Is It Wrong To Skitter In A Dungeon? Chapter 55: Interlude 7 (Patreon)

Chapter 55: Interlude 7

Loki was angry. This was a rare occurrence. Moreover, it was unusual for this anger to be directed at one of her Familia members. And as the other adventurers recoiled from the goddess as she stomped through the mansion after speaking with the Hestia Familia, Riveria held back the urge to groan.

'When is the last time I've seen her this mad?' Riveria wondered. Not for a long time. Not since Evilus and the Darkest Days.

This was bad. Very bad. For a lot of reasons. The cost of paying for the damages – and it would be the Loki Familia who had to shoulder this burden, there was no doubt about that! – was the least of the concerns caused by this incident.

The loss of face and faith in the public was easily the greatest issue they had to deal with. And it needed to be done fast, before it got out of control.

“What in the All-Father’s name were you thinking?!” Loki demanded as she burst into Finn’s office. Ais was kneeling on the ground, while the rest of the executives surrounded her. Partly to keep her under control, but also to discuss in private what had just happened.

Ais looked up at Loki, a flicker of something in her eyes as she listened to her goddess rant.

“I thought you had already gotten over this! Yes, it’s weird Weaver walks around with her monsters in the open, but there’s no law against a Tamer and her Tamed monster doing so!” Loki continued. “And to attack a fellow adventurer in the street over this?! In public?! What were you thinking?!”

“…It was a monster,” Ais murmured. It was a bad excuse, they all knew it, and it just made Loki fume.

While that was happening, Riveria noticed that Ais’s wounds hadn’t been treated yet. Not even with potions. She didn’t know why, but it gave her a chance to do something. Or rather, have her apprentice show off her latest Spell.

“Leyfia,” Riveria interjected. “Try it out.”

The brown-haired elf jerked a little at being addressed out of the blue, but she quickly cast Noah Heal on Ais, showing everyone in the room its effect, as well as what they’d nearly lost access to.

‘The only reason they still agreed was because the monster wasn’t killed and their captain wasn’t severely injured,’ Riveria thought to herself. She knew full well that the offer wouldn’t have been on the table if either had happened.

“A healing Spell?” Tiona gasped, awe and excitement suffusing her tone as the green light covered Ais.

“Yes. But it also removes fatigue and helps recover stamina as well,” Riveria revealed to the group. “While the effect is nowhere near as potent as what Dia Saint can do, only able to mend superficial injuries, the stamina restoration effect is perhaps even more important.”

Finn and the other executives nodded grimly. What good was healing if you didn’t have the strength to go on? This Spell neatly solved both problems. And they’d gotten it for cheap.

“It would have been bad if we lost the chance to acquire this spell,” Gareth rumbled.

Riveria nodded. Yes, she could also cast limited healing spells, but they were a modification of her existing Spells, not dedicated healing ones. Noah Heal was also able to restore stamina, something her own modified spells couldn’t achieve.

“Indeed,” Finn agreed. He then glanced at the kneeling blonde. “Explain yourself, Ais. What made you go after the Hestia Familia like this?”

“Bell… he was with a monster,” Ais murmured.

“So what?” Finn demanded. “We’ve all seen the Hestia Familia walk around with monsters before.”

“That right. Even if they’re creepy bugs, it’s become normal,” Tiona pointed out.

“Not an insect,” Ais replied curtly, and everyone blinked.

“Huh? Oh! Then was it the Dungeon Worm? Those aren’t insects. Blue Crabs aren’t insects, either. Or…!” the petite Amazon sister chattered.

“It was a monster I’ve never seen before,” the Sword Princess revealed, and this time, everyone stared at her.

“What?” Bete uttered incredulously. He wasn’t the only one to think that.

Ais had slain at least one of every monster on each floor of the Dungeon, up to the 50th. From hordes of common ones like Goblins and Minotaurs, to rare ones like Jack Birds and Carbuncles. Even the neo-monsters Evilus used! They’d all died to her blade at some point since she’d become an adventurer.

“Then how did you know it was a monster?” Loki demanded sharply.

“Hunter reacted to it,” Ais said simply. That only caused more confusion.

“So, wait, let me get this straight,” Tiona said, holding a hand to her head. “Bell was with a monster. But it wasn’t a monster you recognized. Yet your Development Ability, Hunter, which records info on monsters you’ve slain before, reacted to it. Which means you must have encountered it before in the past.”

She looked around at the other occupants of the room, confused. “Can Hunter even do that? Can it have the ability to detect any monster nearby?”

“Some Development Abilities can grow with their users,” Riveria admitted. “It’s rare, but they can… deviate from the norm under certain circumstances, just as the Falna itself shapes those marked by divinity to better fit their needs and desires. So, it is possible Ais’s Hunter evolved somehow and it lets her know where monsters are at all times.”

Everyone slowly digested that. It was a possibility. Ais’ obsession with slaying monsters had always been… extreme, and if anyone could force an ability that helped kill monsters to change into something that could also detect them, it would be Ais.

“What did the monster look like?” Loki inquired, eyes narrowed in thought.

“Humanoid. Blue skin. Scales. Was able to grow wings. Gem on forehead,” Ais reported.

“That sounds like a Vouivre. Except for the humanoid part,” Tione commented.

“A rare monster that resembles a blue, winged Lamia, save for two tails that can act like legs and a rare gem embedded in its forehead. It’s around Level 2 to 3 in strength, and only appears on the 19th through 24th Floors,” Leyfia said, reciting the basic information about the monster. “It’s also around fifteen feet long.”

“It wasn’t that big,” Ais replied. “It was a little under five feet and walked on two legs. But it was wearing a cloak.”

“Five feet tall? That definitely doesn’t sound like a Vouivre,” Tiona muttered.

“Could be a rare variant, though I’ve never heard of monsters deviating that much from their typical size and appearance,” Gareth suggested.

“I thought that Miss Weaver could only control bugs and monsters that were similar to those?” Leyfia reminded everyone.

“That’s right,” Finn nodded. “But she could have been hiding the full extent of her Skill. Not that I blame her. A trump card is something vital to every adventurer, and sharing all the information about themselves with another Familia, even an allied one, is foolish.”

“This whole thing reeks,” Bete growled.

“That doesn’t matter. What does, is if this blue person was wearing the Tamer tag,” Loki stated sharply. “Was it, Ais?”

For almost a minute Ais was silent, and the executives were worried she wouldn’t speak, but eventually she replied.

“…It did have one,” Ais admitted, and Loki groaned loudly while Finn ran a hand over his face in exasperation.

“You detected the presence of a monster, saw it with the Lucky Rabbit, also saw it had a Tamer tag, meaning it was under somebody’s protection, and you STILL attacked?!” Loki demanded incredulously.

“The Guild is going to tear us a new one for this,” Finn moaned in despair.

Riveria shared a look with Gareth as the goddess and their captain fretted. The dwarf shrugged, she raised an eyebrow, he shook his head, and then the elf sighed.

“Ais,” Riveria called out, looking at the troublesome human. “You are not allowed to leave the Manor without one of the executives by your side until further notice.”

Ais just nodded, not a hint of rebelliousness in her anymore, and Riveria felt a pang of worry for the child.

“Stand up,” Riveria instructed. “Let’s head back to your room for now.”

Ais obeyed, standing up from the floor, and Riveria escorted her back to her quarters. As they walked, thoughts swirled in Nine Hells’ head.

Some were about the monster that the Hestia Familia had supposedly Tamed. She wondered how it was possible for them to have Tamed a new, rare variant species.

Most of her thoughts drifted towards the captain of the Hestia Familia in the end. Riveria had learned long ago that humans were far more capable and dangerous than the elves of her home had liked to believe. They wouldn’t cover the entire world and control the largest and most powerful nations otherwise. Humans were capable of many things, and were not to be underestimated.

‘And Weaver is a different breed all together,’ Riveria couldn’t help but think to herself. ‘Her magical abilities have grown in leaps and bounds in mere weeks and she’s gone down a completely different route compared to any school of magic I’m aware of. Not even Altena, the magic obsessed country, has ever dreamed of half the things she’s done!’

The duo walked in silence, neither speaking, though Ais looked like she wanted to say something, but kept stopping before she opened her mouth.

“Ais are you…” Riveria began softly when they reached her room, before trailing off. “You can always talk to me if you need help, or just want to get something off your chest. You know that, right?”

“…Yes,” Ais murmured.

“…Okay, then,” Riveria replied.

Ais didn’t even look at her as she opened the door to her room and walked inside. For a few seconds after Ais closed it behind her, Nine Hells couldn’t help but stare blankly at the piece of wood separating them.

“Ais… you were starting to heal,” Riveria said, knowing she’d be able to hear even with the door in the way. “When you were training Bell, I’d never seen you so happy. Your smiles… they were genuine. I don’t… please, do not lose that happiness.”

There was no response, and Riveria eventually turned away and walked back to Finn’s office. She still had to coordinate with the others about cleaning up this mess that’d dropped into their laps.

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Ais stared at the wall of her bedroom, lost in thought as she sat on the edge of her bed.

‘Why were they afraid of me?’ Ais couldn’t help but wonder. ‘And why… why did I look like a monster?’

In those broken shards of glass, Ais had seen her own reflection. Her eyes were just like those of a newly spawned monster: full of mindless hate.

The civilians of Orario had recoiled in fear when she’d turned towards them, too. Ais could try and believe that they’d been afraid of Hebert and her swarm, but she knew deep in her heart that was a lie.

‘Why… what was I doing wrong?’ Ais wondered.

“You didn’t kill them fast enough.”

Ais glanced over at the child standing in the corner of her room.

“You didn’t kill them fast enough. Because you saw it, didn’t you? The monster’s fear. Their tears. It was afraid of you. Imagine that? A monster capable of doing something you cannot. When is the last time you cried? Or showed any emotions, really?”

Ais looked away, trying to ignore the child that looked like her. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real!

“Shouldn’t you realize it by now?” the child asked, creeping closer. “You didn’t kill it fast enough. And now you know the truth. You’re just like the monsters you hunt. Worse, even. You have only hate in your heart, when you're capable of so much more.”

“You’re wrong,” Ais muttered, regretting it almost instantly as the child grinned madly at her.

“No room for love… no room for desires beyond endless killing… what would he think of you, if he knew the truth?” the child whispered into her ear. Ais flinched, and the child leaned in closer. “He loves you. But you don’t love him. You can’t. Not as long as monsters exist.”

“Bell…” Ais murmured to herself, her mind flashing to the white-hair boy that always seemed to be in her thoughts these days.

“Wouldn’t it be better to love him back? To have another reason to live beyond mindless slaughter?” the child asked, changing tactics, her voice filled with sorrow. “But you can’t, can you? Because that would mean letting something other than hate exist within your heart.”

“Shut up…”

“You know it’s true. You didn’t kill the monster fast enough,” the child said, before her head tilted to the side in a parody of innocence. “The monster looked awfully cute, didn’t it? Underneath the blue and scales. A cute monster would befit a Lucky Rabbit better than a heartless Sword Princess.”

Ais flinched, and a twisted grin spread across the child’s face. “Or maybe the Amazon would be better? He likes strong women, after all. Or perhaps the renard would suite him. She has a fluffy tail to match his fluffy hair. He has a lot of choices. Maybe he’ll choose all of them. Maybe he already has. After all, why would he want to stay close to a doll that only knows how to swing a sword and kill?”

“SHUT UP!” Ais shouted, covering her ears and clenching her eyes shut.

“If you keep going down this path, you are going to break, and there will be nothing left after that, and nobody to pick up the pieces to try and put them back together because you drove them all away,” the child warned, stepping away from the bed.

A moment later, she was alone, the child gone as if it had never been.

‘No, it wasn’t real,’ Ais thought to herself, but even in the privacy of her head, it sounded like she was begging for that to be the case.

A knock at the door caused Ais to sit and turned towards the door in confusion. Who was it?

“Oi, brat,” Loki said as she entered without waiting for an invitation.

“Lady Loki?” Ais muttered, confused. What did the goddess want with her?

“You’ve really screwed things up today,” The Trickster Goddess sighed. “Thankfully, nothing too bad happened. But I gotta know… why?”

“It was a monster…” Ais began, but Loki held up a hand, cutting her off.

“Not what I meant. Why didn’t you kill it?” Loki demanded, and Ais blinked, confused.

“I tried. I failed,” Ais replied.

“You’re telling me a couple of adventurers, none of them above Level 3, were strong enough to stop you, a Level 6, from killing a single monster?” Loki retorted, raising an eyebrow. “The Lucky Rabbit has a neat little cloning Skill, but it’s not enough to stop you. So, what’s the real deal, here?”

“…I don’t know,” Ais admitted. It was true. She could have killed the mutant Vouivre. All she’d have had to do was… was…

“You couldn’t hurt him,” Loki said, softer this time. Ais looked up sharply at that, but Loki just snorted.

“Everyone with a working pair of eyes can tell ya fancy that brat,” the red-head declared, and Ais felt something stir in her as her cheeks heated up.

“I like Bell,” Ais admitted, wondering why she was feeling so warm all of a sudden.

“You do. And that’s why you didn’t kill that monster,” Loki declared. “Because killing it would mean hurting him.”

Ais opened her mouth to speak, but found her words sticking in her throat and she looked away without speaking.

“…There’s a place I think you need to go, Ais,” Loki said. “To north of Orario, in the mountains, lies a village called Edas. It might have the answers you need.”

“Answers? To what?” she asked, bewildered.

“Questions, obviously,” Loki replied with a smirk, before frowning. “But seriously, take a little break before we go on the expedition. With your speed, it’ll take a day or two to reach the village. Take a look around, see what you can see… and ask yourself what your motivations really are. Ah! But don’t forget to take somebody with you. Maybe the twins, or Gareth.”

Ais frowned, but nodded. If Edas Village held the answers she didn’t know she needed, then she would go there.

Loki grinned before getting up and leaving, closing the door behind her, leaving the Sword Princess alone in the dark once more.

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Asfi was tired. She’d been working late into the night again, and only Lord Hermes’ insistence she get some rest had convinced her to leave her workshop.

‘I’m close, though,’ she thought to herself. ‘Just a few more weeks and I will be able to create a key to Knossos.’

The keys were important. They were, to use one of Lord Hermes’ terrible puns, ‘key’ to the whole operation. They’d not yet managed to find or steal one from Evilus, and trying to decipher the magical signature from the doors themselves wasn’t easy, either, as they could not risk approaching them too often, lest the cultists notice.

‘They probably already know what we’re doing, anyways,’ Asfi thought with a grimace as she moved around her room, tidying up a bit. Evilus was too well connected, and too deeply entrenched in the city’s literal underbelly, to not know about what was going on.

Like many, Asfi had hoped that the Dark Days would have finally been over. After the fall of the Rudra Familia five years ago, and the annihilation of the primary Evilus deities after the Nightmare of the 27th Floor, everyone had assumed Evilus was done for.

‘That they resurfaced again this year is… worrisome,’ Asfi grumbled in the privacy of her own thoughts.

A lot of things had happened this year, come to think of it, and most of them revolved around the biggest Dark Horses in decades: the Hestia Familia. Two Record Holders, both beating out the former record by months.

However, she paused in her thoughts as her instincts tingled, warning her that something was wrong. The blue-haired adventurer stopped what she was doing and reached for a hidden dagger before spinning around to confront the intruder.

“Peace. I mean no harm. I only wish to speak with you.”

The fact that the ‘voice’ came from a buzzing cloud of insects in the shape of a person did not, in fact, calm Asfi down, and she stayed tensed, staring at the swarm.

“What do you want, Taylor?” Asfi inquired sharply, annoyed at having her room intruded upon like this.

“I have a gift,” the swarm replied, and a moment later Asfi flinched as a dozen roaches crawled up and deposited a ball of silk at her feet. She picked it up after the delivery bugs had scurried off, and peeled the wrapping away.

“…Why am I holding a severed eye and a bunch of glass fragments?” Asfi asked after checking on the contents of the ‘gift.’

“That is what is left of the Knossos Key after I destroyed it,” Taylor informed her through the bug-clone, and Asfi looked up at that.

“I thought… no, you simply said it was broken. Nothing about the condition the components were in,” Asfi muttered. None of the gods had reacted, either, so her fellow captain’s words had been the truth… just not the whole truth.

“The eye is the important part, and I kept it safe after tricking Evilus,” Taylor said. Asfi nodded. She’d figured that to be the case quickly enough as well.

“I can feel the magic within it,” the magic item craftswoman mused. “It is rather dark, though. Cursed, perhaps?”

“I’m unsure, but I’d agree with that assessment,” Taylor commented.

“Why keep this secret? You could have brought this up at the meeting earlier today,” Asfi pointed out.

“I could have,” Taylor stated simply. Asfi frowned, reading between the lines.

“You believe there to be a traitor?”

“I think we shouldn’t trust Dionysus, and need to be wary of any ‘help’ he or his Familia offer,” Taylor replied. Asfi didn’t like that, but she couldn’t deny she’d had similar thoughts.

‘Nor has Lord Hermes,’ the captain of the Hermes Familia thought to herself. The God of Thieves had an uncanny knack for reading people, and if he was suspicious of the God of Wine… well, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

“Can you use the eye to recreate the key?” Taylor asked.

“Of course,” the item crafter responded a little bit huffily. With the genuine article to examine, she’d be able cut down the time significantly.

“Good,” Taylor said through her swarm.

“Is that all?” Asfi asked, raising an eyebrow at the bizarre – and terrifying – woman’s proxy.

“No. We’re having a girl’s night out tomorrow with the usual suspects.”

“Same place as last time?” Asfi inquired.

“Yes.”

“Hm. Fine,” Asfi grunted. “I’ll be there.”

The swarm-clone ‘bowed’ its head to her, before disappearing, hundreds of insects vanishing under and behind furniture. Asfi repressed a shudder.

‘At the very least I know the place will be devoid of bugs for a while,’ she thought to herself. Say what you wanted about the young woman known as Weaver, but she was thorough when it came to removing anything she could control from the premises.

When she was sure the foreign presence was gone Asfi sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

‘Perhaps a break would do me some good,’ she thought to herself.

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Aisha breathed in, and breathed out. In. Out. Her right hand tightened about the grip of her Great Padao Zaga, and she narrowed her eyes as she stared at the Wall of Grief.

Soon. She could feel it in her bones. The Goliath would be born soon. Aisha could almost swear she could feel eyes on her, the Dungeon itself judging and hating her.

The Amazon had always known she was strong. There were few Level 3s in the city who could stand up to her. Indeed, Aisha had long believed she was the pinnacle of her Level. The cowardly Hyakinthos? One or two good hits and he’d go down, his only saving grace being his sublime archery skills. Persephone? Not even a fighter. How the captain of the Demeter Familia got to Level 3 Aisha had no idea.

Even in the Loki and Freya Familias there weren’t any Level 3s who could match her. And how could they? Aisha was strong. She’d survived the hellish Kaios Desert without becoming caught by slavers or getting devoured by a Sand Worm – not insignificant dangers in that place – and made her way to Orario seeking more adventure in her life when she was fourteen.

Ishtar had seen Aisha’s worth right away and in just five years worked her way up to join the Berbera, swiftly becoming indispensable to the Familia. Yet for the last couple of years, Aisha had felt she’d stagnated and hit a plateau in her power. Was this as far as she could go? She’d never admit it, but she’d started to fear that that was the very problem.

And then Haruhime came into her life. For a while, Aisha had seen guarding her as nothing more than another job. A boring one, at that. She hadn’t known why Ishtar wanted the renard girl to be protected. But then Haruhime read the Grimoire, and everything changed.

A Spell to temporarily grant somebody a Level Up? Aisha had seen it as a chance to finally break through the wall she’d hit. A boon, and nothing more. Slowly though, Haruhime started to grow on her, and guarding the renard turned into befriending her. She hated it. The conflict about serving the goddess and doing what was right… for the first time in a long, long while, the Amazon doubted herself.

Aisha was not a good person. She had done terrible things to survive in the desert, and continued to do dreadful deeds in the employ of Ishtar. This had never bothered her before, until Haruhime. The stories the young woman had told her… they were so different to the ones she’d grown up with. And despite everything that’d happened to her, Haruhime had managed to stay true to her morals.

‘And then I was shown just how powerless I was,’ Aisha thought to herself bitterly.

She’d tried to stop Ishtar’s plan but failed, and Phyrne and the other Berbera had nearly killed her for that, even with a shard of the Killing Stone shard infused with Haruhime’s soul boosting her Level.

Immediately afterwards, Aisha discovered there was another person of the same Level who was even stronger than her.

Taylor Hebert. Weaver. The Gods Damn Record Holder, who’d beaten out the previous record by just a few days. And then she’d Leveled Up again a few weeks later by taking down an entire fortress all by herself!

It was insanity, and Aisha had seen true power that day. Who needs an army when a few adventurers can do the same damage? Yet for Weaver, strength alone didn’t matter. Who needs adventurers when a lone person can see and hear anywhere they want with a legion of creatures most people overlook and ignore?

Ishtar and her Familia paid the price of their hubris that night. Why had the goddess thought it was a good idea to kidnap the vice-captain and the goddess of a woman who had exactly zero reservations tearing down an entire castle to beat another Familia in a War Game?!

The utterly ridiculous woman continued to show off after that. She solved a murder mystery in Rivira, uncovered a secret Evilus plot, drove off the entire Rakian army single-handedly, and then went on to discover and befriend a bunch of talking monsters!

Aisha didn’t regret joining the Hestia Familia. Far from it! It was the most fun she’d ever had! But it did highlight that she wasn’t the strongest person around anymore. If anything, she was average compared to the rest of the Familia. Stronger than the Level 1s and 2s, sure, but that wasn’t good enough anymore. Tammuz, Ryuu, and of course Bell and Taylor… they put her to shame.

A loud crack rang out, and Aisha pulled her thoughts back to the present and tensed up as a giant grey-skinned humanoid figure burst out of the eerily smooth wall in front of her with a roar.

The Goliath was big, but she wasn’t worried. Her great sword could carve its limbs off. It was strong and fast, but she could dodge its attacks. It was a Monster Rex, but she was Aisha Belka, ex-Berbera and bearer of the alias Antianeira! This creature would not defeat her!

She darted forward, dirt exploding underneath her feet as she rushed at the Goliath. It swung a fist at her, but Aisha twisted aside and brought her sword down on its wrist, severing it in a single strike.

Yet even as the monster howled in agony as its hand was separated from its body it still continued to fight, trying to stomp down onto Aisha and grind her into the stone. She wasn’t going to fall for such a telegraphed attack, though, and leapt aside.

Only to discover a moment later that the Goliath had anticipated this and used its other hand to throw a giant rock at her. She was off-kilter and off-guard, and just barely had time to raise her great sword like a shield as the boulder slammed into her.

The rock shattered against the half blue steel, half Adamantite blade but the impact still sent her tumbling. Aisha bounced back to her feet without issue, only to find another rock hurtling at her head. She ducked and cursed as she narrowly avoided getting brained.

‘It saw how easily I could take it on in close combat and decided to keep me at range!’ she realized angrily. Damn monster was smart. Didn’t even have to be a Xenos to know how to fight and kill.

The Goliath laughed at her and continued to chuck rocks at the adventurer, all of them missing, but it did enough to keep her away.

‘No risk, no reward!’ Aisha thought and rushed forward, weathering the hail of stone. She knocked aside one small rock, and cut another larger one in half before it could crush her.

Then, using her sword a vaulting board, Aisha flipped into the air with a gravity defying feat of acrobatic skills. She aimed to cut open the monster’s belly, but the Goliath raised its left leg, blocking the attack with its knee at the last second.

Her sword cut deep, but its knee was harder than its wrist had been, and her sword just got stuck inside the flesh and bone.

Without waiting, the Goliath lashed out, punching at Aisha. In order to avoid being smacked she let go of her sword, dropping to the ground. She didn’t dare stop, though, and lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the tree trunk-like leg, muscles bulging madly.

The Goliath was standing on only one leg and with a loud cry Aisha managed to upend the Monster Rex, knocking it down onto its ass. It roared as it dropped, but it plucked the sword out of its knee, throwing it at her.

She leapt up and grabbed the sword out of the air, but once more that had been a trick. The Goliath lashed out with a kick, aiming at the moment she was unprepared in the middle of the jump, and its massive foot slammed into her and sent her flying.

Aisha spat up blood as the Goliath’s foot struck her in the stomach, and she was thrown through the air. Growling, she pushed through the pain and twisted around in the air, using the giant sword she’d just barely managed to reclaim as a counter weight to pull off a spin.

“HELL KAIOS!” Aisha roared, swinging her massive sword vertically as she fell. A red shockwave ripped through the air and tore through the unsuspecting Goliath’s head and upper torso, splitting it almost in half.

The Monster Rex’s body began to fall apart as blood rained down upon the area, and by the time the Amazon landed on the ground, it was gone, leaving behind a single large grey-white tooth and an equally large Magic Stone.

Aisha breathed out before wincing and putting a hand against her ribs. ‘Oof. Damn, it hits hard. That’s two, maybe three broken bones from just a glancing blow.’

“You did it!” A cheerful, white-haired boy rushed over to her with a cheer, a potion bottle in his hands that he quickly handed to her.

“Was there any doubt?” Aisha scoffed before proudly pushing out her chest. She then gritted her teeth as the broken bones shifted around. With a grunt, she used her hands to push the ribs back into place before chugging the potion down.

“I hate broken bones,” the Amazon sighed. Cuts were easy to deal with. Broken bones on the other hand always had to be set before drinking a healing potion or they’d heal wrong.

“That was reckless!” Haruhime scolded her as she, Emma, and Mikoto approached a moment later. Like Bell, they’d been hiding nearby the entrance to the 18th Floor to watch the fight from a safe distance.

“Worked, didn’t it?” Aisha laughed.

“Do you think you managed to level up?” Mikoto asked curiously.

Aisha clenched her fists before nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I can feel it in my Falna. I’m Level 4 now.”

“First we have to get back to Lady Hestia,” Bell reminded her. “But I’m happy for you all the same!”

“…Gods you are such a painfully cheerful little guy,” Aisha snorted before standing back up. “Let’s grab the drops and get out of here. We’ve been down here too long.”

That was something the rest of the group could agree to, and they grabbed the Magic Stone and Drop Stone before hurrying back up to the surface. They’d accomplished what they’d come down there for, and it was time to reap their rewards.

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There was a sense of anticipation in the air, and it was like electricity on Lyd’s scales.

The Lizardman frowned as he stared down at the group of adventurers making their way through the 29th Floor. He was hiding in the branches of a tall tree, watching as the men who stank of divinity trampled the grass and hacked their way through the dense undergrowth.

They all carried the same stench, buried beneath their usual odors: the essence of the god that had branded them.

As he watched, the Surfacers clashed with a few monsters; Dragonewts, an advanced breed of Lizardmen who were all the equivalent of Level 3 adventurers, and a couple of Bloodsaurus, a monster that was on par with Level 4s.

That the band of adventurers made short work of the monsters was worrying, as it spoke to their power and skill. Though given they could often take down Xenos, who were often much stronger than the regular monster they were based off of, even newly born, it made sense.

‘Makes my job a lot harder,’ he thought to himself.

“Should we pull back?” Ranye’s quiet voice asked, and he glanced over at the silk thread attached to a metal can he was holding.

“No,” Lyd replied. “We wait and see if they manage to find any Xenos.”

“It’s too dangerous to stay in this area,” the Arachne’s voice said, coming from the little can.

“We cannot let any more of our kin fall into the hands of these bastards,” Lyd claimed angrily, doing his best not to let his anger leek.

He knew after watching them for so long that the leader of the adventurers had a Skill that let him detect bloodlust directed at him. Considering he was also a Level 5 based on how potent the divine scent clinging to him was, as well as a leader of one of the surface-dwelling Familias, meant he was not going to be an easy foe.

‘I do not know if Ranye and myself would be able to defeat him,’ Lyd thought to himself. ‘And that’s if he was alone. With that hunting party of his… no, I can’t risk it.’

So for now, Lyd waited and watched. Someday, he would cut down the leader of the kidnappers. But until then, he’d bide his time.

He heard the Arachne Xenos scoff in annoyance on the other end of the communication tool. It was a clever little thing, made with silk and a pair of metal cans. She wasn’t near him yet she could still communicate, her voice somehow traveling through the strand of silk connecting the two pieces of metal.

‘I’ll have to thank Ray again for discovering this neat little trick,’ he thought to himself. The Siren had always been one of the more curious Xenos, trying experiments to make their lives a bit easier.

The string cans couldn’t go very far, just a few hundred feet, but it helped enough in this instance when he was in one tree, and Ranye was in another.

“Just be careful,” the Arachne whispered.

Lyd did not respond as he’d noticed the adventurers come to a stop. He narrowed his eyes as he watched them, and leaned in to eavesdrop.

“…this the place?” he heard the leader, who had black hear and wore a pair of goggles, asked, glancing at one of his minions.

“That’s right, captain,” one of the other adventurers confirmed. “Rumors of unusual movement amongst the monsters in the area, coupled with monsters fighting amongst each other, led us here.”

“Well, we better get searching, then,” the boss muttered. “Scan the area.”

“Like a hawk, I gaze beyond the realms of death. Seek the living, find their hearts…” one of the adventurers began to chant, and a magic circle formed beneath their feet before rippling outwards.

‘So that’s how they’re able to find us so easily,’ he thought to himself with a frown. They had some kind of magic that was able to search for living things in a certain area if the chant was any indicator.

Concerned, Lyd wait to see if they’d somehow detected his presence, but it seemed he’d been outside of the range, or wasn’t the target.

For a moment nothing happened, then the caster pointed off in a direction away from the hidden Lizardman. “There! That way!”

The adventurers ran off, and Lyd took a deep breath. “Ranye, they seem to have found a Xenos. I’m going after them.”

“…Be safe,” she ordered. “I’ll make my way back to the stairs. Whether you rescue our kin or not, I will wait for you there for a little while.”

“I will return with a new friend in tow,” Lyd vowed, before cutting the silk string connecting his can to Ranye’s and tucking the metal part into a pouch on his belt before leaping through the trees, chasing after the Xenos-hunting smugglers.

 Soon, he heard the sounds of fighting, and growled as he spotted the surface dwellers surrounding a Lamia. She was screaming at them as they attacked with mancatchers and nets, and though there were no words, Lyd could tell there was intelligence in her eyes.

“Hold her down, boys!” the captain commanded, and his minions obeyed, beating down the Xenos with frightening ease. Their equipment, combined with their coordination, made the raw power of the Lamia utterly worthless, and she was pinned to the ground.

“Hm. A pretty one, aren’t ya?” the captain hummed as he walked over. The Lamia snarled, but he kicked her in the face, knocking some teeth out.

“Let’s see if his little project actually does what he promised it would do,” the Level 5 grunted as he took a silver collar with a bright red jewel in the surface. He clamped it around the Lamia’s neck, and stepped back.

“Release her,” he instructed with a bored drawl, and his companions stepped away and withdrew their mancatcher poles, allowing the Xenos to tear the net apart and lunge at her captor.

“Freeze.” The Lamia did as he ordered, freezing in place, and a sick grin spread across the captain’s face. “Spin in a circle. Punch yourself. Bow your head to me.”

The Lamia obeyed every single order he gave her, even as she glared with hate in her eyes the whole time. But her body was no longer her own, that much was clear to Lyd.

‘So that’s why they didn’t have any cages with them. With a collar like that, the kidnappers can force a Xenos to follow them wherever they go, no need to worry about escape attempts!’ the Lizardman realized in horror.

“Seems like the collar’s primary function works,” the man with goggles said aloud. “Would be a waste to test the secondary function right now… let’s bring her back to the base. We’ve got ourselves a fine specimen!”

Lyd did not hesitate, and immediately shot forward, launching himself from the tree branch he’d been crouching on and landed in the middle of the adventurers. They were startled and recoiled in shock, although the Level 5 was already starting to draw his short sword in an attempt to cut the Lizardman down.

Lyd was faster, however, and he scooped up his fellow Xenos in his arm before booking it, his tail slapping away the goggle-wearing adventurer’s blade before it could touch his scales.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe, now,” Lyd promised the Lamia as he ran off, who looked at him in fear and confusion. However, before she could respond, the gem on the collar around her neck began to glow, and suddenly her head exploded, showering the Lizardman with blood.

The Xenos he had just rescued collapsed into dust in his arms, a Magic Stone clattering to the ground along with the collar, and Lyd stumbled in horror. Yet he didn’t stop running. To his shame, he kept fleeing.

He tried to rationalize it away. She was already dead. He had to escape to reconvene with Ranye. But Lyd knew it was because he was coward and did not want to be the next victim of that strange collar.

“It works!” Lyd heard the goggles-wearing adventurer laugh in vicious glee as he picked the artifact off the ground. “Heh, I’ll have to tell Barca about this. He’ll be able to enslave Weaver with this thing, no problem!”

That was all he managed to hear before he was too far away, and as much as the information disturbed him, he didn’t dare stop.

‘I have to warn Fels and the others!’ Lyd thought to himself in terror.

111 &&& 111

Falna Update!

Aisha Belka “Antianeira”

Level 3 - - > 4

POWER – A 800 - - > I 0

ENDURANCE – B 777 - - > I 0

DEXTERITY – D 580 - - > I 0

AGILITY – C 615 - - > I 0

MAGIC – G 299 - - > I 0

Spell –

Hell Kaios: Unleash a shockwave of blood-red magic.

Chant: Seek and Destroy! Hell Kaios!

Development Ability –

Hunter H

Abnormal Resistance G

Fist Strike I