Chapter 44 – The 'Weak' Minotaur
The next day, in one of Orario's quiet corners...
"All right. Everything in here is yours now."
Tsubaki swung open the heavy warehouse door and turned to the young man behind her.
"Got it," Akira replied curtly.
Moments later, a soft rumble echoed from inside the warehouse.
The shadows that once merely lingered in the corners of the room began to deepen, becoming pitch-black as if they were swallowing the light itself.
Without making a sound, every weapon stored in the warehouse slowly vanished—one by one—sinking into the darkness below.
Tsubaki stood in the doorway, silently watching the eerie scene unfold. A complicated expression crossed her face. Deep inside, she couldn't help but admit—there really was a vast gap between one person and another.
Even though he was part of the Hephaestus Familia like her, Shin Akira clearly received treatment on an entirely different level.
From the very start, he had lived under the same roof as Goddess Hephaestus, with free access to Falna updates, and was even on good terms with Goddess Hestia.
And now… he had casually paid a full billion valis without flinching.
That amount of money—Tsubaki refused to believe he had earned it himself. A low-level adventurer wouldn't be able to make that much even in a lifetime.
But this guy had done it in just a matter of days.
This wasn't special treatment anymore. This was divine favoritism. Even as the Captain of the Familia, Tsubaki had never received that level of affection.
"Well, at least I won't have to worry about running out of weapons for now," Akira said flatly.
He was preparing to head for the lower floors of the Dungeon.
Unlike other worlds, weapons in Orario were essentially consumables. They wore down, cracked, and eventually broke completely in battle.
That's why blacksmith Familias were so highly valued—adventurers constantly needed replacements.
Even weapons imbued with the Unbreakable trait eventually suffered from wear and tear, requiring costly maintenance.
And Akira's army—the Shadowkhan like the Ninja Shadowkhan and Claw Shadowkhan—used weapons too. Naturally, those weapons wore down with repeated use.
"Hey, just what do you need so many weapons for? You better not be planning to resell my stuff under my name," Tsubaki asked suspiciously.
It wasn't unheard of in Orario. Her name alone carried massive weight. People would pay absurd amounts just for the "Tsubaki" brand.
These weapons were stored here not because they were unusable, but because they had slight imperfections—flaws that could hurt her reputation if they reached the market. Yet in truth, their quality was still top-tier.
"Resell your weapons? Please. I'm not that dumb. And I'm definitely not hurting for money."
"You..."
Tsubaki was about to argue but stopped herself, remembering the man in front of her had just dropped a billion valis like it was pocket change.
This guy was a walking bank.
"Well then, Shin Akira, that concludes our transaction. Let's hope we have a fruitful partnership."
"Sure. Let's."
Tsubaki sighed quietly as Akira walked off into the distance.
Yeah... people were never born equal.
— — —
Not long after leaving Tsubaki's forge, Akira made his way straight to the Dungeon.
His goal was simple: slay monsters, gain excelia, raise his Falna stats and level, and unlock more of the power hidden within him.
In many ways, Akira's obsession with strength was similar to that of Ais Wallenstein. But there was one major difference:
Akira had a cheat.
He entered the Babel Tower and immediately made his way into the Dungeon's depths.
First floor. Second. Third. He passed them all without stopping.
His destination this time wasn't the upper levels. He was aiming for the eighteenth floor, the final safe zone—then beyond it, into the lower levels.
While only a floor separated the eighteenth from the nineteenth, the strength gap between monsters was enormous.
There was a saying: "The weakest monster in the lower floors could rival the strongest one from the upper floors." While not exactly true, it still conveyed just how drastic the power jump was.
Now that he'd reached Level 2, Akira had grown immensely—thanks to both his Falna and the hidden legacy coursing through him.
— — —
A little over an hour later, Akira arrived once more at Floor 17—a crystalline zone shimmering with refracted light bouncing off the walls.
Suddenly—
The ground trembled beneath his feet.
A low rumble echoed from every direction.
Cracks split the walls as stones crumbled and shattered... and from those crevices, massive horned beasts began to emerge.
Minotaurs.
Akira had fought them before—back when he was still Level 1. And he had won. Now, fate had brought them back into his path.
"Huh? This many? Could this be a... 'Monster Parade'?"
A Pass Parade—a rare Dungeon event. Without warning, a massive swarm of monsters would descend on a single location. Far more than what would usually spawn.
Akira scanned the area.
Two... maybe three dozen Minotaurs surrounded him.
An insane number.
A well-trained party of Level 1 adventurers could be wiped out by this.
But Akira?
He simply smiled.
The shadow beneath his feet rippled... then began to swirl and stretch outward.
Darkness pooled and rose, forming silhouettes—vague, yet menacing.
Within seconds, Shadow Ninjas and Shadow Claws emerged from the depths of the void.
His Shadow Legion—the servants of the King of the Shadowkhan—were directly linked to his power. As he grew, so did they.
"Kill them all," he whispered.
And like hounds unleashed—
The shadow warriors burst forward, claws digging into the stone floor.
They pounced from the darkness like living nightmares.
Each one brandished a weapon, their forms flickering between existence and shadow.
A few days ago, these same Minotaurs had been tough opponents. Now?
They weren't even warm-ups.
With every strike from his Claw Shadowkhan, the thick, tough hides of the Minotaurs—normally resistant to steel—were shredded like paper.
Blood sprayed in arcs.
One by one, the Minotaurs fell, crushed under the merciless assault.
Akira's new power had shifted the battlefield entirely.
He was no longer a lone adventurer struggling to survive.
He was a shadow emperor—a commander of darkness.
A force that could no longer be measured by ordinary standards.
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