Day and Night Struggle

Twilight Mansion, the top floor of the central tower.

In the deity's room, Loki paced nervously.

"Why hasn't he returned?"

Seeing the darkening sky outside, irritation on Loki's face became more apparent.

"He escaped last night and hasn't returned during the day. It's been a full day?"

Thinking about Riegel's departure from her room last night, that cold and firm figure, Loki couldn't help but bite her nails.

"Is something wrong?"

Riegel had just joined the Familia for a day, and the treasure she found due to great luck disappeared just like that?

"If I knew, I wouldn't have let him."

Loki regretted it.

She knew Riegel might have gone to the dungeon.

Initially a newcomer who had just received the Blessing and whose abilities were not much different from an ordinary person, after guessing Riegel's plan, Loki had to stop him.

But due to Riegel's high potential, even though he had just received the Blessing, and his basic abilities were not different from an ordinary person, he had one magic and three skills, and he always remained calm, which seemed very promising. Knowing his proportional sense, Loki finally chose not to stop him and indulged the newly joined member for a while.

Who would have thought this indulgence would lead to something significant?

"If I think about it carefully, no matter how sensible the kid is and how high his potential is, it would still be very risky to enter the dungeon on his first day."

Apart from other things, Riegel didn't know much about information regarding the dungeon.

For example, the map of each dungeon floor.

For example, the abilities and types of monsters that appear on each floor.

As a rookie adventurer, he had to understand this information first before entering the dungeon.

Riegel was completely unprepared; wouldn't it be highly likely that something unexpected would happen?

"Could he be injured because he doesn't understand the methods of monster attacks?"

"Could he accidentally get lost because he doesn't understand the terrain?"

"Still facing abnormal situations or a monster party? But situations like this don't usually happen on the first few floors?"

Reluctantly, Loki began to think wildly.

"No, I need to find someone to help."

In the end, Loki couldn't sit still and immediately left the room and went out.

Just as Loki was about to send someone to the dungeon to find Riegel, someone shouted.

"That new guy is back!"

At the gate of Twilight Mansion, a Familia member responsible for guarding the door shouted like this.

"Back?"

Loki's eyes lit up, and she hurried to the door without thinking.

However, when she reached the gate, the impressive sight before her left her speechless.

"Hey, newcomer, are you okay?"

"You don't look okay at all."

"Here's water, here's a potion, drink quickly."

"What happened to you?"

A group of Loki Familia personnel gathered around the gate, talking in panic, continuously greeting one person, and handing various items to him.

"Thank you for your concern. I'm okay."

Riegel thanked many seniors, his tone remaining calm, but his condition was quite bad.

His clothes were tattered and stained with various bloodstains. Even the bloodstains turned black, making it difficult to distinguish whether it belonged to him or the monsters. In addition, his black hair was messy and looked pitiful.

In Riegel's hand, he still held the blood-stained dagger, and its blade was curved.

Such a picture, such an embarrassing situation, truly shocked people.

"You...!"

Loki stepped forward and wanted to curse something, but she stopped herself.

"Follow me."

Ignoring the intimidated Familia members around her, who dared not speak casually anymore, she directly grabbed Riegel's hand and dragged him away.

Riegel didn't resist and let Loki take him to the top of the central tower and into her deity room.

As a result, before Loki could say anything, Riegel spoke first.

"Sorry for making you worry."

Riegel bowed and apologized to Loki.

This caused thousands of words in Loki's chest to be blocked at once, and she couldn't say a word.

Loki could only take a deep breath and look at Riegel with an unfriendly expression.

"I won't ask what you've been through," Loki said. "I'll just ask you, have you been in the dungeon all day and night?"

"Yes." Riegel nodded with lowered eyes.

"... Did you stay in the dungeon like this for a whole day and night?" Loki moved the corner of her mouth and said, "On the first floor?"

"... No." Riegel was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "If my memory serves me right, I should have walked through the corridor to the next floor four times."

Hearing those words, Loki was stunned for a moment.

Walked four times to reach the next floor?

"Have you descended to the fifth floor?"

Loki asked in surprise, but was met with Riegel's silence.

Loki raised her eyebrows.

"It's been less than a day since you received the Blessing, and you haven't even registered as an adventurer in the guild. You went down to the fifth floor alone...?"

Loki felt a headache.

New adventurers who have just received the Blessing often form a team of three, enter the dungeon for the first time, and if there are no accidents, they will only explore the first floor.

As newcomers, their abilities are not mature and not extraordinary. In such a state, it takes a lot of effort just to overcome the fear and enter the dungeon, let alone fight monsters and explore the dungeon.

Therefore, newcomers usually need a long time to adapt before considering moving to the lower floors.

Even so, new teams often only explore the first four floors and never enter the fifth floor.

On the contrary, senior Familia members will definitely prevent them from entering the fifth floor.

The reason is simple.

Starting from the fifth-floor dungeon, the types of monsters appearing in the dungeon will not only increase in number and strength, but the dungeon's structure will also become more complex.

Not to mention that the frequency of monsters increases significantly, starting from the fifth floor, the appearance of the dungeon itself will change. Its area will be larger than the central plaza of Orario. It can be said that the difficulty of exploration suddenly increases to another level.

If a newcomer has no previous guidance and no prior knowledge of the situation on the fifth floor and information about the monsters that will appear there, it is not surprising that he dies on this floor.

Given this, the fifth floor is considered the first real limit in the dungeon where there will clearly be casualties. Compared to the previous four floors, this floor is undoubtedly much more dangerous.

As a result, did Riegel enter the fifth floor alone on his first day in the dungeon?

When there's no armor on his body, his ability value hasn't grown at all, and his basic abilities are no different from an ordinary person?

This is just pitiful!

"I'm very curious how you managed to survive until now."

Loki's eyes became very angry as she looked at Riegel.

Seeing this, Riegel didn't make any excuses but just said something confusing.

"Actually, I find it strange too. Initially, I planned to return when I got tired, but for some reason, my physical strength seemed inexhaustible, and my energy always remained good. As a result, I kept killing and killing, and then I found myself in the dungeon all day and night."

This is the truth.

Riegel did plan to return when he got tired.

Although he fell into abnormal joy, unable to break free, and was very eager to kill without wanting to stop at all, he wasn't foolish. When it was beyond his strength, he would naturally calm down and return on his initiative.

The problem lies here.

Riegel didn't feel tired at all. His physical strength and energy seemed inexhaustible. No matter how he fought, killed, ran, or broke through, he never felt tired.

As a result, he failed to understand the time and the extent of his return, and he unintentionally rushed to the fifth floor under the control of passionate emotions.

If he didn't suddenly feel hungry, Riegel wouldn't have realized that he had stayed in the dungeon for so long.

In this case, Loki could only say angrily.

"It's about development abilities."

Loki's words surprised Riegel a bit.

"Development abilities?"

Riegel frowned.

"That's what I mentioned to you yesterday. It's an additional ability that you can only acquire when you level up."

Loki's tone was still not pleasant.

However, Riegel knew what development abilities were.

As Loki said, there's a certain chance to acquire them when leveling up, different from the five basic abilities. Although development abilities are also divided into ten stages: S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I, there are no specific skills, and they are very difficult to upgrade. Development abilities allow people to gain passive benefits.

For example, after a blacksmith in this world receives the Blessing and reaches Level 2, they have a chance to acquire the development ability called [Forging]. With this development ability, they can add some special features to the equipment they forge, turning it into high-class equipment similar to magical equipment.

There are many more development abilities like this, and many of them are useful in battles.

The effect of Riegel's skill [Endless] is to allow him to acquire three development abilities.

"The effect of [Healing Power] is to automatically restore physical strength. Even if you don't rest, you can quickly recover during battles."

"The effect of [Spirit Healing] is to automatically restore mental strength, and you can recover during battles without long breaks."

"The effect of [Abnormal Resistance] is to resist abnormal conditions, such as poisoning."

Loki sighed.

"The reason why you can fight in the dungeon all day and night without feeling tired is because of these development abilities."