NOVEL FROG [17] : The Ninth Floor Challenge
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"Lady Riveria, and Ais Wallenstein?"
Besides Mika, Mellie also recognized these two.
After all, one was Mellie's goal to surpass, and the other was the hero she once wanted to support.
"You are?"
Hearing Mellie's exclamation, Riveria asked curiously.
Riveria wasn't surprised that her name was called out, after all, she was Orario's strongest mage, and few adventurers in Orario wouldn't know her name.
Usually, when encountering strangers' exclamations in the dungeon, she would only nod in response.
The reason she verbally responded to Mellie was because of Mellie's bloodline.
Mellie was a half-elf, half-human.
As an elven royal, Riveria naturally had a caring feeling towards elf descendants.
"I, I'm Mellie Ambrosius."
"Ambrosius!"
Hearing Mellie's self-introduction, Riveria's expression couldn't help but change.
The Ambrosius family was closely related to the royal family among elves, a family that branched out from the elven royal family, so in a sense, Riveria and Mellie had a blood relationship.
"You probably haven't been to the education district, have you?"
"No, I came out to adventure directly."
"I see!"
Riveria nodded slightly.
Then she looked towards Mika and Airmid, who were cleaning up the battlefield after dealing with the Killer Ants.
"Those are your companions, right?"
"Yes, they're called Mika and Airmid. We're all companions from the same Familia, and Mika is our Familia's captain."
"Then your Familia is?"
"It's the Yahweh Familia! Although it's still a new, small Familia, I really like the atmosphere there."
"That's good that you like it."
Facing Mellie, Riveria couldn't help but show her elder side, her tone full of care.
"Then I won't disturb you anymore. If you want to learn magic knowledge, you can come find me at the Loki Familia. I'll inform the guards."
"Really? Is that okay?"
Mellie asked excitedly.
As a self-taught mage, Mellie was destined to only improve her magic skills through self-summary.
But if she could get Riveria's guidance, she could definitely avoid many detours.
This would make her power much stronger.
"Of course it's okay!"
Patting Mellie's shoulder, Riveria turned to leave.
"Let's go, Ais."
"Oh!"
After curiously glancing at Mellie and the distant Mika and Airmid, Ais quickly turned around and hurried to catch up with Riveria.
After watching Riveria and Ais's figures completely disappear, Mellie excitedly ran towards Mika and Airmid.
"Hahaha! I'm going to learn magic from Lady Riveria!"
...
"The Yahweh Familia, huh?"
Walking in the dim passage, Riveria muttered thoughtfully.
"What's wrong with the Yahweh Familia?"
Ais, following beside Riveria, asked curiously.
The current Ais was very different in personality from the future Ais.
If the future Ais could be described as emotionless and airheaded, the current Ais was mischievous and a bit of a troublemaker.
So, at this time, she was still very lively.
Hearing Ais's question, Riveria pondered for a moment before deciding to tell Ais what was on her mind.
"Goddess Yahweh of the Yahweh Familia seems to be an old acquaintance of Lady Loki from when they were in the Heaven. She came to visit Lady Loki a while ago."
"It's said that she had just descended to the lower world seven months ago and had three newly accepted Familia members. That should be Mellie and the other two, right?"
"If so, those three should have been adventurers for at most seven months, right? But from what I saw of their movements during the battle earlier, they're not at all inferior to you."
"Isn't this a bit too unusual?"
As the guardian of the young girl beside her, Riveria was very clear about how fast Ais's progress was.
But precisely because of this, she felt the progress of Mika's group was abnormal.
She couldn't understand it.
If it was just one person like this, she wouldn't feel as strange as she did now, after all, geniuses can be found anywhere.
Like Ryuu Lion from the Astraea Familia who was just named 'Gale', wasn't she a rare genius?
But the problem was the number, it was too unusual.
"Not inferior to me?"
Hearing Riveria's evaluation, Ais's eyes sparkled with fighting spirit.
"I won't let them catch up to me!"
Ais said firmly.
Looking at Ais's spirited expression, Riveria was stunned for a moment before smiling.
"That's right, you won't lose to them."
"Riveria, let's go to the 12th floor today!"
"For today, we can make an exception!"
And so, with confident exchanges, Riveria and Ais headed towards the depths of the dungeon.
...
"La la la!"
Sitting in a corner of the dungeon, eating lunch, Mika and Airmid were helplessly shaking their heads at Mellie, who was sitting beside them humming songs.
"Although Riveria is willing to teach you magic knowledge, aren't you a bit too excited?"
"Am I?"
"Of course you are! If you don't believe me, ask Airmid."
Feeling Mellie's questioning yet joyful gaze, Airmid kept nodding.
"Indeed, very excited!"
"Eh, but isn't this normal? After all, it's Lady Riveria."
Recalling the attitude of elf adventurers towards Riveria, who was of the elven royal family, in the original story, Mika decided not to persuade her further.
Then he used a tactic to change the subject.
"What do you say, should we go to the 9th floor?"
"The 9th floor?"
Airmid and Mellie's expressions became serious.
Although they had been on the 8th floor for a month now, going to the 9th floor was still something that needed to be discussed.
Seeing Mellie's serious expression, Mika nodded inwardly.
After a month of battles, the personalities of all three had become more steady.
Previously, although Mellie had grand dreams, she was after all a 14-year-old girl with quite a bit of girlish romance in her heart.
But after a month of tempering, she had become more steady and was growing towards the image of her dreams.
"Let's go. Although the 9th floor has been strengthened in terms of monster strength and spawn rate, it's not like the 10th or 11th floor, there's no fundamental difference."
Among the upper twelve floors, the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors shared similar terrain environments.
Compared to the previous seven floors, these three floors had many more rock chambers, and the ceiling height had increased from two or three meters to seven or eight meters.
Therefore, compared to the narrow environment of the previous seven floors, the environment here was slightly more spacious.
At the same time, the number of monsters, their strength, and even the rate at which monsters spawned were different from the previous seven floors.
This was the depths of the upper floors.
Among these three floors, new changes occurred starting from the 10th floor.
The entire 10th floor was shrouded in thick fog, and among the monsters born there, there were 'large species' present.
The so-called 'large species' were all elite monsters among monsters, with strength far surpassing other monsters on the same floor.
Therefore, the 10th floor was far more dangerous than the 9th floor.
And after the 11th floor, it became even more dangerous.
That was the deepest part of the upper floors.
Let alone the strength of the monsters, just the fact that 'abnormal situations may occur starting from the 11th floor' determined that it was full of danger.
But those were matters for after the 10th floor.
Compared to the later floors, the 9th floor was nothing.
"If that's the case, then it's decided. After lunch, we'll head to the 9th floor."
Holding his lunchbox, Mika said calmly.
---
Stepping into the passage leading to the ninth floor, Mika, Mellie, and Airmid's expressions were filled with vigilance.
A new floor represented new challenges, and the danger level of the ninth floor was definitely higher than that of the eighth.
Originally, Airmid and Mellie's abilities shouldn't have allowed them to venture this deep.
But the existence of the breathing technique gave them the confidence to go deeper.
Of course, the most important factor was Mika.
Although Mika's progress in a year and a half in the world of "Demon Slayer" was equivalent to their half-year progress, Mika hadn't wasted any of that extra year and a half.
In terms of basic abilities, Mika was much stronger than them.
In fact, with Mika's own strength, he could even go to the tenth or eleventh floor.
And if you added his magic, there was nowhere in the upper floors he couldn't go.
It was because of Mika's presence that the two of them dared to explore the deeper upper floors.
"Be careful, there are people ahead!"
Mika's keen hearing picked up the sounds ahead of them in the passage. Sensing the malicious intent in the voices, Mika prepared for a fight.
Upon hearing Mika's warning, Airmid and Mellie quickly got ready.
From their understanding of Mika, they knew.
If the people ahead were ordinary travelers, Mika wouldn't have spoken so softly.
He was being cautious about the people ahead.
As the three continued forward, they soon saw seven figures around the bend in the passage.
They were seven burly adventurers.
Mika could see the ferocity in their eyes.
At this moment, these seven were leaning against the wall leading to the ninth floor, chatting and laughing.
As soon as Mika and his companions saw these seven adventurers, the seven also noticed them.
Seeing Mika's group, the seven adventurers initially tensed up.
But soon, their vigilance relaxed significantly.
After all, the faces of Mika and his companions were too young, which made them seem like children in the eyes of the seven.
Meanwhile, their gazes towards Airmid and Mellie were filled with desire.
Thus, in an atmosphere of mutual caution, the two groups passed each other.
"Ugh, such disgusting looks."
After leaving those people behind, Mellie grumbled.
Airmid nodded in agreement.
Although their beauty often attracted attention in the dungeon, it was the first time they had encountered such blatant stares.
"It seems they have bad intentions."
As a man, Mika understood.
The adventurers' gazes were not merely appreciative; they were filled with intentions of doing something more.
Realizing this, Mika's expression became serious.
"Help! Help!"
Just as Mika's group was about to exit the passage and reach the ninth floor, a cry for help reached their ears.
Without hesitation, the three of them ran forward.
As soon as they exited the passage, they saw two adventurers—a man and a woman—surrounded by dozens of killer ants and war shadows.
From the surrounding monster corpses, it was clear they had killed twenty or thirty monsters before becoming exhausted.
Seeing this, Mika was about to charge into the monster horde to rescue the two adventurers.
Although the dozens of monsters could be a bit troublesome for Mika's group, they could manage to deal with them.
While the ninth floor's monsters were stronger than those on the eighth, they weren't beyond their ability to handle.
Just as Mika and Airmid were ready to charge in, Mellie's serious voice interrupted them.
"Mika, use your longsword and go all out to take them down quickly."
"Airmid, don't engage; stay here with me."
Understanding Mellie's suggestion immediately, Mika nodded, then planted his large sword into the ground and drew the longsword from his waist.
This longsword was a relic from Mika's mother, her close-combat weapon.
Although Mika's mother was a mage, she had been a swordswoman before awakening her magic, and she had never stopped practicing swordsmanship. Thus, her longsword was a first-class weapon worth millions.
Originally, Mika had planned not to use the weapons left by his parents until they reached level 2, to avoid drawing too much attention.
But this sword was different. After some modifications, Mika carried it with him for emergencies.
Mika was confident he could protect Airmid and Mellie in the upper floors, but he would never let that confidence turn into arrogance.
He knew his confidence came from his magic, "Heavenly Fire: Calamity."
Once he used his magic, in the less densely populated upper floors, Mika was almost invincible.
However, the first stage of his magic "Heavenly Fire: Calamity" had a significant drawback: it caused great damage to weapons.
Once Mika used his magic, an ordinary sword would be reduced to ashes.
Currently, the only weapons in his possession that could withstand his flames were the first-class weapons left by his parents.
Though in the future, as Mika grew stronger, even these weapons would become fragile, they were the best choice for now.
"Burn, with these flames as your armor!"
With Mika's chant, intense flames quickly ignited.
Crimson flames wrapped around Mika, forming a suit of fiery armor.
At the same time, his sword was engulfed in blazing flames.
With a heavy step, Mika's speed, boosted by the flames, became blindingly fast, and in a blink, he was amidst the monster horde.
With a single swing of his flaming sword, a swath of monsters was instantly set ablaze.
In the face of the burning first-class weapon, the upper floor monsters stood no chance against Mika's strikes.
Accelerated by the flames, Mika, now a crimson flash, continued to reap the monsters' lives, cutting them down.
In no time, not a single living monster remained in the cavern.
"Are you two okay?"
Mika approached the collapsed pair and asked gently.
"Thank you for saving us!"
Looking at Mika, the two were so moved they wanted to kowtow in gratitude.
But Mika quickly stopped them and helped them up.
Seeing their bodies covered in wounds, Mika asked, "Do you have any high-grade healing potions left?"
"We used up all our high-grade potions earlier," the man replied bitterly.
"I see."
Mika turned and called out, "Airmid, bring some of our high-grade healing potions."
"Coming!"
Airmid immediately took out some high-grade healing potions and hurried over.
While Mika's group didn't need high-grade potions due to Airmid's magic, they carried them to conceal Airmid's identity.
"Thank you, benefactor. When we get back, we'll make sure to repay your kindness."
"Haha, I'll be waiting. We're from the Yahweh Familia, so don't go to the wrong place."
"No, we won't. We'll definitely find you."
Listening to Mika's conversation in the distance, Mellie wandered around the cavern.
Soon, she found what she was looking for.
A small, stinky cloth bag.
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