Checking to make sure Xara was sound asleep, I gave her a quiet apology as I finished changing into my adventurer clothes. Why was I doing that, you ask? It’s because I’m going on another dungeon-diving adventure today.

Since the last one went so poorly, we decided we would meet up and try again. But since Ella couldn't make it due to her sword training was only in its early stages, she wasn’t able to be there.

But since it might be awkward having Xara be the only girl there, the boys decided they would meet up and we would have a guy-only adventure.

Now, I know that might sound a bit dumb. But even so, I was kinda curious about what those two might have learned during their training at school. And since I missed out on it last time being trapped with Ella and all, I wasn’t planning on holding back on their offer today.

Thus, I teleported away while Xara was sleeping. Making sure I’d grab something on the way back.

“Hey there Axel!” shouted Roy waving at me.

I waved back and approached him. It seemed I was the second person to arrive.

“Where’s Flynn?”

“He should be here soon. If I remember correctly, he told me he would be a bit late since he had something he had to do.”

“I see. Do you know what that something is?”

Roy shook his head.

“Nope. He didn’t say. Still, it shouldn’t be a big deal as long as he doesn’t take long.”

“That’s true.”

Thus, the two of us waited for Flynn to arrive. Which ended up taking another twenty minutes. And when he arrived, Flynn gave us a bow.

“My apologies for being so late. When I went to pick up my new sword at the blacksmith, the crowd was so long it took way more time than I initially anticipated.”

“Hey, it’s no problem! Just glad you’re here!” said Roy as what Flynn said drew my eyes to the sword scabbard at his side.

It was an indigo blue with silver lines bleeding into a texture that represented Flynn’s family crest.

Despite just being a scabbard, it was quite a fancy design. Honestly, it was so flashy that it reminded me a lot of the swords you'd see heroes wield in fantasy stories.

But moving past that for now, we made sure all our equipment was good to go and, once we were ready, we entered the dungeon.

This is the same place we went to before, but with just three people in our group this time, it should be easier to move around without the risk of activating any traps. Still, we needed to remain cautious.

Stepping through the halls of the dungeon, I tried whispering to Nia.

“Hey, Nia. Do you think there’s anything nearby?”

I waited for her to answer. However, all I was met with was an awkward silence.

“Nia?”

Still no response. What the heck? Was she just not interested in talking?

Looking at my belt, the grimoire shook from side to side in movement with my footsteps. However, that’s all it did. Nothing more nothing less.

Worried, I’d considered leaving this adventure and heading back so I could figure this out. But then I thought about how weird it’d be for me to just up and leave like this. So while it was a bit concerning, I continued forward. Hoping to wrap this up quickly and head home.

As we went deeper into the dungeon, we encountered several kinds of monsters from goblins, to crab creatures, and even lizards that looked similar to those I’d run into when I was trapped on the lower floors.

Looking at the texture of the walls, they looked nothing like when I was pulled down into the deeper levels of this place a year ago. Meaning that wherever I was last time, it was pretty damn deep.

But moving past that, we continued forward until we found ourselves standing at a door that was akin to the entrance of a boss chamber.

“Hm. According to this guide, this is where the first boss seems to be placed. Yaza the Undead Emperor,” said Flynn. Flipping through a book he pulled out of his pocket.

“Huh. Talk about a dramatic name,” I said. Looking at the door's intricate design. Giving a once over, the texture reminded me of my grimoire to some extent. At least, the two looked pretty similar.

“Really? I think it’s pretty accurate,” said Flynn who showed me the book.

According to what it said, this guy was as giant as a pillar and summoned a small army of minions to fight and whittle down his opponents.

It’s because of this that it’s a requirement to have at least four or more members in a party before fighting a thing like this. However, depending on your rank at the adventurers guild, that could change. This is why, since I was fourth rank, which was good enough, the school seemed fine with me acting as the team's third and fourth party member. Which only gave me another reason to stick around instead of leave.

Putting his book away, Flynn grabbed onto his sword while Roy, who I forgot to mention switched from gauntlets to an ax, pulled his weapon off his back. Ready for battle.

“Right then. What’s the plan, Axel?” Roy asked. Excited to go and fight.

I thought about it for a second before coming up with a strategy.

“Alright. Up to this point, I’ve been having you guys take on most of the enemies. However, since we’re going against a boss, I’d like you two to handle the minions while I deal with the boss.”

“Huh!? You mean you can beat that thing on your own!?”

Roy made it sound like crazy talk. But I nodded my head.

“I’m well aware of your abilities Sir Savoncho. But I find it hard to believe you can handle that thing without a bit of assistance," said Flynn. Doubting my abilities.

“Please. You’re talking to the guy who literally climbed from the deepest parts of this dungeon and made it back to the surface. I got this!”

I mean, I teleported all the way to the surface, but I was still pretty confident in my own abilities. Plus, I’d like to see just how well I’d handle against a tougher opponent. Y’know. To see if I’m strong enough to do things like this on my own.

“Well, if you’re confident, I suppose we’ll need to trust you on this,” said Flynn. Accepting my words.

“Still, if you think you’re starting to lose, just let us know and we’ll try our best to help you out," said Roy.

“Thank’s you two. Now then, let’s do this!”

“Right!” both Roy and Flynn shouted in unison as we opened up the doors to the boss room.

Stepping inside, I looked around at my surroundings.

The room reeked of the dead corpses and had an eerie aura to it that reminded me a lot of Halloween.

Having my magic at the ready, I cautiously stepped deeper into the room until I found myself standing in the middle of it.

Roy and Flynn were right behind me with their weapons at the ready.

And then, just as we seemed to reach a certain point, the torches that illuminated the room changed to a pale green and a creaking noise echoed in my ear.

Turning to the origin of the sound, I saw a pile of bones sitting on a throne wearing a crown as small sags of flesh hung from all across its body. It was really freaking creepy.

With red eyes glowing bright, the pile of bones, or rather, the skeleton, rose from its seat and let out a blood-curdling scream as a scepter appeared in its hand. Followed by troops of charred and burned smaller skeletons appeared at its feet.

Gripping his blade tightly, Flynn started muttering a spell to himself as magic seemed to gather around his sword.

And then as he drew it from its scabbard, he pointed it at the army.

“...Light Shot,” he muttered under his breath before a beam of light went flying off his sword into the army in front of him.

“Whoa! How’d you do that!?” Roy asked. Looking rather thrilled from seeing what just happened.

“It’s a spell I learned recently. It helps tear through the undead with ease. Though, it’s clear that it didn’t do much.”

He was right. Despite blasting away a few skeletons. There was still a good chunk of the army left.

“Alright. You two take care of the rest of those guys. I’ll try to finish things with the boss as fast as I can,” I said while preparing my first attack.

“Right. Good luck Axel!” shouted Roy.

“Right back at you!”

Saying that, I charged forward and headed straight for the boss.

Using my wind magic, I sent myself flying through the air. All the while Roy and Flynn started ripping through the army of monsters defending the boss.

Nia still wasn’t responding, so this meant I’d have to fight this guy using only the spells ingrained in my own head.

With that in mind, I flew forward as I formed a ball of fire within my hand.

“Haah!”

Throwing the spell at Yaza the undead king, He simply smacked it away.

I hadn’t anticipated that, but I wasn’t gonna let my surprise show. Thus, I kept throwing more fireballs. Hoping they would pierce his bones.

Unable to knock away all the spells, several slammed into Yaza’s body. Causing him to let out a growl as he pointed the scepter in his hand toward me.

Moments later, a green light shot out of the scepter and flew right at me.

Dodging it by flying up, I stopped right in front of him and cast my Iron Strike spell. Causing my arm to turn metal as I slammed it right into Yaza’s face. Sending him flying across the room.

Following his movements, I cast the spell once more and punched the monster into the ground. Causing the floor to break apart from the pressure.

That seemed to do good damage. However, Yaza still wasn’t down as he pushed himself to his feet and released a large amount of strange green smoke from his scepter before sending it flying toward me.

It seemed this battle was far from being over.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Casting another light spell, Flynn knocked out more of the enemy army while Roy cut through them with his ax.

“Geez. It’s like there’s no end to these things. How’s Axel looking?”

Turning to look at the main battle, Flynn watched as Axel dodged some strange green smoke before blowing it away with wind magic.

“He seems to be handling himself okay. Still, we need to wrap things up here. Otherwise, our training would be for nothing.”

“Right! Then let’s push through these guys already!”

As Roy shouted that, he started swinging his ax like crazy while letting out a loud scream. Cutting through the army of minions one after another.

Meanwhile, Flynn cut through the enemy in front of him as he turned to look at Savoncho once more.

“This boss is meant to be a group effort. But Sir Savoncho is handling it with no problem whatsoever. Just how strong is Sir Savoncho?”

Flynn didn’t understand since he wasn’t there, but Axel had been through all forms of turmoil as he journeyed through this dungeon almost a year ago. And since then, he’s only continued to grow stronger. So much stronger, in fact, that compared to some of the things Savoncho has fought, this boss was far from difficult.

Dodging another one of Yaza’s attacks, I let out an annoyed sigh.

This guy only used the same three attacks over and over again. There was nothing about this boss that made him a challenge.

Maybe it was because of everything I’ve fought up till now, but compared to stuff like those crocodiles that could turn your body to stone or the butler who turned into a werewolf, this guy was just way too basic.

Figuring I should probably wrap this up before long, I rushed forward and thrust a fireball right into Yaza’s face. Blinding him and causing him to take a step back.

Using that to my advantage, I used wind magic to sweep his feet out from under him.

Crashing to the ground, Yaza didn’t have any time to respond before I cast Iron Strike and smashed my fist into his bones. Cracking them and causing a collapse in his body structure which made it impossible to get up.

“Alright. I’m done dealing with you. See ya.”

Saying that, I cast Iron Strike one last time and crushed his face in. Causing all his bones to clatter to the ground before disappearing.

Done with that, I turned to see how the others were doing and it seemed they were just finishing up the last of the minions and took a second to recover.

Walking over to the two of them, I formed water balls and let the two drink out of them in order to quench any thirst they got from that battle.

“Thanks for keeping those guys off me. It would’ve been a lot more difficult to beat the boss if you guys hadn’t stalled all those minions.”

Thanking them for their help, I sat down and waited for them to finish.

Turning to me, Roy smiled.

“Of course! What are friends for!?”

Flynn nodded his head.

“I admit, I’m impressed you were able to beat the boss on your own. But the thanks are still appreciated. So you’re welcome. I’m glad we were able to help in some way.”

Honestly, they really were a help. While this guy on his own wasn’t much of a problem, I got the feeling that if I fought him and his minions on my own, I’d probably be here for at least half a day.

Finishing up our break, Roy put his ax on his back while Flynn returned his sword to its sheath.

After that, the three of us started heading deeper into the dungeon.

We had aimed to at least defeat the second boss today, so while I did wanna rush things along, I couldn’t exactly do something like leave on them.

Especially since going any further would be impossible without someone like me being there to watch over them.

Thus, while I wanted to finish things early to see what was going on with Nia, it seemed that was unlikely to happen.

Walking through the dungeon toward the lower floors, Roy decided to start up a conversation.

“Say Axel, how are things going with Xara?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean how far have you two gotten? Are you already banging or are you still at the kissing stage?”

“Er…That feels a bit personal, don’t you think?”

“Is it? Strange. My sibling always seem pretty proud when they describe how far they’ve gotten with their lovers. Guess that’s not for everybody.”

Flynn let out a sigh.

“I think you’re family is an exception. Not even my family has discussions of such matters. If we did, that would just be improper.”

“R-Really? Wow. Now I just feel awkward for bringing it up. Hehe.”

Letting out an awkward chuckle, Roy scratched the back of his head before continuing to talk.

“Well leaving the banging part out of it, how about you Flynn? Got any lover in your life you enjoy spending time with?”

“No. And it doesn’t matter anyway. I’ve already had five women picked out among royalty whom I’ve been arranged to marry to.”

“Wah-!? You’re parents arranged to get you married to five women!?”

“Of course. Just like my father, and my father's father, I shall continue growing our family's influence and growing our name by marrying several partners we deem necessary to elope with.”

“Still. Five women is a lot. Do you even know who they are?” asked Roy.

“I’ve never met them before. However, I’ve memorized all their names so I should have no problem interacting with them.”

“I-I see.”

Roy seemed to be struggling to wrap his head around this. I mean, it’d come as a shock to anyone if they heard someone they knew was getting hooked up with multiple lovers.

Though, I can’t deny it surprised me a bit too.

I was already aware polygamy was allowed in this world, but to have an arranged marriage to five women was crazy.

Then again, I did kinda plan the exact same thing when I got here when I wanted to make all the game's love interests fall for me.

But since then, I’ve been through a lot. And honestly, stuff like polygamy just doesn't interest me that much. As long as I have Xara, that’s all I need. But moving past that for now, it was time to turn this question around on Roy.

“What about you Roy? Do you have anyone special in your life?”

Roy let out an awkward chuckle.

“To be honest, not really. I mean, there’s someone I’m interested in, but I don’t know if she’ll like me back. So for the time being, I plan to hold off until I’m ready.”

“Is that so?” I asked to which Roy responded with a nod.

Thinking back, I knew that Ella liked Roy, but if he liked some other girl, that could create a rather.. awkward situation.

But in the end, it wasn’t really my problem to dive into other people's love lives so I wasn’t gonna try and push anything. I’m not Cupid after all.

In response to what Roy said, Flynn looked up at the ceiling while giving his thoughts.

“I’m not well versed in this field, as I’ve said, but if I were to give you advice, I’d say try interacting with your crush as much as possible. If you don’t, you’ll never know how to enjoy your time together.”

“I get what you're trying to say, but won’t she find me annoying if I try learning too much about her?”

“Perhaps. But I can’t be certain. As I said before, I’m not well-versed in this field. So you will need to take what I said with a grain of salt.”

“I see. Thanks Flynn. I appreciate the advice.”

Flynn nodded and after that, the three of us went silent for a while.

Girl talk wasn’t exactly something we did that often, so instances like this always left an awkward atmosphere after they were over.

Still, we continued pushing forward. Toward the next boss room. Ready for the challenge ahead.

About an hour later, we arrived.

“Whoa! This thing is just as large as the last one,” Roy said as he looked at the oddly designed door.

Pulling out the guide, Flynn flipped through it before stopping at the second boss.

“It says the next one is Bakuro the venomous serpent. A snake that burrows underground and strikes its enemy from below. As well as confuses its opponents by causing earthquakes around the boss room.”

Crossing his arms, Roy looked at the door.

“Seems like this guy might be a bit annoying. What should we do Axel?”

Thinking things over, I found myself coming up with a plan that I felt could probably work.

“I have an idea about how we can beat something like this. However, we’ll all need to put our best effort into this. Are you guys willing to hear me out?”

Hearing me ask that question, Roy immediately grinned.

“Of course! Your ideas have worked well thus far. So I trust your choice.”

Flynn nodded.

“As he said, we’ve listened to you this long, there’s no point in stopping now.”

“That’s good to hear. In that case, this is what I had in mind…”

Entering the boss room, we were immediately met with a hissing sound coming from above.

Looking toward the ceiling, we watched as a giant snake crashed to the ground in front of us.

It let out another hissing sound that was deeper than the last one as it prepared for its first attack.

“Alright! Let’s do this!” I said.

“Right!” Roy and Flynn shouted in unison as we rushed forward.

Casting wind magic on myself, I sped up my movement and arrived in front of the snake just as it was about to dive into the ground.

Using Iron Strike, I slammed my fist into the snake. Sending it flying into the wall.

However, instead of flinching from the pain like I’d hoped, the snake immediately recovered and dove into the ground.

“Crap. Alright, you guys! You’re up!”

Nodding, Roy looked at the ground as it started to rumble under us.

I pushed myself into the air using wind magic and waited for Roy’s signal.

Then, after ten seconds of watching the ground, the sound of the earth cracking entered our ears and the snake flew out of the ground under Roy’s feet.

As I had thought, since some snakes have poor eyesight, this guy would try to go for the easiest thing it could see. Which ended up being Roy who was the bulkiest of all three of us.

Thus, when it came flying up from the ground with its mouth wide open, Roy brought down his ax and tried slicing off the snake's neck.

However, it seemed its scales were incredibly tough since all that swing ended up doing was send the snake flying out of the ground.

Still, I anticipated this as well.

“Flynn!”

Ready, Flynn started chanting a spell under his breath that strengthened his sword.

Meanwhile, I flew at the snake and hit it with a ball of wind that sent it flying toward the ceiling.

Crashing into the roof, rubble fell down from above as the snake's body made a dent where it landed.

Slamming down to the ground after that, the snake let out a loud hiss as its head rose up and glared at me. Making it clear this thing was pissed at what I just did. That’s good.

Now that I was positive its attention was on me, I started flying around the room as the snake gave chase.

I had to stall this thing for as long as I could, so pushing myself forward, I flew around the room until the snake started to look a bit tired out.

“Sir Savoncho! I’m ready!” shouted Flynn.

Giving me the signal, I started flying toward Flynn with the snake right behind me.

With his blade at the ready, Flynn raised it above his head and as soon as I flew by, he brought it down. Right on the snake's body. Cutting its head off in an instant.

Without making a sound, the snake's body collapsed to the ground.

In the end, the plan was a success.

“Phew! That thing was heavy! When I hit it, I felt like I was hitting a wall made of steel. Talk about a sturdy body,” said Roy.

Flynn nodded.

“I admit, had I not put strengthening magic on my sword, I highly doubt I could cut that thing’s head off. Still, it all worked out as planned, so it doesn’t really matter at all.”

As the three of us sat there recovering from that battle, I checked my grimoire again.

Sure enough, Nia wasn’t responding at all. So now that I was finished here, I want to figure out what’s wrong.

Getting onto my feet, I touched Roy and Flynn.

Not sure what I was doing, the two of them were caught off guard when I teleported them outside the dungeon.

“Alright. We accomplished today's goal, so is it okay if I head back home now? I need to take care of something.”

“S-Sure! Thanks for joining us today!”

While Flynn tried to figure out what just happened, Roy responded to my words.

It made sense they wouldn’t understand teleportation. It wasn’t exactly a common thing for someone to just use as they pleased. Still, I didn’t have the time to explain. I needed to find out what was wrong with Nia.

“Hey. Are you finally done in there? I was starting to get a bit bored.”

“Wah-!?”

I jumped in surprise as Nia’s voice entered my ear.

Roy and Flynn noticed my weird action and looked at me with confused expressions to which I smiled awkwardly before teleporting back to the middle of my island.

Once I was there, I decided to get to the bottom of things.

“Where’ve you been!? You didn’t respond to me at all while we were in the dungeon!”

“Uh…Would you believe me if I said I was a bit sidetracked?”

“Sidetracked? With what?”

She never left her grimoire, so was there something inside there she needed to take care of?

“Um…I’d rather not say.”

“You-! Haaah!”

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I started walking toward the mansion. Figuring there was no point to try and dig deeper if she was gonna be like this.

Thus, the dungeon exploration came to a close and it ended with me getting complaints from Xara about me leaving her behind.

However, since I ended up teleporting back and picking her up some food that I remember her saying that she liked, I was able to get off with just a short lecture. And that was something I could handle without much issue.

And so, with that last little bit done, today’s adventure finally came to an end.