Before they knew it, their surroundings had completely changed.
Those who had experienced this initially failed to comprehend what had happened. They looked around, and only then did they realize that the place they were standing in was entirely different from where they had been just seconds ago. Expressions of astonishment spread across their faces.
"Well then, I must go check on my experiments. I shall take my leave here for now. Call for me once you have defeated the Silver Lion."
With only those words, Grimm's figure faded away like mist.
Since they were worried about Rei, would he perhaps lend them a hand?
A few people had harbored such thoughts, but Grimm vanished as if to say such expectations were entirely irrelevant to him.
"Um... he's quite an incredible person, isn't he? A person... no, an Undead."
Yohanna murmured thoughtfully, and Rei nodded in response.
"Well, he lives... or rather, has existed in a different time than us. Anyway, he's spent that kind of time, so there are probably various things that set him apart. More importantly, everyone, get your preparations in order."
Understanding that they were now in a place they recognized, Rei muttered this.
They were a short distance away from the room housing the Dungeon core that the Silver Lion guarded.
Grimm had chosen to teleport them to this location because teleporting them right next to the Silver Lion's room would have allowed its overwhelming atmosphere to swallow them whole.
Grateful for Grimm's consideration, Rei, Elena, Marina, Ara, Elk, and Min—those participating in the battle against the Silver Lion—each checked their weapons and equipment.
Vihera and Rhodos, who had been riding on Set's back, had already been taken down by Yohanna and her group.
Additionally, near Yohanna's group, Ielo—who was also not participating in this battle—stood quietly.
Unlike Set, Ielo did not possess high combat power.
While its defensive capabilities were considerable, it was uncertain how effective they would be against the Silver Lion. Considering that, keeping it out of this battle was the natural conclusion.
Ielo seemed to understand that it lacked the necessary power. It stayed quietly in place, looking only slightly lonely.
"Come to think of it, I heard the Silver Lion uses a powerful roar. Do you not have earplugs or something to guard against it?"
Watching Rei and the others inspect their weapons, armor, and tools, Yohanna asked the question.
A fair amount of time had passed since Yohanna had arrived at this Dungeon.
With that much time, gathering information about the Dungeon was not a difficult task.
And when gathering information about the Dungeon, they would naturally also collect information about the Silver Lion on the deepest layer.
Nearly all adventurers who challenged the Silver Lion had died, but a significant number had barely managed to escape.
The greatest reason for this was that the Silver Lion never once left the room it guarded.
That was precisely why some who fought the Silver Lion managed to survive.
However, these were adventurers who could neither use Teleportation Magic like Grimm nor possess a Teleportation Magic Item like those of the Bestia Empire.
Even if they barely escaped the Silver Lion with their lives, they still had to make their own way back to the Dungeon exit.
They would have to push forward while suffering injuries inflicted by the Silver Lion and fighting off the many monsters that appeared throughout the Dungeon.
Even if they survived the Silver Lion, very few managed to make it out of the Dungeon alive.
If they had something like the Dungeon's Teleportation Function in Exil, perhaps more of those who survived could have made it out.
The name of the Labyrinth City he had visited with Elena in the past crossed Rei's mind.
Of course, if there were something that allowed direct teleportation to a target floor, the number of people who would challenge the Silver Lion and die would undoubtedly have increased as well.
Regardless, among the pieces of information about the Silver Lion obtained from those few survivors was the fact that it unleashed a powerful roar.
Naturally, that much was known from the lore surrounding the being called the Silver Lion, but these were people who had witnessed that roar with their own eyes, heard it with their own ears, and experienced it firsthand.
That roar, which possessed not only sound but physical offensive power akin to ultrasonic waves, was without question the first obstacle in fighting the Silver Lion.
An intense sound could even rob those who heard it of their sense of balance.
To be hit by such an attack right at the outset, and then have the Silver Lion—an S-Rank monster—launch a direct assault while they could not coordinate properly.
It was by no means something ordinary adventurers could handle.
What was needed to avoid taking that attack from the Silver Lion was earplugs to protect their ears from the roar.
Of course, earplugs alone could not completely negate the roar, but the damage would still be considerably less than taking it head-on... or so Yohanna had heard.
However, Rei shook his head at Yohanna's words.
"Earplugs might block the roar, but naturally, you won't be able to hear your allies' voices either. If that happens, coordination will fall apart."
"But still, that's better than being incapacitated by the roar..."
Before even getting to coordination, what would happen if they became unable to act?
Yohanna tried to press the point, but Rei nodded without seeming to find any particular issue.
"Fortunately, the Silver Lion cannot leave the room with the Dungeon core. Given that, if it uses its roar and things truly become hopeless, we just need to step outside the room. At worst, we can temporarily retreat outside, and once our ears have recovered, rejoin the battle."
"True. I wonder why the adventurers who challenged the Silver Lion before never used that tactic. It's puzzling."
"...Excuse me, but normally, there aren't people reckless enough to challenge an S-Rank monster with such a small number."
Yohanna muttered in exasperation.
To begin with, to challenge the Silver Lion, one had to reach the deepest layer, which meant their combat power would already be depleted by that point.
Of course, there were no monsters on this deepest layer, so setting up camp here to recover stamina would not be difficult.
However, the consumable items expended on the way here could not be replenished unless one was an Alchemist, and even with a hired Porter, only a limited amount of cargo could be carried.
On top of that, assembling enough combat power to fight the Silver Lion while moving in and out of the room... was ordinarily a difficult proposition.
No, it could safely be called impossible.
The only reason it was possible here was because Alias Holders and high-ranking adventurers—true experts—had gathered in such numbers.
In fact, if Yohanna's group were to join this Silver Lion subjugation, they would only be in the way.
At best, they could serve as life-risking decoys or meat shields.
Measured against the standard of an ordinary adventurer, even Ara, who would fall into the skilled category, was—not quite a liability here, but her usefulness as a combat asset was a marginal question.
Even so, Ara was included in the roster likely because expectations were placed on her Herculean Strength.
Combined with the effect of her Power Axe, stamina exhaustion was not a concern.
On top of that, there was hope that the characteristics of her weapon—which did not slash or pierce, but rather bludgeoned—might prove useful this time.
You want me to fight alongside these people? Just what kind of absurdity are you asking of me?
With Power Axe in hand, Ara let out a small internal sigh.
As the one who led Elena's Escort Knight Order, she had a fair degree of confidence in her own skill.
But that confidence was solely in comparison to ordinary people.
If asked whether she could stand alongside the kind of people around her—those who had stepped into the realm beyond humanity—she would answer with an immediate no.
Even so, she did not volunteer to step down, because she wanted to be of at least some help to Elena... or more precisely, to Elena, who was worried about Vihera.
"Everyone, lightly move your bodies and get ready."
Having finished his exchange with Yohanna, Rei called out to those who would participate in the Silver Lion battle.
Since they had entered the Dungeon and been teleported directly to this deepest layer, their bodies were not yet ready for combat.
Against an ordinary enemy, naturally, such meticulous preparation would not be necessary.
However, given that their opponent to be felled was the Silver Lion, there was no way they could afford to be careless with their preparations.
After calling out to everyone, Rei himself took up his usual Twin Spear Style stance—Death Scythe in his right hand, Twilight Spear in his left.
He gave the Death Scythe a light swing, and matching it, swung the Twilight Spear.
Watching Rei, Elk opened his eyes slightly in surprise.
It was fairly well-known that Rei had started using the Twin Spear Style, but Elk had been so consumed by the matter with Rhodos lately that he had had no room to pay attention to other information.
"Rei, what's that?"
"Hm? Lately, this is how I've been fighting."
"...Two long weapons. Isn't that hard to use?"
"Yeah. I struggled a fair bit at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite manageable and gives you an advantage over your opponent."
Given that he was already using a scythe and a spear—both weapons with considerable reach—mastering them would naturally make combat advantageous.
But that was only if he could master them.
Even a spear alone took considerable time to wield proficiently.
As for how difficult a large scythe like Death Scythe was to use, one needed only to look at the fact that the scythe as a weapon had never spread widely. It went without saying.
"Sure, it'd be powerful if you mastered it, but... can you?"
"I've gotten the hang of it lately."
It was true that when he first started the Twin Spear Style, he had struggled considerably.
But it had already been several months since he began using it.
Given Rei's combat sense, spending that amount of time on training and testing it in actual combat was naturally enough for it to take shape.
Of course, he could not yet be said to have completely mastered the Twin Spear Style, and there was still a long way to go before he could claim full proficiency.
"And here I am, barely managing with just this one."
Holding the Axe of the Thunder God, Elk muttered sincerely.
"No, there's really no need to worry about that. You've mastered a weapon that suits you."
Rei had seen Elk fight with the Axe of the Thunder God many times before.
More than that—though he had been threatened by people from the Bestia Empire at the time—he had even fought Elk directly himself.
The Axe of the Thunder God, a powerful Magic Item, was a perfect match for Elk's strength-based fighting style.
Rather, it was precisely because the compatibility between the Axe of the Thunder God's characteristics and Elk's abilities was so excellent that he had been able to rise to become an A-Rank Alias Holder adventurer.
"You think so? Yeah, I suppose you're right."
At Rei's words, a happy smile spread across Elk's face.
He had been forced to stay grim and serious lately due to Rhodos's situation, but Elk originally had the personality of a gang leader who had simply grown up without changing.
While he could vaguely sense danger in words with some hidden meaning, when it came to straightforward compliments like the ones Rei just offered, he accepted them at face value.
"Rei, Elk. Make sure you both properly warm up."
Elena, who had been watching their conversation, issued a word of caution.
They were about to challenge the Silver Lion, and she wanted them not to treat this too half-heartedly.
Of course, that did not mean being tense was necessarily the right approach.
If they became so tense that their bodies refused to move on the actual battlefield, that would completely defeat the purpose.
Naturally, both Rei and Elk understood this, so at Elena's caution, they resumed their light movements to warm up.
But they did not simply resume; they also observed each other's movements to check if anything was off.
Elk in particular observed with a sharp gaze, as this was his first time seeing the Twin Spear Style with a scythe and spear.
This was not merely because he found it novel.
During the battle with the Silver Lion, Elk needed to fight while closely tracking Rei's movements.
In terms of weapons not in common use, Elena's Whip-sword, Mirage, was also one such case.
It could freely shift between combat forms, switching between a whip and a longsword.
However, Elk had past experience fighting alongside Elena, so he could read her movements to some extent.
But fighting alongside someone who used an attack method like the Twin Spear Style—where one of the two weapons was a scythe rather than a spear—was a first for him.
Elk was also known by name as an Alias Holder and high-ranking adventurer.
As such, he would have had no problem fighting alongside most opponents, but an unfamiliar Twin Spear Style was an entirely different matter.
Even so, the fact that he could grasp the gist of it after observing for only a brief moment was perhaps proof that Elk, too, was a person of true caliber.
Then, having confirmed that everyone's bodies were sufficiently warmed up, Rei spoke.
"Let's go."
At Rei's words, everyone nodded in silence, and all except Yohanna's group began walking toward the Silver Lion's lair.