Chapter 48: Goddess of the Hunt

Lars could be seen on a plateau. Holding a schematic from the Goibniu familia.

After all, Goibniu prides his familia as an architectural and engineering conpany as well.

Unlike Hephaestus' familia that solely focuses on smithing.

"Hmmm, this goes here. And that goes there." Lars was moving his arm around as he read the blueprint.

And it was with the use of his 2nd magic that has awakened due to his intense desire to make a fortress city in the mountains.

Emperor's Divide: The user gains access to psychokinesis. Its strength is closely related to the MAG stat.

With a wave of the emperor's hand. He can crush anything in his wake.

And with Goibniu's easy to understand work, he just changed some things here and there.

Like using an alloy of adamantite and orichalum for the walls.

It was then lined with mithril support at the middle. He then covered it with obsidian soldier's crystals.

Making the thing extremely resistant to magic and physical attacks.

"Then, Airmid will just have to turn our wall into one, big, magic item." Lars grinned in excitement.

With Airmid's mystery, she could turn segments of the walls into magic items.

Imbue it with magical barriers that would be worthy of Monstro's fortress city in the surface.

"We don't know how many nations will attack us. I have to make this as strong as possible." He continued with his work.

At night, he then returns to Orario and trains with his trusty partner, Ley-chan. Because it would lay down after their fight immediately.

"How are you doing, Ley-chan? Eating good?" Lars laughed as he saw the Cadmus dragon eat up magic stones that he brought.

And it was now currently a terrifying level 7 monster that is used to fighting humans.

The dragon growled softly, its beady eyes changing. Instead of the mindless ones it had before.

It was now staring at him with intelligence. And he could interpret it too.

"You excited for today's session huh? Why aren't you a xenos instead?" Lars sighed.

Lyd, Gros, and Ray grew stronger. But they're still only at the cusp of level 6.

Unlike Ley-chan who's adapting more quickly. Lars guessed that the xenos are kind of like humans in that regard.

They then stood in front of each other with a tense atmosphere.

Ley suddenly fired a short burst of fire from its mouth. Like a pulse laser, Lars dodged like he meant it.

The dragon followed his movement closely and continued firing pulses of beams at him.

Conserving its energy and strength. "Hmph!" Lars moved his arm downwards as Ley prepared another shot.

Its mouth was suddenly closed shut by an invisible force and its magic breath exploded inside of its maw.

Growling in pain, Ley just shook its head quickly to get out of its daze and it glared at him.

"Gotta learn new tricks you know?" Lars smirked and the dragon charged at him.

Fighting with its forelimbs, Ley swung its claws at him with dangerous accuracy.

Seemingly copying Lars' martial arts as well as Ley preferred using quick strikes and aggressive footwork.

Lars blocked them with his psychokinesis, but he was too focused on the force of Ley's destructive blows and its head was right above him.

"You've gotten good..." Lars smirked as Ley charged up a breath attack right at him as it pinned him down with both of its paws.

Lars breathed in deeply as his chest expanded. His throat and chest glowing a bright orange.

A shockwave made out of pure mana exploded as the two released their laser-like breaths.

Crashing into each other, the beams diffused and the dungeon was torn asunder.

"Ravage! Wind Scar!" Lars clapped and this time, Ley was the one who was trapped between his psychokinesis.

Crescent vacuum blades tore the ground apart as it fanned out in front of Lars.

Ley roared and geysers of fire appeared from the ground.

The battlefield quickly became chaotic as wind and fire combined.

Backing off against each other, the two stared at one another. Lava was dripping everywhere and bright orange puddles of blazing lava formed.

But what Lars wasn't expecting, is hearing that sound once again.

"The dungeon is screaming?" He looked above and there it was, the monster that they named a juggernaut.

An almost unstoppable beast that is tasked on killing anything and everything that moved on the floor.

Lars and the others theorized that it was the dungeon's way of preventing further damage to the dungeon which is a living being.

Ley's eyes turned to paper thin slits and it began to grow. And Lars recognized that was its second phase.

It roared in rage at the sight of the juggernaut, as if to say that it was meddling in their honorable battle.

Ley charged up a breath attack, but instead of its mouth becoming orange. Its chest and throat burned a bright, electric blue.

A thick, beam of pure mana and heat hit the juggernaut as Ley's body sunk to the ground due to the force of its attack.

The 51st floor of the dungeon shook violently and the juggernaut's magic shield cracked at the onslaught of fire and mana.

It held though, absorbing a lot of Ley's attack. Like what happened with the Astraea familia, it was about to reflect it.

The air went still as Ley's breath attack disappeared. But before it was realized, a clap resounded.

A devastating force crashed onto the juggernaut at both sides, cracking its hard shell and destroying its mana shield.

Lars grinned as he flew right on its head and he grabbed it.

He then made them fall down with his psychokinesis, and the head of the juggernaut released an audible crack.

It roared in fury, but his partner was quick to act. Blue flames covered Ley's claws and it began pummeling it to the ground.

"Fight back! Fight back ni- ahem... Yeah, fight back!" Lars was going ham on its head while Ley stomped on its tail and torso, biting off its body apart.

Lars then chomped on its spine. His teeth that was blessed by divine powers crushing its metallic shell without difficulty.

After that, it lost strength immediately and Lars began eating its whole body as Ley watched.

Taking a good moment, Lars looked at Ley and he sighed.

"We can't have battles like that anymore, Ley. Or this guy will keep showing up." Lars pointed at the remains of the juggernaut.

The dragon looked at it and it just blinked at him. He didn't know if it understood him, but it was enough.

"I'll just keep on feeding you magic stones, Ley. We'll fight when it's time to level up." Lars smiled and he went back to Monstro to check up on the xenos and the girls.

After he ate the juggernaut until nothing was left of course.

Ley has been together with Lars for a lot. And he has always been talkative.

When he disappeared, it opened its maw and a guttural voice resounded. "Al-right." The once ordinary Cadmus dragon changed.

And it couldn't be compared to the xenos that reincarnated and gained sentience.

Ley gained sentience on its own. Controlling its murderous instinct and intent.

A monster that is controlled by the dungeon slipped away from its grasp, showcasing its iron will.

__Monstro's Plateau__

Lars was back at it again in his construction and he was making great progress for being alone.

"Man, my magic is awesome. This is so convenient." He sipped some juice, controlling his cup with telekinesis.

Like a conductor, he moved his hands and the materials for the fortress obeyed his will.

He was feeling it a bit too much and he didn't notice someone sneaking up on him.

"Hey, nii-chan that's so cool! Are you perhaps a 1st class adventurer?" An elf suddenly appeared and she was a bit younger than him.

"Hey, don't sneak up on people..." Lars almost threw a beam of adamantite on her and she'd gotten splat.

"Hehe~ sorry about that. I'm Lante by the way." She greeted and Lars sighed.

He put down the heavy materials that weighed several tons and Lante looked at him curiously.

"Oi! Lante, why do you keep running off? The goddess will be worried you know?" A red head appeared.

"Rethusa, I found this nii-chan here! He's building something impressive." Lante pointed at the walls of his fortress.

"Is that... Adamantite and orichalum?" Rethusa recognized it.

She was flabbergasted, orichalum; divine metal. Was being used for a wall.

"Eh?" Lante suddenly froze when Rethusa revealed what the hell he was making the wall with.

"Are you some kind of unbelievably rich person?" Lante asked.

"Well, I am a 1st class adventurer?" Lars replied as to explain his wealth.

"Rethusa, did you find Lante?" A blue haired goddess appeared, Lars could feel it.

(Pic)

"Ahh, Artemis-sama. Lante was distracted by him and I was able to catch up to her." Rethusa pointed at Lars.

'Artemis? The goddess of the hunt? Shit, doesn't she really dislike men?' Lars blinked.

She looked at him for a quick second and observed him.

'Strong... This young man is incredibly strong.' Artemis could feel his excelia.

And it was at the level of a 1st class adventurer. If he wanted, he could just kill them all in a blink of an eye.

"Hello, I'm Artemis. Thank you for distracting my child." Artemis decided to be careful.

"Ahh, I'm Lars. Nice to meet you." Lars bowed a bit and he tried to get a feel of her.

"Hey, Lars. Why are you building such a sturdy wall in the middle of nowhere?" Lante broke the ice.

"This? You see, I want my familia to have a safehouse." Lars replied and Artemis was shocked that he was telling the truth.

After all, who in their right mind would make a safehouse with walls made of pure adamantite and orichalum?

"Ahh! You're strong, right? How about you accompany us for a bit?" Lante asked him and Lars looked at Artemis.

"Uh, yes. We actually hunt monsters that are outside of the dungeon. Keeping everyone safe and sound." Artemis explained.

"We're currently hunting down a group of Loup Garou's." Rethus frowned.

They were the mini werewolves from the 37th floor. And they were notorious for bringing down the most amount of villages.

"So, want to come along, Lars?" Lante asked him and Rethus looked at her with disapproval.

Artemis was fine with it eitherway, as help is help. She wasn't stupid enough to think that a strong adventurer with amazing magic would be detrimental for their mission.

"Okay, those little pieces of crap are quite nasty. So I'll help you with them." Lars agreed.

They were approximately low level 3's. And Lars could see that Rethusa is only an average level 3.

Lante was just a level 2. They'd be swarmed by them and get slaughtered.

"Thank you Lars, we only have one level 3. And the other 19 members are level 2." Artemis explained.

"Ohh, you have a nice balance on your team. I guess Rethusa is your captain?" Lars mused.

"Yes, thank you for accompanying us, Lars-san." Rethusa bowed at him.

"Let me clean up here first." Lars shooed them away.

When they were a bit of ways away, Rethusa asked Artemis something.

"Artemis-sama, why are you asking for the help of Lars-san? He can't be much stronger than Lante." Rethus noticed that they weren't that different in age.

"He has amazing magic Rethusa!" Lante pouted at her.

"Lante's correct, Rethusa. That young man? Remember the monsters called 1st class adventurers?" Artemis tried to tell her something.

"No way... You don't mean?" Rethusa was shocked to the core.

"Yeah, he's a 1st class adventurer. People that can take on entire countries on their own." Artemis warned her seriously.

Rethusa paled, thinking if Lante offended him at all.

"Hey, are you thinking of something rude?" Lante squinted her eyes at her.

"Okay, I'm done. Let's go, ladies." Lars kissed Artemis' hand and she was flabbergasted.

"W-wha?" Artemis blushed like mad. And she was about to get angry, but he shushed her.

"Talking about people behind their backs is quite rude, Artemis. Especially when you call a gentleman like I, a monster." Lars chuckled and she was speechless.

Lars then walked towards their other members.

"Kyaa! Artemis-sama, can't he be your Orion? He's handsome, strong, and so mysterious!" Lante screamed softly.

"Who are you?" Artemis was curious about who he truly is.

__

Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.