The sky above Orario was a bright blue without a single cloud in sight. The early spring air blew pleasantly down the roads, which were filled with the noise of a bustling city. The sun had passed its zenith a couple of hours ago and was on its way back down to the horizon.

In the center of the city stood Babel, the cap of the Dungeon that laid beneath the ground. Adventurers streamed into and out of it. Most of the ones going in went up the tower rather than descending down into the dungeon, heading for the many shops and facilities that were located there for the convenience of adventurers.

Most of the ones coming out the tower were finishing a long day of killing and harvesting monsters, some more successfully than others. Adventurers with smiling faces and heavy bags walked alongside adventurers with grim expressions and tattered clothes. Still, every adventurer who walked up those stairs considered themselves lucky, no matter how dire their experience. They made it back to the city alive, after all. Many didn't.

But some adventurers were heading into the dungeon, despite the hour. Some had been held up by one thing or another, but others simply preferred to go in later, during less popular times, when they were less likely to run into other adventurers. The first couple of floors could get rather crowded during the most busy hours.

So no one paid much attention to the trio of girls who strode into Babel and down the stairs leading to the dungeon. If they seemed to be rushing, then well they were simply one of the late ones. They were dressed like adventurers and one of them was obviously a supporter with that large pack on her back. They passed other adventurers without anyone giving them so much as a second glance, unless it was to admire their looks.

And so the trio of girls descended the stairs and entered the Dungeon without anyone taking particular note of it.

Neither did anyone notice that they never came back up.


As soon as we entered the dungeon, the three of us took off running.

Asuna was in the lead, rapier drawn and ready to cut down any monsters we passed. Lili was in the center, setting our pace and calling out directions. I was in the rear, keeping an eye out on both of them and ready to clean up whatever Asuna missed.

Lili was also wearing her large pack filled with supplies that we had purchased on our way in, including some potions. She had some of Asuna's potions too, and my ace in the hole.

With her first status update in nearly six months, and her Skill that helped her carry heavy loads, her job was to carry our supplies and pass them to us faster than Asuna could navigate her inventory or I could pull it from my Pocket Space. Unfortunately, she was still the slowest of us, even without the backpack. But her knowledge of the layout of the first dozen or so floors more than made up for it.

Asuna and I had gotten Falnas from Dia as well. Unfortunately, neither of us got any fancy Skills immediately and our stats were all zero. But that was why we had gotten them before coming into the Dungeon, to earn some. I had also purchased Blessed Talent and Talent Sharing for it, to maximize our gains.

And our first opportunity to do so appeared just a short distance into the dungeon.

As we rounded a corner and entered a small room, I saw Asuna suddenly lunge forward, sword flashing. I barely got a chance to see the already dissolving bodies of a pair of goblins.

"What the…?" Asuna said, coming to a stop.

"What is it?" I asked.

"...I got loot." She was staring at a space in the air where her system window was, though we couldn't see it unless she chose to make it visible. "Tiny magic stones?"

I glanced at where the monsters were, though they had already dissolved into nothingness. In the Danmachi anime, that happened when you killed them, leaving only the stone behind. But in the novels and manga, magic stones had to be cut out of corpses, and only then did the corpses disappear.

However, the corpses here had dissolved immediately and hadn't left behind a magic stone.

I laughed. "Looks like your power auto-harvests magic stones from the monsters."

Lili pouted. "But that's Lili's job!"

"No, no, this is a good thing, we're not slowing down enough to harvest stones. They're not worth it. But if you can get a few while we go, then that's another matter entirely."

"But… that doesn't make any sense," Asuna muttered. "This isn't a game."

"Asuna… that applies to every aspect of your powers."

"I know!" she snapped. Then she sighed. "Whatever, can we just get going?"

"Sure. Lili?"

"That way," she said, pointing down a tunnel. "All the way to the end, then turn right."

We took off again. Asuna continued to cut down the monsters in our way, dispatching each with a single blow. They weren't enough of a threat to her endgame SAO strength.

"Miss Asuna is so strong," Lili commented as we ran through the halls. "She's at least as strong as a Level 2 adventurer already."

"How's the Falna going to affect that?" I asked.

"Lili isn't sure. Amazonesses are also pretty strong without a Falna, but a Level 2 amazoness is only a little stronger than an average Level 2 human adventurer. Racial differences tend to even out as you rank up."

"I see," I replied.

I didn't take any part in the fighting. My training and additional Master-Servant Contracts had increased the capabilities of my Linker Core, but I still needed to conserve my strength. We only had a few of the local Mind potions and I didn't want to spend all of Asuna's very limited stock of mana potions. Asuna had it covered without even breaking a sweat, at least for now.

The first several floors were conquered quickly and without issue. Sometimes we passed an adventurer group, but we never stopped to talk, and they never called out to us. At most, they just scrambled to get out of our way.

Lili's guidance led us to the fifth floor in under thirty minutes, but each floor was larger than the last and I knew that pace would quickly plummet as we got further in. And the fifth floor marked the first big change of the dungeon, as the walls took on a more earthy feel compared to the stone of the floors above, and more dangerous enemies spawned.

Well, they were more dangerous in theory. Asuna was still overpowered for this floor and if she found them any harder to dispatch, she didn't show it. Killer Ants as tall as a man and shadowy monsters both fell to a single flash of her blade. She wasn't even using Sword Skills.

But it was halfway through the sixth floor where we hit a snag. As Asuna was slicing her way through a room filled with Killer Ants, a scream echoed down the halls, the obvious sound of someone in trouble.

Asuna took off toward it without a word before I even finished processing it. "Wait, Asuna!" I called out. But she was already rounded a corner, her speed incomparable to before when she was slowing down for us.

I cursed. "Damn heroine is going to slow us down. Come on Lili, let's take care of this as quickly as possible."

"Right," Lili agreed with a nod, and we took off after her.

By the time we caught up, following the sound of battle and yelling, the battle was already over. Asuna stood in the center of the room, offering her hand to a young female adventurer covered in wounds. I saw a few Killer Ant corpses in the room, obviously of monsters that were killed before Asuna arrived. Besides the human girl that Asuna was helping up, there was also a human boy of the same age, and a male dwarf who looked older than either of them. Both looked shaken, and carried wounds.

"Th-thank you!" the girl stammered. "We, we just, there were so many of them all of a sudden, and we were overwhelmed."

"It's because someone left this damn corpse here," the dwarf said, kicking one of the dead Killer Ants. "They release pheromones that attract others of its kind." He glanced up at Lili and me, standing in the entrance. "Was it you two?"

Asuna looked over and spotted us. "No, they're with me." The others relaxed slightly.

"Well, either way, your help was appreciated, miss," the dwarf said. I assumed he was the leader of the group, as the other two seemed more than happy to let him do the talking. "We woulda been bug food if you hadn't come."

"Of course, I'm happy to help," Asuna replied with a smile. "Do you need some potions? Or help getting out?"

"Asuna!" I snapped. She turned and looked at me defiantly. "We don't have time for that, and you know it." And we also didn't have time for her to be disobeying me, which would trigger the Master-Servant Contract and incapacitate her with arousal. I wouldn't have any other choice but to fuck her here and now, where anyone might see. And she knew that as well.

"Now, now, you don't need to worry about us," the dwarf stepped in. "The offer is appreciated, but we're not idiots. We got potions and our equipment is fine. 'Sides, it's getting late anyway, we should be calling it a day. That fine with you two?" he asked his companions.

"Yeah, I think we're done for the day," the boy said. He looked a little nervous, obviously picking up on the tension between me and Asuna. The girl nodded too, obviously as eager to get away from this situation.

"Well… if you're sure," Asuna said unhappily as she backed down. I relaxed slightly.

"We'll be fine, don't you worry your pretty little head over us," the dwarf replied. "Come on you two, you can't let a bit of near death experience rattle you this much if you wanna be an adventurer." He laughed as he led the two of them back the way we came, towards the stairs.

When they were out of earshot I approached Asuna, Lili, close behind me. "Listen, I know I give you a lot of leeway, but-"

"I know," she cut me off. "I… I just reacted before I could think. But it didn't waste much time, did it? Just a couple of minutes."

I sighed. "And that's the only reason-"

Once again I was interrupted as footsteps sounded from another hallway. The three of us snapped up to look at it and saw a pair of figures walk in. Both were men wearing ratty armor, one a human and the other a person with raccoon ears and tail.

"My, my, if it isn't little Lili," the raccoon man said. Lili immediately tensed. "What are you doing, ruining our little trap like that?"

"Trap?" Asuna muttered, low enough for only us to hear, while narrowing her eyes at the two men.

"Let me guess, fellow members of the Soma Familia," I said. Lili nodded in confirmation, her expression darkening.

The raccoon was carrying two daggers at his waist and a third smaller one holstered on his chest while the human had a handle of a sword sticking out from over his shoulder.

"Huh, are you the latest suckers she's swindling?" the raccoon said with a sneer.

"You better watch out, or you'll be the ones suddenly surrounded by Killer Ants," the human laughed. "It's the oldest trick in the book!"

"Is that so?" I said, barely putting any effort into feigning worry. "Well, thanks for the advice, but we have to get going-" I started to turn around but I was cut off once again.

"Hold on, you're not going anywhere yet," the raccoon said.

"I'm getting really fucking tired of being interrupted," I growled under my breath before turning back and switch a normal volume. "Yeah? You're going to stop us then?"

"Yeah, I am," he said, arrogantly. "See, you messed up our haul for the day. To make it worse, Miss Flashy Sword over here destroyed the stones in her haste, so we can't even make a profit from those. So you're not leaving until we get some compensation." His eyes roamed over Asuna and I, filled with lust and desire. "I can think of a few ways you can pay us back."

I sighed. "We really don't have time for this. Asuna, I assume you don't have any problems with taking care of this?"

"None," she said flatly. And then she moved.

Blood spurted over the earthen walls and dual screams of pain rang out. I had to give Asuna credit, she was fast. She got behind them in an instant, before they could react, and cut straight through the armor and flesh of their calves, sending them crumpling to the ground.

She didn't stop there though. A few more swipes left them with similar injuries on their forearms, preventing them from going for their weapons.

"You- you bitch!" the human man cried out, pain and panic filling his voice as he looked down on his bleeding forearms.

I spotted Asuna grimace, her eyes glancing down at the blood on her sword, but her expression shifted again as she looked at the men. "I'm sorry, who was it that was trying to kill those other adventurers and then tried to get us to fuck you because we had the audacity to save them?" She glared at them. "You should consider yourselves lucky I only did this much."

"You, you won't get away with this!" the raccoon snarled. He looked around the room, eyes landing on this. "Lili! Are you going to let them do this to us? Your Familia members?"

Lili's expression shifted from stormy to shocked and then straight to outrage. "Lili cannot believe the words coming from your mouth," she said. "Who was it that always called Lili useless? Who stole her equipment? And now you're shamelessly asking Lili for help? Well, you won't get it. Lili is leaving the Soma Familia. She's found better employment. You can die down here for all Lili cares."

"You know, we can do that if you want," I said.

Everyone in the room froze and looked at me.

"What?" the human said, eyes wide with fear.

"Hold on, I thought we didn't kill?!" Asuna protested.

"We don't kill people in our dungeon, because it's a waste of either profit or future manpower. These two? They're in our way and I can't get anything from them, so who cares?" Both of them looked scared now, but I ignored them and turned to Lili. "Lili, this is your last chance to do something in this world. We can maybe lure in some more Soma members in the future, but if there's anything you want to work out before we leave for good, this is it. I'll let you decide their fate. Just make it quick."

Lili's expression was stony, but I could see the gears turning behind her eyes as she stared at the two crippled adventurers. A few heartbeats passed in silence as we all watched her, waiting for her decision. The two Soma Familia members with fear, Asuna with worry, and me with curiosity.

Finally, she shrugged off her bag and let it fall to the ground. She stopped to pull a knife from a sheath attached to the outside of the bag and then slowly approached the two adventurers.

"Lili, don't do this!" Asuna said.

"Stay still, that's an order!" I barked at her. She froze in place, not because she was compelled to, but because she knew the consequences of ignoring a direct order.

The two adventurers tried to scramble away from Lili as she approached, but they hissed in pain each time they put weight on a limb, and blood still flowed from their wounds. They didn't get very far before she caught up with them.

"Wait, Lili, please," the raccoon begged. "I've, I've got savings! A stash I've kept for emergencies! It's yours if you let us go!"

Lili considered him for a moment, and then smiled. "Lili… has no need for your money anymore." And then she crouched down and plunged her dagger into his throat.

The raccoon's eyes widened and he tried to speak, but all that came out was a gurgle as Lili pulled her knife back and blood erupted from his neck.

The other man screamed, redoubling his efforts to get away. Lili caught him before he made it more than a few feet, her knife plunging into the back of his neck. He died instantly, body going limp. The raccoon was still thrashing, still bleeding out.

"So the throat takes longer than the spine. Lili will remember that." She nodded as if she learned something new and then made her way back to her bag, kicking the weak hand of the raccoon that reached for her as she passed. He fell limp a few seconds later, as Lili used a piece of cloth pulled from her bag to clean her blade.

"Lili…" Asuna said, still not moving but watching her with sad eyes.

"How does it feel?" I asked, a small smile tugging at my lips. Part of me felt like I should have been reacting differently. I had lived a relatively normal life in modern Japan before becoming a contractor after all. Death, much less a cold blooded murder, wasn't something I had ever been exposed to before.

But it just didn't feel important compared to my interest in how Lili was taking it. Her reaction was far more important to me than the fact that I had practically egged her into killing those men. I'd say they deserved it, but I honestly didn't care. They were in our way.

I was grateful to them though, as Lili turned to me with a cheerful smile that didn't fit the situation at all. "Lili feels like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders! She thanks Master for allowing her to get a small amount of her revenge." She finished by bowing to me, bending her waist nearly ninety degrees.

And there, on her neck, I saw the collar of the Master-Servant Contract appear as it shifted from violet to indigo. I had Maria perform the ritual while Dia applied her Falna to Asuna, just in case I needed to track her down using the bond. I hadn't expected a chance like this to come up, but I would have been lying if I claimed that the free loyalty boost wasn't why I had taken the time to let her choose their fates.

Sadly Maria had been too drained by it to perform the ritual with Dia, but the basic bond level didn't give a power boost anyway, so I lost out on very little.

I smiled back at her and patted her on the head. "I'm glad. Now, grab any potions they might have and then let's get going. We need to make up for lost time."

"Yes!" Lili responded enthusiastically before going to loot the bodies of her former companions.

"Oh, Asuna, you can move again," I said. "And no more chasing after screams of help, alright?"

She glared at me, but it was half hearted, blunted by dourness caused by Lili's obvious corruption. "Understood…" she replied.

Once Lili scavenged the potions, as well as a few magic stones, from them and put her backpack on again, we took off, heading for the lower floors.


It was more than an hour later that we reached the thirteenth floor, the first one of what was referred to as the Middle Floors. The Dungeon had another dramatic change here. Floors became even larger, and the tunnels and rooms were more vertical rather than all being on a relatively flat plane. They went up and down and intertwined with each other.

The spawns increased as well. Monsters that spawned here traveled in packs, and they were notably smarter than their upper floor brethren. It was considered impossible for a solo Level 2 adventurer to explore these floors, and even with two Level 2's working together it was considered extremely dangerous.

I personally had Asuna clocked in as equivalent to a low Level 3 Adventurer, but I probably only counted as a mid-tier Level 2 one at best. And Lili was still on the low end of Level 1, weak enough that she can't safely traverse even the fourth floor by herself. Down here, her usefulness was limited to being another pair of eyes and managing our equipment.

Arriving at the thirteenth floor also meant that I couldn't just let Asuna carry us solo.

"Balmung," I intoned as I pointed my staff. My magic flowed through my Linker Core and into my staff, where it was twisted and formed into the recorded pattern. I tweaked it as it took shape, altering the variables that were left open for me to decide on the fly. Once shaped, the magic took form, and six packets of magical energy in the form of swords appeared in the air above my shoulders, arranged in an arc above my head.

I made a few more tweaks as the pack of hellhounds I was aiming at got closer, and then released the magic. The swords fired off, each of them streaking silently through the air, purple energy trailing in their wake.

They reached the approaching hellhounds in a blink, cutting deep into them. Three of the four hellhounds died quickly, barely getting a whimper out before falling limp to the ground. But one of them, a trailing one that I had only sent one sword at, was more nimble, and it had dodged my attack at the last moment.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. It was too close for another Balmung, and in fact was too close for any other attack. "Panzerschild!" I intoned, activating yet another spell.

Another magic circle appeared in front of me, between myself and the hellhound, right as it leapt at me. It slammed into the unexpected shield and then bounced off, hitting the ground at an awkward angle and rolling. But it was starting to get its feet under it even before it came to a stop.

I didn't give it the time. I dropped the shield and gathered my magical energy through my Linker Core and into my hand and fired it off in an unrefined burst of power, giving it only the barest of structure. Technically it was a spell known as Cross Smasher, but in my opinion calling it a spell was a bit too generous. It was a quick cast burst of power with no direction or control.

It was enough to finish the job though. The energy slammed into the hellhound and tore it to pieces, disintegrating much of it besides the bones and some scraps of flesh, all of which faded into dust as they were disconnected from the magical stone that powered it.

I let out a breath and then looked around to see Asuna finishing the last of the killer horned rabbits that had attacked us. They hadn't seemed threatening at first, but when they attacked in groups of eight or more, all of them moving at speeds faster than any other monster on this floor could reach, they were a real threat.

Asuna was still faster though, so she took care of them while I focused on whatever else showed up.

I looked around the room, making sure no more spawns had shown up during the fight. Thankfully they hadn't. But I glanced at the corpses of the hellhounds and sighed. Cross Smasher was fast and powerful, but it wasted a lot of magical energy, which was the last thing we could afford when we only just started on the Middle Floors.

"What time is it?" Asuna asked after she finished her own check of the room.

I pulled out my smart device. "Almost six," I reported. Almost two hours since we entered the Dungeon, and six hours before the portal between this world and the Stoneblock closed. I had already given up on making it back in time, meaning we'd get yanked back when time was up. That had a penalty attached to it, a reduction of time in the next world, but that was a price I was willing to pay. It was also why I hadn't taken Ed or Maria with us, to reduce that penalty as much as possible.

Asuna frowned as she considered that. "If you just count the number of floors, we're well above pace. But…"

"The Middle Floors are much tougher," Lili agreed. "Lili has never been here either, so she can't guide you."

"We can make it," I said, rolling my shoulders and taking the moment to stretch my arms. "It'll be tight, but we can make it."

Asuna looked doubtful, but Lili took my words to heart and perked up, nodding. "Yes!"

"Let's get going then. Asuna, lead the way."

We headed deeper into the floor. The fact that Asuna's game avatar automatically created mapping data for areas she visited was a saving grace for us as it prevented us from getting turned around and let us explore the floor methodically.

I knew from the anime that I had watched and the novels that I had read that there were supposedly large holes on the Middle Floors that could lead down a floor or two that could serve as shortcuts, but their appearance was also random, and using them was risky.

Not that it mattered, because somehow we didn't come across a single one. I wasn't sure how rare they were meant to be, though I know Bell found several when he was making his way down to Rivira for the first time. But then again, he was a protagonist with a literal Luck stat, which made him a poor benchmark.

So we were forced to take the 'slow' way, fighting our way room by room, tunnel by tunnel. Asuna was still holding strong, but it was only a steady stream of potions that kept me useful. My spells were more than strong enough to deal with the monsters, even doing serious damage to the Minotaurs when they started showing up, but they drained me quickly.

By the time we made it to the bottom of the sixteenth floor, I had used all the Mind potions that we had prepared and a good chunk of the mana potions that I had budgeted for the trip. I hadn't been sure if the Mind potions would actually work for me, but they were more effective than Asuna's were and I found myself wishing that I had saved them for last.

But I didn't care that much, not by then. The last four floors were a slog that had taken us five hours to clear, which was still an amazing pace according to Lili. We took a much needed break on the stairs leading from the sixteenth floor to the seventeenth, sitting on them as we caught our breath. Lili handed out some rations we had picked up on our way in, dry and strangely compact sandwiches.

I washed my meal down with one of Lili's weaker health potions, which were great for restoring physical stamina as well as healing wounds. I wanted to be in tip top shape for the fight ahead of us.

"So what should I expect from the next floor?" Asuna asked as she finished her own food, grimacing at how bland it was.

"If I remember right, it's similar to the past few floors, but more straightforward," I said as I wracked my memories. "It's not much of a maze, and I think there are fewer spawns. It's the calm before the storm, you could say. Because at the end of it is the boss room where the Goliath spawns."

"Which is what exactly? A giant of some kind, I assume."

"Pretty much. It's a massive humanoid without any special features besides overwhelming brute strength."

"It respawns every two weeks, and the Guild classifies it as a Level 4 monster," Lili added. "Usually the people of Rivira will kill it when it spawns so it doesn't block traffic to the town, so Lili doesn't know if it will appear."

"Killing it is a Mission from the Company, and they don't give impossible Missions," I said. Then I paused. "Though I got it this morning, when we arrived. It's possible that we missed our window. Not sure if it would be marked as failed or not." I shrugged. "Killing it is a bonus objective anyway. If we missed our chance, then that sucks, but I'm not going to waste time worrying about it. Getting you and Dia was more important."

A pleased smile grew on Lili's face, but Asuna was frowning. "Are you sure we can even take it on?" she said. "I don't know exactly how strong a Level 4 is, but it sounds like we're trying to take on a raid boss with a severely shorthanded party."

"That's pretty accurate, yeah. It wouldn't be the first time you've done that though, would it?"

She glared at me. "Every other time I've done it I've had competent companions backing me up, not dead weight."

"Ooh, someone's feeling grumpy," I replied, not letting her insult get to me. "Don't worry, the sooner we finish here, the sooner we can go home and take a nap."

"We'll get home at the same time no matter what!" she snapped. "And don't patronize me!"

I snickered in amusement before turning to Lili. "You've got one of those monster repelling bundles, right?"

"Yes, Lili has something that can repel monsters. Are we going to use it now?"

"Yeah. Since this floor is mostly a straight shot, we're going to ignore all the mobs and conserve our strength for the boss." I checked my phone. "We've got a bit less than an hour. Let's get going."

Lili took out a bundle of what looked like raw meat wrapped in cloth and unsealed it. Immediately a pungent odor burst out from it, causing both me and Asuna to flinch and cover our noses. Lili grimaced as well, but she dutifully tied the sack around her neck.

"Monsters will avoid us now, until the smell fades," Lili explained. "It should last a few hours."

"We probably should have used it earlier then," Asuna grumbled.

"Nah, the experience points were worth it. We had time." I wrinkled my nose. "Besides, do you really wish you had spent more time around this smell?"

"That's… a good point," she relented. Then she turned. "Let's get this over with then."

We ran through the seventeenth floor. Asuna and I kept a pace that wouldn't wear us out too much, which was about as fast as Lili could go. She was going to play a more supportive role during the fight, so she didn't need to conserve her energy as much.

Still, it was a long run. The seventeenth floor may have been significantly less maze-like than the ones above it, but it was even larger, and the lack of branching paths just meant we had to cover a larger percentage of the floor before reaching the exit.

We only made good time because the handful of monsters that did poke their head up took one whiff of us and decided that we weren't worth it. I didn't blame them. If time wasn't so tight, I wouldn't have thought it was worth it either. The smell was truly horrendous, beyond the worst kind of rot and filth that I had ever smelled.

And after traversing most of the floor, we came to a stop at a round entrance in the wall. Beyond it was a long empty room, but one of the walls wasn't rough hewn stone, but smooth and polished, almost glossy even.

"The Great Wall of Sorrow," Lili breathed.

"That's such a cool name," I commented as I looked at it. "That's where the Goliath will spawn from Asuna. You'll be taking the lead. Try not to use your sword skills too much, just hold aggro. I'll damage it from the rear. Lili, leave the monster repel at the entrance here so we don't get any surprises. During the fight, you'll pass out potions to us."

"Lili only has one mind potion left."

"I know. We'll just do our best. This boss might be a bit above our level. If it takes too long or if we're getting crushed, we'll book it to the exit. Understood?"

The two of them nodded as they did a last check of their equipment. I did the same, though I only had a couple of Asuna's mana potions on me. My Barrier Jacket was deployed, tuned for mobility and physical defense, and the Tome of the Night Sky was in its staff form and in my hand.

"Ready?" I asked. Lili nodded again.

"Let's go, we don't have much time," Asuna said before darting into the room. Lili and I followed quickly behind her.

We made it about halfway before the wall started cracking. Faults appeared in the otherwise unmarred stone and chunks of it fell away to reveal a hulking gray form behind it. As its face was revealed, almost but not quite human like, with gray skin and red eyes, it awoke. More of the wall burst apart as it pushed its way out.

"Balmung!" I intoned, preparing more magic swords. I didn't fire them immediately though, instead holding on to them as Asuna closed the gap, her sword flashing.

Rubble of the wall was still falling as Asuna's sword cut into the flesh of its ankles. It roared out and stomped, but Asuna was already pulling back.

"Its skin is hard!" she called out, baiting the Goliath back away from the wall so she would have more room to maneuver.

I looked at where she attacked and saw faint lines where she cut- none of them deep enough to draw blood.

"Can you cut through it without a Sword Skill?" I yelled back.

She didn't answer as the Goliath, who seemed more than happy to focus purely on her for now, slammed its hand down into the ground. The entire cavern shook as it hit the ground, but Asuna was already long gone, circling around behind it. It was strong, impossibly so, but Asuna had the speed advantage.

Her sword flashed once more as she thrust at the Goliath's ankles, scoring more hits across its hide, but none of them penetrated. The Goliath didn't seem to like it though, as it roared in anger and kicked its foot back at her.

Instead of dodging to the side, she jumped up and landed on its rising heel, riding the kick for a moment as it launched her. She flipped in mid air, planted her feet on the wall and crouched to absorb her momentum. She hung there for a moment, gravity only just beginning to pull at her again before she pushed off of it and launched herself at the Goliath, which was in the process of turning around.

Her sword plunged into the shoulder of the Goliath, just a few feet from its thick and meaty neck. It roared again, in pain rather than anger this time, and reached up to swat her. Asuna leaped off before it could though, backflipping through the air and landing on her feet between me and the monster. Lili gaped at her.

"I can, but it takes a lot of effort," she answered my earlier question. "And I'm not sure how much damage that did."

"That's the downside to no health bars," I said. "Just keep its attention then. I'll see if my spells fare any better."

She nodded and rushed back in, sword aimed for its ankles. I finally launch my magically conjured swords and they rush toward the Goliath behind her.

Asuna's blows cut the Goliath some more, but my spell pierced its skin, with all of the swords sinking halfway into the giant's flesh. They dissipated after a moment, leaving behind tiny wounds that trickled blood.

The Goliath roared again and looked at me. I cursed. "Balmung!" I said again, conjuring more swords. Unfortunately it was the only offensive spell I could use that would actually hurt it. This time I aimed them at its face, but it lifted a hand to block them. The swords still pierced the flesh of its hand, but it didn't seem to mind that as much. It roared and started stomping for me.

"Dammit, I didn't wanna use this. Lili, run! Sleipnir!"

Six black wings, none of them terribly large and extending only a meter or so from my body, sprouted from the back of my barrier jacket, and I rose into the air. Lili scrambled out of the way as I flew backward, away from the approaching giant.

I had been working hard for a while now to figure out the flight spell that came with the Tome, and I had more or less mastered it a while ago. But it was just so damn expensive. I could already feel my Linker Core straining as I jetted back a few dozen meters.

Asuna gave chase, and I saw her sword glow with a Sword Skill. She put on a burst of speed and her sword cut an arc through the Goliath's ankle.

Blood splattered against the ground and the Goliath stumbled, hamstrung. It turned away from me and looked at Asuna with rage in its expression, arm already swinging at her. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't move due to the post-motion delay of her skill.

I cursed, landing on the ground and dismissing my wings. "Wire Lock!" I desperately cast.

Magically conjured wires shot out to wrap around the Goliath's arm. It came to a halt, just for a moment, before the Goliath pulled and the magically conjured chains snapped.

It bought enough time for Asuna to start moving again, out of the range of its attack, but the Goliath reacted by opening its hand, changing its attack from a punch to an open handed slap. Asuna was clipped by its fingers and sent spinning through the air.

"Asuna!" I shouted. I saw her moving, so she wasn't dead, but she was struggling to get her feet under her, and I knew that she would need a moment. A moment I had to buy.

I grabbed a mana potion with one hand even as I was casting with the other. "Balmung! Balmung! Balmung!"

A triple set of swords rushed at the Goliath, all aimed for different parts of its body. It saw them coming though, and once again it protected its face. But that left its torso unprotected, and the remaining constructs peppered its body.

It roared once more and turned to me. I activated Sleipnir immediately and lifted into the air, chugging my mana potion as I dodged away from it. My Linker Core was filled with a burst of energy, taking some of the exhaustion off of it, but every second I spent in the air was another where it was being pushed to its limits.

I dodged through the air as the Goliath swatted at me. I was hard focused on it, unable to split my attention for a second as I weaved between its attacks. All I needed to do, and all I could do, was keep its attention as Asuna recovered.

I chugged my second mana potion, the last one I had on me, as the strain increased. Sleipnir was expensive, but it was a good flight spell, with high top speeds and extreme maneuverability, the latter of which I pushed to its limits as I made hairpin turns to stick close to the Goliath without letting it hit me. Thankfully I had spent more than one simulation training session focused purely on getting used to flying.

But I couldn't keep it up forever. My body felt hot as I pushed more and more magic through it, and I knew I couldn't last much longer. Just when I was contemplating alternative solutions, a Flash appeared and Asuna once more leaped onto the Goliath and plunged her sword into it.

I let go of my flight spell immediately, not even bothering to land first. I fell a few meters to the ground, spinning to get my feet under me and stumbling when I landed. My chest heaved as I sucked in air, my body hot and tired.

"Lili!" I called out, which caused me to cough. I cleared my throat as she looked at me from across the room. "Potion!"

As Asuna did battle with the Goliath, Lili rushed toward me, potion in hand. As she got closer, she threw it to me. I grabbed it out of the air, almost missing it, and greedily drank it. I could feel it spreading through my body, cooling me down and relieving my exhausted Linker Core.

"Lili doesn't think we can kill it," she commented as she kept an eye on the fight. Asuna had pulled a little away from us and was clearly just buying time, only attacking it enough to keep aggro. "Your attacks don't do enough."

I grimaced but I silently agreed with her. Asuna's Sword Skill had done good damage to it, it was still limping from where she had severed its tendon, but monsters were made of sterner stuff and just that much wasn't going to be enough to win.

What we needed was a way to let Asuna use more of her Sword Skills. But Wire Lock didn't slow it down enough, especially now that it would be on the lookout for that.

But there was one thing I could try.

"I'm going to spend all my magic on something that might change that," I said. Then, louder. "Asuna! Prepare to start using your Sword Skills!"

I wasn't sure if she heard me, but if she didn't, I hoped she was smart enough to figure it out. I raised my staff and started folding my magic in a peculiar way that I had just recently learned. "Summon Golem!"

A giant magic circle appeared on the ground in front of me, which rumbled and then swelled. Dark gray stone pushed itself up out of the floor, like the ground itself was waking up and taking form. Every bit of magic power I could muster streamed into the golem as it rose, forming a body much like the one that Fouquet had summoned, with a large torso that blended into its head, long heavy arms, and stubby legs. It stood as tall as the Goliath itself.

The Goliath turned to face this new rival and roared a challenge. My golem couldn't roar back, but through the connection between us I urged it to raise its fists and rush the monster.

The two massive creatures slammed into each other hard enough to send massive shockwaves through the chamber. My golem cracked and splintered, threatening to fall apart from the seams, but I poured more magic into our connection and it repaired itself. It was fragile, but so long as I had mana, it would stay up.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't have mana for much longer.

"Asuna!"

She was already moving, rapidly throwing herself up my golem, which had locked hands with the Goliath. It continued to pull magic from me as the Goliath's overwhelming strength crushed its hands and broke its arms, forcing it to constantly self repair. I was running low, but hopefully I didn't need long.

Asuna climbed to the shoulder of my golem, which put her on the face level with the Goliath. I saw as it looked at her, its angry red glares focusing as her sword lifted and started to glow.

Asuna's sword blurred, creating four streaks of light in the air as she thrust it forward four times in quick succession, two for each eye.

The Goliath was wholly unable to defend itself this time. It roared out in pain and started thrashing. I made my golem tighten its grip, but it was yanked around from the sheer force of the rampaging monster. Asuna lost her balance and fell, though she managed to get her feet under her before hitting the ground.

I gasped as something inside of me started to ache and I cut off the flow of the magic. My barrier jacket flickered and shone before it dismissed itself, replacing itself with my normal clothes. I felt drained beyond belief, more tired than I ever had after a sparring session or simulation. I panted, but I kept my eye on the Goliath.

My golem was crumbling to pieces, no longer animated, but the goliath was too busy clutching at its bleeding face to retaliate. We had a moment to act freely.

And I was going to use it.

"Asuna! We're finishing this! Wait for my mark!" I called out to her. She didn't reply, she just nodded and prepared herself.

"How? Lili thought you were out of magic," the pallum asked from my side.

"I might be out of magic, but I'm not out of options. Hand me the thing I gave you earlier."

Lili looked confused, but she quickly shrugged off her bag so she could rifle through it. I held my hand out but I kept my eyes on the Goliath. Even blinded as it was, we simply weren't doing enough damage, and we didn't have the time or the resources to whittle it down. We needed something big. We needed a critical hit.

Lili placed the item I asked for in my hand. A metal tube with attached bits. The Staff of Destruction.

"Don't stand behind me," I told her as I quickly unfolded the rocket launcher we had picked up in the last world. I had test fired it once, in my throne room where I wouldn't blow myself up, just to make sure I knew how to operate it. So I didn't have to figure it out as I prepared it and then aimed it at the stumbling Goliath.

"Fire in the hole!" I cried out. Asuna looked back at us over her shoulder just in time to see the rocket streak from the firing tube and slam into the monster.

A massive explosion rocked the chamber, the confined space echoing as the thunderclap of it bounced off the walls. Smoke filled the air, and I heard the Goliath roar in pain.

"What was that?!" Lili asked, confused and amazed, but I ignored her. Because what I hadn't heard or felt was a thump of a massive body hitting the ground.

Sure enough, when the smoke cleared, the Goliath was still standing. It looked roughed up though. Its eyes were shut and bleeding and its chest was burned and gouged open.

And most importantly, I saw its magic stone, glinting deep within its gaping chest wound.

"The core!" I yelled, and thankfully Asuna understood.

The Goliath yelled, blindly stepping forward and swinging its arm. But Asuna easily dodged it, ducking under the wild blow as she held her sword horizontal, and it began to glow.

At the last moment she planted her foot and changed the angle of her sword, pointing it up towards the Goliath's chest.

And then another thunderclap echoed through the room as she disappeared, the Sword Skill activating and shooting her forward and up at the insane speeds that earned her the title of "The Flash".

One instant she was on the ground, and the next I heard a cracking sound and I saw Asuna's sword buried to the hilt in the monster's magic stone. Asuna remained there frozen as the cracking sounds continued, and the Goliath came to a stop as well, looking almost confused.

And then the magic stone shattered. Once more, Asuna fell to the ground, only escaping the post-motion delay as she was falling and barely managing to land on her feet. Meanwhile, the Goliath fell to its knees as well and then started to fall forward toward Asuna, but with the magic stone destroyed, it was already fading into dust, and it dissipated before its body could even hit the ground.

The only noise at first was the sound of heavy breathing and the tinkling of remnants of the massive gem-like stone hitting the floor.

"We… we did it?" Lili broke the silence, tone amazed.

"Looks like it," I said. "Asuna? How're you doing?"

"I'm fine," she reported, dusting herself off. "My health dipped into the yellow after that blow, but I used a health potion." She looked at me. "More importantly, don't we need to get to the town to complete that objective?"

"Yes, we do," I said. I pulled out my phone to check the time. It read 11:58 pm. "Oh shit. Move, move, move!"

We took off running once more at my words. Asuna left us in the dust, sprinting toward the tunnel opposite of where we entered. Lili and I entered shortly behind her. It angled down steeply, turning into a hill that I struggled to keep my balance on. My chest heaved as I sucked in air as we ran, lacking a Barrier Jacket to support me and my physical endurance at its limit. I was counting the seconds in my head, hoping we would make it.

And then the tunnel opened into a massive room filled with light coming from above and green grass on the ground below. I laughed in relief and ended up tripping, stumbling and falling to the ground, where I laid on my back and made no effort to get up. I just gazed up at the glowing crystals that make up the 'sky'.

Lili came to a stop next to me, standing above me with her hands on her knees and breathing just as hard as I was. "We… we made it," she panted.

"Yeah," I said. "Unless we need to get to the actual town… but we're not making that."

Lili looked up. "Lili thinks Asuna is still going."

I took a few more breaths and then looked at my phone again. 11:59 pm. I couldn't see the seconds. But more importantly, I looked at the mission and saw that both bonus objectives were marked as complete.

"Nah, we're good," I announced. "She'll just-"

The world lurched and shifted, and the soft grass beneath my back was replaced with hard and cold stone. Lili looked around in a panic, and I saw Asuna a meter or so away sliding to a stop as she looked around as well. We had been pulled back to the Stoneblock as the portal closed.

"We did it," I announced, pushing myself to my feet. I saw Ed, Maria, and Dia entering the main room where the portal appeared. "Mission complete, all objectives cleared."

"Woo!" Maria cheered. "I knew you could do it, Master!"

"Good job guys," Ed said with a grin. "Wish I could have come with you, but you guys look kind of exhausted, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't."

"Clearing the upper and middle floors of the dungeon and defeating the Goliath in that time frame… I'm not especially familiar with the Dungeon, but from what I know, that is quite impressive," Dia commented. She looked remarkably relaxed for someone who had been kidnapped.

"It wasn't easy," Asuna said with a frown. "But… yeah. We managed it. Barely." I was too tired to tell for certain, but I thought I saw the hint of a grin on her face. I decided not to comment on it.

"Is this your dungeon?" Lili asked, looking around.

"Yeah, it is," I said as I got up. "The tour will have to wait for tomorrow though, because the only place I'm showing you right now is the bedroom, where I plan on sleeping for the next twenty-four hours."

Lili's shoulders slumped. "Lili agrees. Lili wasn't made for marathons like that."

"For doing such a good job, you can sleep next to me tonight," I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on girls, let's hit the hay. We can celebrate tomorrow."

They all agreed to that, Dia included, and we made our way to the bedroom.

Tomorrow we'd celebrate before getting to work. Because with the rewards from the mission, my little Stoneblock would finally become a proper Dungeon.

And that's when the real fun would start.


Shifty's SubscribeStar: subscribestar com / shifty-s-fiction

Shifty's Discord Server: discord .gg/aWJrmhf4Hy

AN: And that's a wrap on Danmachi! Our most exciting portal trip yet(of the three total). Writing is going to slow down a bit. Not because of the Elden Ring DLC, I do all my writing at work. But we've started a few new projects there and so I won't be able to slack off as hard for at least a few weeks. I'll have some time, but it's impossible to guess how much.

Anyway, the Dungeon has been cleared and Asuna hard carried. In reading the novels it was hard to get a hard read on just how long it takes to get Rivira, but a party of a Level 3, two Level 2's and a couple of Level 1's that know the floors pretty well seem to generally take the better part of a day to reach it. For our small rushing party, I figured the eight or so hours that they had was just barely enough.

Next chapter will get into the Dungeon stuff. I might rework my custom rules a bit. The official Dungeon rework, which also changed the name to Strongholds, is out in the unstable version of the Catalog now. It's not quite what I want for this fic, so I won't be using it entirely, but there are some things I can tweak so that my rules are closer to it in spirit.

See you guys next time! Enjoy the Elden Ring DLC!