Adam Smasher, Level 1 Adventurer, Hestia Familia
Scrappy was quick to take off his coat and hand it over, which was then offered over to Princess. It was then grabbed by Dogmeat 2, ripped in half, and used as short skirts for both of the naked meats. Scrappy almost protested, quickly appeased by a grunting 'pay you back later' from one who tore it in half.
A quick lesson brat, don't offer shit to other people unless you want it broken.
"I don't recognize any of you, which means level ones, is that right?" Dogmeat 2 growled out, staring at the gore-slick walls for a few moments before turning a gaze back towards them. "Level ones with a few supporting skills, a magic sword, and a mage."
"None of your business, dogmeat." Adam growled out before anyone behind him could give away corporate secrets to a potential enemy. More importantly though, it let him provoke a facedown with the newmeat and get a measure of them. Dogmeat turned, locking eyes and glares against him.
"Looking real tough there rookie, that missing arm a fashion statement?"
"Thought I'd give punkasses with stupid facepaint a handicap, make it fair if they start some shit."
Amber eyes narrowed and a slight snarl raised on pale lips. Points off for changing expression Dogmeat, a proper staredown has the hostility in the words and poker-faces on. The only thing left in one piece on Dogmeat 2's body were those boots of his, silver-steel plates covering a dark black material that survived the destruction of the rest of his wear. Indicating that they were more durable for a specific reason.
Kick focused unarmed combatant? Leaving hands open to carry another weapon, likely ranged or faster chant magic. Keep a distance and fire until parameters are evaluated, then move in for the kill when opening presents itself.
"Thank you for the clothes." Stripper called out, securing her half of the now-rags to her waist and turning a blank look towards a pink-faced Scrappy. Her own armor presumably incorporated a less durable underlayer to make up for the scattered and inconsistent plate layers. Kneeplates, back of the hand, back of the forearm, elbow, upper arms, part of the upper torso, the outer side of the thighs, neckguards, and a headband.
Her plate left her right underboob exposed, but not the left. Idly he wondered how much she got scammed for that, before deciding that he didn't care.
"A-ah! It's no issue, it's not good to go around naked in public and all that!" Scrappy stuttered out, doing his best to not look at the creamy expanse of skin Stripper still had exposed.
"Jiiii~" Brought him out of his facedown immediately, turning a disgusted look towards Foxbrat, who had apparently decided to copy their employer in her weebshit. He promptly applied discipline by bonking her on the head with the end of his crossbow.
"Cut that cute shit, brat, you're ruining our rep." He grumbled as Foxbrat recoiled and brought both hands up to grab at her head.
"H-hey hey, aren't we like, totally the cutest though?!" Bunnybrat responded, eyes wide and pleading, hands raised up in an earnest request.
He promptly disciplined her as well, sending her recoiling back and clutching her head right next to her friend. Both of which were promptly taken up in Spearmint's arms, who stoked their injured craniums and muttered 'there, there' to them.
"Adam-sama, I think our reputation is already damaged." Pipsqueak pointed out with a cynical tone, something he unfortunately had to agree with, grunting at the shenanigans and turning around to face the unknowns again.
Dogmeat 2, silently watching, snorted as he turned around. "Bete Loga, Loki Familia, Level Five." Official introductions then? Combat probably wasn't going to break out then.
"Ais Wallenstein, Loki Familia, Level Five." Stripper quietly added, doll-like countenance staring with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
Two high-borg level enemies, at minimum, assuming they were telling the truth. They didn't have the tools ready to take something like that out. A tactical withdrawal was necessary if it came down to it. His glare stayed on as he responded with an official introduction of his own, now permissible that the unknowns had initiated it.
"Adam Smasher. Hestia Familia Commander. Level 1."
"Bell Cranel. Hestia Familia. Level 1." Scrappy added, making Adam note that they needed to work out semi-official positions for everyone eventually.
"Lili. Hestia Familia. Level 1." Pipsqueak chimed in, standing as proudly as she took, taking a vantage point next to him.
"Oriana Drake. Hestia Familia. Level 2." Spearmint called out, from behind him, her hugging of the barnyard brats interrupted when they sprang from her arms, suddenly free of pain, and got into compatible poses.
"Shinonome Momiji-
"-and Tsukinokami Kaede!"
"The duo from the distant east!-
"-Adventurers of the great goddess Hestia!"
"One step towards divinity!
"And a thousand towards legend!"
Adam restrained the urge to punch them. Glancing at the Supporter Squad, Halflead subtly shook his head. They weren't going to talk. Turning his gaze forwards again, Dogmeat 2's glare softened slightly.
Dogmeat 2 exhaled through his nose, raising a hand and pointing his thumb behind him. "Handling a stampede ain't something weaklings can pull off. Not gonna ask how you did it, but you managed it. Go ahead and take all the drops, it's all peanuts to us anyways."
Adam frowned suspiciously, idly considering if this was potentially an trap to drop their guards, before dismissing it. If they were level 5, then twelve thousand per core wasn't worth it for them and they wouldn't need the advantage of a dropped guard to kill them. If they needed a dropped guard, then they were within Adam's ability to brutalize, and he wasn't going to be dropping his guard anyways.
He turned to nod at the Support Squad, who nodded in turn and started the processing of combing through gore for potential valuables.
"Sword Princess Ais Wallenstein, may I ask for a boon?" Spearmint began.
"...What?" Stripper responded with a blank look at the slightly taller woman.
Spearmint coughed into her fist once, before pulling out a pocket-book from her bag and a charcoal pencil, thrusting them out in front of her with eyes turned away and a spot of pink on her cheeks. "I… My little sister is thrilled whenever the bards come by with new stories of your exploits, may I have your autograph, to send to her?"
"...Ah… Okay…"
"Ah! Can I have one too!?" Tail wagging.
"And me!" Ears twitching.
Fortunately, the screaming of his arm-meat was enough to distract him from the blatant fangirling going on in front of him. Pipsqueak patted his hip in a comforting manner.
"...Ah, Senpai, you're still bleeding a bit." Scrappy pointed out.
He retrieved another healing potion and downed it.
Idly, he wondered if any of the local chromesmiths knew what a quick-change mount was.
"You're on your own again, rookies. Aiz and I are heading back after she gets done with the fanservice. Don't get killed doing something stupid, otherwise I'm going to be bragging about corpses at the bar." Dogmeat 2 growled out, relaying their departure and his intention to help boost their reputation. The only reason why he would offer something like that was to pay for something else, a bribe.
The stampede was their doing, and they were attempting to contain it before collateral damage got out and damaged their own reputations. By slaughtering them, they had done an inadvertent favor for a larger corp. By not mentioning it, they were warning their group to keep quiet about it. By offering a soft bribe, they were helping to ensure this didn't get to their shareholders.
Adam snorted, quite familiar with the overall process, although normally he was the muscle on the corporate side, not the streetpunk that had stumbled their way into the big leagues by accident. That deal was more than acceptable, better rep meant contracts, deals, and scaring away the annoying small fry. "Remember to pay for the brat's coat." He almost crossed his arms, before recalling that he was down one at the moment.
"Hestia familia, right? I'll send a guild note."
Fucking better, it wasn't a good look to let Scrappy get scammed.
—
In the end, one hundred and forty cores were retrievable, as was a single minotaur horn. Of those cores, sixty of them were minotaur cores, and eighty were smaller ant cores that managed to avoid being crushed in the stampede. From two million to about eight hundred and eighty five thousand in daily profits, plus a single curved ivory spike almost as big as his arm was.
The right arm, that was, plus the fist. Not the left arm that was currently missing such.
All in all, a significant loss from normal profit margins, but not a net loss for the day. Not yet at least. It was possible that selling the drop would make up for the lost margin, but he doubted it. Better to to turn it into a weapon, most likely. Fortunately the shift ending early today made the math easy.
Eighty-eight thousand and five hundred to the Support Squad, then the remainder divided seven ways for each of the mercs and the familia share. One hundred and thirteen thousand, seven hundred and eighty five each. Not awful, enough to replace most of his gear and buy some more after, the only question was how expensive the arms were going to be.
The arm that Dogmeat had was ninety-nine million for a 'level four' performance. His body wasn't that strong yet, so there was no need for something so comparatively overtuned. A 'level one' equivalent would be good enough for now. But assuming it was one-fourth the price, that was still twenty-five million for a fully articulated arm.
Adding in his profits from deals with the Somacorp, he was looking at just shy of three million in the account. That should be enough for an el cheapo forearm actuator. All else fails, he'd just put a cap on the arm and fight one-handed until he had enough to afford some chrome.
"Ms. Eina was really worried for you, you know?" Scrappy said with furrowed brow and a sad look on his face, glancing back at the tower disappearing in the distance behind them. "Did you have to snap at her?"
Adam rolled his eyes. "I told guildmeat I was fine the first time. She decided to be annoying and focus on petty shit instead of putting our profits onto the fucking scale." Guildmeat had requisitioned a weight scale used for bulk hauls after the first time they brought a good ant haul in. She had to make sure all the cores were the same size, but other that that it was just a matter of checking the weight and basic multiplication. Smart enough system that would've taken less time had she decided to not fuss at him for no reason.
She had wisened up to trying to glare him into submission after the first time he threatened to formally request a different advisor for the Hestia Familia.
"...An arm is petty stuff?" Pipsqueak asked, a concerned look on her face.
"I'll just buy a new one. It's an arm. They're replaceable." Adam pointed out with a grumble. "The real challenge will be seeing if there's any here who make integrated weapons for commission, no point in just having an arm if you can put a weapon in there too." He glanced over at Blueboy's storefront, seeing a sign on the front indicating they were currently closed despite the early hour. He'll have to interrogate Dogmeat tomorrow.
"A weapon in your prosthesis?" Spearmint asked with a surprised tone. "What do you mean?"
He raised his right arm, then mimed flipping his hand down and flexing the myomer in the right way, the way that would make his old pop-up micro-missile launcher expose itself to fire. "If you're going to have a replacement limb, you have enough space in there to fit a concealed weapon in the forearm. Flex the right way and make it pop out. Lets you carry more options for a fight without needing more hands, common practice back home."
"Metal over meat, right?" Scrappy recited.
Adam nodded.
"Oh! Oh! Like shinobi weapons! Kunai hidden in your sleeves, but it's hidden in your arm instead!" Bunnybrat excitedly interjected, even as Foxbrat's dragging tail slowly started to wag. "It's that sort of thing you're talking about, right? That's sugoi!"
Adam nodded, absentmindedly glaring at Catmeat as they passed the diner. Catmeat was turned away, not noticing them pass. He rumbled with satisfaction, managing to slip by without being molested again.
"...Has that maiden wronged you, Commander?" Spearmint questioned.
"Ah, no. Adam used to have a girlfriend, who was a catgirl." Scrappy answered for him, which gave him more time to glare and walk away.
Fucking cats.
"...That's it?" Pipsqueak asked with an unimpressed tone.
"Ah! I understand! Please forgive my intrusive questioning!" Spearmint quickly replied, turning away and facing forwards, shoulders slightly jittery. He raised a brow at the erratic behavior, before shrugging it off and continuing his pace.
Foxbrat and Bunnybrat were too engaged with pretending to be ninjas with weapon-arms to notice the topic being brought up.
The church was cleaned up somewhat more. The weeds and ivy from the exterior pulled away and brickwork clearly washed. When combined with the repaired walls and windows, the building was now the least damaged property within the immediate vicinity. Tatertits had been doing some work, apparently.
Idly, he wondered if she went ahead and bought the property today. They had enough in the familia account to buy it now, and transfers of wealth took a day to show up on the statements from processing. Most likely, that was the job of some branch of the Guild to handle the accounts and banking side, and all the paperwork such enterprises generated.
There was slight noise in the church, causing him to narrow his eyes. Talking and the occasional walking. He frowned, moving forwards to open the door instead of the brats, twisting the handle and stepping to the side to avoid an ambush-blow. Just in case.
The inside was far more decorated than before, rugs on the floor, a tablecloth on the central and lone table, a few bags of new material set off to the side of the hearth. At said hearth, his employer sat in a handful of new sofas that surrounded the fireplace in a semicircle. With her sat a few individuals.
Blueboy was there, as was Dogmeat by his side. Then a red-haired woman with an eyepatch and Shortstack. Then a gray-haired woman in a cream-colored sweater with what was clearly a bodyguard standing behind her chair, deeply tanned skin and frowning. His eyes locked with Adam's own the moment the door opened.
He frowned as the barnyard brats raced in excitedly. "We're back!" They cried in unison. He snorted and stepped back, pretending that he had been opening the door for the others and waiting for them to shuffle in.
"Welcome back!" Their employer called out happily as the rest of the brats shuffled in and started removing their arms and armor.
"Hestia-sama, Hestia-sama-" Bunnybrat cried out.
"Yes, I'm Hestia."
"-We defeated a stampede of Minotaurs today!" Bunnbrat continued, ignoring the sudden coughs and stunned noises from the strangers present, waving her hands dramatically. Foxbrat waved her own hands in turn, less enthusiastically than her friend. Bunnybrat continued. "It was like something out of legend! A band of noble heroes using their wisdom, cunning, and strength of arms to defeat an overwhelming army of monsters! There must've been a hundred of them, but we totally stomped them."
"Momiji stomped them. The rest of us were just buying enough time for her to finish casting." Pipsqueak clarified, nervously removing her helmet and setting her poleaxe in the new weapon-rack to their side.
He stepped inside last, hanging his crossbow and what bolts could be retrieved up, the rack already almost completely filled by the time he moved in. He kept the bodyguard in the corner of his vision the entire time. Weapon divested, he moved onto his armor, which was significantly trickier to manage while down an arm.
"All of us contributed a fair deal, I'd say. Any one of us would have faltered against such a force." Spearmint contributed wrongly, he would have handled it just fine on his own. "Were it not for Momiji's spell, we would have not defeated them. Were it not for Kaede's guidance, we would have been scattered. Were it not for Liliruca's-"
"-Lili is Lili."
"-well-placed shots and magic sword, they would've caught up to us sooner. Were it not for Bell's guard, our flank could have been attacked. Were it not for the Commander's wisdom, skill, and courage, we would be broken by the roars and unable to form a defense in time."
Most of that was correct, they needed to get their shit together. He fiddled with the straps, finally managing to remove the breastplate.
"Heh! Please brag about yourselves more! I need to show off my cute familia to my friends, so don't hold back!"
"My my~ It sounds like they're doing quite well for themselves, Hestia-chan." With the voice, Adam was able to place the gray-haired woman as the waitress from Catmeat's diner. The hair being let down had been throwing him off. "Minotaurs this early?"
"What's with all the people, Hestia-sama?" Scrappy finally had the smarts to ask. He moved onto the waist-section, which had a name he wasn't familiar with.
"Hue, look at this!"
"Huh, a deed?"
"Yep! I'm now the official owner of this property, and to celebrate it I'm having a house-warming and familia-bragging party! Which means that you all need to get over here so I can show you off! Which means my delinquent needs to-" She cut herself off with a horrified gasp, falling over herself as she stood up, tripping twice on the way over, and latching onto him.
"Adam! What happened to your arm!?" She wailed.
"Lost it." He grunted in reply. Let go woman, he still needed to get the greaves off.
The church was silent for a moment.
Tatertits looked torn.
"Wh… What the hell does that mean?!" She yelled this time, eyes darting between him and the stump.
"It means I lost it." He growled back. "Cut out the drama, I'll get a new one."
"You… You…!"
Eventually it was too much, and she decided to perform a full-body tackle.