32 Expedition That Was Forced to End!
Chapter 32: Expedition That Was Forced to End!
(PS: This chapter is too long. Forgive me for delay.)
The wailing of the trees echoed around.
Riveria, standing on the rock platform, should have seen the source of the sound by now, but at this moment, there was silence above, making everyone in the group even more uneasy and anxious.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely at this moment.
It was unclear how much time had passed, maybe three minutes, or maybe just a moment, when the monster finally appeared in Shiro and the others' field of view.
It was six meters tall, and its appearance inherited the shape of the previous worm monster, but its overall form was vastly different.
"Humanoid monster?"
Shiro looked at the monster and expressed his doubt.
The lower half of the worm remained unchanged, but instead of the usual mound-like upper body, it was replaced by a humanoid form.
The thick yellow-green skin extended to the monster's face, which lacked any organs but possessed fine contours suggestive of femininity.
However, the significantly bulging belly diminished its feminine appearance.
"We absolutely cannot let it explode like the previous monster," Shiro thought to himself as he stared at the monster's bulging abdomen.
With a body as huge as a floor boss, if it exploded among the crowd, none of the Loki Familia members would survive.
Then, the monster began to move.
Like wanting to embrace a lover, the monster spread its flat arms, and countless pollen drifted from her body, quickly surrounding the group of adventurers.
Instinctively, the adventurers wanted to run away from that location.
In less than a moment, the pollen exploded around the adventurers, with numerous lights flashing continuously in the dungeon.
Bang—
The explosion shattered the ground along with the corrosive liquid on top, and a hot breath brushed past their faces.
Amidst a large amount of smoke and dust, Ais and the others quickly got into position.
The expedition members of Loki Familia were now in great trouble.
Their weapons and shields had melted away in previous battles, and the spare equipment was insufficient for a battle of this magnitude.
However, as first-class adventurers and one of the strongest Familia in Orario, they could not allow the monster to continue upwards, as it would result in even more casualties.
"Ais, give me your weapon."
As Finn was frowning and biting his right thumb in thought, Shiro spoke up.
Ais was now one of only two people whose weapons were intact; her sword, "Desperate," possessed an attribute called "Indestructible."
This meant that Ais's weapon could not be dissolved by the monster's corrosive liquids, but even with the "Indestructible" attribute, the sword could still become blunt.
After imbuing the weapon with his cutting ability, Shiro looked at Finn, who was deep in thought.
The latter had become expressionless, turning his head to look at the blonde girl.
"Ais, hold this monster back here, everyone else will follow me and retreat."
As the captain of Loki Familia, Finn had to remain calm and rational at all times, even if his decisions seemed harsh to some members.
"Wait a minute! Captain!"
"How can we let a woman protect us?"
Just as the other members pleaded with Finn to reconsider, another explosion erupted among the crowd.
Despite nearly being swept away by the explosion, they continued to plead desperately.
"Don't make me repeat myself."
Finn issued the command coldly, with an authoritarian tone.
"I need to be here to imbue Ais's weapon with my magic ability."
Despite the pressure from Finn, Shiro spoke up.
"And you understand my skills too."
The ability to temporarily enhance ability values when supporting a companion and to gain a bonus in ability values during a crisis gave him the confidence to suggest staying behind to Finn.
"Is that so, do you have confidence?"
"At least surviving won't be a problem."
"Sorry, Ais, and Torajirou."
As the captain of Loki Familia, Finn sometimes had to issue harsh orders.
He would also offer apologies during such times, particularly since he had admonished others with words emphasizing responsibility earlier today.
Now, issuing this kind of order was difficult even for Finn himself to accept.
Ais also understood Finn's burden as the captain and shook her head to show that she didn't mind.
"Once we are far enough away, we will launch a signal flare. Until then, please hold it back."
"Understood."
After conveying the final instructions, Finn and the others quickly left, leaving Ais and Shiro to deal with the giant-like monster.
"Ais, get ready for a tough battle!"
Staring at Ais's golden pupils, Shiro summoned his weapon, and in response, Ais started chanting.
"Tempest!"
The monster approached step by step, and suddenly a slit opened in the part of her face, spraying out corrosive liquid like a water gun.
Realizing he was the target, Shiro quickly leaped away from his spot.
The ground where he had been standing was immediately dissolved by the corrosive liquid, leaving a large hole and faintly emitting the sizzling sound of the rocks melting away.
Seizing this opportunity, with a whoosh, Ais rushed in front of the monster, swinging her beloved sword.
The monster displayed a reaction speed that contradicted her huge body, leaning back as her four flat arms swept towards Ais.
Dodging three sweeps and realizing that the final blow was about to hit her, Ais positioned her sword in front of her, allowing the surrounding wind to wrap around her body and strengthen her defense.
But the outcome was beyond Ais's expectations.
When the opponent's arm collided with her sword, it was immediately split in two, and corrosive liquid splashed out from the wound.
The painful monster stepped back, attempting to create distance and attack with pollen.
However, a spear thrown from afar disrupted the monster's actions, and Ais, drawing on her years of experience as an adventurer, immediately seized the opportunity for victory.
Now the monster could no longer afford to focus on Shiro, who continued to provide remote assistance by throwing weapons at it like arrows.
Each attack from Ais removed a piece of the monster's flesh, turning the battle completely in her favor.
This was the first time Ais found the monster so easy to combat; she didn't need to strategize against the monster's attacks, merely positioning her sword in the monster's path of movement was sufficient to cut it down.
"Ais!"
Suddenly, Shiro's voice brought Ais back to reality.
At some point, the monster extended several tubes from the back of its head, and the black tubes sprayed corrosive fluid directly at her.
Although reluctant to allow the monster to create distance, Ais, realizing that the surrounding wind could not defend against such a large volume of corrosive liquid, had no choice but to slice through the liquid with her sword.
Seizing the opportunity, the monster viciously swung its right arm towards Ais.
Having severed the monster's arm, Ais, now surrounded by myriad light spots, found herself in the midst of the pollen attack previously utilized by the monster against their Familia.
From release to explosion, it took three seconds.
This attack had been deployed twice already since the monster's appearance.
The senior members of Loki Familia had repeatedly taught Ais to always be observant of her surroundings as an adventurer, and to try to gather as much information as possible, even when facing a monster for the first time.
So, what should she do about this pollen?
Ais's answer was "wind."
"Tempest."
The wind that had been protecting Ais dissipated, and the armor made of wind scattered, blowing the surrounding pollen back towards the monster.
Boom—
The pollen exploded in front of the monster, and simultaneously, a distant thud signaled that Finn's retreat was complete.
A stronger wind once again enveloped Ais.
Then, leaning slightly forward, she charged at the monster.
Targeting the monster's legs to throw it off balance was a standard strategy against large monsters.
"Ahhh!"
Injured by its own pollen, the monster entered a frenzy, determined to kill the human before it.
It wildly swung the tubes on its body, spraying corrosive liquid indiscriminately.
The dispersed corrosive liquid did not deter Ais; wrapped in wind, she swiftly approached the monster's feet.
With a single step, Ais severed one of the monster's feet, causing the now unbalanced creature to fall heavily to the ground, where a spear, thrown from afar, pinned it down.
The impact of the uncontrollable body on the ground caused the pollen to disperse uncontrollably, leading to another explosion.
The series of self-inflicted explosions caused the monster to feel immense pain, but it was immobilized by the spear in its belly and could not move.
Then, before Ais, the monster's body began to swell rapidly, a sign of imminent self-destruction.
At this moment, the monster's fury peaked, determined to drag the human before it to destruction, even in death.
"I say, have you forgotten about me?"
The voice of Shiro sounded from behind the monster, and the person who had been throwing weapons from afar had now arrived behind the monster.
Shiro placed his hand on the monster's body.
"Die."
The indifferent voice came from his mouth, and after uttering these words, the monster's body was instantly divided into several parts.
"It's over..."
Ais sheathed her sword and stood in front of the monster's dissipating corpse.
"Yeah, next, we need to catch up with Finn and the others."
Shiro glanced at the monster's corpse and turned to extend his hand towards the blond-haired girl.
Ais tilted her head in confusion at his gesture.
"It's a gesture of celebration; where I come from, we clap hands to celebrate after defeating the enemy."
Watching Shiro's strange behavior, Ais's lips curved up slightly and she silently clapped her hand against his.
"Wow!!! My Urga!!!"
Shiro and Ais were not far from the team when they heard Tiona's miserable scream.
Her weapon, a large double-bladed sword crafted by several blacksmiths at the cost of one hundred and twenty million valis, had melted due to the monster's corrosive liquids, leaving the amazoness heartbroken.
Shiro and Ais glanced at each other and then ran up to join the group.
The blonde girl and the white-haired boy returned to everyone's side.
…
17th Floor,
"Ah, we could have continued to explore downward, I haven't had enough fights yet."
"Can you shut up? You are so annoying."
"But, to think we're returning from the 50th floor."
After the battle on the 50th floor ended, because the first-class weapons they carried were completely melted by the monster and several spare weapons had been thrown out by Shiro as remote weapons, Finn decided to give up going to explore the floor below and return to the surface.
At this moment, Tiona pouted and complained while Tione was persuading her.
"But it wasn't easy to reach the 50th floor."
"Instead of thinking about this, it's better to think about how much it will cost to build a new double bladed sword." Shiro interjected.
It had been twelve days since they started from the surface to the deep floors and returned back again.
Because it was too large to move around conveniently and could not effectively handle monster attacks, Loki Familia split into two teams, with Torajirou joining the team led by Riveria.
From a financial point of view, this expedition can be said to be a big loss for Shiro.
Originally, the money was distributed according to the contribution, and Shiro could get 10% more because of his Gift card.
As a result, the appearance of the worm-like monsters directly caused Loki Familia to turn from profit to loss.
It can be said that Shiro almost couldn't get a penny this time.
But fortunately, after so many battles this time, he might be able to upgrade when he goes back, which makes Shiro feel better.
This is the advantage of joining Loki Familia.
One expedition will fill up his ability values.
If he had joined a Familia with no seniors and started from scratch, he might still be hovering around the tenth or twentieth floor.
"Ahhhhh! Don't talk about it anymore!"
Tiona put her hands on Shiro's shoulders and shook her head wildly to express her dissatisfaction with the white-haired boy bringing up this matter.
"It's all the fault of that damn monster!! What the hell is that thing!!"
Hearing Tiona's question, Tione just shrugged.
"I don't know, maybe it's some undiscovered monster."
As she said that, she also took out a magic stone from her chest.
Seeing Tione take out a magic stone from her chest, Tiona stared at her with resentment.
Obviously they were sisters, but the difference in chest size could be said to be a pain in Tiona's heart forever.
"Is it that monster's magic stone? Where did you get this magic stone?"
"Put your hands in and grab it out."
After the worm-shaped monster dies, it will be slowly dissolved by its own corrosive liquid, including the magic stone in its body.
Only a ruthless person like Tione who dared to kill the worm with bare hands could get the magic stone before the monster died.
"The color is so strange." Tiona leaned her head close to the magic stone and complained.
Although ordinary magic stones vary in shape and size, they are all blue-purple without exception.
The magic stone in Tione's hand is colorful in the middle, and only a small circle outside is blue-purple.
As they walked along, Shiro suddenly felt that something was wrong and asked the people around him, "By the way, do you feel the ground shaking?"
As soon as Shiro's words fell, a large number of monsters suddenly emerged from several passages.
"ROOOOOR!"
Solid muscles, bronze-red skin, and thick horns, this is one of the most representative monsters in the dungeon—the Minotaur.
A group of Minotaurs walked into the cave where Shiro and the others were, surrounding them.
"Why are you here again? It's so annoying."
As he said that, Shiro took out his sword.
Although he found fighting in the dungeon quite interesting, he couldn't tolerate the lengthy and tedious battles.
After nearly two weeks of battling monsters, Shiro grew impatient with the emergence of new ones.
"Riveria, there are so many monsters. Can we go too?" Tiona seemed a little eager to try.
"Okay, Raul, Finn has told me that you will take command this time as a learning experience in the future."
"Huh, me? Well, okay!"
The guild defines the monsters on each floor with a relative degree of danger, and the danger level of Minotaurs on this floor is the highest.
Most adventurers can only escape when they encounter such a large number of Minotaurs, but unfortunately, they encountered Loki Familia.
Faced with such a large number of monsters, Ais and the others did not stand by and watch the low-level battle and gain ability values, but directly joined the battle.
Soon, the Minotaurs were defeated and some killed.
One of them screamed and began to flee.
With this one as the center, fear quickly spread among the monsters, and the monsters rushed out of the cave one after another.
"Huh? Monsters escaped, really escaped?"
"What's going on! Aren't they monsters?!"
It was clearly the first time the people of Loki Familia had encountered such a situation, and they seemed somewhat unsure of what to do.
"Can monsters feel fear? Can they be afraid too?"
This was the second time Shiro felt the existence of emotions from a monster.
The last one was the giant worm monster that he and Ais defeated together.
So, if the monsters also had their own emotions, what were they thinking when they attacked the adventurers?
"What are you doing standing around? Hurry up and catch up! Don't let this group of monsters reach the upper floors!"
Upon noticing the monsters heading toward the 16th floor, Riveria interrupted Shiro's thoughts.
The presence of monsters on a floor that wasn't theirs could spell disaster for the adventurers above. Shiro and the others immediately quickened their pace and chased after them.
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