Zanis was smiling as he stashed a large pile of Valis into his chest. Roy was hidden in the shadows only a few meters away, but Zanis didn't notice a thing. Roy shook his head. This guy is a disgrace to Level 2s. Zanis had spent so much time selling wine and hoarding power that he hadn't entered the Dungeon in years.
"Ahem."
The sudden sound nearly gave Zanis a heart attack. "Who's there?!" He spun around, ready to scream for guards.
Roy lunged, his hand snapping around Zanis's throat before he could make a sound. Zanis's pupils dilated; the gap in stats was overwhelming.
"Stay calm. Don't make a sound. I'm just here to buy wine. Understand?" Roy whispered.
Zanis nodded frantically. Roy let go.
"We sell wine through official channels," Zanis wheezed, not daring to call out. At this distance, Roy could kill him before he finished a sentence. "Why come to me?"
"I don't want the watered-down trash you sell to the public. I want the original Soma," Roy sneered. Only the inner circle of the Soma Familia had access to the undiluted "Divine Wine."
Divine Wine was so delicious it was a drug. Even the diluted versions sold for 70,000 Valis. Zanis's eyes narrowed. Only a few Gods knew the public wine was fake.
"How much do you want?" "Everything you have."
"Impossible! The other members would kill me!" Zanis cried. The God Soma was obsessed with brewing and ignored the Familia's management. Zanis ruled with an iron fist by controlling the Divine Wine distribution. If he gave it all away, the addicts in the Familia would tear him limb from limb.
"Give me half of what you control," Roy bargained. He didn't actually want it all; it was a simple negotiation tactic.
Zanis hesitated, his greed resurfacing. "The original wine is expensive..."
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My : https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Danmachi : Starting with an Elf (342 Chapters – Ongoing)
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Roy pulled a heavy bag from his cloak (actually his spatial ring). He opened it to reveal a mountain of gold—at least a million Valis. The dark room was illuminated by the golden glow. Zanis stared at the money with pure lust.
He led Roy to a cellar containing over a dozen jars of the original Soma. Roy knocked Zanis out with a swift strike to the neck. When Zanis woke up fifteen minutes later, the wine was gone, but the bag of gold was still in his room. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Roy returned to the Starry Garden. No one questioned his disappearance, as he was often gone. Only Astraea looked at him with suspicion, but Roy didn't give her a chance to speak.
In his room, he opened a jar of Soma. The aroma was so intense it made his head spin. He took a tiny sip. The moment it touched his tongue, an indescribable wave of pleasure flooded his brain. It was more potent than any drug.
But Soma didn't make your mind foggy; it made it hyper-clear, while focusing your entire being on the taste, causing you to ignore the outside world.
Roy gritted his teeth. I need to conquer this. He brought out the Orchid Perfume he won from the silver chest.
Later, when Roy woke up in his bed, he saw Astraea sitting beside him. "The Freya Familia isn't here, so I guess I succeeded," Roy said.
"Now, tell me what happened," Astraea demanded. She had been terrified; in millions of years, she'd rarely had a day this stressful.
Roy tossed a jar of Soma to her. As she smelled the aroma, she understood.
Roy sighed. Astraea could block Freya, but she couldn't block Loki from "visiting." To keep Loki from seeing through his lies, he had to bypass a God's lie-detection.
The method: Soma + Orchid Perfume.
He used the Divine Wine to enter a state of self-hypnosis—a trick he'd heard a certain God once used. By getting "drunk" on Soma, he could hypnotize himself into forgetting his actions. When he spoke to Loki, he wasn't lying—because in his own mind, his words were the absolute truth. The Orchid Perfume provided the mental focus to maintain the state and masked the scent of alcohol.
He had successfully deceived a Goddess.