The second hive is bisected, and…
“Master.”
“Yes.”
This time I blew the hive away with one attack, but it seems the trigger to spawn the guards isn’t damage, it’s being attacked. The hive turns into smoke and disappears, but the guards are surrounding us.
And there are clearly more than before. Is it because of the way it was attacked? Because it’s the second hive… I can see close to double the amount of red dots on the map, but then I feel something is off.
“…Hn?”
“Shouta?”
“Hm…”
It’s curious, but I can leave it for later. More importantly, how do we deal with this many…
“Kasumi, I think you’re going to have to work in front. Are you up for it?”
“Yes!”
“Okay. Fight with Maki and follow her instructions!”
“All right!”
“Ayane, there’s no hive this time, so you can use area of effect attacks!”
“Yes!”
There are eight Killer Bees this time. There were two in the initial scouting unit, so it’s certain there are more guards this time.
But how many can Ayane take down with area of effect attacks? Their stingers aren’t a problem on their own, but they are if we’re fighting a lot and they start coming from the sides. I have Foresight, and Aira can read their moves before they happen, but I’m worried about the others.
Kasumi in particular has a low level, and doesn’t have Adamantine Armor. Hm, if Kasumi is going to come with us again, we could visit the Heart Dungeon. Even if the branch manager probably wouldn’t like me going there to conquer it.
“Crash Tempest!”
Ayane’s attack signals the start of the battle, and three Killer Bees turn to smoke.
I break through the bees encircling us, and launch a preemptive attack on the Killer Bees commanding them.
“Ahh.”
I put my weapons away and look around.
Everyone is busy collecting the items this battle spread all over.
“Good job, Kasumi. Are you okay? That was pretty frantic.”
“Yes, I’m fine. Maki and Seren supported me.”
‘~~♪’
“Yes, and you did a good job too.”
“Yes yes, you did.”
“Hehehe.”
I pat Kasumi with Maki. Then Ayane jumps in, and Aki and Aira come over too. I let myself go along with the same flow as always, and an alarm rings from my smartphone.
Pipipipi.
“Whoa.”
“What is that, Shouta?”
“Hm, hold on a second.”
I open the map to check.
“…That’s what I figured.”
I set an alarm when the first hive was destroyed. It’s been an hour, but…
“The first hive still hasn’t come back.”
“““““!?”””””
The monsters we’ve encountered so far respawned in five minutes at the soonest, and ten minutes at the latest. Goblins here were no different, but how do we make a hive respawn?
“So master, does this mean the other group of bees is the only one in the forest?”
“Yes. There aren’t any other reactions.”
“Weird…”
“In any case, we’ll know after we defeat that last group.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go for it, big brother!”
“Yes.”
Maybe it’s because it’s the last group, but this one also has a big scouting party.
I cut down the maroon bees on the outer edge, and over a hundred reinforcements come. There are also three Killer Bees. Once we get over this group and I attack the hive, about three times as many appear. But there being more just means more are caught in Ayane’s magic, and it makes it easier for Enki and Enril to work too.
Conversely, people like me and Kasumi don’t have area of effect attacks, so we have to take them down one at a time. The difference in ease of fighting groups means it’s a hard fight for us. During the second fight, it was more effective for me to sneak to the outer circumference and take down Killer Bees, but the scale of this group means that plan fails this time. As I’m going for the fourth Killer Bee, the others target me and set the maroon bees at me.
Ayane acts quickly and uses magic centered on me. It doesn’t affect me thanks to Adamantine Armor. Now that I’m free from their circle, I join Aira in going around eliminating them until we successfully destroy the hive.
In the end, I’m level ninety-four. I was level seventy, but taking down ten rare monsters still raises me a lot.
“Good job, everyone.”
“Yes, nice work.”
“That was intense, darling.”
“I feel like we’ve been having group fights forced on us the whole time on the fifth floor.”
“The first group was one thing, but after that, they would have been too intense for regular adventurers.”
“I wouldn’t want to face them with my team. This is the beginner dungeon, but it’s still pretty hard on the last floor.”
“…!”
As everyone praises each other for their hard work, I sense something, put my hand on my sword, and turn around.
There’s nothing there, but I feel it in my skin that something unknown is up ahead.
“Is it an enemy, darling?”
“…Yes, a new one.”
“I did sense something just now.”
“Really? I didn’t feel anything…”
Kasumi closes her eyes and uses Presence Detection, but doesn’t seem to be picking up on the enemy. Well, I guess it’s a difference in experience. I open the map, and don’t see any red marks or dots in the forest. The map shows all enemies are down, but my Omni Detection is warning me that there is something in front.
“I’d like everyone to rest for a bit, but we don’t know when it might come. It’d be a pain to start over, so should we go check it out?”
Everyone nods, and we head to the center of the forest.
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