The Dungeon, Floor 18.
Like the surface above, Floor 18 was currently in its "daytime" period.
The crystal clusters on the vault formed a blue sky, spilling down radiance that lit up the entire circular floor, making the Under Resort as beautiful today as ever.
Leo and Ais crossed the floors between 10 and 17 in under an hour. Along the way they'd saved travel time by using a vertical cavern in the Middle Floors, and the rest went smoothly: through the forest and the vast grassland to the south, on to the lakeside in the west, then out to the island in the lake. They climbed the sheer cliff and entered Rivira, a town they'd frequented quite a few times not long ago.
The run-down town had now been completely rebuilt. Stalls lined the streets, wooden shops stood one after another, and the Dungeon had repaired the surrounding terrain. Rivira looked as though nothing had happened, once more bustling with adventurers.
"Let's head to the tavern first."
Leo said to Ais, who answered with a silent nod.
The tavern stood in northern Rivira, inside a cavern opening along a small path near the clustered crystal streets of a vast, narrow canyon. Very few people knew it existed.
Not even the vault's crystal light reached that place. It was cramped and quite dim, and the shop was called the Golden Cellar. There was only a signboard placed at the cavern's entrance, marked with a red arrow pointing diagonally downward. You could only reach it by following the wooden steps set up into the cavern, going down all the way.
According to the black-robed figure, the helpers provided for them were waiting here.
So, after a stretch of twisting and turning, Leo and Ais finally found the spot, stepped down the wooden stairs, went into the cavern, and at last set foot in the underground tavern that had neither door nor partition.
The most striking sight in this underground tavern was a crystal pillar suffused with yellow light, growing in the center of the cave.
White and blue crystals covered Floor 18, but neither Leo nor Ais had seen a yellow one before. They studied it for several moments before looking around.
The tavern space that met their eyes was neither large nor small, entirely surrounded by exposed black rock walls, with several tables and chairs set inside. Magic-stone lamps were fixed to the ceiling and walls too, providing illumination along with the yellow crystal.
What surprised Leo and Ais was that even though this tavern was out of the way and few people knew it existed, the inside wasn't deserted at all. On the contrary, it was packed with customers.
Some were gambling at the tables, some drinking and chatting, some playing cards, and some were even arm-wrestling with magic stones of varying sizes as their stakes, filling all five tables. Only the bar counter in the corner of the tavern was still empty.
Along the inside of the long counter, apart from a liquor cabinet holding bottles of every color, there was only a dwarf owner and a Beast Human girl.
"Huh?"
When she saw that Beast Human girl, before Leo could even react, Ais was the first to be surprised.
"Miss... Lulune?"
Ais called out the girl's name.
"Hm?" Hearing Ais's voice, the Beast Human girl turned her head to look, then said in equal shock, "Sword Princess? And Leo Eligos? Why are you two here?"
This was Lulune Louie, the Hermes Familia member who had accepted the black-robed figure's request. She had received the jeweled fetus on this floor, been hunted by the mysterious woman, and finally been rescued by Leo, Ais, and the others.
She clearly hadn't expected to see Leo and Ais again here, and Ais hadn't expected to see her again here either.
Only Leo, after sizing her up, said with a smile.
"Pretty gutsy of you to come back to this floor."
His expression plainly said he'd assumed the place had left her traumatized and too afraid to return.
"Ahaha..." Lulune gave a few dry laughs, then her smile turned bitter. "I didn't want to come back either, but there's no helping it. What adventurer doesn't come here to resupply partway through?"
Ais opened her mouth, about to say something, but Leo beat her to it.
"Hermes Familia does enter the Dungeon, but you handle plenty of other work, and the attack happened only ten days ago. Without some special reason, you wouldn't have come back this soon, would you?"
In a teasing tone, Leo exposed Lulune's lie.
"If I'm not mistaken, you didn't come this trip as an adventurer, but instead, just like last time, took on another request."
Hearing this, the expression on Lulune's face froze.
That was enough for Ais to understand.
"You're the helper that mysterious client mentioned?"
Ais turned another astonished look on Lulune.
Lulune's frozen expression turned to shock.
"You, you two know that client?" Lulune said, flustered, as if something had just occurred to her. "Don't tell me, you two are the reinforcements the client mentioned?"
The moment those words came out, a huge stir suddenly ran through the surroundings.
The people who had been drinking, gambling, and playing cards stopped and rose together, fixing their eyes on Leo and Ais. The room went still.
That made Ais grip Desperate at her waist on reflex.
Only Leo went on watching with a calm face, doing nothing.
In this situation, one person walked over.
The female adventurer wore a pure white cape and sandal-like boots decorated with golden wings. A short sword and several leather pouches hung from her belt.
The woman had a conspicuous head of aqua-colored, shoulder-length hair, cut even, with one lock dyed white. Her eyes were a green close to her hair color, and she wore silver glasses, her features neat and delicate, giving off an intelligent, clever impression.
"I never imagined we'd be waiting for the famous Sword Princess and Monster Rookie. I'm not sure whether I should be pleased."
That was what she said.
Leo's appraising gaze started to shift onto her, and even Ais fixed her eyes intently on the woman.
Both of them had already recognized who the person before them was.
"You're..."
Ais's tone actually carried a stunned emotion too.
"Perseus..."
Yes.
This female adventurer before them was none other than the holder of the alias Perseus, one of fewer than five people in all of Orario with the Mystery Development Ability, a rare master magic-item maker as well as the captain of Hermes Familia. Asfi Al Andromeda.
Although she herself was only a Lv.4 second-class adventurer, and publicly claimed to be no more than Lv.2, her fame held its own even compared with the top first-class adventurers in the city.
She had used Mystery to create countless medicines and tools, including potions that blocked curses and abnormal statuses, harps that attracted specific monsters, and quills that required no ink. These magic items sold throughout Orario and were extremely difficult to obtain.
So her renown was in no way beneath Ais's, and Ais recognized her almost at a glance.
"Just call me Asfi, Sword Princess."
Asfi pushed up the glasses on her face, first answering Ais, then turning to look at Leo.
"I've long heard of you as well. Word reached me some time ago that Loki Familia had recently produced a Monster Rookie growing into a first-class adventurer at an unbelievable speed, and today I've finally gotten to meet him."
As she spoke, Asfi reached out a hand to Leo and shook his.
"Just call me Leo." Leo answered in kind, then glanced around at the people watching them. "Looks like the black-robed figure prepared more help than just Lulune Louie."
Even the captain of Hermes Familia had shown up here in person. It went without saying just what the identities of these surrounding people were.
There was no doubt about it. They were all Hermes Familia people.
The helpers prepared for Leo and Ais were the entire Hermes Familia.
"Personally, I wanted to refuse." Asfi's mood soured, and she gave a weary sigh. "But there's no helping it. One of our members is already involved, and someone has leverage over us."
Under their patron deity's orders, many Hermes Familia members had lied about their Levels.
Once that got exposed, the whole Familia would surely be punished, and their Familia rank would shoot up all at once as well, causing the taxes owed to the Guild to skyrocket along with it.
The black-robed figure belonged to the Guild and had secured leverage over Hermes Familia before entrusting them with the matter.
Add to that what had happened before, and left with no other choice, Asfi could only bring the Familia members along to take part in this whole affair.
"Still, it's a bit of a relief to know the reinforcements are you two."
Asfi's expression did relax somewhat.
Her own party had the numbers, but the two newcomers were on another level in strength.
One was Leo Eligos, who had recently made a formidable name for himself, defeated a Floor Boss alone, then joined a companion to defeat Udaeus and become a first-class adventurer.
The other was Ais Wallenstein, long famous, renowned across the whole world seven or eight years ago, possessing both strength and beauty, hailed as the city's strongest female swordsman, and now likewise having climbed a step higher and grown even stronger.
One was Lv.5, the other Lv.6, their combat power far surpassing anyone in Hermes Familia.
With two such first-class adventurers assisting, the pressure on Hermes Familia wouldn't be quite so great now, would it?
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