Chapter 77 The Bottom Layer

As the smoke dissipated from the minuscule explosions, the state of the hazel-haired bandit’s body was revealed–the volatile explosions had charred his flesh and crushed his internal organs.

The bandit fell over onto the stone as a mixture of billowing smoke and steam exuded from his burnt body, which was now a corpse.

[Level Up!]

[Level Five Achieved.]

The level up was instantly felt through his body as it felt as if his wisdom was expanded and his grasp on his own magecraft heightened.

It was over within seconds once the boy had removed his restraints–though his opponent was strong, he had faced many stronger opponents in his time of training.

The triumph he should be feeling, cementing his improvement from his tutelage under Celly and his experience garnered in fighting alongside Julius, was dulled by the dreadful atmosphere around him.

“–” He covered his mouth and nose out of disgust of what his spells had done to the man’s body.

It’s not like I’m trying to be some sort of hero or something. I’m not trying to avoid killing because I think I’m a saint who can do nothing wrong. But…I just don’t know what those around me will think if I do things like this. Will I be seen as some sort of killer? A merciless boy with destructive magic? Somebody they should fear? I don’t want that. I just want to be Emilio, he thought.

As he moved past the body of his fallen foe, he returned to the corridor where his newfound ally was, greeted by another abhorrent sight.

“Ugh…!”

He reared back in disgust. It wasn’t from seeing the man Lawrence had fought laying in a pool of blood, dead, but it was the act the clown-like man himself was committing.

Lawrence was using his blade to peel the tattoo from the man’s skin, slicing off the slab of flesh from the man’s neck before dropping it into his own mouth and swallowing it. Such an act of what could be considered cannibalism to some degree was abhorrent, to say the least.

“What’re you doing?!” He asked in disgust.

Lawrence wiped his mouth, “Oh, my apologies. I didn’t mean for you to see that, my dear friend.”

“Yeah?! What the hell was ‘that’?!” He asked again.

Before he answered, the orange-haired man slid his peculiar sword back down his own throat, swallowing it before responding, “Swallowing the brands of one of a Ten Divine Styles user strengthens us Chaos swordsmen. It’s an offering to the Chaos God, you see.”

“Still…!” He averted his eyes.

Lawrence was still smiling, glancing around the corner to see the charred body of the bandit the boy had fought, “Hmm…It seems you’re quite capable, my dear friend. I expected nothing less.”

In that moment, he felt some sense of relief for having burned his enemy, as it seems Lawrence had intended to also take the brand from Terry’s body as well, but it had been charred.

“…Yeah, well, let’s just move on.”

“As you wish,” Lawrence smiled.

After defeating the two hideout guards, the unlikely duo moved down to the fourth layer of the large, criminal hideout.

Surprisingly, and fortunately, the fourth floor didn’t seem occupied by any guards, at least they didn’t encounter any before finding the passage to the fifth floor–which seemed to be the last of them.

I guess criminals are short-staffed, huh? He thought.

“Be on your guard, my dear friend,” Lawrence whispered to him.

“Huh?”

It was an unexpected bit of advice from the clown-like man as they quietly walked down the dark steps to the final layer of the hideout.

Lawrence kept his scarlet eyes forward, “…Something quite troublesome is lurking down here, it seems.”

What’s he talking about? He thought.

Though he didn’t have a chance to ponder the man’s words as once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the nature of the new domain revealed itself to his eyes.

Unlike the previous floors, it wasn’t a maze of halls, but a large room, filled with cages and cages, mostly filled with demi-humans and children. It was the size of a stadium, but also unlike the previous layers, it was maintained with more light–though this didn’t seem to be a good sign.

He immediately hid behind one of the walls, pulling Lawrence into hiding with him just as chattering and footsteps were heard.

“–” He kept quiet.

Lawrence stayed mostly silent as well, whispering to him, “That was close, wasn’t it?”

The nature of the large area being kept so bright and the fact it held many valuable “items” for the criminals meant it was the most guarded area–he recognized that. The voices of bandits could be heard as well as their footsteps stomping about.

Sounds like there’s a lot of them…He thought.

“Can you…?” He began to ask.

But, to his surprise, Lawrence was already leaving their spot of hiding, drawing his sword from his mouth as he smiled, “Leave it to me.”

Though the clown-like adventurer didn’t seem to actually know what the boy was asking of him, as without any hesitation, Lawrence leapt up, rapidly approaching a few unsuspecting bandits with a wicked smile.

“What the–!?”

“Who the fuck is that?!”

Before either of the two men could react, the snow-skinned man dashed by them with a whip of his formless blade, dicing them into multiple pieces as their limbs were cleanly cut and their torsos cleaved off.

…I was going to ask if he could quietly take them out–one-by-one! Not whatever this is! He thought.

Lawrence was far too fast for the bandits to react to, but it wasn’t just that: they were undoubtedly caught in terror of the sudden appearance of the murderous clown that was rushing towards them with the cackling laughter of a jester.

With acrobatic flips, the orange-haired man of mystery and laughter cleaved through the bandits without any semblance of stealth.

There’s something seriously wrong with this guy!…But, I’m glad he’s on my side, he thought.