"Name?"
"Jeanne d'Arc."
"Sex?"
"Female."
"Level?"
"Lv. 1."
"Age?"
"Nineteen."
Rose glanced up, one eyebrow arched. "Nineteen and just starting out? Bit late." She flicked a look at Leon. "Still, better than a certain someone who started even later."
"Familia affiliation?"
Jeanne instinctively looked to Leon. He gave her a subtle nod, and she pressed her lips together. "Demeter Familia."
"Place of birth?"
Leon tapped the blank space on the form with his finger. "We can skip the rest, right? It's not mandatory."
Rose stamped the document without expression, filed the parchment, and slid the identification plate and Familia Crest across the counter to Jeanne.
"Don't lose these. Replacements are a hassle."
"Thank you." Jeanne tucked them safely against her chest.
Then Rose leaned forward, a knowing smile curling her lips, and dropped her voice so only Jeanne could hear. "Miss d'Arc, a girl as pretty as you should watch out for certain people... Don't let him have his way too easily."
Leon's eye twitched. His expression darkened, and he grabbed Jeanne's wrist without a word, steering her toward the exit.
"Take care of yourself, Miss d'Arc!" Rose's voice chased them across the hall.
Leon stumbled mid-step. Under the smirking gazes of every busybody in the lobby, he all but fled through the front doors.
But the instant his foot crossed the threshold, he whipped around, his gaze locking onto Rose behind the counter with pinpoint accuracy.
The wolf-girl's eyes narrowed dangerously as she read the silent words on his lips with perfect clarity.
"Nice stockings, by the way."
He yanked Jeanne along and bolted.
Crack.
The water glass shattered in Rose's fist. A vein throbbed at her temple, her face twisted, and a snarl ripped through clenched teeth.
"Leon... you absolute bastard!!!"
...
Adventurer Street.
Jeanne didn't stop walking until they reached a quieter stretch of road. She studied Leon with open amusement, the corner of her mouth curving. "So. How long were you planning to hold my hand?"
He didn't miss a beat. "What's wrong with holding hands? We're family."
"..." Jeanne choked on whatever she'd been about to say. The sheer thickness of this man's skin defied belief.
Especially with passersby glancing their way. Heat crept into her cheeks. She pulled her hand free. "People are watching! Show some restraint!"
He grinned. "Got it. So at home it's fair game?"
"Leon!!!"
"Bleh!"
She ducked her head, ears burning.
...
Still bickering, they soon reached the vast plaza at the base of Babel. They paused by the familiar fountain with its ornamental sculptures.
Jeanne tilted her head back to take in the towering landmark, genuine awe in her voice. "So this is Babel... The Dungeon is directly beneath it?"
Leon nodded. "According to the history texts I've read, Orario was originally built as a fortress to guard the Great Hollow. Babel serves as the lid, sealing the monsters inside."
"An endless spawning ground for monsters..." Jeanne murmured. "Hard to believe."
"Come on." Leon smiled. "You're about to experience the 'magic' firsthand."
...
After nearly half a month away recovering, Leon was back in the Dungeon for his daily grind.
This time, he wasn't solo. He had a partner at his side.
They descended the gently spiraling staircase to the first-floor plaza, where Jeanne swept her gaze left and right with sharp, assessing eyes.
"This is the Adventurer Plaza. Safe zone. Through those passages," he pointed to several dark openings, "is where the real Dungeon begins."
The moment she set foot underground, something about her shifted.
Her posture looked relaxed, but every muscle coiled tight beneath the surface, a predator ready to spring at the first sign of trouble. Without a word, she adjusted her positioning, placing herself between Leon and the nearest threat vector.
"Leon." She leaned close to his ear, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sensing something... a pervasive, lurking malice. It doesn't feel directed at me specifically. More like a hostility that saturates the air itself."
He raised an eyebrow, thoughtful. "Revelation? Your instincts are right. The Dungeon is alive. It holds absolute hostility toward every being that trespasses inside it. What you're picking up is almost certainly that."
Jeanne kept her expression calm, though her thoughts churned beneath it. "Alive... So that's why the Dungeon is so dangerous."
A labyrinth this massive, possessing a will of its own. The implications were staggering.
"Then what is the Dungeon, exactly?" she pressed.
"No idea." He shrugged, palms up. For a question like that, Leon had no answer, and frankly, he didn't care. Understanding the Dungeon's nature mattered far less to him than using it to get stronger.
...
Floor one.
"Gyaaagigigigi!"
Two monsters erupted from cracks in the wall right in front of them, hit the ground with crimson eyes blazing, and lunged with claws outstretched.
"Same old song and dance," Leon sidestepped. "Jeanne, want to take them for a test drive?"
Facing the grotesque Goblins, Jeanne's brow furrowed. A revulsion surged up from somewhere deep in her soul, raw and visceral, her entire being recoiling on instinct.
Her gauntleted hand clamped down on the Banner Lance's shaft. One step forward, knee bent, and the spearhead caught the light in a clean, brilliant arc.
Before either monster closed the distance, the furled lance became an instrument of slaughter. Two wet thuds. Two skulls, punched clean through.
Jeanne flicked her wrist, whipping the foul ichor from the tip. Only then did the revulsion churning inside her begin to ease.
"..."
Leon stood behind her, jaw hanging open. He worked his mouth but couldn't find the words.
Something about her in that instant had felt... off. Primal.
He chose his words carefully. "Jeanne... you seem to really despise Goblins. This should be your first time seeing them, right?"
The observation snapped her out of it. She frowned, searching for an explanation. "Yes... a gut-level revulsion. And my back flared hot just now. Revelation was screaming at me to eliminate them immediately and thoroughly."
"..." Leon's eye twitched. Since when does Revelation work like a goblin detector?
They were Goblins, sure. Goblins were evil, no argument there. And for someone carrying traits like Holy Maiden and Knight, they were practically hard-coded enemies, a natural-born bonus multiplier against everything she stood for.
No wonder her reaction was that intense.
...
They pressed onward, running into several more waves of monsters.
But Leon quickly realized, with some resignation, that the first few floors offered Jeanne zero challenge whatsoever.
Everything died the instant it showed its face.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Looks like the upper floors are useless for actual combat training. The only value here is cataloguing monster types, traits, and attack patterns. Let's push deeper. We can study whatever we run into on the way down."
Environment mattered, and theirs couldn't have been more different. Leon had crossed over from a peaceful modern world with zero combat experience. Jeanne had been forged in the fires of real war, blade against blade, life against death.
When he'd first entered the Dungeon, he'd needed to learn fighting from scratch, inching the difficulty up bit by bit until his body adapted. That whole process was pointless for her. What she lacked was knowledge of monster behavior and Dungeon mechanics. Once she built that foundation, her existing technique, experience, and tactical instinct would naturally reshape themselves into an anti-monster combat style, and the result would be total domination.
Floor two.
Floor three.
They didn't slow down until floor six.
Along the way, Jeanne carved through every encounter like a hot knife through butter. Between her elite combat fundamentals, her deep well of battlefield experience, and that broken skill set of hers, not a single monster survived more than one exchange.
The Banner Lance danced in her hands, each strike fierce and precise yet carrying an undeniable grace. The fluid unity of her footwork and spearmanship was almost hypnotic. Leon could barely look away.
In a small chamber, he finished collecting Magic Stones and drops, then pulled out a waterskin and offered it to her.
"Water?"
Jeanne shook her head and pushed it back, her breathing perfectly steady. "I'm fine. That barely qualified as a warm-up."
"..." Not a single bead of sweat on her forehead. Leon tipped the waterskin back and took several long, bitter gulps himself.
He thought about how he'd nearly died on this same floor, alone and desperate. Then he looked at her, not a scratch, not even winded, and shook his head.
Glad she's on my side.
Lines of pale gold text materialized silently in his vision.
Jeanne d'Arc killed a Goblin. Excelia gained: +1.
Jeanne d'Arc killed a Kobold. Excelia gained: +1.
"Mm... wait, what?!"
Jeanne d'Arc killed a Dungeon Lizard. Excelia gained: +1.
"Pfft...!!!"
Water sprayed from his mouth. His eyes went wide, his brain flatlined for a full second.
He never saw this coming.
When Jeanne killed a monster, he gained Excelia too.
Holy shit!
Joy hit him like a tidal wave, his heart hammering out of control.
He'd never imagined that the problem gnawing at him for weeks would solve itself this easily.
In a party, kills made by other Familia members also fed him Excelia. That meant even as the Familia grew, he'd never have to worry about competition for kills slowing his own progression.
If anything, it would accelerate his growth exponentially.