The curtain quietly fell...
When the adventurers left the Dungeon one after another and came out of Babel, what had happened at Rivira followed them back up to the surface without a hitch, coming to the knowledge of the Guild, the major Familias, and even the ordinary citizens.
Word that Rivira had suffered a monster attack, that the whole town had nearly been destroyed, stirred up talk in the city for a while, but caused no great uproar at all.
"That crooked town got wrecked again?"
That was the first thought most people had.
There was no helping it. Before this, Rivira had already been destroyed three hundred and thirty-three times. The Rivira that Leo and the others had reached was in fact already the three hundred and thirty-fourth generation. A monster attack that wiped the place out was about as unremarkable as news got.
So on learning that Rivira had been attacked by monsters and nearly destroyed, the people of the city not only didn't make a fuss about it, they even wore looks of business as usual, and some went so far as to gloat behind the scenes... no, right out in the open, which shows just how bad the little town's reputation was in the trade.
Even though the place was an indispensable resupply and rest stop when exploring the Dungeon, people still wanted to say they'd suffered under Rivira for far too long.
No one knew how many people had been fleeced there, still less how many had been swindled there, and even a Familia like Loki Familia, the city's strongest, wore a look of gritted-teeth loathing the moment it came up, never mind everyone else.
And so, on learning that Rivira had nearly been destroyed, no one took it seriously. Instead they treated it as a joke, bringing it out to tease one another over their drinks, not caring in the least what had actually gone on behind the scenes.
The Guild, for its part, made some peculiar responses to it. They wasted no time sending people to Rivira to investigate, but on returning made no further plans, as if preparing to let the whole matter slide, which was rather intriguing.
Loki Familia's side had also received the letter Leo and the others had entrusted someone to send back, which set down clearly the whole course of events, including the fact that someone had been killed over the green orb, the existence of Lulune, the receiver who came out of Hermes Familia, and intelligence on the mysterious woman who commanded numerous Violas and was strong in a way no Human should be.
Loki, Finn, Riveria, Gareth, and the rest of the Familia's leaders all already knew about it, but because Leo and the others were still down in the Dungeon, there was no telling what kind of response they'd made to it. Only a single letter was relayed into the hands of Leo and the rest as they rested on Floor 18, and it had only one short line written on it.
"We'll talk it over in detail when you're back."
That was all.
So Leo and the others stopped dwelling on the matter too, and seeing that Rivira's affairs no longer needed their attention, the group plunged straight into the floors ahead, carrying out their plan to push toward the Deep Floors according to their original scheme.
It took them only a single day to pass through the Large Tree Labyrinth of Floors 19 to 24 and the Water City of Floors 25 to 27. They didn't linger on the safe floor of the Labyrinth Garden on Floor 28 either, going straight into the Jungle Ravine of Floors 29 to 32, and the Sand Land of Floors 33 to 36 fell behind them just as quickly. At last they arrived at the main destination of their plan: Floor 37, the White Palace.
Just as its name suggested, this floor was covered everywhere in walls dyed a milky white and in an intricate, complex labyrinth.
The labyrinth's structure here was not only complicated but enormous, its scale alone worlds apart from the floors so far. The passages, the rooms, and the walls, every part of the structure was wide and large, and while there were some small rooms, nearly every path and chamber was over ten meters across.
The floor as a whole formed a circle, made up of as many as five concentric great walls, each ringing the next like a castle, which was why it was called the White Palace. The stairway down to the next floor lay at the center, and if adventurers wanted to reach the central area, they had to pass through the open passages between the concentric great walls, climbing up and down over uneven ground in several places. Even if you found the best route, reaching the destination smoothly would likely take half a day.
This floor's area was already almost the equal of all of Orario, and the space overhead was boundlessly high. Even the eyesight of an upper-class adventurer couldn't make out the ceiling, and the whole space was steeped in a dim darkness, looking especially gloomy, with only the phosphorescence glowing at even intervals along the milky-white walls providing the most meager illumination. Staying there long would no doubt leave a person feeling very oppressed.
As for the monsters here, they were, in both number and quality, among the very best of any floor above Floor 40.
Floor 37 spawned many warrior-type monsters, that is, species that prided themselves on close-combat ability.
There were Barbarians with sturdy builds like a Minotaur's, there were Lizardman Elites, the high-grade variety of the Lizardmen that had begun to appear here and there from Floor 19 on, and there were Obsidian Soldiers with bodies of obsidian, and this kind of medium-class monster built to the same structure as a human body could be seen everywhere in the White Palace, all gathered together, leaving pure Mages barely able to take a step here.
They often didn't even have time to chant before these enemies with outstanding close-combat ability would rush their faces and close in to attack. Unless a pure Mage could skillfully use Concurrent Chanting, they couldn't get any room to work here at all, and even with companions protecting them it couldn't be called foolproof, because the obsidian bodies of the Obsidian Soldiers here could effectively resist magic, greatly weakening its power.
Their spawn interval was also very short, so the monsters throughout the floor were always in a full state, hard to clear out, and if Floor 37's area weren't simply so vast that the monsters could only be spread evenly across it, then even first-class adventurers forming a party to face them would find it very tricky.
This was the caliber of Floor 37, and the caliber of the Deep Floors.
From this floor on, even a first-class adventurer had to bring their full focus to cope, and the Guild's recommended clearing Level for the place was at minimum Lv.4.
And that was just the most basic requirement. If you really came to clear it at Lv.4, then it was best to come as a party of ten, and the positions, vanguard, midguard, rearguard, all had to be filled by capable people. You needed solid front-line warriors and rear-line Mages, and it was best to have a Healer equipped too. The whole team had to be without any obvious weaknesses to venture through here with relative safety.
In other words, at Leo's Level, at most he was a basic piece of the setup here, a rank-and-file grunt who'd look perfectly ordinary no matter where you put him.
Yet this very grunt, faced with the warrior-type monsters swarming in from up the broad passage, charged in without the slightest hesitation.
"WOOOOOOOH!"
A whole pack of Barbarians came charging out from the corner of the milky-white passage, roaring as they raised the natural weapons in their hands.
They not only had brawny builds on the same level as a Minotaur, but grew curved horns and huge double jaws, and equipped clubs and mallets in their hands, each of them radiating a presence far surpassing the bull monsters that struck terror into low-class adventurers, telling everyone just how wide a gap there was between the abilities of monsters that haunted the Deep Floors and the monsters of the earlier floors.
This kind of close-combat monster, which even a Lv.4 second-class adventurer wouldn't find easy to deal with, could smash a wall with a casual swing of its club, cave in the ground, and gouge out a crater two or three meters wide in the earth, violent in the extreme.
Leo kept his body low and rushed forward like a phantom under the glow of the phosphorescence lit at even intervals along the milky-white walls, and his sword flashed, knocking aside the club swung down with brute force, deflecting the Barbarian's blow.
If any other Lv.4 second-class adventurer had been here to see it, they'd surely have been astonished.
Just as the Orcs of Floors 11 and 12, though not yet classified as Lv.2, had Strength values so high that plenty of Lv.2 upper-class adventurers were unwilling to go head-to-head with them, a Barbarian's Strength value was absolutely not something an ordinary Lv.4 could stand against head-on, and yet Leo took it head-on with total ease, even knocking it away with a single stroke.
This was only natural.
Even if it didn't yet match the height of his Magic parameter, Leo's Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, and every other ability had been trained to SS at every Level, breaking past the theoretical limit, one stage higher even than the top rating of S.
Under these circumstances, over several Levels running, these abilities had long since become his latent potential, giving him, at Lv.4, ability scores far surpassing adventurers of the same Level. Even a Dwarf, strong and sturdy and extremely good at training Strength and Endurance, could hardly be mentioned in the same breath as him without a Skill or Development Ability to reinforce them.
And so a Barbarian, which an ordinary Lv.4 could hardly stand against head-on, Leo could withstand with total ease.
The sword flashed past as a cold, biting gleam, cutting deep into the flesh of the Barbarian whose club had been knocked away, severing its huge body.
"WOOOOOOOH!"
Seeing their companion's grisly death, the rest of the Barbarians let out roars, swinging their clubs one after another as they came at Leo to kill, only for their attacks to miss again and again under Leo's dodging left and right, landing only on the ground or the walls, smashing out one crater after another.
The sword struck home again and again.
Leo, while flickering aside to dodge, kept his sword weaving, at times unleashing a lightning-fast flash, at times pouring out a full-force downward cut, at times a diagonal slash, at times a horizontal one, powerfully slicing open, severing, and hacking apart the bodies of one Barbarian after another, sending severed limbs, broken remains, and blood flying everywhere.
This might look cruel, but compared to the other figure who charged in without a word, Leo's side was the merciful one.
Yes, at the same moment Leo charged forward without hesitation, Ais charged in just as resolutely.
Her face was cold, and her whole body was like a raging storm, unfolding a slaughter the moment she plunged into the pack of monsters, staining her silver saber red.
In an instant she cut out dozens of strokes, each one sharp enough to easily sever a Barbarian's body. When a Barbarian raised its club, Leo would still knock it away, dodge, or parry, but the blonde swordsman paid none of that any mind, cutting straight through the Barbarian along with its club, cleaving the Barbarian in two.
Barbarians would also open their huge double jaws and shoot out long tongues to attack enemies up close, and against this Leo's method was still to knock it aside, parry, dodge, but the blonde swordsman would sever it with a single stroke, and while the cut-off tongue flew up into the air, cut out another lightning-fast stroke, cleanly slicing open the double jaws still gaping before her, drawing a soundless scream from the Barbarian.
Cold, keen, merciless... Ais's sword was still the same style as ever, but the degree of it was even greater than before.
Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya watched Leo and Ais like this and exchanged glances.
"Something really did get to them, huh?"
Tiona said it as if to confirm it.
Tione gave a wry smile and didn't argue, while Lefiya wore a worried look.
It was because, all along the way, both Leo and Ais had fought in this style. On the surface it seemed no different from before, but anyone with eyes could see that the two of them had grown more silent than before, and more desperate than before.
From Floor 19 on, no matter what kind of monster these two saw, they'd rush out at the first instant, launching into a slaughter without a word, unwilling to say even one extra sentence, and compared to their style on past clears, they were clearly a good deal more silent and repressed.
Leo especially.
Ais was one thing. Though the impression she gave had changed too, she'd been the silent, enemy-killing type to begin with, only that it had gotten more pronounced than before.
But for Leo to become like this too, that was really off.
"What in the world is wrong with Mr. Leo and Miss Ais?"
Lefiya had originally meant to train her Concurrent Chanting technique on this floor. The monsters here were very unfriendly to pure rearguard Mages, requiring skilled Concurrent Chanting to barely cope, which was why Lefiya had wanted to come here to train.
But now, with something clearly wrong with both Ais and Leo, she couldn't spare the attention for training either, and could only watch, her face full of worry.
"It's because of what happened at Rivira yesterday, isn't it?" Tione said with a frown. "Those Violas and the female-form monster really are suspicious. We've got to investigate clearly what connection they have to those new species monsters we ran into on the expedition, but that shouldn't be enough to turn them into this, right?"
"I think it's most likely because of that mysterious attacker." Tiona hit the mark outright, guessing the truth, and said, mouth pouting, "Ever since we ran into that person, Ais's mood went off, and Leo went off along with her."
That was exactly how it was.
The moment Ais thought of the mysterious woman who'd called her "Aria," her heart fell into hopeless disarray.
And Leo, for his part, kept remembering that line of hers.
"Next time, I'll definitely kill you."
Leo understood very well just how dangerous a figure the mysterious woman who'd made that declaration really was.
So he had to get stronger, in order to be able to handle that killing intent that would arrive at some unknown time.
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