Regarding the Shower of Rewards

There was no need for Levi and the special forces to step in.

Julius and the five who were executives of Silver Wings, even if they were remnants.

They stopped over a hundred skilled assassins.

The mansion’s security became like a subcontractor with Silver Wings remnants as a new subcontractor under the special forces.

“H-How?”

“What do you mean how? Can’t you understand even after seeing it directly?”

Looking at his subordinates lying coldly scattered, the guild master trembled all over.

It was truly un-assassin-like behavior.

“Hey, you think guys like you only come here once or twice? A bunch of wet-behind-the-ears brats swarming in so arrogantly. Tch~”

‘What nonsense…’

The unidentified old man kept rambling but never showed an opening.

The opponent was an incredibly skilled person.

Even if he threw a poison needle as a last-ditch effort, he couldn’t envision it succeeding.

‘Damn it.’

There might be surviving guild members, but

Even if they were lucky, they would have scattered.

He had essentially lost the entire assassin guild.

Moreover, he was in the humiliating state of being unable to die or escape at will.

“Ha, haha, hahaha!”

Unable to imagine such a ridiculous end,

He ended up going insane.

“This bastard is laughing.”

“I have eyes and ears too, you idiot.”

The old man approached him, squatted down, and

Lightly slapped his cheeks with his palm.

“Hey, come to your senses.”

“Ahaha, what?”

“I’ll spare your life.”

Of course, he didn’t believe it.

What madman in the world would spare someone who brought hundreds of assassins to kill their master?

“Oh? Not opening your eyes nicely? Pak!”

The old man filled his hand with aura and slapped his cheeks repeatedly,

He had to grab his face and tremble from the pain of the aura embedded in his flesh exploding under his skin.

“This is a technique I learned when dealing with royalists during the revolution, it’s very effective.”

Thanks to the pain, he regained his sense of reality.

“Just kill me quickly.”

“You’d be fine if you just die. But you know…”

“Ugh!”

Besides the old man and the man,

There were three more people.

They seemed to have gone to catch the assassins who had disappeared for a moment and fled.

“B-Boss…”

“These damn bastards… Argh!”

“Are you all safe?”

About twenty were captured as prisoners.

“If you keep whining ‘I want to die~ I want to die~’, I’ll prune your subordinates one by one. Understand? I’ll start with this one’s fingers, that one’s toes, and trim that guy’s ears to make him handsome.”

“What?! W-What are you…”

The man was the master of an assassin guild, but

The old man in front of him was as vicious as any assassin.

In fact, it was nonsense to compare Julius, who was the leader of the revolutionary army specializing in brutal fights, to career murderers.

It must have been quite a fresh shock to the assassin guild master who had some pride in his profession.

“So spill everything obediently. If you do, I’ll spare everyone and give you better jobs.”

“!”

Assassins are largely divided into two types.

Those who switched careers because life was hard, and

Those who became assassins because they loved killing people too much.

The latter rushed in licking their lips at the sight of a few people and were brutally slaughtered by Julius, and

Only the former remained.

Moreover, assassination requests often bring in considerable sums of money.

But he’d give them better jobs?

No one believed those words at face value.

It was obvious he intended to throw them a thread of hope and just extract information.

“Boss, we’re done for, aren’t we?”

When his old friend, who had been with him since founding the guild, said that, emotions welled up.

The cold-hearted assassin guild master shed a few tears and bowed his head deeply.

And,

“I’ll tell you everything.”

Betting everything on a slim hope,

He obediently handed over all the information he had to Julius.

Everything from who the client was, what the purpose was, and even how much money they were supposed to receive.

“Is that so? Alright, release them.”

“W-What?”

He released the guild master and all the prisoners right there.

“You trust us?”

“No. Not yet.”

‘Not yet? What does that…’

Julius pointed south and said,

“Your first mission. Kill Bishop Batalik and display his head on a busy street.”

“…What?”

“Don’t want to? Then die right here.”

“Ah, no, that’s not it…”

The old man was saying this with narrowed eyes:

‘Kill the one who hired you, and show proof of your conversion.’

“It would be better not to think about running away. I’ll chase and kill you anywhere on the continent. But if you complete the mission and return,”

The old man grinned.

“Your ugly lives will surely be saved, and you’ll be able to receive a worthy reward.”

With those words, the old man disappeared.

“Master, are we going back like this?”

“…Let’s go back.”

“Huh? Then about assassinating Bishop Batalik… gasp!”

“Shut your mouth. You’ll lose your blessing.”

The mission had already failed.

The opponent was a monster who could take dozens of lives in an instant.

‘He’ll surely keep his word exactly as he said.’

If we flee, we die.

If we betray now, we’ll die even more horribly.

He could instinctively understand.

So,

“We’re switching sides. This was just a job for money from the start anyway.”

“Understood.”

“We’ll follow the master’s judgment.”

And so, three days later,

The assassins infiltrated Bishop Batalik’s mansion in the middle of the night.

“Come on, let’s do this nicely?”

“Mmph! Mmph!!”

The next day, when the maid entered the bedroom to wake her master, she fainted and fell backward in shock.

On the blood-soaked bed, only the bishop’s body with its head cleanly removed remained neatly arranged.

“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”

The bishop’s head was placed on the fountain in the square in front of the cathedral.

He observed classes for 3 days after seeing the notification that fate had changed, but

‘It doesn’t seem like much has changed.’

Except for Elyssia’s aggressive attitude softening a bit,

There wasn’t much difference.

Maybe her glancing at Ethan during class and smiling shyly?

‘But the other kids do that too.’

So Ethan concluded the incident as ‘No abnormalities.’

The gruesome fate had disappeared too.

He just hoped she would maintain her pure faith and become a proper saint.

He quietly left the room so as not to disturb the class.

Then,

“Oppa…”

“Ah.”

It was time to pay the price.

The notification window blinked.

Wondering what it was this time, he checked,

[The main story’s hostile force, ‘Cancer of the Holy Spirit Realm, Bishop Batalik of the Bishop faction’ has been prematurely eliminated.]

[Holy Spirit Realm, Batalik Province quest cleared.]

[Congratulations to ‘Ethan’, who ranked 1st in contribution.]

[‘Ethan’ is awarded the title ‘Natural Enemy of Corrupt Clergy’.]

[Special rewards will be given.]

“What.”

“Mmm…”

“Ah, right.”

Because he flinched in surprise,

Hwaryon, who was sleeping with her head on his lap, stirred.

-Oppa! How could you do this? I trusted you!

-I’m sorry, but in return, I’ll grant whatever you want…

-…Really?

-Really, of course.

‘Is it because she’s still a child?’

What Hwaryon asked for was a lap pillow.

Such a modest request even after suffering so much from Elyssia.

Ethan smiled lightly and stroked Hwaryon’s head.

About thirty minutes after Hwaryon drifted off to dreamland, mumbling “nyam nyam”,

Ethan carefully checked the notification window again.

‘Isn’t Bishop Batalik the leader of the Bishop faction?’

He’s the leader of the Bishop faction who clashes with the weakened Papal faction right after the Great War and finally seizes hegemony.

It was hard to understand what had happened, but

-Ding!

[The great demon ‘Erihazard’ has been repelled on the 300th floor of the labyrinth Storygia!]

[This is the achievement of the ‘Douglan Expedition’ you sponsored!]

[The sponsor’s share in repelling the great demon ‘Erihazard’ amounts to over 80%.]

[Special rewards will be given to the sponsor ‘Ethan’.]

The impact of the second notification was so great that

The bishop was pushed to the back of his mind.

‘300th floor?’

The Douglan Expedition, who returned to the labyrinth Storygia after leaving the mansion.

They struggled for a while to readjust to the labyrinth after being accustomed to abundant and comfortable living, but

Soon they operated skillfully like before.

Then one day,

“Ugh!”

“Where did so many suddenly appear from?”

When they reached the 100th floor underground of the labyrinth,

They were surrounded by a horde of monsters, 10 times more numerous than usual.

Each monster wasn’t that strong, but

When their numbers multiply, they become a disaster.

“Is there no way to escape?”

“It’s hopeless, there’s no terrain nearby we can use as a shield!”

Slan screamed.

“Dusty, can’t you use wide-area attack magic?”

“I’m out of mana. It’ll take a while to recover even if I start burning tobacco now.”

“How long to hold out?”

“1 hour.”

“Damn it!”

Osten, who had been diligently shooting arrows, stopped moving.

He had run out of arrows.

The mage was out of mana.

The swordsman Slan was out of stamina and confidence.

“Haha, is this the end?”

“If I knew it’d be like this, I should’ve drunk until I puked back at the mansion.”

“Slan, you bastard, you puked in your sleep that evening.”

“I mean I should’ve pushed in more to puke while fully conscious, you idiot. Kekeke.”

Still, Dusty rummaged through his backpack just in case.

“What potion… Ah!”

When they were leaving the mansion,

It was the potion Ethan had given as a gift.

Since the only explanation was that it would be helpful,

They had saved it without drinking.

“Well, we’re going to die anyway, let’s drink it and die.”

He opened the bottle and poured it down his throat.

Then,

“Huh?”

“Dusty, did you perhaps use some self-destruct magic?”

“What nonsense. I told you I have no mana left.”

Bright light erupted from his whole body.

And,

“Huuuh???”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Hahaha, is this possible?”

Mana was generated in large quantities.

No, not just mana.

All physical specs increased.

Even mental power went up.

Moreover, his limit that had stopped at the 6th tier broke.

His current tier is,

“10th tier?”

“Huh? What’s that all of a sudden…”

“Hahaha! What on earth is that young man?”

Dusty laughed cheerfully and created two huge fireballs with both hands,

And threw them in order towards the wave of rushing monsters.

-Kieeeek!!

-Kerrrrrk!!

-Kuwakwakwakwa!!!

There wasn’t a single surviving monster where the two fireballs swept through.

“Y-You…”

“What on earth is this?”

“The potion Ethan-ssi gave. You guys didn’t drink it either, right?”

“Of course not! How could we drink it carelessly without knowing what kind of potion it was!”

“Right. It’s too precious.”

“You’ll know if you drink it.”

Osten and Slan, who drank the potion as Dusty advised,

“Wh-What power?”

“This is unbelievable…”

The three people swept away 3 additional monster waves that rushed in, and

Returned to the surface as they were.

After regrouping in just one day,

They went back down into the labyrinth.

“At this rate, we could break the deepest floor record.”

While they were away for a short time,

The deepest floor record had changed slightly.

“Puhahaha! Isn’t that obvious?”

Slan snorted.

“I feel like we could even reach the bottom of the labyrinth at this rate.”

As he said, the Douglan Expedition went down steadily.

And when they finally reached the 300th floor underground,

-Damn you humans. I’m back!

Erihazard, who had recovered in a short time after devouring 20 direct apostles, crawled up from the bottom.

-You humans from back then!

“Ah, that demon from back then?”

-How dare you face me with such an attitude. Just die!

Slash!

-Uh, uuung?!

The great demon sensed that something was wrong with its unstable body.

Silver arrows were densely stuck in its dozens of eyes, though it didn’t know when they were shot.

The 12 cores that were its power source were destroyed by precise mana manipulation.

And that’s not all. The tendons in its arms and legs were all cut by sharp sword strikes.

It all happened in an instant.

“It seems weaker than back then.”

“I’m telling you, we’ve gotten stronger.”

“Is that important? Our expedition is the first to reach the 300th floor!”

-Th-This is impossible…

Erihazard spat out bitterly as it disappeared.

They were crazy humans who didn’t care about a great demon at all.

-Next time… I won’t… come out… here…

A special growth potion that doubles all abilities.

The Douglan Expedition had seen its light.