So, they got further than they did before, and were able to stay for longer thanks to Dale, but that didn't stop the unexpected from happening.
A monster horde.
One of the worst things that could happen during an expedition, is its chances are low enough that they usually don't need to worry about it.
But it happened, and Dale knew it was because of how fast they were advancing, and how fast monsters were dropping because of Dale.
He continued to bring up the now back line as they had split off the heavy hitters and sent them to the back, basically sandwiching the lower levels between them as they marched back up the tower.
Dale hit auto-looting on, as there was no time to grab materials as the monsters kept coming, but never stopped, the wave was neverending.
The size and strength of their party made it a much larger monster wave than usual.
Dale was fine, but Gareth was starting to breathe hard and so was Riveria, the constant combat and movement were getting to them.
''GARETH CATCH!" He grabbed the back of Riveria's robes, lifting her like a stray cat, and tossed her backward towards Gareth who caught her with ease, only for a cool burst of fresh air to hit the both of them as a massive wall of ice began to be created between them and the monster horde.
Pushing the limits of Dale's bullet time he began to carve around the large cave with a massive wall of ice, by the time they realized what was going on Gareth caught an elbow to the face before Riveria ran up to the ice, screaming up towards the final hole the remained.
''DALE YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"
''CAN'T TALK PRETTY ELF MOMMA, I GOT DOOM MUSIC TO PLAY!" Dale yelled over the gunfire, just as the final hole was sealed.
Riveria began to cast magic, planning to bust through the wall before Finn smacked her hand, having headed to the back to see what was going on.
''QUIT! We have wounded, he left us enough supplies to get to the rest floor to perform emergency treatment, but some of them need help only the surface can provide, Dale is the ONLY one who has a chance in that monster horde, and can get back to use safely, I know how you feel, but we need to TRUST him, Riveria..."
Riveria looked at the massive wall of ice, a small bit of her upset that even now she was amazed at the creativity of these ice bullets Dale had made. Turning on her heel she began to walk. ''Let's go.''
Finn turned around. ''Alright everyone! We just got a shit ton of free time so let's hustle! If you can move, do so, if you can't, find someone who can move for you!''
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If Dale ever wanted to have a Doom moment in his life before? This was it.
Surrounded by a literal horde of monsters, only equipped with two revolvers and a rifle when he needed.
It was every man's wet dream.
Punching through something's jaw he threw it back into the horde as he activated bullet time, the new skill he had gotten for CQC activating since a monster was within a meter of him at all times he switched to lightning rounds, as the distance between him and the monsters wasn't large enough to use fire rounds.
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The piercing definitely helped as well.
Dale punched, shot, kicked, and at times would even headbutt monsters as he continued to advance through the horde into a much larger area, at any time he would be left with enough room to dash he would drop a grenade where he once was, occasionally just tossing them around him.
He wasn't sure how long he was at it, but it was good to see that the ice wall lasted as long as it did, it also made Dale determined that after he got out of this, he would make a fully automatic weapon if it was the last thing he did in this world because needing to pull the trigger each individual round was NOT fun.
Eventually, he noticed the monster wave began to falter before it became even less until he was just standing there, his body steaming as at some point the armor he had worn had been torn off him, his clothing in tatters to the point he might've been better fighting naked.
Shooting the ice walls down as he began to make his way out, he felt fine, all be it incredibly warm but that was to be expected from the amount of time he had spent moving.
He was also most likely bursting with excelia right now... Maybe his next level up would be so strong it would cause others to level up, like an AOE badass aura?
He would definitely sleep when he got back for sure.
Once he made it to the safe floors he continued to sprint as he didn't see anyone in the Loki Family so he continued to move up the floors, all the way up to the top. Deciding not to go to the guild as most likely with the number of materials he alone had collected he could most likely crash the city's economy he went straight for the Loki mansion.
As he walked in he noticed quite a few new faces actually, they must've done a recruitment drive while he was gone, heading deeper into the mansion he opened the doors into the office.
''Honeys? I'm home!''
When the doors opened fully he stared at everyone inside, everyone turning to look at him.
See, what he didn't expect to see when he opened this door was two goddesses, one being Loki, who looked at him on the brink of a breakdown, tears already starting to stream down her face.
And another short god with a far larger bust than her, someone he would only have been able to guess because he somewhat knew the plot of the anime was Hestia who looked at him confused.
The longer she looked at him the greater confusion she seemed to get.
No, honestly he could handle the two goddesses, but what surprised him the most was the mop of white hair and bright red eyes that stared up at him.
''Holy... Goddess, isn't he huge?"
Dale's face twisted in confusion before he spoke. ''How would you know the size of my di-''
There was a loud crash as something fell to the ground, turning to the other door in the room which lead back to the archive room where information was stored that wasn't 'Important' enough to stay in the office, was Riveria, a pile of books scattered around her feet.
''....Dale?''