章 33: The Next Pirate King
*Thunk*
*Thunk*
*Thunk*
The sound of carriages running on an uneven surface leading to the goods on their backs thudding against one another fills the gloomy hall of the dungeon as a large group of adventurers travels up the Dungeon. While the size of the carriages is intimidating, it's easy to maneuver in the hands of adventurers leveled 2 and 3.
The wooden surface of the carriages has seen better days. There are long claw marks on the sides of the wooden vehicle. The red flag with a clown's face hoisted on the carriages is in tatters, too.
The majority of the adventurers look no better.
The supply carriage of an expediting group is their lifeline in the dungeon. Their survival storage getting in the cross with the monsters is the third worst thing to happen to a group of adventurers.
What are the two worst outcomes?
Death and getting Stranded in the Dungeon with no way out.
Usually, the latter means the same as the former, but with additional steps of hunger, despair, and a genuine fear of death.
Thankfully, Loki Familia faced no extreme outcomes for one tiny mistake that barreled into a chain of difficult decisions, promptly cutting their expedition short.
"Fuck!" Bete cusses loudly and kicks an errand stone away. His hands in his pockets clench in indignance as he looks at his nearest victim—a middle-aged dwarf dragging the carriage.
"Can you fucking move quicker? Waste of our fucking time!"
"You know, I read in one of the books that a villain abusing others is usually trying to hide his own weakness," Tiona hums aloud with her hands behind her head. Her anklets chime with her bare-feet skips as she moves past Bete.
"Tch, and whose fault was it that our carriages got ambushed?" Bete demands.
"The Dungeons!" Tiona shoots back.
"These losers' fault!" Bete glares at the annoyed dwarf, who scoffs back.
"Fuck off and sniff someones else's butt, asshole. How are we supposed to notice monsters jumping from the floor directly below huh? Ain't this your lot's fault? You and your high-level adventurer's senses?"
"What did you say, you old bitch?"
"You heard me, cunt!"
Tensions ran high within the group. Others begin to slow down as Bete and the Dwarf argue while Tiona and Tione watch from the sidelines. They would have mediated usually, but their nerves are also tense after the third consecutive failed expedition. Ais continues to walk forward quietly with Lefiya in tow while Gareth approaches the two parties.
"At ease, fellas! We're gonna return to the surface, knock back mugs o' ale, and party! Right?!"
The Dwarf stares at Gareth and musters.
"Big Bro Gareth, ya know I respect you. You're a fuckin' hero! But that's it for me. Imma complete this expedition as sworn to do and leave. I'm tired of this furball's bullshit!"
"Oye, oye, Rony. Relax! You just gotta—"
"Leave this weakling if he wants to—" Gareth quietly turns to look at Bete before the werewolf could get another word out of his mouth.
"Not another word. Keep going ahead."
Bete stares back defiantly as the fur on his ears and tail bristle.
"Cut it out," Finn's calm yet authoritative voice interjects as a spool of rope flies in the air and ties Bete while gagging his mouth. Riviera dusts her hands calmly and drags Bete away as his struggles are weak. After all, he tore out of Riveria's ropes once, and she unleashed hell on him. There is a reason why even adventurers like Ais remain cautious of Riveria.
Turning to face the said the dwarf, Finn remarks sincerely.
"Not even Loki can stop you if you want to leave, Rony. You know that as well as I do. Loki isn't like other Goddesses, and our Familia isn't like other Familias. You'll be welcomed by other Familias. You're level 3, after all. But don't expect to condemn us Level 5 adventurers like Bete. He's never assaulted any member of our Familia without a good reason, and you know it well. If his words are too hard to bear, you're welcome to leave."
"So what? I'm not apologizing to that prick!" Rony snorts. While the dwarf may look old, the truth is that Finn is a decade older.
"No need to apologize to anyone. We're adventurers. All we need to do is clink our mugs and drink it out."
Rony scoffs but remains silent as the group starts moving again.
"I had it under control, Finn," Gareth asserts with a grunt.
"You did," Finn smiles. "But Rony is a top-tier conman. He likes to raise reactions from others and then threaten to quit the familia after contributing just the right amount to make the Familia want to keep him with them. He's done the same with his last two Familia. Ordinarily, Loki would have handled it just as well, but she isn't the captain, and it's not her responsibility."
"So, you think he'll stay?"
"I meant what I said. He can leave. An adventurer butthurt with words alone isn't worth our time anyway."
"Adventurers like Bete?" Gareth scoffs a chuckle as the duo sees the werewolf walking beside Riveria. His furry ears twitch, something Finn notes.
"Well, Bete is welcome to leave if he gets his feelings hurt by someone's words. Last I checked, he almost did, right? And caught an ax with his face?"
Bete snaps his head in their general direction with a furious scowl. Riveria's silent but deathly stare keeps his temper in check, however.
"Our luck is really getting worse, Captain!"
Only the spirits know how Tione snuck up to Finn before hugging him from behind to rest her voluptuous breasts on top of his head, much to Tiona's and the pallum's chagrin.
"It's enough, Tione." Finn pulls ahead and sighs. "As for our luck, it is not bad in any manner. Only supplies were ruined, but not one of our Familia members lost their life. But I admit that we are behind our expected timeline."
"Hmm? What's going on ahead?" Tiona leaves the group and skips forward to Ais, where the pair of blonde swordsman and elf are staring at a group of somewhat intimidated adventurers.
"Aiiiissssss~!" Tiona drawls as she jogs to them with a grin before looking at the group of three armored men and one woman. "Yo, I remember you patrolling the walls near our Familia! Ganesha Familia, right?"
Regaining his wits, the leader of the group nods.
"Y-yeah. We were just exploring a bit below the upper floors."
"Hai, hai. Relax a little. It's not like we'll bite!"
"Except Bete," Ais informs with a serene look.
"Right." The Ganesha Familia member nods before looking past the trio and towards the approaching expedition group.
"Um, I would suggest someone adept in talking to lead your group near the First Line."
The entrance to the 13th Floor is called the First Line for various reasons as if the Dungeon's entrance already isn't crossing the 'First' Line.
Riviera walks upto them before the Ganesha Member explains. Once Lefiya apprises her teacher of the situation, the green-haired elf looks at the group for more explanation.
"Well," the female member begins. "He's filled the entirety of the 12th floor with corpses. There were a few stupid adventurers who tried to steal his magic stones, but he would locate them and cut their hands."
"He?"
Riveria raises an eyebrow.
The woman gulps softly.
"The Butcher of Orario. Even we don't want to instigate that madman, and other Level 3 adventurers don't care enough to poke him. After what he did to Zanis…" She shudders and pales quite a bit.
"Did something happen?" Tiona demands with an excited expression. "Butcher of Orario? Sounds the right name of a villain born to be defeated by a Hero!"
"A villain?" The group's leader looks at them. "If he's a villain, what does it make your Familia?"
He gestured for others to follow him, and while Riveria wanted to stop him for more explanation, Tiona snickers.
"Let's see what this is all about!"
"Let's." Ais gives a short nod.
"Wait, don't drag me, Tiona!" Lefiya whines to no avail.
Pursing her lips, Riveria gestures to Finn to pick his pace and explains what little she understood from the passing adventurers.
---
Jackal only has one thing to say to others who may think he wasted a good portion of his day on his date—No Bitches?
He got two well-deserved kisses and a gift. A gift that Jackal put to good use.
Chances are that he will seriously accost one of the two smithing Familias after his present dungeon trip. He started his hunt like usual after seeking an orc and continued to descend until peaking on the 12th floor.
This is where it's at!
Jackal did not act all cool and emo by thinking he must try his strength without using his Mind to activate the Strength Phantoms. Fuck, no, sir! He came to the 12th floor to challenge his absolute limits, which meant using his Strenght Phantoms to augment and bring out the full potential of his strength.
His punches hurt more when he used the Frog Shooter Phantom. He was more agile using War Shadow—more dexterous than imps and needle rabbits. And he soon found his sweet spot by letting the nourishment of energy recover his mental reserves and using the Blue Papilio phantom alongside the Butterfree Era to heal his body quicker than the passive energy in his body.
The truth is– other adventurers need to push themselves to their very limits to grow stronger.
But Jackal is not similar to other adventurers, so he does not try to act like them.
He gets stronger by killing.
The Secondary effects of Death Eater until now are the Strength Phantoms and the Threads of Death, which allow Jackal to see the weak spots of the monsters of the same species he has killed with his mind active at the time.
These two effects have one thing in common—they make killing easier. Strength Phantom allows his human body to exert said monster's entire strength, while the Threads of Death let him kill others easier by tucking them using their weak spots.
So, the secondary effect of the concept of Excretion of his Death Eater should produce a similar conclusion.
He had three goals in mind during this dungeon prowl.
To become stronger by locating an Infant Dragon and putting him down.
To discover the secondary effect of Excretion.
And to achieve his wet dream of manipulating his Mind like Buffy to achieve the Spirit of Armament or Observation.
Did he achieve his said goals?
Not exactly.
He started by controlling his unusually thick and stubborn Mind. Again, he can manipulate it, but his control is rudimentary at best. So? What does he do?
He shouts—
I'm going to be the king of Pirates!
—and masters cringe itself!
Why does Buffy get strong by saying those words, and he feels his heart scrunching like it tasted sour lemon in cringe is something Jackal could not understand even after hours of hunting!
Still, he moved on.
For him, using his mind to achieve the effects of Haki is a long project. A passion project, to be precise.
His other two goals, however, are met with resounding success.
He did fuck one Infant Dragon over.
And he did activate the last of the secondary effect of his second trait.
*Roooaaaaggghhhhhhhhhhh*
The roar may scare the tits out of veteran level 1 adventurers, but not Jackal.
He may have technically cheated in his impromptu battle against Infant Dragon, but hey! He was caught with his pants down and ass hanging out!
That Infant Dragon must have gotten the shittiest death… literally!
Jackal dodges the zooming grey fist and avoids the silver behemoth with a simple jump as the monstrous Silverback smashes his fists on the empty spot where Jackal had been a moment ago.
The third Silverback lunges at Jackal, who jumps on the monster's head with a mischievous snicker before allowing the Frog Shooter's phantom to form on his head for a second and jump higher than usual.
After hours of hunting, he realized that the best way to use his Strength Phantom was to activate it only at the last second. Saves a fortune of Mind.
A Bad Bat's phantom flickers above him as he screams.
"FUCK YOU!"
Air fluctuates visibly as the painful soundwave makes the Silverbacks groan in discomfort.
The lugs of silver beasts are twice the size of Mama Mia with flowing white manes and a thick strip of silver fur on their ordinary white-furred back, hence the name.
Silverbacks alongside Hard Armoreds are what the adventurers call 'Highlights' of the upper floors.
Silverbacks are a wannabe monkey-human breed of Minotaurs while Hard Armoreds are the superior dungeon lizards in the sense.
The former is an all-rounder with quite a punch while the latter is a species of monster with a hard enough shell of scales to endure said punch.
Their weakness?
Silverbacks are predictable and Hard Armoreds have weak innards.
As for why Jackal is rushing the trio of silver behemoths of supposed peak level 1 strength?
His ax cannot cut into their hides and would shatter on impact.
He cocks his fist with a gleefully bloodthirsty look in his eyes.
Why his fist?
Simple.
It wouldn't break.
A phantom of a dignified wingless dragon emerges on top of Jackal's head. He avoids the hundred of corpses littering the ground, waiting for their magic stones to be removed, before ramming his fist against the nearest Silverback's liver!
A humongous force of strength travels through Jackal's body, tearing his flesh and creaking his bones, before dragging the silverback into the ground with a pained yowl!
Jackal is far from soft-capping Infant Dragon's physical attributes, so while his fists wouldn't shatter, they definitely hurt!
And this is what Jackal is doing for the past four hours—searching for the rare Infant Dragons.
Any adventurer he senses on this deathly floor is appropriately warned to leave the corpse alone.
After all, Jackal does clear the corpses every other hour, but the Dungeon just keeps giving and giving!
And those who steal his loot? Well, he sniffs them out.
Infant Dragons have an amazing sense of smell! This does make it harder to stay on this floor until he clears the corpses, but the moment he smells a portion of the floor cleared by other adventurers, well he takes a hand for their effort.
The news must have traveled to other floors since he wasn't bothered for hours.
No, there is no rule like sharing the Dungeon space with others. Jackal can imagine the Guild is more than happy seeing someone actually laying a wreck on the last floor of the clump of floors called the Upper Floors.
He sensibly left the members of the familia who are his customers after a round of beating. And the few customers Jackal encountered were asked to take his message back to the Guild to keep Eina and others from worrying.
After all, he didn't plan to resurface till the last hour of his four-day break.
Sure, he could hang out with others… but he's got an amazing opportunity here!
Now, any sensible person who truly knows Jackal's strengths and weaknesses to compliment may question—Huh, wouldn't he get full from the energy and be forced to resurface after a while to excrete his energy in the form of items?
The answer is simple—Secondary effect of excretion.
Again, how he managed to master it will remain a secret until his dying breath.
{A/N: Lol, nope. The following side chapter disagrees}
In essence, he has found another way to release all his stored energy, allowing him to stay in the Dungeon… indefinitely!
So, he sensibly decided to stay in the dungeon for his entire break. Anyway, he ruffled quite a few feathers in his action against Soma, so he may as well get as strong as possible in one go!
He doesn't stop thrashing the Silverbacks experiencing their first vertigo, and his fists soon cave in various portions of their body as they draw their last breath.
Before Jackal can take notice of the group that has gotten a bit closer to him, a large group, no less, loud cracking noise followed by the intense rumbling of the floor hounds his senses.
---
"A monster party!" Ais exclaims softly as she stares at the figure drenched in blood from a distance!
Before she could rush ahead, a spear's butt intercepts her feet, as the elegant and proud little Sword Princess falls face first before she sits up quickly to stare at her captain. While her stare is stoic, Finn, Gareth, and Riveria can easily feel her pouting.
Finn looks at others while pulling his spears back, "Stand down. As I ordered, don't touch the monster corpses. And Ais, how many times must I tell you to scope things out before rushing into danger?"
"Hoh? It's that bastard, right?" Bete saunters forward with a shit-eating smirk. "Don't expect me to save his sorry ass! What the fuck is he thinking running around with no weapon?"
"Wait, HE's the Butcher of Orario?" Tiona gapes before grumbling. "I guess a Hero's name can be a Butcher in the right context."
Stared at by Tione, Tiona rolls her eyes and shows her twin the mighty finger.
"Nobody offered you to save his ass, Bete," Gareth chuckles. "And look. Corpses aren't the only thing laying about. We've got cheap broken axes."
"Do we really do nothing?" One of the Familia members, Raul, questions in worry. "There are 9 Silver Backs and 14 Hard Armoreds—"
Ais' ears twitch as she straightens her back.
"No, something else is coming."
*Drrrrrrrr*
The floor around them begins to shake even more intensely as Finn passes an order for their group to enter their positions. The executives wouldn't raise a finger on the upper floors, so it's up to other members of the Familia to face the monsters.
Three absolute tanks of flesh and scales tear out of the subterranean earth with loud, draconic roars.
Roars that make Ais flinch before her cool, doll-like features morph into a murderous scowl.
A hand reaches her shoulder as Riveria whispers, "Look there."
Ais looks ahead and finds Jackal staring back despite the three Infant Dragons—bonafide Level 2 monsters—rushing him.
His bloodied lips curve into a smirk as he mouths—No candies if you interfere.
Ais looks back at Riveria as her stony gold eyes widen like a puppy.
"No. Not yet anyway."
"Oi… what is that?"
Bete's exclamation interrupts everyone's thoughts and chatter.
They look ahead to find a strange scene.
Jet black energy seeps out from Jackal's body with a crimson-like glow on the edges of the clump of energy. It towers to the ceiling of the floor as the wind picks up, and the thick mist, already affected by cold corpses, swirls around him. Corpses are no better as Finn shouts, "Riveria!"
They were already far away, but some of the lighter items in their carriage were beginning to move.
"On it!"
Riveria uses one of her commissioned magic items to create a weak barrier around the group. It wouldn't last a second against monsters, but it's good enough for now. The wind stopped affecting their group as the executives and other level-4 adventurers of the party watched in rapt attention.
They see the blood on Jackal's body whip away, leaving dark maroon smudges on him and his clothes. The whirlpool of wind picks up as quickly as it disperses before the mass of energy ejects forward with a tremendous force!
*Vooommmmm*
The beam of deathly black-red energy is silent as it carves the ground and the monsters! Their bodies, including the Infant Dragons, dissipate as their magic stones are eradicated!
Other corpses caught in the attack fare no better, but Finn's alarms ring to their absolute limit as he shouts.
"Don't let it hit the wall!"
Jackal scoffs when he hears the shout as he snaps his fingers, and the beam of energy dissipates in motes of dark energy absorbed in the natural environment.
The final secondary effect of his trait—A fucking Getsuga Tensho from one of the animes of his previous life—Detergent.
"Woah…" Lefiya breaks the silence with an awe-inspired gasp.
Meanwhile, Jackal enjoys his body nourished by the remaining strength of three Infant Dragons as his reserves of energy are filled a tiny bit again.
'But I am far too away from an actual Infant Dragon. If I have to guess, it's a simple rule of more energy needed with a proportion of growing strength. Things may get worse in Level 3 and higher.'
Jackal sighs as Finn stops his group from approaching and travels alone.
"We meet again, Jackal," Finn smiles and observes the youth.
'Taller than what I remember. Could be another clue,' the pallum captain muses idly as Jackal shrugs and exhales loudly.
"Yeah, yeah. Hey, do me a favor and tell the Guild receptionist, Eina, I won't be out for some time. I don't know if others took my message."
Finn questions before Jackal could leave.
"How long have you been down here?"
"Hmm?" Jackal takes out a clock from his frollet and huffs. "A little above 19 hours."
Finn stares at the youth before nodding. "Would you like others to meet you or continue? You seem to be in a rush, so consider this a professional courtesy."
While Finn's words were soft, others simply kept their senses sharpened willingly. Unlike Jackal, they were capable of controlling their senses. So Finn's words annoyed a few from the group who wanted to question Jackal for themselves.
Jackal doesn't reply but questions. "Your carriages… what happened to them?"
"Ambushed."
"No… I mean, why not use these?" He waves his frollet.
Finn frowns.
"They have limited space. Only carriages are feasible."
Truly staring down at Finn with a hint of condescension, Jackal sneers, "Dude, my products have no such weakness."
He shoves his bloody hand into his frollet to take out another frollet. Then he takes out a third frollet from the second frollet. So on and so forth.
Finn's right eye twitches violently as Jackal smiles.
"By the way, I raised the prices of my frollets by 5 times. And I have a few new goods while you guys were away, so be sure to stop by two days later."
"5 times?!" Finn's eyes widen.
"Yeah," Jackal laughs and waves at the rest of the group. "I just realized it would save you guys a ton of trouble and raised my prices. You are the first I'm telling. You know, professional courtesy~!"
Without waiting for Finn, he shouts to others, "See you later, guys! Travel safe! You too, furry-fuck!"
Bete bites back his snarl as Jackal skips away.
Tiona would have liked to follow him, but her common sense alerted her that her Familia's Captain may not enjoy the idea too much after he became the cause of Frollet's increase in price.
Before Jackal got too far away, Finn tracks him down and questions him with a frown.
"What was that display? Are you a trader or a pirate?"
Jackal chuckles.
"Didn't you hear? I'm gonna be the king of pirates!"
And this time, he did not feel like cringing!
***
Alternate Title: Inner Conflicts Within the Familia; Knowing the Con; Hijacked Floor; A Secret Mastery?; What is Jackal Hiding?; The Next Pirate King—Dies From Cringe; No Bitches?; No More Cheap Axes; Gotta Leash a Tsubaki!; The Hand Stealer; Completing the Run of Upper Floors; A Shitty Death?; Ais Pouts Stoically; Butcher Can be a Hero, Right?; Tiona's Mighty Finger; Two Piece? My Villain Univeristy? And Now Detergent?; No Haki?; The Next Pirate King—Does Not Die From Cringe; Raising Prices; Jackal's Frollet is Now a Premium Product!; Finn Shooting His Foot… Professionally!
***
A/N: So, we achieved Getsuga Tenshou. What next?
***
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