Chapter 11: Athenaeum

Adventurers walked down the west road of Orario, enjoying the sunny weather. Carts carrying vital supplies and building materials rolled languidly along. It was currently 6:30 in the morning. A cat stretched itself in front of an inn; another busy day of sleeping lay ahead.

"I'm so, so, so sorry!" A high-pitched voice cried out from within. The cat scampered off.

Here at the hostess of fertility, we find one adventurer who was having a rather stressful beginning to their day. Their snow-white hair fluffed around as they bowed to the towering woman in front of them. "I swear, I never meant to run off without paying the other night!"

Syr's friend, who had dined and dashed the night before, was currently trying to make amends. He reached behind him and pulled out a large sack of coins, holding it reverently in both hands like an offering to the gods. "Here! This is what I owe you."

Mia Grand took the sack with an annoyed smirk. "Well, I do appreciate ya going through so much trouble to bring me this. Yeah..."

The bag jingle as she placed it down. "...Because if you hadn't, I would have to find your ass and collect on the payment myself."

"Ugh!" This successfully intimidated the young boy as he bowed once more. "I really am sorry!"

Syr approached him with a gentle smile. "You can really stop apologizing now Bell. But I'm glad you came. It's nice to see you again!

The boy straightened up and smiled at her.

"I take it you're off to the dungeon today? Take this, it's lunch!" Syr extended a box filled with homemade food.

The boy became flustered. "Oh, no! No, I can't!"

Syr's tone became slightly higher as she blushed. "Really? Why not? I want you to..."

Bell took on a funny, exasperated expression. "Hm... Well, okay. Thanks..." The inexperienced boy couldn't say no.

Muttering resounded behind them as a grumpy looking boy dug into his breakfast: a ham and cheese omelette.

"Um..." Bell looked at the intimidating person, confused.

Mia looked to her side. "Oh, don't mind him. He's probably just worried about his own debt. Ain't that right, Hit?"

Hit was broken out of his trance of calculations and money making schemes and spoke in a sleep deprived voice. "Shut. Up."

Mia crossed her arms and stood ominously. "Oh? I think someone needs a good old fashioned Mama Mia thrashing."

Hit shoved a slice of omelette in his mouth and chewed. "Don't threaten me with a good time."

"I'm gonna ignore that... Anyway, ya got any ideas?" Mia had watched him muttering all morning about plans and strange terms that were alien to her.

Hit fidgeted a bit. "I'll soon be paid 50,000 valis by the Loki familia for the Minotaur stone. However, I will be completely penniless by the end of today".

Mia huffed in understanding. "So, ya want another loan, huh?"

Hit nodded. "It would only be until I join a familia, the day after tomorrow. I always pay my debts; I swear on my life".

Mia was still surprised at his formal speech and seriousness. It was like dealing with nobility, or an elf. "Alright, but anything past today will cost ya double". This was actually rather lenient for the intimidating woman, she usually collected on debts immediately. Quite bloodily in some cases.

Hit's eyes unfocused and a gloomy cloud shrouded him.

Mia's grin widened; she was quite the sadist. "What? I have a business to run! I know you'll be good for it soon anyway! Hahaha!"

"E-excuse me, did you say Minotaur stone?"

The white-haired boy approached Hit.

Hit looked up at the boy, mouth full of omelette. "Hm?"

"Oh! Forgive me, my name's Bell Cranel, a rookie adventurer! It's nice to meet you." Bell held out a hand.

"Hit". With a nod, Hit returned to his food and thoughts.

Bell sweatdropped and looked over to Mia. "Uuh... Is that it?"

"Heh. He doesn't say much. Come on Hit, or maybe I'll make it three times as much!" Mia grinned down at him.

"Oh, for the love of." Hit knew he could not weasel out of this. He got up and held out his hand. "I am Hit. You are Syr's partner?"

Bell shook the offered palm with a smile. "Yes, that's righ..."

He pulled back, as if Hit was scalding hot, an incredibly embarrassed expression on his face. "What!? N-n-no! I-I'm her friend! That's all!"

Syr giggled behind the blushing boy. "Fufufu..."

"Apologies. To summarize, I eliminated a Minotaur that the Loki familia displaced from the floors below. They have promised me a monetary reward, and a position among them." Hit summarised his experience succinctly.

Bell slumped at this. "Wow... You managed to defeat it? You must be really strong, a level 2 or 3. I couldn't do anything but run away like a coward..."

Hit empathised with the boy, so decided to give him some advice. If only to possibly get a discount from Mia; she had a soft spot for the kid. "Do not dwell on what that wretch said. You are a beginner human fighter, and it is only natural for your growth to take some time. All you must do is put everything you have into getting stronger. Never give up until you reach your limits, and then break through them as many times as you can."

Bell looked at Hit with stars in his eyes. Noone, besides his Goddess, had ever believed in him. The scores of rejections he received, upon first reaching the fabled city, were still bearing down upon him, making Bell feel unworthy. Words of encouragement were just what he needed right now.

"Regarding what he said about your lack of love life, sorry, I can't help you there." Hit ruined the moment a little.

Bell scratched his head. "R-right... That's great that you got an offer from them though! So, are you changing familias soon?"

Hit looked to the side. "Something like that..."

"Yeah, Hit's been hitting up the dungeon without a falna, so he needs to get a shift on." Mia chimed in again.

"W-W-WHAAAAAAT!?" Bell stammered before screeching to the heavens.

When everyone's ears stopped ringing, the boy stepped closer to Hit. "That's not possible! Someone without a falna could never even reach that far down!"

Hit huffed. "I have performed extensive training. Also, the beast I fought was tremendously injured and I was incredibly lucky."

Hit turned to Mia, a tick mark throbbing on his head. "Now would you stop spreading baseless rumours?"

Mia whistled away, cleaning a table.

"P... please! Teach me how to get stronger! I'll do anything, Sir Hit!" Bell put his hands together and pleaded with starry eyes. He seriously needed someone more experienced to mentor him.

Hit glowered at Mia's form. "You couldn't just leave me in peace, could you?"

Mia scratched a cheek to hide her chuckles as she wiped up.

"Look, I don't have time for this. You're already well on your way. Just don't die and you'll be fine." Hit wasn't used to getting annoyed this early in the day.

"B-but surely you could teach me some of your exercises? I'll do anything!" The albino boy just wouldn't back down.

Hit gritted hit teeth and looked up at the ceiling. "If I ever catch that ugly blue bastard, I will murder him."

The surrounding people were quite unnerved by that ominous statement.

"... I'll spar with you very, very briefly later today." Hit gave in.

Bell bounced up and down. "Oh, thank you! Thank you! I promise you won't regret it, Mr Hit!" The boy cheered out in glee.

Hit stood there glumly. 'I already do... I'm beginning to miss my assassination contracts. It was always a good day when it was someone that slighted me in the past."

Crowds could be heard more clearly outside as the city woke up for the day.

Syr giggled and left to begin her work. "Anyway, I'll leave you all to it. Bye Bell, Bye Hit!"

Mama Mia stepped up to the boys then. "There you go Hit, was that so hard?"

She then shifted her gaze from the grumpy boy to the skittish one, leaning into his face. "And you! You're lucky Syr likes you. The only reason me and the others forgave your little indiscretion is because she begged and begged us to."

Bell was touched at her kindness. "She really did that...?"

The giant woman straightened back up. "Listen here, adventurers don't get far in life trying to act all cool and crap. Focus on staying alive. Do that before you start doing anything fancy like 'breaking your limits'. Even if an adventurer looks weak, it's the ones who come back in one piece that are the real winners."

Mia picked the startled boy up and turned him towards the exit. "I'm not one to nag too much..."

Hit coughed from behind her.

She paused at the action, then patted Bell on the back. "...but if you go out and get yerself killed, I'll be very disappointed". Bell's light body shuffled along as Mia then pushed him forwards. "Now, get on out of here! We've got to open up and you're getting in the way."

"Right!" Bell nodded and ran out to begin his daily adventure.

Mia put her hands on her hips. "Nice lad." She then turned to the figure of Hit who was slowly moving towards his room. "That was really inspiring Hit! Almost makes me want to give you a discount, almost. Hehehe!"

'Crap baskets...'

Bad luck, Hit.

Saloon doors creaked as Hit entered the pantheon of the guild building. 'Not as grand as it looks from the outside.'

Hit was greeted to a homely open space with wood counters on its far end. Comfy green sofas and coffee tables flanked the windows, presumably for discussions and meetups. Guards stood at the exits, and next to a larger counter to Hit's left. They wore modern black waist coats; the fashion was all over the place in this world.

Hit scanned the room, as always. 'If I want to register, it's logical for me to proceed to one of the desks.'

On one of the counters, a pink haired girl could be seen pleading to her brown-haired colleague. The chestnut-haired girl looked quite flustered, and a tad angry, but soon gave in and took her post.

Hit found his destination. 'I suppose I'll talk to this one then.'

The guild worker shivered and thought to herself. 'Why do I feel like I have a lot of hard work ahead of me?'

"Excuse me" a deep voice sounded from behind her.

The girl turned around, showing Hit that she had two short, pointy ears: she was a half elf. "Y-yes? How may I help you today, Sir?"

"I want to become an adventurer. How can I go about doing this?" Hit hoped this wouldn't take long. Everything thus far certainly had.

"Oh! Of course, let me get your paperwork" She leaned over and pulled out a form, apparently having memorised its location. The worker then placed the paper, and a pen, in front of Hit. "Here you are Sir, just fill this in and you'll complete the first step to becoming a fully fledged adventurer."

Hit looked over the form and filled it in, hoping there weren't too many steps. 'Name: Hit; birthplace... I'll just put 'village outside Orario'; current residence: inn; familia... Hm."

Hit looked up at the professional woman. "I am not currently a member of any familia, but intend to join one in the coming days."

The elf smiled lightly at him. "That's perfectly fine Sir, just leave it blank and we can update your records as time goes on."

Hit nodded and went back to his form. Once it was filled in, he handed it back to her.

"Thank you, Mr ...Hit. I must warn you that, since you are not a member of a familia, you will be unable to enter the dungeon or exchange magic stones at this time. However, you are free to use the guild's facilities, for a fee."

Hit grumbled. "I just need to gain access to the library, everything else is worthless to me at the moment".

"Oh! Then you can enter freely, Mr Hit." The half elf was shocked, most people never bothered to read up much before delving down, and not many did afterwards either. She gasped, seemingly realising something.

"Ah! My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Eina Tulle. It is nice to meet you." She held out a dainty hand for the quiet boy.

Hit shook it very briefly. "Right. Can we get to the library now".

"O-of course, right this way." Eina was used to scores of adventurers confessing their love to her every week. She was not used to being brushed off so quickly.

Hit walked behind the green-eyed woman until they reached a room filled with hundreds of bookcases. 'Jackpot'

"I can take it from here." Hit dashed in and disappeared amongst the books.

The confused advisor shook her head and walked back to her post.

A book was shut carefully and placed on a nearby pile. Another took its place as someone voraciously read its contents.

'Finally making progress.' Hit was pleased with the library's contents; they were much more expansive than the meagre one in his village. He had found out a boatload of information, which clarified many unfamiliar terms relating to adventurers.

Adventurers were split into first, second, and third classes. This gave others an estimate of their strength, experience, and level. Levels ranged between newly blessed humans (level 1), level 2s (Third class), to levels 3-4s (second class), and level 5 upwards (first class). 'Level' simply referred to a person's rank and was their most important parameter. Anyone level 2 and above was a 'high class adventurer'. The abilities of someone a level above you were far, far superior. Even if you specialised into a specific attribute, this would be surpassed by a higher-level individual who hadn't specialised into the attribute at all. The highest ever levels were achieved by members of the Zeus and Hera familia: level 8 and level 9 respectively. Frustratingly, there was no clear instructions on how to level up: Changing feelings? Achieving greatness? Going beyond? What useless nonsense was this?

Anyway, gods bestowed the adventurers, within their familia, with a falna. This enabled them to gather excelia, over time, and get stronger.

'So they simply unlock people's limits, the actual work is done by the bearer.'

Aliases were names given to adventurers once they achieved level 2. They were apparently an honor; Hit didn't really care. Moving back to the Falna, developmental abilities were special abilities that had the chance to appear every level up, beginning at level 2. Skills interested Hit the most. These were inherent abilities that could develop in people at random. Their effects were not disclosed here, sadly.

'So, there is a different power structure in this world. Perhaps I have awakened my time skip as a skill? Or is it a magic...' It felt exactly as it had before, likely making it the former.

Interestingly, Falna also slowed the ageing of its bearers. Some people Hit had met may appear to be teenagers, but who knows how old they truly were. Elves may even reach thousands of years in age.

Sadly, barely anything discussed arcanum, just that it was a power of the gods that they were sometimes allowed to use to make mirrors for broadcast.

'Of course, they'd bend the rules for television.' Hit remembered a very popular website in his multiverse, GodTube, that many deities liked to watch.

Hit had also turned through bestiaries and had learned the names of the creatures he had faced: Goblins, Kobolds, Dungeon Lizards, and a Minotaur. They also described their nature as non-living creatures, powered by magic stones. Monsters are creatures born in the dungeon that act as enemies of the world. Humanity and monsters have been locked in mortal combat for millennia. Once killed, there is a small chance that part of their body remains fixed in place, forming what is known as a drop item. This was something Hit had overheard before at the inn, dropping from a goblin. They were quite valuable and could be used as materials to create items or weapons. Monster stones act as energy reactors and fuel their incessant battle against mankind.

Moving on to history books, the city was founded thousands of years ago, and the story proceeded just like Syr had said. The gods descended from the heavens 1000 years ago and founded a myriad of familia, beginning an age of prosperity. The Orario dark age plunged the city into chaos and ruin as Evilus, a radical group of gods and familias, committed a multitude of atrocities. They were destroyed six years ago by the combined forces of the Loki, Ganesha, and Freya Familias.

In terms of powerful beings, the three great quests referred to subjugation quests for three particularly dangerous monsters. These were: the behemoth, the leviathan, and the one-eyed black dragon. Unfortunately, at least in Hit's viewpoint, two had already been defeated by the Zeus and Hera familias. These familias sadly perished against the most powerful of the beasts, the black dragon, which had destroyed many countries during its free reign of the world.

The list of familia was not as useful, due to its immense size. Hit had no idea how so many gods coexisted without blowing each other up. Well... He supposed they did just that during the 'dark age'.

'I still don't know what the gods are truly like personally. Who knows if that 'Loki' God was just putting on an act to lure me in. There also don't seem to be any maps of the dungeon, maybe they can be purchased? Nothing on magic either... I'll have to go to that shop.'

Hit looked up to a clock on the wall: it chimed as it turned to 1 o'clock in the afternoon. He had been reading for nearly six hours and was feeling famished. Hit put his books back, like any responsible person would, and walked back to the foyer.

...

*Ring*

A bell rang as Hit pressed on it to get someone's attention.

Eina Tulle walked over to him. "Mr Hit? Is everything okay?"

Hit nodded. "Yes, I have finished reading and I wanted to ask you two questions."

Eina looked shocked. 'He's been reading all this time!?' She stammered a little. "O-of course, ask away".

"I would like to join a familia; however, the list was far too extensive and nondescript. Could you make some recommendations?" Hit was pleased the woman was being so helpful.

"Certainly, what are your preferences?" Eina thought back to her examination to work at the guild. 'So many gods... Too many.'

"Familias that specialise in delving deep into the dungeon, as far as possible. They must have a range of training facilities and someone who is an expert on magic. Above all else, they must not use their familia members as slaves or pawns. Freedom to act independently is a must." Hit would only consider joining one of these groups if their members were treated fairly. If not, he would have to seriously consider his next moves.

Eina raised a palm to her chest and shook her head. "Goodness! I can assure you, none of them would do such a thing!"

Hit raised an eyebrow and looked at her disbelievingly.

The elf's confidence broke under his gaze. *Cough* "However, I must admit, some of them certainly are less tight knit than others.

Eina thought for a moment. "If you would give me until tomorrow, I can produce a list of the most suitable familia for you. Is that satisfactory, Mr Hit?" She tilted her head cutely.

Hit nodded. "Of course. As for my second question, where can I buy maps of the dungeon?"

Eina looked surprised. "Those are restricted to adventurers, I'm afraid. They're extremely difficult to make, given the danger, making them quite expensive. Also, we wouldn't want to make it any easier for unblessed people to dive down there, now would we?"

Hit gritted his teeth at that. "No, we can't make life any easier for them, can we..."

Eina stood confused for a moment until Hit turned around.

"Until next time". Hit bid her goodbye and walked out into the street, leaving the confused elf to her lonesome.

"Who was that, Eina?" A girl with a pink mop of hair peered out from the staff quarters, half eaten sandwich in hand.

Eina's forehead throbbed as a tick mark formed on it. "It was the person who you were supposed to serve, before you dumped your responsibilities on me, like usual!"

The elf girl marched towards the human, robotically, arms raised and fingers twitching, ready to deliver a punishment of a thousand tickles.

"R-retreat!" Misha Flott ran from the 'evil' elf.

Author's Notes:

Hit's guide to adventuring: "Just don't die and you'll be fine."