Chapter 50: Demons and Heroes

After I survived the breakfast, we headed towards 'Horaud' the town where we would finally be officially promoted to gold rank.

You might be wondering why we must go to 'Horaud' to be promoted to gold rank. I also thought the same and asked Ilwa the same question.

He responded, "When it comes to promoting someone to Black, Silver and Gold, not everyone can be promoted. For someone to get promoted to black rank the adventurer needs to have a good track record and acknowledgement of a guild master. From there if you want to get promoted to silver you will need to have black rank and acknowledgement from two guild masters, and for gold rank, the number of guild masters will increase to three. It might seem easy on paper, but getting to the gold rank is extremely hard. Each guild master will test the adventurer's character, loyalty, background and many more. If everything is alright then only can someone get promoted. To this day only a handful of adventurers have reached gold rank."

(a/n: I made this up to make sense of why they are going to Horaud. What do you guys think?)

Ilwa paused for a moment and continued, "As for you guys, you have completed a special request from me and in the process defeated a monster army saved the city 'Ull' and recently destroyed an underground organisation, which will be more than enough for the track record. Next is your character, lucky for you guys you have the recommendation of Master Catharin which will be enough for that. And for acknowledgements, you already have a recommendation of mine and Master Catharin, for the remaining one, you need to go to the 'Horaud'. The guild master of Horaud Loa Bawavis is one of my good friends and one of my colleagues who worked under Master Catharin. He will give you his acknowledgement thus making you all officially Gold-rank adventurers." with that knowledge we left for 'Horaud.'

"..."

Inside Brise, Hajime drove while I sat in the passenger seat with Myu on my lap. Shea, Tohru, Yue, and Tio sat behind us. 

Myu seeing Brise moving so fast pointing outside, says "Wow! This car thing is so nice. We going so fast. It felt like we were sailing on the water. Papa and Big Brother are really amazing to make this." Myu admiringly looked at us.

Upon hearing Myu's praise, Hajime and I smiled at the little girl. Even though Hajime may not show it outwardly, he has grown quite fond of Myu. Earlier, as we were about to get into our car, some fool tried to harass the girls. Myu noticed this, stepped forward, and scolded the man, which made him angry.

Seeing the situation going south I was about to intervene. Before I could, I heard the gunshots and saw Hajime pointing his gun and taking the guy out with rubber bullets.

Upon noticing the gun in his hands Myu, for some reason, liked it very much. She asked me to give her one, but I immediately shut down her request. After she pouted for a moment, she became too enthralled by the moving breeze outside to continue pouting.

She then continued looking around the car, asking questions about things that caught her attention. Hajime and I both answered her curiosity. And just like that, we reached 'Horaud.'

…

Inside the Orcus Labyrinth.

Shizuku delivered a fatal blow to the ant monster's head and quickly stepped back, using <Ground Shrinker> to dodge an attack from a bat. She then jumped and utilized <No Tempo> to slash the bat in half ending its life.

Shizuku cleared all the monsters from her side looks around at the others to see if they needed assistance. After making sure the other frontline fighters were faring well, she looked at Kaori, who was preparing a light spell with the mages.

Suzu the barrier mage seeing that the spell was almost ready screamed, "Everyone take cover, you have 10 seconds." 

Shizuku and others hearing the warning systematically backed off from the frontline and subsequently after 10 seconds a big light spell was released. From which multiple light beams spread into the direction of the remaining monster clearing about 90% of the beast. The remaining ones were on the verge of dying because of the attack.

"Alright! This is good! Let's finish the leftovers once quickly!" Kouki shouted and charged forward with the vanguards. In just a few minutes they take out all the remaining monsters.

Finishing their fight they once again checked if any surviving monsters were left. Finding none everyone finally relaxed and cheered for their victory on the 89th floor.

Shizuku sees everyone relaxing, and chides in frustration, "Hey, don't let your guard down completely. We are still in a labyrinth who knows what kind of traps and monsters are up ahead."

Shizuku, previously trained by Rihito, has learned valuable lessons from him, such as remaining vigilant in unfamiliar surroundings, observing the environment, and relying on instincts. 

Shizuku, relying on these teachings, has been able to escape from many troubles throughout the labyrinth. She firmly follows his teachings like a creed. She also urges others to do the same but to her annoyance except for Kaori, no one listens to her.

"Shizuku, you are worrying too much. Didn't you see we just defeated those monsters so easily on this 89th floor? No matter what may come, I will defeat them and protect everyone! Even if I have to face the demon race all alone," Kouki flashing a smile says with a righteous tone.

"You Idiot, there is no way I will let you fight alone. If you are fighting, I am going with you," saying that Ryutaro walks closer to Kouki and gives him a fist bump, which he happily reciprocates.

Shizuku seeing all this shook her head in slight disappointment. She then looked at Kaori who was healing the injured members.

"..."

Kaori checked if anyone remained after healing all the injured, finding no one. She then looked with uncertainty towards the passage to the next floor.

"Are you okay?" Shizuku asks, noticing her friend's distressed look. Shizuku understands how she feels about not finding any clues about those two, but she can't show that to Kaori. She has to act strong in front of Kaori.

"Ah… Shizu I am alright. but it's just that… we beat the 89th floor but we still haven't found any sign of their survival yet. I am really worried." she clenched her artefacts tightly.

"Kaori don't worry, I believe they are still alive somewhere in this labyrinth. I still haven't given up, so you also cannot." Shizuku grabbed Kaori's right hand and clenched it tightly, "we promised, even if the possibility is zero if will see it to the end. Don't you forget that?"

Kaori saw the strong gaze of Shizuku and responded, "Yes, you are right. I can't give up. I will find Hajime even if I have to go through the labyrinth again," Clenching her fist in determination Kaori said.

Just then, Suzu saw Kaori making a determined face and leapt at her, grabbing her and saying, "Kaori~, you look so awesome when you look like that." With that, she started to hug Kaori, which disrupted the serious mood between Kaori and Shizuku. Other girls who saw Suzu suddenly jump on Kaori also joined in and started chatting.

"..."

After they had rested enough, Kouki stood up and gave orders to prepare, as an appointed leader of the Heroes party, it was his job to ensure everyone was ready to tackle the floors.

Meld has trusted him with this job and Kouki has taken this job with the utmost seriousness. Gathering everyone they then headed to the next floor.

…

"How foolish," Cattleya can't help but mutter seeing how the so-called heroes were acting after defeating the monster on the 89th floor. It was clear to her they hadn't taken their situation seriously. As one of the captains of the Demon army, she was irritated seeing these heroes act like children, instead of being vigilant, they were acting as if they were on a picnic.

Well, it is actually good for her. If they continue like this they will easily fall into my trap. Cattleya had camouflageingly observed them taking out the bat and ant monsters of the 89th floor. After their fight ended, she had an idea of how to deal with them.

After her observation, she knows that the key members of this party are Kouki, Kaori, Shizuku and Ryutaro. If she manages to make their fealty to the demon army. It would be easier to make the other heroes join the demon army.

While pondering she noticed the Shizuku girl was looking in her direction. For a moment she was startled, [Did she notice me.] Cattleya thought. But seeing her gaze darting around she calmed down.

[No, she hasn't noticed me. She is looking for something.] Sighing to herself. She moved to a different location and continued watching the girl.

Cattleya observed the girl called Shizuku, her skills with the blade were impressive. At first, she even mistakenly thought this girl was the one who had the hero class. But to her disappointment, she didn't, instead, it was the most naive-looking kid. Observing that kid named Kouki, Cattleya understood the hero was the type who thought no one could be evil.

Cattleya didn't understand why this kid thought like that. It was truly bizarre for her. For her who has grown up seeing the war that has continued for thousands of years she was confused.

[Truely foolish, of all the people present here it has to be him, what a waste.] Cattleya shook her head in disappointment. She then watched them enter the 90th floor, which she cleared beforehand, and where her monster army was camouflaged waiting for her orders.

…

"Chapter end"

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Author note:

Hello guys, as I said before I am creating a Patreon and because of that new chapter updates will slow down even more until the Patreon is 10 in advance. So until that happens I will upload a chapter a week. My Patreon is almost ready just need to upload all the chapters.

(If you like my story, give me power stones. If you don't have power stones. Then please comment, and Rate my FanFiction. It will motivate me plenty to write more. Thank you.)