The Dungeon was a mystery unknown even to the gods. The mechanisms that had been explored now showed that the Dungeon possessed consciousness.
And monsters were also a part of the Dungeon. Hostility towards adventurers and the instinct to survive were their only consciousness.
However, due to some unknown reason, some monsters would possess intelligence. And these monsters that had gained intelligence were also called "Xenos."
These Xenos weren't accepted by adventurers because of their monster status, but were also hated by other monsters because they had broken away from the Dungeon's will, a group that lived in the cracks.
Of course, their existence was a secret. And the one who helped them conceal their whereabouts was Fels, under the orders of the great god Ouranos.
Ouranos, who guarded the Dungeon, was the first to learn of the existence of Xenos. Then he began to think about the possibility of humans and monsters coexisting.
The Monster Festival, held by the Ganesha Familia every year, was to eliminate humans' fear of monsters, considered preparation for that goal.
So besides Ouranos and Fels, Ganesha might also know some of the inside story. Of course, there was also one who knew, and that was Hermes, who had always cooperated.
That troublemaker god was never missing.
And in the original story, the Xenos had triggered a major incident, and greatly influenced the subsequent plot.
That incident had an especially large impact on the protagonist Bell, and could even be said to be a turning point in his growth.
Before that, although Bell had the dream of becoming a hero in the story, it was very vague.
After experiencing the Xenos incident, especially after being accused of being a hypocrite, Bell had clarified his path to becoming a hero, truly maturing.
Of course, it was also in this incident that Bell had met his fated opponent. A special species of Minotaur Xenos, lovingly called Cow Girl, the true female lead, Asterius, who hadn't forgotten Bell even after reincarnation.
And the beginning of the incident was Bell meeting and saving a Dragon Girl Xenos.
Drake didn't know when this Dragon Girl, who Bell had named Wiene, had been born, but she had now appeared before him.
Just as Drake and Stella had entered the 19th floor's Great Tree Labyrinth, they had discovered a group of people rushing straight towards this side.
Generally speaking, adventurers wouldn't move forward at too fast a speed in the Dungeon in order to save stamina.
So these people's actions were very strange, and the aura that Drake sensed had a disgusting feeling.
Before the two could decide whether or not to check it out, a petite figure ran out of the forest.
The wound on her face was still bleeding, with a look of fear. After seeing Drake and Stella, the expression on her face had even turned into despair.
Wanting to change direction and escape, she had already exhausted herself from running all the way, her feet softening, directly falling to the ground in a sorry state.
Stella had thought that a monster was attacking, but she hadn't expected it to be an existence like a little girl.
Drake had been teaching her about the Dungeon during this stage, but he hadn't talked about Xenos yet, so she didn't know what to do for a time.
"Drake, what's going on?"
Faced with Stella's question, Drake sighed, saying, "I'll tell you later. There are others coming."
Just as Drake finished speaking, six people emerged from the jungle.
Drake looked at them, unable to help but frown.
Wiene's strength was only equivalent to LV3. Although he didn't know if these people were carrying magic swords, there was a LV2 archer among them. If they wanted to kill her, it shouldn't have been possible for her to escape.
The only reasonable explanation left was that they didn't want to kill Wiene at all. This wasn't a thought that normal adventurers would have.
After the six people appeared, they first glanced at the fallen Wiene, a trace of greed flashing in their eyes, then they looked at Drake and Stella.
The gaunt man at the head said, "Hey, according to the Dungeon's regulations, that guy is our prey. You can't interfere!"
Stella hadn't figured out the situation yet, but she had already started to hate the man opposite her who was speaking impolitely.
Drake recalled, then saying, "You're from the Ikelos Familia, right!"
The six people's expressions changed. What they were doing in the Dungeon wasn't anything that could be seen in the light, so they hadn't carried anything with the Familia's mark.
But their identity had still been recognized, which made them suspicious and uncertain.
The gaunt man said with a cold face, "So what if we are? Are you going to steal our prey?"
The Lilliput behind him tugged on him, saying, "Hey, he seems to be the Dragon Furnace of the Hephaestus Familia!"
The gaunt man's expression became even uglier. He didn't have any bottom line, so he didn't mind killing people to silence them in a situation where his actions had been exposed.
After all, they weren't the only ones who had done this kind of thing. The monsters in the Dungeon would erase all traces.
But the other party was actually the Dragon Furnace, one of the top adventurers in Orario. Killing people to silence them? Don't joke around. There was no way they could do it even if they took their heads off!
Of course, Drake knew why these people were chasing so closely. Although Ikelos was a regular Familia, what they did in private was no different from the Dark Faction.
One of them was capturing live monsters from the Dungeon and selling them to people outside of Orario. After all, monsters were Orario's "special product."
No matter what world it was, there were always some people with strange fetishes. What's more, this was a world with a backward level of civilization.
With those people as the source, there would naturally be dirty transactions.
After all, those people would even capture humans to use as slaves, let alone monsters, whose positions were originally opposed.
And the Ikelos Familia was especially special. Its captain was Daedalus's descendant, the .
The route for poaching monsters and reselling them outside of Orario was the artificial labyrinth built by the Daedalus clan.
Not only poaching, many of the Dark Faction's activities were because the Daedalus clan needed to raise funds, so they provided them with convenience.
Last time, Drake had joined forces with the Loki Familia to sweep away the Dark Faction and the fallen spirits hidden in the artificial labyrinth, Knossos.
But after all, that was a huge building that the Daedalus clan had built for tens of thousands of years, used to compare with the Dungeon. So they still hadn't been able to completely conquer the artificial labyrinth.
Especially the area that the Daedalus clan themselves controlled, the conquest progress was very slow. So their dark transactions were still continuing.
Only the people from the Ikelos Familia would think about capturing monsters alive at this time, because live monsters were worth more than magic stones to them.
Drake wasn't so much of a saint that he would pity monsters who didn't have reason and were naturally enemies of humans.
But the Xenos were different. They had joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and could communicate with people. They wouldn't take the initiative to be enemies with humans, only wanting to live well. Their souls were the same as humans.
But Dix saw them as more valuable commodities, even using the pleasure he obtained from abusing them to alleviate his bloodline curse.
With Dix leading them, you could imagine what the people from the Ikelos Familia were like. No wonder the aura he had sensed before was so disgusting.
So Drake raised his eyelids, saying, "I won't say any more nonsense. Get out!"
That gaunt man still wanted to say something, but he was grabbed by his companion.
"We'll leave right away. You can have this prey!"
Smiling obsequiously, the cat person adventurer pulled his captain, walking towards the distance.
After they were completely out of Drake's sight, that gaunt man said, "Are we just going to swallow this?"
The cat person adventurer said, "Of course not, but we can't beat that Dragon Furnace with just the few of us. Let's go back and find Dix."
Drake could guess what these people were thinking, but he didn't care.
Turning his head, Drake looked at Wiene, who had fallen to the ground.
Stella had already walked before her, but Wiene was so scared that she retreated repeatedly.
Stella revealed a smile, saying, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. My name is Stella, what's your name?"
Looking at the smile on Stella's face, Wiene clearly felt that she was different from those people before.
So she tilted her head, looking at Stella, saying like a child learning to speak, "Stella? Name?"
Stella's eyes became even gentler, saying, "That's right, Stella is my name. Don't you have a name?"
Looking at this warm scene before him, Drake couldn't help but feel that he and Stella had picked up a daughter.
Stella turned her head, saying, "Drake, let's give her a name!"
Drake nodded, saying, "Wiene, the name comes from the fairy with wings of light, Virunéia, in the fairy tales of this world."
"Wiene! Wiene!"
Constantly repeating this name, the Dragon Girl girl revealed a happy smile.
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