"Good thing I fine-tuned the whole technique as much as I could. Now I don't have to tame them one by one—completely subjugate every shikigami—before I can control them."
"The shadow soldiers up front? The ones I'm supposed to be able to control, I can control. But Mahoraga… that one still has to be tamed."
Takumi murmured to himself, a faint glint sparking in his eyes.
After his fine-tuning, Mahoraga's abilities had been boosted dramatically.
It kept all of its original powers, but now it could also command every shadow soldier, turn itself into a shadow, and slip through darkness like it owned the place.
And that wasn't all—it gained flight, telekinesis, the ability to soften its body, harden its body, absorb other people's shadows… basically a whole suite of shadow-soldier traits stacked onto it.
Mahoraga wasn't "meh" anymore. This thing was a high-spec monster—nasty mechanics and disgusting stats.
"The only problem is… beating it now is probably going to take some work."
Takumi scanned his surroundings and decided there was no way he was summoning it inside Orario.
If Mahoraga popped out now, it'd be at least Demon King level—and with how hard it was to deal with, it'd be stronger than most super Demon King types.
If he went all-out and fought it for real, Orario might literally burn to the ground.
"I'll need to leave the city sometime. I can't let it rampage inside my Spacetime Realm either. That place isn't that big yet—if I smash it up, repairing it will be a nightmare."
Muttering to himself, Takumi recalled the shadow soldiers one after another.
Seeing his Spacetime Realm stuffed full of magic stones, he got up and headed for the Adventurers' Guild.
He planned to cash out a batch of valis, then finally set up a proper home base in this world.
Living with Hestia and the others in a tiny church forever wasn't exactly a plan.
…
When Takumi arrived at the Guild, the whole place was boiling over.
"Takumi-sama, thank you for saving me—otherwise I would've…!"
"Waaah! Takumi-senpai!!"
"Takumi-senpai, you were so cool!"
"Takumi-sama… I'll never be able to repay what you did for me!"
…
Standing in the middle of that crowd, Takumi suddenly felt like he'd become the sun.
It was way too much attention—straight-up blinding.
But then he looked at the progress that had shot up to nearly two thousand in a single day, and he decided… yeah. He could handle this level of worship.
Escorted by a sea of people, Takumi made it to the counter.
"Eina, I'm back again!"
He greeted her with a grin.
Eina—wearing the Guild uniform and giving off that cool, capable office-lady vibe—smiled warmly back.
"You're just as lively as ever, Takumi-kun. I didn't expect you to be hiding so much."
Still smiling, she patted his shoulder, then leaned closer and whispered, eyes bright with curiosity:
"Be honest… did you really defeat Zald the Gluttony?"
Takumi gave a small nod. There was no point hiding it. Plenty of people had witnessed it.
It was mostly the ones who weren't there who couldn't believe he could beat Zald.
A lot of them had written him off as some kind of absurd super-healer instead.
Because that day, he'd walked through the chaos saving people nonstop—dragging the dying back from the brink like it was nothing. Even someone down to their last breath, he could pull them back up perfectly intact.
The survivors, naturally, spread his name everywhere.
Once Eina confirmed the gossip was true, her look of respect deepened even further.
"This time, we really owe you, Takumi-kun. I don't even want to imagine what Orario would've turned into otherwise."
Takumi's grin turned shameless. "Since I did that much, does the Guild give me a discount?"
"A discount?" Eina blinked. "What kind of discount do you want?"
Takumi answered by pulling out an absurd pile of magic stones.
Watching that mountain of stones appear like he was dumping a warehouse out of his pocket, Eina froze for several seconds.
"…A spatial skill? Or magic?" she murmured.
And then she immediately got it.
"Ah—this scale of exchange…" Eina sucked in a breath. "I'll go ask the supervisor."
She reported it upstairs, doing her best to push for a better rate—hoping she could get him more valis.
The moment the higher-ups heard the exchanger was Takumi, the order came down instantly:
Increase the valis exchange rate by 50%. No matter how much he brings, convert it. All of it.
Right now Takumi was Orario's biggest hero. If the Guild didn't reward him, it would look ridiculous.
Even Eina was shocked by the generosity, and she hurried off to handle the exchange.
…
Deep beneath the Guild, in the underground sanctuary, Ouranos sat on his throne, eyes lifting toward the ceiling.
His gaze felt like it could pierce straight through stone—up to where Takumi stood above.
"A child called a miracle… truly interesting. There seems to be a trace of divinity on him as well. Could he be the child of a god and a human…?"
As one of Orario's founding gods, Ouranos murmured softly.
A terrifying divine pressure radiated from him, suppressing the entire restless Dungeon.
Without his restraint, monsters would spill onto the surface as frequently as they did in ancient times.
And the Evilus's recent attack had only made the Dungeon more unstable.
Ouranos calmly released his divine might again, turning the pressure up until the Dungeon was forced into submission.
"I look forward to seeing how far you can go… mysterious child."
He whispered the last words, then closed his eyes.
…
Above, Takumi stiffened slightly, as if he'd felt the stare.
"A powerhouse on the same level as Zeus…"
He narrowed his eyes and caught the presence of Ouranos down in that underground sanctuary.
From Hestia, Takumi had already learned how gods in this world were broadly ranked.
Most were ordinary gods… and then there were the great gods.
Zeus, Odin, Ouranos—those were all great gods, far stronger than typical deities.
And they were all strange in their own ways. You almost never saw them.
Takumi shook his head and dropped the thought. He had zero interest in provoking a great god right now.
When the exchange finished, Takumi weighed the massive payout in his hands—at least five billion valis—and smiled like he'd just won the world.
"This is plenty. Honestly, getting it this way feels better than crafting it myself. It feels earned."
On his way back, he glanced over his shoulder at the Adventurers' Guild.
While chatting with Eina, he'd also learned how bad Orario's situation was.
After Evilus's attack, collapsed buildings and heavy damage were everywhere.
Dungeon expeditions had dropped sharply.
Most Guild work had shifted to commissions outside Orario and repair requests inside the city.
Takumi figured the timing was perfect.
He could take a commission that required him to leave Orario, use the trip to tame Mahoraga, then come back and farm the Dungeon—and his reputation—properly.
…
When Takumi returned to the church, he immediately saw Hestia bouncing with excitement.
"Takumi-kun! You're finally back!"
The instant she spotted him, Hestia lunged and her breasts swung into him and smacked him twice across the face, heavy and springy enough to rattle his skull.
Squeeze~ Squeeze~
The impact snapped him awake, and the milky-sweet scent clinging to her made his head feel weirdly clear in the most sinful way possible.
Takumi exhaled, half refreshed, half doomed… then reached up and peeled Hestia off him.