I left the saint in charge of the students with very clear instructions not to help them beyond small hints or if they were truly in danger. I had to get away because of the adventurers.
I hate to admit it, but I underestimated that S-Rank team, and they ended up going where they shouldn’t. They’re entering the underground, and I know this because the monster down there has been agitated by sothing "invading" its ho.
And if I don’t do anything, that monster might co to the surface and ruin my fun, since if an S-Class monster appears, the training would obviously have to end.
So, after separating from them, I quickly started looking for that unfortunate group, who are more efficient than expected. They have great artifacts or spells to hide, as it’s not easy to notice them.
That’s why I decided it’s more efficient to go directly to the S-Rank monster and from there find the adventurers, as it would be easier to locate where they entered, after all, I can’t just start digging random holes and hope they’re there.
I went to a point in the dungeon very distant from the current location of the heroes and started digging down with magic. From here, I should fall right on top of the S-Class monster.
"Oh...you...are smaller than I expected," I murmur, a bit confused by the "monster" of S-Rank, which is small. I expected to find sothing giant like that Black Python that Akari had to fight.
’At least it’s not attacking .’ The monster just stares at , clearly ready to fight, but avoiding it. I’m probably the strongest monster that currently exists on the planet.
I say this deducing that Lilith, Nix, and Kaos were probably the strongest monsters, since hydras are rare and even more evolved.
I look at the monster, analyzing its appearance. I think in divine vision this monster is a blasphemy. It’s a "humanoid" about 3 ters tall, but what makes its appearance striking are relatively "different" things it has.
Like a pair of white wings and an angelic halo on its head. Its entire body is in a pale white tone with black markings as if they were cracks spread throughout its body.
Precisely, I would say that this might be an "angel," but it does not emanate anything divine in my view. I can say this because all the goddesses emanate a certain type of divinity.
Even I have this, although not as great as what the other goddesses naturally emanate, and this is an indication that everything that has great connections with the divine emanates this energy.
Like Lilith and Rosaline, both are saints and as such emanate this sa energy in an extrely low dose, but still existent.
"Can you speak?" I question this thing, as long as it doesn’t attack , we won’t have any problems. This monster may just be an evolved monster and that’s why it has this appearance.
"..." It doesn’t answer , just stares at uncomfortably, knowing perfectly well the difference in strength between us. If we fought, killing it would be easy.
’It doesn’t seem very smart.’ I don’t see anything special in it besides the fact that it’s strong. I’d say it’s at the level of destroying a kingdom without any problems, which is well below , as I’m currently at the level of destroying large continents without problems.
I decide to look around the cave. I wander a bit, always keeping an eye on the monster so it doesn’t attack treacherously in the back, as monsters are treacherous if they see a real gap.
The cave is obviously not a natural formation. It seems to have been made with magic, but instead of opening the space to pass through, it’s more like it used an attack to evaporate the path.
There are strange symbols on the walls. They resemble symbols I’ve seen before, but I’m not sure what they an, other than not being symbols found in any book I’ve seen.
"..."
’I guess I’ll just ignore the monster. It’s never been the focus, and it’s not doing anything.’ If Akari herself avoided killing this monster, it ans there’s more than ets the eye.
I just start to leave through the entrance, ignoring the strange monster I have no knowledge of. I would love to have more authority in the system so I could ask it questions and it would answer.
But I don’t know how to increase this authority, and my current one is quite low, allowing to do very small things.
’The cave is strangely large...it seems to have been a powerful attack.’ It’s not a simple hole, but I soon feel the presence of that group. They’re a little far, which is good.
If they venture too far into the area, they’ll soon beco a target of that monster, which seems extrely bothered by having its ho invaded, which is quite logical.
If you’re in your ho without hurting anyone or doing anything, and soone suddenly invades, you’re obviously going to be bothered and even aggressive towards the invader.
I just walk calmly, thinking about the monster while approaching the group, which, although far, is not really that far away, probably about 800 ters.
"..." It’s only about 6 minutes to reach them, and I see them camping, or rather setting up a small base to adjust. They probably felt that sothing dangerous is ahead.
"May I know what you’re doing here?" If they die before, I won’t be able to bla them for the problems with the heroes. I’ll throw all the bla for the heroes getting hurt on them, using the excuse that they should have guided and helped the heroes in the battles.
According to the contract they signed, that’s precisely what they need to do, and being killed by for not fulfilling their duty is a fair punishnt, given that the heroes are important to the kingdom.
"G-Grand Duchess!? What are you doing here?" Carlk questions with great surprise, getting up quickly, as they didn’t notice my presence because I got good at hiding completely.
"I want to know what you’re doing in the underground," I ask irritably. These idiots have no notion that if they die, we’ll have problems?
"Well, we were just exploring. We found an obviously suspicious and unnatural entrance on the surface, so we started exploring it and got here," Carlk says as Trix looks at with distrust.
"Grand Duchess...how did you get here? The entrance is over there..." She points to one side. The tunnel itself seems to be practically "straight," although quite crooked, it has no branches or other natural entrances.
"I felt the presence of ’sothing’ and dug a hole with magic, but as far as I know, this location as an unnatural entrance is outside the permitted exploration area. Please return to the surface to continue your work."
"...Grand Duchess, with all due respect, this area is not outside the permitted area because it’s within the dungeon. If your logic was really like that, no one could enter the monsters’ dens because they’re not natural formations."
"Also, every dungeon is strange. What indicates that this place is not really natural? Look at the appearance of the trees outside," Trix refutes when I’m just trying to be polite.
"Okay, let rephrase what I said. I’m your boss and I’m paying you, so I want you to get out of the underground, or I’ll consider this a serious breach of our contract," I say without the standard polite tone, using the authority I have.
"..." Everyone gets tense at this. A serious breach has many connotations. They can lose a large part of the paynt, they can be demoted in Rank as adventurers.
And in more extre cases, they can lose their adventurer’s license forever, and as I’m the Grand Duchess, this is a real option.
"...Okay, ’boss,’ we’re leaving...but we know sothing dangerous is there. Doesn’t the Director Akari know about that?" Carlk says, pointing to the place I ca from.
"Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t ss with what’s quiet? Whatever is in there, it’s not attacking or even moving out of the cave. Do you really think Director Akari hasn’t noticed that?"
"Don’t worry, that’s not a threat as long as it’s left alone. Rember, the students’ lives are at risk. We shouldn’t just provoke a dangerous monster without the guarantee of the students’ safety."
"After the training, I can make a special group just to investigate that, but for now, it will be ignored as sothing potentially harmful to the heroes." I’m not going back there.
It’s just a lie. I don’t care about that thing in that hole in any case, it’s not my problem, and if it were really a problem, Akari probably would have killed it.
"...Understood, Grand Duchess. We’ll return to the surface to investigate. Also, we found the Dungeon Boss, but didn’t eliminate it as you had written in the papers," Carlk says a little discouraged.
"Great, did you find anything good in the dungeon?" I ask as we start to follow the path out. I take one last look at the monster, which senses this and also looks at .
It’s like a silent warning between us, as if I’m saying "I’m taking them out of here, so stay quiet in your place," and it naturally agrees, making its "gaze" less uncomfortable.
This is very interesting. I was able to prove the effect of my passives, and if this works, I can control an army of monsters using the two passives I have. The Abyssal Authority will be very useful in the war to give orders to monsters.
But I’ll think about that later. My focus right now is just to see the heroes suffer. It was fun to see them feeling sick when bathing in monster blood. The taste of these monsters is true garbage, so they’ll also have trouble eating this at. I’m giving them a horrible environnt to stay in while showing them the nature.
I’m not training them to be stronger. I’m just showing them the horrors of the world so that when we fight, they don’t cower. I want to shatter their courage and confidence. It won’t be fun if they don’t even fight in our battle because they’re too scared, so I’m teaching them to lose their fear through pain and learning.
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