Level 2
Most explorers abhor unplanned battles.
It’s a strange thought, isn’t it?
Explorers exist to adventure through the Abyss and uncover its mysteries, yet their fixed income comes not from ancient relics or treasures but from hunting monsters and the spoils they yield.
And that hunting is never haphazard.
Exploration is a war of attrition.
Potions cannot be the all-in-one cure.
There is diminishing returns.
Drinking too many in a short span diminishes their effect, after all.
Thus, even mages and martial artists face a strict limit on how long they can fight.
That is why expedition parties spend months deep in the Abyss.
Logically, then, one should withdraw.
The training grounds themselves teach exactly that—when an unexpected fight looks likely, avoid it at all costs.
But that is only common sense.
If you step outside the rules of common sense, there is no need to follow it.
The three of us reached silent agreement.
“Retreat!”
Ray was the first to bolt, of course.
Ray’s talent shone.
The silver mana shifted with startling speed.
The clumsy dance between Azurail and Argentooth had improved dramatically after barely one real fight.
Azurail did more than simply grant solid footing—it boosted her base strength.
Ray leapt like a cannonball, then, mere moments before impact, she retracted the rail and wrapped herself in a glove of pure silver mana.
Kwoong!
Dust swallowed the narrow passage.
A gust of wind, though, drove it aside in an instant.
A flow of mana swept over the dust, carried on the same wind.
It was lighter than the stream-like flow I had come to expect from Leaf—clearly the mana of the new spirit he had summoned.
The Aerial’s mana.
“Aerial! Compress the air and fire!”
The air above condensed into a glittering blade.
The compressed air bullet slammed into the scorpion monster that had been stalking Ray’s feet.
Boom!
But the explosion was not at the monster’s head—it was the bundled air itself.
“What is this?”
Ray’s foot, still wrapped in Argentooth, crushed the creature’s skull.
She had already surrounded it with enough mana; the venomous stinger should never have reached her.
She had probably dismissed it as a foolish risk.
Yet she had shouted triumphantly, and Leaf’s reply fell flat.
“It… didn’t work out as well as I thought.”
“You copied me?”
“Ah! Yes! You figured it out!”
Of course I figured it out.
The mechanism was identical.
Simple enough to imitate, but the power had collapsed the moment his mana source switched from the Devil’s essence to ordinary air.
There were likely other factors too—insufficient mana draw, or the Aerial itself simply being too weak.
“Like the brutal water jets Unidne fires, right?”
The idea had come from Leaf.
We would figure out the rest as he researched it.
For now, I offered only the concrete advice.
“Use more mana. The output without a device is pitiful.”
“Yeah… I held back a little just in case…”
Mana conservation?
That was something ordinary mages worried about.
But we were not ordinary.
Ray, with her superior beastman physique and infinite mana reserve, was born with both.
Elves were celebrated for their unmatched magical talent.
And among pureblood elves, Ray was pureblood beastkin—there was no comparison.
Leaf’s skill, though half-elven, was no less impressive than any fullblood’s.
In fact, he outstripped even the lone fullblood Alorwen in raw mana volume.
Then there was my cheat—mana without limit, courtesy of the isekai skill that made even the race cheat look weak.
With three of us, mana management was hardly worth a second thought.
“Class is still on, huh?”
I answered Ray’s question by firing my mana cannon again.
While Ray took the frontline and Leaf provided support, my job was purely contingency.
Just in case a stray Shadow Stalker had survived.
Ray was already locked in combat; a sudden leap from the side would be a nightmare.
Its attack power could pierce even her defenses.
Only I could handle that—Blink was the only option.
But nothing had appeared.
I had half-expected some higher predator to sense a wounded upper-tier’s territory, but none had.
Usually they would scatter at the sight of a beheaded corpse.
Instead, they had thrown themselves at us like starving beasts.
The fight ended only after every monster lay dead.
In other words, Ray had carried the entire log.
She did not complain.
Instead she stretched, sighing in relief, then planted both hands on her hips in pure victor’s joy.
“Heh… this is it. Ahh~ It’s been ages since I fought this well!”
The reaction was almost as if she had just done morning jogs.
Beasts are dumb, but Ray was a beast.
She was the lion beastkin—strongest, most explosive in her kind.
“Alright, then…”
Ray’s mana swirled once more, as if ready for the next fight, while the others still hovered without settling.
Simple reason: the monsters were dead, but the battle itself was not over.
I took the cue.
“What about that guy over there?”
The man standing beyond the corpses.
§
“Misunderstanding.”
He raised both hands to show he meant no harm.
“I have no intention of fighting you.”
Everyone starts that way.
But it rarely ends that way.
“What now? Suppress him?”
Ray, who looked ready to throw hands despite the man’s calm, was the only one among us with that kind of appetite.
Even with both power sight and mana sense active, nothing registered except him.
He might be using some stealth assassination art, but Ray’s instincts would have flared if he had been hiding that well.
Walking the second floor alone, no less, with the monster population still high and their instincts clearly damaged.
“Minimum Senior. Could even be Expert like Nathaniel.”
Could the three of us take an Expert?
Nathaniel, a pure combat class that wasn’t, had still freely shuttled between floors with Philon’s burden.
Mea, whose actual combat ability was Expert level, had shown no sign of being easy prey.
Thinking of the two of them together, I wondered if I would have failed the Expert exam even if I had tried.
Perhaps that was why he had only registered my name and skipped the test.
“I get it. I’m sure it looks suspicious. But I came here to help you.”
He had helped in zero ways—none whatsoever.
“Help? Funny.”
He glanced around, as if wondering whether I had missed some remaining monster.
But neither aura nor mana flared.
He was probably afraid he would trigger our vigilance.
“So the monsters are wiped out?”
Meaning there was still work left.
“Help me harvest some stones.”
Do your part.
Prove your worth through labor.
§
His name was Luke.
It sounded almost like Ray’s—someone who could walk among the clouds.
But the last name that followed was Sterling.
Luke Sterling.
He was a Senior, exactly as I had expected, not an Expert.
“Thanks to you, it wrapped up fast.”
“I’m glad we gave you a rare show; it’s only fair you paid.”
He reminded me of Arthur.
Our natures were similar.
The difference was that he was calmer.
“Hmm~”
Even as Ray’s glare drilled into him, Luke remained utterly unfazed.
“My kid here has a bit of a human issue.”
“No. I understand. Probably got burned by people in the first floor. There are monsters there pretending to be explorers.”
Luke, who had worn calm and cold like armor, finally let a faint trace of genuine discomfort slip through.
“It’s a terrible side effect of the license system being tossed around carelessly. People who have no business facing the Abyss chase quick riches. I can’t even understand what the higher-ups are thinking.”
Asking for a cut here?
For someone with connections in the grand ducal family, the words were difficult to say.
“Ah, sorry. That sounded rude.”
“It’s fine. We’re all from regular academies anyway. No guild affiliation.”
He subtly reminded us we had no backup.
I wondered how he would spin this.
The ones he hated with words were precisely the kind with no backing to worry about.
There was no guarantee he was different.
And Luke spoke, voice dripping with admiration.
“Indeed. You really do have roots. I could tell right away you were different. You’ve clearly laid down a solid foundation.”
He launched into a speech about the importance of roots, language suddenly roughening.
I turned away and exchanged glances with Ray and Leaf.
We silently shared one thought.
Another strange one had appeared.
---
[Luke Sterling]