2 2.1 Dungeon City, Orario

A/N: Webnovel no format allow me...

Here is a bit of a key:

{this is The Game talking to the MC and also system messages}

"This is speaking out loud"

'This is thoughts'

{{{This is Ddraig talking}}}...

Heh, just kidding

-----------------------------------

There was no sense of time passing nor of distance travelled. One moment he was standing in the oppressive darkness and the next, he was on solid ground.

The low sounds of people talking, horses neighing or pawing at the ground, carriage wheels turning and boots stepping on stone came to him all at once and Ramiel opened his eyes to a breathtaking sight that would stay with him until his dying day.

Gigantic, sheer stone walls taller than any he had ever seen with barely visible parapets, battlements and guard towers, all interspaced along the top at regular intervals, filled his vision.

The huge expanse of grey stone stretched out in a gentle curve as far in each direction as the eye could possibly see. It was an impossible feat of engineering that took his breath away.

The road on which he stood, was wide enough for six, four-horse carriages to sit abreast and fully paved with large square slabs of pristine stone.

It led up to an opening in the wall that he knew had to be one of the main city gates, only something of that size and majesty deserved to be called so.

The arch itself was wide open, at least thirty meters tall, a dozen wide and had a few meters of portcullis left visible at its peak that was shining brightly in the rays of the early morning sun.

Through the tunnel connecting the open gates, buildings of all kinds of different shapes, sizes, colours and styles were faintly visible and Ramiel could only stand there in a daze.

Nothing, literally nothing could have prepared him for the sheer size and breadth of those city walls.

He had seen skyscrapers before, visited the Pyramids of Egypt, walked along the Great Wall of China and climbed more than his fair share of mountains yet it all seemed to pale in comparison to the literal man-made jungle spreading out before him.

No wonder people could be born, live their entire lives and die in Orario without ever leaving the city gates. It was. Just. That. Massive.

'How on earth are those walls even able to stay in one piece? The sheer size, weight and mass should have caused them to collapse in on themselves.'

{Magic.}

'Yes, yes. It was a rhetorical question but still, it's one hell of a sig-'

"Hey, kid! Get a move on will ya!" A surprisingly gentle slap on the shoulder, followed by a gruff voice that sounded more amused than irritated, broke Ramiel from his thoughts.

The voice and contact originated from a rough-looking middle-aged man with a scraggly beard, dressed in leather armour and with a few wildfowl strung up over one shoulder.

Clearly, the man was a Hunter or trap setter or something similar.

Ramiel apologised to the man and turned to follow the line of people that had started moving towards the open gate while making sure to keep a hand on the small leather satchel attached to his waist.

The satchel contained everything he owned in this world, a few thousand Valis, his identification papers and the paperwork for claiming the rest of the Valis he would get from selling 'his' farmstead.

Once it started moving forward, the line never slowed and it was only a few minutes of bantering with the Game and gazing at a structure that was casually sat there, defying the laws-of-physics, until Ramiel found himself through the outer gate and once again gawking at the thickness of the city walls.

Before he knew it, he had travelled through over 20m of what was effectively a huge stone tunnel to some sort of halfway guard station/border crossing zone and found himself face to face with a tanned and sturdy looking city guard just a few years older than himself.

"Name and reason for visiting Orario today?" The guard asked him.

"Ramiel Gedeon." He replied to the guard in an even tone and wasn't surprised in the least when the man's eyebrows rose ever so slightly at the strange Abrahamic sounding words.

{Heh.}

'Fuck you.'

"Firstly, I am here for business with the Guild and the Demeter familia and then afterwards I will hopefully take some time to find a familia to call my own and become an adventurer." He continued while rummaging inside the satchel for his paperwork.

The man gave him a once over, nodded with a small smile, and held out a hand. "Identification."

Ramiel passed over the identification, which was really just a piece of paper with his date of birth and the village chief's signature on it, along with the letter he had received from the Demeter familia.

The man nodded and as he walked over to a nearby table just inside the half-covered front of the guard station/border crossing zone and started rifling through the pieces of parchment Ramiel took a second to get a good look at the man...

He was dressed in a similar uniform to all the other guards nearby and sporting some steel armour, leather greaves and braces, a half helm and a shortsword on his hip.

The thing that really stood out though, were the looks of respect that the other guards directed towards him. Oh, and the large kite shield-shaped insignia with an elephant's head inside it that was printed on his breastplate.

The man also gave off a subtle feeling of power that Ramiel couldn't quite put into words, although, it definitely caused his spidey senses to tingle when the man was in close proximity and so he did the only thing in this situation that made any sense to him as the Gamer.

He cheated.

'Observe'

...

{Name: Jamil}

Job: City Guard

Level: 2(+)

Familia: Ganesha

??? : ???

...

Well, at least he knew where the feeling of power came from. The guy could likely snap him in two just like that and if the plus meant what he thought it did then the guard was able to rank up to Level 3 as well.

'Ganesha familia, huh.' A familia of monster tamers, in fact, they were the largest familia within Orario and after the fall of the Astrea familia to Evilus, the unofficial peacekeepers of the city.

They were also extremely well known within Orario for running both the colosseum and the Monster Feria festival.

Ramiel shook his head lightly... that, and the fact that the entire familia lived inside a giant statue of their God called 'I am Ganesha!'. The front door of which was actually located in its crotch if he was remembering it correctly.

{At least one of the Gods around here has a sense of Humour.}

He watched on as another group of adventurers passed through beside him while happily chatting along with each other before they headed out into the vast city before them.

They were all sporting crests he had never seen before, a mark that proved they had taken a step beyond the limits of what constituted as human and gained the blessing of a God, and nobody was paying them any damn attention whatsoever!

It was as if the sight were common!

Ramiel reached a shaky hand into his jacket pocket, pulled a box of cigarettes and a lighter out and lit one up.

...

{Self Replenishing Spirit Herb Cigarettes: Pack of 20}

CHA + 20: Must remain on person

{Self Refilling Lighter}

Must remain on person

...

'What happened to good old cancer-inducing tobacco leaves and nicotine for taking the edge off, huh?' He continued despite the internal complaints. Though inhaling the smoky goodness and then being able to physically feel [Gamers Body], destroying the minute impurities a moment later was rather strange but it still helped him to calm down nonetheless.

[Gamers Mind] Could help him to control his facial expressions and emotions to an extent but not his body's natural nervous reactions to this sudden sensory overload when all of this was just beginning to truly set in for the young man.

This was actually real, he was here in the Danmachi world and about to set foot into the city of Orario.

Although he hadn't seen one yet, the Gods walked the earth among the mortals here and within this massive city, there were hundreds of them, if not more and the proof of that very fact was looking over his documents.

Pure. Unadulterated. Madness!

Familia's were so ingrained into everyday life here that most people paid adventurers of low and mid-level Familia no mind. They would only incline their heads or move out of the way slightly at most and even ignore them completely in some cases.

Ramiel was so inherently used to the concept of 'God' being vague and unreachable, portrayed by a mere collection of indistinct yet well-worded stories designed to gain control of the masses through the promise of salvation, that seeing the proof of their existence felt… surreal.

Admittedly, the entire situation baffled and overwhelmed the young man for the first few moments after that realisation struck, but thankfully, he would adapt quickly, he always had.

The young man finished his cigarette, crushing the smoking butt underfoot for a few seconds before it vanished completely, and began running a now less shaky hand through his hair when he noticed Jamil jogging back over to him.

"Here you go Ramiel. The paperwork all checks out fine and I prepared a new identification for you with an Orario pass stamped on it. Keep hold of this and you will be able to come and go as you please from now on. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Actually, there is. Could you point me in the direction of the guild please?"

"Sure, Once you get through the gates, just head down the main street towards Babel and the guild is around halfway down on the right-hand side. It's a huge building and you can't miss it." Jamil gestured with his hand towards the inner gate.

"Thanks for the information. If I see you around in the city, I'll be sure to get you a round or two."

Jamil laughed good-naturedly. "I'll hold you to that then. With looks like yours, you can even wingman me, ahaha! The pass is gonna set you back 1000 Valis."

Jamil handed all of the paperwork back with an easygoing smile and as Ramiel put it away in his satchel he couldn't help but think that the guard seemed lax.

That thought was immediately put to rest as the young man rifled through his pockets for some coins and happened to meet the guard's eyes.

Inside he saw a hint of sharpness and vigilance, it was hidden well but Ramiel caught it nonetheless. Jamil also realised he had been outed and an ever so slight smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

'I shouldn't be surprised, but this guy isn't simple. He wasn't being lax, he adopted the posture to keep my guard down. He also knew that I could never get away from him...'

With newfound respect, Ramiel handed over the coins and shook the guard's hand before saying farewell, passing through the gate onto a wide street and taking his first steps into the city of Orario.

-----------------------------------

Atop the world...

An incredibly beautiful and alluring silver-haired woman, dressed in a revealing black and crimson bodysuit, swirled a glass of expensive red wine in her hand as she stood among the clouds and gazed down at the world below with boredom.

Her deep purple irises glowed slightly, reflected in them was a bustling cityscape filled with millions of dim, murky, glowing lights and her expression slowly changed from boredom to one of utter contempt.

From the look on her face, it was as if she believed that just by the nature of its existence alone, the world below her would do nothing more than dirty her eyes, yet she couldn't, nay, wouldn't look away.

She gripped the glass in her hand so tightly that tiny cracks began to form along its surface. The impurity of It all was as suffocating as it was infuriating.

Her luscious red lips pursed together and she took a deep breath, that wasn't where her irritation had come from, not really.

The Loki Familia had headed down into the Dungeon again yesterday for another deep floor expedition. As if their younger members weren't already growing stronger at an alarming enough rate as it was, especially that half spirit girl…

She licked her lips at the prospect of personally 'training' the sword princess but put that thought to rest as soon as it came. The flat-chested trickster was not an easy opponent and the insufferable woman would never give over her precious Aisu.

The fact that the Loki Familia had overtaken her own as the strongest in Orario in the eyes of the common people mattered little to her but the fact that the interesting members of the woman's familia would be forever out of her reach… did.

If only she could get her hands on them, they could become something truly great. She wouldn't parade them all over the city, advertising their presumed 'strength' to anyone who would listen. No, she would mould them into something special, something more...

It was safe to say that the title of Orario's strongest Familia meant absolutely nothing to her.

She already had in her hands, the city's strongest two adventurers and more wealth than most nation's treasuries. 'The King' and 'Vana Freya' were completely loyal to her alone, and if she wanted to be more public, her Familia's other members could easily rival the trickster Goddess' in strength.

If she ever truly desired to suppress or destroy them, all it would take from her, would be a few simple words and most of the Male Gods in Orario would answer her call to arms.

The trouble was, she cared very little for any of that. If you had won before you even began, where was the fun in any of it?

No, what she really wanted was a hero, she wanted to challenge them, to test them, to mould them in her image, she wanted an equal... and more than anything, she wanted to finally meet her Odr.

The Goddess sighed again and went to turn away from the windows when she saw a flash of something out of the corner of her eye. Something new… something… different, something she had never before seen within a mortal soul.

A familiar yet foreign heat suffused within her mortal coil and rapidly gathered in her loins as anticipation, lust, hope and desire were birthed in equal proportion.

Heart beating loudly in her chest, the Goddess frantically turned her vision towards the North-Western gate and her eyes opened widely as they finally gazed upon something interesting.

A faint rainbow-hued light surrounding the most handsome white-haired youth she had ever laid eyes upon yet she had never seen him before...

'He must be new to the city.' She thought to herself with absolute surety. Nobody, who looked as good as he did, would be able to remain unknown in Orario for long and he certainly wouldn't have been able to escape her own twisted interest.

There was also something strange happening to the people in his near vicinity, he seemed to have some sort of attractive force about him as the eyes of almost everyone followed him wherever he went.

As she stared blankly at his figure, she also felt something more from the young man... he had a faint aura of danger surrounding him, as if her senses were telling her to be careful of provoking him, despite having neither Falna nor any sort of conventionally recognisable strength.

It was intriguing, to say the least...

The longer she watched him, the more pleasing to the eye he became but no matter how much she stared at him, there seemed to be no way for her to get a good read on his aura.

Whenever she tried to truly focus on gazing into his soul rather than his person, the light seemed to become blurred, obscured and out of focus.

After trying and failing a few times, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows knitted together to form a frown of frustration that could pierce the hearts of Gods and men alike, forcing the lesser among them to take up arms for a mere chance at assuaging her troubles.

She persisted, accessing the source of her power. Even knowing full well that she was taking a huge risk, she continued, caring not for the possible backlash or consequences and her eyes glowed brighter than ever before.

*Crash* The wine glass slipped from her hand and smashed on the floor as she took a shaky step forward and placed her hands against the window, eyes never leaving the young man's figure.

"...Beautiful…" Her fingertips traced the glass as she watched further despite every fibre of her being screaming at her to stop and shuddered as she slipped down to her knees.

Desperate, heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from outside the room and suddenly, the doors to the room were thrown open with a loud bang, revealing a huge Boaz man with a look of deep concern on his hardened features.

The giant of a man fell to his knees in front of her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, only to pale in horror at the sight of two lines of blood running down her cheeks.

He felt a burning pain in his chest at the thought of his Lady, his mother, being harmed and took her into his arms protectively. "My Goddess! What happened? Are you alright?"

The Goddess, never looking away from the window, smiled her most beautiful smile and brought both of her hands to her chest.

"...Ottar, I-I have finally found him. I must have him. He must be mine. ...mine ...ine" She murmured over and over until her desperate words became nothing more than a hoarse whisper. Ultimately, everything seemed to become too much for her mortal body to handle and her consciousness faded as she collapsed into the large man's arms.

---------------------------------

Inside a darkened stone chamber, far beneath Orario's guild, there stood a huge marble throne, the back of which stretched a dozen meters into the air and was covered in esoteric runic diagrams depicting the sun, moon, stars and sky.

It was the very epitome of oppressive grandeur and upon it sat an equally impressive giant of a man in his later years with shoulder-length grey hair, surrounding him and suffusing the air of the entire chamber was an aura of unfathomable power.

He wore a simple dark hooded cloak, his refined features formed into a stoic mask with a hint of underlying concern as he listened to the only other occupant of the room, a man dressed entirely in black robes, make a report about the dungeon's increased activity.

Suddenly, he felt it, a subtle use of Arcanum from the direction of Babel tower, not enough to constitute an attack or even a breach of the rules but for what reason she would deign to test him like this, he could not fathom.

Intrigued and mildly irritated, he raised a hand for his assistant to stop the ongoing report and followed the trail of the somewhat sloppily used Arcanum. When he found the target, his eyes flashed with azure light and a sharp intake of breath broke his trademark stoicism. just. like. that.

The soul was like nothing he had ever seen before...

Undeniably beautiful rays of revolving rainbow coloured light surrounded a young man as he made his way through the streets of the city above.

Two golden clouds of the purest shape-shifting and possibly living energy, lazily rotated around him, connected to the boy through what could only be described as a myriad of threads of fate as they basked and frolicked around in the young man's natural aura.

At the centre of it all, a vast and violent swirling darkness, chaos incarnate, an event horizon given physical form, both infinite and minuscule at the same time, immaterial and all-encompassing.

He couldn't help himself but to gaze deeper...

Suddenly, the black hole violently undulated and began to expand at a terrifying pace.

In the blink of an eye it had covered Orario, consuming everything in its path, the larger it got, the faster it grew until mere seconds had passed and the entirety of the lower world was no more.

When there was nothing left for it to consume, the mass of terrifying darkness turned towards the very fabric of reality itself, ripping through the void as if a piece of tissue paper and near-instantly reaching Tenkai.

The true world of the God's where their real bodies lay. They never stood a chance...

Then as if nothing ever happened the man found himself back in the dimly lit prayer chamber, still seated on his throne across from his robed assistant and gasping for air as cold sweat trickled down his back.

When was the last time he had felt fear like that?

Never, that was the answer.

"My Lord?" His assistant asked in a concerned voice but he waved the man off in favour of giving his undivided attention to reading the words that had somehow settled across his vision.

{Just Kidding.}

Truth.

The man on the throne raised his hand, willed his own Arcanum forth and a shimmering screen formed in the air. On it was the image of a young man.

Before he could act, the text in front of him wriggled and multiplied, covering his vision again and forming into something else, something terrifying yet somehow reassuring.

{That was a warning.

You may test him and even make things difficult for him if there is a valid reason but target him personally and what you just saw will become a reality. I don't need this world to exist if he is not part of it any longer.}

Truth.

The previous words died on the man's tongue before they were ever able to leave his mouth...

A feeling of helplessness, one that he had not felt since the grand war of the Gods countless millennia ago, washed over him and it took several long moments for him to properly recollect his thoughts.

"Notify the staff, when this young man registers with the guild, I wish to meet with him immediately." When he finally gathered himself enough to speak, it was in a deep and baritone voice suffused with power, unbidden and authority unquestionable as it resounded throughout the chamber.

"As you will, My Lord." The robed man bowed low and simply... disappeared.

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