Alex was surprised when the forest abruptly ended and turned into a frozen hell scape after going down two more floors. it certainly fit the types of monsters he had been running into but that left him curious as to why the previous two floors were forested. in the end alex ignored this weirdness as just another oddity of the dungeon and kept killing his way down until he reached floor sixty seven. on this floor alex came across his first level seven monster , a sixty foot long eight foot wide ice armored centipede thing with scythe like blades on its sides.
The monster was fast as sin and moved in crazy hard to predict ways putting a considerable amount of pressure on alex. it was worse when alex tried to use most ice attribute monsters weakness fire to hit the monster. the ice armor came off the now brown monster but not only was the thing not hurt but it even got faster now that the armor wasn't weighing it down. alex eventually killed the tricky creature earning a few of its scythe like pieces and a frosty glowing core. the news that alex had broken the diving record of the loki familia showed up when alex sold the drops to the guild.
The monster was recorded in the zeus familias diving record as that part of the dungeons rare monster similar to the jackbird and baby dragon. it was called forostos by the zeus familia when they discovered it and it was a high level seven monster. apparently the zeus familia lost a dozen level fours and even a level six to the thing before they managed to kill it. there was a note that explained how the higher level adventurers could have killed it had there not been members in the way.
Alex knew this already having already fought the monster it was why he didn't dive with those not at the same level as him. the deeper you went in the dungeon the more personal strength began to overtake group strength. this was the reason the loki familia had been struggling to go much further down despite finn leveling up , they were stubbornly thinking that the group method would still work despite most of the group being only level four or five. against high level six and level seven enemies a group of that general strength was like trying to drown a man with sand , possible but needing an unreasonable amount of the stuff.
The increase of strength of only a single person made it easier and harder at the same time since that person would hit harder but also need to be careful not to harm the much weaker people. alex had figured this out fairly quickly after coming to this world but had kept it to himself . having not grown up in this world alex had an unbiased view of how things are done letting him realize what actually worked and what didn't.
It was hardly surprising then that finn had shown up at the small world floor of the tower wanting to know how alex got deeper than the loki familias expeditions. alex didn't hold back at all telling finn how quantity starts getting less and less useful the further down you go and that quality is king on the extreme floors. what alex actually said was along the lines of "you are strong they are not fix it or stop progressing". this brutal honesty stung for finn but he was familiar enough with alex to know that he had no need to lie about such a thing.
The loki familia went through a rapid downsizing as the weaker members started to solo dive deep and get killed or grow stronger. the whole familia went through a qualitative improvement however as they got seven new level six's and close to twenty new level fives. loki herself was in a terrible mood due to the death of so many of her familia but even she could see the drastic improvement that the remaining members went through.
