「Guru~」

「Mm!」

About 30 minutes into the fourth dungeon floor. As they were making their way through the same cobblestone environment, Set suddenly gave a cry, followed by Byune several seconds later.

Rei sensed an enemy approaching from their two raised voices as they all prepared for battle.

Byune held daggers in both her hands while sharp claws and blades extended out from Vihera’s hands and heels. Elena unsheathed her sword whip from her waist, Set crouched down, ready to pounce, and Rei readied his Death Scythe.

In addition, Yellow, who had been sitting on Elena’s left shoulder, started hovering in the air so as to not get in the way.

And……

「It’s here. ……But, it’s very slow. It’s probably……」

As Vihera finished speaking monsters about 50cm in length showed up at the end of the passageway. There were seven of them, slowly moving across the stone pavement.

「……I feel like an idiot for being so wary. ……Are these Seal Worms?」

「Mm.」

Rei and the others had been ready to respond to anything as this was the first monster they had come across on the fourth floor. However, after seeing that they were slow moving Seal Worms, it wasn’t a surprise that they felt deflated.

Vihera spoke with a wry smile at Rei’s words.

「Well, it’s a bit troublesome to deal with because of its ability to slow the movements of its enemies, but in reality, it’s a dedicated support role monster with no real offensive power.」

Elena also seemed to have expected a stronger monster to appear. She looked at the Seal Worm with some confusion.

「Mm!」

Among the members of the party, Byune seemed to be the only enthusiastic one. Despite maintaining the same expressionless face, she seemed to be quite motivated to collect the material she was looking for.

「Gururu~?」

What do we do? Set seemed to ask with a cry. Rei stroked Set’s head before readying his Death Scythe again.

「No matter how weak the enemy is, it’s still a monster and we haven’t collected the magic stones of Seal Worms yet. It’s also lucky for Byune to run into them.」

「Magic stones?」

Compared to Rei, Vihera seemed to have lost all motivation as she asked while withdrawing her claws and blades.

(……What? It seemed like they just disappeared rather than retracting into the back of her hands and feet. Are those claws and blades shaped by magic power or something?)

Elena was surprised by what she saw out of the corner of her eyes as held her sword whip and observed the Seal Worms.

However, she had no time to think about it before the battle commenced.

The first one to jump forward was, of course, the thief, Byune. She approached the Seal Worms with a speed unlike that of a 10 year old. A white liquid was spat out from the mouth of the worm in an attempt to intercept her. The liquid hardened immediately after hitting the walls and ground. However, Byune continued to move forward as she evaded the liquid spit out by the seven Seal Worms.

Finally, after reaching them, she slashed at the soft sides of the closest Seal Worm with a low posture, passing by it as if crawling along the ground.

「Gigigigigi!」

Was it anger or pain? Either way, the Seal Worm that was slashed gave a cry by rubbing its fangs. As if it were a signal, the other six Seal Worms immediately spat out the hardening liquid again.

Their aim wasn’t Byune, who had already passed by the Seal Worm……but the Seal Worm that had been slashed by Byune’s dagger. The liquid struck the Seal Worm’s wound before hardening and stopping the bleeding.

「I didn’t expect them to treat the wound like that.」

Rei murmured unintentionally as he watched the Seal Worms. Elena nodded silently in agreement.

「It’s fine as a temporary fix……but it will only buy them time. There, look at Byune」

Following Vihera’s eyes, they could see Byune dashing forward, jumping off the walls and soaring above the Seal Worms. As she did that, she took out several 20cm long needles and held them between her fingers. Swinging her arm……the next moment, she threw them.

The way she threw them was completely different to how Rei threw spears as a means of a long ranged attack. Unlike Rei’s throwing method, which used his entire body to increase the spear’s speed and power, Byune’s needles were thrown using the suppleness of her wrist. The speed of the needles wasn’t particularly fast. However, it was an excellent method for throwing them out in rapid sucession.

In under a few seconds, she had thrown out all the needles between her fingers. All that remained was the figures of the seven Seal Worms that were pierced by the needles and unable to move.

After throwing out all her needles, Byune pulled out her two daggers from the left and right sides of her waist again……before falling towards the ground. Taking advantage of her falling speed, she buried the tips of both her daggers into the heads of two Seal Worms.

Landing on the ground, she lept forward……towards another Seal Worm. Swinging her blades at her sides, she slashed through a Seal Worm that couldn’t move. Her movements never stopped. Doing another triangle jump, similar to what Set often did, she repeated her attacks over and over, gradually tearing through the bodies of the Seal Worms.

Normally, the Seal Worms should have been able to seal their own wounds with the liquid they could spit. However, that became difficult for them to do in the current situation, where they were pinned down by needles. Because of that, they continued to be torn apart one-sidely……eventually, all the Seal Worms were killed.

「Mm!」

These are mine! Byune insisted that they were all hers as she had taken them all down by herself. Rei and the others acknowledged that as they helped to strip materials from the Seal Worms.

「This fight, aren’t you going to say it’s cruel? You’re a stuffy general so I thought that you would make a big fuss over this.」

After inserting a bottle into the Seal Worms body to collect the hardening liquid, the Seal Worms fangs were removed, which served as materials and proofs of subjugation. The magic stone was also removed from its heart. As they did that, Vihera seemed to have some time to spare as she asked Elena a question.

As she stripped the fangs off a Seal Worm, Elena responded to Vihera’s somewhat provocative question with a serious expression.

「At first glance it might seem like a cruel way to kill them. However, can Byune actually kill a Seal Worm in a single strike? Because of that, she used her speed to compensate and raise her attack power……I don’t think it’s strange?」

「……Is that so? If you know that then I guess it’s fine.」

Vihera had a surprised look on her face at Elena’s response before nodding as if satisfied.

In the back of her mind, Vihera thought of several adventurers who had accompanied Byune beefore. The adventurers had been jealous of Byune, who was more than 10 years younger than them, and had called out her fighting methods as cruel, brutal and even heartless. The adventurers’ words of condemnation were all the stronger as it seemed to them that Byune just brushed them off with the same expressionless face.

But, for Vihera, who had partied with Byune several times before, she could see that Byune was deeply hurt. Vihera had been so angry that if Byune hadn’t stopped her, the party probably would have gone missing in the dungeon. ……In the end, the party dived deeper into the dungeon without considering their own level of skill and never came back after that.

(There were a lot of suspicious things about that part, such as targeting Byune, who is a survivor of the Fraut family, but……after that incident, Byune began to hide her emotions even more. She didn’t even form temporary parties anymore. Given that, it’s good that she was willing to form a party with Rei and Elena, even if it’s only a temporary one……)

In her heart, Vihera was grateful for meeting Rei and Elena.

It wasn’t just that she was interested in fighting the two of them, but also because they were open to interacting with Byune.

(Ahh, but because of that……if I fight those two and end up dying, Byune would be sad.

Vihera had a slightly sad expression imagining that as she took out a magic stone.

However, no matter what she thought, Vihera didn’t have the option of not fighting Rei and Elena. Even if the fight would kill her, Rei or Elena.

She had a desire for combat that burned within her. Fortunately, it was currently a cold, dim flame. However, it was clear that the flame would eventually grow.

When that flame had grown, when she fought Rei and Elena, how much fulfillment and pleasure would it fill her with? There was no way for her to stop it, that primordial impulse.

(because I enjoyed that fight, the flame within me burned a little greater.)

Vihera was enraptured as she recalled the fight she had with Rei the day before. Forunately, no one else was around to see her expression right now. However, if any men had seen Vihera in her current state, her expression would have been enough to suck away their souls and many would have tried to assault her without knowing their own strength.

If the flame within her was able to burn like that in a half hearted battle where neither of them used their weapons, if they were to fight at their full strength……

Badump.

Just imagining that moment made her heart thump as if she were in love.

「Mm!」

Byune called out to Vihera worriedly.

To an outsider, they might not have seen much emotion, but her eyes showed……some concern.

Seeing that, Vihera shook her head as she smiled. Even though it was a gentle smile, completely different from her previous smile.

「Fufu~, it’s nothing. Rather……yes, here. The Seal Worm’s magic stone and proof of subjugation.」

「Mm.」

With a small nod, Byune placed the items into her waist pouch.

Because it was a normal pouch, unlike Elena’s magic pouch, the amount of items that could be stored inside was limited.

Since Byune needed to earn as much money as possible, she collected items that didn’t take up as much space, mainly magic stones.

However, today, she didn’t need to worry about choosing what to take back as Rei had his Misty Ring and Elena still had her magic pouch.

When Byune looked at the materials, magic stones and bottles containing the hardening liquid, she nodded in satisfaction.

「May I have a moment? If you could, the next time Seal Worms show up, I’d like to take two of them.」

「Mm.」

「Is two enough?」

Rei nodded at Vihera, who had responded on behalf of Byune.

「I have a hobby of collecting monster magic stones. I don’t have any Seal Worm magic stones yet, so I’d like to get one to preserve and one for display.」

「Mmm……Mm!」

I understand, Byune seemed to say. Thanking Byune briefly, Rei and the others continued down the dungeon.

「I had to look at a map for the upper floors……but it doesn’t look like she needs one.」

「That’s right. She’s just memorised the dungeon passageways. That’s why thieves are popular when entering the dungeon.」

Elena and Rei walked while conversing. However, Vihera seemed to have different thoughts.

「It’s actually slightly different to what you think. Even if there is a thief, they’re not all equal. Especially bad thieves won’t even be able to see and disarm traps. If you consider that, tell how good a thief Byune is.」

「How good is she, specifically?」

Rei asked Vihera, who seemed quite proud for some reason.

Speaking of the thieves Rei knew, there was Culotte and Ons, both of which he had worked with on rank up tests. While he wasn’t a professional thief, Reno was a jack of all trades adventurer who knew some thief skills. There was also Vel, one of Elena’s former escort guards.

At Rei’s question, Vihera thought about it before replying as she watched Byune chose the right path at a Y intersection with no hesitation.

「Let me see. I think that purely in terms of skill as a thief, Byune would be one of the best in the world at her age. ……Well, I don’t know how many adventurers there would be at her age. If we consider thieves of all ages, she probably sits around the lower middle. But considering her current age……you can guess how skilled she would be when she grows up.」

As Vihera said that, she watched Byune walk down the passagewway, scouting for traps.

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