“Very good. Keep doing it like we practiced,” said the old knight curtly as he watched the two young heroes at work.

After the heroes gained themselves some levels, they started taking on a more direct approach in fighting the monsters that inhabited the dungeon. The first group of three smaller monsters they ran into had been left for Joshua to practice his magic on. His first attempts were dismal failures, and the guards had to repel the naturally angered beasts for him, but after a few tries he succeeded in summoning his magic and killed the monsters in various ways.

One was burned to charcoal by a ball of fire that engulfed its whole body, another was impaled on a spike of rock that emerged from the ground beneath, while the third was on the receiving end of a bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt had scorched the monster’s fur and skin, but did most of its damage inside as it roasted and boiled many of the beast’s internal organs.

The fanciful show of magic had also drained Joshua of his entire magical stamina and he was in the back of the group at the moment as he nursed a painful headache. Magus Drummond had assured them that it was merely the symptom of overusing one’s magic, and that it was already amazing for a low-leveled mage like Joshua to be able to pull off three spells of that caliber.

Apparently most would have been in his predicament after two at most.

Fortunately, since neither Alissa nor Ethan were as magic-dependent as Joshua, they both dodged that particular bullet. The skills they had possessed much longer cooldown times between usage, and as such couldn’t really tax their bodies too much either way. By the time they leveled those skills enough to make them more frequently usable, their bodies could likely take it.

At the moment the two of them were engaged in combat with a group of seven of the Winged Scavengers, three of which were larger and reached nearly to their chests in height. Fortunately, the beasts only had their claws – which were weak on account of being attached to their wing-like arms – and fangs, neither of which stood a chance of going through the armor worn by the two. Even so, a half dozen of the guards, including the princess, stood close behind them where they could jump in to render assistance should it be needed.

Alissa truly felt the benefits of the first skill she had during the fight. For all his enthusiasm and excitement, Ethan still faltered somewhat when they actually had to fight and kill things for real, something that got him a reprimand from Sir Inolet just moments ago. He seemed to have gotten over the worst of it, but he still fought more timidly and defensively compared to when they were sparring.

She herself calmly blocked a swing from one of the larger creature’s claws on her shield, then put her weight behind it as she pushed and shoved the creature back, where it stumbled and crashed into a smaller one, causing both of them to fall into a heap. Alissa then took the opportunity to jab out with her spear towards one of the standing smaller creatures, a quick stab directly on the throat, followed by pulling her spear out before the creature could fall and entangle her weapon in its corpse.

In her mind she knew that she should have been screaming and panicking instead of the emotionless calmness she felt at the moment. That calmness was almost certainly caused by her skill, which suppressed her emotional reactions while it maintained her rationality. She was honestly thankful for it, as it allowed her to act just like how she did in training.

She was fighting real monsters, and had she panicked instead of remaining calm, they would not have been polite to her. They would have gone for her throat instead.

Alissa swiftly continued with the practiced motions as she thrust at the larger creature that was raising itself from where it had fallen to the ground. She stabbed the beast once in the abdomen, pulled her weapon back, then stabbed it a second time in the chest. Unfortunately, when she tried to pull the spear back, the spearhead seemed to be stuck on something, probably a bone in the beast’s chest.

Instead of struggling to free her stuck weapon, Alissa just dropped it decisively as her hand went to the hilt of the falchion on her waist and pulled it out of her scabbard. There were two more of the beasts in front of her, the small one that was pinned beneath the body of the dying beast she just stabbed, and the largest of the bunch that had stayed in the back all this time. Ethan was dealing with the other three and kept them occupied.

With steady steps Alissa stepped forward, nonchalantly delivering a quick stab at the struggling small monster’s throat as she passed it, and stood before the largest of the monsters. Her [Analysis] told her that it was level 19, the highest level of all the beasts she had run into so far, just another step away from being the equivalent of a second tier.

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It was also smarter than its ilk, as it took measure of her and stayed just beyond the reach of her falchion. On the other hand, it used its long wing-arms to strike at her, the claws at their tips scratching against her shield as she blocked the strikes. The beast struck then moved back, almost like a trained fencer rather than an animal. It gave Alissa some trouble at first.

Before she realized that its strikes were nowhere near powerful enough to threaten her and she decisively chose to charge right in with her shield held in front.

One of the surprised beast’s strikes landed on her shield, while the other struck against her helmet and glanced off before it fell on her pauldrons. Alissa felt the weight behind the strike, but ignored it as she shoved the beast’s limb aside with her shield, leaving the creature wide open before her. Then her blade flashed out and took it across the abdomen.

The blade sliced through fur, skin, then cut deep into the lanky beast’s flesh until it reached the organs nestled inside its body. Almost immediately following the cut, a pungent, unpleasant stench wafted out from the wound where she must have sliced through part of the beast’s digestive tract. It also caused the beast to screech in pain.

A shrill screech echoed in the closed confines of the cavern they were in, and caused Alissa to flinch as it assaulted her eardrums. She was not the only one affected, as the three other creatures, Ethan, and the nearby guards also flinched at the noise. The wounded beast she faced took that opportunity to lunge for her throat with its fanged mouth opened wide.

Instead she caught the beast’s lunge on her armored forearm, the beast unable to close its jaws around her limb. Its fangs scratched the metal bracer she wore but did little more than scuff the polished finish. At that point, the Winged Scavenger was actually too close to her to be able to strike her with its claws effectively.

So instead Alissa took the opportunity to kick hard at the beast’s knee with her heavy, armored boot. The joint gave way beneath the force of the blow and bent the wrong way with the audible noise of bone breaking. The beast wavered for a moment, but chose to clamp down on her forearm regardless of the pain it suffered.

In return, Alissa cocked her left hand far to the back, then brought it around in a vicious hook that drove the corner of her kite shield directly against the side of the beast’s skull. The blow clearly dazed the beast but it was not enough to make it give up as it stubbornly tried to gnaw off her forearm regardless. So Alissa just repeated it again, and again, and again.

By the time the slack jaws of the beast fell off her forearm, the right side of the Winged Scavenger’s head had turned into a bloody pulp, its skull visibly broken open with bits of its brain matter splattered over Alissa’s armor and shield. She used her freed right hand to wipe off a bit of the gooey bits that splattered to her cheeks as she turned to see how Ethan was doing.

Perhaps because he was incensed at seeing how well she did, Ethan had regained his prior enthusiasm and drive. He had made short work of the three beasts he fought, though at the moment he struggled to extract the spike on the top of his pollax from the chest of the largest of the beasts he faced. He probably had such difficulty since in his fervor he had stabbed through the beast and pinned it into the cavern’s stone wall.

The pair of smaller monsters lay dead on the ground, one with its skull split open, and the other with half its head pulverized by a brutal hammer blow.

“Damn, you’re done already!?” asked Ethan with some incredulity in his voice when he noticed Alissa walk towards him. He finally managed to pry out his weapon from the creature – and the wall – a moment later and almost fell on his ass as he stumbled back, surprised by the sudden lack of resistance. “I thought I was the one excited to be here. Looks like you’re adapting to this better than me though, Allie.”

“It’s the skill, Ethan,” she replied with a shake of her head. It was no lie on her part. She knew and felt parts of herself screaming out and panicking and trying to run from the fight, but they were all suppressed by her skill, which allowed her to keep a cool head. It allowed her to fight while it pruned off the unnecessary thoughts. “I’d probably be all screaming out and panicking without it. Never expected it’d be that useful right away, but I’ll definitely take it.”

“Dayum, girl. That’s definitely something I could use too,” admitted Ethan with a shake of his head, more an expression of regret that he got no such skill himself. “For all that being here, in another world where I get to live my fantasies for real excites me, I still get the shakes when it comes to actually fighting and killing things that try to bite back. I guess seeing you go at it helped shake me out of that, though.”

“Glad I helped, then,” said Alissa with a smile. She had sheathed her falchion by then and busied herself with extracting her spear, which still protruded from the corpse of one of the bigger creatures. The spearhead was apparently stuck against a rib and it took her a bit of effort to pull it out. “Was too busy with the ones on my side to help you out with yours.

The sound of clapping hands echoed in the otherwise silent cavern and attracted their attention. They turned around to see Sir Inolet walking towards them with a slight curve on his lips that soon vanished once more. He stood in parade rest before the two young summoned heroes and they stood up at attention instinctively.

“Very well done, miss O’Connor. You have lived up to my teachings and use them well. Keep up the good work,” said the old knight in a rare praise as he gave a satisfied nod in Alissa’s direction. When he turned his eyes to Ethan though, the big boy almost wilted under the old man’s gaze. “As for you… It was expected that some people might feel hesitation in their first real battle. It is good that you got over it quickly. Just remember that in a real situation, you might be the only thing that stands between your friends living and dying.”

“Understood, sir,” both of them said as they let out a relieved sigh together.

“Now go get some rest, you two. Dungeon delving is not something done quickly, and getting proper rest is one of the most important factors in a long expedition.”