Chapter 9 - The Wisdom of Finn Deimne
The thought of someone attacking monsters from the deep levels was disturbing. Even more disturbing is that Revis, Ein and Enyo are not accounted for. Having seen Revis 'leveled up' to approximately level 7 from eating Olivas Act's magic stone, Finn's thumb started hurting. The Loki remember very well how the leveled-up Revis sent Finn to the infirmary and then also easily stabbed Ais through her Aerial protection about 2 months ago. The question is if Revis has been eating magic stones for 2 months, how much could she have leveled up? Level 8? Level 9? Level 10? Demi-god? No one knows.
Refusing to let their worst fears drive their decision thinking, the team tried to work out the possible scenarios if Revis was indeed responsible for the missing monsters. First, they assumed Revis has been harvesting powerful monsters for the last two months so that she would not even bother with Udaesus. Thus it is likely she has 'leveled'. How many levels is indeed the 100 million valors question. If she is at level 8, the 9 adventures should be able to defeat her. If she is at level 9, the outcome would be uncertain. If she is at level 10, they are in big trouble. With hindsight, they could have all been leveled up with Haruhime's help if they were anticipating such a threat. If Haruhime's boosting group would have been reorganized, Finn would be a level 8, while Bell, Ais, Tione, Bete, Tiona would be level 7 and Leifya would be level 6. Furthermore, with such a significant threat, it is likely Rivera would have temporarily come out of retirement and be the incredibly powerful mage at a post-boost level 8.
While an immediate retreat is a reasonable response, the team decided that they wanted a bit more information. As a result, they decided to send Ais and Bell on a quick scouting mission into the labyrinth up to the 52nd floor. If the Balor was harvested from the 49th floor, it would make sense that the valang dragons on the 51st to the 59th floor would have also been harvested.
For a little bit of extreme protection on the trip, Finn and Tione gave Ais and Bell the Hades Hats on loan from Asfi. As Ais and Bell headed to the 51st level entrance, Finn had Leifya set up Elf Circle next to the exit for the 49th floor in case of the worst case scenario. As Ais and Bell sped forward at maximum Aerial speed, Ais' mind drifted a bit to the last time she saw Revis and thoughts of her mother. Revis is an enormous threat as she cut Ais right through Ariel even though Ais was level 6. It is logical that Revis is improving herself by harvesting the most powerful monster. How much more of a monster has Revis become? Bell could feel the tension in Ais while holding her hand. Since there was not much he could say to comfort her, he just stayed alert in case they are heading into a trap. Though if they ran into a level 9 monster, would argonaut be enough?
Meanwhile, Welf is working on a couple items. With the war and the continuous adventuring, his smithing skills have been lying fallow. It felt good to get some work done in the forge...
At the same time, Hestia is still trying to see what is going on from the heavens. She also misses Jagamarukuns...