Starry Vault Flow (Please, give it a follow~)

The scene shifted.

Near the entrance to the first floor of the Dungeon, in a secluded corner of a rocky cavern.

The damp, musty smell and the distant growls of monsters were the constant background noise.

"Let's do it here." Thor stopped and checked that there were no other adventurers nearby.

He simply raised his hand slowly.

A deep, strange hum seemed to rise from the very heart of the earth, or perhaps it was the whisper of the Starry Heavens. It rang out in all three of their minds.

Then, countless dazzling starlights spilled from around him without warning, spreading rapidly like living things and enveloping all three of them.

[Starry Vault Flow]!

The instant the starlight enveloped them—

Bell felt a gentle yet irresistible force lift him by the ankles. His feet actually left the cold ground!

A cry caught in his throat. His body felt light as a feather.

"W-We're flying?"

His mind went blank.

Lefiya let out a startled "Wah!" and instinctively grabbed Ais's arm to steady herself.

The next second,

Thor's figure blurred amid the starlight.

"Let's go." His voice remained perfectly calm.

Whoosh!

There was no sound of air being torn, no violent impact.

The four of them, along with the dome of starlight surrounding them, sank like phantoms beneath the water, passing straight through the thick rock under their feet without resistance!

The three of them watched the world blur and twist. Colors and lines churned wildly, then gave way to a strange, tranquil passage wrapped in starlight.

Just five seconds later,

solid ground met their feet.

The starlight surrounding them receded like a tide, and the familiar breeze, faintly tinged with blood and earth, filled their nostrils once more.

Before them were not the familiar, dim rock walls near the entrance.

When the three of them took in these unfamiliar yet familiar walls, they finally realized where they were.

The Dungeon's fifth floor!

Five seconds? From the first floor to the fifth?

Lefiya whipped around to look at Thor, her head still buzzing.

"Lord Thor... w-what was that?"

A hint of a smile touched Thor's lips. "Just a little trick. It's an ability I often used when exploring the universe and dimensions in the past, called [Starry Vault Flow]. It can pass through any obstacle, including dimensional and universal barriers."

Pass through dimensional and universal barriers?

Lefiya's heart skipped a beat.

"But..."

Thor continued, interrupting her thoughts.

"How far it can take us, and whether it can cross universal barriers or even dimensions, depends on how much Stardust I have. For now," he said with a shrug, "it's only enough to jump from the first floor to the fifth. And it has a long cooldown. I can't use it again for six hours."

Ais and Lefiya exchanged a quick glance.

They didn't need to speak. They could read the shock in each other's eyes.

This was the perfect skill for an expedition!

Not long ago, when the Loki Familia had ventured down to the fiftieth floor, the supplies and manpower they'd used had been astronomical.

They had even ended up burdened with massive debts after their expedition failed.

If only their Familia had a skill like this...

Lefiya looked up sharply and asked, "Lord Thor! Can this skill take us straight to the safe zone on the Dungeon's fiftieth floor?"

"Of course," Thor replied as if it were obvious. "But that would probably take 5,000 units of Stardust."

Five thousand!

Lefiya sucked in a sharp breath.

The number was so enormous it was despair-inducing, but the words "it can be done" carried enough weight on their own.

As long as they had enough Stardust, they could reach a safe zone in the deep floors instantly... and slash their supply consumption!

Thor watched the lingering shock in their eyes and smiled gently.

"Reaching 100 Stardust unlocks more than just this ability. Today's goal is to break through to the Dungeon's tenth floor."

Reaching 100.

Along with unlocking [Starry Vault Flow], he could now use the complete Mortal Hero Skill without any cost. His efficiency at taking down monsters would make a qualitative leap.

The next power threshold was 500, followed by 1,000...

Once he reached 1,000, even creating a small meteor would no longer be a mere fantasy.

While the two were still reeling, the Dungeon noticed Thor venturing deeper and immediately spawned another huge horde of monsters to stop him.

The [Celestial Body] in Thor's hand transformed into the Storm Greatsword. "Today, I'll lead the charge."

The battle was about to begin!

Meanwhile, at the Guild headquarters in the Labyrinth City of Orario,

the archive room was filled with the stuffy smell of old paper and dust. The faint rustle of Eina turning through files was the only sound breaking the silence.

Under the dim yellow light, her brows were knitted together as her fingertips repeatedly traced the Loki Familia's expedition report.

"Dungeon's fifty-first floor... encountered an unknown worm-like monster... its spray has highly corrosive effects on metal..."

This report kept colliding in her mind with Thor's calm reminder from a few days earlier: "This time, I had nothing to do with the Minotaur that broke into the upper floors."

If he hadn't caused it, then what had?

Eina's heart sank.

The rampaging Minotaurs on the seventeenth floor had escaped from the Loki Familia...

The anomaly on the fifteenth floor...

The new corrosive monsters on the fifty-first floor...

These fragments pieced themselves together in her mind, forming an outline that sent a chill down her spine.

Was the Dungeon... undergoing some deeper, more dangerous change?

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to suppress her growing unease.

Lord Thor... should she try again to persuade him to stop going into the Dungeon?

At least for now... he shouldn't go down there again...

Eina's worried gaze could not penetrate the thick layers of earth.

What she didn't know was that Thor had already run into trouble inside the Dungeon.

The Dungeon's tenth floor.

The air was damper and colder than on the upper floors, heavy with the stench of decay. Frost had also begun to form in the air, impeding their senses.

Holding the Storm Greatsword, Thor carved through the Goblin horde blocking his way and strode steadily into the heart of the floor.

A brief moment of quiet was shattered in an instant.

Without warning!

The ground exploded!

Thor and Lefiya both sensed an extraordinary surge of magic power.

"W—!" The warning to be careful had barely left his lips.

A massive, blue-green vine burst from the ground like a giant serpent!

Its target was precise and deadly: Ais!

Too fast!

Ais's pupils contracted.

Her instincts outpaced her thoughts. She instantly raised the Sword of Despair in her hand to block!

Clang—!

The crash of metal rang through the cavern! An immense force slammed against her through the blade!

!!

Only one stunned thought flashed through Ais's mind.

Her body was completely out of her control. Her feet left the ground as she was sent flying!

The world spun. The rock wall rushed toward her.

She slammed into the wall more than ten meters away, bringing down a shower of rubble and dust.

Pain spread from her back, but what shocked her more was the force that had struck her in that instant—far greater than she'd expected.

Something was wrong!

Ais gritted her teeth against the pain, sprang to her feet, and fixed her gaze on the monster that had burst from the ground.

It was a gigantic, twisted monster resembling a Man-eating Flower. Its blue-green skin was like snake scales, and its enormous bud split open to reveal layer upon layer of sharp teeth.

Its oppressive presence alone seemed to make the air grow heavy.

That strength... that pressure... this had to be a monster from the deep floors!

Ais's heart sank.

How could a monster like this be on the tenth floor?!