Spirit magic.

It is the descent technique where one brings down a part of the consciousness of spirits who govern each attribute - beings even called gods in some places - using one's attribute magic as a vessel.

From the perspective of those who cannot use spirit magic, it might appear as a strange phenomenon where magic uses magic, so it could also be called autonomous magic.

However, since this is only a part of the spirit's consciousness, it doesn't possess the high intelligence that Cardina and others have.

Therefore, if not given any instructions, they will start playing around freely, so caution is needed.

After experimenting with spirit magic using small amounts of magical power for a while.

While receiving a lap pillow from Ai, he worked on completely recovering his depleted magical power.

After all, there's still the important task of recreating Cardina and the others' bodies ahead, so he must be in perfect condition both mentally and physically!

...or so went the pretext under which Tatsuro enjoyed the smooth, delicate feeling of Ai's thighs, literally returning to peak condition both mentally and physically.

After that, he first called over Cardina, the eldest sister.

Since he had informed them beforehand about raising their body levels, everyone was looking forward to their turn.

However, since Cardina's Dispel magic would temporarily disappear, Jeanne and the others were keeping an even more vigilant eye on their surroundings.

But this time there was a trump card. Yes, spirit magic.

First, he had a spirit of the dispel attribute descend into a mass of dispel magic power.

Then he did the same with masses of earth magic and water magic power, having the three types of magic power cooperate to perform search magic, instructing them to notify Jeanne and the others nearby if they found anything.

This should last long enough for Cardina's body generation, transplant, and magic factor transplant.

Then, holding hands with Ai and quickly recovering the magic power used there as well, he psyched himself up to begin.

However, at that point, Cardina tugged at his sleeve as if wanting to say something.

When Tatsuro crouched down to meet her eye level wondering what it was, Cardina took out paper and a pen from her [Item Box] and began writing.

Her writing, which she had gotten used to doing with tools attached to bird feet, had become much better than at first.

(I want the water magic factor)

"Um... ah, you want water magic. --Wait, that's for searching, right? You could choose any magic you like, you know?"

(I want to be more useful to Papa)

"Cardina, you're already plenty useful. You always help me so much."

At that point, Tatsuro gently patted her head to convey his feelings.

Cardina then narrowed her sharp eyes contentedly, nuzzling her head against his hand.

(Thank you, Papa. But it's still not enough. I want to master Dispel magic even more, find enemies before anyone else, and protect everyone)

"Cardina... come here"

"Peewee♪"

Pulling Cardina close, Tatsuro gently stroked from her head to her back.

This child really is such a good child, he thought.

As someone called father, albeit imperfectly, he felt unrestrained pride.

"I understand. Let's do as Cardina wishes."

"Peewee!"

"Hehe, she's happy."

"Yeah. Well then, shall we begin!"

"Peewee"

Cardina, in her [Adult Form] state, raised her wings like raising hands and energetically responded.

Finding that sight cute, Tatsuro somewhat absentmindedly patted her head again, and she contentedly narrowed her eyes.

Then Tatsuro, after a long while, used the mixed magic of light and darkness.

Furthermore, he activated [Yin-Yang Orb] using dragon magic power that mixed dragon power and magic power.

Although Tatsuro was a bit taken aback when an even larger spotted sphere appeared than ever before, from there he proceeded carefully without incident.

Before long, after transplanting all of Cardina's information to the new body, he transplanted the dispel magic factor as is, and inserted earth magic level 10 factor and water magic level 8 factor.

Eventually, sensing that the three magic had completely settled, Tatsuro told Cardina to return to her original form.

Although she appeared mostly unchanged in her [Adult Form] state on the surface, even without being in [True Form], it felt like the pressure she exerted on her surroundings had increased.

And that wasn't wrong - her inherent magical power amount and physical abilities had jumped up.

"How's the new body?"

"Peewee!"

"Looks like there's no problem!"

Seeing Cardina vigorously nodding and hopping around, Tatsuro and Ai smiled at each other.

After that, Cardina tried out water magic several times, then flew up above the house and began using search magic with dispel magic again.

So when he called back the spirit magic, the attribute magic masses that had been larger than basketballs had shrunk to the size of ping-pong balls(Table Tenis balls), but since they seemed like they could still last a bit longer, he decided to have them continue search magic together with Cardina until the magic power ran out.

While this was happening, they proceeded with updating Jeanne and Nana's bodies and magic factors, and when it came to Athena's turn.

Since she could get a second attribute up to level 10 as well, she requested adding a new attribute that she had been considering.

"I've decided on my second attribute!"

"Oh, Athena has decided too. What would you like?"

"Wind! After thinking about various options, since I'm a bit too focused on offense right now, I thought I'd improve that side using the method like that drill bird!"

"Ah. That [Wind Armor] skill. Indeed, if you use that with level-ten wind magic, you should be able to deflect various attacks. Yeah, I think that's good."

"Great~. Then, please!"

Despite her slack words, Athena bowed her head properly, and after patting her, Tatsuro devoted himself to the final body creation.

After that, the equipment change for Cardina and the other magical beings was successfully completed, and this party including Tatsuro was strengthened once again.

Regarding this, Leah thought they were truly becoming members capable of fighting against major nations... while looking somewhat distant, she properly summarized what she had observed of the magical being creation with her [All-Seeing Eye].

To conclude, she understood that this magic was a feat that could only be accomplished by humans who actually possessed light magic and dark magic skills, no matter how intricately magic circles were carved or how much energy was used.

However, that was only if trying to reproduce it completely.

Leah secretly began developing new blueprints in her head, wondering if perhaps this concept could be used to develop artificial intelligence capable of carving magic circles.

Then after taking another break for Tatsuro who had completely exhausted his concentration.

Everyone together began preparing to venture into the twentieth floor.

Tatsuro and Ai had their usual equipment, but Cardina and the others each wore arm ring-type staves improved by Leah in their [Adult Form] state. Read complete version only at novel_fіre.net

And Leah herself wore light armor made from dragon scales that she had steadily enhanced through quality improvement, along with boots and gloves, and furthermore carried a long-handled hammer made of reinforced alloy on her back, with three grenades with safety pins at her waist.

Also, since Nana had the lowest defense power among physical status parameters, it seemed she needed armor, but she refused saying it would make movement difficult, so after thinking, Leah had made a light mantle by thinly stretching dragon scales enhanced through quality improvement that still maintained decent strength.

That had now become Nana's favorite, and she was properly wearing it.

With this, preparations were completely ready.

So this time too, they jumped into the glowing pond all at once with Tatsuro's multi-layered barrier of various attributes constructed with fire magic on the outermost layer.

...but since it seemed there was nothing to launch a surprise attack, and they appeared to have been sent to a closed square space about fifteen meters on each side, Tatsuro judged it was safe and dispelled the barrier.

"Wha-"

"Huh?"

"Peewee!?"

"Neigh!?"

"That's-"

"Ah"

"Ah-"

While uttering seven different reactions, they widened their eyes at the sight directly before them.

It was a space entirely made of highly transparent glass, and Tatsuro's group was trapped inside it like being confined.

Of course, from there they could completely see through to the other side.

Up to that point, Tatsuro's group could have remained calm from their experiences so far.

However, this time an unexpected irregularity occurred.

Amazingly, on the other side across the deep dark cliff was the adventurer party that Tatsuro's group had met before entering this dungeon, trapped in a similar transparent glass space.

The other side seemed to have completely noticed them too and were talking amongst themselves, but since they were separated by about five meters and the space was sealed with sturdy glass, their words couldn't be heard at all.

"What does this mean?"

"I never expected to meet others in a level 7 dungeon. Leah, those aren't fakes prepared by the dungeon, right?"

Since the glass seemed to completely block special magic power too, dispel magic couldn't reach the other side.

So since they could see them, they had Leah confirm.

"Without a doubt, those are the people we met at that time."

"What does the dungeon intend to make us do by gathering two parties here?"

"Well whatever it is, other people's eyes aren't very welcome."

"Yeah. I was hoping not to meet anyone until we got out of here, but..."

It was too late now to have Leah cast curse magic to disguise their appearances - that would just give different information to the other side. (T/N: The author probably meant Nana, since Leah does not have curse magic as her skill)

So giving up on that and starting to consider other options, a glass panel about two meters high and one and a half meters wide suddenly sprouted up from the center of this glass space.

While they were focusing on what was happening, it seemed the same thing was occurring in the space where the other party was, and their surprised reactions were visible to Tatsuro's group.

Then when the panel was completely fixed in place, its surface began flashing white.

And from that panel, a familiar mechanical-like female voice rang out.

[Everyone, it's been a while~. This floor is a special floor that can only be accessed when two or more parties attempt to proceed to the next floor at roughly the same depth and timing at a fairly deep level~]

"You again. So what are you planning to make us do this time, dungeon?"

It was the dungeon that Tatsuro's group had met... or rather, heard in the extra stage that was talking to them.

[My my, you catch on quickly which helps~. Over there, I'm still in the middle of explaining who I am~]

"When you say 'over there,' do you mean there are multiple dungeons simultaneously?"

[It's like~ one consciousness being divided. Now then, may I explain about this place~?]

"Yeah, please do."

[To put it simply, on this floor you will compete against other challengers~]

"What kind of competition?"

[First, please look at this~]

From the glass panel where the dungeon's voice was coming from, a translucent light blue cube was ejected with a pop and floated there while slowly rotating.

[The competition will use these cubes. They break when hit with attacks above a certain power~]

"Can I test it?"

[Yes, of course, ~]

So without hesitation, Tatsuro first hit the floating cube with a tiny laser, gradually increasing the output to find the exact breaking point.

Eventually, when it reached power that could defeat weak monsters, the laser penetrated through to the other side, and the cube crumbled into small fragments, which disappeared by the time they hit the floor.

"Looks like it breaks with about this much power."

"At that level, it would break just from a normal hit."

"Seems like one hit would be enough for a knockout."

"So how do we use these?"

[There are roughly three types of events~. First, the most straightforward event: Protect your own cube while destroying your opponent's cube~. Second, compete to see who can destroy more of the endlessly spawning cubes within a time limit~. Third, compete to see who can destroy the required number of cubes first, with cubes appearing at unknown times and places~]

Just as Tatsuro was starting to understand that it was something like a balloon-popping game, he suddenly remembered the word "roughly" that was said at the start.

"Earlier you said 'roughly' three types, does that mean there are more variations in detail?"

[Yes. However, those aren't decided by us~. Of course, you can do those three events as they are, but you're free to change them after discussing them amongst yourselves~]

"Discuss and decide. That means with those people over there, right?"

[Yes~. At that time, you'll decide the rules yourselves and inform us, and we'll act as judges to determine wins and losses in the matches~]

"By the way, what happens when we win, and what happens when we lose?"

"Yeah. That's the most important part."

In the worst-case scenario, if losing meant death, even they would have to consider retreating here.

And they understood this wasn't a carefree place where they could just enjoy competing and praising each other's efforts.

So that at least needed to be properly confirmed.

[Yes~. That is important~. First, in case of victory. You can go to the treasure vault and participate in a 30-second grab challenge~]

"Grab challenge? What's that?"

[You'll go to a space with many rooms filled with treasure and no monsters~. For just 30 seconds, you can stuff as much as you can into your [Item Box] or bags until time runs out! It's a bonus space packed with treasures~. Then when time expires the room will be locked, so that's the end~. After that, we'll create a path to the next floor, so you can continue your conquest from there~] (T/N: this will be a free giveaway event for Tatsuro)

"Then, what about if we lose?"

[In case of loss, you'll receive a penalty of being forcibly sent back 5 floors from your current progress~]

"Um, are there any other penalties?"

[No~. Nothing else special~]

Just hearing that, it seemed like a safe game.

However, feeling that this definitely wasn't just something to play around with, Tatsuro decided to probe a bit deeper.

"Hey, are there any dangerous elements to this?"

[Eh? Of course, there are?]

"Like what?"

When Ai asked back, Tatsuro somehow noticed those dangerous elements.

But before he could voice them, the dungeon clearly explained those answers to everyone.

[Match rules are only adopted when both sides agree~. Since there are basically no rules other than that~ in extreme cases, killing your opponents is the quickest way to clear it~. So even if one party was peaceful if the other was radical... There were cases in the past where they ignored the cubes and it turned into a death match~]

"At a minimum, I want to include a no-killing rule. And also prevent people from just stubbornly holding onto cubes as long as they're not killed."

"Indeed. Also, I think it would be good to have victory/defeat determined the moment someone signals surrender."

Although Tatsuro's group didn't think they were inferior in power, the other side was also at a level that could progress here at almost the same speed as them.

While there might be differences in experience with this dungeon, it was clear they weren't opponents to be carelessly underestimated.

They couldn't definitively say there was no possibility of being tormented while ignoring the cubes if there happened to be someone with an odd skill that had the worst possible compatibility.

After all, they hardly knew what kind of people the others were.

"Yeah. As Leah says, we want to include the right to drop out. And I have a question - how can we talk with them? It doesn't seem like they'd hear us even if we shouted from here."

[That's no problem~. We can set up a place for discussion by using this glass panel to project each other's voices and images~]

"So it's like a big smartphone."

[Smartphone? What's that~?]

"Never mind. So when can we talk with them?"

[They're still in the middle of explanations over there~, so please relax here for a while longer. When the time comes, I'll notify you right away~]

And so Tatsuro's group continued discussing more details among themselves while waiting for the opportunity to negotiate with their opponents.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read