Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

Rio looked at the trio of people and their different reactions to his sudden arrival, and the gears in his mind started turning at a fast speed. Until his wild guesses stopped onto the truth.

[Host… calm down.]

[She's not being forced, it's her own decision.]

[Plus we always knew about her dad and his dreams, this is what he does in the novel, so stop overthinking it.]

System spoke seeing his reaction, calming him by reminding him the plotlines of the original novel, where Noah and Misha got together to pair Katherine with Leon once he started showing his superior talents. Noah wanted life, and Misha wanted luxury - it's still the same despite all his changes.

"Rio, it truly has been a while since we last saw you. Welcome." Darren said with a  smile as he stood up and walked towards him.

His voice waking Rio from the cruel thoughts where he just murdered Katherine's father for the seventh time.

"Thank you for agreeing to my request, Baron Heartwell. I know it was a short call. And I apologise for that." Rio said with a smile, his handsome facade hiding the anger bubbling within.

"No, no, don't worry about it. You can come anytime you wish." Darren spoke with a smile, pointing at an empty chair, gesturing him to sit.

After greeting the fat baron and giving a nod to Katherine, Rio turned his attention back to her father. "I hope I didn't disturb your talks baron Winston? I didn't know you'd be here or I would've come later."

Misha smiled hearing his polite words, his hanging chin resembling a dude's balls jiggling as he swayed his head, "No, don't worry about us heir Blake. We were just catching up as old friends, not talking about anything important. Plus we were already finished."

"Is that so?" Rio said and glanced at Darren whose face couldn't help but frown at this blatant lie.

"Well, in any case, I won't take much of your time." Rio replied and looked at Darren, "Baron Heartwell, I'm sure you would've guessed my purpose for coming here, so I won't beat around the bush."

"This whole incident at the mine is ruining the reputation of both you and Raven's. And as part of their family, I'm planning to land a helping hand." Rio said, going straight to the point.

"What do you mean?"

"You should've seen the reports, Raven's are getting everyone out, blocking every entry, so I'll be blunt and tell you, _ I am going to enter that dungeon. And I want you to clear out your areas too."

"What?"

"I will go in, and get everyone out safely, that includes the miners and your son Leon too. So you don't have to worry." Rio replied.

"You're going in alone?" Darren asked in surprise. His face frowning as he thought about the consequences of what would happen if anything happened to Rio in his dungeon. The last thing he wanted was an angry Artemis charging into his estate with a sword.

Rio saw his worries at a glance and shook his head in response. "No, I have my partners." He said as the system nodded its head proudly, "But we won't be taking anyone else."

"But what if..."

"Worry not, if anything wrong happened inside, the responsibility will fully be of Raven family. And not a touch of blame will fall on your shoulders." Rio said interrupting him, but Darren didn't care and just shook his head.

"That's not what I mean?" He said and added, "I mean, the Eisjer domain is a dangerous place, and you don't even know anything about it. At Least take someone from our _."

"I have a map." Rio said, surprising Darren, who couldn't help but ask again.. "What?" as no one knew Eisjer domains better than him, and even after decades of clearing and controlling them, he couldn't perfectly draw a map.

"Maybe you don't know this Rio, but Eisjer isn't like other dungeons. The locations, the areas, the monsters - nothing inside is fixed in a place or a pattern, so that someone can go in and draw it out.

Whatever map you have, is probably useless as everything inside would've been shifted among miles by now." Katherine spoke a lengthy line much to the surprise of her father, and possible future father in law, _ explaining the situation to Rio.

But Darren didn't care, and looked at Rio again, "She is right. Eisjer domains are dangerous. Especially as we had reports of several unusual sightings of new mutation in monsters and barren areas in the past few weeks.

The dungeon is probably evolving or some new powerful monster is waking up somewhere, shifting the balance inside_ this is why we were trying to raise a bigger elite team of awakeners to gather and enter, so we can solve the mystery and get everyone out safely at once."

Instead of answering or explaining anything, Rio just laid a scroll on the table. Where different locations were marked with clear titles, details and all the trap locations, and how routes and monsters changed their hubs mysteriously randomly. The Barons could even see little dots which showed the collapsed mine and the people trapped underground.

It was like someone stationed a satellite over this dungeon and started drawing every corner of it on the map in real time.

"Nyx gave it to me." Rio said, before any of them could raise their heads and ask the question.

[Bruh, it was mine. Why you giving credit to lil Nyxi?]

'Cause they'll believe in a generous primordial watching everything from her high heavens, then in an invisible ball of light called system, living rent free in my head.'

[...Point.] System nodded its head, [Though Nyx is quite shameless for taking free credit every damn time despite doing anything right? Like every time it's me or Hela helping you, but there she is, hogging all the praise and faith just cause she famous.]

'Tell that to her face, and maybe she'll give you an answer?'

[Come on, you think I'm scared of her. I can whoop 10 Nyx in a single slap. I just don't want to.]

'....' And you call me a boastful blabbermouth.

[I can still read your thoughts, remember. ]

'...'

___

Even by the time Rio was busy arguing with his system, the trio of people were still hovering their heads over the map, their faces still full of awe and surprise. All of them probably wondering when did a goddess get so generous? Or that the rumors were right, and Nyx really does dotes on Rio. _ but whatever it was, Rio stopped it all, as he closed the scroll.

"As you've seen, now you know I can handle it, maybe I'm the only one who can handle it. So _ will you clear my path now?" Rio said, looking at baron Heartwell.

Darren looked at his confident face and then tried to remember the details shown on the map, and after a long silence, he gave in. "Atleast take some of our people in, this domain is my family's responsibility too, and I wouldn't be able to rest assured if we just let you take care of everything?"

"I'm not doing it as the heir of Blake family, I'm doing it as half the blame lies on Ravens too." Rio replied, "And as for taking your people in, I'm sorry, I can't."

"But…"

"This dungeon is a test Nyx gave me, baron Heartwell. And I intend to solve it on my own. I don't want to play it safe and risk losing her rewards." Rio replied, his words surprising the barons, as they wondered what kind of reward would entice a duke's son to risk his life like that.

[And she silently takes credits again.] System chimed in, seeing no response or rebuttal from Nyx.

"I'll come with you."

Katherine spoke suddenly while the barons were still contemplating their responses.

"I've been to Eisjer domain a few times, and I may able to help you."

"You've seen the map, right?" Rio raised his eyes and looked at her.

"Which only showed locations of the monsters, I've hunted them during several raids and clearance missions, take me with you." Katherine explained.