Chapter 30: The Expedition 3

Tsubaki sighed in frustration "Did you guys really need to fight each other?"

Noctis shrugged "It was fun for a bit. Plus my weapon and armor are fine you just need to fix Urga up a bit."

Tsubaki looked back at the great sword "Well it's only a couple of chips."

Noctis smiled "There you go. Plus you are in your forge right now. Should be easy."

Noctis turned around and walked away before he could hear her complain anymore. Noctis started walking over to the main tent.

When Noctis walked over he got a slap on the back of the head. When he turned he saw Riveria. Noctis quickly asked "What?"

Riveria shook her head "What were you thinking?—Fighting during an expedition."

Noctis kept a neutral face "It seemed okay to the captain."

Riveria turned to Finn who just gave a wry smile but she quickly turned back to Noctis. "Still you scared Tione half to death."

Noctis turned to Tione who quickly looked away from his gaze. He walked over and bent down to Tione's eye level and grabbed her chin and made her look at him.

Noctis smiled "Tione I would never hurt anyone from our Familia. Unless they betrayed us. So you got nothing to worry about."

Tione nodded "I know."

Noctis smiled "Plus Tiona needed to learn her form was sloppy. Plus I would not betray someone like that."

Noctis sat down "So what's the plan now."

Finn kept a neutral face "We stay here for two days then we start heading down again."

Noctis groaned "Two days that's so long."

Finn smiled "It will go by fast."

A Day Later

Noctis was in Tiona's tent waiting for her to wake up. She eventually after a couple more minutes woke up and started to look around.

Noctis smiled "About time you woke up."

She looked over to see him handing some water to her. "I thought I hit you too hard for a second. You were already out for a day. You alright?"

Tiona stared blankly at him for a second. She then quickly grabbed the water and looked away. Noctis could see a slight blush on her face.

Tiona handed the water back "Thank you. I'm fine. Although you completely crushed me even though you are a level lower."

He nodded "Most of it is battle experience honestly."

Tiona looked up at him "How much battle experience do you have?"

Noctis stared off into the distance for a second thinking about and then he gave a dry life "A lot but it's fun to fight. At least when they are your friends you do not have to worry about killing or getting killed."

Noctis paused for a moment "Although that is its own kind of fun."

Tiona stared at him for a moment longer "Do you think you can train me to fight?"

Noctis started to make his way out of the tent "I don't see why not."

Noctis paused for a moment and smirked before he left "Also Tione already told me about the possibility of you falling in love with me because I beat you."

He turned back and looked at her blushing face "Good luck."

With that Noctis left leaving a very red Amazonian in her tent.

(This does not necessarily lead down a harem route. I'm still not sure about that yet.)

Another Day later

Noctis finished putting everything back in his inventory and the expedition started to make its way further down. They would go until the 28th floor where the next safe zone was. But first, they had to go through floors 19-24. This was the Tree Labyrinth.

The floors were easy for the group until they got to the 24th floor. They all got to the entrance and Noctis has been sending short bursts of his Kings aura to scout out enemies. Nothing that they could feel. It was almost like a radar.

Noctis froze for a moment as they finished going down the stairs. "Finn we got a problem."

The whole group stopped and Finn asked "What is it?"

Noctis frowned "I'm not sure but what is the monster in this area?"

Finn scratched his chin "Probably a Green Dragon. Most likely 12 meters long."

Noctis frowned again "Well this monster is at least 16 meters big."

Finn frowned "Tiona run to the nearest person and tell them to hold at the stairs. We will continue forward an investigate."

Tiona complained, "But Captain I want to fight too."

Finn kept a neutral face "Tiona this is only floor 24 it can not be that hard. We just need to investigate it for the guild if it is indeed a new monster or a variant we have not seen before."

Tiona understood and started to make her way back to hold up the expedition formation. The rest started to slowly make their way forward behind Noctis. They made it all the way towards the end of the floor and that's when Noctis saw it. He quickly made it behind a boulder and flagged the rest to come his way.

Noctis looked back over and saw it he turned to the rest "Does that seem like a new monster Rex to you guys?"

Finn looked over "Yes. It looks like it's patrolling the exit to the floor. That's something only an intelligent monster does or monster Rex that is waiting at the end of a floor."

Bete scoffed "Who cares it's probably weak anyway."

Noctis had other thoughts though 'Bete might still be right but if I'm not mistaken that's a Giant Rune Bear. I know Elden Ring had that. I remember them being vicious too with unrelenting attacks.'

Noctis frowned "It's probably is on the weaker side compared to Udaeus but still, we should be cautious. We do not know how it fights or what it can do."

Finn nodded "I agree. Let's watch it for a couple of minutes just to see if it does anything besides pace back and forth in front of the exit. After that Noctis use some of your magic and see what it can take. Not your most powerful spell but something that can stun it. We want it to live for a while so we can have more information for the guild."

Noctis smiled "I can do that. But first, sign up trouble I'll kill it."

He then got up "Okay I'm going to charge an attack so be ready."

The rest nodded as Noctis started to walk out in front of the Runebear.

The Runebear slowly turned to him and waited for a moment. Noctis sighed "It truly is protecting the exit. If it wasn't it would have charged at me already."

Noctis started to use blood magic and instead of making multiple spears, he decided to just make one big one and aimed for the left shoulder of the bear. Noctis fired the spear. However, what happened next surprised him. The bear used both its claws to deflect the magic. When Noctis focused he saw a slight glow to the claws. Noctis put his hand up to stop the others from advancing.

There was a pause and the bear was still not moving. Noctis walked back over behind the Boulder.

He then said "The bear is truly only worried about the exit. It did not even attack after being attacked. On the next one, I'm going to do a slight variation of my magic that I just used. When that lands we attack."

They all nodded in agreement ready to go.

Noctis went back in front of the bear and got ready with the same magic attack aiming at the left shoulder. However, if you looked at the spear this time it was crooked and bent. It also was spinning to the right. Noctis fired his magic again. The bear prepared for the same attack and got ready to deflect it however because of the weird shape and its spinning to the right. The trajectory was changed and the spear landed on the right shoulder of the bear.

It roared out in pain as the rest of the group came out and got ready to fight.

(A/N Thanks for all the support. Please give me more power stones. Hope you all enjoy.)