Chapter 16-

Deep within the Dungeon on one of its many uncharted floors, the creature simply known as Revis sat in silence.

The corpses of various different types of monsters were littered all around her, some missing their magic stone. Revis held one of those stones in her hands, staring at its color for a brief moment before biting down on it with a sick crunch. There was never any taste to be had from eating and she took no enjoyment from it, it was simply something that needed to be done in order to fuel her body.

Perhaps once upon a time long ago she had enjoyed the taste of good food and the presence of good company.

Revis could even recall a similar scene from her memories, a small fragment of it where most of the faces were all but blurred out from the ravages of time. She still had a name back then, a real name that had been given to her by her parents, not the false one that she had chosen for herself. Like all of her other memories, however, she couldn't even recall what that name was anymore, she was no longer a human being but a creature now after all.

The only food that she ate now were magic stones and the only company that she had around her were the monsters of the Dungeon.

"Revis." It was a voice that sounded more like multiple people speaking at once rather than a single person. "Were you able to take care of the anomaly on the 68th floor?"

Then again, there were others like her, but she wouldn't quantify them as being good company.

The speaker wore a black mask that covered their face and spoke with a voice that was concealed with magic. Ein was a creature just like Revis, so she didn't understand the need to conceal themselves even when deep within the Dungeon. That voice modifier of theirs was grating enough on her ears as it were.

"That thing isn't something that can be tamed." Revis simply answered as she ripped out another magic crystal from a nearby monster's corpse. "It's still rampaging around killing anything in sight."

"That is… unfortunate to hear, but we can work around it." Ein eventually replied. "That's not why I'm here, however. The Loki Familia has already made it to the deep floors and will be approaching the 59th soon."

Revis actually stopped eating for a brief moment in surprise. "That's Aria's group, isn't it?"

"It is. Will you make your move?"

"... I'll capture Aria this time."

That was what it desired after all. The voice in her head made sure that she never heard the end of it.

Revis stood up and grabbed the sword that was sticking out of the ground next to her. It was a peculiar weapon, one that had been left behind by some adventurer in the deep floors. It wasn't made from any materials she was familiar with and it was as sturdy as some of the Durandal forged weapons that adventurers wielded. It was a useful tool, there was no denying that, but there was something else about it that drew her interest enough to claim it as her own.

She just wasn't sure what yet.

The 51st floor was a lot different than any of the other floors he had been through.

It was more like a labyrinth than anything, with a bunch of twists and turns that were designed to have adventurers reeling just from the sight of it. If it weren't for the map that Finn had given him, he would have probably gotten lost a long time ago. Map or not, however, navigating through this place was still a pain in the neck.

Minato was used to having Fuuka handle the navigation aspect of dungeon crawling after all.

The sounds of heavy footsteps on gravel signaled to him that a group of monsters was waiting ahead in the next turn. Monsters that looked like rhinoceros that were dyed a pitch-black liked to roam around the floor waiting to ambush any unsuspecting adventurers. They weren't too difficult to deal with, even if their skin was tough, they weren't exactly resistant to magic.

"I got this group." Bete lowly growled as he walked on ahead.

The Black Rhinos might have had tough skin, but they weren't tough enough that a high-leveled adventurer couldn't hurt. Bete was able to kill them without even needing to use his new daggers, his greaves being enough to crush them underfoot. As Bete was preoccupied with a group of four, one of the rhinos charged past the werewolf and headed straight for him instead.

As he was about to cast a spell, he caught a glimpse of blonde hair flowing past him.

Ais Wallenstein stood in front of him, the Black Rhino dead at her feet not a second later. A myriad of thoughts went through his mind, but the most consistent one was that the girl had followed him again. It probably shouldn't have even been a surprise, she sought out strong enemies and was apparently convinced that those same enemies sought him out in return.

"... Did you follow us?" He dryly asked, even if he already knew the answer.

The Sword Princess simply nodded her head in response.

"Does Deimne-san know?"

Ais actually froze up at that.

Had the girl followed after him without even letting the expedition leader know? He and Bete had been given the all-clear to leave the campsite, but everyone else had explicit orders to not wander off on their own. Did she simply not care? Or was she that much of an airhead that she had simply forgotten to mention it?

Judging by the guilty look on her face, it was probably the latter.

"She's already followed us this far," Bete called out with amusement laced in his voice, the group of Black Rhinos behind him nothing more than paste on the walls now. "Might as well let her tag along."

He supposed that Bete had a point about that.

"... Why did you both leave the camp?" Ais softly asked.

He raised an eyebrow at that before answering. "I wanted to investigate this floor."

"... Does Finn know?" Ais questioned again.

"He does." Minato curiously nodded. "He assigned Bete as my backup."

The girl's shoulders slumped in response.

The aura of despair that seemed to radiate from her as she hung her head was a bit of a surprise. Did she think that they had wandered off without letting the captain know as well? Had she been expecting all of them to share in the punishment for breaking the rules together? As amusing as the thought was, he didn't want to cause any extra problems for Finn, so he had asked for the Pallum's permission beforehand.

"Hah! Sorry Ais, but we ain't breaking any rules." The werewolf cackled. "You're gonna be dealing with the old hag's lectures yourself."

The sounds of granite breaking signaled that more monsters were going to be spawning from the walls soon. As amusing as the conversation had been, they weren't exactly in a place that was meant for idle chit-chatting.

"Let's keep moving."

His other two companions didn't seem to object.

Bete and Ais handled any monsters that stood in their way while he took care of the navigation. It was a lot easier to find a way to the Cadmus's Lair without having to worry about fighting monsters at the same time. Bete could handle most of the monsters on this floor by himself, but they came in large enough numbers that he had to deal with the stragglers. The presence of the Sword Princess insured that he could focus solely on navigating them through the maze of twists and turns instead.

It'd be a lot easier if he had a GPS instead of an old-fashioned map.

Nonetheless, they eventually made their way to the entrance of the Cadmus's Lair after a good deal of walking. The entrance to the lair was a hole in the wall in the middle of one of the many corridors on the 51st floor. They moved along the wall and stopped at the edge of the entrance before Bete took a peek inside.

"I see the Cadmus." Bete lowly growled out. "How we doing this?"

From what he had heard and from his own experience fighting it, the Cadmus wasn't a floor boss, but it was still the strongest known regular monster in the Dungeon. If he were being honest, he thought that he had handled his first Cadmus fight pretty well, and if it weren't for those caterpillar monsters ambushing him, he would've been able to defeat the Cadmus quite handily. The Cadmus was definitely strong, but it wasn't on the level of the stronger Arcana Shadows, perhaps it was comparable to the first Arcana Shadow he had battled.

"... I have a request." Ais softly stated. "I would like to fight the Cadmus alone."

Minato raised an eyebrow at that.

"Huh?! Hey… you can't be serious here, Ais." Bete growled in response. "You can't just expect me to let you take all of the strong enemies for yourself."

The blonde-haired girl bowed her head.

"Please."

Bete seemed to be taken aback by the sight.

"Tch, fine. If it's that important to you." The werewolf eventually grumbled. "What about you, Minato? You going to let her solo it?"

Ais looked him straight in the eye and he could already tell that it wasn't something that she wanted to give up on. He knew that she desired more strength and adventurers became stronger by overcoming a trial by fire, so he didn't think that there was much of a point in trying to argue against it. It wasn't like he needed to kill the Cadmus personally anyway, he just needed it out of the way so he could investigate the floor.

"If that's what she wants," Minato stoically replied. "We can step in if it looks bad."

"Thank you."

The Sword Princess didn't waste any more time with words and made her way into the dragon's lair by herself. The Cadmus waited inside, keeping guard around the spring water like a dragon would for its treasure horde. He didn't think that Ais would have too much trouble defeating it, he had heard that she had defeated the floor boss Udaeus by herself after all. He had never truly seen Ais fight for real, however, so he was curious as to how strong she truly was.

"Tempest."

The wind began to circle around her petite frame as she drew her sword from its sheath. There was a brief moment of respite before she launched herself forward almost as if she were a bullet fired straight from a high-velocity sniper rifle. She might have even been faster than Bete which was impressive, to say the least.

"Soloing Udaeus wasn't enough for her, huh?" Bete mumbled to himself. "She just leveled up and still isn't satisfied."

It sounded like Bete was complaining, but there wasn't any real bite to it.

It almost sounded as if he was impressed if anything. Minato knew that the werewolf valued strength, so it didn't surprise him for there to be a certain level of respect that the wolf held in regards to the Sword Princess.

"... Does she do this a lot?"

"Yeah," Bete replied, not taking his eyes off the battle. "Ais is always trying to get stronger."

A sharp gust of wind cut through the Cadmus's thick scales.

The Sword Princess moved as if she were the wind itself, weaving in and out from the dragon's range of attack. She was quick and nimble, but her attacks packed a punch. The wind that followed after the girl gave her enough striking power to even punch through the Cadmus's scales.

It was the first time he had seen her truly fight and it was a sight to behold.

The wind around her didn't just increase her speed and power, it was almost like a suit of armor protecting its wearer. If he had to make a comparison, it was almost like watching a tornado knocking aside anything that dared to stand in its path. One moment, he felt a surge of magical energy gather around her sword, and then the next moment, the Cadmus was suddenly missing the upper half of its body.

"Heh… level six ain't no joke," Bete said as his lips pulled back into a ferocious grin, barring his fangs.

The battle was over, just like that.

The Sword Princess didn't look any worse for wear so he didn't think that he would need to use any healing spells. He stepped into the grassy fields of the Cadmus's Lair and began to look around. He could hear Bete walking over towards Ais in the center of the room, where the dragon's carcass was, but he didn't pay them any mind.

Minato just focused on looking around the area in an attempt to find any clues for his appearance in the Dungeon.

The room itself wasn't that large, so it didn't take too long for him to comb through it. If he were being honest with himself, he wasn't expecting to find much of anything. Things were never that simple, but he still had a little hope that there would be at least a semblance of a clue. Aside from the Cadmus and his two other companions, however, there wasn't anything worth mentioning in the room.

He supposed that even something simple like finding Aroundight again was hoping for too much. It was a pity because that had been one of his favorite gifts from Elizabeth. What could have happened to the sword though?

It's not as if the monsters would take it, would they?

"So, you find what you were looking for?" Bete's gruff voice shook him out of his thoughts.

Minato just shook his head at that.

"Tch, a waste of time then." The werewolf scowled. "Didn't even get any action out of it with Ais stealing all the glory."

The Sword Princess's expression twisted into a slight frown, but she didn't say anything in response and only averted her eyes.

Bete was right about it being a waste of time, but he still thought that it was worth a shot. It wasn't like he lost anything for checking, the expedition team was still preparing for the dive into the deep floors so he had the time to kill. It was just a shot in the dark that didn't pay off, no more, no less.

The real goal was still to clear the Dungeon so that Loki would send him back after all.

"Let's head back to camp," Minato said to his two other companions. "They're probably almost ready to continue the expedition."

"Heh, excited to finally get some real action, huh?" The werewolf grinned, baring his fangs. "I don't blame ya, the fifty-second floor is where the real fun begins."

Finn had said the same thing and now he found himself even more curious about the fifty-second floor than before.

Could there really be that much of a jump in difficulty?

Finn Deimne looked over the party members that he had selected to traverse into the deeper floors of the Dungeon with.

Tiona and Tione were going to be at the front of the formation, acting as the vanguard. He and Bete were going to be the second line, followed by the supporters and the smiths in the center of their formation. Arisato, Lefyia, and Riveria were slotted in after the smiths while Gareth and Ais brought up the rear. He knew that Ais would have preferred to be in the vanguard, but he felt that it was better for her to save her strength in case of irregulars appearing.

It was a bit of a punishment for disobeying orders and leaving the campsite without letting anyone know as well.

"Is everyone ready to move out?" Finn asked the group of adventurers standing beside him.

Various nods and resounding 'yes, captains' echoed throughout the group. They were a strong party, much stronger than the last time the Loki Familia had attempted to breach the fifty-second floor. He didn't have a single doubt in his mind that this would be the raid that would push the Loki Familia past its old record. With this group, they might even be able to break the Zeus Familia's record and set their name in stone as legends.

"Very well then," Finn announced as he held his spear up high. "Tiona, Tione, lead the charge."

The Amazon twins blitzed down the hallway with a burst of speed while the rest of the party followed closely behind. There was no turning back now, the real adventure started here and only veterans of the Dungeon were allowed past this point.

Finn couldn't help but feel his adventurer's spirit tingle with excitement at the thought.

Author's Notes- Not going to lie, been feeling pretty burnt out on writing this story lately, so I haven't been working on it much. The muse hasn't returned yet for this story, but I still managed to get this chapter out. I'm probably going to keep writing some of my other stories until the muse for this one returns, feel free to check out some of my other work in the meantime. Anyway, as always, reviews are appreciated and I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.