Anomalies Came One After Another

All the monsters in front of them had been wiped out.

The glow of the magic behind Liber gradually faded.

Looking at the devastation around him, Liber slowly let out a breath.

He felt the girl behind him gasping for air, so he turned to look.

Lefiya's face looked pale and weary.

"I told you—you can do it as long as you put your mind to it," Liber said to the exhausted Lefiya.

Lefiya had looked pale, weak, and utterly drained, but after hearing his words, a blush still crept across her face.

Liber took another look at her strained expression and sighed.

"Was your mind able to handle that spell? It was so powerful," he asked with concern.

"I'm actually all right." Lefiya's expression clearly showed that she was forcing herself to keep going.

"Thanks to you, Liber, I haven't had to use much magic along the way. I still have a little mental strength left, actually."

"Well, don't push yourself," Liber said, sounding relieved. "Good thing you came prepared."

"Here's your bag. I didn't want to rummage through it."

Liber took the backpack Lefiya had prepared out of his storage space and continued,

"Find some medicine and recover as quickly as you can."

"We've escaped the immediate danger for now, but we're still in the Dungeon. It isn't safe here, so we need to hurry."

Lefiya obediently nodded at Liber's words and crouched to search through her backpack.

Liber watched as Lefiya began looking for a potion.

He turned his gaze away and scanned their surroundings, ready to deal with the chaotic scene before them.

He looked over the devastation and used magic to retrieve the arrows he had fired at the monsters, whether intact, broken, or damaged, storing them in his space.

As he retrieved them, he also collected the Magic Stones dropped by the War Shadows.

After Lefiya had used magic to wipe out the enormous horde of War Shadows, quite a number of their normally rare special drops had been scattered across the ground.

The War Shadow, known as the "Newbie Killer," had one especially valuable drop: the pair of magically enhanced claws on its hands. Their official name was the War Shadow Finger Blade.

These drops could be added to various weapons during forging or incorporated into equipment, improving their durability and the flow of magic. They were quite valuable.

However, of the claws Liber had previously cut off, only a few remained on the ground after undergoing a slight change. The rest had vanished along with the monsters.

Monster drops depended largely on chance. Even if you completely dismembered a Dungeon monster, its body parts would disappear along with it when it died.

Feeling the War Shadow Finger Blades accumulating in his storage space, Liber recalled the danger of the claws crossing in a flash amid the horde.

He gave a wry smile. He'd rather avoid such startling windfalls in the future.

"Here, Liber. You should have a bottle, too."

Liber had been using his space to retrieve various items when something suddenly appeared before him, interrupting his focus.

A small hand had appeared in front of him, holding a bottle of an oddly colored potion.

Following the arm, he saw Lefiya holding a potion bottle in each hand. She offered him the one in her right hand.

"You've been using magic a lot, so you must have used up quite a bit, too. Take this one."

Liber glanced at her, then declined.

"No need. My magic doesn't take much out of me, so I'm still fine for now. I just need to rest a little and recover my strength."

At that moment, Lefiya, who had been shy and nervous earlier, suddenly thrust the potion in her right hand against Liber's chest and lowered her arm.

Liber watched her let go and hurriedly caught the bottle.

Lefiya gripped the other bottle and said earnestly, "You have to drink it. Otherwise, I won't drink mine, either."

Seeing how much more confident she seemed than before, Liber was taken aback. He smiled and nodded to Lefiya.

Lefiya raised her potion bottle and downed the Magic Potion in one go.

Liber held his own potion, gave it a shake, and studied the strange liquid before swallowing it in one gulp.

He felt his mental fatigue ease as his mental strength and magic slowly recovered, and was impressed by how powerful the potion was.

In this world, magic was closely tied to mental strength. The more powerful the spell, the more mental strength it consumed.

If someone overtaxed their mental strength, they could suddenly faint or even lose their mind.

That was why it was vital for Mages to keep track of their limits during an adventure, so they wouldn't overexert themselves and suddenly lose the ability to fight.

After they finished their potions, Liber saw that Lefiya didn't need anything else and stored her backpack in his space.

"Let's call it a day," he said to Lefiya.

"It's about evening now. We'd only planned to practice working together a little on the fifth floor today, but then we suddenly ran into all this."

"Since this is our first time adventuring together and we've already had an unexpected situation, we should play it safe and head back the way we came."

"What do you think, Lefiya?"

Liber asked for her opinion.

"Huh? All right, no problem." Lefiya's complexion had gradually returned to normal. She had no objections and nodded in reply.

Having agreed, the two started walking toward the surface.

But they hadn't gone far before the ground began to tremble again, putting them both on alert.

"W-what... what's happening now?"

Lefiya asked nervously. She carefully scanned their surroundings, trying to find the source of the tremors.

Liber frowned as he tried to pinpoint their origin, too.

"It's coming from... behind us!" He realized where the tremors were coming from.

He whipped around and saw that, from the direction the War Shadows had charged in, another series of footsteps rumbled like muffled thunder.

As before, dust billowed into the air, and the dense rumble of footsteps grew louder and louder.

Liber warily readied himself and took out his weapon in case of trouble. He also nudged Lefiya, who was still a little tense beside him, to warn her to get ready.

Feeling Liber's gentle nudge, Lefiya quickly quieted down and stared ahead from behind him.

Together, they watched as the approaching commotion grew even louder than before.

Their expressions gradually darkened.

Compared to the towering War Shadows from before, what came into view this time was a densely packed swarm of insect monsters.

The insects had hard shells and crawled along the ground toward them.

Their bodies were red, with a metallic sheen.

Their mouths had a pair of blade-like mandibles. Six legs moved nimbly over the ground, and four sickle-shaped hooks jutted from their upper bodies.

They looked like red ants enlarged dozens of times.

These were Killer Ants, monsters primarily found on the seventh floor.

Each was about the size of a teenage boy. They could call for reinforcements and were skilled killers who worked together in groups.

But the number before the two of them was truly staggering. From where they stood, the swarm stretched out like a boundless red sea.

In the middle of the advancing Killer Ants was an unfamiliar monster.

It looked like a Killer Ant enlarged another four or five times. Its body was as long as four or five adults laid end to end, and its enormous tail made up more than half its length.

Around it hovered seven or eight strange creatures, beating their wings. They were slightly longer than ordinary Killer Ants, and the claws on their upper bodies were much thicker.

Looking at the monsters he had never seen in any records and the enormous swarm, Liber groaned in despair.

"The real abnormal situation has arrived."

The Killer Ants from the seventh floor had surged far above their usual territory.