A dripping sound echoed.

Bated breaths followed as if it were in rhythm with the sound of water.

The clanking of armor resounded throughout the dim room.

Five sets of footsteps were moving in unison.

A screech suddenly shook the cage as a monstrous shadow jumped from behind a tall pillar that held up the interior of the cave.

The monster that appeared had a gigantic body that could compare to a fully-grown wyvern, only without the wingspan. A wyvern in its adulthood was the size of an average noble coach.

It was a Chimera judging from its mutated form. It had the body and face of a lion, three tails of different animals and legs similar to an eagle with even the talons.

“Block its attack, Raymon!”

“Humph!”

A clanking sound resounded when Raymon positioned himself in front of the group with his shield. His shield suddenly expanded in size and barely stopped the strike from the Chimera.

This was the 10th and final floor of the dungeon they had to clear.

The journey up until now had been smooth since the five of them were able to work so well with each other.

Arnold was right about Stella always needing a leash to use her power effectively. Maylim had been giving out orders in every battle. All they had to do was follow the orders.

He was surprised how well Stella could follow orders. She was even outperforming him sometimes.

They encountered skeletons on the first day which wasn’t a challenge since the skeletons had crude weapons and barely any skills at all. A simple fireball arrow from Eclese was enough.

Skeletons spawn from an area that has a high mortality rate. Say for example in areas where genocides were carried out. But in this case the dungeon they entered was near the Undead Plains, to the northwest of the empire by 1km.

It took them a few hours to get here. They had to set up camp first at the start of their journey. Their journey only began at nightfall. Eclese had the skills of a ranger so he acted as the scout while the other four stayed behind to guard their things.

Dungeons didn’t have safe zones so they had to be alert at all times. Their first encounter with monsters was a swarm of giant bugs which had poisonous bites.

Although they were caught off-guard they managed to defend against the monsters fairly easily. The first 9 floors underground weren’t worth mentioning.

Judging by the fact of the state the room they were currently fighting the Chimera in, Arnold deduced that it had been a few decades that it had been trapped here. He had no idea what caused normal buildings to be swallowed up by dungeons.

There were beakers, cages and other lab equipment in the room so it was definitely a laboratory used by humans. It seemed that it had been a few decades that anyone even visited this place.

The chimera was definitely a creation of the ones who built this lab.

The Chimera jumped back after its attack failed to penetrate Raymon’s shield.

“Arnold, Stella! Flank it!” Maylim jumped with incredible force after giving her order.

“Roger!”

“Got it!”

Arnold and Stella moved in unison. Well, Arnold was much faster than her so he arrived by the monster’s side rather quickly. He pulled back his fist, careful not to use too much power.

His body exuded dark blue aura that engulfed his entire hand. The chimera was quick on its feet so Arnold couldn’t use too much power since that would slow him down.

That was why Arnold decided to use his recently learnt aura technique. It wasn’t very lethal as it was in his demon lord state but he could at least throw the monster’s balance off.

Back when he was in his demon lord state, he could collapse an entire mountain. Arnold was now fully aware that his demon lord form didn’t just increase his attack power but his skills as well.

He hadn’t used his demon lord form much after the village incident since he never had the opportunity to.

“Flame Gauntlets!” A storm of blue flames surged from his right arm.

The monster tried to dodge the storm of energy but Stella didn’t allow it. She swooped down and kicked it in the side, probably breaking a few ribs as well.

The chimera screeched.

“[Shadow Swords]!” Maylim shouted before a large shadow was raised behind her. It shot out like tentacles which transformed into a barrage of swords.

The swords shot into the chimera’s skin the same time Arnold’s Flame Gauntlets blast hit it. The monster was assaulted by three attacks at once.

Its tail which resembled a scorpion’s shot towards Arnold. Arnold didn’t dodge but instead used his sword to direct its tail’s path by using the back of his Aura Sword. If this were a normal sword then it would’ve broken upon impact but the Aura Sword was near indestructible since it was a soul weapon.

Weapon breaking artifacts were useless against soul weapons. Also, warriors targeting his sword specifically to break it would be hit with a backlash twice the power that they attacked with.

The tail screeched against his sword before being launched straight into the ground. Arnold stomped his foot onto the monster’s tail, shattering it instantly.

A deafening roar came out of its mouth.

“Use a poison arrow, Eclese! Aim for its eyes! I think it’s about to harden its body!”

“Okay!”

Maylim’s words were right. Arnold could see the chimera release a gooey liquid out of its body. It covered only the parts which didn’t have armor-like plates.

Cracking sounds echoed as the monster’s entire body was covered by the goo. The goo was crystalizing at an incredible rate.

‘Its defense must’ve doubled by now. I’ll kill it the moment Eclese’s arrow is about to hit.’

Arnold didn’t care about gathering experience from the monsters they encountered so far. But considering how this monster could tank such powerful blasts, it was probably in the late level 20s. It was bound to have an ample amount of experience points.

Arnold needed to kill it so that he could get the monster’s XP. Maylim and the others would never know since they didn’t have the ability to see their own stats.

The monster gained significant distance by leaping backwards.

“Can you still hit it from here?” Arnold asked after going to Eclese’s side.

“Of course I can. I’m a Mountain Elf after all. We are the best at fighting with bows.”

He gave a confident smirk.

‘Well, Sylphiala was the best archer I’ve seen so far but I’ll have to see if he’ll beat that.’

There existed spells that could help one to aim accurately. One was called Magic Eye. It had the same function as a scope on a rifle. Eclese couldn’t use that since it was arcane magic and he was an Elf.

But Elves never needed these convenient spells in the first place.

“Getting ready to fire!” Eclese pulled back the golden arrow. A kind of energy leaked out of the arrowhead; it was probably the mana getting ready to activate the rune spell.

The chimera only growled from a distance as it walked slowly to its left. Arnold and the rest of the group followed its movements.

If the chimera were to pounce on them then Arnold and Stella would parry its attacks while Maylim attacked it. If that didn’t work then Raymon would halt its attacks with his tanking skills while all three of them attack it at once.

‘I wonder what kind of skill that Shadow Swords is. Judging by its color maybe it’s a dark aura attribute?’

He had never heard of a swordsman with black aura before. Golden aura was the most special kind one could find while his dark blue aura was one of two known rare cases.

Only him and his father had this kind of aura. This was probably the reason for their strength since young.

The swords she threw at the chimera earlier was firmly in place even now. Each of them was connected by a string and conjoined somewhere along the ground.

‘Hold on,’ Arnold followed the path of the strings that joined at one.

His gaze stopped at Maylim whose hand was covered in black aura. It pulsated every few seconds.

Arnold looked back at the Chimera.

‘It’s moving much slower than before. Is she draining its lifeforce?’

He looked at Eclese this time. Eclese was still nocking his arrow, having it aimed straight at the monster.

‘I see. So this is their strategy every time they fight a boss.’

They’ve probably used this same strategy a lot during their previous boss fights. It was a solid strategy but they had to be careful with what monsters they used it on.

Maylim was using her own aura to manifest so many swords so she wouldn’t be able to last long. If she were to fight a monster that could control elements like a Water Serpent or Pixy then this strategy would fail.

The above mentioned monsters used the life-force of the forest they’re living in. Forests have infinite life-force so long as the World Tree was still living. This allowed all the forest dwellers to use the mana in the atmosphere.

Meaning that it would be a battle of attrition if they didn’t have any other strategies. Of course, they would lose.

But considering how much experience they had, Arnold couldn’t rule out that this was their only strategy for fighting. Perhaps it was the easiest. It was definitely easier for the rookies—Arnold and Stella.

All they had to do was watch out if the monster went on full offense and subdue it promptly. If it were Arnold’s decision then he would lure it into a dead-end and force it to use all its energy on offense. The monster didn’t really have high agility or stamina so it would tire out much quicker if it was a battle of physical endurance.

The monster’s paw suddenly slipped and its felt forward. Its eyes were unfocused.

The silence of the cave was disturbed by Maylim’s yell, “NOW!”

Eclese loosed the arrow, it shot out at incredible speed. At the same time, Arnold took out two daggers from his back and covered it in his Aura. He could’ve used Aura Blasts but those didn’t have a long range.

His hands moved so fast that none of them could see it move at all.

All they probably saw were two blurry objects passing by their eyes at astonishing speeds.

The chimera tried to get up and move but Eclese’s arrow dug into its eye, impacting its brain and sending it flying out the other ear. At the same time, Arnold’s daggers blew off the chimera’s entire head, shattering the cave wall behind it, letting the sun shine through.

“What the fuck!?” Maylim exclaimed in disbelief, “What kind of arrows are those!?”

‘Good. No one saw.’

Arnold could feel that something was changing in his body. Maybe that was the sign of XP.

“Huh?” Eclese stood there like an idiot as he looked at his bow.

◇◇◇

“Great job, team! Say ‘Yay’~!”

“No one is saying that, leader.”

Maylim cheered and Eclese rolled his eyes and replied to her.

Maylim puffed her cheeks.

“Why did I have to waste my aura to slow it down when your arrow could blow its head away like that!?”

“I-I didn’t know, okay? Plus, how can a simple poison arrow do that?” Eclese shrugged.

“Maybe it was a chemical reaction,” Arnold intervened and lied through his teeth.

“Chemical reaction?”

“You’re an alchemist student so you should know that certain substances explode when it comes into contact with mana.” He pointed at Eclese’s arrows, “Those arrows are filled with mana. The rune were written using mana, after all. Perhaps the Chimera’s bodily fluids were filled with some of those substances that reacted, which caused the explosion.”

“Kind of like ethanol and fire?”

“Yes, but much more destructive and concentrated.”

Maylim, Raymon and Eclese seemed convinced. Stella only looked blankly as if her brain couldn’t process what she just heard.

‘I should become a professional bullshitter, kukuku.’

“Anyway,” Maylim clapped her hands, “Let’s take a look at our treasure! Did you two know that the academy lets us keep 40% of the spoils?” Maylim looked at Stella and Arnold with a beaming smile, “When we go back then we’ll celebrate by drinking!”

“No thanks.”

“…”

Eclese and Raymon rejected her. Well, Raymon only frowned and turned his head.

“Why!?” Maylim grabbed Eclese’s coat with tears in her eyes, “We haven’t slept a wink for these past three days! Let’s drink, party and get a good night’s sleep once we're done!"

Eclese looked at Raymon, “Can you remember the last time we went out partying and how drunk miss Maylim here was?”

“Umu.” Raymon grunted.

“T-That situation was out of my control!” Maylim blushed.

“What did she do?” Stella asked curiously.

“She almost let eleven men have their way with her when she was drunk. They dragged her upstairs to which she happily agreed to. Luckily Raymon was able to arrive there in time before she did something she would’ve regretted the next day.”

Maylim fell onto the ground, screaming while covering her ears. Stella was looking at her in disgust.

“Whore. Harlot. Filth.” Stella muttered.

“Guh!” Maylim seemed to have heard as she groaned.

“She’s a light drinker so there should always be someone to look after her, especially if me and Raymon want to let loose too. Where I come from drinking is like a traditional practice that should be enjoyed and not let yourself be troubled by other things. As you’ve just heard I can’t risk it again.”

“I guess I can look out for her,” Stella raised her hand, “I don’t drink wine or any other alcohol, after all.”

“Really!?” Maylim instantly jolted upwards and grabbed Stella by the shoulders.

“Mm. Alcohol doesn’t exactly smell or taste pleasant….”

“Works for me! Then let’s go!" Maylim bolted towards the cave's exit, leaving the four of them behind.

Eclese smiled wryly.

“I guess we’re celebrating before we head back to the academy.”