Hey guys, Striker777 here with the next chapter of Loki's Renard. Be sure to follow and review about the story, since it is still open to changes and any ideas you guys might have and want to incorporate. I'm hoping you all enjoy, but for now, onto the story!
Akihide kicked a rock as he walked down the main street of Orario. The boy was in a foul mood, having been denied the access to the Dungeon he so desperately wanted. 'Oh, I'm sorry Akihide, but I need to do stupid paperwork, and get ready for the next expedition.' he mocked Riveria inside his head, the only safe place to do so. 'Oh, sorry Akihide, but I need to go on patrol around the city today.' he mocked Kaguya, again, in the only safe place to do so.
He sighed. "What am I gonna do?" he muttered, looking around at the shops for what sort of things he could buy. Since he first entered the Dungeon a week ago, he made a very respectable 30,000 valis in his first week, or in the three days he was allowed in the dungeon, which was enough for equipment repairs and to save some for a rainy day. As well as splurge on candy, which of course made him go hyper and crash around the Twilight Manor as if he was a goblin on enhancement potions.
Riveria had quickly shut it down after he slammed into a wall without thinking, making him sit through an entire day of reading and writing practice. Oh that had not been fun.
So, here he was, on a day where he had nothing to do, no one to train him, or hang out with him. It wasn't like he had any friends he could call on, only hanging around authority figures like his teachers, goddess and guardians. If nothing else, he needed friends, preferable closer to his age than most of the other people he knew.
Realistically, of all the people he knew, Ryuu was the closest thing he had to an actual friend. She was 5 years older than him, but she and him had started out at around the same time, so the two of them had that in common at least. However, since Ryuu was part of the Astraea Familia, she too went on patrol around the city, escorting Kaguya and Alise so she could get a feel for the system of patroling. Akihide aparently wasn't ready to start patroling the city until he made it to Floor 10 of the Dungeon, at least, and it was preferable he made it to Floor 13 instead.
And so, with nothing to do, Akihide simply wandered around Orario, looking for something to fuel his boredom. But with a lack of knowledge on where things were, or what was available, he simply had to make do wandering around in search of something. Maybe he would find a place that provided entertainment of some kind. That would be nice.
He spent most of his morning looking around at places, before stumbling into a giant, luxurious multi-story building. His eyes went wide in wonder at the gold and marble walls that decorated the exterior, and the giant arch of a doorway that welcomed the guests inside. Akihide took that as the ok to enter the building, walking through the arch and into the building of white and gold.
"Welcome!" greeted an overly cheery voice, causing Akihide to jump. He turned to see a young girl, older than him but probably not in her twenties yet, in a nurse outfit. "Are you here for treatment or potions?"
"W-what?" asked Akihide. "I'm... just exploring Orario..."
"Oh." said the nurse, looking at the boy. "This is the pharmacy, hospital and home of the Dian Cecht Familia, Tuatha Medicus. Adventurers come here for healing and mind potions, as well as prosthetic limbs and sickness treatment. It's the best pharmacy, potion shop and hospital in Orario." said the nurse, careful in her explination to the boy as not to overload his brain with information. "Now, you wouldn't happen to be an adventurer, would you? Not one looking for business."
Akihide shook his head. "Riveria gives me potions when I go into the dungeon." he said, causing the nurse to gasp.
"A-are you Loki Familia?" she asked in a shocked expression, which only grew into a smirk as the young boy nodded. "Here, take this." she said, reaching into a pocket at the back of her skirt and pulling out a potion. "It's one of our new potions, we were wanting to sell a lot of them, so test it out in the Dungeon and tell your Familia all about it, okay?" she said.
Akihide, confused at the gift, nodded nervously and turned around, ready to leave the building. "Not the kind of place I wanted to visit." he muttered, about ready to give up trying to cure his boredom.
"Excuse me!"
Akihide turned around, looking at the source of a voice as another girl came up to him, much younger than the nurse from before. She wore a blue and white striped shirt with white sleeves continuing to cover her hands like glover and a dark blue skirt, with white socks reaching to her knees and a pair of black shoes. She had silver hair let lose and flowing down to her shoulder blades and purple eyes that sparked. She was a little older than Akihide, and held onto a small staff with a fierce determination. "Are you Akihide Okami of the Loki Familia?" she asked.
"Yeah..." tentatively responded Akihide, not exactly sure what the girl wanted from him.
The girl nodded back, before she did the typical breath as you prepared yourself, mustering courage. She seemingly found it as she looked Akihide straight in the eyes and yelled, "Please party up with me!"
...
"Huh?"
"My name is Airmid Teasanare, level 1 of the Dian Cecht Familia and nine years old." introduced the girl, Airmid. "I want to make it to level 2 and get the Development Ability Mixing, which allows me to make potions and other medicine for my familia." she explained. "To do that, I need to go into the Dungeon and fight monsters, but I can't do it alone. Please party up with me until I hit level 2!" she asked again, bowing her head slightly.
Now, Akihide was a good kid, so he was about to politely decline her on account of not being allowed in the Dungeon himself, when Riveria's rule stuck to him. 'She said not to go into the Dungeon by myself. But she never said she had to accompany me. If I had a party, then I could go into the Dungeon with them anytime I wanted!' he thought, before turning back to Airmid. "Sure. Shall we go right now?" he asked, smiling at the girl, before doing a little happy dance in his mind over how he managed to use Riveria's own rule against her and allow him access into the Dungeon when she wasn't there to accompany him.
Airmid was also smiling, happy her request was granted. "Sure." she said, leading the way as Akihide didn't know how to get to the Dungeon from Tuatha Medicus.
She hummed a tune as she kicked her legs up one after the other. She sat on the edge of the fountain, gear ready and more than ready herself to take on the challenges of the Dungeon. All she had to do was find someone. Someone she had been looking for over the past few days. She scanned the crowd, adventurers of all ages, races, sizes and standing were entering the Dungeon today, but none of them were the ones she was after.
No, her prize was rare indeed. A very selective prize that she simply had to grab for herself.
With word spreading about how efforlessly the youngest member of the Loki Familia killed the monsters on Floor 3 and above, she figured he'd have no problems bringing her on as a party member. The only problem there was Riveria, who would more than likely turn her away and inform her sister, which is why she didn't approach him 3 days ago when she had the chance to. Dealing with Shakti when she was pissed just wasn't on the agenda for that day, or any day really. A pissed of Shakti was a Shakti that no one could deal with. Not her sister, not the Vice-Captain Ilta, not even Ganesha put his nose anywhere near her when she was in a bad mood.
Finally, however, just across the plaza, she saw him. White hair topped with a cute pair of fox ears, and coated in the gear she saw him in last time. Most importantly, there was a lack of a certain, emerald haired elf that put a wrench in her plans last time. She smiled as she looked at the boy, before noticing him talking to someone else. A girl with silver hair and blue and white clothes, holding a staff.
'Magic user. Has to be.' thought the older girl. 'If that's the way it is, it'd be better for them to have two melee fighters to protect her.'
Yeah, she totally wasn't coming up with excuses to approach the two. Definitely not.
Deciding now was as good a time as any, she called out to them. "Hey! You two!" she yelled, racing over and drawing the attention of a few people. Luckily, none were members of the Ganesha Familia, they all entered the Dungeon already for today, probably making their was down to lower floors such as Floor 10 as they spoke. But she drew the attention of her two targets, which was good. She stepped in front of them and smiled. "You two are in a party, right?" she asked.
"We are..." replied Akihide, seemingly reluctantly. "Who are you?"
Ardee looked up at the clouds for a moment, seemingly for comedic effect, before slamming her right fist into her open left hand as if she remembered something she had forgotten until just then. "Oh, right! Manners!" called out the blue haired girl, before turning to the two and smiling. "Name's Ardee Varma, level 1 in the Ganesha Familia and 12 years old. I'm looking for a party to join, and I wanted to join yours."
"Why?" asked the girl with Akihide. "Why join our party?"
"Well, there's this rumor going around our home at the moment about a young boy who is handling the monsters on the top 3 floors of the Dungeon like they're nothing, so I wanted to join his party." said the oldest of the three. "My sister won't let me go into the Dungeon without a party, and everyone in my Familia won't take me because they're scared of getting on her bad side." she explained.
"Feel that..." muttered the other two, one opressed by his motherly figure and guardian, the other by her overprotective god who was basically her father at this point.
Ardee smiled. Sympathy points had been obtained and they were more likely to let her join. All she had to do was close it.
"I'm a swordsman, and I've had a bit of training, so most of my basic abilities are F rank, with my dexterity about to hit E rank. I don't have magic, but I'm very good with my sword and can keep monsters away whilst you cast magic." she sold herself, getting a nod from the girl but nothing from Akihide. "I'm sure we can help each other out a lot."
Akihide sighed. "We're gonna get in so much trouble, the three of us." he moaned out, before smiling at her. "If Airmid is okay with it, we'll be in your care."
Airmid, the girl he was with, needed no further encouragement either. "I look forward to working with you to reach level 2."
Ardee threw her arms up in the air. "YES!" she yelled, extremely excited to be entering the Dungeon with a party. Oh, she was on top of the world right now.
Riveria sighed, watching the sun begin to creep down to the horizon outside her window. She had just finished the paperwork needed for the Familia's next expedition, this time with the Goibniu Familia, who needed materials form the lower floors to complete an order for some high ranking adventurers. Whilst they were down there, Loki recommended stocking up on other provisions such as medical supplies and materials for Hephaestus and Goibniu Familias the next time they wanted a comission done. It was a good idea on paper, stocking up on those materials would certainly be benefitial to the Familia as a whole.
But it also meant that Akihide would have to wait longer before Riveria could take him back into the Dungeon.
He was going to be so upset, and what was scary was that the more Riveria thought about the concept of Akihide being unhappy, the more upset she became. No matter how much she tried to deny it, Gareth's words were sinking in and becoming truthful. Akihide was slowly becoming her child. An unmarried member of the royal family of elves, a High Elf, had basically adopted a member of a different race as her son. If her father saw her now, she had no doubt that she would bring him great shame. But to hell with him, Riveria was happy living her own life outside the Alf Forest.
But that still didn't help her with how she was going to break the news about the expedition to Akihide. She sighed, knowing it's be better to get it over with now rather than later. She stood up from her desk, and began making her way to the common area of the Twilight Manor where a lot of the lower levelled members of the Familia would sit around and relax at the end of their day.
Riveria made her way over to them, several spotting her and quieting down, others following their gazes and doing the same. It was good to have this respect, but they also needed to let her be a regular member of the Familia too. But that wasn't importabt at the moment. "Sorry to bother you guys, but have you seen Akihide around anywhere?"
"Akihide?" asked Orba, one of the level 2 members of the Familia. "No... last I heard he was headed to the Stardust Garden to train with Kaguya and Ryuu."
That was all Riveria needed. "Thank you." she replied, before stepping out of the manor. It made sense that he'd spend his Dungeon day with the best alternative, getting trained by Kaguya. His work ethic was one to be commended, constantly working harder to improve himself. Maybe she could convince the Astraea Familia to bring him into the Dungeon as a supporter as a way to apologise. He'd have to work much harder at his Dungeon studies if he wanted to make that happen, but Riveria knew Akihide wouldn't be afraid to put the effort in if it meant going to the Dungeon. He had shown them all that already after his training with Kaguya.
Speaking of, Riveria noticed that her monologue had lead her to the front of the Stardust Garden much faster than she thought. Small mercies and all that, she supposed, before knocking on the door. Soon, she was greeted by Kaguya herself. "Oh, Lady Riveria. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Kaguya, good to see you well." greeted the high elf, smiling at the younger girl. Both born into nobility, they shared a common past which allowed the two to bond in a way they didn't believe possible otherwise. "I'd like to discuss a few matters with you in regards to Akihide. Firstly, we have another expedition coming up for the Goibniu Familia, and we'll be setting out in a week. Would it be at all possible for Akihide to accompany your Familia as a supporter in the Dungeon during the extent of our expedition?"
Kaguya looked back at her Familia. "We might make a trip to Rivira in two weeks just to get some experience, so there shouldn't be any issues with bringing Akihide if he can get his stats into F. His support magic would certainly make the lower floors much safer for us."
Riveria nodded. "That's good. I was concerned that when I told him he'd freak out over not being able to go in the Dungeon for another month. You and your Familia are simply too kind." praised Riveria. "Now all that's left to do is break the news to him. Do you know where he is at the moment?"
Kaguya looked confused at the question. "No... I was with Alise and Ryuu on patrol today. Neze did tell me that Akihide stopped by, but said he decided to explore more of Orario. She saw him heading towards the Northwest. He probably got caught up in either the Hephaestus or Goibniu workshops watching weapons being made. Or he went to Tuatha Medicus, but he'd probably have left the second he found out what it was."
Riveria was slightly unsettled by Akihide wandering around on his own, but decided it was only natural of a child to want to explore a bit, so she let it go. "I see. Thank you for telling me." said Riveria, before turning around. "Akihide is lucky to have someone like you looking out for him."
"I could say the same thing to you." replied Kaguya. "He talks so much about you it's like he's braging about his mother."
Riveria didn't mind that little tidbit of info as much as she thought she would have. Her immediate reaction would have been to tell her not to call her a 'Mama' as Loki liked to put it, but she couldn't help the warm feeling bubbling up inside her chest.
"... Thank you once more." she said one final time, before she began her travels to the northwest of Orario. "I hope you haven't gotten too caught up, Akihide. We're going to have to drill in a lot of training if you want to be ready to head to Floor 18."
Akihide jumped out of the way as a Kobold attacked where he just stood. Sliding back, he heard the call from their leader, Ardee, who was not only older but more experienced than them. "Switch!" she called out, and Akihide went back further, allowing Ardee to monopolise on the Kobold being still in it's last position, and drove her sword through it's midsection, killing it.
Akihide sighed as he began to collect the magic stones from the monster corpses that littered the floor. "Man, how many were there? That felt like it took ages."
"At least twelve." replied Ardee, panting slightly. On Floor 4, she was the only one with any kind of experience, being down to Floor 5 once with her elder sister to train. "If it wasn't for Airmid's magic, we'd be in some serious trouble."
True to her word, Airmid was capable of using a magic called Lumine Pleiades, which shot down rays of light onto monsters, killing them. Aparently, she could fire it three times in one day without going into a state of mind down, which certainly helped the group come up with decision on how to handle threats. So far, Airmid had used her magic twice, both times on Floor 4. One took out four Goblins that were charging at them, and the other took out six Kobolds that had caught the three by surprise.
"So much for 'Kiddy Party'." grinned Akihide, remembering what one of the adventurers on Floor 1 said about them as they walked past. "We can take care of ourselves without a problem. We already explored most of Floor 4. Should we call it a day and head back?"
"Yeah... probably should..." muttered Ardee, looking at the two. "This was great, we should totally party up again sometime. I'd love to keep diving down here with you two."
The two others felt the same way. To be able to go into the Dungeon at all required a party by their Familias. Riveria, Shakti and Dian Cecht specifically. To have a party that you consistently work with would work well in having all three of them gaining Excilia due to them becoming familiar with each other's strengths, weaknesses and combat styles. All in all, partying up frequently with the same adventurers seemed like a good idea.
The trio turned around and began to make their way back to the staircase leading to Floor 2. "We are in so much trouble when we get back up to the surface. I hope it isn't too late to just wander around a bit and say I went exploring." muttered Akihide, thinking to try and pin what time of day it was.
"I don't have that excuse. I'll just say I was looking for something to kill the time." responded Ardee, turning to the other girl of the party. "What about you Airmid? Do you need an excuse?"
"Not really, I'll just say I went on a walk and got lost." replied the young girl. "Dian Cecht will believe anything I say until I get him to update my status."
That was easy. Akihide figured he'd have to keep Airmid and Ardee a secret from Riveria until he showed himself competent enough to enter the Dungeon with them, at least to her standards. But since he made it down to Floor 4, he imagined there would be quite a bit of Excilia coming his way come the update he was getting tonight thanks to Loki. He smiled, wondering if any of his stats would be raised up a rank.
His smile dulled when he notices a group of adventurers rush past them trough one of the tunnels that lead to another side hallway where monsters spawned. They turn to where the stairs are, one looking back at the kids with shock on his face. But it doesn't last long as he breaks out in a smirk. "Run! The kids'll draw their attention!" he yelled to his party. The statement completely goes over Akihide and Arimid's heads, but it doesn't get past Ardee.
"You motherfuckers!" she yells before grabbing the two and trying to make a break for the passageway. However, just before she can, a monster appears from the hallway the other advernturers just came from. The Kobold turns to the fleeing adventurers before it sniffing the air and turning it's attention to the others, as more and more trickle out of the hallway. The party of three back off slowly as monsters begin to fill the hallway.
"25 of them?" questions Airmid as she counts the collection of Goblins, Kobolds and Dungeon Lizards. "No... closer to 30." she whimpered.
"Damn it, a Pass Parade!" exclaims Ardee, before drawing her blade. "Those adventurers used us as a distraction for the monsters so they could get away! They've left us to die!"
Akihide looked at the monsters in shock, wondering what he was going to do. The monsters were blocking the pathway to the staircase, and there was nothing but dead ends behind them, which meant that their only option was to fight. Airmid had one spell left before she entered a mind down, meaning at most she could fire off two, maybe more if he activated his magic to restore her mind, but that would leave Ardee as the sole melee fighter since he didn't know how to do concurrent chanting. "We're so getting in trouble after this." he moaned, before gripping his tantÅ in both hands. "I'm not dying until I kill the monster that destroyed my home. You guys are just in the way."
Hope you guys enjoyed. Next time will be the last chapter of Arc 1, before we begin Arc 2, which will include a small timeskip of 1 month, and will continue to include multiple other timeskips until we reach Arc 3, where Ais joins the Loki Familia. I'm really looking forward to writing that part and I'm going to keep it up for you guys. But for now, this is Striker777, over and out.