"That was some battle, Lady Zee. Here, use this."
Jules threw an E-Rank stamina potion towards Lady Zee as the latter joined them post her battle. She caught the vial in her hand, uncorked it, and gulped down the content before saying out loud in exasperation:
"Baaah! I hate this about the underground dungeon. Tests are almost always tailored to the participants. There's no easy victory to be had in this place."
Ronny raised his eyebrows after he heard Lady Zee's complaints. He had a similar doubt when he was battling with his opponent.
"So the dungeon chooses our opponents based on our element and battle style? I can understand how it can program our opponents using arrays based on our elements. I feel that it also considers our battle style before giving us our opponents. Is that right?"
Lady Zee nodded at Ronny and took a deep breath. The effects of the E-Rank stamina potion weren't that effective for her rank. But she wanted to preserve her stock of ranked potions.
"That's right, Ronny. The scanning array we had to go through also takes our mana signature into account. The mana signature is a topic of vast study for high-ranked entities. A ranker's mana signature tells more about themselves than they care to share or let on.
At the S-Rank, I don't think the sages would care to differentiate between the F, E, and D Ranks. Our existence is like ants to them.
We obviously can't hide our battle styles and the way we behave on the battleground from an array created by a Sage ranker. So what we have experienced and will continue to experience can only be deemed normal, even though it might seem impossible to us right now."
Jules, Renar, and the rest of the novices had smiles on their faces when they heard Lady Zee's talk. But Ronny couldn't find humour in that statement. He had been a D-Ranker in his previous life. He understood what Lady Zee was trying to say on a deeper level.
"Ronny, where did you get those explosives?"
Lady Zee had kept her eye on Ronny and the rest as she was battling with her monster. Ronny's use of explosives had caught her attention the most when she saw how he had blasted off his opponent. She could make better use of those explosives in her battle style if she could get her hands on some of those products.
"Hehehe! These are called potion bombs. Let me tell you a little bit about them…"
Ronny smiled like a business about to pitch his product to his clients. He retrieved a set of vials from his storage and started explaining to his audience how the products worked. He also told the black-market shops they could buy them from that he knew had his products now. Of course, White Raven wasn't among those shops.
This was an opportunity for him to expose his local product to a wider audience. The Illuminati could buy stuff in bulk and give him instant profits. By the time he finished, the businessman and bullshittery expert in him had convinced Jules and Lady Zee to buy his pioneering items.
Renar, Viper, and especially Belar had terrible memories of the potion bombs. Belar had lost his limbs because of the potion bomb thrown at him by that vile creature. They understood the reason behind the product's popularity but they just couldn't find it in themselves to purchase something that was the indirect cause behind their downfall.
"So the first floor is clear for all of us, right? Where's the entrance to the second floor?"
Renar looked around and asked the question he was intending to ask for quite a while now. He had been meaning to change the topic of the potion bomb anyway because it was making him and Belar uncomfortable.
Lady Zee laughed at him like he had cracked the silliest of jokes before replying to him:
"Hehehe! Do you think this purgatory is a place to have easy tests and easier rewards? We haven't cleared the first floor yet."
Ronny and Jules expected it to be like this even though it was their first time. But Viper and Belar couldn't help showing signs of despair on their faces when they heard Lady Zee confirm the fears they had. They had been utterly exhausted in their battle with the five F-Rank monsters. They didn't think they could take part in any more battles anytime soon.
Lady Zee observed the novices' expressions and tried to console them with her words:
"Don't worry. We are given time to catch our breath as we have right now. Exploring the dungeons is not a sprint, but a continuous marathon. Try to rest and get refreshed before the next set of tests requires our participation."
Viper and Belar breathed a sigh of relief when they heard what could only be called good news in this place. finally, they sat on the ground and tried to get into their peak form by channelling their ranking techniques. Ronny, Jules, and Lady Zee had already started recovering their stamina with their ranking techniques as well.
******
The ground on which Ronny's squad was sitting soon lit up with a series of runes as the light particles started forming masses of beasts around them. The beast apparitions this time were all in F-Rank. But the sheer number of them made the novice rankers afraid to face them.
The masses of light particles had taken the shapes of the Wolfen beast Eren had the mortal enmity with. He withdrew his weapons and focused on the beasts' groins.
"Grab your weapons and get ready. This is a party battle. We need to stick together and tackle the beast waves coming at us."
Lady Zee stood straight up as soon as she saw the next battleground getting ready for them. Jules found something odd in her senior's words and couldn't help but ask:
"Waves? Lady Zee, don't tell me, the beasts we see right now won't be…"