In the minds of the adventurers preparing to clear the Cave Labyrinth, the number one thing to do when dealing with a demon dog like the Hellhound was to stop them from breathing fire.
The Hellhound's fire attack was simply too powerful, too great a threat, on par with the sight of Mages using magic, and it had to be guarded against.
To adventurers, magic was the ace up the sleeve, the great trump card that could change the course of a battle, and the reverse was just as true.
A monster's magic attack was an even greater threat to adventurers, since adventurers were people no matter what, and even thick-skinned, tough-fleshed Dwarves were Demi-Humans. Unless the level gap was truly too wide, the difference in strength between the two sides too vast, nobody was willing to take a magic attack from a monster head-on, that was no different from charging stark naked into a sea of fire.
So when clearing the 13th floor and the floors below, there was always one identical guideline in the strategies the adventurers laid out.
"The moment a Hellhound shows up, deal with it first."
Even if it meant falling into being surrounded by other monsters, the Hellhound had to be dealt with first, otherwise once its fiery breath came, the adventurers' fate usually had only one outcome, that being burned to ash along with the surrounding monsters and their companions.
Forget Lv.2 third-class adventurers, even Lv.3 and Lv.4 second-class adventurers, unless they were the Endurance-specialist type, would inevitably get hurt the moment they took a Hellhound's fire.
In a situation like this, if Line, a Lv.2 non-combatant, were hit by a Hellhound's fiery breath, she would definitely die, without any chance of luck whatsoever.
So when he saw the surging great burst of flame about to swallow Line's small body, Leo's heart stopped.
In the very moment his pupils contracted sharply and the Mind in his head churned violently, just as he was about to recklessly unleash his chantless magic to shield Line from the great burst of flame, she was the one who acted first.
She quickly pulled a shield from the pack on her back and held it up in front of herself.
That was the very small shield Leo had used before.
Bracing this small shield, Line didn't retreat but advanced, gritting her teeth and charging straight into the great burst of flame. Not only did she block all of the ferocious flames outside the shield, she also split the flames apart with violent momentum, rushing out of the area the burst of flame covered and arriving in front of the few Hellhounds.
"Yah!"
Then Line swung the shield in her hand, and actually smacked those few Hellhounds flying one after another.
"Grraagh!"
"Wraoo!"
Those Hellhounds were knocked senseless, only letting out howls of pain after their bodies slammed into the wall.
Line had carved out a path for Leo through sheer force, leaving Leo, who'd been about to unleash his magic, staring blankly.
"Mr. Leo! Hurry!"
Line hurriedly called to Leo, snapping him back to his senses.
His footwork shifted, and where he'd stood the second before, the next second he'd already burst forward violently like a gust of wind, catching up to Line from behind to overtake her, the two of them entering the spacious chamber almost neck and neck.
"Jii jii jii!"
"Jii jiii!"
"Jiiya!"
The pack of Almiraj came pouring into the chamber like a flood, but they could no longer surround Leo.
Compared to the passage, the chamber was without question far more spacious, and the moment the Almiraj pack that had nearly filled the entire passage entered here, they were instantly dispersed, lessening the pressure Leo felt by who knows how much.
"Nice work, Line."
Leo couldn't help praising Line, making the slightly panting Line smile.
"I may be a non-combatant, but supporting the combatants, easing the pressure on the front line, that's just as much my job."
A Lv.2 no matter what, and however weak, she wasn't so helpless as to completely lose her ability to resist in a place like the starting point of the Middle Floors.
Drawing off some monsters for Leo, opening up a path, smacking a few monsters out of the way, things like that Line could still manage.
Of course, it didn't come without a cost.
Leo saw it: there were some scorched black marks on the hand Line held the shield with, and the same on her face, thighs, and various other parts, some places even burned.
The small shield in Line's hand had turned completely scorched black, the damage extremely severe, and it probably couldn't be fixed even if taken in for repairs.
That stood to reason too. This small shield was just something Raul had used during his novice days, more than adequate on the Upper Floors, but a bit of a stretch coming to the Middle Floors.
Using it to block an Almiraj's charge or a stone axe's chop, that it could still do, but a Hellhound's fire was the kind of thing that could burn even a Lv.2 upper-class adventurer to ash, and to completely block it with a shield costing no more than a hundred thousand valis was simply impossible.
In a situation like this, Line getting hurt was understandable.
"Don't worry."
Line naturally noticed Leo's gaze, gave a smile, and drew out the staff she'd kept stowed at her waist.
"This much injury heals in no time."
The orb set into the staff in Line's hand released a gentle light, and the burn marks on her body faded visibly.
Only then did Leo relax, turning his gaze instead to the ever-increasing Almiraj and those few Hellhounds that had climbed back up from the wall at some point.
"Time I dealt with you."
Gripping the short sword, Leo shot forward like lightning.
"Light of heaven, sword of stars."
"Meteor Dance!"
Before the monsters could react, Leo immediately chanted his magic, unfolding a magic circle beneath his feet.
Meteors flew out of the magic circle one after another, but instead of shooting straight at the monster pack, they were controlled by Leo to dance around his body.
The Almiraj let out cries, hurling stone axes that came whistling and chopping toward Leo.
"Bam!" "Bam!" "Bam!"
But just as those flying stone axes were about to strike Leo, they were knocked away one by one by the meteors dancing around him, some even shattered.
Carrying countless dancing meteors, Leo charged straight into the monster pack.
"Boom!!!"
The instant he charged in, it was like a meteorite slamming into the monster pack, kicking up a resounding roar.
Every Almiraj was sent flying, pierced through, and crushed by the meteors dancing around Leo, as if struck by countless star-glinting blades or meteor hammers, unable to so much as touch the meteor-wreathed Leo at all.
Leo rampaged through the monster pack this way, and wherever he passed countless Almiraj were sent flying, pierced through, and crushed, not a single one spared.
"Grraagh!"
Those few Hellhounds opened their fang-lined mouths, flame tongues rising and falling inside, seemingly already ready to release their fiery breath.
But this time, Leo gave them no chance.
"Boom!"
Several meteors flew abruptly out from around Leo, splitting the space, ignoring the surrounding Almiraj, even curving around the Almiraj in the way, and struck the Hellhounds with their mouths open.
Those few Hellhounds didn't even have time to scream before they were wiped out on the spot by meteors thick as pillars.
Before they knew it, the sky had begun gradually darkening.
When Leo and Line came out together from the Exchange in Babel, though the two of them looked travel-worn and even battered all over, looking at the money pouch they'd just gotten their hands on, they couldn't help a wave of happiness.
"Four hundred and seventy-five thousand valis!"
Line was both happy and excited.
"So much! We earned so much this time, Mr. Leo!"
It really was a lot.
After all, before this, the most Leo and Line had earned in a single day was only two hundred-some thousand valis, and sometimes not even two hundred thousand valis.
But today they'd earned close to five hundred thousand valis, a full doubling and then some over before, so how could the two of them not feel happy?
"I didn't expect exploring the Middle Floors to be this profitable."
Leo was a little surprised, but thinking it over, he felt it made sense.
The Middle Floors were of course far more dangerous than the Upper Floors, where only upper-class adventurers of Lv.2 and above could explore, and even then they had to form a party to ensure safety. But precisely because it was dangerous, precisely because only upper-class adventurers could explore there, the prices of the magic stones and drop items produced there rose accordingly.
The magic stones went without saying. The magic stones dropped by the Lv.2 monsters of the Middle Floors were far larger than those dropped by Upper Floor monsters. Even the magic stone hidden inside a small category monster like the Almiraj was larger than the magic stones of some medium category or even large category Upper Floor monsters, and magic stones like that naturally fetched no small value when sold.
Drop items were only more precious, rarer, of higher quality, and for the price not to rise along with that was simply impossible.
On top of that, with monsters appearing more frequently in the Middle Floors, the number of monsters adventurers killed increased, so spoils and such were naturally earned in greater amounts.
If the Middle Floors paid too little, why would Lv.2 upper-class adventurers bother forming parties to explore there?
It had to be because there was still money to be made exploring there, money to be made even split with teammates, that those upper-class adventurers were willing to team up and go in, otherwise they'd be better off staying alone on the Upper Floors.
Thinking about it that way, them earning this amount didn't seem like such a big deal after all.
Once they got more familiar with the Cave Labyrinth later on, more adjusted to its clearing difficulty, the pace at which the two of them earned would rise further still.
By then, raking in gold by the bushel daily wouldn't be a dream at all.
This was why so many people wanted to enter the Dungeon at the risk of their lives, because there you really could strike it rich.
After her excitement died down, Line started splitting the money too.
"Mr. Leo, here you go."
Line handed a thick money pouch to Leo, and Leo, weighing it in his hand, frowned.
"Isn't this too much?"
Leo said with knitted brows.
Though he hadn't looked closely or counted it carefully, based on the weight Leo could be certain that the share he'd gotten was at least four hundred thousand valis.
In other words, Line had taken only the small change and given him the whole large portion.
"Isn't this what we agreed on beforehand?" Line smiled and said, "As the Supporter, I only need to take a small portion. Mr. Leo is the main combatant, and the only combatant at that, so of course you should take most of it."
This was the splitting rule Line had set on the first day they'd teamed up.
By her account, she only followed behind Leo picking things up, dealing with the corpses, and hauling the goods, so there was no way she could take too much.
Leo had felt it was wrong from the start, but she had her own insistence too, willing only to take the portion that matched her own labor, which left Leo without recourse.
So all along, of the money the two of them earned exploring, Line would hand him seventy percent directly, sometimes even more than seventy percent, while she herself took not even thirty percent, and on top of that paid out of her own pocket to buy supplies, which Leo had lost count of how many times he'd talked to her about.
And now today Line had still taken only the small portion, giving the large portion to Leo, so how could Leo stand for this?
"Before was one thing, you really only did a Supporter's work, but today you drew off monsters and opened paths, and used magic to heal me who knows how many times, so how can you keep taking it like this?"
Leo no longer agreed to this way of splitting.
Line had genuinely been a great help to him today, dutiful and devoted as a Supporter, not a fault to be found, and on top of that her performance had been outstanding, and as a Healer she'd finally proven useful today too, so how could she keep taking the small portion?
A Healer was a profession even rarer than a Mage, the kind of teammate other parties couldn't get even begging for one, and to let her earn less on top of that, how could that be justified?
Some Healers, when accepting commissions from others to heal injuries, charged more than a hundred thousand valis a single time, and today Line had used healing magic far more than once.
So Leo was definitely unwilling to split it this way anymore.
But Line had her own thinking too.
"The thing is, I'm not really short on money. Normally I don't go exploring the Dungeon as often as the combatants in the Familia, but I take commissions from people, helping treat tricky ailments that ordinary potions can't cure, so don't let appearances fool you, my savings are far more than an adventurer of the same level."
Line looked at Leo and said this very earnestly.
"But Mr. Leo, you're different. You may have leveled up, but you're still a newcomer who debuted less than a month ago, and right now you're still at the stage where you need to pile up as much money as possible, right?"
As she spoke, Line gave Leo no chance to talk, pointing out a problem bluntly.
"The weapon in your hand, Mr. Leo, actually can't keep up with the intensity of your fighting anymore, can it?"
At that, Leo fell silent.
He touched the sheathed short sword at his waist. This weapon, which had been fairly sharp before, now had nicks all over the blade stowed in its sheath, the wear extremely severe.
The small shield Leo had used before was already struggling to handle the Middle Floor monsters, and this short sword was naturally the same.
It had been a castoff from a senior in the Familia to begin with, and that senior had only discarded the weapon after rising to Lv.2 and finding it no longer enough.
This short sword was absolutely sufficient on the Upper Floors, but on the 10th floor against large category monsters it was already no longer as unstoppable as before, let alone after coming to the Middle Floors.
So it really couldn't keep up with the current intensity of fighting.
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