The difficulty of raising stats at level six was frankly unreal as alex and the girls soloed all the way down to floor forty nine. this took them close to two years of diligent dungeon delving since they made sure to experience each floor fully before going further. the forth monster rex of the dungeon balor was located on floor forty nine and it was an extremely powerful creature. it was ranked as a level six monster meaning it needed a whole expedition group to kill normally. the thing was a sixty foot tall red skinned demon that passively heated up its surroundings making fighting it an effort in endurance.
It was definitely at the level six level in power but the environmental heat was what gave the creature it's difficulty. much like the third monster rex udeaus when someone soloed balor it's fighting style changes. originally it used a huge gavel as its weapon against groups but when soloed it used a flaming red spear and shield. alex had only barely managed to kill to durable monster after fighting it for close to seven hours thanks to the monsters regeneration and constant swatting alex with it's shield.
Balor dropped its core and a shield if you soloed it which was valuable information that the guild bought for a pretty high price. when the loki familia heard that alex had soloed the balor they grew nervous because he was starting to get uncomfortably close to their expedition record at floor fifty. they decided to try and put some distance between them again by pushing to reach floor fifty nine which only the zeus familia had reached in the past. alex had been camping on the fiftieth floor while waiting for balor to respawn when the loki familia showed up.
They looked a little surprised to see him camped out on one of his wood released trees while reading a book. the captain of the expedition seemed to have a thought of some kind but stopped himself while clutching his right thumb in pain. "an interesting ability , i take it you had a negative thought and it told you how that would go?" alex asked curiously. the prum tensed up when alex spoke but quickly realized that he didn't seem to care about his thoughts. "it tells me how badly the situation is letting me plan my actions better." finn said honestly.
Alex nodded "i take it you are planning to try and hit the floors past the vase this time?" he asked casually and finn stiffened again. "no need to treat me like that i'm not competing with you lot to begin with , i'm just making conversation is all." he said reassuringly. "if you aren't competing why do you keep pressing so close to our records?" finn asked disbelievingly. "oh i thought it was clear , i'm here for the challenge , you all want the glory which is why you see me as a competitor but the fact is we aren't even playing the same game." alex explained with a smile.
The loki familia members look at alex with astonishment "you mean you don't care about the glory at all?" finn asked because if it was true then it meant that alex considered most of the adventurers dreams worthless including his own. "didn't i just say that? all i want is the next challenge to overcome , the struggle excites me , glory is just a side effect and even that's only temporary , chasing it is pointless and foolish." alex said and to most of those listening it felt like someone was stomping on their hearts because alex was right.
"don't get me wrong while chasing glory is all well and good when you are weak but for those that have power it's like asking to stand in place for the rest of your life. lets give a good example , whats your goal?" alex asked finn calmly. "i want to be a hero to raise the status of the prum." finn says honestly expecting alex to mock him. alex nods "a good and just goal as fine as any , now at the start of such a goal glory would certainly be a valid route to choose but when he grow powerful such as you are now it's a dead end , you start to stall." he says and finn shivered because that is precisely what had happened.
"Now at this point you are left with two options , first you stubbornly continue on your path to nowhere and never reach your goal. or you can take a couple steps back to notice that you need something besides glory to accomplish your goal. you need a beacon of light to shine the path for the prums to rise up to greater heights. a symbol that this is what you too can achieve , something that last the test of time , a true powerhouse."
