"In the current situation, where we still don't understand the cause of the Dungeon's 'abnormality,' it's unwise to fight a floor boss directly. If the boss itself—like the Goliath—has been affected by the anomaly, things could get very troublesome… Am I right, Finn?"
After explaining the situation, Tsuna turned toward Finn Deimne beside him.
"You're right. To avoid clashing with the floor boss, we've switched to an evasive operation mode."
"In that case, my puppets outside should be enough. Why'd you come into the Alternate Dimension with me?"
"Because you're not familiar with the floor layout. You need someone to guide you."
"I need a guide?" Tsuna thought wryly. He wasn't that helpless. His personal combat strength was lacking, sure—but it wasn't like he couldn't navigate the Dungeon. Finding the staircase down three floors wasn't beyond him.
"Or would you rather have Riveria accompany you instead?"
"Riveria?" Tsuna's expression twisted into something complicated. For a second, he wondered if Finn was joking.
"If she sat next to me, she'd probably start giving a lecture on Elven history. I'm sure that history is glorious for the Elves and all, but for me it'd sound no different from a lullaby."
Finn's mouth twitched. He couldn't deny it—Riveria did give off that overly serious, scholarly vibe. Long-lived races always carried that "ancient historian" aura… not that he'd ever dare say that in front of her.
"So, who in the Familia do you like the most?"
"'Like the most'... probably Loki."
"Loki?" Finn blinked, surprised. He had expected Tsuna to say Tiona.
"Because she took you in?"
"Pretty much. She didn't get mad even after I dropped straight into her bath from the sky and, uh… saw a bit too much. She just decided to keep me around afterward. Though, honestly, I could feel that what really caught her attention back then was her curiosity about me~~."
"Gods are always curious about the unknown," Finn said with a sigh. "Someone like you, with such unusual circumstances, would definitely pique her interest. Especially since we're talking about that goddess, Loki."
The gods' curiosity toward the unknown was something mortals could hardly imagine. The fact that they sealed away their divine power just to descend to the lower world said it all. Their thirst for novelty was insatiable. Faced with someone who literally fell from the sky, full of mysteries, that curiosity would only end once every secret was unraveled.
"Lucky for you it was Loki's bath you crashed into. If it had been one of the other gods... your situation could've turned out way worse."
Finn truly meant that. Compared to most deities, Loki was actually on the more "normal" side—especially when she was being serious.
"Yeah, I think so too."
Tsuna nodded in agreement. In his mind, he imagined some of the other gods. Most of them were eccentric beyond saving. Only a few—like the blacksmith Hephaestus or the upright Astraea—could be considered even remotely normal. Among the 'abnormal' ones, Loki was definitely the most sane.
Meanwhile, Tsuna's puppet had already passed through the Large Tree Labyrinth and entered the Great Waterfall area. Inside the Alternate Dimension, both Tsuna and Finn sharpened their focus.
"We're here."
"Yeah."
The roar of the waterfall drowned out nearly every other sound. The first thing anyone noticed upon entering the Great Waterfall zone was the overwhelming cascade that spanned the 25th, 26th, and 27th floors—a colossal natural wonder of the Dungeon.
But aside from the waterfall's thunderous crash, there was nothing. No other sounds at all. That was strange.
Finn frowned.
"No extra noises… Have the monsters gone into hiding?"
"Highly possible. We already confirmed that the Amphisbaena has respawned. With a floor boss present, its sheer pressure would force weaker monsters to hide."
Tsuna voiced his theory. Finn rested his chin on one hand, thinking it over, then nodded slightly.
"That makes sense. It's rare for a floor boss to share its floor with other monsters. Only the Amphisbaena in the Great Waterfall moves freely across multiple layers. Most others each rule a single floor. That's why we rarely get to observe how normal monsters react to a boss's presence. But if we think in terms of the animal kingdom… weaker creatures always hide when stronger predators appear."
"In that case, the Amphisbaena's probably coiled up in some corner of the Great Waterfall, waiting for adventurers to walk right into its jaws."
That conclusion made Tsuna breathe a sigh of relief.
"Good thing I can send my puppets ahead. If the whole Familia had entered first, who knows how many casualties we'd have suffered."
"Agreed. Thank goodness for your puppets."
Finn was just as grateful. Any adventurer setting foot here now would be in grave danger—except Tsuna's puppets, of course. Especially since they were equipped with concealment devices Tsuna had crafted himself.
At that moment, the puppet reached the edge of the massive waterfall that spanned three layers. Looking down, it couldn't even see the bottom. The depth was beyond imagination.
Each lower level of the Dungeon was exponentially larger than the one above. By the time you reached the 18th floor, it was nearly as vast as all of Orario. The Great Waterfall stretched even deeper—so seeing the 27th floor from the 25th was practically impossible.
Climbing down the normal way would take forever. Tsuna, watching the projection of the scene within the Alternate Dimension, mentally calculated the time. They needed a faster way through.
"Finn, you know the path out of the 27th floor, right?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Then let's use the simple method to get there quickly."
A crimson Slime burst out of the ground, leaping forward rapidly for about two hundred meters. Once it reached the designated distance, its body began to glow intensely—then crossed a critical threshold.
A blinding light flashed.
Then—
BOOM!
The explosion ripped apart the oppressive silence of the floor in an instant.
A shrill roar echoed from the depths below, followed by a violent tremor that shook the ground.
From beneath the waterfall, a massive three-headed dragon, its body covered in shimmering blue scales, surged upward—crashing straight into the 25th-floor passage and blocking every route forward.
"Now's our chance! Jump!"
Tsuna's eyes lit up. He immediately commanded the puppet to leap off the cliff—plummeting straight down toward the 27th floor.