Max
As the first rays of morning sun hit his face, Max's eyes snapped open. There was no grogginess, only the sharp, electric hum of a mind perfectly rested and a body overflowing with excitement. Today was D-Day for his latest experiments.
He threw off the silk covers, eager to get moving, but the moment he swung his legs over the edge of the mattress, he froze.
Standing in the center of his bedroom was a lost prop of a horror movie.
It was a 'body' only in the sense that it had the correct inventory of parts. Beyond that, it was a disaster. The elbows locked at jarring, unnatural angles. The chest cavity was grotesquely bloated, stretching a patchwork of pale, synthesized skin tight over dense Minotaur muscle. Most unsettling of all were the hands—massive, meat-hook palms with oversized fingers that twitched erratically.
Max stared at the creature in silence. The creature stared blankly at the wall.
"What in the Frankenstein..." Max muttered, rubbing his eyes.
His voice drew movement from across the room. Kairu, who had clearly been awake, paused his work. Sensing his master's waking state, the slime gave a proud little jiggle, spat out a fresh blob of gel with a wet squelch, and sent it slithering across the floor.
The blue gel zipped up the corpse's leg and vanished into the flesh. Instantly, the body jerked to life.
It took one lurching, top-heavy step forward and nearly folded in half, its center of gravity completely ruined by the massive chest. Watching it sway, Max could vividly imagine trying to throw a punch in that thing and accidentally dislocating his own shoulder from the sheer, unbalanced momentum.
"Okay, pause," Max said, holding up a hand before the creation could topple over entirely. "For a single night's work? This is really unbelievable, buddy. But if I send that into the dungeon, people aren't going to think I'm a helpful rescuer. They'll think I'm a new breed of monster."
Ki. Kairu wilted, his main body drooping slightly on the desk.
"It's a perfect baseline," Max quickly assured him, getting to his feet. "We just need to adjust the proportions. Let me help you."
Closing his eyes, Max activated his transformation magic. His spine popped and lengthened as his shoulders broadened. His hair bleached to a stark, snow-white, and dark sunglasses materialized over his eyes, completing the flawless physical replica of Satoru Gojo.
With his template set, Max pushed his mana outward to cast Thought Projection.
He braced himself for the mental strain that had knocked him to his knees yesterday, but this time, there was just a smooth, quiet click in his mind. Looks like Independent Action had wordlessly takendisas over the mental weight, acting like a safety net so my brain wasn't split in two. Max thought with satisfaction as it felt like a seamless extension to his display monitor.
Across the room, the glowing, translucent hologram of Gojo flickered into existence.
Max guided the projection forward, aligning the hologram perfectly with the lurching meat-suit. "Alright, Kairu. Trim the excess flesh. Fill in the gaps. Match the look."
The original began his work. The room filled with a chorus of deeply unsettling, wet crunches as bones snapped and shrank. Dense muscle fibers uncoiled and reformed. Max watched the bloated chest cave inward to a natural proportion while the bizarre, knobby fingers thinned out into elegant human hands.
Within moments, the grotesque monster was gone. A flawless, physical replica of Gojo stood in its place.
"Perfect," Max breathed, dropping his transformation. "Now we just need to sync the—"
A blinding flare of light cut him off.
Max threw his arm up as a massive, intricate magic circle erupted directly over the copy's chest. It wasn't his standard crimson circle, nor was it the azure of a Kidō spell. It was a dense, geometric pattern that spun wildly, glowing hot white, before slamming inward and etching itself straight into the body's chest.
SNAP.
Max gasped, his knees buckling as a sudden, violent vacuum hollowed him out.
His vision swam. The comforting hum of his massive magic pool plummeted, as if someone had just carved out a clean quarter of his magical reserves in a single heartbeat. He hit the floor hard, bracing himself on the cool marble, gasping for air as the room tilted around him.
What the hell was that? Max wheezed, his heart hammering against his ribs. He had never experienced a drop that massive. Not even throwing his strongest spells had drained him like that.
Blinking away the black spots, he looked up at Gojo.
He wasn't just standing there anymore. He was breathing. Through the magical link, Max could literally feel the steady, rhythmic pulse inside his chest.
His eyes widened as two distinct theories rushed into his mind to explain the massive mana drain and this flawless, lag-free synchronization.
The first was that Independent Action and his Ars Magna had teamed up to take his commands to their absolute, literal extreme. He intended the protocol to "handle the strain" and "animate the body." In response, Ars Magna had paid the exorbitant mana tax to spark actual life into the dead tissue, creating a fully self-sustaining biological autopilot and handing Max a pristine, stress-free "second body".
The second theory lay in the source material. Maybe Fairy Tail's Thought Projection possessed its own intrinsic mechanics when given a physical vessel. Because it was usually cast on thin air, introducing a biological host might have caused the spell to instinctively latch onto the flesh, rooting the magic into the tissue to permanently eliminate any psychic lag.
Honestly, both explanations were completely ridiculous by any conventional standard. But considering he wielded a reality-breaking magic system bound only by his imagination, he was more than willing to just blame the absolute absurdity of his own cheat skills.
After a moment, Max let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh, pulling himself back up into his chair. "Okay. There is a magic-tax for playing God. Noted."
Rolling his shoulders, he waited for his natural regeneration to steady the dizzy feeling. The drain was intense, but the result was undeniable: since the body was fully alive and their sensory connection was perfectly stable, there was absolutely no reason for Max to leave his room. He could test Gojo's functionality right from his desk.
"Kairu," Max called out. Raising a hand, he activated a teleportation circle in the center of the room, linking it to the hidden cavern on the 1st Floor. "I'm starting the field test. Do you want to tag along?"
Ki! Abandoning his numbers immediately, Kairu bounced across the floor, climbed up Gojo's leg, and settled comfortably on his shoulder.
Max smiled. Sinking back into his plush chair, he closed his eyes and poured his awareness completely into the magical link.
The shift in perspective was entirely surreal. One moment he was sitting in his pajamas; the next, he felt the heavy weight of combat boots and the brush of a high collar against his chin. He looked down at his new hands. Through Gojo's eyes, he looked at the crimson circle on the floor, stepped forward, and vanished.
The luxury of Folkvangr instantly gave way to the damp, moss-choked air of the Dungeon. Gojo's boots hit the stone of the hidden cavern—the exact spot Max had scored the Jack Bird eggs a few days ago.
SQUAWK!
The sudden displacement of air triggered a frantic explosion of feathers. Max hadn't expected the cavern to be occupied, but their abrupt arrival had deeply spooked a lone Jack Bird resting near the lake. Realizing a predator had just appeared, the rare monster became a blur of panic, bolting straight for the tunnel exit.
Kairu didn't even wait for a command.
KI!
Refusing to let a walking sack of high-tier loot escape, the slime launched himself off Gojo's shoulder like a cannonball. But rather than just tackling the bird, Kairu's body flared mid-air with a blinding, freezing white light.
A pulse of absolute cold erupted from the slime. The underground lake spanning the center of the cavern instantly flash-froze, sending thick spikes of ice violently jutting outward. The rushing Jack Bird shrieked as one of the jagged pillars clipped its left leg, snapping it flush to the frozen surface.
Watching this, Max felt his jaw drop. Ice magic?!
But the Jack Bird didn't surrender. In a display of brutal, panicked survival, it whipped its free leg around and smashed it directly into its own trapped limb. The frozen leg shattered like glass. Shrieking in agony, the bird stumbled forward and vanished down the corridor in a chaotic, three-legged blur.
Furious at the escape, Kairu bounced off the ice and rocketed down the tunnel in hot pursuit.
Max just stood there, staring at the frozen lake in stunned silence. The realization hit him like a physical blow.
Todo's sword has ice magic? He thought, surprised at the sudden change in Kairu's preferred element. Guess he didn't just break down the steel to study it—he must have permanently absorbed the weapon's inherent Ice Magic into his own body.
"You little cheat code," Max laughed aloud, his voice echoing weirdly through Gojo's vocal cords.
Shaking his head, Max forced himself back on task. Kairu could handle a crippled bird. Right now, he needed to see what this body could actually do.
Turning away from the lake, Gojo strolled casually out of the alcove and stepped into the main corridor of the 1st Floor in search of some test subjects. He didn't have to wait long. The heavy crunch of his boots on the stone immediately drew attention. A lone Goblin, clutching a rusted dagger, rounded the corner, shrieked, and hurled itself at the tall intruder.
Max didn't pull a weapon. He just let the Goblin close the distance.
As the rusted blade stabbed upward, Gojo swayed smoothly to the right, letting the weapon whistle harmlessly past his ribs. In the exact same motion, he brought his fist up and drove it squarely into the Goblin's face.
The physical feedback through the link was incredible. Max felt the sickening, satisfying crunch of the monster's skull giving way just milliseconds before the Goblin's upper half simply exploded. Bits of flesh, shattered bone, and black ash rained down across the corridor walls as the magic stone clattered to the floor.
Gojo stood over the remains, calmly flexing his knuckles.
Damn, Max thought. The muscle density Kairu had packed into the body was immense. That single, casual punch hit with the raw strength of a solid Level 2 adventurer.
Satisfied with the physical strength, Gojo stepped over the ashes and continued down the corridor toward the main entrance. As he rounded the bend, the pathway opened up, revealing a fresh group of monsters. Five Goblins and three Kobolds turned their ugly snouts toward him, raising their crude weapons with guttural snarls.
Physical combat was covered. It was time to test his magic.
Max focused his intent, visualizing the familiar, destructive heat of a low-tier fire spell. He pushed the command through the magical link, waiting for the mana in Gojo's hand to ignite.
Nothing happened.
Gojo stood there, holding his palm out like an idiot while the Goblins screeched and charged.
Huh, Max thought, blinking behind the dark glasses. Why isn't he casting?
He didn't have time to troubleshoot. The leading Kobold lunged, swinging a rusted club at Gojo's collarbone. Max dropped the magic command entirely, pivoting the body on its heel. He caught the Kobold's wrist, snapped it backward with a sickening crunch, and drove a knee squarely through the monster's chest.
The ensuing brawl was brutally one-sided. Relying entirely on the flesh-and-blood muscle of the new body, Gojo wove through the mob, caving in skulls and shattering ribcages with methodical, devastating precision. Within thirty seconds, the corridor was quiet, dusted with monster flesh and scattered magic stones.
Standing amidst the aftermath, Max took a mental step back to analyze the failure. The connection with the body was solid. He could feel the ambient chill of the dungeon air and the friction of the stone beneath his boots.
So why had the magic misfired?
The answer became obvious the second he thought about it. The body didn't have a soul. It didn't have a Falna, and it certainly didn't have a Devil's lineage. Max could feed it magic to power its movements, but he couldn't force it to cast an elemental spell because the body itself was made of non-magical monster meat.
"A biological drone," Max muttered, testing the vocal cords again. "Heavy on the physicals, zero innate casting ability."
It was a limitation, but a perfectly acceptable one. To test his workaround, he reached a hand to the body's chest. He commanded the Kairu clone acting as the body's internal battery to push out one of the rings they'd built yesterday. The blue gel shifted, pushing a silver, red-enameled ring out through the skin of Gojo's palm.
Max slipped it onto his finger, aimed it at the far wall, and pushed a pulse of intent into the band.
VWOOM.
A blinding blast of yellow lightning erupted from the ring. A fully charged Raikōhō tore across the corridor, slamming into the dungeon wall with a deafening crack. The stone shattered, leaving a jagged, smoking crater several inches deep.
The pre-loaded rings worked perfectly as weapons.
Next, he tested the teleportation. Instantly, Gojo's mind flared with the map of every teleportation circle Max had laid across the floors. The network was fully accessible.
"Good to know," Max murmured to himself. Between the raw muscle and a pocket full of magic rings, Gojo was more than lethal enough to survive as a delivery boy in the Upper Floors and a good chunk of Middle Floors.
Sitting comfortably in his plush chair back in Folkvangr while feeling the damp dungeon air against Gojo's skin, Max had a sudden realization. This felt exactly like playing a fully immersive VRMMORPG. The tactile feedback of combat without any real physical risk, the mental map acting like a minimap HUD, the overpowered avatar — he was honestly enjoying the experience, maybe a little more than he should.
It did raise a highly valid question: if the body relied on his active manual piloting, how was the Uber service supposed to function when his real body was busy?
He sat with that problem for exactly three seconds.
Then he shelved it. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy the game.
For a brief, intoxicating second, Max's mind flooded with the possibilities of having a disposable, high-tier body. He could send Gojo straight down to the 22nd Floor to map the layout without risking his own neck. Hell, he could send him into Knossos — walk the labyrinth, catalogue every branching path, and hand Freya Familia & the Guild a complete strategic map of the enemy's home turf on a silver platter.
The thought sat there, genuinely tempting, for longer than it should have.
But he forced himself to pump the brakes.
The primary goal for today was stress-testing the body's functionality and getting an outside perspective on the rings. He couldn't trust his own bias; he needed a live testimonial from a real adventurer to confirm the products were actually viable for the market.
Leaving the pile of monster ash behind, Gojo turned and began making his way back up toward the surface. He navigated the winding tunnels of the first floor, eventually stepping out of the dungeon entrance and into the bustling morning light of the Babel fountain plaza.
The plaza was a chaotic, vibrating mess of ambition and desperation. Adventurers shouted over each other, forming temporary alliances, haggling over loot splits, and desperately seeking frontline muscle or magical support. The cacophony of clanking armor and overlapping arguments echoed off the surrounding white marble.
And right in the thick of that chaos, standing on the tips of her toes and desperately trying to catch someone's eye, was a familiar face.
She was tiny, even for a Pallum, struggling to stand out among the armored giants walking past her. Her chestnut hair was tied back, framing a dirt-smudged face that projected an earnest, almost painful eagerness. She gripped a cheap, basic dagger in one hand and carried a slightly oversized backpack on her shoulders, clearly trying to pitch herself.
But every time she took a step forward to offer her services, the passing adventurers either stepped right over her or brushed her aside without a second glance.
Liliruca Arde.
Max paused, observing her. She wasn't shrinking into the shadows. She wasn't masking her face with that cynical, dead-eyed expression he remembered from the anime. She looked... hopeful. Vulnerable, even.
Right, he thought, adjusting his timeline calculations. She must be at the very beginning of her tragedy. Looks like the world hadn't completely isolated and broken her yet. She was still desperately trying to make it as a genuine adventurer before the crushing reality forced her into a life of extortion and theft.
The future is sitting right there, waiting to crush her, Max thought. But I hold the pen right now. And if rewriting her tragedy just so happens to provide me with the absolute perfect, eager alpha-tester for my magical merchandise? That's just a coincidence.
With that decision made, Gojo's lips curved into a wide, confident smile. Putting his hands deep into his pockets, he sauntered over, the towering 190-centimeter frame cutting through the crowd like a shark moving through a school of minnows.
-◈ -
Lili
She had just been ignored by a trio of human swordsmen—again.
She swallowed the sting and quickly straightened her posture, clutching the strap of her oversized backpack tighter. It was fine. That was fine. They were probably looking for someone older. Or taller. Or someone who didn't look like a child playing adventurer with a dull knife and a secondhand pack hanging half off her shoulders.
Around her, the fountain plaza churned with noise and motion. Adventurers shouted for healers, supporters, vanguards, mages. Steel clanked. Boots scraped marble. Deals were made and broken in the span of seconds. Everyone was looking for someone useful.
Lili pushed herself onto the tips of her toes again and raised her hand, trying to make herself seen between a pair of broad human shoulders. "I-I can help! I can carry luggage! I can fight too! I have magic as well!!"
Nobody even looked.
Her hand slowly lowered.
Just for a moment, her eyes drifted across the plaza and landed on a young human girl standing among a well-equipped party. She was only a little bit taller than Lili, yet the adventurers around her treated her like a precious porcelain doll. A tall vanguard was gently adjusting the straps of her small pack, while a mage handed her a canteen with a warm, protective smile. Nobody shoved her aside. Nobody ignored her. Nobody looked at her and saw a burden.
A tight, ugly knot twisted in Lili's chest.
She wanted that.
Not to be coddled, exactly. Not even the gear. Just... that certainty. That belonging. The right to stand somewhere and be valued instead of overlooked.
Her fingers tightened around the cheap hilt of her dagger.
She was trying. She really was.
She had a Skill. She had magic. That was rare, wasn't it? Really rare.
Plenty of adventurers didn't have either one. So that had to mean something. It had to. If she just kept trying, if she kept going into the Dungeon, if she earned enough valis to pay her tribute properly, if she kept working hard enough to deserve it, then eventually she could get her Falna updated again. And then maybe the numbers on her back would go up. Maybe then people would stop looking at her like she was dead weight.
Maybe then they'd pick her.
Of course, having a Skill and magic also meant expectations. More pressure. More eyes. More disappointment when she failed to live up to what she was "supposed" to be.
But that was fine too.
She could do it.
She had to do it.
Other kids were stronger than her. That monster girl Ais had apparently been amazing even though she was around her age. Everyone knew stories like that. But Ais had Loki Familia behind her. Lili only had herself.
So she would just have to work harder.
Squaring her shoulders, Lili stepped toward another passing group, forcing brightness back into her face before it could crack. "Excuse me! Are you looking for a party member? I can carry bags and collect magic stones and I have magic too—"
They walked past her like she wasn't there.
The words died in her throat.
For one awful second, heat rushed behind her eyes. She bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to ground herself. Crying here would only prove everyone right.
No. No, she was not going to cry.
She drew in a breath, straightened up again, and told herself the same thing she'd been repeating all morning: the next group might say yes. The next one. Or the one after that. Somebody had to give her a chance eventually.
Then a shadow fell over her.
Lili looked up—
—and up.
Her breath caught.
A giant of a man stood in front of her, snow-white hair bright in the morning light and dark sunglasses hiding his eyes. He was smiling down at her with an ease that felt so out of place in the middle of the plaza's frantic chaos that for a second she forgot how to breathe.
"Yo!" he greeted cheerfully, leaning down a little so he didn't feel quite so impossibly tall. "You look like someone eager to hit a dungeon floor. Looking for work?"
Lili blinked.
Someone was talking to her.
Actually talking to her.
Her heart gave a clumsy, painful thump. She snapped upright so fast her backpack nearly slid off one shoulder, then grabbed it and puffed out her chest, trying to look taller, older, more capable than she was.
"Y-Yes!" she blurted, gripping her dagger so tightly her knuckles hurt. "Are you... looking for a party member? I can fight! And I have a backpack, so I can carry luggage and harvest stones too!"
The words came out too fast, too desperate, but she couldn't stop them. If she hesitated, he might walk away too.
"You can call me Gojo," the man replied smoothly. "And yes, I'm looking for people, but not for a traditional party, exactly. I'm looking for a contractor. Someone with a little bit of magic in their veins to help me with an experiment."
Lili tilted her head.
An experiment?
"But I'm just a beginner," she said carefully. "Why would you need my magic?"
Gojo sighed theatrically and rubbed the back of his neck, like he was embarrassed by the answer. "Because, tragically, I'm just a meathead. All muscle, zero magic. But my employer handed me these to test."
He pulled his hand from his pocket and opened his palm.
Rings.
Not decorative ones, either. Even to Lili's inexperienced eyes, they looked expensive—solid, carefully made, strange in a way that immediately marked them as magical tools rather than jewelry.
"They're prototype magic rings," he said casually. "Pre-loaded spells, apparently. But since I have absolutely no magic to test them, they're just shiny paperweights for me. If you have magic, you can come in with me and pull the trigger. In exchange for your services, I'll pay you a flat rate: ten thousand Valis per floor we clear, and you just give me all the monster stones we drop."
Lili froze.
Ten thousand Valis?
Per floor?
For a second, the plaza noise disappeared.
Ten thousand.
If they only went to Floor Five, that was fifty thousand Valis. Fifty thousand! Her mind stumbled over the number, unable to hold it properly. That was tribute money. Food money. Potion money. Falna-update money. That was enough to breathe for a little while instead of choking on the next day and the day after that.
Her pulse started racing.
It was too much. It had to be too much.
But... no. Wait. Think.
He wanted the magic stones. That part made sense. He wanted her magic, which also made sense if the rings were real. And if he was lying—if this was some kind of trick—then the rings would still be in her hands, not his. That meant she'd have the weapons.
That made this safer, not worse.
Right?
And if this was real—
A huge, terrifying, wonderful hope bloomed in her chest so quickly it almost hurt.
Lili drew in a breath, bowed deeply enough that her bangs fell over her eyes, and said, "I'll do it! I accept your terms, Mr. Gojo!"
"Perfect!" Gojo beamed.
He held out one large hand.
"Let's shake on it. Formalize the agreement."
Lili hesitated.
Nobody respectable offered to shake her hand. Not really. Not as an equal.
Still, after only a second, she reached out and placed her much smaller hand in his.
Warmth surged up her arm at once.
She gasped softly.
It wasn't painful. It didn't burn. It felt... safe. Solid. Like being wrapped in a blanket fresh from the sun. The strange sensation settled in her chest and stayed there, quiet and steady.
Before she could ask about it, Gojo released her hand and grinned as if nothing unusual had happened.
"Right then! Now let's find out some more variety to take part in this so it'll be easier on us. Let's recruit!"
Lili nodded automatically, still a little dazed, and rubbed at her chest where the warmth lingered.
Then she followed him.
And, as with most things in her life, the recruitment drive was a disaster.
Gojo approached swordsmen, beastmen, dwarves—anyone who looked reasonably competent—and offered the same deal. The result was immediate and almost comically consistent. They looked at his strange appearance, his dark glasses, his too-relaxed smile, then at Lili beside him, and dismissed them both in a heartbeat.
"Take off the shades before you trip on a Goblin and break your neck, idiot!" one adventurer barked.
"Suicide squad's that way, freak," sneered another, shoving past them.
Each rejection hit Lili like a tiny stone.
She was used to being overlooked, but this felt worse somehow, because now someone had actually chosen her first. The mockery directed at Gojo irritated her in a hot, helpless way she didn't know what to do with. He was weird, sure, but he was also the only one who had stopped and listened.
Still, she kept her mouth shut.
Gojo, infuriatingly, didn't seem bothered at all. He just laughed, dusted off his shoulder after one rough bump, and kept going until even he seemed to accept the obvious.
"Ah, well. Their loss," he said brightly, turning toward the entrance to the Dungeon. "Guess it's just you and me, Lili. Let's go."
Relief and nerves tangled in Lili's stomach.
Just the two of them.
That was scary.
But also... good. Clean. Simple. No more begging. No more trying to prove herself to people who'd already decided she wasn't worth the risk.
They had barely made it thirty feet toward the great archway leading underground when a sharp voice cut across their path.
"You there."
Lili looked up instantly.
A group of women stood barring the way, and every hopeful thought in her chest seized at once.
They weren't ordinary adventurers. Their armor matched. Their stances matched. Even the way they spread out across the path looked practiced. Controlled. Dangerous.
And among them—
Lili's eyes caught on the small Pallum with the goggles first.
That same tight knot twisted in her chest again, sharper this time. She looked completely at ease standing among them, like she belonged in that polished wall of strength. Like nobody would ever question whether she was useful.
Lili had to fight the urge to shrink behind Gojo.
Then she recognized the red-haired woman at the front and her stomach dropped.
Alise Lovell. Captain of Astrea Familia.
Even Lili knew that name.
And suddenly, with all seven of them staring, she felt every inch of her height, every cheap stitch in her backpack, every childish line of her face.
Please don't tell him to leave me behind, she thought, heart thudding. Please don't look at me and decide I'm not worth taking. She desperately prayed.
The sharp-faced elf in the group had already taken a half-step forward. But the red-haired woman moved first.
-◈ -
Alise
She stepped forward before Ryuu could.
They had a schedule to keep. The Guild's emergency request about the Deadly Hornet nest on Floor 23 had already burned enough of their morning, and if the swarm had grown any larger, clearing it would turn from a nuisance into a genuine hazard. Still, one glance at the odd pair heading for the Dungeon had been enough to force her to change course.
A man that tall and that relaxed would have stood out anywhere in Orario. The dark glasses only made him worse.
She had been watching him for the last several minutes while they crossed the plaza. He had approached group after group of adventurers, received nothing but ridicule and rejection, and somehow remained smiling through all of it. Then, instead of giving up, he had turned to a tiny young Pallum—one who looked barely old enough to be standing at Babel's entrance, let alone entering the Dungeon with a stranger.
That alone would have been enough to raise alarms.
The fact that the little girl looked nervous, hopeful, and one bad word away from bolting made it worse.
Alise raised a hand, and the rest of her familia spread with practiced ease behind her, fanning out just enough to block the approach to the archway without making it look like an arrest. Just a precaution.
Mostly.
"You there." She called, getting their attention.
The tall man stopped at once and turned toward them with a leisurely ease that did absolutely nothing to make him less suspicious.
Now that she was closer, Alise got a better look at him. Snow-white hair. Ridiculously straight posture. No visible weapon. No meaningful tension in his stance. He looked less like an adventurer and more like an actor who had wandered into the wrong stage play and somehow decided to keep going.
The little Pallum beside him, meanwhile, went stiff as a board.
"Hello, Mister... and Little Miss," Alise said, her voice light and friendly by habit, though she let a little steel sit underneath it. "Can I ask what exactly you two are doing here?"
The man's smile widened, as if being stopped by a formation of armed women was the most pleasant development in his morning.
"Hello, ladies!" he said brightly. "We're heading down to experiment with some products a merchant handed me." He gestured toward the group with easy confidence. "Actually, I'd be thrilled to have you on board. Some of these products are a little outlandish in what they do, and you all look like a very strong group."
"Strong?" Lyra echoed from behind Alise, snorting. "Listen to this guy. Tossing around compliments like he's buying laborers off the street."
"Lyra," Alise warned without looking back.
"What? He started it."
A quiet huff escaped near the rear. Neze, arms folded, ears twitching faintly, looked unimpressed. Beside her, Celty rested a hand on her hip and gave the man a once-over that could have flayed bark off a tree.
Maryuu, standing just behind Alise's right shoulder, had already shifted her attention to the Pallum girl instead. Her gaze softened immediately, healer's instincts taking over before a single word of explanation had been offered.
Ryuu, on Alise's left, said nothing. Which, in Ryuu's case, was worse.
Alise kept her eyes on the man in front of her.
He was too calm.
Not brave. Not careless. Calm. Like the entire situation had already been measured and slotted neatly into place in his head.
"Is that so?" Alise asked, crossing her arms. "And exactly which Familia do you belong to? Or the merchant, for that matter. Because most merchants do not hand 'outlandish products' to random adventurers and hope for the best."
The man tilted his head up slightly, glancing toward the open sky above the white marble plaza.
Then he smiled.
"It's poor practice to discuss sensitive business under an open sky, Ms. Alise."
Alise blinked once.
Behind her, Lyra's brows shot up so fast they nearly disappeared into her goggles.
"Oh," the Pallum muttered, immediately catching the implication. "Rivals, eavesdroppers... yeah, alright, fair enough. Smart answer."
Ryuu's eyes narrowed further instead of softening. If anything, that line only made him more suspicious.
Alise, however, had to stop the corner of her mouth from twitching. Smooth. Annoyingly smooth.
"I'm an independent contractor," the man continued, as if he hadn't just dodged half her question. "Level 2. Built for the frontline, unfortunately cursed with zero magical talent. That's why I've been looking for support."
He rested a hand on top of the little Pallum's head with such casual ease that the girl startled, then froze.
"This young lady agreed to help me test a few things on a contract basis."
Alise's gaze dropped immediately to the child.
The girl did not look frightened of him. Embarrassed, yes. Tense, definitely. But not frightened.
That mattered.
"What kind of contract?" Maryuu asked gently before Alise could.
The man answered without hesitation. "Ten thousand Valis per floor. I keep the monster stones for product evaluation; she gets paid for her help, and I keep her safe."
Silence rippled through the formation.
Then Lyra leaned forward so sharply Alise thought she might actually topple.
"Ten thousand a floor?" Lyra's voice cracked slightly, the strategist's brain instantly doing the math. "Wait. Ten floors is a hundred thousand. Are you looking for more contractors? Because we are exceptionally reasonably priced."
Even Iska, quiet until now, lifted her brows a fraction.
That was not predatory pricing. That was the kind of deal that made a struggling rookie weep with gratitude or assume they were being scammed.
"We accept," Lyra said immediately, not waiting for his reply.
"No, we do not," Alise said just as fast.
Lyra slapped a hand over her chest in mock offense. "Captain, please. For once in your life, let greed open the door before justice slams it shut."
"Justice does not slam doors."
"Justice absolutely slams doors. You slam them with a smile."
A laugh slipped out of Celty. Neze groaned under her breath. Even Maryuu looked like she was trying not to smile.
Alise put a hand on her hip. "There is no need for payment. If assistance is genuinely required, then helping fellow adventurers is part of our duty."
"Oh, tragic," Lyra lamented, throwing one arm over her face. "Another glorious business opportunity, murdered in its crib."
"Lyra," Ryuu said flatly.
"Yes, yes, moral superiority, radiant virtue, et cetera."
Alise ignored the muttering and focused on the little Pallum instead, softening her voice.
"Is this true?" she asked. "Are you with him willingly?"
The child nodded so fast her chestnut hair bounced.
"Yes!" she blurted. "Mr. Gojo is the only one who gave me a chance!"
The words came out with such raw, earnest force that Alise felt something in her chest pull tight.
Not manipulation, then. Not coercion. Just desperation.
"And," the girl added, rushing onward, "he made a contract to keep me safe!"
That made Ryuu's head snap slightly toward the man.
"A contract?" The elf repeated, cool and sharp.
The man only smiled.
Alise studied the girl's face for another long beat. Children lied. Desperate people lied even more. But this one was transparent in the way only the very young could be. Whatever arrangement had been made here, she believed in it completely.
Alise exhaled through her nose.
Well. That simplified things.
"Alright," she said at last, stepping half a pace aside. "We're headed to Floor 23 on Guild business. If your destination overlaps with ours, you may accompany us."
The relief on the little Pallum's face was immediate and almost painful to witness.
"Perfect," Gojo said, as pleased as if he'd expected the outcome all along. "I was hoping to test these as deep as possible anyway. Strong escorts make for better data."
"There he goes again," Lyra muttered. "Calling us escorts like we're staff."
"We are not staff," Neze said.
"We could have been paid staff," Lyra shot back.
"What exactly is your goal?" Alise asked, bringing the conversation back under control before Lyra could spiral into a speech about wasted profit.
"Functionality testing," he said easily. "Depth stress, usability, combat utility, portability, racial-match. The usual."
That answer was bizarre enough to sound almost honest.
"We're clearing a Deadly Hornet nest on Floor 23," Alise said. "You stay in formation, you do not wander off, and if I say retreat, you retreat. Understood?"
"Crystal clear," Gojo replied.
Ryuu still hadn't relaxed.
Her gaze shifted from the man to the little Pallum, then back again. "Captain," she said quietly, "bringing a Level 1 that deep is reckless."
The words weren't spoken sharply, but that somehow made them land harder.
The little girl flinched.
Gojo answered before Alise could.
"I'll keep her safe."
Ryuu's expression did not change.
He went on, still smiling, "And I'll make sure she keeps pace."
Before anyone could ask what he meant, he bent, slipped one hand around the Pallum's shoulders, and lifted her as easily as if she weighed nothing.
The girl gave a tiny yelp as he set her on his broad shoulder.
"Hey!" she squeaked, scrambling for balance with one hand clutching her bag and the other lightly batting at his hair. "Lili can walk!"
Gojo laughed. "I'm sure you can. But this is faster."
Alise stared.
Celty barked out a laugh almost immediately. Lyra made a strangled sound that was half amusement, half outrage that she hadn't thought of charging extra for premium transportation. Maryuu covered her mouth, smiling. Even Iska looked faintly entertained.
Ryuu pinched the bridge of her nose.
The little Pallum—Lili, apparently—started to pout furiously... then stopped.
From up there, nearly two meters off the ground, her eyes widened.
For the first time since Alise had stopped them, the girl looked less afraid than awestruck.
The pout remained on principle, but some of the fight bled out of it.
"...This is acceptable," she declared with as much dignity as a kid sitting on a stranger's shoulder could manage.
That did it.
Alise laughed, bright and unrestrained, some of the last tension finally breaking apart.
"Well," she said, drawing her rapier just enough to rest her hand properly on the hilt as she turned toward the Dungeon entrance, "that's one way to solve the pace issue."
She glanced once over her shoulder at her familia, her smile returning in full.
"Astrea Familia, move out."
With that, the formation shifted smoothly into motion. Alise took point, Ryuu falling into step at her flank, Lyra still grumbling cheerfully about lost income, and the strange white-haired man following with a tiny, blushing pallum perched on his shoulder as they descended together into the Dungeon.
--> Devil in a Dungeon <--
AN:
A nice long chapter to get back into the grind. And we see Max making a biological drone, embracing Gojo's personality and joining Astraea Familia on their quest along with Lili.
And who thought he would be stripped off his most powerful asset with Gojo? Definitely not me. Also yes, he made a contract with Lili on similar terms like Hogni. What could go wrong with that?
In the next chapter, we will see how the quest goes and maybe more...
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Next update will be on Friday.
Ben, Out.
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