Down in the dungeon the Hathor familia was undergoing their trial by fire. In other words, they are testing themselves to push their limits and exceed the capacity of what they once thought was possible… And in doing so, not simply get a level up, rather, earn it. This was the true path to power they had to go through, each and every time, perform a feat even the gods can't ignore. Some levels required a little bit more effort in it than others, but the principle always remained the same. It was the fault of the child for not realizing the requirements, if they were to hit the wall.
And right now, they were on floor 58, with no one left behind at the higher levels. Even the level ones were down here helping out with resource allocation…
"I have three arrows left!"
"Two bolts remaining!"
"Damn, my blade snapped!"
"Arrow quiver at 3 o'clock!" He rode a wolf, tossing equipment as went. "Bolt quiver, 9 o'clock!"
"Mid length sword ready for run by grab?!"
"UHARG!" The swordsman shoulder checked a dragon, stunning it just long enough. "READY!"
"Coming through!"
"Thanks!"
"Just doing my job, seniors!"
"A damn good one too. Ha AH!!" A slice came down as the swordsman continued the battle.
It was one where Shurry resisted the urge to hunt with everything he had, only really bothering to intervene if absolutely required. Malik was also banned from lending any aid aside from sage advice.
"Shurry, are you sure this is fine? I didn't get permission to come down here just to help with some guidance…"
"It's fine. These monsters are all small fry. You'll see soon enough that there's plenty of monsters ready for you to use as a level up. And the best part is, they don't have annoying timers like the ones above."
"Do you mean it's like that arena on the 37th floor? Monster Rex instant respawns?"
"Well, not exactly instant… It's shorter than the ones up top that's for sure. But not instant. I think it's just that there's a lot of them, and while I'm strong, even I can't hunt them all down on my own… Yet."
"So you're saying there's plenty of them down there?"
"Oh yeah, and the weakest is a level 6 monster rex. You can have it yourself if you want? But if you're not confident yet you can fight it together in a group first."
Several long hours of fighting later, the Hathor familia, with utterly minimal support from Shurry, managed to clear the 58th floor of all its monsters. Many adventurers were exhausted, and those who weren't were going around handing out the ration bites and a little of the mixed water, a special blend with all the right minerals and nutrients the body needs to recover more quickly.
Some were so sweaty they straight up removed their clothes and dried off with a towel. This scene shocked Malik a bit more than he realized.
"Uncle Malik, what's wrong?"
"The immodest show of skin… It caught me off guard."
"Oh? Well, you should stop worrying about that. A reaction like that could get you killed in a fight. Wardrobe malfunctions happen literally all the time. In fact it happened 274 times for the men, and 329 times for the women. It's just a result of movement, and sudden changes of that movement."
"I see. It seems like you've gotten used to it by now."
"Seeing someone you loved as a dear brother sliced in two makes everything else seem tame."
A little rest was had, and just before the monsters began spawning again. Shurry led the expedition forward, and further down, to the 59th floor. Some members took the opportunity to find their adventure to the next level on this floor. Shurry also scanned the floor for more wolf monsters, letting out a howl to call them.
"Wow, that's a nice one. It's almost level 8. Good." Shurry smiled, ready for the challenge…
The wolf stopped showing its fangs, laid down in front of Shurry, and put its head down. The rest of the pack it seemingly led also followed suit also feeling the superior energy coming from Shurry… One they couldn't hope to compete with.
"Wow, so that's how you got those wolves you left with Lady Hathor!"
"Yep! I still don't know the exact reason, but all wolves, and even dogs, or anything even similar can't help but feel this way towards me. But I don't mind, I like building a huge pack! Now, let's continue on, I think it's floor 66, that's the next safety point. Also, if you see Thalia, don't bother fighting her, she's harmless unless provoked."
"Got it. But if she does attack?"
"Then I'll deal with it, you're all not strong enough to deal with her yet. Without four level 6s minimum, I wouldn't even say it's possible…"
A little later, after a calm yet anxious walk past Thalia. And down to lower and lower floors. The expedition team experienced so many new sights of everything that the dungeon had to offer, sights that not even the likes of the Freya, and Loki familias could see yet. And then they arrived on the safe floor where tons of specialty foods from the dungeon grew in abundance. It was like a staging room for an epic fight ahead… One of completely different scales to before.
"Alright, everyone. I'm going to warn you, what's on the next floor is not something you can speak about to anyone else. It would kill their motivation to come down here in the first place. Anyway, starting from the next floor, the only time you'll be seeing regular monsters is when a monster rex wills the dungeon to create them… And there's a lot of monster rexes down there. The number of them on the next floor is a little smaller than the others, but they just grow in number as we go further down."
"How far are we going this time?"
"Just floor 67. That's all that's required for you to level up. But, I might go deeper on my own."
"Sorry Shurry, I know we're holding you back, and thanks for this. I'm sure with what we've done already, most of us will level up when we get back." Bokhoir smirked… "But that isn't enough is it? Everyone, we're not down here just to level up, we're here to exceed all of our limits and fill up on all the excelia we possibly can muster. Let's try to get so much excelia that each and every one of us breach 5000 ability points, level up, and even have the right to level up again later!"
""Hell yeah!""
With their motivations set, they settled in, and began their warmups…