This isn't part of the actual around-10,000-words-per-month quota; I just did this because I had no idea how to start the volume without a Prologue. Hope you guys liked this sorta sneak-peakish thing.

Edit: It appears I wasn't clear enough in the story, judging from how many of you are confused. Hikigaya HAS joined a familia in the 5-year timeskip in-between. As for who's... you're going to have to find out.

Chapter 0
Life goes on, and as it does...

"Hahhh…" I could feel my eye twitch as I heard Maris Hackard sigh again. That was the 20th one today.

Easily weaving my way through a minotaur's punches, I crushed its shin with a stomp and sent it into a kneeling position. As it let out a groan of pain, I flicked my wrist and with a flash of my blade, the monster's head flew through the air.

Another attempted to swipe at me with its axe from behind, but I used my sword to parry the blow, rotating with the swipe before counterattacking in the same direction of my turn, slashing the minotaur from its shoulder to its waist and sending it to the ground.

Next to me, Hackard whirled her sword, her claymore chopping through the monsters like a meat processor. With her Level 3 strength, the monsters were nothing more than slabs of raw meat on the cutting block.

As both of us finished our kills and began collecting the magic stones from the corpses, Hackard let out another sigh. "Hahhh… Eina-san's been in a horrible mood recently." Unprompted by anyone, she began talking.

I continued to harvest magic stones, listening to her ramble on and on. "She's been taking on another adventurer, some kid… Cra Benel, or something. Some 2-week old newbie that's gotten it into his head that he should be an adventurer just to pick up girls in the Dungeon or something. What sort of an idiotic dream is that?!"

I paid minimal attention to her words, instead preferring to let them go in through one ear and out the other as I worked. Hackard had always been quite verbal about her life's nuances and problems in the 5 years that I had known her, but I'd rather have that than an inquisitive party member who didn't know the idea of personal space. Besides, it was better to let others talk than to talk yourself.

"She's been in a bad mood, and she's been making me read even more in the textbook for the Great Falls than before! She's had me memorize maps, take quizzes, and even brought back that schedule for assigned reading! All because of that one reckless kid who's been making her change her attitude!" Hackard huffed angrily as she stomped on one of the minotaur corpses, slowly reducing the corpse to nothing more than a bloody sack of fur-covered flesh. As she lifted her boot again, however, there was a rumble.

The caverns around us shook. I narrowed my eyes. The 15th Floor was child's play for the two of us, and there weren't any monsters that could've made the Dungeon shake like that, barring Monster Rexes or Irregulars that were specially designed by the place to kill gods.

This shaking… I narrowed my eyes as my ears picked out the sound of many, many heavy footsteps pounding the floor.

There was nothing else that came to my mind besides the words "minotaur stampede".

"Hackard, battle position, now." Hackard didn't waste time in complying, raising her sword.

I raised mine as well, and as both of us readied ourselves a swarm of minotaurs spilled into the room. As the tangled mess of limbs, torsos, and horns appeared, I instantly made out at least 10 of the monsters.

Not like numbers mattered. The Level 2 minotaurs were no match for Level 3 adventurers like Hackard or I, and no matter how many of them there were they couldn't hope to beat us with such an overwhelming gap between the two sides.

As the first monster entered my range, I stepped into my thrust, the blade piercing through its throat before I whirled towards my right, bringing my blade to my side in an arc and almost ripping the entire head off. A second one charged at my blind spot but Hackard was there to intercept, her claymore splitting the monster from head-to-toe in a vertical slash.

Another one threw a punch, but I easily stopped its fist with a punch of my own, the recoil blowing the monster backwards and sending it tumbling into its fellow monsters before Hackard took a massive swing, scything down 4 or 5 of them at the waist. I followed up by stepping in front of Hackard, my sword a silver blur as the blade found its way to the next couple of monsters, severing heads from shoulders and limbs from torsos.

Although the two of us easily cut our way through the minotaurs blindly bull-rushing us, I couldn't help but feel as though something wasn't quite right about the monsters we were currently fighting. There was a disturbance in the Force.

Hackard finished off the last one with an upwards stab that went through the chin of its head and out the back of its skull. The minotaur let out a collapsed gurgle before slumping to the ground, Hackard pulling out her sword as I drew my knife and got to work harvesting stones and stuffing the horn drop in my knapsack. Horns sold for at least 40,000 on the smithing market, provided that you didn't have a personal smith who would instantly take away those drops for forging.

I barely looked up as the stamping of footsteps reached us, with a black-haired young man pausing for breath as he entered, the rest of his party following close behind. Only when I had finished did I stand up and nod towards the young man and the black-haired catgirl next to them.

"Nord. Autumn." Raul Nord, alias High Novice. Anakitty Autumn, alias Alchat. Both of them were Level 4s belonging to Loki Familia and leading the 2nd String of adventurers within the large, ever-expanding group of the strongest Familia in Orario. In the 5 years since I had arrived, Loki Familia had expanded quickly, picking up more and more monstrous individuals along the way. Currently, their lineupheld 3 Level 6s, 4 Level 5s, 4 Level 4s, and at least 10 Level 3s.

In response to my greeting, however, the catgirl simply cocked her head at me inquisitively. "Sorry, should I know you?"

"... No." Why did I expect these people to know me? I'm a Level 3; cut me some slack here!

I made to leave, but before I could Hackard had slung her arm around my shoulder.

"What're you doing?! Anakitty-san, Raul-san, this is Hikitani! I'm Maris! It's a pleasure!" Snapping to attention, my blue-haired party member bowed at the waist towards the two Level 4s.

"A-ah… hello." Nord stuttered awkwardly as he bowed in response, while Autumn simply gave a small wave. "A-a-anyways! We're currently hunting rogue minotaurs that ran off when we engaged them, so we'll take our leave now!"

"Minotaurs elsewhere?" Hackard raised her eyebrows. "In that case, shall we provide our assistance?"

Hold on, Hackard, what's with this we and our? When did I get dragged into this equation? I'm not doing extra, unpaid work just so you can have a chance to ingrain yourself with Loki Familia's elites! Go do it by yourself, you freeloader!

"That's actually unnecessary. The executives are already on it; and we've cleared out everywhere on the past couple floors." Glad to know that someone knew their priorities. "Why don't we take our time and walk up?"

… Or not.

~~This is a Line Break~~

The one hour of jogging from the 15th Floor to the 1st wasn't what nearly killed me.

The one hour of socializing between Hackard, Nord, and Autumn, on the other hand, was.

Being unable to extricate myself from the situation, I was forced to endure 60 straight minutes of the 3 prattling about their adventures in the Dungeon on and on and on…

Being a 2nd-class adventurer, just like Autumn and Nord, albeit one level lower, Hackard was able to easily regale the two with tales of her somewhat abundant experience in the Dungeon, and vice versa. I, on the other hand, quietly utilized Stealth Hikky to duck to the back of the group, where I could be alone and no one could notice me, because Hackard's storytelling was making me die inside.

No, the wyvern's wing attack did not go "BWOOOSH", and no, bugbears do not make those weird grunting sounds. And stop saying that those fruits from the 18th are tasty; they're so sickeningly sweet that even MAXX Coffee tastes like water compared to them. In the past, I might've thought there would never be something with TOO much sugar, yet here I am.

As we reached the Tower of Babel, I finally managed to peel myself off from the Loki Familia cohort before heading over to the Exchange.

"Thank you for your service today!" Nodding in response to the clerk's bow and picking up the two sacks of money, I began heading towards Hackard before I heard a voice call out to me.

"Ah, Hikigaya-san."

"... Tulle." The half-elf bowed in response to my greeting, and I nodded in return. We stood there in comfortable silence, patiently waiting for Hackard to disengage from Loki Familia. As she jogged over, Tulle gave me a bow.

"Well, it's been a pleasure, as always. Thank you for taking care of Maris-san."

"... It's no problem." Hackard gleefully rejoined the two of us, happily humming and practically prancing over with a smile on her face. I, on the other hand, maintained my neutral expression.

"Here. 150,000." Dropping a sack of money at her feet, I finally took my leave, with Hackard waving "bye!" behind my back.

As I neared the Guild's exit, however, my ears caught the sound of someone shouting.

"EINNAAA-SAAAAAAAAAN!" Huh, so one of Tulle's students.

Light, quick footsteps pounded their way towards the doors, so I nimbly sidestepped as they were flung open and a kid covered from head to tail in blood tumbled in, nearly splattering blood all over the floor; I'm sure my clothes would've been completely ruined had he run into me face-first.

Behind me, I could distinctly hear Tulle release a high-pitched shriek of surprise as the kid quickly recovered and sprinted his way up to the desk, as well as Hackard shouting, "Watch it, kid! Don't get that blood on my money!"

Not my problem. I slipped out through the double doors as they began to slowly close.

As soon as I stepped outside, however, I was greeted with the stone-cold, expressionless stare of one Ryuu Lyon. "... Hikigaya. Mama Mia wants you to make a delivery to the address specified on the package."

"Couldn't you have delivered it yourself?"
"I'm supposed to be headed to the greengrocer's, so unless you want to trade…"

Wordlessly, I took the proffered backpack, doing my best to ignore the subtle twitch at the edge of the elf's mouth that was equivalent to a smirk.

~~This is a Line Break~~

I stepped through the Hostess's backdoor entrance, my hand holding onto a thick manila folder full of paper.

"You're finally back, Hikinya!" Anya cheerfully waved at me, which I returned with a nod.

"Welcome back, Hikigaya-san. How did the delivery go?" Flova gave a small smile while asking.

"You know how it went," I muttered, dropping the empty bag and placing it near the door.

"Hm? I didn't quite catch that, Hikigaya-san." You can't fool my ears, woman; you clearly just made a "fufufu" noise like one of those haughty ojou-sans just now.

Picking up my apron and putting it on, I noticed Mia coming through the door. "Hello, Mia."

"Hello to you too, Hikigaya," The dwarf nodded. "I trust your delivery went well?"

"It went fine."

"Let's get to work, then."

And as I had done almost every day for the past 5 years, I reached into the cupboard and pulled out a glass jar of coffee powder.