Chapter 298

Chapter 298: Chapter 298

The moment Kiriya stepped out of the tent, he found Tiona, Tione, Bete, and a whole group of adventurers waiting for him.

Judging by their aggressive expressions, they had clearly come to demand an explanation.

"Hey, Kiriya. You bullied our Ais, and I can’t just pretend I didn’t see it."

Tiona folded her arms across her chest, trying her best to look imposing.

Behind her, the others fixed Kiriya with equally heavy stares.

Ais was the Loki Familia’s precious little princess, doted on by practically everyone.

Mess with them all you wanted.

Mess with Ais, though?

Absolutely not!

"Oh?"

Kiriya looked completely at ease.

"So what do you want to do about it?"

"Fight us."

Tiona cracked her knuckles, practically bouncing with anticipation.

She was not the only one.

Tione and Bete were both visibly eager as well, fighting spirit already rising from them.

Kiriya stared at the group for a moment.

’These guys claim they’re here to avenge Ais, but they really just wanted an excuse to fight me, didn’t they?’

"Fine. I don’t have anything else to do right now anyway."

He nodded.

A Shadow Clone was looking after Jeanne and Ryuu, so he might as well deal with this side personally.

"Now that’s more like it! As expected of the man I’ve got my eye on!"

Tiona beamed, grabbed Kiriya by the hand, and immediately dragged him toward the outskirts of camp while everyone else followed close behind.

They eventually reached an open clearing in the forest.

Tiona rolled her shoulders and warmed herself up.

"All right, Kiriya. Don’t say we didn’t give you a choice. How do you want to do this?"

"How about all of you come at me together?"

Kiriya answered with complete sincerity.

"Otherwise, there won’t be much of a challenge."

"..."

The entire clearing fell silent.

Every adventurer there stared at him.

Then anger began appearing in their eyes.

"There’s a goddamn limit to how much you can look down on people, bastard!"

Bete bared his teeth, a growl already rumbling in his throat.

"I’m just stating a fact."

Kiriya shrugged.

"I can’t let that one slide either, Kiriya."

Tiona slammed her fists together.

"We’re going to get serious."

"That’s right."

Tione still wore her pleasant smile, but every muscle in her body had already tensed and prepared for battle.

"Exactly what I was hoping for."

Kiriya settled into a fighting stance.

The battle erupted instantly.

...

Inside the command tent, the three senior leaders were discussing the expedition’s withdrawal when Raul suddenly came running in, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Bad news! Really bad news!"

Finn, Riveria, and Gareth shot to their feet.

"What happened?"

Finn immediately demanded.

"Did those worms come back? How many?"

"Uh..."

Raul had barely entered before being bombarded with questions.

"That’s... not actually it."

"Then what happened?"

Gareth asked.

"It’s Sylvan."

Raul swallowed.

"He started fighting Tiona, Tione, Bete, and the others."

"What?"

Riveria immediately frowned.

"Is everyone all right?"

She might have been furious over Ais earlier, but she knew perfectly well that Kiriya had genuinely been teaching the girl something valuable.

Her anger had mostly come from worry, and she was hardly incapable of seeing reason.

But how had the rest of these idiots ended up fighting him?

"Uh... not really."

Raul gave them an awkward smile.

"They all got beaten."

The three executives fell silent.

"..."

...

By the time Finn, Riveria, and Gareth reached the clearing, the place was a complete mess.

There were more than ten first- and second-class adventurers scattered around the area, and every single one of them was sitting on the ground in silence.

"What happened here?"

Gareth’s booming voice rang across the clearing.

"I heard one guy took the whole lot of you down by himself?"

"..."

Several faces twitched.

More than ten adventurers had just been flattened by a single Level 5.

It was hardly something worth boasting about.

Anything they said would only make it sound worse, so silence seemed like the better option.

Bete abruptly stood up and started walking away.

"Bete, where are you going?"

Tiona called after him.

"None of your damn business."

Bete snapped without looking back.

"He’s going to train, isn’t he?"

"Yeah. Guess that loss really got to him."

"Should we go too?"

"Good idea."

"Captain, that’s okay, right?"

Tiona and Tione immediately began chattering.

What else could Finn possibly say?

"Don’t go too far, and move in groups."

"Yes!"

...

Three days after the battle against the Corrupted Spirit clone, the Loki Familia was still on Floor 50.

The sudden explosion of enthusiasm for training among the Familia members had forced Finn to extend their stay by another two days so everyone could sharpen themselves properly.

Some of their supplies had been destroyed, but they still had enough to operate around Floor 50 for a few more days. Since they were only staying briefly, it posed no real problem.

During that time, Ais, Jeanne, and Ryuu continued training Afterglow under Kiriya.

Yes, all three had already managed to use the technique once.

But that first success had been achieved by taking advantage of a special mental state.

Their conscious understanding and muscle memory were still nowhere near developed enough for them to unleash Afterglow whenever they pleased.

Kiriya therefore continued using his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to help them repeatedly enter that empty, perfectly focused state for practice.

After learning from the first attempt, however, he no longer let them push themselves until both body and mind were completely exhausted.

Even with that restriction, their progress was far faster than it would have been through ordinary training.

And Kiriya did not limit their practice to repetitive sword swings.

He also brought them into actual combat, forcing them to apply and refine Afterglow against monsters so the technique would become firmly ingrained under real battle conditions.

Kiriya himself could harvest some experience at the same time.

Two birds with one stone.

In just five short days, all three women made astonishing progress.

They could now unleash Afterglow without Kiriya’s assistance, a result impressive enough to surprise even him.

The rest of the Loki Familia had hardly been idle either.

They formed various teams and hunted monsters across the surrounding floors, throwing themselves into training with unusual intensity.

Before they knew it, ten days had passed.

The two groups returned to the surface together and parted ways after saying their farewells, each heading back toward their own headquarters.

"Riveria."

Ais walked beside the elven royal.

"Udaeus should be respawning soon, right?"

"That’s right."

Riveria immediately understood what Ais was thinking.

"You want to... No. That’s too reckless."

Trying to accomplish a great feat and level up was one thing.

But challenging Udaeus alone as a Level 5 was far too dangerous.

"It’ll be fine."

Ais looked unusually confident.

"I’m sure I can do it."

Seeing that Riveria was still worried, she added,

"Then you can come and watch over me."

"...Fine."

Riveria sighed.

...

Hearthstone Manor — Hestia Familia Headquarters

Kiriya

Level 5

Strength: I 0 → F 301

Endurance: I 0 → F 322

Dexterity: I 0 → F 356

Agility: I 0 → F 357

Magic: I 0 → F 368

Magic:

Forest of All Things

Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality

Blade Storm

Skills:

Strong One’s Wish

Demonbane

Mirror Calm

Divine Will Sharingan

Development Abilities:

Mage (F)

Luck (H)

Spirit Healing (G)

Abnormal Resistance (I)

Looking over the changes in his Status, Kiriya was not particularly satisfied.

"A little slow."

He muttered under his breath.

Hestia, who had been calmly drinking water beside him, immediately rolled her eyes.

"If you said that in front of other adventurers, do you realize they might actually beat you to death?"

In less than half a month, his combined attributes had increased by more than sixteen hundred points.

And he thought that was slow?

Any ordinary adventurer hearing that would probably be consumed by jealousy.

’Strong One’s Wish really is ridiculous.’

Hestia stared at his back and muttered internally.

’Even at Level 5, it’s still accelerating Kiriya’s growth this much.’

Kiriya instinctively protested.

"How is that fast? Look at Jeanne. Her total attributes increased by almost two thousand points."

The moment Jeanne was mentioned, Hestia puffed up her cheeks.

"I haven’t even gotten to that yet!"

She reached out with both hands and pulled Kiriya’s cheeks apart.

"Jeanne is only Level 1, and you dragged her all the way into the Deep Floors! Just how reckless can you be?! What would you have done if something happened to her?"

"It woul’n’t."

Kiriya’s cheeks were stretched so far that his voice came out distorted and ridiculous.

"She might technically be Level 1, but her overall combat strength is already no worse than a Level 5."

"All right, all right, Hestia."

Jeanne hurried over to mediate.

"I came back perfectly safe, didn’t I?"

It took quite a bit of coaxing before Hestia finally calmed down.

"Even if Jeanne is strong, you still can’t be that reckless."

Hestia repeatedly warned him.

"The Deep Floors aren’t like the upper Dungeon. Underestimating something down there can get you killed."

"Relax. I never pick a fight I’m not confident I can handle."

Kiriya smiled and wrapped an arm around Hestia’s shoulders.

Seeing that the mood had improved, Jeanne smiled and made a suggestion.

"Why don’t we go out for a big meal to celebrate everyone coming back from the expedition?"

"Great idea!"

Hestia immediately cheered.

Then she went pattering away in her slippers to change clothes.