Her conversation with Lala finished Kotori was led by Bartholomew back to the guest room where she relayed the new task to her party members.

“This Lala girl do you trust her?” Amelie said. After hearing her.

Kotori frowned. It was a difficult question to answer, although Lala was treating her relatively cordially she did have her own reservations.

Still, at the current moment, going along with Lala was the right option anyway. They would’ve run into the other candidates eventually and Kotori was sure it would end in a confrontation anyway.

“I don’t know, but at the very least we would have to do this” Kotori said.

Amelie seemed to purse her lips.

“Alright, but keep on guard” She said hesitantly agreeing to go along with Kotori.

** ** **

Kotori was currently walking through a hallway in the dungeon. The ground was red packed dirt and the walls were made of “rock” it was a tunnel created specifically for them to go hunt down the other candidates.

Lala seemed delighted to hear that they wanted to help her and she made them a tunnel so that they could find the other candidates easier.

Kotori had trouble understanding how Lala was able to pinpoint the candidates so accurately but decided to trust her.

The tunnel would apparently shift on its own to find them. Still, Kotori was planning for what she was going to do once she got to the candidates.

According to Lala, it was fine if the platinum dragon died once, but any more and she would be forced to go dormant.

In other words, Kotori wouldn’t be able to get her dungeon crystal.

Lala didn’t bother to ask Kotori who she wanted to meet first so she could only hope that she ran into Mathias first.

According to Lala the tunnels could only be manipulated so much and it took quite a bit of mana to move them around, so at a certain point, the cost of moving around tunnels would exceed the cost of making another dragon.

Regardless Kotori and co walked through the hallway, it was dim only faintly lit by a will o wisp created by Layla.

After walking forward Kotori heard sounds ahead she and Amelie nodded to each other and she took Hikari to cast her Mana buff on the party. Shu, Umi, and Layla ll immediately changed into their battle forms. Which immediately made the hallway feel quite cramped in comparison due to their large size.

Amelie in turn drew her swords and Hikari also switched to battle mode(Magical girl).

They charged forward into the hallway to find a group of adventurers who looked quite shocked to see them.

Kotori scanned the group and saw two familiar faces among them. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw was Mathias and Yenoba.

In contrast to the stunned adventurers, the couple seemed to be annoyed to see her, but then immediately changed their expression to one of friendliness,

“Woah, Woah Woah stand down folks we don’t have to start fighting,” Mathias said as the two groups faced off.

He gave a gentle amicable smile.

[He’s still trying this?] Kotori thought, she had smartened up a little and was sure this was an act.

Most likely Mathias didn’t want to fight them if he was trying to deflect like this.

“Now, Now, we don’t have to be so hostile, why don’t we work together Kotori,” Mathias said.

[Annoying] Kotori thought, now that she was looking closer she realized how fake the smile on Mathias’s face was. She could even see a vein slightly bulging on his head and a line of sweat beading down his forehead.

The adventurers with Mathias were strong no doubt, but the lion share of strong platinum ranked adventurers were with Zacariah, not Mathias.

Kotori flicked her fingers and in an instant, her party were attacking Mathias’s group.

Since Kotori didn’t particularly hold much animosity vs Mathias she just had the group incapacitate Mathias and co.

While there was a little bit of trouble it seemed simple enough to take out Mathias and his crew. Kotori left the defeated group on the group apparently Lala would move them to the entrance on her own so Kotori didn’t have to do anything.

Kitsura

Dab