He invites Taylor's party.

"Well, if we're just gonna go for training, and not much in the way of treasure, I'd like to take Taylor's party along. They're a pretty competent group, and I'm sure they'd appreciate a chance to gain a level or two," Kazuma admitted.

Cremea and Fio looked at each other, seeming a bit... Unhappy? '...oh I get it, they wanted some alone time with me,' Kazuma mentally smirked. 'Still... A little jealousy towards Rin might push them along a bit more.'

"Alright fine, it doesn't sound like a terrible idea," Fio sighed, unable to come up with a reasonable argument against it.

...

About an hour later, they were at the entrance. "Man, that Explosion spell smarts!" Cremea complained. "How can Darkness enjoy that so much?"

"Masochism, she has several screws loose, take your pick," Kazuma replied, getting a giggle out of Fio and Rin.

"I'm surprised you want to do this Kazuma," Fio noted.

"Eh? What do you mean?" Kazuma asked.

"It's just that you got a little more timid after that encounter with General Winter..." Fio replied.

"Tell that to the Beginner's Bane," Keith snorted.

"Still can't believe he had been able to kill it..." Dust muttered.

"Yeah, Kazuma was without mercy dealing with it," Taylor agreed. "He wasn't happy when he figured out the other members of his party got roughed up by it..."

Cremea and Fio blushed at that, and looked at Kazuma, a wordless question directed at him, and he figured out what they wanted to ask after a moment's thought. If it had been them who encountered the overgrown feline and barely escaped with their lives, would he have had the same response?

Kazuma answered the unasked question with a simple nod, and they looked away in an embarrassed manner. He then answered their previous question with, "Well, learning Endure, and killing a monster of that level has rekindled my confidence. Yeah, dying sucked, but what's life without a risk or two, isn't that right Fio?"

"Yeah, definitely!" the adrenaline junkie nodded fervently.

"Right, so are we doing this or what?" Rin giggled.

"Right, onward to a dungeon crawl!" Kazuma replied, and they headed right in.