Chapter 28: The Expedition

*2 months later after the meeting*

Noctis was currently in a meeting with the Loki Familia advance group as they would be leaving later today for their expedition.

Over the last couple of months, Noctis has had an interesting time. After the meeting, he had a long talking too with Loki and Riveria. Surprisingly Finn was okay with what he had done. However, Loki and Riveria kept yelling at him for hours about the severity of what he had done. Loki at one point yelled, "You're lucky you are special very few can get away with what you did."

Noctis thought about what they had said but in the end, he thought it was fine. He did not like taking any disrespect it when people disrespected the people he liked he got even angrier.

Noctis and Marin had only been together a couple of times since then as well mainly because a couple of days after the meeting the Freya Familia went on their expedition. In fact, the Freya Familia just got back yesterday.

Noctis spent the time messing with Freya and Syr during these two months as well. He wanted to blackmail her in a way that would benefit him without getting himself killed by Ottar. He has been coming up with a plan for the past couple of months but he forgot about the expedition so he had to put it on hold.

He then later on finally had his meeting with Hephaestus as well. She was very happy to make the two great swords he had asked for. However, Hephaestus was having a hard time with the schematics as the swords would need to absorb his magic in some way. He told her about how the sword would need to stab into his hand and almost wrap around his wrist and become a part of him. (Owari No Seraph style)

Hephaestus told him to bring all the materials he could from this expedition and she will do what he can when he gets back. In the meantime, she did give him a basic set of armor made by Tsubaki and a sword made by Tsubaki as well. Noctis got these for free as he is transporting a lot of the Hephaestus Familias equipment with him in his storage for this expedition.

Everything seemed to somewhat go well for the last couple of months. He did not have any incidents with the Ishtar Familia. However what really frustrated him was he was no longer making insanely fast progress with his levels. He had solo dived down to the 27th floor as well but he could not acquire any feats. Or anything that his Falna felt like was worthy almost like his very soul was for some reason betraying him and he could not understand why.

Noctis being lost in his own mind during the meeting was getting nudged which made him snap back to attention. He looked over to see Riveria had nudged him.

Noctis snapped to attention "Sorry what was that."

Finn sighed "I was saying you will be with me and the rest and in the center of us. You have all our supplies so until we set up camp try not to fight to much."

Noctis frowned "You know if I knew I was just going to be protected like this I would not have brought up my storage Magic."

Tsubaki then commented as she was representing the Hephaestus Familia she was also in the meeting "Well I like it now we can at least bring one whole forge it will make it a lot easier doing repairs having an actual forge and not just a makeshift one."

Noctis swayed his head back and forth "Well you did get me this armor and great sword it's the least I could."

He then turned to Finn "I don't need to be protected anyways. Even for a level five I could beat some level six's one on one."

Tiona smirked "Oh really you think you can take one of us on."

Noctis smirked "Considering the only thing from level six that I'm missing is my feat. Yeah. We can fight on floor 18 if you want."

Tiona had a wide smile "I definitely will not back down."

Finn sighed "Anyways let's get going. Everyone get ready. Noctis you stay back for a second."

Everyone got up and started to leave once everyone was gone Finn looked at Noctis "Do you have enough blood packs."

He nodded assuring him "Many in my storage and a couple in my backpack."

Finn nodded "Good I have a couple on me as well. If you ever need to just leave the group and go somewhere to drink."

Noctis simply nodded feeling a little sad. He thought 'Feels like I'm still a threat. Some things don't change I suppose.'

When Noctis turned around Finn slapped him on the back with a wide smile "I trust you. We just need to be careful. I can beat you up anyways."

Noctis laughed "Well you are one of the few level six's I think would beat me."

Noctis and Finn headed outside as Noctis started to store everything he could. He wanted to at least leave 25 percent of his space for all the materials he was planning on getting. By the end of it Noctis was able to store more then half of the supplies they needed to bring.

They then all started to head out towards the dungeon. The formation was as such. I'm the front would be Ais, Tiona, Tione, Finn, Bete, and Noctis. In the middle would be where most of the Loki Familia level threes and fours would be as well as Riveria and Lefiya being between the front group and the middle. Tsubaki would be in the middle group as well to watch over the supplies. I'm the back would be Anakitty Autumn and her little team. They specialized in the base's defense so they would be busy watching the rear. Then throughout the formation would be runners to run from the front to the back to make sure there was always a chain of communication on what was going on.

Noctis then walked up to the group he was supposed to be with. "So do I really have to be in the center of you guys?"

Finn nodded "Yes you have over half our supplies. It is very necessary."

Bete patted his shoulder "Don't worry man I will be her to protect you since you are too weak to handle the monsters."

Noctis quickly activated his aura towards Bete. He smirked and released "Really are you sure. Your tail went really stiff right there. Almost like you got scared."

Bete smirked "I'm just trying to boost your confidence vamps. It's a superior's job to make people under him feel better."

Noctis patted Betes head "Thanks for being such a good boy Fenry."

He then turned around as Bete looked ready to kill him. Tiona then asked, "Why are you guys calling each other that."

Noctis shrugged "He is just a dog so I thought a cute name would suit him."

Bete then said "Yeah I figured with his looks and magic he was kind of like a vampire so I started to call him vamps after he called me Fenry."

Tiona smiled "You guys are so cute together."

Noctis and Bete looked at each other. They both said at the same time "Tiona just be quiet."

With that, they started to make their way towards the tower and the dungeon. The large group could be seen from far away as it consisted of more then one hundred people. They were going to see how low they could go with this expedition because reports of the dungeon changing and monsters being different have been coming in over the last six months. This occurred at the same time Noctis had shown up but no one had made the connection yet except for one person. But even she thought that the idea was unlikely.

(A/N Give me Power Stones please. Hope you all continue to enjoy. Happy St Pat day.)