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"Wuu Wuu Wuu, My Urga!"
Tiona was bawling her eyes out, overwhelmed with grief to the point of struggling to breathe.
Urga was the name of her double-bladed sword, worth a whopping 120 Million Valis.
Putting himself in her shoes, if Ryoji had accidentally lost over a hundred million valis, he'd probably have stopped breathing too.
"Quit crying already, we're about to enter the 49th Floor. Pull yourself together!" Her twin elder sister pulled a large machete out of the Supporter's backpack and tossed it to Tiona.
"Wuu Wuu Wuu…"
Tiona took the machete, but kept sobbing regardless.
"You're so annoying! Hey, Ryoji, come over here!"
"What do you want from me?"
"Comfort her."
"Oh…"
Ryoji rolled his eyes, then gave Tiona a head pat.
"Ehehe…"
Tiona's face was still wet with tears, but a happy smile quickly crept up the corners of her lips.
"I'm all fired up again!"
What an easy-to-please Amazoness! Everyone in the Familia who saw this scene couldn't help but roast her in their hearts.
"By the way, is it really okay for this expedition to end like this?"
"There's no helping it," Came Finn's voice from the front, answering Ryoji's doubt.
"Other than Ais' Desperate, all of our top-tier equipment was melted. Even if we wanted to keep going, we couldn't."
Desperate, that's Ais' silver rapier, said to have been given the Durandal attribute by a blacksmith, making it incredibly durable.
Thanks to Ryoji's timely warning, their supplies, food, potions, and so on, remained intact. But without strong gear, they had no way to continue exploring.
They were already on the way back.
"Still, we're not going back willingly."
Finn's voice sounded heavy.
"Sooner or later, we'll come back for revenge, and we'll make sure to settle the score, with interest!"
The executives all nodded in agreement upon hearing this, each wearing an expression that screamed we won't back down.
"Alright, positions everyone, prepare to break through the 49th Floor!"
"Yes!"
Ryoji returned to the Supporters' ranks.
Even though he had performed impressively, as a Level 2 adventurer, he hadn't been much help against the Fomoire. That thing's muscles were tougher than steel, unless you stabbed it in the eye with a supersonic blade, it just wouldn't die.
Still, those giant beasts offered Excelia rivaling the likes of Goliath to Ryoji.
And he was itching for more.
...
Another week passed.
The expedition was over and Loki Familia traversed the unimaginably vast Deep Floors and lower levels, finally returning to the Middle Floors.
"What a cute place!"
Ryoji looked out over the breathtaking plains and lakes, a peaceful smile on his face.
Huh? Is that a giant bear monster?
Haha, what weak pressure. Such a cute little thing!
This was the 18th Floor, the Dungeon's first safety floor. Stepping out from the great tree hollow, Ryoji looked at the nearby bear monster and the antlered sword-deer, and only felt a deep sense of Zen.
"Hehe, we had the same reaction on our first expedition," said golden-haired Elf Spirit Alicia, with a reserved smile as she kept inching closer to Ryoji.
Tiona shot over a glare sharp enough to pierce, and two more pairs of eyes were subtly watching too. But when he turned his head to look, all he could see were two elegant heads of golden hair, one smooth and long, the other tied into a golden ponytail. They both showed him the backs of their heads, as if completely uninterested.
"Looks like it's noon now."
The white crystals on the ceiling were shining with a brilliance akin to daylight.
Even Finn, usually the calmest of them all, couldn't help but wear an excited expression.
"In that case, let's hustle and get back to the Familia before sunset!"
"Yay!"
"As usual, we'll split into two groups, just like when we came in…"
"Wait a moment, Finn! Put Ryoji in the first group too!"
Tiona suddenly jumped out and loudly declared on purpose.
"Hmm? Ma, indeed not bad."
Finn glanced at her and calmly nodded.
Since they were almost back to the surface anyway, how they split the team didn't matter. For Loki Familia, even at just Level 2, moving through the upper and middle floors was like a tiger among sheep.
"Hum hum!"
Tiona shot Alicia a smug look.
Alicia sighed with a trace of regret.
Ryoji just spread his hands and made the classic "Too handsome = this kind of trouble" meme expression.
A few minutes later.
A small team of about a dozen, including Finn, Ryoji, Tiona, and Ais, set off from the 18th Floor, carrying part of the luggage.
"Ne ne, Ryoji, how much Proficiency do you think this expedition will boost you by?"
While walking through the dim caverns of the 17th Floor, where the Goliath had apparently been slain two days prior, Tiona asked Ryoji this out of boredom.
"Hmm… at least four or five thousand, probably?"
"…You've got some nerve to even say that."
Tiona was dumbfounded.
Even Ais cast a puzzled glance at him.
Bete outright scoffed, his disdain toward Ryoji written all over his face. To be fair, the two hadn't gotten along at all in the past two weeks.
For high-level adventurers like them, Level 5s, even a full expedition usually only gave them a few dozen points of Proficiency. Sure, Ryoji had been punching far above his weight as a Level 2, which meant more Excelia… but four or five thousand in one go? That was sheer fantasy.
"I kind of thought that too, "
"I actually think it's entirely possible."
But then Finn suddenly spoke, his tone filled with confidence in Ryoji.
"Eh? Really? Then I totally believe it too!"
Tione was first surprised, then shamelessly jumped ship to Finn's side of the argument.
"Why do you think that, Finn?"
Riveria looked curiously at him.
To be honest, even she, who had a lot of faith in Ryoji, found a 4,000–5,000 point jump nearly impossible. Yet Finn seemed unusually confident.
Finn chuckled lightly.
"Crack, !"
Then,
Before Finn could speak further, a sharp cracking noise echoed through the cave.
"Oh ho ho!"
Moments later, monsters began bursting from the cave wall one after another, unleashing earth-shaking roars.
Muscular gray-brown bodies, towering two-meter frames, curved bull horns atop their heads, and blood-red eyes full of savage fury, each detail unmistakably marked their identity.
The strongest solo monsters above the 18th Floor: Minotaurs, also referred to as NTR Minotaurs.
However,
Just as the Minotaurs were about to charge at the passing adventurers,
They all froze in place.
From Finn, Tiona, Ais, Bete, and the others, an overwhelming aura surged forth. The Minotaurs' primal instincts picked up on something terrifying, an atmosphere as if a Demon King had descended.
The aura was so intense that the monsters went completely silent, fear rapidly flooding their hearts.
A party of total monsters!
(End of chapter)