Chapter 424 - 424 - This Is Your Beast-Taming Handiwork?

The more monsters she annihilated, the faster her stamina and mind recovered, so she was the only one in the party whose expression remained perfectly composed.

Jeanne clapped her hands and offered encouragement with an approving look:

"Great work, everyone! But I must regretfully remind you all that our rest time is limited, so please don't hold back. Use your Potions and Magic Potions to restore yourselves quickly, and sweep the battlefield right away. Our mission today is to reach the entrance to Floor 25 and set up camp. The Monster Party cost us a good while, and going by today's itinerary, we need to hurry. Everyone, the schedule is tight and the workload is heavy. Let's push a little harder!"

Everyone: "..."

Laurier's lips trembled faintly as, eyes glazed, she rummaged through her waist pouch for potions.

She answered listlessly:

"Fiiiine, got it..."

...

...

Dungeon, Floor 24, the Great Tree Labyrinth.

"Haah..."

Sensing that the monster wave herded into the passage had been annihilated down to the last one, that not even the slightest stir came from it anymore, and that the sounds of battle up ahead had faded into silence, he understood that yet another obstruction attempt had failed.

The figure draped in a loose black hooded cloak, a fox mask over his face, slowly lowered the monocular magic telescope in his hand. Turning around, he demanded, his "face" livid and his tone hostile:

"This is the trap you spent tens of millions to lay? That's it?"

The two Evilus beast tamers stood behind the squad leader, silent and trembling.

Heads bowed, chewed out into total submission, the spitting image of you in front of your boss.

"MOTHERFUCKER! Even ten thousand pigs would take days to slaughter! And what happened? All of them gone in a little over an hour? And that Strengthened Species you hyped to the heavens, force-fed all the way to Lv. 4... tell me, what exactly did it accomplish? Hmm? Look me in the eyes! Answer me!"

"..."

The two tamers exchanged glances, tongue-tied for the moment.

"Th-this... that is... My lord! We don't understand it either..."

They were a little lost too. A Monster Party of that scale, plus the Lv. 4 Strengthened Species they had prepared, and it hadn't stirred up so much as a ripple? Over ten million Valis poured in, and all it bought was delaying the other side by a little over an hour?

This sure as hell was no big Familia Expedition party running a hundred-plus strong. The other side had fewer than ten people!

Looking at his two dim-witted subordinates, the squad leader's temple vein throbbed, but in the end he merely waved a hand feebly.

"...Enough. We're done here."

With that, he turned and left without a backward glance.

The mission from above was nothing more than making a little trouble for that Demeter Familia squad and slowing their pace.

Sure, I only held them up for a little over an hour, but hey, did I hold them up or did I hold them up?

Hmph. Even if it gets investigated afterward, no one can pin any major fault on me.

And if our colleagues below really do get caught red-handed... that's their own fault for moving too slowly. What's it got to do with me?

Either way, the advantage lies with me.

Having swiftly cooked up his story in his head, the squad leader's mouth curled into a barely perceptible smirk, and he quickened his pace once more.

He did not want to spend one more second on this godforsaken Floor 24. Heaven knew, he was only a lowly Lv. 2! This place... was far too dangerous.

Getting out while the getting was good was the smart play.

"S-squad leader?"

"Hmph. If you two want to die here, I won't stop you."

"Huh?"

The two exchanged a baffled glance, then gritted their teeth and hurried after him.

Now that the "mission" was complete and the squad leader had set the example, what was there to hesitate over? Obviously running was the best plan.

They hadn't joined Evilus to die for some bullshit faith in evil gods. Were the beauties of the Pleasure Quarter and their Valis not sweet enough? Was Orario's wine not good enough to drink? A salary of a few hundred thousand Valis a month, and they were supposed to risk their necks for it?

Hilarious.

...

...

Leon toyed with the Magic Stone he'd pried out of a Lance Dragonfly, a pensive look crossing his face.

Noticing the subtle change in his expression, Rose sidled over without a word, still cleaning up the battlefield, and asked in a low voice:

"What is it?"

Leon shook his head slightly.

"It's nothing. This Lance Dragonfly just seemed a little off, that's all. Hmm... going by the strength and intelligence it displayed, though, its Magic Stone seems a bit too small."

"Hm?"

Rose's eyes sharpened, and she keenly caught the abnormality in his words.

Leon didn't say any more.

There was no need.

Between the two of them, their mutual understanding had long since made words superfluous; some things needed only the slightest nudge.

Evilus's doing again?

As an old hand who'd spent years knocking around the Dungeon, Leon had long since summed up a few rules.

Whenever you ran into anything unusual, you couldn't go wrong pinning it on Evilus. Even if they hadn't done it with their own hands, there were guaranteed to be a thousand and one threads connecting them to it behind the scenes.

As for the specific logic, just refer to the Hidden Leaf's favorite scapegoat.

Come to think of it, back in the Under Resort Jeanne sensed someone watching us. I'd assumed we'd merely stumbled across some small fry gathering intel... but seen together with the current situation, are we being targeted?

Leon thought it over, then dismissed the guess.

Doesn't quite fit, either. If those Evilus lunatics really had us marked, the Goliath hunt earlier or the Monster Party just now would have been the perfect time to strike. But they never showed.

So... what the hell is Evilus playing at? They won't fight us head-on, but they won't lay off either, just keep manufacturing little troubles for us. What's it for? Purely to mess with us?

Leon couldn't figure it out for the moment.

Whatever. Since they insist on so kindly delivering Excelia, I'll be gracious and accept. I was just worrying about the low monster count and slow spawns. Gotta love my good buddy Evilus, delivering exactly what we're short on...

Tossing that little doubt to the back of his mind, Leon hummed some nameless, cheery tune and happily continued clearing the battlefield.

The satisfaction of Excelia climbing while grinding monsters, and the anticipation of sweeping the battlefield after a fight... stack the two together, and it was double the joy!

Leon never tired of it.

...

"Leon, what do we do. The loot's already filled up a whole pack..."

Leon looked down at the Wonder Pack at his feet, dumbstruck, and felt his scalp prickle.

"Uh, that fast? We basically didn't farm much along the way, right? At most we cleared some monster waves in the Great Tree Labyrinth. How did it fill up out of nowhere?"

Mind you, this was no ordinary Supporter mega-backpack, but a Wonder Pack with 4.9 times the capacity!

Aura shook her head.

"No idea. I just felt like... today's drop rate was abnormally high. Not only that, we also came across quite a few recovery-type materials along the way, the kind that's rare on the market and worth a good chunk of change."

"We kept stopping and going, picking things up as we walked... and before we knew it, it was full."

"Uh..."

Leon glanced at the floor passage beside them that led to the Water City, then back at the Great Tree Labyrinth stretching out of sight behind. Finally, he raised his head to look at the ceiling.

Going by his own past experience, his gut told him that luck this abnormal usually meant...

something unusual was about to happen.

"Never mind... Now that it's come to this, let's start unboxing."

...

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