Chapter 5 - A Deep Adventure
The 2 days before the adventure to the deep levels were busy ones. First, Bell suggested that Mikoto should also take part. By boosting up Ais and Mikoto instead of Ais and Bell, the Hestia familia would be essentially sending a level 7, a level 6 and a level 5. Furthermore, with argonaut, Bell should have plenty of firepower at level 6. Ais also thought this made sense because a level 5 Mikoto can add offense with Futsunomitama and defense with Dio Grail, along with her radar-like detection of monsters. That made Mikoto happy because she wanted to go, but suggested that Welf can take her place in the next deep level adventure. Welf was also happy with the situation because there is something he has been wanting to make in the forge. With the new understanding, the happy team started gathering elixirs, potions and other materials for the trip. The night before the trip, they had a pre-trip dinner at the Hostess of Fertility.
On the day of the trip, Haruhime and Lili boosted up Mikoto and Ais. After meeting at the dungeon entrance, the combined party started on their adventure. Since they did not know what to expect in the deep levels after the war, Finn really liked having an additional magic user with both offensive and defensive abilities. For additional firepower, Leifya also bought Flivis who recently reached level 5, which made Mikoto happy because Filvis has been helping her with Dio Grail. For good measure, Ais did tease Leifya a bit about her relationship with Filvis to keep the trip interesting. After being the subject of Riveria's teasing, it was fun to dish some out herself... Amazingly, the party of 9 had no one below 5th level. After the tragedy in the Knossos, the Loki familia also decided not to send low-level members on deep missions.
With party of some of Orario's most well-known adventurers, it seemed a lot of monsters may be avoiding them. Thus, there has been no reason to use Aerial and thus no excuse to hold hands. There were some unfortunate minotaurs along the way, but they got to the 18th floor without much delay. While having lunch at Rivira, Bete did ask Bell whether he has gotten soft in his adventuring, but Ais nonchalantly mentioned that Bell is now taking a more leadership role in the familia. With that, Finn just laughed while Bete steamed at Ais' defense of Bell. Tiona did pulled hard on the wolf ears to get Bete to focus on a his immediate problem. Tione just smiled at Tiona while she was apply the punishment. They really did missed spending time with the argonaut and the sword princess.
After lunch, the party continued on their journey. As they walked, Ais' mind drifted into both happy and unhappy thoughts. Part of her is walking on clouds because she is walking next to the hero who repeatedly risked his life to protect her. But she also cannot help but think about Revis and her possible ties to her mother...
After descending several more levels, the party ran into a few Xenos, who were glad to guide them to Lyd and Gros. The Xenos have finally recovered from their many injuries and Asterius actually left to train for the next match with Bell. Finn asked whether there has been any sign of Revis, but they came up empty. The Xenos also have not been in the deep levels since the war so no one knows how much things have changed since the war.
Thus the party set off again. With still no serious threats so far, there still has been no excuse to hold hands in Aerial...
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