"So this is Orario…"
Goddess Kali narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze sweeping across the towering Babel Tower as if appraising a sleeping behemoth.
"The atmosphere here… it's calmer than I expected."
Standing to her left, Argana Kalif furrowed her brows. Her tanned skin shimmered healthily under the sunlight, and paired with her short white hair and sharp gaze, she exuded untamed ferocity from head to toe.
"Lady Kali, I still believe… there was no need for you to come in person."
She glanced at the deity beside her, a trace of concern flickering in her eyes.
On the right, Bache Kalif—her face obscured by a black mask—spoke with a voice lower than Argana's, laced with a cold, killing intent.
"The dissolution of the Freya Familia has indeed thrown our plans off course."
"But the top Familia in Orario now seems to be the Loki Familia. That guy named Ryota is said to be their main force."
"If we challenge him instead, it might be even more fitting to awaken Telskyura's pride."
They came from the southeastern peninsula nation of Telskyura—a country of war, through and through.
After Kali arrived there, she personally shaped it into a nation ruled by a Familia.
Its citizens were entirely Amazons—mostly women—who revered strength and lived for combat from birth.
As for men, they were nothing more than tools for reproduction in that land.
In the scarlet land stained with endless war, the center of the country was a massive circular arena. Day and night, it echoed with beastly roars and the clash of steel.
In other nations, the arena might be a festival amusement. In Telskyura, it was life itself.
The rules of Telskyura were simple: only those who survived were worthy of a name.
Every day, countless slaves, prisoners, beasts, and even fellow Amazons were thrown into the arena, to be "cleansed" by young Amazonian warriors.
Killing someone meant getting closer to food, resources, equipment—even higher rank within the Familia.
And the source of it all stood before them now: a cloaked goddess with a dangerous smirk tugging at her lips—Kali.
The embodiment of war and slaughter, the goddess of ecstasy and rage.
In her doctrine, only transcendence through killing was considered true evolution.
Telskyura had no Dungeon, no magic stone economy, no party-based expeditions.
Their sole method of leveling up was PVP.
Kill the enemy. Absorb Excelia from their corpse.
As a result, nearly all Amazons of Telskyura were born warriors—trained in brutal close-quarters combat, adept in head-on confrontation. There was no flair to their techniques, only blood and fists.
"Heh…"
Kali chuckled softly, raising a hand to brush aside the strands falling across her brow.
"No more Freya Familia? Then we'll go after the Loki Familia. No Loki Familia? We'll just find the next one."
She shot a glance at the two LV.6 girls beside her and murmured,
"On the way here, I asked some bastard about that Ryota guy. They say he can summon a skeletal giant and control sand."
"A guy like that… don't you think I should see him for myself?"
Argana and Bache exchanged a glance and fell silent.
They were wild and proud, but never reckless.
"Besides…"
Kali suddenly tilted her head, a crazed grin blooming on her face.
"If we manage to capture him and bring him back to serve as breeding stock for our future generations… wouldn't that be lovely?"
"..."
"…Lady Kali."
The expressions of the two Amazoness warriors turned awkward in an instant, their faces flushed as they protested stiffly.
"That… doesn't seem like an appropriate reason."
"Wait, don't tell me—you came to Orario just for that?!"
"Ahhh, you two have no sense of humor."
Kali let out a long yawn.
"So the Loki Familia lives in that, what was it… Twilight Manor?"
Bache gave a low grunt of confirmation.
"Yes. I suggest we find Goddess Ishtar first, and then—"
"No need."
Kali interrupted her.
"Don't you two want to see Tione and Tiona again?"
…
Ryota had no idea that, once again, he'd been randomly targeted.
And this time, by a deranged goddess who wanted to drag him off as "breeding stock."
At this moment, he was stepping into the nineteenth floor of the Dungeon.
According to Orario's records, floors nineteen through twenty-four were collectively known as the Large Tree Labyrinth.
Unlike the damp, dark tunnels of the upper floors, this layer felt like the inside of a massive tree.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of tangled wooden structures, resembling natural passageways carved through some colossal plant.
The ground was carpeted with luminous blue moss. It wasn't phosphorescence—it was a type of living plant that radiated stable magic energy.
"Prettier than I expected."
Ryota murmured quietly.
Every so often, the buzzing of insect wings brushing air would reach his ears.
This floor was teeming with insect-type monsters—tough exoskeletons, overwhelming in number.
But for Ryota, they were little more than target dummies for testing his Flying Raijin jutsu.
Unhurriedly, he retrieved a kunai from his personal dimensional space, ran his fingertip along it, and etched the formula.
Clack.
He drove the kunai—now glowing faint yellow—into a moss-covered stone and nodded in satisfaction.
"Floor 19, marked."
This floor held a wide variety of magical plants, many of which were key ingredients for antidotes, healing potions, and even rare elixirs.
Because of that, the Guild issued numerous collection quests here year-round. Traffic was heavy, and bold gatherer teams often ventured in.
Ryota's purpose was both to explore and to test the long-distance stability of Flying Raijin.
For the next stretch of time, Ryota darted between the vine-entangled corridors, focusing on harvesting materials he remembered from Guild lists.
He picked each one efficiently, making sure none went to waste.
And after every collection, he casually flicked them into Kamui's pocket dimension.
Within that seemingly bottomless space, little hills of loot were starting to pile up.
"Going even better than I thought."
Ryota murmured,
"No deviation in Flying Raijin's anchors. Kamui's space is still stable. Perfect."
He looked ahead at the dense tangle of glowing vines and figured he'd done enough.
"That's good for today."
With a thought, the map composed of his jutsu anchors lit up in his mind.
Floor 1, Floor 2… Floor 18, Floor 19.
Just to be safe in case any dumb monster destroyed a kunai anchor, Ryota had used the "rich guy method"—he marked every single floor.
The marks glittered in his mind like stars in a constellation.
"Let's test stability on return."
He flicked his fingers, mentally locking onto his anchor on Floor 18.
Shhhk!
The air trembled faintly as space peeled open.
Ryota vanished from the vines of the Large Tree Labyrinth.
With a soft pop, he reappeared on the outskirts of the safety zone outside Rivira Town on the eighteenth floor.
No imbalance. No lag. No deviation. A perfect teleport.
He looked up at the light bouncing off the blue crystals above and smiled.
"Nice, nice. Chakra consumption is way lower than I expected."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he moved again, without pause. A slight flick of his finger—
Shhk—!
In the blink of an eye, he was on Floor 16.
He didn't even land properly before shifting again—Floor 13!
Then Floor 8, Floor 5…
Ryota zipped through the Dungeon, barely touching the ground as he leapt from anchor to anchor.
After each jump, he silently assessed chakra fluctuations.
Even with five, even seven consecutive jumps, his chakra only vibrated slightly—no instability.
"As expected."
Landing on a clear patch of Floor 5, he mused,
"It's the Hashirama cells. My stamina and recovery are through the roof."
"And since Sage Jutsu chakra holds way more than standard ninja systems, Flying Raijin's high cost for others is just… my normal walking speed."
"Forget expeditions. If I lay enough anchors, I could solo the whole Dungeon."
With another pulse of chakra—shhhk—he was back on Floor 1.
He stood in the familiar entry corridor, surrounded by a few new adventurers excitedly studying the map.
They stared blankly at the black-haired boy who had just appeared out of thin air.
"Is… is that Lord Ryota?"
"Holy crap, it's really him!"
"Dude, shut up! You want the skeleton giant to crush you?!"
"Seriously, man—Ottar the LV.7 is with him! Have you ever seen that kind of squad?!"
"…"
Naturally, Ryota heard all of it.
His mouth twitched as he muttered helplessly,
"Why do I sound scarier than the Black Dragon now?"
"'Crush into powder'? Do I look like that kind of guy?"
But just as he was grumbling, he froze.
"Wait… did they say Ottar?"
A rare flicker of genuine caution appeared on Ryota's usually composed face.
"Crap… don't tell me that guy is still—"
Before he could finish, a massive shadow loomed in front of him.
Ryota: "…"
Ottar: "Found you."
That emotionless face stared straight at him, still carrying that absurdly expensive four-hundred-million-Valis greatsword.
Ryota looked utterly done with life.
"…Why are you still waiting here? I told you not to follow me."
"Freya told me to follow you, so I'm following you."
"Your goddess made a Level 7 stick to me like a keychain—what even is that logic?!"
"…"
Ottar said nothing.
"…Fine, whatever. Do what you want."
Ryota was too tired to argue with the man who practically had "LOYALTY IS EVERYTHING" tattooed on his forehead.
Besides, with Kamui, he could vanish in a flash anytime he wanted.
"Why should one overworked guy make another's life harder?"
If anything, there were perks.
As Ryota and Ottar walked toward the Dungeon exit, all the adventurers who'd gathered around instinctively cleared a path.
No shouting, no jostling, not a single extra word.
Everyone just stared at them with a look that said, "Boss is clocking out. Quiet, please."
As Ryota and Ottar stepped out into Orario's night—
The sky was drenched in deep indigo, stars blinking, the moon cold and clear.
Ottar remained silent, trailing like an unshakable wall of stone.
Ryota squinted up at the sky and murmured,
"Another day over."
He didn't head straight to the Guild to trade his loot. With Kamui's storage, the day's haul would keep just fine.
Right now, all he wanted was to head back to Twilight Manor and share today's test results—especially Flying Raijin's performance—with the Loki Familia.
They wound their way through alleys and side streets until they were just one block away from Twilight Manor.
Then—
Rustle rustle—!
Two figures darted out from the shadows on either side of the street.
Ryota raised an eyebrow. His Mangekyō Sharingan activated instantly as he looked up.
"Amazoness? You looking for Tione and Tiona?"
You couldn't blame him for recognizing them instantly.
With their skin tone, outfits, and those deep canyons, they were hard to miss.
Especially under the moonlight. Somehow, they looked even bigger.
Before he could finish the thought, a voice rang out from the distance.
"Heading to Twilight Manor this late? You must be Ryota, huh?"
Goddess Kali stepped out slowly, her eyes gleaming with curiosity and heat, like a predator eyeing fresh meat—or a collector selecting her next "specimen."
"Quite the cutie! Yep, I choose you!"
She tilted her head, smiling so brightly it was almost horrifying.
"Wanna come be our stud horse?"
Ryota: "…"