"Guruuu."
"Nn!"
They had been advancing through B4F of the dungeon for about thirty minutes. As they traveled through the same monotonous scenery of cobblestone floors, Seto suddenly let out a cry. A few seconds later, Byune followed suit.
Sensing the approach of enemies from the warning given by the man and the beast, the party members immediately prepared for combat.
Byune gripped daggers in both hands. Vihera extended sharp claws from her gauntlets and sprouted blades from the heels of her greaves. Elena drew her whip-sword from the sheath at her waist. Seto crouched low, ready to spring at a moment's notice, while Rei readied his Death Scythe.
Meanwhile, Iero, who had been perched on Elena's left shoulder, took to the air to stay out of the way.
And then...
"They're coming... but they’re moving quite slowly. This is likely..."
Just as Vihera finished her sentence, a group of monsters emerged from further down the passage. They were about fifty centimeters long, seven in total. They wriggled forward, crawling sluggishly across the cobblestones.
"...I feel like a fool for being so on edge. So these are the Seal Worms."
"Nn."
Since this was their first monster encounter on B4F, Rei and the others had been prepared for any eventuality. However, seeing that their opponents were the slow-moving Seal Worms, they couldn't help but feel a bit deflated.
As Rei spoke with a sigh, Vihera gave a wry smile.
"Well, they can be a bit troublesome if they manage to immobilize you, but they’re purely support monsters. They have almost zero offensive power of their own."
Elena, too, had likely expected something more formidable. She looked down at the Seal Worms with a somewhat puzzled expression.
"Nn!"
Among the group, Byune was the only one who seemed genuinely motivated. Even though her face remained its usual expressionless mask, she seemed eager to obtain the materials she was after.
"Grrrruuu?"
Rei readied his Death Scythe again while stroking the head of Seto, who was trilling as if to ask how to proceed.
"Even if they’re weak, they’re still monsters. Besides, I don't have the magic stone for a Seal Worm yet. For me, they’re a lucky find, just like they are for Byune."
"A magic stone?"
In contrast to Rei, Vihera seemed to have lost her fighting spirit; she asked the question just as the claws on her gauntlets and the blades on her greaves vanished.
(...Wait, what? They didn't retract back into the armor—they just disappeared? Are those claws and blades made of magic power or something?)
Elena was internally surprised by the sight she caught out of the corner of her eye, though she kept her whip-sword ready to monitor the worms.
However, the battle began before she could dwell on it.
Predictably, Byune was the first to charge. She closed the distance to the Seal Worms at a speed that belied her ten years of age. To intercept her, the Seal Worms spat white liquid from their mouths. The moment the substance struck the cobblestones or the walls, it began to harden instantly. Ignoring the hazard, Byune darted forward, weaving through the projectiles spat by the seven worms.
When she finally reached them, she dropped into a low, crawling stance while passing the nearest Seal Worm, slicing open its soft flank as she went.
"Gigigigigih!"
Whether from anger or agony, the Seal Worm let out a screeching sound like grinding teeth. As if that were a signal, the other six worms spat their hardening liquid again.
Their target was not Byune, who had already bypassed them, but their wounded companion. The hardening liquid struck the open cut, solidifying over the injury and successfully stopping the bleeding.
"I didn't expect them to treat wounds like that. That’s a surprise," Rei muttered. Elena nodded silently in agreement.
"It might work as a stopgap for now, but it's only buying time. Look at Byune."
Following Vihera's gaze, they saw Byune kicking off the floor and then the wall, soaring high above the Seal Worms with a triangle jump. Without anyone seeing when she had drawn them, several twenty-centimeter needles were held between her fingers. She raised her hand high and threw them in the next instant.
It was nothing like Rei's spear throwing, which relied on long-range power. Unlike Rei, who used his entire body to maximize speed and impact, Byune’s needle throwing utilized the flexibility of her wrists. The velocity wasn't overwhelming, but her rate of fire was incredible.
In a matter of seconds, she had emptied her hands. The seven Seal Worms were left pinned to the ground, immobilized by the needles riddling their bodies.
With her needles spent, Byune drew two daggers from the sheaths on her hips and plummeted from the air. Utilizing the momentum of her fall, she drove the dagger tips deep into the heads of two Seal Worms.
She landed and immediately leaped toward the remaining monsters. She slashed through the worms pinned by her needles as she blurred past them, never stopping for a moment. Her movements were reminiscent of the wall-kicking maneuvers Seto often used. She repeated this sequence several times, systematically carving up the Seal Worms.
Normally, they might have used their hardening liquid to seal their wounds. However, pinned down and unable to move, they were helpless. They were slaughtered one-sidedly until the last worm stopped moving.
"Nn!"
Byune asserted that these kills were hers. Since she had indeed defeated the Seal Worms without assistance, Rei and the others acknowledged her claim and helped her harvest the loot.
"You aren't going to call that cruel? You're a stiff-necked general, so I expected you to complain about her methods," Vihera remarked to Elena.
Byune was currently thrusting glass bottles into the worms' bodies to collect the hardening liquid before harvesting the fangs—which served as the proof of subjugation—and removing the magic stones from their hearts. Vihera, having a moment of idle time during the harvest, spoke to Elena.
Elena continued to pull a fang from a Seal Worm. Despite the provocative nature of Vihera’s words, she replied with a serious expression.
"It certainly looks like a cruel execution at first glance. However, Byune likely lacks the raw power to kill a Seal Worm in a single blow under normal circumstances, doesn't she? She compensates for that with speed to increase the lethality of her strikes. I see nothing wrong with that."
"...I see. If you can appreciate that, then I suppose it’s fine."
Vihera looked momentarily surprised before nodding in satisfaction.
The memory of a certain party of adventurers she had once accompanied flickered through her mind. Those men had been jealous of Byune, despite her being more than ten years their junior. They had called her fighting style cruel, brutal, and cold-blooded. Byune had accepted the verbal abuse with her usual expressionless face, which only encouraged them to grow harsher.
However, Vihera, having partnered with Byune several times, knew the girl had been deeply wounded. Vihera had been so enraged that the party likely would have gone "missing" in the dungeon if Byune hadn't restrained her. Ultimately, that party had ignored their own limitations and dove into the deeper floors, never to be seen again.
(Byune is the sole survivor of House Flaut, so those men might have had other motives for being so hard on her... but after that incident, she hid her emotions even more and stopped joining pickup parties. Meeting Rei and Elena has been a good thing for her, even if this is just a temporary arrangement.)
Internally, Vihera felt grateful for meeting these two.
It wasn't just because of the combat potential they possessed—though that interested her immensely—it was because they were actually building a rapport with Byune.
(Though, that just makes it harder... if I fight these two and one of us dies, Byune will be the one left grieving.)
As she extracted a magic stone, Vihera’s expression turned slightly mournful at the thought.
Yet, no matter how she felt, the idea of not fighting Rei and Elena never crossed her mind. Even if it meant she, Rei, or Elena would die in the process.
The battle lust burning within her was enough to consume her entire being. For now, it was merely a flickering, faint flame, but she knew for a certainty that it would eventually grow into a conflagration.
When that fire finally peaked and she clashed with Rei or Elena, how much fulfillment would saturate her soul? The mere thought of that exhilaration made it impossible to suppress what felt like a primal instinct.
(I enjoyed our last duel so much, and that was just a spark.)
Vihera felt a sense of enchantment as she recalled the previous night's fight with Rei. Fortunately, no one was looking at her; if any ordinary man had caught a glimpse of her then—wearing an expression so seductive it could steal one's soul—he would have likely lost his mind and attacked her without a second thought.
Even in a restrained fight where neither she nor Rei used their primary weapons, they had burned with such intensity. If they were to clash at full strength...
Thump.
Just imagining the moment made her heart pound fiercely, as if she were deeply in love.
"Nn!"
Byune spoke to Vihera, a hint of concern in her voice.
Though her face was nearly devoid of emotion, a faint—very faint—trace of worry colored her eyes.
Noticing this, Vihera shook her head and offered a smile. It was a gentle, warm smile, entirely different from the one she had worn a moment ago.
"Fufu, it's nothing, dear. More importantly... here. These are the magic stone and the proof of subjugation part."
"Nn."
Byune nodded slightly, taking the items and placing them in the pouch at her waist.
Unlike Elena’s Magic Pouch, this was a mundane container with a fixed capacity. Since Byune needed to earn her own living, she prioritized items that were valuable but took up little space—primarily magic stones.
Of course, with Rei’s Misty Ring and Elena’s Magic Pouch available today, she didn't actually need to worry about the load.
After inspecting her materials, stones, and bottles of hardening liquid, Byune nodded in satisfaction.
"Would you mind a small request? If more Seal Worms appear, I’d like you to let me have two of them."
"Nn?"
"Only two?" Vihera asked on Byune's behalf.
Rei nodded. "I collect magic stones as a hobby. I don't have any from a Seal Worm yet, so I’d like to keep one for preservation and one for viewing."
"Nn—... Nn!"
Byune voiced her consent. Rei gave a brief word of thanks, and the party continued their trek through the dungeon.
"I used a map to navigate the floors above... but with a thief like Byune, a map seems redundant."
"Indeed. Her ability to memorize the dungeon passages is remarkable. I can see why thieves are in such high demand for exploration," Elena added.
Rei and Elena chatted as they walked, but Vihera interjected to correct them.
"That’s not entirely true. Thieves come in all levels of quality. The incompetent ones can't even spot or disarm basic traps. When you look at what she can do, you realize just how exceptional Byune is, right?"
"Specifically, how skilled is she?" Rei asked. Vihera sounded strangely boastful.
The thieves Rei knew were people like Culotte and Onz from his rank up exam, or Luno, who had some thief skills despite not being a specialist. Then there was Vel, who had been an elite escort knight before his betrayal.
As Rei pondered this, he watched Byune unhesitatingly choose the right path at a Y-junction.
"Well, if we're talking strictly about her technical skills as a thief, I think she’s among the best in the world for her age. Though, I don't know many other children her age working as adventurers. Overall, I’d place her somewhere between low-mid and high-low rank. Considering she’s already at that level at her age, you can only imagine what she’ll be capable of when she grows up."
Vihera gave her assessment while watching Byune lead the way, her eyes ever-alert for traps.