Chapter 96 - Slaughter

While Aki and Raul returned, Ethan already exchanged a few words with the new party members that will form his group..

Sighing, Tsubaki clapped her hands to bring everyone's attention back to her.

"Now, I can see that we can finally enter the Dungeon. I don't want to make you wait anymore. By the way, where's Ethan group?"

Hearing her calling him, he raised his hand with a confused expression on his face while she immediately added

"Good, can your group stay directly next to ours? If we encounter a monster similar to the one you have encountered, you and The Sword Princess can easily tell us in that way"

Understanding she had a point, Ethan looked at Raul as the latter nodded. With this confirmation from him, Ethan replied

"Yes, our group will be next to yours, Collbrande-san"

His words brought her to nod as she added

"Now that I said the last thing I had to say, we can truly go. Good luck to everyone"

While she was saying so, Ethan's whole group approached the front without saying anything. The various adventurers instead, found her words quite 'strange'. Even though the Dungeon had this kind of abnormalities, nearly all of them believed it wasn't that much, now that they had a group of 3 parties full of level 4, with some exceptions.

'If I die in the 17th floor, my life would truly end in shame. I can't afford such a thing'

'They encountered a monster almost equal to a level 4. Why do we need 3 whole parties for such a thing? I would've understood if it was at least a level 5'

'This will be an easy job'

While they were busy thinking about this, Tsubaki decided to lead her party to the entrance of the 17th floor as everyone followed her.

---

Hearing her words, Ethan released Ais' hand as he wanted to be ready to use [Twin's Digimon].

Knowing she had to be focused on the Dungeon from this point onwards, made her expression to shift from a relaxed to a serious one.

This, of course, was true for all the other adventurers as well who knew it was no longer the time for conversations or unnecessary thoughts.

Entering the 17th floor, the first thing Ethan could see was that the Monster Rex was still in cooldown.

'That's really sad, I would like to challenge the Monster Rex again'

Thinking about this for a moment, he immediately stopped thinking about this as he knew what could happen if he decided to let his thoughts wander as they pleased.

Having his perception boosted, Ethan could sense that, under their feet, strings of mana flew down the exit of the boss room.

'I can't feel anything other than this small string..probably it can lead me where the monsters will spawn..?'

Thinking about this, he could feel that as he walked, the string disappeared behind his feet while appearing next to it. Acknowledging the distance of his perception was tiny, Ethan understood the string wasn't small, but that he couldn't feel anything other than a single point where the string was flowing.

Even though he was thinking about this, he was focused on what was happening in front of him as the group was heading out of the boss room.

'This can actually be a good training to stop me from spacing out when someone is talking to me..'

Shaking his head, he understood that he underestimated this trait of his personality. A second after thinking about this, Tsubaki brought their moving to a stop as they were now out of the boss room.

Moments after they were in a zone were monsters could spawn, Ethan saw a large group of Minotaurs spawning in an instant. Surprised by the speed with which they spawned, he immediately unsheathed his [Twin's Digimon] as Tsubaki looked at him for a moment.

Quickly understanding what she wanted to ask, Ethan shook his head as she got his message.

'This isn't the same situation they encountered before.'

Immediately approaching a Minotaur, she cut it in two sharply, without even giving it time to cry. Understanding these monsters were still at level 2, she turned around as she immediately shouted

"They're normal, I want Ethan's group to stay with mine, to the others, explore the Dungeon as I previously stated!"

Her orders, made the other groups hurry into the dungeon as they said a few departing words. While they were going further into the Dungeon, the first to react was Ais.

Using her [Ariel] she quickly went next to Tsubaki as she cut a Minotaur's arm. The sudden pain brought the latter to release a war cry as it used its second arm to try to hit her.

While she dodged its blow, other Minotaurs roared while they were running towards the various adventurers. Without waiting for them to come, Ethan approached one of the Minotaur as Ais quickly returned to keep the formation they decided to use.

Seeing this as well, Raul sighed while turning extremely serious. Even though he was rather insecure when it came to establishing relationsh.i.p.s, from a combat perspective, he was not a Commander in name alone.

Without wasting time, he went towards a Minotaur as three of them were quickly coming up against him but, they disappeared moments after as Aki decided to hunt them all down before he would be able to do so.

After some minutes, the first to understand something wasn't right was Tsubaki.

'They're spawning so fast..it's definitively not normal. I hope everyone is fine'

Cutting another Minotaur in pieces, she turned to look at her surroundings as she saw that everyone was giving their all to face them.

While she was 'distracted', Tsubaki's senses felt something was coming to her right. Quickly dodging, she saw a Hellhound with a colour slightly different from the normal one.

Without giving it the time to fire its magic again, she moved next to him as she grabbed it by its neck.

Being overpowered by a few levels, the Hellhound felt the strength contained behind her grasp as it tried, uselessly, to break free.

Raising it from the ground, she analysed it to see if there was something strange, but, she knew she wasn't the correct person to check on the monster. Clenching her hand on it even more tightly, the Monster quickly disappeared as she broke its neck.

Even though she wasn't really the kind of person who would kill a monster in that way, she had to do so as other flames were being directed at her.

'So annoying'

While she was busy dealing with groups of hellhounds, Ethan cut the head of a Minotaur as it disappeared.

'They're quite weak..like before. I don't even know if this is a Monster Party. If it's one, probably a stronger monster will reveal itself at the end of this slaughter'

Approaching the next few Minotaurs, Ethan knew that, for the situation to make it uncertain if what they were facing was a group of monsters or a monster party, made it even more serious than what he expected.

'I can't be sure the Dungeon even works in the same way as I thought it did. The problem is that we lack too much information'

Thinking about this, he already took care of another group as the situation was going 'well' for everyone.

'It's already the 5th group of Hellhound in a row..just how fast can they spawn?!'

Knowing something was really odd, she directly punched another Hellhound in frustration.

'They keep coming, when I kill two of them, three will spawn seconds after...'

Sighing in her mind, she saw as the Hellhound she punched quickly approaching the wall before disappearing without even having the time to reach his 'destination'.

This, surprised her as she immediately sheathed her sword with an 'evil' smile as her eyes were like on fire. Feeling that her aura was even scarier than before, the groups of Hellhounds flinched before immediately returning onto forming their magic to launch at her.

Without waiting for them to finish their spells, Tsubaki threw a kick to the Hellhound as she saw it immediately disappear. Even though she didn't understand why with a sword, they would last enough for other monsters to spawn, while with her fists and kicks, they would disappear, it was still new information regarding the monsters.

"I have an important thing to tell you! Try to use lend blows on them with punches and kicks instead of using weapons! I know it's strange, but try!"

Hearing her shouting, Ethan furrowed his brows as he sheathed his daggers without hesitation before boosting his body.

Using [Instantaneous Movements], he went next to a Minotaur before punching its c.h.e.s.t with all his strength. Expecting it to be tough, he was dumbfounded as he saw that his blow made it dissipate without even reacting.

Looking at his fist for a moment, Ethan moved to another Minotaur as he kicked its face to test if perhaps it was just the c.h.e.s.t, but..

With the Monster actually receiving the hit this time, it started to dissipate while he saw that actually, using weapons was also uncomfortable compared to what was achieved with simple punches and kicks.

Seeing how easily Ethan was killing monsters, Tiona laughed as she threw her weapon to Lefiya before shouting

"It's not fair, Ethan! Let me join the fun!"

Approaching a Minotaur that was running towards her, she kicked its face as she saw it immediately took her blow so hard that it dissipate as it was being pushed up towards the floor from the force of her blow.

This, brought her to laugh as she approached another Minotaur while Ais decided to continue using her sword, this because, with the help of her [Ariel], it didn't matter that the monster was resistant against weapons, they would equally be pulverized on contact with or without a weapon.

Kicking another Minotaur, Ethan saw as it approached the wall before disappearing. The fact that now, they were easily overpowering their numbers, brought him to laugh as he was finally enjoying this.

'Serves you right. It's so satisfying to kill them after all the problems we were having with your spawning rate..'

Hearing his laugh, Tiona went next to him after killing another Minotaur. With a huge smirk, she looked at him before adding

"You are really enjoying this, right? Me too! how about collaborating a little? I bet we will enjoy it even more!"

Thinking about it for a moment, he nodded as he decided to remove his Boost Magic as he saw another Minotaur approaching him while roaring.

"Okay, I will punch him without killing him, and you will have the final blow..."

Hearing his words, she nodded in understanding as for her, it didn't matter what he wanted to do, as long as it was funny.

Doing as he said, Ethan lend a blow on the Minotaur as he could feel the difference with and without the [Boost Magic].

'...I guess what makes me strong now is just [Boost Magic], but I would really like to have knowledge also about martial arts, I don't want to always be in need of my magic, also because my mana has a limit.'

Thinking about this, he saw as the Minotaur didn't dissipate from his blow as it approached Tiona's whereabout.

Without losing time, she throw a punch in the Minotaur's c.h.e.s.t as the two saw as she actually managed to pierce his belly...

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(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8 . You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". At this question, my answer would likely be: "Because it's fun? I don't know either. Just join." Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Ethan's eyes.. so it's recommended to join. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

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(Alternate Titles: "Ethan and Tiona, casually playing with a poor Minotaur's life...", "Tell me how many times the word 'Minotaur' was written in this chapter..I'm quite curious", "Finally, we can start the Expedition Arc...")