Chapter 2: Whispers of Orario

It had been 10 minutes since Ritsuka, Concetta, and Emma agreed to join Ereshkigal's Familia.

They had been walking through the south-eastern side of Orario.

As they were walking, Ritsuka hummed to a tune that only he and Concetta knew.

As Emma and Ereshkigal listened, they thought it was a nice song; it was refreshing since they had been subjected to attempted assault by the drunkards.

Speaking of the drunkards, apparently they were part of the Soma Familia.

They were identified by the members of the Ganesha Familia that happened to be out on patrol.

To say that they were surprised would be a lie. The drunkards were a normal occurrence; they kept harassing local bars and kept accidentally hitting on women that were a higher level than them.

The last person that got caught up in their antics was the level 4 Moon Doll; apparently, they didn't recognize her because she was trying out a new hairstyle that Hermes said would look nice on her.

To make things short, when they attempted to hit on her, she gave the guys a spoonful of extra-hot curry.

Said curry had made Elgram pass out from sheer heat alone, so those poor suckers never stood a chance.

"By the way, Lady Ereshkigal, you haven't told us where we are going.

"From the map that my Lord and I were given, we're heading towards the residential side of Orario, correct?"

Concetta asked with her gaze towards the poorer areas of Orario.

"Yes, you're correct, Concetta.

Dia told me that there are cheap houses around that area, although I hate to admit it, but I had to ask a few favors from a few friends I had back in Tenkai."

"On the topic of you leaving Tenkai, Lady Ereshkigal, why did you descend here?"

Ritsuka had asked since the Ereshkigal he knew was a very dutiful, if awkward, goddess.

That in itself wasn't bad; he knew similar people back when he was in high school; it was just...

"Ereshkigal would never abandon her duty of being the Mistress of the Underworld."

That phrase alone rang through his mind over and over since he had met her.

"Me too; I wanna know why you're here too, Lady Ereshkigal." Emma spoke while her eyes looked like they were beaming.

"Cute"

That was what Ritsuka and Ereshkigal thought.

"Fine… I'll tell you guys when we reach my home, it's actually an embarrassing story."

"I'm sure Lady Ereshkigal has a good reason for coming to Orario." Emma says this with a bright smile.

Unseen by Emma and me, Ereshkigal had a drop of sweat on her forehead.

They walked for about 20 more minutes until Ereshkigal stopped in front of one of the old 2-story houses.

"I know it isn't much, but we're going to work hard so that we can live in a better area soon. Also, don't worry about cleanliness.

Hygieia came by with her Familia to clean up the place beforehand.

I guarantee that her Familia got the job done."

As Ritsuka entered the home, he looked at the layout of the first floor.

The first thing he noticed was that the floor beneath them was made of wood and that it was a decently big living room. The next room over was both a well-equipped kitchen and a dining room with a table and four chairs set up.

And just as she said, the room was spotless, with no sign of dirt or grime anywhere.

"You were right, Lady Ereshkigal; Lady Hygieia's Familia is really good at their job.

Everything from the floor to the top of the ceiling looks like new."

Emma's voice was heard upstairs; apparently, she wanted one of the rooms first.

They eventually settled down on the dining table. Concetta was brewing some tea that she had brought from the Far East.

They all enjoyed the cup that she had prepared, and while it was not one of the more expensive teas that could be found in their territory, it was still one that Ritsuka had enjoyed since Concetta first started serving him.

After they all finished their cups, it was Emma who spoke first.

"So, who's going first?"

A question was proposed, one with a rather simple answer: there were 3 girls and 1 man in the room. Normally the girls should go last, as the guy could immediately strip off his shirt and get it done quickly.

However, Ritsuka had a feeling that wouldn't be happening, so he did what any upstanding guy would do.

"I'll be last, so no worries; call me when it's my turn."

With that, the young man departed towards one of the empty rooms and claimed it for himself.

"Um, if you want, you can go first, Miss Concetta."

"Please, no need for formalities.

If we are going to be part of the same Familia, we are equals, mis- No, Emma."

"Alright, Concetta, then how should we decide this?."

Eventually, they decided to play rock-paper-scissors.

Concetta went with paper, while Emma decided with scissors.

With that decided, the girls went to one of the unoccupied rooms and waited for Ereshkigal to come back.

Ereshkigal went to one of the rooms that was changed to be her office. There, she opened one of the cabinets and got a clean needle that was left by Hygieia.

She used said needle to draw a small amount of blood from her finger and drew her symbol on Emma's back. It looked like a long cage with chains around it and all types of numbers and hieroglyphics on it.

Afterwards, Ereshkigal got a piece of paper and copied the status of Emma's Falna.

"Here you go, Emma. Wow, I can't believe I have a Familia member now—better yet, one with a skill already."

"Skill? What do you mean?

Emma Flores

Race: Human

Level 1

Strength: I0

Defense: I0

Dexterity: I0

Agility: I0

Magic: I0

Magic:

Skills:

Rein Amur: Beloved Blooming: Causes a Rhapsodia among those with the same Falna for a short time.

"Huh!"

Her sounds of joy and confusion were heard throughout the house; it was audible enough to shock Ritsuka, who was taking his stuff out of his bag.

Her actions were quite justified; not many adventurers receive a skill on their first day. For a regular village girl like her to gain one out of the gate was surprising, to say the least.

"Oh, it also seems that you can learn magic too; wow, talk about getting a good SR character!"

"SR?"

It was a term that both Concetta and Emma didn't know about.

"What does that mean?"

Their eyes seemed to say what was on their minds.

"Oh, don't mind me, just a bit of an inside joke between gods."

After looking through the paper once more, Emma spoke up once more.

"Lady Ereshkigal, I'm sorry, but what does the skill even do?"

Emma looked towards Ereshkigal for any clues.

"Well, there's no description of how the skill works, and I'm pretty sure the rhapsody part can mean many things, like a written or spoken expression of great emotion or a musical composition of irregular form, to name a few."

As they were discussing how to use and activate Emma's skill, they realized that they had left Concetta waiting.

Though Concetta didn't mind, to her, it was perfectly reasonable to discuss how the mechanics of the potential benefit from Emma's skill.

"Sorry, Concetta, we were too engrossed in our discussion."

"No worries, I was just as intrigued with Emma's skill as the rest of you; though we may need to hurry up, I wouldn't want to make my lord wait."

"Alright, Concetta, I'll start as you lay on the mattress."

With that, Concetta complied, and Ereshkigal did the same process for Concetta.

Concetta Bellucci

Race: Human

Level 1

Strength: I000

Defense: I000

Dexterity: I000

Agility: I000

Magic: I000

Magic:

Skills:

Devozione al proprio Salvatore: Improves all parameters by 2 ranks when receiving any commands from one's savior.

"Wow, another SR!

I'm getting quite lucky with my members."

After the girls were properly clothed, they called Ritsuka, who was finishing up decorating his room.

As soon as he got in the room, Ereshkigal began to apologize, "I'm sorry it took so long; we were talking for a bit and lost track of time."

"It's fine, but I'm curious about you, Lady Ereshkigal."

"M-Me? What do you want to know?"

"Well, it's the thing we were discussing during our walk here.

Why did you descend to the lower world?"

To Ritsuka, it was an obvious question that he should ask; after all, the one he met in the Babylonian Singularity never left her domain.

She was still silent, as if trying to find a way to get out of this conversation.

"If you don't want to say it, then that's fine. I'm just curious since I once asked Lord Kojin about the gods, and he told me most death gods were too busy up in Heaven."

A sigh came from the goddess beside him; her eyes looked full of embarrassment.

Eventually, she sat down on the bed and talked with all three of them again.

"Well, it's true that most of us are up in Heaven.

Back then, every god had to help with the reincarnation of souls. I myself once went through a thousand souls in a day.

But after the gods came down to live with mortals, there was a lot less work to be done. Don't get me wrong, there were still a bunch of people dying each day, but when you go from 500 a day to 50, there's a lot less work to do.

Zeus was one of the first gods to get bored; that old geezer couldn't sit still when he was watching that Argonaut fellow back in Tenkai. Everyone else who watched made bets on how the story would go and which heroine Argonaut would end up with.

Even though I got wrapped up in it, I had no preference, but it was amusing nonetheless.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I was kind of forced to go down here due to not taking a break for the last thousand or so years.

"A few gods like Nephthys, Old Man Enma, Yama, and even Hades forced me to take a break. They said that working nearly every waking moment was not healthy, ignoring the fact that when we're up there, we can't get sick.

Even when I refused to go down here, they basically conspired against me and ended up taking most of my work.

Eventually, I found out that they were going to keep doing this until I went down to the lower world and stayed there for a few hundred years."

"So, I asked around other gods for advice: where should I go and what to do when I'm down there? Who should I ask for help with? All that kind of stuff."

"Well enough about that, Ritsuka, could you remove your shirt?"

"Sure, Lady Ereshkigal."

"Ok, I'm going to start, so hold still, ok?"

She then draws her symbol again for the third time today and copies Ritsuka's status on a piece of paper.

"Here you go, Ritsuka.

You also have skills like Concetta and Emma."

"How did I win the jackpot 3 times today?"

The goddess laughed, though it looked to be one of exasperation.

Fujimaru Ritsuka

Race: Human

Level 1

Strength: I0

Defense: I0

Dexterity: I0

Agility: I0

Magic: I0

Magic:

Skills:

Determination of Steel: Gains a near immunity to all mental interference and allows the user to block off their sense of pain.

"Huh.

So my magecraft doesn't count as magic in the Falna. Is it because the two magic systems are too different, or is my basic magecraft not unique enough for it to qualify?

Or maybe my magecraft has changed too? It would explain why my circuits are different here. If it's all different, then even something like self reinforcement might be impossible.

On the bright side, at least I don't need to explain what magecraft is for now."

"Still, welcome to my Familia, Emma, Ritsuka, and Concetta. I do hope that we can all get along."

Ereshkigal smiles once more.

"Me too, Lady Ereshkigal.

Ritsuka, Concetta, and I won't let you down, right, Captain?"

"Yeah, we won't let you down..."

Ritsuka answered enthusiastically until he realized what she had just said.

"Wait, did you say I was Captain? Hold on, you're her first child; why am I the captain?"

Ritsuka asked not in anger but more out of confusion.

"Well…" She darted her eyes for a bit and then relaxed.

"You are someone of nobility; in terms of strengths, you clearly have more training than I do, and while we both have skills, I don't really know how to use mine.

So the answer is obvious.

You should be captain."

Emma spoke with conviction in her voice. She was sure that Ritsuka would be the right choice; she could also have said Concetta, but the girl seemed to agree when Emma gave her reasons.

"How about you, Concetta?

I don't want the opinions of Concetta, the dutiful servant of mine, but Concetta Bellucci, my friend.

"My lord, no, Ritsuka, when you saved me all those years ago, I decided to follow you to the end of my days.

"However, as your friend, you aren't perfect.

You are reckless and childish; you give me terrible headaches at times.

But, even so, I will always trust you.

So my answer is yes, let's work hard, captain."

"Yep, I'm counting on you, captain."

"Well, it's decided; Fujimaru Ritsuka will be the first captain of my Familia."

Ritsuka had sighed, but deep down he had already accepted the role, he just couldn't catch a break, could he?.

"For now, you three can rest; all of you have traveled far, so you should take a day off and relax for a bit."

Ereshkigal's sweet tone gave them assurance and eased them.

"That's a bit ironic for you coming from you, Lady Ereshkigal."

Emma commented on the ever-workaholic goddess.

"Heh."

Ritsuka covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing, while Ereshkigal lightly punched him in embarrassment.

Although the goddess said to relax, Ritsuka and Concetta headed out to look around Orario, but Emma wanted to rest a bit more.

After an hour or so of resting, she went up to Ereshkigal.

"Um, Lady Ereshkigal?"

As she entered the room, she found that Ereshkigal was sitting at her desk, working out some paperwork. She had multiple stacks of it all across her room; one stack that Emma saw was mostly related to the guild.

"Oh, Emma, come in, take a seat. Sorry for the mess.

As you know, we are primarily an exploration-type Familia, but I'm also the type of person who has to do something in my downtime while you kids go into the dungeon.

So I thought to also have a business to the side, but that's proving to be a challenge. I'm just a goddess of death, so most of my authority is rather limited. I'm not like Ninsun and her cattle-raising Familia, or like Holda and her clothing stores, or even... Ugh, Ishtar and her "ladies of the night"."

"So, I've been thinking, while it's not my strong suit, how about a cafe or a bakery? Of course, you, Ritsuka, and Concetta won't have to help run the store; I can hire some people that can't go into the dungeon and manage the store myself.

It would be a new experience, plus it'll feel like I'm actually doing something rather than lazing around all day."

For some reason, a few gods and goddesses suddenly sneezed, but they didn't know why.

"However, that's still a long way, so I'll need to save up quite a bit of money to do any of that. Oh, look at me talking so much. What were you going to say, Emma?"

"Um, right, since Ritsuka and Concetta went outside to explore, how about we go too?" Emma asked with a smile.

"I was embarrassed to say this in front of Ritsuka and Concetta, but I'm hopeless with directions."

"And you're afraid that you would get lost and can't find your way back here, right?"

"Well, it's time for a break anyway. Let's leave behind a note in front of the door and lock our home just in case."

After they had left the note and locked the doors, they first went to the marketplace.

"By the way, Emma, you did say what weapons you were good at?

I'm curious, what type of weapons do you prefer?"

"Hmmm… I guess I prefer using twin swords; I can also use a dagger well enough, but yeah, I fight my best with twin blades."

"Twin blades, huh? That's going to be a bit pricey, but we'll manage." Ereskigal asked, as she's thinking about the initial prices.

"Um, Lady Ereshkigal I know you said that we should relax, but why haven't we at least registered with the guild yet?"

"Oh, it's simple really, it's because of taxes.

We don't have enough money right now to do much, and when you three were given my blessing, it was late noon, so I figured, "Let's do that tomorrow."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm a goddess of death, not wealth."

Emma's blank stare cut through Ereshkigal's attempts at defending herself.

"Well, you are right, Lady Ereshkigal. So do we have a destination in mind, Goddess?"

"I was thinking, since I just got three Familia members, we should celebrate and mark the occasion. We can also see the local shops that should help with your adventures in the dungeon."

As they were walking and chatting, they saw a familiar teen that came out of a small bar. His black hair and blue eyes looked at them and greeted the two.

"Hey Emma, Lady Ereshkigal, both of you decided to explore Orario too?"

"Ritsuka, why were you at a bar?"

Emma seemed curious, as Ritsuka didn't seem like the drinking type.

"I didn't drink, if that's what you're thinking; I met an information broker, paid them a decent bit of my own valis, and asked them where I should go if I was a recently recruited adventurer."

As he answered, he reached out to one of his pockets and said, "I asked them to mark it on this map that I was given. I was also gonna buy two more and mark them for you and Lady Ereshkigal."

"Wow, you really got this whole captain role down; did you have a similar role in your territory?" Emma asked with a bit of respect.

"Not really, I just thought to get my bases checked.

I've still got 10,000 valis that I saved up before coming here, so we should be fine for cash in a pinch."

As soon as he finished, both Emma's and Ereshkigal's stomachs growled; they both got flustered and looked away from Ritsuka.

"Well, it is around that time."

The look on Ritsuka's face showed a man who has a ton of experience in this particular field.

"There's this restaurant near the plaza that my broker said is good and cheap; they primarily sell seafood, but they also have some vegetarian options if that's your thing."

"What about Concetta?"

Ereshkigal's question was perfectly valid, as Ritsuka and Concetta split up to cover more ground.

"Her? Well, I asked her to explore near the plaza for anything interesting; if we head there, we'll probably run into her sooner or later."

"All right, let's go, then I'm starving."

Emma's enthusiasm showed through as she grabbed Ritsuka's hand and moved towards the plaza.

Or she would have, if she was going in the right direction.

After her rather embarrassing moment, they headed towards the plaza.

It was quite a sight, many of the adventurers had just finished their dungeon diving and were currently going to the guild.

On their way, they did indeed meet back with Concetta, and they were now heading to the restaurant.

"Here it is, "The Underwater Reef."

The restaurant they entered looked medium-class, but the environment and general vibe of the place feel like somewhere you can relax and chat. What helped was that all the waiters and waitresses that served there had friendly smiles and looked stunning, to say the least.

They went to one of the empty tables and were handed the menu by one of the two waitresses. After looking through the menu, they called for one of the staff and ordered their food.

"2 orders of grilled sea bass, poached flounder for the pink girl, and fried catfish for the blond-haired goddess—did I get it all right?."

"Yep, that's correct."

Their waiter was a muscular young man with violet-colored eyes and short, crimson-red hair. He wore a black shirt and long trousers that neatly fit his body. If Ritsuka were to guess, he looked to be around 180 cm tall, and the way he moved spoke of a warrior with experience.

"I haven't seen your group before, you guys new in town?"

"That's right, I'm Emma Flores; sitting across from me is Fujimaru Ritsuka; beside him is Concetta Belluci; and next to me is our goddess Ereshkigal."

"Right, where's my manners? The name's Alcaeus Landon.

The cute blond-haired girl serving the cod special is Agnes Clement.

The one with the green hair and making the girls swoon is Alain Escoffier.

And last but not least, the black-haired beauty Sophia Pantazis; she and Agnes are our shop's unofficial mascots.

"Oww!?"

Someone smacked the back of Alcaeus' head. With their black hair and matching outfits, it was obvious that Sophia had been listening.

"Get back to work, Al. I know you like meeting new people, but you can do that after your shift."

"Well, you heard her. Nice meeting you folks, hope you enjoy your meal."

Their waiter walked back to serve other customers, and Sophia did as well.

After waiting for a bit, they did indeed enjoy their meals.

As they were eating, they heard a bit of gossip here and there, but the most interesting was about the members of other Familia's.

"Did ya hear, Soaring Samurai went solo again in the dungeon, heard that he reached the 30th floor before his Familia caught wind of him trying again. I swear that young man is gonna get himself killed one day."

"Nah, he's fine; that Familia of his keeps him in check. Still, though I can't believe he's only been adventuring for 7 years and already reached level 6, that kid broke the record of getting to level 2 in six months."

"Yeah, Lady Astraea chose a weird one for her Familia, remember the first thing he did when he reached level 3?"

"Oh, do I remember, that crazy bastard challenged King to a spar to test his skills, seriously who does that?"

"I mean, it's just as insane as when Anomaly fought Silence seven years ago. Can't believe that kid managed to draw against her of all people."

"His broken magic truly counters any magic user." Why does the Loki Familia get all the best damn mages? Can't they leave some for the rest of us low-class adventurers?"

There was a lot of other gossip, but due to the restaurant getting busier by the minute, the sounds became too hard to pinpoint who said what. At some point, he heard that a god was punched by one of his kids.

After finishing their meal, the Familia decided that it was best to go home and rest when they were about to leave. Alcaeus had come up to them again.

"Come back soon, ya hear, and next time you come back, order some of the more expensive fish. I guarantee they're delicious."

After walking back to their home, the sun had just set, and the members of the Familia were unpacking their belongings while Ereshkigal was in her office working on some paperwork.

Ritsuka, on the other hand, had already unpacked his stuff, so instead he went to the dining room and laid his map on an unused table in addition to looking at his notes.

He organized all the relevant information that he had gathered during the day.

All the names and locations of shops for low-class adventurers, what places to avoid in the city, and what Familias are considered to be the top either by regular citizens or even from the underbelly of Orario.

It was a start. Goredolf always did say that any and all information is useful somehow, though Ritsuka was pretty sure he was quoting from someone else.

During his investigations, he heard that there were rumors of some of the monsters wearing armor or them speaking. While interesting, he didn't know whether or not they were true, so he temporarily put them in the back of his mind.

A few minutes go by, and Concetta comes down to where he is and gives him her notes.

Reading through the notes, he saw that most of the info that she wrote down was mostly the things that he wrote down, with minor differences like which shops the adventurers preferred.

"At least, the info mostly matches up.

Oh, what's this?"

What caught Ritsuka's eye was at the end of her notes.

Apparently, she heard of an adventurer who was covered in blood walking through the street, giggling to himself.

"Um, you sure this happened?"

"As hard as it is to believe, that was what most of the people at the marketplace said.

There were other witnesses to it too; they said they saw a young man walking towards the guild with half his body covered in blood."

"I assume it wasn't his?"

"No, it was a monster's. I heard from one of the Loki Familia members that a minotaur had fled from them while returning from their expedition. The Sword Princess ran to catch up to prevent any casualties. I'm sure you can see what happened."

As they were talking, Emma came down from her room and joined their conversation.

"Ah, Captain, I wanted to ask about how we were going to fight.

I've already told Lady Ereshkigal that I prefer twin blades, so I was wondering what weapons you guys prefer."

"Hmm? I can use any weapon decently, but I prefer using a sword."

"I can use a knife fairly well, either throwing or regular knives; it doesn't matter."

They kept chatting till it was late; judging by Emma's more frequent yawns, she was the least used to staying late at night.

Eventually, they all went to their respective rooms, but before that, they had checked up on their goddess in her office.

What they found was that their goddess had already fallen asleep on her desk. They all sighed at the sight, but nevertheless, they carried their goddess to her room and laid her on her bed.

After that, Ritsuka changed out of his clothes and fell asleep in almost an instant; after all, he had to have enough energy to start adventuring in the dungeon and become a leader once more.

Ritsuka was in a dream—a dream that took him to a land of nothingness. There was nothing in this world—no light, no ground, nothing. He even couldn't feel his body; all the nerves in his body had been systematically shut down one by one.

Then he felt something.

He felt heat—heat not from inside of himself but from something external.

As it got hotter, he realized something: he had at some point been set on fire. The flames were unnatural, as the colors were the same as the world around him—pitch black.

It started to consume him; a searing pain could be felt all around the boy named Fujimaru Ritsuka.

But just as soon as he felt like the flames were going to kill him, he woke up with sweat all over his body.

"Was that all a dream? No, it felt too lifelike; the pain I felt was too real to be a dream."

The boy had never felt something like that before; although he has been into dreams that border on reality, that had truly been a first for him.

Either way, he got up from his bed and started to work out. He figured that if he was already sweaty, then what's more sweat going to do?

He hid the basics that Leonidas taught him: push-ups, sit-ups, and all the stretching that he needed. Afterwards, he quickly went to one of the public bathrooms and went back to the Familia home.

When he came back, he saw Concetta already making breakfast for all of them.

"Concetta? When did you have time to make breakfast?"

"I woke up just as you left, My-lor... captain, it's already 8 a.m., so the marketplace was already open by the time you came. I had some valis leftover from yesterday, so I didn't need to skim out today.

She handed him a plate of eggs, a toaster, and a cup of tea. As if enchanted by the delicious smell of food, the other two people living in the house slowly started to walk down the stairs and into the dining room.

"So we're going to the guild first, right, captain?"

"Yep."

"Shall we be using the guild's standard weapons?"

"Unfortunately, our personal gear is a bit higher quality than what the guild offers; while that would normally be better, we won't gain our excelia as efficiently, Concetta."

"A shame, but that is your decision to make captain."

After deciding what to do, they parted ways with their goddess and walked to the guild. There was really nothing of note on their walk, just talks about how Hephaestus' level 5s were doing another sword-smithing competition.

They eventually made it to the guild building. The sounds of chatter could be heard all over the place, along with complaints from some of the more rowdy adventurers, other people turning their magic stones over for compensation, and a particular boy being chewed out by his advisor while his companion had a blank look on his face.

Eventually, they walked to one of the tables, and one of the staff members came by.

She has red shoulder-length hair with a lace band in it; her eyes are dark cyan in color. Her clothes were the standard guild uniform that is given to all the employees.

"Hello, are you registering as new members of a Familia?"

"Um, yeah, how did you-"

"My seniors taught me how to spot new adventurers; it's pretty handy to know.

But enough of that. My name is Elza Saijo, I'm an advisor for the guild. Which Familia are you from?"

"Oh, we're from the Ereshkigal Familia, and I'm the captain. Ereshkigal's a goddess that's recently descended, so we brought the required paperwork for the guild."

"Alright, give me a few minutes; this shouldn't take long."

After waiting for five to ten minutes, she returned with another staff member with her.

"Alright, we got it processed, we just need you to fill out this form, and you'd be good to go."

"Don't forget to tell them the rules of adventuring, Elza; we told you that it's important."

"Right, right. Sorry, Ms. Fannett, I got distracted there."

"Anyway, my name is Rose Fannett; you three follow me, we're going to one of the private rooms; I'll tell you the dos and don'ts of an adventurer."

After what felt like an hour of lecturing on what to do in the dungeon, they were finally let out after one of the other staff finally let them go. Rose was fine with only giving them the rundown, but when came in and hijacked the briefing, let's just say they now know far more about dungeon lizards and war shadows than they'd like to admit. Thankfully, they were finally let out when Elza and Rose convinced to let them go.

They eventually got to the dungeon and started exploring; they fought all the usual enemies that they could find on the first 5 floors. Normally, this would be reckless, but counterpoint Ritsuka and Concetta already had basic weapon training from when they were in the Far East, and Emma contributed by slashing all the stunned enemies that the pair made.

This continued over the course of an hour; their strategy really just amounted to Ritsuka taunting the monsters to strike him, them either missing their strikes or being parried by his sword, Concetta slashing the sides and legs of the monsters, and Emma finishing the fight by slashing their heads. Overall, this was a decent strategy made on the fly by Ritsuka.

After what felt like their 50th fight, the group decided to take a small break in one of the known areas where monsters spawned less on the upper floors. To Ritsuka, a lot of the dungeon really reminded him of various MMOs that his friends back in high school used to make him play. Though he knew he shouldn't really make the assumption that it was the same as an MMO, afterall there was no coming back if they died.

After the group rested up, they started fighting and making their way into the dungeon once more.

It was more or less the same, with the minor exception of who would deal the final blow to the monsters. They kept doing this until they reached another set of stairs in the dungeon.

They had finally reached the end of the 5th floor; they weren't going to the 6th floor just yet. Well, Ritsuka wanted to explore more, but he was reminded by his party that this was how most newbies die in the dungeon. After realizing his blunder, they made steady pace back to the surface.

When the Familia got to the third floor, they realized that their bag was almost full of magic stones, small sure, but when you have around 80 magic stones for your first time in the dungeon, it wasn't that bad.

After going through more of the dungeon, they finally reached the surface. The sun was still shining, and all the citizens still walked around.

"Well, at least the sun's still out; c'mon, let's go to the guild to exchange the loot."

Ritsuka's carefree smile must have influenced them too, as both the girls were smiling too. Well, Emma was, Concetta still had her poker face. Though she probably didn't notice the slight arches at the ends of her lips.

They walked back to the guild building; it was still as busy as when they left it. Looking back on the clock, they realized that they'd only been gone for about 3 hours, so it was still quite early to go back home. They traded all the magic stones they had on them, and it totaled around 10,000 valis.

"Wow, you sure went hard on your first day. When I first saw you guys, I thought you'd get around 3,000 Valis max. You guys sure proved me wrong.

"Anyway, I'll get the valis for you."

After a few minutes went by, the door of the guild building opened. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, but for some reason, all the adventurers suddenly became quiet.

Due to all the people blocking their vision, they couldn't really see all the commotion. There were a few whispers about what was happening.

"Hey it's…"

"Ah, it's them."

Various other voices made the same few comments. This kind of awe is typically reserved for only some of the top Familia's in Orario—well, maybe not Freya's—their entire Familia kind of hates each other if the rumors are true.

Eventually, the group saw who it was.

"It's the Astraea Familia."

Indeed, it was. The Familia walked in with all five of their members.

Scarlet Harnel, Slash Strike of Godspeed, Sylphid, True Gale, and Soaring Samurai. All were legends in their own right, though notably, one of them has one of their ears being dragged by True Gale.

"C'mon guys, we already scolded him enough; I think he gets it."

"Alise, we already told him countless times, yet he still does it."

The blonde-haired elf of the Familia sighed in exasperation.

"Ahahaha…" The captain could only laugh at their friend and Familia member.

"Captain, I can handle myself; I was training for enlightenment."

"Iori." The blank eyes of the pink-haired pallum stared right into the young man.

"Last time you were training for "enlightenment," you trained for 48 hours straight. You're lucky that Kaguya found you, or you would have died due to starvation and exhaustion."

"..."

His silence spoke volumes even through the whispering crowd.

"Ok, fine. I may have gotten overboard again."

The black-haired girl shakes her head in resignation, as if she has heard the same answer over and over again.

"The things we do to keep you in line, Iori."

After some more apologizing, the group went to one of the staff members, and for some reason, Iori then went to Ritsuka.

"Um, I'm sorry, but have I met you before?"