Danmachi - Eldritch Apostle

"That's him, mister! The rich boy who wanted to toss me over the fountain! There's no doubt that he's an arrogant noble with lots of money in his pockets," Lili's voice spoke with a mischievous grin on her face.

She wanted to kill me by sending these dudes against me. The money in my backpack is proving her point, but still, she's a blatant liar. Anyhow, I have decided what I should do with this little shit — murder her.

"Cat got your tongue, huh? Now, toss us your backpack and your weapons, and we might let you walk away with a few bruises," the man held his weapon tight, and his friends behind him followed suit.

I sighed deeply and, without saying another word, cast my Chaos Sultan on them multiple times.

The first three hits landed directly on them, sending them flying back into the dark dungeon corridors. I heard Lili gasp in pain as she collided with the sturdy dungeon ground, while the men screamed too.

"ARGGHHHHH!"

"WHAT THE-"

I stopped their leader from muttering another useless word from his shitty mouth as I sent more waves at him and his comrades. Each hit made a metallic creaking sound, and each wave pressured their metallic armor.

The armor started to bend into an uneven shape; its once nice and polished appearance turned into a pile of trashed armor. They were so sure about me being an easy pick, so sure in the durability of their armor until someone hard enough hit them.

In total, there were five men with Lili, making them a group of six. Now only two remained alive — both Lili and the leader she tricked into attacking me. The others were dead, and their blood was visible everywhere around us.

Blood gushed from one of the corpses' heads as the man hit the sharp rock upon being tossed over by my power. Others died, most likely from internal bleeding, as the power behind my waves likely made their organs move to places they should not be moved.

Cough Cough "...What are you..? A first-class adventurer?" the leader barely managed to speak, looking at me with one eye, while his other eye was damaged enough for him to not be able to see through it.

"No," I replied before pausing. Seeing his bloody face and broken body only proved to me how Chaos Sultan is such a cheat power to have. I'm kind of eager to see how it's going to evolve upon further levels.

"...Then...you are the monster....wait, that eye..." I sent a final wave at him before he could finish his sentence, killing him on the spot. His already broken body shattered into pieces upon my final attack.

It flew onto the rock in the back, the bones making a bunch of crunchy sounds, but the guy was long dead before he could feel the pain from his bones bursting. Now, you may question me, why didn't I let him finish?

And the answer is clear: I hate long-ass conversations during fights, final confrontations against villains, and overall battles. I always hated how the main character would just have a straight-up philosophic debate with the villain before they kill each other.

Or when the main character starts blabbing about the meaning of life and the question of existence before finishing off that villain, who in the end manages to somehow survive by some odd logic.

Reminding me of that, I sent other waves to the male corpses, making sure that each one of them was dead.

"...Please... please spare me!" the girlish voice spoke when I turned my head back to Lili while she lay on the floor. She was hurt, but I missed her on purpose. I wanted to have a chat with her before deciding her fate.

"Would you do the same if one of the adventurers whom you stole from begged you to return his stuff, begged you not to leave him alone in the dungeon without his most precious thing in such a place, a weapon?"

Tears started to drop from her eyes. She clenched her fists and looked down at the ground with nothing but despair, pain, and hopelessness. She knew that I was not going to spare her; my answer made it clear that I wasn't open to such noble acts.

But I proved her wrong.

"I will spare you. Go before I change my mind."

I said coldly, without looking her directly in the eyes. I would gain nothing by killing this annoying midget. Perhaps I grew too soft.

The next moment she stood up, brushing her tears from her eyes. She didn't say anything; instead, she started running away faster, away from me. I looked in her direction until she was truly gone, ensuring she didn't plan to do anything behind my back.

I continued my journey inside the dungeon after looting the corpses of the men I'd killed moments before. In total, I managed to collect around five bags of valis, totaling 10,000 valises.

'This should keep me sheltered for about half a month if I spend the money wisely, or maybe not? I don't know, but I hope that the economy here isn't as messed up as in my previous life, where you couldn't survive alone even with an above-average salary.'

My thoughts stopped when I heard a bunch of angry growls in front of me. From the shadows of the murky dungeon tunnel, a couple of kobolds emerged, ready to eat me alive.

They attacked me all at once, expecting to overwhelm me with their strength and sheer numbers with ease. However, my power is such a cheat that I don't even have to break a sweat to dispose of such creatures.

WOOOOSH, BOOOM

I sent a final wave at the group, killing them instantly. Their corpses turned into a black mist, leaving nothing but a monster core behind.

'This is too easy, although I know that monsters stronger than level 3 would most likely be able to resist my spatial waves. If I want to level up fast, I need to go deeper into the dungeon, which is logical. Maybe in a week, since I have yet to settle in that abandoned church.'

Calling it a day, I stopped my dungeon grind for now and moved back to the surface, which didn't take long since I was on the second floor. Before I reached the exit on the first floor, I encountered a small group of women adventurers preparing for a deeper dive.

They were quite pretty, one could say. Two amazons, one human, and two elves. They had their familia banner with them, and the thing that surprised me was that I couldn't recognize it at all.

We both looked at each other. I gazed at them with curiosity, not moving a muscle on my face, while they stared back with both interest and caution. To them, I was most likely a pretty young boy, but also a possible threat.

There's a saying, 'Whatever happens in the dungeon, stays inside the dungeon,' and everyone knew about that unspoken rule. So it's normal for people to be distrustful and cautious of each other since the dungeon is a place where killing is legal.

"Hello there, may I ask which Familia you're from?" one of the amazonian girls asked, her skin tanned due to her bloodline genetics. Her eyes were as red as crimson, and her hair black like pure night.

She was quite a looker, one could say. She kind of reminded me of Bara from Loki Familia, who died during the dark ages of Orario. Standing taller than me, she formed a confident smile on her face while resting her hands on her hips.

"I'm not in any Familia. This is my first time being inside this dungeon." My reply shocked her; she formed a both worried and doubtful look on her face.

"Don't tell me you're one of those freelancer guys. Most of them are overconfident adventurers who think they don't need a Falna to get stronger. Judging by your full bag, I would call you a liar."

I wished I had a spatial storage skill, since carrying this stuff pissed me off, but at the same time, it was beneficial too, since most people would question an adventurer who returned from long dungeon dives empty-handed.

"I'm just a simple guy who wanted to explore the dungeon. I have enough power to defend myself, so why would you worry about some random dude in the dungeon? Now, if you'll excuse me..."

I looked in the direction of the exit and began walking toward it, but the strong hand of the Amazon stopped me by the shoulder. Her grip was strong, like that Amazon I fought back in Agris, which was a piece of bad news.

"There's no need to have such an attitude, handsome. Judging by your looks, I wouldn't be surprised if the goddess Freya herself invited you to her Familia. Anyway, we're from Aphrodite Familia. Our goddess is passing by Orario for a couple of weeks, so we decided to try the dungeon out for our stay. If you ever wish to join us, just stop by Hostess of Fertility. The owner of the inn is kind enough to let us stay there for a couple of nights."

Hearing her goddess's name, I was quite stunned. I never would have expected Aphrodite to come by Orario. It was never mentioned in canon that she stopped by Orario, but it didn't matter right now. I'm ashamed enough to admit that Aphrodite is my favorite goddess in the entire series.

"I'll see. Thanks for the offer." I made a quick exit out of the dungeon, sensing the girls staring behind me.

---

As I walked the streets of Orario, I was greeted with many female glances. I made my character beautiful, but I didn't quite expect this much attention. It wasn't like it bothered me that much.

Lost in thought, a sudden grip tightened on my shoulders with an iron... no, a titanic grip. Turning my head behind, I saw none other than Mama Mia with a mad expression on her face, signaling that she was pissed off at me.

"You, you're coming with me," she murmured before picking me up and throwing me off her shoulder. People around us looked at me with pity, presuming I was in serious trouble, which I most likely was.

Mia was a level 6, so by no means could I resist or sense her. She was leagues above my current level, so the only thing I could do was to defend myself by remaining silent. After all, we were on the surface, and I knew her character well enough that she wouldn't kill me.

When we entered the inn, the place was empty, which didn't meet my expectations. The only people there were the girls who stared at me with interest and pity, the pity because they knew well how hard it was to deal with Mia.

"Sit down here and don't move a muscle, or I'll beat you enough to make your body limp. I'll bring out the drinks and the food, so hold on tight, and don't even think about running away or refusing my generous gift," she half-smiled and went into the kitchen.

The girls stood in front of me while I sat down at the table.

"I have the right to defend myself by remaining silent," I spoke, surprising the girls.

"You're so weird, nya. Why would you not want to speak with such cute girls like us, nya? Are we too old for you?" the black catgirl asked, Cloe, leaning closer. Inspecting me closer, the same applied to her friend, Anya.

"Ah, finally, you're here. It seems like Mia was kind enough to not knock you unconscious. Please forgive me for my previous outburst; I should've never reacted like that in front of a customer!" Syr appeared, bowing to me like a maiden. The other girls stared at me, awaiting my answer, but the answer never came. I still held onto my silence, uncaring of the levels of all of them or Syr's true personality.

"So, you refuse to talk, eh? It's very rude to ignore a young maiden such as Syr. Honestly, you should show some emotions when a girl like Syr bows to you," the blonde girl Lunoire crossed her arms in disapproval.

They were hypocritical. Not only did they kidnap me, but they were also now judging me for not wanting to cooperate with my kidnappers. While all of them had trouble with my silence, Ryu kept silent, her eyes scanning me like a predator scanning her prey, and not in a kinky way.

"Here you go, lad! Drink up and eat lots. Take this as an apology for our first not-so-pleasant encounter. Syr here is an airhead, so forgive her for that. She sometimes acts unnaturally in front of cute boys like you, hahaha!"

Mia made the serious atmosphere turn brighter, placing a large plate of steak and a huge bottle of what looked like beer in front of me. The steak smelled etheric, but the beer, on the other hand, wasn't so attractive since I never drank in my past life, nor did I plan to in the current one.

'Perhaps I could accept this apology...' I thought as my hungry stomach growled upon smelling the heavenly aroma of the freshly made steak.