"Noah, long time no see."
During the march, Alicia had spoken with Riveria up at the front before retreating alone all the way to the rear of the formation, arriving right beside Noah.
The beautiful elf lady was actually wearing leather armor that looked pretty similar to his own, and especially the corset part, which was tightly wrapped in leather, made her waist appear even more slender and further accentuated her figure.
Light protective gear covered her joints, perfectly maintaining her agility while providing solid defense against weaker attacks, with her signature staff-sword "Frozen Lotus" hanging securely at her waist.
Their last meeting had been back when he was doing maintenance on her weapon and since so many crazy things had happened since then, keeping him extremely busy, he genuinely felt like it had been a really long time since they last met.
"Alicia, did you just move from the mid-guard all the way back to the rear guard?"
The rear guard was roughly divided into three different types: magic users who were responsible for heavy firepower, healers who were responsible for medical treatment, and bodyguards who were tasked with protecting both of them.
Bodyguard positions typically weren't assigned to fixed personnel, especially with the existence of those "jack-of-all-trades" mid-guards, allowing for way more flexible allocation during a fight.
"Noah, you're only Level 2, and you've never even been below the middle floors before, so you need to be extra careful from now on," Alicia spoke with a completely serious expression.
It seemed she had specifically requested the "bodyguard" position just because she was genuinely worried about him being way too weak as a mere Level 2 and as a veteran core member of the second team, she had absolutely no need to aggressively compete with the newcomers for combat experience before they actually reached the lower floors.
"Ais is pretty worried about you, too."
Coincidentally, Noah's gaze perfectly met Ais's as she turned back to observe him from the front of the pack.
Was this... her associating him with her past self again?
Noah frowned inwardly, thinking it was like some kind of stubborn inner demon for her.
Crack—.
A sharp, crisp sound suddenly echoed from the surrounding Dungeon walls.
The rapidly marching formation abruptly slowed down as several vanguard members quickly advanced forward, immediately preparing for battle, while Noah instinctively reached for the 'Annihilator' behind him.
Suddenly, Alicia spoke up calmly, "Don't worry, just leave this to us."
As soon as she finished speaking, the walls crumbled with a massive roar, and huge muscular, bipedal monsters violently burst right through the rubble as the Dungeon respawned its defeated monsters.
And these ugly bastards were...
"Minotaurs?"
Noah looked on in total surprise at the more than thirty Minotaurs that had suddenly spawned all around them, as the relevant information about these monsters instantly surfaced in his mind.
The very first thing that came to his mind was definitely the future hero Bell Cranel's very first major setback, because it was precisely the fact that being brutally chased by Minotaurs left such deep psychological scars on him that led to the subsequent crazy series of events.
No, that wasn't just some story—it was something that would literally happen in Orario's actual future.
Minotaurs were brutal monsters with raw strength equivalent to a Level 2 adventurer, boasting incredibly tough muscles that were difficult to injure with standard blades, possessing immense physical strength, and exhibiting extremely strong frenzied aggressive tendencies.
Even experienced Level 2 adventurers could sometimes get completely overwhelmed by their attacks, and weapons made of standard iron ore had a really hard time leaving any actual wounds on them, since light weapons' slashes and cuts could at most just break the surface skin without ever cutting deep into the thick muscles.
This harsh reality remained true even for Level 3 adventurers, but with third-tier level equipment, someone could easily inflict massive fatal damage on them, making the sheer importance of high-quality equipment completely self-evident.
"They're coming!"
"Leave it to me, Oraaaaaa!"
"Switching!"
"Okay!"
"Tendons cut, next is the head!"
Swish! Swish!
Through the brutally efficient coordinated efforts of several Level 3 members of the Loki Familia, even the massive group of more than thirty Minotaurs couldn't hold out for long before being completely and utterly defeated.
Noah checked his pocket watch precisely while noting, "2 minutes and 34 seconds."
Strong!
It was a completely one-sided slaughter.
The magic users hadn't even needed to act, because the vanguard and mid-guard had already completely dealt with the monsters on their own.
Even after defeating all the enemies, Noah noticed that everyone remained highly vigilant rather than stupidly relaxing, perfectly maintaining their guard while quickly beginning to clean up the battlefield.
However, due to the chaotic recent battle, there was exactly one injured person.
"Landor, you total idiot, you were way too impatient just now! Hephaestus Familia supporter... Noah, right? Please give this idiot some healing potion."
"Ahh, I totally messed up, sorry."
"Be more careful next time."
Seeing this, Riveria felt somewhat relieved, because their patron goddess Loki viewed the Familia as one giant family, totally treating every single member as family rather than just disposable soldiers.
Witnessing such a warm supportive atmosphere developing in the current Familia made her, as a veteran, always feel deeply touched.
Noah approached and crouched down before the fallen adventurer, silently activating his Appraisal.
"Landor"
Loki Familia
Lv3
Leg fetishist
Status: Injured (hit by Minotaur's fist)
Organ shock
Muscle strain
Mild concussion
Athlete's foot
Status values...
Even though this guy was Level 3, he literally had no magic or skills.
And... athlete's foot?!
Could it be that actual healing magic can't even cure athlete's foot?
Is a fungal infection really that strong in this world, or is it classified totally differently?
Should it actually count as a status abnormality?
Would you literally need purification or detoxification skills just to cure it?!
Noah silently observed Landor with a totally deadpan look on his face, before he just normally took out a healing potion from his heavy backpack and fed it to the guy.
Frankly, he had heavily considered just using a syringe to inject it directly into his system, but considering that might cause some highly unnecessary misunderstandings, he gave up on the idea.
"Ha, i'm back from the dead! Thank you, Noah," Landor laughed, seeming exactly like the type of guy who just got along easily with everyone.
Even though they'd literally never spoken before this, his tone was completely natural and friendly.
Noah smiled and nodded politely at him, but what he was actually thinking inside was.
'Unfortunately for you buddy, that nasty athlete's foot problem is probably going to have to be solved by yourself, since healing potions apparently don't do shit against that condition.'
"Alright, loot collection is complete, so continue advancing." Riveria issued the firm order, and the massive formation seamlessly moved forward once again.
This time around, they never encountered such massive, large groups of monsters again, at most just casually running into smaller packs of a dozen or so Hellhounds.
They were actually quite dangerous monsters down in the middle floors, because being able to literally breathe fire from their mouths posed a significant amount of trouble for normal adventurers.
This was exactly one of the major reasons why adventurers absolutely needed to equip expensive Fire Spirit Cloth whenever they were exploring the middle floors.