In Orario, the sky gradually grew bright.
As the morning light shone into Labyrinth City, bathing the entire urban area in a golden glow, adventurers began appearing from every main street, and as they walked toward the central plaza where the tall tower of Babel stood, they continuously discussed the same topic.
"Hey, the Loki Familia's back from their expedition, right?"
"Yeah, the Guild already confirmed it."
"Heard they actually made it to an unexplored floor this time and even cleared the 59th Floor."
"Ahh, that's kinda insane."
"59th Floor, huh... People like us wouldn't even dare think about stepping onto a floor that deep."
"Well, guess that means aside from the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia, someone in Orario finally hit the 59th Floor again."
"I really wanna know what kinda crazy adventure they went through down there."
Adventurers were not the only ones discussing this topic, as even ordinary citizens were passionately talking about it as well.
Today marked the seventh day since the Loki Familia's battle to conquer the 59th Floor had ended. Just yesterday, after completing the expedition, they had finally returned to the surface and gone back to the home of the Loki Familia—Twilight Manor.
No one knew what they had experienced inside the Dungeon.
No one knew what kind of desperate battles they had endured, or what kind of legendary achievements they had forged.
People could only continue their enthusiastic discussions like this, freely imagining the Loki Familia's adventure, and kept watching them with curiosity, waiting for them to reappear before the public.
Unfortunately, even when the sun hung high in the sky, the Twilight Manor remained quiet and sparsely populated. Only the members who had stayed behind at the manor, those who had not participated in the expedition, had risen early to organize the supplies, equipment, and spoils brought back by the expedition party.
As for the expedition party members who had returned yesterday, without exception, every one of them was sprawled on their beds, sleeping like the dead.
It couldn't be helped.
They were simply too exhausted.
Nearly half a month of expedition, constantly fighting monsters in the Dungeon, had left every participant physically and mentally exhausted.
Those who had taken part in the conquest of the 59th Floor felt it even more strongly. Even after finishing the battle and resting for a night at the camp on the 50th Floor, they still did not feel fully recovered.
The main issue was mental fatigue.
It was so severe that the entire party felt they could not take any more of it, including Tiona, who was normally overflowing with energy.
After all, they had fought an enhanced Demi Spirit for an entire day and night.
Such a battle, where they were constantly on the brink of death, then healed, then brought back to the brink of death again, repeating endlessly like an unending death battle, made it remarkable that they had managed to endure until the end.
The proof was that when the Demi Spirit was finally defeated, and everyone let out triumphant cheers, it did not matter whether they were First-Class Adventurers like Ais and Finn, or supporters like Lefiya and Raul—every single one of them collapsed on the spot and lost consciousness.
If Riezel had not carried everyone back to the camp on the 50th Floor, they might have passed out directly on the 59th Floor.
Even though the other members had not experienced such an unbearably brutal life-and-death struggle, they still could not afford to relax and had been pushing themselves the entire time.
Because of that, when the expedition party returned to the Twilight Manor yesterday, everyone, including Riezel, immediately went to sleep afterward and then accidentally overslept.
It was not until the sun was high and noon was approaching that the expedition party members gradually woke up, restoring the lively atmosphere of the manor.
To take care of those who had just returned, breakfast was deliberately delayed until everyone was awake.
The meal was exceptionally lavish.
There were all kinds of delicious vegetables and roasted meat, steaming savory soup, fragrant white bread, and even grilled fish.
Such a spread stimulated everyone's appetite, causing all the expedition party members, including the executives and the top executives, to gather in the dining hall and eat heartily.
After breakfast ended, following usual practice, every member was supposed to go and deal with the spoils brought back from the expedition, but this time, Loki, who had rarely appeared in the dining hall, cheerfully tossed out a single sentence that changed everyone's plans.
"Let's update your status first!"
Loki seemed to have realized that this expedition had been something extraordinary.
"I've got a feeling this time's gonna be a huge haul!"
Hence, setting aside the members who had stayed behind, the expedition party members followed the goddess's will. After breakfast, they headed to her room at the top of the central tower and formed a long line at the entrance.
Soon enough, on this very day, Loki's over-the-top, excited shrieks echoed repeatedly throughout the manor.
"Raul and Aki leveled up to Level 5!"
"Bete, Tiona, and Tione leveled up to Level 6!"
"Finn, Riveria, and Gareth leveled up to Level 7!"
Yes, this expedition had yielded truly enormous rewards.
Aside from Ais, who had leveled up not long ago, all of the Loki Familia's veteran executives had leveled up.
Even Raul and Anakitty advanced to Level 5, officially becoming First-Class Adventurers.
Of course, the greatest gain, without question, belonged to Finn, Riveria, and Gareth, the three top executives who had guided the familia to where it stood today.
After enduring a day-and-night death battle on the 59th Floor and defeating the Demi Spirit enhanced by Riezel, they finally, just as he had hoped, broke free from the fate of remaining stuck at Level 6 in the original story and officially leveled up.
Level 7.
In all of Orario, there had previously been only one such individual, but from this day onward, that number increased by three at once.
When this news spread, the entire world was shaken.
Orario went mad, and the world also went mad.
Naturally, all of the Loki Familia went mad as well.
The cheers that resounded throughout the Twilight Manor never ceased, continuing on and on for a long, long time.
===
Outside Loki's room on the top floor of the central tower, within Twilight Manor, in the noisy corridor filled with constant cheering, Tiona, her face glowing with joy, threw herself at Ais and hugged her tightly, smiling like a blooming flower.
"Ais, Ais! Did you hear that? I'm also Level 6 now!"
Tiona seemed overwhelmingly happy, clinging to Ais and refusing to let go.
Ais felt a little embarrassed, yet also deeply understood her feelings, and showed Tiona a faint smile.
"Congratulations, Tiona."
"Yeah, yeah! Now I've caught up to you again, Ais! Hehehe!"
As the two girls smiled at each other, this prompted the surrounding people to offer applause and congratulate Tiona on entering a new stage.
A similar scene was unfolding over by Tione and Bete.
Tione and Anakitty gathered together, checking each other's results while accepting the congratulations of their fellow members with unconcealed good spirits.
Bete stayed with Raul—one of them wore a rare, wildly delighted grin, while the other shouted with excitement, making Cruz, standing nearby, unable to help but show an envious expression.
"I-I leveled up too, Mr. Riezel!"
Lefiya was the first to run over to Riezel to report her results, but her delighted expression made Alicia, the fellow elf, look extremely conflicted and frustrated.
Among those who had participated in the conquest of the 59th Floor, aside from Riezel, who had not yet updated his status, and Ais, who had leveled up not long ago, Alicia was the only one who had failed to level up. Even Raul and Anakitty, who had originally been her companions and at the same level, had leveled up.
Clearly, this left her feeling particularly frustrated.
"Congrats, Lefiya."
Riezel, seeing Lefiya's cheeks flushed with excitement, smiled gently and congratulated her, but then, as if recalling something, he asked her a question.
"By the way, what was your MAG before leveling up?"
Riezel cared quite a bit about this.
In the past, when Lefiya leveled up, her MAG had been developed all the way to S-rank. Combined with her natural talent as a magic-oriented race, this was what had created her overwhelming magical energy and attack power, second only to Riveria.
Bete had even given her the nickname 'magic idiot,' which showed just how absurdly strong her magical energy was.
Because of this, at this point in the original story, although Lefiya had accumulated enough high-rank excelia to advance to Level 4, she had chosen not to level up due to her MAG not being fully developed.
Instead, she had remained at Level 3 to continue raising her MAG until it reached S-rank again, and only then had she chosen to level up.
Now, however, she had already chosen to level up, which made Riezel somewhat concerned that she might have advanced to Level 4 before fully developing her MAG.
If that were the case, it would have been far too wasteful.
Although the increase from a few ranks of basic ability parameters was negligible compared to the power boost granted by leveling up itself, over the long term, the accumulated power that turned into latent basic ability would certainly become a considerable enhancement.
Riezel himself was a clear example, as before every level up, he always developed all his basic ability parameters to SSS-rank.
In the early levels, the advantage was not obvious, but after reaching Level 4, when combined with several combat development abilities, his status upon leveling up was already comparable to the top-tier existences of the same level.
Once he fully developed his status, he could even challenge opponents of a higher level purely with his status alone, clearly demonstrating the importance of basic abilities accumulation.
Naturally, Lefiya could not be compared to Riezel, who could develop basic ability parameters to SSS-rank.
However, if she could at least develop her MAG—the most important one for a mage—to S-rank before every level up, then in the future, when she became a First-Class Adventurer, she might be able to catch up to Riveria and formally become her successor, becoming the second strongest mage in Orario.
Because of this, Riezel had been quite worried that Lefiya might have chosen to level up without fully developing her MAG.
Fortunately, his concern was unnecessary.
"My MAG before leveling up? It was S!" Lefiya answered his question with a bright smile. "My advancement in it this time was huge. Even Loki was surprised!"
Hearing her answer, Riezel finally felt at ease.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next chapters early at: patreon.com/VALRRR]