“Oh? You are against me being the leader of this party?”
“Um, no, it’s just that Sir Tsutomu already assigned me…”
“…Very well, then. But keep in mind that hierarchies can always be altered. If you change your mind, feel free to assign me to the post instead.”
“A-all right.”
The four members entrusted with Melchor’s mission – Daryl, Diniel, Xeno the Paladin, and Korinna the Channeler – were having a brief meeting. So far, however, it was more of a Xeno-dominated talk show.
Diniel had never had all that much interest in this sort of thing anyway, and Korinna was not particularly proactive in her participation due to her being so watchful when it came to navigating the overall situation. As a result, Xeno and the mission team’s appointed leader, Daryl, were the main focus of the meeting – and even then, the sheer confidence in Xeno’s every word was stealing most of the spotlight.
Daryl did everything in his power to keep his authority as the appointed team leader, but Xeno was blatantly aiming for the seat, his eyes as keen as an eagle’s. Xeno’s greedy approach to this was, in at least one way or another, uncomfortable to deal with.
[…Then, there’s Miss Diniel.]
Daryl did not dislike her, but if he were to be frank, he had the hardest time talking to her due to how little he understood when it came to her personality. It was also somewhat scary how he would occasionally feel her sights set on his tail and ears.
As for Korinna, the vibe she gave off seemed similar to his own, so he felt that he would get along with her just fine. It did seem like Korinna still needed some time to open up to the others, however, so Daryl was a little worried about whether or not he would be able to most effectively carry out his duties as the party’s leader.
[Well, Sir Tsutomu has assigned me to do this. I have to give it my best!]
At first, Daryl had expected Diniel to be assigned to the role, so he was determined to work hard and meet Tsutomu’s expectations.
And now that the meeting was over, the team of four geared up and immediately headed to the Guild.
“Wow, your equipment looks… impressive,” Daryl commented on Xeno’s shining silver armor.
“I know, right? I’m proud of each and every piece of them!”
Xeno lightly tapped on his buckler as if to show off the decorative crest on its face. Diniel narrowed her eyes in annoyance at all the light bouncing off of all the silver.
“You seem to like silver-colored things quite a bit, Sir Xeno,” Daryl offered another comment, seeing that Xeno’s armor was all in a single color.
“No, that is not the case, Daryl,” Xeno said, shaking his head and holding up one finger.
“Huh?”
“The color I like… is the color of Xeno.”
“Huh?”
“THE! CO! LOR! Of! XE! NO!” Xeno shouted slowly, emphasizing every single syllable.
Daryl was taken aback, Korinna seemed as if she was looking at a crazy person, and Diniel was completely uninterested.
“I see that you have no color of your own, Daryl. You should pay more attention to your equipment, you know — Absolute Helix is a major Clan, after all, so you need to care as much about appearance as function.”
“Uh-huh…”
“I have an idea — Stop by my home on the next day off, and I will introduce my regular blacksmith to you.”
“Oh, no, I think I’ll pass. I already have Sir Dorren crafting all my gear, you see.”
“Is that so? Too bad, then – I was about to personally design a whole new look for you, too.”
As Xeno shook his head, Daryl let out a dry chuckle and looked elsewhere. He ended up making eye contact with Korinna as she gave him somewhat of a sympathetic look, narrowing her eyes as if to tell him to give up trying to make sense of Xeno.
After that, Xeno proceeded to go on a long-winded rant, which Daryl had to endure. Korinna gave Daryl another sympathetic look, and Diniel was… distracted by some birds perched on the roof of a nearby house.
When they arrived at the designated meeting spot in the Guild, they found that Melchor was just arriving as well. He tapped on his lower back as he walked, and upon recognizing Daryl and Diniel’s faces in the crowd, approached them.
“Could you be the ones chosen to fulfill my request? If memory serves, your Clan’s name is–“
“Yes, sir. We are from Absolute Helix, sir.”
“Oh, yes, I see. Take good care of this old man, all right?”
“Y-yes, sir. We’ll be in your care as well.”
Melchor smiled cheerfully and bowed to Daryl. As a still-reigning consecutive champion of the national-level martial arts tournament, he was a very well-known figure. Daryl, feeling wrong that he was the one being bowed to, proceeded to bow as well.
“I’m not so used to the ways of the Dungeon, you understand. I’ll leave all the necessary paperwork to you.”
“Yes, sir, of course,” Xeno spoke up with a smile full of confidence. “Rest assured – now that you have employed us, you will be on the eightieth layer in no time!”
“Ohhoho, now that sounds reassuring.” Melchor chuckled.
If the current party’s progression got stuck, Tsutomu would come and help them, so Xeno’s statement was technically not a lie. Xeno bowed to Melchor and proceeded to accompany him to one of the reception counters.
Daryl and Korinna hurried after them and each took a slip of paper for the withdrawal of their Status Cards. They proceeded to soak their slips with their saliva and hand them over to the receptionist. Seeing that, Melchor looked a little surprised.
“Oh-ho, you can do it this way now? That’s good — far better than having to cut myself.”
The last time he had been here, Melchor had been asked for a drop of blood on the slip, meaning he had to prick his arm with a needle. Happy to see that there was now a new way to do it, he soaked a slip with his saliva. After everyone got their Status Cards and signed a party contract, the team of five headed down to the Dungeon, starting off their exploration on layer forty-one, the Beach biome.
――▽▽――
Right after the team arrived on layer forty-one, Daryl was about to ask Diniel to scout the area when he saw that she was already nocking an arrow.
“Ah… scouting, please.”
“Mm-hm.”
Diniel proceeded to shoot some arrows and activate <<Eagle Eye>>, searching the surrounding area to find the Black Gate as quickly as possible. Daryl took this opportunity to talk to Melchor and plan things ahead in the meantime.
“Hmm, so we’re using that… three-role composition, right? I did some reading about it beforehand. In this case, I’m supposed to be an Attacker, right?”
“Yes, please. But do keep in mind not to be too aggressive, otherwise we won’t be able to keep the monsters’ aggro off you… by which I mean, the monsters will start targeting you instead.”
“Is that so? Well, non-humanoid enemies are out of my area of expertise anyway, so I suppose I could just go wild and be done with them. Hohoho.”
“But Sir Melchor, you killed an Ice Dragon all by yourself! We won’t be able to keep up if you don’t hold back, sir!”
Daryl could not help but call out Melchor’s apparent joke. Melchor’s solo killing of an Ice Dragon had been reported in the newspapers, and even before that, there were records of him defeating various large monsters during other Stampedes.
He may have claimed to be bad with anything non-humanoid, but that was only because he had to exert some more effort. It had been said that Melchor during his prime was one of the strongest humans, and that there was no one who could fight monsters as well as him. Even now, after the appearance of the God’s Dungeon and the widespread knowledge of skills and status ratings, he still was unrivaled in anti-personnel combat.
“Is that so? I’ll use this one instead, then.”
Melchor removed the Lightning and Inferno Magis Stones that were embedded in his gauntlets, replacing them with Colorless Magic Stones.
His fighting style, the Magic Fist, involved crushing Magic Stones in the palms of his hands to induce his fists with magical and elemental power. It was a technique unique to him that he had come up with in his many years of combat. Currently, Bruno, the head of the Security Team and Melchor’s apprentice, was the only other person who could use it. The Magic Fist style was so dangerous and difficult that even the nobility left it alone, despite them otherwise being so eager to unlock the secrets of Magic Stones and the arcane arts.
After all, crushing Magic Stones in one’s hands was practically equal to holding on to a live grenade. If a normal person were to try to crush even a Small Colorless Magic Stone, the resulting explosion would blow their hand right off – and if it were an elemental Magic Stone, the damage would be even more severe. Even a noble who was skilled in handling Magic Stones would need the time to learn to keep the released energy around their hands and control it properly.
Melchor was the first to try this suicidal technique out during a large-scale Stampede sixty years ago, and he succeeded, averting the disaster and walking out of the battle victorious. Since then, he had been using the Magic Fist without hesitation despite the almost certain risk of it destroying his body if he were to mess up.
Still, one would come back to life after death here in God’s Dungeon, so at some point, Melchor started trying to recruit some apprentices to teach them the technique. A handful came and went over the course of six years, and Bruno was the only one who stayed. The recruitment was still open to this day, but he had not gotten a new arrival for quite some time now.
Even Bruno, whose unique skill enabled them to enhance their physical performance to a ridiculous level, could not yet handle the Magic Fist perfectly.
Daryl took a moment to observe Melchor slotting the Small Magic Stones into both gauntlets, then he resumed the conversation,
“Since we’re prioritizing progression, we don’t plan on fighting anything other than the layer bosses, but for the sake of familiarity with the team composition, I’m thinking we should have at least one battle per layer. Perhaps you could give us a demonstration of your technique whenever you deem it appropriate, sir.”
“Yes, I understand.”
While Daryl looked on curiously as Melchor crushed some cheap Magic Stone fragments as a warm-up, Diniel reported that she had found the Black Gate. The team started moving immediately, with Daryl and Diniel in the lead, Melchor in the middle, and Xeno and Korinna in the back of the formation.
Then, right in front of the Black Gate, they encountered a Sea Slime bouncing around like a rubber ball. Daryl used <<Combat Cry>> to pull its aggro. Daniel shot out an arrow, and at the same time, Melchor stepped forward.
“Hoh!”
He struck the Sea Slime with his palm, causing the monster’s stretchy body to burst apart like a water balloon pricked by a needle. Indeed, all Melchor needed was one touch to deflate the Sea Slime’s body. Daryl, distracted by his amazement at that strange sight, raised his tower shield to defend himself from the Sea Slime’s body slam.
Diniel and Melchor proceeded to make quick work of the Sea Slime.
“Now that felt quite satisfying,” Melchor commented on the Sea Slime’s softness and stretchiness before swiping his hands to get rid of the creature’s mucus.
Xeno and Diniel seemed impressed by how he had caused the Slime to burst apart without even using a special skill.
“Your moves were beautiful, sir. I’m no expert when it comes to martial arts, but I could tell that you wasted no energy at all. Very impressive.”
“How’d you get that strong? You’re younger than me, you know…”
“Hohoho. Now, flattery will not get you anything.”
Melchor smiled, seeming to be in a good mood after being praised by Xeno and Diniel. His level was only in the low 30s, so his status ratings were not even high — and yet he could attack with so much power without even activating a skill. Melchor and the nobles who were well-versed in the arcane arts were probably the only ones who could manage that.
“Time is of the essence. Let us proceed to the next layer.”
“Yes, sir.”
After collecting the Magic Stone, Daryl opened the Back Gate as Melchor instructed. The team proceeded to enter layer forty-two, and then, over the rest of the day, they reached layer forty-five.
