Rabanara took inspiration from the capital when they built their hunters' guild, but instead of using monster parts only as decoration, Mac Gantus' guild uses them as building material.

Cobblestone made from earth elementals, mortar from slime skin, giant bones as pillars, windows from insect wings, crystallized eyes as lamps, monster heads on pikes adorning the gates, scaled dragonhide as siding for the building, huge claws and nails as tiles for the roof. The guild is equal parts amazing and terrifying.

Lina shyly hums, calling our attention to her, then hesitantly points out, "Each of these heads are from Aberrant monsters that had huge bounties on them." But our interest emboldens her, and she begins excitedly giving us the story of each head, "That scary head over there is from a Flayer that terrorized the capital but was slain by the first emperor himself when he was a mercenary, and that pike is the very same weapon he used to kill it; that ugly head over there is a Pustulent Infector that by itself once created a plague that spread throughout the empire; that head with the tentacle penises is the Violator that performed a 'delayed impregnation' and charmed its victims…" And she goes on and on.

The thing is, this is all horrifying, and the human inside me is concerned about how much Lina is enjoying telling us these stories, though he remains silent to not ruin her moment.

The only comforting thing about this is that these heads were collected throughout the whole empire and across the thousands of years that the guild has operated, so it makes sense that there'd be so many of these dreadful monsters.

After Lina is done, we pass through the creepy gates and enter the large complex of the guild.

The grass is actually made from the hair of a bug-like monster that camouflages itself in the elven grasslands. It's hard and very prickly, so even if we were allowed to walk on it, no sane person would ever do so.

The first building ahead of us is the reception, which follows the usual imperial architecture by having ridiculously high ceilings, allowing the interior to possibly permit giants. The blueish morning light falling upon the yellow scales covering the walls gives this building a green shine that looks pretty but bothers our eyes as we climb up the steps leading to it.

But once we cross the turtle carapace double doors, I freeze and stiffen, feeling rather freaked out. The tiles on the floor and walls are huge, mirror-like scales, which are exactly like mine, only bigger, and Lina concernedly explains that they were taken from an actual Symbol of Might that had once been slain by a hero.

With every step I take, I feel the power within both these scales and the enchantment that preserves them. For me, this sensation is quite disconcerting, while for the girls, they just feel a mildly "humbling" sensation.

Thankfully, this patch of scales ends quite quickly and gives way to a carpet of gray fur that is flanked on either side by a line of taxidermied monsters. They start with small monsters like goblins, then they become increasingly larger and more menacing further on until they get so big that they're suspended from the ceiling.

A six-legged, white bison the size of a damn elephant grabs my attention, but then we reach a fork in our path, so we stop to read the signs.

The training grounds are to the left, the administration and other services are to the right, and the main hall is directly ahead, so we just continue forward.

There are attendants to the side, who we can ask for information, but we're just exploring, so we leave the reception and begin crossing a tribal-like bone bridge suspended over a huge chasm, which gives us a view down into the Labyrinth.

We can discern over fifty different floors, each glowing a different color, and can see a few barges and countless boats flying up and down the opening, ferrying people about.

The main hall itself is supported by a spiral pillar carved from stone that goes down the exact center of this chasm, and it's likely the main way that new adventurers get into the dungeon. The more remote (and dangerous) parts of the Labyrinth would probably require [Gate]s to reach in any reasonable length of time, so only the weaker and poorer adventurers would use this entrance.

We lean on the railing and spend a couple of minutes just taking in the view. There's quite a lot of people walking both ways across the bridge, but it's considerably large, so we aren't in the way. Though, I keep an eye out for anyone trying to cop a feel of some ass because the girls make for quite a tempting buffet out here.

But Lina then becomes too excited again and shares her trivia, "The Labyrinth heavily uses its own version of [Warp Space], so they couldn't just dig down and breach it, but an emperor forcefully created this tear-like 'entrance' through magic, giving the people easier access into it."

"I'm impressed by how popular the Labyrinth is," I casually remark.

She continues with her scholarly tone, "A lot of food and resources that the capital needs comes from the dungeon, and also, there's so much Experience that can be gained from it that whole armies train here, just like we're doing with our knights."

I hum. "We should learn how to manage dungeons from the imperials, then."

Yunia raises a thin golden eyebrow and begrudgingly admits that I'm right. Learning how to influence dungeons to grow in beneficial ways would be a great boon for our territory, so perhaps I should take a look at Arreira's notes on dungeoneering.

 

We move on and enter the main hall. Like every stereotypical adventurer's guild, the job boards also share space with a restaurant full of rugged people drinking alcohol first thing in the morning. In true imperial fashion, there are around two dozen women in skimpy velvet uniforms either acting as waitresses or dancing on top of the bone pillars by the walls. Most of them are catgirls while the handful of male waiters are catboys.

Surprisingly, weredogs make up a good number of the adventurers, and one is even panting while staring at a girl with thick thighs enticingly shaking those hips.

The music is quite nice and soothing. There's a low drum, a lute acting as bass, and surprisingly, a not-clavichord (or whatever kind of keyboard instrument is a closer match to it) being played by a gnome leading the song.

The tiles on the floor make pretty, colorful patterns, but they're made from the carapaces of such a wide variety of monsters that not even Lina can list them all.

Alissa then detects quite a considerable number of small monsters on the floor above us, and they're all like Aoi, "tamable," but it's very unlikely that any of them have the same level of intelligence that she has.

A sign says that the second floor is a market for adventuring equipment with a section for oddities and artifacts. The former is cute stuff that have some pretty magical effects while the latter are weird, edgy-looking weapons with stupid gimmicks.

I'm still salty about the fact that our treasury is full of useless or dangerous artifacts. They're like randomly-generated weapons, but nobody bothered to even think about balancing them.

We just ignore the second floor since it's not part of our plans for today.

"I want to try some of the alcohol here," Hana suddenly requests, and Ciel raises an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugs. "I don't think we'll come back here again anytime soon after we leave, and the guild is famous for having good drinks."

"It's alright," I accept. "We'll just inspect the board while you drink."

Then Alissa, Ciel, and I split off from the rest, but Lina hesitates and glances back at a waitress as she brings not-beer to a group of thirsty men.

Ciel rolls her eyes and grabs her wife's little hand, then takes her to the other girls.

I'm surprised that Yunia is going with them, but I think she just wants a quick drink with Roxanne.

"Definitely not," she emphatically denies through [Bind].

Alissa and I turn to the job board, and we take a good look at it.

There aren't any extermination requests because the Townsguard and the Imperial Army deal with anything that could threaten the capital and the nearby towns, so we can only see some escort job offers, requests for specific monster corpses or parts, and advertisements for fellowships or mercenary companies.

There are also magical scrolling boards like those in Rabanara for the latest hunts, notable hunts, in honor of (hunters who died fighting), fellowship milestones for exploring the Labyrinth, special monsters spotted in the Labyrinth, and a constantly updating board with the prices of popular items found in the Labyrinth.

"Looking to hire someone, boy?" A male voice grabs my attention.

Alissa and I turn, and we see a middle-aged imperial man in fairly lavish purple silk robes, a traditional style for merchant attire. Imperials have a strong middle-eastern air with their olive skin and well-groomed dark hair and beards, but the robes push it a bit further.

"What makes you think so?" I reply noncommittally.

He grins and takes a step forward like a predator who has smelled the weakness of its prey. "You're searching the whole board instead of going directly to where what you want is posted. That's the telltale sign of someone who's new around here."

"That still doesn't explain why you think I want to hire someone."

His eager tone doesn't waver a single bit as he continues, "Because that's what every newcomer needs, a guide. You don't want to enter the Labyrinth without one or else you'll just get lost, or worse."

The bastard actually hit the mark.

"And you know where we can find guides?"

He gives a quick bow, then shows us a composed and proud smile, coming off as perfectly inviting for negotiations. "I'm Basile, a guide of guides. The floors under us all the way to the bottom are full of guides, each eager to find a client that they can impart the wealth of knowledge upon, but nobody knows everything there is to know about the Great Labyrinth, so if you want something specific, I can find you that person."

Lina perks up her head, and if she had her own fox ears or tail, they'd be twitching or wagging in excitement right now.

Alissa's ears actually do twitch, but it's for a concerning reason. She turns her head and watches as a trio of imperials armed with swords and good-quality adventuring clothes prances into the hall with suspiciously loud steps.

I echo Lina's wish, "We want to explore somewhere with historical fragments about the Dawn of Mankind." And Basile allows his eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. "Don't worry about money or our ability to defend ourselves there. Also, if there's more than one candidate, we'd prefer unmarried women."

The adventuring trio scans the entire hall with predatory eyes, and once they lock on my wives, they begin advancing towards their chosen prey.

Here we go…

"Yes, that can be arranged," Basile stiffly replies and lowers his head respectfully, starting to understand more about the type of people we are.

"We'll wait around, but don't take more than an hour," I give him one last order, then we start walking towards the rest of the girls.

Two of the imperials look like they're just muscle. It's the third that seems to have any intelligence in his brain. He has a perfectly groomed short beard and swept back hair, giving him a suspiciously noble air, and though I can't make an accurate guess regarding his age, he seems to be well past his 20s. His body is well-built, and the confident way he walks tells us that he has a good amount of martial skills.

He grabs a chair from an empty table nearby and drags it to where the girls are sitting, then he rudely puts his boot on the cushion and leans on his knee as he grins, showing off a rather pitiful bulge in his stupidly tight pants.

"It's a crime for so many beauties to be unaccompanied by a man," he huskily flirts while staring at Hana, clearly assuming that she's the leader of the harem.

This is such a stereotypical situation that I wonder if someone provides a service of "punchable thugs on-demand." I feel like in this world, beating up the asshole adventurer in front of the whole guild must be quite a popular fantasy.

The girls just ignore him and stay silent for a few awkward seconds while Alissa and I leisurely walk back to them, then I sit down at their table and smile as I innocently ask, "How may I help you?"

His gaze flies between Hana and me while his grin starts to become strained, so I take the opportunity to use [Sense Soul] on him.

 

 

"'Alkimeonids'? I think that's a ranked noble family's name," Yunia comments through [Bind].

His level and MP also indicate a noble's background.

"His name is too complicated. Definitely a pompous noble," Hana wisely shares.

Little Alki frowns and questions Hana, "Why is a dragonkin like you bending over for a boy like him?"

"His dick is big," she offhandedly replies.

He snorts and leans forward, his grin coming back in full force as he stares intensely at her. "Is that all it takes? If my cock is bigger, will you become mine?"

Hana raises an eyebrow at him and glances at his small bulge. She wants to egg him on until he strips in front of everyone, but I forbid her from going down that path.

"He's baiting us, like Bastico once did to you," Yunia warns telepathically.

I don't see a reason why we can't take a bite.

The girls have mixed opinions about my idea, but the majority agree with it.

"What are you, an orc? You know that the size of the sword doesn't matter," I tiredly reply and rest my cheek against my fist.

Little Alki stares at me from the side of his eye, then he seems to notice my silver tail and sneers. "What does a deformed dragonkin like you know about skill? You're young enough to be my son, so show me some respect and watch while I teach you how a real man makes love to a woman."

He immediately takes his foot off the chair and takes a threatening step towards Hana, but I jump up and draw my old emerald fang sword, and he instinctively freezes at my glare. Being called "deformed" has angered the dragon even more than the threat of him taking Hana, so I'll just have to show him what it means to be a weredragon.

At least Bastico didn't deliberately offend us.

I calmly challenge, "Fight me, you bastard." Keeping the human in control has allowed me to nurture a wave of cold anger.

Little Alki's butt-buddies draw their swords while the little bitch himself lets a Wicked grin slowly grow across his repulsive face. His higher level "aura" starts to show itself, and it feels like a faint "pressure" that makes the girls' muscles lock up, but it's so weak that it's only an annoyance to me.

His bodyguards seem to quickly tense up, and their pupils dilate, so I guess our aura is also affecting them, inducing some amount of fear.

A waitress quickly runs up to us with a mage in tow and stops almost right in between the two of us, then she raises her hand, calling attention to herself. "Fights inside the main hall aren't allowed, but we offer a quick [Gate] to the dueling arenas that will be later charged to your accounts."

Alissa pulls out one gold coin and pushes it towards the waitress. "Keep the change."

The cute woman and the mage raise their eyebrows, but Alki doesn't even react. He fucking knows that we're nobles too.

"Please lower your weapons, and we'll open the [Gate] for you," the waitress requests, and everyone obeys.

Alki and I continue our staring contest for an awkwardly long time, then the mage finishes the spell, and the girls cross through it first, with me going last. I turn my back to him, and Jarn sees his confident expression become stiff for a second before he puts on the mask again and follows after us.

"Now what?" Kyora confusedly questions Jarn.

"Walk…" She robotically replies, but I swear she sounds annoyed.

The dueling arenas are just like those in Goloria's Knight Academy, large circular holes in the ground with a sand floor. Duels between archers and mages are a lot more boring in barren arenas, so there are a few with a variety of obstacles.

At this time of the morning, there's only one in use, so I just pick the nearest one and jump in, then Gify teleports to Alissa's shoulder. There are a few dozen people just watching, and about half of them come to our arena once they notice that a new duel is about to start.

Alki appears a moment later and also jumps in, then he draws his bastard sword, and I almost break into a smug grin when I see that it's unenchanted. He has a lot of MP but little "Magic Power," so he's definitely a spellsword, but he's literally useless without enchantments to take advantage of his large mana pool. So, unless he just endlessly spams a weak spell, he's a non-threat against a magic swordsman like me.

Neither of us have any active Blessings on us, so this will be simple.

Roxanne is starting to become wet from fantasizing about me dominating Alki; Hana wants to finger herself while I gut him like a pig; Alissa and Yunia want to gut him themselves; Aoi and Lina just want him to scream in pain as punishment for his offense; and Ciel is the only one of us with a neutral opinion of him. Even Gify feels like spitting at his feet.

A priestess walks down the stairs of the arena and frowns at both of us. "Protection equipment!" She hisses angrily.

"No need, just get it over with," Little Alki immediately dismisses her with a wave of his hand.

"If either of you dies and decides to haunt me, I swear, I'll exorcise you immediately," she barks back.

Alissa throws me the gear, and I grab it without looking, then I put on the neck and heart guard, which were created to prevent instant deaths. I'm not taking any chances with this asshole.

The priestess then turns to Little Alki and waits for either him or his minions to do something.

"I said, just get it over with, and start the duel!" He suddenly growls at her.

The poor woman just sighs and shakes her head. "Alright… what are your names?"

"Wolf Ryder," I dryly answer.

"Alkibiades Alkimeonids," he pompously announces as he waves his sword threateningly.

The priestess clears her throat and begins, "WOLF, ALKIBIADES, THE DUEL BEGINS… NOW!" Then she hits a gong.

I release my [Mana Body], instantly returning my body to normal, and I hear surprised gasps from the audience. Alki simply raises his eyebrows, but I see no significant change in his resolve, so I unleash the dragon, letting my anger at both of his offenses fuel my desire to completely shit on him.

The girls all focus on our connection and give me their support, then I cast [Haste] and [Rush] at the same time. The mental pain of keeping up two spells that I'm not used to temporarily blinds me, but through [Bind], everyone helps me put each foot before the other, and I arrive almost in the blink of an eye in front of Little Alki, then chop down, aiming at his collarbone.

His grin becomes strained as he uses [Battlefield Perception] to counter my attack, his sword rising up just as fast as mine comes down.

I immediately release both of my spells and cast [Telekinesis], then our swords meet, and the heavy magical weight now behind my strike is too much for him, but he just takes a step back to perfectly dodge my chop.

Before he can pivot his sword around mine, I release [Telekinesis] and cast [Discharge] while I lunge forward.

He's stunned in place, so my sword plunges into his chest without resistance, then his face suddenly warps in exertion as he points his index finger at me.

I twist my sword, but it has no effect, then [Battlefield Perception] activates, and I use [Muscle Explosion] to tilt my head to the side, but his [Fireball] still brushes against my cheek.

The burning sensation on my skin enrages me, so I swing my free arm and rake his throat, but my claws don't dig too deep as he uses [Muscle Explosion] to dodge again, getting himself out of range of my short arms, then I release my sword and use [Telekinesis] to slide backward.

I should've gone straight for the heart.

I touch my cheek and growl as I observe him.

He lurches forward, clearly in pain, but his HP went down by merely thirty points, and it doesn't seem like I hit an artery as it remains stable.

The priestess also seems to think the same as she stares at him but says nothing, likely using [Diagnosis].

The little shit grins maniacally at me as he slowly pulls out my sword from his chest, his white shirt quickly turning red as he bleeds profusely. "You magical fucking swordsman, hiding so many spells fr-…"

I shift into a dragon, then I use [Rush] and charge at him.

He grips his sword tight, prepared to stab me with his all, but I have no fear. I simply spread my wings, then I leap forward and receive his sword directly on my chest.

"Fffu-…" He hisses as he falls backward, unable to hold back my whole weight, and his sword doesn't even manage to crack a single scale.

My claws dig into his shoulders as I bite his neck, making him scream in rage and pain. After a couple of seconds of shaking my body to really carve my claws and fangs into his flesh, I use my arms, mouth, and even [Telekinesis] to throw him away and off to my side.

He flies through the air and rolls on the sand, then comes to a stop right in front of the priestess.

She wrinkles her nose in disgust as she takes a step back to not get splattered with his blood, then she stares at him and waits for his reaction.

Little Alki coughs and struggles to get up, but she grabs his neck and keeps him down as she shouts, "STOP! TECHNICAL DEFEAT! I DECLARE WOLF RYDER THE VICTOR!"

Little Alki grunts and slaps her arm away, then he glares at her as he barks, "I can still fight!"

In response, she grabs his head and forces him to eat sand. "He bit your neck and stabbed you in the chest. You'd be dead if he had actually tried to kill you." Then she starts casting [Heal] while Alki's two minions come to check up on him.

I like this woman.

She's a tomboyish imperial woman in her thirties, so I'll definitely flirt with her if she gives me the opportunity.

I return to my human form and start casting [Regeneration] on my burnt cheek, then Ciel drops down into the pit and comes to heal me.

"You!" The tomboy priestess shouts as she points a finger at me. "Get out of the arena if you can heal yourself. Don't even think about coming closer."

Well, I guess it's understandable that she keeps adventurers at a pike's distance…

I simply smile warmly and nod, then I take off the protective gear, and Ciel and I walk away.

Once we've climbed up, I see Jarn and Kyora's group jogging towards us.

"Wait, did we miss it?!" Alonso exclaims once he takes in the scene, then he lets his jaw hang open in dismay.

"I'll tell you how it went," Hana replies with a proud grin, ready to "embellish" my little fight.

Then we return to the main hall without looking back.