Chapter 229: The Dungeon's Deepest Floors, Pressing Ever Deeper!
The deepest floors of the Dungeon.
In all of Orario, only a handful of people had ever reached this far.
Even top-tier Familias could only reach these depths during full expeditions. After all, this place was simply too far from the surface.
The enormous Dungeon was like an inverted pyramid.
The upper floors were smaller, while the deeper one traveled, the larger and broader each floor became.
By the deep floors, a single floor could even be larger than the entirety of Orario.
Under such circumstances, the deeper one went, the more effort exploration required.
And that was without even considering how the monsters became stronger, more numerous, and spawned at increasingly absurd rates.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Like a spirit of the wind, Ais danced through the battlefield.
[Desperate] moved like the scythe of death in her hands, continuously harvesting the lives of monsters.
Not far away, Ethan was fighting as well, wielding an ordinary sword-type Noble Phantasm.
Against these deep-floor monsters, a D+ Rank Noble Phantasm was more than enough.
If necessary, Ethan could even treat it as a disposable weapon.
Their killing speed was astonishing.
One was the Sword Princess of the Loki Familia, one of Orario's foremost adventurers.
The other was practically a cheating player.
Although Ethan was only Lv.6, his actual strength had already surpassed Lv.7.
As for whether he had reached Lv.8 territory, Ethan himself was unsure because he had no suitable opponent to compare against.
Still, by his own estimation, he probably would not fear a Lv.8 either.
After all, he was covered head to toe in cheats.
Bang!
"Finally finished."
After killing the last monster, Ethan exhaled.
Ais was already accustomed to the strength of monsters this deep.
For Ethan, however, this was his first time reaching the Dungeon's deepest floors.
"Ais, do you know when Balor is supposed to respawn?"
"I don't know. The Freya Familia defeated Balor four months ago, and even the Guild doesn't have an exact record of its respawn time."
"All right…"
Ethan sounded disappointed.
The main reason he had come this deep was precisely for Balor, the floor boss of the 49th floor.
After all, he had already fought every floor boss before it.
Goliath on the 17th floor.
Amphisbaena on the 27th.
Udaeus on the 37th.
Naturally, Balor on the 49th floor was next.
Goliath respawned in roughly two weeks.
Amphisbaena took around one month.
Udaeus took about three months.
Following that pattern, Ethan guessed Balor might require six or seven months to respawn, perhaps even longer.
Of course, that was only his personal speculation.
"By the way, Ais, what's the deepest floor you've explored?"
"The 58th floor."
Ais answered calmly.
During the Loki Familia's previous expedition, they had broken their own exploration record.
Unfortunately, due to insufficient supplies and several other problems, they no longer had the strength to continue toward the 59th floor and were forced to retreat.
That remained a regret for both Ais and the entire Loki Familia.
The Guild's current Dungeon exploration record was still the 59th floor, established long ago by the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia.
Even after so many years, no one had surpassed it.
That was also one of Finn's long-standing goals.
He wanted to break the record left behind by the two legendary Familias, create a new epic, and make the name of the Pallum race resound throughout the world once again.
But during their previous expedition, they had fallen just short.
They reached the 58th floor, but their condition at the time was no longer sufficient to support further exploration.
Missing the record by only one floor left most of the Loki Familia deeply frustrated.
"When was that expedition?"
"When you left Orario for the Large Tree Sea secret realm."
"Oh, around then."
Ethan had been away for nearly a month during that round trip.
It seemed he had really missed quite a few things.
But now that he had already reached the 49th floor, turning back without going deeper would be a waste.
Who knew?
Perhaps today, a new exploration record would be created by him.
"Let's go. We'll make a new record together."
"Going deeper is very dangerous. Just like the difference between the upper and lower floors, once you pass the 50th floor, the floors beyond become much more dangerous."
"It'll be fine. Surely two Lv.6 adventurers can make it through."
"Two Lv.6?"
"Did I not tell you? I leveled up to Lv.6 recently."
"…"
Ais fell silent.
She had gone through countless hardships before finally reaching Lv.6.
And Ethan?
He had not even been in Orario for half a year, yet he was already Lv.6 too?
Worse still, she had already been unable to defeat him when he was Lv.5.
Just how strong had he become after reaching Lv.6?
"Come on."
"Oh."
At Ethan's call, Ais instinctively followed him.
The two continued deeper, passed the 49th floor, and entered the region beyond the 50th.
The moment they arrived, large numbers of powerful monsters entered their sight.
Whoosh!
Ais charged forward immediately.
During Familia expeditions, she normally had to maintain formation with her companions and constantly keep track of those around her.
Because of that, she often had to restrain herself.
Exploring with Ethan was completely different.
Ethan could always keep pace with her.
In fact, many times, it was Ais who struggled to keep up with Ethan.
Under these circumstances, Ais could fight as freely as she wanted.
There was no need to think about anything else.
She only needed to focus on battle.
Adjusting yourself to match others and having others match your pace were two completely different experiences.
And so, in the deepest reaches of the Dungeon, one man and one woman fought as though they had activated an unstoppable rampage mode.
Wherever they passed, monsters seemed as fragile as paper and were rapidly slaughtered.
Throughout the process, every magic stone and drop item left behind by the slain monsters vanished the moment they touched the ground.
With Ethan handling everything automatically, Ais did not need to stop for anything.
She only had to keep moving forward.
Even monsters that spawned afterward could only watch them disappear into the distance.
Ethan was equally exhilarated.
Deep down, nearly every man possessed some instinct for battle.
And after gaining overwhelming strength, fighting without restraint and pressing forward without any worries brought Ethan an intense thrill.
Ethan and Ais seemed to fall into perfect rhythm.
Both of them gradually became completely immersed in the joy of battle.
…
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