Lynn's gaze met the girl's golden eyes.
They were eyes devoid of much emotion, like two pieces of translucent golden amber—clear, yet cold, reflecting his current disheveled state of wearing nothing but a pair of white loincloths.
The atmosphere froze for a heartbeat.
Lynn didn't particularly care. In the Lands Between, wandering around stark naked—or even with a literal piece of rotting meat for a head—was a common occurrence.
He simply thought the girl in front of him was exceptionally beautiful. She wasn't the same type as Melina, but she possessed a similar exquisite quality that felt almost inhuman.
Right then, in the bottom-right corner of his vision, a small cluster of pale gold light quietly emerged, coalescing into a familiar line of characters.
[+150 Runes]
It worked.
A weight lifted from Lynn's heart.
No matter where this was, at least the fundamental rules he relied on for survival were still in effect. Killing monsters granted Runes, and Runes meant leveling up. As long as he could increase his stats, anything was possible.
"Do you..." The girl finally spoke. Her voice was just like her expression—clear, cold, and devoid of much inflection. "...need help?"
Her gaze swept over the bloodstains on Lynn's skin from the goblin spray, eventually settling on his empty hands.
From her perspective, this man's combat techniques were eerily proficient, yet his situation suggested he was some poor soul who had been stripped of all equipment and dumped into the Dungeon.
"Ah, thank you." Lynn's reaction was incredibly fast. A gentle smile even appeared on his face, making him look like a completely different person from the madman who had just been smashing skulls with a rock. "My name is Lynn. May I ask what this place is?"
After spending years dealing with all manner of unspeakable horrors, suddenly facing a living, breathing, and beautiful girl caused Lynn's attitude to soften instinctively. It was a long-lost feeling of communicating with civilization.
The girl seemed slightly surprised by Lynn's sudden shift in demeanor, but her face remained stoic.
"Ais Wallenstein," she replied, offering her name in return for his introduction. "This is the third floor of the Dungeon. Above us is the city of Orario."
Ais? Orario?
Lynn chewed on the names. A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him. It felt as though he had heard them a long, long time ago—back before he had been thrown into the Lands Between to be repeatedly trampled. However, the scorching of the Frenzied Flame and the countless cycles of reincarnation had blurred those distant memories.
"I see. Thank you for the information, Miss Ais." Lynn nodded, accepting the premise.
"Are you... alright?" Ais asked again, watching him closely.
The man didn't seem entirely mentally stable.
"I'm fine." Lynn rolled his shoulders, his bones letting out several faint cracks. "I was just about to head up and take a look."
The two novice adventurers nearby finally snapped out of their petrified state. The taller young man reached into his backpack with trembling hands and pulled out a tattered linen cloak, holding it out.
"B-Boss... this, if you don't mind, please wear this?" His voice was thick with awe.
The other youth nodded vigorously, looking at Lynn as if he were some kind of humanoid monster.
Lynn looked at the dusty grey cloak, then glanced down at himself. He decided that staying naked was a bit too much "performance art" even for him, so he didn't stand on ceremony. He took the cloak, threw it over his shoulders, and pulled up the hood to obscure most of his face.
"Thanks."
Having done that, he gave a slight nod to Ais and the two novices, then turned and walked toward the other end of the tunnel where the light was brighter.
His pace wasn't fast, but it was exceptionally steady. Each stride looked as precise as if it had been measured with a ruler.
Ais stood rooted to the spot, her golden eyes quietly watching the retreating back in the tattered cloak until he disappeared around the corner. Her fingers tightened unconsciously around the hilt of her sword.
That man just now... His rolls, his footwork, every single motion as he swung that rock—it all contained a level of skill that was pure and absolute. It wasn't based on the power of stats or magic; it was the very essence of combat, revealed only after a body has been forged to its absolute limit.
It was exactly what she had been searching for, yet had felt so lost trying to find.
...
After leaving Ais and the others, Lynn walked alone up the stairs leading to the surface.
The structure of the Dungeon was far more orderly than he had imagined. The walls and floors had been artificially maintained, and glowing crystals provided illumination at regular intervals. It was easily a hundred times safer than the wilds of Caelid.
Along the way, he encountered several other groups of adventurers.
Most moved in parties of three to five and were well-equipped. They cast curious glances at Lynn's makeshift outfit, but no one bothered him.
The monsters here didn't seem to have much intelligence either. They simply charged straight ahead with pitifully basic attack patterns. Lynn had picked up a shortsword dropped by a goblin and easily dispatched two stray Kobolds, prompting the notification [+80 Runes] to pop up in his vision.
Not bad at all, Lynn thought, his mood quite pleasant.
The monsters here weren't strong. More importantly, they didn't hide in corners to ambush you, they didn't play dead to backstab you, and they certainly didn't suddenly accelerate while you were trying to heal.
Everything felt so... honest.
Being an adventurer here—grinding monsters every day, earning Runes to level up—seemed like a fantastic way to spend a "retirement."
After experiencing the madness of the Frenzied Flame and the torture of infinite cycles, this kind of peaceful, easy life was practically heaven to him.
Carrying this beautiful vision of retirement, Lynn crested the final step.
Piercing sunlight streamed in from the exit, causing him to squint instinctively.
Immediately afterward, a cacophony of voices, the rumbling of carriage wheels, the rhythmic clanging from blacksmith stalls, and the aroma of food—a torrent of sensory information—wrapped around him.
Lynn stepped out of the passage and stood in a massive circular plaza.
He looked up and saw a white tower piercing the clouds, its grandeur exceeding anything he had imagined.
Centered around the tower, countless buildings of varying styles sprawled out, forming a pinnacle of urban prosperity. People bustled through the streets—men and women in diverse attire, demi-humans with animal ears, and tall, sturdy dwarves. It was a scene straight out of a fantasy.
This was Orario.
A living, breathing world.
Lynn took a deep breath. The air smelled of sunlight and roasted bread. The nerves he had kept taut for more cycles than he could count finally felt a moment of genuine relaxation.
Real civilization!
Maybe a new beginning isn't so bad.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a sharp ringing exploded in his brain!
Vrrr—!
The scene before him instantly lost its color, turning into a dull grayscale. Then, a semi-transparent interface, flickering with a faint flame, forcibly popped up, occupying his entire field of vision.
At the very top of the interface was a line of ancient text:
[The Tarnished's Grace]
And below the text, in the very center of the interface, was a large, clear, and even somewhat "kindly" smiling face of an... Asian man.
It was a face Lynn could never forget in his entire life.
It was the owner of this face who had created the Lands Between, created the monsters that had killed him countless times, and created that godforsaken cycle.
At the bottom of the interface, a small line of text slowly emerged:
[Detected: New Host has descended. The Grace of the 'God of Suffering and Forging' is awakening...]
[Please select: Accept, or Accept.]
Lynn: "..."
The relaxation on his face and his beautiful hopes for the future vanished the instant he saw that smiling face. All that remained was a bone-deep numbness and a complete mental breakdown.
He stood in the middle of Orario's bustling plaza, surrounded by flowing crowds, beneath a blue sky and a white tower.
But in his world, there was only that familiar smiling face that seemed to say: "Young man, your suffering has only just begun."
After a long silence, Lynn squeezed out a roar from the depths of his soul.
"Goddammit, Miyazaki, you're still stalking me!"
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My : https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Danmachi: My Primary God is Hidetaka Miyazaki? (25 Chapters, Ongoing)
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