Max
The morning sun over Folkvangr was bright, casting clean light across the stone corridors as Max made his way up to Freya's private chamber.
He found her seated by the low table near the window, nursing a cup of tea. The light caught her silver hair the way the moonlight did last night, and for a moment Max was back above the clouds, her forehead resting against his, her voice dropping into that purr.
His face warmed before he could stop it.
Level up faster, he told himself, and the thought landed harder than any resolution he made in the Dungeon. Every day he spent short of High-Class was another day she spent waiting on his pride, and after last night, he was painfully aware of how patient she was being.
If this were an anime, he thought grimly, the ecchi fans would be calling me a cuck by now. He could practically hear the comment sections. A goddess all but offering herself under the stars, and the protagonist changes the subject to his alias. For the first time, he understood why Cid spent an entire series being so clueless. Maybe the man wasn't dense at all. Maybe playing clueless was simply easier than dealing with women like this.
Max drew a slow breath and centered himself. One level at a time.
Freya watched him cross the room over the rim of her cup, a knowing look in her eyes. She simply reached to the side and placed a thick metal contraption on the wood between them.
Max recognized it at once. It was the same restraint Rimuru pried out of the zombies' jaws in the Twilight Manor courtyard, three of which Max handed to Kairu without much thought.
"Hogni brought that to me the day before yesterday," Freya explained, a smirk curling her lips. "He recovered it from the crater outside Twilight Manor, where Ottar crushed the last of those 'Zombies.' I meant to pass it along to you sooner, but... given your tardiness yesterday evening, it slipped my mind."
Max let out a dry breath, accepting the penalty point with an inward roll of his eyes. Picking up the device, he ran his thumb across the cold metal. A faint hum vibrated against his skin at the touch.
Kairu was going to bounce off the walls the second he ate this. The last three sent the slime into a sugar rush and came out the other side as a dragon-hide body for Rimuru. One more might give Kairu exactly the edge he needed for the experiment Max lined up at the Colosseum today.
And Hogni was the one who thought to bring it home. Max owed the dark elf for that. If today's experiment panned out, Hogni was coming along on his next level-up plan.
"You're smiling at a piece of scrap, Maximus." Freya tilted her head, her eyes glinting. "There you go being mysterious again."
"Just thinking about who to thank," Max said, slipping the restraint into his pocket. "And how to use it."
Freya let out a small hum that didn't sound convinced in the least. "Keep your secrets, then. For now."
Setting the distraction aside, he shifted gears to the business at hand, grateful for the solid ground of it. Max pulled a drafted roll of parchment from his jacket and laid it on the table. "I prepared the trade agreement for Hephaestus. It outlines our monthly supply caps and grants her exclusive first-purchase rights to our dungeon alloys."
Freya offered a dismissive flick of her wrist, barely glancing at the ink. "The commerce is yours to govern, Max. However, there is an addendum. Hephaestus requested permission to construct a dedicated smithing workshop at our Rivira outpost once building materials are secured."
"The materials are already there," Max replied with a shrug. "I stockpiled enough at the outpost for future expansion. I'm meeting with Trent later today to go over a plan of mine. Should I write her workshop terms into this draft?"
"No," Freya declined, taking a sip from her cup. "Permitting an outside forge in our forward base requires more deliberation, and I will handle those matters personally."
"Understood."
With their morning check-in concluded, Max rolled the parchment back up and rose. He lingered a moment at the edge of the table, the memory of last night still warm in his chest, before offering her a nod.
"I'll get this to Hephaestus this morning," he said.
Freya set her cup down, and the corner of her mouth lifted. "Try not to keep anyone waiting today."
Max's ears burned. Coming from her, this morning of all mornings, it sounded like a lot more than a jab at his tardiness. He gave her a crooked smile and a small bow. "I'll do my best, My Lady."
Her soft laugh followed him as a crimson teleportation circle flared beneath his feet, and in an instant, the sunlit opulence of Folkvangr dissolved, dropping him into the quiet security of his office in PAL.
He didn't have to wait long. A moment later, Rimuru walked through the adjoining door. The clone carried a stack of fresh parchment, looking right at home in his merchant attire.
"Morning, Boss," Rimuru greeted, setting the papers on the desk. "Ganesha and Astraea Familia applications for Teleportation Networks. Fully filled out and awaiting your approval."
Max glanced over the official seals on the documents, and a smirk tugged at his lips. Ganesha doubted the Guild would move that quickly. So much for delays.
"Good work. Before we get into reviewing those, any word from Gojo?"
Rimuru shook his head, a wry grin pulling at the corners of his lips. "Nothing productive on the strategic front. He's still knee-deep in the sewers, spending half his time mapping broken drain corridors and the other half cursing Evilus to high heaven. Swore he'd extract violent retribution the second one of their hideouts crosses his path."
Max chuckled softly at the image. "Sounds exactly like him. Let's get your upgrade sorted before you head out into the city."
Rimuru set the paperwork aside, stepping into the open space before the desk. Max focused his intent, sending a mental pulse outward through their shared connection.
Kairu popped onto Max's shoulder, settling with pinpoint precision as though he had a permanent teleportation circle there just for the dramatics.
"Alright, buddy," Max said, nodding toward the slime. "Let's do it."
Max cut the connection between Rimuru's body and the thought projection, and the body went limp on the spot as Rimuru pulled back.
They watched in silence as Kairu expanded and swallowed the empty body. Just like the upgrade two days ago, the body was rebuilt from the inside out—only this time, it was replaced by Kairu's Duplicate instead of a basic clone.
Rimuru's translucent projection drifted closer to watch the gel churn. "So this one's geared toward magic optimization?"
Max nodded. "Mostly. Before, keeping your body active was a constant drain on my reserves. Running it through duplication drops that drain by a good chunk."
Rimuru tilted his head, studying the slime. "Is that the slime boss's Developmental Ability at work? Or your level-up?"
Max raised an eyebrow. "Why? Do you think there's something else?"
Rimuru shrugged. "I don't know. But Gojo's been going on and on about replicating Infinity and whatnot, so I got curious."
Max made a so-so gesture with his hand. "Who knows what nonsense that guy is spouting, stuck down in the sewers. He definitely dreams big. Just because he has access to magic doesn't mean he can recreate Infinity here."
Rimuru nodded in agreement. That much was very true.
By then, the process was wrapping up. It went as smoothly as when Gojo was remade after Max's level-up, taking only a minute before Kairu shrank back down, leaving the new body behind.
Rimuru jumped back in without any trouble. He flexed his hands, opening and closing his fingers as his golden eyes widened at the dense flow of power settling into his frame.
"This body feels different. Denser even. Faster on the response time as well," Rimuru said, much to Max's satisfaction.
"Obviously, the body should integrate Kairu's slime cells better, and you have access to more magic now, so don't hesitate to defend yourself if things get messy," Max said, resting his hands on the desk.
Rimuru rolled his shoulders and neck as he acclimated to the body. "Noted. I'll do my best not to level the building."
"Please don't," Max replied dryly. "Now, back to business. We need to deliver the finalized supply agreement to the Hephaestus Familia. Take it up to their main office here in Babel."
Rimuru picked up the parchment, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "Should I take something as a gift? From what you shared about her meeting with Lady Freya, she seemed eager for the anomalous wall metal. Though to be honest... I'm not entirely sure what makes our material so special compared to what her smiths usually forge."
He leaned against the edge of the desk, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "All standard ores have their established level equivalents in this world. Standard Steel, Damascus, Mithril, Adamantite, and Orichalcum at the very top. Plus high-tier master smith enchantments like the Durandal attribute that make weapons practically unbreakable. Compared to those legendary ores, raw dungeon wall alloy feels like child's play. And monster drop metals only get truly potent once you hit the Deep Floors."
Max shrugged, lacing his fingers together over the desk. "I don't think a gift is needed. Your presence and the contract are good enough gifts. I'm no master smith, and Kairu's method of digesting and fusing materials definitely doesn't match how Hephaestus or Tsubaki view metallurgy. Maybe it's just the novelty of working with an unclassified monster-metal hybrid that retains its properties without degrading."
He tapped the parchment. "All I care about is that she pays top Valis, wants a steady supply line, and seems like a good person who would make a reliable partner. Besides, she already knows part of our secret. Why give her a reason to go digging for the rest?"
Max offered a teasing grin. "If you're really that curious about what she plans to forge with it, why not just ask her yourself if she's in the office?"
Rimuru shivered visibly. "Like hell I will. All the gods in this city are completely unhinged, man."
Max nodded in agreement. "They certainly have their moments." He gestured toward the door. "Go get it done."
Rimuru lingered by the door for a beat, giving Max an unamused stare that broadcast his displeasure at being used as an errand boy.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Max asked innocently. "You didn't complain when I sent you to negotiate the farming plans with Demeter."
Rimuru hmphed, adjusting his coat before finally stepping into the hallway.
Max watched the door close, satisfied with his choice to stay behind the scenes.
The reasoning was simple enough. Hephaestus was sharp; she connected the anomalous metal used in Rivira to the Trinitas rings sold at PAL, figuring out that Folkvangr backed the shop. But only Freya knew he was the architect behind both.
To the rest of Orario, PAL belonged to a Guild-affiliated merchant. Max needed to protect that separation. If he showed up in person, Hephaestus seeing him with Kairu would instantly deduce who crafted the slime-core rings. That exposure would only invite rival factions to treat his business as an arm of Folkvangr politics, dragging him into diplomatic squabbles and endless audits. Sending Rimuru preserved PAL's status as an independent enterprise.
That was when a sudden thought hit him: he forgot to warn Rimuru about the 'blankness' gods sense when reading them. The only reason Max himself got away with it was the undeniable value he brought to the table, not to mention Freya's name shielding him from questions.
He reached for the mental link to ping the clone, but a message came through first.
Tsubaki is here, Rimuru sent. She just stepped into the lobby to fetch me.
Max blinked. That was fast. Rimuru left barely a few minutes ago, and he already had the Goddess of the Forge sending her captain down to collect him.
Then he shrugged. Rimuru's name worked like a charm at the Guild yesterday, too. At this point, that kind of efficiency was simply the natural state of things, and Max couldn't help a flicker of pride at the business he built from nothing.
The pride lasted right up until he remembered he still hadn't warned the clone.
Max sighed, rubbed his temples, and jumped his perception into the clone to ride along.
He held his breath as Tsubaki led Rimuru through the heavy doors into the Hephaestus suite. The office was grand, but it clearly belonged to the Goddess of the Forge. A low draft of heat drifted in from an adjoining workshop, carrying the faint scent of ash and quenching oil.
Sitting on the wide desk between them were two items: a shriveled Trinitas ring and a rough fragment of the processed dungeon wall.
Seeing them laid out side by side, Max understood how she cracked it. Hephaestus was likely the only person in the city positioned to make the connection, having secured physical access to both materials. While Goibniu handled the fortress masonry, his focus stayed on structural engineering, and his smithing was far too selective to bother dissecting commercial magic items. Other deities wouldn't care enough to tear open a Trinitas ring out of pure curiosity. Hermes might, but he didn't have a piece of the Rivira wall.
Even after Max spent hours in debate with Ganesha and Astraea, neither suspected he was behind PAL. Seeing the physical evidence resting on her desk bumped his respect for the smith goddess up another notch.
Max braced for Hephaestus to notice the blankness and start an interrogation. But to his relief, she never did. She took the agreement with a business-like nod after the greetings, and when she started questioning Rimuru about the rings, she moved from answer to answer without a flicker of suspicion.
Max was assured enough that the secret would stay hidden, though unsure why the blankness didn't bother her. His thoughts drifted to the zombie restraints Kairu devoured, but he set the question aside for later.
Leaving Rimuru to handle the rest, he pulled his awareness back to his office, let out a long breath, and slumped in his chair. Crisis averted.
Looking at the time, he decided not to waste the daylight. He still had much more to do, starting with the network anchors, so he channeled his magic and vanished for the Ganesha Familia compound.
-◈ -
General Pov
A flash of purple light deposited Max in a secluded alley outside the fortified compound.
Adjusting the porcelain mask over his face, he stepped into the street and approached the main gates.
Is this whole Anbu outfit going overboard? Max wondered, glancing down at the dark tactical vest and arm guards. Especially with Ganesha's appetite for theatrics? He gave an inward shrug. Probably. But will I change it? Not a chance.
He couldn't afford to compromise the identity of the Guild's mysterious spatial technician, especially with how easily curious eyes might dig into the person's origins. When setting up an anchor for a deity, he had to either handle it in complete silence or change Gojo into Itachi as a stand-in. Since he chose to wear the persona himself today, he was going to play the role to the letter.
He didn't have to wait for a guard to announce him. Standing in the center of the courtyard, overseeing a supply train, was the Lord of the Masses.
"I AM GANESHA!"
The booming voice echoed across the stones as the elephant-masked deity spotted the visitor at the gates.
Ganesha tilted his head, his sharp eyes assessing the newcomer. He took a moment to study the hand-painted markings and sleek contours of the porcelain faceplate, trying to identify which noble beast it represented.
A weasel, Ganesha concluded, thoroughly delighted. A creature of agility, sharp intellect, and silent shadows!
He knew exactly who stood under that mask. The Guild hadn't built the network; the Primordial Dragonslayer had. Yet the God of the Masses was a connoisseur of grand spectacle. He admired the mortal's taste—both the animal mask and the sharp persona fit together with impeccable flair. The practical sense of maintaining a secret identity to dodge public fame was commendable. In fact, Ganesha immediately began concocting a list of magnificent new aliases to propose for this dedicated Guild employee:
The Masked Weasel of the Masses!
No, too plain.
The Gallant Crimson-Striped Shadow Ferret!
Better, but still lacking sufficient festival energy.
The Phantom Tusk Vanguard: Weasel of Grand Justice!
Or perhaps the ultimate proclamation: Lord Ganesha's Secret Whispering Beast of the Thousand Portals!
Ganesha gave himself a quick shake to snap out of his creative trance as he watched the mortal approach. Max was walking at a sedate pace—a steady stride that felt entirely contrary to the lightning-fast spirit of the sacred weasel. Ganesha clicked his tongue inwardly. The boy's costume was exquisite, but his entrance lacked proper theatrical posture, dramatic wind, and explosive volume. As a benevolent patron of showmanship, Ganesha decided he would give this young man some much-needed pointers on how to improve his performance before the day was out.
Max approached, offering a crisp bow. "Greetings, Lord Ganesha. I am Itachi, representing the Guild regarding the Network Acce—"
Ganesha cut him off with a roar of laughter. The god strode forward and clapped Max on the shoulder with enough force to rattle his teeth.
"Of course! Of course! Welcome, Itachi of the Guild!" Ganesha bellowed, throwing a heavy arm over Max's shoulders as if they were old friends and steering him toward the inner halls "Come inside! We have much to discuss!"
-◈ -
Babel
When word reached her that a representative from Plot Armor Logistics had arrived with the finalized contract papers at the front desk, Hephaestus raised an amused eyebrow.
While Freya promised a formal response by today, having a direct representative from the mysterious retail front show up on her doorstep was an unexpected opportunity. Given how heavily Freya hinted during yesterday's meeting that the connection between her Familia and the shop must remain buried at all costs, Hephaestus assumed the silver-haired goddess would keep a tighter leash on her front.
Yet here they were.
She knew her fellow deities were notorious for indulging in elaborate roleplaying and maintaining complex facades just to stave off boredom. Freya deploying a mysterious middleman under the banner of an independent enterprise was entirely on brand—a transparent game of shadows she was clearly enjoying.
Treating the drop-off as an open invitation, Hephaestus immediately sent Tsubaki out to fetch the young merchant inside. If Freya was bold enough to leave a thread dangling, Hephaestus was more than happy to pull on it and see what kind of mortal was managing this extraordinary venture.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, the office doors clicked open. Tsubaki stepped inside, gesturing for the guest to follow.
In walked an androgynous cutie, standing a bit shorter than her Captain. His youthful features leaned closer to a half-Pallum than a pure-blooded human, though his exact lineage remained ambiguous.
"Lady Hephaestus," Rimuru greeted, offering a flawless bow. "I am Rimuru, representing Plot Armor Logistics. It is an honor to stand before the Goddess of the Forge."
He delivered the standard courtesies smoothly before stepping forward to place a bound parchment on her desk. "The formal supply proposal you requested."
Hephaestus picked up the document and scanned through the monthly quotas and pricing tiers, finding them surprisingly reasonable, before passing the parchment to Tsubaki for technical scrutiny.
Her attention then drifted down to the corner of her desk, where two specific items rested side by side: a disassembled Trinitas ring and a rough fragment of the processed wall from Goibniu.
Rimuru followed her gaze, his golden eyes settling on the evidence.
"Is that the shell of a Hard Armored?" Hephaestus asked bluntly, cutting straight to the point.
"It is, Lady Hephaestus," Rimuru confirmed with a polite nod.
Hephaestus leaned forward, her visible eye narrowing with intense professional scrutiny. "How is that even possible? To harvest a shell intact, you have to skin the beast manually before removing the monster stone, and they are very tough to crack. I cannot fathom your people camping in the labyrinth, carving up tens—if not hundreds—of Hard Armoreds without drawing every predator on the floor. And the metallurgy itself... binding monster carapace directly into a spell matrix using that malleable adhesive. How are you accomplishing this?"
Rimuru paused for a couple of seconds, his expression turning thoughtful. I can hardly tell her the Boss commands a slime that swallows monsters whole, digests the organic matter, and spits out refined jewelry, he mused. Choosing his boundaries carefully, he offered an ambiguous smile.
"It is an amalgamation of multiple specialized disciplines working in tandem, my Lady," Rimuru answered evenly. "You are correct regarding the origin of the alloy, and it was indeed shaped and folded into a usable matrix through a dedicated skill. As for the extraction logistics and the binding agent... I must respectfully keep those as our trade secrets."
Hephaestus studied him closely. Her perception detected no lie in his tone. He was deliberately withholding the full truth to preserve his commercial leverage—the exact calculated caution she expected from a competent merchant.
Respecting the boundary, she immediately pivoted to her broader inquiries.
"What other monster alloys do you currently have in your arsenal?" she pressed, her questions firing in rapid succession. "What volume can you guarantee on a weekly basis? If your supplier has conducted stress tests, which variant demonstrates the highest magical conductivity? And the runic script etched into the inner bands—was it carved by the same artisan who forged the alloy?"
She leaned in closer, her gaze sharpening. "Are we dealing with someone holding the Blacksmithing or Metalworking Developmental Ability? Or could it perhaps be..." She let the silence hang between them. Mystery?
Rimuru remained composed, allowing her to speak without interruption while internally marveling at her sharp intuition. She practically reverse-engineered our entire development process from a single ring.
When she finished, Rimuru calmly addressed the inventory inquiry.
"We currently maintain raw material stock from nearly every monster documented down to the 18th floor," Rimuru stated smoothly.
Hephaestus stared at him, her mind immediately racing through the roster of formidable beasts populating the upper and middle floors suitable for forging. Crystal Mantis carapaces, Silverback bone density, Minotaur horn and hide, Hellhound fangs, Ligerfang claws, Infant Dragon scales... and the Goliath.
That final monster hit hard.
Rustle.
Behind her desk, Tsubaki lost her grip on the paperwork. The heavy parchment tumbled from her fingers, striking the floor with a soft slap. The Master Smith stared at the blue-haired merchant, her jaw slack as she tried to calculate the impossible logistics of hauling an intact Floor Boss carcass out of the 17th floor.
Hephaestus took in the sheer crafting potential of those harvested monster parts, finding the possibilities staggering. Yet her thoughts immediately circled back to the fundamental puzzle. How is one operation capable of all this?
Even if they managed to harvest every carcass before the dungeon reclaimed it, how were they compressing and folding the raw materials into these compact bands? How were they infusing the intricate spell matrix, calibrating the precise angle of magical release to ensure the energy discharged safely outward without blowing up in the user's face?
The sheer division of labor required was baffling. Even assuming one peerless master for each discipline, that still demanded dedicated experts in Extraction, Blacksmithing, Metalworking, and the elusive Developmental Ability of Mystery to bind the entire synthesis together. The combat vanguard needed to slay the beasts was trivial for a juggernaut like the Freya Familia, but the technical logistics were simply impossible under standard metallurgical logic.
Yet the boy wasn't lying. If anything, Hephaestus had a creeping suspicion that this shorty was deliberately underselling their actual capabilities.
Taking a steadying breath to reground herself, Hephaestus leaned forward. "Show me."
Rimuru reached into his coat and produced a velvet display roll, laying an array of shimmering rings across the polished wood.
Hephaestus leaned over the collection. Each band carried distinct structural traits from its parent monster—dense Minotaur horn alloys, translucent Crystal Mantis carapaces, and gleaming Infant Dragon scales.
Tsubaki, however, was staring intently at the young merchant himself. In a city like Orario, a merchant carrying revolutionary artifacts with no visible guard detail is either completely reckless or hiding teeth.
"Mind if I test one of these?" Tsubaki asked, stepping forward with a boisterous grin.
Rimuru simply shrugged, picking up a Dragon ring etched with delicate white markings and sliding it onto his finger. "Be my guest."
The moment the ring settled on his hand, Tsubaki pivoted.
Moving with the sudden speed of a seasoned vanguard, her calloused fist snapped forward in an unannounced strike aimed straight at his chest.
Rimuru didn't move. Without any chant, a transparent barrier materialized instantly between them.
CLANG!
Tsubaki's knuckles slammed into the spatial wall. The kinetic impact dissipated across the plane, leaving the barrier completely motionless—no dents, no ripples, and not a single crack.
Tsubaki's visible eye widened. Without pausing, she instantly dialed up her output, throwing a heavier blow loaded with Level 4 force.
BOOM!
The shockwave rattled the glass across the office, but the barrier held firm, refusing to budge.
Gritting her teeth in genuine fascination, Tsubaki unleashed her full strength as a High Level 5, driving a devastating punch into the center of the translucent shield.
CRACK!
A resonant groan echoed through the room. Only under the maximum physical output of a Level 5 captain did the barrier finally show fine fractures of fatigue across its surface.
Tsubaki pulled her fist back, shaking the stinging numbness from her fingers. "Damn... That is ridiculous. What kind of defense spell is that?"
Hephaestus stared at the lingering shield, a storm of new questions igniting in her mind. What kind of unknown spell is this? And what kind of absurd Mystery user possesses magic potent enough to inscribe chantless Level 5 defensive barriers onto rings and distribute them like candy?
She shook her head, forcing herself to step back from that particular rabbit hole before her curiosity completely derailed the meeting.
Rimuru let the fractured barrier dissolve into shimmering light. "All the specialized prototypes are still undergoing internal calibration," he explained smoothly. "This defensive barrier is simply the most stable matrix we currently have ready for field use."
Watching the barrier fade into nothingness, Hephaestus grounded her racing thoughts and turned her attention to the deeper reason she summoned him inside.
Ever since the recent Denatus, she was secretly working to decode the complex spatial matrix used to pull off the Evilus God's sudden appearance in the Denatus chamber. Driven by intense curiosity, Hephaestus wanted to understand how that unprecedented spatial phenomenon functioned—and, more importantly, whether she could replicate the conduit to reach Loki's mysterious benefactor.
Yet when she compared her memory of the Denatus circle against the massive public teleportation network operating in Babel, the two designs did not align.
The public gateway used an anchor-based spatial coordinate system built for high-capacity mass transit. The phenomenon at the Denatus, however, was an entirely different matrix that seemed to operate on targeted spatial jumping. When she attempted to replicate and activate the Denatus diagram on standard parchment and forge metals, the latent magical matrix simply refused to take form, collapsing before it could stabilize the spatial distortion.
That failure brought her straight to the unique items on her desk.
Studying the disassembled Trinitas band and the processed wall chunk, Hephaestus deduced that standard forging ores and scribing scrolls were fundamentally inadequate. To hold and channel such complex matrices without collapsing under the pressure, she required this anomalous monster alloy and its malleable binding agent.
And now, seeing this merchant effortlessly manipulate a spatial barrier using that exact medium, she was certain of it.
Hephaestus gave Tsubaki a firm nod.
Her Captain understood immediately. Reaching into her sash, Tsubaki produced a leather-bound sketchbook and laid it open on the desk in front of Rimuru. Sketched meticulously across the page was the hand-drawn replication of the spatial matrix seen at the Denatus.
Rimuru looked down at the diagram, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second at the sheer technical precision required to draft that matrix purely from memory.
Hephaestus caught the micro-expression, a challenging smirk touching her lips. She slid the sketchbook an inch closer to him across the polished wood.
"Since your supplier prefers to operate from the shadows," Hephaestus said, her voice dropping into an uncompromising tone, "I need to know the hands handling our contracts possess the genuine capability to work with complex magic."
She tapped her finger against the complex diagram.
"Inscribe this circle on one of those rings."
--> Devil in a Dungeon <--
AN:
I wanted to add the next scene involving Max's Dungeon plan, but I felt that needs a bit of space and didn't want to half ass it. Hephaestus also gave me the perfect place to stop as well. So I took the chance.
Though what a true turn of events, huh? Max decided to disguise himself as Itachi with his mask and what not and Ganesha took personal interest in him now. While the Smith Goddess is reverse engineering everything except the most important aspect of everything. ;)
Who guessed a serious Hephaestus could accomplish this much in the few days she focused on the city's politics, lmao. What do you think would Rimuru take the task and inscribe the circle on the rings?? What do you think Hephaestus would do once her Comms Bracelets come??
The next chapter will be the next steps with Max next step of lunacy in the dungeon and possibly Rudra's execution. Unsure if I should add another pov on what Loki familia is doing, but we will see a long missing character as well ;)
Do share how you felt the chapter was. Was it good or did you feel it was a bit forced? Please share your feedback/suggestions on how to improve the story in a comment/review.
If you'd like to read 10 chapters ahead(around 50k words), support my work, check character images for free, read a free chapter(Ch 51.5), or commission a story idea, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/b3smash
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Next update will be on Tuesday.
Ben, Out.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.