Chapter 15: Get Lost, Don't Touch Me!
"Oh! Good morning, Luke-kun!"
Lifting the hem of her skirt with hands clad in white silk gloves, Hestia sat down next to Luke without any airs, stretching out her arm to tidy his somewhat messy hair while looking him up and down.
"Going to the Dungeon again today?"
"Mm..."
Feeling the aura naturally emanating from this genuine goddess at close range, Luke subconsciously held his breath.
"Eh? You really don't have to work so hard..."
Smoothing down Luke's slightly upturned hair, Hestia patted his shoulder, her face full of emotion, saying: "Luke-kun, you really are a responsible good child!"
Although in terms of age, Hestia, who had existed for at least hundreds of millions of years, calling him a child was absolutely no problem, but seeing this loli goddess's completely indistinguishable from a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl's tender face, and those eyes that seemed to forever sparkle with childlike innocence, Luke always felt a bit strange.
Being called a good child by a little girl...
Even a pervert wouldn't have this kind of hobby, right?
However, compared to this, Luke currently cared more about another keyword she mentioned.
"Respon...sible?"
Hey hey, this wording is quite ominous!
Makes it sound like I did something indescribable to you!
"Yeah!"
Nodding happily, Hestia didn't notice Luke's gaze becoming somewhat subtle, and started counting on her fingers: "Helping me pay off the debts I owed to other god friends all this time, even renovating that old broken church into its current state, and although Luke-kun you didn't say it, I actually know."
"You... know what?"
"Hmph hmph, of course I know everything! Bell and Lili already told me!"
Her pale pink lips curved slightly upwards, revealing a smug smile.
Hestia continued: "As soon as you enter the Dungeon, Luke-kun starts teaching them sword techniques... Although I haven't personally seen you fight, the sword technique that could defeat a Lv.2 Minotaur at Lv.1 must be quite precious, right? For our Familia, Luke-kun has made a great sacrifice!"
"..."
Listening silently as Hestia praised him profusely, Luke sorted through his thoughts, then finally understood.
Previously, when he took Bell and Lili into the Dungeon, because he really couldn't stand watching the two brats killing monsters so slowly, he directly told them to step aside to avoid hindering his actions, then started solo grinding the Dungeon.
But Bell and Lili, unaware of the truth, after being driven aside by Luke, watched him ravaging through the monster hordes like a whirlwind sweeping fallen leaves.
They immediately felt greatly encouraged and also started imitating the sword techniques he used.
However, unlike Luke who inherited the [Black Swordsman] Job Skills, without strong sword sense and comprehension, both Lili and Bell's imitated sword techniques looked utterly terrible.
Luke was originally hunting monsters, but when his peripheral vision caught their severely misshapen movements, he couldn't hold back any longer.
He finished off the battle at hand in a few moves and began formally teaching them sword techniques.
And having received Luke's guidance, Lili and Bell naturally respected him even more, not forgetting to put in a few good words for him in Hestia's ear when updating their [Status].
It wasn't in vain teaching them how to use a sword...
Seeing Hestia showing a face of being incredibly moved in front of him, Luke cleared his throat lightly and asked: "Speaking of which, Kami-sama, today is the day of the Denatus, right? Um, that... how should I put it, about my title/alias..."
"Don't worry, I will definitely fight for a title as ordinary as possible for you!"
"That's really great..."
Hearing Hestia's confident guarantee, Luke's tense shoulders instantly relaxed.
Although in the eyes of Orario's adventurers, receiving a cool, handsome, and personally stylized title given by a god was a great thing, Luke clearly couldn't agree with their view.
Think about it, you're walking down the street normally, and suddenly a gasp comes from nearby.
"Oh! Heavens! Isn't that the Dark Flame Master of XX Familia?!"
...How about it, feel cool?
If you do, then congratulations, you're still a little brat who hasn't graduated from chuunibyou!
As an adult member of society, although Luke was once obsessed with such things, that was only in the past.
Therefore, he would absolutely not allow such embarrassingly stupid things to happen to him!
And Luke was very lucky; his patron goddess Hestia, unlike other mischievous gods, although looking very loli, also deeply detested chuunibyou.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Kami-sama!"
"Oh! Leave it to me!"
Forcefully patting her chest, causing ripples like a lake, Hestia jumped down from the long pew and walked out of the church.
Under the early morning sunlight, her back figure looked like a warrior!
Watching Hestia's figure gradually disappear at the end of the road outside the church, Luke stood up, straightened his somewhat wrinkled clothes from sitting, didn't go to the basement to wake up the still sleeping Lili and the white-haired brat, and under the faint morning light, walked out of the church alone.
...
Dungeon.
Ever since his level rose to Lv.2, perhaps it was an illusion, but Luke always felt that the monster appearance speed was much faster than before.
And not only that, even the monsters' ability values were significantly stronger than before.
Last time Bell followed him, accompanying him while grinding monsters, he was almost knocked down by a single Goblin.
"It doesn't feel like a Goblin at all... No, even ten Goblins wouldn't have this much strength, right? It was just like being hit head-on by a bull!"
This was Bell's description of that Goblin afterwards.
Combining various factors, although Luke really didn't want to believe it, the fact was—the Dungeon was targeting him, targeting him, this outsider from beyond the world.
When he was still Lv.1, the Dungeon accelerated the monster birth rate.
And now that he had risen to Lv.2, the Dungeon even started strengthening the monsters' attribute values.
It truly felt incredible...
Even the gods couldn't see through his origins, yet the Dungeon, this strange structure between living and non-living, could see through his true identity at a glance, and even showed such astonishing malice.
However, astonishment aside, Luke still had to hunt monsters in the Dungeon every day.
His Job Legacy was currently at a stage requiring a large amount of proficiency to level up, and the Dungeon's malice towards him wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
At least, Luke didn't have to run around the Dungeon all day looking for monsters to kill.
He just needed to stand on any random floor, and in no time, countless monsters would emerge from the Dungeon for him to hone his blade.
Just like now...
Black sword light flashed past.
"Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
The slash extended from the top of its head down to between its legs, leaving a black trajectory, causing the monster to let out a piercing wail.
The next moment, its scream stopped abruptly, a bloodline appeared on its body, instantly splitting it into two bloody halves.
On this monster, the thick, ferocious shell provided no protection at all.
Under the slash of the black blade, it instantly broke like paper mache.
The monster was called a Hard Armored, one of the more troublesome types among the monsters residing in the Middle Floors.
Because the thick shells on their bodies could turn the weapons of most adventurers into useless toys, it often required multiple adventurers coordinating together to hunt this type of monster.
But such a powerful monster was split in half by a single sword flash in an instant.
"—Clack"
The swordsman who delivered such a sharp and chilling strike flicked his black longsword.
Blood droplets clinging to the blade formed an arc, splashing three feet away.
Three feet away, the ground was soaked in dark red blood.
Looking around, corpses, corpses, corpses...
Seemingly endless monster corpses piled up on the ground like mountains.
And the Hard Armored the swordsman had just killed was the last surviving monster on this thirteenth floor.
"So these are Middle Floor monsters..."
Slowly exhaling a turbid breath, the black-haired, black-eyed swordsman looked up at the cracks reopening on the surrounding cave walls, and the monsters currently squeezing out from the cracks.
He frowned, turned around, and quickly returned to the floor's vertical passage.
Entering the vertical passage, feeling the sensation of being locked onto by something gradually weakening, Luke couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, then called up the system interface.
"System!"
[Ding!]
[Name: Luke Starr]
[Race: Human - Adventurer Lv.2 (86/10000) - Hestia Familia]
[Age: 23 (150)]
[Height: 178cm]
[Weight: 74kg]
[Spirit: 11 (100)]
[Strength: 12 (100)]
[Agility: 13 (100)]
[Endurance: 12 (100)]
[Constitution: 12 (100)]
[Job Legacy: [Black Swordsman]]
[Energy: 300740.01/1000000]
Looking at his five-dimensional attribute values, Luke sighed.
In the past few days, he had almost cleared out the Upper Floor monsters five or six times daily, but his attribute values hadn't increased by even a single point.
Today, venturing into the Middle Floors, the reward was merely a one-point increase in Endurance, from 11 to 12.
Other attributes remained motionless, steady as a mountain.
If it were the white-haired brat training as crazily as him, his stats would probably have reached H (20) already, right?
One-Minded Pursuit, Bell's leveling cheat.
As long as an object of admiration exists, he can activate the precocious effect, accelerating his growth speed.
It's kind of funny, even though I've interfered, not only joining the Hestia Familia before the white-haired boy, but also killing the Minotaur he was supposed to encounter, and preventing him from meeting a certain Sword Princess, this brat still awakened the One-Minded Pursuit skill.
And the object of his admiration was none other than Luke, the big brother of Hestia Familia.
"How long do I have to grind like this to level up..."
Thinking about Lv.3, Lv.4, Lv.5... and the massive amount of experience points needed for future upgrades, Luke felt his vision darken.
No bright future ahead!
Although he wanted to return to the Middle Floors to continue grinding experience, with his current attributes, even with the [Solo Player] passive fully stacked, he couldn't withstand the continuous frantic attacks of various monsters.
So Luke could only temporarily withdraw from the Middle Floors and continue being the "Killer God" in the Upper Floors.
Clearly having the skills for high-end operations, yet forced to play with low-tier kids...
Although bullying newbies felt quite good, playing for too long also gets boring.
But even a mosquito is meat.
Unable to easily enter the Middle Floors, no matter how small this piece of meat was, Luke could only close his eyes and swallow it down.
Having something is better than nothing...
...
Evening.
After grinding low-level monsters in the Dungeon all day, when Luke walked out of Babel, the western sky had already been dyed deep red.
Night was about to fall.
Because he hadn't brought Bell and Lili, those two little ones, today, seeing this scene, Luke felt a different kind of mood.
Maybe... find a place for a drink?
Following the direction of the adventurers heading home in the square, Luke soon entered the street lined with shops.
His gaze scanned the shops on both sides of the street, and Luke quickly found his target—a tavern.
I wonder what the wine in this Orario tastes like...
Licking his lips, just as Luke was about to walk towards the tavern.
A deep, subwoofer-like loud voice sounded behind him.
"Found you."
"Hm?"
Although there were many people on the street at the moment, the instant he heard this voice, Luke was sure the speaker was definitely talking to him.
Because he felt it, an intention directed specifically at him.
Not malice, nor killing intent or any other bad things.
The other party was merely aware of him, yet it made him feel tense.
Who could it be?
Stiffly turning around, a tall and incredibly sturdy body cast a shadow like an iron tower, enveloping him within.
"Ot...tar?"
Clearly a body full of muscle blocks, yet it didn't feel bloated.
His brown pupils revealed a considerable degree of pressure; just being watched by him made one's whole body tremble.
Reigning over the entire labyrinth city, the absolute powerhouse of Lv.7, Ottar.
What does he want with me?
Luke forced himself to resist the urge to flee and draw his sword, meeting the gaze of the strong man before him.
Lowering his head to stare into Luke's dark eyes, Ottar opened his mouth, a low voice that seemed capable of crushing souls emerging from him.
"You, know me?"
"!!!!"
Instantly, in Luke's eyes, the entire world disappeared.
Only this demonic man remained before him.
Too strong, too strong, too strong, too strong...
All thoughts, all room for thinking, were completely occupied by the opponent's overwhelming strength.
His chest and back started burning simultaneously.
With every breath, his nasal cavity filled with the smell of blood.
Under the excessive pressure, Luke even subconsciously activated his sword pressure.
And just as the sharp sword intent rose from his body...
"Ottar, don't make things difficult for him."
A woman dressed in luxurious purple robes walked out from behind Ottar's towering figure.
Hearing this woman's command, Ottar slightly lowered his head, retracting the imposing aura that seemed capable of making the heavens tilt.
"Huff, huff..."
Feeling the heavy burden on him disappear, Luke gasped for breath, looking towards the woman who had rescued him, but his wary expression didn't improve at all.
In the entire Orario, only one person could command Ottar like this.
"Freya..."
His right hand muscles twitched, Luke almost couldn't resist drawing his sword, but ultimately did nothing, just staring warily at the woman before him.
To be precise, the goddess.
The [Goddess of Beauty] with unparalleled appearance.
"You're Hestia's child, aren't you... Indeed very interesting."
Looking at Luke's face with great interest, especially when seeing his pair of dark eyes, Freya's gaze became particularly explicit.
It was a gaze filled with strong possessiveness.
"Luke, right... Do you think Ottar is strong?"
Staring intently into Luke's eyes, a faint blush appeared on Freya's exquisite cheeks.
She took a few steps forward, reaching out as if to lift Luke's chin.
"If you are willing to leave Hestia and join my Familia, I can make you even stronger than Ottar."
Ottar, standing behind Freya, heard her say such words, his eyes still rock-hard, conveying no dissatisfaction or anger.
And in stark contrast to Ottar, was Luke, facing Freya directly.
Agree to her, agree to her...
Beside his ear, it seemed like a tempting voice was whispering like this.
"I..."
Struggling to open his mouth, just as Luke was about to agree, a sharp and cold sound suddenly echoed from within his body—from his marrow.
"Clang—"
It was the sound of a sword being drawn.
Following this sound, clarity returned to Luke's eyes.
Then he saw his own right hand holding the sword.
The straight, pitch-black blade was pressed against the fair, slender neck of the goddess before him at zero distance, stopping her from getting any closer.
Everything happened in a flash, exceeding everyone's expectations.
The charming smile on Freya's face turned eerie.
A volcanic, ferocious aura erupted from Ottar.
And Luke, looking at Freya's hand extended towards him, about to touch his chin, felt his heart completely calm.
Then, he looked up, directly at this goddess held at sword point by him.
"You'd better, not touch me."
His voice, colder than the blade itself.
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