Under Ronan's firm orders as the leader, Lorie pouted and Aura remained expressionless. In the end, both of them went into the tent.
Clearly, they had lost the chance to stand watch.
Even though their faces showed they were not happy about it, they both understood Ronan's intention.
They were newcomers entering the Dungeon for the first time, yet they had been brought to the last area of the Upper Floors. Tomorrow, they were even going to explore the Middle Floors.
What kind of ridiculous newcomer training was this?
Even when large Familias wanted to train newcomers, they would never make the training this intense from the start for safety reasons.
This was only possible because the team had two vanguards like Jeanne and Rose watching over them, plus Ronan, a cautious mage whose firepower was far beyond a normal Level 1.
Otherwise, forget about standing watch. They wouldn't even have seen the 12th Floor.
...
Late at night.
Ronan was half asleep when he felt someone lightly pushing his arm.
Before he was fully awake, a cool hand touched his cheek and pinched it hard without hesitation.
"Hiss."
He snapped his eyes open. He saw Jeanne smiling happily because her prank had worked.
"Shift change?"
"Mm-hmm," Jeanne answered lightly.
Ronan sat up and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He put on his boots, stepped forward, and gave Jeanne a light hug. He breathed in the light scent of her hair and smiled. Then he opened the tent flap and walked out.
"You... you womanizer! Hmph!"
Jeanne's cheeks turned red. She whispered to herself, embarrassed and annoyed.
Ronan walked to the center of the camp. He stretched his muscles and picked up the Scholar's Staff leaning against his backpack. He narrowed his eyes and carefully looked around the Dungeon in the middle of the night.
"The light doesn't seem much different from the daytime... thanks to this glowing moss," he said softly to himself. "A Dungeon specialty. Even without a lantern, it provides basic lighting."
He sat down on a piece of dry wood, warmed his hands by the campfire, and then took out a notebook and a quill to write things down:
"Hmm... the temperature on the 12th Floor is clearly lower than on the surface. It is the middle of summer now, but except for special floors, the temperature in the Dungeon stays relatively stable... staying here during this season is actually quite cool."
Ronan closed his notebook and let out a breath of white mist. He stood up and walked around the camp once to make sure it was safe. Then, he took out a spare short sword and began to damage the Dungeon walls around the camp again. This was a necessary way to make the area safer for a little longer and delay monsters from appearing.
...
"Gurgle, gurgle."
The thick soup boiling in the pot gave off a tempting smell. It made the hungry group stare at it more than once.
Ronan stirred the soup with a spoon while looking at Lorie and Aura, who had dark circles under their eyes. He laughed and said:
"Look at your dark circles. It seems you ignored everything I told you yesterday."
Faced with his teasing, Lorie immediately grabbed Rose's arm and leaned against her:
"Rose, look! Ronan is being mean to us again!"
Rose tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Her smile was as gentle as always:
"Ronan is right, Lorie. Without enough energy, how can you handle the Dungeon?"
"..." Lorie's face stiffened. Then, with teary eyes, she tried to explain: "I... Aura and I didn't want this! We... we just couldn't fall asleep!"
Hearing this, Rose exchanged a knowing look with Jeanne and Ronan.
"So you had insomnia because of excitement," Rose said, understanding now.
"It's like children before their first trip. It's understandable that you couldn't sleep."
"Ch-children!?"
Lorie's voice suddenly got much louder. Next to her, Aura's expression darkened.
"We... we are not like those kids in the School District!"
Aura, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up to argue. This made Rose and the others interested.
Although Ronan and the others could speak as seniors in front of Lorie and Aura, when it came to things outside of Orario, the two young Elves might know more since they came from far away.
However, the School District...
Ronan thought for a moment.
Actually, he had seen it. During the time he first arrived in Orario, the School District happened to return to Orario for maintenance.
...
In the Dungeon, meals, clothing, and shelter were usually kept simple.
However, Ronan's idea of simple and other adventurers' idea of simple were not the same thing at all.
Other adventurers tried to travel light. They made do with cold food and easy-to-carry dry rations for their meals.
Then there was Ronan. Not only did they have hot food for all three meals, but the camping tents were not improvised from Dungeon materials. They were magic-stone items brought down from the surface.
In a way, this increased the team's logistical burden. But as the supporter, Ronan didn't care at all.
If others thought differently, he saw no need to explain.
In his simple view, if you didn't eat well or sleep well, how could you fight properly?
At this time, Ronan clapped his hands and looked at everyone:
"Is the camp all packed up? Check if you missed anything. Once we confirm, we will head to the 13th Floor."
"No problem! Let's go quickly, Ronan!"
Lorie raised her hand and urged him excitedly. Clearly, she could not wait to see what the Middle Floors looked like.
"Since there are no problems, let's go!"
"Yeah!"
Everyone answered together.
The place where they camped was not far from the stairs to the next floor.
To their surprise, when they reached the staircase entrance, a large number of adventuring parties had already gathered there.
Looking at these other adventurers, who were fully armed and looked ready for battle, Ronan only needed to think for a moment to understand what was happening.
Rose leaned toward his ear and whispered:
"These teams seem to have camped nearby too. Now they are gathering. I guess there might be an organized hunt."
Hearing Rose's reminder, Ronan quickly understood.
Wait, considering the date... the Floor Boss should be about to reappear, right?
Feeling uncertain, Ronan took out his brass pocket watch and checked the date.
As expected, it matched the timeline in his memory.
He glanced at the other adventurers standing in small groups. He gave everyone a look, signaling them to come closer because he had something to say.
"These people are gathering here. If I'm right, there is a high chance this is the organized hunt Rose mentioned."
"Organized hunt?"
Aura and Lorie looked at each other, not understanding what Ronan meant.
Ronan opened his brass pocket watch and showed them the time.
"See this? Today is the 15th. The last time the Floor Boss, Goliath, was defeated by the Loki Familia was on the 1st."
At this point, Ronan paused and looked at the gathered adventurers.
"In other words, if nothing goes wrong, today is the day the Floor Boss of the Middle Floors, Goliath, reappears. Guess what all these adventuring parties are doing here at this time?"