Danmachi - Eldritch Apostle

My mind was feeling dizzy as the darkness slowly faded away, and I found myself lying on the couch inside an abandoned church.

I didn't know how much time had passed in the real world, but it felt like I had just slept for 12 hours straight, or like when you sleep during the day only to find yourself waking up in the evening.

In short, it felt very confusing and weird.

Looking around me, I noticed the Necronomicon on my table. I de-summoned it since I had already seen my stats earlier, so there was no point in checking them again.

Eventually, I made my way outside of the church, only to be met with the pleasant sight of a warm city night. The air smelled incredible, reminding me of summer nights from my past life.

The air around me brushed softly against my cheeks. It looked like night had just fallen, so the nightlife in the city was just starting to wake up.

Speaking of, Orario had an amazing nightlife, unlike the rest of the towns in this world.

I mean, it's just a guess.

Orario, as the center of the world, surely has great nightlife, and the red district is a big factor that adds to it. It's the place where adventurers or other men, after a hard day's work, can come and relieve their stress.

I don't know if things like that are expensive here or not, but either way, I'm not gonna let some Amazoness fuck the living shit out of me since I have a girl that loves me now.

Girl, wife, goddess—it's the same to me since she is Azathoth.

Never did I think I would find myself in this kind of situation, but it is what it is. After all, Azathoth gave me this new life and powers.

She never told me her opinion about Aphrodite flirting with me. Now that I remember, either she doesn't know anything about it, or she doesn't care.

I am not sure how she sees romance or love in general. Being an ascended being like her surely comes with a greater consciousness that is not understandable to a normal mortal mind.

Brushing my thoughts aside, I was heading toward the dungeon since I wanted to grind out a bunch of excelia to level up again. It would be a long process, but I cannot move forward without moving my feet.

Evilus is mostly gone by now, but there are some remnants here and there. You have the Ishtar Familia, who are, if not the largest, the most significant remnant of Evilus right now. They have a bunch of strong Amazonians, including that frog abomination, Phryne.

Then you have Ikelos Familia, who are hiding inside the man-made dungeon, but I don't know exactly where it is located, plus I don't have the key to open that door.

I was too weak to fight those two familias right now, so I had to choose one of the weaker familias worthy of slaughtering. Soma could be one of them, but they mostly consisted of brainwashed weaklings whose only thought was about wine.

I could deal with that problem later on if I cared enough, but for now, I have to watch out for any potential new gods that might be troublesome. Svarog told me about Morana, but I don't have any information about her.

That is, not yet.

"Heya Niaaaall!" called a familiar voice. It was Hermes, along with his loyal companion Asfi.

Hermes approached me with Asfi by his side. By the looks of it, Hermes was happy to see me, while Asfi maintained her usual expression.

"Long time no see, Hermes, Asfi. How have you been?" My polite greeting seemed to surprise Hermes enough to make him laugh.

"Haha! We've been great! So, how are you finding yourself in this beautiful city of ours? Have you found a goddess or a god to join?"

A calm wind blew across my face during our little conversation, and the crowd around us avoided hitting us by going around.

"Nah, I'm going solo since I don't do well in groups. Plus, most of the gods are selfish bastards who see you as their pawn. Something I cannot just accept."

My words seemed to surprise Hermes and Asfi a bit. "That's not a very nice thing to say about us gods, Niall. Yes, some evil gods just cannot be respected, but saying most of us are like that is just going overboard... don't you think?"

He seemed a little bit upset, which was unusual for him. "I agree to some extent, but things aside... did you need something from me or did you just greet me for no reason?"

I quickly changed the topic since arguing wouldn't get us anywhere, especially with a god-like Hermes.

Hermes seemed to notice my fast change of topic, so he followed, leaving the past argument completely aside.

"Yes, I have some job for you, if you are free, of course. It'll be best if all three of us move somewhere... quieter."

He was plotting something again. Despite my wanting to go to the dungeon, I decided to see what he had in mind. Money aside, I needed to complete that killing quest if I were to get the building ability.

The three of us moved to a darker corner of the street without anyone following us. Eventually, we reached a dead end where only a weak lamp brightened our surroundings.

"So, what's the catch?" Asfi scanned the surroundings for any unwelcome eyes. Once she confirmed that we were alone, Hermes turned his eyes to me.

"Would you be interested in a job as an assassin? Now, all of this may sound a little bit off since it's me who's giving you the job, but I think you've got what it takes."

Never had I thought that the one recommending this type of work would be Hermes. He might be a sly god full of tricks up his sleeve, but I never really thought of him offering me an assassin job.

"I would like to, of course. Just don't send me on suicide missions against high-level adventurers since it's your thing to pull out something like that."

"Please, Niall, I would never send you to do something you cannot manage to accomplish. This job I'm about to give you might pull you into the dark world of assassins. I won't blame you if you decide not to take this path."

He sounded genuine, but I still wasn't entirely convinced to trust him completely. "Your target will be a man involved in human trafficking, more precisely child trafficking. He butchers the children and sells their organs for huge sums of money.

I've heard of what you can do, maybe it's just rumors, but you managed to murder an entire bandit stronghold by yourself. I don't know what kind of abilities you possess, but I believe you can manage to pull this off.

Here, take this. It's a drawn appearance of the man you need to take out, as well as his location and the estimated number of his men. The man is a level 1, formerly from Aeshma Familia. He ran away from his god only to involve himself in this gruesome business in a search for power and fame."

I opened the letter and saw the drawn appearance of a man who looked in his forties with a common, bastardish face. Below him, his status and known skills were written...

"....Name: Fredrig, born by selective breeding run by Aeshma, born from his Amazoness mother and a human father who were level 2 adventurers of the same familia. Once he reached twenty years old, his parents died during dungeon diving.

During the great feud, he involved himself with Evilus, doing all kinds of gruesome work for them to reach his ultimate goal, which is to run Orario's entire underworld. In recent years, his influence grew massively by doing child trafficking work, and selling healthy organs for a good price.

Many assassins tried taking him down, but due to his strong connections with adventurers from the Aeshma Familia, he acquired a set of strong bodyguards to protect him from any outside harm."

As I finished reading the letter, Hermes patted me on the shoulder. "Even if he ran away from his familia, his god Aeshma still supports him by sending him soldiers. I don't know why Aeshma is interested in helping him out since his selective breeding thing doesn't seem to connect with what Fredrig does... but you will have to take him down, or many more victims will appear."

The mood took a darker turn. I could feel Hermes's anger behind his calm composure.

"It'll be done, Hermes. I will prevent that man from causing any further harm, I can promise you that. Also, when I finish this job, I want you to tell me more about this Aeshma guy. He sounds just as evil as Fredrig does."

Hermes sighed as he looked into my eyes. "Of course, but I don't advise you to go after the gods. It is a crime to harm a god, but you could at least deal with his familia if that's what you want. But be careful, they have some quite strong members that aren't easy for you to deal with as a level 1."

He didn't know about my true strength, but it was for the better. Once I deal with this job, I'm going to become a proper assassin.

The only thing left for me now is to begin my work.