“You are alone but you have more monster cores than some of the C-rank parties,” Joe said before handing him the bag of coins worth 3 million shekels for the B-class monster cores that he brought.
After few months of exploring the dungeon, Dio finally finished roaming around the first thirty floors. He actually used the lower floors to practice his magic, senses, reflexes and dagger skills in order to improve. He also chose to stay in the safe zone instead of ascending to the surface and he used his time to observe other adventurers come up with new techniques.
“I heard that the illegitimate Romanov cleared the whole 30th floor alone.”
“Are you serious? In his last descent, didn’t he clear the 22nd floor too?”
“That’s impossible! How could a fourteen-year-old kid clear the most difficult lower floor on his own?”
The whispering adventurers continued to gossip
“Forgive me for the late introduction. I am Amery Claire von Flavian, the third daughter of the lord of the southwest territory.” The lady curtsied gracefully. “I am Arkin, my lady.” Dio held out his hand and the lady took it with a smile. “Please allow this humble adventurer to guard you as you roam around the market.” “Thank you for granting my selfish request, Arkin.” Dio’s lips curled to form a subtle smile as he let the young lady lead the way. Amery was just a normal young noble who seemed to be amazed by the world outside their estate. Judging by her age, it seemed like Amery had not debuted in high society just yet. Dio felt conscious when he noticed that the young lady was openly staring at him as they walk towards their fourth destination. They already finished visiting a teashop, a public library, and an armor shop. Their next stop was the last one—the potions store. “Is there something on my face, my lady?” The girl frowned
Dio opened his eyes and he saw himself inside a dark place on top of a flattened stone that served as a bed. Where am I?‘You lost consciousness so I had to drag you here in the safe zone,’ Blur reprimanded.He chuckled but he immediately stopped when he felt the pain near his abdomen. He tried to sit up but Blur’s paw pushed his forehead down to stop him.‘A part of your soul was sucked by the bunny so you need some time to recover. Be a good boy and don’t push yourself too hard.’He sighed as he relaxed his body. He was planning to finish the quest within 6 weeks but it seemed like he needed to spend some time for his recovery. He never thought that his fight with the devil bunny would be that bothersome. If he just knew, he would’ve been more careful.“You’re awake now?”Dio’s forehead wrinkled when he saw Calyx enter the safe zone. “What ar
In the whole manor, only the light in the guild master’s office was turned on. His disappointed eyes were on the servant he assigned to investigate Archie Romanov’s death more than a year ago. In his hand were the report and the insignia of the most notorious underground guild was printed on one of the pages. “I finally found a lead, but it felt like I bumped into a huge wall.” The servant sighed. He had been investigating for more than a year but sneaking up with the midnight serpents was not an easy feat. “What about the boy?” Royce clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. If he couldn’t save his lord, he should at least find the young master.“Have you found the young master?” “He disappeared without a trace.” The servant bit his lip as he felt his master’s glare. “ I searched the whole city but the residents don’t know the young master’s whereabouts.” Royce slammed the desk. “Don’t just search in the city. Search the entire continent if need
The annoyed expression on Dio’s face didn’t change all throughout his walk towards Albert’s office. It had been 2 months since he left to venture the middle floors and he was welcomed with rumors and gossips about him as soon as he ascended.“Welcome back to the surface, Monster Rookie.”“I’d like to wipe that smirk off your face, Chief.” Dio threw himself on the couch after putting the spatial bag on the center table.“Is this all the soul stone you collected?” Albert jeered.Dio smirked as he sat up and snatched the bag. He turned the bag upside down and a numerous amount of soul stone appeared.“How did you get this much?” Albert’s eyes grew wide as he stared upon the soul stones in front of him.“I worked really really hard,” Dio said nonchalantly as he crossed his arms and leaned on the couch.“That’s pretty obvious, young lad. J
“Blur, watch my back!”“Roger that!” The kitten on Dio’s head leaped and transformed into a large panther. With an intense killing intent, it immediately ran towards the minotaur, a monster with a body of a man and the head of a bull, behind Dio and clawed it.Dio felt secured when he saw how competent his bond was. He turned to face the manticore in front of him and smirked. It opened its wings and its lion-like body moved to a fighting stance.“How dare you go here alone? No adventurer came out of here alive!” The manticore roared and used its venomous scorpion tail to attack him but he jumped and landed behind the monster.“There’s always a first for everything.” Dio tried to provoke the manticore more and in response, the manticore turned to attack him with its claws. “Slow!”Dio lifted his hands and vines sprouted out of the ground. It immediately attacked the manticore bu
Dio didn’t notice that it was already morning when he woke up. If it wasn’t for his rumbling stomach and the nudges he received from his bond, he wouldn’t even think of standing up.“Are you awake now?”Dio immediately stood up when he heard Mr. Hearth’s voice. “What are you doing here?”“Is this the feeling of watching your son grow up?” Mr. Hearth said with a fake sad and teary voice. “It had been a year and a half but you didn’t contact me even once.”“You never called for me. Besides, I’m too busy clearing the dungeon to visit you for chitchat,” he said in an annoyed tone.“I told you I want to see how your potential will blossom.” Mr. Hearth smirked before he leaned closer to him. “How was it? Did you find another reason to live?” he whispered.Dio gently pushed him back and smirked. “Yes. Thanks to you, I found
What should he do next? Those were Dio’s thoughts as he watched people went back and forth through his window.He watched how everyone seemed to be sure of what they were doing and move towards the destination that they intended to reach. How about him? He was done with his training and he reached the lowest floor of the dungeon. He wanted to be the strongest-- to be the best. Deep inside, he knew that he could do it. He could be the best in the empire but he still needed to be covert. He couldn’t catch any more attention than he already caught. “Arkin! Won’t you come with us to the market?” Calyx waved his hand with a grin on his faceas he looked up at Dio’s window. Dio closed his eyes for a second before he nodded his head. “Wait for me.” He wasn’t planning to go outside for that day but he believed that he should also take a breather. His mind wouldn’t clear up if he kept on going in circles. “The door is there
“Blood!” Crystal exclaimed as he watched Dio wipe the blood on his mouth. “We need to take you to theinfirmary!”“I’m fine. Don’t be such a worrywart, Crystal,” Dio said with an annoyed tone. He took a few steps and looked down on the young man, probably around his age, who barely made it safe. “Give me a valid reason for such disturbance.”The man smirked as he stood up. “I am Mikael Armani, the second son of the Armani Merchant Guild’s master and one of the marquis’s retainers.”“Ah! Mr. Kael, what brings you here?” Calyx said with a respectful smile.“Calyx! I told you not to treat me that way! You’re my friend, right?” Kael grinned as he hugged Calyx.Dio stood there as he watched the man with olive-green hair. Did he just say that he was Mikael Armani?Kael turned to him and smiled. “Don’t tell me that you
“You finally decided to show yourself,” Absalom chuckled when Amir, Joe, and Vince went towards him. The stars and their masters’ were confused about what was happening between the captain and him. The crackling sound from Dio’s lightning dagger was heard by the others. Though some couldn’t accept the truth that Dio was a multi-element mage, there were people who genuinely wished to see him not holding back. Dio’s vines grew around the area to attack Absalom but the other three captains moved to protect him. “You need to go through us if you want to hurt him.” Dio couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “So there are also people you wanted to protect?” It was a sarcastic laugh filled with bitterness. There were people whom he failed to protect: his mother and grandfather. Those were his family who loved and cherished him, but he lost them because of the midnight serpents. He continued to live on for the sake of revenge and because of that, he fou
Cassiel merged with her phoenix guardian while Andriel merged with his thunderbird. With fire and lightning, they merged their powers and created attacks that were supposed to be hard to dodge. However, Captain Joe and Captain Vince were veteran fighters so fighting them was hard for the two.Cassiel cast a fireball and Andriel merged it with his lightning bolt. The ball made of fire and high-voltage electricity crackled as it went on a straight path towards Joe. The speed of the attack was too fast that Joe didn’t fully dodge it and left a small cut on his shoulder.“Not bad, you two. However, I’m not your only opponent,” Joe smirked when the two realized that Vincent was nowhere to be seen.Suddenly, a black whip covered with high-voltage electricity came to attack the two and they barely dodged it. They looked around and saw Vince a few meters away from them, holding the base of the whip. He laughed evilly when he saw the anxious expre
Dio pulled Lewis’ shirt when he tried to step back. He also used his dagger when Lewis tried to slash his hand and smirked. “Let’s finish this.” Lewis, with all his strength, pushed Dio away from him. He kept his distance from him since he was informed that Dio’s strength was his melee fighting, though he also needed to be wary of his casting. However, he didn’t know that the information he received was taken when Dio was still an adventurer. As a student of the academy, Dio honed his casting skills and practiced them by helping the other casters in the elite class. Dio used his vines to capture Lewis who always dodged his attacks and his attempts of getting closer. Since Lewis was naturally fast, it took him a lot of time just to catch him. He set a trap and drove him to the way he planned for him to go and there he created a pit deep enough so he wouldn’t escape. Dio held the mouth of the hole and ice spread from his hand down to where Lewis stood.
Almost hundreds of monsters inside that dungeon surrounded Dio. Though he knew they outnumbered him, he let everyone leave him alone so that he could use his power to his heart’s content. “Bree, can I trust you to watch my back?” Dio looked around and created a plan in his head. “Sure, master!” Bree twinkled brighter in excitement. “I wish Blur was here too.” “It’s okay, Bree. Blur would assist the others at school.” Dio put his dagger back into its sheath as Bree took care of the monsters that attacked them. After he put the daggers in his space ring, Dio created an electric dagger with his right hand and an ice dagger with the left one. “Now, let’s do this.” Dio helped Bree with cleaning up the monsters. With a single slash of his dagger, the small monsters were cut in half. And since Dio embedded poisons in his daggers, those who were cut and wounded weren’t able to regenerate or heal their wounds, so they end up dying. “I like your eyes an
After their introduction and a few exchanges, the groups went inside the dungeon led by Caspian and Arthur. The other group was silent for it was their first time to enter a dungeon so the elite class tried to reassure them by having conversations as if nothing wrong could happen. Yet, deep within them, they were also afraid because they had a bad experience from a dungeon before. “Don’t you dare act on your own again, Dio.” Keila reminded him. Cassandra walked beside Dio to make sure that he wouldn’t let himself get behind. If they wanted him to behave, they needed to monitor him closely. Dio wouldn’t hesitate to jump ahead if it meant to protect them so someone had to be beside him to stop him if ever. “Are you also worried about me?” Dio chuckled when he realized that almost all the elites were watching over him. He turned to Cassandra with an assuring smile. “I told you not to worry. I won’t do something dangerous again.” Though Dio seemed believa
“Dio and Kael, though I know that you already know him, let me introduce Carter von Claude.” Professor Croix gestured his hand towards Carter. “He was promoted to the elite class last week and he will join you in today’s excursion.” Dio bowed his head to Carter. Though he was sad that Mika had been replaced, he knew it was no one’s fault and that the world would continue moving, even after her death. That thought hurt him a bit, but he had to accept it. Those who were left needed to continue leaving. Just like how he did it after his grandfather’s death, he would live his life to honor those whose lives were lost because of him. He had decided. He would talk with Andriel if they meet again. The group went into the carriage large enough to fit fifteen people and settled down. The atmosphere wasn’t as comfortable because of the new member but they lifted the mood. Dio was seated beside Keila and just like their midterms exams, he snuggled close to her and close
Dio and Kael went back to school after a few days of being on leave. It was so sudden and everyone was surprised to hear the news of the Armani Massacre and Mika’s death. Dio couldn’t even smile out of guilt. He couldn’t forget how he promised to go home early just to end up being late and not being able to save her.It was the afternoon lunch break and Dio chose to hide at the back of the building under the shade of the tree. He still couldn’t get over his sister’s death.How could he? All he did ever since he met her was to make her worried about him! Mika gave him a warm welcome, she made him feel that he belonged in the family and treated him as a precious little brother.He hadn’t done anything for her yet. He still had a lot more things to do with her. There were more memories to be shared, but it was too late. He couldn’t make her happy after all the love he received from her.Dio buried his face on his kne
“Our master’s prediction was right. He really came.” A girl wearing black revealing clothes giggled as soon as he reached the second floor. “Hey, boy, do you want to play with me?” She even licked her lips after looking at him from head to toe.He smiled seductively and let the girl touch his chest before she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Was it okay to play with a boy like me?”He scoffed internally. How could she act so shameless right after they planned to kill his sister?The girl licked her lips and looked him in the eye. His eyes never left hers and soon enough, her lips touched his and he had no choice but to open his mouth so that her tongue could have her way.They were both panting when they finished the kiss. Dio smiled and whispered, “That’s one down for me.”The girl’s eyes widen as she held her neck. She was gasping and chasing her breath but the more she struggled
Blur entered the slums so Dio just followed him. The people living there eyed him suspiciously because of his bloodied academy uniform, but he chose to ignore them. Nothing was more important to him than the annihilation of the people who massacred his family. As long as those people wouldn’t stop him, he wouldn’t have anything to do with them.Blur entered a dark alley and Dio moved to follow him. However, a voice of an old man was heard before he could enter the alley.“What’s the business of a young man in there?”Dio stopped in his tracks and looked at the old man who was hiding in the shadows. He smiled innocently but there was a hint of danger in his eyes. “Someone indebted to me is in there so I came to collect the payment.”“Take care. That place is dangerous.”Dio nodded and continued to walk inside. He found Blur waiting for him a few meters away and as soon as their eyes met, Blur con