Ais's words sent a small shift through the air around this five-person squad.
Everyone exchanged glances, and it was several seconds before anyone spoke.
"This is Cadmus's turf. Is someone here fighting it?"
Tiona was a little taken aback.
"Could it be that some other Familia besides us has gone on an expedition all the way down here?"
Lefiya looked shocked too.
"Impossible." Tione shook her head, denying it. "There are only a handful of Familias in all of Orario that can clear their way down this far, and before the expedition the captain already confirmed with the Guild that during this period, apart from us, not a single one of the Familias capable of expeditions this far has made a move. So no second Familia should be showing up. In other words, during this period only Loki Familia would come here. While the expedition is underway, the floors past Floor 50 can basically be confirmed as Loki Familia's stage. Unless something like Freya Familia came here behind the Guild's back and carried out a large-scale clear outside of an expedition, it's pretty much impossible for a second Familia to appear in a place like this."
"Then what is it that's fighting Cadmus?" Tiona wondered. "Or did Ais just sense it wrong?"
Ais didn't say anything, but her blank expression made it clear she wasn't bluffing, nothing like someone who'd gotten it wrong.
And no one believed Ais's senses could be off. They'd fought shoulder to shoulder with her for so many years now that no one knew better than they did how keen Ais was at sensing monsters.
So everyone looked from one to another, and in the end they all turned together to Leo, who was likewise keeping silent.
After all, Finn had said it himself: this squad was Leo's responsibility.
When they couldn't make up their minds, the girls naturally had no choice but to see what Leo would do.
Noticing the girls' eyes on him, Leo rather wanted to gripe.
And why didn't you ask for my opinion just now?
The whole way down, it wasn't that Leo hadn't thought about taking up his duty as squad captain and giving orders, but every time a monster appeared, these girls would charge out like beasts spotting prey, no questions asked, never giving him a chance to say a word.
And every one of them was tougher than the last, slaughtering monsters like they were butchering chickens, blades coming down before you could blink, leaving Leo without so much as an opening to say anything to them.
What was Leo supposed to do about that?
He could only let them be.
He finally understood now why those Familia leaders, whenever Ais and the others came up, would say "reckless" in practically every other breath, looking worried sick all day long.
Ais, Tiona, and Tione, strong they certainly were, but each of them was better than the last at moving their bodies before their heads, and each more battle-hungry than the last. Once they got fired up, they'd probably listen only selectively even to what Finn and the others said, which really was a bit of a headache.
Thankfully, outside of combat these girls still had a decent sense of restraint and wouldn't act on their own.
It was just a shame that Leo had already pretty much guessed what was going on, and he didn't have any inclination to mull it over carefully.
"We'll know once we go in and look."
He tossed out that one line, and then, of all things, walked out ahead of the group and into the chamber, leaving the girls stunned.
"H-he just went in like that?"
Lefiya still couldn't believe it, wearing a look that said he actually just waltzed right in.
Ais came to her senses and immediately followed without a word.
"Wait! Ais!"
"Hey! Aren't you two being way too reckless?"
The Amazoness twins cried out in dismay, yet followed after without the slightest hesitation.
Lefiya stamped her foot and could only follow along, at a loss.
The five of them walked into the chamber together, and the next moment it was as if they'd stepped into another world, taking in an utterly staggering sight.
A world-shaking roar suddenly went up in the vast chamber, turning into a wave of sound that shook the air and everything around as it swept across the whole space.
"It's Cadmus!"
Tiona and Tione spoke at the same time, the weapons in their hands tightening in an instant.
"Th-this is Cadmus's voice?"
From the sheer force of that roar, Lefiya felt the full terror of the thing, her face going pale.
Ais's eyes turned razor-sharp, as if she'd heard the bellow of an enemy she had a score to settle with, and she drew the sword at her waist without hesitation.
"Hide first!"
Leo grabbed Ais, who looked ready to charge out at any second, and pulled the whole group to one corner of the chamber, ducking behind a large boulder.
Then they peered through a gap in the rock at the inside of the chamber.
In the depths of this chamber, larger even than the room where the Floor 17 boss Goliath dwelt, a colossal thing had appeared.
It was a dragon with an enormous body and savage horns.
The dragon's frame was massive, far bigger than ordinary large-category monsters, no less imposing even compared to a super-large-category Floor Boss, its body covered in scales and wings that gleamed with golden light, the very image of one of those evil dragons from myth and legend that guard treasure out in the wilds.
The aura the evil dragon gave off was terrifying too, far more dreadful than the strongest monster Leo had seen up to now. Even the Floor 17 boss Goliath would be overwhelmed standing before it.
From the aura alone, the size alone, the scale alone, Leo was utterly certain this was a monster he could never deal with no matter what.
Even if Lv.5 first-class adventurers came at it together in a pack, they might well be no match for it.
"So that's Cadmus?"
It could only be said that it lived up to being called something that, on strength alone, exceeded the Floor 37 boss Udaeus. The aura by itself was enough to frighten a person to death.
And yet, what made the eyes go wide was that this dragon, mighty beyond compare, was at this very moment being hunted down by a swarm of monsters.
Yes, hunted.
All around Cadmus, deformed monsters were attacking the dragon in packs.
Those monsters had a uniform appearance, their bodies dominated by a yellow-green color, the bloated, soft-looking green skin marked all over with garishly colored patterns. Countless short legs made up their lower halves, while their upper halves seemed to sit atop the long lower halves, bulging up like a small hill. Flat, thickness-less organs like arms stretched out from either side of the body, the tips split into four clefts, looking a little like fingers.
Their bodies weren't huge like Cadmus's, but they still reached four meters, and combined with that uncanny coloration and shape, there was a rather nauseating, revolting quality to them, leaving you ill at ease both physically and mentally.
"Wh-what is that?"
Lefiya clapped a hand over her mouth, nearly crying out on the spot.
"...Worms?"
Tiona and Tione weren't like Lefiya, but they still knit their brows in something like disgust.
"A new species..."
Ais murmured this, giving voice to the thought in everyone's mind.
Every one of them, without exception, had the same idea: that this was a new kind of monster.
That was because, for all their long exploration of the Dungeon's deep floors, Ais and the others had never seen a monster like this before.
This wasn't any monster they knew, nor anything they'd encountered on this floor in the past, completely and utterly an unfamiliar existence.
Of course, that wasn't a serious problem in itself. Just monsters, after all. New kind or not, as long as they weren't excessively strong, their fate was to be slaughtered by adventurers, hardly worth making a fuss over.
The problem was that these monsters were ganging up on Cadmus, ganging up on another monster of all things.
Now that was not a situation that could simply be ignored.
"Those monsters... they couldn't be enhanced species, could they?"
Tione spoke up, stunned.
Enhanced species, a rare individual monster entirely different from a rare species.
Generally speaking, monsters don't attack other individuals of their own kind. Barring special circumstances, even when monsters of different kinds meet, they'll only ignore each other, at most cutting each other down over territory or instinct and the like, producing some sporadic fighting. But if they're at peace with one another, it's pretty much impossible for one to attack the other unprovoked.
But there's one kind of monster that's different.
When some monsters, in a sudden or special situation, kill another monster and devour its body, eating its magic stone, sometimes, much like adventurers updating their Status, their own abilities will shift and they'll grow stronger.
This kind of monster, having grown stronger from accidentally ingesting a magic stone, may become addicted to it, actively hunting other monsters in order to grow stronger still.
This kind of monster, drunk on the power that devouring magic stones brings, not only grows stronger and stronger but more and more crazed, and in the end may become something utterly terrifying, earning a Guild bounty.
Once, there was a monster called the Bloody Hulk that grew immensely strong from hunting many of its own kind and devouring many magic stones. After the Guild discovered it and placed a bounty on it, it actually drove back the elite adventurer squad sent to subjugate it, killing some fifty high-class adventurers in all and shaking all of Orario.
That was an extremely grievous loss, and in the end it even drew in Freya Familia, whose powerful warriors stepped in for the subjugation before it was finally brought down.
To this day the matter still comes up now and then throughout Orario and within the major Familias, having caused quite an uproar in the world.
Monsters like the Bloody Hulk are called enhanced species, meaning monsters that have gained enhancement far surpassing others of their kind. The moment such a monster is discovered, the Guild immediately places a bounty on it and has it subjugated, lest it grow stronger and stronger and ultimately cause grievous casualties like the Bloody Hulk did.
Since these new worm-type monsters before them were attacking Cadmus, there was a good chance they were so-called enhanced species.
But...
"How could there possibly be that many enhanced species?"
Tiona raised an objection.
She wasn't wrong, either. Generally an enhanced species was an isolated monster, an anomaly among monsters of the same kind.
Yet these new worm-type monsters before them, without exception, were all attacking Cadmus.
Could they all be enhanced species?
Something like that... how could it possibly happen?
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