"...Hey."
Not long after Riezel came to a halt, Bete, who had been bickering with Tiona the entire time, also stopped.
He twitched his nose, flicked his ears, and then, drawing on the heightened senses of a beast-human, conveyed a message to everyone present.
"A group’s running this way. They’re panicked, and there’s blood in the air. Something definitely went wrong."
As soon as these words fell, everyone stopped in their tracks.
"They’re coming..." Ais said quietly, her hand lightly gripping the hilt of the sword at her waist.
Hearing this, the others exchanged glances before collectively turning their gaze forward, toward a branching passage not far ahead. If one listened closely, hurried, chaotic footsteps could be heard echoing from that branching passage.
Moments later, a group of adventurers with terrified expressions—most of them bearing injuries of varying severity—burst out of the side passage as if monsters were chasing them.
"Hey, stop right there, small fry!"
Bete stepped forward and blocked their path—his tone was harsh, and his expression was filled with disdain and contempt.
"Y-You’re Vanargand?!"
The adventurers, initially on the verge of exploding in anger at being stopped, froze when they recognized Bete’s appearance. Shock washed over their faces, followed by expressions that wavered between fear and relief.
"Sword Princess!"
"Braver!"
"Nine Hell!"
"Crusher and Jormungand!"
"E-Even that monster rookie is here!"
"It’s the Loki Familia!"
When the rest of the adventurers saw Riezel’s fully armed group standing there, they were first struck dumb, then quickly broke into overwhelming joy, looking as though they had just found their saviors.
"Hey, what happened to you guys?" Tiona greeted the battered adventurers without pretense, her expression calm.
"What happened?" Finn stepped forward to ask.
In response to their questions, the adventurers did not hide anything, explaining the situation with pale faces.
"A-A monster from the Middle Floors came up to the Upper Floors!"
"And it’s a large one!"
"It’s slaughtering rookie adventurers on the Upper Floors!"
"Someone’s trying to fight it right now! P-Please, you have to go save him!"
They spoke over one another, painting the picture in fragments, and the group’s expressions tightened.
"No way..." Tione muttered in shock. "An anomaly really happened?"
A monster from the Middle Floors rampaging through the Upper Floors was, unquestionably, an anomaly.
No one had expected that the vanguard dispatched as a precaution would actually encounter such a situation and be put to use.
"Tch, this is why I hate dealing with small fry..."
Bete spat out a curse, but whether his irritation was aimed at the adventurers’ pale, panicked faces or at the emergence of the anomaly was unclear.
"Where is the monster now?" Riveria asked directly.
"O-On the 9th Floor!"
The instant this answer left the mouth of one of the adventurers, Finn gave his order.
"Riezel, Ais, Bete."
Finn named the three fastest among them.
*BANG!*
Riezel, as if already prepared, shattered the ground beneath his feet with his very first step.
Sand and dust exploded upward as he shot forward with a powerful shockwave, vanishing rapidly down the passage ahead.
"!!!"
Seeing that Riezel was already gone, Ais reacted next, turning into a gust of wind and sprinting after him without hesitation.
"Tch, always dragging people into trouble."
Bete still wore an annoyed expression, but his movements were anything but slow—with a few explosive strides, he quickly caught up to Ais, his speed clearly surpassing hers.
Just like that, the three disappeared within moments, leaving Tiona and Tione unable to follow, even if they truly wanted to. One stomped the ground in frustration, while the other folded her arms tightly, scowling in irritation.
"You all return to the surface immediately and report this to the Guild," Finn instructed the adventurers, then hefted his spear firmly and signaled the others. "Let’s go. We’re following them."
Every single member of the vanguard group nodded in unison and rushed after Finn, moving swiftly and decisively through the passage.
===
*Swish!*
A faint tearing sound cut through the air.
At this moment, Riezel pushed his AGI to its current limit.
Shockwaves rippled outward as he charged ahead, his speed so extreme that the entire passage filled with swirling sand and dust, reducing visibility by several levels.
"Gyaaah—!"
Along the way, monsters drawn by the overwhelming disturbance barely had time to lift their heads and bare their fangs before the oncoming shockwaves blasted them away.
One after another, they slammed into the walls like trash, pulverized beyond recognition.
All these weak monsters, classified as Level 1, stood no chance against that torrent of force.
Riezel’s figure was completely swallowed by the sandstorm and raging airflow, leaving no trace behind.
He was advancing so recklessly, not because he wanted to save someone.
He knew that the adventurer currently fighting the large monster that had invaded the Upper Floors was in danger, but not in mortal peril.
Because this was a trial that had been arranged.
Because this was a planned attack.
Hence, he was not charging to disrupt that arrangement or interfering with the trial, but for the person who, following a witch’s divine will, had personally created the trial and was guarding it from the shadows.
Thinking of that person, the corners of Riezel’s mouth lifted slightly, while his fighting intent rose, and his speed increased yet again.
With such velocity, he quickly passed through the 8th Floor and soon entered the 9th Floor, reaching his destination.
An eerie silence hung over the area, and an unnatural atmosphere permeated the floor, as though the native inhabitants—its monsters—had all fled in fear of the violent incarnation that had intruded here.
*MOOOOOOO—!!!*
A roar suddenly resounded, sounding so deafening that it shook dust from the ceiling and proclaimed the sheer power of its master.
It was not the roar of a beast, nor that of an ordinary monster, but the roar of a raging bull.
No Level 1 monster could produce such a roar—even most Level 2 monsters lacked that kind of raw force.
Evidently, the monster ahead was violent and ferocious, though compared to the Crocodile Dragon Riezel had once slain, it was likely no more formidable.
Against such a creature, a mere Level 1 rookie adventurer had only two choices.
One was to turn and flee for their lives, and the other was to be killed on the spot, leaving no intact remains.
Of course, there had always been those who carved out a third choice through sheer exceptional ability.
In the past, Riezel himself had challenged a Level 2 Crocodile Dragon while still Level 1.
And now, ahead of him, was someone like his former self—someone turning the impossible into reality, bravely forging a miracle.
Riezel’s eyes flickered faintly.
A moment later, something stirred in his heart, and he abruptly stopped.
"H-Help... Help..."
Ahead of him appeared a girl, badly wounded and bleeding heavily from the forehead, stumbling as she ran in Riezel’s direction.
She was a pallum like Finn—small in stature, with chestnut hair and eyes, looking youthful, cute, and fragile.
She staggered forward, swaying as she ran, while her eyes were half-open and unfocused, as though she might lose consciousness at any moment.
"Someone... Someone, please save us... Save Lord Bell!"
After pleading, the pallum girl collapsed to the ground.
Riezel stepped forward, crouched beside her, and placed a hand on her body to steady her.
*Pa!*
Sensing Riezel’s presence, the pallum girl trembled and weakly reached out, clutching the hand pressed against her.
"Please... Save him... Please..."
She begged through tears, her consciousness fading, as though she could not let go of some deep obsession.
"Don’t worry."
Riezel looked at her steadily for a moment before speaking.
"He’ll be fine."
At these words, the tension holding her together finally seemed to snap, causing her grip to loosen before she lost consciousness.
"Middle Healing."
Riezel immediately activated healing magic, making a soft, hazy light envelop the pallum girl and mend the wound on her forehead.
Once he finished, he moved her to the side and propped her against the wall.
"My companions are coming from behind, and the monsters on this floor have all been scared off by the intruder. Stay here and wait for someone to take you out."
As if speaking to the unconscious girl, Riezel murmured these words, then stood and shot forward once more, racing down the glowing passage ahead.
Using his translucent eyes to see through multiple passages and chambers, he had already spotted it—the massive figure standing at the end of the passage, heavy and imposing like a small mountain.
"Stop."
Suddenly, a voice—not cold, yet carrying a crushing weight like a tidal wave of pressure—reached Riezel’s ears.
*BOOM!*
Riezel came to a halt like a streak of light slamming into the ground, the impact blasting away dust, rubble, and turbulent air as he appeared before the speaker.
In an instant, the air grew oppressive.
He faced the man standing in the wide, cavernous passage, the one who was blocking his path.
Before him, the man wore heavy armor, yet his towering, rock-like body—over two meters tall and bulging with muscle—made that armor look like light gear, almost unbelievable.
His face was like carved stone, his body like forged steel, and his thick, powerful limbs were like blunt weapons in themselves, inspiring dread at a glance.
He had short, earth-red hair and matching eyes, with a pair of beast ears atop his head, which were the ears of a boaz, famed for bravery.
"Hmm... so it’s you who came..."
Speaking lightly, the boaz stood rigidly before Riezel, a massive pack slung over his right shoulder, completely blocking the way.
"Very well. We were bound to meet sooner or later. Meeting here is not entirely unexpected," the boaz continued, his presence radiating overwhelming pressure. "You will stop here, Riezel Brynhart."
Seeing the boaz, Riezel naturally recognized him.
He was the only Level 7 in Orario, hailed as the city’s final weapon, the city’s strongest, and standing above all adventurers—Ottar, known as King.
Ottar, the captain of the Freya Familia, stood before Riezel, their gazes locked.
Riezel suddenly smiled.
"You really are here, King," Riezel remarked calmly.
"I see... you knew from the start that I was here..." Ottar said in a low voice, his earth-red eyes narrowing.
"Did you really think you could hide it from everyone?" Riezel replied with a faint smile. "I mean, the captain of a rival familia wandering the Middle Floors for an extended period, playing with monsters—did you think we wouldn’t know?"
"Fair enough..." Ottar said, silent for a moment, then continued evenly. "I guess, the Loki Familia could never ignore my whereabouts—that was my miscalculation. Still, you will not pass."
As he spoke, his voice was calm, but the certainty in his words echoed immovably through the passage.
"It doesn’t matter," Riezel said indifferently. "I’m not interested in your goddess’s game anyway. Besides, the outcome is already decided. Whether I go past or not makes no difference."
Hearing this, Ottar narrowed his eyes again.
"You have even grasped the will of my great goddess?" Ottar asked, the pressure in his voice intensifying.
If it were anyone else, even a renowned First-Class Adventurer would have broken into a sweat under his crushing pressure, but Riezel endured it head-on, his expression unchanged.
"Didn’t your goddess use her ’eyes’ again to take interest in some unlucky soul? To make him grow stronger and shine brighter, you deliberately arranged this trial for him."
Riezel spoke casually, the expression on his face slightly bored.
"For his sake, she sent out Hildrsleif and Dainsleif to train him, then had you choose a monster from the Middle Floors and bring it up to the Upper Floors as his trial opponent."
"That’s why you lingered in the Middle Floors, playing with monsters far weaker than you, and why those two ferocious magic swordsmen have been seen recently dragging a badly injured guy around for treatment. Am I wrong?"
"Must have been hard on you."
Riezel’s words dripped with mockery.
"Playing house with your willful goddess can’t have been pleasant, can it?"
Hearing this, Ottar fell silent, but in the next moment, he grabbed the pack on his shoulder, tore it open, and pulled out weapon after weapon.
*Whoosh!*
One by one, Ottar drove the weapons into the ground, then grasped one of them.
"Come," Ottar declared plainly. "You are also someone our goddess pays special attention to. Let me measure your worth."
Riezel’s answer came as if it had been decided from the start.
"Gladly."
He lightly drew the thin crystal sword from his waist, angling it toward the ground.
"Come to think of it, I still have a debt to settle with your guys."
He was referring to the past incident in Orario, when Vana Freya had attacked him.
"I’ll collect some interest first."
Riezel’s translucent eyes gleamed as his fighting spirit erupted like a raging storm.
"Good."
Feeling Riezel’s surge of intent, Ottar was surprised at first, before he was ignited by battle lust.
In the next moment, the clash between Orario’s two strongest adventurers began.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]