Different from before, this time when everyone returned from the expedition, they all bore some wounds, more or less.
Even after treatment with Panacea and Heith's healing, the danger they'd actually faced had been worse still. Fortunately it amounted to nothing more than injuries — no further mishaps occurred.
In the end, Isagi had underestimated the boss they'd encountered — and it was the same story for Freya Familia.
Loki Familia, meanwhile, had avoided triggering the boss thanks to Finn's danger-sense, but they'd still run into some kind of "incident" afterward that left them in serious peril.
By the time everyone finally regrouped as scheduled, in the passage between the 37th and 36th floors, the conclusion they unanimously reached was that something was very wrong with this 37th floor. It was extremely treacherous. If not for the fact that everyone present was at least Lv.7, already surpassing the level of the ordinary Monsters here — by Isagi's past adventuring standards, fighting above one's level was simply routine —
But here, the Monsters were only Lv.6 — actually lower level than themselves.
So it was purely on the strength of their stats that they'd managed to force down most of the danger they should have faced. Otherwise, there was no telling what might have gone wrong on this expedition.
To be fair, their earlier expeditions on the lower floors had felt unfamiliar at first, but once everyone got used to it, a certain sense of complacency had genuinely crept in.
Of course, underestimating the Dungeon was hardly something a veteran adventurer should ever do.
But it was much like how a high-level adventurer walking the upper floors, once they knew the Monsters around them posed no threat, would inevitably let their guard down a little.
Everyone had fallen into more or less the same state.
During their time operating on the lower floors, they'd grown fairly familiar with Isagi's special Dungeon, coming to understand, roughly, that its Monsters were smarter, stronger, and more "lethal."
Beyond that, there were all manner of Spirits, and "elite" Monster-bosses that became extraordinarily troublesome and difficult to deal with if one's level was too low or merely on par with them.
But no matter what kind of Dungeon — or game — it was, one eventually got used to it.
And based on this latest expedition, everyone had arrived at one conclusion: the Dungeon had changed.
Exactly how, none of them could yet say — even Isagi found it hard to put into words. So, after paying a certain price — with himself, Ais, and Lefiya all wounded in the process — and finally taking down the boss,
they'd decided without hesitation to withdraw early. As it turned out, at the rally point they ran into Freya and Loki Familia arriving one right after the other — both of whom had made the same call to pull back ahead of schedule.
After resting briefly together, everyone agreed it was best to head back to the city first and sort things out later.
There was no telling what unexpected trouble might still lurk in the Dungeon, not with the deep floors having clearly changed.
And so — by the time they rode the [Elevator] back up and emerged onto the familiar Daedalus Street, they found that, without anyone noticing, faint flecks of snow had begun drifting through the dim late-autumn night.
Winter was nearly upon them. Or perhaps it already had arrived?
Snow this early meant the city was likely in for another season blanketed in white.
The sky hung cold and grey.
No one said much more. They could always set a date to meet again later, so as usual, everyone went their separate ways home, planning to have their gods update their [Stats] and rest up first — whatever had happened in the Dungeon could wait to be discussed.
For an adventurer, the first order of business upon returning to the surface was always the same: empty your mind, take a hot bath, wash off the Monster gore, eat until full, drink until pleasantly tipsy, and sleep like the dead.
Isagi did exactly that.
And so, when he finally woke, the sky outside had gone dark again — the better part of a day had slipped by. It must be evening now, the sun about to set, another night on its way.
"Mmn—"
His head still ached faintly from sleeping so long.
Isagi got up, washed, and headed down to the living room for a meal — where Goddess Astrea happened to be as well.
Now that autumn had passed, she'd found herself with free time, just like Goddess Demeter. With Ryuu-senpai and Isagi both back, the Hostess of Fertility could run itself for a few days, so she was taking the chance to rest at home.
The goddess had her glasses on and appeared to be knitting a scarf.
In truth, she'd been knitting it since the previous winter.
Not just his — she was also making ones for Ryuu-senpai, Ais, Tiona, Lefiya, Cecil… even Lunoire and Chloe from the shop, and both Goddess Artemis and Aphrodite besides.
After all, she was a goddess of fairness.
If she was going to give scarves as gifts, naturally she had to give them to everyone all at once — she couldn't possibly leave anyone out.
So the knitting had carried on from last winter clear into this year.
And now, with Senior Alise and the others added to the list, the goddess's "workload" had only grown — there was no telling whether she'd finish this year at all.
Heh.
A fire crackled in the living room hearth, its rising warmth filling the house with a cozy air.
While he ate, Goddess Astrea asked about the expedition — unusual for her. That afternoon, as soon as Ryuu-senpai and the others had woken, they'd gone straight to Airmid's to check on their wounds — something that had never happened after any of their previous expeditions.
"Are you all right, Isagi?"
"I'm fine."
And he genuinely was fine — his own "death mechanic" was a straight full-health revival, so naturally he never carried any lasting wounds.
The others were a different matter, though. On the way back to the city, they'd mentioned feeling weakened — it seemed like they'd been hit with some special "status ailment," so a visit to Airmid was probably wise.
"How did it end up like this this time?"
"Hmm…"
Isagi genuinely didn't know either.
He gathered his thoughts.
On the surface, it looked like he and the girls had simply run into a boss far stronger than expected. But in truth, Isagi could clearly sense that whatever lurked on the deep floors was somehow different from the special Dungeon he'd explored before.
Exactly what the difference was, though, he couldn't say — not yet.
His thoughts were still a tangle; he'd need more time to sort them out.
"Is that so… well, do be careful, all the same…"
The goddess had said some version of that line more times than he could count — it mostly served to reassure herself.
Isagi didn't say much in response, just kept quietly eating while pointing out where the goddess had gotten her stitches wrong. It wasn't difficult, really — he'd picked it up just from watching Goddess Demeter knit a few times.
Not to mention that Cecil and Ryuu-senpai had picked it up too, learning alongside the goddess whenever they had nothing else to do, with Isagi sometimes just listening in nearby.
It was just that Goddess Astrea really wasn't very good at this sort of thing.
And yet, in the end, it only earned him a string of dirty looks and complaints that he should just knit it himself. Isagi just chuckled — he knew perfectly well the goddess actually just wanted him to come sit beside her. With none of the other girls home right now, it was the perfect chance for the two of them to be alone.
So, once night had deepened, Isagi prepared to make a solo trip back a thousand years into the past.
He meant to seek out the Amazon Empress; if he couldn't find her, meeting with Ais's mother, Aria, would do just as well.
There was something important he needed to clear up.
It had to do with the changes he'd sensed in the deep floors of the Dungeon.
Besides, he'd just slept his fill and wasn't the least bit tired.
So Isagi headed straight out to the courtyard and traveled back, once again, to that city from a thousand long years ago — the city the gods had not yet reached.
A cold sea wind blew. A thousand years ago, Orario, too, was dusted with light snow.
Isagi arrived outside the city, at the port town of Melen — though at this point in time, it was still nothing more than a small fishing village, its only real feature the "fortress" of moored ships along the shore, kept there to guard against sea Monsters and protect nearby vessels.
Inland, only a scattering of villages existed.
It was here that he'd parted ways with the Empress before — she'd been heading back to the city and asked if he wanted to come along, but his time window for the crossing had been running out, so Isagi had lied and claimed he had business elsewhere, promising to seek her out again next time.
The woman hadn't minded at all — she'd simply nodded, said something like "I trust you," and walked off.
Coming to Orario, of course, was never mandatory.
Or rather, gathering here to hold back the Great Pit was, aside from being pushed by a handful of national governments across the continent, largely voluntary for most [Hero]es and soldiers.
So people came and people left — that was only natural.
Besides, fortresses were scattered like stars all across the region around Orario, each needing [Hero]es and soldiers to defend them — sometimes they even had to strike first, hunting down Monsters scattered through the surrounding land.
Isagi honestly had no idea what the Empress thought of him.
For now, he simply quickened his pace, heading straight toward the city.
Good news — Orario was still there.
Beneath the falling snow, the towering city walls carried, for some reason, an even more solemn, stately beauty than the ones he knew from a thousand years later.
This time, he didn't need anyone to guide him.
Isagi found Aria's place easily enough, figuring the Empress was probably staying there too — and sure enough, she was. Only this time it was Aria who was absent; just the Amazon woman lay alone on the bed, sleeping soundly.
It really was the dead of night here.
But despite the cold, and though the windows and door were shut tight, no fire had been lit inside — and since it was just an ordinary wooden house, it was still quite chilly.
And yet, there she was, still dressed in that same skimpy outfit he remembered, sprawled unconcernedly across the bed without so much as a blanket.
Adventurers really were like that, weren't they.
In truth, Isagi wouldn't feel cold even unclothed in weather like this — but wasn't it still more comfortable to sleep wrapped in a warm blanket?
Maybe it was some Amazon custom, then?
Ah, right — Tiona was the same way, one of those people who found sleeping with absolutely nothing on the most comfortable.
As the ancestral matriarch of the Amazons, Her Majesty the Empress was probably much the same.
As it turned out, that was exactly the case.
What Isagi didn't know was that the Empress wearing even the bare minimum these days was entirely thanks to Aria's "stern" lectures.
He didn't wake her — as if he'd simply grown used to this by now.
Isagi looked at the Empress's sleeping face for a while, sitting quietly in the room before finally rising and stepping outside. He asked the soldiers stationed there where the kitchen was, intending to cook something to eat.
Perhaps it was because Wishe — who bore such a striking resemblance to Ryuu-senpai — had brought him here before.
The soldiers hadn't stopped him from coming before, and this time they answered his questions readily enough. Soon Isagi found the kitchen not far from the house — or rather, it was more accurately a mess hall.
He rummaged up a few passable ingredients — a sack of potatoes, a handful of onions, some mushrooms of unknown type that at least didn't look poisonous, and a large hunk of meat he couldn't identify either.
Then he put his adventurer's cooking skills on display: steaming the potatoes and sprinkling them with salt to serve as the main dish.
Everything else went into a pot and got thrown together into a steaming meat stew.
Once it was all ready, he carried it back to the room where the Empress still slept, eating while he waited for her to wake.
And sure enough — the trick worked fast.
Before long, as the smell of food drifted through the room, she bolted upright on the bed all at once.
Still groggy, her pretty face tight with sleep, she rubbed her eyes and stared at him for a long, bewildered moment. Then, without a word, she scrambled off the bed and marched straight over to start eating, not standing on ceremony in the least.
"I'm starving!"
Only after downing a few potatoes and a whole bowl of meat stew did she finally speak her first words.
She didn't ask how he'd come back. Didn't ask why he'd returned here, either.
Perhaps, to the Empress, the fact that he'd come back at all — that he hadn't run off for good — was what mattered most, what made her "happy." And since he had come back, there was nothing else that needed saying.
She had, of course, been worried he'd skip out on her.
"Once I'm done eating, let's fight!"
"No — not yet."
He hadn't leveled up to Lv.8 yet.
"How much longer, then?"
"Soon, probably."
Isagi wasn't lying, either — his [Stats] and [Excelia] were still climbing steadily. Even after taking a bit of a beating on the deep floors and retreating back to his earlier lower-floor grinding, his leveling pace had only slowed slightly. Nothing to worry about.
By his reckoning, at the latest by this coming late winter — or by next spring, once the warmth returned — he'd be right around Lv.8.
"Hmm—"
The woman just eyed him with open skepticism.
[Hero]es and adventurers of the ancient era were different — in a certain sense, their Strength was practically "fated," not something honed through training. Which meant there was no way to teach an ordinary person how to become as strong as them.
Put plainly, they were pure prodigies, freaks of natural talent.
Isagi actually found this quite interesting — logically, over the course of a thousand years, the world should have produced more [Hero]es like them at some point.
And if such people also received a god's [Falna] and became adventurers, they'd probably turn out like the old Zeus or Hera Familia geniuses — or like Alfia and Zald.
Becoming an adventurer in early childhood, reaching Lv.5 or higher while still in their teens, and hitting the peak of their power around age twenty — straight to Lv.6, or even Lv.7.
Still, that wasn't the main reason Isagi had come to this era. He had something more important to attend to. Namely—
"To you, Your Majesty — what exactly is the Dungeon?"
Looking into her almost too-innocent eyes, Isagi pressed his lips together and rephrased the question.
"How far has your research into the Great Pit — the Dungeon — actually gotten?"
____
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