It was obvious that Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya were all dead set against Leo's reckless idea.
To them, that wasn't a challenge. It was suicide.
"Never mind you, even I, Tiona, or Ais... none of us could realistically beat Udaeus one-on-one," Tione said, going so far as to run herself down to talk Leo out of it.
It wasn't really running herself down, though. Tione genuinely had no confidence she could take Udaeus alone, otherwise, with how fierce she was, she'd have gone looking for a fight with it long ago.
After all, she'd basically hit the ceiling at Lv.5, her strength stalled for a long time now, unable to find the trigger to level up, stuck grudgingly maintaining growth that amounted to a drop in the bucket. If there'd been any chance of beating Udaeus, then for the sake of leveling up she definitely wouldn't have minded marching straight up to challenge it.
The fact that she hadn't was proof enough that Tione had no confidence either.
And if even she had no confidence, then Leo, a whole Level below her, had even less hope of pulling off this challenge.
So she had to stop him.
"Even all of us going in together might not be enough! That's exactly why Finn told us we had to get back before Udaeus respawned!"
Tiona pleaded with him too, earnest and patient.
Udaeus had latent abilities that towered above Lv.6, its Level already higher than Ais, Tiona, and Tione at Lv.5. Even adding in Leo at Lv.4 and Lefiya at Lv.3, beating it would still be brutally hard.
That was true even with all five of them going in together, let alone Leo alone.
In short, Tiona didn't like the look of what Leo was planning either.
"E-even if your magic firepower's a lot stronger than before, actually hurting something like Udaeus is still really hard!"
Lefiya was flat-out terrified.
Even ordinary monsters in the Deep Floors could crush her with pressure and tension, freezing her up, so a Floor Boss classified as Lv.6 was another thing entirely. Lefiya simply couldn't picture anyone facing a monster like that alone.
Even Ais, whom she admired more than anyone, she didn't think had the power to beat Udaeus alone, so there was no way Leo could.
Probably not even those three Familia captains could beat Udaeus one-on-one if they came in person.
Her Level was on the low side, but she'd still gone up against Udaeus with the Familia's expedition force and seen Finn and the others lead the charge against that Floor Boss.
Blunt as it sounded, even with the entire Loki Familia expedition force going all in, you couldn't call it perfectly safe when dealing with Udaeus. Sometimes people took serious wounds, and sometimes people even brushed up against death.
With Lv.6s like Finn and Lv.5s like Ais on the field, backed by all the elite members of the expedition force, it was still like that, so what chance could Leo possibly have alone?
"Go back."
"Stop thinking about something that dangerous."
"Even if you want to chase a great feat, pick a different opponent. Udaeus really isn't the one."
Lefiya, Tiona, and Tione spoke up one after another, all of them trying to talk him down.
Only Ais watched Leo with a faint flicker in her eyes, saying nothing to stop him.
Seeing how hard they were arguing, Leo didn't dig in stubbornly.
"How about this." Leo put forward a suggestion. "Let me just try it, how's that?"
Try it?
Try it how?
"Is this the kind of thing you can just casually try?"
They were about to say something more when Leo cut them off.
"I've got flight magic. If things go bad I can just break through and fly off, no worry about getting cut off," Leo said. "Even if the Floor Boss has ranged attacks, my flight magic has protective power too, and on top of that there's the Giant's Battle Garb. With that double protection, even if I can't beat Udaeus, staying alive shouldn't be a problem, right?
"I'll just test whether I can challenge it. If I can't, I retreat with flight magic immediately.
"That'll put your minds at ease, won't it?"
Leo's words left them all deep in thought.
They remembered the scene when Leo activated his flight magic, remembered that acceleration sharp enough to split the sky, vanishing over the horizon in an instant, and had to admit that it really wasn't something just anyone could stop.
Even if someone tried to block him, they'd first have to break through this magic's protection.
And they remembered it clearly: back when Finn asked Leo how strong his magic's protection was, this was how he'd answered.
"If I'd had this magic at Lv.2, then even a full-force punch from Goliath probably couldn't have broken through it."
Add in the protection of a First-Class piece of armor like the Giant's Battle Garb, and even Udaeus, which could put a Lv.5 in critical condition with a single hit, probably couldn't easily wound Leo badly enough to pin him down.
Thinking it over carefully, they suddenly felt this might actually work...?
"Besides, you're all still here, aren't you?"
Seeing this, Leo smiled and added one last line.
"When it counts, you back me up a little. It's not like I couldn't even manage to run away, right?"
At that, they looked at one another, at a loss for words.
Fair enough as far as it went, but the thought of Leo going alone to challenge a Lv.6 Floor Boss still didn't sit right with them.
It was precisely because they knew exactly how strong that Floor Boss was that they thought Leo's attempt was pointless, that in the end he'd definitely have to run anyway.
And if that was the case, why waste the time trying and take on needless danger?
Unfortunately, Leo had already set his heart on going.
"Fine then, you can just wait here for me." Leo turned the Dragon Fang Sword in his hand. "I'll go try it myself."
Hearing this, the girls immediately spoke up.
"We're coming with you!"
"..."
Rather than let this man face the danger alone, they'd rather go along and keep an eye on things.
That way was safer.
Ais watched them settle the matter with her own eyes, never joining the discussion the whole time, but her hand stayed clasped around Leo's, never once letting go.
And so they set off for the final stop of this raid, the Hall of the Throne.
This was the single largest chamber on all of Floor 37.
It sat not far from the center of the floor, all but blocking the road to Floor 38, which was why its width and height were both staggering.
Leo and the other four cut down countless warrior-type monsters classified as Lv.3 to Lv.4 along the way, passed through several layers of ring-walls, and only then reached this chamber and stepped inside.
It was especially dim here, the phosphorescence somehow fainter than outside, the air especially still, even the roars of monsters seeming distant, as if no monster cared to come near.
Just like when Leo went to challenge the Floor 17 boss Goliath, ordinary monsters would automatically steer clear when Goliath was due to respawn, unwilling to intrude on the "lord's" territory. Now Udaeus was about to be born again, and every monster instinctively kept its distance from here.
So when Leo and the others arrived, there was nothing but silent darkness, and nothing else at all.
"Well then, I'll be back before you know it."
Leo's tone was as light as if he were heading out on a picnic. He tossed off the line and made to step into the room.
"Wait!"
Lefiya called out to stop him, then pulled every potion out of her pack and pushed them into his hands.
"These are all the Magic Potions we've got. They're yours."
Lefiya turned her face away, but her hands weren't slow, handing over every last Magic Potion to Leo without a trace of hesitation.
"And this too, an Elixir, it's yours."
Tiona and Tione likewise fished out the treasures they'd been saving for a rainy day and handed them to Leo.
Ais, by contrast, did nothing at all, only gazing at that dark room, her eyes turning sharp.
"..."
"...Then I'll take them."
Leo stayed silent for a moment, then accepted without protest, carefully tucking each potion into his waist pouch.
In truth, his own stock of potions was plenty.
The main reason he'd gone back up to the surface earlier was to prepare for this challenge against the Floor Boss. Updating his Status had only been one part of those preparations.
So Leo had bought up enough potions on the surface, a full forty Magic Potions alone, and every one of them a high-grade Magic Potion whose Mind-restoring effect ranked among the best on the surface. He'd even prepared five Elixirs, all top-shelf goods.
But this was his companions' goodwill, so Leo couldn't very well refuse.
Only after taking all of it did Leo stride into the chamber and arrive at this Hall of the Throne.
Before long, Leo reached the very center of the hall and stopped there, standing motionless.
Ais, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya stood there in silence too, quietly waiting.
And they waited a full two hours.
Then the ground began to shake, the tremors growing stronger and stronger.
At first it was only a slight sway, but before long the sway turned into violent shaking, as if all of Floor 37 were trembling.
"It's here."
Behind him, the girls held their breath and stared ahead, each drawing her weapon.
The cracking sound arrived right on cue, but it didn't come from the walls, it came from the ground.
Not far from where Leo stood, the ground began to bulge slowly upward, forcing open crack after crack.
The cracks grew more and more numerous, denser and denser, until the whole floor of the Hall of the Throne looked as if the earth itself were splitting, the fissures racing outward seemingly without end.
Then a pitch-black giant body broke through the ground, shoving rock and sand aside until it poured off its body like a landslide. An ear-splitting roar rolled through the hall as the creature slowly emerged.
A roar came down like thunder from the heavens, like a raging storm, kicking up rolling clouds of dust.
Under the force of that roar, Leo's expression gradually turned grave as well.
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