"Hah! Take that, Riser! And that! And that!"
Ravel paused, her eyes going wide as she paused outside of Azuma's room.
Did he say Riser? My brother?
"Hah! You missed, Riser! You're far too slow!"
Ravel's eyes went even wider, growing as wide as saucers as she saw a bright light shine out from under the door, a small stream of flames leaking out from the room.
My brother is in there?! Why's he here?!
Ravel could only come to one conclusion.
"Big brother!" Ravel slammed open the door, holding up her hands threateningly, "Even if Master is better than you in every way and took everything you ever loved, I won't let you try to-"
Ravel cut herself off, blinking rapidly as she took in the sight inside Azuma's room. Instead of her older brother, Azuma was once again tossing chunks of uncooked meat at his actual Phoenix, which was cooking them with his flames.
"Take that, Riser!" Azuma shouted, tossing the meat at the bird, who opened his mouth and launched out a wave of flames. The meat became cooked to perfection, and Azuma caught it in his hand.
"Oh, Ravel? What were you saying?" Azuma asked casually, holding up the chunk of meat at her, "Did you want some?"
…Right, the Phoenix's name is Better Riser.
"N-No, I was just, um…" Ravel trailed off, looking for an excuse, "I was…"
"She forgot that the bird's name was Better Riser," Artoria instantly threw Ravel under the bus, the woman sitting casually on Azuma's bed, "She came in here to help you fight her brother."
Damn it! Why did she have to be paying attention?!
"Eh? Again?" Azuma deadpanned at Ravel, "You've done this three times already. Y'know, for someone as smart as you are, you jump to assumptions pretty quickly."
"I-I do not!" Ravel defended herself, "I-I did not forget the Phoenix's name for the third time! I just came here to… um… fuck…"
"You wanna fuck?" Azuma asked bluntly, raising an eyebrow at her, "I mean, sure. I don't have much else to do."
Ravel blushed at his blunt words. In reality, she had been cursing as she couldn't think of an excuse, but…
I won't turn down an offer like that!
"Y-Yes, that's exactly why I came here!" Ravel nodded her head rapidly.
"Alright, we can finish this later, Better Riser," Azuma said casually, gesturing for the Phoenix to leave as he started to pull off his shirt.
"U-Um, is… is she not leaving too?" Ravel asked with a cutely tilted head as Better Riser left but Artoria remained sitting on the bed, "I-Is she… joining us?"
"No! I am not," Artoria blushed lightly at her word, but then glanced away and didn't meet her or Azuma's eyes, "But, I… feel a strange urge to watch from the chair."
Azuma stared at her blankly. Then, he shrugged.
"Fuck it. I don't judge."
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Make me a badass sword!" Azuma pointed at Taga dramatically.
"...How would I do that?" The tiny man stared back at him blankly.
"W-Well, you made the swords here, right?" Azuma said quickly, gesturing to the wrack of poorly made swords sitting nearby in the training room, "You're our dungeon's blacksmith!"
"I made those because I was bored," Taga deadpanned, "I don't have ta first fuckin' clue about how to make a sword."
Well…
"Shit." Azuma sighed eloquently, "Then how to hell do I get a badass weapon?"
Maybe I should ask Renegal for one? The Phenex Family's gotta have some badass weapons lying around, right?
"You can get a blacksmith unit!" Aphrodite supplied helpfully.
"What level does the dungeon need to be for that?" Azuma asked, though he already knew the answer he would get.
"I dunno."
Who could've seen that coming?
"Yeah, yeah… you never know."
"W-Why are you saying it like that?! Do you think I'm dumb? I'm not dumb!" Aphrodite huffed back.
"Of course," Azuma nodded sagely, "You're the smartest dumb person I know."
"Right? Thanks!" Aphrodite puffed out her juicy chest proudly, then paused, "Wait…"
"Let's go dungeon conquering, Aph," Azuma said quickly before she could think further on it.
"Ooooh! Yay!" Aphrodite cheered, completely forgetting about his previous statement.
But first, I need to go get a badass sword.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Pops," Azuma grinned casually as he appeared in the middle of the Phenex Estate, along with Ravel, who was standing to his side, and a floating Better Riser.
"Ah! If it isn't my favorite child!" Renegal grinned, standing a few feet in front of the magic circle. Ravel had used a communication circle earlier to inform him that they were coming, so the man was simply standing there waiting for them. He stepped towards them as he finished his words, opening his arms wide for a hug.
"D-Dad," Ravel blushed, squeezing her eyes closed in embarrassment, "E-Even if I'm your favorite, you shouldn't say something like that in front of-"
"Huh? Were you saying something, Ravel?" Renegal asked, looking at her questioningly.
Ravel opened her eyes, blinking in confusion. Instead of feeling her father hug her, she was greeted by the sight of him wrapping his arms around Azuma.
"N-No, nothing," She blushed even deeper, turning away with a mixture of embarrassment and slight frustration.
"It's alright, Ravel," Azuma grinned, reaching out and patting her head, "If it makes you feel any better, you're my favorite blonde-haired high-class devil girl who can repair her injuries with bloodline magic that is specifically centered around flames."
Ravel stared at him blankly, "That only works on Aph. It does not make me feel better."
Unfortunately, Ravel was too smart to fall for the 'your my favorite very specific thing that only you fit the category of' trick.
Aph's fallen for it three times today alone.
Azuma shrugged, "Worth a shot. Anyway, Pops, I came here to ask you about a sword."
"A sword?" Renegal asked as he stepped back, his face becoming thoughtful, "I used to be quite skilled with the blade back in my day. Though, if you're looking for an instructor to teach you the way of the sword, I'm afraid I've become a bit too rusty over the past centuries."
"Nah, I've already got a teacher," Azuma explained quickly.
I'm sure he was pretty good as the head of a noble clan, but…
His current teacher was a literal Heroic Spirit.
"You do?" Renegal looked at him curiously, a slightly excited glint in his eyes, "You are a mage, correct? It's been a long time since I've seen a magical swordsman…"
"I've gained a recent appreciation for swordsmanship as of late," Azuma hummed, lying easily, "Being able to use a sword would help me protect myself better. I was actually looking for a good sword."
I really need to learn some actual spells. I'm fucked if anyone ever asks to see anything beyond a 'luck increasing' spell.
So far, using said 'luck increasing spell,' which was just his actual LUK helping him out, shocked anyone who asked enough that they believed he was a powerful mage.
"If you want one made, I could recommend a blacksmith to you," Renegal nodded at his words, "It'll be quite expensive, but he makes blades for many young up-and-coming devils. I'll cover the cost for you, of course."
"Actually, Daddy, I was thinking…" Ravel trailed off, shifting from her usual 'father' as Azuma's plan started, "Since you never use it, as you have your sword, could Azuma use the Ancestral Blade?"
Renegal's eyes shot open at her words, staring in agast at Ravel, "Ravel, that sword is reserved only for the head of the family! Why are you even asking such a question?"
Because I want a badass sword!
According to Ravel, the 'Ancestral Blade' was the sword used by the original Phenex himself, which was only supposed to be wielded by the head of the Phenex Clan. Most noble clans tended to have some type of ancient weapon within the same vein, but Azuma lucked out with the Phenex Clan's specifically being a sword. He lucked out even more in the fact that the sword was a very offensive-style blade, which was kind of ironic considering the Phenex's main ability was a defensive one. Renegal in particular used a much more balanced sword, and as a result had never actually used the Ancestral Blade in a real fight.
If the first ever Phenex used it, then it's probably strong as fuck.
"Daddy," Ravel looked up at him with big eyes, and Renegal took a step back from the cuteness attack, "Azuma was chosen by a Phoenix! A Phoenix of legend! Is there no one more deserving to use our clan's most prized sword?"
"E-Even if you were, the Ancestral Blade is…" Renegal trailed off.
"In fact, it was actually his idea," Azuma piled on, gesturing toward Better Riser, "His exact words were 'the Ancestral Blade has fallen from glory in the recent centuries, you must use it to achieve great things and bring honor befitting a Phoenix to the Phenex family, my partner!'... Or something like that at least."
In reality, Better Riser didn't speak humanese. He could understand Azuma fine, but all he could do to communicate himself was gestures and squawks.
"P-Phoenix, is that truly what you believe?" Renegal asked stiffly, looking seriously at Better Riser, "Is it your will for Azuma to use the Ancestral Blade?"
Better Riser stared at Lord Phenex blankly for a moment but then nodded rapidly as Azuma subtly looked at him sideways.
"...Then, if a Legendary Phoenix declares it, I will follow," Renegal, nodded, turning around and waving over his shoulder, "Come with me."
I knew that would work.
A large reason why the Phenex Clan's Lord and Lady were so open to Azuma in the first place was because of Better Riser. According to Ravel, there was something about the first Phenex being blessed by an actual Phoenix, but no one had seen an actual Phoenix since long before even the Great War. As such, Azuma having one was a big deal. A huge deal, even. A huge deal to the point that Renegal should've reported it to the Maou, and Azuma should've had devil spies watching his every movement.
Luckily, Renegal cared more about the Phoenix than the Maou, so he kept Better Riser under wraps because Azuma said Better Riser 'wanted to remain hidden.' As a result, there were no super-powerful supernatural beings trying to recruit or kill him yet.
But while Better Riser could make him a lot of enemies in the future, he was a great resource for manipulating the Phenex's in the present. They'd do pretty much whatever he said as long as Better Riser nodded along with his words.
Even let me have their most prized weapon, huh?
As Azuma followed Renegal through the long halls, twisting and turning constantly in the maze of corridors, he realized he had never been to this area of the Phenex Estate before. He had explored most of the main building during his visits - which was a pretty big feat considering the house itself was so big that there was an indoor golf course - but he had no idea where they were going now. Eventually, they headed down a long staircase and entered into a dungeon-like area, which was pitch-black.
"Stay close to me," Renegal said bluntly, raising his hand as a small flame appeared on his hand and lit up the stoney hallway, "Follow my footsteps exactly. Don't stray from my movements."
"Um… why?" Azuma whispered back to Ravel as he mimicked Lord Phenex, walking on the exact same parts of the seemingly plain stone floor as he did.
"There's traps to keep out thieves. If you don't step in the right sports, you'll be killed," Ravel explained easily, pointing at a random part of the floor, "See there? If you stepped there, a big boulder would come rolling out at you!"
Azuma stared at her dryly, "Like in Indiana Jones?"
A millennia-old clan of literal devils can't think of a better trap than that? I could just punch through the rock!
"They stole the trap from us, to be clear," Renegal said over his shoulder slightly defensively, "That damn thief of a director saw his friend get squished while trying to steal the Ancestral Blade and made a movie about it! Bastard…"
Azuma wasn't sure what to do with the news that one of the directors of Indiana Jones was actually a devil, and apparently a thief at that. So, he just shrugged and continued to follow Renegal.
Finally, after far too much walking for Azuma's liking, which took nearly half an hour, they reached a set of wooden doors. Renegal placed his hand on them, and they suddenly erupted into flames. The doors slowly burned away, opening up the entrance to the room.
Did he need to do that? He couldn't just push it open?
"Neat trick," Azuma said vaguely, a mock arrogant tone in his voice as he tried to sound knowledgable.
I have no idea why the fuck he burned down those doors, but there was probably some magical reason.
"Hah, you could sense the trap? You're truly a genius," Renegal nodded, an impressed look on his face as he led them into the room. Azuma casually looked over his shoulder at Ravel.
"If you go through the doors without burning them, you'll enter a fake room with a fake sword," Ravel whispered out an explanation.
"Of course, I knew that…" Azuma nodded sagely, though he definitely did not know that.
"Here it is," Renegal finally said, stepping aside and gesturing forward. Sitting on a large podium was an extravagant yet weird-looking sword.
Its pitch-black handle was long, much longer than typical swords, but the blade itself was rather short. It almost looked more like a large dagger than an actual sword. It was rounded on both sides, making it look as if it couldn't cut through even a loaf of bread, but the tip thinned out into an extremely-sharp shining point. It was also a blood-red color, though the rounded edges of the sword were a bright orange.
Azuma stepped forward, reaching up and grabbing the handle of the sword.
[Phoenix Sword] -
A sword created by the [Phoenix King]
Durability: Unlimited
+250 STR
+250 END
+250 INT
+250 CHA
+250 LUK
+50,000 MP
+50,000 HP
+10,000 HPREG
+10,000 MPREG
Abilities: [Flame Slash], [Flame Control], [Flame Healing], [Flame Materialization], [Wind Materialization], [Wind Slash], [Wind Control]
Azuma's eyes widened as he stared at the sword. The base stat boosts were awesome in themselves, but the insane increase in MP and HP were next-level. They more than doubled both of those stats.
And what the fuck is that regeneration boost?
It made sense since it was aptly named the 'Phoenix Sword,' but having that high level of regeneration for both HP and MP was crazy.
This is fuckin' overpowered.
Azuma grinned widely.
"Fuck yeah."
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No! This can't be happening! I am destined for so much more! I won't go down like this-"
[F-Rank Naga Dungeon Master: Glayun Defeated!]
+1,500 Points!
"Why do they all say the same thing?" Azuma deadpanned, staring down at the corpse of a half-snake man as his blade stuck out of the man's chest.
The group, which consisted of Azuma, Aphrodite, Artoria, Ravel, and Better Riser, were currently in the process of clearing out the remaining dungeons on the tenth floor. After Azuma had spammed a shit-ton of units down the tunnels and forced the remaining dungeons on the tenth floor to hole themselves up from the pure numbers, all that was left to do was finish off the Dungeon Masters and break the cores.
Azuma probably could've left that to his units, but he wanted to at least get a personal view of the entire tenth floor's layout. As a result, the group had spent the previous four days venturing through the dark tunnels and taking down dungeon after dungeon with ease. Azuma had already been strong enough to one-shot the Orc Dungeon Master during his first conquest, so after increasing his overall power multiple times over since then, he could easily handle even the more competent Dungeon Masters.
"Well, they probably have pretty big ambitions," Aphrodite hummed, tilting her head cutely as she thought about it, "The dungeon system makes people feel like they can do big things, but he died before he even got to reach E-Rank."
"Fair enough," Azuma hummed. If he spent years grinding up his dungeon from scratch, manually hunting monsters and mining for ores, then randomly got shit on by some asshole he'd probably be in disbelief too.
But, hey, sucks to suck.
If the Naga Dungeon Master didn't want to die, then he should've been stronger. Now, he was the experience that would feed Azuma's dungeon level.
"Should we take her?" Artoria asked casually, pointing at a slumped-over Naga woman who was the dungeon's attendant.
"She'll join the dungeon after I break the core," Azuma replied, "Just send her back to the dungeon with the other units."
Azuma walked up to a stone snake statue that was deep within the green and slimy Naga dungeon, casually slashing his sword through it.
[F-Rank Dungeon Core Destroyed!]
[Dungeon Master: Azuma Kaito has destroyed a Dungeon Core!]
[Absorbing…]
[+1 Dungeon Unit - [Laytia]
[+97 [Naga] Dungeon Units!]
[+27,985 Points!]
[+100 Dungeon XP!]
[Dungeon Units: Naga Variation unlocked]
[Dungeon Territory gained!]
[Your dungeon has expanded!]
[Abilities gained: [Poison Stab], [Enhanced Senses]
[Dungeon Level Up!]
Azuma grinned at the final line of the notification. It seemed that the dungeon level-up requirements were more costly after the first one because even after taking down nine other dungeons already he had just now reached level 3.
[Your dungeon has reached level 3!]
[New units: Offense, Defense, Worker, and Support units have been expanded!]
[New units: Weapon Smith unlocked!]
[Weapon Smith Units - Units that specialize in creating weapons!]
[New Units: Scout Units unlocked!]
[Scout Units - Units that specialize in espionage!]
[New dungeon ability: [Alliance] has been unlocked!]
[Alliance] - Create an official alliance with another Dungeon!
[Due to your dungeon leveling up, you can own more territory!]
[Go to your Dungeon Core to choose new boundaries for your dungeon!]
[Due to leveling up your dungeon, you have unlocked more units for each category!]
[Due to leveling up your dungeon, the cost of evolving units has been decreased!]
[Due to conquering 10 Dungeons and surpassing 1 million spent points, your dungeon has been promoted to E-Rank!]
[Due to your dungeon ranking up, you can own more territory!]
[Go to your Dungeon Core to choose new boundaries for your dungeon!]
[Due to ranking up your dungeon, you have unlocked more units for each category!]
[Due to ranking up your dungeon, the cost of evolving units has been decreased!]
[Due to ranking up your dungeon, you can now buy [Traps]!]
[Due to ranking up your dungeon, you can purchase an E-Rank Major and Minor skill!]
The scout units and new ability were nice, but Azuma had mainly been focused on getting the weapon smith units.
Though, compared to this sword I'll probably need to level up a shit ton more to get any units capable of making a sword to surpass it.
The 'Phoenix Sword' was blatantly overpowered, especially for a floor with only F-Rank Dungeons.
The more interesting thing Azuma would have to put some focus into was the ranking up of his dungeon.
It's about damn time. I've spent more than that on just Aph alone.
Azuma had surpassed the 1 million points spent requirement to rank up a long time ago, but he needed to exceed the dungeon conquered requirement to officially rank up the dungeon. There was a flurry of new opportunities that came from the dungeon ranking up, but the most important one was…
The new E-Rank ability.
The list of abilities wouldn't be as powerful as the signature ones he'd gotten to choose from at the start, but he also had a shit-ton of points to buy the most expensive one available. He pushed the notification away for the moment.
I'll need to spend a lot of time combing through the list. I'll do it after we finish here.
The increase in territory was nice too, as Azuma wanted to eventually encompass the entirety of Kuoh in his [Territory]. Once he did, it wouldn't matter if someone stayed in the resort. He would get points just for them being in the city.
But that's for later.
Aside from the Naga dungeon they had just conquered, there was only one more dungeon on the tenth floor besides Azuma's own. Once he conquered that one, the entire tenth floor would be under his control.
I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all this space.
The floor itself was the size of a literal country, and it would've taken multiple months to traverse if it wasn't for his supernatural speed and high-level transportation units. That meant his bottleneck for spending points would be broken, and he'd be able to expand his operation outward to mine for more ores and farm more monsters for points.
I'll leave that smart stuff up to Ravel.
The final dungeon was near the entrance to the eleventh floor, and it would be the toughest one on the whole floor. Azuma's 'suppression groups' that he'd sent out to various dungeons hadn't had any trouble, except for the one he'd sent there. They had all been wiped out.
But I'm not that worried.
Azuma glanced over at his stat page casually, which was boosted to the moon - especially in the regeneration categories - from his new sword.
[Azuma Kaito]
[Dungeon Master]
Dungeon Rank: D (4,292,701 D-Value)
Level: 17 (27,900/45,000)
HP: 87,570/87,570 (+50,000)
MP: 92,560/92,560 (+50,000)
STR: 1,758 (+250)
AGI: 1,520 (+250)
END: 1,294 (+250)
INT: 2,280 (+250)
CHA: 1,227 (+250)
LUK: 7,950 (+250)
HPREG: 11,280 (+10,000)
MPREG: 11,280 (+10,000)
Abilities: [Time Dilation], [Health Container], [Trap Expert], [Charge Up Punch], [Sweeping Kick], [Side Step], [Sneaky Blow], [Commanding Tone], [Persuasion], [Charging Bull], [Scent Finder], [Intimidation], [Dodge], [F-Rank Heal], [Heat Up], [Flash], [Fireball], [Flying Kick], [Poison Stab], [Enhanced Senses] ([Flame Slash], [Flame Control], [Flame Healing], [Flame Materialization], [Wind Materialization], [Wind Slash], [Wind Control] from [Phoenix Sword])
Dungeon Level: 3
Dungeon Boosts: None
Points: 879,255
Azuma wasn't all that worried about any F-Rank Dungeon Masters, even if his units had struggled with them. They weren't him.
I'm him. Himothy, even.
Azuma had also gotten a bunch of abilities for conquering the dungeons, but most of them were… less than ideal.
If they had good abilities, then they wouldn't be F-Rank.
While the majority of the signature skills that Dungeon Masters could choose from at the start of their dungeon were at least decent, it was very apparent the F-Rank Dungeon Masters on the tenth floor didn't have a lot of funding. Even if the skills' names sounded a bit appealing, pretty much all of the skills were useless.
Sneaky Blow sounds good, right? It's like a sneak attack!
Nope. It just made his attack soundless.
Why the hell would I need it to be soundless? I'm fucking punching them! It doesn't matter if they don't hear it, they'll fuckin' feel it!
It wasn't just that skill either - something like [Flash] looked good at first.
I could use it like a Solar Flare!
Nope. It made his hand glow brightly, but… not that brightly. Instead of a miniature sun, it was more like shining a strong flashlight in someone's eyes.
I could've been one of these shitters.
Aphrodite had tried to set him up with just 100 points at the start, which Azuma figured was probably about as much as something like [Flash] cost.
"Are you ready to go to the last dungeon, Master?" Ravel called to him, pulling Azuma out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Azuma hummed lazily, turning away from the notification screen. He could do all this dungeon-keeping stuff after they finished clearing out the last dungeon. Or, more specifically, he could dump that stuff on Ravel.
It'll only take a day or so anyway.
Unfortunately, Azuma had no way of knowing that the final dungeon wouldn't be as quick or easy as he imagined.
Instead, he would face the risk of death for the first time in this world.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: Thank you for reading! Sorry this chapter is out a bit later than usual, I'll try to post the next one earlier! It'll be out in 2-3 days!
You can also read chapters early on Patreon.com/Koyon !