Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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As the smoke over the nineteenth floor cleared, a vast crater emerged beneath it.

August did not celebrate. He remained where he was, breathing hard. Fighting in the dense forest had drained him far faster than the upper floors ever had. Pushing through tangled brush was nothing like moving through the Dungeon's usual straight corridors.

"Phew."

Lili let out a slow breath, glanced over the damage, and took out her hand-drawn maps. Making it down from the first floor had pushed them close to their limits.

"That took forever," she muttered.

Even though the jeep helped them move faster earlier, they still lost too much time. Drawing out the horde, picking off the commanders, and launching the bombardment took more than thirty minutes.

"Yeah, it really did." August checked his pocket watch. Sure enough, it had been thirty minutes. "Half an hour for one fight is too slow."

Spending thirty minutes in a dangerous area like this was risky, even with a plan. If they had to improvise, it would have taken longer. August sat down in a clear spot and wiped sweat from his forehead.

Lili picked up the industrial vacuum and began collecting the Magic Stones scattered everywhere. They worked together without missing a beat.

"Next time, we need a better plan," August said.

He wasn't happy with how things went. The whole operation had taken too long. They'd started early in the morning, but almost eight hours had passed, and it would be dark on the surface soon.

Once the dust settled, the Adventurers waiting near the entrance finally came in. They'd heard the loud battle and knew the horde would have torn them apart. When they saw Lili collecting Magic Stones, they kept their distance and didn't try to interfere.

"Yo."

A familiar voice broke the silence. A squad from the Loki Familia was coming up from the lower floors.

One of them spotted August and jogged over, waving.

"..." August hadn't expected to run into the Loki crew here.

The squad had Tiona Hiryute, her sister Tione, and more than a dozen others, all led by the veteran dwarf Gareth Landrock.

"That was some show you put on," Gareth said, resting his huge axe on his shoulder. He looked at the rookie with real surprise.

August's way of fighting monsters was pure violence.

"It got the job done," August replied, slinging the towel over his shoulder.

Lili finished vacuuming up the last Magic Stones and carried the packed container back to him.

"Compared to the caves up top, fighting here just wears you out," August said. "We're moving way slower than usual."

Gareth nodded. It was clear the rookie wasn't used to fighting in tough forest conditions. "That's just how it gets as you go deeper..."

"...In a place like this, you have to watch your breathing. Swinging big weapons just makes it harder. Still, you didn't just charge in."

He laughed and patted August on the shoulder. "But honestly, the way you fight... most of us couldn't pull that off."

He wasn't joking. Most Adventurers couldn't even dream of causing that much destruction.

"Yeah, he's right. Fighting off that many at once is rough," Tiona said, glancing at the cratered ground. "If we got surrounded, we'd be in trouble. You might be the only one here who could pull that off."

Even for the elite Loki squad, facing a swarm that big head-on was a losing battle.

For most Adventurers, staying alive mattered more than fighting for no reason.

Tiona looked back at the rookies in their group. "With their strength right now, even a Level 4 would have to run from a horde that big. Just thinking about facing those numbers is terrifying."

Tione crossed her arms and looked August over. "Seriously, what are your stats? With that many kills, your base stats must be all the way at S-Rank, right?"

She really wanted to know. How could a human be this strong?

"Who knows?"

August just shrugged. He wasn't about to share his Status.

"Lord August, I'm ready." Lili hurried over, tightening the straps on her heavy backpack. With the Loki Familia watching, she didn't have to worry about scavengers and finished packing quickly.

"Good. Let's get going." August skipped the small talk. He reached into his pocket and took out a strange, jewel-like orb. "Gareth, want to come with us?"

It was a Daedalus Orb, the key to the Artificial Labyrinth.

Gareth looked at the key, then at his group of juniors. "Don't mind if we do."

The dwarf trusted August. If the kid wanted them dead, he'd use a cannon, not a sneaky trap.

"Wait, aren't we going up to the eighteenth floor to rest?" asked a serious-looking male Adventurer with a heavy pack, looking at Gareth in confusion.

His name was Raul Nord. The squad had just come all the way up from the thirty-fifth floor on a training mission for the juniors, and they were worn out.

Tiona pointed at the orb in August's hand. "Raul, that's a Knossos key. We've never had one. With it, we can skip the eighteenth floor and get out way faster. No more fighting for hours."

Access keys to the Artificial Labyrinth were really rare for anyone except the dark factions. The Loki Familia had never gotten their hands on one, so seeing August casually toss one was a big deal.

"So that's really the key to the Artificial Labyrinth?" Raul stared at the orb, wide-eyed.

The other junior members leaned in for a closer look. Because Gareth trusted August, the rest of the squad followed his lead without any complaints.

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The group finished crossing the nineteenth floor and made their way to the eastern edge of the eighteenth.

August, relying on his memory, struck a certain spot in an invisible wall.

"Alright, this is the spot," August said.

The fake wall broke apart, revealing the ornate doors of the labyrinth that the Daedalus bloodline had built over a thousand years.

Gareth stepped inside, eyes scanning the dark corridors. "First time in here."

They kept going until they reached the old, abandoned base of the Ikelos Familia. Rusty iron cages still lined the walls.

"So this is where they locked up the Xenos," Tiona said softly, looking around.

August had helped the smuggled Xenos reach the surface weeks earlier. Now, this place was just a crime scene left to rot in the dark.

Suddenly, they saw several monsters resting near the cages. The creatures froze when they noticed the Loki vanguard, but relaxed as soon as they saw August at the front.

Grrr! Screee!

The monsters hurried over to August, making friendly noises.

"Hey, what are you all doing up here?"

These were the core members of the Xenos, and even the weakest of them was at least Level 3.

A rabbit-like monster stepped forward, waving its paws and chattering. Since Knossos worked as a hidden shortcut, they were using it as a safe staging area.

"Oh, got it," August nodded.

Gros and Lyd had already led the elite vanguard down to the deep floors for tough combat training. The monsters who still needed to gain experience stayed on the middle floors, splitting the Xenos into two groups.

"Did you accept the expedition quest to the fortieth floor?" August asked.

The Guild had officially announced a deep-floor expedition quest—and the Xenos were taking it on as part of the Hestia Familia. They were gathering supplies and visiting friends who couldn't leave the Dungeon.

"..." The monsters nodded enthusiastically.

"Amazing," Raul and the Loki rookies whispered.

They couldn't understand any of the screeches or growls, but the famous Monster Rookie was calmly talking to a group of Dungeon monsters.

A goblin Xenos remembered something, reached into a satchel, and hauled out a bulky recording terminal, offering it to August.

"Oh, nice—you found it!"

August took the device. It was the surveillance terminal he had set up in Knossos a few days earlier. It had been quietly scanning the whole time, and the Xenos had kindly brought it back for him.

"Here, take these." August handed the goblin a handful of glowing nodes. "Could you plant them in the blind spots along the main corridors for me?"

Unlike the plain terminal he had just gotten back, the active nodes glowed softly.

The Xenos gave sharp salutes. Knossos was now their main transit hub, so they were ready to help August with anything he needed.

"What are these things?" Tiona asked, poking one of the glowing nodes.

"Signal repeaters,"

Lili explained calmly. "Knossos is pretty well shielded against scrying and standard communication magic. But if we seed these nodes throughout the layout, we can establish a closed-loop network. As long as the nodes stay intact, we'll be able to monitor the interior of the Artificial Labyrinth right from our own compound."

"The terminal we just retrieved is an offline data logger. We haven't been down here for a few days, so it's been quietly compiling traffic logs and mapping the shifting architecture."

She gave August a knowing look. The lower levels of Knossos held dangerous secrets, the kind best handled by a strong group like the Loki Familia. The Hestia Familia just didn't have enough people to keep the place secure all the time.

"Well, I'll be damned," Gareth chuckled. "You're planning to watch the whole Dungeon with these!"

He was impressed. Instead of spending hundreds of hours and risking lives on blind mapping trips, August was using spy tech.

"I'm not doing it for fun," August replied, stowing the terminal. "If you guys aren't going to dismantle the Daedalus family for me, I have to figure out a way to lock this place down myself."

That hit a nerve.

"Don't ever bring up the Daedalus family!!" Tione snapped.

"Do you have any idea how much chaos you caused? Because of your little crusade, our main deep-floor expedition was indefinitely suspended! We had to pivot to small-squad recon runs down to the thirty-seventh floor instead! Finn is buried under a mountain of paperwork because of those bastards. HE HASN'T SLEPT IN DAYS!"

"Really?" August blinked.

He hadn't realized the fallout had hit the Loki Familia that hard.

"Pretty much," Gareth sighed, his voice growing serious.

"The Daedalus conspiracy pulled half the city into trouble. Several Familias took bounties to hunt down the fleeing Daedalus descendants and sent Level 2 squads after them. But the hunts aren't going well."

"It turns out the Daedalus members didn't leave empty-handed. They're using tamed, deep-floor monsters as their bodyguards."

At first, most Familias didn't want to get involved in the messy politics. But taming deep-floor monsters and smuggling them to the surface was a big problem.

Harboring intelligent Xenos was one thing, but letting loose mindless, powerful Dungeon beasts on the outside was a whole new threat.

That kind of disregard for public safety made every faction in Orario furious.

"The problem is that the teams working outside the city right now aren't strong enough," Gareth went on, explaining the problem.

"The Artemis and Hermes Familias are tracking them, but Artemis's Captain is only Level 3, and Asfi from Hermes is Level 4. To really get rid of those deep-floor bodyguards and finish off the Daedalus remnants—the Guild needs a coalition force led by Level 6 Adventurers."

The Daedalus bloodline was like a stubborn cancer...

If every last descendant wasn't wiped out now, they would just slip back into hiding and rebuild Knossos. But getting a group of top fighters to leave the city and hunt them down was leading to endless arguments at the Guild.

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