19 Chapter 19 - Retrieving Hestia's Knife.

["I realized that I might be making some mistakes; there's so much copy and paste with over 6k words that I could be duplicating some things. If the text is missing anything or significantly out of context, please let me know."]

Chapter Size: 2291 Words.

Lucius POV

Dungeon, Sixth Floor.

...

In the dungeon, a man ran from various monsters, trailed by a strange creature carrying a backpack. The man struggled a bit to kill the monsters, indicating he was a common level 01, but he was content with slaying everything he encountered on the upper floors so far.

*Slash*

I found myself now, cutting down those ants on the sixth floor, while Riekling picked up stones from the ground. It was much more enjoyable to explore the dungeon this way. After battling on the sixth floor, I decided to head to the intermediate floors. Bell passed by me on the fifth floor with his support without noticing me, so they are probably reaching the tenth or eleventh floors in a few hours.

I continued at the same pace until the ninth floor, where a monster outbreak suddenly occurred. Sensing everything shake, I asked Riekling to be on guard with his spear.

"Really? This has never happened to me in the dungeon, but all these signs indicate a large number of dungeon spawns."

"HEEEEEEEEE!" he responded.

"Let's see what's coming and what will happen," I said as I sheathed my sword and prepared both hands to cast firebolts. We could hear the distant screams of dozens of monsters in the dark corridors ahead.

When the first ones appeared in our sight, we saw the origins of the screams—about 60 goblins and kobolds running towards me and Riekling with fury in their eyes.

"I don't know what causes this, but the dungeon rarely sends these groups to kill many adventurers. Any other level one would have to run, but I'm glad I can test the effectiveness of my uncanted magic for the first time."

Pointing my two hands without saying a word, my hands lit up, and fires shot out like a machine gun over the group.

*Flame!*

*Boom*

"Huu?"

*Boom*

"Huu!"

*Boom*

In the next 20 seconds, this area became engulfed in flames with my firebolt machine gun. I didn't even know if they were already dead, but I waited to cast until the 20 seconds were up.

"FUCK 80 FIREBALLS!" I shouted in astonishment as I looked at the sea of flames in front of me.

Besides controlling the spell and casting without incantation, I could cast with both hands! With each hand launching 2 firebolts per second, I was a destruction machine. Even though the spell is weak in terms of first-class adventurers, I can destroy even early level 3 adventurers if they underestimate me, I believe!

'However, I would be dead if any of them approached with my physical stats.' I couldn't help but think about my disadvantages.

"Anyway, I'm working on that..." I said to myself.

"HEEE!" My partner's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Did you see that? That's my secret weapon!" I said proudly.

"HEE!"

I don't know why, but I understand everything this creature says.

Suddenly, I opened the system, remembering there was an exclamation point in one of the tabs, so I clicked on [Missions(!)].

About the new spells I acquired in the last few hours, new spell missions appeared with no surprise.

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[Strength Booster Mission: Cast 1000 Strength Boosters! Rank 2 | {Progress: 1/1000} (0%) | {Reward: User Can Cast Spell Without Incantation.}]

[Speed Booster Mission Rank 2: Cast 1000 Speed Boosters! | {Progress: 1/1000} (0%) | {Reward: User Can Cast Spell Without Incantation.}]

[Goblin Summoning Mission Rank 2: Keep the Goblin Active for 100 Hours! | {Progress: 1/100} (1%) | {Reward: User Can Cast Spell Without Incantation.}]

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From all the information, the first thing I thought about was Riekling's mission, where I have to keep him summoned for 100 consecutive hours. It seems like these challenges are for people without infinite mana like me. There are no missions for rank 1, but when looking at the other missions, they are much more time-consuming, not because of the difficulty, but casting 1000 support spells lasting 2 minutes each will take a while...

Snapping out of my thoughts, I saw the sea of fire extinguish, and I waited for my new companion to start collecting the magic stones scattered on the ground. Once he finished, we continued walking.

Shortly after, we were entering the mist of the intermediate floors as we exited the ninth floor. By some luck, I found Bell and his support's location quite quickly.

I stayed in a corner at a distance without attracting attention, observing their interactions. Bell had bought that Crozzo armor a few days ago, as he was in his classic look from the beginning of the first season of the anime. I realized that Bell is indeed much faster physically than me.

"HEE?" I heard my partner beside me, watching my actions.

"Who are you calling a stalker!?" I said with a vein on my forehead.

"Wait, how do you know that term... Forget it, I don't want to know." I looked strangely at him, but soon didn't want an answer to my question.

"HEEEEEEE!" I ignored the protest and continued paying attention to my family companion.

'I envy the protagonist's power.' I thought, sighing, as I watched Bell kill his enemies with his knife and agility.

*Boom!*

I heard his firebolts exploding in the distance. I had moved a bit farther away to avoid being discovered by any of them or the men I am looking for, but I no longer see any of those adventurers who will ambush Lili later.

Suddenly, I noticed Lili running backward away from Bell, tossing small odor balls on the ground—items that can attract monsters to Bell while he is not looking.

"Lili?! LILI!!!???" Bell shouted, seeing that his support had moved out of his line of sight and couldn't see her anywhere. I sighed; Bell is too kind and naive, even though he was warned that this could happen, he still acted like an innocent, trusting Lili. I know she has become important to the Hestia family, but there are things that are hard to swallow. I held back the last time she leaked information about me to members of her family, Soma, some who still know Lili is alive, but I admit I was tempted to kill her.

After that, three orcs surrounded Bell, and while he fought to dodge, Lili, from behind, shot arrows with ropes to retrieve Hestia's Knife. How can she do that? I don't understand this logic.

"Honestly, I hope you can survive..." The girl said as she went up the stairs after her villain speech, returning to the upper floors.

Sighing and seeing Bell in trouble, I raised my hand.

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Bell POV

In the same place.

"LILI..." I thought lamentably.

"I have to catch up to her!" I said to myself as I dodged the blows from these monsters. I couldn't attack and get rid of them without a weapon, and my magic was low, only dodging.

'This is frustrating!' I screamed in my mind.

But while I was in my despair, fireballs started to appear from the midst of the mist. The orcs were hit by a sequence of 2 shots each around me; the smoke covered the entire view, but I saw that all the monsters were easily disintegrated after that without me getting hurt in the middle of this attack.

*COF*

Coughing with all the smoke, I was shocked by the power of whoever did this, which reminded me a lot of my firebolt but helped me effortlessly.

I waited for a moment standing in the same place, with 3 crystals at my feet, but not seeing any response within the mist. Even though I expected this adventurer who cast magic to want these crystals, I realized that whoever helped me had already left. Despite wanting to thank my savior, I didn't waste any more time; I ran up the stairs to catch up with Lili, unfortunately without thanking my savior.

Some time later.

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Unknown POV.

Another place, not far from Bell.

"HAHAHAHA, look at this knife! We're going to get rich!" said a beastman to his friends as they walked back to the surface.

"That foolish pallum really believed in us... I didn't even bother remembering her name; now she'll die devoured by ants!" said another, laughing.

However, as they walked leisurely in their group of 8 adventurers, they spotted something very unusual in the dungeon. They stopped in front of a small goblin holding a backpack on the eighth floor...

"An irregular, perhaps?" everyone thought.

"HEEEEEE!" shouted the goblin in response to the group.

Then after a few seconds of silence, the group exploded with laughter, thinking that the goblin had stolen a backpack from an adventurer after killing him.

"HAHAHAHAHAH. What a funny monster!" one of them shouted.

"It's true HAHAHAHA! This day couldn't get any better!" said the half-beast leader.

"Riekling! What did I tell you about talking to strangers?" Suddenly, they heard a new voice behind the goblin.

"HEEEEEE!" protested the small goblin; no one laughed anymore, finding this interaction between this person and the strange monster very strange.

"Come here, stand behind me." He said, and it was amazing that the monster actually did as asked, going behind the shadow approaching the group.

The man became more visible after taking a few more steps, and his appearance was revealed. He was tall and wore expensive and bizarre clothing, no one we knew, but he had a strange tattoo on his forehead.

"Hello, gentlemen. I was starting to worry if I was in the right place since you wouldn't show up while I waited for you to arrive..." he said with a bored voice.

"Who are you?!" One of the men in our group asked, a bit cautious.

"I am Lucius Drakenar, from the Hestia family. Also known as the Mage King," he said proudly, but he seemed more like a man deliriously self-proclaimed than an adventurer earning a nickname in Denatus. And we would know if someone had the title King in the middle of their nickname.

"Mage King?? I've never heard of you..." I said.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter much," he said with boredom, wanting to end the subject after that proud expression with his nickname.

"What does matter, actually, is that you stole a member of my family..." He said calmly, it didn't take long for us to realize he must be a member of the family of that boy the foolish pallum stole from.

"We did, so what? What are you going to do, kill us? HAHAHAHAHA" Many of us laughed at that; he was just 1 against 8 of us. He must be out of his mind if he joined as he self-proclaimed as the Mage King.

But then, he gave a strange smile to us, it looked like a wicked and malicious smile, just like the ones we make with our victims.

"Hmmm.... Since that's the case, I'll do it, with pleasure!" He said, raising his hands, two fireballs appeared out of nowhere, and without a word, even from his mouth.

With that, he initiated a situation we never imagined, then our desperation began!

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Bell Pov

Nearby.

I started to carry Lili on my back as we returned to the surface. The girl still cursed at me, calling me a fool, but I didn't care; I wanted to help her.

Now my priority is to get the knife back, which was stolen from Lili's hands.

Running through the corridors, trying to follow the trail of those thieves, we began to hear explosions in the distance, so I knew it could be them.

As we approached, we heard desperate screams of humans, something that made me tremble a bit; there were people dying like animals in those corridors, but still, I gathered all my courage.

We entered a more open passage, and then I came across a horrible scene that appeared before us. We saw a bunch of burned adventurer corpses scattered everywhere; this made both me and Lili, who was looking over my shoulder, freeze.

"You finally arrived, Bell." A familiar voice resonated in the midst of that chaos of fire and bodies, there were 8 of them, unrecognizable at that moment.

At the origin of the voice, there was Lucius standing calmly next to a goblin that reminded me of a support with that giant backpack.

"Mr. Lucius?! What happened here?" I asked, scared; it was a horrible sight, something I never imagined seeing in my life.

"They stole from my family when I politely asked them to return your knife, they attacked me unjustly... Well, I defended myself from there," he said melancholically and with a tone of irony. I shivered as he killed these people without any remorse in his voice.

"HEEEEEE!" My attention was taken by the voice of the strange monster next to him, who didn't seem hostile to Lucius.

His scream seemed like a protest that he didn't agree with Lucius's words. I found the monster very peculiar, but I couldn't forget about the corpses.

"Really? And how did you help?" Lucius crossed his arms as he looked at the shorter companion.

"HEEEE! HEEE!" The monster protested.

"I don't think you distracted them, Riekling, but I'll teach you to fight in the future, don't worry." Lucius proclaimed.

"Well, anyway, I got it; here's your knife." Before I could see even more of the bizarre situation.

He walked up to me, talking and handing me the knife, Lili trembled on my back as he approached. I may be quite unsettled by how Lucius eliminated all these people, but I know he wouldn't harm me.

But I was surprised when he lifted my lost knife and handed it to me.

"So, I'm going back to the intermediate floors, see you later, Bell..." He said calmly, walking past both of us, and a goblin in a backpack following him.

As he walked away, Lili and I could only stand paralyzed in the place with the smell of burnt flesh in the air, trying to understand everything that happened in the last 5 minutes.

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