"Seeing that all of you are safe puts my mind at ease."
Inside the central tent, Finn sat at the head seat, while Ais, Gareth, and the others stood in order on both sides.
With the arrival of Ryoji's group, all eight executives were finally present. Finn greeted them with a smile.
Standing nearby was Miss Tsubaki, the captain of the Hephaestus Familia.
"Now that everyone is here, let's begin the meeting."
Finn swept his gaze around the tent and signaled the start of the meeting, drawing everyone's attention to himself.
"First of all, thanks to everyone's efforts, we successfully broke the record left behind by the Great Gods' Familia. For that, I would like to thank all of you!"
As the captain of the Familia, Finn lowered his head and expressed his sincere gratitude to everyone present.
"Especially you, Ryoji. If it hadn't been for you, I truly don't know what we would have done this time."
Had Ryoji not turned the situation around at the very end, there was absolutely no way any of them could have returned to the 50th Floor so safely and intact.
A look of deep emotion crossed Finn's face.
"Because of your existence, my ambition can continue to live on. This is my gratitude, at the very least, don't refuse it."
Once Finn said that, Ryoji, who had originally intended to exchange a few polite words, chose to keep quiet.
Adventurers all had their own dreams and ideals.
Finn was no exception. Rather, precisely because he was a world-famous adventurer, his ambitions were greater than most.
"I understand how you feel, old man, but don't make it sound so mushy!" Gareth grumbled unhappily, rubbing his arms as though he had gotten goosebumps, his face filled with exasperation.
"No need to be so formal with family, Captain~"
"Tione."
"Yes, Captain~! I'm here!"
"That was well said. Don't say it again next time."
"Okay…"
Finn smiled as he pushed Tione back into line.
"I simply did what I thought was right for the Familia." Ryoji spoke with a serious expression on his face.
"After all, everyone helped me a lot in the past. I'm not an idiot, so this was only natural... Of course, if you really want to thank me, and if you think the loot distribution last time wasn't entirely fair, I wouldn't mind if you gave me another ten or twenty percent."
To be honest, he was actually rather short on money.
Although he still had quite a bit of cash on hand, it had actually been borrowed from Tiona. Granted, that money had originally been given to her by Ryoji, and Tiona had generously stated that he didn't need to repay it, but asking for something back after giving it away was awkward. It was hard to save face.
If only he could get a few more hundred million valis!
Riveria and the others immediately shot him strange looks.
Not being overly sentimental was one thing, but this was a little too practical.
"The money from last time has already gone into the Familia treasury. If possible, I'll give you a hundred million valis from my personal funds."
Finn carefully calculated the size of his private savings.
He wore a warm and kindly smile, but inside his heart was bleeding.
His personal funds had always been limited. Most of the money he earned had been contributed to the Familia treasury. Counting everything carefully, he only had about a hundred million valis himself. After this, he might have to tighten his belt for a while.
"All right, let's move on to the serious matter."
As Finn's expression turned solemn, the atmosphere inside the tent also became serious.
"Regarding that female-shaped monster we encountered on the 59th Floor... I believe it was only an avatar."
"What?"
The moment those words left his mouth, it was as though a bomb had exploded in the tent.
Tiona, Bete, and the others were all shocked at the same time.
"Something that strong was only an avatar?"
That had been a monster at least on the level of Lv. 7!
And it was only an avatar?
How was that even reasonable?
"What's your evidence?"
"Didn't a female-shaped monster appear on the 18th Floor as well?"
Finn was referring to the monster that Ryoji had defeated on the 18th Floor previously.
At the time, he had fired three supersonic Sword Piece shots, equivalent to simultaneous attacks from three Lv. 6 adventurers, instantly killing the monster, which had only been around Lv. 5 in strength.
"That female-shaped monster was born through parasitization by a Jewel Fetus. It's exactly the same as the monster we encountered this time. The difference is that the female-shaped monster that parasitized the Death God Amorphophallus consumed a huge number of magic stones, completed its Eclosion, obtained a complete form, and became several times stronger than before."
Thinking about it carefully, that did make sense.
The monsters that had appeared on both occasions were clearly the same type of existence.
The proof was that both had repeatedly cried out the name 'Aria.'
"So both female-shaped monsters were created through Jewel Fetus parasitization... and both were merely avatars?"
Ryoji glanced at Ais beside him.
The girl had fallen completely silent, evidently having realized the same thing.
Riveria also looked at her, her expression becoming complicated.
"So you're saying the real enemy is lurking somewhere below the 60th Floor?"
Bete's face was filled with irritation.
"Most likely. After all, she also received support from monsters inhabiting the floors below the 60th."
Finn affirmed his guess.
In that case, the true Corrupted Spirit was probably still hiding in the deeper reaches of the Dungeon, and the crisis was far from over.
"What about those creatures? Were they also created by the Corrupted Spirit?"
"Considering that they can grow stronger by consuming iridescent magic stones, it's very likely."
"To think that a Spirit, originally sent by the gods to protect the world, would become something like this..."
Riveria found it difficult to accept.
Spirits could be regarded as a higher form of spirit-folk or elves, but they were far nobler and more powerful than ordinary members of those races. After all, they embodied the will of the gods and served as divine incarnations.
To elves, Spirits were exalted and pure beings worthy of the greatest reverence.
"Since the gods descended to the Lower World a thousand years ago, Spirits have gradually vanished from the surface. This is probably the last Spirit remaining in the world."
Finn glanced at Ais.
His eyes flickered slightly before he continued.
"If nothing unexpected happened, she probably entered the Dungeon and unfortunately was devoured by monsters, which is why she became that fallen and grotesque creature."
The reason she released the Jewel Fetuses and created those creatures was likely because she wanted to return to the surface once more.
Viewed that way, many things suddenly made sense.
"Still, the Corrupted Spirit should have difficulty reaching the surface. Right now, our biggest problem should be the remnants of Evilus, shouldn't it?"
Remembering the purpose of their expedition before they had set out, Ryoji could not help but voice his confusion.
"But we didn't find any trace of the Evilus remnants this time. The only suspicious person was that Masked Man, and he disappeared almost immediately."
The Masked Man in the purple cloak had fled at an astonishing speed, vanishing before anyone even noticed. No one had any idea why he had appeared in the first place.
"That brings me to the next point."
Finn paused.
His expression became extremely grim, as though he were touching upon some forbidden subject.
"Think about it. If someone were to bring the easily portable Jewel Fetus to the surface and nurture it into a mature form capable of unleashing large-scale magic... what do you think would happen?"
(End of Chapter)
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