We continued our trek through the 7th floor in search of goblins, but a long stretch of time passed without encountering a single one. Just as I thought—the number of explorers on this floor was likely far too high relative to the monster respawn rate.
If the timing was right, you could run into them immediately, but if it was off, you could wander for ages without seeing a soul. This imbalance was a chronic issue that still hadn't been improved.
"No goblins, huh?"
"Yeah. We've been walking around for a fair bit, but we aren't running into anything."
Since we couldn't find any, a complaint slipped out of me involuntarily. This would have been a welcome situation if we were just trying to bypass monsters and reach the next floor, but since our goal was to fight them, the lack of targets was making me impatient.
Of course, despite my grumbling, I wasn't neglecting our perimeter surveillance.
"What should we do? Should we keep wandering the 7th floor, or just give up and move on to the next...?"
"Good question. I think it would be better to fight at least once, but it looks like it’ll take a while if we just keep wandering aimlessly..."
"From what I’ve heard, both of them seem to have plenty of experience fighting goblins anyway..."
Faced with the lack of encounters, we agonized over our next move. If prioritizing the verification of Mika and Saori-chan's performance against goblins was the goal, we should have stayed on the 7th floor. However, in terms of confirming their growth over summer break, it might be better to move on to the next floor to use our time effectively, rather than fixating on a goblin battle they had already experienced many times over.
Neither choice was objectively wrong, which made it a difficult decision. So...
"Mika, Saori-chan, do you two think we should keep looking for a goblin here to fight once?"
I decided to ask the girls themselves what they wanted to do.
After I threw the question to them, the two looked at each other, then spoke with somewhat troubled expressions.
"I think we should fight one, but maybe it’s better to move on instead of wasting time searching? We fought a lot of them during summer break."
"I have the same thought as Mika-chan. I do think we should fight once for verification, but rather than wandering the dungeon aimlessly and wasting time, I think it would be better to set a time limit—like ten more minutes or something—and then move on."
Mika and Saori-chan were also in favor of moving to the next floor, though they felt it would be ideal to fight once if the opportunity arose. It certainly seemed better to set a search limit rather than continuing to hunt for goblins indefinitely.
Well, since we had come quite far into the floor, we might encounter some if we simply walked toward the stairs leading down. If we took a slight detour on our way there, we could naturally fill that search time.
"I see. So, basically, I can assume you both agree with the plan of heading to the next floor?"
"Yeah, basically."
"Then let's take a bit of a detour toward the stairs. We might run into some goblins along the way."
"Yeah, roger that."
And so, our course of action was decided. We would head toward the stairs leading down, and if we encountered a goblin on the way, Mika and Saori-chan would handle it. Since we were taking the long way around, it would probably take about twenty minutes to reach the stairs.
With a clear plan in place, we began walking toward the stairs with much brighter expressions than when we had been searching blindly.
Our minds were already set on the 8th floor, and we figured it would just be a bonus if we encountered anything—and yet, as soon as we turned toward the stairs, we ran into a goblin.
Moreover, it was a lone goblin that stepped out from around a corner in the passage. If you're coming alone, at least try a surprise attack. Why are you standing your ground head-on, as if announcing your arrival, when the opponent has the numbers?
"What should we do? The plan was for Mika and Saori-chan to fight if we encountered one, but..."
"It’s a bit awkward when only one shows up. If two had come out, I would've had them split up and take one each."
"True... Hey, Mika-chan, Saori-chan? Which of you wants to handle that? One of you could do it alone, but for safety's sake, you could just pincer it together."
While Yuji and I were wondering how to handle this unexpected lone encounter when we were already mentally on the 8th floor, Hiiragi-san suggested a beatdown for the sake of speed while calling it "ensuring safety" with a cool gaze.
It was an awkward encounter, but since it was a goblin, we had to defeat it. For us, since we wanted to hurry, finishing it quickly was the best option—even if the optics of a pincer attack on a single target weren't great.
"What do you want to do, Saori-chan? I could handle it alone, but..."
"Mika-chan, let's do it together this time. I could handle it alone, but like Yukino-san said, I think it's better to pincer it and then move on."
"Hmm, if you're okay with that, Saori-chan, then I'm fine with it... Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I think we'll run into more goblins on the floors ahead anyway, and since this is just a lone encounter, we should just finish it."
It seemed they had settled on fighting as a pair. Once they informed us of their decision, they both readied their weapons and began preparing to charge, splitting left and right to flank the goblin. Mika took the right side and Saori-chan took the left, centering the monster between them.
And then...
"Let's go, Saori-chan!"
"Right!"
Exchanging a short signal, the two began their charge almost simultaneously, closing the gap to the goblin in an instant. The goblin prepared to intercept them, letting out a menacing cry as they showed their intent to attack, but it showed a moment of hesitation as it struggled to decide which of the two closing in from its flanks it should target first.
And in a pincer situation, that brief hesitation was fatal.
"Ha!"
"Hah!"
Tracking the confused goblin's reaction, the two launched their spear thrusts. The goblin lunged sharply to the left to avoid the attacks, but Saori-chan stepped in deeper toward the fleeing monster and corrected her spear's trajectory to follow it. At that exact moment, Mika braked hard and quickly sidestepped to open up distance, ensuring she didn't interfere with Saori-chan's follow-up. If Mika had continued her original charge, she would have collided with Saori-chan as the latter stepped in toward the goblin. It was an excellent, instinctive response.
The spear Saori-chan thrust pierced directly through the center of the goblin's chest as it tried to dodge.
"Gyak!?"
The goblin let out a short scream, clutching the wound as it staggered back a step before its knees gave out, sending it onto its back. It convulsed slightly, but there was no sign of it getting back up; the wound was clearly fatal.
Having finished her attack, Saori-chan quickly withdrew her spear and kept a watchful eye on the fallen monster from a distance. Mika also waited nearby, maintaining a posture that allowed her to move for a finishing blow at any moment.
"..."
After several seconds of vigilance, the combat ended as the goblin began to dissolve into particles.
Mika and Saori-chan let out a small, synchronized sigh and relaxed their stances.
"Whew..."
"Good work. That was a brilliant coordinated attack, you two."
"Mika-chan, it was a great call to pull back quickly when you saw Saori-chan had the follow-up. You didn't get in her way at all."
"It was amazing coordination. You both read each other's intentions and took the appropriate actions without saying a word."
The three of us gave a small round of applause, offering high praise for their teamwork. A clear result of their exploration over summer break, the proficiency of their coordination had improved significantly.
In that combat situation, if their teamwork hadn't been seamless, they would have either collided during the follow-up or created a massive opening by hesitating to see who would strike.
"Haha, it's a bit embarrassing to be praised so bluntly like this. But thanks."
"Thank you very much."
"If you can pull off coordination like that without even discussing it beforehand, your teamwork really does seem to be in good shape."
"Yeah. As far as coordination goes, the next thing to see would be whether you can maintain that level when fighting a larger group of enemies."
"Well, looking at their fight with the red boars, I think they can handle a fair number of enemies."
They had also performed well-coordinated attacks when we went to the monster trap room previously. As Hiiragi-san said, if the opponents were a dozen or so goblin-class monsters, they would likely be able to fight while maintaining their coordination without any problems.
Of course, that was assuming the enemies were only goblin-class. If nearly ten orc-class monsters appeared, Mika and the others would have no choice but to retreat.
"Oh, it looks like the particleization is finished."
"Ah, something dropped!"
A drop item had appeared where the goblin had once been.
With a happy expression, Mika approached, picked up the item, and held it up for us to see.
"Look, look, Saori-chan, a recovery potion!"
"Wait, really, Mika-chan!? Awesome, that covers today's travel expenses!"
Mika held up the bottle while cheering with Saori-chan. Getting two recovery potions in just three battles suggested that today's exploration was off to a very lucky start. Since they now had one each, they had earned their minimum income and travel costs, which would give them some mental peace of mind for the rest of the dungeon dive.
Eliminating the stress of "having to earn a minimum income" is a huge factor in dungeon exploration. Without mental leeway, focus drops due to impatience, leading to overlooked details and potentially dangerous mistakes. If they had only been getting cheap Core Crystals, they would have had to fight dozens of monsters just to break even on travel costs. When mental pressure and physical fatigue overlap, nothing good ever comes of it.
"Well then, now that we've achieved the goal of fighting a goblin, let's head further in."
"True. Fortunately, we've earned a bit of income, so there's no need to rush. Let's proceed steadily."
"Right. We don't need to stress over the money, but the time we can spend exploring is still finite."
"Yes!"
Having achieved our goal and collected the drop item, we no longer needed to take the long way around. We headed toward the stairs to the 8th floor via the shortest route.
We reached the 8th floor not long after the goblin battle. Since we had finished our business on the 7th floor and gained some breathing room with the loot, we decided to take a break in the 8th-floor plaza. We weren't truly tired yet, but a breather was good for the routine.
To avoid the traveling queue, we moved to a corner of the plaza, spread out the leisure sheet we had brought, and sat down.
"At any rate, we've managed to make it down to the 8th floor smoothly."
"Smoothly, perhaps, but we're spending more time searching for monsters than I expected, so it might be better to pick up the pace."
"True. It depends on how deep we want to go, but considering the time for the return trip, we should probably speed up a bit."
About two and a half hours had already passed since we entered the dungeon. Considering the exploration from the 10th floor onward, it was true that we should pick up the pace as Yuji and Hiiragi-san suggested. Since the crowd in the traveling queue had thinned out, I thought we could reach the 10th floor in less than an hour if we focused solely on movement.
However, that would mean strictly traveling without exploring along the way. Considering our goal was to see the results of Mika and Saori-chan's summer training... I wasn't so sure.
"What do you think, Mika? Do you two think you can handle picking up the exploration pace?"
"Yeah. We haven't fought that much today, so picking up the pace is fine."
"I'm fine too."
For now, the two of them seemed comfortable with moving faster.
That being the case, it all depended on which floor we set as our ultimate goal for today. For now, our target was the 10th floor to evaluate their summer progress.
"I see. Then let's pick up the pace a bit after this. If it gets too tough, make sure you speak up."
"Yes!"
And so, it was decided that we would increase the exploration speed after our break. Once we reached the 10th floor, we would decide our next move based on the remaining time.