"I see..."
After listening to Tsuna's detailed explanation, both Tione and Tiona finally understood what he'd been so busy with over at the Hephaestus Familia—and how Excellia could somehow be turned into a forging material.
Unsurprisingly, the cause of it all traced back to Tsuna himself.
"Tsubaki's goal has always been to become the strongest craftswoman," Tiona said, resting her chin on her palm as she recalled the woman's single-minded focus. "There's no way she'd pass up a chance like that."
"Not just Tsubaki," Tione added. "Even Lady Hephaestus must've been fascinated by the idea."
Two of the Labyrinth City's most skilled female smiths—a goddess and her student—both intrigued by the concept of using Excellia as a material.
And it was all because of the one person standing before them—the only one capable of converting that intangible energy into something solid and usable for forging.
So that was what Tsuna had been doing all this time.
Tiona tilted her head, confirming, "So basically, Lady Hephaestus and Tsubaki had you stay to help with the forging, right?"
"Yeah," Tsuna admitted simply.
Well, that made perfect sense.
"But wait—does that mean you haven't been training at all?"
Tsuna gave her a weird look. Was she really imagining he'd been working as some kind of unpaid blacksmith's apprentice this whole time?
"Tiona, it's not like I'm stuck in the forge twenty-four seven," he said, half-smiling. "I still make time to train every day."
He raised his right hand, showing the three brass rings on his fingers.
"I don't really overthink my methods. Usually, I just spend four or five hours each day living under double gravity—that counts as my daily workout."
"It's not super intense, but it's simple and effective. With that kind of steady training, my Status broke through its base limits about a month ago."
"Now all I'm missing is Excellia."
His next Level Up to three was only being held back by that one requirement.
But Tsuna didn't seem too concerned about it.
Crossing levels had never been particularly hard for him. All he needed was the right opportunity.
Besides, Loki had recently confirmed that time in his original world had essentially stopped. That meant there was no rush—he could take his time advancing safely, without pressure.
"Tiona, Tione—you two are in the same boat, right?"
The sisters exchanged a glance and nodded.
"Yeah. We've had our Status maxed out for ages," Tiona said, sighing. "What's keeping us from reaching Level Five now is just Excellia."
Just mentioning that missing piece made her scowl in frustration.
"Tione and I have already mastered both the Storm and Sun attributes. We've even beaten the black Goliath in the Challenge Space. But every time we go down to the seventeenth floor, it's just the normal Goliath again."
Tsuna could sympathize with her disappointment.
"Tiona, you should know by now—the black Goliath only appears when the Dungeon experiences a major disturbance," he explained.
"The last time it spawned was when the Dark Faction triggered the Juggernaut outbreak. That extreme stress response from the Dungeon is what created the black Goliath on the seventeenth floor—and the three-headed dragon on the twenty-seventh."
"It only does that when it's cornered. Under normal conditions, the Dungeon stays stable. No upheaval, no variants."
"At most, you might get a Monster Party—but that's not nearly enough to provoke another reaction like that."
"In short, there's no chance of another black Goliath appearing anytime soon."
"I know..." Tiona puffed her cheeks, clearly sulking. Of course she knew—but that didn't make it any less frustrating.
"Ugh, where are we supposed to find enough Excellia to Level Up?"
"Hmm... what about taking on the two-headed dragon?" Tsuna suggested.
Tiona immediately shot that down. "Not enough."
"Unless Tione and I fought Amphisbaena one-on-one, it wouldn't even count as a real challenge for Excellia gain."
She sighed again. "Besides, we've been checking the Great Falls for Amphisbaena spawns the past two months, but it's never there. It's like someone's been killing it before we even get the chance."
Tsuna froze for a second.
He... might actually know something about that.
He cleared his throat. "A-hem! Wait, so you two really were hunting Amphisbaena?"
"Of course," Tiona said. "We've gone twice already these past months, but every time it's gone. Seriously, who keeps killing it ahead of us?"
She kept grumbling, completely missing the awkward look spreading across Tsuna's face.
Tione, however, noticed right away. Her eyes narrowed.
"Tsuna... that person who killed Amphisbaena before us—it wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"
"!?"
Tiona's head snapped around to him in shock.
Tsuna scratched the back of his neck, looking sheepish.
"Uh... yeah, that was kind of me."
He let out a small, embarrassed laugh. "Tsubaki and Lady Hephaestus needed a lot of Excellia for their forging experiments. Even with all the optimizations I've made to reduce the cost, the shortage was still pretty bad."
"So... I went and harvested some from Amphisbaena a few times."
"A few times..."
"So basically, you turned Amphisbaena into your personal Excellia generator," both sisters thought at once, resisting the urge to groan.
Well, at least now they knew who'd been beating them to it.
On the bright side, it also meant that next time, no one would get to Amphisbaena before them.
"Tsuna," Tione asked, "does that mean the Floor Bosses are basically booked by Tsubaki and Lady Hephaestus for a while?"
"Not that bad," he said quickly, waving his hands.
"Their biggest demand for Excellia is only during the research phase. Once they finish developing the new forging method, they'll only need it when crafting special weapons."
Hearing that, both sisters finally relaxed.
If Tsubaki and Lady Hephaestus had kept hogging all the Excellia sources, their own path to Level Up might've been blocked indefinitely.
====
You can read up to chapter 195 on patreon.com/NiaXD.
P.s: Back to top 20 for extra 5 chapters!