The Cloud-Raised Brave Man's Travels

"Well, I'd like to answer many of your questions, including this one, but..."

The man in black slowly raised his head and glanced towards a building far behind Hestia.

"It's impossible to have a peaceful conversation when someone is targeting you like this."

Hestia's eyes widened at these words, and the man in black opened his hands slightly.

"Let's find another place."

The next moment, a large amount of black smoke spewed out from the cuffs of the robe.

"--smokescreen!?"

Ishtar, who was in the sky, suddenly saw smoke covering the entire street. The person she had been aiming at had completely disappeared in the black fog.

"Damn it! It's really troublesome not being able to use divine power. If my Venus locked onto that guy, there's no way he could have gotten away."

Ishtar, in the sky, looked irritated. She'd flown so high, yet someone had spotted her. How could Hestia possibly be so foolish as to come alone to the appointment? After Koya and the others had departed that morning, Hestia had shared the instructions with the other goddesses. Naturally, Ishtar and the others believed it was a conspiracy. After all, sending members of Hestia's family to the underground city and then having the goddess attend a meeting in a deserted place seemed like a conspiracy.

So when Hestia went out, the three powerful goddesses in the family followed her. Ishtar patrolled in the air, Eresh hid underground, and Tiamat had the easiest time. She made a beautiful necklace with black mud and hung it around Hestia's neck. If something really went wrong, the necklace could instantly turn into dozens of Lv. 11 Lahmu to take Hestia away. In short, they had made all the preparations.

"Elei, just look after Hestia. I'm going back first."

Among the Hestia Familia, Cassandra, who hadn't been out for a long time, woke up from a dream. She once again had a prophetic dream, this time with a clearer vision, but only revealing the ending. However, she didn't report her dream to anyone, as it ended happily. All the Hestia Familia members returned safely. The scene she dreamt of was a grand barbecue party held by the entire Hestia Familia in the courtyard of the Hearth House.

However, Cassandra did not lie down on the bed to continue sleeping. She felt her stomach was empty and a little hungry, so she planned to go to the kitchen to see if there was anything to fill her stomach.

When Cassandra arrived at the kitchen, a tall figure was sitting in front of the 'refrigerator' where food was stored, happily eating a small cake made by Hestia.

"Ah—the goddess Tiamat."

"Hello~~Would you like some cake?"

"Um...thank you."

The two people who had little interaction happily ate the cakes in the kitchen. Only after the few cakes in the refrigerator were completely gone did Tiamat smile and ask Cassandra.

"By the way, are you from Aphrodite's Familia or Artemis' Familia?"

"what?"

Cassandra looked at Tiamat with some confusion. Although she never left the room except for meals and just lay in the room like a salted fish waiting to die, she shouldn't have such a lack of presence, right?

"Goddess Tiamat, I am from Hestia's family..."

"Hmm, so you're Hess... huh? Kid, where were you today? Did you know that all members of the Hestia Familia accepted the guild's mandatory mission to go to the 20th floor?"

"Huh? What should we do then?! Daphne and I are both members of Hestia's Familia!"

"Hmm—it looks like the Hestia family's debt will be added to another one."

Let's return to the dungeon. Koya and the others are now on the nineteenth floor. The Firebird's abnormal state seems to have disappeared, and the Great Tree Maze has returned to its former state. The monsters on the nineteenth floor are mostly insects and beasts that live in the woods. Among the more troublesome ones are the beetles with extraordinary strength and sharp mouthparts, the "Crazy Beetle", which possesses long-range sniping capabilities like a shadowy archer, and the "Berg Bear", which sweeps away everything with its powerful body.

He didn't know if it was an illusion or what, but Koya always felt that the number of monsters they encountered on the 5th floor had increased significantly. Although it was common to face endless monsters on the middle level, the refresh frequency this time was a bit too fast. Even with Koya and Albion's two 'Lv.3' combat powers and Hatsune's 'Lv.' all-round assistance, the monsters surrounding them were increasing. When Koya and Albion killed three monsters, four monsters would appear next to them.

Koya didn't want to use his full strength here. After all, he had no idea what he would face on the 20th floor. Thinking of this, Koya looked at the well-stocked magic potions in his portable warehouse and had to go crazy.

【Summon Cerberus! 】

[Hmm, boss, why can't I show all of my strength again? Why do you keep getting stronger and weaker? -]

Even at Lv.5, Koya still couldn't summon a complete Cerberus. He still remembered the hundred-headed dog he summoned in Uruk, but the Cerberus in front of him now had only three heads and only the front half of the body, while the back half was shrouded in smoke like a ghost. It was obvious that this was not a complete Cerberus, but it should be enough to deal with the monsters in front of him.

"Cerberus, burn these guys with fire."

[Setting fire? This is my favorite! Awooo!]

Red flames representing the fire of hell spewed out from the three dog mouths. The three heads seemed to have their own ideas, one on the left and one on the right, and the rest sprayed forward. After a while, the dog head on the left still felt a little unsatisfied after seeing all the monsters in the direction he was responsible for turned into ashes. He stretched his neck as much as possible and sprayed to the right. As a result, the scorching flames burned the head on the right.

Fortunately, the hellfire did not harm Cerberus, otherwise the dog head on the right would have turned to ashes like those monsters.

Wrapped in red flames, Koya called the three girls to his side.

"We might be being watched by others. Cerberus said he smelled a lot of human scent in the air, and the closest ones were perched on a giant tree about fifty meters behind us. They weren't just passing by; it seemed they'd been watching us for quite some time."

"Could this be someone from the guild?"

"I don't know. Anyway, you guys have to be careful. Al, can you protect Sister Hatsune and Sister Haruhime? There are bad guys trying to attack them."

"I see!"

When the flames dissipated and Cerberus returned to Hell, Koya and his companions were long gone. Using the flames as cover, they quietly escaped through the space formed by the tree's roots. Those who had been observing them from afar, upon seeing them disappear, abandoned their hiding and quickly ran to the burning area. But there were no clues here; Koya and his companions had meticulously eliminated any traces of their footprints or scents.

"Damn, did they find out? Or are they just trying to hide from the monsters?"

"Don't have any illusions. Since we've lost him, there's nothing we can do. Let's complete the transaction first."

"understood."

These trackers were unable to confirm the location of Koya and his team, but an inconspicuous small black square on a tree trunk completely exposed them to Koya and his team.

"Are they... Daedalus Familia?"

Koya recognized these people; he'd met a few of them before, when they'd built the Hearth Hall. But how could the Daedalus Familia, a construction family, have the strength to reach the middle level? And judging by their appearance, they seemed very familiar with this place... What was their purpose? Albion?

"Koya, why don't we go to the twentieth floor first? There are only two hours left until midnight."

"Well, let's go to the mission location first."

Keya put the surveillance screen into his portable warehouse. He didn't have many cameras that could monitor scenes without relying on the Internet, but compared to the intelligence he had obtained, he could completely accept the loss of a camera.

After learning that someone was following them, Koya moved forward very cautiously. He tried to fight monsters as small as possible, and killed them with one blow if he had to. In any case, he tried not to make too much noise. With only one hour and forty-two minutes left in the mission time, they finally reached the 20th floor.

Chapter 200: Uranus

Hestia became alert the moment the black fog appeared, but she couldn't even see her own hands and feet under the black fog. The next second, a handkerchief covered her mouth and nose, and then she was carried away... Hestia keenly felt that the person carrying her was not the same person who had released the black fog before, but soon her consciousness became blurred, as if she had just woken up but was about to fall asleep again in the next second. When she came to her senses, she was already in a man-made passage.

"...Did you perform any tricks?"

"It's nothing serious. I just used a few tools and took a shortcut, Goddess Hestia."

The stone passage was filled with cool air.

Hestia and the man in black walked step by step along the dim artificial passage.

The passageway's ceiling wasn't very high, and its width was so narrow that even three people couldn't fit inside. The walls were made of a seamless, magical material, engraved with faintly luminous patterns. The passageway lacked any doors or windows, making it a perfect place to call a secret passage.

Hestia remained quite calm. True, she was a deity unable to use divine power, even weaker than an ordinary person. But she still had Tiamat's protection. Even if these people really intended to imprison her as a means of dealing with Koya, she wouldn't panic at all. As for whether these people would attack the gods, Hestia didn't think they would dare.

“Almost no one knows about the existence of this shortcut, let alone the number of people who use it, who can be counted on one hand.”

The man in black, carrying a portable magic stone lamp, led the way. He seemed to have never considered that Hestia would escape, or he thought that even if she escaped, she could be easily caught again. I'm afraid it was both.

"A shortcut, huh..."

Judging from the duration of her dizziness, Hestia suspected the passage's entrance was near the designated meeting point, Sector 4. While the other party didn't seem to harbor any ill intentions, building a secret passage in a deserted place was still a cause for concern.

Hestia used a simple map of Nuokai City in her mind, calculating the locations of major buildings and roads, and said:

"This shortcut is for escaping in case of an emergency, right?"

"..."

Hearing Hestia's confident tone, the man in black remained silent, though he seemed to smile beneath his hood.

You're not planning on answering, are you?... Never mind. If it's as Hestia expects, we should soon... be able to find out the answers.

"Huh? No way out?"

After walking for a while, they came to the end of the passage.

Just as Hestia was looking surprised, the man in black stretched out a hand and touched the patterns on the wall.

Open Sesame

Then he uttered words that sounded like a spell, and the wall immediately made a low sound and slid aside.

Open Sesame?! Hestia silently grumbled at the person who had created this spell. This spell, so well-known through storybooks, actually appeared in such a place? Was this just bad taste? It had to be bad taste!

The door leads to an open space dominated by dim light.

"..."

Following the man in black who was walking forward, we climbed a short flight of stairs and arrived at a stone hall.

Hestia emerged from the darkness at the wall and looked around.

The floor is paved with stone slabs, the ceiling is high and pitch black, and the stone walls show years of history, making it look like a forgotten "ancient" temple.

Apart from the "tunnel" that she and the man in black had walked through, the only thing that looked like an entrance or exit was the stairs leading upstairs, which made Hestia understand that this place was underground.

Then, in the center of the hall.

"He" is on the altar where four torches are placed to form the only light source.

"—Uranus."

The man in black led Hestia to the front of the altar to confront the male god head-on.

Atop a massive stone throne—the throne of the gods—sat an old, motionless deity. Over two meters tall, he was imposing, his presence, and divine might emanating a power unlike any other deity. He was like one of the powerful deities known as "great gods" in the "heavenly realm."

His long white hair and beard peeked out from his robe and hood. He rested his massive arms on the armrests, unmoved. Like a statue, like a ruler, he simply persisted.

The unmoved king—the guild's "true master"—slowly raised his head and looked down at Hestia.

"Long time no see, Hestia."

"Hey, Uranus... Yeah, it's been a thousand years since we last met."

Uranus was not happy about the reunion, and spoke calmly with an unshakable calm expression.

Facing a god of high status, Hestia remained undeterred and responded as if meeting an old friend.

Having recently arrived in the Netherworld, Hestia knew little about Uranus, the god known as the founder of Orario. More accurately, she knew little about his actions since his departure from the Celestial Realm. All she knew was that he arrived in Orario during the transitional period, when the Ancient Ages entered a new phase, alongside the gods who had first descended into the Netherworld. He dedicated himself to preventing the monsters overflowing from the Dungeon from invading the surface, and worked alongside humans to build the fortress city—the Dungeon's "lid"—the predecessor of the Labyrinth City.

He treated the guild as his own faction, managing the city and the labyrinth day and night. At the same time, in order to show his absolute neutrality, he did not grant favors to the staff members, renounced the use of force, and instead, he lived in the basement of the guild headquarters, offering daily prayers to the dungeon.

It's called a "prayer" - but its essence is that Uranus suppressed the dungeon with his divine power, thus suppressing the monsters' large-scale movements and actions of setting foot on the surface that have occurred repeatedly since the "ancient times". This is generally said.

This was all public information. Every time a new god from the underworld came to Orario to register their identity, they would be pulled over by the guild members to introduce the great deeds of Uranus. However, it was precisely because of this introduction that Hestia understood her own position.

This must be the "prayer hall" at the deepest part of the guild headquarters.

Right below the central agency that governs Orario, the gods Hestia and Uranus gazed at each other with the same azure eyes.

"My duty is accomplished, Ouranos."

"Good job, Fels."

At that moment, the figure waiting behind Hestia swayed. The black-clad man named Fels began to move.

"Then, allow me to leave first. I have to hurry, otherwise it will be too late."

He continued, walking in the direction of the tunnel he had used to get here.

"Please make yourself at home, Goddess Hestia."

Leaving these words behind as he left, the man in black, Fels, disappeared into the darkness.

Hestia watched him leave and turned her gaze back to the front.

"I have a lot of questions for you. Can you answer them first, Ouranos?"

"Alright."

Ever since she saw the instructions for the mandatory mission and the code of the [Sacred Text], Hestia knew that Uranus was related to this incident.

She simply couldn't predict the outcome, but she had anticipated this confrontation. Knowing she was facing "Him" had led Hestia to make such extensive preparations. While she had no idea how this man had transformed into this compassionate and benevolent deity after arriving in the lower realms, Hestia couldn't forget his madness in the upper realms.

"Is it your decision to issue a mandatory mission?"

"Exactly. Guild officials have nothing to do with this matter."

"Are my family members okay?"

"They are heading to the underground city. I can't guarantee it."

Hestia immediately confirmed the safety of her family. When she heard the other party evade the topic, her eyes narrowed sternly, but she slowly relaxed the tension in her shoulders.

She wanted to get angry but it wouldn't be too late after hearing the whole story, so she asked herself to stay calm.

"Why such complicated tricks...such roundabout things?"