Chapter 99: Interlude

“Hm… this should be good enough. Let’s try getting into the city,” Andrew said, glancing over at Hain. The man still lacked a leg. His body was mostly cybernetic, though it was covered with clothing to avoid suspicion. Thanks to Andrew’s skill, he could transfer body parts between consenting individuals.

During battle, Andrew had moved Dehlia’s legs to Hain. But now that they were back at the city gate, he wanted to test something. He returned Dehlia’s legs to her.

“If someone screams ‘monster,’ we’ll run, alright? Shouldn’t I at least have legs?” Hain asked nervously.

“That’s my legs!” Dehlia snapped, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at the timid Hain. “What if you lose them again? Besides, you don’t need legs while riding Andrew’s unicorn!”

“Yes. You looked like a human now. There’s nothing in your appearance that looks inhuman, although only the skin. I want to see whether the citizens still perceive you as a monster,” Andrew explained.

“What if they do still see him as a monster?” asked Muto, the Chestmaster.

“Then it’ll be harder to convince the city guards to teleport us back to the second floor. Our only option would be to use reputation points to hire a Defender of Mystis to defeat this floor’s boss manually without Hain’s help,” Andrew said.

“Why don’t we just do that now?” Kouki asked. “Defeating the boss sounds better than sneaking our way upstairs.”

“The reputation cost is higher. And if the Defender dies, we incur a penalty. Even if we win, the boss is a fully infected entity—there’s no EXP or coin reward,” Andrew replied. Once they reached the second floor, another teleporter would be unlocked, granting access to the previous floor. That’s how he knew there was a way to bypass the first floor’s boss entirely—and even steal the chest behind it without a fight.

When it came to games, Andrew had always preferred sneaky strategies.

As the group entered the town, Hain cautiously greeted a villager—and the villager greeted him in return. The behavior was so different from when they first met. Racism was the word that crossed Hain’s mind, although it was more understandable since they thought he was a man-eating monster.

“Greetings. May I know the way to the knights’ headquarters?” Hain asked a passerby.

“Sure, just go straight. The headquarters are right beside the church.”

“Thanks. Um… do I look weird in any way?” Hain asked the villager, probing him whether he noticed Hain was a cyborg. His question was met with a tilted head from the villager.

“Oh, my apologies. How inconsiderate of me. That must be awful. Did you lose your legs while vanquishing monsters? I truly admire adventurers. Even though you are not blessed by the God of Mystis, you still risk your lives against the forces of chaos. If you don’t mind waiting a few minutes, I could guide you to the knights’ headquarters.”

“Thank you, but there’s no need. I have my friends with me,” Hain said. The rest of the group gave a friendly wave to the villager. The villager smiled warmly in return.

“I see. Very well, then. Please treasure your friends, okay? May the God of Mystis bless you, adventurer. Together, we shall strive against chaos.”

“... Damn it. Three thousand coins flew away just because of a damn silly misunderstanding,” Hain muttered as they walked down the paved road.

“Your skill eats up coins, huh?” Henoch said, resting his kite shield on his back while admiring the scenery. “I’ve never seen a friendly NPC inside a dungeon before.”

“Me neither,” Kouki added with a nod.

“Maybe that’s the difference between novice and medium dungeons,” Hou Yi chimed in.

“Nah. Boss James met a friendly town NPC in a novice dungeon. I read his report. It was in that dungeon where he came out with a hole in his stomach,” Sanders said.

“Boss James, huh? Haha,” Kaina giggled.

“Well, we’ve got two bosses now. I need to make a distinction somehow,” Sanders shrugged.

“We’ve arrived at the headquarters. Let’s get registered. They should be looking for several artifacts tied to the God of Pestilence. Each artifact will increase our reputation and earn us coins. We already have the Tears of Pestilence. That means there are four more artifacts left on this floor,” Andrew said.

He then approached the receptionist at the headquarters and greeted him, “Greetings, Sir Knight. We are adventurers. We wish to aid your efforts against the God of Pestilence.”

Andrew had skipped a few formalities. Technically, he was supposed to speak to everyone first—the knight in the bar, the mercenaries guarding the village, and the adventurers staying at the inn. But none of them offered rewards beyond information, so he figured it was fine to skip those steps.

“Is that so? Are you registering as adventurers? You may serve as our porters. However, we require all personnel to be able to use either magic or weapon skills,” the knight replied. In this dungeon, Andrew had learned that adventurer was often synonymous with scout.

“Yes. By the way, we happened to find this during one of our expeditions. Our appraisal suggested it’s a highly dangerous item. I wonder if you could safely dispose of it?” Andrew said, holding out a vial of concentrated parasite. The gray ooze inside was a potent infection agent—capable of turning anyone into a fully infected creature within seconds.

“... Where did you find this?” the knight asked, eyes narrowing.

“In the ruins to the west, Honored Knight.”

“We shall investigate this immediately. Excellent work, adventurer. With this, we are one step closer to thwarting the evil schemes of the God of Pestilence.”

[Your reputation with Mystis has increased from None to Low.]

The system notification appeared as the knight took the vial. He disappeared into the back room and returned moments later. These game-like interactions—where inspections and rewards took only minutes instead of days—always felt surreal. But to experienced dungeon divers, it was just part of the job.

“We have received your item. Thank you for supporting our campaign against the God of Pestilence. We welcome you as comrades. May we stand together in this fight!”

“Great. I know your knights are busy, but could you tell us where you’ve conducted recent raids? We might be weaker than your troops, but I’m sure we can help. Your forces might’ve missed artifacts like this.”

“Very well. We’ll share some of our operational data with you. If you’re willing, please head to this marked area. We suffered casualties there recently.”

“Casualties...? There weren’t any last time. Where?” Andrew asked.

“In the forest, northeast of the city. We suffered six casualties and one heavily wounded. One squad was nearly wiped out, and the other barely escaped with their lives,” the knight replied.

“Huh? What did the monster look like?”

“The monster had a human face, a golem arm, and a human hand—but the body was covered in beast-like fur. Its torso was bulky, like that of an orc. It wielded a black sword and a bow, and it had weapon skills for both.”

“Oi. Does she really expect us to defeat a monster those knights couldn’t?” Hain said. He had crossed swords with those knights before—their coordination, stats, and skill were top-tier. Even if they had been caught in an ambush, losing more than one knight seemed unlikely.

“Of course, we don’t expect you to defeat it alone. However, we want you to help determine its current location. The creature is stealthy and intelligent. It laid an ambush and retreated once the situation turned against it. Our knights engaged it in battle—it could hold its own against two of them,” the knight said.

“We’ll let you know if we see him… I mean, it,” Andrew said. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, betraying his nerves.

“We shall await your report.”

Andrew let out a long sigh as he led the group to a nearby restaurant. This town had proper shops and groceries—surprisingly, purchases could be made using coins. A system notification popped up in front of him:

[You have spent 200 coins on team provisions.]

“I think the monster the knight was talking about is James. It’s not a perfect match, but James has Chimera, right?” Kaina said.

“It’s James, alright. Only he’s strong enough to defeat a knight. I was completely helpless when they came after me—and I can usually handle most monsters in this wasteland,” Hain replied.

“...Andrew?” Sanders looked at him, concerned. Andrew was frowning hard.

“No… This is still manageable for now. But damn… I need him on the last floor. And I need the knights too,” Andrew muttered.

“What do you mean?” Sanders asked.

“This dungeon has six floors. The last floor took almost all of my comrades and the knights I hired. The enemy there was incredibly strong,” Andrew said.

“There is no use worrying about it now. Who knows, maybe we won’t even need the knights this time,” Sanders replied.

“I hope you’re right. Let’s eat, then we’ll head to the northeastern forest. We can rendezvous with James there,” Andrew said. “Along the way, we’ll collect more of these artifacts. With Muto’s chest detection ability, it should be simple.”

Meanwhile, as the group ate, James had already cleared another camp near a cave.

“Shit. What the fuck is this? Another dud item?” James muttered, inspecting a clear glass box in front of him. Inside was a black orc’s thumb. The excitement of finding a treasure chest quickly turned to disappointment.

[Thumb of Pestilence
A thumb blessed by the God of Pestilence. When thrown into water, it will spread infection through the waterway, gradually infecting any who drink from it.]

Infected creatures gave nothing to Chimera. Worse, fully infected beings didn’t just stay hostile—they became even stronger. There was no incentive for him to spread the disease. And since the infection affected him too, using the item would force him to remain clad in fire at all times.

James sighed and turned toward the cave ahead.