Unfortunately, by the time they reached the scene, the place was already empty.
Thanks to Jeanne's Revelation skill, which gave her wide-range perception and worked somewhat like intuition, Ronan and Jeanne had already slipped away.
When this Astraea Familia party arrived at the site, they saw monster corpses covering the ground and charred remains that smelled of blood and burning. Everyone looked surprised and serious.
"All of these... are Killer Ants?"
Gojouno Kaguya, a black-haired woman in a kimono, spoke gravely. She narrowed her eyes at the shocking scene.
"It is more than that. A Monster Party of this scale cannot be explained as a normal one, Kaguya." Lyra, the small Pallum known as "Thrail," spoke up.
She crouched on the ground, wearing gloves as she carefully checked a charred corpse.
"Wait, Killer Ants? Lyra, do you mean...!?" Kaguya realized something after Lyra's reminder. Her expression changed at once.
"Exactly. Don't forget how Killer Ants behave. They call for help when they are in danger. Combine that with the Dungeon reacting strangely and triggering a Monster Party, and it explains the number of corpses."
Lyra paused and stood up, giving the others a pointed look. "And don't forget where we are... you understand what this means, right?"
Behind them, a red-haired swordswoman who had just caught up gasped. She was their captain, Alise Lovell, who held the title "Scarlet Harnel."
"Hey, hey, stop joking! This is the 7th floor! The Adventurer's Manual says clearly that Monster Parties are extremely rare on the Upper Floors! It's happening here now? This isn't funny, Kaguya, Lyra!"
"Haha, my dear Captain. I've told you so many times, don't cling too hard to rules. The Dungeon is full of unknowns. Since it is called an abnormal event, why wouldn't it be possible?"
Lyra said those unsettling words with a smile, making everyone's expression change.
"If the investigation results are really what we suspect, and a Monster Party appeared on the 7th floor, this is going to be a big problem," Kaguya said with a dark expression.
"Ryuu, what are you looking at?"
Alise noticed that the elf girl with the green cloak and blonde ponytail, Ryuu Lion, known as "Gale," was acting differently. Alise followed her gaze.
"Look at these corpses." Ryuu's voice was cold and focused. "Almost all of them were killed by a single spear strike. It was clean. Judging by the wounds, the monsters were intercepted and killed right at the tunnel entrance."
"The other charred corpses were caused by fire magic. It was likely a skilled mage."
Alise suddenly understood and cried out, "Only two people handled a crowd like this? They must be really strong!"
Kaguya smiled slightly, covering her mouth with her sleeve. "They were exploring a side room off the main path, so their level shouldn't be high. People at Level 2 or above wouldn't waste time on the 7th floor."
"So you're saying both of them are low level, maybe even Level 1? Haha, no way, that's impossible! With Level 1 combat power, how could they survive this many Killer Ants... wait..." Alise laughed and waved her hand, but her voice got lower and lower. In the end, like the others, she fell silent with a look of disbelief.
"Very strong," the blonde elf girl said solemnly.
The group looked at each other, their eyes full of surprise.
"Tsk..." Kaguya narrowed her eyes into thin slits and smiled. "We came to the Dungeon to make money for the Familia, and instead we ran into someone impressive. Looks like the Astraea Familia got lucky today."
They thought about it from the perspective of their past selves. If they had been Level 1, how would they have dealt with this many monsters? Their conclusion was simple: don't even think about it, just run.
While the members of the Astraea Familia were investigating and guessing what had happened, many curious adventurers and parties arrived one after another. When they saw the mess in the room and the familiar figures standing at the tunnel entrance, they whispered to each other and left.
"It's the Astraea Familia... Alise Lovell, Gojouno Kaguya, Lyra, Ryuu Lion..."
"I thought something big happened. That battle noise made my skin crawl. I didn't expect the Astraea Familia to be clearing monsters on the 7th floor."
"It's the justice Familia, so it's fine."
"Evilus has been too active lately, so they must be under a lot of pressure. It makes sense that they'd come to the Upper Floors to blow off steam a little. It's understandable."
"Tsk, it seems the situation in the city is bad. Things are getting tense if even the Astraea Familia is acting like this."
"Well, it's normal to feel stressed. You've seen those Evilus lunatics. They go after anyone they can." The adventurer looked disgusted.
The others showed similar expressions of agreement.
Clearly, no one with normal intelligence liked the extreme lunatics of Evilus.
At this time, Ronan and Jeanne had already run away and knew nothing about what was happening.
Because Ronan and Alise both used fire magic, and because many adventurers "saw" the Astraea Familia at the scene, the Monster Party on the 7th floor was eventually labeled as "the Astraea Familia's stress-relief hunt."
Ronan would never have guessed that Alise and the members of the Astraea Familia would end up taking the blame for his loud battle on the 7th floor.
In the main passage leading from the 7th floor to the 8th floor,
Ronan used a maintenance cloth to wrap the head of his staff, which was set with a large magic crystal. He secured it with leather straps and hung it back on his backpack. He and Jeanne moved toward the lower floor.
Both wore hooded cloaks to stay low-key while remaining alert.
"Don't be fooled by the alliances and the Guild headquarters on the surface. In the Dungeon, things are completely different."
"The rules here are simple. The strong take what they want, the weak get pushed aside, and violence settles a lot of things."
"Inside the Dungeon, if you're weak, someone stronger can always come after you. Our enemies are not just the environment, the monsters, or the Evilus lunatics, but also the malice of other adventurers."
"Visible hostility isn't scary. What's scary is hidden malice. If you aren't careful, you can fall into a trap before you even realize it. You won't know when you were stabbed in the back or how you died."
"The unspoken rule for adventurers in the Dungeon is to keep your distance. Don't interfere without the other person's permission."
As they walked, Ronan taught Jeanne the survival rules of their circle.
"You... can't even help casually?" Jeanne's expression turned a little sad.
Ronan instinctively curled his lip under his mask and scoffed.
"Every rule comes from a hard lesson. For example... you see someone in danger and help them out of kindness. When the battle ends, they turn around and claim you stole their loot. They extort you. What do you do? Do you give it to them or not?"
"..."
"That's human nature."
"And the simplest way to solve that problem is to make sure your strength speaks louder than theirs."
"We're here. Let's go."
Looking at the stone stairs ahead, the two looked at each other and stepped in without hesitation.
Dungeon, 8th floor.
It wasn't much different from the 6th and 7th floors. It was still a cave-type labyrinth environment. Besides being a bit wider than the floors above, there were only a few more types of monsters.
One example was the Purple Moth, which also appeared around these floors. This was a small monster that spread "Poison Scales."
The "Poison Scales" acted as a slow-acting poison. It wouldn't hurt you right away, but every time you got hit, you would fall into the poisoned state.
Because these moths appeared so often, the Development Ability "Abnormal Resistance" was very popular among adventurers.
However, Ronan and Jeanne were quite lucky. They hadn't run into that troublesome monster on the 8th floor yet.
Instead, after exploring for less than an hour, they encountered a rare species.
"Holy crap, we got lucky!"
"?"
"It's a Blue Papilio, a very rare monster!"