Early monday chapter go!

Adam Smasher, Level 1 Adventurer, Hestia Familia

"What can you do?" Adam rumbled in the middle of the stone-paved backyard, leaning against the well and staring down at three brats currently cross-legged on the ground before him. Scrappy was over to the side with Shortstack chatting about some sort of smithing thing. The girls turned their heads from the doorway, where the halfbrat had just wandered into.

Halfbrat didn't feel up to the slaughter, which means she went to the logistics division, which means she was no longer his concern and Tatertits could handle her instead.

The brats glanced at each other for a few moments, seeing if any of the others would go first, before foxbrat raised her hand and leaned forwards. He turned a flat gaze to her and waited a moment, raising a brow to indicate that she should stop wasting time and start talking instead. This wasn't a classroom, it was a job performance interview.

"I know all kinds of magic! And I even have a Falna-spell!" She excitedly mentioned.

"Explain the difference." Adam rumbled a demand. Foxbrat blinked, before scratching her cheek.

"Oh well… Like… So there's magic spells you can learn if you study a lot, but you have to be careful because if you mess them up you go boom. But then there's Falna-spells, which are like, way easier to cast! But you only get three of them."

He made a note to look into this later, because the brat was probably going to be useless for precise information. Probably see if there was a generic magic shop somewhere, he had a feeling that one would be somewhere in this city. "What spells."

"What?" Foxbrat responded, blinking.

"Your spells, how many do you know and what do they do?" He growled out, letting his annoyance be more audible for emphasis.

"Oh! I know three of the ten heavenly spells of the East!" Foxbrat raised three of her fingers for emphasis. Raising to her feet and performing a dramatic pose, she declared. "Arrow of Hachiman! Sword of Susanoo! Luck of Inari!" Each name was paired with another pose, which Adam recognized as kabuki.

That made little sense, but he elected to ignore it completely. He raised a hand and rolled it with a growl. Foxbrat got the message and settled down, coughing into her fist. "Arrow of Hachiman lets me find a living target that I've seen before. Sword of Susanoo lets me cut something with stormy wind. Luck of Inari lets me…" Foxbrat trailed off, glancing to the side and twiddling her fingers.

"Let's me grant a blessing of luck by k-kissing them…" She trailed off into what was practically whispers by the end, face scarlet.

Adam raised a brow. So a literal good luck kiss then? Relying on luck was a good way to get killed, so that was at best a quality of life function. The most useful spell she had was that tracker from first impressions, the lack of details meant he couldn't be sure of anything else. He rolled his eyes, turning his attention towards Bunnybrat, who perked up at the attention.

"I can use a sword! Grandpa trained me for a few years before I left, so I'm pretty good at it." He'll be the judge of that. Foxbrat dutifully sat back down again. "I got a skill that lets me find safe places too!"

He strongly doubted she was worth a damn with that sword of hers. Skill was potentially useful. "How does it work?" He growled.

She paused, before shrugging. "I dunno, I just… know where to go."

Passive instinct then, useful for finding chokepoints in the dungeon? Needs more testing. "Anything else?"

She thought about it for a moment. "...Well I'm a bunny, so I got a sharper nose than humans or pallums, and I can jump pretty good. Momiji-chan has a good nose too." Foxbrat tilted her head up proudly at the mention.

Adam furrowed his brow, and tilted his head. Racial advantages were a thing here? He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, but it hasn't come up yet. "Jump." He demanded.

Bunnybrat nodded happily, eager to show off, and rose to her feet. Bouncing on her heels briefly to limber up, she crouched down like a spring, and jumped.

…about a meter off the ground. Three or so feet. Thirty six or so inches.

It certainly seemed impressive to the other meatbags in the area, who looked suitably impressed by the height achieved with that standing leap. It was hard to feel impressed when he spent most of his career in a Dragoon warframe with specially-thickened myomer, and could leap nine times that distance doing the same thing.

It was probably impressive for a meatgirl. Slightly improved musculature maybe? Not enough to really matter overall. He grunted and turned an eye towards the last one. Pipsqueak sitting nervously to the side.

Pipsqueak caught his eye, swallowed nervously, and replied. "Lili is a pallum, so she's really weak… But she can still help as a supporter!"

He rolled his hand. She nodded before continuing. "Lili has a skill and a falna-spell. Lili's skill helps her carry things for other adventurers. Lili's spell lets her t-transform into other small things…"

He considered that for a moment, eyes narrowing. "...Details." Small things were a very broad category of things, many of them very useful to have on hand.

"Lili's skill is Artel Assist. It lets her carry much more than she should be able to, but it doesn't make her any stronger…" Pipsqueak hesitated seeing the intense look he was giving her. "...Lili's spell is Cinder Ella. It lets her turn into other creatures that are about as big as Lili."

"Purely illusory or an actual transformation?" He growled out, raising a hand to scratch his chin. Even if it was just illusory, that was still quite useful for corporate espionage and asset acquisition.

"Um…"

"You're a 'Pallum'. If you transform into a Bunnygirl like big ears over here, can you jump higher?" He pointed a thumb at the brat in question, who perked up and over.

"Oh! Yes, Lili can do that!"

"How long does it last?"

"Um… Lili doesn't know, until she ends it?"

"How much can you carry?"

"...Lili isn't sure, she never measured it." Pipsqueak pitifully admitted, feeling his frustration at her inability to accurately answer. "At least a big anvil worth."

So several hundred pounds of weight being carried by a meatgirl frame. At minimum five or six times more than she should be able to carry.

Adam turned an eye towards nothing for a moment, and mentally considered all the ways that that skill and spell could be used together. A skill that lets you carry drastically more and a spell that lets you adapt your frame on a per-mission basis… no, even switching between meat-loadouts as the mission dictated. Those two combined…

He rumbled in annoyance. The kids here had it fucking easy. "You said you were weak? Are you a dumbass?"

"H-hey!" Pipsqueak briefly protested, before hesitating as she realized he was calling her not weak.

"You can carry all the gear you want and have a spell that lets you adapt your specifications at will. Those are the best superpowers out of the entire goddamn familia and you have both. You're getting heavy armor and going on the frontline with Scrappy and me."

Pipsqueak bolted up and gave a panicky wave of her hands. "L-lili can carry more, but she's still not any stronger! She'll never hit hard enough on her own!"

"You have a spell that lets you transform, dumbass. Turn into something stronger." The only downside after that was reach, and that could be partially handled with a polearm.

Pipsqueak stared at him for a moment, before looking down at her hands. A look of hesitant realization gradually overcoming her face as she slowly began to chant.

"Your wound is mine."
"My wound is mine."
"Echoing message of midnight."
"Cinder Ella."

Her form grew blurry for a moment, features becoming indistinct and hard to make out, before the visual blur in reality cleared up once more. Her skin was tanned now, her figure and musculature slightly more filled out, and hair a shade darker.

Quickly, she practically stumbled over herself to pull out her dagger, a standard steel blade the Guild sold to help carve out monster cores.

She braced both hands on the weapon, one on the blade in a careful grip and one on the handle, and flexed. Slowly, the blade flexed and bent. Carefully, she extracted her grip from the blade.

It was still bent. More than enough evidence that the Guild wasn't selling the highest quality stuff. Spring steel was designed to flex and snap back into place after bending, not stay bent.

"Lili is strong…" Pipsqueak whispered to herself, staring at the bent blade.

"Frontlines." Adam declared again with a firm glare. "We're testing you other two today, but first we're getting gear. Your current shit is unacceptable."

"What!? Why?" Foxbrat and Bunnybrat replied in unison.

"You're wearing dresses instead of armor."

The two of them paused, Foxbrat hanging her head in despair and Bunnybrat looking away in shame. "We sold all our other clothes to buy more soma…" Bunnybrat quietly admitted.

"You were stupid." Adam answered declaratively. Mercs spending all their pay on drinks was a universal thing, as it turned out. The barnyard pair protested weakly, probably knowing that they had indeed done something stupid.

"H-hey!"
"T-that's rude!"

Pipsqueak was still enamored by the bent knife.

—

"I'll be going down on my own again, if you have no qualms." Crozzomeat looked significantly better equipped, clad in plated limbs and a red coat of plates, a visored helm and a fur-lined cloak around his shoulders. Over one shoulder he carried an overlarge warhammer, and one gauntlet was significantly reinforced around the knuckles. A large bag on his back, a brace of throwing spears, and a carving knife on his belt. "I want to try my hand at floor eleven again, and you have some new recruits you need to watch."

Adam grunted in affirmation, nodding his head at the newmeats who were chatting with the SS. He didn't really care either way, and at least this way Hammermeat would stop leaching off their profits.

"Stay safe then, alright Welf? Come find one of us again if you want to party up again." Scrappy offered with a smile, hand on his hip. "Hope you manage down there."

"With all the tips I stole from Adam here? It should be easy. I'll come back with a dragonscale cloak I think." Redmeat grinned, shrugging confidently, before turning and walking away with a backwards wave of his hand. "No need to drag it out, I'll see you two again at the Hostess tonight, alright?"

"We'll be there!" Scrappy excitedly chirped out, waving happily as Redmeat disappeared down the doorway into the dungeon below.

"You'll be there, I have no reason to." Adam rumbled with narrowed eyes, walking back over to the newmeats and SS as he did. "One burger a week. It hasn't been a week."

"Ah come on Adam, you need to give back the bag you broke."

"Like fuck I do." Adam grinned victoriously, reaching over to his new bag and patting the pocket that contained his new daily rations. An entire pound of jerky, bought from some 'Demeter' familia that had a monopoly on farmland outside the city, through the guild supply depot. He had asked guildmeat about rationing and she was useful for once in pointing at where to go. He never needed to go back to the diner again. "They gave me the bag, it's their fault it got broke. I don't have to do jackshit."

"The portions there are huge and tasty!"

"Tatertits' food is better. It's free."

Scrappy puffed one cheek, clearly considering what argument he could possible give to get Adam to step foot in the diner more than he had too. Adam waved it off preemptively. "I got errands to run in the evening brat, go without me." He rumbled out.

"Errands?" Scrappy asked with a raised brow.

"Guild is acting as a middleman for rations. We can get them cheaper if we go buy from the suppliers instead. I'm going to go set that up if I can." That, and go back into the dungeon again afterwards. Their work was going to be slowed with the brats dragging them down, and he needed to be earning more to make up for the lost gear.

"Ah, that makes sense." Scrappy responded. Finally reaching the newmeats and the SS, Adam nodded his head at the new girl.

Wearing a combination of chainmail and leather, with a plated helm and spear against her shoulder. Said new girl leaned back and grinned, red haired and freckled face, thrusting out a hand for him to shake. "Pleased to make your acquaintance big fella, Rosalynn the combat-supporter, heard you were looking for help."

"Adam Smasher. You have a contract ready?" He growled out, shaking the hand briefly. His palm eclipsed her entire hand and wrist. She nodded, reaching into a side-bag and pulling out a pre-written contract.

"Based it on the one you had with ol' Tomas, it should be up to scratch." She explained.

He quickly read through the contract. Duties outlined in brief and specific, basics of expected pay shares elaborated upon, clauses and safeguards for both parties, mostly basic stuff that was already hammered out and mostly identical to previous contract, sans the updated shares and duties.

"Combat clause 2B needs changing. You're running with the rest of the Support Squad if I tell you to run. I ain't going to be forced to babysit other meatbags while I'm focused on the fight." He growled out, twisting the page around with a finger pointed at the clause in question, the 'stand and fight' clause.

Freckles frowned at that. "Now listen here big fella, you know I got my professional pride too. I'm a combat supporter, I ain't worth a damn when I'm not next to my employer."

"Your job is going to be making sure the loot gets back to home base." He glowered down at her. Worrying about keeping some other meat alive while he's in the fight is only going to drag him down, Adam wasn't going to have any fucking part in it if he could avoid it.

Freckles crossed her arms, glaring at him for several moments. He glared back undaunted.

She let out a 'tch' before replying. "I don't like it none, but if you need me keeping the rest of the littlefolk alive, I can hardly complain."

Halflead rolled his eyes at that. "I got a pen ready if you want to mark it out." He offered. Adam nodded and handed the contract over, watching Halflead brace the contract against his arm, pull out a professional looking ink-pen, and carefully strike that line from the document. That done, Adam added his signature to the bottom, handing the pen back to Halflead and the contract back to Freckles.

Raising back up to his full height, Adam nodded and spoke again. "The schedules are being updated. We're working in three shifts of four hours each from now on."

Halflead raised an eyebrow. The other halfmeats gave similar gestures of mild curiosity. "Why's that, Mr. Adam?"

Adam pointed a thumb at the newmeats, currently chatting with Scrappy and Guildmeat, and grumbled out. "They don't got stamina worth a damn. They're on partial shifts until they can handle a full day." Looks of realization and general agreement came over their faces, and the halfmeats nodded in acceptance. "They're going back up with Scrappy at the four hour mark, resting for the next four hours, then coming back down to join again for the last shift."

"Sounds alright by we, they getting a pay deduction for that I suppose?" Halflead idly asked, scratching his chin. The Halfmeats had agreed to an updated 'ten percent of final total flat' as their shared pay, so it was no wonder they were curious about the pay of others they were working with.

"Two-thirds of a normal share." Adam rumbled with a frown. "They'll probably spend it all on something stupid." Their new gear had been paid for from the Familia account. One-thousand each on a gambeson coat for both Bunnybrat and Foxbrat. One-hundred and twenty each on a spear for both. Three-hundred for a Poleaxe and twenty-thousand for a set of Guildplate for Pipsqueak. Six-hundred each on three small crossbows.

Then thirteen-thousand on restocking potions. Right about thirty-seven thousand total from the familia account. The barnyard duo would have to buy their own armor in the future, they could barely carry what they had, an issue Pipsqueak didn't have.

His own costs to replace his gear were similar. He was still pretty annoyed about the whole affair.

"...Soma has a way of doing that to you." Halflead spoke quietly to him. Adam turned a sideways eye towards the brown-haired halfmeat and waited for him to continue. "I'd watch out for them. They say that Soma is the best thing you'll ever drink, and you'll never want to drink anything else ever again. You become a slave to it, a slave who'd do anything for another drop."

Addiction then. He had seen it play out often back in his ganger days. Back when he used to mainline combat stims to keep ahead of the competition. He didn't need to anymore, he had more experience these days.

The answer was simple regardless.

"If they backstab me, I'll kill them." Adam grunted. "There's always more meat for the grinder." Always more recruits to pull from.

"...I suppose so, Mr. Adam. We're ready to go down when you are."

Adam nodded and called out. "Oi! Brats! Business talks are over, we're going down now!" He jerked his head over to the doorway down for emphasis.

"Come back safe, okay?" Guildmeat smiled and nodded her head at the brats.

"Wear a thong on your date with Scrappy, that'll reel him in." Adam advised, walking past and towards the entrance.

He grinned at the sudden commotion starting up in his wake.