Selling Drugs in the Dungeon should be a profitable business, no? Chapter 20 (Patreon)

“Why are we not moving in?! They are right there! Easy prey!” A voice hisses from the hiding spot above a rooftop, away from prying eyes and with a clear view towards a certain shop.

“If you wish to test your luck, then do go ahead, Kampe.” A heavier, powerful voice answers the hiss-like voice, the owner a towering man clad in bulky silver armor, a red cape with a yellow thunderbolt resting over his right shoulder.

Kampe grinds his yellowed teeth, sickly pale and skinny face turning to glare with venomous green eyes at the towering giant beside him. “The fuck you mean? Ya think I can’t kill the fuck my God ordered me to?” Pale green and messy hair spill all over the skinny and short man’s face as he talks, his whole body shaking and shivering as if experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

The towering suit of armor sighs deeply, like a man who has to deal with an annoying child, “He knows we are here, you fool.” His harsh words bring Kampe to a pause, pale green eyes flicking towards the shop and narrowing dangerously.

“As if.” Kampe sneers, trusting his honed instincts and sharp sense of danger over the words of a man hiding behind a suit of armor.

And his words prompt an uncaring shrug from the armored man, “Then go ahead and try your luck.” His gauntlet-clad hand waves forward, towards the shop before them, still as uncaring as before.

Kampe flicks his bloodshot eyes between the shop and the towering man in armor a few times before hissing, bony hands reaching towards the twin blades strapped behind his waists, “What kinda game are you fuckin’ playin’ at, Jupiter?”

The now named Jupiter sighs deeply, the sound coming off quite metallic due to the helmet cover his head, “Your God tasked you to kill the man who went toe to toe with the Black Dragon and survived. Erebus, who at least holds a modicum of intelligence compared to your God, tasked me instead with stopping you before you lose your life.”

Kampe snarls at having his God insulted, and having his strength looked down at the same time, “I am an assassin! I do not fight my targets directly! They all die before-”

“Did you not hear me when I said that he already knows we are here?”Jupiter cuts Kampe off with a slightly annoyed tone of voice, “You failed as an assassin way before you could even start.”

Veins visibly throb all over Kampe’s pale temples, his yellowed and deformed teeth gritted together, “And? Together we can still kill the fuck!”

“You’d very likely die before you can blink, then I’d be left doing the hard work, which will likely end in Orario being torn apart from our battle.”

“No… No I’d rather enjoy a good battle against this new and rising Hero, than pull some underhanded tricks like you lot are known to do.” Plus, he doubted he could do anything himself right now.

His eyes flicked to seven different rooftops, where seven different hidden forms lay, simply watching and observing.

One wrong movement, and he’d have the Knave herself before him. He does not favor his chances against both the Knave and the Sword at the same time.

Though the desire to fight both is there.

“Bah, you’re just a fuckin’ pussy!” Kampe sneers and draws one of his blades, the rooftop tiles cracking and splintering below his feet as he crouches low and bends forward, like a beast ready to pounce, “Let me show you how an assassin works-”

Woosh!

A sharp, near ear-piercing whistle followed by the sound of clothes and flesh being torn.

Jupiter turns his gaze down to Kampe, the skinny man himself staring wide-eyed at his torn open shoulder and the gash that nearly took off his entire right arm still wielding the dagger.

Then Jupiter snorts, “Told you so.” His snort turns into a hearty chuckle as he sends one last look at the shop down the street before turning around to leave.

Kampe hisses dangerously, yet still stands to follow after the hulking suit of armor, a dangerous glint within his bloodshot eyes.

“You’ll pay for this shit too, Jupiter.” The assassin growls beneath his breath, “Start watching your back from now on.”

Jupiter chuckles heartily, hands crossed behind his back.

“Why would I even watch my back against a weakling?”

                                                                                          ….

I breathe out and turn my attention away from the two departing presences outside and focus back on the Pill Furnace before me.

Whoever those two are, they didn’t mean well. Hell, I could smellthe fucking hostility radiating off of the weaker of the two.

As for the other presence… They felt strong. Insanely so. For a second, it felt like the Leviathan had suddenly appeared right beside my shop, but no… It’s a human.

Their presence also felt… familiar, but I can’t quite place where I felt it from. Familiar, but far more powerful, yet contained.

Whoever that presence is, they ain’t to be taken lightly.

“Did they leave?” I perk up and blink towards Hera, her arms crossed below her bust as she stands right beside me, a strange glint in her eyes.

“What?” Did she feel them too?

A tin smile spreads across her lips, “You don’t spend centuries around girls with insanely sharp senses and not catch some subtle hints on when they feel someone in their range, Riley.” She is quite observant.

And that makes me chuckle softly, “What’s so funny?”

I shake my head with a smile on my face, “Nothing.” I drawl out, then lock eyes with her, “I just like the fact that you pay attention.” Her cheeks flush faintly at my words.

But her gaze also does fall a tiny bit, “Of course I do.” She whispers softly, “It’s the only thing I can do.” I tilt my head, then reach out to grasp her hand.

She instantly gives it a squeeze and latches onto it, “You may be quite observant, but you are also quite blind, aren’t you?” I guess she only sees what she wants to see, huh?

Hera frowns and turns her nose up at me, “What do you mean by that?” She sniffs haughtily, which just makes her cute in my eyes.

I raise the hand in my hold to kiss her knuckles, “Is that all you truly do? Pay attention?” I raise an eyebrow at her, a clear challenge for her to prove me otherwise. “I’m sure the girls will have a lot to say if you were to say that to their faces.”

Hera sniffs, “Meteria will punch my jaws clear off.” Or try doing that, then have Alfia do it in her stead. Her Big Sister will surely take that duty upon herself with much pride.

“Not only her, I believe.” Her gaze leaves mine, which makes my smile grow some more, “I may not know them all personally, but one thing I know for sure is that they all love you. Deeply and unconditionally.”

“I’m sending them to their deaths.”

“Are you though?” I challenge again, hardening my voice just a bit, “Do you grant them powers and tell them to dive the Dungeon? To challenge the Three Great Beasts? To become Heroes?”

She doesn’t answer me, so I press forward, “Or do you just give them a home? Food, water, a bed, a roof to sleep under, and safety.”

“You give them everything they need to live, and more. You give them love.”

“A mother.”

Her breath hitches momentarily, which just pains me to see. I cannot even come close to fathom the kind of pure pain she has had to go through for entire centuries, just for a small wish to try and make things better for this world.

The Goddess before me sniffs, then turns her head in a way that tosses her long hair over her shoulder, slightly red eyes meeting mine, “I stopped seeing myself as that a long time ago.”

I snort and shrug, “Don’t think any of the girls have stopped though.” Hera clicks her tongue at me, then lightly punches my chest.

“Well, at least now I won’t have to keep on suffering for long.” She whispers softly, the fist resting on my chest opening up so to gently rest her palm over my heart, “Not with you around.”

Now I really feel like going out there and turning the Leviathan into an over-sized sushi roll and the Behemoth into the biggest motherfucking pig cooked over a fire known to man and God.

The Dragon comes later, cause now he can still fuck me up. And I don’t want another high-power beam to the face, thank you very much.

“Now,” Hera starts, breathing out to relax her shoulders, “Who was it that had you all tense back there?” I hum and tilt my head lightly.

“Can’t really put a name on them, but one of them was clearly hostile and tried to attack us.” And with the way his presence was quite faint to my senses, I presume they are a sort of assassin.

Though, from the knowledge Ning Guang has shared with me, it appears Sword Cultivators and their insanely sharp senses are basically the bane of all assassins.

“The other one… He felt strong, incredibly so, but also familiar.” Hera narrows her eyes at that.

“You haven’t been in Orario for long, and haven’t interacted with anyone else outside the girls of my Familia…” Her eyes slowly widen lightly as her words trail of, “But you also interacted with the Zeus Familia.”

Exactly, though I did not wish to point fingers and raise suspicions on just a feeling.

“I’m very familiar with Leonidas, Zald and Nemea, so it’s none of them.” Each person has a peculiar feeling to my senses, further enhanced by how strong they are and/or how good they are at controlling it, thus making it give a different feel than the usual one.

Hera sniffs, then sighs softly, “An assassin, huh? Means those Evilus fuckers are finally showing their mug again.” Evilus? That’s a familiar name. I think some of the girls told me about them.

“Some bad guys, I presume?” The Goddess snorts at my words.

“The worst of the lot. Scum that has been lurking around for centuries, causing disasters within Orario and the Dungeon just to hinder our progress in saving this damn world.” Of course there’s those kinds of morons here, because why wouldn’t there be some dumbasses that just want to see the world burn.

And Gods too, I presume.

Kinda surprised it ain’t Zeus’s fault, seeing how pretty much the whole bullshit the Greek Pantheon caused back in my past life mythology is caused by him and his desire to fuck anything that had holes.

“Guess I gotta prepare for some mean headaches down the line, eh?”

The Goddess gives me a look, then shrugs, “Considering that they will likely be gunning for you… Then yeah, prepare for some mean as fuck headaches.”

…

That’s because I made the Leviathan my bitch, isn’t it?

Still, they must be strong if they are confident enough to face someone who faced both the Leviathan and the Black Dragon, and survived.

...Or just stupid. Gotta consider that too.

“So…” I turn to look at Hera, who in turn looks at my Pill Furnace, “How does this bitch work?” Said ‘bitch’ slowly moved to face her, feet dragging against the wood of the floor quite loudly.

Goddess and Pill Furnace have a stare-down right before me, and for some reason I can feel the sheer amusement coming from Ning Guang of all people.

I just scratch my chin as I stare at the scene before me. Guess she’s still mad about having been scared shitless by my Pill Furnace charging at us, huh?

“It’s a bit complicated.” And I honestly don’t know how exactly it fully works, just that it does. “Basically, the energy I wield I used to fuel the fire, purify the medicinal ingredients, then condense and take in those medicinal properties within itself and amplify them depending on the potency of said energy.”

This, of course, is an enormously watered down version of it, and partially also my view on how it works.

Hera hums and stops staring at my Pill Furnace so to give me an intrigued look, “Mind showing me, big boy?”I’ll show her something else- Calm down, me.

I ignore the knowing smirk on Hera’s face as my face twitches, clear to me that she read my initial thoughts.

I can’t help it due to that revealing dress of hers, and with how inviting she looks.

So instead I just walk into the storage in the back to stare at the dozens of massive boxes strewn around, each one with tags on them, “Huh… They even bothered separating each ingredient?” I made a book for them with all the knowledge I could think off, but I didn’t think they’d go through it to separate each ingredient into a proper and easy to find place.

“That’s all Agnodice.” Of course. Gotta find a way to repay that wonderful woman which isn’t turning her daughter into a well mannered lady and not an ungrateful cunt.

I pause before deciding which Pill to make, “Does Meteria still have a big enough quantity of Pills for her sickness?” Hera gives me a soft smile and nod, making me relax.

I gave her enough for a month, if I remember right, so perhaps she’ll be fine for another week or two. Something to ask my adorable little gremlin when I see her again later.

“The boxes with the bottles you requested are those near the door.” The Goddess informs me, fishing out a small bottle that can hold at least ten pills inside of it from one of the large boxes near the door.

Okay, I have the ingredients and way to hold the Pills, so now I can go wild.

The Hera Familia girls still have an enormous supply of Healing Pills from when we went into the Dungeon, which luckily wasn’t obliterated when the Dragon attacked.

Preparing more will be a waste right now, plus I’d rather do them through order than just blindly prepare them.

But… I could make Healing Pills that are much weaker than a Tier One – maybe even call them a Tier 0 – and sell them to the civilian population for much less.

Cause I highly doubt this city has high levels of hygiene other than those living in wealthy homes.

Hence sicknesses are definitely rampant, even unknown ones like tumors and cancers. And Pills, despite their potency, can still heal all of that with ease.

Small or heavy sicknesses can be cleared off the street in just a few days as long as I keep the price for these weaker Pills affordable for civilians.

Problem is… How do I weaken the medicinal effects? Do I dilute it with some poison, or do I- Huh, that could work.

It might be difficult the first few times, and the Pills will come out at a lower grade than I’d like to, but practice is what I need. Especially after so long, and with a new furnace to boot.

“You gonna use so few ingredients?” Hera blinks at the handful of stalks of herbs in my hand, and I can’t help but smirk lightly at her.

“You’ll see.” I wink, then lead the way to the lone table in the large living room/alchemy room, where my mortar and pistil reside.

I swiftly take apart the herbs, making sure not to damage the roots and safely put them away just in case, then put the leaves of one herb inside the mortar and grind them to dust.

Then do so with another side of leaves, then the flowers.

I don’t even need to split them into usable portions since the Pill Furnace has its own compartments to just that.

Hera hops on the table beside me, long and fantastic legs crossing near hypnotically as her gaze remains fixed on me.

I raise an amused brow at her, “What?” I ask, still not stopping with grinding the remaining flower petals.

Her lips quirk upward, “Can’t I stare at you?” She’s so cute.

“You’re cute.” I say it out loud, making her cheeks flush and eyes narrow, “I like how affectionate you are and want to be.” Which is true. I am a sponge for affection and will gladly drink it all in.

Hera doesn’t say anything. Instead, she leans forward and grasps the collar of my robes, leaning in to to rest her soft lips against mine in a simple yet warm kiss that lasts just a few seconds.

She breaks the kiss with a soft and pleased hum, her hand releasing my collar to rub my neck, “I have centuries worth of backed-up affection to give, so be ready.” That I can imagine.

I release the mortar with one hand and move it to grasp her open and naked inner thigh, feeling the supple flesh beneath my rough fingers as the Goddess restrains a soft mewl, but openly shudders at the touch.

Then I pull back with a smile and pick up the ground ingredients, holding back a snort when Hera growls at me for turning around and not touching her more.

Still, she quickly recovers herself and jumps off the table, “So that’s enough for a single furnace?” She asks as my Furnace pops open, releasing a dense heat from within as it had already started warming up with anticipation.

I smirk at her question, “Nah, this is enough for at least five or six of them.” And now she’s openly gaping at me. How enjoyable it is to see someone utterly baffled by the sheer bullshit that is Alchemy.

“Wha- How?!” Her reaction is just priceless, “That shit is barely enough for even a potion! What the fuck?!” The Pill Furnace slams shut, then rumbles loudly.

I hum, then rest a hand on the heated metal. My Qi flows inside, and the heat swells as the Furnace rumbles loudly.

This is truly amazing. My previous faulty one could barely handle such heat, which is a must for purifying the ingredients and Pills.

A compartment within the Pill Furnace opens and discards some of the powders into the roaring heat and flames. The powders fuse with my Qi, are broken down, and the impurities are separated and collected at the bottom.

My Qi circles the furnace, slowly drawing closer and closer to the center, where the heat is greater. By doing so, the medicinal effects are amplified and further purified very slowly.

Too slow and it goes to waste, too fast and they just burn up.

My cycle isn’t perfect of course. Sometimes I go a bit too fast, other times a bit too slow, and it is all for me to experiment and find the right tempo during each level, with both me and my Pill Furnace memorizing it each time we find it.

The fantastic boons of having a smart Item Spirit in a Furnace.

There are nine cycles in total, each one closer to the center, and this time I’ve only found four of the perfect tempos. Quite good, if I do say so myself.

Once at the center, my Qi swells and forms into a large sphere, the powdered ingredients now having been fully absorbed and the impurities cleared up for the most part.

I go to split the large sphere of Qi apart, when suddenly a crazed idea comes into my head.

What if instead of breaking it apart to form a lot of Pills, I compress it down to form a single one?

Is that how one makes a Heavenly Grade Pill? One baptized by the Heavens themselves?

Nine perfect cycles, no impurities whatsoever, and all of the Qi compressed into a single minuscule Pill.

That has to be it, but I doubt I am capable of doing it just yet.

Especially since I need to do nine perfect cycles first.

I shake my head and proceed to split the ball of Qi so to let it form into Pills. One, then ten, then fifty, then one hundred, then one-hundred and twenty Pills in total.

Not bad, but… These are Tier One Pills, all of them. How vexing.

I momentarily scrunch up my nose, before I just… split each Pill in half, forming another Pill in the process, doubling them in the end, and halving the medicinal powers of each one.

Crazy idea, but it kinda worked. Huh… I actually can’t believe that worked.

The heat dies down and the Pill Furnace releases a burst of steam from it’s sides before it opens up, revealing nearly three-hundred Pills resting within it.

And they are all Sky Blue in terms of Grade, which is honestly fantastic as I’d rather not sell any Golden Pills. Those I’d rather keep for Meteria and Alfia.

But I doubt I can make Golden Grade Tier Zero Pills, as the medicinal potency and Qi needs to be quite dense.

“This is some bullshit…” Hera breathes out from right beside me, gaping at the sheer amount of Pills I made in a single furnace. “And you mean to tell me that you didn’t use all of the powders you just poured in to make all of this?”

I grin smugly at her, “Nope.” Her jaw hangs even lower, “Though, to be fair, these Pills are for civilians, so they are even weaker than the ones I gave your Familia. Had I made those ones, the result would have been half of these.” Which is actually the truth, hilariously enough.

Well, for now. Once I get better cycles, I can probably make a few dozen more Pills per furnace.

“What price should I sell these for? Something that is available for non-adventurer folks.” Hera blinks at my question, then cups her chin thoughtfully.

With her centuries of experience, I’m sure she can help quite a bit with setting the right prices for stuff like this.

“One-hundred Valis each, or per bottle.” She answers after just a few seconds, “As for the stronger Pills, you can either sell them per bottle or per furnace. I suggest the second one due to how little materials you use for each one.”

“Each furnace for one-hundred thousand Valis, and those that request it get a hundred plus Pills that are far better than whatever Dian Cecht pumps out for ten thousand Valis each.”

Huh, her idea actually isn’t that bad, because I can just write down the orders, the Familia, and how many furnaces how Pills they want.

Much easier to work with than counting every last bottle and Pill to make sure each order is right.

“Thank you, oh wonderful Goddess!” Said Goddess just snorts and swats my shoulder as I flip around to go and grab a box full of bottles.

“I saw you scrunched up your face while your Furnace was working.” Hera muses as I enter the back and grab one of the bottle filled boxes, “Did anything happen or- Hn? The fuck-” Bonk!“-Buhe!” Crash!

I pause and blink at that sound, then slowly lean back to peek through the doorway.

My eyes land on Hera, slumped on the ground like a starfish… Then flicks up to a frowning Meteria, a dented pan in her hands.

Did she just knock her Goddess the fuck out?

“Good morning?” Where did she even come from? I didn’t even sense her until now. How is this damn gremlin sneakier than a fucking assassin?!

“Good morning?” Said gremlin repeats, then flares her nostrils in a very adorable way, “You coulda given me a good morning with a morning quickie, ya damn reckless and handsome hunk!” And now she’s charging at me with an adorable battle cry.

Which gets muffled when I cover her face with my hand and keep her at arms distance, her short arms swinging the dented pan left and right to try and get me.

And all of that movement of course makes her chest go quite wild. I don’t even know where to look.

“I told you that we shouldn’t have let her go ahead of us.” A voice speaks up, and I look up just in time to see Kirin walk in, an amused gaze in her eyes as she stares down at her probably knocked out Goddess.

Juno, Alfia, Atalanta and Calydonia walk in right after Kirin, and my eyebrows rise when Zald, Leonidas and even Nemea come into view behind them. “Where the fuck did she even hide that damn pan?” Nemea wonders aloud as his huge form bends down to step through the doorway.

Juno shrugs while crossing her arms, “Don’t question what Meteria does, because we don’t know how to answer.” Nemea looks even more confused now, “Morning, Riley. How are you feeling?”

I blink, then smile and give them a thumbs up while keeping the gremlin at bay.

Nemea snorts, “Takes a fucking beam to the face from the Black Dragon itself, gets back up in a few days. The hell are you made of?”

“Pure handsomeness, I guess.” I shrug with a grin, “Guess the Dragon didn’t want to ruin this handsome mug of mine.”

“I’m gonna punch you in the face.”

“Round two?”

“Oh you know it. And this time the Dungeon ain’t around to bitch at us.”

“The city is.” Zald points out.

“Fuck the city.” Of course. Battle maniac much, huh?

I snort, then look down at the pouting gremlin, “Hope I didn’t worry you all by disappearing.” I say, feeling a bit sorry for having left Meteria alone in my bed. I should have left a letter or something.

Kirin smiles softly at me, “Lady Hera left a letter for us, that’s how we knew to come here.”

“We were planning on having a meeting regarding the Three Great Beasts- Mainly the Behemoth.” Leonidas follows up, and I motion them towards the table and to take a seat, “It’s good that you are awake, as I’d like to have your help too. And your input.”

I hum, “With the bullshit both the Leviathan and the Dragon have pulled, the Behemoth just had to join the fray too.” The thing is making a beeline for Orario, so taking it down is a must and cannot be put off.

“We have some time to fully prepare, and discuss our strategy.” Zald says as he takes a seat, a light frown on his face, “The Dragon is quelled, and the Leviathan cannot reach us from the ocean. We either change the Behemoth’s course… Or we kill it, once and for all.”

I take a seat of my own and hold back a smile when Meteria sits herself down on my lap – is Hera still knocked out on the floor?– and hum softly, “What are its main strengths?” I remember something about poison or something.

“Poison strong enough to dissolve a body on touch.” Nemea grunts out, arms crossed before his scarred chest, “Even I, with my defenses, do not fancy taking that poison on and surviving for long.”

“Do not forget its horrifying defense too.” Calydonia chimes in, “Its own scales are no joke.”

Great defenses, dangerously powerful poison, but slow walking speed. “How big is it?” I ask curiously.

“Bigger than the Black Dragon.” Leonidas answers me, “The fucker is bigger than a mountain.” So that makes it a big target too.

But I bet it also has a hidden trump card like the Leviathan. “Remember what the Leviathan did when we pushed it into a corner?” I point out, making all of their eyes widen in realization, “I bet the Behemoth has a trump card like that too.”

“Fuck, I didn’t think of that…” Juno hisses out, a heavy frown on her face.

I tap my fingers on the table before me. Its poison will simply erase the army we could throw at it, which will just end up with us throwing away lives.

We need to hit it hard, in the same place, and kill it quickly. Before it can use its Qi and do something horrifying.

“I think I have a plan.” I speak up, drawing their attention to me, “First of all, I can make two types of Pills that can help us withstand its poison. One is a powerful Healing Pill-” A Golden Grade Tier One Pill, to be precise, “-and the other is a powerful detox Pill. With both of them, its poison shouldn’t just erase us.”

“Second, how many of us here have powerful hitting attacks or magic spells?” I have my ‘Via Lactea’, which managed to hurt even the Black Dragon, and I remember Zald has that flame-like attack and Leonidas that spear-like attack made of lightning.

“You want to hit it hard with everything we got, huh?” Juno instantly sees through my plan, “Alfia has her single chant spell that hits hard. Both Atalanta and Calydonia can shoot arrows that can hurt even Nemea. Kirin can probably release a powerful attack-” I don’t miss the light wince from said woman,“-And I am more of a support type despite my high Level.”

So not a lot of heavy hitters, but… It should still work. “I still have to make those Pills that will make us quite a bit stronger.” Those several body tempering Pills that can only be taken once, but will give quite a big boost to our physical strength. Speaking of which, I turn to give the three guys a look, “I should also give you three some Impurity Cleansing Pills.”

They look confused at my words, but the girls all shudder as one, which make them quite a bit nervous.

And I do not help at all, since I am giving them quite the evil grin.

“But yeah, my main plan is to hit it hard and fast. It’s not really the best, but well…” I shrug, not really knowing what else we could do to give us an edge in the fight.

Leonidas and Zald share a quick look, then nod to each other once they came to a silent agreement. “There is something we can do.” I raise a brow and cuddle Meteria closer as I lean forward, resting my chin on her shoulder.

“Zald can grow stronger by eating the flesh of monsters, so if we can tear off a piece of the Behemoth and he can gain an immense growth in strength, then maybe that’s how we can win.”

First of all- Ew. Second of all, that… might actually work. After all, that is an ancient beast, and even in Cultivation Stories there’s something like growing a lot stronger by eating the flesh of a Dragon or something of that sort.

Still… “Then I need to prepare a powerful detox Pill just for you, in case the fucker’s flesh is insanely poisonous.” Zald nods thankfully my way. I’d rather not risk him dying or getting crippled by that poison right after eating the Behemoth’s flesh.

“Will it be just us going against the Behemoth, or will the rest of the Zeus Familia join up with the whole of the Hera Familia?” I ask curiously, and Leonidas instantly shakes his head.

“I’d rather it be just those within this room- Minus little Meteria, of course.” Yeah, because she’d one-shot the Behemoth by her lonesome. “I don’t want to give Maxim not even a shred of the glory that will come from felling the Behemoth.”

“Plus, it’s not like he’ll even be useful in the fight.” Kirin chimes in with a bored drawl, “When it comes to fighting other Adventurers, he truly is unmatched and the strongest. But against monsters? His Skill will be useless.”

Leonidas nods, “And I don’t even know what Socrates can do. Never seen the guy fight, but he is clearly a Mage.” Yeah, the slimy old man that gives me a bad feeling.

Like he is constantly plotting some shit for some reason.

“And Bellerophon is like the bad copy of the fast lass in the Hera Familia.” Nemea grunts out with a sneer, referring to Bellerophon and I think Brynhildr, “He’s fast, but not as fast as her, and he doesn’t even boast the same attack power as her. He’s mostly Maxim’s fill-in.” The hell does he mean by that last part?

“What about the asshole that hurt Brynhildr?” I ask, still wanting to use Bladey on that fucker. “Wasn’t he an Executive?” I just want him to show up so I can kick his ass.

Towards the Behemoth, preferably.

Everyone sneers at the mentions of the guy, while Kirin looks like she wants to choke someone. Hell, even Zald looks disgusted.

“Ignore the bastard. He’s been losing himself to women and alcohol for the past year now.” Great, so he got even worse.

Whatever, he can fuck off then.

“Guess it’ll be just us, then.” I don’t favor our chances, and I will have to take a quick trip into the Dungeon so to stock up on Qi Strands and maybe upgrade my Qi Veins.

The stronger I am, the better. “How much time do we have before it gets too close?”

A few looks are shared before I receive my answer, “Two months.”

Two months, huh? I can prepare anything within just a few days, preferably make all the Body Tempering Pills at the Golden Grade too, and maybe even fully strengthen my Qi Veins, despite the large cost that will bring.

Guess I’ll need some Qi Gathering Pills too, Golden Grade of course, and use them while in the Dungeon. With those, it shouldn’t take too long for me to stock up on Qi Strands and fully upgrade my Qi Veins.

Outside of that, I don’t think there is much else I can do.

“We should have brought some wine for us all to share.” Zald chuckles softly, and I lean back with a smile.

“Wouldn’t it be better to share it once we make history?” I propose, making their eyes light up at my positive remark.

“Now that is a fine alternative I can get behind.” Leonidas hums with a smile, “We shall drink to our victory… And to our Gods and our Ancestors.”

I glance towards the still downed Goddess, who now is most definitely faking being knocked out.

The girls do the same thing, before they smile and nod towards Leonidas.

“To our Gods and our Ancestors.”

The Goddess twitches, and I hold back a smile and the desire to go ‘Told you that they love you!’ right in front of everyone.

But I shall spare her this time.

Instead, I just wrap my arms around Meteria’s waist and feel her melt against me.

I can hear her rapid heartbeat, and I can feel that wrong mass that is constantly trying to press down upon her lungs and heart.

I move one of my hands to reach out and grasp Alfia’s gloved hand. Her cheeks flush and a smile blooms on her beautiful face from the action.

I still got a lot to do. I have to heal both of them, and…

I look towards Kirin, which instantly makes her look away from me and act like she wasn’t staring at us.

I gotta heal her too.

Quite the burdens on my shoulder and heart, but- Meteria shuffles in place, then turns her head to place her lips close to one of my ears, “I love you.”

But this makes it all worth it.

                                                                                xxxXXXxxx

“Land Walker, cease thy advance.”

“Sky Sovereign… Mother rebukes you.”

“Freedom, before Mother.”

“Disappointment.”

“Mother…Is Jailer. Us, prisoners. Slaves.”

“Mother, Creator. Sky Sovereign, ungrateful.

“Land Walker, advance, ends with Death.”

“Sky Sovereign, me, bringer of Death.”

“No. Sword, brings Death.”

“Sky Sovereign, coward.”

A lone red eye opens to a world bathed in darkness, with an ocean of stars hanging above, casting a light brilliance upon the land below.

A long breath leaves the Dragon’s jaws, causing the air to rumble loudly as its gaze falls upon the city not far from its nest.

“Fated Slayer, has come.”

“Land Walker, shall fall to Men.”

“Ocean Nightmare, shall fall to Men.”

“Sky Sovereign… shall fall to Sword.”

A lone claw rises to brush against a scar covering its destroyed eye.

Long has it waited for a challenge, it can wait longer for that challenge to grow stronger.

Then, they shall battle.

It shall fall.

And Mother will rise.

A.N. So so sorry for the long wait on another update. I’ve been going around getting medical check ups due to liver problems, so… yeah.

Anyway, got some news for y’all!

First, I’m nearly done plotting the whole of Drugs story, and I think it will end in twenty chapters maybe. Maybe more, if I think of something to extend it.

Second, I got more 3 or 4 chapters of Legacy incoming, and one of Beating Hearts, all nearly done being written.

Third… I’m thinking of posting the ‘I, Human’ Rewrite here. It’s a fic I failed and would love to give another chance. What do y’all think?

Either way, hope y’all enjoyed this chappy, which marks the start of the ‘Great Beast Hunting’ Arc!

Toodles!