Chapter 73... For those who care to pull out a calculator, there are more or less 73 'updates' in a year for this story. That means, I am entering the sixth year of writing this. Five full years of writing, with more on the way.

And all of you, my dear readers, reading it. It makes me quite happy to know that some of you have been here since day one, and it amuses me to no end that I occasionally have to tell my newer readers to make sure they eat, sleep and remind people they're still alive while they catch up.

Thank you for putting up with me. For hanging in for the slow pacing. For ignoring (or at least not yelling at me) the occasional spelling mistake or other error that I know I've made...

And I hope you all continue to follow Kodori's journey. She might one day take a back seat, but you've all followed her as she's built a world she can take a little pride in, and have her children grow up in. When I do put Kodori on a shelf, to watch from it and grumble at people who do wrong, I won't be abandoning 'the world'.

Anyhow... Welf said something about this next part sucking...

Chapter 73

The room ahead of us was... loaded. Due to this Zone being as mutable as it was, it might have been anywhere between days, or an entire season, for this room to have been cut off from the rest of the floor. I was guessing more towards 'season', since not only was there a floor boss here, there was a 'rare monster' as well. Total threat level, by guild standards mind you, would be 'party of level fours' 'wide area magic necessary' and 'abnormal resistance a must'.

But what were we actually facing?

Dominating the middle of the room, was a tree. Not just any tree, but one of those creepy nightmare trees that had a face, mouth, whip-like branches, and was generally a home for other monsters. I'd fought one of these on the way back up once, with the Oni. I still had the crystal apple someplace, because yes I did use it for a crib ornament. The tree itself was dangerous, sure, but anyone with a really good fire spell or even a bunch of torches (normal wood and pitch versions) could kill it. No, it was the stuff the tree drew to it.

Like a bloody hive. Most of the massive ten metre tall tree's canopy was occupied by a writhing nest of red gunky... stuff. It pulsed like a termite queen, had all kinds of hexagonal holes in it, and occasionally a hornet the size of a house cat would crawl out, buzz around the tree, maybe land on the third 'big threat' in the room, then return.

Third big threat you ask? Mushrooms. One side of the room, incidentally the side we wanted to go (so said our map) was totally overgrown with mushrooms. Big spore laden things with giant brown caps and a fog of yellow mist around them. The wasps seemed to be eating them, but also weren't immune to the spores either, as there were a few twitching wasps mixed in with the overgrowth. Some even had mushrooms growing on them, while they were still alive. This was one of the reasons Abnormal Resistance was the most common development ability. Those spores weren't always paralytic either. But the cloud was yellow, not black, so this cloud was.

And lastly, as if all those things, all things that made level 2 adventurer's and even some level 3 parties give up and go home weren't bad enough?

There was a dragon. The Green Dragon of the Maze. A level four party encounter, this was the 'rare monster', while the tree was the 'floor boss'. Then there was the 'independent' monster spawning 'bloody hive'.

Thanks to Delly and Maki using simple illusion magic, the monsters hadn't noticed yet. Too busy with eating or sleeping, we were all able to take a moment to see what we were up against.

Then Bell made the call. "Back up. We need a plan."

No one refuted that, so we retreated, quickly, lest we end up fighting again and waking that room up. We returned to the ramp between the twenty third and twenty forth floors.

"I think it's all Kodori's fault." Maki said, "But... that was a lot of nasty packed into a room."

We all nodded, "I don't want to have Miss Kodori step in." Bell said, since that was one of the 'rules' of this mission. If I needed to step in past my chosen roll of support, then it would be 'too much to handle' and time to go back home. "What do we know?"

"We encountered a green dragon when we fought the Slaver Cat." Ryuu said, "It is strong, has thick scales, and flaming breath."

"The hornets have been known to outright kill level two adventurers." Mikoto said, "We've had to avoid them in the past, or take very careful measures to deal with them."

"We've never seen a hive though. Aisha-san has told us about them though." Ouka said, "And it looked massive!"

"The tree isn't much danger on its own." Asuka said, "But for being a tree, it can make a lot of noise. It will call more monsters if we're not quick at taking it out."

"Those mushrooms look pretty flammable." Delly said, "But a sudden fire will spread the spores around."

All eyes went to me, "I'm guessing the way to the next floor isn't through that room. The spores staying in one place like that, suggests that the tunnels don't connect to the lower floor, since the dungeon breath hasn't disturbed the clouds." Yes, the dungeon did 'breathe', but it was more the occasional rush of air from the magma floors that occasionally pushed up this high.

"So our map is wrong..." Welf grumbled.

"No." Momiji shook her head, "The map is correct, at least in mapping out the stone of the dungeon. The roots shifting is another matter entirely, Kodori-dono may be correct. We could skip this room and find another path."

Everyone looked at everyone else. "Nah." Was the ultimate decision.

"Then how shall we plan?" Shinkage asked. "We must be careful of fire, and wind magic." She looked at Bell and Ryuu. "The wasps may be fatal if any of them get through. And we will be on a time limit to finish up the encounter over all."

"Momo-chan? Lemme borrow that quill." Kaede asked, "Let's start with what we saw, and set up squads. I learned a bunch from those JSDF people..."

Ten minutes of careful planning later, some stuff unloaded from the Golem, and a bit of 'personal care' later (you know, snack, bit of water, maybe water some flowers after making sure they won't bite), we were on our way back.

Yes, we did encounter a few monsters, but after spending most of the day working all the kinks from the weird 'high level, low level' party dynamic they weren't worth mentioning... We made it back to the room.

We all knew our roles, and when we gave each other one last 'look' there were no questions to ask.

The biggest threat overall, past the dragon, and even the wasps, were the mushrooms. The air in the room was pretty still, but it wouldn't take much to fill the room with spores. Even someone with Abnormal Resistance would fall to them eventually. Except maybe me, the Golem and Shinkage. But I didn't want to test the theory about being able to carry everyone all at once.

Shinkage, under the cover of a simple illusion from Delly, slipped into the room and started to skirt around the room's edge. Being unarmoured, she made almost no sound as she neared the mushroom patch. Even if she'd likely be immune to the effect, she still stayed well away from the misty yellow smog surrounding the chest sized caps and stalks that were as tall as she was.

The next 'big' issue, would be surprise. While we knew there was a tunnel behind the mushrooms, there were also many little caves. Monsters loved these mini-caves, and the dungeon liked to spawn things from them as well. Some of those might not actually be caves at all, and instead actual tunnels to other rooms. Excess noise would attract other monsters, and we were going to have enough trouble with the rest of the room.

Ryuu, also silent, slipped into the room next, followed by Maki. The stronger (Ryuu) would do her best to stop any initial waves of monsters that may appear, while Maki would seal up the tunnels as best she could.

This left our two 'illusionists' occupied however. And the next 'biggest problem' would be the wasps.

Delly tapped me on the shoulder, and handed me two 'large' glass vials. Smoke bomb vials. Except these were 'Akeno Specials', like she used in the Rating Game between Rias and Sairaorg.

I gave her my very best raised eyebrow, but, Lilly was known for getting all kinds of things where they needed to be. Be it healing potions or smoke bombs. So I nodded and accepted the two vials, and nodded again when she pointed to the largest... orifice(?) of the hive and the second largest.

Ouka, Chigusa, Mikoto and Asuka would be dealing with the dragon. Maybe. Welf would be allowed ONE shot to repeat the trick he used the first time, and make it self destruct. If he missed, he would simply move on and aim for the tree. With the biggest weapon (not Aisha's sword since he made a new one for himself), he'd be the best fit to chop it down.

Bell? As the fastest in the room (excluding me, and Ryuu when she had her magic on full blast) he'd be dealing with wasps. Defending our back line.

The Back Line? Haruhime, Momiji, Kaede, Amani and myself. The Golem too technically. Momiji would have her spell at the ready, to apply magical 'armour' to anyone who needed it. Haruhime would be using her magic. I'd be 'assisting' her. And Kaede and Amani would be guarding the door we were about to all spill out of. If there was a sudden rush from behind us, well... we'd think of something, but the two of them in the narrow hallway should be able to hold off most anything long enough for help to arrive.

(Combat begins, switching perspectives)

Rushing ahead of everyone, Ouka and Chigusa stomped into the room, running directly for the dragon. There was no battle cry though, not yet. Only when two vials of black smoke had been rocketed out of the tunnel they'd just left, did they start banging their spears against their shields.

Then everything woke up.

The glass vials vanished as they hit the Bloody Hive that had grown in and around the canopy of the Treant, filling the top of the room with a huge billow of opaque black smog. A half second later, there were the beginnings of angry buzzing. But those were quickly dwarfed by the sudden BOOM and FLASH of a massive lightning bolt striking the cloud, then a second one, the FLASH and BOOM hurting the ears in the enclosed space. But the cloud of black iron dust lit up BRIGHT RED as the iron laden smoke burned like a titanic fireworks display. Wasps, bits of wasp, and chunks of red gunk flew from the cloud of sparking red and black in a wave of foul smelling odour.

In the middle of that, Shinkage took a deep breath, her tiny torso expanding far more than one would think possible, and let it out in a huge rush. It wasn't fire that left her mouth however, but a wave of frost and cold so thick it looked like a storm of sleet. The spore cloud was washed away, the mushrooms were suddenly covered in thick frost and rime, and a few of the closer mushrooms even shattered with the sudden change in temperature.

Before Delly had detonated the cloud of smoke, Mikoto, Asuka and Welf ran forward. Using the shadow of the two shield bearers, they readied their weapons and got the dragon's full attention. The first arrow from Asuka left a long slash mark along the dragon's back, leaving a trail not unlike etched metal in its thick hide. Mikoto's arrow vanished half way into the root of one of its wings, but like most monsters it didn't seem to care. It reared up and made ready to roar at them, wings unfurling, body uncurling from the base of the tree...

But then the cloud overhead detonated with all its reds and blacks and flashes of light and sound, making even this great beast flinch in surprise, its head dipping down and causing Welf's purple fireball to miss its mark and splash into the Bloody Hive overhead. The spell on its own was mostly harmless, so he didn't even get the satisfaction of killing a wasp or something with it.

But his part in slaying the dragon was done, and he gave it wide berth as he skirted close to Ryuu and Maki to get towards the tree, who's weird twisted 'old man' face and mouth was just starting to open up, and what remained of its branches started to lash about. Maki, since nothing had yet to appear from the mini-caves along the wall, used a few killer icicles to smash or redirect the lashing branches away from Welf's path.

But even with this incredible 'first strike', they still had a lot more fighting to do.

Even with the sudden rain of charred and broken wasps and red goop, the crackling cloud of black smoke was filled with holes as angry, unharmed wasps the size of large house cats started to pour from it, their wings creating little clear 'pockets' in the smoke.

Under all that mess, to join in with the sudden chainsaw buzz of angry insects, the dragon took in a great breath, and started to lower its head. But Ouka and Chigusa locked their shields together while Asuka and Mikoto ducked behind them, arrows knocked.

The rest of the party was still by the door, in the 'shadow' of the shield bearers. Bell, hand outstretched already, squinted his eyes and started lining up the first wasp. "FIRE BOLT!" The first words spoken by the party so far.

The next words were a slightly breathless, "Mind potion." From Delly, who had hardly finished speaking before Kodori had one placed into her free hand.

"Enemies from the rear!" Kaede spoke next, her sword ready, "Mo-chan!" A pause, "Hime-san!"

This told both the Renards of the party that Kaede thought she could solo what was coming, but only with support. They didn't question the call, but instead locked their magic in place over the Hume-bunny. Amani, as the 'more experienced' level two would just have to rely on her longer reaching spear and support the Killer Rabbit.

Ryuu and Maki on the side opposite the mushroom sculptures, had work to do the instant Delly's fireworks went off. The mini-caves along that wall started to eject all kinds of things. Wasps, a giant beetle or two, a single lizardman and a single Violas. Ryuu called a warning as the long vine creature erupted from the wall, it's snap-dragon face seeking out Welf as he dashed towards the tree.

"Wandering spawn!" Ryuu shouted, dashing forward to try and cut its head off before it could get to Welf. "Maki!"

"Got it!" She called back, lifting her sheathed sword and slamming a killer icicle into the plan monster's neck near the wall, pinning it in place and making it snap taunt. Like a wild dog on a leash, it recoiled at the sudden restraint, "Need cover! Glue!"

Kodori slipped a vial of grey gunk from her coat, and with a 'fwip-pop!' it zipped through the air and exploded over the back of one of the giant beetles, the glue splashing over it and its fellow following it, making them both recoil and tumble from the wall in a tangle of armoured shell and insect limbs. Seeing that one of the threats were 'dealt with' for the moment, Maki turned towards the lizard man, drawing her sword and moving to dispatch it.

The Violas flailed frantically for a moment, but now that it was unable to retract into the wall, or extend further to attack, Ryuu found it easy prey. With a swing from her deceptively sharp stick, the 'snap-dragon' head parted from the stalk and it vanished into black ash. This let Ryuu turn her attention to the wasps flying towards her and Maki.

Shinkage, her job basically done, fell into a support role. Of everyone here, she had the least to 'gain' by fighting. No falna meant that she was basically a tourist here in the dungeon. That said, she wasn't idle. While the others rushed inward, she gave the frozen mushroom collective another dose of her freezing breath, then spotted an opening. With a little spin to gain momentum, then a second one for good measure, she threw her loli-sized padao at the dragon.

The dragon, with its unnaturally powered flaming breath, was still spewing its bright red and white flames at Chigusa and Ouka. For most, even with well made shields, this would be a losing position. The metal would become too hot, the metal and flesh behind the shields would scald and burn, and the defenders would be unable to resist the sheer pressure of the flames.

But these shields, and their owners, were different. Mildly enchanted surfaces to ward away elemental energy such as fire and lightning. Bracers and armour lined with salamander wool to protect the user from the shield getting red hot. Spikes at the bottom of the shield to keep them from moving once braced. And most importantly, two people who trusted themselves to stand firm, and trust in the makers of the shields. But even with all this, Chigusa and Ouka were sweating, their arms and shoulders were strained, and the shields were slowly changing colour with the heat.

Then with a hollow 'THONK' the shaft of a mini-padao slapped the dragon across the nose, the weapon spinning away towards Ryuu and Maki, while the dragon itself growled in pain. The fire slewed sideways then cut off, narrowly missing Welf. But the instant the flame had slipped away from the shields, Ouka and Chigusa stood and swept them aside, opening the space between them.

Mikoto and Asuka were already waiting, a pair of arrows slicing through the air the instant there was enough space between the shields to allow them passage. Once, twice and with a third arrow almost ready, the dragon found itself blinded in one eye, with a pair of holes clean through its long neck, and a single arrow vanishing up to the feathers into its shoulder at the base of its neck. Roaring in pain, the dragon lashed its head back towards the archers, Mikoto's next arrow cleaving through one of the beasts horns, while Asuka took her time and made ready to fire one last arrow.

Bell was hard pressed to keep up with the swarm of Wasps. Fire bolts, jumping slashes, rocks thrown at near bullet speeds, punching, kicking... He was doing everything he could to keep the 'back line' safe, while Delly recovered from her 'super zappy lightning'. Only a few more seconds... The swarm was thinning, but...

"Momiji, duck!" He yelled out as he slashed at a wasp and missed the kill. The main body and single wing still mostly on target for the fox girl's back.

Kodori started to move to intercept, but with a muted 'clank' noise, the Golem took a single step from its statue-like position and slapped the wasp out of the air. Dust and a magic stone spraying away from the metal hand. "I will cover them." Shinkage called out from the frozen side of the room.

Back the way the party had arrived, despite the situation in the main room, Kaede was having a grand time. Since no one else had asked Haruhime for a boost, all of the golden haired Kitsune's magic was focused on her. Thus empowered, she was holding the relatively narrow tunnel with ease. Quick slashes, simple kicks, sharp punches and nimble footwork were all used as she filled the hallway with taunts and black ash.

Then Delly called out, "Round TWO!"

There was no explosion of black smoke this time. The Bloody Hive was already heavily wounded, its reserves of wasps nesting inside expelled or dead from the last lightning salvo. This time though, Delly actually used her 'magic word', aiming her wand directly in the centre of the writhing oozing red mass nesting in the giant tree's branches, "ZIO!"

Welf, upon hearing Delly call out, covered his sword with his cloak. Once the sharp, almost beam-like blast of lightning hit however, he uncovered it, pouring his mana into the blade, lighting up the edge of the blade with a baleful purple-red. Even as the Bloody Hive became a Bloody Mess of chunks and black ash, his blade slammed into the trunk of the tree with the sound of shattering wood and a yell of defiance!

Asuka waited for all of this, letting the Dragon line itself up for another blast, letting the beast take a huge deep breath as it got closer, to swing its massive clawed hand towards the shields of her Familia. Chigusa took the first hit, her slight frame fantastically strong for its size. Ouka, his back to hers, helped her stay in place, even as he braced himself for a lash from the dragon's tail.

But even as they rocked from the impact, the two of them feeling their bones creek and knees buckle, Asuka spotted what she was looking for, her arrow flying towards a suddenly glowing pouch at the base of the dragon's throat. "Shields front!" She yelled as the armour piercing arrow popped the flame-sac of the dragon like a molten blister.

Mikoto and Asuka dove behind Ouka and Chigusa and Welf suffered a nasty lashing from the tree, but dove behind one of its leggy 'roots'.

And the dragon exploded. The shock wave of super heated air scalded bare skin, the sound hurt the ears, but the only thing that hit anyone was a cloud of black ash as the Green Dragon vanished, leaving behind its magic stone.

The force of blast also slammed wasps into the walls, and rocked the tree sideways. Sheltered as he was, Welf wasted no time in yelling a battle cry and slamming his sword into the massive trunk again, and again, each time the blade in his hands burned brighter. And with a splintering crack, a fissure ran up the length of the trunk, the magic stone inside coming free and dumping black ash and leftover bloody hive all over the floor.

Bell yelled over the ringing in everyone's ears, "Asuka, Mikoto cover Maki! Chigusa find Welf, Ouka cover her! I've got the tunnel!"

(Back to Kodori)

Cleanup was pretty epic. Aside from handing out things and a couple of warnings, the only thing I did was feed Haruhime mana. The others were also so well organized, that Haruhime didn't even need to boost everyone! Only Kaede needed her spell. With Ryuu and Shinkage covering the flanks, and everyone else doing what they were best suited to, the injury list was short, the loot list was long, and everyone had a grin on their face.

Except Mikoto and Ryuu. They were both squares.

A few potion pills, one roll of bandages, and a bit of water with out 'cure all' antidote in it, and we were basically ready to fight again.

"Anything interesting shake loose?" Maki asked as Momiji, Chigusa and I cleaned up magic stone from either the floor, or dead monsters.

"I got wood!" Welf called out, making Kaede, myself, Maki and Delly laugh. "What? See?"

He held up a shard of tree trunk that he'd hacked off. Ryuu, our tree expert, went over to look, "Interesting. A staff maker would put that to good use."

I nodded, looking at the jagged shard of trunk that was almost as tall as I was. "We'll pawn that to an expert." I said, taking it and carefully putting it into the Golem's pack, "Chigusa? How's that going over there? Delly?"

"We might be able to get these spores to grow. But we'll have to be super careful." Delly said, her face covered by one of our best 'hazard masks', while Chigusa only had a thick cloth over her mouth and nose, "If we can though, we might be able to start harvesting them for stun gas or the like."

I considered that, then shook my head, "Gonna leave that to an expert as well. Nazza and Airmid would have the proper room for containment. I'd rather not have one of the children, Amazon, Oni or orphans open up the room by mistake and kill everyone in the manor with poison spores."

A pause, then Delly very carefully put the cork on the vial, "Okay yeah... Just going to very clearly mark this... and never touch it again! Yay!"

"We got this a bunch of these!" Ouka came over with Kaede, "Wasp stingers."

"Neat. Those I can do something with, without needing to worry about-"

"Hey look at this!" Bell came over, a shard of dragon scale about the size of his chest held over his head. "Must have flew off when Miss Asuka hit the flame gland."

"Ah, and there's my arrow mark." Asuka said when Bell presented the scale to me, "A bad shot turns to good fortune?"

Her arrow had gone over its back, but there was a clear line etched over it from the arrow's passing. That line however had cause the scale to snap, and it wasn't whole. "Hmm, well, I could make something of it. Certainly solid enough, but, it's your drop."

"I'd like a new pair of gloves then!" Asuka said, "Can't believe the new girls are showing me up..."

Kaede and Amani grinned with a little 'heehee' and a V sign to her senior, their new armour covered in bits of monster ash and blood spatter like they should be after a fight like that.

I stowed the scale and stingers away carefully. Along with the magic stone, we were off to a great start. "So, this certainly qualifies for a good day." I said.

"But it's hardly dinner time." Haruhime said quietly, patting my arm and handing me a few more magic stone.

Momiji tied down a bit of the Golem's pack, giving the pouch a tug to make sure it was secure, "According to the map, we should be able to find the way down within an hour."

"There is the rest stop at the top of the waterfall." Ryuu said, "If we make it there, we can set up a camp."

Bell nodded, "Yes, we will find our way down, and make dinner there. After..." He put on his best thoughtful frown, "We can have a nap, do a proper weapon check, then continue down."

We all nodded, did one last 'is everything still attached' look, and our navigator (Momiji) pointed us towards (we hoped) the way towards the waterfall, floor twenty five.

We fought a few more times, tunnelled through a couple of root blockages (carefully, since we didn't want to upset the dungeon and summon a swarm of monsters), and avoided some rather nasty dungeon hazards with heavy applications of fire. But we made it to the winding path down in just a little over an hour. (This made Momiji pout, since she was a little bit of a perfectionist.) (Oh, this made Shinkage pout too, since breathing fire and ice made her hungry.)

Floor 25

The dungeon, as usual, had that weirdness to it. Even with ears as sensitive as mine, it wasn't until I had left the downward sloping tunnel from the twenty forth floor, that I started to hear the sound of water. Maybe this was one of the things that made the floors distinct from one another? I mean some of the upper floors were almost like shelves, not distinct levels, yet, the Guild and Adventurers alike numbered them separately.

Thankfully, nothing was camping the end of the tunnel, and between here and the 'safe' room we were aiming for, there were only a few 'soft' monsters in the way. It wouldn't have been the first time I'd have heard of rookie adventurers running back up a floor with blue crabs or crystal turtles (who couldn't make it through the tunnel upwards) in pursuit.

"Miss Mikoto?" Bell asked.

Mikoto used her little magic 'cantrip' skill, Yatanokurogarasu. It was a magic effect, but more like Genjitsu than say, a detection spell. It was the same thing she used to track the Moss Huge Xenos that the Slaver Cat had been with. "There is a pair of harpy in the room we are aiming for, as well as several ignazu at the edge of my detection."

"Nothing we can't handle." Welf said, "Right?"

Of course he was right. The encounter was over almost as fast as the children would appear when Weine said 'I made cookies'. From there, it was just a matter of breaking up the walls of the dungeon half of the little frontier zone a little, to make the dungeon focus on healing the walls, and not spawning monsters from them, and getting our soup pot going.

"So... What do we expect on the way down?" Momiji asked.

We'd told them already, but to make sure she was asking for a refresher. It was also making conversation, since she was obviously a little nervous.

"The monsters from here on are usually only taken on by level three and above. We'll have Miss Haruhime using her spell from here on I think?" Bell looked to her.

"I can do that, certainly." She said from her spot overseeing the soup pot.

"The monsters are stronger, certainly. But some are far far tougher than what we've encountered so far." Mikoto said, "Should we switch to our armour breaking weapons?"

"Not a bad idea. But we didn't really need them last time." Welf said with a shrug, "We had one hell of a run down the ramp too."

"Remember, I'm not really 'here'." I said, "That said, Welf has the only weapon suited for crabs and turtles right now."

"Ah that's right. Miss Aisha was here last time too." Bell nodded, "I think..." He rubbed his chin with his thumb, "Mr Ouka? Take the lead with Mr Welf. Miss Chigusa? Guard Miss Delly from what ever might be flying over the basin. Miss Ryuu, Miss Mikoto, Miss Maki and Miss Asuka, help Delly with the flying monsters. Miss Kaede and I will cover the rear, and our centre will support us with magic and defence."

"And me?" Shinkage asked.

"Telling a dragon what to do is silly." Bell said, getting a chuckle from almost everyone, "But I'd like you to stay in the middle, just in case the front or back needs help. You have reach and strength, but the path down is a little narrow in places."

"Very well." Shinkage nodded, before turning to face the soup.

"We'll rest for about four hours total, so two hour shifts." Bell finished up the 'meeting'.

Having eaten, done a little weapon upkeep and taken a little nap, we were all ready to go at the end of the four hour break. It was around here that I started to wonder if this idea of mine was 'good' or not. The biggest issue of the waterfall, and the ramp down to the basin, was just how exposed it was. Even with the large party, there was an awful lot of stuff flying over the Basin. Ignazu, or as some called them 'suicide birds', that flew in packs and didn't care how many of their number died if it meant leaving a meal for anything else. Harpy and the less common Siren, strong enough to carry you off the cliff and drop you up to eight hundred metres down to the icy water below, or the stone around the basin itself. Light Quartz, with their odd ability to shoot lasers. Yes, lasers. There were occasionally giant mosquitoes and wasps too.

But, with our formation ready to go, we started our march to the Basin floor with Haruhime chanting, "Grow!"

Two minutes into our descent, just long enough to get to the first 'branch' tunnel away from the outer spiral ramp around the waterfall, the monsters started to notice us. It started with a Harpy that was perched a wall for a nap, screeched a warning to anything in the area that 'food' had been spotted. Asuka had cut that scream short, one of her arrows pinning it to the cavern wall before her body vanished to dust.

But the damage had been done, and the fight was on.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see it!" Ouka said, the reach of his spear outmatching the land-form trident of a merman and lancing it through the head.

"Hey I missed it too!" Welf said, sharing the blame, "Hey, I see more activity at the bottom!"

"Eyes front!" I shouted, handing Asuka another handful of arrows, "Or you'll end up at the bottom first!"

"Zap! Annnnnd... ZAP!" Delly was having a grand time with all the targets that were popping up.

"I think it's time to start the second stage." Haruhime said, "Get a little closer please!"

Without letting their guard slip even a little, everyone shuffled towards Haruhime. No more than a step or two, but even with the slowly growing number of monsters, no openings were given.

Haruhime glanced back to me, and I put my hand on her shoulder, then stepped away, one of my tails tangled with hers to keep in contact. Now that she was connected to my mana, she started to chant. "Beloved snow. Beloved crimson. Beloved white light. Please let me be beside you! This love I have found at the end of two thousand nights. My name is Magic Fox. Former destroyer. My name is Ancient Song. Former dreamer. For you who beat your wings like a bird, I shall allow the nine spirits to dwell in me. Echo, song of gold, sacred poem of Tamamo. White face, golden fur, king of nine tails. Oh, tails of the auspicious beast, consume all, grant all wishes!"

From her wonderful rear, sprouted nine ghostly tails, and a moment later, they started to vanish, growing instead on each of our 'low level' party members. Like Bell, when I'd given him the 'first stage' of the spell against Ais, everyone's new tail matched their hair colour.

And after a moment of adjustment, everyone started to move away from Haruhime. Ever swing was harder, every spell was stronger, and our level twos, who were fighting furiously to keep up with either the aerial threats or the monsters coming up the ramp, started to ease back just a little. With the power a little more balanced, they could focus more on proper form and tighter technique instead of swinging as hard as they could to get through defences.

Two minutes later, we started to move down the ramp again, no longer holding our ground but gaining it.

Like most encounters though, it was over only a few minutes later. This was 'normal' dungeon activity. No Xenos making it angry, no crazy revenge starved cat-folk blowing it up, no otherworldly magic stealing bits of it...

No, the usual dungeon encounter was short and violent. But even then, with Haruhime's spell powering everyone to a strong level three, our rookie team was a bit out of breath with just how brutal it had all been. Delly was probably the worst off, though she was getting a handle on just how zappy to be with her magic, dialing it down until near the end where she was using the least amount of power for the most amount of effect. But aside from Maki and Bell, she was the only one with 'limitless' ammunition, so she bore the most strain for the aerial threats.

This didn't stop Asuka and Mikoto from throwing rocks. My only 'involvement' with the combat aside from being a magic battery was to break bits of dungeon wall up and hand them out as ammunition.

Kills cleaned, no 'rare loot' to gather, we continued our march down. "Welf? You were saying?" I asked, remembering the only time I'd spoken that entire encounter.

"Oh yeah! He hooked a thumb towards the edge of the ramp, "Saw a bit of commotion down at the bottom."

"We haven't seen many adventurers today." Bell said, "Aside from a few on the upper floors."

"The dungeon is a big place." Ryuu said, "It's not uncommon to go a day without seeing anyone past the fifth floor."

"The Basin it a dense spawn area, isn't it?" Shinkage asked, "The water is as much a habitat as a spawning bed."

I nodded, "A well organized and large enough... oh... Well let's hope it's not them."

"Ko-san?"

Since my tail was still hugging one of Haruhime's tails, I didn't go to the edge of the ramp to look over, "When I went to kill the Balor, Freya Familia was down there, one of the four Palum brothers was overseeing their 'rookies' for training. Nearly got into a fight for giving them a bunch of magic stone."

We all sighed, "Such an act from the 'winner' of the war between us would easily be seen as an act of pity." Mikoto said.

"Well, thankfully Ottar was there, checking up on them. He saw it for what it really was. A bunch of stuff I wouldn't be able to bring down with me, then back up. Besides, I kept the real prize. It's part of Hagane's two legged body design... Or will be."

"I am a little sad I no longer need to turn pages for him." Shinkage said, "But now we can read different books without needing to wait for the other to catch up."

"Let's finish the trip. I'm sure we can get along, even if it is Freya Familia." Bell said.

Half way down, another brief, super violent encounter, and a few minutes of collection and recovery... And yes, we could all hear the sounds of fighting down below. It wasn't 'normal' either. They, and yes it was Freya Familia, were in a constant fight with spawning monsters. From the water, from one end of the room, from another end, a few cave/rooms... It seemed as if... As if they had some way to keep the monsters spawning without pause. The fighting never stopped, but it also didn't stay in one place. Skirmish here, skirmish there...

"Interesting." I said, inching back from the edge of the ramp, "Almost a shame we don't have their numbers."

"Our home has the space." Welf shrugged, "But it's already pretty noisy."

"They'll make a lot of valis from magic stone for sure." Asuka said, stepping back as well, then moving with the rest of us as we continued downwards. "But it seems..."

Delly looked at me, and I shrugged. Since she'd spent time, almost literally, in my head, she knew many of the insights and 'guesses' on how the system worked in this world. "But constant fighting like that won't impress the Gods." Delly said, "Or really improve your skills."

"Endurance certainly." Mikoto said, "Even supported as we are, I doubt I could sustain a full day of fighting like that."

"Sure you could..." Chigusa said from her place next to Delly, "We'd all be with you."

"Count on the former Top Familia to know a few tricks." Bell said, still unable to straight out insult someone without them standing in front of him. "I wonder if they have any other places they do this?"

"Likely." Shinkage said, "Ants, certainly, would be a near constant battle if you spread out over the floor. But I doubt they've had many new members since then." She half smiled.

"The Arena." I said, "Though, the Brothers have been occupying that every chance they've gotten."

"Do you truly intend to get there this trip?" Ryuu asked Bell, "It is not an easy journey."

"The last time we were this far, we wanted to visit the spot the last part of the dungeon was returned to." Bell said, "We didn't quite make it. This time, I want to go just a little further. And if we think we can handle it? Further still."

There wasn't much anyone could say in the face of that kind of aspiration. He'd lost a little of the 'dreamy' tone when he spoke of doing heroic deeds. But he still had that willpower in his voice. "We're with you." I said, "Oh hey, it's the one who stabbed you." I said to Shinkage as we neared the bottom of the ramp.

"You got there before I could kill him." She replied, "But so long as he isn't rude, I'll leave him alive."

"Eh-heh... I wonder sometimes when you're joking, Miss Shinkage." Bell laughed nervously.

"Assume I never joke, unless it can be taken no other way. It's safer." She replied.

"Look lively!" Ouka said, "One last bunch before we gain the basin floor!"

NOTES!

Yes... more combat next chapter... But not right away. Bleh.

See you next time, to what might be some head-punchy diplomacy!

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.