Personally I had no use for the stuff but I did have a normal craftsman in my familia so I chose to be nice and grab some kaenseki while I was here. First though I stopped and made camp to eat and rest after that satisfying fight. While I was waiting for the soup to boil I called Hestia on my coin.

“Alex? You must have reached a safe zone. How far down are you anyways?” she asked curiously.

“Thirty ninth at the moment. Had a nice fight with an Udeaus and thought to stop and rest before I go further. Gotta be nice and fresh for my date with Balor after all.” I said with a chuckle.

“Of course you’d go after the monster everyone else avoids. Everything is fine with the others so far but as expected a few attempts to break in have happened. I still can’t believe you made a door that eats fingers, that thing gives me nightmares.

” she said through the chatter box on her end.

I just laughed at that though “Thieves always have more courage when the master is away from the house. They’ll give up soon enough once they realize how useless it is. Well that or do something REALLY stupid. ” I said with a shrug.

“Bell and the others almost got robbed when they went to the dungeon. The fifteenth floor. They handled it.” she added and I just chuckled.

“They aren’t as weak as they first appear. No simple ambush will work on them unless they are massively outgunned.” I said not surprised by the result at all.

“I still don’t like it. Why should we have to deal with this nonsense

!?” she said aggrieved.

“We grew too fast and are too lopsided. I am second at most to only Ottar as far as everyone is concerned but the second strongest in the familia is Bell who is only level four and even then only as strong as a peak four at most. The sheer gap between the two strongest members of the familia makes us uniquely vulnerable when I am not around.” I said with a shrug.

“It still sucks!” she said annoyed.

“I don’t disagree but it is what it is. All we can do is hope it will get better as we get more people and enough time passes.” I said honestly.

I said my goodnight after that as the food was done and got to work downing the whole pot of soup. At my level of endurance even boiling soup was at most hot enough to sting a bit when being eaten though I did let it cool first since there was no rush. It wasn’t anything to write home about as it was just water, some vegetable powder and a few chunks of battle boar meat left to boil. A simple but hardy meal that was perfect for traveling or camping out in the dungeon.-

After eating I went to sleep with the soundless numb of the dungeon keeping me company. The next morning I packed up my camp and headed for the fortieth floor. I briefly stopped to kill a few dozen Fire rocks while I headed for the next biome on the forty fourth floor and collected the kaenseki to give to Welf when I returned. The other monsters while stronger than their floor thirty seven counterparts were still pathetically weak and not worth my trouble beyond their smoke and magic stone.-

When I stepped out onto the forty fourth floor and felt that raw almost volcanic heat bath my face I merely shook my head at the familiarity. This floor and all the way down to the forty eight floor are a volcanic red stone with many blackened cracks radiating red heat and light eerily. The monsters here were the same as the previous couple floors until you got the the forty eighth floor where a chance of Fomoires showing up becomes possible. These things were basically the standard satanic goat-man creatures but without wings. They had a humanoid torso with goat legs and a rams head. Their bodies were covered in brown fur and they tended to operate in herds of at least five.-

They were rather special however in that they were the only monsters that spawned on the forty ninth floor with the Balor and even served the thing as it’s minion/disposable pawns. This was a bit odd in my opinion since the Balor was a giant demon type monster like an imp given steroids and made twenty meters tall. It was also a genuine level seven monster rex to boot and ranked right on up there with the Knuckelavee and giant in terms of power.-

Coincidentally it was also my target for this particular dive as it was strong enough to give me a true challenge but weak enough I should have much risk in killing it. The Balor was also a bit unique as it possessed a crowd control type magic. This was why the Loki familia never fought it in truth. From what I’ve gathered it’s magic is of the rare passive type that doesn’t need manual activation. What it does is create a sweltering heat in it’s little “arena” that anyone below level five has no hope of surviving more than a few minutes in.-

The range of this effect is also so wide that even using long range magic won’t help as it pushes you past the “arena” it waits in. This left teamwork based familia like the Loki familia in the awkward position where they simply lack the numbers of fighters needed to gang up on the thing and kill it without paying a heavy cost. I didn’t blame them for this as they chose that route so that was their weakness, a logical problem. In my case as a solo diver it was the opposite, if I got in trouble I had no help.

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