The three-meter-tall behemoth could not even force its final wail past its throat. Its savage charge instantly became nothing more than uncontrolled momentum.
Its enormous body crashed to the ground like a collapsing mountain of flesh.
Dust billowed across the floor.
A moment later.
The Pigman turned to black ash.
Just as Kikakujō Mary flicked the blood from her sword.
"Roar!"
A rock diagonally behind Kikakujō Mary suddenly burst apart.
A slightly smaller Pigman charged out!
Its thick arms raised a thigh-thick spiked club high overhead. Taking advantage of its ambush, it swung straight at the unprotected back of Kikakujō Mary's head with a vicious rush of wind.
If that blow landed.
Never mind a head-even a melon made of iron would be smashed to pulp.
"Mary!"
Onigawara Rin turned just in time to see it, her pupils contracting sharply.
Fortunately.
The next second.
The scene froze.
"Swish!"
The Pigman hung rigid in midair, its spiked club still raised in the middle of its downward swing.
The vicious grin of impending victory still lingered on its face.
Suddenly.
An extremely thin line of blood appeared across its neck, which was so thick that ordinary swords could barely cut into it.
"Hiss-"
Blood spurted like a fountain.
Then.
Its enormous pig's head slid off its neck without warning, like an overripe fruit.
"Rumble..."
The head hit the ground and rolled twice.
Only then did the massive headless body seem to realize it was already dead.
"Thump."
It dissolved into a dense cloud of black ash and scattered on the wind.
"Tsukuyo?!"
Onigawara Rin had initially assumed Tsukuyo Inaba had intervened.
But instead.
"Little Satori did it~"
"You'll have to be more careful next time~"
Nemumeno Satori appeared behind the dispersing cloud of black ash.
Her eyes curved with her smile, the picture of harmless innocence.
If one ignored the blood beside her feet that had yet to dry.
She really could have been nothing more than a cute girl next door.
"..."
At the sight.
Tsubaki, who stood on a high rock overseeing the entire battle, gave a slight twitch of her lips.
She glanced down at her pocket watch.
"Floor twelve..."
"How long has it even been?"
Three hours?
Or four?
A normal rookie party, even with a veteran Lv. 2 or Lv. 3 leading them, would need at least two or three days to advance from the first floor to the twelfth.
After all, the Dungeon was no garden stroll. With every floor they descended, they had to adapt to a new environment, new monsters, and increasingly oppressive psychological strain.
But this bunch...
They looked as though they were on a picnic.
A picnic on a tight schedule, at that.
At first, they had fought separately, competing for kills.
Then, as the monsters grew more numerous and powerful.
She had thought that would slow the girls down for a while.
Who would have guessed.
Without anyone teaching them, they had developed a bizarrely efficient coordination.
Sasamori Aya handled direct confrontations, drawing enemy attention.
Onigawara Rin, Hanabishi Warabi, and the black bear called Fierce Man covered the flanks and cleared out the lesser monsters.
Kikakujō Mary precisely picked off anything that slipped through or posed a serious threat.
Nemumeno Satori was a ghost roaming the edges of the battlefield, specializing in eliminating lurking ambushers.
As for Tsukuyo Inaba.
The blind girl was an unshakable anchor.
She rarely drew her blade.
But whenever her hand rested on its hilt, the entire team's rhythm became frighteningly steady.
"How is this a rookie adventuring party...?"
Tsubaki watched the girls below, who were still discussing which of them had killed more monsters.
She could not help marveling.
"They're clearly a pack of monsters just released into the wild."
"It probably won't be long."
"Before they turn the middle floors upside down, too."
At the same time.
On the surface.
Orario.
North Street, in the upscale shopping district.
Shops lined the street, their display windows filled with rare goods from all over the world. Even the air carried the fragrance of money.
Inside an upscale furniture shop called [Oakheart].
The air seemed to have frozen solid.
It was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard.
The potbellied shopkeeper, a man past fifty, had taken out a handkerchief and was repeatedly wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
He really was sweating.
His gaze darted nervously toward the customer standing before the counter.
She wore regulation armor and armored gauntlets.
Her pretty face bore its usual stern expression, and her eyes were blue.
-The captain of the [Ganesha Familia].
-The "Elephant God's Staff," Shakti Pharma.
If the thing monsters feared most in the Dungeon was an adventurer's blade.
Then what merchants feared most in Orario's shopping districts was undoubtedly a surprise visit from this captain of the city guard.
After all.
Shakti rarely went shopping.
Whenever she appeared in a shop fully armed, it usually meant one of two things:
First, the shop was suspected of smuggling contraband.
Second, the shop was suspected of harboring a wanted criminal.
Either case.
Meant the same outcome.
-Shut down!
"Gulp."
The shopkeeper swallowed with difficulty, feeling his calves cramp.
He frantically tried to remember whether something had gone wrong with one of his suppliers recently, or whether some clueless employee had accepted something they should not have.
"Um... Captain Shakti..."
The shopkeeper forced a smile uglier than a crying face and approached, rubbing his hands together.
"May I ask what... what official business brings you here today?"
"If it's a routine inspection, we'll cooperate fully! Fully!"
"The ledgers are all here. Please inspect whatever you like!"
As he spoke.
He even started to fetch the ledgers.
"That won't be necessary."
Shakti's cold, firm voice rang out.
The shopkeeper's heart lurched.
I'm finished.
She won't even look at the ledgers. Does she already have irrefutable evidence and intend to arrest someone?!
However.
The next second.
Shakti stepped aside, revealing Haimo behind her.
"I'm simply accompanying this gentleman today to purchase some household necessities."