"Great! You came!" shouted Tia from bar section when noticed us entering the guild.

"Sorry we are late, there were .. hmm, some circumstances." I said while taking a seat opposite from them and looked at our group.

Next to Tia was a male wolf beastkin whom I don't know, summoner was sitting next to us, while his four slaves were standing right behind him.

"Did the cause of those 'circumstances' sits beside you?" asked Tia with a grin while looking at Phoenix.

Uhh. Why did she have to say it aloud? After our morning 'activities' we washed, but apparently, that's not enough to hide from enhanced smell sense of beastkin. I glanced at Phoenix for help, but he just grinned with hands crossed on the chest. Huh? Is .. is he showing off?

Just you wait. There is no way I will play the role of embarrassed little girl.

"Yes. He was a bit wild and tore my underwears." I said and looked at Phoenix.

Everyone widened their eyes and looked at him with a shocked expression. The face of Phoenix immediately turned red and he had no idea where to look at. Ha. Take that!

"I don't think I have met your friend." I said while ignoring their looks.

"I am Jack, Tia's cousin. I was late yesterday so we had no chance to meet." after one more glance at Phoenix, the wolf beastkin introduced himself.

Unlike Tia, he was clad in heavy armor. He had one-handed sword and shield, and judging from blades at the edge of shield, it was often used as a weapon as well.

"My name is Melissa and he is..." I started to introduce us.

"Reveon." finished Phoenix and after lifting me from my seat put on his lap.

Uhh. He recovered too quickly. It's not fun.

"By the way, where is minotaur?" asked Phoenix while looking at Tia.

"Elmor? He should be back shortly. I sent him to check if his weapons are ready." she answered and looked in the direction of exit.

"It's a good thing they are still in one piece. That brute doesn't know how to go easy on them. They are not made of mithril." said Jack.

"What about others?" I asked and looked around to confirm, there were no signs of other adventurers from the ranking test.

"Cloud said his party took an escort request so he can't join us. As for others..." Tia looked at summoner. "They changed their mind when Darson opened his mouth."

"Hey! I said the truth. If they can't handle it, it's their problem." said the elf when noticed that we are talking about him. "Anyway, we don't need those weaklings. They would just slow us down."

"If you are like this you will never find friends..." said Tia while shaking her head.

"Hmpf! As if I need those weaklings as my friends." said Darson and then ordered his elf slave to bring him something to drink.

The name of the slave was Turion, and judging from the bow on his back, should be an archer. As he walked to the bar, I looked at Miriel next. Just like her brother, and as I learned from the books, all elves in general(not counting dark elves), she was blonde. From the staff in her hands, I made a guess that she is a mage. Yesterday, from the conversation they had, I learned that Turion is her brother. At least they can find comfort in a fact, they are in this together.

Name of female orc was Derea. I had no chance to see her in action during the test, but I remember that her class should be a berserker. She wore heavy armor and on her back, she had a single two-handed sword. The human slave was clad in heavy armor with a sword and shield as weapons. From conversation among slaves, I learned that his name was Jax.

They look like a decent group so I think I should go with my plan.

"Is it ok if we do the expedition to the fourth floor?" I asked while trying to find a more comfortable position to lean on Phoenix.

"Fourth floor? Are monsters above are already too weak for you?" asked Tia.

"No .. actually yes, but that's not the point. I just want to find formida." I said.

"Formida? Oh, I heard about them. Don't you need like four mages working together to kill it? If I remember right, warriors don't have a chance to hurt them. Are you sure it's wise? I know Reveon is a powerful wizard, but I don't think he alone will be enough." said Tia with a worried face.

"I think you are confusing who will do the killing. While I would like to give it a try, I think it's better to leave it in the hands of Kitty. If I managed to kill it, I doubt the corpse will be valuable. She already killed one all by herself and there was almost no damage to the skin." giggled Phoenix.

"Wait! You mean you killed that monster alone?! We are still talking about formida, right?" Darson joined the conversation.

"Yes. This time I want to try another method." I said.

"How long it took you to kill it?" asked Darson with a great interest.

"A few minutes I think." I answered, and I think I know where this is going.

"Just great! What did I even paid them for?! Melissa, right? Let's make a deal. If we meet formida you will help me to obtain its essence. I will cast a spell on her and if you manage to kill her within five minutes, I will pay you fifty.. no! A hundred gold coins!" shouted Darson with a bit of madness in his eyes.

"Deal." I easily agreed. Why shouldn't I?

Normally, I would ask if his spell does anything to the corpse. Money is nice and all, but I need to obtain its DNA. But I didn't bother to do that as I already knew from books that there should be no problems.

"Uhh, but I wanted to check that Irregular.." sulked Tia when noticed that Darson was onboard with my plan.

" "Irregular?" " I asked with Phoenix at the same time.

"Yes, there is one on the third floor. I heard it's immortal. I am very eager to check how it looks." answered Tia.

"Ha ha ha!" Phoenix started to laugh and even I soon joined when realized what she is talking about.

"I am serious! Members of D rank party said it's impossible to kill it, and just so you know, their leader is C rank adventurer!" pouted Tia.

"I am afraid you are too late." said Phoenix after finally stopped laughing.

"What?! Someone already killed it?! But that's impossible, the request to kill it is still there." asked Tia with a shock on her face.

"There was nothing left of it, so we couldn't prove the kill." answered Phoenix.

"Wait! It's you who killed it?!" shouted Tia with Jack almost the same words.

"We didn't do it alone, but yes. We killed it." I said with a smile.

"How did it look?" asked Tia with curiosity.

"Believe me, you don't want to know." I answered and from a flash of memories about it, a shudder ran over my body.

*

"Can't we go straight to the fourth floor? They already said it's dead." complained Darson as we were approaching the portal in the Outpost.

I grimaced from the smell in the air. Now I remember what was so bad about dungeons.

"But what if it was another Irregular?" Tia was still not giving up on the idea.

"Pff! Another Irregular. What a joke! They don't spawn left and right, and when they do spawn, they are quickly hunted by local monsters. There is no chance for two strong Irregulars to appear at the same time. I tell you, this is a waste of time!" argued Darson.

"You are only saying this because it's impossible to make them into a summon!" argued back Tia.

"We don't have the fourth floor marked on our portal stones, so we can't go straight there anyway." joined Jack.

"Y .. you should have started with this! Let's go. The faster we are done with it, the faster we can start looking for formida." said Darson and gestured for his slaves to enter the portal.

I giggled with Phoenix from the sight. It seems his eagerness to hunt formida could surpass even mine.

*

As we teleported to the third floor, there was only a small group of soldiers resting nearby. Ah, yes, soldiers and guards often train in dungeons, but one would still meet adventurers more often.

"Wait a bit. I want to check something." said Phoenix while still standing at the platform of portal, and after activating his portal stone, vanished from our sight.

After a moment he appeared, looked at his portal stone and then vanished again. He repeated the process few more times and after appearing for the last time started slowly walking to us with a thoughtful expression.

"Done playing?" I asked with crossed arms.

"But Kitty, I wasn't playing." grinned Phoenix and then vanished again.

This time he appeared right behind us.

"Teleportation! You have reached level five?!" I shouted in delight.

"Yes, I was very close in grasping the process behind teleportation. When we used the portal, I got the feeling that I am almost there."

"This is great! By the way, is it possible to teleport let's say ten meters above the ground?" I asked him with interest. Someday I will be able to do all of this as well, and books didn't answer all my questions.

Phoenix looked up and then teleported high in the air. After one second of free falling, he vanished again and appeared in his previous position. The moment he did, the ground shook under him and a cloud of dust raised in the air. It seems that the momentum, the body had during teleportation, doesn't disappear with changed location.

Phoenix looked at me with a grin and vanished again. I noticed him even higher in the air, almost near the ceiling of dungeon. He started falling again, but this time with the head facing the ground as if diving. After a moment he teleported again, and the moment he appeared nearby, it looked as if he flew from the ground few meters into the air. While lingering momentum can be dangerous, Phoenix just proved that it can be used to your own advantage as well. All you need to do is change direction you face during teleportation.

"This is so unfair!" shouted Tia. "Why can't I shadowstep into the air as well."

*

Luckily we didn't find any Irregular on the third floor, I was a bit afraid that thing could be somehow still alive or have a relative. After few encounters with a group of direwolfs, we reached the fourth floor without incidents.

When we entered the fourth floor, I picked traces of someone I didn't expect to find there. At first, it was just a nagging feeling that I was overlooking something, but when we walked further from the entrance, I realized it was a scent of assassin that escaped during the night attack. The scent was few days old and it was hard to determine where it was coming from. The assassin probably used shadowstep to traverse the dungeon.

How did he get there? Shouldn't entrance be guarded for exactly this reason? No, I guess I shouldn't expect much from guards. With his skills, it might be possible to slip in undetected. What did he want here? After contemplating a bit I couldn't think of anything and decided to stay vigilant.

After we wandered for a bit, one arachne hiding in the tree decided to attack us. I warned others and launched few pebbles at her, ruining her stealth in the process, then I let others deal with her while keeping eye on surroundings.

Derea with Jax stepped in to intercept arachne. While Jax was taking its blows with his shield, Derea tried to attack its limbs with her greatsword. With a clever use of a thread, the monster was easily handling both of them at once.

"Now!" shouted Turion(elf slave), and both of them jumped to the sides.

"Lightning Bolt!" and just as slaves jumped to the side, a lightning orb was launched by Miriel at arachne.

It didn't kill arachne, but it was enough to temporary paralyze her with electrocution. In the mean time, the bow and an arrow of Turion, started to glow. Right after the spell of his sister hit arachne, he released the glowing arrow, which pierced an eye of the monster.

Arachne screamed from the pain, but it was the last thing she managed to do. The arrow in its eye glowed even brighter and after a moment exploded, only a headless body fell to the ground.

*whistle* "Not bad." said Jack.

"Of course! Not just any slave can be my servant." said Darson with crossed arms. He was in his arachne form and all this time he was nearby watching the fight. From the movements of his muscles under the skin, I could tell that he was ready to jump at the monster should the need arise.

While they were talking, I summoned my most powerful handgun 'silver thunder', and shoot in the head another arachne who was silently descending from the ceiling on a thread.

You have gained 1423 experience points for overcoming your adversary.

While the received experience wasn't that great, there was now ten of us in the party. All things considering it was quite a haul for only two monsters.

After an hour, and few more encounters with arachne, I finally picked the traces of formida. Unfortunately, my joy was short lived. As we got closer to the source, from the sounds of battle it was obvious that someone was already fighting her.