Chapter 29: Another Goddess

__Twilight Manor__

Ais returned to the twilight manor and she was immediately met with Loki.

And her goddess was going for a dive towards her.

"My Ais! What did that kid do to you? Did he touch you inappro- gah!" Loki got smacked by Ais.

"You're the one who was gonna do that, Loki." Ais said to her coldly.

"Ahhh, my Ais hates me now..." Loki cried crocodile tears.

"What are you doing, Loki?" Riveria massaged her temples at her goddess.

"So, Ais? What did you two talked about?" Finn asked her and she went quiet a bit.

"About my childhood." Ais thought about it and she didn't even mention levels.

"Are you okay? He wasn't pushy or something?" Gareth squinted his eyes and she shook her head.

"Not really, Lars just asked me and I answered. That was it." Ais shrugged.

"But you're pretty secretive about it." Finn raised a brow and she nodded.

"Well, he's my friend." Ais smiled a bit and Loki did an orz.

"Nooo! Ais is falling into that cliche! The childhood friend starter pack!

1st, they meet in mysterious circumstances! 2nd, The two of them hang out more and more! 3rd, he'll deal with her problems and Ais will fall for him!" Loki's imagination was running wild.

"Loki, it doesn't work like that." Riveria rolled her eyes.

"Well, do you like him, Ais?" Finn asked with a chuckle.

"Yes, he's my friend and he helped me open my eyes." Ais nodded sagely.

Finn didn't expect her to answer pretty much instantly. And he started thinking that Loki might be right.

He didn't even think that Ais considers them as friends. But more like guardians or something.

"Riveria mama! Buy some Soma wine! Ais is going to leave us behind!" Loki clung to Riveria.

"Buy it on your own..." Riveria pushed her face off because she was getting too close.

__Dungeon__

Lars was once again spending time in the dungeon.

He couldn't feel his exp bar. But he was sure that it was far from being full.

So he travelled to the lower floors once again and used his pheromones to attract hordes of monsters.

"Heh, you guys are pretty stoked to meet me huh?" He stared at them.

He then tied his arm behind his back with strings. He managed to create some after eating Ranye's silk.

"Let's get this show on the road!" He gave a toothy grin as he attacked the monsters with his bare feet.

And due to his handicaps, he was having a difficult time in killing them in droves.

Being slowed down by the weight of pure adamantite also gave him a hard time.

A troll hit him with its huge hands. Delivering a hammerfist that would one shot most level two adventurers.

Machine gun fire from dragon flies rained down on him and Lars tanked them all.

"Guhahaha! Increase my vit stat! Increase it as much as you can!" Lars laughed like a maniac.

With martial prowess that he cried tears of blood for. With Alfia beating the shit out of him every day.

Lars fought tooth and nail, killing everything moving with his bare hand.

He picked up the fallen projectiles on the ground with his hand and he threw them with a flick.

Monsters died continuously and blood flowed freely on the ground.

"Guhahaha! Good! Good! Give me more exp! More!" Lars was drunk in battle as the blood of his enemies bathed him.

His wounds regenerated and he was getting more tired by the second.

Swings getting weaker, his muscles feeling heavier. But that was what he lived for.

"Come at me punks! This will be fun!" Like a maniac, he ran at the monsters and fought while exhausted.

Poisoned, paralyzed, groggy. The poisons he injected to himself increased his excelia gains.

At least that was his theory. "Urgh." He got stabbed by a hornet that had a foot-long stinger.

Managing to hit him on a part of his training suit that didn't have adamantite.

"Fuck that hurt!" He broke it off and stabbed it back with it.

He then grinned, creating a piece of fur on his skin and ripping it off. Stuffing it inside of the stab wound like a gauze.

"I'm still not close to dying! Try harder!" His symbol of Superbia was glowing brightly and the monsters jumped him relentlessly.

__Large Tree Labyrinth__

"Hmm, the dungeon already repaired itself. Though there are weapons scattered around here." Kaguya picked up some swords.

"Lion, find any more clues?" Alise asked with a raised brow and Ryuu nodded.

"They said that the cat man who was their apparent leader had a whip on him." Ryuu pointed at the area around them.

"But there's none. He got away." Kaguya squinted her eyes.

"We won't get anything here. There are no identifiers left. Their equipment is the only thing left here." Alise sighed.

"Hmm?" Kaguya craned her neck to the side and the other two looked at her.

"What's wrong, Kaguya?" Ryuu asked and Kaguya frowned.

"I hear a lot of monsters from the west. Most likely... A parade." Kaguya answered and they gasped.

"Your training from the far east is as ridiculous as ever." Alise was awed at her assassination training.

"Let's check it out and thin them out immediately. Or if evilus is the one responsible for it..." Ryuu wanted to put them behind bars immediately.

"Let's go." Alise nodded at them and they followed their captain towards the ruckus.

"Now that we're getting closer, I can hear it. This is ridiculous." Ryuu's ears twitched.

She then saw hordes of monsters running at the direction they were heading to.

"Did someone use luring powder!?" Alise was alarmed and she thought that something like the incident in the 27th floor was being set up.

"We don't know, so we should hurry." Kaguya cut down a large boar and a group of monsters on their way.

They then heard someone. "Is that... A laugh?" Kaguya identified it in between the roars of monsters.

"What? Is it really because of evilus?" Alise charged.

"Wait! Alise! Tch, she's too impulsive." Ryuu sighed and they followed her.

"Why are you so quick to charge in, captain? You don't know if it's safe or not." Ryuu chided her.

But she didn't receive a reply from Kaguya and Alise.

"Guhahaha! I love the smell of exp!" Lars was fighting the monster parade with crystal scythes on his arms and legs.

"Isn't that Lars that just got attacked by evilus?" Ryuu blinked in surprise.

"Yes... And we've gotten info from the guild that he's level 1..." Kaguya blinked dumbly.

Lars' golden eyes wasn't lost under the crimson blood of the monsters that completely covered him.

The floor was filled to the brim with monster blood and guts.

He was slow, but his movements were consistent.

Otherwise, Alfia would break his bones. And his body remembered it well.

"His martial arts is simply on a different level..." Ryuu commented and the other two nodded.

"He's mixing it up. Monsters that aren't humanoid gets killed by wide and strong movements.

Humanoid ones are being dealt with by anti-personnel martial arts. That kid is insane." Kaguya could tell.

Lars used a variety of martial arts. And it was clear that he was well versed on them.

"What are we just looking around for? We have to help him!" Alise charged in with her rapier.

"Hah, let's go Lion." Kaguya smiled wryly at their captain's heroic charge.

"Alise should honestly calm down from time to time." Ryuu charged as well, her blade receiving a blue hue.

And while Lars was breathing heavily in his high, he was broken out of his trance when someone ran at his encirclement with a shout.

"Agallis Arvesynth!" He saw a red silhouette that was burning.

"Lion! Kaguya! Keep him safe!" Alise started going ham on the monsters.

Her whole body was enhanced with magic. The rapier she used burned and her limbs were ablaze.

"You okay?" Kaguya patted him on the back and Lars sobered up.

"Hey! I'm farming excelia here!" He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Ryuu sliced up monsters by loading up her short blades with her mana.

She then appeared besides Kaguya and she was speechless at what he just said.

"Excelia?" Ryuu was confused, thinking that he was fighting for his life.

"Yeah, you gain more excelia the harder the battle is. And you just ruined my monster parade!" Lars complained.

"Look at you, you're bloody all over... And is that a stab wound?" Kaguya took off the piece of fur he put on the hole on his torso.

"I would like to talk with your deity for this disregard of adventurer rights." Lars took out an elixir from his holster.

He then drizzled it on himself and drank the rest.

His wounds closed up like magic, his regeneration and Airmid's ridiculous potions working in tandem.

Kaguya and Ryuu looked at each other and they winced.

They didn't really ask if he needed the help and Alise just charged in.

And now that they look at him, he seemed to have everything in control.

"Sorry about our captain..." Kaguya had a wry smile on her face.

"Hah, I'll talk to your goddess later. I even prepared a lot for this." Lars sighed and he stored his adamantite lined suit.

Taking out his great sword that was like a hunk of iron, he put it on his shoulder.

Ryuu and Kaguya blinked at the sight of his sword. It was even taller than them.

"What a waste, look at what I lured." Lars looked regretful.

He then joined Alise in mowing down the monsters.

"Huh? I thought you were already at your last leg?" Alise stopped for a moment.

"That's what you think." Lars slaughtered the monsters with much more ease.

"That kid can't be level 1... It's just, impossible." Kaguya mused.

"I can't even use that sword of his without getting outbalanced. He's wielding it like it's his preferred weapon all of his life." Ryuu commented.

"Let's clean up first and talk to him more." Kaguya moved to also clean up the monsters.

Ryuu nodded and they made quick work of the hordes around them.

After some time, they were done and Lars looked at them with an annoyed expression.

"Now, why didn't you at least ask if I could take care of the monsters?" Lars raised a brow.

"Geh! You... You were bloody all over..." Alise tapped her fingers together like a child, caught red handed.

"You know what? I don't care anymore, let's just talk with Astraea." Lars rolled his eyes.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Alise looked at her companions.

"You sure are." Ryuu nodded at her with a deadpan.

"Astraea-sama will definitely be a little disappointed." Kaguya teased her.

"By the way... You're not level 1, are you?" Ryuu looked at the walking Lars.

"What are you talking about?" Lars tried to play dumb for a bit to buy time.

"Don't lie, elves can sense lies." Kaguya attempted to trick him.

"I'm absolutely a level 1 adventurer. I just started out a few months ago." Lars shrugged.

'He was definitely sure about that answer... So the problem isn't his level... It's his skill and stats. But how is he that strong?' Kaguya's mind was running a mile a minute.

Their captain just tried to bulldoze through though.

"So how are you that strong?" Alise asked without any subtlety and the other two glared at her.

"I work out." Lars answered immediately, and that would be true.

'What the hell is this guy's mind made out of? He's dodging everything perfectly.' Kaguya was getting frustrated.

"Then how do you do it? I want to do it too." Alise was genuinely curious.

"I put plates of pure adamantite in my training clothes and fight monsters bare handed. Which you meddled in by the way." He rolled his eyes.

"Hehe~ sorry about that. Please don't sell me out to my goddess." Alise immediately bowed while rubbing her palms together.

They continued onwards to the surface. With Kaguya trying to probe him for information.

While Ryuu just stared at him intensely. There was just something about his mana that disturbed her.

Everybody then arrived at the Astraea familia's home. "Welcome to Stardust Garden!" Alise showed off their home.

"Pretty decent." Lars nodded and they thoughy that he was pretty sassy.

"Come on, let's have you meet with Astraea-sama." Kaguya wanted to abuse her goddess' ability to sense lies.

"Good work, Alise, Ryuu, Kaguya. I'm glad you're back safely." A brunette welcomed them with a smile.

(Pic)

'Hmm, so this is Astraea? Making a police force of all things. At least she's a good person.' Lars chuckled in his mind.

"Hello there, who is this?" Astraea waved at him.

"He's one heck of a kid, pretty crazy too based on what we saw." Kaguya explained with a wry smile.

"He's a part of the Demeter familia, Astraea-sama. His name is Lars." Ryuu introduced him instead.

"I could've introduced myself, but I guess this is fine. Yo, how are you doing?" Lars raised his hand in greeting.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.