Chapter 116 - A Yandere Goes Bleh For The Second Time
The floors get more expansive with each rank.
It was like the adventurers could visit more worlds; the higher they went! And now, Kyoya finally stepped on the 15th floor just after one year of being an adventurer. Such a feat was perfectly acceptable to boast, but Kyoya didn't even think like that even once and kept focusing more on the new worlds themselves. Thus, he raised his face to glance at the sun.
"It's like there are more worlds mixed on the floors, the higher you go."
"They say there is more than one sun on the 30th floor. At some point, we would need at least a fast carriage to go all over the floor. And that would be only to see the lands."
"Yep."
Kyoya and Josef spoke between each other while the ladies enjoyed some sunbath and the new kind of fresh air assailing their noses. Xaya quickly came back to her husband's side, though.
Then, the husband's party headed straight to the city.
They were summoned just a tad away from the settled lands by many people, so it was no problem to just go here on foot.
"The one who put the mission to the adventurer guild is the mayor himself."
"Oh, a big fish."
It wasn't bizarre for Josef and his girlfriend to be here together with the husband. They were believers of the new god, and with Josef's system, he was gathering the resources enough for sacrifices, so fast Lord Aron himself was pleased with him.
Thus, he got a few special blessings and techniques. It wasn't strange at all for Josef to climb in strength, similar to the husband.
And with love thumping in his heart, Josef and Maria were sharing pretty much everything. She herself was talented, and this just contributed to their climb.
In front of their eyes, the husband's party noticed the massive gates. Those gates were far from normal ones as they were tall and thick, made out of the shiny grayish stone. If someone fell from those gates, then one would surely die unless it was an adventurer himself going for the bungee.
The city's name was described on those gates in letters that sunk into.
[Quadr City.]
Leading inside were the steep stairs, making the city look as if it was put on some platform. Regardless of that, Kyoya and his party members spoke about the mayor's mission to get the easiest pass.
"How long are these stairs? You can literally train here."
"Josef, Josef. Maybe we can ask about this shiny stone for the sacrifice?"
"That's a good idea."
Running every day from top to bottom a few times would certainly make one super fast and muscly! While Josef and Maria joked about it like that and contemplated the shiny stone, Kyoya and Xaya had different thoughts.
"This is just a silly attempt to boast!"
"That's what you think? I think they just have strong defenses like that."
The party ended up inside the city then. Except for Xaya, every party member got pulled by something else, but the mission was prioritized. Thanks to the guides inside the city, Kyoya's party knocked on the mayor's doors just in mere minutes.
Soon enough, a man with looks as if he was in his early thirties appeared before them. He welcomed them warmly, then invited inside. Within the house, the party sat down in a row on the sofa. They were in the main office surrounded by the mayor's orders as he was a successful adventurer in the past.
Though all these successes were related to the first seventeen floors, he was at least someone whose strength broke the limits, so it was no wonder for him to be the mayor in such a city.
"Welcome to Quadr City. My name is Yurem, the mayor of this beautiful city."
Yurem let out hearty laughter as Josef and Maria's attitudes told him enough. It was the first time for them to be in this city and probably even on the 15th floor. It was secretly kinda disappointing, however.
Because it meant that the husband's party should be weaker than the previous ones, and what did happen to those people? They either died or got beaten by the pyromaniac, whose identity has been a secret for a while now.
He was not only assaulting people but also destroying and wrecking the beautiful lands of their 15th floor. However, the 15th floor was so vast! The Quadr City itself had many territories around for their jurisdiction, so this mysterious topic has fallen on the mayor's head!
Regardless of those thoughts, Yurem made a great impression on Josef and Maria as he willingly spoke about the gates and its origins. He didn't mind giving them some samples, but it was only if they successfully got rid of the pyromaniac.
Now, these two had more reasons to go against this abomination.
As for the husband, he smiled at his two friends, then asked.
"What about the guardian of the 15th floor? Shouldn't he make a move if the pyromaniac has truly caused so much trouble?"
The pyromaniac has extinguished many lands and killed precious merchants and workers working for Quadr City. The casualties were enormous, even if one didn't include the adventurers who lost their lives here.
At this point, it would be reasonably fair for the guardian to step in or at least someone from his family to take care of this mission.
Those guardians possessed the same ability as any adventurer had before the world pillar changed and adapted to the new rules. They were immortal and couldn't be killed on the 15th floor.
The same applied to their family, meaning everyone's blood related to the guardian would get immortality. This immortality wasn't omnipotent, though. The guardian family would still die from natural death. This was when the new guardian had to be selected. It would be either the successor from the same family or someone stronger.
"Even if they lost against this man, their immortality would allow them to learn about his identity."
"Immorality can be a blessing or curse; it all depends on the situation the immortal finds himself in. If the pyromaniac truly were stronger, then unimaginable pain would befall on the guardian's family. I don't think the guardian himself would come here."
Yurem spoke, his head shaking with disappointment. However, Kyoya's ears spotted that he wasn't really feeling disappointed at all. It was as if he knew another side of the truth or was sure that the guardian's family wouldn't come here no matter what.
"We can't allow the guardian family to come here. This is not only a matter of pride but if our city ends up in need of the guardian's help, then it would scare away the potential business partners for many years."
"This means…"
"Though we haven't said it openly, our city lost our two strongest guards to the pyromaniac's clutches. If we end up using the guardian's help, then we would expose this fact, and our lands would become less safe for transactions. Only the adventurers would help us then, but it's too costly."
The appropriate way of dealing with the pyromaniac would be to use 'mediocre' forces first, then ask adventurers if they failed. Using the city's strongest guards from the start was just too stupid as their goal always has been to protect people inside Quadr City.
This was one of the most populated lands and cities on the 15th floor.
And this mayor just used them like that.
"I have called all the guilds for help so that you might meet other adventurers on your path."
The mayor didn't give time for Kyoya to think about this situation at all. He spoke about other adventurers, which was a surprise, then passed red tokens to everyone. These tokens, as Yurem said, were given to every party that participated in the pyromaniac hunt. It was so that they wouldn't fight against each other no matter what and cooperated if needed against the pyromaniac.
"Please, fight with everything you got. Many people had given up, but together with your group coming here, there should be at least four parties working to find this abomination. That is unless this pyromaniac didn't find the new targets already…"
It seemed as if the mayor truly wanted to get rid of the pyromaniac, his voice saddened, but the husband's face remained expressionless. His wife was eyeing her nails all this time while his words instead touched only the other couple.
Though, Maria was cautious and didn't allow such emotions to blind her. She turned her eyes to Kyoya, then waited for him to speak up.
"We understand. Then, please, tell me what you already know about this pyromaniac."
"Of course, this is what we have gathered for now."
The mayor passed the scrolls with information about the pyromaniac's known techniques and what kind of flames he possibly might possess. The latter was important, just like the former one.
The gods treated the relationships carefully as it could be seen in the heavenly palace. Except for the gods who were known to be mysterious or worked directly with the divine rules, most of the gods had their friends and enemies in the divine lands.
This had naturally fallen on the believers.
That was why it would be good if this matter got confirmed. It would be hard for such a low floors' adventurers to know about one's god's relationships, but the feelings were also passed and born in the believers.
It would be a mere feeling, but it was still more than enough! The possibility of god speaking was also high!
"Please, take these pills. These pills can provide fire resistance to your bodies… Forgive me, but this is the only quality we can bring out."
"It's okay. Thank you for your help. Believe in us."
Kyoya spoke like a pro adventurer; then, his party left the mayor's house after a handshake.
After a few steps…
"Husband, husband. This man stinks so bad! Bleh."