At an intersection point in the first layer, four youths could be seen waiting anxiously as they observed the group of 5 kobolds awaiting in their path.
Kobolds were upper tier 2 monsters which had a head of a dog and a furry humanoid body.
They are known to work well in a group and is proficient in a little bit of magic and swordsmanship.
Although they are weak individually, they should not be underestimated when they are in a group.
"..Kobolds. It's high up there in the list of monsters for the first layer" Lily said as she peeked at the monsters.
"Damn it would have been better if it was a horned rabbit. At least those are cute you know" Alice said.
"Let's not get too hasty guys, we already know what to do. Let's just try to not panick before we engage" Emily calmly said as she readied her silver staff.
"Ummm I'll do my best as the vanguard. I can handle it so.."
"Don't be a worrywart Jun, you have Lily with you so it's all good"
Alice grinned at Jun and Lily, not an ounce of worry in her face unlike the two person in question.
"...Yeah.."
"...."
Emily then sighed as she looked at everyone in the eyes. A serious mood came over them as the rest brought out their weapons.
Jun had a normal broadsword, Lily had her ornated rapier, Emily had her staff and Alice brought out her weapon.
"I'll stick with this one for this occassion"
She had on her hand, a white flintlock pistol, a really large one at that.
Everyone nodded as they positioned themselves. Emily then put a countdown sign on her hand.
3...2....1!
Lily and Jun quickly ran out of the intersection and into the open area.
The kobold twitched their ears as they immediately noticed the group of delvers.
They then howled in retaliation, unsheating their cutlass and two of them brought out wands.
The mages were about to cast a spell but before that could happen-
*Boom!
One of them was blew away by a small exlposion, making it unconscious.
"Gaaarg!"
The other mage howled, furious for being delayed in casting due to the attack.
""Gaaaarg!""
"You take the other one, I'll handle these two" stated Lily.
Jun quickly nodded as he swung his sword right at his opponent.
The Kobold blocked his strike. It's cutlass then vibrated as sharp winds assualted Jun.
He jumped to the side and dashed straight ahead.
"[Blitz]"
Jun's figure blurred in an instant , only traces of his figure visible in a straight line.
The Kobold tried to cut Jun but to no avail as he was already at his back.
"Graa-"
Jun swung his sword, decapitating the kobold.
He then breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath as he looked at the mage already finished casting.
A huge fireball was going straight at him.
"Crap!" Jun pointlessly raised his sword to block the fireball which was unnecessary since Emily was carefully watching the fight.
"[Barrier]!"
A transparent blue barrier appeared before Jun as it easily stopped the fireball.
"Whoah.." exclaimed Jun.
The Kobold was surprised and tried to cast once again before Jun could approach him.
"Puppy! I have a little something for you"
Alice was in a firing position, she had then opened the catridge as mana was absorbed from her hands.
'[Overload]' Alice activated her innate skill.
Her hand then produced red particles as her created mana shell quickly turned crimson.
"Should be enough, [Howitzer]!"
A red streak of light came out of the muzzle as it impacted the kobolds head, creating a a greater explosion than before as it's head splattered all over the place.
Jun sighed in relief before quickly finishing off the unconscious kobold mage from before. He stabbed it right through it's heart.
Lily on the other hand had already flawlessly taken care of the two kobold warriors.
"[Flame Enchant]"
Her sword was engulfed in flames as she parried the cutlass aiming at her head. She then countered as her sword cut through the kobold in half.
The last remaining one tried to run away but she had already stabbed right though it's heart with her flaming rapier.
She then swiped her rapier down as she stored it in her vrace.
Everyone regrouped as they came into the center of the open area.
"Nice work everyone"
Emily clapped her hands together as she smiled softly.
"Yeah that went great didn't it Lily"
Alice patted Lily's shoulders as she grinned. Lily nodded in response but not before giving her critic.
"Well I can't say everything went smoothly though"
Lily then took a sharp glance at Jun which made him shudder for a bit.
"I....was just.."
"If you said you can handle the vanguard position, I at least would have expected for you to protect yourself. Emily was just there for the worst case scenario but those things were weak however you still almost got yourself killed" she coldly stated.
"...It's just because I can't..I can't.." Jun clenched his hands in frustration as choked up on his words.
Alice looked worried as she tried to lighten up the heavy mood but Emily managed to beat her to the punch.
She clapped her hands as she got everyone's attention.
"Now now, let's not put blame into one another, it's still too early to make judgements like that considering it's our first party work, right Lily?"
Lily became silent as she looked at Emily's pleading eyes and at Jun. She then turned her head as she spoke.
"...Hmmm just focus more next time"
Lily then went towards the multiple passages as she started to inspect the right path. Alice immediately accompanied her with a relieved look in her eyes as she patted Jun's shoulder when she passed by.
"...Stranford, thanks for that"
Jun scratched his cheeks in embarassment.
"Don't worry about that. Lily just wants everyone here to stay safe, that's all. So I would rather want you two to get along since you seem like a nice person"
Jun had gotten more flustered after her statement.
"...Ummm I'll do better next time!"
"Un. I'm looking forward to that"
Emily nodded as she joined her two party members as they started to discuss their next move.
Jun watched over them, feeling that these people at least treated him normally. He then pondered as he remembered Ray's advice to him last time about an imminent danger.
He then looked at his hand holding a broadsword and then to his free hand which seemingly felt empty during that earlier battle from before.
"Damn. Why am I like this Master?, why did you teach me that style even if you knew I couldn't use it.." he mumbled.
He then shook out of his thoughts as he stored his sword into his vrace and followed right after his party which had already chosen a path.
'I really hope nothing happens but if it does...I..' he mused.
And so Emily and her party pushed forward, not knowing what was awaiting them in their path.
-----
"[Iron Call]!"
Waves of mana spread out from Donovan's body as the three Kobolds quickly turned their attention towards him.
They then attacked him simultaneously only to get pushed back hard by his glowing shield.
"[Shield Bash]"
"""Graaag!"""
The three got stunned for a moment which was enough for Donovan to cut one of them down.
"Die you mutt!"
He slashed it's chest as blood spilled over the floor.
The two remaining Kobolds howled in anger as they attacked Donovan with blades of wind from their cutlass.
He immediately blocked it with his shield but it managed to push him back and stagger him slightly which the Kobolds took advantage of and started to shower him with cuts from all sides.
"Ughh! Hey help me already you trash!" he shouted in frustration.
He parried a slash and blocked a stab. It won't take long before his defences get breached.
However before it could lead to that situation, a shadowy figure appeared behind the two monsters as a dagger swiftly cuts one of the Kobold's neck clean.
The figure then followed up with another cut to the startled kobold to its head, ending it's life.
"You! why did you wait that long to jump in!?"
Donovan immediately pointed his sword at the shadowy figure.
The shadow then vanished as it showed a young man with disheveled curly black hair and red eyes with heavy bags under them.
"W-wait D-Donovan I was just trying to find an opening"
"Don't give me bullshit, Shivan!"
"Hiiii!?" Shivan Teller then raised up his hand in fear.
"Tch! if only your family wasn't friends with ours, I would have already left you here to catch up with Brian"
"I-I'm sorry!"
Donovan sighed as he glared at Shivan.
"Just do your job so we can follow Brian to the second layer"
"Y-yes"
Shivan then snapped his fingers and then closed his eyes.
"[Echo]"
After a little while, he finally opened his eyes as he pointed to the two pathways.
"The left path is really dangerous, it has a large group of Feralz sleeping while the right one is pretty safe and has traces of Brian"
"You didn't have to mention the first one you fool, even Brian would hesitate to go there and fight a group of tier 3 monsters"
"Yeah but what about the group behind us? what do we do with them?"
"...What? why would I care?"
Shivan scratched his head as he hesitated to tell Donovan what he knew but he still told him anyways.
"Well don't you have business with that fallen kid.."
"Oh! now you got my attention. Tell me"
"Y-yeah so-"
Shivan then disclosed the composition of the party Jun was with which made Donovan more mad and disgusted at the same time.
"Fucking b*tches!, opening their legs for a fallen of all people. What an embarrasment for the top clans!"
"Umm maybe they just pitied the guy..."
"Pity or not!, it's still unbelievable....no, that guy must have used a skill or something!"
"...I don't think that's-"
"That must be the case. Fucking fallen!"
"..Uhh..."
Donovan pondered for a while before looking at the left path.
"Hey Shivan, let's get rid of that thing"
"W-we can't!, the academy would condemn us for that!"
"Obviously you idiot, I never said we would do it ourselves, not when he's with those absurdly strong women"
Donovan then gestured towards the left path as he grinned.
"What?! are you crazy?!"
"Not at all. In fact I'm doing everyone a favor. The academy, Brian and specially those girls. They need to wake up and see him for the monster that he is"
"...But his party members.."
"Don't worry about them, they can handle themselves unlike that fallen and if they try to help him then too bad right? There would be even less competition for Brian in that sense"
"....."
"Right Teller?.."
"Uhhh y-yeah"
"Good then let's do some wake up call shall we"
Donovan then went towards the entrance of the left passage way as he activated his skill.
"[Iron Call]!"
After his shout multiple roars of ferocity resounded out of the path.
"Let's go!"
"R-right! [Shadow Dive]!"
The two were then swallowed into a shadow as it moved to the right pathway.
"""Boooruuuuuuu!?"""
The roars continued as it got louder.