That night—
When the clamor and bustle of the city finally began to recede with the arrival of night, Leon took advantage of the darkness to return to Twilight Manor.
He perfectly avoided all the commotion that had been stirred up on his account. Slipping back into his own headquarters just as the front gates finally ceased to be blocked by gods and mortals alike, he quietly returned, hiding his merit and fame.
After exchanging a greeting with Line and parting ways, Leon didn't immediately head back to his room. Instead, taking a rare initiative, he made his way to the top floor of the central tower and entered Loki's divine chambers.
He had come to ask Loki for a recommendation to a reliable blacksmith Familia. He hadn't expected that upon meeting her, the trashy primary goddess—who was currently muttering to herself in the room, cursing someone unknown—would suddenly light up. With great enthusiasm, she waved him over.
"Don't say a word yet! Come and update your status first!"
And so, Leon set his own business aside for the moment. Stripping off his top, he let Loki, who had produced a gold needle, drop blood onto his back to begin his first status update since leveling up.
As the hieroglyphs manifested on his back, the sacred text seemed to come to life, shifting across his skin. Very quickly, this status update came to an end.
Leon Eligos—
Lv.2
Strength: I0 -> E496
Endurance: I0 -> E437
Dexterity: I0 -> D529
Agility: I0 -> D581
Magic: I0 -> C656
Mage: I
Looking at this freshly minted status, Loki remained silent for a very long time.
After a good while, Loki finally spoke, sounding somewhat weary.
"How should I put this... Though I pretty much expected that your growth speed wouldn't slow down much even after leveling up, seeing this result still leaves me not knowing what to say."
A total proficiency increase across all basic abilities of about 2700!
This seemed less than the increase from Leon's very first status update, but back then, it had taken Leon ten whole days to raise his total basic ability proficiency by over 3000.
What about now?
How many days had passed since Leon leveled up?
At most, it had only been about five days, right?
Using only half the time of his initial run, he had nearly caught up to his previous rate of improvement. What did this imply?
It implied that this already monstrous growth speed, upon reaching Lv.2, had not only failed to slow down but had actually accelerated. What kind of logic was this?
Loki scratched her hair, feeling as though her usually sharp brain had suddenly broken down.
Seriously, who could understand this?
She had lived for hundreds of millions of years and seen all kinds of absurd things, but something this preposterous was truly a first!
"Isn't this perfectly normal?"
In contrast, Leon glanced at the translated status sheet in his hand and tossed out a reply without even looking up.
"I'm in the middle floors now. The frequency of monster spawns, the pace of battle, and the encounters with danger and injury are all much higher than in the upper floors. Fighting in a place like that involves far greater difficulty and pressure than fighting in the upper floors. Naturally, handling all of that yields faster growth than before."
At the very least, when conquering the upper floors, Leon could still take breaks from time to time, and he had to personally scout the paths to find monsters. In the middle floors, however, he didn't need to look for them at all. Walking just a few steps would bring large packs of monsters suddenly rushing out to besiege him. Opportunities for rest were practically nonexistent; sometimes, he would fight a whole day without a single moment of respite.
If not for the elixirs restoring his stamina, such a high combat frequency and relentless pace would have left him completely exhausted even if he were Lv.3, let alone just Lv.2.
Thus, after entering the middle floors, Leon had to ask Line for an elixir almost every interval. By the end of the day, he was practically drinking elixirs like water just to maintain enough stamina to keep fighting continuously.
Were it any other adventurer, even if they formed a party and could take turns resting, they wouldn't dare play it this way. They would likely look for a designated safety zone to recover and catch their breath after a period of exploration, or even retreat to the 12th floor to recuperate, which wouldn't be surprising at all.
But Leon hadn't done that. He had gritted his teeth and persevered through it all, leaving Line deeply worried and prompting her to advise him against it multiple times.
The result of this was that Leon used his various basic abilities with extreme frequency, defeated a vast number of monsters, and sent his accumulated Excelia soaring. When reflected back onto his status, it naturally produced this kind of growth speed.
"...I understand the logic, but other adventurers also advance to deeper floors and increase their battle frequency after leveling up. How come their growth speed isn't faster than before they leveled?"
Loki spoke in a low, haunting tone.
It was common knowledge that the higher one's level, the more difficult it became to raise basic abilities.
Leon, however, was doing the exact opposite, which really defied all convention.
Fortunately, having experienced Leon's absurd growth time and time again, Loki was genuinely getting used to it by now.
Loki could only take a heavy swig of her alcohol and mutter, "At the rate you're growing, could you actually reach Lv.3 before the next expedition begins?"
The moment those words left her mouth, Leon's attention instantly snapped away from the parchment in his hand.
"What?" Leon asked, quite surprised. "Has the date for the next expedition already been set?"
"Oh, not officially yet," Loki said, acting entirely nonchalant. "But Finn and the others already have it in mind. They should start making preparations quite soon."
"Counting down the days, the Familia's next expedition should kick off in about half a month at most, right?"
"Well, that's not too far off then."
Hearing Loki's words, Leon fell into deep thought.
In Orario, generally speaking, an exploration-type Familia that specialized in nurturing adventurers and focused on conquering the Dungeon was required to conduct an expedition at regular intervals once their faction rank reached a certain level.
This was not only for the Familia's own development and the conquest of the Dungeon, but also a clear obligation mandated by the Guild.
As the governing body of the city and the Dungeon, the Guild constantly demanded that exploration-type Familias push the boundaries of the Dungeon. After all, the Dungeon contained unknown resources, unknown territories, and unknown discoveries. Revealing and pioneering these elements not only stimulated Orario's growth but also helped unravel the ancient suffering inflicted upon the lower world by monsters.
Conquering the Dungeon, subjugating monsters, and liberating the people of the lower world from the threat of monsters was not only the ultimate purpose of the Guild's establishment but also the shared desire of all living things in the lower world.
This desire had existed ever since ancient times, long before Orario was built and the Tower of Babel stood, back when monsters could relentlessly pour from that massive hole leading to the surface, devastating the entire lower world.
Even though ancient humans revolted time and time again, unafraid of sacrifice, and gave rise to heroes who brought forth miracles; and even though the people, led by those heroes, eventually succeeded in reclaiming most of the surface and established the Tower of Babel and Orario over the Dungeon's entrance to stop the monsters from surging out again, this desire had never vanished.
After all, people did not know what kind of threats still lurked deep within the Dungeon, or when the monsters might break through to the surface again and turn the mortal realm into a living hell.
Furthermore, the surface was not entirely devoid of danger. The monsters that had once successfully breached the surface had managed to breed all over the world, giving rise to various monster races. Even if those monsters had experienced a significant drop in strength over generations of breeding and were not on the same level of threat as those native to the Dungeon, they remained lethal to ordinary, mundane folk.
In particular, the Three Great Quests of the lower world were specifically created to subjugate the Three Great Monsters that had once posed a severe threat to the surface—existences far more terrifying than any Floor Boss, which even the ancient heroes had failed to defeat, with most dying in their jaws instead.
The two major Familias that had previously ruled Orario had successfully completed two of those major requests by slaying two of the great monsters, but they met their downfall and were nearly wiped out by the last and strongest monster king. It was only after that tragedy that the Loki Familia and Freya Familia rose to prominence.
Therefore, whether it was pioneering the Dungeon or subjugating the final monster king, it was the collective wish of all life in the lower world.
As the frontline for suppressing the Dungeon and the fortress against monster invasions, Orario held an extremely unique status in this world. Consequently, as its management, the Guild felt it necessary to ensure that the exploration-type Familias conquering the Dungeon delivered corresponding results, whether for the city's progress or for the shared wish of the lower world.
Exploration-type Familias thus enjoyed various forms of preferential treatment in Orario. For one, the taxes they needed to pay to the Guild were significantly lower than those imposed on commercial-type Familias.
Since they enjoyed privileges, they had to fulfill corresponding duties.
Expeditions were one such duty.
Any exploration-type Familia, as long as their faction rank reached D, was required to undertake an expedition within the timeframe set by the Guild and firmly produce tangible results.
These results could mean extending the deepest floor the Familia had reached so far, discovering new harvestable materials or minerals, charting maps of unexplored regions, defeating a Floor Boss, or even uncovering secrets of the Dungeon that had remained hidden from everyone until now. In short, the baseline condition was that they could not return "empty-handed."
As for the timing of each expedition, the Guild did have strict requirements, though they were not excessively rigid and depended largely on the circumstances.
For Familias that had suffered significant losses in combat strength due to certain incidents, the Guild's demands would be relatively lenient. Conversely, for Familias with formidable strength, the Guild would constantly urge them forward. And for a Familia like the Loki Familia, which was active at the absolute forefront of conquest and continuously pioneering territories that adventurers had never set foot in before, the Guild would act out of caution and refrain from constantly pressuring them.
After all, the Loki Familia was heading into the ultra-deep zones. A single misstep could result in the annihilation of the Familia's entire elite force. If the strongest corner of the city were broken inside, leading to a severe loss of Orario's high-end combat power, the Guild wouldn't even have a place to cry.
However, even so, the Guild wouldn't just sit by and watch the Loki Familia refrain from expeditions indefinitely. Barring exceptional circumstances, the Guild would start pressing them every one or two months or so.
Of course, even without being urged, the Loki Familia certainly wouldn't stay away from expeditions for long.
Pioneering unknown territories was exactly what the Loki Familia sought. If the Familia wanted to expand, it needed to acquire resources and wealth from the Dungeon, not to mention that the first-class adventurers within the Familia required sufficiently powerful opponents and challenges to grow.
The Loki Familia's last expedition had taken place just shortly before Leon received his Falna.
By now, Leon had already reached Lv.2, and about a month had passed since he received his Falna.
Going by the timeline, it was indeed time for the Loki Familia to embark on another expedition.
"Those guys are probably itching to dive into the deeper parts of the Dungeon right now, aren't they?" Loki said with a note of schadenfreude. "After all, they've been pushed so hard by you. If they don't go on an expedition, they can only wander around the shallow floors, and how could that possibly satisfy them?"
Because the deeper floors were further away from the surface, traveling there required a substantial amount of time. If it was just a same-day round trip, even first-class adventurers with fast footwork could at most reach the upper-middle floors; they couldn't possibly arrive at the deep floors.
As a result, people like Ais, Tiona, Tione, and Bete usually could only slaughter monsters around the 20th floor, where the accumulated Excelia could only be described as pitiful.
In the past, it wouldn't have mattered much; a tiny bit of progress was still progress, and through persistence, they could still manage to achieve some level of growth over time.
But now, under Leon's stimulation, they likely wouldn't be satisfied with such meager growth.
At a time like this, every single one of them was naturally looking forward to the arrival of the expedition.
Only an expedition could satisfy their current needs.
"I didn't do anything to stimulate them, though."
Leon really wanted to argue that point.
"Heh."
Loki said nothing, merely rolling her eyes as she continued to drink, not bothering to argue back.
Seeing this, Leon rubbed his nose rather awkwardly and fell into deep thought.
"Half a month... huh?"
It wasn't entirely impossible to put in some effort for this.
If possible, Leon certainly wanted to accompany the Familia's elite forces on the expedition.
If he could reach the lower, deep, or even ultra-deep floors to defeat the powerful monsters there, even if it was a group operation where Excelia would be split evenly, it would still allow him to gain a massive amount of Excelia, and even high-grade Excelia that could serve as a heroic feat.
And to accompany the Familia's elite forces to such ultra-deep regions, one had to be at least a Lv.3 second-class adventurer.
The Loki Familia operated precisely this way; during expeditions, all members of Lv.3 and above would be selected for the vanguard, while only Lv.2 members would be left behind at the headquarters to hold down the fort.
Of course, a rare healer like Line would be brought along even if she was only Lv.2.
Unfortunately, Leon was not a healer.
If he wanted to join the Familia's expedition, he had to reach Lv.3 at the very least.
With only half a month left—
"A proper plan is needed."
Leon silently thought to himself.
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