It’s been fifteen days since the group’s run-in with the Belladonna Nightshade that handed their ass to them and how are they now in terms of strength?  

Well, if we’re talking their strength as displayed by their Informers in levels, Marcel was a LV 62, Allan 77, Valeria 78, and Silva, 83. They are already on their way to becoming C-class adventurers, although the thing is that it’ll get harder for them after they reach LV 85 since life doesn’t always go easy for people, well except maybe heroes. 

They’ve grown a lot in strength over the past few days and that might be because they’re with Marcel who grows fast or something else. They’re currently now on their way to the last circle of the plant-type dungeon, the twelfth and innermost circle that’ll grant them the privilege of having cleared the whole dungeon.  

Oh yeah, a while after they had battled with the Belladonna Nightshade and almost lost miserably, they decided to go back to the start point and defeated every single monster in the dungeon, meaning that apart from the eleventh and twelfth circles, there were no monsters at all on the other floors.  

It was a massacre. Silva, being the magic spell overlord that she was, bombarded the sixth circle with magic spells all over the place and caging all the monsters on that circle in one location and then ending them all with a few over-the-top spells. She finished in a day. 

Marcel took the floor after that and massacred all the monsters with Sigurd. He first used [Golden Lion’s Roar] to instill fear and scare all the monsters on that floor, leaving them in a panicked state and then picked away at them one at a time. Unlike Silva, it took a total of two days and Claude was stunned when he came back drenched in dungeon beast goop from head to toe like the Prince of Slaughter. 

Allan wasn’t feeling as confident as the other two for a while, so he let Valeria go after and she massacred the eighth circle by herself. She enhanced herself to the limit, something that she never had to do before to the point of almost going berserk, and then before she knew it, in a day and a half, she had massacred all the plant monsters the entire circle. Strong, huh? She was currently in second place in terms of completion speed. 

It was then after Valeria’s little party that Allan got confident enough to attempt the same challenge as the others. He went and conquered the ninth floor all on his own in three days and he went a little crazy after killing all the dungeon beast as he felt very powerful and unstoppable, probably something he inherited from the beastly side of his blood or from him breaking out of his introverted shell. Luckily, Claude was there and used the special technique, [‘You’re-misbehaving-and-you-need-to-knock-it-off' Back Slam] to get him cool down. He then forbade any of them from going on a solo massacre mission for the rest of the dungeon trip and so, they had to all worked together then onward and this time, with cool heads to clear the tenth and eleventh circles. 

When they came to the twelfth and final circle, it was then that they learned that Claude was right to tell them not to get over their heads. The monsters that had come before were way weaker than the ones on the final circle. The dungeon beasts on the final circle were around LV 85 and LV 120. The last and final boss was bound to be a LV 200, the final level of the D-class, and probably very strong. 

They took a total of fifteen days to battle and increase their strength to their opponents’ levels, around LV 120 – 140. Valeria reached LV 132, Marcel 126, Allan 134, and Silva 138. They could now take on opponents that were far stronger than themselves with their advantage of intelligence, spells, and strategy. It was marvelous how in just a month, they’d gone from around LV 20 – 45, with Marcel being a LV 20 at the beginning, Allan 28, Valeria 30, and Silva 36 to their current levels. 

Claude was impressed with their growth and so were the guards. If they kept up their growing pace, in about 50 to 60 years, they could get to A and maybe even S-class. Please, bear in mind that he’s talking about the demons’ standards here. By human standards, they’re already close to reaching S-class already. He gave them some pointers occasionally and the group learned a lot. Marcel learned the ‘Spell Catalyst’ technique that Allan wanted to teach him after the Belladonna event from Claude although much stronger and a few other spells as well, like how to assimilate his body with a few metals to make it stronger for a short while. He also expanded his spatial storage to the size of a big mansion’s worth of cubic space since he had the magic to do so too. A very cheeky move in the eyes of Allan, but this time, he really didn’t mind as much as he used to because of a certain past event. 

Marcel also learned a bit about hand-to-hand combat from Claude. Just a little bit though for the times when having Sigurd wasn’t going to cut it. In some dungeons, sometimes magic and weapons can be restricted by the dungeon itself and so having more than one way to fight is always good. With Claude being of the ‘Pugilist’ class as well as many others, he gave Marcel a short lesson on how to beat the life out of his opponents and infusing magic into his whole body for physical attacks as well, like enhancers do although less powerful and cost-efficient in terms of magic power. It worked for him because Marcel could draw out an unlimited amount of mana from his magic realm into his magic pool or his magic reserves. 

The others learned a bit too as Claude gave Silva a lesson on how to combine three elements into one, allowing her to become a Tria-mage instead of just Dual-mage and Valeria, he taught how to decrease her enhancing output a bit as she lets a huge mass of the power go to waste when she isn’t even of a pugilist class but the secretive assassin class. An assassin should be effective and only be able to perform tasks accurately and efficiently, not being all over the place. She learned from Claude what a professional assassin is just like Silva learned to be a proper mage and Marcel, a versatile hero. 

Now Allan is the unique case out of all of them as he didn’t have much to learn. He’s already got all the basics down and mastered. He was a proper master of magic control (Well, because he’s been an alchemist all his life and one mistake could have led to sudden death even with a healing blessing from two races as insurance), and a fine executor of spells (of course, he makes spells for a living and research so it’s obvious that he’s good at it). Claude only taught him how to bring out more of his now bountiful magic power and even more precise magic control and that’s about it. He wanted to teach his physique strengthening as well, then he remembered that while Allan wasn’t a hybrid, he still possessed werewolf blood, one of the strongest races when it came to physique strengthening, so he’ll be fine. Marcel was the one among the group who needed the most lectures but alas, that still wasn’t going to be enough. He did indeed have a long way to go if he hopes to someday reach the Demon Lord’s level of power. 

Okay, back to the twelfth circle of the dungeon. The group had managed to annihilate every single monster on each floor and now they were about to face the most powerful creature of that D-class plant type dungeon. 

The monsters on the last circle weren’t as plentiful as they had hoped as it was the smallest but also the one that carried the most powerful of dungeon beasts but alas, they didn’t pose too much of a threat to the group. Sure, they struggled a bit but, in the end, all their opponents met their end. 

They came to the core of the dungeon, where the supposed ‘final boss’ of the dungeon slept. It was in front of a small cave at the innermost circle, the core, harboring the gate back to the first and outermost circle. The monster was sleeping. 

The monster was a large serpentine spirit beast, the Poison Viper Snake. Its body was covered in scales made of leaves. It had red on the under its belly. Its main capabilities were its swiftness and agility. It could not only shoot poisonous smoke in its breath that could dull the sense and make the body slowly go numb but also release its scales leaf-like sharp scales as projectiles if one got too close. Luckily, Claude had told them a bit about potential monsters that could be at the end of the plant-type dungeon and it happened to be one of them, so they readied themselves for a big fight with it. 

Silver took the skies and Valeria used her real and most powerful blades, her steel sharp black claws. Marcel stood on vanguard and faced the monster with Sigurd, throwing icy blade strikes to slowly freeze it while Silver bombarded it from above with sharp wind and earth composite spells, damaging the body of the Poison Viper Snake immensely. Allan attacked from behind Marcel and launched multiple barriers to protect them while also swiftly preparing a powerful high-tier fire spell that isn’t Ifrit. 

Allan took a total of 30 seconds to finally finish casting the spell and strengthening it and after Valeria, Silva and Marcel had done their deal of damage to the monster, Allan ordered them to retreat and then he launched it. 

When he launched the fire spell, out of nowhere, three giant pillars appeared above the Poison Viper Snake, and then upon his command, they rushed towards the snake and impaled different parts of its body, holding it into place. The first pillar landed on its neck, the second, its tail, and the third, its belly.  

“Activate [Blazing Flame Funeral]!” Allan said and then the pillars were engulfed in flames that spread fast. The Poison Viper Snake started burning up and then soon, the entirety of its body was been devoured by the hungry red flames, quickly burning away the giant viper snake until all that was left of it was a charred body of the now-deceased snake. 

The group cheered and Allan put back the giant pillars in his storage space again. 

Silva said, “Nice job! A composite spell combining spatial magic and fire magic. Quite clever. Well done!” 

“Ha-ha... Same to you too. I can’t be as extravagant as you when it comes to spells, but I can at least make sure that they accomplish their duty. That spell, [Blazing Fire Funeral] was something I wrote quite recently. It’s part of a set of spells that work in tune with the giant pillars I designed. I’ve still not managed to completely be finished with it yet though.” Allan said, slightly grinning as he scratched his head, bashful from the high praises. 

“Hmph! I’ll make sure to impress you all then with my next grand spell. It’ll be even more extravagant than all the others. Just you wait!” Silva pouted, as she turned her head from Allan, unhappy because Allan was getting more praise than she did when she conjured up her composite spells in the past on multiple occasions. She also wished that she had the fire and spatial elements, but she didn’t. She almost blurted out how unfair she thought it was that Allan possessed almost all the elements that caused severe damage when used as attack spells.  

Fire, Lightning, Wind, and then Space?! It’s like Allan is just straight up, trying to make her mad. She possesses the Wind, Water, Earth, and then the Divine element, which Allan also had now thanks to that Belladonna incident. She felt like she was competing with him, and was terribly losing too. 

She gritted her teeth as she watched Marcel and Valeria praise Allan some more, then she vowed to herself to impress them all with her next grand spell. It was only a matter of time until that happened, so she’ll bear with the frustration, for now, she thought. 

After the two others, Valeria and Marcel had praised Allan until his demeanor almost reverted back to after he’d returned from conquering the ninth floor alone, Silva got impatient and so with a water spell, [Ice Cold Water Prison], she imprisoned the three and then dragged them to the gate. Claude then came back with the four guards whereby he collected the carcass of the Poison Viper Snake, a valuable material that some people would pay a fortune for as it can be used for various things like creating items and developing new and powerful poisons and then they followed suit after Silva and the rest had teleported back to the dimension of dungeons. 

After they’d all returned to the dimension of dungeons, they all heard a ‘Ding!’ from their respective Informers and they all received a congratulatory message and a gift. 

<< Party,  

Congratulations on clearing the D-class Landscape Plant-type Dungeon no. 31012. As a reward for defeating all the monsters in the dungeon, the Luck System has presented to you all a gift. 

Marcel: Poison Viper Snake’s [Harden], a skill used by the dungeon beast to fortify its defenses. Congratulations on acquiring two plant-related skills that correspond well with each other, [Grabbing Vines] and [Harden]. 

Valeria: Poison Viper’s Fangs, two dagger-type weapons that produce the effect, [Paralyze] when used on opponents. Congratulations on being the third receiver of such a gift. 

Silva: Poison Resistance – Low. Congratulations on being slightly less prone to death by poison now. 

Allan: Skill, [Fertilize], the skill that you desire. Congratulations on being you, I guess. >> 

Their Informers said, bringing a conclusion an end to their journey to the plant-type dungeon. After they’d all read the same message from their Informers, they all were excited, and everyone tried to confirm the nature of their various gifts. Is it just Marcel or is the formerly formal Informer getting more informal by the day? 

For Marcel, he immediate tried the ‘Grabbing Vine’ skill, which created mana vines that he could release from his palm, and then he added the ‘Harden’ skill to it like with how composite spells work and then had Valeria slash at it, to find out that it wasn’t that so easily damaged. He also found that the more mana he poured into it, the stronger the vines got, so he kept on increasing the amount of mana that he poured into it after every strike of Valeria’s. They soon became unfazed by her attacks, taking almost no damage at all from her strikes. 

After Marcel had checked his skill, it was up next to Valeria to test her gift. She looked in her inventory to find a pair of dark green and black curved daggers. She took them out and then she made a tiny wound on her right index finger. As expected, a few seconds after that, she regretted her choice. She was stuck in place, unable to move, like a statue. She was paralyzed and she remained so for a few minutes until Marcel healed her with light magic since Silva looked unwilling to deal with the consequences of her friend’s stupidity. She gave her a lecture about how she always did stuff without thinking them through and refused to heal her with her water magic. 

After she was done giving Valeria a lecture, Silva opened her skills list and found the low poison resistance that the Informer had mentioned. She looked so ecstatic and overjoyed for some reason, which might maybe be explained sometime later in the future. 

Allan, well, he had no way of using his new skill then, so he also only looked at his skills list and just looked at it. He also felt very happy since now, it wouldn’t at all be a hassle to grow herbs for him. No more expending immense reserves of his magic power to grow plants that he suddenly needed. Now all he must do is just touch the seeds of the plant he wished, pass a bit of mana into it, and voila, a new plant in minutes. It’s the most convenient gift that the system could possibly give to an alchemist like him. Once again, did it have something to do with Marcel? 

Allan smiled happily in his own world as he imagined what he could do with his new skill and so too did Silva. It was strange for the other two, seeing her so happy over something that, once again, wasn’t food. Just what was it that made her so happy about a small gift like poison resistance of the lowest level anyway, the other two, Valeria and Marcel, thought. They just stood and watched as the two amassed themselves into their own worlds as they smiled happily. 

It wasn’t long after they’d received their gifts that Claude and the guards returned. After they’d returned, Claude asked the girls,  

“Which world do you girls live in? I can drop you there before we head back to the Dragon Lands.”  

“The Dragon Lands?! Sure, we’d like to go there. We don’t really live on any one particular world, so I guess we’ll be following you guys back to the Dragon Lands.” Valeria said, cheery as ever. She was sweating slightly too, which was overly suspicious but Claude, now already knowing who they might really be, ignored them. Valeria and Silva weren’t going to be harmful company to the Demon Lord’s future wife so he let them do what they wanted. 

“Okay then,” Claude affirmed their answer and then they headed back to the telecircle leading to the Dragon Lands. They returned to the city where a big surprise awaited them.