The Author's POV

Glancing at the hodeg peacefully resting in the middle of the cave, looking back at me, in a low voice Kevin asked

"So once we kill it we get to the main dungeon area?"

Nodding my head in affirmation, I responded

"Yeah, after we kill the real challenge begins"

"Alright, if it's only a hodeg, it shouldn't be that hard. Huup!"

Nodding his head in understanding, Kevin summoned his sword. Thereafter, tensing his leg muscles, he directly shot towards the Hodeg.

"Huuup!"

Arriving before the hodeg, without hesitation, Kevin swung his sword towards its tail. The most dangerous part of the monster.

—Clank!

"Kueek—!"

A loud metallic sound resounded across the dungeon, followed by a loud screeching sound. Soon after, like a whip, the hodeg's tail shot towards Kevin who swiftly moved backward and dodged it.

Unbothered by the commotion that was happening, standing not so far from where Kevin was, glancing at the book, I quickly gave Kevin instructions.

"Kevin, in a couple of seconds the hodeg's tail will come at you once again, take one step back and aim towards its left flank, near its leg. That's its weak spot"

"Roger that"

Nodding his head, Kevin gripped his sword more tightly.

—Swooosh!

...and just like I had stated, the hodeg's tail came swinging towards Kevin. It was so fast that only a blur could be seen. The way the tail curved in the air as well as the sound that it produced as it moved, reminded me of a whip.

—Kacha!

"Huaap!"

Listening to what I had said, taking a step back, Kevin narrowly avoided the tail. Thereafter, without skipping a beat, Kevin shot like a bullet and aimed towards the left side of the Hodge.

-Spurt!

Like a knife cutting through butter, Kevin's sword inserted itself into the hodeg's left leg area. Green blood spurted everywhere and a loud enraged roar shook the dungeon.

"Kueeeeeek—!"

-Swoooosh!

"Wheeee—Off you go!"

Creating a circle with my sword, a translucent ring appeared before me. With a flick of my fingers, I whistled at Kevin who nodded his head and jumped upwards.

"Thanks!"

Doing a backflip in the air, a couple of meters above the hodeg, Kevin skillfully dodged the beast's tail that was trashing the ground below in a berserk state. Without hesitation, twisting his body in the air, Kevin's foot perfectly landed on my ring, and subsequently after, he propelled his body downwards with his sword aimed towards the skull of the hodeg.

—Baaam!

Like a meteor, Kevin shot towards the hodeg.

Watching Kevin perform this from below, I couldn't help but be impressed by his agility and flexibility.

Without me needing to tell him what he had to do, he perfectly understood the intent behind me placing a ring in the air.

Talking about the ring, after I trained with it a bit more, I found out that it could also be used as a place to step in the air.

Though I haven't tried on it for myself, it worked multiple times with Kevin. I should definitely take note of this feature for the future.

"Kueeeeeek—!"

Crashing around the dungeon, the hodeg maniacally looked for anything to direct its anger towards. Soon after, spotting me in the distance, the hodeg's eyes turned scarlet red as it quickly headed in my direction.

"hm?"

Glancing at the hodeg that was heading in my direction, unbothered by it, I leaned back and lazily yawned. I then proceeded to coat my body with mana.

"Huuuuuamm..."

"Kueeeeeek—!"

—Baaam!

Just as the hodeg was about to reach me, like a meteor, Kevin crashed onto the top of the hodeg's head and green blood sprayed everywhere.

Tsssssss

As the green blood splashed against the coat of mana covering my body, steam slowly raised in the air. Yeah, the hodeg's blood was very acidic.

With his sword deeply imbued into the Hodeg's body, Kevin slowly closed his eyes and exhaled.

"Huuuu..."

Looking at the now dead Hodeg below Kevin, I lightly applauded.

"Well done"

Opening his eyes, Kevin looked at me and asked

"What next?"

"We just wai—"

—Rumble!

Right on cue, just as I was about to tell Kevin what was going to happen next, the whole dungeon shook. Thereafter, as if we had entered a portal, both Kevin and I lost our senses, and the world around us turned dark.

-Vuam!

...

"Khhh..."

Holding onto the side of my stomach, I grimaced in pain. Though it wasn't the first time I went through this, I was still not used to the sensation of being transported around. It felt as though my body was pulverized to then be reconstructed in a completely different place.

...Wasn't pleasant.

"Is this the middle area of the dungeon?"

Standing not so far from where I was, Kevin, who seemed to be completely unfazed, looked around the new environment we were in.

Brushing my hair to the side, I too looked around the dungeon.

Covering my eyes with my hand, a clear blue sky with a pale yellow sun met my sight. Tall towering trees stood next to us, and heavy vegetation filled with herbs and flowers appeared all over the place.

It was an oddly beautiful sight.

...the new environment was a stark different compared to the other dungeons I had been in.

It somehow looked normal.

Still, just because it looked normal didn't mean I should let my guard down. We were after all, in a pocket dimension that connected to the demon world.

This place was filled with monsters...

"So where are we going?"

Frowning, I looked around me. After a bit of thinking, I pointed towards the east and urged Kevin to follow along.

"This way..."

"Okay"

Nodding his head, Kevin followed without hesitation. After what had happened previously in the dungeon, Kevin was more than convinced by my abilities.

As long as it wasn't something that didn't seem unreasonable, he wasn't going to dispute my decisions anymore.

Noticing his attitude, I smiled to myself.

...Good.

Convincing him that I wasn't a scammer was one of the main goals I had set for myself when proposing this deal.

Moreover, with him being less apprehensive towards me, I could use this to my advantage in the future to avoid unnecessary problems.

"Ren stop!"

"Hm?"

Snapping me out of my thoughts, Kevin placed his hand on my shoulder as he pointed forward

"Don't get lost in your own thoughts, there are monsters over there"

Looking at the direction of where Kevin was pointing at, not so far from where Kevin and I were, a group of light blue translucent flame-like things levitated near the ground.

Frowning slightly, I couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion as I said

"Hm? Aren't those just <F> ranked will-o-wisps?"

If I didn't remember wrongly, wisps were probably some of the easiest monsters to get rid of inside f dungeons because of their inability to move fast.

Moreover, they were only <F> rank. Even I could take care of them without batting an eye.

Shaking his head, Kevin pointed towards the wisp-like creatures. this time, as he spoke, his voice contained a rare trace of solemnity.

"What do you mean just will-o-wisps? Look carefully, at their color. If you pay close attention you can tell that those are not wisps but in fact, <E>ranked night lizards. Wisps flames are dark blue whilst the one over there is light blue. Therefore, we can easily deduce that they are in fact the <E> ranked monsters night lizards, which are on a completely different level to wisps"

"Hmm? now that you pointing this out they really do seem to be night lizards..."

Touching my chin and taking a better look at the wisp-like objects, I finally realized that Kevin was in fact right.

<E> ranked monster, night lizard.

A monster that hunted in groups. Because of the blue flame around their body, they were often mistaken for wisps, and because of this fact, many heroes had died at their hands.

With their incredible speed, they were almost impossible to kill unless someone else had the equivalent or an even faster speed to them. Moreover, as they hunted in groups, they terrified even <C> ranked heroes who could barely keep up with their speeds.

...Kevin's apprehension towards them was understandable.

Seeing that I understood, Kevin stared at the night lizards from the distance and started speaking to me

"So we need to be careful when handling this as their incredibly fast speeds can even—huh?"

Just as Kevin was about to finish formulating his plan, a clicking sound resounded across the area he was in.

-Click!

The second movement of the [Keiki style] : Horizon splitting slash

Soon after, a bright light instantly dyed the surroundings in white. Thereupon, after the light died down, the clean dissected bodies of the lizard could be found sprawled all over the ground.

"Done, let's go"

With my hand still on the sheat of my blade, I smiled at Kevin and moved forward.

"..."

Standing there speechless for a while, Kevin couldn't help but alternate his head between the lizard's dissected bodies and me.

'When did he attack?'