"Um, Miss Blanc..."
Tuesday, Yuveria's day off. Following her plans from yesterday, she went to the guild to enter the dungeon, where she was stopped by Maria the receptionist. She was visibly nervous, stuttering even.
"The uh... the guildmaster wants to see you."
It seemed, being the receptionist closest to Yuveria, the responsibility fell on her to bring Yuveria to the guildmaster.
The adventurer's guild was a rather large building with three floors and a basement to its land. The first floor was where adventurers and clients came and went, where the receptionists work and where the transportation platform into the dungeon laid. The second floor was where more private contracts between a specific adventurer and the client were made, it was also where the office of the guildmaster and vice master were located. The third floor was where all the TPs from the dungeons were placed, where all adventurers returned to. And the basement's custom-made inventory was where all the monster drops were stored.
After being told that the GM was summoning her, Yuveria went to the second floor and turned to the hallway leading to the GM's office, before she spotted the GM herself just waiting at one of the private booths used for the aforementioned private commissions.
"Good that you didn't ignore me this time, Blanc."
The guild's master was young, not that much older than Yuveria, in fact. She wore a silver breastplate and wristguards, which clanked together with the chainmail beneath it. Though, the silver had lost its shine. The armor was an inheritance from the previous master, and it was what differentiated the guildmaster from other adventurers back in the day, but what with the only pieces of the armor being a mere breastplate and wristguards left, it was nothing more than a uniform. Even her long golden hair and blue eyes, and her face that should have the same youthfulness as Yuveria's, looked dull and dead as she wore that armor. Yuveria walked closer to her, before recoiling at the pungent smell of sweat and alcohol. Had she been stuck with paperwork again? When was the last time she went home?
"...You smell li– You wanted to see me?"
Yuveria was about to comment on her stench, but she quickly corrected herself. Even if it was the truth, Katherine Alegra was still a woman, and the guildmaster. Any rude remarks could go several ways wrong.
"I heard that. Anyway, its more like I have a request for you. You're heading to the unregistered floors today, right?"
She placed a number of small discs on top of the table. While pinching her nose, Yuveria placed the discs into her inventory, and went back to a more comfortable spot away from Katherine after doing so.
"You want me to set up TPs?"
"Yeah. I know no one other than you have cleared the 30th floor yet, but even if it's not for us, at least do it for your own convenience. Surely it's a hassle to go through each floor starting from the 30th each time, right?"
"True... I don't know if it's possible for the 31st to 34th floors, but I'll see what I can do on the deeper floors."
"I'll be counting on you."
After waving her hand to dispel the wafting odor, Yuveria went back down to the first floor and went over to Maria's desk. She whispered just loud enough for all the receptionists behind her to hear, but not loud enough for Katherine at the floor above them to.
"The guildmaster reeks... Let her go home today."
"Ah, sure."
Katherine would later thank Yuveria for finally letting her go home, but that's for a later time.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ μ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
"Show us your status window."
Flashback to Sunday, the day when Yuveria returned to streaming and when she revealed everything about the deeper floors. She had Qualia show her status window in front of the several adventurers who came to observe as she talked about the deeper floors.
——————————
Name: Qualia
Class: Spellblade, Whitesmith
Floors Cleared: 25
Strength: A+
Vitality: D-
Intelligence: B+
Agility: B-
Dexterity: A-
Luck: C+
Magic: Fire Blade, Water Blade, Ice Blade, Wind Blade, Earth Blade, Light Blade, Dark Blade
——————————
Everyone awed at Qualia's high specs. Even Yuveria, who asked to show it, was slightly surprised, not expecting Qualia's above average stats.
"That's... pretty good, actually. Now, here's mine."
——————————
Name: Yuveria Blanc
Species: ■■■■■
Class: Sword Dancer, Ice Princess, Usurper
Floors Cleared: 44
Health: B+
Mana Capacity: A+
Physical Attack: S+
Magic Attack: A-
Physical Defense: B-
Magic Defense: A-
Speed: S+
Accuracy: S
Luck: SSS
Equipment:
Set A
- White Mana Dress [B]
- White Mana Shoes [B]
- White Mana Gloves [B]
- White Shortsword [B]
- White Dagger [B]
- Maiden Throwing Knives [S]
Set B
- Fallen Snow Dress [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Shoes [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Gloves [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Tiara [SS] [4|4]
- Acheron [SS]
- Cocytus [SS]
- Styx [SS]
- Lethe [SS]
- Phlegethon [SS]
- Castor & Pollux [SSS]
1 | 2
——————————
The difference in detail was evident even at a quick glance. Qualia's status window didn't even show her equipment, much less have a second page. Yuveria quickly hid her status window after everyone had a quick look at the difference.
"This level of detail appears once you've reached the 31st flo–"
"Back up. That was not just the wind, Yuvie."
Of course, while she wished no one would comment on it, reality was not something that went along with her whims. Andrea, who was dealing with crowd control earlier, clearly noticed something was off with Yuveria's stats.
"S-ranked stats? SS equipment? I'm scared to even see what's on the second page..."
"It's just the wind, please trust me."
"No, you can't jus–"
The temperature dropped before Andrea could finish. Yuveria simply smiled as if she didn't mind, but it was clearly off-limits to ask any more. She gestured the crowd to open a path, and they quickly obeyed.
"I'm tired, so I'd like to end here for today."
Just like that, Yuveria left the guild as the sun set. It's been a hectic weekend, but it was only the beginning. Now that she's revealed herself and returned to streaming, her life will continue to spiral out of control. But that was future Yuveria's problem. For now, she just wanted to sleep.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ μ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
"Stream start."
The 30th floor was a beach setting. Not many people have even reached it, and only Yuveria has been able to clear it. Other adventurers have difficulty fighting this floor's boss, Levia the Sea Serpent, for one main reason.
"Good morning, everyone."
Levia fights underwater, where it holds a clear advantage, and where adventurers hold a clear disadvantage. Underwater battle is not easy, even for the top adventurers. Yuveria was no exception when she first cleared the 30th floor, she also struggled to fight underwater. However, these days...
[Did she just freeze the sea?]
[Wow...]
[So she's been holding back quite a lot in the lower floors, huh...]
Yes. Yuveria did indeed freeze the entire water half of the 30th floor, and Levia the Sea Serpent along with it. The magical staircase leading to the 31st floor appeared nonchalantly flushed into the frozen waters, and Yuveria casually descended, her floating camera following behind her.
[The 31st floor... I wonder what it's like...]
[If the 30th floor is anything to go by, it must be the sea, right?]
[Wait, but if it's the sea, then won't Yuvie be in trouble without a boat?]
Yuveria's viewers had shifted from calling her YB to Yuvie, since it was a cuter name than her initials. Andrea was the first to start calling her Yuvie, and the rest of her audience just followed.
[QualiaTODRESA: Phew, finally a break! What'd I miss?]
"Qualia, don't use your window in class. Quick Change, set B."
As Yuveria took the last step into the 31st floor, her white shoes distorted into black heels. The pure white combat dress that she'd been wearing ever since her inception as an adventurer warped into a dark blue gown, completely unfit for dungeon diving. Her white gloves turned dark, and a tiara materialized squarely atop her golden hair. Yuveria adjusted the tiara so that it would be tilting slightly instead of being planted right at the center of her golden hair. Five dark blades materialized behind her, floating idly in a circular motion in a star formation.
[A Black Dancer?!]
[What a cool transformation!]
[No wait, huh? What just happened?]
The water beneath her feet, the first sight of the 31st floor, froze on contact. The staircase leading back to the 30th floor won't disappear as long as Levia the Sea Serpent isn't defeated again, so Yuveria won't have trouble returning whenever. Usually, an adventurer returns from a TP, but in the event that a TP is unavailable, a manual return by climbing back to the first floor was always an option. No one uses it these days, but the old entrance to the dungeon before TPs became commonplace was still open. Though, climbing back up normally would mean finding the staircases that lead up to the lower floors, which was a separate hassle.
"As I thought, I can't set up a TP here..."
Looking around, it was only ocean as far as the eye can see. Yuveria was standing on top of a rather large piece of ice that came about when she came into contact with the water, but it'll melt eventually if she's not there to keep the water frozen. She'd have to deactivate her ice in order to swim down to find the stairs to the 32nd floor, but for now, she let her viewers take in the sight.
[I read the new database record, but it really is just ocean as far as the eye can see...]
[AndreaWhiteOfficial@WhiteAvenue: How'd you even manage to get past this the first time, Yuvie?]
"Ah... Magic is really versatile, isn't it?"
Yuveria began explaining. The main reason she was able to fight Levia and even defeat it back on the 30th floor, and how she managed to clear the next few floors until the 34th, was because of a combination of wind and water spells that allowed her to breathe air despite being underwater. It took Yuveria nearly four months to clear floors 31-34, but considering that everyone else had been stuck on the 30th floor for nearly a year despite breezing through every floor before that over three years, it was pretty good pace. Compared to before TPs were invented, when the deepest floor cleared was only the 5th floor, the fact that adventurers were able to breeze through until they cleared the 29th floor was all thanks to TPs.
Now the question is, how can you use TPs when there's no proper ground to place it on? The answer is, you can't. Not unless you artificially make a piece of land to plant a TP, or plant it on a boat or a ship. But as powerful as Yuveria is, she's not a shipwright, she can't make boats. Maybe if she were an earth mage she could make a small but permanent man-made island, but she's not an earth mage, and creating an island made of ice that'll eventually melt is out of the question.
If it were regular ice, that is. To be honest, if she focused, Yuveria could make an island made of unmelting ice. It would even be good for viewer engagement, but that's not the purpose of her dive today. She wanted to show off the unexplored floors, but the 31st to 34th floors were a little special in that they only have a single staircase leading to the 35th floor. The floors are essentially the layers of the ocean.
[It really is all just ocean...]
[Looks like water magicians will be very valuable when we reach these floors...]
"Well, you'll unlock the third class once you've beaten Levia, so there will be more versatility in builds... hm... but well, as everyone can see, it's just ocean as far as the eye can see, so."
Yuveria tapped the waves with her finger, and they froze immediately. The ice spread immediately downwards, creating a makeshift tunnel to the staircase leading to the next floor.
"Let's just skip it."
[Crazy woman.]
[Feels like we're back to the old YB days!]
[Oh, an OG viewer.]
[I remember when YB barely had a little less than 50 viewers, now she's at the top of trending again!]
Reading chat while descending down her ice tunnel, Yuveria took a glance at her live viewer count, and found an astonishing 50 thousand viewers watching her live.
"I didn't realize so many people were watching... Good morning."
[Still not good at communication even after the long hiatus, huh?]
[Hello! First-time viewer here!]
[A lot of us are.]
[Honestly, I was convinced Yuvie was just an urban legend.]
[Well, she's definitely a legend alright.]
[You see anyone else casually freezing the ocean to get to the next floor?]
Yuveria smiled subtly while reading her chat. The tunnel through the layers of the ocean, the 32nd to 34th floors, was annoyingly long, so instead of just descending in silence, Yuveria began talking about Zuccuto the Mana Robber, as she already listed all the details of the floors' monsters into the database.
"Let me tell you about Zuccuto the Mana Robber."
Zuccuto was a siren, a berserk form of an intelligent species that resides on the 36th to 39th floors called merfolk. They have the upper body of humans and the lower bodies of different types of aquatic creatures. Zuccuto was exiled from the merfolk city that is prevalent throughout the floors.
"It's quite the famous city in mythology. The Lost City of Atlantis."
As you dive deeper, the floors of the tower expand further, allowing multi-level cities like Atlantis to be available as a safe zone even through different floors. Although, for the Frozen Castle on the 40th to 44th floors, it was quite literally different floors of the castle, with several staircases leading up and down. A nightmarish three-dimensional labyrinth. It was fortunate that monsters weren't around for those floors, but exploring an ever-changing labyrinth is a different kind of hell.
[I guess that explains why you're stuck on the 44th floor...]
"Ahem. Sorry, I got sidetracked."
Zuccuto was a siren. They were similar to the merfolk in many ways, but as a sign of exile, they were forced to shed their humanoid halves and live as a monstrosity of a human-shaped fish. Zuccuto himself was well known as a prominent mage before he started studying immortality, which brought upon his exile from Atlantis.
He technically succeeded in achieving immortality... Just, not in the way he expected. By borrowing the power of the tower, he willingly allowed himself to become a boss monster, and he achieved immortality in that way. Technically speaking, endless resurrection is another type of immortality... Now that he's become a boss, he mutated even further, developing an unusual trait that allows him to drain the mana of those around him.
"So I suggest killing him as fast as possible."
[Sure, let's just figure out the problem of actually getting to him first, yeah?]
[Us normal people are still on the early 20's floors, Yuvie. Even the top adventurers other than you are stuck on 29.]
[MariaThalley@GuildOfficial: Good morning, and good news! Effective immediately, Miss Yuveria Blanc will now be officially recognized as an S-rank adventurer by the guild. Congratulations!]
[Wha]
[Woah, congrats!]
[What kind of announcement is this...]
[No, but, she's an actual guild official...]
[KDA@GuildOfficial: It's true. After Miss Blanc left, we held a meeting and decided it quickly.]
[It's the GM.]
[Congrats on being the first ever S-rank adventurer, Yuvie!]
[AndreaWhiteOfficial@WhiteAvenue: I thought you guys were low-staffed? That was way faster than I expected.]
[QualiaTODRESA: Congrats, Yuvie!]
"Uh, mm. Yeah. Thanks, everyone."
A wave of congratulations scrolled through Yuveria's vision, and after thinking of a way to properly respond, she decided to a simple thank you would suffice. She was never good at this type of thing, birthday greetings, comgratulations, thank-yous, she always found it awkward since she didn't know whether to individually reply to each one or to say a collective thank you to everyone.
And to be perfectly honest, Yuveria was never really interested in her adventurer rank. As she climbed higher and higher, the guild would promote her accordingly, but she never paid attention to any of that and just continued as she pleased. That's partly why the guild just casually announced her promotion in her livestream chat devoid of any formality.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ μ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
"Now then, we've reached the 35th floor."
[So, we're here...]
[I feel tense...]
"Don't worry, it'll be quick."
It was a terribly long tunnel from sea level to the door to the 35th floor, but Yuveria finally reached it. The five idle swords floated beside Yuveria, and pointed themselves towards the door, ready to fly towards Zuccuto the moment the doors open.
As Yuveria placed her hands on the doors, she felt a freezing coolness at the touch. She was confused for a moment, but she didn't dwell on it. As she pushed the doors open, the sight behind the door came into view.
[...Wat.]
[It's... frozen.]
"What... Why are you...?"
The swords stood down as the frozen battleground came into view. There was Zuccuto the Mana Robber, in his manfish terror, shattered into hundreds of ice shards. Yuveria could only blink at how brutally he'd been murdered. Then, her eyes wandered to the figure standing atop his shattered remains.
She was wearing a deep royal blue dress, a slightly lighter shade of blue from Yuveria's Fallen Snow Dress, but with roughly the same design. Apart from that, though, her attire was a perfect one-to-one match with Yuveria's. Royal blue dress, black gloves, tall black heels, but instead of a tiara, a veil covered her face. She had elongated, pointed ears, bright blue eyes that even the veil could not conceal, and shining golden hair. When the figure set her eyes on Yuveria, she...
"Yuvie~!"
Rushed over and threw herself at Yuveria, pulling her into a warm embrace. She was an entire head shorter than Yuveria, who patted her on the head as she rubbed her face on Yuveria's chest in response. Chat questioned the sudden appearance and unusual intimacy of the girl.
[Uh... What just happened.]
[What's with this lady?]
[Yuvie, can you give us an explanation?]
"Uh, okay. So basically, this is my... aunt...?"
[Huh.]
[Huh.]
[AndreaWhiteOfficial@WhiteAvenu: ???]
[QualiaTODRESA: Your what now??]
[KDA@GuildOfficial: Why and how is she on the 35th floor??]
[ManaΘ@WhiteAvenue: YB, this ain't in the db.]
[TomEdis: Miss Blanc, your family record states you don't have an aunt...]
"Ahem, let me introduce her. This is the boss of the 40th floor, Queen Orael Fey."
Orael removed her veil, revealing a face strikingly similar to four other blue-eyed, golden-haired individuals. She turned to the floating camera, performed a curtsy bow, and spoke in a tone befitting of her title despite her earlier behaviour.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am Orael Fey, the Queen of the Frozen Castle."
[...Huh?!]
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ μ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Qualia's Status Window (Pre-30)
——————————
Name: Qualia
Class: Spellblade, Whitesmith
Floors Cleared: 25
Strength: A+
Vitality: D-
Intelligence: B+
Agility: B-
Dexterity: A-
Luck: C+
Magic: Fire Blade, Water Blade, Ice Blade, Wind Blade, Earth Blade, Light Blade, Dark Blade
——————————
Yuveria's Status Window (Post-30)
——————————
Name: Yuveria Blanc
Species: ■■■■■
Class: Sword Dancer, Ice Princess, Usurper
Floors Cleared: 44
Health: B+
Mana Capacity: A+
Physical Attack: S+
Magic Attack: A-
Physical Defense: B-
Magic Defense: A-
Speed: S+
Accuracy: S
Luck: SSS
Equipment:
Set A
- White Mana Dress [B]
- White Mana Shoes [B]
- White Mana Gloves [B]
- White Shortsword [B]
- White Dagger [B]
- Maiden Throwing Knives [S]
Set B
- Fallen Snow Dress [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Shoes [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Gloves [S] [4|4]
- Fallen Snow Tiara [SS] [4|4]
- Acheron [SS]
- Cocytus [SS]
- Styx [SS]
- Lethe [SS]
- Phlegethon [SS]
- Castor & Pollux [SSS]
1 | 2
——————————
Skills:
Offensive
- Swords Dance S
- Shortsword Conceptualization S
- Longsword Conceptualization S
- Dagger Mastery S
- Ice Conceptualization S
- Magic Attack Boost S
- Tyrant S
- Western Blade S
- Scythe Mastery A
- Knife Mastery A
- Dual Wielding A
- Physical Attack Boost A
- Royal Blade A
- Throne Killer A
- Eastern Blade A
- Unusual Blade B
- Polearm Mastery B
- Greatsword Mastery B
Defensive
- Stealth S
- Ice Immunity S
- Poison Immunity S
- Schemer A
- Health Boost A
- Water Resistance A
- Magic Defense Boost B
- Physical Defense Boost B
- Illusion Resistance B
- Wind Resistance B
Miscellaneous
- Lucky SS
- Royal Authority S
- Distribution S
- Royal Following A
- Noble Bloodline A
- Mana Boost A
- Schemer A
- Thought Acceleration A
- Third Arm B
- Quick Change B
2 | 2
——————————
Levels of Weapon Skills go like this:
Training E → Training S → Basic E → Basic S → Expert D → S → Mastery C → S → Conceptualization B → S
The base stats displayed are not influenced by skill effects, they are the raw stats without skill effects. Taking skill effects into account, Yuveria's stats would look like this:
Health: A
Mana Capacity: S-
Physical Attack: SS
Magic Attack: S+
Physical Defense: A-
Magic Defense: S+
Speed: SS
Accuracy: S+
Luck: MU