From Danmachi to God of Ninja

Chapter 137: Chapter 137

The Dungeon, 37 floor.

A large party was making its way back toward the surface.

They looked rather worse for wear, every one of them dirty and disheveled, their armor and gear covered in dents and crisscrossed with all manner of marks.

One could easily imagine the fierce battles they’d been through.

This party was none other than the Loki Familia’s expedition force.

Over the course of this fifteen-day expedition, they had at one point pushed all the way down to the fifty-ninth floor, fighting endlessly against monsters vast in number and terrifyingly strong.

They had rested at relatively safe floors here and there along the way, but that state of constant mental strain never fundamentally eased.

After more than ten days, every one of them had reached their limit.

Faced with that, Finn had no choice but to give the order to head back.

He’d wanted to make a run at the sixtieth floor and see for himself the scenery that Orario’s once-strongest—the Zeus and Hera Familias—had laid eyes on.

But circumstances were stronger than any man’s will.

He’d have to bide his time.

”Ugh... I’m so tired. I’ve gone all smelly.” Tione stretched lazily, her lush, surging curves quite the eye-catcher.

”The second we hit the eighteenth floor, I’m having a proper bath! Ais, let’s go together.”

”Mm.” Ais nodded, though she seemed rather weighed down with thoughts.

”Ais, what are you thinking about?” Tiona suddenly leaned in close, eyes rolling mischievously as she teased, ”Don’t tell me you’re missing handsome?”

”...Mm.” Ais hesitated a moment, but nodded all the same. ”I wonder how he’s doing now, what floor he’s reached.”

”Probably around the thirty-second, I’d guess.” Bete cut in with his analysis. ”One person can’t carry much in the way of supplies. Strong as he is, staying power is always going to be an issue.”

”It’s been fifteen days since we last saw him—he’s probably back on the surface by now,” Riveria surmised.

At that, everyone present nodded.

The Dungeon’s lower floors were nothing like the middle and upper levels; the strength, variety, and number of monsters all climbed by geometric leaps.

A Level 3 adventurer might swagger about unchecked on the middle and upper floors, but on the lower floors they could only tread carefully, because one moment’s carelessness meant total annihilation.

This was a lesson countless adventurers had written in blood and lives.

So the way they saw it, for Kiriya to have cleared the thirty-second floor was already impressive enough.

”Looks like I’ll just have to go find him once we’re back on the surface.” Ais lowered her head, mulling it over, turning over the plan she’d been brewing for so long.

But she didn’t get to mull it over for long—because she felt an enormous commotion coming from up ahead!

The furious roars of monsters, explosions of every kind, the trembling of the ground under the force of heavy objects slamming into it—all of it woven together, instantly putting the Loki Familia party on alert.

”There’s someone fighting up ahead!” Finn narrowed his eyes and quickly made his decision.

”Riveria, you hold down the fort here. Ais, Bete, Tiona, Tione—come take a look with me.”

Whoever it was, if they could clear their way to the thirty-seventh floor, they were among the high-end fighting strength Orario had to offer.

As fellow adventurers, they had to lend a hand.

It could only be said that a man might be given the wrong name, but never the wrong epithet.

Finn, who bore the name of ”Braver,” truly had a sense of courage and responsibility that most people could not match.

For many adventurers, meeting another party in the Dungeon did not always lead to help. Some would already be considered decent if they did not stab others in the back or drag monsters toward them.

Adventurers who willingly helped strangers did exist, but they were rare.

Of course, Finn dared to do this because of his and his companions’ own formidable strength.

Two Level 6s, several Level 5s, and Level 4s and Level 3s beyond counting.

Even the Freya Familia would have to think twice before looking down on that lineup, never mind anyone else.

Even a weary lion is still the king of beasts who roars across the plains.

Hearing his order, the group sprang into motion, all of them racing toward where the sound was coming from.

On the way, Tione suddenly thought of something and remarked, ”Say—you don’t think the one fighting could be handsome, do you?”

”...”

That one line left the whole running group silent.

”It... shouldn’t be, right?” Bete’s mouth had gone a little dry.

He admitted Kiriya was strong—one-on-one, he was no match for him either.

But clearing the Dungeon wasn’t an arena bout, it was a full-spectrum, high-load grind on body and mind.

As formidable as that guy was, he was still just one person.

Could he really fight on alone in the deep floors for fifteen days? The last one to pull that off had been Ottar, the Warlord!

Ais’s pupils shot wide, her expressionless face carrying a heavy dose of disbelief.

”Whether it’s him or not, one look will tell.” Finn cut off the group’s speculation, and the others all quickened their pace.

The farther forward they went, the more monsters they ran into, and the stronger those monsters were—and all of them were closing in toward the direction of that sound.

The sheer scale of it moved even them.

”Don’t get drawn into fighting. Push through and get the person out first,” Finn said, and Ais and the others all nodded.

But when they reached the actual battlefield, the scene before them left them stunned.

There was a legion of powerful monsters, easily over a hundred strong, encircling a single youth.

Obsidian soldiers with thick, hard bodies, skeleton sheep that could vanish from sight, earth-born wielding weapons, snarling beast-faced werewolves with human heads—monsters averaging Level 3, even Level 4, launched what seemed like an endless assault on that young man.

Heavy stone hammers and stone axes, sharp claws and fangs, dense volleys of bone swords and bone spears... that onslaught, like a driving gale and pelting rain, carried a pressure that stole one’s breath just to watch.

But faced with all of it, the youth in the thick of it remained utterly composed.

Sometimes he blocked with his sword.

Sometimes he turned sideways and let an attack miss by a hair.

Sometimes he kicked a monster’s head apart.

Sometimes he thrust forward like lightning and pierced a magic stone.

Sometimes thorny branches erupted from the ground and skewered several monsters at once.

No matter how fierce the attack became, he never looked overwhelmed, it looked almost effortless instead.

”So it really is him!” Bete marveled.

”Handsome—cleared his way to the thirty-seventh floor all by himself.” Tiona’s eyes shone bright, dazzling as stars.

”And he’s only Level 3!”

”Why isn’t he using those powerful ninjutsu of his?” Tione asked.

”He’s restraining himself,” Bete said, a note of admiration surfacing on his face. ”Reining in his own methods, putting shackles on himself, dancing under conditions this extreme. This guy—he really is a ruthless guy.”

”But at this rate, how long is he going to be at it?” Tiona said worriedly.

”Now that we’re here, it should be wrapping up soon,” Finn said with a chuckle.

”Hm?”

Kiriya had of course noticed the group’s arrival.

As it happened, today’s training was just about done, so he decided to bring this Monster Feast to an immediate close.

”Ais, Tiona, move back!” Kiriya shouted.

”Hm?” Puzzled though they were, the group did as told and ran a little way off.

”Farther!”

They moved back again.

”Farther!”

They could only put more distance between them, until they were a full three kilometers from Kiriya.

Seeing this, Kiriya nodded in satisfaction at last.

In a flicker, he appeared at the very front of the monster legion, summoned five shadow clones, and rapidly wove his seals.

”Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave.” ×6

And then Ais and the others witnessed a sight they would never forget.

On the dry land, an enormous wall of water suddenly appeared.

In the blink of an eye it reared up sharply to nearly ten meters, then, with the force of toppling seas and mountains, came bearing down on the monster army!

RRRUMBLE—

The surging torrent slammed into the ground, bursting out with the momentum of a thousand armies on the charge.

Everywhere it passed, monsters were battered every which way, tumbled about dizzy and senseless as if thrown into a spinning washing machine, then heaped together at the end like so much garbage.

”Water Release: Water Severing Wave.” ×6

Crisscrossing high-pressure water blades came slicing down, running wild through the monster horde again and again, and in the span of mere seconds those monsters were all dealt with, leaving nothing behind but a scattering of magic stones across the ground.

”S-so amazing.” Tiona was awestruck. ”To pull off a water magic on this scale down on the lower floors, where there’s no river at all...”

”Kiriya’s ’mind’... really is outrageous.” Finn marveled too—only for the corner of his eye to catch a black shape, and his expression changed all at once.

”Look out!”