Lili's meeting with that man had been nothing more than a commonplace coincidence.
"Hello there, adventurer? Are you perhaps looking for a Supporter?"
His first impression was not a good one.
His pale blue hair, like a clear sky, and his decadent good looks were passable enough, but his sharp, mean-looking eyes, his sullen expression full of annoyance and irritation, and the heavy dark circles under his eyes were all terrible.
On top of that, his clothes were shabby and mismatched, and his limbs were so thin that he looked utterly untrained and weak.
No matter how she looked at him, he didn't seem like an adventurer.
If she had to put it into words, he looked like some unemployed bum who had come out to waste time doing nothing.
Normally, no adventurer would ever let a person like that join their party.
Well, for Lili, that was exactly why she had made him her target.
"Huh? What's this? A kid? You're a Supporter?"
I don't want to hear that from you!
Lili screamed furiously inside, but with her extensive social experience, she kept that inner outrage completely off her face.
No matter how much she raged, it would be meaningless—nothing more than a waste of energy that would only hurt her in the end.
Instead, Lili maintained her professional demeanor and ignored his flippant, irritable, and careless tone, steering the conversation toward business.
"Yes! Lili is a full-time Supporter with a small build, little strength, and no special talents! I noticed you were looking for a Supporter earlier. How about Lili?"
"Hmm, you're small. Too small. Can you even carry baggage properly?"
"Oh, don't worry! Even if I look like this, Lili has received Falna from her god. I can easily handle one or two bags. Since this is our first meeting, I'll give you a discount, so why don't you give me a try?"
"Falna... Well, if you're that confident, I guess it'll be fine. All right. I'll go with you this time. Take care of me until the end, kid."
Their first contract was concluded without any trouble.
As a sign that they would be traveling together, the two shook hands, and at the man's suggestion, they headed toward the Dungeon.
However, it didn't take long for the relationship between this seemingly harmless duo to start creaking.
"Oh, and there's something I should correct. I'm not an adventurer."
That was when the two of them had descended to the 6th Floor without a single fight.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I said I'm not an adventurer. You know, that Falna thing you all receive? I don't have one. I don't have a god I serve, either. Ah, but as for a Familia, I did ask some little goddess to register me as a temporary member, just in case I had business with the Guild. Something like a ghost member, I guess? I had some circumstances, so I needed at least some kind of official identity."
"Eh? What kind of... That's not a very funny joke."
"I'm not joking."
"Eh... really?"
"Yeah, really."
"Wh-what kind of insane nonsense are you pulling, you humaaan!?"
Lili's scream rang out in shock.
Of course, it was a perfectly natural reaction.
He had no adventurer-like equipment at all, and yet here he was at the entrance to the Dungeon, looking for a Supporter all by himself.
Who in the world would ever imagine that such a person was not an adventurer?
As for his lack of gear, she could have simply assumed he was some rookie mage who had gotten lucky and learned a skill that helped in battle.
In that sense, the shock Lili suffered was enormous.
She had thought she'd finally found some clueless newbie she could fool and make a tidy profit off of.
And yet, who would have guessed he was a lunatic whose very mind was abnormal!
"...Let's go."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"I said let's head back to the surface right now! No, do you even have any sense at all?! Do you think the Dungeon is some joke? What, do you think this is some convenient tourist spot? What kind of mentality allows a normal person to walk into the Dungeon with nothing but their bare body... and with only one Supporter in tow, no less... No, there's no way Lili can understand the mind of a crazy human in the first place. Yes, thankfully we haven't run into a single monster yet, so it's fine. We're only on the 6th Floor, so it's not too late. The day's business has only just started, so it's fine. Think of it as oversleeping and starting late. In that sense, the easy sightseeing ends here! If you want to enjoy yourself more, bring money and hire a proper adventurer who's actually strong. Lili's guidance ends here. Now, follow me. I'll at least guide you back to the surface, considering it was my mistake not to look into things more carefully."
"Wow, you talk fast."
"Damn it! This guy is seriously...!"
At that moment, Lili's frustration rose beyond mere irritation and into outright rage.
She felt the man hadn't understood a single word she said.
That had to be why he could stay so calm.
That man had no idea how dangerous the Dungeon truly was.
"I said, let's go already!"
"O-oh, hey, you're pulling me? Wow, you're stronger than you look. So you weren't lying. Huh, this is kind of tempting. That Falna thing—couldn't I somehow get just the physical benefits separately?"
"What kind of bullshit has this man been spouting since earlier!?"
Already having reached her own conclusion, Lili grabbed the man's arm and tried to force him to move.
It was only the upper floors, but the Dungeon was still the Dungeon.
This place that looked safe could turn deadly at any moment if monsters suddenly appeared.
And their total combat power was nothing more than one Level 1 Supporter and one ordinary person without even a Falna.
As one of the weakest among adventurers, Lili wouldn't be able to protect the man and fight if they encountered even the weakest monster.
So they had to turn back and return to the surface as quickly as possible.
That was the most correct... no, the most sensible judgment she could make.
Crack
"-Kiiiii!"
But the Dungeon never lets those "unfortunate fools" go so easily.
"Damn it, it's here! And of all things, a War Shadow!"
"Huh? Ooooh!"
The Dungeon gives birth to monsters.
Monsters are born in the Dungeon.
Common sense in this world.
But the man seemed to find it fascinating, watching the monster's birth with wide eyes.
In fact, it was the first time he had ever seen it.
"Amazing. It definitely came out of a wall that had nothing there, right? Then are Dungeon monsters some kind of golem or gargoyle? No, for something like that, their bodies are too different. The goblins and lizard guys I saw when I came down last time were definitely living creatures. I heard that the monsters here once went outside and produced offspring, and those became the surface monsters, so that must be right. In that case, the Dungeon literally... gave birth to a life, just like any other living thing. That means the Dungeon is alive too. I thought that was just a metaphor, but to think it was actually true. It's literally mystery giving birth to mystery, isn't it? Then is the material of this wall not ordinary bedrock or stone? But when I scraped some off last time, I didn't find anything unusual. How strange. It's definitely worth dedicating my life to research. If the people at the Clock Tower saw this, they'd all go completely insane over it."
"What are you mumbling about?! Ugh, I knew breakfast tasted weirdly good this morning. I'm really cursed today!"
"Mm. Very interesting. Can't I catch one alive?"
"Seriously! You're making my head spin, so shut up with the crazy talk already!"
Crack crack
"-Gerk."
"-Kiiiiiik!"
"More of them!"
"Oh, another kind is coming out too. This really is fascinating. But frogs, huh... they don't have some kind of blunt-force immunity or whatever like those guys from that other world, do they?"
"Ugh, today's Lili is truly unlucky. How did I end up like this...?"
Things only got worse and worse.
The situation continued to deteriorate.
War Shadows were already the strongest monsters on the 6th Floor, and now there were six of them.
On top of that, other kinds of monsters appeared as well, joining in until the area was instantly packed with them.
An unexpected monster party.
Faced with this rare sudden disaster, Lili felt her mind going blank.
W-what do I do?
After agonizing for a moment, she glanced back at the man behind her.
At this point, maybe I should use him as a sacrifice...
No, that's not right.
Lili shook her head and erased the thought she had just had.
She had never told anyone, but she hated adventurers.
They were arrogant, cruel, and greedy.
Lili knew better than anyone just how vicious and relentless they could be.
That was why she had no hesitation in deceiving them and stabbing them in the back for profit.
She felt not the slightest bit of guilt or remorse.
In her view, they should suffer just as much as she had suffered.
But that did not include people who were not adventurers.
I... Lili has to do something!
She only hated adventurers; she did not hate people themselves.
When she was younger, there had been no adventurers among them, but there had been a few people who helped her in her misfortune.
When she thought of them, she simply could not cross that final line.
And the man behind her was not one of those people, but he was still not an adventurer.
He was, in fact, an ordinary person far weaker than she was.
Then at the very least, Lili, who was a little stronger in this place, had to step forward and protect that easygoing man.
That was the bare minimum of conscience and pride she had as a human being, as a worthless life at the bottom of the heap.
At the very least, she was different from those bastards.
Click
"I... I'll somehow open a path for us!"
With her resolve set, she drew the trump card she had hidden away.
A magic sword she had prepared for the chance that, if an emergency ever happened, she might at least get herself out alive.
With this, she judged she could at least carve out a way.
It was a precious item... but not so precious that she would ignore a life she could save.
If things went well, maybe she could even survive and make it back herself.
"So you need to get out of here somehow while there's an opening...!"
Bang!
But fortunately, she never had to use that precious magic sword.
Thud
"Eh?"
For a moment, Lili was stunned.
A sudden noise.
Along with it, one War Shadow collapsed with a hole blown through its head.
The reality before her eyes was impossible to accept.
The man's voice came from behind her.
"Ah, it's fine. There's no need for you to force yourself to step in. This is the first time I've seen them born from the wall, but I've already dealt with these guys before."
And then came a series of noises.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The man held out his index finger in a strange pose and pointed the tip at the monsters one by one.
Then blue bullets appeared at the tip of his finger, punching holes through their bodies one after another.
It took only ten seconds for the situation to end.
Thud
"All right, that should do it. Shall we go again?"
After killing all the monsters, the man brushed his hands off and walked forward.
This time, he was the one taking the lead.
From the very beginning, Lili's worry and concern had meant nothing at all to him.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and come on."
"...Yes."
Lili answered softly with her head bowed.
Her eyes were cold and chilling now, unlike before.