Is it wrong to be an High-Elf in Dungeon?

…

{3rd Pov}

Ember stared silently at the food placed in front of him. The soup was still steaming hot, the bread fresh, and the milk pleasantly warm, yet despite all of it, he felt no appetite whatsoever.

After running away from Athena earlier, he had deliberately booked a different inn far away from the previous one. He wanted distance, not just physically, but mentally as well. After settling into the room, he had bought some simple food for himself and returned, intending to calm down while eating.

But now that the food was actually in front of him, he could barely bring himself to touch it.

The memory of what had happened at the lake continued replaying inside his mind over and over again, refusing to leave him alone no matter how much he tried to focus elsewhere.

A single question naturally surfaced within him.

Why?

Why did Athena love him to such an extent?

And another thought followed immediately after.

Was it partly his own fault for becoming too comfortable around her?

The words she had spoken while using her Arcanum still echoed clearly in his head.

‘Love me.’

Such simple words.

Only two words.

Yet they carried a such a profound meaning behind them.

Athena had been willing to completely override his will just to force him into becoming someone who loved her. If she had succeeded, then everything that made him who he was, his individuality, his emotions, his choices, would have been crushed beneath the overwhelming force of her divinity.

He would no longer truly be himself.

The more he thought about it, the worse it felt.

In that moment, she had not treated him like an actual person with his own thoughts and feelings. Instead, she had treated him like something to possess, something to shape according to her desires.

Like a toy.

And that realization… hurt him deeply.

“Sigh Better eat first before figuring out how to escape,” he muttered to himself, letting out a self-deprecating chuckle afterward.

He already understood that staying in this city was no longer an option for him. With a ticking time, bomb named Athena wandering somewhere nearby, he needed to leave as quickly as possible before she found him again and attempted to use her divinity on him once more.

Slowly, he moved his hand toward the wooden spoon resting beside the bowl.

Then he stopped.

Even though that old habit had mostly faded away over time, his current disturbed state caused him too instinctively lean back toward it again. The spoon, the fork, all the pointless decorum surrounding eating suddenly felt irritating to him.

What was even the point?

Without caring any longer, he abandoned the utensils completely. Instead, he grabbed the bread directly, poured the soup over it, and mashed it together roughly with his hand before taking a bite.

There was nothing refined or elegant about the way he ate now.

All the manners, the careful arrangement of utensils, the unnecessary effort people put into appearing proper while eating, it all felt meaningless at the moment.

So he simply ate.

He ate the food with the feeling of someone trying to fill something missing inside himself rather than merely satisfying hunger.

As if he was trying to force something into the hollow space in his chest, a void he had not even realized existed until now.

A part of him wanted to cry.

A part of him wanted to completely break down and let everything inside spill out without restraint.

But he also knew himself well enough to understand that Ember would never allow himself to collapse like that in front of strangers, nor while sitting alone inside an empty room.

The only times he had ever truly broken down were in front of people who genuinely mattered to him, people he loved deeply enough to lower his guard around.

After finishing the food, he grabbed the cup and gulped the warm milk down his throat in one go. A thin trace of the milky jizz remained on his lips afterward, but he barely paid attention to it.

Using the water that had been provided in the room, he rinsed his hands directly over the plate before casually rubbing the remaining milk from his lips with the sleeve of his clothes.

‘Now… what should I do?’ he wondered silently.

He was not entirely sure where Merina stood regarding the situation. However, from everything he had observed so far, it was obvious that she strongly opposed the idea of the Goddess being in love with him in any form. That was likely why she had constantly tried interfering with what he now referred to as Athena’s “romantic plans” over the past several days, while also unintentionally provoking Athena further and further each time.

Still, there was another problem.

If Athena directly ordered Merina to bring him back, then there was little doubt she would eventually come after him regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.

And considering how insane Athena herself had proven to be today, Ember no longer doubted that the Goddess was capable of going to extreme lengths just to get what she wanted.

Perhaps by the time he reached Shawn Village, Athena Familia might have already declared war against Aurora Familia over him. There was even the possibility that Athena could attempt to force Aurora into dissolving their marriage entirely, or worse, use her influence to have Aurora sent back to Heaven.

Another option crossed his mind.

Maybe he could return to Alf’s Forest instead.

Even if doing so meant sacrificing a portion of his freedom again, the political pressure from the nation itself and from other Gods would likely make Athena think twice before openly acting against him or the Aurora Familia.

However, even that plan was far from foolproof.

By returning there, he would also be dragging trouble directly into Alf’s Royal Forest, involving people and a nation that had nothing to do with his personal situation. The consequences of that could easily spiral beyond his control.

Ember let out another wry smile.

There truly was no easy way out of this.

A small part of him still wanted to believe that Athena might eventually calm down, let go of her feelings, and move on from what had happened today. Maybe, with enough time, she would simply forget everything and return to normal.

But deep down, even he knew how unrealistic that hope sounded.

Letting go of genuine feelings was already difficult enough for ordinary people.

A Goddess who bordered on what he would honestly describe as a “yandere” was an entirely different matter.

If Freya could lose herself over a man to the point of nearly dragging all of Orario into chaos and conflict, then there was no reason Athena could not do something equally extreme.

She was more than capable of declaring war against an entire nation if she truly decided that was what she wanted.

There was another way out of this situation.

Perhaps the easiest one.

Or perhaps the most difficult, depending on how one chose to look at it.

He could kill Athena.

The thought caused him to pause immediately.

That was not just dangerous, it was practically a taboo beyond imagination. No mortal was supposed to truly harm a God, much less kill one. It was an unspoken law of the world itself. Even the idea alone was enough to invite disaster.

Very few mortals would ever dare consider such a thing.

Even if a God lowered their guard and allowed an opportunity to appear, killing them carried consequences far beyond simple revenge or retaliation. A God did not simply disappear after death. If he killed Athena, then after his own death, she could easily make his existence in the afterlife a nightmare beyond comprehension.

A Goddess could imprison his soul in Heaven itself and torment him endlessly in ways ordinary mortals could never even imagine.

And that was only the personal consequence.

Ember understood very clearly that the only realistic way he could ever kill Athena would be by pretending to forgive her first, lowering her guard and gaining her trust again before striking at the right moment.

But even if he somehow succeeded, the result would be catastrophic.

He would become someone who committed one of the greatest taboos possible, a mortal who killed a God. Many Familia and Gods would likely come to despise him outright, if not treat him as an outright enemy.

And beyond that, an entire nation would lose its divine foundation overnight.

Without Athena’s Falna, the adventurers keeping things stable could easily collapse having their falna sealed off. Enemy nations might seize the opportunity to invade, monsters could overwhelm weakened territories, and chaos would spread rapidly.

Indirectly, his actions could lead to the deaths of thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of people.

‘What a terrible choice to even think about,’ he thought bitterly.

At this point, his life was already completely fucked up.

He continued pondering over the situation for several more minutes, carefully weighing every possible option and consequence in his mind. In the end, however, he finally came to a decision.

He would let go of his dreams and plans.

The moment he reached Argon Town, he would update his Falna, temporarily leave the Aurora Familia, head toward Orario, and join Zeus Familia instead. From there, he would focus entirely on becoming strong enough to stand against Athena Familia directly.

Given his current growth speed, he estimated that it would take him at most around two years to reach Level 5. If he completely abandoned his usual approach of pushing every single parameter to its absolute limit before leveling up, then perhaps he could do it within as little as six months.

Of course, taking that shortcut would come with a cost.

By rushing his growth, he would lose the opportunity to maximize his potential before every Falna update, something he had always considered extremely important for building a stronger foundation in the long term.

But compared to his current situation, that sacrifice felt acceptable.

Once he became strong enough, he could directly challenge Athena Familia through a War Game and force Athena to stay away from him permanently. And if her obsession truly spiraled completely out of control, then in the worst case scenario, he could even force her to return to the Heavens.

‘That is the plan,’ he thought firmly, clenching his fists as his resolve settled.

Out of all the possibilities he had considered so far, this was the safest option available to him.

This way, he would not need to destroy Athena’s nation, endanger his own homeland, or drag his current Familia into unnecessary disaster.

All he needed to do now was leave this nation as quickly as possible.

‘I will take the route through Alf’s Royal Forest toward Shawn Village. It should be both faster and safer,’ he thought seriously after finalizing his decision.

With his mind made up, he immediately began preparing to leave.

He carried a pouch containing some Valis, and thankfully his sword was still with him at his side. However, his staff had been left behind at the previous inn during all the chaos earlier.

His gaze lingered on the sword for a moment, his expression turning conflicted.

His original sword and staff had both been destroyed previously, and Athena had personally replaced them with a new sword and staff intended for high level adventurers, equipment worth nearly one hundred million Valis in total.

At the time, he had tried refusing such an absurdly expensive gift outright. In the end, rather than accepting it freely, he had insisted on paying for it through his salary instead.

He had made a down payment of ten million Valis, which had been everything he possessed at that time, and planned to pay the remaining amount through monthly installments afterward.

Even though the arrangement was still extremely favorable toward him, it at least felt more acceptable than directly taking such a massive gift from her without anything in return.

After making sure everything was prepared, Ember finally left the inn and began walking toward the outskirts of the city in the general direction of Alf’s Royal Forest.

Simply by observing the position of the sun in the sky, he could determine the major directions without difficulty.

It was a practical skill he had forced himself to learn long ago in order to survive properly within this medieval style world, where modern conveniences simply did not exist.

Finally, once he had reached the outskirts of the city, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

“Where are you going?”

The voice was cold and completely emotionless, sounding less like a normal question and more like a butcher calmly speaking to an animal moments before cutting it apart.

Ember stopped walking and slowly turned around without showing any surprise at all.

Standing there was Merina.

Her expression looked almost completely devoid of emotion, yet beneath that calm exterior, restrained anger and fury subtly lingered on her face, barely being held back.

“I honestly thought you would never find me,” Ember said, his tone serious rather than joking.

“At this point, I am starting to wonder if you have some kind of ability that tracks me.”

“You underestimate a high level adventurer,” Merina replied flatly, her voice carrying no warmth whatsoever as she stared directly into his eyes.

Ember’s blue eyes met Merina’s amber ones without hesitation.

The atmosphere between them immediately became tense, almost like a predator standing before prey.

And yet, despite that oppressive feeling, Ember himself remained unusually calm.

“Considering the hostility you are showing right now, I assume you already met with her,” Ember said calmly, though his expression remained cautious.

Merina sneered at his words. “And I know very well the state you pushed her into.”

“So now it is somehow my fault?” Ember replied, unable to hide the irritation in his voice anymore. “She is the one who tried to override my will and force me to love her.”

He was simply stating facts as they were, but Merina clearly did not care about that perspective at all.

“Do you know something?” she began suddenly, her tone shifting slightly as if she were about to tell a story.

And she did.

As a Level 5 adventurer, she never once considered the possibility that a mere Level 2 like Ember could pose any threat to her, allowing her to speak freely without concern.

“When I first met the Goddess… I remember thinking that I wanted to become someone like her,” Merina said, her voice gradually softening as she recalled the memory. For the first time since confronting him, the hostility in her tone lessened slightly.

“She was everything I aspired to be. Her charisma, her strength, her wisdom… everything about her made me admire her.” A faint melancholic expression appeared in her eyes as she continued. “And when I joined her Familia, all I wanted was to someday be acknowledged by her.”

She paused briefly before speaking again.

“Decades,” she said quietly. “That is how long it took for me and many others to reach the positions we hold today.”

Her gaze lowered slightly as she continued recalling the past.

“Some people, like Gandalf, spent their entire lives just trying to reach the inner circle of her Familia, all for the chance to work alongside her directly.” Her eyes carried a clear sense of melancholy now, filled with the weight of years and memories.

“Even with all her flaws, she has always been our perfect Goddess, someone we could rely on unconditionally,” Merina continued, though now the hostility in her voice was no longer hidden. “Then you appeared. An outsider with no connection to our Familia at all, someone blessed with talent that did not even seem to demand effort.”

Her amber eyes remained fixed on Ember as she spoke.

“In only a few days, you entered the inner circle that many of us spent our entire lives trying to reach. And in just a few months?” Her expression darkened further. “The Goddess became completely obsessed with you.”

She let out a bitter laugh.

“Do you seriously think I am stupid enough to believe that happened naturally? That unless you did something, unless you encouraged it somehow, the Goddess would simply fall for someone on her own within a few months?” Merina’s voice became sharper with every word. “Now look at her. She has gone so far that she tried to kill herself. The Goddess who never wavered, no matter what happened, now looks like a completely broken woman.”

Her words were filled with venom as anger and frustration spilled out openly now.

Her fists tightened further before she glared directly at Ember.

“Ha… and after destroying her life, you think you can just run away? Escape after ruining not only her, but all of our lives as well?”

Ember remained silent for a brief moment before finally replying.

“She has been forceful from the beginning, and both you and I know that,” he said firmly. “I tried to remain amicable because I did not want to hurt her unnecessarily. But today she crossed a line.”

His expression hardened slightly.

“She used her divinity to try and brainwash me. Tell me honestly, if I do not run away after something like that, then what exactly am I supposed to do?”

Merina paused briefly after hearing his answer.

“Huh… that does make sense,” she admitted unexpectedly.

However, almost immediately afterward, her expression turned cold again.

“Unfortunately, none of that concerns me.”

“You can still make her return to Altena,” Ember proposed carefully, trying to keep the situation from escalating further.

“It may be difficult, but if you give her something to keep her asleep during the journey, then eventually she can calm down. Meanwhile, I will disappear and go into hiding somewhere. It may take time, but eventually she will move on from this.”

Merina acted as though she had not heard a single word he said.

Instead, she slowly unsheathed her sword.

The sound of metal sliding free echoed quietly between them.

“You are not even going to listen, huh?” Ember muttered, feeling something inside him gradually turn colder.

“I am not here to decide what is right or wrong,” Merina replied emotionlessly.

“I only know that you must be punished for the crimes you committed against Altena.” Her grip on the sword tightened as her expression darkened further. “I will personally have your tongue and legs torn off.”

The threat came out with terrifying seriousness.

Ember stared at her for a few silent moments before slowly unsheathing his own weapon as well.

“There are two things I value more than my own life,” he said calmly, though his eyes had become far colder than before. “The people I love… and my self-pride.”

His grip on the sword tightened slightly.

“And your Goddess attacked both of them.”

Merina remained silent. To her, Ember’s words sounded like nothing more than foolish excuses, and his actions seemed equally ridiculous.

A Level 2 standing against a Level 5?

That was practically impossible.

Even most Level 4 adventurers would struggle immensely against a Level 5 and lose the majority of the time. Unless that Level 4 was exceptionally talented even among their own rank and managed to gain some degree of luck during the battle, defeating a Level 5 was nearly unimaginable.

In truth, even Ember himself understood this reality very clearly. Based on his current abilities, his combat prowess could perhaps barely comparable to a strong Level 3 at best.

But even knowing all of that, this was still a fight he could not afford to back away from.

He had already attempted to reason with her earlier. However, by now he fully understood that Merina had never come here to truly listen to him in the first place.

She had already decided he deserved punishment regardless of whether the blame rested entirely on him, partially on both sides, or even on everyone involved.

To her, it did not matter that her own Goddess had spiraled out of control and become the primary cause behind the current fallout. Rather than directing anger toward the woman she had admired and followed for decades, it was far easier for her to place all that rage onto a man who was practically still a stranger to her.

In her eyes, he was not even someone worthy of fair judgment.

He was merely an outlet.

‘You really want me dead?’ Ember thought silently, his grip tightening further around his weapon.

Then his expression gradually hardened.

‘I suppose that is fine.’

Because deep down, he already understood how this confrontation would end.

One way or another, the result of this battle would likely only leave one of them alive.

To be continued…

(A/N: Insomnia, Insomniac, Insomniaaac.

I should probably change my Pen name. Fever, Insomnia, Dizziness, everything strikes again. Ughhhhhhhh. Should I seriously change my city to somewhere else? But rent will be expensive and moving out is not ideal at all. Even if I go countryside the heat and lack of electricity will probably kill me, I also am a loner and don't wanna live among my relatives. I am also somewhat of germaphobic.

Originally I planned to upload two chaps in a row last week.

Yeah fuck me.

I can probably make it up with three chaps daily update once my sleep schedule is right, cause today I have been awake for over a day so I can sleep specially at night.

I tried previously it like seven times before last chap update, had to stay awake for two days just to fall asleep, hopefully I am not that unlucky.

Also this is an arc, that I would like to pass by quickly or rather get faster updates. Frustrating arcs if really long make readers leave. I am in a pinch though. Let me calculate how many chaps till the end of this arc, and whether I can upload starting next week or (After this sunday).

This month I got free, dropped my Vm fanfic.

I had to upload 1-2 chaps daily back in What-shall-not-be-named for this arc, wish had more readers, but more readers need more updates, more updates need better health, better health needs... Idk.

Also thanks for your support, though it's obvious since I am saying it here on Scribble hub, it is for my Scribble hub readers!

I really wanna this fanfic surpass others by huge margin so I can side-line other projects for an year.

PS: Is it me or sound of my all speakers got lowered for some reason? Even headphone sound seems faint, hopefully I am not getting deaf.)