It was another cold morning.
I equipped the exoskeleton [Jade Eagle King's Flight] version, made of the same material the Jade Eagle was made of.
Alone, I set off into the sky heading towards the current position of our second group led by Minokichi-kun.
As it would seem, Minokichi-kun had finished his boss hunting in the deepest parts of the dungeon he was in. According to him, he was heading out towards the exit of the dungeon, but ended up running into the 'Boss' of another party of adventurers.
It would seem that a Minotaur was not particularly common in that dungeon and it ended up resulting in Minokichi-kun being mistaken for a Boss. Given his size and status as a subspecies of the species Minotaur, I can't say I blame the adventurers that much. Needless to say, Minokichi-kun had caused something not so easily considered as 'just' an uproar. It would also seem that I was inadvertently forgotten initially during this situation.
This would seem to be due to Asue-chan believing that there wouldn't be an issue, but it seemed to be that the adventurers, especially the Adventurers of Nigeashi, were far more persistent in the complex structure than expected.
Given the situation, they had to flee before much could be described. As it would turn out, they did end up passing quite a few other groups on their way out, though nearly all of them fled the moment they saw his figure. For the moment there aren't any groups giving chase, but it's unknown whether or not a greater situation will arise as the story reaches the numerous adventurers on the outside.
It certainly is a dangerous situation in the current state, so they decided to contact me before attempting anything else. Minokichi-kun was certainly not helpless in this situation and planned to simply use force to solve the issue and leave the city.
Of course I ordered a drastically different behavior for the group through the cuffs by ordering the group to wait. It was decided that I would be necessary to solve the problem without causing a diplomatic incident.
While this was going on, Asue-chan had already left to explain the current situation to the guild and other adventurer parties that she came across. It's highly unlikely that it will solve the situation, however, and I'm convinced that there is an even lower chance of anyone believing the story.
Since I'm currently carrying the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] that was received from the Tomboy Princess, I'm hoping this problem can be solved without further complication. Nevertheless, whether the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] can be useful in this city remains to be determined.
As it stands, the Labyrinth city is not in an area I'm too familiar with. If it were closer to the Royal Capital, I'd be more certain, but the Sternbild Kingdom's borders do have limits.
If the situation goes sour, I should just be prepared to destroy the entire city with one of my most devastating methods, [Pandemonic of the Black Apostle].
In all honesty, it's surprisingly not that bad of an idea...
There are a great many adventurers who would be decent for eating because it's a Labyrinth city. It's also even a possible base that is surrounded by high walls that could become a training area.
Though, I'm preferring the idea of keeping that to a last resort for the time being.
Since Minokichi-kun wants to be out of the city by noon today, it's best to clarify things before that point. There are limits to a berserker's patience, something I'm keeping in mind as I increase my current speed.
After only a short period of time, I arrive at the Labyrinth city where Minokichi-kun's team is present.
I managed to arrive there within an hour due to the sheer speed I was traveling at. Since it would probably cause trouble if I flew in over the walls, I knew that I would simply have to enter officially through the front.
After I showed the middle-aged gatekeeper the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority] the gate was raised without wasting a second.
Once I entered the Labyrinth city, the figures of the rest of the individuals within Minokichi's party who were split off of Minokichi-kun's main party. These were the ones that were ordered to wait at the entrance of this particular Labyrinth city the moment they arrived to wait for me.
It's still morning, so given that it's a vibrant-ish Labyrinth city, there is quite the dark atmosphere drifting around currently. When I used [Wiretapping] to catch the topic of the situation, it was none other than Minokichi-kun.
Hearing this, my speed increased considerably.
After a few short minutes, the three hotels of the <
Well, now that we've arrived at the building, I enter through the front door and trigger [Black Demon's Dignity], in only a moment, only the sound of flies could be heard.
The galvanized clashing of iron armor disappeared.
Taking a short look around, a great number of people had collapsed and fainted, the few still conscious had pointed their full attention on me. I chose to just ignore the staring eyes of the few remaining and call for the guild's employees.
The one who approached was a cat-eared middle-aged man who trembled with a blue face. I asked him to call the guild master, the highest authority of the <
Even though the man before me was middle-aged, he ran with lightning speed through a door and I chose a chair to sit down and chat with the other members of Minokichi-kun's party. After a short while, the man returned and I was asked to follow him into a back room.
The room was quite luxurious, decorated with items most likely brought back from the labyrinth. It was quite the expensive looking room.
As I waited, I was presented and drank a coffee-like beverage as a tiny man with a jolly belly entered the room.
He was younger than I expected, only around forty years of age. With him came a woman with glasses that looked to be his secretary.
The plump little man sat down on the sofa across from me with the secretary women standing silently behind him.
After a brief self-introduction, it would seem that this plumb man is the Guild Master. The previous guild I had met with, [Purgatory Guild Branch], the Guild Master had been an old man. It was because of that I had created the assumption that most Guild Masters are old men.
Since this was the case, I was a bit surprised, but what really matters is a person's ability and wisdom.
In the conversation with the Guild Master, I explained to him the matter which had brought me to the city.
I explained that the Minotaur that had created quite the disturbance was in fact, my companion and that there was no need to be so vigilant.
At first, they had doubted the story a bit, but they soon began to understand.
Though, I seem to have been slightly late in my arrival...
Eighteen people from three of the more highly skilled adventurer parties within the city had banded together and formed a [Raid Party] in order to subdue the inbound Minokichi-kun and his team.
The misunderstanding that had arisen about Minokichi-kun's team had been more or less half settled with the Guild Master-- the other half has to be proven-- but things will become troublesome if the Raid Party ends up murdered by Minokichi-kun and his team.
Basically, inside the labyrinth, killing non-monsters is a pretty major taboo. If the homicide is discovered, an appropriate punishment is dealt.
All in all, this is a pretty delicate situation, especially with the Raid Party seeing them as monsters.
In any case, if Minokichi-kun and his team kill the Raid Party, a penalty will be demanded.
The penalty for those who are found guilty are generally such things as the collection of materials within dangerous locations, through various means, and of course without any payment for a predetermined period of service.
Even though this was not set into law, it was commonly agreed upon by all publicly.
On the other hand, this penalty would not occur for the Raid Party, even if they manage to kill Minokichi-kun and his team.
It's downright unreasonable, but according to the Guild Master, the problem more or less rests with recognizing Minokichi-kun.
Naturally, I seriously wanted to complain, but there is no helping it due to how unreasonable the world itself is.
I would like to kill the adventurers and take their equipment, but given the circumstances and the impossibility to avoid blame, I contacted Minokichi-kun and the others to inform them to not kill the Raid Party.
He was stunned to hear he wasn't allowed to kill them and that he had to surrender a portion of the equipment.
Because the whole situation was an accident, some of the equipment could be taken and there was no helping it. Regardless I set up precautions.
I killed some time doing some minor business with the Guild Master, the material that we produce in the forest sells for quite the high price, something that I did not expect. Then, after completing various procedures and documentation, I contacted Minokichi-kun again and told him that they will be able to depart at noon as planned. Because we were waiting at the entrance of the Labyrinth, we managed to meet Minokichi-kun and his team as they came out.
With me there to confirm the story was the plump little Guild Master, the secretary woman, the Raid party, and more than thirty guards that were under the employ of the Guild.
It could probably be said that the number of people that came to confront the present Minokichi-kun was far too low in both number and skill.
As soon as they saw him come out of the Labyrinth, all of them took a step back unconsciously.
I can more or less understand it, before such an imposing figure standing before them, even the tough-looking and robust men took such an action.
By the way, the townspeople looked at Minokichi-kun from a distance as he left the Labyrinth. There's a bit of confusion amongst the people as expected, but there was no panic breaking out within the Labyrinth city.
Even though I knew, it was really quite something to actually see Minokichi-kun in person.
He. Is. HUGE!!
As of now, Minokichi-kun is more than twice my current size. He stands five meters in height and I need to look up just to see his face. The massive figure that I'm seeing is intimidating just by itself. It's not just the size, but each part of his body is pretty flashy. Each time he takes a breath, thunder and flames come out of his big mouth. His lower body is completely covered in a golden fur that emits a crackling sound similar to thunder. The color of the upper masculine body was brown and didn't really change too much from before. His tattoos resembled mine and were both black and gold in color. He had a new [Divine Protection] which drew quite a bit of attention, but it's not something that can be helped. On his shoulders were the Raid Party members, groaning in pain.
Yeah... it's a pretty surreal sight to behold. Next to him stood Asue-chan who also played as another factor to this unique atmosphere.
It's such a great feeling.
All of the Raid Party members were injured. Most of them were heavily injured, though a few were gravely injured and one only had some minor burns. Some of them had complex fractures or missing limbs, but none of them had died nor were they in danger of such.
As such, no penalty followed the situation.
I even decided to heal them. As I was healing them, some of the party members looked as if they wanted to say something, but I cast them a serious look and they shut up real quick.
There weren't any further problems due to the intermediation of the Guild Master himself, but if the Raid party intends to attempt a night raid on us, I will gladly partake in devouring them.
Since there was no further business to be taken care of, I informed Minokichi-kun to return to the base as soon as he saw fit. Afterwards, I departed quickly after collecting almost all of the items that Minokichi-kun had gained.
Even though I had the [Proof of Belonging to Royal Authority], it was quite the troublesome and time consuming process to get them out of the city. Minokichi-kun even acquired a [[[Spirit Stones|Spirit Stone]]]. Ah, he is such a good guy. Hmm... Still, I wonder how to best use this [Spirit Stone]...
It's a real problem, would it be best to synthesize it with my silver arm or just eat it? Is it good to use it as material for a magical item?
Ahh, I don't understand them well enough so I decided to keep it in my Item Box until I collect some more information about them.
Today's Synthesis results:
[Left Arm of Penetrating Rain (Parjanya)] + [Right Arm of Roaring Thunder (Illatici)] = [Echoing Arms of the Thunderstorm (Nuhualpilli)]
[Peerless Heavy Strike] + [Consecutive Raging Strikes] + [Wild Dance of Heavy Blows] = [Surging Destructive Fists of Flesh Crushing]
[Grand Cross] + [Cross Slash] = [Grand Cross Smash]
[Silent Stab] + [Stab] + [Armor Pierce] = [Silent Pierce]
[Storm Wind] + [Slicing Wind] = [Heavy Storm Wind]
[Aura Slash] + [Heavy Slash] = [Heavy Aura Slash]
Oh, Good morning Ririchia-san! There's something tight under my waist today. It sure does look funny with my belly sticking out.
What? Sexual harrrassment? You don't hate it though. This is just skinship between a superior and his subordinate. It's just a simple physical contact. Nothing malicious about it.
How about you resheathe the knife you got there. Dont you have a duty to protect me? What a shame, you're just nice to look at. Is that knife coated with poison? Please don't come close to me with that. Since I'm low level, a small cut will kill me instantly.
Ah there we go thank you for putting that away. Ok, so it might have been slight sexual harrassment, but you frowning is such a shame. I like it better if you smile. You're a lot cuter when you smile. You really should laugh more as well; you're beautiful when you smile.
Oh, are you blushing? Or are you just tired? If you think you're going to catch a cold, try and rest today. After all, the situation with the Minotaur has been a stressful and unsual circumstance for you Ririchia-san. Rest well okay. In order to slay the Minotaur, I sent a Raid party in the morning, if I sent them in the afternoon, people would just make more unnecessary commotion.
What? You're not tired? Well, okay then, I guess we need to finish our work. I sure hope I survive you forcing me to work. So what do we have to do today? What? Accumulated paperwork? This sure is hard work.
Someone wants to see me? Well, I need to show that I'm a good Guildmaster. My intuition has served me well over the years of being a Guildmaster, and I've never felt anything like this before. As I greeted this demonic creature before me, I tried apprasing him and could not even begin to comprehend such a creature. He seems like a very high level creature, I don't know if he's concealing his strength, but there are a lot of factors to this.
Well, this situation just became a lot more complicated. Hearing the details about this Minotaur who's not a Dungeon boss, but a creature who leveled up to a minotaur. If this Aporou is telling the truth, then this has really become a hassle. To be truthful about it, I did not even consider the possibiity that it was a Rank Up (Evolution) rather than a dungeon boss. I forgot that it was even possible since such an occurence was so rare. This blunder will land the blame on me.
I don't know how he found out about this incident so quickly, according to my information network, Aporou did not stay in this city yesterday. He just got here. But now there is someone who cares about this minotaur. This information saying that it did not come from the dungeon but from outside the city is an apparent problem I have to deal with. It seems that he is telling the truth about the matter.
The real problem is what happened to the Raid party sent to subdue the minotaur. Maybe some of them survived, though I doubt it. Processing the deaths will be a hassle.
By noontime, everyone was waiting around the exit of the Labyrinth. This is because not a lot of people have ever seen a minotaur before. I have heard that these things were huge. And according to the report, this creature was bigger than expected. Expecting this creature to be a product of a rank-up does not fit the normal common sense. This is not considered to be standard. This is very intimidating. I hope we won't have to fight this creature with the escort squad we've gathered here. Even the strongest Richia-san wouldn't be a match. Everyone was surprised. The Raid party was composed of 16 skilled adventurers. The way they lost was incredibly discouraging. It was really surprising that no one died. Though they all had some very serious injuries. This has been a rather exciting day. Well, regarding me and Aporou, we seem to have built a friendly relationship. I feel that it's in our best interest to keep this relationship...friendly.