Chapter 22 Graveyard Of The Arrogant, First Floor
[The goddess 'Artemisia' wishes for you to step back so she can take out the trash.]
Seeing the message that appeared in front of him, Evan broke into a fit of laughter. However, to the adventurers in front of him, it seemed he was laughing at them.
"Gimme a second, Ha, didn't see that coming, worry not I'd take out the trash myself."
[The goddess 'Artemisia' thanks you for ridding her world of two pieces of trash in advance.]
[The goddess 'Artemisia' promises to reward you if you succeed in your quest tomorrow]
"Hmm, that's good."
He wasn't surprised she knew of his plans, she could read his thoughts after all. It was only natural she was aware he planned to form a contract with the demon, Pride.
Evan had completely ignored the two adventurers in front of him, which infuriated them further, with one of them punching him in a fit of rage.
Easily dodging and sending a punch of his own, the poor F-Ranked adventurer was sent flying by a few meters. This shocked both his companion and the rest of the people in the guild building who were watching.
He took advantage of the second one's shock to send him flying with a punch too, he then left a statement that shocked the onlookers even more.
"I'd have killed you if it wasn't a crime. Or wait, isn't it a crime to attack a noble?"
It was then that most of the onlookers took a look at Evan's clothes, they were obviously high-quality clothes and had to be expensive.
He was about to say another word when the door opened and two people walked in, both familiar faces to Evan.
"Hey, Laurene! You came to register too?"
"Obviously, you can't enter the dungeon without registering."
"Oh yeah, that was true. Anyway, is it a crime to attack a noble? And what's the punishment?"
"Huh? Yeah, it is why are you aski-!"
It was then Laurene finally noticed the two men lying on the floor, she sighed in exasperation as she stepped over them and walked up to Evan only to give him a knock on the head.
"What was that for?!"
"Knowing you, I bet you said or did something insulting to them that made them react that way. Seriously Evan, when would you start acting like the duke's son you are."
Her casual words revealed his identity to the onlookers, they had already guessed he was a noble, but to think he was the son of a duke.
The next thought that came to everyone's minds was the identity of Laurene, who just knocked the duke's son on the head.
Martha looked at the two skeptically, she then remembered what Evan called her.
'He definitely said 'Laurene', I heard that princess Laurene arrived at the city this morning and there's only one duke's son named Evan.
He's the one who's rumoured to be engaged with princess Laurene. If that's the case then these two are definitely the princess and the heir to the dukedom.'
Her thoughts were then confirmed when the guild master came running down the stairs.
"Your Highness, Young Duke, Sir Raplhie, forgive my tardiness."
'Sir Ralphie! That's one of the ten great swordsmen of the empire.'
There was a small Uproar as he said that, many began to feel pity for the two adventurers who were lying on the ground.
Evan just walked over their bodies and greeted the guild master, he then followed Laurene and Ralphie to his office, not before waving Martha goodbye.
"See you later Miss Martha!"
The guild master took note of this and decided to make Martha the exclusive receptionist for Evan whenever he came to their guild.
The registrations were completed without a hitch and the trio returned to the residence of Count Merdin, to rest and prepare for the dungeon exploration scheduled for the next day.
◇ ◇ ◇
On the Last floor of the 'Graveyard of the Arrogant', a troll seated on a throne of bones opened up its eyes.
It foresaw danger coming towards it and decided to ready itself to face the threat.
Standing up from its throne, it looked at the door to the last room of the dungeon behind it, where a lone sword resided.
◇ ◇ ◇
Dungeon City Merdin
Great Western Empire
April 9th
Year 1051
Evan woke up as early as 6am in the morning. He had been doing this for the past seven months so his body was already used to it. He readied himself for his first dungeon expedition, putting on armour and arming himself.
The armour he put on was a bit special as it had a feature that allowed him to eject blades of various lengths from various parts of his body.
As he put on this custom-made armour, he thought about the fact that he was about to take the lives of other living beings, besides the insects he hated with his entire being.
However, he discovered he did not feel anything towards this due to the memories of the being who had murdered countless humans and demons alike, the previous 'Second'.
'I should be more nervous or freaked out but I'm calm…so calm it's creeping me out.'
Those were his thoughts as he made his way out of the count's mansion to wait for Ralphie and Laurene.
About 30 minutes later, the duo emerged from the residence and they all made their way to the dungeon, they carried supplies with them for the possibility of them spending more than one day in the dungeon.
However, Evan had no thoughts of sleeping in the dungeon. He planned to achieve all his goals in one day, getting his mystic eyes to stage one and gaining the sword of pride.
By 8 am, They had arrived at the dungeon entrance.
The dungeon entrance was like a naturally formed cave in a rock. There was a gate with a guard in front of it who checked that they had the permit to enter the dungeon and let them through afterwards.
The trio entered the dungeon and were sent to a random spot on the first floor.
The dungeon floors were very large and sometimes the floors could be as large as small towns. Upon entering the dungeon, each party was sent to a random point on the first floor.
There was a floor master every five floors and if one had previously cleared the floor, they could take the stairs down to the next without having to fight the floor master again.
It was also impossible for one to descend to a floor they had not cleared without clearing the floor above it.
The monsters faced on the first floor of the dungeon varied depending on the area one was sent to. For Evan and his group, they were sent to the territory of insect-type monsters.
Looking at the human-sized mantis in front of him, Evan declared his hatred for bugs internally before speeding towards it with two swords in hand and a short spear strapped to his waist.
"Paha!"
With a strange shout, Evan's body flew across the air. The moment his razor-sharp kick landed on the mantis's head, its head burst with an unpleasant 'PUK' sound. It was a refreshing laughable insta-kill.
The area full of insect monsters fell into silence again. They didn't seem to think that their comrade will die so easily.
However, that was brief. The monster's gazes focused on the human that killed the Big Mantis.
**KIK!
**KIIK KIK!
**KUIIIIIK!
Perhaps because their comradery was strong, even the monsters that attacked Laurene became conscious of Evan and turned their bodies towards him and showed off their hostility. Their numbers were no less than 40.
While looking at that, Evan spoke with a calm voice.
"Now that I think about it. I didn't learn how to fight groups."
"You're saying that now?!"
Using Laurene's words as signal, Evan dashed out. The insect monsters also moved as if they were waiting for that moment.
The first one to come at him was a pill bug which rolled itself up to roll towards him! Above it, there was a fly-looking thing that flew towards him while flapping its wings unpleasantly.
He burst the fly's head first by throwing his first sword at it, then he took out the short spear from his waist and smashed it towards the pill bug.
With a refreshing sound that sounded like splitting watermelons, the pill bug's carapace burst away.
"Above!"