With our business concluded, we left the Adventurer's Guild.
"...To think such dangerous monsters were so close to us. Now that it's over, it's actually terrifying to think about."
"We truly owe Garm our gratitude. We're only alive right now because of Garm."
"That's so true. If Garm-kun hadn't been there, we might have been devoured by that monster horde by now."
"I'm truly glad to have you and Garm with us, Leticia-san. Garm, thank you once again."
Hearing the full report at the Adventurer's Guild had left every one of us shaken by a lingering dread.
We truly owed our lives to Garm.
"Garm, if there's anything you want, just say the word, alright? With the windfall we received today, I'd gladly spend every coin of it on you. We could buy a mountain of meat and let you eat until you burst."
"G-Gau?!"
Hearing that it could feast on all that meat, Garm let out a bark, looking thoroughly bewildered.
"Though treating Garm will have to wait for another day. Right now, we should grab a quick bite to eat and head straight to the dungeon."
"Right. Are we going to Sara-san's cafe again today?"
"Yeah. They serve their food faster than anywhere else. If everyone's on board, I'd like to head there. How does that sound?"
Everyone agreed, so we made our way over to Sara-san's cafe.
After finishing our lunch, we departed the royal capital and made our way to the dungeon.
"Come to think of it, Erik-kun, you were learning [Shield Technique] from Roan-san yesterday, right? How did it go? Did you manage to get the skill?"
"I got it. But it's still only level one, and I'm not used to using it yet, so I plan to test it out in actual combat. Philia, you were studying under Leticia-san yesterday, weren't you? How did that go?"
In response to Philia's question about yesterday, I reported my progress.
When I asked about her lessons, however, her expression clouded over.
"It seems book learning really isn't for me after all..."
Seeing Philia look so dejected, I glanced over at Leticia-san.
"She says that, but it really wasn't that bad, you know? Exactly as she warned me, she struggles with studying while sitting at a desk, so the lessons just required a bit of creativity."
"Creativity? How did you teach her?"
"I demonstrated the spells myself and showed her how to apply them practically. It took a bit of extra effort, but it helped Philia-chan grasp the concepts properly. Her magic control improved noticeably after just one day."
"I-It hasn't changed that much! Leticia-san, you're giving me far too much credit!"
Philia flushed with embarrassment at Leticia-san's praise.
After that, we decided to test our progress on some monsters.
"Talk about good timing—five goblins just showed up. Philia, can you thin their numbers with magic first? Fire as soon as you're ready."
"Got it."
Philia nodded and began channeling her magic.
A moment later, she unleashed her spell toward the goblins.
Its destructive power was noticeably higher than before, and her aim was pinpoint accurate.
All five goblins were wiped out in a single stroke by Philia's magic.
"...To think a little knowledge could make this much of a difference. You really are overflowing with potential, Philia."
"That's not true! It's only because Leticia-san is such a good teacher!"
Philia insisted that the credit belonged to Leticia-san rather than herself.
"I think you could stand to have a little more confidence in yourself, Philia-chan. You have genuine talent as a mage, after all."
While Leticia-san offered her encouragement, we harvested the proof of subjugation from the fallen goblins.
After walking for about ten more minutes, our next opponents appeared.
This time, it was a group of three slimes.
"Alan, you can sit back and watch this time. It's my turn to show what I've learned."
"Got it. If things get hairy, I'll jump in right away."
"Yeah. I'll count on you then."
Bracing myself, I tightened my grip on my shield and stepped forward to face the slimes.
Noticing my approach, the slimes lunged at me all at once.
"Hah!"
The three slimes hurtled through the air toward me.
Their attacks, however, were completely uncoordinated.
I cleanly deflected the first charging slime with my shield, knocking it straight into the second one.
Then, I braced firmly and absorbed the direct impact of the third slime on the face of the shield.
"Haah!"
I slammed the slime clinging to my shield violently into the dirt, crushing its core against the ground.
Immediately after, I shattered the cores of the other two slimes that had collided in midair and tumbled to the floor.
"Erik-kun, your shield work has improved a ton too!"
"Well, I did spend half of yesterday with a shield in my hands. I really owe Alan for sparring with me the entire time."
"Thanks to that, you managed to unlock [Shield Technique], Erik. As far as I'm concerned, making our party stronger made every bit of that effort worth it."
After gathering the materials dropped by the slimes, we resumed our exploration of the dungeon.