Late at night, at the entrance to Twilight Manor.
A group of Familia members guarding the entrance had gathered around the gate.
"Newbie, are you all right? Come sit down and rest for a bit."
"Hey, don't push yourself too hard. Here, have some water."
"If something happened, you can tell us."
The people at the entrance discussed the situation in a panic.
They kept expressing their concern to the person in their midst while passing food and water around.
Surrounded by everyone, Liber listened to their concerned words and felt their care. With a smile, he said gently,
"Thank you for worrying about me. I'm really fine."
He tried to explain, but no one believed him when they saw the state he was in.
Liber's leather armor was in tatters, and even the clothes beneath it were torn.
His damaged gear was covered in bloodstains of all shapes and sizes, their colors varying in shade. Some had even begun to turn black.
Blood covered Liber as well, making it impossible for those around him to tell whether the marks were his own or someone else's.
His once-neat, refreshing short hair was now disheveled, sticking out in every direction.
It was also smeared with blood, which had dried and clumped his hair together in strands.
His arms hung naturally at his sides, and his palms were covered in abrasions.
Everyone was genuinely startled to see him arrive looking so battered and miserable.
They were worried about his injuries, but Liber repeatedly insisted that nothing serious had happened. Not wanting to crowd around and keep him from going back to his room to rest, they dispersed.
Then they returned to their posts.
Liber made his slow way into the manor.
As they watched his battered figure gradually disappear inside Twilight Manor, the guards exchanged glances.
One member couldn't hold back any longer. After quickly telling the others where he was going, he hurried into the manor as well.
Liber returned to his room and washed up a little. Just as he was about to change, he heard hurried footsteps in the corridor, followed by someone kicking his door open.
Liber stared in astonishment as Loki appeared in the doorway, her face twisted with anger.
Loki entered Liber's room and shut the door behind her. Her face furious, she said,
"Which bastard laid a hand on one of our kids? Tell me, and I'll gather the whole Familia and kill him."
Liber watched Loki make such an outrageous threat in her agitation. His expression shifted from astonishment to awkwardness.
"No one laid a hand on me."
Liber awkwardly tried to explain.
"Someone came rushing to tell me you were covered in wounds. You look like this and still say nobody bullied you? You weren't nearly this battered when you came back yesterday."
Loki glared at Liber, looking displeased.
"Really, no one did anything. I just went too deep into the Dungeon and got a little too caught up fighting monsters."
Hearing the members' concern for him had warmed Liber's heart, and he answered Loki earnestly.
"Really? Someone reported that you were injured. As soon as I heard you were in such a state, I rushed over."
Loki still didn't quite believe him. When Liber returned from the Dungeon yesterday, his clothes had been neat, and he'd looked completely at ease.
Today, not only had he come back so late, but he was covered in wounds.
Loki questioned him suspiciously.
"Since you say nothing else happened, how did you end up looking like this down in the Dungeon?"
"I got a little carried away and stayed on the fifth floor longer than I should have. The fighting with the monsters got a bit intense. I'm not actually injured; it's just that my gear looks pretty battered."
Liber spoke to Loki sincerely.
Loki stared at Liber in astonishment.
"You've already reached the fifth floor?"
At Loki's astonished question, Liber quietly nodded.
Loki put one hand on her hip and pressed the other to her forehead.
"You've only had your Falna for two or three days, and you've already gone all the way to the fifth floor by yourself. This is just..."
At that, Loki's fading anger flared back up, and she gritted her teeth.
As a rule, newly blessed adventurers usually explored around the first floor to start with.
Even on the first floor, safely exploring farther required a considerable amount of time, even for a three-person party, unless something unusual happened.
As newcomers, their abilities weren't yet mature.
In that situation, it took time to learn to look after one another, overcome their fear and timidity, and adapt to fighting in the Dungeon.
So most newcomers needed quite a while before they even considered heading to the lower floors.
Even then, a rookie party would usually explore only the first four floors and would never enter the fifth.
If rookies wanted to go deeper, the Guild and their Familia's senior members would certainly stop them from entering the fifth floor.
That was because, starting from the fifth floor, the Dungeon's danger level began to rise by leaps and bounds.
Not only did more kinds of monsters appear in the labyrinth, and stronger ones at that, but the Dungeon's terrain and size also became completely different from what came before.
Monsters appeared far more frequently, and from the fifth floor onward, the Dungeon was vastly larger than the floors above.
The fifth floor alone was larger than the central plaza in Orario, and with the increase in area, the number of monsters multiplied several times over compared with the earlier floors.
The difficulty of exploration suddenly rose to a whole new level.
It was especially common for rookie adventurers who ventured there alone, without anyone to guide them, to lose their lives on this floor.
For this reason, the fifth floor was considered the Dungeon's first clear threshold where casualties became common. Adventurers heading there were warned in advance by their Familia, and Guild staff also made a point of cautioning them.
"You're practically asking to die! Even with magic, you still need to be more careful.
I thought you were a mature kid, but it turns out you're trouble too." Loki glared at Liber, furious.
"Sorry for making everyone worry."
Liber lowered his head and apologized to Loki.
That made Loki's many planned accusations stick in her throat. For a long moment, she couldn't say a word.
Loki crossed her arms, took a deep breath, and stared at Liber with a dark expression.
"I told you before that safety comes first. With your talent, you'd quickly make a name for yourself in Orario just by progressing steadily. Why push yourself so hard?"
Liber shook his head, looking quite relaxed.
"I wouldn't say I was risking my life. I deliberately saved some magic so I could get out of a fight quickly if anything went wrong."
"If I had to say, I was a little rattled. I trained with Ais this morning, and even though we're about the same age, the gap between our abilities was like the difference between heaven and earth."
He spoke to Loki with a serious expression.
"Ais started adventuring when she was eight. It took her six years to reach her current level. You've only had your Falna for a few days!"
Loki said to Liber helplessly.
Liber fell silent at that, but in his heart, he still had no intention of giving up on competing with her.
"Fine. As long as nothing serious happened to you, that's what matters. Take off your clothes."
Loki uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips, speaking to Liber with a fierce glare.
Looking at Loki, Liber said helplessly, "I only scraped my hands a little while swinging my sword and killing monsters. I really don't have any injuries."
Loki sighed, her tone softening.
"The kids all have their own ideas. I'm not so stubborn that I'd stop everyone from trying to improve.
"I'm talking about your status, your status. Since you worked so hard, don't you want to see how much your stats have improved?"
Liber smiled awkwardly, then sat down on a chair in the room. He took off his damaged armor and clothes and sat there in his underclothes.
Loki stood behind him for a moment. Then the room suddenly fell silent.
Feeling no movement from the figure behind him, Liber turned around, puzzled, and saw Loki staring at him with a dark expression.
"Where's your sword? I don't make a habit of carrying needles around."
Liber looked a little embarrassed. Ripples appeared beside him as he pulled a greatsword out of his storage space and handed it to Loki.
Loki deftly took the greatsword, gripped its hilt, and casually flipped it around a few times in her hand, gauging its weight.
Then she lightly pricked her fingertip with the tip of the sword.
When he saw Loki cut her finger, Liber turned around and straightened his back again.
He felt Loki's finger moving across his back.
In the quiet room, the Falna on Liber's back gave off a faint glow as Loki's fingertip moved over it.
The steps were much the same as when she had first bestowed the Falna: she touched Liber's back with her divine blood and traced a pattern with her finger.
Loki first unlocked Liber's Falna, causing inscriptions like those on a stele to appear across his previously smooth back.
Next, Loki dripped her divine blood onto Liber's back.
The experience he had accumulated was drawn out through the hand of a god, transforming the foundation of his growth.
New holy characters replaced the old ones, etched into Liber's back.
Only at this point did his status change, and his stats improve.
As the process continued, Loki's eyes widened once more.
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