Walking through the maze got progressively easier and easier as we found a rhythm to our moves.
Initially, we only picked the 'Angler Fish' pathways but soon enough once we collected a lot of 'lightbulbs', enough to light up a small section of the tunnel, we started to take the pathway with the big cat waiting in ambush for us.
With the light, it wasn't able to hide effectively and with Yun Seora's quick assassination skills, the cat was dispatched quickly while I protected her from any sudden unexpected strikes using the Water Dome spell.
After about five hours just when we started to wonder if we were even halfway done through the maze we found ourselves arriving at a dead end.
And before we got worried about having to backtrack once again to search for a 'new' longer pathway we were teleported out of the maze and back into the plaza.
The sudden change in our surroundings caused us to have to shield our eyes for a few seconds but once we were able to open them we found ourselves drenched in blood from the numerous monsters we slayed in the maze.
I looked at Seora and asked her simply, "Again?"
"Again." Seora nodded, so we quickly pulled out another maze mission from the notice board and found ourselves in the maze again.
The pathways were a little different this time around but our strategy remained the same and with our added confidence we finally found ourselves completing the maze in under two hours this time.
We attempted the mission repeatedly and ended up with seven hundred points each after spending the entire day completing the mission about thirteen more times.
Midway through the missions, I used one of the competence potions to see if it would make any difference in helping me improve. And it did. I could clearly feel how much faster and easier it was to grasp complex concepts from before.
But the potion's effect also reminded me of something, my innate ability.
Using the potion gave me the same feeling I got while using Key Insight but much stronger. Although this seemed like bad news since my ability wasn't as effective as I thought it to be, I took it as a goal to improve my innate ability's effectiveness.
I would love to see a day when I had to no longer use competence to learn everything at an improved speed. Perhaps I could one day even improve while literally fighting in combat, learning from my opponents as they tried to attack me.
After completing our mission runs we naturally split up and left to clean ourselves with a shower.
I was out quicker than Seora and eventually lost track of her but I left for the cafe where I found myself some cheap food for a hundred Survival points.
Once done with food, I found myself at the plaza staring at the notice board once again.
'Even though I trained my magic skills with Seora as a team…I should try to finish the dungeon using my skills alone.'
Picking the mission talisman off the board, I tore it and vanished from the plaza like the wind.
The maze was a little more challenging for a few minutes but as soon as I combined my ability to create clones and healing jutsu in my punches it got laughably easier.
So much so that I ended up completing the mission in the same time as it took me with Seora on our last run, about thirty minutes as I ran through at full speed.
I was tired for the day and so I finally crashed into my bed.
The days after followed the same routine.
I woke up.
Partied with Seora to complete Normal difficulty missions.
We ran the same mission until either of us felt like we were able to learn something from each run and by the end of the day we were fully spent.
Seora was a mostly silent person. She spoke rarely and if she ever did it was mostly a callout to warn me of danger.
But that wasn't what intrigued me the most about her.
It was her weird knife skills. She treated them more like an extension of her own body.
And so I asked her a question on our last dungeon run today.
"Could you teach me some of your knife skills? I'll give you fifty survival points for each hour that you do."
Seora looked a little startled when I said that.
But seeing me being serious, she looked at her knives and thought for a bit before nodding.
"Looking to buy new knives?" I asked Seora and she nodded silently.
"You should ask Agnes for recommendations. She knows plenty of good weapons. And she'll probably even be able to give you ones that'll last for a long time outside in paradise."
"I've got my eyes on a pair but they're very expensive."
"How much?"
"Twenty thousand a pair."
"...that's surprisingly expensive. I guess you'll be saving till the end of the neutral zone if we keep doing normal difficulty missions only. Why don't we take slightly hard missions as well?"
"Won't we need a bigger party?" Seora asked.
I thought about it and spoke calmly, "Let's try partying for the first few rounds, then we can try to do them on our own."
"Will they accept us?" Seora asked pointing at the people who were all avoiding us in the plaza.
"...huh? Why wouldn't they?"
Seora seemed a little embarrassed but spoke anyway, "The last time I tried….they didn't seem very enthusiastic."
My brows rose and my lips took on a smile.
"You don't know what they call you nowadays?"
"Huh?" Seora looked at me with confusion, her expression looked so innocent that it felt like question marks and exclamation marks popped up above her head.
"Lol…They call you the Bloody Blade Maiden."
Seora's mouth hung loose. She then looked at everyone around us and then froze slightly.
"Seriously?" Seora whispered as she noticed that the people avoiding them weren't glaring at her but looking at us with fear, awe and respect.
"Obviously. You are the one that ends up drenched in blood each time we go on a run so they gave you that name. While they just think I keep getting carried by you."
"....*phew*" Seora's cheeks were red and her lips were quivering but she managed to keep herself from breaking into a wide smile and laughing.
Eventually, she pinched her lips and shook her head before taking me to the gym where she taught me her knife skills in a private room.
I wanted to learn her skills because they'd be infinitely helpful with a kunai in my hands. So now, another new part was added to my day, knife training with Seora.
Seora eventually spoke to Agnes after my insistence to ask her for some training tips and began training alongside me after gaining a few helpful tips.
Overall the days were quite fruitful and I was now looking forward to returning to the Shinobi world and surprising Shizune some more.