Labyrinth City, Orario.
Lately another lively topic had been going around Orario.
Just yesterday, Loki Familia, still on expedition, had come back from the Dungeon in a grand procession together with the smiths of Hephaestus Familia, and announced that they had successfully updated the deepest floor reached, breaking through Floor 58 and arriving at Floor 59, officially setting foot in unexplored territory that no modern adventurer had ever set foot in.
The moment the news spread, the whole city fell into heated discussion.
Loki Familia, whose last expedition had failed, had made thorough preparations and paid a heavy price to work with Hephaestus Familia, and at last they had overcome the barrier that stopped them before, updated the floor reached, and set foot in unexplored territory. For the whole city and for the people of the lower world, this was something worth commemorating.
Plenty of people ran all over spreading the news, each trying to be first, praising Loki Familia's valor. The Guild announced it publicly the next day and certified that it was true, and the whole Labyrinth City of Orario came alive.
Unexplored territory that no one had reached in a long time had been broken open by one corner of the city's strongest Familia. For Humans who hoped to overcome the suffering the Dungeon brought and truly welcome peace, this was heartening news.
For a while it seemed the whole city was saying the name Loki Familia, and Loki Familia, already enormous in fame and prestige, now stood a notch above Freya Familia in people's minds.
That went double once the people of Loki Familia began appearing in every corner of the city with the takings from the expedition, disposing of the loot and handling the expedition's aftermath. Wherever they went, people would cheer at them for a while, and it made everyone in Loki Familia feel the pride of it. They walked with their heads up and their chests out without realizing it, faces full of pride.
What they did not know was how heavy the hearts of the Familia's leadership were after reaching Floor 59 and seeing what had happened there and what existed there.
After confirming the truth, that a threat to Orario's very survival really had appeared, Finn and the others took their Familia companions and the smiths of Hephaestus Familia and set out on the return trip without pause, heading back to the surface at top speed.
Thanks to that, the return trip took the expedition force less than five days, and before nightfall yesterday they made it back to the Familia's home base, back home.
Once home, Finn, Riveria, and Gareth pulled Loki into the office and shut themselves in, talking the whole night through.
What those four pillars of the Familia talked about, nobody knew.
Because after getting back to the home base, everyone went straight into collapse-and-sleep mode, and the dead-to-the-world kind at that.
Leo especially. He had put in no small effort on this expedition, and against the defiled Spirit he had overdrawn his Mind to release his third magic at full power, draining himself dry and falling unconscious.
Afterward he woke up in a very short time under the effect of a high-grade Magic Potion, but being forced awake like that still put a heavy load on his mind, so much that he felt foggy the entire way back and could not summon any energy.
And on the way back, of all things, to make sure nothing went wrong, Leo forced himself to keep serving as rearguard, using magic to deal with more than a few sudden incidents and keeping the expedition force moving safely, which piled still more strain onto his mind.
So once back at the home base, Leo could not deal with anything at all. He hurriedly washed the dust and grime off himself, dropped onto his bed, and slept like the dead.
Under those circumstances, what Finn and the others had discussed with Loki, he truly did not know, and for now he had no way to care.
It was not until the next day, with the sky fully bright, that Leo and many others who had accidentally overslept came out of their rooms one after another.
By custom, the day after an expedition returned should have been when they started handling the aftermath.
But perhaps because they really had danced on death's doorstep this time, Finn simply told everyone that the aftermath had already been handed to the rank-and-file members who had stayed behind at the home base, and that the expedition force could rest a while longer, which amounted to giving them all a holiday.
Loki went further and announced it out loud.
"There's plenty we've gotta do next, and a whole pile of trouble coming, but right now... let's update your Status first!"
Because this expedition had involved risks far beyond the last one, and because the force had force-marched the whole way in order to get back to the surface as soon as possible, not one person had gone to update their Status yesterday. Every one of them was too exhausted to want anything but sleep.
Even Ais rested a night for it instead of rushing to update her Status the way she always did, which tells you how tired they were this time.
Only today, with Loki organizing it, did the members of the expedition group finally remember about updating their Status, and they formed a long line on the top floor of the Central Tower where their goddess's bedroom was.
Tiona even made a bold declaration on the spot.
"This time I'm definitely catching up to Ais!"
That boast was not empty talk.
On this expedition they really had taken enormous risks and crossed their own limits.
Whether it was the fight to the death in the Dragon's Urn before they went to Floor 59, or the final battle against the defiled Spirit on Floor 59, both were thresholds even first-class adventurers would struggle to pass.
And when those thresholds were passed, the Falna that came from the gods turned all of it into nourishment, feeding them and carrying them a step higher.
And so.
"Yesss! Lv.6 at last!"
In the corridor outside the God's Chamber, Tiona held the parchment recording her Status and bounced up and down.
On that parchment, the Level line really did read Lv.6.
The innocent, carefree Amazoness girl had finally gotten what she wanted.
"Heh, I've finally caught up to the captain."
Tione stood beside her looking just as pleased, a parchment of her own in hand, the Level line updated, no longer Lv.5 but a whole new stage, Lv.6.
"You kidding? How could I keep losing to a small fry?"
Bete, for once, was grinning wide with a smug look on his face. One glance at that sour face filled with a joy rarely seen before told you everything: he had not been left behind by the Amazoness sisters he was always bickering with. He had reached Lv.6 as well.
Even Lefiya was holding the parchment recording her Status, her face full of delight as she shared it with Line and the others.
"This is great! I finally made it to Lv.4!"
The Elf girl's joy was written all over her face, every bit of it spilling out. She could not have been happier.
That's right, Lefiya had leveled up this time too, from Lv.3 to Lv.4, officially becoming one of the Second Army members closest to the First Army.
In the original work, Lefiya at this point had not yet trained her Magic up to the highest S stage, so she chose not to level up for the time being. This time, because Leo had spurred her on, she had been working in secret all along, and had already trained her Magic to A before the expedition. Coming back from it, her Magic broke through to the S stage without trouble, so she could level up right away.
Besides Tiona, Tione, Bete, and Lefiya, plenty of the Loki Familia members present were cheering and jumping about, which showed they had all gained a fair amount: either they had leveled up, or their Status had grown by a large margin, and some had even learned new Magic or Skills, their strength much improved.
Of course, there were also those who had not moved forward at all...
"Damn it, still no good this time?"
Raul looked at the big Lv.4 on his parchment, disappointed beyond words.
"Looks like becoming a first-class adventurer is still a long way off."
Anakitty was sighing about it too.
"Lv.5 is a whole new stage to begin with, a whole new threshold. The difficulty of leveling up isn't comparable to the earlier levels. It just means we haven't built up enough yet."
Alicia, steadier and calmer, comforted the few with dejected faces, showing the tolerance of an older sister.
It had to be said, Lv.5 really was hard to reach. This expedition had produced several Lv.6s, and yet not one of the Lv.4 core members of the Second Army had made it to Lv.5, which was almost funny in a sad way.
Ais held her own Status record sheet and looked at the sharp contrast outside the God's Chamber, some cheering, some dejected, and for a moment she was a little dazed.
"Ais, Ais! Look, look!"
Tiona ran over and shoved her own Status record sheet right in front of Ais.
"I'm Lv.6 too. I finally caught up to you!"
Ais answered as if she were sincerely happy for Tiona.
"Mm. Congratulations, Tiona."
She really was happy that her companion had gotten what she wanted.
After all, nobody understood better than she did how maddening it felt to put in enormous effort and still be standing in the same place, unable to get stronger.
Tiona did not want to be left behind by Ais, whom she was so close to. She wanted to catch up, to reach a new stage. Ais understood that feeling too.
Back then, when she saw Leo advancing by leaps and bounds and about to catch up to her, Ais had felt that same restlessness, that same urgency.
So seeing her friend get what she wanted, Ais was happier for her than anyone.
"Thanks!" Tiona hugged Ais and rubbed against her ridiculously smooth cheek, laughing happily. "By the look of you, seems like you did pretty well too?"
"Mm." Ais nodded lightly. No smile appeared on her face, but you could still feel that she was in a good mood.
She had gained a lot.
She had not leveled up, and had not learned new Magic or Skills, but her proficiency across all abilities had risen by about 300 in total this time, pushing several basic abilities into a new stage.
Do not think 300 total points of proficiency across all abilities is a small amount.
As everyone knows, the higher the Level, the slower each ability's proficiency rises.
Under those conditions, once you reached Lv.6, the rate at which each ability's proficiency rose could fairly be described as a crawl.
Take Ais's own experience. She had been the holder of the world's fastest leveling record before the World's Fastest Twin Stars, a girl favored by heaven, and even so it took her more than three years at Lv.5 to raise her combined proficiency across all abilities past 3,000 points.
Roughly 1,000 days spent, and the result was a combined total across all abilities just over 3,000 points, which averages out to about three points a day, and that is the combined proficiency of all abilities, not one basic ability on its own. Proficiency already rose that slowly at Lv.5, let alone at Lv.6.
As for someone like Leo, who even at Lv.5 changed by the day and raised his Status proficiency by hundreds or thousands of points in almost no time, that was pure fantasy.
Under normal conditions, those 300 points of proficiency would take even a girl favored by heaven like Ais several months, or half a year, to grind out little by little.
In other words, this run had saved Ais several months, maybe half a year, of effort.
A gain like that could hardly be called small.
Only...
"Leo's gain is definitely bigger than mine."
Ais said it in a low voice, and Tiona blinked.
"You've got a point." Tiona started muttering. "If we all got this much, and that guy performed that well on this expedition, that brilliantly, that desperately, then as much of a freak as he is, how could he get less than us?"
Ais and Tiona looked at each other.
The same thought flashed through both their minds.
"...Don't tell me he leveled up too?"
Tiona said.
Ais did not answer, but in her heart she gave a definite yes.
Remembering how conscientiously he had worked through the expedition...
Remembering the sight of him in the Dragon's Urn throwing himself in without a thought for himself to save a companion, falling into the vertical shaft, and holding back every monster that flew in from other floors on Floor 58 by himself...
And then remembering, on Floor 59, how he raised high the treasured sword blazing with platinum light, released his own power at full strength, summoned twelve star beasts like natural disasters, drove the defiled Spirit into a corner, and finally turned himself into a comet at extreme speed and ran his sword straight through the defiled Spirit's body, scene after scene...
Ais was absolutely certain that he would catch up.
......
Leo Eligos
Lv.5
Strength: E444 → SSS1335
Endurance: E412 → SSS1318
Dexterity: D558 → SSS1491
Agility: D557 → SSS1427
Magic: D596 → SSS1588
Mage: F → D
Magic Attack: G → E
Spirit Healing: H → F
Swordsman: I → H
......
Inside the God's Chamber, when this new Status appeared in front of Leo, Loki's voice came into his ears, brimming with delight.
"All abilities at SSS, every one of them at the limit."
"And not just that. Every Development Ability came a long way too, especially the first three. All of them jumped two stages in one go."
"Congrats. You can level up."
The Status on Leo's back flickered with red light, rising and falling.
Just as Ais had guessed, Leo had caught up.
He, too, would reach Lv.6.
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