Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon - Chapter 9.2 (Patreon)

Caelan Odhar was strong.

Unfairly so in fact if Lili were to be truthful. By his own words, the boy who was a whole year younger than herself, claimed to be a rather new adventurer.

Yet he tore through monsters within the dungeon like they were made of wet paper.

Without a weapon in hand, his fists and feet lashed out like flying daggers and crushing warhammer's.

The first monster they saw in the dungeon, got his clawed gauntlet clad fingers punched through its skull.

The second, a kobald received a stomp to the knee that crunched bone and then a pair of arms around its neck that twisted and snapped it as if it were a mere twig.

Yes, Caelan Odhar did not need a weapon.

Because his body clad in gleaming bright blue crystal-like armour, was a weapon on to itself.

Lili had seen a lot of level one adventurers fight, she'd supported hundreds in fact. She was well aware of their strength and capabilities.

Caelan Odhar did no at all fight like a level one.

He was too fast, too strong, too skilled. And wholly too confident.

She'd seen a glimpse of that confidence when she fist met him yesterday and he brutally killed Mr. Ged, though the man definitely invited his own death, he wasn't weak, he was in the upper middle tier of level one adventurers.

Yet he was killed within mere moments by a self proclaimed newbie.

And that same self proclaimed newbie treated their way down the dungeon floors towards the seventh floor, as if it were a walk in the park.

Most Lili had supported took over an hour to reach their destination. While following Caelan though…they had reached the fifth floor in under ten minutes.

In fact, even with him killing monsters as they spawned and attacked them, it was Lili who was having trouble keeping up.

He killed the monsters so swiftly that he was ready to go again before she had even extracted a single magic stone from the corpses left over.

It was on the next floor that she truly learned how far apart they stood in the world.

When they stepped down, it was to find over eight war shadows waiting for them. The dungeon it seemed had been preparing for them.

Lili froze on the steps.

War shadows were troublesome in that they could only be killed by magic or by striking the magic stones hidden behind their gleaming red eyes.

And they were strong.

Fighting them, for the vast majority of level ones was an utter waste of time that only invited strong chances of death.

Before she could say anything to Caelan though, he simply reached up and slid the front part of his helmet up revealing his face as he took in a deep breath.

And then he exhaled with a roaring shout.

And a great gout of flame burst into existence from his mouth, washing over the war shadow's as they rushed him and roasting them alive in all the time it took to blink.

It was over in moments, the dark monsters falling to the intense head and their life burnt out.

"Alright Lili, let's grab these guys' stones and continue on." he said, turning to face her with a boyish grin.

That did not at all suit the way he'd just annihilated a large group of strong monsters as if he were a monstrous dragon from legend.

Lili nodded dumbly and proceeded to make her way over to the charred corpses and begin extracting the magic stones while her employer stood at the ready in case any more monsters spawned.

"So…you can use magic Mr. Caelan?" Lili asked demurely, fishing for information.

If he was a new adventurer and had access to such amazing armour as he did right now and magic as well while being human, then his Familia was probably sitting on a lot of money, or maybe he was? He did give her the feel of someone that came from a rich background.

"Something like that," Caelan shrugged, a bit stupidly in her opinion, he was so confident, so arrogant he didn't seem to see the problem with revealing things to her, "It's more of due to a skill I have than actually magic, though it does use up my mind and hey, you don't need to call me Mr, it sounds weird coming from a girl older than me."

Lili grimaced, but quickly hid it, 'A skill?'

That dashed those hopes then. The only way a human could learn magic after all was luck through the Falna or a grimoire and considering how little a time he'd been an adventurer by his own words, she'd been assuming a grimoire.

"I can't do that Mr. Caelan, like I said before Lili is just a useless leech after all, it's only proper I refer to you with respect." she replied.

It was easier that way, to keep from feeling sentimental at all. In the end, whatever goodwill they had for her even slightly, was always dashed in the face of money.

Caelan Odhar would just be another name added to the list of adventurers that used her and tossed her aside when he no longer needed her. Albeit, the strongest one.

"We'll work on that," he shrugged, "Anyway, you bringing up my skill does remind me that we should decide how we're going to split the loot when we finish."

Lili had to withhold a sigh. 'Here we go.' she thought, preparing herself for the inevitable.

The fact of the matter was, ten percent of an adventurers earnings, was on the high end of things she was ever offered. Though, even those who did offer that much, tended to stiff her.

It was why she always stiffed them right back. Like on this trip alone, she'd already hidden away twenty percent of the magic stones she'd gathered to trade in herself.

"It might be a bit unusual, but how about this," Caelan grinned at her, "I'll pay you a hundred thousand vali's and you can keep all the item drops, but in return I want to keep all the magic stones if that's fine with you?"

…Eh?

As if on cue, Lili was so shocked by his words she instinctively pulled out the magic stone of the war shadow she was harvesting, causing it to burst into smoke and leave behind a pitch black blade-like claw in its wake.

…A war shadow claw was worth three thousand valis alone.

She hardly paid it any attention though and stared gobsmacked at the armour clad boy, "A hundred…thousand?" she repeated, not quite believing her ears.

And that was without taking the monster drops into account.

That was far, far more than she'd ever made on a single dungeon dive as a supporter. In fact, it would usually take her multiple months just to make that amount.

He had to be lying!

…Right?

She hated how hopeful her thoughts turned. She already knew never to hope, it would just end up with her with her face in the mud as it always had!

"Yeah," Caelan nodded, "Actually, If things go well down here today like I hope, I'll pay you it daily if you become my personal supporter."

…If he wanted to hire her as his personal supporter and would pay her daily like that to keep her coming back, did that not mean he would actually pay her to ensure she would come back?

'No, don't get Lili's hopes up!' she cried inwardly.

With that kind of pay, she could be free of the Soma familia easily within a few months!

But no…it was to good to be true, right? Adventurers were liars, thieves and evil murderers. Caelan Odhar wasn't any different.

He was just new, he'd get infected by that taint soon.

If he wasn't already.

Instead of letting her dark thoughts show on her face though, Lili gave him a bright smile she'd learned to form from years of practice.

"Okay, Lili will happily sign up for benefits like that Mr. Caelan!" she chirped in agreement.

"Bitchin'!" the self proclaimed bad guy who killed Ged brutally pumped his fist happily into the air and grinned, "Cute supporter, getto!"

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It was not even a half an hour later that Lili began to regret her decision to support Caelan Odhar.

"Mr. Caelan, there's one coming out above me!" she cried out as a huge killer ant burst out of the wall above her.

Caelan, standing a few paces beyond her held two huge killer ants by the neck. They writhed in squealed in his grasp, before going silent as a meaty crunch resounded as he smashed both of their heads together, smashing their skulls in.

He tossed them aside and whirled around, shooting forward in a blur of speed and spinning to lash out into the air with a spinning kick that caught the ant above her in the neck…and cleaved right through it, the head flying off into the distance while the force of the kick tore the whole body of the beast out of the wall.

"You alright?" he asked as he landed a moment later beside her.

"Yes…but!" her eyes went to the opening of the pantry of the seventh floor that they were currently locked within.

To where a dozen more ants were doing their level best to climb over a hill of their brethren's corpses to get into the pantry and attacked them.

…By Caelan's own decision. Multiple killer ants, their bodies mangled and barely clinging to life hung from above the entrance. He had beat them down and left them there, barely alive so they could release their pheromones to attract more killers ants.

"Got it!" he turned, his helmet already slid up to reveal his face as he took in a deep breath and then releasing a roar quite similar to an Infant Dragon she'd once seen and unleashing a wave of flame from his mouth that washed over the killer ants trying to get into the pantry and roasting them alive just like the fellows they were trying to climb over.

'Mr. Caelan is crazy!' Lili thought, mind whirling. She had not at all expected something like this when she agreed to support him!

Killer ants were known as rookie killers for a reason. Just a dozen of them were enough to take down someone like Mr. Ged who wasn't a weak level one at all!

Yet even as they appeared in the dozens, Caelan tore through them like they were mere goblins.

That is to say he treated them like he treated the goblins from the first floor. Like wet paper just made to be torn apart.

If this was the kind of thing he got up to in the dungeon, then it was no wonder he'd grown so quickly, he must have been raking in excelia by the bucket load and it was no wonder he seemed to so casually say he would pay her a hundred thousand valis a day!

They'd been on this floor less than a half an hour and yet she'd already lost count how many killer ants he'd killed, but it was well over fifty! And their magic stones alone cost a thousand two hundred valis!

"Mr. Caelan, are you alright?" she found herself asking. There was no way he could keep this up for long, right?

In reply the younger boy just grinned at her and flashed her a clawed gauntlet clad thumbs up, "With mind potions, I can do this all day Lili, no need to worry!" he assured her, "I'm more worried about you, are you sure you'll be fine?"

…No in fact she was not.

But of course said other wise, "I'll be fine you're the one doing all the fighting." she replied.

In contrast her job was simple. All she had to do was remove and collect magic stones and items from the killer ant corpses, and whatever else turned up.

She didn't even need to really drag the corpses out of the way either because…

Caelan grinned at her answer, before making his way over to the huge pile of killer ant corpses piled up at the entrance of the pantry, many a goblin, needle rabbit and such mixed in….and promptly picked them up by the doubles, one in each hand and threw them back towards her.

In just moments, a huge pile of dead monsters formed next to her as he continued tossing them until the entrance was bare.

And he stood at the ready, waiting for more to come. Yes, in comparison her job was much simpler, just looting the corpses and letting him know of any other monsters that were spawning within the pantry itself.

"Let's try for seven hours!" he called back to her, "I did six yesterday, but with you here taking care of the magic stones and the like, I figure I can go longer!"

'What a monster.' Lili couldn't help but stare at his broad back in a combination of horror…and awe.

She didn't think even Zanis or Chandra, the only level two's in the Soma Familia could slaughter the killer ants as fast, systematically…and easily as Caelan Odhar did.

…Was he really only a level one?