Chapter 295: Quest Preparation
Chapter 295: Quest Preparation
Thinking about it that way, these eight women were pretty terrifying.
The eight women who reigned at the very top of a clan that literally devours men.
Just how many men had they sent to the next world?
“So this is the rumored Saint? Hmmm…”
One of them, a sexy older-sister type wearing some very revealing clothes, muttered as she looked me over, as if appraising me.
“I taste awful.”
Because I’d just been thinking about that, the words slipped out reflexively before I even realized it.
“Hm? Hehe. What’s with this kid? How cute!”
No, I mean, I’m pretty well-built. No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t exactly have a “cute” face.
I took another, closer look at the woman who’d spoken.
The first thing that caught my eye was her outfit.
Was that armor? No, that couldn’t be right. Even if this was a fantasy world, there was no way that could be armor.
I mean, it was just a revealing full-body legging suit with skin showing all over the place.
It was a sexy, full-body legging suit with large cutouts exposing her entire back, the sides of her waist, and large portions of her chest and thighs as well.
Her attire was completed with just a pair of leather gloves and leather boots.
Anyone could see it wasn’t an outfit for going into a dungeon.
Was she really planning to go into the dungeon dressed like that?
“Oh my? Interested in big sister’s body? Hehe. You really are cute. You. Look. De. Li. Cious.”
Misinterpreting my gaze, the woman bent her waist and pushed her chest together in a sexy pose as she spoke.
“No, no, no. I really do taste awful.”
“I’ll be the judge of that after I have a taste.”
This woman was being very firm. No room for negotiation.
“You will not.”
Just then, Silvia jumped out from behind me, spreading her arms wide to block the way.
Ooh. Silvia. You’re so reliable.
“I will not forgive anyone who lays a hand on Sir Guwon.”
Perhaps because her back was turned to me, Silvia’s voice was incredibly calm and composed.
So this is how she acts when she’s not dealing with me.
I’d like to observe how Silvia acts when I’m not around sometime.
But the woman in the full-body leggings didn’t seem to care at all about Silvia’s emotionless voice.
“Hm? What’s this one? What’s this? If I eat him, does she come with the meal? Why don’t the two of you have some fun with big sister here?”
She even seemed to like the idea.
What’s with this woman? Is she the type who’s into lesbian play, too?
“Hmph. I don’t think it would be any fun at all with you.”
But Silvia just snorted and replied.
Well, of course. After all, Silvia wouldn’t have fun with anyone but me.
“Oh my. You never know, do you? Even that Miriel over there…” “Lutia.”
“Hehe. Don’t be shy.”
What? What is it? Even that Miriel what?! I’m curious! Why’d you stop there?! Tell me! Now!
Damn it. It wasn’t like I couldn’t guess what she was going to say, but I still wanted to hear it for sure.
“But they both look so delicious. Hey, Miriel. Can’t I just have a little taste before we go?”
“No. Do it later.”
What do you mean, ‘later’? You’re supposed to stop her properly.
No, wait, of course she wouldn’t stop her. Miriel might look normal, but when you think about it, she’s the leader of this man-eating clan.
In other words, she’s the one who created this whole system.
Her stinginess aside, I guess I really shouldn’t be fooled by appearances, just like Alicia said.
“Anyway, let’s go for now. I want to collect the 5th Floor’s penises as quickly as possible.”
With that, Miriel took the lead and started to leave the mansion.
Hey. You’re not even going to give us time to introduce ourselves before leaving?
We’re going to be spending several days together in the dungeon.
Other than the sexy woman you just called Lutia, I don’t even know anyone else’s name.
“W-wait a minute! Miriel! Um, unless my eyes are deceiving me, that person over there… i-is that Cardinal Matilda?!”
One of the Arachne executives, a woman in ornate armor, cried out.
Looking closely, I saw that her armor was engraved not only with the spider symbol of the Arachne Clan, but also with the crest of the Goddess’s church.
I see. So she was a holy knight.
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“H-how… No. Uh, good day, Cardinal Matilda.”
The holy knight seemed quite flustered.
She gave Matilda a deep bow.
“Yes. I didn’t expect to meet someone who serves the Goddess in a place like this. My apologies. I’m sure I’ve seen your face before, but your name…”
“I am Lily, a holy knight.”
“It’s a pleasure, Miss Lily.”
“Y-yes! The pleasure is all mine!”
As expected of a Cardinal’s title, it seemed to carry quite a bit of power. The executive named Lily was completely frozen in front of Matilda.
Matilda used to be a holy knight herself, so maybe that made it even harder for Lily to deal with her?
Seeing this, Matilda glanced at me with a look that said, ‘See?’
Yeah, yeah. What do you want from me?
“But Cardinal Matilda, why are you here…?”
“Circumstances have led me to accompany this man.”
Circumstances, my ass. You’re only here because you begged to come along.
The moment Matilda answered, a look of pity began to creep into the eyes of all the executives looking at me.
Lutia even muttered, “So that’s why you resisted my temptation…”
“I’m not impotent yet! Here! Look! Does this look impotent to you?!”
Blood rushed to my head, and I ended up using Revived Pride to get a full erection.
At that, the executives’ eyes instantly transformed into those of hawks spotting their prey.
Among them, there was even someone who let out an impressed “Hoh…”
Ah, this is bad. What have I done?
Showing off my junk in front of the executives of a man-eating clan.
“S-Silvia Shield!”
I immediately grabbed Silvia’s shoulders and placed her in front of me again.
“I-I will protect Sir Guwon!”
Good job, Silvia.
She was trembling, but that was because I was touching her, not because she was afraid of the executives.
So incredibly reliable.
Seeing this, the executives gave a somewhat pleased smile and averted their gazes from me.
Although for some reason, Lutia kept staring at my crotch.
“Anyway, not just the Saint, but those two are coming with us as well. We’ll do introductions on the way, so let’s get going.”
As if in a great hurry, Miriel finally headed outside.
They all had a free-spirited air about them, but the clan leader’s authority was still intact, as the other executives followed her without a word of complaint.
The only exception was Lutia, who gave me a quick wink at the end.
“You did great, Silvia.”
After all the executives had left, I decided to praise Silvia before following them.
Even though I’d thoroughly enjoyed Miriel’s nude show, I planned to leave it at just that. I had no intention of cheating, after all.
I had no plans to sleep with other women.
Especially not with the people from a man-eating clan like this. Absolutely not.
“Y-yes! Hehe!”
When I patted her head, her previous dignified appearance vanished, and Silvia let out another deflated sound.
It seemed there was a town on the 5th Floor as well, so we went to the Guild and headed straight for the teleportation circle.
Just as Miriel had said, we made our introductions on the way to the Guild. The short, cute twin mages from the Dwarf race were Rea and Ria. And the bard, whose appearance perfectly suited the word ‘lady,’ was named Hilda.
The twins, in particular, must have heard from Miriel that Diana was in our clan, because they were quite cute, their eyes sparkling as they asked questions about her.
Though it was chilling to think that these cute girls had drained men to death.
After arriving at the Guild, Miriel explained something to a staff member, and only then were we able to use the teleportation circle.
However, it seemed this was just temporary permission for the request, and the 5th Floor wouldn’t be registered on our adventurer cards. If we wanted to access the 5th Floor properly, we’d have to register it ourselves later.
Well, it wasn’t like I was planning to take shortcuts like this anyway, so I didn’t really care.
If I wanted to do that, I would’ve just asked Diana to unlock everything for me ages ago.
And so, in an instant, we arrived on the 5th Floor. As for my impression…
“…I can’t see the ceiling.”
That was right. I’d thought the ceiling on the 2nd Floor was quite high, but this was on another level.
Looking up, all I could see was a blue sky.
It wasn’t just a ceiling painted blue, was it?
“Right? You have to come down a long way from the 4th Floor. You guys are going to have a tough time later, you know?”
Alicia laughed cheerfully as she slapped my shoulder.
Ow, you brat. The only woman allowed to deal physical damage to me is Sara.
“That aside, the town is tiny.”
And that was another noteworthy point: the size of the town.
I’d only ever been to the town on the 2nd Floor, but unlike that one, which actually felt like a town with its restaurants and inns, the 5th Floor had almost no buildings to speak of.
There was the teleportation circle, two buildings on either side of it, and a fence surrounding the area. That was it. To be honest, it was embarrassing to even call it a town.
One building had a large spider mark on it, so it must be the Arachne Clan’s building, and the other one seemed to be an inn.
Other than that, there were just a few street vendors around the teleportation circle.
“Well, there aren’t many adventurers who use the 5th Floor, so a place to sleep is all we really need. If it got any bigger, defending it would be a pain. Now then, Lutia. Could you go get Jini?”
“Got it.”
Another name I’d never heard before, but it was probably the executive who was waiting for us here.
My guess was correct; Lutia returned with another woman.
How should I put it? She was a beautiful woman with a sharp expression, the kind who looked like she’d say, “I’m only interested in battle.”
“…You’re here. Let’s go.”
The woman called Jini didn’t even glance in our direction, speaking only to Miriel.
“Mm. Then let’s head out. Oh, but before that.”
Miriel stopped walking and looked over at me.
“You guys should stay in the middle and try not to do anything. Guwon, when a male monster appears, we’ll give you a signal. Use your Saint skill then. Ah, by the way, do you have to be close to use your Saint skills? I heard you used an area-of-effect skill on the orcs on the 2nd Floor.”
“You’re well-informed. I can do it from a distance.”
“Then that’s fine. We’ll tell you when to use it, so don’t be too nervous and just follow us.”
Miriel nodded and stepped outside the fence.
The moment we were outside the fence, the Arachne members, who had been so free-spirited until now, instantly formed a formation with us in the center.
Lutia was at the vanguard. Behind her, Miriel blocked the path in front of us, while Alicia and Jini reliably guarded our flanks.
Behind us were the sisters Rea and Ria, and Hilda. And at the very rear, Lily stood guard, holding a blunt weapon that looked like a mace.
As expected of a top-tier clan, they really knew how to get serious when it counts.
I was a little puzzled why Lutia was taking the lead, but I understood the reason after a short while.
It seemed Lutia had a rogue-type job, as she appeared to be mainly in charge of scouting.
She moved with light feet, darting around ahead of us, searching for monsters.
Well, it was no wonder her body was so light. She was barely wearing anything.
Anyway, the 2nd Floor was a desert and the 3rd was a snowy mountain, so I was curious what the 5th Floor would be like. Surprisingly, it was an ordinary forest.
The atmosphere was quite similar to the 1st Floor.
The only differences were that the ceiling was high enough to look like a blue sky, and the trees were enormous and densely packed.
Just the fact that I didn’t have to worry about the temperature was good enough.
But there was no way the difficulty would decrease just because we went down a floor, so I had to assume the monsters were that much tougher. I couldn’t let my guard down.
“Wait. Four trolls ahead. One is male.”
Lutia sent a signal.
“We’re lucky to find a male so soon. Guwon. We’ll tell you when to use your skill, so be ready.”
“Okay.”
The first battle on the 5th Floor.
As expected, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.
Even though I wouldn’t be fighting directly, the moment I used a Saint’s skill, all the aggro would focus on me.
One wrong move and I could die, so of course I was tense.
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as much as possible and decided to watch the battle closely.
Right. I should remember why I came here. To watch and learn more as a clan leader, right?