A Final Push

When Lefiya woke up at around 4:30 in the morning., she felt a disconcerting, cold wetness on her right cheek.

"Ugh… what is this…?"

While she was rubbing the sleep from her eyes, it took her a few moments to realize what was going on. Apparently, she had fallen asleep on her stomach yesterday and due to her drooling a lot, there was now a huge, wet patch on her sleeping bag.

"Oh, you're finally awake. Good morning!"

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a familiar, male voice. Looking up, Lefiya saw Isaac standing right outside of her partition of the tent, amicably waving at her while already fully clad in his adventuring gear.

"Good morning…"

A little bit shyly, Lefiya muttered her reply, before noticing something. Hadn't there been quite the embarrassing reason for her to drool so much yesterday? All of a sudden, she recalled all of the naughty delusions she had had, causing her to feel ashamed of herself. How could she, a noble Elf, behave in such a way? But even more than that, considering the severity of the thoughts she had had, could there possibly be another wet patch on her sleeping bag…?!

"I'm going to change!"

With a beet-red face, Lefiya hastily closed her partition and shooed Isaac away, all the while hoping that he hadn't noticed anything. Well, if there even was another patch. Time to find out…

A sigh escaped Isaac's lips, but not because he had been shut out while Lefiya was changing. After all, it would have been very unnatural for her to do so in his presence. Rather, he recalled just how long the little Elf had been asleep for. All in all, it was more than five and a half hours, which, for a normal Level 3 adventurer, might as well be two or three days worth of rest.

Yesterday, Lefiya had fallen asleep quite early, even before Ais and Isaac. After the two had a couple of hours of shut-eye, Isaac had then put on his adventuring gear to venture forth on his daily monster slaying pastime. He hadn't even needed to attempt to be quiet when doing so, as Lefiya was giggling loudly and happily in her dreams, wiggling around in her sleeping bag in a sheepish manner. She was completely unresponsive to any outside sounds, so he could even have a normal conversation with Ais without disturbing her at all.

Originally, he had planned to tell her about his ability to teleport that night, but seeing how she would most likely not wake up anytime soon, he had decided to shelve this for now. There would surely be a chance in the near future.

As for why he would tell her about it, that was quite simple. After all, he had even told the Amazoness twins about it and he had met those two quite some time after Lefiya. Besides that, Lefiya did know more about his past than the others as well, as she had been at the scene when he first arrived in this world. Also, she had decided to become his student and even borne witness to the upgrading of his blood. At this point, what was one more revelation?

In any case, Isaac had returned from his monster slaying session to get ready to help out his fellow supporters with their daily duties just a couple of minutes before Lefiya finally woke up.

Talking about his dungeon exploration, he hadn't had much time to spend on the fourth floor, only about two hours. This was mostly because he had spent a lot of time with Ais, trying to make her feel safe and secure, properly settled in, after she had returned from the memory. In the end, he progressed to 23.478/24.000 Level 1 monsters slain and earned 4480 AP - after the deduction of the teleportation costs, that is. All in all, it was a satisfying haul.

-----

It took the expedition party a little more than two hours to arrive on the 42nd floor. But contrary to what Isaac had gotten used to during the previous thematic zones, they didn't have the opportunity to face a Monster Rex this time. When he asked about why this was the case, it was explained that the enormous lava golem, Morhaeon, had been slain by a member of another familia recently and because it took four months for it to respawn, it had yet to make its return.

As for who had slain it? There was only one other familia registered with the Guild whose members had the necessary qualifications and strength to do so besides the Loki Familia - the Freya Familia. Apparently, one of their members had stormed into the dungeon while in a very bad mood and had chosen the poor floor boss to vent. Originally, the Loki Familia had already secured the rights to slaying Morhaeon during this expedition in a past meeting with Freya, but now that it had already been slain, there was nothing either side could do about it. Due to breaching her contract, although it had been unintentional, Freya had apparently paid the Loki Familia reparations for what they would be missing out on. Sadly, the excelia the Executive members could have gained from fighting and taking down such an outstanding foe were not this easy to replace.

In any case, because the two familias were on mostly neutral and arguably somewhat friendly terms, such a small mishap couldn't strain their relationship much. It was just a shame that Isaac couldn't gather any observational data on Morhaeon for now.

Due to there not being any noteworthy obstacles in the expedition party's way, they quickly made their way towards the next floor.

The 43rd to 49th floors were collectively called the 'Desolate Frontier'. While technically, these floors consisted of two thematic zones, there were multiple reasons they were referred to as a singular whole. First of all, there were no safety points in between, so if a party wanted to make their way further into the depths, they would have to push through all of these floors in one go. Secondly, the first thematic zone was an odd one and didn't have a Monster Rex presiding over it. Because of this, quite a few scholars had argued that it didn't have the qualifications to be referred to as its own zone. And thirdly, their overall themes were quite similar.

The first zone stretched from the 43rd to the 46th floor. The walls, ground and ceiling were coloured a burning red and rocks of all shapes and sizes were scattered across the floor. Both the rocks on the ground and the interspersed cracks on the walls were of a particular shade of black which made them look like they were carbonized. Every so often, an eerie red light would shine from inside the cracks. To this day, no one had discovered its source, although speculations ran rampant. They ranged from it simply being some kind of heat source to an invaluable, fortuitous encounter. Overall, the floor somehow seemed like the burnt-out husk of a giant tree. Everything had returned to a network of connected caves and caverns. There were no natural treasures to be found here, neither was there any water. The air was dry and slightly uncomfortably hot - still, compared to the Infernal City, it felt like a breath of fresh air.

The monsters on these floors were mostly flame and beast-like in design and were quite a bit tougher than the ones the expedition party had faced before. Although they were still at Level 4, their highest stats most likely were up in the 300s, which was relatively hard to handle for most average Level 4 adventurers. Thankfully, all Loki Familia members were everything but average.

Although the second zone consisted of less floors, going from the 47th to the 49th floor, it was a lot more dangerous. After all, it was a desert. Or, more accurately, the 47th and 48th floor were desert-like, labyrinthian caves and caverns, while the true desert would only be encountered on the 49th floor. In any case, the sand provided very suboptimal footing, so if one wasn't used to handling such environmental dangers, they could easily lose their life due to a slip-up.

When the expedition party finally arrived at the 49th floor, the moniker of this zone, 'Moytura Sands', finally made sense to Isaac. After all, it somewhat loosely translated to either 'pillar sand plain' or 'tower sand plain'. The Sands or sand plain part had obviously referred to the desert-elements of the environment. But only when Isaac saw the 49th floor did the pillar or tower parts find an explanation.

The entirety of the 49th zone was a single, almost impossibly large room. Considering how deep into the dungeon they already were, Isaac didn't even want to think about its most likely circumference or diameter. There was simply no end in sight, it seemed to stretch on for eternity. If there hadn't been a rocky ceiling a couple thousand meters up above, coming here via a staircase would have felt like stepping into a completely different world. Ridiculously enormous but somewhat sparse rock pillars held up the ceiling at suspiciously regular intervals, enabling this underground world to continue existing without any need for magic or special powers to intervene.

The monsters in this second zone were entirely made up of beast-like ones and, in the strongest cases, could reach almost all the way up to Level 5, only barely staying at Level 4.

It had taken seven hours of non-stop battling for the expedition party to arrive on the 49th floor. During this time, they had used the same strategy all the way through: the mages would rain down area of effect Magics whenever they could, while the weaker main force members that were still only Level 4 would get protected by the stronger ones. Now that their enemies were almost at Level 5, however, the Level 5 and 6 main force members had to put in a lot more effort - they actually had to get a little bit serious. This way, the Level 4 main force members were always able to comfortably battle one or two monsters that were about as strong or just a little bit stronger than them, while the other main force members did their best to keep the rest of the monsters at bay.

Of course, it would have been possible for the others to wipe out even these few stragglers, but they were a good opportunity for the Level 4 main force members to gain some excelia and improve their strengths, in a more or less safe fashion as well. So taking their future rank-ups into account, this was completely worth it.

After they had made it to the 49th floor, instead of continuing their advance, Finn had the expedition party stay in place and fight off as many monsters as they possibly could over a period of almost two hours. The goal of this was simple: to lure out Balor, the Monster Rex of this floor. While he might not be the one furthest down in the dungeon, he was the unanimously agreed upon strongest floor boss that had been encountered so far. Now that they had the opportunity to slay him, they would obviously take it.

When a sandstorm, accompanied by loud and quick footsteps, finally appeared on the horizon, Finn, Gareth, Ais and Bete split off from the rest of the party and headed its way, trying to face the Monster Rex as far away from their familia as possible.

Considering how two of the three Level 6 adventurers of the Loki Familia chose to take part in the fight against Balor, he really couldn't be an easy opponent. It was just a shame that Isaac couldn't make out anything related to the fight at all. The damn monster was obscured by a sandstorm, after all. And even if he could somehow perceive some details through that layer of obstruction at this distance, his eyes still wouldn't be able to follow the speeds of both the floor boss and the fighting adventurers.

So, with nothing better to do, he asked Orba about Balor, seeing how the supporters had literally nothing to do besides standing and keeping themselves safe at the moment.

"I don't know much myself, but here is what I've heard from the main force members before."

According to Orba's words, Balor wasn't actually that huge compared to most other floor bosses that one would come across this deep into the dungeon. Well, he was still a 50 meter tall humanoid beast, which dwarfed the vast majority of humanoid monsters up to this point. Overall, his design was similar to a Minotaur, as his entire body was covered in grayish fur, while sixteen sharp horns grew out of his head in a menacing fashion, somewhat reminding observers of a crown. He respawned every six months.

Combat-wise, he didn't have any ridiculous abilities, besides nearly nullifying any kind of magic attacks. That was why Riveria and any other mages would turn into simple bystanders if they were to face him. Otherwise, if she could have been even just a little bit of use, Riveria would have surely decided to help the others face Balor, as he was truly a terrifying opponent.

The sandstorm that was obscuring him was caused by his ridiculously powerful physical body moving along extremely quickly. As this entire floor was a desert, the resulting sandstorm just couldn't be helped. It was not a magical phenomenon at all, although it was quite scary due to it restricting one's vision, making it very difficult to recognize even one's immediate surroundings. Just like the Goliath, Balor also had regenerative abilities, another feature of his monstrous physical prowess. As for why this floor boss was referred to as a 'he'? Well, the reason for that should be plainly obvious. A simple hint: It was related to a different kind of prowess.

Both Finn and Gareth were needed to face Balor head on, as his stats were extremely close to Level 7. Ais and Bete's only job was to provide slight distractions so Finn could overwhelm its regenerative ability with well-placed attacks containing a sheer destructive might. As for Gareth, he would ensure everyone's safety by tanking every single one of Balor's attacks. If any one of them faced him alone, they wouldn't have any chance of defeating him and could only beat a hasty retreat. Gareth, however, due to his relatively limited Agility stat, would have a hard time to even escape, although admittedly he could just endure all of Balor's attacks until he reached a staircase leading to another floor.

When the fight against Balor finally ended after almost an hour, the returning group was barely injured, thanks to Gareth's protection, so everything seemed to have gone according to plan. Ais and Bete had a few bruises here and there, but with the heights their Endurance stats had reached by now, it would only take an hour or two for such minor wounds to completely heal on their own. In any case, they had brought back Balor's drop item, which was the tip of one of his horns, and a gigantic magic stone. Even if one only took the drops from the Monster Rexes the expedition party had slain so far into account, they had undoubtedly already made a huge profit.

With an order from Finn for "one last push", the entire party was reinvigorated and quickly made its way to the 50th floor, the last known safety point in the dungeon.

Once they had entered the floor and cleared out the few stragglers that they came across, Finn released a pent-up sigh and muttered to himself.

"Thankfully, everything went alright…"

Ever since Isaac had brought those secret labyrinth entrances to his attention, he couldn't help but worry about something going wrong during their descent this time. Seemingly, however, he hadn't needed to do so, as everything worked out well. But why did he still feel so nervous? If he had to describe it, the current peace seemed akin to the calm before a storm. It felt like there was something or someone that could endanger them at any moment but chose not to, for whatever reason. The worst part for Finn was that neither Riveria nor Gareth could feel what he did, so he was left all alone with carrying this enormous burden. If he didn't trust his gut feeling so much, he might have even thought he was growing paranoid, but thanks to numerous past experiences, he decided to listen to this foreboding warning and do his best to stay on edge.

While Finn may not have had any idea about when the danger would hit them, he was sure that it would. Maybe it would only be after the expedition, but he simply couldn't know for sure.

-----

The 50th floor was quite similar to the 18th one, seeing how it didn't fit into any of the other thematic zones of the dungeon. Overall, it could be argued that it and the 18th floor were part of an entirely different thematic zone of their own.

Just like the 18th floor, the 50th floor was a single, incredibly huge cavern. This time, however, its ends could hardly be imagined. There were luminous crystals lighting up the entire place in a day-night cycle, just like before. Even the natural environment was similar, as the entire floor was filled with huge forests, small lakes, many rivers and a plethora of hills of a few hundred meters in height. The only difference was that the trees' bark was of an ashen gray colour and that they were exclusively firs - there was no more variety.

Because there was nowhere to hide or stay less conspicuous in, the Loki Familia had simply declared one of the many clearings close to a couple of small lakes as their campsite. Seeing how the grass here was in just as bad of a condition as on the 18th floor, it was plain to see that there hadn't been a need to change campsites before, as the only two familias who were known to be able to make it this deep into the dungeon didn't even attempt to interfere with each other. If the dangers of the dungeon were to be disregarded, this could even be thought of as the safest place besides the grounds of the Twilight Manor.

As the expedition party would be staying here for the foreseeable future, it took a bit longer to set up camp, about three hours. After all, they were making some more permanent resting places and improvised guard towers. As those were quite conspicuous buildings, they were often destroyed by the wandering monsters sometime after the expedition party had left for the surface. Therefore, there was a need to rebuild the vast majority of them every time they came here.

All of this, combined with the fact that it had taken a lot longer for them to reach this safety point compared to the last one, led to it almost being 9 p.m. when everyone had finally eaten dinner. Of course, there had been plenty of opportunities to take baths as well, which were especially necessary because the previous zone had been a desert. And sand… it easily got everywhere, especially into more sensitive places and areas. Getting rid of that discomfort had been welcomed by a chorus of exalted cheers.

On the previous days, everyone had had plenty of time to rest by the time dinner was finished, but today, this hadn't been the case. Coupled with the even heavier exhaustion - even amongst the supporters, who had had to carry their burdens for longer and even had to build this encampment from scratch - everyone besides the few unlucky people who were chosen to stand guard turned in relatively early for the night.

Tomorrow morning, at about 6 a.m., Finn would have all Executives and team leaders - both of the main forces and the supporter teams - attend a meeting. Although most of what would happen from now on had already been planned in excruciating detail before they had even set off on the surface, it was always good to go over it again and to change some details should it be necessary. Besides the ones who had to attend the meeting, almost everyone else would be able to rest and relax to their heart's content for now. Many days of straining travel and battle had left them weary.

Shockingly, this evening, Lefiya didn't even have the energy to get absorbed by her delusions again, she simply changed quickly and fell asleep almost instantly. She was completely spent thanks to firing off a plethora of Magics almost non-stop for an entire day. Honestly, she had earned her rest.

Thanks to the little voyeur obediently going to sleep, Ais and Isaac also got some early rest as well.

But would Isaac truly be Isaac if he joyfully recovered during this time like everyone else? Of course not. By now, he was very close to being bored out of his mind. The only thing that kept him from growing restless was the lovely girl in his arms.

Still, after the bare minimum rest of two hours, both of them woke up again. With a gentle smile, he gave her a kiss and after smiling at him encouragingly, Ais went right back to sleep. She had no intention of stopping him. After all, they would only have the privilege of true rest and relaxation when they had climbed to the very top of this world's ladder of strength. Ais was fully aware of this.

-----

By the time Isaac was ready to teleport back at about 5 a.m., he had gotten close to four hours of exercise, while his Level 1 monster slaying achievement had progressed to 27.277/28.000. If the teleportation costs were to be deducted, he had gained 9880 AP, bringing his total to a staggering 36.091.

But shouldn't he have gained even more AP? Well, something had changed. To be more exact, the way in which his continuous achievements rewarded him had changed. Ever since he had reached the 25.000 mark, instead of always getting one tenth of the cumulative number of kills as an AP reward, he only got a flat sum of 2500. While 2500 was still a lot, it was less than what he had expected to get.

Nonetheless, there was nothing he could do about it besides releasing yet another sigh. He was perfectly clear on why he would have put such a restriction in place - after all, getting any more than this would eventually snowball into having to do basically no work for endless benefits. It would be too convenient, to the point where it would grow boring.

Thinking about this, Isaac's blood inadvertently started to boil as he thought about an exciting possibility. Could there perhaps be only a finite number of AP to be gained via the various achievements? Would there come a day where slaying Level 1 monsters wouldn't reward him with any AP whatsoever? It was certainly a possibility. And now that he had thought about it, it felt more like an inevitability.

Admittedly, it would be relatively easy to deal with the problem of gaining no further AP this way - he just had to slay stronger monsters. Still, this would eventually lead him to a dead end. Just thinking of what plans he could have possibly devised to further his progress at that point made a spirited, childlike smile play across Isaac's lips.