Smoothly, but then Aqua shows up.

They headed down, and while Kazuma, Dust and Keith could see just fine due to the Second Sight ability, Rin came in clutch with a spell called Illuminate for the rest of them, which produced a bright light from the tip of her staff. It was apparently the only beginner spell she had found worth learning before meeting Kazuma, though she was planning on investing in the others once she had more skill points now that she knew how useful they could be.

Naturally, they soon encountered some gremlins. And naturally, they made short work of said gremlins. "Sheesh, too little EXP, almost not even worth it," Cremea grumbled as she stood over three corpses of gremlins.

"I managed to gain a level myself, but I think that's just because I was on the edge of getting it..." Taylor remarked. "Come to think of it, you never did tell us your level Dust..."

"Meh, it's nothing I like to talk about," Dust said, though Kazuma noticed it was a rather evasive answer. Before he could question it, he felt a presence behind him, but it didn't set off his Detect Enemy Skill, so initially assumed it was Ria attempting her usual antics of trying to startle him. Then he realized that Ria was too subtle for him to detect that easily, so turned around more apprehensively.

"Kazuma..." Aqua said, and Kazuma yelped, jumping back.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing here!?" Cremea shouted.

"Actually, I thought I better tag along... I forgot to mention this earlier, but..." Suddenly, a zombie showed up, and tried to attack Keith, but Aqua quickly dispatched it with Turn Undead. "The undead tend to hang around in dungeons, but my skills are suited to dealing with them!" Aqua assured them.

"Well, yeah, they are one of the threats around here, but they're low level enough for us to handle!" Fio huffed.

"I suppose, still, better safe than sorry!" Aqua said cheerfully.

"That's why we want you gone," Dust deadpanned. "I still remember getting hit in the face by that Beginner's Bane after you accidentally buffed it, do you know how much that hurt!?"

"Rude!" Aqua huffed, puffing out her cheeks, but now some real alarm bells were going off in Kazuma's head. That Beginner's Bane had been able to do serious damage to Darkness, who had absolutely absurd levels of durability. A blow like Dust mentioned taking should have taken his head clean off.

"Wait... How did you survive then? A buffed Beginner's Bane should have pulverized your skull in one blow, shouldn't it have?" Kazuma asked.

Dust paused. "Oh, that? I have the Endure skill too," he said smoothly.

"But wait, doesn't that only activate once per fight?" Aqua asked. "I'm pretty sure it hit you more than-"

"Anyway, we should press on!" Dust said cheerfully, effectively cutting off the conversation, and Kazuma stared after Dust as he headed off. Clearly, there was more to him than met the eye, and Kazuma resolved to find out.