"Haaa… Haaa…"
Alicia felt her heart racing as her classmates and her prepared to charge.
She turned to her right and she saw her Familiar, Snow, clinging close to her.
Once again, she didn't want to let her go by herself. However, Alicia knew Snow was going to be very helpful to the mission, so…
'Please help out!' She pleaded.
Inevitably, the Familiar had to follow her Master's commands.
Alicia turned to her left, and among the few students who stood there, a particular boy caught her sight.
'Rey…'
He had a determined expression, one that showed how determined he was to play his role in the brewing conflict.
'There's no guarantee we'll make it out of here alive. And it's even more risky for someone like him.'
Despite that, Rey showed so much courage.
It made Alicia's anxiety slowly dissipate. She bit her lip and steadied herself while still breathing heavily.
"CHARGEEEE!!!"
Adonis' loud voice reverberated among the Otherworlders, and everyone took their respective positions.
Alicia poured all her strength into ensuring the icy ground was strong enough to support the weight of the creature that was slowly rising.
Once it tried standing for a few seconds, Belle's winds destabilized it, and Alicia's ice took it from there.
The behemoth of a creature fell back down, sending tremors flowing through the ground.
Shockwaves rocked the entire Floor, but the Otherworlders would not be deterred by that—not in the slightest.
This was a fight for their life.
"ATTACK! GIVE IT EVERYTHING!"
Adonis went straight for the head and began to chop up the Monster.
Each Otherworlder took a certain position and bombarded the creature with their most powerful offensive moves.
It had a very dense body, so they kept chipping at a particular location until the Monster would inevitably fall.
"URAAHHHHH!"
"DIEEEEEEEE!!!"
"EAT THISSSSSS!"
Screams and shouts kept ringing aloud, almost as if the Otherworlders had lost their minds.
They kept up the same monotonous movements—some hammering their Enchanted Weapons on the body of the creature while pouring all their Elemental Magic into their blade itself.
Others kept chanting their most powerful Spells and spamming it on the Monster.
The creature initially didn't make any troubling sounds. If only tried to counterattack, but every time it tried to do so, Adonis was always ready for a counterattack.
After going at this for nearly an hour… they finally began to see progress,
"UROAAAHHHHHHH!!"
The Boss Monster began to howl in pain, flailing its body around as if it was experiencing pure agony.
"Don't let up! We're getting there! Continue attacking!"
Adonis and his allies kept up their assaults. Their sweat sprayed all over, and their muscles convulsed as a result of the relentless effort they kept putting forward.
Then, after another hour passed…
~SPLOOOSH!~
… Blood began to spray out of the Monster's body.
Most of the Otherworlders were already beyond exhausted at this point, but the moment they saw the bluish purple liquid spurt of the creature, they regained their zeal.
Squeezing out the last drop of Mana that they had, they began to bombard the inner recesses of the Monster with their attacks.
"[Greater Explosion]!"
"[Greater Lightning]"
"[Grand Fire Magic]!"
Words like this kept echoing among the respective Otherworlders.
More noise and seemingly unintelligible words flowed out, only to be drowned by the explosions caused by their assault
Then, after a total of three hours—no, most likely more—since they started the attack, the Boss Monster finally gave its final shriek.
~SQUISH!~
The last strike to its belly was the attack that finished it off, and the one who did it in… was apparently the weakest of the group.
—Rey Skylar!
********
"Good job, everyone."
Adonis, and every other person in the group, was on the floor, lying flat as he breathed heavily.
He had a wide grin on his face despite the fact that he and his friends nearly died. Something about the challenge he just experienced made his heart race at an abnormal pace.
The fact that they won despite the odds tugged at his lips and made him grin even wider.
Everyone was breathing heavily, but their mixed expressions made it clear that not all of them were as happy as Adonis.
"I can't believe we went through all of that and didn't even Level Up one time."
"Yeah… my entire body aches."
"I just want to sleep for ten thousand years."
"I'm so hungryyyy!"
Adonis merely smiled at the tantrums and looked in the direction of the luckiest one in their group—Rey.
The boy was lying down right beside Alicia, which caused Adonis to smile even more.
'To think he got all the EXP from that Boss. I wonder what Level he'll be in now…'
There was no way his Class would remain a Commoner after all of this, so the Level Cap of 30 had to change as well.
'If I had to guess, he'll have an Adventurer Class. That'll be a C-
Tier Class. As for Levels, I'm thinking somewhere around the range of 35-40.'
Adventurers had increased EXP when fighting and defeating Monsters—especially if those Monsters were more powerful than the Adventurer, so Adonis was certain Rey would have gotten a lot stronger than before.
'If he plays his cards right, he might eventually close the gap between himself and everyone.'
Adonis knew it was wishful thinking, but he couldn't help but wish to see that happen.
Maybe it was because Adonis was a good person and simply wanted to see everyone grow in their own way. Perhaps it was just that he was being a pragmatic leader and desired for all his teammates to be as equally competent as possible.
Or… it could be because of something else.
Something called guilt.
'You were a lot stronger in the past, Rey. Your Class and Skills were different, so…'
Adonis felt a sense of responsibility every time he looked at Rey.
'My return to the past must have caused that change.'
Which was why, no matter how little he could contribute or help, he had to atone for some of those deeds.
'I was warned this might happen, but I don't care. No matter the other changes that have occurred and that might occur, I don't regret my choice.'
With a deep glare, Adonis looked at the ceiling and soon closed his eyes.
'I will save everyone… no matter the cost!'