Chapter 141: Being Scolded Is a Form of Praise

Entering the family garden, we used the garden’s movement magic to navigate deeper into the dungeon.

“““Waoo-woooon!”””

Thud-thud-thud!

“““—Gyaah!?”””

Occasionally, monsters would leap out to attack, only to crash against the protective barriers surrounding the garden. One swift throw of a flying blade from Sena would effortlessly cut them down.

“…There’s a huge hole here. Normally, we’d have to go around it…”

“I think we can just fly over it using three-dimensional movement,” I replied.

Even the enormous chasm in the ground posed no problem for us. This floor seemed riddled with traps—pitfalls that appeared whenever we stepped on certain spots—but we breezed past them without breaking a sweat.

“I knew it would be useful, but…”

“This is almost too convenient,” Sena murmured, a hint of awe in her voice.

“Yeah… it really makes things easier,” I agreed.

Exploring was far easier than I had imagined, leaving me a bit underwhelmed.

“Fwaaah… it’s so much fun when I’m with you, Onii-chan~”

Perhaps lulled by the ease of our progress, Sena sprawled on the soft soil, swinging her sword casually even when monsters appeared. The girl had completely lost her sense of urgency. At least stand up, I thought, half-exasperated.

The only real danger lay in the labyrinthine design typical of cave-style dungeons. The paths were maddeningly complex and expansive—so vast, in fact, that some adventurer parties had reportedly wandered for months without escaping.

If we hadn’t bought a map beforehand, we might still be lost in this maze. Though, to be fair, we could always escape easily using garden movement magic.

“Okay… next is…”

We consulted the map repeatedly, carefully choosing the correct route. Thanks to it, we were already quite close to the goal after just two hours.

“Looks like we go right here… but if we head a little left, we’ll find the boss of this floor.”

Each dungeon floor had a boss—a creature far stronger than the usual monsters.

To unlock the next floor, someone had to defeat the floor boss at least once. Since this floor had already been cleared, we could advance without fighting—but…

“Shall we take it down anyway?” I asked.

“Yeah. I heard it’s not that strong,” Shifa agreed.

We veered left. It seemed these bosses could revive repeatedly, so even defeating them wasn’t permanent.

“If we’re unlucky, it might not even be here,” I cautioned.

“Or maybe someone just defeated it,” Shifa added.

Apparently, a certain amount of time was required before a boss could respawn. In some cases, we might have to wait.

“Either way, we should probably wake her up,” I muttered.

“Suu… zzzz…”

“Hey! Time to wake up, you lazy little sister!”

“Fugyaa!?”

Sena, exhausted from lying down, had finally dozed off. I had to shake her awake.

“Oy, that’s cruel, Onii-chan!” she protested.

“You fell asleep. Honestly, sleeping during a dungeon run is unprecedented.”

I even considered tossing her out of the garden and leaving her behind.

“Hehe~”

“I’m not praising you!”

“But my master said! If you get scolded, it means you’re being praised!”

“Don’t take that lesson seriously, you hear me?!” I snapped.

After our pointless banter, we pressed on through the garden, eventually entering a wide, open space.

“Ah! There it is! The floor boss—Cobalt Lord!”

At the far end of the space stood the massive figure.

Where typical kobolds we’d faced barely reached five feet, this kobold king was nearly five meters tall, flanked by five subordinate kobolds and wielding a menacing battle axe.

“Oooooooh!”

“““Waaaoooon!”””

With a roar from the Cobalt Lord, his minions charged all at once.

“Here we go,” Sena said.

“““Gyaaah!?”””

But her sword cut them down instantly. The kobolds’ bodies split in half, toppling onto the ground.

“Ooooooooh!”

Infuriated at the loss of his minions, the Cobalt Lord’s skin flushed red as he swung his axe with blinding speed, charging at us.

“Lightning!”

“Gyaaan!?”

A precise lightning strike from Sarassa-san struck the boss’s head directly, leaving him staggering and wide-eyed from the sudden, massive damage.

Sena leapt from the protective barrier, delivering a devastating slash to his thick right leg.

“~~~~~!?”

The Cobalt Lord toppled, his leg severed. Pain had finally awakened him, but the battle was already decided.

“Done~,” Sena declared, driving her sword into his neck for the finishing blow.

“That was weaker than I expected.”

Indeed, I had imagined a floor boss to be far stronger. Yet, not even a minute had passed since we first encountered him.

“After facing monsters like Red Dragons and Fafnir recently…”

“Yes… compared to them, this boss was just a warm-up,” I agreed.

“I’ve grown stronger,” Sena said with a satisfied grin.

With the floor boss defeated, we continued onward toward the next dungeon floor, ready for whatever awaited us there.