Dragon's Bloodline

Early the next morning, Ria trained with Carlos and Gig as her opponents.

Even though she was already aware, her physical abilities clearly improved. Rather than her status, the Body Strengthening and Bone Strengthening levels included in her Gift improved.

Though due to her height suddenly becoming taller, she couldn’t use the techniques she’d learned so far correctly.

“Even though my level went up…”

She didn’t feel like she’d become stronger.

Handled bare-handedly by Ria, Gig and Carlos were gasping for breath at her feet.

“Come ooon, seriously, this girl. Since before, even though, she’s been strong, at least then, I lost, like normal.”

“As expected, Anego.”

Carlos used the magic sword that used to be the Specter Knight’s, while Gig used his familiar warhammer. However, they were toppled just by Ria fighting barehanded.

Contrasting that, Maal practiced her spirit magic.

“Hmm.”

She could see the flow of magic in the air. From inside that, she particularly felt the power of wind, synchronizing her emotions to it.

The wind blew softly, stirring Serge and Lulu’s hair.

Opening the grimoire, Serge was eager to develop a method to reduce the magical power required for space magic.

“That’s so nice~, I also wanted something~”

Although it was good that Maal’s magic could be seen, it was out of her expertise. To begin with, unlike ordinary magic, no one could use it in theory. Lulu really only just studied it.

“Well, if Lulu wants a magic, I’ll look it up.”

“I already know about it. The problem is magical power and its configuration.”

In the fight against the Cyclops, Lulu was of no use at all. Though it was the same with everyone else, for Lulu, who appointed herself as Ria’s protector in her heart, she felt ashamed.

As expected, it caused a fuss. Also as expected, it was more than they expected.

Along with taking the sixth floor’s guardian’s magic crystal to the guild, Serge announced the space-time magic he’d been concealing until now, saying he was awarded it from the lord of the labyrinth.

Though it was fine since the mayor, Klaus, already knew about it, a parade would be formed on the main street. It would take up a lot of time.

They left it to Carlos and Lulu to follow the procedures, but since they were dead when the final guardian was defeated, it mainly turned into Ria and Serge speaking from there on.

“A Cyclops… is it?”

Hearing that, the guild master who was listening became speechless.

“Yeah. Since neither swords nor magic were effective it was troublesome.”

Since Ria gave the explanation like that, it was natural he’d have questions.

“Then how did you defeat it?”

“I got eaten on purpose, cutting it up from inside its stomach.”

Serge looked at the guild master, who was lost for words. I should have aimed for the inside of the mouth as well, he thought after the fact.

The pastries they ate while talking were delicious.

That afternoon, a grand labyrinth exploration was declared in front of the guild.

The next day’s parade was announced during the banquet at town hall.

The town’s influential people and merchants continually chased Carlos in hopes of meeting Ria’s group.

Even though they were finally liberated by evening, Klaus told them their schedule for the next day while seated for dinner. It was going to be another long day.

Brushing Matsukaze, taking the Hellhound for a walk, and massaging Maal’s paws, her mind healed.

“Nee-chan, now that I think of it, what’s the dog’s name?”

Serge asked while patting the fluffy Hellhound without reservation. If they called it Hellhound it’d be inconvenient.

“I decided on a name. It’s Rudolph.”

“Such a self-important name came out–!”

Though he thought a Japanese name would come out for sure, his expectations were off the mark.

“I mean, see? Doesn’t he look like a Rudolph?”

Certainly, with his bared teeth and huge figure, he wasn’t inferior to the name.

Though it looked like a puppy when it rolled on its back in front of Ria. Patting him as though in agreement, Serge did so delightedly.

The following day, they carried out the parade in the morning, doing the ceremony at noon.

Moreover, from the next day on, they received party invitations from influential people every day.

Though more and more people knew their faces, the question was whether becoming famous in a small town away from Casalia Kingdom had any meaning.

And so, Ria revealed her identity.

Like an ordinary explorer, Ria tried to be known as a daredevil that borrowed the royal family’s power.

But it was a failure.

That caused the big shots in town to try and contact Ria with the purpose of trying to get the explorers to enter government service.

Ria, who had been gathering a considerable amount of stress, rushed into the labyrinth with a party before dueling them so that it’d be safe when they died.

Meanwhile, the young trio tried to raise their levels a bit more and get some income, entering the labyrinth by themselves.

It was easy up to the sixth floor, but the seventh floor turned out to be difficult. Though Serge could use cure and restoration while Lulu wasn’t there, their decisions came too late since the people they were accustomed to weren’t there.

Even though Lulu and Carlos joined in to capture it before long as well, they were still stopped by the Dogazer on the eighth floor.

With weapons made of metal, Carlos who acted as the protector couldn’t fight. Even though Gig could fight with a club, it didn’t turn out well after being put to sleep.

Even so, focusing on the fifth and sixth floor, they continued trying to raise their levels and skill masteries.

Ria became like a Shura, thirsting for blood. [TN: You get the picture.]

Warriors seeking a match with her, even though she made it as hard for them to die as possible, were easily cut down.

Obtaining a good katana, it was the right situation for her to get drunk on blood.

However, during morning and night practice, she mysteriously turned into polite person.

Even if she was drunk on blood, she wasn’t drunk on power. She had to draw the line somewhere.

And so, one month passed.

Though they felt like time moved too quickly, after receiving various invitations, time passed by imperceptibly.

After arranging to depart the rest of the day, the group left Labyrinth City early the following morning.

Starting with Klaus, before they knew it everyone who was on good terms with explorers also came to the walls to see them off.

Waving until they disappeared from sight, the party advanced with their rattling carriage.

… I wonder if a carriage is alright? Though the box-shaped carriage was being pulled, the one pulling was Rudolph the Hellhound.

Maal sat in the driver’s seat, while Gig and Serge sat inside.

Though they tried to use normal horses at first, no coach horse could get accustomed to Rudolph. Even Lulu’s Donkey still feared it.

Only Matsukaze played around with him on equal footing. It was amazing that a horse was equal to a Hellhound though.

“Well then, on to the Dark Labyrinth!”

As the warm wind signalling the end of Spring blew, Matsukaze shook his mane.

Under the blue sky, Ria’s voice was one of a person in high spirits, resounding through the distant hills.