Like a Dungeon Crawler (Yakuza/Danmachi, Celestial Grimoire)

[The Dude]

That tiny flame bloomed, and everything was its fuel. Surging and roaring, it put to shame every fire spell Ichiban had seen at the Colosseum, reducing monsters to cinders and smoke with the barest lick of its ever hungry flames. Endlessly whirling, they rolled over everything in sight, reducing verdant landscape to charred and cracked ruin. The tunnels and pathways, the twists and turns of the nineteenth floor, they offered no protection as the flames sought all and consumed all. Not even magic stones were left behind, everything brought to ash by the inferno.

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I think I can speak for all of us when I say: "NANI THE FUCK?!"

Yeah, Pearl OP, please don't nerf.

 

[ImperialMage701139]

It's probably beyond my image editing capabilities, here's a few things that kind of fit together for it.

edit: does QQ not allow image links to imgur? They appear in the post preview... Changed to direct links.

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Man midjourney has a hard time with dragontaurs but here's what I managed

Spoiler: Not great but the best I could

Also for image hosting I recommend Imagebox I've yet to have any issues with them

 

[Shadow_Stalker134]

That got confusing very fast... I hope Ichi could find something to help that demi-spirit... I am also wondering: Since this is Yakuza story... Where is Karaoke? Or at least some singing. Ichiban MUST sing This one at some point...

 

[Ebiris]

I'm writing a chapter ahead of release, and currently working on one featuring perspectives from other characters rather than directly following Ichiban. Let me know if there's anyone you'd like to see in the spotlight!

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The arrival onto the twentieth floor actually wasn't much different from the arrival onto the nineteenth. The brightly coloured landscape of flora greeted them with reassurance that the firestorm hadn't spread beyond the one floor, and then Dungeon fauna burst out to greet them as well.

This time it was a mob of stampeding giant boars and creepy looking bear things who's faces (and thus mouths) were way too big, taking up much of what should have been their chests.

"No magic!" he reminded Pearl, activating Yankimaru with orders to attack the boars while he charged at the bears. He felt the absence of the speed-boosting amulet immediately, but with chakra flowing through his legs he still moved with a speed the monsters couldn't match. He'd already established that his punches had area of effect damage, but he remembered that trick he'd pulled on the amazons back at Rina's establishment and once more coursed lightning through his wand as he swung it in a wide arc that ripped through one of the bears and blasted apart two nearby with shock-waves and thunderbolts that erupted from the impact.

Rina was right behind him, a war-cry on her lips as she danced amidst the bears, crushing their enormous faces under her hammer and slicing limbs with her axe.

The other side of the battle was well handled as Naaza used Pearl and Yankimaru's enormous bodies for cover, perforating boars with accurate shots to their eyes that made them squeal and stumble, spines shattering from Yankimaru's hammer-blows while a whip-crack of Pearl's tail cutting through the air sent several of them careening off their feet and exploding into mist.

As an introduction to proper fighting on the floors past Rivira it went well, no one taking a scratch and showing they could handle the newest tier of monsters even without deploying magic on the scale of tactical battlefield weapons. Also it was kind of cute to see Pearl helping Naaza gather the magic stones after the fight.

Spoiler: Megingjörð

100 – Megingjörð
Germanic/Norse Mythology Jump
A simple belt or other garment or accessory which doubles your strength and durability when worn.

"Huh," he looked down as he felt something appear around his waist, now he was wearing two belts. Perhaps it was inevitable with the Final Fantasy magic that appeared earlier? It looked kind of like he saw some adventurers wear, brown leather lined with cream fur, with a big brass clasp. As he looked at it-

"Pearl, stop eating those!"

He looked up at Naaza's voice and saw Pearl clutching an armful of magic stones to her lion-fronted chest, cheeks bulged out and another glittering purple stone halfway to her mouth. She paused at seeing everyone's eyes on her, then loudly crunched down and swallowed. "A girl has to eat! You don't want me to starve, do you?" she asked innocently.

"That's expensive food, those stones are worth twenty thousand valis each. Ichiban, tell her!" Naaza gave him a look of fierce indignation.

"Oh right, she was eating the magic stones from those other monsters before she transformed, I guess that's how monsters get stronger," he said, remembering Naaza had in fact mentioned something like that before. "Look Pearl, everyone gets a share of magic stones, so you're only allowed to eat a quarter of them, okay?" he offered a fair-minded compromise.

The unnaturally photogenic abomination looked down at the armful she'd gathered. "This is a quarter?"

"Uh, close enough. Just let Naaza gather them from now on and we'll divide them properly at the end of the day?" he suggested with a helpless shrug in the face of Naaza's glare. "We can't say she's not earned a share."

Naaza slumped her shoulders and went back to collecting the others on the ground, along with a tusk left behind by one of the boars, "I know what she's capable of, I'm not going to fight it. But does she even need to be stronger?"

It couldn't hurt, he figured, glancing back down at his new belt as he resumed appraising it. It gave off a feeling of strength and solidity, Ichiban imagining his muscles bulging like a heavyweight boxer as he looked at it. He unclasped it and held it out to Rina, "Hey Rina, I think this makes you stronger and tougher. Try it on?"

"Wow, extra generous today, Ichiban!" she laughed, taking it and wrapping it tight around her waist just above the gauzy pelvic curtain thing she wore down there. Looking around a moment, she shrugged and then punched straight down into the ground, rocks flying everywhere from the impact of her fist blowing out an impressive crater.

"Hahaha!" she laughed in a strained voice, looking at her undamaged fist and then the destruction. "Phryne's absolutely going to kill me if she finds out I have this."

"Well don't tell her?" he suggested obviously, to most people it'd just look like a belt after all.

Rina shook her head though. "Lady Ishtar's going to ask, I can't hide things from her and she'll want something like this to go on the captain, not get wasted on a second tier adventurer."

"So just give it back to Ichiban before we leave the Dungeon," Naaza suggested. "That way it can just be a thing for when we're trying to keep up with him."

"Oh," Rina looked perplexed and then disappointed. "I guess that works. She'll be mad I gave you the idea, but not so mad I can't handle it. I'll just have to enjoy it for now!" she picked up her weapons again, the group ready to resume their exploration and training.

They hadn't gone far though before Naaza suddenly ran ahead and into the undergrowth. "Ah! You see these?" she called over, a strict look on her face countered by the wagging of her tail as she lifted up a plant with broad orange petals and feathery purple fronds sticking out of the middle.

"Yeah?" Ichiban asked, following after her along with the rest.

"These are Dungeon orange anther. The stamen's a powerful ingredient for mind potions. It's very important we gather as much as we can, so keep an eye out for them," Naaza insisted before she took out a small pair of shears and snipped off the parts she was interested in, placing them in a leather pouch on her belt. "Keep an eye out for them, and don't burn down the Dungeon," she reiterated, stepping back onto the path.

It seemed there were lots of plants Naaza was interested in down here as she kept stopping to harvest seed pods and leaves and roots as they went, but whenever Ichiban or Rina pointed out one of those orange anther things she definitely got more excited, and Ichiban found he quickly became quite adept at spotting them amidst the profusion of colourful foliage, which felt good comparing himself to Rina who's level three adventurer senses were typically better than his.

Happy harvesting wasn't all they did though, as the monsters here were just as aggressive as they'd been in the Cave Labyrinth, and generally more powerful or tricky in some manner. Scaly red lizardmen who wielded sharp metallic flower petals like weapons proved particularly fun to fight with as it almost felt like duelling when he crossed his weapon with theirs, even if they were too weak to actually stand up to a fight with any of them. Rina once again praised her new magic when a swarm of bugs that shot spiky projectiles at them descended, as she was able to counter-attack with blizzard spells to go with Naaza's arrows and Ichiban's lightning bolts, the monsters losing out on a ranged battle with the group even before Pearl got annoyed and unleashed her plasma beam breath.

"It's funny I think that thing's tame now after seeing her actual magic," Rina said with a nervous laugh, looking up at the deep gouge carved into the ceiling by the sweep Pearl had traced with her beam.

"And she has more. I'm terrified to think of what her other spells are like," Naaza added with a shiver as she went to collect the magic stones left behind by the battle.

Spoiler: The Brave and the Bodolf

400 – The Brave and The Bodolf (knowledge only)
Marvel Magic
For those who seek power beyond their kin, there are methods of achieving their goals. Some strive long and hard, pushing their forms to and beyond their limit. Some turn to study, mastering science or sorcery to bend the world to their wills. And others yet still find other methods, making pacts with dark beings or taking extreme risks to gain power now. You now know of one such method, though whether you choose to utilize it is your own choice to make. This method takes the form of a ritual in which the one seeking power speaks ancient words of power and drinks the still-burning blood of a dragon.

At first, they will notice no change. But then, when adrenaline flows, they undergo a transformation. Gaining several hundred pounds of muscle mass and several feet of height, their skin turns as black as night and their eyes glow red like burning coals. In this form, their strength and durability are massively increased, making them one of the strongest and toughest beings in this world. But they also lose themselves to rage, consumed as a berserker until eventually the rage subsides or they are knocked unconscious, returning them to their original form. they may be able to learn control over these transformations, but it will take time and great effort. If you wish, you may choose to have already undergone this ritual and gained this power.

Everyone stared at Pearl, but for Ichiban it was for a different reason as he felt knowledge settle in his brain somewhere. Yeah, drink some dragon blood, say a few spooky words, and then whenever you get mad you turn into a super-strong giant berserker. Wasn't there a western comic about a guy like that?

Unwittingly his gaze tracked back over to Rina as he considered what such a power would do for her.

"… what?" she asked, noticing his staring as he briefly imagined her already dark skin turning jet black, her body bursting with muscles and bursting her already limited clothing, becoming a being of pure unrestrained violence and impulse. She started giggling coquettishly, "What, Ichiban? You're looking at me so intensely, it's actually making me nervous!"

"N-nevermind," he said, turning away and quickly setting off down the path deeper into the Dungeon. They were soon attacked by more of those creepy bears bursting out of the ground, Rina whooping in delight as she exercised the new strength that belt gave her to crush them with hammer-blows that burst them like pinatas.

Yeah he'd just be keeping that particular ritual under his hat for now.

The fight at least took Rina's mind off his staring, and they continued on with Naaza's frequent stops to harvest ingredients when Rina cocked her head to the side and asked, "Do you hear that?"

Ichiban stopped and tried to pay attention but couldn't hear anything. Naaza however perked up like she could hear something. "It's singing… I saw a quest at the Pantheon about something like that…" she murmured.

Then Pearl started singing and… Ichiban felt his vision blur, the haunting beauty of the melody she was cooing striking a chord deep inside and causing his eyes to water. There were no words, or at least if they were words they weren't in any language he understood. Like the latin chanting you'd sometimes hear as boss music in a video game.

It was like hearing the voice of an angel.

"Ahhh! Mad beetles!" Rina yelled, warning everyone as the local Dungeon monsters proved they had no care for the arts and came scrambling over a leafy ridge to leap down and attack them. They weren't a real threat, more a distraction that were easily brutalised by the group working together, even if Ichiban had to blink out a few tears at the start of the fight.

Pearl didn't even stop singing, her upper human half seeming beatific and joyful as she sang out her arias while giant draconic claws stomped and slashed at the few monsters unlucky enough to come in her reach.

In the aftermath of violence he found himself able to hear what the others were talking about, another beautiful singing voice drifting through the Dungeon. It and Pearl seemed to be singing directly to each other, Pearl hitting some complex sounding melodies before slipping into a more rhythmic backing chant for the other singer to come back at her with an even more complex refrain.

Back and forth they went, somewhere between duel and duet before the other voice faltered at keeping up with Pearl's complexity and a melodious laugh of defeat came out instead. It put a smug look on that beautiful green face as the other singer appeared, flying over a ridge covered in tall leafy fronds to land with taloned feet on the edge above them. It was a woman, but clearly a monster too, like a stereotypical fantasy harpy, with a bird's clawed feet and brightly feathered wings in place of arms, her torso and face that of a human. Or beast person, the wing-like 'ears' at the sides of her head reminded him a bit of Lulune's dog ears, and notably she was wearing clothes. A white bikini top and a green feathered skirt that he wasn't quite sure was clothing or anatomy, but it at least kept her decent either way.

"Siren, they're not usually on these floors," Rina said warily, looking up at her while Naaza held onto her bow without yet drawing an arrow, the singing contest sufficiently strange to disarm the otherwise immediate violence they'd meet a monster with. The fact she was standing there with a smile on her face and not swooping down in a deadly rush probably helped.

"You're friends, aren't you? Humans and monsters travelling together," she asked. "But you're like me, you can think and talk, can't you?" her gaze fixed on Pearl.

"Of course I can," Pearl responded with proud straightforwardness, as if her newfound faculty with speech wasn't the result of a whole lot of incredibly unlikely events piling on top of each other.

"And now there are two talking monsters," Naaza said in a quietly dumbfounded tone.

The siren folded one of her wings over her chest in a pleased gesture, "You must have warm hearts. I always worry what happens to one of us that is found by adventurers before their own kind. Seeing that you've made friends makes me happy. My name is Ray, I'm one of the leaders of the xenos," she introduced herself.

It made sense, she was about as strong as Tsubaki or Shakti before they got chakra, as far as Ichiban could sense. Though she felt just like any other monster, unlike the murderer from Rivira who seemed more like something halfway between monster and person.

"Can monsters have children with humans?!" he blurted out as it suddenly clicked for him.

"Ichiban?!" Naaza's jaw fell and she looked at him in shock.

A blush spread over Ray's face and she murmured, "Oh my goodness!"

"Wow, one track mind on this guy!" Rina sounded impressed as she shoved his shoulder.

"No! No, not like that!" he shoved Rina back, "The chick on the eighteenth floor! She felt kind of like a monster but kind of like a human, so I thought…" he trailed off, just hoping they'd get his thought process.

"Ohhh…" Naaza drawled slowly, glaring at him. "You could have said it better."

"Y-yes, we've only just met, although I don't dislike thinking about the future like that," Ray said, still sounding flustered, her feathers quite literally ruffled.

"Anyway, you can't," Rina said firmly. "Trust me, there are freaks who will try. There's a renegade familia down here that makes a living taming monsters with sexy woman parts that they sell on. The Ishtar familia does business with them sometimes."

"That's disgusting," Naaza said firmly, before she glanced at Pearl and Ray and perhaps realised the implications. "Sorry?"

Pearl at least seemed unbothered but Ichiban was compelled to say, "No, it's still disgusting, that's sex slavery!" while Ray jumped down to their level.

"You know about those tamers?" she asked, her embarrassment fading into a look of angry focus. "They don't just go after normal monsters, they capture my people too."

"Uh, yeah," Rina glanced around the group, "Look, they're just monsters, we kill them like it's nothing so even if it's freaky I don't feel bad for them," she defended herself. "But there's a hideout on the twenty fourth floor, I went there to help pick up a lamia one time. It still wound up crushing a customer to death, whole thing was just not worth it!"

Ray stared intently at Rina before she looked up at Pearl and leaned back. "Normal monsters attack my kind too, I don't care about them. But we xenos only want to live peacefully, to see the sky," Pearl's head jerked up at that and she nodded enthusiastically, "And those tamers treat us like we're rare prizes to capture. Tell me where their hideout is," she demanded, looking at Rina again.

"I can, but just so you know, their leader is a first rank adventurer," Rina warned. "These guys are seriously dangerous."

"It doesn't matter, I have friends who can help, and…" Ray looked up at Pearl again, "Would you join us? You look strong, and we'd be glad to have you."

"I'm with sweet-cheeks here, whatever he decides is fine," Pearl responded carelessly, gesturing to Ichiban with her unhidden arm.

As if they needed to ask. "We're going to help too," Ichiban said firmly. "It sounds like something seriously messed up is going on, and we're going to put a stop to it." And maybe he'd made a mistake with the woman in Rivira, but monster or no? Ray seemed on the level, so he held out a hand towards her. "Give me your wing, I have something that can help you grow even stronger."

"Well at least we know exactly what she is this time," Naaza muttered as Ray trustingly stretched a feathered appendage to him, which he took and pushed something of himself into her to grant her a chakra system of her own.

She wouldn't be doing any hand signs, though.

"What is this power?" she asked softly, staring at her wings and flexing them out, the energy surging inside of her just as easily as it did for the high level adventurers he'd done this for.

"Chakra, it's a thing I've been giving to the adventurers up above to help them fight monsters, but if you're a peaceful monster I don't see why you shouldn't have it too," Ichiban answered. "We can teach you how to use it while we head down to the twenty fourth floor."

"Ahhh, to think a human could be so kind to us, I didn't think it was possible…" she sniffled in a heart-warming way that surely no one would be unmoved by before collecting herself, "Can I ask for a further kindness? We have a village hidden on this floor, I was going to gather my friends there for the mission, but would you be willing to come and share chakra with them as well?"

Ichiban felt very glad the hidden xenos village was on this floor and not the one above. "Yeah, sure. We can do that!" he agreed as Ray started guiding them along.

"Hey," Rina whispered, "Can you keep quiet about the lamia thing? It's actually super illegal and we'd get in a lot of trouble if word got around. Only the Ganesha familia has the right to keep monsters in the city and they… you know, they don't use them like that. I think."

"It seems like your goddess is nothing but trouble," Ichiban muttered irritably, which Rina didn't have any argument against.

"You mentioned someone on the eighteenth floor that you thought was the child of a monster and a human?" Ray reminded him as the group paused for Naaza to harvest some more plants.

He described the red-haired woman as well as the monsters she'd attacked Rivira with and Ray nodded. "I've seen her before, she often travels the lower floors with those monsters. She's not one of us, the monsters attack any of us that get close so we've learned to stay away. The monsters are strange though – they didn't exist anywhere in the Dungeon when I was young, and the older among us had never seen them before either. They all have colour like Pearl's petals actually, I didn't think of the connection until just now."

"They're all her children," Pearl remarked without much interest. "She woke up when she felt Aria's magic, and she's been looking for her ever since."

This feeling. It was like having one of the mid-game boss characters defect to the hero's party and just trivially reveal all kinds of knowledge that was only hinted at before.

"So Aria is Ais Wallenstein, the Sword Princess? Why does some monster deep in the Dungeon care about her?" Rina asked.

"She wants to eat her," Pearl helpfully elaborated. Unfortunately asking for clarification on why only got them a shrug. It seemed there were limits even to this back-channel of hidden information.

They were attacked by more monsters, a mixed group of lizardmen and battle boars this time which proved that they were indeed hostile towards Ray, though she held her own with slashing aerial kicks and some kind of directed sonic attack as the group handily defeated them, Ichiban just letting his reflexes take over while he focused on giving Ray advice on how to move chakra through her body. He was constantly improving that himself, finding further refinements with every dodge and strike.

When they were done Naaza started gathering up the magic stones as usual, though she caught Ray eyeing them and passed over several. "You fought, it's your share," she said, causing the siren to happily crunch into the stones like they were hard candy.

"And what about me? Didn't I fight? I hit that one with my tail! Are you just going to leave a poor woman to starve?" Pearl started whining indignantly.

"I said we're going to split yours at the end, didn't I? It's too much trouble to do this after every fight. Since you're not a child you should be able to delay gratification," the dog-girl stood up to the terrifyingly powerful abomination with a stern glare on her face. The fact Pearl shot Ichiban a beseeching look instead of blasting Naaza with a plasma beam spoke well for the prospect of her socialisation, he thought.

"Hey, Naaza's in charge of this stuff," Ichiban backed his first party member up. "It's just like when you got your nuts at the end of the day, bear with it and look forward to the feast later," he gave her rocky forelimb a friendly pat before they continued on their way, Ray leading them off the more navigable paths and through the undergrowth, a well hidden crevasse leading to a hidden cave.

"Everyone, I've brought friends!" she called out ahead, settling down the monsters waiting in the large cavern that fell down in terraces, the bare rock dotted with big green crystals and a spring of water at the bottom. All kinds of monsters were here, many of them wearing clothes, but the highlight was undoubtedly the enormous green dragon sprawled over one of the terraces. Its size and power both a match for Pearl after Ichiban had first transformed her into a dragon.

"Humans!" "But oh, she looks pretty, and strong!" "What about that guy, he looks cool!" a hubbub came from the monsters, proving firmly that they could talk and that their personalities weren't much different than humans as many of them started to crowd around, admiring Pearl and Yankimaru predominantly but wary and hopeful gazes found their way to Ichiban and the two women from Orario.

"This is Pearl, she sings beautifully, that's how we met!" Ray announced proudly. "And these are Ichiban, Rina, and Naaza, they've agreed to help us rescue our comrades. Er… that's Yankimaru, he's a robot, but I don't really understand it," she finished as a monster wearing full plate armour unsuccessfully tried to engage Yankimaru in silent conversation through miming.

"Yo," Ichiban waves in greeting. "Ray told us about the trouble you've had with kidnappers, and we're gonna help you deal with them. That and I've got a power I can give to people, called chakra. I've already given it to most of the adventurers on the surface, and so long as you guys aren't going around killing people I'll give it to you as well."

"We just want to live in peace!" a girl like Ray but with brown wings cried out indignantly.

"Grrrr! Rrrrrhh! Raaaurgh!" a kobold wearing mismatched leather armour growled and gestured with similar indignation.

"Not all of us can speak properly, but Helck can understand you and has a mind and heart like everyone else here," Ray said, glancing back at Ichiban.

Rina's dark-skinned face somehow managed to lose some of its colour as that sank in. "Oh shit, now I'm wondering about that lamia…"

"Yeah…" Ichiban made a face as well. "We're definitely putting a stop to what they've got going on. Listen, Ray vouched for you, that's good enough for me to help you all out."

"And who says we want help from adventurers?" a deep voice asked as a deep voice asked as a monster that looked like a dragon-man made out of stone leapt up from one of the lower terraces. "Ray, how could you bring them to our village? They're only going to bring trouble."

Ray stood up for herself though, gesturing with a wing towards the group, "Gros, these ones are different. They were already friends with a xenos, they know where tamers have their hideout so they can help us rescue our friends!"

Gros grunted, unimpressed, "And you don't think it's suspicious that they know where the hideout is? That one could've been caught and forced to play a part to trick you, so they can lead us all into a trap," he pointed out, gesturing at Pearl.

An enormous draconic forelimb then slapped his hand aside with a sound of cracking rock. "Don't point at me like I'm some perch to be crapped on, I'm not like that thing over there," her more human-like green arm gestured at Yankimaru and Ichiban had to wrack his brain to figure out what any of that actually meant.

Gros's jaw opened with a soundless wheeze and he clutched at his arm, stepping back and looking with more respect at the draconic plant chimera. "Well… she's not weak," he admitted, carefully ensuring he was not within arm's reach any longer.

"Hahaha," a deep chortle came from the green dragon which had come over and clambered up to rest his own clawed forelimbs on their level while he stood up from below. "I don't believe the tamers could handle one like her, and if they could they wouldn't let her out without a mountain of chains around her body," he said in a booming voice. "My name is Gryuu, I no longer lead the xenos, but I guard the safety of this village. If Ray trusts you so will I."

"Appreciate it," Ichiban gave him a grin, glad Pearl's outburst hadn't done them any harm. "So listen, I'll give everyone here chakra, then we'll get up our posse and head down to this hideout Rina knows about, how's that?"

"Cure," Rina added her piece, golden sparkles falling over Gros who jerked back and glared at her before looking at his arm and grunting. "You were looking a bit chipped there, big guy."

Soon the xenos were lining up just as orderly as the adventurers had been at Rivira yesterday for Ichiban to hand out chakra to all of them, while Naaza had opened her bag up and was parcelling out magic stones. "You eat magic stones to become stronger, right?" she asked as xenos gathered around. "I'll give you these, but in exchange I want you to find as many of these for me as you can," she held up one of those plant frills and described the orange petalled plant it came from. "I'll be back to collect them later, but I want as many as you can find. They grow all over these floors… except the one above this one. Don't bother looking there."

She got plenty of takers, the xenos happy to crunch down magic stones in a fashion that made Ichiban's teeth ache just to listen to before she assured him that she'd counted out the magic stones from her own share so no one else would be short-changed. Then under Pearl's incessant badgering she had to give out her share early too, though just as she'd behaved with the nuts being spread on the ground back in the city, Pearl had no qualms about sharing her bounty of magic stones with anyone else that was hungry, which seemed to win her plenty of friends among the xenos.

After taking a little time to explain the fundamentals of internal chakra manipulation, which seemed to work just the same for monsters as for people, their war party set out containing all of Ichiban's group, along with Ray and Gros, as well as a well-spoken goblin called Let who wore armour and a baggy red cap, an Almiraj named Arles who wore a rather dapper waistcoat but was mute, another mute monster in full armour that was apparently a war shadow callee Aude, and a fierce looking hellhound wearing a cute little bow collar called Helga, who was also unable to talk.

Despite some of them being monsters from the upper floors who he wouldn't expect much of normally, every one of them felt stronger than even those plant monsters that had attacked Rivira. It was clear a diet of magic stones made a big difference in the long term, even if he hadn't noticed any change in Pearl from her feast just now.

"Feels like we're on a proper deep floors expedition with a full group now," Rina had said as they set off, "I just never thought it'd be a group made of mostly monsters…"

"We might be monsters, but that means you won't find any better guide to the Dungeon, Miss Rina," Let smiled at her, drawing a cracked sounding giggle from the amazon.

"You're so damn well spoken! And cute for a goblin too, like you've got a total pretty-boy face, what is even going on, I didn't even know they could look like that!"

"You… you think I'm pretty?" Let asked, suddenly turning bashful and earning a disapproving sounding grunt from Gros. Ray however gave him a supportive grin as she looked over her shoulder.

"Haha, prettier than a lot of my customers!" Rina agreed, catching Ray's eyes and then looking at Pearl, "Honestly it's disgusting," her tone soured, expression doing a one-eighty. "I spend my life fighting monsters down here. The Dungeon's evil and wants to kill us all, monsters are a perfect representation of that. The ones that are pretty, they're just like that to lure in idiots, like a succulent berry filled with poison. When I heard someone was paying millions of valis to have sex with a lamia, I was revolted. Why would you want to do that with a monster when there are so many pretty boys and girls out there already? Is it the exoticism? The risk? I didn't feel bad at all when I heard we'd had to kill that lamia, but I didn't feel bad about the customer it had killed either. That's what you get for being stupid around monsters."

Poor Let kind of looked a bit overwhelmed to have all of that dumped on him and Ichiban felt bad for the guy. "It's not like anyone can choose how they look," he spoke up, "But if something thinks and feels like a person, I think we should treat them like one too. And even if they can't… you know, there's no point being cruel to animals. Killing monsters that only want to fight is just meeting them halfway, but you shouldn't torture them or do creepy sex stuff with them. That's just wrong."

"I don't disagree, but it's not that simple," Naaza spoke up, her tone sounding even more sullen than usual. "I hadn't been in the Dungeon for over a year before I met you Ichiban, because I couldn't stand the thought of seeing a monster again. Most nights I have nightmares," she looked at her gloved hand and clenched her fist. "Something like Monster Feria is a cruel joke to me. Playing with monsters. Admiring them. Doing that with them?" she looked at Rina, expression disgusted. "No normal person can imagine it. I wouldn't care if someone mistreated a monster, why should I? It's a thing that only exists to cause pain itself."

It hurt, hearing such vengeful sentiments from someone like Naaza. He knew she wasn't as much a bleeding heart as Miach, but however she hid it she was still a healer. Yet it was obvious where her trauma came from. When Let spoke up, saying, "But we're not like that, Miss Naaza. We only want to live in peace!" his words were heartfelt but still felt cheap.

"I believe you," Naaza said wearily, "But if I wasn't already numb from dealing with Pearl, I'd have put an arrow in Ray's head the moment I saw her."

Gros let out a grunt and muttered, "You'd have tried." Which wasn't exactly helpful. It gave them all a lot to chew on, and it was almost a merciful distraction when a squad of lizardmen burst out of the wall to attack them. Lacking the strange weapons he'd last seen them with, these ones lashed out with fangs and claws equally at all members of their party, and the xenos showed no hesitation in striking back and showing the gulf that existed between them and ordinary monsters. When they started picking up magic stones to eat immediately after the battle Ichiban just shrugged it off, allowing Pearl to indulge in snacking as well. It wasn't worth the hassle of calculating the division with this many of them, and they'd only be travelling with them for a little while.

Or so he thought. With four floors to cover, even though they'd stopped diverting for the flowers Naaza wanted to harvest, it was a long trip through humid subterranean jungle, and the paths the xenos led them on seemed deliberately difficult, perhaps to avoid adventurers. They hadn't seen any since leaving Rivira though, but the Cave Labyrinth had been pretty sparsely populated too. It was clear there was a sharp drop-off in adventurer activity once you got past the tenth floor.

The monsters made up for it though, the highlight being what Rina had identified as a mammoth fool, and mammoth was right. It had to be twice the size of the elephants you saw in nature documentaries about the African savannah, covered in shaggy red fur and boasting metallic tusks that were as long as Pearl's forelimbs.

Pearl had seemed discomfited at seeing something larger than her for the first time since she became a dragon, and she had responded by firing a plasma beam from her mouth which cored through the titanic monster and rather anti-climactically killed it in one go.

"Aww, I wanted to see if Mini would work on it!" Rina complained while the xenos all stared, now given a clearer idea of Pearl's power than they'd gotten from just seeing her claw and stomp enemies up until now.

It did leave behind a drop item, one of its tusks which would definitely be a pain to carry around. They wound up tying it to Yankimaru's back with some handy vines. He seemed fine with it.

Finally they reached the twenty fourth floor, and Rina took over guiding them. It took her a little bit to find her bearings, but after they came across a giant pillar surrounded by twisting elevated pathways she announced that she knew where she was now and started guiding them more confidently. "These guys'll have lookouts, and they're gonna know something's up as soon as they see this kind of squad coming at them," she warned.

"Then we hit them fast and don't give them time to prepare," Ichiban said, more than ready to put an end to this operation. It got nods all around, no one else having any better sneaky ideas, and Rina led them once more off the more navigable paths they'd only briefly gotten to enjoy.

"The walls and floor here have been damaged," Naaza noticed, seeing craters and gouges breaking up the undergrowth. "It must be how they keep monsters spawning close to their hideout."

"Shhh," Rina shushed her, although given the kind of noise made by Pearl and Yankimaru stomping around it was probably a moot point, there was no way they were going to be sneaking up on anyone. And indeed as they approached a large earthen mound rising out of the foliage a shrill bird's cry was heard, perhaps expected for a jungle but out of place in the monster-infested Dungeon.

A faint high-pitched noise came from Ray, drawing winces from Naaza and Rina, both glaring at the siren who looked unapologetic. "There are two of them, one moving back the other coming closer – there!" she pointed with a wing and everyone turned to see a lanky guy in leather armour peeking around a giant fern up ahead of them. He felt about as strong as Naaza, which made him weaker than almost everyone in their group. And even if this guy couldn't sense power levels in return, he could certainly see Pearl and Yankimaru as looming physical threats beyond just the sheer numbers arrayed against him.

He didn't even try any kind of fancy distracting talk, he just jerked himself back into cover and bolted.

Smart guy.

"Get him!" he yelled, booking it after him. Ray, Gros, and Pearl all took flight, easily overtaking the rest of them who were having to practically wade through the undergrowth, and a screech from the siren saw the lookout stumble right before Pearl landed on him with an almighty crash that churned up the ground and uprooted a long furrow of plant-life.

He was still breathing when the rest of them caught up, but his leg definitely wasn't meant to bend that way and he was out cold. Gros landed and looked about to settle that definitively, but Ichiban raised his voice, "Just leave him, he's not going anywhere. We need to get inside!"

It was pretty clear where they were headed after all, a cave entrance leading into that mound the guy had been running to practically screamed secret base. He'd see how he felt about bringing these guys up to face some kind of justice in Orario after all this, but right now it was more important to get in there before their enemies had time to prepare.

It was enough to focus Gros, and the xenos grunted before he started running ahead, the ground evening out a bit and giving their staggered group more of a chance to group together, though in case of any traps Ichiban sent the giant robot ahead. "Yankimaru, get in there!" he ordered, the robot stomping in through a cave that was clearly big enough for its inhabitants to move captured monsters in and out of.

Spoiler: Crystallization of Power

200 – Crystallization Of Power (Anemo)
Genshin Impact
These are the crystallised teardrops of a great elemental being, one that in days past might very well have fought toe-to-toe with the gods. Contained within these tears are an incredible amount of pure elemental energy, of a type matching that of the spirit it came from. What exactly that type is, is up to you. This would be a rare and incredibly valuable prize for any able to handle the energy within, enough to power an instrument of the Archons.

He felt something appear in his other hand and almost tossed it in frustration like he had those things that appeared that night in the Entertainment District, but they weren't yet in battle so he had time to simply stuff it in his pocket, but not before noticing the green glow it shone with nor the intense feeling of magical energy emanating from it.

Pearl noticed too. "Sweet-cheeks, what is that?!" she asked, glowing yellow eyes fixed on him.

"I'll show you after," he answered distractedly as Yankimaru's heavy footsteps marched ahead into the darkness. "Come on, after Yankimaru!"

It was only a short passage down a shallow slope before it opened into a long cavern lit by magic stone lanterns in a low enough number that it still felt gloomy. The oppressive air was certainly added to by the rows of cramped cages filled with monsters. He had no way of knowing if any were xenos at a glance, but what was more distracting were the figures at the far end of the cave. Sitting up on a raised ridge was a man loosely holding a spear against his shoulder. Black haired and wearing a leather jacket and a pair of dark goggles, his mouth was turned up in a knowing smirk despite the number of invaders barging into his hideout. He felt as strong as Tsubaki when he'd first met her.

He wasn't the one that most caught Ichiban's attention though. There were other adventurers around, most closer to Naaza's level though one felt a bit stronger than Rina. They didn't stand out either. No, at the very back in the shadows, squatting down and looking like he was wearing a tracksuit of all things, was the unmistakeable energy of a god. Power contained but nonetheless dwarfing anyone else in the Dungeon.

"These are the guys, Dix! They came in so fast, Bort didn't stand a chance!" a man standing before the goggled figure gestured back of them, probably the one Ray had sensed running away at the start.

"Well," Dix drawled, looking over them without a shred of concern for the threat they represented. "They've brought us a nice crop. Those freaks in Eluria will pay a fortune for an irregular like that thing. Heh, and the siren should be good for some fun…" his eyes were hidden by his goggles but one could well imagine the lascivious leer he directed at Ray. But then he addressed Rina. "Harmothoe, right? I remember you. But I don't recall hearing about Lady Ishtar ordering more merchandise, far less delivering any…"

"Yeah, this one's off the books," Rina answered, looking a bit intimidated by the first tier adventurer's attention but still gripping her weapons tightly.

"Don't tell me a berbera like you's gone soft," Dix scoffed lightly, kipping up to his feet. "Feeling pity for monsters? Got yourself charmed by a pretty face? I'd think-"

"Why don't you just shut the fuck up?!" Ichiban yelled over him, tired of the man's posturing. They all knew exactly how this was going to end, and every word out of his mouth just made Ichiban want to punch it, so he was about ready to skip to the part where they do just that. "We're here to shut down your whole freaky operation, so either you stand down, or we're going to put you down!"

"Aha… ahaha… hahahahaha!" Dix threw his head back and laughed as if he found it all deeply hilarious. The other adventurers on his side of the room snickered along with him in that way every flunky knows you're supposed to do when the boss starts laughing, lest you take a baseball bat to the face, before Dix controlled his mirth and spoke while looking directly at Ichiban. "Yes. Yes, you've brought quite the merry band here to stop us, I should be quaking in my boots, shouldn't I? But what will you do, when those friends become your enemies?"

Magic gathered as he spoke, a short chant, a spell cast before they realised he'd switched from posturing to fighting. "Become lost in an endless nightmare."

A wave of red light spread out from Dix, washing over the cages and sending the monsters within into a frenzy, reaching the rest of them and-

"Ah! Fuck!" Dix cursed, holding his head in apparent pain when the magic touched Ichiban. But it wasn't enough to stop the spell already cast, the light touching everyone and reducing them to bestial mindless fury.

Ray's pupils dilated and she let out a shrill scream that made Aude stumble before he lunged back at the siren. Gros roared in fury and lashed out with his claws at Rina, who met his charge with a furious yell of her own. A torrent of flame erupted from Helga's mouth with a howl, washing over the amazon but being mostly diluted by the magic ring Ichiban had given her earlier today. Let unslung his axe and leapt at Ichiban, who dodged without even having to think about it. Arles leapt onto Pearl's back and started biting and clawing, though to seemingly little effect. Pearl unfortunately fell victim to madness as well, letting out a berserk scream and slapping Gros with a claw that sent him reeling from his confrontation with Rina. Showing no gratitude, the amazon simply continued her charge and hacked her axe into Pearl's chest where dragon parts merged with flower parts, drawing blood.

One other person had maintained their sanity however, and a flight of lightning-wreathed arrows streaked across the cave to slam into Dix who was still reeling from the backlash of the spell, knocking him back before a huge bald guy with an axe got in the way, using his weapon to deflect the shots from Naaza who had retreated to the cavern entrance and just avoided the range of the spell.

The first thing he needed to do was stop Pearl from killing Rina. He could see her mouth opening wide, the light gathering within as she glared hatefully down at the woman trying to prune the plant off the top of the dragon, and Ichiban just charged into Rina at full force. She let out an enraged noise like the ones that had haunted his nightmares after that disastrous evening at the Entertainment District but was carried by Ichiban's momentum that had the two crashing into one of the cages and bursting it open while Pearl's plasma breath drilled a hole straight through the floor where she'd been standing.

The melee was getting worse. Let had attacked Yankimaru, causing the robot's self defence mode to initiate and now he'd joined the fight, hissing steam and striking down at the goblin who was proving a far more able combatant than the ones on the upper floors, strong enough for his axe to carve gouges out of Yankimaru's form even as his near suicidal attacks saw him sent reeling by a hammer blow that caved in his armoured breastplate.

Rina showed no gratitude for his save as she headbutted him, while a winged female monster inside the now broken open cage clawed at her back, completely feral but there was no way to know if that was normal monster behaviour or a result of the spell Dix had cast. His nose gushed blood and he stumbled back off of her, not even his automatic reflexes saving him from a hit like that when they were tangled up together.

Pearl was twisting around now to try and get at Arles, her tail sweeping wide to crush several cages, bowling over Ray and Aude who were locked together in melee with the siren trying to cut open the war shadow's armour while finger-blades protruding from his gauntlets cut bloody gashes into her. Gros hadn't even had time to get up from Pearl's earlier swat before Helga pounced on him, jaws furiously snapping but soon finding herself over-muscled by the considerably stronger xenos.

Ichiban had managed to finish his spell though, still gripping the wand and hitting Yankimaru's standby button to stop him from trying to kill Let at least for the moment. It wasn't Dia Fratel, as its radius wasn't enough to hit everyone, but Earth Gullveig surrounded all of them in a golden glow that caused injuries to regenerate, hopefully buying them time even as they kept trying to kill each other.

"Confuse!" Naaza cast from the back, managing to stay far enough away that no one in the berserk melee went for her, but her magic hit the guy who'd been protecting Dix, little yellow birds seen flying around his head as he turned and swung his axe at the same man he'd just been defending.

He hadn't been expecting it, and the axe bit deep into his chest before he recoiled back, a lightning arrow striking his shoulder before he ducked and weaved to try and avoid Naaza's arrows. "Gran you fucking idiot, what are you doing? The rest of you, hold him down!" Despite the punishment he'd taken he was still up, testifying to just how tough first rank adventurers could be.

But at least the in-fighting was now going both ways, Ichiban given a moment's reprieve as Rina deemed the harpy behind her the greater threat, wringing its neck through the cage bars until it burst into black smoke, and Ichiban had to duck when Arles got flung off Pearl's back and tried to claw his face off while flying past and landing amidst another cage with a bone-jarring impact that the healing magic on him saw just shrugged off, the rabbit spending a moment to try and kill the lizardman trapped inside.

Ichiban stayed close to Pearl, ducking and jumping over her wild claw swings, enduring her attention better than anyone else might. He could see the light shining through the hole left by her earlier beam attack he'd saved Rina from, showing it had cut clear through to the next floor down. The others, fuelled by his regenerative healing magic, just clawed and bit at each other wildly, reverting to savage bestial instinct.

"Holy!" another spell came from Naaza, breaking up her flurry of arrows which had now gone back to the regular type, her stock of lightning ones expended for another ten minutes. It send a white sphere, gleaming like an actual pearl, sailing across the battlefield to slam into Dix, while Gran roared and fought with the lower level adventurers trying to bog him down under their numbers. The goggle-wearing man spun with the impact, catching two more arrows in the chest before he toppled.

"We surrender!" "We give!" "Peace!" shouts came from the other adventurers struggling to handle Gran, as the magic that had turned everyone into a frenzy ended. Rina blinked in confusion as she stopped from her lunge at him, while Pearl similarly stopped in place with sanity returning to her eyes. The other xenos, locked in battle with each other, hesitantly disentangled while Ichiban had to put Yankimaru in standby again because he kept getting re-activated every time Let hit him and he didn't much care about the spell either way.

"Everyone okay?" Ichiban asked, getting shell-shocked nods as Naaza started to come closer again.

"They probably would have killed each other without your healing magic. That's an awful curse," she said.

"Yeah, speaking of, little help?!" a voice called from the crowd still dealing with the confused Gran.

Naaza only shrugged. "If my Basuna was able to remove confuse already I'd have used it on our side. It should wear off soon?"

That proved little comfort for the guy Gran headbutted before the little birdies vanished and he displayed a similar reaction to the others recovering from Dix's own curse.

"Ahhh, Dix. You turned out to be boring after all," a disappointed sounding voice was heard, the god at the back rising from his squat and looking down at where Dix had fallen with a tut before he turned his gaze towards Ichiban's party. "Hey, I'm not really with these guys. I just let them do as they like, so we don't have any trouble, right?" his face was utterly apathetic as he gazed over the squalid cave of suffering and confinement, nothing divine about his bland and unremarkable features.

"Lord Ikelos!" Gran sputtered out in a betrayed sounding voice.

Ichiban hated the guy on sight. Bad enough to go along with all the bullshit happening down here, but to then just disavow his own men as soon as it becomes slightly inconvenient? He stormed forward while everyone else was still recovering, fury etched on his features.

"Hey, what's with the angry face?" Ikelos asked, his tone almost playful. "You can take us up for the Guild to sort out, just keep us away from those scary-"

That was as far as he got before Ichiban's fist smashed into his face and sent him crashing to the ground, noises of shock coming not just from his familia but from Naaza and Rina too.

He hadn't used chakra or anything. That punch was one hundred percent Ichiban Kasuga, no souped up battle instincts. Plenty enough to put a scrawny guy like that on his ass.

"You piece of shit," he spat down at the pathetic excuse for a god. "You think this is all a game, that you can toy with people's lives, torture and trade slaves, and then just walk away with a smile because none of it matters to you?"

"Aaatch… oh, that stings!" Ikelos clutched at his jaw where he lay on the ground before rolling over and sitting up in an insolent pose. "You children are getting really dumb these days, huh?" And then for the first time, Ichiban felt the tightly leashed power of a god loosen those bindings just a bit. A palpable sense of pressure emanated from Ikelos, something luminous shining through his skin as he made clear that he was not a man but a god. In response he heard the scuffling of feet as his own familia, and even Naaza and Rina fell to their knees while Ikelos spoke more coldly. "Be a good kid and play nice with my boys until we get out of the Dungeon, huh?"

Ichiban didn't feel a damn thing, though. He reached down, grabbing the front of Ikelos's shirt, and hauled him to his feet, watching in satisfaction as that imperious glare gave way to confusion. "Ah- huh? Wait, that's not how this is supposed to go."

"I don't know what you thought was going to happen," Ichiban said, pulling Ikelos closer until they were practically nose to nose, murmurs of surprise and confusion coming from everyone else, "But the only reason I'm not just going to feed you to the monsters like you deserve, is because I actually have some respect for people's lives." He gave a shove, sending the god sprawling gracelessly to the floor again, "And I wouldn't want even a monster to suffer the kind of stomach ache your sorry ass would give it."

Whatever Ikelos had hoped to gain by his posturing, it had clearly failed and now he bowed his head, "R-right! We'll be good, me and my kids will behave and you can do whatever you want with us, it's all good!" he hurriedly promised.

Ichiban nodded in satisfaction, turning to see if it was even worth healing Dix at this point, but as he did the ground suddenly lurched beneath his feet. A crackling grinding noise he'd heard so many times in this Dungeon to presage the appearance of monsters from the walls, but far louder. A fissure split the ground from one end of the cave to the other, wrenching apart and sinking downwards as everyone began to tumble into the rift that was now forming. And as they fell, towards the grey rock and blue water of the twenty fifth floor, an enormous black shape fell with them.

 

[wildredlifer]

Did Ichiban just get a vision?

 

[Ebiris]

Did Ichiban just get a vision?

Click to shrink...

You mean the Crystallisation of Power? I think it's something different, Visions are listed separately in the Grimoire, so I'm just treating this as an elemental powered magic crystal maguffin, just holding it doesn't give access to Genshin Impact magic or anything like that.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

You mean the Crystallisation of Power? I think it's something different, Visions are listed separately in the Grimoire, so I'm just treating this as an elemental powered magic crystal maguffin, just holding it doesn't give access to Genshin Impact magic or anything like that.

Click to shrink...

It's not a vision yeah. Basically it's the crystalized power of a great spirit that can match a god going by the description. Any god that can see that would be sure surprised lol.

 

[Zeromaru2]

Ichiban nodded in satisfaction, turning to see if it was even worth healing Dix at this point, but as he did the ground suddenly lurched beneath his feet. A crackling grinding noise he'd heard so many times in this Dungeon to presage the appearance of monsters from the walls, but far louder. A fissure split the ground from one end of the cave to the other, wrenching apart and sinking downwards as everyone began to tumble into the rift that was now forming. And as they fell, towards the grey rock and blue water of the twenty fifth floor, an enormous black shape fell with them.

Click to shrink...

As always the dungeon is here to ruin everyone's day, just because it can.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

As always the dungeon is here to ruin everyone's day, just because it can.

Click to shrink...

Dungeon: Bitch did you just punch a god that tried to flex in me? I WANT TO PUNCH A GOD THAT WANTED TO FLEX IN ME!

 

[Spiroo]

Crystallisation of Power

Click to shrink...

Wonder what would happen if a monster ate that? Would they straight up evolve into a Great Spirit pokemon style? Or would they just explode

 

[The Dude]

It's not a vision yeah. Basically it's the crystalized power of a great spirit that can match a god going by the description. Any god that can see that would be sure surprised lol.

Click to shrink...

I don't play Genshin Impact, but a quick wiki read and looking back over the power, it seems to be similar to one of the crystal teardrops you use to repair and power up something called the Holy Lyre der Himmel in one of the quests.

 

[Ebiris]

Screams sounded as the Dungeon collapsed under them. Great chunks of rock crumbling apart and plummeting to the floor below, the adventurers and monsters and god crying out in dismay as something vast fell with them. Ray flapped her wings, swooping and grasping Aude in her talons, and Ichiban could only hope the other flyers would be able to do the same. Tumbling in space as he fell, he managed to catch sight of Naaza and blindly threw out a horizontal force-field underneath for her to land on, but that was all he had time for before his dizzying descent through the air ended with a splash into deep water.

It was turbulent, the water churned up by the descent of huge chunks of rock, and that enormous black thing he hadn't even been able to fully take in the details of while falling. All he could tell was that it was strong, titanic among monsters. As strong as Pearl.

The water churned up further as the thing moved, a tail or a limb the size of a truck carving through the water. He was a decent swimmer, but that was it. Even seeing it coming, even with automatic reflexes, he couldn't get out of the way before it struck and sent him careening further through the water.

An Ikelos familia member had fallen into the water nearby and took the impact even less well than Ichiban, bubbles escaping his mouth in panic before a chunk of rock falling down from above struck the man and carried him straight to the bottom.

There was nothing Ichiban could do for him. None of his spells were any good underwater. It was all he could do just to kick his legs and fight his way back to the surface before he ran out of air himself. He moved chakra through his limbs to bolster them, quickly finding that the way he used chakra to run needed to be different from what was necessary when swimming, but his motions in the water rapidly adapted because of it and he was practically cutting through the water like air when his head breached the surface and he sucked in a gasp of precious oxygen.

Spoiler: RADIANCE

600 – RADIANCE
MtG - Ravnica
Unity can be a double edged sword, and you know this only too well. Whenever you either share a common aim with your allies, or attack a group with a strong centre of unity, both strength buffs and damage dealt is shared. When one of your enemies is hurt, the whole group feels their pain. When one of your allies receives a surge of strength, their allies are strengthened too. The ties that bind you and your group together will grow ever stronger because of this.

And finally he could see what they were up against.

It had to be over twice the size of Pearl, a monstrous jet black dragon-like thing. No wings, but made up for it by having two heads, set apart by the eyes which glowed red on the right side head, and blue on the left. It was currently being savaged by Pearl, the white and green draconic abomination a contrast to its ebony colour. A familiar beam of radiant plasma erupted from Pearl's mouth, blasting a hole right through the black monster and evaporating water to steam where it struck after coring through her foe's body.

But flesh bubbled and shifted, regrowing to seal the wound that had almost severed one of its necks, before it released a retaliatory blast of eldritch blue flame which washed over Pearl, charring and blackening her more human and flower-like parts and leaving a trail of fire that stayed burning atop the water's surface.

Even as he watched though, Pearl's body regenerated almost as fast as the other monster had, but not before the monster's other head clamped its jaws onto her, crunching scales and then whipping its sinuous neck to the side sending her soaring off to crash into the cavern walls at the side of the underground lake.

Monster cages had fallen amidst the debris from above, shattering on impact where they'd hit the ground and releasing enraged creatures that were attacking everyone in sight. Others had simply fallen into the water and sank. An Ikelos familia member was gored by some sort of deer with bladed antlers, and a battle boar was charging at Let where the goblin was trying to pull himself out of the water at the edge.

Getting out of the water sounded like a good idea to Ichiban, and he started swimming that way too, knifing through the water at a speed Olympic athletes could only dream of despite his waterlogged clothes bogging him down. He burst up like a dolphin and headbutted the charging boar hard enough to send it squealing and staggering back despite the difference in their mass, offering Let a hand up to get him on dry land too.

"Th-thanks, Mr. Ichiban!" the goblin's clawed fingers grasped around his own and he hauled himself up gratefully, his other hand still clutching his axe which he brought to bear on the recovering boar, a slash from him and a lightning-infused punch from Ichiban destroying it and buying them a moment's breathing room.

"What the hell is that thing?!" he asked the most pertinent question on his mind, looking at the enormous two-headed dragon that was roaring in the water, currently bereft of challengers while Pearl was extricating herself from the wall she'd been flung into. Naaza was high up on the force-field he'd made for her, arrows striking down at the rampaging monsters, both bursting free from their cages and pouring in from tunnels leading to this chamber, giant blue crabs skittering side-ways as they swarmed in, huge mosquito things buzzing in the air.

Aude was fighting back against the crabs on the ground but clearly being pushed back, while Ray plunged into the water like an osprey, her talons gripped around Rina's shoulders as she lifted the water-logged amazon to safety. Or at least as much could be had in this place, one of the black monster's heads tracking towards them before Gros fell upon it like a meteor, drawing out a thunderous crack of impact and making its jaw drop into the water with a huge splash.

"It's the Amphisbaena, but it's supposed to be white, and spawns further down," Let answered, gazing up in horror at the monster before them, what Rina surely must have meant when she described Pearl as a floor boss yesterday.

Those mosquitoes were buzzing up towards Naaza's platform and he realised this was about to get really bad, and so summoned his wand and quickly cast magic through it, not taking the time to chant. "Go!" he yelled, a dozen spears of lightning forming above him and then firing out like an artillery barrage when he whipped his arm forward. As soon as they fired he realised how he'd been doing it wrong, and started casting again. Thunder-strikes detonated amidst the encroaching bugs reducing them to ash and causing all the other monsters swarming in to stumble while this time the number of lightning bolts multiplied for Ichiban's second casting.

His eyes tracked the battlefield, marking targets for each one individually, the wand helping to calculate the firing angles for each one, before he unloaded his second barrage.

ESSENCE OF SUPER LIGHTNING MASSACRE​

The Dungeon melted away, everyone floating in space with the blue marble of Earth behind them, the monsters a tide threatening to descend on the unwary planet. But Ichiban stood in its defence, piloting a one-of-a-kind super robot, his finger on the trigger as his heads-up display lit up marking target after target after target until all he could see was a sea of glowing reticles marked for destruction.

"This is the end of the line for you!"

Pulling the trigger with relish, missile pods opened and unloaded an endless swarm of crackling projectiles that homed in on every target, a swathe of explosions tracking left to right across his vision as every monster was struck and destroyed. And looming in the background, the king of monsters, the Amphisbaena, was sent reeling and roaring from the multitude of impacts detonating across its titanic body.

The flooded Dungeon surroundings returned, the hostile monsters cleared from the area apart from the big one. Huge chunks had been gouged out of its surface by exploding lightning bolts, but inky black flesh was already bubbling and regrowing to fill those gaps, the monster only temporarily reeling before two sets of malevolently glowing eyes focused his way.

"What just happened?! We were all floating!" Rina yelled as Ray flew over to drop her off nearby, perhaps not the safest spot given the attention Ichiban had just attracted.

"Was that the sky?! It felt like we were so high up!" Ray seconded, eyes wide.

"That was the power of a hero!" Ichiban told them like that was any real answer, "A man with the whole world at his back defending against- shit, move!" he had to cut off his grandiose explanation as the Amphisbaena rushed them, shooting across the water with surprising speed for its bulk and breathing a jet of blue flame in its wake that didn't seem to bother it at all even as the fire stuck to water and surfaces like napalm.

Ray took off, Rina and Let running in opposite directions while Ichiban ran straight with flames licking at his heels. Its attention stayed on him, hopefully giving the others a chance to get out of the line of fire that Ichiban could feel licking at him as he vaulted on top of a crumpled monster cage and leapt at the cavern wall beyond. Feet bent, chakra circulated, and he bounced off the wall like it was a red spring in a Sonic the Hedgehog game, a scything axe kick slamming into the Amphisbaena's snout before it could close its jaws around him, sending the flame-spewing head cratering into the ground deep enough to create a channel for water from the lake to rush into.

Its nose had practically exploded, broken bone exposed underneath mangled flesh, but before his eyes it was rippling and growing back, and then he had to leap aside to dodge the other head circling his way. He ran around the edge of the underground lake, preparing another spell with a longer chant, one he actually said out loud to try and boost its power. "Harbinger of the end, the white snow…"

Pearl had at least managed to free herself from the rock and was flying back at the Amphisbaena's blind-side as it pursued Ichiban, running right past Gran who was dragging Ikelos out of the water only for the crushing dragon footsteps to kick them and send them right back under. Ichiban didn't have time to worry about them, focused as he was on baiting the enormous monster while building up a powerful freezing spell.

He heard Rina shout out her Mini spell but it clearly didn't have any effect as the damn thing didn't shrink even a little.

"Blow with the wind before the twilight. Closing light, the freezing land. Blizzard, the three severe winters," he kept up his chant, more monsters beginning to filter in from other caves to make up for the ones lost to his lightning barrage, the others moving to fight them. Except Pearl and Gros who both descended on the Amphisbaena, one clutching its tail and causing it to skid and falter, the other landing on its back and clawing at tough black flesh that seemed to grow back as soon as any wound was inflicted.

It held the monster still long enough for Ichiban to get his spell off. "My name is Alf, Wynn Fimbulvetr!" A roaring torrent of frigid air erupted from his wand, rime coating the damp cave walls, ice spreading over the surface of the lake, a frozen apocalypse set to encase this thing in a crystalline prison.

And then the red-eyed head roared, a blast of crimson fog piling out in turn to meet Ichiban's spell… and defeating it. The ice stopped cold, proverbially. Whatever that fog was, it ate magic, effectively an impenetrable shield against magical attack. "That's bull-" he started before automatic reflexes saved him from a sudden wrenching lunge, the Amphisbaena escaping Pearl's grasp and striking with the swiftness of a cobra to devour him in the jaws of the blue-eyed head.

Had he been thinking about his defence he probably would have dodged a different direction, as the frigid water he dived into felt even worse than before, his spell having done enough to make life uncomfortable for him without even inconveniencing the monster. His newfound acumen for chakra-assisted swimming at least served him well as he made some distance, briefly looking around under here.

There! Yankimaru was down at the bottom, brass barely visible in the dark water. He didn't know if he could even function underwater given how much steam he typically let out, but at least he was intact. Gran was still clutching his god in one arm, using the other to punch through the ice so he could escape, while Dix was floating nearby, motionless and not giving off any sign of magical power that Ichiban could detect beyond the spear still clutched in his death grip. Whether he'd died from Naaza's attacks, the fall, or drowned, it was immaterial. He wouldn't be a factor in this fight.

Once more Ichiban breached the surface of the water, seeing Pearl and the Amphisbaena going back and forth as they clawed at each other. Despite her excess of limbs, the Amphisbaena had her beat with two heads, clamping down on either side with fang-filled jaws that were fully capable of punching through her scales, drawing an enraged scream and a beam of plasma that she swept in order to almost sever one of the heads attached to her, the blue-eyed one going limp and collapsing as it fell off her blood-drenched flank, crashing right next to where Gran was breaking through the ice and probably regretting every choice he'd made that led to this moment as the Amphisbaena's flesh re-knit together and it stared straight at the dazed figure of Ikelos that he was lugging around.

Ikelos seemed to wake up just enough to realise the shit he was in as the Amphisbaena let out a snorting breath, its other head let go of Pearl and whipped around to focus on the god who'd foolishly come to dwell in the Dungeon with his familia of outcasts, four eyes locked on him with more malevolence than they'd shown Ichiban.

There was no sign of that familia now. The bodies of some floated in the water or lay around the edge, victims to the monsters they'd captured but failed to tame, perhaps some had fled into the caves of the Water City, a perilous journey to safety awaiting them if they did. All Ikelos had was Gran, and he seemed just as unmanned by the sight of the Black Amphisbaena poised to strike.

A shriek sounded, piercing and shrill as Ray swooped in, causing the two-headed monster to flinch and narrow its eyes. Meanwhile Pearl had recovered enough to sink her claws into its flank and pull, while Let and Aude leapt at a head each, axe and claws digging out deep wounds that all the same began healing as soon as they were made.

"We're being saved… by monsters?" Ikelos gasped in disbelief.

"Not even this one…" Let grimaced with exertion as he tried to force the Amphisbaena's head back with his axe as a lever stuck into its chin, his feet being pushed into retreat that dug grooves into the stone around his heels, "Deserves a stomach ache from you!"

Ichiban couldn't help but smile at the genuine heroism on display from the xenos, kicking his legs to push himself out of the water and onto the ice as others acted too. Arrows rained down from Naaza, and the soaring orb of Rina's flare spell sailed over to detonate on the monster's body, rocking it while Helga's flames licked at it from behind with a howl. Gros added his formidable strength to Pearl's, clawing and pulling to unbalance the titanic dragon. Arles bounded in with startling agility, showing superhuman strength despite his tiny size as he grabbed both Gran and Ikelos, running around the edge of the lake with them even as the Amphisbaena began to react, blue flames gathering in its maw.

"Play music eternally, immortal saint – Laurus Hildr!" Ichiban called, directing his spell at Let, the goblin having absolutely won his respect just now. Yet lightning didn't just envelop his form.

ESSENCE OF TEAMWORK​

They all stood as one. Naaza. Rina. Pearl. Ray. Gros. Let. Arles. Helga. Aude. Lightning struck down on each from above, their hearts beating as one with the resolve of heroes burning in their veins. Burning so bright that energy crackled between them in resonance before returning to Ichiban, their faith showing in the power they now shared.

It was like Ariel, the magic surging over him as lightning rather than wind but empowering him just as much. The brass rod in his hand lengthened into a glaive of solidified electrical energy, and the effects were just as pronounced on everyone else.

"Yaaaaargh!" Let's impassioned cry led the assault as his axe swelled in size with a corona of electrical power that chopped right down the middle of Amphisbaena's head, slicing it in two and sending arcs of lightning crackling down its neck, the impending fire-breath sputtering out.

Aude did work on his side too, a flurry of strikes with sword-like claws of lightning perforating tough black scales in huge bloody gouges. Ray kicked with taloned feet sending arcs of electricity out that sank deep into the Amphisbaena, making it shudder and twitch, while Ichiban ran across the ice on sodden wet shoes, leaping high into the air and bringing his electrical-infused weapon down in a strike that broke the creature's back. Its body deformed with rippling aftershocks of his attack bulging out scales as the back half and the front half both went up while the middle went crashing down under his attack.

"That's what I'm talking about!" he passionately yelled as he landed, totally fired up by everyone's synergy. "Keep it up, we can do this! So long as we work together, we can beat this thing down!" Spinning around, he delivered a horizontal slash now into the creature's flank, lacking the sheer momentum of his first strike, but still stronger than it could have been with the fresh energy of his combo building. Briefly paralyzed, the Amphisbaena could only take it, an elongated gash torn into its flank by Ichiban's expanded weapon.

But its regenerative ability truly was fearsome. With a shuddering thrash, its spine reset. Despite Ichiban carving open a deeper gouge with his next attack, the first was already beginning to seal shut. Though claws slashed out to push aside and batter down the comparatively tiny foes attacking it, everyone had their speed boosted such that only Pearl was hit, and she hardly seemed to mind that as not only her dragon claws, but her human hands were wreathed in lightning which she used to rip and tear into the larger monster with a rictus of bestial fury on her too-pretty features.

"It's regenerating too fast!" Rina called as she joined the fight, a sword picked up from somewhere turned into an outright buster sword that she sliced half of its tail off when she descended with a lunging overhead slash. And indeed, that tail thrashed and bubbled, bones building atop each other out to the tip just barely ahead of the near liquid flesh that followed to coat it and set back into sturdy black scales.

Worse, it had managed to regrow the red-eyed head which spewed out another cloud of that red mist. Ray and Gros flew back in time, but the rest of them were exposed and suddenly felt the benefit of the Laurus Hildr leave them. Movements slowed, weapons weakened, and though Ichiban struck all the same with his wand and cratered flesh, it was a lesser wound and he had to dodge back, scrambling over ice as the Amphisbaena kicked out with a hind leg at him.

Spoiler: Carthrus Milkring

100 - "Carthus Milkring" (merged with Orange Charred Ring)
Dark Souls 3
"Ring worn by the warriors of the sand kingdom, Carthus. The sword technique of Carthus allows for fluid movement with a curved sword. Masters of the technique are said to dazzle their opponents by moving as weightlessly as a grain of sand. They live for their High Lord Wolnir, conqueror of most kingdoms known to their people." Simply putting it on makers the wearer feel more nimble. Additionally, when dodging or rolling out of the wayof an attack, the wearer's movement becomes hazy, clouded, making it harder to predict your path,

Rina dodged too, her form seeming smoky and ethereal for an instant as she dodged before her counter-attack saw her sword barely managing to gouge a line through those rigid black scales. "Back off! We can't fight it in close when it's like this!" Ichiban called, everyone scattering except from Naaza who was still high up and firing down, her arrows remaining bolstered by lightning as the enchantment stayed on her, though they didn't seem to have a great effect either way.

"H-hey!" a shout came from Gran, the big guy who might have looked scary posturing alongside Dix earlier now however seeming out of his depth and afraid as he stood with Ikelos and Arles further back from the fight. "Dix's spear! It had a curse on it that stopped wounds from healing! If you can find it, it'll work on that thing, right?"

Hell yeah, that's exactly what they needed. "Keep it busy!" Ichiban yelled to everyone else, diving into the water and swimming to where that Ikelos familia captain was floating, yanking the spear out of death-frozen fingers. It certainly fit the look of a cursed weapon, two angled prongs of black metal and red crystal crowning it, with smaller jagged ones behind the tip that gave it the look of an insect's legs. It was definitely built for intimidation and to inflict wounds that would be difficult to heal – you sometimes heard guys in prison talk about making those shivs with two razor-blades set into a plastic spoon, to make cuts that couldn't be stitched back up. He'd never actually seen one made far less used, but he wouldn't feel bad about messing up the Amphisbaena like that.

Before he'd have been happy enough to know the pointy end goes in the bad guy. Spears were one of the oldest weapons around, and pretty hard to fuck up with. But among the many knightly weapons he knew how to use, spears were accounted for, and it was with a confident grip that Ichiban emerged from the water to rejoin the battle.

Seeming to have gotten wise to their tricks, the Amphisbaena was now almost constantly spewing out red mist to shield itself from magic, although Pearl was still slugging it out in melee, golden plasma beams and blue flame torrents being exchanged with gusto. This kept both heads occupied enough for Rina and the other xenos to dart in and out, only needing to contend with its claws that were often busy enough scrambling for purchase against Pearl's attacks, though no one was managing anything near as destructive as they'd had under the effect of Laurus Hildr.

Ichiban charged in without fear. This was everything he'd ever wanted. A knight charging in with lance against the evil dragon… there was no hiding the grin on his face when he pierced in deep through the base of the Amphisbaena's neck, a wicked injury made worse when he wrenched the jagged spear back out to widen it.

He felt it try to pull on his own life-force. Clearly cursed weapons had a cost, but without thinking he passed that on to the magic stones he carried, letting them pay for the attack as he delivered another. Two ragged wounds made now, ripping through tough scales with chakra-boosted strength… and they weren't healing.

The Amphisbaena clearly recognised the threat he now posed, the right head giving up on spewing mist so it could coil down and try to strike at him, forcing him to leap back and dodge the toothy slam that impacted the ground and threw up debris. But that just put the head in easy range. He held to spear in one hand, summoning his wand in the other for it to swiftly automate a spell before he vanished it. Both hands held onto the spear now to resume the attack that surrounded it with a corona of golden light, the spell he'd learned from Ottar, the deceptively simple magic of the city's strongest adventurer.

"Eat this!" he yelled out as his lunging stab didn't just penetrate the Amphisbaena's skull, it exploded it. The cursed weapon inflicting area of effect damage just like his fists had done to flimsy goblins on the upper floors, super-charged with magic that detonated on impact. Scales and bone blasted outwards, its neck practically unfurling halfway down, flesh peeled back from bone like a banana being opened. The other head roared in pain and fury, struggling to escape Pearl's grip as she clawed and savaged it, her own regeneration handling its flames while it was discovering its ability to heal could no longer be trusted to carry it through the battle.

And that left the other neck easy prey to Ichiban, repeating the process with his wand. Three seconds to cast the spell, and then the attack that followed continued his combo. Multiplying the damage as a single slash with the cursed spear severed the other head at the base with destructive ripples tearing through its body. Blue light guttered out from the decapitated skull going limp in Pearl's grasp, while thee main body thrashed and collapsed. Rather than regenerate, it started to flake away, a slower process than the death of other monsters but just as final, leaving nothing but a gigantic purple magic stone and a ruby red heart surrounded by thick cobalt blue veins.

They'd done it. They'd won.

Everyone looked disbelieving, first at the remains left by the Black Amphisbaena and then at each other as if to ask, did we really survive that?

Ichiban felt fine. Pearl looked good other than her cloak being a bit burnt, though it still served to provide her modesty. Everyone else looked battered and bruised and burned to varying degrees, so he raised up his wand and cast a Dia Fratel. "Hey, come over here to get healed!" he called, waving the others towards the circle of light generated that was now a match for Airmid's version.

Everyone came over, words of surprise and relief from the xenos as the magic healed them and refreshed their energy. Even a nervous looking Ikelos and Gran approached, keeping distant from everyone else. Naaza leaped from her platform, catching herself on the cavern wall and sliding down before she jogged over and joined them.

"I want that heart," she said immediately. "It's a unique drop I don't think anyone's ever seen before, and I'll be able to make potions that'll sell for far more than we'd get just selling it."

Considering who they'd no doubt end up selling it to if they went that route, there was surely another consideration, but he didn't see any reason to argue with her. "Yeah, that's fine," he nodded.

"What about the stone? It looks too big to eat," Pearl asked, looking at it like she was considering the challenge anyway.

Rina just laughed, "That thing's gotta be worth a hundred million, bare minimum. We can give every other magic stone we've found to these guys and still come out ahead. Although speaking of money…" she turned to look at Ikelos and Gran, before tilting her head up to the shattered ceiling leading up to the twenty fourth floor, "You guys must have had a nice nest egg up there, right?"

The two of them were quite meek and cooperative, not that they could do anything to stop Ray and Gros flying up to loot what was still up there, coming back with a strongbox that Gran had the key for, surely millions of valis there along with documents. Ichiban struggled to read them even now, though he was ahead of the xenos who were completely illiterate. Naaza went through it. "Lots of monster sales, some to familias, lots to Thanatos, others to groups outside of Orario… lots to Eluria. And expenses… what's Barca?" she asked, frowning.

"That's Dix's brother," Ikelos spoke up. "Sad man, consumed by his family's legacy. The two are both descendents of Daedalus. You know his work, you've seen that tower in the middle of the city. Poor man went mad when he saw the Dungeon though, became obsessed with creating his own version and he passed that obsession as a curse on his descendants. Dix was more functional, but he still contributed to the project and helped fund it."

"Wait. His own Dungeon? Are you talking about Knossos?" Ichiban asked, the coincidence too convenient to imagine otherwise.

"You already know about it?!" Gran's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Yeah, you guys have been out of the loop, huh," he shook his head ruefully. "Evilus is hiding out there, they collapsed the first couple floors when everyone attacked it."

That drew a chuckle from Ikelos as he said, "Dix would be happy, that was his idea. Ah, but we're not with Evilus, we just happen to work with them a lot, but we don't care about causing chaos outside of the Dungeon."

At least he was saying 'we' now rather than trying to disassociate himself from his familia. Still looked annoyingly punchable though.

Gros looked like he was on board with doing some punching too as he stepped forward and spoke in his gravelly voice, "What about talking monsters, like us? Does it say anything about that?"

Naaza kept leafing through the papers, eyes tracking back and forth before, "Here. Silverback (talking). Fifteen million valis, Eluria. And here, Troll (talking). Thirty million valis, Eluria." She swallowed and read more. "Hobgoblin (talking), twenty million valis, Eluria. Harpy (talking)… fifty million valis, Eluria."

"They were our best customers," Ikelos said without any particular feeling. "The Elurian royal family has very peculiar habits."

"Talking monsters were this common? And no one knew?" Rina asked in disbelief while the xenos looked a mixture of stricken and outraged.

"And you sold them. Our comrades. For this?!" Gros picked up a wad of valis banknotes in his clawed fist and looked at them with hatred before scattering the bills around like trash.

Ikelos seemed to be recovering his confidence. Perhaps he was used to seeing angered and despairing faces that he knew couldn't do anything to him. "It's a rare human who has any pity in his heart for a monster. Those brats of mine only cared about the money."

Ichiban reached over to grab him by the collar again, taking some small satisfaction in the way his smooth features contorted with indignant fear as he said, "Well we've got you, and all this paper trail too. That'll be enough to track all your buyers. If those xenos are still out there, we're getting them back."

The other xenos looked heartened by his words, but really it was time to get moving. The amount of damage to the Dungeon at least meant it wasn't likely to spawn monsters on them for a while, but more could easily wander in. "I'm gonna go in the water and find people's weapons that got dropped," no sense leaving Rina's axe behind, "Pearl, can you come too and help me get Yankimaru out of there?"

"Oh! I'd wondered where he was during all of that, he's not usually so lazy!" she said in a chiding tone that suggested she didn't quite understand what the robot's whole deal was. Still, she was big enough to hoist him back out to the surface with some difficulty, while Ichiban was able to find Rina's hammer and axe which she accepted gratefully, the sword she'd found already chipped and damaged from the Amphisbaena's scales, and thus cheerfully discarded.

The magic stones they'd gathered on their way down were given to the xenos as compensation for their assistance while Pearl picked up the giant one left by the Amphisbaena, Rina carried the Ikelos familia strongbox, and Naaza kept hold of the monster heart that was as big as her torso. "We'll come back in a couple days where we met last time and tell you what's going on with Eluria," he promised. "We're going to teleport out from here."

Spoiler: Mirror Polish

300 – Mirror Polish (applied to Millwood Battle Axe)
Legend of Zelda: Hero of Worlds
Upgrade for one of your weapons or a shield, making them capable of reflecting projectile spells back upon the caster.

That got a round of surprised looks from everyone, but then Rina raised another distraction. "Hey, my axe turned all shiny! Oooh, it's like a mirror," she held it up to look her face and soaked slick hair, laid flat rather than showing its usual wavy curls.

Mirror was right, and it made Ichiban recall the Juggernaut's reflective shell as he examined it. "I think it'll bounce spells back, like the Juggernaut did."

Rina made a delighted noise and hugged her axe before she stepped back. "Hey, I gotta try this. Someone launch a spell at me," she asked, holding her axe while swaying her body in a way that made Ichiban think of a tennis player preparing to receive a serve.

With Ichiban putting up a force-field for safety, Naaza obligingly launched her Holy spell at Rina, which the amazon batted back with an excited whoop, everyone watching the pearlescent projectile rebound off the axe and detonate on the force-field, cracking it but not breaking through.

"Oh, that's nice! By the way, here you go," Rina took off her belt and offered it back to Ichiban, and he decided to wrap it around Yankimaru's fairly slender waist. Felt like the robot was due for an upgrade, even if he'd give the belt back to Rina next time they were in the Dungeon.

As everyone gathered around for the teleport, Ikelos and Gran looking uncertain and the xenos watching curiously, Naaza spoke up. "Weren't you going to put Pearl in one of those balls when we left?"

He shook his head though. "Nah. Now we know there are talking monsters, I want her to meet people, show that she's friendly." Besides, the paper seals he needed for the mafuba had all been ruined when he'd fallen in the water. He could hope his money would dry out okay, but even then it didn't much matter when he had plenty more coming in. Bidding one last farewell to the xenos, he cast, "Teleport!" and with a whooosh of magic, the group reappeared in front of Babel underneath the afternoon sun.

"Ahhh, it's the sky!" Pearl cried out joyfully, stomping towards the fountain she and her pigeon friends usually congregated around, sending avians flying as the people around spotting their arrival suddenly started screaming in panic.

"Ahhh, a monster got out!" "Where's the Ganesha familia?!" "Is this part of Monster Feria?"

Ikelos and Gran just looked at each other miserably, while Rina sagged her shoulders and Naaza put a hand over her face. As always, Yankimaru just stood there impassively. Nothing bothered that guy.

"No! Everyone, relax!" Ichiban yelled out, running along after Pearl and dropping the evil looking cursed spear by the fountain so he could wave his hands and get attention. "She's not just a tame monster, she's a friendly one! She can talk! And she can sing, oh man can she sing!"

Pearl's singing had in fact opened friendly dialogue with the xenos, so perhaps it could serve as a bridge towards the humans (and elves and etcetera) too? Right now she was making cooing pigeon noises which was actually kind of weird coming out of her human mouth. "Hey Pearl, lets sing! C'mon, back me up here!" he called up to get her attention, dredging up an old karaoke favourite he'd often sung with the Arakawa family when they went out.

"There are days you'll be weak. There are days you'll be lost. There are times where you feel you'll wanna run and hide."

It felt a little awkward without the music to keep time to, and he was a little rusty despite sometimes singing this one in prison to keep his spirits up, but the melody caught Pearl's attention and she set down the enormous magic stone she was carrying to begin humming along, her lyrical voice serving well to match Ichiban's rhythm.

"There are days you'll be down, and you start to wonder if the world would be better off if you died."

The impromptu singing performance at least seemed to be replacing the initial panic with confusion, which was a step up in his mind. Ichiban looked over the crowd they were gathering and smiled reassuringly as he sang and patted his chest.

"I have those days too. But I believe, I believe I'm gonna make it through, and I won't run away, I won't die."

This was what the song was building to, Pearl seeming to have an instinctive grasp of music and mood as her choral backing caught the rising energy and Ichiban sang out with more passion.

"I'm gonna level up! Be the best that I can be, and I'm not gonna stop questing until I'm a hero."

Rina whistled shrilly and called out, "Whoo! Level up!" and he loved that people in this world absolutely got what that meant and why it was good even though they'd never heard of video-games.

"I'm gonna level up! Be the best that I can be, I swear I'll become unstoppable and you'll beam right at me."

It felt like they were starting to get people on side, the crowd swaying, and even though Pearl's appearance got all kinds of looks, the fact she was just singing along with Ichiban's performance helped disarm the implied threat of her huge chimeric body. Probably the fact she was stunningly beautiful and had the voice of an angel helped a lot.

"I've gotta see this through I can't look back until the end. Rise from rock bottom to the future I've seen in my dreams. So come on, lets go level up."

He stretched his hand out to the crowd, smiling warmly as Pearl brought her backing vocals to a fading close, the magic of music having disarmed the immediate panic. "Yeah, see? That's what I'm talking about! That's a song!" he grinned up at Pearl.

Spoiler: Blossoming Sun

Free – Blossoming Sun
Fate/Legends – The land of The Rising Sun
You had a fortunate birth, whatever you end up being, and find yourself above average for these lands. Japan is not particularly a bastion of mystical heroes in the way of Greece or Britain. Indeed, many of the legends to be found following are made from incredible skill or the command of many soldiers instead of personal feats of might and magic. But even these skillful heroes do tend to stand above the other poppies.

Your body is naturally on the higher end for human fitness, ably competing in modern athletics without any training required. Magically, you possess a number of high quality circuits, equal to the much later coming Tohsaka heir. A prodigy in those times but still notable even a thousand years prior. You lack training for now but magic is not so hidden as it becomes in the modern day, with the presence of spiritual temples and Onmyouji practitioners.

As a quirk of this land, you also have the ability to summon a wide range of aesthetic effects, even when they make no sense. A flurry of cherry blossoms on the wind as you make an entrance, the sun shining down the red rays of a sunset even mid-morning to dramatise your battles. One might claim you're in some sort of samurai movie, with how many dramatic effects tend to occur around you. As part of this national style, you also have the unique trait of never struggling to draw or sheathe your weapons, no matter how impractically sized they are. The katana and sheath longer than your entire body won't take anymore time to draw than a reasonably sized weapon. Not that you're any better at using the weapons, you just won't look like a tool taking them out.

"I didn't know you could sing, sweet-cheeks!" she grinned back at him. "Little rough on some of those notes there, but not bad. Let me try it from the top, I'll show you how it's done!" And then she did just that, humming her own backing as she sang the same song he'd just done. Rina, bless her, banged her weapons together to create some noise in support while a few more people took up the enthusiastic cry when the hook of 'I'm gonna level up!' came in through Pearl's diva-worthy voice.

There were a lot of people around. Mostly just regular people, but adventurers too, and even a god who gave Ikelos a suspicious look where he and Gran were standing very awkwardly under Yankimaru's shadow. And they were all seeing that there was such a thing as a talking monster, and a friendly one at that.

Probably the giant magic stone at Pearl's feet was attracting some notice too, or the massive heart Naaza was holding, there was a lot of weirdness to go around, but it was all working to their benefit. "You hear that?" he called when Pearl finished her rendition of his song, "Her name's Pearl, and she's here to sing, so tell your friends because we'll be here a little while." It felt like a good way of ensuring word had a chance to spread and people could see and hear her so they wouldn't cause a panic when they went walking anywhere else.

Wanting a little time to teach Pearl another song, he decided to take advantage of Ikelos's presence. "Hey Ikelos, why don't you tell everyone about our fight against the Black Amphisbaena, keep everyone hyped up while Pearl and I prepare her next set."

The skeevy looking god looked disbelieving before he shrugged and went to go stand on the edge of the fountain. "I'm not usually a fan of public speaking, but alright children listen up…" he kept everyone's attention while Ichiban tried his best to remember the lyrics to some good girly pop songs Pearl could do well with, quietly teaching them to her while Ikelos's godly presence kept eyes on him, his description of the battle not exactly very flashy but people paid attention to what he said about the talking monsters who saved his life. Naturally he didn't mention his own crimes against them, but it was enough to spark all kinds of murmurs before Pearl was ready to perform again.

Seeing a giant draconic monster sing about love surfing where even shy boys whoop it up was definitely something Orario had never seen before, but people were clearly getting into it. He could recognise some of the Ganesha familia high rank members running over and then just stopping dumbfounded at what they were seeing, uniformed Guild employees doing much the same, clearly not at all prepared for this kind of monster invasion.

Then as Pearl finished a song a figure came rushing into the plaza, executing a dynamic leap over the crowd characteristic of a powerful adventurer with her green dress and white apron fluttering as she landed, the cat girl waitress Anya landed breathing heavily and holding what looked like a magic stone microphone. "Nyeheh! That's purretty good, but you weren't thinking of having a sing-along without me, were you?"

"No! You have to stop her!" he heard Freya, or rather Syr yelling, stuck at the back of the crowd and clearly unable to force her way through nor willing to display her divinity to clear a path while she was play-acting as a waitress. It couldn't be that important then, so Ichiban just cheerfully beckoned Anya over to get involved, figuring it was a good sign that someone was willing to sing alongside a monster.

"You'll all be feline amazing after my purrformance!" Anya excitedly bounded over, raised the microphone to her lips, and… well, she had a pretty cute speaking voice, but unfortunately that did not extend to carrying a tune at all as her uneven warbling and thready high notes massacred what was apparently a song about a wife waiting for her husband to return from the sea. Not even Pearl's backing could save it.

"Auuugh, she's terrible!" "Bring back the monster!" "That's not a song that's a sonic attack!"

"I tried to warn you all!" Syr managed to reach the front of the crowd, her face flushed, but she looked excited all the same as she beheld the scene, eyes shining with barely disguised glee.

Still, Ichiban let her finish, having to warn Pearl off with a look from snatching the microphone and ending the performance early. "You did great Anya!" he said loudly as the waitress finished, seeming entirely undaunted by the negative reception her singing had received, "Karaoke's about singing from the heart, it takes real guts to put yourself in front of everyone like that!"

Anya preened at that before a green hand reached down and snatched the microphone from her grasp and Pearl said, "Yeah but she stinks! Let this old bird show you how it's done you toneless cat!"

And within moments her rendition of that same song had people literally weeping for the poor woman who's fisherman husband never came home.

"M-my version wasn't that diffurent," Anya sniffled at the end, wiping a tear from her eye herself.

By now the plaza around Babel was absolutely packed with people who'd come to see the oddity of a talking monster and then stayed for the divine singing, but speaking of divines there were several gods around too. Ganesha arrived with Shakti, he could see Loki and a surly looking werewolf guy, as well as several other less notable deities. Including Freya in her disguise though it meant they had the city's three main familias represented, which he counted as a good turnout for introducing Pearl to Orario. Announcing that this next one would be the last song got its share of disappointed murmurs, but everyone enjoyed the last song and any demands for an encore were put off by the deities and first rank adventurers stepping forward now.

Loki had her hands clasped behind her head as she strolled forward, the white-haired man with her keeping a careful watch on Pearl and staying quiet to let his goddess speak. "Well in all my days I never thought I'd see a monster busking in front of Babel. And Ikelos too, thought you'd vanished," she gave the sketchy god a look merited by such sketchiness. "Hey Bete, you all fought something like this on the fiftieth floor, didn't you?" she then asked while looking directly up at Pearl.

"Something like," he growled, flexing his fingers like he was itching to tear into the monster before him. "Has the same kind of colours as that freaky caterpillar thing, but it didn't have scales or wings, and barely looked human."

"It's the same colour as the leaves on those monsters Evilus attacked us with the other day," Shakti spoke up before her eyes widened in alarm at her god stepping past her.

"I am Ganesha!" he announced as he usually did, "And I've never been so moved by a performance before! Please, beautiful lady, let me shake your hand!" he extended a brawny arm up towards Pearl.

"Oh!" she tittered, a hint of red coming to her green cheeks before reaching down and daintily taking Ganesha's hand. "Finally a man with some taste around here! I bet there's a real handsome face under that mask!"

Ganesha laughed boisterously, pumping his arm up and down as god and monster shook hands before he let go and said, "I am Ganesha, and the mask stays on!"

"Geh, and now they're flirting, I wasn't ready for this," Loki complained. "What are we even supposed to do about any of this?"

"That's what we need to decide," Ichiban spoke up while Ganesha flexed for Pearl's cooing adoration, Rina edging closer to admire the god's muscles with barely hidden interest herself. "There's loads more talking monsters down there, ones that just want to live in peace, and get attacked by regular monsters just like anyone else. And this scum-bucket," he pointed at Ikelos, "Has been selling them off to some freaky place called Eluria where they do all kinds of twisted shit to them."

"First Evilus and now this? Seems like you've got a knack for tripping over conspiracies, Ichiban," Loki sighed. "I had a busy enough morning listening to the Guild yap on about those re-usable grimoires you're offering around, what's a girl got to do to get some peace and quiet around here?"

She could complain, but he could see the excitement practically vibrating through her, the same as Syr. She was loving this.

Ganesha had been distracted enough by Ichiban's words to break off from Pearl and now had Ikelos in a headlock, the other god going limp and unresisting as he was grabbed. "I am Ganesha! And as overjoyed as I am to meet the lovely Pearl, these terrible tidings bring anguish to my heart! Let us depart for the Pantheon, so we can discuss such unpleasantness without disturbing the good people basking in the afterglow of such a performance."

The crowd parted, but they still kept all eyes on the group heading up the street to the Pantheon, far more so than when it had just been Ichiban and Yankimaru walking around. Bete and Shakti both walking very carefully to keep themselves between their deities and Pearl, and the group met near the Guild's main office by Freya, now out of her disguise but wearing a dark robe over what was probably something scandalous, joined with a dark-haired cat person who glowered equally at Pearl and literally everyone else.

"Of course you'd be here," Loki groused openly, which drew a titter from her apparent rival for the top spot in the city.

"Of course I wouldn't miss something so interesting. I had to ride my chariot fast as I could to make it here," she said jovially, which drew groans from most people present and a faint rosiness to her escort's cheeks.

Of course the idea of having a meeting inside the building ran into an immediate pitfall in the form of Pearl's enormous proportions. Rina even tried casting Mini on her to no effect, which after the Amphisbaena suggested there probably was some kind of restriction on it affecting things that were already too big.

In the end they took a third floor room where Pearl could rest a foot on Yankimaru's shoulder and poke her torso in through the window to join them from the outside. The enormous magical stone was handed off to some startled Guild employees for appraisal, while Naaza jealously held onto the drop item. The ancient elf head of the Guild joined them too, along with a slightly frazzled looking Rose and someone new. A slender figure in frayed looking black robes that concealed their face who introduced themselves as Fels, conveying their regret that Ouranus couldn't come in person to speak to Pearl but that they would act as his representative.

"The truth is," Fels spoke in a weirdly echoing voice that was hard to identify as male or female, "We have known about the existence of talking monsters for fifteen years."

It wasn't hard to see the shock ripple around the room at this information. Only Ganesha seemed unmoved by it, though Loki and Ikelos both had calculating looks on their faces as they absorbed this knowledge and probably put it together with other things they knew.

Fels went on to explain how they'd first been found by the Zeus familia, and the Guild had worked to keep their existence a secret until they could find a way to overturn a thousand years of hatred. That Ganesha had been brought in to help by organising events like Monster Feria to help people grow more used to monsters on the surface.

Spoiler: One Source

200 – One Source
Trinity Wonder
Ki, magic. Ultimately, they are just energy. They come from the same source, and can be used to supplement each other. You can use one source to recharge or fuel the other. This won't necessarily be an even 1:1 conversion. Some energies may need a disproportionate amount of less potent energy to be substituted in to create an equal 'volume' due to the difference of energy contained within. Similarly, the techniques of different systems and techniques from other worlds may tax your reserves differently. The techniques of Wuxia world are often much more energy intensive than that of their fantasy world analogs, such that what one mage might consider overflowing amounts of magic, the murim warrior would simply consider adequate enough to recharge.

"Fels introduced me to a goblin wearing a red hat, who spoke most eloquently," Ganesha spoke up, arms crossed over his chest. "How could I not be moved by one who spoke our language?"

"A red hat?" Ikelos repeated. "That goblin saved my life from the Black Amphisbaena's jaws down there."

That drew surprised and suspicious looks all around. "It saved your life? When your familia had been targeting them?" Loki asked, her eyes even more narrowed than usual.

"I know," Ikelos shrugged diffidently. "It's enough to make a man feel ashamed. Just like Ganesha said, who couldn't be moved by that?"

Ichiban smiled, glad someone was getting the respect he deserved. "His name's Let. He's a good guy, him and all the others I met down there."

"Cute too!" Rina piped up, before feeling all the eyes turn to her and looking embarrassed, "I mean, you wouldn't expect a goblin to have such a nice face… back me up, Naaza!"

Naaza did not look happy to be put on the spot like that, but she sighed and glanced at Pearl before looking at the gods and first rank adventurers around, "He did have a sort of pretty boy look to him," she admitted reluctantly.

"Hahaha! To think that well spoken goblin would turn out to be such a charmer. I'm impressed, I'll have to ask him for some tips next time I see him!" Ganesha laughed boisterously. "To be honest I'm amazed. Even though Monster Feria went well this year I still thought we were a long way off, but with Ichiban having shaken things up so much, and Pearl giving such a performance in the centre of the city… perhaps we're closer than I thought. At the very least, we can't cover up their existence now."

"Feh, that all sounds like a great way to get yourself killed," Bete spoke up. "Who has time to check if a monster's friendly when you're down in the Dungeon? All that's gonna do is get people killed when they hesitate against something that only wants them dead."

Ichiban stepped forward and gestured at Pearl, "Just check if they're wearing clothes. No one's saying you have to stop and interview them, but if they've got clothes on they're clearly different from every other Dungeon monster. They get attacked too by the regular ones, what you should be able to do is team up. With the places the xenos live being safe, it's like having a bunch more Rivira's down there."

"The problem isn't just from that side though," Shakti interjected, gesturing towards Ikelos and Gran. "The point of keeping the xenos secret is to hide them from people like that. Many adventurers are unscrupulous enough to take advantage, even if it's only for the magic stone and drop item they'd get for killing an innocent."

That drew the attention of Rose and her boss who'd been looking through the documents brought up with the Ikelos strongbox. "Miss Varma raises a good point," Rose said. "Many familias in Orario are already implicated in this smuggling. Respected ones, even. That's before we even get into trade with foreign nations, the sums Eluria was paying for intelligent monsters are significant."

Rina suddenly looked nervous as she realised her own familia's transaction with that lamia and who knows what else must have been recorded in the ledgers. "Hey, uh, just remember, it was the Ishtar and Miach familias that took these guys down!" she blurted out, Naaza giving her a dirty look at being pulled in for the positive association. "We wouldn't have been able to clean up the smuggling ring without, uh, insider knowledge. So just keep that in mind, okay?"

Ichiban felt bad for her, it did not sound like she'd be in for a good time with her boss if there was blowback over this. "What if Ishtar helps get back the ones from Eluria?" he suggested. "After they've had a chance to look at those magic scrolls, she could send some of her adventurers on a rescue mission. Be a chance to show she's not part of any nasty business like that."

Freya giggled at his suggestion, but the others looked to be considering it. "Lady Ishtar is wealthy enough to absorb any fines the Guild might levy, and any deeper punishment could destabilise Orario," Rose's boss spoke up, "This sounds like a worthy compromise."

"It's not like she's helping out with the Evilus situation, I say let her. Just make sure that captain of hers doesn't devour any of the xenos they're out to rescue," Loki made a dismissive gesture to give her agreement, and no one else seemed to care to oppose it.

"Speaking of Evilus, I just want to remind everyone I only did commercial business with those guys, I'm not actually one of them," Ikelos spoke up. "In fact, I heard you're having trouble with Knossos. My old captain Dix had a notebook full of plans for it that you might find useful for dealing with that maze, if you can find it in the ruins of our old hideout. Place got trashed by the Black Amphisbaena, but those flying xenos were able to dig that back out," he gestured to the strongbox full of ill-gotten lucre and financial statements.

"Don't think you're going to be getting away clean from this either, Ikelos," Ganesha gave him a glare from behind his elephant mask. "But your cooperation is noted."

Ikelos responded with one of those punchable smiles as he raised his arms and insisted, "I'm a changed man, Ganesha."

In the end it was decided that the existence of talking monsters would be made public, though the location of xenos villages would remain secret until they themselves decided to expose themselves. Pearl's presence in the city couldn't exactly be hidden (and Ichiban was wondering what he was going to do in terms of finding a place to sleep that could accommodate her), and no one could really stop Ichiban if he decided he wanted to bring some of his new monster friends up to see the sky for a little bit. He was sure Ray could win some fans with her singing too after it worked so well for Pearl.

All that was left after that was splitting up the money they made from selling that gigantic magic stone to the Guild. One hundred and forty million valis made a nice clean split for the four of them. Though Pearl did immediately try to spend her share on buying smaller magic stones from the Guild that she could fit in her mouth.

Naaza, watching as the Black Amphisbaena shrugs off everything they throw at it, reaching towards her single ultimate arrow of destruction… "But what if I need it later?"

I was tempted to have Ichiban go off to Eluria himself to rescue the xenos there, but the place is only a couple lines in the light novel and isn't even mentioned on the wiki, it'd be way too much original content focusing away from Orario and the Dungeon, so instead Ishtar gets thrown under the bus to handle it. In canon the Hermes familia went there a bit later and found a real horror show, but with some heavier hitters backing them up and going sooner we might get a happier outcome.

Next chapter takes a break to go into other perspectives, so please look forward to that!

Click to shrink...

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Ishtar family is going to change for the better whether it wants to or not.

 

[Spiroo]

Ishtar family is going to change for the better whether it wants to or not.

Click to shrink...

Plot: Listen here you little shits, you're getting some character development whether you like it or not!

 

[The Dude]

Naaza, watching as the Black Amphisbaena shrugs off everything they throw at it, reaching towards her single ultimate arrow of destruction… "But what if I need it later?"

Click to shrink...

Yup... right church, wrong pew. Needs a much bigger black dragon, with 1 less head and 3 fewer eyes. Either that or the Dungeon Core itself, if there is one.

Narratively, nothing else fits for a Chekov's Gun of that caliber.

Loving the story, as usual. Can hardly wait for the next drop.

 

[Swiftwolfbeta]

Spoiler: Knight's Bravery

200 – Knight's Bravery
Magic The Gathering - Iconics
Paragons of honor and justice, knights are those soldiers who keep the law in check. Their martial skills are nothing to scoff at either, and neither are your own martial skills. You have been trained as a knight and have excelled under the tutelage. This has made you one of the best knights across the planes, through martial skill alone you could hold your own against entire bands of lesser knights and it would take a knight of legendary status to best you just in martial combat alone, your skill is sufficient to easily be knighted in four of the five courts of Eldraine with a good chance at the fifth. In addition to this skill at arms, you also find it effortless to weave spells in the middle of fighting with a weapon, not needing to pause as beat back enemies.

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Hilariously The bolded words give the author the ability to have ichiban pull some random skills out of his ass if it is knightly enough and if you know enough about magic the gathering Planes are like entirely separate realities with a bunch of sub dimensions and universes like the best way to describe it is a plane would be avatar and every alternate version of it with all Sub-dimensions connected to that version of the universe and another plane would be marvel and every version of it. If you take it at its words, ichiban has the skills of a composite link at the very smallest interpretation of it.Planes mean vast sections of reality and being one of the best means ichiban has the to always win the only thing that could stop him is personal power.

 

[Ebiris]

This chapter takes the perspective of several other characters so we won't see much of Ichiban. It does not count for the Grimoire word count and no rolls are being made during it. I am strong enough to write even without the gacha pulling me onwards!

Also I'm eating into my buffer a little to post this because Pirate Majima is absolutely going to be taking up my writing time, so next chapter will probably be a little longer in coming.

Click to shrink...

Tsubaki felt like she was being pulled in too many directions. As a smith it was exhilarating, having so many ideas, so many sources of inspiration, but as a flesh and blood woman with only two hands it was frustrating as hell.

The metal that giant robot had been made out of was an interesting curiosity. About as tough as adamantite mined from the lower floors, yet when melted down and separated it seemed to be a mixture of iron, aluminium, titanium, copper, chromium, and lead. Alloying them back together however only produced an inferior metal expected for the sum of its parts.

If she could figure out the process used to create the end result, it… honestly wouldn't mean much. Not in Orario, with the Dungeon and its endless resources underfoot. But for the rest of the world? It would make her name go down in history. And that's why she was determined to solve it herself no matter how annoyingly smug Lady Hephaestus got with her, 'Oh, that one was really clever Tsubaki! Not what I would have done but you almost had something!' comments after every experiment.

She could have spent months happily working on this problem, if not for everything else going on. Chakra. The new power that flowed beneath her skin… everyone had their own ideas of how to use it. Lady Hephaestus had blathered on some stuff about pressure points she'd heard one of her friends talking about, the Loki familia were sparring and training like crazy to just force inspiration through combat, she'd seen Shakti show off some weird tornado thing she made by making a finger steeple gesture and shouting a load of nonsense, but none of that interested Tsubaki.

Because chakra could flow through metal.

She'd seen it with Jules, one of their high blacksmiths who'd lost his leg to an iguazu. He'd already made it to level three, enough that he didn't have to fight any more and could smith just fine to the high level demanded for the familia's elite. But he'd gone out on his prosthetic leg to the Colosseum where Ichiban was handing out that power like it was candy, and he'd reported afterwards that his chakra could be felt even in the metal leg.

They'd experimented of course. Trying with a cheap low grade one? Nothing. But a high grade one, even if it wasn't his, still worked. Not as well – it seemed like when someone was given chakra, it synchronised with their prosthetic to be a perfect match like it would for a flesh and blood limb, but any one of the artificial limbs that were made to link up with the wearer's nerves was able to conduct chakra through it.

And so why shouldn't a sword be able to? Tsubaki had tested it herself, it was plain to see when she pushed chakra through her arm and swung her weapon, she struck with far greater force than she was used to. But what if that flow carried on all the way through the weapon itself, how would that affect its destructive impact? Its durability?

And so between experiments with that mystery alloy, she'd forged new weapons. She wasn't as good as someone like Airmid when it came to high grade prosthetics that fit with someone's nervous system, but she didn't need to be for this. She knew how to make a magic sword, she knew how to weave together magic stones and exotic materials to create magically conductive and reactive weapons. Hell, she'd had to replace that damn werewolf's custom boots when the Loki familia came back from their expedition, yet another distraction, but those things operated on a similar principle.

And so she held the fruits of her labours. A curved sword made of a mithril alloy, its blunt side marked by a constellation of carefully sized and linked magic stones, its cutting edge sharpened to a deadly sheen.

Breathing evenly as she stood in the yard behind the familia's western workshop, she sliced through one of the straw dummies high up with a carefully calculated cut using a precise exertion of muscle power. This was how she tested all her weapons, always ensuring her own output remained consistent so the worth of the blade could be accurately measured.

Not that it made much difference on a straw dummy, but Tsubaki wasn't one to slack off in her habits. It cut cleanly through, the head of the dummy falling off and showing the perfectly even line of straw sheared in its wake.

For the next swing she pulsed chakra through her arms, and she could feel it bleeding into the sword, a nimbus of red energy radiating over the bottom of the blade as it greedily sucked up what she was pushing through her limbs. It was actually a struggle to pull it back, to confine the energy to just her arms. Chakra wanted to flow, and the sword made a ready circuit which it wished to keep going through now it was available. She was nothing if not disciplined however, and whether it was chakra or muscle, she reigned it under control before executing another slice, the same amount of physical exertion but with chakra flowing through her arms.

The dummy was cut through, but not cleanly. The section above her blade exploded into the air rather than neatly toppling, the rest of the dummy got tipped over. Examining the actual cut showed straw bent and twisted. Despite having been slashed with a razor sharp blade, it seemed more like it had been hit by a hammer. More powerful, but hardly graceful. She wondered if it was simply a flaw of chakra or if she could reign it in to be less aggressive? She often had trouble like that after ranking up or if she left a status update too long, her conditioned reflexes simply being all wrong for the output her body was capable of.

She righted the dummy, still enough of its body left for her to do another cut before the height would mess up her calculated swing.

This time she let her chakra flow into the sword, admiring the fiery red glow that surrounded it for a moment before she settled her feet properly and swung.

The dummy was cut in two.

And so was the wall several metres behind it, a long line tracing the swing of her blade sliced into the brickwork. Powdered stone and mortar puffed out, before with an inevitable tottering creak the wall collapsed down with a crash that had the other smiths watching her demonstration wincing.

"Pretty good for a prototype," she said, not minding the mess. If it had gone all the way through the wall and into the surrounding houses it would've been a problem, but so long as she acted like it was under control everyone else would believe her.

Loud metallic footsteps sounded, and a now familiar middle-aged man with wild hair and an easy smile came into their yard, accompanied by that fascinating robot of his, although it was actually looking a bit beat up now. Bladed weapon strikes rather than monster claws as far as she could tell. "Yo, Tsubaki," he called out, and she wasn't sure whether to sigh or smile at the prospect of having some fresh otherworldly inspiration dropped in her lap.

"Ichiban. Good to see you and Yankimaru. Was just trying out a new weapon to make use of this chakra you've given us all," she rested her unnamed sword against her shoulder as he came over. "Got anything new for me today?" She decided she would smile after all. She couldn't help it.

"Yeah actually," he smiled back at her. "See, I was wondering if I could tap you to do some proper work on Yankimaru, give him a real upgrade. I found this and I think it might work as a power source or something to supercharge him," he explained as he reached into his pocket and then held out on his palm a small green teardrop gem that glowed with power, air seeming to be drawn towards it enough that her hair fluttered from the breeze.

"Oh, Ichiban. You always bring me something fun, don't you?" Yeah her smile wasn't going anywhere.

---​

For all its night-time liveliness, the Entertainment District seemed almost sleepy during the afternoon as Rina traipsed through its empty streets. Most of the workers were resting or only beginning to prepare for the night, sweeping the streets or cleaning windows or repairing property damage from anyone that got too rowdy.

The wall she'd flung Mord through had been fixed good as new, although the handholds she'd punched into the perimeter wall were still gaping there for people to tease her over.

It was all so embarrassing. They all knew the pressure Lady Ishtar was under, the way she'd rant and rave about Lady Freya, how they needed to be stronger to overthrow her. For months hope had been poured into Haruhime. The meek and sheltered renard and her incredibly powerful enchantment. The fact that Aisha had beaten Tammuz under its effects made clear the gulf it could bridge, but ultimately it was just one spell.

Even boosted, Phryne would at best be able to fight evenly with Allen or Hogni. The King remained out of reach.

Hearing the Ogma familia newbies brag so carelessly about a man with a spirit blessing, how could they not get interested? If he could use that blessing to support the familia, instead of sitting on it like that Crozzo guy in the Hephaestus familia, it might give them a chance when the inevitable battle with the Freya familia occurred.

They hadn't even needed to discuss it, they all knew what was at stake. Seduce the guy, show him a good time so he wouldn't want to leave, and they'd have another desperately needed ace. Except he obviously saw through their transparent interest and immediately bailed. She was the strongest one in the room, the one the others looked to for direction, and she'd desperately tried to force the issue and everything snowballed from there.

Just beating him up and having Lady Ishtar kiss it all better was the best idea she'd had on short notice, and all she'd managed for her efforts was to throw the district into pandemonium. Those rock monsters had been real pains for the low class to fight, and they still had a few of the rocks left, recovered from the site, waiting to be transformed into nasty little berserkers if struck against a hard surface.

They were pathetic, barely controllable, and not nearly interesting enough for Lady Ishtar to cut her any slack when she'd gone before her to explain after waking up from taking a long chant spell to the face. She was lucky the whole debacle with everyone fighting over the camera Ichiban had dropped was enough to distract the goddess from continuing to tear her down. In fact that simple object had brightened everyone's days afterwards, even Lady Ishtar smiling more often as she posed for pictures and admired the ones her girls had put up all around the district.

They had to put Phryne's pictures in out of the way spots so as not to disturb their patrons, of course.

Fortunately Rina never saw any sign of their captain whether in reality or photograph as she made her way up to visit her goddess in her tower, Lady Ishtar lounging beautifully across a sofa while one of the berbera fanned her and a pretty young boy fed her grapes.

"Lady Ishtar, I've returned from the Dungeon," she approached and sank to her knees in deference. "A lot has happened."

She didn't even know where to begin, but it all came out regardless. Under the goddess's relaxed pose and contrastingly intense gaze Rina spilled her guts, detailing every confusing detail of her most recent expedition with Ichiban and Naaza.

A golden wine goblet impacted her face and bounced off with a clatter over the floor tiles, alcohol pouring into her hair and down her features. She didn't flinch.

"Idiot girl!" Lady Ishtar raged, on her feet now. "What made you think telling anyone of our dealings with Ikelos was a good idea? Now the Guild expects me to send a force to Eluria all over some talking monsters?" Her divine bosom heaved, and she seethed in fury, calculating something behind a beautiful visage that was all twisted up with her anger.

She let out an exhale and things smoothed out. "No. I can work with this. It might even save me some trouble elsewhere, it's clear I can't rely on others… except you, it seems. My stupid little Rina, blessed to have met an even stupider man willing to trust you." She laughed, and after a second everyone in the room laughed with her, Rina chuckling and giving her goddess a hopeful look.

"Come here little Rina. You've had an adventure," she beckoned sweetly, and Rina approached, obediently turning her back, shivering at the feeling of divine ichor on her skin after Lady Ishtar pricked her finger on a needle dutifully provided. The radiance of her falna glowed from her back, and her goddess read from her soul the truth of her journey and her adventure. Lady Ishtar made a pleased sound, and then there was the sensation of parchment pressing onto her back.

Divine arms enfolded her in a loving embrace, the parchment held in front of her so she could see the new numbers as her goddess whispered a congratulation in her ear that made her moan.

Level: 3 → 4
Strength: B799 → I0
Endurance: B792 → I0
Dexterity: C652 → I0
Agility: D533 → I0
Magic: I012 → I0
Abnormal Resistance (H), Fist Strike (I)
Eight Sealed Gates
Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Scourge, Drain, Osmose, Flare, Stun, Death, Berserk, Haste, Aura, Cure, Life, Mini, Teleport
Available Development Abilities: Crush, Diving, Magic Resistance

---​

Level: 2 → 3
Strength: G220 → I0
Endurance: G206 → I0
Dexterity: F312 → I0
Agility: D414 → I0
Magic: G203 → I0
Mixing (I), Mage (I)
Eight Sealed Gates
Darbh Daol
Stop, Confuse, Curse, Osmose, Cure, Life, Basuna, Esuna, Barrier, Protect, Shell, Dispel, Silence, Slow, Holy, Teleport

"Congratulations Naaza, you're level three now," Lord Miach said warmly as he finalised her level up with the selection of her development ability. In the bigger familias someone in Naaza's position would probably have remained at level two for longer, to build up their core abilities further before advancing.

But for her, the addition of a new development ability and the raw increase in power that came from immediately ranking up were too useful to delay. It would let her keep up with Ichiban and everyone else for a little bit longer, and would improve her ability to make potions that supported her and Lord Miach after she stopped going into the Dungeon. As a second class adventurer she was basically set for life now. She was the pharmacological equivalent of the Hephaestus familia's high smiths who achieved level three for the Blacksmith and Metalworking development abilities and then stopped adventuring to pursue their craft full-time.

"Thank you, Lord Miach," she pulled her sweater back on and turned, a small smile stuck on her face as she basked in the feeling of having become so much more.

He smiled back at her, his handsome face open and honest. "Still, it's hard to believe. You only started going back to the Dungeon a few days ago, and now you've fought a first rank adventurer and an irregular monster rex," and the proof of that was sitting on the counter, the heart of the Black Amphisbaena, bubbling with potential to her now even further refined senses. "I'm proud of you, Naaza."

Dammit Lord Miach, how's a girl supposed to react when you give her that kind of smile?

Unfortunately the happy moment was interrupted by the jingle of the door, and even worse it wasn't a customer, in fact it was the opposite.

"Please excuse me," Airmid Teasanare said in her sweet demure voice as she let herself in, as if she could hide what she was really here for. Taking their hard-earned money and trying to seduce Lord Miach!

She turned to face the Dian Cecht familia poster girl and crossed her arms, leaning back just a bit to properly look down her nose at her. "Teasanare. Hmph. Lucky for you, we've got your blood money," she fanned out the thirty five million valis she'd brought home and the fact she was able to do so so dextrously thanks to the quality of her prosthetic arm only slightly dampened her pleasure at seeing how Teasanare's eyes widened.

"Oh my! What kind of drop item is that?"

She wasn't even looking at the money! She was already gravitating right towards the Black Amphisbaena's heart, staring at it with wonder.

Still, that made for a good story too, so Naaza was happy to tell Teasanare all about the terrible Black Amphisbaena she'd fought down in the Dungeon, her rival hanging off of every word while Lord Miach looked on happily, surely enjoying such a tale of excitement and proof that his familia was taking part in big events.

"What could you make from this?" Teasanare asked at the end of the story, peering at it in a way that made Naaza wonder what she was seeing with the aid of her Mystery development ability. "The Amphisbaena's dragon liver that the regular version drops is a powerful component for making elixirs, but the heart is a much more fundamental organ…"

"And it's blue and red, just like the Amphisbaena's two heads. Fire and magic negation qualities can surely be distilled from it," Naaza made her own observation. "But this wasn't just the Amphisbaena, it was an irregular version that could regenerate from almost anything. That tells me the potential for healing qualities is going to be immense. I was planning to render some ventricle and vein flesh together and steep it with blue papillo powder to bring out the healing qualities," she picked up the heart and took it with her back to the work-room at the rear of the shop.

Teasanare followed, walking right through to the back of the shop with her as if she owned the place. The absolute shamelessness of the woman. "Mermaid blood might work better for binding it, and neutralising the fire aspect," she suggested in the way only someone utterly unconstrained by budget would.

But then, this was a completely one of a kind drop. Once she used it up, there would probably never be another. Not unless a god went down to the lower floors and provoked the Dungeon, a now clearly suicidal act.

"You might be right," she grudgingly admitted. "I'm of two minds about the magic negation quality. Reinforcing it with crushed obsidian might make for a potion that can heal even cursed wounds. On the other hand countering it with magic stone resin might further augment the healing to the same kind of supernatural regeneration the Black Amphisbaena displayed."

"There's enough to make both, but… I think the resin would be best for the first dose," Teasanare said, her eyes glancing towards Naaza's fake arm in a way she might have missed if she was still level two. "After all, we don't have any cursed wounds around to test on."

She put up with her rival's presence. Whatever Teasanare's other many flaws were, she knew medicine. She'd rather have been using Lord Miach as her sounding board, but someone had to watch the front of the shop while she and Teasanare worked back here, the other pharmacist even running out back to her own familia to come back with some ingredients they didn't have to hand here at the Blue Pharmacy.

It was hours later when they finished. The sun having gone down, the shop closed, and the vial of luminous purple liquid had cooled enough to stop bubbling. Naaza had her sweater partially off, exposing the ugly stump of her ruined arm to scrutiny in a way that made her stomach turn. Lord Miach smiled encouragingly, Airmid held onto the exquisitely crafted prosthetic that had served in stead of flesh and bone for over a year now, her eyes glittering as she watched. Naaza grit her teeth, downed the experimental potion, and felt fire flood her veins.

---​

Rose watched as Riveria took in the floor of Babel that had been given over to her new project. It had been a gallery of sorts, hosting portraits and statues of Orario's heroes through the ages. They'd had to be relocated, but she liked to think they'd approve of it being for a worthy cause.

Mostly though she was trying to see if Riveria was jealous. The woman had made her name for her unique talent of chant connection, extending her three spells to nine. A number that had made her famous the world over. A number that Rose now almost doubled with her own roster of spells.

It's not as if she thought her spells were better. She'd seen what Nine Hells was capable of, perhaps along with most of the city when she'd shown off at the Colosseum. Her spells were minor things in comparison, and ones that Riveria along with anyone else in Orario who wished would soon match. But for this moment, there were only three others who matched Rose's claims to be some kind of legendary arch-wizard.

Maybe four if Mr. Kasuga was sharing his scrolls with that tamed… no, that intelligent monster he'd brought back from his last Dungeon trip.

It was an unreal level of progress. Down to the twenty fifth floor in a week. She'd heard Eina fretting over one of her new adventurers reaching the fifth floor in two. That would have been concerning under most circumstances, but Mr. Kasuga was just bringing so much strangeness with him it was hard not to feel jaded. It wasn't even possible to write him off as a freakish anomaly, not when he was sharing all these gifts to raise up every other adventurer as well. Was this what it was like when the gods first came down? Mr. Kasuga didn't feel like a deity, but he clearly couldn't be human, not with all the strangeness that surrounded him.

Belatedly she realised Riveria had said something and she chided herself for getting lost in her own head. "My apologies, my mind was elsewhere, what was that Riveria?" She had been advising her for years, and it at least allowed for some laxness and informality. Riveria had been adventuring longer than Rose had been working for the Guild, she was a constant unlike the many adventurers she saw go to their deaths in the Dungeon.

Riveria at least gave her an understanding smile as she repeated herself, "I was saying it's an elegant setup, although I'm concerned there's not much room to move if a fight does break out."

It was a valid concern, although in truth Rose was more worried about throughput. There was no way to keep those grimoires safe and allow for the same kind of flow they'd managed at the Colosseum. She'd already asked for a second elevator shaft to be added for direct access coming and going, but building that was a lot more work than the adjustments they'd made to the room itself.

The circular room was lined with two levels of booths each numbered and set to contain a scroll within a glass case with anti-tampering alarms. Unlike a grimoire you didn't have to turn the pages, you just had to read a fairly brief amount of text, and so they could be held more securely to prevent anyone switching out for a fake and walking out the door.

A lower level had a directory listing the scrolls and describing the effect of each spell, so someone coming up here would already have a list of which ones they wished to peruse which they could do so and then leave, ensuring a minimum of loitering.

"True, although the limited space limits the number of participants in a fight as well," Rose pointed out the other side of that coin. "Having the guards be close combat specialists would be ideal though."

Because the greater ability of adventurers with chakra and these spells would see everyone able to make deeper dives into the Dungeon – to say nothing of the reduction in logistics Teleport offered, the Guild had offered to loosen the expeditionary requirements levied on any familia willing to provide first class adventurers as guards for the repository. The Freya familia, with its famously dysfunctional attempts at collaborating for proper expeditions, had naturally leapt on it despite simple guard duty normally being beneath such elites.

Dvalin Gulliver was here as well, already still as a statue and standing by the elevator, while a half dozen Guild employees like Rose were on station to add extra eyes on things and provide advice if needed to speed along visitors. Of course they'd all be getting first pick of the spells themselves before they opened things up properly, just another perk of the job.

Haste provided a pleasant boon for speeding up all kinds of office drudgery, and Warp was mostly a novelty but still fun for instantly getting out of the basement or down from the upper floors. Handy if you were stuck carting around a load of files. And Cure was a luxurious balm for all sorts of minor aches you'd never want to spend the money on a potion for but still absolutely felt the lack of after applying some magic.

She was looking forward to seeing the changes as Orario adapted to such widespread and common magic. Instead of spells being the unique preserve of heroes, there would be a standard set that people could share tips and tricks for. She was less looking forward to when Altena or somewhere sent some first class adventurer to come 'liberate' these scrolls. Just because Orario had more than anywhere else, it didn't mean they were absent in the rest of the world.

Would Riveria and Dvalin be able to beat some amazon terror from the gladiatorial pits of Telskyura? Perhaps it was just local pride and the self-centredness of those who lived above the Dungeon considered the centre of the world, but she thought they probably would.

The elevator dinged and slid open, and with a scenic flutter of cherry blossoms in his wake, (what?) Ichiban Kasuga stepped out carrying his sack full of world-changing magic scrolls.

"Hey Rose," he greeted her with a smile on a his face that looked pleasantly mature without being ruined, as adventurers she usually met either skewed overly youthful or thoroughly battered, and walked over to her. "Got all the scrolls here. And listen, I had an idea for keeping them protected. You get some trained guard dogs, right? And I can turn them into like, little dragons."

Of course. Why didn't she think of that?

---​

Whooosh!

The unworked stone walls of the Dungeon that surrounded them changed from green to blue, the Warp spell having taken them from the fifth floor to the fourth floor. Right by the same stairs they'd taken down, if Finn didn't miss his guess.

Raul looked delighted. The High Novice as he was nicknamed, for reaching level four without ever acquiring either a skill nor a spell. Now he had both, and the fact the skill was shared with almost every adventurer in Orario, and a selection of those same spells were steadily being distributed on a similar level surely didn't dampen his pleasure at now having some special abilities.

"Fire!" Elfy let loose on a dungeon lizard crawling along the ceiling, her magic circle only briefly flaring red around her feet to go with the effectively chantless spell she released, flames spewing from her staff as soon as she finished saying the one syllable word.

The monster was atomised, though Elfy looked irritated. "It's quicker but not as powerful. Does that matter if I can cast this three times before I'd cast Surtr Grasp?" she wondered aloud.

"Sometimes a single strong blow is what you need to pierce a potent barrier," Finn pointed out. "Come on, lets hurry down so we can find more to practice on and make ourselves some money too. Don't bother with the small fry." The last expedition hadn't been the success they needed, and with the amount of weapon repairs needed after dealing with those acid spewing virgas the familia was barely scraping by to make itself ready for the assault on Knossos.

The Warp spell did wonders for peace of mind though. Gareth might be the only one who could replicate what Ottar had done when the floor had collapsed on him, but now they had a way to escape as soon as they heard the ceiling shifting. And if that notebook Lord Ikelos had mentioned could be recovered, they'd be able to move far more efficiently through the artificial Dungeon's maze-like layout.

Right now they were taking some time to practice the new magic while earning a little extra money. With Teleport to simplify the return trip, they could make it as far as the Water City and still be able to sleep in their own beds tonight. It would make planning their next expedition a great deal simpler. He wanted to see if he could examine the place where the Black Amphisbaena was spawned.

The Amphisbaena was a regular fixture for the Loki familia to fight, and Finn had refined their tactics against it over the years to the point it was almost rote. Even with the environmental advantage it enjoyed in the water they hadn't lost anyone fighting it in nearly three years, and those battles served well in raising up the levels of the familia's second string like Raul and Elfy.

All the same, he still remembered the first time he'd fought it. That a group of intelligent monsters and a man without a god's blessing was able to beat an irregular variant with only a level three amazon and a level two that was typically seen as a civilian meant that either these xenos were startlingly powerful, or Ichiban Kasuga was in a league of his own.

The ability to cast so many spells was definitely a game-changer. He'd heard from Shakti about him using Hedin's and then Airmid's spells against the Evilus monsters, proving all that showing off at the Colosseum wasn't for nothing. They'd worked out a similar program of their own for advancing Lefiya's development and taking advantage of Elf Ring, and even just adding the magic of the Loki familia's elves to her arsenal made Lefiya an anchor far beyond what her level would suggest.

An anchor that had gotten far more potent as he'd made sure she had a good view at the Colosseum when everyone else was showing off her spells for Ichiban. Though she'd hidden herself in her room for a full day after experimenting with Hogni's spell. Lefiya's admiration for their Sword Princess was well known, but no one had expected her to come on that strongly. Loki had declared it a masterful kabedon and the goddess's approval had filled Lefiya with shame. At least Ais herself didn't seem bothered, but it was sometimes hard to tell what exactly she was thinking.

Except when it came to talking monsters. She'd been very clear in her unwillingness to accept that a monster could be friendly, even after Loki had dragged her out on a 'date' for Monster Feria. Loki had held her hand to keep her from jumping into the Colosseum, and then had cried afterwards about how Ais's grip was too tight. Finn was just glad it had been Bete that had been the first of them to see Pearl, and wasn't it a strange day when he was a benchmark for restraint?

They'd all seen Pearl on their way into the Dungeon today. Two thirds dragon, one sixth plant, and one sixth woman. His thumb itched when he thought about fighting her, she had a presence similar to the monster they'd cut short their expedition after fighting, though it was as much due to the destruction of so many weapons from the virgas that surrounded it. Yet all she was doing was singing, a rather lovely song at that.

It was startling and a bit frightening to see so many people carelessly crowding around. Where giant stone claws could trample them underfoot, where a sweep of that huge tail could cut a murderous swathe through a careless crowd. But all the same her body stayed so immobile that even the ever-present pigeons that flocked around Babel felt brave enough to perch on her spine, while the human part rising from the dragon's neck like the top of a very strange lamia or mermaid had entertained everyone with song.

They'd left her to it and simply gone up to gain those new spells before descending into the Dungeon. He didn't doubt she'd be with Ichiban when they attacked Knossos. It would certainly be an experience to fight alongside something like that.

---​

Breakfast had livened up ever since Orin had joined their familia. Not that Bell minded eating reheated jagamarukun, they were delicious, but Orin's parents apparently ran a tofu shop and they provided their son with plenty of care packages to help ingratiate himself with his new familia. He also did shopping of his own while Lady Hestia ran the jagamarukun stall and Bell went down into the Dungeon, so they even had some nice greens to go with it.

A nutritious breakfast would surely help him grow stronger in the Dungeon, so he was all for it!

He was less for Orin sitting him down to talk all about what he could expect today as he descended to the seventh floor. It's not that Bell looked down on having such information at hand, but he got all that from Miss Eina at the Guild. This was like having an Eina at home!

But Lady Hestia was watching with a mixture of sternness and smugness as her two children collaborated, working out his route and suggesting tactics for the kinds of encounters he'd run into. Of course tactics would be a bit flexible to account for the magic he'd hopefully be able to pick up before going down – he stayed up late reading through the pamphlet Eina had given him yesterday listing the details of all the spells that the Guild was making available through the same man who'd already given everyone that new eight gates skill.

Who Bell had already met a couple times at the Blue Pharmacy, and who had actually recommended Lady Hestia to Orin. It was funny how even in a huge city like Orario these little meetings could occur.

Like being saved from a minotaur by the Sword Princess.

One thing he liked about Orin was that he understood what Bell meant when he started talking about Ais Wallenstein. Lady Hestia always came off like she disapproved for some reason, but when Orin started talking about Riveria Ljos Alf and it was clear…

Clear that they were a pair of hopeless fanboys who'd never get close to their dreams as things were.

And that's why Bell left their cosy little church with a determined step, ready to make his mark on the Dungeon, make himself stronger, and become the kind of man that could stand alongside the woman he admired.

He passed by the Hostess of Fertility as he usually did along the road, finding Ryuu sweeping out front. "Good morning, Miss Ryuu!" he called out.

"Good morning, Mr. Cranel," she greeted him gently, always seeming so refined and elegant even in her humble waitress uniform. That's an elf for you! "If you could wait a moment, Syr wished to see you this morning, I will get her for you."

Of course he waited. Syr was always so nice as well, he wasn't in such a rush that he'd blow off someone who wanted to chat in the morning. And a moment later Ryuu emerged with her human friend, the older girl smiling at him with a flushed face as they exchanged greetings and she held out a wrapped box for him.

"I made lunch for you. Please be careful in the Dungeon today. I heard about all these new spells everyone's learning and I think things are going to be extra chaotic," she fretted as Bell gratefully accepted her lunch.

Despite the quality of cuisine her workplace offered, Syr's home-made offerings failed to live up to that standard. But Bell took what she offered with a smile, never about to disappoint a girl who'd gone out of her way for him. "I will, Miss Syr, and thank you," he tucked the lunch into his bag, "I'll come by tonight and tell you all about it!" he promised, knowing well their deal.

"You'd better!" she winked at him and waved him off, Ryuu giving a more cordial farewell as Bell jogged the rest of the way to Babel where he joined the line of adventurers stretching out of the tower waiting for a chance to learn those new spells, crowd far more immobile than the one that usually flowed right into the Dungeon which could obviously admit down its big spiral staircase.

It meant he could listen to the talking monster, or rather the singing monster who'd taken a spot in the plaza to entertain everyone. He really liked her song about levelling up, that's what he wanted to do! Level up, become the best that he could be, and have Miss Ais beam right at him!

It took nearly two hours before he actually got let into the room with the re-usable grimoires. He'd passed the time circulating chakra through his legs to help keep them from turning numb, and it seemed like it was good practice, he'd already gotten his magic statistic up to H rank even before picking up any spells! He hoped that meant he'd be good with the ones he chose.

Stepping off the elevator with five other adventurers, he had to quickly move out of the way as the last ones in went to take it down. The room was arranged in a circle with booths containing the grimoires, labelled and ready to be read. Along with the familiar Guild uniforms he saw Anna Lernil from the Ganesha familia and Tione Hiryute from the Loki familia keeping an eye on things… he almost wished Ais was here, but it was for the best he didn't see her right now. He wanted to be able to impress her when he did.

Moving quickly, as he could already feel the impatient eyes of Guild employees silently bidding him to hurry up, he moved towards his first spell. On a stone plinth with a glass box encasing it rested a scroll of parchment turned up to allow him to easily read the words written there.

Fire.

Inflicts fire elemental damage to a single target. Continuous use improves accuracy and damage, up to sixteen times. The spell can be cast on multiple targets at a power two levels below your maximum. Sixteen spells from these scrolls can be stored, but existing ones can be forgotten to make room for others. A forgotten spell will not have its levels retained if you relearn it later.

It was so blunt and to the point. It didn't exactly feel mystical or special, but perhaps that was the point if everyone was going to be using it. This wasn't a personalised expression of inner nature or heroism, this was a spell for the masses. But as soon as he finished reading, he felt the sure knowledge in his mind that he could cast it.

Of course he didn't. He didn't want to think about what those stern Guild employees would say, far less what the two first rank adventurers would do. He just smiled and stepped back, picking out his next spell and moving on.

Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Osmose, Warp, Berserk, Haste, Aura, Cure, Life, Basuna, Esuna, Barrier, Blink, Slow, Holy.

He now had so many spells it would be a problem just trying to remember them all! But there were ones to directly attack monsters, ones that made himself more stronger and more agile for fighting normally, and ones he could use to heal anyone else that was in trouble. It felt like a good selection he could use, and if it felt like something wasn't working out he could always come back here and change his selection around.

With a spring in his step he took the elevator back down, returning to the ground floor and entering the Dungeon directly.

The goblins and kobolds weren't even a challenge for him in groups now. He didn't need chakra or magic to defeat them, but that didn't stop him from experimenting. "Fire!" he called out, delighted as a gush of flame erupted from his hand and immolated a snarling kobold, before he slashed through the neck of its friend with his knife, jumping back and casting, "Thunder!" to send the third twitching and spasming before it simply evaporated.

This was incredible! Collecting the magic stones he hurried along down his usual route to reach the next floor down, passing other adventurers that were similarly playing with their new spells. He even saw one guy proudly holding aloft the fabled egg that every adventurer stuck on the first floor dreamed of finding, the drop item of a speedy jack bird.

"I used the haste spell pumped chakra into my legs and caught right up with it! Stupid thing didn't even realise!" he grinned, clearly basking in the jealous and admiring looks he got from other adventurers, Bell not ashamed to admit he was among them.

Down he went though, seeking greater challenges. And soon he was on the seventh floor. The domain of war shadows and killer ants. Rookie killers as they were known. Yet even by himself, Bell was able to take on groups of such monsters, his natural speed and strength able to overcome them even before he used chakra and magic. He made sure to use Osmose whenever he had a single monster to deal with, Orin's recommendation for keeping his mind high, and it seemed to work. He was doing great, he could do this all day.

He could definitely go down to the eighth floor at this pace. There were new monsters down there, but even if they hadn't prepared specifically for it today he'd heard plenty about the upgraded kobolds and goblins, so he felt confident enough to go down there, a confidence that was soon justified as he found himself battling and overcoming these stronger monsters without even needing to rely on his Cure spell.

It was as he finished blasting away a needle rabbit with a Fire spell that was definitely looking more impressive than it had at the start of the day that he felt eyes on him. Looking over he saw some of Orario's most famous adventurers. Nine Hells. Thousand Elf. Sword Princess.

He felt their gazes and all he could remember was that moment when he thought he was about to die and a vision of grace and beauty cut apart his impending death as if she were sweeping a cobweb from the ceiling. Another unpleasant memory too, of being called a tomato boy. Worthless. Weak. Crying.

He didn't want Ais to see him like this, he wasn't ready. Instinct took over and he bolted, not even collecting the magic stone left by his last kill.

Whumpf!

He wasn't fast enough. She'd followed him and he found himself shoved against the wall, her hand on the rock beside his head. Her body was right up against his and as her golden eyes pierced into his own he felt something awakening in him.

Grandpa, you never said the Dungeon would be like this!

 

[fanny pack]

Kabedons for everybody I guess

 

[YiteWrite]

Can't wait for Ichiban to go full Unlimited Dragon Works on a poor soul.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

He wasn't fast enough. She'd followed him and he found himself shoved against the wall, her hand on the rock beside his head. Her body was right up against his and as her golden eyes pierced into his own he felt something awakening in him.

Click to shrink...

No bell don't awaken! Stay innocent!

 

[ravengt]

No bell don't awaken! Stay innocent!

Click to shrink...

Bell plays a mean game but he was never innocent, Zeus saw to that. You have to keep in mind the series name, "Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in the dungeon?". Bell SPECIFICALLY came to Orario to get a harem, again, because of Zeus

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Bell plays a mean game but he was never innocent, Zeus saw to that. You have to keep in mind the series name, "Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in the dungeon?". Bell SPECIFICALLY came to Orario to get a harem, again, because of Zeus

Click to shrink...

Yeah but he tends to give that up for one girl instantly.

In the Ains route he only goes for her.

Int he Ryuu route only her.

The harem thing is just bait and switch for a dumbass who grew up with zeus but remained pure and innocent so much that Freya wants him because of his pure soul she sees specifically.

Bell is a very mono focused individual when you come down to it. When it comes to goals and women.

 

[Ebiris]

Bell plays a mean game but he was never innocent, Zeus saw to that. You have to keep in mind the series name, "Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in the dungeon?". Bell SPECIFICALLY came to Orario to get a harem, again, because of Zeus

Click to shrink...

That's the best part of the premise. Bell goes into Orario with this fantasy of saving a cute girl from a scary monster in the Dungeon and then he becomes the cute boy who gets saved from a scary monster and it forever changes the trajectory of his life.

 

[Darik29]

It doesn't hurt that Bell makes a prettier girl than most of the female cast. Especially when he gets dressed up in the bunny girl outfit, as I recall.

 

[The Dude]

Can't wait for Ichiban to go full Unlimited Dragon Works on a poor soul.

Click to shrink...

I am the bone of my dragon
Strength is my body and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand dragons
Unknown to Death,
Nor known to Loss
Have withstood pain to create many dragons
Yet, those hands will never be covered in scales
So as I pray, Unlimited Dragon Works.

 

[manuelhwang99]

Grandpa, you never said the Dungeon would be like this!

Click to shrink...

BAHAHAHAHAHA!