Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka - Volume 10 CHAPTER 1 BEFORE THE STORM

A bright light rouses me out of my light sleep, drawing my consciousness awake.

Feeling the morning sunlight, I open my eyes.
Familiar sights fill my blurry field of view: crystals that I couldn’t bring myself to sell and a jar of
fruit seeds, a desk and chair adorned with various things taken from the Dungeon, a few books and an
exhausted grimoire on a wooden shelf, a half-open remodeled closet storing weapons and armor.
This is my room.
My personal space inside Hestia Familia’s home.
“……”
Not only did I skip my usual morning training, but according to the clock on the wall it’s almost time
for breakfast.
As I begin to rise, the rest of the bed comes into view. I look at the spot beside me.
Nothing. No one is there.
Just a hollow, empty feeling and wrinkled white sheets.
I’m looking for a girl who’s no longer here. I turn away and get up.
After changing out of my sleepwear, I head out the door. The hallway is jarringly silent. No matter
how many times I look out the windows over the central garden, I don’t hear that playful voice. Has our
home always been this quiet?
The warm sunlight slanting in through the windows leaves no doubt in my mind that summer has
arrived as I make my way from the third floor down to the first.
“Morning…”
The rest of the familia is there to greet me in the dining room.
“Yo.”
“Good morning.”
Welf and Lilly smile as I make my late entrance. I have a feeling they’re trying to be cheerful for my
sake.
Mikoto and Haruhime in her maid outfit notice me as well. “Good morning,” they say with heavy
smiles.
A fragrant aroma is wafting in from the kitchen. Mikoto probably made her Far East–style fried eggs
this morning.
I think to myself that they probably taste sweet as a feeling of déjà vu hits me.
“It’s unusual for you to sleep in.”
“Sorry…”
“Mr. Welf isn’t blaming you. Breakfast is almost ready, so please wait a few moments, Mr. Bell.”
“Okay…Um, where’s our goddess?”
“Lady Hestia said she had an errand to attend to before going to her part-time job, so she left early this

morning, Sir Bell.”
“Yes, and she was stuffing Jyaga Maru Kun into her mouth as fast as she could…”
Welf, Lilly, Mikoto, and Haruhime are all talking like nothing’s changed…but something is different.
Like gears that aren’t lining up right…as though one part is missing, leaving the rest spinning around
uselessly.
Everyone’s a bit off.
Hardly any conversation is going on. It’s bright and sunny outside, but the mood doesn’t match that at
all.
Everyone looks lost, or maybe just absentminded as they prepare for breakfast.
Haruhime has it the worst.
Instead of her usual radiance and cheer, she’s filled with gloom, and her fox ears and thick tail hang
limply.
Her eyes twinge with worry as she works her way around the table, setting out plates.
“…Lady Haruhime.”
“Ah…What is it, Miss Mikoto?”
“There’s, just, one too many plates…”
Mikoto grimaces as she points it out. Haruhime’s shoulders jump when she notices.
“M-my apologies!” She quickly clears the extra set.
She had absentmindedly put it where a girl had always sat until just a little while ago.
A girl who always wore an innocent, pure smile…a vouivre girl.
Lilly, Welf, and I saw it happen but couldn’t say a word.
“Let’s eat…”
Everyone takes a seat at the table.
Once the meal begins, only the sounds of forks on plates and quiet chewing fill the air.
Two days have passed since the Guild issued a secret mission for us.
The events that took place in an unexplored frontier region on the twentieth floor of the Dungeon—in a
Xenos Hidden Village—left a dark cloud over Hestia Familia.
Xenos. Monsters who can talk.
They possess a great deal of intelligence and self-awareness, despite being beasts, and are shunned by
both people and the average monster.
A black-robed mage called Fels—who claims to be the shadow of the Sage—said that the Xenos all
share a desire to walk on the surface and interact with people. This incredibly difficult goal uniting them
originates from their dreams of their own past lives, dreams they all have.
Shocking was not enough to describe this string of revelations.
There were so many that it almost seemed better to give up on thinking at all.
But right now, the real reason that we’re brooding so much is…much simpler.
Our parting from Wiene.
For a time we sheltered and protected the young vouivre girl, but in the end we entrusted her to her
fellow Xenos. Despite their wishes, there’s currently no place for monsters on the surface. In the past, the
people had claimed this realm for themselves by seizing land from monsters. The two could never
coexist.
Before we lost everything, there was no choice but to go our separate ways, for Wiene’s own safety.
In fact, Fels also said that there are hunters lurking in Orario who will stop at nothing to capture a
Xenos. I already told Fels about the god Ikelos and how he sought me out to ask about a talking vouivre.

Apparently there’s nothing we can do about it now.
We feel powerless, so lost and lonely it’s like a part of us is missing.
Those emotions are refusing to let go.
“……”
I’m not really surprised that conversation never picked up. Welf and Lilly did their best to find a topic,
but nothing really stuck.
It’s been like this ever since we finished the mission and returned from the Dungeon early yesterday
morning.
My heart cringes every time I remember the look on her face at the end, tears running down her cheeks.
Looking up, I notice that Welf and the others are staring at the open spot next to me…where Wiene
once sat.
It’s empty.
It feels like a dream that someone so full of life was there not long ago.
Everyone’s looking for her, not just me.
It’s hard to believe that the absence of one girl could leave all of us so downtrodden—Haruhime,
Mikoto, Welf, and even Lilly.
Though amid the sadness…there is a silver lining. We know the moments where we felt like a family
weren’t a lie.
Even if that girl was a monster, different from people like us.
“…Bell?”
I’m on my way out of the dining room after breakfast when Welf calls my name.
“I think I’ll…go to the Dungeon for a bit.” I pause for a moment to answer.
Glancing over my shoulder, not only Welf but Lilly, Mikoto, and Haruhime all look at me with
concern.
I put on my most reassuring smile. “It’ll be fine. I’m planning on coming back right away.”
There’s something I need to know.
If I’m going to continue being an adventurer in Orario…I can’t keep on without confirming something.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes…”
I answer as calmly as I can before opening the door and exiting the dining room. I make a quick stop at
my room to grab equipment before I leave our home in Hearthstone Manor.
“……”
There isn’t a single cloud in the sunny blue sky.
The perfectly aligned paving stones of the street sparkle in the sun’s rays. The warm path is the only
thing I see as I trudge through the street, head downcast. I don’t notice the rest for a while.
Sounds of horse-drawn taxis. Townspeople going about their business. The noises that fill the city
every day are still here, unchanged.
Yet I make no sound as muscle memory leads me along the route to the white tower stretching toward
the heavens: Babel.
“Bell.”
“Oh…Syr.”
A voice breaks through the din as I travel down West Main Street.
Tap, tap. Seeing me pass by, Syr comes down the steps from The Benevolent Mistress’s front entrance
and approaches.

“Good morning. I made a lunch for you again today, so if you’d like…Bell?”
Syr holds up a basket full of food with a big smile on her face, but her words trail off as she leans in
for a closer look at my face.
Her eyebrows arch in concern; her silver hair swishes around her shoulders.
“Did…something happen? You look really pale…”
“…!”
Either Syr is amazing at reading people, or my thoughts have made themselves too obvious on my face.
Whichever it is, I have to reassure her right away so she doesn’t worry.
“No, I’m fine. Just overslept a little this morning…”
“…I…see.”
“And, well, I won’t be spending much time in the Dungeon today. So, about the lunch…Um, sorry.”
I can’t accept this basket. Doing something else pathetic would only make her worry more. Thinking
this, I promptly refuse today’s offer of lunch.
I quickly force a rather unconvincing smile, and as I start to string together a genuine apology…she
stares intently at me and then takes a step closer.
“Huh?”
Now she’s right in front of me, leaving barely any space between us.
I can detect a pleasant whiff of her soap, which brings a blush to my face as Syr points her finger
directly between my eyes.
“Bell will cheer uuup, Bell will cheer uuuuup.”
“……”
…She starts twirling her little finger around and around.
“Bell will smiiiile.”
“…Um, Syr?”
“Yay!”
“Wha—!”
She finishes with a tap on the tip of my nose, and I let a yelp slip.
I blink several times in surprise as Syr beams with joy.
“Magic words to make you feel better…I do it all the time for the kids at the orphanage, too, you
know?”
She leans in close enough to whisper into my ear as though sharing a secret. That was the last thing I
was expecting to hear…but even more surprising, my faces relaxes and I start smiling a bit, too.
It’s a natural expression, probably one that I’ve forgotten how to make during the last few days.

And I do feel a little better, I think, thanks to this cheerful girl.
“…Thank you, Syr. I’ll be on my way.”
“Of course. Take care.”
Grateful that she didn’t press any further, I leave Syr behind, feeling bad that I couldn’t say more.
“Chalky-hair blockhead! If you don’t eat Syr’s lunch, we’re the ones who have to take care of it,
meow…!”
“As troubling as it is…the little adventurer didn’t look himself today.”
“I’ve never seen him so down in the dumps before, meow.”
Ahnya, Runoa, and Chloe watched the conversation on the street from one of The Benevolent
Mistress’s windows and chatted among themselves after the boy left.
Sob…! The human Runoa turned to look over her shoulder as Ahnya, standing next to her, did her best
to hold back tears.
“Are you worried, too, Lyu?”
“No, I…”
Lyu, who had also spied on Syr and Bell with her coworkers, was about to dismiss their concern when
she stopped herself.
“…Actually, yes. This does worry me.”
She and the Amazon Aisha had accompanied the boy down to the eighteenth floor five days prior. Lyu
gave an honest answer as memories of his strange behavior came to mind.
Just like Syr outside, she watched the boy’s retreating form.

Sunlight filled the city streets.
Summer had arrived on the mainland, each day warmer than the last. Orario was no exception,
meaning that most people out and about were wearing short sleeves and other light clothing to stay cool.
As for the adventurers on their way to the Dungeon, they were fully equipped with battle cloth and
plate armor as always. The metal adorning their bodies glinted as they moved about the city. Animal
people and dwarves wearing thick body armor had to squint to keep sweat out of their eyes. It would be
no laughing matter if one of them wound up dying because the heat outside drove them to wear less armor.
Adventurers walked a little faster than normal as they entered Central Park, knowing that they would be
safe from the fiery sun inside the Dungeon.
As Bell was joining their ranks on the way to the Dungeon…
“Hello. I hate to do this, but is there any chance I could speak with Ganesha?”
Hestia, faint traces of sweat on her skin, reached a giant statue depicting a man wearing an elephant
mask that stood outside another familia’s home.
“I don’t have an appointment or anything, so I know this is asking a lot, but…”
At this request from a goddess even smaller than themselves, the animal person and dwarf standing
guard at the front gate exchanged glances.
The location was in the southwest section of Orario, close to the city’s flea market. The spacious
property was separated from the rest of the city by a tall white fence. In the center was an incredibly
bizarre statue of a giant man wearing an elephant mask sitting with his arms and legs crossed.
This was Ganesha Familia’s home, Iam Ganesha.

The towering statue, or rather building, was so oversized that taking in the whole thing hurt people’s
necks. The awe-inspiring structure was famous for the story that the slightly eccentric god residing there
spent his familia’s entire savings to pay for its construction. It ranked alongside Babel and Orario’s
shopping district as a must-see location for tourists visiting the city.
Sticking out like a sore thumb, as always, Hestia thought as she beheld the unusual building that
served as Ganesha Familia’s home. “Please wait here,” the animal person guard said before heading to
the compound. Hestia was grateful for his polite reception even though she, the deity of another familia,
had personally come to visit. She watched Ganesha’s follower disappear into the statue’s groin—the
building’s main entrance.
“If Lord Ganesha could just do something about those incomprehensible whims of his, then we
could…Arrgh!”
“Ahh, I’m sure you guys have it rough.”
Hestia lent a compassionate ear to the dwarf’s complaints, but it wasn’t long before the young animal
person returned to the front gate.
“Lord Ganesha is currently in the backyard. He says he doesn’t mind if you come on your own.”
“Oh, thanks.”
The goddess offered a quick thanks to the guards as they opened the gate and she passed through.
She thought the elephant-faced god was being a little too careless at first, but then decided that
Ganesha must trust her enough to allow it. Feeling a little more positive about her visit, she made her way
around the giant statue’s base toward the backyard.
The grounds of Iam Ganesha were grassy fields—or maybe a large open pasture. If it weren’t for the
merchants’ loud cries calling from the nearby flea market, Hestia could have forgotten she was in the
middle of a sprawling metropolis. She noticed from the corner of her eye several stone stables the size of
small factories as she approached the rear courtyard.
“Whoa!”
The goddess flinched as soon as she rounded the statue’s knee.
The calm, rolling plains were interrupted by a metal fence, the bars glinting in the direct sunlight. Each
shaft was thicker than Hestia’s torso and possibly made from mythril or perhaps Damascus steel, a foreign
material used to forge weapons, or even adamantite. At any rate, each thick rod had been driven straight
into the ground and stood up like a post. Fully armed adventurers stood at attention on both sides,
continuously monitoring the grounds. The air was thick with tension.
Several adventurers, most likely tamers, were on the other side of the fence with monsters—some in
the process of being tamed—issuing their commands.
“D-don’t see this every day…”
An aquatic horse known as a kelpie was on a rampage, its beautiful blue mane whipping in the air.
Three almalosaurs swung their bludgeoning tails back and forth and attacked with the spikes protruding
from their hide. The awe-inspiring tamers looked equally impressive as they faced terrifying monsters
from below the lower levels of the Dungeon with whips, bending the beasts to their will by force.
Hestia had heard somewhere that Ganesha Familia alone had legal permission to not only keep live
monsters for the Monsterphilia but to also extract monsters from the Dungeon and house them in the city
proper.
If the Guild’s information was accurate, it was also Orario’s largest familia in terms of membership.
With its many first-tier adventurers and high average Level, it was safe to say that Ganesha Familia
was among Orario’s best. They possessed an S Rank and were worthy of being mentioned alongside Loki
Familia and Freya Familia.

Also known as “Orario’s Peacekeepers,” the sheer size and strength of the familia was probably the
main reason why the Guild allowed them to keep monsters in the first place.
God of the Masses, eh…?
Ganesha Familia maintained close ties with the Guild and had members stationed at all of Orario’s
gates to help preserve the peace. Average citizens held them in high esteem.
Due to this great level of trust, the people of Orario still felt safe despite the monsters housed inside
the city. Everything was possible because it was Ganesha Familia, renowned for its accomplishments.
For several minutes, Hestia was transfixed by the sight of the tamers engaging the monsters one-on-one
before she remembered why she had come in the first place. She began scanning her surroundings.
Her first thought was to ask one of the adventurers keeping watch near the fence, but then she heard a
shout.
“I am Ganesha!! Ergo, do not snap your teeth at me, monster!”
Found him.
The ridiculously loud masculine voice led her right to the deity.
He wore an elephant mask and stood inside the fence, staring down a monster as he cautiously
approached it. The infant dragon before him had been fitted with a magic item, a plate at the base of its
neck—evidently it had been tamed. Seeing a tamer at the god’s side, the dragon didn’t lash out at once but
instead eyed Ganesha, watching his every move.
“Nothing to be scared of. Nothing at all!”
“……”
“It’s not scary, not scary—that’s a good dragon! Who’s a good dragon?”
Ganesha wrapped his arms around the towering dragon’s chest the moment he was within reach and
started scratching the creature’s neck and shoulders as though he were playing with a dog.
“RROOOOAAARRRR!”
Without warning, the infant dragon’s fangs flashed in the sunlight as its open jaws sped toward the
elephant mask.
“Whoooa!”
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“How many times have I told you not to do anything stupid?!”
Roll, roll, roll! Ganesha managed to jump away in the nick of time, but he lost his balance in the
process and tumbled through the pasture. At the same time, his followers shouted all kinds of reprimands
as they rushed in to help. The tamers immediately stepped in to calm the raging infant dragon.
Hestia watched the scene unfold, dumbstruck.
“Ganesha, avoiding disaster by a hair!!…Whew, thought I was a goner.”
“So tell me, does that happen a lot, Ganesha?”
“Oh? If it isn’t Hestia! You were here?!”
Ganesha had rolled all the way to the fence. Sounds of battle ringing in her ears, a slightly perturbed
Hestia looked down at the elephant-masked god at her feet. Ganesha, fit and muscular, sprang to his feet
the moment he saw her. With an “alley-oop,” he grabbed hold of the metallic fence and vaulted over the
top.
Landing right next to Hestia, he immediately struck one of his strange poses.
“Welcome to my abode! And to answer your question, I’m out here whenever I have a spare moment!”
“Putting your life at risk to play with monsters?”
“To find the meaning of true friendship!”
Ganesha flashed a needlessly pleasant smile, displaying his shining white teeth. Hestia could only

sigh.
Without any further small talk, she got right to the point of her visit.
“So, I hear you know about the Xenos?”
“……”
As Hestia broached the topic, Ganesha’s comical demeanor instantly disappeared, and his mouth
snapped shut.
The expression beneath his mask—most likely—became gravely serious. “We need privacy,” he said,
turning his back to her.
Ordering his guards to stay behind, Ganesha led Hestia to a wooded area close to the white fence at
the edge of the compound. Alone, the two gods started talking.
“You know about the monsters who possess intelligence?”
“That’s right. Straight from Ouranos’s mouth, to boot.”
Ouranos. Hearing that name connected all the dots for Ganesha. He had no further questions.
Just as Bell and the rest of the familia had discovered the Xenos on their secret mission, Hestia had
learned about Wiene and her kind from the deity in charge of the Guild, Ouranos.
Not only that, but the majestic deity had informed her of his actions and that Ganesha was in the fold.
“It was a shock. Not just the fact that you’re working with Ouranos but the truth behind the
Monsterphilia, too.”
“When I was first approached…When Ouranos first told me, I didn’t believe my ears.”
Ganesha then proceeded to explain how he came to understand Ouranos’s will, as well as how he had
been placed in charge of the Monsterphilia—a festival with the purpose of not just simply putting
monsters on display but promoting friendship with them and encouraging the birth of monsterphiles.
Hestia marveled at the completely unfamiliar gravitas in Ganesha’s eyes as he brought her up to speed.
“Did you believe him? What Ouranos told you?”
“Well, I had a chance to meet one of them on a separate occasion. It was a goblin, wearing a red hat…
I couldn’t turn a blind eye to one with such a fluent command of language.”
Apparently, Ganesha had been at a loss as to how to react when Fels smuggled the small-bodied
Xenos out of the Dungeon to meet him in person. Hestia and the others had had much the same reaction to
Wiene.
After that, Ganesha went along with everything.
With a Xenos present, he accepted what he’d seen firsthand and decided to cooperate with Ouranos’s
proposal—to organize the Monsterphilia.
“…Have you told your children?”
“Only a very select few. You may think it laughable that I would hide something from the children,
but…my familia is very much in the dark.”
The circumstances called for it. Preventing the worst possible outcome required staunching the flow of
information as much as possible. The masses would, no doubt, become incredibly apprehensive or even
violent if they learned the truth.
Even now, the truth hurt.
Ganesha gazed at the tamers and adventurers on the other side of the fence.
“We have permission to keep approved monsters in captivity…We do it under the pretext that our main
purpose is to study their habits and tendencies as well as collect information to assist adventurers in the
Dungeon.”
“That’s what your children think they’re doing as well, isn’t it…?”
In truth, they were carrying out that goal, too.

The Guild had received from them detailed and valuable information about the weaknesses and
characteristics of specific monsters, which they archived and currently used to aid adventurers putting
their lives on the line in the Dungeon. Even Royman Mardeel, the most powerful person in the Guild,
recognized the value of their work and continued to support them.
The true objective of eventually establishing a friendly relationship with monsters was still a secret.
What’s more, no one had any reason to suspect it.
“What about yours, Hestia?”
“They’re the reason I know in the first place…Bell and everyone knows.”
Hestia explained how everything began with Wiene’s arrival and her familia’s decision to protect the
young monster girl, sharing information with one of the few others who knew the truth.
She also told her familia about her conversation with Ouranos while they were away on their mission.
She was aware of everything they had learned at one of the Xenos’s Hidden Villages.
The only thing she left out was Ouranos’s will—his belief that Bell and her familia had the potential to
become the bridge between monsters and people.
“What do you plan to do, Hestia?”
“…My children are more important to me than anything.”
Protect Bell and the others. Be with them. That was Hestia’s sincerest will.
That, and—.
“—If my children have decided on something, then I’ll cheer them on and do everything I can to help.
If they want to save the Xenos, then I’ll lend them a hand.”
“I see…”
“I won’t give orders as a goddess or force anything on them.”
Hestia’s decision hadn’t changed since the moment she engraved her Blessing into Bell’s back—it was
here that she revealed her own will.
“This is their story, their path.”
She would let them decide, assist them when she could, and watch over them.
Hestia continued, “…I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, though.”
Confronted with Ganesha’s questioning gaze from beneath his mask, Hestia averted her eyes and let
her honest concerns surface.
What would the Xenos’s presence bring to Orario, to the world as a whole?
Hestia knew it was risky to attempt to realize the absurd vision of making peace with monsters, and
yet she could still see a fleeting image of the vouivre girl’s teary eyes in the back of her mind. Caught in a
quandary, Hestia gazed out over the pasture.
Wounded tamers affixed chains to newly tamed monsters beneath a bright blue sky.
“…Ganesha, how do you feel about all this? What do you think is going to happen?”
“To be blunt, I don’t know.”
“I figured as much…”
Ganesha gave an honest answer as he followed Hestia’s gaze out over the grounds.
The goddess sighed as the two of them watched a tamer instruct a monster to walk by hitting its hide.
“However.”
“?”
“If these Xenos—no, monsters in general—truly desire peace and not bloodshed…”
Ganesha turned to face Hestia.
“Then I will cease to be the ‘God of the Masses’—and become ‘Neo Ganesha, God of All Beings’ for
people and monsters!!” he declared, as if to drive away the gloom threatening to settle in.

Flashing a smile, the deity confidently looked to the sky and puffed out his chest as Hestia watched in
amazement…until her lips started to curl upward.
“…This is the first time I’ve ever thought you were cool, Ganesha.”
“That’s because…I am Ganesha!”
Hestia let herself laugh at his confident boast.

A wide array of maps covered every speck of open space on each wall.
In addition to being completely wallpapered with diagrams of terrestrial and marine topography, the
room was filled with interesting trinkets and unusual items, many of which were rarely seen in Orario.
Several plants more suited for an arid desert, as well as an impressive collection of shells and pearls,
decorated the furniture and tables. A stand of well-worn traveler’s hats, each decorated with a feather,
stood out among the clutter.
A man and a woman sat facing each other over a desk in a room fit for a true world traveler.
“Failure, huh…That’s not good.”
The god Hermes sat on a chair with his elbows planted on the desk, fiddling with a sand dial as he
spoke.
The gorgeous woman, who sat stiff as a board on the other side of the desk, was Asfi.
She had come to her god’s private quarters in Hermes Familia’s home to report the results of her most
recent assignment.
“I have no excuse. After our targets retreated, my subordinates and I remained in the area until earlier
today in hopes of finding new leads, but…it’s entirely my fault that we allowed them to escape.”
“Come now, I’m not blaming you.”
Asfi’s face had steadily lost color during her report and subsequent apology, but Hermes waved it off,
indicating that she shouldn’t worry about it.
The two of them were discussing the failed plan to track Ikelos Familia.
The Guild—or rather Ouranos—had issued Bell and Hestia Familia a mission: to journey to a Xenos
Hidden Village. The true purpose was to use them as bait to draw out Ikelos Familia’s hunters, then it
was up to a group of Hermes Familia adventurers under Asfi’s command to trail them. Their goal was to
locate the hunters’ undiscovered home base, where they held captured Xenos until they could be smuggled
and sold on the black market.
However, Ikelos Familia had realized they were being followed in the Dungeon and broke off their
pursuit of Bell’s party to make their own escape. Asfi’s mission ended in failure.
“But they prevented you, Perseus herself, from completing your task…Tell me, what did you think of
them? The targets.”
“…Rumored connections to the Evils notwithstanding, the entire group seems to be a congregation of
brutes and thugs. Especially their leader, a man wearing goggles…”
Ikelos Familia was a Dungeon-prowling familia with a history shrouded in darkness.
Residing in Orario for well over twenty years, their familia ranking was B. Its members had
reportedly made several trips into the Dungeon’s deep levels. However, the group itself remained in the
shadows; perhaps due to the inordinate amount of time they spent underground, hardly any of their
members had gained any notoriety or fame on the surface.
“The man is sharp and cunning. Even as he gathered enough forces to overwhelm our party, the

moment he discerned our identities, he immediately decided to withdraw.”
The leader of Ikelos Familia had been cautious of Asfi, a brilliant item maker whose extraordinary
talent was known worldwide.
Known as Perseus, she invented a number of phenomenal and mysterious magic items like Hades
Head, a helmet of invisibility.
Since they didn’t know what Asfi’s side had hidden up their sleeves and their home base might be
discovered, the leader of Ikelos Familia ordered all his subordinates to retreat without leaving a single
person behind to avoid the risk of capture.
“A man who wears goggles…Would that be Dix Perdix?”
“The same. Not only is he Ikelos Familia’s leader…He became a second-tier, Level Four adventurer
nearly ten years ago.”
He had been given the title “Hazer.”
At the time he received it, the man was already famous for massacring monsters at a pace that
bordered on insanity.
“Assuming he’s only been growing stronger and more experienced since then…it’s possible that he’s
as powerful as a first-tier adventurer.” Asfi’s eyes became grave, her voice taking on a severe tone.
Hermes lightly sighed to himself.
“First things first, we’ll need to apologize to Ouranos…With that out of the way, we should assume
that the enemy has a good idea where the ‘nest’ is located. I assume they’ve been able to work out that
much information based on our actions alone.” Hermes’s orange eyes narrowed as he voiced his train of
thought.
“What about the monsters in question…?”
“They were told to relocate to a different nest no matter how our plan turned out. Most likely, they’re
on the move as we speak.”
Hermes explained that Ouranos wanted to account for as many variables as possible and had
instructed the Xenos to leave the Hidden Village on the twentieth floor and travel deeper into the
Dungeon.
Even so, Asfi could hear a hint of concern as the deity explained, almost as if he were talking to
himself.
“There’s nothing more we can do from here, so I know it’s pointless to be worried, but…”
“……”
“Aaagghhh, I got a bad feeling about this.”
Hermes didn’t waste any time after whispering those words.
Looking up, he barked a new set of orders.
“Keep an eye out for any movement on the middle levels, Asfi. Use Rivira as your base and stay on
guard.”
“Affirmative.”
As though his divine intuition had told him, he said:
“It won’t be long now—they’re going to make their move.”