Chapter 1
After her parents died she knew she only had one option and that was to go to Orario to become an adventurer. But getting there would be the hard part as Lily lived around 100 miles south of the city. Her parents made sure to give her the money and supplies to get there.
Quickly packing up everything from her parents including the furniture and the supplies for the trip, her parents made sure to have a few magical items commissioned so she could take everything when she left as it would have been impossible to move thousands of pounds worth of furniture, equipment, and supplies without the pouches. And her mother personally made sure to get the pouches expanded to their limits but even then it took about 5 pouches that could hold about five thousand pounds each to gather everything.
Lily allowed herself one week to pack everything up and make sure she had everything she needed for her journey, like food and clothes suitable for the journey. She then sold her family's house for about two hundred thousand valis, but when compared to her family's fortune of over a billion valis, she wouldn't mind the extra pocket money.
Getting dressed her hair up in a milkmaid's braid, and slipping on her traveling boots she set off from the village deep in the forest. Walking the path to the edge of the village which had a perimeter of sharp spiked logs to keep out the meager monsters who compared to their dungeon counterparts had about half their strength because of the demand on their magical power to sustain their forms. She remembered her time hunting the Orcs and Goblins that inhabited the barrier.
Jumping from branch to branch passing by the monsters who were on the ground and saving time and energy in the long run allowing her to traverse the landscape to her destination. About two miles into her journey she decided to note the difference between the monsters outside of her old hunting grounds. She noted some salamanders who while not able to breathe fire like dragons were big and something to be afraid of if you were inexperienced in fighting. But if you knew that their weakness was the sport near the joint where the neck connects to the shoulders which if you could hit with a bow would kill them instantly keeping the damage to the corpse and materials to a minimum.
"Time to get some food." Grabbing her violin from the red dragon-hide pouch on her left hip. She then began playing Luminary By: Joel Sunny from her past life which with her skills allowed her to create magical arrows which with her other ability cost about one-tenth if she only used her magic and not the ambient magic. As she executed the spell piercing the point of weakness on 5 salamanders at once. After scouting the area for more enemies she quickly slit their throats and bled them dry, skinned the monsters, and then properly cut the meat, bones, and other materials for sale. After finding a cave to start a fire to cook the meat, after cooking it to medium rare she ate then cleaned up the cave and doused the fire before using wind magic to clear the air of her sent and reapplied her sent blockers.
After she left the cave she found a decently tall tree with little to no monsters near to sleep in for the night and then scouted out the area placing down traps to catch the monsters to sell for materials and other drops.
The journey carried on similarly throughout the 2 week journey where she acquired about one thousand monster cores which would be about seventy-thousand valis and even more due to the monster and animal materials. It was about mid-day when Lily was able to spot the entrance to the adventuring city where the line for entrance to the city was far-reaching.
After finding the appropriate line for entering the city, it was about 6 hours later when it was her turn to speak to the senior guild member to gain entrance.
"Hello, may I please have your name and guild card? If you don't have one we can issue you a temporary card." It was a tall Elf man, with a black suit vest, pants, and dress shoes with the normal white button-down shirt, completing the guild's standard uniform. He was around 6'3 and looked to be toned but other than his nice figure he had on a smug and very condescending tone.
"I need a temporary card," Lily said with a small smile trying not to throttle the bigoted pure-blooded Elf.
"Name?"
"Lilian Marina Serenity Muscia."
"Age?"
"Fifteen years old." He looked at her with a look. Lily knew she looked very young due to her Spirit and Elvan heritage slowing down her aging.
"Race?"
"Hybrid." He looked at her and motioned to continue.
"Mother was a Spirit and Elf Hybrid and my Father was a Palum and Dwarf Hybrid." He looked back shocked but then his face showed his disgust at the seemingly "lower blood status" of her father because he was not an elf.
"Familia?"
"None."
"You will have to register with the guild in the city to become an adventurer or you will have to apply for citizenship after 2 months." She quickly hurried along the pathway to enter the city and showed the window operator her temporary card before she was let in.
Stunned into silence from the memories of her past life watching the anime would never compare to what she was experiencing. Mentally shaking herself from the stupor she continued along the street to find the guild to register and try to hopefully find a Familia.
The people waking by the seemingly young girl marveled at her beauty but quickly averted their eyes from the demure woman giving them a glare in ferocity as a goddess. It was about an hour later, after asking a kind old woman for directions to the guild office, she arrived in front of the massive wooden doors to the guild.
Pushing open the doors with her inherited strength was no issue but hearing the surprised gasps from the passersby was gratifying as you should never judge an adventure or person by their appearance because they might be stronger than you if you are dumb enough to experience.
Lily then approached the front desk and rang the signature bell the guild used to notify staff of a customer or client.
A short man who looked like a Palum and Dwarf hybrid shortly came to help Lily with a smile and a friendly aura. "What can I help you with miss?" He had blonde hair, green eyes with a charming smile. Wearing the uniform, it looked perfectly pressed and tailored.
"I am here to register as an adventurer and to see if I could find a Familia to join as well." He smiled and then got out the necessary documents and led her to a small conference to help keep their client's information secret.
"Okay, Miss..?"
"Lily is fine."
"Okay Lily, could I see your card?" She gave her temporary card to him.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you my name. I am Liam and I am a hybrid such as your father." He was shocked for her father to be like him and her mother was certainly a rare hybrid herself. But what was more shocking to Liam was that the two Hybrids, who by all means should have low fertility to give birth to a powerful hybrid.
"I was wondering because you look a lot like my father." She noticed the same stature and likeness to him.
"I'm sorry what was your father's name by chance?"
"Griffin Manch."
"I'm sorry did you say Griffin Manch?"
'Yes?"
"Well, it just so happens that my older brother of about 20 years was named Griffin Manch. So I am guessing that you are my niece?" Both looked at each other more closely and she even activated her aura reading ability to its limit and found that he was indeed her uncle.
"Well, it is nice to meet you, uncle." They both shared a laugh before realizing the situation and then continuing with the process to register Lily as an adventurer. After about 2 hours of paperwork, it was nearing eight-thirty at night and the guild closed at ten.
"And you are officially an adventurer of Oranio, and if you don't have anywhere to stay you are welcome to come to my house and stay the night for however long you need." She nodded recognizing that she would have a hard time finding an opening at an inn as it was the beginning of the new year when many traveled to begin their careers as adventurers.
After cleaning up and changing out of the guild uniform Liam made his way to the doors and found his niece waiting for him.
"Come on, it is about a thirty-minute walk."
"So how has your experience in Orario been?"
"Other than the men giving me the eyes, and glaring at them. It has been great. It is so much different from the village."
"Where did you come from?"
"It is a village in the far south, about one hundred miles away from here. There are only about two hundred villagers and most of them are retired adventurers. I think the highest level there was mom and dad being level 5 and 6." She looked pensive trying to remember the levels of her neighbors.
"Wait, your mother and father were level 5 and 6?" he seemed shocked as when he was younger his brother was only a level 2 adventurer and shortly after his fifteenth birthday his brother then left to join a different Familia than their parents.
"Ya, Dad told me that after his Familia where he met Mom disbanded after their god was killed and returned to heaven they decided to move to the village with their comrades from the Familia who wanted to retire." She remembered when her dad explained why they lived in the forest to her and told her the story of meeting his love and what happened to the god Pan.
"They told me that when their God, Pan, was killed they had no reason to continue adventuring so they decided to find a place for a village, which they named Muscia, because of Pan being a god of music." He smiled at that, knowing his brother would do something like that.
"Ya." She then looked around seeing this looked to be the more wealthy part of Orario, which considering the proximity to the guild was reasonable.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your father and mother?"
"So, before I was born they knew they would never be able to conceive without sacrificing something as being hybrids, their fertility being almost non-existent, and decided to use my mother's bloodline ability, Life Force Conversion, which as the name suggests uses lifeforce to power large scale spells. My mother sacrificed over ten thousand years of her life because as a hybrid of the two longest-lived races was almost immortal but using her ability over the past one hundred years led to her shortened lifespan. But my father only sacrificed about sixty years of his remaining lifespan, and you know Palum and Dwarves live for around 120 to 300 years. So after the calculations, they would only live for about 15 years and decided to use the spell to conceive me." She looked at the sky and thought about what happened to her parents. 'Did they go to Heaven or Hell?'
She looked at her uncle and found him looking tearful.
"Here, my father wanted you to have this." She dug out the letter and the sword her father left to his only brother and she had other items for her aunt and grandparents. But her mother's parents were long dead after all; they were centuries old in her grandfather's case and her grandmother's case over five millennia.
"Thank you, Lily." He looked at her with a smile even though it did not reach his eyes, she left him to his thoughts.
"Let's go inside." The house was modest-looking, with dark wood and stone for the exterior. It looked to be fairly new in design and with little wear on the wood or the stone led her to believe this was one of the newer houses or was remodeled which seemed more likely.
Opening the door and locking it after Lily entered, leading her upstairs to the spare room.
"Sorry, this room was going to be a spare room but I haven't been able to find the time to furnish it, I will find you a mattress for tonight."
"It's okay, I have the furniture from my old home in my pouches." Finding her bedroom furniture she then took out a small wardrobe and her bed.
Watching his niece take out a wonderfully crafted dark wood wardrobe and a beautiful bed with silk sheets and with a white canopy.
"This was one of the gifts my mother gave me as these are magical bags able to hold around five thousand pounds of goods, they are also made out of dragonhide." Looking at the pouches he could confirm that they were of high quality and made out of greater dragonhide.
"Mother even enchanted them with her development skill."
"Those will be useful in the dungeon."
"Yep, I have one of these filled with materials and monster cores to sell." She pointed to the yellow bag on her back.
"Tomorrow you will be able to sell them to the guild for valis."
They decided to eat some of the salamander Lily had hunted for and while Lily was cooking the food, both niece and uncle alike were having a grand time learning about the other.
"So do you know your abilities yet?"
"Yes, so my magic is Symphony. It takes up all of my magic slots but I can use any type of magic by playing an instrument, and the right notes to craft the spell."
"That is interesting, and your abilities?"
"They are music-based and work in harmony with my magic, I have Songstress which allows me to make up songs on the spot which means I can craft spells too. Then I have, Conductor which allows me to use multiple instruments to create a symphony of music, and my other ability Magical Attunement which allows me to use ambient magic to power spells."
"You have an interesting and powerful skill set, what magic can you create?"
"Anything from support to healing to attack spells to buffs." Lily's magic was about versatility which allows for flexibility in roles. She was also stronger than most due to her father being a hybrid of a dwarf and a Palum, two of the more physically strong humanoid races.
"Do you have experience with fighting without your magic?" He knew if she didn't then it would be risky to let her into the dungeon without a Faulna and even then if she were to not be able to use her instruments it would mean death.
"Yes, Father was adamant about training me in the basics of all weapons and hand-to-hand, because if I relied on my magic too much I would be a sitting duck." Liam nodded in agreement with his brother's decision because if not then, Liam would have offered to train her.
"Yes, he is right because as a new adventurer, you will be doing solo runs in the dungeon, and it is recommended to get a party after reaching a certain floor in the dungeon. Most of the casualties are when young magicians think they are strong enough to take on the first few floors without thinking about what would happen if they were to use up too much mind and enter mind down. And if they were to enter a mind-down state in the dungeon, you would be vulnerable, and if a monster happened by you would be dead."
"Well I can handle the upper floors, I was able to take down a village of goblins on the surface without resorting to hit-and-run tactics." She was proud of herself for that.
"That is impressive, how big was the village?"
"I think three-thousand or maybe four-thousand?" His eyes widened in surprise at the amount of monsters she defeated. A group of level one adventurer would struggle to even subjugate half a village of that size. Even if the monsters are weaker on the surface they have to work together to survive.
"I just used a combination of Conductor and Symphony to use a population control magical attack to the song of September." She was smirking at her use of the songs from her past life being a music major, it took a while to find songs that would make good spells, but her go-to are Luminary, September, Dance the Night Away, Fur Elise, and a few original songs for different support spells.
"What is September?"
"It is an original song that can paralyze monsters in a set area around myself and will disrupt their nervous system to render them immobile and then the harmony of the song uses Earth, Wind, and Fire magic to barrage the same area."
"That is incredible." They then spent the night before going to bed talking about her songs and their effects. And as midnight was approaching they decided to cut the conversation and head to bed as tomorrow would be a long day.