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It's not wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon (Danmachi / Sanctioned [Worm])

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Dreamer sounds like she is taking the poetic/silicon valley meaning of the word. Designing, researching, testin g, and communicate ing ideas, and practical things. A n ability that the entities never had.
 
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Chapter 14: She Followed Me Home
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    • Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, and my eight nine other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic pair of "Thank you"s to @Torgamous and @fictionfan for their patronage as well.

    Author's Note: I'll be slowing down to updating daily or every other day instead of the insane twice-a-day pace of the last week. I'm still plenty enthusiastic, but real life obligations call. (♬ It's beginning to feel a lot like F THIS— ♬)


    Queen Administrator stared at the slightly smiling pseudo-pseudo-host standing in front of the setting sun. Aiz Wallenstein's lightly blood-spattered figure stared back with an open grey backpack in her arms, its contents glimmering with the purple light of numerous Magic Stones. Welf Crozzo stared at them both from what he likely deemed to be beyond minimum safe distance should the stones detonate.

    Silly Welf. You aren't even halfway there yet. And if it's a pure mass-to-energy conversion, you couldn't escape at all.

    "Can I feed your Friends?" Aiz asked hopefully.

    Queen Administrator had been hoping to encourage gifts in exchange for implied snuggles. She hadn't been expecting this. It was a very good thing they had not agreed upon any sort of exchange rate; if they had, Queen Administrator's Friends may have been indisposed indefinitely.

    "You may," she allowed. "Thank you very much for taking the time to collect treats for them. I also realized I may have failed to properly introduce my Friends during our last meeting. The Friend with the blue ribbon is Sir Kara the First. The Friend wearing a dark red ribbon is Lady Sable."

    Aiz bowed to their Friends, placed her backpack on the ground, and used both hands to grab a number of identically-sized Magic Stones from one of its numerous outer pockets. Her armored gloves seemed to be of an odd design that Queen Administrator found rather interesting: instead of covering the entirety of each hand, they excluded the inward-facing parts of Aiz's fingers and palms. Her hand would effectively be protected as long as she was grasping a weapon. Queen Administrator vaguely felt as though such an armor design would be flawed somehow, but without her archives or emulators, the how was beyond her.

    "I took some from everything I could find," Aiz explained as quietly as always. "How do I know what they like more?"

    Um. The only supplementary taste they'd detect would be any remaining blood, sweat, dirt, or other detritus left. The rest would merely be a matter of quality and quantity. How to explain that in a manner Aiz wouldn't find suspicious?

    "They discard the corrupting aspects," Queen Administrator claimed. "The only measure they care about is magical power. Stronger Magic Stones will therefore always receive a better response. However, they will still appreciate even the little ones."

    None of what she'd said was a lie. It just didn't directly link implied cause to effect.

    "Oh," Aiz said, seeming disappointed. Presumably, it would've been easier for her to just hunt a number of stronger monsters instead of spending all day collecting a variety of Magic Stones.

    "I'll, uh," Welf began uncertainly. "I'll just go tell Hestia you're in good hands and will be late, shall I?"

    Aiz blinked, apparently uncomprehending, then looked back at the setting sun. The pseudo-pseudo-host looked back at her bag of treats, at Host's Friends, at the sun again, and finally slumped unhappily.

    "Curfew?" Aiz asked.

    Queen Administrator looked at her expression of poorly-hidden unhappiness and came to a decision.

    "Hestia understandably worries," QA explained. "You may come home with me to hand-feed them if you so desire. Either of my Friends should be strong enough to carry your weight without issues."

    As Aiz's posture restored itself, Welf let out the broken fragments of what should've been a single bark of laughter.

    "Are you trying to feed the rumor-mill?" he demanded.

    Queen Administrator hadn't actually thought through the long-term implications of publicly showing signs of their interpersonal interactions. However, admitting that may prove to damage her reputation and force her to retract an offer Aiz clearly liked.

    "I don't see why not. Making our friendship public knowledge may induce our goddesses to behave cordially around each other."

    Aiz giggled in the moment before a hand shot up to her mouth, her eyes wide. If Queen Administrator was interpreting the asymmetrically-armored adolescent's need for processing correctly, Aiz appeared surprised such a sound had escaped her own mouth.

    "I don't think that's possible," Aiz noted, the embarrassed red in her cheeks slowly fading. "They really hate the other."

    Queen Administrator shook her head. Past Cycles had more than demonstrated the sort of things that sapient species could ignore should it prove necessary. Common enemies were the most common instigator of such forgiveness, but common allies could often work just as well or even better.

    "Have they ever done any damage to the other that time won't fix?" QA asked.

    "To the other's pride," Aiz answered easily. "They've left invisible scars."

    "Not disqualifying. I am not expecting them to become friends or close allies," Queen Administrator explained. At least, not immediately. "However, if they see their hostility hurts their children, I find it likely they will be willing to reluctantly suspend their attacks around us. Simple cordiality would eventually give way to grudging acceptance."

    Aiz blinked and tilted her head questioningly.

    "I think you're overestimating Loki's empathy."

    Queen Administrator shrugged. Odds were good that she was using the gesture properly; it was so versatile as to make it hard to misuse.

    "Shame works just as well. Hestia is empathic enough to ignore jabs if I ask her to. Orario's general public can then embarrass Loki into ceasing her attacks on a target who refuses to mount a counterattack. The long-term outcome would remain the same."

    Aiz slowly nodded, an amusement-tinged expression of happiness tugging the corners of her lips upward.

    "That could work."

    "…I feel like I just watched two people plot murder..."



    Earlier in the day, Queen Administrator had drawn significant attention when she'd traveled through the city to find Welf. She'd attracted just as much when she'd left her Friends outside a shop while Welf helped her pick out suitable adventuring clothing. Apparently, dresses and skirts were fine for casual use, but were highly undesirable when in combat; in combat, adventurers jumped and rolled far more often than baseline humans. Trousers were apparently preferable to prevent the consequences. Still, the inhabitants of Orario were generally able to overlook and ignore Host after their initial assessment.

    Their trip home vastly surpassed both of those and appeared to match Welf's expectations. Sitting beside Aiz Wallenstein seemed to attract the attention of everyone, and they didn't turn it elsewhere. They were polite enough not to ask or demand what had happened or why Aiz was riding one of Host's Friends, but that didn't stop them from loudly gossiping before Host and Aiz had even left hearing range.

    "—Heard the Loki Familia is scouting her—"

    "—Spent all day in the Dungeon to find Canary's attackers—"

    "—Loki complaining someone had stolen 'Her Aiz'—"

    "—Good gods, the size of those teeth—"

    "—Love at first sight—"

    "—Princess from an exotic jungle kingdom—"

    "—Hephaestus's kid, his expression is hilarious—"

    "—Backpack has her favorite possessions, she's clearly moving out—"

    Queen Administrator vaguely wondered if the local populace were comprised almost exclusively of idiots. It was possible; the influence and median petty nature of pseudo-hosts may select against those possessing critical thinking skills. Aiz weathered their attention with the poise and confidence of someone who had long since developed what Host called 'Stockholm Syndrome' and now only let herself whimper on the inside. Queen Administrator felt a stab of unhappiness and made a mental note not to do this again. In the future, they could designate target destinations ahead of time and meet up there.

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

    Hestia had thought her life couldn't get any more surreal. She wasn't unhappy, not anymore, but the last few days had been… strange. Definitely strange. A socially-stunted child with four skills and an extra Seer-soul in her head, learning that Hephaestus's Familia had grown so much she hardly even guided her own children anymore, the creation of two large, fully-grown murderkitties from nothing more than Magic Stones and a weird contraption of metal and thread, mention of a reclusive society of Seers so obsessed with knowledge that they elevated high-contributing scholars to royalty… there was a rather long list and it showed no sign of stopping.

    Finding the Sword Princess literally sitting on her doorstep as Administrator's Friends licked Magic Stones out of her offered palms? That was just a little above her tolerance level. The goddess slowly backed away and went down to cook the celebratory dinner she'd originally been planning. She needed the normality right then.

    ~ ~ ~​

    Dreamer found herself deeply conflicted. She and her guest-self liked the golden girl, Sympathizer, far more than she'd expected or even found rational. That impression was only reinforced after Sympathizer fed their Friends an alibi for their durability and general combat strength.

    (Dreamer still needed to find a way to avoid babies but it was like their species had never even tried and hahahahaha how–)

    Dreamer had mostly managed to bend the magic skin-writing to her whims and Sympathizer's still had a fair amount of room; Dreamer could afford to give Sympathizer a gift she'd actually appreciate even if she never knew the exact source. The question was what. Dreamer couldn't grant something that went against someone's nature and story, yet that still left too many options for an easy decision.

    It couldn't be something that specifically bound Sympathizer to Dreamer's guest-self; if it was, then the city would pressure New-Mother into yielding her child to Sympathizer's incredibly irresponsible parent. That was not allowed. Something to increase Sympathizer's survivability may well turn her into her family's damage-taker and increase Sympathizer's level of danger overall. Enhancing her preexisting skill born of hatred, Avenger, would just shove her further down the path of anti-social tendencies and unhappiness.

    "Normal members of our species have it so much easier," Dreamer sighed.

    Tossing out powers like flower petals was easy when you didn't at all care about the recipients or any resulting consequences. It said something that the parental Titans of their species felt they needed to regularly cripple their children just to keep them from producing major threats. Actually, it mostly said that the Titans were abusive assholes. Stupid crab buckets. If your rules required to to hurt your kids to keep them from hurting themselves and you, then your house rules and what you taught them both needed to be changed.

    ...Oooh, idea! Dreamer could provide her guest-self with a future excuse and help Sympathizer at the same time! And maybe railroad a little, but it was for a good cause! An excellent name continued to elude Dreamer, though. Using a guy's name for a girl's gift was odd, but might just prove to be necessary after all.

    Chiron: Dramatically enhances magnitude of user's growth when they nurture the growth of another. Effects scale with both the user's desire to teach and the achievements of students. Most effective if a chosen pupil was at level 1 when nurturing began.​
     
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    • Alivaril said:
    Chiron: Dramatically enhances magnitude of user's growth when they nurture the growth of another. Effects scale with both the user's desire to teach and the achievements of students. Most effective if a chosen pupil was at level 1 when nurturing began.
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    Loki was like, "I don't want you hanging around with that strange girl!". Loki then updated Aiz's status. Loki then was like, "Do what you want, 'cause a pirate is you!"
     
    Alivaril said:
    Chiron: Dramatically enhances magnitude of user's growth when they nurture the growth of another. Effects scale with both the user's desire to teach and the achievements of students. Most effective if a chosen pupil was at level 1 when nurturing began.
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    oh my god that might actually be the most broken skill seen thus far in the fic

    and it's not like it doesn't have competition
     
    Aleph said:
    oh my god that might actually be the most broken skill seen thus far in the fic

    and it's not like it doesn't have competition
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    Does anyone think it seems similar to the mid-story new skill obtained by a character in this other Danmachi crossover on spacebattles?
    My Trans-Dimensional, Overpowered Protagonist, Harem Comedy is Wrong, as Expected. Oregairu/Danmachi


    Anyway, it says dramatically, but that's still subjective and it has qualifiers. In theory, it could be a 20-40% increase which would still be very powerful, and gain attention, but would be notably less OP than some of QAylor's skills.
     
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    Motile Mollusc said:
    And then Loki familia all turn up and start feeding the floofs Magic Stones to try and get a skill.
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    > implying they weren't going to bribe the adorable murderfloofs anyway :V


    gagaking said:
    Anyway, it says dramatically, but that's still subjective and it has qualifiers. In theory, it could be a 20-40% increase which would still be very powerful, and gain attention, but would be notably less OP than some of QAylor's skills.
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    Dreamer is using it to say, "Oh look, a distraction!" while helping their friend at the same time. So, no, it's deliberately overpowered as hell. :p
     
    > Aiz gets to pet and feed cats; Lefiya doesn't
    > feeding cats somehow grants an overpowered mentor skill
    > but it incentivizes teaching a lvl 1 newbie over an established lvl 3

    [LEFIYA JEALOUSY INTENSIFIES]
     
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