Darkness under the city(corrected)

The next day, Mark did not want to waste time, so he headed at a good hour to the guild.

Entering the building he was now used to, there were already adventurers looking for possible quests or simply hitting on female employees. Making his way inside, he looked around and when he saw Eina he headed to her.

"Good morning Eina."

"Good morning Mark, long time no see, did the exploration go well?" -Seeing Mark, Eina put down the papers in her hand and turned to him cheerfully.

"Tiring but satisfying. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about the reason I came."

"Of course, tell me everything." -Entering into her professional state, Eina waited for Mark's request.

"I wanted to know if any Familia or party took the quest to exterminate the Goliath."

"Give me a second I'll check."

Rising from her chair, Eina began to look for various papers on the shelf behind and shortly returned to her seat with good news.

"You are lucky, since the Goliath was reborn last night, still no one has come to claim the quest. Are you by any chance going to be part of the party that attacks him?" -She asked with some concern.

"Yes with the Familia party."

Of course, Mark lied; there was no point in telling her the truth because it would only worry her more. Moreover, it was quite difficult for her to believe him since such a feat would be seen as stupidly impossible.

"I see, so you will be in safe hands, but try to be careful okay? The Goliath is not an easy monster." -She warned him seriously.

"I know, I have already read every piece of information about him in the Familia archives. To be more prepared than that is difficult." -Said Mark with a laugh lightening the mood.

Seeing how well he had already prepared himself, Eina could only sigh and wish him good luck.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Eina, he headed toward the entrance, where he met a familiar face.

"Good morning Mark."

"Good morning to you too Bell."

Seeing Bell greeting him, Mark naturally reciprocated, but when he focused on his aura, he was surprised by the changes.

'The last time I saw him he was not like this, are you telling me that in such a short time he achieved something similar to mine after I went on the expedition?'

Mark was confused, during the expedition he had fought most of the time and now Bell had reached a similar level that he had then. He wondered how powerful his growth ability was, so a natural question arose.

"Did you by any chance face a powerful monster?"

This was the only solution he could think of.

"Ah, so you heard about it. A few hours after you left, an estimated level 5 black Goliath appeared. Fortunately, with everyone's cooperation, we managed to defeat it, otherwise, it would have been a problem."

'So that's what happened. Now that I think about it, when I wanted to go down into the dungeon, I had been stopped because of the problems that happened on the 18th floor, but what does the deity of a god have to do with all these problems?'

[If you consider the dungeon a living being, the deity is similar to a virus, and the monster that was born was supposed to play the role of an antibody. At least that would be my theory].

Mentally nodding at his words, Mark did not care much that the gods could not descend into the dungeon. All he cared about was that he could go down and collect the fragments.

"Looks like you've had your doses of trouble."

"So it seems. Oh, Mark, I must say goodbye to you, Eina wants to give me some lessons on the dungeon floors and I'd better not keep her waiting."

Smiling at him, Bell hurried in as Mark returned to the base to let Loki know of his plans, plus he had to pretend to have his status updated so as not to look suspicious.

He walked toward Loki's room, and when he was about to knock, the door opened by itself.

"Oh! You gave me a heart attack Mark, don't you know how creepy it is waiting behind a door?"

Seeing how she put her hand on her chest, she looked like she had taken quite a fright.

"... I was going to knock, you just opened the door before I could." -Mark said, massaging his forehead.

"Yes yes, no need to make excuses. So do you need anything? I'm slightly in a hurry."

Seeing how she disregarded his words, Mark was sure that one day she would send him to the madhouse.

"I would like you to update my status for this."

He said to her, as he showed her the paper with the quest to take down Goliath.

"You're crazy, or rather, Is it not that you have a fetish to work yourself to exhaustion?"

From the way Loki looked at him, she seemed to consider him a tireless machine rather than a human. After all the events that had happened, between Melen and the challenge with Tione, he already wanted to confront Goliath, but she knew that talking to him would do no good, so she simply went along with his request; after all, she had lost the bet.

"Let's see."

Dripping a drop of blood onto Mark's exposed back, various inscriptions appeared and the values on his status began to change as the exelia he had earned was consumed.

"Even though it's only been a short time, there are already changes, here."

By now Loki had become accustomed to Mark's abnormality, so she quietly handed him the paper.

#########################################

[NAME]: Mark Tormeto

[AGE]: 18

[LV]: 2(3)

[BASIC ABILITIES]:

Strength: SS 1000 -> SS 1100(1300)

Endurance: S 990 -> SS 1050(1200)

Dexterity: SS 1050 -> SS 1180(1250)

Agility: SS 1100 -> SSS 1200(1400)

Magic: SS 1100 -> SSS 1250(1600)

#########################################

For his statistics that were already at a high rank, the improvement was more than appreciated by Mark. With these stats, he was already an intermediate-high level 4, but those skills could only be fully used once he leveled up, so the most he could exert was the strength of a beginning level 4 adventurer.

As for the other skills, there were no changes, but that would just require more time and training.

"I plan to attack it tomorrow." -Said Mark once he finished reading the values.

"Haaa, do whatever you want. Just know that you will be accompanied by someone, there's no question about that."

"Okay."

"Ah shit I'm late, tomorrow we'll talk about it calmly okay?"

Without waiting for Mark to say anything else, she hurriedly left the room.

At that point Mark had nothing more to do, so he decided to return to his room to review any strategies and ask the Guide for information.

---Changing perspective---.

"God Thanatos."

"God Thanatos."

"God Thanatos grant our wishes!"

In a huge stone room, a large number of people, covered by a white cloak that showed only their eyes, stood kneeling as they addressed the figure in front of them.

Unlike the others, he had a black cloak covering his body, leaving his face exposed, where his dark purple hair, like his eyes, came out. His height towered over the others and his face was full of dignity, and when he raised his hand, all the people closed their mouths.

"Children who have been blessed by me, I have not forgotten my promise that I swore on my name. When I will return to Tenkai, I will fulfill your every wish."

"Long live the god Thanatos!"

"Long live the god Thanatos!"

"Long live the god Thanatos!"

When his words were heard by his believers, emotion-filled tears flowed from their eyes as they worshipped their god with even more vigor as he began to retreat toward a long corridor strewn with columns. If there was one thing in particular to notice, it was how his lips kept twitching, as if he was struggling to maintain his facial expression.

"So dear merciful god, have you gotten used to your position?"

Out of one of the columns came a woman who seemed amused by the situation. She had medium-length pink hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a black top with black pants with red stripes, with the top and bottom damaged to some extent, leaving her stomach exposed. Although her appearance was not bad, no one would approach her because of the sadistic aura she exuded.

"Little Valletta, it's actually quite tiring, do you want to switch?"

The dignified aura he had disappeared immediately, as he held back his laughter with difficulty, making him sound much more frivolous.

"Idiot, this would be useless without a god."

"Ah, you hurt me little Valletta. Hearing all the groans from my members is quite tiring you know?"

Said the god, as he rested his cheek on his hand to show how tired he was.

'tap' 'tap'

"Oh if it's not the beautiful Revis, what brings you here?"

When they heard the sounds of heels, they both turned toward the woman, who was also the source of trouble for the Loki Familia.

"Message from Ein, in a few days the Loki Familia will be here, let them in and lock them up. Kill everyone who is not Aria, I'll take care of her." -She said in her cold tone.

"Revis try to be reasonable, the guys in here are in pretty bad shape, if the Loki Familia appeared, they wouldn't last long, so why don't you offer more sincere help? Besides if they come in contact with those spirits, you would be in trouble too." -The god asked her with a wistful smile.

"...I will take care of Aria, you take care of the rest."

Not even turning to answer him, she walked away, disappearing into the darkness.

"How cold."

"Thanatos, I'll take care of Finn the Braver, no problem with that?" -She asked sadistically.

"No problem, besides I know you joined just for that."

When the god finished talking to her, he continued walking for a while until he came to another room, where there was a pit surrounded by columns, where the sound of something cracking and being swallowed came from.

"I see that you are already here Ishtar." -Tanatos said as he looked carefully at the body of the goddess.

"She is growing well."

Ignoring Thanatos's gaze, Ishtar looked with interest at the ditch, where there was a monster that looked like a giant mutant bull and above its head was the body of a woman from the torso up. It was lying on top of a myriad of magical stones, which it ate voraciously.

"Of course, it's our ace, 'Bull of Heaven.'"

The two gods looked with anticipation at what this corrupted spirit would offer them.