Chapter 2
“Thanks for coming, everyone.” I look over the large group of people gathered in my estate’s garden.
“Whatever.” Lyle crosses his arms.
Ignoring the perpetually gloomy one, I get a quick headcount to ensure every single person is accounted for. It’s the first time we’ll be making such a large trip to the dungeon, so I need to make sure everything goes as planned.
My usual party is coming this time, but I’ll be filling up all my empty party slots with other members, as well. For me specifically, that means taking nearly a whole party’s worth of monarchs along.
The first one my eyes settle on is King Akuma, the only other beastkin monarch besides King Kuro. The two are both enemies and allies, depending on the circumstances, but the same can be said of most of the kingdom’s rulers. For now, they’ve set aside their differences and are focused on getting stronger.
King Akuma puts heavy emphasis on personal strength, so he was actually eager to join me on this dungeon run.
Near the beastkin king is yet another monarch, King Gareth. He rules Flana, the country that had three-quarters of its land taken by Chaos when the mad god took control of the Northern Great Cathedral.
Like Akuma, he was more than willing to go to the dungeon and level up. Though his reasoning is rooted less in an innate desire to get stronger and more because he’s desperate to defeat Chaos and reclaim his kingdom.
Next is King Bramir, ruler of Eshia. He hasn’t fought the fiends yet, but he was attacked by the vampires back when they obeyed the Lord of Chaos. Although that ended up dragging him into this war, he lacks both the desperation of King Gareth and the personal drive to seek strength like King Akuma.
But since all the other monarchs are joining us on this trip, then it only makes sense to bring him along.
Speaking of other monarchs, there is one more, King Matias. Of all the rulers, he’s the one I know the least about, but he has been fighting the fiends for years, since the Kingdom of Vastela borders the lands of Chaos.
Because King Matias understands how much of a threat the fiends are to the world, it was easy enough to draw him into this dungeon run, despite the fact he doesn’t get along with King Edgar very well.
Along with Frei and the usual girls, minus Lumina and Elise, that completes my party. I can only have ten people, but that’s still twice as many as my sub-parties.
Speaking of my other parties, the first of the five is led by none other than Lumina herself. The fact that she’s a Party Leader is exactly why I don’t have her in my own group. And of course, Elise is her shadow, so they stay partied together.
“All of us are ready.” Lumina stands just beside her father, King Edgar.
“Good. Your family is going to have some major roles to play in the final battle, so all of you need to be as strong as possible.”
“I just need to blow them up,” Lyle says, no doubt imagining the [Meteo] spell he loves so much.
“It’s also important who you blow up, and when,” Rhys says.
“I don’t care about any of that.”
Lumina’s two brothers are pretty much complete opposites of each other. While Lyle intentionally disregards customs and formalities, Crown Prince Rhys embodies them.
Groomed from a young age as the heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world, Rhys was taught everything from how to conduct himself in a meeting all the way to how to wage a national scale war.
It’s Crown Prince Rhys who acts as Orakio’s Grand General, meaning the weight of responsibility lies heavily on his young shoulders. Though from what I’ve seen, he carries it well.
“I’ve got a score to settle with someone,” King Edgar says. “And I suspect I’ll need all the strength I can get to complete the task.”
“Him, huh?” I think of a certain nobleman. “You’re probably right. He was already strong, but now there’s nothing stopping him from really becoming a monster.”
The king already has his warhammer out, a high-quality dungeon drop by the standards of this world. But something like that isn’t enough anymore, which is why I’ve completely recrafted it into an adamantium and sagestone alloy, while enhancing it with my overpowered buffs.
Now, it sits as one of the top ten strongest weapons in the entire world, all of our own excluded. Of course, the other weapons in the top ten are all from other members of this very dungeon party.
I walk over to King Kuro next. He’s the ruler of Belfast, the beastkin country to the south that’s been battling the forces of Chaos for the past few years. He’s since teamed up with King Edgar, but the two armies haven’t fought in any major battles together yet.
That’ll change soon.
“Hey.” I give him a wave. “Ready to power up again?”
“We’ll take however much help you can give, if we’ll be fighting a small army of Archfiends like you suspect.”
“After all the levels we’re going to gain, each of you will be able to take down one or two. So, it won’t be that bad, really.”
“Let us hope that’s the case.”
“Only one or two?” Grand General Riona asks. “I expected to get a little stronger than that.”
“Oh, right.” I turn to her. “You’re evaluating it based on your own abilities. Not everyone is a certified combat genius like you, so I’m just giving an average estimate. When it comes to you, I can reasonably double that number.”
“Hah!” Boris, one of King Kuro’s top commanders, lets out a hardy laugh. “Always knew you weren’t normal, Riona.”
“Youngest Grand General in history, right?” Krista, one of their elite soldiers, says. “If even the heroes recognize your strength, then it makes sense how you achieved it.”
A shadowy figure gives a nearly imperceptible nod. Strider’s what they call him, but in my head, I can only refer to him as a ninja.
A ninja who always looks away as soon as we make eye contact.
Boris, Krista, and Strider were the three elite soldiers that I fought the day I took down the Dragon Slayers guild in Belfast. I was only doing that quest because the Ancient Dragons wanted to test me, so the whole battle was more for fun than anything else.
Afterwards, we roped the three of them into the center of our schemes and have been preparing them to become powerful forces in the final battle. And now’s the time to give them the bulk of their new strength by grinding them tons of levels.
King Kuro has temporarily taken over Celine’s sub-party for this dungeon dive. Of course, Riona and their three elite soldiers fill up the rest of the slots. Leveling them all up will greatly increase Belfast’s battle power.
The next group gathered in my front lawn is the most recent sub party. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally gave the final Party Leader role to Julius. That means I won’t be able to create any more sub parties on the fly, but filling up all my available slots is more important now that we’re closing in on the final battle.
“Ready to go back to that spaceship?” I smirk at him.
“I’m still impressed by it, even knowing the truth.” Julius alludes to the fact that the spaceship part of the dungeon isn’t actually in outer space.
“Well you’re going to get another good look at it soon.”
Beside him is a redheaded tomboy of a girl with fangs that wouldn’t look misplaced poking out from a dragon’s jaw. Of course, that’s because the girl in question actually is a dragon, just in human form.
“I feel like you’d bite my head off right now, given the chance.”
Cyl’s fang only seems to grow longer. “It’d be your fault for kicking me out of your main party!”
“C’mon, don’t be like that. Wasn’t it you who said you wanted to train them?” I look to the three people standing behind Cyl.
“That’s not what happened at all!”
“Oh, I guess you’re right.”
I more or less pushed Adrian, Boron, and Hunter off on Cyl. I picked up the three of them under various circumstances and threw them into the party with Julius.
Since the sub party had an empty space left, I tossed Cyl in, as well. It’s her punishment for letting Adrian figure out her secret, which is that Cyl is actually a dragon.
“This shall certainly be an interesting experiment!” Boron says as he adjusts his strange goggles.
“Ready to go whenever, Chief.” Adrian speaks in a casual tone, the redheaded girl having already adjusted to being in the center of this whirlwind.
“Just don’t let your guard down,” Hunter says, always the realist.
“Seems like you three get along well already.” I nod at my own words.
“Our chemistry is bombastic.”
“It’s fine as long as we stay on the move.”
“I’ve dealt with worse.”
They answer in the same order as before, their personalities shining through once again.
Next up is a far more familiar group, with Kalyn acting as the Party Leader. She’s part of the hotspring crew, along with Ina, Geralt, and Devin. Of course, all of them are here for the grinding session, along with Kymil.
“How are the kids doing these days?”
“All of them have grown into their roles at the resort,” Kalyn says. “When it comes to the day-to-day operations, the four of us hardly need to intervene anymore.”
“That’s good because you’ll be busy for a while. You know, getting ready for the final battle and all.”
“Yes. It won’t be a problem, I assure you.”
“Those runts can take care of themselves now,” Devin says. “Against most of the rabble that comes through there, anyway.”
“They’re still children,” Ina adds. “So we shouldn’t expect too much.”
“The adventurers and soldiers know not to mess with the resort, though,” Geralt says. “But it’s good we have this, just in case.”
He shows a ring, which is linked to several others. Ron, the leader of the kids we have working at the hotspring, has one. So do a couple more of the older kids, just to make sure that they have a way of contacting Kalyn and the others in case of an emergency.
Although Kymil is an elf, he’s been partied up with Kalyn and the others for a long while now. That gives them the ability to communicate telepathically without any restrictions, which comes in handy for their trading business.
“I’ve got one, final list of things I need from you, Kymil.”
“When I return to my homeland, I shall prepare them as quickly as possible.”
“Thanks. It’s not a lot, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Just filling some last-minute gaps in certain supplies.”
He’s been great at getting me the elven goods I need to run my shop, The Elven Crossroads. Without him, I’d have had to make a lot more trips into the dungeons to fill my shelves.
But my final list has nothing to do with my merchant’s business. It’s all for the upcoming battle.
The last party I’ve gathered for the dungeon dive is absolutely the most chaotic. It’s led by one of the elves’ Grand Elders, Rena, who’s temporarily taking over Miri’s sub party. But despite being led by an elf, none of the other members share her race.
In fact, the rest of her party is split directly in half, with two being human and two being beastkin. It’s a grab bag of assorted people who don’t really fit in with any of the other parties, so I threw them all together into this temporary group.
“Glad you could join us, Rena. I hope the other Grand Elders decide to come with us next time.”
“They are contemplating their decision as we speak. If they decline, I may even ask for help from our guardian.”
“Her, huh?” I picture the Astral Dryad in my head. “Well, I’ll leave that discussion to you.”
She smiles, knowing just how much of a brat her so-called guardian really is.
“Captain!” Klaus stands tall, his muscled body one of the largest I’ve seen in this world. “Didn’t think you’d ask me to join you for something like this, but I’m glad you did.”
“As a former gladiator and ex-soldier in Belfast’s army, you’re near the top of the list when it comes to recruiting strong warriors that I trust. In fact, I want to bring the rest of the gladiators in my former lanista’s group, too. Not sure if I’ll have time, though.”
“I think they’ll all agree, if they hear it from you.”
“In that case, I’ll stop by next time I have a free moment.”
My eyes fall on the next man, who gives me a salute.
“I’m honored to be chosen to join everyone in this mission, Sir Lutz.” Cyan is as formal as ever.
“There’s no way I was gonna leave you out when you protect Lumina almost daily.”
“I’ll put my new strength to good use, I can guarantee it.”
As a former city guardsman and now a current captain of one of the Royal Guard units, Cyan has become a permanent feature at many of the royal meetings, balls, and gatherings. Though he usually sits in the background somewhere, keeping an eye out for potential trouble.
There’s another person here who was once a city guard, though she lived in Flana rather than here in Orakio. But due to a quick deal I made with King Gareth after saving one of his cities from destruction, I ended up recruiting her.
“Sir Hero.” Malene gives me a salute, similar to Cyan. “I’m ready for battle at any time.”
“Been a while, eh Malene? Tell me, how surprised were you to find out that you were transferred from your position as a city guard all the way to being one of my party members?” I fail to keep the smirk from my lips.
“W-well, I did ask the messenger to repeat his words at least three times…”
“Haha. If only I could have been there to see it.” I shrug.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a particular girl sending me a death stare. She’s been giving it to me for a while, but I’ve completely ignored her the entire time.
However, I’ve greeted literally everyone else in the sub parties except for her. No doubt she realizes that, which is why her death stare has only grown ever since I started talking to people.
“Well, that’s everybody.” I turn from Rena’s group.
“Like hell it is!” A familiar, half-crazed voice erupts from nearby. “You think I’ll just let you ignore me!?”
A scythe falls just in front of me, the tip of the blade sinking into the grassy ground.
“Oh, right.” My eyes follow the length of the scythe, until they reach the one holding it. “It slipped my mind, Agnis.”
“I’ll make your head slip from those shoulders of yours, if you keep it up!” The scythe blurs, coming right at me.
I step toward Agnis, rather than away from her, pulling her close so she can’t use her scythe properly. “If you wanted to dance so badly, you should have said so from the beginning.”
My outfit transforms into the masked uniform I used when I first met her, back when she was trying to slay the Red Dragon, Cyl. The same rose rapier appears in my hand, which I hold out as if I’m giving it to her.
“I don’t want your stupid rose!” She pushes me away, standing ready with her scythe.
“Unfortunate.” I lower my rose rapier. “But wow, you sure haven’t changed. As crazy as ever, huh?”
“You’re the freak here, going around looking like that.”
I return to my normal outfit. “It makes for a great change of pace, don’t you think? I mean, you got a good dance out of it back when we last fought. Though you might not remember the end, considering you almost died from the Limit Break Potion.”
“I’ll do it again, if I have to.” Agnis doesn’t show the least bit of hesitation.
“Well, let’s just hope the final battle goes smoothly enough that we don’t have to rely on Limit Break Potions. I do have some ready though, just in case.”
With that, I really have spoken to all the members of the sub party. And since everyone here is a royal, powerful warrior, or both, none of us have time to waste. Least of all me.
“Let’s get right to it, then.” I ready my [Fast Travel] Heroic Skill. “To the dungeon we go.”
Light vanishes as I take every single one of us to one of the most dangerous dungeons in the world, The Pallid Tomb.