Chapter 13 - Inconsistency
A lot of activity is underway to help address the potential threat.
At the Loki home, the focus has been on preparations for the trip. Tione and Finn took care of the magic weapons. Tiona and Riveria went to purchase the potions. Loki, Finn and Gareth went off to a meeting at the Freya home.
At the Hestia home, Mikoto was running errands to help Ais and Bell. Haruhime already left for the secret headquarters. Welf was busy in the forge working on Bell's new armor. Bell packed up freshly cooked jagamarukun for the 24 hour visit with Hestia. Lili was busy measuring Ais for new armor. Though a couple measurements had to be redone because Lili was surprised with the numbers, making Ais a little embarrassed with all the attention.
Freya and Ottar organized the backup team because it was almost entirely made up of her familia members. They asked Loki, Finn and Gareth to join them for a team meeting. First, Finn provided a briefing about the recent trip and the potential threat that may be Revis and Enyo. Loki then explained the logistics for the level boosting, and organized a trip to the secret headquarters in two days' time. The Freya familia agreed to handle all of the work for gathering their list of items.
After the meeting at the Freya home, Loki went to visit with Hephaestus to see what she really felt about Welf's armor. Hephaestus said that she was surprised how well it worked, and agreed with Loki's assessment that it will be most effective against physical attacks like sword strikes or Bell's crystal attack. Hephaestus also indicated that it would be very difficult to enchant each piece of armor with more than 1 magic charge. Loki thought about that but said 1 attack can be life or death and each piece of armor would have a separate charge. Loki then asked "What would you do if he surpasses you - would you give him what he wants?". Hephaestus answered "What does he want? ..."
For most of the day, Hermes has been running errands. He first coordinated with Ganesha, who promised that his familia will stay in Orario during the duration of the down level trip. Hermes and Asfi then gathered the level-boosting group members and traveled to the secret headquarters.
Back in Ouranos' room, Fels updated Ouranos on the planning and then delivered the communication stones to Loki.
On the moon, Hestia has eagerly waiting for Bell's arrival. When Bell showed up, Hestia jumped on him and gave him some maternal nurturing, shocking her attendants on the moon. After the nurturing, Hestia did an update on Bell's falna. She was satisfied with Bell's progress as his stats are progressing closer to his normal rate. Hestia then gave Bell a quick tour of the moon. After the tour, while lunching on jagamarukun, Hestia wanted to know all about the recent trip. After listening to Bell's story, Hestia made an interesting observation. Hestia reminded Bell of their first quest after the war - to help safeguard a shipment of valuables. Bell did tell her that the valuables consisted of calmus hide and other drop items from the deep levels, but yet Udaeus was not defeated on the 37th floor until their trip. Bell agreed that is strange and no one would count on escaping Udaeus if they were transporting valuables. Hestia told Bell that he needs to investigate when he returns...
Upon Bell's return, all trip preparations were done ahead of schedule. Bell updated everyone on Hestia's thoughts, especially about the inconsistency with the merchants who were transporting valuables from the deep levels. Takemikazuchi said this needs to be investigated immediately. Takemikazuchi, Bel and Ais then went to talk to Loki even though Hermes already left for the headquarters. At the Loki home, everyone is now even more perplexed, and Finn is feeling sheepish about possibly making much ado about nothing. The decision was made to find those merchants to figure out what is going on.
5 familias joined in on the manhunt, but it was Lili who was able to find them by pretending to be a rich customer. After seeing Loki, Takemikazuchi, and especially Freya, the merchants were more than happy to disclose what they have been doing. Turns out after the demise of the Ikelos familia, a lot of shadowy characters have been risking the dungeon to collect drop items. As a result, they figured out a network of vertical holes that allowed them to travel through the dungeon while avoiding most floor bosses and colessums. When asked about which floor those drop items came from, they said mostly between the 40th and 55th floors. They also confirmed that they had not heard about a varlong dragon or the balor, but the number of drop items has greatly increased after the war. Thus, these merchants verified what the team learned in its trip. Lots of valuable drop items from powerful monsters were seemingly left behind without consideration for their value in valors. This does strongly support the harvesting theory.
With this strong separate evidence, everyone is even more determined to make the deep level trip to get to the bottom of the situation. The gods thanked the merchants and Freya gave them her autograph. After the merchants left, Loki and Freya went to the secret headquarters to discuss strategy with Hermes. However, Finn's thumb is starting to bother him again. That night, Bell and Ais sat outside under the full moon, both thinking what it would be like to confront a super-powerful Revis. Seeing the tension in Ais' body, he gave her a lap pillow...