The next day, Fran, Art, Amanda, and the 9 poor souls picked to bare witness to them all gathered together at the Guild Hall. The E-rank Adventurers seemed surprised by the number of people who came up to give them their condolences. Donna even came up to give them some inspirational words as a sort of send off, all before the C-rank party who would be the test administrators ever showed up, after which they were all made to swore with [Oath Magic] not to disclose top secret information before continuing out of the city before they were even given a proper mission briefing, starting with introductions.

"Now then, let's take this chance to introduce ourselves. My name is Cruz. I'm the leader of the C Rank party "Azure Guard" to which these two, Rigg and Izel, are members of. For this commission, I'll be acting as your instructor as well as your examiner." The blond young man said, introducing himself as his team. Archer cringed at the mere sight of him, as he looked and acted almost exactly like Gawain.

Archer didn't like Gawain, partly because the arrogant bastard accused him of being unskilled with a sword, but more because of his stupidity. Whatever stories said about Gawain, the version of the man that Archer fought was an idiot, both in his ideals and his deeds. In his blind loyalty to his King, he never realized that she was human, that she had feelings and needs like everyone else. He only ever performed his job as a knight, simply allowing the whole responsibility for the country to rest on her shoulders. He had never understood her.

Archer wasn't sure why this pissed him off so much. He didn't know what connection he had with the King of Knights, someone who died hundreds of years before he was core identity was ever born, but he knew that he knew her, and the memories of the burdens she was made to bare made Archer view the Knights of the Round Table with utter contempt. Perhaps some of the thousands of fragments of unnamed heroes that the Moon Cell used to pad out Archer's soul in order to make him a Heroic Spirit contained memories of the great king, but it didn't explain why it felt so personal. Why Archer could say with confidence that he had known Arturia better than Gawain, her supposed right hand man, had.

This guy reminded Archer a lot of Gawain, with his blond hair, generic good looks, noble posture, his shiny armor and his 'Righteous' title, that was missing the 'self' part. Though he was nowhere near as strong.

Name: Cruz Liuzel

Age: 28

Race: Human

Job: Blink Swordsman

Status: Normal

Level: 33/99

HP: 256 MP: 175 STR: 113 END: 119

AGI: 178 INT: 80 MGC: 91 DEX: 119

Skills: Malice Perception: Lv3, Presence Concealment: Lv2, Evasion: Lv5, Court Etiquette: Lv3, Presence Perception: Lv4, Sword Techniques: Lv5, Sword Arts: Lv7, Self-Defense Arts: Lv4, Leadership: Lv2, Flash Step: Lv7, Cold Resistance: Lv4, Poison Resistance: Lv5, Trap Perception: Lv2, Vigor Manipulation

Titles: Righteous

Equipment: Mithril Longsword of Flame, Light-Silver Steel Armor, Light-Silver Steel Gauntlets, Light-Silver Steel Greaves, Cloak of One Hundred Spiders, Bracelet of Poison Resistance

He appeared to be your standard C-rank Adventurer, if a little younger than some. Which meant that his stats and skills were less than half Fran's, and that he would stand about as much of a chance in a fight against the catgirl as Archer would stand a chance in an arm-wrestling competition against a hundred Berserkers.

By herself, without any equipment bonuses, none of Fran's stats were less than 110. Her highest base stats, STR, was currently 187, making her strong even among C-rank Adventurers. With the +50 in all stats she gained from Archer and the +10 she got from her new armor's [Black Cat's Divine Blessing], her stats were enormous. She was around as strong as the Guild Master himself, despite their difference in age and level.

The [Black Cat's Divine Blessing] was not part of Archer's enchantments, but part of the Gods' 'Named Item' system that bestowed blessings on items that were especially good. Archer had made plenty of these items, usually blessed by the God of Smithing, the Warrior God or the God of Swords. Kuroko and Shiroko had been blessed by the Goddess of Chaos, along with Art's "Little Demon Set". However, Fran's "Black Cat Set" was blessed by the God of Beasts, a sign of his approval of the girl, rather than the armor. Perhaps it meant that the God who created the Beastkin was rooting for Fran to succeed in her quest to be the first Black Catkin to evolve, as the armor's special skill would only activate for a Black Catkin. Hopefully that was a good sign, and didn't mean they were a pawn in the Gods' political games.

Archer just couldn't understand why he gave her the blessing he did. While the +10 in all stats were good, [Black Cat's Divine Blessing] also gave an immunity to [Auto-death], which was rather redundant for Fran to have.

[Auto-death] appeared to simply be a sort of curse that caused the target to have a heart attack, rather than ripping the lifeforce from their body. This meant it was completely countered by the [Auto-life] [Recovery Magic] spell, which would automatically restart the heart if it ever stopped beating. Not only that, high enough Magic Resistance could prevent [Auto-death] from effecting, as could just having a lot of Luck, something that Fran had in spades. Even if someone did target her with an [Auto-death] skill, the odds of it working on her were incredibly low, and even if it did, they would have to cast it a second time and get a second success before Archer could recast [Auto-life] for what to him was the negligible cost of 20 Mana. It just wasn't going to happen.

Perhaps the God of Beasts knew something that Archer didn't and it was meant to be a hint towards the key to the Black Catkin's Evolution. Maybe he should start looking up famous monsters with the [Auto-death] ability and start hunting them down. Something to keep in mind for after they achieve level 45.

While Archer was considering all of this, more of the party continued with their introductions. Archer didn't really care. He took a quick look over the lot of them, and none of them were worth a mention. If the C-rank fighters were only around half as strong as Fran was, the E-rankers were only a quarter, and their weapon combat skills made Archer want to cry in embarrassment. It didn't help that the "Dragon's Roar" party all used spears with all the grace of army grunts.

The only one that Archer played even slight attention to was a Wood Elf named Frion, and only because he had a Guardian Spirit tucked away in side of him. He appeared to be a bit stronger than your average E-rank, being closer to a midtier D-rank.

They went down the line, introducing the nobodies one by one, saying their names, rank and their style of combat, until they reached Amanda. "Then I guess I'm next? I'm Amanda. Best regards." Amanda said with a smile and wave. Even that level of introduction was unnecessary. Everyone there already knew who she was, since they had been on the expedition with her just the week prior. Still, some used her introduction as a chance to mumble about the oddity of an A-rank Adventurer going on a D-rank mission.

Well, most of them just mumbled. "I see how it is…" The leader of the spear wielders, a guy named Chad, said. Archer had been doing his best to ignore the man's existence, as he looked like a cartoonists exaggerations of Archer's own features, tanned skin and spiked silver hair, but with a stretched out chin, angry eyes and face tattoo that made him look like a common street thug.

Art and Amanda had childishly pointed him out to Archer with giggles before, though Fran claimed not to see any resemblance at all.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I know the reason an A Rank like you'd take on such a low-rank request! This commission's probably just something you took in your spare time, right?! We had to seriously prepare ourselves, y'know?! This isn't where you should be playing around!" The man shouted. Archer was frankly impressed. It takes a special kind of stupid to bark at someone so obviously higher up the food chain than yourself.

Not that Amanda seemed to mind. "I have no intention of simply playing around though? Besides, I have permission from the Guild Master." The woman said with a dismissive shrug of the shoulders.

"Tsk." The idiot clicked his tongue in frustration, still wanting to pick a fight.

"Now, now. Then, the young ladies next please." The want-to-be Gawain said, trying to keep the train wreck moving. If it weren't for how much he reminded Archer of the idiot, Archer might have felt sorry for him.

"Fran. Leader of the 'Cat's Tail' party. Rank-D." "I'm Art, also rank-D, let's get along." The pair introduced themselves, Fran's expression not changing and Art giving a big smile. This didn't make Chad any happier.

"Oi, brats. I said it before, we're going on a mission seriously. If y'think this'll just be a simple excursion, then it's better for you to go back home and suck your mom's teat instead!" The man shouted, turning on his [Intimidation] skill, which only made Art laugh.

"Mother's dead." Fran said, the level of [Intimidation] being so low as to not even register with here. Chad was shocked out of his skill for the brazen response, though Fran only seemed to mean it as a statement of fact, not really thinking about her words.

(How exactly would I even go about sucking on your teat?) Art asked teasingly. Archer wisely chose not to respond to that question. He knew that the girl's didn't care about the man's attitude all that much, as long as he didn't try to assault them. And Archer felt the same. The man was too insignificant to warrant Archer's hate.

However, even if Fran and Art didn't care at all, bringing up the subject of Fran's parents triggered Amanda who immediately got into a shouting match with the idiot.

"Err. Then, because the self-introductions are over, I'll move on to the briefing." Cruz said, trying yet again to move things along. "Please try to get along for the duration of the job."

Both Chad and Amanda scoffed at the idea of getting along, but Fran gave the affirmative, still not having realized that Chad had a problem with her and Art. He was just too small for her to notice. As for Art, she was too busy casting [Wind Magic] to whisper insults into Chad's ears to even hear Cruz, disguising her voice to sound like one of the man's own teammates and starting them fighting each other for her own entertainment.

It took a while to get them all calmed down enough to even listen to the explanation about the quest.

It was only a full explanation of the mission, as far as the E-ranks were aware, go into the dungeon, collect the Mana Crystals and get out, trimming the Demonic Beasts they met along the way and harvesting the valuables. He also mentioned the kinds of traps to watch out for. Nothing complicated. Even with the addition of the evolved monsters, Archer didn't foresee any issues.

Even so, just getting there was going to be a journey in and of itself, with the spoiled Amanda, the loudmouth Chad and the troublemaker Art.

Archer gave the pretty boy white knight an hour before he was pulling out his hair.

Noisy.

It would have been such a pleasant day if it hadn't been for all the noise that Amanda and that spear person were making. She didn't even understand what they were being so loud about.

Fran didn't hate the noisy spear wielders. To an extent, she understood them, at least a little. Archer had told her their skills, each one of them having the [Hunger Resistance] skill. She might not have understood everything, but she understood hunger. The kind of hunger that eats away at your spirit for days and days and makes you gladly bit the head off of a dead rat that has already been picked mostly clean by bugs.

Fran remembered it well. She had seen a lot of it and experienced it herself. She knew how living through stuff like that changed people.

Still, it was ruining the trip. Fran had hoped that this would be a nice Adventurer that she could share with Amanda before they had to go. She had grown to admire the woman for her strength and spirit. She was amazing. Not as amazing as Archer, but good enough that even after three days worth of training with her, Art and Fran had yet to beat her.

Not only was she strong, she was also a good person. They had visited the orphanage and seen how she had taken care of the other children. She had seen the way they all smiled for her and wished to play with her.

She admired Amanda, and deep down, she wanted to stay with her. To keep having fun together. But she knew that she couldn't. She couldn't give up on the dream of Evolution. She would work hard to achieve it, as hard as she needed to.

She wanted this dive into the dungeon to be memorable. Something she could hold close.

So why did they have to be so noisy? Fran was not used to such constant noise. Not outside of battle. It made her uneasy. Slaves didn't usually hear shouting for this long without something bad happening to them.

Fran had to shake her head, to get rid of the thought. She wasn't a slave. Not any more. This noise didn't bother her. It didn't make her uneasy. It didn't bring back bad memories.

Even after Art got bored of messing with the spear wielders, they still moved at a slow pace and didn't arrive at the Dungeon until sundown, despite only running into a few monsters.

"Erm… Originally we should have gone inside on the first day and traveled through two floors of the Dungeon, finishing the rest tomorrow, but… Because we're a little behind schedule, we'll stop and camp here today and head into the Dungeon early tomorrow. Sound good?" Cruz said, seeming tired from the journey.

To be so tired from such a short trip? He needed to train better.

"What d'you mean 'camp'! We should just hurry up and start conquering the Dungeon immediately, right? Conquering this Dungeon'll be easy; there're only small fries inside, y'know?" The noisy spearman said, being in favor of entering immediately.

"The Ranks of the Demonic Beasts within are indeed low, but it's dangerous to go in with a tired body. And so, we'll be camping here today." Cruz reasoned.

"I agree." "Me too." "Sounds good." Several people agreed as Fran thought things over.

Part of her wanted to go in right away, but she knew that wasn't right. "Exhaustion: Enemy. Wait till morning."

"Tsk! Cowards!" The spearman shouted, crossing his arms.

"Alright, the first watch will go to Miss Fran and Art, after that, the order will be my group, then Chad's, and finally Frion's." Cruz said.

"Nn. Understood." "You can count on us!" Fran and Art said.

"The A Rank won't be keeping watch?" The spearman asked, talking about Amanda.

"Amanda is acting as a spectator. Besides, if I asked her to help then it wouldn't be a proper test for you guys. If she participated, it'd take less than an hour to traverse the Dungeon on foot, and we'd be able to leave for home before the day ends. As for the results of the examination in that case: you'd all fail." Cruz responded. "You should have been notified beforehand, but meals and bedding are to be prepared by each party individually, alright?"

Ah yes, meal time. The best time.

As everyone split up to set up camp in their own parties, Fran went with Art and Amanda to a nice hill and Archer brought out a large dinner, enough for all three of them.

They didn't have to set up their tent, since they didn't really have one. Fran and Archer could build a stone house anywhere, and they had the large comfortable bed they took from the nobleman's house in their [Dimensional Storage]. It was large enough for all three of them to sleep together.

But first they would have to take that first watch.

"Oi, Oi. Can a pair of brats even keep watch?" The spear wielder said, giving Fran and Art a look of contempt.

"No problem." Fran replied simply. Fran wasn't even tired, because of her high [Exhaustion Resistance], and just wanted a chance to enjoy some quiet.

"Ahh? Y'think I can just trust a brat's words so easily?"

"She's a Rank D Adventurer. That's higher than you guys, right? If she says that there is no problem, then it's fine." Cruz said, his voice sharp.

"Them even being Rank D is questionable! What could a couple of kids have done while we were on that expedition, huh? Chances are, they just used their bodies to gain the favor of that lolicon Guild Master, right? So, how'd ya be able to do it, huh?!" The noisy person keep shouting, and things that Fran didn't understand. What did he mean by using their bodies? Was he referring to fighting? They hadn't ever fought the Guild Master.

Apparently, his schedule was always busy.

"We got promoted because we beat up a bunch of guys around the Guild Hall." Art said, putting her hands behind her head and leaned back to look up at the sky. "Though it probably also has to do with the Guild Master being afraid of Mom."

"Hyahaha! As if I would believe that. But if you brats really are so strong, then show me. Let's 'train' a little."

"Uh oh, you said the 'T' word." Art laughed in a sign song voice.

"Train?" Fran's ears twitched as the familiar work penetrated her disinterested mind. Fran got up, putting away her meal. "Nn. Let's train."

For all of you who make a big stink about Auto-death, it isn't even that big of a deal. And for those of you who think I was too hard on Gallus, he never gave his armor immunity to Auto-Death, the god who blessed it did. Don't give the dwarf credit for something he didn't do.

And as far as magic bullshit weapons you really should look out for, the magic spear they face cuts through magic defenses would completely render Gallus' armor pointless, as its only defense is the magical protection.