AN:

Chapter Title: Distractive thinking

It was dawn, first light, and Bell was putting his armour on and getting himself ready for a day in the Dungeon. Gil had offered to come with his party along with Enkidu so that they could gauge the strength of what it threw at their Master as well as see whether or not they could earn Falna through combating the Dungeons monsters.

Alcides had taken post on the roof telling him and the Goddess that he was watching out in case the Apollo Familia decided to take revenge on them, saying that something had happened at the meeting of the Gods to likely worsen their standing with the other Familia. They hadn't told him what exactly had happened, but Gil said the Goddess did something cool.

Though Bell had been a little weary of the golden haired boy after the 'prank' he had pulled on Bell by leaving him in the ballroom to fend for himself, the white haired boy had thanked Lancer profusely for saving him the embarrassment, though Lancer left him with the advice that he should be more careful about blindly following the other boy into mischief as Gil is prone to doing things he finds funny. Which often meant that it may cause others problems.

So he had decided to take that to heart since Lancer had made it clear that Gil and he had been friends in their lives. Bell trusted his Servant, they seemed like a very trustworthy person, so he believed that he wouldn't lie to him. Though that was something Bell had begun having difficulty with, that being what to refer to Lancer as, since they looked feminine, but when he asked Lancer was very comfortable with casually speaking of their history which made them sound as though they were male, but at the same time without gender.

In the end the Little Rookie decided that he would just refer to Enkidu as 'her' since it fit her main appearance and the Servant didn't mind how he referred to her.

"Hey Bell!" Welf called getting the attention of Bell as he arrived in the large area outside the entrance to the Dungeon with Gil on his left and Enkidu on his right. "Who're these two?"

"This is-" Before the boy could answer a cheery voice cut him off.

"You can call me Gil! I'll be sure to do my best, Mister Welf. I heard all about you from Bell!" The blonde haired boy said with a bright smile offering his hand to shake the red haired smiths.

"Oh Nice to meet you Kid, hope it wasn't anything bad yeah?" stretching out his arm they both shook hands. "Who's this then?" Welf asked again.

"She's Enkidu." Bell answered for his Servant who seemed uninterested in talking for the time being. "These two are new members of the Hestia familia as of yesterday, sorry about her quietness as well." he explained and apologized.

"No worries, I'm just glad to hear you got some new members as well as that big guy, you'll be a strong Familia able to rival Loki's in no time if these two are anything like that guy." As Welf spoke the tiny form of a Pallum crept up overshadowed by the size of the enormous bag she wore on her back.

"What's this about rivaling the Loki Familia, Master Bell?" Lily asked in confusion, having heard the tail-end of what Welf had said.

"It's nothin' pip-squeak!" The red haired man said ruffling the Pallums hair, earning an annoyed growl and a small foot stomping his own.

"So Master Bell, these are new members of the Hestia Familia?" Lily asked, looking up at her friend.

"Y-yeah!" His stutter went ignored by the supporter as she nodded her head and eyed the pair in front of her.

Not sure what to make of a boy that didn't seem to be any older than twelve and a woman draped in a bed sheet, it was hard to tell what might have gotten Lady Hestia's attention aside from them being more lost lambs like Bell. However Lily didn't think that the Goddess would take random people off the street, or at least she hadn't done that before now and didn't stoop so low before finding Bell.

"Are you ready to explore the Dungeon?" Welf asked, bringing the attention of the group back to their objective.

"Wait, Mister Welf, do we know what level these two are?" Lily asked looking back at specifically the golden haired boy dressed oddly as he seemed to smile at her.

"Oh uh don't worry, we won't go past the 10th level." Bell said realising that while his Servants were powerful and he knew that, everyone else would only see a twelve year old boy and a woman in a white dress who couldn't possibly be stronger than level 1.

"I may not look like much Miss, but I pack a mean punch!" Gil said, raising his right arm out with his hand balled into a fist. "I also have this-" a simple looking short steel sword in a scabbard with a belt to hang it off of fell into his grasp from a golden motes and a slight shimmer in the air above his hand.

The smith and supporter looked at the boy wide eyed as he strapped the short-sword to his side, due to his size it looked like a normal sword on his person though.

"Whoa how'd you do that little guy?!" Welf asked excitedly at the weapon that had formed from thin air.

"It's my family magic, we don't have much but this is something we pride ourselves on!" The golden haired boy said with red eyes crinkled into another prideful smile.

"That's some family magic..." the redhead responded with his chin in the palm of his hand as he thought about it. "I have some questions but I can ask them later." He decided.

"My skill lies in my strength." Enkidu said, suddenly drawing everyone's attention as they had begun to enter the first layer of the Dungeon.

"Can't wait to see it in action then yeah?"

[Introductions]

Bell rushed forward knives in either hand twirling in a display of movement cutting the throats of a line of Kobolds that had formed, the large corridors of rough dirt and hardened rock poorly lit echoed out the squelch of his it planting itself in the all too weak foes seeming leader. Along with that the sound of his friend's grunts could be heard as the oversize sword of Welfs cleaved through a Goblin as it thrust its stone weapon at him.

Lily found herself wanting for something to do beyond collecting magic stones, as the current party dynamic of four fights made things almost completely safe for even a normal civilian to walk around with them as no monster was given quarter. She had been impressed, confused and lost for words at the display of the golden haired Gil when he made his sword appear, but now she was in awe of the strength these new members of the Hestia Family were displaying even on the seventh floor they were easily dealing with the current flocks of monsters.

They were almost to the opening that led into the eighth floor where she felt like things might start getting a little slower for the group, she wasn't sure why it was the case the numbers of monsters that were appearing were unnatural. Sure the group was making short work of it all, but she couldn't help but notice the extra amounts of monsters present.

Aside from the proven skill of the golden haired boy, Lily was more than impressed by the green haired Enkidu who had shown herself to be as strong as Bell which made her wonder what the two had done prior to arriving in Orario. The idea that they had been a part of another Familia had gone out the window pretty much immediately otherwise they would still have their levels, but she also didn't know anything about Alcides who had saved them all. The man had the strength of at least a level 7 Adventurer from what she had seen in the brief encounter at the time of his rescue of them- so she wondered what had made such a strong and likely Familia devoted person suddenly change their mind and join a lesser known Goddesses Familia.

Was it for personal gain?

Or maybe he had a bad experience and saw the light and graceful caring attitude that Hestia showed that had won her over as well, even if Lily herself hadn't left the Soma Familia she was beginning to wish she had the strength to demand an audience with the God obsessed with drink.

"Watch out!" Welf called bringing the supporter from her stupor of thought as an orange molten ball hurtled toward her at a blinding speed, unable to dodge the projectile she hurried to prepare herself for the impact.

Whoosh

The feeling of rushing wind slammed into Lily knocking her over, though the wave of intense heat never reached her as she looked up, having closed her eyes for the impact so the flame didn't reach her eyes and scorch them. The figure in front of her dispersed the flame with a flick of their wrist, white dress flailing around in the created wind from their movement, as their hair settled with another burst of barely animated movement a golden and lapis ornate spear head shot out from the large wings of the dresses arm a chain attached as it pierced the monster killing instantaneously so fast that no one present was able to see what the monster had been.

"Thank you!" The Pallum girl immediately thanked the woman as they offered her a hand lifting her off the ground.

"Hmm... That's all, huh." Enkidu said, looking at the space where a magic stone was now resting on the floor. "Please be more careful." She stated before moving away.

Still somewhat in shock Lily followed behind the rest of her party as they began to move on collecting the stones they had left, she found herself trying to understand what the green haired woman had done to deflect the spell so easily and what exactly the chain and spearhead weapon had been.

Thankfully the party had no more issues as they pushed further and deeper into the Dungeon with ease, while Lily and Welf hadn't expected the new pair traveling with them to be equal to level 2 Adventurers. Both felt as if Gil and Enkidu could have passed for that or even higher. Though the untalkative Enkidu hadn't said much beyond pointing out monsters and saying who they were fighting, Gil had more than made up for the lack of talking by almost constantly being in conversation with everyone.

Eventually the group reached the 14th floor, by this time not that Welf or Lily had much of a chance to notice, but one of the two Servants had stopped fighting and had been observing Bell. Gil continued to fight the monsters as he found the game of it far too fun to give up, it was like going on a monster slaying adventure as his older self would do- even if he hated his older self he couldn't deny the fun of such a quest.

"I never expected to make it this far, didn't you say somethin' about not going past the 10th floor Bell?" Welf joked as he, said white haired boy, Lily and the two Servants were resting in a small area they had found that was away from the main paths and seemingly had almost no monsters.

They had made another exorbitant amount of Valis today which was always good and meant they could all go home with pockets lined to the brim. It had been trouble enough that they hadn't been able to recover the bag that held the magic stones they had collected the day they ended up on the 18th floor, so retaining the wealth they had lost was somewhat of a priority for the three.

"Ah yeah... I wasn't too sure if we should stop back then..." Bell's voice trailed off as he thought about how easily they had reached their current position.

"We should probably head back to the surface to cache in and sign off for the day." Gil said after having finally left a silence in their journey.

"The kids right-" Welf agreed standing and giving a short yawn as he stretched starting to feel the wear of all the running around and fighting. "Let's get out of here!" he continued with a cheer, the others following suit.

[a dip in the dungeon]

Gil yawned wiping water from his eyes as they left the guild building after collecting their pay for the share of magic stones, this left the three members of the Hestia family with a hefty sum of one hundred and fifty thousand Valis'. The other hundred and fifty split between Lily and Welf.

It was a good haul, though something that the supporter had brought to the attention of the group as they were leaving the dungeon, mentioning that there shouldn't have been nearly enough monsters to have them leave with so much. However she wouldn't ever find out that it had actually been because of one of Bell's Servants present that there had been more, as Gil would inform Bell it appeared the dungeon didn't take too well to his divine nature and presence leading to more monsters than usual.

And so the trio of Hestia Familia members made their way slowly back through the city's crowded afternoon streets, the white haired boy got lost in a conversation with Gil asking about his time and stories he could share. The blonde was more than happy to tell his Master about all the adventures and cool things he got up to, though noticed that they were being followed by a few individuals.

Enkidu was walking behind the two carrying the large satchel will with clinking coins, the satchel was the size of a minotaur's head. The clay imitation thought the prospect of carrying all the money was impractical and wondered if Orario had a bank that they could deposit it all to and collect some sort of clay tablet that said how much they had.

She'd need to ask Master about whether they did as much, since it had been commonplace for merchants to use 'iou's' in Uruk when they couldn't pay trades up front due to the size of what was being talked about. She happened to remember something similar, when she and the King of Uruk had come upon a man from a far off country selling dark timbers, but had only brought a small haft of a single tree as proof of the wood to come, the man seeking to purchase it however wasn't sure whether he could trust the deal and so a contract had been formed with the King acting as a mediator offering to vouch for the man selling timber.

In the end the deal came through, the wood delivered as promised in the amount set and the two men thanked the King. It may not have been an example of something exactly like what she had described, but it was similar- she thought at least.

"Enkidu, I wanted to ask you something." the voice of the young golden haired boy said, bringing the green haired woman's attention to him.

"What do you wish to know?" She responded.

"What was it like being friends with my older self?" The red eyes sparkled with interest waiting for her answer.

"The Gilgamesh I knew loved to fight, hated the gods and the people of Uruk were his priority even if he would not say it." Memories flooded the golems head of a strong willed golden haired man brought to his knees crying out in suffering as the life ebbed away from her in a storm, the crash of thunder had drowned out his cries but she had felt the tears hit her.

"But?" the child asked.

"By human standards he was a Tyrant, ruling through fear of his strength at times." Gil nodded understanding.

"Is your older self really so bad?" Bell asked, tilting his head at the red eyed boy.

[Days gone by]

"▂▂▃▃▅▅ーーー！!" An incomprehensible roar emanated from the dusty rubble remains of the Hestia Familia home.