Bonus chapter unlocked by your Power Stones!
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"Three thousand valis!? Are you trying to rob me? In Orario the most this goes for is three hundred!"
Down on the 18th floor's Maze Paradise, in Rivira's market street—the adventurers' supply hub—Lili froze at the quoted price and practically broke down on the spot. Even back when she made money by gouging and stealing, it had never felt this outrageously expensive.
The vendor, long used to that reaction, didn't even blink. "Buy it or beat it."
Rivira had been razed and rebuilt more than three hundred times. Anyone hauling goods down here to sell had sunk serious capital into the trip. If they charged surface prices, they'd bleed out.
Lili bristled at the attitude, but there wasn't much she could do. A glance around showed every stall listing the same figures—if anything, higher.
"Ugh… Had I known, I'd have stockpiled supplies and carried them down to flip. I'd be rolling in it by now…"
"Let it go, Lili. We don't need to make money that way." Takumi chuckled, ruffling her hair. He was already about to take her back into the Space-Time Realm to push her Falna a bit more.
They'd made it to the eighteenth floor today; that was enough. Better to wait for floor bosses to respawn and come back for a real harvest of traits. These small fry weren't dropping anything he actually wanted.
Then a scream ripped down the street.
"U—waaah!?"
Takumi and Lili turned at once. A man was butchering adventurers where he stood, cutting down even Level 2s as if they were thread. In moments, blood ran across the cobbles. Bathed in the spray, the man's eyes finally lit with a savage gleam.
Dark red hair. It was Vito, a powerhouse of the Dark Faction. Laughing madly, he raised his voice to the crowd.
"Shouldn't you be staying to fight? Even if you can't call yourselves heroes, at least don't disgrace the name 'adventurer'! If you can't manage that… then give me a banquet of blood to cheer me up! Uu—uwaaah!?"
He stamped the ground as if he were on an opera stage.
Boom!
The paving stones shattered. Vito pounced like a beast, blitzing the panicked adventurers.
Just as his blade was about to fall, a razor line of light flashed and slapped his blood-wet short sword aside.
"Looks like Finn's prediction was right. You people really did come to make trouble here!"
Lyra strode in, catching her returning chakram. From the flank, Kaguya—her brilliant battle kimono flaring—sliced in and struck Vito cleanly, forcing him back.
"And wipe off that sly little smirk. Also, you're noisy. Shut up," she snapped.
"This side is ours. You all run—eh? Takumi?" Alise arrived a beat later and finally spotted Takumi and Lili standing there. The coincidence genuinely startled her.
"Oh? What timing. I brought Lili down for some hands-on training. Looks like my luck's not great today—first step into the floor and we hit a mess."
Vito's eyes snapped to the voice. "Hahahaha! Still a little fish left on the hook!"
He moved with zero telegraph. A flip of the wrist, the short sword reversed in his grip, and he exploded forward—edge angling straight for Takumi's throat, hungry for that satisfying spray of red.
Lyra, Kaguya, and Alise had no time to react—no time even to shout.
"Don't you dare touch Takumi-sama!"
The voice Vito had ignored cut in like a whip. Lili's fingernails sharpened as she launched herself, meeting the charge head-on.
Clang—clang—clang!
Sparks fountained. Metal shrieked. Dazzling flashes overlapped with the shock of impact as claw and blade collided. They were so fast ordinary vision couldn't track them. In the span of a single breath, the two had already traded more than twenty blows. Then Lili's fox tail snapped, the air cracked, and a wind-edge skimmed Vito's abdomen, opening the standoff.
Warmth seeped across his stomach. The pain only made Vito laugh harder. "Interesting! Fascinating!"
He hadn't expected the tiny smallfolk girl—who looked so weak—to fight him to a draw. No—stronger. She was stronger than he was. But her combat experience lagged far behind; she was leaning almost entirely on the sheer responsiveness of her body. He was going all out, and she was still… getting used to it.
Lyra, Kaguya, and Alise all stared, momentarily stunned. Yesterday, Lili had been a Level 1. How was she this powerful today—stronger even than their captain?
"Lord Vito! Order a retreat! Our objective—" Dark Faction soldiers rushed in from behind, forming a wall around Vito. Reading the field, they immediately urged withdrawal.
With Lili's eyes locked on him, Vito felt the tug of caution. "I know… Then, ladies, we'll take our leave."
He turned to go.
"Stop!" Alise shouted on instinct.
"Wait, Captain," Kaguya cut in, jaw tight. "He's baiting us. There's a trap waiting. Don't chase."
Vito's team wasn't moving particularly fast—suspicious in itself. Those who'd crossed blades with the Dark Faction knew too well how filthy their tricks ran.
But one figure moved faster than all of them.
Vito and his men, slipping into the treeline, suddenly found Takumi standing in their path.
"Leave? Did I say you could?"
Faces split in feral grins. "Idiot. You dared to follow."
A heartbeat later, additional Dark Faction squads poured from the woods to encircle Takumi.
"Why did Takumi chase them—no! We can't let him stand alone in that!" Alise broke into a sprint. Kaguya, biting down a curse, followed. Lyra started to go as well—then noticed Lili hadn't moved, still rooted to the paving stones.
Confusion flashed across Lyra's face, but before she could speak, Takumi's murmur carried across the clearing.
"[Domain Expansion—Phantasmal Nightmare]."
Black substance streamed off him and poured over the entire floor. The world blinked—and everyone's vision slid into a different city, a shadow-steeped, uncanny labyrinth that breathed dread.
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