God's Blessing on this Wonderful Dungeon

By Icura and Special FX

~o~

Chapter 22: From the Start

~o~

On the 18th floor, the adventuring town of Rivira became a battlefield.

The situation wasn't anything new; the adventuring town routinely got destroyed by monster stampedes every few months like a homeless encampment. Rather than fight it, the residents would often just run away and come back when it was all over to rebuild their shanty town. However, this time, the residents chose to fight even though the number of monsters in the stampede was overwhelming. Why?

It was because they were here.

"We love you, Eris Familia!"

"Stop cheering and fight, you idiots!"

A group of minotaurs surrounded the only wolfman of Eris Familia. One of the beasts charged forth, swinging its enormous fist. However, it was so laughably slow that it seemed like it was standing still to him. Side-stepping the attack, Bete sliced its neck with his dagger in the same motion. Each step brought him further, into and through the rest of the group with his twin blades lashing out as he did so, decimating them until there were none left. Swinging his blades to the side to flick off the blood, he grimaced.

Weaklings like them couldn't even serve as a good warm-up.

A firebird flew overhead and launched a fireball at him. He lept into the air and with his new boots, Flosvirt, he absorbed the flames and used them to propel himself through the air straight at the flying monster. With one smooth motion, he sliced the bird in half before he landed on top of a ligerfang, stomping on its skull with his momentum and killing it right before it could sink its fangs into another adventurer.

The white-haired elf who was saved stared at him with wide eyes before she opened her mouth.

"Thank—"

"Why do trash like you even bother being adventurers?" Bete scathingly interrupted. "You got no talent. Just give up already."

Bete didn't bother waiting for her to reply before running off toward his next target. Flosvirt still burned with the flames from the firebird, enhancing his kicks. Eris Familia had a contract with Tsubaki Collbrande and since he was a member, that contract applied to him as well. He wasn't the type to save money so he would never have been able to afford equipment like this without that contract and some financial help from his new familia captain, Kazuma.

He stabbed his knife into the back of a bugbear that had been trying to attack Darkness from behind. Not like anything could actually scratch that woman. She was like an impenetrable wall. He would know since he sparred with her regularly enough, and she routinely shrugged off his strongest attacks like they were nothing.

Darkness was strong, stronger than anyone he knew.

The only issue was…her sword skills were absolute shit. She was by far the worst swordsman he had ever seen. Bete didn't understand why she even bothered to use a sword when she was far deadlier with her bare hands. After all, he'd seen what happened when Kazuma pissed her off too much. It was as if she were intentionally holding herself back.

Maybe she was. She did seem to be a battle maniac, always smiling no matter how many times he hit her during their spars.

Bete cut down the rest of the monsters that were surrounding her since she kept missing with her sword. It was easy work since they were all focused on her. The blonde-haired woman simply gave him a quick nod in response before she ran off to grab the attention of more monsters to keep them away from other adventurers. He didn't bother chasing after her. She would be fine even if a thousand monsters surrounded her.

Because, unlike Selenia, Darkness was strong.

Unlike Vidar Familia, Eris Familia was strong.

Bete didn't have to worry about them. If anything, he was the one who needed to work that much harder to catch up. He had been an adventurer longer than them, but they had already accomplished far more than him. They were like an ever-growing wall he was constantly climbing. Slow down even a little, and the wall only got that much higher. However, it was the perfect challenge, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

All for the sake of growing stronger.

With that thought in mind, he charged into the fray again, hunting down all the prey that he could, like a starving wolf. To the east, he could see Kazuma cutting through monsters like they were butter with his legendary sword: the Sixth Immortal Blade, Chunchunmaru. Megumin had told him that Kazuma had once used its predecessor to kill a demon king, whatever the hell that was.

A lot of things that the members of Eris Familia talked about didn't make sense to him.

His new patron goddess, Eris, had sworn him to an oath of secrecy before she told him they were originally from a very faraway place. Something about another world—he didn't really understand, nor did he really give a shit for that matter. They were strong, and that was all that mattered to him.

Even their healer, Aqua, was no exception. He hadn't thought much of her at first; she was a healer who just stayed in the backlines after all. Then one day, he pissed her off, so she punched him through a window and broke his jaw. As unbelievable as it sounded, she might even hit harder than Darkness did. Not that he had any interest in ever finding out; he had seen Darkness dig her fingers through solid stone when Kazuma pissed her off enough.

As he cut down another group of monsters, Bete could see that their numbers were finally dwindling down. Kazuma had grouped up with Darkness and was making quick work of all the monsters that she had been attracting while Aqua was running around healing people like usual.

Something didn't feel right though…

Bete furrowed his brow and looked around. Where was the pipsqueak?

"More monsters from the west!" one of the lookouts shouted.

Bete turned his attention and smirked at the sight. It hadn't been much of a warm-up so far, but maybe he'd actually work up a sweat now. He scattered the blood from his daggers onto the ground, preparing himself. His stance faltered, however, when he heard a familiar voice shouting from above.

"Have no fear! The Witch of Blazing Annihilation is here!" Megumin shouted from atop a hill as she readied her staff and pointed at the horde.

"Wait!" Kazuma yelled from nearby. "Don't—"

"Explosion!"

Bete simply ran as fast as he could to find cover. He managed to do so just in time, jumping behind a large rock where Aqua was already taking shelter. The explosion went off soon after, his senses feeling and hearing the loud rumbling before everything else. Intense winds and heat flew over his head, just as he covered his ears. He had better hearing than most so if he didn't want to go half-deaf and stumble around dazed again, he needed to shut out the noise.

It took a while before things settled down, but once they did, Bete saw Aqua slowly peek her head over the boulder to look. He soon followed suit.

The forest where the monster horde had been coming from was completely gone. The only thing left was a massive empty crater, devoid of all plant life. It wasn't really a loss; while the forest was useful for wood and food, it wasn't that big of a deal since it grew back rather quickly anyway. It was the dungeon after all. The bigger issue was that the strong winds had knocked over most of the shoddy wooden buildings of Rivira as well.

"That damn midget," Bete growled as he watched Kazuma arguing with the said midget. "At least give us a warning first."

"Those buildings were terrible!" Aqua said as she pointed at the mess that had once been Rivira. "They fell over from just a small breeze!"

"That was way more than a breeze, but what the hell did you expect?" Bete questioned. "It's just a bunch of wood they cobbled together."

"These people have no clue on how to build things," Aqua replied with a shake of her head. "I'll show them how it's really done!"

Bete just watched as Aqua ran off to the ruined town. He really didn't understand that woman at all. On the other side of his vision, Kazuma had smacked Megumin on the back of the head and was arguing with her about something. In the meantime, Darkness was approaching him—some of her hair was frayed from the blast—while waving her hand.

"Are you alright, Bete?"

He frowned and looked away, not meeting her eyes. For some reason, she always asked him that first, as if he was made of glass. It annoyed him, honestly. Just because she was stronger than him didn't mean that he was weak, damn it.

"I'm fine," he gruffly replied. "We ready to head back now?"

Darkness just pointed at Aqua who was talking to a few adventurers while gesturing animatedly to the piles of broken wood that were the remnants of the town.

"It looks like we'll be staying around for a while."

~o~

Inside one of the makeshift wooden buildings that Aqua had helped quickly build for the night, Kazuma was sitting cross-legged on top of a large blanket along with the rest of Eris Familia. In the middle in between them, there were bowls of food, though many of the bowls were cracked and chipped. He suddenly jumped to his feet, standing straight up and catching everyone's attention. Which, of course, meant that four sets of eyes were now focused on him. He met each and every one of them.

Aqua, Megumin, Darkness, and Bete.

Aqua was the first to react.

"Kazuma? Did you get a tummy ache?"

"No! I want to talk about something that's actually important," he said. "We've plateaued! There's no progress in our leveling!"

"Well, duh." Aqua rolled her eyes. "It's been like that for months. Why are you suddenly yelling about it now?"

After defeating Balor, they had made it to the 50th safe floor along with Loki Familia which Kazuma had subsequently chosen as a teleport save point. Since then, they had teleported to the 50th floor a few times in order to go to the 51st floor and hunt monsters. Not only did it make them filthy rich, it was a good way to grind out their stats. The problem?

They couldn't go any further than that.

The 52nd floor was the start of what was called the Dragon's Vase and it was bullshit. Almost like one of those levels in a video game that was designed to piss the player off. Why was it bullshit? It was because dragons on the 58th floor would lock onto them using some kind of wallhack and then shoot at them through multiple floors with their firebreath. The main issue wasn't the flames; it was the fact that it blasted through the floors, meaning that not only could they get hit, but they could also fall down to the bottom. And if they managed to survive the fall? Then they would be surrounded by who knows how many dragons. With craziness like that, these floors could only have been based on the concept of time attack.

What was that? Escape the underground zombie lab before time runs out and it blows up? The alien ship they infiltrated was going to crash, and they needed to escape before it was too late? An ancient puzzle started up, and they needed to jump across the floating platforms before they all die to a poison gas trap?

Who actually liked those things?

Nobody! That was who! Not unless they had shit taste, but if some people wanted that kind of gameplay, then the developers should make it so it wasn't mandatory for everyone else. For him, it was on the same level of hate as escort missions in video games. If those VIPs were going to run off and die, why couldn't he let them? In fact, was that kind of bullshit going to happen at floor 60 or something?

It seemed tedious enough to be real, though he didn't want to tempt fate.

In any case, their strategy so far had just been to rush through. The only place where the dragons wouldn't or couldn't attack was on the stairways. The 52nd floor was easy enough to beat since it was empty, but starting from the 53rd floor, there were monsters and obstacles blocking their way, slowing them down. As they got to the deeper floors, the monsters became more numerous as well as suicidal. It almost seemed like some even wanted to be hit by the dragon's breath. Of course, knowing that only adventurers were targeted, they latched on like leeches.

So far, they managed to make it to the 56th floor, but for one reason or another, they had to teleport out. This ranged from someone falling into a trap to monsters stalling them for too long. Add to the fact that each floor was a maze which they couldn't backtrack on account of the ground being destroyed behind them, they tended to get lost a lot. While they did have the map from the Guild, it was hard to fully use it when there were no landmarks and every hallway looked just about the same, especially while they were running as fast as they could.

His three teleport save points were the familia's church, the 50th floor, and the stairs before the 56th floor. They had tried many, many times to get through, but they couldn't even pick up any drops on account of the time limit, meaning that they usually weren't earning any income that day. Not that they really needed it, considering how much they—mostly him—already had, but it still felt like a waste. Maybe with fewer team members, they could run through it faster, but then, they wouldn't have enough people to deal with the monsters, which usually ended up with them getting stalled anyway.

One option was to get outside help. However, that had its own issues. If they continued from the 56th floor, the newcomers would obviously be thrown into the fire. They wouldn't be able to adjust to the sudden high difficulty of the time attack. If they started again from the 52nd floor, it would allow the newcomers to adjust, but the problem was that they would be starting all over again, and that took time. A lot of time. Obviously, he was reluctant to do that for that very reason.

It was like restarting the whole campaign after investing so much time and energy into it, as if the work that they did before was all for naught. That was the reason RPG games were so addictive; it was the sense of progression. When the feeling stalls at the endgame because of a lack of content or an annoying difficulty barrier, that would be the moment when most players would quit.

Of course, that wasn't possible in reality.

"It just means we need to figure something out!"

"Do we have to?" Aqua whined.

"Of course, we do!" Kazuma pointed accusingly at her. "You're the reason we have to do this in the first place!"

"Eh? Me?" She pointed to herself in confusion.

"Did you forget that you were the one who pushed the red button?" he said in exasperation. "Our only chance to get back is to reach the bottom."

"Kazuma," Megumin interjected. "We don't know what's at the bottom. That's only a guess."

"It's still better than doing nothing."

"Then just get faster," Bete chimed in. "Train your agility. Then it won't be a problem."

"Mages aren't made for exercise!" Megumin complained. "And worse, it won't make my explosions better!"

"You already maxed out your magic stat!" Kazuma retorted. "It won't get better anyway, not until we reach a deeper floor where there's something worth beating."

"What about Evilus? I can blow them up, right?"

"Even if we do find them, they'll most likely be in the city." Already knowing what Megumin was about to say, Kazuma preempted it. "And no, you can't blow up the city."

"Tsk."

"Don't 'tsk' me! Even if I said you could, you wouldn't have done it anyway."

"It's the thought that counts!"

"Stop wasting brain power and actually use your head to think of something."

"Okay, fine. I'll use my superbly high intelligence to think of a solution. After all, I put all my points into it." Megumin put her hands on the temples of her head and rubbed it, as if it would overcharge her thought processes. After a few moments, she snapped her head up with a sudden smirk. "I got it!"

Everyone waited for her to continue.

"Instead of running horizontally, why don't we run vertically!"

"That's called falling," Kazuma blankly remarked. "We're trying to avoid dying, Megumin. If you want to do that anyway, we might as well ride Darkness all the way to the bottom if we want a fighting chance of surviving."

"Ooooh!" Darkness looked stricken as a full blush came to her face. "Only Kazuma can think of something so wonderfully degenerate!"

"Darkness isn't big enough to cover all of us," Megumin remarked, ignoring his sarcasm. "We'll be burnt to a crisp."

Darkness' smile faltered. "W-well, I…I could gain some weight and—"

"Wait, what about a boat?" Kazuma interrupted, willfully ignoring Darkness. "If it's made of adamantite, it'll be strong enough to get us to the bottom. The metal might get burning hot though."

"If Aqua puts a barrier on it, then it won't heat up as much," Megumin muttered before she then furrowed her brow. "Does it really have to be a boat?"

"No, it just needs to be in the shape of it. At least a canoe so we can sit down and hold on to something. Or maybe a capsule design like a submarine would be better…" Kazuma soon shook his head. "No, if the barrier fails, we'll be cooked alive."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Darkness commented with a bit of drool at the corner of her mouth. Bete gave her a strange look.

"Speak for yourself!" Aqua shouted. "I don't want to be toasty!"

"If we cover it in salamander cloaks, it should be fine," Megumin said.

"That's…" Kazuma placed his hand on his chin. "...not a bad idea."

It seemed simple enough. Hire a shipwright from the nearby port city of Melen for the design, get a blacksmith—probably Tsubaki—to work the adamantite metal, and buy all the salamander cloaks on the market. If there was a shortage of any of the materials, he could also put out quests for adventurers to hunt them down.

Though, with the increasing attacks by Evilus recently, adventurers were getting reluctant to delve too deep. The AETF's presence was deterring attacks, but it was too difficult to maintain forces past the 18th safe floor where Rivira was located. Anyone going past there was basically doing so at their own risk.

As one could expect, there was a shortage of materials from the deeper floors below the safe zone and a large surplus of materials from the seventeen floors prior. He had even seen adventurers conduct weird ritual dances to try to shorten the respawn timer of Goliath.

Still, any quest that he put out was usually lucrative enough that adventurers would still risk it. For some of those quests, he had actually put them out as bait so that he could ambush Evilus. That had led to Evilus becoming more wary when trying to take advantage of quests to isolate and kill adventurers.

"Alright, that seems like a good enough plan. Let's finish eating and go to sleep. We have to leave in the morning after all."

"Wait, what about me?" Aqua looked surprised. "I can't just leave mid-construction!"

"You already knew about the AETF meeting since last week! We gotta get back to let them in!"

"Why can't Eris do that?"

"Did you forget? She's doing a stakeout of a suspicious merchant so she won't be home for a few more days," Kazuma answered, annoyed. "I do feel a bit guilty, especially since it was Megumin's fault, but I'll just compensate them."

"Put that money toward my debt and let me stay behind." Aqua crossed her arms over her chest. "As an artist, I can't leave my work unfinished!"

"Did you forget that we shouldn't split up? Someone always dies when that happens in horror movies!"

"I never watched those movies. They were too scary! Besides, if I stay in town, I'll be fine," Aqua said. "I have plenty of believers here!"

He supposed that was true, in a way. If there was one person who was universally liked in Orario, then it was Aqua. Even the gods were implicitly allowing her to pretend to be a goddess, despite the implication of blasphemy. Well, at least in their view. They probably just thought she was delusional and felt bad.

"They might not be able to protect you from Evilus," Kazuma countered. "And haven't you given them the blueprints already? They can follow instructions, can't they?"

"I have to make sure that everything is perfect!"

This annoying former goddess…

"Kazuma," Darkness said, intervening into the conversation. "I can stay behind with Aqua to protect her."

"I'll stay too," Megumin chipped in. "Go back with teleport and let them in for the meeting. You can come back here after you get some people to come with you."

"Someone here has to actually hit straight," Bete commented with his usual bluster. "Seems that'll be me. I'll stay behind too."

Kazuma stared at all of them who were looking at him expectantly, as if asking permission. Honestly, it sounded like all of them were just looking for an excuse to skip the meeting. Not that he blamed them, he would do the same if he wasn't the one leading the meeting in the first place. Getting back to Orario was easy enough through teleportation, but returning to Rivira was more complicated. With his three teleport points locked to the church, the 50th floor, and the stairway between the 55th and 56th floor, Kazuma would need to make the journey from Orario to Rivira by foot.

Normally, it would have been easy for him to go through those floors, but the fact of the matter was that there were just too many assassination attempts on him these days. It was likely—no, guaranteed—that if he went by himself through that many floors, he would be attacked. Sure, he had a stealth skill, but that didn't mean an Evilus member wouldn't have something that could overcome that. After all, the variety of skills and magic that were granted by falna was practically limitless.

"Alright, if you're all staying, then there's no need for me to worry," Kazuma eventually said. "I'll head up in the morning and be back within a week. Do you want me to bring anything when I come back?"

As it turned out, they actually had a lot of requests. Too many.

"How do you expect me to carry down blocks of marble stone?!"

~o~

In the end, Kazuma teleported back to Orario by himself in the morning, bringing back with him loot to sell. After offloading it, he went home and did some cleaning in the church which essentially consisted of him taking the junk from the main areas and shoving them into the spare rooms. Finishing that, he went out for lunch before returning home to receive his guests. That said, it felt a little lonely to be doing this all by himself after all this time.

Sure, it felt liberating to be free of the responsibility of caring for unruly pets, but despite that, he was already starting to miss them—not that he would ever tell them that.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the first of his guests arrived, leaders and representatives of their respective familias. However, they could only start once everyone had arrived. Fortunately, it wasn't long before everyone was gathered in the main hall. It was then that Kazuma finally led them to the back and down a stairway into the basement level where a dark and winding maze greeted them.

It took some time walking through the many twists and turns while avoiding the traps before they reached another stairway that led to the next floor. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally reached their destination: a singular room at one of the dead ends of the maze. It was a place so secure and isolated that even just getting there was difficult.

Inside, lanterns hung from the ceiling of the room, though they still had a hard time illuminating the deep darkness in the corners. Chairs were arranged around a roundtable, and most of them were already filled. There were a few empty ones, for one reason or another. At the back of the room was a metal door that could only be opened from this side, leading to a hidden stairway that led all the way back to the surface. However, because of the traps in that stairway, it was only a one-way passage.

"I hereby commence this month's clandestine meeting of the Anti-Evilus Task Force!"

The announcement from Kazuma was met with polite clapping as if humoring him. Though Alise leaned over to Kaguya and asked, "Why is it clandestine? Everyone already knows we have these meetings."

"Shhhh." Under the table, Kaguya nudged her with her shoe and whispered, "Don't gainsay the one paying our bills!"

"Now, for the first order of business," Kazuma continued as he pretended not to hear the loud whispers. "Finn, give us the general situational report on what's changed since last month."

Finn stood up from his seat—or rather, he stood on top of it. Given that he was so short, it was necessary unless he wanted most of his body hidden below the table's height. The only reason that he was visible in the first place was because it was a high chair, the kind usually used for little children at restaurants. Not that Kazuma would ever mention to Finn that little fact. The pallum probably knew already; there was no need to rub it in his face.

"Since last month, Evilus has started to increase the rate of their attacks again. It's now up 23%. While the casualties have been on the low side, it is still starting to affect public perception," Finn stated. "It seems like they are prodding for new venues of attack to find out what will work."

"What should we do then?" Alise asked.

"Nothing for now. Keep patrolling like normal, but be on the lookout for new approaches to their terrorism."

"We're always on the back foot," Shakti Varma, the captain of Ganesha Familia, said. Her face was stern, but that was reasonable since it was mostly her familia that made up the majority of the city's patrols. "Just standing around and waiting for new information from our silver-haired friend."

Many of the raids that they had conducted on Evilus were on bases that were first discovered and revealed to them by the Silver-Haired Thief. The rest were from interrogation of prisoners and Finn's intuition. However, despite that, new bases were constantly popping up in Orario, making it feel like a whack-a-mole situation.

"I have a question that's been bothering me," Kazuma said with a raised hand. "Where did you get that 23%?"

"It's collated from a variety of sources," Finn said, seemingly flustered by the sudden question.

"What kind?"

"Reports..."

"So you took the numbers from those reports and calculated it?"

"No," Finn replied. "There wouldn't be enough time to do something like that so it's my own estimates, based on my observations."

"So you made it up?"

"...yes."

"Just wanted that to be clear." Kazuma nodded, satisfied. "No further questions."

"...carrying on. In the last couple of weeks, there have been two attacks on magic stone production factories. Both facilities were burnt down with no survivors. Eyewitnesses saw groups of cloaked individuals leaving the scene in both cases. However, we managed to identify one individual based on their description."

Finn placed down a sheet of paper that had a black and white hand-drawn portrait on it of a woman. Short pink spiky hair, an attractive face, a fur coat, and a shirt that was partly shredded.

"Valletta Grede." Finn stared venomously down at the portrait on the table. "Characteristics are pink hair, golden eyes, and an athletic figure. For those of you who are new—I see a couple of you—please know that she is extremely dangerous."

The pallum raised his head to face them, but his eyes were shadowed.

"Current highest bounty in Orario, but don't let that tempt you. She is not an easy opponent. Level 5, a very competent fighter, commander, strategist, and tactician. I've personally dealt with her schemes and fought her many times since the exile of Zeus and Hera Familia, but it's always been practically a stalemate between us. She's known to use daggers, swords, and greatswords. Engage her at your own peril."

"Then what are we supposed to do? Lay down and die?"

"No, you're supposed to flee and call for help. Stall if you must, but there is a reason she is still out there after this long so do not fight her unless you have to. Any more questions?" When no one spoke up after a few seconds, Finn continued on. "Alright. Shakti, please give your report."

The captain of Ganesha Familia solemnly nodded and stood up.

"Outside of Orario, for the last few months, there have been many villages and small towns wiped out overnight. It had been initially believed that many of them were victims of monster attacks or bandit raids. While bleak, it is not uncommon."

Shakti took a breath to steady herself.

"However, one of those captured in the recent attacks by Evilus in Orario has been recognized and identified as a survivor from one of these destroyed villages. After intense interrogation, we now know that Evilus has been raiding these towns to create tragedies and inducting the survivors into their organization as low level members and cannon fodder."

"Why would they fight for Evilus?! Their homes were destroyed by them, right?!"

"Because of some kind of promise with a god associated with Evilus. I'm not sure of the details since the prisoner unfortunately succumbed to our methods before we could get more answers." Shakti had a dark look in her eyes. "We had Hermes reinvestigate the destroyed villages outside of Orario, and they have found evidence confirming the connection. Asfi, can you continue from here?"

"Yes…"

The aforementioned girl stood up from her seat, looking a bit fed up. As the vice-captain and representative of Hermes Familia—her captain had only lasted two meetings before offloading the task to her—she didn't look particularly happy to be here. After adjusting her glasses, she started to speak.

"We've long known that they were getting their funding by somehow smuggling magic stones out of Orario. However, recently, we have discovered that they are also selling monsters from the dungeon. We do not know how they are bringing them out of Orario, but it's not only small monsters like goblins and kobolds that they have smuggled out. They have already sold a pair of mating minotaurs to a nearby kingdom."

At this, there was a small commotion, though Finn held up his hand to silence them. After it quieted down, Asfi continued.

"The minotaurs had already been eliminated, and we unfortunately don't know of any others. As can be imagined, they are somehow exporting and breeding monsters—even large ones—and there is now evidence that they are using these monsters to stage attacks on villages and scooping up survivors who manage to escape the initial slaughter. The monsters are allowed to escape and set up their own nests, wreaking havoc on the nearby regions," Asfi continued. "Unfortunately, we have very few ways to deal with them as it is, but we now know how they are replenishing their manpower. Due to the efforts of the Anti-Evilus Task Force, Evilus' recruitment efforts in Orario are waning so they are resorting to desperate measures."

"What can a bunch of mooks do?"

"You don't need much to cause fear in the townspeople," Gareth commented. "Just a knife and a will to do harm."

"Do they even need a knife? Just poke out some eyes."

"So far," Asfi continued, raising her voice over those speaking. "They are exporting magic stones, monster drops, and live monsters. Not only that, but our information network has discovered that they are importing restricted items into Orario. Parts for complex machinery, rare materials, and tree branches."

"Branches?" Ryuu Lion stirred at those words. "What kind? And from where?"

"From the great sacred tree in Wishe Forest."

The elf, Ryuu, looked shocked. However, that soon turned into her visibly shaking with anger. Alise placed a comforting hand on her arm, stopping the elf from doing any more than that.

"My report is done," Asfi said before sitting down.

"Thank you." Finn nodded his head at Shakti and Asfi before turning his gaze to the rest of them. "If you haven't already, familiarize yourselves with the top bounties. Valletta Grede isn't the only executive of Evilus you have to be wary of. There's Dina Dis and Vena Dis, captain and vice-captain of Alecto Familia. Level 5s that are known to kill high level adventurers in honeypot traps. Vito, level 4, infamous for committing multiple solo massacres in low-level areas of the dungeon. And these are just the ones that I am naming off the top of my head. Still, we're all busy people so I'm not going to take up any more time than necessary. Anything else?"

No one spoke up.

"Okay, then that ends the meeting," Finn announced. "But the representatives of Demeter Familia, please stay behind."

"Okay, meow."

As the representatives of the different familias went through the metal doorway and into the one-way passage to the surface, Kazuma decided to wait until it was less crowded. Why didn't he go back the way he came? That was because it was faster, never mind the fact that—once you were in the passageway—if you were to turn around and go back ten steps, your head would fall off.

Looking for something to whittle away the time, Kazuma glanced over to the newcomers who had been called out and were now speaking with Finn. Chloe Rollo and Lunoire Faust of Demeter Familia, the very same assassins that he had once fought. After they were defeated by Aqua and subsequently arrested, they would have normally been executed as per the norm. However, the goddess Demeter begged for clemency for them. Considering that they hadn't killed anyone in Orario yet since he had been their first assassination target, they asked for his opinion as the victim.

So he gave the okay because that question was pretty much if he wanted them executed or not. Orario's law system wasn't made for long-term confinement or punishment. They would rather chop off the perpetrator's limbs than keep them in jail for a year. With Demeter as their warden, it didn't seem like a bad idea to let them out under the goddess' watch.

Well, a better-seeming goddess than Aqua.

Demeter had originally only wanted to help Lunoire who was a part of her familia, but apparently, Chloe's situation was so pitiful that she also took her in as well. In the months since, they seemed to have reformed, taking on patrol duties as penance. Being the only two real combatants in Demeter Familia, they were finally allowed to attend the meeting after providing their trustworthiness.

All in all, it was a happy ending. Just the kind that he liked to see.

And now, with the line of people gone, it was finally time to leave.

~o~

The sun hung high in the sky, casting a warm glow over the bustling street market of Orario. The air was filled with the rich aroma of exotic spices, freshly baked bread, and the sweet scent of ripe fruits. Stalls lined the cobblestone streets, each one displaying a wide selection of goods and produce. Merchants called out to prospective customers, trying to garner both their attention and their money.

Kazuma let out a yawn as he walked down the street.

With how much time and money he had poured into the AETF lately, it was nice to see that his efforts were paying off. The streets of Orario were a lot safer these days with how hard they had been cracking down on Evilus. Well, considering that patrols used to be unpaid and voluntary work, this should be the obvious result. In fact, his payments had even funded a second Ganesha Familia compound with a similar statue for a home like the first one, except this time of Ganesha lying down leisurely with the entrance being his mouth, much to his familia's horror.

Kazuma probably would have visited more to enjoy his status as a patron, but their god was a bit too much. He would have paid not the god to not hear "I am Ganesha" again, especially since the last time consisted of the god hugging him tightly against his bare chest and shouting that right into his ear.

He shuddered at the memory.

By now, it was already well-known that he had started his vendetta because of the deaths of Jiruna and Vani. Because of the fame, Vidar Familia was actually doing pretty well for themselves. They had been receiving a lot of help, some from pity while others were from gratitude toward Kazuma. Either way, Selenia had gotten back to her feet, though relations between her and Bete were still very icy. He didn't know the exact details, but apparently, the breakup had been messy. Bete didn't like talking about it, and Darkness said it wasn't her story to tell.

Well, it wasn't like it mattered to him either way. Bete was useful to have around as another front-liner and he got along with him well enough.

Kazuma occasionally waved at some of the merchants who called out his name as he walked down the street. Why was he currently walking around the street market? Was it to patrol for Evilus? Of course not. He was already paying people to do that for him. No, he was only here to do some grocery shopping. Since he had free time, why not now? It wasn't like he could send Megumin to do it later—she only ever bought the cheapest stuff—and Aqua was another obvious no. Bete? No, he didn't give a crap about what he ate so he would just pick up whatever was the most convenient.

That left grocery shopping mainly up to Darkness, Eris, and himself. They usually alternated, but since everyone was so busy, he figured that he might as well take another round.

To that end, Kazuma stopped in front of a stall and browsed through its contents. He needed to pick up vegetables, meat, and rice. Probably a few herbs and spices as well. The prices didn't really matter to him all that much, but the quality did.

While he was examining a particularly plump tomato, a sudden commotion erupted at the far end of the market. Screams tore through the air as he furrowed his brow at the direction of the commotion and his hand instinctively went toward the hilt of his sword. He could feel his [Enemy Detection] skill started to ping crazily in his head. Was it an Evilus attack? In broad daylight like this? The answer to his question came running at him from behind, his detection only going off when the assailant abandoned all pretenses of stealth.

In one smooth motion, Kazuma spun around as he drew his sword, slashing at the cloaked man behind him. His blade easily went through the man's mask, cutting it apart along with his disbelieving face. The man was dead before he hit the ground, the top half of his head sliding off. Most Evilus goons weren't very threatening on their own, typically level one or two adventurers at best so it wasn't difficult to take them down—especially now that he was a level three adventurer.

He would know, with how often they tried to kill him.

Kazuma flicked off the blood from his sword by slicing it to the side, staining the ground in a half circle. It made him feel like a samurai.

Funny that. In the beginning, it was unnerving how easy it was to actually kill someone. Sometimes, he would think about it, but generally, he tried not to since it made him feel uncomfortable. Evilus members tended to fight to the death since they knew that their only fate was to be executed in prison so it wasn't worth the risk to subdue them unless they needed information.

Panic swept through the market like wildfire with merchants abandoning their stalls and shoppers scattering to the four winds while clutching their belongings. Some were even standing still, looking around in confusion and disorientation, though they were quickly shoved aside by people running for their lives.

Kazuma dashed toward the place where his [Enemy Detection] skill was pinging with the most hostiles. While there were probably still Evilus members in hiding like the one that had attacked him, he would need to leave those for the others. His goal right now was to take out the highest concentration of targets and break their morale.

"Tempest."

Wind surrounded him, giving him a boost in speed. Like all of the spells he possessed, Ariel wasn't a magic that originally belonged to him. In fact, it had been a gift from his little sister! The fact that he was able to learn a spell from his little sister only furthered their bond as siblings. In return, he had explored the ins and outs of it to teach his little sister all the unusual ways that the spell could be used, cementing his status as the reliable older brother. Under his guidance, she was even starting to think outside the box!

It made him so proud.

Of course, his subpar version of the spell was only enough to coat himself in a very light layer of wind, but by shaping it into a triangular spearhead in front of him, he was parting the air before him, thereby reducing wind resistance and making himself aerodynamic.

Kazuma sped down the street, avoiding civilians along the way. Pulling a blonde-haired woman back, he ran his sword through the chest of a cloaked assailant. Without sparing another moment, he cut down another group of Evilus members nearby in a blitz of speed. Despite all of his efforts, his [Enemy Detection] skill was still going haywire, signaling that there were still a good many of them left.

Fortunately, other adventurers were starting to get involved in the battle.

The patrols that the AETF regularly planned finally seemed to arrive at the scene, a mix of adventurers from different familias. Among them, he could see Ardee Varma and some members of Ganesha Familia getting involved in the skirmish.

"Ardee!" Kazuma shouted. "Can you handle evacuating the civilians?"

Kazuma wasn't sure if his voice carried through the chaos, but with his [Lip-Reading] skill, he was able to get the gist of what she said in reply. It was thankfully an acknowledgment of his request. Ardee and Ganesha Familia were used to handling civilians since they had plenty of experience as the peacekeepers of the city so he could leave this part of the mess to them.

With that, he dashed toward the next section of the marketplace.

An assassin appeared to his left with a cursed knife in her hands, but he was already holding out his free hand and focusing his mana.

"Steal!"

After a flash of light, the cursed weapon was firmly gripped in his casting hand while the assassin was caught off guard by her weapon disappearing. He plunged the dagger into her neck before she could recover, yanking it out without breaking his run. Another assassin was about to kill a dwarf merchant, but he flipped the cursed dagger and threw it. It spun head over head through the air before stabbing and impaling itself into the back of the assassin's head.

A second later, the assassin fell over lifelessly on top of the panicking dwarf.

Another enemy blip on his mental radar approached him to his right at a deliberately fast speed. A longsword came slashing down at him, but he blocked it with his own sword, sparks flying off from the clash. They exchanged strikes for a few moments, a deadly waltz of blades to which neither of them managed to come out on top. At the same time, they both backed off to reset.

It was another masked Evilus assassin, but this one was different from the others. Most likely a level three or at least a high level two with a focus on physical stats, judging from her speed and strength. Probably a squad leader or whatever Evilus used as an equivalent in their organization.

The assassin then suddenly reached into her cloak and threw a dagger at him.

Kazuma deflected it with his sword; dodging would have been bad since there was a chance that it might hit a civilian. The assassin took advantage of the opening and rushed at him in a burst of speed.

"Create Earth!"

A handful of dirt appeared in his free hand, and he threw it at the woman's mask, covering and clogging the small eyeholes. Before she could wipe it off, he channeled mana into his open palm and unleashed another spell.

"Lightning!"

A bolt of thunder shot out of his palm and struck the assassin directly in the chest. It electrified the assassin, shutting down all of her bodily functions as she vibrated in place. To end her suffering, Kazuma slashed at her throat, easily reaping her life away. Like a broken puppet, her corpse fell to the ground in front of him.

Was it a dirty move? Sure, it was, but when did he ever care about that? It was like that time he intercepted a letter between Evilus operatives, dipped the paper inside in poison, and quietly returned it.

Of course, there was more to be done, but by this time, it was mostly the surviving stragglers who didn't have the good sense to run, of which there were a lot of. The skirmish continued for another good ten minutes or so before the fighting finally died down. By the time it was over, his armor had become filthy, covered in blood and bits, probably viscera. He let out a breath and wiped his face on his shoulder, since his hands were dirty, though that probably smudged the blood instead of getting rid of it. Corpses littered the marketplace, many of them Evilus members, but there were more than a few unfortunate civilians and adventurers as well.

Kazuma wasn't really sure how to feel about that.

He did get used to it, but it still bothered him even if he tried to act otherwise. The pools of blood—like puddles of stagnant water—were just as disturbing as the corpses lying on top, their sightless eyes staring unendingly. If anything, it was like looking at dolls and wondering if they were haunted. He turned his gaze away as he walked down the street.

Surprisingly enough, the damages to the stalls and buildings were minimal; Evilus had been mostly aiming at people's lives rather than their property. There was already an influx of people to help out with the aftermath, both newcomers and fleeing civilians who had returned. Despite that, there were still too many who were crying or wailing. There was even a mother hugging a lifeless young boy, no older than five.

He didn't like how that made him feel.

Kazuma could increase the budget of the AETF, but it wouldn't decrease situations like this. At this point, it was a manpower issue rather than a financial one. Unfortunately, there was no real way to tap into more. Those who became level twos and threes outside of Orarios were in high demand there, and many of them were problematic in their own rights. It wasn't easy to gain levels outside, leading to hunting monsters through a wandering lifestyle or killing other adventurers for excelia.

Either way, it wasn't conducive to put those kinds of people in the role of guard duty.

Off to the side of the street, Ardee was helping out, using her spell to heal people. Instead of thinking about unnecessary thoughts, Kazuma decided to go over there and do the same. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a magic stone, draining it for mana as he knelt down next to a blue-haired girl.

"I'll help out," Kazuma simply said as he held out his free hand in front of another injured civilian. "Heal."

With how much his magic stat leveled up, all of his spells were nothing to scoff at anymore. It was nowhere close to being on the level of Aqua or Megumin, but that was to be expected.

"Thanks, Kazuma." Ardee gave him a weary smile.

"Don't mention it." He glanced over toward a group of AETF members, denoted by their armbands. "Can you relay the information regarding the attack to Finn?"

"Yes, sir!"

Kazuma turned his attention back toward the injured man in front of him. Focusing on the healing once again as the man's wounds began to stitch back together. As he worked with Ardee on medical duty, his mind began to wander a bit. Evilus hadn't launched an attack in broad daylight like this in a long time because their casualty rate tended to be really high when they did, especially since the majority of patrols took place during the daytime. Therefore, he couldn't help shake the thought that there was something strange going on.

Was there something bigger at play here…?

~o~

Chapters' Notes:

Icura: I have an alternative scene for Kazuma and Finn's interaction.

"Nice statistics, Captain," Kazuma said sarcastically. "Why don't you back it up with a source?"

Finn pointed his lit cigar at Kazuma and replied, "My source is that I made it the fuck up."

Special FX: Kazuma's life update: it got worse.