43- Plan and Desire

A Red Lizardman leaped towards Calvin Swinging his Rusty Sword downwards.

Any normal adventurer would just dodge that attack but Calvin wanted to test his strength.

Unsheathing gram in a quick motion he readied himself to take the attack head-on making his arms turn shiny black- with dark blue on the edges.

*Klang! *

Both swords collided making a loud sound resonate around the cave and sending a somewhat painful vibration through Calvin's arms.

The Lizardman then slashed again prompting Calvin to block it and slash at the Lizardman making him dodge and jump at Calvin once again.

As Calvin was fighting the lizard man the room suddenly lit up letting the rest of the team see, finding that the whole room was filled with monsters.

"What!?" Welf exclaimed dodging an attack from the various monsters around them.

"Stay together" Bell said making Welf, Mikoto, and Learner make a circle formation around Wiene and Haruhime.

As they were defending waves of different attacks, Learner was just looking at the monsters in front of her, none of them daring to make a move.

*Cling*

Suddenly the sound of metal hitting the ground was heard making everybody turn their heads.

It was the blade of a sword that hit the ground it seemed like in the last encounter between Calvin and the lizard man, Gram had managed to cut through the lizard's Sword.

The lizard looked at the now broken sword for a moment before throwing it a Calvin, making him swing his sword at the projectile changing its direction and embedding itself in a nearby pillar.

*Raaaaaaa!*

The lizard growled before going at Calvin with its claws, making him dodge and block some of its attacks before noticing that the lizard man wasn't going for the kill but just trying to harm him.

'What?' He thought, as all the monsters he had encountered went for the kill all the time.

He then took a glance to the side and saw that learner wasn't being attacked at all by the monsters around her.

'I see then' He thought putting his attention back on the lizardman and pointing his hand at it.

"[Sense grafting: Sight, Balance]" Calvin said making the lizard's sight go to the ceiling of the cave along with his balance making it trip forwards.

[39/40 Bent remaining]

As the lizard was falling forwards Calvin spoke again.

"[Shaping]" Making Gram's blade Circular, making it look like a metal bat.

[38/40 Bent remaining]

When the lizard came to its senses the first thing, he saw was a metal bat coming at his face.

"This is for testing me!" Calvin said swinging Gram at the lizard's head with his full strength making a metallic *Bonk* sound and making the lizard fall to the side with stars dancing around his head.

"hu… hu… hu… hehehehe" The lizard laughed while on the ground.

"Enough!" Another voice was heard from above making everyone look at it.

It was what one would describe as a harpy, but a well knowing adventurer would know that it was a siren with golden feathers and blue on the tips, she was wearing clothes similar to that of an Amazoness.

Her yell was enough to make every monster in the room stop attacking the group.

"I told you not to test him" she said to the lizard man making him get up and sit cross-legged while holding his head that was still spinning.

"Sorry, sorry, I just couldn't help myself" he said scratching the back of his head.

The team looked at their interaction with a raised eyebrow not understanding what was going on.

Learner on the other hand was looking around seeing the different types of monsters with curiosity.

"Sorry about that, the name's Rido, as you can see I'm a lizardman" he said extending his hand at Calvin.

"Calvin, a human I guess…" Calvin said shaking the lizard's hand, after all, he wasn't an asshole, some might think that he doesn't have any respect for anyone but that's not true at all Kala taught him everything about etiquette and courtesy, he even learned to respect his enemies, after all, he didn't know their story or what happened to them to become enemies with himself.

There were some exceptions to this, those being mindless monsters, idiots, and crazy bitches an example of those 3 in a single person would be Nadia.

Rido then made his way to Bell and went for a handshake too, Bell hesitated for a moment before extending his hand too.

"N-nice to meet you, Rido" Bell said.

"Nice, nice!" Rido said shaking Bell's hand.

The Siren then landed near Wiene and said "I'm Ray, what's your name little one?"

"My name is Wiene!" Wiene said in a happy and somewhat proud tone.

"Hooray!" Various monsters exclaimed and got closer to the group greeting them and asking various questions.

'Amazing, a whole community of these… monsters? More like people, a new race born from the dungeon itself' Learner thought looking at the various types of monsters all around.

She then realized that not a single monster dared to talk to her until a small rabbit came close to her.

"M-miss… w-what are you?" The little monster said trembling in fear.

"I am the peak evolution of monsters" she said because when she received the Blessing from Hestia, magic entered her range of control making her more of a monster than she already was.

Learner's words made the little rabbit widen its eyes in awe as it never thought such a terrible creature existed.

She then crouched down and patted the bunny's head and pulling out a strand of its fur.

Bringing it closer to her face, her pupils started shrinking and expanding before she saw something and her eyes went back to normal.

'It seems like these monsters are just like Wiene just different types of it' She thought as the strand of white fur sunk into her skin.

When all the monsters calmed down, Bell suddenly spoke.

"But… just what ARE you guys?" Bell said in a serious tone

"We are the Xenos!" The 'Xenos' said in unison.

"Then it was you who gave us the mission?" Bell asked.

"Well… it wasn't us but Fels, he told us that you would come here with… Wiene was it?" Rido said looking at Wiene and receiving a nod from her.

"But what was the purpose of it?" Bell asked again.

"We wanted you to see that we are not a danger to humans, Fels told us that you were the best option if we wanted to get this message to the surface" Ray said.

"But why me?" Bell said not believing that such a heavy load was about to get dropped on his shoulders.

"Because you have a kind heart" Ray said and pointed at Wiene "you are the only one who would save a 'monster'"

"But Calvin-" Bell was about to say that Calvin encountered Wiene first but was cut off by Ray.

"He is an exception" Ray said catching Calvin's attention.

"What do you mean by that?" Calvin asked the Siren.

"The dungeon seems to be observing you, but I don't know if that is good or bad, it could mean more or less challenge depending on how the dungeon sees you, for example, the Dungeon created this safe space and many more for us the Xenos" Ray said extending her arms signaling the whole room they were in.

"This could mean that his encounter with Wiene was planned from the start, and judging from what Fels told me about him, there is no chance that he would gain the hearts of people like someone like you would" Ray said to Bell.

"Well… that might be true" Bell said, remembering how he never talked to anyone other than those in the Familia.

Calvin felt a little upset about those words but he didn't say anything as it was true, he just talked to Ais and a few more people outside the Familia but that didn't mean that he should talk to more people, after all, he had a single objective in mind 'get stronger'.

'But why would the dungeon observe me? Maybe it knows I'm not from here?' Calvin thought holding his chin.

After that Ray and Rido, talked to bell about what could be done to spread the message, as simply telling people that Xenos weren't bad wouldn't work.

"Maybe we could do some sort of announcement in the center of Orario" Bell said only to get rejected by everyone.

"That would be bad for the Xenos as many humans hold grudges against Monsters" Ray said making sighing.

"That would alert high-level Familias" Welf added.

"And it could mean that there would be expeditions for the sole purpose of killing Xenos" Lily said making Bell gasp in horror.

"Then what about-" Bell was about to give another idea but was interrupted by Calvin.

"I think your plan is perfect Bell, but it needs something before it" Calvin said making everyone look at him urging him to keep going.

"What I'm saying is that you need a reason for them to be grateful, what if Xenos start Saving humans before they are hurt or killed, then when enough people have been saved, you could do the announcement" he said.

"Even if it's more aggressive than I would like, I think that it would be a succeeding plan" Ray said.

"Then we should start as soon as possible, to save as many adventurers as we can" Rido said.

'Hahaha, save a distressed individual and you are suddenly the best person in the world, right?' Calvin thought.

"Shut up Rido, you should stop eating the nonsense these humans are feeding you" A Dragon-like Xenos spoke from the back of the room.

"Gros… I know you don't like humans but it's the only option we have if we want to do this peacefully" Rido said looking back at the gargoyle Xenos.

"We can make a better plan, one that doesn't involve us saving that scum" Gros said from his seat.

"Hey!" Lili said a bit upset that Gros was insulting all of the humans.

"Shut up midget, I have my reasons to dislike humans, especially those like him" He said looking straight into Calvin's eyes with his stone-like eyes.

"Those who deceive, kill, and hunt for fun" Gros said, making Calvin raise an eyebrow as if not knowing what he was talking about, seeing this, Gros narrowed his eyes.

"Is that how you see all humans on the surface?" Bell said making Gros put his attention on him.

"Aren't you all the same? Do you not have your own selfish desires too?" Gros said making Bell think for a little.

'Do I have a selfish desire?' He thought.

"I do have one, I want to be a hero no matter what and have the power to protect everyone I know" Bell said making Gros look at him weirdly.

'Maybe this kid is just an idiot' he thought.

"And how is that a selfish desire?" He asked.

"Because no matter how much they tell me to stop I will keep going no matter how much they worry for me, as it is my wish" Bell said remembering all the times Hestia had told him to stop being an adventurer and cried whenever he got hurt.

Hearing his response Gros thought that he might be able to make Xenos's dream come true but that didn't mean that he wasn't angry that they would start to save humans.

"And I promise that ill change your view of humans" Bell said pointing at Gros with determined eyes.

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My finals are up so there wont be a chapter next week although ill release 2 or 3 chapters the week after that one.

also what do you think sounds better Lili or Lily i keep writing it as 'Lily' because thats what seems logical but then i remember that its a name.