According to the descriptions given by the Adventurers Guild, once one left the Safe Floor known as the "Labyrinth Paradise" on the 18th Floor, the Dungeon environment beyond that point would undergo earthshaking changes.
No longer cave tunnels.
Instead, the Dungeon would take the form of a forest. This special terrain continued up until the 24th Floor, earning it the title of the "Great Tree Labyrinth."
The environment was absolutely dreadful.
Abnormal status effects—especially poison-attribute monsters and traps—would increase drastically. There were even mushroom monsters constantly spreading poisonous spores everywhere...
Of course, that level of difficulty only applied to normal adventurers.
Before actually arriving there, Ron himself had no idea—after being strengthened by the Soulslike system, just how difficult the road ahead had become overall.
"Troublesome."
The path ahead was uncertain.
But a real man couldn't say he couldn't do it. Ron had even considered whether he should simply stop participating in the upcoming exploration and let the Dungeon return to normal.
However, that ticking bomb from the god Dionysus, capable of exploding at any moment, was like an infantry fighting vehicle relentlessly closing in behind him—there was no room to retreat!
'Hopefully...'
'...after this Familia Expedition ends, I can successfully become a Level 4 adventurer.'
Ron stared ahead.
The staircase passage leading toward the "Great Tree Labyrinth" radiated an unprecedented level of malice. The sensation made him feel like a lone boat drifting in the middle of the ocean.
The same familiar feeling again.
Now this felt right!
...
The headquarters of the Loki Familia.
After the Dungeon Expedition ended, most of the members welcomed a short vacation period, freely resting around Orario, maintaining weapons, and so on.
But for Finn, this vacation wasn't relaxing in the slightest.
First, Lefiya—the mage being groomed as a core pillar and a potential successor to Riveria—had joined the expedition.
Second—the Familia's two top combat forces, the Hiryute sisters, had been assigned protection duties.
On the surface, everything looked perfectly arranged, with every aspect thoroughly accounted for, yet the blond-haired boy constantly felt his thumb throbbing in pain.
"..."
"Why do I keep feeling like something bad is about to happen?"
Finn couldn't figure it out.
Still, there were definitely benefits.
At the very least, Tione wasn't clinging to him all day long anymore, leaving him without even a moment of quiet space. That was something he absolutely couldn't accept.
After spending the past two days handling the various affairs within the Familia, the blond-haired boy finally had time to think about how exactly he should establish cooperation with that "Ron" from the Hestia Familia.
He really was young.
Yet in terms of the way he handled things, the guy was exceptionally seasoned. Moreover, in this cooperation, Ron held complete initiative, leaving Finn with no choice but to compromise.
Otherwise, he would miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rise!
"Hopefully it's just my imagination."
"There's no reason two Level 5 adventurers would run into trouble in the Middle Floors. If that actually happened, I can't even imagine how terrifying the exploration difficulty would be!"
Finn could only comfort himself like this.
And right at that moment, the door to the Familia Captain's office was suddenly pushed open.
Just as the blond-haired boy looked up in surprise, he noticed that familiar face.
A royal elf of green-haired lineage.
And also his vice-captain within the Loki Familia—Riveria Ljos Alf.
"What is it?"
"..."
As cold and distant as an iceberg, with eyes that seemed devoid of any emotional fluctuation, the royal elf placed the wrapped cloth bundle she held in her palm onto the table.
As the rope was untied, the next thing presented before Finn's eyes—was a tree branch whose bark had already been peeled away, revealing an ash-brown trunk beneath, while continuously radiating the aura of magical power.
"The Branch of the Great Holy Tree."
"It's here?"
"Yeah."
"A budget of fifty million wasn't enough at all. The elven chief of the Viesen Hidden Realm refused to sell it cheaply. We had to add another thirty million ourselves."
"And even then..."
"...that was already the discounted price."
As for the selling price of the Branch of the Great Holy Tree, Riveria actually thought it was normal. Some adventurers had even offered as much as 150 million Valis to buy it. The current price was practically a half-off discount.
The key point was—the extra thirty million Valis had to be paid out of the Loki Familia's own pocket, serving as the entry ticket before formally beginning cooperation with Ron.
"So that's how it is..."
No wonder!
Finn had constantly felt his thumb aching.
Under normal circumstances, after deducting equipment maintenance, various supplies, and member salaries from a Familia Expedition, the final profit would only be around forty to fifty million Valis.
And even that money still had to be reserved for future expeditions.
But now that things had reached this point, the sunk cost was already there—they couldn't back out anymore.
"It's fine..."
"If we can establish full cooperation with Ron, I believe the returns will absolutely far exceed this bit of Valis in front of us!"
After all, money couldn't buy the strength of Familia members.
"I think so too."
Riveria didn't refute that.
The Branch of the Great Holy Tree had already been obtained, and the remaining payment absolutely had to be delivered to the other party. It concerned the overall reputation of the Loki Familia within Orario.
After spending that much money, they naturally needed some way to make up for the Familia's financial losses. That was when she thought of the old equipment that had been left forgotten in storage and could no longer be used.
If they sold it all off, it would at least add several million Valis back into the Familia's books.
However, when Riveria went to inspect the Familia warehouse, she didn't see any of the old equipment at all.
At that moment, she had already realized the matter was anything but ordinary.
"Mm..."
"There's one more thing. All the old equipment that used to be in storage has disappeared."
"..."
Was it reasonable for every stockpiled piece of equipment in the Loki Familia warehouse to vanish?
At the very least, she couldn't think of any possibility of theft.
The Familia Expedition had only ended recently, and there were only two keys to the storage vault.
One was with her.
As for the other, it was kept by Loki...
The moment she mentioned that, Finn suddenly raised his head.
No words were exchanged, yet the instant their eyes met, they already had a rough idea.
The culprit could only be their own... that utterly unreliable, alcohol-loving goddess.
The key issue was that this behavior made absolutely no sense.
If she simply wanted money for alcohol, there was no need to sell off every single piece of equipment.
That would only expose the matter even faster!
So...
"Did our goddess participate in that wager between Ron and the Apollo Familia, and then—bet everything on Apollo and lose all the money?"
Following the tiny clues hidden within the details, Finn and Riveria quickly reconstructed the rough outline of what had happened.
The Branch of the Great Holy Tree was something Ron wanted.
Yet the one paying the remaining fifty million Valis was Hephaestus.
It was hard not to suspect that angle!
Silence...
Inside the office, the two high-ranking members of the Familia who had vaguely guessed the truth looked at one another, their eyes filled with nothing but utter despair and the urge to vent it somewhere.
And then, the office door was quietly pushed open.
Supporting herself against the wall, cheeks flushed red and faintly drunk, Loki leaned against the nearby doorframe.
After hearing that the Branch of the Great Holy Tree had already arrived, and with the debt repayment looming right before her eyes, the feeling that this ticking bomb was finally about to disappear made her rush over impatiently.
Only—when faced with Finn and Riveria's gazes, Loki felt her scalp go numb.
"Um..."
"If there's nothing else, I won't disturb you guys?"
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