Having returned from OniMachi after the battle festival and banquet six months ago, they all got back to their lives. Silva and Valeria continued with their lives as adventurers even when they didn’t see Marcel, sometimes with the three brothers in tow.  

They took on delivery missions as well as collection missions from special patrons whom they knew. While they did this, Marcel was being overworked in the castle because patrons and loyal customers.  

Allan and Shalia wrung out every bit of energy from his body. They overworked him enough that he cursed himself for having all the necessary requirements for working long-term. Things like exhaustion or hunger weren’t a problem thanks to a certain administrator leveling up his resistances with his accumulated EP. He was constantly being overworked by those two whenever he was free. He even tried to escape but failed miserably. This time, a certain pesky someone gave his friends directions to his exact location outside the castle. It’s okay to assume that Marcel is hating being a witch thanks to his ‘demonic’ friends. 

Oh, and while we’re talking about his witchhood, let’s talk about Ains. Here’s fully grown now, as surprising as it must be sound.  

Thanks to his master’s special condition, he got all the necessary power needed to fully construct his body in a short duration of time. Now instead of seeing a tiny white wolf cub when he was summoned or simply appeared, one met a two-meter massive white wolf with every bit of ferocity as what he possessed before his former master sealed him albeit looking very different.  

Also, after Ains grew, Marcel started seeing these mysterious runes edged into his spiritual body thanks to his Spirit Eyes.  

He figured it was just their contract at first but when he learned from his summoned beast that the contract had already melded with his soul and left no traces, he was befuddled as to what it might be. Since there was no harm coming to Ains, there was no harm in leaving those runes on his spiritual body. Besides, Alverona said it would help Ains change forms faster and the Demon Lord affirmed her conclusion, so Ains was going to be fine. 

Oh, and Marcel’s fiancé, the other one, has also gotten fully settled him. Kensuke or “Kenny” as Allan and the others call him, was usually a quiet guy who roamed about the Demon Lord’s castle or followed Marcel around. He’d usually watch quietly in some corner as Marcel and the two worked on alchemy in the workshop but sometimes, he offered to assist Marcel when he trained.  

Slowly, Marcel got to know him better while they trained in their respective arts together. Kenny was a lancer? Spearman? Pugilist? Swordsman? It was very hard to know. He showed proficiency in various arts, so they all just assumed that he was of whatever class he decided to use the weapons of during a certain time. It made things so much easier.  

Anyway, he was easy to get along with, not just because he got along with Marcel but also because he offered to help whenever someone looked in trouble. He was only scary in appearance like all the others of his race. The odd silence he always kept himself to, however, made everyone feel awkward. For some reason, he never talked until someone else did. He was the resident quiet guy amongst Marcel’s group of friends. 

As life slowly got back to normal after returning from OniMachi with a fiancé, seriously letting the Demon Lord make ‘tough decisions’ because of how swimmingly the two got along, so too did the unavoidable, unpleasant worm: boredom, slowly crept in. It was finally time for Marcel to ditch all the hard work and go on an adventure again. Off to the Dimension of Dungeons, it is, which brings us to this situation. 

In front of a fire-type landscape dungeon gate, they met, as agreed upon. The entire party had arrived, including the newcomer Oni. 

“Hello!” They quickly exchanged greetings. The permanent residents of the Demon Lord’s castle hadn’t met the others in a while. They had a few things to discuss. 

When Silva and Marcel meet again, she looked at him and suddenly felt unhappy. She said exactly what she thought, 

“Why is it that when I look at you, I feel like I failed as a woman?” She, in her own way, complimented Marcel’s growing looks the longer time passes. Add that atop his pure and untainted aura and magic power that’s always at its peak and anyone looking at him instantly thinks that he has endless ‘Life Energy,’ associated with the HP gauge on the Informer’s status list but he doesn’t. His body is constantly being overpowered by his magic. It wasn’t the least bit true. 

“Ha...” Marcel sighed, “I am sorry!” He looked dejected. He’d also like to know why the Spirit of the World is constantly doing everything she can to make him a beauty when all he wants is to live his life while he figured things out. 

“Don’t worry about it, my chef! It is what it is. The one who deserves my anger isn’t you.”  

“Again, I’m sorry!” He apologized remorsefully for something he hadn’t done. Silva pinched his cheek this time, not wanting to hear him apologize because a certain spirit and the entire world loved him. 

“No more apologies! The only crime you committed was being lucky. It’s my fault for not controlling the jealousy and hatred I feel whenever I look at you because you look better than I do.” Now Marcel didn’t know whether the glutton was blaming him or not anymore. This consolation wasn’t working. If anything, it was counterproductive, making him feel even worse. 

“Okay, let’s get back to what we came here for. We can deal with my hatred for you at some other time.” The lady patted him on the back with a smile and moved to join the two ladies of the party. Now all that was left was to enter this C-ranked dungeon and start hunting. 

This fire-type landscape dungeon, brought them to a volcanic island-like structure, cut away from the outside world and isolated in the confines of that dimension. It was the only thing that could be seen, except for the strange sun which lit up from above. On this place, fire-type C-rank monsters roam free, ready to attack any unlucky adventurer who stepped into their domain and make them their meal. 

The various ranked dungeon monsters were scattered everywhere; from the weakest Velmos; a fire-type low-C-ranked bipedal monster with sharp, flaming claws focused on ambushing its targets, to the mighty Blazing Rock Golems: glowing lava monsters formed from the erosion of the island given life by the blazing heat and magic energy of the volcano. Albeit possessing minuscule intelligence capable of distinguishing stronger opponents from weaker ones, they weren’t less savage compared to the other monsters. They sought sustenance to aid in their evolution from their visitors just the same, in mindless frenzies like all the other dungeon beasts. 

Fire spirits roamed free in this dungeon with their erratic fly patterns and immense curiosity upon finally having some visitors. They wanted to chat but sadly, only Shalia could hold a full conversation while Marcel only saw them. They’d come in prepared with their fire and heat-resistant artifacts, so the immense and unforgiving heat wasn’t going to be a problem. 

Soon after entering this island, the party reorganized itself like it had when Shalia and the brothers first joined them. For the frontal attack members were Marcel, Shalia, Daniel, and Allan while Silva acted as their support. Right behind them was their shielder, Nigel, and Kenny holding a lance as their long-ranged attack member. Behind Nigel and Kenny were the two assassins, monitoring the left and right flanks of the party.  

They also took on different roles in the party for various situations. Here are their roles as listed by Silva below. 

Marcel – Swordsman, Occasional Mage, Cook, Fire Shield (Because of high resistance to fire). 

Allan – Mage, Strategist, Finance Manager. 

Silva – Mage (Bomber – AOE spells), Priestess, Glutton. 

Valeria – Assassin, Occasional Head of Mockery department. 

Shalia – Mage (Occasional Support Mage), Archer, Healer, Angel/Seductress, Jester.  

Evan – Assassin, Flirt who fails, Sharp tongue which ends him in trouble, unlike Silva. 

Nigel – Shielder, Priest and Healer, Assistant Cook (‘Emergency Man,’ as Silva calls him). 

Daniel – Knight, Confident man, Flashy Sword Moves Guy (by Silva), Resident True Player. 

Kensuke – Lancer, Resident Quiet Guy (by Silva)  

And yes, Silva does use Marcel as her fire shield because she doesn’t have any resistance against fire. Also, she secretly hopes that it’ll diminish his beauty and leaves him charred like a piece of meat. It fails, however, because the fire element doesn’t leave even scrapes on him now because of how high-ranked the resistance is. More on that later.

She thinks of Shalia as the group’s jester because of how entertaining her attempts to woo Marcel are. It’s not just her who thinks so. Some even refer to her as the ‘Delusional woman’. Evan is also a similar joke because of how miserable his attempts at flirtation with the girls always turn out. Shalia is occupied with Marcel, Valeria has a no-romance policy, and Silva seems uninterested she is in others except her chef and food. His future in the romance department with any of the ladies looks bleak. 

Nigel is her emergency chef when Marcel isn’t around while his brother, Daniel, is the confident and successful one of the brothers in terms of romance. He seems like the only one with a decent chance at romance. Let’s face it, Nigel is the kind of guy who’d get cheated on because of how kind and gentle it seems. 

Okay, enough with the less important rambling and back to something important. Even though they’re moving smoothly across the landscape dungeon they chose, they can’t help but feel uneasy because lately, they’ve noticed traces of foreign presence aside from their own in the dungeon. At first, they thought that it was nothing, but all the traces seem to show that this presence is always on their tail, hiding in the shadows. 

Wait, are they being followed? Ha, I guess it’s about time for that to happen.