Come on!

　Current Situation

　Alihit's Blazeshot activates and hits the Dokuyari bee.
　The "Dodger bee" is burning.

Jeez!

　The distance is too far - I've hit it, but the response is thin. If I don't give him one more chase, I won't be able to interfere with Bee's attack...!

"-Oh!

　Theresia cut away with her shortsword in an interlocking manner at the moment when the dokuyaribachi, which had been stagnating to the left, was in attack position.

　◆Current Situation ◆

　Aricht's 'Supportive Defense 1' is activated → Target: Theresa
　Teresia has been hit by a bumblebee. No damage.
　Theresa's attack on the bee has hit the bee. Taking damage of 10.
　Defeat one of the dokuyaribachi.

　If the bee's poisonous stinger is also prevented by the support defense, there is no danger of being poisoned. But there's a dokuyari bee on the right, still burning and stagnating in the air--!

d*mn it...!

Then.........!

Igarashi-san!
I'm not going to give it to you!

　Other than me, you can attack remotely - if you're a Valkyrie who uses both sword and magic.

　◆Current Situation ◆

　Kyouka activates Thunderbolt -> Docu-Yaribachi is hit.
　Defeat one of the dokuyaribachi.

　The bee, which was weakened by the combustion, was about to shoot a poisonous stinger at Suzuna when it was shot through by the lightning bolt Igarashi-san fired and fell to the ground with chattering sparks.

But........I had heard it was suited for a solo (solo), but I didn't know it was this good)

　Elitia put her sword away and moved closer to Suzuna. But she knew she was at fault, but she couldn't speak to him.

　Igarashi-san and Theresia waited until I arrived. First I lend a hand to Suzuna, who is sitting down.

'Are you okay?　Are you hurt?
'Ha, yes it's fine. I'm still dragging my feet...
''Oh no, that's not true. Suzuna came all the way here with me. You worked so hard and defeated Watadama, too.

　Rival said that the amount of experience you get goes down with the level difference. He was talking about "hardly any experience coming in," so I guess it wasn't zero.

　In other words, there's only one means to make Suzuna get experience efficiently.

''........I see. In battle, you disarmed the party and Elitia led the enemy to stop Suzuna, right?
''Yes but there are others who are hunting watadama, so it's hard to get the prey around...''
'So you came upstairs in search of a hunting ground. It looked a little, or rather, quite dangerous... but are you going to continue hunting with that kind of risk?　Shouldn't you be sticking around on the ground floor?
''I can't........spend too much time here. I need to get Suzuna to level 8 like me as soon as possible and get back.......
Back?　You're going back to ... sorry if I'm wrong, but to the 'Midnight Sun Brigade'?

　Elitia's eyes widen slightly and she looks at me. How did she know - she seemed to want to say that, but she didn't say it.

'Well I'm not going back to the brigade. They have abandoned my people. My best friend is still waiting for me at the bottom of that labyrinth. If I leave her alone, she'll be a sub-human with no heart.
'What kind of demon would hold a seeker in captivity?　Can't we ask for help from the guild or any other party?
You'll find out soon enough. The longer you live as a seeker, the more you'll have to live with yourself eventually. But that's not a bad thing ... no one explores because they want to die. Fame, we explore because we want to be free.

　Suzuna hadn't heard that much about the situation yet, but she listened with a calm expression on her face.

　She was frightened when the dokuyaribachi targeted her, but she was her, and it wasn't just that she was scared. The will to seek and search for something in the labyrinth was in her eyes.

''I'm sorry, I saw a big pig ghost earlier, and my legs slipped away. I really should have covered you with this bow.

　I don't know if it's because a miko is a shrine and a shrine is a breaker arrow, but Suzuna was equipped with a bow. She is wearing white clothes and a red skirt, and her long black hair is tied up with a ribbon, making her look like a Japanese miko, even though she is dressed in otherworldly attire.

''Also, I saw you entering the labyrinth earlier, what happened to the other one?''

　Elitia and Suzuna's expressions cloud over as they ask the question. It seems that something bad has happened.

''........She........well, she failed to open the treasure chest......''
'That girl........Misaki-chan seems to have chosen a job called 'Gambler'. I said it was supposed to be lucky, and opened the box that the demon had dropped, but then he disappeared. But then, she disappeared...
''Treasure chests I haven't found a single one after all those demons I've hunted, is there such a thing?''

　Igarashi-san is right, we found the drop items, but we didn't see a shadow of a treasure chest.

There are only a limited number of chests that appear on a single level (floor). The stronger the demon, the easier it is to drop the chests, but sometimes Watadama and Hachitaro don't drop the chests even after killing 100 of them. So I really think Misaki is lucky... but if I had told her properly that the only jobs that can remove the traps are those that are similar to bandits...

　Elitia seemed to have a lot of experience as an explorer, but it was difficult to lead a group of beginners and guide them well.

''If we transition with a trap, where do we get sent to?''
It's probably an 'intra-level transfer' trap, so he's on this floor somewhere. We have to find him and join him as soon as possible.
Yeah, well. What do you think, Mr. Backside?　Do you want to go with these kids to find them?
'I would if I could, but... Elitia, were there any other parties on this level?　If you're here, I'd like to ask for their help, too.

　It would take too long to go call for Rival-san. It was times like this that I wanted Misaki to have the scroll of return, even if it would be a negative contribution.

　If the demon attacked her and she failed to escape, she would probably be lifeless. Depending on the "Gambler's" fighting strength, even Watadama's attacks would be fierce at level 1. We can only hope that we haven't encountered the Fang Orcs.

''Maybe it's just my imagination, but as soon as I got here, I had the feeling that someone was watching me. Maybe I was just barely out of sight of the rest of the party.
'Does that mean ... that there was someone watching people coming to the second level?　That's not what it's for....

　Igarashi-san expressed his doubts. I was remembering a story I overheard at the bar where we had dinner yesterday.

　A trio of men. They seemed to be plotting something when they found out that Elitia had come to the Eighth Ward.

''........Is it going to be difficult to get the rest of the party to cooperate with us? But even if we split up and encounter a group of demons, it will be difficult to deal with them. Elitia, just for now. Form a party with us.

　Level 8 - a searcher on a cloud from what we're doing now.

　She was desperately trying to raise a rearguard because the group she was in had abandoned her precious friends. She was trying to create a new party to help it.

　But it was too dangerous as it was now. Suzuna doesn't want to leave the party even after hearing about Elitia's situation - the risk of getting hit back when she puts a stop to it is going to continue all the way until she grows up.

Even if you try to make the dokuyari bee take experience, there's a chance that Suzuna will fight back. A watadama would still be too dangerous, but a poisonous stinger would be too dangerous. If possible, Suzuna should be paired with someone in the same level range.
Does that mean I'm not qualified to work with Suzuna?
That's not what I said. I'm willing to help Elitia's cause if I can. But if you're going to raise Suzuna, it's better to have her join our party and Elitia stay solo and accompany me until she's on the same level.
I can't leave someone who wants to save their best friend, no matter what the circumstances, I can't leave them alone. At the same time, I'm also worried about the reincarnated Suzuna-san.
"...both of you...

　Suzuna's eyes moisten and she holds her eyes with a hand towel. Elitia looked like she didn't know what kind of face to make - but she looks at my face again.

''I've been wondering if you're an amazing rearguard. But I was dismissing the possibility that it wasn't possible. If you helped me, maybe we could safely raise Suzuna's level... and then I pretended not to notice.
I'm not going to spread the word about my job, either. If you're going to work with me, I'd like you to keep it a secret if possible. What's the problem Elitia has as a vanguard other than that she's not cut out to protect the rearguard?
''As long as you don't have a party, it won't matter as long as I'm far enough away from you. If I ask you to run away, leave me and run away. Please just do that........I've given Suzuna the 'Escape Scroll' and you can use it.

　Elitia said and held out her right hand to me. When I squeezed it back, she huffed, her face tense the whole time.

'I'll see what you can do, Mr. Alihit. It's going to take me a while to get my little hand off, so I'll have to excuse myself.
Oh, yeah nice to meet you.
I'll be standing alone, but I'll more than reimburse you more than enough for your cooperation. You don't have to be at the party to listen to my instructions and I'll give you what I've got. If you don't have enough money to live on, just let me know.
I'm good for now. And I'm not a pimp.

　Elitia smiles happily. I guess that's her true expression. If she was thinking about it, and her nerves were as sharp as a blade, it wasn't a very good state of mind - it was good to see her here for Suzuna's sake.

　Elitia also shook hands with Igarashi-san and Theresia. And Suzuna came unsteadily in front of me.

''Ah, um........nice to meet you, Arihito-san. Once again, I'm Suzuna Shiramiya Suzuna.
Yeah, I'm Rear Man. This is Kagoka Igarashi, and her name is Theresa the Lizardman.
Nice to meet you. It's nice to have company.
..........

　Suzuna smiled reassuringly as Igarashi-san smiled gently at her. Theresia is a bit powerful, so it might take some time to get used to it, but Suzuna still shook her hand and greeted her in a disciplined manner.

　◆The current party ◆

　1: Aricht *◆$□ Level 2
　2: Kyouka Valkyrie Level 1
　3: Suzuna Priestess, Level 1
　4: Theresia, Rogue, Level 3, Mercenary.
　Guest 1: Elitia