Chapter 201: The Fleeing Minotaurs!
Generally speaking, Finn, Riveria, and Gareth rarely participated in battles in expeditions.
Finn was responsible for commanding the entire team, Riveria guided the support provided by the mages, and Gareth took care of logistics.
The three of them were the anchors ensuring the expedition's smooth operation and the umbrella protecting the safety of all members of Loki Familia.
Not participating in battles meant they could react at any given time, and because of this, there had been no deaths in Loki familia for a long time.
Because any unfortunate member encountering danger would be saved by them.
Initially, the big three were somewhat overwhelmed by this situation, but as Luke and the others progressed, this phenomenon gradually disappeared.
Following him, Ais and other executives became Lv5 one after another, even Luke, under Finn's instructions, minimized his participation in battles against weak monsters.
Providing opportunities for members of their familia to hone their skills while ensuring their safety, this has always been the core principle of the upper echelon of Loki familia.
However, the current situation was clearly not within the 'safe' range.
…
Riveria watched the members of their familia excited due to the improved battle situation, secretly sighing in her heart.
The camp that had been attacked by monsters could be considered a heavy loss.
Besides the loss and consumption of resources, the biggest problem they were facing was that many members had been seriously injured because of the first encounter with this seemingly undefeatable attack.
And this was the result even with Riveria's order to 'prioritize defense'.
The strongest mage in the labyrinth city silently sighed, Riveria felt she was a truly terrible choice as a stay-behind leader.
But in fact, her strategy was not wrong.
Although a large amount of resources were lost and many people were injured while defending the camp, it was precisely because of this that the camp was not breached that the injured members could retreat and receive appropriate treatment.
At least under Riveria's command, there were no casualties in the team.
However, she had no chance to release large-scale magic while focusing on commanding, if not for Luke and others' timely reinforcements, she wouldn't have lasted long.
"Fortunately, there were no serious problems."
Riveria, who had just finished treating Raul, stood at a high ground and surveyed the entire floor.
The size of the 50th floor of the dungeon was already comparable to the land area of Orario.
As the battle went on, the worm monsters gradually began to spread to the surrounding areas of the floor, and now it had almost covered nearly half of the floor space.
Raising her wand, Riveria took a deep breath.
"The harbinger of the end…"
With the clear sound of her chant, all members of the Loki familia were shocked.
Finn turned back to look at his companion standing on the highest point and starting to chant, raising the flag in his hand, ready to recall all members from the front line.
"The flame will soon be released. Creeping war, unavoidable destruction."
"The horn of battle sounds aloud, the cruelty of conflict will envelop all."
"Come, crimson flames, the ruthless inferno."
"You are the avatar of hellfire. Sweep completely, bring a close to the great war. "
"Burn them through, Sword of Surtr - my name is Alf"
"Rea Laevateinn!"
Boom, boom, boom, boom——!
Giant flames materialized!
From the magic circle, from the ground, from the walls, from the ceiling, countless pillars of flame rose.
These fierce flames, one after another, engulfed the entire floor in an instant, turning all the nearby monsters into ashes.
This was an ultimate bombardment beyond the definition of wide range, a unique all-area annihilation magic in Orario.
Few people had ever seen the strongest mage in the labyrinth city, Riveria, using her full power, even the members of Loki familia were no exception.
Watching the magic easily devour the entire floor and the elf royal casually walking down from the high ground after releasing her magic, everyone was stunned.
Development Ability 'Mage', rank E.
[Fairy Anthem]
-Enhances the effect of magic
-Expands magic range and area
-The longer the chant, the greater the enhancement effect of this skill
[Alf Regina]
-Strengthens magic stats
-Strengthens all elf magic within the magic circle
-Converts the used magic energy of all Elves within the magic circle to mind and lets them absorb it again
Staff/Wand: Magna Alfs, one of the 'Five Great Staves' and the highest-grade staff, is a super-spec weapon inlaid with nine highest-grade 'magic gems'.
Under the effect of all these, Riveria's already terrifying wide area annihilation magic was elevated to an unimaginable level.
…
The monsters were wiped out by Riveria's magic without a doubt.
At the same time, the Loki familia's expedition team began to return to the surface under Finn's orders.
That is to say, this 'expedition' was truly over.
There was no way around it, after all, the consumption of resources was too serious.
Food and water were relatively easy to deal with, but equipment and props were not enough to continue their journey downwards.
Except for Luke and Ais, others couldn't explore the deep floors without weapons.
Like Tione and Tiona, even their main weapons were gone.
The Loki familia expedition team, having abandoned their plan to further explore the dungeon, decided to return to the 17th floor.
However, only a part of the expedition team quickly returned to the 17th floor, while most of the members were still behind.
The Loki familia, after gaining scale in the past few years, has been using this team formation.
A small number of elites form the advance team to clear the monsters, so that the behind team only needs to move along the route traversed by the advance team, and they won't encounter too many dangers.
Using this team formation, even low-level members of the familia can be taken to the deeper areas of the dungeon for training.
The advance team was led by Finn, with Riveria and Luke, as well as several low-level members as support.
Usually it was Raul and Lefiya, the successors of the Captain and Vice-Captain, who were responsible for the support.
Gareth led the follow-up team.
The advance team was composed of elites, so their progress was extremely fast.
Not long after, they arrived at the exit to the 16th floor.
Click, click, click——!
The moment they approached the exit, countless cracks appeared on the surrounding walls.
Countless monsters were born from them.
'Monster Party'
This was the situation when a large number of monsters were born in a short period of time, this was the most common 'abnormality' in the dungeon.
"ROAR——!"
A roar that shook the cavern resounded.
Born from the walls were monsters that could make weak adventurers lose their will to resist.
Minotaurs, monsters with the heads of bulls and the bodies of humans!
However, even facing the 'Monster Party', the members of Loki familia were not panicked at all.
Although they had just returned from the 50th floor, and everyone was in a very tired state.
But no matter what, such a weak group of monsters posed no threat to them.
Looking at the group of minotaurs that suddenly appeared in front of them, Luke felt a bit of a weird sense of déjà vu.
As if he had seen such a scene before.
'Ah, so this is the beginning of the plot.' This thought echoed in Luke's mind, making him briefly distracted for a few seconds.
And in those few seconds, the group of Minotaurs, feeling afraid of Loki Familia members, started to run away.
Just like in the original story, the minotaurs, terrified by the huge gap in strength, started collectively escaping.
"This is really interesting…"
Luke, snapping out of his daze, laughed at the sight in front of him.
"I've been in this world for nine years, and I've been a dungeon explorer for nine years."
"This is really the first time I've seen a monster choose to run away…"
If it was a temporary retreat or being forced away, that would be fine, because the deeper the dungeon, the higher the monsters' intelligence.
In the deeper floors, it's not difficult to see monsters retreating or changing targets.
But let's look at what floor this is?
Not to mention whether the middle-floor monsters have that much intelligence, but Luke had never seen such a cowardly retreat from monsters.
Luke stared at the Minotaurs running away with their backs facing him, thinking about whether to leave them all here.
Because if he did that, the 'plot' might change drastically, right?
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