After crossing the stairs, Leo gaped at the scorching red magma floating in midair as well as scattered all across the floor.

[Quest Available: Clear Gruen Volcano Labyrinth]

Clear the Gruen Volcano Labyrinth.

Difficulty: A+

Rewards: Permanent 5% discount on all items, 10000SP

[Accept / Decline]

\'Accept! Accept!!!\'

He nearly exclaimed loudly in front of girls, 5% will be enough for him to save a large amount of SP in the long run. The difficulty didn\'t faze him, he expected at least this much, even with his current strength.

His sudden change in mood caused Shea to nearly get hit by a sudden magma outbreak from the ground. He stopped and made two bracelets and enchanted it with [Heat Sense], which let\'s owner sense the heat around them as long as some mana is provided.

He gave them one each and explained its function.

"Geez~ Leo-san, you are so overprotective of us."

Even though she said this, the happy smile gave away her feelings.

"...Good Leo. Always worrying about us."

He ignored her praise and focused the sense heat skill on his surroundings.

The party of three continued their walk while evading the magma erupting from ground and air.

"Huh? What\'s that?"

Shea pointed at a small pink crystal partly embedded in one of the walls.

\'Analyze\'

[Stillstone]

Useful in calming down the rampaging mana

\'It does look useful, might as well collect them. Might come in handy sometime.\'

His inner greed took the better of him. "Collect every one of those!"

"Roger~"

"...Okay."

He carefully pulled out all stillstones he could find, they weren\'t bigger than a pebble. He shrugged and put them in his inventory.

They didn\'t encounter a single monster on the floor.

"It looks like this trial is about surviving," he spoke out his opinion.

"...Make calm decisions under heat pressure?"

"Yue-sensei is so wise~"

"Hmph… I\'m. After all, I lived for three ce..."

"What? You were about to say it! Your real age, c\'mon say it out loud~"

"...Shut up, annoying rabbit. Leo, she tired to ta—"

Shea shut Yue\'s mouth with her hands. "Sorry~ I am sorry~, I won\'t bring up your age again. So please don\'t tell him that."

He shook his head and advanced into the stairs. He descended floor after floor, the heat increased every floor.

7th floor…

"This is the highest floor any adventurer ventured on."

"We can do it~ We have so many cheat abilities."

"...Nn."

They entered the stairs of the 8th floor. A fierce gust of wind hit them, his heat sense detected a massive wave of heat coming.

Leo equipped the Walking fortress shield and set it to the highest area mode. He also activated the Diamond protection skill enchanted on it.

Magma smoothly slid down the shield, leaving an unscathed circular shield, more than 4 meters in diameter. He breathed a sigh of relief and saw the culprit, a 2m large ox monster with two curved horns on its head, magma covered its entire body. Fire puffed out of its nose with every breath, standing inside a pool of magma without any harm.

The ox monster charged at them.

"You are dead."

He stored the shield and shot a wave of frost at the coming monster. The monster froze for a few seconds before smoke rose from its body. Magma on its body slowly melted the ice. It freed itself and roared in anger.

A ruthless smile floated on Leo\'s face. "Let\'s see if you survive this."

The monster charged, Yue shot ice spears at the monster which couldn\'t pierce its thick skin. Seeing her method not working, she prepared to use frost prison.

"Let me deal with it," he said and equipped tbe severance. Using extreme focus, he charged the catalyst orb full of ice breath. Blue ball-like mana slowly concentrated in the pointed tip of the gun. He saw the monster rushing in slow-mo mode and released the trigger.

A blue beam silently hit the Ox, its headless corpse fell in the magma and disappeared. He spat in magma and looked back to see a smile on the girl\'s face.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Leo advanced forward with the giant shield in his hands with Shea and Yue near him.

They didn\'t meet any more monsters on this floor. The party descended from the stairs. Once again, another wave of magma greeted them, the party was already prepared so they dodged it easily. There were two ox monsters on this floor.

"Shea, go wild. Yue cover her, I\'ll deal with one."

"Yay~ time to blow some heads~"

Shea held Blue Waiss and charged at the ox monster. Yue targeted its eyes with Ice spells. Leo equipped Cursed Sword and ran while dodging the attack.

Shea jumped high and swung down the large hammer, a wind bullet exploded in the air increasing the impact even further.

Crack Crack~

Both ox horns broke down under her attack and saved its head from exploding.

Roooar~ The monster roared like an angry beast and opened its mouth wide. Seeing the monster attacking again, Shea clicked her tongue and kicked its head and flipped backward.

Wasting no time, She charged again, the large hammer ripped through the air and hit the ox chest, blowing it backward.

She glanced at Leo beheading the ox monster with ease.

\'I need to get stronger, I don\'t want to become a burden to them.\'

"Frost Prison"

The ox monster surroundings turned into ice, even magma was completely frozen into solid ice for a few moments before it melted. The monster was turned into a crystal figure, creating a fine sight when paired with red rocks in the background.

Leo took out mana crystal from the monster. It had the same quality and quantity as a mutated orc or a 40th floor monster on Orcus upper Labyrinth.

\'Fuck, this strong monster core for 100SP. I can\'t kill every one of these myself or the girls won\'t pass the trial.\'

He couldn\'t eat the body filled with magma. He shook his head and stared at the other ox frozen in ice.

They descended the stairs, this time a bat-like monster showed up. He sniped it easily with severance, gaining him another 100SP.

Another floor down, he met one ox monster while two bats spat magma from air.

"Yue, Shea, take care of the bats, I\'ll go kill that ox."

Shea nodded her head and fired ice bullets with Blue Waiss. Yue cast ice magic Glacial sheets, a hail of sharp ice needles appeared of thin air and penetrated the wings of bats.

"Isn\'t this too easy?"

"...Don\'t say that."

Leo slashed at the ox neck, gray aura coated the sword and cut through ox skin without any resistance.

\'No fun.\'

This time they met no monster, Leo still sensed something coming from his right. He kept his eyes on the wall, it was getting closer. The wall melted in several moments and an eel-like monster jumped at them.

But too bad, a dozen ice needles and bullets pierced the monster before it could open its mouth.

Leo took out the mana crystal which had the price of 110SP. He wanted to curse but stopped seeing a fist-sized pink crystal in the wall where the monster jumped from.

"Better than nothing," he whispered and pocketed the stillstone.

Drops of sweat were running down his cheeks, the girls were also the same.

"Even [Auto temperature] has its limits."

They descended another floor and saw two hedgehogs laying on the floor. It had red skin, magma covered spikes sticking out on its back.

"...Cute," Yue whispered unconsciously.

Shea slapped her cheeks to stop the temptation of cute creatures.

The noise awoke the hedgehogs from their slumber, they opened their fiery red eyes and roared. It looked more cute than fierce. He smirked and froze one with ice breath.

Its enraged comrade fired magma covered needles from its back. A golden barrier appeared and absorbed the damage of spikes.

"Wind blades"

Three wind blades whizzed toward the hedgehog, making three deep wounds on its small body. It tried to jump in magma but an ice bullet crushed its body. Shea rubbed the hammer on her face, the leftover cold ice soothed her cheeks.

Yue wiped tears from the corner of her eyes.

"...I\'ll remember you."

Party advanced deeper and deeper, nothing could stop them, they met a chameleon monster which only peaked from the magma puddle and swung its magma-covered tongue like a whip.

The numbers of monsters didn\'t exceed 10 on any floor up until now...