"Long time no see magic man." Welf greeted with a toothy grin as I was donning my new armor. Today I was actually going to descend into the dungeon once more after stopping by Crozzo's shop. I didn't really need to considering my business was doing just fine, but today was also the first day of Lili officially being part of the familia and I wanted to be in the dungeon with her this time.
"Good morning Welf. Any progress on the armor?" I asked looking across his shop. He still refused to make enchanted weapons, but he did have a display of enchanted rings that have been selling like hotcakes. A few days ago I had to even put an Arcane Lock on the display case.
"Nah, I can't get magic on anything other than those stupid rings." He groaned. Apparently when he did finally get an actually spell onto the rings they would always be destroyed after one use. Still very powerful as they were a free spell, but it wasn't enough for Crozzo.
"I'm sure you'll get it soon enough. You've already made more progress in these past few days than most smiths would in their lives." I reassured him and he just shook his head in return.
"Eh, that's no reason to slow down. I want to make something that will really impress Hephaestus." He responded. I nodded along. That was a good goal. As simple as it is, improving your craft and impressing your goddess was admirable. "So how'd your and lil Lili's thing with Soma go?"
"It went... well, Soma didn't want to release her from his familia, but I didn't really give him a choice." I told him. It was kind of a surprise. I had kind of expected Soma to just give Lili up without a fight. Chandra certainly didn't care and Soma didn't seem like he would be the type to. In the end I wound up "persuading" Soma to give it up.
"You blackmailed a god?" Crozzo asked bemused.
"Well blackmail is a strong word." I said as if I were going to continue, then left the shop with Welf still waiting for an answer. It wasn't really blackmail anyways. Apparently Fels was already sick of Soma's shit and wanted to use this opportunity to smack his nuts. I just told Soma I had some sway with the guild and I could talk about reducing his punishment. Since he was a god and knew I was telling the truth, he didn't really have another option.
"You have to give me more than that magic man." Crozzo whined as Bell and Lili got back to us with Silver at their side. Silver being that silverback I used Animate Dead on. Brilliant name I know.
"Matthew!" Lili grinned jumping into a hug with me. Lili had been very affectionate after being released from the Soma familia. It was sort of strange. I thought she would be the more passive type from what I knew of her, but as she began opening up she became a lot more assertive.
"Hey Lili, Bell." I said returning the hug, "Are you two ready to head to the dungeon? How deep are we going today?"
"I've got everything prepared, and I think we'll just fight on the twelfth floor so you can catch up." Bell grinned. Hey I haven't been slouching! Hestia might not have updated me in a week, but with all my spellbook reading and undead my magic must have shot up a ton. Well at the very least this will be a casual easy dungeon run. I won't complain about that.
"Yeah yeah, lets just get going." I said ignoring Bell's little jab. As the five of us entered the dungeon I couldn't hep but smirk. We looked like real adventurers. Bell had his heroic looking armor and Hestia knife, Welf was wearing eight of those magic rings and carried a huge sword that I was honestly surprised that he could carry around, Lili was wearing a really good looking set of dragon leather armor and I was walking around in heavy armor.
In the dungeon I was given a stark reminder of just how dreadful the atmosphere was. Spend a week outside of the dungeon and when you return you get a chilling feeling in your spine. I wouldn't let that unsettling feeling distract me for long as we began cleaving our way through the odd group of goblins.
"So Matthew, do you want to join us for dinner at the hostess tonight or are you just going to make more zombies?" Lili asked me with a tone suggesting that refusing would be a bad idea. Not that I would have anyways.
"Sounds great Lili." I said cutting a kobold in half. I actually haven't been there in a while and I haven't asked Bell about Syr either. I idly wondered if Syr asked Bell out on a second date or visa versa.
"Maybe once were done I can show you the new decorations in my room." She said as we fought.
"You decorated your room?" Bell asked. Oh sweet innocent Bell, I don't think Lili really cared about her décor. Then again, things were moving quite fast and I wasn't sure if I was quite ready for that.
"Ladies love to decorate things Bell. Didn't you know that?" Crozzo asked not knowing that he was also wrong. As the two were chatting I sliced through some more monsters as we made our way down to the third floor. The first few floors have never been particularly hard, but we had flown through them.
"How far do you think we could make it if we pushed ourselves?" I asked cutting the previous conversation short.
"Eh, well we've been able to make it to the fourteenth floor last time we went. Why? You wanna give it a shot magic man?" Welf asked with a doofy grin. I was under the impression that he was mocking me, but honestly the fourteenth floor shouldn't be a problem, probably. What was even on those floors anyways? There was that tiger thing. No, that was on the sixteenth floor I think. Those dogs, the crystal mantis', probably some other things I forgot.
"Why not? I got smacked around by a dragon and lived. Can't imagine anything on the fourteenth flour could match that." I said smugly. The only thing that really posed a treat to me was the dragon, and if another one of those spawn then I can just sick Giga Bell on it.
"Matthew, you did promise to take it easy." Lili pouted.
"It's not like I wouldn't be with three other strong adventurers, plus with False Life there's nothing on these upper floors that can hurt me too badly." I said. Well nothing that can hurt me apart from the infant dragons. Speaking of monsters, a group of seven killer ants made their way to us only to be cut down. I didn't even need to use any spells. Bell had cut through three of them before I could even move and Welf swung his massive sword simply cleaving another two just after. With me stabbing the sixth and Lili shooting the seventh we had destroyed that group of ants as if they were nothing.
"Nice shot." I told Lili giving her a peck on the cheek.
"Oh, Lil Lili and the magic man are a thing huh?" Welf said as he cut a poison moth in half.
"Yup." I responded curtly. I was trying to focus on the dungeon, but with how casually everyone was acting it was hard to take the dungeon seriously. It didn't help that Silver casually flattened several needle rabbits behind me. The dungeon is an ancient malevolent murder machine, can't afford to get cozy with it. "I think we'll need to go deeper. These floors are too easy."
Nobody contesting me we continued on that so we marched forth. As we reached the eleventh floor I got to see just how far Bell was ahead of me when I spent that week off. He had danced around silverbacks and cut through hard armors with ease. Even Welf was cutting through the monsters as if they weren't a challenge. I was busy trying to dodge the swings of one of the feral silverbacks and swing back on my own, and while it wasn't as difficult as before it was by no means easy. I could probably walk over these monsters if I used my magic more, but I don't want to be a glass cannon.
"So If you want to head to the fourteenth floor with us why not go ahead and try the fifteenth? We don't need to go far, but I was hoping to find some ores I could use." Welf suggested. I wasn't opposed to it, I would just have to start using my magic instead of my sword. Lili on the other hand didn't seem to appreciate the suggestion.
"We should wait before going deeper. The dungeon is alive and wants us dead. We can't mess around." Lili chided. I wanted to say that it should be fine with me using my magic, but for some reason it felt like that would be a bad idea.
"I understand your concern, but it should be fine with the five of us all here." Bell said. Five? Oh yeah, I guess Bell is counting Silver. Lili continued to argue with Bell and Welf I decided to simply start blasting monsters with Firebolt. I couldn't kill the monsters in one shot, but seeing as I can cast Firebolt as much as I please I just rained fire onto them.
"If we do head down to the fifteenth I'll just used my magic." I said trying to dissolve the argument. After all, even if my damage was subpar, I don't think any monster on the upper floors could bust through my defense with Bell at my side.
"Well, as long as you're careful." She said with a cute pout. Smiling I patted her on the head.
"Of course we'll stay safe. In the worse case I can cast Ice Storm on myself and kill anything near me." I told her, seeing her eyes practically bulge out I quickly finished, "I'd survive easily with False Life anyways."
"Fine, but if I say we have to turn back you better listen okay?" She said glaring at me. With the argument over we headed down to the fourteenth floor. To my surprise the dog monsters seemed to resist my Firebolts and were capable of producing a similar spell themselves. The spell was more like a flame thrower than a flame bolt, but it was still a surprise since I figured flame breath would be a dragon only kind of thing.
"Get out of the way!" A feminine voice shouted as an Asian woman with samurai armor ran past us along with another woman and a man in similar attire. Behind them must have been several dozens of monsters chasing them. Well that's what I get for saying this floor wasn't a challenge I guess.
"Ice Storm." I said while pointing to the horde of monsters and a twenty-foot magic circle appeared on the ground where the lead monsters would be running into, Seconds later a hailstorm relentlessly battered any monsters caught in the spell's radius instantly killing at least ten of them and coating the floor in a sheet of ice causing others to fall. Lili began firing her crossbow at the monsters as they came while Bell, Welf and Silver began facing the monsters in melee. Even with the pass parade things were going surprisingly well.
Things were going too well in fact as I felt a surge of magic pool in the floor of the dungeon. "Everyone get ready!"
My warning was without purpose though as there was nothing any of us could do to prevent the sudden collapse of the dungeons floor underneath us. Reacting quickly I cast Feather fall on Lili as we fell. After that I had cast it on Welf, then Bell. Unfortunately I had stopped falling by the time I had tried to cast it on myself and I hit the ground with a heavy thud accompanied by a loud snap. I really need to stop breaking things. Only seconds after I had landed there was a second loud thud and my heart had stopped. Did I fail to cast Feather Fall on one of them?
Looking over I saw the collapsed body of Silver the silverback. Trying to issue it a mental command I received no response meaning the undead was gone. I could revive it, but I really didn't feel like wasting a spell slot on it. Looking up I watched Bell, Lili and Welf slowly descend all of whom looked extremely confused. With some difficulty I gasped out to Bell, "Hey Bell, you have any health potions?"
"Matthew what did I just say about being careful." Lili growled.
"I uh. Are you alright?" I asked not really wanting to discuss the tendency for disaster to happen around me.
"I'm alright." She said with a sigh. She gave me a quick look up and down to make sure I was alright before turning to Bell and Welf. "It looks like the dungeon decided we would be going to the seventeenth floor today I suppose."
"Seventeenth?" I asked. It didn't feel like I had fallen three floors.
"Yeah you didn't see magic man?" Welf began before making an ohh face, " Oh yeah, you fell a lot faster than us."
"Well if we're on the seventeenth floor then we can stop down in Rivira to rest and stock up on potions. I owe a guy from there anyways." I said. I didn't think I'd be seeing.. Tenji? Again so soon, but I may as well drop by while I'm here. There was no argument amongst our group, the others may have been fine, but I was pretty out of it after that fall and they could tell. There were some monsters that tried to attack us, a group of five minotaur specifically, but Welf decided to simply obliterate them with two uses of his magic rings.
Reaching the stairwell to the eighteenth floor I was greeted once more by the long hall of the boss fight arena. It was a lot less intimidating now that I knew I could insta kill the goliath. The others weren't so sure as the dragged their feet when crossing the hall. It didn't even end up mattering as the goliath hadn't spawned leading me to wonder how long it took for the dungeon to recreate it. With the magical prowess of the dungeon it wouldn't surprise me if it could spawn one multiple times a day. Since we made it through unopposed there was likely some unwritten rule that dungeon-chan just doesn't mass spawn boss numbers. Or maybe she just didn't want to make mega monsters like that when I can just delete them.
"Well Rivira Is just up ahead." I said looking in the direction of the town. It should have been reassuring that we were able to make it here, but something felt off. I thought I had felt feign traces of necrotic magic, but that shouldn't have been possible. As we drew closer to the town I realized that yes, there was in fact necrotic magic flowing from the direction of the town.
"Everybody stay alert, something's wrong. " I warned. There was that Fels guy from earlier, but this source was powerful as opposed to the much more subtle magic I felt from Fels. I think Loki also mentioned undead in the dungeon at one point. Was there some sort of monster that radiated such magic here?
As we entered the town proper my gut feeling only worsened. There wasn't a single person here and I kept hearing things shuffling around that none of the others heard. The air of the town was heavy and made me nauseous as we searched. I had looked inside Tenji's house only to find it empty with the exception of a plate of food sitting on the table undisturbed, probably only a day or two old. It didn't look like there had been a fight, so Tenji had just left his home with a full plate of food left out.
"Master." A soft voice said from behind me causing me to turn around ready to cast spell at a moments notice, but nothing was there.
"You find something magic man?" Welf asked with unnerve clear in his voice.
"It's nothing." I responded. The only one who would have called me master was Lili and she hasn't done that in a while. Also the voice wasn't loud enough to be a shout and Lili was on the other side of town with Bell. It had to have been my imagination.
"It's over here." Welf shouted from one of the houses catching my attention. Welf, you can't just say 'It's here'. What the hell is 'It'. None the less I followed Welf's voice into the seemingly innocuous house. At first glance nothing had seemed wrong with it, though that changed when I entered the bedroom. The bedsheet was soaked with blood.
"Welf? Where are you?" I asked as my nausea flared. Whatever happened here it was making me ill. I needed to hurry and find out what happened and get the hell out of here.
"I'm down here!" Welf shouted from below me. Looking around the small house I found a latch that led to a cellar. Entering I found myself in a chilly room with a disturbing sight. I know I had heard Welf call me from here, but he was nowhere to be found. The only thing in this room was a strange alter made of bloodied bones. At least three ribcages at the bottom with various other bones sticking up from the ground around them in a semicircle and a skull being propped up by a femur. Surrounding the alter was a bunch of runes drawn on the floor by what seemed to be blood.
"Magic man help me please." Welf cried desperately. His voice coming directly from the alter. I knew it had to have been a trap. I didn't want to touch it, but before I had even realized my had was on top of the skull and everything became a lot colder. Once I removed my hand I was no longer in front of an alter. I was back home in front of the fireplace with a well dressed, blonde, bearded man sitting next to me.
"Father?" I asked with a great deal of confusion. I didn't understand. He wasn't supposed to be real. Or at least I thought he wasn't supposed to be real.
"Ah Matthew, It's been a while." He said staring at the fireplace.
"What's going on?" I asked only for him to interrupt me.
"Just so you know this spell will record a message to you, I won't be able to respond to any questions or expletives you say." He said completely uninterested. Okay, guess I get to listen to a literal villain monologue today.
"I spoke to your bothers and we've decided as a family to forgive your betrayal. You can continue playing with your commoner friends for now, but when I call you, you will come. Refuse and your brothers will kill those commoners you affiliate with and drag you back." He said with an unnerving air of finality. And as soon as he stopped speaking was as soon as his face was replaced by Welf's and I was greeted with a slap to the face.
"Ow, what the hell Welf?" I asked rubbing my cheek. I was back in that creepy basement again and Bell and Lili were there as well.
"You weren't responding to us for like ten minutes Matt." The redheaded smith said. Ten minutes? It felt like I was only gone for two. "What was that about anyways?"
"Ah well. My dad wanted to get in touch I suppose." I said still confused by what transpired. My dad was evil. I was pretty sure of that. Yeah, he killed Reginald and a bunch of other people, so him being here was very bad. How was he even here in the first place though?
"You're dad wanted to get in touch by mutilating a corpse?" Welf asked incredulously.
"My dad is unambiguously evil. We're going to need to kill him. Problem being he's a powerful necromancer and I have no idea where he is." I said while formulating any plan I could. First I would need to find him. My best shot at doing that would probably just be to fly around town and search for sources of necrotic damage.
"What all do you know about him?" Lili asked with a determined look. Well pretty much all I could remember was that he was the big evil bad guy. Actually he wasn't the big bad, just a big bad.
"He is a powerful Necromancer capable of casting spells much more powerful than I can." I said unsure. He wasn't even supposed to exist!
"So how do we fight him?" Welf asked.
"We don't fight him. This is my problem and I'll figure it out." I said dismissively. No way I was going to let these three eat a tier seven Fireball or like a meteor or whatever else was in that tier.
"Absolutely not!" Bell denied. "We're a familia. Whatever problems you're having, we're there to back you up!"
"You can count me in too magic man!" Welf said with a goofy grin.
"I don't think you understand. He could kill you with a single spell." I explained. Not even just killing with a single spell. They would be fucking obliterated. I would probably be obliterated even with the help of False Life.
"Then we don't let him cast a spell." Lili said simply. It was immediately apparent that my warning was falling on deaf ears.
"Okay, but he doesn't seem to want cause me imminent harm so we aren't rushing into anything." I said tiredly. "Lets get back to the surface, I'll tell Pride to warn the guild about what's happened."
As we got out of that gross house and made the trek back to the surface heavy both in hear and in mind. We all knew that an entire town was dead and now we had to deal with the man responsible.
'Pride I need you to to find a god and warn the guild'
'What happened'
'Everyone in Rivira is dead'