When we were looking for our exit in that new section of the dungeon, Ozul and I found some lizards - some large, others small – whose colours varied between red and orange. "They are fire element monsters" Ozul and I concluded. They usually attacked in groups, with the largest in front, taking the lead, while the smaller ones followed right behind. They were rarely seen alone.

These monsters were uncomfortable to fight at first, because they were agile, but after observing their movement, Ozul and I managed to create a strategy that worked on them: The biggest ones, because they were bigger targets, were defeated by Ozul. Consequently, the little ones decided to group together, in the hope that the numerical advantage would bring them victory. In this part, I take advantage of the fact that they are together and conjure a ice burst into them, thus paralyzing them and killing them.

We continued our quest as usual, until we were surprised by the sudden appearance of a flight of winged monsters coming towards us.

“Watch out!”

I screamed, going closer to Ozul and conjuring a shield for us. Using a multiple fire bullets spell, Ozul was able to hit several of the animals, which fell dead to the ground, but many survived. The unusual thing, however, was the survivors continued to fly away without noticing us.

“They just passed by us without trying to attack...,” I found it strange. Until that moment, when we attacked a group, the survivors always retaliated.

Ozul approached the corpse of one of the monsters to analyze it. This type of monster had a round and hairy body, bat wings, a single eye and a mouth similar to a lamprey.

“Something had scared them away... Would it be a stronger monster?,” Ozul pondered.

It was an intriguing hypothesis, because it meant there was a food chain in the dungeon and the creatures weren’t dependent on Mr. Reignia to survive. During my quest with Ozul, I couldn't see if the monsters had natural prey and predators, so my curiosity had been aroused.

“How about we investigate?,” I suggested.

Ozul nodded slightly and instructed:

“Let's approach carefully. In case of danger, we will flee, and if we have no choice, we will fight.”

We continued along the path the flight came, our steps so silent that it didn't even look like we were touching the ground. It was not difficult to find out where the monsters came from, because it was just a corridor without sidepaths.

As we got closer, my heart accelerated more and my mind was filled with worries. If at the end of the corridor there was a stronger monster, as Ozul had considered, would this be the final boss we need to kill to be able to get out of the dungeons? But there were only the two of us to fight him. Would we be enough to defeat him? I hoped so, since Mr. Reignia said that his goal was to test us, so probably the final boss could be defeated even alone, it would only be more challenging than in a group.

Finally, we reached the end of the corridor: an arch-shaped opening that led to a still unknown area. Before we crossed the arch, Ozul looked at me to confirm that I agreed and I shook my head. We took a deep breath and quickly advanced, already in attack position.

This new area had two floors and Ozul and I were on the upper floor, consisting of several arch-shaped passages. The lower floor was an open space with stairs that led to the upper floor. That is, it was an alternative route to get to the floor we were on.

Below us, we could see another flight of the bat-winged monsters. They were circulating the area in despair, looking for ways to escape alive, while something or someone below them was killing the slowest. Ozul was with his gun pointed at whatever was scaring away the bat-winged monsters, until he realized what exactly was the "strongest monster" he had imagined.

The supposed "strongest monster" was actually two people. A red-head boy was destroying those creatures with a crimson stem scythe and gray blade. The boy moved with agility, handling his scythe with mastery. Those monsters that could escape from the blade cut were not very lucky, because they were soon hit by the magical arrows of a blue-haired archer, who hit them with murderous precision.

Ozul looked especially at the archer, which made him lower his weapon.

“Lynette?,” he asked in a low voice, a little incredulous.

The moment he asked the question, one of the bat-winged monsters flew disorderly towards us, trying to escape to the same path we passed. Because Ozul had the gun down, he couldn't shoot. The creature was about to collide with my cheek when, in a fraction of seconds, Lynette turned around, aimed at the monster and shot a magic arrow, hitting it critically. The monster fell on my feet, convulsing a few times before dying.

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After confirming the success of her work, Lynette faced me. I shuddered when I saw the archer's face and, by instinct, I went behind Ozul. Her face made her look brutal and merciless.

The monster was so close to me. If she had missed, she would have hit my eye! And even so, she got it right! This girl looked more like a hitwoman.

The red-haired boy, unlike me, wasn't afraid of Lynette. On the contrary, he was happy with her and even said jokingly:

“Nothing escapes your sight, right?... Huh?,” He looked up and saw Ozul and I. “It looks like we got company too!”

“Ozul...,” Lynette looked at Ozul and murmured.

“Lynette...,” Ozul murmured too.

Wow, such a strange mood!

“Hey,” The redhead called. “Are we going up or are you going down here?”

I went in front of Ozul and walked down the stairs. The scythe boy was cleaning a dust from his shoulder and Lynette was fixing some strands of her hair.

“Sorry for the mess, it's just that these weird bats wouldn’t leave us alone,” the redhead explained himself. “I'm Elias Arthuro.”

“I'm Lynette Mildrin,” the archer introduced herself, obviously looking at me.

I introduced myself to both of them and Ozul did the same, but he just looked at Elias, since Lynette already knew his name.

Speaking of her, during the introductions, she kept staring at me until, in the end, she took a step forward and bowed in front of me.

“I apologize for the arrow just now!,” Lynette apologized.

It was the second time that a person with a scary face bowed to apologize to me. Would that become a habit or what?

“It's okay!,” I assured. “The arrow didn't hit me, so it’s fine by me.”

As soon as she adjusted her posture, I could see her face better. If before she seemed merciless, now she seemed... pleasant? Cute? I can't tell, but I felt good looking at her face.

“I'm glad we found you!,” Elias exclaimed. “I, for example, spent a long time wandering alone until I bumped into Lynette, who was looking for the other students, and we formed a duo,” He scratched the back of his neck. “dealing with these dungeon monsters alone sucks!”

“You can say that again…,” I agreed, remembering the giant beetle.

Elias, who before seemed to be in high spirits, suddenly became serious.

“By the way, you two haven’t found a boy named Angelo Cardinal out there, have you?,” he asked me and Ozul. “he has mint-coloured hair and dark eyes.”

“We haven’t seen him,” Ozul replied.

“We just passed by Gregório, but he was alone and only told us that he saw Erina and a lynx girl,” I detailed.

“At least Rebeca is not alone...,” I heard Lynette murmur to herself.

“So it's just Angelo whose whereabouts are unknown,” Elias sighed.

“What if he's at a more advanced stage of the test?,” I gave the hypothesis. “Maybe, if we go up, we will find him!”

Elias arched his eyebrows in a playful way.

“Slyly including us in your party, huh? You're very smart! I liked you, so count me in. What about you, Lynette?”

“I'll go with you too.”

That's exactly what I wanted to hear!

“Welcome to our party!,” I exclaimed, happy.

“‘Our’…,” I heard Ozul whisper while looking at the corner.

“For now, let's go up to the next floor,” I clarified our current goal. “While we look for the exit, we will also look for the other students, especially Angelo, okay?”

So Ozul and I, together with Lynette and Elias, left where we came from.

Our party had become a quartet and that made me calmer and more confident.

At one point of our walk, Elias pulled me closer to him, leaving a free space next to Ozul, which was quickly occupied by Lynette.

“It's no big deal,” Elias whispered in my ear. “It's just that Lynette needs to take a weight off her shoulders.”

A weight of her shoulders, huh?

My curiosity had been aroused and I wanted to hear what she was going to say to Ozul, but Elias soon made a point of stealing my attention from himself:

“What a cool staff you have! You only use magic to attack, don't you? I mean, Lynette is able to create magic arrows to shoot, but it's cool to see a traditional mage from time to time. Tell me, what can you do?”

While Elias sought to occupy me with his words, Lynette had enough time to say what she needed.

“Ozul.”

“Yes?”

“I want to apologize for what happened to you and Gregório.”

“Why do you want to apologize? It wasn't your fault.”

“Adding you to the party was my idea, so when Gregório gave you the ultimatum, I should have reprimanded him.”

“Gregório has to take responsibility for his own actions, not you. Therefore, I don't think you need to apologize to me, but I appreciate the thought.”

Lynette was silent for a few seconds, but then took a deep breath and spoke again:

“…When you left, I thought about Gregório’s attitude and I couldn't stand him anymore, so I left. My idea was to look for you, but I ended up finding Elias first. Until we met, how have you been?”

“I had to stand on my own feet. Sometimes, I did well, at other times, I escaped by a hair strand. Until I ended up meeting Amaris and, since she is a healer mage, she ended up helping me a lot.”

“A healer mage, huh...”

I saw Lynette turn her face a little to look at me. I think she smiled. Again, Elias tried to hold my attention while she went back to Ozul:

“You're a lucky boy.”

“That sounded weird...”

“I'm just saying that I'm glad you're fine. I hope our new partnership is productive.”

“I also hope so.”

Until Lynette and Ozul came into an understanding, I had already presented all my magic repertoire to Elias, in addition to having told - at his request - how I trained my healing magic, which was volunteering at the adventurers' hospital I had in the city where I lived. Elias seemed to be very interested in what I could do.

“Boy, we got lucky! A reliable healer in our group!,” He exclaimed. “You know, I can even use a wand or a staff, but it turned out to be a little ‘ordinary’ for my taste. Look, I get along well with scythes, so when I use one, I...”

And he began to give a detailed explanation of how he used the scythe with the increment of magic. If Ozul and Lynette said anything else, I had no way of knowing, because I didn't pay attention. I had focused more on listening to Elias and his magic techniques with a scythe.

Only after Elias had finished that I realized that Lynette had returned to her side and that Ozul was very close to me, our shoulders an inch away. I didn't jump in fright, but my heart did.