Danmachi: Luki's Adventure

This is for anyone who says using artificial intelligence to write is wrong. It easily would have taken me a week to write this chapter if I hadn't used it; instead, I got it done in two days. The raw draft was over four thousand words, but after I edited it myself, it came down to just thirty-six hundred. I think it turned out great—I don't know about you guys, so let me know after you read it.

//

Luki and Eina exchanged information for a short while, keeping their conversation strictly straight to the point so as not to disrupt the heavy flow of the line.

A considerable amount of time had passed since the sudden evolution of the Dungeon, and the people of Orario were finally beginning to master the new threats within its depths.

For instance, they had recently discovered that the layout of the Dungeon was not truly random. Instead, there was a fixed number of structural patterns, the walls were simply shifting back and forth between these pre-determined blueprints.

Furthermore, certain key landmarks always remained entirely fixed—such as the four main passages aligned with the cardinal points, the safe rooms, treasure rooms, and the massive chambers where boss variants typically spawned.

Because of this, as long as an adventurer possessed multiple updated maps and a reliable reader, navigating the labyrinth was still entirely possible, albeit significantly more complicated than before.

The Guild had also managed to compile a comprehensive list of the monsters that could appear on each level, the average size of their packs, and the recommended party numbers and power thresholds for Familias looking to explore them. Most importantly for Luki, a stable market for these new drops had finally been established, which meant it would be much easier make profit.

Luki didn't have a single valis to spare on purchasing one of the Guild's new informational booklets to check during their run. However, with his absurd, near-omniscient spatial awareness, none of that nonsense would be a problem for him anyway.

Once they said their goodbyes, Luki walked back to his party. He found Lili and Ryuu sitting by the waiting area, casually flipping through some magazines to pass the time.

Announcing that everything was fully resolved, the trio finally turned on their heels and made their way toward the tower of Babel.

Yet, the moment they arrived and Luki placed his foot upon the very first step of the spiral staircase, a violent reaction tore through him.

"Ugh!" Luki gasped, staggering forward.

His pupils dilated violently as a sickening sensation washed over him, making him feel as though his mind was forcefully expanding into infinity.

"Luki-sama?! Are you alright?!" Lili cried out, rushing forward to steady him.

Ryuu moved just as quickly, completely casting aside her usual aversion to physical contact.

"No... I'm... I'm fine," Luki choked out, his voice strained as he felt the entire innards shifting and churning in a bizarre, unnatural rhythm. "I just-"

Bam! Suddenly, Luki slammed his foot against the stone floor. His spine stretching upward as his eyes rolled back, revealing the white of his sclera.

A sudden vacuum seemed to erupt from him, violently sucking something around. The ambient light visibly warped around his frame, bending as if space itself was collapsing toward him.

Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, the pressure vanished. Luki snapped back to his senses, leaning forward, hands on knees, breathing heavily as sweat dripped from his forehead.

He looked visibly shaken, but underneath the shock, he felt completely re-energized, overflowing with vitality—as if he had finally woken up.

"Ahh~ what an incredible feeling," He stood up, interlocking his fingers behind and stretching his arms, as he stood on his toes.

As he did, his entire body seemed to visibly flush with life. His already unusual hair completely defied the laws of gravity, standing up. His skin took on a healthier complexion, and the feathers of his wings had a faint luster.

"Luki-san... what is happening to you?" Ryuu took a step back, seeing that he was okay.

Luki, had finally finished with his excessive stretching, looked down at his own hands, opening and closing it as he felt the new power. His real power.

"Sorry, I didn't expect something like this to happen. Apparently, I'm even stranger than I initially gave myself credit for... Anyway, I think those were my skills. For some reason, they get weaker when I'm not in the dungeon."

Tireless Explorer was practically gorging itself on ambient energy, forcing his body into top condition all time. At the same time, his Maze Runner's spatial awareness expanded back to ten-kilometer radius.

Luki could perceive the entire city outside with terrifying precision, down to the smallest ant on the street, or a maze in the sewers of a secret organization of no importance.

This, of course, included the surrounding adventurers, staring directly at him with completely bewildered expressions, confused by the dramatic show he had just put.

But Luki was never someone who was easily embarrassed. He simply shrugged at the crowd and marched down the stairs, with tge two girls exchanging a lingering look before quickly following.

One thing was clear to them: this little excursion was promising to be much more than they had anticipated.

...

"We are heading down to the tenth floor. There is a good chance we'll run into Specters down there. According to Eina, the ash they drop when they die is the most valuable conventional item you can get on the Upper Floors."

"Are we not going any deeper? With the two of us here, there is nothing on these levels that could pose a threat to us." Ryuu asked, now with her hood and face mask lowered, since there was no one there to see.

"Normally, no. But don't forget about the Elite and Boss variants. That dragon that made my life a hell is a monster that typically spawns on these floors. I don't know about you, but I don't want to deal with something like that again anytime soon—so yeah, let's just crush the weaklings."

"Cautious. That's good. But overly paranoid. As far as I understand, people rarely encounter even one or two elite monsters a month, whereas Boss variants hardly ever appear under normal conditions."

"Maybe... But I've learned to never underestimate the Dungeon when it comes to messing with my life."

As they continued down the hallway, Luki did something incredibly strange.

He was walking normally, Zweihänder resting on the shoulder, with the other hand on the hip, when he suddenly took a leap forward, continuing his stride as if nothing had happened.

Ryuu and Lili both stopped dead in their tracks, staring at him in utter bizarre bewilderment.

"Uhm?" Luki blinked, finally noticing the sudden lack of footsteps behind him. He turned around, tilting his head. "What's wrong? Why did you gals stop?"

"Uhm... Luki-sama, why exactly did you just do that?" Lili asked, pointing a hesitant finger at him.

"Did what?"

"You jumped," Ryuu said, gesturing toward the patch of bricks Luki had avoided with his leap.

"I did what? Ah... I didn't jump... did I?" Luki scratched his cheek, genuinely confused.

"Yes, Luki-sama definitely did. You were walking just a step ahead of us when you suddenly leaped all the way over here."

"Uhm... if you say so," Luki murmured to himself, running a hand through his hair. "...I guess my level of weirdness also grows whenever I'm inside this place. I swear I didn't did that..."

He turned his attention back to the floor between them. To the naked eye, it looked completely identical to the rest of the hallway. However, his spatial awareness saw a intricate circular pattern etched into the floor.

Luki understood immediately what that meant. A teleportation trap. The exact same kind of trap that had condemned him more than once during his last catastrophic run in this place.

"Ah! Careful, don't step there! There's a magic trap hidden in the floor!"

But Luki didn't even give them enough time to question how certain he was.

He raised his right leg and slammed his foot down with tremendous force.

BOOM!

The brick floor shattered instantly fracturing into a deep, jagged crater. But it didn't stop there.

ZAP-FLASH! A sudden, violent burst of erratic light erupted from the cracks, catching both girls completely off guard.

The broken shards of stone surrounding the crater were lifted, hovering for a second before a vacuum-like pop echoed through the corridor.

POP! And just like that, everything that had been hovering simply vanished into thin air.

It truly had been a teleportation trap. And as for where it led, it certainly wasn't anywhere pleasant.

"Come on, Dungeon! Just give me a damn break! Just give me one break, will you?!" Luki yelled at the top of his lungs, completely frustrated as he grabbed chunks of his own hair, pulling at it in pure irritation. "Can't I just have a normal adventure for once without you sticking your nose into my business?! For fuck's sake, brother!"

But the strangest part about his outburst wasn't the words themselves; it was the fact that he genuinely seemed to be addressing the Dungeon. Every time he yelled a complaint, his eyes locked onto a very specific corner of the ceiling.

'Luki-sama is acting even weirder than usual today...' Lili thought to herself, a cold sweat running down her neck.

'Luki-san is definitely not in his right mind right now...' Ryuu synchronized in her own head. Both girls silently agreed it was best to simply ignore these sudden, bizarre peculiarities of the only man in their party.

Meanwhile, after finally finishing his angry tantrum toward the brick ceiling, Luki let out a long, defeated sigh and turned back to face them.

"Alright, we need to be extra careful about where we step from now on. I don't have a good feeling about today."

"Luki-sama, there is still time for us to turn back," Lili offered gently, taking a step forward. "This adventuring life has been getting way too dangerous lately."

"Nah, don't worry about it, relax. It's not that dangerous," Luki scoffed, waving his hand dismissively.

CRACK!

Right on cue, a loose brick from the ceiling detached itself, plummeted straight down, and shattered into a dozen pieces cleanly across the very top of Luki's head.

Luki and Lili remained completely frozen, staring dead into each other's eyes. Neither of them shifted their expressions, locked in the exact same faces they had been making a second ago.

"...Okay, maybe you have a point... But I still want to keep going. So, let the good guys follow me!"

Luki marched forward with a foolish, idiotic grin plastered on his face, completely ignoring the trail of dust and cascading down from his hair.

Ryuu watched his retreating back before subtly bending down to whisper in Lili's ear. "This is the first time I have ever seen Luki-san act so... unhinged and expressive. Is he usually like this?"

"Honestly, I don't know either," Lili replied under her breath. Forgetting her usual habit of speaking in the third person. "I don't think it's just his skills that get twisted whenever he enters the Dungeon."

The two girls exchanged yet another lingering look, a gesture they had been doing a lot lately, starting to feel a strange sense of camaraderie forming in the face of Luki's sheer absurdity.

What followed was a brief, almost mechanical routine of efficiency as they descended deeper into the structure.

Thanks to his spatial awareness, the shifting walls were as much of a hindrance to him as a stray feather in the wind. He effortlessly guided the group toward the closest descending point, intentionally picking paths that intersected with every single monster presence along the way.

The process quickly became repetitive: wander down a corridor, stumble upon a pack of monsters, kill them instantly, harvest their precious drops, and move on.

With the two second-class adventurers leading the charge, no monster stood a chance against their blades. Even the elemental monsters were easely neutralized by Ryuu's elven magic.

In short, it felt less like a dangerous excursion and more like a casual stroll through a park—albeit the most hostile park on the planet.

...

Tu-du! Luki qnd Ryuu dropped onto the tenth floor through a wide hole in the celling.

Luki looked up toward the opening. "Alright, Lili! You can come now, I'll catch you!"

"Here Lili comes!" she called back, and without a second thought, she leaped into the open air.

Luki stepped forward, caught her small frame securely in his arms, and gently set her down on her feet.

The three stood side by side, silently absorbing the grim atmosphere of the tenth floor.

Visually, the conventional brick layout was identical to the levels above, but the environmental conditions had drastically worsened.

A thick fog rolled heavily across the ground, reaching their knees and completely obscuring any hidden floor traps or low-nesting monsters. To make matters worse, the darkness felt almost supernatural and magical.

"Specters will appear frequently from this point onward," Ryuu warned, her blue eyes darting through the mist. "Be on your guard. They are significantly more cunning and deceitful than War Shadows."

"Leave it to me. I'll know the exact moment a monster gets anywhere near us. But yeah, keeping a cool head is probably a good idea."

"Let us adopt a standard escort formation. You take the vanguard, Lili-chan will remain in the middle, and I will secure the rearguard. If an ambush occurs, Lili-chan, you immediately retreat to my side. Luki-san will buy enough time for me to chant my magic."

"Good plan. Lili?" Luki glanced back.

"You do not need to worry about Lili, Luki-sama and Ryuu-san. She knows how to take care of herself," she said, using her usual third-person phrasing, though her voice carried a more serious tone.

With their roles defined, the trio pressed forward in tight formation, adopting a slower pace, mostly out of habit rather than necessity, since Luki's expanded radar could perceive every hidden threat.

Whenever they approached a minor trap, Luki simply destroyed it, while the more troublesome ones—like a massive, extended false floor section—were easily bypassed by taking a different corridor.

And as for the monsters attempting to spawn, they all met the exact same swift fate.

Thwack! Ryuu forcefully drove her wooden sword into a fresh fissure forming on the wall, killing a Hard Armored before the monster could even fully pull itself out of the stone.

Crash! Luki dropped from the ceiling, his oversized blade had pierced through lizardman's chest like a massive skewer.

"Lili-chan," Ryuu called out.

"Coming, I'm coming!" She ran toward Ryuu's kill first

Since that monster was still partially trapped inside the wall, the Dungeon would reabsorb its remains much faster, making it the top priority for harvesting.

While Lili swiftly carved out the magic stone, Luki walked over, casually hoisting his massive sword over his shoulder, the monster still there.

"Hey, gals. I sense a pack of Specters just a short distance to our right. They are currently surrounding a lone adventurer. Should we help?"

Ryuu remained silent, staring at Luki as if she were trapped deep within her own turbulent thoughts. After a long, lingering moment, she averted her gaze.

"The choice is yours. I will simply follow your lead," she said. Her voice carried a strange, heavy tone—one that sounded distinctively melancholic.

Luki threw a puzzled glance her way. He could instinctively tell that there was a story hidden beneath her words, likely tied to a mysterious past that he wasn't fully privy to. However, deciding it wasn't his right pry, he keep his questions to himself.

"Lili thinks we should-" Lili cut in, walking toward them after finishing with the other monster.

"Ugh!" she grunted, using all her strength to drag the creature off Luki's weapon, skillfully carving through the tough scales and soft flesh. "-we should avoid getting involved. A lone adventurer nowadays is synonymous with strong expert. Someone with motives we don't know."

"Uhm... he doesn't really feel like a specialist to me. To be honest, his looks pretty weak. I think he might actually die over there."

Lili ripped the magic stone out of the carcass, casually wiping the monster's fluids onto her already stained skirt and slipped the orb into her sack, which was already getting heavy.

"Those definitely aren't the only Specters roaming around this area," Lili reasoned, wiping her brow. "It is far better to simply pretend we know nothing about it and take a different route. It is none of our business."

"Don't say things like that, Lili," Luki said, his voice dropping into a softer, slightly disapproving tone. "Would you have wanted someone to deny you aid when you were at your worst? It feels wrong to simply walk away just because we don't know the person's moral character."

However, completely contrary to what Luki had anticipated, Lili didn't look ashamed or cowed by the comparison. She locked eyes with him and answered without a single shred of hesitation.

"It does not matter. Lili has her own problems, and other people have theirs," she declared flatly. "If someone chooses to extend a helping hand to a stranger, that is their own prerogative, not mine."

Luki stared at her, genuinely taken aback. He really hadn't expected her to say something so... utterly ruthless. He had assumed that she, of all people, would sympathize at least a little bit with someone caught in a desperate situation. But clearly, he was asking for too much; her values had been forged in a much harsher reality than his own.

"Very well, then... I will handle this alone. You two wait here."

Both girls widened their eyes in surprise, completely caught off guard by his declaration. But Luki didn't give them a second to argue, turning on his heel and marching down the corridor.

Seeing him walk away like that, a wave of panic washed over Lili. Her tough facade immediately crumbled, and she scrambled after him as fast as her small legs could carry her.

"Luki-sama! Wait!" she cried out, reaching forward to grab the edge of his sleeve. "Lili is sorry! Please, if Lili said something to anger you in some way, it truly wasn't her intention!"

Luki stopped and looked down at her. Seeing the genuine worry in her eyes, his expression softened instantly.

He reached down, wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against his side, gently squeezing her shoulder to reassure her.

"It's alright, Lili; I'm not angry or disappointed, nor does this make me think any less of you. But... I simply cannot stand idly, watching someone die when I can prevent it so easily."

"But that makes no sense," Lili countered, keeping up with his pace. "Why would you waste your time playing the hero for someone you don't even know? He probably won't even thank you properly afterward. Can't Luki-sama just act like a normal adventurer for once?"

"I have two answers for that. One is kind of cheesy, and the other is just foolish. Which one do you want to hear?" Luki asked without stopping, always keeping an eye on the cornered person.

Lili remained silent. It wasn't because she felt ashamed of her words or guilty about her pragmatism; Luki knew her well enough to tell she just wanted to hear whatever answer he had to offer.

"First one," Luki continued. "I'm helping him for the exact same reason I helped you that day. Because... why not?"

"Because why not?" Lili repeated, blinking.

"Yeah, simply that. It's hard to give alms to a beggar, because just as much as he needs the money, you probably need it too. But in this case, the only thing I'm giving away is my time to perform a trivial task—killing a few weak monsters. I literally lose nothing by helping."

"But that day..." Lili murmured, her brow furrowing. "Luki-sama almost died to save Lili. Are you going to risk doing the same for him?"

"I don't know, maybe? We'll see what happens when we get there."

"Luki-sama!" Lili complained, not exactly yelling in anger but clearly frustrated with his carefree attitude.

"Hahaha! Relax, I'm not throwing my life away. You wouldn't let me anyway, right?"

"Never," she stated firmly.

"See? Ah... the struggles of no longer being single. You can't even do stupid shits and put your life in danger anymore."

Lili went back to her silence, probably satisfied with his answer, or perhaps she just realized that arguing further wouldn't change his mind anyway.

However, someone else in their party was now curious.

"And what is the second reason?" Ryuu asked from behind them, her voice laced with interest.

Luki glanced back at Ryuu, noting her sudden interest in his question.

Perhaps this was meant to be one of those profoundly important, life-changing moments for a person, where a single piece of dialogue could solve a deeply rooted emotional conflict.

But Luki, honestly, couldn't care less about that kind of dramatic buildup.

"Because I am an adventurer," Luki replied simply, turning his gaze back to the path ahead. "What kind of adventurer would I be if I didn't help someone in danger?"

Ryuu stared at his back for a brief second. Her expression didn't morph into a look of overwhelming awe, nor did she have some grand revelation about the world still having hope. Instead, she just gave a understanding nod.

Without saying another word, Ryuu picked up her pace, smoothly cutting past him to take the lead in the narrow corridor.

"Hey, where are you going all of a sudden?" Luki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I said I would follow your lead. Therefore, I am also helping." Ryuu answered casually.

"If you say so. But we better hurry up. While we were having this little chat, that guy just broke a sword when I wasn't paying attention."

Before Lili could even process his words, Luki scooped her comfortably onto his back.

"Just so we are clear, Lili still does not agree with this." she complained, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as the wind began to whip past them. "But Lili won't stand in Luki-sama's way."

"Thanks," Luki chuckled.

Luki and Ryuu burst into full sprint, tearing through the foggy corridors of the tenth floor toward the source of the commotion.

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