Is It Wrong For Me To Start With Three Skills In Danmachi ?!

"Welcome to Hell -- everyone!"

"Then, let's go!"

At the entrance of the 51st floor passage, the special attack squad only took a brief rest before charging straight into the passage of the 52nd floor. When their vision opened up again, what unfolded before the adventurers was a labyrinth terrain similar to the 52nd floor.

"Increase speed, everyone control yourselves from here on, avoid fighting monsters as much as possible. Even if forced into a fight, there's no need to kill them, just repel them. Our destination is the 58th floor!"

"Understood!"

As the adventurer squad sped up again, the groups of monsters closing in on them were gradually left behind. Only occasionally would monsters suddenly appear along the path, which the group managed to deal with in passing.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's a deep-floor drop item! Aren't you going to pick it up?"

"Sorry, Miss Tsubaki. From the moment we entered the 52nd floor, we must maintain high speed at all times. We absolutely cannot stop."

"Cannot stop?"

It was Tsubaki's first time in this domain called [Dragon's Vase], and she knew nothing about it.

This was the advantage of the [Loki Familia]. Even though Fron had never experienced it firsthand, he was thoroughly informed about this place, so he, unlike Tsubaki, had no doubts.

"Ah!"

Running, Raul grabbed Tsubaki, who almost stopped, cold sweat dripping nervously from his forehead.

"Why can't we stop? This is my first time here, I don't know the information. What exactly is in this place?"

Only now did Tsubaki notice that not only Raul but even the others shared a sense of urgency.

Lefiya, Elfy, and the others all had faces pale from an all-encompassing sense of crisis, swiftly following the steps of the first-class adventurers without falling behind.

Among the supporters, only the usually calm Anakitty and Alicia managed to stay composed, though they too clung close to the group, compressing the formation.

"W-we've already been locked on. Don't say anything, just obey the captain's orders. Don't stop, don't look back, just keep running!"

"Locked on? By monsters? But I don't feel anything?"

Returning quickly to her place, Tsubaki looked left and right while running. The same dim phosphorescence lighting the path, the maze's usual forks and chambers, and behind them the relentless pursuit of monsters, but within the squad's safety range, she noticed nothing strange.

'Targeted?' Tsubaki sensed no suspicious presence.

"Miss Tsubaki, it's below us."

At the very rear, carrying a supporter's pack, cloaked in black with a staff-spear in hand, Fron calmly explained.

"Below? Below isn't… "

"Tsubaki, don't slow down!!!"

At this moment, the dwarf, who had forged an exclusive contract with her, kept urging from behind, his tone unusually urgent.

--?

When the team grew quiet again, with only the sound of hurried footsteps remaining, Tsubaki finally perceived the strange, tense atmosphere of the group, holding their breath and straining every muscle to hasten their pace.

Soon… the sense of wrongness around them became clearer the farther they ran, and she gradually detected that chilling presence strong enough to terrify even her, a Level 5 first-class adventurer.

That aura, like calamity and destruction itself, painted in her mind an image of a hell of magma suffused with sulfur.

"Rumble, " The ground shook beneath their feet, sending tremors through their bodies. The disaster she envisioned, she now felt it clearly.

"This sound is-"

"-the roar of the King of Monsters, A Dragon."

Fron, breathing steadily, spoke the dreadful answer for her.

The roar of the Dragon could shake eardrums even through the dungeon floor.

A dragon, the true King of Monsters.

Even in this endless monster-infested labyrinth, they stood at the very pinnacle.

Even a mere Infant Dragon with the faintest trace of dragon blood was the strongest existence in the "upper floors."

Any creature bearing the title of dragon had never been weak!

The continuous roars shook the adventurers' spirits. Tsubaki looked around, but could not see the source.

"Don't bother looking. For now, we still can't see them."

Finally, Gareth spoke up to quench Tsubaki's curiosity.

"Finn, "

"Yeah, I know. They've already locked onto us. In this situation, we must never stop. Even we would be wiped out instantly."

"Run! Run faster! Don't stop!"

The pallum commander gave the order to continue at top speed.

This was a life-or-death sprint. When more monsters blocked their path ahead and Bete and Ais prepared to strike them down, Finn stopped them.

"You two are forbidden to fight. From here on, all monsters will be handled by Fron. If you act, the squad's overall speed will drop."

"Tch… fine."

"Understood."

"Fron, we leave it to you!"

"Yes, that would be best."

"[Firebolt!]"

"Boom, "

The monster group of deformed spiders and black rhinos was easily wiped out by Fron in a few blows, their bodies and magic stones disintegrating into dust.

As time passed, some squad members' breathing began to grow ragged, clearly overwhelmed by the constant pressure of the threat.

Riveria and Finn both noticed the states of Lefiya, Elfy, and the others, quietly thinking: "Is the mental strain too much?"

The unknown crisis, the oppressive dread, and the monsters' intermittent roars, all drove their minds toward chaos.

As they crossed most of the standard path of the 52nd floor, Ais, silent until now, suddenly had her golden eyes sharpen, softly warning the group:

"It's coming!"

--?

"Coming? What's coming?"

At Ais' words, tension gripped the faces of the others.

"Bete, Tiona, turn left immediately! Clear that spot!"

The commander's order was instantly carried out, this time Bete and Tiona had no time to bicker.

And just as Finn's command was executed, as Bete and Tiona led the squad around the corner,

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, "

The dungeon floor shook violently, the pressure surging closer…

The scorching heat seemed to twist the very space of the dungeon, as a wave of searing flames burst upward from below, piercing through the ground and surging straight to the ceiling!

Only after the adventurers had rushed quite a distance did they turn back, gazing at the terrifying pillar of fire and the crimson shockwave erupting from the gaping hole, their faces lit red by its glow.

Tsubaki's shocked face, Finn's profile, and the cloaks of Gareth and Fron at the rear were all dotted with sparks.

The scorching heat striking from behind made Fron bare his teeth in discomfort.

"Hey, old man. Don't you think this attack's a little over the top!? Even my special cloak can barely handle it!"

"Hmph, is that all? Seems your toughness is nothing special after all, Fron!"

"..."

The two of them, even while trailing at the very back of the group and being so dangerously close to that unimaginably massive explosion, still had the composure to jest. That alone proved their mental strength was indeed formidable.

Gareth's toughness was expected, but Fron's performance on his first step into Dragon's Vase made the three veterans glance his way more than once.

"Tch, that guy..."

The leading Bete clicked his tongue, pressing forward as they rushed back into what had once been a dead zone.

"Oi, oi, you've gotta be kidding me? That kind of attack... you're saying it really came from below?"

In Tsubaki's one-eyed view, it looked exactly like a volcanic eruption: not only the pillar of flames surging to the sky, but even the 52nd floor's solid ground had been completely melted, buried under fire.

Yet the terrifying attack didn't stop there, after piercing the 52nd floor, it blasted through the ceiling into the 51st!

"This is just... hahahaha, now this is interesting!"

The adventurers, still running at full tilt, showed no intention of slowing down; in fact, they pushed their speed even higher.

Normally, such reckless rushing in a dungeon was against every rule of survival.

But... the monster roars and screams that had always surrounded their ears had completely vanished, the massive groups of monsters chasing after them had, unsurprisingly, been vaporized without a trace.

"Bete, Ais! Keep left at the fork ahead. We're turning west into that passage!"

"Understood." *2

"Riveria, Fron, start chanting defensive spells. In this situation, it doesn't matter if we draw in more new species, attacks like that don't distinguish between friend or foe. Even they'll be vaporized instantly."

"[Assemble, breath of the land - my name is Alf]"

"[Veil Breath!]"

"[Sun of the relentless sky. All shall flee from thy presence. Bloom forth, laurel armor.]"

"[Lamure!]"

Almost at the same time, the two magicians began their chants for supportive and defensive magic.

As their brief incantations ended, two overlapping magic circles of varying shades of green bloomed around them, and layers of green light spread out like gauze, enveloping the entire party.

And at the very instant the magic took effect!

The figures of the party blurred, their speed suddenly surging to a new height!

[Lamure], a protective spell, one Fron had once come across by chance in the dungeon from a certain girl, who taught it to him for free.

Its effect: reinforces endurance and greatly enhances agility, scaling proportionally with the caster's magic power.

A buff-type spell with immense growth potential, but due to its strict time limit, Finn had only now ordered Fron to cast it.

[Veil Breath], a defensive spell, one of Riveria three great magics.

Its effect: increases both physical and magical resistance, forming a protective aura. Like enchantments, it lasts for a time, and even lightly heals physical wounds. Similarly, it's time-limited, and its effect weakens rapidly with repeated damage until it disappears.

"Wow, Fron and Riveria's magic is amazing."

"I feel like my endurance and agility both went up a ton, especially agility! My body feels lighter, I'm way faster!"

"Enough, now's not the time for chatter. Ais, how many?"

"... Six, no, seven, eight...!"

"Eight of them, huh..."

The humanoid-monster radar was already exaggerated for normal monsters, let alone dragon species!

"They're coming again, watch out!!!"

Boom,

Even as she spoke, pillars of fire erupted one after another from behind the group, shaking the dungeon.

The searing heat distorted the air, making it hard even to breathe. Without Fron and Riveria's magical amplification, their speed would have long since dropped.

And then... the result would be obvious.

As more and more vertical shafts opened up where the floor had been blasted through, the roar of the dragons from deeper below grew ever clearer in their ears.

The entire 52nd, no, from the 51st to the 58th floors, the so-called "Dragon's Vase," trembled and echoed with its roars.

"Boom, Boom, Boom, "

"Oi, oi, this never ends!? Are we seriously gonna have to keep running all the way to the 58th floor!?"

It wasn't just Tsubaki whose forehead was beaded with sweat, supporters like Lefiya, Alicia, Raul, Anakitty, and Elfy all felt the pressure mounting unbearably.

Lefiya's mind was blank, her delicate face bloodless. No matter how much preparation and intel she'd gathered beforehand, experiencing such an adventure firsthand left her trembling uncontrollably.

If Gareth and Fron hadn't kept urging the group not to stop their steps, she would've collapsed in exhaustion long ago.

Boom,

Another explosion tore through the floor just behind them, flames erupting skyward. The adventurers' hearts pounded faster and faster against their will.

"Don't lose focus, keep running!"

Sensing his comrades wavering, Finn calmly carried out his duty as commander.

The continuous, unrelenting, floor-piercing attacks, forget the supporters, even the frontline fighters, the first-class adventurers themselves, had only one option: run.

The endless flames spewing upward seemed like the devil's whispers themselves.

The overwhelming crisis from behind forced them all to pour their entire focus into resisting fear, but in such a state, it was inevitable that they'd misjudge their surroundings.

"Oi, Raul, watch above!"

"[Flame Bolt!!!]"

Boom,