According to these patterns, the weeks marched onward. Adama gathered more crystals and ended up showing Lilli his Crystal Mantis luring technique. She was justifiably enthusiastic about the whole operation, and they soon formed a regular tag team for Crystal Mantis farming operations. Adama would keep his ear to the ground, looking out for any Dungeon Worm ambushes. In the meantime, Lilli would peer around the cavern and alert Adama when a fresh round of Mantises had been lured to their spot. They would then trade places, with Tim leaping into action to kill off the prey while Lilli put her ear to the ground, just in case.
This enhanced the effectiveness of the Crystal farm enormously, and the duo regularly earned hundreds of thousands of valis worth of Crystal Mantis wings. The monsters may have been rare to encounter, but their drop rates were generous, making this strategy even more of a goldmine than Adama had ever anticipated. It got so gratuitous that Tim needed to sell his spoils off steadily, often finding private buyers instead of going to the Guild, all to keep the price of the items from crashing. Still, business was booming. The house was paid off and his savings were steadily growing. He was on track to make his sword payment, even with his large expenses.
Adama regularly spent significant sums on potions, to the point that he was probably the majority of Miach’s sales singlehandedly. He also shelled out large sums on bait, both for himself and for training the fledglings. Some of those costs were defrayed by Take Familia pitching in to help finance their training, but he was secretly helping subsidize their regular sessions. He could afford it, especially as he kept getting stronger, and he suspected that this subsidy was more of an investment than anything else. Takemikazuchi, and the whole of his Familia, would owe Adama big time, and they were the honorable type of people who would pay their debts come hell or high water. If he trained them well, then they would prove powerful allies who would pay their debt to him, plus interest.
That was only one of his reasons, of course. He would never say it aloud, but he liked these kids. He wanted them to succeed in life, especially because their goals in financing their old orphanage were so noble. He had also developed a certain fondness for teaching. There was a special kind of pleasure in pushing others to their limits and watching them grow from it. Adama thought back to the first training session he had had with the fledglings after they had conquered the monster horde for the first time:
“Where are we going, Oni…Master Adama?” Mikoto had queried him as they strolled purposely through the lower parts of the 12th floor.
Tim had taken the initiative that day, clearing out whatever monsters they met along the way that didn’t cower before his superior status and oppressive aura. When Take Familia had asked him about the change, he had simply implied cryptically that they would need to save their strength. Now, he led them down through the bowels of the twelfth floor. They went through several rooms that would be suitable for their training, and Take Familia was starting to get concerned and confused. Tim didn’t answer Mikoto’s question, however. The answer was just up ahead.
The entrance to the thirteenth floor yawned open in front of them, the floor transition clear as day for anyone looking carefully. The howls of Hellhounds and battle squeaks of angry Almiraj could be heard in the distance, and the rock passageway of the tunnel changed from a brown to a dull grey about halfway through. Continuing to ignore the question, Adama turned and said:
“Lilli, bring me the pack.”
He rifled through the Minotaur skin pack and withdrew four dark crimson scarves of Salamander wool, weaved at Tim’s request by Hestia herself. He tossed them to the warriors, one for each of them:
“You can reimburse me for those later. For now, prepare to enter the 13th floor.”
Predictably this earned him some exclamations of surprise and vociferous protestations, but he cut them off with a held-up hand. He first addressed his prum companion, the one member of their party who had seemed to anticipate his thinking:
“Lilli! Why is the 13th floor considered suitable for Level 2 adventurers only?”
Lilli had donned her own red scarf already and was looking at Tim expectantly, rather than in confusion. She answered his question promptly and with her typical enthusiasm, clearly seeing where Adama was going:
“The 13th floor does not spawn any Level 2 threats. It only creates monsters at the higher end of Level 1, just like the 12th floor. But it’s considered impossible for normal Level 1s because of the sheer volume of the monsters it spawns. It is the packs of high Level 1 monsters that are considered a Level 2 threat, not the monsters themselves.”
Adama nodded along with the explanation, responding:
“And what has this party been doing for the past couple weeks?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“…Fighting high volumes of high Level 1 monsters, Mr. Tim.”
Tim turned and looked over the rest of them, seeing the light dawning now:
“The 13th floor might take some getting used to, but you’ve been preparing for it now, in practice, for a while. Now follow me.”
Giving them no further room for doubting themselves, Adama proceeded to stroll through the tunnel, hearing the footfalls of the others behind him after a small delay. They were all pushing the upper boundaries of Level 1, with Ouka and Mikoto aproaching a Level up, thanks to all their harsh training. He was confident that they could handle this new challenge.
Things were rocky at first, with the team struggling to adapt to the new environs. The Hellhounds and Almiraj might have been Level 1 on paper, but they were nothing like the lumbering Orcs and Silverbacks of the 12th. They fought with speed and ranged attacks, and Take Familia took some time to adapt. Burns were had by all, as the team learned the timing of the Hellhounds breath attacks, and Ouka especially struggled to be effective against the high-speed tactics of the Almiraj. Adama was frequently forced to bail them out due to these mistakes.
But eventually, they started to figure things out. Ouka learned patience and precision, while everyone got better at coordinating to neutralize the Hellhound’s fire. They grew better and better at surviving the Middle floors, even with their status limitations. Their capacity to fight while in pain had also grown by leaps and bounds. Adama oversaw all of this with the patience of a Sage.
And then he dropped some monster bait.
To his pleasant surprise, there was little in the way of alarm when Take Familia first noticed what he did. They seemed to accept his decision with a kind of grim philosophy, closing their ranks and preparing for a flood of oncoming enemies, only invoking their Eastern name for demon under their breaths.
But Adama wasn’t totally heartless. If he waited for them to get overrun, there was a real chance that someone would die before he could intervene. So, he joined the battle himself. He had long advanced to the upper-middle ranks of Level 2 by this point, meaning that he had nothing to fear from the rabble on the 13th floor. He would hold himself back, however, as he thinned the herd and made the fight more doable for his overwhelmed students. Master and disciple fought side by side, and Adama even followed Lilli’s orders as she coordinated the whole affair.
He was still forced to wipe out the mob himself when Asuka went down with a nasty shoulder wound and Ouka took a club to the head, but they still got better from the challenge. After two more weeks of this training, their efforts began to bear clear fruit:
Kashima Ouka,
Level 2
Strong Defense: I
Strength: I-0
Defense: I-0
Dexterity: I-0
Agility: I-0
Magic: I-0
Spells:
[]
Skills:
Defensive Aggravation
* Active Skill
* When activated, provokes all monsters to attack user. Increases user durability while active.
Ouka Leveled up and gained an ability as well as a skill. It was a far cry from the benefits that Adama had received when he had first hit Level 2, but Ouka himself was ecstatic. He had been operating with no special capabilities whatsoever as a Level 1. Now, his new benefits made him the consummate tank among Level 2 adventurers. A well-deserved reward for all his hard work. Then, just 2 days later:
Yamato Mikoto,
Level 2
Abnormal Resistance: I
Strength: I-0
Defense: I-0
Dexterity: I-0
Agility: I-0
Magic: I-0
Spells:
Futsunomitama
* High Grade Magic
* Chant: “Futsunomitama”
Skills:
Yatanokurogarasu
* Active Skill
* When activated, alerts user to the location of monsters within a set effective range. Only works on monsters the user has encountered before.
Yatanoshirogarasu
* Active Skill
* When activated, alerts user to the location of allies within a set effective range.
Mikoto had possessed those skills since she received her falna. Their use in the Dungeon was mostly a niche one, especially given Adama’s current training methods, but they would doubtless prove useful at some point in the future. Mikoto was pleased to receive Abnormal Resistance, making her far more resilient against poisons. But she was truly happy to gain her first spell.
High Grade magic had a long chant, but it proved very powerful when finally activated. They tested it out on some unsuspecting monsters, and it proved to be a powerful gravity magic that crushed its targets within a certain area.
“You think it affects allies?” Adama mused aloud.
This comment provoked a small, mischievous smile from Lilli:
“There’s only one way to find out!”
An hour later, their party of six stood in a snowy field outside of Orario. Tim and Ouka stood side by side, further away from the other four, who watched the duo with varying expressions. Mikoto and Asuka looked uncomfortable, while Chigusa was looking back and forth between Mikoto and Ouka with clear yet unvoiced fear. Only Lilli seemed curious and unafraid, rubbing her chin, and gazing at the two adventures with a contemplative eye. She wasn’t afraid that Tim would be hurt, or Ouka for that matter. The monsters they had tested the gravity magic on weren’t killed by it, just locked in place. It shouldn’t be that much worse for the Level 2 adventurers. This was just a test to see if it affected allies, so she called out:
“Mikoto, target them with Futsunomitama at its minimum output.”
Mikoto nodded, but Lilli was soon countermanded by Adama:
“Start with the minimum output, sure, but start increasing it afterward. It will be useful to see how strong this magic gets firsthand.”
That earned an objection from Ouka, who called out with some consternation:
“This is dangerous! And why am I here, anyways? If we’re looking to test its output and effect on allies, then couldn’t we do that with just you, Master Adama??!?”
Tim responded with the patience of a parent dealing with an unruly child:
“If we did it with just me, that would only be proof that the spell doesn’t recognize any allies outside her Familia. Whether it affect members of her Familia would still be an open question. Also, this is a great chance to test the limits of your new defensive abilities. Now stop whining and prepare yourself.”
When Tim finished his speech, he looked expectantly at Mikoto. With some trepidation, she began her chant, the rest of her Familia watching her do so with some concern. Eventually, she pointed her hands towards the duo and finished her magic:
“Futsunomitama!”