Danmachi – Card Wizard - Chapter 16

The following morning, after a good night of sleep, Aidan and Ais met in the cafeteria. The two had decided, the morning prior, to meet early in the morning to explore the dungeon once again.

However, right as they were ready to leave, after having eaten their breakfast, they were stopped by the green-eyed elf along with the captain of the familia. “Good morning, you two.” Said the blue-eyed pallum as he stopped in front of the two.​​

“Good morning.” Replied Aidan as Ais nodded her head in greetings.

“Loki asked the two of us to accompany you to the dungeon for the day. She wants us to train you a bit and observe your strength and weaknesses.” Explained the pallum as he held his spear over his shoulder.

“I see.” Nodded Aidan as he thought of something. “Give me a minute; I’ll go and get something from my room.” He added before he turned towards his room as fast as he could. He didn’t want to waste too much time before entering the dungeon.

Half a minute later, after avoiding a dozen adventurers, he managed to arrive at his room, and he hurriedly pushed the door before going to the living room. After the previous conversation with Ais the day before, he had spent some time in the evening to increase the space in his storage card. After all, now he not only wanted the card to hold his equipment, food, and loot, but he also wanted to bring some furniture such as the table and four chairs from his room.

After getting up in the morning, he had taken with him two chairs and a table. However, now that Finn and Riveria joined in their expedition, he needed to bring two extra chairs for the two of them.

Slamming the door behind him, he made his way back to Ais and the two executives of the familia before the four of them made their way towards the dungeon.

—

As they arrived at the dungeon entrance, Aidan could see the growing excitement on Ais’s face even if she didn’t show much. With an excited smile of his own, the two youngsters led the way as the two executives followed from behind at the awe of the surroundings adventurers at seeing first-class adventurers.

Entering the dungeon, Aidan approached his left hand from his left pants pocket before a card slid out of it, shooting directly in his hand. Bringing the card in front of his eyes, he gave it a quick look before they quickly made their way towards the second floor.

Having brought out the map card from his pocket, it wasn’t necessary to look at it on the first floor since it was a straight alleyway, but it was more of an instinctive reaction. His movement didn’t escape Ais’s eyes as she nodded her head in understanding before they walked down the stairs leading to the second floor, which they had completed the previous day.

Reaching the second floor, Aidan gave another quick look at the now green map of the second floor before guiding Ais towards the stairs leading to the third floor. After all, they had only once gotten on the second floor, and they hadn’t adequately memorized this level yet, making it difficult to orient themselves without the map.

Thankfully, since many adventurers made their way past the second floor to go deeper, they had cleared the way of monsters, and they didn’t meet any enemies on their way down to the third floor.

Entering the third floor, Ais and Aidan immediately got more on guard as they started to explore their new limit. This unique floor welcomed a new monster type, the dungeon lizard, which they had never had the chance to fight yet. Due to this, they didn’t dare take it easy, especially since two essential members of the familia were watching over them.

Entering the first passage, the two tightened their hold over their respective weapons as they walked cautiously but fast enough to not waste time. They wanted to show their best to the two executives following behind them. They didn’t want to only show a cowardly and weak side by walking carefully and stopping every few steps from scanning their environment. Moreover, they were confident enough to fight the monsters on this floor, considering their newly updated status.

Walking only for a few minutes, Aidan located a group of six goblins. After notifying Ais, who was next to him and was looking at another corridor, they sprinted towards the goblins, who noticed them a bit too late. Aidan’s overly long sword slashed the neck of the two closest goblins as his partner used her new magic, air slash, to send a long-distance attack which instantly beheaded two others.

Arriving in front of the remaining monsters, they each took one as they ended the fight before it even began thanks to their newly improved speed which allowed them to act faster than the two remaining goblins.

Quickly finishing their fight and collecting the loot even quicker before moving again, the two executives started to give some tips to improve their way of fighting in the dungeon. At the same time, the beautiful elf started giving some weird looks at Aedan due to his storage card, which she had never seen before.

The four then continued on their way, exploring the dungeon while the executives of the familia trained the two younger members of the group.

—

“Alright. It’s time to eat.” Said Aidan as he heard Ais’s stomach grumble for the third time in a row.

Hearing this, Ais immediately started to explore the surrounding tunnels to ensure no monsters were nearby before coming closer to Aidan. He motioned the two other members to come closer as he threw the barrier card in the air. He then immediately started to take out the various luggage he had brought, such as the table and four chairs, under the amazement of Riveria.

Taking out their lunch from the card and sitting down, Ais immediately started to eat her lunch as Aidan looked at the two executives before sitting down and eating his lunch.

“So, Aidan, why don’t you use your cards while fighting?” Asked the elf while sitting down on one of the remaining two seats.

“I want to train a bit with my swordsmanship. Moreover, I prefer to use my cards only when necessary since I need to replenish them with magic afterwards. So, we only use the magical cards when necessary, such as when we meet too many enemies or in situations such as this one since I prefer to relax when eating.” Explained Aidan while eating.

“I see. Can you tell me your current cards?” Asked Riveria while she also took her lunch and started eating.

“Sure. I currently only have five cards. For attacking, I have ‘Fireball,’ which I can use 12 times with a strength of 1.3, which is an attack with F in stats.

For defence, I have ‘Shield,’ which I can currently use 15 times and block an attack with a strength of 1.3 and ‘Barrier,’ which can hold for seven hours or stop a few assaults from 1.7, a B rank attack.

Finally, as support, I have two cards. The dungeon map card, which you already know and the storage card, which can hold my items. I’ve been strengthening the last card to increase the size of the storage.” Explained Aidan while looking at the elf.

“I see. In this case, you should continue to strengthen your magic cards and maybe create one or two more for attacking. While I do not doubt that ‘Fireball’ is strong and useful, you would need different types of attacks on the lower floors. Maybe a magic arrow or a water bullet. As for support, from the 10th to the twelfth floor, there is mist everywhere. Maybe you could create magic to see through the mist or create magic to locate the monsters in a certain area around you?” Proposed Riveria as she explained a bit of the lower floors situations.

“Yes. I will look into this later when we go back to the surface.” Nodded Aidan, interested in creating different magic to help his time in the dungeon, such as the dungeon map and the storage card he possessed.

“Alright. Are you ready, Ais?” Asked Aidan after finishing his sandwich prepared by the Loki familia chefs.

“Hum.” Nodded Ais as she got up as he collected the furniture.

“Alright, let’s go! Our progress is faster than yesterday, and we are already almost done with the third floor. Our increased status improved our speed of exploring the dungeon. With a bit of luck, we will have the chance to explore about half of the fourth floor.” Said Aidan with a smile which Ais soon shared as they compared the dungeon card map with the dungeon map of the guild.