he said, Line pouted, "At least call me open-minded." Strangely enough, though. She doesn't mind his hand.

"Yosh! That's enough!" Aika then suddenly interrupted the two of them and goes in between, "Let's go hunting!"

"Would you please stop patting other people's head randomly?" Sona added.

"We don't want another victim..." Koneko muttered.

"W-well, it's just my habit... My bad."

"Uhmm... How should I return the favor? Since you're going to teach me your magic, it's only natural that I should compensate you in some way, but I don't know what should I do..." Line suddenly asked after fixing her hair which was ruffled by Kisuke.

"For now, just help the girls explore the Dungeon. That should be enough."

"There's no way that's true! You're teaching me something that could undermine the whole world's take on magic so how could that be enough!?"

"Simple~. Because I said so!" Kisuke chuckled as he started walking.

"T-That's ridiculous..." Line could only mutter that as she follows the group while also thinking a way to return the favor by herself. In this regard, she's really too earnest.

Since the monsters here are still too weak for Kisuke's taste, he asked Line to lead them directly to the 10th floor, which she immediately protested against. But after a minute of persuasion from him, she agreed after making them promise that they'll immediately retreat if things get too dangerous. This is after knowing their capabilities. It's really hard for her to suddenly change her outlook.

The 10th Floor keeps the same structure as the 8th and 9th Floors above, however, the light from above becomes reminiscent of morning mist. The mist appears across the floor making vision terrible. Large category monsters such as Orcs and Infant Dragons begin to appear here.

Navigating through the mist for a few minutes, they came across a huge pig-headed monster that reaches about three meters in height. It wears old hide at the waist like a skirt. An Orc.

"...An Elf female knight... Why does that enter my mind after seeing that?" Aika asked.

Sona blushed and glared at Aika, "Don't go there, Aika-san!"

Koneko looked at them curiously and innocently as she asked, "Why?"

Kisuke put his hand over to her shoulder which made her look at him and he said seriously, "They've delved deep on the internet... Don't mind them."

Although still curious, Koneko finally gets it when Kisuke said it like that. Koneko could only sigh and think, 'I'm surrounded by perverts.'

"Not the time to be talking. What should we do?" Medusa asked as she watches the Orc starting to run towards them.

"Since this is the first time we encounter this monster, Aika, Koneko, you two take care of it. It's good for you to learn how to respond to something unknown." Kisuke instructed.

"What about me?" Sona asked.

"You better off learning how to assess your surroundings. Later, you'll have to take the lead and command everyone when a bigger scale of the battle starts."

Sona nodded in understanding and watched Aika and Koneko as they approached the Orc's flanks.

The Orc, in response, swung its arms around to deter the two Adventurers. Aika didn't expect the speed that the Orc's arm and ended up stopping on her tracks while Koneko immediately reacted by ducking under the arm's trajectory and she arrived at the monster's left leg.

With a single huge swing of her fist, "Haah!" Koneko broke the Orc's knee cap, then retreating after the attack.

"Graahh!!!" With its scream of pain, the Orc came crashing down and Aika used this chance to pierce the monster's throat, killing it.

"Whew... It was unexpectedly fast. Although it's not agile, the swing of its arm is enough threat." Aika commented.

"Aika-senpai, are you still not used to move around without your scanning abilities?" Koneko went to her side after picking up the Orc's magic stone and asked.

"...Yes. But I can feel some improvements so I should be fine after some more training." Aika answered as they walk towards the rest of the group.

"Good work out there~." Kisuke greeted them with a small smile while Medusa passes each of them a towel to clean themselves from some dirt they got.

"By the way, Kisuke. Why did you stop us from updating our statuses?" Sona suddenly asked. Last night, they asked Hestia to update theirs but they were stopped by Kisuke. Updating their parameters should make things easier for them to fight monsters.

"I want you to get used to your current strength first. Once I think that your control should be enough, then you can update your status. However, what comes next is more important. And that is adapting to a sudden gain of strength.

"I want you to experience it at least once. Due to the nature of Falna, it could give you sudden strength which will actually do more harm than good. Aside from worsening your control, it may go over to your head and unable to make a sound judgment of the situation because you have a wrong perception of your own power."