"Laurier, Aura, Margaret and Iri, on the other hand, are already starting to struggle on Floor 28. Not surprising, though. The level gap is what it is."
"Rough and dangerous the whole way... but there's truth in the saying: the bigger the storm, the more the fish are worth."
"They're not walking away from this fight with a small haul either."
Iri and Margaret especially. Lv.1s punching above their weight in a Monster Party on Floor 28. With a wave of Excelia like that, never mind the Great Feat that was already off the charts, even their Basic Abilities could easily climb a hundred or two.
And this was only Floor 28. Their target this time was Floor 37, in the Deep Floors.
Still murmuring to himself, Leon pulled his gaze back from the distance and turned it toward his companions resting a short way off.
As far as he could see, with the rise under his feet at the center, everything within two or three hundred meters had turned into a genuine field of ice and snow.
More than an hour of raging blizzard had reshaped this barren, withered plain into a frozen kingdom. The snow had piled so deep that a single step sank past the knee.
Forget fighting in it unhindered. Even just walking, without some real strength behind you, all you could do was squirm forward through the drifts. Add the slowing effect of the Blizzard that hadn't yet faded, plus the cold, and you would probably be a frozen statue before you made it more than a few steps.
The terrifying power of a Lv.5 Mage was starting to show itself.
Everyone knew Leon's magic had never had effects this absurd before.
The magic had already ended, yet the effect hadn't fully receded. It was still shaping this whole environment.
That was something no Mage below Lv.5 could ever manage.
This was the gap that opened once level became a change in kind. It was exactly why only those who reached Lv.5 could be honored as First-Class Adventurers, addressed by the world as "Lord," a true powerhouse.
...
While Leon was up there sighing to himself, or rather slacking off, Jeanne, Rose and the others down below were busy with the cleanup.
And the busiest of all was none other than Irisviel, their only healer.
"Kureha, take off the gauntlet and roll up your sleeve."
Iri briskly laid out various high-performance medical magic items, directing Kureha to expose the wound without looking up, so that she could get to it the moment she was ready.
"Bear with it. This is going to hurt a bit."
Kureha bit her lower lip and nodded.
"Okay."
Iri lifted Kureha's forearm and looked at the wound where a Lizardman's claws had torn the flesh to a bloody mess, without so much as a frown. She picked up a cotton ball with tweezers, soaked it in some kind of solution, then began carefully cleaning and purifying along the edges of the wound.
Kureha sucked in a breath through her teeth, scalp prickling as the pain shot up her forearm.
But Iri, once she was in healer mode, had strength from who knew where. The slender hand gripping Kureha's wrist was like an iron clamp, leaving her unable to move at all, so she could only go red in the face and shake her head with muffled whimpers.
"Stop squirming!"
"Whose fault is it for being so reckless and careless in a fight? Now it hurts, does it?"
"Mmph!"
The purification done, Iri let out a small breath.
Then she chanted quietly, holding her palm suspended above the wound.
"White Grail!"
Warm, holy light settled over the mangled wound with a low hum, and the torn flesh began knitting together at a visible speed under that glow. In Leon's past life, a recovery rate that absurd would have counted as a medical miracle.
But in this other world with magic, it was just standard procedure.
In under five minutes Kureha's forearm was good as new, with only the tender pink of fresh skin standing out a little against the surrounding tone. You could hardly tell she had been hurt that badly at all.
"That's Iri for you! Your healing magic is the best!" Kureha flexed her arm, which showed no sign of anything wrong at all, and tugged at Iri with worship in her eyes, wanting to cling to her.
"Heheh, come find me any time you need anything."
Iri put her tools away and shot her a look of mild annoyance.
"If you'd just be a bit more careful in a fight, that would be the biggest help to my work."
She chased off a fully re-energized Kureha and called out without looking up.
"Next."
Iri stared in surprise at Laurier, now sitting in front of her, and was lost for words.
"You again? How?"
Laurier gave an awkward grin and bared her shoulder. A shocking, huge wound ran diagonally from her left shoulder all the way down to her right ribs. If she hadn't sensed the ambush in time with her wind magic and dodged, she would likely have been split in two by that blow.
"A Withered-Bone Troll? A natural weapon, a two-handed battle axe..."
Iri's brows drew tight, reproach in her eyes.
"Didn't Jeanne put you on ranged support and cover? How did this happen?"
Laurier's face was screwed up with pain, and at the question her eyes darted away. She stared hard at her own toes, not daring to meet Iri's gaze.
"Hmph."
Iri set her face and said nothing more, but her hands had already started working the wound with practiced ease.
Off to the side, Margaret, Aura and Persephone were quietly clearing the battlefield. Hearing Iri scolding Laurier, Aura lowered her voice, alarm in her eyes.
"Um, Margaret, Persephone..."
"How is it that the moment Iri gets into healer work mode, she feels... like a completely different person?"
"That's way too big a gap!"
Feeling the presence and pressure coming off Iri, Aura shivered.
"I don't even dare meet her eyes. That aura... it's terrifying."
Persephone, wearing a mask and gloves, was carefully separating the Poison Vermis's venom from its membrane, sorting and storing each, then extracting the Magic Stone from the remains. Her movements were gentle, her voice calm.
"That's the aura healers have. At the Dian Cecht Familia Treatment Center, every healer and nurse carries it."
"Right, no matter how strong the Adventurer, even the King, Ottar, the moment they step into the treatment center they get completely suppressed by that aura, without exception. Forget talking back, they can't even raise their voices."
"Healers, amazing, aren't they?"
...
...