Upon walking on the rocky floor, Aidan looked around. The walls had a light blue glow, which allowed the adventurers to see perfectly in the otherwise dark passage. As the two teammates entered the floor, they were slightly excited, but it died down quite fast as they could see adventurers everywhere.

From the first to the second floor, there is one wide hallway. With this hallway, the adventurers can easily reach the second floor. However, it also means that on this wide hallway, there won’t be any monsters since adventurers will automatically kill them when they make their way further down the dungeon. ​​

Turning to the right of the path, in one of the many corridors of this floor, Ais and Aidan started searching for monsters. Moreover, Aidan wanted to begin by recording the first floor of the dungeon. After all, while it might be useless due to the straight wide hallway known as the beginner road, Aidan believed that as long as he continued to map the dungeon floors, he would eventually find secret routes or secret rooms with hidden treasures.

“So, Aidan. Can you tell me what happened in your memories?” Asked Ais as she was curious by the attitude her goddess had at the mention of his parents.

Nodding, he started explaining everything he had learned about his parents. “So, the stronger you become, the more memories and the more techniques you will get?” Asked Ais as she only focused on the point where he could become powerful. “Yeah. My father also explained that the best way to become strong is to max our stats as much as possible before levelling up. Those stats creates a base for when we become stronger. The better our stats in each level, the easier it will be when we are at higher levels. Otherwise, we will be too weak to fight the monsters stronger than us. According to him, by being an adventurer, the goal is always to surpass ourselves. Otherwise, we will be stuck, doomed never to become the strongest in the world.” Aidan added as he showed his resolve to max his stats before levelling up, even if it took more time.

“I see. I’ll do the same thing.” Ais nodded as she looked thoughtful after hearing what he said. Her original plan had only been to level up as quickly as possible. However, hearing what Aidan said, she thought back and thought that what he said made sense.

As they were both talking, they finally arrived in front of four monsters. Their eyes brightening, Aidan and Ais drew their swords as they automatically distanced themselves to fight with the monsters.

Taking the left side, Aidan drew two goblins to himself as he kept his sheath in his left hand. The sheath was solid and light. It would easily be able to block the strikes of the monster in front of him. Placing himself in an angle which the second goblin was blocked by the first one, Aidan used his longsword to make a piercing attack. As it evaded slightly and jumped towards him, Aidan used his scabbard to block it and used the length of his sword to his advantage as he pierced directly into the chest of the monster.

As soon as the monster suffered fatal damage, it exploded into powders as a magic stone fell to the ground. Keeping a bit of attention on Ais, he looked at the other goblin stuck behind the first one. Aidan rushed towards him as he used his scabbard to block the monster’s attack as he beheaded the second monster.

As it exploded into powder, another magic stone fell on the floor. Aidan, instead of collecting the rock, turned his attention to the surroundings to confirm their safety before he looked at Ais’s fight. Almost at the exact moment, as he turned his attention on her battle, she finished.

Collecting their magic stones, they smiled towards each other with excitement apparent in their eyes. “Let’s continue!” Aidan said as the two of them continued on their way.

—

From time to time, as they walked through the first floor of the dungeon, Aidan and Ais would take a small break as he infused his magical power into the card. Thankfully, he became more and more experienced in doing so and could still keep a lookout for his surroundings. After doing it four times, Aidan became able to walk as he infused magic into his magical card. Thanks to this, they were able to continue without wasting more time.

While Aidan focused on strengthening his magical cards, Ais held the magic dungeon map card. With this, she directed them to the locations they hadn’t explored yet. After three hours of constant fighting, they both were a bit tired, which gave Aidan another idea for a card.

While having Ais keep guard, he sat down and started to work on a new card. He wanted to make a ‘Barrier’ card that would block the monsters for a moment if they found them. Not only that, but he also wanted to create a card with the word ‘Anti-Detection.’ However, currently, they didn’t need an anti-detection as much as they just wanted someplace safe to sit down for a while. Moreover, Aidan didn’t believe for a minute that writing two words would be more comfortable than one.

As Aidan worked on the new card, Ais had to face two goblins simultaneously, which proved to be a slight challenge but acceptable for her as she had gotten the hang of fighting goblins.

Transforming the card and making the markings appear merely took five minutes as he immediately started to write ‘Barrier.’ Once again, it took less time to write the word as it took fifteen minutes to complete. With sweat forming on his forehead, he confirmed that Ais was still okay as he turned to supply the card with his magic. Five minutes later, Aidan completed the ‘Barrier’ card.

“Ais, come here.” Said Aidan as he threw the newly made card into the air once she came next to him. Immediately, a barrier appeared, which he controlled to form a small dome around them.

With protection around them, Ais visibly relaxed as she believed in his card magic. Sitting back to back and leaning on each other as they didn’t want to rely on the wall since a monster could appear at that location, they took a breather.

“How do you find it so far?” Asked Aidan after a few minutes of silence.

“I like it.” Answered Ais with an expressionless voice. However, he knew that she liked it if he was to go by her tone.

“Right. Why do you want to kill the one-eyed black dragon?” Asked Aidan as he knew it was her goal.

Feeling her trembling slightly, Aidan immediately became worried. “Are you okay? It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.” He said as he turned around to look at her.

“It’s fine.” Said the golden-haired girl after taking a breath. “I want to kill it because it killed my father. I also want to rescue my mother.” She continued as she looked at Aidan, who smiled at her encouragingly. “I’m sure we can do it.”

His words seemed to surprise the girl as she turned to look at the young boy next to her. “We?” She asked as she tilted her head.

“Well, yeah. Loki said we are partners. Of course, we’ll be together in the future to become stronger and kill it. Also, I think we’re pretty good together?” Said Aidan as he asked back a question to Ais.

“Mmm.” She answered as a smile adorned her lips. Laying down her head on Aidan’s shoulder, he could tell she was more relaxed than before.

They stayed like this for another fifteen minutes as they relaxed until the magical power of the card started to run out. “Are you ready?” Aidan asked as he offered her a hand to get up.

Nodding with a smile, they continued their way in the dungeon as Ais continued to lead them. From time to time, they met monsters, which they quickly killed. This trip, which they both once started to learn how to fight the monsters, soon became a field trip as they explored every corner of the first floor of the dungeon thanks to his magic map.

After all, while the guild and the familia had maps of the first few floors of the dungeon, they had all been drawn on the spot, and they couldn’t put the proper distance. Due to this, the map sold by the guild or held by the familias was slightly flawed. However, with the perfect reproduction of the floor on the card, Ais and Aidan had fun exploring and killing the monsters together.

With their experience in fighting together, they started to learn more about each other, and as they fought more and more, they learned how to cooperate. It already helped that both had been able to trust the other since the beginning, which allowed the two to improve rapidly.