When Ais asked to remain behind, she'd been aiming for the Floor Boss of the 37th floor that was about to respawn, "Are you sure about this, Ais?" Riveria asked.
Ais only nodded as a reply as she readied herself.
Sona approached Riveria and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, Is she aiming for the Floor Boss? And if so, why?" Sona, while they're preparing for the exploration, received some information from Yoruichi regarding the monsters in the Dungeon's deeper floors and also reminded her that it has been two months and three weeks since the 37th-floor boss was defeated and they'll likely meet it if they ventured deep enough.
Riveria didn't face Sona and instead just looked towards Ais, but she still answered her question, "It's the monster rex she's aiming at, however, all I can tell you why she wants to do that is that her strength is already starting to stagnate."
"Stagnating, eh? As expected, you guys have a different view when it comes to getting stronger. Maybe it's because of the Falna?" Sona muttered.
Riveria frowned and looked towards Sona, "What do you mean?"
However, just as she finished her question, the ground started shaking and everyone had to quickly lower their body's center of gravity just to stay standing.
A few seconds later, a large skeletal monster emerged from the ground.
Udaeus, the Monster Rex of the 37th Floor. It has a black body and is a large version of a Spartoi. It spawns every three months. It has no lower body due to it being able to spread its attacks through the ground and also has the ability to summon Spartoi.
"Riveria, don't help me. I'll do this alone." Ais once again stated her goal, " 'Awaken, Tempest!' "
Riveria focused back on Ais and the newly emerged monster and thought, 'The specifics of Ais's status eludes me, however, it's clear her growth has stagnated based on my observations of her in combat. Which means that the reality is Ais Wallenstein has reached her limit at Level 5. At Level 5, should she wish for greater strength, to advance to Level 6, she must acquire a larger 'container.' She must step above humanity, closer to the Gods, 'Level up.'
'She must achieve a grand accomplishment that the Gods cannot ignore!'
The Udaeus's magic stone was inside its ribs and it was very visible from the outside. However, despite that, the monster is big and aside from it being very hard to reach with conventional weapons, there's also a strong barrier made out of Mana around it that also stops Magic from approaching it. So the only way to defeat it was to either break its bones and deplete the Mana it uses to maintain its structure or destroy the core.
While Ais was fighting the Udaeus, it started summoning hundreds of Level 4 Spartoi that was enough to overwhelm a party of Level 4's or weaker Level 5's, "Get beside me! It's dangerous!" Riveria shouted towards the trio, worrying for their safety. From the 27th floor and onwards, Sona, Aika, and Koneko had needed to hide behind the Loki Familia and would only fight if there's one or two monsters coming after them.
Although they said that they have a way to defend themselves, Riveria still couldn't just leave them alone. However, Riveria could only be left speechless when Sona and Koneko started floating with a magic circle below them while Aika started ascending while using some 'invisible staircase' until they reached the ceiling of the floor where no monsters could reach them unless they threw away their weapons. But for the three of them, that isn't an issue as Sona could easily block them with her magic.
Even Ais was distracted for a bit but she refocused when the Udaeus' arm brushed past her.
Riveria, on the other hand, couldn't comment as she needed to clear the hoard of skeletal monsters by using her staff. But after thinking about it again it would be better to stay quiet for now since it might distract Ais again. She then went back to smashing the heads of Spartois, killing them with her sheer basic parameter advantage.
The entire fight lasted for about half an hour and within that duration of time, Ais almost lost her life three times and Riveria had to use her Spirit Veil magic that healed her one time. However, the Udaeus was already crumbling and Ais had already won. She just has to stab her sword in its magic stone to kill it.
Without any Spartois, Sona, Aika, and Koneko could now talk freely and Aika muttered, "...That's... Although we also risked our lives that one time, somehow, the feeling Ais-san giving us is different."
Koneko nodded at her words, "It's different. I can't tell what's different, though."
Sona fixed her glasses and tried to address the two's confusion, "It's probably the way she wants to get stronger. Before we even fought those Minotaurs, Kisuke and Yoruichi would always tell us that one of the important things about getting stronger is self breakthrough. And through it, we have a mindset of breaking our old shell to overcome the enemy.
"What Ais is probably thinking is the opposite of that. Overcome the enemy to have a breakthrough."
The haze that was covering the reasoning behind Ais's actions was finally cleared in Aika and Koneko's mind, "I see. Although overcoming an enemy to have a breakthrough sounds nice, realistically, if you can defeat that enemy in the first place, then you don't need a breakthrough that much. That logic only works in RPGs."
"...It's the Falna's fault." Koneko added.
Ais collapsed after killing the Monster Rex due to exhaustion, but Riveria immediately ran to her side and gave her treatment through her healing magic and an elixir.
Sona, Aika, and Koneko also came down and approached them to help Riveria clean up Ais while also gathering the dropped and fragmented magic stone and a huge black sword left behind by the Udaeus.
Fifteen minutes after, Ais was already able to stand up on her own and bowed to everyone, "Thank you, everyone."
Riveria also stood up and fixed a bit of Ais's clothing, "It alright. But let's not stay here. Let's go talk on our way up. It's dangerous to stay here any further."
Everyone agreed and gathered everything before starting to ascend.
On the way, instead of asking how they were able to fly earlier, Ais asked the trio something that she's more interested in, "What did you think of my battle earlier?"
The trio suddenly stopped walking and looked at each other before looking back to Ais with Sona starting, "It's frustrating."
"It's bad." Aika followed.
"If Kisuke-senpai were to see that, he'll tell you to go back to practicing the basics." Koneko then ended it with a harsh remark.
And of course, Riveria, especially Ais, were dumbfounded at their sudden harsh words.
Alexander: Yeah, go tell her. It is time for a training arc.
28th00: Yeah… These are beings that perfected and invented absurd combat styles that are pretty much wholly unique to each person in their society with literal centuries of combat training and experience… Ais is gonna be torn to pieces. She's all "skill" and no Skill, capital required. Power leveling brats.
"Um..." Ais tried to say something but she couldn't think of anything. She didn't think that they thought so lowly of her fight to the death with the Monster Rex. She also felt a little bit angry since even though she's unfeeling most of the time, she still had pride as a First-Class Adventurer that she had cultivated over the years as an Adventurer.
So when the trio, who couldn't even defeat her, harshly commented, she didn't like it and that includes Riveria too as she asked with a frown, "What do you mean?"
The three of them immediately noticed their mood and Sona immediately stepped forward, "I'm sorry if that offended you. However, that's what we truly think. Do you want to hear the rest?"
Ais and Riveria looked at each other and calmed down a little before facing them, "Please..." Ais muttered. If it was something that could help her improve, then she didn't really care about the mild rudeness.
Sona nodded and started, "Let me ask first. Is that your main weapon?" Sona pointed at her rapier.
Ais, in response, nodded.
"About your wind magic, can you control its shape?"
Ais nodded again.
"I see." Sona thought for a moment before continuing, "Then I won't take back my words that I felt frustrated seeing you fight. Even with untrained eyes, I can tell how incompatible your wind is with your fighting style."
Ais's and Riveria's eyes widened but the two of them didn't speak and just waited for Sona to finish her words.
Seeing that they are ready and willing to listen, Sona continued, "First of all, on the magic side, it seems that you don't understand your 'wind'..." Sona then stopped for a moment before taking it back, "Wait... That's not it. What I mean to say is that you don't want to change your 'wind'."
"...My 'wind'? What's wrong with it?" Ais muttered a question with a little concern appearing over her face. Riveria also became worried as she knew the origin of Ais's wind magic.
"The way you move is sharp and forceful yet your wind is blunt and gentle. Instead of frontal and rushing attacks, I think it would be better for you to stay behind and support the rest with that kind of wind. Your weapon doesn't help either. It seems like a very durable blade, but since your wind is blunt, it doesn't help that much and only works when you don't use your magic."
Aika nodded at Sona words as she added, "That's right. Even your swordsmanship was also almost fully thrown out the window as you just kept throwing yourself at the enemy using your magic by shaping it like a cone. With a rare instance that you used your wind to slash, it still just a blunt attack, just narrower. Even if our Koneko here can't match your wind magic, she can still use it better than you."
After hearing Aika's sudden cue, Koneko hurriedly put up her finger and conjured a small magic circle above it before green light and a slight disturbance was felt all around. A few seconds later, the magic circle disappeared while leaving behind the green light around her index finger. Koneko then swung her finger downwards and a small wind blade shot out from it, grazing Aika's cheeks, nicking her skin, and drawing blood from it.
"Hey! What was that for!?" Aika immediately protested.
"...You suddenly called me out. I was not prepared." Koneko replied with a deadpan face and monotone voice.
"But that doesn't mean that you should aim at me!" Aika took out a bit of her potion and wiped some of it on her face and the small wound disappeared and sighed before going back to the topic, "As you can see, Koneko here can make sharper wind blades than you. You can cut monsters with your 'wind blade' because of the amount of force you put behind your wind, but I think that's just a waste of mana or Mind."
Still not satisfied, Aika added an example, "I even know someone who could use it so well that the Barbarians that spawn en masse around here could be instantly annihilated by just using single wind magic spell that he can cast for a few seconds and he wouldn't have even used half of Mana or Mind that Riveria-san used to annihilate the very same hoard." While saying this, Aika was thinking of Kisuke, 'He can pull that off, right?'
"B-but my magic is enchanting magic. I can only use it around my body and my weapon." Ais tried to defend herself from the scathing criticisms. However, the three of them noticed that Ais didn't argue back what they thought is the most important, the fact that her wind is too 'gentle'. But since it seems that Ais didn't want to talk about it, the trio also chose not to mind it and just focused on her defense.
"Enchantment Magic? Is that what your Falna says?" Sona asked.
Ais became hesitant but still nodded at her question, 'She also has something to say about my magic being enchantment magic?' She thought. Ais is nervous as if she was standing nervously in front of a master. She didn't know why she's getting this feeling from a Level 2, but she couldn't deny this was how she's feeling right now.
"And you stopped yourself from using it in other ways than just being enchantment magic?" Sona gave a follow-up question.
"B-but it's enchantment magic..."
Sona sighed at her answer, "I can't call myself an expert in magic but I can at least tell you one thing about it." She then put on a very serious face and continued, "Magic is a phenomenon where you manipulate mana, either by yourself or with the help of outside forces, to change reality according to your will. Enchantment, Attacking, Defending or any other categories are only there to help you classify your magic and not to lock your magic in that particular classification. That's just a second-rate's mistake of misunderstanding magic. Magic is magic. It can be anything!"
Not just Ais, but also Riveria was affected by her words which essentially called them second-rate magic users. They wonder what would happen if this incident of a Level 2 telling two of the top Adventurers of Orario that they're second-rates with magic, one of them is even the so-called 'Sage of Orario.'
Seeing the weird expression Ais and Riveria were making, Aika feigned a cough to try and dispel the increasingly bizarre atmosphere, "Ahem. Although she said a lot of things, what she's simply saying is that you don't need to limit yourself because of some labels. Only those who're just familiarizing themselves with something are using labels to get started and would sometimes even use it for entirely different purposes once they've achieved mastery."
Although she was trying to lighten the atmosphere, that wasn't happening. Ais and Riveria could only maintain a blank stare with both of them thinking, 'So does that mean Enchantment Magic isn't really Enchantment Magic if you use it differently?' They only became more confused. Kisuke didn't tell Riveria anything about Magic yet despite having some chances to do so because he wanted her to hear it from someone they thought was a lot weaker than them like the trio and laugh at their struggle to understand the new outlook regarding magic.
Editors
28th00
Garan Mayers
Editors and Author's Corner:
28th00: Oh man, that's a smackdown for these system fanatic fools! How terrifying do you think Healing magic is when it's used offensively? It's pretty much Destruction Magic that the Baal's got in Dxd at that point! It sure as hell ain't support magic anymore!
Goyya: It's one of the problems of this world if compared to other worlds. They're too dependent on their stats.