Chapter 29

(A/N: Shorter chapter than usual)

I agreed to the tour even though I doubted there would be much to see. At first, Finn seemed to be on the fence about whether he would join or not, but eventually, he decided that the other members of the familia wouldn't always have him there, so he decided to come with us to give them space. The four of us began to walk around the town before heading along a well-traversed path leading through the forest. Tiona and Tione kept up a running commentary on everything around us, while Finn would occasionally insert his opinion into the conversation. I was more than content just to let the members of the Loki familia talk while I listened.

Even though I knew I could get powerful quickly, it didn't mean that I could familiarize myself with the dungeon that quickly, so I was happy to have some guides to give me a tour of this floor. I snapped back to the conversation just in time to hear Finn give me a piece of advice as he looked over and up at me.

"Only buy stuff from the town here as a last resort, everything is at least five times more expensive down here. However, emergencies aren't the time to be greedy, a potion will still mean the difference between life and death, even if you are getting overcharged for it," Finn said with a laugh, clearly speaking from firsthand experience.

"Speaking of live-saving, well... anything," Tiona said, giving me a once over, "Why don't you have any armor or potions?"

"Why don't you? I suspect both our reasonings will be very similar," I said with a laugh and a smile as she grinned as well.

"It's good to see one of the other races ready to take a good blow from a monster without being afraid," Tiona said with a short laugh.

"No potions or other group members, though?" Tione asked curiously, clearly not used to encountering too many solo adventurers who manage to make it to the middle floors.

"Nope, just me," I said, shooting a knowing look to Finn, "Makes for good leveling though,"

"Wouldn't do you any good if you are dead," Tiona said casually.

We lapsed into silence as we traversed the beaten-down path deeper into the forest. It wasn't long before the trees began to open up, and the entrance to the 19th floor became visible in the distance. About a half dozen or so adventurers lingered around the entrance as they prepared supplies and cleaned their weapons one last time. We stopped a respectful distance away, Finn giving them a good-natured wave as we watched them do their final preparation before heading down into the yawning darkness of the tunnel. As the final member of the group disappeared from sight, I asked a question.

"Any advice for the next few floors?" I asked.

"Sure," Finn answered first, "Keep your guard up, and don't let them get behind you and cut off your retreat, especially if you are alone," she said with a wink at the word alone.

"Yeah," Tione continued, clearly trying to sound smart, "The monsters aren't smart perse, but they have more of a crude level of intelligence, but they are still much smarter than monsters of the floors above us. This intelligence only gets more pronounced the further you go down,"

"Try to avoid attacks that can start a forest fire around you," Tiona said lastly with a shrug.

"Ahh, don't remind me of the time that happened to us," Tione said with an exaggerated groan.

I nodded and thanked them for their advice, finding Tiona's advice especially useful due to my fire and lightning manipulation that can and will most likely start a forest fire in the jungle. 'Maybe I should summon a Water Elemental,' I thought idly as I briefly let my mind wander. After looking at the entrance to the 19th floor, we broke off the beaten path and walked through the trees to a few rather impressive lakes.

"These are good spots to bathe and clean your clothes, especially after long dungeon dives," Tiona said as we passed the lake, "But their popularity means that they are usually occupied, though,"

"No need for me to bathe in this lake anyway," I said as I pointed off in the direction of my hidden magic circle, "I found a secluded lake perfect for bathing and swimming at the edge of the floor that way,"

Finn nodded as he spoke, "We prefer to set up camp roughly in that area due to how few people wander over there,"

"Great minds think alike," I said, keeping my expression perfectly neutral as I thought, 'Looks like I'll need to be more careful coming and going than I initially thought,'

We laughed, and then we circled back through the forest to end up back at the small, shabby town near the entrance to the floor. By the time we got back, all the Loki familia members were prepared and ready to go. Finn nodded as he inspected the adventurers before him, walking over and clapping a few people on the back. I turned away from Finn and looked at the two Amazonian sisters standing beside me.

"Thanks for the tour," I said to both of them with a wide smile, genuinely appreciating the chance to forge stronger relations with the Loki familia.

"No problem," the sisters replied in unison with a smile.

"You heading deeper into the dungeon?" Tiona asked me as turned to walk back along the path to the 19th floor.

"Yeah," I said, then continued in a bit of a teasing voice, "Why? You want to come with?"

She rolled her eyes and said, "I just don't want our new friend to die prematurely due to being underprepared," She said as she reached into a pouch at her side and pulled out a small potion.

She tossed me the small glittering vial. I caught it out of the air with ease and widened my eyes in surprise. I was no expert with potions, but I was fairly certain this was on the higher end of healing potions. I even saw Tione shoot a sidelong glance at her sister before she settled back into a neutral posture once more.

"This is too expensive a gift," I said as I held the potion out to Tiona.

"Consider it a gift, or an investment maybe," she said cheerfully before following after Finn with her sister in toe.

"What a weird girl," I said to myself as I turned away.

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I'm gonna focus on this fic a bit more again, but school starts on Monday, and the beginning of IB year 2 will probably be rough, so I may not post as often as I would like.