Time seemed to press a buffer button, letting everything proceed in orderly fashion as it slipped by.
After confirming what he should do to a monster on the level of a Minotaur with a single shot of magic, Leo fell silent for a long while, and finally decided to keep deepening the floors he explored, not wasting time on Floor 15.
He and Line headed together to Floor 16, where they carried out half a day of slaughter, and after finding it presented no real difficulty, stepped into Floor 17, the end of the Cave Labyrinth.
The far end here was the room of the first Floor Boss in the Dungeon, and beyond it lay the entrance leading to Floor 18.
Floor 18 was a very special floor; no monsters were born there, and it lacked the gloom and enclosed environment commonly seen in the Dungeon, a safe floor regarded by adventurers as a safe zone, a place to regroup, and a rest area.
It was also the place where Leo had arrived when he first crossed over.
His meeting with Ais had happened there, and it was there too that Ais had reached out a hand to him when he was lost and at a loss, changing the course of his life.
If he hadn't met Ais there, hadn't left there together with Ais to return to the surface, Leo really couldn't imagine what he'd have become afterward, or what he'd have run into.
It was a good thing the place he was born into on crossing over was a safe floor like Floor 18; if he'd crossed over to some other floor, or to a region a little deeper, then he'd most likely... no, ten times out of ten he'd already be dead, wouldn't he?
Thinking of that, Leo really did want to go to Floor 18 and have a look, to go back to that pool where he'd first met Ais.
But he held himself back.
Not because there was a Floor Boss on the entrance leading to Floor 18, since whether the Floor Boss was even there right now was hard to say.
It blocked the only entrance leading to Floor 18, and people who wanted to go to the lower floors had to pass through there, so that Floor Boss was subjugated all the time; even if some adventurers lacked the ability to subjugate it, there would always be someone capable of doing so, so even if your strength fell short, as long as you confirmed the Floor Boss had been subjugated, then even a Lv.1 could go to Floor 18.
Once a Floor Boss was subjugated, the time for it to be reborn was also much longer than for ordinary monsters, taking at least two or three weeks, even longer, to reappear, so whether the Floor 17 Floor Boss was subjugated or reborn, the intelligence would be reported to the Guild and posted by the Guild on the notice board, and low-level adventurers, as long as they confirmed this intelligence, could decide for themselves whether to go to Floor 18.
Unfortunately, neither Leo nor Line had planned to go to Floor 18 before today, so neither of them had gone to the Guild to confirm this intelligence, and they didn't know whether the Floor Boss had been subjugated.
But even if it had been subjugated, Leo didn't intend to go to Floor 18 today.
As the end of the Cave Labyrinth, Floor 17, even leaving aside the threat of the Floor Boss, was very high in clear difficulty.
The most obvious change was that the Minotaur, which could exist as a mini-boss-class monster on Floor 15, appeared here in packs.
Sometimes a few, sometimes a dozen or so, and sometimes even dozens appeared at once, and when they fixed their blood-red eyes on you all at the same time, roaring and stamping their hooves, smashing the ground to pieces while kicking up clouds of dust as they came charging in a mighty horde, that scene, forget two Lv.2s like Leo and Line, even two Lv.3s would go pale and flee for their lives.
Once a sight like that appeared, Leo could only go all out, holding the staff high and chanting magic at a frantic pace, releasing a wide-range meteor shower to sweep the floor, sparing no part of the bulk of his Mind to do his utmost to thin out the Minotaurs' numbers, and only when he'd cut them down to a remaining two or three would he dare, enduring the stabbing pain in his head, grip his sword and charge in for close-quarters slaughter.
Line's healing magic hardly stopped either; once they met a Minotaur pack she had to cast on Leo without interruption, so much so that every time they finished off a Minotaur pack, the two of them had to gulp down magic potions.
Clearly, with the two of them at their current ability, roaming Floor 17 was already enough to make them feel pressure.
Though Leo's Status was already sufficient to go to the regions below Floor 20, after all he was just one person, and Line was a non-combatant who could only handle support and healing, so fighting alone, Floor 17 was already his limit.
Of course, this limit was gone four or five days later.
Because Leo carried out another Status update.
Leo Eligos
Lv.2
Strength: E496 → B780 Endurance: E437 → B742 Dexterity: D529 → A863 Agility: D581 → A899 Magic: C656 → S971 Mage: I
After this update, the pressure Floor 17 brought Leo dropped sharply all at once, and even running into a Minotaur pack again, Leo dared to leave seven or eight of them for close-quarters slaughter.
And while Leo kept clearing the Dungeon, growing at a speed others could scarcely imagine, the level of discussion about him in Orario hadn't dropped much with the passage of time.
People still talked with relish about his feat of rising to Lv.2 at an incredible speed, and the gods kept probing for intelligence on him by all sorts of means.
The only difference was that these people no longer came to harass the people of Loki Familia.
Loki Familia was already preparing for another expedition, and the moves they made toward it grew bigger and bigger, making it hard for outsiders to step in among them and interfere.
For the city's strongest Familia like Loki Familia, the significance of every expedition was very great, and if someone stood up to obstruct them at a time like this, forget the Guild not allowing it, many commerce-type Familias wouldn't allow it either.
Every expedition of a large exploration-type Familia was without doubt a feast for these commerce-type Familias.
After all, the supplies a large exploration-type Familia needed to procure for each expedition were enormous.
Take Loki Familia again as an example: every expedition required them to go to the region below Floor 50, and going that deep into the Dungeon, just the journey alone took nearly a week to make, and counting the return trip that was nearly half a month.
On such a far journey, running into any mishap was a devastating blow, because they had no way to retreat to the surface to regroup.
Once the potions ran out, they had to fight to the death wounded, isolated and without aid.
Once a weapon broke, they had to go bare-handed against monsters with hides harder than rock.
Once the food was used up, they had to go hungry, parched in the throat, squeezing their bodies to the limit, finding a way to survive.
In view of this, every expedition required preparing as many supplies as possible, so as not to fall into a state with no way out.
At a time like this, potions had to be bought by the bundle; even Elixirs had to be stocked by the boxful, and they had to commission smith Familias to forge spare weapons, including First Class equipment for first-class adventurers, and various items, food, water, and so on all had to be prepared in portions for dozens of people, and it had to be guaranteed to last until the expedition's end, and buying all these supplies in one go, the valis spent was absolutely on the order of hundreds of millions, ranging from a billion-odd at the least to even several billion at the most.
An expense this big, an order this big, naturally made those commerce-type Familias grin from ear to ear.
So at a time like this, basically no one came to get in Loki Familia's eye, and even the people blocking their door grew fewer and fewer; instead, the people of Loki Familia began moving in and out of the main base frequently, pushing in great batches of supplies every day, making the atmosphere visibly change.
By this point, even Familia executives like Ais, Tiona, Tione, and Bete could no longer take it easy, having to be assigned some work by the Familia leaders every day, and even Finn, Riveria, and Gareth began going out frequently, calling on the various major commerce-type Familias to nail down every order, every collaboration.
Loki likewise couldn't take it easy, sometimes running to the Guild to ask after all sorts of the latest Dungeon intelligence, sometimes spending a whole night in the God's Chamber updating the Status of members preparing to set out on the expedition, so they could meet the challenge in the strongest, best condition.
Even the low-level members guarding the home had to get busy at this time, tallying supplies, hauling goods, bustling about every day, with no chance to take it easy at all.
But for some reason, only Leo and Line were never assigned any work.
The Familia leaders, with remarkable shared understanding, ignored these two little ones, as if they'd forgotten them, letting them burrow into the Dungeon from dawn to dusk every day to continue their own adventuring, their own clearing.
The look of it was as if they were waiting for something, anticipating something.
"I really envy Leo and Line. They don't have to be busy with chores all day like us."
Tiona would sometimes mutter a line like this, without drawing any response.
Tione couldn't be bothered to pay her any mind, and being able to have Finn assign her tasks, she was too happy for words, so how could she be put off by it?
Lefiya, on the other hand, grew more conflicted by the day, more torn by the day, even feeling restless at times.
There was no helping it. The thought that while she was busy with chores, a certain man was still chasing hard, catching up in the Dungeon, made her a little anxious.
She kept finding herself thinking: at that man's growth speed, had he gotten even stronger by now?
Just how strong had he gotten now?
Was he about to hit Lv.3?
She herself... was only Lv.3 too, after all.
Surely she wasn't about to be caught up to?
Thinking of that, Lefiya looked utterly crestfallen, unable to focus on her work at all.
"A small fry's a small fry. If he wants to chase, let him chase, and see how far he can get."
Bete, on the other hand, often said this, but those who knew him could spot a trace of nonchalance and restlessness in him from time to time.
Ais kept silent throughout, doing her own work without a word, but sometimes someone would notice her spacing out, no telling what she was thinking about.
And so, time slipped by another four or five days in the feverish, subtle atmosphere of Orario and Loki Familia.
By now, Loki Familia's preparations for the expedition had reached their final stage.
In a few more days, these preparations could be formally wrapped up.
When that time came, Loki Familia's expedition would set sail.
It was right at this time that Leo, timing it just right, sought out Loki and carried out the final Status update of his Lv.2 stage.
Leo Eligos
Lv.2
Strength: B780 → SS1089 Endurance: B742 → SS1046 Dexterity: A863 → SS1125 Agility: A899 → SS1193 Magic: S971 → SSS1303 Mage: I → H
When the drifting Hieroglyphs fell along with a faint glow, drawn into Leo's back to form the new engraving, Loki, sucking on her bleeding finger, handed Leo the parchment translated into common script.
She'd gone completely numb to Leo's foul-play growth speed, and as for him reaching the limit of his current stage in just half a month, she chose to selectively ignore it.
Right now, she only wanted to say one thing.
"Your Lv.2 Status is maxed out. You can think about the great feat now."
When Loki said this, Leo was still looking at his Status.
He had no reaction at all to all his abilities having reached their limit, even breaking through the limit again to reach SS and SSS.
What he could do at Lv.1, he could naturally still do at Lv.2, so for this Status, Leo just glanced at it with an even expression and gave it no further attention.
What did catch him a little off guard was the Development Ability Mage having advanced a stage.
You had to understand, Development Abilities weren't like basic abilities; they didn't reset on a level up. Whatever they were, they stayed, which made them very difficult to raise.
Take Lefiya: however many years had passed since she'd become a Mage, no telling how many times she'd used magic, and yet her Mage was still H now, raised just one stage from the initial I.
Riveria, the city's strongest Mage, had a Mage Development Ability of only E, not even reaching D.
Among Ais's Development Abilities, the two highest only reached G, not even F.
Even that city's strongest Lv.7, his highest Development Ability was likewise only E, which showed just how hard Development Abilities were to raise.
Among all the Development Abilities that had appeared in the original work, the highest stage anyone had trained one to was just C; up until before Leo crossed over, no Development Ability above C had ever appeared.
And he could raise Mage a stage even before leveling up; without doubt, this rate of increase had once again broken past the norm.
About this, Leo could only sigh that the value of Stranger from Another Star was still climbing.
Then Leo responded to Loki's words.
"It's true there's nowhere left to climb. I've got to think about getting great deeds and pushing for the next Level."
There was no excitement in Leo's tone, only a calm, decisive note of having seen it coming.
Clearly, he'd long since guessed that he'd reach the limit of his current Level after this Status update today.
He'd prepared for it too, plainly not intending to linger here but to get ready to level up at once.
In other words, he was getting ready to adventure, getting ready to go challenge a strong foe.
"You've already picked a target?"
Loki looked at Leo intently, asking this.
"I have."
Leo didn't dodge, looking Loki straight in the eye.
"Who?"
Loki asked on.
Leo slowly spoke the name aloud.
"The Floor 17 Floor Boss, Goliath."
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