I am not the shield hero

The mining complex looked like it was some sort of small excavation site. Every level was a square ring, starting at around 150 feet long near the top and getting smaller as it went down. Five layers down, there were tunnels that went off in four directions. If Dante had to guess, after finding a large amount of ore near the surface, the miners went down further in hopes of finding more. There were smaller deposits further in, according to Eclair, but nothing like what was first unearthed.

The tunnels seemed to go forward at a decline before turning, if the western tunnel was any indication. It was the one with the most sunlight pouring into it.

Of course, the dead monsters on the ground were more concerning.

"It doesn't look like that thing was responsible for this." Eclair said, pointing out the slash wound on the dead dog monster. It looked like it had been left out to rot.

"That was from the wave…" Raphtalia stared down at the beast.

"I thought you might say that." Dante leaned over and absorbed the monster into his shield.

Black Dog Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: agility bonus (small)

Dante looked around the site. There were several more dogs around, but no other monsters.

"Were there any other monsters that came in the wave?" He asked as he went around absorbing more of them.

"Ah, yeah." Raphtalia snapped herself from her thoughts. "There were skeletons, too, and dogs with two head. The largest one had three. That one…"

"You don't need to say it." Dante gave her a look. Raphtalia had told Dante and Sadeena what happened to her parents while on the road from Idol's. Of course, Dante already knew, and he'd told Sadeena ahead of time to prepare her.

What Dante wasn't aware of before was what happened to the other two. Rifana lost her mother to a dog and her father to one of the knights. Keel's father died to a dog, but his mother had died when he was younger. Neither one was happy being around these monsters.

"I don't see any people around." Sadeena noted. "And I'm not hearing anything from the tunnels."

"So they're all gone?" Dante asked, absorbing a pickaxe that was underneath one of the dogs. The mining bonus was sure to be helpful here.

"Hmmm." Sadeena looked toward the tunnel closest to her. "It's more like I'm hearing nothingness."

"I don't follow." Dante said.

"I mean, I don't even hear the echoes from our voices."

"Oh." That could mean something was suppressing the sound. It was good for keeping nosy people away, and for disrupting Sadeena's echolocation.

"How should we do this?" Eclair looked towards the tunnel.

"One tunnel at a time." Dante said. "Although, eight of us going in at once will probably be a bit much."

"Agreed." Eclair nodded. "Who will be going in?"

"Not you. You'll stay out here with Sadeena."

Eclair shook her head. "Sir MacRory, I can fight now. I'm not here to be put on the side."

"That's fair, but you only recently regained that ability, not to mention everything you've gone through already." It hadn't even been a full day since they found her. A good night's sleep helped, but Dante knew she'd need more than that, even with the healing items they used on her. She hadn't practiced much with her gauntlet either, seeing as she spent most of her time riding in the carriage.

"Very well." She conceded. "Then I shall take this opportunity to spar with whoever remains."

"Good." Dante looked at everyone else to figure out who would stay. Honestly, it wasn't a difficult thing to figure out. "Raphtalia, Rifana, and Keel will go with me. Dio and JoJo will stay out here."

"Whaaaat?" Both Dio and JoJo were displeased with that.

"Look, the tunnel isn't that big. You'd have little room to move around." Sure, the cacodemon took up about the same amount of space, and it looked like it could fit, but it could also attack without a lot of movement.

"We can be smaller." JoJo said as he transformed into his child form. Dio did the same.

"Can either of you fight like that?" He asked the pair. He did note that their stats did drop a bit, similar to the difference in Sadeena's stats when she transformed.

"Yeah! We just have to punch real hard!" Dio said, holding up her fists. Well, it wasn't the worst idea, and their stats were about the same as Raphtalia and Keel's, and those two had armor and enhanced weapons.

"Alight, how about this?" Dante tilted his shield and ejected an iron mace from his item drops. "Whoever comes in will use this weapon. It's easy enough to wield without training, so there shouldn't be any issue." The more damage they could deal, the better.

"Mm, I don't want to use a weapon…" Dio whined. "I'll stay out here with Sadie and Berry."

"Please don't call me that, Miss Dio." Eclair said with a sigh.

"It's a term of endearment." Dante said with a smirk. "To keep the tunnel from being too cramp, why don't you stay out here as well, Raphtalia."

"Are you sure?" She asked, looking at the tunnel.

"Yeah. If it doesn't open up more, then too many people will make it more difficult to move around. Besides, you can practice with Eclair while you wait." Dante also wanted to keep another higher level person out here, just in case any monsters, bandits, or whatever decided to become a problem.

"Okay." The raccoon girl went over to Eclair, drawing her sword. Sadeena was already helping Eclair into her gauntlet.

JoJo picked up the mace and the group of four went to the nearest tunnel. A few torches lay on the ground near the entrance. Dante held them in his hand as Rifana lit them with her spell. There was one for each adult, plus one for Dante to absorb. JoJo didn't want one.

Torch Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: low-light vision bonus (small)

equip effect: torch light

As nice as it would be to use now, Dante decided to keep out his strongest shield. Hopefully, the cacodemon was the strongest thing here, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Once inside the tunnel, they did indeed go down a decline. The walls and ceiling were supported by wooden beams, the ceiling itself being curved. If Dante had to guess, he'd say two cacodemons side by side might be able to fit, but with no room to maneuver. Definitely not somewhere to have a pitched battle, but it could work in their favor. With Dante in the front, he would stop any attack that came at them, especially if the other monsters were as smart as that cacodemon.

After going straight for about a minute, the path split, going in opposite directions. Not sure how many twists there would be, Dante decided to follow the right hand rule and led them right. They would eventually find every part of the mine if they kept along the wall on their right. Unless, of course, the tunnels were connected. Then they'd find themselves heading towards the surface sooner rather than later.

They continued along for several more minutes, finding discarded mining and digging equipment. Anything Dante could, he absorbed into his shield. A shovel, a hammer, another pickaxe that he stuck in his belt, plus a decent amount of ore on the ground from a spilled wheelbarrow. It looked to be mostly copper, with a few iron mixed in, all of which got stored in his item drops. Turned out that ores for his power ups could be stashed there, even if they didn't come from a monster. He'd say whoever was here left in a hurry, but the dried blood on the ores told him otherwise.

They kept walking and found more equipment and loose ore, but no bodies. There was enough blood on the ground to indicate a number of deaths, but there should still be some bones left.

As they rounded another corner, they heard a number of high pitch roars. In front of them was a wider room with almost a dozen figures in it. They had brown skin, spikes lining their upper torsos, and glowing red eyes. At such close range, Dante's appraisal skills he picked up showed him what he thought them to be.

D. Imp

"Behind me!" He called, raising his shield. The imps closest to him swung their claws, connecting with his shield. A pleasant clang noise sounded, indicating no damage.

Keel swung his axe around Dante, splitting the closest one's skull open. Dante was quite pleased with the amount of XP they got from it. Likewise, JoJo swung his mace at the second imp, breaking its knee and knocking it to the ground. Another swift strike smashed in its skull as well.

"Well, these things are pretty weak." Dante said. The sound of soft explosions echoed in the room, accompanied by flashes of light.

"Hey, Dante, are they doing what I think they are?" Keel asked, chopping at the next imp to step up to Dante.

"Yeah…" Dante could see past the ones in front to those in the back. They were hurling fireballs…at the imps right in front of them. "While I can appreciate the dedication it took to mimic their behavior from the game…well, I'm a little disappointed they did. Plus, that's XP we won't be getting."

"Faust Fire Shot!" Rifana cast her spell, striking one of the imps in the back. Dante turned to look at her, the imps in front clearly not requiring his attention. "What? You said they wouldn't give us XP."

Dante gave her a smile. "Smart girl." He said, earning a smile from her. With the imps' simple attacks and friendly fire, the fight didn't last long. At the end of it, they had killed all but one of them, gaining a good amount of XP.

Dante tapped one against his shield, absorbing it.

D. Imp Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: defense bonus (small)

Not very exciting, but Dante could always use more defense. Thanks to the nature of the imps, he only received claw attacks. Thus, he took no damage. The others were perfectly safe as well. Dante looked about the room before trying to absorb the others. The walls in this room didn't have the same type of supports as they saw earlier. Come to think of it, neither did part of the tunnel they went through.

"What were they doing in here?" Dante pondered aloud.

"They were mining." Keel answered.

"They were?"

"Yeah." Keel nodded. "They had these pickaxes in their hands. Didn't you see?"

"I must have missed that." Dante said. He was a little blinded by the nostalgia of seeing these things here.

The room itself wasn't that large, maybe 20 feet long and wide. The walls had some ore still in them. "Hey, JoJo, hold this for a second." Dante handed off his torch to the bird boy and pulled the pickaxe from his belt. He switched his shield over to the Pickaxe Shield and readied himself. A target appeared in his vision on the wall. He swung the pickaxe at it, knocking down a large section of the wall. The visible ore fell, along with a fair amount more that wasn't visible. He stored the pickaxe again and let his shield absorb some of it.

Spellcobalt Ore Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: magic bonus (small)

equip effect: magic absorption

"Ooh, nice." Dante looked over the stats of the shield itself. It was similar to the normal Iron Shield, but the defense and magic resistance were practically swapped. Even powered up, the Reinforced Iron Shield couldn't compete with this one's magic resistance. What's more, with the equip effect, those cacodemons would probably just end up feeding him MP. Of course, knowing how these things went, he probably wasn't going to encounter another one. He might be able to try it with the imps, but he'd likely be clawed to hell before one of them managed to hit him with a fireball.

Actually, this is an ore shield. If it's this good, I wonder what a proper shield made from this would be like. I didn't find one at Erhard's.

"Hey, dad?" JoJo pulled Dante from his thoughts.

"What's up?" Dante asked.

"Something's weird with these monsters." JoJo pointed the torch at the closest imp.

Dante switch to his newly acquired Torch Shield. It was a bit comical, looking like a torch stuck on a wooden plaque. The light, however, was brighter than the torches the others held, so that was something. He held it close to the imp, looking it over.

"What do you see?" Dante glanced at JoJo.

His son walked around the imp, holding the torch over it. "Look at the blood."

Dante did so. Despite not being pixilated, it looked like what he remembered from the game. Of course, the corpses didn't all lie in the same position like the game, but he didn't see anything irregular.

"What about it?" He asked.

"It smells weird." JoJo said.

"Weird how? Poisonous?" Dante wasn't really surprised if that was true.

"No, it doesn't smell like monster blood." JoJo touched the blood with his free hand, having already fit his mace in his sash. He brought it close to his nose for a better whiff. "It smells kinda like those guys from the big house."

Dante looked down at the body of the imp again. It was about as tall as Keel and the others. Five fingers, five toes, basically a normal looking body up to the head, with the spikes added on. Dante gripped the mouth of the imp, opening it to look inside. The teeth did look human, just with slightly larger canines.

Of course, there was a quick way to be sure. He switched to his Savage Shield. It wouldn't react at all to monsters. Only people. Looking up, Keel was going through the supplies on a nearby table. He was the only one that he had to worry about for now, as Rifana saw this yesterday and JoJo probably wouldn't care, being a monster and all. He brought the shield closer to the imp. The mouth on the shield opened.

XP flashed in Dante's vision.

He quickly stood and shifted his shield back to the Reinforced Iron Shield. When he looked around, he didn't see anything. The others prepared themselves too, clearly not having made any attack.

XP popped up again.

With a quick look between each other, they ran from the room, Dante shifting to his Torch Shield. He brought up his status to look at the rest of his party. None of them had taken any damage…no, Raphtalia just did. It was incredibly small, but it was there. Sadeena just did as well. Raphtalia again. Now Eclair.

"Move, quickly!" Dante yelled, leading the group. JoJo had enough room to transform, but the ceiling was a bit too low at points. He'd need to duck down if he really wanted to run, and he definitely couldn't carry anyone.

The HP of his topside party members kept ticking down, but in very small increments. Likewise, many XP notifications continued to pop up. They were a bit smaller than the imps, but the sheer volume was concerning.

After several minutes of running, they finally reached the surface. Sound from the outside world returned to them. Dante was greeted by a swarm of men and women attacking his party. Dozens of bodies already littered the ground, but there was over a hundred still alive. What Dante took notice of quickly was that all of them had strange looking right arms. After the elbow, it looked as if they had crafted tubes made from their bones.

A few of them turned to face the group, pointing their right arms at Dante. A familiar sound rang out, the same sounds as the other people present. Several small objects harmlessly bounced off his body, looking like bullet-shaped bones. In that instant, he fully understood what they were, confirmed with his appraisal.

D. Zombieman.

Dante ran towards the mass of moving bodies, forcefully pushing through them. The sounds of fake gunfire were all around him. Once in the center, he stopped.

"Hate Reaction II!" He yelled, gaining the attention of the enemies around him. He unlocked that shield in the past few days and was waiting to use it. He didn't expect a situation like this to unfold, though.

The good news was that the range on his skill encompassed the entire lower level of the site, which meant every one of these guys was attacking him now. The bad news was that they seemed to be aiming their shots better than the imps. Dante wasn't seeing any friendly fire, though there were a lot of them shooting, so he might not be noticing it. That same clanging noise from before repeated in his ears constantly. If anyone was saying anything, they'd have to wait for him to respond.

As expected, the HP of his party stopped decreasing, and the XP notifications increased.

I'm happy that they aren't getting hurt anymore, but now I'm both deaf and blind. Well, as long as they're safe, I can deal with…why does that one look different?

Dante noticed one in the back. No, there were a few scattered around. The bone-gun things looked longer and darker, as if—

The shot impacted on his shoulder. No, it was multiple shots, like a shotgun.

Dammit! Well, of course those ones would be here. I can't really defend against all of them, but a least the damage isn't too bad. I'll just—oh, fuck no!

"Air Strike Shield V!" He threw up his barrier between him and the more dangerous looking zombie. A loud boom went off, dozens of pellets impacting against the barrier. It had a small crack in it, but it held. The zombie that shot at him had two long tubes sticking out of its arm. After it fired, the tubes snapped down. Two shells were ejected and another two were being put in, the flesh where the tubes connected to its arm moving around to push them in.

Oh, that is bullshit! Zombies did not have that in the game!

"If anyone can hear me, kill that one over there!" Dante yelled out to his party. "Faust Guard VI!" He cast his magic on himself.

It shot at his barrier again, producing another crack on it. Dante was pretty sure it would survive, but once it timed out, he'd need to take action. If he put himself in a Shield Prison, it might disrupt his Hate Reaction. He'd be better off putting that one in the prison, especially since it was mowing down the zombiemen in front of it, denying them the XP. Truthfully, he wasn't worried about himself. He was worried what that thing would do to his party members, with their significantly lower defense.

After the third shot, his prayers were answered. Raphtalia had managed to get around the zombies and cut him down. She continued her assault on the zombies in front of her, killing these weak things in one hit each.

A few seconds later, his Hate Reaction timed out, letting the zombies turn to their nearest targets. This time, everyone's HP started ticking down, as they were more spread out and drawing their own groups. Fortunately, the zombies moved about more, instead of all of them firing at once. They were able to heal up during his distraction, but they'd likely heal just as fast as they lost HP with the time it took to take out a potion.

"Don't stop attacking!" Dante called out.

He had a solution for that as well. While he didn't have healing magic, he did have another way to replenish the HP of his teammates.

HP Endowment.

From the Shield of Sacrifice, he was able to transfer HP from himself to anyone in his party. He tried it out yesterday with Sadeena, since she took a small amount of damage after her de-leveling. As the Shield Hero, he had plenty of HP to spare. Of course, healing seven people wasn't going to be possible with his HP alone. He dropped a potion from his shield and caught it before it fell, quickly drinking part of it before the rest was shot from his hand.

He continued that for nearly a minute, watching his party's HP to make sure it didn't get too low, until he used Hate Reaction II again. With the zombies' focus fully on him again, the rest of the party was able to cut through the rest of the enemies.

It was a pity, really. Under different circumstances, he could have lowered the level of all but one of his party members and had them gain a ridiculous amount of levels. In a matter of minutes, they got almost as much XP as they did with Sadeena and one of the filolials at sea for that whole day.

Someone or something is doing this and laughing, and I am not happy about that.

Dante looked around the slaughter field. At least 150 bodies were amassed on the ground, all in varying degrees of bloodiness. He was really glad his Hate Reaction didn't seem to have a target limit, only a range limit.

"Everyone okay?" He asked. Dante could see the HP of everyone through his status magic. Currently, they all had higher amounts than him. They were around 70% while he sat around 40%. The HP loss was one thing, but his body was incredibly sore. When he transferred the HP, it was more like he was taking the damage away from them and applying it to himself. His body was riddled with puncture wounds.

Of course, he was more concerned about their mental wellbeing. JoJo and Dio, while young, were monsters. This likely wouldn't affect them too greatly. Sadeena has seen and done her fair share of killing, so he wasn't worried there either. The other three demi-humans, the ones who were kids not that long ago, those were the ones he was most worried about.

They've killed people, they've killed monsters, and they've killed monstrous people in the mercenaries. But, to see so many people moaning and howling at them, looking like something out of a mad scientist's workshop while using strange weapons, that was something that would leave a lasting impression.

Dante saw Raphtalia first. She was shaking, holding one arm at her side with her other. Her eyes were downcast, taking in the bodies around her.

Next was Rifana. He'd seen her cast her spell a number of times, looking for the zombies that were more powerful. She'd taken out a number of the ones with the shotgun-like weapon, the ones that actually hurt him. Currently, she was holding onto JoJo like a lifeline.

Finally was Keel. He…

Slash!

Keel slammed his axe into a zombie on the ground. It didn't give any XP, since it was already dead. He brought it up again and then down again. The blood from it splattered, spraying on his face. His eyes were focused on the corpse. Pinpricks. He lifted his axe again.

"Hey, Keel?" Dante called out to him, approaching Keel from the front. "You okay there?"

Keel slammed his axe down again, not responding. He didn't even look up at Dante.

"Keel? Buddy?" Dante reached him, just as the axe was brought up again. Without looking at him, Keel slashed at the corpse once more.

As he tried to retrieve his axe again, Dante placed his hand over Keel's.

"You did it." Dante said in as calming a voice as he could. "You got him. You can set the axe down now."

Keel pulled at the haft of the axe, but Dante kept it down. His eyes shuddered a moment before looking up at Dante. Tears leaked out from the corners of his eyes.

"I…" Before he could say another word, Dante pulled Keel into a hug. Keel clung to Dante's ruined armor, trying to hold him closer. The ruined chains fell to the ground and Keel tried to grab onto his shirt, only for the same thing to happen.

"You're okay." Dante said, patting his back. Keel whimpered, digging his hands into Dante's back. "You're good. You did good."

Dante could feel the tears fall onto his chest. Keel's body started to go limp, so Dante eased him down to the ground, making sure he wasn't right up against one of the corpses. Once his grip on Dante lessened, Dante stood back up.

Keel kept his eyes on the ground. "You okay?" Dante asked him. He got a slight nod. Dante placed his hand on Keel's head, giving it a quick pat. He didn't respond much to it.

"Hey." Sadeena said from next to Dante. She'd made her way over, bringing Raphtalia with her, the younger woman's hand held in hers.

"Hey." Dante returned. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Sadeena nodded to the side. Dante looked over and saw Eclair sitting on the ground, her knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. The blade was still in the gauntlet. Dio had a feathered arm blanketing her. "She isn't responding to me. Can you give her a try? I'll watch over the others."

"Sure." Dante gave Keel one last pat before stepping away. He tried to move around the bodies, but there were too many. He ended up walking around the entire outer area to avoid them.

When he reached Eclair, her eyes instantly snapped up to him. She pointed her sword his way, prompting him to take a step back.

"Easy, easy." He soothed, holding up his hand. "It's over. You're safe now."

Eclair held her gaze on him. The blade shook in her grasp. Dio's wing spread over her arm, helping to lower it to the ground. "S-Sorry…" She let out.

"It's fine." Dante said calmly. Looking at her, she had hardly any blood on her armor. As he thought about it, he had to replenish her HP the least. If she was in the back like this for the most part, that would explain it. "You froze up." Dante said. He wasn't accusing her, only stating his opinion.

"Yeah." Eclair nodded. "Those two…" She loosely pointed at a pair of the zombies that were close by. "They attacked Lurolona. One was a slaver. The other was a knight who…"

Dante didn't need her to finish that sentence. Just looking at one told him it was the same knight that was at Ronota a few days ago. He looked at the two and pulled out his notebook, sitting on the ground with it. He glanced over at Eclair as he flipped through the pages. When he landed on the intended page, he matched their descriptions to what was written. He read the notes on the slaver that he got from the knight.

"Fuck." He crossed off their names and closed the book, returning it to his pack.

"What?" Eclair looked over at him. Her bladed hand was fully on the ground. Dio wrapped a second wing around the woman.

"One of them was the slaver who would've had information on where the kids were sold." He said as he stood.

"Oh…" Eclair looked down again. She stroked Dio's feathers with her free hand. "Fuck."

Dante yelled, kicking the former slaver and startling Eclair. "What the fuck good are you now, huh!?" He kept kicking the dead man, with little effect. "You couldn't even live long enough to tell us what we wanted to know! When I get to hell, the first thing I'm going to do is kill you again!"

"Papa…" Dante stopped at hearing Dio's voice. He turned to his daughter, his voice softer.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I didn't mean to scare you." He said, trying to give her a smile. Even in her filolial form, he could see a frown on her face.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"Yes, sweetie, I'm okay." He told her.

"Why are you lying?"

Dante sighed before he spoke next. "Because I didn't want you to worry, but I suppose lying to you wouldn't work. Sorry." He pointed to the slaver. "That man might have known where Sadeena, Raphtalia, Keel, and Rifana's friends are, but now we won't be able to ask him."

"Oh…" Dio looked over at the body of the dead slaver. She scrunched up her face in thought before she turned back. "I'm sorry, Papa, I don't know how to help."

"That's quite alright, Dio. You don't have to worry about that." Dante smiled at his daughter.

"But I can give you a hug. Would that help?"

Dante paused for a moment before laughing. "I think it would, but finish hugging Eclair first."

"No, Sir MacRory." Eclair patted Dio's wing before moving out from under them. "Please, hug your daughter. I'd be a poor knight if I stood in your way."

Dante shook his head. "Really, if you're—"

Dio—the moment Eclair finished talking—transformed and ran to Dante, jumping up at him. He held his arm under her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him closely.

"Everything will be okay, Papa." Dio comforted him.

"I know, sweetie." Dante said, swaying in place. "Thanks for reminding me." He saw Eclair stand up and give him a smile from under her helm. "How are you?"

"Better." She looked over at the dead knight-turned-zombie. "What happened to him?"

"The same thing that happened to the monsters we found in the mines." Dante said. "Only, these guys still look human. Or, rather, demi-human." As he passed the numerous bodies, he saw that many still had animal-like features on them. "I don't really want to think about it, but the cacodemon from earlier…"

"Could have been human too." Eclair finished his thought.

"Or several humans." He wouldn't put it past whoever this alchemist was. Reincarnated had severely twisted personalities, but this was a bit much.

"Maybe we should have waited." Eclair reasoned. "The kids…well, former kids, weren't ready for something like. And, neither was I."

"Maybe." Dante looked over at the rest of his party. Sadeena was consoling Keel on the ground. Rifana still had a hand on JoJo, but she and Raphtalia were talking to each other. "But, we might have let this alchemist build up a huge army. These were the weakest of the things they could have created, with the exception of that cacodemon. Even one step higher could have been devastating."

If the alchemist had made even a single heavy weapon dude, Dante wasn't sure where they'd be, let alone a hell knight, and god forbid a cyberdemon. All those enemies, plus one of those… Frankly, he was lucky guns—and their equivalent—operated with stats in this world.

"We still have something to do here." He said, setting Dio down. "We need to kill this alchemist before they escape and make any more of these things. Who knows how many people they've killed already, let alone how many more they'll kill."

"I agree." Eclair pointed her sword to the farthest tunnel. "This horde of monsters came from that mine entrance."

"Then that's where we'll all go." Dante started heading over there.

"Should we bring everyone?" Eclair hesitantly asked. "I do wish to prove I can still fight, but I'm worried the same thing will happen again."

"Better all together than separated." Dante said. "I thought we would be fine slightly broken up like this, but it's sea fighting all over again. From now on, we all stick together. No more breaking into groups to hunt."

He tapped his shield against a couple of the zombies as he passed them, revealing a few shields.

D. Zombieman Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: HP bonus (small)

D. Shotgun Guy Shield

(abilities locked) equip bonus: SP bonus (small)

He tried absorbing that special shotgun guy, but it revealed no other shield. He walked over to Sadeena and the others. She nodded at him, clearly having heard what he said. "Are you all ready?" Dante asked them.

"We're ready." Keel said, shouldering his axe.

"I want you in the back of the group." Dante told him.

"But—" Dante held up his hand before Keel could argue.

"You handled yourself well, but I don't want you to be in the front. Same goes for Raphtalia and Rifana." He turned to the girls. "You will stay in the back with JoJo. Eclair will be in the middle. Sadeena, Dio, and I will be in the front."

Keel looked like he wanted to protest, but he gave a nod anyway.

"Good."

Sadeena quickly helped Dante into another stored shirt and set of chainmail. They got into formation in front of the tunnel, having drank a few potions from Dante's shield. Dante cast his spell on the three frontliners, with himself standing at the very front. They had a couple more torches here, plus the few they dropped when they exited the last tunnel, and had Rifana light them all.

They walked down the decline into the mines. A short walk down opened into a very wide area. It must have been where all the zombies had stayed, and where the miners found a good vein of ore. The entrance to this tunnel was a bit wider, so they were able to swarm out faster. At the far end of the room, another tunnel took them further in. It twisted around a few times, possibly chasing after larger deposits the miners were finding.

Eventually, it opened up into a small living quarters that looked recently dug out. The ceiling was much higher up here. A mat sat in the corner of the room. There was a desk that had some books or journals on top of it. Next to that was a long table with beakers, test tubes, and various plants and ingredients on it. Another open journal lay next to one of the apparatuses. There was a shelf in another corner, filled with even more ingredients and reagents, as well as a few more books.

Dante stepped further into the room. He let the light from his torch wash over everything. A sudden bump caught his attention. He quickly turned to see a small table in front of the bookshelf. Underneath, he saw a small boy, probably no older than 10. He had his knees up to his chest, shaking as he looked up at Dante.

"A-Are all the monsters gone?" His quivering voice asked.

Dante looked over at the rest of his party and waved them over. "Yeah, they're gone." He said, handing off his torch to Sadeena. He held out his hand to the boy, who quickly grasped it. Dante took notice of the orange fox ears on the boy as he pulled him up. "What happened?"

"I-I don't know." The boy stuttered as he spoke. "The weird man who was here sent out all his monsters, then ran out of the room."

"We missed him?" Eclair asked. "Damn it!"

"We still killed all of the monsters he made." Raphtalia pointed out.

"All the monsters he sent up." Rifana countered. "There might be some more in the other tunnels we need to get rid of."

"Hm, yes." Eclair nodded. "We should go there afterwards to make sure."

"That sounds like a good plan." Dante said. "Only, there's one problem."

"What is it?" Eclair asked him.

"The boy is lying." Dante looked down at him.

"W-What?" The fox boy looked up at him. "No, I'm not!"

"Oh, I see it now." Sadeena stepped forward.

"Yeah." They had just gone through a rather horrifying battle, so it was no wonder the others hadn't noticed. Dante and Sadeena, however, were still in a good state of mind.

"I'm telling you, the man just ran out of the room. You need to go find him!" The boy cried out.

"We could do that." Dante nodded along. "Or, you could answer some questions. For instance, why do your clothes look so nice?"

The clothes the boy wore were by no means extravagant, but they also weren't damaged. They were the kind of clothes one might expect on the son of a decent merchant or craftsman. Better than what Dante saw on the farmers of Lute, but not quite as good as some of the merchants in the capital.

"I-I found them after I ran from the wave!" The boy answered.

"He's lying now." Dio said, looking at him. "But I don't think he was lying earlier."

"I know he was." Dante gave her a pat on the head, eliciting a giggle. "I've had people lying to me for years, and people wanting me dead just as long. See, I tend to like animals more than people, so I might not always be able to tell when someone is lying, but I can always sense bloodlust."

"But I'm not lying!" The boy cried out. "Please, you have to believe me!"

Dante smirked. "And you just tipped your hand."

"What?"

"Didn't you hear anything strange about what I just said? About animals?" Dante asked.

"W-What about them?" The boy looked nervous.

"People here don't use that word. They're called monsters here." Dante remembered Keel's confusion at the word. "Though, that does bring up an interesting thought. Did you hear most of what I said in your old language, or in Melromarc's? I'm thinking the latter, since you've been here for—"

A glass vial shattered against Dante's chest. Smoke started to rise from the point of impact.

"Go to hell, you piece of shit!" The boy yelled, producing another vial from his sleeve. "I'll kill you all, and then—"

"Cleave Bash III." Dante casually swung his shield in front of him, knocking the boy to the side and throwing him to the floor. He let out a low groan, not moving from his spot. Dante looked down at his armor, a large hole now present in both it and his shirt. "I don't have an unlimited supply of chainmail, you know."

He switched over to his Rope Shield and let a little fall from it. "Let's get this unpleasantness over with."