Hmm…

Hmmm…

Hmmmmmm…

"Mistress? Is something wrong?" Katsuki asked, bringing me out of my musings.

"Ah, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the difficulty level of this Dungeon. We've pretty much reached past the halfway mark for this Dungeon and though there's a bit of a challenge now, we're still able to deal with it."

"Is there something wrong with that, Mistress?"

"Well… We're already nearing floor seventy and it's been a while since we've seen any other Dungeoneer parties around, haven't we?"

Katsuki paused to sniff the air, "Indeed… I do not smell any traces of people being around here at all, Mistress."

Odeta approached us, "Ehh… Does that mean that there are no other people near us or that no one else has been on this floor?"

Katsuki shook her head, "Unfortunately, I am not good enough to be able to tell which is the case. But I believe that it is more likely to be the former."

Hmm…

We've already reached floor number sixty nine and the monsters have been progressively getting harder and harder to beat.

Also… I needed to say this but I went ahead to ask Edir to sixty-nine me the moment we reached this floor.

She was confused about why I wanted that but she complied without question, already happy from the fact that it was the first time I was that proactive in our 'arrangement' so far.

Still, it was quite a sight to have her climb on top of me with her bottom facing me. We then went down on each other for a good while.

There was only one word to describe it:

Nice.

Aside from that, things have been pretty normal so far.

The boss fights have been relatively easy and Edir was also pulling her own weight rather well. I even got to enjoy her services whenever I want as well and it was really top class.

Even though we've pretty much limited ourselves to just oral right now, she had already learned all my sweet spots in these few days that she was able to get me going really quickly.

I'm not sure if it was from her experience as a ranger that her fingers were so dexterous or it was just a talent of hers.

I was brought out of my musings when Katsuki stopped in front of me and sniffed the air again.

"Mistress, I'm smelling a monster we've never met before up ahead. Should we find another way around it or should we engage?"

"Ohhh! Does it smell strong?" Odeta asked quickly.

"I can't smell a monster's strength, Odeta…"

"Eeehh… That's boring then…"

Katsuki turned back to me, as though showing that only my opinion mattered in this case.

I shrugged, "I supposed it might be a good idea to at least see what the monster is so that we can be prepared if it shows up on the later floors."

"Understood Mistress, please follow me."

Odeta flexed her arms, "Don't worry sister Aster! I'll protect you from that monster if it attacks you!"

Stolen story; please report.

I giggled, "I'll depend on you then~"

Edir didn't seem to have an opinion and was just following behind me as usual.

Truth be told, her change in personality from the rude and confident archer from the first time I met her to the quiet and reserved girl right now seemed like a really big change for it to be normal.

I had thought she would continue to be defiant towards me and maybe run away as soon as she was able to, but I was quite surprised that she insisted on staying with me.

She claims that her change in attitude was to ingratiate herself to me but I felt that the change was too significant for it to be completely natural.

My guess is that this was her original attitude and the more 'rude' attitude was used to fit into that particular Dungeoneer group she was with before.

Oh well, it doesn't really concern me anyway so it doesn't matter which is the truth. As long as she doesn't stab us in the back, I'd be fine with whatever.

In the meantime, Katsuki led us towards a corner where we turned to find a small chamber where a single figure was hunched over on the ground.

I would have thought they were a Mahun but I remembered Katsuki saying that she smelt a monster so that thing must be the monster. Thus, I went ahead to use [Screened] on it.

[Name: Rat Shadow Stalker

Race: Monster

Stats:

480 Strength

500 Dexterity

120 Endurance

200 Magic

Skills:

Tracking (Tier 2), Hunting (Tier 1), Assassination (Tier 1) Martial Skill-(Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2)

Magic Skills:

Umbramancy (Tier 1)]

That's quite a big jump in difficulty… The other monsters were still around the two hundred stats range… Could this monster be considered as some kind of roaming trap or something?

I peeked at the object it was hunched over and I realised that it was a dead Mahun with his guts slashed open for the monster to gnaw on his entrails.

Ah… This monster might be the reason why there's no other Dungeoneer around here because it killed them all after they thought there weren't any stronger monsters around…

This is supposed to be a D ranked Dungeon, isn't it? So is this monster a D ranked monster? Does that mean the infant dragons I was fighting were only D ranked as well?

That's quite a scary thought…

I turned to my companions, "Should we escape?"

Unfortunately, that monster seemed to have exceptional hearing because it immediately turned its head towards us. Blood and pieces of torn Mahun flesh dripped down from its mouth to splatter on the Dungeon floor, giving it an even more gruesome appearance.

It then slowly rose from the ground and surprisingly, the Rat Shadow Stalker was only about my height though it might be a little taller since it still looked like its back was hunched.

There was a mantle covering its head so only the snout that was poking out from it was visible. The rest of the body seemed to be shrouded in an aura of dark smoke where its limbs looked like it was the only organic thing poking out of it.

There was at least a good hundred metres or so between us but it still felt like it could close in the distance at any time to attack us.

It tensed up its claws, slowly curling its fingers to form a clawed grip while its head moved slightly downwards.

The music in the background shifted into something dark and ominous, like there were bells constantly ringing and deep drums beating at the back. It gave the feeling of a Regenerator or something if that made any sense.

That was already a big clue that we were in a very unfavourable situation right now. The fact that Odeta had gone quiet and was glaring intensely at the monster showed that even she knew that our opponent was quite strong.

I slowly raised my hand towards my sword while mentally preparing a [Static Bolt] spell to be ready to cast at any moment.

I also decided to take a risk to split my concentration and prepared a [Static Shock] spell in case the monster managed to get close to me and I needed a close ranged spell instead.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Katsuki had also moved her hand slowly behind her back and kept them there, presumably to prepare her hidden weapons to be used against the monster.

Since Edir was behind me, I could not see what she was doing but I wouldn't be surprised if I turned back to find that she had already ran away.

In a dangerous situation like this, Dungeoneers would prioritise their own lives over everything else.

In fact, if it wasn't because I was quite certain that this Rat would definitely chase after us the moment we turned to run, I would have taken everyone and ran away as well.

But now that it had adopted that posture, it was clear that it intended to hunt us.

Sure enough, the moment my hand rested on the hilt of the sword, the monster let out a roar and leapt forward at me, its claws outstretched to grab at my throat.

I pulled out my sword and fired the [Static Bolt] spell at the same time, the Rat digging its clawed feet on the ground to sidestep it at the very last moment.

Katsuki then threw her needles at it but it showed surprising adaptability by raising its mantle as an impromptu shield to block the needles from reaching it.

An arrow then flew from behind me, forcing the Rat to take another step back to avoid it. Looks like Edir had actually stayed to fight the monster.

That gave Odeta enough time to reposition herself in front of us and charge at the Rat Shadow Stalker, engaging it in close combat.

I was just about to think that we should be able to handle this monster if we worked together when footsteps echoed from across the chamber, revealing a second Rat Shadow Stalker stepping out into the open.

Godamnit…