Adam Smasher, Level 1 Adventurer, Hestia Familia
A figure slipped through the doorway, the church inside full of conversation and laughter. The backyard of the church darkened by the shadows of the buildings surrounding it, a lone figure sitting on the lip of the stone well in the center of the small courtyard, a bowl of fresh water up to his lips.
In the shade, blue eyes locked onto brown. Adam watched as Pipsqueak silently made her way over to him, hesitating briefly as she neared, then clambering up to sit on the well with him. He glared briefly, before turning straight ahead again, looking away but keeping the potential assassin within his awareness through hearing.
If she wanted water, she should've brought a bowl, he wasn't going to share this one.
She sat quietly.
Inside the church, laughter rang out, some sort of joke had just been told. He took another silent drink of water. He'd need to check if any of the gear he commissioned was ready the next day, and see about commissioning something with the ant shell. Those were supposed to be tougher than normal, so getting a shield made of that would probably be best for long-term survivability.
Hypothetically, an entire set of armor with that was on the list of things to get. Ants were easy to massacre in great numbers, so their drop items should be more than frequent enough to cover the entire body. Assuming it was indeed better than normal steel, that was…
"Y-you saved Lili…" Pipsqueak finally mustered up the will to say something, and said something pointless.
"I already told you not to get touchy-feely about it, pipsqueak. I almost forgot you were even there." Adam rumbled out in reply. "You got lucky, that's it."
"...W-what about when Lili helped you get Canoe-sama…" She questioned quietly, an undercurrent of intensity in her voice. He could feel her stare on his head in the darkness, he also didn't care.
"You were there, so I took advantage of you. Congratulations, you were useful, you want a medal or something for it?" Adam grumbled in reply, sending a sharp glance towards the tiny girl who had decided to intrude upon his quiet. "I already paid you for that, girlie. If you want more you have to be useful again. I don't do charity."
"...Lili was surprised she was being paid at all…" She muttered out bitterly. "Normally she has to steal to get her fair share." She said the second line with deliberate intent, testing his reaction to the admittance of a very mild crime.
"That makes two idiots. Them for not upholding their agreements and you for working for them." Adam growled out, glaring down at her. In the darkness, Pipsqueak flinched briefly, before rallying into a soft glare of her own.
"T-they force me-"
"You know where they sleep, don't you?" Adam growled, interrupting her complaining. She stopped and swallowed as he continued. "Even the weakest meatbag in the world can murder a sleeping dumbass. Knives exist for a reason."
Pipsqueak stared for a moment longer, before glancing down and away. "...Others will just come and do the same…"
"You have two options." Adam rumbled, looking back forwards again. "Either kill until they stop coming, or get stronger. If you're alive and they're dead, you win. If they never even try to fuck with you, you win. Either way, stop bitching about it and do something instead."
"...Which one did Adam-sama pick…?"
"Both."
Excited conversation from inside the church drifted over the courtyard. They were chatting about birds, apparently.
"...Your familia is really kind…" Pipsqueak softly commented.
"They're naive as shit, is what they are. Scrappy was using a fucking dagger and no armor when I showed up, and Tatertits barely interviewed me before accepting my offer." Adam grumbled out, making a note to try out that nickname for his employer later. "Neither of them knows jackshit about running a mercenary operation. If I hadn't shown up Scrappy would probably be stuck fighting kids and dogs and Tatertits would be in debt."
"...Adam-sama is the cynical type, I see…"
"It's called being realistic."
"Lili is glad to hear it."
Another long moment of quiet passed, uninterrupted save by the sounds from inside the church.
"...Lili hates the Soma familia."
He took a drink of water.
"Lili hates the Soma familia. She hates adventurers. She hates how they constantly steal from her, how they force her to work for them, how they laugh and mock her as they do." Pipsqueak began a proper rant, growling out something that had apparently been on her mind for a while. "She hates helping them, she hates it when they're happy, she hates it when they get 'rewarded' by Zanis-sama. She hates Zanis-sama. She hates Soma, she hates Soma, she hates Soma."
"She hates…" Pipsqueak trailed off, frustration choking her throat.
"There a reason you're telling me or not?" Adam growled out with furrowed brows.
Pipsqueak stared at him for a long moment, before curling in on herself slightly. "...Hestia Home… It was really warm…"
"We keep the fire going." He grunted.
"...Is it okay for someone like Lili to join..?"
Adam huffed, annoyed that he was apparently being asked for such useless fucking advice like this. Scrappy's already fucking invited her, didn't he? Is she stupid?
"Do what you want."
Pipsqueak didn't talk again, thankfully. Silently the two of them waited for Tatertits to call them in for dinner.
—
Apparently the sum total of the interview process was 'do you want to join' followed by 'yes' of various levels of enthusiasm and confidence. Adam made a note to talk to his employer later about what proper interviews should look like as they made their way over to the apparent 'Soma House'
Soma House was apparently not so much a house as it was a fortified compound with several buildings, watchtowers, and a wall. He nodded in approval at seeing something more defensible than normal for this city, it was almost like a proper corporate HQ.
Reaching the cast iron gates, Adam stood slightly behind the four girls and his employer. Scrappy had been sent off to purchase emergency sleeping mats and blankets for when they came back from here. Adam had insisted on being present to make sure his employer wasn't kidnapped or similar.
The gates were locked. "They normally don't let us in if we don't return by curfew…" Halfbrat muttered. The other brats were similarly at a loss about what in specific they should do. Tatertits had her hands on her hips, glaring at the gate like it had slighted her.
Adam let his gaze wander searchingly.
…There. One of the windows.
He reached out with one finger extended, pointing right at the meatbag peaking through one of the curtains, then pointing down firmly. Then he raised two fingers, did a chopping motion, and dropped his arm.
'If someone isn't here in 2 minutes, I will break the gate.'
Sure enough, two minutes later, the front door opened. A thin man with well-combed gray hair walked out the front door, hand on a hilted cane as he approached. Adam knew his type by the way he walked. The man was corporate to his core.
Making his way to the other side of the gate, the man began. "Ah… Momoji, Kaede, Coco, and Lili… Getting back so late and bringing guests? You know that's not allowed for safety reasons, don't you?" The deliberate snubbing of addressing said guests was noted.
Tatertits spoke up first, smiling and polite as the man was pretending to be. "Hestia, of the Hestia Familia. I would like to speak to Soma about a potential transfer."
The gray-haired man blinked, before slowly nodding. "A goddess…? I can go see if he's receiving visitors, if you'd like. Would you like to wait inside?"
"That would be lovely, thank you." Hestia smiled. The gray haired man waved a hand, signaling an unseen guard to pull a chain, unlocking a mechanism and allowing the cast iron gate to swing open.
They moved inside, walking through the brief courtyard. Adam locked eyes with the graymeat as he entered, glowering with specific intent. Graymeat stared back, before his lips twitched. The moment passed, and they continued moving into the Soma House.
This was a good opportunity, from what he had heard so far.
The lobby they were left in was spacious, filled with all the standard corporate decorations. Chairs, low tables, doors leading to other rooms, a few paintings. Graymeat bowed briefly before moving through a door, leaving them in the room.
Not unguarded though. Adam glared at the arrow-slit in the wall, eyes moving through the room for every hidden point of attack or vantage. Tatertits was frowning, looking over the lobby room. The girls were a mix of excited muttering and nervous whispering.
After a few minutes, Graymeat came back with an apologetic smile on his face. It was utterly false.
"Ah, my apologies, but Soma-sama is not receiving visitors at the moment. Would you like to come again tomorrow, perhaps around noon?"
Tatertits stared into his eye for a moment, before frowning. "He's doing what I used to, huh?" She muttered to herself, shaking her head before replying. "Nope. I'm going to go talk to him, It's not good to stay cooped up inside all day."
Graymeat's face lost most of its pretend warmth. "I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to disturb my go`"
"Mortal." Tatertits interrupted, hair slowly drifting up in an invisible breeze as she stared at him. Graymeat's sentence was cut off, voice choking up as he looked to Adam's employer. The girls were similarly affected, suddenly stopping and staring as Tatertits continued to speak. "A goddess walks. Do not impede her path."
Graymeat shuddered briefly, before giving a staggering nod. "H-he's in his chambers… Last door down the hall…"
Tatertits briefly smiled, turning to look at him. "I'll go talk with him! I'll be back in a few minutes, okay Adam?"
"Don't get kidnapped." Adam grunted out, glaring at a potted plant that could easily hide a ninja behind it. Tatertits merrily skipped away and through the doorway, leaving the room, causing all the meatbags to slump with her absence.
"...How frustrating…" Graymeat muttered, raising himself up to his full height once more and turning his gaze towards the girls. Glaring at them for a moment, he moved on to glare at Adam.
"I suppose you're responsible for their sudden… change in heart?"
Adam snorted and crossed his arms. "Like hell I am. Kid in my corp got excited about talking to some girls and invited them over. Apparently your operation here is shit enough for that to be a good enough offer to try an interview, and my employer is trusting enough that attempting an interview was good enough to accept. I'm just here to make sure no meatbag gets a stupid idea."
"I will not have an outsider disparage the quality of my familia." Graymeat quietly warned. "Do so again and I may take action against you."
"I'm calling it shit because it is shit, you fuckers can't even do a proper robbery." Adam pointed a finger. "Most of you aren't wearing armor, few of you are using a proper weapon, and your group tactics were pathetically basic. The only reasonable thing I've seen out of your operation thus far is the compound, which is actually fortified."
Graymeat took that in. "Ah… Our adventurers operate in semi-independent parties, I have little involvement with their affairs. Influence them too much and their individual legends cannot grow properly."
"So you cripple your income with incompetent mercs?" Adam didn't need to say the implication of idiocy aloud for it to be understood. "I'd be surprised if any of your teams are pulling more than thirty thousand a day from the examples I've had thus far."
"Oh? And how much did your most recent delve earn? I'm curious about hearing how the rookies are doing these days." Graymeat's glasses gleamed as he raised a hand to his chin. Fishing for information.
Adam reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a small collection of papers. He extended his arm, papers offered by the fingers. Hook.
Graymeat took hold of the papers, slowly looking through them and pausing. Line.
In his hands were Guild Account statements for one 'Adam Smasher', important personal info carefully redacted with ink. The most important information at the bottom of each page, left perfectly clear and intact.
The post-deposit totals after each delve. Sinker.
"I've been an adventurer for about a week." Adam growled. "I've been a mercenary for years."
"...Would you like to chat over some drinks?" Graymeat practically purred. How disgusting.
"I don't do consultations for free. You want to make your mercenary corps more profitable, then I need payment." Adam demanded, knowing full well that Graymeat would pay quite the premium. After all, he was the exact type of corporate fuck that Adam had been deal with for years, and the exact type that he knew how to get money out of.
Arasaka standard operating procedure. Be the best in the business, and sell yesterday's info to everyone who hasn't caught up yet. Worst comes to worst? Adam might have a proper challenge next time they try to rob him, and he'd know their standard operating procedures already, because he'd be the one to tell them what to do.
There wasn't really a situation in which he lost here, he could only gain.
"I'm confident we can work something out." Graymeat responded jovially, a serpent-like gleam in his eyes.
At about that moment, the door crashed open, his employer practically dragging a sleepy looking meatbag with shaggy hair out by the hand. Almost immediately, a wash of dialogue and chattering came from her, that figure, and the four girls in the room.
Ah, so she found this 'Soma' after all…
Adam wasn't impressed, yet again. He gestured with one hand, Graymeat handing the receipts back to him with a very friendly smile on his face.
"How does lunch on a saturni sound?" Graymeat asked, to which Adam nodded his head back and forth in consideration. He was already going to be busy saturday evening at the Ganesha house, meeting the soldiermeat for drinks…
"I'll be here at noon, leaving by six at the latest. I got a meeting in the evening." He growled out.
"Perfect. I'll have something prepared for us then, and we can talk business."
After a few moments of watching their respective employers talk to the girls in the room, from a distance, Graymeat spoke again. "Oh, and don't worry about Canoe and his band. Your message was sloppy, but received."
"Forgot how fragile meat was." Adam responded with a rumble. "Don't worry about the profits your familia wasted that day, it was only seventy thousand in equipment and twenty five drops."
Graymeat gave a small grin at that. "I'm so glad we understand each other."
—
In the end, Sleepyhead had allowed all four to be transferred out of his familia after a brief chat. It was fairly obvious that Graymeat was the one responsible for running the show, and running it somewhat incompetently at that.
"Buh-bye Soma-kun! I'll take good care of the girls!" Tatertits chirped as they left, waving a hand and walking backwards to say goodbye to the short figure clad in an all-obscuring brown robe, who was lazily waving back.
Adam grunted, nodding once with Graymeat and getting a move on immediately after. Nothing more to be said. The girls in front were excitedly chattering with one another, save for Pipsqueak, who had decided to walk next to him silently.
"We'll update everyone when we get back, okay?" His employer declared, turning right around and walking down the streets. "Then, we'll have more stew in the morning! Leftovers are the best when made with love!"
"We need to expand." Adam grunted. "There should be two-hundred and seventy thousand in the familia account now."
His employer tripped and fell headfirst onto the street. The girls fretted over her briefly. Adam continued. "Might be enough to buy one of the surrounding buildings and start on renovations. We need a properly fortified base soon enough."
His employer pushed herself up, scowling at him. "You need to stop bullying your goddess, you know?!"
"You're the one who decided to trip, Tatertits." Adam grunted back.
Tatertits reeled back at that, a vaguely offended look on her face. She reached up to cup her boobs and muttered. "T-they're not potatoes."
"You're wearing a potato sack." Adam pointed out.
"It's not a potato sack!" Tatertits hotly denied, punching his hip and accomplishing nothing. "You know this kind of dress is really popular up in Heaven!" She growled at him.
"It leaves your thighs and back completely exposed, of course it's popular, Tatertits."
"They're not potatoes! Stop saying that!"
The girls had begun to giggle about halfway through the exchange, Pipsqueak included.
—
Adam
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - I87
Endurance - E400
Dexterity - I84
Agility - I83
Magic - I12
Abilities
Skills
Paradisus Sub Sole Rubro - Unusual Interactions with Charm Effects.
Spells
—
Bell Cranel
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - I70
Endurance - I80
Dexterity - I70
Agility - I73
Magic - I0
Abilities
Skills
Spells
—
Liliruca Arde
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - H104
Endurance - H186
Dexterity - G295
Agility - E465
Magic - E495
Abilities
Skills
Artel Assist - When user carries a certain amount of weight, bolsters abilities to partially compensate.
Spells
Cinder Ella - Transformation Magic, allows user to transform into anything of roughly equal size to self.
—
Shinonome Momiji
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - I33
Endurance - I30
Dexterity - I16
Agility - I38
Magic - I74
Abilities
Skills
Spells
Omamori-Chuu - Luck-Bolstering Magic that can be used on a single target. User cannot cast this spell upon themselves.
-
Tsukinokami Kaede
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - I42
Endurance - I34
Dexterity - I33
Agility - I41
Magic - I0
Abilities
Skills
Yukiyama Usagi - Skill that aids the user in locating 'safe places'.
Spells
-
Coco Collins
Level 1
Basic Abilities
Strength - I61
Endurance - I44
Dexterity - I36
Agility - I43
Magic - I0
Abilities
Skills
Spells