Expansion (03)

The deeper you go inside a floor, the fewer people you'll find; in exchange, you'll find stronger monsters. And though this makes it all the more challenging, it's also more rewarding, as you get more experience, allowing faster level-ups.

You can only get experience when a monster dies, and you don't need to be the one to kill it, as long as you contribute, you'll get a share. The more you contribute, the bigger your share will be.

This usually tempts people into diving solo, as you can get stronger pretty fast.

Among high rankers there are not a ton of examples of people who succeed alone though, the difficulty is just too high.

But if you could somehow bring an entire party and make everyone in it get experience as if they were by themselves... well, the result is pretty absurd as far as I can tell.

Miwen: "The day is not even over yet.... and we also got here later than usual..."

Licia: "It's certainly impressive..."

I don't think impressive is enough to describe it, we might just have a record in our hands for the fastest level-up...

Since my Gift has a strange interaction with the dungeon where everyone is counted as a single being for the purposes of experience distribution, it was to be expected that the newcomers in our party wouldn't have a hard time getting to higher levels.

But right now every one of them is already at level 4.

Claire, Licia, and I can handle almost everything in this dungeon, so with that alone, it wouldn't be much of a problem to go to the deepest parts where the stronger monsters reside. And even though her level is capped, with Mia here, it's almost a walk in the park.

We had three level 1s to look out for, but it didn't take long for them to be able to handle themselves on this floor.

But therein lies the key to this fast advancement.

The floor we are on right now is only accessible to those who defeated the boss on the first floor.

It's such common sense that no one questions it. First, you defeat a floor boss, and then you get access to the next floor. You are even able to start from your highest floor or previous floors when you enter through the dungeon gate. Very simple really.

The only problem with that logic is that the majority of the girls in our party have not cleared the first level of this dungeon.

They all teleported from the [Kingdom] to the second floor.

Miwen: "It's the second interaction between the dungeon and my Gift..."

Licia: "It is strange... it's almost like the rules of your Gift overpower those of the dungeon..."

I couldn't have put it in a better way. It's a strange sensation where it feels like the dungeon is bending its own rules to accommodate my Gift's rules. It's as if it's being mindful of a higher being or a stronger authority, trying to not disrespect it while also maintaining appearances.

The more I think about it...

Claire: "Hey! Can we take a break? I need to catch my breath a sec..."

Miwen: "...hm? Oh, sure. Licia and I will keep watch for you guys, so feel free to rest."

Even though Licia and I are also at a high level for this floor, Mia and Claire have been doing most of the work. It's not that Licia and I are being lazy though, we are going at our usual pace, maybe a little bit slower to look after the others who have just now joined. Both for their safety and in case they try anything funny.

The problem is Mia and Claire, who seem to have gotten quite competitive for whatever reason. Well, anything that makes Claire give her all works for me.

Licia: "It's going pretty well... Ellie's Gift already helps a lot."

We discussed everyone's Gifts back at the [Kingdom]. I wanted to know exactly what each one could do so that we wouldn't be surprised.

Ellie's is quite interesting. It's a simple boost to all her attacks in the form of an effect. When attacking an enemy, she can select from a list of [Effects] to apply, like [Paralysis], [Mana Burn], [Quiet], [Burn], [Freeze]... and so on. The effect is subject to her [Dexterity], which influences the duration and strength. Her [Luck] influences the chances of it applying.

Another thing about her Gift is that, if she doesn't select any effect, one will be chosen at random, and if her [Luck] is high enough when compared to her enemy, not only the best effect for that opponent will be applied, but it will also be stronger than normal.

With her being an archer, this means she can spam attacks that each inflict something different. For example, she can combo two arrows and not only slow down an enemy but also poison it. She can also apply the same effect multiple times for extra overkill.

I usually hate stall strategies in games, where someone kills you with damage over time while also debuffing you so that you can't fight back. But seeing something similar being done to enemies is quite fun. She is a great addition, so I'm hoping we can win her over to our side indefinitely.

Miwen: "The [Bow of Gallia] also suits her very well... I don't get why she looked so disappointed when I gave it to her."

Licia: "It's shocking how you gave a bow filled with darkness and maliciousness to an elf of all things while wearing a smile on your face... You can be quite terrifying sometimes..."

Miwen: "She looks great with it though? There's a lot of...contrast..."

Admittedly it isn't the best thing I ever did, but it's the only bow I had left over. I'll get her something more to her taste whenever I can.

Licia: "Your questionable stylistic senses aside, do you really think it was a good idea to arm her? Amongst everyone, her Gift is the most dangerous from the get-go."

Miwen: "I didn't have much of a choice though. It would be hard to sell the idea of entering the dungeon unarmed while accompanied by strangers stronger than you. We could force them to, but it doesn't make for great relations."

Licia: "While it's fine right now, as they are getting stronger, their overall capabilities get closer to ours, if they decide to turn on us it could get dicey."

Miwen: "We can just run to the [Kingdom] and leave them to their fates if that's the case. And we would win anyway. For better or worse, I didn't have a wand or staff, so Beatrice is currently unarmed. I'm keeping an eye on her status and she's keeping her promise of putting her [Level-up Points] into [Inteligence], as long as she doesn't acquire any type of magic, she can't really do much against anyone."

Licia: "But you plan on giving her magic soon right?"

Miwen: "Yeah... a mage that can learn all attributes compliments my Gift's ability to [Share] very well."

Not to mention that, alongside being capable of learning any type of magic, her Gift also strengthens them and makes it faster and easier for her to learn/train her magic and magic-related skills. She also gets a discount on buying levels or new magic with her level-up points, using these aspects, I can have her strengthen all types of skills related to magic and then harvest the results for myself or the other [Citizens].

Giving her Claire's fire magic for example would make it so that she saves some points not having to buy the skill for fire magic. Then she can use the very same points she saved to strengthen the skill, which I would then acquire.

Claire's Gift suits mine very well, but Beatrice's might just be even better.

There's also something about her being able to see someone's mana aura, but from what she said, it's mostly useful for determining someone's nature or, through variations in the mana, if someone is going to use a spell.

Licia: "Hah... You know how much trouble you give us being like this, right?"

Miwen: "I know... but I'm positive we can handle it."

I'm surprised she didn't mention Anna at all, but I guess it's understandable.

Ellie seems very experienced, as much as Claire and Licia. Beatrice's mastery of her Gift and combat abilities is a complete mystery since she doesn't have magic for now.

Anna on the other hand... it's almost hard to believe that she used to be a knight for hire. She has certainly gone through a school of swordsmanship, as can be seen by her going back to a certain stance every so often... but Claire does the same much more casually and... smoothly. And even an amateur like me can see that she takes more time to think and decide on her course of action than the more experienced girls.

It's almost like she's not comfortable or used to fighting. I thought it might be because she feels restricted by her level, but even though she got a few, I still don't see any improvement at all.

Her [Gift] is also...

It's not bad, and while it's simple, it's certainly powerful.

Basically, her [Strength] and her [Defense] are shared.

Her base strength, before her Gift effects are applied is added to her total defense.

And her base defense, before her Gift is applied is added to her total strength.

She can get quite strong by always focusing on either of the statuses, whichever is cheaper to improve or easier to train, but there's not much synergy between us. She compliments the party very well being a Tank/Heavy Knight, but as far as my Gift goes, I can only help her by providing some skills suitable for a Tank or that improve her strength/defense so that she can focus on strengthening her status instead of spending time or points in skills. There's sadly no benefit her Gift gives me in return though.

The upside is that it contributes to my belief that we don't need to worry too much about the newcomers. As things stand, it would be pretty easy to deal with both Beatrice and Anna. With the two of them down, Ellie wouldn't be able to do much against four close-quarters combatants.

Mia: "I wanna talk about something with you."

She says while looking a bit displeased, or maybe disappointed.

Miwen: "Can you do it while we walk? I think it's about time we start moving again"

Everyone seemed to be good to go, so there was little reason to stay for longer.

Claire and Licia took the front and things seemed to have calmed down for Claire. Either she got tired, or she doesn't see Licia as an opponent to beat, either way, she's way less competitive with her.

Mia: "Are all dungeons in this world like this one?"

I thought it might be something like that... it's not the first time I'm told that things on Earth don't work the way they should, dungeons not being an exception.

While most of the functions are the same, there's one thing that confuses the otherworld girls in my party the moment they step foot inside the dungeon.

Miwen: "I told you it'd be like this right? Even though each dungeon is different, I can guarantee that not a single one of them has a gate to a different world."

Mia: "I thought for sure you were lying... but damn. Well, at least it explains why only humans exist in your world... but..."

I get why she's frustrated about this. It could be a chance for her to go back to her world, but it's not a possibility given the way dungeons on Earth seem to differ from the ones she knows of.

A part of me is glad that this is the case though, since even if she could go back, she wouldn't be able to change anything, so she'd almost certainly just throw away her life meaninglessly.

It pains me to see her sad, and the fact that she's trying to hide it makes it even worse. I really wish I could console her. Sadly there's nothing I can do for her as of yet, so I watch her go back to the front with the other girls, probably doing her best to distract herself.

...

We ended up going so far into the dungeon that all enemies were either [Noble Monsters] or [Superior Monsters]. Eventually, surrounded by three [Superior Hobgoblins] we found a hobgoblin that was both a Superior and a Lord.

Miwen: "The Hobgoblin Lord is considerably stronger than the others... it's also capable of [Wind Magic]... the two on it's left, carrying the spears are comparable to me in strength. The one on the right is the weakest status-wise. But it's capable of [Earth Magic]..."

Claire: "Might be tricky..."

In quantity we are ahead...but Beatrice can't really fight and Anna is not up to the same standard the other girls are. We can count on Ellie though.

Every one of the monsters is level 7, and though Licia managed to hit the level cap for this floor Claire has yet to do so, but she is very close, on our way back I'm quite sure she'll be able to do it.

It would absolutely level up the other girls though...

Miwen: "It's risky... but I think we can do it. I think Ellie should shoot the Lord Hobgoblin... try to freeze or paralyze him... if it doesn't work we bail out, but if it does... we can surround him with a wall of ice. There are three of us capable of Ice magic after all. After that, we can either barrage the others with magic or jump at them as usual..."

Mia: "Eh... sounds good."

I don't like relying on Ellie so soon, but it works well as a test anyway. It's alright if her Gift doesn't trigger, but if it does, we would have a much better time fighting these monsters.

I don't know how pressured she feels knowing that our plan so heavily relies on her, but at the very least she seems calm as she waits for the monsters to get into favorable positions.

As soon as their leader gets a little bit distant from the other, Ellie shoots two arrows at him. The first one hits his stomach while the second hits his chest.

At that moment I can see looking at his status that [Paralysis] was applied.

Miwen: "It worked! Let's go!"

The moment the Lord got shot, the other monsters, following nothing but instinct rushed towards us. This was actually quite beneficial to what we had planned.

Combining our magic, Mia, Licia, and I made the ice barrier between the Lord and the Superior Hobgoblins, and the thickness was such that I had no doubts the monster wasn't able to break through any time soon. This way, we effectively prevented him from interfering.

Anna stood in front of us, to try and block the attackers so that we had openings to deal with them, but it was unnecessary.

Seeing the monsters come towards us, Licia decided to do the evil ice thing.

She froze the ground under one of the hobgoblins carrying a spear and using an ice sculpture that looked like a hand, grabbed his feet.

Ellie surprisingly didn't miss that and shot it twice through the skull. I wasn't using [Appraisal] since the menus distract too much when fighting, so I couldn't know what effects the monster had received, if any.

All I know is that the poor bastard didn't last much longer, a blast of fire came from Claire's hands, and after the fire subdued, an ice stake run through its body.

I thought it was really overkill, it almost looked like they had something against this specific monster, but it happened so fast that they probably just got into each other's way.

The two other hobgoblins didn't bother to even look at their fallen comrade and approached fast, such that in no time, Anna had to engage the one with a spear in combat. I took her left flank and engaged the one with [Earth Magic].

His status where below mine, but his [Earth Magic] was a problem as I don't have much experience fighting against that.

I decided to not take any risk and went full-on offensive. First I erected an ice stake behind him, and the moment he dodged, I went for a slash.

My timing was a bit off though. Licia makes it seem pretty easy, but maintaining concentration for the magic while also attacking physically is very hard.

Due to that, the goblin managed to block me with an earth wall, as for the stake coming from his back, it's safe to assume he dodged it.

From the wall he erected, a bunch of spikes erupted, which made me jump back, not noticing the ground behind me had become muddy.

I think Licia might have established a new school for annoying magic.

When I lost balance, I noticed the spikes from his earth wall coming towards me.

I didn't have much time to think, so in a hurry, I just did the first thing that came to my mind.

And while looking at a wall, to defend myself, I didn't think very creatively and just copied him.

The problem is that these spikes came as a never stopping onslaught, so I found myself having to repair the ice wall and wasting more mana than I was comfortable with.

This had become a battle of attrition in which the winner would be the one with the most mana. And though I hate to admit it, I could've easily lost this one.

Thankfully, his attacks suddenly stopped.

And the sound of someone knocking could be heard on my ice wall.

Then, from the top, fluffy ears appeared, and a second later, a face with a smug smile.

Mia: "You can come out now. Big sister took care of the bad monster outside."

Miwen: "Do you promise?"

Mia: "Yeah, yeah, come out now."

It seems like I was demoted from fiance to little brother at some point.

Miwen: "I can't believe he had me."

Mia: "He was shooting everywhere from behind his wall so he couldn't see you. You should've made a pillar and thrown yourself behind his wall when you had the chance. You'd destroy him in close combat."

Miwen: "Didn't even think of that. All my head was filled with were walls."

Mia: "It happens, you got swayed in the motions of the fight as it went on. You had more time to think and react than you thought. It won't happen so much as you get more experienced."

Miwen: "If you say so. But man was it annoying to have the ground turn on me. How do you deal with that?"

Mia: "The enemy can't mess with the ground around you if you are already messing with it. If you had earth magic you could've maintained the ground in its original state through the fight. You can also... just be mindful of your surroundings."

I thought I was doing that already. But I guess she's right, should've been more careful.

It seems like she managed to take down the other Hobgoblin as well... with the same tactic she told me to use no less.

Though I didn't see it, judging by the pillar of ice behind me, I'm guessing she took the opportunity to attack the monster from above while Anna kept it occupied.

Now there was only one monster left for us to face.

And I prepared myself for the fight that would come as soon as Claire finished melting the wall.

But what transpired there was straight up a massacre.

That Hobgoblin was strong, that's for sure.

But I can only tell that because of how many hits it took before dying.

Between paralyzing arrows, fire blasts, ice stakes, sword stabs, strikes, punches, and bites... I even felt sorry for the guy.

It dropped a very valuable [Wind Orb] though, so in the end, it was well worth it.

Having absolutely destroyed a challenging foe, I felt pretty confident about our current strength and looked forward to how much we could still grow.