Everything seemed so far away, the noises around her all but gone, and nothing but that fight reflected in her vision.
The mighty sword of the raging bull versus the flying dagger of the boy, roars versus screams, melted into every one of their back-and-forth attacks.
Sparks flew, blood spattered, and the high-pitched, metallic clanks of weapon on weapon echoed again and again.
They were evenly matched.
A one-on-one fight to the death.
As the one who had taught him how to fight, Aiz could barely believe her eyes at the deadly battle taking place in front of her.
Wagering everything he had, the boy was determined to take the bull down.
“—Outta the way, Aiz! I’ve got this!” Bete’s voice came like a slap from behind her as its owner rushed forward.
The werewolf unable to condone weaklings was already fully prepared to save Bell.
“Yo! Airhead! What the hell are you just standin’ there for…?” he started, before screeching to a halt right beside her.
He was looking at her golden eyes opened wide in consternation.
“…Huh?”
Bete realized it, too.
“Huh? Wait, isn’t that…?”
“…Who said he’s a Level One?”
Tiona noticed it. Then Tione.
“If my memory serves me correctly…” Even Finn put two and two together. “Isn’t that the same kid Bete called a complete beginner only a month ago?”
His incredible growth—the amazing transformation he’d achieved, becoming an adventurer, determination and ambition screaming from his throat.
“Gwwwwwwoooooooaaaaaaarrrrghh!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—!”
The mighty roar broke through.
Man and monster clashed, continuing their battle of speed and strength.
Before Aiz even realized it, everyone had gathered around her.
Bete, Tiona, Tione, Finn, and Riveria with the prum girl in her arms.
No one said a word, simply watching the battle take place from as close as possible.
Just like Aiz, her eyes trembling as she found herself transfixed by the scene in front of her.
They were captivated, watching with bated breath.
“Argonaut…” Tiona murmured gently.
It fell from between her lips, almost like a sigh.
It was a story.
A nursery tale about a young man dreaming of becoming a hero, misguided by the malicious intentions of others and his own hapless fate.
A legend about how he was loved by a ghost, brought down a mighty bull, and saved a princess.
It was one of her favorites among the stories her mother had told her.
“I always loved that fairy tale…” Tiona murmured, the words buzzing in Aiz’s ears.
She had her arms around her chest, almost as though imagining the story playing out atop the scene in front of her.
That’s right.
This was one page of that epic.
Though the level of the fight might have been nothing for the first-tier-adventurer audience, somehow, none of them could pull their eyes away from the spectacle.
They’d forgotten it.
The beloved familia myth, ever watched over by the gods.
“—nngggghh!!”
The battle raged.
Neither side would give in. It was a ferocious back-and-forth. Faster and faster.
Man and beast carved away at each other’s lives in a duel to the death.
The boy flung himself at the mad bull with every ounce of strength and spirit he could possibly muster, putting to use everything Aiz had taught him.
It was a desperate, all-out effort lacking prudence or pride. An insatiable hunger for victory.
His technique.
Tactics.
Quick thinking.
Weaponry.
Magic.
It was all for this. Everything pumping into this single fight.
“Firebolt!”
And again.
“FIREBOLT!”
His body surged, his weapon sailed, and his magic flared.
He let out a ferocious roar—wielding his god-blade as he summoned forth fire and lightning.
“FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLT!!”
There was a mighty blast.
?!
As the boy’s obsidian knife plunged into the bull’s frame, the point-blank explosion assailed it from the inside out.
Flames erupted from within the minotaur’s body, and the beast gave off a violent cry of agony before disintegrating into a thousand tiny pieces of flaming debris.
A charred piece of the bull tumbled across the grass, and its magic stone somersaulted through the air before embedding itself in the ground.
The bull warrior was gone, not a trace remaining, leaving only the boy.
“He…He freaking won…” Bete muttered in wonder at the victorious boy’s back.
“…There’s nothing left…Mind Down.”
“He fainted while standing…”
Tione and Tiona mused, just as astonished, at the sight of the motionless boy, still gripping his dagger.
“…”
And Aiz—
Seeing that back, having surpassed its limit.
That figure, having given everything he had.
That face, having overcome the adventure.
—found herself flooded with emotion and scenes from her past.
Bell Cranell.
It was a name Aiz would never forget.
The back that overlapped her father’s.
The page in the legend.
The greatness that had been achieved.
Today, an adventurer who’d taken his first breath—had obtained his first qualification for hero-hood.
LAST CHAPTER
TO ADVENTURE
It was noisy as they set up camp.
Voices called out orders here and there, and boots hastily clomped about to fulfill those orders. Iron stakes were thrust into the ground and laced with rope as tents popped up one after another.
They’d made it to the Dungeon’s fiftieth floor.
Loki Familia was busy setting up their camp at a monster-free safe point—a large-scale respite between the legs of their expedition.
As planned, the two parties had reconvened on the eighteenth floor before making their way to the depths—this fiftieth floor included—together.
The vast forest around them was dyed gray as though covered in the volcanic ash of a recent eruption. Clear, branching streams of green like veins on a leaf flowed among its mighty trees, and high above them, dozens of meders or so, an abundance of great stone pillars like stalactites shone down on them with a soft phosphorescence.
The spot Loki Familia had chosen for their base camp was atop a giant boulder looking down on the ashen forest.
From within that dim twilight, as magic-stone lanterns swayed atop tents and stacks of cargo, a commotion far different from the usual hustle and bustle of work was brewing.
“What is up with Bete and the others?”
“That’s what I wanna know…”
“They’re even more intense than normal…”
Raul, Aki, Leene, and the other second-tier members could be seen with their heads low, furtive whispers passing among them. In their sights were the Amazonian twins, the werewolf, and the others in the collection of first-tiers.
Tiona was pacing back and forth, Urga in her hand as she let out one frustrated moan after another. Tione, too, was silently spinning her Kukri knives around and around and around. And Bete was busy terrifying Hephaistos Familia’s High Smiths with his menacing expression.
All of them were on edge, no one saying a word as they simply paced about the perimeter, which, in turn, was making the lower-ranking members restless. Finn and the others, currently issuing orders just outside the headquarters, heaved weary sighs at the young first-tiers.
Even Lefiya, busy hau
ling cloth for the tents, threw a worried glance at them—and Aiz.
“…”
Aiz paid her no heed, gazing down at the scenery below from her spot atop the boulder a short way from camp.
As her eyes took in the vast forest, her mind was somewhere far different—lost in memories of the event she’d witnessed up on the ninth floor.
—The minotaur was defeated.
The boy Bell had fought the great bull on the ninth floor.
That accomplishment, performed by a lower-level adventurer, left everyone in silence. Nobody moved. Nobody could look away. And Aiz’s eyes were glued to his back.
The boy had spent his entire self and had fainted right then and there, yet remained standing.
As he stood, frozen like a statue, his bare back revealed his Status.
Through his tattered linens, through the blood and dirt, the Falna revealed something extraordinary. Aiz’s eyes sharpened like swords.
Every single one of his abilities had reached S.
It was a Status that defied every rule in the book.
The lingering vibrations of the shocking truth of hieroglyphs refused to dissipate. He had broken past all limits. As the reality struck home, the pounding of her heart and rush of her blood buzzed in her ears.
Not even realizing it, she took a step toward the boy.
She took one step, then another. The grass folded beneath her feet. Her breathing stopped. The Dungeon’s phosphorescent light washed over her face. The boy’s back grew larger and larger in her field of vision.
Finally, she came to a stop.
Next to the boy, the young prum girl had collapsed onto the ground, her strength depleted from loss of blood. But Aiz paid her no mind, her golden eyes focused on the spectacle in front of her.
At the ability and skill slots of his Status, hidden by blood, dirt, and bits of torn undergarments.
She wanted to know.
Her one true wish drove her to learn about the secret to his growth, and she raised her arm.
Ever so slowly, Aiz extended her hand toward the frozen boy’s back.
“—Don’t. To go any further would be improper.”
“!”
Riveria appeared next to her, grabbing her wrist.
Aiz’s shoulders gave a start. She’d been so absorbed in those hieroglyphics, she hadn’t even noticed the elf draw near.
She turned her head to meet Riveria’s jade-colored gaze.
Eyes moving back and forth like a lost child’s, she finally hung her head.
“…I’m sorry.”
“…”
Relaxing her arm, she let it drop, and Riveria released her wrist.
Tiona, Tione, Bete, and Finn simply watched in silence as the two women hid the boy’s secret from view.
Riveria immediately began tending to the boy, and Aiz did whatever she could to help. She covered his bare shoulders with a light tunic, averting her gaze from his cut and bruised features behind his bangs, as if in apology.
Soon, Aiz had him on her back, while Riveria carried the prum girl in her arms.
They went to Finn, asking if they couldn’t transport the two wounded to Babel’s infirmary.
Upon receiving his permission, they started for the surface, and Finn and the others headed back to the main route to meet up with the others.
Aiz said nothing as they made their way to the infirmary, concentrating on nothing but the weight of the boy on her back.
Once there, they laid the two of them on a pair of infirmary beds before leaving them in the charge of the clerk. Then they instructed the messenger sent from the manor to relay the information about the minotaur’s appearance in the upper levels and accompanying details to the Guild.
Just as the messenger was leaving with Riveria’s report, a certain young goddess came barreling into the infirmary.
“Where’s Bell?!”
Struggling to breathe and completely exhausted, Hestia looked back and forth between the two beds containing Bell and the prum girl.
She must have heard he’d been carried out of the Dungeon, because she was still dressed in her shop uniform. With giant, sloppy tears she clutched the boy’s peacefully sleeping face to her chest.
Aiz and Riveria were already at the door, ready to leave, but they turned to the newly arrived goddess and explained the situation.
“…Thank you. Both of you,” she said after listening quietly.
Then the two of them left her in peace.
It hadn’t taken them long to reconvene with Finn and the others down in the Dungeon, now accompanied by Gareth and the rest of the rearguard troops.
After reorganizing their expedition party on the eighteenth floor, they had departed for the depths.
Witnessing Bell’s adventure had lit a fire in the bellies of the first-tiers—Tiona, Tione, Bete—and they’d practically launched themselves on every monster they’d come across. As a result, they’d progressed much faster than anticipated, reaching the fiftieth floor in only around six days. This intensity and complete disregard for the lower-ranking members baffled Raul and the others—they knew nothing about what had happened on the ninth floor.
I…
The ceaseless soliloquy had dominated Aiz’s mind since that day.
The boy’s gallant figure. His driven heart, burning bright.
That back the same as her father’s from her memories.
His Status that defied limitations—and the possibilities it entailed.
Aiz’s heart swirled with emotion as the scenes raced through her head.
Once they were finished setting up camp, everyone in Loki Familia settled down for dinner.
Making a large circle around the campfire in the middle of the tents, they helped themselves to their meal as they’d done many times already throughout the expedition. The food was lavish—a show of appreciation and a morale boost to the members who’d made it all the way to the fiftieth floor that included such luxuries as mruit and other Dungeon-grown fruits and dried meats, as well as soup from a giant pot.
Even Hephaistos Familia’s High Smiths had joined the circle of boisterous eating and drinking.
“Why’s everyone been so weird for the past fifty floors?”
As a few guards patrolled the environs, Tsubaki sat herself down with a thud in front of Aiz and the others, jerky hanging from her mouth and bowl of soup in her hand.
It turned out that the High Smiths under her command were plenty strong enough and had no need for protection. As they deftly dodged the occasional surprise attack with a variety of martial arts, they always calmly followed Loki Familia’s commands, and not even Irregulars could throw them off guard. Tsubaki would sometimes even stray from the group upon catching sight of rare monsters in hopes of snagging their drop items and had no trouble bashing the poor creatures to smithereens with her tachi. Eventually she did stop, but only after ignoring so many warnings that Riveria finally gave her a wallop with her staff. At any rate, despite everything, the whole group managed to make it to the fiftieth floor without losing a single person, High Smiths included.
In response to the unabashed question from the half-dwarf in black, Tiona paused between greedy gulps of food to open her mouth.
“We saw this amazing adventurer on our way to the eighteenth floor. Haven’t been able to sit still since!”
“That so? Who was it?”
“Uhh…Crell Banell?”
“Ho-ho…I’ll make a note of that one.”
The weapons master jotted down the “amazing adventurer’s” name at Tiona’s half-baked response. All the while, Aiz simply sat next to them, silently replenishing her nutrients.
Still deep in thought, she ate nothing but one of the ration blocks Lulune had given her.
“Let’s begin our final meeting, then, shall we?” Finn said, and the group, now finished with their meal, started making their final checks.
Everyone in the circle cleaned up their utensils, ears keen.
“As
was communicated previously, only a select few will be continuing on past the fifty-first floor. Everyone else, Hephaistos Familia included, will remain here to guard the camp.”
They wouldn’t be able to take anyone below a certain level of ability, not even supporters. The larger the group, the more time and energy it would take to dole out orders. They needed a party that would be light and agile, which was why only the familia elites would be making the trek to the untraversed depths.
The rest of the crew would stay back to protect the base camp, which would serve as a sort of depot for the departing party.
“The party will include Riveria, Gareth…”
They wouldn’t set out until tomorrow, once they had gotten plenty of rest.
After Finn finished listing the seven names of those who’d take part—the familia heads and elites, all of them first-tiers—the supporting members were called forth.
“As for support members, those joining include Raul, Narfi, Alicia, Cruz, and Lefiya…”
Lefiya had already known she’d be joining, but somehow, hearing her name made her throat buzz with an inaudible scream.
In a lineup of Level 4 supporters, the Level 3 elven magic user couldn’t help the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“For those remaining in the camp, should any of those new species of monster spawn nearby, fend them off from afar via magic swords and spells. Do not let them close to the camp. I’m leaving you in charge, Aki.”
“Yes, sir!”
They would need to be on the watch for the caterpillar monsters and their acidic venom, Finn continued.
The catgirl, who had been assigned to a position of leadership as opposed to support like Raul, rose to her feet in acknowledgment.
“Tsubaki will also be joining the party to tend to our weapons.”
“Leave it to me, boss!” Tsubaki replied with a smile and a nod. Rather than fearing the unknown, the Level 5 smith’s heart appeared to ache with excitement at the opportunity to explore the Dungeon’s unexplored depths.
Once all the directives had been issued, Tsubaki rose from her cross-legged position on the ground with a burst of energy.
“Well, then! Shall we go ahead and hand things out?” she proclaimed abruptly to Finn and the others, her eyes directed at the baggage of her fellow High Smiths. The group began pulling out cloth-wrapped weapons and handing them to their respective owners.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 4 Page 17