Chapter 135 - Audiences with the gods

Each nation who had been at the feast finished their preparation and shared their meal towards the people. Beside Justine and Trese the rest of his lover were eating with hesitation since every Meal was native meal to them. 

While the two who lived in Ryuu's homeland ate his meal preparing something that they had knowledge of. The other nation representative tasted his meal and was delighted by the savory flavor each meal had. 

"This is bloody delicious!? What is it made out of??"

"Most blood and pork."

"Really!? As expected of Evil god of blood."

Ryuu wryly smiled at the misunderstanding since he wasn't really an evil god but didn't try correcting them. He does appreciate how rich the minerality of the blood from a Noble orc is.   

It may appear cannibalism but he already consumes far too many humanoids that he remains unfazed. 

"Hey Ryuu-sama! Try this!! It's our hometown specialty!"

Miia showed grilled monster rats that were native to their country of Lamia nation. Ryuu took the skewer and took a bite. It was surprising how flavor a rat could be.

"Whoa! This is amazing!! It's nothing like I was expecting."

"That makes me really happy~"

She warmly smiled hearing her mate compliment the dish. He wasn't lying having tasted a few bizzare meals in his younger years namely the infamous "Pagpag" which is just a recook of leftovers from trash, mostly fast food restaurants that are clean and cooked using the meat from the leftovers to make a new dish.

It is as disgusting as it sounds but Ryuu couldn't be picky and still enjoyed the meal. Therefore even eating some crickets or this rat skewer made him unfazed.

"Delicious~! Mochi is just the best!"

He turned to see Mitsuri took mochi first without eating other meals first and stuffing her cheek with the gooey dish. It was rather adorable how her cheek puff while eating the mochi. 

"Whoa careful now, Mitsuri, the mochi won't go anywhere you know?"

Ryuu chuckled before seeing her blush realize what she was doing and buried her face into his chest much to his amusement. He let her calm down while taking a few more bites of his meal and listening to how few of the females from the other nation tried to court their male allies like Borkus and Bone man. 

He's supposed to be on the list but Justine was guarding her man from thots making him laugh before patting her head calming her down.

"Stop worrying, I swear I don't have any intention of having more women."

"I feel that you would say that often."

Trese who was closed by joining their conversation. Her guess would come true in the near future but for now Ryuu shrugged it off. Meanwhile, Justine leans back to relax her body enjoying her lover's caresses. 

"You know you'll raise flags if you keep denying that you're a chick magnet."

"I'm flattered but like I said I'm not a heroic Goddess of Vida…why is it so difficult to convince them?"

Few of the Vida devotees showed interest in Kie increasing her popularity as someone closely resembles their head goddess. They were paying respect and gratitude for everything they've done. 

"Come on, Kaa-san. I think it looks good if you pretend to be Miko( Priestess )!"

"Nezuko, it just feels really embarrassing. I'm just a human trying my best to help others."

Kie sees her action as nothing more than trivial wanting to show for anyone to value their life and never take risk that is certain death.

However, the collective view of her in the eyes of the Vida race was already accumulating and followed her beliefs treating it as words of their goddess. She's unaware that this would lead to her turning into a Guider herself. 

"I don't see any problem with that since you'll be able to shine more hope upon these people."

"Why don't we toast for our victory and formally welcome Miia-chan to our group?"

Kanae poured some alcohol as they continued the feast making Miia smile as she was being treated by everyone. She didn't feel out of place and was welcome with open arms once Justin stopped being dramatic.

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Heading down to B-class dungeon Great flesh Den where at the bottom was the holy ground where one would be able to communicate with the gods.

The people exploring the dungeon were Ryuu, Miia, Vandalieu, Myuze, Ginazia, Budarion and lastly Godwin who looked defeated after the prince noble orc denounced his kingdom to remain as the leading empire after the disgrace that his brother had done.

Being a Majin that has unlimited lifespan which meant they were unable to die of old age had planned on retiring and now that there is no leading kingdom would likely fall into him of the responsibility leading the empire. 

With Budarion leading the way, as he already knew the correct way to go to reach the end as quickly as possible, the party was able to keep the number of battles they needed to fight to a minimum.

And as for the traps and ambushes, Vandalieu could see through them with the Labyrinth Construction Skill and the Danger Sense: Death spell, so even the few battles that they did need to fight were easily won.

Of course, this Dungeon had been designed to turn away those who were below Rank 10, so there were no difficulties with Budarion present, as he had already reached Rank 12.

Even the Dungeon boss on the bottom floor was killed by Budarion in a single instant. Ryuu took the privilege to add them into his arsenal of monsters expanding his biomass even further.

The party would enter the place beyond the boss chamber, the treasure chamber that also served as holy grounds for gods to descend upon, but before that, Budarion explained the rules of the holy grounds.

When a god descended upon the Great Flesh Den, the Dungeon would become a space resembling a Divine Realm. Thus, those granted an audience with the god would be in a state similar to having their bare souls exposed, allowing them to appear before the gods.

Thus, they must not look up under any circumstances. The minds of those with mortal souls would not last if they looked upon the gods. They had to kneel on the ground and look down for the entire duration of the audience.

"Muh, as expected of the former emperor. The way you approach holy grounds is special as well," Godwin murmured.

Without any particular doubts, Ryuu obeyed Budarion's instructions. He had already directly met gods such as Fidirg, and Zozogante, but there was no guarantee that he would be fine after looking directly at Mububujenge.

Though, he had [ Gamer Mind ] was still too reluctant despite knowing what the evil gods look like based on the novel. He kneeled on the ground and looked down, but he then noticed that Budarion, Miia and the others who were supposed to be next to him weren't there.

Instead, on the ground that he was staring at, there were people, small enough to be placed in the palm of his hand, and there was a strange being on the edge of his vision.

The silhouettes appeared to be Miia and the others. He couldn't see their faces, as they were on their knees as well (with Miia being in a posture similar to kneeling), looking at the ground. But it was likely them…though Ryuu didn't know why they had become smaller.

'Hold on? What does my soul look like?'

Ryuu pondered as he turned to the side and saw something far too inhuman even though his only seeing part of it could already tell how grotesque it appeared.

Eyes and mouths overlapping endlessly with conjoined arms and legs with varying sizes that combined together what seemed to be Vandalieu.  

And he didn't recognize the strange being entering his field of vision. The silhouette resembled a plump human, lying down with their chin in their hands.

But its body surface was covered in writhing masses of flesh and tumors that were repeatedly expanding and contracting, and there were enormous lips shaped like those of humans around its abdomen; this being could not be called a human.

In fact, it wasn't even clear whether this could be called a person, but Ryuu could see that this 'thing' was looking at him and trembling for some reason.

"T-Thank you for coming, Vandalieu." 

A feminine voice could be heard accompanied by the wet flesh colliding with another that Ryuu recalls the voice of Merrebeveil. He may be wrong since this is the first he would meet her.

Her voice seems to be bewildered directed at him by Ryuu of what kind of form his soul is. 

"Yes. It is an honor to be invited here," 

Said Vandalieu in greeting, still keeping his eyes pointed downwards. Ryuu remained listening to their conversation with Vandalieu allowed to look up.

"You two, Ryuu. Anyone else please keep your head down and never try to look up."