General POV
The descent through Floor 23 was less of an exploration and more of a systematic, high-speed eviction.
Instead of acting like a traditional adventurer carefully managing his stamina, Max continued to be an absolute menace to the dungeon. Whenever a swarm of Gun Libellulas buzzed from the canopy or a pack of Battle Boars charged down the winding wooden corridors, Max met them with overwhelming force. He flickered through the root-choked pathways with Shunshin, turning the treacherous terrain into his personal playground.
Hogni, trailing slightly behind as the rearguard, found himself slipping into a bizarre, rhythmic trance. When stragglers tried to flank them, the Dark Elf's eyes would narrow, his chuunibyou persona bleeding through as he cleaved a Mad Beetle in twain. "Return to the dust, creature of the shallow dark," he would mutter, only to immediately flinch and look around nervously to see if Max had heard him being weird.
Max, of course, didn't care. He was having the time of his life.
As their pace momentarily slowed in a wider, quieter section of the labyrinth, the silence gave Hogni the opening he had been waiting for. The Dark Elf had been meticulously cataloging the anomalies he'd witnessed, and his tactical mind simply could not suppress the questions any longer.
"Maximus," Hogni spoke up, his voice measured but laced with genuine curiosity. "The spells. The incantations they have... follow a pattern I do not recognize. They are not Elven, nor do they invoke the spirits."
Max slowed his pace, glancing back over his shoulder. He saw the genuine, burning curiosity in the elf's eyes. Since Max was in a generous mood, he decided to pull back the curtain a little further.
"It's a system called Kidō," Max explained, turning his body as he walked backward for a few paces. "It's divided into two categories. Hadō for destructive attacks, and Bakudō for bindings and barriers. The spells are numbered from one to ninety-nine. The higher the number, the exponentially stronger and more complex the spell."
Hogni frowned, processing the information. "A numbered hierarchy based on complexity. And you can simply... access them all?"
"As long as I have the mana and the imagination for it, yeah," Max grinned.
Just then, the heavy thud of hooves echoed from a side corridor. A massive Sword Stag charged into the clearing, its razor-sharp antlers lowered to skewer them.
"Perfect timing. Let me show you a low-level binding," Max said, turning to face the beast. He raised his index and middle fingers, leveling them at the charging stag.
"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat!!"
"Bakudō #9. Hōrin!"
An orange-hued tendril, glowing with spiraling yellow patterns, erupted from his fingertips like a whip. It shot forward, wrapping around the Sword Stag's body in a matter of milliseconds. The beast crashed to the floor, its momentum arrested completely as the glowing tendril ensnared its legs and torso.
The stag thrashed violently. It was a sturdy Middle Floor monster, and Bakudō #9 was a relatively low-level spell. Max felt the magical rope strain in his grip. The stag roared, its muscles bulging, and the orange tendril began to stretch, threatening to snap.
"It's breaking," Hogni warned.
"Only if I let it," Max replied calmly. He pulsed a concentrated surge of his magic down the length of the binding. The orange tendril instantly thickened, glowing white-hot as the magic reinforced it. The stag was slammed back down against the wood, immobilized completely.
"The end remains in my hand," Max explained, holding the tether taut. "I can control the path, reinforce the hold, or even chain it to a second target. Now, for the finisher."
He raised his free hand, palm open, and began the aria.
"Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens."
"Hadō #73. Sōren Sōkatsui!"
A twin torrent of blue fire roared from his palm, illuminating the corridor in brilliant azure light. The bound stag couldn't evade. The flames engulfed it entirely, incinerating the beast in a matter of seconds until nothing remained but a smoking magic stone.
Hogni stared at the scorch mark on the petrified wood, his tactical mind running the calculations. A binding spell that scaled dynamically with mana input, followed by a localized, high-tier destructive wave. The efficiency was terrifying.
"That was a number 73," Max said, lowering his hand. He pointed to Hogni and continued, "The spell I loaded into that ring operates on similar properties, but it's a lower number. Hadō #63. It fires a concentrated burst of yellow lightning."
Hogni pulled out the ring from his pocket, his eyes widening in sheer amazement as the pieces fell into place. He twisted the ring, holding it up to the moss-light. "You embedded a Level 60-tier spell into a portable artifact? Without the aid of a blacksmith or a master enchanter?"
"Just took a bit of focus," Max shrugged.
Hogni's mind raced, going through a few odd events he chalked up to one off anomalies, like Max's previous armor, or his current one for that matter, which doesn't appear to be forged by blacksmiths. Not to mention Kairu always storing the monster corpses, taking care of the monster stone extraction himself. And now, the boy had created a high-tier magical artifact which the elf was sure he did without consulting a blacksmith.
Mystery, Hogni thought, confident that was the only possibility. He must possess the 'Mystery' Developmental Ability. It was the only logical explanation for crafting such intricate, complex equipment with such impossible speed. Satisfied with his conclusion, he turned to Max, his mind buzzing with the implications.
"Maximus, do you understand what this means? For a Level 2 adventurer operating in the upper half of the Middle Floors, this isn't just a tool. It is an absolute trump card. A reusable panic button that outputs the destructive force of a mid-tier mage."
Max's eyes gleamed. He leaned in, the demeanor of the scholar fading as the ruthless businessman took over. "Right? So... hypothetically speaking. If I were to mass-produce these, how much do you think they'd sell for?"
Hogni blinked, entirely derailed by the sudden pivot to the business aspect. He looked at the ring, doing the math. "A standard magic sword usually costs around a million Valis. A ring like this that casts a spell of this magnitude without a Mind penalty? No less than one million. You could easily charge a similar amount to the right buyer."
"Music to my ears," Max grinned, his mind already calculating how quickly he could wipe out his remaining 140-million Valis debt to Hedin.
Their conversation on the topic carried them seamlessly through the rest of Floor 23. By the time they reached the corridor descending into Floor 24, the atmosphere grew noticeably denser, the humidity spiking.
Floor 24 was notorious. It was roughly half the size of Orario itself—a sprawling, seemingly endless expanse of colossal roots, dense fungal forests, and treacherous vertical drops.
Hogni's posture shifted, his relaxed demeanor replaced by the sharp, unyielding focus of a veteran vanguard.
"Stay alert, Maximus," Hogni warned, his voice low and serious. "Floor 24 is vast, and it breeds strong monsters. Keep your eyes open for the Bloody Hive—they are insectoid nests that spawn infinite swarms if you do not destroy the core immediately. Also, beware the Moss Huge. They disguise themselves as the terrain and consume adventurers to steal their magic stones."
He paused, his eyes scanning the thick canopy above. "And above all else... the Green Dragons. They are highly territorial, heavily armored, and their breath attacks are lethal in these enclosed wooden corridors."
"Noted," Max said, drawing his rapier.
With a better understanding of what to expect, they waded into the massive floor. Hogni wasn't exaggerating about the size; traversing Floor 24 felt like crossing Tokyo on foot. To Max's luck, the Dungeon was eager to introduce them to the local wildlife.
As they passed a seemingly quiet, hollowed-out section of a colossal root, the petrified wood suddenly splintered and exploded outward.
A Bloody Hive didn't just sit in the open—it was a trap. A seven-meter-long monstrosity, shaped like a grotesque, blackish-purple pinecone, burst from the wall with terrifying speed. Before the dust could even clear, its maw opened, violently spewing a wide torrent of thick, reddish-yellow liquid aimed directly at Max and Hogni.
Auto-Evade flared. Max didn't even blink; his body jerked in a crisp, autonomous sidestep, allowing the immobilizing sludge to splash harmlessly against the roots behind him, hissing as it clung to the wood while Hogni easily dodged the attack.
Failing to trap its prey, the massive pinecone instantly shifted tactics. A deafening, vibrating hum filled the corridor as the Hive's pores opened, rapidly spawning dozens of vicious, needle-sting Deadly Hornets in a frantic, buzzing swarm meant to overwhelm them.
"Disgusting," Max muttered, not breaking his stride.
He didn't hesitate. He unleashed a barrage of Destruction Blasts. The crimson-black spheres tore through the air like buckshot, systematically annihilating the swarm before the insects could even form a proper formation. Leveling his palm at the massive trap-monster itself, Max fired a denser, concentrated beam of erasure. It carved a clean, absolute path straight through the blackish-purple exterior, vaporizing the core in a single hit. The seven-meter beast shuddered, collapsing into a mountain of bodies.
Kairu was in absolute heaven. The slime detached from Max's shoulder, expanding his mass to sweep up the endless rain of insectoid drops. Zealously, he gobbled up the crushed carapaces, the hornet stingers, and the massive stone left by the Hive, his core glowing with the sheer volume of consumed magic.
As they pushed deeper into the sprawling biome, the dense canopy shuddered. A heavy, reverberating roar shook the wooden walls around them.
Through a clearing in the massive roots, they spotted it: a Green Dragon. Its emerald scales blended perfectly with the mossy environment, but its sheer bulk betrayed it. It was easily thrice the size of the Infant Dragons Max had fought on Floor 12, its massive jaws dripping with caustic green saliva.
Ki! Ki!
Kairu immediately began bouncing on Max's shoulder, his pseudopods extending aggressively toward the massive lizard. He vibrated with battle lust, eager to claim the big prize he had been eyeing since his last dive.
"Easy there, buddy," Max whispered, gently patting the excited slime. "We're not fighting that now."
Kairu let out a disappointed, whining Squelch, his entire body drooping like a deflating balloon.
"I know, I know," Max coaxed, playing the responsible master. "But we need to reach Floor 28 first. I need to set down a teleportation anchor near the safe zone so we can jump straight to the Amphisbaena whenever it spawns. We'll hunt the Green Dragon on our way back up, I promise."
Kairu remained unconvinced, flattening himself against Max's shoulder in a gesture of protest.
"Look, I'll make you a deal," Max bargained. "You can have absolute dibs on every Metal Rabbit and Hobgoblin we come across until then. All yours."
Ki? Kairu tilted his body skeptically, as if weighing the value of common mobs against a high-tier Dragon. The offer was clearly insufficient.
"Fine," Max sighed, relenting. "Everything from that last Hive fight is yours too. The stingers, the carapaces, all of it. The whole pile."
That did the trick. Appeased by the sheer volume of high-quality drops he had just earned and the promise of more shiny snacks to come, Kairu perked up with a happy Ki! and resumed his vigilant watch, practically vibrating with stored energy.
As they continued, it didn't take long for Max's words to come to fruition. The dense fungal underbrush in front of them parted to reveal a roaming pack of hulking Hobgoblins and silver-furred Metal Rabbits.
Seeing his promised prize, Kairu didn't wait for a command. He launched himself from Max's shoulder.
The slime hit the mossy floor and became a rolling, predatory wave of blue jelly. A Metal Rabbit—a monster renowned among adventurers for its blinding speed and weapon-shattering defenses—bolted forward, intent on ramming the anomaly.
Kairu simply surged upward to meet it. The slime caught the creature mid-leap, enveloping it in a localized, pressurized sphere of his own mass. There was a brief, frantic muffled thudding from inside the jelly, followed instantly by a satisfied Squelch. The rabbit's body was crushed and absorbed in seconds, leaving only the clink of a magic stone dropping into Kairu's internal storage.
Seeing their fast-attack unit effortlessly deleted, the Hobgoblins roared in outrage and charged en masse, swinging their heavy bone-swords at the gelatinous threat.
Kairu didn't dodge; he adapted. His form rippled violently, sprouting half a dozen razor-sharp tendrils of highly compressed, hardened water. He danced through the Hobgoblins' crude, sluggish swings with terrifying agility. A tendril whipped out, cleanly severing a Hobgoblin's wrist, while another swept low to hamstring a second beast.
Before the crippled monsters could even cry out, Kairu surged forward, splitting his mass to launch globs of himself upward clamping securely around the heads of the hulking brutes like suffocating, aquatic masks. The brutes thrashed, clawing uselessly at the impervious slime pulling the air from their lungs, before dissolving into ash.
As the dust drifted to the floor, Kairu stretched out across the corridor, vacuuming up the rest of their numbers and their dropped items in one massive, gluttonous gulp. His core pulsed with a bright, satisfied glow as he bounced in place, letting out a triumphant Ki-ki!
"Good boy," Max cheered, giving the bouncing slime a thumbs-up. "Pace yourself, though. Lots of monsters left to eat."
Hogni watched the display in absolute stillness. He noted the lethal economy of the slime's movements—the seamless transition from spatial control to suffocation. It confirmed his earlier suspicions about the familiar's abnormal capabilities.
Highly irregular, Hogni observed internally, though a faint, approving nod breached his stoic exterior. But undeniably efficient. I suppose my blade is truly unnecessary for the riffraff.
The trio carved their way through the rest of the sprawling floor in a brutal, effective rhythm. Max dispatched the insect swarms and dangerous flora which slipped past Kairu with precise magic, while Kairu enthusiastically ambushed any goblin-variants and metallic rodents foolish enough to cross their path, cleaning up the drops as they went.
It took another hour of high-speed grinding before the dense wooden walls finally began to thin. The air grew heavy, saturated with a cooling mist, and a low, continuous thunder vibrated through the soles of their boots.
They emerged from the treeline and stood at the precipice of Floor 25.
The Great Waterfall.
It was a staggering sight. A sheer drop of hundreds of meters opened up before them. A literal river of dungeon water thundered over the edge, crashing down into the unseen basin of Floor 27 far below. The mist generated by the impact rolled upward in massive clouds, catching the blue phosphorescence of the dungeon and creating ethereal rainbows across the abyss.
Max stepped up to the edge, letting the mist wash over his face. He peered down into the roaring white water, his mind running a quick tactical assessment.
To reach the bottom conventionally, adventurers had to traverse a harrowing network of narrow, slippery ledges carved into the cliff face, spiraling down through Floors 25 and 26. He remembered the anime clearly: the Water Capital was infamous for aquatic monsters that hid beneath the surface and within the heavy spray, designed specifically to ambush climbers and drag them off the cliffs. Navigating two entire floors of slick rock while fending off invisible threats wasn't just a grueling slog; it was an unnecessary, massive risk.
He could simply step off the ledge, catch the updraft with his wings, and glide down in minutes. But revealing his true nature to Hogni wasn't an option. Even if he grabbed the Dark Elf and flew them both down, the sheer, unprompted terror of being carried off a cliff with his wings might actually give the veteran a heart attack.
He needed a safer, faster bypass.
Max looked down at his shoulder. Kairu was vibrating with cheerful excitement at the sheer volume of water. Being a river slime, the fall and the currents wouldn't harm the familiar in the slightest. The monsters waiting in the depths, however, absolutely would.
That's when a dangerous, outlandish but fully possible idea clicked into place.
"Why walk," Max said, pitching his voice over the roar of the falls, "when we can take the express elevator?"
Hogni, standing a few paces back to maintain a safe distance, frowned. He stepped closer, his eyes scanning the treacherous cliffs. "Maximus, the descent through the Water Capital must be taken with absolute caution. The force of the falls at the base can crush adamantite, and the aquatic irregulars nest in the mist. We must find the primary path down."
"Or," Max interrupted, plucking Kairu from his shoulder, "we send the scout ahead."
Hogni froze, his eyes locking onto the slime in Max's hands.
"Alright, buddy. You ready for the world's first extreme water adventure?" Max asked.
Ki! Kairu bounced, expanding his mass slightly in eager anticipation.
"Maximus," Hogni warned, his voice dropping to a harsh, serious tone. "Do not be foolish. The plunge from this height into the basin is a death sentence. The shock alone—"
"I know," Max said, already channeling his mana. "Which is why we're making him a tank."
His eyes flared with crimson light. First, he cast Tozanshō, weaving a tight, perfectly sealed geometric capsule of blue crystal entirely around the slime. Next, he layered a thin, controlled film of the Destruction over the crystal's exterior. It wouldn't erase the water—the rushing river was constantly replacing itself—but any aquatic monster attempting to bite the capsule would find its teeth instantly deleted.
But Max didn't stop there. He repeated the process. Barrier. Erasure. Barrier. Erasure. He layered the spells with surgical precision until seven alternating coats of crystal and destruction magic encased the familiar.
Finally, to guarantee the payload survived the crushing depth and terminal velocity, he added the ultimate shock absorber.
"Bakudō #81. Dankū."
He formed three rectangular walls of absolute energy, affixing them to the bottom, left, and right sides of the capsule to completely deflect the kinetic impact of the fall and any heavy aquatic predators looking for a snack.
Hogni watched the impossible display of layered, complex magic, his pristine composure cracking as the sheer lunacy of the plan dawned on him. "What... what are you doing?"
Max didn't pause his work, addressing the heavily fortified slime instead. "Alright, Kairu. Listen carefully. If these barriers somehow break on the way down, jump ship and teleport straight back to me immediately. No heroics or saving mermaids." He said sternly and then leaned in closer, a wicked, conspiratorial glint in his eye. "But otherwise? Enjoy the ride. And keep a close eye on any monsters that try to take a bite out of your capsule on the way down. Memorize their ugly mugs. We'll take our revenge the second we meet you at the bottom. Got it?"
With a muffled, cheerful KI! from inside the seven-layered magical bunker, Kairu gave an enthusiastic nod.
"Maximus, stop!" Hogni took a rapid step forward, his hand snapping out to grab Max's wrist. "This is not a jest! You are throwing your familiar into the abyss! It will be crushed before it ever reaches the—"
"See you at the bottom, buddy!"
Max casually tossed the heavy crystal capsule over the edge.
It sailed through the air, catching the blue light for a brief, sparkling second, before plunging straight into the thundering white water of the Great Falls.
Hogni's hand clamped onto empty air.
The Dark Elf staggered to the edge of the precipice, looking down into the roaring, bottomless mist. His mind, refined by decades of meticulous strategy and disciplined dungeon diving, simply ceased to function.
He stood frozen, staring blankly into the abyss. He didn't scream. He didn't yell. The sheer, unapologetic audacity of fortifying a familiar like a magical siege weapon and hurling it off a cliff to bypass two entire floors had completely short-circuited the Absolute Shadow of the Freya Familia.
Max dusted off his hands, entirely unbothered, and leaned casually against the damp stone wall, watching curiously while waiting for the ping.
-◈ -
Hedin
The descent into the Dungeon was not a pursuit; it was a crusade of offended dignity.
Hedin Selland did not run. Running was for beasts and panicked rookies. He marched, an immaculate, terrifying force of nature carving a perfectly straight line through the Upper Floors. He reached Floor 13 in a matter of hours, his cloak snapping like a war banner behind him, each step echoing with controlled fury. Here, he deliberately forced himself to rein in his pace. Logic, cold and unwelcome, dictated that the foolish, arrogant boy—especially burdened with that Dark Elf in tow—could not have possibly made rapid progress through the treacherous Cave Labyrinth.
Still, the seething frustration churning within Hedin's chest demanded an outlet. The boy had bypassed the Familia hierarchy, extorted the Guild for a fortune, and made an absolute mockery of his meticulously calculated ledgers. It was a flagrant violation of order, and the Dungeon would serve as a proxy for his wrath.
He didn't bother with his staff. He merely flicked his fingers. Arcs of concentrated blue lightning snapped outward, reducing Hellhounds, Almiraj, and Dungeon Worms to charred, smoking husks before they could even fully detach from the cavern walls. Even the brutish Minotaurs and agile Ligerfangs that tried to intercept him were subjected to the same indifferent, crackling obliteration. He didn't bother collecting their stones; he simply left a trail of blackened, ozone-scented craters in his wake.
Hours later, Hedin stepped out of the connecting corridor and onto the expansive, crystal-lit plateau of Floor 18. His irritation had cooled from a raging fire to a smoldering coal, his logic reasserting itself. He swept his sharp gaze over the Under Resort, fully expecting to find the boy lounging in some dingy tavern, likely boasting to the local scum about surviving the descent. But as Hedin approached the crude wooden gates of Rivira, he realized the atmosphere was entirely wrong.
The town was practically barricaded. The adventurers inside were huddled together in the muddy streets, clutching their weapons, casting terrified glances toward the eastern cliff face where the Wall of Grief loomed.
Hedin strode through the gates. The sheer, oppressive weight of his Level 5 aura parted the tense, sweating masses like a physical wedge. He didn't speak. He simply locked his eyes on the nearest resident—a scarred, leather-clad rogue who survived by gouging desperate travelers. Under the terrifying, static-heavy glare of the White Elf, the man's bravado crumbled instantly. He dropped to his knees.
"The blue-haired mage and the Dark Elf," Hedin demanded, his voice a low, vibrating hum that made the hairs on the rogue's arms stand up. "Where are they?"
"I-I haven't seen anyone like that, my Lord!" the adventurer choked out, his face turning a sickly pale. "N-No one has come down from the upper floors since the tremors started! The Goliath spawned last night!"
Hedin's eyes narrowed fractionally. "The Monster Rex is active?"
"N-No! I mean, yes! But the Astraea Familia was here!" the man babbled, desperate to appease the executive whose presence was making the air taste of copper. "They vowed to take care of it! We heard a massive explosion hours later, but no one has dared go out to check if it's dead or still roaming!"
Hedin released his invisible grip on the man, stepping back with a sneer of disgust. He felt a fleeting moment of cold satisfaction. If the Astraea Familia had indeed handled the Goliath, then the path was secure. It also meant the foolish boy and his stupid shadow hadn't been arrogant enough to throw their lives away against a Monster Rex. But that only deepened the mystery: if they weren't here, where were they?
"Search the town," Hedin commanded the surrounding adventurers, his tone brooking absolutely no argument. "Every inn. Every alley. Now."
Terrified of the White Elf's wrath, the residents scrambled like kicked anthills. For twenty minutes, Rivira was turned upside down, the result of which was a profound, echoing nothing. There was no trace of Maximus Stilbon or Hogni Ragnar anywhere in the safe zone.
Hedin stood in the center of the muddy street.
Crackle.
A stray bolt of blue lightning snapped outward from his shoulder, striking a nearby wooden barrel and violently blowing it to splinters. The surrounding adventurers shrieked, scrambling backward to escape the blast radius of his temper.
He closed his eyes, taking a slow, rigid breath, forcing the chaotic lightning back into his mind.
They didn't stop, Hedin realized, the sheer absurdity of the thought making his jaw clench until his teeth ached. The arrogant whelp bypassed the safe zone entirely. He went deeper.
His face soured into an expression of utter revulsion. With his mood thoroughly spoiled, his patience exhausted, and his pristine boots now coated in Rivira's filth, Hedin turned his back on the town and marched toward the descent to Floor 19. The determination to skin the boy alive spiked with every step he took into the Large Tree Labyrinth. Max was Lady Freya's newest, most prized investment. If something were to happen to him—if he were to die senselessly in the damp, rotting wood of the middle floors just to satisfy his own ego—his Mistress would be disappointed.
And that was the one thing Hedin would not allow to happen so long as he drew breath.
The pursuit took its toll. Hours bled into one another. The grinding descent through the lower half of the Middle Floors was grueling, even for an executive. Hedin was a tactician and a back-line mage, not a vanguard tank. Soloing this terrain at a dead sprint was wildly inefficient. His pace was noticeably slowed by the sheer volume and durability of the monsters on Floors 21 through 23. Massive Battle Boars charged down narrow wooden corridors. Swarms of Gun Libellulas rained organic projectiles from the high canopy, requiring calculated, mind-intensive aerial strikes to clear and the myriad of other monsters he didn't bother to keep track of. The oppressive humidity clung to his skin, making his crimson robes feel heavy and stifling.
By the time he finally carved his way down to the entrance of Floor 24, Hedin was breathing heavily. A fresh wave of irritation washed over him as his internal clock chimed. It would be dead of the night on the surface by now. His Mistress would have retired to her chambers, perhaps with the spare time to grant him an audience. Instead, he was trudging through a damp, mushroom-choked cavern, his immaculate clothes stained with monster ash and damp moss, while everything he had wanted to report to her circled aimlessly in his mind.
All because of this stupid boy and his dumb shadow.
As soon as I see them, Hedin vowed, his knuckles turning white around his staff, I am going to subject them to a point-blank Varian Hildr. I will paralyze them, drag them back to the surface by their collars, drop them at Heith's feet, and once they are fully healed, I will teach them a brutal lesson in Familia discipline all over again.
Just as he was mentally drafting the exact, excruciating phrasing of the lecture he was going to scream at them, a massive explosion echoed down the adjacent corridor.
Hedin's head snapped up, his senses immediately sharpening. He hadn't encountered any other adventurers on his descent; the floors had been eerily quiet. A sound of that magnitude could only mean a high-level party was engaged in a serious battle nearby. Or, perhaps, it was the very people he had spent the entire day hunting, however unlikely it was. If there was another party present, he could easily inquire about the whereabouts of his targets.
He moved immediately, darting through the giant, petrified roots toward the sound. Though his sprint would appear as a blinding blur to a normal adventurer, Hedin knew he was moving slower than his usual pace. The sheer physical exertion and the massive amount of Mind he had burned to descend twenty-four floors in a day had tapped his reserves.
Without breaking stride, he pulled a standard Mind Potion from his belt and downed it. The bitter liquid chilled his throat, forcefully jump-starting his magical circuits.
He rounded a massive, moss-draped crystal formation and finally came across them.
Hedin stopped dead in the shadows, his chest heaving slightly. He would be deeply ashamed to admit it, but the very first thing he registered in his chest was relief. They were alive. Intact. Lady Freya's investment had not been squandered.
But that relief lasted only a second.
It was immediately swallowed by a tidal wave of incandescent fury.
Max was casually leaning against a massive root, chatting amiably with Hogni. The boy didn't look like he had been fighting for his life. He looked entirely unbothered, as if they were on a leisurely afternoon stroll through the noble district.
And Hogni—the bumbling, socially inept fool who was supposed to be a shadow, a silent, unseen guardian—was simply standing there, nodding along to whatever drivel the boy was saying as if they were enjoying a tea party. The sheer incompetence, the absolute dereliction of duty, made Hedin's blood boil. He will be severely punished for his lack of professionalism, Hedin vowed silently. But first, they will both learn a very painful lesson from me.
Hedin pulled a second vial from his robes—a Superior Mind Potion, thick and glowing with immense alchemical potency. He uncorked it with his thumb and drank the entire contents in one gulp. The overwhelming rush of mind slammed his reserves back up to maximum capacity, making his eyes glow a fierce, brilliant coral. Instead of stepping out of the shadows and greeting them as decorum dictated, Hedin deliberately leveled his staff.
He began to charge Varian Hildr from a distance, unwilling to alert them to his presence just yet. As the blue lightning began to coil, compress, and shriek at the tip of his weapon, he poured all of his rage, his exhaustion, his wounded pride, and his bitter jealousy into the spell. Through the crackling glare of his gathering magic, he idly observed the clearing.
The boy and the fool were standing over the battered, heavily injured form of a Green Dragon. The work of the Dark Elf, no doubt, Hedin scoffed internally. Babysitting the boy by doing all the heavy lifting.
But in the next second, the impossible happened. The massive Green Dragon simply... vanished.
Hedin blinked, the lightning at the tip of his staff momentarily wavering. He looked for the source of such spatial trickery, expecting to see a rare, high-tier magic item in Max's hand. Instead, he saw that gelatinous blue blob—the creature the boy called his familiar—bounce cheerfully back onto Max's shoulder. Max patted the slime, speaking to it as if the mindless monster could actually understand the complex logistical impossibility of what it had just done. Did he embed a spatial storage artifact into a familiar?!
Hedin's eyes narrowed into terrifying slits. Enough of this farce.
He braced his stance, the air around him screaming as the Varian Hildr reached critical mass. He prepared to release the devastating lightning strike, fully intending to fry them both into twitching submission. "Learn your place," Hedin hissed under his breath.
He thrust his staff forward. But just as the blinding torrent of lightning erupted from his weapon, a bright, crimson light flared to life directly beneath Max and Hogni. A complex, perfectly geometric magic circle had materialized on the dungeon floor without a single chant being spoken.
Hedin's eyes went wide. VWOOM.
With a rush of displaced air, the boy, the slime, and the Dark Elf vanished into thin air. A second later, Hedin's Varian Hildr slammed into the empty stone where they had been standing. The spell detonated with a deafening roar, shattering the bedrock, vaporizing the surrounding roots, and sending a massive shockwave of useless electricity arcing into the empty cavern.
Hedin stood alone in the smoke and the silence.
The vein in his forehead throbbed once. Twice.
And then, deep within the bowels of Floor 24, covered in dust and utterly alone, the immaculate Chief Strategist of the Freya Familia finally lost his composure and screamed.
--> Devil in a Dungeon <--
AN:
There we have it folks, a fully exhausted, enraged, furious Hedin left to mug in the Large Tree Labryinth alone, while Max, Kairu and Hogni teleported in front of him as if to further mock him. ;) I'm sure by the time he gets back up, nothing much will change, right?
And about Kido having 3 branches, I know but Max can access only 2 as he doesn't know any incantations for Kaido and he already has his own brand of self-healing.
Obviously if its anyone else especially the Ganesha Familia, that tried to order them, Rivira wouldn't comply that easily but knowing Hedin's power and status as first-class adventurer, not to mention him telling them the Goliath was dealt with, they complied with Hedin without complaint.
Just so you have a better idea on the timing of the whole scene, the scene covers the night prior in the dungeon after the defeat of Goliath after which Max continues his dive. The next morning Hedin begins his own pursuit and reaches Max and Hogni in 20 hours.
Also, we have officially stepped into Arc 5: The Haloed Devil, in addition to that, I have also decided on Max's alias :) Any guesses?
Don't forget to share your thoughts on the story in a review/comment.
If you'd like to read 8 chapters ahead(around 40k words), support my work, or commission a story idea, visit p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/b3smash.
Please note that the chapters are early access only, they will be eventually released here as well.
Next update will be on Tuesday.
Ben, Out.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.