"How long were you in the other world, Grandpa? And what happened to the evil gods?" A young blonde girl with red eyes asked. Alice, one of Bell's descendants.

It has been three hundred and twenty-six years since that day, so I didn't remember exactly how long I was there. I did need to find some water and food in that other dimension. It was multiple days at least.

"I think I was stuck in that world for about six days, give or take. The gods who formed Evilus were banished back to heaven by the other gods once we returned." I said with a smile.

"And what about the monsters?" She asked eagerly.

"I could tell you, but seeing as Finn and Lefiya were there, you might be able to hear the story better from them." I told her with a smile. Finn and Lefiya had been some of the few constants in my life. Bell, along with many others, had denied my offer of immortality and entered the cycle of reincarnation. Not that I could blame them, even I felt my soul being burdened by age.

"Thanks, Grandpa! Goodbye." The young girl said before rushing out of my room, presumably to find her way to the Loki familia home. Speaking of which, I would need to head there myself soon enough to organize an expedition. Three hundred years and one hundred and forty-nine floors conquered so far, and I could just feel how close we were to the end. The dungeon spent so much magic creating such powerful monsters that practically every monster was a Rex at this point. Even the dungeon itself exerted a pressure that was fatal to anyone under the tenth level. Once I had defeated the dungeon, I could finally allow my soul to rest.

Getting up, I groaned heavily. My body was growing too old, I would need to die and allow my soul to enter a younger clone again soon. Reaching over to my spellbook, I saw that it wasn't there. While that might have been a concern in the past, I had long since grown past the need for it. Not only have I made hundreds of copies of every spell I knew, but I had used my magics so often I had memorized them inside and out. That didn't mean I wasn't going to scold the thief, though.

"Teleport." I cast after making sure I was standing properly with my cane. After a small flash, I was outside of the Hestia Manor, and in a small field next to a tree were a smaller young man with blonde hair and a much older dragon.

"Dad!" The half-pallum cried in shock, trying to hide my spellbook underneath his legs. My youngest son Athis. That said, he was still over a hundred years old, so it wasn't entirely accurate to call him young.

"Athis you know there are other spellbooks for you to use, right?" I said with a smile. before turning to Veneficus, "And you. You know better, you old lizard."

"You're older than I am, ancient one." He snarked right back at me. I couldn't help but smile. Over the years, Veneficus had gone from being one of my students to one of my closest friends.

"Dad I know you don't like me taking your book, but the copies pale in comparison to the original." Athis said with a new surge of confidence. I appreciated his love of magic and desire to study, what I didn't appreciate was his willingness to sneak into my room and steal my things.

"I don't mind you taking my book, but you need to let me know first." I told him.

"Yes dad." He pouted in return.

"Veneficus, ensure my son knows what he's doing before he tries any of the more dangerous spells." I said, turning my back to the two, allowing them to continue their studies.

"Of course, Matthew." He said as I was walking away.

As I was already outside and nearby, I decided to visit Lili's grave. She had stayed with me for two hundred years before allowing her soul to enter the cycle of reincarnation. Even though it's been over a hundred years, the pain was still fresh in my heart. Still, as I grew ever older, I knew that I couldn't hold on to the past forever, New futures must be forged. Leaving the grave, I went to inform Hestia of my intentions for the day. A quick walk over to the manor I wandered around for a bit before finally finding my goddess.

"Hestia. I was thinking about visiting Loki to discuss organizing another expedition." I said to my goddess.

"Another expedition? You've only managed to reach one level deeper in the last ten years." She said with a pout, "You need some rest, not to delve deeper."

"Hestia, I've rested for decades. Besides, we're close. I can feel it." I told her.

"You've been saying that for the past fifty years." Hestia responded.

"I know, I know. But the dungeon is out putting more magic than ever to create its monstrosities. It is stressing itself." I explained.

"Very well. Even if you do push yourself too far, you'll still come back to me, right?" She asked.

"Of course, Hestia." I smiled tiredly.

With her permission, I went to hunt down the vice captain Elise. She has been around so long thanks to natural elven longevity rather than my offer of immortality, and I was honestly rather thankful for it. Nowadays, many people sought to join the Hestia familia to learn powerful magic or to obtain pseudo-immortality from me. Not that I minded terribly, but as I developed more powerful magic and offered my Clone spell to more people, I was treated with reverence that was not normally afforded to mortals. I have even been personally invited to a denatus before.

"Again?" Elise asked with a tired smile, age slowly beginning to show on her elven face.

"Yes again. I have a good feeling about this." I told her.

"I'll gather the familia. You go speak with the other familias." She said before retreating further into the Hestia manor. With that done, I made my way into Orario proper. First, I would speak to Finn and Loki as they were my metaphorical partners in crime, then I would stop by Hephaestus to pick up Welf's legacy.

Walking throughout the streets of Orario, I was simultaneously amused and annoyed. Amused as it never ceased to amaze me how much a city can change in three hundred years. While there were no cars or skyscrapers, the innovation of magic had completely reshaped the city.

The annoyance came from the reverence of the average citizens held for me. Wherever I walked, others would part way for me. For the lack of a better term, I was a celebrity in Orario. My undead had allowed low skilled laborers to be free to seek an education or other personal pursuits, and my innovations in magic are a large part of why the city is so advanced.

I could have cast Alter Self to temporarily avoid such attention, but with the magic sensors all over the place, I would eventually have to reveal myself. Ignoring the attention I was drawing, I continued on to the Twilight manor where the guards let me in without a Twilight manor was buzzing with activity. Even after all these years, Loki remaned one of the most popular and successful familias behind Hestia's. Unfortunately, there were more unfamiliar faces than familiar. Finn and Lefiya remained, of course, but the rest of the familia executives I grew to befriend in my younger years had entered the cycle of reincarnation.

Tiona had found a husband and started a family, moving on from her crush on me. Gareth had lived to become one of the strongest Dwarves to ever live, reaching level fourteen before his death. Though there were a few Dwarves now getting close to reaching that goal. Riveria was a princess of another nation and one day had to return. Bete had left Orario, and I never did learn what happened to him. I like to imagine he found happiness wherever he found himself. Aiz had married Bell back in the day. She had allowed me to Clone her several times, but after the black dragon was slain, she allowed her soul to pass on.

Of the remaining members, there was only Lefiya, Finn, and Tione. Lefiya had sworn to surpass me in magical ability, but I think deep down, she knows that isn't possible. Finn wanted to be a living legend for his kind, thus persists regardless of how tiring it grows. Something I respected him deeply for. And Tione, ever loyal, remained by her captain's side the entire time. Apparently, Finn would refuse to marry her for years due to his desire to sire a pure blooded pallum child who would take his place as the living legend of the pallum race, but after I offered him pseudo-immortality he happily accepted Tione's marriage proposal and they had a fair few more children than I imagine Finn actually wanted.

Speak of the devil and he will come, I suppose. Descending a nearby flight of stares with Tione at his side , I saw Finn approach me. His physical body was much younger than mine in part because pallums age differently than humans. The other part was because he was killed during an expedition twenty years ago and was brought back into a younger version of himself via Clone.

"I've told you the story before. You don't need to send your grandchildren to me every time they ask about the six great monsters." He chastised.

"But it's so much easier to pass the work onto you." I joked, bringing a chuckle out of Finn.

"Alice is a good girl, so I'll let it pass this time." He said with a smile, though I knew he would happily tell the story every time.

"As for more serious matters, I would like to organize another expedition." I told the other captain.

"I was wondering when you would. It's been five years since the last one." He said with a laugh. Five years was still pretty damn impressive recovery time, seeing as everyone we brought needed to be a minimum of level ten just to survive the dungeon's pressure. Thirteen was preferable, but we make do with what we have.

Though the city has evolved massively over the years, one problem remained the same. Contentedness. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but few adventurers sought to delve deeper than the twentieth floor. Why would they when they can make a comfortable living already and to fight harder meant a higher risk of death? Adventurers who wanted something greater and wanted to join the halls of history were rarer, and losing even one of them meant another expedition could be delayed for well over a decade had they not been cloned.

"Yes, it's time. I'm hoping the maps we drew out last time were sufficient so that we may reach the hundred and fiftieth floor." I said solemnly. The maps we made last time were hard fought. We weren't given a moment's rest to draw them properly, so we had to hope on 'good enough'.

"I'll rally the familia then. We should be ready to move out in about an hour. Hopefully, this next floor is the last." He said with a tired sigh. Finn was good at hiding it, but the weight of his age was getting to him just as it had to me. I truly did hope this would be the last floor.

"Matthew!"
"Master!"

Familiar voices called out to me. One of whom being my familiar. Pride. Some fifty or so years after the defeat of Evilus, I had devised a spell that would give Pride a physical form that was not magically bound to me. Tall with blue eyes and dark black hair. A rather handsome devil if I did say so myself, though there was some bias there as I was the one who formed his body. And beside my familiar was his lover, Loki. She always struck me as a goddess who would prefer many lovers, but to my surprise, she had remained rather faithful to Pride ever since I created his human form.

"Going on another expedition master?" He asked.

"Yup, I have a good feeling about this one." I said with a smile, causing Pride to laugh.

"Good luck Matthew. Don't die." Loki said with a big grin.

"I don't plan on it. We'll throw a party when we get back, alright." I told her.

"Make sure there's plenty of booze." Loki said.

"Naturally." I said before making my way out, "Have a good night."

With that done, my next destination would be Hephaestus's place. She didn't have any adventurers in her familia that met the level ten requirement, but she did have something I needed.

As I got closer to Babel, I couldn't help but marvel at it. it was by far the oldest structure in Orario. One of the few that hasn't changed in centuries. As beautiful as it was, it did come with bad memories, though.

The top of the tower was emptier than before. Shortly after defeating Evilus, Freya tried to absorb Bell and I into her familia. First, from an attempt to charm us and when that didn't work, a war game. Seeing as her familia was much stronger than I was back, then I opted to simply banish them to another dimension like I had almost considered doing with the evil gods. I felt terrible about it, but I was left with no other option. Putting that foul memory aside I began to ascend the tower, I soon found myself at Hephaestus's door. After knocking and watinga. few moments, I was faced with the one-eyed smiting goddess. "Hello again, Hephaestus."

The goddess didn't speak, but she did open the door and gesture for me to enter. Standing on one side of the wall, secured by a display case, I saw what I came for. Welf's second greatest creation. A set of ornate enchanted armor made from the bones of Udaeus, the thirty-seventh floor boss. In spite of my body's old age, the armor fit perfectly, seemingly forming around my body on its own. Because it was. Not only had Welf forged this armor specifically for me, but the armor was enchanted to act as a sort of second skin. It allowed me to pass on any spell that would affect me onto the armor itself as well.

"If you see any new metals on the next floor, make sure to bring them to me." Hephaestus said as I was getting ready to leave.

"Of course, but I'm going to charge you up the nose for it." I laughed. She smiled and chuckled along to my sort of statement, but I wasn't joking. There was no reliable way to gather resources from the deepest floors given how long it took to prepare the expeditions. I mean, I could theoretically just Teleport myself down there alone and see if I couldn't gather materials alone, but even with my massive level advantage and magic, the monsters were still extremely dangerous.

"Yes, I know. It's not easy to get ahold of." She said before pulling out a case I instantly recognized. Opening the case revealed Welf's single greatest creation. A sword made from the fangs of a wind demon and cozium. Not a single drop of magic was used to create the blade, yet it almost felt lighter than air and could peirce the hides of monsters even on the deepest floors. I don't know how he did it, but it was a pure technical masterpiece.

"He was one of a kind, you know." Hephaestus said sorrowfully.

"He was a good man and a good friend." I nodded. For a moment, the two stood together in silence to remember one of the greatest mortal smiths to ever live. After spending a moment together I left, not having anything else to say to the goddess of smithing.

It didn't take me that long to track back home all things considered. And when I arrived I saw thirty-four adventurers in our yard. The majority by far was comprised of my own familia as they had more ready access to my clone spell and could more freely level up, and a few members of the Loki familia. Gathering their attention I made sure they were all ready.

"Everyone! While I'm sure I don't need to explain this, but for the sake of surety, I will. We will be dropping directly into the hundred and forty-ninth floor. The initial phase of the expedition will be the most brutal as always. Be careful, and fight hard." I said to the crowd, eliciting a small cheer. "Are all of you ready?"

"Yeah!" They all shouted in tandem as they took defensive fighting stances forming a circle.

"Mass Teleportation." I cast and the scenery suddenly changed. No longer were we in the yard outside of the Hestia familia manor, but on the hundred forty ninth floor of the dungeon. Immediately I felt a great heat bear down on me. Though I could bear the pressure, but I could tell it was getting to some of the level ten adventurers. Before we could even gather our bearings I heard a psychic screech echo throughout my head. Turning to the source I saw five hallow shriekers. A name we decided upon given their strange hollow bodies that amplified any sound around them.

"Break!" I commanded as several of the bones of the shriekers broke unceremoniously. A rather simple spell I devised a few decades ago. Simple as it may be, it was very, very, effective. Especially so against the shriekers in particular. As soon as the spell was cast the shriekers wailed once more, though this time in agony. Faster than most mortals could see, a swarm of level ten adventurers descended upon the shriekers and ripped them to shreds in but a moment.

For an entire day we fought. Each level of the dungeon grew progressively bigger so naturally on these floors, if you didn't have a map, you could stay on a single floor for weeks. Luckily The layout of the floor hadn't changed much since we last mapped it out so we were able to make our way through the floor with relative ease. On top of what we had mapped out previously, we also still had new grounds to tread. Overall we remained on the hundred forty-ninth floor for roughly four days and lost three adventurers to a death worm in the process. One of whom did not have a clone. Though we would have a funeral for her once we returned to the surface, for now her sacrifice would allow us to find the stairs descending to the hundred and fiftieth floor.

As we made our way down it became quite apparent that the dungeon was desperate to stop us. The pressure which prevented anyone lower than level ten from reaching the previous floors had increased. We had to leave fourteen of our fellow expeditionaries at the entrance to the stairs. That number increased the further down the stairs. Ten more. Then three. It was only Finn, tione, Lefiya and I. Then Tione was left back.

"This pressure... Is insane." Lefiya panted.

"Even I feel it." I grunted. I knew this would be the end. The magic dungeon-chan was outputting was absolutely suffocating at this point. I was the strongest adventurer in the world at level nineteen, so for this pressure to even affect me was absurd. If this wasn't the end, it would likely be a millenium before the dungeon was finally conquered.

"I can't do this anymore Matthew. I'm heading back." Finn said in an exhausted huff.

"Lefiya. You head back as well. I can see how it's affecting you." I told her. Truth be told, even if this wasn't the end, all we needed to do was find another place to Teleport during the next attempt. And even if I died on my own, Lefiya had leaned the Mass Teleportation spell some time ago. They could escape without me.

A further twenty minutes of descending stairs did not do any favors on my old body, but I persisted. "The rope is closing in isn't it?"

Naturally the dungeon couldn't respond verbally, but I felt the pressure grow in response to my statement.

"I don't hate you, you know. But we can not both exist in the same world. Your little game. Endless death and destruction. If we adventures weren't here, you would destroy the world. I can't allow that. Even if you don't understand what you're doing." I mumbled. Perhaps it was senile of me to continue speaking to something that couldn't respond. Taunting a formless entity. I needed something to keep my mind off of the building pressure.

"It's well past time for the game to end." I said. I could feel the intensity of the magic, it was as if the ocean itself was trying to suffocate me. Once the stairs finally ended I found myself in a small room, something you would see in a small house. Inside was a crystal that shined as bright as a star and burned with a magic intensity that simply couldn't be explained. "So there you are."

This was it. I thought it would be, but at the same time I had expected more. Reaching out to the crystal I placed my hand on it. It was over.