I will not lie.

There was quite the spring in my step the next morning as I left the small ruined church that worked as my current home behind.

It was early, albeit, not quite as early as I usually left the place behind. Granted, I had a late night last night.

Hestia had already left a half an hour ago or so. To go hit up Miach and Naaza and drag them along with her. Today was the day after all, when the first store belonging to the Hestia Familia would be opening up.

And she had to take them to go get measured for their uniforms, just like she did. Thankfully, there was a good tailors in the Tower of Babel that Hestia had learned made the uniforms for the Hephaestus Familia stores.

I'm getting Miach put in a dapper suit and both Hestia and Naaza in some maid uniforms. Sure, the Hephaestus familia already did that, but they used kind of ugly red ones.

Nah bro, I'm going the traditional black and lacey ones. Well, for Hestia at least. Naaza, I'm getting in a light blue.

Having them both have different colours of outfits, made them vary and made them both stand out more next to each other.

The pretty boy, gentle voiced god. The cute and busty, soft spoken dog girl, and of course, the gorgeous, supremely sexy twin tailed short stack goddess.

It was truly a great recipe of sex appeal. The only thing I was missing in that line up was a a shirtless guy rippling with muscle, and I can cover that myself…sometimes.

With those, and my massive variety of products, the Hestia Familia will rake in the cash just from that store alone never mind all the other plans I have.

I couldn't help but laugh gleefully.

"Muahahahahahahahahahaha!" my laughter echoed throughout the street as I walked.

At my side, the tiny form of Lili equipped with ever so cute dog ears and a fluffy little dog tail gave me a dry look, "Mr. Caelan….you really do sound like a villain when you laugh like that." she pointed out.

"I did tell you I was one after all." I shrugged and pointed out with a grin.

"Yes…but I didn't think you meant so literally," Lili sighed, "Or in such a cliche manner. Lili grew up around villainous trash, so I can say for certain that none of them laugh like that."

"You just answered your own question," I replied, "Trash. They were trash. Not me, I'm more like the final boss the hero of the story doesn't even realise is the true villain until they defeat the strongest monster in the setting and think they can live happily ever after, only for me to swoop in, steal that monsters power, add it to my own and become unstoppable, kill the hero, steal his women and rule the world."

Now that is a bed time story I'll tell to my kids one day.

"…Lili never heard of any story about villains like that…ever, and there are a lot of fairy tales and epics about heroes." she replied after a moment of just staring at me, flabbergasted.

I snorted, and shook my head, "Ah Lili, so pretty, so cute, so logical, and did I mention pretty and cute?" I teased her with a wink, making a show of giving her a look over, since right now, she wasn't wearing her cloak or carrying her massive supporter bag, she was just in her casual clothing, belly baring top, unbuttoned skirt and all, "History is written by the winners and of course they'll never tell everyone they were the villain."

"Lili thinks you are taking that a bit too literally, I have heard that quote before, I'm not a dumbass," Lili retorted, though that didn't stop her cheeks from blazing red and looking away from my gaze, "Where are we going anyway? I was too caught up in my shock at you going out and killing the Goliath like a crazy person to remember."

Yeah…shock might have been an understatement, when she heard I went and killed the Goliath as a level one and decided to level, all while she was sleeping.

Well, shock was a bit of an understatement, she kind of shut down and had to reboot to factory settings.

Killing the Goliath as a level one, was just that massive of an accomplishment apparently. I wish the fight lived up to such a hyped achievement though.

Even now I'm still disappointed at such a lame ass fight from what was supposed to be a boss monster. the only thing that improved my mood last night was giving Ais a bunch of stuff to say to her familia if they asked what took her so long, or to use as an excuse for coming to meet me.

Think you can mock Bestia, huh Loki? You're not dealing with your average Bell Cranel here, but the true blue final villain.

And I don't play fair.

Reaching over I pet Lili's head and ruffled her hair, grin widening in amusement at my own thoughts, "We're heading to Dian Cecht's main pharmacy."

"Stop that," Lili protested at my treatment of her with a pout, but didn't pull away, which was telling enough, "The one that's full of incredibly expensive stuff like elixirs?"

"That's the one," I confirmed with a nod, "I'm looking to see if I can take care of something and hopefully set up a business trade with them."

"I see." Lili hummed, and said nothing more.


Unlike most of the biggest business' around, the main pharmacy of the Dian Cecht familia was not within the Tower of Babel, though they did have a couple of small stores in there.

Rather, it was along one of the main streets leading towards the dungeon and tower themselves. Which made sense, because the pharmacy? Was massive.

It was a huge intricate and lavishly designed building of gleaming white stone that seemed to almost glow under the sunlight.

From what I've heard, it was the main base of operations for the Dian Cecht familia, and beyond working as a pharmacy store, also operated as an infirmary for those needing treatment and even had specific rooms set aside where clients could talk business deals with the Dian Cecht Familia.

That, was what I was here for.

It wasn't long before we arrived at our destination and I pushed the door open, both myself and Lili stepping in from the streets and our feet landing upon dark gleaming blue tiles.

Rows upon rows of shelves filled with all manner of potions met my eyes on one side of the room, while at the other, opposite of them was a sales desk where more filled shelves resides, and a door leading into a backroom of some sort in between the shelves.

The room itself was shaped like a large backwards 'L', and at the far end of the room there was a set of waiting couches.
Most likely for those waiting for those in the infirmary or waiting for staff to talk business when they were busy.

"It smells…clean?" Lili sniffed the air a few times as we entered and remarked confusedly.

She was putting those transformed chienthrope senses to good use I see. And she wasn't wrong. I noticed a clear difference in the air as we entered it. Compared to outside, it was cool, and much clearer.

I couldn't smell any chemicals in the air either.

It reminded me almost, of a hospital back in my old world, only, without that sterile add on to the scent lingering in the air.

'Probably a magical item made by Dia Saint with her Mystery ability.' I thought. That made sense to me at least.
Mystery was great for things beyond just combat after all. Something I need to keep in mind for sure. Quality of life is important after all.

There is more fun to be had in life, than kicking the shit out of monsters and beautiful women after all.

Speaking of beautiful women though…

My eyes drifted over to the counter where a short, long silver haired beauty stood behind the sales desk dressed in blue and white, and a little medic hat to top it off.

Amid Teasanare, the Dia Saint, the greatest healer in Orario, possibly the world, and the captain and pride of the Dian Cecht Familia.

She was gorgeous I noted instantly. She had an ethereal beaty about her, with shimmering silver hair, and deep purple eyes. She was small and slender, but voluptuous still in the chest.

What the fuck is with this world and all the gorgeous short stacks around?

But damn…that hair, gotta admit, it's really pretty. I would love to just stroke my fingers through it.

Shaking my head, I approached the sales desk that Amid stood behind, Lili following alongside me.

"Hello," Amid greeted me with a small, placid smile, "Can I help you?"

"Heya," I greeted her, "I'm Caelan Odhar, this is Lili. We're part of the Hestia Familia."

"Ah…Mr. Caelan, I'm no-" Lili opened her mouth to protest and refute that she wasn't part of the Hestia Familia.

"I'm the captain and we're a pretty new familia, so you've probably not heard of us yet," I continued over Lili, ignoring her protest entirely, "But, we're hear to talk business with you today."

Amid gave a slow blink and nodded, "I'm not quite sure what a new familia would be capable of bringing to the table what we cannot," she replied, her voice light, yet mature and melodious sounding, very pleasing to the ears, "But the Dian Cecht is always open to business proposals as long as they're serious."

Well, wasn't that a polite way of saying that a low level familia had nothing to offer them. Granted, she wasn't actually wrong, and their familia did business with the likes of Loki familia on the regular and the only reason I'm capable of bringing this up at all, is because of my own special overpowered skill.

"Don't worry, trust me, you won't be disappointed," I laughed and reached into the pouch on my hip, grabbing one of five specific phials contained in that part of it and lifted it out, "Take a look at this will you and tell me what you think?" I placed the phial, filled to the brim with the crimson red blood that run through my veins.

"Hmm?" Amid's eyebrows rose ever so slightly and she reached down at my urging to pick it up and lift it up to eye level, "This is…?" she trailed off.

"Mermaid blood." I offered.

In response, she reached into the pocket apron pocket of her dress and pulled out a small eye glass which she then brought up to slot over one of her eyes and view the phial of blood through it.

As soon as she did though, I was quite surprised when both of her eyes flew wide open with shock, "This…it's mermaid blood alright, but, I'm shocked," she said, turning her attention to me, "I've never seen mermaid blood with this kind of quality before, it's like you bled it straight from the source, but that's not possible, as soon as a mermaid is killed its blood except for some as a possible drop item disappears. And how did you get so much of it?"

Which was why I'm pretty confident the Dian Cecht familia will jump at the chance to make a business deal with me.

See, a mermaid is a very rare monster, like the Jack Bird more or less in that regard, on the floors they do spawn on, it would be lucky for them to appear in one in a thousand monsters that spawned.

On top of that, drop items were quite rare, so even if one did spawn, it wasn't guaranteed it would drop the blood.

But say one did spawn and then say after killing it, it actually dropped its blood as a drop item. The blood would drop straight onto the ground.

Contaminating it.

On top of that, only a fraction of the blood would be able to be scooped up, because blood is a liquid, albeit thicker than water, and if it splashes against the ground, of course it's gonna absorb into it.

"Trade secret," I winked and leaned over the counter counter, giving the beautiful silver haired healer a grin, "But let's just say, there's a lot more where that came from, and I can get more quite often." I added, and to punctuate my statement, reached into my pouch and withdrew the other four phials I'd prepared.

Unfortunately, I can only make a few of these a day if I want to actually get anything done. Blood, is one of the few things my healing power doesn't effect and I have to eat and rest to restore my blood.

Which kind of makes sense considering my enhanced healing abilities, comes from the blood in my veins.

Amid stared wide eyed at the four phials, bringing the total amount I was offering up to five. Which in of itself, not even talking about the quality was an absurd amount.

As mentioned with how rare Mermaid's were, and drop items generally being a one in five chance, on the few floors mermaids did spawn, it was akin to a one in five thousand chance of finding one, killing it and getting the blood as a drop.

And as it would drop to the ground, contaminating most of it. only a small part would be salvageable. Not even close to a full phial of it.

For a full phial, it would could take anywhere between six and eleven or twelve Mermaid drops, meaning numerically wise with the spawn rate of mermaids and the drop rates, a standard full phial would take killing between thirty thousand and sixty thousand monsters.

An absolute absurd amount and why only the most top tier of familia tended to be given quests to farm for mermaids blood. Admittedly, some times the odd adventurer passing through those floors would come across one by luck, kill it and get the drop.

Luck was a big factor in it that could change the board, but at the same time, the logical numbers were insane even if they weren't fully and completely accurate.

A guy like Bell Cranel after all with his luck skill turned everything on its head there. if that guy was smart, he could leverage that skill to farm monsters like mermaids and their drops and make a killing.

But Bell Cranel was an idiot and Caelan Odhar was not.

Despite her shock, Amid quickly recovered and gave him a plain smile, "A deal, I see," she nodded, catching on to the subtext in his worlds, "Then would you be adverse to joining me in one of the business rooms?" she asked, handing me back the phial she had in her hand, that she had been examining.

"Sounds good." I replied with a grin. Being directed to business rooms to talk deals? Was a whole other level from just bartering for the price of an item.

"One moment then." Amid replied, before calling over one of her familia members, a girl called Martha to take over the front desk for her. Once she had, Amid stepped out from behind the sales desk and gestured for us to follow her.

As we did though, my eyes instinctively raked down towards her backside and my eyes widened, "God damn." I whispered under my breath. Amid was short and slender, and with a voluptuous chest, but her ass? Even in the unflattering dress uniform she wore, it put even her busty chest to shame.

She had a massive badonkadonk that stretched out the the back of her dress like the greatest shelf mankind had ever come together to create as their greatest masterpiece.

She was like an inverse Hestia in that regard, similar height even to go with it. Hestia had a great ass, big, plump, round, bouncy, perky and it stood out on her short frame, but her absolutely incredible tits drew way more attention than her epic ass.

Amid had great tits, big, plump, round, bouncy and perky. Yes, it did bare repeating. But her absolutely massive ass, stood out incredibly.

Like god damn, that ass!

"…Mr. Caelan." Lili's annoyed voice made me look to my side to see her giving me an annoyed, deadpan look.

She had heard me even though I had whispered it incredibly softly. That was probably because of the fluffy brow canine ears atop her head. The ears of a werewolf.

"Don't worry," I assured her, "You've got a great one too. Honestly once you start eating better you'll be insane."

"…Mr. Caelan has no delicacy whatsoever," Lili pouted, her cheeks flushing, "Completely unfair."

True that.

Before long we reached the business room and were directed inside. It was a pretty snazzy place actually. A simple rectangular room with white tiled flooring, white walls with mahogany wooden decoration reaching halfway up like a railing that covered each wall, a large green rug in the middle of the room with a small square table on it, with two large expensive looking couches facing each other on either side of the table.

"So…" Amid prodded once they sat down, me and Lili on one couch, her on the other facing him.

"Down to business then yeah?" I grinned, threading mu fingers together and leaning back in the couch, lifting one leg to balance my foot on the knee of the other, "Iet's start with this then, how much would you offer for one of these phials of mermaid blood?"

Amid stared at me for a moment, beautiful amethyst eyes looking straight into my own, searching, before sighing, "A tough question, I've never seen mermaid blood of that quality or that amount before at once," she admitted, "A typical full phial of mermaid blood, we'd generally purchase for between three and four million valis, maybe a bit more if our stocks run low. A single drop is enough to make a dozen elixirs. The sheer purity of the mermaids blood you have though, I'm not even sure how to quantify properly. The kind of elixir we could make with that blood, will be several times more potent than normal."

All very true. Yet, I'm not hearing a price. Either she wasn't sure what was a good offer, or she was waiting on me opening up my own to try and work out.

Okay then.

"And how much they're worth, reflects that," I replied with a raised eyebrow, "A higher quality blood, means a higher quality elixir, a higher quality elixir means it's better for healing. Which means ergo, the price for the elixirs themselves will be much higher."

"Yes." Amid responded simply.

Still no offer huh?

Well, it was good for her he'd already decided how he'd approach this in advance, "Ten million per phial." I stated simply.

The eyes of Lili at my side bulged in shock and she gaped at me stupidly, eye wide with shock.

Amid clicked her tongue, "That's simply too much, you need to keep in mind that turning them into elixirs takes time, effort and the skills we have," she replied shaking her head, "Eight million." she offered, bargaining.

If possible, Lili's eyes seemed to bulge even more, honestly if they got any wider they'd pop straight out of their sockets.

Though not that I don't blame her. Eight million per phial, with the five I have on me, that's a total of forty million. On top of that, I already have six and a half million left over after cashing in my drops from last night.

I'd have a total of forty six and a half million valis. Well enough to get started on the construction of my big epic mansion.

…Actually I need a name for my mansion when I build it, something cooler than Twilight Manor that the Loki familia has.

But beyond that-

"Fifteen million." I replied to Amid, raising my pric

"E-eh?" Amid blinked, completely taken aback.

"Mr Caelan, so ruthless." Lili shook her head at me, yet a small smile spread across her face.

Well, gotta know your worth and all that.

"Well, I'm well aware of the worth this blood has, honestly with between this blood, your abilities, your mystery skill and the potion makers of the Dian Cecht Familia, I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to create an elixir that can regenerate limbs," I shrugged, "And I'm the only one that can supply mermaid blood of this quality."

"Even so, that's an outrageous price to ask for," Amid lost the impassive look she'd been keeping up and gave him a dry huff, "Buying that much and the time it would take to sell the completed product, would make the profits minimal, Dian Cecht won't allow such a deal."

Oh I was well aware of that.

"I know, I was just making a point," I replied, I was the one negotiating here from the point of strength, "If I just wanted to sell these to you after all I wouldn't be angling to make a business proposition with you."

"You could have simply led with that," Amid rolled her pretty eyes in annoyance, "I assume you already have some demands for such a deal then?"

"Yeah, nothing too major though," I replied with a laugh, "How about this? Eight million per phial of mermaid blood and I'll give you two free per month on top."

I was originally going to ask for seven and a half million per phial, but that offered eight looked nicer, rounder, evener.

Amid blinked, "Two for free, per month?" she repeated, giving him a confused look, "I don't understand, I offered eight per each but now you're offering just the same after shooting me down and even offering me two free phials of blood?"

"Call it a gesture of good faith," I shrugged, "Well, there is something I want out of it at least."

"And that would be?" Amid raised an eyebrow back at him.

"My goddess Hestia is close friends with Miach," I explained, leaning forward, "I want you to drop the debt they have to you guys, no ifs and or butts, if you refuse, I'll take my business elsewhere."

"Nazza I see…Though that's not really a decision I can make myself, they have an outstanding debt just shy of seventy million valis," Amid admitted with a sigh, "As much as I would like to I-

"Yes you can, you're the captain of the familia, Dian Cecht doesn't actually have any more power than what you guys give him," I cut her off, "But I'm well aware of Dian Cecht's utter lacking in anything resembling common courtesy unless it has to do with money. The two free phials a month will well cover that and more in just a few months, but beyond is the fact I'm exclusively selling to you guys, honestly I could be demanding much more and we know you'd give in. I could be demanding you pay me simply to keep up this business deal I'm offering not even the amount you'd be purchasing the blood for and not giving you any for free, yet here I am."

I sighed and shook my head, "Honestly, I can't believe one of the celtic gods turned out to be such a buffoon, talk about disappointment." I huffed in annoyance.

Give me back my reverence you buffoon! Give me back the time I spent being proud of dumbasses like you!

…At least there was Goibniu, Brigid and Miach as respectable celtic gods.

"Celtic gods?" both Lili and Amid gave him confused looks.

"The place I come from had a lot of legends about gods and certain groups they were part of, my people specifically came from the land where the pantheon known as the celtic gods ruled, Dian Cecht is one of those gods," I huffed, before something occurred and I gave Amid a once over, "Actually, were you found as an orphan with no name or something by Dian Cecht? Because there's a goddess called Amid amongst the celtic gods as well. A goddess of healing actually, ironically."

Amid blinked, "No…nothing like that," she shook her head, "I assume it's just a rather bizarre coincidence."

"I guess, though you definitely could have passed for a goddess," I snorted, "You're gorgeous enough to put most of them to shame."

Amid's eyes widened and a flush spread across her cheeks, "Oh…oh really?" she coughed, looking away, "That's nice of you to say."

"Just the truth," I grinned, "Maybe I should tack on a little add on to the business deal that you need to let me take you out to dinner?"

"Wow, you're really quite bold aren't you?" Amid shook her head, a light breathy giggle escaping her for a moment, before shaking her head, "That would be highly improper though, and I don't know you very much beyond your name, familia and this bold attitude of yours."

"Well, there's also my roguishly good looks to consider too." I winked at her. Actually to be honest, my looks were a bit odd. Different. Beyond the changes to my eyes and musculature, one thing I'd noticed was my hair.

Somehow the black dyed highlights in my hair, had become…natural? My hair grew in now predominantly blonde, but with black highlights through it. I think it has something to do with Typhon to be honest. Probably integrating it in some form with the evolution my body went through.

Spoiler

Either way, between it my now searing crimson red eyes and my build, I stood out quite a bit.

"I…suppose," Amid coughed again, then shook her head, "Anyway! Putting aside that last part, you will not budge on the matter of Miach and Naaza's debt?"

"Nope, not only is Miach, Hestia's friend, and I like the guy, I'm also opening up a store of my own and both Miach and Naaza are going to be working there," I replied with a shrug, actually, they should already be there right now, with both Hestia and Naaza in those snug, sexy maid outfits. I wanna go see them! "Having them worry about a debt like that and dealing what that disappointing buffoon of a god of yours, will get in the way of my plans."

"…You really don't like lord Dian Cecht huh? Did he disappoint your expectations that much?" Amid noted, an unladylike snort escaping her, before sighing and shrugging her shoulders, "Very well then, if this is the only way to secure such a deal, then he can't complain."

She meant whine. He would whine, a lot.

"Well unless you're up for that dinner instead." I offered with a laugh.

"Stop that," Amid shook her head, cheeks flushing once more, before standing up, "Give me a moment and I will draw up a contract and retrieve the vali's needed to purchase what you have on hand."

"Awesome, but before that," I spoke up, "I was hoping to ask your advice on something?"

"On what?" Amid asked.

"Your mystery skill," I replied, "I wanted to ask you how somebody goes about using it."

The silver haired beauty gave him an odd look, "I mean, I can but I don't see why that would be something you need to know," she replied giving him a curious look, "You said just before you that the Hestia familia has only been active for two weeks, so unless you were with a familia previously and already levelled up-"

"I wasn't, the first familia I joined was Hestia's," I cut her off, "But two weeks was well enough time for me to get to level two, I levelled up through the night actually, and I have the mystery skill, I just need to figure out how to use it."

"….Eh?" Amid just stared.

Gobsmacked.


Right, here we are again with chapter six to the teen, sixtyween ween teen, chapter sixteen woop woop.

Been a while with this one huh? Honestly, not really got any excuses for it. Just been hella busy with other stuff and my break from Danmachi came at a bad time. Either way, we're back now I guess and we've already claimed the top spot for follows in the pure danmachi archive. Let's see about taking it for favourites as well! Gimme all yer favourites and follows bwahahahahha. Well, got a bit more written for this, and for other future chaprers you can catch them well in advance on my Pa-atreon though like always they'll eventually pop up here after a while anyway.

Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.