We Do Not Negotiate with Criminals.

When I followed Grom’s guidance and stepped out through the portal, a familiar landscape greeted me.

A dark forest where not a single ray of light penetrated the dense trees. It was unmistakably the Lerudan Forest, which I had visited before for a commission.

So, what now?

Even before that thought finished, I urged my mount toward Iushil.

“Z-Avava.”

Before arriving at Iushil,

I called out Z-Avava, who had helped me.

That creature wriggled and crawled out from my body.

“I am heading back now to the city of humans. What will you do?”

At my question, z-Avava rolled its ‘core’ back and forth. Its trembling core glanced at me for a moment, then shifted its gaze to the nature all around us.

Honestly, I desperately wanted to keep it with me. It was easy to carry and useful, since it soaked into my ‘leather armor.’

But the creature was hesitating.

Between staying with me, recognized as its parent by the engraving effect, and its freedom. One or the other.

“The choice is yours.”

Whether it understood me or not, z-Avava nodded its head.

It wouldn’t be long before it left my side.

Why does my nose sting all of a sudden? It’s not even like I gave birth to it.

Upon arriving in Iushil, the first place I headed to was, of course, the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Congratulations, adventurer party Dungeon God! We have confirmed the collapse of the Bronze-ranked dungeon. The ‘Dungeon God’ adventurer party is now not just ‘provisional’ but officially a ‘Silver-ranked adventurer party!'”

The receptionist, recognizing me, spoke up first as soon as she saw my face.

The collapse of the dungeon had been confirmed.

Because of that, the ‘Dungeon God’ party had been officially promoted to Silver rank.

It was one of the reasons we accepted the request, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Did any of my other companions make it here?”

“No! Sir Dmihtan, you are the first to arrive.”

Hearing the receptionist’s words, I felt something was wrong.

Barkal and Serena hadn’t come.

I thought they’d be waiting for me at the Adventurer’s Guild.

Just in case, I stopped by the ‘Bearded Cat Inn.’

Hordi, the owner, greeted me with a delighted handshake when he saw me.

“I thought you’d died somewhere, but I see you’re still alive! Well, barbarians do have long lives!”

When I asked Hordi, too—

“Hm? You’re the first one back, actually?”

Just what was going on? When I returned to my rented room, it was just as Hordi said.

Nothing had changed. It was as if nobody else had returned.

“Hmmm.”

I let out a short sigh. I was the one swept up in the dungeon collapse.

If they’d known I hadn’t made it out, I thought they’d wait for me at the guild or here.

Should I wait a bit?

With that thought, I lay down on the bed.

I was worried about Barkal and Serena, but honestly, those monsters seemed likely to outlive me.

It’s probably needless worry. With that in mind, I decided to rest in case something happened.

* * *

“At last, we can talk again.”

As expected, when I went to sleep, Mortis popped up in my dream.

Since I possessed a ‘divine item,’ I knew it was easy to connect to Mortis’s mental world, but for her to appear like this again…

Requests or not, I had only one thing to say to Mortis.

“Where are my companions?”

It might have been improper to address the ‘god’ of a religion with such rudeness, but now was not the time for etiquette.

“Your followers tried to harm me. Where are my companions?”

When I asked again, Mortis closed her eyes.

I expected her to rebuke me for threatening a god. But it didn’t matter. I had to do whatever I could to find out my companions’ whereabouts.

“I’m sorry.”

Contrary to my expectations, however, Mortis apologized.

“It’s my fault. I misled my followers and sent them down the wrong path.”

Mortis spoke in self-reproach. Her eyes were moist, as if she might start crying at any moment.

But I wasn’t here for an apology.

“Where are my companions?”

“The last dungeon you entered.”

The last dungeon?

The one that came to mind immediately was the desert dungeon I escaped from with the orcs’ help, but it didn’t seem to be the place Mortis meant.

In that case, it had to be the dungeon where ‘Z-Avava’ was the master.

“I thought the dungeon had collapsed?”

“It did. But why do you think my follower tried so hard to collapse the dungeon?”

To escape, of course.

But if the ‘lich’ had really intended to run, he could’ve just gone back the way we came.

We both knew that the Pantheon wasn’t connected to ‘Thrag’, so there was no need to hide.

Wait.

“Did you have necromancers waiting outside the dungeon?”

When I voiced my suspicion, Mortis quietly nodded.

In other words, the reason they hid among us was to observe us and launch a coordinated ambush once we emerged.

Hey, they’re your followers. Can’t you do something about them? I looked at her with that in mind, but it seemed there was nothing she could do.

“At any rate, now I know the location.”

I never imagined I’d get help from Mortis.

As the sinister god of necromancers, I’d expected her to be cantankerous or completely mad, but Mortis wasn’t like that at all.

In fact, she didn’t even seem very ‘godlike.’

Regardless, since she’d helped me, a thank you was in order.

After all, gratitude is free.

“Wait, we’re not done yet.”

It was at that moment in the dream—more precisely, in the ‘mental world’—when I tried to slap myself awake.

“If you fulfill my request, will the contract to teach you necromancer magic still stand?”

If she wanted to know if the contract was still valid, well, I guess it was.

It was one thing to hunt down necromancers to learn necromancy, but it was never a guaranteed reward.

If a god helped directly, I couldn’t be anything but grateful.

“Then, hear my request.”

Last time, I’d been awakened by Z-Avava and couldn’t hear it. If it was something impossible, I could always refuse. For now, I listened.

“I want you to kill someone.”

Someone?

A god asking me to kill a person isn’t so strange in the world of 《Dungeon God》.

“My first follower, my Apostle.”

But I couldn’t have predicted who Mortis wanted dead.

“Cut off the lich’s life.”

The evil god worshiped by necromancers, ruler of death and corpses.

But contrary to the dreadful titles born of terror and loathing, she quietly, plaintively, and painfully wept as she spoke.

* * *

After receiving Mortis’s assassination request to kill her own Apostle, I woke up from my dream.

A god personally asking for their Apostle’s death—what an outlandish situation.

But more important than that was something else.

“So, you’re alive.”

That damned lich.

Swept up in the dungeon collapse, yet still alive.

That’s what I was saying, yet truthfully, I survived too. Would that bastard be surprised to see me alive as well?

“Hey, barbarian, someone from the Adventurer’s Guild came looking for you just now, told you to check the Forum or something.”

When I came downstairs from the inn, Hordi’s words greeted me.

After hearing him, I went to the Adventurer’s Guild and checked the ‘Forum’—then I understood.

The ‘lich’ apparently knew I was alive.

[Your companions are in my hands.

Both are still alive. For now, that is.

Their lives are in your hands.

Bring me the mother’s right eye.

The place is the mountain of the dungeon where we met.

By midnight two days from now.

Come alone.]

One of the posts on the Forum unmistakably referred to my situation.

This bastard is actually using the thing made for us.

The time limit was two days.

It would be two days from today. The guild receptionist had shown me the Forum today, after all.

Still wants the ‘right eye’, huh?

What a rotten fate.

All because I got this ‘divine’ item.

Run away?

That wasn’t an option for me.

The only choice I could pick now was to take the ‘right eye’ to see the lich.

Alone, as instructed.

“How foolish.”

“Pardon?”

The receptionist, startled by my muttering, asked, but I just ignored her and stared at the Forum post again.

You.

You may have set a trap, but you didn’t manage to properly capture Barkal or Serena.

If you had, you wouldn’t be using the ‘Forum’ like this.

A heartless creature like the ‘lich,’ who would wear someone else’s skin for fun, would have sent me a sample as a warning.

Besides—

“There’s no way those monstrous guys could have been caught.”

So, lich.

Looks like I can’t honor your request to come alone.

I hardly listened to my own mother. You think I’ll listen to you?

Never going alone.

I pulled a ‘horn flute’ from my breast.

The ‘Barbarian Respect Association’ horn flute I’d gotten from Grunt earlier.

Bwoooom─!

A clear yet rough sound echoed across all of Iushil.

A short while later,

I saw clouds of dust as people ran toward me from afar.

A mass.

Barbarians.

A barbarian clad in bear hide spoke up first.

“I am Volgrim of the Bladewind Tribe! I ran here in answer to the call of the Respect Association!”

Next were the barbarians who worshipped Gravas, the god of iron and earth, whom I’d seen at the auction.

“I, Delan, answer the call of the Respect Association! What’s going on, brother!”

Next, a barbarian completely covered in tattoos stepped forward.

“I am Garmark of the Blackclaw Tribe. If this is a pointless summons, I won’t stand for it.”

Many more barbarians began to gather, and among the throng, Grunt appeared.

“Sage, did you call the Respect Association?”

To think so many barbarians were in Iushil. There were easily over twenty gathered, and I shouted to them.

“O Barbarian Respect Association, I am the one who summoned you!”

Compared to these masses of muscle, I looked puny. Even so, the respect in their eyes was unmistakable.

“Sage, if you call—wherever, we come running!”

“That’s right! We owe you our lives!”

Their words echoed the same resolve as before.

“So, why did you call us?”

“I want you to fight with me.”

“Battle, you say?”

Among those summoned, the one from the Blackclaw Tribe—Garmark—looked bored.

“You called the Barbarian Respect Association for a mere battle?”

“It’s not just a battle.”

“Then what is it?”

I took a breath and spoke quietly.

“It’s war.”

***

New Names, locations, skills & Techniques (not in prompt):

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep