It was a very familiar feeling.
Like his whole self had sunk to the bottom of the sea, everything around him black, nothing visible, and something heavier than consciousness pressing down on his body, dragging both his body and his mind toward an even deeper seabed.
The feeling was miserable, especially for his head, which wasn't just miserable and heavy but wracked with stab after stab of pain, a torment through and through.
This was the feeling of having your Mind completely wrung dry and falling into the Mind Down state.
This feeling went on for who knew how long before it slowly faded away.
"Nngh..."
Leo's consciousness began to surface, and with a barely audible groan he slowly opened his eyes.
"You're finally awake! Leo!"
Someone seemed to have been startled by Leo's groan, and a voice full of delighted surprise reached his ears, jolting his still-hazy consciousness fully awake.
Leo opened his eyes on reflex, and only then realized he was lying on the ground, his head pillowed on someone's thigh, sleeping flat on his back.
"...Tiona?"
It took Leo some effort to come around and recognize the innocent, carefree face above him.
"You're finally up!" Tiona sat on the ground with Leo's head resting on her smooth thigh, a joyful smile on her face. "Any longer and we were just gonna haul you back up to the surface on our backs!"
At that, Leo shook his still-heavy head, forced himself alert, and looked around.
This was a chamber, and a fairly familiar one at that.
The ceiling and floor were both a milky white, which told Leo he still hadn't left Floor 37.
The walls were milky white too, but had been hacked with countless gashes by weapons, fragments scattered across the ground all around.
The chamber wasn't very large, at least compared with the Hall of the Throne. It had only one entrance, where Lefiya stood watch for approaching monsters.
Magic-stone lamps had been set in the corners of the chamber, giving off light brighter than the phosphorescence, and the party's luggage was all piled in a corner too. This familiar sight let Leo understand in an instant: this had to be a rest chamber they'd often used while clearing Floor 37.
Because the last safe floor was back on Floor 28, nearly ten floors away, whenever Leo's squad only wanted a brief rest, they'd come here and use this not-very-large chamber as a place to rest.
This chamber was out of the way, far from the main routes, and few monsters wandered through. When its walls were damaged, the Dungeon would prioritize repairing them instead of spawning new monsters from them. As long as the party smashed up the chamber's walls like this, no monsters would be born here until the repairs were complete.
Under those conditions, as long as you took shifts keeping someone watching the chamber's only entrance, this chamber made a superb resting spot, with no fear of a monster attack.
That was why, over the week spent clearing Floor 37, Leo's party had used this chamber often, and now Tiona, Tione, Lefiya and the others had clearly brought everyone here to rest.
"How long was I out?"
Now that he'd gotten a handle on the situation, Leo was in no hurry to get up. He propped a hand against his forehead as he asked.
"Dunno, I didn't count exactly, but Lefiya said a while ago it's probably already the next day up top."
Tiona's trademark cheerful tone eased some of Leo's concern.
"The next day?"
Leo murmured.
Before they'd faced Udaeus, it had been around noon up on the surface. If they'd set off back then, they should have been able to reach Floor 28 by nightfall. Rest a night there, and getting back to Floor 18 the next day would have been no problem at all.
But now, most likely because of him and Ais, Tiona and the others hadn't chosen to head back right away, and had instead brought everyone to this rest chamber to wait for the two of them to wake. And that wait had stretched to the next day.
"Right, where's Ais?"
Remembering a certain golden-haired girl, Leo shot upright and asked Tiona anxiously.
Before he'd passed out, he clearly remembered that Ais's condition was no better than his own. If it came down to injuries alone, Ais was probably in considerably worse shape than he was. After all, he had the protective starlight and the Giant's Battle Garb to blunt Udaeus's attacks, and carried plenty of potions besides, while Ais had only a single layer of wind protecting her and had used almost no potions, so her injuries were naturally far worse than Leo's. Remembering the sight of her, drenched in blood all over as she fell with him from high in the air, Leo grew anxious in a way he rarely did.
Before Tiona could respond, though, a familiar cool voice rang out.
"I'm right here."
The familiar golden-haired figure entered with the voice.
Ais, her light armor shattered all over and even her clothes gone ragged, was just then walking in from outside the chamber together with Tione. A sword hung at her waist, and in her hands she cradled a heap of wild fruit picked from who knew where. She didn't look great, but that blood-drenched state was gone now.
"So you're finally awake, kid."
Tione, beside her, was cradling a heap of fruit in her hands like Ais, and her expression eased a bit at the sight of Leo.
Ais had clearly woken up long ago. Only Leo had stayed sunk in sleep, which had left everyone rather worried. It couldn't be helped. Ais had only been badly hurt, and healing her with an Elixir was enough, whereas Leo had passed out from his Mind running dry, and to wake up he'd have to recover most of his Mind through sleep first, like last time, before slowly coming to. So Leo woke much later than Ais, late enough that Ais and Tione had gone out to find food, meaning to hole up here longer and wait for him. Any longer without him waking, and they really would have hoisted him onto their backs and set off for home.
"Good thing you didn't just sleep a full day and night this time, like last time."
Lefiya, watching the chamber entrance, muttered under her breath.
If Leo had slept a full day and night like last time, he'd probably no longer have even been on Floor 37 when he woke. Lugging along a grown man like this, the girls had no confidence they'd make it back smoothly. This was the Deep Floors, after all, a region even first-class adventurers didn't dare take lightly.
Leo waking now allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.
This was also because, unlike last time, Leo was not only a higher Level now but had learned the Spirit Healing Development Ability, so his Mind recovered a good deal faster, which was why this time he'd surfaced so much sooner.
"...Sorry, I've caused you all trouble."
Seeing that Ais was awake and seemed out of danger, Leo relaxed considerably and spoke to Tiona and the others.
It seemed a touch too polite. But the memory of Leo and Ais fighting Udaeus set everyone complaining.
"Oh, so you do know you caused us trouble," Tione griped without holding back. "We agreed you'd just give it a try, and if it wasn't going well you'd run for it. And then? Look at the state you two fought yourselves into. That's nobody's idea of 'just a try'!"
"Exactly!" Tiona chimed in. "I thought you two were done for, was scared stiff the whole time, and it got me caught off guard by that pack of Spartoi and slashed a good few times!"
"Really... you two went way too far." Even Lefiya couldn't help speaking up, saying almost to herself: "Mr. Leo, Miss Ais, both of you were way too reckless."
Only those who had watched the fight up close knew just how desperately Leo and Ais had fought. They had nearly burned through their own lives, and one mistake would have left the girls speaking to two corpses instead of two people. The thought that both of them could have died left Lefiya shaken with dread.
Leo and Ais were aware of it too, and sat there together with their heads lowered, looking abashed.
Everyone only wanted to grumble, not truly hold it against them. Once Leo and Ais accepted the scolding, their irritation faded.
"It was reckless, almost suicidal, but you still managed to beat Udaeus in the end, so congratulations are in order," Tione said with feeling. "That's Udaeus we're talking about, a Floor Boss with potential exceeding Lv.6. Even our Familia has to send every elite we have to guarantee taking it down without casualties, and yet you two defeated it."
"Yeah! It's really amazing!" Tiona's eyes lit up. "One Lv.4 and one Lv.5 taking down a Lv.6 Floor Boss. Once word of this gets back up top, it's sure to leave countless people in disbelief all over again!"
At that, Leo and Ais exchanged a glance, one giving a slight smile, the other relaxing her expression too, no longer as grim and burdened as she'd been the past few days.
"It's all thanks to you," Leo said. "If you hadn't held off those Spartoi, we probably wouldn't have had it so easy."
"Mm." Ais nodded earnestly. "We did it because everyone helped. Thank you."
Being thanked so earnestly, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya felt a little embarrassed.
"We didn't do anything, just fought some Spartoi is all."
"Right, we only handled the lesser monsters. The real trouble was Udaeus."
"Being able to bring down Udaeus was all down to your own effort, the two of you."
Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya each spoke up, and it wasn't modesty so much as the truth. Aside from holding off the Spartoi, the three hadn't intervened in the fight against Udaeus. Rather, they couldn't intervene and could only watch helplessly as Leo and Ais risked their lives. That hardly counted as a contribution and left them frustrated. Fortunately, Leo and Ais were resilient and strong enough to handle Udaeus together. Otherwise, the three girls who had failed to play a decisive part might have felt far worse.
"When we get back, you two are definitely going to have gained a lot, right?" Tiona asked eagerly. "How about it? Feeling confident you'll level up?"
Tione and Lefiya turned to look at the two of them at once.
Under the three's gazes, Leo and Ais reacted differently.
"...I hope so."
Ais quietly clenched her fist, making no attempt to hide her hope. She truly wanted to grow stronger and use this feat to reach the next stage. She had fought so desperately and rushed in without hesitation to block Udaeus's full-force greatsword strike partly to save Leo. Beyond that, she wanted to challenge the powerful foe whose new strength Leo had forced out.
Leo wanted to challenge Udaeus to rise to Lv.5, and Ais likewise wanted to challenge Udaeus to cross into a whole new stage. In light of that, she really did hope things would go as she wished this time.
Leo, by contrast, seemed quite calm.
"It should be fine."
He was fairly confident on that count.
In the original work, it was by challenging Udaeus that Ais successfully completed a great feat and rose to Lv.6. That fight was a near-death struggle, and without using Avenger, Ais couldn't have beaten Udaeus at all, pulling through in the end only with Riveria's help before finally overcoming it and taking the win.
Now, Udaeus had been beaten by him and Ais working together, so the excelia was probably split evenly between them. Still, if the Ais of the original work could level up smoothly with Riveria's help, one extra person taking a share shouldn't be enough to stop her leveling up now. As a Floor Boss whose potential even surpassed Lv.6, Udaeus was never something one Lv.4 and one Lv.5 working together could beat in the first place, and once they did beat it, the excelia it provided was sure to be immense. Ais had also spent more than three years accumulating excelia at Lv.5 and had defeated countless powerful enemies during that time. She must already have accumulated some high-grade excelia, just not enough to level up. Added to the large amount Udaeus provided, it should barely be enough despite the difficulty of reaching Lv.6.
As for Leo, the unreadable special Skill Stranger from Another Star appeared to have removed even the usual difficulty of leveling up. The process was far easier for him, so receiving only part of the great feat from Udaeus should still be enough to reach Lv.5.
So, barring anything unexpected, this time both he and Ais should get what they wished for.
At the thought, Leo grew a little impatient.
"Let's go."
He stood and smiled at the girls.
"Time to head home."
Everyone stood up along with him, nodding one after another.
The five of them began packing their luggage and sorting their gear, then left the chamber and made for the entrance to the floor above.
Their belated return could finally begin.
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