While resting in the safe room, Isagi switched his Role Card to 'Retracing the Journey to the West' and subsequently collected the Spirit Essence dropped by 'The Strongest Saints' moments ago.
With this, it was finally usable.
Before, having zero Spirit Essences meant using this Role Card was equivalent to having one less skill—a huge loss.
Checking the description, this thing was essentially an instant-cast skill that could summon the previous boss to perform a special attack.
It had a certain cooldown after use, so could it be considered an additional high-damage 'Burst Skill'?
After all, the abilities of the Shinobi Prosthetic were mostly auxiliary. For his current self, the most powerful burst damage still relied on [Glimmer Echo] combined with other weapon arts, so this was a pretty good reinforcement.
It was a pity that [Glimmer Echo] could only repeat 'Weapon Arts'; if it could repeat Spirit Essence skills, that would be invincible...
...
After resting in the safe room for a while, eating and drinking their fill, and replenishing their stamina and Mind, Isagi and Lefiya—along with Filvis, who had just joined the squad—quickly arrived at the 4th Floor without obstruction.
"#@￥%!!"
A Goblin Assassin suddenly emerged from the shadows, letting out gibberish sounds before being skillfully pinned to the walls by Isagi using his long blade.
Immediately following that.
Filvis, equally skilled, followed up with a strike from the short sword in her hand, slitting its throat to kill it.
However, looking at the creature before her—wrapped entirely in black cloth, wielding dual blades, with limbs longer than an average Goblin—she wondered, was this some kind of 'Goblin Subspecies'?!
But there was no time to think it over carefully.
Soon, several more Goblins riding Dungeon Lizards appeared ahead in the cave.
They wore heavy fur armor and bone helms, wielding great swords, and even the lizards beneath them were covered in a layer of iron armor. They charged rapidly toward the trio.
Isagi and Lefiya's reactions were both practiced.
The Elf girl immediately began chanting magic, while the boy stood his ground, holding a great shield and long sword.
[Heavy]!
The combat art of 'Door No. 2' was a buff skill. Once released, as long as one remained stationary, it would drastically increase [Endurance] and [Strength] scaling for a certain period.
At the same time, it reduced all damage taken by the user.
At this moment, those charging Goblin cavalry were all intercepted by Isagi, who held the giant bone shield. Whether it was the cavalry's collision or the swinging great swords, the boy remained completely motionless, as if they were merely a little wind and rain vainly attempting to shake a mountain.
On the other side.
Filvis also demonstrated her professionalism as an adventurer. As a Magic Swordsman, the Elf girl always stayed by Lefiya's side, protecting the mage's safety while simultaneously...
Supporting Isagi on the front lines with super-short chant magic.
"Sweep away the enemy, staff of holy purging!"
"[Dio Thyrsos]."
It was the same holy lightning emitting a sky-blue glimmer. Accompanied by the short sword in the girl's hand, it plunged into the Goblin Knight's chest, turning both it and its mount into charred carbon.
And with someone coming to help, the pressure on Isagi naturally plummeted. Working together, the two cut down the other Goblin Knights in the blink of an eye.
Swiftly.
Before Lefiya could even finish her spell, the encounter was already over.
"Miss Filvis is so amazing; are you also a Level 2 adventurer?"
"Um... no... I am..."
During the magic stone excavation time after the battle, hearing Lefiya—who was skillfully extracting a magic stone from a monster's corpse with a small knife—ask about her level, Filvis couldn't help but hesitate.
Subsequently.
She spoke using the lie her deity had instructed her to use.
"I am Level 3."
"Eh?! So Miss Filvis is actually a Second-Class Adventurer!"
"Yes."
"My deity concealed my level and did not report it to the Guild, saying he was worried about attracting unnecessary trouble..."
Filvis continued to state this almost subconsciously, using the lie the God Dionysus had taught her to memorize beforehand.
As a result.
She realized that Isagi and Lefiya weren't really listening at all, as if such a thing didn't matter in the slightest.
This involuntarily made the girl sigh in relief.
She didn't want to bring up herself, or her past, at all.
"The weather today seems really nice~"
"Idiot, how can there be talk of weather in the Dungeon? And wasn't it about to rain when we just entered?"
"Eh?! But the harvest is so plentiful! Mr. Isagi, we got so many materials just after entering!!"
"Luck is rather good today; let's hope the follow-up dungeon clearing goes smoothly too."
"It will definitely go smoothly!"
On the road forward, Lefiya was the same as always, chirping nonstop like a cheerful little bird.
Aside from her Mind being excessively depleted.
It seemed nothing could stop that little mouth of hers from constantly yapping.
"The technique Miss Filvis used just now was [Concurrent Chanting], right?"
"Yes."
The topic suddenly shifting back to her caught Filvis somewhat off guard.
In the battle with the monsters just before.
The Elf girl had used a short sword to engage in close combat while simultaneously chanting defensive magic and offensive magic to assist in the fight.
This wasn't merely because Filvis's magic chant verses were super-short.
It was also due to [Concurrent Chanting].
This is a high-level technique that Mages, as well as Magic Swordsmen, need to master.
Ordinary Mages.
Must focus entirely, gathering magic power while chanting; thus, their Mind must be highly concentrated, leaving them absolutely no way to think about other things.
However.
If one learns [Concurrent Chanting], one can achieve chanting and releasing magic while running, dodging, or even grappling with enemies.
The 'enhancement' this provides to a Mage in actual combat goes without saying, and for that reason, it is extremely difficult.
In Isagi's view, this was the so-called [Dual Wielding of the Mind], truly a very profound martial art... ah no, technique.
Filvis was the third Elf compatriot Lefiya knew of who understood [Concurrent Chanting].
The first was the Vice-Captain of the Loki Familia, Lady Riveria.
The second was her Familia senior, Ryuu—Goddess Astrea had told her this.
However.
The Goddess also said that Ryuu was actually an 'idiot' who had absolutely no idea how to teach others, so trying to learn [Concurrent Chanting] from her was likely impossible.
Lefiya had been quite surprised by this; her filter regarding her Familia senior shattered completely!!
And to be critiqued so mercilessly by her own Goddess—Senior Ryuu was just too pitiful!!
Lefiya had originally been somewhat distressed about this.
Unexpectedly, Filvis could do it too. The girl was already calculating how to find an opportunity to learn [Concurrent Chanting] from her as well!
Even if she had to pester her relentlessly, it didn't matter! She wanted to become stronger!!
She silently clenched her small fists.
Lefiya hadn't just been exercising her body with Isagi every day; she would also ask the Goddess to conduct special training with her—the kind of training Isagi and Cecil had once experienced.
Though for the girl who was completely unskilled in close combat, the so-called special training was basically being unilaterally 'beaten up' by Goddess Astrea.
Fortunately, there were gains from this. Not only did ability scores like [Endurance] and [Agility], which hadn't grown in a long time, rise significantly.
In terms of combat experience, Lefiya also somewhat understood what it meant to dodge danger by 'instinct'.
Isagi hadn't expected this guy to be so proactive in private.
"Because I don't want to be left far behind by you, Mr. Isagi, so, I will definitely do my best and always follow behind you, Mr. Isagi!!"
"Why are you suddenly saying such corny things?"
"Hehe~"
To be honest, he sometimes felt that Lefiya's ability to throw 'direct pitches' was a bit too high.
Eek!
Hearing it gave him goosebumps!!
Following the direction previously marked on the map, Isagi and the two Elf girls navigated through the caves.
When they were raising their ability scores before, they had explored the 4th Floor for a long time, so he and Lefiya had basically 'licked the map clean' here.
The only thing remaining was...
"What is that?"
When a massive structure, looking like some kind of stone rampart, appeared before their eyes, Filvis finally revealed a confused expression on her usually calm and cold face.
Although the strange monsters appearing along the way had already baffled her greatly.
Those guys were at least at the level of Level 2 monsters, and judging from the actual combat experience, they were even trickier than the guys in the Middle Floors—not to mention that Two-Headed Lizard behind the Fog Gate earlier that looked like some kind of [Monster Rex].
But that was still somewhat understandable; they were monsters, after all. Right? Monsters pop out of the Dungeon, so as long as it's a monster, it's not that strange.
But what on earth was this thing in front of them?!
In the Upper Floors where only caves and corridors should exist, what was currently displayed before the trio was a standing stone fortress.
Flags fluttered atop its massive city walls, and a Blue Moon emblem pieced together from brightly colored ores hung right in the center, surrounded by densely packed square murder holes of varying sizes.
As the three approached, inexplicably, Filvis found a line of text surfacing in her mind—
[Goblin Kingdom · Border Fortress].
"?"
Just as the girl was incomparably confused, suddenly, spots of charred sparks emerged from behind the holes on that city wall.
"Shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo!!!"
Burning arrows came covering the sky and earth toward the three like falling rain; they even emitted an indescribable stench, looking as if the arrows were tipped with ignited feces.
What the hell?!
The cool Elf, usually as tranquil as lake water, couldn't help but have a giant question mark appear over her head at this moment.
She couldn't even stop herself from thinking: How did the Dungeon turn into this?!
___
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