The story of the black silk female knight

Valensa explained without batting an eye:

"Translated into common language, this term can be understood as a divine gun that is sure to hit and kill."

"Wow... a divine shot that always hits and kills? How cool."

Fran seemed very satisfied with this explanation, and after thinking about it carefully, her expression became even more satisfied:

"Although the title 'guaranteed hit and guaranteed kill' sounds a bit cliché, using otherworldly language perfectly solves this problem and adds a touch of mystery... Alright, it's decided, from now on, my Noble Phantasm spear will be called Gungnir!"

After deciding on the name of her Noble Phantasm, Fran sighed somewhat dejectedly:

"Unfortunately, I haven't practiced using a spear much before, so for now I can only use it as a throwing weapon. In close combat, I feel it's not as good as my own claws."

"It's okay, you can get used to it gradually. Anyway, Fran, you have plenty of time."

Valensa comforted her with a smile:

"And it's also great as a throwing weapon... Imagine, when you encounter a powerful enemy that no one else can beat, you can pull out this gun, shout 'Gungnir, the God Gun,' and throw it out for a one-hit kill. How cool would that be?"

"Hmm, that seems to be true."

Fran clearly imagined the scene, and nodded excitedly:

"Then I'll focus on javelin throwing first; that shouldn't be too difficult."

"Given the reaction speed of your vampires, it's not difficult at all. You might even perform well in this dungeon raid... Oh, right."

As Valensa spoke, she slammed her fist into her palm in frustration.

"I was so busy chatting that I almost forgot I came to see you about the important thing."

Valensa then gave a brief account of the dungeon raid and invited Fran to join her team to help take care of the weaker members.

Fran readily agreed. Having just experienced a major breakthrough in her strength, she was looking for a place to practice properly, and Valensa's invitation was like a godsend.

After finalizing the dungeon raid plan, the two took a quiet bath for a while before Valensa spoke again in a rather serious tone:

"That priest of the Abyss Spirit Society... did we find anything about him?"

"No."

Fran replied with some regret:

"The other paladins killed him to save me... the kind of death where his soul was purified by holy light. After I was out of danger, I led a search party to thoroughly search the bandit's lair, but we didn't find anything more."

It seems the contact between the Abyss Spirit Society priest and the bandits hasn't been long... In fact, similar incidents have happened several times in the past few months.

"This has happened several times?"

Valensa frowned:

"Were all these actions carried out by the Abyss Spirit Society?"

"No, that's not it. They've been involved in all sorts of cult activities."

Fran shook her head, looking equally puzzled:

"I don't know what's gotten into those cults lately. They've been very active... making contact with all sorts of bandit gangs and underground organizations in the city, causing all sorts of trouble."

"Has there been a lot of cult activity lately?"

Valensa's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly associated it with a certain wicked woman.

If the previous speculation is correct, the Sin Angel should now be in a critical period of completing its plan, and it may need a period of time and space without disturbance to carry out the final step.

But she is now the most wanted criminal on the Sun Church's wanted list. Not only does the Sun Church have a special task force composed of high-ranking paladins constantly searching for her, but many bounty hunters who want to claim the Sun Church's rewards are also looking for her.

In this situation, even if the Sin Angel's disguise skills are extremely high, it would not be easy for him to complete his plan without being disturbed.

Therefore, for the Sin Angel, getting the cults to be more active and diverting the attention of the Sun Church was a feasible and good idea... She was fully capable and motivated to do so.

Valensa discussed her guess with Fran, and Fran also thought it made a lot of sense.

So they ended their bath early, dried themselves off, changed into new clothes, and told Lika and Sila their conclusion.

Lika and Shira agreed with Valensa's reasoning and together wrote a report to headquarters.

But, that's all.

There are only so many clergy, and it's impossible to ignore cults causing trouble everywhere, so it's inevitable that their attention will be diverted.

As for capturing the Sinful Angel as soon as possible... that's even more difficult.

With the Sin Angel's ability to disguise herself, she could easily find a needle in a haystack by hiding in any major city... Unless she takes some action herself, it would be very difficult for others to discover her whereabouts.

Chapter 18 Three Routes

Regarding the pursuit of the Sinful Angel, Valensa can currently offer no further assistance beyond submitting her analytical reasoning reports to the higher-ups of the Church of the Sun.

So she had to put aside the matter of the Sinful Angel for the time being and continue to focus on the dungeon raid.

After Fran joined the team, Valensa did not look for any other teammates.

Ultimately, her dungeon raiding team consisted of eight people: herself, Tia, Fran, Chiba, Gina, Melody, Gil, and Harry.

After several days of preparation and training, the day for the start of the campaign finally arrived, and all teams participating in the campaign had to gather at the designated location.

Valensa's group, naturally, followed the sacred path of the Church of the Sun through Valensa's connections, first arriving at the city closest to the meeting point, and then walking to the meeting point.

The meeting point is a small town, which is also the closest human settlement to the underground city, about 30 kilometers away horizontally.

When Valensa and her group arrived in the town, it was already very lively, with groups of adventurers dressed in uniform everywhere, all from the top-tier adventure teams.

“…Good fellow.”

Fran squinted and sensed it for a moment, then couldn't help but exclaim in amazement:

"Right now, there are more than a dozen Radiant-rank experts in this town that I can sense."

"After all, it's an underground city that hasn't appeared for many years... and it's said to be a very wealthy and large underground city, so it's normal that it can attract so many people."

Valencia responded with a smile, and then saw an adventurer's guild administrator walk over.

The adventurers' guild administrator was quite polite to Valensa, who was clearly wearing high-ranking paladin armor.

"Is this paladin also here for the dungeon? May I see your credentials?"

"of course can."

Don’t reach out to hit the smiling person.

Although the managers of these adventurers' guilds must have taken advantage of this opportunity to extort benefits or even make female adventurers sleep with them, it was all consensual, and Valensa couldn't be bothered to interfere.

She took out the scroll she had received from the old fisherman and handed it to the manager.

After the manager opened the scroll and looked at it, he returned it to Valensa and took out eight green ribbons:

"These are the identification badges for participants in the strategy battle. Every participant who passes the credential check has one. We hope that you will wear these ribbons to avoid us having to do the same work twice."

"Okay, thank you."

Valensa took the scroll with one hand and put it away, while handing the ribbon to Thousand Leaf Grass with the other, indicating that Thousand Leaf Grass should distribute it to everyone.

The adventurers' guild manager watched until Valencia and the others had all put on their green ribbons before turning and leaving.

The group originally planned to wander around the town and rest for a while while waiting for the assembly to end, but they didn't expect that many other adventure teams would soon gather around them.

These people are quite enthusiastic, but also very slick.

What seemed like a simple greeting was actually an attempt to extract information and find out the identities of Valensa and her group.

Many team captains even personally invited Valencia's team to join them, saying that they could all go to the inner city to make a fortune.

At first, Valensa thought that it was because there were many beautiful women in her team that other adventurer teams invited her team to join them, and that their real intentions were not what they seemed.

But soon, Valensa realized something was wrong... those people were less interested in inviting her team to join them and more interested in winning her and Fran over.

After a moment's thought, Valensa quickly realized... the problem lay in their identities; both she and Fran were dressed as high-ranking paladins.

When attacking a dungeon lorded by a lich, there is no more reliable ally than a priest.

Currently, among the adventurers in the entire town, only a very small number of adventurer teams can be found with mid-level priests. High-level paladins like Valensa and Fran are naturally highly sought after.

Valensa was only there to join in the fun and broaden her horizons with her friends, and had no intention of becoming a key player in the assault to risk her life in the inner city. Naturally, she declined all invitations from other teams.

However, there are currently too many adventurer teams in the town. One group of inviters is turned down, but another group keeps coming. It's impossible to refuse them all.

With no other option, Valensa and her companions found a hotel in town, booked a room, and changed their clothes to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After a brief discussion, everyone quickly decided to change into the War Academy's uniforms. If other adventurer groups asked, they would say that they were all students who were just there to broaden their horizons and did not intend to enter the inner city.

Apart from Fran, everyone else was already a student at the War Academy, so changing into their school uniforms was no problem for them.

Gina had already graduated and no longer carried her War Academy uniform with her, while Fran was not a student at all, so neither of them had a uniform to change into.

Valensa, Tia, and Melody all have hot figures, and Fran and Gina simply can't wear their clothes.

Fortunately, there was another petite girl named Chiba, who took out two spare school uniforms and lent them to Fran and Gina.

However, there are differences between petite women.

Although Fran and Gina could barely fit into Chiba's school uniform, the first thing they did after putting it on was something that made Chiba's veins bulge on her head:

She reached out and tugged at her collar, as if she felt a bit stuffy.

Gina is rather quiet and reserved when there are many people around, so she didn't say anything, but Fran didn't care:

"Phew, the clothes fit well overall, but they're really tight around the chest."

!

The black lines on Chiba's head became even more prominent, and she said angrily:

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry I have small breasts!"

"Ha ha……"

Valensa couldn't help but smile at the sight. When she saw Thousand Leaf Grass turn to look at her as if it wanted to bite, she quickly reassured it:

"Actually, having small breasts has its advantages... At least when you're leaning back to dodge enemy attacks, it'll be easier for you, right?"

"...Big sister is an idiot!"

Thousand-leaf grass immediately transferred all its dissatisfaction to Valensa, and pounced on her, opening its mouth to bite.

At other times, Valensa wouldn't mind playing around with Thousand Leaf Grass for a while, but now she had important things to do, and she couldn't let her newly changed school uniform get wet with drool.

Valensa nimbly dodged Chiba Grass, then tripped her with her foot and grabbed her with her hand, slamming Chiba Grass onto the table behind her. She then slapped Chiba Grass's buttocks twice.

Thousand-Leaf Grass immediately became obedient, her voice becoming charming, no longer showing any anger, only a hint of resentful coquetry:

"Hmph?~~ Big sister only knows how to bully Cao Cao?~~ What a weakling?~~"

The little incident ended there. After changing their clothes, the group reappeared in the town.

Now they're not so eye-catching anymore. The adventurers who still come over to say hello are just lusting after the women's beauty.

After learning that Valensa and her companions did not intend to enter the inner city, even the adventurers who coveted the women's beauty did not offer to accompany them.

After all, the qualification to enter the dungeon raid is hard to come by, and many adventurer teams have paid a great price for it. They will definitely want to enter the inner city and give it their all.

During their time there, Valensa and her companions encountered a group of acquaintances—the Red Cloud Adventurers who had been hired by Valensa to explore the Mawsmora Basin.

In addition to the few Lighthouse-level Red Cloud adventurers that Valensa met last time, the Star-level leader of the Red Cloud Adventure Team also came in person this time, and there were more than 20 Lighthouse-level members in the team.

According to the vice-captain who accompanied Valensa on the last mission, the Red Cloud Adventurer Group has deployed its full strength for this campaign, all in an effort to make a fortune in the inner city.

Valencia smiled and wished them good luck in their endeavors and abundant wealth.

There are many other adventurer teams like the Red Cloud Adventurer Team, and their situations are similar to those of the Red Cloud Adventurer Team. The team leader personally leads the main force of the adventurer team to participate in this conquest.

The dozen or so Star-level experts that Fran sensed when she first entered the town were basically the leaders or core members of these adventure groups.

It wasn't until about three hours before the official start of the campaign that the two key figures in charge of organizing it finally appeared.

One of them looked to be in his thirties or forties, with a small mustache, a slender but muscular build, and bronze skin.

He held a long-handled weapon that looked somewhat like Valencia's famous halberd from her previous life, yet it was not quite the same.

Both are composed of a piercing spearhead and a cleaving axe blade, but the axe blade of the halberd has a crescent-shaped opening facing outwards, while this long-handled weapon has a crescent-shaped opening facing inwards and an arc-shaped axe blade.

Valensa had never seen the man wielding this weapon before, but she had overheard the bald man and the old fisherman mention him in their conversation. He was one of the three giants of the Gourmet Association, and was referred to as "the hunter" by the bald man and the old fisherman.

He didn't ask for Valensa's real name, but he later checked the information and found that this big shot really did call himself the Food Hunter, and had been doing so for hundreds of years. Over time, no one remembered his original name and called him Lord Hunter.