Hey guys! Chirith here and I am back with a new chapter. It has been a while.
How have you guys been?
Well, I was busy in college. I wish all of you guys a good day. I hope you guys have the best days of yours lives and so on.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or other game elements that may pop up. THey all belong to their respective owners.
"Finally awake, I see," I said as I noticed the eyes of Gale open up. Hearing my voice, the young elf snapped and stood in attention, or she tried to, only to wince in pain.
"Easy, easy," I said while raising my hands, wanting her to calm down.
"You're... Outer heaven's owner?" The elf asked, holding her head in pain. Shit, she must have lost a lot of blood.
"Yes, you're in a safe house right now," Technically, it was not a lie because the Hostess is one of the most protected places in Orario. After all, we have a former adventurer as the owner with numerous people at high levels such as Anya. "Ow!" The fist of my elder sister, Mia Grande, connected to the top of my skull.
"What do you mean this place is your safehouse?!" Mia asked, her fist smoking as I tried to make sure that my head won't explode.
"Damn it! Quit ruining my image!" damn it, I wanted to be like those mysterious helpers in anime but this evil woman!
"I don't care, now leave!" Mia, befitting of her monstrous strength, grabbed me by the back of my clothes and threw me out of the room. Why are the women in this world so fucking violent?!
"Nya? Ren? What are you doing here?" Anya, my best friend, second only to Mia and Rin, asked while tilting her head.
"Mia kicked me out," Making sure that my sword was still secured on my waist, I still need to attend Albert's lesson, check on the shop, and manufacture a way to check up on Ais.
"Well, Mama must have a good reason," Anya said with a smile, her cat ears twitching with her tail. "By the way," the shorter catgirl leaned in while whispering and covering her mouth from the window, "I heard that the school district is arriving in Orario,"
"Wait, really?!" Well, it seems like my small family's plans will be accelerated in a good way.
"Yup! Oh, sorry. I have to go!" Anya said as she entered the room, leaving me with enough time to think of what will probably happen. My roommate and best friend, Mia Karnstein, and my little brother in all but blood, Nikola Karnstein.
Mia will go with Nikola. That I am sure.
Exiting the Hostess via the backdoor, I found myself alone with only the spiritual form of Albert Waldstein, the sword emperor, as my companion on the roads of Orario.
"On the bright side, you will have the house all for your own," Albert said, and boy did that exchange just get more interesting.
Entering the house after an hour or so of buying groceries, I entered Outer Heaven with a disguised Alise manning the shop. Well, there are a lot of customers so, not my problem. Nodding at Mia, I entered the hidden clinic/temporary room of the members of Astraea Familia.
"Oh, welcome back," Kaguya, the far eastern beauty, greeted. Her new arm was working well ever since I attached it to her a night ago.
It did take me a while to convince them to rest rather than let themselves get too tired by rushing to meet their little sister.
"Hey, how's the arm?" I asked, always finding it easier to talk about topics that I know with strangers. Hey, I might have had them in the shop for a long time but they were patients.
"It's fine. It is a bit thinner than I am used to, but I will have to train it,"
"Good, how about you, Pinky?" The Level 3 has a visor over her eyes, magically connected to her brain to simulate vision while her eyes are being cloned. An arm was easy but compared to organs such as eyes and stuff, well it would probably take a few months before I can safely clone her a perfectly compatible pair.
It might seem like I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart, but their payment for this is the data I will gather.
"Oh, it's fine. Hey, if I get my eyes back, can I keep this?" Lyra asked.
And Lyra was officially the cool twin he has adopted. Why? She was so fucking cool!
"Yeah, sure. I'll change the color to pink," How I made it was simple. Magic is bullshit.
Speaking of magic, apparently, there were a lot of forgotten magic systems according to some books I read, especially during the descent of the Gods. Most of them were replaced with the ones granted by Falna with most people only focusing on what they were granted rather than learning them.
It was a big fucking waste.
Now, sure. I might be great with magic due to my archive skill's sub-ability of reliving the life of a human mortal and using it to have an archive of all of Miraak's knowledge, I have become a mortal tongue while being able to safely use the two-word version of shouts safely as long as they are in an interval of 30 seconds and more. But, I have one glaring weakness. I can't cook anything.
Well, anything too fancy.
Luckily, I only cook simple dishes.
"I'll cook," As if she had discovered my only weakness, Kaguya offered her help. Thank you, God, for your small mercies.
Handing her the ingredients, I watched as the young woman moved while she was hot, as most female adventurers were, I focused on her arm. She was adapting well to it which is not a surprise since her DNA was used to make it.
Project Regenerator was becoming more and more of a success. The only flaw is that the procedure is riskier if the cloned appendage is grafted before it can truly mature. Even now, there might be a chance of the limb failing to work.
Project Enhance, meanwhile, was easy to create but hard to manufacture. Since I already have an idea and the knowledge, the problem was that the supplies need to create combat-level enhancements for any fighter are expensive, especially if they are at a higher level and it will need a lot of calibration. In fact, Lyra has agreed to be the first human test subject to pay back her debt.
Not that they need to, after all, the data that I will gather is far more valuable. To think that it has only been a few days and I gathered far more data than I did while they were asleep.
Entering my office just above the shop, I opened the window and let the afternoon air of the city of Adventurers enter the humble room. Removing the sword from my belt, I gently released the double-edged hand-and-a-half sword from its sheath while watching as the light reflected from the tarnished yet enduring steel.
Oddysey, the first sword Rin made for me, the same weapon I first enchanted with a simple enchantment that fixes it with the iron found in blood and later added another one on the crystal on the guard.
"Albert, you taught me a lot."
The ghost of the sword emperor nodded as he looked out of the window while I removed the excess oil on my blade, maintaining it.
"We only have six months left in accordance with our contract," the sword emperor said with a melancholic smile.
"Sorry, you will have to wait for a while longer," I told my friend, mentor, and brother.
"It's fine, Ren," the sword emperor said. True, I might be able to use the Thu'um and can fight like Albert, but it's not enough yet.
That blasted lizard would probably have gotten stronger with age and that is not adding a possible army that might look to it as a deity.
"I don't mind. Besides, I see my daughter every now and then and I am proud of how strong she is." Albert smiled as he turned towards me. "I also earned a little brother,"
"Yeah, yeah."
"You know, I wonder what kind of person will your significant other be," Albert said as he looked out of the window. I stopped maintaining Oddysey and looked at my elder brother and mentor.
"As much as I would love one, I am to
o busy with project Season Unending,"
"What a shame," the playful smile on the sword emperor's face lightened the room as I returned Oddysey to its sheath. "Take a nap, I'll wake you when the girl is finished," before I knew it, I was already asleep.
Freya smiled as she looked at the wine swirling in her glass.
"Ottar," the Norse deity of love called the name of her most loyal child. Sitting lavishly on her throne, the deity handed a folder to a tall man with tanned skin and a red headband. "Our little shopkeeper has compiled some things for us to do, why don't you try it out?"
Taking the folder, the captain of the Freya Familia raised his brow as he read over the details both facts and theories that the shop owner had sent them. A fire burned on the captain's eyes as he devoured line after of information. Closing the folder, the man turned to his deity,
"I will," Ottar bowed at the Deity as he turned around.
'My dear Ottar, a loyal child even if I do not deserve it.' Freya thought before looking at the last folder. A folder labeled 'Odr'. 'Who would have thought that the boy I helped on a whim will help me this much,'
Opening the folder and using the encryption the young man had taught her, Freya's eyes widened as she saw those words.
Zeus
Clear
Odr
four years
Soft peals of laughter and tears of joy fell from Freya's eyes.
'Truly, I struck a diamond while looking for silver,' Freya thought as countless machinations and plans formed in her head before her eyes focused on the last line of the document. Remembering a conversation she had with the shopkeeper during her last visit, the Norse goddess of love smiled as she halted her plans to snatch her Odr, after all, he wouldn't grow if she nipped the bud too early.
Oh dear, Ren revealed something irresistible for Freya and what is this?! Why is Freya preparing to fight the black dragon?!. I wonder what will happen next.
The next arc would focus more on Ais and Albert with Ren as the middle-man due to literally being the only person to see him. See you guys soon!