The group resumed their activities after their lunch and went on exploring for the rest of the afternoon before coming out.
Since it would be too attention-attracting if they exchange all the Magic Stones they gathered for today, they all traded-in a quarter of their total earnings. However, it still earned them around 160,000 valis due to the sheer amount of monsters they killed.
The figure surprised the Guild staff again but not so much this time as the 10th to 12th floors are a lot more lucrative than the monsters from the 6th floor where the group of girls is exploring yesterday. But it's still an impressive amount since they're all level 1s.
After getting the money, Kisuke immediately passed 100,000 valis to Line, "W-wait! Wait! Why are you giving me this!? I didn't even join the group that hunted monsters! On the contrary, I should be the one paying you for the tuition fee!"
"Take it. You went through all of your potions and magic potions today. Go buy something better with this." Kisuke didn't listen to her and just pushed the pouch of Valis into her hands.
"...But."
"I'll tell you what you can do later as tuition fee. I never thought of this as a free tutorial, so be prepared."
Line looked at him for a moment before sighing in relief, "I understand. Thank you very much."
"Good. Then we'll go ahead. Once you return home, don't ever try to control your Mana directly. You still need supervision as your proficiency in it is almost nonexistent. You are better off memorizing your healing magic first."
"I'll do that."
Kisuke nodded and started walking away and the girls followed him after bidding their farewells to Line. But then, Kisuke suddenly remembered, "Ah, Arshe-san." He called out to her departing back.
She turned around and looked at him curiously, "What is it, Kisuke-san?"
"Don't update your status for now."
"...Okay."
.
.
.
Once they returned home, Medusa immediately separated from the group as she still has to prepare for dinner. And since Aika, Sona, and Koneko still has some energy with them, they intended to practice their Magic, Flash Step, and overall control on their body strengthening.
After today's hunt, they realized something and that is there's a limit on how long they could use Mana to power up. From today's experience, Aika and Koneko could only do a power-up across the basic ability for about five minutes before they start experiencing debilitating headaches for the overuse of Mana. If they save it and only power up what they needed depending on the situation, they can last a lot longer.
However, switching between the parameters they want to raise has noticeable gaps or 'cooldowns' that anyone a bit proficient can take advantage of. And if it's monsters, a wrong switch would potentially expose them from a fatal attack.
So for the rest of the day, they intended to polish their Mana control and body control.
After reminding them not to overdo it, Kisuke went directly to his laboratory to get some results from the currently running experiments. He first approached a two-meter tall cylindrical tank with a terminal in front of it. Checking the progress through the terminal, Kisuke muttered, "I only need to adjust it for a bit and I'll be able to extract clean Mana from the magic stones." He then went into work mode.
Kisuke only came out when the dinner is ready and coincidentally, Yoruichi and Kuroka returned from their own activities.
Since it'll be a few minutes before the dinner is set, Kisuke invited the two of them back to his laboratory to hear them out.
After giving Yoruichi a small peck on her lips, Kisuke asked, "How is it?"
Yoruichi and Kuroka sat down before the former started speaking, "We've gathered most of common sense here and I'll be able to compile it after a day or two for you to read. The only part of the town that we haven't explored much is the so-called Daedalus Street."
"I already did some preliminary investigation on the said place, nya." Kuroka took over, "But there are so many hidden parts and hidden paths that it'll take a while to investigate and map out even just a small area without me revealing my abilities, nya. And a place like that is, obviously, a gathering spot for unsavory individuals, nya. On top of that, it seems that there is some sort of eyes watching the area. I can't tell where it is but I feel it, nya."
"Hmmm..." Kisuke rubs his chin in contemplation, "So that place also has some sort of surveillance in it..."
"What do you mean?" Yoruichi asked with furrowed brows.
"I didn't notice it immediately but there is also some sort of surveillance in the Dungeon. Although it's only some parts of it like the entrance or some rooms, it's still surveillance."
"But why we didn't feel anything when we entered the Dungeon the first time?"
"It's because there's no one watching us at that time. But earlier today, I felt a gaze on me despite having no one around our group."
"Then what should we do?"
"We don't want to alert them so we do nothing. But that doesn't mean we'll stop our Dungeon exploration. Basic techniques that the girls use will be fine but if we want to do something serious inside the Dungeon, then we would have to avoid it. I'm going to the Dungeon again tomorrow to figure out how to do that and find every point where they can look through."
"Understood. Then Kuroka and I will continue gathering more information for a few more days before we enter the dungeon."
"No... You can take it slow. Go gather information for a whole week."
"Why?"
"I have to supervise the girls for this whole week, but after that, you, me, Kuroka, and Medusa will go to the middle floors or beyond. I assume that we could at least take care of monsters down their despite our limited physical abilities and if we cooperate and use our techniques to the fullest we should be able to kill stronger monsters."
"I see... That way, we'll immediately reach the 'counter stop' of our parameters."
Kisuke grinned and continued, "Right~. And it'll be more exciting fighting those than playing with low-level monsters."
It's only possible because this group has experience fighting terrifying monsters and can control their Mana at will. In addition to the most versatile use of magic and skills that are unknown to this world, no monsters from the middle floors could actually threaten them.
It's also around this time that few individuals would notice their uncommon existence. However, they wouldn't realize how terrifying Hestia Familia really is until much later.