Chapter 26 His True Goal?

I awoke with pain lancing throughout my entire body. My eyelids fluttered trying to bring me back to sleep, but the final moments before I went unconscious ran through my mind. I sat up and felt an agonizing rip on my side. I groaned and placed my left hand over the pain, but realized my hand felt stiff. Putting it in front of my face I saw a cast with a bit of fresh blood on the tip.

"Kova…"

I froze and looked to the side, Ma and Da were sitting next to my bed. There was worry in their eyes, but Ma had another emotion dominating her gaze. Anger.

"Heyyyyy Ma."

She continued to silently glare at me.

"So Da how's life in the new Familia, I hope you're not having trouble with calibrating the equipment."

Da didn't say anything, he obviously wasn't angry like Ma, but I knew she'd be pissed if we just started chatting normally. Still I needed the lifeline.

"If you ever need help with some of the work I can always help of course. I miss when we would work in the forge to-"

Ma placed her hands over my reopened wound checking it.

"Kova," She said quietly. "You could have died. Your ribs broke, they could have punctured a lung and you would have drowned in your own blood. That cut could have crippled your leg. Your neck could have snapped after hitting the wall and they had to dig you out of the rubble."

She said all of that flatly with only a slight tremor in her voice.

"I-"

"Drink this," she said, handing me a small cup with a healing potion. "I'm going to re-suture that wound."

Silence permeated the room as she worked. I looked at Da who just imitated zipping his lips.

"I'm proud that you stepped up to help others, especially at such a young age… But you are at such a young age Kova, others are supposed to protect you," Ma said.

I didn't talk back taking Da's advice to heart.

Once she was done she sat back and silence fell again.

"Did ya really jump in just to save a girl?" Da asked.

"Deion!" Ma said.

"What? I wanted to know if my boy found a girl he liked. I need to give him tips on how to woo a woman."

"Oh? Because you're so suave?"

"I got ya didn't I."

"I was just amused that I could look down on you."

Da just rolled his eyes.

"So? Did ya?"

"Well, uh, no. Well, yes actually, but not because of that. Even if I did, I would need to get Hephaestus' and Tsubaki's permission first."

Possibly Rose too.

"Very true relationships outside the Familia are rare and difficult."

"Oh I meant if she would be jealous or not approve of her. I need to make sure the harem gets along."

…

…

…

"Im sorry what?" Ma said.

"I learned of an ancient question passed down the eons," I said seriously.

"Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon? At first I thought it was just a perverts saying, but the longer I spent risking my life in the dungeon I understood something. I only have this life, even if I die and my soul is eventually reincarnated I won't remember anything. For all intents and purposes it would be a completely different person. So why shouldn't I aim for the highest peak of mortality. To create a weapon that supasses that of a God, to make a potion so powerful that can restore the dead. To create a harem of amazing women."

"These are all things people dream of, so why shouldn't I push to make it a reality."

I was staring off into the distance of a future filled with such things.

"He's not just a sociopath…" Ma whispered.

"He's a pervert too…" Da finished.

"What did you do to him drop a hammer on his head when smithing?" Ma grumbled.

"Oh like you didn't slip the occasional new potion recipe into his food to see its effects," Da retorted.

"Wat? Wait, you fed me experimental potions?" I asked, shocked.

The door to the private room opened and the Goddess walked in, she looked tired, and a bit pissed off.

"Oh look at that, it seems that your Goddess wants to talk to you, we should go," Ma said.

"No it's okay you can talk for a bit-" Hephaestus began.

"We have things to do back at our Familia home," Ma said.

Hephaestus blinked her one eye in confusion from Ma's obvious lie, but didn't call her out on it.

Ma kissed me on the forehead and walked over to my Goddess to share a few words.

"Remember Kova, monsters are predictable, it's people you need to watch out for. You got used to the monsters in the Dungeon and forgot that," Da said seriously. "And secondly, good luck, if anyone can make such a dream reality I believe it's you."

There were proud tears in his eyes as he said that.

Once my parents had left, Hephaestus turned to me and raised one eyebrow. I had gotten used to her expressions despite only seeing one half of her face.

"A harem huh? Reminds me of a certain God."

Ma must have mentioned it, was she not on my side?

"Who?"

She sat down next to me looking over my bandaged and splinted body.

"Zeus, he was a hopeless pervert that would sneak around to try to watch girls bathe. Hera would always find out though and he would get beaten black and blue," she squinted at me. "Please don't end up like that."

"I won't," I promised.

She nodded in satisfaction.

"After all, if I get a harem then I don't need to sneak around, I could even join."

The Goddess burst out laughing, the tiredness seeping away a little on her face.

"True enough I guess," she leaned forward and patted my head. "Growing up so quickly, already planning on stealing my and Tsubaki's heart."

She grinned happily while teasing me.

"Where is Tsubaki?"

I knew she was the captain of the Familia, but I would have expected her to at least visit.

"She's uh… busy right now."

—

Beckam, the Level Two Evilus left Rivira grumbling, like always they overpriced everything to get a profit. After fleeing from the fight in the upper levels they had gone down heading for the safe spot on the eighteenth floor. Luckily there was an entrance to Knossos there.

He had needed to buy potions to heal the surviving members of his team, he would have left them for dead had they been successful, but he was sure that they would now only be sent out again.

Recently their factions Deities had wanted them to start hunting adventurers in the Dungeon and Backams team had been tasked with killing a Level One named Ardi, who was the younger sister of Shakti Varma the captain of the Ganesha Familia.

It would have shaken the Familia while also showing Orario that the Evilus could reach them anywhere, but they had failed.

The image of a half-elf boy with glowing swords flashed through his mind. Had he not interfered there would have been a good chance they would have succeeded, at the very least taking out a Level Two of the Familia.

Beckam circled around a large crystal that they had set their base up behind, ready to hand out the potions as well as a few venomous words.

Blood coated the ground, the injured Evilus had all been killed, and not by a monster. Their bodies were uneaten and the cuts were clearly from a sword.

"The leader huh?" A feminie voice said from behind him. "It's a good thing I ran down here so quickly otherwise you might have been gone."

A dark skinned woman with a blood coated tachi in her hand stood behind him, she was sweating, but had no wounds visible. She wasn't even wearing armor, but he recognized her face and eyepatch.

"Cyclops!"

"I was thinking of letting you guys live, after all Kova can't have me protecting him forever, but I know how much you Evilus can act like cockroaches. It's better to take care of any problems now."

Beckam pulled out his Magic Sword hammer and swung it, no reason to hold back.

Cyclops sliced through his hammer and the magic inside detonated upwards with her swing, and explosion booming out.

Almost lazily she swung downwards and cut the Evilus man in half.

Tsubaki cleaned her blade looking around for anything else of interest, but there wasn't anything.

She let out a deep sigh, "I need a hug from Kova."