In DanMachi, Freya Had Her Eye on Me from the Start!

Snow sprayed everywhere as Charmander tore a huge chunk of flesh from the young dragon's neck.

A massive wound opened along its slender neck, blood pouring out uncontrollably. Judging by the amount of bleeding, it had probably bitten through a major artery.

"Bite it apart—"

One trick was enough to get by. As an initial experimental creation, Charmander naturally had very limited attack methods.

Cao Ye did not care. No matter what kind of move it was, as long as it could kill the opponent, it was a good move.

Tear—

With another bite, Charmander ripped another strip of flesh from the young dragon's wound. Blood immediately dyed the surrounding ground red and continued spreading outward.

At that moment, Cao Ye took out several bottles from the Imaginary Space and ran over.

Roar—

The young dragon tried to kill the Charmander before it, but unfortunately, Cao Ye suppressed it the very next second.

Weapons rained down from above, pinning it directly to the ground.

While it was still alive, Cao Ye hurried over, stepping through the blood as he held bottles beneath the young dragon's wound to collect its blood.

Dragon blood—this was good stuff. Even if it was only a young dragon's blood, it was still extremely valuable.

On top of that, drawing blood from a young dragon was difficult in itself, making it a commodity with demand but no supply. Bringing back just two more bottles would mean a huge amount of Valis.

Glug glug~

Being large had its advantages. Even with such a huge wound and such terrifying blood loss—

This young dragon still held on for quite a while before finally dying in frustration.

With a bang, Cao Ye, covered in blood and grime, his hands especially stained crimson, looked at the bottle of dragon blood that was still not full and felt somewhat disappointed.

"That's all it took?"

He glanced to the side at the twelve—no, twelve and a half—bottles of young dragon blood.

Selling each bottle for two hundred thousand Valis should not be considered expensive, right? After all, this was something with demand but no supply. It was an excellent choice for tempering weapons.

As for potions, Cao Ye had never looked into that, so he did not know whether it could be used for alchemy.

Still, looking at the huge pool of dragon blood on the ground, Cao Ye felt like he had lost out. He should have used a basin instead of bottles. Look at all that waste—there had to be enough for at least twenty or thirty more bottles.

If the young dragon had still been alive, it definitely would have cursed him out. Killing it was not enough; he had even drained its blood.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, an idea suddenly occurred to Cao Ye.

Whoosh—

Cao Ye summoned the Black Mud, which directly covered all the dragon blood. In just a moment, the Black Mud absorbed every trace of dragon blood nearby.

Then, he controlled the Black Mud that had absorbed the dragon blood and merged it directly into Charmander's body.

Since it was called Charmander, absorbing some dragon blood was only natural, right?

The Black Mud containing dragon blood surged into Charmander's core. Under the catalytic effect of the dragon blood's energy, the Puppet Manipulation formula within the core formed from magic gemstones underwent some changes.

"Mhm, looks pretty good. Bathed in dragon blood—it counts as an auspicious start."

Cao Ye looked over his "masterpiece" from top to bottom and nodded in satisfaction.

Then he checked his [Daily Mission]. Today's mission had already been completed.

[Daily Mission: Kill 12 Orcs!]

[Completion Progress: 12/12]

[Mission Reward: Diamonds *10]

Killing twelve Orcs—since Charmander was a cursed corpse under his control, its kills naturally counted as his achievements. The mission was therefore complete.

Rustle—

At that moment, another batch of monsters spawned.

Cao Ye looked over. Good lord—there was a group of Kobolds in the distance, probably around a dozen of them, followed by several fat Orcs.

Whoosh—

With a flick of his hand, a large mass of Black Mud shot out like spray from a gun.

Every monster tainted by the Black Mud was instantly corroded by it, and in the next second, each of them died outright.

This allowed Cao Ye to confirm that Black Mud did indeed cause monsters to "collapse," resulting in their immediate deaths.

Originally, Cao Ye had been on guard, prepared to welcome this "Monster Feast." After all, this was not the seventeenth floor. The monsters should be much weaker, and he had barely expended anything by now, so he was confident.

Yet after waiting for quite some time, nothing happened around him at all. That left Cao Ye puzzled.

"Could the last time have been an accident? Was the riot not caused by the Black Mud?"

The moment that thought surfaced, Cao Ye dismissed it.

Where could there be so many coincidences in this world? The first Monster Feast could have been a coincidence, but could the second monster riot also be called an accident?

Every monster that had ever appeared in the upper floors had shown up. The only things that had not been spawned were enhanced monsters and Floor Bosses.

Otherwise, he would have thought some god had entered the Dungeon and been detected by it, prompting an attack—just like in the original story, when Hestia released her divine will and triggered the Dungeon's Malice into rioting.

"Wait, a god?!"

At the mention of "god," a flash of insight crossed Cao Ye's mind.

In the original story, quite a few of protagonist Bell's "adventures" had been orchestrated by his goddess in order to help Bell grow and transform through adventure.

Especially after Bell had once fled in terror from a Minotaur, Freya sent Ottar to personally train a Minotaur so Bell could break through that nightmare himself and go even further.

If that was the case, then the Dungeon's sudden riot yesterday had been rather inexplicable.

It had suddenly erupted, and the mission's name had made it very clear: "Dungeon's Malice." Cao Ye had originally thought that the Dungeon was highly repulsed by Black Mud.

But judging from today's situation, that was not the case. There was another reason behind this.

"My goddess, this was not your doing, was it?!"

A chill ran down Cao Ye's back, and his heart pounded. If his guess was right, what could he do? It seemed like there was no other choice anyway!

Freya: Attend a Banquet with Me Tomorrow!

[Name]: Cao Ye

[Level]: Lv.1

[Ability Values]:

"Strength: G·267---C·601" "Endurance: G·279---B·727" "Dexterity: G·177---D·559" "Agility: G·201---C·696" "Magic: C·666---S·980"

[Development Abilities]:

[Magic]: Imaginary Magic, ()()

[Skills]:

"Miracle of Absolute Evil"

"Imaginary Space"

"Sorcerer"

born from humanity's negative emotions

energy

enhancement

Looking at his Falna, Cao Ye smiled. This time, his growth had been even greater than last time.

Not only that, the formulas, cursed energy, and cursed techniques he had drawn from the Jujutsu Kaisen card pool had, under the miracle of the "God's Blessing," nurtured a new skill.

Sorcerer—the term used in Jujutsu Kaisen—had actually become one of his skills.

And with the appearance of this skill, Cao Ye could also feel that he could now obtain cursed energy from his own "negative emotions." More precisely, it was magic fused with cursed energy.

This had a bit of the flavor of "cultivation." As everyone knew, the world of DanMachi was one where people leveled up by fighting monsters.

Cultivation was not part of this world's main theme at all. If one wanted to grow stronger, one went into the Dungeon and fought monsters, gained experience, achieved great deeds, and raised the level of one's Falna.

But now, Cao Ye had obtained a "method of cultivation" that allowed him to raise his magic through his own "negative emotions."

Although the efficiency was not high, just like "devouring magic stones," it was still better than nothing.

The only pity was that he had not gained a new magic spell.

"Your rate of growth is truly astonishing."

As Cao Ye looked over his Falna's ability values, Freya's voice drifted over from beside him.

In less than a month, Cao Ye's ability values had risen this far. It was simply too outrageous. As long as he could achieve one great deed, Cao Ye would be able to level up.

This rate of improvement was downright unheard of. No one would believe it if it were spoken aloud.

"I just got lucky~"

Cao Ye glanced at Freya but did not say much.

Ever since his "suspicions" about Freya had arisen a few days ago, Cao Ye had developed a slight grudge against his goddess.

He had never been a particularly broad-minded person. One could even say that he held grudges over the smallest slight.

It was only a suspicion, but that was enough. Trust was incredibly difficult to build, yet creating a crack in it—or even making it collapse—was very simple. It only took "one thing."

Freya had also noticed that something was off with Cao Ye. In the past, Cao Ye's desire had always overflowed whenever he faced her. Several times, he had even wanted to "overstep his bounds."

But this time, she found that Cao Ye had actually become restrained around her.

By all rights, Freya should have been happy. After all, she was a goddess, and it would not sound good if her Familia member acted overly familiar with her every day.

Yet when it truly happened, she felt deeply uncomfortable.

The reason she had looked upon Cao Ye differently and even treated him specially was because he had not been charmed by her and had still been deeply infatuated with her.

Now, that infatuation had vanished, replaced by distance. It made her very uncomfortable.

Cao Ye picked up the clothes beside him and put them on. Facing Freya's incomparably beautiful divine body, his heart still stirred, but he no longer had the thoughts of taking advantage of her that he once had.

Goddess Freya was no different from other gods in essence. They all acted according to their own "pleasure."

"Oh, right. There's a banquet tomorrow night. Come with me."

"Hmm?"

Cao Ye frowned instinctively. Attend a banquet with Freya?

In the Freya Familia, such an honor had always belonged only to Ottar, because he was the strongest of the Freya Familia and Freya's absolutely loyal hound.

So wherever she went, Freya brought Ottar with her. Of course, it was also a form of intimidation.

Banquets among the gods were themselves a "social battleground." To gods, outstanding children were the best capital for showing off, and Ottar was currently Orario's highest-"quality" adventurer.

"A banquet? A Denatus?"

"Not a Denatus. This month's Denatus has not arrived yet; there are still a few days left. And Denatus is not something children like you can attend."

"Then who is hosting this banquet?"

"Apollo~"

"Uh..."

The moment he heard "Apollo," Cao Ye's expression changed. He remembered that guy very clearly.

In Greek mythology, Apollo was regarded as the god of literature and art, presiding over light, the sun, medicine, livestock, music, and more. He was humanity's protector, the god of light, the god of prophecy, the protector of travelers and sailors, the god of medicine, and the god who warded off disaster.

But in DanMachi, Apollo was a perverted gay man who pursued both men and women—an utterly disgusting bastard.

Cao Ye felt that this was definitely the worst Apollo had ever been slandered.

When he had watched the anime before, he had merely found it absurd. But this was a real world. Apollo in this world truly was that kind of god.

"What? Do you have some issue with Apollo?"

Seeing Cao Ye's shifting expression, Freya was somewhat puzzled. Did Cao Ye have some conflict with Apollo? That should not be possible, right?