The appearance of the dwarven mechanical guardians.I issued orders to each party member.“Ciel, take the vanguard. But don’t advance more than ten steps. Those things will try to lure you into traps.”“Yes!”“Beatrice, cast Haste on Ciel. Yulina and Bell, provide covering fire from the rear.”“Okay!”Empowered by physical enhancement magic, Ciel began engaging the dwarven mechanical guardians head-on.I also tore a Haste scroll and used it, then trusted in the defensive power of my magic suit and joined Ciel at the front line.Screech—.The mechanical spider skittered along the wall, wildly moving the grotesque eight legs attached to its underside as it rushed us.I clenched my fist and recalled the information about it.'Its weak point is the mana core attached near its rear end.'But that core came from a distant bygone era, not the current age.The remote that had turned Meyer’s magic armor into dead weight wouldn’t work on it, so I had to take care of it manually.Clack—.I blocked its gear-like jaws once with the Aegis shield as it lunged, then swung my fist and smashed its «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» underbelly.Crunch—.A stinging pain ran through my hand as the mechanical spider’s underbelly caved in.At the same time, the absorption effect of my mana gauntlet activated and drained its mana.Shhh—.Even as it was stunned by the gauntlet’s effect, the thing spewed a sharp filament from its rear and attacked me.Screee—!Like a bee stinging with its last breath, it was going for one final strike.However—“Fire Bolt.”Before the mana I’d absorbed with Milia’s mana gauntlet fully settled in my body, I fed a fire spell straight into its belly.Boom—!Starting from the inside, the mechanical spider exploded, blowing its parts apart and utterly destroying it.The sharp filament it had shot at me was also completely burned up in the blast and did nothing at all.Its outer shell had high magic resistance, but if I burned it from the inside like this, it was easy to deal with.“Whew.”After perfectly subduing it, I dusted off my hands and looked to the side.While I had taken down one of them, three or four mechanical spiders lay shattered in the direction Ciel had passed.“……”In that brief moment when my attention wandered—Screech—.One mechanical spider slipped past my side and rushed toward the mages in the rear.At that moment—“Don’t worry about your back!”Kraang—!Melga swung a massive hammer and split its head clean in half.Crackle—.The mechanical spider shattered completely with a sound of sparking current.I shrugged at the sight of the utterly wrecked mechanical spider.'Well, Melga’s Strength stat is well over 50, after all.'Those solid-looking muscles were not for show. On top of that, dwarves had a racial bonus with blunt weapons, so it was only natural things broke like that.After we finished off the mechanical spider swarm, we took a brief rest.Even sitting in place, Melga was analyzing the mechanical parts he had picked up.“Ohh, these gears attached to the mouth move organically together and have the property of breaking down mana. So it neutralizes the opponent’s magic shield, does it?”“Good analysis. This Aether Dungeon is especially harsh on mages.”What had happened earlier was the prime example.Even Beatrice, a 5th-circle mage with aptitude in all five elements, had almost died to a trap for letting her guard down for just a moment.It wasn’t just the traps.The mechanical guardians protecting the dungeon were also specialized for dealing with mages.Mechanical spiders that ate away at shields, steel armadillos with powerful magic resistance, bats that generated magic-sealing barriers—every single one was a pain to deal with.This setup obviously took into account that “Elemental Mages” were needed to defeat the Dungeon Keeper.It was also why I was bothering to stand at the front line together with Ciel.Right now, physical attacks were extremely effective.“Let’s move out again.”After a short rest, we continued onward, smoothly taking down the dwarven mechanical guardians blocking our path.The next to appear after the mechanical spiders were the Steel Armadillos, armored in solid steel.Rumble—.It only looked like an armadillo; at a glance, it was basically a steel-made siege tank.I swallowed as I looked at the armadillo legion filling the corridor.'These things have not only massive magic resistance but also insanely high physical defense.'But they had weak points as well.Gulp—.I drank a Blessing of Fierabras and used a Strength Enhancement Stone.Shhh—.A flood of power surged through my whole body as system log messages appeared.Strength increases by 5 for 300 seconds.The special effect of the trait [Alchemy] is activated.A portion of the enemy’s Defense increase from traits, skills, items, etc. is ignored.It was the [Defense Penetration] effect.“Yulina, Beatrice, buff me with magic.”Vmmm—.A brilliant aura of magic rose around me.At the same time, I felt power welling up inside me, ready to explode.Boosted by powerful buff magic and doping, I kicked off the ground and charged forward.Then I slammed my fist with all my strength into the leading Steel Armadillo.Thud—.Crack—.The armadillo’s shell split with a jagged crack under my strike.Feeling the impact through my fist, I grinned.'It’s working!'My [Defense Penetration] attack had broken the shell of the Steel Armadillo, which boasted high defense and magic resistance.More importantly, this had value beyond simply showing that my blows could land.In the game, the Defense Penetration effect was just a numerical mechanic that ignored a portion of defense.“Bell!”“Yes, sir! Flame Blaster!”Boom—!In reality, however, it allowed us to pour Bell’s fire magic through the cracks in its shattered shell like this.Fwoooosh—.As Bell’s extreme flames reached its internal components, the Steel Armadillo spewed black smoke and soon ceased functioning.No matter how high its magic resistance, there was no answer if you burned everything on the inside.“Good, get the next spell ready!”Once I confirmed that the strategy worked, I drove my fist into each armadillo shell filling the corridor, cracking their armor one by one.Rumble—.Of course, the mechanical armadillos responded, ramming us with their massive bodies.But thanks to the defensive power of Altair’s suit and the Aegis, I could push through their ranks just fine.Besides, Steel Armadillos were monsters that had dumped everything into defense, so their attacks weren’t that threatening in the first place.The same pattern kept repeating afterward.Whenever physical offense was needed, Ciel and I took the lead; all trap and device disabling was handled by Chloe and Melga.Bell and Yulina followed my calls and provided firepower exactly where it was needed.“Keep moving forward!”The deeper we pushed through the churning mechanical guardians into the dungeon, the stronger the enemies that welcomed us became.Eventually, we even ran into threatening guardians like steel rhinos plated with sharp alloy and mechanical anacondas.Of course, even they were no match for our perfectly coordinated formation.“Whew.”When the final monster wave ended, the party members wiped their sweat and took a short break.I personally handed out food to them and encouraged them.“Everyone’s doing great. At this rate, we might even clear the dungeon today.”Progress was smooth.The party’s coordination was better than I’d expected, and everyone was fighting hard, so we were pushing through the dungeon at an incredible pace.At this rate, we might really defeat the Dungeon Keeper before the day was over.While we were resting in the safe room, Yulina spoke to me.“But you… were you always that fast on your feet?”Having watched me and Ciel smashing mechanical guardians at the front, Yulina suddenly asked about my physical ability.I answered in a calm voice.“I’ve been training hard.”“Training, huh. Now that you mention it, at the start of the semester you were nothing but skin and bones, but now you’ve got some muscle on you.”She poked my upper arm with a finger. I stayed still without even flexing.“It’s not that firm.”“That’s how muscles are.”I felt a gaze on me and looked over to see Ciel watching me with a displeased expression.“……”As I tried to ignore the prickly stare, Beatrice happened to open her mouth.“By the way, Loen—I heard you subdued Meyer in the Competition Battle?”“Yeah, he wasn’t an easy opponent.”“I don’t know what method you used, but they say you made Meyer’s magic armor go dead?”It seemed the details of my Competition Battle with Meyer had reached Beatrice’s ears.I answered honestly without trying to hide anything.“Well, I used a method that interrupted the signal of the mana core his armor uses. Once I turned the armor into a pile of scrap, he was much easier to deal with.”“Up until then, he supposedly dodged attacks with movements comparable to a knight, but after what I saw from you today, that part makes sense as well.”“That was all items and drugs. My base strength is nowhere near that level.”“In any case, it means you can display that level of ability when needed. Yulina, you’ll have to be careful too, won’t you? If you run into Loen in the Competition Battle, it’ll be dangerous.”Yulina smirked and replied:“Oh, Your Highness. I’m not going to lose to Loen.”“I imagine Meyer thought the same. Please don’t let your guard down.”When Beatrice advised Yulina to be careful of me, I turned to her and asked:“And what about you, Beatrice? Do you think you can beat me?”She answered immediately.“Of course. I don’t lose.”“…Right.”She had just told Yulina not to be overconfident, yet she herself was completely sure of victory.It was good to have that much confidence in her own skills, but the way she flipped her stance was too fast.Anyway.After chatting idly while we rested, we resumed exploring the dungeon.Before long, we arrived at the dungeon’s final chamber.Looking at the tightly shut door of the boss room, I spoke to the others.“Is everyone ready?”“Yeah!”Thinking the long exploration was finally nearing its end, the party’s faces brightened.No matter how smoothly things had gone, we were still in the middle of a dungeon.Everyone had been on edge, wary of traps and monsters that could appear at any moment from anywhere, so of course they’d want to finish the exploration and get out of here as soon as possible.“Good. If you’re all set, we’re going in.”Creeeeak—.With a push of strength, the massive door opened to both sides with a skin-crawling sound.As the door opened, a shaft of light cut into the dark boss room, casting our shadows long across the floor.“……”The Dungeon Keeper’s chamber sat in tense silence as everyone held their breath.Then—Flash—.Five eyes flickered in the darkness and flared with intense light.The Dungeon Keeper’s single eyes, each glowing with a color symbolizing one of the Five Elements.Rumble—.The massive statue-shaped Dungeon Keepers slowly rose to their feet.I swallowed as I looked up at the steel knights rising from the darkness.'Dungeon Keepers cast from dwarven anti-magic alloy.'These Dungeon Keepers had a broken ability: unless hit with spells of a matching elemental affinity, they reduced all damage by 99 percent.They also had an auto-repair system that quickly restored any damage, so cheap tricks like opening a hole in their armor to kill them—like we’d done to the armadillos—were impossible.I entrusted this battle to Beatrice.“Beatrice, I’m counting on you.”“Whew, very well.”Up to now, Beatrice had tried to avoid participating too directly in combat, preserving her mana.She let out a deep breath and drew her staff from her subspace pouch.A massive red jewel sat at the tip of the elegantly worked branch of the World Tree.Beatrice’s exclusive magic weapon, [Red Dragon’s Eye].An artifact containing the pinnacle of the Empire’s magical engineering, a [Legendary]-grade item whose price couldn’t even be estimated.Its unique ability was that, when used by a direct-blood Cassandra imperial, it increased the final damage of all magic by 50 percent.Truly a broken ability.Thump—.Beatrice lightly tapped the ground with the bottom of her staff. With hawk-like sharp eyes gleaming, she spoke calmly.“Leave it to me.”

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