Chapter 125: Attack the Dungeons!

They were both equipped with light armors that Alena provided. Although it wasn't as major as the armors that Aria was familiar with back in her time, it did grant her some kind of protection against certain levels of strikes.

Gin clapped, sending an appreciative gaze towards the two. Clearing a C-ranked gate under an hour with only two people was by no means a normal thing.  It was way out of the common sense that applied on normal Hunters who had to crowd up to successfully clear a dungeon like this without casualties. Not to mention, the time taken would also be a lot higher.

"Congratulations. Judging by how you booked me for the entire day, I'll take it as that you are going straight to another dungeon? Or do you want to take a short break first?" Gin asked, pulling out his own device and marking some things up. He then began dispelling the spells he had placed around the area to protect the two's trip.

"Yes. Take us to the next dungeon, we don't need any breaks yet," Aria wiped off the thin layer of sweat that formed on her forehead and watched as Gin nodded and went towards his car. They used different vehicles, with Gin driving his own and the other two being driven by Alena's assistant.

They continued on to the second dungeon, which was a B-ranked dungeon. At first, Alena was somewhat nervous as she had recalled the events of the last time they went into the insect dungeon. It was quite traumatizing, although most of the pain that caused her the extreme reactions was the curse that was firmly implanted inside her body.

Now that Ilyin wanted to cooperate with her without giving much repercussions other than consuming her mana, Alena was much more confident in her actions and stepped inside the dungeon gate with Aria. This time, Gin gave them a time limit of four hours. Ilyin was a very strong comrade, and her fighting style also suited Alena since the child did not find close combat as an appealing thing.

This time, Aria's target was to clear the dungeon in two hours. Her ultimate goal for the day was to be able to clear five dungeons, but that number will have to fluctuate depending on their health conditions. Training too much would result in them having much more disadvantages in the long run.

The dungeon was a large scaled grassland. There was a puzzle that they needed to solve first, and it involved defeating hordes of monsters that crowded around stone pillars. Only when these stone pillars were discovered and activated were they able to summon the sleeping boss underground. They had quite the good amount of trouble with this dungeon.

The hordes consisted of light monsters like stray wolves, up to frightening, gigantic creatures like a large ogre. However, the hardest thing to do in the dungeon wasn't to fight. It was actually to find the stone pillars. For some reason, the monsters wouldn't spawn until the stone pillars were touched by them. Thus, in the huge grassland, they had to make a lot of effort to actually spot the pillars' location. Luckily, due to the spirits' assistance, they were able to provide vision throughout the vast lands much easier and find the pillars faster.

The last pillar was the one that took them the longest time. It turned out that the pillar was actually buried underground, which was why only a small slab of stone could be spotted buried under lush grasses. After discovering the last pillar, they quickly activated the object and began fighting the horde of monsters, followed by the boss of this dungeon.

The boss was a bit tricky to beat.

It was an armadillo the size of a husky. It didn't look like it had a lot of strength, but that was precisely because its fighting style did not rely on its raw strength. It was capable of burrowing into the ground at an extremely high speed, and its agility surpassed Aria's by quite the fair share. It was hard to land an attack on the creature. And yet, the creature could suddenly pop out of the ground and try to harm them from a blind spot.

It was very troublesome, but they finally managed to overcome this dilemma by spreading water throughout the area around them and freezing it lightly. This caused the ground to be connected to the spirits' sensors because of their elements, and they could start locating where the armadillo was at and predicting its next moves.

Due to the spirits' ability, they were finally able to consecutively fend off the creature and end up landing a critical attack onto the boss. This attack did not successfully kill the creature, but lowered its health points just enough for its abilities to decrease exponentially. This created a loop for Aria to pretend that the desperate creature was having an upper hand before she performed a parry and flung the creature off harshly, proceeding to stab it in the stomach right after.

The armadillo was very heavily covered in armors. It was not the same as te armored bears she faced before. This time, the armadillo's skin was its armor. It was also made out of unknown material that the Silver Slime wasn't able to melt down like the previous enemies.

Each time it moved, it would always cover up its stomach area. It typically moved by rolling on the ground and skittering around, so Aria managed to concoct a plan that would allow her to penetrate the creature's weak spot.

"We're done here. What level are you?" Aria asked as the girl started to approach the carcasses and began dissecting the important parts. Alena had been collecting valuable materials from all the monsters they had faced, wanting to gain profit and possibly research some of the materials she had never seen before.

"Hmm.. I just leveled up, actually. I am Level 24," Alena said. Three dungeons. It took her three dungeons to climb up to that level, which costed Aria much more.

Aria, hearing the child's answer, tried to comfort herself and the situation she was forced to bear. Due to the two dungeons, she had went up by one level. She was used to her slow progress at this point and did not want to dwell upon it any longer.

After clearing the dungeon, they got out and felt exhausted. The hordes of monsters certainly gave them experience, but it wasn't enough to balance off their fights just yet. Aria's muscles were feeling tingly after being put through a lot of combat, swinging [Halvargg] everywhere and hitting hard materials.

The stress that was put on her body was starting to catch up after just two dungeons, proving to her how lacking her current body was in terms of polishing. She sighed, knowing that unlike the other subjects, her body couldn't be toned in an instant. It needed to undergo a passive change embarked by a continuous flow of dungeon clearing.

The trio moved to their third dungeon. By then, it was already around four in the evening. Out of the original goal of five dungeons, Aria thought that four might be their maximum limit at this point. To take a short breather, the next dungeon was a C-ranked one, which would then be followed by another B-rank to stimulate their growth once more.

After stretching their body lightly, they readied themselves up for another crazy dungeon speedrun trip. Gin shook his head at the fired up duo, thinking that their actions were too reckless and unnecessary. Since he did not know the full story behind Aria and Alena's desperation for dungeons and fights, he naturally couldn't comprehend why the pair did not just take is slower and apply to the Association directly.

With the power they harnessed, he was sure that they would be able to get a good spot in one of the Association's official guilds. In that case, they would be granted privileges, one of them being the ability to step inside dungeons with manpower below the supposed criteria. Of course, this action was rarely done like how Aria and Alena did it.

Gin did not attest to it because the rich child brought him money- something that pleasured him very mcuh. In truth, the reason he was here was not only to monitor and make sure that his customers were safe from the guarantees he placed, but also to investigate on the two.

The two were very peculiar. Because he was sensitive to others' powers, he was able to notice that the two had a lot more power than normal Hunters, and were very bizarre. Particularly the woman named Aria Schreiner- someone who he was deeply interested in.

His crafty eyes slid through the two's figures.

"Let's go! Three more... Two if we can't make it any further," Aria motivated the child,  rolling her stiff neck a bit before sheathing her blade and going into the dungeon gate.

"Let's go, big sister," The younger child replied with a tired, yet enthusiastic voice and followed behind Aria closely.