Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Festival of Receiving Flesh
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-Your goddess will personally visit that wretched cur when he returns to the heavens and make him pay for today's deeds. It's such a pity there's no body to tear apart right now.
Ever since leaving the temple of the Goddess of War and Victory, the goddess had been trembling with rage for quite some time, cursing the Goddess of War and Victory nonstop.
I nodded instinctively, chiming in agreement every time she spoke.
'If I say anything unnecessary right now, I'll be in for a world of exhaustion.'
A goddess whose only followers were a handful of slum dwellers in the western slums of the city—did she really have any way to make that god from the most esteemed church in the dungeon city pay the price? No need to question it.
'Goddess, why are you getting so worked up? You know that's just how she talks. What's the point in fighting? Rice or sticky rice cakes? Just brush it off with a "Aw, you must have had it rough~" and move on. Don't waste emotions on nothing—let's eat instead.'
'You... Are you trying to piss me off too!!!? Food? When my wife is about to be stolen away, food?! Aaaargh!!!!'
I recalled the lonely sight of my father in my past life, sadly mixing rice with water in an empty living room while my furious mother raged.
Anger was the realm of emotions.
Rational analysis took a backseat to emotional empathy—a lesson my biological father had proven with his life.
-Hoo...
Perhaps because she'd spewed curses close to actual maledictions for so long.
I could feel the goddess's ire clearing up a bit.
I didn't show it, but inwardly, I let out a sigh of relief.
-Your goddess is truly ashamed. For a divine being to fail against anger, blabbering pathetically in front of her child like this. No wonder I can't hold my head high before you.
As her senses began to return, she seemed embarrassed by her earlier outburst, showing a hint of chagrin.
But when putting out a fire, you have to cleanly extinguish even the embers to prevent it from reigniting.
I didn't let my guard down.
"Not at all. On the contrary, seeing you angry on my account and expressing your feelings so honestly made me feel the depth of your affection, Goddess."
Her embarrassment shifted to a pleased warmth.
-Showing such a petty side like this... Even if you went to her, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Saying things she didn't mean again.
It was like a clingy girlfriend probing how much I liked her with roundabout words.
"With my lord right here, where else would this little lamb go? Please take back such words."
The key here was to infuse a hint of annoyance.
A nuance of 'I want to stay by your side, are you pushing me away right now?'
Of course, I wasn't sure if it was the right answer.
I had zero dating experience across all my lives.
How would I know a woman's heart?
-Ahem...
Fortunately, it seemed to be the correct response.
The ire transmitted in my mind turned fluffy and soft.
If the goddess were in front of me, her mouth would probably be stretched ear to ear.
"And I don't think she was entirely insincere either."
-That pisses me off in its own way.
Oh no. That hit a landmine.
It was meant to comfort her, but from her perspective, it came off as belittling her one and only apostle who'd received her divine power.
I quickly added follow-up words to keep her emotions from spiraling.
"And the church properly apologized too."
-Hmph. Those kids were too good for that wretch anyway.
I recalled the Archbishop of the Goddess of War and Victory's church, who had apologized for the goddess's rudeness.
It was rare for the archbishop of the dungeon city's premier church to bow his head to a young priest from a minor sect.
It was indeed a grave rudeness, but considering the power gap between them and us, they could have just steamrolled it without issue.
Along with the apology, they had shown proper "sincerity."
One was a letter sealed with wax.
The other was a silver armlet embedded with jewels in exquisite workmanship, contained in a box—an artifact called the "Star of the Battlefield."
Its body was an alloy of silver and pure silver, and what looked like gems were actually orbs from high-rank monsters, processed.
As with such items, it resonated with the user's mana, amplifying it to enable stronger spells or blessings.
I'd heard the church commissioned limited quantities through northern street workshops.
"They must have felt pretty sorry. Enough to hand over something like this."
It was probably a request to keep quiet about today's events.
Honestly, considering my reputation in the dungeon city, even if I talked, it wouldn't dent the church's honor much.
-Hmph. If they knew their sin, they'd show at least that much sincerity.
I briefly lifted the armlet from its box to inspect it.
As I gently channeled mana, it flowed through invisible mana circuits to the orb, returning noticeably amplified.
It suited the church's taste—simple functionality—but simple is best.
That very simplicity made it powerful.
'Luxury item.'
It wasn't as absurdly oversized as the off-spec Keseff Heyrel made with over 70kg of pure silver, but considering its volume and weight, the amplification rate was excellent.
'In the end, I got top-tier gear that's hard to buy even with money.'
Priests, broadly speaking, were caster classes like mages.
Equipment greatly influenced their capabilities.
But such items were either outrageously expensive or simply unavailable for purchase.
Excluding the Keseff Heyrel I'd finally made recently, my crawler career had been with mass-produced goods.
'Now I'm starting to get on track.'
Money begets money; ability begets ability.
Starting from scratch in this dungeon city with the goddess, we'd come this far.
I needed to keep this snowball rolling without stopping, all the way to a comfortable retirement.
I closed the box with the armlet satisfactorily.
Tucking the box away, I turned to the other item received: the wax-sealed letter.
I broke the seal.
'Maybe a check issued by the temple?'
I entertained the hope briefly, but if they'd meant to cut a check, they wouldn't have bothered with a sealed letter.
Unlike the "Star of the Battlefield," this letter felt pre-prepared and handed over.
"Hm."
As expected, the enclosed contents weren't a check.
"Participation rights to Katabasis?"
But it wasn't ordinary either.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The Festival of Receiving Flesh was the grandest holiday in this world, a true mega-festival that had continued for over a thousand years since dungeons first appeared.
During its long duration, various churches held promotional events(?).
Prime examples included the Creatores blacksmith survival program by the church of the God of Anvil and Hammer, the charitable Annona event by the church of the Goddess of Hearth and Ashes, and the Mirabilia by the church of the God of Roads and Horizons.
Naturally, the church of the Goddess of War and Victory—the most powerful in the dungeon city—also hosted its regular event during the festival.
Katabasis.
In the past, when the gods lost their flesh and ascended, and divine feats were absent.
It was an event named after the hero who led the first expedition into the dungeon and returned alive.
The origins were grandiose, but the content was simple.
It was just your typical world's strongest martial arts tournament.
To honor the origins, participants would need to lead an expedition into the dungeon and return alive...
That might have worked in the hero's era, but now crawlers in the dungeon city handled that.
Besides, if all participants vanished into the dungeon, what spectacle would there be?
Strict historicity wouldn't attract viewers—or rather, spectators.
So in the end, historicity got tossed in the trash, and it became a world's strongest martial arts tournament.
For box office success, powerful dopamine hits trumped minor details—it was an ironclad law across dimensions.
Thus.
"Why give this to me?"
I wondered why participation rights to this tournament had come my way.
Sure, I was a crawler with a title, but fundamentally a supporter.
'Low-tiers can just bulldoze with brute strength and crude tricks.'
Player-versus-player wasn't my specialty.
Yet they gave participation rights in Katabasis to someone like me?
It didn't add up.
I tilted my head briefly, then examined the rest of the contents.
"Hm."
As I read on, it started to make sense.
"Not PvP, but fighting monsters..."
And my ticket allowed not just solo entry but also the newly added duo slot if desired.
That made inviting me reasonable.
But as one question resolved, another arose.
"How did they drag monsters out here?"
Attempts to bring dungeon monsters outside weren't unheard of.
For example, the mountain trolls from the 20th floor.
Troll blood, with its regeneration, had long been a premium material.
People in this world weren't idiots; naturally, they'd think to capture live trolls for endless harvesting.
But monsters couldn't use return stones.
That meant dragging them back up the main route alive.
Plus, each floor was enormously vast.
Passages connected bidirectionally in places, but like the one-way path from the 15th to 16th floor with the Kaiden Party, one-way routes existed too.
Route constraints made dungeon reversal far more tedious than normal progression.
Monsters also couldn't be tamed.
Could you safely transport a rampaging adult African elephant until death?
It might be possible.
But it'd require not 20th-floor crawlers, but a massive transport team of 40th-floor veterans.
Efficiency shattered.
Moreover, monsters for Katabasis opponents would be high-caliber.
Separate from the questions, it intrigued me.
And the prizes for decent rankings too.
Earning opportunities dried up during the festival anyway.
....
Sounds fun.
"Hm."
Should I join?