As the door clicked shut behind them, Leo and Line, having left Finn's office, suddenly fell into silence together.
Neither of them spoke. Or rather, neither knew what to say.
It couldn't be helped. Before this, the two of them had been little more than nodding acquaintances. Hardly even that. Aside from sharing the same Familia headquarters and exchanging brief greetings when they happened to pass each other, they had never been alone together like this.
Now, suddenly, they were being told to team up and explore the Dungeon together, and the awkwardness of it just wouldn't go away.
So for a while, neither Leo nor Line knew what to say, and the two of them just sank into silence.
Thankfully, the silence didn't last long.
"Do you have anything else to do today?" Leo finally broke the silence, asking Line. "If there's something you need to take care of, how about we head out tomorrow instead?"
Line quickly waved her hands.
"I'm fine. The work I needed to handle first has all been finished, and what's left isn't urgent."
Line wasn't exactly idle these days, but the busiest period after the expedition's return had passed, so she still had time to go into the Dungeon with teammates.
The other Familia members had already been heading into the Dungeon in groups over the past several days. The ones like Ais and Bete, who couldn't stay still to save their lives, had even started running the Dungeon again on the second or third day after returning, rain or shine. Only the non-combat members like Line, or those on guard duty and patrol rotations, stayed behind at headquarters.
People like Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya, even if they weren't going into the Dungeon, had started wandering around outside these past few days, which made it clear that the busiest stretch really was over.
That was exactly why Finn and the others had assigned Line to Leo. The Familia leaders knew the situation inside the Familia better than anyone.
"In that case, how about we head out to the Dungeon now?"
Leo glanced at the sky outside. It was still early. Heading into the Dungeon now wouldn't be too late.
It was still breakfast time, after all. Not even eight o'clock yet. It was two or three hours later than the time when adventurers usually entered the Dungeon at the crack of dawn, but that didn't really matter. They could clear it normally.
"Okay." Line had no objections at all. "I'll go pack my gear now."
Line gave Leo a small bow and then trotted off, leaving the room.
Leo watched her go, then made his way down the tower a little while later.
......
In front of Babel, Central Plaza.
When Leo and Line met up and arrived here together, their outfits had changed.
Leo carried his short sword. The various bags large and small that usually hung at his waist were gone, replaced by a single emergency belt pouch. Nothing else. He looked much lighter than usual.
Line was the opposite. Not only did she have a roughly one-meter staff strapped to her waist and a satchel slung over her shoulder, but on her back was a massive pack taller than she was. She looked like she was being crushed by a boulder, and you couldn't help but wonder if she'd collapse under the giant pack the next second.
Walking beside her, Leo had exactly that worry, and he spoke up more than once.
"Should I carry that for you? It's pretty heavy, isn't it?"
The pack didn't even have much in it yet, honestly. The two of them hadn't been into the Dungeon, so they hadn't earned any magic stones or drop items.
But at Line's firm insistence, a fair amount of the gear Leo had been carrying had been transferred into the pack, which gave it some weight.
The small shield Leo used to favor, for instance, was now stowed in there. So were the potions for resupply and the food and water for breaks along the way. Line had taken every last bit of it from him.
It left Leo with a bit of a guilty conscience.
This was all his own gear, and he was making a girl carry it. That didn't sit right with him, did it?
But Line refused as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Carrying gear is a Supporter's job. Mr. Leo, you're a combatant. You only need to think about fighting. Everything else should be handled by the Supporter."
Line was clearly used to this kind of work and this position. Her expression was as calm as ever.
"Besides, don't let my looks fool you. I'm Lv.2, after all. A pack like this isn't much for me at all."
That was the truth of it.
She wasn't a combatant, but her body had Ranked Up once already. Line might look frail and delicate, but her physical condition was a far cry above the Lv.1 newbie adventurers.
So even though she was carrying a pack bigger than she was, it didn't actually take much out of her. She didn't feel tired, didn't feel weighed down.
Forget her. Even if someone else carried that pack, they wouldn't find it too heavy.
"There are plenty of people like me. Mr. Leo really doesn't need to worry about me."
Just as Line said, there were plenty of others around them lugging huge packs of their own. Supporters from their respective parties, most likely.
Some of these Supporters were teenage girls like Line. Others looked like they weren't even ten, probably Pallums, and yet they carried packs no smaller than hers, faces calm, showing no sign of strain at all.
They had received the Falna, after all. No matter how low their Status was, they were stronger than ordinary people.
A pack the size of a person was nothing. Even Lv.1s with weak Status could carry it. A Lv.2 like Line obviously had no trouble, and could probably handle one several times the size.
"Alright."
Leo knew he was worrying over nothing. It was just hard to watch a girl shoulder a pack that big without feeling like he ought to be doing more than just watching.
But that was a holdover from his old assumptions. In this world, plenty of delicate-looking young girls could run around carrying packs like that without a problem.
Even people who hadn't received the Falna could shoulder that kind of load with ease, as long as they weren't naturally small-framed like Pallums or all-around average like Humans.
Dwarves, Beast Humans, Amazonesses... in those three races, even the women had stronger constitutions than an adult Human male. There was no need to worry about any of that.
And so, with Leo leading the way, Line entered the Dungeon.
As the core figure of the Familia's Second Army, Line had followed the Familia's expedition forces into the Dungeon many, many times, even going down to the deepest floors. So even inside the Dungeon, this non-combatant of theirs looked completely at ease. You could tell at a glance she was used to the sights.
Only, as Leo kept pressing toward lower and lower floors, a hint of confusion gradually appeared on Line's face.
"Um... Mr. Leo, what floor are we going to?"
Line had assumed that, given Leo's current strength, he'd still be working through floors 1-4, or going down to floor 5 or 6 at most.
But seeing Leo enter floor 6 and still keep going down, she couldn't hold back anymore and asked.
The way she saw it, Leo had only been an adventurer for less than half a month. No matter how fast he was growing, floor 6 should be his limit.
Who would have guessed that the next moment, Leo, walking ahead of her, would give an answer that left her stunned.
"We're going to floor 11."
......
Dungeon, floor 11.
Like floor 10, it stretched out as far as the eye could see, an endless grassland.
A thick fog covered the area year-round. Aside from the starting point at the wide staircase descending from floor 10, where no fog gathered, the rest of the floor was blanketed in mist. Withered, thick-trunked trees, the Dungeon's armory, were scattered all around. The terrain was essentially identical to floor 10, just larger and more complex.
In fact, floors 10, 11, and 12 of the Dungeon all shared this terrain. It wasn't until floor 13, the start of the Middle Floors, that the terrain changed again.
The terrain didn't change, but the monsters that spawned did.
On floor 11, besides Orcs, another large-category monster appeared: the Silverback.
Even bigger than an Orc, with knotted muscles all over its body and white fur. Only the hair was a dark silver, growing down its back like a tail, an ape-shaped monster.
It was larger than an Orc, but it didn't have the Orc's overwhelming Strength and Endurance scores or the Orc's poor Dexterity and Agility. Instead, its abilities were balanced across the board, and on the high side overall. To put it plainly: no weaknesses, and very strong.
In the Upper Floor region of floors 1-12, aside from a few special exceptions, the Silverback stood near the very top of the food chain. Only seasoned adventurers could take one on alone. For anyone else, facing one solo was no different from running into a nightmare.
And yet, today there was a pure newbie, less than half a month into being an adventurer, drawing his sword and attacking one without fear.
A sharp slicing sound cut through the air. In the instant a howling wind rose, a figure flashed past the Silverback's side. The sharp short sword in his hand cut clean through the dense muscle of its thigh, opening a long, ghastly wound that gushed blood.
The Silverback let out a shrill howl of pain. Its body was the size of a small building. It thrust out a massive palm to grab Leo, but couldn't catch his form at all.
It wasn't that the Silverback was slow. It was that Leo was simply too fast right now.
In the original work, when the protagonist had fought a Silverback, his Agility had only just reached D rank, and even that had been enough to dance circles around the Silverback. Leo was on another level entirely.
Leo's Agility had already reached B rank. His speed compared to the Silverback's was leagues beyond it.
So the Silverback couldn't catch him. Leo, moving like the wind, toyed with the monster mercilessly.
Leo darted around the Silverback again and again, the short sword in his hand cutting flashes of light, landing on the Silverback's leg, on its outstretched hand, on its belly and its back, racking up wounds across its body.
The Silverback's screams grew more agonized in his ears, but Leo's focus wasn't entirely on the monster. He was thinking back to what Ais had told him during their morning training.
"You need to learn one thing: how to launch an attack from any stance, immediately."
"Also, your gaze should always be locked on the opponent, but your peripheral vision should be wide."
"When you attack, don't hesitate, don't think too long. When you defend, be precise. Don't rely too much on your five senses. Develop your own combat instincts."
Recalling Ais's words, a glimmer of understanding gradually surfaced in Leo's eyes. His body kept circling the Silverback, but his attacks were becoming more and more natural.
He was no swordsmanship prodigy. Even the extraordinary growth rate he had now was entirely thanks to being a "transmigrator."
Without that identity, he wouldn't have the bug-level Skill that was Stranger from Another Star.
And Stranger from Another Star only affected his Status. When it came to learning swordsmanship and combat techniques, it offered no real help at all.
So if he wanted to improve in this area, Leo had no choice but to keep practicing, keep putting it into practice, keep applying it in real combat.
Hard work makes up for what talent lacks. And with his physical condition where it was, his reaction speed and reflexes would only grow as his Status did. As long as he kept at it, Leo believed these techniques wouldn't stump him.
As Leo dodged another swipe of the Silverback's massive hand, his body shot out like an arrow, leaping high toward the Silverback's chest. The short sword in his hand turned into a streak of light and slashed across, cutting open the Silverback's throat.
"Gugh...!"
The Silverback clamped its hands over the gushing wound at its neck, eyes bulging, struggling as if it were fighting for its life.
Leo's attacks didn't stop.
Strike while the iron's hot. Leo understood the principle.
So while the Silverback was clutching its bleeding throat, Leo planted a foot on its chest and leaped up again, soaring into the air before diving back down, hurtling toward the top of its head.
The short sword's blade plunged straight into the Silverback's skull, sinking deep.
"..."
Every motion the Silverback was making stopped in that instant. The roar in its throat cut off abruptly, never to come out again.
A moment later, the Silverback's massive body slowly toppled over and slammed into the ground.
Before it did, Leo had already pulled his short sword free from the top of its head, leaped down, and landed at the same time as the Silverback's huge body hit the floor.
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