A/N: Holy crap guys! I'm so happy to hear that you like this little thing I'm putting together. I'm trying out somethings for fun and I'm hoping you guys like it too! This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, though I hope that the quality didn't suffer with it. There's a lot in the way of introduction and stuff purely to move the plot along, but I hope I still made it an interesting read for you guys! Hope to keep hearing from you!

Best,

Juju

[Due to gaining the favor of the Kitsune, you have gained a new perk!

Perk: 9 Blessings – gaining the favor of the kitsune that took you in, she gifted to you the nine powers that her tails represent. Each power unlocks with each level gain. Grants demi-human race – mandatory to receive perk.

1.?

2.?

3.?

4.?

5.?

6.?

7.?

8.?

9.?

Do you wish to accept your perk? Y/N]

That was entirely too much to wake up to, which was incredibly rude of the system. I waved my hand and tried to swipe it away but a quick [Error] pop-up prevented me from doing so.

Which, again, was incredibly rude.

So I laid in the cool ashes covering the ground and stared up at the night sky, stars twinkling oh so much more brightly than they did at home. Light pollution really did a disservice to the natural beauty of the luminous tapestry beyond the reach of man.

Tan arms swung and my legs lifted off the floor as I leveraged myself up to a sitting position. I felt fine, for the most part, but there was a physical, mental, and emotional lethargy in me that made even that simple a task a laborious one.

Should I accept her gift, the greatest gift a woman of such esteem and power could muster? Should I allow myself, a human, to take on the characteristics of another race? I wouldn't have lived the life of a demi-human, wouldn't have known their hardships, yet I'd still wear the ears and tail on my body.

Was there a right answer?

I had a feeling that the answer to that was that no, there was no right, correct answer. It would be easy to say no but given my situation, how badly I wanted to go home, how my powers required me to entertain the gods, how much I wanted to honor my patron's memory and dying wish.

And again, tears began to make a slow trek down the sharp angles of my face. They crawled along slow enough to be called lethargic themselves.

I raised a hand and chose.

The vault of heaven above twinkled in choleric condemnation. The waning crescent moon shone down in appalled accusation. Even the wind blew with a sharp gust of disapproving denunciation, lifting enough ash into the air to make me choke on my next breath.

Guilt, soul in disaccord, I spit dead cinders to the side and cleared my throat.

My next breath was met with clean air that was then exhaled as an edge of acceptance settled within me. My decision was made.

As of this moment, there was nothing I wouldn't do to return home.

Another gust of wind blew and this time, it caught on more than just my hair and skin. Large ears sat atop my head and a long, fluffy tail shifted soot behind me. My throat tightened in bright, sharp grief for but a moment, before rapidly blinking eyes spilled a few streaking tears that met the ground. Breathing hurt, but I did it anyways. There was nothing else I could do except keep going. For both the kitsune and I.

[You have a new quest!

Quest: Join the Loki Familia

Lore: Now that the Kitsune has departed, you must join the Loki Familia as previously agreed upon. You have wisely chosen to accept the Perk: 9 Blessings, which will enable you to join the Familia without the need of a side quest.

Rewards:

1.Perk: Falna

2.Access to Dungeon

3.Loki Familia support]

Orario was… well, not disappointing. It was quaint and pretty, in an old-fashioned way. Somehow clean, despite my old world's general lack of hygiene in this time period had been. Or was it a similar, or comparable time period?

Regardless, the cobblestone streets were well maintained, vendors looked well stock, and it looked as much as a flourishing town as I could imagine. However, there was one thing that was very quickly getting on my nerves. People were staring. Oh, not too obviously. In fact, I wouldn't have ordinarily noticed, but with my improved hearing, I could make out their whispers:

"Is that a-"

"Oh how rare!"

"I wonder which Familia-"

Wonder of wonders, no matter where I went, people really didn't know how to mind their own business.

A left turn into a small pub named 'Hostess of Fertility,' and I was out of the scrutinizing gaze of the populace and running right into the menacing stare of what I could only assume to be the Matron of the pub.

She stood tall and strong, with wide shoulders and muscled arms that looked like they could snap me in half. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail while her every so lightly lined face was fixed into a scowl, narrowed brown eyes taking in my appearance.

Which wasn't very impressive, if I'm to be completely honest. My brown pants were torn and noticeably muddy while the cream-colored tunic over my chest was looking ever more depressingly brown. It also had a few tears marring it. Bandits were, while not too dangerous, rather annoying.

I also didn't feel bad pocketing whatever valis they had on them.

"What do you want kid?" she asked gruffly but… I got the feeling that her demeanor wasn't really aggressive or even mean. Probably just how she carried herself then.

"I'm looking for the Loki Familia," I told her bluntly, not bothering to smile. She wouldn't be charmed by a sweet smile, I didn't think.

She didn't even blink before rattling off the directions like she'd done it a hundred times before, which she probably had.

I left some valis on the counter of the bar in thanks as I made my way out, back into the busy streets and annoying pedestrians. Making my way to what turned out to be a compound of all things, not a house, proved easy. Working up the courage to knock on the door was anxiety inducing, and being shown to the goddess was even more so. And yes, goddess because of course it would be a goddess and not a god. Loki was typically depicted as being a man in Norse mythology but was genderfluid of sorts? Either way, he gave birth to some creature or another so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising.

Still, it shot my theory that Loki and the kitsune were estranged lovers who ended bad terms right in the foot.

At least, right up until Loki began rather lewdly groping the elf that had shown me in, some girl named Lefiya, right in front of me.

Well then, that took a surprising turn. Wonder if maybe they really were bitter lovers?

"So whatcha here for?" the redheaded goddess with narrow, almond-shaped eyes asked me, brown peeking from behind her eyelids. The look on her face was teasing, playful, but the intelligence under the surface was sharp and shrewd.

"For you to stop groping that girl so that we can talk," I replied humorlessly. Her eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise.

"Ho-ho, we have a funny here don't we, Lefiya?"

She hopped off of the elf's back and made her way leisurely onto a lush, luxurious sofa opposite of where I was sitting. She sprawled herself over the costly seat and leaned forward. One elbow was resting over the black legs of her pants, hand propping up her chin while the other reached for a cup resting on the thick, wooden table between us. I took that as my cue to continue.

"I'm here to join your Familia."

"And why would I be interested in letting you join my Familia, funny boy?"

I drew a blank. I'd been so focused in my training, worked so hard, achieved so much that I'd never thought about how I'd go about convincing the goddess that I'd need to join her Familia.

But while I knew all I'd done, she hadn't, so of course she wouldn't have a good reason to let me in. My sass and generally unkempt appearance were also factors in not letting me join.

"Well," I kind of stammered for a second, before rallying.

"Well, I'm a natural mage? I already have a spell I can cast without needing Falna?" I ended that statement as a question because while it was something the kitsune had told me was rare, I couldn't be too sure. Maybe she was mistaken? Doubts began feeding on my anxiety, niggling at the back of my mind and making my stomach queasy.

"Oh, now that's quite interesting ain't it, Lefiya?" she commented, turning to look at the elf with a raised eyebrow.

"That's super rare!" the elf exclaimed, green eyes practically glittering while her strawberry blond hair swished in its ponytail, reaching her waist.

The goddess twisted back around to pin me with a piercing gaze. We sat in stifling silence until another elf walked into the room, this one with dark green hair and wearing long robes. She had a rather haughty expression on her face and I couldn't help the instant curl of disdain that arose from the very pits of my soul.

"Riveria!" exclaimed Loki. The other elf quietened as a look of admiration came across her face.

"I heard that we had a potential member joining us," the green-haired elf said simply, looking me over. I lifted my chin as the anxiety I'd been feeling was pushed back by my absolutely horrendous attitude with authority figures rearing its head in offense to her very presence.

"Oh, I like that look on your face!" exclaimed the goddess, a giddy, greedy elation overtaking her features.

"So what's next?" I asked her. I hadn't exactly walked through the process with the kitsune before things had… escalated.

"Strip!"

What followed next was a flurry of motion, Lefiya squeaking in surprise and Riveria scolding the goddess after keeping me from taking off more than my shirt.

The drop of divine blood that was dragged gently along the curvature of my spine tingled warmly, not cold like I'd expected. Next followed a gentle burning sensation, like strong sunlight was kissing my skin as I lay tanning. It slipped over my skin smoothly, taking a shape that I couldn't see.

Though my back was turned to the room, I could still see the blue light that my back was emitting. I twisted my head as far as I could to peer back, only to spot what looked like the side of a dome of translucent, blue-white light hovering in the air, strange characters of a pretty baby blue flickering at the surface.

Something seemed to click before she quite literally pushed the light back inside my body. There was a whole-body tingle as she placed a piece of paper on my back and then drew what felt like a circle on it. Another shiver, this time centered on my back, and then she threw my shirt at my exposed back.

I slipped the tattered shirt back on and turned around to face the room, filled with only the goddess herself. Seemed like the other two had left.

"Well now, ain't this interestin'" the goddess mused while reading the paper.

I peered at it over her shoulder and it looked scarily like the status page in games, though some of the terms were slightly different to what I was used to. There was a little joker face at the very top, a neat top hat sitting atop the dramatically painted clown face, and a sort of bowtie that looked like an infinity symbol hovered just below the chin.

[LV 1

STR : I : 0

VIT : I : 0

DEX : I : 0

AGI : I : 0

MAG : I : 0

Developmental Abilities: 9 Blessings

1.Way of Destruction]

"Lowest of the low," I mused, slightly miffed but not surprised.

"You betcha!"

I held a sword aloft in my right hand, a gladius of sorts that was slightly longer than the average short sword yet carried a thinner blade and had a small guard. The shiny blade was smooth and unnicked, sharp and ready to be used.

The balance was good, a decent blade for how cheaply I'd bought it at the cheap Hephaestus Familia's shop on the eighth floor of the Tower of Babel, a sky-scraping grey tower built over the dungeon that housed shops and other odds and ends useful for adventurers. It also acted as a plug of sorts, barring monsters from freely escaping the tower.

It was below this very tower where I stood now, marching down further into the first flood of the dungeon, completely ignoring the words of warning that I'd received and the general assurances that I would be able to find an experienced adventurer of the Familia to accompany me on my first time. Parties were much safer than lone adventurers after all.

However, that didn't interest me much, seeing as how I knew I was more than ready to face at least the first floor. As if in reaction to the memories, in remembrance of the great flames that had been her last defiance, the snowy white tail and ears I'd been gifted twitched. They stood in sharp contrast to my tan skin and dark brown hair, disconcerting each and every time I saw them.

I could only hope that the monsters didn't bleed all over me. I didn't think that that would be easy to clean.

The dungeon was dark inside, though lit by glowing stones that ran along the walls of the tunnels and chambers. It was night out so it was fairly empty, most adventurers having finished their adventuring already. It was eerily quiet too, my own soft footsteps resounding along the craggy walls and uneven floor.

Sword drawn, I didn't flinch when the walls behind me began to crack. Didn't hesitate when I saw green, grubby hands grasping at the edges of the hole in the wall that it had made, past the glowing red of what looked like a portal of all things.

With a simple, fast swing, the sharp blade decapitated the goblin. It exploded into sparks and dust, leaving only a little magic stone behind that was no bigger than my pinkie nail.

"That was disappointingly anti-climactic," I couldn't help but mutter in unamused annoyance. The scaling in this dungeon had better be aggressive or otherwise these great 'adventurers' were nothing more than wimps.

I picked up the stone and kept walking, slow but sure steps. While I was confident that I could handle anything on this floor after that encounter, it really wouldn't do to get overconfident.

I spent the next hour doing just that – killing goblins and kobolds (dog-headed monsters that ran on two legs and had sharp claws). I had a neat stack of stones before I decided to venture to the second floor.

Again, a disappointment. Slightly stronger, slightly faster, no more challenging.

"Freakin fudge brownies," I finally threw my hands up in exasperation, sword waving along dangerously.

"I guess that's what you get when some great spirits train you," I grumbled under my breath. "Everything's ruined, boring. There's no thrill. And I'm talking to myself like some kind of lunatic."

A fancy twirl, and the sword was promptly sheathed at my belt. Even the slightly more powerful Dungeon Lizards were an absolute bore to fight.

"How about we go to a deeper floor then?"

I twisted and jumped back, running purely on instinct, as a whispered incantation of 'sho' left my lips, striking the ground just in front of the voice; the invisible bullet a warning shot. The ground cracked and spit shards of stone and dust into the air.

Standing completely at ease, a blond-haired young boy smiled placidly at me, an adorably goofy look on his face.

The façade didn't stop my Danger Sense from triggering, the kid practically oozing a deadly miasma that ground harshly against my senses.

"And who would you be?"

What was it with me meeting dangerous individuals in uncomfortable circumstances? First the day I'd woken up, the next after shooting off a warning shot in the middle of a dungeon.

"I'm Finn, Captain of the Loki Familia."

Ah, I'd heard of him. One of the three level 6 adventurers in the Familia, one of the few in the whole city in fact.

"I came to chase down a wayward member of my Familia, only to find that he's more than capable of taking care of himself, apparently."

Slowly, the dizzying aura faded until he seemed almost harmless. Not that I could ever consider him harmless after feeling such energy coming from him, however. No way, no how.

"I had some training before coming here," I replied to answer the unasked question.

"They knew what they were doing," the captain said simply, dropping the subject.

I bent down to pick up a stone from a wayward monster I'd slayed, feeling a slightly uncomfortable silence descend upon us.

When I looked back up at Finn, he was grinning, body half-turned away from me.

"So, you ready?" he asked.

"For what?" I followed up, confused.

"To conquer the dungeon of course."

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