The morning sun had already crested the towering walls of Orario, casting long shadows that danced with the promise of adventure.
Within minutes of leaving the his home, Draco found himself standing before the gates of the Hephaestus Familia compound.
The air hummed with the rhythmic, distant sound of hammers on anvils, a symphony of industry.
Leaning against the archway, arms crossed and looking impressively impatient, was Tsubaki. She was clad not in her usual smithing apron but in a set of sleek, form-fitting light armour etched with her mark.
On her back, a custom rig held a daunting assortment of weaponry: a massive great-sword, a pair of wickedly curved kukri knives, a war hammer, and several other prototypes whose purposes were not immediately clear.
"Morning Tsubaki, hope I wasn't too late," Draco greeted, his smile easy and familiar.
Tsubaki pushed off the wall, her expression a mix of annoyance and relief.
"Morning. The sun's getting high. Didn't think you were coming anymore."
"Of course I would come," Draco said, his tone dripping with mock sincerity.
He paused for effect, his eyes glinting with mischief.
"How could I possibly miss our… secret little outing?"
He drew out the last words with a dramatic flare that was entirely deliberate.
Tsubaki's brow furrowed into a slight frown.
"Why did you phrase it like that? People could misunderstand."
From the corner of her eye, she spotted the tell-tale signs of their audience: the flicker of movement from the forge windows, the sudden cessation of hammering, several of her junior smiths peeking out from behind bellows and anvils, their ears practically perked up.
She was certain Draco, with his sharp senses, had noticed them long before she did.
"Misunderstand what?" Draco feigned ignorance, his voice a study in innocence.
"That a man and a woman are going on a long outing and may not return till late at night? Maybe until the morning?"
He shrugged, the picture of nonchalance.
Tsubaki paused, her annoyed expression melting away into one of deep contemplation.
Then, a slow, sinister grin spread across her lips, a look that promised retribution.
"Alright, alright, I get it. You love me and all. I will graciously accept your roundabout date proposal. So let's just get going to the dungeon. I have a lot to do."
With that, she turned on her heel and began striding purposefully down the street, leaving a cloud of stunned silence in her wake.
Draco stood frozen for a second, utterly blindsided by her shamelessly casual counter-attack.
His plan to fluster the smiths who fancied her had spectacularly backfired.
He hurried to catch up, his long strides easily matching her pace.
"Wait, hold on a second. That's not what I meant at all!"
"Sigh, why did you have to go and say something like that?" Draco grumbled as they navigated the bustling main avenue towards Babel Tower.
"Now annoying rumors will spread like wildfire and soon reach my familia"
"In my defence," Tsubaki replied without breaking stride, a smirk playing on her lips, "you started everything."
"Ugh, that's what I get for trying to lighten your morning," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.
"Sorry about that," she said, and her tone softened to genuine apology.
"Hope it won't cause any misunderstanding between you and Lady Bahamut."
Draco's head snapped towards her.
"Oh? How did you know we were together? I mean, it's not exactly a secret, but I don't remember telling you about it."
"The answer is quite simple. Your goddess told me. More specifically, she told Lady Hephaestus, and I was there when she did. She was… quite enthusiastic about the details of your love confession." Tsubaki's smirk returned, broader this time.
A faint blush crept up Draco's neck.
"She spoke about that? Right. That makes sense."
He coughed, suddenly very interested in a passing cart laden with produce.
"So," Tsubaki pressed, her eyes gleaming with unabashed curiosity.
"How was it? The date with your goddess."
Draco's posture straightened, his expression shifting to one of unmistakable pride.
"It went splendidly."
"Yo… you two didn't go all the way, did you?" she teased, nudging him with an elbow.
"No comment," Draco replied, his tone casual but his smile decidedly smug.
"That's private stuff."
"Tsk, no fun." Tsubaki laughed, a rich, hearty sound.
She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds drift past Babel's peak.
"But to think the cute little kid I saw almost two….or is it three?....years ago managed to bag his goddess. Life sure is strange."
"Says an aging lady who is still into little boys and men," Draco retorted without missing a beat.
"Geez, I wonder if that is why she is still single."
The effect was immediate.
Tsubaki's playful demeanor vanished, replaced by a flash of genuine, if short-lived, ire.
Her fist lashed out in a blur, landing a sharp, precise jab on his side.
It was more a punctuation of her displeasure than a real attack.
"Gah! I was just joking!" Draco exclaimed, rubbing his side with exaggerated pain.
In truth, the impact had been negligible, absorbed by his scales and natural toughness.
But he knew better than to not react; feigning injury was the quickest way to douse her anger.
Their playful bickering and easy camaraderie carried them all the way through the entrance of Babel, down into the ever-shifting bowels of the Dungeon.
The familiar, dank air and distant screeches of monsters welcomed them.
On the first floor, amidst the pathetic scurrying of goblins, Draco finally asked the practical question.
"So, what's the plan?"
As he spoke, his tail shot out almost lazily and crushed the neck of a goblin that had been attempting to sneak up on them.
"Plan?" Tsubaki repeated the word as if it were a foreign concept, decapitating two more goblins with a single, swing of a new longsword.
She examined the blade's edge critically.
Observing her blank look, Draco rephrased his question.
"Okay, so how do you usually test weapons in the Dungeon?"
"I usually just grab all the weapons I can carry, then enter the Dungeon," she said, hefting the longsword.
"Then I keep hacking and slashing any monsters I come across till the weapon's unusable. Oh, right…..between hunting monsters, I do take some notes."
She patted a small, slightly charred notebook tucked into her belt.
Draco stared at her, a wave of disbelief washing over him.
'Crazy. This woman is brilliantly, utterly crazy. No plans on a solo dive? It feels like a miracle that she's survived this long. Or is she just that phenomenally talented?'
"Sigh," he exhaled, the sound lost beneath the screech of a distant kobold.
"Since there is no plan, I guess we can just do it your usual way, with some modifications. We're both Level 5, so cheesing through the upper and middle floors should be relatively easy. I will act as a supporter: I'll carry the bulk of the weapons and other stuff, support you from behind, and handle any ambushes or flanking maneuvers. You focus solely on the testing."
"Sounds good," Tsubaki agreed, a note of genuine appreciation in her voice.
"Glad that I brought you along. Come to think of it, you might be the first person I have officially invited along for my weapon test twice ."
"Then I thank you for the honour," Draco replied with a theatrical bow, earning a genuine laugh from her.
With their roles decided, they fell into a devastatingly efficient rhythm.
Tsubaki became a whirlwind at the forefront, a different weapon in her hands every few minutes. She'd test a blade's durability on an armoured Ant's shell, a hammer's impact on a Hard armoured's carapace, and a dagger's edge on a hellhound's hide.
Behind her, Draco was a shadow.
His tail was a constant, blurring threat, snapping necks and impaling monsters that tried to swarm from the sides or rear.
He carried the growing collection of damaged or broken weapons, monster drops and magic stones without complaint, his presence a solid wall that allowed Tsubaki to focus completely on her craft.
Their progress was swift and brutal.
They carved a path through the familiar territories, their combined power making the dangers of the upper and middle floors seem trivial.
Soon, the eerie light of the crystals and the sound of running water signaled their arrival on the 18th floor….the safe zone of Rivira, the town under the crystal ceiling.
"The Dungeon sure is mysterious," Draco mused, his eyes scanning the reconstructed landscape. New buildings stood where rubble had been, and the forest was lush and vibrant again.
"I heard the entire floor was devastated by the monster Delphyne. Yet in just under two weeks, it's been completely repaired."
"It is," Tsubaki agreed, checking the stress fractures on a war axe.
"But I'm more surprised a Juggernaut didn't spawn from the imbalance."
"Well, Delphyne was likely a Black Monster, and based on the reported description, partly an enhanced species," Draco theorized, his mind turning over the puzzle.
"My theory is that the Dungeon cannot create a Juggernaut if a Black Monster of that magnitude has already been spawned. It might have considered the 'correction' already delivered."
"Hmm, makes some sense," Tsubaki conceded, nodding thoughtfully.
"That aside, are we going to rest here or keep going down?" Draco asked, noting the curious glances from other adventurers beginning to recognize them.
"Keep going," she decided, slinging the damaged axe onto his already considerable load.
"With your support, I barely broke a sweat, and most of the weapons are still in good condition. I want to push deeper, test them against the bigger game."
"Alright then," Draco said, hefting the pack.
"Let's see if we can make it to the next safe zone just as quickly."
They moved on before the whispers could turn into conversations, leaving the safety of the 18th floor behind.
The rhythm resumed as they descended into the 19th Floor and beyond.
The environment shifted around them, the rocky tunnels giving way to the vast, fungal forests of the mushroom infested woods.
Their progress, while still potent, was no longer a straight shot.
The floors between the nineteenth and twenty-fourth were notorious for their labyrinthine, uncharted passages.
Drawn into an unexplored tunnel by the pursuit of a monster variant, they soon found themselves momentarily disoriented in a network of identical, bioluminescent moss corridors.
"Looks like we're mapping today whether we intended to or not," Draco remarked dryly, using a piece of charcoal to mark a rough direction on his map.
The air was thick with the chittering of a variety of Insect-type monsters that launched themselves from the phosphorescent undergrowth with mindless aggression.
Tsubaki welcomed the challenge.
Despite the detour, their strength ensured most attacks were merely an inconvenience, not a true threat.
Eventually, they found a familiar monster trail that led them back to a main passage.
The arduous mapping and constant fighting had taken time, but soon the temperature began to drop noticeably, and the air grew sharp and cold.
They had arrived at the 25th floor….the gateway to the lower levels, known to all adventurers as the Second Line.