We are sitting in a circle on the floor in the house we had rented just that day.
The dining room was very large, but it was completely unfurnished.
There were many different races living in the city, and the size of the furniture used by different races, such as dwarves and beastmen, was completely different.
Because of that, a member of the Real Estate Guild told me that they couldn't furnish a house without knowing who would live.
So, we laid out a rug on the floor and took out the food we had bought at a nearby store.
My friends were eating the food when I opened my mouth.
"It's okay to listen while eating."
"Hmm?"
Biting into the bread and moving her mouth, Kurena looked at me.
"We're finally ready to attack the S-class dungeon."
"Yes!"
Kurena replied happily.
It took us more than 10 days to travel by Magic Ship through the Giamut Empire, meet the Minister, and join Merle. And even after entering the Tower of Trials, we bought the Magic Board, talked to the Adventurer's Guild, and rented a house. After all that, we were ready.
Though the house was not furnished, we were about to enter the dungeon the next day.
For me, furnishing the house was not part of my preparations for the S-class dungeon attack.
"There's something I want to tell you all."
As my expression became more serious, Dogora and Kiel, who had been listening absentmindedly, focused their attention on me.
"What? Again?"
Cecile asked me, who was in a different mood than usual.
"I don't think we'll be strong enough to defeat the Demon Generals even if we conquer the S-class dungeon."
"What? What? What do you mean?"
"I'm sorry, that was a little uncalled for. I'm not saying it's absolutely impossible, but yeah, let's talk about it based on the Demon General Razel."
Furthermore, I started talking about how we had defeated Demon General Razel.
Without Hero Helmios, I predicted that the odds of us defeating the Demon General Razel before his transformation were about 10%.
(That is if they take us lightly.)
"The Demon General was hopelessly strong. I think Demon General Razel was as strong as an S-rank magical beast."
Magical beasts become several times stronger as their rank increases.
Demon General Razel did not call himself the equivalent of an S-rank.
However, he was way stronger than the other Demons, which I had heard to be about A-rank.
So, I concluded that even if we were to get the best equipment after conquering the S-class dungeon, we still wouldn't be able to win for sure.
"Huh? How do you know that? We haven't even entered the dungeon yet."
Dogora took a bite out of my prediction.
"Helmios had a 5-star Talent and his equipment were all from the S-class dungeon. Well, he hadn't fully conquered the dungeon though."
"Oh, I see."
Everyone who went through a Talent change would get a few thousand more status. But even taking that into account, I didn't think we had any chance of overwhelming a Demon General.
(Probably, after everyone's Talent change is complete, and their Level and Skill Levels reach the level cap, and their equipment has been changed to Orichalcum, our odds will finally reach 50%. Or is that too tough?)
"It still doesn't change the fact that we should go, right?"
Cecile asked what I meant by starting such a conversation.
"Of course. As far as I'm concerned, I think our adventure has just begun."
""Adventure?""
"Yes. Adventure. Our adventure to defeat the Demon King. We got caught up in a war while we were still at the Academy, but this dungeon is our first adventure."
"I see. This dungeon is just the beginning."
Kurena, who had already stopped eating and was listening to me, understood the meaning of my words.
"Yes, Kurena. First, we will conquer this S-class dungeon and get as strong as we can by using this dungeon. But that's not the end."
Conquering the S-class was just a part of the process, not the end.
"Then I'll have to increase my Level and Skill Levels as soon as possible!"
Kurena clenched her fists.
(Is the girl who likes swords getting more and more mature?)
Little by little, the girl who was just crazy about swords seemed to have been influenced by me and was trying to become stronger on her own.
The battle with the Demon General must have left some regrets in Kurena's mind.
"We also have friends we didn't have in the war. We don't know how strong Merle's Golem will be, but we'll find out as we go along."
"Yes, yes, Tam-Tam is very strong, so you can count on it."
Merle assured us by puffing out her chest.
""Tam-Tam?""
It was the first time I had heard such a word from Merle's mouth.
"That's my Golem's name."
"Oh, I see. Names are important, aren't they? Tam-Tam."
"Yes!"
(I see. You have good taste in naming things, just like me.)
Apparently, the name she had given to the Golem she had borrowed for the war was Tam-Tam.
"Merle, what rank Golem did you use in the war?"
"I used a Bronze Golem. I was told that there were only a limited number of Mithril Golems, so I couldn't use one."
Merle had the ability to use a Mithril-class Golem, but there seemed to be a limit on their number, and she had to use a Bronze-class Golem.
Merle's Talent was a 1 in 10 million one, but it seemed that the Bakius Empire had a population of hundreds of millions.
There must have been a good number of dwarves who had the Talent Magic Rock General.
Or maybe among the 10,000 Golems, most of them were Iron and Bronze-class, and Mithril-class Golems were very very few in number.
"We will prioritize Merle's Golem in the dungeon. And I want everyone to increase their Levels and their Skill Levels as fast as possible. The Skill Level will be slightly difficult, so use as much skill as you can. And be cautious while fighting."
I expected it to take more than three months for everyone to raise their Levels and Skill Levels to the cap.
I expect to be in the S-class dungeon for about a year.
"I hope the Demon King's army won't attack until then."
"Cecile. I think we're okay in that area. The Demon King's army has suffered major losses in the last war. I don't think they'll attack for the rest of the year."
"I see."
"And, Dogora, I want you to master your Extra Skill as soon as possible."
I told Dogora that he needed to be able to fully use his Extra Skill [Body and Soul].
That skill was our party's strongest single-target attack.
As Dogora would keep changing Talents and get better equipment, his Extra Skill would also get that much stronger.
A 1-star Talent, Dogora, had done that much damage against a transformed Demon General.
His Extra Skill had the potential to defeat a Demon General with a single strike.
"Yeah. Right."
Dogora also replied, staring at his own palm.
"I'll make it a priority to equip Kiel with equipment that increases his [Intelligence]."
"I guess so. Last time, with Dogora, I failed once."
Kiel's Extra Skill, [God's Drop] was a resurrection spell.
In my opinion, the success rate of skill increased with Kiel's [Intelligence].
Not only could Kiel increase his [Intelligence] by changing Talents and leveling up, we could help him by providing him with equipment that increased his [Intelligence].
"Sophie, as you keep on changing Talents progresses, you will be able to manifest Spirits. When that happens, you should be able to communicate and command the Spirits with just a few words."
"All right."
Sophie, a Spirit Magician, only needed to change Talents one more time to become a Spirit Mage.
Spirit Mages were able to manifest Spirits, but it seemed that Spirits were quite moody and difficult to handle.
That information was told to me by the strongest man in Rosenheim, the Spirit Mage Gatoruga.
The Spirits and Spirit Mage didn't share the complete hierarchy-like relationship between a Summoner and a summon.
On the contrary, he even told me that since the Spirits were in a higher position, he had a hard time borrowing their power at first.
Till then I had set goals for Merle, Dogora, Kiel, and Sophie.
"What about me?"
As the conversation was about to end, Cecile asked me if I had some goal for her.
"Not so far. However, you may find some issues in the future. I want you to raise your Level and Skill Levels as soon as possible. Kiel is the first in priority list for [Intelligence] equipment, but you are next."
"Yeah, okay."
"I really want to get my Skills to Level 8 within a year. We don't know when the next war will be."
Finally, I told them my goal.
I said that I wanted to increase my <Summon> to Level 8.
At Level 7, my summon's attacks did not affect the Demon General Razel at all.
The transformed Demon General Razel, in particular, was not even fazed by my attacks.
"Hmm? Allen is so obsessed with the Demon General."
My words made Cecile realize one thing.
I had been talking about Demon Generals ever since the war ended.
I was always like, "Compared to a Demon General...", "How can I defeat a Demon General?"
"Yeah, I didn't tell everyone, but I have a feeling that hunting Demon General is part of my purpose."
""Huh?""
"What do you mean?"
"As I told you before, I'm supposed to gain levels by defeating Demons. I suspect this is because Elmea wants me to."
When I defeated Demon General Razel, my level increased without any indication of experience.
"I've only defeated 1 Demon General yet, but I think it's safe to say that if I defeat Demon Generals, my Level will increase unconditionally, regardless of the experience required."
"'Elmlea'?"
Wondering who I was calling out to, my friends didn't hear me for a moment.
"If hunting 100 Demon Generals will raise my Level by 100, I think my first priority should be Skill Levels."
My level had already reached a point where I couldn't raise it fast enough by hunting magical beasts.
After defeating Demon General Razel, I had a better idea of how to level up.
So, I was going to concentrate on raising my Skill Level as much as possible.
"That's why you were asking so much about magic stones at the Adventurer's Guild."
"The Adventurer's Guild in the tower boasts the largest amount of magic stones in the Bakius Empire along with the Imperial Capital. I'm going to buy all the magic stones I can find, even if it means destroying the market a little."
I had put in a request at the Adventurer's Guild to purchase 100,000 D-rank magic stones with 1,000 Gold coins.
I asked the Adventurer's Guild staff how much I could request at once, and they said "as much as you want," so I tried to give them 7,000 Gold coins, but they said I could only give them 1,000 Gold coins at a time.
And they said it would take five days to get 100,000 D-rank magic stones.
"Oh, you know, ..."
"Allen, I need a minute."
Kiel tried to say something.
However, Kiel stopped himself from saying anything more because Cecile spoke to me as if she was covering for him.
The rest of the group seemed to have some thoughts on the matter as well.
I was waiting for Cecile to say something.
"Hmm?"
"We're friends, right? So, can we stop splitting the money we make in the dungeon evenly now?"
We had always divided the money we earned in the dungeon evenly.
Because that was the common sense of partying for me.
"Hmm?"
"We know how much you need the magic stones, and we also know that you needs a lot of Gold for that."
Cecile continued.
Everyone had different ways of getting stronger. Some required better equipment whereas I required magic stones.
And money would take care of my needs.
Cecile talked about how the money earned from the dungeon should be focused on collecting magic stones for me.
"Yes, yes, Cecile. I think that would be good too."
Kurena agreed.
I looked at my friends.
There was not the slightest hint of opposition on anyone's face.
Everyone seemed to think that everything should be used to raise my Skill Level.
"I see. That's nice of you to say."
I thanked everyone profusely.
Thus ended the discussion the day before going to the S-class dungeon, listening to the thoughts of my friends.
