Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (Danmachi / Sharingan)

[Toguro]

Hopefully the Illusion placed on his 'Mon wont break due to said increase in growth. Looks really interesting though, I like the idea of it. Is this the only tamer Danmachi story(?) because I certainly cant think of another.

Click to shrink...

As far as a I know there no active Illusion on the lizard just that Illusions was used to train/tame it.

 

[TRm]

good chapters; I like the more grounded feel here as the MC tries to figure out how to handle matters and am curious to see how Yoshi grows

 

[Kat0tonic]

It is illegal but I'm pretty sure that its proposal is well into the story during or just after the Xenos arc when the smaller gods and adventurers start punching above their weight class because of all the shit the main cast gets up to. take that with a grain of salt though this is my first time back into series after a decent bit

 

[DawnsGate]

I'm hopping(heh) that Yoshi gets a tongue like the frog shooters. It'll both bring him closer to his inner Yoshi, and you can teach him to use it as a grappling hook to engage or disengage faster.

 

[CapCaverna]

Alright, this isn't my proudest chapter, it kinda ran away from me and, coupled with the previous chapter, ended up becoming a little too much fighting.

Still, I hope you guys can enjoy it anyway.

________________________________________________________
Yoshi followed me through the ceiling, my backpack hanging from his back from the straps tied to his waist. Taming the beast really had been a good idea. Not having to carry all that loot was Very convenient.

Stepping out from the stairs I brandished my spear and fell into a fighting position, quickly looking around for any enemies but, this time, there wasn't an ambush waiting for me, instead, I found two pallum adventurers giving me odd looks.

"Got ambushed when coming down to floor 6." I tried to explain, my face flushed from embarrassment.

One of the pallum just shrugged and went back to harvesting a needle rabbit; the other actually snickered at me and continued to guard his friend.

From behind him on the wall, Yoshi hissed, causing the small adventurer to desperately jump away, his sword flashing into a block. Yoshi hissed again and then crawled back to the ceiling and towards me.

This time, it was the harvesting pallum who snickered, his scared friend just frowned. I stared at him and, eventually, he gave an exasperated sigh and nodded at me.

Unwilling to turn my back towards them, I took a side entrance and advanced through the seventh floor, Yoshi following me, but never escaping my sight.

I had started to like the little lizard, but I wasn't stupid. It was carrying most of my loot and I really didn't want to risk it attacking me or, worse, actually escape.

My spear pierced through the throat of a lone war shadow and struck the stone wall behind it, sending a jolt of pain through my hands as the shaft reverberated from the impact.

War shadow dead, I released my spear and shook both hands in the air, trying to get rid of the numbness, hitting stone with all my strength was far from a pleasant sensation.

Using a dagger, I dug out the Magic Stone and moved on, arriving in a large open room. Three killer ants immediately started coming for me and I dropped the spear, pulling out my hammer instead.

Yoshi jumped on top of the last one, his bulk, combined with all my lot, momentarily nailed the ant to the ground, allowing him to bite its head repeatedly, but without much success.

Left with only two ants, I rushed the first one and delivered a devastating overhead strike to its head. The ant tried to block with her mandibles, but I was faster, my hammer hitting its head and pulping it.

Shards of carapace flew everywhere as I jumped back and avoided an attack from the second one. Suddenly, I saw some purple dust falling around me, resting on top of my head and shoulders.

Breaking two of the ant's legs, I took a chance to glance up and saw a large purple moth floating above me, poisonous dust falling from its wings.

Jumping back, I pulled out a throwing dagger and nailed the moth in the head. The monster was sent tumbling to fall on its side, its wings flapping uselessly, purple poison starting to accumulate around itself.

Dodging another bite, I smashed the ant's thorax and, when it collapsed, finished it off by smashing its head.

To the side, Yoshi had actually managed to bite through the ant's neck, separating its head from the rest of the body.

In a hurry, I was just about to rush his position and finish off the ant before it could signal for reinforcement when the lizard dug out the magic crystal and ate it, causing the ant to dissolve into black dust.

The purple moth had finally died, its wings stopped moving. Standing in front of the creature, I considered my options.

Should I harvest its magic crystal myself? From what I understood, its poison would continue to be active days after it was dead, and there was a lot of poison there.

Grabbing an empty bottle from Yoshi's pack, I used a dagger to move the dust, filling the bottle completely before harvesting the core.

The little poison that had gotten into my shoulders didn't seem to have succeeded in poisoning me, so I moved on, killing nine other killer ants, four Frog Shooters, two war shadows and two purple moths before meeting a new monster.

It was a rabbit, a horned rabbit… Well, they were called needle rabbits, but that's semantics. It was also incredibly cute.

Standing there, with my spear pointed at the little critter. I couldn't bring myself to kill the thing. It didn't help that the rabbit wasn't attacking, just standing there, its little pink nose sniffing at me.

Suddenly, Yoshi fell on top of it, swallowing its body whole and making the point moot. Well, that just happened.

Shaking my head, I moved on and, an hour and a half later, found the entrance to the eighth floor. Looking at the stairs going down, I frowned.

I had found the entrance far too soon, more than that, there had been even fewer monsters here than on the sixth floor.

From everything I had read, the amount of monsters only increased with every floor, yet I had only fought a few groups here… perhaps there were more adventurers hunting on this floor, but I had only seen the two pallum at the entrance. How strange.

Still, needle rabbits were even weaker than goblins and kobolds and, while Purple moths were annoying, keeping their distance and trying to poison the air, they were also extremely fragile, dying to a single thrown dagger.

Even Yoshi could kill them easily.

It made for a more diverse amount of monsters, requiring different approaches to defeat, but they were actually easier to kill.

Looking at Yoshi's pack, I thought about what to do. Hunting at this floor wasn't going to increase my loot all that much, and I still had about half a day to stay here.

Also, I know that there were more powerful monsters on the eighth floor, but I was pretty sure I could handle slightly stronger goblins and kobolds. Hell, even stronger war shadows wouldn't be a problem with my illusions.

Carefully, I stepped down to the eighth floor, my spear ready to attack or defend in a second. A white blur flew towards my face and I waved my weapon, hitting it with the spear shaft and smashing it against the wall.

The needle rabbit fell to the ground, wounded and dazed but, surprisingly, still alive, before I could finish it off, Yoshi ate it.

With a frown, I used the butt of my spear to boink the lizard in the head, damn greedy bastard. It seems to have developed a taste for rabbit, immediately attacking any that appeared and swallowing them whole.

In truth, I didn't really mind all that much, it was just a pity that I wasn't getting any loot drops from the things.

Looking around myself, I took note of the differences on this floor.

The ceiling was nearly twice as high, with stalactites hanging down, covered with yellow rocks that glowed like a sun and the brown walls were covered with a thick layer of moss. The floor was covered with short grass and surprisingly even, the only difference were some large rocks sprouting from time to time.

The first room was also wide, almost three times the size of the ones above, with almost a dozen openings leading to different hallways. All in all, it gave me a completely different feeling from the floors above.

Up to the seventh floor, I could see pairs of adventurers working well together, but anything more would only get in each other's way. Here, a party of five could easily hunt together without much problem.

It probably meant that there were also larger groups of monsters, I'd have to be careful and test out just how much stronger the monsters were here, but I didn't foresee any problems, not unless the monsters more than doubled in power.

Looking around the large room, I quickly located a group of Kobolds that hadn't seen me yet. They were slightly taller and more muscular than their higher floor counterparts, but not by that much, there were also eleven of them, with two purple moths flying close by.

Right now, I just wanted to test how much stronger they were, so there was no need to engage so many of them at once.

Looking at one of the kobolds, I snared it into an illusion, making it see two of his companions as adventurers instead of monsters.

The creature snapped to attention instantly, releasing a low growl that raised the hackles on the entire pack, lowering his hand to the floor. The kobold actually drew a large stone club from the dungeon and rushed one of his companions, smashing its head in a single blow.

Quickly, I caught a second Kobold in an illusion and the pack descended into infighting. Six of the creatures died before one of them even located me.

Pulling out a dagger, I threw it at the frontline fighter, but it managed to dodge aside, causing me to raise an eyebrow at its speed. Still, I managed to kill it with a single lunge of my spear.

Of the last four, one was already wounded. I engaged the three healthy ones, blocking a blow of their landform weapon with the spear shaft before stomping on his chest and slashing at a second.

Each kobold was nearly as strong as me, but the most telling was their skill and speed. Instead of continuing to rush me, the creatures started using pack tactics, attacking and retreating while trying to encircle me. Their reaction speed was enough that I couldn't easily kill one without opening myself for an attack from another.

Still, the fight was fast, barely thirty seconds later and the small wounds I was leaving them started to accumulate, they also started tiring.

Having gotten what I wanted, I decided to increase my speed. From my right, a kobold tried to rush me and I presented the tip of my spear, causing him to stop. A second kobold took the chance to attack my spear shaft with his stone club, trying to break it.

Acting deftly, I slid my spear back, causing the kobold to hit air before stabbing twice, piercing its neck and belly, then rushing a second, slashing in a wide arc. The kobold actually ducked under the slash, but I continued the movement, hitting his head with the back of the spear and breaking his skull.

Behind me, Yoshi tried to fall from the ceiling, but he actually missed his prey, dropping heavily to the ground behind the Kobold and releasing a hiss of pain.

Both remaining Kobolds whirled around on the dungeon lizard and I took the chance to stab one on the back while it was distracted. Alone, the last Kobold was quickly rushed by Yoshi. After consuming so many magic crystals, the lizard was actually quite a bit stronger, bulling it over and biting off its face with no trouble.

Harvesting their cores, I sat down on top of a rock and observed the purple moths, despite the fight, I hadn't aggroed them.

Pulling some supplies from Yoshi's back, I drank some water and ate a little, replenishing my strength for the fight on this floor. The monsters were stronger here, in nearly all aspects really, but they weren't beyond me.

After my spars with Tiona, I was pretty sure I could have taken all eleven of them, even without my illusions. If the war shadows were only this much stronger, they too wouldn't be a problem.

At my side, Yoshi kept staring at the ceiling and hissing, causing me to laugh at the poor lizard. With the ceiling doubling in height, the beast was having trouble aiming, and its fall also caused it some pain.

Also, the room was so big that Yoshi couldn't count on climbing a wall every time, making his preferred tactic very… inconvenient and situational.

Laughing, I scratched the ugly little thing's jaw, causing its back leg to hit the ground repeatedly.

Squinting my eyes, I thought I saw someone peeking from one of the many hallways leaving this room. Still, even with the sharingan, it was far enough away, and had been fast enough, that I wasn't really sure.

Finishing my mean, I killed both purple months and a trio of needle rabbits that had spawned before turning towards a different hallway. On the opposite side of where I thought I had seen something.

.
.
.

With a shout, I drove the spike on my hammer right through the leg of the war shadow, then used my shoulder to push it away and threw three daggers at its head, two of them bounced off its eye, but the third lodged right below it, where its mouth should have been.

"HA!" I screamed, dodging a claw strike. Twisting my body around, I stomped on the dagger, driving it all the way through the beast's head, the war shadow stumbled back two steps, then fell down to the ground, dead.

Laughing like a maniac, I pulled my spear from a second war shadow and approached a still living goblin; it was crawling in the ground, using its arms to drag itself towards me while its hips and legs were destroyed.

The creature tried to pounce on me but, with only its arms working, I managed to intercept it midair and pin it to the ground before stabbing it on the back of the neck.

I had been fighting a pack of the little bastards when the two war shadows approached. On this floor, they were actually more challenging than before but, tricking some of the goblins into fighting them, they had been defeated without causing me a lot of damage.

The amount of monsters on the eighth floor had drastically increased, and I was forced to kill them fairly fast lest they attract even more. It made for far more satisfying fights, where even my illusions were necessary, not just convenient.

The two war shadows I just faced were faster, stronger and had actual martial arts skills, coupled with my inability to snare them with strong illusions, the fight actually left me very tired.

Using the wall to support my body, I let Yoshi consume one of their cores and smiled when I saw another finger blade on its ashes.

Opening the pouch at my waist, I pulled out a stamina potion and drank it in a single gulp, feeling the liquid going down my throat and reinvigorating my entire body. Giving it a minute or so, I also drank a health potion, watching as the scratches along my arms and legs healed.

Nothing on this floor had been able to truly hurt me, but the small scraps had been accumulating for a while now, and I still had a lot of potions left.

Five minutes later, I felt well enough to continue advancing, leaving the hallway and entering a new room, the largest I had seen on this floor, and I had seen a lot.

On this floor, the majority of the space was composed of large rooms, there were still hallways connecting them, but they were wider and shorter than on the previous floors, and there were rarely any monsters wandering them.

Entering the room, I killed nine killer ants and a purple month, then I saw an adventurer party of three fighting in the center of the room, facing against a pack of thirteen kobolds and four frog shooters.

Glancing at them for a few seconds, I decided they didn't need any help, their tank was well equipped and skilled, and the other two were strong fighters.

Keeping them in my view, I walked along the wall towards a new exit. Just as I was about to enter the new hallway, I heard the sound of running feet coming from inside and frowned.

With a sigh, I turned towards a new hallway and saw nine killer ants pouring out of the entrance. I also saw a fucking ant head laying there on the ground.

Immediately snapping to full attention, I turned back towards the exit I had heard running, concentrating, I started to hear the faint sound of a stampede coming behind the human steps.

"FUCK!" Without wasting time, I turned towards the hallway I had come from and started running, Yoshi following close behind. Turning towards the still fighting party, I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Monster train! Monster Train!"

The party had managed to kill most of its enemies while I was circling them, and one of the archers had enough free space to glance at me. His eyes widened as he saw me desperately run towards the exit.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw a man wearing the same costume as the one who had spoken to me on the previous floors, the same white robe and cowl, with a piece of cloth covering his face.

His eyes met mine and I saw the determination there, and the aggression. I still wouldn't have done anything if I didn't see the damn motherfucker dropping an ant head on the floor and increasing his speed far beyond what it had been before.

What the fuck? WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK!? This utter asshole was drawing a monster train after me on fucking purpose!

My mangekyou immediately activated, and I met his goddamned eyes, immediately casting the strongest visual illusion I could. The motherfucker stumbled, falling to the ground as I made him lose his balance, rolling with his momentum.

Still, he was a strong adventurer and managed to roll to his feet in less than two seconds. Taking stock of his position, he ignored me and ran… straight towards the hallway he had just come from.

Not only had I messed with his balance, I had also inverted his sense of direction, the illusion had been messy and easily discoverable but, with the adrenaline going through his body, he hadn't discovered it.

Still, I continued running. A few seconds later, I heard screaming coming from behind me, then a very loud explosion, glancing back once again; I saw a few killer ants pouring out of the exit, followed closely by a cloud of dust.

What I had just done hit me hard, but I swallowed the bile that rose into my mouth and continued running. Behind me, the party had finally realized how serious the situation was and started running after me.

I entered into the hallway running like mad, my feet stomping on the floor with surprising strength and digging tufts of grass out with every step. Yoshi started falling behind, but I couldn't care about the loot, much less the monster right now.

Only a few seconds later, I heard the party entering the hallway, followed closely behind by the surviving Kobolds.

I took the latest turn on the hallway at breakneck speeds, smashing my shoulder on the wall before I could stop myself and seeing the exit only a hundred meters in front of me.

It wouldn't make me safe, but it was a start.

Exiting the tunnel I froze. In front of me, all around the room, I saw dozens of monsters coming from each entrance. Killer ants, war shadows, goblins, kobolds and everything else were pouring into the room like an unstoppable torrent.

Yoshi ran between my legs and stopped in front of me, hissing. He was followed closely behind by the three adventurers. The tank stopped slightly ahead of me, falling to his knees.

My mangekyou eyes looked at the entire room, trying to find a safe path, or at least one without too many monsters. Instead, I saw several white robed individuals looking at me on a path at the other side of the room.

Before I could do anything, they turned their backs to me and walked further into the only empty hallway, disappearing into the corner. Behind them, the entrance to the hallway exploded with devastating speed, collapsing the ceiling in front of it and blocking the path so nobody could follow.

"Motherfuckers." The archer woman said from right beside me, her hands trembling at her side.

The explosion only served to drive the monsters further into a frenzy and, only a second later, what were dozens became hundreds, all of them converging upon us.

Looking at everything around me, I felt the overwhelming sense of panic starting to close in. "Well… fuck."

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[Humorous Tart]

Wow!

 

[TRm]

The escalation is pretty fun while still feeling reasonable for the floor

"FUCK!" Without wasting time, I turned towards the hallway I had come from and started running, Yoshi following close behind. Turning towards the still fighting party, I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Monster train! Monster Train!"

Click to shrink...

I thought the term was Monster Party?

 

[CapCaverna]

The escalation is pretty fun while still feeling reasonable for the floor



I thought the term was Monster Party?

Click to shrink...

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think a monster party is when the dungeon starts spawning monsters on top of the character, a monster train is when someone flees from monsters, dragging them towards other adventurers to escape.

Even if I'm wrong, the MC is calling for monster train more because of his previous life, he has only been in Orario for a short amount of time, he still returns to his old speech when under stress, and monster train is a game term he knows well.

 

[TRm]

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think a monster party is when the dungeon starts spawning monsters on top of the character, a monster train is when someone flees from monsters, dragging them towards other adventurers to escape.

Even if I'm wrong, the MC is calling for monster train more because of his previous life, he has only been in Orario for a short amount of time, he still returns to his old speech when under stress, and monster train is a game term he knows well.

Click to shrink...

Oh, that would explain it; the proper term that people in Orario use for that is "Pass Parade"... it wouldn't surprise me if the unfamiliar slang would catch them off guard meaning they react a bit slower

I thought he meant "monster party" as shorthand for "lot of monsters coming; run if you want to live", whereas talking about a pass parade as it's happening would just seem like he's doing it to them and being a dick about it

 

[Frostynips]

So this is evilus that is attacking him, right? I cant imagine anyone else doing it. Also im shocked this story does not have more people talking about it in the replys.

 

[Yami-Guy]

This!?! This is where you cliff hanger, dammit man!


Still I cant wait to see how this goes. I have been really enjoying these updates so I am looking forward to it.

 

[Kat0tonic]

You can't do this to me my guy I'm on the edge of my seat here! Also great thinking when you made that adventurer stumble to mask the change in direction!

 

[CapCaverna]

Yeah, someone mentioned that last chapter was kinda... just fighting, and I... agree.

In hindsigh, I tried to do something with last chapter, but it was a mistake, and it would have been better to adapt it, joining it with chapter 13 and this one. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna do that... perhaps in another 15 chapters, I'll feel like rewriting this entire piece, cutting off some fights and developing things better.

Yeah, those last three chapters had too many fights and not enough... everything else, I'll improve that on next chapters.
I hope you, my readers, still enjoy this one!

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I stared at the collapsing hallway at the other side of the room. The bomb seemed to have temporarily attracted the attention of every monster in the room and they swarmed towards the falling rocks but, once they noticed they couldn't pass, the wave of monsters would quickly turn back towards us.

Looking at the hundreds of killer ants, I licked my lips. For a second, I had the bad, stupid, idiotic, not good at all urge to charge them, engage them in battle… it would certainly fulfill my desire for a challenge.

I'd probably die, no, scratch that, I'd definitely die -there were just far, far too many of them- but…

Snapping out of my daze, I considered the situation. Every exit from the room was swarming with monsters and I only had three allies with me, allies that would probably happily sacrifice me if it came to it.

By my side, I saw the tank falling to the floor, his armored knees hitting the ground with a loud 'clank'. "By the gods," he whispered.

The Amazon fighter at his side gave him a disgusted look before glancing my way and dismissing me. "Aww, I bet this was just because I snuck into the dungeon."

I met her eyes for a brief second, she seemed sad, but not distraught. Quickly, I refocused on the room. Did I have anything capable of dealing with this?

Well, Susanoo could make short work of it but, last time I tried to use it, I had passed out from a mind down in less than two seconds. I could probably last longer now that my attributes were much higher, but probably not long enough to eliminate everything.

A single devastating blow wouldn't help me if I passed out after it. There were just far too many. Looking from side to side like a madman, I made my decision.

Turning around, I grabbed the Tank's arm and dragged him with me back towards the hallway we had just left, the man didn't even complain, still too shocked by what was happening.

Both women gave me a look, and the amazoness was about to say something, but the archer considered my determined face and shook her head before following me inside.

Considering how fast the ants moved, I had about a minute before the ones following after us arrived, and a little less than that before the ones in the room reached the hallway we were in.

The tank finally recovered and snatched his arm away from me. Stumbling forwards, he yelled. "By the gods, what're you doing?!"

"Saving our lives, maybe," waving my arms, I motioned for the women to walk ahead of me and, when we were 10 meters inside the tunnel, stopped.

"You do know we only have about a minute or two, right?" The older woman asked. "If you're just gonna pray, at least warn me so I can use you as bait."

Ignoring her, I briefly closed my eyes and channeled power into my ring, filling it with as much magic as it would hold. Finally, I drew the power out and opened them again to reveal the shape of my mangekyou sharingan. Around me, a malicious air started manifesting, turning into a green flame.

A second later, my body was completely enveloped by this flame, concentrating hard, I forced the shape to form around me, three ribs started forming at my right side, but I channeled all my magic further away, and the right arm started manifesting.

I felt the blood leaking from both my eyes and my magic draining at a prodigious speed, before the arm had even fully formed, I started pulling out a mana potion from my pouch. At the same time, I punched up.

The still misformed bone of my Susanoo's arm dug into the ceiling with tremendous strength, causing the entire hallway to shake as I collapsed an entire part of the cave.

"Holy shit!" The older woman yelled and stepped away, but I ignored her.

A sharp spike of pain went through my head, but the entrance wasn't completely closed yet, so I chugged the potion and punched it again, and again. Almost falling to my knees, I caught myself and noticed that the skeletal arm had finally fully formed, so I dug its fingers into the ceiling and ripped out a huge rock, using it to fully block the path.

Finally, I knew I couldn't hold on anymore. It had been barely eight seconds, but I knew that I'd pass out if I used it anymore. Panting hard, I righted myself and dispersed the Susanno before blinking away the mangekyou.

Behind me, I could hear the chattering sound of insectile legs rushing towards my location, but the entrance in front of me was completely blocked.

Wiping the blood away from my cheeks, I slowly pushed myself back to my feet and turned around.

My mouth felt dry and I knew that my eyes were probably redder than usual, but I couldn't help smiling at the awed look on my three makeshift companion's faces. "Now, ugh… Now, we'll only have to worry about attacks from one direction."

If I had more mana, I could have probably formed Susanoo's form faster, and maintained it for much longer but, right now, that was nearly my limit, a few seconds more and I'd have a mind down.

"Fuck me." The young amazoness said, her scimitar lowered towards the floor. "Right here, I need to have your babies!"

"Shut up Lena." The human archer snapped and gave her a slap to the back of the head. "Great, now we only have to fight half an army of monsters. Shit, I'm not even supposed to be here."

There was still a few seconds before the monsters following us arrived, so I took a quick glance at my most recent allies.

The tank was not much older than me, around 24 or so, and he seemed to still be a little out of it, but his equipment looked both expensive and effective, he wore full plate and had a large heater shield with a dangerous mace. At his waist, there were three ornate daggers I thought were probably magic weapons.

The older woman was probably around 30 and wielded a large bow. She had a quiver filled with a little over two dozen arrows at her waist and another two quivers at her back, but they were covered and I couldn't see if there were any arrows inside. She wore a plate chest over her gambeson, but didn't have any leg or arm protections.

The third girl looked even younger up close, probably around fifteen or so, her lack of clothes was typical for an amazoness, but she had an arm protector to act as a shield and a large scimitar.

I… didn't have a lot of trust in the party. They had acted as a competent team before, but the man collapsed in fear and the girls weren't looking very confident at all. "So, I guess none of you are level three? What about level two?"

They all shook their heads and I sighed, it would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?

"Forget that, can you do that arm again?" The man finally shook himself and asked, but his eagerness faded when he looked at me.

I just shook my head. "I can probably do it once more, in five or ten minutes, after the mana potion recovers my mind."

"Shit, shit." Patting himself, the man started looking around desperately, trying to look for an exit. "This was supposed to be easy, only war shadows at most."

"Fuck, I'm not even a real delver." The older woman shook her head and glared at the Amazon. "Damn Lena, why did you have to keep begging me."

"But Layla, none of the others wanted to come!" The young girl pouted and stomped her feet. "I'll never become a level 2 if I don't delve! How can I catch a male if I can't beat the others off?"

I shivered, and gave her a wary glance. She was far too young to be saying anything like that.

"You use charm Lena, like everyone else that's not a berbera." The Archer patted the other girl's head in a maternal way. "How do you think I got Jaine here to help follow us in the dungeon?"

I traded a glance with the tank, but he just blushed under the helmet, too embarrassed to say anything about that.

"Does anyone have any other ideas? Any useful equipment?" I asked while drinking a health and stamina potion.

The tunnel we were on was wide, too wide. Enough that I could easily wield my spear in it, but the monsters could also easily surround us. The ceiling was lower than on the rooms, at only 5 meters, and the walls were uneven, filled with protruding rocks covered in moss.

For a second, I considered trying to activate Susanoo a second time and collapsing some of the wall, making the hallway narrower, but I really couldn't do that yet. Mana potion didn't work immediately, needing at least a few minutes to refill my reserves.

Thankfully, illusions took so little mana that I could use them freely and still regenerate mana from the potion, it would only take time.

"I do." The tank said, untying a pouch from his waist, he poured a potion inside it, then tied it closed and palmed the bag in his weapon's hand. For a second, he seemed unwilling to trust anyone, but eventually handed it to me. "Throw it as far away from us and towards the monsters, it will explode, hopefully killing a lot of them and blunting their advance."

I nodded, "Thanks, I'll try not to get as many of them as I can." From just behind the corner, the noise from the approaching wave of monster grew louder and louder, killer ants leading the charge, their pincers clicking.

The Tank also unbuckled one of his many belts and threw it towards the older woman, this one held his three daggers. She just gave him a nod. "They're not new, so be carefull."

The woman looked at the three daggers, then wrapped the belt around her chest and adjusted it for ease of drawing the blades. "Who the hell does this, it's the damn upper floors for god's sake!" She complained to herself and shook her head. "War shadows are supposed to be the strongest thing here, not crazy adventurers creating ambushes."

The first monster turned the corner, followed closely by a wave of ants, there were so many they started crawling over each other and the walls, I also saw a war shadow managed to get into the first wave. There must have been at least a hundred monsters just where I could see.

Fuck, I was gonna die here, wasn't I?

I waited until the wave started approaching, then I threw the bag over their heads and towards one of the monster covered walls. The explosion was… loud, echoing around the hallway. It made me wince and left my ears ringing, but also devastated the first wave and collapsed part of the wall, narrowing the path that the monsters could approach us. The sheer amount of noise left me deaf and dazed for some time.

When I recovered, the survivors of the first wave were almost all dead and the second wave was arriving, funneled into smaller amounts by the collapsed wall creating a bottleneck.

"Goibniu bless you, that was good aim." The tank patted me on the shoulders quickly and pulled out his weapon.

At my side, Yoshi gave a hiss and started climbing on the wall towards the ceiling, unwilling to abandon me, but too afraid to face the monsters head on.

An arrow flew over my shoulder, piercing through the first war shadow that appeared, breaking its glass-like face and causing it to collapse to the ground, getting quickly covered with ants.

Beside me, the tank yelled and charged, his mace flashed forward and crushed an ant while his large shield blocked another two from moving.

Having recovered a little, I lunged forward, skewing a rushing kobold before dodging a bite and watching the ant get crushed by a shield strike. Taking a chance, I activated the mangekyou again and started casting illusion, turning the ants against each other and causing pandemonium on their charge.

My eyes were still stinging, and I deactivated the mangekyou as fast as I could, even casting a dozen illusions caused my head to seem to want to explode. With the new bottleneck, and our team working well together, we started killing the monsters one after another.

Despite being the youngest, the amazoness was acting the most recklessly, she was actually a little faster and stronger than me, but was full of flaws and, soon, she was covered in blood from bites and scratches she couldn't dodge.

"Damn, you're really good!" The man complimented me with a smile, even as his mace smashed another killer ant.

"You're surprisingly good too." I said, even if I earned a glare from him in turn.

The archer had stayed back and aimed almost exclusively at war shadows, or any monster that was about to seriously hurt us but, not even five minutes in, I saw her joining the fight in melee range, her arrows having run out.

Our tank was doing a good job of blocking the blunt of their charge, positioning himself just after the bottleneck on the hallway, his armor was getting dented to hell, but he wasn't faltering like I thought he would.

I acted as a second gatekeeper, using my spear to fight war shadows and other, more fragile monsters while letting the killer ants be eliminated by the overeager amazoness or the former archer.

After the second wave, the monster's advance started slowing, not as many killer ants were arriving, and the diversity of the monsters increased.

With the unharvested bodies accumulating in the ground, only so many creatures could come at us at the same time and, if we killed them fast enough, we had a chance.

"By Ishtar, we're gonna make it." I hear the human woman say as she waved between the claws of two kobolds, sweat starting to accumulate on her gambeson.

We fought, we fought and fought until I felt the sweat and blood running down my forehead, my head was hurting like hell from all the illusions I was casting and my underclothes clung to my body, soaked as if I had been underwater.

My blows weren't coming as fast, my dodges slower and my strikes weaker as exhaustion settled in. By the gods, fighting like this had really shown me why it was important to have a team. I had forgotten how many times one of the girls had saved my life, or how many times I had saved them.

"That's… huff… it, don't… falter now!" The tank said, but even he was exhausted and had to take a breath between words.

The man dragged his feet forward and blocked a tongue from a frog shooter with his shield. The blow had been coming for me, and I hadn't been able to react fast enough, too tired and too preoccupied with the monsters around me to pay dodge.

With another lunge, I pierced the chest of a wounded war shadow, but my blow lacked strength and didn't kill the beast. I tried to strike again, but moved too slow and the creature managed to deliver another scratch to my spear shaft, breaking it completely and sending the blade flying aside.

My tired brain took a second to register it, and it was enough for a goblin to scratch my leg, drawing three deep gouges out of my flesh. The war shadow tried to take off my head, but the pain had finally snapped me out of my funk and refocused me, and I smashed it's head with my hammer.

Stumbling back, I nearly fell on my ass as my leg couldn't support my entire weight. Thankfully, there were so many corpses around us that they were getting in the way of the monsters, slowing down their advance.

Pulling out a new health potion, I drank it and searched for another stamina one, but I couldn't find any.

I heard a cry of pain to my left and saw a kobold bite into the shoulder of the amazoness, trying to take her to the ground. Meeting its eye, I made it turn towards its companion, then got hit on the chest by a landform weapon, denting my armor, but not causing me a lot of damage.

Still, the blow and the wounded leg finally caused me to fall, and the monsters took advantage of that.

A needle rabbit aimed a horn strike at my neck, but I managed to put my arm in the way and only got a glancing scratch, then a goblin struck me in the chest again, driving the air out of me, I felt something grab my good leg, and another monster tried to bite my face, but I managed to dodge that too.

Yoshi dropped from the ceiling, biting down on the needle rabbit when it tried to attack me again and swallowing it whole before engaging with a couple of Kobolds, keeping them away from me.

With a scream of rage, I briefly activated my Susanoo again, the green flames surged around me, manifesting one rib around myself that pushed the monsters away. Before it truly started draining me, I dispelled the construct, only using it for a second this time.

I had made use of it during the fight before, using it to block a blow that I couldn't dodge, but I knew this battle wouldn't be solved by one devastating blow, at least not one that I could manage, there were just too many monsters for that, and I couldn't risk passing out. This fight wouldn't be won by firepower but resistance.

Rolling to my feet, I saw that I had gotten a little space from that trick, I knew I had almost died, but by the gods… dying in a blaze of glory was surprisingly fun. Dodging another strike from the damn war shadow, I finally decapitated it with one of my daggers.

I heard someone laughing over the battle, a distant sound of amusement that should have unnerved me, but only gave me strength. From behind me, I saw one last wave of ice cause spikes to rise from the ground, skewering a lot of monsters, but I also saw the last magic weapon break into tiny shards and fall to the ground.

"Fuck." The older woman yelled, her voice filled with pain, I didn't have the room to look at her.

The attack thinned out the monsters once again, but it also destroyed a lot of monster cores, diminishing the amount of corpses around.

The woman yelled one last time, and I finally managed to glance back, seeing the needle rabbit that managed to pierce her chest. Having jumped from right beneath her, the vicious creature had actually gotten its horn under her plate and pierced through her gambeson.

The amazoness slashed the creature, causing it to dissolve, but it was too late for the older woman, the horn had opened her belly, and the fabric of her gambeson was getting soaked in blood. Finally, I noticed that the one laughing was me, but I didn't stop, I couldn't.

Looking around, I killed another two goblins and saw the tank actually lose his entire shield arm to a war shadow, a frog shooter also managed to hit his weapon away with a well aimed tongue strike.

Bleeding out from the missing arm and in incredible pain, the guy screamed and stumbled back. We were so close. there were no longer any ants around us, and there were only a few other monsters around, less than a hundred. We should win, we had to win!

With a roar of rage, I jumped on the war shadow, its claws tried to pierce my chest, but I angled it just right that my armor deflected the blade-like fingers and I pierced its core with a dagger before throwing a second one in the eye of the frog shooter.

"Thank you. Oh gods, thank… huff… you." The man huffed out, his clumsy hands opening one last belt around his armor. "We'll survive, it's only the upper floors, we'll survive." He kept repeating himself, but his eyes weren't focused on me anymore.

The man was on his knees, his free hand holding tightly to his missing arm, his dented helmet fell off his head and he was crying, his armor was probably a total loss, and his body must have been a huge bruise. He tried to cut off the bleeding on his wounded arm by tying it with the belt, but he couldn't do it, his fingers were broken from the frog shooter.

I met his desperate eyes, swallowing hard and feeling something stuck in my throat, I made my eyes spin, activating the mangekyou once again. I refused to die here, not after all of this.

With newfound strength, the man tightened the belt in one fluid motion, ignoring his broken fingers. Or more like, he could no longer feel them, or any pain, he could only feel rage.

With a roar of utter madness, the tank got up and charged at the nearest kobold, tackling the beast and grabbing its head with his broken fingers, smashing it against the floor before punching it to death with his wounded arm.

Almost casually, I leaned back, letting a needle rabbit fly by me before sending a dagger after it. I felt utterly exhausted.

Stumbling towards a group of three goblins, I knew I didn't have the strength to really cut them down, but my eyes showed me their movements with perfect precision.

I threw the dagger on my left hand towards the first goblin. The projectile didn't have much strength, but it still caused it to flinch and abort its pounce, the second monster stumbled into him and they sprawled to the ground. The third goblin jumped over them and right into my second dagger waiting for him.

The creature tried to dodge in midair, but it only meant it was no longer trying to slash me as my dagger pierced its core and it dissolved as it hit my body. Meeting the two remaining goblin's eyes, I gleefully watched as they killed each other.

Looking back, I stared right in the eye of the older woman. She had fallen against the wall and almost bleed out from the disemboweling blow, her eyes were almost fully closed but, suddenly, they snapped open filled with furry, her pain and weakness forgotten.

That didn't mean she wasn't weak, her body could barely support her and she only had a few minutes left to live, perhaps less, but she still stumbled up and tried to scream, only spewing more blood from her mouth before stumbling towards some wary Kobolds.

Fishing in my pouch, I dropped three health potions before managing to drink a fourth one, then drank another magic potion. The amount of potion was too much, I immediately felt like throwing up, and my stomach rebelled against me and I felt that their effect was greatly diminished.

Should I use Izanagi? No, I refused to sacrifice anything else to those assholes, I'll get out of here, and I'll fucking kill them all.

Despite myself, I smiled. The entire hallway was filled with monster corpses, the remains of spells cast by the three magical daggers and debris from both collapses, the metallic scent of blood finally registered in my nose, and I almost dropped my last dagger from my trembling hands.

Still, when I saw a dungeon lizard finally bite the tank's head, I took the opportunity to send my dagger flying with enough strength to pierce its brain. Unfortunately, the lizard's bite had pierced the man's skull and he was fully dead.

The potions had healed my wounded leg, either that or I was feeling completely numb, because I managed to walk towards the tank's mace and grab it, but no monster attacked me. We had killed too many, resisted for too long, even their dungeon aggression couldn't overcome the fear we put into them.

A little to my side, the archer used the wall to pull herself back to her feet and continued to stumble towards a new target, not feeling any pain and driven entirely by the anger I had put into her mind.

She took a step forward, and the monsters took two steps back, she took another step, then fell on her face, finally dead from the bloodloss.

Looking at the remaining monsters, I saw a dozen goblins, five Kobolds and a war shadow missing one arm. They looked at the dead woman, then towards me with fear. I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. The situation wasn't funny, not at all, but I laughed anyway.

The monsters seemed to be struggling with themselves, the influence of the dungeon driving them to attack me despite their fear. Poor dungeon monsters.

Widening my eyes, I had recovered enough mana to stare at them with my bleeding eye, in a second, a green ribcage started forming around me and, a second later, a Yin-Yang symbol appeared in the middle of the ribcage, just over my heart.

Ugh, my eyes were killing me, glancing at my mace, I frowned when I noticed it was too heavy for me to lift right now. With annoyance, I grabbed at my face with my left hand and tried to squeeze it to see if the pain would stop before glancing at the monster between my fingers. "Fuck it, if you aren't going to attack then just die!"

From the Yin-yang symbol, five large needles the size of javellings flew towards the monsters, flying faster than most arrows. The goblins almost exploded when the needles hit them, limbs and heads flying from the impact. The survivors finally ran, unwilling to fight anymore.

Standing straight, the green flames of my Susanno disappearing around me, I dropped the mace and snorted, now I just had to find those suicidal assholes who lured this monster train, this shit felt personal.

Then I fell straight on top of a dead frog shooter and the world went dark.

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[Vinoradov]

Ohhh....that was as vicious as it was badass!

 

[Aconitum]

I hope they make it all!!

 

[TRm]

Great job on showing the desperation of a fight like that... pity the tank died, we didn't know him long but I liked that guy.

I'm also curious about whether Yoshi will behave with the MC out like a light

 

[Vinoradov]

Here's hoping Lizard Lad & Archer Girl makes it

Click to shrink...

The mc will survive.....and, maybe, the amazon..... but the other 2 are very dead......

 

[Alaabalanalah]

"I don't know what the Norse are, but Loki-sama is one of Odin's daughters, yes.

Click to shrink...

so this is an au? danmach gods can't have kids after all

 

[William Seymour]

so this is an au? danmach gods can't have kids after all

Click to shrink...

Can't have kids without fiat/special circumstances involved.

 

[Ramuthra]

so this is an au? danmach gods can't have kids after all

Click to shrink...

They can't have kids with humans. In theory.

Spoiler: Possibly Canonical Speculation

Bell Cranel's father is hinted to be Zeus.

We're talking their godly legends, though, not something that happened after they descended. Loki is Odin's kid IRL mythology.

 

[Xedornox]

They can't have kids with humans. In theory.

Spoiler: Possibly Canonical Speculation

Bell Cranel's father is hinted to be Zeus.

We're talking their godly legends, though, not something that happened after they descended. Loki is Odin's kid IRL mythology.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: I thought we already knew Bell's Father.

I thought we knew Bell's father though... wasn't he that one weakling in the Zeus familia that Alfia disliked immensely for being a perverted ladies man or something? Or was that a fanfic thing?

 

[Kat0tonic]

Spoiler: I thought we already knew Bell's Father.

I thought we knew Bell's father though... wasn't he that one weakling in the Zeus familia that Alfia disliked immensely for being a perverted ladies man or something? Or was that a fanfic thing?

Click to shrink...

No you are correct but only that it's not

Spoiler: Spoilers

Zeus just someone from his familia there is a fanfic about it though which is what you were talking about

 

[Yami-Guy]

Nice update, I cant remember though, I know we have covered the 'it uses chakra' argument but does use of the MSharingan cause blindness here? I don't remember if that was stated anywhere?

 

[98Kitkat656]

Nice update, I cant remember though, I know we have covered the 'it uses chakra' argument but does use of the MSharingan cause blindness here? I don't remember if that was stated anywhere?

Click to shrink...

yes it does via a curse if i remember correctly.

 

[CapCaverna]

Alright people, only a single other chapter ready. It's unfortunate, but we're almost caugh up here.

Next week, updates will slow down a lot, like once every three weeks to a month. I'm giving you guys some warning so you don't think I just stopped writing it.

I'm not abandoning this fic, but I'm busy with IRL stuff, my other two fics and I have some other ideas in my mind I really want to explore, as a result, I had to prioritize something, and my 'Reincarnated as Supergirl' fic just gets far more engagement and support than the others. So I'll be cutting down on this fic and 'Reincarnated into H'.

I do like writing this, probably as much as I like writing the other stories, so the choice really came down to what was having the most sucess, if I had the time, I'd probably update Dungeon Delving twice a week or so, but I just don't, unfortunately.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The rusty scent of blood hit me first; the pain hit me shortly after. With a groan, I almost panicked when I couldn't open my eyes, but then the dried blood sealing my eyelids broke and I forced my eyes open to see the mountain of corpses lying all around me. My body was still aching and my headache was… tolerable, but far from gone.

Another groan and I managed to push myself into a sitting position, my back resting against the tunnel wall. Scratching the trail of blood from my face, I closed my eyes again for a few moments and finally started to take stock of my situation.

There were still a lot of corpses around me, but they were far less than I expected, only less than a hundred, when I was expecting a thousand or more. Movement to my right immediately drew my attention and I grabbed for my missing weapons, only finding one last throwing dagger.

Suddenly, a war shadow body in the bottom of a pile dissolved into dust, causing the entire thing to collapse forward and revealing the… dungeon lizard? The creature was nearly twice the size of a normal dungeon lizard, with black stripes along its body and muscle filled limbs, it actually looked more like a leathery crocodile than a gecko.

"Yep, it's been doing that for a few hours now," said the female voice from my side, drawing my attention to the Amazon sitting in front of a few dead killer ants. "I was gonna kill it too, but I kinda felt bad since it helped out so much."

Looking at the young Amazon, I considered my options, the girl looked to be only 15 or so, with an innocent look on her face despite the blood on her clothes, but she had seen me use just about every trump card I had, and had watched me control two adventurers, forcing them to fight until they collapsed dead.

Speaking of the adventurers, both of their bodies were laid on the girl's side, their eyes closed and their remaining arms crossed in front of their chests. They were horribly mangled and just looking at them gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

At the time, I did what I thought necessary, but it didn't mean I liked it. Could they have survived if I had let them rest? Or maybe if I had sacrificed an eye to regain my strength? No, it had already been too late to activate it by then.

Resting my head against the wall for a second, I asked. "How long was I out?"

"Only four hours or so, I'd have woken you up soon anyway," the amazoness said while hugging her knees close to her chest. "I think I heard someone checking up on the collapsed tunnel from the other side."

So, it was already night time then, and the daily delvers were probably already back on Orario for rest, that meant anybody still in the dungeon was probably up to no good… or just late.

"Fuck, you think it's those assholes that caused this?" I grunted, trying to push myself back to my feet. "What's your name anyway?"

From the side, Yoshi hissed at me, but I really didn't feel like dealing with a rebellious monster right now. Turning towards him, I fixed him with a glare, my sharingan almost shining with magic.

Yoshi quickly lowered his head and whimpered, so I turned back towards the Amazon.

"Lena Tally. Are you gonna try to kill me now?" She asked, tilting her head sideways and staring at me.

"Why'd I kill you? Better yet, if you thought I was gonna kill you, why the heck didn't you finish me off before I woke up?" I asked, honestly curious.

I don't know if I could have killed a helpless person, but I wasn't really born in this world, and I would certainly consider it the right choice.

"Didn't think I could make it out of here alone, and the dungeon lizard would probably attack me too," she answered honestly. Pushing herself to her feet, she grabbed her scimitar from the ground and lifted it to her shoulder. "So, are you gonna try to kill me? I promise to make it up for you later if you don't!"

I shuddered, imagining the FBI bursting through the door at my current home. The girl was beautiful, but far too young, even if her breasts looked fully grown.

NO! Bad Roland! I mean, it wasn't like I was too much older than her, and Tiona herself was probably only a year or two older, but ugh, there was a huge difference between 14~15 and 16~17 in my mind, and even the later was kind of pushing it.

"No, just… no," looking at the devastated hallway, I had to ask. "Did Yoshi eat all the magic crystals?"

"Nope," She lowered the scimitar and sheathed it, "I gave you one of your potions, then took one myself and rested a little before starting to harvest them. Made a killing too."

Staring at her smile, I almost fell for it, but my sharingan caught the signs easily. She was clearly forcing herself to act natural, but her eyes kept glancing at her dead companion, and they were slightly red from crying.

With a sigh, I pushed myself to my feet and looked around for my weapons. My spear was fucked, but I still tied it to Yoshi's back, and also grabbed my hammer. With some hesitation, I also picked up the Tank's mace and shield; they were battered, but still functional.

Lena approached me carrying her friend's bow and I nodded, letting her tie it to Yoshi's back with the rest of the loot.

"So, what's 'your' name?" the girl asked after she was done. "I told you mine, but I still don't know yours."

"Roland Synclair," I answered, taking one last look at the whole mess. "So, do you think they're waiting for us in the next room?"

I'd like to loot everything else but, if some of those assholes were already coming over to check on things, it was best we didn't waste any more time. Using my illusions right, I could probably take a single level two if he wasn't too strong, maybe.

Well, Bell couldn't really deal with one, even after he defeated a fucking minotaur but, even if I was much weaker, I only really needed a single moment of distraction, and I could probably follow their movements with my eyes.

Unfortunately, fighting more than one at the same time, or even just one after the other, probably wouldn't end up well for me.

"I don't think so, wait," opening her bag, the girl searched for a small piece of parchment amongst a dozen, then spread it in the air. Staring at it, I took the chance to memorize the floor's map, even if it did cause me a spike of pain. "I guess they could have more than one party but, if not, the next room isn't really connected to the previous one by any nearby hallways."

"Yes, I see it. They'd need to go through at least five rooms to reach it," I nodded. Now I just had to decide what to do from here. "We're going to go towards the entrance to the next floor, then we turn back and use the outer path to circle this spot. I don't want to risk them catching us on the way back if we try for a shorter path."

"You sure? I don't think we can fight that many more monsters," Lena said, digging a hole on the floor with her toes.

"Well, I prefer to fight the monsters than risk a level two adventurer," I didn't really know if our ambushers had any, but level two wasn't as uncommon here in Orario. "You think the dungeon already managed to replenish all the monsters we killed?"

In truth, I was considering taking the time to update my falna right here in the dungeon, but I had already revealed so much to the girl… Fuck, I could justify the skill; I bet such powerful skill was rare, but not unheard of, not after thousands of years and probably millions of adventurers. But being capable of updating a Falna by myself?

"No way, we must have emptied half the floor, it's gonna take a day at least," she answered, looking back at her friend once again.

I followed her gaze, seeing the bloodied woman resting against the floor. She had a calm expression now, but I remember her dying with a snarl on her face, still trying to crawl towards more enemies.

Swallowing hard, I turned my head away and ordered Yoshi to walk ahead of me. The large dungeon lizard licked its lips, bit off one last magic crystal from a frog shooter and walked by us, a few pouches filled with our loot tied to its back.

The next room really was empty. In the distance, I saw a Kobold breaking out from the ground, but the creature was far away and alone, the room was still completely depopulated.

"So, what was that hand?" Lena caught up with me. "Because that sent shivers down my spine, it was so hot! I didn't think level 1 adventurers had skills like that."

"Well, some do," I answered, remembering Bell's growth cheat.

"Really…?" The girl trailed off, kicking a rock up, she grabbed it in her hand and measured its weight, then threw it when we approached the Kobold and it noticed us. The poor beast was hit in the head and fell forward, causing Yoshi to dart ahead and kill it with a well aimed bite. "You know, I won't tell anyone if you go out with me."

I stumbled; then glared at her with my red eyes, causing her to catch her breath. "Really, after what you saw me do to your friend?"

"It's the dungeon… and I'm kinda used to death, I'm an Amazon born outside Orario you know?" she answered, catching up to me and walking at my side towards the next corridor. "Hey, hey, wanna hold my hand?"

"No, no, I don't want to have one of my hands occupied inside the dungeon- while being hunted by some maniacal assholes, mind you- Now, stay quiet least those assholes find us," I glared at her again, but it only caused her to shiver a little and blush, ugh, what was wrong with this girl?

The next two rooms were almost empty, but I found the remains of a dead adventurer on the third. The poor guy was more than half eaten and there was almost nothing there to recognize him, but I grabbed his sword, and a half chewed collar some monster had spit out. Someone in the guild could probably recognize him and tell his family, or at least his familia.

Eventually, the silence started bothering me, so I couldn't help starting a conversation. "Why would being born outside Orario cause you to be used to death? Honestly, I'd think it was the other way around."

"Well, I'm an Amazon, being strong is pretty important for us, you know?" She said, eager to start talking again. "I was born far from the dungeon, so we didn't have, like, a lot of strong monsters there. Instead, sometimes, we did it like in Telskyura and fought each other to get stronger."

"How does that translate to being used to death?" I lifted an eyebrow glancing at her.

"Well, you don't get a lot of attributes if there's no danger, and getting stronger requires like, risking your life," she shrugged as if that explained everything. "Plus, fighting other adventurers is far more dangerous than fighting monsters, so it's better for leveling up!"

In a way, I guess it did explain. Despite what had just happened, I was just unused to whole countries accepting death like that. Once again I had to remind myself that I wasn't in a modern society; life just didn't have the same value here.

Still, I didn't expect such a dark turn for the world. I was under the impression that even asshole gods somewhat valued their familias, how foolish.

"So, you left to escape from there?"

"Nope, I wasn't even a member of a familia, and I was getting old, so I had to leave to find a man. Then Ishtar-sama offered to take me with her and I accepted."

Ugh, if this was an anime, there would be a huge sweatdrop on my forehead right now. Leaning back, I watched a frog shooter's tongue fly by my face, before it could retract, my wrist flashed and I cut it off with the sword.

With a screech of pain, the creature jumped away from me, followed closely behind by a hissing Yoshi. Having a strong tamed beast was so convenient.

"So, what else do you want to know?" the girl happily said as she jumped on my back and hugged my neck. "I'm so happy you're interested in me, Roland Synclair."

"First, just call me Roland," I said, prying an arm from around my throat. With my free hand, I grabbed her mouth and forced her face away from mine when she attempted to steal a kiss, "second, what about Ishtar? She's some kind of sex goddess right?"

I didn't remember much about Mesopotamian gods, but Ishtar was pretty well known.

"Ishtar-sama is a goddess of beauty. She rules the red-light district, so I get a lot of chances to catch a strong man," she nodded, as she managed to get free from my grab, "but the Berbera were always ahead of me, and I didn't want any of the leftovers. Still, now I have Roland, so I don't care anymore."

I had to pause at that, imagining a bunch of muscle-bound prostitutes kidnapping men to have their way with them. Ugh, thank the perverted gods that Falna seemed to make people hotter.

As we walked, Lena talked about the Ishtar familia, and I liked it less and less, it seemed much worse than even the Apollo familia from the anime. Did Bell have to deal with them in later seasons?

As she talked, the only thing I could think of was: Ishtar seemed like a perfect target to get mindfucked. One that wouldn't leave me feeling any guilt.

"So, she forces her familia to be prostitutes?" I questioned again, just to make sure I had heard it right.

"Well, they're mostly already prostitutes, and the Berbera are Amazons, but I guess there are a few slaves she buys that can't fight," Lena shrugs, as if it was normal. "Kinda feel bad for them, but Aisha does her best to take care of them. Hey, there's even this one who's still a virgin, she, likes, faints when she sees a man!"

"I see…" I said, gripping my new sword tightly. Feeling my muscles aching, I start limping again, the gash on my leg still not completely healed. "Say, do you think I can get a meeting with Ishtar, preferably alone?"

I wouldn't call myself a saint, but I drew the line at forced prostitution and slavery… that line used to include murder but, well, shit happens. Still, there was probably no better use for mind control than trying to stop such abuse while getting control of a powerful familia.

Really, I'm kinda ashamed to say my focus was more on getting access to the powerful familia, doing a little good being only a secondary concern.

I really needed some support in Orario, some way of registering in the guild and getting a party for delving, but I kinda felt bad about mindcontroling just anybody. Ishtar seemed like a perfect target, rich, powerful, connected and enough of a bitch that I wouldn't feel guilty.

"Hey! No fair, you shouldn't be going after Ishtar with me here!" she pouted, then dashed ahead and jumped over the head of a goblin, slashing it open with a swing of her scimitar before piercing a second one with its tip. "Still, I guess… Ishtar-sama is pretty demanding on who she takes to bed."

She gave me a strange look and I almost blushed when I realized it was because I was still a little out of shape. Not fat, not anymore, but I didn't have the usual well cultivated muscles every level two had.

Noticing my discomfort, she quickly tried to cheer me up. "Don't worry; I'm sure that, if I tell her about how strong your skill is, she'd be interested!"

"Ah, how about no?" I shook my head and glared at the girl, only making her blush harder. "I'd REALLY prefer to keep my skill quiet."

Lena just shrugged again, causing me to sigh. Damn, now that I got a good look at her fighting, I couldn't help being surprised. Despite her young age, she seemed stronger, status wise, than me, I bet she was gonna be leveling up once we got out of here.

"Then I don- wait, I think I heard something," The girl gripped her scimitar, causing me to frown and concentrate on the noise.

A glance at Yoshi let me send it a quick illusion telling it what to do. Without a noise, the large lizard found a rock to hide behind, leaving Lena and me alone and without any tempting loot for possible thieves.

Finally, I heard running steps coming from the left hallway, taking a chance, I choose another rock to hide behind, and the damn Amazon took advantage of the situation to squeeze her body with mine,

I tried to push her away, but the three men burst into the room soon after, taking a quick look around before dashing towards the place we had come from. I kept my head down for some time, but finally peeked at their backs.

The three men weren't wearing the same strange clothes as our attackers, and they didn't have anything to indicate they were the ones responsible, but changing clothes was easy, and running towards where they had lured the monsters was a pretty big indication.

When I finally stopped hearing their steps, I pulled the girl by the arm and whispered a call to Yoshi before dashing away as fast as I could, my leg still hurting like a motherfucker.

"So you did want to hold my hand!" Lena smirked after we had left the men behind, causing me to release her arm, but she continued following by my side. "Say, want another health potion? I don't think it will be very effective after you took so many, but it's better than nothing?"

"Can I even drink another one?" I asked, trying hard to remember some of the books I had read. While I had them all in my visual memory and could remember every page, it was so much information that it still gave me a headache.

"Dunno, never had to use so many," she handed me one of the last two health potions and closed her pouch.

I did my best to try and remember what I had read about the subject. Using the sharingan was complicated. With a single glance, I could copy a movement, but I still had to train in order to make sure to execute it right, truly making it mine.

By the same token, I could read something with a single glance of the sharingan, but I still had to think and process what I read to truly make the information inside the pages mine.

Damn, potion usage was a very complicated subject but, without rest and food, it was dangerous to use too many potions one after another, even more so when you mixed different effects.

Potions worked mostly on magic, but they did use some energy from the body they restored, potions of higher quality used less and had better effects, but even then, there was still a limit.

Still, I decided to take the risk and uncorked the vial, drinking it entirely, immediately feeling it start working on my body once again. The pain on my leg lessened, but a quick glance there told me it was less than a quarter as effective.

We reached the room right before the entrance to the next floor and circled back, taking the left path and continuing to hurry. A few monsters blocked our way, but Lena and Yoshi took care of them fairly quickly.

The Amazon did her best to appear on top form, but I could see the exhaustion in her movements, and the way she almost stumbled while fighting a kobold, her arm shaking just from holding her weapon.

Her fighting style was too mobile, like a fast dance, it was beautiful to watch, and very effective, but it also took a lot out of her. It was probably better for duels than a long delve into the dungeon, where stamina was necessary. At least until she reached a higher level and it became a moot point.

I heard some talking from ahead of us in the hallway, so I changed direction and took a small detour before hurrying on. It was a pity that Yoshi was still too small for me to ride on, even if he was already strong enough to support me.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we arrived at the entrance to the upper floor. Feeling relief flooding me, I almost dashed towards the entrance.

"Hey, friend, I see you're late too," said a thin man as he got up from a rock he had been sitting on.

Fuck, how the fuck did I miss him? Of course they'd be watching the exit of the motherfucking floor. Turning towards my companions, I thanked my luck that Yoshi wasn't visible, I had dashed ahead of him when seeing the entrance, and he had decided to remain hidden when he noticed the adventurer.

"Lena, do you recognize the voice?" I quickly whispered, trying to see if the man was just an adventurer or one of our enemies. In front of me, the guy continued talking.

"Got held up in a fight on the 12th floor, so I'm taking a break here before going back to Orario," the man commented while patting down his clothes and cracking his fingers, acting as if there was nothing wrong.

"No," She whispered, making sure to grab at her scimitar.

"I guess it's about time I move on, want to finish climbing together? It should make things faster," the man commented, motioning towards the entrance with his neck. "Gods, I'm hungry from staying down here so long. I'd take anything that made this faster."

Pretending that everything was fine, I couldn't help but glance back at the hallway behind me. Would some of those bastards still be following us? How long did we have before they arrived?

Relaxing my posture, I smiled at the man and considered him. He was a skinny but well defined guy, with tiger ears on top of his head and a tail swirling behind his back, his clothes had nothing that indicated he was part of the ambush earlier.

Approaching him slowly, I did my best to appear calm. There really was nothing differentiating him from a normal adventurer, if I didn't have the sharingan that is.

With my eyes, I never forgot anything I had seen and, while he didn't have anything identifying him, I had stared at his eyes before, when he and his friends had trapped us in the monster train.

The asshole smiled at me, but I could see the signs of derision hidden behind it. When we were just a few steps away from each other, I activated the mangekyou and met his eyes, then attacked.

The asshole was much faster than me, his movements felt almost like Tiona's while she was training with me, for a second, my heart froze as I thought of him being a match for my level 5 trainer, but I still attacked.

With almost contemptuous ease, the man lifted his sword and blocked an upward swing coming from his left… and the tip of my sword started piercing his chest right where his heart should be, my lunge hidden behind the illusion of a slash.

The pain, the lack of sensation as he clashed with my illusion or just his higher stats immediately caused my image to shatter, and the man reacted with lightning fast reflexes, twisting aside and kicking out.

Instead of his heart, my sword slashed open his chest, the wound deepening before piercing him all the way. His kick sent me flying back and forced me to release my weapon, leaving it sticking halfway out of his shoulder.

I hit the floor and rolled on my back, having some trouble drawing a breath as his kick almost smashed through my armor.

The man himself stumbled back with a roar of pain, his own sword dropping from his fingers and clattering to the ground as he lost the use of his arm. Using his left hand, he pulled the sword from his shoulders and actually roared at me.

Lena took the chance to attack him, but I hadn't recovered enough to send another illusion, and the man was clearly far stronger than us. Even with only one hand, he managed to overpower the young girl and almost killed her in the first exchange, only her golden arm protector saved her life as he sent her flying back as well.

Rolling to my feet, I ignored everything else and focused fully on the weretiger in front of us. "So, what level do you think he is?" I asked my companion.

She gave me a strange look, but still answered. "He's level two, anything higher and he'd have probably killed us already, how exciting!"

Ugh, I guess that made sense, he wasn't moving much faster than Tiona did in our spars, but she was clearly holding back, a whole fucking lot. I had probably never really seen Tiona's real speed.

Taking a few steps back from us, the weretiger looked over our shoulders towards the hallway we had come from, and I was afraid the ones following us would arrive, but I didn't dare look, and I still couldn't hear anything. Fuck, we had to do this fast.

Slowly, the man lowered his working hand to his waist and used a finger to pull out a red vial.

Oh, no you don't! You bastard don't get to heal in the middle of a fucking fight. With a snarl on my face, I gave the order, and the fight was on.

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[Humorous Tart]

This is crazy! And he's going to get a whole massive familia under his control soon. That's pretty awesome.

 

[TRm]

Ishtar's a pretty good target for mindfucking

The interactions with Lena are good too

 

[georgiaboy1966]

A Familia including a HaruHume

 

[GentlemanMad]

I can't wait to see how big Yoshi can get. He's definitely gonna have a hard time dealing with Loki when she learns of his encounter with evilus.

 

[GentlemanMad]

Spoiler: I thought we already knew Bell's Father.

I thought we knew Bell's father though... wasn't he that one weakling in the Zeus familia that Alfia disliked immensely for being a perverted ladies man or something? Or was that a fanfic thing?

Click to shrink...

No. It was brought up in the mobile game. Its canon.