30

The doors of the Loki Familia's meeting room were violently thrown open as Tiona followed by Ais stomped into the room. "Jake there you are! We tried getting your goddess's attention around your weird tower but no wanted to mess with it because of the flowing lava!" Tiona complained and I nodded.

"Keeping away people is the very reason my home is covered in lava... Can't evict me from my home if you can't actually evict me, can you?" I asked conspiratorially and Tiona giggled as she shook her head.

"Well anyway what do you need Jake?" Tiona asked and then likewise Ais spoke softly.

"Did you have a stronger boss?"

I shook my head to Ais before shrugging. "I mean yes I certainly do but I haven't made the summon items for them. I have a plan in the dungeon in the works that will make transport and traveling issues through the dungeon an issue of the past." I said proudly and I noticed Ais's hand on the tungsten broadsword tighten at the mention of the dungeon.

"Anyway, I need an executives help especially a Loki Familia one as I don't want to get involved in whatever drama is happening in the Freya Familia that's severe enough for Allen and Ottar to be fighting in the dungeon." I explained and the two girls shared looks.

"Do you know what happened between Ottar and Allen?" Ais asked me but I shook my head saying all I knew was that Allen apparently disobeyed orders from Freya and Ottar was pissed to say the least.

"Anyway, the problem is whenever I am actually tunnelling through the dungeon to make the path between floors. The Dungeon gets royally pissed off and spawned a black enhanced aberrant monster party on my own party... Thankfully it was only dungeon lizards but if it was an army of War Shadows that could have been dangerous." I sighed and the girls nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, these new weird Aberrant and Mutated monsters are a major pain! But thankfully they are worth more Hehe. Anyway, Aizu you want to help Jake with this?" Tiona asked Ais and before the blonde could verbally answer despite her simple nod another person stomped into the room.

"Wait just a minute! I cannot be the only one hearing about enhanced monsters that should only spawn in the presence of a deity, correct?! And yet you fools wish to push through such monsters?" From the ajar door came the mother of the Loki Familia alongside Tione the bustier amazon sister.

"Riveria." I said in greeting drawing her eyes to me. "I do not wish to 'push' through them but think. If the Loki and other Familia's had an easy tunnel in which they could ride carts down from the top floor of the dungeon down to Rivira without having to deal with a single monster or the obnoxious stairs that make taking carts of supplies into the dungeon such a pain. How valuable and useful would that be? To say nothing of the hours it would shave to get to and from Rivira to the surface." I pointed out and Riveria frowned.

"Plus not to mention, before Rivira, the dungeon has literally zero record of ever even with a couple gods flexing their arcanum summoning an actual Juggernaut as the floors literally are too small for such a monster to freely move as they cannot get into the hallways between the chambers in the deeper floors." I explained with Riveria grudgingly nodding in acceptance to my words.

"That is true... Fine, I and the rest of these executives have the rest of the day and tomorrow free after getting well ahead of our expedition planning." Riveria said before added on as an afterthought. "Disregarding how you can actually break the dungeon enough to build tunnels through it. But how in the world are you building a tunnel it cannot close?" She asked.

I stood up with Ais and Tiona standing up beside me as Riveria had all but taken over the negotiating for this work in the dungeon. "I don't know about you Riveria. But when I make something, I want it to last. When I build something whether it be a weapon, armor. clothes, or even an outhouse. I always make sure to throw on my own version of the Durandal enchantment that all but freezes the item in time so it cannot be changed in anyway shape or form." I said before looking to Ais.

"Ais had you had a single issue with your sword?" I asked and Ais nodded making me blink in surprise.

"Yes, the shape, weight, and sharpness are terrible... But I like how it cannot break." Ais said nodding to me in 'appreciation' as Tiona giggled in the background at my face.

I brushed my hand down my face as I deadpanned. "In that case I should just give you a stick that cannot break..." I muttered but Riveria heard my words and took them seriously.

"Actually, blunted wooden training weapons would be a worthy purchase to make. So after we assess your dungeon plan, we can discuss such an order of training weapons." Riveria said seriously and I wanted to shoot her with the slime gun I had in my inventory...

But taking it out in a room filled with only women? Yeah, I would like to see the coming day as they would just need to roll up my corpse in the carpet before burying me in the backyard of the estate.

"Whatever! Come on Jake let's get going into the dungeon!" Tiona said excitedly and I nodded as there wasn't anything else to say other than some small talk that would inevitably take place in the space between floors.

-

"By the way just a heads up my party member is the sole member of the Hestia Familia. Of which the Familia is temporarily staying with mine as they had a bit of an incident when Ottar and Allen were fighting. Apparently somehow a damned aberrant Minotaur got to the upper floors and well Bell found it." I explained in preparation to meeting Bell and Ais perked up.

"Ah that white haired boy I saved from another minotaur?" She asked and I nodded, and she frowned with sorrow clear in her eyes as she sighed. "Ah I am sorry for his passing if he was your friend." Ais said awkwardly and my face froze before I couldn't help but giggle.

"Well, it's complicated but yeah... Bell is still alive though I had to kill that Minotaur and that wasnt fun at all." I couldn't help but brush my hands over my chest where I could feel the phantom pain of my ribs being heavily bruised due to being smashed by the minotaur.

"How long have you even been an adventurer" Riveria asked the pressing question and I whistled.

"Man, I think it's been a week, week in a half but it's not like I decided to punch out the minotaur. I fully took advantage of my chant less magic to drown it in magical blasts so although it got a couple hits in on me. I was the one to walk away." I said proudly and I noticed both Tione and Tiona giving me looks of 'interest' in the amazon sense even if Tione's were more of a look of taking note of my potential.

Tione was still firmly interested in her eternal shota captain who was literally forty-one years old in comparison to Tione's current age of only seventeen. Who had zero interest in her and only wanted to find a strong Pallum to marry to help with his quest to bring up the Pallum people.

"The path of magic is the path of ultimate strength in the world Jake. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer an aspiring mage despite you not walking the orthodox path of magic." Riveria offered freely and I wanted to ask her how her nine spells were going when I could pull out literally more than a couple hundred different magical items that had preprogrammed spells within them. But instead, I had a better question to ask rather than insulting her for being beholden to the stupid Danmachi magic system.

"Riveria what would you do for like. A secondary magical energy pool within yourself so you could more freely cast magic. I mean the limited Mind pool within mages is literally their greatest weakness once they have companions and can use concurrent chanting so they can dodge and still fight." I asked and Riveria gave me a dumbfounded look before she shook her head sending the curls of green hair that escaped her loose ponytail flying about.

"Jake, I fully acknowledge you to be an unmatched craftsman besides gods and possibly some spirits but giving or creating a new mana pool within someone is impossible. The elvish race has done studies upon such a topic for dozens of millennia and has broken no ground other than storing mana inside some extremely rare gems but the mana within the gems will break down the very gems so it's just not worth it." Riveria said hotly and I smiled with the cockiest grin imaginable.

"Yeah... About that. Oh, lookie there's my bestie Bell." I said ignoring Riveria who squawked in outrage as she was wise enough to see my shit eating grin as proof. On how I was beyond proud to have gotten something over the normally so damned haughty about their superiority with magic elves.

I all but skipped towards Bell who noticed me waving to her and as she smiled seeing me, her eyes widened as she noticed the party behind me, and most noticeably her previous crush Ais Wallenstein.

"Ais! Jake Ais!!" Bell said utterly spastically as she bowed to Ais and me before turning to flee but I grabbed her by the back of her backpack with both my hands and literally just lifted her off the ground as she ran fruitlessly in place for a couple moments before she realized that, no she wasn't running faster than the ground could support her and instead she was off the ground and her backpack straps was lifting her armor clad arms.

"Bell say hello to the Loki Familia. May as well introduce yourself." I said holding Bell in front of me so she as she died a little inside, she waved to the Loki Familia members who frankly didn't care one whit about Bell as they thought she was just a huge fan of the Loki Familia and was just super nervous to be around them.

But Ais was different. Ais had seen her previous form so as Ais's head tilted to the side, and she spoke I couldn't help but giggle before my mouth snapped shut in incredulous silence at the reply she got "You were the one I saved from the minotaur? I thought you had short hair and was maybe a boy... I guess it was just all the blood covering you." Ais said carelessly with the same damned lack of tact that she used when describing the sword that even now she was using.

But Bell's reply... Bell's answer made me stagger and let her go of her as she spoke. "Yes! I was always a girl. I just had my hair up that day Haha..." Bell lied weakly as I woodenly turned towards the dungeon and away from the group so they wouldn't see my face.

This is bullshit. How are you doing this..." Tione bluntly asked after she and the rest of the Loki executives that were following us into the dungeon saw the entrance to the tunnel I made and how no one and not even the dungeon could break the stone I place around it.

I looked at Tione and smiled as I looked over to Tiona. "My secrets are just that. Secrets, now Loki exec's help me do some actually dungeon mining and I will give you guy's free passes on the upcoming Rivira Expressway." I joked as I began placing down rail tracks on the way down the flat path that went downward until eventually, we landed at the end of my tunnel at the fourth floor where the dungeon spawned a horde of enhanced aberrant monsters on us.

"Ok guys, the moment I break into a new floor kill all the monsters as I am immediately begin going around walling off the dungeon so it cannot spawn more monsters in the tunnel." I explained and all the girls nodded with Ais standing right beside me as she prepared to dash forward, and with a couple more smashes with my pickaxe, I broke through the wall of dungeon stone in front of us and we landed on the fifth floor. Well, we would have landed there if there wasn't a literal tide of Killer Ants waiting to dive into the hole I knocked into the floor.

"Tempest!" Ais yelled and with her magic being called into effect she sent a small tornado of dense wind blades out through the hole I opened, and I could hear the wind blades shattering the killer ant's chitin killing them instantly as their monster stones shattered under the level five's powerful wind magic.

I quickly began clearing the rest of the wall and replacing the corners of the hole I dug out with stone as Ais periodically sent a wave of wind blades to slice apart the monsters that spawned in retaliation of my bullshit tunnel system.

"Alright Aizu let me go in Haha!" Tiona laughed as she dashed past Ais after she finished sending some wind blades into the tide of ants that seemingly refused to stop spawning as I fully opened up the tunnel which allowed the Amazon to run into the crowd of monsters and freely swing her large double-sided sword Urga with impunity smashing and cutting through all the monsters into with her inhuman strength.

"Heh, I guess I will join as well." Tione then muttered as she also dashed into the crowd leaving Ais who pouted at having to protect Bell Riveria and I as I went about walling off the area so I could continue the tunnel downwards.

"I am going to use some magical constructs don't attack them." I called out as I summoned my summons and quickly threw Sir Fluffykins atop the drone so it could be mobile as the starfish summon, I got from the Desert Scrouge quickly got to tearing through all the monsters as it spun through the monsters with its razor-sharp star sides.

Eventually though I managed to wall off the floor so I could begin to safely continue the mineshaft downwards at an angle and as I continued, the girls caught their breath as even Bell had to deal with a few enhanced aberrant Killer Ants that got past the other level fives as they were literally stacked and running atop one another to eat me in particular.

"This reminds me of when that time Loki got drunk off of mixing Soma and Dionysus wine and ended up walking into the dungeon and we had to deal with hordes of enhanced weak monsters." Tiona spoke up as she stretched and flicked some of the gore off her double ended sword but at her words her older sister just smacked her upside the head.

"Any who." I cut in to stop that topic and possibly have the Loki Familia think about silencing us. "Riveria this little horde nonsense is likely to happen each floor. Do your think if I open a hole that you could directly just shoot a spell into the next room to clear it out?" I asked and Riveria shook her head.

"I could certainly send a tightly woven spell through it, but the resulting back blast would be entirely too dangerous even if it was my ice spell." Riveria explained and I wanted to ask what good she was down here then...

"Alright well then plan b." I then turned to Sir Fluffy kins the First and then refilled his grenade bag while I kept a mental eye on them in my inventory. "When I open up the area just let me throw some small bombs in there. With it being the sixth floor there will likely be War Shadows and other stuff among the Killer Ants swarm." I thought aloud before shrugging.

"I will not be useless if that is your thought, Jake. We merely need to reach level ten where the rooms and tunnels open up into the fog filled chambers and I will easily be able to use my fire magic to burn away the entrance you open up and direct the remaining explosion deeper into the floor." Riveria confidently spoke as she had somehow realized my thoughts but then again, she did have the century of wisdom going for her as she was literally ninety years old.

"Alright." I shrugged as I looked to Bell who was looking at Sir Fluffykins who was riding my drone and hovering out of the reach of the grabby girls.

As I continued digging deeper into the dungeon continuously replacing the edges of the tunnel, I was digging out with my pickaxe Tiona loudly sighed and obviously asked me. "So, Jake I get that you want to keep your secrets and all, but any chance I can get my own cute animal summon like the squirrel?" She asked and wordlessly I threw my slime pet summon that would summon only a slime pet and not the actual slime staff that would summon a slime that would attack someone.

'The Royal Delight' in Tiona's hands instantly summoned a small shin high blue slime with two small eyes and a much smaller King Slime crown that kept bobbing with each of the slime's bounces. "Oh my god! It's so cute!" Tiona screeched as she picked up the slime and all would have killed it as she pressed it into her flat chest if it didn't flatten and hang over her arms.

"That slime won't fight by the way." I warned her and she instantly pouted but she still didn't let go of the slime as it was clear she had instantly imprinted on the adorable slime.

"Do you have any more summons that can fight." Ais asked quietly and I saw Riveria raise an eyebrow in interest as she knew all too well that having summons that will stand beside the summoner and defend them like my starfish one would be very useful. Especially the summoners that didn't have Concurrent Chanting to dodge or defend themselves while chanting some stupid long spell.

"Not on me. And frankly the ones I can make with the materials I have cannot match your level. If you want something useful from me, get my accessories that give miniature skills like preventing you from getting hurt from falling or any number of the things." I explained and Ais nodded before she looked at both me and Bell.

"What about the armor? What does it do?" She continued to ask, and I shook my head.

"It strengthens my magic while allowing one of my magical items to take no mana to use as it's so attuned to the item that it can use the worlds surrounding mana to fuel the weapon without using my own without any issues." I said as I stopped mining to show off my space gun and how it could score a powerful burnt line on the dungeon stone.

"Hmm... Any armor that can strengthen wind magic or otherwise make me stronger or faster?" She asked and I hummed in thought as I recalled the pumpkin armor among other things, so I nodded.

"Yeah, there's such things but let's save the details for when we reach my shop as I have everything written down for convenience." I finished the conversation as I went back to mining.

But as I was mining and getting between floors, I noticed how Tione a lot of times would throw her machete like kukri blades and would need to retrieve them. Then I couldn't help but wonder if she would like one of the bladed boomerangs or chakrams I could make that would return to the user after being thrown.

"Tione have you ever tried bladed boomerangs or something that would return to you after being thrown?" I asked as I also realized Yo-Yo's would fit in that area as well and I just barely held in giggles at the thought of her using a super high-level yo-yo to clobber a boss to death.

"Nope boomerangs don't do nearly enough damage and don't return to the user after smashing into something here in the dungeon. Its best to just use weapons that can be both thrown in a pinch and also used as a primary weapon." She said giving me some actually good advice even if that wasn't likely going to be my fighting style.

Finally, though after we hit the deeper floors of the tenth floor and past that, Riveria was able to use her powerful Level Six fire magic to blast the opening's that I opened up in the floors and render any waiting horde into nonexistence as the raging flames of Surtr that her fire spell that took after washed over all the monsters.

Thus, after more than six hours of mining we broke into Rivira after dealing with constant hordes of monsters every damn time we entered a new floor but breaking into the Eighteenth floor was a solid relief as for whatever reason the dungeon didn't spawn a horde on us and we were greeted with the almost surface sun level light that filled the floor from the massive crystals that hung on the floors ceiling and filled with a pure light.

"Woohoo we are finally here! Let's go get some early dinner in Rivira Haha! Tiona cried out as I finished creating a good-sized building around the tunnel that led right up to the surface.

"I admit having a tunnel with zero monsters in it will be phenomenal for the process of carrying out our expedition. So, Jake I assume the tunnel and these rails will be available for Loki Familia use for our hard work in escorting you down thus far?" Riveria asked and in response I handed her gold key that would open the door into the building.

"I promised the Loki Familia a pass... And I keep my word. Come to my shop I got special rail carts that can use a smidgen of mana to propel them that way you dont have to walk up the tunnel at an angle the whole way." I spoke ever drumming up business and Riveria nodded smiling as she knew all too well the value of today's work could change Orario's treatment of monster farming in its entirety.

As with Rivira being so easily accessible, the Guild could even begin extending its influence down here especially after I build a stone canopy over it so monsters cannot destroy it again.

Just as I expected and knew beforehand. The food and just everything in general down here in Rivira was ruinously expensive which made me, and Bell dumbfounded at the prices until Riveria patiently explained how the pseudo guild that was run the strongest adventure's down here in Rivira would only pay forty percent the value of any monster stones sold to them. Which inflated the prices down here as people tried to make up for the losses in a vicious cycle.

Which with the fake guild down here taking the monster stones to the surface, well to say the least it allowed them to make a killing selling all those monster stones to the Guild at full price.

Now as for why adventures didn't just take the stones up to the surface. Well, any number of reasons but most boil down to caravans taking almost a day or two to get down to Rivira safely and plenty can happen by then so people will need to stock up on new potion's weapon's or get their weapons repaired otherwise they would be stuck down here without such supplies and tools to make it back up to the surface.

"Gods a simple dinner of just potatoes and some chicken costs more than a full platter from the Hostess of Fertility..." Bell muttered as she held her head and shook in place making me remember how she and the Hestia Familia didn't really have a strong income yet as she hadn't gotten with Lili and exploited her cheats at their best speed.

I consoled the glum rabbit by patting her white-haired clad head making her make an 'umu' noise as she looked to me in surprise as I rolled my eyes. "Bell we literally dealt with hordes of aberrant monsters, so we have picked up weeks of income due to the others not thinking to bring a bag to pickup the monster stones." I said dryly as I pointedly looked at the scantily clad amazon ladies who shrugged.

Well, I planned on selling some of the monster stones at least for a bit of cash. But for the rest I needed to make mana crystals so I could make Bell a better spell caster as well as making more magical weapons and artifacts.

"So now that the tunnel is built, now what do we do?" Tiona asked before she continued. "Wait Jake, can me and my sister actually get to fight one of those bosses down here! I bet that will be so much fun!" She asked excitedly and Ais perked up at the mention of fightning a boss which had my head tilt to the side as I hummed in thought as I looked around the massive floor of the Eighteenth floor and knew we would have plenty of space basically.

"Riveria, you ok with that?" I asked the mother of the Loki Familia and the elvish woman sighed before nodding with a wry smile.

"Very well, I myself am getting a bit tired but we can deal with those bosses you mentioned without too much issue." She said confidently and it was most definitely true as my Terraria bosses were real living monsters with anatomically correct bodies so when a level 6 or even 5 nukes them with powerful magic they just die instantly.

Well, these low-level bosses do. When something like the Wall of Flesh or other hard mode bosses come to the fore the whole level advantage, they have will get shot out the window.

"Just remember to let me and Bell stab the monsters before you blow them up Riveria... Otherwise, we get no goodie bags and you don't want to make Bell cry do you?" I asked holding Bell in front of me and as Bell's soft red eyes looked up at Riveria through her white hair I saw Riveria clutch her chest in sympathetic pain at the pure adorableness that was Bell pouting.

Riveria silently nodded but I heard her mutter as she walked away from the group to get a good position for any magic she was going to cast. "That girl reminds me of Ais when she was younger and acting cute on purpose... She is dangerous."

Ais just tilted her head to the side as she could obviously hear Riveria she asked Tione and Tiona. "Did I use to act cute on purpose?" As she said that her head tilted to the side a bit with her blond hair catching in the wind making the amazons face palm before shrugging.

"Alright! Let's get this going before we end up comparing who is cuter in Bell or Ais." I joked making Bell squeak and look at Ais in mortification, but Ais didn't really care as people had been comparing and harping about her looks for years.

I then took out the king slime crown out of my inventory as I most certainly wasn't going to leave such an item outside of my inventory even if I was the only person who could actually use it and summon the monsters. As who knows if some god or goddess was capable of walking the line of using their arcanum and forcing a way to summon the boss attached to it.

Using the King Slime went just fine as the massive slime grew up in a nice clearing, we found in the woods which allowed Bell to get a good few stabs and jabs with the tungsten shorts word I made her before she dashed out of the way as the slime attempted to squish her and me at the same time as the Loki adventure's gleefully tore through the monster with little issues.

"Stand aside." Riveria called and I grabbed Bell as I zipped away with the help of my grappling hook latching onto a tree on the other side of the field as Riveria began chanting loudly.

"The flame will soon be released. Creeping war, unavoidable destruction. The horn of battle sounds aloud, the cruelty of conflict will envelop all. Come, crimson flames, the ruthless inferno. You are the avatar of hellfire. Sweep completely, bring a close to the great war. Burn them through, Sword of Surtr - my name is Alf!" Her voice rose at the end as a large magical glyph formed in the air above the slime that froze at it looked up and stopped chasing me as the bit of intelligence within it felt the powerful mana inside the magical glyph, but its frozen state didn't matter as from the magical glyph came a deluge of white-hot flames that burnt away the King Slime into nothingness.

As we all received goodie bags from the king slime, we all came together to open them.

"Haha you Loki girls must be fated with that item haha!" I couldn't help but burst into laughter seeing how Tione and Riveria both got the slime launcher gun that would melt normal clothes and to say nothing of how Riveria's face twisted in disgust at the sight of it even Tione looked angry at the drop she got.

But both Tiona and Ais got slime hooks whereas surprisingly Bell got the slime summon staff that would actually help her fight somehow?

Was that a new addition in the latest version of Terraria or is it just because of how the item so closely fit the slime theme? I couldn't help but ponder.

Best part about seeing Riveria with the slime gun... Was how even with her level 6 strength even if she wasn't focused on that stat. She had no way of shattering or otherwise breaking it within her hands despite how her hands flexed and attempted to subtly break it.

"Uhm I can get rid of it?" I offered holding a handout to her and Tione. And thus, the elvish princess quickly pushed it into my hands, but Tione hesitated oddly.

"Tione... Give Jake the slime gun." Riveria all but growled as she had a light blush at the memory of her clothes being melted off her.

"Ahem, I need to borrow it for an experiment Haha... I am going to go see the captain good luck guys!" Tione yelled running off with the slime gun as I slowly lowered my hand.

"I am not responsible for whatever someone does with my weapons or magical tools." I said quickly as I covered my face shaking my head at the thought of the ornery amazon running back to the surface and literally melting off Finn's clothes.

"It's ok Jake, I don't believe you are a pervert or anything." Ais said as though to console me but her deadpan delivery made me think she was being sarcastic...

I just threw up my hands as I called this dungeon excursion a success even if the Loki Familia was still filled with weirdo's. "Screw it. Bell lets go home." I said taking her into one of my arms as the Loki executives looked at me in surprise at my action with grabbing Bell to me. "Bye guys, see ya latter." I said to Riveria, Ais, and Tiona as I pulled out my magic mirror and I wish I could have seen their faces as me and Bell literally just teleported out of the dungeon in front of their faces.