"The monsters around the middle floors are getting stronger. Not as many as when I last came with Finn, though. Guess that's proof the Dungeon's still recovering from that weird disturbance."
Cutting the link with his puppet, Tsuna stood within the Alternate Dimension, catching his breath. His face was flushed, sweat beading at his temples—the clear aftermath of having been synchronized with his puppet while it fought in the Dungeon. Still, he felt surprisingly good.
"I wonder if training like this—through synchronization—will still give me Status gains."
He hadn't just been remotely controlling the puppet this time. He'd fully synchronized with it, sharing its senses through the puppet's eyes and fighting within the Dungeon from the safety of the Alternate Dimension created by the Space Rabbit. It felt almost like playing a high-intensity VR combat game.
Physically, the effort definitely qualified as exercise—enough to fit within the Falna's system of growth. The only question was whether his body's development depended on additional factors. He made a mental note to record that line of thought for later.
He stood silently, observing the shifting void around him.
Outside, the team had already reached the fifteenth floor.
"WOOOAAAH!"
With a sharp swing of her Urga, Tiona cleaved through seven monsters in a single arc. But the moment their bodies hit the ground, even more creatures poured out of the walls.
Tione instantly moved to cover her sister, her twin blades flashing as she slashed through every vital point she could see. Within seconds, the space in front of them was drenched in blood.
"Tiona, keep your guard up. Something's off here."
"Yeah, I can feel it. The number of monsters is way higher than normal. They're not that strong, but they're coming in waves—it's eating up our stamina fast."
Tiona glanced toward Tsuna's puppet. The thing was motionless now, its chest barely rising—like a lifeless doll. She recognized that as Tsuna's energy-saving mode. After cutting down so many monsters already, his body had to be reaching its limit.
"Finn, is this the 'abnormality' you mentioned?"
"Yeah," Finn said grimly. "The monster spawn rate and overall numbers are way beyond what Tsuna and I estimated. It's strange—very strange."
He frowned deeply. Everything about today's dive felt wrong.
"Before this, Tsuna and I already sensed something unusual about the Dungeon. I even had the Guild check the records afterward. The only confirmed anomaly was a spike in monster births on the upper floors—and that only happened the day we were there. The next day, the numbers went back down. It stayed stable until the fourth day."
"An increase like this isn't unheard of," Riveria said, joining the discussion. "Most adventurers just treat it as natural fluctuation and don't think much of it. But I suspect there's another cause this time."
"No adventurers have fallen victim to an 'abnormal event' yet?"
Riveria's sharp question made everyone pause. As she studied the bodies littering the floor, her brow furrowed. The sheer number of monsters here wasn't normal. It was practically a feast of beasts. Still, with a well-balanced party like theirs, the situation wasn't dangerous—just exhausting.
The walls of the floor were splattered with monster fluids, stained like a chaotic painter's canvas—a twisted reflection of the Dungeon's fury.
After a certain point, the surge of monsters finally stopped. The floor ceased its uncontrolled spawn cycle.
"That alone qualifies as an 'abnormality,'" Finn said quietly. "It's probably the same kind of surge that destroyed Rivira and forced the town into reconstruction. If that's the case, and the Guild still pushed for an expedition under these conditions... maybe something's wrong with them."
Gareth grunted. "So you're sayin' it's the Guild's fault, huh?"
Finn shook his head. "No. The Guild ordered our expedition half a year ago, back when everything was stable. They wouldn't have made that call if the Dungeon had already been acting up. The Guild's not that stupid. This anomaly started recently."
That was the only logical conclusion. The Loki Familia wasn't being set up—something real was happening inside the Dungeon.
"Looks like our decision to prepare for an 'abnormal event' ahead of time paid off," Finn continued. "But if things are this bad, we can't wait until the second safe zone to unload our supplies. We'll need to start operations from Rivira itself."
"That's risky," Riveria warned. "Moving that much cargo through Rivira will draw attention. And if anyone notices Tsuna's involvement, the risk of exposure skyrockets."
"I know," Finn said, already planning ahead. "So here's the new plan. We'll clear out all the monsters on the next floor. Once it's safe, we'll move our cargo there. Then, when we face Goliath on the seventeenth floor, we'll destroy part of the transport carts. Leave behind some empty ones for show, and move the rest of the supplies into Rivira in secret."
He looked around at the others, voice calm but firm.
"On the surface, we'll act like we're continuing the expedition without stopping. Once we leave Rivira, we'll destroy the remaining transports and retreat into the 'rest space' for a full recovery. The next day, we start a complete investigation. Our goal changes—we're finding the cause of this Dungeon anomaly."
It wasn't a normal expedition plan. In standard conditions, altering the objective mid-expedition was basically suicide—especially with limited supply lines. Doing so meant abandoning the mission entirely. But now that they had the option, Finn didn't hesitate.
"Ooh~ I didn't think you'd actually make that call," Riveria admitted, surprised. She had expected Finn to stubbornly stick to the expedition, no matter the circumstances. Changing targets midway was the last thing she'd thought he'd do.
Finn smiled faintly. "Because now I know how to make the Pallum race rise again."
That wasn't something one man could accomplish alone. What he needed was to give his people hope—to show that even the smallest race could dream bigger. His ambitions had grown far beyond short-term victories.
"Since we've got the choice," he said, his tone steady and resolute, "I'll always choose the better path."