Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir and Ikuchi.
"Shiny new equipment.."
'When did Chigusa teach Welf super acrobatics.'
"Will-o-Wisp."
"Watch out Bats! "
Chapter 6 What the Solictice Brings
5 AM - Martial Dojo
After the heavy training from the previous day, they could now return to their usual routine. At least Sly thought so. Following an old tradition mostly performed by monks, Takemikazuchi woke them all before sunrise because today was the day of the summer solstice. They all took a purifying bath during it to establish their martial dojo in a spiritual sense besides the physical one. The bath would also appease nature spirits that might have been aggravated during the renovation of the field. After their bath, they spent the following hour on quiet tasks individually while drinking some of Sly's jasmine tea, before resuming their scheduled training with Welf.
Before leaving for I am Ganesha, Sly quietly asked Asuka for some of her mana cleansing salve to be on the safe side if he triggered Ignis Fatuus on the tenth floor. Asuka was annoyed, as she only had one vial left and demanded his help when she did the gardening if he wanted a few free potions from her. Sly reluctantly agreed, as long as it did not impede upon his studies. She then gave him a small glass vial that would be enough for two times.
Having finished his work in the dojo, Sly resumed his studies with Acatl. The winged serpent was happy to see him once again and promptly challenged his studies in formal Kione by asking him to work with one of the texts that gave him a lot of trouble a week prior. It was still difficult, but now Sly had enough knowledge of formal kione to understand far more and the rest he gleaned from the context.
Acatl then ruffled her wings before inquiring. "So, how did you improve your Illusio spell? How far did you get with the selective chants you have for it Nibi-kun?."
Besides a slight twitch of his tails, Sly ignored Acatl's new nickname while concentrating on his answer. "After some practice, I managed to create variations for recreating sounds, scent, and touch. I haven't really understood the limits of the variations yet, but I know that the sounds one is lacking the most. I can change the intensity by varying the amount of mana I use, but changing the pitch is too difficult for now. The only sound I can accurately recreate is the whistling of wind."
Sly used his spell shortly to show Acatl where his problem was. By changing the mana density he used the pitch changed. It resulted in very large differences from the tiniest changes. These changes weren't even consistent from one attempt to another.
Observing Sly's illusion with her own magic pressure, Acatl saw the problem. "Aha, there it is."
"Have you noticed the problem, Acatl-hakase?"
Smiling with her teeth. "Of course I did! Your problem is once again mana control. You use the density of the illusion mana to stimulate unique sounds, but you lack the control to change the density with enough accuracy. Right now it's as if you tried counting from 0 to 100 by only using the decimals. It works but is very crude. The only way to improve your control of this spell is by training with it until your mana control and mastery over it are sufficient to recreate any sound. That will probably take you a few months if you keep at it every day that is. How about scent and touch?"
Sly's ears move backwards before replying. "For scents, I used a trick that will probably fool a human or elf, but I doubt I can fool another demi-human. I can only recreate a single scent with my illusions. The scent itself has almost no variations or nuances, which is far from what I myself can smell."
"Interesting. That should be a minor problem that will fix itself with enough practice as you learn how to create more scents and begin to mix them up."
"As for touch, I only really used it once, and it took me around ten minutes of testing to get the same feeling from my illusion as from the surrounding walls. Touch is very time-consuming, so I will probably only use it in my better illusions, and I also had to use it in conjunction with sight. This drained most of my mana reserves for just one illusion, but at least it is stationary and will not need as much mana to maintain."
Showing her once again by recreating a smaller wall, like the one he used to hide his room, Sly demonstrates the physical form it takes and that objects only pass through after exerting some minimum force. The same applies to Acatl when she tries it. "That's a strange illusion. To think it can almost manifest as something physical. Perhaps the illusion mana actively manipulates matter surrounding it to imitate the surface you want to have. We will have to study this further after you reach level two. You can let go of the illusion before you enter mind down. For now, the drain of manipulating two senses at once is too much for you."
Sly releases his illusion and breathes in deeply as the lightheaded feeling he felt slowly reduced. "My current goal with Illusiois to practice until my control is sufficient for nuanced sounds. I will also practice the touch-based illusions until I can create one without needing the visual representation as well."
Acatl floats around, thinking about his problem. "I've got it! I'm brilliant! Please wait for a moment, Nibi-kun. I will be right back."
She then quickly floats out of the library and Sly uses the time to search for the book about the age of heroes. 'Now that my formal kione is good enough, I will finally borrow this book. Legends about kitsune, here I come!'
Sly puts the old tome into one of his pouches of the perfect size for protection. At that moment, Acatl comes back. "I have a good idea how you can practice your touch-based illusions."
Acatl lands in front of him with both her hands hidden behind her back. "How would you advise me to practice Acatl-hakase?"
Acatl smiles with a sparkle of mischievousness in her eye. Sly has an awful premonition about this after seeing the twinkle in his teacher's eyes. "To begin with, close your eyes."
Looking very dubious, Sly complies while straightening both his tails, to stand tall to his sides, ready to act depending on what his teacher plans. Acatl then walks closer to him. Sly can feel her mana pressure locking him in place as she moves her hand towards his head. Before he knows it, she places a cloth over his eyes and begins cackling madly while dodging back as his tails swat at her.
Sly moves his hands to the cloth around his eyes. "What is this Acatl!? Why can't I take it off?!"
Still smiling to herself, Acatl watches as Sly tries to pry off the blindfold. He then tries using his mana pressure to take it off, but it gets stuck even worse.
"As you have just witnessed, I enchanted a blindfold for you. It can only be taken off with a specific magic pattern. Any other magic will only increase its durability.
Now, as for the reason I tricked you into wearing a blindfold, the biggest problem you have with touch-based illusions is your dependence on your sight. Now that you can't see, you can practice another aspect of your illusions. I want you to spend our time today blindfolded and practising your different illusions. Even sight-based ones."
Doubting the sanity of his teacher, Sly asks. "How should I even begin manifesting a visual illusion without sight?"
"By practicing one of the most important abilities of a mage. Imagination. If you can picture something without the interference from your sight, it should drastically improve the quality of your illusion if you have your sight back."
Sly's indignation at being tricked lessens some after hearing the reason for Acatl's trickery. "I see. At least it should improve my illusions, but please Acatl-hakase warn me the next time instead of handicapping me!"
Breathing deeply, Sly begins to shift his focus to his different senses. Without his vision, his hearing seems to jump a few notches higher. He can even hear his quiet breathing and the sound of Acatl turning pages and taking notes.
His sense of smell also opened far more. The most overwhelming scent in the library was that of books, but he could also follow Acatl's scent to her location or even his own scent, or more accurately, lack of other scents to retrace his steps.
His sense of touch also magnified, but instead of focusing on his hands, his tails got even more sensitive. With a swiping motion, he could even sense the distance the ground had from his tails and Sly could even feel the shifting of the hairs from touching something clearly. His reaction time was even fast enough to prevent him from swinging them into the bookshelves and by moving one to his front, he could prevent himself from running into anything.
Sly then begins training with his touch-based illusions by focusing on his sense of touch with the new impression he got from his tails. He first picks up a book with his tails before giving it to his hand and copying the feeling of it.
The solid illusion went in the correct direction, but without sight it was quite difficult to create a flat surface and even more so when Sly tried to make interaction with the corporeal illusion like a book with pages. At least the solid illusion was invisible, as Acatl confirmed upon his request.
The next step was to create a more complex scent with his illusion. For this, Sly began the arduous task of identifying and naming all the different scents and their strength. It took him around half an hour and a few retries until he found the most important scents.
Sly then left the library and began to slowly focus on each individual scent, from the strongest to the weakest, and recreate them one after another. Sly quickly found his new limit at 3 scents that he could mix together, but any more and he would lose one of them even with his enhanced sense of smell with the blindfold.
As for the sound-based illusions. Sly didn't really get any further. He managed to recreate the primary frequency of a page being turned but couldn't change the frequency quickly enough to truly simulate the sound. He would need to improve his control far more before he could create correct sounds or even illusionary conversations.
Lastly, he tries using sight-based illusions, but it proved quite difficult to see how well he did with his blindfold. At least he managed to work out some of his annoyance at falling for Acatl's trick with the blindfold.
Sly kept the illusions simple just to see how his imagination would translate to a sight-based illusion. He projected an image of Acatl floating midair with her white wings fluttering in tandem. He then let the illusion miss a flap of her wings and lose control of her flight.
Acatl observed Sly's illusions from her position and even hid her laughter with a cough at Sly's way of getting back at her. Acatl noticed a few problems with the illusion. It wasn't bad per se, but it lacked detail compared to the ones Sly can see. It not only had irregular scale patterns, but the runes on the robe were a different colour. Most notably, one of her red runes was a dark grey and Acatl could even see where Sly had his focus, as the rest of the illusion would lose details whenever he focused on another part.
Acatl coughs lightly after two hours of Sly playing around with all his illusions. Sly jerks as gets out of his magical trance. "Nibi-kun, I see you managed to at least adapt to your blindfold. Your illusions seem good enough for the first time, so I will now show you the mana code used to take off your blindfold. Your homework is to continue with your formal kione and to use the blindfold to practice your different illusions with greater focus."
Sly chuckles awkwardly while quietly dissipating the illusion of Acatl casting a spell that explodes in her face. "Very well. I thank you very much Acatl-hakase for your help. From what I can tell, this new exercise already improved my illusions by leaps and bounds. I can't wait to see what I can do with my illusions after I master this exercise. Thank you very much, Acatl-hakase."
Acatl then shows him how to take off the blindfold and Sly leaves for the day. Now that he can see the blindfold, he notes that it is in the same green colour as Acatl's robe and a few faintly glowing runes, just like her robe. Bringing back the "Age of Heroes" book with its kitsune entry, Sly returns to the martial dojo before rushing to Welf's workshop.
6 AM - A Mansion in Orario's Western District
As the sun rises and wakes Orario, there is one property in particular which enjoys the sun's morning greeting first. Owned by the low-ranked, but large Apollo familia, the rays of the breaking dawn spill into one particular room. This lavish chamber's walls are adorned with dressers, nightstands, and a vanity decorated white with red motifs surrounding a golden sun, Apollo's domain.
At the centre of this chamber stands a massive canopy bed facing a large bay window decorated similarly to the rest of the chamber, its silk linens are drawn shut. Sunlight spills through this window and onto the red silk linens, eliciting a soft groan from within. Answering the morning's call, a deft hand draws the silk apart revealing a dishevelled mop of orange hair atop a lithe, nude, male body of 180 cm.
A radiant, wide smile breaks across his face as he bathes in the first rays of his sun. He then remembers. 'Today is the summer solstice. The day on which my domain rises above all others.' This causes the wide radiant smile to slowly twist into a smirk as he glances through the window at Orario. 'What gifts and entertainment will my children bring me today? Perhaps they will bring me someone worthy of my sigil, of my bow draws upon the rising sun?'
Apollo giggled giddily and turn back into his canopy bed with a lewd smile spread across his face, his gaze falling upon his new favourite executive. Equally dishevelled, lithe body hidden beneath silk blankets, Hyakinthos Clio lays in Apollo's bed. He has brown hair that comes down to his mid-neck and, if he were standing, would measure to 181 cm (5'11), just taller than his god.
'I know I can count on my Hyakinthos to bring me great gifts and entertainment! Do me proud, my new executive.' Demanded Apollo, knowing that today would be a herald of great things to come.
8.30 AM - Chigusa's POV
After finishing her training, Chigusa went back into her still very simple room to stow away her different bows on her weapon stand. Her oldest hunting bow had a draw weight of 60 pounds. Easily usable even for mortals. Next came her first real warbow at 120 pounds that she started training with once she joined her familia. The draw weight only increased from there together with arrow weight to harm stronger and stronger monsters, even through their endurance. Her current dungeon warbow has a weight of 300 pounds and honestly is beginning to fall behind her strength.
'I told Welf I would meet him early on today. He seemed excited to improve my gear to help him and Sly. He was most interested in creating a bow out of metal. I told him it would be impossible, but he didn't give up. At least he relented, promised to first improve my armor. My normal mail and leather armor cover too little to go further.'
Chigusa then quickly glanced around her room. "Oh no. I completely forgot to buy a painting stand. Stupid Chigusa, why can I do nothing right besides archery?"
'Where's the sun? It isn't even 9 am yet. Okay, I still have time. I will have to rush, but I can still buy a painting stand before meeting Welf.'
Chigusa then quickly checked her window and checked her pouches for valis and slung her bow around her shoulder before jumping out of the window and catching her 8-meter fall in a roll. She then stood up and rushed to their wall.
To reach the markets in under 15 minutes, she needed to use the rooftops of Daedalus Street and jump from rooftop to rooftop straight towards Babel, without losing her way. She followed this plan and only had slight trouble with finding a passable route, as she had one of the highest dexterity attributes in their familia and an A in agility. She managed jumps that covered up to 7 meters without too much trouble and after leaving Daedalus Street, climbed back to the ground out of breath.
'I need to train my endurance more often. At least training super acrobatics with Sly, by borrowing from corrupt nobles, helped my dexterity. Now let's collect my painting stand I custom ordered from the Lu Ban familia two days ago.'
Chigusa rushed on at a more sedate pace, as she had to move through the crowded morning streets. On the way, she found a shop selling paint and papyrus and she quickly bought a few basic ingredients to start with. Unfortunately, most colours were only plant-based and her shop was all out of azurite, the typical ingredient used in blue paints. Chigusa would have to make do without it and purples until she found some.
She then finished her shopping trip by collecting her painting stand from the Lu Ban familia. Her trip back lead once again over the rooftops but took slightly longer as she had to carry her large painting stand with her rather short frame. Her trip took her 25 minutes, leaving her with 5 minutes to reach Welf's workshop.
After rushing towards the shop, she was truly out of breath. She quickly knocked, afraid of being late. But Welf met her a minute later with a smile and a soot-covered apron. "Glad you could make it, Chigusa. Was there trouble on your way here?"
Chigusa mumbles her answer, still panting. Welf accepts it and beckons her inside.
"Come on in Chigusa. I gotta finish the kunai I am making for Sly, then I'll take your measurements and we can figure out what type of armor you want. You can make yourself comfortable. I will be right back."
Chigusa took a seat in one of the two chairs next to the table in the armoury part of Welf's workshop. The table itself drew her focus quite quickly as she saw three different kunai designs and notes on the specific details about them, varying from neat notes in perfect kione to almost intelligible scribbles.
Besides the kunai sketches, she also saw at least 5 different helmet designs, all with strange triangular protrusions on the head and a different mechanism at the front. She was uncertain what those were for.
She then looked at the remaining notes and most of them were less recent before looking around at the weapons and armour Welf displayed. It was professional, but generally kept simple and close to the original purpose without decoration.
Welf then returns with a measurement tape to collect the measurements he will need to make her armour. To pass the time, he told her a little about his projects and the progress he made. She asks what he and Sly were up to besides raiding the dungeon for all the resources they could find.
Welf grinned at her before making a very wide motion with his hands like telling a grand story.
"Last week I cornered Sly and dragged him to my shop to get the kunai designs right. Afterwards, I asked him about his progress with his magic and he told me he was struggling with the temperatures of his foxfire.
Long story short, we spent the night forging with foxfire that Sly had to keep at the perfect temperature. At first he had trouble, but after the first twenty minutes he got a handle on his foxfire and held it steady at the right temperature! It was perfect for hammering out kunai, but alas nothing lasts forever and Sly ran out of mana after another 40 minutes.
The next day, we collected a bunch of enhanced drops from the secret rooms Sly found. Sadly, the stronger monsters need around a week before reappearing."
Chigusa comments before discussing armour. She needs monster leather gauntlets that only leave her pointer and middle finger open to draw the bowstring but absorb the release of the bowstring. Otherwise, a helmet, stronger chain mail, and good leather armour below it. Nothing too heavy or she won't be able to move quickly, but at least armoured boots to kick monsters that get too close.
Welf also convinces Chigusa to improve her current bow, which she has to hold while they reinforce it. They use a tendon of a wyvern, which is a very rare drop of the middle floors, and some black dungeon lizard scale alloy, because of its flexibility, to let her use it at a higher poundage of around 400 pounds.
While Chigusa keeps her bow steady for Welf, she explains to him her interesting morning, and Welf admits to not knowing the super acrobatics she used, and doubts his stats are enough. She encourages him to join her after today as she started with lower stats, and it would even help his dodging skills against large monsters and coordination.
She then asks about what they take into the dungeon and finds a concerning lack of food. They have water but nothing to eat for the 8 hours they are inside. Welf and Sly rarely eat in the dungeon, not because they do not need it, but because both of them tend to focus on their current projects and often go without food, a bad habit they share.
They promise to remind each other to buy something before entering the dungeon.
10.15 AM - Sleipnir's POV
After rushing to Welf's workshop, Sly could already hear voices inside. 'Seems Chigusa is already here. I can't wait to explore the tenth floor. My ears healed a week ago, but I still had to wait for my armour.'
Inside, Welf and Chigusa were testing Chigusa's bow, and if Sly wasn't mistaken, he can even make out a black stripe reinforcing it. "Good morning Welf-san, Chigusa-chan. I see you two are already getting along seamlessly."
Chigusa loosens her grip on the bowstring slowly before spinning and looking at him with excitement. "It was wonderful. Welf-san helped me improve my warbow, and we even planned a possible armour set for me."
Welf added. "With the improvements, I think the warbow deserved its own name. I have just the name. From now on, its name is Yoru Yumi."
Taking a moment to mull it over, Chigusa accepts the new name for her bow.
Smiling back, Sly said. "That's wonderful Chigusa-chan. And Welf-san, I thank you for welcoming Chigusa-chan into our party so easily." 'And not choosing a silly name for her weapon.'
Welf gives Sly a firm nod. "From what I saw from Mikoto and how she acted even around your familia captain, I see why you two would distance yourselves. But enough of the serious stuff, do you want to test your armour Sly?"
With two quickly swaying tails, Sly answers. "Of course, let's put it on."
Welf then brought forward the entire armour set he made for Sly. They put it on, beginning with a deep blue gambeson with metal plates hidden within. It also had the Takemikazuchi sigil on the back. The places below the plates are surrounded by leather armour while Sly's hands are protected by dark grey plated gauntlets that only exposed the bottom of the fingertips for spell-casting. These are followed by dark grey dungeon metal boots, shin guards, poleyn (knee), vambrace and couter (elbow) to complete his body armour. Lastly, came the dark helmet made from the almost black dungeon lizard alloy, which stood in clear contrast to Sly's light blue ears
The helmet was the most complex armour piece Welf and Sly worked on. After Welf got the initial plan for a hume bunny, he and Sly used the same amount of padding for his ears, before testing out many mechanisms to let sounds through on the floors without sound hazards. Their final version was far from perfect but was simple enough for a quick fix should something break in the dungeon.
It used a simple triangle extension above Sly's ears that is 7 cm high. A little lower than his normal ear position, but still fitting without harming them. When wearing it, Sly can fit his ears inside without trouble, and with a simple joint, he can turn the front of the pyramid, covering his ears back and hook on the inner side of his helmet.
The rest of the helmet left Sly's face mostly open but went down to his neck and also covered his shin while leaving his face exposed for spell-casting and retaining as much sight as possible.
After putting on the entire armour and making sure everything sits tight. Sly looked into the mirror with a satisfied expression.
Welf smiles in satisfaction as well. "Now that everything fits well, I have to say the armour looks very good. It's time to test if everything is protected, then we can finally challenge the tenth floor."
Chigusa also speaks with badly held-back excitement while hugging one of Sly's tails. "It looks very good. Only your robe is missing." Chigusa then gives Sly his orc leather robe to add a layer of defence and protect his otherwise undefended tails, but also lets them come out at will to cast foxfire.
"Now that you wear your full gear, how much is your sight inhibited?" Chigusa asked while skirting around Sly quickly.
Sly followed Chigusa with his eyes. "It reduces my peripheral vision slightly. I can see a little less than 180 degrees in front of me."
Testing the limits of his vision, Chigusa asks something unrelated. "You still have trouble seeing red's, am I right Sly?"
"That's correct Chigusa-chan. Why would you ask?"
"Nothing special. I just wanted to check if you still had the same problem." 'Please do not keep asking.'
Welf took the moment to intercept for Chigusa. "If you have trouble seeing reds Sly, then how does my hair look to you?"
Sly thinks for a moment. "Now that you mention it, it looks like a dark gray hue for me. It must be a really pure red, otherwise, I would have seen at least a little red in it. Answering your question, I didn't know your hair was red until now, but all hues that aren't pure red I can at least recognize. That's also the reason I can recreate most reds using my illusions, although I'm partially colorblind to them."
Chigusa continues for him. "That's correct. It was an interesting sight when he first started using his illusions on different reds. Most of them seemed to be somewhere between white and black."
Each one now weighs around a kilo and is strapped into many of the hidden pouches around his new gear and robe. Meanwhile, Welf and Chigusa take a few additional pouches because after paying Welf Sly is almost out of valis, and now that Chigusa ordered armour she will also need to regain her funds.
Orario Streets
The new party took their normal route towards Babel until a large crowd stopped them. All around Babel, civilians and adventurers alike were watching as a group of a little more than 100 adventurers prepared for an expedition into the deeper floors. They were led by the one and only pallum hero, Finn.
Finn Deime, the Loki familia captain is a pallum with a height of 110 cm. He carries high-quality monster leather armour and twin spears on his back. Behind him were his two fellow executive members. A sturdy-looking dwarf called Gareth and Riveria. Behind them were twenty of their second-class familia members, including the still petite Ais.
Sly was the first to spot the familia in the spotlight. His ears even focused in the direction of the executives as he saw Riveria. 'I still can't believe that a royal elf let me speak to her casually. With how Asuka acted when I met her, I thought all elves were very prideful and believed in their superiority.'
His gaze then went over to the other executives. Gareth, the sturdy dwarf in heavy armour, reminded Sly of Ouka. Then came Finn. At first gaze, Sly almost missed him completely, but a small light reflected by his spears drew his attention. Finn stood straight and almost regal in the front, even further than Riveria and Gareth, with whom he was conversing. Sly could not hear the subject of their discussion, but from the authoritative way he held himself, Sly quickly deduced his role.
He then looked over at the second-class adventurers. Most were very well-equipped, but only one caught his gaze. The blond adventurer he met with Riveria was present as well. 'Wow to think even Ais was already level 3 or perhaps even 4. Otherwise, she wouldn't join an expedition into the deep levels. I will have to work harder. She can't be older than 13 and is already so strong.'
Before Sly could finish his thought, Ais caught his gaze. After a moment, she gave him a small nod before returning her attention to the executives. Finn then chose this moment to announce their expedition.
"My fellow Loki familia members and of course fellow adventurers. Today our second expedition for this year will begin. Our goal is to get past Udaeus and explore the volcano region. Everyone double check your salamander wool capes, undine robes and lastly, your phoenix garments for the volcano region."
After a quiet moment where all the familia members checked their gear, Finn continued. "It seems everyone came prepared. In that case, I declare the second expedition of the year 997 has officially begun on the summer solstice. Split up into the primary support and combat group and reassemble in Riveria."
The expedition then left in two groups. The first contained most second-class adventurers led by Gareth, while Finn and Riveria went with the support group to protect their wagons of backup weapons and rations.
It took a moment of patience, but after both groups left, Sly and his party used the previously cleared rooms to descend as well.
Dungeon
The first few floors passed quickly as the monsters as the expedition killed all the monsters. They left even the magic stones for fellow adventurers. Sly used the chance to collect as many as he could while they descended. 'Nice that we left directly after the expedition. The slower adventurers will still collect some, but at least many of those magic stones will be put to good use.'
After clearing the first few floors, monsters began spawning more regularly again and Sly had to keep alert. Serving as their lookout thanks to his far better senses. The fighting, on the other hand, he left mostly for Chigusa and Welf. At least for the first few floors, which he suspects to give him almost no extalia anymore. They also introduced Chigusa to a few secret passages they knew of and found during the last week.
Because Sly stood in the middle of their formation, Welf attracted the most monsters and sometimes had to block strikes with his armour and move the most to keep up with the larger numbers.
Chigusa focused on learning the limits of the Yoru Yumi. She even had to give it her all if she wanted to make a full draw. Previously, she only had to keep her aim steady and draw the bowstring, but with the higher poundage, she had to stretch her arms towards the ceiling and use the better grip she had in that position to draw it while moving to aim.
'It has been a while since I had to draw a heavy bow. At least I still know how to do it from my early days. Drawing a high poundage without a good form is too exhausting, but even with the correct movement I am still exhausted after only the first 7 floors.'
It was about that time that Sly also began more actively fighting. From there on, it went far easier for Welf, with Sly at his side and the occasional foxfire, to thin out the numerous killer ants. He even drank a health potion after a particularly deep bite from one of the ants. Chigusa took the chance to drink a stamina potion to continue shooting.
Their attacks worked together well, as Sly had guarded Chigusa numerous times in the old team and Welf had already adapted to the guidance Sly gave him by being the party's lookout.
Floor 10 - Chigusa's POV
After the warmup, Chigusa was in her element. Although Yoru Yumi was more strenuous to use, it also had far more power. Against the Orcs, it worked wonders compared to her previous bows.
The arrows now pierced the thick hide even without using any techniques, whereas before she always had to hit the orc's eyes, as all other points wouldn't have mattered against the orc's natural toughness.
Chigusa even went as far as to start aiming for the more difficult spots she avoided with Yoru Yumi up to this point, as she just wasn't comfortable enough with her accuracy.
But now she even focused on the quick and oh-so-small bad bats. They were still a priority target even with Sly's new gear since they still posed a problem for her and Welf. The stupid things' cries could mess up her aim and that would be anything but good when her party trust her with their backs.
From the corners of her eye, she also saw how Welf dealt with a small horde of imps and needle rabbits. The pesky little things had trouble getting through his armour, but they made up for it in sheer number and agility.
After taking out another group of bats and a few imps to help Welf, she chanced a quick glance at Sly, who fought the orcs. She saw that 2 had already crumbled on the floor and Sly was dancing around the strikes from the other two with grace and bombarded them with foxfire from his two tails and continuous strikes from his naginata.
Chigusa used their distraction to shoot one orc in the head, causing it to stumble. Sly used the chance and jumped up to the head of the twice his size large orc and beheaded it with a very heavy strike, which would probably have even been difficult for Welf with his far larger sword.
Sly then quickly glanced at her and Welf before telling her to focus on Welf. Before jumping back at his last orc intent on finding its magic stone, instead of slowly weakening it like the others.
Back with Welf, she then continued thinning the number of needle rabbits, as they landed the most hits on Welf. He would probably need to use some of their blue papilio dust to negate the poison and drink a potion before they continued.
Unfortunately, the needle rabbits were quick and nimble enough to avoid her arrows if they saw them. Thus, she had to wait until they committed to a direction before firing and one imp noticed it.
The harmless-looking imp waited exactly for her next shot and threw a large branch at her that made her lose her aim. The arrow released and instead of the needle rabbit she aimed for it pierced Welf's armguard and arm, which lead to loud cursing.
Chigusa berated herself for her carelessness and began decimating the imps, while Sly continued for another minute against the last orc before noticing that Welf had trouble and joining against the rabbits. It ended quickly thereafter, as Sly noticed Welf's injury and began liberally using his kunai to injure the needle rabbits and imps.
Sly then helped Welf to remove the arrow before Chigusa applied a potion. He glanced around before freeing one of his ears to reassure Welf.
He then broke the end of the arrow shaft off and then commanded Welf. "Bite down on this piece of bark. This will hurt. I will push the arrow through the wound on three."
That was necessary, as Chigusa's arrows all lodged themselves into the target with their spin and can't be pulled out without causing even more damage.
Welf then bit down on the bark and waited while Sly counted to three, but grunted when Sly pushed the arrow through at two. Chigusa then applied the potion and began applying the blue healing powder to all the scratches he got from the needle rabbits.
"Chigusa, please be more careful the next time. I have nothing against playing the decoy, but if I had to choose between a horde of monsters and you, I would choose the monsters anytime."
Chigusa tries to focus on his wounds and looks anywhere but his eyes. She even turns slightly red from embarrassment. "It wasn't my intention. I lost my focus on one imp while shooting and it knocked my arrow, of course. I apologise Welf-san ... please do not take offence, it wasn't my intention."
Welf nods after she chances a look at his eyes. "I forgive you, Chigusa, but the next time, don't get overconfident. It leads to mistakes."
"Of course, Welf-san. I will do my utmost to not lose focus again."
Sly also bowed to them. "I also have to apologise to you both. I underestimated my reliance on my hearing. I did not factor in that I would need to look around more often when I can't hear all the monsters."
"That's no problem Sly. We should also be more attentive. That's all the more important when you use your ear protection. Or we might get surprised and a single mistake could be all it takes to beat us."
Floor 6 - Sleipnir's POV
They had to fight the usual swarms until they reached the sixth floor. Following the main path, Sly noticed something. It was quiet. He carefully looked around, but there were only a few monsters around and they fell almost too easily. But at the edge of his awareness, he felt something he was sure of it.
As there were still monsters to fight, Sly quickly lost his train of thought and helped the others forward.
A few minutes later, they encountered another group of adventurers. There were 5 of them and the leader held himself with grace and looked down at him. Even as their gazes met, Sly just barely managed to hide his second tail before being spotted.
The leader and he could be nothing but that, together with the other members of his party, all had shiny, almost new equipment with the sigil of Apollo. A sun behind a finely crafted bow.
The leader was a tall young man, who in Sly's opinion appeared almost impossibly elegant with the demeanour fit for a royal elf. He has well-groomed long brown hair as well as bluish-grey eyes similar to the vast sea.
His followers had a slightly less expensive attire, but still kept it elegant. Three were human and one elf. two furthest from them were the elven and human archers, while the two beside the leader wielded a spear and sword. The leader himself wore an expensive short- and longsword with gold adornments.
'All this pomp and almost new equipment. It almost makes me sick, like the nobles I had to work with back in the east. There isn't even a scratch on his armour, but he also feels strong. Perhaps even a little stronger than me. His party members are also at least high-level ones.'
While these thoughts went through Sly's mind, he already started getting annoyed at the other party, looking down at him.
The leader then spoke in his far too high-pitched voice. "See the rabble that can only look up to us on this festive day? The longest day, the day where we shine the most."
The elf who was actively looking around answered with a suspiciously calm tone. "They must feel honoured to have your attention, Phoebus Apollo."
Hyakinthos continues. "Of course they should feel honoured."Sly and his party are carefully observing Hyakinthos. "But from their looks, they don't understand the privilege. But what can one expect from a group led by a simple animal playing vanguard mage, a blacksmith that couldn't even make a magic sword if his life depended on it, and a fierce markswoman?"
Their eyes narrow at his tone, and Sly shifts his weight slightly anticipating trouble. Welf, on the other hand, puts his hand on the handle of his sword and glares right at Hyakinthos.
"Let us through. We do not wish to play games with the Apollo familia."
"You and the animal are not a subject of interest smith. Leave." He then turns his attention to Chigusa, who takes a step back at the glint in his eyes.
"However, the wonderful lady in your company draws my attention. Milady, would you honour me with your name?"
Feeling quite annoyed, Chigus answered. "No, I will not give you my name. You haven't even introduced yourself and we do not know your intentions."
Hyakinthos takes a step closer to Chigusa, causing both Welf and Sly to step closer as well.
"In that case, allow me to introduce myself! I am Hyakinthos Clio, the newly promoted executive of the Apollo familia!"
Chigusa feels quite uncomfortable under Hyakinthos' scrutinizing gaze. "My name is Hitachi Chigusa. Now, would you please let us pass?"
"The rabble are free to leave, but it would be a shame for you to not hear me out!" Hyakinthos retorts. "You haven't even heard Apollo-sama's offer. I have been tasked with recruiting new blood interested in the fine art of archery and you seem above your companions skill-wise. You would do far better in a familia where you had all the resources you needed."
Chigusa shakes her head and takes a breath, ready to deny the silly offer, but Sly chose this moment to block Hyakinthos's view of Chigusa while crossing his arms to put his hands on the daggers beneath his robe. He speaks quickly and with barely concealed anger. "Chigusa-chan has heard your offer, but already asked you to let us pass would you please do so?"
"As I said mangy fox, you are free to leave. However, I must impress upon you, Lady Chigusa, that refusal is not in your best interests." Hyakinthos then shoves Sly away from Chigusa and Welf. "Perhaps a demonstration will prove this!"
Hyakinthos then takes out his sword and quicker than all others can observe slashes towards Sly's tight, where he only has his leather robe as protection.
Sly manages to instinctively react in time and takes a step back, before even seeing Hyakinthos strike, but Hyakinthos gives him no time to plan. A steady stream of attacks comes Sly's way, and he is forced to pull out both his daggers and focus purely on defence.
The attacks of Hyakinthos have the speed of a level two, and even with his incredible agility, Sly is only a level. Even with his very high stats, he has no way of outperforming a level two physically. So instead, he fully drops all pretence of offence and starts thinking of a solution, even chancing a quick glance towards Welf and Chigusa.
They aren't faring any better than him. Probably even worse.
Welf has to block the attacks from a spear wielder that outrageous him, while also keeping his focus open to dodge the skilled arrows fired by the human archer.
Going on the offence is almost impossible for him, because of reach and status advantage
Chigusa fared a little better, but not much. Her focus was primarily on a swordsman that kept harassing her and preventing her from using her bow. She even had to resort to using her shortsword to block some of his strikes. Her elven archer seemed to observe from afar, not intending to hurt their potential recruit.
Sly was pushed back further and only had a few meters left before his back would come to the wall. Hyakinthos noticed this as well, smirking, and began taunting Sly.
"Do you see now the fruitlessness of your defiance fox?" A quiet whisper reaches Sly's ears. "I can't kill you or our future recruit might cause trouble for us." "But I can and will give you the beating of your life."
'Okay. No more time for playing. I need a plan. How do I beat him or help my party? Think Sly Think.
…
Duck low and roll to the side at the last moment to gain another meter to dodge. I've got it. I simply need a large-scale illusion. Hyakinthos is playing with me. So if I continue falling back and slowly acting weaker, I should get the time to whisper a spell.'
Sly followed his plan and began murmuring while dodging and taking a few grazing hits. "Hiding trickster, oh cunning fox spirit, refracting prism."
A pained gasp escapes Sly as he misjudges the direction of a deep slash and gets cut in the arm. He forces himself to breathe and prevent Ignis Fatuus, Sly refocuses and murmuring on while taking an additional step back.
"By the father of the eight-legged horse, I command thee." Another impossible attack to dodge. Sly must block the full strength of Hyakinthos' far stronger sword with his normal dagger.
The dagger cracks and in his momentary confusion, another strike hits Sly, this time a small cut across his forehead. It is not very deep but strains his concentration even further. But through his ironclad will Sly maintains his spell.
"To affect the judgement of reality." When Sly is almost ready Hyakinthos prepares another quick stab, but Sly stops holding back and uses full force to dodge it this time and uses the hand that previously held his normal dagger to reach into one of his pouches.
Hyakinthos glances over in surprise, baffled by the sudden speed, Sly throws a handful of very fine sand directly into his eyes. "What have you done, my eyes! How DARE you! I will kill you … you damn mongrel!"
Not giving Hyakinthos time to recover, Sly cries the last word of his spell. "ILLUSIO!" Quickly creating the largest illusion domain he can with a ten-meter radius Sly. Quickly glancing towards a bleeding Welf riddled with arrows and a bruised Chigusa; Sly turns all of them invisible.
Knowing the tactic, they all quickly retreat to his barely perceivable symbol before running for the previously blocked exit.
For the normal Apollo members, the action was so sudden that they needed a second to understand what even happened. At that time their opponents were already running and the three human members lost track of them.
The only one that noticed something was the elf that held himself back during the first bout. He quickly noticed the feeling of strange mana around him. He looked around carefully and noticed a small inconsistent anomaly in the light where Chigusa just stood.
He then notices the anomaly dispersing towards the entrance they came from, along with the sound of steps around him. Putting two and two together, he quickly chants a spell towards the entrance. Their enemy is fleeing!
Sly and the others were already in the passage when they felt heat behind them. Sly glances back, blinking away blood that had seeped into his eye and sees a large fireball rushing after them.
Acting on instinct, he throws himself over his two companions, pushing them flat on the ground and moves both his tails as if to push against the fireball.
The heat gets closer until Sly can already feel the sweat drenching his tails, but then his tails flex towards the fireball and with a large drop in his mana, the heat recedes.
Standing up, the still-invisible trio glances back after the retreating fireball in confusion. They quickly overcome their surprise and rush away from the screaming when they hear an explosion and various cries of pain.
They sprint away and Welf directs them towards one of the secret rooms they visited on the fifth floor, to get their bearing and treat their most serious injuries before returning to the surface without further incident.
Authors Note
Thanks to my new Beta reader LazyHapa, I noticed a few points to improve in my writing and the flow is this chapter is even better. Also, now that I finished my exams I will get the chance to build up a little buffer and if possible release one chapter every fortnight.
On another note, I hope you enjoy the dnd-like atmosphere I try to build in my world. The ordered chaos that inspires me comes mostly from the dnd campaigns I dmed and how any plan I made was lost upon contact with the players or in this case Sly and my beta readers. If you enjoy such things I can only recommend trying out Baldur's Gate 3. It really caught the feeling of freedom you have in dnd like no other game I tried before.
