"Relax. It's alright." Leon replied softly, stretching a hand out to pat Lefiya gently on the head.
His touch was light, but it conveyed a powerful sense of reassurance. "I'm watching that thing closely."
"…Mhm." That gentle pat alone was enough to calm Lefiya.
Among everyone she knew, no one gave her more of a sense of security than Leon. If he said it was fine, then it would be fine.
Riveria didn't respond further, but her lips remained tightly pressed, and her brows did not relax. Leon merely gave her shoulder a small, comforting pat.
Their conversation had gone unnoticed by the rest of the group. The others, embroiled in fierce battle, were too preoccupied to catch wind of it. With monsters swarming endlessly, their attention was fully focused on survival and forward momentum.
And so, after nearly four exhausting hours, they finally reached the very center of the 59th floor.
Here, a startling calm greeted them. There were no monsters.
"…This is massive…" Finn murmured in awe at the sight before him.
The entire center formed an immense basin, and the party now stood at its rim. Within that vast natural crater loomed a gargantuan tree, its trunk rising like a divine pillar, stretching hundreds of meters high, nearly brushing against the cavernous ceiling of the floor itself.
The 59th floor was known to be vast, but witnessing this in person was another experience altogether.
Due to the thick forest cloaking the floor, no one had spotted the tree earlier, not until they arrived here. Only Leon, thanks to his detection magic, had known about its presence in advance.
Now, standing face to face with it, everyone could finally witness the towering spectacle in all its overwhelming glory. Even its trunk was unbelievable in size. Finn estimated that not even dozens of burly adventurers together could encircle it.
All around, sighs and murmurs of astonishment echoed.
"That's one hell of a tree…"
"How about it, Leon? See anything interesting?" Finn turned his head toward Leon, curiosity flashing in his eyes.
Leon met his gaze with a faint smile and asked, "What do you say, everyone… how about leaving this guy to me?"
"Huh? Leon, you want to take it on?" Finn raised an eyebrow.
The rest of the group looked equally surprised. After all, Leon had been content to hang back the entire time, maintaining Gate of Heaven and supporting the group from behind.
Why now? Why choose this moment to step forward?
Back when they faced Balor, a level 7 monster rex, Leon hadn't stepped in at all. So what changed now?
"This tree…" Leon began, his voice calm but deliberate. "It's good at hiding. Exceptionally good, in fact. It's hidden its presence so well that even I nearly missed it."
"What do you mean?" Tiona tilted her head, confused.
"It's retracting all its roots, essentially recycling its own strength. It's using that to cloak itself. Even with my detection abilities, I was almost fooled." Leon explained, his smile deepening.
"So, what, it got stronger after pulling everything back?" Tiona's eyes gleamed with excitement as she immediately caught on.
"For even you to want to fight it, then its strength must've risen considerably, hasn't it?" Finn murmured, narrowing his eyes as he studied the colossal tree.
"Correct." Leon nodded. "Now that it's recalled its roots, its strength has spiked to Ievel 8. But it's masking that power flawlessly. It hasn't moved at all, so you wouldn't feel a thing unless you looked very, very carefully."
"Level 8?!"
The collective intake of breath was sharp and audible.
Even a level 7 monster was a shocking anomaly for the 59th floor, especially since it wasn't a designated monster rex area. A creature of level 8 was practically unheard of in such a setting.
"Could this be… a hidden monster rex room?" Kaguya muttered, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
It made some sense. Balor, the previous monster rex, had been level 7. Following that logic, the next monster rex would likely be level 8. And now, here stood a level 8 tree, nestled deep in a basin.
But Finn shook his head, cutting off that line of thought. "No… according to the records left by the Zeus and Hera Familias, the 59th floor used to be a frozen world. That's very different from what we're seeing now."
Finn said with certainty. "This floor was never supposed to house a monster rex. What we're looking at here is the result of a mutation."
"A terrifying mutation at that…" He muttered grimly.
Finn's words held weight, and when everyone thought about it, they had to agree. This wasn't the natural order of the Dungeon. Something had changed.
"Leon, if you're serious about this, then the tree is all yours." Finn finally said, turning back to him with a firm nod.
The others voiced no objection. Not even a murmur of protest. After all, Leon had carried them throughout this entire floor, shielding them, healing them, allowing them to fight with full abandon, never once worrying about injury or death.
Now that Leon had finally expressed his intent to take action, no one voiced any objection.
"Yeah." Leon replied with a calm nod.
"Come to think of it… we've been standing here for a while now, but that tree hasn't made a single move." Lefiya suddenly spoke, a trace of unease creeping into her voice.
So many high-level adventurers were standing in front of it, clearly hostile, yet the massive enemy ahead remained utterly still. The eerie silence was starting to feel wrong.
"True." Finn agreed with a serious nod, narrowing his eyes at the towering tree. "It's been confirmed as hostile, but it hasn't responded at all. I have no idea what it's planning."
The others shared the same sentiment. One by one, their expressions grew solemn as they shifted their gaze toward the massive entity before them.
"Leon, should we have Riveria probe it first?" Finn turned to the group's strongest member, seeking his opinion.
But Leon merely shook his head, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "No need. I'll handle it directly. Just stand back and enjoy the show."
Before his words had even settled, his figure vanished from sight in front of everyone's eyes.
"...!"
Everyone froze momentarily, but their reactions were swift. Their eyes turned sharply toward the giant tree and there, deep in the basin below, they spotted Leon's silhouette slowly advancing toward the colossus.
"He's really going in. A battle against a level 8 monster, huh? I'm looking forward to this." Tione said with a gleam in her eyes.
"I heard Leon once defeated a demi spirit after it fused into a being of level 8 strength but I never got to witness it with my own eyes." Tione added, her voice tinged with excitement.
"Now we can." Tiona nodded enthusiastically.
The rest of the group watched with bated breath, anticipation thick in the air.
Standing quietly beside Tiona, Ais observed Leon's back as he walked onward. Her golden eyes wavered slightly, her thoughts swirling.
'How long will it take for me to catch up to him…?'
'If I had strength like Leon's, maybe… maybe then, I could defeat the Black Dragon...'
Up above, nothing stirred. It was as if the dungeon itself had frozen, pausing in reverence to the moment unfolding below.
Perhaps the intensity of their previous battle had stalled the monster production system of the dungeon. Or maybe, just maybe, the tree at the center was exerting dominance over the floor itself.