Both the Mammoth Fool and the Moss Huge were too stingy to drop anything besides a magic stone, but Adama did manage to get a Sword Stag’s Antler from the entire affair, which allowed him to check a box. The subsequent path back to the 18th floor was rocky, but it went by without further major event. As the rescuing party, Adama was happy to do most of the work, but he came to realize that both of his compatriots were quite capable. The mage especially was versatile and powerful when she kept a cool head. They took a break when they reached the 19th floor, the danger having already passed, and Adama got the chance to say something to her that had been nagging at him for some time:
“Have I seen you at some point before?”
To his surprise, she blushed bright red at the question. Twirling a lock of silvery hair absentmindedly in one finger, she struggled to meet his eyes as she answered:
“I was the girl that you saved about a month ago. From the Minotaur. Don’t you remember?”
Now it was all coming back to him. Normally, Adama’s memory was pretty good, but that whole day had been a whirlwind of activity, and his social memory had never been stellar. Now he recognized the girl who had passed out from shock after she had been covered in Minotaur blood. Adama hadn't spoken further with her afterward, since he had left immediately after he and Aiz had carried the girl her friend to the infirmary. She elaborated, perhaps sensing his questions:
“That man who was with me was just a friend. I was helping him explore the Upper floors as a favor when we ran into the Minotaur unexpectedly. I didn’t get the time to cast anything before it knocked him aside and came after me. Thank you for saving me, by the way. Again. I’m Emily. Emily Teasanare. But you can call me Emi.”
Though the girl still looked a little bashful, she smiled companionably as she held out her hand for him to shake. Adama gave her a small smile back as he reciprocated:
“Name’s Timaias. Timaias Adama. My friends call me Tim.”
The larger warrior also introduced himself with his own firm handshake and a deep basso voice:
“Charles Bragg. It is an honor to meet a warrior of such high skill.”
After Adama acknowledged him, he turned back to Emi, another spark of recognition on the tip of his tongue:
“Teasanare? You named after the medicinal flower?”
That was the name of the flower he was supposed to be looking for as one of his quests. Emi smiled wryly and shook her head:
“It’s almost the opposite, actually. The flower is named after my sister Airmid. She’s the greatest healer in Orario, probably the world, so they named some medicines after her. She’s a part of Dian Cecht Familia, but I’ve been trying to blaze my own trail out from under her shadow. But you’ve seen how that’s been going…”
Her voice trailed off sadly as she turned to the body of her fallen comrade. At that point, Charles cut in, rumbling:
“Jake Goldschmidt was our duelist and leader. Going to the 24th floor was his idea. He thought that Emi’s defensive magic and my shield would give us an edge over the Deadly Hornets and allow us to explore the place. Thing was, he was half right. We got pretty far before we decided to turn back, but on our way home we ran into the Bloody Hive.”
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Emi spoke up again, miserably, eyes misted over once again in grief and guilt:
“We were originally on the other side of the room you found us in. We didn’t want to cross over without help. The Hive had created such a big swarm that I knew my magic wouldn’t hold out for enough time. We turned back and decided to wait for rescue in the other tunnel. But the monsters kept coming. Jake got poisoned really bad, and we ran out of antidotes. We decided to make a run for it but got forced into that little hole before we could make it all the way across. That’s where you found us. My sister’s magic could cure any poison. If only-”
“No,” Tim interjected flatly, “Blaming yourself is a dead end. All of you knew the risks when you came here, and it was your magic that kept everyone alive. That’s something to be proud of.”
Adama had seen enough of the human condition to know survivor’s guilt, fallacious at it was. He wouldn’t let her dwell on it and was pleased to see her look him in the eye and nod shakily. The silence after that stretched for a while before Adama eventually got everyone moving once again. Once they reached the 18th floor, everyone said their goodbyes. The duo was rested and in good shape now, thanks to Adama doing the bulk of the fighting, and the Goliath had been killed last week. With Bragg in the vanguard, they wouldn’t have much issue getting back to the surface. They promised to register their safety with the Guild so he could turn in his quest later with no issue. Charles gave him one last handshake and Emi gave him a hug before they went on their way. Adama gave a small sigh of weariness as he watched them walk away. That had been harder than he'd expected. He examined his quests again, making notes based on recent events:
Quests
1. Priority! 24th Floor Rescue! Done? YES Reward: 210,000 val
2. Need, Bugbear’s Nail x1. Own x0. Reward: 105,000 val
3. Need, Lizardman’s Nail x3. Own x0. Reward: 220,000 val
4. Need, Firebird’s Feather x1. Own x0. Reward: 135,000 val
5. Need, Lizardman’s Scale x2. Own x1. Reward: 150,000 val
6. Need, Battle Boar Tusk x1. Own x0. Reward: 115,000 val
7. Need, Sword Stag’s Antler x1. Own x1. Reward: 130,000 val
8. Need, Teasanare’s Flower x3. Own x0 Reward: 245,000 val
Reward at full completion: 1,310,000 val
It wasn’t great progress, especially considering the fact that it had been nearly a day since he had come into the Dungeon. But the hardest quest had been taken care of, and he was feeling optimistic about his timetable. He took a few hours to sleep on the 18th floor before heading back down refreshed and ready for action. His first order of business was to run around the 19th floor like a maniac, looking for those flowers and killing everything on sight. He finally ran into a Battle Boar, but compared to the Mammoth Fool it was rather lacking in ferocity. Just for the heck of it, when the boar charged him, he sheathed his sword and ran towards it head on. Tim did the same thing had had done with the Mammoth Fool, grabbing its tusks and using its momentum to suplex it into the ground behind him. A few quick slashes to the monster’s soft underbelly ended that fight, but the thing didn’t cough up its tusk.
The Firebird was nowhere to be seen, but he did kill his way through tons of Lizardmen, Mad Beetles, and Gun Libellulas. He made a beeline for the unexplored piece of the 19th, assuming that there would be more items in the unexplored places. He was correct, and he did manage to gather a few valuable herbs that he recognized from Eina’s briefings. Minutes turned into hours, and he somehow managed to find everything besides what he was looking for. He did manage to kill enough Lizardmen to get a Nail, but no quest progress besides that was made in the first 12 hours of hunting for Teasanare's Flower. This gathering quest was his toughest challenge besides that search and rescue, and he wanted to take care of it while killing what he could. The killing was going just fine, and his gathering was rather lucrative. But the one thing he needed was still out of reach.
Eventually, he decided to try his luck on the 20th. Wandering around there left him just as empty handed as it did on the 19th and after another couple of hours he decided to put his gathering on hold. Shaking his head in frustration, he dropped some bait on the ground. A good and heated battle would do him some good and get the blood pumping. He lured in Lizardmen specifically, since their chosen weapons made them vulnerable to his Endless Sword and they were the target of two of his quests. He tore through waves of the fiends, their own swords their greatest vulnerabilities, the flowery blades ringing with the echoes of his deadly spell. Adama quickly got another Nail, but his mood soured when he was poisoned again by a Dark Fungus.
Memory of the death of that duelist still sharp in his mind, Adama drank another antidote and double checked that he still had three antidotes left, just in case. As he was rifling through his pack, something white flickered in the corner of his eye. He turned slowly and saw white fur and a single red eye peering at him from behind a nearby tree. His sword was up and ready instantly, but his eyes widened a little in recognition. An Almiraj peered at him from across the way before slowly coming out from his little hiding place and squeaking out a tentative greeting. Adama fixed him with a stern glare, fighting to hide his amusement at the sheepish look on the bunny man’s face:
“You’ve got some nerve showing your face after stealing from me.”
The monster refused to meet his eye, scraping a foot against the ground guiltily and doing an uncanny impression of a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Adama just sighed, finding it hard to keep up his faux anger in the face of this extremely cute miscreant:
“I suppose you want to have another fight now, don’t you?”
The Almiraj nodded happily, all trace of contrition abandoned at the prospect of more fun with his swordsman buddy, but Adama folded his arms in denial:
“Well, no luck for you, then. I have errands to run and no time for fun and games.”
The creature’s ears drooped and it stared at the ground in dejection. As he watched the creature, however, Adama got an idea:
“You know this neck of the Dungeon well, bunny man?”
When the Almiraj nodded enthusiastic, he gave the monster a half smile:
“Then I have a deal for you.”