Hello and welcome to part 4. Thank you to everyone who is reading this :). Two small notes. Although I do like the style for conversation I have been using, I am uncertain of my ability to adequately convey who is saying what so in the meantime I shall be adding in who is speaking in parentheses when appropriate. Furthermore if it was not obvious this SI of me does not have meta knowledge of the world. (all other memories are fully intact though).
Year 10 Month 1 Part 4
Looking around the hall it seemed that most of the other 1st class adventurers had left. The only people who were currently in the hall were a hungover Loki A bruised Shard and several low level adventurers. Shard approached the 5 level two's, as third tier adventurers they had the anxiousness around the A team that the few level one's in the loki familia had. However those who had earned their second level from within the familia at least knew enough about the 1st class team to realize they were more quirky than dangerous at most times. As he reached the table the 5 girls stood up.
Recalling their names Shard looked at each of them in terms of seniority.
"Ayla" looking at the tall blonde elven warrior. Only 16 he remembered but 3 years in the dungeon, she was in Shard's estimation what the Sword princess would have been without the wind on her side. Still potent but not oppressively powerful.
"Fidia" The somewhat short of stature amazon looked up, only 155 celch tall. Her muscles were tight but she was stronger than most dwarves of the same level. She dual wielded a sword and flail in a way that reminded Shard of the witch king of angmar.
"Elena" The youngest in the group by age having started at only 9, the waif like human was another upcoming mage, not as powerful as Lefiya but with potential still. Her spells were of a less destructive nature favoring a series of buffs. Through practice she had almost entirely eliminated the recovery time between her casts so her single target buffs could be better used in combat. Her hazel eyes and auburn hair were clean enough to be a child actress even with the slightly lesser bodily maintenance this world had to offer.
"Ayda" The other black haired elf was the oldest having only started at age 17 making her 19 now. A body more voluptuous than loki's normal tastes accompanied her. That, combined with her interest in polearms resulted in a relatively close mentoring from Shard. In fact he lent her the valis for her halberd. A Guan Dao variant from the far east not to dissimilar from the glaive Shard was accustomed too from 14 years of usage.
"Mia" The human woman was new, only arrived a few days ago. She wore heavy armor and wielded a conventional greatsword. Shard had long ago learned to not associate muscle with strength as the falna rendered physical muscle of little importance especially above the first level.
"We haven't met before?" Mia questioned his knowledge of her name, her crimson hair flowing with just the gentle breeze indoors.
Before Shard could respond His disciple defended him.
"As an executive of the loki familia, Shard is tasked with many things including personnel. Fortunately for a genius like him keeping track of a few names is the easiest part of that."
Shard laughed in his head, a slightly above average intelligence in his own world, a partial college education and 10 years as a kid again left him with a knowledge base comparable to older characters already noted for their intelligence.
"I however, do not fully know your role in the dungeon. If I recall you have been in the upper floors already?" Shard continued trying to get things back on track.
"Yes sir! I apologize for not recognizing my superior."(Mia)
"It's fine, now Ayla" (Shard)
"Yes?" (Ayla)
"I am putting you in charge of the logistics of this trip we will be taking tomorrow. I left a list by your room of things that we shall need but I urge you to be careful not to waste familia funds on overpriced or substandard merchandise."(Shard)
Gulp "Yes sir." (Ayla)
"You have free reign to assign relevant tasks to Fidia, Elena and Ayda as you see fit. However I hold you solely responsible for the state of preparation." Shard liked this dynamic. It forced the leader to actually use leadership skills as success and failure was entirely linked to them.
"Yes sir." Ayla said as she and the others except Mia left.
"What about me sir?" Mia asked, her emerald eyes quaking gently.
"I am going to test what you can do." Shard stated walking with her to the yard.
'This is crazy' Mia thought. She had joined the loki familia the day they started their last expedition but she had learned from the topside level 2's some general notes on the top tier of adventurers. The leadership were world famous as was the sword princess, the others though near universally known in the city were not well known in farther lands. She learned as much as she could about the twin amazons and the wolf man. However the human who had recently leveled seemed insignificant compared to those titans. She recognized him of course but she did not know how he fought or what he was capable of.
"Are you ready?" Shard asked wielding a quarterstaff while unarmored.
"Yes." Mia replied her hands trembling along the length of her familial sword, a weapon for an adventurer a tier or two higher and made of mithril to channel magic. The weapon's name written along the blade. 'Firelink Blade'
"Then attack me." Shard commanded.
As Mia rushed him Shard adjusted his speed accordingly. Gently deflecting her heavy and slow swings as he occasionally tapped her in areas where she left openings.
After minutes of this the heavy armor and constant swings mixed with the gentle blows began to take their toll on Mia.
'And he is clearly holding back dammit.' her body was tired as her head filled with rage at herself. 'And he is the weakest of this tier as well. This power is overwhelming.'
"Your form is somewhat sloppy." Shard noted
"I am guessing you have never encountered anything you could not brute force your way through with blade or spell. This will not work in the future. You must learn precision. I have been intentionally keeping my movements slower than yours this whole time and yet you still cannot land a hit."
'Slower than me!' she screamed internally 'to me it felt like he was moving faster than lightning, am I really that bad at this?'
"Yes sir." She replied defeated.
"On the other hand" He grinned. "You seem to hit very hard, also from the public section of your roster you appear to have combat magic."
Beaming she giddily asked "Can I show you?" 'please, anything to recover this embarrassment' she left unsaid.
"Sure, let's go to the 6th floor for now."
On their way Shard saw the white haired boy bell again, this time he was farming on the 4th floor, uncharacteristically safe for the young man.
"So what are your spells?" Shard asked unable to hide his curiosity any longer.
As a war shadow approached she began her cast.
"Flame of heaven, spear of light, cast this fire from this knight. Flame lance!"
As the cast competed she pointed her blade at the shadow and a massive column of flame erupted from her blade incinerating the shadow.
"As you can see, it has two effects." Mia stated as shard looked at her blade that was now wreathed in flames.
"In addition to the blast the blade is covered in a flaming aura for a couple minutes increasing my damage output."
"Do you have any other spells?" Shard asked
"Yes, but the other spell is simply a self heal. You are right of course about my clumsiness. My strategy has almost always been to trade blows with monsters using my healing to keep me going."
"That's not necessarily a bad strategy with your combination of abilities." Shard observed. "For me that would be infeasible, no healing spell requires a more tactical view on combat."
"You can use magic right Shard?" Mia wondered.
"Yes."
"May I see you cast it?"
Shard sighed. "My magic is not like most. One of its many limitations is it's mind usage. I have yet to cast the spell and not suffer mind down after it's conclusion. However when we kill the goliath tomorrow I will be using it to secure the kill."
Now more excited than ever Mia asked "What does it do? Does it flood the room with lava, conjure lightning, summon a swarm of meteors?"(mia)
"None of the above."(Shard)
"Tell me."(Mia)
"No"(Shard)
"Please?"(Mia)
"No."(Shard)
"Fine" Mia pouted as Shard laughed.
"You'll see it tomorrow so what's the big deal."(Shard)
"You are just keeping it mysterious for no reason."(Mia)
"Yes."(Shard)
"Augh"(Mia)
Quickly changing the topic Shard Said "Hey, are you hungry?"
"It's only 10:30?" Mia looked up at the man quizzically.
"I'm hungry, let's get something to eat." Shard began walking out of the dungeon
"Fine. Hey wait up!" Mia raced after him
Shard decided to go to the fried potato stand. The banquet of the gods was to start later that week, most new gods and goddesses attended at least one early on to be entered into the fold. However poorer gods, like ones that worked at food stands, instead often kept with their familia in order to maintain morale and manage their limited money. As he handed her the money he said.
"Thank you goddess Hestia."
Blinking she asked "Have we met?"
"Two weeks ago, I am a high level loki familia adventurer named Shard, this is a newer member named Mia."
"Hi." Mia added.
"I purchased a potato here before we started our expedition."
Hestia blushed "I'm sorry I didn't remember you Shard."
"It's fine, I wouldn't remember me either. Mia?"
"Yes Shard?"
"I would appreciate it if you found a place for us to eat these, though good without a table they can be messy."
"Yes sir." Her face bearing the slightest amount of disappointment.
"So Hestia."
"Yes?"
"Bell Cranel." The look on her face confirmed his guess, a newbie with an unsealed status on his back with only guild loaned equipment, a soft face and even softer demeanor was a dead ringer for a new goddess who worked at a potato stand for lack of any practical skill or high income familia members.
"What about him?" The goddess's brow furrowed with confusion and a hint of rage
"So he is your child?"
"Yes, what about him?" More rage flooded her face this time.
"I just wanted to say that he is a great kid. I haven't had much interaction with him but he shows great potential." Her face turned into one of worry, all anger subsiding.
"He is reckless, he went down to the 6th floor by himself yesterday!" She tried to cover for his talent as if she was nervous about it. Shard began to wonder, 'what about the boy is being hidden. He used no magic, if it were an allied buff spell it would be unknown and would not draw attention. It's his growth, his progress, that is notable. Development abilities are out too as they do not begin to appear until level two. It must be a skill, a rare skill that somehow increases his abilities so he can dive deeper, and grow faster than the average person. She was right to be afraid, most familia's would go to great lengths to pressure the boy out of her hands if they knew.'
Leaning in Shard whispered "Your secret is safe with me."
The goddess looked at him, shocked at his apparent knowledge and simply said "Thank you" while he walked away.
"What was that about?" Mia asked as he sat down.
"Friendly conversation." Shard replied.
"Why don't you tell me anything?"
"Because you make a cute expression when you are frustrated." Though not the real reason as her face blushed with annoyance and her brow gently furrowed Shard knew it was still true.
"Now, a more pertinent question, what is your status?" Shard redirected towards her development.
" lvl2 obviously, 893 strength, 827 endurance, 519 agility, 500 dexterity and 788 magic."(Mia)
"Any development abilities?"(Shard)
"Hunter and abnormal resistance both at i"(Mia)
"Skills?"(Shard)
"Oh, right. You didn't get to see it. I have a time based mage ability. Every minute in combat before I cast my fist spell I gain a rank in it. Hypothetically in 10 minutes I could apply a rank s mage ability to my lance."
Shard's eyes widened. A rank s mage development even with her shorter spell would be stronger than lady riveria's blasts.
"So you have a potent magical attack that is ridiculously circumstantial and takes a ludicrous time to charge?" Shard spoke with all his sarcasm
"Pretty much yea."
"Gee, if only I knew someone else like that…" He pointed at himself while saying this.
"... what does your spell do?"
"Just eat your potato."
After they finished they walked around town, in particular the poorer area of daedalus street. She noticed that Shard was stopping to donate to the orphanages and other charities in the poorest part of Orario. 'This was so much easier when I could do it through a credit card Shard thought.'
Mia was in constant shock from this adventurer. The decade long veteran was not a standout to her when her friends in the familia described the loki familia A team. He seemed like the standard back line big guy in all the stories who died first to show the villain was the real deal. He wasn't like that at all though. He wasn't buff outside the slender definitions of it. He was too soft as well in spite of him teasing her relentlessly. She had underestimated the brown haired man. A mistake that she would not make with any of the other leaders. She thought about what his most devoted pupil Ayda said about him. "He genuinely believes in the good of people."
Mia thought that was naive, and she was right.
"Why go to all the effort? Training newer members is the job of gareth finn and riviera."
"Two reasons. I am one of the people who is likely to have that responsibility in the future so I need the practice, and I enjoy bringing out the true potential of people under my tutelage."
Surprised by the direct answer she did not have a follow up.
The next day.
Shard watched lazily as the girls cleared the dungeon, until they got to the boss on 17 he was not supposed to interfere. As expected they rapidly tore through most of the monsters until the stronger 2nd level ones like minotaurs appeared. Even then 5 level twos turned them into mincemeat.
"Alright floor 17 ladies" Shard said. "Remember the plan?"
Ayda replied "Distract the boss until you cast, watch in awe for a few seconds, then drag your unconscious body down to floor 18 without molesting you?"
Shard could not help but gulp at that last add in of hers "Yep." He could have sworn his voice was an octave higher at his student's teasing.
As they walked to the goliath's chamber all of them tensed slightly. Even for a level 5 soloing the goliath was by no means an easy task. At least Shard had the good fortune of being able to utilize his most potent skill.
As Shard began casting the 5 level 2's rushed forward utilizing sword, spell and will to hold back the beast. After over a minute of casting, chanting was not something your could belt out too quickly Shard finished the spell.
After a full day in the area just below the 18th floor the party returned to the surface. By now Riveria had "fixed" Aiz and the party saw her on their way back up. As they walked back in they saw something new, loki in a dress.
"Hey, you didn't need to get this fancy just for me?" Shard immediately began the verbal duel.
"As if I would ever consider you." Loki grinned thinking the obvious response clever.
"What everyone thinks of when you propostion them. But seriously, what is the occasion?"
Frowning loki mutters "The banquet of the gods by Ganesha."
"But you hate that. What changed."
Loki smiled "I head that a new goddess who I have disagreements with has arrived. She is likely poor as she is so small and skill less."\
"Hestia." Shad guessed seeing the rage build on loki's face confirmed it.
"How do you know her?!" for a second the power of the being before him was hinted at causing him to involuntarily shiver.
"Bought potatoes from the stand she works at, seems nice. Do you just not like nice people, or are you insecure about something?" As he said that Shard made sure to stare directly at loki's chest leaving no room for doubt about what he meant.
Loki's roar was the que for shard to leave.
That's it for this chapter. I for some reason i'm still belting these ones out. The reason this chapter took longer is because I am trying to force myself to write for the other works I have. Thanks everyone for reading.
