Published: January 22, 2026
Ms. Selma called out to the newcomers, and the second day of the guided exploration began.
“Mr. Orun, you were kicked out of the hero party due to lack of ability, right? Didn’t you say yesterday it was because of differences in direction?”
As soon as we entered the dungeon, Logan spoke to me in a mocking tone.
Ah, yesterday I gave a careless reason because I didn’t want to bother explaining...
Maybe I shouldn’t have pretended to be something I’m not...
But what’s done is done.
“Stop wasting your breath and focus. The demonic beasts here are more troublesome than yesterday’s.”
“There’s no way I'll fall behind against mid-level demonic beasts. Ah, but with your lack of ability, I guess you’d struggle even with mid-level ones, huh?”
Sigh... It’s true that weak dogs bark the loudest, but this is just an annoying racket.
And don’t get the wrong idea from that article alone, thinking Logan is stronger than me.
“Did you not hear me tell you to focus?”
“—!? Tch, fine!”
I warned him again, with a hint of killing intent, and finally he quieted down.
Was that a bit childish?
Not just Logan, but even Caroline’s attitude toward me had shifted to one of condescension.
These brats, seriously...
Though their attitudes bothered me, the exploration itself progressed smoothly, and we reached the 31st layer.
From here on, I would be the one giving combat orders. I doubted they would actually follow them...
That concern turned out to be justified.
In the first battle of the tenth squad after entering the mid-layers:
The enemies were five goblins up front and one orc a little farther away.
“Caroline, draw the goblins’ attention! Logan, support magic on Caroline! Sophia, take out the orc in the back!”
“Ha! Such a timid order! Caroline should kill the orc! I’ll handle the goblins. Sophia, take down one goblin too.”
Ignoring my orders, Logan gave commands to the party.
What’s with that disregard for roles...?
I don’t know if Caroline followed Logan’s orders or just wanted to fight a strong demonic beast, but she bypassed the goblins and charged straight at the orc.
As declared, Logan took down four goblins.
Sophia was confused and couldn’t do anything.
“Tch! Useless!”
Logan cursed at Sophia and finished off the last goblin.
Caroline took a little longer, but managed to kill the orc, and in the end, the battle ended without any injuries.
“…What was that fight?”
When Caroline came back, I called out to the tenth squad members.
Ms. Selma, nearby, didn’t try to stop me, so I continued.
“Whatever you say, that was our way of fighting. No one was hurt.”
“You think that was the best way to fight?”
Suppressing my urge to shout, I spoke as calmly as I could.
“Yes. I can handle goblins easily. So it’s not strange to throw Caroline against the strong orc. Mr. Orun, you’re too obsessed with theory. You can’t explore the dungeon with such a rigid mindset. Ah, so that’s why you were kicked out of your party.”
“...Let’s say your way of fighting was right. The fact is, as you said, no one got injured.”
“I appreciate your honesty to understand my reasoning.”
Who does this guy think he is?
“But your orders were no good.”
“Huh? Where did I go wrong? Stop making baseless accusations.”
“You mocked Sophia earlier, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Sophia was standing idly by, ignoring my orders, so she’s at fault.”
“How can you say that while ignoring your own mistakes?”
“There was nothing wrong with my orders. I clearly told Sophia to take down one goblin!”
“Only you, imagining a story, could understand such an order. You didn’t specify which four of the five goblins you would kill and which one Sophia would. Without that, how could you proceed with an attack? If you had planned beforehand who would take down the right side first during the battle, fine. But since you didn’t, that order was sloppy.”
“...”
He glared at me bitterly but didn’t retort.
“Logan’s getting scolded—haha!”
Caroline laughed seeing Logan being reprimanded.