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"You're halting here as well," Alfia told Lucian, her tone brokering no argunt. "You're exceptionally strong. You can match a second-tier adventurer despite being lower-leveled. But the upcoming battle is completely out of a second-tier adventurer's league."
She knew perfectly well that if she didn't explicitly stop him, Lucian would casually follow them right into the kill zone. But the Monster Rex of the Glacier Territory was an entirely different breed of danger. It was so lethal that even Alfia couldn't guarantee she could keep him alive in the crossfire.
His performance in the Infinite Goblet had proven that his current capabilities were strictly capped. Slaughtering his way through a Level 3 to Level 4 battle royale relied heavily on his unique martial techniques and insane mana regeneration. But base stats were absolute. A Level 3 adventurer could slay a Level 4 monster because monster threat levels were scaled lower than human levels. Therefore, Lucian's absolute ceiling right now was wrestling a Level 3.
"What's the gimmick with the 59th-floor boss?" Lucian didn't argue imdiately, opting to gather intelligence instead.
"The 59th floor is a massive circular arena with a 500-ter radius. The floor, walls, and ceiling are entirely solid ice," Alfia explained. "It's so lethal because the Floor Boss, Tartarus, operates completely subrged beneath the ice. The mont an adventurer steps into its territory, it violently ruptures the frozen floor to launch devastating ambushes from below."
Every ten floors, the Floor Bosses scaled exponentially in power:
[17th Floor: Goliath, Level 4.]
[25th–27th Floor: Amphisbaena, Level 5.]
[37th Floor: Udaeus, Level 6.]
[49th Floor: Balor, Level 7.]
[59th Floor: Tartarus, Level 8.]
"I see." Lucian nodded, processing the chanics.
Never mind the sheer shock of falling into a glacial lake—the Fire Spirit Gear couldn't possibly ward off that level of cold. Their bodies would lock up instantly. For anyone under Level 5, falling into a Level 8 Floor Boss's domain was an inescapable death sentence. Tartarus would easily massacre anyone who fell into the water before turning its attention to the survivors scrambling on the fracturing ice above. Combat efficiency plumted drastically in water even under normal conditions, let alone in a freezing glacial lake.
Thinking about it now, the Behemoth, Leviathan, and One-Eyed Black Dragon weren't natural Floor Bosses at all. They were likely the World Correction Force's direct retaliation against divine interference—Apex Monsters with threat levels completely shattering the standard scale, easily sitting at Level 9 or above. They might even be Level 10, boasting the sheer destructive scaling of a Monster Rex.
In the original tiline, the Zeus and Hera Familias only managed to slay the Behemoth and Leviathan because Zald and Alfia completely broke their limits. Their unique skills and magic allowed them to temporarily output burst damage that far eclipsed even the Champion and the Empress. If those beasts weren't pushing Level 10, the Familias' standard vanguard would have been more than enough to subjugate them.
"Even so, I'm going," Lucian smiled warmly.
"Do you have a death wish?" Alfia frowned deeply. "Even if you're immune to the freezing water, Tartarus's ambush speed is so fast you might not even have ti to trigger a teleport."
"You're underestimating my toolkit," Lucian chuckled lightly. "Tartarus's biggest threat is its ability to ambush from below the ice. Falling into the water is a death sentence. But I have invisibility, aura-concealnt, and I can fly."
As he spoke, Lucian's feet gently lifted off the ground, leaving him hovering effortlessly in mid-air. This was Cloud Soaring from his Three Secrets and Five thods. Since he had already mastered the concept of walking on clouds, it naturally evolved past a re footwork technique into genuine flight.
"Light Magic: Invisibility."
With a soft hum, Lucian completely vanished from sight. It wasn't just visual camouflage; the spell perfectly masked his scent, heat signature, and magical aura. The only place he still existed was on his own top-down map, rendering as a translucent icon. The system tag above him had updated from [Ground Unit] to [Flying Unit].
"Can you sense ?" Lucian's voice echoed softly from the empty air.
"I can't sense a thing..." Alfia muttered, thoroughly speechless.
"If I fly straight to the edge of the arena and hug the ceiling, am I still in danger?" Lucian deactivated the spell, reappearing with a confident smirk.
"..." Alfia had absolutely no counterargunt.
The other executives who had been eavesdropping on the conversation shared her stunned silence. Lucian's performance on this expedition had been nothing short of omnipotent. Sotis, they genuinely wondered if he was actually just a bored god playing on an alternate account.
"Move out."
Having made their final preparations, the Level 5 and above elites advanced into the boss room, leaving the support teams behind. Stepping onto the breathtaking, glass-like ice of the arena, every single person wound their nerves tighter than piano wire.
"I can see it!!" an adventurer shouted excitedly.
On their minimaps, a massive red blip was lazily circling beneath their feet. No matter where it swam, it was permanently hard-locked by the map's radar.
"See? I told you it was useful for to tag along," Lucian chuckled before casting his spells and vanishing into the air.
Alfia stared at the empty space where he had been, shaking her head with a faint, helpless smile. If he had stayed behind, the distance would have been too great. While the Party Mode would still function, it wouldn't be able to pierce the fog of war over the boss arena. With Lucian present, the Floor Boss was completely stripped of its stealth advantage.
It's actually targeting first?
Alfia shifted her focus and imdiately noticed Tartarus accelerating directly toward the ice directly beneath her.
"Gospel."
The exact microsecond the beast shattered the ice, Alfia vaulted into the air and unleashed her magic.
"Maximum Output: Satan Varrion."
BOOM!!
A horrifying shockwave of pure sound magic slamd into Tartarus with apocalyptic force. Its crimson eyes shattered instantly. Blood erupted from its draconic skull as a massive, jagged wound was torn cleanly through its scales. In that mont, Tartarus's full form was violently exposed. It resembled a massive Western dragon, coated in deep azure scales. Its front claws closely resembled human arms, and its sleek, aerodynamic body ended in a powerful tail. A pair of vicious, fin-like wings flared from its back, giving it a profoundly nacing silhouette.
"Haaaaa!!"
The Empress launched herself into the air, swinging her massive greatsword down in a devastating arc. With a sickening crunch, another gorge was ripped open across Tartarus's exposed torso.
"ROAR!!"
Tartarus shrieked in agony before plumting back into the water, smashing a massive hole through the ice. Blood rapidly dyed the freezing lake red, but the beast's remaining eye burned with an even more frenzied, rabid fury.
Looks like there's zero suspense for this raid, Lucian mused as he watched from the ceiling.
Tartarus was undeniably a powerhouse, but its entire gimmick relied on unpredictable, fatal ambushes. Stripped of its stealth by the radar, its attacks were completely ineffective. The executives easily tracked its movents under the ice, effortlessly evading its strikes while it completely failed to isolate the weaker mbers of the vanguard.
For the next half hour, Tartarus grew increasingly berserk, but the accumulated damage severely degraded its regeneration. Ultimately, it was systematically dismantled and slain by the combined might of the two Familias. The only downside was that upon death, Tartarus's massive corpse sank straight to the bottom of the freezing lake, aning its Magic Stone and drop items were completely unrecoverable.
Or so they thought. Lucian suddenly drifted down, hovering perfectly above the surface of the blood-stained water.
"String Magic."
Countless ethereal threads shot into the freezing depths, tightly wrapping around Tartarus's sinking corpse before slowly hauling it upward.
"I'm going to need so muscle over here. Gently, please," Lucian said with a faint smile.
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