Free Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 6 by Fujino Omori Page B

themselves, Zeus and a goddess named Hera were the top dogs in Orario. The current arrangement came to be when Loki and Lady Freya took them down and banished them from the city.”
    “…Lord Zeus’s and Lady Hera’s
Familias
were defeated in battle?”
    “That’s true, but not in the way that you’re thinking. You see, the shift in power all started with a failed quest.”
    It sounds like he’s about to get to the juicy part of the story.
    Lord Hermes holds out his hand and sticks up three fingers.
    “This world has burdened Orario with the Three Great Quests.”
    My eyes focus on the three fingertips in front of me.
    “During the era that you children call Ancient Times, three monsters with incredible power escaped from the Dungeon—the quests are to eliminate them.”
    “Eh…So then, that means…”
    “That’s right, they’re alive. These ancient monsters that burst out of the Dungeon are still out there.”
    I gulp down the air in my throat.
    “Ancient Times”—That means these monsters have survived for more than one thousand years. This is incredible.
    Judging by the way Lord Hermes is talking about them…I don’t think they’re related to the monsters Nahza told me about, the ones that escaped the Dungeon and reproduced on their own on the surface.
    “This should be obvious, but the Dungeon provides adventurers in the Labyrinth City with the perfect training ground. As citizens of Orario, they have the obligation to the rest of the world to dispose of the monsters that emerged from beneath their feet.”
    No other city can rival Orario in terms of pure power and influence. This is directly due to the Dungeon, a place where monsters continuously spawn and provide adventurers with nearly limitless opportunities to level up. Aboveground, monsters and humans are much weaker, meaning that adventurers have a very difficult time acquiring excelia—and chances to level up are hard to come by. I’ve heard that the strongest adventurers in other cities are only Level 2, rarely making it to Level 3.
    That’s the real reason that Orario is considered to be the center of the world, this source of absolute power.
    “Fifteen years ago…Zeus and Hera were at the height of their power. Their
Familias
were home to the most powerful adventurers in history, and they set out to challenge the three ancient beasts. First, the Terrestrial Tyrant, Behemoth, then the Ruler of the Sea, Leviathan, were defeated.—And last…”
    Lord Hermes puts down two fingers in turn. He raises the last one up to his face.
    “The last one, the Black Dragon, was too strong and wiped them out.”
    I finally remember to blink.
    “The B-Black Dragon…It can’t be—is that the One-eyed Dragon?”
    “That’s right. You know about it?”
    Oh, I know. I know.
    I met that living embodiment of death and despair in the pages of one of my books when I was a kid.
    The epic tales of heroes from the Ancient Times immortalized in the pages of the labyrinth’s scripture, the
Dungeon Oratoria
. It’s a cruel and merciless monster that appears in the book’s final chapter.
    The bravest of the heroes sacrificed his own life to cut out one of the beast’s eyes, forcing the Dragon King to retreat into the clouds.
    Words have left me, but with Lord Hermes’s story replaying in my mind I manage to grunt an affirmation.
    The living scourge, living legend, the living end.
    This creature that appears in many heroic tales and legends of old is not just a work of fiction, but
alive
…I’m absolutely stunned.
    “Both Zeus’s and Hera’s
Familias
lost their strongest followers in the battle with the Black Dragon, leaving them weak and vulnerable. And now we’re back to where we began. Loki and Lady Freya teamed up to force the two high-ranking scrappers—no, their biggest rival deities—out of the city.”
    Lord Hermes smiles again and shrugs his shoulders.
    “It was just a sign of the changing times. Even the Guild, which had supported them