Chapter 69: Confirming the Direction

"Hmph hmph hmph!" Shirou, in a pleasant mood, hummed a tune as he agilely walked in the middle of the squad. Not far from him, Lulune glared at him with resentful eyes. Shirou, seeing this, waved at her with a smile, as if greeting her. Such an innocent expression immediately infuriated Lulune.

Meanwhile, Ais, who had been following closely by Shirou's side and was well aware of the feud between the two, quietly said,

"Brother, you're so petty!"

"That's right, that's right, I am that petty." With his hands clasped behind his head, Shirou responded to Ais's retort with a grin. Although Shirou's current physical form was identical to his former self, the changes brought about by the fusion of two souls were gradually manifesting. If the original Shirou was someone who repaid grievances with kindness, the current Shirou was someone who distinguished between gratitude and resentment. Despite this, his inherently good-natured personality, always willing to help others, remained. One could say he was somewhat like Kirei Kotomine in personality, but not as severely afflicted.

"Look, it's White Leaves!" Hearing the shouts of other adventurers, Shirou also cast a curious gaze. White Leaves were one of the ingredients for making elixirs, naturally fetching a high price. In fact, the entire Great Tree Labyrinth was a place abundant in medicinal herbs, but due to the recent surge in monsters on the 24th floor, there had been a huge shortage of herb supplies. This led to a direct increase in the price of medicinal herbs. Therefore, in the eyes of adventurers, medicinal herbs now represented a large sum of money!

"Don't worry about the herbs; the mission is more important right now. If we go to pick herbs, we'll easily be surrounded by monsters. So, don't waste your effort until the mission is complete."

"Yes!" Hearing Asfi's command, the members of the Hermes Familia obeyed her instructions and no longer paid attention to the herbs by the roadside.

Observing the disciplined members of the Hermes Familia, Shirou was immediately impressed. Only such a team could go further in the Dungeon, truly worthy of a Familia capable of delving to the 37th floor. Looking at Asfi, who was diligently directing the team, Shirou always felt a hint of Finn's presence in her. Perhaps her commanding ability wasn't as extraordinary as Finn's, but her mysterious tools could completely erase this gap. Perhaps in the future, the Hermes Familia could become Orario's top Familia under her leadership. Of course, that's assuming Hermes stops playing that trick of concealing levels.

Along the way, their team encountered many precious herbs and even a rare Gem Tree. This tree, which bore fruits resembling blue or red gems, was truly a money tree. Each of these items was priceless. Such precious treasures even made Asfi almost lose her composure, but considering that there was a Tree Dragon guarding the treasures, Asfi ultimately held back. After all, this monster was similar to the powerful dragon guarding the Cadmus Spring on the 51st floor; they both possessed abilities comparable to a Floor Boss.

The Tree Dragon before Asfi now had abilities equivalent to a LV.4 monster. In terms of combat power, it was even stronger than Goliath, the Floor Boss of the 17th floor. Forcing herself to calm down, Asfi understood that the current situation was not suitable for fighting the Tree Dragon; the mission was more important now. Thus, everyone suppressed their eagerness and left the area. However, Shirou secretly noted the location, planning to visit this fellow again later.

---

Continuing their advance, Shirou and the others soon encountered something unusual. It was a crossroad. Standing at the corner, the adventurers of the Hermes Familia stared blankly ahead; for a moment, no one could speak. On the opposite path, there were dense swarms of monsters running, their numbers impossible to count, and the monster ranks stretched out of sight.

"No wonder even LV.3 adventurers almost lost their lives here; who could fight against such numbers?!" Lulune, standing beside Asfi, couldn't help but groan. Such a sight was simply too terrifying for adventurers.

"Everyone prepare, rear guard begin chanting! Reduce their numbers before we get close to the enemy."

"Wait a minute!" Ais interrupted Asfi's command, then calmly said, "Let me go!"

"Huh?" Before Asfi could react, Ais had already drawn her Despair Sword and charged out.

"W-wait!" Ignoring Asfi's shout, Shirou also entered the monster crowd, beginning to slaughter. Disliking the short swords' insufficient damage and attack range, Shirou immediately strengthened them into greatswords.

Then, he swung his dual greatswords wildly in the monster crowd. Shirou did not choose to use Broken Phantasm from above to bombard these monsters; instead, he delved into the monsters for close-quarters combat. The reason for this was naturally to improve his basic stats. After all, Divine Blessings do not provide experience points from monsters. If you want to improve a certain stat, you have to actually do it. For Shirou, this combat environment was very suitable for him to train himself.

But unfortunately, this situation did not last long; the monsters here were quickly swept away by Ais. In close-quarters combat, a hundred Shirous would not be Ais's match, let alone against monsters. Ais's monster-killing efficiency was much higher than Shirou's. So, soon, Shirou found himself in a situation with no monsters left to kill. Because of this, Shirou couldn't help but cast a resentful gaze at Ais. Facing Shirou's resentment, Ais, who didn't understand, tilted her head, showing a puzzled expression. In Shirou's eyes, this behavior was just acting cute. Acting cute was shameful, but he fell for it every time. A helpless Shirou could only sigh towards the heavens. Ais is so good at this!

"Sword Princess, you are truly too strong, Sword Princess!" Seeing that Ais had finished the battle, Lulune, who had been watching, clung to her again. Shirou, for his part, expressed that he no longer wanted to deal with her. Without asking, that woman's eyes simply didn't see him. Therefore, Shirou directly bypassed the two and walked towards Asfi, who was directing her members to clear the battlefield.

"What do you think we should do next?" Hearing Shirou's question, Asfi glanced at him and said,

"According to the information provided by the black-clad individual, the abnormality here should be coming from the granary."

"But the entire 24th floor has three granaries, located in the southwest, southeast, and north. We need to decide which direction to go first!"

"Let's go north first!" Hearing Shirou's answer, a slight smile appeared on Asfi's face.

"So you thought of it too!"

"It seems you thought of it too. Is this a consensus among smart people?" Hearing Asfi and Shirou's words, the others all looked confused. Seeing this, Asfi explained to everyone.

"We just need to follow the direction the monsters came from. After all, isn't the problem coming from the granary? Since the monsters are coming from there, it means the problem is there."

"And the direction the monsters are coming from is North!"

--------More Bonus Chapters!!!!

Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter