Author's Note
Hello, fellow fanfiction fans. This is the first time I write a full story. It will be a story with a very detailed description and will most likely have a slow buildup with many hidden details. The chapters will be between 4'000 to 6'000 words. I will upload chapters either once a week on sunday.
I try my very best to create a well-built AU of the danmachi universe, based on the anime and the wiki entries. There will be some changes, but mostly the background and abilities of the Takemikazuchi familia will be affected. Their personality should remain close to their personalities from the anime.
But as every first-time writer, I will make mistakes and although I have a colleague who will proofread my chapters before I release them there will be mistakes. If you find any major flaws please comment on the passage and if you know how, what I could do to improve it.
Summary: Sleipnir is a young kitsune mage in the Takemikazuchi familia. He arrives in Orario 2 years before Bell. At first, he believes that he is a normal renard with a high talent for magic, until one day he learns about his true race that disappeared in the age of heroes. He will also meet the Xenos far earlier than in the main story, which will forever change his view of Orario. He will work alongside them to improve their living conditions and help them finally reach the surface.
Rated: Mature, graphic descriptions of violence will be included, and relationships will be implied without lemon scenes. There will be no harem.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori, all his characters belong to him. I only own my OCs.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Magic"
"Screaming"
Chapter 1 - Takemikazuchi familia enters Orario
In front of the adventurer city Orario
The gates of Orario loomed before them. They could see the walls surrounding the city with a height of more than 200 feet. Even more imposing was the giant tower of Babel, which stands in the centre of Orario and is at least ten times bigger than the outer walls.
Oraio stands in the middle of the fields of Demeter that go on for multiple miles in every direction. The city has a diameter of around 50 miles and is tightly packed with buildings of many different styles. Many buildings are built out of sturdy stone bricks and would likely even survive an earthquake.
Sly is a member of the Takemikazuchi familia. For the last two months, he has been travelling alongside his god Takemikazuchi, Ouka, Mikoto, Chigusa and Asuka.
His full name is Sanjouno Sleipnir. He generally only uses his given name which was given to him by Takemikazuchi to separate him from his past.
Usually, his familia refers to him by his nickname Sly. He earnt the nickname by being the only one in the familia interested in the more shady techniques of Takemikazuchi that are most often used by shinobi.
Sly is part of the renard race. In other words fox demi-humans. Sly has silvery light blue fur, which results in him having light blue fox ears and a foxtail with a length of only a little less than 2 feet. He has short spiky hair the same colour as his ears and emerald green eyes. With his ears he barely reaches 5'7 feet (170 cm) in height, without them he stands at about 5'3 feet (160 cm).
Sly wears a withe travelling cloak with blue square adornments at the bottom. Below his cloak, he wears a light-blue far-eastern kimono alongside blue pants. Lastly, he carries a five feet long bo staff with a 6 inches long iron spike at the bottom as his primary weapon. His backup weapons are two daggers he hides below his robe.
Leading the familia is Takemikazuchi who is a god of war. He wears the withe garbs of a traditional eastern monk. Additionally, he has black eyes and shoulder-length hair with two additional buns on both sides of his face.
He is one of the gods that descended from Tenkai (heaven) to live like mortals. Most gods only care about themselves and ignore the consequences of their actions so long as their curiosity is satiated. Takemikazuchi is an exception because he does not only seek his own amusement but tries to help those affected by his domain. His personal vision of war is not the single-minded pursuit of continuous warfare, but rather the consequences of war and how to aid those affected by war.
Takemikazuchi is truly a role model for the entire familia, but most of them call him Take, but only when they are not in public. They would never wish to disrespect him or tarnish his reputation by using an informal nickname for their god. 'At least all but our captain. Ouka truly has no sense for formality. He even calls Take by his nickname.'
Alongside Take is the familia captain. Ouka is a five feet tall, lightly tanned male dwarf with a sturdy build. He has black hair and eyes, wearing a lavender, red, gold and black Kamishimo top along with brown pants tucked underneath long white bandages in black boots.
Ouka is the oldest in the familia at the age of 32. His armour consists simply of matching coloured lower arm guards. His weapon of choice is either a double-handed axe or a double-ended spear, but this most prominent piece of equipment is his big tower shield.
Next up would be Mikoto, who has bluish-purple eyes and long black hair tied into a ponytail. She wears a purple kimono with a satoshi underneath, along with a dark red sash and thigh-length boots. She also wears a red shoulder guard on her non-weapon arm, arm guards, and keeps her katana in the sash at her waist.
Now to Sly's favourite teammate Chigusa. She has black medium length hair that usually covers her face, and when parted and she has dark green eyes. She wears bandages around her neck and left upper leg as well as a lavender kimono with red cloth wrapped around her waist. Her only piece of armour would be a red thigh piece on her left leg.
She is very shy and can be easily embarrassed around more direct people. But her gentle nature and concern for others, lead to her and Sly often working together and looking out for each other. Her weapon of choice is the bow which lets her fight enemies without ever having to get too close.
Lastly, there is Asuka. She uses a bow like Chigusa but in comparison to her she takes more time to aim and her outfit resembles a desert nomad, but barely covers anything. Sly never spoke to her, because he was too shy to even approach her when he joined the familia. Additionally, she also is a half-elf. Which in itself isn't too bad, but she also has the pride of an elf, which makes her feel superior to other races.
All members that accompanied Take to the adventurer city of Orario have at least two things in common. For one they have to be close to maxing out their stats for level 1 adventurers, secondly, they all need a goal to achieve. For most of the group, this goal was to earn enough valis, the local currency, to help the shrines in the far east and improve the situation back home. Sly wasn't too certain about his goal, but he wished to create a new place that he could call home.
All of them had to face many hardships in the past until they joined the Takemikazuchi familia. Sly is the newest member of the familia, as he only joined Take a little over a year ago when he was still 14 years old. Before Take saved him he was forced to survive alone in the wild. Sly then spent the rest of the year hunting the non-dungeon monsters in the far-east and helping the other orphans until he reached the status of a high-level one adventurer.
All that was missing for the highest familia members to reach level two, was to experience an adventure. If what Tekemikazuchi explained to them about adventures is true, then it has to be something challenging, where even the gods would see the development or hardship a mortal has overcome. Because there are few strong monsters outside of Orario Take decided to take the strongest of them and bring them into Orario to finally have their adventure.
Streets of Orario
They entered through the main gates of Orario after the guards from Ganesha familia checked their identification papers. They then followed the main road towards the city plaza.
It is a wide open space where adventurers can gather before dungeon delving and at the edge of the main square most of the important buildings were situated.
The most important building would be the guild hall, where the entire administration for Orario takes place, this includes adventurer and commercial administrative work. The building was a nice-looking stone building with a second wooden floor adorned with many banners of different familia. There was a banner for the Ganesha, Hephastus, Freya, Loki, Demeter, Goibniu and many more minor familia.
There were also many different shops and even a few blacksmiths from Hephaestus familia selling their goods. Otherwise, there were a few different inns, a stoneworker from Goibniu familia and even a runner from Hermes familia passing messages to a recipient.
In front of the guild hall, Take then turned towards his familia and looked into the eyes of every member of his familia with his usually serious demeanour.
"This is the guild building, we will now have to fill out the proper paperwork for all of you. Afterwards, you will be granted access to the dungeon. I will also officially create our familia in Orario. Be on your best behaviour and do not needlessly antagonize local adventurers. Understood?"
"Let's hope we get done without any hitch, what do you guys think?" Ouka replied with a grin.
"I can't wait, Takemikazuchi-sama. We will give our utmost to dive into the dungeon and show Orario what you taught us," retorted Mikoto with fervour, while bowing slightly.
Ouaka replied. "The dungeon won't even know what hit it."
"I hope to make no mistakes," whispers Chigusa, while shyly looking to Sly for support.
"Of course, you won't Chigusa. And even if you do the monster will fall into my traps before approaching you," replied Sly with a rare smile while curiously looking towards Asuka, who has thus far remained quiet.
"Of course," Asuka replied with an emotionless expression.
The group entered the mostly empty guild hall. The inside had many separate desks with advisors behind them. They all went to the one free human advisor, who had pink shoulder-length hair and eyes.
"Welcome to the guild. I am Misha Flott an advisor for adventurers. With what may you require assistance?"
Takemikazuchi responded, "I would like to sign up my familia and finish the necessary adventurer identifications for them."
"Ah. A new familia. From your clothing style I assume you are deity originally from the far east, correct?"
"Correct. My name is Takemikazuchi. You might remember Ameterasu. She is a close friend of mine and lived with her familia inside this city 15 years ago."
"I'm sorry I wasn't even a guild employee 15 years ago, but nice to know. I will bring you all the necassary paperwork please wait a moment." Misha then retreated and with the aid of a half-elfen woman brought them all the necessary papers.
After receiving the form, Ouka aided Take in filling out the familia papers. Sly began filling out his papers, but when he saw the name section he let out a deep sigh and both his ears dropped significantly before entering his full name Sanjouno Sleipnir.
Chigusa, who sat next to him, noticed that something was wrong and whispered. "What has made you so sad?", then looked at his papers and with a grimace continued, "At least you will not see any Sanjounos in Orario they are all back in the far east."
"I know it's just that every time I have to use my full name I remember what they did to me," Sly whispered back before finishing his form.
Once they returned their forms to advisor Misha, they received a starter bag. In there Sly found three minor health potions and even a minor mind potion. His tail even began to sway in contentment at the sight of the last one.
'I have never before held a mind potion and here they just give them to us. In the far east, even the weakest mind potions are considered luxury goods and here they just give us one, to begin with. Comes to show, just how wealthy Orario truly is.'
They also got the option to get some starter gear, but already had equipment that would suffice for their current level. After finishing their first objective Misha turned to the adventurer part of the familia.
"Very well, now that you all have identified yourselves, you could, in theory, enter the dungeon, bu-ut you all still need to learn the dungeon basics first, before I can in good conscience allow you to enter the dungeon.
So I will be keeping all of you for another hour at least." Turning to Take she quickly bows before continuing, "Takemikazuchi-sama you may already leave for your lodging. Or should you still require accommodation for tonight, then I can only recommend the hostess of fertility. Best of luck with your stay in Orario."
"That sounds reasonable." Take replies to us, before bidding farewell to his familia, "Very well, I shall leave my familia in your care Misha-san. I will be awaiting you all at the hostess of fertility."
Ouka replied. "We will learn all we can before catching up to you Take. I will make certain all of us pay attention and learn what we can from advisor Misha. "
Take then left the guild hall with a steady pace in search of the hostess of fertility, meanwhile, Misha dragged all of them into a private room. The room looks like a study room inside a library, with countless bookcases symmetrically positioned around the room.
'There is even a monster compendium. I will have to read all of it, after all, knowledge is power and knowing how to approach monsters I have never seen before will be invaluable.'
Misha then takes out two books that have seen a lot of use. She opens one describing the first twelve floors of the dungeon, the so-called upper floors. She also opens the monster compendium for the according floors.
"Before I begin with the lecture. I want all of you to understand that the guild is here to support new adventurers. If you have any questions you can come to one of our advisors and we will help you as much as we can.
This library is also open to any citizen of Orario. As long as you keep to the ground floor, there are no restrictions to the books you may look into. The only rules are that you return the books you took undamaged and that you do not leave the building with them.
So now let's begin. First of all, you all should know that the dungeon is always unpredictable. You should never feel safe even when you are over-levelled for the upper floors because the dungeon is always plotting how to get rid of you.
The dungeon will kill you if you give it the chance. You mustn't be overconfident even with your higher abilities compared to other adventurers that are just starting out. You can be slain by a goblin just as easily as by a monster rex."
'If thats the case it should also be true for the stronger monsters. When i know there weaknesses and abuse them with a surprise attack from my Illusio I should in theory be capable of defeating stronger monsters.'
"The first twelve floors of the dungeon are the beginner floors. They are ideal for level-one adventurers. The deeper you go the higher your stats should be. I would recommend that you take a few days, to slowly progress down these floors and get accustomed to the atmosphere of the dungeon. Afterwards, you can use a map to find the fastest and least dangerous route for every floor.
Below the upper floors would be the middle floors. They are recommended for level-two parties and are far more dangerous than the upper floors. They should never be entered solo because the enemies there appear in far greater numbers and can easily overwhelm a single opponent. There are also very strong monsters like the minotaur on the lower middle floors, which can even defeat low-level 2 adventurers."
'Should not be entered solo? Hmm i'm not so certain about that. With a high enough level it should be possible, or in my case if the opponents can't even see me then numerical advantages are obsolete.'
"There are also sometimes unusual monsters called irregulars that are unusually strong or that have travelled to another floor. In case of these, I would advise you to avoid these unless you are confident that you can take them.
Lastly, I would advise you against entering floor 18. There is the first monster rex. He is considered a level 4 monster and should only be challenged by specific raid parties. Once defeated he only respawns once per month."
Misha then continues her session to look into the monsters they will face on the first twelve floors. She tells them about their abilities and what to expect. Before their farewell, she then reminds them that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer when it comes to adventurers.
'Surprising that she did not know anything substancial about the weaknesses of these monsters. It might be a good choice to make my own notes detailing the monsters we encounter.'
Thinking about it he asks Misha. "Advisor Misha is there a way to borrow one of the monster manual for the upper floors?"
"I am very sorry Sleipnir-san but our books may not leave the guild, as i mentioned before. Because in the past we sometimes gave them to new adventurers, but they always took them into the dungeon and many past versions were lost. Nowadays it is forbidden to take these books outside of the guild, because it is very time consuming to replace them. If you want to read them you can always do this at the guild."
"Thank you for the help Misha-san i will do so once I have the time."
"One more thing. I would recomend that you come back to the guild before entering the middle floors and also once any of you reach a level up. With that i only have to thank all of you for your attention and wish you the best luck in the dungeon," Eisha spoke while waving us goodbye.
When leaving the guild building, the group noticed that there were noticeably more adventurers going around. It would appear that most adventurers return from their daily escapades in the evening at around 7 PM.
Back on the streets, Mikoto looked at all the different vendors. Most were already packing up, but some were still showing off their wares. She spent the most time looking at a wonderfully crafted katana from a young smith. Unfortunately, she lacked the funds to buy it for the time being.
Meanwhile, Ouka guided the rest back towards the inns they saw before entering the guild hall. After looking around for a few minutes they found the hostess of fertility.
The hostess of fertility is one of Orarios' most popular inns. The front is a simple wooden building with a balcony overlooking the central plaza. The inside is a simple bar with many tables for smaller parties with room for at least 50 adventurers.
Once inside they look around until they spot Take, who has taken a few seats at a table next to the bar. He was currently speaking to Mia Grand the owner of the hostess of fertility.
Mia Grand is an ex-first-class adventurer. Mia is a dwarf, but her size has more in common with a giant because she is 5'11 feet high which is almost unheard of for dwarfs. She has brown eyes and long brown hair made in a bun with two strands of hair on both sides of her face.
All employees wear the same uniform. All of them wear green above-knee dresses, but Mia Grand wears blue. Everyone also wears an apron, a small orange bow under the collar, black leggings and brown ankle boots. The waitresses also wear white headbands.
Once Mia saw them she guided Take's gaze in our direction, whereupon he waved his familia over and introduced them to Mia Grande, who then gave them the menu and called towards Ryuu who was to be our waitress. Ryuu is an elven woman with blond hair and light blue eyes.
"Welcome to the hostess of fertility. I see that you are new here so let me introduce myself I am your waitress Ryuu Lion. What do you wish to order?"
Take was the first to order. "I would like to try the roasted chicken Ryuu-san. With a little bit of sake if you have some."
"Of course, but we do not have too much Sake, because it has to be imported from the east and most custmers prefer the wine from the Soma familia."
"Of course. Then I think it would be best to just order one bottle of sake for all of us," finished Take.
"I will also take the same," Ouka added.
Sly then continued. "I would like the roasted rice with vegetables."
Mikoto smirked at him and remarked with a sparkle in her eyes. "You still are a glutton for rice, aren't you trickster? But for today I will also take the same."
'And Mikoto still hasn't fogiven me for using ninjutsu and dirty tactics while fighting. I should really be angered at her constant teasing but at least this time it isn't about honour.' Sly thought before smirking. "You know I prefer less intensive smells because of my sensitive nose. And I am surpised you didn't follow up on Takemikazuchi-samas order?"
Mikoto just glares at Sly as an answer, while whispering back. "You know as well as me that Takemikazuchi-sama has a very bad sense of taste. He still thinks his cooking is good. Fortunately for us Asuka took it upon herself to help him whenever its his turn to cook."
Chigusa chuckles at her comment and Ouka laughs. Take like always is oblivious to the comments and just smiles at us. Chigusa holds up her hand before quietly adding. "I woul-d al-so like the roa-sted rice."
Lastly, Asuka looks at the menu. "I'm going to try the pasta with the special Mia sauce."
"Very well your orders should arrive shortly," Ryuu says before retreating.
After finishing their meal they praise the cook May for the great meal. Then retire for the night. Take joined Sly and Ouka in a room, while the girls took another room for 5000 valis per room including the meals.