Chapter 724: Rivira Town Murder Case

"Loki, there are other people's scents here."

After dealing with the man-eating flower, the werewolf Bert said to the Main God behind him.

"Whose?"

Loki subconsciously pursued the question.

"Haha, how would I know that? I can only smell that there are other people's scents here. As for who the other party is, they're not someone I know, so how can you expect me to say?"

"Uh, that's true, but if there are no other clues here, this quest probably won't count as completed by us."

"So, you're saying we ran this trip for nothing?"

"Can't say it was for nothing. At least we eliminated the danger lurking in Orario's sewers. The Guild will probably give some reward for that."

"Lord Enio, the man-eating flower at the reservoir has been eliminated by someone."

"Worthy of the Guild, their reaction is indeed rapid. Ye En, you didn't eliminate the investigator?"

"My apologies. The one who came was Loki with the Fierce Wolf. I had no confidence in taking down the Fierce Wolf, so I chose to retreat."

"The Fierce Wolf Bert, huh. He possesses Orario's only Magic Power absorption attribute armed equipment. He indeed isn't someone you, as a Magic Swordswoman, can easily take down. Your judgment not to attack them was correct. Otherwise, you might have failed to take them down and instead exposed more of our information."

"Yes, but although I retreated in time, the other party seems to have detected my existence and smelled the scent I left at the reservoir. Will this be a problem?"

"Sigh, the Beastman's nose is too sensitive, that's truly troublesome. That guy Loki isn't easy to deal with either. The Guild really knows how to find people to investigate..."

Dionysus drank the red wine in his hand in one gulp, then called to the spirit beside him: "Firuvis, buy a bouquet of flowers. We'll go mourn Sloth and the others. Then, on the way back, we'll coincidentally run into Loki and the Fierce Wolf, and be discovered by them with a familiar scent."

"Yes."

Although she didn't understand what the Main God wanted to do, the black-haired spirit still nodded in agreement.

In Dionysus's plan, he smoothly ran into Loki coming out of the sewers on the street. And just as they met, the werewolf Bert recognized the scent of the sewers, grabbed Loki's hand beside him, and stopped his own Main God from approaching the blond god: "Loki, the scent that appeared in the sewers belongs to that guy over there."

"Dionysus, I think you need to explain why your child's scent would appear at the place where I was investigating monster traces.

Don't tell me you're the mastermind behind those monsters that appeared yesterday?

Come to think of it, you've always opposed the Monster Festival, yet you also have the motive to do something that would destroy the Monster Festival."

"Is there some misunderstanding, Loki? Perhaps we can find a place to talk."

"Fine."

Loki agreed. In the city, she wasn't afraid the other party would make a move. Rather, she wanted to hear how the other party would explain.

At a nearby coffee shop, she sat down to talk with the handsome blond Male God.

"I admit my child went to the reservoir sewers, but I am not the mastermind behind the monsters that appeared in the city yesterday.

In fact, three of my children died, just a month ago. It seems they were silenced because they saw something they shouldn't have.

And their deaths are related to monsters possessing this kind of Special Magic Stone."

As Dionysus spoke, he took out a Magic Stone from his pocket — basically the same nature as the one dropped by the Giant Man-Eating Flower — and placed it on the table.

"Eh, really?!"

Loki widened her narrowed eyes.

"Do I look like I'm lying using my own children's deaths?"

Dionysus indeed wasn't lying; he merely spoke the truth with insufficient information.

His three dead children had indeed seen something they shouldn't have, and he had ordered Ye En to kill them.

Ye En, that is, the Clone of Firuvis's evil side.

And after Firuvis underwent Fallen Fairy Spirit modification six years ago, her body now also contains a Magic Stone similar to the one on the table.

So that statement — that it's related to monsters possessing this kind of Special Magic Stone — wasn't a lie either.

"Then Dionysus, who do you think in Orario would be the mastermind?"

Loki didn't see through the god before her, and instead asked for his opinion.

"But these monsters appeared on the day of the Monster Festival. One would think the mastermind behind this should be related to the Monster Festival."

"You mean Ganesha?"

"No, Ganesha isn't that kind of god. I mean the existence pushing for the Monster Festival behind the scenes — the Guild, or rather..."

"Uranus."

Loki finished the rest of his words for him.

"That's impossible. The one who commissioned me to investigate the truth behind yesterday's monsters is the Guild's Main God Uranus himself. If yesterday's monsters were related to him, why would he commission me to investigate himself?"

"Loki, is there a possibility that this is a trap targeting you?"

"You mean he wants to use those monsters hidden in the sewers to kill me?"

"Uranus once made a binding pledge to other gods regarding his own behavior. He cannot arbitrarily recruit Familia members externally. So for the other party who lacks combat power, this isn't an impossible thing."

"Alright, assuming Uranus is the mastermind, what's his purpose? Making the Guild push for the Monster Festival, letting special monsters run out to cause trouble yesterday, and then commissioning me to investigate the truth — is that old man doing this because he's idle with nothing to do?"

"That I'm not clear on. Still investigating. But perhaps Loki, you'll be able to investigate it sooner than me."

Loki left. After the Clown God departed, Firuvis asked her own Main God.

"Lord Dionysus, will the god Loki believe your testimony against the god Uranus?"

"Loki won't believe it. But she will definitely investigate. As long as she investigates, she'll discover that the Guild, Uranus, are hiding things from her."

"You mean the Xenos?"

"That's right. The Xenos — that group of monsters possessing wisdom — are precisely the reason Uranus pushed for the Monster Festival. And with the timing not yet right, that guy Uranus absolutely won't reveal the information to a god like Loki. The seed of doubt will surely be planted..."

Dionysus finished speaking, and saw the black-haired spirit fall silent, seemingly seeing what she was thinking. He then said: "Humans and monsters coexisting in harmony is merely a naive idea. People on the surface will only treat monsters coming from underground as monsters that will harm them. They won't care whether they possess wisdom.

The aberrations of the underground world, if they want to gain recognition in the surface world, there is only the path of overturning the normal surface world. And only when the 【Abnormal】 replaces the 【Normal】, Firuvis, will your existence be given a definite affirmative answer."

"Yes, Lord Dionysus."

The black-haired elf nodded. Six years ago she was turned into a monster; her whole life since then had been as a monster. If she wanted not to be treated as a monster, the only way was to turn all the other normal bastards into monsters just like herself.

Filvis believed this without a shred of doubt, because this was what the one god who did not treat her — returned from death — as a monster had said.

Mm, she felt shame and guilt over the slight wavering that had just arisen in her heart.

Seeing this, Dionysus merely gave a gentle laugh.

"Lorne, truly sorry about this. I said I'd help you raise your strength, but now I've got you doing a supporter's work for me."

In the Dungeon's Nineteenth Floor Labyrinth, Broly watched the red-haired Pallum pick up the drops from the ground and spoke to him with some apology.

"Mr. Broly, you don't need to mind. I was originally rather dull-witted; my strength could never improve as quickly as Bell's or Miss Liliruca's anyway……"

Without the help of bug skills like 【You Are All My Wings】 and 【Single-Minded Admiration】, even if Broly was willing to coach Lorne, the Pallum's strength progress would still be extremely limited.

"On the contrary, you're willing to bring me to the Middle Floors and let me leech experience at your side as a supporter — that alone already satisfies me greatly."

Lorne waved his hand and said.

A Falna holder's Level rise isn't only from defeating powerful monsters and earning feats.

Simply defeating powerful monsters is just the simplest, most effective way to raise Level.

And the difficulty of obtaining feats actually varies from person to person.

For someone who is already very powerful, gaining a feat that the Status Panel can acknowledge becomes even harder.

While for an ordinary person, the difficulty of gaining a feat the Status Panel can acknowledge drops correspondingly.

For example, it's like a policeman catching a thief — it's his duty; unless the thief is extremely formidable, he basically won't be cited for merit.

But if it's an ordinary citizen catching a thief, even a not-formidable thief will earn a citation, treated as an act of righteous courage.

A feat is basically something like a 【citation for merit】.

Of course, the so-called difficulty of obtaining feats is actually an objective statement.

The subjective feeling — the difficulty of obtaining feats for everyone — should be the same.

Professionals doing professional things is only natural.

An ordinary person doing professional things — that is a feat.

But the Status Panel is rigid; it only records one's own experiences, accumulates experience.

Therefore, this creates room for the operation where professionals can bring ordinary people along to accomplish professional things.

Still using the policeman-catches-thief analogy: I and a policeman catch an ordinary thief; the policeman gets no citation, while I get a citation.

This is also why in large Familias, ordinary Falna-holding support staff generally don't have too low a Level.

Those people may lack the ability to raise their Level on their own, but because they follow high-level adventurers into the Dungeon, assist high-level adventurers, they leech assist experience, leech feats, and thereby obtain the qualification to raise their own Level.

Of course, people who level up by leeching experience and feats are generally much weaker than those who level up normally relying on their own ability.

However, Lorne wanting to level up was originally not to become strong, but to pursue the Boar-girl he admired.

So he only cared about the result of leveling up, not the process. For the supporter role Broly rearranged for him, willing to bring him along to leech experience, he had no dissatisfaction at all — on the contrary, he was very grateful.

"Broly-san, the backpack's almost full. We'll probably have to head back to Rivira to deal with it."

Bell walked over at this moment carrying a heavy parcel, and beside him were the three from the Takemikazuchi Familia, Yamato Mikoto.

These three were met on the Fourteenth Floor Labyrinth. After hearing that Broly's side needed capable adventurers to help escort supporters transporting supplies, the three volunteered to submit an application to join the party.

"If not for Mr. Broly's guidance, we probably wouldn't have been able to gain a foothold and operate in the Middle Floors this quickly. So please, let us repay you a little."

Those were the exact words of Yamato Mikoto's trio. Hard to refuse such goodwill, so Broly agreed to the three joining.

"Alright. On the way back to the Eighteenth Floor Labyrinth, remember to be careful."

Bell, Lorne carrying the supporter backpacks, together with the three guarding them from the Takemikazuchi Familia and Lefiya, headed for the Eighteenth Floor Labyrinth.

Broly, meanwhile, continued high-efficiency monster grinding on Floor 19 with Ais and Tiona.

"That's about it for today……"

Time flew; soon it was afternoon.

"Let's head back to Rivira. Sort out today's valuable drops to take and sell outside the Dungeon; the rest of the low-value drops we can't carry — sell them all in Rivira."

Just as Broly's group returned to Rivira, sold the low-value loot, and prepared to leave with the high-value loot, Rivira's local boss brought men to block their path.

"What do you want? Planning to strong-arm buy and sell?"

Looking at the group blocking the way, Bell grew somewhat nervous.

"Looking for trouble?"

Ais tilted her head, hand on the sword hilt at her waist, and asked the leader of Rivira's boss.

"Don't misunderstand, Sword Princess. We're not here to make trouble."

Seeing this, Modo hurriedly explained.

"Someone died."

If the other side didn't have high-level adventurers, he couldn't be bothered to explain.

"The Dungeon is a dangerous place. Most who come here are adventurers, and adventurers dying from adventuring — that shouldn't be anything rare, right?"

"Yes. If they die in the Dungeon Labyrinth, even dying in the Safe Floor's wilds, it's fairly normal. But the person who died — died in an inn in Rivira, strangled to death by someone."

Modo's meaning: the killer wasn't a monster but a person, and only a person could strangle someone to death inside Rivira.

"Wait, you bastard — you're not treating us as the murderer, are you?"

Tiona widened her eyes at the burly man and asked.

"Cough cough. The deceased was Ganesha Familia's Lv. 4 Second-Class Adventurer, Steel Fist Hashana. Although he was done in while doing that sort of thing with a woman, if the murderer didn't have a certain level of strength, it would still be impossible to pull off.

And we've already investigated Rivira's people and found no trace of the murderer. Now only outsiders remain to investigate. You lot are the outsiders who arrived in Rivira these past two days."

"Eh, we really got treated as murder suspects?!"

Tiona started complaining.

"We are innocent."

Lefiya shouted.

"Yes, I am willing to believe you."

Moduo spoke, subconsciously glancing at the women in the party; when his gaze fell on the Sword Princess, it was a look of utter trust, feeling she would only kill with a sword.

When looking at the Amazon girl, it was equally full of trust, but it was a look feeling her chest was too flat to seduce a normal-aesthetic veteran adventurer.

As for Lefiya and the two girls of the Takemikazuchi Familia, he finally carried a hint of suspicion, a look as if saying he did not rule out that they were the murderers.

"Right now, people in Rivira are panicked; you don't want to be treated as the culprits by us either, so we hope you can cooperate with our investigation."

"How to cooperate?"

"The deceased's belongings were rummaged through; the culprit must have taken something. I hope to inspect your backpacks."

"These are the drops we just got today; you won't take advantage of the inspection to fish in troubled waters and steal, will you?"

"Rest assured, you can watch us inspect. If anyone on our side intends to fish in troubled waters and steal, I, Moduo, will definitely not let him off!"

Although proving their innocence was somewhat annoying, and they could completely just kick them away and tell them to scram, the three girls of the Loki Familia were not domineering personalities.

They simply had their packs inspected; there was nothing shameful inside anyway. Moduo and the others also guaranteed they would help repack the bags properly after the inspection proved their innocence, so Broly didn't say anything.

Just as everyone gathered around to inspect the contents of Broly's squad's support backpack, the red-haired Pallum's sleeve was suddenly tugged from behind.

Lorne looked back, about to cry out in surprise, when the Dog Person girl behind him covered his mouth: "Don't speak, Lorne, help me."

"Indeed, there is nothing..."

After the contents of the support backpack were turned out and repacked, Moduo began apologizing to the Sword Princess girl.

"The person who died last night, the killer must have already fled long ago. Sorry, we were a bit overly nervous."

"No, it's nothing."

Moduo left with his people, and just as Broly and the others were also preparing to leave, Lorne spoke up: "Mr. Broly, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Hm?"

Broly turned his head to look.

"This is Lulune, my Familia partner. She seems to have encountered some trouble."

(Chapter End)