"Hey, isn't that Lady Riveria's ... "
Gulp...
The sound of throats gulping loudly rose one after another. Everyone was stunned by Fron's actions.
Anakitty was no exception. The catgirl was completely dumbfounded.
What kind of hatred do you have against them!? The battle has barely started for even an hour, it hasn't even reached the heated phase, and he almost blew open the enemy's base from the start.
Looking again at the erased walls and ground, the "hidden passage" had already been turned into a "football field."
Anakitty tightly squeezed the Daedalus Eye in her palm. She had no idea how she was going to report this to Finn.
To resolve the crisis, Fron continuously released large-scale barriers and ultra-wide-area annihilation magic.
Without hesitation, he took two potions of dual-attribute recovery potions from his leg pouch and downed them. They restored stamina and mental strength, and also warmed and relieved the dryness of his throat.
After such a long and intense fight, plus the pressure on him, even he had consumed a lot, though most of it had gone into that magic earlier.
"Hoo"
After drinking the potion, he slowly let out a breath, glanced at the conflicted expression of the catgirl, and smiled.
"Well then, Anakitty. Although there was… a tiny accident, it doesn't affect the overall plan. Mm… just report it truthfully."
"O-okay."
Seeing that Fron himself didn't care, Anakitty reluctantly walked to the side to report the situation to Finn.
Compared to their team acting as the forward unit from the surface and performing firepower scouting…
The two teams invading from the 18th and 12th floors had it much harder.
Everyone faced similar levels of defensive strength, but their team's fighting vitality was on a completely different level, especially because of Fron. His presence and advance speed had reached a realm individual skills could never reach.
He treated artillery bombardment like a normal attack, forcibly raising the efficiency and advance speed to a level the others could never hope to match...
A short distance behind the vanguard, closely following them, was the support unit.
Unlike Fron's team, which focused on fire suppression, scouting terrain, and handling traps, this team was responsible for cleaning up the mess Fron's group didn't have time for.
For example, collecting magic stones to prevent special monsters from reacting to them and disrupting their layout, reinforcing opened doors to prevent enemies from sneaking in and performing a second encirclement, correcting the map, and transmitting detailed intel to the rear, all sorts of tedious work.
"Hurry, jam and reinforce the gate, quick! Don't lose sight of the advance group!"
Under the urging of team commander Raul, adventurers with powerful strength carried metal pillars forged by the Hephaestus Familia and wedged them into the floor, walls, and door frame.
One pole wasn't enough, they used three to lock the massive metal gate firmly in place.
Even if it was a metal gate, if it couldn't close, it was useless. But once wedged shut, not even its own weight could break those metal support pillars.
This was part of the tactic called [Pillar]. During the ten-day preparation period, the Loki Familia gathered materials precisely for tackling the man-made Dungeon.
...
Aside from Fron's team, on the western side of the Man-made Dungeon,
This team was led by Gareth. Following Fron's advance and forced defensive compression from the enemy, they too began installing pillars on the gate.
As the pillar system gradually formed a closed containment, the Loki Familia's strategy began to take effect. The Evilus could struggle all they wanted… but they were nothing more than turtles trapped in a jar.
"Let the follow-up teams in. Remember, they must be escorted by our vanguard."
"Yes!"
Compared to the levels of the Loki Familia, members of other familias were much weaker.
For example, from the Dionysus Familia , their vice-captain, was only Lv.2.
In the man-made Dungeon, without a Lv.3 escort, and being a Lv.2 mage with poor close-combat ability, if a battle broke out… the result would not be pleasant. This was one of the reasons Loki warned them not to drag the team down.
...
Groups across different directions all began their advance, some smoothly, some disastrously.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
In the northeast direction, Tiona had just used her great dual blades to slash down a large wave of monsters when she heard screams from the rear support units.
"Tione? What happened!?"
She turned around in shock.
A stealth strike unit from the Evilus had pierced straight into the middle of the formation, attacking the members with strange weapons.
Those weapons emitted an eerie, unsettling glow.
Tione and Tiona exchanged a glance and understood immediately.
"Curse tools... the things Fron warned us about."
"Damn it!"
According to intel from Fron's earlier encounter and follow-up investigation, the lower-rank remnants of the Evilus were weak. Most were Lv.1 cannon fodder, at most Lv.2.
To a Familia like Loki's, where even the weakest combat member was Lv.2, they were unworthy of being called enemies.
Even as long as one avoided Violas, members of the Dionysus Familia could handle them.
However, as long as those cursed weapons touched skin even once, it would cause catastrophic results.
Inside the [curse tool], flowed a powerful curse that blocked healing.
The wounds inflicted by that weapon could not stop bleeding. People would bleed to death. And because the enemy could mass-produce such weapons, everyone feared them.
Of course, since the intel was known beforehand, there were countermeasures, and preparations were already made.
"[Drop of Healing ....]"
At the very rear of the formation, protected by adventurers, a silver-haired girl in white priest robes opened her arms. A massive pure-white magic circle bloomed.
"Range: 25 meters, no blind spots."
"[Dia Fratel]!"
One of the three biggest BUGs in Orario, the city's strongest healer, a girl who mastered ultra-wide-area all-purpose healing magic.
As her chant grew stronger, magical light burst forth, her silver hair waving in the air.
Amid released her magic.
In the deep passageway, a pure-white, complicated, mysterious rhombus magic circle spread across the stone tiles.
The beautiful white radiance rose, and the wounds of all members affected by the curse started healing visibly right before their eyes.
As if the curse itself met its natural enemy, all misfortune melted away.
"As expected of the city's number one healer, Amid is amazing!"
Adventurers voiced their admiration.