"Back to the point, Tsuna—what made you act alone?"
Once he grasped the broad strokes, Finn immediately pressed him on the solo sortie.
"Yeah, the old man's wondering too," Gareth added.
Facing the two, Sawada Tsunayoshi recounted the whisper in his ear, his suspicions and concerns about it, and the subsequent decision to move alone.
"I see."
After hearing it all, Finn and Gareth finally understood.
"If you're not fighting—only doing rescue—your kit really is perfect for it," Finn said.
With a puppet to reach the target and a Spatial Rabbit to pull the wounded into another dimension, he had patched the classic weakness: the Spatial Rabbit couldn't pin down fast enemies. But the injured aren't exactly quick. He was using the tool to its fullest—mobile extractions, anytime, anywhere.
Exactly the kind of support ability the dungeon needs.
"Lay out the dungeon mechanism for us, Tsuna?" Finn asked, refocusing on what mattered most.
The Dark Faction had used that trick to maul the Astraea Familia. Understanding it was now non-negotiable.
"When the damage on a given floor crosses a threshold, the dungeon flips into 'cleaning' mode," Tsunayoshi said. "It dispatches a 'sweeper' strong enough to crush that floor's level and 'cleans' every adventurer still on it."
"The Dark Faction probably stumbled into this, then ran repeated trials to confirm it—hence the past week of 'anomalies.'"
"I get it."
Finn and Gareth's faces turned grave.
"Didn't think the dungeon had a countermeasure like that. Push it far enough and it strikes back. At least we know ahead of time now," Gareth muttered.
"Yeah. The worst hands to discover it are the Dark Faction's," Finn said. "Ambush is their favorite game. We'll have to assume they'll spring this trap again."
Astraea's party was the cautionary tale.
Both men looked to Tsunayoshi—he was the only one who'd "met" the sweeper properly.
"Tsuna, what can that 'sweeper' do? Astraea's girls aren't weak. How did it go so wrong?"
"They aren't weak. The sweeper is simply worse."
He didn't sugarcoat it.
"The sweeper scales to the floor. It's desiccated—like a crawling drake—and its body is made of magic stone. Extremely tough. Even first-tier armament struggles to inflict lethal damage, while its limbs punch through normal hard armor like paper."
"Not just raw offense. It's also incredibly fast. On Floor 30, I barely clocked it before it was already in front of my puppet. And the most lethal trait: it reflects magic—at a multiplier."
"Good grief…"
Both Finn and Gareth sucked in a breath. Magic reflection was already obscene. Multiplied reflection made it a hard counter to every caster on the team.
"So: high physical resistance, magic gets bounced back even stronger, attacks rip first-tier armament, and speed to match. That isn't something you just 'figure out' on the fly," Gareth said.
"Yeah. It practically hard-counters the three of us," Finn admitted, rubbing his chin.
Watching their expressions tighten, Tsunayoshi spoke up.
"Then how about training for it? So that next time a sweeper shows up, you're not caught flat-footed."
Finn and Gareth traded a look, then both eyed Tsunayoshi.
"You can make one of those sweepers?"
"Sure. As long as I confirm the specifics, I can build from imagination."
He opened his hand; a palm-sized model of the sweeper appeared—a little figure, all lean angles and magic-stone sheen.
"I can make mana-absorbing beasts. I can make magic-reflecting beasts. Why wouldn't I be able to make a sweeper?"
Finn studied the toy and felt, keenly, how broken Tsuna's ability truly was. And with that shock came something else—ambition. If he wanted bigger goals, he needed strength to match.
"When this expedition ends, let's sit down and map this out."
Ais, I think I finally understand that hunger you feel, he thought.
The urge to push forward flared in Finn—and in Gareth too.
"Tsuna, your kit really is all-purpose," Gareth said. "But if we go all-in on real drills, we're going to see injuries."
"I can heal."
Tsuna blinked once and dropped the three words. Finn and Gareth both froze.
"I thought about 'healing' during prep. Limb restoration was the first problem I tackled—and it went very smoothly."
"I should've told you earlier, but things were hectic—and Lady Loki specifically asked me to keep the Healing Rabbit under wraps for now—so I kept quiet."
To anchor his claim, Tsunayoshi mentioned the cordoned-off annex in Twilight Manor.
"You know that dead-quiet courtyard on the edge of the estate? Right after I created the Healing Rabbit, Miss Loki took me there. Plenty of volunteers for treatment trials."
That settled it. Finn and Gareth's lingering doubts evaporated.
"Then it's decided. When the expedition's over, we plan this properly," Finn said.
With fear out of the way, the desire to improve roared to life like never before.
(End of Chapter)
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