With the addition of Elias and Lynette, the party’s dynamics evolved.

When it was just Ozul and me, our biggest difficulty was the enemies getting too close. However, Elias, by attacking at close range, could deal with these types of enemies. In addition, due to his high mobility, Elias made the fight more dynamic.

Lynette, on the other hand, contributed in a different way. And of course, since she was an archer, she was a long-range attacker like Ozul, but her magical arrows caused more magical damage than my offensive spells. In other words, the responsibility of killing the monsters with resistance to physical attack was no longer completely mine, so I could focus on being a full-time support.

You know, acting as a battle mage is fun, but taking on the role of a support mage is what I like to do the most. Therefore, I was very grateful that Lynette is great at magical attacks!

Leaving the strategic point of view, there were no personal quarrels between the four of us.

Elias was very relaxed and liked to talk a lot, but when it came to fighting monsters, he didn't let us down. I even thought he would be the type who wants to kill any monster he sees in front of him, but he proved to be very practical, not fighting battles that presented disadvantages to the party.

Lynette, in turn, was quieter, but she wasn’t rude. Since I couldn't guess what was going on in her head, she ended up looking scary sometimes. However, I believe she didn't have a very active social life, because her behaviour was more discreet. Although she stayed with Elias before meeting us, she preferred to spend more time by my side after the formation of the party.

Anyway, going back to our quest, we managed to find another stairs. I was already getting sick of climbing stairs, but I felt that we were closer to finding the exit. I was looking forward to getting out of there and, if possible, having things cleared by Mr. Reignia. He owed us some good explanations!

At first, there was nothing interesting while we searched the floor. It was the same as always: we looked for new paths, monsters appeared, we killed them and I healed my companions.

It would have been nice if Mr. Reignia had put treasures in the dungeon, but probably the goal of the test was to see how we managed fighting. If he wants to implement a treasure system, he could use health and mana potions as rewards.

It was getting easy for us and that worried me. It usually starts to get easier when the final boss is one step ahead.

Suddenly, a strange noise echoed through the corridors. It was the noise of a solid object crashing against a stone surface, which was repeated several times.

I swallowed dry. Have my worries begun to materialize?

The four of us looked at each other. It was clear that, despite the fear of investigating further, we were curious to find out what the noise was about. After all, it could be a student in need of help.

We went quickly in search of the source of the noise. Elias was ahead of us, taking the lead. It seemed that his hearing was the sharpest, since he could identify which was the way the noises came without the slightest hesitation.

After so much running, we finally found what we were looking for. A large hall that was filled with small flying creatures.

They were sprites, creatures the size of the palm of the hand who had a humanoid silhouette.

There are several types of sprites that are classified by the type of magic they used. The sprites we found shone just like flames, meaning they used fire magic.

The fire sprites were circling three individuals. Due to the brightness of their flames, it was not possible to identify who the students were, but they needed help. The sprites were throwing small but efficient fireballs at the trio who tried to retaliate, but could not cope with their numerical disadvantage.

Lynette was the first to act. Arming her bow, she used her mana to conjure ice arrows. Using the legs of the distressed students as a reference of their positions, Lynette aimed at a point where only the sprites would be hit and shot. The little creatures caught by the arrows fell to the ground, frozen.

The sudden attack caused the remaining sprites to move away from the three students, but Elias began to chase them, cutting everyone who came into contact with his blade. In the rear, Ozul and Lynette also contributed, shooting with ice magic.

The sprites, instead of running away, kept attacking. At that moment, I took action. To protect the others, I casted magical barriers around each one, preventing the small fireballs from hitting them.

When they realized that their attacks had become futile, the group of small creatures looked around the hall in order to find an explanation, until they saw a light coming from the purple orb of my staff and realized that I was responsible for the barriers.

Frustrated, the group of sprites flew up to me, surrounding me and throwing fireballs. However, it was of no use, because I had also conjured a barrier to myself. They had thought I would protect my colleagues while keeping me unprotected! Their naivety was so funny that I ended up laughing at them.

Thanks to our efforts, the three students finally managed to defeat the sprites and the very few who remained decided to retreat.

Without the fire lights, I could finally see the identity of those we helped: a green-haired boy who used a spear, a lynx girl with a war hammer and, wielding an claymore sword, a green-eyed blonde girl I knew very well...

“Erina!”

As soon as I shouted her name, I ran to her and hugged her.

“I finally found you!,” I smiled.

“Tell me about it! I felt like walking on circles trying to look for you!,” Erina said while returning my hug.

“Angelo!,” Elias went to the green-haired boy. “It’s good to see you! I was worried about you, but I see that you were in good hands,” He patted him on the back.

“I say the same to you ,” Angelo replied. “your party seems very complete.”

The lynx girl observed the whole scene and commented, playfully:

“How cute these reunions are. I'm even getting jealous here.”

“Are you okay, Rebeca?,” Lynette approached the lynx girl, whose ears rose when she heard the archer's voice.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Oh, hell there, Lynette! I'm fine, thank you for your concern!”

When Erina finally let me go, I could see burn marks on her face, a result of the sprites' attack. Rebeca and Angelo also had the same injuries. So, as usual, I healed them. Fortunately, they were not serious burns, but they could be a nuisance in the future. In return, I received the gratitude of the trio.

After taking care of the three, I looked at Ozul and realized that he seemed to be a little out of place. That made sense, because he didn’t know any of the students we found.

Seeing Ozul looking at us, waiting patiently, made me realize that, although I was Erina's friend, I didn't know either Angelo or Rebeca and the same was true for Lynette, who only knew Rebeca, and Elias, who only knew Angelo.

I believe that Ozul also noticed this, because, with a cough, he drew attention to himself and suggested that we make presentations.

“So I’ll start,” Erina took a step forward and made a small bow with her skirt. “My name is Erina Banloros, it's a pleasure. As you can see…,” She showed her claymore sword. “I'm a swordswoman.”

“I'm Rebeca Lirytad,” the lynx girl introduced herself. “Although I'm using a war hammer, I like all forged weapons!”

Looking better at Rebeca, I could see the differences between humans and beast people. In addition to the ears and tail, her nose was like that of a lynx and she had a short fur that covered her skin and, if I may say so, it seemed to be very nice to touch. Despite the animalistic characteristics, her silhouette was still very humanoid.

“And I'm Angelo Cardinal,” the boy was the last to introduce. “I get along well with spears, but I'm also good with offensive spells.”

Angelo showed us his tool. It was a long spear with a navy blue stem and a metal tip. It looked like a very common spear, but there was a bluish orb positioned between the stem and the tip. In addition to being a spear, it was also a magic staff! A balance between physical and magical attack.

I’m jealous! Why did he soon get the most versatile equipment? Is he like a jack of all trades?

Returning to the introduction, Elias, Lynette, Ozul and I also did the same, saying our names and showing our equipment.

Having finished the introductions, I decided to take an initiative and, with curiosity, I asked Erina, Rebeca and Ângelo:

“How was your quest, until you found us?”

“Girl, it was something!,” Erina started talking, as if she was gossiping. “I started alone and I was doing super well, but after a while, it started to get boring and I wanted to find someone or the exit as soon as possible. That's more or less where I found Rebeca. Personally, I wanted to have found Amaris, but I was happy that I had found at least one person.”

“With me it was more or less the same thing,” Rebeca added her point of view. “but I wasn't bored. Testing the quality of this hammer on the monsters kept me entertained all the time,” she slid her fingers on her hammer, admiring her weapon with a loving face.

“I still haven't found them in this part of the story...,” Angelo scratched the back of his neck.

“Don't worry, we'll get there soon!,” Erina cleared her throat and continued. “After I found Rebeca, we decided to form a duo. So we kept advancing in these dungeons and climbing stairs, until we found Gregório!,” she intoned his name with a enamoured sigh.

Ozul frowned at the way Erina pronounced the boy's name. I don't blame him, since Gregório was very unpleasant with him, so he doesn't see any trait that would make Gregório attractive.

“Gregório mentioned that he came across you two when Ozul and I ended up meeting him,” I commented, already interested in knowing what happened in detail.

“You found Gregório?! Did he say anything about me?”

“He said that you addressed him wrongly and that you were ‘a woman who only focuses on her own desires’.”

While Ozul seemed disinterested and Lynette looked away to the side, Rebeca, Elias and Angelo found Gregório's behaviour funny and started laughing.

“He said something like that to both of us too,” Rebeca said between laughs. “leave it to me, Erina, I want to tell this part,” before speaking, she calmed her own laughter. “We found Gregório out of nowhere and he looked at Erina with an ugly face. Then Erina came to him and said ‘Hi, Handsome’!”

At that moment, all of us - even Ozul and Lynette - started laughing.

“So that's what Gregório meant by ‘addressing him wrongly’?,” I managed to ask after controlling my laughter.

“I just called him ‘handsome’, I swear!,” Erina took her hand to her chest, as if she were making a solemn oath.

“And what happened after he was called ‘handsome’?,” Elias asked, as curious as I was.

Rebeca continued the story:

“Gregório wasn't in the mood to talk about it with us and was ready to leave, but then Erina stopped him and said: ‘Since we're here, let's enjoy yourself and have a friendly duel’, but then he criticized her, said that that wasn't the best moment, that she only cared about satisfying herself and that it wasn't because she was born a noblewoman that she didn't inherit the greed of her parents, who weren't born nobles!”

Erina frowned when remembering the scene.

“Humpf! He spoke ill of my family!,” she crossed her arms. “There is a limit to bad behaviour.”

I brought my head closer to Ozul's and whispered to him:

“It was like I said: old nobles hate the new nobles.”

“…And what happened next?,” Lynette asked Rebeca.

“Erina looked like someone who wanted to slice him all over, but then she pulled herself together, looked at him in a daring way and said: ‘So you don't guarantee yourself, do you? You use two swords, so I thought you were excellent with swordsmanship, but I think I was wrong, wasn't I?’”

“Oh, I wouldn't let it slide!,” Elias laughed, as if he was watching the discussion on live. “So what’s next? What did he do?”

“At first, he began to pass his hand on the handle of one his swords,” Rebeca imitated the gesture that Gregório would have made. “I think he would duel for real, but then Erina stopped him and said ‘I lost the interest’. Gregório looked at her as if he wanted to say ‘But didn't you want a duel?!’. In response, Erina replied ‘Weren't you the one who said it wasn't the best time?’”

We all watched Rebeca's acting carefully. While she narrated what happened, she also reproduced the gestures and facial expressions that Gregório and Erina made, which made everything more interesting.

“…Finally, Gregório held the handle of his sword as if he was holding himself not to fight, but he turned his face to us and left, without saying anything else!,” Rebeca exclaimed.

Erina crossed her arms and smiled proudly.

“Hah! He tried to get the last word, but he was no match for me!,” she took her index finger to her lips. “But I did like to see him try...”

Ozul sighed.

“It's amazing the way Gregório started a disagreement with anyone...”

“Wait a minute!,” Elias brought the focus to himself. “And where was Angelo all this time?”

Angelo took a step forward, with a discouraged face.

“Well, I woke up in a small room with a letter saying that my goal was to get out of this dungeon and that they had a ‘tool’ for me, which it was this staff-spear, so I left the room and started looking for the exit,” Angelo's voice began to sound tired. “But I almost fell into a monster ambush about five times, I walked in circles for about seven times that reached a point I wanted to leave it by some luck’s fate or something like that. I was found by Rebeca and Erina on the floor below us, for you to get an idea!”

Both me and the others were wide-eyed with the feat. The fact that he faced a large part of the dungeons on his own made him more skilled than his somewhat pessimistic face showed.

We were impressed, especially Elias who, with great pride, went to Angelo, put his arm around his neck and asked him:

“Tell us, how was the experience of exploring the dungeons alone?”

“Depressing,” Angelo made a long face. “Over time, facing the monsters alone becomes a pain in the ass!”

“Especially if the monster is resistant to your best attack,” I completed.

Then it was our turn of telling how the beginning of our test had been and how we had become a group. From waking up in a small room to the formation of our quartet, we didn’t leave aside any detail.

While we were telling everything, I realized that, of the four of us, Elias was the only one who had the shortest report. This is due to the fact he was the one who spent the most time alone among us, since he had only found Lynette after she had separated from Gregory.

After we put all the cards on the table, we intended to get out of this dungeon together. We all had the idea that, if this was a test, there would probably be a very powerful monster right in front of the exit.

Therefore, the most plausible decision was to make our party larger to reduce the difficulties.

And just when the union of our quartet with Erina's trio was consolidated, a loud impact noise spread through the walls and floor, accompanied by tremors.

“Argh! What was that?,” Erina armed her sword, waiting for an attack.

“It must be a big monster!,” Angelo concluded, with a face of someone who wished he had more time to rest.

“But where is it coming from?,” I looked around and tried to pay attention to the sounds, but I couldn't deduce where the noise’s location.

Rebeca, however, seemed to be able to track the sound’s direction, because her ears moved quickly and when she finally found the location, her ears got erect.

“I know the way. Let's go!”

We ran following Rebeca’s guidance. It seems that the final boss was closer than I imagined.