At last, the time came.
Just as the morning sun began to spill across the earth, an elf girl snapped shut the silver watch in her hand, its case engraved with leaves and trees.
Swords, staves, great axes, spears.
A sea of adventurers stared at their gleaming weapons.
Even the clown-banner planted at the base camp seemed to grin as it watched over them.
Then the little prum leader spoke.
"Move out."
With that steady command, the expeditionary force led by Finn departed the gathering point and headed into the Dungeon—the place every adventurer yearned for.
Compared to Astraea Familia, Loki Familia's formation was clearly much more mature. Though the group was large, it did not feel bloated in the slightest.
The three leaders took the front, guiding the advance. Riveria and the supporters occupied the center. Gareth and the others assigned to the rear guarded the back. The supporters swayed beneath oversized packs stuffed with heavy weapons and massive shields. Everyone chatted and laughed, yet every one of them carried out their role precisely.
It was the discipline of a great familia.
The expedition entered the Dungeon.
The beginning of the route was much the same as it had been for Xien's previous outings. For the first several floors, the newer members of the familia were responsible for clearing monsters, while a few upper-class adventurers watched over them, offering guidance and stepping in whenever danger grew beyond their capacity.
These newcomers were fairly competent, so the party's pace remained brisk. Whenever they encountered other adventurers along the way, those groups gave way almost immediately after seeing the prominent Loki Familia emblem. No one wanted to pick a fight with a force of that size and strength, especially not when the entire familia was out in force.
Naturally, Xien had no intention of stealing the rookies' "experience." He simply stood nearby and observed, stepping in with the occasional heal whenever necessary. Even that alone was enough to earn him a significant amount of goodwill.
After the fifteenth floor, however, the monsters' strength rose sharply. At that point, the rookies could no longer cope, and under Finn's direction, the designated vanguard rotated into place.
For Xien, the monsters here still posed little threat and offered him no particularly meaningful gains, but now that he was serving as a frontliner, he had to fulfill the duties of the role. Drawing Candlelight, he stepped forward to begin cutting down the swarms rushing toward the party.
Against the monsters of this area, there were only two words that fit:
absolute sweep.
He did not even bother drawing the blade. Using the sword and scabbard together, he fought with nothing more than raw, straightforward strikes. He did not even layer flame over them, because there was simply no need. The sheer force of each blow was enough to make these monsters suffer.
In fact, to make things more difficult for himself, Xien deliberately closed his eyes and relied only on his heightened senses. Even so, the rate at which he cleared monsters far outstripped the people around him.
His movements did not escape the notice of the elven princess, who had been watching him off and on. Seeing how much stronger he had become, she felt an inexplicable thread of joy rise in her heart. But the instant she realized it, she hurriedly shook her head, her cheeks warming in embarrassment.
The expedition continued pressing forward.
Without incident, by the time Xien's internal clock told him it should be afternoon outside, they had already reached the seventeenth floor.
A formation this large could not simply slip through. They would have to deal with the inevitable threat of the floor boss.
Their numbers made sneaking through the interval into the next floor impossible.
Finn made arrangements without hesitation. Most of the members were ordered to wait outside the creature's range of activity, while the leaders brought a selected group of newer members who still needed to accumulate great deeds and battle experience.
As the expedition's main source of recovery and sustain, Xien naturally joined this smaller team.
When they entered the familiar chamber, the ground shook. The same hulking face appeared before him again. Compared to the first time he had seen it—when he had been filled with shock and uncertainty—Xien now looked utterly at ease.
After studying its features for a moment, he silently labeled it in his head.
Hideous beyond belief.
The subjugation began.
Because his role this time was different, Xien experienced the battle in a different way as well. Aside from occasionally moving in to support the front line or tossing out bursts of Abundance power to heal wounded teammates, his attention was mostly focused on Finn's command and battlefield control. Before he realized it, he was learning from him.
With higher-level adventurers escorting the attack and Xien providing support from the side, the floor boss—unsurprisingly—was quickly reduced to dust beneath the group's relentless assault.
The main participants in the battle were the younger, newly developed members of Loki Familia. Though they were not the familiar faces Xien remembered from the main story, they would become the backbone of the familia in the future.
Unlike the protagonist's group or Astraea Familia, which were elite organizations more defined by quality than quantity, Loki Familia was a true great familia. Not hundreds? No, certainly hundreds, perhaps even more. The handful of names Xien remembered from his previous life had merely been the most outstanding of them. Their absence did not mean Loki Familia lacked capable people.
That was exactly why Finn had brought them along. Using the floor boss as a trial by fire, he let the upper-class members gain experience while helping the newer members sharpen themselves too. If they were going to embark on an expedition, then every possible gain had to be seized.
Watching the ecstatic smiles on those younger members' faces, Xien suddenly felt nostalgic.
The first time he had entered the Dungeon and defeated a powerful foe, he had looked exactly the same.
Now he had gone from an ordinary boy incapable of defending himself into a seasoned adventurer, someone who could face danger alone and protect others in turn.
It gave him a strange, quiet feeling when he thought about how far he had come.
Once they arrived at the safe floor, conditions were stable. Or rather, with Loki Familia's arrival, the town there had become significantly safer. That was the deterrent power of a great familia.
After dealing with whatever spoils could be processed, the force prepared to split.
This had been part of Finn's plan from the outset.
For the next stage of the journey, many of the Lv.1 and Lv.2 members were no longer suitable to continue. The monsters and environment in the coming floors were beyond what they could reasonably handle. More importantly, even Finn and the others would not be able to guarantee their safety under those conditions.
Still, those younger members had already gained a great deal from the expedition, and they were sensible enough to know their limits. Since this had been agreed on beforehand, no one objected.
From here on, even the supporters in the main expedition force were at least Level 3.
Those remaining behind would build camp on the safe floor and wait there for the main force's victorious return.
After a short break to recover, the true expeditionary force set out again.
Only now did the real work begin.
As a healer, Xien naturally began doing what only he could do.
Or rather… not only that.
For the first time, he formally unsheathed Candlelight. The sword, brilliant and silver-bright, drew many glances from the people around him. Each swing left behind a dazzling, razor-like arc of light, and every flash meant a fatal wound for the monsters nearby.
Finn, who had been watching him closely all this time, realized something.
Within the formation, Xien was both the sharpest spearpoint and the strongest safeguard.
Under those strange crimson eyes that carried a faintly ominous air, his awareness was almost absurd. So long as danger did not approach from a true blind spot, he caught it instantly. It was as though an invisible web of protection had spread through his field of vision, covering the entire party.
Whenever any member of the expedition faced danger, Xien resolved it at once.
It was true.
One moment he would be killing a monster with one hand.
The next, without even turning his head, he would cast with perfect precision to help a party member more than ten meters away escape an encirclement that would have overwhelmed them a heartbeat later.
If it happened once, it could be coincidence.
If it happened again and again, it became undeniable.
His control over the battlefield was so absurd that, for a fleeting instant, Finn found himself thinking Xien might actually be better suited to command than he was.
The force continued descending.
Twenty-five.
Twenty-seven.
Unlike the first floor boss, Goliath, the second boss of the twenty-seventh floor, Amphisbaena, regenerated on roughly a monthly cycle. Since Xien and the others had already defeated it not long ago, its respawn time had not yet come. As a result, they passed through the zone smoothly and without trouble.
By this point, the monsters were dangerous enough that even the Three Great Leaders had to treat them seriously. They had to act as strategic anchors, watching the battle as a whole and ensuring the formation did not collapse because of a single small mishap.
Gareth took the front.
Riveria began chanting, ready to support at a moment's notice.
Finn positioned himself farther back, making sure that no one was left behind.
As for Xien, he unfolded Sun Breathing and layered flame over his strikes. It was not because his raw damage was insufficient. Candlelight's sharpness alone met little resistance against monsters at this level. The issue was efficiency. No matter how sharp the blade, it still had only so much reach. When facing surging waves of monsters, coating it in flame was necessary if he wanted broader, faster kills.
Thirty-five.
After clearing another attacking group of monsters, the party chose to rest once more.
With their perimeter secured, everyone began handling their own tasks and preparing food to replenish their strength. Under those circumstances, Xien naturally volunteered to be the one cooking.
By now, his performance on the expedition had earned everyone's trust. Seeing him step up so willingly, most of them assumed he must know what he was doing, and they found themselves quietly looking forward to it.
He did not disappoint them.
To the astonishment of everyone present, it was not long before he had produced a pot of Dungeon-style food that looked incredible and smelled even better.
Riveria accepted a bowl from one of the team members and took a bite.
Her eyes widened.
The flavor was outstanding, and combined with the simple fact that she was already hungry, she found herself taking several more mouthfuls before she realized it.
When she came back to herself, her bowl was already empty.
Looking up at the figure serving food to the others, her expression turned complicated.
Everything about him seemed so… perfect.
After a pause, her face flushed faintly.
She hesitated for a very long time, but eventually rose to her feet and walked over to him.
There was no helping it.
She wanted more.
Busy serving everyone else, Xien had not eaten so much as a bite himself. He intended to try some only after everyone else was done. Besides, he did not really feel hunger. The Body of Abundance had given him stamina bordering on the absurd, so even after pushing all the way to this depth, he barely felt tired and certainly did not feel hungry.
To be honest, he had gradually begun to realize that eating for him was shifting away from satisfying basic physical need and more toward pleasure and sensory enjoyment. He still was not sure whether that was a good thing.
That aside, unlike him, the people around him were ordinary adventurers in bodily terms. Without life-seeds inside them to support their endurance, lasting this long already spoke highly of them.
As for why he did not simply plant life-seeds in them as well, the answer was obvious.
No one would lower their guard so much toward someone who was not truly one of their own.
At the end of the day, Xien was not a member of Loki Familia. Even if he wanted to do such a thing, they likely would not accept it. No one would lightly gamble with their own body.
Shaking his head, Xien was still lost in thought when the edge of his vision caught sight of an outstretched empty bowl. Without thinking, he took it, filled it, and handed it back.
"Th-thank you…"
That familiar voice made him pause.
Turning his head, he saw, exactly as expected, Riveria's beautiful face.
The instant he looked at her directly, the already flustered elven princess nearly fumbled the full bowl in her hands. She hurriedly turned her face aside again, not daring to look him in the eyes.
"Careful with it. If you want more, just come back. There's still plenty left."
He quickly reached out to steady the bowl for her. Knowing full well that his gaze was the reason she had reacted like that, he deliberately turned his own head away.
Freed from that line of sight she found so intense, Riveria finally dared to look back at him. Her heart settled a little, and at seeing his thoughtful gesture, she felt a faint warmth bloom inside her.
"Al-alright…"
But ice a yard thick is not melted in a day.
In the end, Riveria still fled with the bowl almost as though escaping. Once again, her courage had collapsed under the strain.
Turning his head, Xien watched her retreating figure, then glanced around at the strange looks cast his way by the others who had witnessed the exchange. He let out a helpless sigh.
The atmosphere of this whole thing was growing stranger by the day. It almost felt as though he were some kind of dedicated elf-charmer. What even was this? It was starting to feel less like normal interaction and more like exposure therapy.
Not that he truly minded helping her. After all, no matter how one looked at it, her current condition had something to do with him.
Still, from the look of things, there was a long road ahead.
And until the break ended, Riveria never returned for a second helping. It seemed that even that one brief interaction had already consumed most of the courage she possessed.
A party cannot stop because of one person's troubles. Once the time was up, everyone resumed the expedition.
Thirty-seven.
The White Palace.
From here onward, it was officially the Deep Floors.
The chilling, milk-white walls once more came into view before Xien's eyes.
....
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