A Cliché Multiverse Story-Chapter 353 - 362: The Dungeon Trio
Asahi accompanied Gabriel and Sandalphon for nearly six hours before he returned. It had been only three hours in the Danmachi world. What's more, Astraea was sitting alone in his room, on his bed. Asahi immediately sensed her distraught from her wry smile.
"You're back."
"What's wrong?" He sat beside her as he asked. "You seem stressed."
"I'm… nothing." She shook her head. "Did you meet Freya?"
"Oh that. She invited me to her place tomorrow night. You're coming with me."
"I was right…" Astraea's shoulder dropped. "Freya is onto something… she wants you in her Familia."
Even though she knew Asahi wouldn't betray her, she couldn't stop this anxiety. Freya never failed to take anything that interested her. Astraea had seen him brushing off Ishtar's charm like it was nothing. She wasn't sure he could do the same against Freya's charm. Freya was on a different plane when it came to charm divinity.
Asahi slid his arm around Astraea's shoulder and stroked her hair. "As I said before, you don't have to worry about Freya or other gods. We'll go there and have some free dinner and entertainment."
Astraea sighed before she revealed a soft smile. "I'm prone to worrying about things I find dear…"
"We have that in common."
For the next hour, he spoiled the heck out of Astraea until she was fully assured nobody could steal him from her Familia.
***
Asahi headed to the dungeon first thing in the morning. Accompanying him was Saeko with her beloved SSS-Ranked Bushikatagi and Rini with her edgy gauntlets.
"Which floor is it?" Saeko asked, eyeing the doorway leading into the next floor.
"69th," Asahi replied with a grin.
Rini grinned, receiving a wry look from Saeko.
"69th floor…" Saeko stared at Asahi. "Are we still fighting the corrupted spirit pawns?"
"Most likely. We have fought them so far."
They entered the floor and did what they did best—causing havoc on Dungeon-chan.
***
A woman sat in the darkness of the dungeon, her eyes closed as though she was meditating. She had scarlet hair in a bob cut. A cloaked figure with a half black and white mask stood beside a pale man with snow-white hair. He peered down at the redhead's cold face through the gap in his half-smiling, half-crying mask.
Tentacles writhed all around them.
"Can these shut the fuck up for once?" she growled. "So noisy."
"He is here again," the cloaked man whispered.
"Are we going deeper again?" The white-haired man frowned. "How can an adventurer scare these spirits?"
The corrupted spirits took years to climb the dungeon, yet a certain adventurer frightened them enough to send them down a couple of floors. The more he descended, the more corrupted spirits retreated, and the more delayed their plan became. They had climbed down to the 87th floor because of him. 𝒇𝘳𝐞𝚎𝓌𝑒𝑏𝒏𝑜𝙫ℯl.c𝚘𝒎
"I don't understand…" The man named Olivas Act scratched his face. "I don't understand."
"He isn't your average man," replied the god concealed in an extravagant dress unfitting for a dungeon trip. "A hero he is."
"I've had enough of this," the red-haired woman said as her eyelids fluttered, revealing a pair of sharp green eyes. "Hero or god, I'll stop him." 𝑓𝗿𝐞𝘦𝘄ｅ𝘣n𝘰𝘷eƖ.c𝘰𝗺
"Revis, be careful," the god said, a frown forming under his mask. "Retreat if you can't fight."
Revis ignored the god and took out a chunk of magic stone from her pouch. She crunched the magic stone with her sharp teeth.
***
The floors were a breeze to Asahi. Well, not exactly. On the 70th floor, he met a massive boar named 'The King of the Winter.' The fading winter rendered it so weak, even stealing its innate skill to manipulate the snow. Despite that, the boar's inhumane size and its thick skin rivaled the Cadmus Dragon Ais slew. Saeko's katana diced it into pieces of fresh meat, which unfortunately vanished after she took out its magic stone. The boar made up for its discourtesy by giving a huge chunk of XP.
The half-cold climate was still going strong on the 71st floor and beyond with less and less corrupted spirit minions occasionally showing up in their path. Instead, a horde of wyverns appeared, each one having pure white scales on their bodies. They breathed a beam of frost. It might have wiped out any adventurer party if the environment had not been altered by the corrupted spirits. Alas, neither he nor Saeko were normal people; the wyverns couldn't freeze them to death.
Asahi slaughtered them in a heartbeat, reaching level 43 in the process.
He bullied Dungeon-chan for six more floors, trying to summon a Juggernaut or two. Juggernaut-san was still angry as it refused to answer Asahi's calls.
Asahi had no choice but to return home.. At least he reached level 44 today.
