After the event, the Freya, and Loki familias received a ton of ridicule as a direct result of their inability to keep the people safe. It became so obvious it wasn't possible to ignore it anymore. Ganesha came out and declared his familia would help in the fight against Evilus.
Public outrage diminished nearly on the spot. Not because of strength in force, but the numbers, Ganesha had the numbers to back up his statement, and his familia had even managed to reach the lofty rank of A, They didn't have any first class adventurers, but that didn't really matter when it came to the type of conflict going on.
…
All the while, Shurry continued his training. The time he spent in the dungeon grew more each time he went into the dungeon. And whenever he returned, his focus wasn't on relaxing, he trained with Astraea's familia, and Ardee. When done with that training, he moved on to training with the rest of his familia. Occasionally, Ardee would be demanding to spend time together, and thus the training was everyone all at once.
Ardee, and Shurry would go on their little dates, and talk about seemingly mundane things, until the topic of the dungeon came up. Shurry had hit a seemingly impassable wall. He could easily deal with Balor at this point, and he needed to save the 58th floor's boss for a higher level in the future. It was eating at him, and Ardee, the ever insightful one, noticed this… It was these days she felt like demanding time with him.
It had been 6 months like this, and it was clear to others that the two, despite being far apart from each other most of the time, they were always close… Today was one of these days…
"You know you're beating yourself up over nothing. I'm sure you'll level up again soon." Ardee said, licking her ice cream.
"You might be right. But, I just can't find anything strong enough to give me a level up. What I need is something that grows stronger depending on the opponent or something like that."
"Are you sure there isn't something like that already?"
Shurry started thinking harder… "That's it, the book, it says the juggernaut changes its strength depending on the floor it spawns on! You're the best Ardee, I love you!"
Shurry waved as he left the Hathor familia home. A thoroughly red Ardee, simply stared in disbelief.
"He said it, he actually said it, right? I didn't hear wrong?" Ardee expressed, squirming to verify she wasn't hearing things.
"Oh, I don't know-" Hathor teased.
"Please tell me, I heard him right, right?!"
"Yes, you heard him right. Though he's probably going to do something dangerous now." Hathor pouted for a moment. "Tell you what, you definitely did him a huge favor just then, so why do you make him promise to do one thing for you, anything you want." Hopefully she asks to be converted to my familia soon, I just love the idea of these two becoming a real couple. I wonder what their babies will look like.
"I already know what I want, but I'll wait to ask him for it. I have to be ready for it too." She said, quickly finishing the treat. "I have to get back to training, I can't let myself stay too far behind."
…
Down in the dungeon, the 51st floor, Shurry annihilated Cadmus in an effortlessly onesided take down. Huh, that was way easier than I thought it would be. Did my mother not tell me about a new skill? Or is this something else? He pounded his fists together. "It doesn't matter the reason. I'm going to summon this creature one way, or another."
The destruction Shurry caused on the 51st floor quickly turned a significant portion into a waste land. Walls, vines, monsters, all gone. The sound of the juggernaut spawning rang throughout the dungeon, and it spawned.
"Sweet! It worked, though I wonder how far this thing can push me? It's not all that fast…" Shurry said, blocking one of the razor sharp attacks. "Not that strong either. Maybe it's level 7? But that's not enough for me. This is a perfect, and repeatable monster to fight. It should give enough of a benefit to earn me lots of execilia." He added, one shotting the Juggernaut.
He moved down to floor 62. And repeated the process. This time Juggernaut appeared, and Shurry smiled. "This one will do. Let's fight!"
Elsewhere, a detached group of adventurers having grown a bit too bold after seeing nothing spawning, they reached floor 50, and upon hearing the horrific sounds coming from way further down, they high tailed it back up to their normal hunting grounds.
"Just what the hell was that sound? Shit sounded like pure death."
"Dunno, but I'll be damned before I go down there again, any time soon."
Shurry's 1 versus 1 battle against the juggernaut went on for hours. Each side doing hardly any damage to the other, until finally, Shurry was the last one standing, victorious over the powerful foe.
"Let's go again. Just in case." He summoned and fought another one. "Now then, let's see what else I can hunt while I'm down here. Oh that stone looks pretty! Ardee would love it! I'll make it into a necklace!"
Shurry's hunt continued. And while he grew stronger, his pack did too. He spent about another two months down in the dungeon before returning to the surface. He first went to the guild, traded all of his crystals, carried up courtesy of the monster wolves he could command… Since they were tamed to some degree, the ladies loved the reliable wolves.
He then went home, and seemingly went to look for someone. Fortunately for him that person was right there.
"Oxlyene? Can you turn this thing into a gift?"
"Oh my, where did you find this thing?! It's so beautiful!" And then she got a wild smirk. "Is this gift, for a girl?" She giggled.
"Yes." Shurry replied completely fine, and undeterred by the teasing. "I want something that'll match her."
That was all that was needed. "Alright, I'll start working on it. And it'll be done right-"
"You can have whatever is left over. And I'll pay you too…"
"Pfft, alright then, but you'd better let me give you a discount price."
Shurry's food came out, and he started digging in.
Some of the men in the familia watched just how easily Shurry managed to cut straight through the teasing, and flip it back around Oxlyene. Some were also a little jealous about the young love they could see blossoming between Ardee and Shurry.
"Only the blind could ever miss it."
…