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CHAPTER 4 ORB
 
Loki stepped through the front door of the Guild headquarters and into the main lobby. 
It was late afternoon, before the sun had started to set in earnest. There weren’t many adventurers in the Guild at the moment, especially when compared to peak hours. Several of the beautiful receptionists stood behind the counter, every one of them enthusiastically imparting advice. “Oh, aww…” Loki said to herself, moved by the scene before continuing to glance around the lobby. 
She was quick to spot even more adventurers standing in front of the quest bulletin board and a few more waiting their turn in the consultation box. However, the Guild employees standing at attention at various points around the lobby were far more prominent. All of them were dressed in black suits, and one of them had taken notice of Loki’s presence. So the goddess made the first move, smiling and waving. The tension instantly dropped from the woman in uniform as she smiled and gave a picture-perfect bow in return. 
Loki made her way casually through the lobby, pretending that she had only come there to kill time. 
“Oh, Misha. Workin’ hard, I see.” 
“Ah, Lady Loki.” 
Loki had seen a face she recognized and immediately walked up to the counter to say hello. 
The human girl greeted her with a friendly wave. The cheeks of her round, baby face pulled back into a smile. 
Misha Frot worked at the Guild as one of the receptionists. The two of them had met only a few days prior at the Monsterphilia. They had shared information and cooperated to respond to the crisis in the city. 
The girl was rather short, standing at 150 celch. Her peach-pink hair and innocent eyes gave her a cute aura. Considering that each receptionist was beautiful in her own right, a baby-faced employee like Misha was unusual. 
“Is there something I can do for you?” 
“That there is. Somethin’ I wanna ask ya.” 
The goddess propped her elbows up on the counter and leaned toward the girl who sometimes didn’t speak quite clearly. 
Loki grinned and asked her question. 
“Ouranos around?” 
Misha froze the moment she heard that name. 
The lobby was business as usual. However, the space around Misha and Loki fell still, as if it had become its own little world. 
After a few heartbeats, the wide-eyed receptionist panicked. 
“L-L-Lord Ouranos, is it? Well, um, ehh…!” 
“No, no, Misha. This is your job; everyone else is busy. Ya gotta do it yourself.” 
Misha’s head was on a swivel, looking back and forth for someone to help her. Loki gently took her hand and softly gave her advice. 
The other receptionists were away from the counter. In fact, Misha was the only one at their station. A few Guild employees were watching from afar, but all they saw was a womanizing goddess making a pass at a cute girl. Misha was on her own. 
The receptionist looked at the goddess as if she were being strangled by a snake. 
“…I-I’ll contact my boss. P-p-please wait…” 
“That’ll just end up leaving us with red tape, so don’t bother. Come on, Misha. Can’t ya answer one little question?” 
Loki tightened her grip on Misha’s hand as the girl looked for an excuse to get away. Pulling the girl back to the counter, Loki started tracing Misha’s fingers with her thumb. 
“Wh-wh-what would that be…?” she asked meekly, shaking like a scared puppy. Loki look down at those watery eyes, her grin the same as always. 
“Is Ouranos at the usual spot?” 
“……” 
Try as she might, a simple yes or no wouldn’t come out of the cutely childish receptionist’s mouth. Running out of options, she quickly broke off eye contact. 
Loki grinned from ear to ear as she read the girl like a book. 
“Thank you, Misha. I’ll treat ya to a drink sometime.” 
“L-Lady Loki?!” 
The goddess waved good-bye and left the counter. 
That’s when she made her move. 
Circling around a counter, she entered a hallway that she knew was supposed to be restricted to all but employees of the Guild. She zipped through the hall on light feet, wind in her ears as she passed by Guild workers carrying stacks of paperwork one after the other. 
Caught by surprise, the clerks couldn’t recover in time to say anything to the swift goddess. She left in her wake a trail of people in black suits with their mouths open. 
“If memory serves me right, this should be the right way…” 
A secondary office was crammed full of desks, a library, archives; Loki glanced into every room as she rushed down the hallway. 
Trying to remember the layout from the last time she was there, Loki made a few more turns before finding a long red carpet with golden trim. “Oh?” she said while raising an eyebrow. Quickening her pace, she practically ran down another long hallway. 
The rug extended down the middle of the corridor, and both sides were lined with pillars. She could see the stairwell leading down at the end of it. 
“—Please stop, Goddess Loki!!” 
“Hm…Company?” 
The echoes of many hurried footsteps stopped Loki just before she set foot on the stairwell. 
A middle-aged elf led a large group of Guild employees in a desperate attempt to stop her. 
His suit might have been of far better quality than the others’, but the size of his gut put enough pressure on the fabric to make the seams groan. Beads of sweat dripped down onto his loose double chin. The graying hair on his balding head swished back and forth as the elf wiped his chin with the palm of his hand. Even his pointed ears were shriveled with age. 
He wasn’t all that short, but the extra weight he carried made him look more compact than he was. Even his legs looked puffy and short underneath his black slacks. 
A dignified image of beauty usually came to mind whenever an average person thought of the elven race. He was about as far from that ideal as possible. 
“Yo! Royman! Long time, no see! How ya been?” 
“G-Goddess Loki, this is a sacred path that leads to the Temple of Ouranos. P-please, leave here!” 
Loki greeted him like an old friend, waving as the he and his subordinates lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of her. 
“Haaah…haaah…” The pudgy elf gasping for breath with his hands on his knees was none other than the most powerful man in the Guild, Royman Mardeel. 
Elves were known for their long life spans. In fact, Royman had been working at the Guild for over a century and had been promoted to his current position a little more than ten years ago. Now over 150 years old, he oversaw everything that happened in the city and gave the final yes or no for every major decision. At the same time, he enjoyed the perks afforded to him by this position and had been living in the lap of luxury for some time. 
His bulging, flabby body looked more like a rich merchant’s rather than an elf’s. “Return to the front at once!” he repeated, recovering from his fatigue with steady, deep breaths. Instead, Loki turned on her friendly charm and walked right up to him. 
“Well, I’ll be! Put on more weight, have ya? Lookit how squishy you are!” 
“What is the meaning of grabbing me like this…?!” 
Loki had her right arm wrapped around his shoulders and a roll of his belly fat clenched in her left hand. 
She looked thoroughly entertained as she pushed and pulled it back and forth, causing waves to lap across his gut. All the while, Royman’s eyes were twitching with restraint. He tried to push her away many times, but the grinning goddess wouldn’t budge. 
Royman Mardeel was hated by every elf in Orario. 
Forgetting the pride and prestige of his race, he had become shameless. His kin considered him to have been poisoned by money and his lavish lifestyle, fattening up in the process. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be referred to as the “Guild’s Pig.” Even Riveria considered him to be the “shame of her race.” 
Loki watched Royman’s face turned red, veins popping in frustration, and thought to herself, Kids really are cute. 
Her opinion of the man under her arm was the complete opposite of elves like Riveria. 
Even the wise elves could fall from grace. The children were foolish, and that made them lovable—every time Loki saw Royman, she was reminded just how much she loved the buffoons in particular. 
And that was exactly why the mortal world of Gekai was so entertaining. 
“Goddess Loki, I shall repeat myself. This is a restricted area; no one is allowed to come through here. Even your position as a goddess does not override that…!” 
“No need to be such a stick-in-the-mud. I just got a question for Ouranos, ain’t that okay?” 
“No, absolutely not!” 
Even as Loki toyed with the elf on the fancy red carpet, she looked around the hallway. None of Royman’s subordinates had the courage to interfere in an argument between their boss and the goddess, so they just stood there with looks of uncertainty on their faces. 
If Loki was serious about investigating the Guild, Royman would be on her list of suspects by default, but… Eh, he ain’t behind it, Loki thought. He’d been living the good life and thoroughly enjoying it; it was highly unlikely that he would do anything to jeopardize his position. Now the subordinates who advised him, on the other hand—they would be worth looking into. 
However, her current goal was to get to the core of the Guild—to the one who was waiting at the bottom of that stairwell. 
Now, what to do, what to do… 
She had needed to reach the bottom of that staircase before being found. 
Being a deity meant nothing the moment she tried to descend the stairwell. Now that her intentions had been discovered, Guild employees would physically force her back and probably throw her out altogether if necessary. That’s how important the Guild was to the people of Gekai. Not to mention that Royman himself was afraid of anyone else having direct contact with the god below. 
Wobble, wobble. Loki played with the aging elf’s belly fat as she considered her next move. 
“—It is no matter. Royman, let her through.” 
That’s when it happened. 
A majestic voice echoed up from below, reverberating between the many pillars and around the red carpet. 
“But, Ouranos…!” 
“I said it is no matter. All of you, leave us.” 
Royman tried to protest but quickly fell silent with the second response. 
He nervously glanced back and forth between the stairwell and Loki. Head drooping, Royman led the others away, his feet dragging in the slow march all the way to the exit. 
Loki watched him until his round and hunching silhouette completely disappeared. Now alone, she turned on her heel and walked toward the stairs. 
The owner of the majestic voice stayed silent, proof enough that he was allowing Loki to approach. The red carpet dampened her footsteps as she made her way into the dim area at the end of the hallway. 
“…” 
Click, click. Loki’s shoes echoed against the stone floor as soon as the carpet ended. 
When she finally reached the bottom of the stairwell, sputtering magic-stone lamps were the only things that lit the way forward. Loki kept her hand on the wall for balance as she descended. 
—The origin of the Guild dated back almost a thousand years. 
This was the place where the civilized peoples had fought against continuous waves of monsters that emerged from a giant hole in the ground during the Ancient Times. 
They had needed a lid—something to keep the monsters from coming out of the hole. An alliance of many races was formed for the main purpose of containing the monsters. Unfortunately, all their plans kept failing. 
The more progress they made on the “lid,” the more monsters would emerge, utterly destroying it when it was mere days from completion. Countless lives were lost every time. Even the mightiest heroes fell, one after the other. 
Finally, when the allied races managed to construct the tower over the hole and thought their mission was a success, it collapsed before their eyes just like all the other “lids.” Everyone had been on the brink of despair—when streaks of white lights descended from the heavens. 
The deities had arrived. 
They appeared all over Gekai, a world overrun with monsters. When the confused people asked them why they had come, most of the divine beings said, “To be entertained.” There was one among them, however, who was different. 
He enthusiastically joined forces with the people of Gekai in their effort to complete the “lid” over the hole. 
Indeed, he was the first one to bestow Falna onto the “children.” 
With the cooperation of other gods and goddesses, he was the one who made it possible to complete the central tower that would become Orario’s “lid” and the city’s centerpiece, and who saved the world from the ravenous monsters that issued forth from the hole. 
He came to be worshiped as Orario’s founding deity. The remains of the alliance were reassembled under him as one large organization. Thus, the Guild had been born. 
Even in the modern age, he was worshiped by many—Ouranos. 
“…Yo, haven’t really kept in touch.” 
The base of the stairs opened up into a stone chamber that looked to be as old as the Guild itself—a temple. 

 


The ground was covered by large slabs of stone, giving it the feel of a hidden room beneath a place of worship. Magic lamps were nowhere to be seen; rather, the dim chamber was illuminated by four torches on poles, their flames making shadows dance on the plain stone walls. 
Directly in the middle of the square created by the torches was the altar. 
It took the form of a large, stone throne—and on it sat an imposing, elderly deity. His blue eyes reflected the flame light from beneath his hood as he stared down at Loki. 
“What is it, Loki?” 
The air seemed to shake with every syllable. 
A hooded robe concealed most of the deity’s two-meder-tall frame. Wrinkles covered his well-defined facial features while white whiskers grew from his chin. A few locks of his hair, the same color as his thin beard, were visible underneath the hood. He wore a calm expression, sitting like a statue without the slightest waver. 
Robust arms draped on the armrests of his throne, he loomed over Loki like an imposing mountain. He was the spitting image of the heavenly ruler that many people of the Ancient Times had envisioned before they met any deities face-to-face. 
Even among the gods, his height was imposing. It granted the elderly deity such a strong presence that the people of Gekai bowed to him without even thinking why. His aura was just that powerful. 
“What, I can’t just pop in and say hi…? Well, there is somethin’.” 
Loki walked between two of the torches and all the way up to the altar. 
“That last festival was a real mess. Problems poppin’ up left and right, everyone pointin’ fingers. How ya holdin’ up?” 
“I have left daily management of the city to Royman. It is not under my jurisdiction.” 
After laying the foundation of Orario, Ouranos had taken a stance of “reigning without governing,” and hadn’t budged since. 
Leaving the day-to-day problems in the hands of the Guild, he spent his days in this chamber. He had chosen not to bestow its employees with a Blessing in order to avoid the power struggle that would inevitably ensue. Therefore, the Guild itself became more of a governing body. 
He had renounced any claim to power. Ouranos Familia simply didn’t exist. 
As long as he didn’t have any personal soldiers, the Guild lacked the ability to use force. 
“Poor Royman. Forced to do every painstakin’ little thing by an old man.” 
Another reason that Royman was afraid of outsiders talking to Ouranos was because of the Guild’s current configuration. 
He might wield more power than any other mortal in Orario, but even he couldn’t go against his god’s wishes. Should Ouranos have a change of heart, restructuring the Guild was more than a mere possibility. Those currently in power wanted to make sure that no meddlesome words ever made it to the ears of their god, so they cut off his temple from the outside world, declaring it sacred. This spot became physically and spiritually distant from the average citizen. 
“What are you implying?” 
At the same time, it was also true that this was a holy place that shouldn’t be disturbed. 
The reason that Ouranos didn’t try to leave, and that the Guild kept their god cooped up in the temple, was that he continuously sent prayers to the Dungeon. 
Ouranos’s prayers were powerful—powerful enough that his divine aura prevented the Dungeon from spawning unfathomable amounts of monsters all at once. This unseen force kept the monsters belowground. In this way, he was preventing the tragedies of the Ancient Times from occurring again. 
At the very least, that’s what the Guild believed. 
Royman and other high-ranking officials feared a change in the Dungeon most of all. 
As for Loki, she thought it was insane for them to force a god to pray. 
“So much happened at this year’s festival, but some really gross, never-before-seen monsters were the worst. Who brought ’em up here, and who ordered ’em to do it…? Wish I knew.” 
“…” 
Loki’s interrogation had begun. However, Ouranos only sat in silence. 
Firmly seated on his throne, the deity didn’t so much as lift a finger. 
Loki cut to the heart of the incident, determined to find the mastermind lurking in the shadows by directly asking the one who held the Guild in the palm of his hand. 
“Who’s pullin’ the plant monsters’ strings? The Guild?” 
Crackle. A burst of sparks exploded from the torch nearby. 
A flash of light fell upon the hooded robe as the sparks fell to the floor. Ouranos opened his mouth to speak. 
“It is not as you say.” 
Blue eyes met Loki’s vermilion ones. 
“But it is somethin’ huh?” 
Loki whispered to herself, standing just far enough away not to be heard. 
The majestic face beneath the hood maintained its serene expression throughout their conversation. Loki stared into his deep blue eyes for a moment before finally saying, “That so? 
“Sorry to bother ya. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’.” 
Loki spun on her heel, showing her back to Ouranos. 
Her footsteps echoing among the muffled roar of the torches, Loki started walking toward the exit. 
While there were still some unanswered questions, she was fairly certain that Ouranos wasn’t the one behind the monster attacks. 
Loki made up her mind while still reserving her final verdict. She wasn’t sure of the whole scope, but she knew that the deity had been implying something on purpose during their brief conversation. Also, there was something about his steady gaze that made her want to believe him. 
Someone’s been watchin’ me the whole time, but…eh, don’t care. 
Either Dionysus’s hunch was off, or perhaps someone within the Guild was moving independently of Ouranos’s will. 
Either way, Loki was satisfied with the fruits of her investigation. 
Coming to a stop at the foot of the stairs, she took a quick look over her shoulder. 
The god illuminated by flames maintained his silence. His imposing frame hadn’t even shifted on the throne. 
 
The crystal-filled “sky” of the Dungeon’s eighteenth floor was changing from “afternoon” to “night.” 
The millions of white crystals growing out of the ceiling stopped emitting light one after the other. The blue crystals scattered among them also grew dimmer. The blanket of soft, white light that covered the forest and plains became visibly weaker with each passing moment. The dark shroud of night took its place. 
The town of Rivira, on the island in the middle of a large lake in the west, was overtaken by the darkness as well. 
“Haaah…haaah…!” 
A young animal person made her way between intricate rock formations as the area around her grew dim. Crystals sprouting from the ground glinted around her feet. 
She fought for breath, even as she frantically looked over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of her pursuers, a female knight with golden hair glinting in the darkness and an elfess with darker yellow hair carrying a magic staff. Her eyes shuddered as their reflections grew in her irises. She nearly tripped over a crystal in her path and faced forward again in her desperate attempt to get away. 
She ran northwest, away from Crystal Square in the center of Rivira. At this rate, she would reach the city wall outside an isolated corner of town. 
Bounding down slopes and staircases, she used her innate reflexes as an animal person to gracefully kick off stones and crystals that jutted out from the cliff face. The pouch over her right shoulder swung to the side as she tried to confirm that she was still being followed. Sure enough, she still saw the movement behind her. 
But she could only see an out-of-breath elf with a staff in her arms. The other one was gone. 
The animal person frowned, getting suspicious. So she made a sharp turn around the next corner and raced forward. 
She entered a narrow passageway that was framed by the cliff face and a wall of large blue crystals. It was as if a valley had opened up to create an isolated one-way path. 
She ran down the long and mostly flat route—only for the blond knight, Aiz Wallenstein, to appear right in front of her. 
“Eh?!” 
The blonde stood in the middle of the path, barring the exit. The animal person was in shock. 
Aiz had instructed the elf, Lefiya, to keep up the pursuit and looped around in front at breakneck speed in order to cut her off. 
Aiz slowly walked toward the girl from the front; Lefiya ran up from behind. The two had their target caught in a pincer. With nowhere to escape, the girl collapsed to her knees in the middle of the narrow path. 
“Haah…haa…We caught her. That was amazing, Miss Aiz.” 
“Not really. It was thanks to you, Lefiya.” 
The two caught their breath and nodded to each other before looking down at the girl sitting between them. 
She was a chienthrope with long black hair and two floppy dog ears coming out of the top of her head. Her skin was a healthy wheat color, and the streamlined muscles on her thin arms and legs looked just as powerful as an animal person’s should. 
She was wearing a thin, one-piece battle cloth and long boots that laced all the way up to her knees. On the other hand, she didn’t have a scrap of armor anywhere. 
“It might be a good idea…for the others to ask the questions, rather than us.” 
“I agree. Let’s go back to the square.” 
Their suspect apprehended, Aiz and Lefiya didn’t take their eyes off her as they attempted to bring her back—but. 
“No!” 
Floppy ears pulled all the way back as the girl looked up at her captors, tears streaming from her eyes, and made her plea. 
“Please, no, anywhere but there! If I show my face there again, I-I…!” 
“U-umm…!” 
“Wh-what…what are you doing?!” 
The chienthrope latched herself firmly onto Aiz, arms wrapped tightly around her waist as she looked straight up at her. 
Aiz wasn’t sure how to react, but Lefiya dropped her staff and immediately tried to pull the girl off her ally. “Please, please, please…!” The girl pleaded once again and buried her face in Aiz’s stomach. Despite Lefiya’s best efforts, she wouldn’t budge. 

The panic and desperation in her voice made the human and the elf exchange confused glances. 
“Wh-what shall we do?” 
“…Take her somewhere without any people.” 
“Are you sure that is okay?” 
“Yes. She seems too frightened right now…We’ll listen to what she has to say after she calms down.” 
Aiz returned her gaze to the terrified captive and made her suggestion. 
Realizing that they would get nowhere like this, Lefiya nodded in agreement. Each girl took one of the chienthrope’s hands and led her out of the passageway. 
They guided her toward a storage lot closer to the town wall toward the northwest. 
Hundreds of cargo boxes used to bring large amounts of items in and out of the Dungeon were being stored here. Looking around, they saw no shortage of pickaxes, shovels, and lumber scattered among them. Most likely, all the items used to build Rivira were stored here. Since everyone was at Crystal Square, the storage lot was eerily silent. 
Each cargo box was taller than any of the girls. They had been lined up in rows or stacked on top of each other in a way that made the storage lot look like a fortress. 
Aiz and Lefiya brought the girl all the way into the back of the lot and found a place that was protected by the boxes on all sides. Then, they turned to face her. 
“Are you okay now?” 
“…Yea.” 
Lefiya turned on a portable magic-stone lamp she had picked up on the way in. 
Light illuminated the containers around them as the chienthrope slowly nodded in response to Aiz’s question. 
“And your name is?” 
“Lulune…Lulune Louie.” 
“And your Level and familia?” 
“Third tier, Level Two. I’m with Hermes Familia…” 
Lulune slowly calmed down and caught her breath as she answered Aiz’s and Lefiya’s questions, cooperating without making a fuss. She had a face that would have looked friendly under any other circumstances, but she still shook visibly in the dim light. 
Aiz looked her square in the eye and got right to the point. 
“Why…why did you run away from the square?” 
“…Because I thought someone was going to kill me.” 
“Why did you think that?” 
Aiz pressed even further to get answers out of the quiet girl. 
“Because you’re carrying something that belonged to Hashana?” 
That question got Lefiya’s attention, too. Her eyes as wide as the chienthrope’s, the two girls followed Aiz’s line of sight to the pouch on her shoulder. 
Both of Lulune’s hands reflexively went to the medium-sized bag. She nodded after a few moments, almost like she was confessing, without releasing her white-knuckle grip on the strap. 
“Why would you be carrying anything that belonged to him…? Did you…did you steal it?” 
“N-no! I just…accepted a quest.” 
Both Aiz and Lefiya jumped when they heard the word “quest.” Images of Hashana’s blood-soaked form flooded into Aiz’s mind as she looked at the girl in front of her. 
Aiz asked the next logical question. 
“What did it say?” 
“To come here and pick up a package, then bring it to the surface…to the client.” 
“In other words, make a delivery?” 
Lulune nodded again. 
“I was supposed to meet a guy with the package at a predetermined bar. I didn’t know who it was, but they told me what he would be wearing. When I saw an adventurer in full-plated armor, I knew it was him right away.” 
All she had to do after that was make contact and say the password. 
The adventurer in full plate armor—Hashana—would have immediately realized that she was the one he had to give the package to, passing the item to her on the spot. It must have been finished in the blink of an eye, over so quickly that the robed woman didn’t know about it. 
Then, free from the stress of his quest, Hashana let his guard down and lost his life to the woman who invited him to the inn. 
“Employing two adventurers for different roles, from different familias even…” 
One quest had been issued to retrieve the package; another had been issued to deliver it to the surface. Whoever their client was, he or she paid extreme attention to detail. Even if the retriever were followed, having the exchange point among the hundreds of upper-class adventurers in the always busy Rivira would have made it difficult for the package to be tracked. 
Lefiya couldn’t help but be impressed with the lengths the mysterious client had gone to in protecting this delivery. 
“Who is the client?” 
“I don’t know…Really, I don’t. A little while ago, I was walking down a deserted street in the middle of the night and this really weird person just came out of nowhere…” 
Lulune’s eyebrows rose slightly as she recalled what had happened. 
“They had on a thick black robe. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or woman. Of course I thought it was suspicious when they handed me the quest form…But the reward, oh man, that reward…And they paid most of it up front.” 
Lulune looked away in embarrassment, rubbing her neck with her right hand. 
It wasn’t hard for Aiz to envision the girl in front of her accepting a large amount of money from someone in a black robe, her tail happily swishing back and forth. 
“Huh, wait a minute…Miss Lulune? You said you are Level Two, yes? From what you said, you accepted this quest on your own…Isn’t it a little too dangerous for you to come to Rivira by yourself?” 
Rivira was located on the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon—an adventurer’s Basic Abilities needed to be between G and D to reliably reach the middle levels safely. 
Therefore, a third-tier adventurer would have to be extremely capable to make it this far into the Dungeon solo, without any party members to protect them. Which meant that she had to be above a certain threshold to guarantee a safe arrival in Rivira. 
Add in how careful the mysterious client was, and it was highly unlikely they would entrust a Level 2 adventurer with a matter this important. 
A twinge of fear crossed Lulune’s face the moment Lefiya asked her question. It took her a moment to form a response. 
“W-well…Lord Hermes asked me to keep the rank-up a secret, so…S-sorry, I, um, I’m actually Level Three.” 
““…”” 
Aiz and Lefiya didn’t know what to say. Lulune did her best to look as small as possible as she backed away from the two girls. She was more than likely one or two years older than them, but right now, she looked like a child being scolded by her mother. 
However, this brought something else to light. 
The mysterious client had access to information that enabled him or her to figure out Lulune was Level 3. 
“…I should’ve just gone back to the surface rather than hang out down here. I recognized the armor in the square, so I knew it was the guy I got the package from. Once I heard he’d been killed…The killer was probably after what was in his bag, and I…” 
Aiz had witnessed the moment in Crystal Square when Lulune connected the dots and started to panic. 
The chienthrope’s voice became quieter with each word. The girl didn’t look up from the ground as she spoke. Aiz and Lefiya didn’t say a word, only making eye contact with each other. 
“Miss Aiz, our general really should hear this…” 
“—NO!” 
Lefiya had only meant to point out the limits of what they could do, but her choice of words sent a tremor of fear down Lulune’s spine and she cried out. 
“Large groups of people are scary! Hashana’s killer is still in there somewhere! If they figure out that I’ve got the goods, this time I’ll be the one that…!” 
Lulune clutched the pouch tightly to her chest and unleashed an impassioned plea. 
Lefiya froze, unsure what to do. Aiz looked closely at the girl’s face in profile before lowering her gaze to the pouch. 
“Give the package to us,” she said. 
Lulune’s eyes shot open at the request. 
Aiz looked at the blank expression on the girl’s face, her golden eyes radiating unwavering determination. 
Lulune started to crumble under Aiz’s imposing stare. However, thoughts of collecting the rest of her reward were still alive and well in the back of her mind. She wavered, hesitating to answer for several moments. 
She weighed the value of her safety against more money than she ever thought she’d have, but in the end, her life won. She set her jaw and nodded reluctantly. 
“I was told not to ask about it, or to show anyone, but…” 
She put the pouch onto the ground and opened the lid flap. 
Reaching into a hidden compartment within the pouch, Lulune extracted a smaller bag shut tight with a pull string. 
Beads of nervous sweat running down her face, she pulled the round bag off of the contents inside. 
“…!” 
“Wh-what in the world is this…?” 
Lulune placed a crystal orb into Aiz’s outstretched hands. 
The orb itself was light green. A clear outer shell encased a green liquid—and a fetus of something unsettling. 
The eyes on the fetus’s face were disproportionately large to the rest of his body. They looked up at Aiz and Lefiya, unblinking. The head of the fetus had long hair that curled down to its shoulders, making it look female. Ba-dum, ba-dum. While the infant creature itself was silent, Aiz could feel its faint heartbeat through the shell. 
“A drop item? Or perhaps a new form of monster?” 
Lefiya voiced several more questions, but Aiz couldn’t take her eyes off the orb. 
This feeling… 
She suddenly felt strange. 
Her heart sped up, matching the pulse coming from the creature in her hands. 
Aiz could feel the blood racing through her veins, getting faster and faster every moment her eyes met its gaze. 
What is this…? 
She had no earthly idea what this crystal orb in the palm of her hands could possibly be. 
A high-pitched whine rang in her ears. At the same time, she could have sworn hundreds of worms were tunneling around under her skin. Aiz was nauseous within moments. 
She fell to her knees the second dizziness overtook her. 
“Miss Aiz?!” 
She felt the orb slip from her hands and roll across the ground. 


 


Lefiya kept Aiz upright, supporting her with her right hand as Aiz took many deep breaths in quick succession. 
Lulune was frozen on the verge of tears. 
“…!” 
Lefiya quickly deduced that the cause of Aiz’s breakdown had to be the orb. Snatching it up off the ground, she brought it away from the blond girl. 
“Haah…haah…” Aiz’s shoulders rose and fell with each breath. However, each breath was quieter than the last and she began to recover. 
Silence once again fell on the clearing between cargo boxes, lit up by the magic-stone lamp. 
Lefiya and Lulune watched quietly as the blond girl sitting on the ground finally opened her eyes, her hand still on her breastplate. 
 
Another set of eyes followed the three girls. 
A figure shrouded in darkness was on top of the city wall. 
From that position, it had a straight line of vision through the erratically placed cargo boxes and into the space where a human, an elf, and an animal person were conversing. 
Keeping breathing to a minimum, the figure studied the faces of each of the girls in turn until finally falling on the human knight. 
—Very strong. 
Watchful eyes narrowed. 
“That complicates things,” the observer whispered, looking at the saber at her waist and struggling to find a physical weakness on the blond-haired, golden-eyed girl. 
The shadow observed them carefully until the animal girl opened her pouch and a crystal orb appeared. 
A flame burned behind the irises that glared from afar. They were so focused on the fetus inside the green orb that they failed to see that the blond girl had collapsed. 
They turned to look toward the crowded center of town before returning to the girl. 
Finally, the figure reached underneath its chest plate and withdrew a reed pipe. 
“—Come.” 
The high tones of a flute came forth from the figure’s lips and pipe. 
It spread far and wide, traveling through the air over the town. 
 
“Are you feeling okay, Miss Aiz?” 
“…Yes, just fine.” 
Her voice weak, Aiz started to slowly climb to her feet. 
Lefiya was taken aback; she had never seen her idol struggle to stand before. Masking her concern, the elf looked down at the orb still in her hand. 
A disgusting fetus protected by a green shell was reflected in her eyes. She, too, began to wonder what in the world the orb was as she looked back and forth between it and Aiz. 
“A-are we gonna be okay…? W-was this thing too dangerous after all?” 
Lulune was losing her cool once again. 
Lefiya didn’t have any answers. She took one more look at Aiz’s face and made up her mind. 
“I will carry it to our general.” 
While she had no idea why, she knew that the crystal orb had done something bizarre to Aiz. Perhaps it was because of their difference in race, but she felt no ill effects carrying the orb herself. 
Of course, she wanted to be rid of the green sphere as soon as possible. She was determined to do anything she could to prevent Aiz from collapsing again, so there was no choice but to carry it. 
After all, Lefiya had to help her fellow adventurer. 
“Sorry, Lefiya…” 
“Please do not apologize. At times like these I will do what I must…Miss Aiz, please stay back.” 
Trying to encourage her with a smile, Lefiya looked over to Lulune. 
The dog girl gave a quick nod. The two of them quickly returned the orb to the small pouch and closed the drawstring. Returning it to the backpack, Lefiya swung the strap over her shoulder. 
Collecting the staff that she had left propped up against a box, she turned to face Aiz and Lulune. 
“Well then, shall we go—” 
It happened just as the words came out of her mouth. 
Off in the distance, they heard a chorus of roars like broken bells. 
“?!” 
The girls’ eyes widened in shock before they raced out of the storage lot. 
They zipped between the crystals and rocks that littered the dark path. Their breathing grew heavier as they picked up speed and finally emerged from the passageway. 
They had arrived on some high ground that overlooked the entire Dungeon floor. 
The three saw pillars of smoke rising from the town on the other side of the handrail the moment they set foot on the lookout point. Then… 
“Those are…!” 
The heads of countless man-eating plants rose high above the town. 
 
“What do you mean ‘monsters are breaking in’? What were the guards doing?!” 
Bors’s angry yell cut through the air. 
The plant monsters were pouring over the city walls and making a beeline for Crystal Square. Their long bodies slithered forward as each of them howled into the night. The swarm was getting closer every second. 
A scream, probably from one of the guards who’d seen a piece of the wall collapse, echoed into the night as tents and small shops were crushed under the monsters. Snaps of wood and groans of metal joined the ominous rumble of the howling onslaught. 
“?AAHHH!!” 
Crystal pillars shattered, their fragments falling through the air like raindrops. The first wave of monsters had arrived. They blazed the trail for the rest of their kin to follow, flowing in like a tidal wave. 
The sound of terrified screams rippled out through the town as the first adventurers caught a glimpse of the monsters and their seemingly limitless amount of whiplike tendrils. 
“Tiona, Tione, protect them!” 
The Amazonian twins rushed forward, following Finn’s orders. 
Bounding through the crowd with Urga and Kukri knives in their hand, the two girls launched themselves at the oncoming monsters with blades flashing in the night. Each slash sent heads and green appendages to the ground. 
“The same things that were at the festival! Where are they all coming from?” 
“Everyone, stay close! Don’t run away!” 
Unlike at the Monsterphilia, the two girls now had their favorite weapons at their disposal. What’s more, they were strong enough to penetrate the monster’s hide. 
While the Amazons were busy taking down the beasts one after another, the mass of adventurers was in utter chaos. Attacked from every angle, some were knocked airborne by their snakelike bodies, and then snatched out of the sky by their fearsome jaws. Some of the adventurers were able to form groups and fight back, but the monsters held a clear advantage. 
Once they knew they didn’t stand a chance, Tiona’s warning meant nothing as they split up and ran for cover. 
They left Crystal Square, seeking safety in an all-out panic. 
Tiona and Tione kept up the counterattack, doing their best to follow the fleeing adventurers and their ferocious pursuers. 
“Riveria, these monsters respond to magic energy. Conjure up as much as you can to draw all of them back here! Bors, get everyone to form teams of five! It might be possible for one group to overpower one monster with that many members!” 
“Understood.” 
“Y-you got it!” 
Finn analyzed the battle, as much of it as he could see at once, and issued quick, precise orders. 
A magic circle formed beneath Riveria’s feet as Bors raced into the chaos yelling at the top of his lungs. The high elf’s beautiful voice reached the monsters, and sure enough, they changed course back into the square. Spear in hand, Finn raced to the front lines and tore through every foe in his path. 
His strategy was simple: kill them in one shot with a precise strike to the magic stone in the back of their throats. Other adventurers watched his bravery in awe, seeing the small prum jump into the air or run up the monsters’ bodies to kill the beasts in one strike. He called out to them, voice gruff and dry, with encouragement and a call to battle. At long last, the remaining adventurers took formation. 
The chaos under control, their counterattack was under way. 
“Everything is too perfect…!” 
Finn finally had time to analyze a situation now that the tidal wave of enemies was being held at bay. He frowned. 
Even from where he was, the prum could tell that over fifty of the creatures were assailing the town. What’s worse, more were arriving every second. Rivira was built on the side of the cliff in the middle of an island for protection. Even his ability to sense oncoming attacks didn’t give him any warning this time. The fact that so many of these creatures had shown up here without any sign felt odd and very suspicious. 
It was too coordinated. 
Finn took off at a sprint, jumping on top of broken crystals and rock formations to leave the square, and raced through the town. He reached the side of the cliff in no time and leaned out over the guardrail. 
“…?!” 
What his blue eyes saw made him shiver in fear. 
From his vantage point two hundred meders above, he could see the surface of the water dancing in the darkness as an unfathomable amount of the creatures emerged from the lake and started making their way up the cliff. 
Monsters coming out of the lake—a lake in the middle of the safe point, no less? The impossibility made the wheels in Finn’s mind spin into overdrive. Then the realization hit him like a magic-stone lamp switching on. 
They had hidden their presence, lying in wait for the right time to attack. 
That was something monsters could never do on their own. They required guidance. 
It was unthinkable to lead so many of them at once, but that was the only explanation that made sense. 
Finn’s face contorted as the answer his brain had given him escaped from his lips. 
“Could it be—a Tamer…?!” 
 



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