There were two main objectives for clearing this dungeon.

One was, just like the name said, to bring down the [Rabbit Center], the rabbits’ base.

The other was to subdue Tosik No. 1 through No. 5.

The problem was that the Combined Tosik Robot they were riding in was being supported by the Rabbit Center.

No matter what damage it took, it recovered flawlessly, so it was basically invincible.

Which meant we had to destroy the building first.

You couldn’t just smash it blindly and call it [N O V E L I G H T] a day.

Since it had been built with [Magic Engineering], we had to destroy the core elements step by step, in the proper order.

And that process was exactly why role assignment was required.

Not long after we started running, we were able to enter the Rabbit Center.

Inside, rabbits in work uniforms were bustling around, but the moment they turned their eyes this way, they reacted violently.

“Humans!? Why are you here!?”

“So that’s why it was so noisy outside.”

“Anyway, stop them!”

“We have to stop them!”

The worker rabbits rushed us in combat formation.

We traded a brief glance, then each moved at once.

Song Cheonhye spun on her heel and moved to intercept the Combined Tosik Robot that had been chasing us.

Thunderclaps rang out one after another, and bright flashes burst through the air.

— RUMBLE, CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

That tied the robot down for the moment, and meanwhile we pushed our speed even harder as we advanced.

When I swept broadly through the front with Wind Force, the worker rabbits were blown away like dead leaves in a gale.

“The wind—”

“Eeeeeek—”

As we kept moving forward while clearing the obstacles, the first target came into sight before long.

It was a large piece of magic engineering equipment, and for some reason it was shaped like a carrot and even flashed green and orange.

Like it was advertising, I’m important, so please destroy me~

The worker rabbits grew visibly more frantic too.

“The humans are targeting the carrot!”

“No!!”

“Stop them! Even if you have to block them with your bodies!”

Then they started stepping onto each other’s shoulders and formed a wall of rabbits.

If I had to give the skill a name, it would be [Tosik Wall].

“......”

A faint trace of guilt crossed Hong Yeonhwa’s face.

But apparently they decided a clear was still a clear, because their expression hardened and they hurled a fireball.

— BOOM!

[Tosik Wall] and the carrot were engulfed in flames at the same time.

Then we moved to the second carrot machine and burned that one too.

Next, I sharply changed direction and headed for a corner of the first floor.

“Let’s go up now.”

“Okay.”

What stood there, naturally, was the staircase leading to the upper floor.

Maybe because it had been designed so even the rabbit robots could move through it, it was broad and the slope was gentle.

That did make the travel distance longer, though.

As we headed that way, the rabbits naturally rushed to block the path.

“Absolutely not! We can’t let them go up!”

“Brother! I need help!”

At that, the rabbit in the tracksuit riding on the arm section of the Combined Tosik Robot, which had been fighting Song Cheonhye, shouted out.

“I’ll go!”

Then it separated from the robot and shot forward like a missile.

— WHOOO—!

In an instant, it reached the very top of the stairs.

Its form changed too, shifting from a robot arm into something like a tank as it landed.

On top of that, cover rose up all over the staircase, and worker rabbits came down from the second floor armed with mana guns.

The tank fired a shell, and the others opened fire all at once.

— WHOOM—!

— RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

The moment I flicked my staff, a thick wall of ice rose in front of us.

Shells and mana rounds slammed into it in a barrage, but it didn’t just fail to shatter—it didn’t even seem scratched.

Well, of course. I’d amplified it to S-rank.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeonhwa had finished their spellcasting too, and turned the upper staircase into a sea of fire.

— BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

This is the standard way to do it, originally.

The backline like mages or archers exchange bombardment, while the rest of the party advances little by little with defensive measures up front.

The problem is that it takes too long.

We were doing a time attack, so there was no room to proceed the standard way.

So how did you shorten the time?

Use ★Blink★.

I looked at the tracksuit rabbit and the tank it was riding.

Then I focused my mind and slipped behind it in an instant.

“What!? What was that!?”

The tracksuit rabbit whipped around in shock.

Instead of answering, I cast Wind Force.

— BANG!

Still riding the tank, it went tumbling down the stairs in a crashing heap.

It staggered back out, but whether from the impact or the dizziness, it couldn’t seem to get itself together.

“Uugh......”

A moment later, it lowered its gaze and noticed that red magic circles were spread all across the floor beneath its feet.

Flames erupted before it even had a chance to dodge.

— CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

That took care of the nuisance.

But instead of heading straight for the second floor, I shouted to Song Cheonhye.

“Switch!”

“Got it!”

I had [Cooldown] on ★Blink★ now, but Hong Yeonhwa and Song Cheonhye could still use theirs, so we were switching roles.

I’d tie down the Combined Tosik Robot, and the other party members would break through the second floor.

Control is actually my specialty, anyway.

Song Cheonhye leaned more toward attack than control.

There was another reason too—just like I’d planned from the start, I wanted to focus the spotlight on the two of them.

Anyone watching the replay would pay more attention to the people pushing through the dungeon itself.

— BZZZZZZZT—

Song Cheonhye shot toward us as a streak of lightning.

In no time, she passed me and linked up with Hong Yeonhwa.

Watching that in a glance, I turned to face the Combined Tosik Robot.

It had lost one arm after the tracksuit rabbit detached, but now a mana machine gun had taken that place instead.

The barrel rotated rapidly as it aimed at me.

— DRRRRRRRR—

Then it poured out a flood of mana rounds, but I had already cast Ice Wall.

With that much of a rank difference, there was no way it was breaking through.

On top of that, I stretched a little and threw out a deliberately provocative line.

“Ahhh~ so~ refreshing~”

The rabbits immediately had another fit.

But the one in jeans and a hoodie—the so-called casual rabbit—spoke calmly.

“Don’t get dragged into the human bastard’s trick.”

“That’s right!”

“We need to hurry and support the second floor!”

The Combined Tosik Robot then tried to ignore me and charge toward the second floor.

But was I really going to let it go that easily?

— BANG!

Compressed air slammed into one of its legs, and the robot tripped over its own feet and crashed to the floor.

“Eeeek—!”

“Tosik, were you really going to leave me here all alone? How could you do that?”

“Stop interfering, human! And stop acting like we’re close!”

“That hurts.”

Pretending to make a tearful face, I cast Wind Force.

— BANG!

The robot, which had just been trying to push itself back up, went rolling across the ground again.

“Gah!”

“Did you really have to draw the line that hard? There’s a saying—your friend’s friend is your friend.”

“Shut up!”

The Combined Tosik Robot aimed its mana machine gun at me.

— DRRRRRRRR—!

*****

As Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa stepped onto the second floor, they quickly surveyed the area.

A carrot machine stood at each end.

What was different from the first floor was that the two carrots were connected by something like a glowing cord.

According to the walkthrough, if only one was destroyed, it would be repaired by receiving energy from the other side.

So they both had to be destroyed at the same time.

That was also why a minimum of two people were required to clear the second floor.

Another difference from the first floor was that the rabbits had been waiting in full preparation.

They were all armed with mana guns, and some of them were even riding robots.

At a glance, they were clearly just work-use machines, so they were far below the Combined Tosik Robot, but they still had to be tougher than the rabbits on foot.

Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa glanced at each other.

“......”

“......”

Then both of them sharply turned in opposite directions at the same time and began attacking their own carrot machines.

— RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

A hail of mana rounds and charging robots came at them.

What Song Cheonhye chose in response was—

A frontal breakthrough.

— BZZZZZZZT,

Current wrapped around her entire body as she kicked off the ground and shot forward.

Then she slammed straight into one of the work robots with her whole body.

— KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOM!

In an instant, one of them turned into a pile of scrap metal.

Song Cheonhye spun in place and scattered electricity in a wide arc.

— BZZZZZZZT!

The rabbits that had formed a surrounding net were electrocuted and dropped one after another.

Then lightning shot out again and turned another rabbit robot into scrap.

— CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Even though she was advancing in a straight line toward the carrot, no one could stop her.

As Song Cheonhye kept moving and chaining her magic, she flicked a glance toward Hong Yeonhwa’s side.

They were rivals, so her competitive instinct had kicked in again this time too.

— CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Pillars of fire surged upward wildly, while spheres of flame rained down in clusters.

It was a sight she had seen so often she was almost sick of it.

I’m a little faster.

Feeling a slight sense of superiority, Song Cheonhye was about to turn her head back.

But at that moment—

— FWOOOOSH,

Hong Yeonhwa swept their staff sideways.

The flames that had blanketed the area gathered together and compressed into one mass, then exploded again and scattered fireballs everywhere.

— BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Then their staff carved through the air again, and the flames gathered once more as if alive before transforming into a firestorm that swept across the area.

The linked sequence flowed as naturally as water.

The rabbits were too busy burning to even think about counterattacking.

A strange light entered Song Cheonhye’s eyes.

What skill is that?

She couldn’t easily guess its identity, but one thing was certain—it looked extremely powerful.

There was no way Hong Yeonhwa had hidden something like that until now, so the most likely answer was that they had learned it over winter break.

From him, maybe?

For some reason, she had a gut feeling the source was Kim Ho.

He had said he stopped by the Ruby Mage Tower near the end of winter break, so maybe that was when it happened.

All at once, Song Cheonhye felt like her chest was tightening. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Her rival had gotten a step ahead of her again.

Of course, that probably wasn’t the only reason her chest felt tight.

...I had time too.

Why didn’t you come to our Mage Tower?

It was true she had been busy training, but if Kim Ho had said he was coming, she would have made time to meet him no matter what.

Just like during the semester, training together would have been fine too.

But Kim Ho hadn’t even asked whether he could come.

He had barely messaged her at all.

And then he had abruptly decided to make the Ruby Mage Tower his destination instead.

I had time too!

Song Cheonhye scattered lightning and electric current filled with pent-up resentment.

— KRA-KRA-RUMBLE!

— BZZZZZZZT!

“Eeeek—!”

“Gah!”

The rabbits collapsed with all their fur burned off, their bodies gone stiff.

As she advanced while half venting her frustration, the carrot machine was suddenly much closer than before.

It was absolutely speedrun-worthy pace, but Song Cheonhye wasn’t the type to be satisfied with that.

To begin with, she had someone else in mind as her point of comparison.

So she turned her head toward Hong Yeonhwa again—

And Hong Yeonhwa had already swept away every obstacle and was standing right in front of their carrot machine.

They even already had a magic circle raised, ready to burn it at any moment.

With a triumphant look on their face, they tossed out a single line.

“Still far?”

“......!”

A vein throbbed across Song Cheonhye’s forehead.