Danmachi – Card Wizard

As they walked down on the tenth floor after a few more fights on the higher floors, they entered the mist-covered floor.

'I need to create a card to locate the monsters or see through the mist.' Thought Aidan as he looked at the mist, which made vision terrible.​​

"Alright. From now on, the two of you need to stay closer to me. I will allow the two of you to try and fight a single orc together. However, after this floor, we will go directly to the eighteenth floor, and you won't fight any more monsters." Said Riviera with a severe tone of voice as she glared at the two of them.

With a nod from her two followers, they entered the floor and turned directly towards the stairs, using the fastest way possible.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally met orcs for the first time.

With speed depicting her status as a first-class adventurer, she arrived in front of the monsters and slammed her staff in their head, killing all of them except for one who would fight with the two. "Alright, come closer and start fighting." Said Riviera as she backed off while eyeing the surroundings to guarantee their safety.

With a quick nod, the two approached the monster, who had a tree trunk in its hand to fight with. Throwing a shield card directly in front of the beast the hinder its movement with the resistance of the spell, Aidan and Ais ran straight towards the sides of the monster. They immediately tried to cut off both legs to reduce the beast's mobility and height since they couldn't reach the beast's neck.

With the tough skin of the monster, their swords barely had enough strength to cut into its skin, even less the entire leg. However, they still managed to cut off a part of both legs as the monster immediately kneeled on the ground due to its weight.

With a quick look between the two, they both retreated as the monster used his large arm to try and swat them away. Right at the end of the significant motion, as his body was opened entirely with an arm towards the outside and another arm on the ground to lift himself, the two ran towards the monster. Aidan pierced directly in its neck while Ais went and attacked the monster's limb, destroying its chances of taking revenge.

A second later, the two had retreated from the area around the monster and waited as it emptied itself of its blood. It was certainly not a great way to go. However, they currently did not have the strength to kill it directly and could only go so far, thanks to the quality of their weapons.

A few minutes later, the monster ultimately died and turned into powder as the orc hide, and its magic stone remained on the floor. "Great! We not only killed a monster way stronger than us, but we also got a drop!" Said Aidan happily as he collected both items in his card and joined back with the two girls.

"Good. Now that the two of you fought with this kind of monster, we will go down directly towards our targeted floor. The two of you will stay near me at all times. Understood?" She asked once again.

"Yes, no problem." Answered Aidan as Ais didn't seem too happy to listen to the 'old hag' as she called her.

—-

After running straight through the twelfth floor, they entered the middle floor, the 13th floor.

"There are all kinds of level two monsters on those floors. As such, the two of you won't fight against them. Do you know the name of the monsters we will face until we reach our goal?" Asked the elf after explaining the danger of those floors.

"Yes, there are a few monsters, but the most important and known ones are the wyvern, hellhound, almiraj, minotaur, Lygerfang and their boss, the Goliath." Answered Aidan as he had studied this information before entering the dungeon.

"Indeed. Today the two of you will meet these monsters. They are all stronger than you, so don't try to fight them, understood?" She asked as she shot a glare at Ais, who surprisingly slightly pouted.

With this last warning, they finally restarted their dive in the dungeon as they always took the shortest road to walk down the floors.

—-

By the time they reached the seventeenth floor, both youngsters were tired as they had to run all along to keep up with the high elf.

"This here is the 'Big Wall of Grief.'" She said as she pointed at a crystal-like wall. "It is called so due to the high amount of adventurers who died due to the Monster Rex. When the Goliath spawns, it will wait for an adventurer to pass by before shattering the wall and attacking said adventurer. This particularity has often destroyed parties in the past, and it still happens to this day." She explained calmly as she looked at the wall.

"Due to this, our familia, along with the other top-grade familia, take turns to come and kill the Goliath, allowing the rest of the adventurers a safe passage towards the next floor." She completed her explanation as she pointed towards a few small holes next to the crystal-like wall.

"These holes all lead to the eighteenth floor. They are mostly used by adventurers who are trying to escape from monsters."

After pointing at the holes, she looked a bit to the right. "The stairs are there. It leads to the same place as those holes, but it hurts a lot less." She explained with a small smile as they walked down towards the eighteenth floor.

As they arrived, Aidan was surprised to see the floor. It was about the same size as Orario, and there was a gigantic tree in the middle of the dungeon level.

"This is the eighteenth floor. Rivira is a small town built by the adventurers to stay at during their stay in the dungeon. However, the prices are incredibly high, and it is not clean. Due to this, I had you buy tents to sleep outside of Rivira. Normally, I wouldn't do this since some monsters climb up to the eighteenth floor from the nineteenth. However, with the adventuring guarding the stairs and your barrier card, we won't have any problem with those monsters.

Moreover, there are almost no monsters that can climb on this floor. It is a nearly safe floor." Their teacher continued to explain as she saw the amazement and awe at the floor's beauty from the two.

"Alright. We will find a place to camp, and I will deal with what I came here for. During that time, the two of you are allowed to explore the floor but stay together." Said the elf as she led them to a relatively safe location on the floor.

—-

With a final warning to be careful, she left towards Rivira.

"Alright, we should explore." Aidan and Ais left the camp and started to look at the forest, which radiated a slight blue colour due to the crystals on the ground.

"So, for today, should we explore our surroundings a bit before going to sleep? I'm slightly tired after our time in the dungeon." Said Aidan as he looked at his partner.

"Yes. We will stay on this floor for two weeks. We will have time to explore it later." Nodded Ais as she led Aidan on a mountain that overlooked the whole floor.

"I didn't say it previously but thank you for staying with me back then." Said Ais as she sat close to Aidan on a rock, looking up at the crystals which were slowly dimming.

"We're partners. It's normal to stay and protect you." Smiled Aidan as he shook his head.

"Hum." Hummed Ais as she slowly leaned her head on Aidan's shoulder with a smile as he hugged her with his arm on her waist.