The Trio part 2

Sona, Aika, and Koneko directly descended to the 4th floor and started looking for monsters.

The first one they encountered on this floor is a group of 3 Goblins. Nodding at each other, Sona nocked an arrow to her bow and did a preemptive strike.

The arrow flew and it went through the right eye of one of the Goblins and it instantly died along with its screech.

Aika and Koneko then launched towards the remaining two Goblins while strengthening their upper bodies with Mana. With a single slash from Aika and a punch from Koneko, the first Goblin was bisected while the second one has its head crushed and they were reduced to ashes, leaving only their small magic stones.

Picking up the magic stone, Aika commented, "This is too easy... Why don't we move a floor lower?"

Sona thought for a moment before saying, "Let's explore this floor for a bit more... We need to get used to the monsters first."

"... Kaichou... You're the type that grinds monsters and level up too much before moving to the next area..."

"I always like being prepared. You, on the other hand, is the type of person that just follows the storyline regardless of the level recommendation."

"Isn't it more exciting to kill monsters above your level?"

"Please stop talking about RPGs... This isn't a game." Koneko finally interrupted the two.

Sona and Aika could only feign a cough out of awkwardness. However, Koneko knew that the two of them, including her, were in full alert despite the casual conversation so she isn't really blaming them.

The group then explored the 4th floor for another hour before going down to the 5th floor. The walls change to a light green color and the structure of the Dungeon begins to change with the halls becoming wider and longer.

From Sophie's reminder, the fifth floor's monsters are a mix of Dungeon Lizards and Frog Shooters. While the former is only a gigantic lizard and doesn't have much threat, the former is a frog monster that has one large eye. It attacks by shooting out its long tongue which can catch a newbie off-guard if they're not paying attention.

Just a few minutes into the floor they immediately encountered the new monster, Frog Shooter. The monster also noticed them and immediately shoots out its tongue with Aika as the target.

Aika stepped to the side and swiped her sword upwards, cutting the frog's tongue short. The Frog Shooter immediately took back it's tongue due to pain and couldn't help but screech. Soon after, an arrow impaled its large eye and a few seconds later, it died and reduced to ashes.

"Kaichou... It's not much of a fight if you use the bow and I doubt you gain that much excelia doing that." Koneko commented.

Sona nodded in agreement, "Right... We can't call this a practice." She then put her bow on her back, "So from now on, I'll be using magic. That way at least, I can improve my control and increase my MAG parameter."

Just as she said that, cracks started to appear on walls and three Frog Shooters emerged from it which immediately started attacking the group,

"Cover me," Sona commanded as she put up her right hand and pointed it towards the Frog Shooters. A magic circle with Sitri's insignia appeared and from it, three balls of water emerged before it stretched into something resembling a lance.

Aika cut two of the tongues coming for them while Koneko stepped on one. Soon after, the lances of water launched towards the three Frog Shooters. One of them hit one of the frog's stomach, one frog got its leg impaled while the last lance missed the frog entirely.

"... Kaichou... Did your eyesight worsen? Why don't you ask Kisuke to change the prescription of your glasses?"

A hint appeared on Sona's face but nevertheless, her poker face didn't break down, "I didn't expect that my magic is that uncontrollable..."

Koneko and Aika then dealt with the monsters. When there's only one left, Aika signaled Koneko to leave it to her.

Ten meters away from the last frog, Aika used Flash Step to close the distance... and failed spectacularly.

The moment Aika circulated her Mana and used the magic-based Flash Step, the Mana she has suddenly violently fluctuated. Not expecting such a big reaction, Aika failed to control her Mana and she widely propelled forwards.

The only silver lining is she was able to put up defenses using her Rieatsu-Ki before her face planted on the wall, "Guhh!"

"Aika!" "Aika-senpai!" Sona and Koneko immediately called out and Koneko ran towards the last frog, killing it before going to Aika's side.

Aika stood up and cleaned her face which is smeared by blood coming from her nose.

Seeing that she's okay besides the bleeding nose and obviously red legs, Sona couldn't help but laugh a little, "Aika-san, did you fell for an illusion and saw a path there? And of all the body parts that you could have used to stop yourself, you used your face. I'm impressed~."

"Ugh!..." Aika doesn't have a comeback and just drank half of the potion that they bought earlier and poured the rest of it on her legs which eased the pain she's feeling.

Still not willing to end like this, Aika turned to Koneko, "What about you, Koneko-chan? Don't you have something to show us? We still have four potions."

Koneko looked away and started walking, intending to further explore the 5th floor, "I'm good."

Aika and Sona used a few minutes to persuade her. Since she can't improve if she doesn't use it, Koneko used Flash Step when there are no enemies on sight and ended up the same fate as Aika. Unlike her, though, she's already anticipating her failure despite being careful and was able to use her hands to stop herself from going forwards.

And since she's very careful, her legs didn't hurt that much and only used a bit of the potion to restore it to peak condition.

"Let's continue and kill some monsters using these techniques. That should earn us some hefty excelia. And finally, no more teasing each other! We're all in the same boat." Sona proposed.

" "Yes!" " Aika and Koneko answered.

However, despite only using the potions if they can't take the pain anymore, all of their potions were used up after an hour of exploring.

"Didn't expect that we would need potions to practice... What should we do? Go back and purchase another batch? Or get some magic stones first to trade?" Aika asked after consuming the last bit of potion.

They also have an option of asking Kisuke for some home-brewed potion, but they didn't really want his help for something this trivial.

"If only we have a healer in our party..." Koneko muttered.