The battle had been going for two hours.
The Lower Floors' "welcome party" was far more intense and far longer than anyone had expected.
Inside the defensive perimeter the party had formed, the ground was littered not just with Magic Stones but with uncorked Potion bottles rolling everywhere, traces of sea-blue and orange liquid still clinging to the glass.
"Damn it, does this ever end!? How many waves has it been now? They just keep coming! Is the spawn rate in the Lower Floors seriously this ridiculous!?"
Even Leon, with double the stamina bar and a hundred times the mana pool, had started sweating from the prolonged high-intensity combat. He ripped off his hood, yanked down his face covering, and sucked in deep gulps of the humid, unfiltered air. One look at the undiminished horde of monsters and his scalp prickled.
"Aura, get ready for round eleven!"
"Right!"
Compared to the increasingly agitated Leon, Jeanne maintained the defensive line while continuing to issue orders with calm precision.
"What's wrong, Leon? It hasn't even been that long and you're already getting cranky?"
Faced with Persephone's blatant provocation, he took a deep breath and glanced at the Excelia counter on his panel, climbing like crazy. His restless heart settled instantly.
"Hah..."
"You're a veteran Level 3 Adventurer. This can't be your first time in Water City, right? Does this monster density and spawn rate look normal to you?"
Persephone didn't even need a second to think. She answered immediately.
"Where exactly are you seeing 'normal'? This is obviously anything but! With numbers like these, if you swapped in an elite party of full Level 3s, forget fighting this long... anyone with half a brain would've retreated the second it started!"
So it's the special treatment, huh?
But thinking it over, given how unusual their party was, it made sense.
After all, whose team was stacked entirely with people who could fight above their level, reincarnated veterans, and at worst, members who could punch up through teamwork alone?
Throw in one more wildcard like himself...
"Leon, the hostility is weakening."
Just as he was weighing whether to pull back tactically, recover stamina, and come back for round two...
Jeanne's voice carried over from the front line.
"The hostility's weakening?"
He repeated her words, then narrowed his eyes.
When it came to anything Jeanne said, Leon and every other member of the party trusted her without reservation.
Her skill, Revelation, was no secret within the team.
With a precognitive ability that bordered on broken, the fact that Jeanne was now saying the hostility directed at them was fading after nearly two hours of nonstop Monster Party assault... if anyone else had said it, they'd have been suspect. But this was Jeanne, so it was different.
"Finally winding down? My arms are about to fall off!"
Laurier flexed her aching, stiff arms, sore from hours of continuous bowstring pulls, her complaint cheerful despite the exhaustion.
Rose's body shimmered with alternating gold and silver light, the Sheltering Hand aura pulsing around her feet like a breathing lamp. She leaned forward, low stance, shield angled perfectly at the very front of the line. No matter how many monsters slammed into her every second, she didn't budge an inch.
"Laurier, focus. The fight isn't over. Keep up the cover fire!"
"Huh? Right!"
Snapped back to attention by Rose's reminder, Laurier refocused and resumed wrapping her arrows in magic, delivering steady shots into the monsters pressing against Rose's shield.
Arrows punched through monster after monster, and as the battle dragged on, Laurier's combat performance under pressure was improving at a visible pace.
Her accuracy and consistency in particular had gone from hitting one out of every three or four shots at the start to near-perfect marksmanship now.
This clearly wasn't some sudden leap in her archery technique. The high-intensity combat had simply forced out the full extent of the ability she'd always had.
"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"
A chain of explosions ripped through the cavern, and Leon finally cleared out every monster in front of one of the tunnels. He rushed forward and planted himself at the junction of two passages, positioning so that monsters from both sides fell within his Ice Ring's range.
"Frost Nova!"
A wave of frost-white mist swept outward, and the monsters pouring from the tunnels froze solid where they stood.
"Hand over that Excelia!"
"Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball!"
Detonation after detonation hammered the frozen swarm, shattering ice and monster alike.
Monster killed. Excelia +1.
Monster killed. Excelia +1.
...
Monster killed. Excelia +1.
...
...
After nearly two and a half hours of this trial, it was as if the Dungeon itself realized it couldn't do anything about this group of Adventurers. The Monster Party's intensity and scale began dropping off rapidly.
Ten minutes later, one final fireball bloomed upward. Firelight played across every face, and as the heat hit them, every single person wore a smile of pure relief.
"It's finally... over."
The words had barely left Kureha's lips before she swayed on her feet. Leon, who'd been watching her the entire time, caught her by the shoulders immediately, letting her lean against his chest before she could collapse.
"My dear Sword Saint, you're a Level 1. What exactly were you trying to prove out there? That was a Monster Party made up of monsters with Level 3 potential. With your defense and resistances, one stray hit and you'd be meeting your ancestors."
He guided her to the cavern wall and helped her sit down, then quickly dug a Potion out of his supply pack and held it to her lips.
Kureha didn't refuse. She let him tip it into her mouth.
"Hah... thanks."
"Don't 'thanks' me. You and Aura rest here. Jeanne, keep an eye on them. As for cleanup, collecting Magic Stones, Drop Items, materials... leave all that to the rest of us."
Jeanne walked over, a hint of fatigue showing on her face. She heard Leon's instructions and nodded.
"Go. I've got things here."
[Read 70+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]