A hand smmed onto the dining table of Arcane Manor, “He did WHAT!?”

  “Hie!” Emma let out a scared squeak before quickly assuring her friend, “I-It’s okay! Lady Hecate intervened before things got too far!”

  “It doesn’t mean it is fine!” Tris cried out, “Why didn’t you fight back!?”

  “Well, he’s a g-god…”

  “That doesn’t mean you can just let yourself get dragged away by some stranger! What if he’s some sicko!?”

  Emma could only shrink into her chair at that remark, unable to find a response to it that wouldn’t get her yelled at even more.

  After her patron goddess had brought her back home, Tris was quick to welcome her back before interrogating her for her when Hecate let it slip about her incident with the god moments ago.

  Suffice to say, Tris was not happy with the god and how she acted.

  ‘It’s like Sophia all over again…’

  Momiji nodded in agreement with Tris’s statement, “Emma, you need to be more careful with how you deal with men. For someone as attractive as you, it tends to draw alot of unwanted attention.”

  “I’m not that attractive…”

  “You kidding me!? You are hel cute!” Kaede cried out, “You’ll be surprised how many guys stared at you on the streets!”

  “They are probably staring at Tris, or Momiji, or Dae, or Lisa…”

  “Including that boob monster is unfair, Emma.”

  “How did someone that small get so big…?”

  “I think we are getting way off-topic here…” Tris noted with a sigh, “Emma, next time a guy like that approached you, just brush him off! Kick him in the nuts if you need to!”

  “Um, I think that’s a little too far…” Coco pointed out.

  “Some guys need to feel pain to learn their lesson!!”

  “But what if he’s a god?”

  “…my point still stands.”

  Emma could only let out a strained ugh at Tris’s insistence on inflicting pain to the groin as a form of self-defence, though that god from before definitely looked like one in need of such a lesson.

  She could still recall the way he looked at her, evaluating her body from head to toe; it made her skin crawl from just remembering it.

  ‘To think there are gods like him around… I’m afraid to imagine the kind of Familia he would run…’

  “I agree with Tris on this.” Hecate voiced out, the goddess partaking in a cup of freshly brewed tea, “Emma, you have my permission to do so when he shows up again.”

  “You think he’ll come for Emma again, Lady Hecate?” Tris asked.

  “Most definitely. Aeshima is the type that never gives up on a rare find.” She took a sip before continuing, “Until the expedition party returns, Emma needs to be accompanied whenever she leaves the manor.”

  “I-Isn’t that a bit much, Lady Hecate?” Emma asked.

  “Not when dealing with Aeshima, I’m afraid. Next to Apollo, he is extremely persistent with getting what he wants. I wouldn’t be surprised if he resorted to kidnapping or coercion just to get Emma to join his Familia.”

  “You must be quite acquainted with this god to know him so well, Lady Hecate.” Kaede pointed out.

  Hecate took a long sip of her tea before letting out an equally long sigh, “Not by choice, mind you. Our Familia had a run in with his Familia a couple decades back. Back then, he was after Jirou.”

  “So it does not have to be a girl?”

  “Nope. Aeshima is fine with anyone as long as it matches his standards. Gender, race, none of that matters.”

  Emma couldn’t help but shudder at the possible insinuation, ‘What kind of god had I caught the attention of…!?’

  “If you pardon me from asking, but kind of Familia is the Aeshima Familia?” Momiji asked, “I don’t think I have heard of them before.”

  Hecate took another long drawn-out sip, before expining to them, “On paper, Aeshima Familia is your standard exploration-type Familia like us. Their members are mostly Low-Css Adventurers, with a few High-Css Adventurers acting as their leaders; the strongest Adventurer they currently have is a Level 2, who is also their captain.”

  “You sure know a lot about an acquaintance.” The renard girl noted, “Though when you said on paper…”

  “All of that is just a way for Aeshima to fund his little project: to create the perfect Adventurer through cross breeding with selective Adventurers.”

  “…Uh, what?”

  “Cr-Cross breeding…!” Coco’s cheeks blushed at the term as she shakily asked, “So the reason that god want Emma is to… to…”

  “To bear a child with another of his Adventurers.”

  If Emma wasn’t disgusted by the god Aeshima before, she most definitely was now; it took all she could muster to keep the bile from rising beyond her throat.

  ‘He wanted me for that!? I’m so gd Lady Hecate intervened when she did…’

  “But to breed the perfect Adventurer… is that even possible?” Kaede asked.

  “Aeshima seemed to think so.” Hecate shrugged her shoulders, “He believes that certain Skills can be passed down from parent to child. And as far as I know, he has succeeded somewhat.”

  “What a scumbag…” Momiji growled, “There are those in the nobility that did the same to their offsprings, but at least they didn’t view them as breeding animals!”

  “Don’t worry, Emma! We won’t let that bastard take you away!” Tris procimed in righteous fury, “I don’t care if he’s a god! I’ll kick him in the nuts if I have to!”

  “Why are you so obsessed with kicking him in the nuts?” Kaede asked, “Wouldn’t slicing it off be better?”

  “That’s not any better, Kaede!!” Coco cried out.

  Hecate took a long sip, “It should no longer be an issue once the expedition party returns; he wouldn’t dare make a move with Jirou and Jeanne around. Until then, I suggest none of you should enter the Dungeon.”

  “Okay, we understand.”

  “…why do you keep sipping your team like that?” Kaede asked, “Isn't it easier to just drink it?”

  “When you think of an exposition done by a helpful witch, it's always while she’s calmly sipping tea, yes?”

  “…”

  “…”

  Tris and Emma had to resist the urge to face-palm at their patron goddess’s antics.

  Otto’s face scrunched in irritation as he examined the broken katana in his hand, greatly displeased at the stub of metal being the only thing that remained of Jirou’s weapon after giving its life to save him.

  He had used quite a lot of time and money into forging the weapon, using the Drop Items from the Middle Floor as well as some ores he found in the market to create a weapon that could withstand the strength of a Second-Css Adventurer.

  And it sted only a couple of months…

  ‘…at least it sted long enough for Jirou to nd such a deadly blow.’

  “You better pay me double for the repcement.”

  “…Perhaps you could take your share as payment—”

  “That’s a whole different matter.”

  “Oh, come on! Couldn’t you at least give me a friend discount or something?”

  The bcksmith rolled his eyes at Jirou’s rather juvenile suggestion before telling him, “We can discuss the payment after we return to the surface. Right now, there are other weapons I need to repair.”

  Thankfully, Jirou’s sword was the only one that was unsalvageable after their struggle against the Amphisbeana; though they did suffer greatly in the fight.

  Kyumaru’s katana was faring a little better with just several cracks in its edge.

  One of Lisa’s sickles had hairline fractures from striking against the dungeon rocks so many times.

  Garos’s shield was now a misshapen sheet of metal from withstanding the fiery breath.

  Drake’s bow was on the verge of splintering from overuse and his knives were badly misshapen with their tips broken off.

  Even his own cleaver had been reduced to nothing but a long pte of metal on a hilt with how dull its edge had become.

  The only ones that weren’t in need of urgent repairs were Garos’s sword and Jeanne’s spear, and it was only because they had barely seen any action throughout the entirety of the fight.

  “Tch, stingy… so, how’s your leg?”

  “I can still walk, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Otto’s leg was one of the first things they had used whatever potions they had left, next to Garos’s arm at least; though most of them were of a low grade, so they weren’t able to fully heal the wounds.

  But it was just enough for him to at least walk about with his own two feet, though not without help.

  “I see… then I’ll leave you to your work.”

  “You better…”

  As the swordsman walked away, Otto fired up the portable furnace and got started on fixing up the archer’s knives; it was probably the easiest to fix out of all of them.

  It didn’t take long for them to dig through the rocks blocking the exit, after which they immediately bolted straight for the safe zone they had used as a campsite for the entire expedition.

  Not going to risk the Dungeon throwing down a Monster Party on them, Jeanne had the entire expedition party take a quick break to rest up and patch up in preparation for the dash towards Under Resort.

  As the bcksmith started hammering on the heated knife to straighten it back out, he gnced around the rest of the expedition party.

  A heavily bandaged Garos was huddled over the bag of their spoils, his burnt arm all bandaged up and in a sling with the Quest parchment from the Guild atop of it while his uninjured arm rummaged through its contents.

  It was lucky that the burns didn’t affect the nerves in his arm, that his shield had taken most of the brunt of the fmes for him; as its creator, there was no better way for it to go.

  Sitting nearby was Jeanne, the elf was getting patched up by Lisa as she discussed something with him, the pallum had already patched up her wounds with almost her entire body being wrapped in bandages.

  It was truly miraculous that no one had actually died or lost a limb in the fight; the most grievous wounds were mostly devastating burns from the searing blue fmes.

  Meanwhile, Tetra was helping with patching Drake, the little amazoness was barely holding back her tears as she clumsily wrapped the bandage around a particurly burnt limb.

  ‘The poor girl must still bme herself for his wounds…’

  Otto gnced a bit to the side to see Kyumaru sitting a far distance away from the party with his back leaning against the wall as his head keenly pointed towards the other end of the corridor heading back down.

  The renard had volunteered for lookout duty the moment they reached the safe zone, though it was clear to anyone that he wanted some time to himself to process what had just happened.

  On the opposite end of the corridor stood the famous new rookie of her generation, the half-elf having volunteered to keep a watch out for any flying monster that could potentially attack them.

  Though it was obvious that she did for the same reason as the renard, especially since she took the result pretty badly.

  And they weren’t the only ones either.

  It was common knowledge that all monsters in the Dungeon would pounce upon any Adventurer that crossed their path, and they would stop at nothing to end their lives.

  So for one such monster, a Monster Rex at that, to not just spare their lives and even left them was not just unheard of, it was thought to be impossible; not even during the era of the Zeus and Hera Familias.

  ‘The Guild is going to freak when they find out.’

  Irregurs were the bane of every Adventurer venturing down the Dungeon on a daily bases, so almost every sighting of one would be immediately reported to the Guild at the earliest notice.

  That would be doubly so if the Irregur in question was a Level 5 Css Monster Rex; just the though of that massive water dragon roaming around the Lower Floors brought a shiver down the bcksmith’s spine.

  ‘And the way it looked at us… those eyes…’

  Otto recognised that look anywhere, those were the eyes of pity and disappointment, the look of superiority.

  He couldn’t count how many times he was given that look by some of his seniors when he was first starting out, the look of mild arrogance over someone lower than them.

  And he could still remember the feelings of frustration and humiliation that came on the receiving end of one of those; it was what drove him to improve his smithing skills till what it was today, all to spite those that had looked down on him.

  ‘To think a monster could make me feel this way…’

  Lisa tied the bandage in a knot and nodded with pride at her work, “There we go, all patched up!”

  “Thanks for the help, Lisa.”

  “It’s no big deal, Jeanne; it’s the least I can do.”

  As Jeanne got up and walked towards Tetra and Drake, the pallum turning her attention back to her vice-captain, Garos busy checking through the Drop Items and magic stones they had collected thus far.

  While she wouldn’t mind failing the quest as opposed to dying to the Monster Rex, he was rather adamant in checking through and making sure all they had painstakingly collected was accounted for.

  ‘He always was the meticulous type…’

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “If you’re talking about the change to our formation Jeanne asked for—”

  “Not that. The other thing.”

  That gave Garos pause, before carrying on checking the bag’s contents, “The Amphisbeana, you mean? What is there to talk about?”

  “You and I both know that’s not true.”

  “Oh, and what makes you say that?”

  Lisa rolled her eyes, “Garos, we nearly died. I’m pretty sure that’s at least worth talking about.”

  “Well, we didn’t. So there.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you?”

  “Why would it? We survived.”

  “Because the damn monster spared us! Spared us! A Monster Rex, at that!”

  Garos let out a long-drawn-out sigh before lifting his head to face her, “Look, dwelling on it isn’t going to change anything. If anything, it will only drive you mad.”

  “And it should!” Lisa cried out, “You nearly lost an arm to that thing! We threw everything at it and nearly died fighting! And it didn’t even bother to kill us for it!”

  “Would you have preferred to have it kill us?”

  “Yes! I mean, no! I-I don’t know! Maybe!?”

  The pallum let out a groan before sitting down next to him, her hands on her face as she let out a wordless cry into them.

  “…how are you not frustrated by any of this?” She asked him.

  “Oh, I am. I just prefer to internalize it than shing out like you.”

  The pallum gave him a deadpan look, which he ignored before continuing, “I would also rather focus on what we can learn from the experience to improve ourselves.”

  “That’s…quite the optimistic take on it.”

  Garos shrugged his shoulders, “Better than dwelling on the negatives. And thanks to this experience, our limitations are shown to us. Now we can either ment on it…”

  “Or seek to go beyond it and reach greater heights.” Lisa concluded with a small smile, “Did you get that line from Jason.”

  He returned with a smile of his own, “One of his best.”

  “There! All done! Now for the—”

  “Tetra, I think you’ve done enough. Why don’t you sit down and rest?”

  “B-But there is still…”

  “…I don’t think there’s any pce left.”

  Jeanne tried very hard to stifle her ughter at the mess of bandages that was Drake, the only part of him that wasn’t haphazardly wrapped in them was his face, which was scrunched up in a frown at his predicament.

  It was clear that Tetra had gone a tad bit overboard in patching him up, and not very well either; at least she meant well and not doing this out of malice.

  Jeanne gently pced her hand on the little amazoness’s shoulder, “Drake will be fine. You need rest.”

  “Oh…okay…”

  Tetra gingerly took a sit next to Jeanne while the elf tried her best to fix the chaotic mess of bandages into something workable.

  Once most of the excess wrappings were removed, Drake breathed out a sigh of relief, “Oh, I can breath again. Thanks, Jeanne.”

  “Happy to help.”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “No need to apologise, Tetra. You did your best.”

  “But I messed it up…”

  The amazoness let out a sniffle as Jeanne patted her on the head in an attempt to comfort her, tears forming at the edge of her eyes and threatening to pour over at any given moment.

  ‘Guess she really took it hard…’

  It was obvious what Tetra was upset about; Drake had jumped to cover the amazoness the moment the fmes burst out of the water dragon’s mouth, taking the brunt of it for her.

  It was only thanks to his self-healing magic that he didn’t die straight away from his wounds, though there was a limit to how much the spell was able to heal, with plenty of burns still left over on his body before he nearly passed out from Mind Down.

  The amazoness had been fussing over him ever since, doing whatever she could to help him recover, and with various degrees of success.

  “You did fine, Tetra.” Drake assured her, “Sure, you messed up a few, but you properly patched me up.”

  “You’re just saying that…”

  “Grgk…”

  Jeanne let out a small sigh before turning to him, “I want you to answer me truthfully, Drake. Can you walk?”

  “…yes, but with great difficulty.”

  “I thought so… This will complicate things…”

  They had used up all of their reserve potions to recover from their bout with the Amphisbeana, and they were barely enough to keep most of them from death’s door.

  Only Dae, Kyumaru and Tetra were in any condition to fight, with Jirou and Garos possibly pitching it though not for extended periods of time.

  Considering the distance from their current location to Under Resort, it was just asking for the Dungeon to throw monsters at them.

  “If you hadn’t protected me, you wouldn’t be so…”

  Drake swiftly turned to the amazoness with a stern look, “Stop thinking like that, Tetra! It is not your fault—”

  “Yes, it is!!” She cried out, “Because you protected me, you end up like this!”

  “Tetra, the fmes went for everyone.” Jeanne told her, “Drake would have gotten hurt regardless if he protect you or not.”

  “I know, but… but, he could have… have…”

  Tears were now overflowing from her eyes as the amazoness tried her best to hold back her sobs to no avail; Jeanne quickly pulled Tetra into warm embrace while she softly cried into her bandaged chest.

  It was easy to forget that despite her outstanding achievements, Tetra was still a child in the end, and had little understanding and control over her own emotions and feelings.

  In this case, it was her concern towards Drake’s ck of self-preservation that had her so upset.

  “…I’m sorry, Tetra.” Drake apologised, “I shouldn’t have scared you like that.”

  “…you’re just saying that too.”

  “…yes, I am.”

  The amazoness let out a huff before sinking deeper into Jeanne’s embrace, the elf letting out a chuckle as she gently patted her in the head.

  “Tetra has the right to be upset with you, Drake.” She told him, “This isn’t the first time you did this.”

  “I’m…painfully aware…” He noted, “I’ve been trying to stop, but sometimes my body moves before I could think.”

  “Well, you need to try harder; or was that stinger through your gut not enough of a reminder?”

  “No need to remind me that…”

  Jeanne could still remember that disaster of an expedition months back, and how panicked she was when she came across him with a massive gaping hole in his body.

  For him to almost die the same way…looked like she would need to have a talk with him when they get back.

  “Any trouble?”

  “…None yet.”

  Jirou nodded at my answer before sitting down on the edge next to me, his hands got to work unwrapping his emergency ration of jerky before tearing into one with his teeth.

  I turned my attention back to the ever familiar scene of the massive Great Falls pouring into the massive pit that was the Water Capital, all the while several flying monsters flew through the air without a care in the world.

  It was a scene that I had grown accustomed to for the past few days, and I had always found the time to just take in the sights whenever we came back up here set up camp.

  “You know…” Jirou swallowed his jerky and pointed out, “I seemed to always see you standing here at the end of each day. You like this sight that much?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, I find it rexing.”

  “…I guess it isn’t as rexing now.”

  “No, it is not.”

  Instead of calming me down, all it did highlight the feelings of frustration that had been bubbling inside ever since the Amphisbeana spared our lives and left.

  I couldn’t get the look in its eyes out of my mind, the way the pupils peered down at us from above, the way it huffed out of its nostrils before turning its back on us.

  And how it resembled too much like…

  “You’re still thinking about the Amphisbeana, aren’t you?”

  “…I know I shouldn’t keep dwelling on it, but…”

  “It’s okay. I’m also thinking about it too.”

  “You are…?”

  Jirou nodded, his hand gingerly touching the bandages around his torso, “We threw everything at it, I even pulled out ‘that’ out, and it wasn’t enough to even drive it away. Yet, here we are still alive. It is impossible not to feel some frustration about it.”

  “…why do you think it lets us live?” I asked him.

  “Who knows? I sure don’t know how monsters think.”

  “I guess that’s true…”

  The way it had acted indicates that it had some level of intelligence, and possibly some kind of sentience; not that it really matters if it did.

  At the end of the day, it was still a monster that tried to kill us, even if it spared our lives for some unknown reason.

  I let out a sigh as I sat down beside Jirou, “…The way it looked at us before leaving, it reminds me of Ottarl.”

  “Really? How?”

  “The way it acted all superior and indifferent to our struggles, like we were nothing but pebbles in its path and not worth their time. That damn boar had the same look.”

  I could still remember that short meeting months ago, and how angry I was with the way he brushed off Leo’s sacrifice like it was his fault for dying.

  And the way he looked at me after striking me, like I was some pesky bug that he had simply smacked away without a second thought. At least he didn’t scoffed at me like I was one.

  “You sure have guts calling the King ‘that damn boar’; not that it would have bothered him.” Jirou pointed out, “Though, I definitely could see the comparison. He exudes superiority from just standing around.”

  “Yeah. So it was as if it was him that was brushing off all our efforts like it was nothing.” I clenched my fists in anger, “And that just… just infuriates me…!”

  “You really hate him that much, huh?”

  “I don’t hate him, I just really, really, don’t like him.”

  “…How is that any different?”

  “It just is.”

  Hatred wouldn’t be what I would use to describe my feelings towards the King, considering that he wasn’t exactly a bad person even if he was a very unlikeable one.

  I just personally didn’t like him at all, and my dream to become a hero was also a way to prove his words wrong.

  And to do so, I had to…

  “…Jirou…”

  “Yeah?”

  With fist clenched, I procimed to him, “I want to get stronger… so strong that I wouldn’t have to feel this way ever again.”

  “…me too, Dae.” Jirou nodded in agreement, “And I’m sure everyone else felt the same way. That water dragon will regret ever letting us go.”

  I nodded in agreement, another goal now firmly imprinted into my soul; if we ever encounter another Amphisbeana in the future, I was sure that what happened today would not happen again.

  “We got company!”

  At Kyumaru’s cries, we immediately got up and ran back to the party; Otto had fixed most of our weapons and was handing them out as we got into a defensive formation.

  Being the only ones that could physically fight, I and Kyumaru took the vanguard and prepared to take on whatever the renard had sensed approaching our way.

  “How many?” Jeanne asked him.

  “At least a couple dozen or more.” He expined, his ears twitched a bit, “And they are armed.”

  “An expedition party?”

  “Most likely.”

  “Could they be friendly?” Tetra asked hopefully, “Maybe we can ask them for help!”

  “That depends if they are part of a decent Familia.” Drake noted, “And if they was able to reach this far down…”

  “Stay on guard.” Garos ordered us, “Be ready for anything.”

  Moments ter, echoes of countless footsteps filled the corridor along with countless different voices of various pitch and tone overpping one another, with a few that sounded rather familiar.

  And when the first figure rounded the bend, it became immediately apparent who they were.

  “Well, this is quite the surprise. I didn’t expect to see you down here.”

  “We could ask you the same thing.”

  …To be continued…

  And let’s end it right there! Who is the one approaching them? You just have to wait for the next chapter to find out!

  For this chapter in particur, I wanted to explore more of the other characters besides the MC, to expand a bit on their personality and how they felt about their ‘win’ st chapter.

  I originally had pnned to have one for Kyumaru too, but I scrapped it after much consideration to future arcs.

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!