Chương 56: Divine Swords and the Middle Floors

"Whoa. All of my Basic Abilities passed SSS and turned into question marks. Why did this happen? And what is that Skill, Lady Hestia?" Cael stared at the parchment, both hands trembling slightly. He had expected his Basic Abilities to be far beyond the normal range. During his spar with the Flame Hashira, he could already suppress Kyojuro easily. If Kyojuro had gone all out, Cael felt he could defeat him in fewer than ten clashes.

He had assumed that was only because Bravery doubled his Basic Abilities while he acted alone. He had not expected his values to be this absurd even before doubling. Hestia shoved the long bundle she had brought into Cael's arms, folded her arms, and made a sour little "hmph" sound. It was all that Skill's fault. That Skill had turned her Cael into a flirt. Then she stomped away angrily.

"Lady Hestia, where are you going? Are you angry?" Cael hurriedly held the bundle she had given him. He knew it had to contain the two divine weapons, but he still looked after her with helpless concern.

"I am not angry. I am going to watch the potato puff stand, that is all." Hestia turned back, jealousy written all over her face. She looked from Cael to Lili, tears glimmering as she gritted her teeth.

"Starting today, as the patron goddess of Hestia Familia, I order that no Familia member is allowed to kiss or hug anyone of the opposite sex."

"Eh? How can that be? Even for a goddess, that order is too much!" Lili immediately protested.

"Objection rejected. That is final. Hmph." Hestia stormed off, leaving everyone sweating awkwardly.

"This..." Cael watched her storm away and felt a trace of guilt. Even then, he did not regret what had happened. Fortunately, Hestia was not the type to stay angry forever. She usually burned hot in the moment, then returned to normal after a while.

"Lord Cael, did Lili do something wrong?" Lili asked with her head lowered, looking lost. It seemed she had angered Lady Hestia.

"No. Even if you had not said it, Lady Hestia would have been angry once she found out. She gets jealous easily, but she does not hate you. If she did, she would never have let you stay." Cael smiled and shook his head.

"Then we cannot kiss or hug anymore?"

"Hestia only said that because she was upset. Do not take it too seriously." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"So that is all. Lili was frightened. Lili thought she would never be able to run to Lord Cael again." Lili patted her chest in relief.

"Our goddess is kind. She will not truly be that harsh." As he spoke, Cael looked down at the bundle Hestia had given him. He slowly loosened the white cloth. Inside were two black scabbards engraved with silver patterns. Hephaestus's name was carved into the hilts. Cael wrapped his hand around one hilt. The sacred characters engraved on it glowed with pale blue magical light. He slowly drew the blade. The entire sword was covered in divine characters he could not read, each one shimmering softly.

The moment it fully left the scabbard, Cael felt the power contained in the sword. His overall strength rose by a small but definite amount. Unlimited Blade Works activated. Unable to analyze. Unable to comprehend. Unable to replicate. For now, these two swords could not be stored inside his Reality Marble. They were divine weapons without question. They were weapons that could grow as he grew, and they belonged to him alone. This was not something money alone could buy. Warmth slowly spread through Cael's chest.

He did not know how much Hestia owed Hephaestus for them, but the materials alone had to be worth far more than two hundred million valis. With these, he could finally unleash every hit of Starburst Stream properly. Starburst Stream's power was not fixed. It increased along with his Magic value. With his values doubled, its destructive power would become exaggerated.

"Next is leveling in the Dungeon. My current values are already more than enough to level up, but I do not feel as if I have reached my limit. I should keep suppressing my level for now." Among upper-class adventurers, a large portion were stuck at Level 2. Many had raised only one Basic Ability to 500 before rushing their Level Up. As a result, their vessel at Level 2 was too small to support another ability reaching 500, even if they had long since gathered enough great feats.

The higher one's Basic Abilities before a Level Up, the larger the vessel after it. Once Hestia left, the others gradually returned. They all looked at Cael with expressions he could not quite read. Their eyes seemed to say, So you are the boy who made a goddess fall for you. One person, of course, looked openly envious. The blond boy's eyes were almost glowing red.

"Ahem. Next, everyone will come with me to challenge the Middle Floors of the Dungeon." Cael cleared his throat and continued.

"Your true strength has already surpassed ordinary Lv. 1 adventurers. It will be difficult for you to earn enough Excelia for a Level Up on the Upper Floors. But if we can successfully defeat the floor boss on the Middle Floors, the great feat should be enough for everyone." As he spoke, Cael's blood began to burn. He almost wanted to rush to the seventeenth floor and fight Goliath for three hundred rounds right now.

"After you level up, your strength will change completely. It will be like an ordinary human becoming a demon, a full transformation." Before the Hashira could answer, Lili's eyes widened and she shouted.

"What? Lord Cael, you want to challenge the Middle Floors' floor boss? That is impossible. Everyone has only just received Falna. You are all Lv. 1 and this would be their first Dungeon dive. Even if everyone is outstanding, that is suicide. Absolutely not!" Even if Lord Cael and the others were strong, a floor boss was different. It was far beyond ordinary monsters.

"Could someone explain what a floor boss is?" Tanjiro asked.

"We did not hear about that earlier," Kyojuro said.

"A floor boss is a monster that appears on special floors," Lili said seriously.

"It is called a Monster Rex, a king among monsters. Its strength is about two levels above that floor's standard." She swallowed.

"The floor boss on the seventeenth floor, Goliath, is judged to have Lv. 4 potential. It normally requires a fully prepared team of fifty Lv. 2 and Lv. 3 adventurers to defeat it. Even then, failure is possible."

"Lv. 4? That strong?"

"That is too much."

"It sounds almost impossible."

"If an Upper Rank demon is around upper Lv. 2, then Lv. 4 would indeed be suicide," Kyojuro said with a nod.

"That is not quite how it works," Cael said, his expression turning serious.

"Monsters have no intelligence. They act on instinct, with little technique and a reliance on brute force. We absolutely have a chance. And even if we cannot defeat it, escaping to the eighteenth floor is possible." The corner of his mouth lifted.

"A great feat is about doing something reckless enough to matter. So what do you think? Will you trust me? I will not gamble with my own life for no reason."