"Burp~ Pardon me."
Raizer gulped down a huge bite of meat and burped, excusing himself.
"Thanks for the meal."
He clapped his hands before the empty plate. He had completed the food that was served to him. Even for a cynical man, he found the food to his taste. It had that homely air to it.
The Hostess of Fertility.
Raizer had heard the name. It was right at the edge of his mind, 'I wonder what part this restaurant plays in the world of Danmachi.'
As for how he reached there and ate food, despite the lack of funds. A few minutes ago, he stumbled across a woman getting harassed by some thugs. Raizer stepped in and saved the woman.
The name of that woman was Syr Flova. She wanted to thank him and invited him for a meal at the Hostess of Fertility. Raizer refused initially but agreed as soon as he heard 'Free' come out of her mouth.
"How did you like the food, Mr. Raizer?"
Syr stepped before him, cleaning the table as she struck conversation with him.
"It was great. Give my regards to the chef."
"Pfftt! You speak some strange things."
"Is that so?"
Raizer looked at the woman before him. Her platinum hair and brown eyes were quite ordinary in this world. She was among the cute girls, but not the cutest. Her body didn't ooze of strength or danger. But something about her irked Raizer in the wrong way.
"Oya~ Are you falling for Syr now?"
A coquettish voice came from behind. Anya, a cat-person, jumped out and smiled mischievously at Raizer. She had misunderstood his scrutinizing gaze for love-struck ones.
"Sorry to disappoint. But my current goal is only the Labyrinth."
"Hmm~" Anya narrowed her eyes, not believing him the slightest, "And why are you heading to the Labyrinth?"
"Why else?"
Raizer picked up the glass of water and drank from it, calmly continuing, "Because I wish to grow stronger."
"Strength, is it? A common goal in this city. Boring~"
"Anya, stop troubling Mr. Raizer."
"Mou~ Raizer, you made Syr get angry at me. Take responsibility for it."
"Ha~ Have already decided on the Familia you will join?"
Syr sighed, shifting the topic. There was a hidden glint in her eyes as she asked that question.
"Familia? Of course, I have."
Raizer smirked confidently, expecting the next question.
"Oh? Which one? Let me tell you, the Loki Familia doesn't let any random person join easily."
Perhaps expecting him to speak of the Loki Familia, Anya already explained the high standards of the Loki Familia, considered to be one of the strongest Familias in Orario.
"Don't worry, I don't wish to join the Loki Familia either. My Familia is-"
Anya leaned in closer, waiting for the reveal.
"-none!"
""Huh?""
Both Syr and Anya were shocked. Anya, as a former Level-4 adventurer, knew exactly how dangerous the dungeon was. It devoured countless newbies and even veteran adventurers on a regular basis.
In such a dangerous place, entering without a Familia was crazy. And also, illegal.
"What, never seen a single madman in a city this big?"
Raizer stood up and dusted his clothes, walking out of the tavern.
"Wait."
Syr stopped him.
"Hmm?"
Normally, Raizer would ignore her but since she fed him, he owed a small debt to her.
"Can you not head to the dungeon at all? It's dangerous to enter without a Familia."
"Hahaha! Got it."
Raizer laughed it off and turned around, feeling a sharp gaze stab at his back. It came from the silent elf standing at the edge of the tavern. She hadn't smiled for a single moment since Raizer had seen her.
'Must be the emo trend corrupting this world.'
Syr looked at his back with a distressed expression.
"Are you worried about him?"
A calm voice asked her.
"Mother."
Syr called out to the giant woman standing behind her. She used to be one of the few Level 6 Adventurers, Mia Grand. The current owner of this tavern.
"Don't worry about him. This city has seen enough fools. He may not desire to join a Familia now. But when he realizes his limits, he will have to join hands with a God."
Mia spoke to ease Syr's concerns. However, the latter was worried about that itself.
'It's the first time there's someone I can't see through.'
The true identity of Syr was the Goddess Freya. One of the hedonist Goddesses, who viewed humans as toys. As part of her Divinity, she had the ability to see through the soul. While all Gods had a sharp intuition, her Divine Sight allowed her to see the 'color' or 'brilliance' of the soul.
But Raizer was empty. No, to be exact, he looked like a human. His soul was completely invisible to her eyes. She didn't even have the confidence to see through his lies.
'It's as if he isn't part of the natural order. Something that goes against the law of the world.'
There was a simple reason why Freya couldn't see through Raizer's soul. They simply weren't on the same level. When an ant looks at an elephant, all the ant sees is the giant darkness looming overhead. It doesn't recognize the elephant, not even when it is crushed.
'But that only makes it more fun. Show me what you are, Raizer Haze.'
A dark, seductive smile appeared on her face, hidden from plain sight.
.
.
.
"Burp! Man, that was some good food."
[Indeed, host! Moreover, it was FREE food. Anyway, how are we going to enter the dungeon, host?]
Raizer looked at the blue screen, wondering how he could bypass the Guild's scrutiny.
"Hmm~ System, have you ever rage-baited someone?"
[Except for you, no one comes to mind, host.]
"Fck you too."
'Shit, did I just get rage-baited? So easily?'
"Ahem, anyway, watch and learn, kid."
Raizer dusted his clothes and entered the Guild. It was easy to find the Guild. The greatest building around the Labyrinth's entrance was the guild's building.
Before entering the building, he spent half the day, gathering all the information about it.
The inside of the building was filled with sharp-eyed, brazen warriors. Some had hope in their eyes, others had greed.
The crisp-white flooring and the clean walls gave it a strict, disciplined atmosphere. There were receptionists at the counter of the guild while guards stood at the side, maintaining their vigilance.
Raizer walked to the receptionist with no attendants and raised his arm, "Yo."
The wolf-eared receptionist, Rose Flannett, narrowed her gaze at the greeting. She could feel it in her bones, this adventurer. He was another one of the troublesome ones.
"Hello, there. Are you a new adventurer?"
"Hmm, something like that. I wanted to ask if an adventurer without a Familia could enter the dungeon?"
At his words, Rose sighed.
"Ha~" She looked up at him, "Sadly, the guild doesn't allow Familia-less adventurers enter the dungeon. It is dangerous and lethal. Even an ordinary kobold or goblin is stronger than the average human."
Raizer nodded inwardly. But he was on a different leveling scale. He didn't need Falna to get stronger.
"Why? Do you think I will die?"
"Honestly, yes. An adventurer without a Familia is destined to death."
"And are all adventurers with a Familia alive?"
"..."
"Or do you not care as long as you periodic returns from the money they earn? Hey, tell me, is this guild policy simply to protect the adventurers? Or to protect their own pockets?"
Raizer brazenly spoke loudly, his words drew the attention of the nearby adventurers. They had no intention of interfering but as sentient beings, they craved to watch drama.
Rose, known at the disciplined receptionist, frowned at his words. Everybody awaited the moment she would throw him out of the guild.
"Mr..."
"Raizer Haze."
"Mr. Haze, the guild exists to protect the adventur-"
"Yet the death rate remains unchanged. Perhaps in the past, more adventurers died without the guild. Perhaps the Gods were too drunken on their own rivalries, leading to human death. Perhaps the economy would fall without the guild's circulation of the monster crystals. But the guild has been doing so for the past centuries without changing a single thing, hasn't it?"
The guild was extremely necessary for Orario's survival. But was it replaceable? Yes, it was.
The guild already showed what they needed to do to survive. Make sure that they follow a set of rules, use the monster crystal for energy, contain the monsters of the dungeon and spread information about the dungeon monsters and routes.
If it was newly developed and still growing, it would understandable. But it had grown stagnant in the recent centuries. Maintaining the status quo, afraid of change.
Even if he didn't read much of Danmachi, Raizer played enough games to easily understand how the Orario Guild worked.
"Personally, I believe the value of the guild is becoming obsolete. Why not have the Familias form a coalition to perform the same duties that the guild does? Perhaps the Gods would protect their 'children' better, no? We wouldn't have to keep paying you the taxes either."
Even if the guild was trying their best, the adventurers would feel dissatisfied with them. For a simple reason; they received their taxes from the money adventurers earned by putting their lives on the line.
Moreover, the adventurers were a race of hotheaded warriors. They were already chiming in.
"Yeah! Why is the tax rate so high?"
"My brother died in the dungeon last week! I rushed to the guild to ask for help but you guys simply said that there weren't any adventurers willing to help! If adventurers were needed to help other adventurers, why pay the guild taxes at all?"
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"Quiet!"
"Maintain order!"
Seeing the riled up crowd, the guards had to step in. But that simply backfired. The adventurers felt they were being suppressed and started to fight back.
Soon, a fight broke out in the guild. And the guards were on the losing side. After all, adventurers who fought in the labyrinth kept constantly getting stronger while the guards simply stayed at the guild.
[Host, is this what politics is like?]
'Dude, don't ask me. This is going beyond my wildest dreams.'
Raizer's plan was to rile up the crowd until someone with authority stepped in. Then, he would simply make a deal with the other party, even if it meant giving higher taxes than the other adventurers.
'Shit, should I run?'
- Bam!
Raizer dodged the guard, who flew away and crashed into the wall.
For the first time, the clean and tidy guild was destroyed. The calm waters was ripped apart by chaos.
Raizer even saw Rose defeating a nearby adventurer.
'Oh, she was strong. Welp, let's head to the dungeon.'
Without paying any heed to the fight, he skipped right through the dust-filled gates and entered the labyrinth.
Two hours later.
"STOP!"
- BOOM!
The command hit like a physical blow. A sudden shockwave of authority rippled through the Guild hall, freezing every blade and fist in mid-air.
Finn Deimne, the Level 6 Pallum Captain of the Loki Familia, stood at the entrance. He had arrived to discuss official business with the receptionists, but instead, he had walked into a riot. His mere presence was a deterrent; in Orario, a Level 6 wasn't just a person; they were a force of nature.
"What are you doing?"
He questioned, not the guild, but the adventurers. While the guild may have been benefitting from the hard-earned money for the adventurers, it was still a necessary existence. Unless something replaced it, the stronger guilds supported it. To maintain the surface-level peace.
The Loki Familia was one of them.
"Well..." Rose dropped the adventurer she had been choking and smoothed her uniform with trembling hands. "It all began when we..."
She recounted the chaos from start to finish. Finn listened in silence, his sharp mind cataloging every detail. When she finished, he asked a single, piercing question.
"Where is he then?"
"...."
"""".....""""
The crowd looked at one another, then turned toward the empty space where the provocateur had been standing. A lone guard finally raised a shaky hand.
"Um, I saw someone enter the dungeon a while back."
"...."
'''A madman has entered Orario!'''
Everybody had the same thought at the same time. If Raizer knew their thoughts, he would call it stupid. He wasn't a madman, simply apathetic to the chaos he caused.
Moreover, it wasn't like he did anything. He didn't start the fight nor did he hurt anybody. He simply spoke some aggravating words, riled up the crowd and-Oh... Yeah, he was a madman.
- Thud!
he Guild's heavy oak doors slammed open again, nearly rebounding off the stone walls.
"Hah... Hah... Help!"
A rookie adventurer stumbled in, his face pale with terror. He pointed a trembling finger toward the shadow of Babel. "Cra-Crazy-!"
"Calm down," Finn said, his voice dropping into a soothing, practiced tone. He stepped toward the boy, assuming this was merely the standard panic of a first-timer. "Speak clearly."
"The Dungeon! It's gone insane!" the boy screamed. "The monsters are... they're overflowing! They're all surging toward the first floor! It's a stampede!"
"Impossible."
Finn dismissed the claim instantly. The Dungeon was a living entity, but it followed rules. A mass migration to the first floor would shatter the city's fragile peace. Yet, the sheer primal terror in the boy's eyes wasn't something a rookie could fake.
Finn didn't wait. Drawing his spear, he blurred into motion. If the report was true, Orario was facing a catastrophe. The "madman" from Rose's story was already forgotten.
But when he reached the plaza surrounding Babel, he didn't find chaos. He found a wall of people. Citizens and merchants stood in a silent, paralyzed semi-circle around the entrance to the Labyrinth.
They all stared straight ahead.
- Slash! Slice! Fsshh! Boom!
The sounds of battle ringing beyond the masses. Finn pushed through the crowd, which was daunting task when nobody was giving him any space.
When he finally broke through to the front, Finn Deimne, the Brave, went still.
A single figure moved within a sea of monsters. He was drenched in ichor and blood, his silhouette a blur of lethal precision. He didn't just fight; he danced through the mob. Every flick of his wrist claimed a life; every step bypassed a claw.
But it was the eyes that stopped Finn's heart. They were cold, focused, and utterly indifferent to the mountain of corpses rising around him.
Finn gripped his spear, a chill running down his spine. 'Who is this madman?'