After that, Leo and the others, five in all, set off again, and ran into quite a few more fights along the way.
It had to be said, once they reached a Deep Floor region like Floor 51, the frequency at which monsters appeared really was high, and every time they showed up it was in packs, never alone, forcing every adventurer who set foot on this floor to face multiple monsters at once.
One person fighting several monsters was just the norm here. Fighting dozens of monsters was the norm too. Sometimes you even had to face a hundred or more on your own, and one careless slip would get you surrounded and beaten to death. Even the Lv.5 first-class adventurers didn't dare take their opponents lightly in a place like this.
And even with this staggering rate of monster spawns, Tiona, of all things, offered a bored little comment.
"It's pretty quiet today, huh? A lot easier than the times we came here before."
According to this Amazoness little angel, today's Floor 51 actually counted as a huge drop in difficulty. Back when they used to come here, they basically got no rest time at all, and unless they spent the better half of a day battling the endless armies of monsters, there was no chance of the monsters here thinning out at all.
Nothing like today, where after finishing one fight they could leisurely cover a stretch of road. Compared to the old fighting frequency, this was practically a vacation.
Of course, that didn't mean today's Floor 51 could be cleared easily, only that it was a fair bit easier than before. If it weren't for Ais, Tiona, and Tione holding the front line, those Black Rhinos that came charging out now and then would have been more than enough to give Leo and the others a hard time on their own.
The three girls who were the same age as Leo were powerful, no doubt about it. Their strength already exceeded that of an ordinary Lv.5 first-class adventurer, and on top of that, each of them was special in her own way.
Tiona racked up battle after battle with her peerless brute strength and her sweeping, all-out fighting style. Even the thick-hided, tough-fleshed Black Rhinos couldn't last a single round against the huge double-bladed Urga in her hands. That great double-blade, spinning like a wind-wheel, was nothing short of a meat grinder, and not a single monster it passed over came out unscathed. Losing a leg was getting off easy; most were simply ground to death on the spot, without a shred of luck to be had.
Tione, by contrast, was far steadier than Tiona, displaying finesse rather than raw force most of the time. A pair of curved blades danced in her hands as if alive, flipping as she pleased, cutting down monster after monster as she leapt up and down, none of it as savage as Tiona. But sometimes she'd click her tongue in irritation, her aura turning suddenly violent, enough to make your blood run cold.
Compared to the Amazoness twins, Ais was as silent and reserved as ever, fighting without a word, yet the scenes of slaughter she created were no weaker than the other two's, even more shocking, if anything.
That silver saber in her hand took a monster's life with every stroke. Either she cut them clean in half at the waist, or from head to toe, or with one slash from the shoulder through to the ribs on the opposite side, almost every time leaving the monster split in two. Her swordsmanship was so sharp it sent a chill through Leo's chest.
It was only on seeing a sight like this that Leo understood just how much Ais held back during their usual sparring.
If he were the one facing this Ais, then even now, having reached Lv.3, he probably wouldn't last three moves.
And that was the best case. The worst case was that, like those monsters, he wouldn't even have time to react before he was cleaved in two.
In any case, most of the time here Leo couldn't keep up with Ais's speed. Forget tracking the arc of her strikes, even when she dashed out, it would take him a while to spot the afterimage she'd left behind, to hear the whistling of the wind.
From this you could see just how powerful these three girls, only sixteen years old, really were.
"The three of them can't be far from Lv.6, can they?"
Leo was certain of it.
Even without going by the plot of the original work, he could tell as much from how the three of them performed.
Especially Ais. It had already been more than three years since she reached Lv.5, and by now her Status at the Lv.5 stage had nearly hit its limit. Once she gained enough great deeds, she'd rank up to Lv.6 at once.
And when that happened, Ais would become the youngest Lv.6 in all of Orario.
Tiona and Tione were much the same, each only a few great deeds short of leveling up, so all three were currently at the very top tier of Lv.5, just a single step away from Lv.6.
That was exactly why they could butcher the monsters on Floor 51 like slicing through melons, a sight to behold. At the very least, an ordinary Lv.5 definitely wouldn't have this kind of ability.
Of course, the Leo thinking all this had no idea that, in the eyes of Ais and the other two, he was every bit as ridiculous an existence.
They could butcher the monsters on Floor 51 like slicing through melons, and Leo could put on a dazzling show with his Meteor Dance, killing any monster on the spot the moment it was hit, even toying with the monsters in all sorts of inventive ways.
Ais and the others had seen it themselves, two monsters both drawn to the meteors Leo had unleashed, chasing them all over the place, and then, under Leo's control, actually crashing into each other, the attacks they'd meant for the meteors landing on one another instead, so the two of them killed each other off.
"Magic can be used like that?"
Tiona hadn't been able to help saying so at the time, which stung the already dejected Lefiya all over again.
Compared to Leo and Ais's trio, Lefiya's performance really did fall far short. Her Magic could hurt the monsters on this floor too, and just like Leo, she had the ability to take down the monsters here, yet she always seized up in the middle of a fight, unable to chant her incantation at all.
When she was being protected by Leo and the others and no monster rushed up to her face, it was fine, Lefiya could just barely recover her composure and successfully chant her Magic. But the moment a monster fixed on her and charged right up to her, she was basically helpless, completely unable to chant smoothly.
"You're only Lv.3 after all. Take it slow, no need to rush."
Tione kept comforting her, but while that might work normally, with such a glaring comparison standing right beside her, how could Lefiya possibly be comforted?
"Leo's Lv.3 too, though..."
Lefiya pointed at Leo, who was in his element among the swarm of monsters, her face full of bewilderment.
Watching that scene, Ais, Tiona, and Tione were left speechless as well.
Lefiya got rushed by monsters, and naturally so did Leo. But every time he got rushed, he could calmly cast his Magic and blast the oncoming monster away, even, like right now, dodging and weaving under a monster's pursuit, like a nimble gust of wind, dodging the monster's attacks while loosing off his Magic in return with room to spare.
That practiced Concurrent Chanting left the girls exchanging glances.
"Don't compare yourself to him."
So Tiona and Tione could only say this.
"He's just not normal."
Hearing that, Leo only felt offended. It was just Concurrent Chanting, and that was enough to get his membership in the human race revoked?
The way he saw it, Concurrent Chanting really wasn't that hard. As long as you could keep your composure and stay calm at every moment of a fight, it wasn't difficult to learn.
Especially for someone like him, whose Magic was only an ultra-short chant, very easy to control, and who could even drop the chant entirely in an emergency and still cast. For him, learning Concurrent Chanting was bound to be far easier than for an ordinary Mage.
Lefiya, on the other hand, had hardly any ultra-short-chant Magic. Her cheapest was a short chant, and she could also unleash long-chant and ultra-long-chant wide-area annihilation Magic. Magic that powerful demanded far more concentration to cast than Leo's did, and pulling it off under Concurrent Chanting was at least ten times harder for her than for him.
Add to that the fact that Lefiya's nerves still weren't up to par, that she got flustered easily, had no experience dealing with strong foes, and was poor at handling the unexpected, and it would be a miracle if she could manage Concurrent Chanting at all.
"You should just get used to it first."
In the end, Leo offered this advice.
"Whenever you can start treating the monsters here like radishes, that's when you should be able to wipe out your shame."
And so the five of them pressed on through Floor 51 without trouble.
The further they went, the quieter the Dungeon became, and the monsters stopped appearing so often, letting that hushed, creeping dread begin to spread.
The five passed through corridors that were uneven and varied in height, passed through paths that split into many branches, and crossed tangled, intricate terrain, staying on alert while following the map in hand toward their destination.
They moved away from the regular route leading down to Floor 52, pushing steadily deeper into Floor 51.
"...Isn't it a little too quiet?"
Even Tiona, walking out front, found herself muttering this without thinking.
Ais and Tione exchanged a glance, finally sensing something was off.
"It really is a bit strange today." Tione said in a low voice. "Sure, we're getting closer and closer to Cadmus' Spring here, but it shouldn't be this quiet."
"...There are no monsters." Ais had always been extremely sensitive to the presence of monsters, and after a sweep of their surroundings, she said, "I can't feel any presence."
"C-could Cadmus be out?" Lefiya said, a little tense. "Did it wipe out all the monsters nearby?"
Leo didn't join the conversation, walking on in silence.
The five of them passed through one last single-file passage and arrived at an open space.
This was the hall of a cavern chamber.
Leo and the others came to a halt one after another before the chamber.
"We're here." Tiona pointed at the inside of the chamber and said a few words. "Cadmus' Spring is inside this chamber, right?"
At that, neither Ais nor Tione spoke up.
Both had their brows tightly furrowed, Ais especially, her eyes wavering as she looked into the chamber.
Leo looked into the chamber as well, his eyes narrowing slightly. He'd caught some out-of-the-ordinary movement.
"Did you two hear that?"
Tione spoke up, her expression grave.
"Hear what?"
Tiona and Lefiya were both a little puzzled.
The next second, they heard Ais's voice.
"Something's fighting in there."
With that, Ais paused before going on.
"It's a vicious fight."
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