The next day, all of the members of our guild including Lydia went back to the Wanaruta Historical Ruins. As a revenge for our failure last time, this time around we plan to go straight into the second level of the dungeon.
Although we can use teleport to quickly transverse the first level of the dungeon, in order to get to the next level, we needed to climb the large set of stairs.
Because it isn't really possible to see clearly from the bottom of the staircase all the way to the top, we needed to carefully tread on the unstable staircase with a high amount of caution.
After all, the last time we came here, the stairway collapsed on us.
「Haah~ Fin~ally…..we reached the top~」
「Good work, Milly-chan♪」
「Are you alright?」
「I'm fine, I'm fine!」
Milly returned a V-sign back to Claude, and whilst she seemed to be sweating, she didn't seem completely exhausted like the last time.
Because she worked on improving her magic every single day, did that actually reinforce her physical strength to some degree?
Anyhow, we were finally able to climb the stairs successfully to the next level and a sound of tinkling bells resounded in our ears.
Along with the sound, a monster from the second level of the dungeon appeared, it was the Wraith Master.
The monster was wearing a dark brown robe, and carrying an oak cane, it wore a mask that was shaped like an ox and it was concealing itself in the shadows so I couldn't really see it that well.
The Wraith Master had two Mist Wraiths behind it working for it. This was going to be a formidable foe to fight.
Aside from boss monsters, demon's like this that had "underlings" working for them were very rare, but they did exist.
I coated both Lydia and Claude's weapons, with White Weapon granting them the attribute of Soul Magic, Milly was as per usual going with the motto of "the early bird gets the worm" and she already fired off a Blue Gale.
An extra-large tornado flew towards the demon and hindered their movements, while this was happening, I invoked Time Square to suspend the time and used Magic Amplification twice in a row, creating a White Sphere which was four times stronger.
Because I already acquired the Summon Servant spell, I thought it would be wise to save up on the high-level mediums by casting less Soul type magic and just using Magic Amplification in order to deal more damage.
The Mist Wraith that was surrounded by both Milly and my magical attacks disappeared and the left over Wraith Master was in a clash with both Claude and Lydia.
「Teeeyaaaaah!」
Claude was attacking the Wraith Master from the front with her sword and the monster repelled her attack with its cane, Lydia was attacking the Wraith from the back with her axe but the monster retaliated with Black Crash and blew her away.
「Wachichi!」(Woah)
「Are you alright! Lydia!」
「I'm okay, I barely managed to dodge it♪」
From my angle, it seemed like she got directly hit by the Black Crash….
Well I suppose this is Lydia we are talking about.
Before the fight Claude was already using her special ability Screen Point to nullify all magical attacks including the Black Crash, however she was still having trouble breaking through its defensive cane. The Wraith Master began to chant a spell.
「...…Call Slave」
The moment it finished chanting the spell, two Mist Wraiths appeared from thin air.
「Eck....It can still call out more?!」
「It's no problem. Milly you know what to do right!」
「Of course♪」
Milly combined her Blue Gale with my White Sphere, which had already been amplified with Magic Amplification to strengthen it by four times its usual amount, immediately firing it off at the Mist Wraith's and killing them instantly.
The Wraith Master is capable of using his spell "Call Slave" quite frequently, and if the Mist Wraith's are not able to be killed instantly, then the party that needs to fight three demons at the same time might be hard pressed to achieve victory.
We already confirmed in the first level of the dungeon that we were able to defeat the Mist Wraith's relatively easily. Moreover, I already talked to Milly about us doing this type of combination attack whilst we were climbing the large stairway.
The Wraith Master was beginning to cast the Call Slave spell again, but this time around Claude was ready to take advantage of the vulnerability it exposed when it chanted, she went behind it and pierced her sword into its back. The Wraith Master took this blow head on and began to die as it crumbled and fell.
「As expected this is quite hard. Right now I used up half of my Mana」
「If more than one of these appear, it's probably best for us to run away ne~」
The Wraith Master is a demon that requires a considerably high levelled party to challenge.
Although the second level didn't really have plenty of Wraith Master's around, in the third level of the dungeon, there was a huge amount of Wraith Master's everywhere, so unless your party was comprised of very high levelled mages, then you wouldn't be able to hunt in the upper levels.
If we are able to hold our own in this second level of the dungeon, then we can already be considered as full-fledged Magicians. Even though we've been hunting here for many weeks now, I haven't really seen many people around.
High level Magicians....Or even Adventurers, mainly hang around the capital cities and metropolitan areas, so I suppose in this kind of remote country side dungeon, there isn't really many people that would come to this dungeon.
I walked forwards while meditating.
That reminds me, I haven't used my Summon Servant spell today.
If I can summon Ain, I can save up on some high-quality mediums.
I think it's also good if I introduce her to everyone else.
「Ahem. Everyone can I have your attention for a moment?」
「Is there something wrong? Zeph-kun」
「I want to introduce you guys to a new magic I learnt」
「Introduce us to your magic? What do you mean?」
「Well, just have a look」
I calmed Milly down and chanted my Summon Servant spell, and from within the white light, Ain's figure appeared.
「....Allow me to introduce you guys. This is Ain」
「Granpa, did you call me~?」
Ain's was flying around me as per usual, but when she noticed there were other people around me, her large rounds eyes expanded even more.
「Waaah~ What's with this girl!? She's so cuteeee~」
「Fairy…..? No, is she an Angel? Is this really magic?」
「This is…..so Adoorwableee~」(Lydia saying adorable in broken Japanese cause Ain's is too cute…)
All three of the girls had sparkling eyes.
Especially Lydia.
「Who are these guys? Grandpa are they your friends?」
It seems that she's a little surprised? Ain tried to get away from the three girls and flew behind my head in order to hide herself.
「It's okayy~ You don't have to be afwaid~nee? Ain-chu~wan」
Lydia was completely love-struck and no matter how you saw it, she who was extending her hands towards Ain looked terrifying.
I actually started to walk backwards with Ain as well, and Lydia was impatiently cornering the both of us.
Scary, Scary!
「Ne, have you been using White Sphere all this time so that you were able to call this girl out? I've heard before from my father that in Soul Magic there is a certain type of spell that can summon familiars, is this what this magic is? 」
Milly suddenly shoved herself in between me and Lydia, changing the topic.
「That's right. I don't really know too much about Soul Magic but it seems like Milly's father knows quite a bit about it」
「Well, my father was quite the famous researcher after all」
After I praised her dad, Milly was a little embarrassed.
「How cutee~ Ain-chan, there, there~」
Milly presents her fingers towards Ain and gently pokes at her wings, when she did this, Ain's wings fluttered and brushed away Milly's fingers.
「...Auu」
「Kukuku, It seems like she doesn't like you Milly」
Ain gets away from the three girls once again and climbs on to my shoulder.
「That's fine! If it's like that all I need to do is use the Summon Servant spell, then I can just get my own familiar, right?」
「...That's true but…」
What I couldn't bring myself to tell her was that it required a huge quantity of high-quality mediums and it was very expensive to level up Soul Magic.
Well I guess if that's what Milly wants to spend her money on, it's up to her. Once she knew how expensive it was, she may stop trying, besides if she did try, considering that she now had the Growth Skill, she may actually be able to acquire the spell quite easily, who knows?
「For the time being, the amount of time I can keep Ain summoned is still limited. Therefore, let's continue hunting?」
After saying this the three girls nodded their heads, however, their gazes were still locked on to Ain.
Especially, Lydia's gaze…