Underground city, 9th floor.
In this floor, located near the 10th, with many chambers and short paths, and a ceiling nearly ten meters high, phosphorescence like sunlight sprinkled from above, dispelling the darkness.
The wooden-colored walls were covered with moss, while the ground was blanketed by short grass, transforming it into a tiny meadow. Bathed in the phosphorescence falling from the ceiling, it gave the illusion of walking in the wilderness, not in an underground maze.
Considering the terrain and environment, this place differed from the eight floors above, but compared to the geography and surroundings, the monsters that appeared here were a hodgepodge of those from the previous floors.
There were no new types of beasts on this floor, but instead, monsters like kobold-men, goblins, and shadow warriors from previous floors were enhanced, appearing in stronger forms to block adventurers attempting to reach the 10th floor.
For example, at this moment, a horde of red creatures appeared in groups on this grassland, launching an attack on the adventurers who had intruded into their territory.
These were ants with an appearance almost identical to regular ones, except for their entirely red hue and much larger size.
Murderous ants, which started to appear from the 7th floor, were known alongside shadow warriors, which debuted on the 6th floor, as one of the newcomers' assassins.
They possessed hard exoskeletons and developed four claws, with both attack and defensive powers enough to be considered among the elite of the upper levels. In moments of crisis, they could also emit pheromones undetectable to most, calling their comrades, making them a difficult foe.
Their threat level was even higher than that of the shadow warriors; common adventurers dared not confront them head-on, let alone being surrounded and attacked by a swarm.
Yet, facing the murderous ant legions that would make lesser adventurers lose heart, Reiger stood in their way without fear.
Behind him echoed a voice clear as a lark's song.
"[Arrows of Liberation, Bowstaff of the Sacred Wood, I am the master bowman in the name of the bow]."
This was chanting, the incantation to awaken magic.
"[Intercept them, fairy archer]."
Rephia stood with closed eyes, magic wand in hand while a rich golden magic array appeared under her feet, slowly rotating.
"[Pierce through, Guaranteed Hit Arrow]."
A dazzling magic power converged into light atop the magic wand Rephia had raised.
"[Arc-shaped Beam]."
The next second, the light that had gathered on the wand was unleashed.
A giant magic ray that could rightly be called a "beam of light" took the form of an arc-shaped arrow, plowing through the meadow's ground as it roared towards the approaching murderous ants.
"Jiji!"
The murderous ants seemed to sense the danger, halting their charge in panic, only to be directly hit by the incoming massive beam of light.
Reiger witnessed the giant beam of light released by Rephia. While curving through the air, it continually struck the murderous ants.
The struck ants either evaporated in the overflowing light or had parts of their bodies sheared off, unable to hide and quickly overtaken by the curving beam of light.
Rephia's magic kept annihilating monsters, thinning the enemy's ranks.
"Jiji!"
Several ants, closer than the rest, as though facing death and finding life, screeched shrilly and lunged towards Reiger, who blocked their path.
Reiger's eyes flashed, and he finally moved, exploding with astonishing speed, not retreating but advancing, closing in on them before the ants could pounce.
"Putch!"
A flash of silver, and the light, agile rapier cut through the ant's head.
Upon close inspection, the rapier's blade didn't chop directly onto the ant's hard shell but instead sliced into a weak spot in the shell before severing its head.
"Jiji!"
"Jiji!"
The remaining two ants, enraged, cried out and unsparingly flicked away Reiger's sword with their aggressively clawed limbs.
With his main weapon deflected, Reiger didn't panic but instead drew his short sword, his secondary weapon. He sidestepped an ant's claw strike while his short sword zipped through the air, its chilling light piercing the mouth of a murderous ant.
"...!"
The ant tried to scream in agony, but with its mouth pierced by the short sword, it could only emit a voiceless whimper.
Reiger ignored the monster's death wail, twisted his hand holding the short sword, and mercilessly crushed the head of the murderous ant, splattering a great deal of blood.
"Jiji jiji!"
Seeing the situation turn dire, the last surviving ant raised its upper body, emitting a rhythmic cry.
This was the murderous ant's special technique, calling for its comrades.
Unfortunately, there were no more of its kind nearby.
"Putch!"
With a clean cut from Reiger, the rapier severed the last murderous ant in two, slicing through its joint and bisecting the creature.
Peace finally returned to the meadow.
"Is it over?"
Rephia, positioned at the rear, relaxed her tight grip on the magic wand she had been clutching and set it down.
"It's over," Reiger observed the surroundings before nodding, "There shouldn't be any more monsters nearby."
"That's great..." Rephia sighed in relief, tapping her chest and putting the vial of Spiritual Medicine she had been squeezing back into her backpack.
"How was it? Still holding up?" Reiger saw this and asked, "You used quite a bit of magic just now. Is your spiritual power still okay?"
"It's alright." Rephia revealed a somewhat forced smile and said, "The pressure on the upper levels isn't great, so I don't have to infuse too much spiritual power into my magic, and that's why I still have some left over."
In this world, the fuel for magic is not the Magic Power stored within "the Gate", but the spiritual power that has yet to be refined into Magic Power.
The use of magic consumes spiritual power, and the stronger the magic, the greater the consumption of spiritual power.
Thus, to always have sufficient spiritual power to ensure she could use magic, Rephia would clutch spiritual medicine, as she had been doing.
Should Rephia experience a decline in spiritual power, she would immediately consume the spiritual medicine to use its effects to restore her spiritual power.
"Don't you have 'Self-Healing', an ability that automatically restores spiritual power?"
Reiger posed the question.
"No," Rephia quickly shook her head, saying, "That's not an ability you can easily acquire. I heard it requires frequent use of magic, often depleting a great amount of spiritual power. Among the people I know, only Lord Revilia possesses that ability, and I'm still far from it."
Rephia was very critical of herself, even a bit self-deprecating, which made Reiger frown subtly.
So, Reiger spoke up.
"From what I see, your abilities are quite outstanding," Reiger told Rephia. "Like the magic just now, that seemed to be a Chanting Magic with a short incantation, and its power shouldn't have been that strong. Yet when you used it, what was supposed to be an 'Arc-shaped Beam' of magic completely turned into a 'light beam'. Isn't that rarity at Lv.3?"
The magic Rephia had just used—Arc-shaped Beam—was one of the three spells she possessed, a single-shot magic arrow that emphasized speed.
This spell is of the short incantation type, and although it has an automatic tracking attribute that caught Reiger's attention, making it a reliable spell that will certainly hit the enemy once launched, in terms of raw power, this spell shouldn't have been so formidable.
However, due to Rephia's strong Magic Power and skill assistance, the arrow that should have been weak in power turned into the light beam group attack magic as seen just now.
Such prowess was absolutely unattainable for any Lv.3, only those truly first-rate Magic Guides could achieve this.
This let Reiger personally experience the extent of Rephia's Lv.3 firepower, comparable to that of Lv.5.
Without exaggeration, it was indeed impressive.
The only issue was...
"It seems your chanting speed is a bit slow, is it because you're nervous?"
Reiger pointed this out.
"Oh…"
Rephia immediately lowered her head in embarrassment.
"I think I understand why Loki said you need training," Reiger smiled and said. "Although your magical talent is excellent, you are too timid. Both your spirit and your mentality are unstable, which are detrimental to the steady casting of magic that requires a calm mind at all times."
Without a strong heart, how can one remain calm to chant magic spells and cast magic when threats loom near?
Rephia's issue lay here, her innate talent was excellent, but as a Magic Guide, she indeed showed immaturity.
"I'm sorry…"
Rephia appeared somewhat dejected, her pointed ears drooping down.
"Don't worry about it. It's good to overcome your shortcomings; it's not a big deal," Reiger consoled. "Let's call it a day for now, and think about how we can solve these issues of yours tomorrow."
"Alright, sure." Rephia naturally had no objections, nodding repeatedly.
The two began to pack up, collecting the magic stones and dropped items from the carcasses of the killer ants, ready to return.
By now it was also getting late, and it was probably already dark outside. Adventurers who had been exploring the underground city were starting their journeys back, which allowed Reiger and Rephia to walk on a path clearly traversed by other adventurers without encountering monsters along the way, proceeding unimpeded upwards.
And with this, the two quickly returned to the 7th level and then stepped onto the ground of the 6th level.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Reiger looked up.
"Ah!"
Rephia, who was closely following behind Reiger, bumped right into his back, letting out a startled cry.
Reiger, however, paid her no heed and narrowed his eyes, focusing on what was ahead.
Somehow, he felt something was off.
The airflow was off.
The atmosphere was off.
This was a sensation stemming from "Wind Spirit Swift Walk".
As an adjunct wind-type magic, even in an unused state, due to the special nature of this magic, the user's sensitivity to wind would relatively increase.
After learning "Wind Spirit Swift Walk", Reiger noticed this and used it to sense some anomalies here.
"What, what's wrong?"
Rephia, clutching her hurt forehead, didn't understand.
But in the instant the elf girl spoke, Reiger's heart skipped a beat.
"Get down!"
Without any hesitation, Reiger tackled Rephia, who had cried out, to the ground.
"Bang!"
At the same time, a dark shadow streaked over the heads of the two who had fallen, collided with the wall, and set off a fierce roar.