The Dungeon. Middle Floors.
Aiden left Robin, Jeanne, and the rest of the party behind in the upper echelons, assigning them the task of helping Castorice secure the Great Feat needed for her level up.
He, on the other hand, descended into the treacherous depths of the 37th Floor completely alone.
Well, not completely alone.
"Actually heading down to subjugate a Floor Boss solo. That's a monster with the latent abilities of a Level 6. You really are bold—and completely insane," Himeko teased, her arms crossed, a knowing smile playing on her lips.
"I've got you here with me, don't I?" Aiden replied with an easy, confident grin.
"True enough, but don't get careless," Himeko warned gently.
"I know. It's the Floor Boss of the 37th Floor, after all. It's not your average Level 6." Aiden wasn't about to underestimate his prey.
A Floor Boss was inherently magnitudes more powerful than a standard monster of the same level. A Level 6 Floor Boss like Udaeus posed a threat that wildly exceeded the conventional bounds of its classification.
Inside the massive, gloomy hall, the distant roars of monsters felt terrifyingly far away. The air pressing against his armor and clothing was biting cold. The ceiling, situated dizzyingly high above, lacked the usual luminescent moss, allowing a bone-chilling aura to permanently blanket the 37th Floor.
The Dungeon's breath, cold enough to evoke physical shivers, brushed lightly against the back of his neck.
Aiden chatted idly with Himeko, holding his breath as he waited for the inevitable moment.
Suddenly.
A tiny, almost imperceptible tremor vibrated through the soles of his boots.
"It's here," Aiden and Himeko said in perfect unison.
The moment the words left her mouth, Himeko's form dissolved into a streak of searing crimson light, shooting directly into the stigmata on the back of Aiden's hand.
The next second, a massive, blazing greatsword materialized in his grasp.
It was the Godslayer: Surtr, the physical manifestation of Himeko's power.
His eyes locked onto the dead center of the colossal hall with intense gravity.
The earth began to sway. The violent tremors amplified with every passing second.
Under Aiden's watchful gaze, the floor at the very center of the sprawling chamber began to bulge upward, writhing as if it were alive.
Accompanied by the agonizing shriek of overstressed rock, a massive spiderweb of fissures violently exploded outward from the epicenter.
The cracks raced across the floor endlessly. A split second later, a deafening boom—loud enough to shatter eardrums—echoed through the chamber as a pitch-black silhouette savagely tore through the bedrock. It surged upward, climbing higher and higher until it reached the suffocating darkness near the ceiling.
Tons of rock and dirt clung to its colossal frame, violently shaking loose and cascading down like a localized landslide.
The entire hall continued to quake, the air vibrating with a cataclysmic roar as the horrifying entity finally revealed its complete form.
At the far end of Aiden's vision, the jet-black abomination stared up at the darkness-choked ceiling.
"——RROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"
An endless, apocalyptic bellow tore from its throat. The oppressive, suffocating pressure radiating from the super-massive monster eclipsed even the Amphisbaena several times over.
Without a doubt, this was the absolute ruler of the 37th Floor. The Monster Rex.
Level 6, Udaeus.
At that exact same moment, in the labyrinthine tunnels leading toward the 37th Floor's boss room, another party felt the catastrophic tremors.
Having just completed a grueling quest in the Deep Floors, Riveria, Ais, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya slammed to a halt simultaneously.
"These tremors..." Ais said, her hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of Desperate. A razor-sharp gleam flashed in her golden eyes. "It's Udaeus."
"I see. Has it really been three months already...?" Riveria murmured, her tone perfectly even, her emerald eyes completely unbothered.
As a Monster Rex, it required a specific incubation period before it could be reborn from the Dungeon. Once killed, it wouldn't reappear until the cycle was complete.
Roughly three months ago, the Loki Familia had launched a massive Expedition, successfully hunting it down.
"It actually spawned while we're passing through! This is awesome!" Tiona's energetic face instantly lit up with battle-hungry excitement. She eagerly twirled the massive double-bladed Urga in her hands. "This quest was so boring! I didn't even get to properly warm up. A Floor Boss is the perfect punching bag!"
They had accepted a specific, high-priority commission from the Guild to retrieve a rare drop item from the Deep Floors. To ensure a fast, efficient run, they had deliberately avoided large monster hordes along the way—a tactical decision that had left the battle-crazed Tiona feeling incredibly stifled.
"Miss Tiona, please stop joking around! There are only five of us!" Lefiya cried out, the blood draining rapidly from her face.
To her, this was utter madness. The last time they fought Udaeus, the Loki Familia had deployed a main force of hundreds of elites, and it had still taken a monumental, blood-sweating effort to bring it down.
Taking it on with just five people—even if they were all high-level adventurers—was pushing their luck far too much.
"What are you so scared of, Lefiya?" Tiona scoffed, totally unbothered. "Tione and I are Level 6 now. Add your magic, Riveria's support, and Ais on the frontline? I'll chop the 37th Floor Boss into pieces."
She looked like she was ready to sprint into the boss room right then and there. Beside her, Ais remained silent, but the undeniable spark of temptation in her eyes was obvious.
"As much as I hate to admit it, the idiot makes a fair point. It's blocking our only path back up. We can't exactly sit here and wait for it to despawn, Lefiya," Tione analyzed coldly.
"She is correct." Riveria nodded, acknowledging Tione's logic.
While the Guild usually issued Floor Boss subjugation quests with a two-to-three-day buffer window, sitting around in the Deep Floors for days wasn't an option.
She cast a glance at the fiercely motivated trio of Tiona, Tione, and Ais, before issuing her absolute command. "Therefore, our objective is to break through its blockade. Do not engage in a prolonged battle. Is that understood? Our primary goal is simply to cross the 37th Floor."
"Awww—come on, really?!" Tiona groaned in despair. She had genuinely thought Riveria was going to greenlight a full subjugation, not a simple hit-and-run.
"Engaging it in a deathmatch here would be incredibly foolish," Riveria said, her tone leaving zero room for debate. "Draining our stamina and magic in the Dungeon right now leaves us highly vulnerable to accidents on the way back to the surface. Furthermore, subjugating a Floor Boss is a Familia-wide endeavor. The other members need the Great Feat to level up, and this opportunity only comes once every three months."
She knew full well that with Ais, Tiona, and Tione at their current levels, backed by her and Lefiya's artillery magic, they possessed the sheer firepower needed to kill the newly-spawned boss.
But at what cost? How much stamina and magic would they burn?
If they were exhausted and suddenly ran into an anomaly like "Childe" on their way back up, the consequences would be catastrophic.
──────── ⋆⋅❖⋅⋆ ────────
Enjoying the story so far?Support this fanfict with Power Stones! Every Power Stone helps this book reach more readers. For Advance Chapters, visit:
• Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations
Your support means the world and keeps the chapters coming!