That night the camp stayed quiet, unusually so, and yet the unease in everyone's hearts couldn't be suppressed no matter what.
Finn, Gareth, Bete, Tiona, Tione and the others held themselves together well enough, single-mindedly breaking in the new weapons in their hands, channeling every thought into the effort, waiting in silence for tomorrow to come.
Raul, Anakitty, Alicia and Lefiya encouraged one another and quietly steeled their resolve.
Tsubaki and the other smiths from Hephaestus Familia were infected by the mood in the camp too, no longer so free and easy, repairing and maintaining everyone's weapons and armor, doing all they could to let every fighter go into battle in peak condition.
Ais came to the front of the rock terrace and gazed steadily toward the entrance leading down to Floor 51, as if she could see the scene on Floor 59 itself, and for a long while she didn't come back to herself.
What exactly was waiting for her down there?
The truth she wanted, what exactly would it turn out to be?
Carrying that question, Ais's hand tightened without thinking around the beloved sword at her waist, gripping hard enough that her knuckles went white.
Many of them found sleep difficult, anticipating tomorrow and dreading it and tense over it all at once, their thoughts a tangled mess.
Only Leo, after watching from a distance for a while as Ais stood on the rock terrace looking off into the distance, went back to his own tent to rest.
He knew perfectly well what he and the rest of them would run into on the floors below tomorrow.
A massive crisis that could well wipe out the Familia's entire main force.
The enemy they would meet tomorrow would be the most terrifying thing they had faced yet.
But a crisis was also an opportunity.
In the original work, it was precisely because the main force of Loki Familia crossed this hurdle that they underwent their first transformation.
At that point the Familia's strength as a whole would take a great leap forward, and that was why Loki Familia was later able to make it through hurdle after hurdle and overcome danger after danger.
Leo had no intention of missing this opportunity either.
He was determined to advance and retreat together with his Familia companions, to clear this hurdle in one go and climb to a higher stage alongside everyone, to become stronger.
Only that way would he be able to hold the initiative in the great events to come, and even strangle some of the dangers before they arrived.
Having settled himself on that point, he closed his eyes for a little while and then dropped straight into sleep.
Time slipped past, bit by bit...
Soon enough, the next morning quietly arrived.
When dawn came to the surface, in the depths of the labyrinth where there was no sunrise or sunset, the camp settled on the rock terrace of Floor 50 began stirring early.
The many tents pitched across the position lay under the floor's dim light and phosphorescence, which traced faint outlines of the sentries on patrol and the people lighting stoves to cook, casting them onto the ground and onto the tent walls.
Leo and the others rose early one after another, ate breakfast under the care of the members staying behind to hold the camp, filled their stomachs, and brought themselves into peak condition.
Before long the members of the main party appeared together at the front of the camp.
They were fully armed, their weapons all in place, even the pouches at their waists packed with every kind of potion.
Every one of them wore a stern expression, steady and calm, and even Raul and Lefiya forced themselves into composure, not showing a trace of fear.
Everyone in the camp gathered, watching this group of adventurers about to head into hell, gravity in their eyes and expectation as well.
The jester banner standing at the center of the camp fluttered in the wind, its comical grin gazing at them all as if it too were seeing them off.
Leo and Ais stood together as always, looking at each other, saying nothing, and yet able to feel what the other was thinking.
As if by prior agreement, the two of them reached out in perfect understanding, and in the end their hands were clasped together, passing their warmth to each other.
"All right, I'm leaving this place to you, Aki."
Finn put on the captain's mask and spoke calmly.
"Yes, Captain."
Anakitty nodded solemnly in acceptance.
"Move out!"
Having said everything that needed saying, Finn gave the order to depart without hesitation.
The members of the main party stepped forward as one, and under the shouted farewells of the members and high-tier smiths remaining at the base, they walked down off the great rock together and headed for the huge cavity at the western end of Floor 50.
That dark cavity opened in the wall at the floor's western end, the passage linking Floor 50 to Floor 51, was already waiting to receive them.
Only once they stood before the opening did Finn speak again.
"From here, we follow the plan as decided. We take the regular route down to the floors below."
Finn turned around, looked at everyone present, and began laying out the formation.
They all listened closely, Leo especially, since this was the first time in any real sense that he was taking part in an assault on unexplored territory.
The last expedition had failed and now it was being restarted, and he hadn't been present on the expedition before that, so he had to listen carefully.
Even though he already knew from the original work what was going to happen later, it made no difference.
"Vanguard, Bete and Tiona, the two of you open the road.
"Middle guard, Ais and Tione, you two handle support, focusing on enemies that come at us from the flanks. I'll be watching from behind you.
"Rearguard, Leo and Riveria, your job is to back us up with magic and clear obstacles. Gareth takes defense and handles any monsters coming from the rear that might interfere with their casting."
"With that arrangement, plus one Supporter carrying weapons and items assigned to each position, that's our formation."
Finn had clearly turned this formation over in his head again and again, so his directions came without the slightest hesitation, his words clear and fluent.
"Raul, you're the vanguard's Supporter."
"Alicia, you take the middle guard."
"Lefiya, you're the rearguard's Supporter. When necessary I'll need you filling the damage role too, with Gareth covering you while you chant."
"As for Tsubaki, you're a guest officer and a smith, so you stay at my side."
Finn made the entire arrangement alone, without seeking anyone's agreement.
At this point he was the highest commander, and orders had to be carried out without question; there was no room for anyone to argue.
"We'll pass through Floor 51 as fast as we can and then enter Floor 52, and that's where the real challenge begins for me."
Finn didn't say why, only went on giving instructions.
"Until then, the rearguard can hold back for now, and the middle guard should conserve as well. All the pressure goes on the vanguard opening the road."
Bete and Tiona both looked entirely unbothered by that, one baring his teeth in a cold grin, the other visibly itching to go, neither of them the least bit afraid.
"We don't have time to linger on the floors ahead, so we just push straight through. Once we reach the entrance down to Floor 52, we take our last rest there."
Why did the last rest have to be at the entrance to Floor 52?
Was there no way to rest on the floors after that?
Only Tsubaki, newly arrived, had that doubt.
Finn still didn't explain. He only turned around and drew the spear from his back.
It was a golden spear, its name the Fortia Spear, a weapon exclusive to Pallums.
Its shaft was made of oath-tree walnut, sturdy and full of resilience, and its tip had been forged with Brave Iron and Deel Hardsteel mixed in, both materials taken from Elsen Forest and counted as ultra-rare collectibles, which was why its price ran as high as 130 million valis, an astronomical sum even among Pallum-use armaments.
There was no question it was a first-class special weapon, far more powerful than the Spear Rolan Finn had received yesterday.
At the moment that Spear Rolan was stowed in the cylindrical pack on the back of Alicia, the Supporter assigned to the middle guard, waiting for Finn to pull it out whenever he needed it.
For now Finn was using the more powerful Fortia Spear; only once the worm-type monsters that could corrode weapons showed up would that silver Unbreakable-attribute spear come into use.
Seeing this, the others drew the weapons they favored most.
Tiona's great double-blade Urga was already whirling.
The metal boots on Bete's feet rang against the ground.
Ais drew her saber with its silver sheen.
Tione spun her kukri in both hands.
Riveria and Lefiya gripped their staves.
Gareth hefted his great battle axe, the expression on his face gradually giving way to a burning will to fight.
As for Leo, he kept his hand on the Starlight at his waist, still sheathed, feeling the keen edge of his beloved sword.
"Bete. Tiona."
Finn wasted no words and gave the order directly.
"Go."
The instant the word left him, the two vanguards charged with opening the road leaped into the great cavity without hesitation.
"Right! I'm going!"
"Bring it on! Monsters!"
The war-loving Amazoness had her nature roused, and the ferocity in the young werewolf's heart came pouring out completely, nothing held back.
The two of them looked like they had been waiting impatiently for this moment, and the moment their feet touched down they shot forward like bullets fired from a barrel.
"Gaaahoooooooooooo...!!!"
The unfamiliar presence barged in openly like that and startled the monsters nearby, which let out roars and came rushing over.
But by the time they reached the entrance, the intruders had long since left.
"No unnecessary fighting, and no wasting supplies."
That was the first strategy Finn had handed down.
Their energy, stamina, supplies and everything else all needed to be spent in the territory they hadn't reached, Floor 59.
So the floors before it were nothing but obstacles to them, checkpoints meant to wear them down, and if they exhausted themselves in those places they might have nothing left to take on Floor 59 with.
Therefore the first key to how this assault would unfold was to pass through the earlier floors at full speed, without delay.
So as Bete and Tiona charged out, the rest of them jumped down through the entrance one after another and broke into a run immediately, following the backs of the werewolf youth and the Amazoness girl sprinting ahead of them.
The group tore through the rock passages at a speed ordinary people couldn't hope to match, heading for the entrance to Floor 52.
With a group of first-class adventurers all sprinting in the same direction, there was no way the pace could be anything but fast.
Even with two Lv.4s in the party plus Lefiya, a Lv.3 Mage, by throwing everything into their legs they could just barely keep up with Bete and Tiona opening the road, and didn't get left behind.
So through the rock passages of Floor 51, with wind howling past, one figure after another raced ahead at a speed that left only afterimages, so fast that an ordinary person couldn't have made out their faces at all.
But the Dungeon was alive, and seeing adventurers running so freely, meaning to shake off every danger and avoid battle altogether, it was naturally not pleased.
A low rumble ran through the whole of Floor 51, as if the floor itself were roaring, and it shook.
To stop the adventurers invading the labyrinth, the Dungeon began to show its power.
Cracking sounds came from every direction, and fissures appeared in the walls, the ceiling and even the floor, splitting straight open.
"Garuaaaaaaaaaa...!!"
The monsters' roars followed right behind, and their forms tore free of the walls one after another, as though hatching out of eggshells, prying the cracks wider as they burrowed out of the walls, the ceiling and the ground.
These monsters were almost all large category, among them Black Rhinos with hides hard as steel, and the enormous Deformis Spiders.
Roaring as they came, they attacked from all sides with a force that nothing on the floors up to now could compare to.
"Garuaaaaaaaaaa...!!"
The Black Rhinos charged first, one after another until they formed a great mass, their collective charge shaking the earth and raising rolling clouds of dust.
"Bete!! Tiona! Deal with them!"
Finn flew along with nimble footwork, keeping close behind Ais and Tione, and gave the cold, calm order.
Bete and Tiona met them head-on without a word.
"Die already!"
Bete, with his astonishing leg strength, was the first to trigger a fight, and facing the roaring Black Rhino he pulled his mouth into a savage curve, then bellowed as the metal boots on his feet burst into silver light.
His flash of a kick landed square on the Black Rhino in front of him, kicking up a ring of shockwave as it sent the beast's massive body flying, slamming it into the wall hard enough to shatter the stone.
"Ooooooooooooh...!"
Bete's roaring didn't stop. Having kicked and sent that enemy flying, he immediately followed with a spinning kick, and amid a series of shocking impacts he kicked away every Black Rhino that came near him, even blowing one of their heads apart, clearing out a huge swath of monsters and cutting a road open for the party.
"Watch this!"
Tiona charged in a beat behind him, pouring every bit of her strength into the great double-blade in her hands and swinging it out like a wheel of wind.
The vicious blade forged from Hardsteel spun in her grip, cutting into the group of Black Rhinos as if she were dancing, cleaving every monster on their line of advance in two and even shattering some outright.
A storm of blood and gore rose around the Amazoness girl, severed limbs and blood flying through the air, the sight utterly horrifying.
But...
"On the left. Enemies."
Ais spoke suddenly.
A swarm of huge Deformis Spiders came surging out from the side, striking at the party.
Their numbers were enormous.
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