34. Third Floor
"Us, in your party?"
The one asking was not Lee Se-rin but Park Min-a.
Unlike Lee Se-rin or Yu-na, who liked me, Park Min-a had little reason to want to travel with me.
"Yeah. You're all level 4 now, right? You're the same level as us, so hunting together makes sense."
"If we join your party, that means hunting in the caves, doesn't it?"
It seemed Park Min-a didn't particularly want to go around with us.
"Yeah. That's right."
"We don't know how to fight in the dark. Is that okay?"
It didn't feel like she was actually asking if it was okay. It was a roundabout way of declining.
"I've got something prepared for exactly that."
I took out the two Goggles of Night I'd received from Dismas.
"They're magic items that let you see in the dark."
Ignoring Song Ji-yu, who glanced this way at the words "magic items," I went on.
"I'll lend them to you."
"There are only two, though?"
I answered the puzzled Park Min-a in a low voice.
"Two of you don't need them."
"What's that? Bullying?"
Just as Park Min-a, who hadn't understood me, was about to get angry, Yu-na tapped her on the shoulder.
When I leaned over, Yu-na whispered in her ear, and after hearing it, Park Min-a's face went red.
"R-right. So two is enough."
After fanning her face, Park Min-a collected herself and asked again,
"But see, we've gotten used to fighting in the temple. Right, Ha-eun?"
"Well, that's true, but,"
Seeing Kim Ha-eun speak while glancing at Yu-na, Park Min-a softened her attitude a little, but,
"Anyway, I think the temple suits us better."
She was still opposed.
At this point, I had no choice but to give Park Min-a an answer she could accept.
"Don't you want to get something like this?"
I lowered my voice and tugged my cloak slightly as I spoke.
"......I can tell it's not an ordinary cloak, but is it that big a deal?"
I could feel Park Min-a's interest being piqued too.
"It's enchanted, so it has defensive properties and also raises spell resistance."
Once I said that much, Park Min-a raised the white flag as well.
"Then I'm in favor too. Se-rin and Yu-na are in favor too, right?"
"I haven't said anything yet."
Lee Se-rin was playing coy, but
"So you're saying you're against it?"
Lee Se-rin couldn't bring herself to answer Park Min-a, who was smiling like that.
Once the decision to join was made, I held out my hand.
"Looking forward to working with you."
When Park Min-a gave Lee Se-rin, who was hesitating to step forward, a little push on the back, she came forward as if she had no choice.
Lee Se-rin, who took my hand with a stiff expression, only shook it and let go without a word.
The Achievement window didn't seem like it would lie, so despite that attitude, she did like me.
***
The reason Tia and I had decided to increase our party size was last night, after we'd finished our activities and organized what we'd investigated about the labyrinth's third floor.
Eira had told us that since a Faction War had broken out, the existing labyrinth information would differ, and this was what we'd investigated at the forward base.
'They said that from the third floor on, the passages get wider but also windier.'
The long-range sniping tactics Tia and I had used so far were weakened.
The monsters that appeared were also mainly ogres with high durability or minotaurs.
"In that case, increasing the party size is effective."
Tia was the first to argue that.
"But even if we increase it, where would we get more people?"
"Wasn't there someone who invited you to their party?"
I had no choice but to ask Tia, who was pointing squarely at Lee Se-rin's party, in return.
"They were trying to put me into their party, though?"
"That was a means to an end. If we can be in the same party, they'll readily accept the reverse as well."
I didn't bring up the question of whether there were enough goggles. The scent Tia had picked up that day had been for two people, after all.
And so, our group and Lee Se-rin's party became one party and descended to the second floor of the caves, where,
"The most honorable Do-hyeon has brought back more females."
"The strange thing was that he'd been going around with only one woman until now."
As we entered the Merit Point exchange, the hobgoblins added their remarks upon seeing our enlarged party.
Even Tia, who was used to that kind of talk, let out a sigh, and Lee Se-rin and Park Min-a seemed to be barely restraining themselves from drawing their weapons.
"Sorry, it's just like I told you, but it's a bit much, right?"
"If it turns out to be a lie that we can get magic items here, I'll cut you down first, so it's fine."
"I don't even like wearing these weird goggles, and I'm already starting to regret this."
The two of them were grumbling, but their expressions changed once they stepped inside the Merit Point exchange.
"Everything here is......?"
Seeing Park Min-a marveling at the magic items hanging here and there, it seemed the complaints she'd built up so far had dissolved.
"Oh, for reference, you can only pick two. You need something called Merit Points to exchange."
"Really? Two out of all this?"
It was a shame for the excited Park Min-a, but I had to burst her bubble.
"Have Lee Se-rin and Yu-na pick first."
"What? Why?"
Park Min-a, who said that, looked like she'd barely swallowed the words "Are you taking care of your women?"
"You and Kim Ha-eun already received one each."
When I said that, pointing at the goggles, Park Min-a spat out a complaint.
"I have to give up on something because of these ugly goggles?"
"You can't walk around in the dark without any vision, can you?"
As Park Min-a was swallowing her anger at those words, Yu-na spoke to her.
"Hey, I'm fine, so Min-a, you pick what you need."
"No, forget it. What that guy said isn't entirely wrong."
Only after Park Min-a declined several times did Yu-na pick an item as well.
After agonizing for dozens of minutes, the items the two chose were a sword and a staff.
A +1 longsword, a fine blade that held its edge well and cut well.
A +1 Arcane Staff*. A staff requiring attunement that increases the effectiveness of spells.
With those two items in hand, we headed for the third floor of the caves.
***
The first enemies we encountered were one minotaur and two ogres.
A muscular monster with a bull's head was leading the way carrying a glaive, with the two ogres following behind it.
"Enemy spotted. We can ambush them. Everyone prepare long-range attacks."
I whispered quietly.
The third floor of the caves was windier than the first and second floors, but it still had some straight sections.
Unlike the lower floors, where if you committed to running you could shoot one-sidedly for dozens of seconds, there were only one or two sniping opportunities, but there was no downside to attacking first.
Park Min-a and Tia took out shortbows and loosed arrows, while Kim Ha-eun and Yu-na hurled spells from a distance.
"Sacred Flame!"
"Fire Bolt!"
Without exception, all the attacks were aimed at the minotaur.
I took a quick peek at its status window.
［Name］: Minotaur of Baphomet
［Race］: Monster
［Challenge Rating］: 3 (700 EXP)
□STR : 18
□DEX : 11
□CON : 16
□INT : 6
□WIS : 16
□CHA : 9
【Darkvision】 : 18m
〔Armor Class〕 : 14
〔HP〕 : 85
Just as we'd investigated, it was clearly stronger than an ogre.
This had happened because we'd shared information about the enemies beforehand and agreed to target the strong ones first.
My crossbow bolt also aimed for the minotaur's shoulder.
I'd wondered what kind of long-range attack Lee Se-rin had, and she was throwing daggers to deal damage.
Swordmaster's damage maximization would apply to those throws too, so it was a pretty good decision. Maybe I should get some throwing daggers as well.
Before the minotaur could even get close, its body was already battered.
Meanwhile, the two ogres chose to hurl javelins at us instead of charging recklessly.
One shot sliced through empty air, but the second javelin was threatening, and Lee Se-rin knocked it away with her sword.
'I have the same Swordmaster perk, so how did she do that?'
The minotaur, which had broken through by covering the long distance with its body, attacked Lee Se-rin, who was at the very front, with its horns.
And this time too, Lee Se-rin's sword moved mysteriously and deflected the minotaur's attack.
'It's impressive, but this isn't the time to be worrying about that.'
I slung my crossbow at my waist and drew my longsword.
An upward slash delivered to the monster that had already accumulated enough damage.
A heavy impact lingered in my hand, but the minotaur's body still hadn't collapsed to the ground.
But that was fine. Because right now, the battlefield wasn't just Tia and me.
"Sacred Flame!"
A radiance like a flame fell onto the head of the mortally wounded minotaur.
Lee Se-rin and I, trusting in the final blow Kim Ha-eun would deliver, were already charging toward the ogres before the corpse even fell.
"Grease!"
A slick of oil spread between the two ogres.
The two ogres toppled over from the spell Yu-na had cast.
Lee Se-rin and I exchanged glances and thrust our blades at the ogre on the left.
"Zrruk!"
The ogre, its face subjected to concentrated attacks, fell into a near-death state.
Lee Se-rin and I exchanged glances once more and raised our swords toward the ogre on the right.
The left ogre, which had somehow gotten up from the oiled floor, tried to bring its greatclub down, but,
"Die!"
Park Min-a, who had slung her shortbow on her back and run over before anyone knew it, leaped up and drove her shortsword into its eye.
The massive body collapsed with a thud.
Park Min-a, stepping over the corpse and circling behind the right ogre, lightly raked its ankle with her dagger.
"Whoa, tough hide."
Almost simultaneously, Lee Se-rin and I made the same judgment.
'Action Surge.'
Merciless slashes were repeated on the ogre that had become a corpse.
This ogre had even worse luck. It never even got the chance to stand, because
Shooong.
Tia's arrow, slicing through the air, pierced its head.
Once the situation was settled, Park Min-a, who had circled around from behind the ogres, marveled.
"Wow, how did you do that? We've had time to get in sync with each other."
I couldn't exactly say, "Well, I peeked at your status windows and knew what actions you could take."
"I guess we just click."
It wasn't a lie.
At the very least, Lee Se-rin and I both had the Swordmaster perk.
That was probably why we could exchange opinions with just a look.
"Really? What exactly clicks?"
Ignoring her lewd grin, I began drawing a circle for the offering, and Park Min-a, finding it boring, turned to Tia.
"Hey, Tia, you're really good with a bow too."
She spoke cautiously, unlike how she'd spoken to me, which felt a little strange.
"Thank you. But your first arrow was sharper."
"Ah, that's because of my perk. Oh, right. I forgot to mention that."
Park Min-a, turning back to me, spoke as if demanding an explanation.
"My perk makes my first attack stronger, but since we're fighting in the caves, the feature doesn't kick in properly."
The Rogue feature Sneak Attack activates when one of two conditions is met.
Either you have advantage on the attack, or an ally is near the target and you don't have disadvantage.
If you shoot at a monster approaching from beyond the 18m range of darkvision, the advantage and disadvantage cancel out, and there's no ally nearby.
'Park Min-a's perk was definitely that one, right?'
▶First-Move Victory
The first attack you hit with in combat becomes a critical hit.
A critical hit massively amplifies damage.
But since Sneak Attack doesn't apply to that powerful damage, she was losing out.
Then something suddenly started bothering me.
First in combat?
"So what I'm saying is, I can decide when to fire my first attack myself, right?"
I left Park Min-a's question unanswered and sank into thought.
"Seo Do-hyeon? Hey. Are you ignoring me?"
Fortunately, I reached a conclusion just before Park Min-a got angry.
"Park Min-a, about that—what's the standard for 'first attack'?"
"What do you mean, standard?"
I explained again to her, who was asking what I meant.
"So, if you disappear from the enemies' sight and leave combat, doesn't it reset?"
［Achievement］Sage's Advice
Reward : You can strengthen another person's perk with advice imbued with Wisdom of the Night.
At my words, her expression turned serious.
"That might be worth testing out."
***
Unfortunately, Park Min-a's experiment couldn't be carried out right away.
Finding enemies would have been simple if I used the Guide I'd received from Kwon Chae-a, but someone had requested a rest.
"Let's rest for an hour."
The one who suggested it was Lee Se-rin.
The Action Surge she'd used was a feature that recovered with a short rest.
As a powerful feature, there was no reason not to use it if it became reusable, but,
"Um, Lee Se-rin, the rest of you don't need it, right?"
"Resting would be nice, but we don't have any particular expenditure, so yeah?"
Park Min-a answered in Lee Se-rin's place.
This was exactly why I'd formed the party.
Taking down a single powerful monster wasn't difficult.
'But to do that, you have to spend various resources.'
Starting with spell uses for Divine Smite, to Shield or Innate Magic for blocking enemy attacks, and so on.
On the other hand, once we were with Lee Se-rin's party, our resource consumption had noticeably decreased.
'Even in this battle, I didn't spend anything besides Action Surge.'
Yu-na had used a 1st-circle spell, but not enough to need a rest.
In other words, we only needed to recover Lee Se-rin's and my Action Surge.
'Then there's a good method, isn't there?'
"Lee Se-rin, I have a way to get the effects of a rest faster than an hour. Want to try it?"
"What is it?"
I grabbed the chin of Lee Se-rin, who approached me warily.
Without giving her time to react, I pressed my lips to hers.
"Mmph, mmph!"
When I pulled her resisting body into my arms so she couldn't move,
"Mm, mmph."
Lee Se-rin ended up accepting the tongue that ravaged the inside of her mouth.
I'd been ready to pull out in case she tried to bite, but it seemed that worry had been for nothing.
After exchanging deep, heated saliva for a while,
"Seo Do-hyeon!"
Lee Se-rin, her face red at last, grabbed her sword.