[Juggernaut] was not invincible.
In fact, after Ryuu's own "serious review" of it, she realized that in that battle back then, her side had actually committed enormous blunders.
Because the monster appeared suddenly, and on top of that moved at blistering speed.
Astrea, who served as the vanguard, was the very first to be killed—right when no one had even managed to react.
Next.
And because they didn't know it possessed the ability to reflect magic, the party's mages Ryana and Sertia died right after.
After that came utter chaos.
Neze... Noin... Iska... Marie...
It wasn't a battle at all—it was a one-sided "slaughter," and the root cause of it was that the deaths of their comrades had sent most of them into a frenzy, their heads spinning out of control.
Fear, fury.
Extreme emotions are an adventurer's greatest enemy.
Once one loses the composure to judge the situation, a battle can naturally only end in inevitable defeat.
Ryuu remembered it clearly.
By the time she came back to her senses, the only ones left beside her were Alise, Kaguya, and Lyra—just the three of them.
And, to save her, Kaguya had even lost her right hand.
From that point on, the battle was already impossible to win—but what if her side had been prepared in advance?
On the premise of knowing the enemy's information completely, the battle was by no means unwinnable!
Listening to Alise's incomparably cheerful words.
Ryuu, too, in deadly earnest—
began to lay out everything she knew about [Juggernaut].
Blindingly fast;
possessed of tremendous lethality, with sharp claws and fangs that rivaled first-tier weaponry, utterly impossible to defend against;
and equipped with a shell capable of reflecting magic;
"It really is a nasty piece of work—no wonder we all ended up dead——"
For some reason.
Alise's relaxed expression seemed to carry a sense of "well, losing to a thing like that is nothing to be ashamed of," which honestly made her seem a little too carefree.
"What about its level?"
Kaguya asked the most crucial question.
Whether for adventurers or monsters, level was the key.
If the opponent started at Lv. 6 or higher, then it'd be better to quit being an adventurer sooner rather than later—or just leave the city outright and never set foot in the Dungeon again.
"[Juggernaut]'s level is dynamic."
This was the intel Isagi had obtained from the Guild.
If Alise and the others still encountered [Juggernaut] in the dense-forest region of the 30th floor, then its level should be Lv. 5.
"Unless you go down to the deep levels, it shouldn't reach Lv. 6."
After all, the Monster Rex of the 27th floor, the Two-Headed Dragon Amphisbaena, was estimated to be only around Lv. 4, and only in the water did it have the strength of Lv. 5.
In truth, Isagi might have even overstated it.
Perhaps that Juggernaut was, at most, somewhere around Lv. 4 approaching Lv. 5.
Having spent too long in his own peculiar dungeon, he'd grown a bit prone to misjudging the ordinary Dungeon—in fact, with Alise and the others' current strength, they were fully capable of venturing into the deep levels.
"Then let's calculate based on Lv. 5."
Better to overestimate the enemy.
The way Kaguya, as vice-captain, was carrying herself at this moment was a good deal more reliable than that of the captain, Alise.
Watching this scene, then glancing over at Isagi and Cecil beside her, Ryuu couldn't help feeling—could this possibly be some kind of "tradition" passed down through the Astrea Familia?!
"Alright! Then let the special training begin!!"
She made it sound like they were going on vacation!
Watching Alise's delighted manner, for some reason, Ryuu felt nothing but a headache—this girl really was just——
A winter afternoon.
Outside the city, the vast fields lay silent and still, dotted here and there with thin snow like little tufts of white floss.
The great stretches of woodland stood bare, likewise piled with a touch of pure white; and out on the grassy plain beyond the trees, Cecil deftly spread out a blanket, setting drinks and food upon it.
Call it training, but it really was about the same as a vacation.
Well.
After all, one's got to eat, and drinking plenty of water is good for your health too.
Not far off, the girls of the Astrea Familia were gathered nearly in full, with their weapons and equipment ready—only Ryuu-senpai was absent—ah, rather, the Ryuu-senpai of this timeline hadn't come.
They'd deliberately gone to Goddess Astrea to have her draw the other one away.
And because of that, at this moment the senpai were curious to the utmost about the Ryuu who'd come from the future.
"——Only three years have gone by, and Ryuu's already a Lv. 6 adventurer?! That's just about leveling up once a year, isn't it?!"
"The Loki Familia's Ais reached Lv. 6 too?! You two really are evenly matched..."
"So many things are going to happen in the future——"
"Ugh! I'm going to die that horribly?! No way!! My beautiful body!!"
"You're saying Lion is going to train together with us?! Dame!! That's absolutely out of the question, hey!!"
With Alise being the first to speak up.
The girls seemed to realize that the Ryuu standing before them now was no longer the elf girl who'd joined the Familia last, whose strength was about the same as everyone else's, who was even forever being lectured by the goddess, the captain, and the vice-captain.
Rather, she was a bona fide Lv. 6 adventurer, an existence already strong enough to stand at the very pinnacle of the city.
Training with her—it'd be a miracle if they didn't get beaten to a pulp!
And this Ryuu had never had any sense of restraint with her blows, either; Alise, Kaguya, even Lyra and Neze and the rest all nodded again and again.
Of course.
Mixed into this was probably also the feeling that getting "beaten to a pulp" by her would be terribly humiliating—after all, in the past it had always been their side "bullying" her.
And so, the target of the girls' training naturally became Isagi instead.
"Are we all coming at you at once?"
"Of course."
Facing the former senpai of the Astrea Familia, the youth's expression was utterly composed.
"Just treat me as a monster that needs to be subjugated."
"You said it yourself!"
That's what they said!
But at this moment, the girls' hearts were still a little uneasy.
After all, they'd gone together with Isagi before to capture those Dark Familia executives, and the youth's ferocious, savage figure, clad in that giant-wolf armor, was still seared deep into their hearts.
In any case.
Even if he was a junior of the Familia, he was still a Lv. 6 adventurer—and he always gave off an extremely dangerous feeling.
Not just Alise, but Kaguya included, they could all sense that Ryuu was, in all likelihood, not as formidable as Isagi.
But the way things developed still went beyond their expectations.
Just as everyone had finished preparing, formed up, and was about to begin training against the youth before them—
they saw mist suddenly billow up all around his body.
"Transform."
It was indeed a transformation.
But what appeared was not that horrifying steel giant-wolf—it was a Goblin over two meters tall, wearing nothing but a strip of tattered cloth around its waist, burly and incomparably well-muscled.
He had directly used the spirit-essence of the "Pale King," transforming into that very creature.
"Ten minutes."
After his level had risen, the transformation duration of the spirit-essence had been extended accordingly.
"Though I imagine it probably won't take anywhere near that long."
____
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