Paladin of Shadows Chapter 10 (Patreon)

After embracing the reality of myself going to punch monsters to death preferably with only using some more specilized slime weapon conjurations to get through armor and stuff. Epsilon and I made out way out of the dungeon with us also selling off the dungeon drops we collected.

"Your total is fifteen hundred Valis rounded down by twenty Valis to pay for service charge." The teller said passing me two fucking coins making my face twitch at that bullshit.

As Valis was basically the same as Yen in a dollar exchange rate. So I literally spent the last couple hours for just ten dollars in my old currency... I coudn't even buy a full fast food meal of a burger, fries, and a drink for ten bucks!

And that wasn't just my drops that was also Epsilon's as well and we weren't being slow or anything! I had a healing spell to let me fuck up and get some minor bruises and scratches and Epsilon was a murder blender herself. So the fact that we couldn't even order a fucking two-topping pizza from Pizza Hut from 'risking' our lives on the first floor was just insane!

"Fifteen hundred Valis my ass... We need seventy-five thousand Valis a month just for our small as hell hotel rooms, let alone how much it would cost to actually buy property inside this damned walled in city." I muttered rather frustrated. As I didn't want to be living out of an expensive medieval hotel/inn, I wanted my own room and bathroom I didn't like to share dammit.

But Orario was a walled-in city due to some events that had happened long ago where some dumbasses tried to make holes into the dungeon and said dungeon responded by flooding the previously wall-lacking city of Orario with smaller deep-floor monsters that slaughtered the weaker adventurers.

So in a city that had a massive wall around it... The land was obviously at a great premium in reality.

'I feel like a main character from a Korean story... Everything I want just revolves around getting rich.' I thought with a wry smile before I spoke. "Alright so we should go back to the hotel now right?" I asked Epsilon.

The blue-haired beauty nodded with her saying in reply. "Yes that would be the best, Lady Freya will likely be ready for our return... And I imagine Eta and Gamma have probably already returned as they aren't the type to enjoy combat besides using it to clear obstacles for our ambitions."

I slowly nodded in understanding but in reality, I had a more poignant thought. 'And what is the Seven Shadows' ambition now? Now that they didn't have the cult of Diabolos or whatever as a major antagonist uniting them?"

But instead of angsting about it. I kept my silence as we walked through the packed streets of Orario with Epsilon keeping close as the city was packed with people until I heard a grunt of annoyance from Epsilon and I blinked as she stepped forward and I felt her large 'breasts' push against my arm as she took it into her arms and began pulling me through the crowds.

"Four pickpockets... We need to avoid the afternoon rush until you train your sense of your surroundings." She muttered making my lips twitch at hearing that. But thankfully I had my all of two thousand Valis inside a pocket I made with my undersuit made from the Seven Shadows version of slime.

A couple of minutes later as we entered the more sedate residential side of Orario where we weren't being mobbed. I switched our interaction to simply holding hands with Epislon smiling with a proud blush across her face as we held hands.

"Look at her... Holding hands with a human so proudly." I heard a woman speaking from a second floor veranda of all things and looking over I saw a trio of three matronly elven woman looking at Epsilon with blushes across their face at how bold and brave she was being.

'Oh hell... I forgot elves here in Danmachi were super touchy about their personal space.' I thought blankly and one of the women met my eyes and her slight blush darkened as she realized I was looking at her and she snapped out with some of her embarrassment making her voice seem more harsh than she wanted. "Excuse us."

But as she moved to get back from the railing of the veranda at being caught gossiping I felt Epsilon cup my face with a hand and then a soft set of lips kissing the corner of my mouth with those three motherly-looking elves going beet red and pulling back with the one who spoke spitting out. "Perverted degenerate!"

I threw a look at Epsilon and she smiled and with her hand slipping down my chest to retake my hand into her own... With her fingers gently intertwining with my own, she whispered to me with her 'chest' pushing into mine as she looked up at me with those beautiful purple eyes. "Was that too much?" She whispered softly and for a moment I was silent until the reality that we were in public hit my mind and I gave her in an answer as I wrapped an arm around her taunt side and pulled her with me in a possesive motion that made Epsilon giggle with relief.

-

Across the city Zeta was walking hunched over while covered in a ratty cloak made of her slime purposefully twisted and made to look ragged as a cover as hidden under her cloak was several fist-sized bags filled with coins of various denominations. "Gangs, bandits, or pirates... All of them are the best targets to get some easy fluid currency." The cat beastkin muttered to herself as she made her way back to the hotel.

Oh she also did a bit of dungeon diving but the maps of the dungeon were plain enough and frankly, the dungeon itself unless she invested more than an hour into going into its depths was just not as efficent as cutting through some prostitution, gambling, and criminal organizations.

Though... Zeta had one thought that wouldn't go away. 'Are the gods truly working so hard to reduce crime? Or is there something else at play as they were hiding entirely too hard for normal criminals?'