Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

That's right, only he was going to travel to the unreached area with Finn and the others.

"Hey, Raul! Cheer up!"

"An, Anqi..."

The cat-woman, who was inspecting her weapons—a light sword and a small round shield—couldn't stand Raul's pathetic appearance and walked up to him. Her slender hand grasped Raul's left shoulder, and he looked up.

Seeing his face turning almost blue, Catman female member Angie frowned.

"This isn't your first time attacking from the 51st floor. You've always come back alive, haven't you? Have some confidence."

Hearing the black cat woman's tone, though a bit harsh, still encouraging herself, Raul was speechless for a moment, "How embarrassing..." and became dejected.

Anachidi Ottoman.

Like Raul, she is a Level 4, Rank 2 adventurer belonging to the Loki Familia. Because her name is difficult to pronounce, those close to her simply call her "Angie".

Angie has beautiful black fur ears and a tail, along with shoulder-length, straight, black hair of the same color. No wonder she was chosen by the lustful god (Loki); she has a slender figure and beautiful appearance. Finn's order for her to command the camp's defenses proves her excellent abilities, including her [stats].

In Raul's opinion, Anachiti Ottom was far superior to him. She was calm, collected, and incredibly courageous, and she would even encourage him like this. Appointing her as the commander-in-chief of the base when a Level 1 adventurer was absent was indeed reasonable.

"Waaah, but I was almost killed by that new kind of monster last time, and I might really die this time... Angie, if I don't come back, I hope you can help me send the savings in the room back to my hometown..."

"Seriously! You're here again!"

Raul and Angie were close in age and joined the group around the same time. They supported the main squads, including the first-level adventurer (Ais), and in other words, they were core members of the second-tier [Family].

Hearing the conversation between the two who often traveled with Finn and the others, one of the girls in the group timidly raised her hand.

"Um, are the floors below the 51st really that dangerous?"

When Linne, a human with a swaying braid, asked the question, Raul's body trembled.

"You wouldn't have enough lives."

The young man continued, his voice trembling:

"From the 52nd floor of the dungeon onwards, it's hell. All the common sense up to the 50th floor becomes meaningless from there onwards."

He spoke so vividly that the entire tent fell into a deathly silence.

The grassroots members all shut their mouths, even Angie pursed her lips and didn't utter a word.

Silence fell in the tent after someone made a gurgling sound.

"—Raul, don't scare everyone too much; you're not fit to be a leader if you do that."

"Miss Rivera... I'm sorry."

At this moment, Rivera lifted the entrance curtain and entered the tent.

All the elves present quickly bowed respectfully. After Raul bowed his head apologetically, the faction's vice-leader looked around at each member.

"Don't be too nervous. Even if that new type of monster appears, just defeat it before it gets close. You can't say you can't do something so simple, okay?"

Holding a staff in one hand, she swayed her long emerald hair and spoke provocatively.

"Just wait patiently for us to come back. We'll bring back a gift from the 59th floor, so look forward to it."

Then, Riveria told this joke that she would never normally tell.

Upon hearing this, the surrounding group members burst into laughter.

"Miss Rivera, this is making us really excited—?"

"If you're going to bring them, then bring back large-sized bones!"

"Idiot, how am I supposed to move it?"

The group members immediately became lively, and Riveria smiled at them.

To ease the tension among the team members, she, the vice-captain, probably came specifically to ease the atmosphere. She could see that, influenced by the larval monsters—anomalies—that appeared during the last "expedition," there was always an underlying sense of unease among the lower-ranking members.

Finn and Grace should have gone to talk to the other members or first-level adventurers as well.

Raul, who had known them for a longer time, noticed this.

Angie, with a smile on her face, seemed to share the same thought as Raul and nodded slightly to him.

(The younger one is still far from good enough...)

"...I can't be like them yet," Raul murmured to himself.

Looking at himself, he realized he lacked both ambition and domineering presence. Although the inescapable sense of inferiority tormented Raul, gazing at Riveria's profile, he changed his mind and resolved to emulate such a great predecessor.

Finally, "Okay!" he clenched his fist at his chest.

"As part of the pre-conquest celebration, let's begin the card game competition! Everyone needs to wager something, and whoever wins will have all my savings!"

Taking advantage of the atmosphere created by Riveria, Raul went along with it and, in order to boost the morale of the group members, decided to hold an activity called gambling.

Upon hearing him suddenly stand up and make this announcement, the crowd erupted in cheers.

"Don't get too cocky."

"Oh dear!?"

The royal family member swung his staff, striking the young man who had misdirected the excitement and was trying to hype things up on the head.

"Sorry!?" A burst of laughter followed the pathetic groan.

"..."

Bert remained silent, staring at the scenery ahead.

At the western end of the massive rock where he was camped, he stood alone beside a steep cliff, looking down at the scenery below.

Those amber eyes were fixed on the large hole cut into the western wall of the building.

"I don't need anyone to take care of me."

Bert spoke without turning his head at the approaching presence behind him.

Finn let the sliver of sunlight shine on him, walked forward, and shrugged his small shoulders.

The werewolf youth guessed his purpose and said that he didn't need to worry about him just because it was the eve of the final battle.

What are you looking at?

"You can tell just by looking, it's the lair of those filthy monsters we're going into tomorrow."

Seeing that Bertie was staring intently at the large hole leading to the 51st floor, without even glancing at him, Finn changed his question.

"Bert, what have your eyes seen six days ago?"

Bert clenched his fist tightly in an instant.

The whole thing happened six days ago on the 9th floor.

The image of the boy who transcended "adventure" is still etched in his amber eyes.

Bert clenched his fists, his gaze fixed on the large hole with a menacing glint in his eyes.

"Finn, let me be the vanguard tomorrow."

Bert, who is usually fast on his feet, is a partisan who plays as a center-back.

Now, he is asking to switch positions with either Ais or Tiona as a forward.

As if to release his pent-up excitement, he wanted Finn to let him take the lead.

"Whether they're a new species or a female monster, I'm going to kill them all."

Finn looked up at the young man with a ferocious, beastly smile and nodded.

"understood."

The two stood together, gazing at the large black hole leading deep into the building.

Before reaching the entrance to the realm, it remained silent, like the calm before a storm.

"..."

Ais looked around at her companions and family (familia) scattered about, then turned her gaze back to Tsubaki in front of her.

"You haven't become weaker; you've just gained more things to protect and are now apprehensive about being protected."

A smile appeared on her lips, and after a while she put down the portable stove and whetstone, ending the repair work.

Ais accepted the "Sword of Despair" handed to her by the blacksmith.

"..."

He looked down at his hands and at the blade that had regained its shine.

Ais quietly sheathed the sword that shone with silver light.

◆

The monster's roar resounded.

A deafening scream of impending death echoed in the darkness, the bloody sounds of flesh tearing open and the intense wailing overlapping each other, before suddenly coming to an abrupt halt.

The screams then stopped, the screams then stopped.

As the agonizing screams of countless monsters echoed all around, only countless crystals radiating blue and purple light remained in the darkness.

Slender fingers scooped up the crystals buried in the ash from the dust pile, and opened their jaws to crush them.

"What are you doing."

Suddenly, someone spoke to the darkness.

The voice was like a jumble of different tones overlapping, sending chills down one's spine. Hearing this voice, which sounded both like a man's and a woman's, blood-red hair fluttered.

The woman stared at the man with her green eyes and answered the visitor in a cold tone.

"You can tell by looking, I'm eating."

The red-haired woman, Rives, gave this answer.

This is a cave in an unspecified underground city, with only one entrance and exit. The phosphorescent light on the walls is dim, and the room is filled with a vague darkness.

What buried her footing was a vast gray sea.

Countless monster carcasses, monsters whose "magic stones" had been removed, lay piled high with dust. Rives captured and slaughtered the monsters, casually tossing the extracted blue-purple crystals into her mouth.

She bit down with a loud crunching sound, as if she didn't find it appetizing at all, just chewing.

Just like the word "feeding," she relentlessly devoured the monster's core.

Seeing the scene before him, the visitor—a mysterious figure dressed in a blue-purple hooded robe and a sinister mask—said in an annoyed tone:

"The [Sword Maiden] and the others have already gone to the 'Deep Layer,' why aren't you moving?"

Hearing the other person's reproach, Rives replied lazily:

"You know that this body consumes a lot of energy, right?

"..."

The combat suit, with its tattered marks, looked as if it had been forcibly ripped off after an adventurer had been murdered. Revis said, pointing to her ample breasts and supple limbs encased in the suit, before turning her back to the man.

The masked man remained silent. Before him, several dragons, pierced from spine to belly by greatswords, were pinned to the ground like specimens. The greatswords, deeply embedded in the earth, bound the struggling dragons, preventing their escape.

Revis plunged her hands into the bodies of the monsters she had captured once more, ignoring the gushing blood and horrifying screams, and took out the "magic stone".

"Besides, Arya and the others seriously injured me, so I need to rest."

"Not to mention that 'that guy' is stronger than me now." What Ruiweis meant was that even if she fought Ais and the others now, she would likely be defeated instead.

As a hybrid of human and monster (monster), and also an "enhanced species" that devours "magic stones" to improve her abilities, she tells the other party that she is going to hunt monsters to fully recover the power and injuries she had greatly consumed in the battle on the 24th floor.

The cold-blooded female monster once again shattered the blue-purple crystal.

"Such willful and reckless behavior... what if something goes wrong..."

"Those guys are strong; they'll definitely reach 'that' waiting 59th floor. ...In the worst-case scenario, it doesn't matter if 'Arya' becomes a corpse."

The masked man clicked his tongue in amazement, making a clear "tsk" sound.

"Do you intend to disobey God (Enemy)?"

Upon hearing this, Rives turned around and squinted her eyes.

"You can use us if you want, do as you please. But in return, we will also act on our own."

'...!'