This time, I won't be the devil.

After all, it is a good thing for people to have a distant and clear goal in life.

"Frey, why did you sneak into the maze?"

In response to Noelle's question, Frey could have just made a few perfunctory remarks, but in order to avoid misunderstandings and disagreements in the future, he chose to express his true thoughts.

“I Need More Power…”

Unlike Noelle, Frey does not have any lofty ideals or goals that must be achieved.

The reason he longed for power was simply because he wanted to live a better life.

For example, buying a big villa overlooking the sea or the river, and then finding an elf sister to be your wife.

After achieving these small goals, he may pursue some spiritual achievements.

For example, forming a band and holding music parties every day, or using civil engineering knowledge to build your own territory, promote technological development, etc.

In short, since we have come to another world, we must show our true abilities, live freely and live a wonderful life.

He finally got the chance to start over, and this time, he didn't want to have any regrets.

Frey briefly introduced his thoughts to Noelle. Apart from the few discouraging words he said to the hero during the Final Battle, this was the first time he had opened his heart to someone else.

Noelle listened to Frey's words silently, then gave him an angelic smile.

"Thank you for telling me this. I'm glad to understand Frey's thoughts."

After dinner, Frey offered to take Noelle home, but was sternly rejected.

Frey then remembered that Noelle was still living in a cheap stable provided for poor adventurers, which was not really a place worth visiting.

"By the way, Frey..."

Before leaving, Noel suddenly stopped and took out a small cloth bag. He searched for a while, then took out a shell from the bag and handed it to Frey.

The surface of the shell is a somewhat transparent aqua blue with a white pattern in the middle, like moonlight reflected in the water.

"This is my favorite shell. If you don't mind, I'd like to give it to you as a souvenir of our first adventure..."

At this moment, looking at Noelle, who was holding the shell in her hands, with a look of anticipation and anxiety on her face, Frey finally understood why he felt so uncomfortable.

In Frey's eyes, Noelle is the future Silver-Scale Dragon Princess, a powerful and proud guardian of the maze who can take whatever he wants in the world.

But if you think about it from Noelle's perspective, until yesterday, he was just a down-and-out adventurer who couldn't find any teammates.

All he really had was a rusty bronze sword and these shells he had collected with great effort.

And now, this child is trying to share what he cherishes most with you.

Thinking of this, although Frey had no interest in shells, he still solemnly accepted the gift.

"Then I'll be leaving first. See you tomorrow." After giving the gift, Noelle ran away embarrassedly.

But before he had taken a few steps, he turned around and waved to Frey with a smile.

It was almost October, the evening breeze was a little cold, and the afterglow of the sun covered the earth with an orange-red coat.

The setting sun dyed the streets red, and also dyed the faces of the two people red.

-

(with pictures)

Chapter 9 The famous V

Over the next two weeks, the MyGO team's maze exploration went smoothly. With the perfect combination of control and output from Frey's [Tsuchimami] and Noelle's [Rap], their monster-killing efficiency was extremely high.

Coupled with the blessing of [Dedicated Yearning], Frey quickly reached level 9, and rose 8 levels in half a month. This speed is unimaginable for normal humans.

Once the level exceeds level 9, the experience points that can be provided by level 1 monsters will drop significantly.

位阶1的怪物，相当于1~8级的人类，位阶2则相当于9~16级，之后以此类推。

The purpose of killing monsters is to gain experience from their souls. If the monster is lower than your level, the experience gained will naturally be greatly reduced.

Although there are level 9 monsters in the maze starting from the 2th floor, they are inefficient to find due to their small number. If Frey wants to maintain his current upgrade speed, he has to go to the second level of the maze (11th to 20th floors).

If you want to go to the second level, you must first become a bronze-level adventurer.

According to Frey's calculations, his and Noelle's combined abilities had reached the level of a Silver-level adventurer (level 20), far exceeding the average Copper-level adventurer (level 15).

However, in order to upgrade the adventurer's level, in addition to having strength, you must also complete a certain number of commissions to prove your credit.

The commissions assigned to Black Iron-level adventurers were mostly miscellaneous tasks such as maintaining the hygiene of the main paths in the maze and collecting materials. Even if Frey and his team could complete them easily, it would still waste nearly a month's time.

There is only one exception, and that is defeating the elite monsters in the maze.

After weighing the pros and cons, Frey decided to defeat the elite monster. To do this, he first had to make a deal with Van Dam, the boss of Gensokyo, to improve his combat effectiveness.

Because of the last name Van Dam, the owner is sometimes addressed directly as Van or Van-様.

As a former King Kong-class adventurer, Van Damme is very famous in the Labyrinth City. Whenever people talk about him, they will say "That's the famous V."

Normally, Van Dam, as the boss, would delegate the work to other employees and rarely show up in the pub himself.

However, in recent days, he has been staying at the bar every night to check the number of guests.

"Zagu hasn't come for five days, and he still owes 80 rupees!"

Hearing the boss's words, the silver-rank adventurer who had previously argued with Zaku said, "Why is he here? His team went to the 9th floor before."

As soon as these words were spoken, the other drinkers around started talking about it.

"This Zaku is crazy poor. Do rookies like them even think they can go to the 9th floor?"

"So what happened to him later?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's dead." The silver-level adventurer said, drank the wine in the glass in one gulp, and left the tavern with a frown.

As the saying goes, you can't bear to see someone die when you see him alive. After all, they had expressed their love to each other. The silver-level adventurer probably felt a little regretful about Zaku's death.

Under his influence, the atmosphere in the pub suddenly became depressing. Even Frey, who was playing guitar and singing, changed the background music to "See You Again" played at twice the speed.

Boss Van Dam sighed, crossed out Zaku's name from the account book, and returned to the attic.

In the past two weeks, he has crossed off dozens of names in his account book.

It was perfectly normal for adventurers to die in the maze, but there had been so many bad news recently that the tavern's business had cooled down considerably.

Faced with this unusual situation, several experienced Bronze-rank adventurers in the tavern started talking:

"Too many Black Iron-level guys have died recently."

"It's because they can't make any money, so they all run to the 9th floor to look for level 2 monsters."

"They haven't been making any money for a while now, and the sudden increase in deaths is probably because that guy has been resurrected."

"But if that guy was resurrected, there should have been eyewitness intelligence long ago."

"Why bother with so much? It's none of our business anyway. Once the Adventurer's Association reacts, they'll naturally organize a subjugation team."

"I also heard that someone saw a huge fire on the first floor early this morning. Things have been really turbulent lately..."

The "that guy" that the adventurers are talking about is the elite monster that roams on the 9th floor - the Rotten Giant.

It is said that this monster was designed by the producer of "Sex and Soul" specifically to disgust players after he was tortured to the point of mental breakdown by a game called "Darkest Dungeon". It is a notorious dung monster in the early stage.

Unlike ordinary monsters, elite monsters often take several months or even more than a year to refresh after being defeated. The last time the Rotten Giant was defeated was before the hero defeated the Demon King.

Combined with the current information, a new Rotten Giant may have been born. In addition, a large number of Dark Iron-level adventurers have been forced to go to the 9th floor recently, which has led to the current tragic situation.

The Rotten Giant itself is also a second-level monster, but its strength is close to that of the third level. In addition, it has two tricky skills, [Corrosive Acid] and [Paralyzing Mist]. Not to mention the Black Iron level, even a Red Copper level team would find it difficult to defeat it.

It would take at least another half a month for the Adventurer's Association to confirm the situation and then organize people to carry out the crusade, during which time many people would die.

After closing the shop that night, Frey went to the boss's room in the attic.

He knocked on the door, and then a deep voice came from the other side of the door:

"signal."

"Boy next door."

"come in."

Pushing open the door, Frey found his boss Van Dam sitting dejectedly in a chair at the back of the room.

Because of the mask, Frey couldn't see his face clearly, but judging from his skin color, Van Damme should be of Oriental race like Frey.

As early as when they first met, he discovered through [identification] that the identity of the tavern owner was not ordinary, so he chose to work in the tavern.

[Name: Blake Van Dam]

[Race: Human (Demon Hybrid)]

【Level: 40】

[Soul Strength: 4.3]

[Occupation: Dark Knight/Tavern Owner]

[Attribute panel: Strength 49.8, Endurance 59.9, Agility 38.2, Magic 19.4]

Level 40, this is the highest level Frey has seen in the maze city so far.

Van Dam's high level is not only due to his own efforts, but also thanks to the demon blood in him.

At the beginning of the Holy War 300 years ago, the demons once occupied more than half of the human territory, so it was inevitable that some human-demon hybrids would be born.

At first, these people with demon blood were often discriminated against and persecuted by other humans, but as generations passed, their appearance became no different from that of ordinary humans. As long as they concealed their identity, they could live a normal life.

Despite discovering this weakness of Van Damme's, Frey did not intend to use it to threaten him.

Given Van's fame, he had most likely already privately informed the Vatican of his demonic bloodline. Even if Frey had spread the news, it would at best only affect the Vatican's reputation.

And Frey did not want to make enemies with such a strong man. What he really cared about was Van Dam's profession - the Dark Knight.

Even among all the special jobs, the Dark Knight is the most special one.

Under normal circumstances, after a human reaches level 30, if he wants to switch to a special position, he must first obtain the blessing of the Seven Gods. Therefore, people above level 30 are also called blessed ones.

For example, a knight blessed by the God of Light and Contract will be transformed into a Paladin, and an archer blessed by the God of Music and Wind will be transformed into a Bard.

The Dark Knights are different from these people. They do not rely on the blessing of God to change their jobs, but rely on resonating with the soul crystal to obtain special jobs.

To gain the recognition of the Soul Crystal, one must have a strong will and the determination to stand up and save others.