“By the way, Aska,” Isak suddenly said. “How do we get it back to the camp?”

“Njyhihi~ of course, on a cold block of ice!”

“…what?”

Moments later, we put the Jekkes on the ice block and rode on it… I used water threads and pulled us forth. It’s my magic, and I could use it to levitate, like [Ice Blades]. However, it would use too much mental power.

The usage of mana makes the caster dizzy and get a headache. Of course, it depends on the mana requirement and the duration. Short spell casts and low mana spells don’t cause too much stress, but they can also be draining.

I mainly use low mana spells like [Water Threads] and [Compressed Vapours]. They’re super mana-efficient spells, really.

Sometimes, I use cryo spells, but the mana requirement is higher automatically. From what I know, there is no frost attribute. However, it is an extension of water magic. I also know that wind and fire magic can create lightning magic.

But… Even so, elemental conversion like that is highly inefficient. I could technically generate electricity with water magic…

I’d probably faint after a few spells. Well, not that I’ve tried. But I don’t even have the control to try…

And since I have short range, I mostly use [Water Threads] to extend it—therefore, I mainly engage in close combat.

Spells with high mana requirements take longer unless you have a high output like Hilda, who can almost instantly cast those spells.

When Isak passed out, we had to compensate by being more cautious, and we learned to be more efficient. Like, there are different stages of a spell cast. One, manipulate the element. But if said element isn’t present, a decent amount of mana is required to materialise the element.

So, it’s apparent that it takes longer to materialise, manipulate, enhance, combine and eject a spell. If Hilda created water for me, I’d take some of the load by manipulating.

The load is at its heaviest in the first stage, materialise, and second stage, manipulation. The manipulate stage is how the spell acts, but no one can hijack the materialise in this stage because of the mana. Enchance and combine mostly apply to support spells, and eject is usually the last stage where the spell is activated.

—that is the reason why support magic is heavier…

It uses more mana and has more stages.

Sooooo, I’ll try to learn healing magic and cleansing magic. Both are water attributes, except that light magic has higher efficiency in general.

Brother Al told me that water magic is the most flexible type. I also found out that the fire attribute is relatively tanky, but they also have high recovery and firepower.

If I had to split them into different categories, wind magic is heavy crowd control and very destructive. Earth magic is sort of flexible as water magic, but most users are really damn tanky…

…that means Hilda and Isak can take more damage than me or Julia. Earth magic is also used to create defensive walls and weapons. So it’s a nice tanky and offensive element.

Dark magic is… I actually don’t know a lot about it. However, it has a corrosive rot effect that basically kills things slowly.

Shadow magic is super cool. You can, like… jump shadows. There are, of course, more applications, but that’s the one I mainly saw. Besides, it’s rare, like dark magic and light magic.

As for lightning magic…

Holy moly, it’s pure destruction.

Like…it doesn’t have many other use cases other than destroying things… It’s difficult to control and requires more mana. It’s sort of inefficient compared to the other elements. Julia and Brother Al use lightning.

But Julia mainly uses wind magic since it’s balanced in both efficiency and destruction. The reason is that it’s less of a burden for her and also because she has less mana than me. The same goes for Hilda.

Surprisingly, I have a lot of mana, and it is something that can grow. But since I have a decently good base, I’m able to get by using more spells than the others…

Anyhow, enough with my rambling.

We’ve arrived back at the camp and prepared the snake.

It tasted like chicken…

Then again, everything tastes like chicken?

— :::: —

Two weeks passed, and Freja joined our team. Brother Al and his friends left for the capital, and we skipped the beach episode.

No beach episode?

Well, all I can say is that it was a treat for my eyes.

And no, I didn’t wear a girl’s bathing suit.

As a farewell gift, we all got 100k lech. It’s a decent amount of money… Five times the normal salary, at least!

I’m the one managing the money. Honestly, I have no idea why the others let me manage it, but I decided to invest in sto—I mean, equipment. We’re homeless for now, buuuut, we mostly camp outside or inside? Probably the latter since we’re exploring the labyrinth.

Even though we recently were on floor 10, the academy floor, we made our way to floor 15. It has a small little city and a guild. Pretty convenient, I’d say.

Though…the inconvenience is that there’s no proper transportation onwards. Let’s hypothetically say we’re going to floor 30. That would take two weeks just walking.

Well…not that we’re skilled enough for that.

Still, monsters and beasts spawn, and I think it’s pretty interesting. At least different from how this world generally works. Well, the labyrinth, in general, works this way.

Monsters spawn, kinda like in a game, but it doesn’t do that outside the labyrinth. So, there’s no need to be concerned about population control. Still, they’re flesh and blood and don’t dissolve the way they do in games. I wonder what mechanism is causing this and why it was designed this way. I, for one, know that the highest floor is floor 50. But isn’t it usually 100?

Floor 50, for all I know, is a wasteland. At least, that’s what the guild says. It’s empty, baron, nada nada, nothing there!

Well…except for a supermassive void rift that tears space-time.

Anyone who has entered has never returned. Besides that, floor 40-49 has many A+ ranked monsters. I can only speculate that beyond that rift is a literal hell.

We’re not going there soon, that’s for sure…

Anyhow, I’ve done all the preparations to explore floor 16, where most newcomers find themselves. By newcomers, I meant experienced combatants… Cuz a true newcomer would die instantly…

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For the record, I think we’d be able to beat a Pale Mimic. I think…

Ugh…it has the power of trauma…

Still, at least until floor 25, we won’t see B ranks. So we’re going to be somewhat fine, and we’re not alone either. Since only insane people go to floor 20 and above, well, strong people go further.

And you know?

Ever since we entered floor 16, we’ve sort of…decided to settle down?

Here’s the deal. The guild suggested we make a base somewhere, whether it’s on floor 15 or beyond that. Of course, we could stay in a small explorer’s village. Buut, we’ve decided to make our own small base.

Haha…we’re indeed a bunch of high schoolers…except for Hilda, who’s 21.

“Aska, what do you think of this area?” Julia asked.

The place Julia was referring to was an open space near a small cliff with a river nearby. Oddly enough, this spot wasn’t taken.

Was there a catch? Or is it because there are not many people making a base this far away from the village?

“Hmm, it’s nice, I think? Let’s go and tell everyone,” I replied.

At my reply, Julia seemed happy and moved closer. Her blue eyes locked with mine.

“Praise…” she adorably said.

“Sure,” I chuckled while patting her head.

Julia has gotten cuter and cuter by the day. Of course, she was cute before, but I meant her behaviour. She’s still not completely honest and blunt. Though I suppose that’s her charm.

We went back to the others and assigned tasks for each one of us. Hilda was in charge of digging into the cliff. Isak went hunting with Freja and Julia.

They should be fine. Julia and Isak should have enough firepower for the monsters on this floor. Not only that, Isak has gotten braver, doing his job properly as a frontliner. However, perhaps Freja was a huge help since she’s our tank.

Finally…

We were basically a team of glass canons before!

Freja could regenerate as long as she has mana. She doesn’t have a divine weapon, so we invested a lot into her shield. It cost us a whooping 250k lech…

Well, it’s a high-tech magi-tech shield.

We didn’t need to buy armour since we received the set we used as a gift from the academy. However, we should probably get spare ones.

It also costs to maintain the armour. However, when it comes to weapons, we can make do, at least for now. Divine weapons can’t truly break, after all.

Of course, spare weapons are preferable since using divine weapons requires mana to materialise. In essence, it causes stress to materialise and maintain.

Other than that, I got us some barriers and healing cores: camping gear, cooking tools and a storage device.

We…basically have 50k lech left.

We should be fine for a month, maybe?

A/N

small Halloween bonus.

♪ Hmm, mm, Hmm ♪

“Baking, baking~.”

If you’re wondering why I’m being sort of strange, that is because—I was invited to a Halloween party at Al’s place! Maaan, he really saved me—I almost didn’t get into the same school as Isak…

I tried asking Isak to teach me once, but you could probably guess how that ended, right? He sucks at teaching…!

Then again, maybe Julia would’ve taught me?

But…she doesn’t really want to have anything to do with me, which is kinda sad…

Well, until recently, at least.

I sort of fell for a girl when I entered high school. Actually, the situation was sort of dumb… How did we manage to get into that situation?

…

Long story short, I’m in the Home Economics Club with Hilda, a senior.

Of course…

I’m the only guy. But they mistook me for a girl at first, haha… Well, I basically walked in on Hilda while she changed.

It was truly a sight to be—wait! I mean, I almost went to jail!

Luckily for me, Hilda was kind even after I told her I was a boy. The way she treated me didn’t change. I sort of slowly fell for her at that point. I could sort of tell she had similar feelings toward me as well.

But…

I’m a coward.

Anyhow, time passed, and Julia noticed that I came home later every day. And I caught her stalking me when I was out shopping with Hilda.

Things went like this: Julia stalked us. Hilda thought I had a cute sister. They sort of get along somehow? Julia became more friendly and snuck into my bed every night?!

Uhh…what?

Honestly, I’m confused myself.

Well, all that happened, and Julia basically confessed her deep secret… she likes me as a brother and a guy.

Great…

She’s been so cute and aggressive about her approach, and it’s kinda difficult to…escape.

Now that I’m in this situation, I sort of shut my brain down. Like, I don’t know anymore…

Hence!

“Baking, baking~.”

As I was shipping with Hilda and Julia, I decided to look for a recipe book while they went shopping for clothes. I turned around a corner, clashed with someone and fell on the floor.

Ouch… I need to look where I walk…

I looked up and saw a man with snow-white hair and blue eyes. He’d reached his hand out to me.

Ba-dum!

Huh?

He’s handsome…

Wait! I don’t swing that way!

“You okay, boy?” the man asked.

…huh…?

Huuuuuuuuuuuh!?

While I fussed about not being mistaken, I took his hand and got up.

“Oh? If it isn’t Aska?”

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice and looked beside the handsome man.

“Mister Hilos?”

“Yeah?”

“……”

What’s Teach doing here?

“You out shopping, Teach?” I inquired.

“Ugh… don’t call me that out of school…” Mister Hilos replied.

“A student of yours?” the white-haired man asked.

“Yeah…a sort of troublemaker,” Mister Hilos sighed.

I puffed my cheeks. “What’s that supposed to mean!?” I retorted.

“Ahahaha! Well, as for what I’m doing, I’m having coffee with this old bastard,” Mister Hilos replied while putting his arms around the white-haired man.

“Old…?”

I mean…both of them look young, around 20 years old… buuut I know that Mister Hilos is around 50 years old… don’t tell me…

“Believe it or not, he’s five years my senior!” Mister Hilos exclaimed.

“Please to meet you, young Aska. My name is Alester.”

…I see… 55…

55…55…

55…

After that, I sort of spaced out and arrived at the bookstore.

Hmm, I need something that matches the holiday spirit…

I saw a limited edition of a book and reached out for it, but my hands overlapped with someone’s.

Hm?

He has black hair and blue eyes. He looked quite feminine as well…

You’re not a girl…right?

Anyhow, he introduced himself as Luke, and we were put in some sort of dilemma. Like… we both wanted the book and played ten or so games of rock, paper, scissors.

It ended in a draw…

We ended up buying the book, and somehow, his girlfriend looked like Luna.

Holy…

I met Isak and Freja, and somehow…we ended up at Al’s place earlier than expected.

“Luke, hand me the butter!”

“Roger!” Luke replied.

In the end, I baked with Luke, Noel and Amethely.