Check out my Patreon for 20 chapter ahead! Your support helps a lot.
PATREON.COM/METARLN
****
Faced with Tiona's nearly confessional words, Aston ultimately did not give a response.
There was no helping it. Although he didn't dislike Tiona, and her romantic nature appealed to him, their time together had been too short.
Aston couldn't just casually agree.
Moreover, there was also Hestia.
Although Hestia hadn't explicitly expressed her feelings, Aston could sense her special affection for him.
Their situation was similar to that of Hestia and Bell in the original story.
...
Early in the morning, after preparing breakfast for everyone, Aston opened his attribute panel to browse the Shop.
After a brief glance, he closed the Shop.
Yesterday, some great items were available, but he couldn't afford them. Today, he could, but it was all plain white weapons, not even worth a look for Aston.
After a simple breakfast, the group began their journey towards the 39th floor.
Due to Tiona expressing her feelings to Aston yesterday, she, like Ryuu, stayed close to Aston, one on each side of him.
Ryuu was attracted by the natural aura emanating from Aston, which was greatly beneficial for elves.
Tiona, on the other hand, was straightforwardly advancing her offensive to win Aston over.
Aston still hadn't given a clear indication of his feelings, but he wasn't dismissive either, seriously addressing Tiona's advances.
This situation made Tiona very satisfied.
She knew all too well how her sister, Tione, had been pursuing their captain, Finn, for years without any response.
Now, Tiona found herself in a similar situation as her sister but was able to get responses from Aston, which was already quite rare.
At least, it was rare compared to her sister's situation.
This made Tione feel a bit envious.
"Tiona is so lucky," she thought.
"Why doesn't the captain respond to me? If he doesn't like me, why not just reject me?"
"I'll confess to the captain again when we get back. If he still doesn't accept, then I'll give up." Watching her sister, who was constantly smiling brightly around Aston, Tione felt envious and somewhat confused, then sighed inwardly with a clear mind.
When they first came to Orario, the sisters had received invitations from many gods and eventually joined the Loki Familia.
The condition they set for the gods who invited them was to defeat them.
Tione was easily defeated by Finn.
Finn's display of strength in front of her was what attracted her.
It was then that she, driven by the Amazoness' nature, began her pursuit of Finn.
Unfortunately, their captain had never given a clear answer, not even a response, neither rejecting nor accepting her advances.
Seeing the treatment her sister was receiving from Aston, Tione felt a great disparity in her heart, and for a moment, she even thought of giving up.
After all, it had been several years.
Even a stone would have heated up by now.
Soon, the group entered the first adventure floor of the deeper levels.
As Tiona had described, the 39th floor was a vast, flat area, a huge space entirely red, resembling a battlefield without gunpowder, a scene of the apocalypse. Finn was incredibly astonished.
Upon entering, Tiona stopped clinging to Aston and immediately went into battle mode, as monsters appeared too quickly.
As soon as Aston and the others set foot here, they were welcomed by the Dungeon.
Huge Lava Giants and Minotaurs emerged from the ground, eyeing them menacingly and then charging with molten fists and bone weapons, roaring towards the group.
"Aston, be careful!" After expressing her feelings, Tiona dropped the 'little brother' suffix from Aston's name, calling him directly by his name. After instructing Aston, she swung her great double-bladed Urga, meeting the incoming enemies head-on and immediately slicing a Minotaur into pieces.
Ais and the others followed suit, rushing out and attacking the enemies with their weapons.
Seeing this, Aston didn't stay idle. After enchanting their weapons, he wrapped himself in lightning and turned into a bolt, charging into the mob of monsters and launching rapid attacks.
"Ding! Your teammate Tiona has killed a Minotaur, you have gained 500 experience points!"
"Ding! Your teammate Tione has killed a Lava Giant, you have gained 520 experience points!"
"Ding! Your teammate Ais has killed a Minotaur, you have gained 500 experience points!"
"Ding! Your teammate Ryuu has killed a Minotaur, you have gained 500 experience points."
"Ding! Killed a Minotaur, gained 720 experience points."
"Ding! Continuous use of the Sharingan, gained 80 Sharingan experience points!"
Hearing the notification in his mind, a slight smile curled on Aston's lips in the midst of battle.
The experience points had increased.
Indeed, after leveling up, it was right to move to new floors. Only this way, the experience from killing monsters wouldn't diminish.
With such experience points, he only needed to kill about a hundred Minotaurs, and for Ais and the others, about a hundred and thirty.
There was still some hope.
It had to be said, Tione was right; the frequency and efficiency of monster appearances in the deeper levels were a notch higher than the lower levels.
Moreover, in such a vast flat layer, there was no need to change maps; monsters kept appearing continuously.
In just an hour, Aston had gained enough experience points.
"Ding! Experience points are full, host level up, current level is 26."
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for leveling up, awarded the Virgo Celestial Spirit Key!"
"Eh? Virgo?"