Danmachi- The Heroic Legend of Emiya!

Chapter 9: Sword Demon in the Dungeon?

The first day of part-time work ended with great success.

Shirou and the goddess Hestia returned to the Familia base in high spirits, just in time to run into Bell, who had just come back from the dungeon.

Compared to the bright expressions on Shirou and Hestia's faces, Bell looked downcast and rather disheveled, clearly in low spirits.

Still, when the white-haired boy saw Shirou and Hestia, he forced a smile, trying to bury all his troubles deep inside as he greeted them with a cheerful face.

"Shirou-nii, Lady Hestia!"

"Oh, Bell, welcome back!" Hestia greeted him cheerfully, not noticing the bitterness hidden in Bell's heart. "How was your dungeon exploration today? Did you get a good haul?"

"Uh… the haul was less than usual. I only managed to earn around 1,000 valis…" Bell replied helplessly.

As a level 1 ordinary adventurer, Bell's strength was even weaker than that of an average adventurer.

Moreover, due to the current situation of the Hestia Familia, he couldn't even find a party to accompany him into the dungeon and was forced to explore alone.

Lacking experience in fighting monsters and without anyone to teach him the necessary techniques, Bell had to rely entirely on himself, which made his dungeon exploration extremely slow.

Upon seeing Bell's condition, Hestia realized she might have said something wrong and quickly tried to comfort him. "It's okay, Bell. Even if you can't make money, Shirou and I will support you!"

"What do you mean?" Bell asked, puzzled.

"Heh heh, don't be too surprised—look!" Hestia proudly pulled out a pile of pouches filled with gold coins and showed them to Bell.

Based on Orario's currency system, this pile of coins amounted to around 20,000 to 30,000 valis—what Bell might only earn from a whole month of dungeon exploration.

And this was just the result of Shirou working for a single afternoon. If he had also worked in the morning and had enough ingredients, the earnings could have doubled or even tripled.

"T-This is…?!" Bell was dumbfounded at the sight of so much money.

Grinning from ear to ear, Hestia enthusiastically explained everything that had happened that afternoon.

Hearing that Shirou had earned such a staggering sum just by making street food—far more than what Bell could earn as an adventurer—Bell's expression instantly turned gloomy, a trace of bitterness flashing in his eyes.

Because Bell hid his feelings so well, Hestia didn't notice anything wrong.

However, Shirou did see that Bell was feeling down, though he didn't say anything directly. He decided to wait for a more suitable opportunity to address Bell's shaken confidence.

"By the way, didn't something unusual happen in the dungeon today?" Hestia asked, recalling the events of the afternoon. "There seemed to be way more adventurers going in and out than usual. It was clearly not normal."

"Ah, right! I almost forgot!" Bell exclaimed, as if remembering something important. "This afternoon, the Guild issued an emergency notice, warning adventurers to be on alert for a certain presence in the dungeon."

"A certain presence?" Shirou and Hestia both looked puzzled.

Bell continued to explain further.

Apparently, just yesterday, one of the strongest Familia in the dungeon—the Loki Familia—had completed their expedition and returned to the surface.

However, during their return journey, they encountered something extremely strange: all the dungeon bosses along the way had disappeared.

If it had only been one or two floor bosses, that could be explained by another party having defeated them. But the Loki Familia had traveled from the 50th floor upward, and they didn't encounter a single floor boss—almost as if all of them had vanished from existence.

This was an unbelievable phenomenon in Orario's dungeon. Due to the dungeon's unique mechanics, floor bosses regularly respawn. Even if defeated, they would reappear after a set amount of time.

For such a widespread disappearance of bosses to occur, there was only one possibility: someone had eliminated almost all the floor bosses up to the 50th floor in a very short span of time.

Faced with such an abnormal situation, the Loki Familia naturally didn't take it lightly. After returning to the surface, they immediately investigated all the Familia in Orario who could potentially pull off such a feat.

The goddess Loki did not believe that a single individual or even a small group could kill so many floor bosses in such a short time—it had to be the result of an entire Familia operating at full strength.

After all, floor bosses weren't ordinary monsters.

Each one was powerful and came with unique traits and abilities. Without a well-equipped, fully-supported, and experienced team, it would be impossible to eliminate them so quickly.

Yet, after interviewing all potential Familias, the Loki Familia couldn't find a single group with evidence of having gone into the dungeon recently—let alone reaching the 50th floor.

The only Familia on record to have reached that depth recently was the Loki Familia itself.

This revelation not only shocked the Loki Familia but also terrified the Guild.

They realized that some unknown, powerful entity, entirely outside their control, had slaughtered an extraordinary number of dungeon bosses.

Their first suspicion fell upon the Dark Factions—a shadowy organization in Orario made up of zealots bent on destroying the city.

If the Dark Factions were responsible, no matter how bizarre or incomprehensible the situation, it would at least make some sense.

However, according to the Guild's investigation, the Dark Factions hadn't taken any noticeable actions in the dungeon lately—most adventurers hadn't seen any sign of them.

Instead, a few adventurers reported sightings of a mysterious individual.

Allegedly, some had seen a lone human wandering deep within the dungeon, carrying no visible gear or weapons, moving alone through the darkness.

These adventurers, wary and afraid, didn't dare approach, but they noticed that wherever this person went, they left behind mountains of monster corpses.

A very small number of adventurers even witnessed this person in combat.

They claimed that the mysterious figure could conjure swords out of thin air and moved with an inhuman, terrifying grace to dispatch monsters. Though clearly human, the person looked more like a monster than the monsters themselves.

Most notably, this person's strength could not be measured by the Falna - it was impossible to read their status.

Based on this collection of fragmented reports, the Guild concluded that this lone warrior was the one responsible for killing the floor bosses. However, they still had no concrete information beyond that.

As a result, the Guild issued a general notice to all adventurers, asking them to search for clues about this person in the dungeon.

To facilitate communication, the Guild gave this mysterious figure a temporary title:

"The Sword Demon."

That explained why the dungeon had suddenly become so lively that afternoon—nearly every adventurer was heading in, curious to uncover the truth behind the mysterious Sword Demon the Guild was now investigating.