———Lynda———

  <2: 29 pm>

  *Swat* *Spt*

  “Now you might notice something, unlike in games or what some fantasy stories might have you believe, these monsters don’t despawn when killed. See how their blood and guts are spttered on the wall?” Yeah, I see that pretty damn clearly, no need to make such a gruesome scene to prove a point. Swatting away the monster like they were literal flies. “Let’s talk a bit more about monsters, their behavior and biology. It would probably be a boring talk, so let’s…”

  *Crackle*

  She created some sort of lightning effect and held all the remaining monsters in pce, mostly consisting of goblin-like creatures and mutated animals. All of them look rather gnarly even when they are immobilized like that.

  …Couldn’t she just use this instead of whatever… THAT was?

  “As you can see, they usually have an appearance of something that we can usually recognize. Goblins, wolves, statues, all that. I believe some of you have read this, but monsters tend to take shapes that we can recognize. In terms of strength, those that aren’t very alien tend to be weaker, animal-like monsters tend to not be among the strongest of the floor or even the dungeon, but exceptions exist…” Her eyes then darted around for a bit as she patted the paralyzed the savage wolf. “Of course, you all should know by now that a monster is still stronger than most animals, and you should probably stop having notions about any of the monsters in the lower floor, those won’t be killed by simple firearms or using regur weapons with no techniques behind it.”

  *Crack*

  She gently pced her palm below its chin before violently cracking its neck, gripping its chin and pulling it up and folding its head to its back. “Thankfully, there is no such thing as endangered monsters, in fact, killing them would probably be good for all of us, since they kill indiscriminately most of the time, and all of them are aggressive towards humans to some degree, and even amongst other monsters.”

  “And what are the non-aggressive monsters like?” Kroin asked, obviously killing something that doesn’t cause you grief is bad on anyone’s conscience.

  “It’s hard to tell. Each monster has their own way of attack, some more subtle than others. I do feel like it’s better to punch first and ask questions ter if you suspect that could be the case. As I said, monsters are aggressive toward others by design, so the chance of running into one of those is low. Things like tiny slimes or those Fuzzlins on the first floor of the dungeon in our town may not be much of a threat to any of you now, and some might find them cute, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop attacking or become docile.”

  I don’t even know those weird fuzzy things have a name.

  *Kick*

  She kicks the corpse away unceremoniously, she really hasn’t been keeping up the facade as of te. At this point it just looks like she barely gives a shit.

  “Here’s one thing I want you to know, though I’m sure all of you already know this by now. Monsters exist outside of the dungeon. In fact, in the ancient past, they were abundant in nature, competing with humans and other animals, though the amount that exists in the wild is significantly reduced compared to before, and they don’t really spawn in human settlements or anything like that.” She said while moving towards one of the goblins. “Some are more intelligent than others, and most are more active during the night, going outside their habitat and causing a lot of mayhem. I would imagine that some rural areas have quite a few of them roaming about and causing problems.”

  “...From how you say it, it’s like they can just spawn in with no rhyme or reason whatsoever.” Histon pointed out. That would be a rather concerning prospect, even if her statement about their low numbers in the wild is true.

  “There are a few ways they can come about. Don’t worry about it, it’s not like any of you are going out into the empty wilderness.” She dismissed the question with a clear answer. “Anyway, most monsters tend to be as strong as they look. A tiny goblin like this is pretty easy to deal with.”

  *Tap* *Sptter*

  She tapped it with the tip of her shoe, and it just exploded everywhere. I feel like this is some sort of challenge, trying to not be absolutely disgusted by whatever the hell she is doing. I know full well Elrik is not doing anything like this, why are we stuck with this maniac?

  “Here’s a fun fact. The dungeon in our town is one of the harder dungeons to exist. Mainly because the early floors are front-loaded, from a powerful monster on the second floor, the trapped floor right after, the fifth floor boss being particurly above the standards, and so forth. Most dungeons are very straightforward with a lot of mooks, they’re not particurly strong despite their abundance.” She said before suddenly pulling out a gun again.

  *Bang*

  “That's why the earlier attempt failed, ironically enough. Firearms are overkill for the early floors, but the high quantity of monsters means you spend all of it too early. I’d say having at least a sturdy melee weapon is a must around here, or specialize in hand-to-hand combat.” She said after shooting a bullet through the goblin’s skull, or rather, just obliterate its head since she shot it point-bnk. “They might have been able to go to the lower floors if it was our dungeon and save themselves some embarrassment, but it’s simply a what-ifs at this point.”

  Doesn’t look like anyone is gonna throw up, that’s good. Honestly, I think I am still too shocked by what just happened before now to even be surprised at this point.

  “Here’s a fun fact. Monster meats are so full of mana that it would probably kill your internal organs and kill you. Having a high raw mana capacity won’t really help with it.” She said before walking over to a paralyzed boar-like monster. Don’t tell me she’s going to-

  *Slice* *Chop* *Sizz*

  She uses some sort of slicing spell that cuts it up into cubes. Picking up a clean piece without any blood on it and grilling it right on her fingers.

  “Mmh… Very gamey. I can eat it just fine. As you can tell. There is a way to process it. If your body is already very well tuned to mana itself, usually due to practicing using it a great deal, or if your biology is simir to a monster or demon for some reason or another, you can eat them just fine.” She expined. “By the way, demi-humans are biologically simir enough to do so, but maybe don’t say it like that wholesale.”

  What does she mean by that? Kind of a weird thing to say. But about that little fact… I guess that means Glery can just go into a dungeon to get a meal if she’s that desperate… Considering her expression right now, I doubt she would appreciate that joke. Everyone is obviously a bit disgusted. Not because she eats a monster, most likely. They’re probably feeling a bit icky since she does all the processing in such a quick fashion and so nonchantly, and eating something that you just killed is obviously not something others are mentally prepared for.

  “By the way, do you even get anything from doing that? Eating monster meat, I mean.” I asked, since no one else can find words at the moment.

  “Not really. I think aside from the animal-like monsters, they are just inedible from a biological standpoint. If your body can process it fast enough, I guess you can eat the meat as a poor man’s mana potion.” She answered. Well that is at least… No, the mana needed for that might actually still cause a net loss, but I guess I need to know how she measured ‘poor man’s mana potion’ in the first pce. Some of them are higher quality than others.

  “As for the rest of these guys…” She said as she turned her attention towards the other monsters still suspended. “[Explode]”

  *BOOM*

  “...Alright then. Let’s go to the next floor.” She nonchantly said after the other monsters combust into ashes. I don’t even want to imagine what it would look like if she does something like that to another human being…

  *Shine*

  “Hm? Looks like we got rewards on this floor.” She remarked before walking over to the group of items spawning in. “Potions… Lower-grades ones. Not very appealing. But for you guys it is a nice source of revenue… But you can’t have these, since I did all the dirty work.”

  She then stored it somewhere. No idea where she put all her stuff when it just looks like she’s putting them in her pockets. No way those can store anything without encumbering her.

  “Okay, for real this time, let’s go.” She said before leading the way.

  We silently followed her down to the fifth floor, which should be a pce with at least one strong monster. She should still be able to defeat them in a single blow. I don’t really know how strong she is, it is completely immeasurable to me, which might just be me being bad at it, or she’s too good at hiding it.

  “Grahhhee…” It’s a giant goblin in neat metal armor, with a really big sword. Compared to that cube bastard, it looks quite tame. Does it even have any underlings?

  “Here’s a fact you might already know, but monsters in here don’t really notice your presence until you walk in a certain range or try hitting it once. Very fair of the one creating all of these, but that also makes it way too easy for me… Not that I can’t do it the normal way, of course.” She said before casually walking towards the boss. What does she mean by ‘the one’?

  *Dash* *Swing* *Evade*

  The giant goblin knight quickly took notice of her casually walking towards it, running towards her with the giant sword in hand, only for her to casually avoid it like simply moving out of the way of someone else.

  *Swing*

  She took out a simple wooden katana out of nowhere and swung it casually as she walked past it, and the creature halted. It doesn’t even look like she even swings that hard, it ft out looks out of sync with the reaction that happened right after.

  *Split* *Spt*

  It was split in half vertically, through the armor, through its entire body. Falling to the ground in two pieces, bathing part of the floor in blood.

  That ‘fight’ sted less than ten seconds, it was never a contest in the first pce.

  “Ah. Right. I was about to say something else.” She casually said before the wood katana disappeared, walking over to us. “Because the space the dungeon is using to exist is not the same one as Earth’s and the rest of this world, you don’t have to worry too much about bsting indiscriminately. Assuming you don’t have companions, of course.” She said as if expecting us to know what all of those fancy words and implications are supposed to mean.

  “...So there are no minions?” I asked, seeing that nothing else is happening in this weirdly rge room for one enemy.

  “Nope. This is a pretty easy dungeon. All of you can easily take care of most of the upper floors… Like, the initial twenty.” She expined, sounding slightly awkward. “Of course, not only is that not allowed in the first pce, I doubt you all want to get your hands dirty for what is supposed to be a trip prepared by the school.”

  “Yeah yeah, I get it, angry parents and all that.” Histon replied, sounding a bit out of it. Not quite his usual tone, probably from all the crazy shits Rico has been doing.

  “Mhm. Now let’s see what we got, and we can move further in.” She said with a nod. Hopefully it won’t take too long…