True Magician

Chapter 124

Dungeon.

In the end, I never came up with anything about my pursuers, so I left them in the middle of the floor in an unconscious state, scanning their memories in the process, and then headed on my way.

As expected, they hadn't said anything to Freya and along with their captain wanted revenge. Their thoughts about her coincide almost completely, that is, absolute faith and a kind of 'love' that turns into obsession. However, I expected something like that, given her reputation and appearance.

On the other hand, I managed to find out what exactly happened between Morgan and Freya while Tia was taming the monster, or rather, the aftermath of it. And I could tell that Berserker had treated the goddess rather mildly, whose physical characteristics without Arcanum were no greater than a normal human. Knocked out teeth and a few cuts to the face can be characterized by the word 'mild', right?

Intriguingly, in this trio's memories, the undergoing treatment Freya was smiling as she shared the details of the encounter. Subtle manipulation? Yes, but for all that, she liked the challenge Morgan threw her right to her face. I guess our showdown will definitely escalate into something more.

With those thoughts, I reached the right floor and, following Ouranos's description, turned away from the direct path to the next one. Adventurers usually go straight ahead to get to the next floor, and since that's the case, few people try to explore the whole floor. Let's say the farthest edge, hidden behind a pile of columns and thick fog.

At one point I felt a presence ahead that was coming toward me. It felt like three of them, and a few seconds later the monsters came toward me, not growling or rushing to attack, but showing some semblance of a smile.

- "Nice to meet you, Romani Archaman. My name is Lyd, and as you can see, I am an lizardman," the first monster with bard scales began politely.

- "My name is Ray. Siren," said the girl monster with bird-like features of turquoise-gold coloring in a friendly tone.

- "Gros. Gargoyle," the last stone-colored monster introduced himself rather coldly.

- "Romani Archaman," I said, observing the rules of decorum, "I take it you were notified about me?"

- "Yes, Lord Ouranos did," Lyd nodded, "It's probably rude to say this, but we like you already. You realize the reputation of our brethren isn't exactly good, and you, Romani, haven't shown a hint of hostility."

- "Let's just say I think more broadly than the others," I grinned.

- "And I'm sorry about Gros," Ray said with a guilty look on her face, "He doesn't trust surface dwellers, you can see why."

- "It's all right, I'm rather confused by your friendliness," I said calmly, to which I received surprised looks, "I'm not saying you had to be rude, but still I was given too much trust."

- "Ouranos has always helped us, so we tend to trust his judgment," Ray explained, "But let's get to the village. I'm sure they're waiting for us."

- "Indeed," said Lyd, "follow us, Romani. We'll show you the village and how we live."

- "Okay."

-0-

After a while we reached the place, and now we were sitting around a fire, surrounded by a pile of steps that served as seating, like the bleachers in a stadium.

I was surrounded by a whole hodgepodge of xenos, consisting of goblins, trolls, arachnids, unicorns, harpies, and even large insects. All of them possessed a full soul and really gave the feeling of a reasonable society, which at the moment organized some kind of... celebration, you could say, in honor of meeting me.