There was a different character to entering the dungeon as part of an expedition.
The tight cluster of bodies around you made it hard to appreciate the genuinely fantasy-like atmosphere of the dungeon. With the normally foreboding silence replaced by soft chatter and jokes, the darkness pushed back by dozens of torches, and the normally stilted air swapped out for a sense of amusement as we listened to groups of Adventurers struggle with getting multi-tonne carts down the greatest challenge of all: stairs.
It was different and not just in atmosphere or tone, but also understanding; I could feel the strength of the heavily armed Adventurers around me. This was a force that could flatten mountains, and it was being used to probe the funny murder dungeon that I've probably become far too comfortable in.
Not clear it, no, just probing its depths took this much.
Because for all the ridiculous strength of some of the adventurers around me, not a single living person has ever set foot on the deepest floor of the Dungeon. Hell, we don't even know how deep it goes, and that fact alone says quite a bit about my own objectives.
Because if I wanted to kill the big fuck off dragon threatening this world, then I'd need to become stronger than the Familias that failed to kill it; the Zeus and Hera Familias. Familias that were each stronger than the Loki of today, by far.
In other words, I need to become far stronger than the entire force around me.
I knew that beforehand obviously, but experiencing it all for myself made it all the more real. Of course, I have advantages that they just don't, but it still puts in perspective just how daunting the task ultimately is.
That, and how much fun it'll be to pull it off.
"From here onwards we will divide into two teams!" Riveria's voice rang down the tunnel from the front of the convoy, immediately quietening the Adventurers with sheer authority. "Level twos and below will split off into their prearranged groups and circle the expedition to thin the bulk of the monsters."
"Prioritise helping those who are most new to this and the supporters." The High Elf Princess went on. "We're aiming to reach the eighteenth floor by today, so ensure that you maintain pace… Move out!"
The responding cheer told me just how prearranged this was, with the Adventurers around us suddenly coming alive. Supporters abandoned their massive bags on the already precariously full carts, and began readying themselves for combat alongside some of the more combat orientated Adventurers.
Meanwhile the grizzled veterans just chuckled at their spirit.
From what I understood, it was common for the big Familias to use their low levels as bag carriers on these expeditions regardless of their true role in the dungeon. Someone had to carry the bags, make the food and build the camps after all, and the higher levels were going to have their hands full as we got deeper. Likewise, it was common to let the low levels do what they could in the areas they could, so the expedition wouldn't be a total waste for them.
Shaking my head, I turned to my own team, specifically the only one who could maybe still benefit from this floor. "Judith-"
"Nope." The redhead cut me off before I could even say anything. "It's the upper floors, I'm not letting you waste your time babysitting me up here." It only took a glance to see what she wasn't saying; she wore her pride and embarrassment on her cheeks after all.
"Fine, have it your way." I chuckled, raising my fist.
"Uh…" She stared, the gesture clearly going over her head, so I gently reached over and eased her hand into a fist.
"It's like a handshake, but for good luck." I explained, bumping them together.
"Huh." Judith uttered, looking at our hands even as I stepped back, seeming kind of lost for words. "I'll uh, get going then…?"
"Stay safe." I chuckled and waved her off as she left awkwardly, leaving me with only one.
"You are aware of the eyes watching her, correct?" Miyabi spoke up once the redhead had disappeared out of sight, referencing the ill intent practically following Judith around at this point.
"Oh yeah."
"So, you wish to use her to flush out those with that intent?" She asked with a tilt of her head. And while I could see how she came to that conclusion, I shook my head.
"Nah, if anything it'd be simpler to keep her by our side, to force them to come to us directly or otherwise give up." I explained. "I just don't want to force her to stay, and it should be fairly safe so long as we're decently close by."
She nodded as if that were that, and in a way I suppose it was. I had a habit of at least planning for worst case scenarios, even if I dove into them in the end anyway. But Miyabi had probably long since been forced to accept that risks would naturally come to the Adventurers under her purview.
"If we're heading after her then…" She trailed off, glancing between the carts and the Adventurers around us. Most of the lower levels had already left, leaving only the strong behind.
"What's up?"
"Ah, I simply fear that the contents of my bag will be… smushed when I return." She expressed with drooping ears, which was honestly adorable. And something that made me genuinely consider the problem, including whether or not to reveal the obvious solution I had access to.
The issue really just came down to whether or not I wanted to expose my inventory to her.
On the one hand, I hadn't known her for very long, on the other, there was a good chance I'd wind up exposing my inventory on this expedition anyway. If the Goliath managed to line up a good hit and I had no other recourse, I was going to pull a shield out of my ass whether the entire Loki Familia was looking or not.
Secrets are only valuable if you're alive to use them after all, so I might as well be a good friend.
"I'll take care of it." I decided with a wink.
She blinked curiously at that. "I don't think-" She trailed off as she seemed to pick up on some of what I was conveying. "Oh! I see…"
I nodded off to a tunnel branching off the path the expedition was moving down, setting the pace as we moved out of sight and circled around to a spot near where I could feel Judith hunting.
"Bag." I offered, holding out my hand and grunting slightly as she passed the surprisingly heavy fucker over. At a guess I'd put it at over a hundred kilos, though I might be understating that. Either way, it disappeared into that dim golden light like everything else I shoved into my inventory.
Honestly, I didn't have a clue how large the space was at this point. I'd only run into its limit once and by the time I tried to fill it up to that point again, the limit had either vanished entirely or trended sharply upwards. It was probably scaling off my Endurance if I had to guess, just based on how it works in game.
Miyabi's ears jerked backwards in alarm at the sight of her precious melon bag vanishing, so I brought it back just to reassure her.
"Storage skill." I smirked, making the bag vanish again. "And the contents are kept fresh, so no worries."
"Fresh?" She whispered, her ears twitching with the excitement she was clearly struggling to keep off her face. "I-I see, that's a truly fearsome power… and you're willing to use this for my sake?"
"Sure, as long as you don't tell anyone about it."
She shivered at the thought of losing access to my apparent fresh melon skill, and nodded more seriously than I'd ever seen her.
"I won't tell a soul, even under the most dire of tortures." She quickly affirmed. And well, I didn't mean it quite that seriously, but I was glad she was on board.
"Nice, then I guess we just need to deal with them." I smiled at the group of Kobolds hesitating around the bend of the tunnel we were in. This was a fairly common problem with low-rank monsters, once you were a bit stronger than them, they instinctually froze instead of just charging at you.
Meaning you needed to go to them.
"Allow me." My fellow Captain smiled. "I must pay you back for this great boon." She shot off, withdrawing her sword, sheath and all.
Before the dog-eared creatures could even react, she appeared before them and -extremely gently- swept up a pair of them with the back of sheath.
Kobolds were fragile enough that casual movements from a level two were enough to snap them in two. So the skill required to scoop up a pair of them and guide them into a spinning throw was far more impressive than just outright killing them.
That said, I didn't intend to be beaten in this game.
Reaching down, I gripped the third hilt attached to my hip. Though honestly, the handle had more in common with a writing utensil than a sword hilt. It was thinner by far than any other handle, and not nearly thick enough to get a proper grip. It lacked a crossguard entirely and -as I drew it from where it was hidden in the sheath of my main sword- its black blade was entirely too long and thin to appear usable.
If I hadn't had a chunk of mithril left over from renovating my main sword, I never would have made this. But, due to how much my budget had increased since I started selling level two stones to the guild, I wound up being a bit over zealous.
It was a sword born out of my love for rapiers, and a product of its concept being taken to its illogical conclusion.
The ideal exemplified by a rapier was always in the idea of winning perfectly, of finding gaps in your opponent's guard and piercing through them skillfully with grace and speed. It was not a weapon that was designed to hold up in a prolonged fight, nor a weapon that should be used in a true clash of strength.
Which is how I wound up with this, a sword entirely too thin and too hard to actually clash with another blade. Faced with any large amount of resistance, it would likely risk snapping in spite of Mythril, which is why I didn't even bother with a crossguard.
What it is, is a very long, very light and very sharp weapon.
Flourishing the blade in my hand there was no sound as it passed through the air around me, if anything it seemed to move entirely independently of air resistance. It didn't whistle or hum in my hand, it just moved, and that almost alien feeling made me want to test it all the more.
So I stepped into the path of the Kobolds, and that strange feeling only multiplied as the sword met the soft tissue of the Kobold with a total lack of sensation. There was no feedback, no feeling as the blade disemboweled the monster, nor any as I guided it back around to split the creature's neck before it could sail past me.
I did that because that's what a rapier should do, it should seek out the softer and weakest points. But honestly? The total lack of resistance kinda threw me for a loop, hell it even made the sword a little hard to control. Without the feel of the cut, I risked dipping into the bone when guided by instincts alone.
But then, it was cutting through so easily that I didn't even know if bone would be an issue. I may have misjudged the sharpness a little. So for the second, I decided to just say fuck it and split it in half to see if I could feel anything.
I didn't.
The Kobold just came apart in two pieces as I contemplated that sheer lack of feeling, and why it bothered me.
I think it came down to that saying, 'that to swing is to feel your blade parting the air, and to cut is to feel the very material you're parting'. Which granted, did sound pretentious, but projectile cutting was actually very rooted in this idea. To 'throw' a slash you need quite a few things going for you, and one of them is an understanding of the 'texture' of the air.
You can't split a building in half if you've never felt it.
Or well you could, but not in the cool way.
So what happens when your new funny murder blade just passes through everything with raw sharpness and a casual disdain for air resistance? Well, I tried it, tried pushing this sword to at least throw something, and just nothing. I couldn't 'catch' the air like I was used to, there just wasn't any resistance there.
Which brings up the question; is it impossible, or am I lacking in some way? And could I improve if that is the case?
Miyabi sent another two monsters my way as I considered this and I found myself almost absently playing with the sword. The first came apart in five pieces, the second, seven as I started to push things; even spinning the funny blade between my fingers like a pen at one point.
The answer was that I just didn't know, and that only made me want to try all the more.
As I came to this conclusion, I grabbed the Goblin trying to sneak up behind me before gently side-serving him across the tunnel at Miyabi. The toddler-sized monster came apart in five pieces and I couldn't help but smile as a competitive light shone in my friend's red eyes. That smile only got wider as we started to move, running down monsters to hurl them at each other as we tried to one-up one another.
And as I went, I kept trying with this dumb sword; framing and reframing my mentality in different ways just to see if something would work. Playing with it like a puzzle, or like a spell actually.
And when seemingly nothing worked, I grinned more and kept trying.
At the very least the funny murder blade was living up to its new name.
-
We spent the next several floors like this, lingering near enough to Judith to be able to respond while still leaving ourselves enough room to thoroughly ravage the local monster population. The expedition itself meanwhile hadn't run into any major incidents in that time, with the only thing of note being a brief run in with a returning Ganesha team in a stairway.
Relations there seemed to be worse than I would've originally guessed, given the clear fear that crossed the Ganesha's lots' faces. And while I didn't know the reason for it, I could at least relate a little. Had things gone worse between me and the Loki Familia, I probably wouldn't want to come across their entire primary force while I was exhausted.
This relative peace lasted until the sixth floor, when someone suddenly approached Red. To be specific, multiple someones, and while most of them were weak enough that I could trust Judith to hold her own against them for a spell, there was one who was… strange.
"How about it, up for getting involved?" I offered, turning to my fellow Captain with an unthrown War Shadow still thrashing around in my hand. At her nod, we set off, the monster whipping around impotently like a kite as we picked up speed.
I kept it because it amused me.
"Four." Miyabi offered with a frown, likely having felt the same weirdness I had, as her ears twitched like she was listening to something. "One of them is hiding and likely strong."
I nodded in acknowledgement and picked up the pace, bouncing off the walls to maintain momentum as the path went through a series of bends. I'd apparently let myself get further away than I'd originally intended in my games, not helped by the tunnel structure in this area.
There was no straight shot to where Judith was, only layers of parallel tunnels leading everywhere but where I wanted to go. It was a touch annoying, but it didn't feel like there was overly much need for urgency anyway. Whoever these guys were, they were here for something over than direct violence. And- oh?
"Five." I announced a beat later, as I felt an oddly familiar intent step into the conflict, seemingly on Judith's side.
The War Shadow tore apart in the wind pressure as I picked up speed for the final straight sprint, and wound up having to apply a considerable amount of my stealth proficiency just to pull off a decently quiet landing out of sight.
"-Stay out of this Ilya!" Some shitter's shout reached me as Miyabi landed quietly beside me.
"I refuse." A voice I hadn't heard in while cut back. It was Ilya Lindsay's, another member of the Loki training team I'd grouped up with for a brief period. "Your intentions are obvious Schmitt, I won't allow you to taint the name of our Familia by picking petty fights."
"Taint? You fucking bitch!" Schmitt assumedly shouted back. He was surprisingly genuine in his anger. "Are you siding with that traitor now?"
"Fuck off you stuck up prick!" Judith's voice spoke up with a rather expected amount of aggression. "Even when you're picking a fight you can't do shit without ganging up on people and you wanna call out others for sticking up for each other?"
"Sticking up for each other? Because you'd know so much about that, wouldn't you?" He spat back with venom. "You traitorous street rat."
"Oh get off your fucking high horse Schmitt, you're from Chapel Road too and you've stabbed everyone who's ever given you the time of day in the back."
"In case you didn't notice I'm still in this Familia, I didn't sell it out for a fancy set of armour!"
The exact wording of what came next was lost in a glorious mess of people shouting over each other, with insults of every shade thrown about by what were apparently the major players of the Loki generation that Judith had been a part of.
Or in other words, this was a school reunion, only for people who stabbed things for a living.
And on the outskirts of this, I just stood back and enjoyed the chaos, nodding along with the occasional, creative insult. Like Red calling one of the Loki lot 'a cowering sewer monkey'.
Unfortunately though -like all funny things- it just had to be ended by a blowhard who clearly thought too highly of himself.
"That's enough." A man announced as he abused what was probably level three speed to appear between the two groups. The argument died out on both sides instantly, but unlike the genuine shock of Judith and Ilya, the other group felt more relieved at his arrival than anything.
And given that this was the strong one Miyabi had speculated was lying in wait, it seemed like this one was here for something.
"Why don't you come out and we can all talk this through?" He went on, this time directing his words straight at where me and Miyabi were waiting. Ah, shit. "I've been dying to meet the man who beat the Vice-Captain of the Athena Familia after all."
Well, he gets points for theatrics if nothing else, though there was something off about his tone.
"Elric?" I stepped out much to Red's bewilderment and interestingly enough, the fear of the ones she was arguing with. But in doing that I laid eyes on the man for the first time and by God, it seems like I can never escape fucking Finn Deimne. This fucker was dressed like the Temu version of his Captain and that instantly made me suspect him.
Of what exactly? Everything.
…He even had the same mustard yellow and purple colour scheme.
"Thanks, but I don't even know who you are." I spoke up casually, and he flinched, hard. "Also, I don't think there's much to talk about here, seems like this was just an argument between old rivals."
My response didn't seem to be what this level three was hoping for. As for why, well he wouldn't have been waiting for me to show up to reveal himself if he wasn't here to play some kind of angle.
"Captain, I…" I just smiled at Judith reassuringly.
"I-I think there's a lot to talk about actually." The level three puffed up, trying to project some air of authority. "Like your subordinate picking a fight with my-"
"-Like fuck I did!" Red shouted, cutting him off much to his annoyance. His lips tightened further as I just gave him a get on with it gesture.
"As I was saying…" He snarked, looking down at Judith. "I believe things have gone beyond a reasonable point, your subordinate has insulted not only our members but also our Familia-"
"-She didn't." Ilya spoke up from our side.
"Excuse me?"
"She did not insult our Familia, nor did she start this fight."
"Ilya you-!" Schmitt -the aforementioned sewer monkey- tried to speak, only for his superior to wave him down. The pair of them looked increasingly worried.
"Miss Lindsay, are you certain about that?" The man asked with a strained expression on his face, as if his plans were falling apart in front of his face.
And to be fair, they might just be.
Ilya was a noble, so for the people who actually cared about that, her word would be something they couldn't just steamroll over. In other words, if this dude's plan was to trump up this incident and then try to get his Familia's management involved -which it seems to be from where he was going with that speech- then Ilya siding with us could absolutely torpedo that.
But then why would he step out when she'd already made her position clear?
Was he an idiot?
"I am." She said with gritted teeth, looking surprisingly tense under the fairly weak pressure the older man was throwing at her.
"I see, how… unfortunate." He grit out, before lapsing into an awkward silence as we all just kinda stood there waiting for him to continue.
That silence continued beyond any reasonable length of time for a follow-up, and then kept going as the man started to look more and more embarrassed.
"Wait, that's it?" I asked incredulously. "All it took was Ilya disagreeing with you and your plan's up in smoke?" I was actually starting to look forward to where this was going and now this?
Oh God, he is an idiot.
"N-No, I wasn't planning anything, I-" The man, clearly flustered, tried to bluster his way out. But that only let me work out what the awkwardness in his voice had been; it was stage jitters.
"-Shut up." I cut him off before he could ramble. "You wouldn't have been hiding, waiting for me to get here if you weren't planning something. So what was it? Make a stink and demand payment from us for this incident?" The man reacted to the first part, but relaxed at the second. He couldn't even hide his most basic reactions. "No? Then was it to smear our reputation? To escalate things to a fight?" That last one got a reaction.
"No!" He swiftly denied. "I wouldn't! I was just stepping in because I wanted to deescalate the situation." He tried, but it was already too late.
If he wanted to pick a fight, then he could have just started one here and now. His concern over Ilya's word, the way he was trying to thrust the conversation, it all led in one overly specific direction.
"Did you forget that I already called you out on your lurking?" I brushed aside his protest. "You came here to tell on us to your superiors and use that as leverage to demand a duel, didn't you?"
"W-What?" He stuttered, as he even paled dramatically. Bingo.
Finn was kind of famous for being a slimy bastard. In any other context the Captain of the Loki Familia probably would have gone along with his cosplayer's scheme if it meant finding out more about someone he was interested in. For much the same reason Finn greenlit me taking on the Goliath.
As for what this guy wanted, it was probably the same thing I wanted in the coliseum. To use other people's reputations as a springboard by beating them as publicly as possible.
"You wanted to beat me -not here obviously- but in front of everyone." I deduced. "As for why, reputation? To portray yourself as defending the honour of the Loki Familia? Or was it for your Goddess' love?" He and everyone else flinched hard at that last one, though sadly not because I was on the money this time.
That would've been really funny though.
"I-"
"-And where the fuck is your drive man?" I cut him off again, mostly just having fun bullying him at this point. I get that not everyone I run into can be competent, but damn, seeing someone fumble the delivery this badly was hilarious.
"I… What?"
"Where's your drive, your passion? If you're going to be a shitty villain, then the least you can do is be persistent about it." I went on as his face twisted into utter confusion. "You just ran into a single roadblock and instantly gave up, you could have at least pivoted, done something."
"Captain, are you… giving this guy a pep talk?" Judith asked as if she couldn't believe her own words.
"Well yeah, just look at him!" I pointed at the cosplayer. "If he had any amount of self confidence do you think he'd dress up like your Captain? That colour scheme is a crime against nature."
"H-Hey!" The near broken man tried to protest, but was almost immediately ignored.
"He's here to start shit!" She tried.
"No he's here to set up a fight." I corrected.
"And that's better?"
"Well don't you want to beat those brats into the ground in front of everyone?" Red looked speechless in the face of my brilliant logic.
"I-" The man tried to speak up, only to get interrupted again, apparently having been flustered enough to not notice the people approaching us.
"Ehhh? What's going on here~?" The Amazon twins and Aiz had arrived on the scene, much to my new friend's absolute horror. "This looks kinda fun…" One of the twins -Tiona- went on as she winked at us.
The man tried to speak, but words wouldn't come out. If anything it looked like his soul had left his body the second he'd seen Ais and his minions weren't much better.
Meanwhile, ignoring all sense of social norms, Ais just trotted up to me in front of everyone and peered at me like she was trying to look into my soul.
"…You became stronger again." She announced to the room, much to everyone's confusion.
"I did, thanks for noticing." I went along with it happily, having much too great a time watching the would-be villain's expressions to care about opsec. Then, I turned to Tiona with a shiteating grin. "As for what's going on, we were just formalising a duel."
""A duel?"" The man in question asked incredulously, his words mirrored by the Amazon, only she sounded surprisingly excited.
"Yeah, we're gunna fight on the eighteenth floor, isn't that right buddy?" I grinned, walking up to the man and clapping him on the back, before leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Unless of course you want me to explain what happened here to my good friend Ais."
He froze completely at that, seemingly only just now realising how fucked he'd been from the start. From the get go, I had far too many connections with his leadership for this plan to succeed, lucky for him I was here to get his scheming against me back on track.
"A-Ah, that's right!" He agreed, seemingly seeing some ray of light at the end of the tunnel, likely thinking he could still beat me in spite of my sheer confidence.
Those hopes seemed to get especially high as Ais turned her attention to him upon his agreement, only to dash them a second later as her eyes panned away a moment later in total disinterest.
Goddamn was Ais growing on me by the day. She just gets the funniest reactions.
"Ooooh, sounds fun!" Tiona enthused. "I'll be there, so try and put up a decent fight you two!"
"Of course." I grinned. "As will Judith here." I flicked a thumb at Red who just gaped in surprise.
"Eh?"
"Oh! Who's she fighting, these three?" The Amazon girl bent over to inspect the three of them with a critical eye as they visibly began sweating.
"Uh, we didn't actually-" Schmitt's words died as the level three -whose name I still didn't know- glared him into submission.
"Excellent." I clapped, before turning to the girl who came to Judith's defense. "Ilya, you wanna get in on this fight?"
She considered it surprisingly rationally, before her eyes ultimately turned to one of Schmitt's lackeys with a surprising amount of fire behind them. "I'm up for it, yes."
I wasn't sure what that was about, but I was down for any and all violence.
-
Semi fast chapter, and yeah there'll be a more full introduction to the Amazon twins next chapter. Hope you had fun, and a good day/night, next three chapters are up on https://www.patreon.com/c/OneFallLeaf I'm going to go to sleep hopefully soon