"Thank you very much for your advice! I... I will... try my best later!"
"Ah, Maliu, about tonight..."
Leyana had originally intended to go over and say something to Maliu, but she only saw her run away like a startled little rabbit, covering her face. She couldn't help but look confused.
"Huh?"
Noin also blinked her beautiful big eyes in confusion, puffing out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"Honestly! I was being so kind, sharing my most treasured exclusive experience with her!"
"What were you just saying to Maliu?" Leyana asked curiously.
Noin immediately showed an incredibly proud smile and repeated her previous action.
"Wasn't I teaching her how to make Rod's favorite dessert?!"
She gestured as she explained.
"First, put the kneaded cookie dough into a piping bag, then squeeze out a beautiful shape, then carefully refine it and put it into the oven to bake. Finally, you can enjoy this loving dessert with Rod!"
Leyana's expression instantly became incredibly subtle.
"...Leaving aside how incredibly ordinary your so-called 'exclusive experience' is... Rod probably only said he liked eating it to make you happy."
She paused, looking at Noin with an expression that said 'you idiot.'
"And that gesture you just made... it's too easy to cause misunderstandings, isn't it?"
"Eh?"
Noin was stunned. She looked down at her gesture, then recalled her previous description...
It took several seconds for her to belatedly realize.
"Boom—!!!"
A puff of steam, even more exaggerated than Maliu's earlier, rose from the top of her head.
Noin's cheeks instantly turned crimson. She grabbed a pillow nearby and threw it at Leyana!
"Y-y-y-you, what are you saying?! This is the Court of the Stars!"
"How can you say... say such things in such a sacred public place?! You shameless woman!"
Although they used to be very open with each other in private in another world.
But here, in the territory of Astrea, the goddess symbolizing virginity, discussing such topics was still too stimulating and too taboo for pure maidens!
Leyana easily caught the flying pillow and said helplessly.
"I say... you wouldn't not know, would you? Maliu won tonight's rock-paper-scissors."
"Eh? So... what she came to ask me about just now was actually..."
"That's right..."
"..."
"..."
Noin and Leyana looked at each other, and the air seemed to solidify.
They could almost imagine that if Maliu really followed Noin's "exclusive secret," she might... be seen by Rod as some kind of super strange pervert...
Noin suddenly felt a chill of guilt to her bones. She sprang up from the sofa.
"I... I'd better run back to my room and lock all the doors and windows."
"D-don't call me out before Maliu leaves tomorrow morning!"
The next morning, as the clock hands barely crossed the six o'clock mark.
A roar loud enough to shake the entire Court of the Stars exploded like a thunderclap on flat ground.
"Noin—!!!"
Accompanying this roar was a furious "Bang bang bang!" of knocking, like a battering ram.
The force was so great that it seemed the thick oak door would be shattered into pieces the next second.
"Open the door for me—!!!"
The girls all trembled, hiding at the other end of the corridor, peeking out with only half their small heads.
"I... I've never seen Maliu so angry before..."
"No wonder Rod said never to provoke a healer... So scary, meow..."
Just then, a door at the other end of the corridor opened with an ill-timed "creak."
Rod emerged, his black hair disheveled, and an indescribable expression on his face, a mix of lingering enjoyment and subtlety, as he walked out leisurely.
How to put it, last night's experience was indeed... well, quite novel.
Paired with Maliu's marshmallow, which ranked second in the entire Familia, it was even more... a unique kind of enjoyment.
"Cough cough!"
A light cough interrupted Rod's reminiscence.
Leyana stood not far away, frantically signaling him with her eyes to rescue Noin, who was about to be "transcended by physical therapy."
Rod, however, simply pretended not to see her.
Let that idiot draw some of Maliu's firepower.
Otherwise, once Maliu realizes, I, the true beneficiary, will probably have to face her furious iron fist of retribution.
"Cough cough, I'm going to the Dungeon first. The Dungeon might be a bit chaotic today, so all of you should go on patrol missions today."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure suddenly became ethereal, as if distorted by an invisible force. The next instant, he vanished without a trace with a "whoosh."
Divine power activated, retreat and escape!
"Eh?"
Leyana's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, eventually falling helplessly. She could only offer silent prayers for Noin.
Just then, urgent footsteps sounded, and Laila's figure appeared at the other end of the corridor. Her expression looked terrible.
"Where's Rod?"
She looked around, a deep, unresolvable irritation furrowing her brows.
"He just left. What's wrong? What happened?" Leyana's heart also tightened.
Laila took a deep breath, as if to exhale all the vexation in her chest. She wearily pinched her brow.
"You... know I've been searching for suitable properties for Rod recently, right."
"Yes, of course. Did you run into trouble?"
"To be precise, the previous trouble was just too little available funds." Laila's voice had a hint of hoarseness.
"Then... now?"
Laila's eyes became extremely complex, with both confusion and an unbelievable sense of absurdity.
She looked at Leyana and said, word by word.
"The trouble now is... there's too much money available."
"???"
A giant question mark slowly appeared above Leyana's head. She even suspected that her ears might have been hallucinating due to Maliu's roar just now.
Laila seemed to read her mind, shrugging helplessly and stepping aside to reveal the direction of the main door.
"If you don't believe me, come with me to the door and see."
Her tone was full of helplessness.
"The trucks carrying Valis are almost forming a long line. When I went out early this morning, I received complaints from the surrounding neighbors..."
At this, Leyana was truly shocked, her beautiful eyes wide open.
"Eh eh eh?! B-but... what on earth is going on?!"
"Where did those trucks come from? Is it... is it that they've found the wrong person?!"
Laila forced a smile, one that was uglier than crying.
"The leader specified that the destination is the Court of the Stars, and the recipient is Rod. As for where they came from..."
Laila slowly raised her head, looking through the window at the dazzlingly blue sky, her expression extremely complex.
"...It's the City of Sinners—Bergen."
Meanwhile, in the Dungeon.
Rod's figure moved like a ghost, silently traversing the dark passages.
The monsters that once required him to be fully alert and cautious now seemed to have met their natural enemy, not even daring to approach within ten meters of him.
The air was filled with a fear originating from the depths of their souls, making them tremble, prostrate on the ground, and unable to move an inch.
He advanced unimpeded. When he stepped into the domain of the twelfth floor, this silent Dungeon finally reacted like an enraged giant beast, making its belated counterattack.
War Shadows, Needle Rabbits, Killer Ants, Goblins, Bats, Armored Armadillos, Silverback Apes...
They came in droves, wave after wave, launching a fearless charge towards that leisurely strolling figure!
But... Rod didn't even lift an eyelid. He just walked forward, step by step, with indifference.
Just as the myriad claws and fangs were about to touch his clothes—
"Shua!"
A graceful yet deadly figure, without warning, darted out from his shadow.
She clutched two jet-black blades, glinting with a chilling light, and her figure, like an elegant yet cruel black swan, danced gracefully among the monster horde.
Blade light flashed; each swing brought a deadly arc!
It was his first Shadow Soldier—Enwei.
She was like the most precise killing machine, effortlessly cutting through enemies in front of Rhode.
In an instant, the entire passage was cleared, leaving behind only the corpses of monsters that had not yet dissipated, and a thick, nauseating smell of blood.
Rhode calmly surveyed the mess, pondered for a moment, then spoke in a detached, emotionless tone.
"Stand up."
In an instant.
"Roar—!!!"
A roar, as if from the deepest depths of hell, exploded in the silent grotto.
Traversing the long corridor, the scale of the rock caves along the way continuously expanded, from narrow passages initially only wide enough for a few people to open structures capable of accommodating dozens.
Forked paths decreased, and the road became increasingly straight and singular, as if... stepping deeper and deeper into the maw of a giant, open-mouthed snake.
The ceiling became higher and higher, so high that the phosphorescence, flickering like ghost fires on the rock walls, (mā qián hǎo) appeared only as tiny specks of light.
Finally, Rhode arrived at the 17th floor, the largest room at its deepest point.
The structure here was like a square cuboid. Both the walls and the ceiling were made of rugged, uneven rock.
Only the wall on its left side was completely different.
It was as smooth as if polished to a mirror finish, without the slightest seam, regular to an unusual beauty.
The Wall of Sighs.
This was the name given by adventurers who had reached this large room and returned alive, for the final barrier of the seventeenth floor.
A massive wall that only spawned specific monsters, exclusive to the Dungeon's Lone King.
"Master."
Enwei's figure quietly appeared, guarding Rhode, her voice low and filled with vigilance.
"It's too quiet."
This was the domain of the Dungeon's Lone King, but that didn't mean ordinary monsters wouldn't appear.
On the contrary, monsters reaching Lv.2 would appear in droves on this floor, their density far exceeding the upper levels.
However, from the moment they stepped onto this floor until they reached this final room, not even the lowest-level monster appeared on their path.
"Perhaps... it's accumulating power."
Rhode chuckled, a hint of playfulness in his smile.
"The so-called malice of the Dungeon? Heh heh... Since you like to play so much, I'll add a little more excitement for you."
As he spoke, he took out a crystal-clear small bottle from his embrace.
Inside the bottle, a drop of golden liquid emanated a heart-stopping divine power.
This was a small bottle of true divine blood he had obtained from the goddess Astrea.
The moment the stopper was removed.
Buzz—
A visible golden divine power spread out like ripples.
The air seemed to solidify at this moment, and the entire space exuded an undisguised, terrifying malice as if to crush everything.
The ground beneath their feet began to shake violently, and the entire seventeenth floor began to groan and tremble under the strain!