"The captain has entrusted this entirely to us," Xien said. "So if you have any conditions, please—go ahead."
"I see. That really does sound like Alysse… All right, then."
After more than half an hour of discussion, the outcome was set.
And thankfully so—Captain Tsubaki Collbrande of Hephaestus Familia would be joining their expedition.
Thus, Astrea Familia's expedition officially began—with unanimous approval from everyone.
While they were at it, Alysse also requested an investigation commission from the Adventurers' Guild. After all, if you were going to mount a full expedition, failing to earn something on the side would be a waste.
Because of Astrea Familia's special nature, their highest exploration depth was not particularly impressive compared to dungeon-focused familias. They'd only pushed as far as the deepest part of the Middle Floors—Floor 24.
This time, the stated target was Floor 30.
But in everyone's heart, the ambition didn't stop there.
So they prepared thoroughly—among other things, hiring several reliable supporters.
Watching the figure at the front of the formation—burning like a living torch that lit the path ahead—Tsubaki felt genuinely at a loss.
Was that really a Level 2?
Wasn't he a healer?
Then why in the world was he charging at the very front?
And leaving that aside… his stamina was absurd.
Since entering the Dungeon, they'd spent half a day bulldozing their way down to this point. And the one doing the actual clearing was the boy—because no one could compete with him for kills.
It was as if he had an inexhaustible reservoir of magic. The flames on his weapon never went out. Every strike was efficient, never wasted, always aimed straight at a fatal point. His movements were clean and decisive, advancing the team with a style so smooth it was almost satisfying to watch.
To the point that the most exhausted people weren't the combatants at all.
It was the supporters behind them—sweating and staggering under the burden of magic stones and drops.
By the time others finished off a handful, he'd already erased an entire pack. His efficiency was outright terrifying.
And that made the next part even stranger.
Weren't the drops… too many?
Even rare materials were falling like rain. This expedition's haul was easily three to four times what they'd normally see.
The steamroll continued—but from this point on, it became a full-team operation, and Tsubaki's starved adventurer instincts finally found relief.
Even as a smith, she was still an adventurer.
The desire to clash with monsters ran in her bones.
In the Middle Floors, where the monster density and average threat level rose sharply, Xien's solo firepower began to feel "thin"—not because he couldn't handle it alone, but because they weren't traveling alone.
They had a team.
They had supporters—people with little combat ability.
With enemies flooding in from all directions, everyone needed to fight together to hold the line and keep the group safe.
At the same time, Xien took on additional responsibilities beyond killing.
He kept watch.
And when new monsters appeared unexpectedly, he called out their weaknesses on the fly.
Thanks to the "Dungeon Encyclopedia" project—and the help of a certain little miss—his database had begun to take shape. For everything up to the Deep Floors, he had the relevant information lodged firmly in his mind, and it sped their progress up even further.
Before long, they reached Floor 17—the floor that housed a floor boss.
Goliath had already regenerated.
But this time was nothing like last time.
Two newly leveled combatants.
One external Level 4.
And aside from Xien, an entire party of Level 3s.
With a lineup that luxurious, the outcome was never in doubt.
Goliath fell again—crushed by coordinated force.
Before the first day ended, they successfully reached the safe zone on Floor 18.
A few of the supporters nearly cried with relief.
Because the problem they were facing was a kind of "happiness" they'd never imagined:
Their carrying capacity had exceeded its limit.
They'd worked as supporters for years. They knew roughly what each floor tended to drop.
But they had never—ever—seen something like this.
The drop rate was unreasonable. Even after keeping the essentials, every remaining inch of space had been stuffed with loot.
And it still wasn't enough.
They were forced to abandon low-value items—an act that felt like torture for people who treated money as oxygen.
Worse, they were marching under overloaded packs. Even for them, that was a serious strain.
After all, they were Level 1s.
Now that they'd reached Floor 18, they could finally breathe.
With permission granted, they hurried to the town's trading market. The exchange rates here weren't ideal, but they didn't have the luxury of caring. They needed to dump weight immediately—and then convene to restructure their loot-handling plan for the remainder of the expedition.
"Ouranos… is it really wise to do this?" the shadowy, black figure asked, raising a crystal ball. "Astrea already has plenty of trouble as it is…"
"The future has been altered, Fels," Ouranos replied calmly. "And the reason is that rising star that represents life."
"I, too, am curious. This time, let it serve as a test."
"Let us see just how far his interference can reach… and to what extent he truly exists."
"So that's how it is…" Fels murmured. "He is… that one? The one fated to—"
"But will it be all right? He's only Level 2."
"That," Ouranos said, voice unreadable, "no one can know."
Fels sounded resigned, as if this were typical.
"Fine. Then the matter of contact—leave it to me."
"I want to see it with my own eyes."
"You have my gratitude."
They rested for a night.
At dawn on the second day, they departed again.
The team had grown—more supporters had joined, because the floors ahead offered no safe-zone market to offload weight. They needed to push in one continuous run until they reached their limit.
The monsters here still weren't a major threat to Xien—unless he was swarmed in overwhelming numbers.
With his extreme recovery, fighting down here felt like a mowing game. He and his teammates carved forward in a rolling massacre.
Giant beetles.
Shadow wolves.
Venomous worms…
Each had its own quirks, but to Xien—now an information broker in human form—each became a set of exploitable holes you could pry apart and dismantle.
He also started to understand why so many upper-tier adventurers favored oversized weapons.
There was no mystery.
They simply fit the environment better.
As the floor count climbed, the monsters grew larger. Their regeneration became more terrifying. Their strength surged.
Their numbers swelled.
Every one of those factors could kill you.
In a hellscape like that, adventurers had to strike fast, strike true, and strike viciously—otherwise you died.
And that was where heavy weapons shone.
A single cleave from a greatblade could do what several daggers might fail to accomplish—and oversized weapons scaled naturally with the ever-increasing physical stats of high-level adventurers.
Against monsters, they were brutally practical.
Even in the original stories, the protagonist might carry a divine-forged dagger, but in major battles its limitations often surfaced—while decisive damage frequently came from heavy weapons that appeared by chance or necessity.
Xien had begun shifting his style in that direction.
Whenever he had the chance, the long spear in his hands spun like a storm.
Steel flashed.
Beasts roared—only to have their fury turned into death cries.
A sharp, whistling slice through the air.
Then overlapping screams at the edge of life.
The wooden blade swept so fast it left afterimages carved into the darkness.
What unfolded before them was a one-sided slaughter.
A cloak snapped violently in the air as a figure moved with abnormal speed, phosphorescent light catching the sky-blue eyes beneath a hood.
Surrounded by as many as ten monsters, she became a whirlwind.No matter how they closed in, they could not catch up to Ryuu's speed.
"Kii—!""Gah—!"
A hellhound was crushed under her foot. Before it could react, it took a diagonal slash from top to bottom.
Ryuu reversed her grip, smacking another monster flying, then followed with a scooping strike that dropped three beasts in a breath.
Their encirclement meant nothing.
They simply couldn't keep up.
A hellhound lunged at her back, fangs dripping saliva—only to become a sacrifice to the wooden blade spinning like a top. Its lower jaw shattered, its body flung away.
"ROAR!"
Two hellhounds spat fireballs they'd been holding—aimed for a killing blow.
Ryuu struck one down with her wooden blade—
The second was cleaved apart by a flame-wreathed longsword that came from nowhere.
The last remaining hound blinked in shock as its companion vanished—
And a shadow slammed into it.
It turned forward—too late.
A longsword punched through its forehead.
With a hoarse "awoo," its crimson eyeball burst from the socket.
The final hellhound scattered into ash.
Before anyone could even exhale, a Dungeon Worm burst from within the wall.
A faceless thing—nothing but a mouth lined with teeth—like an enormous worm, its long, ugly body shooting out in a sudden ambush.
These surprise attacks were exactly what caught unprepared people.
But Xien moved as if he'd seen it coming.
Facing the wall-burrowing labyrinth predator as it lunged, he swung from the front—one clean cut from its mouth straight to its tail.
The blood spray evaporated instantly.
As the two halves of its long body flew left and right, Alysse smiled with unmistakable approval.
"Watching those two coordinate is genuinely enjoyable," she said. "We can't fall behind."
"You're right, Captain."
With everyone at Level 2 or higher (aside from Xien), pushing through these monsters wasn't too difficult. With experience and tighter teamwork, they didn't even need Xien's healing—cutting through wave-like assaults without breaking stride.
Dungeon terrain was complicated, and because it was "alive," routes could shift over time. That was why adventurers regularly bought updated maps before expeditions. Supporters also marked any changes they observed and sold new map data to the Guild for extra pay.
They arrived at a crossroad.
Less than ten meters to the right lay a one-way corridor leading to the floor's lower section. At the deepest point of that passage, a vertical hole was embedded half into the rock wall.
They advanced.
Halfway through, the ground began to quake.
"Run! It's a Mammoth Yugo!"
A party of adventurers came scrambling toward them. Spotting Astrea Familia, one of them shouted—either out of warning or because shouting cost less time than explaining, and those seconds might mean escape.
As his voice echoed, a vast shadow began to take shape inside the deep, dark tunnel.
Even at distance, the creature's presence was overwhelming.
Though individuals varied, its shoulders were generally six to seven meters tall.
Its tusks—curving outward—were as long as spears.
Its hide was dark red, like dried blood.
Overall, it resembled a mammoth.
In the "Great Tree Labyrinth," where monsters often had abnormal attacks or insect-like carapaces, Mammoth Yugo was rare—pure power, nothing fancy.
And among ordinary Middle Floor monsters, it was the largest species by sheer size.
In such a narrow corridor—against that quantity and that charging momentum—there seemed to be only one option:
Emergency evasion.
Alysse was just about to order them to pull back—
When the boy stepped forward.
"Xien?" she snapped.
There was no time to answer.
Xien raised his hand. His weapon reconfigured into a staff.
He began to chant.
"Emerald vortex—veins of the earth's pulse…"
"Azure wind surging, a thousand forests bloom! Mountain bones, obey my rhythm! The final hymn of all things—ever-begetting, never-ending!"
"Hardwood Lockdown."
A magic circle flared beneath his feet.
But it wasn't just mana responding.
Life-force surged in tandem—power weaving into power—calling forth nature's most direct reply.
The results of his training appeared instantly.
In less than a second, the chant was complete.
This was a new experiment.
The walls ahead split with countless cracks.
Verdant branches burst through stone like living hands—countless tendrils, moving as if they had intent.
At Xien's will, they wrapped around the charging monsters' legs—binding them.
Nature's brute authority manifested.
One vine wasn't enough, so it became two.
Two weren't enough, so it became hundreds.
And Xien had all the life-force he needed.
The plants born of magic had only one purpose:
Stop them.
Or better—
Strangle them.
The effect was immediate—almost effortless.
In that spell, the narrow corridor became the monsters' greatest disadvantage.
All they had to do was bring down the few that formed the vanguard—
And then, without lifting another finger, the monsters behind would crash forward with massive force and spear-like tusks, finishing the job for them.
....
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