Ryota had no idea how he made it back to Twilight Manor.
All he remembered was Loki's drunken voice buzzing in his ears the whole way home, practically rupturing his eardrums.
Behind him, Ais and Lefiya tailed closely the entire time, eyes locked on him like death rays—brimming with murderous intent.
"I told you it was just a joke!"
Ryota didn't even know how many times he'd tried to explain himself at this point.
But every time the words left his mouth, Ais's golden eyes stabbed straight into his soul like knives, and Lefiya's lips curled into a polite smile that looked ready to murder someone—namely, him.
—Yeah right. Like we're buying that.
Even when he raised three fingers and swore to the heavens that he was just trying to lighten the mood after a high-stress battle, that he never meant anything by it, that he was just going along with Loki's antics...
The two girls still gave him matching "keep digging, clown" looks.
What truly broke Ryota's spirit, though—
Was that even Riveria, ever the calm and reasonable one, was now looking at him differently.
Not with anger or indifference… but with this quiet, resigned expression. As if to say, Men. Of course.
Ryota could feel cold sweat trickling down his back just from her gaze.
Collapsed on his bed, staring at the ceiling, he let out a long sigh.
"All this… just for a joke? Why does it feel scarier than going toe-to-toe with the entire Freya Familia?"
…
The next morning.
The sun rose over the horizon, and Orario stirred to life once more.
The noise of adventurers returning to the Dungeon, shops setting up for business, merchants pushing carts through the alleys—all of it slowly returned to normal.
But everyone knew: today's Orario was no longer the same as yesterday's.
Because just after dawn, the Guild released a bombshell announcement:
The Freya Familia… had been disbanded.
No more knights who struck fear into every other Familia.
No more Ottar, the living embodiment of divine pressure.
That towering force, once perched at the summit of Orario, had been wiped away overnight by the hand of its own goddess.
Just as she had promised. Just as she had told that boy.
The moment the news hit, it was as if the city had been struck by a second earthquake.
Shock. Uproar. Confusion. Disbelief.
"Wait, Freya Familia actually disbanded?!"
"No way. That's insane. Loki Familia must be laughing their asses off right now!"
"Man, I was seriously considering joining Freya Familia… Guess I'll aim for Loki Familia now."
"As if they'd take you, you narcissistic idiot."
"…"
People argued, speculated—but in the end, all conversations circled back to a single name:
—Ryota.
The man who shattered the balance between gods, who toppled Orario's mightiest Familia, who single-handedly won the War Game.
Everyone finally understood: this black-haired boy was no longer just the rising star of the Loki Familia, no longer just a miracle-working "monster."
He was the variable that had upended all of Orario.
A human powerful enough to make even the gods take notice.
And every choice he made now—was shaping the future of the city itself.
But Ryota didn't care.
Or rather, from the very beginning, he'd never put much stock in those grandiose titles or the so-called honor others assigned him.
"Number one in Orario," "the human who moved the gods"—those were just empty shells.
What he pursued wasn't fame or worship.
It was strength.
Real strength. Power that could crush enemies, force gods to take him seriously. Power that would keep him from ever again being dragged to the edge of death—like in that suffocating Trial Space.
"I'll never… let myself be pushed that far again by a mourning-suit-wearing Itachi."
Ryota stared at the ceiling.
"That version of me, barely clinging to life in that hellhole, is already gone."
With a slightly dramatic flair, he finished his monologue and got dressed.
"Time to hit the Dungeon."
Last time, while exploring with Ais and Lefiya, he'd made it to the seventeenth floor.
Next up was the eighteenth—one of the few safe zones in the Dungeon and a perfect place to establish a marker.
The town of Rivira, built by adventurers on that floor, was expensive, sure—but in terms of order and structure, it wasn't much different from Orario itself.
Occasional monster attacks still happened, but in the chaos of the Dungeon, having a reliable outpost was already a miracle.
Just as he was about to leave his room, Ryota paused.
"…It's been a while since I looked at my personal status board."
Ever since rushing from Level 2 all the way to Level 4, things had been moving so fast he hadn't even glanced at his own stat sheet.
Now seemed like a good time to do a bit of maintenance before heading out.
"And that hidden quest… the main branch quest updated so fast, I almost forgot."
Sitting back down on the bed, Ryota focused his mind. His status screen materialized before him.
[All-Encompassing Divine Eye System]
[Host: Ryota]
[Chakra Level]: A+ to S-rank (Stable Absolute Law Tier)
[Chakra Control]: S to S+ (Precision Mastery)
[Chakra Nature]: Fire, Lightning
[Sharingan]: Mangekyō Sharingan (Both Eyes)
[Ninjutsu]:
(omitted—the same stuff as before~)
Inferno Style: Flame Control
[Taijutsu]: (also omitted)
"Oh?" Ryota raised an eyebrow. "I've reached the S-rank boundary, huh."
It wasn't unexpected.
Ever since he hit Phase 3 of the main quest, even side quests were dishing out tens of thousands of chakra.
But Ryota didn't let his guard down.
Leveling was like grinding mobs—the farther you got, the more chakra you needed.
He pulled up the Reanimation Jutsu menu and "purchased" the Asura Path—second only to Deva Path in the Six Paths of Pain.
But he didn't plan to use it yet.
The Asura Path was way too destructive, built for massive area-of-effect explosions.
If he went overboard and ended up triggering a Juggernaut in the Dungeon… that'd be a nightmare.
[Ding! Task Progress: "Make the DanMachi World Feel Pain" (2/6)]
Ryota nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad. Four more to go…"
He turned his gaze to his pack.
Then his eyes lit up, and the Mangekyō Sharingan flared.
"Kamui."
With that, his entire bag—stuffed with heavy Valis, rations, and water—twisted out of reality and vanished into his personal Kamui dimension.
Inside that space wasn't just money and survival gear.
It also held the kunai, shuriken, and other tools he forged while working with the Hephaestus Familia.
Neatly arranged in the darkness, like a vast private warehouse.
If the rest of the Loki Familia ever found out he had a cheat ability like this, their expressions would be legendary enough to write into poetry.
After all, in Expeditions, supplies were life or death.
According to the Loki Familia's expedition records, there was a time on the thirty-seventh floor when a member got splashed with poisonous blood while fighting a dark green dragon.
They'd already run out of antidotes.
That adventurer didn't live to see dawn.
"If I'd been there, maybe they could've made it."
Shaking off the thought, Ryota pushed open the door and headed downstairs.
He had barely stepped into the lobby before stopping dead in his tracks.
The room was full—every major member of the Loki Familia standing at attention: Ais, Lefiya, Bete…
Even the elusive Big Three had shown up.
They were all staring at him, eyes practically glowing.
Ryota: …?
Something was definitely off.
Right then, the smell of booze wafted in.
Loki wandered in from the front door, yawning and looking like she'd just been dragged out of bed.
"Ryoootaaa~"
She rubbed her eyes and gave him a bleary once-over.
"You're heading to the Dungeon, yeah?"
Ryota nodded.
"Perfect. The kids all wanna go with you."
"After all—"
"The last time you took Ais and Lefiya, they came back and leveled up."
"Look at their faces—they're burning with hope~"
Ryota: "…"
And then it hit him.
These people... they were treating him like some kind of walking Level-Up Machine!
Over there, Bete kept his usual scowl, but his twitching ears betrayed his excitement.
Tiona and Tione were practically sparkling, their faces screaming pick me.
Even Ais and Lefiya, despite still being a little annoyed about yesterday, were eyeing him like he was a jackpot.
Finn, their tiny Pallum leader, stepped forward with a warm smile.
"Ryota, I trust you're used to leading parties by now?"
Ryota gave a small, resigned smile.
"Sorry, everyone. I really can't today."
"I've got to run a test."
"It'll help a lot with our Familia's next expedition."
Immediately, cartoonishly large question marks popped up over everyone's heads.
Even Loki sobered up a little, squinting at him.
"…A test?"
"Ryota, did you hit your head? Expeditions aren't War Games. You'll be facing monsters that don't do strategy."
Finn nodded solemnly, picking up the thread.
"Ryota, you truly did the impossible in the War Game. But Expeditions are a different beast entirely."
"Logistics, personnel, supplies… even one misstep can doom the entire operation."
"Especially for us. The depths we go to, the strength of the monsters—raw power alone won't cut it."
The others all nodded in agreement, giving him complex looks.
You might be a monster, sure—but don't take Expeditions lightly!
Ryota stayed quiet for a few seconds.
He wasn't trying to hide anything—it was just… this jutsu was too overpowered.
No matter how he tried to explain it, it always circled back to the Flying Raijin Jutsu. The ultimate ninja teleportation hack.
And it wasn't that he didn't want to bring others down with him.
It was that he hadn't even figured the jutsu out yet.
If someone got hurt because of his experiments, that would be on him.
Caution had always been his way.
So he stopped struggling and just smiled, shrugging.
"Give me one day."
"Tomorrow, I'll head back down with Ais and Lefiya."
"When they return, they'll tell you if it was worth it."
The crowd blinked in surprise.
Then—
A light flickered in Ais's golden eyes.
Lefiya instinctively straightened her back, her expression erupting into barely contained joy, her lips curling up.
Ryota… had chosen them again.
"Well then… I'll be off?"
"Tch. This kid," Loki muttered, stroking her chin. "Fine. Let's see if you can surprise us tomorrow."
Ryota nodded, not bothering to linger.
He turned and headed for the manor's front gate.
But the moment he stepped outside, his brow furrowed.
Too quiet.
As the home of Orario's hottest new power, Twilight Manor had recently become even more crowded than the Guild itself.
Since the War Game ended, the area outside had been flooded—wannabe adventurers hoping to join, merchants looking to strike deals, spies from other Familias…
But today, silence.
The street ahead was dead still.
No voices. No footsteps. Not even the wind seemed to move.
Ryota looked up and focused his gaze.
Two figures were walking toward him.
As soon as he saw their faces, he froze, murmuring to himself—
"…Seriously? They're blocking my front door now?"
It was none other than the goddess of beauty, Freya.
And Ottar, her mighty right hand.