The third floor.

 As soon as they went down the stairs to the third floor, John casted a Deprehendre.

“There are people here… Quite a few of them. They appear to be fighting” John said after using deprehendre

He was able to adjust his deprehendre to suit the dungeon. The only problem is that it can only detect things that are nearby and it still can’t really go through the wall

“So they’re farming the dungeon too. Why didn’t we see anyone before we came here john?” Ariel asked.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. There were a lot of people lined up outside.” John said.

“Most experienced people just rush through the dungeons. We took our time to fight the battles and search for the floor boss but the veterans just go down to the floor most optimal for farming.” Serena said

“Ah… So they realised that those low level Magic stones weren’t worth much and decided not to farm them.” John said.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Serena replied.

“Hm… But aren’t goblin ears supposed to be worth 10 silver each? How much are those magic stones worth?” John asked.

“The goblin magic stones are worth 7 silver each. The kobold stones are worth 5 silver each.” Serena said.

“I’m guessing their prices are that low because they only have a one time use or don’t contain that much mana?” John asked.

“Not really, I don’t know why either. But I think 5 silver each is a good deal. The stones break after one use, and we can’t really use these weak ones that easily break on wands or magic tools.” Serena answered.

“I see…” John muttered.

“And besides, the professionals rush through it because they know that the stronger the monster, the better the rewards. Which is why they don’t waste their energy on the beginner floors. That being said, we’ll probably find more people around the 4th and 5th floors.” She said.

“Ah, okay, I understand now. You’re quite knowledgeable aren’t you?.” John asked.

“Hm? Well I had planned to go dungeon so i thought it’d be a good idea to learn more about it.” Serena replied.

“I’m glad you both are here, I probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy it this much by myself.” John said with a relieved face.

“You better be” Said Serena with a smile on her face.

“We’re glad john’s here too.” Said Ariel who was also smiling.

‘Crap, I feel like something got on my eye. It feels a bit watery.’ John thought.

“Thanks. Let’s move on, Also unless they ask for help don’t help them. It’s their prey and some might not like us attacking it. Don’t forget that most of these guys are just here to make money.” John said.

“Yes!” They replied.

“Aren’t we here for the same thing?” Serena asked.

“Well yes, but we’re mainly here to get an understanding of it. Next time we’re back we’re rushing through in order to complete it.” John said.

“Complete it!?! We’d need to at least be an S rank to do that.” She said.

“Maybe not complete. But we’d at least try to see how far we could get. It’s been at least 3 hours since we started, and we’re already on the third floor. At this rate it won’t even take us a day to reach the 5th floor assuming each floor is 1 hour long.” John spoke.

“Alright… I’ve been wondering… How do you know how many hours it’s been?” Serena asked.

“I’d like to know too.” Ariel added.

“Body clock.” John said.

“What?” They asked.

“A body clock. I’m leaving it to my instincts. After spending countless nights studying, paying close attention to the time while I did. I developed an ability to be able to freely guess correctly, how much time was passed without using a clock.” John said.

“Study… Weren’t you a homeless person? Why would there be a need to study? To be honest, you’re able to count aren’t you? Since when can someone homeless do Arithmetics?” Serena asked.

“Ariel can do arithmetics” John replied.

“My uncle taught me.” She said.

“Exactly! She wasn’t always homeless, someone taught her. So who taught you? I’m even more curious about your background now. You can use chantless spells and you erase common sense when it comes to magic!” Serena said.

“Serena… John’s life is his privacy. Don’t you think you’re being unfair by forcing him to talk about it? He’ll tell us when the time is right.” Ariel said.

“But…” Serena muttered.

“It’s fine, Ariel, besides I was planning on telling you guys anyways so might as well explain it while we walk.” John said as he began walking forward.

The two gave each other a confused look but followed me with curious looks on their faces

“Ariel, before we met. I didn’t know who I was. My name was the only thing I could remember. I didn’t know where I was, why I was there or anything about the kingdom. Almost as if my memory had been erased or altered.” John explained.

The two continued to listen quietly as they walked.

“Furtim,” John said as he grabbed on to their hands.

They continued to walk but John didn’t activate silentium so they could hear his story.

“Confused, I walked around and met a guy called Will. He gave me a few Appas and told me about adventurers. That was when I got the idea of becoming an adventurer.”

“So that’s how you met will…” Ariel muttered.

“Yeah, and it was also how I met you. I was heading towards the guild to become an adventurer when I saw you sitting down on the alley. At that moment, I thought ‘she’s just like me.’ and went to ask you to join me on my adventurer. I was really happy when you accepted!” John spoke.

“I was also really happy when John invited me…” Ariel said.

“Can you two stop flirting in front of me?!” Serena spoke.

“We’re not!” John and Ariel said simultaneously.

“Yeah, yeah and what happened next? How were you able to use magic without chanting?” She asked.

“So everything I told you, so far, had happened on the same day. Me and Ariel signed up as adventurers and we went to the forest to hunt for monsters and sell them at the guild. While I did lose memories of my life. There were 3 things I still remembered. My name, life skills such as arithmetics and finally The concept of magic.” John explained.

“The concept of magic?” Serena asked with an amazed expression.

“That’s right. I understood the concept behind each element. Fire, Water, Earth and wind.”

“How is that possible? No wizard so far has been able to understand the concept of a single element much less all 4… Who taught you?!” She asked.

“I don’t know, I told you I lost my memories. I don’t know how I knew that. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I know it. So me and Ariel got in an accident, on that day. A giant boar attacked us, We were caught off guard and we were in trouble. At that moment, something inside me triggered and I used magic without chanting.” John answered.

John felt bad for lying to them but he couldn’t let them know that he was reincarnated from another world. John just felt like he shouldn’t. He also didn’t wish for that information to spread. Even though he knew they wouldn’t spread it.

“That’s a lot to take in. I’m glad you both made it out safe, I think I understand, You were able to use chant-less magic because you understood the concept, right?” Said serena.

“That’s right. But you know what’s the most bizarre thing of all? Everything I told you happened on the same day. Meeting ariel… Becoming an adventurer… I feel like it was all a part of fate. Even meeting you too.” John added.

“Fate…” Serena muttered.

“But yeah, if you really want to learn how to use concept magic, I don’t mind teaching you. Just know that you can’t tell anyone else, as it will break the current power balance over this world.” John said.

“Understood. If you really wish to teach me I would be deeply grateful and I swear on my name that I wouldn’t tell anyone about it without your permission.” She said.

“It’s fine, there’s no need to swear on your name. As long as you understand, besides I already told you that I trust you, so if you feel like it’s necessary to tell someone what it is, it’s fine. Just make sure you never teach anyone how to use it. At least for now.” John said.

“But why do you trust me so much? We’ve known each other for less than a week.” Serena said.

“Would you sleep in the same room with someone you don’t trust?” He asked.

“T-That was because you were paying, and Ariel was there. I couldn’t leave her alone in the same room with a guy. If you tried anything i would have beaten you up.” She replied.

“I-I was joking… But yeah, it’s just a feeling? Besides, you don’t look like someone that betrays others.” John said.

“If you keep thinking like that, then you really will be betrayed!” Serena said with a worried expression.

“Why are you worried about a guy you just met?” John jokingly asked.

“Shut up.” She said as she lightly punched me.

‘That being said, I’m only going to teach her the concept of fire. Knowing too much would put her in even more danger. But she had a point, why am I so trusting? Why did I decide to teach her?’ John wondered.

“But yeah, I’ll teach you when we’re outside, we might be overheard from here.”

“Yes! Thank you.” Serena said with a bright smile.

‘We’ve been walking for quite a while now, why haven’t we encountered any monsters? Even if we’re invisible we should have at least seen them lurking around. Is it because the adventurers which I had detected Earlier have been killing them?’ John wondered.

John did see blood on the walls, that might explain it. 

‘Where are they? Let’s see if I can find them with deprehendre.’ John thought.

“Deprehendre” John muttered.

‘Wha-? I can’t detect them anymore. No wait… Something’s wrong. Something’s been wrong for quite a while.’ John wondered.

“John, Ariel, there’s something i haven’t told you guys… I’m an El-“

“No one move. Something’s wrong” John said.

The moment he said that, the walls on their side began to move. Creating a path which had a Giant door at the end of it.

“What the hell? That looks like the door to the dungeon boss room… But why? What’s going on? Is this the dungeon’s doing?” John asked.

“John… The path in the direction we were heading. It’s disappearing” Said Ariel as she pointed in the direction they were heading.

The mossy walls and the bricks were breaking down. Darkness was all you could see, an endless abyss. The same was happening behind them. Leaving their only option to head to the room which had appeared out of nowhere

“Let’s go!” John shouted as they followed the path to the giant door.

‘Is this the dungeon’s doing? I heard that it was alive but why us? Why is it targeting us?’ John questioned himself.

“Serena, do you have any idea of why this might be happening?” He said as they ran.

“T-There have been cases where people activate traps and are teleported to lower floors in the dungeon! But i don’t recall us falling into a trap!” She said as they ran.

“Crap! At any rate! We’re going to have to face whatever is on the other side of this door if we want to survive” John said while running..

After we arrived at the entrance,Johni pushed open the door and we went inside. Shortly after we were in, the door behind them shut itself closed.

Once, they were inside. John could feel the little hair he had on his body stand. He felt chills go down his spine at the insane amount of bloodlust being let out from it. John looked at the other two and saw them also trembling in fear.

John then, looked at the direction where this pressure was coming from.

“Are… You… Kidding me…” John muttered as he could hear the sound as he gulped down.

Serena and Ariel did the same and froze. It was a spider den, literally. Giant Eggs with a Giant spider standing in the middle of them on a web. The spiders of about their size were crawling around the giant spider which was their mother. The giant spider remained motionless as it appeared to observe them.

“Serena, Lend me your staff for a second.” John said as he grabbed the bag which held magic stones.

“A-Alright…” She said as she handed it to him.

The spider who noticed John was planning something, shot a web at them, from its mouth. The web was very fast, reaching their side of the room in nearly a second

“Scutum glacies.” John muttered as he moved out of the way.

The Spider web pierced the shield and hit the wall, but the ice on the shield began to slowly engulf the web and spread toward the spider. Seeing this the spider let go of the web and became wary of them.

“Sphaera Glacies” John muttered as he held on to Serena’s wand.

The sphere of ice which took half a minute to complete last time was completed in only 5 seconds, thanks to the help of the wand.

“Sphera Glacies Spheara Glacies Sphaera Glacies Sphaera Glacies” John repeated, over and over as he casted even more ice spheres to fully envelop them in ice. Seeing this the Spider let out a shriek which appeared to have been a signal to attack.

John consumed 5 magic stones and created a giant sphere of ice which not even the spiders web could penetrate.

“I’ll wait until you guys are able to calm down. At this rate, we won’t be able to get out of here. I won’t be able to beat it without your help.” John said as he placed his hand on their shoulder.

‘This is a really bad spot. I’m scared, I can tell that this isn’t the full power of that spider. But I can’t show it to them. I’m the leader of the party, I need to stay strong at this moment, even if it’s just faking it.’ John affirmed to himself.

“So, take all the time you nee-“

Before John could finish, the 5 layers of Ice sphere he had placed were broken.