The Weak (Supporter and Adventurer)

"This is-" It was the morning after Monsterphilia and I was sitting in Loki's office once again. I've gotta say, the fact that Loki's got such talented healers is an amazing asset. They fixed me up in minutes, though I did end up sleeping like a log. Currently Loki was updating my status, as she had done with everyone else who fought yesterday. "This growth is amazing outside of the dungeon!" Loki turned me around and handed me the piece of paper that was my updated stats.

Viole

Level 1*

Strength I 65

Endurance H 195

Dexterity H 180

Agility H 120

Magic C 726

Skill Nightmare Rage

Magic Force Eater

Rouge Bringer

"I..." I didn't know how to react to this. "Is it because of how strong those monsters were?''

"Oh definitely. You're honestly lucky to be alive, if the wounds that the twins were dealing with is anything to go by." I swallowed a lump in my throat while she let out a laugh. "By the way, I have a present for you." Loki rummaged around her mess of an office until with an "Found ya!" She rushed over to me and tossed me a pair of black gloves. They looked like any other normal pair of thin black gloves. But when I felt them up, I noticed that the fingers and back of the palm were reinforced with a sort of metal. Trying them on, they felt nice and comfortable however. "It's not the piece that I wanted made, but this is the best I can get you right now. Should stop you from breaking every bone in your arms!"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Loki only looked more pissed when I laughed at myself though. "But thank you, how much was it?"

"Don't worry. They were...donated! I would have gotten you something better but Hepey just had to help that Chibi first..." Loki started to bite her thumb before shaking away her anger. "Anyway! I'll allow you to go to the dungeon from now on. But, you've gotta get a supporter. Can't have you breaking your legs and dyin down there."

"Supporter?"

"Ais'll explain along the way."

SSS

I am not a fan of attention. I can handle talking to a couple people at a time, sure. But I was not a fan of the attention I was getting at the moment. Turns out, standing outside the Tower of Babel with one of the most famous adventurers in all of Orario earns you a lot of stares. Stares which Ais was expertly ignoring. I was about to ask what we were doing until I noticed something behind me. A large green bag floating in the air. "Woah!"

"I'm sorry, did I startle you Sir?" I looked down and noticed a short girl in a red and white hood. She had small fox ear patterns on the hoodie itself, Ah, she's probably a fox girl! A really short one... "Is it possible that you are looking for a supporter, Miss Wallenstein?" The girl shifted her gaze to Ais who also became startled at the mention of her name, but hid it well enough.

"Ah, yes. Do you happen to be one?" The small girl nodded with a smile. "Good. Could you please be Viole's supporter for today? I don't want him to get hurt, you see." I don't know how I feel about the aspect of being protected by a girl half my size. But given the fact that one of Loki's top three is almost as short, I should keep my mouth shut. The girl seemed disappointed but bounced back immediately. She most likely wanted to support the great Sword Princess yet ended up with the prospect of being stuck with me. What a shame.

"It would be an honor to assist one of Miss Wallenstein's friends!" Friend?! I don't know about that... wait why are you nodding your head, Ais?! The small girl turned her whole body to me and bowed politely. "My name is Lily of the Soma Familia, pleased to meet you sir. Please take care of me."

"N-No! I'll be in your care!' I bowed back to the girl. "My name is Viole of the Loki Familia. The pleasure is mine."

"I should go then." Ais gave me a small wave as she left to do...whatever it is that high ranking familia members do.

"So Sir Viole." Guh! That whole "sir" thing is gonna feel weird for a while. I suppose being around outrageously powerful yet casual people for a week made me forget formalities. "What was the deepest level that you've ever gotten through the dungeon?"

"Um...floor one?" Lily's whole body froze for a second. Most likely thinking about her bottom line. Supporters do make money off of splitting the crystals that adventurers get while fighting. The deeper the level, the more expensive the crystal. So level one crystals were worth about one Valis each. "Don't worry. My stats should allow me to go till the eighth floor at the very least. I was just...busy last week." I lead the two of us through the tower, all the while explaining the fact that Loki banned me from going alone since the first time I came here. Lily let out a sigh which I'm sure she didn't want me to hear. "Alright..." Once we reached the first floor, goblins were already being spawned. "I'll take the lead, okay? Cover me please, Miss Lily."

"Miss? Never mind

. I will have your back Sir Viole!" Lily loaded up a crossbow on her arm as I put on my gloves.

"Give me the strength to devour my enemies. Force Eater!"

And so, time passes

As I crushed a Kobold with a Rouge Bringer, I let out a sigh and my head began to hurt. Mind Down's starting to take hold. "We should call it here for today, Miss Lily."

"I agree. Floor nine is quite far to go down for your second time, Sir." I didn't know how much time had passed since we came here, but it had to be over four hours at the very least. Each floor looked the same, the only differences being the enemies that spawned, so it was easy to get lost. "Sir... are you sure this is your first time down this far? Most first time adventurers get locked behind floor five for their first few months." My supporter asked as she picked up the scattered monster cores.

"Yeah, I have no reason to lie." With a flick of my wrist, the magic surrounding my arms dissipated and I felt a weight taken off my shoulders. Long Term Magic is a hassle. No matter how much I get used to it. "But I can see why, we must have killed over a hundred monsters just to get here. Hell, probably two." I whipped the sweat off of my brow. "Let's get out of here and get you paid, miss."

"Yes sir." Even at the prospect of getting her hard day's earnings, Lily couldn't give me a smile that didn't feel fake.

When we reached the surface and cashed in our payment, I was completely floored. "Thirty thousand Valis?!" The two bags were sitting right in front of us, on a table that happened to have ten potato croquettes. Dammit, Ais got me hooked on these. "I've never seen this much!" It was like a dream, the money there could have easily paid for two extra barns back at home! That hurt more than I thought it would.

"Sir...thank you for treating me, but how are we going to split this?" At Lily's question I got out of my self imposed stupor and took the two bags in front of me, dumping half of the contents into the other. When one of the bags was satisfyingly half full, I gave the bag that was bursting at the seams to Lily and continued enjoying my snack. "W-What?"

"Hmm? Is it not enough?" Lily's eyes seemed like they were going to fall out of her head. "I'm paying you as much as I see fit. Isn't that how adventurers usually pay their supporters?"

"I-I mean, usually i get paid less than an eighth of what I help make...are you buttering me up from something, Sir?"

"No, no, no. I'm sorry if I gave that impression." It did kinda look like that. I was treating the girl to some croquettes and paying her, in her opinion, an absurd amount. "My parents always taught me to properly thank the people who help you. Mom always said 'without other's help, you might as well be rotting in a ditch filled with your own shit'" We both cringed at the image that quote gave. "A little vulgar but I think she was right. Sure it's possible that I could have made that amount without you, but not without risking my own life far more than I did today. I could have died without you. So don't think of this as payment for being my supporter. Think of it as a thank you for having my back today and an investment in you having my back from now on. Okay? "

Lily's blank stare made me question myself for a moment. Did I say something weird? Before she let out a light giggle. "You're a weird one, Sir Viole."

"I guess I am."

SSS

When I came back that evening, I noticed a couple of strange things. Firstly, Loki was lying drunk outside of her office. Now normally, Loki being drunk at nine or ten wouldn't be that strange because she did that almost every day. What was strange was that every other time, she'd be harassing Ais or Lady Riviera. Sometimes even myself. But not today, so that leads me to one conclusion. "Did Ais and Lady Riviera go to the dungeon today?"

"AHHH! Don't remind me! Oh wait, you're back!" My red haired goddess jumped at the sight of me and entangled my arm. "Viole, can you believe it?! My whole familia left me all alone! Not only that but I was stuck in the sewers allllll day! Comfort meeee!"

"You smell like it too. "

"GYAAAAA! Why'd you have to say ittttt!" Loki fell to the floor once again, tears pooling in her eyes. "Some people never learn how to treat a lady."

"I'm sorry Loki. I'm just tired. I was in the dungeon all day today. Couldn't have been less that six hours." Loki almost immediately sobered up and looked at me with open eyes. "Don't worry, Lily was a good supporter. She really had my back."

"Lily, huh..." Loki opened her eyes slightly before chuckling. "Sounds nice! What familia is she from?"

"Um, I think she said the Soma Familia. We didn't really have the chance to talk about that though."

"Soma... Cool!" Loki's grin felt a little forced but I chucked it up to being on the swears for who knows how long. "Do I really stink?" She lifted her arm to smell herself and I had to recoil from the stench.

"Yeah! Bad. Seriously, take a shower or somethin." I had to pinch my nose from the stench, but it was still somehow entered through my mouth. "Sorry, Goddess Loki. But I must go."

"Muuuu! You're so mean Viole!"

SSS

The next day, when I made it to the Tower to meet with Lily, I was met with something unexpected. Lily was speaking with another adventurer, a white haired kid who looked a bit younger than me. "Oh! Sir Viole." Once Lily caught sight of me, she bowed quickly before gesturing to the young man. "Sorry, this kid came up to me, asking me to be his supporter. I didn't know if you'd like another party member, so I had decided to wait for you."

"I see. Oh, and good morning Lily, nice to see you." I gave a bow myself to Lily and looked at the young man. He was a young kid with light weight white armor. Judging by the armor, it looked pretty cheap, but sturdy enough. The kid started to blush at my long gaze. He must be a newbie too. And he seems nice enough...but you can never be too careful. "Sorry about that. My name is Viole and I'm a rookie from the Loki Familia. Pleasure to meet you." I shake the young man's hand. "I don't mind having more party members, in fact I was thinking about recruiting. It'd be a pleasure to have you."

"T-Thank you! My name is Bell Cranel! Please call me Bell." He grabbed my hand with both of his and shook it up and down. "I'm from the Hestia familia! I'm new to adventuring myself, as I just started about a month ago." Okay, a conformation, good good. "Thank you for having me."

"No problem, Bell." I flashed him a smile and gestured in front of us. "Why don't we get started. Lead the way." Bell's smile grew into one that you'd see on a kid. He gave us a solid nod and led the three of us into the dungeon. With him a little further away, I leaned down and whispered into Lily's ear. "Stick close, alright. He seems nice enough but I've heard of people hurting supporters. So keep an eye out, alright?" Lily looked up at me with a weird glint in her eye. "What?"

"Nothing... Thank you for worrying about me, Sir Viole."

"I'd prefer Viole, but okay." So, the three of us reached the dungeon, and to be fair, Bell was pretty impressive. His moves with his knife was quite nice, how he slid and ran around the enemy was amazing, the monsters couldn't even catch him. Our fighting styles were completely different, he was quick and specialized in hit and run tactics while I was more of a rush down kinda guy. Not letting my enemies get any breathing room. After a couple hours, we reached the ninth floor once more. "How are you guys doing? Tired?"

"I am still good to go, Sir Viole."

"I've still got more in me!" I'd be lying if I said that Bell's spirit wasn't infectious. He never seemed to get tired and wanted to keep going, though he was his breathing was getting slightly more labored. "I'm ready!"

"Alright then." leading the pack, we round our way through the floor, nothing really being much of a problem. Defeating war shadows, kobolds and goblins all too easily. "This is getting to be a bit of a hassle." A sigh escaped my lips as I stomped a goblin's head in with a magically strengthened foot. "Jeez, I could use a bit of a challenge."

"To be fair, Sir Viole, monsters on the early floors aren't known for being quite challenging. If you want a challenge then head to the middle floors and challenge a Minotaur. Though that will be an issue for a level one." I noticed Bell flinch at the mention of the Minotaur but I paid it no mind. "I believe that we should head up for today, we have a large amount of crystals and you may end up with Mind Down if you continue any more." Now that she mentioned it, my head was starting to hurt again. I should train my magic more. "What about you Mister Bell, are you feeling okay?"

"Y-Yeah." He wasn't very convincing, resting on his ass, breathing in heavily. "I-I do think we should head back."

"Alright then. If you need a hand Bell, let me know." I walk up to the white haired kid and help him stand up. He gives me a thanks and we head back up. Maybe I was unnecessarily wary of him.

I felt like I was proven right, when we made fifty thousand Valis and he said that he'd only take fifteen. "A-Are you sure Mister Bell?!"

"Yes I am, Miss Lily." He was grasping at the small bag of money that I had passed to him. "While money is great and all, I just tagged along and I wouldn't make this amount without you guys. I haven't even been on the ninth floor before."

"Really? That was impressive for your first time down there then." I had grabbed a small bag out of my pocket and filled it with ten thousand Valis, handing Lily the rest of the twenty five thousand. Two days in a row and her eyes were ready to fall to the ground again.

"Sir Viole... that was your second time down there!" Lily stood up from the table and slammed her hands on it, making the croquettes shake. "You two have to be the strangest Adventures that I've ever met! Why would you pay a SUPPORTER the largest amount out of the group?!"

Bell and I shared a look and I realized something. "Because we want to." As we answered simultaneously I realized that he and I were going to be good friends.

"AGHHHHHHHHAAAA!" I had a feeling we were going to cause Lily a lot more strife from now on.