Raised in Dungeon



Denia clutched the king crystal tightly, his fingers trembling with a mixture of grief and anger. He had just witnessed the brutal murder of Eldritch at the hands of the Noctem Dolls. One of his party members approached him with a grin and said,

"Arara, what a crybaby."

With anger and confusion, Denia yelled at her.

"Sister Destroia, why are you acting as if nothing happened?! Our master just died! At this rate, what should we do next?!"

"Hohoho, I'll praise your fondness for our master when you've only been with him for a month," said Crestfaren, an old adfeqtus reliqua.

Another adfeqtus reliqua approached Denia and rubbed his head.

"Denia... poor thing..." said the girl.

"Sister Guiltia too; why is everyone acting so casual?!"

Destroia then proudly said,

  "You've only been here a month, so you don't know...

Eldtitch-boy is unbeatable."

As the group stood together, a sudden and chilling anomaly was created in their midst. The air crackled with energy, and all eyes were drawn to the inexplicable phenomenon.

"Good job keeping the crystal as I ordered, Denia."

"!!!"

Suddenly Eldritch appeared. Without everyone realizing it, it was already beside Denia whispering those words. Confusion and terror rippled through the Noctem Dolls as they struggled to comprehend what was happening before them. Eldritch, whom they all believed to be dead, seemed to come back from death suddenly. Shocked and bewildered, Denia could feel Eldritch's presence beside him perfectly; that was undoubtedly the master he knew. Eldritch wasn't wearing any clothes, just like when he was born into this world.

"Master!" Denia shouted.

"Eldritch! Why are you still alive!"

In Eldritch's party only Denia and the other-worlder were shocked by the sight.

"Revenite, Crestfaren" Crestfaren glowed, then was attached to Eldritch's body as armor. Eldritch was now back to normal.

"You're kidding me..." muttered Norman, unable to believe what he saw.

"This is completely out of the ordinary," said Adam.

"Sigh... what should we do now?" said Ralph.

"S-should we run? Leader asked me to make a shooting star to run, right?" said Clarissa.

Mary, the little doll in Ivaylo's pocket, spoke

"Master, what should we do now? Do we run straight away-"

Ivaylo was stunned when Eldritch, whom he had believed to be dead, suddenly came back to life. The shock on his face was evident, and his previously beaming smile vanished instantly. It was the first time Mary had ever seen Ivaylo so taken aback. However, just as quickly as the smile had disappeared, it returned to Ivaylo's face, though it was now tinged with concern and desperation. His grin was now clearly forced, and it was quite obvious that he was worried about the implications of Eldritch's return.

"Fufu... So can you explain what exactly happened, prince?" asked Ivaylo.

Eldritch didn't answer, he muttered

"Revenite, Howl." Howl returned to being a sword in Eldritch's grasp.

Ivaylo whispered to the other members of the Noctem Dolls,

"Mission failed; we'll get out of here soon," Ivaylo said.

But it seemed like Eldritch could hear him.

"You guys seem to have misunderstood something... But well, as a reward for killing me once, I'll just explain this one. Unfortunately, I have an oath to tell this matter to anyone who asks." said Eldritch.

"Misunderstood?" asked Ivaylo.

"God's blessing, I have a blessing that makes any mana attacks toward me not affect the first strike. Any kind of mana attack will be wasted on the first strike, so you should use your god's blessing twice on me. If the opponent's blessing form is instant death, like yours, then my body will be destroyed, and I only need to separate a little of my mana outside to make a new body. The concept of death in your blessing does not affect me."

"That means all I need is your blood again, and you will die if I use this twice," Ivaylo replied.

Then Destroia came forward, looking at the Noctem Dolls with a sharp gaze.

"Aaah, I can't stand how you guys look at Eldritch. You are the most arrogant people I've ever met. It's like you've got a big head for killing Eldritch just once."

Destroia pointed at them and then continued,

"You really think that Eldritch can be approached that easily?

You really think that Howl's weather control only depicts one lightning bolt? With a parallel mind, Eldritch could have struck all of you simultaneously, but he chose not to.

Do you really think Eldritch would rashly strangle Norttish there out of fear of the opponent's god's blessing?

He did it all purposefully because Eldritch wanted to see your god's blessing!"

"See our god's blessing? For what?" Ivaylo then realized... before Eldritch died, Eldritch had said "It doesn't suit me," indicating Eldritch's real purpose. Hearing the explanation from Destroia, he realized something.

At that moment, Ivaylo's eyes glared, and with a strange smile, he said

"Prince Eldritch, you have the ability to... take of other people's god's blessing?"

"!!!"

Ivaylo brought up a surprising fact.

"Taking someone else's god's blessings? That's not possible, is it?" said Ralph.

"How does the system work?" said Norman.

While Eldritch says, "Destroia, you talk too much."

"Anyway, I'm more worried about you explaining it. You still have the god's curse, right? In the battle between mana users who always hide information, the curse of forcing you to tell the truth is annoying. I explained everything so that they wouldn't have to ask deeper questions and realize the curse you have."

Then someone called out from a distance,

"BROTHER ELDRITCH!" Everyone who was there looked at the source of the voice. It was Alicia who was running toward them. The noise outside seemed to have called many people to the front gate.

"The illusion effect has worn off," said Eldritch.

"That one blessing can only last for small things," Destroia said.

As Ivaylo looked around, he saw many soldiers heading towards him. Coupled with the knowledge that Eldritch was currently unbeatable, Ivaylo already had no choice but to run away.

"I see… So he uses illusion. We have not realized all of this, and the soldier did not realize us because of the illusion created by Eldritch. We didn't see him use amnis, so it looks like it was one of the blessings that Eldritch stole. It's scary to think that he could have 10 or maybe 100 god's blessings that he hid." said Ivaylo.

"Leader! It's finished!" shouted Clarissa.

All the members of the Noctem Dolls quickly entered the amnis circle Clarissa had made.

-GLAAAR!!!

A massive bolt of lightning struck them, and the shield that had been protecting Clarissa shattered instantly and shot them all, hurting them all from the lightning, but the timing was perfect; as soon as they were struck, they instantly turned into fireballs and quickly flew to the west like comets.

"Do you think I would let you guys go?" said Denia.

Denia is an adfeqtus reliqua that enables him to break free from the constraints of space and distance. As a result, he was able to effortlessly slap away a Noctem Dolls's fireball with his left hand while completely ignoring the concept of distance.

"Kyaaaaaa!" cried Clarissa.

The fireball was thrown firmly to the ground by Denia's slap; Clarissa's amnis failed, and they had no time to wait for Clarissa to make a new circle, and even if they could, Denia would easily be able to slap them. He could easily dominate his opponents, as the farther away they were, the smaller they appeared in his eyes, making them easier to defeat.

It turned out that Ivaylo had expected that too.

Adam had been ready with his fists from the moment they entered the amnis circle.

"PERSERUS TANTRUM!"

Adam punched the ground, blocking them from everyone's view.

"It's no use," Denia said.

Denia used both of his hands to catch all the Noctem Dolls inside the ash. However, just as he managed to pick them all up, he felt an odd sensation, like something had evaporated from her hands.

Eldritch noted, "Their mana has disappeared."

Denia cautiously opened her hands and rubbed off the ash and smoke covering the Noctem Dolls. Much to her surprise, she found they had vanished into thin air, leaving no evidence of their presence. There was; however, something still remaining there.

It turned out to be a large Mary doll that had been lying on the ground. Suddenly, without warning, there was a loud noise that shook them. The Mary doll screamed and then exploded with incredible force.

"They also have a teleport type of blessing. It looks like we really let them go."

"Arara… It's the first time someone could run from you, Eldritch-boy."

"They… Strong… But not really…" said Guiltia.

"I am sorry master! I am not strong enough!" cried Denia.

"No worries, I just got you one month ago; remember this mistake to become a better weapon for me."

Eldritch clenched his fist and said

"They do know about Kallen, but it looks like they didn't have any good information about her. Kallen… she must have something to do with the anomaly in the dungeon."