...No Mercy for Thieves...
There was a knock at Aurdel's door, "Come in," he said. The door opened and Wiz stepped through. She was carrying a tray.
"I made you some tea and something to eat, you didn't come down for breakfast or lunch," she walked towards the desk he was working at.
"You didn't have to do that for me. And sorry, I was busy so I didn't want to come down."
She set the tray down, "What were you working on?"
"This," he gestured towards large sheet of paper that sat on top of the desk.
"It's a… drawing?"
"Not just any drawing, a blueprint." He erased a small mistake he'd made, redoing the section correctly this time. "You know what that means, right?"
"I'm afraid not," she gave a smile as if she felt sorry for not knowing.
"A blueprint is essentially a sketch of a planned product, done beforehand it can be used as a model for when the product is actually made."
"That makes sense, but then what is this sketch supposed to be of?"
"This is an internal combustion engine, nothing you'd ." Effectively, Aurdel had a master's degree education in most fields. The same could be said for the other Spartan given that they'd all gone through the same training. Some might call it overboard, but to them it was necessary to know all they could to function as an effective fighting force.
"You're right, I don't. But what is it supposed to do?"
"Well, where I'm from we don't use horses or carriages to go places, we use cars. And to get them to run properly they all need one of these."
"Are you sketching it because you're planning to make one of those cars here?"
"That I am. Before I do make it I have to make sure I know what I need, along with how I'll be using it. After that it's all a matter of collecting the resources and-"
"Eh?! How is your level so high?!" He heard Megumin shout a few rooms over. What was she on about this time? He decided to investigate. After quickly drinking the tea and the food Wiz had brought him he left his room.
He found Megumin and Yunyun standing in the living room, the latter triumphantly and the former dejectedly. "What's going on?" He asked.
Yunyun turned to face him excitedly, "Aurdel! I won!"
"That's great Yunyun, but won at what?"
"I finally beat Megumin in a duel! I challenged her to see which one of us had a higher level, and I had the higher level!" It was hard to ignore the happiness she was displaying, she didn't look this happy that often. Megumin on the other hand looked like someone who had their worldview completely shattered before their very eyes and was going through a crisis of conscience.
"I… I lost," she stared at the floor with a blank expression.
"Why don't you go relax then? I'm sure you put in a lot of work towards levelling up, so you should reward yourself."
"I will!" And she ran off, probably to go into town to do something.
"Shouldn't someone go with her?" Darkness asked.
"No, I trust her enough not to do anything stupid." He thought for a moment, "Megumin, how high was her level?"
"...She was twelve levels higher than me."
"Twelve? How could she have risen that high? Weren't you two supposed to be around the same level?"
"We were right before the trip, I don't know how she could've risen so fast."
"The only thing recently that she killed was that man poisoning the water at Alcanretia… Who was he?"
"I'm not sure, but I still feel angry about all of this. Aurdel, I want to go and use Explosion on something. Let's go now." Megumin gripped her staff tightly, she really wasn't happy about this. Did she really care about winning that much?
"If you insist. Anatalia, come with us. You might as well familiarize yourself with the surrounding area if you're going to be with us."
She bounced up from where she was sitting on the couch, "Sure thing, I want to see what kind of monsters there are in the area anyways."
"Do be careful," Wiz said, "Some of the monsters have gone into hiding again."
"The last time that happened was when Beldia was nearby, could there be another General or someone else strong enough to justify that?"
"I wouldn't know, I don't stay updated with everything the Demon King does."
"By the way Wiz, what's the progress on them rebuilding your shop? I don't mean for it to sound like I'm trying to kick you out, but-"
"No, it's fine. They're working on it but I haven't checked on it recently. Could you check on it for me since you'll be passing through town?"
"Sure, it'll be no problem. Alright you two, come on." He motioned for them to follow him, "And Darkness, make sure Aqua doesn't do anything to Wiz."
"Why do I have to be babysat?! I'm a Goddess!" She looked up from the painting she was making using watercolors and pouted.
"I've never heard of any Archrpriest calling themself a Goddess before," Anatalia said, "She must have some serious self worth issues to call herself one."
"T-that's really rude!" Aqua cried.
"Well, it certainly looks better than you left it."
"Shut up." Megumin punched his shoulder in response, but only ended up hurting her hand instead. "I'm telling you, it wasn't my fault. I really did see a baby dragon."
"Believe me if that's all it took to avoid taking the blame for something there wouldn't be an issue with people being falsely imprisoned."
"Agreed, justice isn't perfect."
"Anatalia you're a thief, one with with a considerably high bounty for committing a legitimate crime."
"I can still have an opinion, can't I?"
The place where Wiz's shop had been was previously a large crater, one left as a result of Megumin's Explosion spell. But now the area had been cleared and level with the rest of the town, the roads laid down once more and the foundations of the buildings set. The frames of the buildings being rebuilt were also in place though they were nowhere near being in the state they'd been in before they were destroyed. But now, since they'd checked on the progress, they could go out of town and let Megumin use Explosion, though in a place that wouldn't result in him paying millions in restitution. "Well, we should get going. If we don't leave now then it'll probably be dark by the time we get back."
He was about to leave when- "Steal!" A woman's voice shouted it out, he felt a weight lift off from his left side. He patted it quickly, his sword was gone.
He turned around to see who'd done it, it was Chris. She held the sword in her hands. "Chris, give that back!"
"This sword isn't yours, so I'm taking it back." She quickly turned and sprinted off, he couldn't let her take it.
He chased after her, "Wait for me here, I'll be back in a second!" He left the other two behind as he ran after Chris, what was up with her? He hadn't seen her for so long, and the first thing she does is try to steal his sword from him?
She turned her head to see if he was chasing after her as she ran, he was. "Bind!" A series of ropes was thrown out by her and towards him and looked like they would wrap around him. They did. Then they tightened and tried to immobilize him, but with swift movements he was easily able to snap the ropes and keep running after her. It looked like Chris cursed under her breath. She pushed over a market stall she ran past, spilling all matter of goods onto the ground. One of the things on the stall was a paint bucket full of paint, he grabbed it as he leapt over the ruined goods.
The way she was leading him was in the direction of an alleyway, one where he knew it led to a dead end. She was most likely going to try and hide there, then as he walked past her hiding spot she'd run away. He wasn't going to let that happen. He arc'd the paint bucket up into the air so that it'd crush and open open when it hit the ground. When it did paint splattered all over the ground. "Lurk!" Chris activated her Thief skill, but unknowingly ran straight through the paint and into the alleyway. The red paint tracked her path through the alleyway even if she didn't notice it. He stepped into the alleyway.
The footsteps led straight down the center and went behind the side of a dumpster against one of its walls. He walked a little bit down the center first, to make it seem like he'd walk the full length town. Then he quickly spun and kicked the dumpster hard, rupturing its side but also sending it crashing into Chris. He heard her cry out and go flying as it hit her. He wasn't going to allow for a chance for her to recover from the blow so he charged straight down the alleyway towards her. She dropped the sword and slid on the ground, quickly managing to get herself up. She pulled out her dagger and angled it towards him, then jabbed out with it.
Almost instantly he moved his hand around the blade and grabbed her wrist, taking it with enough force to break and release her grip on the dagger. She cried out in pain and dropped the dagger, he grabbed it with his free hand. If she was going to come at him with a weapon then he wasn't going to offer her the chance to retaliate again. He flipped the blade around and, using his knowledge of the human body, performed three quick and precise stabs towards her midsection. The first into the liver, the second into the kidney and the third into the spleen. All were extremely painful blows normally with just blunt trauma. But if they were stabbed? It could become fatal within a matter of moments. And that was just with each one of them alone.
He released his grip on her arm and she fell backwards holding her wounds, falling onto the cold stone ground covered in blood. "I didn't want to have to do it, but you made it necessary." He walked over and picked up his sword, "You'll want to see a healer quicker or else you're going to-"
"Heal!" Somehow, Chris healed herself. Huh? He thought only Priests classes like it could use that magic. She was a Thief, there's no way that she should be able to use it. He was befuddled. "Escape!" Using that confusion she escaped, not bothering to take back either her dagger or his sword again on the way out. He looked around, there was no sign of her. But he wasn't going to keep looking for her though, hopefully she'd learned her lesson.
He left the alley and walked down the path they'd torn through to get there. How Chris was able to use healing magic was still on his mind, mostly because he had no explanation for it. Maybe there were other classes that could use it but he just didn't know about it? There was no way of telling, it was by no means his area of expertise. This would be a question for Aqua as much as he didn't want to have to rely on her. So he put it out of his mind for now, he could worry about it later. "What happened? Megumin asked when he got back.
"Not sure, she just stole my sword and ran off. Didn't give me any meaningful explanation either, only what you heard too."
"Did… did you kill her?" She glanced at the blood on his armor gauntlet.
"No, she's alive. I got my sword back, took her dagger too."
He held out the blade to Anatalia handle first, "You'll probably make better use of it than me." She took it.
"This dagger, it's… It's enchanted." Yes, he knew that. She'd told him that herself when she taught him the Steal skill. He didn't know what it was enchanted with though.
"Any idea on it's specifics?"
"Not at the moment, I can take a better look at it when we get back."
"Alright then, let's go so Megumin can use her spell then head back home."
...A Dungeon Detour...
"Wiz was right, there really aren't any monsters around again." The walked in the plains outside of Axel, there was hardly any noise. Normally in the area they were walking in they encountered at least one or two monsters but today there were none.
"If there's no monsters for me to cast Explosion on, can I do it on that castle?"
"No you can't."
"Why not?!"
"Because I have plans for that castle, ones that need what's left of it to remain intact."
"Plans? What kind of plans?"
"You'll see eventually, but still that means no firing Explosion at that castle. You'll just have to find something else to use it on."
And so they did that, spending the next few hours looking for something to cast it on. But she was extremely picky. Either the place was too boring, too small, too strong or some other reason and because of that she said she wasn't able to cast it there. They were still walking around and searching when Anatalia suddenly stopped, her tail twitched. "What's wrong?"
"I'm suddenly picking up a lot of monsters," she sniffed the air, "They're all that way, but they all seem to be very weak."
"That's perfect!" Megumin shouted, throwing her cape to flow in the wind. She raised her staff.
"Is it really?"
"Of course it is! The more enemies I can cast Explosion on the better." Her eyes lit up, "My name is Megumin! The blow that I am given to strike turns a blind eye to the fate of my kindred, rendering all hope of rebirth into anguish and the model by which all forces are judged! Monsters of the world, synchronize yourself with the red smoke and atone in a surge of blood! Burst forth, Explosion!"
She blasted the general direction of where the monsters were, clearing out a large section of trees in the resulting explosion and blast wave. When the dust cleared they found that they were very near to somewhere they'd been before. "Wait a minute, that's the entrance to Keele's dungeon." With all the trees gone they were able to see the entrance to the dungeon, along with the fact that a large line of somethings was streaming out of it.
"What are those things?" Megumin asked as he picked her up.
"I'm not sure," Anatalia scratched her chin, "But those small things are the same as those monsters I picked up, something or someone must be making them inside there."
The things she was referring to were about as small as dolls, ones that a child would play with. "They look relatively harmless, but it's better to be safe than sorry. After all if someone as small as Megumin can wipe out large groups of monsters, there's no reason to think something else can't do the same." Megumin tried to choke him while on his back, but she really couldn't do anything to him so he ignored it. If something really was making monsters from this dungeon then it would eventually come up to the guild as a quest, one that adventurers would have to be sent to complete. He decided that he'd solve it before it came up. "Alright, we're going to investigate and find out what's making those things."
He put hand cannon onto his arm and loaded a magazine in, he took aim. He was aiming for the small monster at the very front since they all seemed to be marching in formation. Once he had the shot, he fired. "Wind Breath!" The steel ball went flying through the air, striking the monster on what appeared to be its head. But rather than falling down and dying, it exploded! The whole line of monsters behind it went off in a chain explosion as well. "Okay, this may end up being harder than expected. Anatalia, do you have any form of mid to long range skills?"
"Not really. All I have is bind, but that wouldn't be useful in this situation."
Alright, this was mostly up to him then. "Why don't you take Megumin then? I'll do the legwork and you just follow behind me." So she took her from him. It would've helped to have other people with them right now, but if he wanted to get home before dark then they really had no time to run back. "Wind Breath!" He shot at another group of monsters outside, setting off another chain of explosions. With the path outside cleared they entered the dungeon. The amount of those monsters was immense, it was as if something had been creating them for quite some time. Obviously it hadn't been Keele, he hadn't done anything of the like before he asked Aqua to purify him. So who could it be?
"Wind Breath! Wind Breath!" He took down another group of the monsters. All of these monsters looked exactly the same, possessing the same humanoid shape, rounded figure and what appeared to be a mask covering their at least partially human looking faces. One could say they looked like porcelain dolls, though he hadn't heard of any porcelain dolls that exploded when they were smashed. To find the source of these monsters he followed the trail of explosions they left when he destroyed them, leading him deeper and deeper into the dungeon. He didn't know how many of them he destroyed on their way in. But eventually they found someone.
A man sat cross legged in one of the dungeon's corners, dressed in what appeared to be a suit and the same design of mask as those exploding dolls. The ground around him was largely uncovered revealing exposed dirt and clay. The reason behind it was obvious once Aurdel saw the man molding the same dolls with his hands from the dirt, applying some sort of magic to it afterwards. So he was the one responsible for this. He turned to Anatalia, "Use Lurk and hide yourself for now. I'll approach him first."
She nodded, "Lurk!" She and Megumin disappeared into the shadows of the dungeon. Aurdel put away the hand cannon and drew his sword, then stepped forward.
"So you're the one responsible for all of those dolls wandering around," he pointed his weapon at the sitting man.
"Oh? Moi hadn't expected for adventurers to arrive quite yet, moi was still preparing this dungeon. But no matter, welcome to my dungeon! And you art correct, moi am responsible as the source for all evil originating from this dungeon. Moi art a General of the Demon King's army, the Duke of hell that commands the Devils! The Archdevil that can see through anything in the world, Vanir!" Another General of the Demon King? Then this really was another situation like Beldia. He really couldn't let him leave her alive.
"Moi can already sense your intentions man who puts on a noble front but really hides a damaged young boy, I am not here to pick a fight with thou nor the adventurers of this town. After all moi am simply a General in name, as moi only upholds the barrier that surrounds his castle. I am here because the Demon King as moi to investigate the death of Beldia, but also to visit a fellow General with the aptitude of becoming more impoverished even as she works to raise herself out of debt." Aurdel grit his teeth. "Judging by your thoughts, thou seem to have encountered them both. Yes, you seem to be the one responsible for Beldia's death. Tell moi, would thou also happen to know a Hans or a Wolbach?"
Hans or Wolbach? The names weren't familiar, the only two other people from the Demon King's army he'd possible encountered recently would be those two that he'd seen at the mixed bath in Alcanretia. "Thou seems to have met them both too, as well as having the former killed in your encounter with them…" There was an awkward silence between the two of them after that. "Perhaps moi should deal with you now, given how great of a threat you appear to be to the Demon King and myself." Vanir stood up, "Normally moi would not kill humans, but moi might have to make an exception for you and your aggression." His eyes glowed a bloody red at Aurdel.
"I can't let you live, not if you're making those exploding dolls that are wandering out of the dungeon."
"Wandering out? Moi simply made them to drive out all of the monsters from this dungeon. But moi suppose that matters not if we will fight. Vanir Style Death Ray!" A large and bright beam shot out from Vanir and towards Aurdel, he dodged the blast. It crashed into the wall behind him in a ferocious blast, knocking a large amount of stone down. "No one has ever dodged one of my Vanir Style Death Rays before, but no matter." A group of those small exploding dolls leapt out and charged towards him, he swung his sword and cleared them. The resulting explosion kicked up a large amount of dust and dirt practically blind him.
"Vanir Style Death Ray!" This time the blast hit him and his armor and sent him spiraling back. His shields were dropped completely from his and his suit's internal temperature raised a good bit, but besides that he was still in perfect fighting order. Aurdel charged forward with his sword towards Vanir, the Archdevil dodged his blows with fluent motion. "Thou might be fast and strong, but moi can predict your movements! But where are your adventurer friends? Moi doubt you would come here alone, so where are they?"
"I don't have anyone with me, so focus on me!" He kept pressing the attack, but Vanir continued to dodge. Even if Vanir could read his mind it couldn't be while he was either attacking or being attacked, that made it easier for him to push him into an ambush.
Aurdel leapt behind him, forcing him towards the other direction where he'd come from. "Come, come and try and hit moi! Moi can assure thou that it is impossible!" The Archdevil gloated gleefully as Aurdel swung and drove him back where he knew Anatalia was sitting with Megumin. He didn't need to tell either of them what to do though, the fact that he was pushing him back towards them should be enough.
"Maybe I won't be the one to kill you."
"Oh? Does thou have a different plan in mind? Allow moi to offer a counterpoint, Vanir Style Death Ray!" He shot it at him again, Aurdel dodged. Vanir stopped and held his head standing out in the hallway, "Yes, I can see it now! You have-!"
Anatalia shot out from nowhere and stabbed Vanir with the dagger he'd taken from Chris, the Archdevil let out a wail of pain. "T-to think! I'd be defeated here!" Vanir's body dissolved into dirt and the mask fell to the floor.
"Did I get him?" Anatalia asked.
"I wouldn't know, so-"
"Do not get your hopes up! For that body was merely a doll, now I shall take another!" The mask shot forward and tried to stick itself onto Aurdel's helmet. Not only did it ding off his helmet harmlessly, but it gave him the opportunity to grab the mask. "...It appears moi have made a mistake, so release me."
The mask thrashed in his hands as he held it, "Thou wouldn't be able to destroy my mask either, it would take a great force to do so. One that you would not have." Aurdel was willing to test that, he began to bend the mask. "Try not, for thou will be-!" A crack appeared on the mask, "Ah, this is unfortunate." Then, the mask snapped in half and released a large amount of magic. He was left with the two broken halves of the mask, he tossed them aside.
"Well, we're done here."
"Wiz, why is he here."
"Oh Aurdel! Vanir-san is an old friend, he currently doesn't have a place to go so I allowed him to stay here for now. " He looked around, Aqua was presumably out cold drunk, Darkness was unconscious and Yunyun was off to the side having dinner with the people that were still lively.
"Worry not adventurer surrounded by women but has yet to make a move, moi does not hold a grudge against thou. In fact moi would thank thou for freeing moi from service to the Demon King."
...What? "Now that moi no longer serves him or has any responsibilities to him, moi can freely pursue my dreams to create a dungeon! A dungeon where moi would have a legion of Demons, defending it against a horde of veteran adventurers! Then once they've approached me and defeated me in search of untold riches, they will find that their actions were for naught with a sole paper in a chest. Written it on it will be these words, 'You lost.' Then after that I will pass, I could dream of no better way." Aurdel blinked, he didn't know how to respond. "Moi knows it is a simple desire, but it is one that requires the help of this useless shopkeeper."
"Vanir-san, don't call me useless."
He… he really wasn't up to arguing over this right now. "I'm going to bed."