Chapter 7 - What an Loser Idiot...
The party continued to head down the dungeon to learn what has happened since the war. What has been puzzling Finn is the lack of any signs of violas or virgas. It would be hard to believe all of these monsters were destroyed. A number of tactical measures have been taken to increase safety including the buddy system as well as implementing a formation that puts fighters with magic resistance up front and at the rear. As they continue, Bell and Ais volunteered to use Ariel to scout ahead for possibles signs for trouble. Mikoto has also been using her detection capability to look for hidden monsters.
The first trouble was on the 45th floor. Bell and Ais were able to identify a colosseum with a large group of 'traditional' monsters like barbarians, spartoi and obsidian soldiers. Finn reminded everyone to save their spells until they get close because the dungeon will keep spawning monster to maintain a certain number of monsters. Thus, it was important to time the spell chanting until the monsters get close enough to be a concern. When the group got closer to the room, Leifya started concurrent chanting. A few seconds later Ais and Bell fired off an Aerial/firebolt to clear the path into the room. As they continued into the room, Mikoto activated the Dio Grail to protect their rear, while Beta and Tiona took the right side and Finn and Tione guarded the left side. The group calmly headed towards the exit on the far side of the colesseum room, as Ais and Bell alternated between launching Aerial/firebolt and helping with the fighting. About half way into the room, Leifya was done casting Wynn Fimbulvetr, which mostly cleared the room except the obsidian soldiers. With the room thinned out, the fighters were able to destroy the nearby monsters to traverse the colosseum. However, with monsters rapidly spawning, they were not about to sit down and sip tea. By the time they got to the exit, monsters were running towards them from all over the colosseum. Ais and Bell stayed behind to fire off a few more rounds of Aerial/firebolt, allow the others time to calmly build up more distance from the colosseum. More Aerial also meant more time holding hands...
Having never been in the deep floors, it was definitely a new experience for Bell, Mikoto and Filvis. Bell wanted more souvenirs but did not want to get teased. Mikoto was happily adding more monsters into her 'radar database' so she will be more useful. Filvis was still thinking about the massacre on the 27th floor and about how she could help protect her new comrades. When they got to the 46th floor, Mikoto was able to add bloodsaurus to her database as a whole herd of hungry monsters came attacking. While Leifya chanted, everyone else decided to save their magic energies and used their weapons. Tiona, Tione and Bete had a great battle, each with 3 kills. Bell did ok, with 2 kills. Ais, with her swordsmanship, took down 5. Finn acted like an old man and only notched 2. The less experienced Filvis and Mikoto worked together and destroyed 2. At the end, it did not matter because Leifya cleaned out the rest. After the battle and collecting the magic stones, Bell was sort of melancholy because the adventure has not really been like an adventure. Ais read his mind and gave him some encouragement "It can get like this after a while. But we still need to keep our guard up just in case...". After cheering Bell up, Ais asked him a serious question "Bell, you know the time with the dragon, when you said we will be together forever, what does that really mean?" With that question, things got back to normal. Bell turned bright red and fainted...
Back at the Hestia familia, Welf was taking good care of Lili and Haruhime. He thought they were being such good teammates to be willing to suffer the condition for days. Fortunately, the Takemikazuchi familia were also staying at the familia home to give Welf a hand. While Welf was helping them feed themselves, Ouka winked at Welf with a smirk. Ouka also came by later on and asked in private "So did you behave? The goddess may get angry..." Welf turned bright because he knew which goddess Ouka was referring to. The two boys chased after each other but Welf got his revenge using his superior strength. Chigusa just rolled her eyes asking "Ouka, are you ok?"
At the same time, Hestia was wondering what is going on from the heavens. It is hard to see inside the dungeon even for a goddess...
Meantime, deep in the dungeon, someone was complaining "Thanatos is such a loser idiot. What a waste of time..."