Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

On the contrary, it can maintain calm.

—When facing an opponent for the first time, one must remain calm.

She recalled the teachings of Riveria and Ais, the elders of the Loki Familia.

When facing a monster for the first time, one must gather information and devise a strategy to deal with it. In an emergency, Lefia's still immature, but also her only, insight becomes even more acute.

She dodged the attacks, desperately suppressing the pounding of her heart, and used her elven eyes—a skill she was known for as the "Forest Archer"—to observe the enemy's true form.

Then, staring at the huge, throbbing eye, she suddenly realized something.

"Follow its eye movements!"

“Huh!?”

"It's that monster's eyeball!! The attack will definitely hit right in front of its line of sight!"

Lefia's criticism made Bell's eyes widen, and he immediately looked up.

The monster's hideous giant eyes were staring at the two of them. The boy stared at the exposed eyeballs, then leaped before the giant whip could strike.

The whip struck him squarely in the spot where it had been.

"We...we did it!!"

"The enemy's only weapon is that whip! Keep a close eye on them!"

“Okay, okay!”

Bell dodged the attack as if he had foreseen it, and cheered. Rafia reminded him repeatedly, and dodged the whip in the same way herself.

The underground gatekeeper's tentacles are terrifying in both power and speed, but their attacks are quite monotonous. Just as Lefia saw through, as long as you predict the enemy's position based on their movements, you can dodge them.

The two adventurers, who were originally destined to be beaten, began to tenaciously forge a path to survival.

(Now it depends on how we attack—if it were Miss Ais, she'd probably kick the wall and hack away.)

It's very easy to imagine.

She would kick the wall repeatedly, climbing upwards like lightning, and then, with a "plop!" she would deliver a fatal blow to the enemy, ending the fight.

Lefia quickly brushed aside the fleeting fantasy that had crossed her mind. If the two of them tried to imitate her, they would be whipped down before they even got close to the enemy. She scolded herself for letting her mind wander and for needing to switch her focus.

"I'll find an opportunity to unleash 'magic'! Try cutting through the wall and see what happens!"

"I see!"

Soon, following Lefia's instructions, the two dispersed in opposite directions. She had judged from the boy's equipment that he lacked ranged weapons, which was why she gave this order.

As Bell crawled through the whip, he drew his black dagger and slashed fiercely at the pale red flesh. The fierce blue-purple blade flashed, slicing through the enemy's body.

—The pace is really fast.

As Lefia dodged the enemy's attacks, she couldn't help but gasp inwardly.

Lefia has chased Bell several times and has come to deeply appreciate his exceptional agility. At this moment, he slices through the flesh and instantly dodges the approaching whip, performing a high-speed hit-and-run maneuver.

I heard that Bell has only just reached Lv.2, but he had already successfully dodged the enemy's whip before he even heard the advice to predict the attack. Just how fast is he?

Looking back, Ais had praised Bell's crisis avoidance ability during training before the expedition.

While feeling guilty for dragging the boy into this battlefield in the end, Lefia decided to trust him and focus on fighting.

(The other party is very likely like a man-eating flower monster...)

The appearance of the underground gatekeeper is somewhat similar to the female form that the "Treasure Pearl Fetus" transforms into when it parasitizes other individuals (monsters). However, it's probably just a vanguard, like those man-eating plants.

The female figure that fought on the 50th and 18th floors possessed a massive body equivalent to the floor master, and her strength was above Lv.5. This underground gatekeeper was far inferior.

Including its super-large body size, its potential is estimated to be around Lv.4.

"!!"

Seeing that it couldn't catch its prey, the tentacles became even more ruthless.

Raised high, swung down, swept, thrust. Lefia and Bell narrowly escaped the storm of the giant whip, as if telling of their master's regret, the longsword, battle axe, and shield standing at the bottom of the cave were blown away one by one. Although many weapons were melted, the high-level weapons made of platinum and refined metal (mithril) still retained their original form.

Various weapons flew towards her, which Lefia dodged one by one. Her feet, which had been soaking in the dissolving liquid—still steaming and dissolving along with her shoes—made her expression contorted. Needless to say, the pain was excruciating, but the feeling of a part of her body slowly disappearing was truly indescribable.

The only saving grace is that this dissolving solution must take time to slowly dissolve the prey it catches.

Compared to the corrosive liquid of the worm-type giant insect monster, it is much less powerful. Perhaps due to the unique structure of its enormous body, the roles of predator and pursuer, and the positioning of the enemy's lair and the enemy itself are quite clearly divided.

Or perhaps this monster is still growing—this unpleasant thought flashed through Lefia's mind as she fought against monsters and "enhanced" species like fairy clones.

"...!"

As Bell continued to unleash his slashes as instructed, the enemy's flesh remained completely unaffected.

The boy's favorite weapon—a jet-black dagger—would not melt or lose its sharpness no matter how much it slashed at the wall that secreted dissolving liquid; it would only continue to carve deep slash marks.

However, it's too thick.

He couldn't break through the wall, and the enemy remained unchanged.

Despite having wounded the enemy's body, the underground gatekeeper seemed completely unaffected.

(No effect...!)

Lefia glanced at the scene and bit her lip.

She didn't expect to break the status quo, but at least hoped to slow down the enemy's movements—hoping to find a weakness to "invoke," but things didn't seem to be going so smoothly.

This vertical pit was indeed a "trap" used to harm adventurers, a "cage" to trap the prey.

The only way to attack is to target the enemy's main body, which hides the core "magic stone" inside its chest.

(The problem is...!)

Can you continue to dodge attacks until the "magic" is complete?

Even if she were to perform "parallel chanting," focusing some of her attention on the incantation would significantly slow down Lefia's initial movements and reaction speed. No matter how well she could predict the attack, she couldn't guarantee that she could completely deal with that fast and heavy giant whip.

Being confined in a closed space with limited escape routes is also a major disadvantage.

Most importantly, the enemies are "colorful monsters" that will react to "magic" in eight or nine out of ten cases.

The initial chanting, now that the attacks that were dispersed towards the boy, will all be concentrated on him.

The best-case scenario would be to team up with Bell, but they are a makeshift two-man cell, so it's not something to look forward to.

Forcing a Level 2, Tier 3 adventurer to act as a human wall to deal with this opponent is already going too far.

Only on your own.

Lefia made up her mind to perform "parallel chanting".

“——”

at this time.

The enemy's waving tentacles suddenly stopped.

Both Lefia and Bell showed the same surprised expression, stopped in their tracks, and looked up at the underground gatekeeper.

The giant, single eye rattled, taking turns capturing Lefia and the others.

The enemy, still in an upside-down position, quickly surveys its prey, and in the next instant...

The crown-shaped organ emits blue light.

"Huh—?"

The light emitted made Bell murmur softly, and Lefia couldn't help but stop what she was doing.

That's a sign of some kind of "attack." By the time this intuition arises, it's too late.

A deadly high-frequency radiation was emitted around the blue crown surrounding the one-eyed figure.

"Aaaaaahh ...

The deafening noise, truly deafening, caused Lefia and the others to open their eyes wide and scream.

"~ ...

Just like the frequency emitted by the Black Bat (Evil Bat) and the Songbird (Silen), it is a "strange sonic wave" that can bind the adventurer's movements.

However, its power output is far superior to that of ordinary monsters, exceeding the standard.

The destructive power, enough to knock out even a high-level adventurer, instantly robbed the two of their ability to move.

Unlike any other "strange sound wave" in this world, it almost caused Lefia and Bell to lose their balance and bend their knees.

"!!"

But the enemy did not miss this flaw.

It is fully prepared and thrusts its tentacles toward its prey, ready to strike at any moment.

The one being targeted is Bale.

In her blurred vision, Lefia held her breath, and the boy froze as he faced the rapidly approaching giant whip.

Compared to monsters that are speculated to be comparable to Lv.4, Bell is Lv.2.

A direct hit means death.

One hit kill.

Lefia strained her throat with all her might:

"Run!!"

The boy tried to dodge, but it was too late.

Faced with two tentacles that were tearing through the air and pressing in, Bell kicked the ground—and lunged at a weapon standing at the bottom of the cave.

—The shield!

Those were the relics of adventurers who had been hunted. Lefia stared in disbelief as he grabbed the platinum shield and, while rapidly flying through the air, used the shield to block the whip.

It's too late to say.

A deafening roar, like an explosive blast, detonated, and Bell's body was blown away like a bullet.

“Huh!?”

He was sent flying sideways.

Bell was hit by an absurdly powerful impact through the shield, slamming viciously into the fleshy wall.

Perhaps the reaction force reopened the gradually healing wound, and bright red blood gushed from his head. Soon, his back was torn off the wall he had violently slammed into, falling into the pool of dissolving liquid with a thud.

His skin melted, and he remained motionless, emitting white smoke.

"..."

The underground gatekeeper deactivated the "strange sonic wave" emanating from the Crown of Light.

Then it used its tentacles as a spear to deliver a fatal blow.

however.

"—[Unleashing a beam of light, the bow of the sacred tree]!!"

She began to sing at the top of her lungs.

To divert the attack from Bell to herself, Lefia resolutely began to chant.

The magic circle unfolded as if to boast of its existence, with a rich golden light spreading and rising from beneath the water's surface.

In an instant, the trajectory of the spear changed.

The underground gatekeeper turned around and shifted his attack target from Bell to Lefia.

"You are a master archer!"

"!!"

Facing the approaching double whips and the roaring attacks of the enemy, Lefia sang as she sped away.

In a confined space, she risks her life to perform "parallel chanting"—controlling the reins of "magic," Lefia dances to the song.

"[Snipe, Elf Archer—]"

The wind pressure from the tentacles pounded against her body repeatedly, tearing her combat suit. Lefia desperately tried to escape, but her eyes remained fixed on the enemy's single eye. Relying on the teachings of her kin (Philwiss) that she had learned and memorized with her limbs, she abandoned attack and defense, focusing all her energy on predicting, dodging, and chanting.

Lefia felt as if her entire body was overheating uncontrollably, and she was sweating profusely.