(Rin POV)

「I wonder what’s in this」

“Beshi beshi” Nana poked the treasure chest with her Kagenui.

I’m using a detection skill, but if this is a trap monster, then there’s a possibility it can delude the skill.

Nana looked completely captivated by the chest and had probably forgotten about the possibility. Seeing her look so childish was not something you would expect from the normal Nana.

「It might be a monster so be careful」

(Rather, isn’t her mood way too good?)

While I’m a bit cautious, I can’t hold back the surprise in my heart.

For Nana to display her curiosity like this, it’s as if she returned to what she was like in the past..

When we first met, Nana did not seem to have any curiosity, a natural emotion.

「Okay….nn?」

Did she judge that there’s no problem? Nana had finally put her hand on the mouth of the treasure chest. Even though she had only lifted a bit, the treasure chest opened itself, something that made her tilt her head.

Seeing that figure from behind, the trap was so obvious that I don’t feel like saying anything.

「Uwa!」

“Gachin!” a sound echoed as the treasure chest slammed shut.

Fangs sprouted, the treasure chest….or rather the trap monster 《Jewelry Box》 appeared. Nana leaked out a squeal, did she get surprised by it?

Normally I would worry when a trap monster showing up, but seeing her reflexively knocking it out, I can’t help but think it’s stupid to worry about her.

Before it could do anything it was knocked out, with a single blow the jewelry box was already on the verge of death.

If I were to be honest, the Jewelry box, despite being a trap monster isn’t really strong.

If this monster’s attack succeeds, it’ll steal an item and then escape, basically a troll monster.

Since it’ll randomly teleport somewhere on the same floor. It gets really annoying if it steals an important item.

Among the players, it’s mostly known as an annoyance.

「Rin-chan, I got a lot of Stardust Fragments」

「A lot?」

「Take a look」

「Let’s see….ara, there really is a lot」

While I pitied the beaten into the rubbish Jewelry box, the result of the battle was a drop of over 50 Stardust Fragments.

Considering that most monsters only have around four to eight fragments, for a single monster this certainly is a lot.

The Jewelry box also provided a 「Corundum」 drop. When you process this, you will randomly get a ruby or sapphire. A material item that becomes a gem.

Though not as valuable as the very rare drop 「Diamond」, the fact that you can process it into a jewel means it’s fairly valuable.

「This is rather nice」

「Should we search for more?」

「Nope, let’s just think of it as a lucky encounter since it’s randomly generated, let’s prioritize speedy clearing」

「Okay~」

As Nana energetically replies, we continued trekking through the labyrinth.

Did Nana image a map in her head of where the dead ends are? There’s no hesitation at all in her steps.

She showed no doubt regarding which pathway to choose, her tottering figure was just too adorable.

When we were about to arrive at the stairs, Nana spotted the monster 《Metal Bear》. She blinked her eyes in surprise.

「Why is there a Bear(Kuma)-san underground?」

「I wonder why」

With Nana’s 「Current」senses, this dungeon seems to be an underground labyrinth.

It might be because we keep heading downwards, but it’s not like the labyrinth’s walls are made out of dirt right?

「Now then, you’re a mole aren’t you?」

「It’s not, Nana just what are saying」

『Lol』

『I lol’d』

『E-earth dragon(mole 土竜)』(9: the kanji for mole kinda reads as earth dragon)

『↑ She said mole(モグラ), you know』

The current Nana right now, I can’t predict what she’ll say.

She evaded the arm of the attacking metal bear and drove a counter into its head. The metal bear had its chin struck upwards and its brain rattled around. Nana stepped closer and mowed down its torso with a 《Strike》.

A truly brutal combo, even though she has a relaxed atmosphere.

「Properly dig through the ground okay」

With those last words, targeting the head collapsed on the floor, Nana smashed down with enough power to dive through the labyrinth’s floor. She then hummed a song as she continued to advance through the labyrinth.

『Brutal』

『She has no mercy at all』

『Totally can’t see her movements at all』

You can’t say that it’s refined, there aren’t any techniques to it.

She’s just one-sidedly thinking great, as she strikes as much as she wants.

Since I gave my permission, not only is she having fun fighting, she’s excitedly swinging freely with her unshackled strength.

「Fufufun, Funfun, fufufuun」

『Awesome』

『So good』

『So she can do gymnastics too?』

『She’s using her metal club as a baton lol』

『That’s skillful』

With nothing to do, she’s baton spinning Kagenui, the Kagenui that should require over 200 strength to equip.

In contrast to excited comments, I could only wonder how to handle this Nana who was in a much better mood.

☆

Stardust Labyrinth, Floor 10 underground.

We arrived in a spacious room, a boss room. We stopped and watched the boss standing still at the center.

With just a glance it’s a fully armored knight, a three-meter tall knight, a gigantic armored knight.

Having both hands on the pommel of his sword, a simple pose. A red light glimmered in the crevice of his helmet as we approached.

『Thy name is Mirage. A knight serving Siren-sama 』

「Uwa, it talked」

「Siren?」

Nana was surprised by the sudden words, I unintentionally asked after hearing an unfamiliar name.

Not even reacting to our voices, the armored knight named Mirage raised up his sword.

『En Garde!』

「Wait a sec, so sudden!?」

「Raa!」

After introducing himself, Mirage attacked without showing any openings. Nana received it with a roar.

I have no place in power-type confrontations, so I took a safe distance from the two.

The two of them rival each other in strength. The dark metal club and the dark gray sword scattered sparks while clashing.

『Hou, so thee can stop thy blade』

「Well yeah」

『Then how about this』

As they paused, the sword of the retreating knight had light flash through it. That’s probably the indication of an activated art.

He drew back his arm until his limits, amassing power he bent his knees. After a few seconds, the knight leaped.

『Storm Slash!』

As he brandished his sword upwards, the edge tore through the ground.

“Gyariri!” The slash that was released with his all, carved deep through the ground as it assailed Nana. With a bored face, Nana shifted her body in avoidance.

However after reaching a certain height the sword halted, and with another step, a loud sound resonated as it was swung down.

The brandished sword was sharp and heavy, cutting through the air it raised a thunderous roar.

I see, it certainly is what you would call《Storm Slash》.

Nana certainly looked as if she was exposed to a storm of slashes.

What he is doing is releasing full power slashes without any intervals, but stopping a swing with all that momentum isn’t simple.

When you can release those slashes without intervals, you have an extremely terrifying technique.

However the result…

「Yawn….」

If the target wasn’t Nana, It would be a terrifying technique.

Nana yawned as if bored, she evaded each of the knight’s slashes.

Upward slash, downward slash, sweeping slash, head slash. Various highly powered continuous attacks are certainly dangerous.

However, to Nana, it was nothing more than a barrage of simple attacks. A rather boring technique.

If you focus on avoiding, you won’t even get grazed.

『It’s not hitting?』

『???』

『She evaded it all』

『Did she yawn just now?』

「This one has a bad affinity with her….」

The armored knight is probably a heavy warrior type boss. Since they possibly possess an area attack, that type of monster tends to have simple attacks.

They’re a good match against tanks who receive attacks or magicians who’re fragile, but against Nana who is the type of player who sees through attacks and strikes through openings, they have an extremely bad matchup.

Well yeah, even If said that. If it’s slashing speed is faster, I still feel like the good mood Nana can easily evade.

The question is, why is Nana in such a good mood? Various factors have probably piled up, but Nana should be close to top condition.

For Nana, in exchange for not letting her emotions surface, the more she gets worked up the more her mood, concentration, and power rises.

From what I know, most likely for the past two weeks, she was probably in the best condition during her battle with Aria the red wolf.

Nana at that time had her emotions bare naked. She enjoyed that fight to her utmost limits.

「Hey~, are you done already?」

『Guaa!』

Nana evaded the storm slashes, on her final evasion she ducked under Mirage’s thighs. While Mirage was suffering the arts’ stun time, she drove a 《Four-Hit Strike》 into the back of his knee.

I think that the reason for that target is probably because it’s not heavily armored.

When she dove behind him, Mirage was probably simply too large for her to aim at vital points, so she broke his leg.

Aside from the monster’s total HP, each part has a durability meter. Cutting off tails or breaking wings is natural in a hack and slash.

Mirage displayed two HP bars. Since the HP was reduced by at least 20% with the four-hit strike, his HP shouldn’t be that high.

『Fufu, Even though I was quite confident with that technique just now』

「I see?」

『However it seems that this technique can’t touch you. Now then, will you be able to see through my next attack?』

This monster Mirage, it’s hard to judge if he has an AI or if he’s programmed to say those lines.

Though considering that he’s a repeatable boss in a dungeon clearing event, there’s no point in having an AI. So he’s probably an NPC monster programmed to react depending on the situation.

I would be grateful if the clearing cycle would have this one appear, with this situation Nana alone is the meta for it.

「Now then, while Nana’s doing her best, let’s start my preparations」

『Ooh』

『Ooh』

『Are you going to do that?』

『That’s unusual』

『There wasn’t that many boss battles recently after all』

「You’re right…….I’ll be concentrating for a bit」

Magic is a power more unrestricted than one can imagine.

As long as you have the components, a song, words, sounds, letters, no matter what steps you take, it will invoke.

That’s why as long as you have enough magic power, then like me, you can simultaneously invoke magic.

Though on the contrary.

The method to draw out the components needed to construct magic, there is no need to narrow it down to one approach.

Combining various methods, you only need to assemble it so that you can activate the magic.

Runes on my right hand, a magic formation in my left hand, music from whistling, all combining to instantly construct powerful magic.

I prepared carefully this time, calculating so that I won’t accidentally hit Nana, a targeted high powered advance magic, 《Lightning Ballista》.

Normally, you would need 6 stanzas of chanting to form this magic, however, it took me less than five seconds to invoke it.

Boasting of speed and power incomparable to those elementary arrow type magics. As a non-AOE thunder attributed advanced magic, the mp consumption is minimal, a very easy to use magic.

Carefully aiming at the target, my eyes met Nana’s.

Believing in Nana, who had a smile and nodded while evading the knight’s arts, I fired the ballista to pierce through the knight’s torso.

『Guaaaa!』

It’s far from lightning speed but still, the Lightning Ballista is overwhelmingly fast compared to other attributed magics. The lightning pierced through Mirage.

Mirage screamed as his body was paralyzed. Nana is not naive enough to ignore that opening.

With a sound of metal crushing metal, Nana swung Kagenui.

「Full of openings~」

Even though she had slipped close to Mirage’s chest, the burst of lightning didn’t hit her. Mirage who faltered from the high power magic had his feet thoroughly crushed.

She aimed particularly for the ankles and thighs, and in addition to the blow to the back of his knee, she hammered out critical hits with terrifying accuracy.

『Guu, damn yo–….guuuuuu!』

When Mirage was about to regain his bearings from being struck by the lightning ballista and Nana’s fierce strikes, I had already prepared for another three shots.

In a fixed time, stocking magic while continuing to consume magic power and placing it on standby. A rare skill 《Magic Preserve》.

One of the rare skills rewarded to me during my named subjugation participation. This skill has a really good affinity with the high-speed chanting I earlier used.

The 3 ballistas were fired with a thunderous roar. The torso, head, and leg, as each shot struck and pierced, a large amount of damage accumulated with paralyzation.

「Aha, ufufufufu, I can hit as much as I want」

While saying that, she properly evaded the waves of ballistas and repeatedly drove in 《Consecutive Strike 》at the same target.

The one-sided high-speed attacks reduced the durability of the knight’s leg parts. He finally fell to his knees.

「Ehe」

Nana smiled as if saying finally, falling to his knees the full body armor’s helmet was struck upwards.

Mirage’s huge body shook. Continuing, Nana used Kagenui to aim at the head, as if attempting to smash it into his torso, she persistently aimed at the same place.

Once you know it, you can’t do anything about it anymore.

When it’s like this, it’s a finished match. We cornered Mirage.

My magic pierced through and Nana’s full-powered strike bent his neck in an unusual direction, it took less than five minutes.

『Well…done….』

With his neck bent, he uttered his final words, and then Mirage collapsed.

I didn’t need to do a thing at the end, Nana’s fierce beating has shaved off his HP.

「Nn~….weak?」

「You’re right」

I agreed with Nana’s murmur. No matter how bad his affinity is against Nana, being that easily paralyzed by magic and it’s armor quickly getting removed. In terms of resistance, the Armored Mount Gorilla is far stronger.

And moreover, the HP is far too low. Though he might have been made with repeated clearing in mind, it’s way too anti-climatic.

「Rin-cha~n, something appeared」

Nana was at the edge of the room before I knew it. At the farthest wall of the boss room, a distortion appeared from where she was waving her hands.

That’s probably the exit gate. How many Stardust Fragments did we get?

「Let’s think about that later」

「What’s the matter~?」

「It’s nothing. Let’s go back」

Even though it was a slow clear with around a few hours worth of content. I don’t know how random the dungeon was, but I have memorized the routes we took this time.

「Let’s settle the clearing method tomorrow 」

「Hmmm…..leave it to me!」

『She completely abandoned all thoughts about it lol』

『Her head’s totally bad』

『She’s totally a kid』

『But they’re both in their twe- okay stop right there』

『So he’s out』

『Asking for a woman’s age is forbidden after all』

『All girls are forever 17. Understand?』

『That itself is just sad….』

『Hey stop it』

「You people….」

Staying in a good mood, Nana leaped through the warp gate.

While taken aback by the watcher’s excitement, I scratched my head as I followed Nana.