Another Adventure, New Moves

The seventh floor of the dungeon.

The severed Killer Ant twitched as its separated body parts began to dissolve.

Watching the Magic Stone drop in the distance, a longsword slowly manifested in Liber's hand.

He stared at the blade in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.

Behind him, Lefiya looked on with surprise, noting how easily he had dispatched the monster compared to before.

"Is this your new technique?"

Lefiya asked him, full of curiosity.

Hearing Lefiya's question, Liber nodded as he collected the Magic Stone dropped by the monster, replying, "Yes, though... to be precise, this is just another way of applying my magic."

He looked at the puzzled Lefiya and explained earnestly, "I've told you before that my magic, Magic Space, allows me to have a portable pocket dimension, right?"

Lefiya nodded at his words, remaining silent while watching him with continued curiosity.

Seeing Lefiya listening patiently, Liber smiled and said to her, "In reality, this space formed by my magic is like a box.

I can freely open multiple entry and exit points and place these portals anywhere I can observe in the outside world."

"After experiencing that abnormal situation, I started thinking about how I could expand its usage and strengthen my own capabilities.

After much hard thinking, I suddenly hit upon the idea of manipulating the doors within the space."

As he explained, he used the same method again to kill a monster appearing in the distance within their line of sight from afar.

"What if I open the entrance and exit doors simultaneously inside my pocket dimension and align them as closely as possible?

If I can do that, I only need to place the external portal where I can see it, and wouldn't I be able to swing my weapon to strike targets from a distance?"

Liber laughed as he spoke, "As you can see, I succeeded.

In practice, this consumes less mana than using the Levitation magic, allowing me to better utilize my physical abilities. After all, my mana reserves aren't deep enough yet, so I have to save as much as I can while adventuring."

"Furthermore, through exploring the pocket dimension, I've thought of other uses, like this."

He stopped walking, and Lefiya, who was following behind him, halted as well.

Liber waited a moment, and soon several monsters in the distance spotted them and began charging their way.

He reached out his hand and stared ahead. In the air in front of the oncoming monsters, ripples began to emerge, dense and overlapping like the surface of a lake in the rain.

As the monsters entered the area of the ripples, a flash of silver light suddenly reflected in her eyes, causing her to squint against the stimulation.

Once her eyes adjusted, Lefiya opened them slightly to look at the shimmering silver light ahead, observing it closely.

The monsters that had just stepped into the ripples were instantly shredded, their limbs scattered on the ground like minced meat.

At the location of the ripples, sword lights slashed through one after another. The residual shadows grew denser and the speed of the slashes faster, the sharp whistling of the air merging into a continuous roar.

After the monsters charging at them were reduced to a pile of gore, the storm of blades formed by the sword stopped accelerating, yet it showed no signs of ceasing.

A moment later.

"BOOM!!"

A dull impact came from the ground ahead. Where it struck, large chunks of rock flew in all directions, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The surrounding environment fell suddenly silent, with only Liber's rapid breathing echoing in the air.

The dense sword lights vanished, though lingering shadows remained in Lefiya's vision.

She blinked hard and shook her head until the afterimages slowly faded.

Liber's breathing gradually steadied, and the dust kicked up by the impact began to dissipate.

The ripples that had been in front of the monsters were completely gone, and Liber walked over to where the sword lights had appeared.

Lefiya took small, quick steps to follow him, looking forward toward where Liber stood.

In front of him, a pit half a person's depth had suddenly appeared, with the hilt of a sword protruding from the center, the blade buried deep in the ground.

He leaned down, grabbed the hilt, and pulled it out with force. It was the same longsword he had been using.

Only now, upon closer inspection, the blade was covered in tiny nicks and looked somewhat deformed.

"Was that flurry of sword shadows what you wanted to show me?"

Lefiya leaned out from beside Liber, looking at the longsword in his hand as she asked.

"That's right." Confirming her words, Liber tried swinging the sword to gauge the extent of the damage, saying, "You know that neither of my two spells has direct offensive power. After seeing the offensive magic you used, I tried hard to think of ways to make my own magic more lethal."

"I thought and thought, but couldn't find a lead. I put the idea aside for a while, but after the experiment with the interior of my Magic Space succeeded, the solution suddenly came to me."

Lefiya was watching Liber collect the surrounding Magic Stones when she heard his words and said, "It has to do with the doors you mentioned earlier?"

"That's right, just as I said before. The entry and exit portals in the space can be placed very close together; originally, launching objects from within the space already had considerable power.

If I open multiple entry and exit channels in front of me simultaneously, adding a bit of force every time the object enters, theoretically, I could accelerate the launched object without limit."

Liber, who was explaining, looked at the long sword in his hand, a trace of regret appearing on his face before he continued, "However, it seems that once the object accelerates to a certain degree, it can no longer be improved.

Launching objects also causes severe wear and tear on the objects themselves.

I haven't had this sword for long, and it's already damaged like this after just the first attempt; it looks like it won't last much longer."

"When actually accelerating to the later stages before entering the space, my perception speed within the space can no longer keep up with the speed of the object. I still need to carefully consider how to flexibly apply this to normal combat."

The regret on his face only lasted for a brief moment; looking at the large crater struck into the ground before him, his expression was filled more with satisfaction.

"Still, the power is quite considerable."

Hearing that Liber had been working hard to explore ways to use magic because of her own magic, Lefiya blushed and said somewhat embarrassedly, "So... sorry, I've caused you trouble."

Liber, who was stepping forward, was slightly stunned when he heard the apology from behind him, and he turned back to look at her, unable to laugh or cry.

"Why are you apologizing? It's not because of you; I was already thinking about how to better use magic."

"Really?" Lefiya looked at him suspiciously.

Liber looked at her speechlessly, didn't answer her again, and turned to walk forward.

"Hey~ wait for me."

Lefiya didn't hear his reply, and seeing his figure walking away, she hurriedly followed.

"Hey, it's really not because of me?"

"I've already told you, it's not. Besides, you need to be more confident. Con~fi~dent. Did you hear me?"

"Ugh, I... will try..."

"Sigh."

The two gradually walked further away, their voices spreading into the surroundings, gradually quieting down.

Babel, the plaza at the entrance of the Dungeon.

Night fell, and the Magic Stone street lamps around the plaza were gradually lit by staff members.

The shops on both sides of the street also lit up with warm-colored lights one after another, and the dense crowd seemed even livelier than during the day.

Countless adventurers poured out from the base of the towering Babel.

A tall, blonde girl walked out from the base of the tower.

Ais's attire was slightly disheveled, but there were no signs of damage or dirt.

Her face held a calm expression, yet the depths of her eyes revealed a hint of restlessness.

Thinking about the situation of her battle with Liber today, the sense of urgency in her heart intensified once more.

Ais frowned slightly, ignoring the adventurers around her who began to whisper when they saw her, and walked forward in silence.

Suddenly, she saw a familiar figure in front of her.

"Lefi-"

Just as she was about to call out a greeting, she saw the figure in front talking happily to the person beside her.

As the crowd around Lefiya gradually thinned, Ais saw Liber's back slowly come into view.

Watching Liber's expression, which shifted between helplessness and a smile toward Lefiya, and observing the happy look mixed with shyness on Lefiya's face.

The innocent girl felt the strange atmosphere between the two and tilted her head.

She whispered to herself, "Lefiya and Liber... are... very close?"