"That's insane! You don't even have abnormal resistance!" Hestia protested my plan to dive even deeper into the dungeon.
"Yeah but to be fair I'm not getting enough of a challenge from the middle floors anymore even from the larger groups of monsters. I need something stronger, more dangerous to sharpen my claws against. Otherwise Bells gonna leave me way behind with how fast he levels up." I insist.
"Bells not trying to raise his stats to the ridiculous level you are!" she shot back without backing down.
"Oh come on I'm not being TOO unreasonable here I won't even go deeper than the great tree labyrinth, I promise." I pleaded.
She looked conflicted but more likely to agree since I promised and I don't break those.
"I still don't like it, but I will let you go since you shouldn't be in too much danger with your strength." She said and I grinned.
If I'm being honest here I probably could have gone to the grand tree labyrinth without telling her first but the chances that I would get spotted that deep and the information got back to her was not small enough that I felt the risk was worth taking.-
Still with that taken care of I had to prep for my first trip done that fair and that meant it was time for paranoid packing. Healing potion, mana potions, antidotes, food, a water ring, a tent, the fucking works. I was prepped for my own personal expedition and that meant I had two separate bags on me. The big bag had all my nonessentials while the smaller one had my essentials and a bunch of empty space for any drops or materials I collect while I was down there.-
I didn't plan to return to the surface for quite some time as I'd live and fight with a base camp on floor eighteen, the first safe floor Rivira. This was so that I could save time and go straight to slaughtering monsters shortly after waking up and until just before I called it a day. Rivira was sort of a tropical place with lots of trees and even a glowing crystal ceiling way overhead that you could use to tell the time. It dimmed at night and got bright during the day which was rather interesting in my opinion.-
As the name suggested the floor was also "safe" in that no monsters spawned on the floor though they did come up from bellow or fall down from above which had caused the adventurer town of Rivira on the floor to get destroyed and rebuilt like thirteen times so far. I had no intention of staying in the town during my time down here though as everything had stupidly jacked up prices. No I was just going to use my technique to fuse some of the trees together into a makeshift house. It wouldn't be anything fancy or anything but it would keep anything from attacking me while I slept.-
Before all that though I had to get down there first which is why i was currently talking with Finn of the Loki familia.
"Mind if I help fight the Goliath?" I asked after he agreed to taxi me to the eighteenth floor.
"I'm sorry but we already have plans for the Goliath drops." he said calmly.
I chuckled "I don't want any of the drops, I want practice for when I have to fight it later and the smoke from when it dies. No doubt you already know that I absorb the stuff from Riviera, Tiona and Ais." I said casually.
He nodded "They told me that you said it was some sort of skill, I might be inclined to allow you to utilize it if you can swear that it won't interfere with the drops." Finn said with a stern look.
"I promise that it's an entirely separate thing from the drops. As an added bonus Ill throw in an item i made in off case the Goliath doesn't drop anything so that you don't walk away empty handed either way. It can create water by using the wears mana." I said while showing off the water rings effect.
Finns eyes lit up when he saw it in action and he asked about it's number of uses and even if there was anything that could effect it's abilities. I didn't mind explaining everything he could possibly need to understand about the ring since his familia were the target for me to sell the things anyways.-
"Do you by chance intend to sell more of these rings in the future? We would be willing to pay handsomely for them as they would serve to lighten our loads by a considerable amount on each expedition?" he asked seriously.
"That was the idea though as should be obvious I won't be mass producing them as it takes quite the effort to make even one. Besides don't act like I'm just giving you this one, it's collateral in the unlikely case the Goliath doesn't have any drops. Can't sell it to you anyways as I need it for my own stuff during my delve." I said honestly.
"A shame, it would have freed up much more room for loot on this expedition." Finn said disappointed but he seemed to understand.
That was how I ended up hitching a ride through the dungeon with the Loki familia on their regular expedition to the deeper parts of the dungeon. All the way through the first sixteen floors it was a breeze as everything that got in the way of the group got dealt with by the weaker members while anything too strong for them got dealt with by the stronger folk.
"You haven't used any of your magic when you fought the minotaurs, why?" Riveria asked curiously after i helped deal with a group of minotaurs..
"My fires not very good in a team type situation, tries to consume anything other than me around which in this case means you folks. Besides that the only way I don't insta-kill those things is if I limit myself to not using the flames." I explain honestly.
"Ah so that's why all the reports say you solo delve!" The Dwarf Gareth said in understanding.
"Yeah I'm not spec'd for teamwork so I go alone. It's much more dangerous but at the same time far more profitable since all the loot belongs to me alone and the only persons weight I have to carry is my own." I said with a smile.
"Can't say I envy you lad, dungeons a merciless place when you've got no one to watch your back. Claimed more than a few because of circumstances like yours." Gareth said seriously.
I shrugged "It doesn't really bother me to be honest, in a way it's kinda nice since I can experiment and explore at my own pace without having to worry about keeping up or holding back for my teammates." I said honestly.