Proof of a Hero

"Hawaa～"

When they teleported to this floor, Maal let out such a sound because she was reminded of her homeland's forest.

But looking more closely, the undergrowth, trees, and the vines filling the spaces between them were all much denser.

Yes, the ninth floor was a jungle.

"But it's pretty strange, isn't it?"

Serge murmured that. Among the six, Ria and Carlos were city-raised, but combined with her previous life's knowledge, Ria also knew about rural woods and forests.

"There aren't any small insects. I can't hear any birds or beasts either."

That was the difference from the jungle in Ria's mental image. Most of all, the temperature wasn't hot.

"We're definitely inside the labyrinth."

Maal's eyes could see the movement of magical power — in other words, the movement of monsters. Even with poor visibility, they wouldn't be caught off guard by a surprise attack.

There were small, ordinary venomous snakes around, and those were actually more dangerous in a way.

Detoxification magic proved valuable, and Maal's knife came in handy as well.

"Something's a bit odd here."

This time it was Carlos who spoke — aside from when they first entered this floor, they hadn't seen any walls.

Leaves grew thickly overhead, making the light source unclear. Because he had lived in a city that resembled a labyrinth since birth, he was the one who felt something was off.

"Then let me check with magic."

Serge concentrated and configured a spell he hadn't used before. It wasn't originally the kind of magic used in labyrinths, but it would probably be effective on this floor.

It was a spell that allowed him to perceive the surrounding space with himself at the center. Each time it touched an obstacle, the area beyond became hazier, but it didn't seem to hit any walls.

After spending over ten minutes, what Serge discovered was that this was a vast space in the shape of a circle.

"The center is open. There's probably a swamp there."

There seemed to be various bodies of water besides the center as well. The monsters that attacked were mostly lizards and amphibians that lived near water.

Honestly, the monsters on the eighth floor had been stronger.

"So the Hydra is in the center…"

Ria stood at the front with Gig, cutting a path with a machete. She had given Gig the same kind of machete.

"Since the Hydra is a disaster-class creature, there have been detailed investigations conducted on it."

The characteristics of the Hydra that Lulu described were roughly the same as what Ria had imagined from her previous life's knowledge.

An eight-headed serpent. Its breath was poisonous, and its blood was toxic as well.

It possessed tremendous regenerative ability — even if a head was cut off, it could grow back in as little as a few minutes.

Their sizes varied, but generally they were large enough to swallow a horse whole in one bite.

"In that case, this sword might not be able to cut through…"

Ria's sword blade was approximately seventy centimeters. While it was just the right length for a quick draw from the waist, it would be difficult against such a large opponent.

With that thought, she took out another sword from her magic bag — the other sword she had received from the Ogre King.

It was a sword ogres used with both hands — called a nodachi in her previous life, with a blade as long as Ria was tall. Ria's physical strength made it not impossible to handle, but her light body weight meant it couldn't be helped, and it had been left unused until now.

But it was finally about to see the light of day.

"Tonight, Kotetsu thirsts for blood."

Leaving behind that dangerous murmur, the group headed toward the central swamp.

The forest opened up, and a large swamp came into view.

The ground underfoot was solid, making it suitable for combat. However, the lack of distance from the swamp was a concern.

"There's a perfect spot over there."

A short distance to the left was a grassy area that formed an open clearing. It was almost as if they were being told to fight there… no, in fact, this place was probably meant for battle.

There was no way they could beat the Hydra in the water. Even Ria thought that would be reckless. It was difficult to cut something with a sword underwater.

The group that had moved watched the swamp, but the Hydra didn't come out even after waiting.

"… Maybe we should look for the mirror for now?"

Serge clapped his hands together, but they didn't know where the crucial mirror was. It was probably in the center of the swamp, but the water plants growing tall there blocked their view.

"I don't want to get wet…"

Though Lulu said so with genuine reluctance, if there was no path, they would have no choice.

"Then let me investigate. It would be good if there's a path and a mirror."

Once again, Serge examined the area with Spatial Perception. It was an inconvenient spell that consumed a lot of magical power for its modest results.

He found that on about the opposite side of this clearing, there was a single narrow path leading to a small island in the center of the swamp. The mirror was probably there.

"But we can't approach it safely without defeating the Hydra."

In the end, they had no choice but to defeat it. So how would they lure it out?

"We could hunt a monster and lure it out with the blood."

They killed a giant crocodile at the water's edge and decided to eat it for the time being. The crocodile meat was delicious.

"Alright, I'll give you the rest. Come on, Hydra!"

She submerged the still-bleeding half of the crocodile into the swamp.

The blood spread out. Apparently no other monsters lived in this swamp, as nothing came hoping for the leftovers.

Before long, a shadow fell across the water's surface.

With a splash, the head of a gigantic serpent appeared.

Splash after splash, more serpent heads appeared.

An eight-headed serpent.

"I-It's huge…"

Carlos groaned involuntarily. The claim that it could swallow a horse whole was no exaggeration.

A disaster-class creature that could destroy a waterside town all by itself. Overwhelming violence that would require a small nation's entire army to challenge.

"Fireball!"

Ria's spell exploded against the Hydra. Showing no sign of damage at all, the heads emerged from the smoke.

"Follow the plan!"

Ria shouted, shouldering the nodachi. Voices responded to her call.

The long battle began.

Gig had switched his weapon from a warhammer to a battleaxe. With a blunt weapon, even if he could damage the Hydra, he wouldn't be able to sever the all-important heads.

Though somewhat unaccustomed to it, he skillfully attempted to sever the heads. Carlos blocked the heads that lunged at them with their fangs using his shield. Occasionally, Maal shot arrows toward the Hydra's eyes.

It took three people to attack one head at a time.

Ria had clad her own longsword in flames. It was known that burning the wounds would delay the Hydra's healing. So she tried to cut off a head with it, but attacks from the other heads prevented her from finding good openings.

Cut and burn, cut and burn. Yet even so, it healed little by little, so their attacks still couldn't deal any truly effective damage.

Still, switching weapons had been the right choice. With the katana's length, she would have dealt even less damage.

Lulu and Serge alternated between healing and fire magic. They scorched the wounds that Gig and Carlos inflicted with fire spells. Direct flames didn't seem to work on the scales, but as expected, the wounds didn't have such defensive power.

Little by little, ever so slightly, the Hydra's movements grew sluggish. But by this point, they had also taken numerous attacks. Both Lulu and Serge had drunk multiple magical power recovery potions to use healing and detoxification magic.

However, the equilibrium shattered in an instant.

"Haaaaaaaaaah!"

Ria's attack nearly severed one of the heads. She drove flames into that wound and slashed again with her sword, completely severing the head.

"That's one!"

With just one head reduced, the balance tipped dramatically in Ria's group's favor.

"Excalibur!"

Though his charge had been insufficient, Serge's spell cut halfway through another head. Ria followed up, severing the second head.

"Flamethrower."

Lulu released flames. They just barely caught Ria's hair, but her Heat Resistance meant it didn't even singe.

From here, Ria increased her magical attacks.

Of course, she was still swinging her sword while it was enchanted with fire magic, but since Serge now had room to use Excalibur, she also blasted Fireball and Exploding Fireball spells into the wounds.

After all, when it came to magical power, she had the most in the party. To conserve magical power recovery potions, it was most efficient for Ria to handle the role of burning the wounds.

Maal drew their attention, Carlos and Gig wore down the heads, Serge severed them. Then Ria cauterized. Lulu focused on healing.

From partway through, they managed to turn this into something like a routine workflow.

Eventually, only one head remained — the largest one.

According to legends from her previous life, there was a theory that this last head was immortal, but based on the subjugation records, that wasn't the case.

They simply continued to wear it down, wound it, and burn it.

Through this sequence of attacks, the Hydra bled and steadily weakened.

Finally, Carlos stopped a fang attack, and Serge's magic delivered the finishing blow. The head was severed.

Everyone was breathing heavily.

Not just the warriors who had been moving around — the mages had also used their magical power to the limit, repeatedly recovering and using it to the limit again.

"This meat is poisonous. Unfortunately, we can't eat it."

Ria took a bite of meat that had been conveniently roasted and spat it out. Even though she had Poison Resistance, that didn't mean she enjoyed eating poisoned food.

Despite having run around the outer perimeter of the battlefield, Maal still had the most stamina remaining, so she distributed stamina recovery potions to the warriors.

Splitting open the Hydra's massive body with an axe, Ria extracted the magic crystal.

It was an enormous crystal, nearly the size of a person's head. How much could it be worth in monetary terms? At least more than herself, Maal thought.

"Nee-chan, try cutting off the tail. The bone at the tip should be able to be processed into a sword."

"Also, you should be able to harvest a deadly poison from its liver. It's dangerous for us, so please handle it."

Since its blood was toxic, they couldn't have Maal do the harvesting.

"And the hide could probably make good armor too."

Ria spent about as much time as the battle had taken to process the Hydra into materials.

"Well then, we've achieved our immediate goal, but…"

In the clearing that had become their battlefield, Ria spoke. Perhaps wary of the Hydra's poison, monsters weren't coming near.

"Having come this far, we have to see the tenth floor."

Serge was eager. Everyone else felt the same — no one chose to turn back here.

"We still have about half our recovery potions remaining. Depending on the enemies on the tenth floor, we might be able to clear it."

Even Lulu, who had the least combat enthusiasm in the group, made that assessment.

"I also really want to see the tenth floor."

Even Maal, who had the least say in matters, expressed her opinion.

The final floor, with no records remaining.

Either there were no conquerors, or if there were, they kept silent. For at least the past two hundred years, there were no records of it being conquered.

"Alright, let's go then."

Without any particular tension, Ria declared.

Into the completely unknown floor—

The explorers stepped forward.