Chapter 447 - 447 - Don't Ask, He's Lv.2

Shadow of Sorcery is Lv.2, isn't he!?

What's that? You're saying he and his women are way past what their level should allow, that there's no way they're Lv.2?

Bullshit. The Guild's registration records say it in black and white, plain as day, that they're Lv.2!

Of course, everyone knows perfectly well that people lie about their levels. Investigate it? And what if the investigation turns up that he really isn't Lv.2? What then?

So everyone in the know quietly turns a blind eye.

Don't ask. Ask and the answer's Lv.2.

...

Flora's attention went somewhere different from the three from the Astraea Familia. She'd been quick to catch another detail.

"Asfi, you mentioned just now... someone in Leon's group was hurt?"

Asfi thought back over the scene at the time and nodded firmly.

"Ah, yes. Watching that battle even from a distance made my heart pound, because there were simply too many monsters, so... even with Mr. Leon's Blizzard magic holding the field, fighting that many monsters at close quarters, injuries were unavoidable. But you don't need to worry. None of the wounds were serious, they have a healer with them, and with Potions on hand it wasn't difficult to deal with."

Thinking of Lydia back at Wheat Manor, and of Irisviel who had gone out with the party, Flora let out a small breath of relief.

Still, once the meeting was over, she would have to report this to Lady Demeter.

While the few of them talked in low voices, not everyone's attention was fixed on the big names like Allen Fromel, Hedin Selland, Ottar, Finn and Gareth Landrock. Everybody knows that in a large meeting, only a small handful of people are ever actually part of the discussion. Beyond them, the vast majority of attendees are just there to supply the big names with emotional value: nodding, applauding, building the mood, or playing along with a shared performance to string the fools along, and so on...

Riveria, as one of the big names present, had not joined Finn's argument. Instead she'd noticed what was going on over where Asfi and Alise were.

The Withered Bone Wasteland? No... from the sound of it, have they already pushed into the Sand Land? That's fast, far too fast...

A faint ripple passed through her eyes, barely visible, and then she was calm again.

From the standpoint of our Loki Familia, this is a good thing. With the potential Demeter's team has, maybe... within a few years they could catch up to the frontier of exploration.

If they really do have the strength...

At that, she pressed a thought that was half formed back down inside her.

...

...

Leon and his group had no idea, naturally, that they'd become the material other people used to kill time at a meeting.

After the fierce fighting on Floor 28, they rested briefly at the Safety Point on Floor 29 and used it as a base, working through Floors 30 and 31 step by step. Only when they reached the entrance of Floor 32 did they finally stop.

Floor 29, the Safety Point.

"Aaaah! We're finally back! I'm exhausted!"

The moment they got back to the Safety Point, the string that had been pulled tight for so long went slack, and every bit of tension drained out.

Laurier no longer cared in the least about ladylike composure. She stripped off the armor and gear that had been digging into her, tossed her belt aside, then flung her arms wide and flopped down on her back onto the soft grass with a thud.

"Ah, that feels good...!"

"Whew, I feel alive again..."

Seeing her like that, the others, who all wore the same tired faces, glanced at one another and copied Laurier. Some sat hugging their knees, some knelt with their feet splayed out at their sides, some with their legs folded to one side. Each slumped down in whatever posture was most relaxing, quietly enjoying this rare stretch of peace after the fighting.

Leon caught the faint tiredness in the eyes of Jeanne, Rose and Persephone and patted their shoulders lightly.

"You three go rest too. I'll take watch."

Jeanne frowned at that, her gaze passing over his travel-stained cloak and somewhat battered armor, and said with concern:

"It's too dangerous for you alone. Let me stay, two of us can look out for each other."

Leon followed her gaze down at himself, then gave an easy smile.

"Don't worry, this is a Safety Point. The odds of anything happening are low. Just rest."

Then he shifted tack.

"Besides, don't forget, I'm a Lv.5 First-Class Adventurer now. Monsters from the Withered Bone Wasteland aren't enough to threaten me. It doesn't matter how many come, they're just delivering Excelia to me."

It took several rounds of persuasion, and his stressing his own strength again, before the three women were finally convinced.

"All right, but do be careful."

Rose took Jeanne and Persephone by the hand and headed for camp, turning back partway to give Leon a playful wink.

"Leaving it to you, dear!"

"OK!"

Leon made a ring with his thumb and forefinger and grinned, showing a row of white teeth.

...

He watched them sprawl on the grass like they were on a picnic, chattering away and swapping stories from the expedition, then smiled faintly, turned, and walked toward the little river at the edge of the meadow.

He found a smooth, rounded boulder by the water and sat down cross-legged on it.

"Whew... time to tally up what this trip brought in."

"Open panel."

...

Assets: Reserve funds: 4.13 million | Cash: 588.86 million (fixed monthly income: 10,236)

Excelia: 1,771.4 (points)

...

After reading through the Excelia bar, Leon scrolled the combat log up a ways.

All he saw was...

Teammate killed Lv.3 monster, Excelia +0.1

...

Teammate killed Lv.3 monster, Excelia +0.1

...

Teammate killed Lv.4 (elite) monster, Excelia +1

Teammate killed Lv.4 (elite) monster, Excelia +1

...

"Tsk..."

Over three days, Leon's party of a dozen or so had steadily pushed their exploration of Floors 30 through 32, clearing an average of twenty waves of monsters a day, each wave running somewhere around forty to fifty.

That worked out to roughly 1,600 to 2,000 monsters wiped out in a day.

At that pace, for a single person speedrunning it solo, the kill rate would have the whole of Orario calling it superhuman. But split across ten-odd people, it was only so-so. A hundred-odd kills per person per day was nothing more than the standard level for an adventurer.

Of course, the floor matters too. The same number of kills isn't equally difficult everywhere.

Still, Leon was quite satisfied with this rhythm.

He had just finished leveling up and was in no hurry to farm Excelia. So apart from using Blizzard and his ice clones for crowd control and suppression, he left the overwhelming majority of the monsters to his companions.

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