“Yeah, right, dimwit! Tsk, sure are a lot of ’em, though…”
More Minotaurs kept coming into the room from each of the exits every second and formed a ring around the group of adventurers.
Their bloodshot eyes flicked from person to person, chests heaving with excitement as they chose their targets.
“Riveria, there’s a lot of them, so can we join in?”
“Yes, that’s fine. Raul, take command for this battle. Finn believes you are ready to gain some experience.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
These monsters were rated by the Guild as the strongest and most dangerous of the Dungeon’s middle levels. However, Loki Familia’s top-class adventurers didn’t bat an eye. They had been fighting monsters from more than thirty floors lower only a few days ago. There was a tremendous gap in power between Minotaurs and the fearsome beasts the adventurers had slain.
Therefore, these relatively shallow floors were reserved for the lower-level adventurers to gain excelia. People like Aiz normally just sat and watched. The other members of their group might have been weaker than the top class, but they were still members of the strongest Dungeon-crawling familia. Monsters from the Middle-Level floors weren’t as serious a threat to them as they were to members of other familias.
This time, though, the numbers were overwhelmingly against them.
The top-class adventurers grabbed their weapons at Tione’s suggestion.
“UooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Then, the flow of battle turned in a direction that no one could have predicted.
“UooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!”
It happened when almost half the Minotaur herd lay dead on the floor.
One Minotaur must have noticed the unfathomable difference in power between themselves and their supposedly “prey” and turned its back to the battle.
That caused a chain reaction as every other beast turned away from the adventurers and took off in all directions at the same time.
The great escape had begun.
“Huh?!”
“Heey! Ya call yerselves monsters?!”
The thunderous retreat caught Tiona and Bete off guard.
More and more of the beasts were disappearing from the room, running for their lives.
Aiz’s golden eyes widened as she watched in disbelief.
“After them, all of you!”
Riveria’s shrill voice cut through the chaos.
Top-class adventurers were frozen in place for only a moment before launching themselves in pursuit of the Minotaurs.
“And we were almost home…!”
“Um, I’m not good with hand-to-hand combat!”
“Whack ’em really hard with that stick ya got! Do it!”
“S-sure…!”
Tione clenched her fist as she took off. Bete snapped at Lefiya. There wasn’t a calm face among them.
It went without saying that there were other adventurers in the Dungeon. Most crawling the Middle Levels were nowhere near as strong as Loki Familia’s top-class adventurers. Seeing a stampede of Minotaurs would be their worst nightmare. Should even one adventurer be unable to return home due to the Minotaurs that they let escape, the Guild and other familias would be quick to find out and levy the penalties against them. At the very least, they would lose a lot of sleep from the guilt.
“Wait, that’s…?”
A large group of Minotaurs hurtled down the passageway leading up to the sixteenth floor. By the time Tiona noticed, they were disappearing up the stairwell.
“This is gonna be one hell of a pain in the ass!”
Following the chorus of footsteps and howls, the top-class adventurers bounded their way to the next floor.
Aiz led the charge as they caught up to the panicked Minotaurs.
One floor up, another floor up, and another floor up.
The giant bull monsters broke down any obstacle standing in the way of their panicked stampede. The pack ran to the closest corner, turning right and left randomly in a desperate attempt to elude their pursuers. Individuals would occasionally peel away from the other Minotaurs in a desperate attempt to save themselves. Whenever that happened, one of Loki Familia’s adventurers had to chase it. What was extremely unlucky for the pursuers was that the monsters kept finding the passageways that connected to upper floors. Bete had hit the nail right on the head.
The herd steadily got smaller the higher they went, but also the group of pursuers had to split up to finish off the ones that broke away. Out of the Middle Levels and into the Upper Levels—the name given to the first twelve Dungeon floors. What was left of the herd arrived on the sixth floor. Aiz and Bete were hot on their tails, but the rest of their allies were gone.
“Holy shit!”
“Outta the way!”
A Minotaur was one second away from smashing its fist into an unlucky adventurer when Bete slammed his bladed foot into the creature’s head, bringing it down in one blow.
The Upper Levels were the closest floors to the surface. The monsters in this area were low level and physically weak. Therefore, these floors were filled with lower-level adventurers learning how to fight and gaining excelia. Should any one of them come face-to-face with the Minotaur, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Casualties could start piling up at any moment.
It’s gone…!
Aiz had been pursuing the last two beasts and managed to take one down. However, the other one disappeared from her line of sight in the process.
Unfortunately, they were in a hallway that split into many different paths. Her gaze shot from opening to opening. Her face still wore the same aloof expression; only a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek revealed the dread that was overtaking her. Someone would surely die if she went the wrong way.
“Over here, Aiz!”
Bete followed his nose with no hesitation. Animal people were known for having a stronger sense of smell than humans. There was no doubt that a werewolf could follow the trail of a beast as large as the Minotaur.
Racing forward at full speed, at last they saw the beast’s muscular rusty-brown shoulders come into view. The last survivor of the herd, of course it was the fastest. What’s more, it disappeared up a set of stairs.
“…!”
The fifth floor.
The staircase opened into a wide room. The walls looked light green in the light coming down from above. However, the Dungeon was silent as the calm before a storm. Each wall of the square room had an exit, four in all. The Minotaur was gone.
The two of them spun around, listening for any trace of the beast.
“UuuOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“AaaIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!”
They heard something.
A roar and a human scream.
“!”
They took off at once.
Aiz was closer to the sound and was running toward it a second before Bete could react.
She found the Minotaur and a human almost immediately.
His hair was as white as a snowcapped mountain, and his ruby-red eyes were filled with tears. At first glance, this male teenager looked more like a rabbit than an adventurer.
The massive bull was chasing him down the passageway, swatting at him like a cat chasing a mouse.
“What’s a greenhorn doin’ down here?!”
One look at his pathetic armor was enough to know it had been issued by the Guild. The boy’s running style was erratic, wasting so much movement that it was obvious he had next to no experience.
The newest of
newbies.
From the Minotaur’s perspective, this adventurer wasn’t prey, more like an afternoon snack.
The two top-class adventurers focused more power into their legs, desperately trying to close the distance.
Aiz sped after the rabbit.
“Uughunnnnnn!!”
“Daaahhh?!”
The Minotaur slammed down its hoof.
All the boy could do was brace his thin body for impact—no, he barely dodged it at the last moment but lost his footing when the ground shook.
Tumbling forward, the boy rolled all the way up to the Dungeon wall.
“—”
Aiz became a blur.
Leaving Bete behind, she shot forward like a silent arrow toward the massacre that was about to unfold.
The Minotaur had the boy cornered at the back of the room. The creature’s lips turned upward, baring its teeth in a hideous smile.
White hair filled with dirt, tears rolling down from his red eyes, all that was left for this little rabbit to do was to wait for the jaws of the beast to come crashing down.
Filled with a strong feeling of déjà vu, Aiz launched herself at the beast, a silver streak leading the way.
“Huh?”
“Uoohhhh?”
The boy sounded just as surprised as the Minotaur.
The first slash reverberating in her ears, Aiz didn’t hold anything back as a silver streak cut through the Minotaur over and over.
The sword gleamed after one last cut through its chest.
“Guu…?! Gu, uoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—?!”
The Minotaur stood there completely intact for a moment before falling apart as if its body suddenly realized what had just happened. The creature roared out in pain for a moment before collapsing to the ground in pieces.
The creature’s blood shot out in all directions, like a fountain breaking apart from too much water pressure.
Then, their eyes met.
Ruby-red eyes in shock. Sparkling yet distant golden eyes.
The boy emerged from the other side of the monster’s remains, a chance meeting.
He was just sitting there as if frozen in time. Aiz decided to break the silence.
“Are you…okay?”
The girl leaned down over him, but the boy didn’t even flinch.
He just looked up at her as if he’d forgotten how to speak.
Aiz didn’t know how to react. So she tried asking again.
“Umm…Are you sure you’re okay?”
No reaction.
Once again, the girl’s emotionless expression hid inner turmoil. She could only blink a few times and make eye contact with him.
The boy had been caught in the explosion of Minotaur blood and was currently soaked in it. She felt pity for him. Tears started flooding his eyes once again. All of his exposed skin blushed pink, like he was running a fever, as he looked directly at Aiz.
Aiz was starting to feel genuinely concerned for the boy. Wiping the remaining blood off her sword, she returned it to its sheath and extended her hand to him.
“Can you stand?”
The boy was about to say something, but the blond girl accidentally interrupted him. His lips were still frozen in the middle of the word.
His line of sight fell to her outstretched hand before jumping back up to her face.
His ears, neck, and everything else were turning redder by the second.
“Da—”
“Da?”
She didn’t even have time to tilt her head as the boy suddenly woke up from his trance.
Without warning.
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
He ran away from Aiz as fast as his legs could carry him.
She was stunned. Her eyes flew open as she watched him disappear into the distance.
The echoes of his screams dying off, Aiz’s face morphed into an expression no one had seen before: at a loss for words.
“…kh…hh…kahah!”
She turned around to see Bete, his whole body shaking as he tried to stifle the laughter trying to escape his mouth.
Bending over and clutching his ribs—“Haaah, haaah!”—he took deep, ragged breaths.
“…”
Aiz’s face turned pink, blushing like that of a girl her age.
The werewolf could only stare at her.
It hadn’t been an easy journey.
Loki Familia’s long expedition had finally come to an end.
The Labyrinth City, Orario.
The large city was surrounded by a sturdy, circular wall.
Judging by its appearance, the looming structure would have been able to repel enemy attacks from the outside. However, its true purpose was to contain the monsters that emerged from a giant breach in the ground. Built in the Ancient Times, it was proof of how hard people fought to keep contained the monsters that emerged from it. It remained a solid reminder to the present day.
The stone barrier enclosed buildings of all shapes and sizes. Standing at the center of it all was an enormous white structure.
It was built directly over the entrance and served as a lid: Babel Tower.
With Babel as its symbol, the city built above the Dungeon had become a thriving metropolis.
A great deal of the city’s population was made up of adventurers, people who made their living inside the Dungeon. It went without saying that many restaurants and bars were built to help them celebrate their successes and let off some steam. Humans and demi-humans gathered at their favorite watering holes, drinking and living it up side by side. Occasionally, some deities would get carried away and join them with jugs of liquor or ale in their hands. These were places where divisions of races and allegiances did not exist, where people laughed and enjoyed one another’s company. Just one little pocket of the city—of this world.
Many lights illuminated the city night. These magic-stone lamps kept the city alive with activity at all times, day or night.
“Finally home…”
In the city’s northern district, just off the main road…
One long, tall building stood above the rest.
It was composed of a line of dark red towers that stood like spears above the city. The structure looked like flames when the sunlight hit it just right. The flag of the Trickster flew majestically from the top of the highest tower, its red color matching the towers.
Loki Familia’s home, Twilight Manor.
“Ahhh, so tired. Forget a steak, I’ll take the entire cow.”
“I want a shower. As soon as possible.”
“Ah-ha-ha…”
Lefiya laughed awkwardly at the Amazonian twins’ conversation.
The expedition party had emerged from the Dungeon and returned to their home. Most of the thirty adventurers were carrying large bags, or dragging them, all the way up to the front gate.
Two guards, a man and a woman, saluted them as they approached.
“We’re home. Please open the gate.”
They nodded at Finn and pulled open the iron fence–like doors.
The plot of land available for their home was long but very thin when construction started. The solution: build up instead of out. This also meant that the front lawn was rather narrow. Members of the familia used the space as efficiently as possible to grow a wide array of flowers and plants. A light breeze passed through, making the flowers appear to bow to the arriving adventurers.
Finn led his allies through the gate.
When suddenly…
“—Welcome hoooome!” A figure rushed out of the building to greet the adventurers as if it had been waiting for them.
Short vermilion hair shaking from side to side, a slightly masculine-looking woman charged headlong toward the spot where Aiz and the other girls were chatting.
“Y’all make it back okay? Gaah—was too quiet here without ya!”
She practically threw herself at them
with her arms open wide. Step, step, step, Aiz, Tiona, and Tione easily dodged the oncoming hug.
Lefiya didn’t realize what was happening until, “Huh, wha? Eeeek!” She was trapped in the embrace and fell to the ground.
“Loki, we suffered no casualties on this expedition. But we didn’t explore any lower floors. I’d like to sit down and explain the details.”
“Nnnn…Okay, then. Welcome back, Finn.”
“Thank you, Loki.”
The woman pulled her head away from the elf girl beneath her and flashed a smile at the prum.
Her vermilion hair resembled the evening sky at dusk. Her eyes were clever, narrow lines in the middle of her head. But at this moment, her perfectly symmetrical face was grinning. Those narrow eyes opening slightly, this tomboyish woman was, in fact, a being—a goddess—who enjoyed listening to the trials and tribulations of the lower world from people like Finn.
She was one of the deities who had descended from Tenkai out of boredom and come to live with the children for pure entertainment.
Completely different from humans or monsters, a deusdea.
She was, in fact, the leader of the group that bound together Aiz and the others: Loki.
“Loki, could you get off Lefiya? She’s exhausted, and you’re giving her a heart attack.”
“Oh, my, my. My bad, Lefiya. Kinda got caught up in the moment.”
“I-it’s okay…”
“Oh, and by the way…Geh-heh-heh, didn’t your boobs get a lil’ bigger?”
“N-no! Not at all!”
Lefiya’s face turned beet red as she looked at the perverted smile on her goddess’s lips.
The aura that surrounded the deity, making her seem like a trustworthy parent figure, instantly disappeared. It was at times like this that a being who looked perfect by default became ugly enough that humans had to avert their eyes.
Loki might have been a goddess, but she had a rather particular taste in women.
She had personally scouted every member of her familia, so every single one of them met her approval. Ignoring the male members, every female had the same kind of cute elegance about her that their goddess was very fond of.
“Hold on a sec, Tione, what’s that wrapped around your…That’s Finn’s waistcloth! Say it ain’t so! Don’t tell me you exposed yourself for the whole Dungeon to see! How do ya plead?”
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 1 Page 9
