Another day, another grind in the dungeon. It was already past lunchtime.
This time of day was pretty unusual to start a dungeon dive. Most people started early in the morning, some even at daybreak. It wasn't the time when most parties finished up, either. That would be in four hours, when the day started to end.
And so Gin stood in front of the Babel Tower, looking at the place as it stood more barren of adventurers than usual.
He had a reason for starting late, of course. He was…
He was sparring with Raul and Aki. The two of them had offered to spar with him after he turned down their invitation to be a Supporter.
They really were good people. He should have socialized more if all of the Loki Familia was like that… No, wait, on second thought. He'd merely struck gold by meeting Raul and Aki.
His thoughts quickly went to that blonde pipsqueak, Ais. There was a good chance Raul and Aki were just exceptions.
Anyway, he'd spent most of his morning sparring with them.
Raul was… weird. He had knowledge of numerous weapons and fighting styles. That sounded cool, right? In Raul's case, no. His knowledge was so varied that in the end, none of it reached a level where Gin would be impressed.
Gin grimaced as he remembered how Raul said he knew some archery. Yeah, he knew archery all right—the very basics. It was like how someone says they know how to cook and then proceeds to demonstrate it by sprinkling salt on a steak.
Aki's fighting style was easier to understand. She was a vanguard who used quick thrusts and slashes with her rapier. She reminded him that he still sucked ass in melee as she trumped all of his attempts to counterattack with his knife.
She was good, but she wasn't without faults either. If he wanted to nitpick her weaknesses, it would be that she was kind of a… scaredy-cat.
She flinched at most of his bluffs. She panicked when he managed to gain range for his bow. Hell, she stumbled when he screamed out randomly.
He wasn't any better, to be honest. Halfway through, he tried to show off by using Ginnungagap, only to be reminded that magic wasn't the best option when fighting against sentient creatures that knew how to interrupt it.
After that, it became trial and error for him to see how far he could use Ginnungagap while trying to move.
Result: He could actually use Ginnungagap even when he was aiming his bow. Activating it while taking a step? Nope. The spell fucking exploded.
It took him the rest of the morning to heal up from his injury.
Gin sighed. The road to proficient concurrent chanting was long indeed. Well, at least he had a lead on how to study it.
Riveria Ljos Alf. Level 5. Loki Familia's, and most likely Orario's, best mage.
She was one of the few people gifted enough to use concurrent chanting, and conveniently enough, the chance of meeting her was not zero. He only needed a way to bribe Loki to open a path to have her as a mentor.
Well, concurrent chanting could wait. Right now he needed to focus on dungeon diving. He'd set up the trap the last time he was down there. Today, he only needed to shoot that damn green chicken if it appeared.
He took a step into the dungeon.
His first opponents were the usual: goblins and kobolds. One goblin and two kobolds. Three opponents, the most he'd ever fought at once.
He could take them on no problem, though. He was stronger than yesterday.
He aimed with his bow, not eager to fight these chumps in melee. His bow bent as he pulled the string. He decided to kill one of the kobolds first, remembering how one of them actually managed to wound him before.
His arrow flew true and landed a headshot. The kobold fell dead on the dungeon floor.
The remaining two looked around in confusion before noticing his presence. They charged at him.
Killing these two with another shot would be easy enough, but he knew he wouldn't grow only by fighting easy battles.
Well, no pain, no gain. He might get hit a little, but it was time to spice things up.
"O' evil descend,"
"Reminds the Mighty of their burden, and the Weak of their powerlessness."
He managed to utter the second verse of the chant before the monsters tag-teamed him. The kobold slashed at his side while the goblin hit him in the face.
"Empty unanswered prayer is their only salvation from despair."
"None shall escape my grasp for I am beloved by hell!"
"Ginnungagap!"
They were as good as dead once Ginnungagap's black fog coiled around their bodies. He knew he only needed to land one hit on each and they'd both be dead.
He dodged a slow attack by the kobold—courtesy of his spell's weakening effect—and repositioned himself at its side, using its body to cover himself from a potential strike by the goblin.
He could decimate both of them however he wanted, but retaliation should be poetic, no?
He made a quick slash at the kobold's side, watching it spasm for a second before dropping dead. Before it even hit the ground, he moved again, now at the goblin's left side.
He channeled all of his anger, power, sadness, grief, and whatever edgy vocabulary he could find, and used it to fuel his fist.
He delivered a punishing hit to its face.
The goblin actually blew backward and hit the dungeon wall. It didn't leave a crater, because he wasn't that strong.
The goblin was still very much dead, though. He'd take that as a victory.
Gin looked left and right, hoping that a certain green and yellow-colored chicken would appear out of nowhere and get shot with dignity, but alas, reality wasn't that sweet.
He kept moving on.
How many monsters had he vanquished? How far had he gone? How much blood had he spilled?
The answers to those questions were: sixteen, not too far, and more than he would like.
Those monsters played dirty, man.
They should have fought honorably and waited until he completed Ginnungagap before making their move.
Barbarians!
So here he was, hurting all over from cowardly attacks made by numerous goblins and kobolds.
He leaned on the dungeon wall and quietly slid down until his ass hit the floor.
Bloody hell, he was too old for this shit.
Or too young, whatever.
The point was, he was tired of this shit!
Gin sighed again. 'How many times have I sighed?' he wondered.
He was a hunter, living peacefully alongside mother nature. He wasn't supposed to be an adventurer fighting for his life in this motherfucking dungeon.
Yet here he was, sweaty and hurting all over, with a stupid-looking bird sitting beside him as his only companion.
"Dammit, this is too depressing."
The bird beside him squawked in agreement.
"Ain't that the tru—"
Gin looked at the bird. The bird looked at him.
Gin let out a guttural roar as he dove for the smug-looking Jack Bird, but of course it lightly hopped and avoided his grasp.
It actually had the gall to let him stand up before running away.
"I'll serve you fried with a beer, you fucking bird!"
The chase was on.
The Jack Bird lived up to its reputation of being the hardest monster to catch.
Gin swore he must have been running for at least three hours now.
He was forced to push himself to his absolute limit just to keep up with that damn bird.
It only appeared in front of people who had no chance of catching it. The weak, the injured, the tired, and the hopeless were its prime witnesses.
Gin wasn't sure which category applied to him right now, but he had a gnawing suspicion that the chicken monster considered him all of them.
He nocked an arrow as it was about to run through another crossroad.
He aimed his shot to its left, and before his arrow even flew halfway to its intended target, the Jack Bird already changed course.
It was fleeing right away from his arrow.
Gin grinned. 'Just as planned.'
The Jack Bird was just a bird, after all. It was no match against the intelligent might of the gods' children.
It didn't even realize it was being herded into a trap.
As Gin made his last turn, he saw the Jack-it-off Bird get its legs tangled in the net he'd set.
'Foolish bird.'
He readied his arrow.
The world slowed down as his arrow launched toward his fated enemy. I
t flew straight, as if sucked toward the personification of all evil.
And it missed. No, it didn't miss. That bird actually dodged it, even tangled in that position!
As expected of his rival, but he'd already known it would never be this easy.
That was why…
He had planned to use all of his strength!
This was the move handed down from the divine to her treasured champion.
"O' child of earth, born from earth and thrive from earth, take flight from my hand and smite my enemy!"
"Rock—" O' Hel! My Goddess! Give me strength! "—Throw!"
The pebble shot through his mortal enemy.
The Jack Bird's lifeless eyes stared at him as he walked up to retrieve it.
He had spent countless hours catching up to it, and as he gazed upon its corpse, he could feel the Excelia from the Jack Bird filling the container of his soul.
Gin kneeled and closed its eyes, giving it the dignity it deserved in the end.