The dwarf girl grinned like she didn’t have a care in the world. She was leaning on her long ax and looking at us with a crooked smile on her face.

“We need to get in that dungeon,” I said directly. “Unfortunately, Lord Reign has decided to make this difficult for us.”

“Really?” the dwarf girl shrugged. “Well, if you’re having difficulty, why don’t you enter through the mine.”

“W-what?”

“Weren’t you told? The mine connects with the dungeon. That’s why we had to abandon it. It started getting too dangerous. However, there was a hole punched through. It should go out onto the fifth floor. It won’t be easy though.”

“I don’t care if it’s easy. We plan to defeat this dungeon anyway, so if I can get through it, I’m happy to.” I immediately started heading for the mine without another word.

Once we were in the dungeon, teleporting would be fine. However, if Lord Reign thought to close the mine down too, it’d be really inconvenient. I didn’t want to rush her, but I didn’t want to find myself trapped either.

“You might need a guide!” The loli girl called out.

“Thanks, we got one!” I patted Raissa on the back.

I didn’t really want to deal with more girls at the moment. I already felt like the party was too large, and I didn’t want to have to look after a young girl. Well, she’s a dwarf, but there was no reason to believe she was some kind of expert dungeon diver or something.

“Eh! Ah… yes… me!” She seemed flustered at suddenly being touched. “Although, the mine didn’t exist the last time I was here.”

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“Well, it’s probably fine.”

With my mapping ability, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find our way. Overall, I wasn’t worried. We entered the cave, following the mine cart all the way down. This eventually led to some stairs. With that, we began our long descent down into the darkness. Using my light spell as a source, we worked our way deeper and deeper. This really did feel like a dungeon. Strangely enough, I almost felt like I was missing this.

“If my information is correct, then monsters breached from the 5th floor into the mine. This is what caused the miners to flee and stop their efforts. So, the entrance should be on the bottom floor, but it may also be filled with monsters.” Raissa explained.

As we continued down, we started to hear some roaring sounds. Finally, a large rock creature came thumping down the hallway.

“Terra!” Terra immediately called on her Earth Manipulator skills, managing to stop its momentum in its tracks.

The girls began to open an offensive on the monster. However, it seemed surprisingly tough. I had expected to defeat it in a few moments, but it was made of rock. It even managed to wrestle free from Terra’s control and swing a few times. It clipped Shao, whom I healed and patted her head. It wouldn’t be a problem though. If they were hurt from negligence rather than an accident, they wouldn’t get a head pat. That was one of the rules I had to set up with the girls to keep things civil.

After about five minutes of fighting, the creature finally crumbled to the ground, leaving a small pile of dirt and rock.

“Strange…” Raissa shook her head.

“What is that?” I asked, recovering my breath.

“We haven’t even reached the dungeon yet, but this is undoubtedly the level five miniboss.”

“It’s the boss?” I asked, feeling a sudden pang of worry.

“Right, but bosses shouldn’t leave their dungeons.” She said, her brows furrowed.

At that moment, I started hearing a thumping sound. Actually, it was numerous thumping sounds. More and more seemed to come until the entire cavern was shaking. The first one came into view in the light, followed by another behind it. With a bad feeling growing inside me, I tossed a fireball down the side of the corridor, intentionally over the golem’s heads. There was a long line of golems, each just as strong as the last one, all heading our direction. The line went back as far as I could see.