Danmachi: The Focalors Familia — Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Higher Drop Rate

“So… so amazing…”

The elf girl Lefiya covered her mouth, her wide blue eyes trembling with shock.

Today, she had only accompanied Ais Wallenstein—the senior she admired above all others—into the Dungeon to clear her mind.

Because Ais had been deeply concerned about the sudden influx of new monster variants, the two of them had descended through the upper floors together.

With their overwhelming strength, the upper levels were practically a leisurely stroll.

Even the newly spawned Rock Shield Hilichurls, whose raw stats rivaled high-tier Lv.1 Adventurers, shattered under a single, casual strike from the Sword Princess.

But as the monster density and variety thickened, they had unknowingly pushed down to the sixth floor, arriving just in time to witness the slaughter that had just concluded.

To Lefiya, it was no longer a simple battle, but a perfect, blood-soaked concerto.

That white-haired youth, standing entirely alone against a surging tide of monsters, had remained completely unbothered from start to finish.

He shifted between elegant, lethal sword strikes and a brutal, deafening technique—a Sound Bombardment that shattered the frontline and provided absolute long-range suppression; his transitions between offense and defense flowed like water, devoid of a single wasted breath.

Meanwhile, the silver-purple-haired girl, her face finally revealed in the dim phosphorescence of the Dungeon, moved with terrifying precision.

Whether she was eliminating long-range threats or forcing aerial targets into the youth’s striking path, her support landed at the exact millisecond it was needed, creating flawless offensive openings for her companion.

Lefiya found it impossible to fathom that these were rookies supposed to be grinding the upper floors.

Not even the most elite veterans of the Loki Familia possessed such telepathic coordination back in their early days.

also, a monster horde of this scale would have been a nightmare for a seasoned Adventurer party.

Yet these two were clearly not Lv.2 Adventurers.

No Lv.2 would waste time wandering the upper floors, as it offered absolutely zero training value and yielded negligible experience points.

And then there was the beauty of that silver-purple-haired girl…

Lefiya stared at Robin from the shadows, her heart fluttering with quiet awe.

Their Loki Familia’s Ais possessed a divine loveliness that could rival the goddesses themselves, and Riveria, the high elf vice-captain, radiated a peerless, royal elegance.

But this unknown girl, with her calm, refined grace, did not lose out to either of them in the slightest.

For an exquisite beauty like her to remain completely anonymous in Orario meant only one thing—they were fresh arrivals to the city.

Beside the elf, Ais remained completely silent, her golden eyes locked intensely onto Noah’s figure, studying the kinetic rhythm of his combat style with deep fascination.

As high-ranking Adventurers, both girls recognized the truth behind the spectacle: the white-haired youth had held absolute control over the pacing of the fight from the very first second.

The Dungeon had an ironclad, unwritten rule: unless a party actively called for aid, interfering or stealing kills was strictly forbidden.

Thus, they remained hidden in the darkness, watching the slaughter conclude without making a single unnecessary movement.

As the final monster dissolved into ash and Noah bent to collect the magic stones, his gaze drifted effortlessly toward the distant shadows.

Caught in his sight, Lefiya offered an awkward, apologetic smile, then gently tugged at Ais’s sleeve to signal that they were intruding.

Ais withdrew her intense stare, gave a faint nod, and the two slipped away silently.

Only when the corridor was empty did Robin finally pull her hood back up, casting her striking features back into shadow.

“Just now… someone was watching us fight.”

She spoke softly, a quiet thread of concern weaving through her voice. “Could it cause trouble?”

Having exposed her face, she was acutely aware of humanity’s ravenous pursuit of beauty, and she worried it would attract unwanted attention.

Sometimes, possessing such an exquisite appearance was nothing but a curse.

“It’s fine. They’re from the Loki Familia.”

Noah shook his head, his calm tone grounding her anxiety.

He remembered Ais and Lefiya perfectly from the memories of his past life.

Both were upright, inherently kind individuals, and while their patron deity, Loki, had a history as a mischievous trickster god, the goddess had mellowed under her children’s influence and was now considered quite reasonable.

Between Orario’s two reigning king-tier factions, the Freya Familia was notoriously overbearing, acting entirely on their goddess’s obsessive whims, making the grounded, pragmatic Loki Familia a far superior candidate for future alliances.

Given the unique nature of his abilities, the Focalors Familia was never going to mass-recruit Adventurers from the city like other factions.

At least for now, Noah only intended to bring in the companions he summoned himself.

Consequently, their numbers would always remain small.

But the Guild’s rules were absolute: once an exploration-oriented Familia reached a certain Rank, they would be mandated to launch expeditions into the treacherous lower and deep floors.

A true expedition was never a small-scale endeavor that a handful of people could manage.

The sheer volume of supplies required, and the massive hauls of loot recovered, demanded substantial manpower for logistics and transport.

When that time came, partnering with a powerhouse Familia would be a strategic necessity.

And the Loki Familia was undoubtedly an excellent choice for that partnership.

Naturally, the Focalors Familia lacked the qualifications for such an alliance right now, and the Loki Familia wouldn’t spare a second glance at their current strength.

But the future was unwritten.

They could, in theory, abandon their loot and dive deeper purely for the thrill of combat, but looking at the gleaming magic stones and rare materials scattered across the floor, Noah knew that would be a foolish waste.

Although their stats had skyrocketed in a single day, and Noah possessed magic that defied the world’s logic, he remained sharply aware of their current limits.

The monster horde on the sixth floor had forced them to fight seriously; pushing deeper right now would only invite unnecessary danger.

Thus, for the remainder of the day, Noah and Robin anchored themselves on the sixth floor, descending no further.

The harvest was nothing short of astronomical.

Because the otherworldly monsters were spawned directly by Noah’s [The Abyss That Gazes Back] skill, the purity of their magic stones and the market value of their materials vastly eclipsed the Dungeon’s native creatures of the same tier.

More crucially, the drop rate was staggering; nearly every single creature they slaughtered left behind a tangible reward.

By the time they decided to rest, the massive sacks they had brought were already bulging, more than half full.

They weren’t the only ones to notice the shift in the Dungeon’s ecosystem.

Elsewhere on the upper floors, an Adventurer party took a massive, coordinated risk to bring down a lone Rock Shield Hilichurl, and upon sifting through the ashes, they uncovered a magic stone nearly twice the size and vastly superior in quality to anything they usually farmed—igniting a fierce spark of greed.

Like a plague carried on the wind, the rumor of the high-yield monsters spread rapidly, echoing through the Dungeon’s upper levels and rushing straight toward the Guild’s bustling halls.