NOVEL NEXT Chapter 260: A Supporter!?
Chapter 260 - A Supporter!?
"Have you felt it? The tremors," Finn said, lowering his gaze to the ground beneath his feet.
The vibrations pulsed clearly through the soles of his boots, unmistakable to everyone present.
"It's coming from below," Bete confirmed, pressing his ear to the ground to listen intently.
As a werewolf, his senses were sharper than those of most adventurers, often making him the expedition team's scout.
"Below?" Tiona echoed.
"Could it be the 27th floor?" Tione mused.
"How's that possible? We're a whole floor apart!"
Tiona retorted, her disbelief shared by the others.
Though the 26th and 27th floors were only one floor apart, the vertical distance in the dungeon wasn't like a few meters in a typical building.
It spanned tens, even hundreds of meters—or more.
For vibrations to carry up through such a gap, the disturbance below had to be immense.
The Loki Familia, seasoned from numerous expeditions and familiar with the upper, middle, and lower floors, had never encountered anything like this.
"Don't doubt my hearing," Bete snapped, standing up and glaring at the skeptics.
Turning to Finn, he added, "The tremors are definitely coming from below."
"What's causing it, though, we'll only know by checking the floor ourselves."
Initially, Bete had assumed the shaking originated somewhere on the 25th floor, but his keen senses told him it was rising from deeper down—not spreading horizontally.
"Interesting. We've hit an anomaly right after entering the lower floors."
"This expedition might have more than we expected," Finn said, a whimsical smile breaking through his stern demeanor—a look that perfectly suited his playful side.
It sparked a surge of fighting spirit among the Loki Familia members.
"I thought I'd have to wait until the deep floors to flex my muscles, but we've stumbled into something weird right here in the lower floors," Tiona exclaimed, her boredom replaced by excitement.
"Quit yelling, idiot," Tione shot her sister a sidelong glare.
"It's fine. The journey was getting dull anyway," Finn said with a casual grin.
"We've got a long way to go before the deep floors. A little oddity now is just what we need to shake things up."
"What the captain said makes sense," Tione conceded with a nod.
"Everyone, get fired up! Our expedition starts now!"
Finn declared, waving the jester-patterned flag of the Loki Familia with an encouraging shout.
Fueled by renewed vigor, the expedition team pressed toward the 27th floor.
To their surprise, the 26th floor offered even fewer obstacles than the 25th.
Normally, traversing these two floors took at least half a day, but this time, they cut that by nearly two-thirds.
"The tremors are growing stronger. There's no mistake—it's just ahead," Finn noted as they stepped onto the floor.
The team's expressions turned grave, their stances shifting to high alert.
"Roar—!" From the depths of the floor, monster cries echoed intermittently.
Though softened by distance, the overlapping roars hinted at a massive gathering of monsters.
"There's a horde up ahead. Everyone, prepare for combat," Finn ordered, his gaze fixed forward.
"Wait—is that a supporter?" Gareth grunted.
His sharp dwarven eyes spotted Lili nearly a hundred meters away, well beyond the monster tide's reach.
Lili was searching for a discreet hiding spot.
Mahiro's commotion was deafening, audible even from this distance.
Once it died down, she'd move in to clean up the battlefield.
"Huh? Seriously, a lone supporter?" Tiona peered in the same direction, squinting.
Lili's outfit marked her unmistakably as a supporter.
No ordinary adventurer would lug such a load; it hindered speed and combat too much.
"No way. This is the 27th floor! Even Level 3 adventurers tread carefully here."
"How's a frail-looking supporter managing this deep?" Bete scoffed, incredulous.
Supporters were a familiar role to any adventurer.
Even this expedition team had brought their own—capable fighters who, in weaker Familias, could serve as main combatants or even captains.
To support an expedition team, they were at least Level 2, some even Level 3.
"Maybe she got separated from her group?" Tiona suggested.
"Get real," Bete snapped, rolling his eyes.
"This is the 27th floor. You know as well as I do what 'getting separated' means for a supporter."
Supporters relied on adventurers for survival, especially in the dungeon.
Unless they were suicidal, they clung to their team.
If the adventurers died, a weak supporter wouldn't last long alone.
"Let's approach and ask," Riveria said calmly.
"She might know what's happening down here."
"Too much hassle. You won't get anything useful out of a weakling like that."
"Better to just check the source ourselves," Bete grumbled impatiently, then bolted toward the noise.
"That jerk ran off without the captain's orders again!" Tione fumed.
"He'll be fine," Finn said, shaking his head.
"As a Level 5, Bete has the strength and speed to handle it. Even if he hits trouble, he can retreat."
"Gareth, go check on that supporter and get her story."
"If she's truly separated, escort her back to the eighteenth floor," Finn instructed swiftly.
"The rest of you, follow me to catch up with Bete. I'm curious about what's ahead too," he added, glancing at Riveria and the others.
He split the expedition team into two groups: one to pursue Bete toward the disturbance's source, and Gareth to investigate Lili.
---
Read 20 Chapters In Advance:
patreon.com/heavenlydawn
---
(PS: Give power stones to this fanfiction for more chapters(500 stones= 5 chapters). Also, don't forget to leave a review and comment below.)