92th floor

Chapter Thirty-Nine: San'nō no Rekishi

"W-wooaahhhh…"

Tiona voiced the thoughts of everyone in the group as they moved at long last into the 80th floor, which opened up as a massively large cavern, the floor and walls smooth and flat.

What drew the eyes of some, though, were the letters and artwork on the walls. For the most part, they just wanted rest for the moment. Still, the uncanny feeling of the space left them just a bit unsettled.

"It's not a safe zone, technically, but you are all fine to rest here, even sleep" Haroeris said clearly, his voice echoing strangely in the large space. Several of them took no time at all to do just that, collapsing to rest in a single motion. Bell, weary but more than a little curious, wandered to the walls to look at them, Aedan following at his side.

"Interesting, huh Bell?"

"It's beautiful…" He marveled; as he looked more closely, it seemed like the work stretched along the entire wall of the room, which was just crazy!

"I can't read it though; hieroglyphs, right?"

"It basically details a few stories about the Dungeon, and how this room was the birthplace of the Behemoth. The are other things, too, prophecies, maps, and other such things"

"Should we, I dunno, record it?"

He smiled, "I will, but we'll let everyone rest up first; I'll keep an eye out for them right now"

"Hm… okay, then I'll go rest, too. Thanks Mr. Aedan"

"Huff, puff, haah…" Welf wheezed as they came to a stop.

'This isn't too bad, but still much harder without the others to rely on'

The Hestia Familia had gone on another short expedition, not wanting to fall behind their allies down below. Teaming up regularly with Laurier, Miach Familia, Takemikazuchi Familia, and a small group of Loki Familia on occasion, they had pushed themselves to conquer the areas of the Dungeon they had mapped properly.

Needless to say, but without the help of their more experienced, stronger allies, it was a difficult order to fill. Today, it was just them and Laurier, and they were traversing deep in the Great Tree Labyrinth.

They had been at it this time for three days, and had assigned themselves a similar quota as when they were training. Each person had to get five stones from trap hives, and fives stones from green dragons, then they could return. Suffice to note they weren't letting themselves take it easy.

Still, it wasn't impossible, either. They had already gathered what they needed from hives after, all, and had a good start against the dragons.

"Alright everyone, that's it for today, they won't spawn again for a little while, so let's head back to the 18th floor" once they completed this dive, their next goal was to advance to the 37th on their own. Lili felt that, once they could do that, they could challenge the Amphisbaena and eventually even Udaeus without the others' help.

Laurier found that she quite enjoyed spending time with Hestia Familia, as they readily accepted her with little issue. Despite how reserved she was with them, they were as friendly with her as their own members. She marveled as they travelled back that she wouldn't mind this being a more permanent situation. She might have to think about that and mention it to Hermes, actually…

After a long rest, and Aedan spending a good deal of time writing down what was inscribed on the walls, they left to get to the real safety zone in a hurry, which was easier said than done; there were many high level monsters keeping themselves at a distance for the most part, only engaging rarely. They were also made aware of numerous traps, sinkholes, magical triggers, monsters that could mimic resources they would be seeking, and other such nefarious dangers.

The Dungeon proved some ingenuity in tempting them toward what seemed to be veins of orichalcum, only to prove a trap for a monster party, or trigger what seemed to be high-level magic to attack them, somehow.

It seemed that the Power Gorillas, Silver Rhinos, Feral Wolverines, and Great Badgers were all at least level 7, and occupied the area before the 85th floor, and some beyond it, with other monsters joining them to the next empty 90th floor, and the final safe zone on floor 95.

These were mostly level 8, while the monsters remaining after the 95th floor were level 9; none were weaker than that. Still with a daunting ways to go, they steeled themselves, and collectively resolved to take a longer rest on the 85th floor.

It having been nearly six months since the expedition departed, Hestia Familia were doing well for themselves and were in high spirits. They had made four shorter expeditions into the deep floors, clearing all of the goals they set for themselves.

Whether slaying the most difficult monsters of the floors, collecting rare resources, changing their formation regularly, everything they could think of to maximize their excellia gain and experience in the Dungeon.

On one occasion, Haruhime did have to use her level boost magic, when they encountered an enhanced species unexpectedly, and had to kill the very dangerous strengthened species of Trap Hive before it became a serious issue, especially with practically all of the cities elite adventurers removed from the picture.

Their stats were still growing at a mindboggling pace, with most being able to level up, though not meeting the requirement of raising their stats near the max. This wasn't true for Haruhime, Mikoto, and Oriana, though, who were fit to level as soon as they found a proper challenge.

Their growth wasn't on the same level as Bell's, but it was beyond what they could imagine, and continuing to grow despite the arguable stagnation of their progress. Perhaps not stagnation, but it was clear they were becoming comfortable with the deep floors, save that they tread carefully in the Water City due to the Amphisbaena's presence.

The floors beyond the safe zone on the 28th were also still challenging, but they worked through them as efficiently as they did the middle-floors back when it was just Welf, Lili, and Bell. Of course, there was something else they had noticed during their heightened push to grow in the Dungeon: their ambition was not theirs alone.

It seemed like every level 1, 2, and 3 in Orario had a fire lit under them, whether for loot, excellia, or just to cut loose with the elites away, the Dungeon was packed day-in and day-out as the third-class and below of Orario made their scramble while they could. Normally, the elites would clear ideal hunting on their way in and out, not out of spite, but simply because such areas were in their way.

With this removed, these areas for ripe for the picking, and making sure they were well hunted reduced the chances of enhanced species, which would be particularly nasty to deal with for the time being.

"Everyone else probably isn't growing as fast as we are, but man it's hard not to get swept up in the frenzy" Welf laughed.

"We should be glad that most don't venture so deep as we do" Mikoto observed.

"It suits our goals; the excellia of the deep floors and the more valuable drops to fill our pockets" Oriana almost drooled, "We should celebrate when we get back from this trip" she had exactly B in all of her stats, too; but wanted to follow Haroeris' advice about levelling up even once she could do so. Like Mikoto, she would likely wait before taking that choice.

"I wonder how long the others shall take before they return" Haruhime wistfully thought aloud.

"While we can't know for sure, that does bring up a good point" Lili noted, "Mr. Welf, it might be a good idea for you to get more practice making your superior magic weapons; they could prove useful to both us and the others, and we can gather the materials we need ourselves as we are"

"Hm… well, I won't argue with that; we've stocked up quite a bit of material for me to work with, too. Haven't been able to touch it since we've been Dungeon diving non-stop. If we take a break for a bit, I can work on it, so let's make sure we grab any adamantite we can find while we're down here this time"

"I wonder if you could make something like that as a bow, Mr. Welf?" Gina asked, holding up her standard bow as if to demonstrate her desire to their smith.

"Hm…" the man rubbed his chin as he lost himself in thought. Laurier wondered at the thought herself before noticing that they had company.

"Heads up! Monsters incoming, everyone!"

A deep-suffering sigh was absorbed by the darkness of the room, "None of us can deny this is to be a prime opportunity; probably the best we could hope for. So why can we not come up with a plan between us?"

"We can't be careless; just because the most powerful ones are gone, and will be out of the city soon if our plan follows suit, that doesn't mean that the others will be completely vulnerable. We were lucky with Nyarlathotep, frankly.

"Her children were weak enough that we were able to sever her time here and send her back, but now that thing has made them stronger, not to mention that Loki, Freya, and Ganesha have plenty of strength still left to them. Underestimating them just because we have a bit of power to throw around would be stupid"

"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't answer my question. We have to come up with something! Even Kali, Frigg, and Athena have come to the city; we can't let them slip through our fingers! We should send them all packing back to Tenkai!"

"I think we can wait for now" the two looked at the third speaker, "Bide our time and build our strength; take a page out of their book. If we were to strike now, we may get some good results, but without guarantee to get the lot in one go, the reprisal will probably extinguish us, y'know… for real this time"

"So we wait for the others to leave Orario, but what if their departure makes the ones who remain even more cautious?"

"It certainly will, but we can take advantage if they act foolishly; no, we should simply plan for that caution, too. Their children are all doing as ours, so we shouldn't fall behind"

"We'll need to get all the help we can, so I suppose we may as well contact Sekhmet as soon as possible to see what she can do"

"No violas or demi-spirits on the table for now… should we plan to aggravate the Dungeon again?"

"Of course, that may be it: a pincer attack from above and below!"

"All we need to do is anticipate anything Ouranos might prepare to foil us; we don't have a grasp of what will be waiting for us here beyond that old fossil's will"

"Damn Ikelos; he left without even bothering to give us any information!"

"No matter, we should simply focus on our goals now, and other things can come later. Our targets by priority: Hestia, Loki, Freya, Kali, Ganesha, Athena, Frigg, and if possible, I say Ouranos himself, too" a sultry voice giggled at the end, triggering a round of snickering, guffaws, and smothered laughter in the hidden space of the center of the world.

Ignorant of the goings-on in the shadows of the rest of the world, Aedan all the same felt an ominous chill run down his back. Having already dried himself after escorting the group through the Leviathan's watery home, he knew better than to blame the simple chill. Unable to place it, he continued on as before.

Their group had made it to the 92nd floor, and while progress had slowed due to the sheer mass of monsters that were each as powerful as Balor itself, yet he had not needed to step in once since leaving the 85th floor a while ago.

Their progress held as they arrived in the final safe zone on floor 95; this time, rest was greedily taken advantage of, with no sparring whatsoever, not even from Asterius, who was just as exhausted as the rest of them.

The Safe zone of the 95th floor- unlike the previous ones, was neither very large nor particularly beautiful. A plain of ankle high, grey-gold, wheat like plants covered the ground, and the light provided made the room seem to be perpetually locked in a state of cloud-covered dusk.

Few trees to be found, and fewer foodstuffs to harvest, too. Luckily, a lone, winding small river fed into a lake from a spring in the wall to the right side. That lake overflowed into a gulley which poured straight off a cliff on the left, and into impenetrable darkness.

Looking at the water falling into the abyss, Bache shivered, "I do not like this place"

"Aye, it's a safe zone, but has such a fell feeling about it" Ranulf agreed. His fur bristled, and all of the other animal-people were the same, highly unsettled by the atmosphere of the place.

Still, they were all exhausted from being on the march for nearly half a year, so they all took the rest gladly enough, setting up camp on the barren floor.

In particular, Aedan could see the wear that the trip had on Finn, Riveria, Gareth, Ottar, Alfia, Belisarius, and Musashi, as well as the other level 7's who had taken on the considerable burdens of the frontline for the whole march from the 85th floor.

Caught in his musing, Bell approached him, "Aedan?"

"Hm, sorry about that Bell, what is it?"

"Well, it might be nothing, but I had a bad feeling a while ago; I wanted to say something because my feelings haven't… been wrong so far"

That was more ominous than any chill he could possibly feel; whether Bell knew it or not, his Luck development ability was a true and unique blessing. Even among top-tier adventurers, his instincts would not be bested.

"Then we shall rest a bit longer here, and I will be especially alert as we finish our way down, but we cannot stop here"

He nodded, "I know, I just don't want anything to happen; not when we are so close to the end"

"Well, close to the halfway point, at least" the man grinned, shooting enough humor at the boy that he smiled in return. Little did they know, but Bell's and Aedan's instincts were fine-tuned to the greatest challenge the Dungeon could throw at them.

There had been no shortage of traps, monster parties, enhanced species, and more on their way; yet there was still one last ace the pit had up its sleeve, and it was one that Bell was very familiar with.