Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir, Ikuchi & Sylphie.

Speech: "Have you seen my favourite Kitsune?" Asks Hapa to Shimizu. "Oh you mean Sly. Yeah, I did."

Thoughts: 'Where is he?' Hapa's expression says.

Magic: "I summon thee hole - Einstein-Rosen Bridge"

Screaming/Demonic Voice: "What do you mean by hole?" Shimizu points to the second to last scene from chapter 16. "That one."


Chapter 17 Stranded

Dungeon - Welf POV

A moment of silence follows after Sly falls beyond our sight, but it does not last. Only a moment later a Jian bird carrying a potion races towards the wyvern and Mikoto blitzes forward in her quick draw technique's stance.

Welf gets over his shock quickly and grips his two-hander tightly. From what happened to the last dragon monster they fought he knew where this was going.

The Jian Bird circles the wyvern's head and rams into one of its wings causing a large explosion. The wyvern tumbles a few meters lower, but still keeps itself afloat. Unfortunately for the wyvern, it is now within range of Mikoto.

With a single leap and a cry of Zekka, a gleam of silver races past the wyvern's good side leaving the entire uninjured wing amputated and leaving a wound gaping from shoulder-bone to just above its hips.

Glaring over her shoulder, Mikoto floats a meter above the wyvern for a second as it spirals down. Upon crashing into the ground Welf rushes in for the kill.

Mikoto lands on the beast's exposed stomach and cuts deep, but not deep enough to hit the magic stone. That is until Welf uses his entire body to create the maximum momentum he can with his heavy two-hander and pierces the already deep wound up to the hilt of his sword.

The magic stone of the wyvern shatters into many smaller pieces and its body dissolves into dust; the solo remaining sign of the wyvern is the leather from its cut-off wing.

After both he and Mikoto have fallen to the ground, they turn towards the rushing Chigusa and follow her towards the hole.

When he looks down Welf can't help but sigh heavily. "Welp, he foresaw it and it happened alright. At the very least he still has his potions…"

Chigusa whips around looking to Welf with a single wide eye visible and cries out, "What do you mean potions?! Even he might not survive such a fall!"

Welf scratches his head as he looks to the side away from Chigusa's worried gaze. "Nah, he was the one that taught ya super acrobatics, wasn't he? He will hit the landing. Besides he asked me to make him a, in his terms, 'as close to unbreakable potion bag as you can get'."

Chigusa gets red on her face and prepared to scream his ears off, he can already tell. Fortunately, Ouka comes to his rescue. "Welf what do you mean prophecy?"

Welf shrugs his shoulders. "He foresaw he would be separated from us in the dungeon. But I'm thinkin' he and Acatl didn't expect it to go like that."

Ouka just takes a moment to think. "So, he foresaw this and prepared for it, right Welf?" He nods. "In that case let's make a defensive position here for now. Sly is the one carrying our rope. If he still has it, he can get back up, if not then finding him is probably impossible for us."

Mikoto stares at him with her battle lust gleaming in her eyes. "I can find him with my skill, we could push further!"

Ouka takes a moment to digest her words and glances around the party. Chigusa looks hopeful, while Asuka rummages through her potions with a frown on her face.

'This time we had experience diving this deep; we are far better off than before. Asuka should have a healthier store with her and Chigusa's aim has greatly improved. For once, I am leaning towards Mikoto's suggestion…'

While the others are looking to Ouka or taking stock of their tools, Welf glances down the hole and drops a stone down it; he stands there narrowing his eyes as if trying to see into the darkness.

'….1…..2…..3...4ish!' A clattering of stone is barely audible and Welf leans back clenching his eyes with a grimace. With a quick reflection on the rumors he has heard from his familia peers about this section he shakes his head. 'That….is way too far for us…'

Welf turns to the others; it looks like they are preparing to head deeper. "Hey, big guy! I doubt we can get that deep."

Ouka looks back to Welf with a frown. "Oh? How do you know the depth blacksmith?"

Welf crosses his arms a bit and then motions over his shoulder with his head. "Ah, a little trick Sly showed me. Take a stone and drop it down a pit. Count the seconds to get an idea how deep a pit is. This one is between 50 and 70 meters, if not deeper. Sly fell down at least to the 15th if not 16th floor. There is no way we get that deep without him. Chances are Sly hides and finds his way back on his own."

Chigusa's eye widens even further and grits her teeth in a slight scowl. "But we can't just leave him down here alone! He would never do that to any of us!"

Asuka secures her pack and looks towards Chigusa, then Welf, and nods. "I agree. We can't just abandon him down there!"

Mikoto looks to her fellow familia members, seeing that they all seem to be in agreement, she then speaks up, "Welf-dono, our party is strong! We made it this far, unspoiled, and with plenty of resources to burn after our haul from the last delve. If not now, when do can we dive further?!"

After seeing his fellow familia members speak, Ouka then looks to Welf with an inquisitive eye. 'Even Mikoto brings up a good point…What is it smith? Why are you trying to push us back?'

Welf is quiet, his head slightly drooping forward with his red hair looming over his face.

A slight grimace forms on his face, but he schools his expression; he looks up to the Take Familia before him with a face none of them have seen him have before. Lacking the normal jovial attitude or earnest enthusiasm, Welf has slightly narrowed eyes with a steady, neutral gaze that seeks to see through them.

"You all are strong. You've made me strong as well. But this is the Dungeon, and you all are still new to Orario and it. Let me pass on some words that my captain had passed to her and then me after my first 4 months.

The Dungeon is cunning. It'll hit you with one seemingly insignificant thing after another until they pile up into an unsustainable burden. And then, your unsteady legs will collapse beneath you more easily than a castle of sand. You can't regroup quickly. Then, when its prey is left panting, gasping in anguish, nearly exhausted, the Dungeon, having patiently waited, bares its fangs."

The Take familia was silent, and while listening to this Mikoto's eyes twitched into a frown.

"My familia has had contracts with numerous adventurers and their familias. My seniors have no end of stories of the adventurers they contracted who made it big, fast, and then ended up meeting their ends in the bowels of the Middle Floors. I refuse to let my first contracted familia, my friend's familia, be added to those stories."

Ouka's eyes widened, then glanced to the rest of his familia; all of them in quiet reflection. He looks back to Welf. "What do you suggest then smith?"

Welf's eyes softened as he focused on Ouka. "Head up as quickly as possible and issue a quest for Sly's retrieval; we need every advantage to return from the depths of the Middle Floors. Sly has fought level 2 monsters solo before; he will survive down there."

Mikoto's eyes twitch at this as one of her hands tightens its grip on her katana. 'Level 2 solo?! What is he talking about?!'

Ouka hums some, then turns towards his familia. "You heard him! Grab that wing and let's book it! Asuka! Get your stamina potions at the ready, we're stopping for nothing!"

"R-Right!" Asuka quickly recomposed herself and reorganized the potions at the ready, putting mana potions away in favor of healing and stamina potions.

Chigusa could only grip her bow tightly and switch out one of her mana potions for a stamina potion. 'We'll return brother. Please… just hold on!'

Ouka focuses on Mikoto now who seems to be scowling with her grip on her katana audibly tightening on her katana's hilt. "Mikoto! Lead the charge up and hold nothing back!" He then looks back to Welf, who seemingly is in a slight daze. "HEY! Smith! We're charging up! Don't fall behind!"

Welf blinks a bit refocusing on Ouka and then nods with a signature smirk. "You got it big guy!" Then, the Take familia turned around and charged back the way they came, back towards floor 12.

Quickly, the party tore their way back from the bottom of the Upper Floors to the surface. However, their red-haired member had to resort to chugging more stamina potions than the rest of the party; his agility was lower than theirs, but that wasn't the only thing slowing him down.

On the ascent through floor 12, Welf couldn't help but occasionally look over his shoulder; a futile hope that he would see his blue-tailed friend behind him.

'Maybe…if I had one that wouldn't have happened….' The voice of his goddess then spoke from the back of his mind.

'You know, that is fine for now Welf. But when you find someone precious to you, you're going to regret not using that power. The day will come when you have to stop weighing your pride against your companions.'

Welf suddenly grimaces as his grip on his greatsword intensified.

'You were right Hephaestus…. I'm such a hypocrite!'

"Damn it!"


Floor ? - Sleipnir POV

An unknown amount of time passed since his fall.

'My head hurts… I feel as if my entire body was mauled by a monster! What happened..?'

Sly feels like all his muscles are burning and it takes immense focus to move them. The only limbs that don't hurt too much are his tails.

He uses one of them to feel for injuries on his head. Sly feels a large lump on the back of his head and leaves his tail there in fear of worsening his injuries while he stays in his position on the stone floor.

'I don't think I injured my skull, but the lump indicates internal bleeding. Dangerous, but I can't risk a health potion until I am certain no bones are broken and misaligned, or they could regrow wrongly and lead to permanent injuries.'

With his second tail he slowly goes over the rest of his body. He was lying on his stomach. His left arm was positioned awkwardly under his body and… Yep, it was dislocated at the shoulder. Sly grit his teeth and used his tail to pull it from below him.

Breathing deeply against the pain and pulling his arm above his head, he gripped his other shoulder, and, with a scream and a loud pop, it returned to its proper position.

'Damn it that hurt! Asuka explained treating injuries would be painful, but this is worse than fighting Take bare handed!'

Sly moves his arm to his side and checks his legs with his tail, they are buried under a heavy rock, but do not seem to be broken. 'Now to take one of the health potions.'

Sly pries his padded, metal-reinforced potion pouch open with his tail and quickly guides it to his mouth, with as little movement as possible. The potion is sweet, and he lays still for another minute, to let it work and for him to gain his bearings.

He stands up and starts looking around. The floor has far bigger square bedrocks all around and he landed at the very edge behind a large bedrock, with his legs buried below another. There are no monsters in sight.

'Great, stranded in the Middle Floors. I hate being right! And on the day Sylphie has asked for a break? She would have been invaluable in treating my injuries!'

He looks back up the hole he fell down, inwardly cursing the wyvern. 'I have a lot of rope, but I doubt it's enough to get back up to the 13th floor, even less so with an injured shoulder and right arm. I will have to rest them if possible. My potions fixed most of the damage, but it still hurts to move too quickly, and the rest of my body hurts as well. I will need to get back up on my own.'

Sly checked his potions. He still had 3 more health potions, 3 mana potions and 2 stamina potions. They survived his fall thanks to his Welf-designed potion pouch. It is made from dungeon metal, reinforced with orc leather, lined with needle rabbit fur on the inside, and lastly the potion vials are reinforced with metal rings to distribute shocks over the entire vial. The rest of his equipment also took some damage. His daggers fell with him and both have a few chips from hitting the bedrock.

This would not do. Welf already told him off for his carelessness when he saw his naginata the previous week and confiscated it. 'I must prepare as much as possible now. The care an adventurer gives his equipment reflects upon the care they take of their life!'

With no monsters around Sly quickly casts a small illusion around himself to cancel any sound he makes. He takes out the small whetstone Welf gave him and spends a few minutes repairing the worst chips his daggers suffered and resharpening them.

He will need to avoid further encounters. That would be difficult in the Middle Floors. He already knew that hellhounds could use his scent to find him and not rely on sight. 'Even with my practice, hiding my scent is still the second hardest sense to hide. I haven't practiced combining it with another illusion yet. I can only hide my scent and hide the old-fashioned way and avoid monsters with stealth. But first, this bright red salamander wool cape can't be worn like this…'

Sly takes off his cloak and looks at his normal dungeon attire; Welf colored his orc leather robe like his last in a deep blue almost black, perfect to hide among bedrock. He swiftly casts a permanent illusion over it to change its color to the same deep blue as the bedrock and his robe.

It would only last for around a day like the illusions he cast in the martial dojo, but that should be more than enough to escape. After a quick illusio over his robe, Sly uses his illusion again to hide his scent. With the mana density of a tier 2 spirit and keeping in mind the stronger dungeon mana density, he could keep up this small illusion for around 6 more hours with around half of his mana capacity remaining. Add the mana potions to this calculation and he could keep it up for around 15 hours, as they at most filled up a fourth of his level two mana capacity.

'Gods, Dungeon's Ire SUCKS! Now that this is done, I will slowly travel through these floors, while avoiding monsters. I need to explore a few paths, to figure out on which floor and where on the guild maps I am. From there I can return to the Upper Floors.'

Sly began his journey through the Middle Floors. He followed the only path from the dead end started at. He kept close to the edge of the rooms and took careful steps without making any sounds.

The first room he entered contained many hellhounds. They had bad eyesight, which gave Sly a bit of leeway, but nonetheless he carefully hid behind the square rocks at the edge of the room and dashed from one to the next with careful steps to avoid making any sound, until he reached the other side of the room.

The next few rooms also contained hellhounds, which allowed Sly to use the same tactic to avoid them. He also noticed that crystals began growing in the direction he was traveling. From what was indicated by the guild, this meant he was getting closer to the middle of the floor.

A few more minutes passed and Sly was certain that he was on the 15th floor. How had he discovered this you might ask? Well, there were no Almiraj in sight. Almiraj only appear on the 13th and 14th floor, which means Sly must be deeper. However, he still saw a rare few groups of bad bats on the ceiling, meaning that he couldn't be any deeper than the 15th floor. He would continue forward with even more caution because on floor 15 minotaurs and ligerfangs can appear as very rare encounters.

Sly could only grimace as he assessed the floor's population. 'I hope that they didn't try to come after me... Fighting such monsters with the encounter rate of the Middle Floors is not something we are ready for…'

His expression only grew more grim at the feeling of something unseen watching him also increased significantly. His danger senses are tingling constantly and the fur of his tails and ears stands erect. 'And what the hell is watching me? It's as if there is a predator in waiting…'

In the next room, Sly spotted another pack of five hellhounds and hid behind a crystal. However, he hears the crack of a stone in the room, agitating the pack. Sly did not see what caused the sound and kept hidden behind one of the crystals close to the bedrock. He quickly calmed his breathing and slowed his movement in case something spotted him.

A minute passes, and the hellhounds continue searching the room. One of them even passed close by him, but with the illusion up their noses could not pick up his scent; they missed him.

The hellhound continued further when it passed the next purple crystal a thin purple arm slashed at its torso and pulled out the magic stone.

Sly focuses intently on the next crystal and spots it. Camouflaged with the same colour as the purple crystal a mantis-like insect hides. Right now, it is eating the cracked remains of the magic stone the hellhound dropped.

'Interesting. I am probably one of the first adventurers to observe natural rivalries of monsters in the dungeon. Crystal mantis hunt hellhounds. They in turn are likely hunted by the ligerfangs and all of them are hunted by minotaurs and wyverns. It's like a small, isolated ecosystem….Oh fuck!'

The other hellhounds hear this and turn toward the direction of the crystal mantis and his hideout. They snarl at them and one of them spots Sly.

Sigh. 'Looks like I can't avoid this battle.'

Sly takes a defensive stance and readies his daggers and his tails are ready at both his sides.

The crystal mantis isn't idle either and strikes one of the hellhounds after it, fully revealing its 1-meter size and crystalline purple body. The hellhound is scratched, but without its main advantage from surprise gone the hellhound only takes superficial damage.

Sly on the other hand fights against 3 hellhounds. The first charges him, while the other two prepare their fire breath.

Sly dodges the lunge of the first hound, steps behind it directly in line with the other two hellhounds, waits a moment, and dashes to the side right when they release their fire breath.

The first hellhound is burned to a crisp, leaving behind nothing but its magic stone, meanwhile Sly uses the chance to rush one of the remaining hellhounds. A fact many experienced adventurers know is that hellhounds always need a second to recover from using their breath attack, which is the perfect moment for a counter.

With a quick slash with Shadoudansā followed by Forōappushadou, Sly first carves a deep gorge in the hellhound's throat before cleanly beheading it.

Its partner followed him with a loud growl, while the crystal mantis moved similarly to Sly and used the gap between breath attacks to close the distance with the hellhound, before cutting through its hide to the magic stone below with its sharp claws.

Now both the mantis and the remaining hellhound focus on Sly.

They circle each other, Sly uses this moment to holster Forōappushadou before patiently waiting for the monsters to attack and an opening to form. This happens once the hellhound bends his knees for a lunge.

With a small sidestep to avoid the attack, Sly pulls sand from his pouch. 'Use every advantage...!' And throws it into the face of the hellhound. He quickly closes the distance with the crystal mantis while throwing two kunai at it.

The mantis deflects both kunai with strikes so quickly that Sly can barely spot them. But the distraction from the kunai gives him just enough of an opening to throw a 0.2-meter foxfire at the mantis.

It tries jumping away and is fast enough to avoid most of the fireball, but the explosion as it hits the ground gets one of its claws as it skids across the floor. Its crystalline body scrapes barely finding purchase on the flat bedrock.

Sly continues his charge and takes his second dagger again.

The mantis strikes with its one uninjured claw, but Sly blocks it with his first dagger and the second dagger crashes against the throat of the mantis-like monster; its crystalline structure splinters at the force of the strike.

Just as the monster falls Sly feels heat from his backside. He does not have enough time to dodge and instead crouches down, pulling his ears down and covering his back with his tails.

The next few seconds feel uncomfortably warm for his tails, but his magic is stronger than the hellhounds, allowing his natural magic resistance to block the fire magic.

All alone the monster falls quickly to a smirking Sly.

He collects all the magic stones and even finds a crimson bone among the remains of the hellhound that fell against the mantis. After collecting the loot Sly listens carefully and observes the rest of the room.

'Crystal mantises can hide atop the purple crystals. They hunt like assassins and could be a great threat to me if I try hiding beside them. They aren't too durable, but it's also difficult to spot the purple magic stone among the amethyst crystals their bodies are made of. And yet….'

Sly narrows his eyes and takes another glance over the chamber. There is nothing else in sight. 'The feeling of being watched remains… In the previous delves it never felt like this. Is it because I am by myself? Or…for some other reason?'

With a shake of his head, Sly continues a few more rooms forward, always picking the path leading towards the center of the 15th floor and marking his progress on his map. By now he has a good guess where he is as he cross-referenced the passages with his map, but he still needs a few more crossroads to be certain.

A few rooms later Sly spots his first ligerfang. It looks like a large almost two-meter-high tiger with white fur and black stripes all along its body. Its body is clad in muscles and every step of the monster displays the explosive strength this monster has with each heavy thud.

Sly quickly retreats to the entrance he used and watches as the ligerfang handles a pack of 10 hellhounds with ease. It dashes at them with agility higher than his and then uses its quick reflexes to jump one of the hellhounds before using its brutal strength to throw the wounded hound into the line of fire of his brethren.

This continues and in the 30 seconds Sly observes the ligerfang, it has already killed 3 hellhounds. 'Hell no! I am not fighting this thing! No wonder they are said to be as strong as minotaurs. An averted fight is a won fight here!'

Back in the previous room with 3 paths, Sly marks the dangerous path on his map and continues along the only remaining one. This room leads him directly towards another wyvern. This wyvern is resting on a platform in the middle of the room and seems to be asleep.

Sly debates for a moment if he should continue along this path or turn back but quickly decides to continue. Going back could mean fighting the ligerfang if it decides to go into the room he just left.

Taking a few deep breaths, he debates the best route to the other end of the room. After finding it Sly follows it and avoids every small stone and steps as lightly as he can. It would not do to wake a sleeping monster this close to the ligerfang.

Which is just great as hellhounds storm into the room from the passage Sly wants to reach. He curses in his mind and watches as the wyvern loudly shrieks at the disturbance, before shooting its breath attack at one of the hounds.

The remaining hellhounds cower before the wyvern and turn back, but the damage had already been done. The awake wyvern spots Sly and dives towards him.

'Wyverns are less agile than ligerfangs and the hellhounds are a little slower than me as well. Looks like I'll have to run!'

Doing just that Sly dodges the bite and dashes into the passage the hellhounds just left though, as a present he throws a tiny foxfire at the wyvern's head, not even hurting it but making it shriek in anger. It tries pursuing him but is too cumbersome as it is still on the ground and Sly slipped between the bedrocks, which are too small for it to follow.

However, his quick maneuver also revealed his position to the pack of 8 hellhounds that just entered the passage. With his moment of surprise, Sly plunges his dagger into the back of the head of one and throws another three kunai at those closest to him.

He does not stop and continues at full sprint, in between the pack. After barely a second, he passes the frontmost hellhound and the pack rushes in pursuit.

Sly strains his ears and vision to see the next room and sees it empty. He uses this chance and lights a small flashbomb from Asuka with his foxfire. He closes his eyes and runs towards one of the walls in the room.

A bright light blinds all the hellhounds and even Sly has to blink to get rid of the aftereffects, but the hellhounds stumble into the room, lacking any coordination.

Sly takes out another ten kunai, this time in both hands and throws them at the weak points of the pack while circling the room. One catches a hound in the throat another in the eye, many others in the legs, and a few in the torsos.

6 hellhounds remain and 3 of them are limping from his kunai attack and one even died from getting hit in the eye. There are still too many for a confrontation.

The hellhounds slowly regain their sight and growl angrily, searching the room for him. Forcing him to debate whether to continue fleeing or finish them here. 'No, I do not have the time. The wyvern will catch up if I fight them here and who knows if the ligerfang is following! I must distract them a little more then I can continue. At least there are 4 passages leading away from this room.'

Having decided Sly picks up a square rock and throws it towards one of the exits. 2 dogs rush there without pause, but 4 remain watching. Before Sly can wait any longer he hears the trampling steps of the wyvern getting closer.

He is out of time and has to rush towards the exit away from the hellhounds and wyvern. After his first step, the stationary ones spot him and quickly launch their breath attack at him.

3 breath attacks concentrate into a large inferno, quickly catching up to him. He has to stop and wrangle the control over the fire from the hellhounds. His tails might resist the magic from one hellhound, but 3 together? That's a tall order!

'However, practicing with Welf has helped me both with fire control and seeing how magical fire can be collapsed! If I can apply a bit of that here…' Sly staggers the flames and brings them to a stop with an enormous mental heave. It's a struggle to remain in control. The hellhounds together have a higher magic pressure than him but lack his fine control.

He barely manages to hold his position and keep the fire barrage from hitting him, but his concentration gets strained from holding out against three magic attacks at one. Sly's eyes twitch as a fourth joins the other three and he is getting pushed back. 'Oh, come on!' He has to take a step back, then another and another.

'I need to leave I can't concentrate on any more fire!' As he thinks of a way to leave, Sly sees the other hellhounds joining their brethren and overwhelming him in the time it takes him to blink. Then he is back against the 4 hellhounds.

He instinctively heaves once more with as much mana as he can pull from his reserve. He pushes the four hellhounds back a step as he overpowers them for a tiny moment with the raw mana output of a tier 2 spirit, before 6 flame breaths rush together and scorch the tunnel where he stood just a moment before.

He was just barely fast enough to escape the fire blast, but this was not without consequence. His tails lost a lot of fur and most likely had burns of the first degree, but he escaped with his live. Sly breathes heavily in the next room and is fortunate enough that there are no more monsters inside.

Not taking any time to rest he rushes forwards, still carefully avoiding monsters, but creating distance from the hellhound pack. In the next corridor, he fishes out a health potion and applies it to his tails. The soothing sensation calms his frayed nerves. He then drinks a mana potion, as he had already used a quarter of his mana because of the last battle. This all, and he only spent a little more than an hour on this floor. 'Going to need to thank Welf again for the kunai and sack, and Asuka for the flashbomb. I am going through resources fast and I am not even touching the monsters who start spawning on floor 15… We might need to reconsider our exploring speed when I get back.'

He takes the next room with even more care and finally manages to pinpoint his location. He is still some ways away from the normal route, but he is making progress in the right direction.

Another hour passes slowly. Sly is moving in parallel to the main route, but he has to take even more care to avoid strong monsters. In this time, he spotted a minotaur patrolling a passage. Another wyvern and countless packs of hellhounds, ranging from 5 up to 20 hellhounds.

The pack of twenty even defeated the wyvern he saw. 'It is incredible to observe how monsters behave naturally. From what I observed in the Upper Floors, monsters do not fight against one another, which leads most of them to be stationary and only rarely move around. The few that do are stronger like the war shadows, and have no reason to fight the weaker monsters. But here more monsters spawn than there is space, which leads to natural territory disputes between monsters. This should also increase the likelihood of enhanced species being birthed.' Sly then frowns. 'Was that infant dragon just a fluke? Or something else..?'

Another two passages further Sly senses something strange from a particularly large purple crystal. He carefully approaches the more than 5 meter high crystal after ascertaining that no other monster is close to the room. He believes another crystal mantis might lay in wait.

However, no surprise attack follows. Instead, his illusion domain behaves strangely when he uses his magic pressure to maintain it. It is as if it is being drained towards the tip of the crystal.

Sly climbs the crystal quickly and manages to distinguish 3 small round pits at the top of the crystal. The exact size of hellhound magic stones. Before doing anything Sly searched the room for more slots intent on opening the passage.

It might seem stupid to do this now, but for Sly, there was a good reason to act now. Every single secret room he has found in the Upper Floors always had a far lower spawn rate. Monsters in the room are stronger and often enhanced, but they only respawn after days.

'If I get inside and can clear the room, then I have the perfect chance to rest. I have enough supplies to camp here and regain my mana, then once it is refilled, I can return to the 14th floor. As it stands now, I will probably reach the 14th floor, but my mana capacity will run out before I reach the Upper Floors. That would mean certain death with hellhounds around every corner.'

Being confident in his plan, Sly quickly finds another large crystal on the other side of the room and inserts the hellhound magic stone in both of them. This causes a passage to open between the two crystals, which Sly promptly enters after drinking his second to last stamina potion and another mana potion. Preparation, like he took for the enhanced species pantry in the Upper Floors, is needed.

Inside the passage, Sly finds a long corridor, filled to the brim with large purple crystals on both walls and hanging from the 10-meter-high ceiling. Sly spends a few minutes surveying every crystal to assure himself that no crystal mantises are present before he continues forward.

The passage leads to a simple round cavern, decorated richly with many crystals, and Sly spots large silver veins in between. He is unsure whether they are normal silver or high silver, but Welf will have a field day when he tells him about them.

The cavern is rather small for the Middle Floors and only spans around 30 meters in diameter. The last 10 meters to the back are occupied by a large pond. Its depth is unclear. The ceiling is only 15 meters high in the center and the most notable feature is.

There are no monsters in sight?! Sly's eyes twitch at this and pouts. 'Kind of a waste to use the potions… But better safe than-'

Sly's tails stand erect, and he has a bad premonition. He forces himself to take a small step into the room and glances into the pond with narrowed eyes. At first, he sees nothing but water and uneven ground, but quickly two large yellow eyes with slit pupils open underwater. 'What…are you?'

They blink. First cutting off the yellow light entirely with horizontal eyelids, before they reopen, and a vertical eyelid opens as well and increases the light coming from the eyes. They focus on him and quickly look around the room, while a large body stirs.

Sly mirrors the shadow's actions and glances around, perhaps he missed an advantageous position before, but he did not. The room only had one passage leading outside, which was closed until the correct crystals were found.

Water, a pool in an empty room. In the depths two glowing eyes. Fear. Loneliness.


7 PM, 6 hours after Sly fell down the hole - I AM GANESHA - Takemikazuchi POV

Takemikazuchi stood in Ganesha's office. Behind him, his familia and Welf except Asuka stood at attention. Ganesha looks at them with his traditional goofy smile. Contrasting his own furious, but stern gaze from Take. "Looks like you're gonna ask for that favor I promised you Take. Better believe that I the great Ganesha, will help you! For I am The God Of The People!"

Ganesha flexes his muscles while Shakti stands at attention beside him. "What is the problem Takemikazuchi-sama? It must be serious if you seek my lord's assistance."

Take looks at her and Ganesha grimly. "I have a quest for you. Ganesha, I need a party of your children to enter the Middle Floors and find and escort Sleipnir out of there. I am prepared to pay 300'000 valis for your service."

Ganesha stops flexing and looks at Take with a scrutinizing gaze, while Ouka wonders how they are going to pay for the quest. Mikoto stares at Shakti with a hand tightening on the handle of her katana. "I see. I couldn't interfere in your favor during the Denatus, but this is something I can do! Middle Floors you say? How deep?"

Ganesha looks at Take before looking at Ouka, who looks at Take strangely, never having seen him acting seriously. Ouka gets over his surprise quickly. "We were on the 13th floor. Got ambushed by a wyvern that caught Sly and threw him down one of the holes connecting the labyrinth."

Shakti nods and notes down a few keywords. "In that case no deeper than the 16th floor and likely the 15th or 14th. How long ago did it happen? His level and state of equipment?"

Ouka explains. "It happened around 5 hours ago. We retreated after seeing how deep the hole was, to call for backup. Sly's level 2 is probably the strongest of us in it too. He only had his daggers, but likely still has a few health and mana potions and a map of whatever floor he is on."

Mikoto quips in. "He is sneaky and uses illusions to hide. He uses his invisibility to avoid monsters. He only has limited mana, and we are uncertain how many mana potions he carries. I believe that he will find us once we make some noise on the main route of the Middle Floors."

Shakti looks at her from above. "You speak as if you were coming with us. Are you?" Mikoto wastes no words and instead pats her katana. Shakti then turns to Ouka who gives a quick nod.

Shakti then focuses on the two low rank level one adventurers in the back. Both also seem intent on tagging along. Chigusa is the one to voice her intent first. "Please Shakti-san, let us accompany the rescue team as well!"

Welf remains quiet with a frown on his face. 'If lord Ganesha wasn't the one helping us, I might have… No, they have this without me having to resort to that.'

However, Mikoto does not take kindly to the interruption and focuses on Chigusa. "Wouldn't it be better if you both stayed behind with Asuka? We were already held back during our retreat because of you and can't lose any more time."

Chigusa looks at Mikoto in anger. "But Mikoto, we didn't need Asuka's rabbit speed potion, we can still operate at our maximum! Every bit of firepower will matter to save Sly!"

Take narrows his eyes, seeing the second Tengu approaching Mikoto and stepping besides the first. The effect is immediate as an annoyed scowl spreads across Mikoto's face. "Oh please! You can barely do anything on floor 13. You won't be anything but baggage in a rescue mission! Or worse, a liability!"

Before the argument can go any further Shakti intervenes. "We do not have time for your childish squabbles." She turns to Chigusa. "Are you two coming along?"

Chigusa immediately answers, "Yes! Even if we can't do much, we will help however we can and get back Sly!"

Welf adds with a resolute nod. "Give us a role and we will follow orders."

With a quick gesture, Shakti explains their roles. "Good. You two level 1s will be pure supporters. As for you two level 2s, you will be rearguards. You will be led by at least 1 level 3, to push through the middle floors fast. Follow his commands to the letter. This isn't like your normal dungeon delve. You will be in a large party of experienced level 2s, follow their lead and no acting out!"

Shakti focuses her gaze on everyone for a moment. "Am I understood?"

A chorus of "Yes, ma'am" and, "Of course" follows her question.

Taking a few notes Shakti commands them to follow her. "In that case come along you four. We will assemble a team to repay the favor lord Ganesha owes you. The faster we prepare the sooner we can help your familia member. Let's begin at the library!" Shakti quickly leaves the room with Sly's familia and friends not far behind, but the captain of Ganesha steals a quick glance at them both.

'Strange. These three and Sleipnir are all new to Orario and just leveled up. The Middle Floors should be out of their reach still and yet they sprinted up and are now heading right back into the depths of the Dungeon they ran from. That isn't even considering that their peer, a mage by all counts, has been thrown solo into the deeper part of the Cave Labyrinth and they are expecting him to survive fine… I can't think of another familia that has had members do anything similar and lived…except for….'

Shakti turned back towards the library with what one might call a hopeful smile. 'Lord Ganesha and Lord Take seem to be close friends. Maybe, just maybe Orario will have another familia it can rely on in a few years to keep the peace along with us instead of bending to the whims of Freya or Loki.'

Take watches them go before turning back at Ganesha. "Thank you, my friend. Your support means a lot to me. Fortunately, Welf-kun and Ouka-san managed to calm Mikoto and acted according to my lessons. Without preparation, there can be no victory. They retreated quickly and came to me to gather help."

Ganesha laughs it off. "I understand friend. At least you didn't storm into the dungeon yourself. That would have been… bad. Very bad." Ganesha frowns and pauses for a moment. 'Though, a small part of my mind wonders how deep you could go with your prowess my friend…'

"It's a small favor to help your familia. As for the price, let's say 200'000 valis is enough this time. You only need my children to dive into the Cave Labyrinth, I have more than enough teams that would do it as a personal request of mine. The difference in valis I will pay myself. And to be perfectly honest I wouldn't be surprised if Sly returned on his own. From what I gathered from both you and Acatl he crafty enough to turn even a terrible situation in his favor."

Take shows a small smile. "You are correct. And from my connection, I sense that he is still alive and has been for the 5 hours since my familia was split up. I believe in my kitsune."

Ganesha takes out his tea set. "Shall I call Acatl? Our bookworm should learn of the trouble her student is causing. We can't leave the people Sly cares about hanging in the dark."


Author's Note

If anyone didn't get the reference in the beginning search for "The Hole" on Youtube, by Tomska.

Can't wait for the next chapter. But I have a lot to do IRL so we will see when it is finished. Finally, I can play around with even more OCs. The wind fairy is already a lot of fun but her personality and backstory is mostly handled by LazyHapa, while the Xenos are almost entirely of my own design.

The next chapter will be the first in a long while, based purely on scenes around Sly and someone else.