"The strange flower above has been dealt with, so we just jumped down directly. The others chose to come down through the passage."
Tom answered Takatsuki's question, which was normal. After all, there were several low-level people in their team, such as Riveria and Raul, and those two couldn't withstand the danger of falling from such a high altitude.
Tom was due to his mastery of Rokushiki, and Jerry was a Shadowkhan Soldier himself, so this little problem didn't trouble him.
"In that case, let's collect the materials."
After Riveria's Rea Laevateinn finished casting, it killed countless monsters. However, because there were only the two of them, they didn't collect the spoils of war. But since the supporters had arrived, they could do such chores.
The Shadowkhan Soldiers were naturally diligent and tireless, and the puppet Tom had no complaints. The two split up to collect the spoils.
It took some time, and before the Loki Familia members came down, the two had already finished collecting the spoils.
Takatsuki found the dragon liver and dragon heart he needed from the materials dropped by the giant dragons. With this, Fu Hua's medicinal ingredients were finally completely collected.
"Actually, there's no need to collect the magic stones; you can just break them on the spot. Because the quantity is too large, we can't possibly take them all back."
Riveria walked over to the pile of materials and magic stones, which looked like a small mountain on the ground, and said.
"That would be too wasteful."
Riveria shook her head: "Carrying a large amount of items back on the way is very prone to accidents. And if the magic stones are not broken, and are swallowed by monsters, elite monsters will be born. Elite monsters have wisdom far beyond ordinary monsters, and they will hunt magic stones to evolve on their own, which is very troublesome."
"What you said is indeed a problem. In that case, there's no choice. But since you don't want these magic stones, it should be fine if I take some, right?"
"You can, but this magic stone looks very special. Do you know why?"
Riveria asked, looking at the magic stone that burst out of the green worm.
"I don't know, that's why I want to study it."
"I see." Riveria walked over, picked up a magic stone, and sensed it with her magic power: "Aside from its appearance, it seems to be no different from an ordinary magic stone. I'll also take one back to study it."
Putting the magic stone into her pocket: "You can arrange the rest as you wish, but remember not to leave a single magic stone behind; you must break them."
"Understood, understood."
After Riveria left, Takatsuki had his two supporters take some magic stones, and he secretly stuffed the rest into his backpack, avoiding Riveria's gaze. He was unwilling to miss out on such special magic stones.
The Dungeon's rate of new monster generation was not slow. Whenever a small number of enemies appeared, Takatsuki alone could directly deal with them.
And when monsters spawned in large numbers, he would leave it to Riveria to cast magic.
She didn't ask Takatsuki why he didn't use the powerful fire magic he had used on the first day, and Takatsuki was happy not to have to explain.
Soon, the Loki Familia arrived on the 58th Floor.
"Riveria-sensei!"
Seeing the excited Lefiya and Ais running along with her, Riveria breathed a sigh of relief. Although she was the one who should be worried about, with her not by their side, she was inversely worried about her adopted daughter and student above.
"Are you all alright?"
The expedition team was finally assembled.
"It's great that you're all fine. Now that we've regrouped, let's rest for a bit and prepare to return."
Just as the few people were immersed in the joy of reunion, Finn suddenly spoke.
"Huh!? Captain, are we going back from the 58th Floor again this time? Isn't that like not coming at all?"
Bete immediately expressed his dissatisfaction.
Finn raised his right hand and licked his throbbing thumb: "This Dungeon is different from when we last came. We encountered monsters that didn't appear last time, and Tiona and Tione's weapons were destroyed by the monsters' bodily fluids."
What Finn said was true. Tiona was still depressed, and Tione only had one of her two daggers left.
"Tch… no choice."
Just as Bete said, there was no choice. Although several of them still wanted to continue exploring, Finn's intuition was never wrong, and their condition was indeed not good.
"I'll patrol the surroundings, you all rest."
Bete felt a surge of energy with nowhere to go, so he went to trouble the newly spawned monsters.
"Um, then I'll go with Raul to collect some materials."
Lefiya also wanted to contribute her best. She felt she couldn't help much in combat, at least in that aspect.
But clearly, Lefiya's wish was not destined to come true.
Just as she picked up a huge Valgang Dragon's fang, a shadow appeared behind her.
On the other side, Takatsuki was also sorting through the bags on his supporters: "My materials have all been collected. My mission here is complete, but do you know what those emerging monsters are?"
Finn shook his head: "We haven't seen those monsters that burst out of the ground either, but they're not snakes, they're plants. And their magic stones are like those of the worms, possibly from the same source."
"If they're plants, and those monsters are connected to the ground at the other end, shouldn't they have root systems?"
"We suspected that too, and then we found their root systems in the deeper food storage area, there…"
Before they could finish speaking, a scream came from a distance.
"Lefiya!"
"Something happened!"
The two quickly rushed towards where Lefiya's scream came from.
Upon arriving, Ais and Bete, who were closer, had already arrived.
"Let go of Lefiya."
Ais looked expressionlessly at the red-haired woman standing opposite them, holding the unconscious Lefiya.
"Scum! Put her down!"
However, the red-haired woman completely ignored Bete's threat, only looking in Ais's direction: "Aria, if you want to save her, come to the 59th Floor."
With that, she pushed off the ground, quickly moving away from everyone and rushing towards the lower floor.
"Stop!"
Bete and Ais chased after her simultaneously, but quickly returned unsuccessful.
The woman's speed was faster than both of them, and after chasing to the entrance of the lower floor, they didn't dare to continue the pursuit.
"If... if I had been a little faster, Lefiya wouldn't have been taken away."
Ais was full of self-reproach after returning. Although she desperately wanted to save Lefiya, she was stopped by Bete, who was traveling with her. Although Bete often acted recklessly, he could still analyze things calmly when facing major events.
"Ais, you don't need to blame yourself. After all, even several of us seniors couldn't stop the opponent. Instead of regretting, there is only one thing we need to do now!"
Finn looked at Ais, then turned to the others and said, "Rescue our Familia comrade!"