"As I thought… his growth rate's even more insane than I imagined."
Strength: H102 → E498
Endurance: H111 → D505
Dexterity: H148 → D598
Agility: H153 → C603
Magic: S905 → SSS2001
This was the first Status update after the expedition — and the numbers made Loki's eyes nearly pop out of her head.
Strength and Endurance had both skyrocketed evenly, Dexterity and Agility were even sharper, and his Magic… his Magic had shattered every known limit.
"Tsuna, you only joined in on the cleanup during the first day, right?"
"Yeah."
"And that was only up to the sixteenth floor? You were just using puppet synchronization for training?"
"Mm-hm."
Loki asked again just to be sure — but the boy's calm nod only made her disbelief deepen.
She glanced at the Status branded on Tsuna's back and nearly laughed out loud in shock.
Unbelievable.
"Sure, the Dungeon's 'abnormalities' made monsters multiply on every floor, but still… to reach this level of improvement in ten days is unreal."
In all her time running the Loki Familia, Loki couldn't remember a single child who had shown such explosive growth.
Even those stationed on the upper floors never gained this much — a few dozen points per stat was already considered excellent.
This was beyond that by miles.
The difference in talent between people… really could be monstrous.
But there was another issue.
"You've already gathered enough excelia to qualify for a Level Up."
"Even if you ranked up now, you've met the requirements," Loki said, leaning back. "But doing that right away would just waste your potential. You should keep pushing until every one of your stats hits its limit first."
She smirked. "With your talent, that won't take long."
After copying his Status onto a sheet, Loki burned away the divine Falna marks on his back. Then she flattened the paper on his shoulder and grinned.
"Take a look — and try not to freak out over yourself."
Tsuna took the paper and stared. The growth was so absurd that even he was stunned.
"All this… from just a few training sessions with synchronized puppets?"
"Exactly," Loki replied.
He frowned slightly. "My Magic skyrocketing isn't weird. It was already above nine hundred before, so breaking two thousand makes sense. But the rest of this… this shouldn't be possible."
"Loki, I don't have some hidden 'accelerated growth' skill or anything, right?"
Loki tilted her head, lips pursing. "Can't say for sure."
She reached forward and tapped at the sections on the paper marked with "unknown" under Magic and Skills.
"You've got some sealed areas in your Falna — hidden traits or abilities I can't read. It's possible something in there's boosting your growth rate."
"Huh? You didn't copy that part down?"
"Of course not. Your skills are your secrets." She chuckled. "Stats I can afford to record — they don't matter much, especially within the Familia. Tiona and the others aren't blabbermouths."
That was true. Within the Loki Familia, trust ran deep. But skills and magic were another story — some things simply couldn't be exposed, especially that one.
"So," Loki said, wagging a finger, "you're not taking today's paper with you."
"I know."
Tsuna gave the sheet one last glance before handing it back. Loki said nothing more — she stepped down from behind him and snapped her fingers, burning the paper to ash with a flicker of magic.
Then she looked back at him, still sitting on the bed.
"All right," she said, giving his shoulder a pat, "you can put your shirt back on."
Once she gave permission, Tsuna quickly dressed again. When he turned, though, he found Loki already lounging lazily — her long legs resting across his lap.
"Massage them for me, will you? Been standing out there for over half an hour."
"You really should take better care of yourself, Miss Loki."
He sighed, but still placed his hands on her feet and began to knead gently.
As the tension eased from her calves, Loki let out a pleased, catlike sound.
"You kids get to storm through the Dungeon and show off," she purred. "As the main goddess, I've got to show I'm supporting you somehow. Standing around outside's the least I can do."
Then her tone softened — all teasing gone.
"After an expedition, there's always a lull — a quiet stretch before the next major push. What's your plan for this downtime?"
Her question carried weight. For Loki, Tsuna's development was now one of the Familia's top priorities.
"I already have some ideas."
He paused his hands for a second, eyes thoughtful. "One part's about my personal growth. The other's about Finn and the others."
"Oh?" Loki leaned forward with interest. "Do tell."
He nodded slightly, continuing to knead her feet as he spoke.
"This expedition made a lot of weaknesses obvious. Finn, Gareth, and Riveria are all too specialized. When they're together, they can fight above their level. But once they're separated, they can be isolated and overwhelmed."
"They've basically divided their overall potential into three parts," Tsuna went on. "Agility and Dexterity belong to Finn. Strength and Endurance to Gareth. Magic's all Riveria. That kind of hyper-specialization works early on — it's what let them grow so fast. But once they've reached the high levels, it's a liability. Too easy to counter."
Loki nodded slowly. "You're not wrong. I've watched those three climb from scratch. Each picked a path and stuck to it — and it worked, until now."
"So what do you plan to do about it?"
"I want to deliberately design training that targets their weaknesses. Force them to step out of their comfort zones — make them find other ways to solve problems."
"Developing their blind spots, huh? Not a bad idea."
Loki smiled approvingly. Finn and his two comrades had long mastered their specialties — they barely even needed effort to excel now. And though they'd only been at Level 6 for three years, they still had plenty of room to grow. Expanding into new fields would only make them stronger.
"The question is whether they can actually do it," Loki mused.
Tsuna nodded. "Exactly. So I'm planning to run three separate trials — one for each of them. Each test will last a week."
Loki thought for a moment, then grinned. "All right. I'm in. But we'll add one more thing — bring Astraea's girls into it too. Let's see what they can do."