CHAPTER 173(A Reasonable Man)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

---3 Weeks After The Trifecta Separated...

"For justice and for my kingdom. The dark lord must fall," Yang's mocking voice reads aloud, "on my honor, I shall rise up and be the hero this kingdom needs, only then shall I gain the respect of the people," he rolls his eyes at the pretentious words.

Shaking her head Freya shut her book.

The couple was relaxing, floating in the water only a short walk away from Melene. In this secluded area, Freya was laying on Yang's chest as he keeps them afloat with his magic, more akin to laying on a bed than floating honestly, even comfortable enough for her to read one of her newer books, only for him to dictate the words over her shoulder.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero and have people adore you," Freya says as she passes the book over to him, he immediately stores it away.

"He sounds like an idiot, why care about what people think, the kingdom literally killed his family and he still stays there," he argues.

Freya sits up, crossing her legs and turning around, effectively sitting on him as if he were a floating surfboard, feeling the warm water on her legs she adjusts her blue bikini top giving him an ample view of her chest.

"Some people grow up with stories like this you know, some people want to be heroes."

"Uh-huh, and they die fighting a battle that probably wasn't even theirs, because heroes always have to fight everyone's battles, it's dumb," he fixes her with a bored look.

"You trained your entire life to be an adventurer, did it really never occur to you that maybe you could be a hero. Save a princess, get a crown, that kind of thing?"

"What makes you think I trained my entire life to do this?" Yang asked with a perplexed look.

It was now Freya's turn to be confused," then why else would you have all these," she passes her hands across his muscular physique. "Perfect muscles for killing monsters, must have taken a lifetime to develop."

"Uh, no. I've honestly never been in a real fight until the dungeon, and I only did some swimming back home to stay healthy. Ever since I hit level two my body's just been becoming like a leaner Captain America," he says.

"Captain America?"

"Uh, right... just a really fit person."

"Ok, but you realize that isn't how Falna works, at all, right?"

"What do you mean?" Yang asked.

"Falna, it's like the gods. It's all conceptual and divine. You don't actually need muscles to move boulders just a high enough number on your Falna. Elves develop Magic faster than other races, Dwarves develop Endurance and Strength faster and so on, humans are just mud people---"

"Hey, don't be a dick," he says with a playful pout.

"Right, but you get what I mean. But Falna doesn't actually affect you physically, that's why if your numbers a high enough a knife to the heart won't actually kill you, just pull it out and throw an Elixir on it," she says.

"But my Falna makes me look like this, so what's your reasoning? I figured it was because of my magic but...you think it's something else?"

"Well," Freya lays face down on his chest, "maybe demon blood?"

"Jesus Christ," Yang groans, "I'm not a fucking demon."

"But it would explain so much if you had some kind of weird bloodline," she argues.

"But I know my parents and where they came from, definitely not demonic in any way."

"Psh, fine," she closes her eyes and listens to his heartbeat, feeling the morning sun on her face, "maybe it's best you aren't a hero honestly, I don't think you could be."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you've been coming out here to practice your swordsmanship whenever you can't sleep..."

"About that," Yang hesitates for a moment.

"It's ok, you don't have to talk about it, but did you really think I wouldn't notice you've been having trouble sleeping?"

"I was hoping."

"Too bad, but really your horrendous with a blade, physically capable but no instincts for it, I see why your Switch-axe is so big," she giggles as she continues, "you're compensating," her giggles become full-on cackling.

"Oh my god," Yang wraps his arms around her, "all that for a dick joke. But yes it's big so I don't have to be as technical with my moves. Plus my magic needs a lot of superdense material to contain six elements," he says.

"You use a six-foot-long, two hundred and forty-pound weapon, the joke wrote itself," she gets up and quickly removes her top. Yang can't help but grin at the incredible sight, knowing this was going to be another good morning, "I'm very well aware you aren't compensating for anything, so how about w---"

"Yang!" Hephaestus's voice calls out from his metal hand, completely killing the mood. Freya pouts as Yang removes his hands from her hips to respond.

"Yeah, need something? We were just about to have a pretty fun morning..."

"Ugh, it's like you're horny teenagers. Ten minutes, Denatus Chamber, emergency meeting and they want you both there."

"For the record, I'm seventeen so technically still a horny teen, and yeah we'll be there," he says before cutting off the call.

"So..." Freya frowns as she looks into the distance toward Babel, "honeymoon over?"

"For the last time, we aren't married."

"Wow," she feigns hurt, raising a hand to her chest and showing him a quivering lip, "how will we decide who the kids stay with, I can't believe this."

Yang couldn't help but laugh at her little show," you're so ridiculous. Let's get dressed and see what happened in Orario."

Walking back onto the shore they're greeted by the body of a dead monster, a plant-type monster. The petals of a flower at the neck of a venus fly-trap plant with squared human teeth in its mouth.

Around it was a smearing of purple blood from where it hit the shore after Yang threw it out of the water for trying to bite him.

Approaching the monster he takes a good look at it and shakes his head, "this from the lower floors?"

"I assumed this is from your book of new monsters, it's not?"

"Nope, never seen anything like this, it felt pretty stiff, maybe a level three or four monster. You really never seen it before?"

"Never, it must have swum out from floor twenty-seven into the lake. When Leviathan left the water palace there was a gaping hole connecting this lake to the dungeon, who knows how many species are in the water right now," Freya says.

"Probably, at least they sealed that hole, let's head back," with a wave of his hand Yang incinerates the corpse with blue flames, only for something strange to catch his eye.

Reaching into the ashes he picks up the Monster Crystal, unlike the standard purple or blue, this one was a dull brownish-yellow with strange magic flowing in it. Something he'd never seen before.

"Hey babe you ever seen this before?" he asks while walking over to Freya, showing her the odd crystal.

"No, maybe it evolved weirdly? Is this really the first time you're seeing a crystal like this?"

"Yeah, guess I'll just keep it to compare to any weird things I find," he says before storing it away with his magic. "Let's get dressed and head back."

---Denatus Chamber...

Withing a clean white room on floor thirty of Babel a group of people sits in silence. Around a large circular table, pillars at their backs with massive windows to provide a good view of the city below, the morning sun still climbing, almost eight o'clock.

At one section of the table sits Ganesh with his captain, Shakti, to his right and his vice-captain Ilta to his left. With a gap to her left is a single empty seat before another large gap until Finn, Loki and Riveria, respectively. Finn was staring down at the table, not sure how this meeting was going to play out, but his thumb was aching.

Further around the table was Tsubaki with Hephaestus to her left, an empty seat beside the goddess for where her 'vice-captain' would be. Formally known as her Expedition Leader, Yang Shen, a man most of the people in this room either tried to arrest or have executed.

And finally, there are Ottar and Allen with an empty seat between them.

As the massive white doors open once more Yang and Freya enter the room.

Both wearing simple clothes, Yang having his coat on and Freya wearing her hoodie with slightly messy hair. What really caught their eyes however was the slight tan on the goddess.

"Guess we aren't late," Yang says as they walk to their seats. "Why is everyone so tense?" he asks, ignoring the nervous looks on some of their faces as he takes his seat beside Hephaestus.

"This had better be good if it cut our beach time short," Freya says, earning strange looks from most of the attendants.

Relaxing into his seat Yang rests his metal hand on the table. Completely oblivious to some of the looks the appendage was receiving, most notably Riveria staring at it in surprise, he leans over to Hephaestus. "What's going on," he whispers. "Everyone looks so sour..."

"No idea," she whispers back, "Finn left the dungeon and called this meeting then came here, didn't even go back to Twilight Manor first."

"Of course it'd be Finn," Yang groans and rolls his eyes.

A moment later the door opens again, this time Royman walks into the room, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief as he rushes to take his seat.

"Good day everyone, "he says before turning to Finn as he takes his seat, "Braver, please begin the meeting."

"Thank you," Finn responds as all eyes turn to him. "This meeting is to discuss the results of our Extermination Mission, the mission shared by both Loki and Freya familias, the simple truth is," he takes a short breath, bracing himself to utter these words for the first time in years, "we failed."

Nobody could speak a word, this was news to all the gods aside from Loki, Royman wasn't quite sure what to even make of this event.

"That's impossible," Royman says, "the two strongest familia's were sent to hunt one monster, what happened?"

"The honest truth is, we couldn't even get close," Finn says. At these words Yang begins to actually pay attention, "the heat alone was too much, we had to retreat immediately. Anyone below level five got severe burns just from being in the safe zone, all we could do was run away and return to Orario to prepare. But I think we also need more adventurers," he gestures to Ganesha and Hephaestus, "I'd like to request aid from the other powerful teams in Orario."

"I see," Ganesha says. "If it's to defend Orario of course my children will help however we can. For I AM GANESHA!" he proudly boasts.

Glancing over to Yang, Hephaestus sees him completely uninterested and decides to speak before he does, "can you tell us exactly what happened down there?"

"Of course. We were waiting on floor fifty at the safe zone, monsters from the lower floors were rushing upward and we'd been clearing them constantly. Eventually, after the Valgang dragons ran away from our unknown target it finally breached the safe zone. We'd set up supply points with weapons, arrows, medicine. Anything we'd need. All of that became useless when the heat hit us. Anyone below level five had their skin burnt, weaker than that and your blood would literally boil and burst out of you. Thankfully we managed to retreat before anyone died."

"A monster that controls heat?" Shakti asks.

"We believe so, but the dungeon was also leaking gold," at Finn's words Yang immediately looks up, a reaction not missed by the people at the table. "Gold poured out of the tunnel before it arrived and even from the dungeon walls, it melted the stone to ascend, we couldn't stay long enough to get a proper look, unfortunately," he says

"I see," Royman speaks up. "Then the Ganesha familia will join the efforts to stop this monster," he looks over to Yang, "mister Shen, what do you believe the best course of action is?"

"Wait, what?" Yang sits up properly as everyone turns to him, "why are you asking me?"

"Lord Ouranos has informed me that you studied these monsters and predicted the dungeon change, that is why you came to Orario. I summoned you here to consult on this matter," Royman explains.

A mix of confusion and shock forms on the faces of all who were unaware of this. A tense silence punctuates the reveal until Riveria speaks up.

"You wrote the Monster Manual for the guild?" she asks.

"Yeah, I figured this would be kept quiet Royman."

"The people in this room can all be very discrete, now to the matter at hand, what do you recommend?"

"Well, I recommend you just hire my team to take care of this problem then all of you can go home. I'll take the reasonable payment of... let's say, clear us of this house arrest stuff and pay Hephaestus fifty billion. And we'll keep the drops of course," he says.

"Absolutely not," Royman says. "Not only would completely undoing the punishment set by the guild weaken our reputation by making us look weak, but you are also far too valuable to die in the dungeon, your knowledge is a necessity for Orario."

"Hmm, nope, that's not gonna work for me," Yang narrows his eyes at Royman. Hephaestus immediately feels a knot in her stomach while Freya sits back with a smirk to watch the show.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me mister guild master. See, I've already made my plan," Yang leans forward and rests his hands on the table. "In two weeks Welf finishes our new gear and we begin an expedition, that means in two weeks I walk into the guild and ask nicely for our weapons back. It's completely up to you how I leave with them but I will be leaving with them, but until then I think I'm gonna go back to the beach and relax, because this meeting is pointless."

"You cannot ignore the laws, there will be consequences," Royman threatens.

"What consequences? Laws only work as good as you can enforce them and honestly," Yang looks around the table to the three other level-seven adventurers. "I feel pretty free to do whatever I want, because I think we all know you can't enforce your laws against me."

Looking around Royman didn't see any of the adventurers willing to side with him if it pits them against Yang, even Allen was smart enough to put his emotions aside to survive.

As practiced as he was, of course the guild master changed the style of the debate, "do you really believe their lives aren't even worth trying to help. The information you have could save them and their allies. All I'm asking of you is to consult."

"Honestly, wouldn't matter," Yang responds. Everyone is surprised by his casual disregard for their familias. "Look, no offense of course, but you're all pretty fucking useless when it comes to fighting real monsters. Loki assembled a bunch of people doing their own thing that survived till high levels and calls it a team. Honestly, if all of them were level seven I doubt you'd crack floor seventy, ever. You're all kind of pointless and undeveloped. Atleast Freya's people are all dedicated soldiers, maybe if they weren't trying to kill each other to lower the number of people trying to hump her leg and get a pat on the back from her they'd get to floor seventy. But they'd probably kill each other on the way down and definitely can't work together enough to handle stuff like this," he says before leaning back into his seat.

"Honestly Royman, you might as well send every level one with crossbows, they'd have the same effect, which is none, again no offense of course," he concludes.

Everyone is stunned silent at the harsh words.

"Wow..." Loki says, "do you honestly think saying 'no offense' makes that less insulting. My kids spent their entire lives getting where they are you know!"

"And yet they're here to ask my team for help," he points out.

"He has a point," Rivera says. "We need his help. Honestly, we don't have a leg to stand on in comparison to what his team has accomplished."

"Agreed," Ottar says, much to the surprise of everyone.

Royman gives Yang an annoyed look while he responds, "unfortunately the guild's stance is immovable on this matter mister Shen."

"Well, that's unfortunate. But you need me, I don't need you, so good luck," Yang says as he gets up. As he makes his way to the door he casually calls out one more time, "I'll see you in two weeks for our weapons Royman."

"Those have been confiscated by the guild. They shall not be returned until we see it fit," the man says.

Yang immediately stops walking, slowly turning to give the Elf an unimpressed look.

"Oh, really?" At his words the entire room is suddenly nervous, Freya cracks a smile. Her heart racing and a small blush on her face as she sees what she's been waiting so long for. "And who is gonna stop me, one of them?" he gestures to the people at the table. "Maybe all of them?...No, I don't think they'll even try, they're too smart for that. And the next guild master would be smarter than that too," Yang gives him a polite smile before turning and leaving the room.

"You may have just killed us," Finn says in a somber tone, a blank look on his face as he stares at the table.

"I cannot have the guild look weak, it would cause chaos. We cannot let Orario fall back into the dark age," Royman says.

"Unless you give him what he wants he'll never help you," Freya finally speaks up. "He's finally done playing by your rules."

"Nonsense," Royman argues, "Lady Heph---"

"No I can't," Hephaestus cuts him off. "I can't make him or his team do anything. Honestly, the only reason he didn't do this earlier is that my familia would suffer repercussions for their actions."

"Which you brilliantly removed when you ruled that The Trifecta would be held apart including all punishments," Loki points out. "So we're screwed, crap."

"Completely," Freya says. "The only things he really cares about are his adventure and his team, if the guild gets in his way or threats his team, bye-bye guild."

"Then I guess I'm done here," Hephaestus says as she gets up. Tsubaki silently follows her as they walk to the door, "send me a list of whatever the guild is sponsoring for this expedition, I'll triple the bill and send it back," she says. Deciding to take after Yang and put the guild in the hot seat to make back some of her money.

As the door shuts behind the women Freya is the first to break the silence, "so, what now?"

"I don't know," Finn says. "He and his team were the only things I could think of to fix this, maybe if we have enough magic swords we can just use our numbers. That could work but, I just don't know..."

"Congratulations Royman," Riveria says, "you may have just killed a lot of good adventurers..."

END CHAPTER---

This chapter came out late because I was sleeping literally all day :/