Chapter 50: Rowene Dungeon(10)

Finally arriving at the entrance of the 4th floor, Sedral whistled happily as he was calculating the magic stones.

“The magic stones are strangely pure today. I’ll treat Henrik when I get back.”

“What do you mean by pure?” Professor Pel showed curiosity at the word magic stones.

Since it was his specialty, it was a topic he couldn’t just pass over.

“Well, the monsters around here are all made recently, so they only have a small amount of magic stones.

And the quality isn’t that great either.”

“That’s true.”

“But look at this.”

Sedral picked up one of his magic stones and handed it to Professor Pel.

Just as he had said earlier, it was about the size of half a fingernail… but the shiny color was unusual.

“Red?”

“I was surprised too. I’ve never heard of skeletons being red.

Well, there aren’t many of them.”

“… This dungeon might be much more valuable than I thought.”

Lucy, who had been silently listening to Cedral and Professor Pel’s story, glanced at Avalli.

Did Avalli do it?

When he conveyed the message by simply moving his mouth, Avalli slightly lowered the corners of his eyes and put his index finger to his lips.

… As expected.

Cedral and Avalli were the ones who extracted the magic stone while exploring the dungeon.

Among them, Avalli carefully moved the magic stone he took out so that no one would notice.

At the time, he didn’t think much of it, but it seems there was a reason for that.

“Then, I’ll go.”

“Are you okay going alone?”

“No problem. If we hurry, we’ll be able to join up with the professor’s students.”

Cedral said that and left with an excited step.

He seemed quite happy that he had made a higher profit than he had expected.

“… Then let’s go down.”

“Yes, Professor Pel.”

“Let’s go quickly, professor!”

“Understood.”

The leader of the group of four naturally became the oldest, Professor Pel.

After passing through the low, long stairs leading down to the 4th floor, an open field appeared.

“It’s surprisingly bright here, isn’t it?”

“Because this is an area with luminous stones.

We should be careful from here on out.”

The monsters that appear on the 4th floor are zombies and banshees.

The individual zombies’ fighting power is not very high and their intelligence is almost nonexistent, so they are not very threatening.

“If it were an area with only zombies, it would be possible to move while avoiding combat, but…”

If you encounter a banshee, disaster strikes.

The ethereal banshee will fly through the air, ignoring obstacles, and gather all the scattered zombies in the area.

Since there are more monsters than adventurers from the 4th floor, it would be difficult to escape in that case.

“We should move while steadily clearing out the zombies.

However, the entrance to the 5th floor is not that far away, so let’s move while being careful.”

Contrary to his words, Professor Pell’s instinct to sense danger did not work at all.

This is because he had learned the fighting power of these three from the battle on the 3rd floor.

Hans, a swordsman with monstrous strength who crushes enemies right in front of him.

Lucy, a magician whose skills have improved by leaps and bounds, assists Hans.

And, there is one disaster that literally erases all enemies.

… That was terrible.

What Avali used was an ordinary-looking fireball.

Hans and Sedral, the swordsmen, did not have any particular doubts about the magic, but Professor Fel, a high-ranking magician of the Magic Tower, saw the truth of the magic in his eyes.

‘It is more correct to think of it as a word.

Although it was only a fireball in form, its essence contained a strong will to eliminate enemies.

Skeletons that touched Avali’s fireball were literally erased from this world.

The burning was only a superficial phenomenon.

“… Miss Avali.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Do you have any intention of entering the Eastern Magic Tower?”

Professor Fel asked Avali cautiously.

The young magicians who received such a proposal from him would have nodded proudly-

“Well. I don’t know.”

Avali simply tilted his head.

An attitude that seemed to show little interest in the place called Matap itself.

“Besides, I still have a lot to learn from the Master.”

“Isn’t that completely different from what I said last time, Avali?”

“Hehe, I got caught.”

“… Does that mean it’s okay if I’m with Miss Lucy?”

Despite Avali’s subtle refusal, Professor Pell made another offer to her.

“Miss Lucy’s skills have improved dramatically compared to a few months ago.

If we return to the tower, we could settle down on the 6th… no, the 7th floor.”

“The 7th floor? How could I-“

“I’ll recommend it. You deserve it.”

This wasn’t an empty promise.

Lucy Ignis’s skills had really improved by leaps and bounds since they’d met before.

The use of magic, the speed of her chanting, and her judgment.

Above all, her amazingly thick magical power.

The capacity itself didn’t seem to differ much, but the concentration was so different that it seemed like she was a completely separate person.

… It’s probably related to this girl named Avali: Professor Pell’s prediction was correct.

Someone who had been in contact with Avali for a long time.

A young boy and girl who, among crabs, can grow by absorbing external stimuli as they are.

To put it in the words of Avali with modern memories-

Hans and Lucy had unknowingly absorbed the experience flowing out of Avali, who was at full lap.

The other children in Asha Village had also unknowingly developed talents and gifts within them.

Of course, Avali herself didn’t know this fact.

She was just unconsciously dissipating her power.

“Um…”

Lucy looked at Avali as if she was embarrassed.

Then Avali smiled brightly and shrugged.

Lucy should choose as she wants.

“… To be honest, I don’t want to go back for a while.”

She really liked the place called Asha Village.

She felt especially sorry for Charles, who had worked hard all winter to build Lucy’s house.

“I see. I understand.”

“But…, I’ll think about it again once the research I’m doing is over.”

Professor Pell nodded at Lucy’s words that left room for change.

That should be enough.

The Magic Tower is not a place that a wizard can easily give up on, so Lucy will definitely return to the Magic Tower someday.

Her disciple Avalli will be with her then, so it’s Professor Pell’s role to prepare in advance to welcome her.

Every year, the Magic Tower is visited by geniuses from all over the place…

but Avalli is a being of a different class.

An unimaginable transformation will surely occur.

In order for the Magic Tower to be able to handle that transformation, she must do her best to improve the quality of its members.

“Up ahead!”

While Professor Pell was lost in thought for a moment, Hans pulled out his sword and shouted.

A dozen zombies were rushing toward them at incredible speed.

“… Master, isn’t it common sense that zombies are slow?”

“If it’s a zombie with rotted muscles, that’s okay, but they usually move at that speed.”

“Ugh, it’s gross.”

Although it was a rather urgent situation, Avalli complained with a calm expression.

It meant that this situation posed no threat to her.

“Lucy, I’ll leave the zombies to you.

I’ll block the banshees from moving around.”

From Professor Pell’s perspective, it was a reasonable judgment.

No matter how great Avalli’s potential was, she was still just a child.

The only one who could take down a banshee moving at high speed was herself, a high-ranking magician.

Based on that judgment, it was an extremely appropriate order, but-

“Ah, you don’t have to do that.”

Avalli said, pressing her magical power into her clasped hands.

She intended to test the power of her recently completed new inner Gift.

The moment Avalli released her clasped hands, the magical power flew through the air as if it had a will–

Keeeeaaaaaaah!

-Reason, reason!

From behind the hills far away, the sound of a banshee dying could be heard.

Since Lucy and Hans were busy killing the zombies in front of them, only Professor Pell witnessed the scene.

“… What did you do?”

“Oh, it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately.

It’s kind of like a guided missile?

It’s more like an Al, to be exact.”

Although he didn’t know what guided missiles or Al meant, the moment he saw that miraculous use of magical power, Professor Pell’s thoughts changed.

*… I don’t know what Lucy’s research is, but.

He had to support that research by any means possible.

Only then would Lucy’s return be brought forward, and Avalli be accepted as a member of the Eastern Tower as soon as possible.

“Avalli! Don’t just sit around and do nothing, help me!”

“Gah! Why are these zombies so strong!”

The two who had been fighting the zombies in front of him requested support.

Perhaps because the situation was urgent, Lucy screamed, forgetting even polite speech.

“I’ll be there soon!”

Thinking that it was probably still too much for the two of them, Avali ran forward.

Two hours.

Exactly 5 hours and 30 minutes after entering the Rowen Dungeon, Avali and the others cleared the 4th floor and arrived at the 5th floor.

And not even 30 minutes after entering the 5th floor…

“… It looks like this is where the raid party fell apart.”

They arrived at the entrance to the 6th floor, which was covered in blood and littered with corpses.