Chapter 9
Even if things go wrong, all they can do is continue to move forward.

"Hikitani-kun, you seem awfully quiet today." Hackard remarked as we moved through the 6th Floor. I trailed a little behind, doing my best to concentrate on the ground in front of me. My injuries hadn't fully healed yet.

"Wait, isn't his name Hikigaya?" Next to her, the chienthrope Yelena made a sound of surprise as she stared at me.

"I was sure the lad's name was Hikigaya…" Umbar, the dwarf, chimed in on the conversation.

"Nope, it's Hikitani!"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Just ask him."

Ignoring the peanut gallery, I instead focused on the War Shadows in front of us. Grouped in a triangular formation, the 3 of them moved towards me in perfect unison, as if they were a single organism.

Unfortunately for them, that didn't stop me from cutting the first one down at the waist. As soon as the first one had fallen, the two rushed me side by side, which allowed me to dash through in between them with a burst of speed that made me hiss in pain. Before they could stop and turn around, I forced myself to turn and drove my blade through the body of the one on the left as Umbar turned the one on the right into a piece of modern art with his hammer.

As Yelena quickly harvested the magic stones and put them into her backpack, the entire party continued moving through the floor in a smooth and organized fashion.

Today was my first day partying with the three, who had happily welcomed me into the party when I had brought it up with Hackard. Apparently, all three of them were from different familias, so adding another member into the group who was around their level didn't really affect matters too much. They were also extremely eager, because I had saved them before and they wanted to, as Yelena put it, "pay you back what you're due. With extra, of course."

Every single adventuring party was organized into three parts: vanguard, midguard, and rearguard. The vanguard was responsible for dealing with threats on the front lines–melee DPS, shielding, etc. The midguard was responsible for keeping the party together, but still had to hold enough strength in order to do so–leadership, coordination, some support, some melee. The rearguard held the majority of the firepower and was responsible for providing the overwhelming attack power that could wipe out swaths of monsters or bosses entire health bars for bosses–healing, AOE attacks, support, and finally porting, of course.

Currently in this arrangement, an actual rearguard didn't exist due to none of us knowing any chants of the sort, which was usually reserved for more magic-inclined species, such as elves. The rearguard consisted of Yelena and I, who would swap with each other in the vanguard to gain exp and rest in shifts due to our lower stats and stamina.

With his high strength and endurance stats, Umbar held the vanguard with his shield and hammer while Hackard, who was the most rounded-out in the trio, held the midguard with her claymore.

As we quickly forged our way through the 6th and made it into the first room of the 7th, there was a change in the atmosphere. It was as if the Dungeon had noticed the presence of 4 adventurers and instantly began entering DEFCON 2, intending to snuff us all out. I narrowed my eyes as all around me the party instantly went into battle-ready mode.

"Ad… adventurers… ?" A croaky voice rang out from one of the hallways. Through it, a man with wild eyes and unkempt hair staggered out before collapsing to the ground, his armor rolling away from his body. As Umbar quickly dragged the man to the base of the stairs and Yelena forced a potion down his throat, the man's frantic gaze seemed to clear. "Help… monster party, we were ambushed in the 3rd room… Killer Ants, too many to count… my companions!" He tried to hurriedly to sit up, but Hackard quickly pushed him down.

"Your wounds aren't fully healed yet. We'll go save your companions while you recover. Umbar, break one of the walls." Complying with her order, the dwarf went to work, quickly smashing a hole in the wall which would take quite a while for the Dungeon to repair.

It was the oldest trick in the adventuring book. The Dungeon prioritized regeneration over spawning new monsters, much like how the human body would prioritize repairing a wound before sending its white-blood cells to wipe out foreign entities. In other words–the more a Dungeon was damaged, the less likely it was to spawn monsters.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep on doing that all the way to the bottom of the Dungeon, since there were too many things to break to begin with. Case in point: A 5-man party of adventurers tried this in the past. They didn't even make it past the 2nd Floor before tiring out.

"Well, let's hurry. Umbar, you stay behind and stand guard, while Maris, Hikigaya, and I try to rescue his companions." Yelena took charge, issuing instructions as the three of us moved through the hallways, leaving Umbar by himself with the adventurer. She was a natural leader in this situation, able to keep a clear head in contrast to Hackard's hot-headed personality.

As the three of us moved through the hallways towards the 3rd room, however, the sound of scuttling feet up ahead told me we were too late.

As the three of us burst through the doorway, Hackard opened first with a spinning slash that scythed down a good 4 ants in a single strike. Yelena lunged in right after, her twin knives moving left and right as they carved through bodies. I was the final one, hobbling in at a speed that wouldn't strain myself too much while killing the ones still alive with stabs through heads and neat slices that separated ant heads from bodies.

Thankfully, I was wrong. There were still a couple people alive, huddled together in a corner–a boaz, who was currently fending off Killer Ants with his shield and sword, a chienthrope who was missing his arm as the human wrapping a tourniquet around the aforementioned stump. There was an ominous pool of blood in the corner, but I couldn't be bothered with that right now.

Deal with monsters now. Worry about possible casualties later.

Face to face with 3 ants, I stepped into my first slash, splitting the first one in between the eyes before the second and third ones lunged at me and I responded with a step-out-step-in trick(thank you, Anya). The instant both of them missed and paused, the second one lost its head and the third lost one of its limbs as I separated them from their owners in a single swing.

The third ant didn't even get to screech before Hackard's sword lodged itself into its head and it crumpled to the ground. A Needle Rabbit attempted to poke Hackard from the back but I intercepted it midair with my sword and cut its attempt short, quite literally.

Three Purple Moths hovered midair, but that didn't stop Hackard or me from shredding them into ribbons with our longer blades. As the monster numbers began slowing thinning out, I began going around and double-tapping, stabbing ant heads as Hackard and Yelena dealt with the monsters. "Remember to confirm kills, Hackard."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Almost forgot." Does this girl even attempt to learn? The last time we dealt with Killer Ants, thanks to your incompetence, we had to deal with an extra 20+ of them, and we couldn't even get the drops from the previous monsters because we had to flee. This type of recklessness is fatal, you know? You're trying to be a shounen character in a non-shounen setting, which is super deadly, you know?

As we collected magic stones, rabbit horns, and moth wings, I watched as Hackard wandered over to the group and offered them a couple of health potions, which the group gratefully poured over their various wounds.

"T-thank you…" The boaz murmured to us. "I thought we really were going to die…"

"Was no problem," Hackard replied lightly. "Was that all of you?"

"..." The boaz fell silent. "There was Garon… but he fled once things started getting bad. And… "

"Hey guys… where's Wesley?" The chienthrope winced as he tried to sit up, but his injuries were too much and he collapsed to the ground. "He got caught… by the ants… is he… here?"

"Wesley… he… he's…" The boaz's voice failed, but the chienthrope didn't hear him.

"Where's Wesley? Wes… are you there?"

"Nam, he's…" The human female who was healing the chienthrope broke into tears. "Wesley's…"

Dead. But I knew the adventurers could not bring themselves to say that. It was an acknowledgement of the reality that pursued them constantly. One might hope that Wesley was still alive, only unconscious under that mess of tangled legs and hard carapaces, and they might continue to delude themselves doing so. Death was a concrete confirmation of the cruel reality adventurers lived in.

"Hey guys, it's–" Hackard's voice fell when she saw me shake my head, and Yelena gently laid a hand on the girl's shoulders.

In the end, moving forward was the only thing we could do.

~~This is a Line Break~~

After recovering Wesley's body–nothing more than a bloody, ruptured sack of flesh and bones buried under a heap of ant corpses at this point–we parted with the other adventurers as they headed off to the Guild and morgue on the 2nd floor of Babel, while we headed for the Guild's Exchange counter.

As Yelena went to talk with her advisor, Hackard, Umbar, and I waited patiently by the counter, waiting patiently for the chienthrope to finish her talk before we split up the loot and went our separate ways.

"Can't believe we went down into the 7th today, you know? And that sight was a real mood-killer, too." Hackard sighed as she lazily propped up on one of the couches in a waiting room, totally at ease. "I don't really like the 7th, so I think we should make the 8th in the next couple of days. I think we could handle it."

"Oh, so you're planning on going to the 8th Floor, huh?" There was a bloodcurdling voice in the room.

Ah, yes, after the serious, introspective section, the audience is immediately treated to a comedic scene in order to lighten the mood so everyone isn't too sad. Therefore, the author must introduce the fussy, but funny character.

Supposedly, that's usually what happens in light novels. Of course, as they say, art imitates life, so it's fair that a trash genre would have a trash example to follow from.

Eina Tulle, Hackard's Dungeon advisor. Known as the 'Instructor from Hell'(at least, from Hackard's proclamation), she was feared(at least by Hackard) for her extensive, often exhausting lectures upon the Dungeon and its dangers as well as its complex situations.

"Hrgk!" As I expected, Hackard stiffened immediately before robotically turning around to see the half-elf advisor behind her. Next to the duo, her head dropping low, was a very morose Yelena. "Eina-san…"

Right next to her, carrying a massive pile of paperwork and currently looking downcast was my own advisor, Misha Flott. "H-hi, Hikigaya-san…" she muttered.

I raised a hand in greeting, and Flott nodded at me before stumbling away towards the Guild counter. Returning my attention to the scene, I noticed that Hackard was slowly trying to inch away from Tulle, who was currently radiating an almost visible aura of fury.

"Ma-ris Ha-ckard." Unfortunately for my companion, it didn't seem like the half-elf was going to let her go that easily.

"W-well, uh, I just remembered I have something to do! Nice-seeing-you-Eina-san-haveaniceday!" Hackard attempted to sprint out of the room, but Tulle, it seemed, was no stranger to slapstick comedy, grabbing Hackard by the back of her armor as she passed the half-elf, invoking the "Coveted Collar Choke" and stopping the blue-haired girl dead in her tracks.

As the half-elf began dragging Hackard, armor and all, towards one of the Guild advisory rooms, the blue-haired girl's eyes met mine as she opened her mouth, a silent plea on her lips.

Instead of replying, I let my mouth curl a smile and waved to her silently. Ganbatte, Hackard~

Her face morphed into an expression of horror before Tulle closed the door behind them with a loud bang and I dropped the smile and hand, returning to my usual blank appearance.

"She's scary…" Yelena breathed out a long sigh. "Scary, terrifying, and, uh–"

The chienthrope didn't finish before the door opened again and the half-elf advisor walked out again. "Yelena, inside!"

They were in there for quite a while.

~~This is a Line Break~~

Among the gazes that crossed among the Hostess today, there were two that were distinctly different from all the others. Most of the customers had a gaze which most likely involved thoughts about how pretty the new waitress was, but these two were cold… calculating. More like a hunter stalking its prey than anything, the gazes betrayed no emotion whatsoever… which was, ironically enough, the very thing that gave them away.

It didn't take me long to spot the sources: a brunette with distinctly steel-plated gauntlets and a black-haired catgirl dressed as a messenger with a hood over her head.

I'll give it to them–both of them were pretty bold if they were just willing to waltz straight into the Hostess directly, especially since they probably knew there were multiple high-level adventurers here.

Black Fist was the gutsier of the two, taking a seat at the bar directly and eyeing Lyon up and down with a straightforward, analytical manner, very befitting of her modus operandi.

What was even more daring of her was the fact that her order said 'black tea' instead of 'coffee'. Just to spite the Level 4 bounty hunter, I quickly switched her black tea with a cup of Hikigaya-patented MAXX Coffee(imitation), along with a little bit of something 'extra' on the house, and steered Anya in her direction.

Black Cat, a catgirl dressed in a hood with black hair and a similar gaze who was a 'courier' delivering messages, was met with a cheerful, smiling Flova, who also handed her a drink of coffee from me as a 'sampling experiment for the Hostess's new drink'. As both of them took the coffee up from opposite sides of the room as Flova explained the marketing and premise behind the drink to Black Cat and Black Fist downed the drink without a second thought, having evidently seen coffee before, I suppressed a smirk.

As both of the contract killers finished their drinks, I faked a sneeze from the kitchen very loudly: my signal. Anya, who was waiting in the kitchen the entire time, nodded and quickly moved out the backdoor. Lyon, on the other hand, pretended to trip(or maybe she didn't pretend, it was hard for me to tell judging by how she was when she worked), stumbling around before regaining her balance at the counter and trying to adjust herself next to Black Fist.

I carefully peered at both of the assassins before hearing really, really quick breaths from their directions–almost like the two were trying to learn how to breathe 10 times in 1 second. For the brunette at the bar, there was a gagging sound from her direction, much like how Kamakura would act when he would be trying to hack up a hairball.

The creamy richness of MAXX Coffee was a plus in another sense, as aside from being the ultimate drink, it was so strong but unique compared to other things in Orario that someone could easily conceal some sort of poison within it, and it would be virtually undetectable. The only ones who could taste even the slightest difference would be people who were MAXX connoisseurs–in other words, the only one who could tell was yours truly.

In this case I had taken a wad of tobacco leaves, soaked them in water overnight, then squeezed the juice into the jar, heated it over a stove, and then taken the thick syrup that had resulted before stealthily mixing it in with coffee–which included, of course, ridiculous amounts of sugar and milk which would mask the slightly off taste.

Pure nicotine was a potent poison which would slowly shut down the body's systems the longer it lasted. Having read my fair share of detective mangas and stories, I knew the purported lethal dose, which was around 60 mg–around 12 drops of nicotine.

Of course, I was dealing with Level 4s, which no doubt meant that among their Developmental Abilities there was the skill known as Abnormal Resistance.

Abnormal Resistance, as described by the book: "Negates the effects of abnormalities, such as poisons or toxins. At Rank G it is strong enough to negate all save for the most powerful of poisons. Easily obtainable at Level 2 through repeated exposure to the poisonous powder of the Purple Moth."

As a result, I made sure to overdose the coffee with not 12 drops… but instead 2 whole tablespoons. I wasn't too worried about the poison part, though, to be honest. It would've been hard to get any type of poison, so honestly all I could do was overload them with whatever chemical intoxicant I had before letting Anya and Lyon take care of the rest.

There was almost no cure for overdosing in Orario on nicotine, aside from the magical cure-all elixirs which would heal the worst of everything. However, the adverse effects would long weaken the two before they could even make it, and Lyon had long secured their methods of escape.

The elf had stashed her dual shortswords on her uniform, while Anya's spear had been sitting in the corner near the backdoor. Meanwhile, noncombatants, such as Flova, May, and I, would try our best to help civilians who were caught in the soon-to-result crossfire.

I observed from the kitchen, tending to another pot of coffee which I would actually serve to the customers. There was a distinct retching sound and I watched as Faust emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

Someone clearly lacked an Abnormal Resistance.

As Faust continued gagging and retching on the side of the bar, Lyon attempted to walk over. "Miss, are you okay?"

"I'll… cough cough… be fine." Trying to regain her posture, the pale bounty hunter steadied. "I think your new drink… cough cough… might've been contaminated." Another retch.

Upon hearing that, many of the customers in the Hostess instantly took a wary glance towards their tankards. Thankfully, Lyon managed to keep her cool and responded. "Are you sure it isn't just your own personal allergies to the drink? You don't look all that healthy, either. Perhaps you're sick, Customer-san?"

It was true that the bounty hunter had a paler complexion compared to the Hostess's regulars, which could've been mistaken for a long-lasting illness of some sort.

As Faust struggled to get into an upright position, however, she seemed to recover; the absorption of the nicotine had seemingly been halted by her vomiting out the coffee, and the rest wasn't enough to weaken her for much longer before her Level 4 constitution let her escape.

"Do you want to come to the back for some treatment?" As Lyon extended her hand and Faust took it, however, there was a lurch in my gut.

And then, near simultaneously, there were two explosions as the side wall of the Hostess's dining area caved in with a shower of wooden splinters while another body flew through the doorway of the kitchen, shattering the wood as the figure slammed into the wall right next to me.

"Guh… Lyon?!" Dazed by the sudden appearance of the elf, I could only watch as she struggled to her feet before suddenly there was a flash of metal on metal as the elf lunged at Faust, who blocked using her gauntlets.

As the two pressed against each other, there was a short moment where Lyon executed the fastest(and smoothest) step-in-step-out I had seen, forcing Faust to adjust her weight and in that quick interval–a loud THWUMP, as if someone had chosen to beat a large piece of meat with a paddle. There was another crashing sound before I noticed that the bounty hunter had been smashed through the doors, landing on the other side of the street. Lyon herself stood less than 3 meters away from me, her foot slowly lowering from the kick. She sped off to engage the bounty hunter on the rooftops, their forms blurring in the rain as they exchanged flurry after flurry of blows.

In the tavern dining area, meanwhile, Anya and Rollo were still in battle, even as the Hostess's patrons scrambled to flee from the area of combat, twin knives and a golden spear locked in a clash for superiority that neither could afford to lose.

Dual swipes that were mere flickers of light through the air.
Ultra fast jabs that seemed as though there were multiple Anyas at once.

Neither gave in to the other, their weapons clashing repeatedly as they wove around each other, causing sparks to fly across the room. Even as I watched, a stray chair leg was quickly thrown at Anya, who batted it away with her spear, which ended up hitting a window and cracking it.

There were still customers huddled along the side walls. That would be a problem.

I picked up one of the bar stools and hefted it over my shoulder.

… Oh well, it's not like she would notice, right? Besides, this was for the greater good.

I smashed the bar stool into one of the large windows, shattering it but failing to remove the metal frame. Before I could rear back for another swing however, one of the patrons stopped me before lifting a latch I hadn't realized was there, swinging the window frame in, and climbing out the window.

… I could've just opened it.

Ignoring my embarrassment, I began helping the customers out the window, giving them legs up if they were too tired or drunk to make use of their motor skills.

There was a split-second glimmer that caught my eyes as Rollo danced opposite to my side of the room, her jacket flapping open for a second. My eyes widened as I saw countless glimmers of metal.

Throwing knives.

Anya had seen it too, no doubt, as evidenced by the sudden defensive position she had taken, her shield raised in a guard. Rollo's form dashed towards Anya before there was an explosion and a cloud of smoke rolled through the room.

The last 3 guests–a completely dead-drunk adventurer who had passed out on the floor, as well as his two companions who were stumbling around as they attempted to flee–were huddled behind me.

There was a shout with a voice that wasn't Anya's. "Frolic!" Around the figure, there were gleaming pillars of light.

A spell? My hand grabbed for the closest thing nearby–a half-filled tankard–and threw it at Rollo's figure, contents and all.

"Pheles–" There was a loud splash, a thunk as the tankard presumably connected, and then a loud yowl. The pillars of light vanished, dispersing into the air.

Ignis Fatuus. All types of magical spells require a chant of some sort. The longer the chant, the more focus it took to accurately execute the spell, the more mana and concentration you had to devote to it. While it was optimal to interrupt spellcasters at the moment right before they triggered it, that wasn't applicable in this case because I had no clue of Rollo's stats nor her skills. Therefore, I could only interrupt the chant as it began.

There was no explosion like I expected, but at least I had interrupted it in time. Within the smoke, there was a surge of killing intent, but I sure wasn't going to rush in. I ran towards the window.

Behind me, there was a huff from Anya. "This smoke is annoying, nya. I'm going to blow it away, nyaAAAHHH?!" her statement was cut short by the sound of loudly crunching wood, and her shriek was so loud that even as I dove through the window, curled up in a ball, and came up into a crouch, I could still hear it.

It didn't take an idiot to know that Mia's iron fist had struck. Sorry, Anya. I clapped my hands in a gesture of appreciation towards the tavern. Your sacrifice will be appreciated.

"Nya, who're you, nya?" From the open window, I could hear the voice of Black Cat as she was probably sweating and shaking with fear. "I wasn't involved with this, nya, I was–"

CRACK-CRUNCH-thump.

… Welcome to the Hostess, Chloe Rollo. You'll be forced to work next to your former target now until you pay off your debt–which, knowing Mia, would be so ridiculous that even you, a Level 4, would probably choke if you heard it.

Outside, the rain was still falling, sheets of water splattering across the ground, forming puddles and splashing across the street. There was something that was off about the situation, but I couldn't quite place it, almost like I had forgotten about…

Black Fist.

The sounds of battle around me had stopped.

Moving towards the front of the main building, I broke into a sprint, my feet carrying me towards the location of the fight between Lyon and Faust.

I looked around, only to find Lyon sitting on the doorstep of the Hostess, her shortswords sheathed and right next to her hands. She looked at me, then frowned and shook her head with the slightest of motions. Her eyes were downcast in an expression of failure.

"She got away, huh…" I let a breath trail out from my mouth. Lyon nodded silently in response. I sighed, but there was nothing else we could do about it. The only thing we could do was move forward with what we had.

At least Faust probably wouldn't come near the Hostess again, especially since now she had taken a failed bounty and her face had been exposed. Judging from Spider's supplementaries, the real professionals were never about vengeance, only money, and neither of the two grim reapers of Orario's underworld would have the stupidity to retry their hand at a botched job. No one could get to the level they were at without being realistic about their chances.

Unfortunately, Black Fist–and more importantly, her backers–weren't a matter I could leave alone. Even if the Bruno Trading Company had failed once, they probably weren't going to give up.

They would just try to send more and more bounty hunters and assassins, and the more Lyon and Anya and I defeated, the more desperate they would get.

Well, they were bound to just try their best and throw all their resources into defeating us now. And that was not going to be a fun experience. Before the news would hit the Orario underworld that Black Fist had gone into hiding and Black Cat had "retired", I would take this matter into my own hands.

Unfortunately, there was something that would take precedence over all of these.

"Well, time to face the music, I guess. Let's apologize for our actions and take responsibility." The longer we waited, the scarier Mia's punishment would be. Therefore, the most rational thing to do would be to apologize to Mia first.

Lyon shuddered a little before standing up, picking up her shortswords, one in each hand.

Side by side, we entered the tavern.

And we were promptly greeted by the sight of twin catgirls, one with brown hair and the other with black committing dogezas as low as they could go–which, for them, meant pretty much plastering themselves to the ground.

Of course, the object of their reverence(READ: FEAR) was none other than a statue with a bloodthirsty aura around it–errrrrrr, Mia.

"Hahhhhh, you dumbasses have the gall to just casually stride in here, don't you…" Upon seeing us, Mia's aura turned even more black than it already was, if that was possible. Forget the Dungeon, I don't think I could even take on this one boss and survive… "Which one of you idiots came up with this shitty plan and broke half of the things in this tavern, huh?!"

Next to me, Lyon was shuddering all over as Mia's killing intent washed over us. Had this been a traditional light novel scene, the main character would've felt a pang of regret before he jumped in to plead the female character's case, thus saving them both from punishment.

I, on the other hand, had no such flimsy compulsions. Like a certain character in another isekai, I too was an advocate of true gender equality.

"It was all Lyon's idea." I replied, immediately pointing at the elf with a perfect poker face, who turned to me with an expression of horror that clearly said What have you done?

Well, I was nothing but honest, after all.