Dungeon, 12th Floor.
This was the endpoint of the upper floors and the starting point for many adventurers with dreams of the future.
Venturing further ahead would lead to the 'Middle Floors,' accessible only to at least Lv. 2 adventurers.
Thus, many parties consisting of Lv. 2 and Lv. 1 adventurers chose to explore here first.
Raising their stats, seeking opportunities for [Excelia], accumulating funds... Once everyone in the party reached Lv. 2, they would press onward, embarking on a true 'adventure journey.'
This approach was also safer and more reliable.
The 12th Floor was a considerably dangerous place. Thick mist obscured vision and muffled hearing; one misstep, and monsters could be right upon you.
The primary threats were Orcs, massive in size and wielding trees as weapons, along with Imps smarter than Goblins that swarmed in groups, and bat-like monsters called 'Barats' that attacked with invisible echolocation from range...
"Amy, Barks, it's great having you two. Combat's gotten so much easier~"
"After all, Barksun's already Lv. 2."
"Amy's about to level up too, right? It'll get even easier then."
"So you two need to step it up as well."
A standard five-person adventurer party gathered together, chatting and laughing as they extracted Magic Stones from the fallen Orc corpses.
They were all adventurers who had arrived in Orario from outside the city not long ago.
They didn't belong to a Familia yet.
Currently, they were just nominally under a certain god in the city, registered with the Guild, and updating their status plates there daily—this was common in Orario.
Just like outside the city, where many gods didn't care about origins and would grant Falna to anyone wanting to become an adventurer without locking their status plates, allowing free transfers.
In Orario as well,
many gods accepted such 'nominal registrations,' in exchange for a portion of the daily adventure earnings handed over to them.
This was an acceptable trade, at least for Amy and Barksun.
The young lovers, who had grown up together and become adventurers side by side, had just arrived at the world's center full of dreams and aspirations, determined to 'make their mark' in the city.
First, they needed to grow stronger to join a better Familia!
That was obvious.
They were working hard toward that goal right now.
Barksun had already reached Lv. 2, and Amy was striving toward the same, so once she leveled up, while top Familias like Loki or Freya Familia were unlikely to accept them, they could try mid-tier city Familias.
This was a small step toward their dreams, and it was about to be achieved—but
From the distance came the roar of monsters.
As the frontline fighter, Barksun quickly went on alert. The man holding a longsword and shield stood at the forefront of the party.
Then.
He saw tall Orcs emerging from the mist in organized groups.
Not one or two, not three or four, but multiples upon multiples... The neatly arrayed Orcs marched like an army, their synchronized footsteps even shaking the ground.
For some reason, Barksun seemed to hear a faint whip crack from deep in the mist.
"Crack!"
The explosive snap of the long whip in the air instantly drove the monsters mad.
Their eyes bloodshot, they charged toward the party!
"Run!"
Is this a [Monster Party]?!
That many is way too much; the current party couldn't handle it!!
Everyone bolted in a frantic escape.
However.
There would always be some slower, some faster—this was the gap in stats.
Accompanied by the first scream.
Barksun turned back to see the party's mage already fallen, about to be swallowed by the monster tide.
This won't do; everyone will die.
"Amy, you go first!"
Letting his lover escape first, Barksun turned without hesitation and charged toward the monster horde.
This left the human archer girl momentarily stunned in place.
"Hurry up and go!"
"No... don't..."
"Live on, Amy. You have to live on."
"I... no... Barksun... come back... we..."
Fear, screams, roars.
Tears welled up as Amy stood frozen, trembling as she raised her bow.
No matter what, if she had to die here, then together it was.
That's what the girl thought, ignoring the two teammates who had already fled.
And it was right then.
They caught sight of a streak of deep green [Gale].
"Eh?"
The elf girl wielding a wooden sword slew the foremost Orcs in an instant, her whirlwind assault shattering their Magic Stones along with their massive bodies, turning them to ash in the blink of an eye.
What followed was a one-sided slaughter.
Barksun, Amy, and the Pallum mage who had fallen first all stared dumbfounded. The raging monster wave from moments ago had vanished completely in this short time, as if it had never existed.
Ryuu merely glanced back at them, confirmed they were unharmed, and gestured for them to leave first.
"Th-thank you..."
"No need."
Ryuu said softly, then turned back, as if searching for something in the mist.
But...
She couldn't find them; that group had vanished again.
"Don't come to the Dungeon for a while."
"O-okay."
The young lovers nodded, supporting each other. They had no idea what had happened, but... better to leave the city and head home.
That thought bubbled up in the survivors' minds.
In the distance, the two who had fled earlier had brought other adventurer parties for support, only to see everything fine and stare in disbelief.
Ryuu had already left.
She still needed to continue tracking that group's whereabouts.
The horde of monsters just now wasn't a [Monster Party], nor a [Monster Offering] deliberately lured by malicious adventurers in the Dungeon.
It was a meticulously planned 'accident' targeting these adventurers smuggled into Orario from outside the city, who had entered the Dungeon and had close relationships among themselves.
The goal: to kill the most important person to them.
[Tamer].
Adventurers of Ganesha Familia could tame and command monsters to aid in battle via whip sounds. Similarly, some in the Dark Familias had mastered this technique.
"Yama!"
The image of that cat-person tamer surfaced in Ryuu's mind—the cadre of Rudra Familia, the mastermind who had orchestrated and destroyed Astrea Familia.
No matter what, she absolutely couldn't let this guy escape!!
But the elf girl was puzzled: why smuggle these out-of-city adventurers into Orario, guide them into the Dungeon, and then orchestrate monster attacks?
In the mist,
Such 'accidents' were still occurring sporadically. Couples like the boy and girl who luckily survived were rare; more often, it ended in tragedies too painful for survivors to bear...
...
Orario had been under gloomy, continuous rain for days.
The Central Park beneath Babel remained bustling with adventurer parties coming and going—some heading into the Dungeon, others returning laden with spoils, ready to celebrate at the taverns.
Among them were solitary figures, souls adrift, unsure why they had even emerged from the Dungeon.
Such sights were commonplace.
The Dungeon was full of dangers; losing companions, friends, seniors and juniors, siblings, and lovers was normal.
A demi-human girl wept as she returned to her rented room. Not long ago, her party had been inexplicably assaulted by a massive monster horde, and the brother who had always cared for her died in the Dungeon.
She didn't even know how she had made it back.
Facing the empty room, the girl's mind went blank, clueless about what to do next or how to go on.
Until.
Amid the pattering rain and sobs came a knock at the door.
The girl sluggishly opened it after a while, finding a white-haired man she didn't recognize standing outside.
"Hello, I live next door. I heard you crying nonstop—is something wrong?"
The man spoke gently, with caring words that soon had the girl, bereft of her only kin, spilling everything.
"Ah... I see. My condolences."
He continued comforting her.
"But please don't cry anymore, because death is not the end—merely a return to our Lord's embrace."
"You know, departed souls reincarnate in the heavens, so no need to worry. In the next life, you'll surely meet your brother again."
"..."
The girl blinked, grasping at this lifeline like a straw, looking desperately at the young man.
"Is there really a way?"
"Of course... Ah, I haven't introduced myself. If you don't mind, miss, could I take a bit more of your time? I'd like to tell you about our Heavenly Father and Savior, the God of Death who governs [Reincarnation] and [Transmigration], Thanatos..."
"..."
A while later.
The white-haired youth smiled farewell to the freshly bereaved girl.
As he hurried through the alleys—he was busy, with several more prospective 'believers' to guide—a cat-person youth blocked his path at a deep corner.
"Olivas, you doing this stuff too?"
"No choice; Valetta's no good at it. I've got nothing lately, so helping out. How's your side, Yama?"
The gloomy cat-person youth shook his head.
"Not great."
"I'm here to tell you: pause operations for a bit."
"Why?"
"[Gale]'s biting hard. Nearly caught me in the Dungeon several times."
"..."
"A few days ago, Soma Familia got hit too. Ganesha's taken over; Guild leaks say Soma Familia's likely to be disbanded. Our cooperation with them's fully exposed!"
With that, Yama waved dismissively, clearly in a foul mood.
"I'm out."
Lately, because of [Gale], many of his tamed 'children (monsters)' had been killed. A tamer without monsters was weaponless—it irked him greatly.
"Speaking of, is that spiel of yours real or fake? Worship the God of Death, and next life you'll reunite with loved ones and friends?"
Olivas shrugged.
"Of course fake."
"Remember your past life?"
"Right..."
"See, those idiots barely survive losing their most precious in the Dungeon, then buy this vague nonsense about reuniting after death in the next life."
"So stupid."
"But that's why they're useful."
"Dangle a bit of hope, and they'll charge selflessly, even strap bombs for mutual destruction. It's a 'mature playbook' we Dark Familias figured out back in the [Great Feud]."
"Deliberately let loved ones die before them, then recruit with promises of reunion via Death God worship—"
"Guys gullible enough deserve to have life and death toyed with by gods..."
...
Late night.
Ryuu, freshly bathed after returning from the Dungeon and changed into a simple gray-white nightgown,
This Demeter Familia farmhouse outside the city had become the elf girl's new 'hideout'; over a month ago, she had fully moved here.
"Recent investigations have yielded nothing."
The elf girl at the table murmured under the orange glow of the Magic Stone lamp.
Previously, two leads from Magatsuhi Familia.
One: the grapes they smuggled in, cultivated by the fertility god for Divine Wine. Their market flow was too complex.
Buyers included city merchant guilds, powerful Familias—mainly goddesses like Ishtar in the Pleasure Quarter. The fertility god's grapes were premium fruits, highly valuable.
Essential for banquets entertaining VIPs, or crafting exotic luxuries like desserts. Such vast circulation made tracing which gods' Familias obtained them impossible for the elf girl.
Not just markets; guilds and Familias traded among themselves.
Some hit black markets, even harder to track.
Thus, Ryuu shifted to the second lead: adventurers smuggled into Orario from around the world.
Progress there.
Ryuu found many entering the Dungeon suffered monster attacks, causing heavy party casualties.
The elf girl now confirmed it no accident, but Dark Familia orchestration.
But why?
Ryuu tried talking to survivors; some stonewalled warily, others cursed her away.
"Leads dead-ended again..."
Scratching her messy golden hair, the elf girl sighed dejectedly.
And right then.
The door creaked open gently. Without looking, Ryuu knew Isagi had arrived,
bringing midnight snacks as usual, smiling in a way that inexplicably lifted her sullen mood.
She could even predict his first words.
[No matter what...]
"...Let's eat first."
The exact words matching her thought made the elf girl, usually tight-faced and icy, burst into a cute "Pfft."
___
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