With a target on their backs, Cecil's party unknowingly continued with their assignment. They only had to get to the 5th floor of a dungeon and write their findings and observations down in the form of a report. The report wasn't anything complicated, only the dungeon diving part was the challenge, except in Cecil's case since to him, it was only a boring event. Of course, to anyone else, it would be a novel experience. Something none of them would ever forget.

It didn't take the group long to arrive at the 3rd floor's staircase. The party had leisure time during their second-floor run because of the rest area that was on this floor. Since the rest area was here, the floor was cleared of monsters almost daily, so it was pretty much smooth-sailing until the next floor. When they got down to the 3rd floor, the party was once again in awe at the scenery before them.

"How could the scenery change so quickly like this?" Lu Garulle excitedly asked while taking in the view.

"Magic~" Cecil said while performing a weird hand gesture.

The gesture caused his party members to laugh in response and Cecil smiled seeing their reactions. This time around he led the party through the 3rd floor. The third floor was a vast plain with rocky outcrops littered everywhere. The rocky outcrops were actually potential areas where people could mine minerals and ore from. The monsters on the floor were filled with stone golems, prairie beast wolves, and the occasional flock of wind eagles roaming the skies.

Thankfully, they didn't meet any mishaps on this floor. The party did bump into some other student parties similar to theirs and Cecil did offer a helping hand if a party was in some degree of danger. With Cecil leading the party, they bulldozed through the 3rd floor and quickly arrived at the 4th floor's staircase.

Just as they were about to head down, Cecil noticed that plenty of student parties had tagged along with them. They were farther behind and they were hitching a 'bus ride' on Cecil's party. He didn't really care, but the same couldn't be said for the other members of his party.

"Tsk... how shameless. They're having the time of their lives hiding behind us while we have to do all the work... doesn't it bug you, Leader?" Ghina asked with an annoyed look on her face.

"Let them be. It's only possible because it's the 3rd floor. The fourth floor goes back to being a labyrinthian-type so it'd be hard for anyone to follow us once they lose sight of us."

"...it sounds like you've been here before?"

"Of course... before I registered in the academy, I was an active adventurer. My... party has already gone down to the 10th floor of this place... or was it the 9th? Anyways, I forgot. Nonetheless, it was a very boring experience," Cecil said dully.

"...10th floor? What the heck... I heard that the monsters get increasingly stronger in rank the deeper you go down!"

"Well, yeah... but, they were all weak. Nothing worth more than a small Geyser Field. The monsters only came at us in droves, so it was easy for us to take care of them all in one go. It was pretty monotonous and boring as this cycle just kept repeating itself."

"..."

The others listened on in silence as Cecil began explaining his first and most disappointing dungeon dive experience. The others felt a little awkward by this point. It sounded like Cecil was just boasting, but with the dull and clearly unsatisfied look on his face, it was the complete opposite.

"...was it really that boring?" Light asked with a forced smile.

"Well... for me and my party, it was unbelievably boring. The only thing we got from the trip was an abundant harvest of ore and monster materials."

"Yes... for you and her, it would probably be boring, but don't forget Cecil, not just anyone can destroy a horde of monsters with a snap of their fingers as easily as you guys could," Fina added on the side.

"Yeah... I guess. Anyway, let's hurry it up now. Lu, you're back on point. I'll stay behind and watch the rear. Formation will be the same as on the 1st floor."

"Okay!"

Everyone psyched themselves up and got into formation and began their 4th floor's run. They proceeded slowly at first, and just like Cecil said. It was indeed back to being a dilapidated labyrinth. The parties that were trailing after them quickly followed from behind, intending to continue riding the bus the party was unintentionally giving, but things quickly went awry for them when Cecil's party encountered a large horde of skeleton warriors and archers.

The moment the horde of skeletal monsters saw them, they quickly rushed at them and the 2 forces clashed in the narrow labyrinth corridor. Cecil took a glance to their party's rear and saw that the other parties of students were 'protecting' their rear, so he moved up a bit and provided his party with support through his Mana Bolts.

He wasn't taking an active role in this clash as he wanted his friends to gain some experience for themselves, but he would occasionally fire Mana Bolts at the skeleton archers at the rear of the horde to thin out their numbers, so his friends wouldn't get overwhelmed by the skeletons' attacks.

Although the corridor was narrow, just the 5 of them couldn't possibly block the entire horde of skeletons. Since Cecil's party was already surrounded from all sides with their backs against the wall, the idle skeletons continued running past them and quickly clashed with the parties that were following their party.

"WAHHH!!!"

"Get them! Get them!"

"W-What the hell are those guys doing in the front?!"

"Idiot! Can't you see that they're also tied up?!"

"DAMN!"

"Mages! Archers! Target those skeletons at the ba–ack!"

Cecil already began to hear the sounds of panicking and the flustered shouts originating from the parties of students that were following behind theirs and shook his head while saying to himself, "Well, you're just gonna have to get through this on your own~"

He then turned his attention back to his party members that were somewhat struggling to cope with the endless horde of skeletons rushing at them. At the very least, his party members weren't panicking like the students in the back who were only following after them thinking that it was going to be safe.

'Hm, at least they're able to hold their own and not panic.'

"C-Cecil!" Fina shouted in a panic, breaking his train of thought. She already had 3 water wolf familiars surrounding her and there were also 2 others by the sides of Light and Ghina, supporting them to the best of their abilities. The water wolves were casting frost bolts or small ice ramparts in an effort to impede the large horde, but the skeleton horde was just too much for their party to handle.

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

"Fina, prepare a large ice rampart on our sides, I'll clear a path for us. After that, we run like hell! EVERYONE GET READY!" Cecil commanded.

"!"

"YEAH!"

Cecil began gathering mana into his hands and quickly, two large golden orbs of mana enveloped his hands.

"LU! GET BACK!"

At Cecil's command, Lu Garulle quickly used a combat skill.

"EARTH SMASH!"

He smashed his mace onto the ground causing a large shockwave to form from the impact. The shockwave pushed back all the skeleton warriors in front of him and the Ape-kin powerfully jumped back, landing close to his party members while Cecil flickered to Lu's previous position and sent a powerful Mana Wave at the skeletons.

"FLASH CANNON!"

BOOOOOMMMM

The Mana Wave skill, Flash Cannon, blasted through the entire horde of skeletons in front of Cecil. Everyone in his party, except for Fina, was thoroughly surprised at his show of force, but this really wasn't the time to be shocked.

"RUN!"

At his shout, the party members quickly snapped out of their awe and excitement as they quickly followed his command and dashed through the opening that he had created for them.

Fina didn't forget to detonate the ice ramparts after the party was clear from their previous spot. The detonation caused the skeletons that were behind the ramparts to shatter into pieces. The explosion also caused various degrees of damage to the surrounding skeletons that were further away. This somewhat helped the parties that Cecil and friends had left behind. The explosion was also Fina's small show of kindness for her fellow academy students.

Once Cecil and the rest quickly shook off the horde, they were able to arrive at a small room inside the large undead labyrinth and rest for a bit. Everyone, except for Cecil and Fina, were visibly exhausted. The exhaustion came not only from the physical strain they had to endure when they were defending against the horde of skeletons, but also from the mental pressure of facing off against it.

"So... how was it? It's pretty different right?" Cecil asked his exhausted party members.

"T-That... previous attack you did...what the hell was that?!" Ghina exclaimed.

"That? It was an original skill, nothing fancy."

"Nothing fancy?" Ghina said with an incredulous expression.

"Cecil... that attack just destroyed every skeleton in our path... how was that not... fancy?" Light said with a strained smile.

"Well, if you wanna see something really fancy... that's nothing then," Cecil plainly said.

"..."

"It's as expected of our leader! Strong indeed!" Lu Garulle exclaimed happily despite his exhaustion. The ape-kin was bound to be the most exhausted out of the group since he was tanking the entire horde for a while and he had piled up a bit of injuries.

The others also had some minor injuries, but not like the ones on Lu. He had multiple arrows stuck onto his torso, but even then he was still laughing and yelling boisterously. The person himself said that it was nothing since ape-kins had plenty of muscle on their bodies. The arrows wouldn't be able to do any significant damage and it only caused superficial ones since the skeleton archers were weak. Not to mention that there was no combat skills used to back the arrows.

The injuries were quickly taken care of by Fina. A quick cast of healing light and all the wounds that the party had suffered were quickly healed. She was especially happy to use her healing magic since it's been a long while because when she was with the Little Kings she'd never have this chance anymore. Of course, it wasn't anything sadistic like Fina wanting her friends to have injuries or anything. She wasn't that cruel of a person. She just wanted to feel useful and not feel like a burden to his friends even though no one in her party thought of her as such.

"Alright guys, rest up and we'll continue our exploration," Cecil said as he quickly took his seat and grabbed a small snack out of his ring. Everyone else also began to relax and they too took something out to eat as a snack.

Cecil kept his Mana Sense spread out and continued monitoring the corridors just outside of their room. He soon picked up some movement from his Mana Sense and frowned.

'It's those jerks... I guess Fina was being a bit lenient with her attack earlier.'

The group that Cecil picked up on his Mana Sense was the previous group that had harassed Light. He got ready for a confrontation, but then he turned a little puzzled seeing the group continue onwards, completely ignoring the room they were in.

"?"

Cecil was a little confused, were they just ignorant? Or did they have some ulterior motive? He already experienced the problems caused by another party's malicious intent a week ago during his party's quest, so he was befuddled by this party's actions. From the way they moved, they had certainly discovered the room they were in. This room was pretty safe, so it made no sense for them to just avoid it as other places could be dangerous. He contemplated on it for a moment before shrugging.

"Whatever, they better not try anything funny. Although, we're from the same academy, I won't sit back if you do something unreasonable," Cecil mumbled to himself.

"What's that, Cecil?" Fina asked on the side, she was actually talking to him earlier, but he was focused on his Mana Sense that he completely missed whatever it is she said to him.

"Nothing, what were you saying earlier?"

"...After this floor, it's the 5th floor. Are we heading towards the staircase and declaring our assignment finished, or are we exploring the floor first before heading back?"

"No, there's a rest area on the 5th floor. We'll head there, write the report and then head back."

"Ok, the assignment is pretty easy, right? Well, other than that previous skeleton attack."

"Yeah, I told you that a dungeon wasn't anything special. By the way, we should mine some ore on the 5th floor. There's a mithril vein that Lucia and I secretly found a long while ago. If it's still there we should mine a bit before heading back."

"Mithril?! Then we have to go! That's a rare magic ore!"

"Mhm."

Once everyone was a little more rejuvenated, the party continued their trek through the 4th floor.