The Mysterious Black Magician

Almina and the others were currently battling inside the dungeon.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

She waved her weapon, rapidly slicing the monster's body. ACK!!! The monster let out one last cry before it fell on the ground, bathing in its muddy black blood. Without even giving a second glance to the monster, she ran towards the approaching monsters. Almina had no time to rest as more enemies came out from hiding.

She jumped and flipped in mid-air. Then she rotated really fast, creating a semi-fire-wind tornado. The monsters who contacted it had their bodies shredded. Three monsters became the unlucky victims.

Blood smeared the surrounding together with a blood stench.

The other monsters became angry and attacked aggressively but multiple aurae flew and found their way to the target's weak points.

The monsters shrieked in agony. Although they did not die on the spot because of their high defense, a magical aura in the form of fireballs came raining from above and hit them at once. It was coming from the spellcasters of the party.

The other vanguard of their party slashed the monster in front of her, but for some reason, her sword bounced back. "Even though it was an expensive sword. Why can't they cut the damn!" She whined. 

She wondered how Miss Almina was able to kill these troublesome monsters easily. That's why she was the Elite trainee's leader. 

After the other vanguard failed to kill the monster in front of her, the other marksman in their group assisted by firing a magic-based pistol on the monster.

Their party consisted of 10 people. So it wasn't weird that some of their members would have the same roles. Although they were supposed to be 10 members, there were 9 of them at the moment. Kesha did not join as she was waiting for a delivery.

Almina stopped and her feet landed gracefully on the ground.

"Behind!" 

Someone shouted.

"Eh?" Almina was surprised. Her eyes widened and at a loss. Her face turned pale.

"Tsk!"

Maena clicked her tongue. It was unusual for Almina to let her guard down.

Woosh! 

Eek!

The arrow flew and landed in the monster's eye when Maena shot it from a distance of about 20 steps away from her, but the arrow landed where she intended it to land. As expected of someone who has high dexterity.

The monster had a cat face, but on its forehead, a horn of the rhinoceros beetle could be seen. Not only that, while it has the cat's agility, the body was covered by a tough shell. So it was a kind of monster specializing in speed and defense.

Only the face and limbs were the noticeable weakness of it, but because of its agility, it wasn't easy to deal with.

This kind of monster was the bane of all people who specialized in melee combat. But it seemed to be not the case with Almina, who took the role of vanguard. Well, she was a special case.

But for some reason, Almina almost had herself sorry.

After Maena hit the monster's eye, a shadow rushed forward in haste.

With the two consecutive strikes, the monster let out a cry before it was sliced in four. The scout of the group followed up.

"Good Job," Maena said to her.

The scout nodded.

"And… What happened?" Maena asked Almina who in a daze.

"S-sorry, I missed up."

Hah! Maena sighed. "Regardless, don't get yourself killed until I bet you in the duel."

Almina frowned. Looks like Maena was still looking at her as a rival.

"I-Is that the last Lennix?" Almina asked.

Lennix was the name of the monster.

"Yeah," a member of their party who took the role of a scout nodded in certainty.

"I see, thanks and good job everyone," Almina to her party members.

"Finally!"

"W-we did it."

"Haaah, I'm so emptied…" said their support.

"Hahaha, thanks for the hard work, Maku," said one of their scouts as she handed her a bottle of water. Whenever Kesha wasn't here, the role of support would fall on Maku. Maku was a transferee who originally came from the Human City Zone 101. She transferred to Zone 7 a few weeks ago, because for various reasons.

"Thanks, Dianne."

After killing all the monsters around, everyone felt relieved and happy. They finally have advanced this far. 

Currently, they are on the 29th floor of the dungeon.

"The next room is the boss room right?" Maena asked. It was easy to guess based on their experience. As of now, every time they reached the 10th floor they would be battling a stronger monster sometimes it was in the form of a single monster and sometimes in a horde. But their strength was beyond the other monsters from the lower floors. Also, the monsters on every 10th floor had a high rank in power and high difficulty compared to the monsters from the floor below it. 

"Yeah," the scout nodded once again.

"Hey, what's your plan?" Maena asked Almina.

Almina looked around her.

"Let's call it a day, everyone is on their limit," she said then checked the time. "Oh crap! It's already night outside! My delivery will arrive soon!" She exclaimed.

Everyone laughed wryly.

"Dang! I'm sure the elders will reprimand us for not resting!"

"Now that you said that, the inside competition will start tomorrow."

"Crap! Crap! I needed to master the explosive combo!" A melee fighter exclaimed.

"Wait, you learned another ability?" The person beside her asked.

"I learned new things every day so what's new with that." The fighter said smugly.

The group chatted enthusiastically even though both of them were exhausted.

Since no one disagreed with Almina after they rested they returned to the surface.

But still, Maena was wondering why Almina almost made a blunder of herself.

In truth, Almina felt something. She could not settle herself. She wondered why her heart was throbbing uncontrollably.

Is she nervous? It seems it wasn't the reason. Wait, is she excited? Yes, it seemed she was. But, excited for what? Ah, maybe for the delivery. After all, it was a limited armor made by a popular company. The Seeker!

But, was it truly the reason for her excitement?

Around this time, in the silent river, Yman was sitting cross-legged in front of the magical cauldron.