Chapter 61

Eminira Dungeon (2)
We descended the stairs and arrived at the second floor.
This was also a forest, but the trees were denser than on the first floor.
On the second floor, there were forks in the path and dead ends, and goblins could come out from the front, back, left, and right.

“Pii, pii, pii.” Ripka was eagerly trying to tell something to Atre and Brother Gerald.

“Ripka wants to join in too, is that right?” Brother Gerald asked, and when I checked with Atre, he confirmed it.

Though Ripka still had orange feathers and baby fuzz and hadn’t fully turned into Fiamma’s vermilion color yet, when I asked if it was okay, apparently goblins weren’t a problem. He said he wanted to practice magic too.

The plan here was that Canal and I would decide at the forks in the road.
When we encountered goblins, we’d take down several by firing Waterballs in rapid succession. Atre and Ripka would also join in the fighting.
If any were left, Brother Gerald and the others would take turns handling them.

In the forest, Canal, Salem, and I were walking at the front.
I asked Salem, who was walking next to Canal:
“Mr. Salem, do you remember which way is a dead end at the forks?”

“I haven’t been here in a while, so not really. When I was G-rank and came almost daily, I had it memorized, but...”

“Do goblins always appear in the same places?”

“No, they don’t. So don’t let your guard down.”

We heard rustling sounds and got into combat stance. Seven goblins came out from the front and both sides.
Canal and I fired Waterballs in rapid succession, Atre used Iceball, and Ripka used Fireball—together, we wiped out all the goblins.

So it was decided that as long as we could handle it, Canal, Atre, Ripka, and I would continue the subjugation ourselves.
I asked if there was a way to tell which fork to take, but apparently not.
It all came down to luck.
If we picked wrong, we’d have to walk quite a bit to reach a dead end, and we’d encounter goblins along the way—meaning wasted stamina and time.

We reached the first fork. I had no clue.
Canal and I pointed in the direction we wanted to go on the count of “one, two...”
I pointed right, and Canal pointed left.
Since we were split, we asked Atre and Ripka which way they wanted to go.
“Left,” both said. I lost.

We proceeded left and kept defeating goblins without issue.
Another fork—this time, it split three ways.
It seemed like we’d taken the right path.

Again, Canal and I pointed: I picked center, Canal picked left.
When we asked Atre and Ripka, they both said, “Right.”
We were completely divided again.
Canal said, “Let’s go with Atre and Ripka’s ‘right.’ Let’s trust the instincts of the familiars.”

Canal’s idea seemed right, and we hit another fork.
From then on, every time we reached a fork, we asked Atre and Ripka, and we never hit a dead end. We arrived at the second floor’s boss room.
There were two groups ahead of us, so we took a break.

“So this is the power of S and A-rank familiars. It’s kind of unfair, isn’t it? I can’t help but feel a bit jealous.” Allie muttered.

“Do we even need to be here? This feels like overkill.”

“I think from the third floor on, we’ll finally have to step in.” said Linka, Will, and Gregory.

“Canal’s used to goblins, after all. But we’ll definitely need to help out in this boss room.”

Canal, Atre, Ripka, and I held a strategy meeting.
Canal and I would first try to defeat one by rapid-firing Waterballs.
If that didn’t work, we’d use Big Waterball to cover the Hobgoblin’s face with a film of water and cut off its breathing.

Atre and Ripka said they were still good to go, so they’d also aim to take down one Hobgoblin each, just like us.
The remaining six would be left to the adults.
We decided not to push ourselves too hard since the dungeon still had a long way to go.

When it was our turn, we opened the boss room door.
Ten Hobgoblins were lined up in two rows of five at the center, and the moment the door shut, they charged at us.

We each aimed our spells at the Hobgoblin directly in front of us.
The first one dodged, but I kept firing, and the second and third shots hit its face and left shoulder, knocking it down.
Canal, Atre, and Ripka each took one down too.
The remaining six were handled by Brother Gerald, Mayer, Wilson, and Allie—those four, who excel at magic, took care of them quickly.

What do you think about this chapter?