Ken
I used to hate running. Hell, when I got to Orario and settled in enough to really start working out harder than I ever had before, I'd hated it for the first couple minutes. Then I'd just decided to stop hating it, and that had been that.
It was the little things about being superhuman that were awesome.
Unfortunately, my new pallum students didn't have the fortune of bottomless stamina, willful stubbornness to supplement willpower, or a blessing. Yet, on the last one, given that would change.
Their schedule was relatively simple. Monday through Fridays were the work week. Mornings we drink water, then I ran them hard. The lightly experimental 'energy potions' that used condensed coffee as an ingredient, mixed with diluted health potion. The three pallum and Hestia were each handed tiny vials, and quickly went from sweaty and gasping to sweaty and calm. Breakfast followed, then came various weightlifting techniques to give as many different parts of the body a workout as possible, followed by more tiny vials. Lunch followed that, then the Magic Ritual which had upgraded to chickens, ducks, and rabbits as sacrifices to get food for dinner. Then came the fun stuff; actual education.
Swordsmanship. Knife throwing. Monster types and their weaknesses. The basics of magic, casting, control, conservation of energy, and how to balance it with physical combat. The pallum had digested it all well, but they'd taken to knife throwing universally well, while Hestia lagged behind them. Upon questioning them they'd mentioned that pallum had incredibly keen eyesight compared to other races, and could see in darker conditions than most.
The first half of Saturdays were about teaching the four of them how to march to get used to following orders, then me taking their place in the line of four to get them used to issuing orders. The rest of Saturday and Sunday were free to do as they pleased to decompress.
Sprinkled between all of this was me splurging Mind to repeatedly cast Modius Temperance on them to get them used to the sensation of magic and have them prod their Mind into boosting one of the spell's effects as practice. It had just been a test at first that had panned out pretty well, and after two weeks they were starting to cast incredibly weak versions of the spell.
Funnily enough, two weeks later was when Bell Fucking Cranel showed up. How did you get here?
"I saw a flyer taken to my village elder and came to learn to be a hero that picks up cute girls! My grandfather sent me out with his blessing, saying Hestia was one of his favorite goddesses, full of big virtues!"
Cool beans. Nice to meet you Bell, welcome to Hell.
The pallum had given him slightly manic grins at which point he'd grown a little nervous. Smart lad. Despite the general sense of wariness, he'd apparently heard how difficult it was to get into established Familia and how training wasn't generally given, but required ahead of time, and had decided to stay with us. Brave lad.
I'd politely taken him to the ritual circle, handed him a chicken, instructed him through the process, and handed him a copy of Modius Temperance. His reactions through the entire process had been pretty funny, but not as funny as his reactions to the workout the next day.
He toughed through though and had decided to use his free time to ask for extra training from me. I'd conceded as Familia Captain and with foreknowledge that this kid is a Big Damn Hero fate-touched enough that he will eventually get a Luck Skill, even though it almost physically pained me.
My stat gains had slowed, hard. While my goddess and trainees went to sleep and went off to do whatever they wished during free time, I used nights and my own free time to grind in the Dungeon.
I'd been going deeper now, down to the eleventh and twelfth floors and trying to go to the thirteenth. Misha wanted to press hard to get me to stop, because honestly, there was no way I should be surviving down there. Only first-class level ones with stats above Rank-B or preferably around or over Rank-A should be fucking around that low, let alone… well, alone.
Even with my stat gains barely crawling in, it felt good to go that low. Perpetually out of breath, always low on Mind. There was something so deeply satisfying about genuinely being physically outclassed, and still killing the things that should be turning me into chunky salsa. Killing monsters felt like winning.
Another week and a half had passed, and with his additional training from hell, Bell barely made the cut to start casting Modius Temperance in time to join his senpais for their floor one Dungeon expeditions.
I was taking them in without a blessing and supervising them, getting them used to the real deal. Better they learn now just what the Dungeon entails and how lethal everything is than getting bigheads with the blessing and having to learn later at great cost.
Riveria
As I looked her over, Lefiya was as excited as usual for her lessons. That is to say, she was only somewhat enthusiastic, and incredibly nervous. Despite years of experience in the Dungeon and her achievements my student's greatest obstacle was her lack of faith in herself.
Level three, and yet she still felt like a failure. I had no idea what to do about it, beyond continue teaching and supporting her, and giving her time to grow self-assuredness.
As we entered the first floor of the Dungeon, we heard the usual sounds. Monsters screaming, shrieking, and howling at the Adventurers plumbing the depths. Combat between the two groups, and screams of pain from both in equal measure.
Lefiya shifted, eyes looking down as an Adventurer cried out in agony far in the distance, and with a sigh I directed us to quickly move deeper.
"Come on oooover~!"
"Come on oooover~!"
"The war's not oooover~!"
"The war's not oooover~!"
Both Lefiya and I slid to a stop in unison, and as one turned down one of the Dungeon's halls in disbelief. Singing was… unusual, in the Dungeon. Multiple people singing even more so. This was a place of violence and death, unbefitting such revelry.
And yet, a man was calling out lyrics, and getting answered by four younger voices. The tone implied jogging, and faint tones of footsteps from their direction led credence to that.
More importantly was that the man's voice sounded like…
"Is that Mr. Crow?" Lefiya wondered.
I feel as though if I weren't a level six, I would be getting a headache from the latest nonsense this human is doing. Unfortunately, my Durability doesn't prevent a sudden pang of annoyance. Best that we quickly move along and-
"Oh! He has a party now!" Lefiya's mood visibly brightened, "Let's go say hello!"
I stare after my student that is now quickly darting off and let out a small sigh before following. It doesn't take long for us to reach the man and his ragtag group. Three pallum and a human boy?
It was odd though, given their position ahead of him, it seemed that they were doing the fighting instead of him. He was most likely giving introductory aid to new Familia recruits. More responsibility than I'd expected from him, given his vapidity and constant need to prod others.
"Hello, Mr. Crow!" my student brightly waved, and I smiled as his fingers twitched in response, "It's so good to see you have a party!"
"Ah, hello, Lefiya," he nods as he turns around, "Right, take note trainees, these are two high levels from the Loki Familia. Lefiya Veridis and Riveria Ljos Alf."
Lefiya bowed slightly, and waved with a smile, although her brow furrowed slightly when glancing at the human boy.
"Fall in," Crow declared, no, ordered, I realized as his party moved in response, "These are my trainees; Albritch Fiedre, Relicadia Elbyrne, Gillian Bolorm, and Bell Cranel."
He idly pointed each one out after they had gathered in front of him, lining up beside each other. They stood straight, evenly, and fell into position tallest to shortest right to left from their perspective. It was… odd. More like something I'd see from a marching parade or military display than the variety of personalities that gather in Familias.
"So these are your new Familia recruits?" I politely ask, gazing over them.
"Nah, they're trainees," Crow shook his head, "Still working 'em up to be good enough for Hestia's blessing."
Lefiya and I blankly stare at him, and the four youths of varying age puff up in pride. Ken simply closes his eyes and nods with a serene smile, as though deeply proud of himself for being a lunatic that is training more people to abandon sense.
"S-so, they're from other Familias trying to join Hestia?" Lefiya tentatively offers in question.
Oh, Lefiya, no. No, that isn't the situation at all.
"Nah, they're total normies," Ken shakes his head, "Getting pretty good at killing though. Bell's a little behind, but he's a hard worker and catching up fast. All of 'em are doing good."
"B-but, they shouldn't be in here if," Lefiya's eyes whip over the unblessed mortals in worry.
"Nah, it's cool, check this out," Ken responds, then shuffles to the side to reveal a goblin approaching further down the hallway, "Relicadia, monster rear."
In sudden explosive motion surprising from an unblessed, the only female pallum whips around and in the same motion draws a throwing knife to throw down the tunnel.
Lefiya and I stare in disbelief as the knife shoots down, buries in the goblin's throat deep enough to penetrate its spine and cause enough lethal damage to dust it.
What.
"My beautiful little killers," Ken sniffs and mimes wiping a tear away, "They aren't hyper-lethal yet, but they've only been training for four weeks. Well, three of them, Bell's been playing catchup hard on weekends to join his seniors for their first Dungeon foray."
Again, all four of the unblessed mortals preen in pride, with Relicadia returning to a position of attention.
Ah, there it is, the headache. Despite my Durability, Ken has once again managed to surpass my limits of tolerance for stupidity.
"Why are they down here without a blessing?" I ask, politeness thoroughly strained.
"Ah, y'know, to kill," he shrugs, testing my self-restraint to not simply leap over and throttle him, "Gotta get them used to the sensation of Modius Temperance in genuine combat conditions. They get in over their heads, I toss a few knives to save 'em and then tell them where they went wrong."
Where… where do I begin? What do I ask him first. He answered my question and gave me more questions.
"All four of them know the same spell?" Lefiya wondered in confusion, "That's incredibly unlikely."
"Nah, I made spell tomes for them," Ken frowned, "Ah, that is, weaker grimoires that slowly teach magic, but don't burn out."
"He casts it on us to help us learn how it feels faster!" Bell adds, smiling.
"Don't talk at attention, ask for permission to go to rest," Ken chides, and the boy winces lightly in response, "But yeah, he's right. Between the rituals, the tomes, and me boosting the Mind aspect of Modius Temperance when casting it on them, they've been feeling out the spell pretty fast."
"…the Mind aspect of the spell?" I ask, suddenly interested beyond the foolishness of bringing unblessed into the Dungeon's depths. Crow had told me he believed he could accelerate magical ability, and I'd dismissed him. Yet here he was with four students that most likely hadn't known magic and taught them all a spell in four weeks. Two, in the case of the human boy. That was unprecedented.
"Oh yah. Modius Temperance is the 'buff everything' spell. Weak in effect, but it covers genuinely everything, and you can burn extra Mind to slightly increase those effects. One of which is Mind awareness and control," he smiles and shrugs, "So I cast it on 'em during training, burn my own Mind through the connection to the Enhancement spells to enhance their Mind awareness. I only meant it to help with figuring out how the spell felt and to feel out their own Mind but turns out it helped them learn from the tomes faster too."
Lefiya and my eyes widen in response to that information. This wasn't unprecedented, that was revolutionary. Considering the look he gives me, he doesn't only know it, but is openly sharing it with me.
Where most Familias would keep this secret, he doesn't feel the need to. Rather, keeping it secret defeats the point of wanting more people to learn magic, which he's said he wants.
"Well, nothing to it but finish up here," he smiles at his… trainees, "Graduation is technically complete once they've killed enough monsters to get a Drop each, and they're cruising along nicely with three out of four. Still gonna have them wait a few days to understand the Dungeon's dangers before they get their blessing. Well, nice seeing you. Fall out and say bye, kids."
His trainees break form and politely give us their farewells and Lefiya gives them a confused wave in response, eyes locked on the young Cranel as he leaves.
My own gaze is on Crow, thinking over what he'd said. He seemed foolish to bring unblessed in, however… people often became foolish upon getting blessed. To teach prospective Adventurers fear and respect of the Dungeon's threats early. No, it was still foolish, but a measured foolishness.
"Come along, Lefiya, we still have your training to attend to," I murmur as I turn away, Lefiya smiling brightly in response. Well, at least her mood is up, I suppose.
As we walk along, I roll the meeting over in my mind.
Modius Temperance can enhance Mind, not unlike Mage Skill's effects, but separate. While weak, it can be enhanced by the mage casting it, even on someone else. That has potential. It has a lot of potential. The fly in the ointment, though, is that the man most experienced with it to the point of making 'spell tomes' for it and in Orario is Ken Crow.
I grimace behind Lefiya's back as a simple plan starts to form, no part of which I truly like, but the benefits of which exceed my own distaste.
The things I do for Familia.