The Mysterious Incident

Kisuke managed to kill all two hundred monsters and collected their magic stones. He returned to his group with a big smile over his face, "That is some good harvest. Let's go home~."

Everyone sighed and agreed with him and they started walking towards the exit of the Dungeon. As they walk, they noticed a decrease in Adventurers around and attributed it with everyone just going home.

However, they were proven wrong when a group of Adventurers led by a beautiful azure-haired woman and they came to them, 'If I remember it right, that woman should be Shakti Varma of the Ganesha Familia...' Kisuke thought as he wonders why they're coming to them.

"Excuse me. Let me take some of your time. Have you noticed something different on the upper floors of the Dungeon?" Shakti asked.

Kisuke's mind started running and few possibilities emerged in his head but it didn't change his expression and answered Shakti with a straight face, "We're sorry, but we're new Adventurers who just entered the Dungeon today, so even if there is something different, we wouldn't be able to notice it."

Shakti nodded in understanding, "I see. I'm sorry for taking your time and thank you for your response. There are reports of monsters' appearance from the upper floors are very rare or even disappeared and any changes in the Dungeon aren't a good thing. Retire for today as this situation may become dangerous. Be careful on your way up." She then walked away along with her crew, not waiting for any response coming from Kisuke and his group.

The group is quiet for a minute or two until Kuroka spoke up, "You overdid it, nya."

"...I'm reflecting," Kisuke replied.

"I doubt you're going to change how you do things..." Sona then followed up.

Kisuke grinned, "I'm doing this in deeper floors where nobody would notice~.

"However, you lot are going to stay on these floors for at least a week or two."

"Huh? Why's that? With our abilities, it won't be a problem if we go to a deeper floor and fight stronger monsters." Aika asked.

Instead of answering her, Kisuke asked a question to everyone, "Did you notice anything from watching my fight?"

"...Master is holding back a lot. You could have annihilated those monsters with a single spell." Medusa answered.

"Correct~. And it isn't for the sake of challenge like all of you are thinking." Kisuke guessed what they're thinking and they're correct. He didn't need to spend so much time with those monsters if he has nothing to gain.

Yoruichi furrowed her brows, "What do you mean?"

"You won't gain any EXP if you use any cheat code," Kisuke explained such.

"Ah..." Everyone except for Sona, Kuroka, and Medusa understood what he meant.

Seeing their confused expression, Koneko further explained, "It seems that we have to use the strength that the Falna provided us to level up..." Thanks to that, they finally understood it.

Yoruichi sighed, "This is also good. You can train your foundation. However, you'll only be training half a time in the Dungeon because the fights in here hardly teach any interpersonal battle."

Once they reached the surface, even though it's already afternoon, it seems that it's a lot busier in the Dungeon compared when they came this morning.

Conversations about what's happening in Dungeon can be heard all around with most prominent theories being, a mutation is happening inside the Dungeon or a terrifying spawned on the upper floors and annihilated all the other monsters.

The culprit, Kisuke, just passed by them without a change in expression, as if he has nothing to do with the situation.

"That is some thick face..." Aika muttered.

"He can scam others without feeling guilty. What do you expect?" Sona supplemented.

"He's just a pervert in a guise of a shopkeeper, nya," Kuroka added.

However, that last line of her caught Kisuke's attention, "Hold up there. I never disguised as a shopkeeper. I've always been a shopkeeper!"

"So it's fine to scam others but not when they question your identity as a shopkeeper?" Koneko asked.

Without any hesitation, he answered, "Yes."

Yoruichi only chuckled while the rest could only sigh.

As they got home, everyone saw Hestia sitting in front of the abandoned church, staring at the distance while waiting for them.

"Hestia-sama, we're home~!" Kisuke waved his hand and called out to her.

Hestia immediately turned her head towards the source of his voice and she smiled widely, "Welcome home~! How's your day?"

"It's great~!" Kisuke answered with satisfaction while the others could only smile wryly.

Seeing this, Hestia asked, "What happened? And I heard that there is some incident in the Dungeon about the monsters disappearing."

"Ahahaha... It seems that's the case..." Kisuke scratched his head in embarrassment.

Hestia looked at him with confusion and then transferred her sights towards his companions, "What happened?"

The girls then proceeded to describe what Kisuke did in the Dungeon in detail.

After their story, Hestia is holding her head with both of her hands while writhing in place, "You said you'll just be doing a light exploration of a floor or two... But you came back after annihilating more than 500 monsters? And to top it off, you did it alone even if there's a monster house of more than 200 monsters which is unheard of in the upper floors? Can you please tell me a more believable lie?" Instead of asking them to tell her the truth, however, she hinting them to please tell her it's a lie.

Without any word, Koneko took out a large pouch from her backpack and showed it to Hestia. Inside it is a lot of magic stones. If someone were to tell her that there are around 500 magic stones in that pouch, she would believe it.

Giving up on her established common sense, she asked, "Why are you a Level 1 with I-rank abilities?"

"Because physical abilities aren't everything~."

"...This is bad... If others were to know about this incident, I might not be able to hold into you..." Hestia's worries about the future became more apparent.

"What do you mean, Hestia-sama?" Sona asked.

"If your abilities were to be revealed, other stronger Familias would be able to force me to transfer you by initiating a so-called War-Game..."

"A War-Game? Sounds fun~." Yoruichi muttered.

"It's not! Although you're strong, you won't be able to go against those strong and established Familias!"

Kisuke, without thinking, patted Hestia's head to ease her worries, "We'll think something about it when that time is about to come. For now, let's go out for dinner."

"This bastard is doing it again..." Everyone couldn't help but mutter.

"Eh?" Hestia became confused when his hand suddenly touched her head gently, but she immediately reacted, "Don't treat me like a child!"

Kisuke only chuckled at her reaction and turned to everyone, "I'll be done within two hours so you guys can wander around for now. After I come out, I'll lead you to a pub with great food." Kisuke then walked towards their hideout to initiate his experiments on the magic stones.