For a while afterward, Orario settled back into calm.
The Irregular on Floor 24 of the Dungeon had been resolved, the abnormal surge in monster numbers no longer appeared, and even the Pantry where it had all happened had been restored to its original state by the Dungeon's own self-healing, as if nothing had ever occurred.
But anyone with a sharp eye would notice that beneath that calm, all sorts of undercurrents were stirring.
Guild personnel were quietly running around on some mysterious set of instructions, investigating something.
In Loki Familia, likewise, certain people were secretly taking actions unknown to others under Loki's or Finn's direction, either investigating something or looking for ways to make contact with the Guild and get at certain hidden pieces of information.
Some noticed this and privately thought it strange; others watched in silence and took actions of their own, as though intending to get to the bottom of it.
Still, all of that was being done in the dark. On the surface, the Guild was the same Guild, doing its duty day after day and providing services to adventurers, and Loki Familia had merely dropped a hidden piece on the board in passing, without putting its main energy into it, and went on preparing for the next expedition.
To outsiders, this preparation on Loki Familia's part was perfectly normal.
Since the last expedition had failed, of course they would prepare properly this time, wipe away the disgrace, reach the unexplored floors in one push, update the Familia's deepest recorded floor, and win back honor, wealth, popularity, all of it.
Even the Familia's members were quietly building up momentum, set on redeeming themselves, especially Bete, Tiona, and Tione. They had watched Ais rise to Lv.6 and Leo catch up at an unbelievable speed, maybe even pass them already, and none of them were willing to let it go on like this, and they meant to take that last step on this expedition, catch up to Leo and Ais again, and climb one level higher.
Even the core members of the Second Army, Raul, Anakitty, and Alicia, were quietly accumulating resolve, hoping to take that crucial step on the coming expedition and reach Lv.5, the undisputed rank of the strong in the city and in the whole lower world.
As for Lefiya, the Elf girl had been watching Leo and Ais go around together more and more, and it made her so angry she couldn't enjoy her meals or sleep well. Right now she had more drive than anyone, determined to work herself up and chase after them, refusing to stand by and watch her own dear big sister get carried off by a villain.
The whole of Loki Familia was like a drawn bow now, waiting only to loose the arrow, pierce clean through the clouds, and soar.
Only Finn and the others knew that this expedition was not just for the Familia, but also to find out exactly what the Creatures and the remnants of Evilus were plotting.
Leo and Ais had already told Finn and the rest that something was happening on Floor 59, and that it was closely connected to those beings moving in the dark.
If they could uncover the truth of it, they might catch a glimpse of the true face of the thick shadow brewing behind Orario.
By then, perhaps they could turn from passive to active and wipe out the threat entirely.
In any case, publicly or privately, this expedition was a necessity.
So Finn and the others quietly stepped up the pace, keeping every part of the expedition's preparation moving in good order.
Leo and Ais no longer had any chance to wander around outside. This time Riveria and Gareth press-ganged them thoroughly, and they had no choice but to join their companions in the preparation work for the expedition.
However, while Leo and his Familia companions were busy preparing for the next expedition, something unexpected broke that calm.
...
That day, in one corner of the Guild Headquarters at the Pantheon, a piece of parchment went up on the huge notice board that set countless people in an uproar.
Written on the parchment was something that astonished a great many people.
"Bell Cranel, of Hestia Familia. One month. Officially risen to Lv.2."
The crowd standing before the notice board read the announcement, and their shock detonated.
"Lv.2 in one month...?!"
"That's... impossible!"
"Who's Bell Cranel?"
"And what Familia is Hestia Familia?"
"Is this real? It's got to be a hoax, right?"
"Lv.2 in one month... is this another Leo Eligos?"
People clamored and made a racket over it, discussing it with such fervor that the news spread through every part of the city in no time.
Naturally, the news also reached the hands of the major Familias by way of the newspapers.
Loki Familia among them.
In the great dining hall of the Twilight Manor, the members had gathered to eat breakfast, passing newspapers around and whispering to one another.
"Can something like this... really happen twice?"
"I thought Mr. Leo was the only monster like that..."
"There's a second person who can break the fastest level-up record Miss Ais set? And in only a month?"
"Just who is this Bell Cranel?"
Led by the Second Army's core members, Raul, Anakitty, and Alicia, the members of Loki Familia passed the news along in shock, in astonishment, in doubt, in grim seriousness, until the whole dining hall was in an uproar.
And with one accord, they all turned their eyes toward one particular table, at the person eating there.
"Look at this! Leo!"
Tiona, sitting beside him, held up the newspaper with an incredulous look and shoved it in front of Leo, shouting.
"This guy did the same thing you did, he broke Ais's fastest level-up record, Lv.2 in only one month!"
Leo's gaze went to the newspaper, to a portrait of a person printed there.
It was a boy who looked somewhat shy, probably a little younger than Lefiya, with white hair and red eyes, the sort that made you think of a harmless rabbit.
"Bell Cranel..."
Familiar memories woke. That face, which Leo had never once seen in person and yet which had long ago left a deep impression in his mind, made his eyes flicker.
So he's finally here, the protagonist of the original work...
Bell Cranel. The name was utterly unfamiliar to most people; before this, there were probably only a handful in the whole city who knew it, let alone had any dealings with him.
Hestia Familia was no great Familia either, it didn't even qualify as a small one. Its patron deity Hestia had been in the lower world for less than two years so far, and the Familia itself had only existed for a month, with Bell Cranel as its sole member. A small Familia among small Familias, or in Bete's words, a genuine small fry, the kind without a shred of fame, the kind for whom even three square meals a day was a question mark, so much so that the goddess Hestia was called the Poverty Goddess by a portion of the gods.
But while others didn't know, Leo knew perfectly well.
Hestia Familia was indeed very weak at present, the sort scraping the bottom in all of Orario, but this Familia was the center of the original work's world, the protagonist team of this world.
Bell Cranel, that harmless-looking boy, was the protagonist of the original work, who in only about half a year would rise powerfully from Lv.1, achieve great deeds beyond counting, rack up one unbelievable battle record after another, and finally become a Lv.5 first-class adventurer, recognized by many people and even by gods as the unfinished hero, with the hopes of countless people placed on him.
Leo had been waiting all this time for this original protagonist to appear.
Now, at last, the man's name was qualified to enter his field of view.
Lv.2 in one month? Leo thought. That's actually a bit faster than the original work.
Leo vaguely remembered that in the original work Bell Cranel had taken about a month and a half before formally leveling up to Lv.2.
What's more, the reason he reached Lv.2 and rose so powerfully had to do with Loki Familia. Or rather, with Ais.
At that thought, Leo looked over in Ais's direction.
The golden-haired girl was sitting on Leo's other side, eating with him, and at the moment she was huddled together with Lefiya and Line over a newspaper, marveling at what Bell Cranel had achieved.
In the original work, Loki Familia had come back empty-handed from the expedition because of the worm-type monsters and the female-form monster. On the way home from the failed expedition, they ran into a group of Minotaurs on Floor 17, and during the subduing the Minotaur pack got away from them. The Minotaurs then ran blindly up toward the higher floors, forcing Loki Familia into a desperate chase, and in the end Ais met Bell Cranel on Floor 5 while he was being hunted by a Minotaur and stepped in to save him. That rescue drew the green boy to the Doll Princess's beauty and strength, and so he obtained the precocious Skill Liaris Freese and was utterly transformed.
Because Leo, a person who didn't belong to the original work, had joined Loki Familia and taken part in the last expedition, the time Loki Familia spent on both the descent and the return this time differed from the original work. With one more Lv.5's worth of firepower clearing the way, the expedition force's progress had undoubtedly gone more smoothly than in the original work, and a time discrepancy was unavoidable, so the Minotaur pack that should have appeared on Floor 17 in the original work didn't appear in time, and the first meeting between the original protagonist and the Doll Princess fell through.
Yet even so, Bell Cranel had still risen, reaching Lv.2 in only a month, a bit faster than in the original work, which proved that even without obtaining Liaris Freese, that bug-tier, foul-play Skill, he must have obtained something with more or less the same effect.
Why would that be?
Leo thought of it almost immediately.
It has to be that one from Freya Familia stepping in, doesn't it?
In the original work, Bell Cranel's soul was so clear and pure that he caught the eye of the goddess Freya, who could "see" the radiance of souls. That amorous goddess fell for him at first sight, became infatuated with him from then on, and prepared many trials for him, hoping his soul would grow more dazzling, more brilliant.
Now, even having lost the encounter with Ais, having lost the chance to obtain Liaris Freese, Bell Cranel's pristine soul would still draw that goddess's eye and make her infatuated with him.
Considering that goddess's way of doing things, Leo could be certain she had most likely been unable to restrain herself and had come down onto the field, and there was no telling what influence she had exerted on Bell Cranel, what sort of trials she had given him, which had made him awaken as he did in the original work and set out on the road of the "unfinished hero."
With a soul that clear and pure, even if he lost one opportunity, he would rise because of another. This was the road Bell Cranel was destined to walk.
This original protagonist was destined to be extraordinary.
After all, his parents were people of those two great Familias that had ruled Orario for a thousand years, and whose curtain had only come down fifteen years ago with the failure of the last of the Three Great Quests...
Such parentage, such an origin, meant Bell Cranel was born extraordinary.
And so, while everyone else was astonished and doubtful over his unbelievable achievement, only Leo's expression was unchanged.
"Not bad, kid. Full of energy."
Leo even had the leisure to offer an appraisal like that, the very picture of a man surveying the landscape from on high, which left Tiona, who had come for the excitement, a little disappointed.
"You're not the least bit worried?" Tiona said, laying it on a bit. "The guy reached Lv.2 in only one month. Same as you."
"Aren't you scared he'll catch up?"
Tiona had barely finished when Line, beside her, objected.
"When Mr. Leo went up to Lv.2 it took him less than a month, he could have leveled up in only ten days, he just chose not to so he could keep accumulating potential!"
By now, some of Leo's less important deeds were no longer any great secret.
The business of being able to level up in only ten days, for instance, had slipped out when Loki was drunk and let it drop.
Now that Tiona was actually running Leo down, Line, who had once had the honor of being on a party with him for a while, naturally objected.
As Leo grew more dazzling and more powerful, Line had all but become one of his fangirls, so of course she took his side at a time like this.
"Can we stop comparing people to this freak?" Tione said, biting into a slab of meat, annoyed. "Since when do normal people measure leveling up in days? And who cares about when he hit Lv.2? Even reaching Lv.5 only took him half a month, all right?"
Lv.3, Lv.4, even Lv.5, every time Leo had taken about half a month.
By that count, the time it took him to reach Lv.2 was actually the longest, close to a month.
That was... ridiculous.
"True, you can't compare anyone to that freak." Tiona's face fell and she sighed, muttering, "But even not comparing him, Lv.2 in one month is still ridiculous, isn't it?"
The others nodded one after another and went back to whispering among themselves.
Even Ais stared at the portrait of Bell Cranel in the newspaper for a while, thinking to herself.
I wonder what let this boy get strong so fast...
Yes, Ais-tan had set her sights on someone else's secrets to getting stronger.
[Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]