Chapter 122: Xenos on the Streets!!

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"..." August's face twisted with anger.

The Loki Familia was caught off guard by how quickly his mood changed.

A few hours ago, he had been confident and relaxed, acting like they didn't matter. Now, he seemed ready to explode at any moment.

Bete Loga bristled at the hostility.

"Hah? Bring it on!"

Bete glared back. He never backed down from a fight, but even he couldn't figure out what happened underground to make August so angry.

Finn Deimne narrowed his eyes, curious.

Nearby, Anakitty Autumn flared her nostrils. As a cat-person with a sharp sense of smell, she had already picked up a strange scent on August and the monsters behind him. Gareth Landrock quietly signaled for her to investigate.

"He's covered in the smell of monsters," Anakitty whispered. "He killed a huge number of them."

She sniffed the air again, and her face grew tense. "Lizardman... These smells are from the 19th floor."

Gareth frowned. "The 19th?"

"The 17th floor still hasn't recovered from his last attack. How did he get past it to reach the 19th?"

The implication hit him almost immediately.

"Did his expedition fail?"

"He didn't just fight a few leftover monsters," Anakitty continued, her eyes wide. "From the smell... HE FOUGHT AT LEAST TEN THOUSAND OF THEM."

When monsters died, they gave off a strong scent. August was almost covered in it.

"HAH? TEN THOUSAND?" Tione Hiryute balked. "Aki, are you sure your nose isn't broken? Do you have any idea how long it takes to butcher that many?"

Even on their hardest expeditions, the Loki Familia almost never faced ten thousand monsters at once on a single floor. If Anakitty was right, the entire 19th floor had come after him.

"It's possible," Finn said, starting to understand why August's battles were so different from theirs. The Dungeon didn't see August as a normal Adventurer. It saw him as a big threat.

"With how strong the smell is, ten thousand might be too low. He could have fought up to a hundred thousand—"

"Gulp."

A hundred thousand....

Numbers like that weren't just about stamina. Even attacking that many times would exhaust anyone, and one mistake in a crowd that size could get you crushed.

August ignored their muttering. He raised his hand, fully prepared to open fire.

Sensing he was ready to fight, the Xenos behind him bared their fangs and claws at the Loki leaders. They had just survived a massacre below and were running on adrenaline, exhaustion, and anger. If August fought, they would too.

The tension spiked.

Watching from the sidelines, Shakti Varma noticed something important. The monsters stayed calm until August became aggressive. They weren't wild, controlled, or just angry. They waited for his lead, treating him more like a leader than a captor.

Xenos??

Did the Hestia rookie actually make contact with them? Are these the ones Ikelos was trafficking??

Shakti knew about the Xenos. Seeing them willingly follow a human, especially someone as unpredictable as August, was shocking.

"August, do you know how much panic bringing these creatures to the surface will cause?" Shakti stepped forward, hoping to calm things down before a fight started. She respected him and didn't want this to turn into a bloodbath.

"We got pushed back. Nowhere else to put them, so I brought them up." August met her gaze and answered bluntly.

It was the harsh truth... He couldn't get them to the 20th floor, and leaving them in the Daedalus tunnels would have meant certain death for them.

"..." Shakti's breath caught.

He really doesn't care at all about his reputation.

Any other Adventurer would have hidden the monsters or tried to sneak them through back alleys. August simply walked them out in the open for everyone to see.

"If we're done here, I'm going home." He waved her off, ignored the shocked crowd, and kept walking toward the abandoned church in the West District.

"Hold on!!"

Shakti watched him walk away as if nothing serious had happened.

"Captain, what should we do?" a [Level 3] Ganesha Familia guard asked, rubbing his forehead. "They don't look tamed. They also haven't shown hostility toward civilians. But if this escalates..."

"Send for Lord Ganesha," Shakti ordered.

"NO NEED!"

A booming voice thundered through the street.

"I AM GANESHA!"

The eccentric God walked through the crowd and struck his usual theatrical stance before passing the barricade. As soon as he saw the Xenos, he noticed the clear signs of real intelligence in their eyes.

"Lord Ganesha," Shakti said, surprised he had come in person.

"Stand down. I'll handle this." Ganesha waved his Familia back.

He wasn't the only God who showed up because of the commotion. Loki and a few others had heard rumors about monsters walking the streets with Hestia's group, and now they watched the scene with interest.

"My boy, you really are something else," Ganesha laughed as he approached August.

Most people kept their dangerous secrets hidden. August brought his out into the open and dared the city to respond. He lived by his own rules, and Ganesha respected that freedom.

August crossed his arms and stared the God down.

Meanwhile, Loki and the other Gods inspected the Xenos more closely.

No curses. No tamer seals. No mind-control. These creatures were acting entirely on free will.

That made the sight even rarer.

"Now that's interesting..." Loki muttered, her eyes tightening with fascination.

After thousands of years—the Dungeon had finally produced monsters that could think for themselves. The Gods found them strange, and their intense curiosity made the Xenos uncomfortable.

The Siren flinched under their gazes. Ikelos had treated them like disposable toys. August saw them as people. But these Gods only saw test subjects.

"Ignore them," Lili told the nervous Xenos. "They're just bored Gods looking for cheap entertainment."

When they heard her, the Siren and the others deliberately turned their backs on the Gods. August helped them stay calm, and Lili's words showed them what to do.

Intelligence.

That one reaction made things clear to both the Loki and Ganesha leaders. These were not ordinary monsters. They understood language, tone, and social cues.

Ganesha smiled, pleased to see Lili calming them so effectively, then turned his attention back to August.

"So, what happened to you? You look like you barely made it back alive."

He saw how tired August was. His usual confidence had faded, replaced by exhaustion and a mood he could hardly hide.

"Try getting jumped by tens of thousands of monsters and see how you look coming out," August said.

"HAHAHAHA! IS THAT WHAT HAPPENED?" Ganesha laughed loudly.

The rookie had finally lost a fight in the Dungeon, and it was obvious he was upset.

"Alright, alright. We can discuss the finer details later. You all look dead on your feet, so go home and rest."

Ganesha clapped his hands and officially ordered his guards to clear a path for the Hestia Familia and their group of monsters.

"Thanks," August grunted, signaling the Xenos to follow.

The Ganesha guards, Loki's leaders, and the nearby Adventurers watched in silence as August led his group away from the barricade.

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"Lord Ganesha, we're just letting them go?" a younger Familia member asked, bewildered.

"What else do you suggest?" Ganesha crossed his arms. "Start a war in the middle of the street?"

The young guard stiffened.

"The boy is practically radiating anger after losing a fight. If I step in now, I'd just be handing you over as his punching bags." Ganesha narrowed his eyes.

That reasoning made sense. Even Bete Loga had been yelled at directly, and nobody wanted to be the target of someone that angry. With Ganesha's order, the rest of his Familia were happy to step back.

On the Loki Familia's side, Finn Deimne watched August's retreating back.

"Loki, those monsters..."

Finn didn't finish his thought, but everyone understood. August was breaking all of Orario's rules. Taking down the Ikelos Familia was one thing, but leading monsters through the streets directly challenged the city's core values.

"What about 'em?" Loki crossed her arms, unusually calm. "You want to pick a fight with him while his blood is boiling?"

Finn fell silent.

"You know how that kid is," Loki continued. "He already said he's not a good guy. What do you think you can use against someone who doesn't care about the rules?"

Finn opened his mouth, then closed it again.

She was right. How could they make someone feel guilty if he had no moral limits? 'Is it that I have too much of a conscience, or does he simply have none?'

There was no answer.

The standoff ended. The leaders left, and only a few scouts stayed behind to watch August's group from a distance.

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Deep underground, inside the Guild's hidden sanctuary

Fels watched the crystal sphere displaying the streets of Daedalus.

"Ouranos, how do we proceed?"

The mage's bony jaw clicked softly. Even after seeing everything through the Occulus, Fels still couldn't believe what had happened.

"To think he would brazenly march the Xenos liberated from the Ikelos Familia straight through the city..."

"I assumed the rookie would escort those children down to the 20th floor and reunite them with Lyd's faction," Ouranos said, his deep voice projecting through the chamber. "I did not foresee this."

They both knew why it had happened.

"He couldn't breach the 19th floor."

"Lyd reported a massive disturbance there today. The Dungeon funneled an unprecedented number of monsters to intercept him. August likely intended to reunite them with the others, but the swarm made passage impossible."

Ouranos sighed heavily. "Leaving them in the Knossos would have exposed them to the remnants of the Evilus. So, he took the most direct route available."

"The surface..." Fels said.

The choice was wild, risky, and very effective. Instead of worrying about politics or keeping secrets, August gave up on the complicated plan, took the Xenos, and just walked out the front door. He didn't apologize or explain.

Ouranos rubbed his temples.

All their careful backup plans had fallen apart. Real life always moved faster than any plan.

"By nightfall, the remnants of the Evilus will undoubtedly exploit this incident," Fels said. "They will brand August as an enemy of Humanity and use it as an excuse to launch a coordinated assault on the Hestia Familia."

The trouble with Ikelos wasn't over yet. The Dark Groups would take any chance to bring down the Hestia Familia.

"Should we intervene?"

Ouranos considered his position as the neutral overseer of the city.

"No."

Fels turned slightly.

"He isn't bound by the same moral rules as the children of this city," Ouranos said. "And he's far from foolish. He has the strategic support of a whole modern nation's intelligence network. For a group like that, Orario's politics are child's play."

Fels went quiet.

At first, Ouranos thought about helping, but then he remembered how August bent the rules, used bold tactics, and showed great strength during the Antares fight. August wasn't desperate. Bringing the Xenos to the surface was a new kind of strategy.

"Ho. Ouranos, I believe that is the first time I've ever heard you speak of a mortal like that," Fels said. "But what about the Daedalus Street situation?"

"Ignore it."

Ouranos closed his eyes.

"Let the established rules handle the rest."

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