Is it Wrong to Put Skyrim in Danmachi

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 1

Danmachi is a strange world.

The path to become strong here relies heavily upon skills, skills which are often only granted to you by factors nearly completely out of your control. From who you were in your past life, to your current lineage and even to bullshit like the story that forms around your actions in this life. The only elements within your control are the accomplishments you can garner and how you display them to the world.

The problem with that is, it's a lot easier to garner accomplishments that impress the gods when you have a skill in the first place.

Which of course brings you right back to past lives and lineage, and if you are say -like me- spontaneously teleported to the Danmachi world without warning, then congratulations. You have no past life to pull bullshit like the Argonaut skill from, and your lineage is limited to your family's history of heart disease.

Nice!

So how do you fix this? Generally you just don't. The best thing to do would be to settle down, use whatever skills you have to ply a trade and just live out your life in boring Isekai hell -where they barely even have fucking showers- before finally dying well below the life expectancy of wherever you were yoinked from.

But… if you're like me and have the patience of a raccoon on crack (and thus the total inability to deal with medieval society) then there can only be one option.

Fake it until you make it.

Manipulate events and people in whatever way you can to try and build up a larger than life legend around yourself. Save people, show no more weakness than is necessary to convince people that you're still just like them and more importantly than anything; grind.

Like money, strength in this world is like rolling a boulder down a hill, once you're on the right track, everything becomes easier. Garner the strength to create achievements to get more strength. It's a cycle that infests not just the skill system of Danmachi, but also its stat and level system. This cycle has only one guiding principle, keep grinding.

And for an MMO enjoyer like me? Well that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

As for how I can apply this in my current situation? Well I'm firmly in the 'manipulate events and people' stage of things, and in that regard not all attention is created equally, at least not when it comes to stories here.

To be blunt, the story obsessed Divines of Genkai are basically your best bet if you want to start things off with a bang. They're a bit difficult to manipulate given that they can sense lies, so you need to keep things pretty simple; know your target audience, appeal to their sense of aesthetics, their view of the world and then hit them right in their strike zone.

And if after that you just so happen to have some otherworldly knowledge that you can drop to blow their perspective of you out of proportion?

Well that sounds like a fantastic start.

All of which is why I snuck into an abandoned church last night and silently knocked on the door to the basement, before promptly camping out the night on one of the church's dusty pews.

Side note, talking around absolute lie detectors is a pain in the ass, I could have just showed up at dawn and pretended to sleep on the pew. Instead I had to stay the entire night just to give off the right impression and talk around the problem that might come up from my little white lie.

As I said, pain in the ass.

Still, any moment now my short stack goddess is going to come up those stairs, find my slumbering form and shake me awake. Normally that would lead to accusations of stalking, but Hestia in the anime doesn't really have a sense of danger and is more about poorly thought out displays of commitment than anything. Even if she does become suspicious, the dedication on display should be enough to move her regardless.

As for why did I pick Hestia and not someone like -only insane people looking to be brainwashed pick Freya- Loki? For one I have no idea whether I'd even be able to get through Loki's front door, being the top dogs gives them a lot of leeway in recruiting. If I were them, I'd be setting up predesignated recruitment drives, not talking to every schmuck who walks in off the street.

For two, breaking out of their shadow and garnering accomplishments that won't just be shrugged off as mere examples of my familia's power would be damn hard even within the familia, nevermind outside of it. My divine would have a hundred other children, many far more talented and interesting than me by sheer virtue of being around for longer.

Which is just about the exact opposite of what I'm going for here.

I outright refuse to be a goon.

With Hestia on the other hand; she has no children, her familia has no glory and any accomplishments I garner under her banner would be entirely my own. Hell, the mere act of raising up her banner myself is an accomplishment. As her child I wouldn't be a grunt, but the goddamn captain. And unlike Danmachi's protagonist I actually want to be respected, so damn if I'm not gonna make that title mean something.

Besides, given what I'm risking just by entering Onrario, I kinda need to set my personal strength as a top priority, and I can always-

-Is that singing?

I can't make out the words as distant as it is, but the tone is oddly beautiful. Before I even registered it I was sitting up, listening in raptured silence as I stared at the door the sound was coming from.

It was a sad song, one that conveys longing and... hope? Despite how little of it I can make out, it's almost-

The door opened and I stared uncomprehendingly into the face of the goddess Hestia, her mouth still open as she freezes in turn, her beautiful song cutting off with a, "Uwah?"

It took me a good long few seconds to realise that my plan of letting her wake me up was entirely out the window as she stared at me in confusion.

"Ah..." I state intelligently, blinking. "Lady Hestia?"

"Yes!" She answered with surprising excitement, stepping forward and leaning in to peer at me with an innocent expression of curiosity. "Hmmm... you don't look homeless and you're nice and fed so... I have no idea what you could be here for! Unless! You want to be my child?"

Her expression brightened so much that I felt a smile creep up my face before I even knew what was happening. "Oh! Did you spend the night waiting for me?" She exclaimed.

"I... yes, I tried knocking last night, but I don't think you heard me." Very quietly, but she didn't need to know that, and I was still struggling to regain some level of equilibrium in the face of her godlike enthusiasm. "I tried waiting, but I guess I fell asleep at some point; I hope you don't mind."

"MIND!? OF COURSE I DON'T!" She shouted gleefully, running over to me and taking my hand. Before I could work out what was happening, I was on my feet and she was zipping around my form, inspecting every inch of me.

"My first child haha! Oooh you're pretty built and pretty cute too, oh! And dedicated enough to wait the night for me? Uwah... you children sure are forward in what you want." She clutched her cheeks and hopped from side to side in front of me.

Divines are... a lot.

"To make the most of our short lives, we must be bold." I state softly, finally stopping the goddess's sugar rush as she blinks up at me with starry eyes. Chance. "So I'll be bold here too then Lady Hestia; my name is Elric Carne and I want to join your Familia."

I smiled gently, entirely unready for the kettle noises that promptly burst out of Hestia as the goddess vibrated in place. I was also not ready for the flying tackle hug that promptly ensued.

"YES! Yes, yes, YES~!" The goddess shouted in total excitement as she ground her assets into every inch of me she could reach. Keeping up my reassuring big brother act, I simply chuckled and returned the hug with gentle pats on the back.

This bubbling tea kettle of a goddess will not win. I won't let her drag me into her pace; I'm going for the cool heroic archetype here, nothing can bother me, nothing can throw me off my game. No matter how bubbly she is.

Her head finally popped up to stare at me with the brightest smile I'd ever seen, like joy and happiness given form, like condensed cuteness shot like a fucking hyper beam. I'm not going to lie men, this smile? It came close.

"Ehe~ My first child... What a great morni- AHHHH!" And then she suddenly screamed, right into my face. "MY JOB!" Bursting out of my arms she wheeled around in confusion, glancing at me several times as she seemingly fretted over what to do with me, before finally freezing in place, a wide grin on her face.

"Umu~ I'm sure the boss won't mind if I take just one day off for my first child!" I blinked, for a moment almost getting caught up in her antics before I felt my stomach clench and I felt it for the second time…

Chance.

"I'm sure they won't." You get the deal by now, gentle smile, gentle voice, big brother energy all around. "But even if they do, I have enough savings to support us before I can get started in the dungeon." Reliable and caring boys, reliable and caring; that's the vibe of today's performance.

Hestia's smile returns with a vengeance and- yup, she's hugging me again.

"Ehehe... You're so reliable Elric-kun!" She giggled happily. "Oooh what do you want to do first? Tell each other our likes and dislikes? Uwah, I just really want to get to know my new child!"

I hummed thoughtfully. "How about we talk about it over a cup of tea? I have some bags in my pack, or we can stop by a place I know just outside of this district."

The goddess hopped back, before leaning forward and smiling up at me. "Trying to get into my bedroom already, Elric-kun~? You're so forward..." Her expression turned impish as she fixed me with a half-lidded stare.

"The choice is yours Lady Hestia." I spoke calmly, tossing the ball back into her court.

"Umu... you're too composed Elric-kun, girls won't like you if you don't let them tease you a little y'know?" She lectured, spinning on the balls of her feet and walking off, only pausing to glance over her shoulder. "You're the first boy I've brought home, so behave, ne?"

She bounced down the passage before I could respond, leaving me blinking in the wake of the goddess shaped tornado of bubbliness.

In all likelihood, that was about as well as that encounter could have gone; I scored the right kind of impression with her and mostly resisted getting caught up in tempo. Chuckling to myself, I hoisted the large rucksack containing all the belongings I'd worked for since coming to this world and trooped after my chosen Goddess.

Descending down the wrapping stone staircase, I found myself in a surprisingly cosy basement; it was small and perhaps too cramped, with various different living spaces blurred into a single room, but it was warm and it had a homely vibe that stopped me short and brought me back to my childhood.

It was nostalgic. It was the very concept of home given form.

I blinked, trying to cut off the feeling, but it was oddly stubborn. A knot formed in my throat the more I tried to resist whatever divine bullshit was going on here, after a long moment I simply resolved to ignore it as best I could.

"You're missing home too huh?" The goddess standing amidst it all called out, her eyes seemingly seeing straight through me. "It'll get better. In fact, we'll make it better! Because that's what being part of a familia is all about~"

Pausing on the steps, I let the weight of those words settle on my shoulders, the sheer gravity of a goddess of hearth and home telling me that she wanted to make a home with me… Then I shook my head, my mind was my own, there was a very good reason I didn't even consider Freya.

"For now, this home is already more than enough." I offered politely. "Thank you for having me, Lady Hestia."

"Mou! You don't need to be so formal Elric-kun, you're making me feel old."

"My apologies, do you have a pot for tea anywhere?" There was a kitchen in the mixed space, but I couldn't see-

"Hey." Hestia was suddenly right there in front of me, her wide blue eyes staring into mine with an intensity that I hadn't seen before. Which was definitely worrying. "Do you know what I want to do right now Elric-kun?"

I swallowed. "Drink tea and chat?"

"No." She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a ratty double bed. "You are my first and only child... so you'll forgive me if I'm a little impatient... right Elric-kun?"

I stopped, pulling her hand to turn her around. "Always." I smiled.

She smiled back. "Then get that shirt off and get on the bed! I don't have one of those fancy Falna chairs, so we'll just have to make do with this!" She announced, tugging me again to get me going.

Giving her a wry grin, I set down my pack and stripped off my upper half. "So I just lay face down?"

"That's right~" She sing-songed, pushing me onto the bed. "You're surprisingly well informed Elric-kun..."

"A lot of the people where I came from were more versed than you'd expect." I teased my knowledge, knowing the strange answer would take her off guard. Oddly she didn't react beyond humming as she swung her legs over mine and settled her bottom on top of my own.

Gloved fingers traced their way up the small of my back as soft whispers of an alien language tickled my ears, whatever she was doing back there, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up in anticipation.

"Do you know this part, Elric-kun?" The words shunted themselves into my mind as a droplet of eternity fell into the small of my back.

For the briefest of moments I could feel something more, a spark of celerity that went so far beyond humanity that I can't even begin to put it into words… and then Hestia pulled, and suddenly I was barely even human.

Having your soul pulled from your body -even just slightly- is like dangling off a cliff; held up from an unfathomable abyss by the grip of a goddess you barely even know. And here I was trying to manipulate said goddess…

I almost laughed, this was a twist I actually didn't see coming.

"Now that I've got you right where I want you…" Hestia's words came across as still cheery and light hearted, but there was a layer of suspicion to them that hadn't been there before. "How did you find me Elric-kun~?"

"Waiting until my soul is bared before asking the difficult questions huh?" I couldn't help it, I actually laughed; being interrogated by the cutesy anime Goddess was so far beyond my predictions that I couldn't keep the smile from my face.

I could feel why she waited. My soul was quite literally in her hands and it felt like if she let go now, I'd be falling somewhere.It was a fascinating feeling that shot adrenaline through me like nothing else, but more than that, it presented the perfect chance to skew Hestia's perception of me with some tactically revealed knowledge.

"I knew where to find you from the very moment I came into this world."

Glancing over my shoulder, I chuckled internally at her uncomprehending expression as she cycled through various stages of confusion.

"E-Eh?" She recovered in record time and proceeded to slap my back. "Mou! I don't know how you're messing up my goddess powers, but that isn't funny! I only descended a few months ago y'know; so you're not as smart as you think you are mister!"

"Ah, but I only came into this world a couple months back." I taunted, smirking back at her.

Oh, her brow crinkles really cutely when she frowns. "Umu… you're going to keep messing with me aren't you? You big meanie!"

"Alrighty then… where were you born originally?" She smirked a smug Hestia smile.

"London."

"Mou! What country?"

"England."

She slapped me again.

"So violent~!" I teased.

"Continent!"

"Europe."

"Year!?" She asked incredulously.

"The turn of the second millenia." Looking back, I smiled a smug smile right into her gawking face. Taking her silence as my victory, I went on. "In case you haven't worked it out yet, I'm not from this world"

"...How did you get here?"

"No idea, I just blinked and there I was, nude." I play up the word, trying and sadly failing to tease the virgin goddess.

She pouted. "How did you know where to find me then?"

"In my world, this world was a story that you appeared in, it was accurate enough for me to find the ruined district of Orario and find your church."

"A story…" She turned my words over, staring at me in contemplation. "And what are your intentions now that you're here?"

"Become a hero, pick up from where the last generation left off and save the world." Best part? I actually meant that shit, just not in the classic way.

"You…" She pulled up short, staring at me in disbelief. "You actually mean that-? No wait, the story you mentioned… how did it end?" Her eyes turned intense.

"It didn't, it wasn't finished by the time I arrived here."

"Then…" She trailed off, but the unasked question was clear.

"The clues are all there; your future child -a boy named Bell Cranel who was raised by Zeus- has all the hallmarks and set up for a hero with an impossible challenge before him." I explained simply. "At best, the world will have lost too much before the end… I want to make it easier."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a noble and selfless soul?" I lie through my fucking teeth.

"Liar!" Her slap hit a little harder this time. "Mou, your first lie and it's for something like this…!"

"I'm allowed some secrets aren't I?" I chuckled.

"F-Fine damn it!" She pouted. "You… you said he was raised by Zeus? That old man is…?"

"Yeah, still a perv." I laugh, choking a little as she pinches my side. "Oi, you're getting a little too abusive there woman!"

"Then don't talk about him like that! Only we're allowed to talk about him like that!" She protested weakly, sitting up on my ass and crossing her arms over her chest, frowning down at me.

"Only if you stop slapping and pinching me."

"Sure -fine- whatever!" I could feel her pout. "You said he was raising this Bell child right?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"He was- is the child of one of Zeus' children, and after being driven out of Orario I don't think he had much else to do." I gave a quick backstory.

"Driven?"

"You don't know?" She gave me a look. "Weird, I always assumed."

"Mou, what's weird is that people I don't know are making assumptions about me because I'm apparently a character in a story!" Ah there it is, the turn away and pout combo. It was… adorable.

"A warranted concern, and it brings up some interesting multiversal theories that I don't mind explai- Ah!" Another pinch. "Okay, chill… Zeus being driven off right? I don't know how much is known, but Zeus and Hera's familias got so deep into the dungeon that they got it into their heads that they could finish-"

"-The three great quests, that's common knowledge Elric-kun." She interrupted quietly.

"Then there's not much else to it, they beat two, failed on the last. The dregs of the familia that survived were driven out of Orario by Loki and Freya." I couldn't help but let my tone turn a little bitter here. "...Their grand reward for putting their lives on the line to try and save this world."

It seemed Hestia shared my reticence, since she too turned quiet from the topic.

"Could we finish up this Falna thing soon? I don't mind answering any of your questions, but I can't say I enjoy having part of my soul outside my body." Navigating this conversation while feeling like I was dangling off that particular cliff was taking some creative uses of willpower. Hell, at this point one could say that I've gotten oddly used to the feeling and was just mainlining adrenaline at this point.

Which probably isn't a good thing.

She blushed furiously, staring down at the portion of my soul that was still in her hands, a small, "uwah," escaping her.

It was pretty cute.

"I-ah, yup! Can totally do that for you Elric-kun! Right away!" Relaxing back onto the bed, I tried my best to stay still as Hestia worked, tracing shallow lines across my back that tickled of rainbows. And yes I know that comparison doesn't make sense, but amazingly magic does not feel normal.

"Umu, time for the last little~" I felt something push my -me?- soul into place? Strangely it felt… cramped? as if it didn't quite fit anymore; like I'd just polished off an entire christmas dinner and tried to fit into my jeans, only everywhere. "Push!" Hestia sing-songed, and suddenly everything clicked and became so much more.

"Holy shit, I can fence." I blinked back to full awareness, knowledge I thought I'd lost coming back in full and suddenly making itself very known.

"Eh?"

"Ah… nothing, don't worry about it." I laughed it off, trying to process the fact that I now had vastly upgraded memory. "How's it looking back there? I get anything good?"

Hestia sighed. "Elric-kun... you need to tone down those expectations! Almost every adventurer under the sun starts off with nothing but their base stats, you're just going to get let down if yo… th- eh?"

I laughed.

"Mou!" She hit me.

"Ah, my goddess is abusing me, send help please!"

"Shut up!" A double palmed slap struck my back. "Shut up! shut up-! SHUUT UP~!" Three more swiftly followed.

I didn't stop laughing.

"Uuuh, you're such a meanie…" She whined.

"Woman, you're the one hitting me." I chuckled. "Plus, I think threatening someone with their own soul is pretty mean."

"Hmph!" Hestia audibly hmph'd me, making me blink. "I had to! Hephaestus warned me about suspicious mortals."

"She made you promise to be careful?"

"Yeah! We had this whole big conversation and she- Mou!" Another hit. "You and your dumb stalker knowledge!"

"I can't exactly help that!" I protested. "How was I supposed to know I'd suddenly wind up here, and isn't it better that I'm upfront with this kind of thing?"

"How! You've got all this knowledge on me and- these things are supposed to be private!"

"True -and I feel bad about that- but the circumstances are outside of either of our control, I know these things and nothing is going to change that." I explain quite rationally. "The only choice we have is whether or not I try to hide that knowledge… and the way I see it, that'll just come between us as you wonder what I'm hiding from you."

"So, I should just be bold, right?" I ask cheekily.

"…" Hestia pouted. "You are so not cute Elric-kun."

"Yeah, I'm more of a handsome manly man." I bragged jokingly, though a hidden part of myself winced the second the words left my mouth. The adrenaline was wearing off and I could feel how much my control had slipped in the meanwhile. Most of it was just teasing Hestia, but I'd also probably said a bit too much. Still… I apparently have a skill now, so perhaps it all worked out for the best?

She sighed, exhaling a truly prodigious amount of air as she deflated and grabbed a sheet of parchment. "You wanted your stats right? Then face down mister. And after this, we'll see if you can explain this skill of yours."

I hummed, putting aside my lapse in control and focusing instead on the parchment as it stuck uncomfortably to my skin, the peculiar sensation of wet-yet-not sending a shiver down my spine. "We'll see."

"Here." The goddess bluntly said, holding the parchment out over my shoulder.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •

Elric Carne

Lvl 1

Str | I 000 |
Vit | I 000 |
Dex | I 000 |
Agl | I 000 |
Mag | I 000 |

| Magic |

| Skills |

[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written upon their soul.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •​

J-J-JACKPOT!

I knew telling Hestia about my world would pull something out of my ass, but holy fucking based Elder Scrolls! Tod Howard you beautiful, terrible dev.

"Hoh…" I smiled calmly, knowing full well that it would drive Hestia up the wall.

"Hoh?" She demanded. "That's it? How are you so calm you-!" I really couldn't help the laugh that burst out of my throat, I promise.

After what felt like two 'calming' breathing exercises too many, she finally heaved out a response, "So… you know what this is then? I really hope you'll be forthcoming with your explanation Elric-kun~?"

"You don't kno- Okay, calm down." I laugh it off before she can pinch me this time. "It's something from my world, and if I'm right, it's really quite good."

"Ooooh…" She perked up. "So what does it do?"

"I obviously don't know the specifics from just this." I explained. "But Qahnaarin is a word I recognise from a certain story. In that story it's dragon tongue."

"Dragon tongue…" Hestia whispered distantly, probably something to do with the existence of the world ending black dragon that just so happened to be roaming this world as well. Ah Alduin, I'm going to milk the very idea of you for clout aren't I? "What does it mean?"

"Don't know." I answered truthfully. "I only remember that the protagonist of that story was named that by a dragon. Not sure how your Falna knows about it to be honest, I doubt I'd have remembered even this much without the Falna boosting my memory." I trail off, leaving the unsaid question up in the air.

"The Falna is…" She trailed off uncertainly, not finishing the thought. "Actually that bit doesn't matter." She tried to laugh it off, but I could hazard a guess at what she was going to say regardless. "The point is, normally a god needs to give form to skills during their creation, but here…"

I hummed, thinking over the implication and ultimately setting it aside. After getting the old boot into another world, I couldn't really consider anything about myself to be normal; the only real question was whether that abnormality was good or bad, and here?

Well, free skills are always good.

"Don't you also need high class experience for skills?" I fished for slightly more info. I knew certain races could have skills from the jump, but the actualities of the Falna were frustratingly vague in the anime.

"Excelia." She corrected me absent-mindedly. "And we normally do but… Mou~ can you not be normal for two seconds?" She whined.

"Please, we both know you love this." She slapped my back weakly as I laughed. "You Gods and your boredom."

"I won't stand for this slander!" She declared with a pout, before coughing and looking away. "But I might consider forgiving you if you tell me about this story…"

I shifted a bit uncomfortably at that, not really sure where to begin given the sum total of… well, the drug fueled frenzy that is Elder Scrolls. Also there was a Goddess sitting on me and while she did have a rather plush ass, the position was bound to get uncomfortable if I spent the next however many hours explaining what I remembered of Elder Scrolls lore.

"Skyrim…" I turned the word over before ultimately deciding to go in from a top level. "It was like a story you could interact with, where you could play the role of the hero and make choices utilising… really, really advanced books." She perked up at the concept, looking surprisingly- wait, no that isn't surprising at all.

Of course these neet Gods would be interesting in gaming.

Deciding to strike while her interest was high, I gave her a rundown of the main story in Skyrim, explaining some of the systems when prodded, but always bringing it back to the main plot and thus Alduin. I could feel her shifting at the information, the parallel being laughably clear.

This world had a large black dragon problem? I just so happened to have a skill named after a large black dragon slayer.

It's like poetry, it rhymes.

Now give me more power.

"And the skill?" She asked quietly and rather seriously. So I leaned around, making eye contact to convey my own seriousness in turn.

"No idea." I held onto that seriousness for all of a second before I cracked up, laughing as the Goddess promptly fell off my back with a groan. Absolute lie detectors were bullshit and deserved to be messed with on principle.

Eventually she turned a gimlet eye up at me. "You lied." She accused.

"A bit." I agree.

"A lot!" She raised an arm to try to hit me, but I scooted out of reach of her grabby little gremlin arms.

"Elric~" She whined.

"Alright." I said placatingly. "The skill mentions the star's guidance right? The game had a similar system, where your character's skills were listed out in a star system."

"A skill of Skills?" Hestia breathed.

"Potentially, like I explained before, Skyrim had a few different power systems. I could have some of that, all of it, or it might be something else entirely. Hence why 'I don't know'." I finished with a smile. "You see anything in the skill; stars maybe?"

"Eeeeh…" She gave off an almost dazed sounding exhale. "I- ah… don't remember? Ehe~"

"A bit daunting huh?" I sympathised.

Her eyes met mine, a surprisingly serious expression taking hold. "More than a bit…" She smiled. "But you're my first child; you're worth it."

Ah... I really don't have a response to that. Damn, this Goddess really is emotional whiplash personified huh?

But I supposed I signed myself up for this.

"Well, let's just try some shit out, see what works."

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks again if you decide to watch, comment or like the story, it all helps.

A few things to mention, I find harems tend to dilute the story and take away from the meaningfulness of relationships so I'll likely avoid that and just focus on one girl, not really sure which one yet, but we'll see where the story goes.

In regards to the Skyrim elements, no stealth archer stuff since that would be rather boring to write. Things like enchanting will be locked behind higher level magic gems, and the more complicated bits of alchemy will be limited by drop items, with the cool potions requiring some pretty high level drops as well. This is obviously to keep things at a sane level given that Skyrim is a bit nuts, casual multiplications of damage ahoy.

I put all this in here now so people hopefully know what to expect.

And well, that's everything, so have a good one bois and girls.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 2

After figuring out what world I'd been drop kicked into, I pretty quickly came to a prediction on what my presence in the world could lead to. It went a little like this: something, something, butterfly effect, Bell is dead. This is then followed by something, something, big dragon kill everyone.

And honestly? Probably an accurate conclusion to come to. Danmachi was clearly building to something big that the main character would play a central role in, and Bell? Well, he got saved by sheer random chance, a lot. Move his schedule off a bit and suddenly he's not going to be saved by the random high level adventurers who just happened to be there for the fourth time in a row.

Some might call that luck, but personally I call that bad writing, which is pretty tragic because I live here now.

Regardless, if you take the logic to its natural conclusion, then suddenly it seems like a really good idea to just not be in Orario. It's a lot harder to butterfly someone out of existence when you've got a hundred miles between you in a medieval age.

Indeed, it all seemed like such a great fucking idea at first, but unfortunately I failed to account for one tiny little thing.

This is a medieval age and I'm a monkey-brained gamer from the twenty-first century.

I need stimulation, I crave it. I still haven't even multi-tasked once since I got to this god forsaken land. I miss my two monitors, my memes and the sweet, sweet feeling of stimulation to fill the void.

Which is all to say I got really, really bored and decided to just go 'fuck it, let's risk this entire world for fun and profit'. Which, when put like that really makes me sound like a dick, but honestly? I put a lot of thought into what I would do and how I would do it, and after yesterday? I have rather high hopes.

The idea of a Danmachi adventurer with the Skyrim system stacked on top is just kinda nutty.

"Elric-kun~" Hestia's whine brings me back to reality, as my Goddess wriggles around on the pew I dragged out behind the church for her. "I'm bored..."

"I thought you wanted to watch." I remind her patiently, my hands unconsciously continuing to sacrifice yet more flowers to the dark gods of alchemy. Yes, it's only been a day since I arrived at the church and already the grind has begun.

We'd found out earlier that I did indeed have the skill system that I remembered from Skyrim, the constellations seemingly integrated into the Falna itself. Which naturally meant that the first thing to do was pick a shit ton of plants and sacrifice them in some old alchemy equipment Miach was willing to lend Hestia.

Cool guy that one.

The results thus far? About the same as if you never bothered to remember the plant combinations in Skyrim and just do the whole thing blind. You win some, you lose a lot.

Unfortunately this isn't a game world so I don't get a magic 'make potion' button, which means I'm doing all the crushing and grinding and cutting by hand. Which also means that despite the fact that I'd been at this for the entire morning, I had only made fifty or so potions of note corked in some glassware Miach had lent us on a loan. On top of that I was down to only a quarter of the rather large pile of ingredients I'd started with.

This was improving -slowly- with what I hope is a sign of my skill levelling, but given that Hestia barely understands what's going on with the constellations, I don't even know what level of alchemy I started with. Probably either fifteen or twenty.

But that brings me to the next problem; I can barely tell the poisons from the good shit and thus have no idea what these liquids do. I could stuff a vial of poison down a Goblin's throat and it could do some weak DOT or tickle them for a minute for all I know.

That was getting better fortunately, like with my actual production technique I was gradually improving all round; steadily increasing my budding ability to tell the difference between these potions by smell. How that works, no idea, but this one smells of cranberries and my gut is telling me that's a bad thing.

So into the poison pile it goes.

"Mah~! That was before I knew how long this would take." Hestia complained. "And you keep getting distracted! It's like you're barely listening to me."

That's... kinda fair actually.

"I did tell you it would probably be boring." Oh wait…

"Lie!" Hestia jumped up, pointing at me indignantly. "You said 'Hestia come check out my amazing alchemy skills' and then ran off to pick flowers!"

"No, I said you can come check out my sick nasty alchemy skills later if you want." Even as I correct her my skill keeps me moving, grinding out the next failure that I dump into an ominously bubbling bucket.

I really, really need to find a good place to dispose of that before it either explodes or corrodes the bucket and poisons the local water table.

"That's the same thing..." She whines.

"Fine." I say, putting down the pestle and mortar. "You wanna do something fun?"

"I want to learn more about my child." She shoots me a deadpan look.

"Err- how about no?" I tease, though I end up nearly wincing as disappointment flashes across her face. As poor taste as it is to deny her, I abjectly can't get into my past with her, my world- my personal history just isn't hero origin material. "I was more thinking about trying the Falna thing again; I've levelled alchemy up at least once, so hopefully it'll be a bit more clear."

The disappointment slowly gives way to a feigned look of disinterest. "Well, if you insist…"

I smile, trying to get Hestia to stop poking and prodding my Falna after we'd found how to open the constellation had actually taken some work. Apparently the language it was written in was completely foreign and I can't read that shit either, so we were at a bit of a loss. Which -of course- made it way too interesting for a god like Hestia to resist poking at for several hours.

It took me eventually just tossing her off to get her to stop. People have biological needs that can't be met with a Goddess sitting on your ass.

"C'mon Elric-kun I'm waiting!" She urged, in response I just showed her my filthy hands.

"You're a Goddess, have some patience." I chided her with a mature smile as I washed my hands with a trickle of water from the clean bucket.

Hestia just pouted harder.

"Mou, I've been patient! For an hour!"

"Yeah, yeah…" I smirked as I took off my shirt and kneeled with my back turned to her pew. She hit my back lightly in response, before her interest got the better of her and her fingers began tracing the patterns engraved into my soul. She was leaned so close in that I could feel the warmth of her breath on my back.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"It's changed!" She exclaimed.

"Anything you can do with it?"

"There's something…" Her voice trailed off, her feather soft touches sending shivers down my spine. "I think you have those perk points you mentioned yesterday. It feels like..." I'd explained the basics of Skyrim levelling to her the day prior, but without reference material it felt like I'd only conveyed half the picture.

"Potential." She whispered in a faint, far away voice. "This is amazing Elric-kun…"

"I really am, aren't I?" I chuckled as she faintly slapped my side. "Can you put it anywhere? And is there anything else?"

She hummed again. "One of the constellations is brighter? Fuller? It feels like it's over a fifth full. Other than that…" She adjusted me a little, pushing me around like she was a damn hairdresser. "No, I can't see anything else that's new; you were expecting those health or stamina point things, right?"

I glance suspiciously over my shoulder. "You sure you didn't miss anything?"

"Ne." She gave me the gremlin eye, patent pending. "Are you really going to look down on a Goddess Elric-kun...?" She seemed awfully serious about this, so I looked her dead in the eye.

"Yes." I deadpanned.

"Mou!" She slapped me for what felt like the hundredth time. "My first child is such a meanie~"

"And my Goddess is very abus-" I threw up my hands in surrender when she raised her hand again.

"That's what I thought~" She declared smugly. "And no, you don't have those point thingies."

I'd have to trust her on this, at least for now, but I was expecting... well something I guess. Then again, I suppose it did kind of make sense: how would hit points and stamina that wouldn't even let you run for a minute translate into a world like Danmachi? And magic? Can I even use Skyrim magic?

Asking the question didn't make the answer magically arise from my soul, so I guess I'm on my own for that one. Oh wait-

"Hestia, how many constellations are there?" I asked something I probably should have asked from the get-go.

"Umu…" A rather cute noise of concentration rang out behind me before she announced, "Eighteen!"

"So I do have magic then." I stated thoughtfully.

"You're still thinking about that?" She huffed. "I know we talked about this yesterday Elric-kun, but normal adventurers can only have a few spells. I don't know if you can cast as many as you were talking about yesterday, but even just seeing three spells from a level one will draw attention."

"I know, I know…" I rolled my eyes. "Skyrim magic is pretty weak late game anyway, I'm just thinking about my options here; having a healing spell alone would be nice."

"...That would be reassuring." She admits softly.

I hum in agreement. "I also want to see if it levels up my magic stat."

"Maybe…" She said distractedly, before her tracing suddenly stopped. "I got it!" She exclaimed.

"It?"

"Your perk point! I can put it somewhere." She said smugly. "Ne, Elric-kun aren't I amazing?"

I sarcastically clapped for her. "How amazing you are my Goddess." So smug was she that she didn't even hit me for my teasing.

"Umu~" She agreed. "Now, where do you want this thing?"

"Can you find the one-handed skill? For swords I mean."

"Yup! I can do that for you, Elric-ku-" She cut off suddenly. "Eh! Why are there two?"

"Are you going off feeling back there or something?" She nods and I can't help but blink, levelling up really shouldn't be this… weird. "There's two sword skills; one is one-handed, the other two-handed, go for the smaller one."

"Ohh…" She exclaims, before a soft touch blossoms across my back and my mind shifts.

"Oh." I joined her in amazement, I can't exactly tell what just changed but I really want to stab something right now, specifically with a one-handed implement.

"This is the damage perk right?" She asks curiously.

"Hell yeah it is." I happily agree, still somewhat high on the feeling of power- my power. "Do I have another perk point? And is the second tier of that perk open yet?"

"That's…" Hestia trailed off, diving back into my Falna. "You have one more, and…"

Anticipation filled me as-

"I did it!" She announced her success cheerfully, and oh shit could I feel it.

I laugh perhaps a little manically. "You're the best Hestia." I claimed truthfully, my mind awash with… I don't even know how to begin to describe it, but I do know that I'm going to have some fun in the dungeon.

"Ehe~" She emitted happily, soaking up the praise.

I stood up suddenly, my grin widening ravenously across my face.

"Hey I was-" Hestia cuts off as I casually lift her by the armpits, she blinks. "Eh? Elric-kun?" Is all she can get out before I bring her into a crushing hug and start spinning her around.

Small people deserve no mercy.

"WAAAAAIII-!" She cried, but I didn't stop until I was satisfied, only then letting her drop down onto unsteady legs. "Why…?" She moaned.

"Because you're the best." I answer smugly.

"I don't think I wanna be the best if it means you keep spinning me…" She whined.

"Sounds like someone wants to be spun again~" I teased, not expecting Hestia to take one look at my wriggling digits and promptly run off.

"YOU'RE SO MEAN!" The abusive Goddess shouted, fleeing from my victorious self.

Remember kids, always get even.

Since I no longer needed to appease her, I supposed that I could go back to my alchemy and burn through the rest of my ingredients, but honestly? Those perks left me wanting to do only one thing.

And that thing is grinding.

The dungeon is a calling boys, just waiting for a murderhobo hero to plunge its dark depths... it all sounds a little romantic to be honest.

Now, before I made the trip to Orario I'd worked as a labourer in Ratan, the pay was shit, but as long as you were strong enough they wouldn't care if you came to work in say, some rags you found on the street, and given my circumstances, that was kind of perfect. Plus, at the time I didn't exactly have much overhead -on account of sleeping on the village streets- so I was left with a decent little nest egg; part of which I'd since put to good use.

A good use which I'd thankfully remembered to take from my kit downstairs and put in my inventory, I didn't really want to deal with Hestia's pouting right now. The moment I reached for them the warm glow of objects materialising out of my inventory lit the air, and I was suddenly left with a shield on my arm, a rather light steel cuirass on my chest and a sword on my hip.

Why sword and board instead of stealth archer you ask? I'd thought this through back in Ratan, scrubbing my brain for what I knew of the Danmachi dungeon. Two things stood out: one was that monsters in the dungeon always seemed to know where Bell was and/or spawned on top of him, and the other was that the dungeon was at least partially sentient and wanted to kill those who stepped into it.

Now granted, my Skyrim knowledge is limited to the game alone and not any of that weird deep lore you find on the internet; but somehow I don't think crouching will let me fool a domain-type enemy with seeming omniscience in said domain, regardless of my skill level. Worse still I can't even test it because I don't know if the monsters will scale with my level like in Skyrim, so until I find that out fudging my build is the same as committing suicide.

So, stealth archer is out, what about magic? Dunno how to activate it, and the skill damage was fixed in game causing it to crap out at the higher levels; that might be different for me given how the magic stats works in Danmachi, so I'll come back to it later. All of that only leaves melee, a personal favourite of mine and -if I'm being honest- the only choice I really considered.

Sue me, I'm biased.

When the masses are talking about Heroes they want flash, they want tales of bravery- of people running head first into danger, sword in hand. They want people like Ais and her overly elaborate and acrobatic sword style, the Braver and the story he's built up around himself; they want Riveria and her grand, floor clearing magic.

They don't want a tale of a guy who hid for a bit, shot some arrows and then everyone died, no one would tell a tale about that... Okay well, maybe they would -because that's kinda funny- but that's not the vibe we're going for here.

Big boy hero energy here only.

I don't care that I already have one broken ass skill, if I'm fighting the world ending dragon then you can bet your ass cheeks that I'm not going to stop trying to squeeze more power out of this world. This is the Holy Church of Hero Maxers and it's fucking gains day boys.

Which means it's time to fuck up the dungeon... right after I finish registering with the guild.

It's as I'm leaving that something amazing occurs to me. I turn to look at my lovely, ominously bubbling bucket... could I? Picking it up very carefully, I watch with a growing smile as it disappears into my inventory.

Oh the monsters are going to love my bucket.

The Geneva Suggestions are only for humans after all.

"HESTIA I'M GOING TO THE DUNGEON! BE BACK SOMETIME." I yell into the chapel, running off before she can respond.

-

The closest guild branch was a rather tasteful affair I decided, like someone had taken over a bank to serve as their fantasy adventurers' guild, and then decided to just adopt the aesthetics into its operation. Formal vested uniforms and cute professional girls were the rule of cool here and they operated with a clinical efficiency that I could genuinely respect.

Unfortunately that same efficiency saw me swiftly guided to a line for a clerk that had me bracing for the worst. Eina Tulle was perhaps more beautiful than she was in the anime, but I just couldn't be arsed to deal with her. If Bell's experience was anything to go by, then I was in for an overly long lecture on how to kill green midgets with the reach of a toddler; all from a woman who's never been in the dungeon.

If this were a game, this would be the kind of tutorial level bullshit that I'd have skipped straight through, because honestly? I'd rather huff the fumes coming out of my bucket than be forced to sit through an extended tutorial on the absolute basics.

I am not a patient man.

Spacing out, I fantasised about just leaving and running into the dungeon like a goober, I didn't even realise I was at the front of the queue until Tulle cleared her throat politely.

I blinked. "Oh sorry, spaced out for a second there."

"What can the guild do for you today, Mr?" She inquired formally, her eyes were fixed on my armour and a somewhat strained smile sat upon her lips.

"Carne, and I just need to register as an adventurer."

Her smile becomes just that little bit more strained. "Do you have a familia to register yourself with?"

"The Hestia familia." I inform her; from the notch in her brow, it's clear she hasn't heard of my Goddess before.

"I see..." She frowned. "Before I get the forms, I need to ask if you also require a dungeon advisor?"

That was a choice? Holy shit I'm going to save so much time.

"No." Her smile outright became a frown. "My familia has already filled me in." I deflect, Hestia most certainly hadn't, but I had a solid understanding of the first twelve floors, never mind the first.

"Have they now?" Oh that's cute, she's making assumptions. "I'll be right back with your forms."

Watching the half-elf walk away I thought for a split second that maybe this wouldn't be so bad, that I had perhaps misjudged Eina and her overbearing nature. That thought lasted right up until she returned with a stack of forms thicker than my thumb.

Motherfucker.

I should have just gone straight to the dungeon, just said fuck it and hopped right in; I can literally feel my time in there slipping through my fingers.

My trepidation must've been showing, because Tulle took one look at me and then just smirked. Fucking bureaucrats, it's not enough that they have to suffer, oh no, they have to drag everyone down with them.

The first full fifth of the stack all required sizable chunks of information to be filled out and that took ages. Immediately after that were the waivers of life and responsibility -that you had to read through entirely- a mass of legalese that basically translated to 'fuck you and your family, this idiot signed off on his life'.

Which I did, so kinda fair, but I'd still rather be head first in my bucket right now.

It was as I was reading the ninth and final waiver that Tulle decided she couldn't wait anymore.

"Carne-san." She got my attention. "I can tell you're set on this path, so I'll just give you a piece of advice I give to every adventurer that comes through here: Adventurers must not go on adventures, the dungeon is an incredibly dangerous place and the only way to find your fortune in there is to be safe." She stated firmly, imploring me with her eyes to listen.

I should probably just nod and move on, however...

"I know you mean well and all, and you're probably just talking about reckless adventurers without a lick of sense." I state blandly. "But even so, you're still wrong."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "...Is that so?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, playing obtuse huh? "The Falna responds to challenge, anyone following your advice will never make it to d rank stats, let alone further."

Eina adjusted her glasses, face cold. "It's advice intended to stop people from recklessly endangering themselves, Carne-san."

"So now it's 'adventurers must not go on adventures, other than all those times they should'?" I parody her motto back to her. I was honestly being kind of a dick here, but I wasn't the biggest fan of Eina to begin with and she was kind of in my way.

"If you wish to see it that way." She stated sternly.

I hum, signing my name on the last form with a flourish, looking up to shoot Tulle a satisfied smile.

"And done-" I get cut off as she drops a new set of forms in front of me with a sadistic, bureaucratic gleam in her eye.

"I'm afraid that the Goddess Hestia left much of the formalisation process of her familia for her future child." Eina smiled, a cold malicious smile on her face that hinted at untold -paper laden- horrors. "I'll have to insist on you taking care of that right away."

I don't know who I'm more annoyed at right now... No, it's Hestia, it's definitely Hestia; I'm spanking that Goddess when I get back.

She dares drop this shit into my lap? I'll make sure she can't sit for a week!

"Where do I start?" I asked with a forced smile, glaring into the face of the bureaucratic demon.

-

My mood thoroughly ruined by the miracles of bureaucracy and my smug midget of a Goddess, I turn my attention to Babel, the enormous rock hewn tower that dominates the centre of Orario and serves as the dungeon's grand seal. At its base -through the grand arches- I found the titanic staircase that served as the dungeon's entrance, as well as something that was definitely not in the anime.

Craning my neck up to take it all in I stared at the seemingly living painting of the azure sky that dominated the ceiling of the grand room. It glowed beautifully in the shadowed hall, giving a very obvious clue as to its magical nature.

Due to Tulle and her paperwork I had arrived well past noon and thus long after the morning adventurer rush. The staircase was basically empty apart from a few banged up adventurers resting up on the lower stairs, and a single group that was heading towards me who seemed inordinately pleased with themselves.

As I passed the apparently lucky group, the leader called out, "Give em hell brat!" to the laughs of his comrades.

Thanks random guy, I kinda needed that after the guild.

I smiled and kept bounding down the stairs; this thing went deep and I was not looking forward to having to take them back up while already battered by the dungeon. Without a Falna just getting in and out of the dungeon alone would probably be pretty tiring.

As I got near the bottom, the brickwork of Babel gave way to something far older and more ominous, the dark stone forming an ancient doorway, its heavy doors of nearly glowing metal opened wide in invitation. The pair of adventurers guarding them nodded at me as I passed, and just like that I was in the dungeon.

It was pretty damn cool.

The air was cold and smelled of that particular combination of stale, earthy and just a little metallic that you often found in caves. The walls were a strange bluish colour instead of the more earthy tones I expected from the anime, and dim light filled the space from somewhere. The thing that stood out the most however was the unnatural quiet that filled the space.

God, these vibes are perfect, my hair's already standing up on the back of my neck. With a grin and a scrape of steel on leather, I advance into the dungeon, sword in hand. I remember Bell just running around with his knife sheathed, but swords are a bit more awkward to get out and I don't have Bell's speed. Qahnaarin might have buffed my damage already, but Skyrim doesn't have shit for speed outside of a pair of shouts.

Shield first, I put one foot in front of the other and advanced excitedly, straining my senses to try and hear anything I could. When 'heroing', the most important thing to do is never look stupid and that means avoiding all the common rookie mistakes. Never get relaxed while in a place that wants to kill you, otherwise you end up like Bell, half dead and having to be rescued.

Nothing is less heroic than having to be saved… or dying like a goober I guess.

It took five minutes of exploring like this before I found my first Goblin, which probably said something about the spawn rate on this floor.

It was a funny little creature, like a toddler with oversized, gangly limbs and a bulbous head that flopped about as it scrambled towards me. Its range was shit, its speed was only a little bit more than what you'd expect from its toddler legs due to their seemingly adult-like strength, and its intelligence was apparently limited to running in a straight line towards you.

It was -in short- hilarious, and maybe a little sad as the grand start of my heroic journey, but I could deal with that. All adventurers started here after all.

As the little potato-headed bastard got close, I smiled, yeah, it all started with this. A single textbook thrust taken straight from my childhood fencing lessons punched a hole straight through its skull, puncturing through its resistance with the same ease I would an overripe watermelon.

Not that I've stabbed a lot of watermelons, but y'know.

I rechamber my arm, stepping back with my shield at the ready. My caution proved a bit too much given all the points I've already outlined, and the Goblin just collapsed anti-climatically. The only real surprise was that the body just kept bleeding out onto the floor instead of turning to ash like in the anime.

Is it still alive?

Well safety first.

I cautiously slash its throat, but it didn't move aside from the force of the blow, just leaving me with an even bloodier corpse. My mind flashed back to the sky mural I saw only a few minutes prior; maybe this was just another difference between the anime and the real world? But if that's the case, then...

"How the fuck do I get the drops?" I mutter, still standing a healthy distance away from the corpse; I've seen enough horror films to know to never stand close to 'dead' creatures.

Staring at it, sword in hand, I realise that I'm just going to have to start cutting and see what happens.

"You weren't a worthy opponent, but I'm sorry for this regardless." I offer as a shitty prayer, crouching down -still out of reach- and just start cutting. I immediately found out three things, swords don't have the leverage for precision work for one, and for two, monsters have a lot of blood in them.

My clothes did not escape untouched.

The final thing I realised was that the Goblin's magic stone was in the obvious place; I know this because I accidentally broke the damn thing while I was poking around its chest.

At least it finally turned into ash, and I now know I need a carving knife. Carving this shit out of each monster is going to be such a pain though; I guess that's part of why a good supporter matters. In the anime they always seemed a little useless to me, though that might be my dislike of Liliruca Arde speaking.

Dense as shit protagonists forgiving people who tried to fucking murder them was a personal pet peeve of mine, and insane, overly possessive girls who's feelings obviously aren't going to be returned are another. Lili manages to check both of those boxes, somehow.

Standing up I thanked the Falna once more for its buff, my knees probably wouldn't survive this hero business without it. At least if this was anything to go by.

Another ten minutes passed before I found my second Goblin, one that's slain just as quickly as the first, just a contemptuous flick of my blade and the thing is bleeding out on the floor.

I genuinely can't express enough how pathetic these things are.

And that made me cautious, because the only reason I could think of to churn out these shit tier enemies was if they were a psyop designed by the dungeon to make adventurers overconfident and let their guards down. Now I might be giving it too much credit here, but I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart and this smells more than a little sussy.

The extraction thankfully goes a bit better this time and, after a short while rummaging around in a Goblin's bloody insides, I managed to produce a dimly glowing purple gem, something that my skill reacted interestingly to. No, it wasn't a soul gem but it felt similar enough, just far too weak.

Which was kind of a relief honestly. I'd been worried about Skyrim ingredients since I'd sat Hestia down and went through the skill with her; alchemy working with the surface plants had helped assuage those worries, but enchanting and smithing are the big boys, and if they were off the table, then the skill….

Well it would still be overpowered, but not nearly as much as I first thought.

It was as I was crouched there -contemplating the gem- that I heard the first cracks, immediately forcing me to put away the gem and back up from the patch of ceiling the gobbos had decided to spawn from.

"That's a little better Dungeon…" I tease, watching as the little green men fall to the floor; it was kind of cute how they flopped over and had to scramble up just to glare at me. I backed up to an appropriate distance, putting my shield between me and them, sword at the ready.

In your face Tulle, I am the very soul of caution, even against these pickle brained toddlers.

They ran at me with their standard lack of strategy, leading me to experiment with a step to the side that brought the pathing of two of them just a bit too close, a fact that had them madly scrambling over each other in an almost Charlie Chaplin-esque manner. I laughed, meeting the unimpeded Goblin with a casual slice to its throat at a range it couldn't even hope to respond to. It didn't die immediately, but I just stepped back as it bled out scrambling on the floor.

The dynamic duo finally managed to fix their pathing and ran at me side-by-side, something that I fixed with a long thrust into the Gobbo on the right's skull. With my blade overextended into his friend, the last Goblin showed some basic reasoning skills and took the chance to leap for my throat. The problem? He was on my left side and my shield was very much not overextended.

I snorted at the expression that twisted its vile little face as my shield slammed into its torso and ripped the air from its lungs. The creature bounced off with a crunch and slammed into the jagged wall, where it fell to the floor in a boneless heap.

I shook my head in contempt, these things really were a joke of a psyop.

A casual swipe finished off the still bleeding out first gobbo, leaving me alone with the paralysed little bastard who was still glaring at me with unending hatred.

"You would have happily done the same." I reminded it, my boot pulping its skull into a gory mess.

Carving out the new gems proved to be just as much of a pain as the first time and I found myself lamenting that this world wasn't a one-to-one of the anime. But well, whining about it won't do anything, I'd just have to see about getting a supporter soon; if Lili was any indication then they probably kicked about in front of Babel waiting for parties. I'd just have to see about finding one tomorrow during the morning rush.

Before that though, I'd have to decide whether I was staying on the first floor or- Oh who the fuck am I kidding, of course I'm going further. The Falna grows through challenge, through pushing one's self, and this floor hadn't even come close.

"Maximum effort." I grinned, venturing deeper into the dungeon that apparently wants to kill me; it's just been doing a pretty shit job of it so far.

Thanks for reading.

If you couldn't tell I have a lot of disdain for Goblins and fantasy in general's lack of understanding when it comes to the basic concept of size and reach. If people start thinking that things like man-sized spiders are of the same danger level as green toddlers, then you've done something wrong (barring absurd speed).

In regards to the Eina Tulle stuff, Elric was showing a bit more of himself there than he otherwise would in his usual act; he can be surprisingly impatient, he thinks he knows better than others and is quite obsessed with the idea of being the hero. Had he listened, he'd have learned about the need to carve out crystals beforehand and brought a knife... probably not the last time those quirks of his will come back to bite him.

To clarify skill levels, Elric started with level 20 one-handed and 15 Alchemy, his two level ups came from pushing alchemy up to 22. He put his two perks points into the damage perk of one-handed. Hestia will get better at reading the skill, so just bare with the fuzziness for now.

There are there no health/stamina/magicka stats, hence Elric's confusion. He also can't currently work out how to access his magic, but will in future. Elric is not dragonborn and has no way to learn shouts in this world. I saw a fair amount of confusion on those points so I just wanted to clarify before I went further.

Hope that cleared up some things up and sorry for the long ass AN; I hope you all have a great day.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 3

"Hestia, how long ago did Hephaestus kick you out?"

"Mou Elric-kun, you're so not cute."

"Don't pout... I'm just trying to understand the timeline, how long we have."

"A couple weeks back, you happy?"

"Maybe, hopefully."

​

The conversation had been niggling at my brain since I'd had it; it was about the best case scenario I could have hoped for, but it was also a reminder of the time ticking down before my impulsive decision was proven right or wrong. I'm the first to admit that I'm an impatient man, that my choices are often based on nothing more than my own desires, but here?

I thought more about this decision than I did any other in my life. I could have gone anywhere, done anything, but I came here, to Hestia. I won't lie and say it wasn't an utterly massive risk that I made based on my limited understanding of the Falna, but I was right.

An accomplishment, refined by a God's interest and emotion and sheer narrative weight turned into the strongest skill I'd seen in the series. All because I was right to go to Hestia, so I could help this world, so I could be a hero.

It would take effort, a tremendous amount in fact; without Realis Phrase the fastest leveller in the history of Orario was Ais Wallenstein, who took a solid year to reach level two and by the time she got to level five that had slowed down to five years per level. I didn't have that time, I had at most a year and a half.

But this skill? It could do it -I could do it- I firmly believe that with all my being.

So much so that when I came face to face with my first dead adventurer and the goblin currently eating his spleen, it didn't shake me, or make me realise my own mortality -or any of that shit.

My only thought was that I couldn't waste any more time on these weaklings.

The Goblin cried out and scrambled off the corpse towards me, a gash on its stomach impeding its already slow movements. I watched it come and felt nothing but contempt; no this really won't do, I didn't have time to play in this kiddie pool.

Throwing my usual caution to the wind I stepped in and punted the midget with a form any football fan would be proud of. The feeling of its warm, bulbous beer belly contorting over my shin almost made me regret my choice before it blasted down the corridor, tumbling over the rough stone.

The sight brought a vague smile to my lips, the baby punting meme from the more edgy corners of the internet had done its rounds in my past life and I'd seen it enough times that it had managed to draw a chuckle or two out of me. But it was a smile that didn't last as I turned to the dead adventurer before me.

I didn't offer anything to the man other than closing his wide, horrified eyes. The man had died to a single Goblin, there was no future in which he wouldn't have otherwise died in this dungeon, whether that was tomorrow or in a week's time.

As I was finishing off the weakly struggling Gobbo, I looked up at the sound of scraping and found what I was looking for. Not ten feet away, hiding behind an innocuous corner was a dog-like face, my first Kobold.

The Kobold startled as soon as I noticed it, breaking cover with a snarl and charging towards me. I stood my ground, putting my sword between us, a small part of me realising that I should probably be leading with my shield, but my fencing habits were coming to the fore.

It ran faster than Goblins due to its height advantage, chewing up the distance between us, but it moved almost lethargically in contrast to the almost manic energy of its little green counterparts, making it much more predictable.

It reached me in the span of a second, reaching out with a clawed hand instead of putting any real weight or momentum behind its strike. I tilted my blade to meet it, expecting the thing to pull out of it like a feint, my eyes widening when it instead barrelled its arm straight into the blade. Unlike its Gobbo counterparts I could feel the bones in its arms parting before my blade, the resistance and weight behind it nearly driving the blade from my grip.

I grunt as I double down on my grip, driving the blade out and backing away as the Kobold screams its dumb little head off, clutching at its nearly split in two limb.

"The fuck are you screaming for? You ran into my blade." I ask incredulously as the dog-headed monster whines like an actual kicked puppy, "Oh don't give me that look, this is a dance, I anticipated your movement, you're supposed to back off and- why am I lecturing a dog...?" I rolled my eyes and lunged without warning, my blade cutting through the limb it throws up in defence and carrying through to split its snout in half.

As it collapsed I couldn't help but look at my blade approvingly; this thing was just a shitty sword that I bought from the first blacksmith I could find. I had been planning on aiming for the soft spots and just using it to earn enough to buy something better, but the blade looked fine in spite of what I had just put it through. Either the monsters here were a lot softer than I expected, or my one-handed perk was carrying me through sheer cutting power alone.

I didn't exactly remember all the numbers from the game, but that must be some hefty buff to let me slice through bone with just two perks, even if they are weak-ass monsters. Yet more proof of the strength of my skill, and how possible the path before me was.

Standing over the corpse, I once again lament the fact that this is not the anime. Carving the Kobold in fact turned into such a pain that I wound up putting in too much power to compensate for my lack of leverage and destroyed yet another stone. I rolled my eyes as the rat-faced bastard crumbled to dust.

"That's going to get real old, real fast." I grumbled, trying again on the Goblin, just focusing on getting the damn crystal out. As soon as I touched the monster, it crumbled to ash and I was left there just blinking in confusion. I definitely didn't break it, hell I had barely even parted the skin when it ashed, so…

A wondrous thought occurred to me and I immediately checked my inventory, sure enough there was one more stone in my collection. I froze for one glorious moment, just appreciating the sheer luck of the star I was born under.

"Thank you Todd Howard." I breathed in reverence. "I take back everything I've ever said about your games, you've saved me so much time."

Ten minutes and seven stones sucked up into my inventory later, I was in the final corridor of floor one, staring down the two Kobolds that had been waiting in ambush by the stairs with a grin on my face.

Like the rest, they didn't fuck around, just hoofing it towards me the minute they realised I'd seen them. They snarled furiously, fury evident in their beady red eyes, but that fury made them dumb as rocks and they came at me with enough spacing that as long as I handled the first quickly, I wouldn't have to take them at once.

I met the first's charge, meeting his opening swipe with a matching blow and almost laughing as his arm fell clean off. My follow up however hit air as the dog-fucker immediately collapsed, his momentum carrying him skidding across the floor behind me, clutching at his ruined limb.

"Shit." I cursed as the second leapt in. I raised my shield to take the skittering blow, painfully aware that something that wanted to kill me was in my blind spot right now. The thought propelled me forward and I shield bashed into his blow, a meaty metallic thump ringing out as it crashed into something heavy that I could only guess was its head.

I followed up with a blind slash into what I hoped was a stunned target, my blade meeting nothing but neck, blood splattering across the tunnel. I didn't get even a moment to enjoy my victory however, before burning hot pain erupted from my leg.

I turned my gasp of pain into a grunt, keeping my footing and spinning to bring my blade down on the one-armed bastard currently digging his claws into my leg. My sword buried itself into his head as he gave me one last glare of raw hatred.

"Motherfu..." I gritted my teeth, focusing on taking its magic stone; my desire turned the dog-fucker to ash and I had to gnash my teeth together as the pain immediately spiked. "Spiteful dog licker!"

Fumbling mentally through my inventory I ripped a pair of potions from the pile I'd mentally named 'good' potions and sniffed the first. A nutty scent filled my nostrils and all my instincts could make out was that it was some kind of restoring potion.

"Good enough." I muttered, downing the thing; the taste wasn't bad, but my wound didn't heal and all I was left with was a clearer mind to focus on the pain. I smelled the second, nutty, I tossed it back in with a growl, taking two more out of my inventory before I finally found one that smelled different, grilled meat.

Skittering broke through my pain induced focus and I looked up to find another pair of Kobolds and a Goblin sprinting from down a corridor on my left.

"Oh fuck you." I utter, quickly trying to down the potion. They're on me before I can finish and the potion cracks as I brace both arms against my shield to ward off the full-body slam of a Kobold. I slide backwards, turning the strike into a retreat, back peddling sharply on a half healed ankle.

"Hestia, if you're watching this…" I began with a pained smile. "I'm about to do something my people call a 'Pro gamer move'."

My shield disappears in a warm glow, startling the monsters for just long enough for me to grab the surprise I prepared earlier from my inventory. My bucket, the bucket flashed into existence as I cast it in a wide arc, the revolting purplish liquid filling the air like mist and spontaneously catching fire.

For legal reasons the following screams and body horror are not something I can put to paper, nor describe to you in good conscience. So I'll just settle for stating that the one who didn't die immediately, was promptly executed mercifully.

"Ah, sorry Hestia..." I cringe awkwardly, imagining her watching this. "Wasn't expecting that." I glanced at the remains before quickly turning away again.

Ah well, some things you can't do anything about, nothing for it but to continue the grind: if Bell could make it to the fifth floor in two weeks, then I would at least reach the third floor today.

-

The Dungeon, Third Floor

Filian Nowe

Collapsing back against the cool stone of the staircase, Filian let out a long sigh of relief. "That could have gone better..."

Besides him Ilya rolled her purple eyes, but even she -in all her noble stoicism- looked worse for wear. The red headed member of their training team didn't respond so much as collapse onto her back, breathing deeply.




Filian tried not to look at her barely covered breasts, he really did -it was against his elven pride after all- but they were right there. And if she didn't want him to look then she wouldn't wear such a thin shirt into the dungeon right?

Right…?

"Fil if you don't stop staring I'm-!" She coughed harshly, heaving in another rasping breath. "-Shit!"

Okay so maybe she did mind.

"Fil…" A reproving voice rang out and he couldn't help but wince as the untouched figure of their trainer strode into his vision. The wince seemed to satisfy Mr Nord enough for him to move on. "Now, you guys know what went wrong right?"

Filian did, he had a full view of the dungeon lizard dropping in from Judith's blind spot from his spot in the rear, but the way Ilya looked away and Judith just growled, didn't convince him that his teammates knew.

Mr Nord gave an uneasy smile. "Judith, Ilya for now I want you both to slow down and keep your eyes peeled. Fil, you're the rear guard," Filian cringed at the upcoming reprimand, "I shouldn't need to tell you that you need to watch your friends' backs."

Shouldn't need to, but would anyway, because he was-

"AGH!" Judith suddenly shouted, slamming her fist into the floor. "Fuck this shit! We've been in the dungeon for two weeks and we're still stuck on the third floor!?" The sheer frustration and anger in her voice made Filian wince; realistically he knew that their progress was fine and well within expectations, but when your two teammates were these two…

It was hard not to take every setback personally when Judith would explode in anger every time and Ilya would close in on herself more.

"Judith…" Mr Nord said warningly, before shaking his head in tired acceptance. "Rest for a few, we'll start again after that."

Judith settled at that, the promise of trying again enough to quell her anger, at least for now.

Filian didn't understand where she got the energy to be honest, he had the advantage of being in the rear, avoiding the overwhelming majority of monsters and yet his body still felt like one big bruise. As a melee fighter she really shouldn't have the energy to be that angry, never mind have enough in the tank to push them to keep going long after they'd blown through their potion allowance.

Mr Nord looked like he was going to say something, but instead snapped around to look up the stairs. Filian didn't hear anything despite his elven ears, but high level adventurer's senses were insanely good; if he thought someone was coming, then someone was probably coming.

Adjusting his position to free up his quiver, he pulled his bow closer and noted his friends similarly preparing, his eyes focusing on the top of the stairs.

As the tension racketed up, Filian noticed their teacher crinkling his brow in confusion, with the reason reaching his ears not a second later.

"Scree!" A Goblin screeched as it twirled gracelessly into view from the floor above. In weeks past Filian might have frozen up at such an odd sight, but now his instincts already had him training an arrow on the beast. He needn't have bothered however as the Goblin splattered into the landing just above his group and fell silent.

Boots followed after the little monster and a tall human came into view, a smile on his face as he made his way down to them.

"Oh hey, you guys are Loki familia right?" The man called out cheerfully, sidling up to the Goblin.

An awkward silence fell over the group as Filian realised that Mr Nord was stepping back from the situation, letting them deal with the encounter on their own. He cringed at the realisation, Judith was too wound up right now and Ilya usually preferred to remain silent, which just left him.

"Ye-yeah." He spoke up, attempting a roguish smile. "That's us, Loki-sama's amazing trio in training!" A wince broke through his facade as the speech strained the injury on his side.

"You alright?" The man asked as he sliced the Goblin's throat, his eyes still locked onto Filian. "Need a potion?"

He wanted to say yes, for a variety of reasons mostly related to pain, but Filian was struck by the sheer casualness the man exuded even while killing.

"It's coming out of your pocket." Mr Nord cut in, reminding them of the general rule for overuse of consumables. Filian almost groaned in disappointment, while Judith actually did as she threw a petulant glare at their teacher.

The man just laughed. "Here, it's on me."

He tossed it to Filian, who almost cheered as he raised an arm to catch it. "Thanks-" Suddenly Mr Nord was there, the vial in his hand as he inspected it with a critical eye.

All at once, Filian felt like a dunce again, he'd forgotten the first rule of dealing with other adventurers: never trust them.

They'd lie, cheat and kill their way to any advantage they could claim against their fellows, poison was just one of their many tricks, and Filian didn't even think about doing due diligence. Sure, it wasn't likely that the man would poison him right in front of a level four, but caution was being drilled into them for a reason. He cursed his own stupidity.

A long moment of tension entered the air as the man's smile faded a touch.

"It's good." Their teacher announced, offering the vial to the closest of them, Judith. "Share it." He reminded her, even as he turned to stare at the man in evaluation. "You offer potions to everyone you meet?"

"You're the first I've met in the dungeon, so I dunno yet." The man threw out the rather baffling statement casually. "But I'm an alchemist, so it doesn't cost much to be friendly."

"And what's the cost for this 'friendliness'?" Judith shot out, not yet having drank the potion, but the desire was clearly there given how it lingered next to her lips. The man just smiled in response, sitting down at the edge of the landing.

"Well, some tips for in there would be great." Filian felt himself relax at the words, even teacher seemed to relax a little; a give and take was a lot more understandable than random people offering free shit in the dungeon.

"Not much to it." Filian began, eyeing Judith as she scoffed and downed almost half the potion, he winced a little at that. "The corridors are a bit wider, the groups a bit bigger -you'll sometimes even get five or six monsters in a mixed group- and they're a little stronger. Biggest thing to focus on is the Dungeon Lizards."

"Dungeon Lizards?" The man queried, but it sounded strange to Filian's ears, like he was actually asking what a Dungeon Lizard was in the first place.

Filian shook it off and just nodded along. "Big lizards that stick to the ceiling, blending into the stone and the darkness, you get too close and they'll throw themselves at you."

The man hummed at the information. "You guys heading back in? I'm Elric by the way." He gave them a winning smile that had Judith scoffing; Elric was a little obvious with what he was angling for.

"If you wanna leech of us, then-!" She fell silent as their teacher raised his arm, but she kept glaring at Elric who seemed entirely unbothered.

"Judith. Moments like these come in the dungeon, when you have to choose between working together with your fellow Adventurers or not." Mr Nord of course decided to turn the situation into a teaching encounter, something Elric oddly didn't seem to mind. "The very least you can do is hear them out while thinking about what they can offer you."

"Pretty much." Elric agreed, playing into their teacher's lesson. "In this case I can offer potions and to take the front, an extra sword should make things go a bit easier at least." Judith prickled at the insinuation that they needed help -even though they did- but ultimately simmered down.

"Up to you team, whatever happens I'll be here." Mr Nord reminded them reassuringly.

Filian sighed, knowing it was going to be his choice again... and his consequences. At least Ilya was finally passing him the potion- annnd it's a sixth full.

Greedy humans.

"Well I'm down for it." Filian announced his decision in no way informed by the temptation of more potions. "I'm Fil by the way." Elric nodded respectfully at him.

"Ilya Lindsay." His noble teammate added, though Elric didn't seem to recognise the house name, hoorah for small mercies.

"Judith, don't hold us back." Judith cut in bluntly, as they all got back to their feet and readied themselves to brave the floor again.

"Nice to meet you all, which way we headin'?" The man left the decision up to them. Filian nodded approvingly, already Elric was more agreeable than Filian's teammates.

"We finished off the left corridor only ten minutes ago," or at least their teacher finished it off, "let's go right." Elric nodded, marching off at a decent pace. The others exchanged glances and fell in behind the man, maintaining a bit of distance and keeping an eye on him, while Mr Nord fell in besides Filian in the back.

And just like that they were back in, wandering through endless tunnels that all looked the same as the atmosphere suffocated them in its horrid mix of silence and stale air. The only thing that was worse than the silence? The little sounds, the distant thumps that broke it for the barest of moments, each raising his guard and bringing him back to full attention, only for it to turn out to be nothing, again.

Never able to relax, never able to let down your guard, kept on a knife's edge for minutes, hours. It makes your stomach crawl, your eyes itch and your mouth goes dry. Mr Nord had told them that, that was sometimes the worst part of the dungeon, the insidious killer.

Becoming tired.

Oddly, that didn't seem to affect their new party member overly much, as the man walked along with a relaxed posture, sword resting on his shoulder. Even Judith had noticed the man's lackadaisical nature, probably only narrowly holding herself back from chewing him out. Filian shook his head, the dungeon would do that for her in a bit.

Then his sensitive ears pricked up, or right now.

Sure enough, a Dungeon Lizard leapt off the ceiling as the walls cracked around them, splitting the team in two. Filian cursed and leapt back, putting some room between him and monsters as he readied an arrow; as much as the guy needed an awareness check, they still needed their tank up and ready.

Before he could line up the shot however, the man's blade swept off his shoulder and caught the Lizard with an almost lazy slash that shattered its stone. The freshly spawned monsters froze as one of their number exploded, turning to face the man.

Filian took the chance to shoot one of them in the back, his eyes still focused on Elric as the man turned around. To his sides, Ilya and Judith charged in, engaging a Kobold each, swords flashing as they whittled away at the monsters' defence.

For a moment Filian was struck by just how well everything was going, normally a group of this size would have torn past the front and forced him back, occasionally pushing him so far that he would end up drawing in more monsters to the point that their teacher would have to step in. But here? Despite the disastrous spawning, it was like that one quick kill had drawn all the attention of the monsters, leaving Filian free to loose as many arrows as he could.

A pair of monsters fell to his arrows as his teammates finished off the two they were engaging, with the remainder falling to Elric's odd swordplay.

"I'm not the best at carving stones." Elric suddenly announced, smiling awkwardly. "Do you mind if I stick to guarding?"

Judith grumbled a bit before shaking her head. "You're strong, it's fine."

Filian blinked in shock as she actually crouched down to start carving, would the miracles never cease? They normally just left the carving to him.

"Oi Fil, don't slack!" She called -rather hypocritically- but that was fine, he could deal with that, it was just nice not being the only one for once.

"So how long have you guys been adventuring?" Elric asked suddenly, Judith gritted her teeth.

"Two weeks." Ilya surprisingly spoke up, her purple eyes staring at the man with curiosity. "And you?"

Elric laughed. "Started today." He announced in the most obvious lie Filian had ever heard.

Before Judith could explode however, their teacher cut in with a thoughtful hum. "That explains a few things."

"It does!?" Judith demanded.

"Elric here is pretty decent with a sword, but his speed and strength are actually lacking compared to you lot." Mr Nord told them.

"But then…" Ilya trailed off.

"It's because he has a damage skill." Their teacher announced, staring at their party member.

"Was it that obvious?" Elric asked in surprisingly good humour for someone being called out on their Falna's secrets in front of strangers.

"Your sword was going through bone without the proper form or strength behind it, and that sword is..." Elric shifted slightly at the sword comment, but otherwise took it on the chin. "I've seen enough damage skills to recognise the signs."

"A bit foolhardy to demonstrate it in front of a level four huh?" Elric chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Mr Nord nodded agreeably. "Other familias would probably try to scoop you up."

"Yeah, I figured it would be fine with you Loki lot though." At that Filian's brows raised, the man glanced at him. "Loki-sama has a pretty nice record, this baby skill wouldn't be worth the reputation loss if it came out that you were bullying smaller familias."

"Probably yeah…" Their teacher rubbed the back of his head with a smile as Filian stood a little straighter, for his familia to have such a reputation… it filled him with pride. "If you're interested, I could talk to my Goddess."

At those words all of them jerked, swinging around to stare at Mr Nord and his incredibly casual offer.

"Just like that huh?" Elric asked, seeming to find their teacher's offer to be humorous.

"You've got potential, and we can afford to buy off other familias for promising rookies."

"I'll keep it in mind, but I don't want to leave my Goddess alone." Elric said, a strangely wistful expression on his face. "I'll relay the offer, but from what I understand our Goddesses have a… tenuous relationship."

Eh? What does that mean, and why is teacher sighing?

"Hestia-sama by any chance?"

"Does Loki-sama complain about her a lot?" Elric returned with a laugh.

"Ever since she descended." Mr Nord returned with a reminiscing smile.

"Divines, am I right?" Their teacher laughed along with the man while they were just left standing there in befuddlement.

Sure Loki-sama could be a bit… but she was a Goddess, an actual divine worthy of all the respect that title deserved. To be talking about her and a fellow Goddess as if they were troublesome children, was bizarre.

"Oh, has Loki-sama not groped these ones yet?" The man asked an absolutely insane question with a matter-of-fact bluntness that Filian was very quickly beginning to associate with him.

"G-Grope!?" Judith demanded, a heavy blush on her cheeks as her sword twitched towards Elric.

"You know about that? Guess we haven't been keeping it that quiet." Mr Nord mused, as Ilya and Judith turned to him with expressions of disbelief. "Ah, it's not that big of a deal you three, Loki-sama only does it to people she knows will put her in her place."

"Put her…?" Judith trailed off in disbelief.

"He means beat her off with a stick." Elric offered with a chuckle.

"Loki-sama is a pervert…" Ilya whispered.

"She is, but she wouldn't do anything to you guys." Their teacher offered, before continuing in a small voice, "yet…"

"If she tries anything, I'll kick her ass!" His red-headed teammate swore then and there, fire in her eyes.

Elric just laughed. "That's the spirit." Amazingly Mr Nord nodded along with him. "You just hav- Oh, we've got a few coming up front."

Filian blinked, suddenly realising that they were in the dungeon- that monsters were coming. Adrenaline flooded his veins as he realised he'd let himself relax in the joking atmosphere. He tensed, his elven eyes finding the small pack of Kobolds tearing towards them.

"Yeah, when it comes to Divines…" Elric went on to Filian's disbelief, calmly continuing the conversation even as monsters descended upon him. "You just have to deal with their quirks sometimes." His blade lashed out, cleanly slicing off the arm and then head of the first Kobold, his shield raising to meet the attack of another before Judith slammed into it blade first.

Filian shook off his shock and sent a pair of arrows down range, picking off a small Goblin in the back of the group.

"They've spent an eternity up in Tenkai, more than enough time to go a little crazy." Elric added as he stepped back into the battle and gutted one of the Kobolds making a beeline for Ilya. "And more than enough time for them to get a little obsessed with interesting things."

"Interesting?" Ilya queried, dancing out of the way of a Kobold's lunge and severing its tendons in return.

"GODS! Would you shut up!?" Judith suddenly shouted. "I'm trying~! To kill things here!" She yelled, slamming her blade into the thick neck of her already crippled Kobold.

"My bad." Elric apologised once the monsters were all dead with a not-so-sorry smile on his face. Judith didn't look at him however, staring instead at the wall; only Filian's elven eyes let him notice the blush on her cheeks.

"No- it's…" Judith cut herself off in frustration, seeming to force herself to calm down. "I'm just worked up." She huffed.

"Talking in combat is… a bad habit." The man offered, even seeming a touch guilty about it.

"Yeah." Their teacher nodded. "Some of our executives- well, they can be quite the chatterboxes in the midst of things. I tend to keep my head down though." He admitted.

Filian blinked at that titbit, he'd heard rumours of some of the things they had to fight down there; the idea that some of their leaders could chat away in the middle of that… it sounded unreal.

"...Can I ask him now, Judith?" Ilya asked blandly, Judith shot her a venomous glare and turned her attention to carving. Ilya turned her eyes to the enigma amongst them.

"Interesting as in us." Elric clarified. "If you think about Gods as obsessive children bickering over toys you'll probably have the right of it more often than not."

Filian wasn't the only one to turn and look at Mr Nord in something approaching disbelief; the man's guilty expression that was slowly morphing into something perverse didn't reassure them.

"Honestly it's kind of great," their teacher spoke up with a dopey smile on his face, "Loki-sama heaps all kinds of luxuries on us upper rankers, for our- ah, loyalty. That competitiveness is really something."

"We've lost him." Filian whispered, staring with his fellow rookie's at the previously reliable man who had been serving as their teacher.

"I dunno what kind of whorehouse he's imagining, but it must've been a damn good one." Elric laughed in their stunned faces. "C'mon guys, let's keep at it! I wanna make the fourth floor before the end of my first day."

Filian's mouth dropped, staring at the back of the tall man as he cheerfully made his way through the dungeon. It was only much later that Filian realised that the dungeon's daunting atmosphere had fallen apart in front of the bizarre camaraderie of the strange group he'd found himself in.

Thanks for reading and for the utterly fantastic response to the last chapter.

It wouldn't be one of my ANs without some weird footnotes, so here I go: I know Dungeon Lizards are supposed to start on the second floor, but this just worked better story wise.

Ilya and Judith are from a manhwa called Deadbeat Noble -a pretty good read all told- their personalities aren't one to one and the images used here (for some reason SV wouldn't take the images directly so I had to put them in links) are a bit older than I imagine them here, but they're useful references. Filian is an OC. They'll be fairly reoccurring characters for a short while until Elric completely out grows them, after which they'll only pop up on occasion.

Originally this chapter was going to be a lot longer, but I basically divided it into two parts.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 4

There's something innately satisfying about fighting something that's stronger than you, something that's faster than you. Something that'll take you head on, whose blows will throw you back and whose speed and killing instincts will drive them into every opening that appears in your guard, tearing into you with bestial ruthlessness.

It's satisfying because despite all those advantages, despite all the blood and the pain, you're still standing, you're still fighting back and most of all: you're still winning.

One over-extension and it's already over, the inky darkness of the first War Shadow collapses at my feet and my shield is already raising to deflect the follow up strike of the second. The blow staggered me, but I was ready for it, a hundred other similarly strong blows having taught me to move with it.

It jukes right, trying desperately to abuse its speed advantage and disembowel me before I can recover; my blade meets its claw and cuts through, drawing a rattling scream from the apparition as I step in and strike its chest with the rim of my shield. Its scream chokes into a horrific note that itches my brain, but I press through and end things with a vicious thrust to the neck.

Panting for breath, I luxuriated in the feeling of a hard-won fight. I was stinging all over from a dozen minor cuts -from this battle and others- and my muscles burned from where I'd pushed myself to keep up, to put my shield up just that little bit faster, to meet their blows just that little bit faster. It was a hard, worthy challenge that I was quickly beginning to find intoxicating.

This really is so much better than any video game.

I wanted to laugh, to grin, to shout, to be that socially clueless guy in voice chat who gets way too into the game and starts full on larping right there in the vc while the rest of us just awkwardly humour them. But no, there's people around, I have to maintain my act, to be the unphased hero.

"Elric!" Judith's voice called out, turning I barely had time to realise her intentions before she kicked her War Shadow towards me and dove to avoid the spearing tongue of a Frog Shooter. As I cut off the staggered shade's head, she clambers to her feet and engages the massive frog with a roar, her bastard sword coming down on the creature in an executioner's strike.

Truly, a girl after my own heart.

When we arrived at the stairs to the fifth floor, she was the only one other than me who was immediately down to continue. The red-headed battle junkie was almost ecstatic to chalk up another floor on her tally and push herself just that much further.

Standing over the corpse of her fallen foe she somehow looked even happier, like a kid on Christmas day. A wide grin on her face as the crimson blood of her opponents dripped from her equally red hair.

"Ilya, you alright over there?" She called out, watching as the silver haired swordsman danced around her War Shadow, outpacing the apparition as she surgically whittled it down with quick strikes from her rapier. At Judith's question she looked over, rolled her eyes and re-engaged without missing a beat. "Oi! I'm trying to be nice over here you-!"

I patted her on the shoulder before she could finish that sentence, nodding her over to where Raul was taking care of a knocked out Filian. I'd heard his shout earlier, but in the heat of the combat I couldn't afford to look away, expecting Raul to take care of it. Given the way the man was kneeling beside him with a worried frown on his face however, things probably weren't looking too hot.

Judith ran off before I could say anything and I followed, trusting Ilya to finish up. Filian didn't look great up close, the sleeve of his outdoorsman jacket was torn open to reveal bruised, swollen and lacerated skin, a trait shared with his cheek and temple. The kind of wound you got from the barbed tongue of a Frog Shooter.

"Frog snuck up on him from behind." Raul informed us, looking at me. "Got a potion for him?"

I silently nodded, fetching another Mc'ds potion from my thigh pouch, using it to hide the minor light show. Honestly, the lacerations weren't that bad -I was probably in worse shape myself- but anytime you get knocked out like this there's a high chance of a concussion, and that can get nasty.

So I passed the pot to Raul and watched how he coaxed it down the elf boy's throat, propping up his body to let it flow down into his stomach. This definitely wouldn't be the last time I'd come across someone down like this, so learning how to apply potions to the unconscious was definitely a good idea.

Judith hovered over us anxiously, watching her comrade with a surprising amount of care as his wounds swiftly closed up. She put up a rough front, but when it came to her teammates, she was surprisingly soft. Ilya wandered up behind us with a stoic expression, her hand on her sheathed blade as she cast a wary eye about the cave.

"Alright, he should be good to move." Raul informed us. "Get those monsters carved and then we'll head back to the surface."

A frown appeared on Judith's face and I could almost see her loyalty for her friend and her desire to progress and fight warring with each other. The frown passed quickly and she nodded with resolution, heading off to carve with a meaningful glance towards me.

I wasn't sure what the glance was about, but I could understand her conflict; I was honestly tempted to stay myself and keep moving onwards, to engage in that heart pounding dance again, but I could barely handle two War Shadows as it is. Running into a party like the one we just encountered would probably be the end of me given how much faster than me they were.

Which now that I thought about it, would probably become a theme of my dungeon delving.

To push myself I'd need to face monsters that can avoid or otherwise tank the almost one hit kill potential of my sword, which will almost certainly mean facing monsters that are significantly faster than me. In that scenario running away just isn't an option, not like it was for Bell. I'll have to start carrying around some trump cards to handle situations when they spiral beyond my ability to deal with them. Things like the bucket oddly enough, or something like that Hermes' chick's bombs.

For now though, I could hopefully stick with this team and use them as a safety net while I find my rhythm in the dungeon and prepare said trump cards.

"You should probably take a potion yourself." Raul commented, looking over my various cuts.

That would probably be a good idea, but I knew I was already stretching the limits of credibility for how many potions I could conceivably be carrying with the few pouches I had. Something Raul seemed to be testing given how he kept pushing me to use more.

That could come down to him having seen the light of my inventory opening at some point and assuming anything from an enchanted bag to a carry skill, or it could just be him testing how many potions I was willing to expend for free. I couldn't be certain, but it was best to play it off.

"Used my last one on him I'm afraid." I flash him a self deprecating grin.

"Figured as much." He nodded in tired understanding. "You didn't need to go that far to ingratiate yourself with them you know?"

"If you mean the potions, they're cheap enough." I play off modestly. "I just need to carry more next time."

"Something that works that well is never cheap." Raul shook his head. "And I meant everything, pushing yourself to take on more monsters than the others, even going along with Judith's half-cocked idea of coming down here… Kids who've only been in the dungeon for two weeks shouldn't be on the fifth floor, never mind a first timer."

Ah, he was misunderstanding me on that level. On one hand the idea that I was willing to go that far for my new teammates spoke well of my loyalty, but on the other it implied that I was kind of weak willed, just going where Judith led me and doing dumb shit to show off.

"It's not that." I denied. "The potions sure, I'm hoping you guys will invite me back tomorrow, but I want to push myself in combat, I know what it takes to grow as an adventurer."

It was dark in this part of the dungeon, the dim lighting added to the challenge of fighting literal shadows; but it was just bright enough for me to see the absolutely haunted look that passed through Raul's eyes. I couldn't begin to guess what was going on behind those eyes, I only recognised the guy from that spin off anime where he was mostly just a background character, whatever was going on in those dark eyes I have zero background knowledge of.

He reached out, gripping my shoulder with strength that belied his somewhat goofy demeanour. "Be careful on that path kid, pushing yourself like that…" He said seriously, his eyes struggling to convey something utterly grim. "I've seen too many get swallowed up like that."

I nodded seriously, trying to convey my understanding.

"Don't say I didn't try." He sighed. "C'mon, the others are waiting… and here." He offered up one of his own potions from what I guessed was his emergency stash, I opened my mouth to deny it, but the earnestness of his gaze had me accepting it anyway.

"Thanks." I said sincerely, before downing the thing under his watchful gaze. It tasted thin and watery and seemed to take longer to kick in than my own potions, but sure enough I could feel it getting to work on my cuts. Oddly though it didn't seem to do anything for my muscle fatigue, nor the tiredness buzzing at the back of my mind, a natural consequence of being this focused and alert for this long.

"It would've gone to Fil otherwise." Raul shook his head, picking up the elf, I followed him up and we wandered towards where Judith and Ilya had gathered.

"Here." Judith said in lieu of a greeting, passing me two small crystals and a shadowy finger blade -a drop item from the War Shadow.

I thanked her as I packed away my spoils and mentally prepared myself to leave. It felt like leaving a dungeon run half complete, knowing that when you returned all the monsters will have respawned. Not a great feeling, but this wasn't a dungeon that could be cleared in a century, never mind a single day, my gamer brain would just have to deal with it.

"Alright team, it's long past time we headed back, Judith and Elric here pushed us well past our allotted time." Raul claimed and I found myself blinking; I had no idea how long I'd been down here.

"We made progress didn't we?" Judith snarked back, a hint of a smile on her face. Ilya nodded with a satisfied look on her face.

"Well, since you made so much progress, I'm sure you won't mind carrying our man down." Raul grinned as he officially handed off the duty to the now moping redhead. "C'mon, let's get topside, I want a drink."

"Mind if I join you?" I offer, testing the waters a little. You miss all the shots you don't take and all that, and this was a chance at getting in with the Loki familia. I want those sweet, sweet narrative buffs.

"Sure, need to stop off at the manor first though." He accepted with a cheesy smile. "Drinking with others always makes the ale sweeter."

"That isn't what you said last time." Judith grumbled as she finished tying Filian to her back. With him secured we started making our way back the way we came.

"That's because you kept starting fights with everyone that looked at you." Raul commented with a deadpan stare.

"They were staring at my ass!" She shouted, a fierce blush on her cheeks.

"It is a great ass." I comment with a smile, deciding to play along. She glared, but ended up looking away in embarrassment.

Raul laughed. "Hopefully this place will be better, old man Gareth recommended it to me." Judith straightened at the name, a touch of awe crossing her features. I'd noticed anytime the upper crust of the familia came up she immediately responded with respect.

It was kinda cute.

"What about you Ilya, wanna come?" I ask the rather stoic girl, she'd spent most of the trip in silence outside of asking me one or two questions, but it never hurts to be polite.

She paused at the question, before shaking her head. "Sorry, drinking isn't for me."

"Oh c'mon, live a little!" Judith exclaimed. Ah peer pressure, thou art universal.

Ilya turned away, returning to silence.

"Oi, don't turn your nose up at me!"

"Judith." Raul said reprovingly.

"It's a free world." I chime in absent-mindedly, the comment got me an odd look from Raul, but Judith seemed to understand if her chastised nod was anything to go by. "Now c'mon, let's get paid."

Judith seemed to perk up at the thought, but Raul and oddly Ilya didn't seem that interested. Given that Raul barely killed anything, that he's a level four and thus likely a millionaire, that makes a great deal of sense. But what Ilya's deal is however I have no idea, the withdrawn girl didn't exactly talk much.

Personally I couldn't wait, money for me meant materials and soon time at the forge; it meant another step on my journey to abusing this Skyrim skill for all its worth. Hell, maybe I could even buy some higher tier magic stones and work out what's going on there with enchanting. Plus alcohol, it's been a hot minute since the last time I got drunk.
-

Raul and Ilya split off the moment we broke the surface, with the level four going deathly pale when he saw the darkened night sky. He ran off muttering to himself about how Riveria was going to kill him with Ilya hot on his tail, leaving just me and Judith to handle the processing of our loot.

The guild building was just coming into view as Judith finished up a story about Filian. "-and then Filian squawked like a bird and ran off." She laughed. "Apparently the girl was some ex of his that he stood up a bunch of times, she was pissed."

"He ghosted her?" I shook my head.

"Ghosted? There's a word for that?" She blinked. I winced, my modern vernacular is probably going to get me in trouble at some point.

"Where I come from yeah." I deflect. "It was surprisingly common."

"Sounds like a shit place." Judith commented with the bluntness of a wrecking ball, I laughed.

"I think it was like any place really, some good, some-"

"-ELRIC!" I blink, looking up for who screamed my name, right before a small torpedo shaped Goddess slammed into my side. I grunted as she forced me back a step, staring down in confusion as Hestia tried to bury herself into the gap in my armour.

"Hestia?" I ask.

"Your Goddess?" Judith asks with a gobsmacked look on her face.

"UuuuuUU!" Hestia lets out a weird sound into my side as her little arms cling to me like a koala. After a moment of stunned silence her teary face pops up, clearly trying to make me feel some kind of way, only problem? She was doing this in public and as much as I wanted her to like me, this was over the top enough to make me feel uncomfortable, and damn if that isn't a high bar to clear.

"ELRIC! You meanie~! How could you make me worry like this!? Baka!" She cried in that weird mix of Japanese and English the Gods seem to prefer.

"Hestia, we're in public." I remind her calmly, feeling like a parent calming their hyperactive child.

"I DON'T CA-HMNH!" I muffle her scream by hugging her back into my side.

"Sorry about this." I apologise to Judith who's just been staring at us in shock along with several other onlookers.

"Huh, you really weren't shitting me before…" She responded faintly, presumably referring to my warnings about Gods being like children.

"You get used to it." I commented, as Hestia started pounding at me with her little fists. In all honesty? That was a lie, I'm not used to this and if I ever become used to it, I want someone to shoot me. I might have some weird plans that involve larping as a hero for power, but not one of those plans involves being climbed like a tree by a virgin Goddess as she puts on a show of crying hysterically.

"Carne-san?" A wild Eina appears, coming from the same direction as my Goddess looking noticeably flustered. Suddenly I was reminded of all the paperwork I was forced to do this afternoon, and how much of it was specifically these two's fault.

"Miss Tulle." I greet stiffly, something that causes her brow to furrow. "Did my Goddess give you a hard time?"

"I didn't!" Hestia exclaims as she frees her head from my side. Tulle looks surprisingly awkward at that.

"She was quite concerned with your safety." The guild employee says diplomatically.

"You have my sympathies." I offer sarcastically.

"Mou~!" Hestia pouts.

"Hestia…" I give my Goddess the disappointed dad routine and she almost immediately folds in on herself... for a grand total of two seconds.

"Wait no!" Hestia rallies, glaring up at me "You're the one that's late! Atone Elric-kun!"

"I'm not doing the kneeling thing." I immediately deny.

"Elric-kun doesn't love me…" Hestia immediately tears up.

Rolling my eyes at the immortal being I've known for all of a day, I pull her back into a hug. "Hestia, I'm an adventurer, you can't panic the very second something goes a little wrong. Just trust me a little will you?"

She nods against my side, but stays attached like a limpet. Worst part about all this? I can't even tell how much of this is an act. I know Hestia acted like this around Bell in the anime in order to emotionally manipulate him and/or grope him -which considering he was fourteen was definitely weird- but Hestia had made no such moves towards me, so I couldn't really tell what she was aiming for with all this.

"Sorry about this guys." I apologise to the two for the rather awkward situation they were kinda forced to watch.

Judith rubbed the back of her neck, looking away awkwardly, while Tulle looked at me with a profoundly understanding look in her eyes.

"It's quite alright, I just came over to make sure Hestia-sama had no further need of our services?" My Goddess just nods into my side again, leaving Tulle without much room to respond. "Right. Carne-san." She nods to me in farewell.

"Tulle." I return politely as she flees back to the guild. If part of her job was dealing with the manipulative children known as Gods, then I can at least sympathise with her a little more. If she unleashes any more paperwork on me however…

"Right." I sighed looking down at Hestia. "Hestia, this is Judith, she's one of the adventurers I teamed up with in the dungeon today."

Hestia looked up with a suspicious look in her eyes, taking in the awkward redhead.

"H-Hey Hest- I mean Lady Hestia." Smooth Judith, real smooth.

"A teammate of yours?" Hestia questioned, suddenly unlatching from my side and walking forward to stare Judith in the eye, all at once abandoning her aura of childishness for something entirely more fitting for a Goddess. "And what are your intentions for Elric-kun?"

"W-What?" Judith's face went blank, her eyes glancing at me while I could only shrug. I guess I didn't mention that Gods can sometimes switch personalities on a dime just to fuck with you. "I- uh… I want to keep adventuring with him?"

"Ugh, truth…" Hestia pouted, before she flipped again and suddenly gained a devious look on her face. "Well what about romantical-!?" I covered my Goddess' mouth before she could shove her foot any further into it.

"Sorry Judith." I apologised again to the furiously blushing young woman.

"I-It's okay." She managed, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.

"For the record, I'd also be interested in continuing to dive with you guys." I offered to make things a little less awkward. "Today was a lot of fun."

"A-Ah, yeah…" Annnd she's still blushing.

For a brief moment I wondered if Raul had to deal with this shit from his Goddess.

-

Orario, Twilight Manor

Raul Nord

"YOU'RE LATE!" A certain flat, red-headed Goddess shouted as she pulled off a textbook flying drop kick on her returning children. Raul expected as much and thankfully managed to get Ilya and Filian out of the way before her landing.

"Sorry." He apologised quickly, not reacting as his Goddess slammed into the floor and rolled down the hallway in an almost comically flailing ball of limbs. Ilya's stoic demeanour meanwhile broke slightly as she stared incredulously after her Goddess.

"Is she…?"

"I'M ALIVE!" Loki sprung back up with forced cheer, bleeding from a cut on her head.

"She's fine." Raul sighed. "We've returned Loki-sama."

"So you did!" But her slightly opened eyes were taking in the injured team member resting in his arms. "Something happen?"

Raul knew exactly what she was asking and shook his head. "Not an adventurer, just a Frog Shooter. He's already had a pretty good potion but I was hoping to get him to medical."

Loki hummed. "Concussions are nasty." Raul nodded despite his lack of knowledge on the subject; Gods rarely explained the knowledge they imparted upon mortals, it was always best to just nod along.

"I'll come with, and maybe..." She wiggled her fingers as she stared towards the medical wing.

"Your funeral." Raul laughed, leading the way as Ilya trailed after him, keeping a respectful distance. He had taught the girl enough to know she wouldn't leave their side until her comrade was given the green light.

"Mah, Riveria's been giving me the cold shoulder since last week, she deserves a little… ufufu." Loki trailed off into an echoing, lewd giggle and he could feel Ilya stiffen beside him. Honestly he was as surprised at Ilya not knowing about Loki's habits as he had been about Elric's surprising knowledge. Loki didn't exactly hide her preferences, even from the girls she didn't outright go for.

Suddenly Raul gained a devious look of his own. "If you distract her well enough, there's a bottle of Soma with your name on it."

Loki's red eyes turned his way and a vulpine smile spread across her face. "I'm taking that bottle whether I succeed or not gaki." She chortled at the pained expression that spread across his face. "Speaking of, Ilya!" The girl started at the sudden call. "Tell me what happened down there, chop-chop."

The girl seemed to fall into herself a little before recovering admirably, her back straightening as she stared at their Goddess. "While we distracted on the frontlines, a Frog Shoo-"

"-Mah! From the beginning, from the beginning. You kiddies don't appreciate a good story!" Loki demanded, as Ilya looked at him with something approaching pleading. "Oi no looking at Raul, I wanna hear it from you."

Raul shook his head, Loki seemed to have made it her mission to make the withdrawn girl come out of her shell a little. Ilya wasn't anywhere near as bad as Ais had been back then, but their familia was a little sensitive to emotionally withdrawn girls who hyper fixated on hitting things with swords.

Still, he doubted anything would come of pushing the girl like this.

"I… I guess it started when I ate some fruit for breakfast?" Ilya informed them cluelessly, and Loki immediately turned around and slammed her head into a wall. Amazingly enough Raul actually sympathised with his Goddess for once.

"Gah! The beginning of the adventure!" Loki cried.

"We met at Babel?" Ilya tried.

"Hey look, we've arrived!" Raul announced cheerfully, apparently Loki's mission would have to wait. "Ilya, can you?" The girl took off immediately, taking Filian from his arms and heading inside.

"That girl…" Loki shook her head.

"She's not that bad." Raul commented. "You just caught her off guard and she still…"

"Has some respect for me?" His Goddess commented mirthfully.

"We all respect you Loki-sama." He responded, before wincing. "We just don't respect some of your tendencies."

Loki hummed, before completely switching the subject. "The Frog Shooter, did they make it to the fifth floor or?"

"You can always wait until you update their Falna…" Raul teased, knowing how much his Goddess both loved and hated not knowing, she gave him a flat enough look that he immediately caved. "They made it to the fifth with a stray they picked up on the way."

"A stray?" She asked, interest in her tone.

"Some hotshot rookie from Hestia-sam-"

"HAH~? Itty Bitties!?" She exclaimed, her annoyance conveyed by every inch of her face. "That useless Goddess doesn't even have a familia!"

"Apparently it was his first day." Raul added with an amused smirk.

"First… on the fifth floor?" Loki made a show of her confusion, twisting in place with her head in her hands, but he could see the analytical glint in her eyes. "What kind of skill did this kid luck into?"

"Damage, didn't seem to have a specific type; he was using some cheap sword that was cutting through bone like butter."

"Her first kid… Ugh, that stupid woman was always stupidly lucky." Loki grumbled. "And he was just demonstrating this in front of you lot? He know ya one of mine?"

"Yeah, he recognised me right away." Raul responded, thinking back on that curious moment, there was something in the man's eyes when he spotted Raul, something that went beyond simple recognition. "He thinks we wouldn't snatch him for the sake of our reputation."

Loki outright laughed at that. "A little naive, but sounds like an interesting enough brat…"

Raul hummed. "He even introduced himself as an alchemist and offered us free potions; I honestly thought he was trying to get himself recruited for a minute there."

"You offer?" She asked with no judgement in her tone, if anything she seemed excited.

"Yeah, he said he'd convey the offer to his Goddess." Loki cackled at that, thoughts of stealing Hestia's first child from her clearly playing out on her features. Raul didn't really know what the rivalry between the two Goddesses was about, but the side he had to support was pretty clear. "I'm meeting him for drinks in a bit, if you want to get his measure."

"Hoh?" His Goddess looked up with an expression to foretold mischief. "That sounds pretty interesting, but for now, I have an elf to lewd, ufufu!" She whispered the last part, stalking into the infirmary with a death wish.

As Raul listened to the violent crashing within, he let out a faint prayer of thanks for the actions of his noble Goddess. With her valiant sacrifice maybe, just maybe, he'd make it out of this without facing Riveria's wrath.

Or at least that's what he thought, right up until the door slammed open and the high elven princess stood before him with an unreadable expression on her dignified face.

He almost whimpered.

"Ilya told me what she could." Riveria began, her serious gaze boring into him. He gulped, already not knowing where this conversation was going. "What did you notice about the potion you gave Fil?"

"Eh?"

Thanks for reading.

For notes? Level five of the dungeon now has War Shadows and Frog Shooters. Canonically I think it's never really discussed, but in the manga Bell confuses floor five and six just after encountering a Frog Shooter on six, which I think is good enough proof.

Elric's potions aren't Danmachi potions – those generally need specific drop items like Blue Papillo wings- but rather Skyrim potions made using surface plants. They function differently from said Danmachi potions to the point of being obvious when looked at by a healer. Namely in the fact that they can heal bone damage – something that Danmachi healing as a whole struggles with, hence the interest.

In brief they function like Skyrim potions in game; it doesn't matter how close to death you are, as long as it's not a disease or a curse, take enough potions and you will be healed.

I think that's everything? So just know that if you read this far that you're my little pogchamp.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 5

"Is it really a good idea, getting close to them like this? Going out to bars with them?" Hestia asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had been stewing between us as we waited for Judith to finish her shower. Looking over I could see how serious she was about this, her prior child-like behaviour nowhere to be seen.

I went to open my mouth but paused, considered and then stopped. I had a hundred and one reasons to associate with the Loki familia, to be around them as plot shit goes down, to further our relationship for when I inevitably need to join some kind of expedition to level; to just getting my name out there and being desired by divines in the hopes that it furthers my narrative weight in the broader scope of the world. This relationship was one of chance and yet it was incredibly valuable to me, even if it might not seem like it yet.

But Hestia wasn't looking for answers like that, it was written all across her face; she was just worried. Worried that I'd be forced to leave her.

"Hestia, these risks… they're inevitable with what I'm doing, what I have to do." I gave her the most reassuring smile I could. "Worst case? They push things and force you to give me up, but no matter what I'll support you, even if-" Hestia's hand suddenly grasped my arm, and I winced at her distraught expression. That was the wrong thing to say.

"Elric-kun… don't say that, don't even talk about that." She demanded quietly. "Please."

I paused, I'd thought she was looking for reassurance that I wouldn't abandon her, but this… this seems even more personal than that. She was clearly investing a lot more into this relationship than I was, given my more tentative approach to relationships.

Did she genuinely think of me as her child? Already?

"Sorry." I began. "I just wanted to reassure you."

"I know, but no one wants to hear that their child might be taken from them." She smiled bitterly. "Elric-kun, I know you're smart; you got involved with them intentionally, you opened up that possibility intentionally. Why?"

"I…" I grasped for words, uncertain of how to respond to her sheer level of sincerity. "I've got a lot of reasons -good reasons- but that's not what you're looking for is it?"

She shook her head slightly, her eyes never leaving mine.

"Then… the opportunity was too great, so I accepted the risk." I admitted without excuses or justifications, it felt… wrong.

Hestia's eyes searched for something in me, they were surprisingly soft, as if she knew how hard it was for me to not justify myself.

"I understand." She said at last, smiling sadly at me. "What do you think our chances look like?" Now that I could answer.

"Good." I affirm, smiling back. "I know Loki's domains and all, but her familia was one of very few that were actively trying to help Orario in the story. They're too invested in the peace of Orario to rock the boat over anything I showed."

Despite my reassurances, Hestia's grip on my arm didn't loosen. "I don't know what you saw Elric-kun, but up in Tenkai Loki was… violent." She spoke quietly, her eyes distant. "I've heard that her kids have softened her somewhat, but don't bet on us Gods changing that easily."

"Immortals…" I sighed, feeling Hestia stiffen next to me. "Say… can you update my Falna?" I asked suddenly, partly to get her mind off this shit and partly because it'd reassure us both to have a bit more strength in the game, even if that was total placebo.

"It won't do much…" She warned, but there was an eagerness to her words as well. I just took off my armour and shirt, revealing my rather mid physique to the guild hallway – the place was deserted this long after hours.

The motions she traced still felt weird, intruding beyond my flesh and stroking at the core of my being. It was definitely weird, but it was a weirdness that I could see myself getting used to it eventually; the adaptability of humans and all that.

Hestia hummed as she worked this time, a tune reminiscent of the one she sang yesterday, the hope it almost pushed into the world filling the space between us. It was clear what she was conveying, then and now. I wanted to respond, but I'd only known this wom- this Goddess, for all of a day. No matter how much of an emotional battering ram she was, I couldn't allow myself to open up that easily.

"Done." Hestia finished, drawing the last few symbols upon my back, before pressing a sheet down upon it; where she got the sheet, I have no idea.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •

Elric Carne

Lvl 1

Str | I 013 |
Vit | I 010 |
Dex | I 016 |
Agl | I 017 |
Mag | I 000 |

| Magic |

| Skills |

[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written into their soul.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •​

My mind immediately tried to rationalise that in terms of my goals, the answer? Even for a single day this wasn't good enough, not nearly good enough.

The stat system in Danmachi went from zero to nine hundred and ninety nine, with things slowing down considerably towards the latter end of the spectrum. I had at most six months before Bell turned up and things went to shit, I don't have his cheat to level, so I needed that head start, desperately. I needed to be at least level three- no, level four or five before that time was up.

Ten-twenty stats a day wouldn't do that. No actually it's even worse than that; stats slow in growth the higher you go. If I put in the same time and effort weeks from now, I'd be getting much less than I am now. Even if it kept pace like this it'd be forty days before I could level with dogshit stats like other adventurers, as in the kind who level as soon as they possibly can and nerf themselves in the process.

I needed to improve my strat, I needed to get to the point where I could push myself and solo so I could spend some more time in the dungeon. Actually, I needed more time, period and I had an idea of where I could get it.

"Elric-kun?" Hestia called out softly.

"Sorry, just thinking it over."

She poked my side and leaned in closer. "You're considering something drastic aren't you?"

"No." I lied.

"Lie..." She told me flatly. "Just, be careful Elric-kun."

"I might come back late, a lot." I warn her, she hugs me from behind.

"As long as you come back." She whispers and I try my best not to break out of her embrace.

It was only after a rather uncomfortable minute that Hestia let me go. "Your skill levelled again." She announced a sad note in her voice.

"Another perk?"

"Yeah."

I thought about it, trying to recall everything I knew about Skyrim. Upgrading one-handed was a no-brainer that had helped me drastically in the dungeon, but beyond that it was a bit foggier. Upgrading alchemy with its flat upgrade perk was decent, but the potions were already healing me fully and I wasn't exactly selling them right now, so a quality increase didn't really help much.

What would help?

Damage or damage reduction realistically. I could only get those two one-handed perks given what I assumed of my skill levels were-

"What are my levels like?" My mind going over the some forty monsters I tore through today. Skyrim early levels are pretty easy to farm, even for combat skills like one-handed.

"The one you had me upgrade has gone up a bit." She commented. "Between a fifth and fourth full, so twenty three I guess?"

Twenty three was… slower than I would have thought given how many monsters I killed today, but maybe my skill levels differently to in game. Not great news, but not the end of the world given how dense the population of monsters is in the dungeon compared to Skyrim.

"Any others?"

"The armour one has gone up by… two?" Hestia guessed. "So twenty two."

"Light or heavy?" I asked, a little worried. Light was generally considered the superior choice, but I couldn't find anything rated for the dungeon that wasn't steel -something that's normally considered heavy armour. The stuff I bought was fairly light however, so I was hoping…

"Light, definitely lighter than the other one." Hestia affirmed with her 'vibes', while I let out a sigh of relief.

"Put the perk in that." I decided right there and then; increasing armour effectiveness basically increased my survivability at zero cost. I wasn't quite sure how it worked here, but in game it basically functioned as percentage damage mitigation no matter where you were struck. It capped out at eighty percent in total and then stacked with shield blocking. This perk was my first step towards potentially reducing all incoming damage by a factor of five.

"Will it protect you?" Hestia asked quietly.

"Yeah." I felt her smile against my back as the perk activated, and I basked in the feeling that emerges from my soul. It felt… safe.

"Umu~" Hestia exclaims happily, a touch of her less serious personality leaking in. "Now for the rest! Your… blocking? The shield skill went up by I think two, and something to do with talking went up by... one?"

"Speech?" I commented idly, surprised that that was levelling given I hadn't traded with anyone -ah the magic stones.

"Sounds about right." Hestia hummed happily. "We need to sit down and go over this though, I can probably get a translation going."

We chatted idly for a while after that before footsteps echoing down the hallway interrupted us.

"Elric!" Raul called as he emerged around the corner on his lonesome, he seemed friendly enough -and maybe my conversation with Hestia was making me a little paranoid- but I felt like something was just a little off with him.

"Raul, how's Fil doing?" I greeted casually while watching his expression carefully.

"Good, he's good." Raul smiled, more genuinely this time. "Your potion did almost all the work, damn impressive stuff." He commented and while I nodded, his fixation on the potion set off alarm bells in my head.

"Good to hear. Raul, this is Hestia, my Goddess." I introduced acting at ease. "Hestia this is Raul, a level four of the Loki Familia."

"Hestia-sama." Raul greeted whilst Hestia shot me a mixed look.

"A level four?" She uttered, staring up at the man.

Raul awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "I know I don't look like much."

He did indeed look more like an awkward young man as opposed to a tactical weapon who was equal to the heavy hitters of basically every other familia in Orario. It didn't feel like an act however, if I was convinced of anything about him, it was that Raul's insecurities were indeed genuine.

"He likes taking teaching duty apparently." I comment and he smiles.

"Less work." He brags shamelessly. "At least when this one and Judith aren't keeping us in the dungeon."

Hestia shoots me a flat look that I promptly ignore. She probably saw at least some of that in the Falna anyway.

"Gotta level up somehow."

Raul hummed in agreement. "Where's Judith by the way?"

I nodded towards the shower room. "It's been thirty minutes."

He groaned at that. "Women." I nodded along tiredly, ignoring Hestia trying to pinch me as my new defence basically no-sells the weak human noodles she calls arms.

I shook my head as I started to strap on my chest plate.

"You're going drinking in full armour?" Raul asked in amusement.

"We live pretty far away, better to just go like this."

He hummed. "The place is run by a former adventurer, so I doubt he'll mind, but you'll probably still get funny looks."

I shrugged not really caring, my clothes were covered in blood anyway. Funny looks were inevitable. "Where is this place anyway?"

"The Northwest District, one of those civilian areas." Raul smiled. "Good place, less chance of a random fight breaking out."

"I'll take your word for it." I smile, standing as I finish strapping up my armour. "Hestia are you…?"

"Umu~ I'm coming too!" She cheered a bright smile on her face, completely hiding her prior weariness.

"You're supposed to ask." I admonish, but Raul just laughs.

"It's fine, I'd never turn down a Goddess."

"Then I guess we're just waiting for red-hair!" Hestia enthused.

-

The bar was one of those hole in the ground affairs, stone stairs leading down into a wood and stone cellar which led into a series of wide, blocked off stone block tunnels with tables spread throughout. I'd seen similar bars in England, built into old water tunnels that lent them an almost ancient atmosphere.

The place was pretty casual, with its sparse residents seeming to be in good spirits, laughing away together in one corner or another. Raul took the lead for us and after bantering with the bartender a bit, he secured us a large booth in the back.

Despite definitely having seen at least some of this in my Falna, Hestia seemed to really enjoy our retellings of our dungeon crawl, or perhaps she just liked being able to talk freely with mortals. Or maybe she thought this was a date and that's what she was getting excited about?

Not being able to read her was awkward for me.

It was as Raul was teasing me about my enthusiasm for heading down to the fifth floor, that we heard the bar door slam open and three shadows darken its doorstep.

"Yo! Do~chibi!" A grinning Goddess called out as she swaggered up to us with two of her executives following in her wake, but my eyes were locked upon only one of them: Loki familia captain Finn Deimne.

And just like that, it clicked for me, why Raul seemed just that bit off when he met back up with us, why his comment about the potion stuck with me, and why the eyes of the Loki familia captain were so focused on me, alight with mischievous cunning.

The potion worked too well, and now I have to deal with this.

As Hestia shot out of her seat, already trading insults with the red-haired Goddess under Judith's widened eyes, I turned to glare at a suddenly rather guilty looking Raul.

"I can understand your loyalty, but you're still a dick." I called him out flatly.

"That's... reasonable." Raul uttered, genuinely sounding remorseful. "If it's any consolation I am sorry."

"If they're here to declare a war game or any of that shit, I'm taking revenge on you first." I declare stubbornly. Raul winces and doesn't rush to correct me, so that's a genuine possibility.

"I've heard they didn't get along, but seeing it is something else." A new voice comments idly as Finn Deimne walks up to our booth. "I guess we'll have to handle things captain to captain."

"Y'know… for such a short guy, you have a surprisingly deep voice." I uttered a complete non-sequitur, watching carefully as his eyes widened in surprise before almost immediately settling back into amusement. There's a crash off to our side as Judith falls out of her chair.

"Elric!" Judith squawks as she clambers back into the booth, a heavy flush on her cheeks. "You can't say that!"

"They brought two level sixes here to threaten a first day rookie." I deadpan as she pales. "I'll say what I like, I'm sure our hero here won't mind."

Riveria -a beauty to whom the anime did not do justice to- bristled slightly at my remarks but otherwise didn't comment, choosing instead to stand behind Finn as he pulled himself onto the end of the booth.

Side note, these booths are not designed for children.

"I don't." He agreed with yet more amusement in his voice. "And it isn't very heroic is it? I can't say I'm a fan of these games between familias." He said that, but the man in front of me was known as a strategist first and foremost; any underhanded tricks the Loki familia had employed in his long tenure as captain came from either his or Loki's minds.

So I snorted. "And yet here you are."

"Here I am." He smiled. "I'll cut right to the chase, we think rather highly of your potions and would rather avoid any unpleasantries… so how about we work out a deal?"

The unpleasantries he was referencing were all too obvious and didn't leave me anything in the way of wiggle room here, which was obviously the point. To refuse was to potentially force their hand in the form of a wargame, the same thing Apollo tried with Bell in the anime and exactly what I was worried about before, I just didn't expect it to come from this angle. The fucking potions were so god damn cheap and easy to make that I mentally wrote them off as trash, and now that was biting me in the ass.

I didn't know how they differed from regular potions, but the more I focused on it the more the buzzing of my alchemy instincts informed me that I was missing something about them. It was a lack of information that I could only solve by admitting my lack of knowledge to the person I was about to be forced into negotiations with. An admittance that would surely lead to them taking even more liberties.

My long pause had Judith and Raul shifting in their seats, glancing at me awkwardly, but Finn and the princess remained as unphased as ever, still smiling pleasantly.

"And what are your terms for this deal?" I asked plainly, baiting for a bit more information.

"We're fine with taking your pricing -within reason of course- our primary sticking point is exclusivity." Finn explained calmly. "All we want is for you to only sell your potions to us, that of course includes your generosity in the dungeon." Exclusivity, the focus on me giving out potions; he was worried about other familias working out what he did. He's threatening a wargame to keep me from being wargamed by someone else?

That… could be good for me. At the very least it implied that my original assessment of Loki's unwillingness for this kind of thing was more true than I realised and that gave me more wiggle room for the future. Then again, I could just be reading too much into this…

I'll test the waters, if he's not genuine then this probably means conceding ground but I'm already on the back foot here. "I see, those are quite extreme terms." I opened cautiously. "It makes me wonder what forced your hand like this."

Riveria was the one to speak up this time, sighing as she began. "Filian's arm was fractured in a manner we call 'displaced', that would usually require setting and at least two weeks of recovery time even with high potions." She spoke clearly and surprisingly honestly, informing the party she was negotiating with how valuable their product was. Was this the upside of elven pride? "Your potion fixed that before he even reached our infirmary. What forced our hand is obvious."

At her words I could see it, what I was missing about my potions and what my skill was buzzing about. In Skyrim potions heal by a flat hp value based on your skill level, perks and the enchantments you're wearing, no matter what damage is done to you, it will heal with enough potions. Based on Riveria's words, my potions seemed to be operating on the same logic; they'll heal anything as long as you take enough of them, something my skill seems to agree with.

If it functioned like in the game however, then it had limits; the higher your hp, the less the same potion would heal you. In this world however hp doesn't exist, only the endurance stat does and if my skill's buzzing is anything to go by, then it's pretty likely that the two are tied somehow. A fact that might just be key to getting the Loki familia to lose interest and back off.

Finn's smile didn't dim at her reveal, likely trying to project a sense of fairness even as they potentially gave up a crucial negotiating advantage. "We were quite shocked." He commented idly. "Especially when Raul told us about how cheap you seemed to treat them."

"I may have overstated their cheapness a little."

"And why would you do that?" Finn leaned forward, completely ignoring the Goddesses' fight behind him as it escalated into outright violence.

"I was uncertain about the lower floors, teaming up seemed sensible but your team was guarded and injured." I explained. "Offering potions was the best path forward, but…" I trailed off, letting him infer the rest.

"You were worried about how suspicious it would appear." Finn nodded, leaning back. "I can't say I didn't have my own suspicions when I heard about things from Raul." He hummed, staring at me appraisingly. "Before we go further, I'd like to know if you've offered these potions to anyone else."

The question all but confirmed my earlier suspicion about his motivations; they were here to keep these potions out of sight of others, the threats were to get me to the table and willing to negotiate for an exclusive contract, something that would otherwise be a large ask in any negotiation. It didn't make me feel any better about the threats, but it did at least give me wiggle room if they were less willing to follow through than I first thought.

"No one, outside of my Goddess." I gave an honest answer, to which Finn nodded with a pleased smile.

"Excellent, then how about we discuss this deal." He pressed on, clearly quite eager to get things going; something that left me with only one choice.

I smiled. "Sure, and in the spirit of that deal, how about I tell you about the glaring flaw in my potions." I stated the words calmly, banking on incomplete knowledge.

It went against every instinct I had for negotiations, but I didn't want to be here in the first place and if I'm right then this fact would come up eventually, likely when one of Loki's higher level adventurers was injured and they wound up trying to heal them with what is effectively a dud potion. An event that would likely result in backlash that I wouldn't be able to afford.

"I can't say I've ever had someone try to undersell their work to me before,"

"Do you often threaten people based on the value of their work?" I retorted.

"Walked right into that one didn't I?" He asks with a self-deprecating smile.

"Just a little." I snort.

"The flaw then?" He gets us back on track.

"If I'm right-"

"If?" He interrupts.

"Well I couldn't exactly test this, but I'm about ninety percent certain here." I admit, hedging my bets a little just in case my skill is giving me a false positive; it wasn't exactly transparent. "If it works the way I think it does, then the potions will negatively scale with your endurance stat. Excellent for low levels, but not the game changer you're looking for."

"I've never heard of potions having such a downside." Riveria cuts in, a frown upon her lips. "I trust you can prove your words?"

"If you're volunteering for some pain, sure."

"I'll test it." Finn cuts in calmly. "I have the highest endurance stat here and… the elves would probably revolt if they found out I let Riveria get hurt instead of me." He joked, shooting a smirk at the elf as she looked away with a huff.

"Sounds good, but-" My words are interrupted by a victorious scream.

"-FLAT CHESTED HARLOT!" Hestia's war cry pierced the air as she power-bombs Loki into our table, sending our drinks flying in a display that phased even Finn and Riveria. Loki doesn't get back up, leaving us with a dazed Goddess laying haphazardly across our business table.

"Sasuga Hestia-sama." I congratulate her, sarcastically clapping as Raul and Judith look at me incredulously.

"Ehe~!" Hestia posed in triumph flashing a peace sign, before her expression twisted with realisation. "AH WAIT! Elric-kun are these people being mean to you!?"

"I'm good, Hestia-sama." I reassure her, before realising something. "Actually, do you have that potion I gave you this morning?" I hadn't given her a potion this morning, but rather while Judith was in the shower as a safeguard, I didn't expect it to come in handy this early though.

"Hm? Oh yeah!" She confirmed happily, pulling the vial from out between her prodigious breasts; Loki groaned pitifully at the sight as Hestia leaned over her to hand me the vial.

I blinked at the warm potion in my hands, cleavage hammer-space... that's very anime.

"Thanks, Nord, is this the same potion?" He winced at the more formal addressing, but looked carefully at the vial I was holding up and nodded. I spun the vial across the table to Finn. "Give it a try."

The hero picked up the vial, inspecting it with a careful eye. "It looks like a regular low-potion." He commented, before uncorking it and giving it a sniff. "No smell… I can see why you got this confused Raul." The level four winced in spite of his captain's words, he'd definitely been chewed out for letting an unknown potion near his trainees, even if it did turn out to be beneficial.

"You said it scaled negatively with endurance, so it should heal a little?" I nodded at Finn's words, watching as he spun out a knife and ran it along the outside of his arm. A deep cut appeared, dripping blood onto the table and he slowly took the potion.

It healed enough that the blood slowed, but no more than that.

"That…" Riveria trailed off perplexed, staring at the wound curiously even as she moved to heal it.

"Well now that that's established, can we delay these negotiations a little?" I ask calmly.

Finn hummed. "They're not worth a war game." He declared, surrendering his position on that front, much to the relief of the room. "But if they're as cheap as you implied to Raul, then they're certainly worth it for our trainees… We'd be happy to give you as long as you need in the interest of a mutually beneficial relationship."

I inclined my head in not quite thanks, but more acknowledgement. "Great, then I'll be taking my leave, getting stared at by this acting obsessed Goddess isn't my idea of fun." At my words Loki's eyes snapped open, staring at me with undisguised interest. Hestia shifted into an offended stance behind her.

"Dochibi~! What'cha been telling this one about me?" The Goddess complained, suddenly sitting up on our table.

"Che~ only the basics you moundless shorty!" My Goddess turned her nose up, glaring at her red-headed rival out of the corner of her eye. I rolled my eyes as they started to quibble again.

"Well, it's been interesting to meet you, hero." I taunted, standing from the booth and nodding at Judith.

"Likewise, and don't take too long to get back to us." He winked.

"I doubt I could if I tried." I chuckled humorlessly.

I made to leave, but Judith grabbed my sleeve before I could, her face solemn. "We're… we're still on for tomorrow, right?" She didn't quite plead, but she was clearly worried.

This whole thing had definitely soured my interpretation of the Loki familia, but the benefits of getting closer to them hadn't faded. If anything, the more I was seen to be working with them the less need they would feel to take drastic action. Why force things when they could just claim the same benefits by making deals?

That being said, the closer I was to them the higher the chances of them seeing something else that'll raise my value again. But on the flip side of that, my value going up was inevitable with how fast I have to level. In short, all roads lead to Rome, so I might as well just do what I fucking want.

"Yeah, I'll see you guys in the morning." I affirm, watching as her face lights up in relief. "Nord." I nod.

"Elric." He nods back, looking uneasy.

"Oi brat." Loki calls out before I can walk away, I stop and turn back halfway. "What's ya skill like?"

In the split second after she said that I weighed my options, throwing out lying and refusing to say anything, both would give away too much; obtuse it is.

"It just works." I say the line, smiling as Loki's expression crumples. Besides me Hestia sticks out her tongue at her rival.

"Bah, yer way too boring brat." Loki turned away, and I took that as my cue to get out, leaving with one final nod to the two executives of the Loki familia.

That was... unexpected. I had obviously been playing with fire interacting with the Loki group, but I'd thought I had a handle on things; and yet, day one and here I was. I needed a better handle on what was considered normal in this universe, and I needed to get stronger.

The Loki lot might be fine with me right now, but once shit starts to spread about me I'll have to deal with other familias, and if I take Apollo as a benchmark of that, then I need to reach level three soon. It'll be a balancing act, but if I play my relationship with the Loki lot right I should be able to stay on favourable terms with them even with my sky rocketing value.

In other words my goals are clear; level quickly, be more cautious, look into the cultural and economic norms and hide as much of my activity as I can until I hit the saturation point where I can start telling entire familias to go fuck themselves.

What a day that'll be.

"...That bitch really soured the mood huh Elric-kun?" Hestia quietly broke the silence between us as we walked through the cool night air, the streets were littered with civilians, many stumbling around in groups clearly drunk already. It was an almost festive atmosphere, but my heart was elsewhere, my eyes set upon the darkened tower that loomed over us. "Elric-kun?"

"Hestia, can you get back on your own?" I ask suddenly.

"I can but- you want to go back in right now?" Hestia's eyes widened as she realised my goals. "Elric-kun the dungeon is dangerous at night, without other adventurers there to share the dungeon's attention… an-and you're probably getting really tired, just-"

"I've got a plan." I interrupted her, looking away from the tower to meet her eyes. "Trust me."

Hestia faltered then hesitantly nodded. "Be careful…" She insisted.

"I will."

"Promise me!"

"I'll be back, I promise." I swore as earnestly as a guy like me could, Hestia shakily nodded. "Can you do something for me though?"

"If it'll help…"

"It will. Could you gather these for me, tomorrow?" As we passed through an alleyway I pulled two flowers and a herb from my inventory, the ingredients for my health potion and what I believe to be a stamina potion. "Subtly if you can."

"These are… right." She nodded more firmly, committing them to her Goddess tier memory and then pushing them away, I hid them back in my inventory.

"Then I'm off, Hestia."

She smiled with a sense of sad understanding. "See you later, Elric-kun."

I waved off, heading down a different path towards Orario, before suddenly pausing.

"Hestia." I call out, looking over my shoulder to see her pause, her earnest expression turning towards me, likely expecting a touching goodbye. "That paperwork you left for me in the guild?"

"E-Eh?" She uttered, baffled.

"You're getting a spanking for that." Now I could leave.

"W-Wait Elric-kun! C'mon I didn't-! Elric-kun!" Hestia's pleas for mercy only brought a sadistic smile to my face.

Things to note; Elric's levelling speed will obviously increase, this was just his first day and he's about to do something dramatic to speed things up.

The Loki lot are obviously still interested, but Elric's potions have gone from absolutely critical down to just very handy to have and thus not worth the reputation loss a war game would bring them. They also haven't realised that they can just take like twenty of them and it'll bring them back to full health.

In short, they've come to the conclusion that they overstepped, and are now trying to show goodwill to Elric by giving him some time and space. Something most people desire when going into negotiations, especially when they're unfamiliar with the market.

Thanks for reading, and any support you give this story, it means a lot. Have a fantastic day everyone.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 6

Hours ago I remember thinking that a party of War Shadows would be the death of me, and as the claws of a War Shadow slips past my guard and skims my cheek, I couldn't help but admit that my past self was a pussy. There is nothing more satisfying in this world than fighting with your life on the line, nothing more exhilarating.

Back peddling out of the way of his partner's follow up, my sword flashes up, cutting a fierce gash into its arm before it pulls back in a blur of movement. Hours earlier I wouldn't have even managed that, but that small increase in stats was enough for me to punish them in ways I couldn't before; enough to force them to keep their distance as I whittled them down.

In my past life, people would pay to experience this kind of thrill, this surge of adrenaline, raw emotion and threat. They'd throw themselves out of planes or fight in arenas where a single misstep would mean a lifetime of injury and debilitation, they'd play games just to experience something new, something to fill that void of sheer and rampant boredom.

But this? This was like all of those things and more… fighting with your life on the line, the steady assurance that each fight will make you better, faster, stronger.

It was addicting in a way I'd never experienced before.

I grin as I rush to follow up on the first but a third War Shadow leaps over his wounded friends and slams into my hastily raised shield, its fingers tearing at its cheap metal surface. Grunting in effort I toss him to my left and duck right, past experience having taught me the pain of letting your opponent recover behind you.

The first two approach quickly, shadowed eyes alight with raw, all-consuming hatred. But speed isn't the only part of me that's improved, I can see them now, their forms no longer a blur of motion and darkness, but rather humanoids with tells I could see coming.

I watched them step in, the obvious wind up as the second goes for a wide swipe with all its mass behind it. It's almost child's play to flick my blade into its path as my shield wards off the shallow probe of the first, a savage grin pulling at my lips as the second's arm goes flying and it lets out an unholy shriek.

The third rushes back in as it manages to recover, but it's too late, my new strength lets my shield arm weather their desparate blows, letting me whip my sword back around into a low strike to the wounded Shadow's legs. It goes down in a flail of limbs, and I let the blows now tearing through my shield drive me back out of range.

"That's one." I mock with a grin, feeling alive as my body lets me know how fucked it is with a dull roar of pain. I was still pushing past my limits to keep up and my body very clearly wanted me to know that.

'These aren't opponents I can handle.' It says.

'We'll kill them anyway.' I laugh.

They shriek as one, united in just how unnatural they are, diving high and low in a surprisingly coordinated attack. I grin; my endurance stat was a bit low, it could really use some grind.

And by grind I mean doing dumb shit to get injured.

Instead of retreating, I rush into the jaws of their attack, the remains of my shield meeting the strike from on high and exploding in a rain of splinters and rent steel. It did its job, gutting the strike's momentum as my sword sweeps across the neck of his friend, before tearing completely through to slam into the hastily raised arm of the fucker who broke my favourite shield. My sword doesn't stop -it never does- tearing the fucker apart in a blaze of shadowed blood.

Breathing deep, I let out a gritted grin of triumph as the pain hits; the bastard that went low was faster than me -they always are- and now I had to deal with the fact that his claw was fingers deep in my thigh and all the juicy arteries it holds.

A burger potion was at my lips before I dared to ash the bastard, quickly downing it as blood and pain erupt from leg. It was over quickly, the pain and even the fatigue from this fight and others washing away like it was never there.

"Honestly?" I asked, stretching my leg out and casting the remains of my shield aside. "It's not bad, this pain thing..." I stood over the final War Shadow as it pretended to weakly struggle on the floor. "I'd take it any day over boredom."

The expected sneak attack came and went at the edge of my sword and soon enough nothing remained in the tunnel other than ash, blood and the remains of my shield. That last part was annoying; already in my day and a bit of dungeon delving it had saved my life repeatably, becoming a core part of my fighting style.

Its loss meant I'd probably be better off heading back up to the fourth floor and running around grinding my one-handed on every Goblin and Kobold I could find; that kind of strat would give me less in the way of Falna stats, but it would probably level up my skill faster.

Instead I found my feet drawing me every deeper into the fifth floor, a grin on my face as I twirled my sword. This is probably a bad idea, but damn if I couldn't get enough of these fights. The dungeon calls and I will -consensually- answer.

I will never regret my decision to come here.

-

Okay, I regretted it a little bit.

Walking gingerly down the steps into the church basement I winced as some of my more grievous injuries tugged at my clothes. I'd nearly ran out of potions leaving me on my final few, forcing me to finally call uncle and retreat back to the fourth floor. I'd only managed to glimpse the stairway to the sixth, a goal I hadn't even realised I'd set for myself until I saw it

I might have had a slight problem when it came to progression games in my past life, one that might be having some repercussions on my current life... not least of which being the blood I've lost.

Still -despite the unrealistic goal- the night overall was nothing short of cathartic after yesterday, the worries and concerns of the meeting were washed away in a flood of adrenaline, combat and pure, unadulterated violence.

Not only was it just fucking sick to murder the shit out of a bunch of abominations from beyond the realm of God, but it also served as a proof of concept for my plans to utterly annihilate the Sword Princess' levelling record.

Put simply, I just needed to not sleep and instead just keep throwing myself into a combat grind that I was already addicted to; it's like the Gods themselves were rewarding me for being a degen MMO grind monkey. All I needed was the handy helping hand of the stimulant known as stamina pot-

"ELRIC~!" Hestia suddenly screamed as she appeared right in my face, having fucking teleported into existence the second I reached the base of the stairs. "Are you- IS THAT BLOOD? WHY IS THERE SO MUCH!?"

"Relax it's not mine." I lied calmly.

"Oh that's goo-" Hestia cut off as her Goddess powers kicked in. "YOU'RE LYING!"

"Well it's not mine anymore." I clarify with a winning smile, so of course Hestia stomps on my foot like the pouting, abusive gremlin she is.

"Owie~!" She moans hopping on one foot, as I flex out my own curiously inspecting its range of motion as the pain fades away. "What are you made of!?"

"Your blood I suppose." I reply thoughtfully, drawing an incredulous look from the hopping Goddess. "Also, you just added to your punishment." I finish deviously, enjoying how Hestia freezes at the reminder, turning to face me woodenly.

"Ne, Elric-kun~ about that..." She tried, but I just smirked at her and began shirking my clothes, that is before a realisation made me roll my eyes.

Inventory, duh.

"You're still injured." Hestia points out quietly as the glow of my inventory fades leaving me in a fresh pair of trousers I had the foresight to leave in my inventory.

"Just some scratches." I smile reassuringly over my shoulder at her. "I would heal them up, but I only have three potions left; promised myself I'd save some for emergencies."

"That's..." Hestia trailed off, a conflicted look upon her cute face. "I'm glad you're being prudent Elric-kun, but this won't do! I'll grab some more ingredients so you don't have to wait!" Her expression hardened into an overly dramatic resolve that made me sigh.

"Hold up." I call out as I snag her by the collar of her dress as she tries to run past. A thought and a fresh potion appeared in my hand. "Drink, you're clearly tired."

"Ehh! If you're not taking a potion then I'm not!" Hestia protested.

"It's a different potion, this one's for tiredness and I've got plenty." I informed her, taking her hand and closing it around the small vial, a stamina potion.

As it turns out the first 'restoring potion' I tried while scrambling for healing was one of these bad boys. Back then I didn't really think about it -what with the adrenaline pumping through my veins and the gaping wound in my leg- but looking back I could distinctly recall the absurd way it just seemed to drain away my tiredness.

It was half a night later that I realised that I wasn't tired at all, instead it felt like it was mid-day for me even after the sun had long since set. It was then that I realised that the potion had reset my fatigue from 'half way through a day' to 'I just got the best night's sleep of my life'.

Which meant two things, one was that my sleep schedule was officially fucked, and two was that I never needed to waste time sleeping again as long as I can take more of these little green bottles. And now I know that sounds like addiction, but it's definitely, totally different.

I pinkie promise.

As for why I was offering this one to Hestia? Well she looked knackered and if I had to guess, she probably stayed up at least some of the night waiting for me. Giving her one seemed like the right thing to do, and if she took it now -this early in the morning- then it'd be like she got a full night's sleep.

Her being a bit obsessed with my well-being was... good, I guess? But that kind of thing can quickly snowball into resentment by association. If all your memories of someone are sleepless nights waiting for them to come home, then your perception of them is going to be tainted by the consequences of said sleepless nights and worry. It was best to nip that in the bud with the bomb that is stamina potion.

Have I mentioned how much I love these fucking things already?

"Are you sure...?" Hestia asked hesitantly.

"Naturally." I smiled.

She took it, freezing as the effect took hold before she looked up at me with stars in her eyes, and then suddenly she was hugging the stuffing out of me.

"Don'tleavebeforeIgetback!" She garbled before she was just gone.

I stared at the now empty space she previously occupied in confusion, that was fast, but it also couldn't be fast. So either my potion broke the Divine limitations or it was just another one of those weird moments I'd been noticing, like Hestia's titty hammerspace or Hestia's ability to overhead spike someone into a table with the noodles she calls arms. Basically just weird shit that seems to happen only around Hestia -and maybe other divines- which is suspiciously similar to those cutesy anime tropes.

Not sure what to do about that to be honest, so I was going to do my best to just ignore it.

Shaking my head, I sought out my pack and fished through it for something that could be called a shirt if you squinted. Clothes -particularly ones thick enough to wear armour over and survive the rigours of the dungeon- were something I definitely needed. Hell, if I was being honest with myself I needed replacements for basically all the shit I got from Ratan, as well at least one spare sword for a future perk I was eyeing up.

Before yesterday I'd have been worried about the expense for such a thing, but my first trip into the dungeon had already netted me seventeen thousand valis, and that was with me taking things fairly slow and wasting time on the first four floors. My night trip had been far more successful with me making a beeline for the fifth floor and then just fighting to my heart's content; not only was the density of monsters a lot higher on that floor, but the magic stones they dropped were worth twice as much as a Goblin stone.

Given that the armour Bell wore to something like the tenth floor of the dungeon was around ten grand, I could probably just eat the losses already given my lack of the standard overhead for adventurers, potions.

So I guess that was the plan; wait for Hestia, make some potions, maybe bargain an update out of her before hitting the shops and then meeting up with the group. And like all plans, it only survived first contact with someone who may be insane.

"I'm coming with." Hestia demanded as soon as I told her I was going shopping, her little gremlin arms tugging at my shirt as I worked my way through the ingredients she'd brought back in the dim light of the rising sun.

I really needed to get a ventilated room for alchemy as opposed to doing this shit out back of the church, I was practically begging someone to spy on me at this point. Hell I needed a better place period; the church was nicer than the streets I slept on in Ratan, but it was no palace and I was hungering for a working shower at this point.

"Sure." I agree amicably. "You need something?"

"Mou, do you really not know?" Hestia pouted, but there was a warning glint to her eye that warned me in that way women always do, 'this is a trap, I'm looking for a specific answer and if you don't give it to me I'll be mad'.

I paused, looked over to the woman who clearly cared a great deal for me in spite of the two days we'd known each other, put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I haven't got a clue."

Hestia's jaw dropped at the sheer weight of my lack-of-give-a-fuck, before that that to got subsumed by an outrageous pout as she turned aside and 'hmph'd me.

"So I'll take that as you don't want to come?" I queried, only for her to 'hmph' again, leaving me to continue my work in silence. That is until she started leaning over my work bench, pushing her pouting face into my field of view. "Yes?"

Annnd she 'hmph'd, because of course she did.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" I tried, no response. "Do you want me to thank you again for gathering the plants?" She seemed a bit smug at that, but again didn't respond, pout still firing on all cylinders. "Is this about me worrying you?" I tried something a little more on the nose this time and it worked, to a degree.

The petite Goddess glanced at me out of the corner of her vision, a rather unclear sign that usually meant 'I'm listening', in brat speak.

"Hestia you know why I have to…" I spoke softly, continuing my work.

"...Baka." She uttered and it took all my willpower not to shoot her the deadest of deadpans for her weeb speak. All the suffix shit was bad enough but- Okay, not the time for that particular rant.

"Are you mad because I spent so much time in the dungeon, because I came back injured or because I worried you in the first place?" I tried, only to be 'hmph'd again, which I guess kinda served me right for trying to be genuine when Hestia was in full-on child mode.

Have I mentioned that Divines are pains in the ass sometimes?

"Right well, when you want to speak about it like adults, we can." I declared as I finished up, inserting a healthy stockpile of potions into my inventory and my cover potions into my pouch. I'd already taken one out of my emergency stash just before washing myself off earlier, so I was good to go on all fronts.

"Eh! I'm not a kid Elric-kun!" Hestia squawked, her outrage breaking through her pout phase.

"If you don't want to be treated like a kid then don't act like one." I retorted with a snort.

"I'm not acting like a kid!"

"Because every adult spends several minutes pouting into the face of the person they're mad at." I state sarcastically.

"Well maybe if someone hadn't made me mad then I wouldn't do that!" She stomped her foot, comically wincing when she realised it was the one she hurt earlier.

"So you act like a child when someone angers you, which was my point." I rolled my eyes.

"Y-You…!" She looked up from her foot with tears in her eyes, pointing her finger at me. "Elric-kun you meanie! You'll never understand a woman's heart!" She shouted, before turning away and pouting again.

All at once I was reminded of her actions with Bell, all the times she'd get mad at him without explaining herself and then running off, usually because she felt like he was 'cheating on her'. Here she wasn't running away, but it seemed like a near thing; I was also pretty sure this was coming from a place of care and worry rather than misguided romantic feelings, but Hestia wasn't exactly transparent even at the best of times.

It was frustrating and made me want to retort with some bullshit like, 'if they're anything like you' and just leave it at that. But Hestia -despite her difficulties- was genuinely trying her best for me, and all this seemed to stem from her worry for me in the first place. Responding with sarcasm wasn't the play here, despite how tempting it was.

No, I was mature adult and I was going to ignore her to the best of my abilities. So I didn't say anything, just shaking my head as I walked past her, intending to grab the rest of my gear from the basement and just head out.

I stopped as Hestia grabbed a fistful of my shirt. "Just… let me do your Falna at least Elric-kun." She offered quietly, genuinely.

"I'd appreciate that." I offered as a good will gesture. "Do you still want to come shopping?"

She shook her head, looking to the side. "I have work today." Which was… confusing given whatever the fuck this conversation was in the first place, but I was willing to move past that without comment for her.

"Let me just fetch my gear." It took a few minutes, but we found ourselves on her bed for the second time as she worked her magic upon my soul. The air was still pretty fucking awkward, but there wasn't much I could do about that without risking the return of her pout; going by what I saw in the anime, all you could really do when Hestia got annoyed was wait it out. This Falna update seemed more like a temporary truce for the sake of her peace of mind more than anything.

She completed one last pattern on my back and I felt that now familiar click in my soul, with Hestia inhaling sharply.

"Elric-kun…" She uttered worriedly, and I realised she was seeing whatever degraded view the Falna offered of my previous night and how hard I'd pushed myself. Her hands tightened against my back but the expected tantrum didn't come. "Right... what you need to do." She breathed out with a worrying sense of weight behind her words.

I didn't know how much Hestia could see through my Falna or if it granted any insight into my thoughts and feelings during the experience, but if it did then whatever the fuck she was seeing probably involved me being an absolute murderhobo and I genuinely had no idea how Hestia would take that. She hadn't reacted poorly the first time she did this, so maybe I was just overthinking things.

"How are my stats?" I asked, more to break the silence than anything, before wincing as I realised how that probably came across.

"See for yourself." She offered pressing parchment to my back, thankfully not commenting on my statement, nor showing any further signs of worry. She offered me the delicate sheet of paper that had already made all the difference in the dungeon.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •

Elric Carne

Lvl 1

Str | I 032 |
Vit | I 031 |
Dex | I 037 |
Agl | I 041|
Mag | I 000 |

| Magic |

| Skills |

[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written into their soul.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •​

And just like that, that tiny bonus that had let me keep up with War Shadows -even when I was down a shield- had more than doubled, and even tripled in the case of my endurance. Strength was perhaps a little concerning, likely the cutting power of my sword undermining its growth a little -something I'd probably have to address at some point- but overall it was a stat sheet to be proud of.

I nodded, feeling just that bit better about my path; even if there was a drop off in stat points waiting for me down the line, between my skill's growth and how much more I could still push myself in the dungeon, I could see myself beating the month-ish deadline.

"Good." I let out a relieved sigh, more for Hestia's sake than mine.

"Elric-kun." Hestia responded, seeming to swallow a retort. "I want to say a lot of things to you right now mister… but I'll keep it to just this: You can't save the world if you're dead, so if you want all of this to mean something…" She trailed off with a stricken tone, her hands trembling upon my back.

I… didn't really have anything I could say to that; or at least nothing that she would want to hear anyway, which was something of a recurring theme with us. She already knew all the reasons I was willing to share and potentially seen a few more in my falna, and despite that – despite the miniscule amount of time we'd known each other, she was worrying herself sick over me and I had no idea what to do about it.

I can't stop, and yet I know that it's only going to get worse for her from here on out. A couple more floors and I'm going to be seeing swarms of Giant Ants that can fill entire rooms floor to ceiling, a few more after that and it'll Orcs that can swing around trees like bats, and that's just within the scope of level one.

If Hestia is getting this worried now, then what did it mean for the future? Did Bell just not notice this, leaving her to simply work out how to deal with it on her own? Or is there something different here, with me; is it in how I'm overworking myself, or how little time I'm making for her?

Does she even want a familia, or just a family?

Eventually, I had to just say something to break the silence. "I know, I'll try my best." And her sigh made it clear that this wasn't the response she was hoping for.

"...You already promised that you'll come back to me, so I'll hold you to that Elric-kun, I mean it!" She spoke up, louder and with more energy this time, her normal persona returning with a turn of face that would make even the most seasoned actors envious.

I didn't call her out on it, instead just nodding and letting us fall right back into our rhythm again, her hands tracing lines on my soul as I sat there stoically.

"Your skills have gone up." Hestia commented excitedly and if I hadn't just gone through the conversation I did, then I would have thought that nothing was wrong. "You have two of those points and a lot of levels… Elric, you can get something with this right? Something that'll help you?"

"I can." I reassured her. "Just let me know what skills levelled alright? I'll pick something good."

"Umu! Your alchemy has gone up a level, around twenty three?" She started. "The shielding skill is twenty five I think, light armour twenty fiv- no, six. Your crouchy skill has gone up by one to sixteen, but the biggest increase is one-handed, it's at thirty." She said, casually blowing my expectations out of the water, thirty one-handed was damn good and hell, it opened the door to an idea I'd had earlier.

"There's a perk in one-handed that increases attack speed when dual-wielding, can you see it?" I asked.

"Umu." Hestia's voice was distant, and a little reluctant? "Elric-kun, is this really the best option? This is for using two weapons, not a shield." Ah, she was worried about me losing my defence.

"It is." I told her with conviction. "Shields will keep failing on me at this point, but my swords don't, and more speed means I can keep up with everything that's too fast for me right now."

She didn't say anything, but I felt the potential slide into place as my world opened up to the miracle that is wielding two swords. And suddenly I knew with confidence that I would be an absolute meat grinder with two swords in hand.

"For the other… the smithing perk for working with steel." I called, before giving my reasoning. "It'll let me make and enhance equipment to keep me safe; though I'll need a forge."

"That… I can ask Hephy, as long as…" She trailed off awkwardly, likely thinking about how her relationship with Hephaestus left off and how she overtaxed her friend's generosity. If using this as an excuse would let Hestia open that door back up, then I was fine with overpaying a bit to use forge facilities I probably didn't need.

"I'll pay whatever's needed." I reassured her, something that she actually smiled at.

"Umu!" She agreed enthusiastically, clicking the perk into place in my soul and immersing me in the sudden and yet absolute truth that I could handle a forge and work steel like any apprentice smith. It was the kind of thing that made me want to pick up a hammer immediately and get to work, but that would have to wait.

"That's everything then?" I asked, as I pulled my shirt back on.

"Yup!" She smiled, and despite it looking like every other smile she'd given me, I couldn't help but think this one looked incredibly fragile.

"Then I'll be back, Hestia." I promised, trying to be reassuring as I turned to leave once more.

"Wait, Elric-kun…" Hestia stopped me again. "I, ah… do you want to have dinner with me tonight? N-Not as a date or anything!"

"Sure."

Sorry for being late, I got put on night shift and it's taken a bit of adjustment.

Notes? Uh, Hestia probably comes across as a bit unstable, but in her defence she's just got what she's been dreaming of and found out that it comes in the form of a mildly insane murderhobo who's obsessed with the dungeon, and is on track to put himself into an early grave by any reasonable person's metric. Combine that with the potential fate of the world and you're looking at something a lot of people wouldn't take well.

For my QQ, FF and Ao3 readers I went back and added a bit more to Elric's perspective in the last chapter; no real changes, but just padded it out with a thousand words to explain his thoughts better.

As always, thanks for reading and well just any support you give this story, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 7

"You sure brat? This blade won't hold up past floor six." The grizzled clerk informed me with overblown concern, as if he actually gave a shit and wasn't just trying to get a better sale.

"I just need something tough and cheap." I informed him, a statement that had his 'I'm old and I know better than you' look waning.

"I got Killer Ant infused blades in the back, they'll last a helluva lot longer." He tried again, to which I gave him a flat look.

"Had to try at least. That's four and a half thousand for the pair." He listed to which I nodded and paid up. I wasn't certain if bartering over price was a cultural norm here or not, but the price was decent enough and I wasn't going to be using store bought weapons for much longer anyway.

"Good luck in the dungeon kid, you're gonna need it." He warned me with a grave tone that I promptly ignored.

I nodded idly, awkwardly fastening the two blades to my left side; I'd need to work on my rigging for this. "You too." I added without thought, exiting the store and heading back the way I came as he snorted. I was pretty sure one of the weapons stores I'd checked earlier had an armour section that I didn't get around to, so that was my next destination.

Babel was… weird, like a themed mall that went completely out of pocket and then wrapped right back around to being incredibly high end. At this time of day it was practically empty, just a handful of early risers mostly doing window shopping before they headed into the dungeon, and were therefore in full armour, which really added weight to the whole medieval luxury theme this place had going on.

I stood out a bit with my lack of armour, but my set was nearly totalled and it would have been really obvious to the Loki lot that I went back into the dungeon if I showed up looking like I'd been through a wood chipper. So, either I got something here and now, or I was going bareback.

Which honestly? Probably not the worst thing, my endurance stat needed grinding, my potion reserves were topped up and I was heading in with a safety net anyway… Just that thought alone was enough to make me feel like my life had probably taken a dark turn somewhere, and unfortunately I couldn't for the life of me remember what that turn could have been.

It was the internet, it was the goddamn internet and the hacker known as 4chan. Fuck that guy.

A shock of red hair in the corner of my vision pulled me out of my perhaps slightly unhinged thought process and back to reality, leading me to stop and take in the sight of Judith pressed up against the glass of another weapons store, all but drooling over the hand-and-a-half blades on display.

"How's it going Red?" I asked, bursting out into laughter as she started against the window and slammed into it with a meaty thud.

"E-Elric!?" She uttered in shock, staring up at me as she nursed her forehead, a bright blush on her face.

"You alright?" Her hand stalled on her forehead, before lowering her hand sheepishly, her blush deepening.

"Y-Yeah, how about you? I mean- after…" She trailed off, seemingly not knowing how to bring up her familia trying to fuck me over. Which was fair, it'd been done to me and I didn't even know how to feel about it to be honest; the whole thing was so sudden and resolved so quickly that I hadn't even processed how I felt about it before throwing myself head first into the dungeon.

The fact that I hadn't slept since also probably wasn't the best, but fuck if I'm going to waste time sleeping for small things like emotional stability.

What really muddied the situation however was that I was actually quite apathetic to the whole thing, at least on a surface level. I chose Hestia because I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to stand out in other familias -a worry now voided by Qahnaarin- so getting forced into the Loki Famila in many ways would be a step up for me. And hell, my whole plan of ingratiating myself with Judith and them was to open up relations with the familia, something this situation had essentially accomplished from the get go.

If that was all there was to it I probably would have been celebrating, but of course that wasn't the case, because I had Hestia and I did care for her. The problem with that though was that I'd only known her for a couple of days, and I had a suspicion that my feelings were -at least partially- informed by my desire to appease her for the sake of my goals. On top of that complicated mess, Hestia cared for me a surprising amount and while I could be blunt and stubborn as a bull, I wasn't a complete dick, and thus had to account for how my actions would hurt her as well.

In short, shit was messy if I got too deep into it, and it was much easier to just accept how things played out and resolve myself to be more careful in future.

"I'm… good." I finally commented, meeting Judith's worried gaze steadily. "Not thrilled with how things went down obviously, but I can deal with it."

Which honestly? That was pretty true, I was used to games dumping those forced loss cutscenes on your ass for the sake of the story. Being able to roll your eyes and just deal with shit was a needed skill as a gamer, and it helps that this particular shit was a direct result of my actions. I'd rather have that than the infamous 'walk into a room and get knocked out' cutscene; literally nothing ruins your immersion more than that shit.

"I… I know you probably don't want to hear this from me, but they explained thin-" I raised a finger to silence her, nodding around us at the adventurers skirting around us, any one of which could have been listening in.

"Maybe not here, yeah?" I smiled blandly.

Judith let out a small noise of realisation, before immediately ducking her head. "Sorry…" She finished quietly.

"It's fine, we've got all day anyway, you can tell me later." I reminded her, as eager as I was to avoid people hearing about my whole deal with Loki, I was also interested in Judith's explanation. While it would certainly be dressed up to put Finn's plan in the best possible light, I doubted that it would be a total fabrication, and may provide some more insights into his motivations.

Going by our conversation I was fairly convinced that his goal was a mix of wanting to open relations with me and forcefully stopping me from drawing the attention of other familias by threatening a war game; all based on the perceived value of my potions. But having another layer of insight into that could only be beneficial.

"Huh, yeah we can… talk about it later." She uttered, before blinking up at me. "Wait what are you even doing here?" Seemingly just realising where she'd run into me.

"Shopping, just got these." I stated, patting my new blades.

"Given the armour you were wearing yesterday and the value of the potions you were just handing out, I thought you were just cheap with gear." Judith commented bluntly, before eyeing my blades speculatively. "You any good with two swords?"

I grinned cockily at that, the certainty of my new perk still fresh in my mind. "Better than I am with one." Now that earned me an interested look from the red-headed girl.

"Good enough to get to the sixth floor?" She asked, an eager gleam in her eye.

"With you guys backing me up? Easily."

"Hah, now that I have to see; what are you shopping for, I might know a place." She grinned back, her battle junkie side coming to the fore.

"Armour, I got my old set from out of town and well…" I trailed off as she nodded with a queer expression on her face. I hadn't quite realised how obvious the low quality of my gear was, but I guess to adventurers who spent a good chunk of their time milling around with higher levels and their gear, it must've been pretty apparent. It might also be true that I had no idea what to look for in terms of gear before my skill kicked in.

That perk in steel weapon forging genuinely came in clutch for picking out these swords.

"You walked into the dungeon with surface gear?" Judith gave me a nine-yard stare that had me nodding with faux smugness.

"And I still ran circles around those dirt lickers."

She rolled her eyes at that. "Well, I do know a good place that sells full sets of armour around here; you got like ten thousand valis on you?"

"Lead the way Red." I nodded to which she grinned.

"Not a fan of armour myself, it's a bit too…" She trailed off, gesturing at her upper body, I couldn't really tell if she was talking about her sizable breasts or just upper body movement in general. The former I obviously couldn't relate to, but the latter I'd definitely felt; my previous set having restricted my movements more than a little in several hairy situations.

"Or at least I wasn't," Judith went on, barely taking a breath as her face lit up. "But Ais, she's one of our- oh y'know Ais? Yeah, she's got some really cool armour and she's a full-on speed fighter, so I thought; if she's wearing armour, then what's my excuse y'know?"

"None I guess." I comment with a shrug, before smirking at the clearly passionate girl. "Though I really hope you don't end up going for her half a boob plate."

The fiery girl stared back at me blankly before a blush crept up her cheeks and she turned away, pushing my smirking face back. "I-Idiot!"

"Eh? You planning on taking up her Loki-approved tiny mini skirt as well?" I teased.

"H-HELL NO!" She shouted, anger overpowering her embarrassment as she whirled around to stab her finger into my chest. "Ais is just- ugh! You wouldn't get it."

"Yeah, yeah, she's a perfect snowflake who can do no wrong." I rolled my eyes, remembering exactly how people treated her in the show. Bell was far from that girl's only simp.

Judith just huffed at that, rolling her eyes. "Don't say that shit around the others, they'll skin you alive."

"We had a word for people like that back where I came from." I told her, drawing a perplexed look from the red head. "We called them 'simps'."

"You've got words for the weirdest things..." Judith concluded, shaking her head.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, being a simp was only a bad thing if you had a cock." I paused as Judith choked on air, before turning to her seriously. "...You don't have a dick do yo-"

I raised my hands in surrender as she raised her fists, though I could do nothing about the teasing smile playing across my face.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't you start on the tomboy jokes as well, I got enough of them when I was kid."

"No worries Red, where I come from tomboys were highly desired." I declared, primarily just to fuck with her.

I chuckled as she flushed, twisted in confusion and then ultimately seemed to decide that fleeing was her best option, scurrying off without a word; I followed her at a more leisurely pace while giving her some space. After a minute or two, she veered off into a clearly cheaper store -kind of like the one Bell visited in the anime- dominated by bulky shelves piled high with small crates of armour.

Realising she didn't seem like she wanted to talk to me right now, I bumped Judith on the shoulder and said, "looks good," in thanks before heading deeper into the store.

What I was looking for was in the back, a well cared for aisle filled with crates of armour made by the rookie smiths of the Hephaestus familia, all sold at near cost on the promise of getting their names out there. Judith shadowed me at a distance as I wound my way through the offers, dismissing most out of pocket due to forging defects I would never have noticed a handful of days ago. Those that did pass my rather basic quality standards generally failed the next step, the vibe check.

Appearance plays a far greater role in heroics than anyone really gives it credit, people like to pretend that they're above that kind of shit, that they're not shallow twats. But unfortunately that's absolute horseshit; if you don't look the part then you're not going to get treated the part, not without a lot of evidence to the contrary at least.

All of which is to say that I needed some good looking armour, and I needed it in the heroic register; so whites, silvers and lighter colours, with darker colours and shades as highlights at most. That's my middle school art theory coming in clutch by the way. The only problem with this however, is that the majority of Hephaestus' rookies don't seem to give one lick of a shit about how good their sets look, either that or they're just incapable of altering the aesthetics in the first place.

Seriously, who designs pauldrons to be cube shaped? It's not goddamn minecraft.

It took damn near turning the aisle upside down before I found something decent. A solid set of light armour with decent lines, scored down to a light, brushed metal finish with actual joint guards to catch blades as they skitter off, instead of just guiding them into your soft parts. It definitely didn't give off hero vibes by any means, but more of a 'promising rookie' kind of deal.

"You probably shouldn't..." Judith's warning trails off as I finish strapping the armour on. It needed some adjustments here and there in terms of the metal shaping, but I couldn't exactly do that in front of Judith. A grindstone and a workbench for the church were definitely near the top of my to-do list; both for being able to do this shit in private and for those sweet, sweet smithing buffs.

"I'm going to buy it, no worries." I placated her as I stood up and tested the limits of motion and fit of the armour; all and all, it was much better than my last set. I smile at Judith as she looks me over. "Any good?"

"I'm still annoyed with you, but…"

"But?"

"It looks kinda- okayish on you." She admitted with a small blush.

"Thanks Red." I trail off with an awkward laugh. "Lemme just pay for this and then we can meet up with the others."

-

Orario, Babel Park

Judith

"That thing I wanted to talk about earlier, think we're safe here?" Judith spoke quietly as they sat together in a quiet part of the massive open area that surrounded Babel.

"Not going to lie, I have no idea what adventurer senses are like…" Elric muttered with a sigh. "It's like this world hates privacy."

She found herself nodding in spite of herself, the rooms at the manor were sound proofed and all, but it still felt like you had absolutely no privacy when half the people in the dining hall could smel- do the shit they could. It was fucking embarrassing, and people wondered why she preferred being in the dungeon.

"If I…" She swallowed her embarrassment. "If I whisper it... is that alright?"

Elric's blue eyes met hers, a sparkle of amusement entering them that automatically had her wanting to hit him; for someone she actually didn't mind spending time with, she sure spent a lot of time wanting to beat his teasing ass.

"If you want to be that bold." He spoke in that tone, and like magic her blush returned despite her best efforts.

This fucking guy.


"Not another word." She growled, before swallowing her embarrassment and leaning in as he made an odd gesture across his lips. "I'll keep it short… the elf said that our cap was worried about you oversharing and y'know… attracting attention." She tried her best not to say anything that could be easily understood by outsiders, but it probably came off as awkward as hell.

Elric nodded looking unsurprised, which given how unflappable the guy was, wasn't really a surprise.

"So they used that as a warning and a bargaining chip to force you to stop drawing attention." She whispered, trying her best to convey what Riveria had told her. What happened last night had really worried her when she first saw it go down, and it took the Elven Princess sitting her down and explaining things to really get it. Last night was a mistake on their part and if that wasn't conveyed properly… "The cap admitted that it was just a threat, that they wouldn't really have gone through with it and that it was a mistake overall."

She nodded, not quite satisfied with her explanation -she wasn't great with words- but satisfied enough to leave it there; that is until Elric leaned in.

"I see... I hope you'll understand if I have doubts." He smiled wanly, and while a part of her wanted to stick up for her familia, she knew better than most what it was like to be screwed over like that. Elric was more than entitled to his doubts. Then he leaned in again and she froze at his words, "did he apologise?" He whispered, and her mind spun in circles trying to recall if…

She stayed silent as he leaned back, unable to really say anything. "Don't worry about it, things like group politics are complicated and annoying as hell." He sighed with a half hearted smile and she couldn't help but nod along, even if her mind was elsewhere.

If you make a mistake, you say sorry, even a street brat like her understood that basic rule. She'd taken that as a granted and just kind of assumed her boss had done so.

Well just because he didn't...

"Hey, Elric?" She opened quietly. "I uh, never did thank you -for y'know- not holding it against me… for healing Fil and just- I'm sorry for what happened." She finished lamely, hoping her stumbling delivery conveyed what she hoped it would.

Elric took one look at her and promptly burst out laughing, sending a shooting wave of her embarrassment and anger through her entire being. He dodged out the way of her furious retribution and smiled at her. "You had nothing to do with it Red, I'd have to be one hell of a dick to hold that against you."

And just like that her anger vanished and she was left without wind in her sails. "Just accept my thanks i-idiot, at least for taking care of Fil and all that."

He paused, finally seeming to acknowledge her seriousness, before immediately ruining the moment by ruffling her hair. "You're welcome Red."

This guy...

She rolled her eyes and swatted his hand aside, before settling in to wait for their teammates to show up. As they waited, they made idle chatter to pass the time, watching as the sun rose over Orario and adventurers began to fill the plaza, an easy air between them.

"...Yeah I've got no clue how to go about getting magic." Elric responded to her curious question. "We don't exactly have the hundreds of millions needed to justify that kind of expense."

"Hundreds of millions?" She uttered, feeling… something at just the thought of that much money.

"Yeah, Grimoires are expensive as all get out and the only other way to gain magic is it just appearing in your Falna like a skill." He went on casually, his tone conveying a sort of annoyed acceptance, like he somehow knew those barriers to entry were only a matter of time for him.

"Doubt I'm ever affording that, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed." She muttered.

"Well, you're in a better position than me." Elric admitted with a thoughtful look on his face. "Things that expensive aren't something you can just buy; you need connections that your familia definitely has and mine definitely doesn't."

"That's… kinda unfair." She admitted with a frown.

Elric laughed. "Just another obstacle to overcome." He said with such confidence that she couldn't help but believe him. She didn't know where it came from, but he always seemed to be like that; always confident, always smiling.

He was weirdly similar to her captain like that.

"Oh, looks like Nord couldn't make it." Elric suddenly commented, following his gaze she found the others walking over with Anakitty Autumn, a level four from her familia that operated in the second string force alongside Mr Nord.

Judith sighed, this felt like something her captain arranged for some reason that was probably beyond her.

"You alright?" Elric asked, his eyes still on the approaching party.

"Yeah, I just…" She trailed off, huffing in annoyance. She'd liked Mr Nord; he was pretty relaxed all things considered, and he was just about the only teacher who was willing to stay past hours to let them try for longer. He also didn't feel the need to subject them to stupid long lectures about being reckless, like that windbag Lloyd.

"They probably switched him out because of me; I'll say something when I get the chance." Elric claimed, making her smile.

"You don't have to do that…" She trailed off, not sure exactly on how Elric felt about him after last night, but wanting to give him an out just in case.

"It's the right thing to do." He smiled, standing to meet the group halfway. She rose with him, matching his pace until they were all together again; something that sent a tingle of anticipation up her spine.

The dungeon was waiting.

"Elric, right? Raul told me a bit about you." Anakitty greeted them warmly, sending a smile Judith's way. By her side Ilya nodded in greeting and Filian… the stupid flowery elf was trying to look as small as possible at the back of the group.

Judith rolled her eyes, it was probably some dumb pride thing. She didn't understand Elves worth a damn; they had a bunch of weird, seemingly made up rules that just seemed to be there to look down on others, like that whole shit about not being able to touch other races. Whatever was going through his mind, she'd leave the perv to it. Worst case one of the other elves in the familia would take him aside and deal with it.

"He's sorry he can't be here by the way, Finn's got him working overtime." Anakitty relayed.

"If that's got anything to do with me, then you can tell Finn to blow it out of his ass, miss…?" Elric's blunt statement had everyone leaning back, eyes wide. Judith felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck as she recalled his earlier promise, somehow this and 'saying something' really didn't feel like the same thing.

"…Autumn." Anakitty offered, blinking in befuddlement. "Sorry, are you sure you want me to tell that to…?" She asked slowly, the cat ears atop her head twitching.

"Of course." Elric responded bluntly and Judith couldn't help but admire his balls if nothing else.

"Right, well... Loki-sama asked me to pass this along, she hopes you'll join her in a couple days to discuss business." The catgirl recovered from her disbelief admirably only to stumble over the last word, her cheeks flushing as she handed over a neat piece of parchment decorated with fancy calligraphy.

"I'm guessing she didn't use those words." Elric smiled dryly.

"No, no she didn't." Anakitty sighed, sharing a weary look with her tall teammate, before he glanced down at the card and his eyebrows raised.

"Is this...?" He trailed off, igniting Judith's curiosity.

Leaning in to read it, she stumbled over the first few words again and again like a broken record as Anakitty's embarrassed response passed her by.

"T-That's a fucking brothel!" Judith shouted in shock and no small amount of anger, though even she couldn't even tell who she was angry at.

Loki, it was definitely Loki.

Her eyes shot up and met Anakitty's who gave her a long suffering, commiserating look that told Judith that she understood.

"Fuck! You're not going through with this are you!?" Judith spat out before she could control herself, turning her glare on her teammate; part of her aware that she wasn't really being fair to him.

"Probably don't have a choice." Elric hummed calmly, eyes glued to the parchment, his honest statement cutting the wind from her sails. "If a Goddess wants to meet you in a brothel, then that's what happens, especially if you already have business."

She fell silent at that, her anger not quite disappearing, but at least abating with no outlet for her annoyance.

"Cheer up Red, it's not that big of a deal, hell you can come along if you want, I've got a plus one apparently." The man joked, his smile not waning in the slightest as he blatantly invited her to a brothel. She gave him the deadest look she could possibly manage, and he just fucking grinned. "Well, it would be pretty funny to bring my Goddess instead, but I don't think we'd get much business done."

Judith froze, the image of her Goddess getting thrown overhead into a bar table replaying in her mind as p-prostitutes were overlayed into the background. Her familia wouldn't recover from the reputation loss.

"I-I'll think about it…" She offered with a stutter; the things she did for her familia…

Elric laughed. "The Gods'll corrupt us all eventually, best to take it on the chin."

"I'd rather they didn't." Anakitty coughed, Ilya nodding alongside her with a rather spooked expression on her face. "Shall we get going then? The Dungeon's waiting."

Judith grinned, her spirits rallying at the thought of hitting the dungeon, of getting stronger.

"Fuck yeah."

I've been gone for a while, my bad boys, my boss is quite the asshole and seemingly has a love of pushing overtime onto people already suffering through night shift. I'll try to get back to my once a week schedule.

For notes? I guess I should comment that yes Elric does kind of view his life as a game, hence the comparisons he makes; it's why he's also somewhat disconnected from the world.

In regards to Judith, I know I said I'd be ditching this lot shortly but fuck it, she's fun to write.

Thanks for reading ladies and ladies with dicks, I appreciate it and all the support you give the story, have a fantastic night; I've got night shift.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 8

Orario, Ruined District

Hestia

Relaxing in one of her favourite spots, a blanket wrapped around her and the warm, steady presence of her child beside her, Hestia felt... stable for the first time since the whirlwind that is her child came into her life.

Stable was a good word for it, Elric had this way about him that brought her to every emotion under the sun and all the while he'd just keep smiling, playing along with her outbursts. Like a parent humouring a child, an irony that was very much not lost on her. She'd been wrapped up in a whirlwind of feelings since she'd met him, worried and enamoured in equal measure as he spent every waking moment and then some in the dungeon, as if showing off that strange resolve she'd felt the day they met.

The day he stated his intent to become a hero.

She smiled at the thought, snuggling into his side and grabbing one of the last crackers they'd brought up here for their little picnic under the stars. It was like something out of those romance novels the Elves enjoy so much, the dashing figure swooping in to sweep the damsel off her feet, only... the girls in those novels never seemed to feel that sense of worry that had been clawing at her ever since Elric first entered the dungeon. When he didn't return for the first time, when she saw just what he had been doing down there and then...

She barely slept that night, worry keeping her twisting and turning as Elric did what he felt he had to, compelled by that strange drive of his.

And then he came back, still bleeding from a dozen wounds, a smile and wince on his face in equal measure. Just the thought of the sight tightened her grip on his arm, pulling it tighter around her.

"You alright?" He asked, his voice deep and-

She swallowed. "Y-Yeah!"

"Cold?" On a normal day she would preen and extol about her role as the Keeper of Heaven's Flame and how she could never be cold! But here, now? She just shook her head and inched into her child's embrace, immersing herself in the flame of his physical being.

Elric chuckled, pulling the blanket tighter around her. She hummed happily, just enjoying this peaceful moment where she knew her child was safe and sound and not -not doing what he was so prone to doing.

He was going to give her a heart attack one day! And Gods couldn't even have heart attacks!

Idiot!

She grumbled into his side, twisting as she resisted the urge to punch the dumb blonde in his stupid face; he was already holding that… s-spanking over her head and- flame, what has her life become.

"Tell me about the rest of your day!" She demanded, pouting up at him for daring to remind her of her waiting p-punishment.

"You don't need to be so pushy, you know." He smiled.

"If that's the case then why didn't you tell me over dinner, huh?"

"Because murder isn't proper teatime conversation." He stated bluntly, staring at her reprovingly.

"Weird culture." She grumbled, killing monsters was perfectly acceptable conversation anywhere! Gods talked about it all the time!

"So we call dinner, tea, big deal." He rolled his eyes.

"Mou, I was talking about the killing; but that too!" She agreed. "Weird otherworldly culture."

He gave her a blank look. "My parents would wash your mouth out with soap if you tried talking about that shit at the dinner table."

"Eh…" Hestia trailed off, Elric was kinda scary when he wanted to be, so if he got that from his parents… then that's kinda scary too! But then again… "Anything else you want to share about them?" She asked cutely, staring up at him with stars in her eyes. An ability that seemingly had Elric trying to puzzle out how she was doing it as opposed to just answering her. Idiot!

He snorted after giving up. "I'm good." He deflected like he always did when she'd try and find out about his past. He was stupid and mysterious like that, it drove her up the wall even if she was hiding it super well! "What about you, any parents?"

"Eh?" She blanked on that question, honestly kind of baffled that… well, Gods don't- "Eh?"

"Do you have any parents?" He enunciated more clearly, looking down at her with a tiny frown. "Or did you like spawn out of the primordial soup and you don't wanna talk about it?"

"Primordial soup...?" She uttered in befuddlement.

"Right, don't ask Gods where they come from, gotcha." He uttered in amusement, shaking his head. "So my day huh? Where did we leave off again?"

Hestia blinked, looked at her child and then grinned. "Umu! You left off when you were going into the dungeon!" Before she remembered what he'd said about that meeting with Loki and that brought back her pout all over again.

Elric gave her a weirded out look which was super rude! Before shaking his head. "Right… it was weird, first time in the adventurer rush and all that. I dunno, it felt like my old MMO days there for a while." He smiled with a distant look in his eyes as he walked over another one of the weird terms that he sometimes used and would never explain because he was such a big meanie! "Just plunging into a dungeon you've explored to hell and back with a mass of friends and strangers around you. A lot less doritos are involved though." He added on, and her mind spun at the idea that he had faced dungeons before.

She didn't know much about her risk-averse child, but what she did know had been catalogued in the analogues of her mind extensively, he'd never mentioned dungeon delving before now, and that feels like something that would have come up. And yet… he wasn't lying. There was that baseline dishonesty that she felt from basically everyone -everyone wears masks after all- but it was no more than she normally felt from Elric. Her child had explored dungeons before and-

"Doritos are like snacks; you could say they fuelled the entire industry." He actually explained it for once and yet it was the most useless part! And he had the gall to smirk the entire time!

"Mou, you're making fun of me aren't you!" She demanded.

"Nope." He said, lying. She sighed, trying to get the truth out of him would be like pulling teeth and he probably wouldn't budge and it would probably take all night and-

"I'm never making dinner for you again, meanie! Idiot!" She pouted, to which he just laughed and pulled her struggling form closer, which she totally didn't enjoy or anything!

Elric hummed as she turned away with a pout. "First four floors are what you'd expect, didn't even need to fight anything given the wall of adventurers around us… kinda felt sorry for the bastards to be honest." He lied, chuckling all the while. If she didn't have her divine senses though… he'd likely have convinced her. Elric lied as naturally as breathing she'd noticed.

"Fifth floor was… easy." He went on. "The stat boost and being in a group made things a bit too trivial, I'll probably need to move on from War Shadows in general at this point." It was an off handed comment, but it was one that sent a thrill of fear down her spine. Elric had a habit of pushing himself insanely and-

"Don't!" She shouted, spinning around to a surprised Elric. "Don't… at least not without your group…" She could see the hesitation in his eyes, that cold calculating mind of his spinning in those blue orbs. "...Please?"

He blinked and then smiled. "Sure." He agreed with an easy tone, as if he wasn't a split second from disagreeing with her.

"Ehe~ Thanks Elric-kun!" She rewarded him with a nice smile that he immediately rolled his eyes at because he's a big stupid meanie!

"No worries." He said coolly, already moving on without even acknowledging that she was mad at him! Idiot! "So, fifth floor… It was fun, fighting as a group like that, covering for them when I could. I tried to focus more on that than just bashing my head into monsters like I did on the first day."

She nodded along with his soothing tone, settling down against his chest because she was a generous Goddess. She'd definitely seen his single minded focus in his Falna the night before, but that was pretty understandable given his tendency to fight opponents that were very nearly beyond him.

In his Falna the War Shadows were almost a blur of motion that would pierce through Elric's guard again and again, trying to slowly whittle him down while he searched for that one killing blow that would end the fight. It was a style of combat she'd never really seen or heard about before; most adventurers would be fighting against the endurance of their opponents, or sheer rampant numbers. Her Elric was just unique like that, challenging well above his stat range and-

She took a shaky breath, pushing that thought away.

"You alright?" Elric asked, looking at her with those stupidly blue eyes and all that stupid concern and- He wrapped her in his embrace and she definitely didn't melt against him or anything!

He chuckled, the deep sound seeming to echo throughout her being and fill her with a sense of safety.

"Y-Yeah." She spoke softly.

"Imagine getting scared by a story." He suddenly teased, totally ruining the moment!

"I'm scared for you baka!"

"Weeb." He said flatly, smug triumph filling his expression as her jaw dropped open. How does he even know these words! That's an insult only the Gods are supposed to know!

"I guess that's the best insult to use against Gods huh?"

"MOU!" She pouted, turning away from him. Stupid idiot couldn't even let her have one tender moment without immediately ruining it!

"Anyway." He went on again without even acknowledging her suffering! "We got to the sixth floor entrance, but the rest of the group chickened out other than Judith… I barely even got to use my dual swords, the speed made things way too easy." He grumbled, before he side-eyed her. "I know you don't want me going past the War Shadows to the seventh floor, but I'm hitting up the sixth tonight." He stated it as a fact and despite wanting to complain she sighed and gave him a hesitant nod.

"I get it, even if I do think you're trying too hard Elric-kun." He opened his mouth to speak so she gave him a look. "Mou, I'm going to have to keep telling you this, aren't I?" She sighed to herself, before reaching up to touch Elric's cheek. "You can't save anyone if you're dead, so survive first."

"I will." He responded simply, gaze unwavering, not a trace of a lie in his words. At the very least, he was convinced that he would survive. Where that confidence came from, she had no idea, but it was at least reassuring to hear.

"You gonna stop stroking my cheek or what?" Her infuriating child cut in, smirking down at her.

"JUST LET ME ENJOY A SINGLE MOMENT YOU-!" She froze, her hand a mere inch away from slapping this damned meanie silly when she caught the knowing look in his eyes… her child was waiting for her to do it!

"Not going through with it?" He asked.

"Mou! You're waiting for me to do it; you want me to add to the punishment!" She pointed at him, gasping as she realised just how devious her child was, he was goading her into a trap! "T-That's evil! And it totally wouldn't count!"

"Okay, slap me then." He smirked that infuriating smirk of smuggy smugness, looking down on her with his stupid tall body.

"I…" She couldn't, he would definitely add it to the punishment which was really, totally unfair of him! So she switched tracks. "Elric-kun, heroes… aren't this mean." She shook her head sagely, standing up on his lap, ready to impart her Godly wisdom. "They're good, pure souls who would never stoop to abusing their Goddess like this; if you want to be a hero Elric-kun, then you have a lot to learn and even more to do to grow."

There, she said it, and now Elric-kun would reflect on his mistakes and grow as a person, becoming a better child and an even better hero. Really she was helping him with his dream, and wasn't that worth her occasionally getting a little excited and slapping him a little? Yes, Hestia nodded, it was worth a little play fighting amongst famil-

"Okay weeb." Elric's disinterested tone cut straight through to the very core of her being and dealt what felt like critical damage. Hestia collapsed.

"Uuuuu! You're so mean Elric-kun!" She whined, curling up into a ball against his chest.

"You're the one who wants to physically abuse me." He shot back without sympathy.

"Mou, you can take it! Last time I stomped on your foot you didn't even feel it!"

Elric shook his head sagely, giving her the same magnanimous smile she had just graced him with.

"It's not about physical abuse, it's about the damage you're doing to me mentally." He smiled calmly as he fucking lied his ass off and she resisted the urge to scream in frustration! Her mouth opened before he went on without hesitation. "Hestia… you've got a lot of learning and growing to do as a Goddess." Her jaw dropped at the sheer and utter horseshit that her child was shovelling.

"Y-You…!" She stuttered without words. Who the hell raised this human and why did it feel like she was the child when she was talking to him, that's so unfair! She was an immortal for flame's sake!

"Me?" He asked, feigning cluelessness.

"You're such a-!"

"-LADY HESTIA!" An unfamiliar voice shouted out in the distance, causing them both to blink in confusion.

They looked at each other in confusion, before the voice called out again, sounding oddly lost.

"You get deliveries into the ruined district?" He whispered.

"No!" She whispered back. "And the guild only makes house calls for rich people." His brow furrowed at that. "We should go-"

Elric rose suddenly, the blanket put aside as he dropped her beside him; right onto the cold floor! Maybe she couldn't get cold, but she was comfy and whoever was ruining her totally not a date with Elric was going to suffer her wrath!

Elric snuck up to the ruined ledge of the building, staring off into the darkened streets of the district as the voice called out again. She tried peering over with him, but the darkness was pretty total.

"See anything?"

"Looks like a blacksmith." He answered to her surprise. Higher level adventurers obviously had supernatural senses, but she hadn't expected Elric to be already at that point, not so soon at least, but before she could ponder that further her mind clicked.

"Is it a Hephaestus smith?"

"What's her symbol?"

"Two hammers." She answered

"Looks about right, but we're a bit too far to be sure."

"I can't even see anything." She grumbled, making him blink at her before he shook his head.

"Well... shall we go see what they want?" He asked, standing to his full height, which definitely didn't make her feel small!

"I already know!" She smirked smugly. "C'mon Elric-kun, time for me to show you the amazing connections your incredible Goddess has!"

-

Given the rather informal and welcoming greetings we were given by the messenger and every Hephaestus familia member we'd encountered on the trip, I had expected this meeting to be as easy as Hestia had been hyping it up to be.

Sadly Hephaestus wasn't in the mood for that.

"So this is your brat?" The second red-headed tomboy I'd encountered in this life asked, looking at me with a hard, singular gaze.

"Yup!" Hestia shouted grandly, striking a 'cute' pose. "Hephy, meet my first child, he's really cute isn't he!"

Feeling a bit like a show dog at a fair, I allowed myself to smile politely, if a touch awkwardly.

Hephaestus sighed after a long moment of silence. "He's very interesting Hestia, but I believe your letter said something about wanting to rent one of our services?"

"Eh… but…" Hestia deflated at the unimpressed look the red-headed Goddess was shooting her -which I kinda understood, bullying Hestia was quickly becoming one of my go to pastimes after all- but this was so flat and awkward that I couldn't help but feel second hand cringe.

In the anime, Hephaestus had supported my Goddess for an undisclosed amount of time before finally getting sick of her and giving her the boot, a fact that made Hephaestus rather uncompromising and weary when it came to Hestia, especially if my Goddess was looking for a handout. Here however things seemed to be even worse than that, perhaps because not enough time had passed for things to simmer down, or perhaps because there was an apology between them prior to canon that Hestia hadn't gotten around to yet.

Whatever the case, Hephaestus clearly wasn't in the mood for Hestia's particular brand of interactions.

"We'd like to rent a forge, preferably in the evenings, quality and amenities are irrelevant." I state simply. "We'd also like to buy the raw materials from your stock."

The woman met my gaze with an unwavering frown, her lone eye searching me for something.

"And you came to me?" Her blunt statement told me exactly what she thought of the idea and the one who came up with it. A sentiment I honestly agreed with; going not only to the top smithing familia in the city, but also to their leader directly for something you could get from any corner smithy with more than one workstation was… pretty damn entitled, and a really good way to get fleeced.

"Respectfully, I'd rather have asked the closest smithy around, but…" I trailed off, glancing to the side at Hestia who was looking progressively more uncomfortable, a fact shared by Hephaestus. "I can wait outside if you'd-"

"-Yes." Hestia cuts in, seeming to steel herself.

"There you go again, making decisions by yourself." Hephaestus huffed, but nodded to the tanned woman who had been leaning against the wall behind us for this entire awkward encounter. "Get a good price out of the kid Tsubaki." The tanned beauty grinned at that, finally opening her lone red eye to stare me down.

Sidenote, I'm not sure if eye patches and red eyes are a requirement for the women in this familia or what, but they certainly pull it off.

I met her gaze steadily until her smile widened and she nodded towards the door. I followed, but not before giving Hestia's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Something she probably needed if the way she gripped my hand back was any indication.

The tanned smith waited for me outside of the office, a dangerous smirk on her face as she gave me a knowing look. "So… you and the short stack?"

"No." I return simply, walking besides her into the bowels of the Hephaestus compound. "You and Hephaestus-sama fucking?" I asked back just for the sake of it, even if I couldn't deny that the idea was more than a little attractive; Hephaestus really filled out those leather pants of hers and Tsubaki here seemed to be almost spilling out of her chest wrap.

The woman let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Hah, you'd love it if we were, wouldn't cha?" She smirked knowingly. "But I don't like to kiss and tell gaki! Or well, I suppose there was that one time…" She trailed off, looking lost in her thoughts.

I smiled and decided to ignore that particular contradiction. "I guess that would depend on whether or not it'd mean you were taken."

The woman blinked, before turning fully to look at me. "Hoh? You're a bit taller than the men I usually cuddle, but maybe I can make an exception if you're any good with that forge you're asking for."

I let out a half laugh at that. "Doubt it, it's been a while since I touched a forge." I let out a small strategic lie; if my growth rate ends up being unbelievably fast, I can just pass it off as me slowly getting back into the groove of things. Plus I did technically use a forge in my past life.

And if she was being serious about that comment, then I could always level to the point that I impressed her later.

The woman hummed. "We'll have to get you back into the swing of things then, which brings us neatly around to prices." Her smirk grew vicious at that. "Fifteen thousand valis every two hours."

"Sure." I agreed to the blatant rip-off. It was peanuts to the Hephaestus familia anyway, me just taking this smith's time was probably costing them more than I'd made in total so far

"Eh?" Surprisingly, my easy agreement brought her to a stop. "You know I'm fleecing you here right gaki? You rich or something?"

I shook my head. "My Goddess is in debt to you guys, helping pay it off is part of my duty."

"Hoh?" She considered me appraisingly. "Aren't you a dutiful little captain…"

"I'm taller than you woman." I pointed out.

"Hah?" She got on her tiptoes to get in my face with a playful smirk. "I can fold you like a piece of bar-stock gaki."

"And you'll still be short."

"At least I'm taller than your Goddess." She grumbles half-heartedly, putting her hands behind her head as she continues to lead me somewhere without a care.

"That's not a high bar to clear." I point out. "Hestia has to wear child-sized shoes."

She snorts, laughter spilling out of her as she side-eyes me with a wide grin. "I take back what I thought about you gaki, you aren't stuffy after all!" She… insults me? Her grin not wavering in the slightest as I blink and then snort myself. "Mah, you're alright gaki… and well, I was asked to get a decent price but I really thought you'd haggle so… I mean, we can call it five thousand with material included and say it's even yeah?"

Given that I'd made forty one thousand on my first day and night and I was set to make exponentially more from now on, the original cost would have been increasingly trivial for me -but even so- hearing Tsubaki amend her offer in genuine good faith was… nice. Definitely a step up from my dealings with other familias so far.

"You're not so bad yourself." I smile. "Thanks Tsubaki."

"Heh, don't mention it..." She paused, looking at me in embarrassment. "I uh, didn't catch your name."

"It didn't come up." I shook my head of thoughts of that awkward ass meeting, earning a commiserating look from her. "Elric Carne, Hestia familia captain." I offered her a handshake.

She took my hand and we spent a moment just grinning at each other, shaking hands in a dark corridor. "Tsubaki Collbrande, Hephaestus familia captain, nice to meet cha." I nodded at the expected reveal, Tsubaki both felt strong and she was just hanging around in her Goddess' office, which for big familias like this usually meant they were high up.

"Well now Elric, time to show me what you've got." She kicked her foot back and damn near knocked a door off its hinges, leaving me blinking into a random forge we'd apparently been standing next to since we stopped.

"Like I said, don't get your hopes up." I reminded her, but she just gave me a look to get on with it.

Nodding, I walked past Tsubaki as she eyed me intensely and let myself focus on something other than the rather captivating woman behind me; namely the forge. It was small, dirty and yet well stocked. Its fire dead but with a pile of coal exactly where you'd expect it, it didn't take long before I was working the bellows to get things up to heat. There was no instructor yelling at me when to stop or start this time, but I knew the temperature for steel by instinct.

Padded gloves for safety, a look to check with Tsubaki to see if I could- yup, I grabbed one of the steel ingots from the stock and brought it to heat with a pair of blackened tongs.

Tsubaki slid in and leaned against the wall beside me, staring intently into the flames. If I had to guess, she was already judging me for how evenly I was heating the ingot, which… I think I was doing alright? Steel felt pretty damn easy to me because of the perk, almost like it was telling me what to do, but I had no idea what kind of crazy standards blacksmith adventurers were held to, especially since the blacksmith DA was a thing.

Either way, my gut was telling me now was the time, so I brought out the now yellowed ingot and immediately got to work on the anvil, pounding out the corners and quickly defining the shape of the Skyrim steel dagger and a half tang, half handle that should probably let me use this as a throwing knife. With the heat starting to fade I pounded out the start of the bevel on all four sides, quickly coming to the conclusion that I should really be doing one-sided blades from now on.

At minimum a quarter less work.

Evening out the bevel took long enough that metal cooled past softness, but it was time to normalise anyway. I shifted in my seat, side eying the woman besides me as I began the first of three boring heat cycles.

"How do you deal with it?" I asked.

"Deal with what?" Her eyes never left the metal.

"The waiting."

"Never thought about it." She spoke calmly enough, but her eyes darted from the flame to me and back again giving me the feeling she was lying. Was it a smith's pride kind of thing?

I hummed, pulling the ingot to air cool on the anvil. "I can manage, but some part of me desperately wants to be doing something else right now."

"I don't have a cock-" My head snapped up at the turn of phrase. "-but if I did, then I wouldn't pull it out in a forge like this!" She laughed.

"Well damn, I didn't even think of that." I uttered, feeling more than a little perplexed; that innuendo had gone right over my head and I was the one that said it.

"Probably why there's more women than men." She nodded sagely, smirking at me.

I snorted. "Well, as fun as all that would be, I more meant reading a book or something."

"Boring." She scoffed dismissively, watching me put the ingot back into the heat. "And it'd probably catch on fire anyway."

"People watching?"

"You want to 'watch' the kinds of people that willingly live next to a forging complex?"

"If they're as drunk as I'm hoping, then yes." Because honestly? Drunk people watching could get really fun when you didn't have to deal with them.

"Just focus on the blade gaki." She said dismissively. "A restless mind does not a fine edge make." She spoke the last part as if by rote and actually blushed at my raised eyebrow.

I smiled, but ultimately turned back to my blade to finish its final normalisation heating. Waiting for it to cool in the air a final time was… boring, next time I'm definitely coming with a book, or making multiple knives at once. But once it wouldn't melt around the grindstone, I was finally able to sharpen this bad boy, then heat, quench it in oil and go through the mind meltingly slow heating process to 'relax' the quench.

"You're weird." Tsubaki suddenly spoke up, gently taking the knife from my tongs even as it comfortably sat at around four hundred degrees, running her fingers along the edges. "Your hammer work is quick, but it needs work…" She trailed off as she tried to flex the blade, but given that it was a dagger, she had to give up before it snapped in half. "Your tempering was… unique; I can't really give you advice there, familia secrets and all that, but you should be fine for steel."

I nodded along, watching intently as she downright sensually fondled my hot blade.

"All in all, not bad." She smirked, her gaze slowly rising to meet mine. "I wouldn't mind stealing you away from little Hestia and her kid shoes... but I don't think you have the patience to be a smith."

"No, probably not." I shake my head. "Still need to work on it though."

"And if I ask why?"

"Because it'll help." I answer vaguely.

She hummed, placing my dagger down onto the anvil. "Having a smith to maintain weapons is always useful." She approved, taking my vague statement and running with her own understanding of it. "I'll stop by later for that payment gaki, till then."

"Til then." I returned with a smile, watching her back as she shuffled out of the tight room and gingerly closed the battered door with a sheepish grin.

And when I was sure she was gone. "Tsubaki Collbrande huh?" I smiled and readied myself for a grind session. What kind of idiot makes one knife when you can make multiple instead? Why be bored when you can instead be hitting things?

I have free materials, skills to grind and an inventory to fill full of sharp things that I can throw at monsters.

The only enemy is boredom, and possibly Hephaestus if Hestia annoys her even more.

Hey, it's been a while, my bad. Work was a bitch, but I've officially been pulled off overtime, so it's back to the grind bois.

Not sure what I should put as a note, Tsubaki's a fun character, I like her; Hestia flows as naturally and as weirdly as ever. Hephaestus will be nicer in later chapters, the whole situation between her and Hestia is just a little too fresh.

Thanks for reading everyone, I genuinely and sincerely appreciate it. Have a good night.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 9

Stamina potions were definitely in my top three healing items to get addicted to in an isekai world, right up there with fucking senzu beans. They were, frankly, absolutely ridiculous and I kept on discovering new side effects for the potions I was already planning on taking daily for the rest of my new life. Namely those side effects were me discovering that I didn't need to eat anymore -something that I honestly hadn't even thought about until Hestia sat me down for dinner- and that my stamina was entirely beyond the pale.

I've been beating the shit out of slabs of metal for the last two hours without faltering, and that was with me speeding up dramatically at times as I tried to balance as many things in the forge as I possibly could without leaving shit in the heat too long. That more than anything had made the experience actually pretty fun, but it should have come at the cost of tiring me out even with my Falna; instead I felt great actually, all the rush of exercise with none of the burn.

It's moments like this that I really start to feel like I'm in a game.

In my forging frenzy I'd even managed to get around to making a spare pair of swords and upgrading my weapons and armour, sacrificing a few ingots to oblivion in return for resizing the armour and sharpening the blades. They were still cheap steel by the standards of Danmachi, but in my hands they'd go a lot further than they otherwise could.

All in all, I'd absolutely blitzed the shit out of this opportunity and I was suddenly feeling a lot more confident about the seventh floor. Which kinda made the promise I made to Hestia that much more… awkward? Annoying? I tried not to think about that kind of thing lest I let my feelings on the matter actually leak around a literal lie detector.

Hopefully Raul will be easier to convince than Autumn, and I can get back to making progress. Despite making smithing a bit more interesting, I want to be in the dungeon.

Killing things is just… chef's kiss.

Before I can ruminate further on that particular thought however, the door that was already hanging on by a thread made up of hopes and dreams exploded off its hinges, revealing Tsubaki who looked only moderately surprised.

Spoiler: Tanned tomboys are good civ yes?

"Whoops…" She grins unrepentantly, before she catches sight of what I'm doing. "It's been like an hour gaki, what are you doing?"

"Making knives." I stare at her with a deadpan look, which she immediately ignores to circle around and check on what I was doing.

She gave me a look in turn before shaking her head. "Normally I'd shout at you for messing around in a forge, but whatever gaki." She turned a smile on me that was full of teeth. "I've come to stea- accept your money."

"Sure."

"...You don't wanna take a bit to consider? Maybe beg for leniency?" She offers, a sly look on her face.

I give her a queer look of my own. "No, but you're clearly angling for something here."

"Well, kinda…" She laughed awkwardly, looking off to the side. "Your Goddess mentioned you might have a way to help out with a certain job, so if you're interested in waiving the cost…" She emphasised the statement, clearly implying that this was about more than just the cost of using the forge; likely something to do with Hestia's not-quite-debt to her friend.

As annoying as Hestia potentially selling me out was, I stopped myself from making assumptions, making the conscious decision to ask for more information first.

"I'll impress upon Hestia the need for information security later." I exhaled. "What did she sign me up for?"

"Garbage duty kid." Before I could ask, she clarified. "We've got a buncha scrap that needs melting, only the bits are too big, yeah? Normally we'd do it the boring way but then your Goddess brought up your handy dandy little sword skill. If it works, then Hephy will consider things square and I'll drop the price."

That… wasn't bad, people finding out about my damage skill was basically par for the course if they ever saw me fighting. Telling nominal allies in order to leverage a better deal? Yeah, that wasn't too bad.

"And you want to cut this scrap with a sword?" At her enthusiastic nod, I blinked. "How did that even occur to… fuck it, I don't wanna know, let's do it."

-

"I doubt my swords are going to cut it for this." Tsubaki snorted at my words as I looked over the mountain of scrap piled up in the traditional warehouse. It seemed like there was everything from scrapped blades and armour here to even old building materials; large cross beams and supporting brackets made of a hazy blue metal for what must have been some pretty massive buildings.

Even my new swords were very much not rated to handle this, despite my skill.

"Got anything one-handed?" I followed up casually and she did, surprisingly offering up the katana strapped to her waist. I kind of expected her to be the type to cherish her weapons, to warn me to be careful with it at least. But nope, she passed off the weapon without a word, seemingly content to just watch me struggle with the weight of the blade, because holy shit was this thing heavy. It must've weighed in at least ten times the weight of my own blades, maybe more.

Swords generally are pretty light, designed as they are to take a normal man swinging them around for hours even as the law of moments works against them, but this thing was definitely not designed with normal men in mind. If it weren't for increased strength from the Falna's blessing, I doubted I could even hold it at full extension.

At the very least the blade didn't pull any magical Reid-esque bullshit, letting me draw the blue-grey steel in a motion that let the metal sing. Looking over the beautiful weeb blade, I couldn't help but feel a little out of my depth. The thing was such a work of art that my blacksmithing skill didn't even know where to begin with it; everything about it was flawless, from its edge to its deeper construction and the almost hypnotic wave that ran along its edge.

"Good sword." I commented softly, turning it gently in the light of the torches.

"It's an amazing sword, not that a rookie like you would get it." Tsubaki corrected me, her smirk wide and proud as she started to exposit on the blade, unfortunately my mind was elsewhere.

Originally I'd been planning on making the most of my smithing skill, something that -in this world- would require me to pick up the blacksmith DA in place of something more combat focused. But developmental abilities take time and effort to level, something I'm in short supply of already, and the dirty secret of Skyrim smithing is that it doesn't actually provide a better base product. A daedric sword you made was identical to one you looted off an enemy's corpse.

No, the real meat and potatoes of Skyrim smithing was the sharpening and resizing mechanic, where -like I'd done with my weapons and armour earlier- I could sacrifice an ingot to increase the sharpness or defence of a weapon or armour. The exact mechanics behind it honestly allude me; I can't even recall what I did to the armour beyond the actual resizing of it, nor do I know where the ingots went. All I do know is that it definitely works, that my armour is much sturdier than it had been and my weapons that much sharper, all at the cost of a little bit more weight.

What all this meant was that I didn't need the blacksmithing DA myself, I could just take a blade from someone else and apply my bullshit on top of their own without a care in the world. DAs could take years to go up a single level and there's probably always going to be some other DA that I would benefit more from instead. Which brings me to this blade, this shining example of smithing wrought by the hand of a master and made of materials that I couldn't currently comprehend.

This… this is the kind of blade that I wouldn't mind buying for some obscene price.

"Oi gaki, you even listening?" Tsubaki's annoyed voice broke through my musings as she leaned in with an affronted expression.

I looked up and smiled. "Sorry, just thinking that you'll have a customer in me someday."

She snorted. "Come off it gaki, my babies cost tens of millions, minimum."

"I know." I stated simply. "I'll get there some day."

I expected her to snipe at me again, but instead her smirk became almost wistful. "A lowbie with dreams and an actual spine huh? Not bad; too many rookies nowadays seem content to wallow in lower ranks. Don't be like them."

"Wouldn't dream of it." She nodded contentedly at my words, waving her hand at a nearby I-beam propped up against a wall.

"Come on then, let's see this skill in action, your Goddess talked up a storm about it."

"Did she now…" I muttered, but approached the beam even as the thought of giving Hestia a noogie crossed my mind. Shaking the thought, I glanced back at the evaluating Hepheastus captain and gave her a wane smile.

"No judgments for this alright? The skill only works if I'm one-handing it." I said, covering my ass from the conventional wisdom that anyone not two-handing a sword in this situation is a dumbass.

I brought the sword low and to my left, tensing my entire body for a wide faux draw slash. In an instant the blade cut a brilliant path through the air and tore into the metal with a vengeance, only starting to slow halfway in, before crawling to a complete stop three quarters of the way through.

I strained my arm as hard as I could but it was like I was trying to cut... well, steel. The weight of the upper half seemed to be pressing on the flat sides; the more I had cut, the less structure there was to support the weight and thus the more stuck my blade became.

"I don't think I can manage most of thes-" My words cut off as an absolutely titanic force suddenly jerked the blade out of my grip and sent it careering across the room, the beam utterly bisected by its passage. I blinked down at where Tsubaki's sandal was now occupying the space where the blade was.

"You're picking that up." I say with a challenging grin, clenching and unclenching my suddenly sore hand.

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah uh." We stared each other down for a long second before she cracked up, her bark of a laugh drawing a chuckle out of me.

She didn't bend over for it like I was secretly hoping, instead flicking the blade up with her sandal and looking it over with a thoughtful expression. "Your skill… is pretty ridiculous gaki." She breathed, looking up at me with dangerously interested eyes. "If I had to guess, it improves sharpness by almost double?"

I simply smiled politely at that, not offering a comment, to which she rolled her eyes.

"Problem is your strength; this shit is everything that would normally ruin our blades, it's not your average steel." Her thoughtful expression changed into something far more devious as she suddenly squatted down in front of me, gesturing at her back with a cheshire smile. "What are you waiting for gaki, get on!"

"You want me to… piggy-back you?" I had to hold myself back from saying ride there.

"Well yeah, you just need to hold the sword right? So just get my back and put those long ass arms to use!" I didn't even know if it would apply with someone else's hands on the blade, but honestly I had bigger concerns with this plan than just the logistics of my skill.

"I'm not doing that." I declared with conviction.

"What? Why not?" She pouted.

"Woman, I just can't." I had my pride as a man thank you very much.

"Men." She scoffed lightly, looking more amused than anything else. "You got any bright ideas then?"

Well, she clearly doesn't mind me getting close. I gestured for her to stay still as I circled around her and gingerly wrapped my arm around her to hold onto the blade.

"Hoh?" The woman drawls, her lone red eye follows my arm back up to look into my eyes, her body leaning into mine. "Pretty bold gaki." She smiles. "Well, let's see if you can hold on."

I masked my growing sense of unease with boldness, giving her a challenging smile as I wrapped an arm around her toned midriff, readying myself to use all my strength to hold on.

-

"Y'know, that was pretty romantic…" Tsubaki drawls, giving me a fanged smile as we made our way back to her Goddess' office, a sack filled with my weapons jangling over my shoulder as we walked.

"You threw me across a warehouse." I reminded her with a shake of my head and a half smile; I could still feel the shape of the bracket I landed on, which probably meant my good chunk of my back was bruised. Still, I couldn't deny I'd had fun, some of the shit Tsubaki started pulling off as I held on for dear life was… something else, and that was her holding back.

"Heheh~" She scratched her cheek and looked away innocently. "Got a little carried away there, your skill is something else." That part was definitely true, it only took her one slice to work out that she could cut through the scrap like it was made of butter, and after that it turned into a veritable slaughter of flying bits of metal.

I'd held on for dear life, but Tsubaki had seemed to be intentionally testing my limits, gradually speeding up until everything was a blur and my grip finally failed me. Still, if the way she was looking at me was any indication, I'd at least impressed her in the process.

"I got lucky there." I lied.

"You've got no idea gaki." She smirked as we arrived at Hephaestus' office, by this point I already suspected that knocking wouldn't be involved when it came to Tsubaki and doors. What I wasn't expecting was the sight that greeted us as the doors blew open.

Namely Hestia's ass and Hephaestus' embarrassed and now startled expression.

Oh god she's doing the fucking dogeza thing again, I groaned, reaching up to massage the bridge of my nose.

"Huh, didn't know you liked that kind of thing boss." Tsubaki stated, glancing back at me as a smirk grew across her face. "We can leave if yo-"

"No." Hephaestus cut her captain off sternly, her eye seeking me out. "Your Goddess is begging me to make a weapon for you."

I nodded, having expected as much. In the first season of the show Hestia does this exact same thing for Bell out of guilt for not being able to offer him much for being part of her familia; if I had to guess, the opportunity and her worry over my dungeon activities convinced her to do the same thing here.

"I'd appreciate it if you would decline." I make my opinion known, finally startling Hestia out of the stupid pose to look at me in shock.

"E-Elric! We need thi-"

"Hestia." I cut her off, meeting her gaze. "I appreciate the thought -I do- but don't put our familia in debt for the sake of something we don't need. You're the Goddess of our familia, don't throw away your pride so easily." I remind her sternly, watching carefully as she looks away.

"I'm not, I'm just…" She trailed off, her voice small and insecure.

"My Goddess." I lay it on a little thick. "Have some more respect for yourself and faith in me, yeah?" Her eyes tear up and before I know it a twin-tailed Goddess is slamming into my midriff.

I sighed, gently dropping a hand onto her head. "How long's she been like this?"

"An hour." Hephaestus let out a noise that could have been a laugh if she wasn't trying to look stern, unfortunately for her, the warm gaze she was looking at her friend with gave her away.

"Sorry about that."

The smithing Goddess waved it away. "Just glad to see you have a handle on her."

Hestia's head popped up to glare at her friend, but ultimately didn't say anything as she let herself be tucked back into my embrace.

"If I had a handle on her, she wouldn't have told you about my skills." I state, giving a suddenly guilty-looking Hestia a look.

"Ehe~" Hestia squeaks.

"If it makes you feel better, I told her off for it." Hephaestus offers, and it did, both for having another familia look out for us, and because it said good things about my Goddess' friendship.

"Thank you." I said genuinely.

"You're welcome." She huffed, her eyes darting around the room before landing on Tsubaki. She cleared her throat. "How did things go?"

"We cleared the whole place, gaki's skill worked as advertised." The tanned captain announced, her eye fixed on the Goddess wrapped around my waist, before flicking up to meet my gaze. "He needs a bit more strength before he can do it alone though."

"Implying you have more work?" I asked.

"We've got a few more warehouses that need clearing and a constant influx of scrap… we can negotiate a fair price later." She smirked dangerously.

Hestia squirmed against me, twisting around to look up at the captain as Hephaestus coughed. "We can talk about that the next time you're here." The smith Goddess said, her gaze turning to me. "Hestia mentioned that you have an upcoming meeting with Loki?"

I blinked at the non-sequitur as Hestia's arms tightened around me. I hummed in agreement. "She thought it would be funny to meet at a brothel."

Hephaestus sighed, glancing off to the side awkwardly as her captain laughed. "Loki… she's a pain in the ass and tricky to deal with to boot, you know what you're getting yourself in for kid?" The Goddesss warned.

"I've got a decent idea of the trickster Goddess." I spoke, but my uncertainty probably leaked through a little.

Loki appeared fairly irregularly in the show despite how much screen time her children had, and a lot of her appearances were just that awkward brand of Japanese comedy where a character tries to molest girls. The relevant part of her appearances however were her meetings with her executives; there another side of Loki could be seen, cunning, intelligent and deeply interested in what she felt was best for her idea of Orario and her familia.

Active manipulators were always the most annoying to deal with, especially when they have a strength advantage and you have little leverage. The worst part however is that I don't know her full character; there was a spinoff of Danmachi called Sword Oratoria that I never watched because it was apparently dogshit. The important thing however was that it focused on the Loki familia, which means it more than certainly went into Loki's character, so I was -at most- looking at half the picture.

Loki in mythology was often depicted as evil, or at least fae-like in the 'tricking you' sense; the Loki here didn't have any scenes that indicated that kind of aspect to her, but again I was working with an incomplete picture, and that made me rather wary.

"That's about the right reaction to have." She nodded, looking bemused. "Hestia didn't go into detail about the whole thing, and I won't ask; just be careful kid, use whatever leverage you have and hold your ground yeah?" The words were a relief, both in that Hestia didn't spill all our secrets and that Hephaestus was willing to offer us advice against a nominal ally of hers.

"Thank you for the advice Hephaestus-sama." I offered respectfully, something she smiled and shook her head at.

"Just Hephaestus is fine kid." She smiles as I nod in acceptance. "Oh, and before you ask about what days you're free to rent, any day is fine, just…" Her eye wanders to Hestia.

"I'll bring Hestia." I say agreeably.

"Not what I…" Hephaestus trails off while she and Hestia seem to share a moment. "Fine kid… I'll look after your Goddess for you."

"Mou! I'm not that bad!" Hestia whined.

"Thank you." I spoke over my Goddess, giving her a headpat to soothe things over; I might have spoken about the need to maintain pride and dignity before, but this and that were quite different. Hestia above all else seemed lonely, and my dungeon crawling ways weren't helping. A friend would do her the world of good and from what I'd seen, Hephaestus was that friend.

I'd give as many pushes as I needed to if it meant things worked out between them.

Tsubaki suddenly clicked her fingers beside me. "I get it, you're playing dad!" She barked out a laugh, as both Goddesses whipped around to face her. "You're organising playdates and everything!"

"T-Tsubaki!" Hephaestus attempted to reprimand her, while my own Goddess' jaw just hung loose, seemingly unable to say anything.

"It's a full time job." I sighed dramatically in agreement, playing up the bit as my fellow captain's grin widened. I couldn't hide my own smile.

"Elric-kun!" Hestia whipped around and whined.

"Yes?" I smirked.

"Mou!" She huffed, blowing up her cheeks and slipping away from me, arms crossed and head turned aside.

Tsubaki chuckled as she saddled up beside me, not doing the whole 'child' bit any favours as we probably looked like parents bemused by their pouting child. "Well, what are you going to do now gaki?"

I hummed, considering what to say as Hestia shuffled impatiently under the amused eye of Hephaestus. "Probably going to head back and sleep." I lied.

The smith Goddess' eye suddenly locked onto mine, but she didn't say anything.

"Boring." Tsubaki snorted. "You should always end the day with some alcohol! Nothin' more romantic than sake under the moonlight."

I won't lie men, it took a lot of willpower not to call her a weeb right then and there.

Something must have come through on my face though, as she gave me a sour look to cover her embarrassment. "Oi! Don't knock it til you try it gaki."

"I won't." I offer, suppressing my need to call other weebs weeb so I could be a little more genuine, if only for a moment. "And I'll take you up on that next time."

Tsubaki blinked, before letting out an amused exhale. "Sure gaki, next time." And with that, she turned and strutted away into the dimly lit compound.

"One of these days." Hephaestus began, looking at her captain's back. "She won't try so hard to act cool."

My non-committal hum drew the fiery Goddess' attention. "Don't go telling her I said that alright?" She asked half heartedly.

"You have my word, right Hestia?"

"Umu…" My Goddess let out pitifully, still not facing me.

"Right…" The redhead said flatly, though her amusement was clear. "Take care you two, and look after her, will you Elric-kun? The Heavens know she can't do it herself."

"H-Hey! Don't you start too Hephy!"

I just laugh and nod, getting ready to leave, my mind turning over what I said to Tsubaki; time to sleep murder.

-

War Shadows aren't a complicated monster, just one that requires stats to deal with. They're hard to see in the gloom of the tunnels, their speed, reach and lethality are a massive step up from the Goblins and Kobolds before them, but once you have that speed? Once your senses are so superhuman that the darkness no longer hides them?

They're painfully simple.

The pair sprinting towards me didn't even require any prep at this point, I just let them come at me, resting a hand on the hilt of one of my disrespectfully undrawn swords. It reached me faster than any human in my previous world could have managed and like the hundred or so before it, it leaped forward, claws extended.

It was over before it could even react, my draw slash whipping through its smokey body as I leaned aside. It didn't even get the luxury of collapsing before its stone was in my inventory and its body disappeared into motes of dark dust. The second tried to stop, it really did try, but I was already there, watching as its hate filled eye widened in bestial panic.

It couldn't even throw up its arms before my sword whipped back down and cut it straight down the middle, only deviating in the middle to avoid the magic stone as I mentally spammed my inventory to collect it.

Not for the first time that night I looked wistfully at the entrance to the seventh floor, the sheer stone staircase seeming almost seductive as it shone with the increased light levels of the floor it led to. I wanted to go, I wanted to face down hordes of ants with nothing but my swords by my side; I wanted to spam level my one-handed on the multitude of enemies, to embrace that dance of death again.

Not for the first time I regretted making that promise to Hestia.

I shook off the thought, turning to my last opponent, a particularly weary Frog Shooter. As I advanced, it retreated, bulbous eyes widening as I watched it apathetically.

Frog Shooters were an interesting creature, the first really to have a 'gimmick' namely their incredibly large and quick tongues. So instead of a humanoid that would just run at you and try to tear out your insides, it would make crude attempts at tactics; they would try and wait for you to slip up against the War Shadows before striking while your guard was down.

To me they felt almost like Dark Souls enemies. They had their tells in the way their bodies would shuffle and lean back just before shooting out its tongue, and if you had the timing right you could easily counter its strike, even if you're just watching it out of the corner of your vision.

But this one wasn't like that, it just kept desperately shuffling backwards until its back hit the wall, eyes wide and filled with an emotion I couldn't identify. Looking at it closely, I decided it would make a decent test subject.

The moment my blade was sheathed, its tongue spat out, apparently taking me as an idiot who would actually show sympathy for a bestial monster. I rolled my eyes as I leaned aside and drew one of my new knives from my inventory -specifically a longer parrying dagger- flashing the blade through the fleshy appendage before the glow of my inventory could even fade.

The creature roared in pain as I blinked down at my new knife, swishing it through the air to test the feeling. It was fast, fast in the same way I felt while dual wielding; like all the motions related to swinging the thing were sped up by some unknowable force. I swung again and this time the difference was apparent; it wasn't like dual wielding, it was faster.

I blinked as the answer came to me; in Skyrim weapons had attack speed values, with daggers being the fastest and everything else being varying levels of slow depending on the damage it did and the reach it had. Personally I preferred swords which I remember having an attack speed of one, as in base speed. Probably because it didn't have any effect I hadn't put any thought into it, but it seems that was a mistake.

Speed was something I had desperately needed while fighting the War Shadows originally; just being able to get your blade up between you and them was the difference between taking a wound and whittling them down. My stats had changed things since then; but that kind of desperate gap was exactly what I needed to level up those same stats as fast as possible.

So the real question was, does it stack? Passing the dagger over to my left hand I was already drawing my sword even as the goofy ass Dark Souls' frog rolled back around and tried to swing at me with a slow webbed hand. Reacting on instinct, I slashed out with the weapon most familiar to me, the sword blurring as it tore through the frog and left a bloody trail of destruction in its wake.

I blinked, looking down at the bloody sword sitting innocently in my hand, wondering how the fuck the speed buff worked on the wrong weapon, because that definitely wasn't the twenty percent I expected from dual wielding swords.

Naturally I did what all bug testers do when they encounter an anomalous situation; try shit out until you can figure out what's going on. Dagger and sword, both seem to be about half again faster than normal, two daggers is the same, and two swords hadn't changed from earlier, the twenty percent speed increase of my expectations feeling slow in comparison to the shit I could now pull off with a dagger and sword.

"It's a bug…" I laughed to myself deep in the darkness of the dungeon, a deep joyous laughter as I revelled in the electric feeling of the speed bug, the blades waggling in my hands as I longed to rip them through something. "Todd Howard… you stupid, beautiful man."

I had found my first working as intended feature and it was beautiful; it really does just work.

The feeling filled me with a sense of confidence that had me craving danger, and there was only one place I knew of on this floor that could possibly challenge me. Autumn had warned the team about something called the pantry on this floor, pointing it out on her map as she explained that it was where monsters gathered from across the floor to eat.

She had warned us to stay well away from it, but that only made it sound even more fun.

It was the work of only a few minutes and a few more monster corpses to reach it, my pace slowing as I looked over the towering room, dominated by a large quartz pillar that oozed out a substance into the basin around it. I couldn't hold in my bloodthirsty smile as I looked over the horde of monsters lapping at the pool like the animals they were, my blood pounding as excitement filled me.

Drawing my sword and dagger only made things so much better as my veins sang like lightning.

-

The Dungeon, Sixth Floor

Jeroth Harlow

"DO IT NOW LASS!" Jeroth bellowed, pushing back against the group of War Shadows, his immense shield locking ranks with his partner, Merian's as the last words of his mage's chant reached his ears. Readying himself for what he knew was to come, he met the gaze of the stout woman he was bracing with and gave her a roguish grin.

The chunky woman rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide the blush crossing her square features, and by the Gods above did it make his blood race.

"-Tear! Erupt! Dance upon the skies and rend the air!" The heavy, mana laden voice of their normally shy mage, Lily picked up and Jeroth treated himself to watching his fellow dwarf's muscle ripple and tense in anticipation. "SKY BURST!"

The pressure wave slammed into them like a Minotaur, pushing them back shields and all as his ear rang like a fucking bell. In his head he counted out the seconds it would take before the counter wave rushed back in and the air settled in the wake of his teammate's ruddy great magic.

Nodding at his partner, they grinned and broke ranks, collapsing upon the few survivors still staggering about, his great big axe chopping down upon them with all the force he could muster in his left arm. It was violent, dishonourable work to slaughter wounded beasts like this, even if they were abominations. But as ever he simply took solace in the fact that it was them and not him or his teammates on the ground.

"We're clear!" He called out for his team.

"WHAT?" Merian shouted, her deep voice was like music to his still ringing ears but he couldn't help but sigh; this happened every time their teammate used her magic.

"I SAID WE'RE CLEAR!" He bellowed back.

"THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT!"

"YOU'RE SHOUTING YA DAFT LASS!" He responded, no good dwarf would leave a silly comment like that on the table.

The hesitant hand of Lily touched his arm and he immediately turned to her in concern; the human was a lot of things, but touchy wasn't one of them. She was breathing hard, saying something with that quiet voice of hers that he couldn't hear over the ringing, still he could guess from the sweat dripping down the side of her face. She was out of mana and likely telling him they needed to retreat.

A good call, if an annoying one; they were here after the sun had set when no sane dwarf would enter the dungeon for debt money of all things. Debts that were soon to be called in, so they needed that money soon. But that wasn't the wee lass' fault, she had done her job and beyond.

Now they needed to do theirs.

"MERIAN, WE NEED TO GO!" He roared, startling the little human mage, but he had no idea if Merian's ears had recovered and they didn't have time to waste. His fellow dwarf glanced at Lily and then nodded, pulling back with him and leaving a sizable number of magic stones just on the floor. It was a shame, but without the safeguard of Lily's magic, they were sitting ducks in the already unusually active dungeon, especially when they didn't have the rest of their team to cover them.

They made their way back, cutting a quick path that took them uncomfortably near the pantry. But as ever, needs must.

It was as they were crossing one of the few crossroads in the area that they heard it; their recovered ears picking up the near silent, frantic footsteps and the swing of blades.

"If they're fighting near the pantry…" Merian muttered, her mind quick as a whip even as she ran alongside him.

"Aye." He grunted grimly. If an adventurer fights near the pantry, the chances of them drawing out a horde, getting overwhelmed and then letting a crazed stampede loose were not insignificant. "Blast whatever brat chose this night to die." He cursed.

They kept running, but sure enough, they could hear the near silent footfalls of War Shadows gaining on them, even if they could barely make them out through the gloom.

"We need to face them." His partner called, tone full of dwarven bravery and a resolve that made his heart swell.

They nodded as one and as she spun to face the oncoming horde, he scooped up their mage and tossed her down the tunnel out of reach, her shocked face the last thing he saw before turning back and throwing his weight in beside Merian.

"There'll be no going to hell for us…" He began, a wide grin splitting his beard.

"Because we're already in it!" She finished, and by the Gods was her determined smile the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

They roared, as one shoving their massive shields into the oncoming wave, breaking the scrambling and desperate front line before moving into true dwarven combat; their shields bludgeoning and their axes tearing at their foes with endurance and strength that would make the very stone jealous.

If he could spend an eternity doing anything, it would be this, fighting by her side and holding the line with honour and bravery worthy of song. But like good things, they have to end all too soon. Blows started slipping through the cracks, scratches became gashes that impeded his movements and he became all too aware of the damage his partner was taking, her battle cries mixed with more and more exclamations of pain.

All the while their enemy seemed both countless and increasingly desperate moment by moment.

Behind him, he could make out the tell tale chant of his teammate, who instead of running like he'd hoped, had probably done something stupid like drained yet another mana potion.

"You silly lass…!" He smiled fondly even as his body roared in protest, somehow he found it in himself to shove back the horde once more and call out. "MERIAN!"

"AYE!" Her deep voice bellowed back and she fell back with him, the pair locking their shields once more, blocking off the small tunnel and bracing for the storm once more.

It was as they were holding back the desperate reaching claws of the shadowy abominations that he felt it; that tingle up your arse crack you get whenever shit is about to go from fucked to utterly fucked. And yet he was helpless to watch as a vile tongue shot out of the gloom and over their shields to slam into their poor mage, her cry of pain sounding like a death knell for them all as the War Shadows redoubled their efforts.

For once, Jeroth didn't know what to do, he was tired, he was in enough pain to fell a Cyclops, and now as his gaze locked with woman of his dreams, all he wanted to do was take her away from this place, take her somewhere safe and build a life together in a humble stone hall.

The where didn't matter, only the who.

It was as he was reaching for her that he finally felt it, the scrambling had stopped. Merian looked at him in uncertainty, hand half reaching out for him as they glanced at the wall of metal that had kept them safe. The moment of uncertainty seemed to drag on, until the sounds of combat suddenly cut through the silence. Jeroth listened in disbelief at his luck as the screams of countless War Shadows dying echoed through the air in all their cursed glory.

Gesturing for Merian to stay down, he leaned back, glancing over his shield just so -the way his forefathers had taught him- ever ready to duck back behind its stalwart protection. He glanced over and suddenly he understood, the desperation he'd felt from the accused horde wasn't desperation to kill, they were running away.

And when they couldn't run anymore in the face of dwarven steel, they had turned back around in desperation, switching from flight to fight like cornered animals. As he watched, he couldn't help but find it a poor choice as a pair of blades flashed in the gloom, limbs and heads flying as the blades tore a brilliant swathe through the darkness at speed he could barely comprehend.

It was a beyond beautiful sight, and a sure sign that a higher level adventurer had stumbled across the horde and decided to wipe them from the face of the dungeon.

"What is it?" Merian's voice tight and hopeful reached him, and he wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms in celebration.

"We got lucky lass…!" He exclaimed, unable to stop the laugh that bubbled up from his gut, it told a song of relief and jubilation. Even as the tension left his body and the full weight of his injuries settled, his smile couldn't be broken, especially not as partner smiled back at him; the same relief written across her broad, beautiful features, with perhaps a touch of something more.

A flicker of movement dragged his eyes away from the heart clenching sight, just in time to catch a lone War Shadow sprint out of the darkness, desperation and fear written across every expressive facet of its blasphemous form.

Jeroth tensed, ready to force his body into action, but there was no need; a human appeared behind it, his armoured form a blur of motion as he drove his steel through the abomination and ran it into the ground. Its death rattles rang out for only a split second before a long dagger flashed and its head was no longer on its shoulders.

Jeroth hadn't seen a higher level adventurer fight before, but he was sure as his asshole was tight that this was one of them. The man cut a downright heroic figure for a human and as their eyes met, Jeroth couldn't help but swallow.

"You alright?" The man asked softly, standing up and sheathing his blades.

"Aye, thanks to you." Jeroth responded in an equally soft tone as he finally, fully relaxed; this was one of the good ones. "Jeroth Stonecliff of the Magni familia, can I ask our saviour's name?" He asked formally as he turned aside his shield in greeting, Merian following suit as she looked over the man curiously.

"Elric Carne, captain of the Hestia familia." Jeroth nodded in respect, a good name and a good title for a man like this. "You lot need help getting back to the surface?" His eyes went past them to their downed teammate, Jeroth glanced back and as he had expected, a Frog Shooter alone wasn't enough to take down a party member of his. Lily was already back on her feet, an empty potion in her hands as she looked up at their saviour with a shy blush.

Jeroth held back a snort at the sight -humans and their silly crushes- instead turning back to face Elric.

"Maybe back to the fifth floor if it isn't too much trouble lad…" He asked gingerly, a good dwarf should make their own way through the world with only the strength of their bodies and souls to carry them. But Jeroth had more concerns than just himself, and by the look of his team it was obvious that this wasn't the moment for pride.

"It's not a problem." The man smiled a warrior's smile, it wasn't quite a dwarven smile, but Jeroth found himself respecting it nonetheless.

I had a lot of fun writing this one, so much so that I originally intended for it to be a shorter chapter than normal but it got away from me.

For notes, I suppose I should say that I'm aware that the dual wielding off-hand speed buff only applies to the double attack, but the thought of Elric running around spamming the scissor motion hurts my soul and thus it now applies to all attacks; call it a writer's privilege.

In regards to Elric being able to 'give' his damage perk to other people, the idea of people wearing Elric like a backpack that gives double damage would not leave my mind gracefully, and now all of you have to deal with the thought as well. You are quite welcome.

The dwarves, while fun to write, aren't set to be reoccurring characters, I just wanted to show how Elric comes across from the outside in terms of combat, give an example of him 'saving' people, show the consequences of him going full meat grinder, and also write a scene around a more standard party. It was a lot of fun honestly.

As for how the stampede happened, Jeroth's guess was good for the little information he had but still wrong, this is just what happens when you unleash a meat grinder into the peaceful play area; people start running.

Long chapter and a lot of notes, sorry for that, but if you read this far then thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day/night/whatever the fuck timezone it is over there, I don't discriminate.

 

[One Fall Leaf]

Chapter 10

"Mou~ can you sit still while I'm doing this?" Hestia whined as I pounded out the shape of my new parrying dagger, its counterpart already forged and resting on the work bench beside us.

"You're the one who said we didn't have time." I grunted, forcing myself to work quicker on the long dagger, honing its length to that sweet spot I'd discovered after days of experimenting, a length that was just shy of what my power would class as a sword; all the speed of a dagger but with the reach of a short sword.

I'd tried the same thing with its partner, but the almost-greatsword hindered more than it helped in the tight corridors of the dungeon. Plus it made drawing a pain in the ass.

No, instead I'd gone for something more traditional in length, but thinner and with a nice flex from the new 'light' metal I'd gotten a perk to forge it with. Tsubaki called the metal 'nosteel' as opposed to whatever the fuck we called elven metal in Skyrim. The important part though was that it was light, could hold an edge better than steel and its natural flexibility meant I could use it like a firmer spring steel.

Which meant that while it looked like something out of an eastern take on European fantasy, with its thin cross guard, form and blade, it was stronger, faster and sharper than any blade I'd owned until now. And damn if it didn't feel good.

It might have taken me the two days since I worked out my deal with the Hephaestus familia, but I was finally producing weapons that felt like they were mine, like they were tailored to me, instead of just whatever steel I could get my hands on.

"I'm all for you feeling safer going into this Elric-kun -I am- but you're not planning on picking a fight are you?" Hestia asked, which was probably a reasonable concern given how hard I was working to get new weapons ready for an ostensibly peaceful meeting.

"Whenever you progress to the next stage, you always make sure you're fully equipped." I explained briefly, mind turning over the sheer amount of games that sprang bullshit on you the second you went to some major 'safe' event or another. You always prepared for this kind of shit, that's gaming 101. And if you have to unequip to progress?

Well that's when you need to start pulling some shit out of your ass.

"Eh?" Hestia's confused voice echoed behind me. "Stage?"

I coughed awkwardly. "Don't worry about it; just think of it like a status symbol."

"Oooh…" She uttered, redoubling her efforts with a soft, "umu!" I couldn't tell if she was just being polite about that, but either way I had a blade to work.

Shaping and grinding done, I began normalising the nosteel dagger, a process that instead of air cooling, oddly used a warmed oil bath of a specific mix that Tsubaki helped me with; another thing I'd have to thank her for later. Right now the woman was off in the dungeon testing weapons, which was also why I felt comfortable enough asking Hestia to check my Falna; Tsubaki had a dangerous habit of randomly exploding into any room I was in.

I'd have to catch her later.

"All done!" Hestia announced jovially, pressing a sheet of paper to my back and tracing over it. "Be in awe Elric-kun, for your Great Goddess has taken things to the next level!"

I blinked, staring at the sheet suddenly shoved in my face.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •

Elric Carne
Lvl 1

Str - H 118
Vit - I 069
Dex - H 133
Agl - H 102
Mag - I 000

Magic:

Skills:
[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written into their soul. (1)

Alchemy – 29
Alchemist 1

Block – 25
-

Light Armour – 36
Agile Defender 2, Custom Fit

One-Handed – 42
Armsman 2, Dual Flurry 1

Smithing – 32
Steel Smithing, Elven Smithing

Sneak – 20
-

Speech – 24
-

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •​

"Sasuga Hestia-sama…" I offered distractedly as Hestia did a little dance of victory behind me, my eyes somehow managing to track and read the newly formatted Falna as it flailed around with her motion.

My cursory glance over the stats told me everything I already knew; that my vitality growth had fallen off since that first day -propped up only by the times I'd intentionally let a monster tag me- and that my agility had likewise declined. Agility had once been my highest stat, but it was now falling behind because of a lack of enemies that could actually challenge me in the speed department.

To put it bluntly, both were victims of the promise I'd made to Hestia to stay away from the seventh floor. A mistake I wouldn't repeat again, even if it meant bluntly telling Hestia no to her face. Pandering to her was all well and good when it didn't cost anything, but my growth wasn't something I could fuck around with on the vague chance that her being annoyed with me would effect my skill acquisition.

That part of my Falnic theory-crafting was unsubstantiated for a reason.

On the bright side at least, my inflating skill and speed with blades seemed to have actually increased my dexterity growth day over day. Likewise my strength stat had maintained a fairly steady growth, probably due to my increasingly efficient massacres of the fifth and sixth floor pantries.

Which meant that I was making up for less efficient growth with the raw numbers provided by my Skyrim skillset's growth. That was good in the short term, but probably not sustainable as the gap between me and monsters widened.

The Skyrim skill block on the other hand was interesting to see laid out like this, it was both humbling to realise how far I'd come in the half a week I'd been at this, and aggravating to realise that I was using less than half the skills available to me. Some couldn't be helped, a good build needs to be optimised after all and there's rarely a point to simultaneously levelling two armour or weapon skills, but others like the entire magic tree kinda stung to just see missing entirely.

I had two ideas about how to kickstart my magic; one was just throwing a grimoire at the problem and hopefully solving it at the low, low cost of a hundred million valis. The other was to dedicate a point to the tree's first perk and hope that just magically taught me how to cast. The only issue there was that I always had other perks open for purchase, that were less risky and more valuable to my current build.

Speaking of; "can you put the perk into Armsman three?"

"Ah?" Hestia paused in her celebration at my words, freezing up in embarrassment. "Yup! Sure thing Elric-kun! Lemme just get right on that…"

I closed my eyes as she played around, centring myself and breathing deep as I waited for the rush of knowledge and instincts to come. Not all perks were created equally, and the damage perk for one-handed was one of the big ones in terms of information, and if my guess was right, it'd only get more so with levels.

With the swipe of a finger that tasted of war, my soul settled and the knowledge that came with it just seemed to appear, clicking into place instead of settling. I opened my eyes and I was holding the nosteel sword, my eyes raking along its slivery-blue length as my body spoke of instincts for the blade I didn't have moments ago.

I breathed out and forced myself to relax, ignoring the itching part of me that wanted nothing more than to run into the dungeon and cut through everything that got in my way. Now was not the time for cutting, as sad as that sentence was.

"Thanks, Hestia." I said sincerely, glancing over my shoulder to smile at her.

"Bububu!" She uttered nonsense back, pointing her finger demandingly at me. I blinked. "Back to work mister! You've only got an hour!"

I shook my head as I turned. "Right…" I chuckled. "Just wanted you to know you're appreciated."

A choking sound echoed behind me, only deepening my laugh. Heeding my tsundere Goddess' advice, I pulled the knife from the oil bath and began to heat the blade for another round of honing. Normally with steel you were one and done with honing at this stage, but nosteel was a particularly stubborn metal that you had to fight during normalisation, to hone it again and again as it fought to regain its former shape in the pseudo quench.

That was part of what made it such a good metal; you had to force it to take the shape you wanted, but once it took shape, it would hold onto it with the same level of stubbornness. It might flex, but it almost always returned to true.

"Elric…" Hestia spoke up, her voice calmed from before, more serious. "Are you sure you don't want me there?" She asked the question she'd asked three times now.

"Can you stay calm around Loki?" I returned for the third time.

Her silence was the same.

"Well then…" I pulled the long dagger from the fire and smiled at the multi-toned hue that painted the once blue blade. "I guess I better do enough work for the both of us."

"U-Umu! You can do it Elric-kun!"

-

"I was told to expect you, Lord Adventurer, right this way." A scharmy attendant bowed nervously, gesturing me down a moodily lit hallway adored in silks of every shade of red. I nodded my thanks, but kept one hand resting on my sheathed blades, smiling as the man seemed to get the message and kept his distance as he trailed after me.

Past the darkened hallway and behind yet more veils of soft fabric was a sight straight out of every teenage boy's dream; girls dressed fit for a sultan's harem gyrated on a brightly lit stage, their attire little more than see-through silk, eyes heavy and alluring as they swayed to a deep beat.

The lead dancer -a beautiful blonde woman with bright blue eyes- locked gazes with me as I entered. Beneath the red veil she wore around the lower half of her face, a sultry smile formed and her eyes smouldered.

For a long, electrifying moment I stilled, transfixed by her.

It took a minor effort of will to break the staring contest with the incredibly attractive dancer and turn away. Was it some kind of welcoming technique? Make the patrons believe they have a personal connection with one of the dancers from the moment they walk in?

I clicked my tongue and let out a humoured exhale; apparently the girls here were a little dangerous.

Ignoring the fat attendant who was trying to get me to follow him, I instead scanned the room. It was empty aside from Loki members, filled specifically with men and a lone woman who looked far too into the dancers to be here for anything but tits. All of them were dressed casually in loose clothing, either drinking or taking lap dances in the more shadowy alcoves attached to the large room.

I snorted as I realised what this was.

Looks like Loki decided to invite me to one of the perks of being part of her familia, specifically the one that Nord mentioned on the day we met. Sure enough my eyes found him, slack jawed as a girl dressed in harem garb ran her tanned ass up and down his lap, her heavy eyes glimmering in amusement at his reaction and a self-assured smile beneath her veil.

"Lord Adven-" My gaze returning to the attendant was apparently enough to make him to clam up, his sweating frame looking like it would rather be anywhere else right now. I doubted I had that kind of impact yet, so his fear probably came from the idea of offending Loki's guest.

"Leave." I said simply, relieving him of his duty and ignoring him to make my way to where I'd spotted Loki's inner circle.

Settled in its own area, surrounded by the male Loki executives and a small troop of serving girls in skimpy garp was the Goddess herself; currently leaning over the railing circling off the area and swinging around a wad of cash as she hooted at the stage like a monkey.

Now, as a gamer I'd encountered my fair share of stupid looking bosses, but goddamn if Loki wasn't stretching the bounds of what I could take seriously. So I ignored her and made my way over to Finn, perhaps the only clear eyed man in the entire establishment, and the only one looking at me at that.

"Finn Deimne." I greeted.

"Elric Carne." He nodded amicably. "You've come a long way in only a few days." He commented, as his eyes took in my gear.

"I'm an old hand at smithing, made it myself." I played it off, smiling.

"Oh? We'll have to-"

"-OI!" An aggressive voice broke into the conversation, and I was forced to acknowledge one of the biggest knobs in the Loki familia, Bete Loga. He was a grey-haired chienthrope who's whole point in the anime was to be a raging dickhead. "Ya gunna move or what? Ya stinkin' up the whole view."

The man looked two seconds away from attacking me like the rabid dog he was, and given that he was an executive and thus something like a level five, I didn't particularly want to give him a reason.

"Sure." I replied curtly.

"We can talk over there." Finn smiled and rose, gesturing over to a table in the corner of the area away from others.

I exchanged nods with the old dwarf left sitting with the chienthrope and trailed after Finn.

"Sorry about Bete, he means well." Finn offered, clearly lying.

"He's the type that only respects strength right?" I ask, and he nods with a played up weary look as he takes a seat at the table.

"In a business like ours, those kinds of mindsets tend to do well."

"Anything for motivation." I comment, adjusting my blades as I sat opposite. "Coincidently, can he hear us right now?"

The halfman just kept smiling at that, not offering anything.

"Fine, so how do you want to do thi-"

"-OOIII! FIIIIINNNN!" Loki's voice cries out over the low chatter of the brothel, right before she seems to just materialise next to us. "And~ dochibi's brat! I can't believe you guys started the meeting without m- Eh…?" The Goddess paused, staring at my outfit in confusion.

"Loki-sama?" Finn tried.

"Brat…" Loki began, her tone perplexed. "Who the fuck comes to a brothel in armour? And tight pants!" The Goddess angrily gestured at my outfit.

"Well your captain for one." Finn shares a commiserating look with me at that. "And woman, you're a lesbian, worry about your own plumbing."

"Hah? Ya think I've never had a cock before brat?" Loki shot out, leaning against table as I just blinked; I didn't think I'd be finding out that Goddesses could go full futa today, but life is apparently an eternal surprise like that. "I'm a Goddess; I've been ploughing women with great big honker-honkers since long before you humies were formed from the dirt!"

I leaned back in my chair, just processing that particular diatribe as Loki started to look increasingly smug, seemingly thinking that she's won this particular argument. "Well brat? What d'ya think about that huh?" She asked eagerly.

"I think… that's pretty sad?" She immediately reared up, looking ready to cut in so I went on. "Millennia of experience and yet your game is still so weak that you can't even get into the pants of any girl in your own familia."

Loki choked on her words, looking surprisingly like someone had kicked her in the balls. Meanwhile Finn jerked and coughed into his fist to cover his laugh.

"Honestly, I feel for you." I offered in sympathy, knowing that she could tell that I was being genuine. "Having zero game and being that flat? That's rough." I smiled as gently and sympathetically as I could, desperately fighting to keep the smirk from my face as I twisted the metaphorical knife.

Loki seemed to contract in on herself, clenching the table as a subtle whine seemed to emit from her shaking form. A bark of laughter from the table over seemed to send her over the edge, and she rose up slamming her fist into the table.

"Finn! Beat this smug little pricks' ass!" She yelled, pointing straight at me, and suddenly I couldn't help it any more; I laughed right in this Goddess' face and that set Finn off as well. "Finn! Ya're supposed to be on my side!" She whined, sounding increasingly petulant as fake tears leaked into the corners of her eyes.

"Tch!" She did the tsundere thing, crossing her arms and turning away from us when we just kept chuckling. A half beat later she tried again, sniping at me defensively. "What are ya lookin' at, brat?"

"You, your pose, Hestia does it as well." I smiled with a shake of my head, as Loki freezes looking down at herself. "I was just thinking that you weebs seem more alike than you care to admit."

"Weeb…?" Loki utters pitifully, looking like she took critical damage as collapses into one of the chairs. "Finn… please… yer my captain, just beat him up a little!"

"Apologies Loki-sama, I can't do that." Finn smiled deviously, looking like he was having a great time watching his Goddess suffer.

"Why?"

"He's a guest Loki-sama." He dutifully reminded her, chuckling as the last saps of energy drained out of her and her head collapsed onto the table with a thud. And just like that, my familia was two for two on bodying Loki into tables every time we met.

I smiled widely at Finn, suddenly feeling rather invigorated for the coming negotiations.

"Shall we get started then?" He smiled back just as widely.

Hey, I'm trying out shorter chapters with faster updates, so let me know if you like it or not.

For notes? I suppose I should open with the fact that there was a two day time skip from the last chapter, it's in this chapter but sometimes people skim read so I figure I'll just spell it out here. In regards to the perks Elric suddenly got, Alchemist 1, Agile Defender 2, Custom Fit and Elven Smithing were all acquired during the timeskip.

I included Nosteel from 'I am not Bell Cranel' because I figured using something people already recognised from the fanfic side of things would help people remember it easier. The features are pretty similar in this case, but in the case of the others the metals aren't racist like they are in that fic. Also if you haven't already, check out that fic, it's really good.

Yes I was setting something up with the dancers, don't worry I didn't just forget my chekhov's gun. Next chapter is the negotiations, and at some point a scene I can only put on QQ I think? Not sure what the pornography rules are on different sites, if you know please tell me so I don't get banned xD

Thanks for reading boys and girls, if you could like the story I'd appreciate it; have a good one.