Ever since those battles they had fought side by side, Adi — who at first had been no more than a chance acquaintance of Artorias — began coming up to the upper floors on her own initiative, searching for him more and more often.
For a resident of the underworld who had never once seen sunlight in this world, the visiting girl often brought small gifts from Orario.
“Do you feel like you’ve gotten a bit sturdier lately, Artorias?” In a seldom-visited corner of the pantry on the seventh floor, Adi spoke as she held out a Jyaga Maru Kun — fresh from the fryer, still breathing steam — to the mouth of the white rabbit lying across her knees.
“Have I?” Artorias, in the shape of a Stitch Rabbit, parted the three-cleft lips peculiar to rabbits and took a crunching bite out of the fragrant, temptingly aromatic Jyaga Maru Kun.
That long-lost burst of honest salt and pepper detonated across his taste buds, and it nearly brought tears to his eyes.
After so long in this world, he was finally eating real food that wasn’t monster meat.
With that thought, he shifted comfortably, letting his head sink deeper into the soft muscle of her thigh.
Having taken the form of the single best monster for looking adorable, Artorias answered in a muffled sort of way.
The girl providing his lap pillow service nodded with utter seriousness, and even stretched out a finger to poke at the noticeably firmer lines of muscle along his back — which set Artorias muttering to himself.
Was it because he’d been eating so many high-purity magic stones lately?
Ever since updating his stats at Tia-Mama’s place and learning that his current strength made walking the tenth floor about as taxing as breathing, he had wasted no time expanding his hunting grounds further.
The tenth floor, the eleventh, the twelfth — the so-called last line of defense of the upper floors fell to him without effort.
As the hunting went on, however, an awkward problem surfaced: the beast instincts of the monsters on these floors were far sharper than those a few levels above.
The moment he let even a sliver of his presence leak out, even a savage Orc would scatter like a frightened Stitch Rabbit.
Left with no choice, Artorias tried transforming into weaklings — ordinary Killer Ants, Goblins, Kobolds — hoping to go back to his old trade of baiting prey into traps.
It worked a handful of times.
Then, as the floors grew deeper and the upper-floor monsters grew marginally cleverer, not one of them fell for it again.
These days he had become a walking plague across the entire upper floors, something even monsters fled from.
“Probably just all the exercise.” Artorias gave a noncommittal shrug.
After all, as far as his memory went, aside from that protagonist Bell Cranel with his Realis Phrase cheat, most adventurers grew in ability and level at what could charitably be called a tortoise’s pace.
A rocket-fueled climb like his own might well produce changes visible to the naked eye.
“That reminds me, Artorias.” Adi stroked the rabbit’s ears gently, a note of reluctance creeping into her voice.
“I probably won’t be able to come see you for the next few days.” “Hm?
Did something happen?” “My Familia is organizing an Expedition.” Adi explained further.
“We call it an Expedition, but it’s really about showing the newly leveled-up rookies the world.
The target is roughly the connecting region between the lower floors and the Floor Master.
Since we have to look after the low-level members, we won’t be exploring very deep.” “I see.
So it’s a babysitting job.” The Expedition Adi described was about the same as the veteran-carries-newbie events he used to run into now and then in games back home.
Called exploration, but mostly a chance for the Familia’s low-level adventurers to taste adventure inside a safe margin.
Artorias nodded.
“So — this is for you.” Adi produced something from inside her clothes and hung it around the Stitch Rabbit’s neck.
It was a pendant carved with the head of the elephant god, still warm with the girl’s body heat.
“This is…” Artorias went still.
“It’s the charm Lord Ganesha gave me with his own hands when I went from LV1 to LV2.
He said it brings good luck, and I think it boosts magic a little too,” Adi said with a smile.
“I can’t accept something that precious—” “Please take it.” The girl’s eyes turned unusually serious, with a trace of steel in them.
“You can transform, can’t you, Artorias?
And your presence is identical to a monster’s.” “There’ll be a lot of us from the Ganesha Familia on this Expedition, and our Familia has no shortage of high-level adventurers either — Big Sister and the others are all LV4, far stronger than Kaguya-chan was that day.” “What if you ran into my comrades while I wasn’t watching, and they attacked you thinking you were just an ordinary monster?” “If you’re wearing this, at least I’ll spot you more easily.
Maybe that will head off a fight that never needed to happen.” “Besides, I’m not planning to leave that pendant with you forever.” “It is a gift from a god, after all.
Once the Expedition is over, please remember to give it back to me.” “…” With the matter put that way, Artorias stopped refusing her kindness.
“All right.
I’ll keep it safe for you until then.” He reached out one stubby foreleg and pressed lightly at the charm on his chest.
… After Adi left, the pantry sank back into a deathly quiet.
Only the occasional distant shriek of a monster echoed between the empty rock walls.
“Since she’s gone, you might as well come out.” Artorias, who had watched Adi’s back until it vanished, turned and spoke toward a shadowed corner that appeared to hold nothing at all.
“You’ve been staring this way since a while ago.
I couldn’t pretend not to notice even if I wanted to.” Ever since undergoing Phasing, his five senses had sharpened considerably — and he had become especially sensitive to the weight of a [gaze] itself.
The shadow in the corner squirmed.
Then a figure wrapped head to foot in a tattered black robe stepped slowly out.
It was not human.
Beneath the hood of the black robe was a bone-white skull, stripped of every scrap of flesh.
“As I thought.
Your senses are remarkably keen.” The skull’s jaw opened and closed, producing a hoarse woman’s voice.
“Completely unlike them… Your reason and intellect aren’t even on the same plane.” “Truly astonishing.
I have dealt with your kin for many years, and this is the first time I have seen an individual like you.” The robed skeleton bowed slightly from the shadows, performing some strange courtesy that Artorias could not quite parse.
“A pleasure to meet you, Xenos Artorias.” “My name is Fels.
On behalf of the great god above the surface, and of those [kin] who share your blood, I have come to extend an invitation.” Artorias knew perfectly well who stood before him.
Fels.
The ancient sage of legend who had refined the Philosopher’s Stone, and who for violating a taboo had been reduced to an undead skeleton.
More than that: the proxy of the great god Ouranos, and protector of the Xenos.
What he had never imagined was that this figure, who wouldn’t so much as appear until the third season of the anime, had already begun moving at this early a point, before the main storyline had even started.
Yet before he could open with any answer to this invitation, which perhaps carried the will of a certain great god behind it— Whoosh— A scorching wave of air swept over them without warning, driving off the pantry’s cold, clinging damp in an instant.
Artorias and Fels turned their heads at the same moment.
At some point, in the open ground between the two of them, a crimson figure had come to stand in proud silhouette.
Flames coiled about her like loyal sentries, lighting the dim Dungeon as bright as noon.
That was absolute strength.
Of everyone present, she was without question the peak of combat power.
“My, my.
Listening to Kaguya and coming up to the upper floors really was the right call.” Red hair streamed loose; the girl rested a hand on the hilt at her waist.
In her emerald eyes there was not a trace of killing intent — only a clear, airy sort of insight that saw straight through everything.
“Sorry for interrupting your chat~” [Crimson Blossom] Alise Lovell’s lips curved into a brilliant smile as she addressed the skeleton and the rabbit standing before her.
“But that invitation sounds awfully fun.
Mind counting me in?” ____ 👻🔥Walnut-chan on Pa+reon for more!🔥👻 🔥 New history: DanMachi: