Two 10-foot stone golems towered in front of us.

[Golem E-] [Golem E-]

On our vanguard, Roran rushed forward with quick steps. A large fist of rock swung toward him, but he swiftly bent his body, sliding under the golem’s legs and appearing on the other side. Bang~! A loud thud echoed through the cave as the golem’s hand slammed into the ground. He's fast.

“Aghhhhhh!” The golem’s pained screech reverberated through the cave as it tried to reach for its severed hand. Unlike other mana beasts, golems didn't require much mana to heal. Simply reattaching its arm was as easy as healing a light scratch. But before it could touch the severed hand, Ruby slid in, touched the hand, and quickly retreated.

The hand instantly shrank, almost disappearing, causing another angry cry from the golem. It stepped forward, switching to target Ruby, but suddenly fell face-first as if tripping over something. Behind the golem, Roran threw a thumbs-up and smiled at Ruby. He had severed the golem’s legs, leaving it motionless while the body struggled to stand on one hand.

One down.

Seeing its fellow golem fall, the second golem suddenly charged at Ruby instead of Roran, forcing her to take a few steps back. I jumped forward to protect her.

I immediately cast [Future Sight], seeing the golem’s fist rushing toward me at breakneck speed. I waited for the right moment before sidestepping, avoiding the attack. Swoosh~! The golem’s fist ripped through the air, a cold wind brushing my face, before slamming into the ground. Bang~! The ground quaked slightly as rubble and dust rose from the impact. I quickly jumped onto its hand, taking two steps forward before leaping into the air, my body hovering above the golem.

The golem effortlessly pulled its fist from the ground, transitioning straight into another assault, aiming to attack me as I hung above it. I prepared to swing my sword downward, aiming for its head, but...

The rock is too thick to cut.

I activated [Time Perception], quickening my thoughts while the world around me slowed down. This gave me all the time I needed to set up my attack properly. As my sword swung down, reaching an optimal point in its arc, I immediately cast [Object Perception], completely releasing it from my grip as it quickly rushed down.

Bang~! My sword struck the ground, causing a small shockwave as dust and debris flew across the cave. The golem froze in the middle of its attack as I landed on the ground. It was only when my feet touched the ground that the golem suddenly split in half, right in the middle. Each of the two pieces fell to the ground with a light thud.

That worked well. Let’s call this one ‘Detached Swing’.

“That was amazing,” Ruby muttered in surprise.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you be on the vanguard with me?” Roran asked as he approached us, having already delivered the finishing blow to the other golem.

“Are you really an F-rank?” Rin asked, staring at me skeptically. We were both classified as F-rank, which just went to show how much of a game-changer an Authority could be.

The attack I’d just used was similar to the one I used against Eliana, but instead of throwing the sword like a knife, I simply let my Authority continue the ongoing slash. Of course, I had to let go of the sword since such speeds would instantly break my bones.

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This is why a gun is the best choice for me.

After pulling my sword from the ground, I slid it back into its sheath.

“Sigh. I told you I’m not as strong as you think, so we’ll continue with the same formation. Plus, these golems were just E-minus.” I tried to explain, but the others didn’t seem convinced.

The floor we were on turned out to be very easy. In dungeons, the difficulty was usually measured in three levels: ‘minus’, ‘neutral’, and ‘plus’, with minus being the easiest and plus being the hardest. So on the 77th floor, it seemed like the only golems we’d encountered so far were all E-. Since one of our teammates, Roran, was already E-ranked, our party wasn’t struggling at all. Well, it didn’t necessarily mean he could solo the entire dungeon, but he had a good chance.

“Yeah, whatever you say, princess,” Rin said as she sat down on a part of the fallen golem.

Does she want to get punched? I thought to myself as I walked toward her and sat next to her. Since she insisted on being our rearguard, she hadn’t really done anything since we began tackling the floor. I would normally take up that position since I could support people using [Time Perception], and it also gave me a good view of the battlefield, but instead, I was stuck on secondary support. I’ll trust her word for now.

“Changing formations mid-operation is for amateurs. It’s how 20% of parties die in dungeons,” I explained as we leisurely watched the other two. Roran and Ruby were already at work trying to extract the mana cores from the golems. This is not extortion. We actually took turns extracting the mana cores at first, but because those two had the most suitable Authorities for this task, they insisted on doing it every time.

“Heeh, and what if one of us dies? Are you just going to continue with the same formation?” she asked, laying her head on her hand as if she were bored.

“That’s called adapting to circumstances; we don’t really change the formation. If the front wheel of a car suddenly breaks off, you only focus on fixing that one wheel and not the whole car. Can you really say you’ve changed the car itself after only replacing one wheel?” I asked back, causing a tired sigh from Rin as she responded,

“You really love to prove people wrong, don’t you? Do you think it makes you look cool or something?” she said without even glancing at me. You’re the one who asked.

“Well, I thought women loved to hear men ramble about brainy stuff. Are you perhaps into women, Miss Rin?” I teased as I glanced toward Ruby, but Rin didn’t seem flustered by my question and replied calmly,

“Whoever told you that doesn’t sound very bright. And as for me, I just have very specific tastes. I like a man who doesn’t have green eyes, for one, and they shouldn’t have messy hair. What else… Oh, and their name shouldn’t start with ‘I’ or end with ‘n’. That’s a dealbreaker for me.” She said this as if she were describing her first love, but it was anything but cute. Lily is actually very bright, mind you. I wanted to say but kept the thought to myself as I retorted.

“That’s oddly specific. I could have sworn I’d seen someone like that in a mirror or two. He might break down into tears if he heard you say that,” I said, holding my chin as if deep in thought.

“Yeah, I guess I might not sleep soundly if I saw him cry like that,” she replied with surprisingly kind words.

“Oh, maybe you’re not as cold as I thought.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? I would be too busy celebrating the whole night to even sleep.” She bluntly stated with a smile. A light chuckle escaped my mouth as I stood up, looking toward the other two, who seemed to have just finished collecting the mana cores. Maybe because of her strangely indifferent personality, talking to her was easier than with the other students.

“Stay on guard, we’ll continue as planned,” I announced to the team, and everyone nodded.

Even though the floor was easy, it didn’t mean we could relax. So casual banter didn’t continue until we reached the end of the floor. When we reached the end, we immediately placed our hands on the wall, preparing to be teleported to the next floor. This time, we were on high alert. As the 10-second mark hit, a familiar white light enveloped us, the scenery changed, and a familiar message arrived from the status window.

[Golem’s Nest]

[Floors: 100]

[Recommended Rank: E]

[Current: Floor 23]

[Difficulty: ???] (Status level too low, cannot be measured)

[Estimated Difficulty: E+] (Calculated based on previously completed floors, so it may not be accurate)

[?????: ???] (Status level too low)

[????: ???] (Status level too low)