Grand Gruen Volcano, like Great Orcus Labyrinth and Great Reisen Labyrinth, was an unexpected place.

It was not an issue of difficulty but of structure.

First of all, the magma flowed about in the air. Like in Felbergan, the country of Demi-humans, it flowed through waterways on the floor, possibly as a means of drainage. The magma moved like a scorching red river, undulating as it flowed; it looked like a large dragon.

Furthermore, the magma headed through the passages and everywhere in the halls. The people traveling through here had to take note of the magma on the ground as well as in the air.

Moreover…

"Ukya!"

She screamed out as she startled by the magma that suddenly shout out from the walls and made her jumped. As she jumped because of that, Eleonora catch her into her arms.

"Wha, you okay?"

"Hauu, thank you, Eleonora-san. The magma suddenly shot out... I couldn't sense it."

As Shea said which light blush on her face, she became like that due herself currently being carried like a princess on Eleonora's arms, the other girls who watched it just feel jealous and send the rabbit woman a jealous glare; which made Shea became smug.

This labyrinth or dungeon they said is very dangerous. Magma shout out at every parts, even shout out from the walls.

It was truly difficult to perceive since there were no obvious signs. It was not a booby trap, either. It was a good thing Eleonora had [Heat Perception]. If she did not, they would be forced to advance cautiously, slowing them down considerably.

Above all else, there was the heat—it was boiling. This was obvious with all the magma flowing through the passages; rather than a sauna, it was like they were in a frying pan. The elements were the greatest difficulty in Grand Gruen Volcano.

Eleonora, Hajime and the girls, while sweating, advanced through the magma covered dungeon, avoiding the magma dropping from the ceiling and the random spouts. In a certain hall, there was an area which was artificially cut. What could be seen was a small, pink ore, peeping out from the wall.

"Oh? This is... [Seiyou Stone]? Right?"

"Yes, that is correct, Master."

Tio confirmed Hajime's suspicion. Apparently there were adventurers who passed through the large blizzard and used Grand Gruen Volcano as an excavation site.

"... Small."

"There are probably pebbles in other places, too..."

As Yue said, the [Seiyou Stone] they located was only finger sized.

Though there were signs of more stone here and there, they were also small. Still, they were only at the surface. It would be too inefficient to collect [Seiyou Stone] from here. They needed to go further into the depths if they wanted a chance at gathering large quantities.

Eleonora examined the [Seiyou Stone] they just found with [Observe] since she want to know more information regarding the mineral they just has found. Although she knew very well that the one who suited to handle mineral or things like this is someone like Hajime.

That's why she leaving the investigation to find the mineral to him. It might slow them down, while she can makes a bunch of copies [Seiyou Stone] after examining the mineral, but she choose not doing that for the sense of adventure. She want the excitement of exploring this kind of dangerous dungeon, because the dungeon she already explored isn't giving her a lot thrill of excitement.

Hajime examined the area for more [Seiyou Stone] with [Mineral Investigation] and urged Yue and the others to collect them easily collectible stones, storing them in [Treasure Warehouse].

While bothered by the heat, they descended seven levels. This was the furthest any adventurer had made it. Any further, and no one returned alive. They descended the stairwell to the eighth level.

At that time, they were engulfed by a strong, hot wind, suddenly followed by a huge flame. An orange wall approached in a spiral path.

"—[Sever Calamity]."

Yue used magic against this flame. A black sphere whirled. Gravity Magic. However, it was not used to crush objects on the ground. The flame of death which could easily char a person to the point of nonexistence disappeared while being drawn to the globe 60 centimeters in diameter. Rather than disappearing, it whirled about in the area as an after effect. The sphere of gravity—[Sever Calamity]—generated a gravity field which drew all things to it; it was a shield which swallowed all in its path.

After the bombardment of flames was swallowed up by Yue's supergravity whirlpool, the assailant's existence came to light.

It was a bull. Its entire body was clothed in magma, and it stood in magma. Two sharp horns curved out from its head, and it breathed flames from its mouth. It clearly had flame resistance; it was a demon Hajime wanted to involuntarily joke about.

The magma bull, angry that its flame attack had been nullified, stamped on the ground. It was preparing to rush.

At that moment, the whirlpool of supergravity exploded toward the magma cow.

The compressed flames attacked like a bombardment of lasers, each with power above the original attack due to it being compressed.

The magma bull, which rushed forward in frustration, was hit in return by its own bombardment.

The air vibrated violently with explosions, the magma where the bull stood scattering. It was blown backward by the impact and thrown to the wall; however, it roared in anger and stood up immediately. It began to rush more violently than before.

"Muu... So fire is ineffective after all."

"Well, it's cloaked in magma... can't be helped."

Yue raised a dissatisfied voice. Shea called out to Hajime who was pulling out Donner.

"Hajime-san, let me do this!"

With Drücken in hand, Shea yelled full of determination.

Though Hajime was a little suspicious at the unusually aggressive response, he consented after seeing the magic power Shea had kneaded into the Drücken with his Evil Eye, he understood she wanted to test out one of her weapon's features.

Shea called out "All right! I'll kill it!" and stepped lightly as if dancing, springing toward the magma bull in an instant.

She rotated once in the air to build up centrifugal force and thrust Drücken at the magma bull from the front. She hit it on the head directly. At that moment, a ripple of magic, powder blue in color, extended from the place the creature was hit, followed by a terrific impact. The magma bull's head flew upward, blown away by the attack.

Shea, using the Drücken as a fulcrum, rotated once again and landed on the other side of the magma bull which crumbled to the ground.

"O, ohh. Hajime-san, this new feature you added is really strong."

"Looks like it... [Impact Conversion], though I thought it would be strong, this is..."

Yue and Tio also raised voices of praise. Shea's attack was not simply due to strength. As Hajime said, it was a unique magic, [Impact Conversion].

[Impact Conversion] was a unique magic Hajime obtained, a derivation skill of [Magic Conversion]. As it was named, it literally converted magic into an impact.

In fact, he had obtained this skill from [Great Orcus Labyrinth] the other day by secretly eating the flesh of the horse-headed demon.

It was a normal demon; and though Hajime's stats did not change, after feeling the magic surge Kouki released when using Limit Break which allowed him to find the class, Hajime had a desire to get stronger, or perhaps to experiment further... as expected, his stats did not change, but he did receive the unique magic.

He added [Impact Conversion] into Drücken.

Though Hajime stared at the magma bull's head in interest, Yue and the others urged him forward, except Eleonora who just smiling at the amusing scene she currently sees right now and Hajime piqued her interest when she use [Observe] on him.

Name: Nagumo Hajime

HP: 2.000.000/2.000.000

MP: 10.000.000/10.000.000

Age: 17 years old

Race: Human-Monster Hybrid

Gender: Male

What he thought about you: He dislike and may hate you since you seemed stole Yue's attention and capable to makes her slowly falling in love with you

Eleonora couldn't help but wanted to laugh at what Hajime thought about her, although she is a bit guilty since it seem that you accidentally stole Yue's attention from him and slowly made the blonde-haired loli vampire which is the lover of Hajime falling in love with her.

But it's not like Eleonora won't understand about that. It's given since she is just stranger that suddenly stole something from someone and she even didn't do anything to it, not putting any effort or all like what Hajime did.

'No wonder he got jealous of me like that. But his jealously not at the point he want to kill me on the spot or anything. If it reached that, then I have no choice but to eliminate him to prevent the case where he may harm anyone I cared about.'

She knew the dangerousness of man. Man is stronger than woman in term of raw strength, but Eleonora isn't feminist or anything like that, she won't blame the entire men just for that. After all, she also knew that women sometimes acting like that.

Although she surprised by his race, she don't care at all about it. Eleonora trying to take a peek on his skills, but there's a lot of it and most of his skill is gained by eating the flesh of monster when it's still raw or fresh. She has disgusted look when seeing it and can't imagine how bad is it when someone decided to eat poisonous meat of monster.

'Hajime-san… has unusual hobby.'

She thought of that while giving Hajime disgusted look and make the young man somehow feel irritated but didn't dare to say anything since he don't know the cause why Eleonora looked at him like that.

Afterward, they encountered a variety of demons which increased in number as they traveled deeper. There were bats which scattered magma from their wings, demons which melted into the wall, hedgehogs that shot out needles of flame, and creatures made from magma which only revealed their face.

There were also chameleons which shot out their magma-covered tongues like wh.i.p.s as well as snakes which swam through the magma above their head, as if ignoring gravity.

Most of the demons were superficially clothed in magma or somehow managed to use magic to nullify the heat, making use of surprise attacks. They all utilized the surrounding magma to attack the group; in a sense, their attacks were unlimited. Furthermore, if they ran into the magma, there was no guarantee of safety.

It was understandable that adventurers that could pass through the blizzard could not survive at the eighth level due to the demons alone. The strength of these demons was on par with demons on Floor 40 of Great Orcus Labyrinth as well. Even if there were valuable minerals such as the [Seiyou Stone] deeper inside, it was clear why no one challenged this Labyrinth.

And above all, the heat was troublesome as it increased every moment. Luckily Eleonora already cast some fire resistance and kept her entire body's temperature cold so that she won't sweats.

Seeing how Eleonora didn't shed any sweats, Yue who curious and confused about that then asked her.

"Eleonora… how you didn't shed any sweat?"

"Yeah! Eleonora-san, how you're not feeling hot? Are you somewhat has fire resistance or something?"

"…Shea, I think because she is the same as me, think of the heat as water and you could feel cold about it."

"That's theoretically impossible… you just hallucinating. Too much heat seemed goes through your head and fried your brain."

"Aaah~ Master care about me."

Being asked like that and it was sparked some curiosity amongst them, Eleonora then answer it since it's not like she is holds some secret that cannot be told carelessly to people around her. But before answering, she then also applied that to all of them, so they won't feel the heat and sweats too much.

When they feel the magic that was suddenly applied on their entire body, there's mixed reaction among them and Eleonora told them.

"Correct, Shea-san. I have [Fire Resistance], [Heat Resistance] from my Fire Magic and using Water Magic to coat myself so I won't feel the extreme heat when I'm here. Although I knew with only [Fire Resistance] and [Heat Resistance] alone I won't feel the heat, but I also want to feel the coolness of water in a place like this."

"Ooooh! So you use it like that. Yue-san, why don't you use your magic like that too? I don't any affinity with elemental magic, so I can't use it. Out of us, maybe only me and Yaegashi-san who don't have any affinity towards elemental magic."

Shizuku nods her head as she agreeing what Shea said. But Hajime sighed.

"Add me on that, since if I don't consume monster meat, I won't have affinity to elemental magic. All I got are the random skills of that monster I've eat."

"Nagumo-kun, you really went through a lot things, huh. Even consuming monster meat to survive your way through the dungeon."

Shizuku said that with pity expression, which Hajime ignore that since he don't want to responding on that and it would be bad if he respond that, meaning that he will agreed about what she said and made him look pathetic.

But it's quite rare for the current Hajime to acknowledge himself like that, as if confirming that he still far too weak because all he do is just consuming monster meat and gain their skills randomly; simply put, if not for the monster meat, he won't be able to get stronger like now.

"Indeed. Because of my race, I only capable to use Fire Magic and Wind Magic. If not for Eleonora-san who applied some [Fire Resistance], [Heat Resistance] and a Water Magic to us earlier."

"Eeeh? Really, Eleonora-san? So, the light that cover me earlier is your magic?"

Eleonora nods her head at Shea and she noticed that Yue giving her lovely smile which make the young bluish-haired girl response on it too with her smile. Yue cheeks feels hot when seeing Eleonora's smile just now. Unlike with Hajime who she always seduce, Yue don't have that kind of thought inside her whenever her eyes meet with Eleonora.

Shea went agape and amazed by the sudden act of Eleonora.

"That's awesome, Eleonora-san! Thank you so much!"

Eleonora just waved her hand to Shea.

"There's nothing to be thanked about, Shea-san. We are comrade and friend, so it's normal to help each other."

"Fufu, Eleonora-san really kind. Even though I already strong against heat, she also included me to that. But I think it's unnecessary for applying [Fire Resistance] and [Heat Resistance] to me too, Eleonora-san."

"Ah, sorry about that, Tio-san. Then let me undo the spell I've cast from you."

"Much appreciated."

Saying that, Eleonora then remove the spells that she applied to Tio earlier since she don't know that Tio is already has [Heat Resistance] because Eleonora not checking Tio's [Status] with [Observe] before cast that.

"Alright, it's done. Sorry for doing that, Tio-san. I should've checked it before."

"It's no problem, Eleonora-san and checked it, how exactly you do that?"

"Oh, by using one of the skill I've create. It's smililar to Hajime's [Mineral Investigation] or in another means is [Mineral Appraisal]. Right, Hajime-san?"

"…Right. Let me guess, you have [Observe]. A handy skill that let you know the basic or detailed information of everything around you. Basically, the strongest version of my [Mineral Investigation]."

All the girls, excluding Eleonora, has shocked expression when hearing that from Hajime. They was shocked because of how strong that skill alone since information and such is considered one of the way to win a fight or war.

Acquiring information is sometimes hard to do, especially in the world which still has poor civilization like Tortus. Unlike the world where Eleonora, Hajime, Kaori, and Shizuku came from which is basically the era of information and anything can be found easily by using modern technology.

"That's some useful skill you have."

Shizuku said in awe. Eleonora chuckled.

"Thank you, Shizuku-san. Should we continue our walk? I believe that with the magic I applied to everyone, we won't have to deal with the annoying heat again."

"It's certainly reassuring. Although it had no effect to me, but I can know the feeling of that."

Hajime wipes the sweats that still remained on his face before he was coated in Eleonora's magic.

"Yeah, if it not for her, I believe that we will roasted like a damn pork or feel like we just out from hellish sauna."

He said that as he don't want to admit but what Eleonora did really saves them a lot since it will render their focus if they did felt the extreme heat inside this labyrinth. As they don't have to worry about the heat problem anymore, Eleonora and Hajime's group then continue their way to exploring the labyrinth.

Until they reached a certain cavern in their way.

The cavern was empty and has the perfect size to be temporary shelter or a place for them to took a break, so they then headed toward a wall relatively far from the magma. Seeing the cavern made Hajime has an idea. He created a door with [Transmute] and invited the girls in. He shut the door to help prevent the heat from seeping in and coated the walls with a metallic layer using [Mineral Extraction] and [Transmute Compression] to protect them from sudden sprouts of magma.

Although they didn't feel sweats and the heat anymore, they still feel their stamina depleted from taking a long walk. So with that, they decided to take a short break before continue it. Eleonora didn't want to use [Remove Fatigue] on them since it seem they really want to take a break and it's wrong to do that every time.

"Fuuh… it's damn tired. Luckily our body temperature became better thanks to Pendragon if not then we likely have to spend our break up to 2 hours."

Hajime said that with annoyed tone on his voice as he feel tired.

"Though I don't except that you have something like [Observe]. It's the kind of ability that always exist in any isekai stories. Have you by any chance an otaku as well? Seeing you have [Observe] and [Inventory]."

Eleonora scratch her cheeks and answer it awkwardly.

"Um… no. I'm not an otaku. I mean, I don't watch that much anime or read too much manga and light novel. I also not someone that claim girl or boy as their waifu or husbando. I only watch anime and read manga whenever I have the chance to do that since I always busy with works."

"But what make you think of creating such spell?"

"I just want something that convenient to me. Also, it's something familiar to someone who play video games like me. Although I usually just play hack and slash type of video game, but maybe after returning from this world to my world, I would play action adventure or RPG."

"…Convenient, huh. That's certainly true. If I have your ability, then I would do the same and honestly, [Treasure Warehouse] is has some flaws too. One of it was the risk of it being stolen. A ring-shaped Artifact that let me store anything in dimensional space."

He said as he looked at the ring Artifact on his finger. Eleonora rubs her chin as she observing the ring and nods her head in understanding since she also the one who don't want that kind of thing happened. She always trying to be cautious and careful about her surrounding, but it's not wrong to said that she also did some mistakes.

"It would be great if we have that kind of spell too! I also could store Drücken that Hajime-san made for me. Ah, it's not like I'm not appreciating you or anything, Hajime-san but it would be convenient for me if I have that."

"I think so too. Carrying a huge weapon like Drücken or anything is really make someone tired. Luckily I have [Treasure Warehouse] ring to make up of that and honestly, if I capable to built the copy of this ring, then I'd like to give it to any of you. It will lessen the burden you have."

"It's not like you can't. If I create a spell to grant you the copy of that, then I think it's possible."

Hajime's group went in shocked hearing that. They couldn't believe of what they heard just now from Eleonora. But honestly, she always giving them a lot of surprises today and somehow they still can't get used to it.

"…If that's true, then it can be considered useful and dangerous skill to have, Eleonora-san."

"It's okay, Shizuku-san. It's not like I will carelessly give it to random person, you know."

The girls, except Eleonora, just blushing hard when seeing the smile that adorned Eleonora's beautiful face right now when she said it to Shizuku with such charming smile.

Seeing this, Hajime sighing and then claps his hands and got the attention of everyone. Make them snapped back to reality.

"Alright, break time is over. Let's continue our journey. I bet we still has a long way to reach the last boss' room. We also have to collect some [Seiyou Stone] for the lord."

Eleonora just smiling as she knew why Hajime decided to said that but don't want to say it out of loud since it would annoy Hajime even more, although she knew that the young man capability is below her but there's no knowing what happened later if they decided to hold a one-on-one fight and going all out.

The young girl also want to prepare anything that she could to negating any Hajime's attack when they happen to fight. After all, it's best to immobilize your opponent and made them powerless first rather than waiting for them to attack and deal a damage to you, since it's sounds stupid.

After leaving the empty cavern, they then continue to exploring the dungeon. Of course, on their way trying to reach the last boss' room they also spotted some [Seiyou Stone] and they not missing any chance to ignore it. Even Hajime could sense the large quantity of [Seiyou Stone] is mostly in the place where magma was most strongly blocked.

Hajime who noticed that then collect the [Seiyou Stone] as much as he want. He's not going to let this chance since he may in need of those stone in the future because it's a mineral coming from huge and dangerous dungeon similar to Great Orcus Labyrinth he already conquered before.

Thankfully, they didn't hurt or harmed at all since Eleonora also applied protection barrier or spell to everyone since she thought only what she was casted before isn't enough to get them out of this dungeon without any harm or injury.

Thank to Hajime magic-powered Submarine, which is named Orcan, they don't have worried about crossing the rivers of magma. Eleonora amazed by the submarine that Hajime built since it can survive being directly bathed in magma. Its durability seems tough and didn't show any damage on it too.

She so want to built a vehicle like this too when she have the chance or remember about it. But Eleonora still amazed by the fact that all of this was built by an otaku like Hajime, who seemed ordinary enough from her perspective.

'Well… there's a saying that 'don't judge a book by its cover'. So I think it's applied to him too even thought he is an otaku and someone who watch anime also manga, which means he also play some videogames.'