Aidan walked outside of the manor as he heard about both Ais and Riveria coming back to Orario. He couldn't wait to meet up with his only friend, and at the same time, he was more than tired of dealing with paperwork and being restricted from entering the dungeon, not that he followed the rule.
As he arrived outside, he saw Ais walking with Riveria and the corners of her mouth tilted. He didn't know whether it was because she would be able to continue training and go back in the dungeon or because she saw him. However, Aidan liked to think it was due to both.
As Ais arrived next to Aidan, she nodded and showed him a smile which showed how happy she was to be back with him. "I know you two want to go straight back to the dungeon. However, it's already later. As such, you can only go there tomorrow morning, not before. At the same time, Ais, you need to go and get your status updated before you go back so, you're coming with me." she said as she pulled Ais's hand and brought her to Loki while Aidan, who was simply happy that she came back, decided to go back to his room.
"Alright, they were not aware that I went in the dungeon during the time I was prohibited to. That's not a problem, I went with Finn once, and with tomorrow, I'll have a good excuse to have a huge increase in my parameters." Said Aidan to himself; as he thought about three things that made him happy. Firstly, he was going back to the dungeon. Secondly, Ais had come back and thirdly, he didn't have to do any more paperwork for a while. For a time, because he was confident that Finn would have him work with him once again soon.
---
Half an hour later, Ais arrived in the room as she dropped directly on the bed after taking off her shoes. "I missed this bed." She said lightly as she smiled at Aidan and hugged him. "Loki said that we can go to the dungeon tomorrow as long as we're careful. However, we only have two weeks as after that it's the Denatus. So, we should make this count." She smiled as her eyes lit up.
With a solemn nod, Aidan smiled, and after changing, he went to bed, this time with Ais, who had a happy smile. They both soon fell into their slumber as they hugged each other while sleeping, having the best sleep since they separated first.
---
The following morning, with Ais, they woke up early and went directly to the dungeon. He was going to show her the teleportation card. However, he needed to wait for entering the dungeon as he didn't want to cause suspicion and make them understand that he had managed to teleport during the evening to continue diving in the dungeon alone when told not to. Loki was a pretty good investigator, and he didn't want to enter her radar.
Once inside the dungeon, as they had run to it, Aidan took Ais's hand as he took out the teleportation card, which would only teleport to one of his two markers and threw it in front of him as they both ran into the portal the card had created.
"Where are we?" Asked Ais, confused as they had managed to leave the corridors made of stone.
"18th floor." Grinned Aidan as Ais immediately looked up and confirmed his claim.
"You used this to enter the dungeon while we were prohibited." She said with a calm voice as she immediately understood everything.
"Yes, while it cost a lot of energy, there isn't a problem transporting a few people with the number of crystals we collect when we kill the monsters. Moreover, I can only teleport to a location I set up a portal in. Currently, there is a portal here." He said while tapping his feet on the ground. "The second one is in the garden behind the church we went to previously. I created some secret bases under it and protected them with various cards. So, we can go back to the surface whenever we want without having to walk up the seventeen floors above." He answered while explaining the limitation of the portal card and where the two current teleportation locations were.
With a nod from Ais, who only looked at the dungeon with a 'hungry' gaze, Aidan led the way as they made their way to the nineteenth floor. "We both trained a lot since we went down to this floor. This time, we should be fine." Said the boy as they walked down the stairs leading to the level they almost died on.
"I trained a lot." Nodded Ais as they both prepared as they walked on the previous floor that had stopped them.
Spotting the first monster, they charged ahead as Aidan swung his sword after Ais made a distraction with her strike, allowing him to bisect the Lizardmen at his waist.
Immediately after he killed their first monster, they moved to the small pack of four lizardmen which appeared as the previous one was turning into dust.
"This is easier than before." He said out loud as they rushed to the next group of monsters appearing. The worse thing about this floor was the poison in the air, which could only be countered by either an antidote or the abnormal resistance skill. Thankfully, they both had it, although a bit differently from the other adventurers. As such, this floor wasn't that hard as long as you have the fundamental strength to fight on it.
"Yes. Now that I think about the last time we came here, we weren't strong enough to kill them rapidly, which caused them to swarm us." Nodded Ais as she killed the second bear that appeared since their arrival on this floor.
"Well, I guess we both know where we will be training for the following two weeks. Moreover, from what I see from the cards, the map hasn't been completely mapped yet. We could do it while we train on this floor." Proposed Aidan as it was boring staying at the same place only to kill and kill again. At least by filling the map, they had a goal.
"Sure, let's do it." She nodded as a smile appeared on her face. She missed her time in the dungeon.
---
For the following two weeks, Aidan and Ais walked and explored the floor, which had almost killed them previously while mapping the entire floor and improving their status. The young boy held no doubt that their status would significantly increase the next time they updated it.
After all, level two monsters started appearing on the thirteenth floor of the dungeon, and they were currently exploring the 19th floor with him not having updated his status even once since then.
"We should go back soon. According to Loki's request, we have to arrive back at the familia in half an hour." Said Aidan as he looked at the time and at Ais, who was finishing collecting her things in her storage card.
"I'm ready." She nodded as she held Aidan's hand with a smile, and the boy used the portal card to teleport back to their secret base in the garden of the church.
As she looked at the various active cards protecting their small base, they both walked out of the garden and walked back to the Loki familia manor.
"Were you the one who renovated the church?" Asked Ais, shocked, she looked at the now beautiful church, which looked a bit like a house.
"Yes, I had nothing else to do, and I needed an excuse for being here." He explained with a small laugh as he was indeed proud of the renovation he had done to the manor.
They then made small talk as they stopped at a road stall to buy some snacks from the same vendor who had sold him the potatoes the day he went to take the Loki-familia trials.
"Hum." Said Ais as she continued to munch the food rapidly.
"Indeed, hum. The food is good as always." Nodded Aidan as he ate bite by bite instead of looking like Ais, who looked like a squirrel with food-filled cheeks.
"Ais, Aidan. Loki wants to see you right now." Said a man who neither of them had ever talked to.
"Alright, thanks." Nodded Aidan as Ais slightly nodded her head as the two of them changed their course to their room to Loki's room.
---
Author note: (Important)
1) The reason the chapter was so late is because I was preparing another novel which I just published on the platform. The novel joined the last writing prompt. It's called: The Adventurer's Guild Master.
If you guys have like five minutes to spare for me, would you be interested in going to take a look, comment and drop the powerstone if you feel like it? Thanks in advance :)
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