God's Blessing on this Wonderful Dungeon

By Icura and Special FX

~o~

Chapter 8: Party

~o~

Loki leaned so far back into the wooden chair that it was balancing on only its hind legs. Without her legs already on the table, keeping the chair steady, she would have fallen down already. Even so, it swayed precariously back and forth like a pendulum.

In the end, there could only be two possible outcomes to this situation. Either, she would keep the chair steady or she would fall down. Of course, keeping it steady was a continuous job, but she had it handled. Sure, if she fell, there was a risk of breaking her neck and inadvertently activating her arcanum which would send her back up to the heavens, but for a thrill seeker like her, it was just more motivation that made it worth doing.

What was life in the lower world without risk after all?

"So what's up, Finn? Whatcha call me here for?" Her eyes turned to glance at the two other occupants in the room.

Besides the pallum captain, Riveria and Gareth were also present in the closed room. For team meetings, Loki was usually excluded, not because of any malice but more that it was often too boring for her to keep her attention for long. After all, they had it handled so what did they need her for? The only time that she actually joined the meetings was when it concerned the Familia as a whole, there was a chance to tease someone, or there was some interesting news.

In this instance, she was anticipating the last one.

"I'd like to get all of us on the same page first before I get to the main topic," Finn said with a small smile. "Loki, for everyone's benefit, can you repeat what you found out about the goddess, Eris?"

"Eh. Sure, why not?" Loki grabbed the edge of the table and pulled herself forward, letting her chair's front two legs stomp back onto the ground. Readjusting her position so her feet were also back on the floor, she looked over at the high elf and dwarf. "So, what do you two know about her?"

Gareth shrugged, but Riveria looked contemplative. The elven royalty took a moment before answering.

"Their Familia captain is–"

"No, no, no. Not talking about him or the rest of their Familia," Loki clarified. "Just their goddess, Eris."

"Isn't she the goddess of fortune?"

"Right, that's what she called herself. So, I asked around since she wasn't in my pantheon," the slender goddess said in a low voice as if mentioning a secret. "And you know what? Hermes mentioned an Eris in his pantheon except she looked nothing like her and was the goddess of strife and discord instead."

"Is that relevant?"

"Nope," Loki flippantly replied with a smirk. "Just wanted to say it since I went through all that effort to gather that info."

"Is there a point to this?"

"Yep. Basically, nobody knows a white-haired twin-tailed goddess dressed in a nun outfit. Even those Far East gods didn't know a thing."

"…so what does that mean?" Gareth asked, looking a little exasperated.

"Probably nothing. It's not unheard of for gods to want to change their looks along with their arcane origin." Loki shrugged. "Or she's a nobody from some no-name pantheon that's been gathering dust. Some of those were making headway in the heavens after the lot of us descended."

Finn decided to interrupt.

"It's a little more important than that," the pallum clarified. "Their captain mentioned that they came from the Far East. Usually, a god or goddess descends near the domain that their pantheon has jurisdiction over."

"Could it be a new pantheon?" Riveria murmured.

"Hah!" Loki laughed. "Gods only get created by having enough belief in them for a long enough time."

"What she means is that it would have to have been before the gods descended a thousand years ago. Gathering enough belief afterwards was near impossible," Finn explained before taking on a bitter expression. "The closest thing to that was…Fianna, and that ended when the gods told everyone that she wasn't a goddess."

Loki settled back in her chair as silence permeated the room.

It didn't matter much to her, but she knew how much Finn had been troubled by it. More than a thousand years ago, Fianna was a pallum knight who became a hero. After her death, she was deified and worshiped by the pallums, but when the gods came down to the lower world, it was quickly found out that Fianna wasn't a goddess at all. That had dropped the self-esteem of the pallum race as a whole, and a thousand years later, they were still in the dumps.

It was the reason why Finn was trying to use himself as a replacement idol to uplift the entire pallum race.

If the gods hadn't decided to descend, then it was very much possible that Fianna would have actually become a goddess already. Not the mortal Fianna who should have reincarnated by now, but the goddess that the pallum worshiped would have been created. A copy, in other words.

Still, letting her child wallow in his misery wasn't something that Loki wanted. That was why she decided to break the silence herself.

"It's not like we remember every god. Plenty of gods I don't know like Eris from Hermes' pantheon."

"...do you think Eris is a Far Eastern name?" Finn finally asked, looking up. "Each pantheon has similar names to the region they are located in. However, Eris is a distinctly western name."

"Which means that the other gods in her pantheon should have a similar naming theme," Riveria reasoned out.

"Indeed," Finn said, the corner of his lips curling up. "I checked with my contacts. For nobody to ever hear about a western named pantheon in the Far East that should have been around for a thousand years in the heavens? That's something that shouldn't be possible, especially since some of those Far East gods have only descended within the last hundred years."

"...what do you want us to do with this information?" Riveria asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Not just Riveria, but even Gareth looked bewildered.

"If you want to have a proper negotiation, you have to know who you're dealing with," Finn explained. "The fact of the matter is: we want their cooperation because the members of their Familia have unusually useful skills and magic. I'm sure you've heard all about it already."

Riveria and Gareth nodded.

It was hard not to hear news about the new up and coming Familia in Orario. With a healing mage and a firepower mage along with a tank and archer, they had a strong set-up, especially with how specialized they were for their roles.

The healer who could regenerate even lost limbs, the destructive magic of the mage who could decimate entire hordes of monsters with one spell, and the knight who couldn't seem to be scratched even if her clothes were ripped apart. Honestly, the archer seemed like the plainest of the bunch despite being the captain, but it turned out that he actually had teleportation magic that worked in the dungeon.

That one fact alone was practically driving every exploration-based Familia in the city crazy with desire.

It was understandable. With something like teleportation, a Familia wouldn't have to worry about logistics at all. Travel time wouldn't be an issue anymore either, nor would the dangerous return back from a long expedition. Of course, that was all assuming that there weren't any limits to his magic like distance or capacity. Nobody really knew how far it could reach or the limits of the magic.

However, it seemed that every Familia was willing to gamble on its potential even though, with a unique magic like teleportation, there must have been some kind of drawback. With how many supporters their Familia had compared to the smaller Familias, logistics was never really a big issue for them anyway. It was why he was more interested in their healer instead. While Kazuma's teleportation magic might have been what was capturing everyone's attention, his thumb kept tingling for their healer.

And his intuition had not let him down yet.

"They had been rejecting offers from low to mid-level Familias all morning," Finn commented. "We have a chance of gaining their cooperation with tonight's banquet."

He had been planning to contact them eventually; Raul and Aki had simply provided him with the catalyst and the motivation to go through with it at an accelerated pace. While he would have preferred taking his time, that was no longer an option with the public reveal of Kazuma's teleportation magic.

"I'd prefer if they were willing to go on an expedition with us, but we'll see how it goes. At the very least, even if we cannot get them to fully cooperate, I'd like to find out how far Kazuma's teleportation can go and its limitations. See if he is willing to do some tests."

"What if they don't want to?" Gareth asked.

"Compensate them if you have to. Training, Valis, whatever they want as long as it doesn't go too far. I'll leave the amount to your own discretion."

"Aye."

"We won't have many more opportunities before Freya Familia turns their eyes toward them," Finn said in a serious tone. "It might even be our only chance."

Even Loki couldn't help sitting up at the gaze that Finn was directing at all of them.

"Fortune favors the bold after all."

~o~

With how formal that invitation had been and how fancy the 'Twilight Manor' looked, Kazuma had gone in expecting the dinner to be something comparable to a noble's dinner party. Rather than that, the atmosphere was actually a lot more relaxed and laid back than he expected. Adventurers of all kinds were chatting with one another across the various tables scattered throughout the cafeteria. Aki and Raul had waved at them from another table when they walked by and were shown their table for the night.

Instead of a dinner party, it felt more like he was at a pub. A really fancy looking pub that happened to be inside of a mansion.

Though, there weren't any cute waitresses around to take his order. Instead, the dinner party was set up more like a buffet where all the food and drinks were laid out across a few long tables where they had to grab what they wanted. It was nice to see all the different delicacies lined up and displayed on a table as the aroma of freshly prepared food wafted through the air. In a way, with how expensive the food looked, it did remind him of a noble's party except there weren't any pretentious nobles around.

The best of both worlds, really. Expensive food and he didn't have to deal with stuck-up bastards like Alderp.

Kazuma walked over to a table with a plate full of fried shrimp and tossed a bunch onto his own plate. He spotted Aqua on the other side of the room, performing party tricks to a gathering of party-goers. Megumin was at another long table, stuffing her plate with so much food that she should have honestly just gotten another plate. As for Darkness, she was the only one who seemed relatively normal, just having what seemed like a polite conversation with a couple of men and a bunny girl.

He was almost tempted to join them. Weren't bunnies famous for their promiscuity?

"Satou Kazuma? I don't believe we've met." The voice–slightly annoying him by the interruption–belonged to a diminutive blonde-haired boy who greeted him with a smile. "I'm Finn Deimne, captain of Loki Familia."

Kazuma raised an eyebrow in response.

The person who was introducing himself was even shorter than Megumin. With his youthful features and diminutive height, he almost mistook him for a child at first glance. But then he remembered that this was a fantasy world, and the guy was probably a hobbit or something. Actually, hadn't Rose mentioned something about a race of small people that were known as pallums? He vaguely recalled it despite having zoned out during most of her lessons like he did back in school before he became a NEET.

Though, in his defense, most of it was just the standard RPG affair.

"Ah, yeah. Nice to meet you," Kazuma casually replied as he tossed a few more shrimp onto his plate.

"I'm sure Aki and Raul have already expressed their gratitude, but on behalf of the Loki Familia, I'd like to thank you for saving them."

"It's not a big deal." Kazuma lazily waved him off as he tossed a shrimp into his mouth. It still tasted really good despite being out in the open for a while. "We were in the area looking for some stronger monsters to fight anyway."

"Even so, you have my thanks," Finn replied as he took a sip from his wine glass. "It's quite impressive that you and your party were able to defeat an infant dragon despite only having arrived in the city recently."

"Well, we had some previous experience adventuring on the surface."

"Mm, I see. I have some experience with that as well, but monsters are fairly spread apart so you must have traveled around a fair bit." When Kazuma shrugged, Finn simply nodded. "Tell me, Kazuma, would you consider your Familia to be an exploration type?"

"Exploration type?" Kazuma repeated with a quirked eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"A Familia whose main source of income comes from braving the dungeon's depths."

"Oh, then yeah," Kazuma replied as he popped another shrimp into his mouth. "That's pretty much us."

It wasn't like he couldn't make money without the dungeon, but they still needed Aqua to level up. They also needed to explore the dungeon to find some clues on that strange red button as well.

"Would you be interested in a joint-expedition with the Loki Familia in the future?"

Oh great. Another sales pitch where someone wanted him to be their glorified gopher or personal chauffeur.

"Look Finn, I appreciate the free food, but I'm not interested in being anyone's errand boy," Kazuma truthfully answered. "There's a limit to how much weight I can teleport anyway, so using me as a means to resupply won't be all that useful either."

"Heh, is that what the other Familias have been requesting you for?" Finn asked with a light chuckle. "Well, you can rest assured that I won't be asking you to be our pack mule or anything like that. Would you still like to hear what I have to say?"

"Eh, sure, why not?"

It would be rude not to at least hear the guy out, especially after being treated to all this free food.

"Good. I'd like to start with a question then," Finn proposed. "From one captain to another, what would you say your goal is?"

"Hmm… to level-up and explore the dungeon, I guess."

Aqua leveling up was necessary, but exploring the dungeon was more of a hunch–his gamer's intuition mainly–that they would be able to find something related to that mysterious red button. It only made sense; if there was going to be any hints on why someone would isekai'd them all into this world, then it should be found in the giant dungeon at the center of the world. Anything else would just be too anti-climatic.

It would be like getting summoned, expecting to be tasked with defeating the demon king but being told to fix the toilet instead.

"I believe that working with our Familia will align with your goals then. We are one of the premier exploration Familias in the city. When it comes to dungeon exploration, you can have no better ally," Finn explained as he twirled his wine glass, swirling around the red liquid inside it. "Accompanying us on an expedition would also be quite beneficial for gaining excelia as we routinely push into the deeper floors."

Kazuma had to admit that the diminutive captain made a good point.

"Well, if you don't want me to be your gopher, what do you need us for then?"

"You would be running support and providing assistance," Finn stated, looking down at his wine glass. "Aqua's healing spells would provide us with much needed medical magic for the deeper floors."

"So, this is mostly an offer for Aqua then."

"Expeditions tend to be limited by casualties. We can only move as fast as our slowest member, and those wounded make up the majority near the end of an expedition. Even our retreat back to the surface is slowed down by such, and it's not uncommon to lose members on the way back up." Looking up from his wine glass, Finn let his gaze settle on the other captain. "I won't lie. Your Familia's abilities are all useful, but Aqua's magic is essential."

"What are expeditions exactly?"

"They are journeys made in an attempt to reach deeper floors than what had previously been explored. These often take weeks or months, sometimes requiring a large caravan of people and supplies to venture that far. Logistics are necessary to ensure that there are enough to not only last the journey downward but also the return trip upward," Finn explained. "As you can imagine, it is necessary to camp within the dungeon which can be dangerous. This requires a large roster to provide enough shifts of watch and protection so that everyone can have enough sleep."

"So you want us to just sit around for the whole time until someone gets hurt?"

"No, expeditions are beneficial to everyone," the pallum continued. "At the beginning, lower leveled members will handle the upper floors to both gain excelia and to conserve the strength of our stronger adventurers. This reverses as we venture deeper into floors that are harder to handle. Even if you can't fight on the deeper floors, experiencing them in relative safety will be beneficial for when your Familia becomes strong enough to challenge those floors yourselves."

"How far do you plan to go?"

"At least the 45th floor."

"...I'll have to think about it since it seems like it would be a big commitment."

"There's a lot of preparation that needs to be done before an expedition so it'll be at least a couple of months. I hope you'll come to a favorable response before then. Sooner rather than later."

"I'll let you know."

Kazuma ate another shrimp as he watched Finn nod his head and walk away.

That guy was a real smooth talker. Almost like one of those super successful idol recruiters. It was easy to fall for one of their pitches once they started to talk so it was better to just make up an excuse and find a way to exit the conversation early instead. Otherwise, ending up in one of those age-restricted videos was a real possibility. Still, the pallum did make some good points.

Yes, his resistance level was high enough that it was only some good points and not all of them.

Kazuma had originally thought that it would have been a waste to go down that deep since they wouldn't be able to do anything, but getting a tour of the different floors while being accompanied by a bunch of high-leveled meat shields wasn't too bad. Knowledge was power after all, and having a better understanding of those floors would undoubtedly be useful in the future.

Still, for such a big commitment, he didn't want to agree without consulting the rest of the group first.

That was when a little blonde girl in a white dress suddenly walked up to him. Instead of a plate, she was holding a white bundle of cloth that seemed to be wrapped around something that was almost as long as her body. Stopping before him, she looked up at him with upturned eyes.

"Dungeon."

"Huh?" Kazuma stared down at her in confusion.

"Bring me."

"...no?"

"Dungeon," she repeated with a frown.

"No."

"..."

"..."

The little girl's eyes darted to the side for a moment with a hint of worry. She brought her gaze back to him just as quickly, but it was already too late since he had spotted it.

Kazuma glanced over to where she had been looking at. Oddly enough, it was actually the spot where Megumin was animatedly talking to a tall green-haired elf with a matronly appearance. It was a little difficult to hear, but with the [Eavesdrop] skill, he was able to pierce through the chatter of the surrounding people and listen in on those two's heated conversation.

"An explosive area of effect spell that can deal maximum damage is the best magic there is!"

"I'm not denying the utility of such a spell, but versatility is more important to face the challenges of the dungeon."

"No, everything can be solved with an explosion!"

"Do you hammer every nail with the same tool?"

"If that tool is an explosion, then of course!"

What a worthless conversation.

Kazuma deactivated the [Eavesdrop] skill since there was no point in listening any further. Looking back down at the little blonde girl, he spotted a twitch of annoyance on her face despite maintaining an overall stoic expression. Actually, now that he was paying attention, she looked like a younger version of Iris.

They continued to stare at each other silently until the not-Iris finally broke the silence.

"Teleport me."

"How about no?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to?"

The little girl was getting visibly frustrated, but there was no way that Kazuma was going to teleport her into the dungeon. She wasn't wearing any armor and even if that cloth bundle hid a weapon, that was definitely not enough. Maybe she was as strong as Iris, but that still wasn't a real reason to do it. In fact, even if an adult asked, he probably wouldn't have done it anyway.

Who wanted to work for free?

"Tell you what. If you can defeat me at Rock, Paper, Scissors, I'll do it."

"Rock, Paper, Scissors…?"

"Well, it's a game where you can make a rock." Raising his hand, Kazuma closed his fingers into a fist. "Paper." He opened his hand so that it was flat. "Scissors." He held out his index and middle finger to imitate a scissor's blades while folding his other fingers. "Rock beats scissors. Scissors beat paper. Paper beats rock. You hide your hand behind your back and choose one of these. On the count of three, you bring your hand out and see who wins. The goal is to beat me. Understand?"

The little girl slowly nodded her head.

"Before we start though, what's your name?"

"Ais."

"I'm Kazuma." He smirked as he brought his hand behind his back. The young girl quickly followed suit. "If you win, I'll take you to the dungeon, but if I win… Well, I won't ask for much, but let's go with this…"

~o~

Kazuma was lounging on the sofa with the same smirk on his face. Sitting next to him was Ais who was holding a plate of shrimp with a pout on her face. She picked up a shrimp and blew on it to cool it down.

"...here you go, big bro." Ais dropped the shrimp into Kazuma's waiting mouth.

"Thanks, little sis," Kazuma said as he munched happily on the appetizer.

"...what are you doing, Scumzuma?"

Megumin and the green-haired elf were standing in front of the couch. While Megumin was staring at him with a familiar expression of disdain, the elf was looking at Ais with both surprise and bewilderment.

"Ais, why are you…?"

"...I lost," the young girl said simply with a dissatisfied pout on her face.

"I see." The green-haired elf turned her regal gaze toward the other person on the couch. "I don't believe we have met yet. I am Riveria Ljos Alf, vice captain of Loki Familia."

"I'm Kazuma," he simply replied before opening his mouth so that Ais could feed him another shrimp. He happily munched on it for a few moments before continuing. "Captain of Eris Familia."

Riveria's eyebrow twitched. "I see."

"What do you see?"

"That you are not like what you appear to be," Riveria said without a hint of annoyance in her voice. "She is above regular level ones since we have been training her for the past year. You must be formidable to have defeated her, especially since you did it without causing a commotion."

"Well, yeah. There's only one person who I ever lost to." With his luck, only Eris had ever beaten him in Rock, Paper, Scissors. Though, it was kind of odd how the vice captain had been training Ais in that game when the girl didn't even know the rules to it. Was he misunderstanding something here?

"Ais." When Riveria addressed her, the little girl raised her eyes. "How many times did you lose?"

"...fourteen."

"That many?" Riviera closed her eyes in exasperation. "I hope you didn't promise too much."

"...sleepover at Eris' house."

"...I will come along as a chaperone then," Riveria stated adamantly. "Now, what are the rest?"

Kazuma sweated a bit.

He had been running out of ideas by the time that one came along, but it was too late to say it was a joke at this point. Even though he wasn't looking at Megumin, he could practically feel the Crimson Demon's glare burrowing into him, as if to burn the word "scum" onto his forehead.

It wasn't his fault Ais kept challenging him!

Well, since Ais was too distracted to continue shrimp duty and it seemed like it would take a long time with the girl being incredibly evasive in the face of Riveria's interrogation, Kazuma turned his attention elsewhere. When he looked at Megumin, the Crimson Demon girl simply said 'humph' and turned her face away. His gaze next found Darkness a few tables away who was chatting with a bearded dwarf.

He activated his [Eavesdrop] skill.

"You should use a shield." The gruff voice of the dwarf spoke out some sage advice, though from his experience, Kazuma knew that it was futile.

"A shield would only get in the way. The best method of defending your companions is by using your own body!" The uselessly excited voice of a certain crusader entered his ears.

"Lass, no one's saying you shouldn't use your body, but it's best to block it with a shield first."

"No! Only by feeling every strike on your body can you fully enjoy them!"

"Enjoy…? What are you even talking about, lass?"

Indeed, that was a most useless conversation. Kazuma turned his skill onto Aqua who was across the room, chugging bottles of wine with a very slim, sporty-looking girl while Eris was hovering over them with worry etched on her face.

"Hahaha, you sure are a good kid, Aqua!"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Sure, sure. Drink some more!"

"Wah! You can drink so much, Loki."

"Hahahaha, you drank almost as much as me! Say, you ever tried Soma?"

"No, what's that?"

"The best wine in Orario! Still got a little bit of that left. Want some?"

"Let me try, let me try!"

"Senpai, you're drinking too much!"

Another worthless conversation.

Kazuma turned his attention back toward Riveria and Ais who were still arguing back and forth in front of him. When was this elf going to leave so that his new little sister could go back to feeding him shrimp?

'Sorry, Iris. While someone may have temporarily taken your spot, you'll still always be the first little sister in my heart!'

After all, the only thing better than a little sister was two little sisters!

~o~

Eris let out a sigh as she stepped out of the bathroom where Aqua was currently puking out rainbows. She had even warned her not to drink so much! Senpai always took things too far. Honestly, she should really know her limits by now!

As she made her way back toward her seat, she saw Darkness happily conversing with an older dwarf gentleman and couldn't help but smile in response. It was always nice to see Darkness making some more friends; Eris could still remember the early days when the girl would pray to her because she was lonely.

Loki was pouring herself another cup of wine when Eris finally made it back to her seat. The red-haired goddess offered her another shot.

"No, thank you," Eris said as she shook her head. "I think that I've had enough to drink already."

"You sure?" Loki asked as she held the shot glass in front of her. "This might not be the real Soma, but it's still pretty damn good."

"I'm sure. Thank you for the offer."

"Suit yourself," Loki replied with a shrug before she downed the shot herself. "Ah… That hits the spot."

Loki was definitely an interesting, if not eccentric, goddess. It was the first time she had met another goddess who drank more than senpai after all.

"Are you sure that you aren't actually the goddess of wine?" Eris humorously asked.

"Hah! I wish. Then maybe Soma would actually give me some of the good stuff," Loki replied with a laugh. "Though, I could ask the same to you."

"Hmm…?" Eris tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Just curious. Why the sudden change with your arcane origin?"

Eris blinked at that.

"I'm sorry…? I don't follow."

"Keeping it to yourself, huh? Can't say I blame ya for that," Loki replied as she poured herself another cup of wine. "So, where'd you find those kids of yours anyway? That Aqua girl's a real riot."

"Eh heh…" Eris sheepishly smiled in response. "That one's a bit of a…long story."

"We've got all the time in the world." Loki sipped her glass of wine. "We might as well trade some stories while we drink. How about I tell you about how I met my boy, Finn, and you tell me about how you met your kid, Kazuma?"

"Oh, that one's a pretty funny story," Eris replied with a slight chuckle. "It all started when he stole my panties…"

"Pfft!"

Loki spat out her drink.

~o~

Author's Notes:

Icura: SFX suxs. Yare, yare.

SFX: Indeed.