Deep beneath the streets of Orario bathed in morning sunlight, lay hidden another world breathing in darkness. A giant artificial labyrinth rivaling the complexity of the Dungeon itself: Knossos.
In one of the main corridors, Barca Perdix stood with his jaw clenched tight. The thin man with thick dark circles under his eyes glared sharply at the pile of rubble blocking the path. Behind the shadow of his cloak hood, his left eye emitted a dim red glow with a strange pupil shaped like the letter "D"—the absolute proof of the cursed Daedalus blood flowing in his veins.
The Orichalcum-plated gate at the end of the corridor indeed stood tall without a single scratch—even the strongest magic of top-tier adventurers wouldn't be able to damage it—but the foundation of the natural labyrinth rock surrounding it had shifted and collapsed severely. Ordinary stone dust still occasionally fell from the ceiling, accompanied by the clinking sound of pickaxes from masked workers busy clearing the giant debris.
The devastating earthquake (triggered by the explosion of the corrupted spirit) did not destroy the metal of his masterpiece, but the tremor caused the surrounding natural structure of Knossos to collapse onto their secret passages.
"Clear away the rest of that labyrinth rock and stabilize the ground around the Adamantite pillar!" shouted Barca, his voice echoing coldly in the damp corridor. "If the foundation of this ground shifts any further and cuts off our waterway, I will bury you all alive into the wall as a substitute for cement!"
As a direct descendant of Daedalus, the blood flowing in Barca's veins was a curse as well as an absolute obsession. To him, Knossos was god, life's purpose, and everything. Anything that delayed its construction process was a great sin.
While Barca was evaluating the damage to the natural structure, a very familiar mechanical click sounded from behind a nearby wall, followed by a soft hiss of air.
Barca turned his head, leaving his workers for a moment. He walked toward a block of stone wall that looked ordinary, but his fingers deftly pressed a hidden lever. The stone wall shifted, revealing the end of a secret pipeline—a small mechanical masterpiece left by his ancestor, Daedalus, whose channel slid and connected directly to the city surface.
Inside the pipe's receiving receptacle lay a small silver tube.
Barca picked up the silver tube. It was Enyo's special one-way communication channel. The City Destroyer.
Barca clicked his tongue, feeling very annoyed that his architectural work had to be interrupted. He twisted the cap of the silver tube open and pulled out a roll of coded message inside. His eyes quickly deciphered the code.
However, as his eyes swept over the contents of the letter, the wrinkles on Barca's forehead deepened. His annoyed expression slowly changed into rational confusion.
Enyo's command was very brief yet specific: Observe, capture, or kill the new members of the Barbatos Familia. Find their weak point.
"Barbatos Familia?" murmured Barca softly, refolding the message with an evaluating look. "What is that god thinking?"
As one of Evilus's higher-ups, Barca certainly knew who was currently inside the Barbatos Familia. The presence of Alfia, the Silence, in that old church was no longer a secret to their underground network. If Enyo ordered to find a way to avoid or isolate Alfia, Barca could understand it. The former Hera Familia executive was a walking anomaly.
However, Enyo's instruction was directed at the "new members".
From the intelligence information spread at the Denatus last night, the new members gathered by the bard god were only women from outside Orario. They had just entered the Dungeon, had no combat experience, and technically, they were merely Level 1 adventurers.
Why would the figure designing the destruction of Orario want to use the secret network just to capture Level 1s?
To Barca's highly efficient and pragmatic mind, deploying the remaining Evilus forces just to hunt down Level 1 targets was an illogical waste of resources.
"I don't have time to deal with this kind of paranoid order," grumbled Barca, stuffing the coded paper into his cloak pocket.
The Knossos waterway buried under the rubble was far more important to him than dealing with what was on the surface. He needed someone to take over this troublesome task.
Barca turned and walked away from the excavation area, heading down the dark corridor toward the Evilus tactical command room in Sector Three.
As he pushed open the heavy bronze door, he found Valetta Grede sitting back in her grand chair, her leather-booted feet propped up on the mapping table. The pink-haired woman was glaring at a pile of casualty reports with a pair of yellow eyes that radiated pure annoyance. A cup of red wine was in her hand, though she seemed to have no intention of drinking it.
"You're ruining my view, Architect," greeted Valetta coldly without turning her head, throwing one of the report parchments onto the table roughly. "Has the labyrinth rock above your precious roof stopped collapsing, or do we have to start learning to swim in the underground puddles?"
Barca did not waste time entertaining the woman's sharp tongue. He walked closer and threw Enyo's coded letter right onto the map in front of Valetta.
"New orders from Enyo," said Barca curtly. "He wants us to watch and capture the new members of the Barbatos Familia. Considering my duty here is to ensure the labyrinth's foundation doesn't get buried, your combat subordinates will have to take this mission. Prepare your men."
Valetta snorted softly. She took her feet off the table, picked up the coded paper with two fingers, and read the rows of instructions. In just a matter of seconds, the woman's jaw clenched. Her cynical smile vanished, replaced by a glint of anger in her pair of yellow eyes.
"Is that masked bastard making a joke?" hissed Valetta, crumpling the paper until it was crushed. She glared sharply at Barca. "Enyo is telling me... Valetta Grede... to stand behind the shadows of the city gates, spying on, capturing Level 1s who don't even know how to hold a weapon yet?!"
"That is a direct order from him," Barca replied flatly, his face completely unaffected by Valetta's murderous aura. "He must see strategic value behind God Venti's foster children."
"To hell with his strategic value!" Valetta slammed the mapping table so hard her wine cup shook violently. "Has Enyo forgotten the report I am currently reading?! Because of that stupid Alecto in the Far East, we lost a full platoon of troops and a Level 4! The Evilus soldiers have drastically decreased, Barca!"
Valetta stood up, pacing back and forth with frustrated steps. Strands of her pink hair swayed slightly following her aggressive movements. As the commander who arranged slaughter tactics, losing a large number of elite troops was the thing that made her most furious.
"I will not do this kind of trash reconnaissance mission!" continued Valetta, her voice filled with venom. "I hate waiting. I hate watching. My job is to design despair on the battlefield, not be a bloodhound dealing with level 1s!"
Barca silently agreed with Valetta's calculation. The disaster in the Far East had truly dealt a severe blow to their military strength. The loss of the elite troops Alecto took made Evilus have to be economical in deploying personnel.
"Then you want to ignore Enyo's orders?" asked Barca calmly. "You know the consequences of ignoring his instructions."
Valetta stopped pacing. A highly cunning and dangerous smirk slowly graced her lips once more. She turned to look at Barca, her yellow eyes narrowing with calculation.
"I didn't say I would refuse," said Valetta, her tone now turning much slower and manipulative. "I only said, we don't need to waste the precious remaining Evilus forces for this dirty work. Besides, Barca... don't you have far more perfect pawns for kidnapping and surveillance?"
Barca's eyebrows knitted slightly. "What do you mean?"
"Your beloved younger brother," Valetta leaned her hip against the edge of the table, smiling broadly. "Dix Perdix."
Barca fell silent. The gears in his head began to turn, digesting the direction of the sly woman's conversation before him.
"Didn't Dix just level up to Level 3 a few days ago?" continued Valetta, her words flowing like sweet poison. "And we all know what the Ikelos Familia's specialty is. They are smugglers. Hunters in the dark who are most expert at capturing targets alive without leaving a trace."
Valetta walked closer to Barca, crossing her arms over her chest. "Dix is a coward, but he is very sadistic. He prefers torturing and capturing prey much weaker than him rather than fighting fair with top-tier adventurers. Capturing Level 1s who just arrived in Orario is his favorite job. Just leave this boring task to him and his Familia."
Silence enveloped the command room for a moment.
A faint smile—a pragmatic smile typical of Daedalus descendants—slowly bloomed on Barca's face. Valetta's logic could not be refuted. The Ikelos Familia was a shadow faction operating outside the Guild's radar. Dix Perdix had a nature that was very fitting for handling weak targets, and by deploying them, Barca wouldn't have to pull his construction workers, while Valetta wouldn't have to waste elite Evilus soldiers.
"A reasonable efficiency tactic," said Barca finally, turning his body toward the exit. "Dix is indeed looking for new toys to celebrate his level up. The new adventurers from the Barbatos Familia might be able to keep him busy."
"Now, that's a smart architect," chuckled Valetta with satisfaction, sitting back in her chair and reaching for her wine cup. "Just make sure your brother knows his limits. Enyo wants to extract information or provoke a reaction from Alfia. Tell Dix not to let those brats die too quickly when he 'plays' with them."
"I will send the instructions to the Ikelos headquarters," replied Barca without looking back.
The Architect of Knossos stepped out of the command room, swallowed once again by the shadows of the labyrinth corridors. His mind was now free from the annoying logistical burden.
Up there, on the surface of Orario illuminated by the morning sun, the Barbatos Familia might be celebrating their new beginning peacefully. But underground, in the depths of darkness where the foundation of this city was woven with hatred, an invisible net had just been cast.
Dix Perdix and the Ikelos Familia now had new hunting targets. For that sadistic smuggler Familia, a weak-looking Level 1 named Sylphie was merely easy prey waiting to be kidnapped.
Barca walked deeper toward the core of his labyrinth. He felt his plan was already perfect. The Architect was completely unaware that sending his Level 3 brother to hunt a 'Level 1' named Sylphie under the banner of the Barbatos Familia... was the most ridiculous suicidal move.
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