Naaza’s Decision
As Nox and the girls met back on the 18th floor and talked about the performance of the girls' new gear, Naaza reached her familia home, full of purpose and determined to make the selfish request she had held in her hear for quite a while now, to her most respected god.
"Miach-sama!" Naaza greeted as soon as she arrived.
"Yes Naaza, have you finally made up your mind to ask?" Miach inquired with his signature gentle tone and a caring smile.
"!?" Naaza was just dumbfounded and in shock.
"How did you?" She barely managed to get out.
"A god has his way. Now, did you not have something to ask me?
To those words, Naaza took a deep breath and made the question she had held in her heart for months.
"May I join Nox-san as a permanent member of his group, even if that results in my leaving of this familia?" She requested, with tears in the corner of her eyes.
"Of course, you can. As my child, you happiness will always be my priority." Miach calmly responded.
"Miach-sama!" Naaza cried.
"I'll still work here, although I may not be a true member of the Miach Familia anymore, I'll shamelessly still consider myself to be a part of it anyway." She tearfully declared.
Miach just maintained his smile.
"You will always be welcome here, as will Nox and the rest of your group and I'd be honored if you would have this humble lace as your second home." Miach said.
"Thank you, Miach-sama!" Naaza replied.
After a few more tearful goodbyes, Naaza decided to set out. Reaching the 18th by herself would be the final challenge for her to become a part of their group.
Not for one moment did she think she would be refused no matter what however, as all members had made it clear there would always be a spot for her should she wish to join.
This was just a self imposed challenge for Naaza to prove herself worthy of both Nox's party's recognition and Miach's kindness for caring for her and letting her go at this time.
Meanwhile, as Naaza braved the Dungeon's depth once again to reach the 18th floor where Nox's party lived most the time, the man himself, after discussing the performance of the gear he had given to the girls with them, had said his goodbyes and returned to his personal hideout on the 37th floor.
Since inventory was not fast enough to use in the heat of battle, Nox made sure to have slots in his outfit for expendable items he might need to use and stocked up on his limit carrying amount, without hampering his movement of course, before setting out.
His objective, survive the Colosseum of the 37th floor as long as he could before retreating. It was an arena filled with all kinds on monsters that could be found all over the 37th floor.
It had the special characteristic that all these different groups of monsters fought not only intruders but also amongst themselves. Furthermore, as soon as the number of monsters went down from the set amount, more would be instantly spawned in to fill their spots.
In other words, so long as one knew when to retreat before they got to into it and had a place to retreat where monsters would not assail them, it was the perfect place for some intensive training so long as you were not around Level 7, which would make it a bit to easy eve if one was doing it solo.
The list of monsters that populated the Colosseum was extenside and even the weakest had strength between a Level 3 and Level 4 adventurer and they were huge in numbers.
The monsters of the 37th floor were known as warrior type monsters, fighting with skill and not just bestial instinct. They included:
-Barbarians: Two meter tall monsters similar to Minotaurs with two large and curved horns, black skin, red hair, and yellow eyes. The Guild estimates them to have power equivalent to Level 3 and 4 adventurers.
-Lizardman Elites: Stronger versions of the Lizardmen. Unlike their weaker versions, they are blue rather than red blue, with scales that are hard as armor and estimated to be around Level 3 to 4 as well.
-Obsidian Soldiers: Monsters with misshapen obsidian bodies made of solidified lava and a single purple light in their heads resembling an eye. They are slow compared to the warrior type monsters on the 37th Floor, though it is made up by their superior defense and ability to lessen the power of magic used against them.
-Loup Garou: A 120-130 cm muscular humanoid monster with a wolf head. They use white stone knife or cudgel weapons and their agility to fight. Among the monsters that made it to the surface, groups of them were known to destroy villages on moonlit nights more than any other monster.
-Spartoi: A skeleton monster that is around Level 4 in strength. They are able to spawn with random weapons which they know how to use, such as swords or lances made of bone and kite shield-like protectors. The monster is stronger than a Lizardman Elite or Loup Garou and more agile than a Barbarian. Their skill and fighting ability is more like an adventurer than a monster. It is considered the most dangerous warrior-type monster on the floor excluding rare monsters.
-Skull Sheep: One of the few non warrior type monsters in the 37th floor. A 140 cm long sheep monster made entirely of bones. It has a large dark colored piece of skin that covers its body starting from the back of its head which makes it hard to predict its attacks, making it appear as if it's a skull floating in empty space, and allows it to camouflage within the natural duskiness of the 37th Floor. It can also fire piles at its opponents.
-Peluda: A powerful and rare monster with only one or two at the most spawning in the Colosseum. A dark green dragon monster with a long snake-like body and four legs. It has poisonous needles on its back, resembling a porcupine, which it can fire at its enemies. Their poison can overwhelm upper class adventurers with abnormal resistance and it requires a superior detoxification magic or an antidote to remove. They are also able to stand on walls and breathe scorching fire.
The last and rarest of the monsters in the 37th floor, other than the Monster Rex Udaeus, was the Peluda, a truly tough opponent with not only threatening special abilities but also raw stats between a Level 5 and 6 adventurer, making it a very serious threat to the current Nox.
Fortunately, inside the Colosseum, the monsters not only fought intruders but also themselves so all Nox had to do was be careful not to be target by these more powerful foes and retreat if it still happened.
Other than the Peludas, the most threatening foe were the Spartoi that had balanced stats equivalent to those of a Level 4 adventurers along with weapons which they could wield proficiently, making Nox mark them as the second most dangerous in the Colosseum and, unlike the Peludas, these came in numbers.
Reevaluating his situation made Nox more and more unsure if he should toss himself into the maelstrom of the Colosseum but his armor was good enough to keep him safe from most , if note everything in there.
Still, being the worrywart that he was not wanting to put himself in another crappy situation due to his own carelessness and gung ho attitude, he prepared two items beforehand.
Tear of Denial: An earring that negated a killing blow and restored all of the users wounds. The materials used to make it were costly beyond reason and the time Nox put into the manufacturing process was equally prohibitive. In addition, it could only be used once before shattering and even if you happened to have a second one it could only be used seven day after the first.
A truly overpowered item with some hefty limitations to make up for it. The last one not bothering Nox in the slightest for now since despite his utmost effort, he only succeeded in making one.
The main ingredient was a failed attempt at reproducing the Philosopher's Stone once created by Fels but even that failed version was only a one time miracle he had never been able to repeat.
As for the other insurance . . .
Tear of Salvation: An earring with use use like the previous one but significantly easier to make. It did not activate automatically but based on will and it had two functions. It created a powerful spatial barrier to protect the user and teleported them to the closest teleportation gate previously set up.
With both of these safeguards, Nox was finally ready to take the leap and experience the chaos and carnage of the 37th floor specialty, The Colosseum.
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