Preparations complete, ready to depart.
The Hero Party wasn't alone — over 20 high-ranking adventurers, including Sena, had joined their ranks.
Keele's Dungeon sprawled across the entire mountainside. Its vast area and complex terrain made it impossible for a single party to explore thoroughly in a short time. They couldn't delay any longer — something could go wrong.
At Sena's strong insistence, the Kingdom's Prosecutor, the Adventurers' Guild dispatched these additional high-ranking adventurers as reinforcements.
The adventurers quickly divided into teams. Naturally, Adam, Darkness, Aqua, and Kazuma formed their own group.
Sena wished to join them, but other teams needed someone who could command and make decisions in battle. Reluctantly, she gave up this prime opportunity to get closer to her "ticket of good life".
When Darkness emphatically declared "Stand back! Leave this to me!" they let her handle the exploding clay golems blocking the entrance alone.
Using her incredibly durable body, she drew all the clay golems to herself and let them detonate. Then the assembled adventurers split up to begin their search mission.
Next came exploring the dungeon proper.
Adam took point, with Aqua by his side, Darkness following close behind to protect her, and Kazuma bringing up the rear to watch for sudden attacks. With the 〔Perception〕 skill between Adam and Kazuma, having one in front and one behind created the ideal scouting formation.
"Um... Adam, is it really okay for me to come along?" Aqua clung to his arm as they entered, trembling visibly, "Zombies always chase after me for some reason. Won't I just cause trouble? Maybe I should go back... Not that I'm scared — I just don't want to be a burden like Megumin."
Though her words seemed considerate, they stemmed purely from cowardice.
Wait, hadn't she always claimed her mission was to purify all the liches in the world? Why so scared now?
For a goddess to fear Zombies... She might as well quit being a goddess — she clearly wasn't cut out for it.
Indeed, Zombies would chase after her, begging to be purified and sent to heaven by the Goddess Aqua.
Yet wasn't she rather pitiful? Despite being a goddess "Known Throughout the Continent", most people didn't revere her. Instead, she got chased around by Zombies, Evil Spirits, and other undead monsters.
Really... how tragic!
Pfft! Ahem, sorry. I'm totally-not-enjoying-this…
"Huh? Adam, why are you smiling?"
"Ahem, don't mind me, I just remembered something funny." Adam quickly concealed his involuntary smile.
They needed to address Aqua's zombie-attracting nature — hordes of Zombies surrounding them would prove troublesome.
"Oh right, here's a cloak for you, Aqua." He recalled the presence-concealing equipment he'd crafted days ago.
Perfect, though he wasn't sure if it would work on a goddess. Even if it didn't, it would provide psychological comfort.
He draped his cloak over Aqua, offering warmth in the cold, damp dungeon.
Ah, truly only her favorite follower would show such care. Her eyes grew moist.
A goddess's presence was vital. Vanir possessed incredible power — so much that even Adam doubted he could defeat him. In this situation, only Aqua, as a goddess, could restrain that demon.
Though Vanir could communicate and bore no ill will toward humans, even befriending Wiz, wasn't it more reassuring to have the "With a goddess in hand, the world is mine" guarantee?
With the zombie-attracting problem resolved, the party pressed on.
The dungeon teemed with clay golems, several patrolling the center of each pathway as Scout Guards.
"Sigh, not so simple after all. Let's deal with them quickly..."
Just as Adam drew his Nichirin Longsword, ready to eliminate them in one strike, Darkness broke from the party and charged straight at the clay golems.
"What are you doing, Darkness? Come back!"
The party members could only watch helplessly — not because they worried about her getting hurt, but because her flushed face and perverted expression were truly hard to watch.
"Even if you love being blown up that much, you shouldn't break formation at a time !"
"What nonsense are you talking about, Kazuma!"
Darkness rebuffed his criticism as she swung her knight's longsword, destroying the surrounding clay golems one after another.
"Ahahahaha! I hit them! I hit them!" She laughed joyfully, "These guys, even my sword can hit them! Look, look!"
Even covered in soot and dirt from the explosions, she couldn't hide her excited, flushed face as she charged fearlessly at the clay golems without concern for injury.
Sure, her joy at breaking her "Never Landing a Hit on Enemies" curse was understandable, but that was only because the clay golems actively approached to self-destruct.
Besides, if she wanted her attacks to hit enemies so badly, why not properly learn the 〔Greatsword〕 skill instead of obsessing over physical defense?
Perhaps because her attacks were actually landing, giving her a sense of real usefulness, this fool Darkness got carried away.
She broke away from the party recklessly, charging like a runaway tank toward the dungeon's depths. As she ran destroying golems in the corridors, she vanished from sight in the blink of an eye, with explosion sounds echoing back.
How should one put it... As expected of a dungeon built by an Arch-Wizard Lich — it was terrifyingly sturdy, showing no signs of collapse even with all these explosions.
"Hey! Darkness! Wait up, wait for us!" Aqua shouted at the distant pervert, then turned to Adam beside her, "Hey, Adam, let's hurry after her! Darkness will definitely get hurt on her own!"
"That fool..." He rubbed his temple with a troubled expression, then called out to Kazuma behind him, "Kazuma-kun, Darkness has left the party, let's speed up and catch up to her."
With that, he carried Aqua on his back and rushed toward the dungeon's depths.
"Darkness, you idiot!" Kazuma cursed her as usual before hurrying after them.
With explosions continuously ringing out, following her trail, the 『Hero』 Party advanced toward the deepest part.
Before they knew it, they arrived at a secret chamber.
"This is where Kazuma-kun and I purified Keele before, and it's also the deepest chamber in the dungeon." Adam warned the two girls, "My detection sense tells me there's someone inside — probably the culprit behind this incident. The enemy we're about to face is very powerful, so everyone needs to be careful."
His voice carried gravity, because Vanir was special, and though there were ways to deal with it, they were very difficult.
They could anticipate that a tough battle awaited them!
"I see, so this is where the enemy is hiding." Darkness, unable to contain herself, wanted to charge ahead recklessly, "We'll have to properly thank th— I mean punish that unknown person! How dare they cause trouble in the dungeon and make us take the blame for it. We can't let them get away!"
Hey, you just exposed your true feelings there. What do you mean "properly thank them", you perverted female knight!
I grabbed Darkness's hand to stop her while also restraining Aqua, who was fidgeting restlessly with a grimacing expression.
Strange, why was she acting this way?
Before I could ask, she provided the answer, snarling, "Adam, there's definitely a demon in there — my radar has detected it!"
Her tone carried intense hostility.
This was inevitable — they were natural enemies, after all. Especially for Aqua as a goddess; if she couldn't sense such thick demonic energy at this close range, she would have been wasting her divine position.
"A demon... so it really is him." Adam confirmed that Vanir was inside, warning again, "What lies ahead is the entrance to hell itself. We must proceed with extreme caution!"
"Gulp." Kazuma's throat bobbed.
He was getting scared. His usually confident senpai was now visibly tense, which in turn made him nervous.
With the problem children showing various expressions, Adam opened the secret chamber's door.
"I've been waiting for you, adventurers!"
Before them sat a figure cross-legged in the depths of the room, diligently creating clay dolls from the ground's dirt. Upon seeing the chamber door open wide, it stopped its work and greeted them.
The firelight illuminated the entire chamber, revealing the figure clearly.
Judging by its body shape, it appeared male. But since Aqua said it was a demon, it might not have a gender, so we'll use "it" for now.
It wore an elegant evening dress that seemed completely out of place in the dirty dungeon. Though it had just been making dolls, the white gloves on its hands showed not a trace of dirt. A black and white mask, identical to its clay dolls, covered its face down to its chin, giving off an ominous feeling.
"Heheheh... I'm surprised anyone made it this far." Vanir's words seemed to praise Adam and the others as it showed a smile at the corner of its visible mouth, then spread its arms wide, "Welcome, adventurers, to my dungeon!"
"..." Adam emptied his mind and remained silent.
This was his strategy for dealing with this guy's ability to peer into his mind, though he wasn't sure if it would work.
But just because he stayed quiet didn't mean the problem children in the party would do the same.
"Wow, this guy has no shame." Kazuma criticized mercilessly, "This dungeon was clearly built by Keele the Lich Arch-Wizard, yet he dares to claim he's the master here."
"Hmph, demons are such filthy, despicable creatures." Aqua shouted angrily, "You're a demon, aren't you? How dare you show yourself before me — I'll purify you!"
Darkness also drew her knight's sword and declared, "So you're the culprit behind these excellent dolls? This is wonderful... I mean terrible!"
"Hey, Darkness, what are you saying!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's a demon we're talking about!"
Kazuma and Aqua immediately turned to criticize her. Darkness's words were all jumbled — it wasn't clear if she was praising or condemning, but it was exasperating either way.
But this actually played into Vanir's desire to continue its performance.
It stood up and, adopting a superior attitude, proclaimed loudly, "You speak true! I am indeed the source and culprit of all evil!"
"I am the Duke of Hell who leads the demon armies, the Duke who commands the demon forces!"
"Furthermore, I am a General of the Devil King's army!"
Awkward silence fell. It truly became awkward.
Vanir, who had been caught up in its passionate theatrical performance, suddenly felt deflated upon seeing these adventurers showing not the slightest hint of fear. Its perfect performance had been wasted.
Never mind fear or timidity — they didn't show even a hint of surprise.
"Hey, you lot!" Vanir pointed at them in exasperation, "I just said I'm a demon — aren't you afraid at all?"
"We figured that out ages ago."
"Well, Aqua already told us, so there's really no surprise there."
"Mere demon, that stench of evil coming from you is way too obvious, hmph."
Everyone spoke up at once, but none of them showed any sign of shock.
Seeing these adventurers completely unfazed, Vanir was unusually stunned.
"Ah — eh? What's going on?" It asked blankly, "Didn't I just say that I'm a General of the Devil King's army... aren't you shocked?"
Devil King's Army General. In its experience, this title alone should have been enough to make a country issue maximum alert orders, and all adventurers should have been terrified.
And those who made it this far shouldn't be beginners either. Why weren't they afraid at all?!
"Hah, Devil King's Army General." Kazuma sneered dismissively, shouting at the dumbfounded Vanir, "We've already defeated one of those Devil King's Army Generals before. That Dullahan wasn't strong at all — went down in just a few moves. So you guys aren't really anything special."
You couldn't blame the kid for getting cocky.
With the strongest member of the 『Hero』 Party, Adam, and the Read the latest chapters on NovelHub - completely free! Reality was about to give him a harsh slap in the face.
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