This is a dream.

  It happened so quickly and without any warning as do most disasters tend to go.

  At the crack of dawn, a giant skeleton crawled out from the Hole and blocked out the rising sun with its massive body; its bones as dark as charcoal, there were horns on its massive skull, and a massive crystal where the heart was supposed to be.

  Accompanying it out were legions of smaller skeleton monsters, all armed with all forms of weaponry known to all, giving a visage of an army of the dead rising from the depths led to battle by its overload.

  The many warriors and knights of the fort immediately armed themselves and prepared for another battle with the monsters, but little did they know that this would be the final battle of their era.

  Unlike the wild beasts they were accustomed to, these monsters fought more like trained warriors with tactics akin to a trained army, with them splitting up into ptoons unlike their own.

  For their many years of experience fighting hordes of mindless beasts, they had little to no experience fighting the coordination of an army, which would be their undoing.

  Within moments, the first defense line broken down as warriors and knights alike were swiftly and mercilessly cut down by the invading skeleton army, leaving the rest scrambling to regroup with the line behind them as morale quickly plummeted to the depths of despair.

  Like the heroes they were, many warriors stood firm and fought back to the death to hold them back; but just as many were quick to abandon their post and ran for the safety of the fort.

  Soon enough, as despair swept over the once-thought safe haven of the world, the walls were quickly breached and the skeleton monsters flooded into the town.

  And the final battle of the Age of Heroes had begun.

  “Whoa, look at all that water…”

  “As expected of the Water Capital, I suppose…”

  The sight that greeted us as we exited the corridor was unlike any I had ever seen before, not that I remember seeing many sights to begin with.

  Like its name implies, this section of the Dungeon had countless rivers and streams flowing throughout the entire floors, ranging from small fast rapids to wide rivers; all illuminated by the many glowing crystals growing from the ground, though it was not as bright as in the Great Tree Labyrinth.

  Instead of a single floor, there was a massive sinkhole that went through the three floors of this section of the Lower Floors, where all the rivers and streams converged into a huge waterfall whose roars echoing all over the walls as it poured down the floors.

  It was a huge departure from all the other floors I had ventured on till now, especially when the scale of everything had expanded several times over.

  “Alright, enough gawking.” Jeanne told us before turning to our field leader, “Garos, please brief them our pns for this floor.”

  “Right…” Garos turned to us, “The Drop Items the Guild had requested for us to get are Blue Crab Shells, Raider Fish Fangs, Aqua Serpent Tail, and at least ten-thousand magic stones. We are also to be on the lookout for Azure Stones.”

  “Sheesh, work us to death, why don’t they…?” Drake groaned.

  “Well, this much is to be expected, considering our Familia’s rank.” Lisa pointed out, “At least they didn’t ask us to go after Harpies or Sirens.”

  Our field leader ignored their comments and continued with the briefing, “We will be using this corridor as our campsite while we explore this floor for the next few days. For today, we will be scouting this floor for a bit before heading back here.”

  “Also, regardless if we managed to complete gathering every Drop Item needed, we will be heading up to Under Resort once our supplies are up.” Jeanne added, “Is that clear with everyone?”

  ““Yes, ma’am!””

  “Good; then get into formation and stay alert. We’re heading in now.”

  With that said, we slowly made our way down as we began exploring the floor in earnest; the path had us hugging the wall as we made around the massive sinkhole before entering back in a familiar byrinth structure.

  All the while keeping our eyes open for any monster that might be heading our way; considering that this was unexplored territory for all of us, it was a must.

  We were also especially careful not to get too close to any of the rivers, making sure to keep an arm’s length distance away from the flowing waters whenever we crossed one; after all, one of the biggest causes of death on this floor was falling into the waters here.

  And considering that almost all of us had no experience with swimming, just falling in was a guaranteed death sentence.

  “Whoa… I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if I accidentally fell in.” I noted.

  “You would get devoured by the monsters in the waters the moment you fall in.” Drake noted, “If not, you will most likely get swept up by the currents and fall to your death by the waterfall.”

  The very image of it sent a shiver down my spine, “Y-Yikes…”

  “Some equipment made with Undine Cloth would be really useful in such a situation.” Jirou chimed in while gncing over at Otto, “If only someone had gotten us some beforehand…”

  “Would you just give it a rest!?” The smith cried out angrily, “I told you that getting Undine Cloth is extremely difficult! And I have refunded all your money, didn’t I?”

  “Yet you still demanded a cut…”

  “Hey, that is a separate issue all together!”

  “Say, where do you think all that water goes?” Kyumaru noted, “Do you think this floor is connected to the ocean?”

  “Wait, you mean there’s another entrance into the Dungeon!?” Tetra cried out, “Isn’t that very bad!?”

  “There was one.” Jirou told us, “But it was sealed off by the Zeus and Hera Familia more than a decade ago.”

  “Zeus… Hera… I think I’ve heard those names before…”

  “You should have.” Garos noted, “They were the strongest Familias to ever exist in all of Orario if not the whole world; the Loki and Freya Familia couldn’t even compare to them in their prime.”

  “They are that powerful!?”

  “Of course; They were the ones that cleared two of the three Grand Quests, after all.”

  Grand Quests; they were the unique quests that had been issued to Orario by the world, which basically boiled down to killing very specific monsters that threatened the fate of the world itself.

  Two of them, the Behemoth and the Levaitant were sin by the two legendary Familias before their disbandment and exile.

  “Wait, why did they disband if they were so powerful?” Tetra asked.

  “…Because they failed the st of the Grand Quests.” Jirou expined with a small sigh, “And lost a lot of their strongest fighters to the Bck Dragon.”

  “Oh…”

  The st of the Grand Quest, the infamous One-eyed Bck Dragon. It was a monster that truly had no equal and with the strength to destroy the world if it fancied the idea.

  All records about it were scarce with the only information about it being its appearance and the only person that had ever injured it; the protagonist of Dungeon Oratoria, the Mercenary King Albert Waldestein.

  “It didn’t help that both Freya and Loki Familia took the chance to pretty much have them kicked out of Orario in their moment of weakness. Within a week, all traces of them were gone from the city.”

  “Even though they had accomplished so much?” I asked.

  “It didn’t matter.” Jeanne chimed in, “That’s the harsh truth about this city; if you give people any opening, they will pounce on you and stripped you bare till you have nothing left.”

  “That’s… horrible…”

  “If there’s a bright side to all of this, no body have ever reached their level since their exile; not even the great Conqueror Ottarl is at their level.”

  “Stronger than Ottarl… I couldn’t even imagine that at all.”

  If that was the case, maybe I should ask Misha for information about the two Familias when I get back from this expedition; if I had their strength, being a hero might not be too close behind.

  Still, I wondered how strong they were if Ottarl was nothing in comparison? Could they have a Level 8 among them? Was it even possible to reach higher than Level 7?

  “…!”

  My thoughts were halted when Lisa raised her hand and clenched it tightly. Everyone immediately went on high alert and drew our respective weapons out of their sheaths if we had one.

  Moments ter, the flowing water of the river next to us rippled before three huge Raider Fish jumped out towards us, their jaws opened and ready to bite down on us.

  Being the closest to the water, Kyumaru acted quickly and leaped up to intercept them. He swung his sword and sliced one of them up into pieces, leaving the other two to get taken out by Lisa’s sickle and Jeanne’s spear.

  But before the renard could nd back down, a serpentine Aqua Serpent came bursting out from the water under him with its jaws wide open.

  “Kyumaru!!”

  “Hrgh!!”

  Before it could bite down on him, Kyumaru twisted his body and swung his foot into its head, sending it crashing into the wall hard, leaving it open for Drake to end it with a well-aimed arrow, piercing its magic stone and turning it into ash moments ter.

  Kyumaru let out a sigh of relief as he nded back in formation, “Whew, that was close…”

  “I never thought that there would be another one waiting.” Garos noted.

  “Guys…” Drake nocked back another arrow, “We’re not done yet.”

  On cue, more than half a dozen Blue Crabs came running towards us; massive crabs with spiked blue shells that were crawling forwards towards us with their spiny long legs instead of sideways like a normal crab would move.

  It was quite the bizarre sight to be sure, but it didn’t take long for me to shake off my surprise and jump into action.

  I quickly rushed up to the vanguard alongside Otto and Garos as we ran towards them; Electro sparkling to life around me after a quick chant that boosted my speed which made me reach them first.

  Focusing the electrical aura around my knuckles, I dashed toward the first of the rge crustacean monsters in my path, my magic coated fist easily breaking through the hard spiky shell and breaking its magic stone, turning it into ash.

  As I started taking down a second one, Garos caught up with me and he engaged with a Blue Crab by blocking its massive cw when it struck at him, its massive pincers threatening to split his shield in two.

  Forcing the appendage aside with a twist of his arm, he duck under another strike from it before getting behind the monster. Then with all his might, he smashed his shield into its shell.

  The metallic edge smashed through the shell and revealed its gooey innards, which Garos took the chance to stab his sword deep inside, killing it and turning it into ash.

  “Oh, so that’s why you made me reinforce your shield like that.”

  Otto pushed back another Blue Crab he had been holding back with his cleaver before running towards it with his arms and weapon reeled back over his head as far back as he was physically able.

  The moment he got close enough, the muscles on his arms and chest bulged and tightened as he swung his cleaver down onto the monster with a loud crash; the thick bde breaking right through the shell before cleaving right through the monster.

  And he wasn’t done with his attack, as he leaped up into the air with a somersault, pulling his sword with him before swinging it back down and cleaving into another monster crab behind it.

  That left with only two more Blue Crabs to take out which I proceeded to do so quite swiftly; after dodging one of the crab monsters’ massive pincers, I grabbed onto the appendage and lifted it up into the air before smashing the monster into its comrade hard, crushing it under its own weight.

  I then twisted the cw and tore it clean off its body, before shifting my grip so that the massive pincer was facing outwards and swung it down onto it, the massive cw crushing its shell and killing it.

  “…is it always so gruesome with her?” Otto asked.

  “You should see her rip the magic stone out of the chest of a Silverback.” Garos pointed out.

  “Geez, and she looked so nice, too… Guess everyone in your Familia is a form of wackjob.”

  “…I really can’t disagree with that notion…”

  After checking that there weren’t any more monsters heading our way, and breaking the nearby wall as an additional precaution, we got to work retrieving the magic stones from the dead monsters and any Drop Items we were lucky to get.

  In this case, we were pretty lucky as the majority of them had left behind the Drop Items we were gathering for the quest.

  “We sure got quite the haul.” Jirou noted, “If this keeps up, we might finish the quest by today.”

  “…I’m pretty sure that saying it out loud is considered a jinx.” I pointed out.

  “Ah… right… forget I said anything.”

  “A bit too te for that, I’m afraid.”

  “IIYAHHH!!!!”

  “Lisa!?!?”

  We turned around and got ready to dash to the panicking pallum, only to see in the most awkward situation possible for the female gender.

  Lisa had fallen on the ground and struggling against a Drag Octopus that had tightly wrapped itself around her entire body, its tentacles curling around her torso that made her already impressive bust stick out even more than usual and even between her legs.

  It was quite the erotic scene to witness, especially with all the moans she was letting out as she tried to free herself from its slimy appendages; all the males present had froze on the spot gawking with wide eyes and flushed cheeks, with Drake even covering up Tetra’s eyes much to the amazon’s annoyance.

  After a long minute of struggling, Lisa was finally set free from the octopus monster’s clutches when Jeanne swiftly killed it with a stab of her spear, leaving her panting in exhaustion on the ground.

  “Need a hand, Lisa?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I can manage.” She told me as she got back onto her feet.

  She then looked over at the guys with a fierce gre that had them flinching from fright, they all looking away with equally guilty looks.

  “Enjoyed the show, pervs?”

  ““We’re sorry.””

  “In my defense, I thought you didn’t need my assistance.” Jirou pointed out.

  “Why don’t you try getting grabbed by it!?!?”

  Suffice it to say, they were immediately reprimanded and lectured by Jeanne for their inappropriate behaviour; it was the first time I saw the elf looked that angry at anyone.

  “Stupid perverted octopus… they are definitely targeting us on purpose.”

  After the lecture, we spent the next couple of hours exploring the floor a bit more. We encountered several more monsters along the way which we took out quite easily.

  Unfortunately, we weren’t as lucky with the Drop Items as our first encounter, though we still collected quite a lot of them on account of the number of monsters that we had defeated.

  Though we were lucky when I sent a monster crashing into one of the walls and a mithril ore came falling out of it, one that was the size of my fist which had Otto jumping for joy.

  Annoyingly, there were several more incidents with Drag Octopuses with almost every female in our party getting involved in every one of them; thankfully, they were swiftly taken out before things could get really weird.

  Though for some reason, Tetra seemed to never get attacked by it in any shape or form, which was a small relief that the young amazon wouldn’t experience the embarrassment that came with the encounter.

  That meant that all the girls, me included, ended up getting our clothes soaked in their nasty slime that stuck to our skin in an uncomfortable manner which seemed to draw the gazes from the guys throughout the rest of the day.

  Seeing that everyone was very distracted by our current predicament and the day was slowly coming to an end, Jeanne had us return back to the entrance and began setting up camp for the night.

  Thankfully, we were able to find a small spring of clean water in the passage near where we had set up camp, with us girls the first to head there to wash away the slime off our bodies and Lisa immediately putting up a partition for our privacy.

  Lisa let out a groan as she dropped her dirty undry in a pile of simirly slimy clothing, “Urgh, I think the slime got soaked all the way into my underwear…”

  “Mine too…” I nodded in agreement as I added my own soiled clothes into the pile, “It’s a good thing we’ve brought spares.”

  “Thank goodness for that, or I’ll have to go commando for the rest of the expedition. And that would be really bad…”

  “That would be bad, on account of your… size.”

  Among the girls in the Familia, Lisa definitely had the most abundant looking bust of all of us, especially in comparison to her body size; and with how much the pallum moved about in battle, having those heavy knockers unbound would be definitely painful for her.

  It was honestly amazing how agile she was despite those massive balloons weighing her down; though she had often expressed having back pains whenever we returned from the Dungeon.

  Though in terms of figure, hers were nothing compared to our Familia captain’s.

  I gnced over Jeanne, who had stripped down all her clothes and was slowly wiping the slime off her body with a wet towel.

  While her breasts were not as rge as Lisa’s, mixing it with her slim waist and wide hips made it that she had the best body line among us; it didn’t help that her attire hardly covered any of them up and left nothing to the imagination.

  Jeanne noticed my looks and asked with a raised eyebrow, “…Is something the matter?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing…” I told her, “It’s just… it’s crazy you’re able to keep those within that top of yours.”

  “Well, I bind them down whenever I’m in the dungeon.” She told me, “It wouldn’t be pleasant to have them bounce about all the time.”

  “Oh, I know what you mean.” Lisa nodded, “Though when I bind them down, they press down on my chest so hard that I could hardly breath.”

  “You probably didn’t bind them properly. I could teach you how to do it.”

  “That would be great. Thanks.”

  The sight of the Familia’s rgest busts bouncing each time they spoke was almost hypnotic; I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to.

  I looked down on my own modest bust and let out a small dejected sigh at the stark difference between us; it was like comparing small hills with rge mountains.

  Though I wouldn’t want them to get any bigger than they already were; just listening to them compin about it was enough to appreciate my average size.

  As we all got to wiping off the slime off our bodies, Jeanne then asked us, “Are you guys doing alright?”

  “I am feeling fine.” I stated as I flexed my arm a little, “I can still carry on.”

  “I’m fine as well.” Lisa nodded in agreement before cringing in disgust, “Well, besides feeling vioted by all those Drag Octopi…”

  “Yeah, that is not a good feeling…” The elf agreed with a shudder, “We’ll probably have to change up the formation to deal with all that.”

  “Please do. Otherwise, I might not be able to look at camari again.”

  “Same here. Urgh, I can still feel its tentacles wrapping around me…”

  “…aren’t camari made from squid and not octopus?” I pointed out.

  ““Oh.””

  They looked at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles at the silly mistake, with me joining in moments ter.

  “Still, despite all the Drag Octopus incidents, we have been doing well for our first time on this floor.” Lisa stated.

  “We do have six Second-Css adventurers.” Jeanne pointed out, “That is more than enough to tackle the Lower Floors.”

  “Can’t believe we are finally tackling the Lower Floors. It has been, what, four years since we finally got the twenty-fourth floor?”

  “Five, actually. Not since… Jason passed.”

  “Ah, right… you think he would be proud of us for finally reaching this far?”

  “He’ll probably compin that we took this long just to reach here.”

  “Yeah, I can see him doing that.”

  “…who is Jason?” I asked them.

  That was a name unfamiliar to me. Though from the sound of it, he seemed to be a member of the Familia that had passed away years ago, and quite the beloved member at that.

  “Ah, right, we never really talk about him much, did we?” Jeanne turned to me and expined, “Jason was our former captain, and a founding member of the Hecate Familia.”

  “He passed away in a huge incident years ago.” Lisa added, “Died a hero while fighting one of the leaders of Evilus.”

  “Evilus… that’s the group of evil gods, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  Many years ago, there was once an organization that made up a bunch of asshole gods who though it would be a fun idea to py evil gods and caused mayhem all over Orario.

  Last I’d heard, they all had been taken out of the picture by an Adventurer known by the alias of Gale and no one had ever heard about them since.

  “What kind of a person was he?” I asked.

  “A talkative buffoon.”

  “…Huh?”

  Jeanne let out a chuckle at my dumbfounded expression as she expined further, “Jason has the tendency to talk your ears off if given the opportunity, and he always finds a way to get into trouble that me and Jirou had to bail him out from.”

  “Like that one time with the kobolds?”

  “Yup. And that time with Orcs.”

  “And the Silverbacks.”

  “And the Minotaur.”

  “And those Adventurers that one time.”

  “Oh yeah, them; what ever happened those assholes?”

  “Well, after what you and Jirou put them through, who can say?”

  I was left looking increasingly confused at the number of situations that they were sharing with each other without any context that I was able to grasp onto, aside from the fact that the former Familia captain was a reckless idiot.

  And judging by how many they had already shared, he was definitely the type cause more trouble for the Familia than helping them; how was someone like that made the captain?

  “…even then, he does have his good traits.” Jeanne suddenly pointed out, “He never backs down from a fight, no matter what; even when the odds are against us, he always finds a way for us to overcome it. And he never looked away from someone in need.”

  “That often ended up with him getting roped into all sorts of trouble.” Lisa added with a small smile, “Yet at the end of the day, things seem to always work out.”

  “And he is great at smooth-talking people if he needs to; you would not believe how many times he managed to talk himself out of a pinch with just his silver tongue.”

  “I’ll say, remember that time with the Osiris Familia?”

  “Yeah, I have never seen someone get persuaded so quickly without any effort.”

  “Though his flirting could use some work… it was really painful to look at…”

  “It can’t be that bad if it worked on you.”

  “Huh?” Jeanne turned to Lisa with an eyebrow raised, “What are you talking about?”

  The pallum looked at the elf with confusion, “…weren’t you and Jason a thing?”

  “Wha—no, we’re not!! What gave you that idea!?”

  “I-I mean, you two are always seen together. An-And I often saw you leaving his room after dark…”

  “I was the vice-captain; of course I was with him!! And those times were when he passed out from overworking and I had to carry him back to his room!!”

  “How was I supposed to know all that!?”

  “Seriously… the only person that I will ever be in a retionship with is my te husband!! Whom I love with all my heart till this day!!”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know—wait, did you say husband? You were married!?”

  Lisa’s eyes couldn’t get any wider at our captain’s words, and I was pretty sure mine were the same with the sudden revetion of the elf’s actual retionship status; for Jeanne did not give off the impression of being a widow in any way.

  If anything, she looked to be the type of woman that did not believe in love and was deeply dedicated to her job.

  Jeanne let out a huff in annoyance, “Yes!! I even had a couple of kids with him!!”

  “Kids!! A-As in, more than one!? With that body!?” Lisa cried out, “You’ve got to be making it all up!”

  “As if I’ll lie about this!

  “Then prove it!”

  “I will!!” The elf then turned to the partition and shouted, “Hey, Jirou!! You’ve seen my husband before, right!?”

  Jirou then replied back while holding down his chuckles, “Yeah, I did! And her kids and grandkids! One big happy family!”

  “Grand—Jeanne, how old are you!?”

  “This year, I should be turning…”

  The rest of the conversation ended up being about Jeanne’s love life as Lisa continued to bombard her with questions about her partner and how the elf managed to get married in the first pce.

  Still, to think that Jeanne had kids… her protectiveness over Tetra suddenly made a lot of sense.

  “Uwah!! Hey, Lisa!!”

  “How are they so perky!? Shouldn’t they start sagging!?”

  At the sound of the girls’ rather loud conversation turned to the captain’s youthful appearance, Jirou couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, “The girls seem to be having a good time.”

  “Though I wish they remember that there are still guys around that can hear them…” Garos pointed out with flushed cheeks.

  While the girls had immediately gone off to wash the slime off from their body, the guys split up to their respective duties for the day.

  Otto got to work on maintaining and sharpening their weapons, Drake took the first lookout with Tetra accompanying him, and Kyumaru had kitchen duties so he was preparing their dinner.

  Meanwhile, Jirou and Garos got to work sorting out and cataloging the magic stones and Drop Items the party had obtained so far; and it was appearing to be quite a fruitful expedition run.

  “Today has been quite a pretty productive day.” Jirou noted, “We might be able to finish up the quest in the next few days if we keep this up.”

  “Yeah… we might…” Garos scribbled on a parchment before grimacing, “Yeah… I was afraid of this…”

  “Afraid of what? What are you writing over there?”

  “It’s a timetable for the Monster Rexes spawning periods. Now, compare the date for Amphisbaena and our current date.”

  Jirou took a quick look and immediately noticed the problem, “…it is scheduled to spawn tomorrow… that would be bad…”

  Amphisbeana was unique among the Monster Rexes, for instead of remaining on the floor that it was spawned on, it would move across the many floors of Water Capital via the many rivers.

  That meant that if they were unlucky enough, or if the Dungeon was in a particurly nasty mood, it could appear right in front of them without any warning.

  “Maybe we should forfeit the quest.” Garos stated, “If we encounter it, we might not survive.”

  “…no.” Jirou shook his head, “We should carry on.”

  “Jirou! This is nothing like the Goliath!! Not to mention its strength is at Level 5! You can’t possibly–”

  “If we leave now, we will definitely regret it!”

  The vice-captain flinched back at his senior’s rather emotional response, the older man clenching his fist tightly as he breathed out a heavy sigh.

  He turned to Garos and quietly told him, “The night before we left for this expedition, Lady Hecate called me into her office. She told me that we have to go through with the expedition no matter the risks, that it is crucial to prevent stagnation.”

  “…the goddess actually said that?”

  Yeah, and she wasn’t even being all dramatic about it too.”

  To the members of the Hecate Familia, they were accustomed to their goddess’s fir for the dramatic in how she presented herself, often using overly long sentences in her speech whenever speaking to anyone.

  That’s why whenever Hecate dropped the act and gave out vague instructions like that, it often meant that it was to be taken seriously and with good faith.

  “Prevent stagnation… what do you think she meant by that?” Garos asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Think about how long it took us to get to the Lower Floors.” Jirou pointed out, “In recent years, our progress in the Dungeon had slowed to a near halt; and none of us had really grown in any way.”

  “That’s… that’s true… we had always been pying it safe and not taking unnecessary risks when we’re down in the Dungeon.”

  “Exactly; none of us had been improving and remained stagnant for the past few years. Then Dae broke the record and reached Level 2; Tris then got a Skill, Emma joined and we know how fast she is growing, which prompted Tetra to learn Concurrent Chanting.”

  “…she wants us to ride the momentum and grow as well.”

  “That’s what I think so too; us veterans need to get stronger as well, and the only way to do that is for us to go on a proper adventure, to push us past our limits.”

  Garos contempted his senior’s words for a long minute, before nodding in agreement, “Yeah, we can’t afford to py it safe this time; though we should still inform everyone about the Monster Rex.”

  “That, I agree.” Jirou nodded, “Risking our life doesn’t mean marching to our deaths, after all.”

  “And we have to change the formation too; on account of all the Drag Octopuses…”

  “Yeah, that was… we better keep the girls away from the water…”

  …To be continued…

  Two months… it took me two months to write this all out… I didn’t expect for this chapter to take me this long at all!!

  At any rate, we are officially in the Lower Floor, though don’t expect to stay for too long.

  For there is foreshadowing afoot!

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!