Ch 5: Explanations, Preparations for travel
So Ais had Inventory level 1 and Avenger as skills and a magic skill Ariel, with Resilient body as a development ability. That was awesome! Ais thought to herself.
Ais was very pleased with her skills, the ROB somehow came through on his promise. Ais had the skills he said she would, and even an extra skill, Avenger that might be combined with Ariel to really deal damage. Although damaging her weapons was not a good thing. Ais could already tell that she would be spending a lot of valis or zenny on repairing and replacing weapons if she used Avenger anywhere near as much as she would want to. Since most monsters that Ais knew of were vaguely dragon-like, called wyverns, the Avenger skill was far too useful to pass up though.
Still, that Inventory skill was the most amazing, and it even had a possibility of leveling up and becoming even more awesome. There had not been a limit on the size of large items, just the amount so Ais might be able to shove the entire corpse of even large monsters in and harvest them at a convenient time when close to water. The slots for magic stones would be very helpful in Orario's dungeon and in safely storing the rare magic stones harvested from large monsters with special abilities out here.
With this inventory Ais could store all the food for the vigor-wasps, and all the camping equipment and food for the entire group of Hermes famillia maybe if they would trust her with it. The stack-able aspect made something that was already able to store as much as 2 or 3 great-Jagras bag able to store 50 times the amount. And if a great Jagras bag and everything in it counted as only one medium object, since it was not usually bigger than 6 1/2 ft unless stuffed with many things bigger than that, Ais could store a ridiculous amount of stuff, though not on this trip, since she would have to use her bag to carry the baskets of vigor-wasps who were alive and could not be stored.
After Ais had been staring at that status page and those awesome skills while thinking of all the amazing things she could use them for for a few minutes Hermes cleared his throat and said
"I know those skills are ridiculous and amazing, do you have any idea of how you got them that you are willing to share? And a development ability is usually only gained at level 2, I have never heard of someone already having one when first getting a falna"
Ais turned her attention to Hermes, suddenly thoughtful and slightly wary. She considered briefly telling Hermes her entire story and explaining everything, then immediately discarded it. There was no way she could trust him with that much, at least not now, even if he was willing to create and sign a secrecy contract. Still, she could explain some of this in a general manner while not going into specifics for everything, just what she had already told Eleanor, Elaine, and the Commander.
"The Avenger skill I think is because the One-Eyed Black Dragon attacked my home in Ryumilua forest, and killed Papa for sure. I think there was some combination of a desperate spell from my Momma as the black dragon was flying away with her in its talons and I was falling to the ground after she let me go to give me a chance to live. And maybe something, a magic artifact or some spirit or god that came across us as Momma was casting her spell to slow my fall also intervened. I think I was transported not just from Ryumilua forest to the Ancient Forest, but also through time.
Since Papa, Momma and I lived peacefully near the edge of Ryumilua forest but within it, and it was not mostly burned down like it apparently is now. There were other elves in an entire community helping keep things safe although they did not visit us so I only ever saw one of the others. They did not like Momma much since she was not an elf but a great wind mage anyway.
Eleanor does not think Ryumilua forest is big enough or safe enough for me to have survived living there as it is now, and a Black Elder Dragon is said to hibernate there after burning most of it down hundreds of years ago. I want to help kill that dragon sometime in the future, to avenge my parents and lost home. And I need to kill other monsters to get strong enough to kill that dragon, so that is probably where my Avenger skill comes from.
The wind magic I obviously inherited from Momma, she was an awesome wind mage. Papa was an elf and good at magic too I guess although I rarely saw him use magic compared to Momma who used magic a lot.
I'm not sure how to explain the others though other than guessing inventory is a rare, awesome skill like an extremely upgraded Artel Assist.
I don't know how or why it is a development ability instead of a skill, but...
Resilient body might be because I have not been sleeping much due to nightmares and wanting to use the time to read everything that might help me in the future. For the entire time I have been living here is Asteria I train hard during the day, go to sleep exhausted, then wake up only 4 or so hours later and can't get back to sleep. Although I did not know I could heal fast while asleep, maybe it is there so I don't have to use a lot of vigor-wasp spray on myself to get through another day of training like I did near the beginning when I kept injuring myself or my muscles would be sore.
The affliction is disappointing, but does explain some stuff, I have a really hard time focusing on anything for a long time without getting distracted, though I have been getting better at it."
Ais spoke, going through through everything but fibbing slightly but in a believable way when speaking of the inventory and resilient body.
Ais did not feel that Hermes needed to know any more details, telling her story and explaining that she was probably born hundreds of years ago when the One-eyed Black Dragon first attacked Ryumilia forest was more than enough. Ais had no idea if the ROB would get upset about her talking about his interference in her life and falna, and Hermes would definitely be upset so it was best just not to talk about that.
"Hmm. . . that's believable enough, and the skills and ability will no doubt help you throughout your life. Although you were a bit too quick to offer some of those explanations, almost as if you expected to have to explain them before this, so you might want to work on your lying skills. I can tell there is something you are still holding back.
Still, we are strangers to each other still, and I don't really need to know how you came to gain those skills to take advantage of them. That inventory will be very handy, with it you will only have to carry the vigor-wasps and not all their food and other equipment. If you don't mind carrying our camping equipment and supplies we don't need to fight monsters on the journey we will be able to move even faster. I saw that you estimated a week or two to travel to Orario, in your estimated cost of food, and you were quite close.
Although that is because I have the ability to use some of my Arcaneum to create or enchant special magic artifacts that greatly increase the speed of the wearer, I usually focus on shoes to increase running and the ability to leap.
It takes a minimum of two weeks for normal people to travel to Orario, but much more often even longer due to having to avoid large monsters, dangerous areas, natural obstacles, and such if they are not skilled enough to fight through them. My familia and I can make the trip in about one week usually now, though sometimes longer depending on how many monsters we encounter. Without having to carry camping supplies, our trade goods and anything but armor, water, and weapons we might break our record and manage in less than a week."
Ais nodded with mixed feelings, she was surprised that her fibs had been found out, but relieved that Hermes was not choosing to pursue the truth. She was also still very happy at how awesome all her skills were, and glad that she would get to truly put the inventory skill to the test by storing so much stuff.
"I agree to store everything in my inventory skill, do you know when your group is leaving? Eleanor and Elaine went on a hunt to get the materials to make me actual Rathalos blades rather than the wooden replicas I have been training with, but they are not back yet, and I definitely don't want to leave until they come back." Ais said.
" I believe we will probably leave in 5 days, maybe a bit longer or shorter depending on how long everything takes, since I still want to see about getting more of the Palicos of the Monster Hunters my falna, and my famillia might want to take advantage of just how much your inventory skill can carry to buy more trade goods than we can usually carry ourselves.
Although you might not agree, and it is not in the contract so you have every right to refuse, if you agree to come along on most of our trips back and forth from Orario and store things in your inventory that will definitely count as payment enough to get status updates whenever you want. We will even pay you in valis, a percentage of materials from monsters we kill along the way that you store or aid in Orario's dungeon since it would be so very useful to be able to carry that much while only actually carrying you.
The familia member outside my door is the Vanguard leader, Falgar Baltros, he is in charge of most things relating to our famillia here in Asteria, and will know exact details of what you need to do to help us prepare for the trip. Although I will decide when we leave, he will be able to relay that to you much easier than I. The captain of our familia Asfl Al Andromeda is usually left behind to handle everything in Orario" Hermes responded happily.
"I'll consider joining up to travel back and forth occasionally, but I do not want to be a glorified pack beast and supporter forever, I want to live my life, fight monsters, learn new things, and help to kill the Black Dragon that destroyed my home and family. Unless there is anything else I'll go talk to Falgar Baltros" Ais said firmly.
"Very well, I'll see you later Ais," Hermes said as he moved back to his desk and started writing something down.
Ais walked out of the office, noticing someone already waiting in the seats of the waiting area. She then retrieved her great Jagras bag and replica Rathalos blades, but did not strap them to her back. As the next person was given permission to enter Hermes office she waited to be sure they would be out of earshot and approached Falgar. She had folded up her status sheet so only the inventory skill showed, and held it up and spoke saying
"I don't know if Hermes told you, since he did not know for sure I would agree until just now, but I will going with your group when you travel to Orario in order to establish a vigor-wasp hive as a service for the falna Hermes just granted me.
Somehow my version of the Artel Assist skill to carry weight is a way more useful rare skill and as far as I know what I store won't even be visible or feel like I'm carrying anything. It's called Inventory, and though we will have to experiment a bit to be sure, it looks like I'll be able to carry enough stuff to fill 40 great Jagras bags or even more, I'm going to try to use it to store my great Jagras bag right now after I retrieve the vigor-wasps from inside it. But Hermes already asked that if it works like the description says it will if I would carry everything your group will not need immediate access to on the journey like trade goods, food, and camping supplies and I agreed. So. . .I guess I'll test to see how storing my great Jagras bag works now, and then just tell me when and where I should show up to start storing the the other stuff." Ais said.
Falga's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he asked, "may I read that for myself while you test storing your great Jagras bag" while indicating the paper with Ais status sheet by waving at it with one hand.
Ais nodded, handing the sheet over, then retrieving the basket of vigor-wasps from her bag. She was not quite sure how to activate the skill, but decided that saying the skill name while holding her bag out with maybe the name of what she wanted stored should work. So. . .
"Inventory great Jagras bag." Ais spoke.
A rippling golden light window or net suddenly came out of no where an inch from the bag, and moved to cover it.
Then Ais felt an odd pressure for a second all over her body, then the pressure was gone and Ais felt a sudden awareness and a faint golden and white room filled with boxes or or shelves stacked on each other like square book-cases, with the boxes being different sizes, transparently overlay her sight. Ais saw one box filled with an image of her bag, with the rest empty but a group of small boxes glowing faintly and a sense of a question in her mind. Ais somehow knew that if she wanted to, the contents of the bag would fill those small boxes, and that she could then move the contents of the boxes back to the bag or retrieve them individually.
Ais mentally dismissed the idea of moving the contents of the bag, and the boxes stopped glowing. Then Ais tried to dismiss the overlay so she could see her true surroundings clearly, and that worked too. Ais still felt an odd awareness of the room and her bag in the back of her mind, but she could see clearly.
Ais blinked a few times to be sure, then looked to Falga and excitedly said
"It works! I even know how to retrieve my bag without having to call out its name, though I think I still need to say the name of the skill for now and sort of gesture as if I am reaching for someone to hand it to me or picking it up off a shelf. When my inventory is more filled I'll probably also have to say what I want to retrieve to keep track of everything, but it works!"
Falga smiled, and asked "Are you free to start helping out tomorrow?"
Ais nodded but also added,
"I'm not free the entire day, I have to help Amber the botanist with feeding my vigor-wasps and increasing their numbers so there will be enough to keep a bare minimum for a hive here when we leave with the majority. I also want to train at least a little bit, since even though I know it is part of the contract and common sense for all of you to protect me on the journey, I want to keep training every day to get good enough to defend myself. So, I can meet you here or wherever I know how to get to at 9 am, but need to leave every 2 hours to feed the vigor-wasps, and want some time to eat and get a short 30 minute training session in, so will be gone for 2 hours, then come back if you still want me to keep helping."
Falga nodded and responded
"That is good enough, if you don't feel as if you are carrying a heavy burden we can start having you store non-essential supplies starting tomorrow, and gradually add more over the next few days as we gather them up. Meet here for now, we'll guide you to the area we are staying in or storing things later. Since you are the expert in what the vigor-wasps need a member of our famillia that is not busy will go with you to buy the supplies for the vigor-wasps in. . .2 days at 9 am. It will be a pleasure working with you in the future"
Ais smiled, then said "Bye, see you at 9 am tomorrow!" and rushed out. She wanted to try storing all the stuff in Eleanor's room, and putting it back of course. Then she would get something to eat and a bunch of food for the next few days to see if stuff in the inventory spoiled or rotted or was kept fresh like it was in a coldbox.
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Ais woke up near the middle of the night, and rather than just meditating and reading like usual decided put all of Eleanor's stuff in the inventory to clear out space, then practice with her replica Rathalos blades that Serge had granted permission for her to keep with her until she left Orario. That way she could practice at all times and not constantly have to retrieve them from the training ground workshop/ storage.
It was very strange looking at a bare room rather than the rows of chests, Great Jagras bags, weapons and armor, and Eleanor's bed. Ais had found to her disappointment, that the bed had to be stored as 2 large objects and multiple medium objects, though she had been able to figure out how to retrieve all the objects together the same way they had been placed. She did wonder though if the sheets could be folded up to count as a small object, and planned on testing that soon.
After working on unsheathing, slashing, stabbing, and then sheathing the blades as fast as possible for a while, Ais retrieved just Eleanor's bed, then unmade it and folded all the sheets and blankets as small as possible. To her delight, once folded the sheets did only take up a small item box, though they barely fit. The blankets were just a little too big. Next, Ais tried sending the sheets out and unfolding them mentally as they exited. It worked, then Ais tried to retrieve them partially folded while imagining them fully folded to fit into the small box. That did not work for some reason, they were still put into the medium box.
Ais then put everything back into Eleanor's room and returned to her own to meditate.
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During her meditation Ais reluctantly faced the downside of finally getting proof that Feline's memories were real, that there was an actual ROB who had intervened in her life. If all that was real, then Feline was probably real too. Ais was not sure if memories counted as the soul of a person, and Ais knew that thankfully not all of Felines memories had been transferred, after all any memory relating to Feline's birth name and some of the memories of where exactly she had lived in that country called America were garbled. The exact names of her family members were also garbled, and only the relationship to Feline was left, titles like Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, Cousin, Aunt, Niece , Nephew and so on, but not their actual names.
Since what memories were left showed that Feline had been close to her family, meeting most of them at least 3 times a year for 3 major holidays that was a good thing. Feline used her vacation time to spend time with her Mom who traveled as part of her job so could not visit during the holidays. Feline's Dad lived 6 hours away in a somewhat isolated town and visited during the 3 major holidays and at random when he needed something from the city. Feline had also visited her Grandma every week until the pandemic made it unsafe. So it was a very good thing that some of the memories were garbled and there were no names to go with those faces. Ais had felt enough grief from that first dump of memories and memories relating to the death of Feline's cat and Grandpa. Ais did not want to mourn never seeing all those people again like she mourned her own birth parents.
Ais now had to admit to herself that she probably was a reincarnation of Feline in some way, even if she still refused to act like Feline and chose to embrace her differences. After all for the first 5 years of Ais life she had been a semi normal half-elf half wind spirit child. And other than the wind spirit part that was normal for this world. This world was vastly different from the world Feline had lived in, so although some things Feline had learned would be useful, a good portion would be utterly useless like the geography and history of Feline's world. Laws, Morality, and Etiquette were also probably different than what Feline had believed, since this was a much rougher world. Executions for crimes was probably much more common, but there might be more leeway in what exactly was a punishable crime too.
Ais decided to still stick to her own personality as much as possible and make decisions based on what she wanted rather than what Feline wanted. Ais would still think of Feline's memories as a tool even if she privately acknowledged that those memories might be all that was left of a previous life. Even Feline had not liked her life much so had been somewhat happy for the new chance at life. Feline had many regrets for how she had lived her life.
So Ais refused to do the same things Feline had. Ais did not want to have regrets, she wanted to live her life to the fullest, to pursue her goals regardless of the risks. Ais did not want to settle for safety and relative comfort the way Feline had. Feline had not pursued her dreams, because she did not believe she could achieve them, Feline gave up on the dreams and goals she had made when she was a child. Feline had refused to take risks, instead spending her life reading about fictional characters that did live in danger and go on adventures to pursue their dreams. Feline had lived vicariously through those stories, but not been willing to actually act.
Ais was determined that she would not let Feline's fears and habits of settling for good enough influence Ais own actions. Ais wanted to live an interesting and happy life. Ais would act to pursue her goals and dreams, she would take risks when necessary. This world was much more dangerous than Feline's world anyway so safety was never guaranteed. Even staying in Asteria was not completely safe, after all an Elder Dragon could start rampaging and wipe it out in minutes and if there were not enough strong Monster Hunters to fight it there would be nothing anyone else in Asteria could do.
Safety in this world meant becoming strong enough to defend yourself. But there were always monsters that were even stronger, so it was a never ending struggle to keep getting more skilled, stronger, to heal and learn from past mistakes and prepare for future fights by getting better equipment.
Ais felt a renewed sense of determination from the uncertainty that she had started feeling when she admitted that Feline and all those memories was probably real. Ais had already chosen her path, she would not take risks that were unnecessary and stupid like running out of Asteria without other people to help her today, but Ais refused to live in fear. So Ais would only change her plans and what she did if she really wanted to do something else, rather than changing due to fear of failure or death.
Ais wanted to get stronger, more skilled, more experienced, to get better equipment, and to live her life pursuing her goals. Ais wanted to help in killing that One Eyed Black Elder Dragon that had killed her Papa and burned down her home. Ais wanted to be strong and skilled enough to travel freely and be able to fight and kill any monster that dared attack her. Ais wanted to learn awesome, cool things like magic spells and flying with magic. Ais wanted to find her Momma or at least find out exactly what had happened to her.
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Ais got up to train again after that meditation session, storing all of Eleanor's things in the inventory skill again so she could use the empty room. Ais practiced her drills and focused on the fact that these drills were preparation for the future to get through the endless repetitions. These drills were Ais way of proving that she would not be content to live with the illusion of being safe for the rest of her life. Ais would learn how to fight as her way of gaining true safety and happiness. Ais did distract herself by shadow fighting imaginary opponents with her swords a bit as well, but that was practice too.
After enough time had passed and it was almost sunrise Ais left the room to eat breakfast and head toward Amber's garden to help her out before meeting Falgar outside Hermes office at 9 am.
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When Ais arrived Falgar said
"Good, you're on time. Good morning. Ais Wallenstein, this is Robin Nico, an Amazoness and 2nd Class adventurer who will be showing you where we are storing everything. She will also be testing the limits of your inventory and anything she can think up that might be useful to know about it. So please follow her reasonable requests. However if anything she asks makes you uncomfortable or causes you physical discomfort don't follow through, stop immediately and refuse to follow the request firmly." as Falgar gestured at the woman standing beside him.
Robin Nico had the traditional tanned skin of Amazoness, and was wearing a strange white hat that feline's memories called a cowboy hat. With sunglasses perched on the brim of the hat made from metal and a tinted glass. She also wore a purple halter top that had a shaped hole to reveal her large boobs. Robin had short black hair that barely reached her shoulders and bright blue eyes. Robin was very tall with long legs that were covered by tight pants that still showed off all her curves.
Ais was taken to a large ware-house by Robin and told to
"try storing everything inside, it is doubtful even you can manage, but how much you are able to store will tell us a lot."
There were a lot more medium and large objects than small, and other than some cardboard boxes labeled rations none of them were identical enough to count as stack-able so Ais was only able to store half the room, but it was still amazing to Ais that she could store half a warehouse of stuff. The process of storing that much stuff quickly became boring though.
Ais did say " My skill can only stack near identical objects. I also have much less space for medium and large objects than small" when she checked and saw that all large and medium spots were full, but only a quarter of the small spots were.
"We know, Lord Hermes wrote out copies of your skill description, but we wanted to test that the weight would not affect you, after all, you would be crushed to a paste trying to lift some of those items you just stored." Robin said with a morbid smile.
Ais sighed, and said "are there any more tests then?"
"Just a few more tests, how fast you can retrieve items from the inventory, whether you need to know what the item is to retrieve it, how far away from you you can send an object, and if you can control what direction an object is facing. We also did a few more minor tests as part of that run, only half the boxes labeled rations actually had those in them, the rest had fruit, so as long as the outer box is identical the insides don't matter for stacking purposes. We also tested as best we could if large items have a size limit" Robin replied.
"Is my inventory skill this much of a big deal? That you set up this warehouse just to test it after 7 pm last night and before I met Falgar this morning." Ais asked.
"This warehouse is storing stuff we want to take to Orario, we just borrowed some extra things we would never have been able to carry for long due to size and weight to see if you could. It was not that much work, two of us working together moved all the extra stuff here in an hour. But for most famillias that Inventory will be a very big deal. We just proved you can carry enough equipment and food for an entire expedition to the lower floors, albeit a minimalist one that does not go to the truly dangerous front line of barely seen much less explored parts.
Although as of now even we would not take you that deep since we could not guarantee we could keep you safe. But once you are somewhat capable of defending yourself even in the lower floors, say when you are level 2 or 3, we will definitely be hiring you to help us on a deep expedition." Robin said.
Ais sighed again and reminded Robin, "in two, no one hour since all that took an hour already, so in one hour I will leave to feed the vigor-wasps and have lunch."
"I know, its fine, most of the major tests should be done by then, and by the way, if you don't mind keeping the boxes labeled rations in your inventory that will test whether your inventory has a preserving function, since some of that fruit needs to stay refrigerated to last more than a single day." Robin said.
Ais nodded in resigned relief, at least the tests would be done after this, and although she had gotten food to test the same thing about if stuff would still rot, she had not thought to get something that would rot that fast under normal room temperatures.
"Now, lets begin testing! How fast you can retrieve items and how much control you have over where they are located! We'll use the new empty space in this warehouse that you cleared out. At the end we'll make a list of what we want you to keep in the inventory,from all the stuff stored, and we'll return the heavy, large stuff we don't want right now.
In the future we might commission a box as big as a house and see if you can store that as 1 large item, then the heavy, large stuff that can fit in the box will still be only 1 item. Or maybe test if one of these smaller, but still big as houses ships in Asteria can count as 1 large item, that would be easier, but that can wait until another trip, we do not have the funds to rent one of these ships, must less buy them, and it seems items need to be either a container that is at least loosely sealed like the boxes or all connected tightly together to count as 1 item..."
Ais sighed, but mentally called up her inventory overlay and got ready to retrieve and put back various items to test speed and all the other tests.
Wasn't Robin an Amazoness, why was she acting like a scientist then?
Well, maybe Robin's dream was to prove that Amazoness were not just dumb, muscle-bound and aggressive but beautiful tanned women, that Amazoness could be smart and educated too. Ais answered her own mental question with her best guess, and resolved to maybe ask Robin some time, but did not want Robin going on a tangent or to have to spend more time than necessary on all those tests so stayed quiet for now.
The tests showed that at least for now, Ais always had to say Inventory and spend at least 2 seconds looking for, mentally selecting, and then retrieving an item from the inventory. Items all had to be touched in some way for Ais to store or return them. Items could be facing any direction, but would not manifest if there was something in the same space that she wanted to put an item, they would manifest either right next to that spot or not at all if there was no where clear enough that Ais could reach.
Although Robin came up with more test ideas, and was all set to try them out Ais had somehow managed to keep track of time and said firmly
"I need to leave to feed the vigor-wasps, if you want yet more tests it will have to be after 1 pm."
Robin sighed and nodded, then said
"We know the basics anyway, everything else will likely be learned over time, and you still need to return the stuff we borrowed, so meet me at this warehouse at 1 pm, and we'll stick purely to business then so that everything we know for sure we need to take will be stored while leaving spots open for what you will need for the vigor-wasps. Then we can figure out extra stuff we want to take to make a bigger profit."
Ais left the ware-house, taking special note of what it looked like and where it was so she could find it later, then headed to Amber's garden. She trained and fed the vigor-wasps, and noticed that one of them was showing signs that it would grow to a great vigor-wasp, so she would either have to get an extra big basket or leave it behind. Then she found a clear space between Amber's garden and the canteen and practiced with her replica Rathalos blades, then ate lunch.
Ais returned to the ware-house as promised and Robin led her to various places that the Hermes famillia had borrowed their extra stuff from. To Ais' horrified amusement, at least two of the items had been 'borrowed' without permission so would have been considered stolen if the owners had noticed them missing, but apparently the Hermes famillia had planned out their 'borrowing' time well and the owners were gone on a hunt, Robin just re-picked the lock to their homes, had Ais deposit the items where they had been before, then left after re-locking the door.
After Ais had returned all the 'borrowed' items Robin led her back to the ware house and pointed out specific items for the journey that needed to be stored such as sleeping bags, purifying tablets, large barrels of water that were still less than 2 m (6.5 ft) so counted as medium to the inventory, rain ponchos, and 2 great Jagras bags filled with miscellaneous camping supplies such as soap, towels, spare clothing, pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, spices and so on. For some reason 6 giant logs of wood that were 3 m (9.8 ft) were also part of that list, they took up a large space but at least stacked. There were also a lot more boxes of food, but a larger variety than plain rations. Still, with the boxes being identical on the outside to the other boxes labeled rations, they all stacked into the same medium sized box slot in Ais' Inventory.
As items were stored Robin wrote them down on a clipboard with pieces of paper so people would know exactly what Ais had stored without having to ask.
Then Robin moved on to the trade goods they had collected so far. These were mostly monster parts for weapons and armor, specialized potions such as hot potions, and some already crafted weapons and armor that had been commissioned by rich Adventurer's in Orario that the Hermes famillia were delivering. To Ais surprise there were two truly giant great swords that took up 2 of her large spots as well in that group of weapons being delivered. The swords had to be at least 7 ft tall, maybe even 8 ft and were decorated with flame designs and a red magic stone in the pommel of the hilt of one, with lightning designs and a yellow magic for the other, so Ais thought they might be decorative swords that would be hung on a wall somewhere.
Once all that was stored the ware-house was not quite empty, but close. The rest of the things in the warehouse were armor and weapons the Hermes famillia would be using and stuff that they would not want to have to wait to get, like health potions. Even the 2-3 seconds it took Ais to retrieve items would be too long when it came to potions probably. Thankfully a number of the stored items were identical enough that they were stacked, so Ais still had 7 large item slots, 13 medium item slots, and 30 small item slots empty still.
"Okay, now we just need to make sure you have what you need for the vigor-wasps and leave a bit of room for any monster harvests if we can't avoid the monsters on the way. We should be able to buy more trade goods and monster parts though, our group is very good at avoiding monsters when we want to be. I think Falgar believed I'd get too lost in testing stuff to get all this stored by nightfall, so we can make a quick stop to pick up funds and buy what you'll need for the vigor-wasps after you get back from feeding them at 5, since it is close to 3pm and that 2 hour mark you insist on now." Robin said briskly and happily.
Ais nodded in relief and agreement, then left to train and feed the vigor-wasps and help Amber with anything in the garden. After that Ais had a whole hour to train, so went back to the Palico training grounds, demonstrated her ability to unsheathe, slash, stab, deflect, stab, and sheathe again with her replica Rathalos blades for Serge, and trained a bit with her Pukei bow, plunder-blade, and two replica Jyura blades.
Then Ais returned to the ware-house and Robin, who after getting funds and a cleaned up copy of Ais own list of prices and amounts took Ais shopping. Since space was no longer nearly as much an issue with the stacking, Robin agreed to buy the 5 week amount now, and if they had funds left over buy more Vespoid Honey and Null-berry juice to save having to make another trip. The normal juice and sugar-water were easy to find in Orario.
So they bought 6 large Jars of Vespoid Honey, 3 liters of Null-berry juice, 2 liters of regular apple juice, and 2 liters of red-dyed sugar water. All those items counted as small for inventory purposes, albeit barely, with only a few millimeters needed to push them over the 1 ft tall mark. Then Ais bought fake-flower feeders and extra baskets. Since they were not that expensive she bought 30 feeders even if a single vigor-wasp rarely drank more than a quarter of a feeder before becoming full and 10 giant vigor-wasp baskets (even the small ones were bigger than 1 ft so she might as well) so she would be able to give those baskets as vigor-wasp homes for the new hive in Orario. The baskets counted as a medium item, but the feeders were small. So that left Ais with 25 small item boxes left empty, and 12 medium item boxes. Because so many of the items were identical that saved a lot of space.
With the shopping done, Robin told Ais "you have the next day to yourself, but check in with Falgar or myself at least once a day after that to store any of the extra stuff, and to find the departure date for sure."
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Ais made good use of an entire day to train, although with breaks to keep feeding the vigor-wasps, to finally test out her Ariel Tempest magic skill.
Upon saying "Ariel tempest" while thinking she wanted to encase her armor, Ais found that she could run much faster and she felt that the armor would stop harder blows. Ais could only test this by attaching sand-bags to the spinning pole and letting them hit her. It did not feel as hard as the rare occasions Ais had lost track of them or been distracted and a sand bag had hit her in the past. There were also minor tears on the sand-bag that hit her armor encased in wind.
When Ais tested the Ariel tempest skill with her replica Rathalos blades on the training sandbags attached to the spinning pole, she found that she could slash faster, and stab all the way through the sandbag to the other side rather than being stopped in the middle by the spikes, with Ariel tempest activated the spikes cut through the sandbag as well.
Ais apparently did not have much magic or mind reserves just yet though, since only those two uses tired her out enough that she had to stop, eat a snack, and meditate for 2 hours before she felt better. Ais vaguely felt it was not as bad as a mind-down since she had noticed and stopped before attempting to try the spell again, but hoped whatever reservoir she had for the spell increased with time.
She had originally planned on also testing if she could have Ariel tempest encase an arrow just before she shot it, but decided to leave that for the next day instead. She spent the rest of the day, alternating between training with her Rathalos blades, then her Pukei bow, then one of the other weapons or gadgets with breaks to feed the vigor-wasps and and eat herself.
The next day at 9 am she checked with Falgar and Robin, but they did not require anything of her since they now had a nearly empty ware-house to store things. Falgar did update Ais about their estimated time leaving, saying,
"We'll probably leave in 3 days, early morning on the 3rd day since we only had so many funds to buy trade goods, having not expected to suddenly not be so limited by we can carry while still being able to move fast. Even all the goods we had you store was pushing the limitations, even with great Jagras bags and we likely would have been forced to prune the selections down. Do stop by tomorrow sometime to check if the fruit in some of the rations boxes has started rotting. Unless you want to know how Hermes is progressing with giving falna to Palico's and continuing to update the falnas of the Monster Hunters has been going that is all."
Ais asked, "I know Hermes said he was trying to recruit a Palico to join your famillia and go to Orario with you, have you had any success there? After all if you have recruited one we can talk about the journey and get to know each other. And what about what the Monster Hunters and Palicos will be giving you for granting a falna or updating their status, are you planning on taking that with us as well or just sell it.?"
Falga smiled and responded
"I guess it does affect you after all. No Palico has been recruited just yet, none are unassigned a Meowster Monster Hunter or willing to leave their meowster. The Commander has promised that he would tell those in the continent they all come from that Hermes and most likely other gods would be happy to recruit any Palico who wanted to come over that did not have a Meowster yet, but did not expect many if any Palico to be willing to the make the risky trip for a mere chance of being recruited or care really about us.
And we will be getting more things as time goes on, but paring them down to only what will sell for more profit in Orario than here. The things we want to bring can easily fit in the now nearly empty store-house and we'll have you store them the evening just before we all leave, so meet Robin there on the evening of the 2nd day."
Ais nodded then said
"That is all I wanted to know, I'll meet Robin or whoever is free at the ware-house 9 am tomorrow to check on the fruit, since I have no idea which box has fruit or not and will have to bring them all out most likely."
Ais then left to train a bit before going to feed the vigor-wasps in her new routine. This time Ais set up a target like usual for her Pukei bow and arrows, but tried to activate Ariel tempest while focusing on the arrow she was notching to the string in preparation to release it. The skill activated and encased the arrow, but also tried to encase the bow and string, which shredded the string. Ais was disappointed that unless she could get really good at controlling where the wind in Ariel tempest went she would not have arrows that pierced deep into monster hide.
Strings were easy to replace, but she could not release the arrow before the string was shredded so the arrow just dropped to the ground. Ais sighed in regret, then decided to just train like normal. There was no point in further testing out her Ariel tempest since she knew the basics of what it could do now and could use it so few times that practicing to control it better would not work yet. Serge also had enough trouble repairing and replacing everything, there was no point in adding to his workload.
Training proceeded as usual, although Ais was missing being able to spar with or just listen to all the other Palicos. Ais would even endure all their bragging about the ingredients and small monsters they were hunting regardless of how jealous that would make her. But the Palicos and their hunters had gotten worried about Eleanor and Elaine and left to the edge of the Ancient forest in hopes of seeing any flare for help sent out, while also continuing to hunt for ingredients and hunting small monsters for meat and materials.
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When Ais went to the ware-house the next morning and they checked through the boxes they found the fruit had not rotted, but was riper in the case of unripe fruit so they guessed items were not frozen in time, just either kept cool or sealed so tight not even bacteria carried in the air could get in to start rotting them.
Since even Ais was getting bored with constant training with only occasional company from Serge, she decided to hang around the Hermes famillia to get to know them and find out more details of how they would be traveling and where to get to Orario, Serge had not known anything other than 'North somewhere' when she had asked him, so Ais decided to ask the people who had made the trip many times before directly.
So she asked Robin "If you or some of the others is not busy, could I get introduced to more of your familia and maybe ask more about the journey, I'm not even sure what direction exactly Orario is from here other than north probably since we are right up against the ocean to our south, much less how we are getting there. Although I trust you to pack most things I'll need, I am curious."
"That sounds like a great idea! For the most part we are taking turns guarding Hermes or going around gathering information and and trying to find the best deals for stuff to buy with our limited funds, or trying to make a bit of extra money to buy more stuff. Most of us are busy, but not all of us are suited to gathering info and haggling for deals, acting as guards, or making money fast so I can introduce you to those who are just waiting around. Like Suicia,Tabitha and Meryl. Suicia is an Elf mage, Tabitha is a Cat person, and Meryl is a Pallum. So they all stand out a bit in this crowd of mostly human Monster Hunters and are not intimidating enough to act as guards. Truthfully, all three were mostly in the group to act as supporters and carry stuff. Suicia does have some magic, but it takes so long to cast that there is no point in using it in most battles, so she mainly acts as a supporter. With your inventory taking care of storing most of the stuff they have nothing to do right now" Robin said.
"Not that any of them are unhappy with not having to carry all those heavy bags, in fact they are quite grateful," Robin added hurriedly.
"I'll lead you to where they are staying and introduce you, then leave to get to my own work." Robin said, then started walking. Ais followed Robin to an Inn, where 3 people with vastly different appearances were lounging at a table in a corner of the bar area nursing drinks or just talking.
Robin walked up to them and said,
"Suicia, an elf with water magic, Tabitha a cat person good at scouting and watching for danger during the night, and Meryl Tear, a Pallum who is good at sketching and mapping. You three, this is Ais Wallenstein, a half-elf and the one who is contracted to travel with us to Orario to establish a vigor-wasp hive and whose inventory skill we have all been rushing around to take advantage of. She wants to get to know more of the Hermes famillia than just Falgar and I, as well as learn more about what she can expect on our journey, and likely in Orario itself."
Ais looked, and Tabitha had brown cat ears a bit smaller than a Palico's and a furry tail that had brown and black stripes. Tabitha also had yellow-green slit pupil eyes. She had middle length brown hair placed in a basic ponytail. But other than those aspects Tabitha looked human, with normal peachy white skin, and 5 fingers on her hands. Tabitha was wearing basic but nice looking clothing, a dark green shirt and a patterned skirt that was a pale green with images of flowers that had dark green leaves matching the shirt on it that covered her up but looked casual and comfortable rather than protective like armor. Tabitha was slightly shorter than Eleanor, but much taller than Ais.
Meryl was a pallum so only a few inches taller than Ais. He wore black pants of a tough material and a shirt that was a sky blue with images of clouds. He had very pale blue eyes and sandy blonde hair that reached to just below his ears.
Suicia was wearing flowing light blue robes with stylized gray clouds and raindrops that were a darker blue. Suicia was almost as tall as Robin, just a few inches shorter. Robin was even taller than Eleanor so that height towered over Ais who only came up to the top of Eleanor's waist.. Suicia had the pointed ears of an elf, and natural looking long dark blue hair including blue eyebrows. She also had light blue eyes. So everything about Suicia suggested water, and Ais thought even the name itself was related to water in some way since water sluiced down glass and other objects when it was raining.
"Hello." Ais said slightly shyly, wondering if the three were really okay with being made nearly redundant, though Robin had introduced them while mentioning skills not related to carrying stuff. Ais also wondered if Suicia shared the disdain for half-elves that most elves seemed to have.
Her fears were unfounded though, they were all very welcoming and grateful for the reprieve from carrying heavy bags.
"Nice to meet you! Thanks for storing all that stuff!" Meryl said.
"Greetings Ais, I am glad to meet the one who is sparing my poor back from the heavy burden of a full pack. Thank you" Suicia said a bit more formally, but with a self-depreciating smile.
As Tabitha put it when she expanded on her own greeting.
" Hello Ais! Thanks! Nya, Now that we don't have to carry heavy great Jagras bags we can focus on our other skills and contributions to the famillia. I was not able to scout much while tromping all over the place with a heavy bag, Suicia can now focus on trying to use concurrent casting so she can actually use her magic with the long aria she needs to chant, and Meryl might actually be able to make a few quick sketches of the scenery and non-aggressive monsters as we travel, or at least pay more attention to everything and help keep a look out since he won't have to focus on balancing with a heavy bag on his back."
Tabitha paused to let anyone else interject if they wanted, but both Meryl and Suicia just nodded in agreement to Tabitha's words.
"Anyway, Meryl and I know the most about the path we are taking to get back to Orario, it promises to be very fun now that we can take the really fast way without all the extra weight. Nya" Tabitha started to continue the conversation.
Meryl interjected here and started lecturing,
"There are 3 main ways to get to Orario from here.
Orario is North and very slightly west of Asteria but taking the direct route would force us deep into the Ancient Forst, Burning Ryumillua Forest, the Plains/Savannah, and some farms. We tried that once, and spent more time fighting monsters, recovering, and running from monsters than we were at all happy about.
Taking the Coral Highlands would be safer and save time even if it takes us a bit east, but when we had heavy bags we could not really take advantage of glider mantles and the magic shoes Hermes provides us, given that those stuck with bags would never be able to keep up and could barely leap at all much less glide. So we could still take that route, but spent most of the time climbing up and down the canyons or running, and attracted all sorts of monsters along the way. We would still have to pass through part of the Plains/Savannah with that route but spent more time in the Ralka Empire, which has good roads and is safe. We would then take a road that lead almost directly to Orario, still through a small farm area but not many.
Trying to skirt the edges of all those territories is usually what we have ended up choosing in the past after trying the other ways. So we would travel a bit east to the edge of the Rotten Vale and Coral Highlands, while traveling in the Ancient Forest and edges of Burning Ryumillua forest. There was no way to avoid the Plains/Savannah entirely no matter the route, but at least we could parallel the main river leading from the Beor mountains that crosses the plains so did not have to carry tons of water. There is a 2nd much bigger river leading from Lolog Lake that crosses and merges with our river and it is so large there is no bridge in the direct path when we go that way. So we have to either risk crossing the narrowest point we can find of the river from the Beor mountains and go east a bit to get the Ralka Empire bridge and their roads, or keep following the other river up stream along the edge of the savannah until we finally reach the bridge between the village of Agris and Meilstora Country.
The Ralka Empire is between us when we take the Coral Highlands route or the middle route skirting the edges of all the territories, but as long as we pay a small traveler's fee we can run strait through it so we usually cross a narrow point in the river to head further east to use their bridge and roads.
There are more farmlands and villages that are south, west, and southeast of Orario, since farms pretty much surround most of it from this direction. We have to pass through those farms either way to reach Orario regardless of route. We have to stop frequently and go out of our way to deal with any monsters if we pass through that area as it is the duty of all familias living in Orario to help with protecting the farmlands and villages that provide us with food, but it does take time. Most familias go out to deal with monster's in the farmlands on a rotating basis, but there are always more monsters coming, so if we are there it would look bad to leave it to another famillia when we are just as capable.
The way we will travel now will be through the Coral Highlands and a part of the Plains/Savannah, then through the Ralka Empire. Without nearly as much to weigh us down we can use glider mantles, and our enchanted shoes to jump and glide over most of the Coral Highlands without having to land often. We might still have to deal with territorial flying monsters, but it will take much less time. That route also bypasses as many farms as possible, since the main road in the Ralka empire that leads to Orario borders the Seleo forest on one side and farms on the other rather than cutting through the farms."
Ais nodded and said eagerly "Will I be getting a glider mantle to borrow too? Gliding is almost like flying, which I really want to learn how to do someday"
Here Suicia laughed and spoke up
"Maybe some other time, it takes time to learn how to use glider mantles efficiently, and the enchanted shoes Hermes provides us boost our abilities to run and leap, as well as providing a bit of steering and wind while in the air. You would be the one slowing us down if you tried to use a glider mantle without the shoes too. While you are light enough that one of the stronger members can easily carry you without being slowed down since they can't move at top speed anyway to let the rest of us keep up.
However those shoes are not cheap or easy to make, it takes Hermes a week at least to enchant them since he has to be careful not to use too much of his Arcaneum and potentially get sent back to heaven, so we won't be able to provide you with those any time soon."
Ais sighed in disappointment, but noticed that there was potential to get those shoes and a glider mantle of her own at some point. Maybe she could use a glider mantle as a base for learning how to fly in the future if she could control Ariel Tempest enough to encase a mantle in wind without damaging it.
She hung around listening to the three talk some more almost 2 hours.
They mostly described what sights she would see as they were traveling, but also started telling semi-embarrassing stories about past trips. . .
Meryl mentioned "The Coral Highlands are beautiful, dark brown rock spires and colorful coral combining to look they look like a coral reef, just on land. They are also full of a large variety of life, most of which looks exotic and like they would be just as at home if there was actually water in the Coral Highlands still. Although unfortunately a large portion of that life are hostile monsters."
Tabitha interjected with a cat-like laugh "Nya, Nya, Nya, Meryl knows all about the hostile monsters since he has had to be rescued from most of them when he got too close while sketching them. He even pissed of a Kirin of all monsters when sketching it."
Meryl gave an exaggerated long-suffering sigh and said
"Must you constantly bring up that old, tired story, we were both new to the Hermes famillia and that was only our second trip from Orario to Asteria and back, besides my sketching has helped us with identifying monsters and gathering information on their potential weaknesses many times."
"Nya, but the story is so funny and it will be an object lesson for Ais here of what not to do, plus it will give you an excuse to bring out your sketchbook." Tabitha said teasingly.
"Fine, I'll even help tell the story but in return I'll tell a funny story involving you." Meryl gave in.
"Fair enough, although I made fewer funny mistakes than you so if we get in a competition I'll win." Tabitha said.
"Anyway. The story Tabitha wants to tell involves the near-mythical Kirin monster that is very rarely sighted in the Coral Highlands. I have quite a few sketches of it since it left a deep impression in my mind, although my original sketches are all the way back in Orario." Meryl said.
" Nya, We were taking a break while I and a few others scouted the best way to climb back up out of the Coral Highlands, since as we have said, with heavy bags it is impossible to really glide or even jump very high. Meryl brought out his sketchbook and wandered a bit away from the group, and somehow came across a Kirin just standing still. So he started sketching it, moving so he could get a good view, and standing facing it while sketching." Tabitha said
"In my defense, no monster hunter bothered to even tell us about the existence of the Kirin, since no one expected that we would see one. So I had no clue what it was, but it did not look like most wyverns and sort of reminded me of a horse or even a unicorn, which means herbivorous and non-hostile in my mind."
"So I had come back from my scouting, successfully I might add and we were getting ready to head off again, but since Meryl was not back yet I was sent to find him and tell him the break was over. I was following his tracks when suddenly I heard a high pitched scream and Meryl comes running, while still clutching his sketchbook and when he sees me he shouts, "monster chasing me get out of the way and get help!" Tabitha continued.
"I ran back toward the main group with Meryl right on my heels, we made it safely to the group but the Kirin was still pissed off and kept charging to get at Meryl. Falgar and the others started trying to defend us by attacking the Kirin, and after they managed to injure it, after it had shocked them quite a bit, it retreated. We turned around to make make sure Meryl was okay, only to find he had gotten his sketchbook back out and tried to sketch part of the fight!" Tabitha said.
" Falgar was quite exasperated with me, and told me that from that point on I could not start sketching while we were traveling even on breaks, unless we were in a safe location and I remained in sight of at least one member of the famillia. So I have gotten much better at memorizing key details and sketching from memory." Meryl reminisced.
"No one recognized just what the monster that attacked me was for a long while so it remained a mystery. Until finally an experienced Master rank Monster Hunter got a glance at my sketches and told me it was a Kirin, an extremely rare, non-hostile monster. I pointed out that apparently it was not that non-hostile since it had attacked and chased me for quite a while, and the monster hunter told me I must have stupidly stood in the path it was planning to take to leave for quite a long while, since that was the only time other than defending itself that a Kirin will attack." Meryl admitted sheepishly.
"So, in summary, even if a monster seems non-hostile it is not a good idea to try to get closer or to seem like you are trying to trap it, since even the more docile monsters will attack if they feel threatened." Tabitha said.
"Yeah, enough about me. I'm going to tell a funny story involving Tabitha in the plains/ savannah just south of the farmlands surrounding Orario." Meryl said.
"We might want to give Ais a bit more details regarding the plains/savannah first so she can imagine things better and be prepared." Tabitha interrupted.
"The plains may be mostly flat, with only small hills and dips at most, but they are not boring dirt. Somehow a good portion is more like a Savannah, with long grass, grazing herbivorous monsters, and the occasional bush and tree. There are small ponds and streams as well, although they rely mostly on rainfall so dry up after a long period without rain. There are of course a large amount of predatory Monsters as well, which we can usually avoid pissing off, but not always. Then there will be a great river, with a large bridge crossing over it." Tabitha said.
"One of those times we 'pissed off' a predatory monster was Tabitha's fault." Meryl said smugly.
"We were almost back to Orario and Tabitha had convinced someone else to carry the pack so she could scout for danger, and she happened across 2 Kelbi that had wandered from the Coral Highlands. She decided to kill one for it's horns and meat, since she was sick of rations and knew the horns would sell well.
However unknown to her a local monster, a lygerfang that had mutated to become what we now call a lyonfang had been stalking those Kelbi for a while, so when she interrupted its hunt and killed one Kelbi while scaring off the other the lyonfang decided to claim the Kelbi she had killed for itself. Instead of doing the smart thing and backing off Tabitha attempted to fight off the monster, getting in a cat fight with it over the dead Kelbi" Meryl said mirthfully.
Tabitha sighed and said
"You were not even directly there you were still with the main group, and why are you telling this story anyway, its not that funny other than the terrible pun you just added. This sort of thing is common, sure I underestimated how strong the lyonfang was and had to call for help, but we ended up with both the Kelbi and a lyonfang that was just mutated enough we could harvest the body instead of it dissolving the way a ligerfang would have. Falgar was not even angry or exasperated"
Meryl grumbled incoherently then said indignantly "You ruined it! I was not done yet. There were more puns I could have included, and the fact that you had to call for help is similar to how I had to call for help in the previous story, you yelled very loudly after all, that is funny to me."
"Nya, Call me a spoilsport then, but unlike you I may make mistakes but rarely and never the same mistake multiple times like you do when you get lost in your sketching. Nya" Tabitha said tauntingly.
Suicia finally spoke up saying "These two will go back and forth like this all day if you let them, its fun and a way to pass the time for them. But we were describing what you can expect on the journey to Orario and in Orario itself."
Tabitha smiled smugly since she had gotten in the last word against Meryl, then continued as if Meryl had not tried and failed to tell an embarrassing story about her.
"After we get through the plains/Savannah there will be some farmlands that are part of the Ralka empire but these are patrolled frequently enough that there are only occasional monsters who have wandered from the plains or the forests to either side of it. At a small border station we will have to pay a small traveler's fee, but it is worth it to avoid going deep through the plains and the farms surrounding Orario. The roads in the Ralka Empire are very good and maintained regularly so they are fast to travel on.
Be wary of people from Ralka though. The god Aries has established a dictatorship with him as an emperor and since he is a god of war and enjoys fighting all the people living in Ralka serve the military in some way. They are good at fighting monsters, but will just as soon fight people as well. And Aries tries to invade neighboring countries including Orario occasionally." Tabitha described.
Meryl decided to sulk quietly to himself at losing the game of embarrassing stories.
Suicia decided to describe Orario itself, and some of the groups living there.
"Orario is a giant circle of walls with gates leading out or in. The city is actually as big as some small counties, but an almost perfect circle. The tower of Babel and the dungeon underneath it are in the very center. There are numerous districts separated by more short walls with roads on top of them with gates or ladders to bypass them. There are many people living in each district there who all contribute to helping keep the dungeon suppressed and patrolling the farmlands that provide us food. Most of them act as part-time adventurers but also have other jobs that take advantage of the relative safety of Orario, or that take advantage of all the money adventurer's make by providing services that the adventurers want.
The Zeus and Hera famillias are the most powerful and have the most famillia members, as well as the highest levels. They are tightly allied due to the gods that lead them being married, although Hera is frequently annoyed by Zeus wandering eyes and hands. Still, since the gods can't have children in the traditional way with mortals after they have descended its not like she has to deal with proof of his ways being shoved in her face in the form of bastard children, so she can ignore Zeus wandering attention most of the time in order to present a united front.
The Hermes famillia is loosely allied to the Zeus/Hera famillias since Hermes is from the same pantheon, but Hermes focuses more on the world outside Orario other than a few efforts to help explore and map the dungeon, mostly initiated by those of the famillia like our Captain Asfl who stay behind to keep things organized and the famillia in good standing with the Guild of Adventurers.
The Hermes famillia stay in a mansion that we call the Traveler's Inn. We even rent out some of the rooms to traveler's. There are also numerous gardens and a few parks scattered throughout the districts to provide some greenery in the city, one of those will become the new home for the vigor-wasps most likely.
There are also the Ganesha and Asteria famillias that generally act like police almost, working closely with the guild of Adventurers to try to keep criminals from escalating to extreme violence and rooting out the various Evilus famillias whenever they stir up too much trouble.
The dungeon itself mainly looks like a series of large caves and tunnels on the upper floors, with a light blue color at the beginning, changing to green lower down, then changing color and what material makes up the walls as one goes lower. The upper floors have numerous weak small monsters constantly spawning from the walls and ceiling. Like Kobold; a man-like monster with a wolf or dog head. Goblins are as small as you Ais, green and the weakest monster other than dungeon flies. Dungeon lizards vary in size from the size of a cat to as big as a person depending on which floor they spawn on. There are also many more variety of monsters as one goes to the lower floors.
The cave-like appearance changes drastically on the 10th floor, which looks like a small woods covered in mist and fog. Some of the middle and lower floors also have vastly different appearances, and each floor lower seems to be slightly larger than the one above it.
The safe zone of the 18th floor looks like a forest with glowing crystal rocks scattered about and has large crystals providing light that mimic a sun and sky on the ceiling. There have been a few attempts to establish a permanent village of Adventurers called Rivira there, although with monsters wandering in from the 19th and 16-17th floors it has been destroyed twice already. There is also not quite enough food easily found to fully support a group living there full time, so it is generally abandoned when food starts running low unless high class adventurers bring extra food and sell it to the people living there.
The 25th- to 27th floor is sort of like the Coral Highlands, except there is a giant waterfall from an underwater dungeon entrance providing quite a bit of actual water there, which makes it more dangerous since the monsters all take advantage of that to hide under the water before ambushing unwary adventurers. It's doubtful you will be able to see the middle to lower floors for quite some time though, since you just received your falna and are a level 1, Ais." Suicia finished her long long description of Orario and part of it's dungeon.
"Do you have any questions?" Suicia asked.
Ais sat silently for a few seconds, processing all that she had learned. There was still a major question she had. Meryl and Tabitha had described the places in between Asteria and Orario, but not the rest of the world, and not exactly where Ryumilua forest is. Although Ais knew better than to try to visit on her own for now, Ais did want to know where Ryumilua forest is for future reference, since the One-Eyed Black Dragon hibernated there according to legends of the Monster Hunters.
So she asked Meryl
"Do you have a map?
All of you have described things on the route we will be taking very well, but I do want to have a better idea of where everything that is known about this continent is for future reference.
Meryl paused, then said "I don't have one with me right now, but I do have one in my room. I'll go retrieve it."
Ais waited patiently and then viewed the map Meryl showed her. He said in warning that
"Athough the map is accurate to the best of my knowledge, combining what those in Orario know with what the Monster Hunters have surveyed. The Monster Hunters have been evasive about details regarding Hoarfrost Reach and the Guiding Lands, so those were guesses based on the process of elimination more than anything. Things are also not accurately scaled in order to all fit on the map, since as you can see far more is known about the western, middle, and south of the continent, but very little about the far east or north. I'm pretty sure The Empire at least extends a bit more East, though if it is another peninsula or the land expands outwards again is beyond my knowledge."
(I have an amateur map drawn up, and changed the cover-art for this story to it so feel free to skip the somewhat confusing description if you want to.)
The map showed the peninsula of Telskyura at the far southeastern corner, an arrow and label saying the Far East Islands in the ocean to the east. There was also a label of The Empire and Altena marked along the eastern side of the continent. And Hoarfrost Reach? Guiding Lands ? being above the Alv Mountains.
Wish Forest was below the Alv Mountains, with a river and then the Royal Alf Forest slightly below and east of that. Asteria of course was on the bottom or south part of the map, with the Wildspire Waste to the east and slightly north. The Coral Highlands and Rotten Vale were northeast. To the west of Asteria was the Ancient Forest, with a bunch of rivers and then just north of that was Burning Ryumilla forest, marked with black trees and a fire symbol. Above Ryuimilla forest was the plains/savannah and a large lake and a small dot labeled Melen. There was also a place labeled Ralka empire that had a lot of roads running through it and leading from it to other places. Above Melen was Orario. Surrounding most of Orario were farms. Above Orario was labeled Beor Mountains, and near the top of them was Dragon Valley. There was also another forest labeled Seleo Forest directly east of Orario.
So other than Hoarfrost Reach and the Guiding Lands all the names of places the Monster Hunters had surveyed was in the South, with places known to the Hermes famillia being mostly North and West but there being even more places only slightly known to the far north and east.
_description of the map ends here_
Ais was satisfied to finally see an actual map so she had a general idea of where everything is. Ryumillua forest was also midway between Orario and Asteria just a bit to the west, so once Ais was strong enough she could maybe go there to search for clues of what happened to her Momma from either location.
After listening to these Hermes famillia members the idea of joining the Hermes famillia part-time on some of their trips, and maybe into Orario's dungeon sounded much better to Ais, so what had been a compromise in her mind between what she wanted and what Eleanor would be happiest with now sounded more appealing than just staying with Eleanor and Elaine. Ais felt that she might get the best of both worlds, the world of Adventurer's exploring a dungeon with endless weak monsters and famillia of gods from Orario and the world of the Monster Hunters with the freedom to roam and travel freely doing what she wanted as she worked and trained to be stronger in order to help kill the One-eyed Black Elder Dragon in Ryumilua forest.
Meryl then got over his sulking and brought out his sketchbook, showing off sketches of the various monsters they had encountered on their journeys with all three taking turns telling the stories of how they encountered that monster and dealt with it, either by running away, killing the monster, or forcing it to run away injured, or even soaking them to cool their hostility when Suicia had a chance to use her magic. Tabitha made sure to mention that many of those sketches had caused trouble for the group back before Falgar's rule of no sketching until in a safe location and staying in sight of other members was created for Meryl, and that he still sometimes broke the rule when he could not resist the urge to start sketching.
Ais enjoyed listening to these stories, and started feeling as if she was getting to know many members of the Hermes famillia through them, although mostly only their combat skills. But Ais was quite happy with how her decision to spend time with other members of the Hermes familia had turned out.
Eventually Ais left to feed her vigor-wasps and get some more training in, but with a renewed sense of purpose. She wanted to be able to help the Hermes famillia and join them on all their dangerous journeys. Ais felt that joining the Hermes familia often would not be a waste of valuable training time, but instead an opportunity to actually see how experts handled everything and even use her growing skills for their intended purpose; fighting monsters.
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Review Please!
A.N.: As many probably guessed Robin Nico is an OC based on the Nico Robin from Once Piece. I'm not sure yet if I'll make this Robin have a skill that mimics what the Robin from Once Piece could do with her devil fruit. The personality is also slightly different since this Robin did not watch her family die and spend most of her life hunted by the World Government for having dangerous knowledge. This Robin is an Amazoness since it fit her the best given her looks in the early anime and what she generally wears. I did not watch the anime after the time-skip but a wiki article mentioned she replaced her cowboy hat with sunglasses as the only thing that remained the same about her appearances, and did not have an iconic outfit other than revealing clothes. I figure this Robin will wear both cowboy hat and sunglasses when in safe areas, but put them away or secure them in dangerous areas so they are not damaged or lost/
minor spoiler for original Danmachi
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Also, originally I used someone named Aisha who was listed as level 4 in the Hermes familia on the wiki website for this role, until I realized after reading a fan-fiction that Aisha was added to the Hermes famillia as one of the many displaced Ishtar Amazoness Barbarella after Ishtar was sent to heaven by Freya for trying to 'corrupt' Bell after kidnapping him. I have been going through and replacing the names, but let me know if I miss any.
The other new characters are all listed as part of the Hermes famillia, albeit there is not much detail on them other than their names and that Meryl Tear is a Pallum and Suicia an elf. Tabitha's race was unknown but with a name like that making her a tabby cat person made a connection between her name and what she was. Of course since I love the idea of cat people I wanted to introduce one as soon as possible as well.
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updates will slow down from this fast pace soon as I get through all my previously written chapters. Reviews might give me motivation to spend more time writing rather than alternating writing and reading, so I repeat, Please write out a review, even as an anonymous guest if you are too lazy to login.
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