“Huh, how come there are already this many monsters?” Asked Aidan as a frown marred his face.

“Let’s retreat.” Nodded Ais with a grim look as she saw dozens of monsters approaching them, with more coming from afar.

Slashing a monster in half with all of his strength and speed, Aidan gradually retreated with his partner next to him. “How come we are so far from the stairs!” Exclaimed Aidan as panic took over as swarms of monsters relentlessly attacked them.

“We need to leave n~argh.” Started Ais before shooting as a slash hit her side, causing her to bleed heavily.

With the cry of pain of Ais, Aidan, who was fighting seven monsters, at once turned his attention to his partner with worry as he saw lizardmen impale their nails into her side.

With anger taking over, he turned and beheaded the same lizardmen, which caused it to explode in ashes. However, at the same time, it completely opened Ais’s wound, causing her to bleed even more..

“I-I’m fine.” Said the girl as she clutched her sword with desperation marring her face as scratches appeared everywhere on the partners after clashing with the monsters.

Sending out his healing card to Ais to heal the holes in her body, Aidan became distracted, allowing the Bugbear to hit him with his paw, making him collapse into the middle of the monsters.

Using his telekinetic powers, he controlled all the flying knives and the cards, sending swarms of massive fireballs, earth spikes and other magics to repel the enemies.

Rapidly getting up as he used all his stored magic in an attempt to create a passageway, he turned towards Ais, seeing her falling on the ground utterly unconscious as her blood left her body from the many punctures and scratch-made by the monsters.

With horror marring his face, he had all his cards empty all of their magic in a burst of a few short seconds as he sprinted directly to Ais and levitated her body before taking her in his arms and speeding in the passage created by his cards and his few knives which he managed to recover on the way.

Reaching the stairs after receiving a few more hits from monsters, he looked at Ais, and her pale face and shallow breathing told everything there was to know. Taking two elixir potions, he forcefully had Ais drink one while he spread the other directly on the wounds as it would act as a disinfectant and heal the wounds instantly.

Seeing her getting slightly better, he ran over at full speed towards their camp, which was in the middle of the forest. He didn’t pay attention to anything else and directly sent her inside their tent and used all of his magical powers to strengthen the healing cards he possessed.

Drinking a healing potion for himself as he had a long gash crossing his back from the top right to the bottom left, which spurted blood, he started the treatment on Ais immediately.

For the next 24 hours, the boy lived on the magic potions as he used all of his magical power and the magic stones continuously to heal the golden-haired girl who didn’t wake up.

Looking at her face, which now had colour, he stopped for a moment as he took a towel and water to clean her as her blood-covered clothes, both from her own and the monsters, were undoubtedly not hygienic. Changing her clothes, he thoroughly cleaned her up before changing her in her pyjamas.

Eating dried meat as he was hungry after only drinking magic potions for a whole day, he went back to Ais’s side before starting to use the healing cards and the healing potions they had with them.

As such, for the following two days, Aidan stayed next to Ais’s bed as he continuously looked over her condition and beating himself up over the stupid decision he had pushed Ais into accepting.

Finally, three days after the complete failure in their dungeon hunting experience, Ais stirred awake, which immediately drew Aidan’s attention with hope on his face.

“Hmmm, where am I?” Wondered Ais out loud as she gradually opened her eyes and took in the surroundings.

“Do you want water? Something to eat?” Asked Aidan with evident happiness in his voice as his tiredness disappeared as he stared at the girl who was highly hurt a few days ago.

“Yes.” Nodded Ais as she slowly remembered the last thing she saw. “How did we get out of there?” Asked Ais as she stared at Aidan with a complicated expression.

“I released my cards and barely opened a way out after getting you.” Answered Aidan as he rapidly took out already prepared food and a water bottle before helping her in eating.

“How long have I been out, and how are you?” She asked with concern as she saw Aidan’s state, which had not slept for the last three days. “It’s been three days, and I’m fine.” He said, shaking his head gently as he continued to feed the still weak Ais.

“Sorry, it was my idea this time, and it almost cost you your life.” Said Aidan directly as he stared with Ais with a remorseful expression.

“It’s not your fault, and I agreed. However, let’s not go back there anytime soon.” She answered as she gently shook her head and looked concernedly at Aidan. “However, you should take some sleep.”

“Will you be fine? You’re still injured.” Asked Aidan, concerned as he stared at the girl.

“I’ll be fine. I can already move by myself.” She answered before showing a smile. “Go to sleep.”

Aidan didn’t need to be asked a second time. After confirming she would be fine, he lowered his head and immediately fell asleep.

—

(Ais’s POV)

Seeing Aidan fall asleep, a complicated expression appeared on her face. “This wasn’t your fault. I wanted to go down there even more than you. But what exactly happened since I fell unconscious?” She said before wondering out loud.

Getting out of the bed, she moved Aidan in the bed before leaving the room and looking around. “How many potions did he drink over these days!?” She asked in dismay as she saw countless magic potions bottles on the ground next to numerous cracked monster cores, which signifies that Aidan had utterly drained the energy out.

As she was about to continue to look over the traces left by Aidan, she saw the communication card vibrating on the table.

Taking the card, she saw that Finn was calling and answered the card.

“Oh, hello, Ais.” Said Finn as a relieved look appeared on her face. “I was about to send down a party to come and visit you if you didn’t soon make an appearance on the card.” He added as he looked at Ais to see if he could glimpse any information. Unfortunately, Ais’s ever stoic face in front of people other than Aidan prevented him from getting anything.

“Hello, captain. Was there anything you wanted from Aidan?” She asked in a curious voice.

“No, I was calling to verify how you were doing. In these last few days, you never appeared, and Aidan only said you were currently indisposed to answer.” Answered Finn as he shook his head. “Well, that was all. Now that I see that everything is doing well, I’ll leave you to your dungeon trip.” He continued before saying his goodbyes and closing the communication card.

‘Well, everything is fine, now.’ Nodded Ais as she nodded and left the card before moving to the bathroom and immediately blushing. ‘How come I am clean? Did Aidan clean me? And I’m in my pyjamas?’ She thought as her face turned bright red as she immediately went to bathe and clean herself.

—

(Back to normal POV)

A day later, when Aidan woke up, he noticed that he was in bed, and as the boy looked around, he saw that everything was now spotless in the tent. The previous massive amount of bottles and broken monster crystals disappeared as everything that remained was a cleanroom.

“Oh, you are up. Come here; diner is ready.” Said Ais showing a gentle smile, and invited him to come and eat food along with her.

“How are your injuries?” Asked Aidan as he immediately started to eat as he was famished.

“I’m excellent, now.” She answered before turning serious and looking at Aidan. “So, what are we doing now? Do we leave the dungeon and go back to the surface, or do we continue to hunt monsters on the 17th floor?”

“I’m fine with continuing our hunting trip. The monsters on the 17th are way weaker than those on the 19th, and we can easily kill them. However, if you want to go back to the surface, I’m fine with it as well.” He answered as he didn’t mind either way.

“Let’s continue. I was afraid that you would want to stop partnering up with me.” Answered Ais as she talked about her worries.

“Hum? Why would I want that?” Asked Aidan, completely stunned.

“Well, I was holding you back in the dungeon, and you would have been able to escape without any injuries if I wasn’t with you.” She explained with a shy and sad look on her face.

“Well, I was the one who proposed to go down there, and it was a mistake on my part. On the contrary, I thought you would be the one who wanted to stop teaming up with me after our near-death experience.” He replied while showing a relieved smile. A smile seemed to demonstrate the relief of seeing her well and that she wanted to still team up with him.

“However, let’s take a day of break before we restart.” He wryly smiled as he finished the food and went to relax with Ais on the beach chairs outside the tent.