Satou's here. There is no level cap in this world, but there are a lot of people who misinterpret that there's a growth limit since the experience point needed for the next level jumps up exponentially.

We're not going to the usual Area 74, but Area 69 where the c.o.c.katrices are, its neighboring Area 109, the insect paradise, and Area 104 which is the den of aquatic monsters.

First we go to Area 69. Come to think of it, I wonder what happens to the [Fangs of Conflagration] members that were gone to hunt some c.o.c.katrices?

I've finished carrying Mia with princess carry almost without engaging any battle from Area 74 to Area 69. I thought of letting her down, but it seemed she was quite frightened with my moving speed, her hands wouldn't let go of me.

“F, fast you know? It's too fast see. Excessive speed is the cause of accidents, it's dangerous you know?”

Mia raises her index finger while being talkative like when she's drunk and approaches me. She must have been quite frightened. She forgave me while saying “Forgiven” like she usually was when I sincerely apologized.

“Stone statue.”

“Ah, judging from its appearance, it's probably an explorer.”

A pony-sized chicken-like being is pecking the stone statue. According to the AR it's a c.o.c.katrice Puppy. Probably the child of c.o.c.katrices. Its level is only around 20.

It seems the c.o.c.katrices feed on their petrified prey, as a lot of them are gathering on trees and monsters that have been turned into stones. In this hall, there are level 10-20 c.o.c.katrice puppies, level 25-35 adult c.o.c.katrices, and a pair of giant upper level 50 c.o.c.katrices.

Before I begin leveling Mia up, I rout the c.o.c.katrice puppy with Stun magic, and collect the stone statue.

“Mia, do you have a spell that affects a wide area?”

“Nn, Storm.”

I hand Mia a world tree wand, and then she begins to chant. This wand has the best performance to expand the area of effect. Mia's spirit magic fills the hall, damaging the c.o.c.katrices. Just one magic has decreased Mia's MP by 30%.

The majority of the c.o.c.katrice puppies are exterminated by Mia's magic, while the rest are dying. I use Flexible Swords to cut c.o.c.katrices' necks and put them into my storage. Since c.o.c.katrices are soft, even the fragile Flexible Swords can cut them easily. I saw flelike creatures flying when the c.o.c.katrices were being stowed.

A giant c.o.c.katrice King and a c.o.c.katrice Queen are coming with reverberating footsteps.

“Satou.”

“Ah, I'll eliminate them immediately.”

I cut the necks of the c.o.c.katrices couple who were burning with anger due to the ma.s.sacre of their family, and put them into the storage. Since kitten-sized fleas are scattered around when I've put the pair into my storage, I exterminate them with Flame Storm. When the flame reached the ceiling, an explosion occurred.

What?

I immediately protect Mia in my mantle, and evacuate to the entrance.

“Mwu, hot.”

“Ah, sorry. I had limited the power, but it seemed that there were flammable gas collected in the ceiling.”

I wonder if it's some kind of trap too?

There was a tar pond-like place in the corner of the room. The surface of that pond is bubbling, the gas probably escapes to the ceiling from there.

There were some huge eggs of c.o.c.katrices in the room, but they had been broken from the explosion earlier.

A treasure chest appears on the place where the giant c.o.c.katrices were defeated.

I've heard that treasure chests may rarely appear on the place where monsters are defeated in the labyrinth, but this is the first time I see the real thing. The one in the demon labyrinth was a mimic after all.

Since the treasure chest was set with petrification trap, I had Mia to evacuate and then removed the trap. I noticed that I should have opened it with [Magic Hand] from afar after I had canceled it, the realization came too late.

Inside of the chest, there are money and jewels, and also various magic items. There's only one weapon, a short sword, but it's made of silver and can be used to invoke magic, quite good. There are 8-9 gold coins worth of metal. As for the magic items, they're an Insect Repellent Bell and three Ignition Rods. Since they look worn-out, they must be mementos of explorers who have lost their life in the labyrinth.

Among the jewels, there are magic catalysts mixed in, some small fire stones, and lightning stones. Although this is the first time I've seen it, their names often comes up in magic tool recipes. They're materials used to make magic tools for military uses called Fire Wand and Lightning Wand.

I hand the short sword to Mia, and put the rest into the storage.

Afterwards, we thoroughly eliminate four of the five rooms with c.o.c.katrices, and Mia's level rose by 4. Arisa would probably be mad if I said that it took 30 minutes.

There are numerous individuals that were relatively stronger among the c.o.c.katrices, on top of that we got chain bonus for eliminating the c.o.c.katrices all at once. I've heard about this game-like exp-increasing bonus from Kos.h.i.+n-s.h.i.+ when I was drinking with the explorers. It's said that if you beat a lot of monsters in short amount of time, the power that becomes level up from the monsters–probably experience points–that you've defeated will be absorbed by you concentratedly, the efficiency is better.

Now then, putting that aside, since Mia's body looked sluggish from the sudden level up, I installed a carved seal board so we could go back here, and then we went back to the villa. I let her sleep on the bed after she ate some sweet things and drank water, then I decided to continue developing equipments for Pochi and the others.

I'm not planning to make something too original. I want to make a short sword with a mechanism that can make its blade extends with magic blade. I can probably make it by modifying the current [Sh.e.l.l] circuit a bit.

Come to think of it, making a whip sword like the Carrion Sword or Galean Sword which Arisa's mentioned back then might be good too. I'd be worried about the strength if it was a real sword, but since the blade is made from magic power, it looks feasible, let's try to make it.

I continue to develop the designs for not only Pochi's sword but also Tama's and the others' new equipments until Mia wakes up. I've hit some difficulty while developing new magic for Lulu, but it looks like I can raise the cannonball firing rate if I use magic barrel.

After thoroughly exterminating monsters in Area 109 and Area 104 until the time for dinner, Mia has leveled up to 37. The plan was to level her to 40, but exp from aquatic monsters were bad, her level couldn't quite get up.

During the third break, I searched the corridor that extended from the deep of Area 104 to the middle layer. It looks like you can descend to the middle layer from Area 66 and Area 104 besides from the entrance in Area 1. The middle layer that can be accessed from these three entrances doesn't seem to be connected, so I would have to get down there from Area 66. The middle layer that can be accessed from Area 1 has three groups of explorers with levels around 30-47 inside. Two of the groups have around 10 people each, while the last group has around 70 people.

The monsters in the middle layer have 10 more levels on average compared to the upper layer, but their numbers are less than half of the upper layer's monsters. The monsters in the middle layer accessed from Area 1 are quite few in particular. Unlike the upper layer, a lot of monsters of middle layer can use magic. Among them, monsters that can use Instant Death-type magic exist nearly in every Area. It will be dangerous if I don't cull the monsters with Instant Death attacks when we go to the middle layer for leveling everyone.

Once our objective has been met to some extent, we go back to the villa. Of course I've already put a carved seal board in a small room in the middle layer for the time we need it.

“Satou.”

“Oh, you've woken up huh. It's about time to prepare for dinner, so let's go back to Boruenan Forest.”

Since everyone is waiting.

“Mwu.”

“Arisa and the others are going to continue training for at least 3-4 days, so we can just continue tomorrow.”

I take Mia who's puffing her cheeks along, and consecutively teleport to Boruenan Forest.

“I'm back.”

“W, welcome back!”

“I'm back, and also welcome Aze-san.”

“Nn, Aze.”

There are Arisa and Aze-san in the tree house's living room. Looking at the opened magic book before Arisa's face, Aze-san probably answered whenever she had questions.

“Looks like you're working hard.”

“Uh~huhhhhhhh?! Hey wait Mia, what did you do.”

Raising her levels of course.

“Ara? You've really worked hard Mia.”

“Nn.”

Aze-san who doesn't know Mia's level half a day ago is reacting normally, but Arisa who knows that she has leveled up by 10 in half a day screams with surprised look. She's slightly noisy.

“We eradicated the c.o.c.katrices, and the scorpion area deeper on, and then also the aquatic monster area nearby it. I can only use the scorpions to make body nourishment potion, but the c.o.c.ka and the fish look quite delicious you know.”

“Kuh, to be that cheat when you seriously do power-leveling!”

Level does increase with this method, but you won't master the way to fight. Mia is partic.i.p.ating in the actual battles with Arisa and the others anyway, so this much level adjustment should be alright.

“Eh? Coffee?”

When I present her the coffee cup, Arisa receives it while looking surprised. I take another cup from the storage, and hand it to Aze-san. I feel slightly mischievous, I didn't take out the sugar jar and the milk pitcher.

“That's right. Here you go for Aze-san too.”

“Hee, it smells nice. The color is darker than a tea, is it good?”

“Yes, I've always drank it during the job.”

Since the cup is hot, Aze-san slides her sleeves on her palm to lift the cup. It's the technique to cope with a cup without handle. Aze-san draws her face close to the steam that rises from the cup, and enjoys the fragrance. Ah, I want to become the cup. To prevent burn, she blows the cup, but she overdoes it, and then she's swooning.

This person is cute like always.

“Uu, it's too bitter I can't drink it.”

“What a child. This bitterness is the real pleasure of coffee.”

After enjoying the teary Aze-san plentiful enough, I take out an easy-to-drink diluted coffee that has been put with a lot of sugar and milk. I didn't take out the tecake since it was before dinner, but since the new coffee suited her taste, she happily drank it while saying, “I can drink this one.”

“T, this is the girl power of 530.000 huh…. Aze, what a fearful child.”

Arisa is Arisa, I don't know what she's saying.

I took out chocolate parfaits after the meal, but one of it was unpopular for some reason. I have properly put corn flakes in the bottom, vanilla ice on top of it, and then a lot of fresh cream and chocolate sauce on it, furthermore I've even put chocolate bars and banana cuts.

“Kuh, I can't eat it even though it's my dream choco parfait. So this is the Komei's trap!”

I've made the character of Komei on it. Unfortunately, Arisa didn't seem to notice it, she didn't have any reaction.

“Delishlish~?

“Bitterdelish.”

“It's a bit bitter, sweet, and cold below, but it's the strongest even though it's cold nanodesu!”

Calm down Pochi.

Nana and Liza also gave their impressions, but it was just “Sweet.” After giving their short impressions, Tama and Mia eat it with great delight. Lulu has already eaten it during the trial-run, so she doesn't have any impression now.

Only Arisa who has eaten too much during the dinner groans in front of the choco parfait. Even though I had warned her that there would be a dessert before the dinner began so don't eat too much, she fully went round the meat dish, the fish dish, and the vegetable dish. Still, I feel sorry for Arisa who has given up with teary eyes after one bite, I'll make another for her tomorrow morning so I guess I'll leave the leftover parfait to the pixies who are peeking here like an eagle.

I bite the tecake while drinking coffee. The slightly bitter taste of the chocolate powder is spreading in my mouth. It's like the failed handmade chocolate that can only be seen during valentine. I have to improve it more after all.

While wrapped in the sweet fragrance of vanilla, and the lovely fragrance of the chocolate, the night of Boruenan grew late.