We managed to clear the monsters that were roaming the first few floors.

Miya and I haven’t used our magic ever since we entered the second floor. It seemed that they wanted to see how capable I was when I was told to kill the cockatrice.

To be honest, I didn’t think my earth affinity magic would be that impressive so I used my space magic to rotate the rock to match the force of a real bullet. As I said before, earth magic was my weakest attribute. It was unbelievable that Bridgette was proficient in all four elements. She was what people called a quad-elemental mage.

By combining my spatial element with the earth element, I could make up for my weaknesses.

‘I’ll have to work on my other elements.’

I was only proficient in elemental spells of water and space magic. My control over elements like wind, fire and earth was far weaker.

“Holy shit.”

Brooklyn cursed when we entered the boss’ room at the bottom . We were inside a large circular room with bones strewn around on the floor. There was a mountain of bones at the back of the room and on top of it...

“The Hydra...”

I saw a monster with nine heads and the body of a Komodo. Its scales were a beautiful blue that reflected the light of the crystals. They are typically sky blue or grey but in the shine of the red crystals, the Hydra’s scales glowed an ominous crimson.

‘That’s one huge crystal.’

At the back of the Hydra rested a blood red magic crystal. Judging by the intensity of magic power it was releasing, it was at least high grade.

That meant that it could be sold for a pretty high price. Combined with the Hydra’s materials if we managed to beat it, everyone in the party would be able to play for about ten years without working.

“Jackpot.” Byron looked at his sister. “Fire a magic arrow at the monster. Don’t forget to make it extra powerful.”

Brooklyn smirked.

“Got it.”

She took out the bow from behind her back and infused mana into the arrow she was gripping. The arrow grew in size as she pulled the strings back. A golden light engulfed it.

‘So she has an enchanted weapon, huh.’

Enchanted items such as shields gave the wielder the ability to use their aura to coat their bodies in a protective barrier. That was how it worked for shields. For bows, however, you could make arrows out of aura alone. They were stronger and also infinite. This obviously depended on how much aura you had.

Judging by Brooklyn's years of doing quests for the guild, she was more experienced than the average archer.

“Everyone else, circle around the monster. Cliff will stay by the entrance and cast buffs.”

All of us nodded.

“Clyde and Miya.”

“Yes.”

“I need you two to cast a big ice magic spell using the water that’s present in this room. Since it’s a reptile it shouldn’t be able to move that well when the temperature drops by a few degrees.”

‘Now that he mentions it...’

I noticed the water that was around the Hydra. There was a deep pool beside its bed of bones.

‘That must be where the tunnels are connected.’

“I’ll summon an ice golem while you control the water.”

Miya spoke to me as we snuck behind the pillars.

“Got it.”

I could see Byron signalling for Brooklyn to fire.

WHOOSH...!

BOOM...!

Rooooar!!!

The giant magic arrow split apart into multiple smaller arrows and hit the monster right in the eyes. It stood up and roared.

“Now!!”

Byron swung down his hand for us to cast.

“《Ice Guardian》!”

Miya called the spirits to manifest a giant golem. It had ice as its armour. Ice spikes were extending out of its back.

I lifted all the water inside the room.

“《Freeze》!”

Along with Miya’s shout, the ice golem blew out a white mist that froze all the water inside the cave. Within seconds the cave was covered in ice.

I could literally see the Hydra’s movements slow down. Reptiles like snakes wouldn’t survive any environment below 18 degrees Celsius. Yet the Hydra was surviving cold temperatures below zero. It just goes to show how strong its endurance was.

The Hydra roared again and fired a flame ball at the approaching Kyle. He was protected by Cliff’s divinity that made a film around the shield to increase its durability and defense.

“GUAH!?”

But he couldn’t block the monster’s claw attack. He was flung into the air and crashed against the ground. It seemed the monster’s physical power was far above his.

‘It recovered from the surprise attack.’

One of the monster’s heads headed in our direction. It was the smaller ones.

SLASH...!

Before it could reach, a spear’s blade sliced off its head.

ROOOAR...!

It tried to pull back its neck but Byron grabbed it before it could pull back. His arms bulged as he pulled and stabbed a throwing spear through it into the ground.

ROOOAR....!

Miya summoned Heat after a pillar of flames rose from the ground. It was a woman with red fiery hair and red eyes. Multiple fire wisps appeared around her. She wasn’t as intimidating as Ifrit who was the manifestation of destruction itself.

WHOOSH...!

BOOM...!

Heat threw a huge fireball that burned the monster’s neck completely.

!!!!

The monster’s eight mouths opened at the same time as it roared.

‘Shit!’

The sound was so loud that I had to clutch my ears.

“Incoming!”

A purple liquid was thrown towards us. I hurriedly chanted a huge barrier with the help of Miya.

‘Where’s Rela?’

My question was answered when I saw a muscular woman run towards the monster while holding her two swords. She looked fearless even before such a huge monster. It seemed to have felt something running on its body as it turned its heads.

!!!

Its head shot forward but she dodged it. The head dug into the ground. More followed but none of them could hit her. She was just too fast.

“ORAAAA!!!”

She slashed the monster from top to bottom while Brooklyn used magic arrows to distract its other heads.

‘I wonder how its biology works. Is the main head leading the others or do all of them have brains?’

I had a useless thought as I chanted a spell.

Since the Hydra was already wet with water, I chanted a lighting spell to immobilize it.

“[Chain Lightning]!”

Three manifested lightning dragon heads flew towards the Hydra. One managed to bite the Hydra’s neck. Upon contact, the spell exploded.

BOOM...!

ROOOOAR—!

The monster’s head exploded into pieces.

Since I already burned it, there shouldn’t be a worry of it growing more heads. The Hydra looked like it didn’t know who to attack. Rela was repeatedly slashing it in random locations. Brooklyn’s magic arrows kept hitting it. Miya was repeatedly infusing mana into the golem so that it would spew ice as well.

The biggest head of the Hydra finally looked like it had enough.

A loud boom echoed after it swung its head at the ceiling. The ceiling collapsed, causing debris to fall down.

“Shit! I can’t move around like this!”

Rela moved back towards our group. It seemed a rock injured her arm since it was dangling back and forth. I quickly chanted a healing spell.

“That should lessen the pain for now. You’ll need to get Cliff to heal you afterwards.”

“Thanks. I’ll try and get a hit in. Cover me.”

She looked back towards the Hydra that was randomly hitting the cave walls. It was too dangerous to approach it carelessly.

“Byron wasn’t kidding. My swords didn’t even cut that deep.”

She smiled wryly and stood up.

“Looks like the main event is starting.”

She looked over to Byron who was surrounded in a blue aura. He was busy charging himself up.

The monster moved at that moment. It gathered a massive amount of energy in its mouths and blasted it towards us.

“Miya! Support me!”

“Okay!”

Miya and I combined our mana and created another large barrier that covered half the cave. I felt a warm feeling come through my back. The energy seeped into my pores and amplified the barrier.

That must’ve been a buff that Cliff sent towards us.

‘I should’ve brought Rolath’s Ring of Amplification.’

Despite the buff, the barrier was breaking by the second as the monster got closer. All of the heads combined their beams, making the firepower increase even further.

‘Shit!’

Even with our combined mana barrier, we were being pushed back. Redheart’s magic attack boosting effect wasn’t even helping. That monster was way too overpowered. I guess it was as expected of an S rank monster.

“Focus on resizing the barrier to make it stronger!”

While we were holding up our arms, Kyle suddenly appeared before us. He smashed his shield into the ground.

We did as he said and shrunk the barrier to focus on protecting our group. Byron jumped over the barrier while being surrounded by aura. Rela followed close behind. She was covered in a red aura.

‘They’re using this to attack huh.’

While the Hydra was trying to aim for the support(which were the mages, namely us), Rela and Byron would use that gap to attack it.

I infused more mana into the barrier. The yellow glow intensified.

!!!!

The monster roared as one of its head fell off. Due to the injury, the beam disappeared as it flailed while roaring.

Rela and Byron cut off three more heads.

Miya and I undid the barrier. Heat conjured multiple fireballs. I infused mana into my staff and summoned an Advanced rank Fireball. The blue flame was an object of mass destruction. Maybe it was too overkill for me to use it.

The monster’s flesh was beginning to move which meant it was on the verge of healing. Byron and Rela slashed off another head. Instead of cutting a head individually, they combined their power to quicken the process.

The fact that the heads were the weak spots made the fight easier.

“[Flame Burst]!”

My spell burst forth and managed to hit the monster.

ROOOAR...!

It was thrown against the cave wall due to the destructiveness of the spell. If I had Ifrit then I could’ve fired endlessly. It was a shame but I shouldn’t cry over spilt milk.

Miya and her spirit fired after me and burned the wounds of the monster.

The fight continued on like that until only the immortal head remained. The monster was at least as big as a house but it was cowering while glaring at us. It growled and retreated to the back of the cave.

I could feel myself becoming exhausted by the second as I summoned multiple high rank spells. Casting so many powerful spells continually was exhausting. Despite my large pool of mana, the spells I had in my arsenal drained my core too quickly.

I could see that the others were exhausted as well. Cliff was even leaning against the cave wall while wiping his sweat. Kyle was in the worst condition. His armour and shield was on the verge of breaking apart.

He was the one that blocked the monster’s repeated tail slashes and energy beams. Judging by the mana being released by the equipment, I could tell that it was very expensive.

Brooklyn seemed to have run out of arrows already. She was taking a healing potion at the back of the group.

“Almost over, guys.”

The monster roared in its last struggle against our group as we ran towards it.

◇◆◇

We managed to defeat the Hydra after battling it for ten more minutes. If we could find a suitable buyer then we’d be able to make a lot of money from its corpse. Although not as good as a dragon, a Hydra’s corpse could also be used to make equipment like armour and magic storage bags. Their fangs would be used to make daggers as well.

We would transport the head out to show that we managed to kill the monster and receive our payment. The city lord would take a large cut of our money even though we defeated it. It was his territory after all.

Such was the world of politics.

“Let’s take this crystal before anyone comes inside.”

Byron pointed at the blood red crystal. Kyle and Rela lifted it out of the pedestal.

“With this quality, we should be able to enchant our new equipment. It’s wasteful to sell everything.” Byron turned towards Miya and me. “We have the mages to thank for our victory so I’ll throw in a bonus for the two of you.”

“Thanks for the hard work.”

Kyle patted our shoulders and smiled.

“Are you okay? You seem a little out of it.”

Brooklyn handed me a pouch filled with water.

“Yeah. I just feel a little light-headed.”

I didn’t expect the battle to take so much out of me. Now that I thought about it, have I ever rested ever since coming back?

‘I need to take a break from all this battling before the big day.’

The day I get my revenge.

◇◆◇

We came to the bar immediately after our successful mission. The crystal was sitting in the other booth while prying eyes were looking at us. We slaughtered a Hydra so they didn’t approach carelessly. Its head was also next to the crystal so that added to their hesitation.

Anyway, Miya said that she’d go back to the inn first. She was currently in our room while I stayed downstairs at the inn bar with the rest of the party members. I wasn’t sure where Rela went. She only told us briefly that she’d be away for a while.

“Drink up, guys!” Byron brought over a barrel of ale from the bar.

“Damn. A whole barrel. Wasn’t this at least one gold?” Kyle started pouring the ale into his mug. He poured with such precision as if the alcohol was something delicate to him.

“It doesn’t matter how much it was. We managed to get rich in one day.”

“How rich are we talking?” Brooklyn wiped the drool from her mouth. In reply, Byron grinned and took out a piece of paper.

“....!” Brooklyn’s mouth opened wide as she looked at the paper.

“40 white gold...?”

“That’s right. We have enough funds for upgrading all of our gear in the dwarven nation if we decide to continue with adventuring. Or we can simply live out the rest of our lives.”

“I’ll pick the former. I didn’t join this party for the profit alone.” Kyle said.

“M-Me too.” Cliff raised his voice to join in.

“Hmmm. What about Brooklyn?”

“Well, it’s fine either way. We have this much money so it doesn’t matter.”

Byron turned towards Aria next.

“I-I want to send some to my family first and join master.”

“Hahaha! Then it’s settled! Our next location is the Dwarven Kingdom!”

-◆-

“Phew. I haven’t had this in a while.” Kyle downed the mug in one go and poured another. His face was getting flushed the more he drank.

“If I may ask, where are you guys from?” I spoke to Brooklyn who was seated next to me.

“Hm? We’re from the Holy Kingdom. Well, we travel around a lot so we don’t have a base yet. Byron and I moved from there six years ago. I was 12 at the time and he was 20. We decided to leave to become independent adventurers with the rest of our party.”

She gestured to everyone at the table.

“All of you have been together since then?”

“Yip. Cliff was still a snot nosed kid when he said he’ll follow us. Little brat would never listen to anything we say. Even now. I told him to not drink but he didn’t listen.”

“I’m an adult already you know!? I-I can drink whenever I want! Hic!”

Cliff’s entire face was red as he hiccupped. He laughed mysteriously and tried to peek down Brooklyn’s cleavage. He sneakily put his arm around her waist. Maybe he wasn’t aware that his action was obvious to everyone.

“Oi! What do you think you’re doing!?”

“Ouch!”

She hit him hard on the head.

“You having lewd thoughts about your own cousin? Disgusting pervert!”

Brooklyn covered up her body with her arms and moved towards me.

Byron only laughed in amusement.

“We’re free from the Holy Kingdom’s laws so give him a little taste, Brook. The poor guy has been showing signs that he likes you anyway. Give him a little reward for protecting us with his divine spells.”

“You’re encouraging this!?”

Brooklyn glared at Byron while the latter only laughed.

“He’s our distant cousin so nothing wrong with that.”

“Tch. My type is a strong man that can push me down. There’s no way I’d take a little man like him even if I ignored the fact that we’re family. He probably has a small pecker as well. Clyde is even manlier than you even though you two are the same age. Humph!” Brooklyn crossed her arms and turned her head away from Cliff.

Ouch. That was a hard blow. All of us looked at Cliff with pity. He fell deflated on the table.

“Rejected before I could even try...”

“Hold on. If you’re from the Holy Kingdom then...” I tapped Brooklyn’s shoulders. “Have you ever heard of someone called Annette?”

“Annette huh? Only one woman has that name from what I know. You must be talking about one of the Holy Kingdom’s strongest paladins.”

“Paladin?”

“Yip. She serves the queen’s side and often does work for the Holy Temple.”

If I remembered correctly, Pope Rondart ran the temple. That meant that she received orders from His Holiness. He was said to be close with Olivia, the current queen of our kingdom as well.

“But what is really interesting about her is the fact that she’s the adopted child of Her Majesty, Rosalinda.”

“...Huh?”

I froze when I was about to take a sip from my cup.

“Are you an admirer of her as well? I hate to break it to you but she’s already married. She's broken the hearts of many men. Kukuku.”

All of them chuckled together.

“Anyway, why the sudden interest?”

“...Ah...” I scratched my cheek. “She’s my older sister.”

“W-What!? She’s your sister!?”

Kyle choked on his drink and coughed violently. He flared his nostrils at me.

“Y-Yeah. I was thinking of visiting the Holy Kingdom so I wanted to know if my sister was still alive.”

“...”

“...”

“W-What?”

All of them were looking at me in silence.

“Could it be that the blood runs in the family? The little brother is a powerful mage while the sister is a powerful swordsman?”

I smiled wryly.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of my sister being a paladin of an entire nation.”

If she was a paladin then that meant that she was at the conference that happened back then.

‘Well, I couldn’t meet her even if I tried.’

I looked out of the window and gazed at the red moon while drinking the bitter ale. Even from where I sat, I could see flocks of flying monsters flying over the city.

I sighed.

‘I wonder if my big sister will welcome me if I go there.’

There was only one way to find out.

I should go there and meet her.