Chapter 27: The Strongest Party

"Back me up." Said the Red-Haired lady as she cut through the minotaurs as if they were paper.

"What exactly am I supposed to back? You killed them all," Said the mage.

"Huh? Did you say something?" She asked with a cold look in her eyes.

"N-Nothing at all." He replied.

'So this is what the strongest party in Atlas is like. What amazing teamwork.' John thought.

They were currently on the 5th floor; they had a map which contained the structure of the dungeon up to the 13th floor. It's been 4 hours since they left the boss room and they've accompanied them so far.

They hadn't asked John anything regarding how he fell into the trap or told him to explain what happened in the fight before they arrived, so he guessed that they were being considerate of him.

John was carrying Ariel on his back, she was fast asleep, and Serena had been observing the proclaimed strongest party and seeing how they worked as a team.

John did the same, it was pretty interesting. If the enemy was strong enough to survive the red-haired ladies attack and attack back. She would either dodge it or have the tank block it and kill the enemy. A simple, yet effective strategy.

The mage wasn't doing anything, or rather, he didn't need to. To be honest, John wasn't sure what he was doing. He would occasionally chant something, but nothing would happen.

'Maybe it was a buff? Like a speed or strength boost, buff? I wasn't sure what it was, but he seemed to be working hard, so I didn't ask. The mage also seemed interested in how in the spells I used against the spider, but he also didn't ask.' John inferred.

For the rest of the journey back, it felt awkward. But John didn't care, he was always in a good mood thanks to Ariel being fine. He couldn't ask for more. John wouldn't mind giving them all the gold coins he had, but judging by the way, their leader, the Red-Haired lady acts. She wouldn't accept or need it.

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After 6 hours, they finally made it to the exit of the tower. It was nighttime, and the fresh breeze felt amazing. It felt like John was being purified simply from inhaling the fresh air. He took a deep breath and let the nice cool air fill his lungs as he let it out in a singular motion as he exhaled.

"Thank you very much for accompanying us back. As requested, I'll answer your questions to the best of my ability as thanks." John said.

"Thank you," Serena added on.

"What well-mannered kids... It's fine the boss helped you because she was worried about you. She may act scary but she's honestly really soft." Said the tank.

"Shut up..." Muttered the boss as she hid her face.

"K-Kids..?" Serena said.

"Y-Yes, is something wrong? Ah, my bad, I assumed you were a kid thanks to your looks. I'm sorry." Said the tank.

"I-I look like a kid..." Serena muttered with an empty expression.

"S-Sorry, I had no idea you were older." Said the tank.

"I-It's fine... I'm used to it..." She said with a blank look on her face.

She seemed to have taken some emotional damage from his words. The fact that he was trying to be sincere must have hurt even more.

"Anyway, what are your names? If you don't mind me asking." John said.

"Ah, that's right, we haven't introduced ourselves. My name's Lee. The soft-hearted boss of ours is called rose-"

"What was that?" Rose asked.

"The mage who you see quietly reading a book is Oliver and that priest who healed you is called Alex. We're all A rank adventurers." He said.

"I see Nice to you. My name is John, The girl on my back is Ariel and this kid is called Serena."

"John, what did you just say?" Serena asked with an annoyed expression.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," John said as he shook his head.

"Um, Rose, you said you're an A rank adventurer, right? You see, John here was looking for a rank adventurer to fight. Do you mind sparring against him?" Serena asked.

'Eh? Serena, you didn't just do that, did you... Well it should be fine Rose is soft-hearted after all, there's no way she'd access-' John thought.

"Sure." Said rose.

"W-Well, Rose has accompanied us this far, I'm sure you're quite tired, right?" John said as he began to nervously sweat.

"No, I'm fine." She said.

John looked towards the tank with an expression that said 'please help me' but he looked away as if he were too afraid to stop her.

"L-Looks like we have n-no choice, when is the match?" John asked.

"Now's fine, there's space and if anything happens Alex can heal you."

'W-what did she just say? Am I going to die.' John dreaded.

"O-Okay..." John said as he handed Ariel over to Serena.

'Sorry, Ariel, I thought we'd be able to talk one last time, but it looks like my life will end tonight.' John thought

They prepared themselves for the fight and got in their positions.

"Very well, 3..." Said Lee.

'O-On second thought, I think I'm a bit too tired.' John thought,

"2..."

John began sweating and looked towards Serena for help.

"1..."

Serena gave him a mischievous smile and acted like it wasn't any of her business.

"Go."

The moment he said go, John felt every hair on his body stand as Rose let out bloodlust.

"U-Um Ros-"

Before John could finish, rose leapt forward and swung her leg in a motion to kick him. He barely dodged it by ducking. She then used that moment to direct another kick with her left leg while her body was turned.

John blocked that kick and his arms felt numb.

"You're holding back, aren't you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"You're not using your sword and you were much faster when we were fighting against the spider and other monsters in the dungeon," John said.

"So you want me to use my sword... Okay." Rose replied.

Eh?

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"It's my loss."

While facing the sky with his head on the floor, John surrendered.

It happened in an instant. She pulled out her sword and lept towards John. He pulled out his daggers and strengthened them to block her attack, but when he did, she disappeared from his line of sight.

By the time he realized that she was above him, it was already too late. She hit John with the handle of the sword in the head and he fell.

In a real fight. John would've been dead. Things might have ended differently if he used magic, but he still would've lost. John lacked experience and losing sight of an enemy in a fight is something not even magic can save you from.

"You did well, for a kid." Said rose.

Hearing her words put a tear in his eye. Rose, a red-haired, intimidating looking woman, who was both good looking and scary. However, in her nature, she was a good person.

"Thank you, Let's fight again some time. Next time let's give it all we have and no holding back."John said as he wiped away his tears.

"Sure." She said.

She was a quiet person, though. John wondered if she's dating anyone. 

'She's surrounded by guys, so one of them should be her boyfriend, right? Well, whoever it is. Good luck!' He thought.

"So John, how did it feel? Did you enjoy your A-Rank adventurer fight? Hm? Aren't you going to say that I told you so?" Serena said as she approached John.

"Argh. Yes, you were right, you told me so, I should've listened to you," John said.

"Huh? John's admitting it? Did you perhaps hit your head or something?" She asked with a smile on her face.

'Calm down John... Thanks to her everything is fine, don't lose your cool.' John consoled himself.

"Remember what you said. 'I can easily defeat A-Ranks I'm not afraid of them.'"

"Okay! I get it!" John yelled.

"Haha, are you mad?" Serena asked.

"How can you be so annoying!" John shouted as he began to chase her around.

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"So John, can you explain to us how you and your party ended up on the tenth floor?" asked Lee.

"Of course," John said.

Right now, they were in one of the restaurants in Atlas. After they had finished talking, they were going to the guild to redeem their rewards. John killed a few monsters with Serena while they were going down the floors, so they should be able to make quite some money, not to mention the giant magic stone from the spider.

And so John explained everything that happened to them. He told them how they had defeated the boss on the second floor and after walking on the third floor; they had lost signs of life. He also told them how everything started to turn to darkness and their only option was to enter the boss room, which appeared out of nowhere.

"That's... That doesn't sound like a normal trap. It felt like the dungeon itself wanted to get rid of you. Or at least something controlling it." said Lee.

"That's right when you said trap. We assumed you might've fallen into a teleport circle, however from what you've said, there wasn't any room you stumbled upon or any teleportation. If it was teleportation, you wouldn't have seen all that darkness or the destruction of the dungeon's structure," Said Oliver.

'He's quite talkative if it interests him, isn't he?' John thought.

"Not to mention, the curse placed on you. That can only be done by monsters found on floor 15 or higher." Said, Alex.

"Oh yeah, that curse Serena and Rose talked about... Speaking of floors, how many floors are there in a dungeon? What's the furthest you've guys gone?" John asked.

While they were heading up the floors, the number of other parties we saw increased. He thought they saw over 20 people in total, especially on the 4th and 5th floor.

"The dungeon you went to is the easiest one, it mainly contains weak monsters. There isn't a need to farm it. The amount of floors depends on the dungeon, but the one you went to in particular has 30. The furthest we've gone is 20," Said Lee.

"And if you're planning on completing these dungeons, I suggest you don't. The kingdom can operate properly because of them. If you complete them they'll disappear, so unless you don't wish to become an assassination target or the enemy of the nation, it's better if you just use it to farm cash. There are other dungeons out there." Said, Alex.

"I thought as much, thank you for the warning, but I never really planned to complete them. I just wanted to see how far I could get, and what the final boss would look like," John said.

"They're a lot stronger than you can imagine." Said rose.

"That reminds me, you guys farm the harder dungeons, right? What's the furthest you've gotten on the hardest one out of the 4?" John asked.

"The 5th floor on the red dungeon. Never attempt going there unless you have a full party." Said Rose.

'5th floor? Are you serious? They reached 4x further in the beginner dungeon. How hard is the red dungeon?' John thought with surprise.

"Understood," He replied.

"The blue flame you made and the invisible wind blade. Can you show us it one more time?" Oliver asked.

'Looks like he was very interested in it.' John realised.

"Sure, Ignis," John said as he lifted his finger.

And above it, a small Blue flame was formed.

"!?"

"I don't think I would be able to use the wind blade in the store, it's a bit dangerous," John said.

"You... How are you able to use chantless magic?" Asked Oliver with a curious and surprised expression.

"T-That is something I am not allowed to say, sorry," John said.

"A kid was able to use magic without chanting... When researchers are still trying to find a way?! Who was your master?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, I don't remember, but I lost memories of my past, but I do remember him being some sort of Great sage," John said.

'Lies, Complete lies. But honestly, I feel like if I don't say that, this dude will ambush me at night and torture me until I tell him. Nah, he may look addicted to the topic of magic to the point where he becomes talkative, but there's no way. He'll try something like that, right?' John wondered.

"You said you can use wind blade, right? That means you can use the chantless fire magic, Wind magic and ice magic?!" He continued.

"How did you know I could use Ice magic!?" John asked.

"I didn't, I saw residue of ice in the chamber, so I assumed it was either you or one of your party members. Either way, the fact that you can use all of these elements without chanting is something unheard of. People could try to kidnap you just to obtain the information." He said.

'It's too late. They already did. The king of Haulfast.' John said to himself.

"It's fine, I'll be able to protect myself," John said.

"And you're party members? You're putting them at risk. You and your members need to become stronger. Strong enough to reach the 20th floor together. I suggest you find a 4th member,"said lee.

"Yeah..."

With his current strength, John was weak. The only reason he had survived this far was thanks to good fortune. John thought that he should go to a church and start praying to God and thank him for giving him a second chance at life.

After they were finished with eating, they went to the guild and exchanged their magic stones to money with Rose's party.

In total, they had killed 5 Minotaurs from the 5th floor, 10 spiders from the 9th floor, rested through the 8th, 7th and 6th floor and killed 10 Wolves from the 4th floor. They didn't have any more space, so they didn't kill any more.

'Unfortunately, we weren't able to fight any other boss as the boss won't spawn if you're climbing up. It only spawns if you're heading downwards. But it's fine, we already got the magic core needed.' John thought to himself.

"Right so, 5 Minotaur magic stones, which are 5 Gold in total. 10 Big spider magic stones, which are 30 Gold coins in total. 10 Wolves which are 5 Gold coins. Here's your reward: 40 Gold coins." Said the receptionist as she handed it to John with a dumbfounded expression.

"Thank you," He said as he took the reward.

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"Are you sure you don't want to sell it?" Asked Lee as he pulled out the Spider queen's magic stone from his toolbox and handed it to John.

Thankfully, they were in the inn and so no one had seen them. Otherwise, people would've tried to rob him while he was asleep or even awake.

John took the stone and put it into his toolbox before saying. "It's fine, I'll use it to improve my party's strength."

"Well said," Said rose.

"Well then, we'll be leaving," Said Lee.

"Yes, thank you again for all the help," John said.

"No worries, if anyone messes with you. Come tell us, we'll teach them a lesson." Lee said.

"Yeah," Rose added.

John never knew one word from one person could make him feel so safe.

"Understood, till we meet again," John said as he waved at them.

They waved back and left.

"Is it okay for such a kind and cool party to exist?" John asked.

Their kindness had deeply moved him.

"Let's go to sleep John, I'm really tired." Said Serena.

"Okay. Let's go to sleep, I'm also quite tired myself." John said as he carried the sleeping Ariel on my back.

And just like that, their temporary team with the coolest and strongest party in Atlas ended.