Arianna sat in the military transport plane, two days before they were scheduled to enter the E-rank dungeon. It was located in another country, so the military had offered to fly the team out. The interior hummed with tension. There were armoured seats, soldiers checking gear, and the faint tang of metal and oil.

A soldier approached her. "We'll take off in about ten minutes," he said. "The flight might get bumpy. We sometimes have to dodge flying monsters or shoot them down. If they hit the aircraft, we go down with it."

Arianna blinked. "Then why doesn't one of your clerics put a barrier around the plane?"

The soldier frowned like she'd asked why airplanes didn't flap their wings. "A barrier wouldn't fit around the whole plane. And it's stationary."

"…Stationary, still?" Arianna repeated slowly, as if tasting the word. "But you can rank up the spell. If the cleric ranks it up, the barrier can move if you designate a centre point. It also doesn't have to be sphere-locked. You can reshape it."

The soldier stared at her. He clearly didn't believe her, but was too polite to call her crazy.

Arianna lifted her shoulders. "It's fine. I'll just cast the barrier myself when we take off."

He nodded stiffly and walked away, probably just confused. Arianna was also confused. Why hadn't the clerics of the military ranked up their first spell? But she couldn't just ask them. She didn't have any kind of right to know that. Just like the military didn't have any right to ask about her and Cassis's abilities.

Arianna returned to her book slightly irritated with people in general. Why was everything so complicated when people should be working together. But she also understood why Cassis insisted on them being separate from the government. They needed freedom to grow strong and to work towards a better future.

With a huff she concentrated on the dense medical anatomy text Josh had lent her. He was studying medicine at Eastern Vallendale University in his second year. Or better said, he had been, before the dungeon breaks had started which forced the university to switch to emergency remote teaching. The staff and students had refused to come in when they could just as well have online lessons.

Josh had been really excited when she mentioned wanting to understand anatomy better for healing Samuel. He'd practically shoved the books into her arms, ready to discuss how medical knowledge could be used to enhance their healing.

Arianna had a bit more experience than him, but in the end they were both just guessing. Still, two minds were better than one.

The plane began to vibrate as the engines roared. Without looking up, she summoned her water barrier around the plane, anchoring the centre to an empty seat near the middle.

Then she lifted her head toward the soldiers posted at the open cargo doors. "You can shoot through the barrier if you want practice," she said. "Projectiles from inside pass through. Nothing from outside does."

A couple soldiers exchanged looks. One gave a hesitant thumbs-up. Arianna nodded, satisfied, and went back to reading.

She only looked up when Cassis and Faith snickered together for some mysterious reason. It made her smile, seeing her friend and boyfriend comfortable with each other mattered. She didn't want them to not get along. And Cassis having a better relationship with Faith might make him reconsider his plan regarding Bryce.

After a while, her brain started melting from medical terminology. She closed the book and stretched. The air outside shimmered faintly against her barrier. Soldiers fired occasionally at winged monsters. From what she could see there were giant birds of all kinds, mutated bats that were flying during daylight hours, and some other strange featherless creatures. Each monster that slammed into the barrier bounced off harmlessly.

No evasive manoeuvres. No sudden drops. Just calm.

Good. Maybe the military's clerics would now rank up their barrier spells.

She let her eyes wander while taking a break from studying. Cassis sat nearby, meditating. She could see that the mana flow of his pattern had smoothed out considerably. Faith sat beside him, lovingly maintaining her bow which she had gotten from Bryce. Arianna had bought her a quiver with arrows that filled with her mana.

Faith had even made it to level 20 and evolved into a Scout (+1). It was only a common class but she had definitely become stronger. It would serve her well inside the E-rank dungeon.

Arianna thought back to how Faith had fought and improved inside the dungeons she had brought her to.

"Thank you so much, Ari. I'll level real fast and I won't be a burden. I'll fight."

Arianna nodded as Faith continued thanking her. Camden grinned.

"It's okay. We had an open spot, so we could take you anyway. Just fight as well as you can and you'll learn the rest in the dungeon."

That was slightly untrue. They had simply made a spot on this run. But Camden knew what it was like to need someone's help. He also simply gave it, even though he didn't really know Faith. For him it was enough that she was Arianna's friend.

Arianna agreed. "What he said." She turned to the rest of the group, especially the level 1s: Alice and David Miller, and Kenji and Akemi Yukimura. "It's going to be okay. We'll start slowly so everyone gets used to fighting. We've done this before."

The fox snorted. Faith immediately fawned over her like she had from the moment they met, but the fox ignored her and even actively avoided her. Was it because Faith wasn't a member of their family group? Or because she didn't live in their community? The fox was fine with everyone else, after all.

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Still, she wasn't aggressive. She just refused to get near Faith. Arianna shrugged. Maybe she simply didn't like her. Things like that happened even between humans. It was fine. The fox had still agreed to protect her, judging by that snort.

The dungeon they entered was a beach, sand and sea stretching endlessly. Arianna didn't know how that combination would play out monster-wise, but she was curious. The dungeon's name was Beachfront Resort. It sounded very relaxing.

The objectives were:

Kill the Star of the Sea

Gather 7 translucent seashells

Spend a relaxing day at the resort

Arianna had no idea how to accomplish the third objective. Did they just have to… relax on the beach for a full day? No fighting, no planning, no work? That didn't sound very difficult. Suspiciously easy, in fact.

As a group, or rather, the higher-levelled members (Arianna, Camden, Luke, Nadine, Helen, and the fox), they decided to put that objective off and focus on gathering first. But before that, they levelled the level 1s.

It turned out that the fish in the sea, once Arianna cast a net of water mana and dragged them ashore, were helpless on land. They weakly flopped and tried to swim, but without water it was futile. The level 1s simply killed the gasping fish.

For her efforts, Arianna received a new spell: Water Net (Intermediate). It was getting easier thanks to her Water Manipulation to think of and make new spells. Lately she felt like she had an innate understanding of water.

She continued pulling fish in and letting the newbies kill them. That got everyone to level 5 quickly.

"Well, what do you know? This was actually relaxing." Arianna hadn't expected that. She thought it would be as terrible a grind as in The Hive.

Once everyone hit level 5, they moved along the beach. It seemed endless, and there was no sign of stronger monsters until Arianna pushed her awareness deeper into the sea. Further out, she finally sensed powerful creatures.

Fighting in the water though?

She eyed her group. Nadine looked resigned. She probably sensed the monsters too. Helen looked excited, as always. Luke and Camden were still clueless, like the rest.

"So," Arianna said, "I think we're going to have to get into the water."

The men cringed.

"Do we have to?" Luke asked.

Arianna nodded. "I can't sense anything dangerous on the beach. Only in the sea."

The fox barked, shot her a look, and sat firmly in the sand. Message clear: She was not going in there.

Arianna couldn't blame her. She had a fire elemental affinity.

Faith, however, gripped her bow and her new quiver from Arianna's patron shop. "Then let's go!" she said, though Arianna heard the nervous tremor in her voice.

The strong fighters would go first to "test the waters," while the weaker members stayed with the fox. Faith insisted on joining.

"I need to pull my weight."

Arianna approved reluctantly. Faith was by far the most vulnerable. But she didn't argue. She knew how she would feel if she were in Faith's situation.

They entered the sea, and Arianna created a Water Filter around everyone's mouths. At first nobody breathed, except her and Helen, but eventually they had no choice. Camden held out the longest before inhaling water like a drowning cat.

Finally, they swam to where Arianna sensed enemies. Soon, fish zipped toward them like highway cars. Dodging underwater was difficult, so Arianna threw up a Water Shield and Water Barrier simultaneously.

Then she felt it. A swarm was approaching. Not strong individually, but there were dozens, then hundreds.

"What do we do?" Arianna asked. "Retreat or fight? They don't feel too dangerous, but there are a lot of them. And we're at a disadvantage here."

The group chose to fight.

Soon they were swarmed by fish in every colour of the rainbow, each with razor-sharp teeth and the size of a torso. Relentless.

To give her team underwater combat practice, Arianna dissolved the barrier. They needed experience, not just levels, to get stronger. Using the barrier and sniping from safety wasn't an option, especially against weak enemies.

She watched everyone closely while fighting. Water was her element. Her movements improved quite fast, and controlling water mana was easy here. She shot water lances left and right, drawing mana straight from the sea.

The others weren't as lucky. They got scratched repeatedly, but nothing serious. Faith fought without complaint, ignoring her wounds like a seasoned warrior, not an administrative assistant. She didn't even flinch when a sharp fin sliced her cheek and even more of her blood spread through the water like a cloud.

Arianna kept an eye on it but didn't heal unless necessary.

Eventually, the swarm floated around them, dead.

"Puh, that was tiring," Luke gasped.

Faith smiled. "But really good for leveling. I'm already level 15."

Arianna nodded, impressed with Faith's endurance. She didn't think she would be able to smile with a wound like that on her cheek. "Good. Let's get out of the water. Too many corpses here."

"Let me grab a few fish for Irene," Camden said. "She'll want to experiment."

That reminded Arianna she was feeding the fox now. Marcus was outside building the community wall. So she took some fish with her, too.

Once on land, she took out two fish and gave them to the fox. She listened as everyone talked about their new levels while she healed the group; Faith came to her last.

"You should have come earlier," Arianna scolded. "Why wait until everyone else is done? They're higher levelled than you, so their injuries were a lot lighter."

Faith's deep wounds said she must be in pain, but she didn't show it. She shrugged.

"I'm not part of the team. I'm just grateful to be here. You gave me a chance, so I'll make sure I'm not a burden, only a help."

Arianna sighed. Faith had a skewed way of thinking sometimes.

"We're friends. Of course I'm going to help you."

Sure, she hadn't wanted to at first. She'd been tired. But now she knew she had to. If Arianna had had any chance to save her father, she would have taken it. So, she would help Faith however she could.

They smiled at each other, and Arianna healed her fully. Faith still didn't show pain. She had to have impressive self-control.

After they found the translucent seashells and located the boss, a giant starfish, they left the dungeon without engaging it. Arianna and Cassis had agreed to clear this dungeon together with their full team this time again. Soon afterwards they'd even split for dungeon bosses.

Faith had immediately asked to come along next time, and Arianna, reluctantly, agreed. She had still been weak back then, but she fought well. Arianna thought she'd done really well, all things considered. Andd so they continued on like that until they had cleared three dungeons together. that's how Faith had reached E-rank so fast.

Faith had asked her once, hesitant and almost guilty: "Are you really okay with this? With me reaching E-rank already, even though you're way stronger than me?"

Arianna had blinked at her. "Ranks are just a way to categorize mana density, from what I understand. Your mana is denser now, so you get a power boost. That's all. It doesn't mean I can't beat you. Otherwise, we'd never be able to fight E-rank monsters in the first place."

Faith had nodded, but the worry didn't leave her eyes. "But… you really are okay with it?"

Why was she so hung up on that?

"Yes. I also have the option to evolve," Arianna replied. "I'm just holding out for something better."

Faith's eyes had gone huge, like Arianna was spouting something crazy. "Alright," she breathed, nodding seriously. "If you say so."

And that was how the three of them, Arianna, Cassis, and Faith, had ended up on this plane. Faith's father had acknowledged her strength and given her a slot in the team heading to clear the E-rank dungeon.

Now the three of them would enter together and hopefully come out again.

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