Ardee came running over, with Shurry running at her side. The seemingly desperate man on the bench stood up with a start. "I- I- I have to go to the bathroom!" He said then ran off.
"Coward, can't even give a woman what she wants after he got all hard like that." Ilta grumbled. "This is the worst time of year too… Suppressing my urges is so much harder now."
"Urges?" Ardee asked, after arriving.
"Huh. Oh, hi there Ardee. I heard you're converting out of the familia."
"Yep, once I'm old enough to marry my boyfriend!"
"Huh, so you got another 3 years?"
"No, no, 16, not 15. I get to do something else at 15." Ardee giggled in a way that gave Ilta all the information she needed.
"Ahahaha! Now that's good. Hey, Shakti, looks like you gotta step up your game. You have 3 years left before your little sister leaves you in the dust." She said laughing as she spoke.
"Give me a break, you really think I can find someone at that time?"
"Of course you can, just think like an Amazoness, and it's easy. Hashana's decently strong now too, he could use a strong woman to keep him balanced."
Shurry just sighed, and pulled out the book. "Here, this is the copy I promised you… Oh, and I'll be helping with your training a bit."
"Huh? Oh, thanks…" She took the book, and started reading some of it. "Are you sure this is the right thing? Cause it sounds more like you're asking us to die."
"Hey, lemme see it." Ilta said, taking the book… Her eyes bulged. "This is crazy! I love it! Come on, let's try it…"
"We can't today, the weather has given up on us today."
"What? You're gonna stop training just because of a little rain? How will you fight in the rain if you never trained in it?" Shurry asked, with a curious look.
"Know what, fine. Let's do it. If this is what the Zeus, and Hera familias came up with after 1000 years of history, then we should at the very least give it a try."
"That's the spirit!"
"Now then, to fine you a room so you can stay here-"
"What, big sister, he's sleeping with me in my room! No objections!"
"Huh?! WHAT?!"
"Way to go Ardee!" Ilta laughed, holding her sides. "Let's get to training."
…
The guild building was jam packed, filled to the brim. The people wanted to know what the plan for protecting the city would be once the School District left. Some adventurers came for work, exchanges, and even evaluations. However, there was one thing they could all agree on… It was the group of adventurers, each with a look they'd not seen on an adventurer's face in years, sitting in the VIP waiting section of the guild.
"Hey that's the Hathor familia."
"They partied hard last night."
"I know, I heard it from the other side of the district."
"Same, it made my partner and I have our own little private party."
"Same here, best party we've had in a while."
"So, how many do you think leveled up?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it's a small number."
Bokhoir smirked, he'd heard the whole conversation, despite the crowded masses, he picked them out, and raised but a single finger.
"Only 1?"
"No you idiot, that's clearly the tens hand, it means 10."
Bokhoir chuckled. Then mouthed the words that shut them all up.
"You saw that too right?"
"Yeah, he said all but one, that one, it would have to be Origin Wolf right?"
"Of course it is, he's fast but he isn't that fast. And besides, how many people have leveled up past 7? It's gotta be hard as shit. Even for that amazingly happy wolf."
"Yeah… It's something else to be certain. But it's not impossible for him to have earned the right to level up, but just decided not to."
Hey, wait, guys, guys… This means the Hathor familia now has, Origin Wolf a level 7, Bokhoir the Bulwark a level 6, Dark Sand Girl a level 6… The level 4s who became 5, there's 6 of them in their familia."
"Can the Freya familia's King, really be called that anymore? He's clearly not the strongest."
"Is it possible that Hathor familia is actually stronger than both Freya & Loki familia combined now?"
…
Two weeks later, after tons of verification, the Guild put up a bulletin for each of the Hathor familia members, they had to fudge the reasons why they leveled up a bit here and there. They did so not to arouse suspicion of their new floor record. Which broke the current record held by the Freya familia, who had been one floor lower than Loki familia.
This single act drove both of the two "strongest" familias in Orario to the breaking point. Freya familia was pissed off, Freya herself was struggling to find a way to not explode with anger.
Loki familia was getting all riled up the moment the news reached them. However, Loki straight laughed after seeing the information.
"Loki, what's so funny?"
"Oh nothing. Just that these results were clearly faked."
"You thought so too? I'm glad it wasn't just me to think this way."
"What do the two of you mean?"
"Shurry is clearly far beyond our combined might, and has been for a while. For him to only have an official floor of two deeper, is completely insane, the dungeon wouldn't increase in difficulty that much. Remember, floor 58 is still beyond their reach according to this."
"You're right, so they forged the results to hide their true depth for some reason."
"Precisely, Floor 57 isn't that much different from floor 55, or 54. The main threat there are the dragons from 58." Finn explained a little, then stopped and thought about it for a little longer.
The door opened. "Apologies for interrupting this meeting everyone, but we received a mission from the guild. I took a look at the contents as per your instructions to verify all mail… You need to see this now captain.
"Thanks-" Finn started reading the mission notice, while the room watched. "You may go now, don't leak a word of this mission to anyone else."
"Yes Captain!" They said and left.
"Finn, what's wrong? This is requesting that we temporarily abandon our efforts against Evilus, and focus on pushing deeper into the dungeon. Apparently there's something the guild wants us to collect down on floor 60."
"What, then who's going to deal with Evilus? The School District has already finished their packing."
"Hathor familia is going to pick up any slack. Plus they have him, so it's not like they're going to be too active. I'd imagine the guild also wants to test us…"
…