Finally it was time for me and Ottar to hit the dungeon for him to try and hit a level up and for me to gather as much smoke as possible in hopes of maxing my stats for the dragon got here.
"We're coming with you." Finn(captain of the Loki familia) said as he and a few other level six names stood in our way to the dungeon.
Gareth, Riveria, Bete and Shakti were all with him as they stood in our way.
"You all understand what the point of this is right? This isn't a glory or death mission. You fall behind and you get left behind. If you can accept that then you are free to join us, otherwise leave." I said firmly and Ottar just stood next to me staring them down in agreement.
"Think we wouldn't be here if we weren't aware of that? Don't insult us. We know the score." Bete said with a crude snort.
"He's right. We know the score lad, just want a chance to even it out." Gareth said seriously.
"Good, go to Hestia and tell her I sent you to grab the cold cloaks. Meet us on the eighteenth floor after that." I said and moved past them with Ottar.
Once in the dungeon we shot forward at top speed for the stairs going down. Once we hit the floor skipping vents it took us only about ten minutes total to hit the eighteenth floor where we stopped in Riviera to stock up on supplies. Food mostly even if price gauged to hell and back as this was looking to be a long trip and there were more mouths to feed now. We split up for this and I even gave Ottar a loot sack of his own without care for the secret getting out. -
I could deal with the problems that would come with that reveal if we survived the dragon, if not then it wasn't going to be my problem anyways. All of my creations would become limited resources after my death but considering my workshop would like be destroyed and everything in it lost if that happened it wouldn't exactly be an actionable fixable for anyone. Sure they could hiss and spit at Hestia for keeping the good stuff to herself but really it wouldn't accomplish anything.-
Anyways I set up near the town entrance once I gathered my part of the supplies and waited for the others to arrive. It was obvious to see that they came straight here using the shortcuts after retrieving the cold cloaks I'd sent them after.
"Alright lad we've got these odd cloaks so can you tell us what in the blazes they are?" Gareth asked waving his cloak of blue material in confusion.
"As the name implies those cloaks are to protect you from the cold. I made them using the skin of the sixty fourth floor monster rex's skin. You'll need it to get past the cold floors down there." I said honestly.
"You've been past floor sixty!?" Finn exclaimed in shock.
I shrugged "Yeah, went all the way to sixty four and soloed the monster rex there to level up. Could've probably gone further but my gut told me not to. Damn good thing I didn't too since I might have missed the window when the news of the dragon first hit to prepare." I said frankly.
"I can't believe we got our record broken by a single person who wasn't even level six. Have we just been wasting our time?" Riveria said with a sigh.
"Not really, i'm just a freak of nature. Your specialties come from your teamwork rather than overwhelming individual strength. My whole schtick is not needing anyone else, I alone am enough." I said bluntly.
"I don't know if I should be insulted that I was called weak or happy our efforts were praised." Finn said helplessly.
"Oh i'm not praising you. I think your whole teamwork thing is chalk full of flaws for making strong adventurers. It's why you've all been stuck at level six for so long. You are so focused on the group you've failed to keep yourselves in mind and stopped taking challenges personally. Hell when was the last time any of you actually delved by yourself? I bet you can't remember." I said seriously leaving them reeling like they'd been struck.
"Have we really gone that far off the path?" Finn muttered in horror as he clearly realized I was right.
It was perhaps a bit late to be snapping them out of their self inflicted stagnation but they'd already taken a step just by deciding to come with us so no reason not to meet them halfway. -
"Ah, that reminds me for whatever reason but what about your sword princess? she was all about growing stronger so I'm surprised she didn't come." I asked idly.
"We left her to keep Loki safe. Someone had to and she drew the short straw." Bete said with a shrug.
I got a good laugh out of that before Ottar returned finally and we set off for the deep dungeon. I had to snap them out of their whole take it slow to conserve energy mindset as we rushed through the great tree labyrinth and into the water palace floors. -
They got to learn real fast along with Ottar how much of a hurry we are in when I grabbed all of them with my technique stretched arms and jumped from the great fall. It was almost funny how panicked they were until I slowed us with my flames and then landed on the great lake without any trouble. I then preceded to freeze the surface of the lake solid to rush over to the stairs going further down.