Chapter 124: Sustainable Overfishing

Roland woke up in a daze, immediately sensing the weight of something heavy pressing down on his chest.

The weight felt warm and comfortable, much like a cat that had burrowed its way into his bed and poked its head out. Realizing what had happened, Roland slowly peeled back the covers.

Ester, with her silver hair cascading behind her, was gazing at him with enigmatic eyes. Her cream-like skin was pressed firmly against his, her delicate face flushed with a rosy hue, and her cherry-colored lips parted slightly to emit an ethereal voice.

"Master?"

Roland’s breath hitched for a moment—not because Ester had crawled into his bed, but because of her current attire.

"Ester, where are your clothes?"

Roland spoke in a calm and gentle tone. Only then did he truly realize his own growth; had he not witnessed even more bewitching sights back at the Einzbern Castle, he might not have been able to remain so composed.

"With this... in front of Master, having stockings is more than enough."

With a voice as crisp as falling water, Ester tugged at the only garment she wore—a pair of black thigh-high stockings.

The clothing, woven from magical energy, possessed an elasticity that rivaled any physical fabric. The way it clung to her skin and rebounded created a provocative scene; compared to being completely bare, this state of wearing only stockings felt all the more alluring. Coupled with the pure, innocent expression on her beautiful face—as if she were completely oblivious to the situation—it only added a touch of seductiveness.

"Are you not satisfied with the stockings?"

Seeing Roland’s silence, Ester leaned her exquisite face closer, causing even the seasoned Roland’s heart to skip a beat. Ester looked at him and, leaning back, extended her toes toward him.

"Although I cannot take off the stockings here, if it were you, Master..."

"Stop—!"

Roland instinctively blocked Ester’s movement.

"If this keeps up, I feel like my reputation will be ruined again. I’ve spent a long time weaning myself off a foot fetish; let’s keep my preferences within a normal range, shall we?"

Besides, the idea that stockings were more important than clothes was truly incomprehensible. Roland glanced at Hestia, who was clutching a pillow beside him and sleeping in a rather unsightly manner, and decided to get out of bed before this situation escalated.

"Master..."

Ester let out a soft moan. She blinked, feeling the ticklish sensation at her toes, and her eyes grew hazy.

"Hmm?"

Noticing that he had, at some point, begun stroking the tips of Ester’s feet, Roland’s expression turned somewhat regretful. *Does my hand have a mind of its own?*

After a moment of contemplation, feeling the smooth and delicate texture under his touch, Roland simply continued the kneading motion.

"Didn't Master say to stop? Why then..."

Whether it was because she was too naive or perhaps a bit mischievous, Ester delivered a ruthless follow-up blow.

"I don't even know where the end of the universe is, so how would I know this?"

Roland sighed and decided to just go with the flow. While Hestia was still asleep, he made use of the moment to resolve his morning restlessness.

Watching Ester, who had dressed again, changed into a pair of gray thigh-high stockings, and still bore a faint flush on her cheeks, Roland finished tidying up and took her hand once more.

"Let’s go. We have things to do today."

—

Although they had started much later than usual because of the morning’s events, with the help of the Shadow Legion and the progress made yesterday, they quickly reached the fifteenth floor.

By this point, the number of people had decreased significantly. From the thirteenth floor onwards, even Level 2 adventurers had to move in groups, and with every level they descended, the crowd thinned further. The reason for this, aside from the increasing strength of the dungeon, was the undeniable rise in the monster spawn rate.

Even with reliable teammates, if one lacked the ability to break a deadlock, there was no way to ensure one's safety against the relentless waves of monsters. Because of this, while there were fewer people in the deeper levels, their skill levels were higher, and their rewards were greater. Consequently, as they ventured deeper, other adventurers became more worth being wary of than the monsters themselves.

"Don't you agree?"

Roland smiled as he stepped on the guy wrapped in a robe before him, applying a little pressure until his spine snapped in two.

"Argh! Don't joke around! You’re the one greedy for my loot..."

Even with his fingers dug deep into the earth, the adventurer, despite his agony, gritted his teeth and stuck to his claim.

"Oh, what a tough guy," Roland said with an intrigued smile. "But, despite having the strength of a Level 3, pretending to be a Level 2 in your gait and movements is already quite suspicious, isn't it?"

"I just hadn't had the chance to report it to the Guild yet..." The pale-faced adventurer gritted his teeth, refusing to admit anything. Regardless, he hadn't actually done anything; he had only approached Roland before being attacked. In this situation, even if he were a member of the Ikelos Familia, he would have had grounds to argue.

"Hadn't had the chance—well, let's set that aside. It seems you haven't been back to the surface for a while. Though I've only been in Orario for two days, I am already somewhat famous."

Roland rested his chin in his hand and released flames from his palm, burning through the back of the adventurer's clothes.

"Yo, your status is locked. Well, although I don't have an unlocking potion, that won't stop me."

Seeing Roland’s reckless actions, the adventurer began to panic. He had assumed the other man had spared his life out of conscience, but the way Roland spoke about unlocking potions and nonchalantly peered into someone else's status—a taboo—made him realize he had truly crossed the wrong person. Status was the foundation of an adventurer's life; any prying into it would evolve into an irreconcilable hatred. Someone who could speak of it so casually was definitely no good news.

"Hey..."

He tried to struggle one last time, but Roland’s tone had turned ice-cold.

"Enough. Stop insulting my intelligence with your lies. The moment I saw the look you cast at Ester, the fate of a scumbag like you, who is lower than frog piss, was already sealed."

"Come to think of it, which Familia are you from... never mind, it doesn't matter."

Roland raised a finger and placed it on the adventurer's back, his sharp pupils filled with anticipation.

"Anyway, from now on, you are my slave."

Pitch-black malice spilled from his fingertip, dripping onto the unfortunate man’s back. The next moment, the color of the sacred text was stained with absolute darkness.

The power of the Falna was forcibly twisted by human malice. While he couldn't fundamentally reverse the nature of the heavily guarded Falna itself—much like the black mud could not strip a Heroic Spirit of its essence—it stripped them of their allegiance.

"Aaaaaah!"

The black mud quickly mended his broken spine, but the agony of feeling his entire body being scorched made the scum roll on the ground. Realizing Roland had released his restraint, he gritted his teeth, flexed his legs, and prepared to dash away to lose Roland in the terrain.

But incredibly, as a Level 3 adventurer, he only stumbled powerlessly onto the ground.

"How is this possible! My strength... my power!"

With a mouthful of dirt, he forgot about fleeing and grabbed the dagger at his waist, but the exquisite weapon, which had once felt like an extension of his arm, now felt extraordinarily heavy. He had never felt his body so weak. This state was completely different from curses, magic, or fatigue—it was as if he had never received a Falna in the first place.

Roland walked toward him unhurriedly and said in a tone filled with pleasure:

"The power of the Falna, if not integrated into one's own being, is essentially just a reinforcing spell. It relies entirely on the gods. No matter how high a level you reach, if your god dies, you become an ordinary person again, unless you find a new god to convert to and reactivate it. And with high enough authority, one can even directly seal the abilities granted by the Falna."

"Impossible! Even if such an ability exists! Aside from the main god of the Familia, no one else could possibly pull it off!"

"That is a matter of course," Roland nodded affirmatively. "If every god had this 'GM authority' to ban players, then this game would be boring as hell. Therefore, it is destined to be a privilege for the few."

"The reason I can do it is simple: just now, I forcibly converted you. You now officially belong to the [Lord] Familia."

Roland smiled as he looked at the helpless male adventurer. Amidst the man’s desperate eyes, he reached out his hand, allowing the surging black mud to completely envelop him.

"Now, in the last few minutes of your life, let's have a pleasant time together."

—

After a while, once the wailing that sounded like a demon had ceased, Roland clapped his hands and pressed his thumb down, turning everything that had once been this guy into ash.

Results-wise, today's experiment was much more successful than yesterday's. Through the power of the World's Evil, he was practically a god of civil war. Any adventurer who relied on a Falna and whose power did not belong to their own essence could easily be "poached" into the Lord Familia.

The only regret was that he couldn't directly absorb others' past experience points, perhaps because that state had already been updated and fixed. However, before the status was updated, the experience points that had been gained but not yet officially fixed could be successfully absorbed.

Moreover, after being infused with the black mud, he could choose to have it lie dormant—not forcibly converting the target, but acting like a parasite to quietly absorb their experience points.

The room for maneuver here was much greater. He could have his Familia slaves act as hunters, knocking down adventurers before they returned to the surface, forcibly injecting them with his black mud, and stealing the experience points that hadn't yet been converted. If he did this once and for all, all the experience points that adventurer gained from training thereafter would belong to Roland.

If things went smoothly, it wouldn't be long before every adventurer in Orario was working for him alone. What a blessing that would be.

However, Roland was a benevolent man after all and wasn't planning on hogging everything for himself. After all, if they couldn't see any motivation, the adventurers wouldn't have the drive to train. To achieve sustainable fishing, one must first ensure sustainability. Let’s tentatively set the distribution of experience points at a 70/30 split.

Besides, even without the experience point issue, distributing the black mud was something Roland had already considered. Back in the Type-Moon world, although the position of the Beast of VI had officially integrated with Roland, it was still just a larva. To fully grow the ten crowns and seven heads of the Great Red Dragon—the complete form capable of destroying human history—he needed to devour souls. While Heroic Spirit souls were best, ordinary souls would suffice, though it would require a significantly larger number.

The adventurers of Orario, after constant leveling and training, had souls of decent quality. If possible, Roland even intended to have ordinary people infected by the World's Evil; after all, he wasn't a picky eater. Adventurer souls in the dungeon were edible, and ordinary souls outside the dungeon shouldn't be overlooked either—that was what you called healthy!

Unfortunately, he hadn't yet found a suitable channel to spread the World's Evil on a large scale. Even if mixed into drinking water or food, achieving the volume required to devour souls would always cause some abnormalities, and others weren't fools; they wouldn't lack that much vigilance.

Therefore, Roland could only target adventurers for now. Those parasitized by the black mud were fine; the amount consumed to devour souls was negligible compared to the effort of covering all the divine text, which became more taxing the higher the level. Thus, it wasn't easily detected.

However, he still needed to carefully consider the candidates for his Familia. With the black mud and magical energy, Roland didn't have much to worry about regarding the strength and loyalty of his Familia, but selecting the right people was troublesome. After the black mud converted an adventurer, both their form and power would change drastically. A normal Familia, even if the god was lazy, would still update their status once in a while; they wouldn't fail to notice such an anomaly.

Moreover, if possible, Roland wanted to directly hijack a Familia belonging to another deity, taking over their mature organizational structure. That would be much less trouble than finding people one by one.

Roland stroked his chin, pondering as he began to walk toward the upper levels, thinking of candidates who met his criteria.

"The Familia must be easy to control, the members must have worldly needs, the main god must be completely checked out and indifferent, but the members must know how to follow guidance. It would be best if they had a certain status and position so that even when doing things, or even transforming the group, it would be very convenient."

After listing all the conditions, even Roland raised an eyebrow at how harsh they were. However, he actually thought of a suitable candidate.

Just as Roland was about to head back to collect relevant information, he suddenly stopped and looked at the corner ahead. There, a male adventurer wearing leather armor with a long sword on his back and a very vicious look was impatiently berating a petite girl in white robes, who looked at most eleven or twelve years old, carrying a backpack several times larger than her own frame.

"Talk about a coincidence..."

The moment Roland had the thought, fate couldn't wait to present the answer. This was its favoritism toward its one and only darling.

"I really am lucky. Lucky to the point of making others... despair."