Assets: Reserves: 3,620,000 | Cash: 476,320,000 Excelia: 2,311
...
After Evilus had gifted him that thousand-point "deluxe care package," the Dungeon's "mother" proved equally generous on their very first step into the Lower Floors, tossing them a hefty welcome present of her own.
A single Monster Party had pushed Leon's Excelia Pool all the way up to 2,311 points.
Before this Expedition, he'd specifically noted the number: 1,083.
2,311 minus 1,083. That was 1,228 points.
They'd barely entered the Lower Floors. Barely two hours of fighting, and he'd already farmed nearly half a month's worth of Excelia. Maybe not a full jackpot, but definitely an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Rose, who'd been watching Leon closely the whole time, set down her waterskin. Her eyes curved into soft crescents as she asked with a gentle smile:
"Your face is telling me the haul was pretty good?"
Leon cocked an eyebrow and flashed a toothy grin.
"What do you mean 'pretty good'? It was just a little something, that's all."
He pinched his thumb and index finger together, making the universal "tiny bit" gesture.
Rose, naturally, wasn't buying a word of it. She'd personally taken his measurements down to the last detail, after all. This bastard... even when they were laid bare together, he'd say it was "just a light warmup," then wreck her so thoroughly that her legs were still shaking during morning training the next day. She still remembered that. She'd nearly embarrassed herself in front of Laurier and Aura!
The image she'd built in front of her juniors was the reliable, cool older sister with a bit of a cunning streak. If that image crumbled, where would she even put her face?
So after being burned enough times, Rose now believed at most half of whatever came out of Leon's mouth. The other half, she could fill in herself.
"Heh..."
Rose let out a meaningful little hum, turned away, and huddled up with Kureha to whisper.
The longer they spent together, the harder these ladies were to fool.
He sighed shamelessly to himself, then tossed the thought aside and turned his attention back to his status panel.
Since he'd only recently leveled up to Lv. 3, his Basic Abilities had grown by less than 700 points total across the previous battles against Evilus.
Each stat averaged just over 100, with only Magic approaching 300.
In terms of raw stats, Leon was nowhere close to reaching Lv. 4, so leveling wasn't even the goal right now. The real objective was dealing with the roadblock called Potential.
Now that I'm Lv. 3, each Potential stat went up 200 points compared to Lv. 1. They've gone from the 200s to the 400s. Magic is even higher, sitting at 689, knocking on 700's door...
To max out all Potential in one go, the five stats combined would require 5,480 Excelia and 54,800,000 Valis.
Money wasn't the issue.
Excelia was.
It's only day one of the Expedition, and a single Monster Party already netted me over a thousand points. At this rate, 5,480 is nothing.
With how fast and how many monsters spawn on the Lower Floors, five days tops and I'll have Potential maxed out.
With a plan in mind, Leon didn't hesitate. He dumped every last one of his 2,000-some Excelia straight into Potential. All in.
Watching the Potential values tick upward on his panel, he closed the Falna interface with a satisfied nod.
...
Assets: Reserves: 3,620,000 | Cash: 453,210,000 Excelia: 0
...
Still need 3,169 more...
He murmured the number to himself, then turned his attention to his companions.
...
...
On the same day that Leon's party launched their first Lower Floors Expedition deep within the Dungeon, Orario's surface was hosting a lively event of its own.
Three months had passed, and the Denatus was convening again.
As for what the Denatus actually was... if you really dug into it, it was just a get-together organized by a bunch of bored gods looking to kill time.
Once their Familias had built up enough strength and territory through hard work and sacrifice, plenty of patron deities conveniently forgot the struggles they'd been through and slid right into a lazy, decadent phase.
So these gods with nothing better to do would round up old friends from the heavens for some noise and chatter, burning through the endless, mind-numbing hours.
In plain terms: a divine gossip convention.
But the thing was, these thrill-seeking gods kept throwing these gatherings at regular intervals. More and more deities showed up over time, the scale kept growing, and as the years rolled by, the purpose gradually shifted. What started as pure chitchat evolved into a full-blown platform for sharing intel and exchanging opinions.
Eventually, the gathering was no longer just inter-Familia socializing. It became a joint operation with the Guild, an "official event" with enough pull to move the entire city.
On paper, the Denatus was more or less a formality in Orario's political structure. But it was still recognized as something of a... well, advisory body, one with real authority. Its influence even reached the Adventurer community.
Bestowing aliases on Adventurers who'd leveled up to become High-Class Adventurers, meaning those who'd reached Lv. 2, was one of its key functions. After all these sessions, it had become standard practice.
In fact... it was the part the gods looked forward to most.
Upper floors of Babel. The divine "council" hall.
"Bro, long time no see."
"Didn't we just meet at the last Denatus?"
"Did we? I can't even remember."
"Anyway, things in the city have been getting tenser and tenser lately, right? Especially that incident a while back. Good grief, they actually hit Loki's home base. When my kids told me about it, I nearly had a heart attack!"
"No kidding. These mortal children stir up more trouble than we ever did in the heavens. And there's no way those Evilus losers came up with something like that on their own."
"Huh? Now hold on, I disagree. Don't tell me you've forgotten Loki's Ragnarok Summit from a few million years back? Tsk tsk... just the ones I know about, a whole bunch of gods who attended that thing got themselves killed. Idiots."
"Shh! You got a death wish? Don't drag me down with you!"
"What? Loki's not even here yet. What's to be scared of? We're all just regular gods down here. You think she can hear me talking shit from across town?"
The male god was still puffing out his chest defiantly when he noticed that the circle of old friends around him had, at some point... quietly scooted their chairs away. Every last one of them.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Heh heh."
A voice dripping with menace came from right behind him, spoken in that distinct divine drawl. He froze solid.
"L-Loki?! When did you get..."
"Talking behind my back? How about I just beat the answer out of you?"
"W-wait, wait, wait... Loki! Hear me out, let me make my excuse first before you start swinging!"
"Take it up with my fist!"
"AHHH... AAAHHHH... AAAAHHHHH!"
...
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