A new day began once again in the predawn hours—before the sun had risen.
Already washed up and properly dressed, Gude opened the window. Fresh air flowed in, carrying the clean scent of morning dew.
The sky was only faintly bright, but the elegant magic-stone ceiling lamp lit the room as if it were full day.
The Hestia Familia's base had been upgraded two days ago to its current location: a stone residence in northern Orario, two stories tall, with several hundred square meters of floor space.
Rent was 800,000 valis per month.
The captain and vice-captain split the cost—though, of course, Gude paid the overwhelming majority.
At the vice-captain's current strength, his income was basically only enough to sustain himself.
Weapon maintenance, polishing, replacements—those alone were expensive.
Being an adventurer was a money-burning profession.
Still, Gude was very satisfied with their new home.
The first floor housed multipurpose rooms—reception hall, kitchen, armory, and so on. The second floor was the living area, with over a dozen rooms.
Naturally, every member of the Hestia Familia had their own room.
Gude's room was on the second floor—up the stairs, then left, on the side facing the street. It had about 70 square meters of space.
It was divided into a bedroom and study by an archway rather than a solid wall. Gude liked that style.
Simple. Convenient.
Wake up in the bedroom, step through the arch, and loosen up in the study.
Against the wall stood a bookshelf, still holding only a few categories of books for now.
Gude read regularly—not obsessively, but after pushing his daily stat training to the limit, reading was a good way to unwind.
And it let him pick up useful knowledge on the side.
Books in this era weren't that dense—quick reads.
Before long, the shelves would probably be filled.
As an aside: the unused room next door on the right had become Gude's storage room.
Bell lived to his left. Hestia's room was on the right side near the staircase.
Better living conditions meant better rest, and naturally, better moods.
…
Because their strength gap meant they explored different floors—and kept different schedules—Gude and Bell usually acted separately.
Today there was no sparring session scheduled for Bell. After breakfast, Gude went down to the 12th Floor alone.
The 12th Floor's primary dangers came in two forms.
First: the white fog that severely interfered with perception, along with randomly generated traps.
Second: the Monster Feast—a sudden incident where you'd be swarmed by a large number of monsters at once.
The monsters that spawned on this floor included Silverback apes, heavily armored burrowing armadillo-type monsters, and—with extremely low probability—juvenile dragons.
All of them were high-threat enemies.
If those two dangers overlapped, a Level 1 party could easily see casualties—possibly even a full wipe.
Of course, for Gude—who had Observation Haki—the fog and traps were non-issues, and even ambushes from burrowing monsters weren't frightening.
All he needed to watch out for was the "almost impossible" scenario of **multiple juvenile dragons spawning together—
"—RROOOAAARRRR—!!"
"Run! Run, now! Forget the gear—staying alive comes first, move—!"
A dragon's roar and adventurers' screams echoed from up ahead.
Even before the sound arrived, Gude had already sensed the situation through his Observation.
Three juvenile dragons had spawned at the same time.
Monsters like that could basically be classified as the "true boss" of the upper floors.
Gude had solo-killed one before—but if it was three at once, even he didn't have high confidence of killing them all.
The adventurers fleeing in the distance quickly spotted Gude.
The moment they saw him, joy flashed across their faces.
Gude had, in fact, seen them before—though only one-sidedly.
They were the very same group of adventurers from yesterday's "dog-eat-dog" incident.
Then, within the white fog, those adventurers exchanged looks and broke into vicious grins.
They reached a silent agreement:
A scapegoat just arrived.
"Sorry about this, fellow adventurer. If you want someone to blame, blame your bad luck."
"Why'd you have to show up in a place like this so early? The early worm gets eaten by the bird, you know."
They rattled off nonsense excuses to lighten their own guilt.
As scummy as they were, the worst things they'd done up until now were usually just kicking people while they were down—refusing to help the dying—and looting the property left behind by dead adventurers.
Actually getting someone killed directly… this was their first time.
No wonder they felt rattled.
Monster Offering.
That was what it was called—dragging the monsters chasing you toward other adventurers and dumping the disaster onto them.
That was exactly what they were about to do.
Gude didn't move an inch.
Three men and one woman—four adventurers—quickly reached his sides.
Then they tossed their magic-stone light sources together at Gude's feet.
After doing so, their faces twisted into expressions that were half relief, half delirious delight.
To them, Gude standing still looked like he'd been scared stupid.
(Didn't think he'd be this much of an idiot. If he dies here, it's his own fault for being so stupid—)
Their thoughts stalled abruptly, replaced by confusion.
Because suddenly… they couldn't feel their legs running anymore.
Their hands, too, seemed to lose all sensation.
Huh? Why does my body feel so light…?
Why does it feel… weird…?
Then Gude—who had been right in front of them—suddenly "tilted sideways" in their vision.
Their perspective began to spin: floor, ceiling, floor, ceiling—
And their mouths filled with dirt.
At last, with grit between their teeth, they saw it:
Their own headless bodies.
And on the blade of the adventurer they'd called an idiot—
Blood.
Dripping red.
Only then did they understand.
So he'd killed them.
The idiot who didn't understand what was happening…
The idiot dying here…
Was me…
Their consciousness faded.
Gude's face was colder than it had ever been.
With a flick of his wrist, he snapped the blood off his sword and onto the ground.
If you're planning to kill someone else, then it's only natural that you might be killed yourself.
It was that simple.
Gude had already died once.
This second, hard-won life of his wasn't something he would allow to be threatened so cheaply.
Those adventurers had all been Level 1, with overall stats around C-rank.
If they had properly coordinated, it would've taken Gude around ten seconds to put them down.
But they were drunk on the joy of survival, completely unguarded—so it didn't apply.
Even so, although the disgusting faces were gone, the situation hadn't improved.
Two juvenile dragons—ten-meter wingspans spread wide—were already roaring as they dove toward Gude.
Clang—!!
Blade met dragon scale, scattering sparks.
Trying to hard-clash head-on with a dragon—one that had monstrous strength and a diving advantage—was obviously not rational.
So the instant his sword touched scale, Gude slipped his edge aside, borrowed the dragon's momentum, and rolled laterally—avoiding a direct contest of force.
Relying on Observation, he found the reverse scale beneath the dragon's throat and drove his blade in.
Blood burst out in a spray.
The juvenile dragon lost balance from the pain and crashed to the ground.
The other dragon reacted immediately—adjusting its tail, using airflow to climb straight up and widen the distance, vanishing into the white fog to reset its stance and wait for an opening.
Gude didn't get greedy and chase the fallen dragon.
From experience, he knew an injury like that wasn't enough to fully remove it from the fight.
Chasing would only trap him in a position where he couldn't advance or retreat cleanly.
And besides—
His Observation also picked up something else.
Far away, the third dragon was pursuing a beastkin girl, barely half a man's height.
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