The outing with the Loki Familia had been fun.
Loki had gotten her feet back under her and start throwing backhanded compliments at me for a bit, then we'd eaten, drink, and had conversation.
Bell drink a little alcohol, stumbled through small talk with Ais, and eventually everything came to an end.
We said our goodbyes, made our way out, and I took Bell home to sleep off his slight tipsiness.
Then I started packing on my kit.
Pouches strapped to my thighs and on my belt for carrying snack rations of hard tack with small additions of dried berries and jerky. Hardly that nutritious, but enough to last a normal adventurer a few days, so more than enough to last me a couple of weeks if I had to.
My backpack, empty save for a few whetstones for sharpening my blades, my Dia Panakeios grimoire, and the large quiver strapped to it, ready to fill and refill the small quiver beside on of my thigh pouches. Bandolier full of knives, my two swords, a small war hammer I'd picked up for cracking through Ant-chitin, and my bow.
For armor I had my normal leather gear, in addition to a simple cuirass and gauntlets that I'd picked up after getting back from the Dungeon expedition yesterday. Nothing fancy, no bells and whistles, but I'd slapped on three-circle 'Deflect' enchantment for each piece of gear.
I see a swing I can't dodge, angle to take a hit toward my steel armor, and pump Mind into the enchantments to slightly decrease damage.
Granted, it would do somewhere in between 'jack' and 'shit' what with merely being three-circle enchantments in the depths I was going to, but even a slightly better deflection increase meant higher rate of survival and gave a little more practice with fancy magic.
A door creaks open, and I glance over at the woman by the entry.
"Hello, Hestia," I smile at my goddess.
She simply stares at me for a few moments, fully kitted out for Dungeon diving.
"You practically kill yourself for two weeks, get endangered when the Loki Familia messes up, and can't even wait three full days before going back into that pit?" she asks me.
She isn't mad. Not sad, annoyed, upset, or even disbelieving.
Hestia looks at me as though she's slightly bored. Like she fully expected this and is vaguely surprised it took me so long. Hell, if Bell hadn't roped me into being a third wheel for his date, I would have already gone back to the Dungeon, so I can't say that Hestia's wrong.
"I'm… sorry?" I diplomatically offer.
"Lie," my goddess rolls her eyes, the damn tyrant. "When will you be back?"
"Hrm, that's kind of an annoying question, actually," I grumble, "Because I have no damn idea."
Hestia merely cocks her head at that, waiting for an explanation.
"Hunter-Gatherer," I sigh, reaching up to rub at my neck, "Gatherer's the part that I suspect will throw off my rhythm."
Hestia's eyes narrow in thought, "I think I see what you mean. Hunter is in the Skill name and granted the Hunter Development Ability, but the Skill doesn't mention Luck. Or rather, it doesn't mention Luck specifically."
"Yup! Killing a bunch of monsters netted me Hunter, but I was getting all my profits off of Drops. People always say it's lucky to get one, but what if they're more right than they know, y'know? What if Luck actually increases Drop rates?" I smile a little at the familiar old term, before frowning. "My income would spike, but I'd fill up faster, so I wouldn't be able to stay in as long."
"Do you think it's worth getting the kids to try and hit monster crystals?" Hestia asks me, arms slightly crossed, one hand lifted to cup her chin thoughtfully.
My eyes drift down to her slightly compressed breasts for a moment, before glancing up to meet her eyes, embarrassed and slightly reddening but otherwise happy from my glance.
I clear my throat, turning my thoughts to her question rather than her figure.
With the kids using the revolver system, essentially being supporters for each other, they'd be able to carry more Drops. Last longer, kill more, get more Drops in total. The only issue is that they'd need luck to get Luck.
Hell, I'd already shown that it was possible to gain the Development Ability, but it wasn't worth it at first. Losing out on money was fine for me because between Thiurdos increasing my weapon's damage and my aim ensuring I almost always hit monster crystals, weapon upkeep was comparatively low for the number of monsters I was killing.
The kids, be it Bell or the Pallum? They couldn't do that. They didn't have Thiurdos, and they sure as hell didn't have my aim. They'd run into the red, unable to pay for the tools they needed to do their job.
"No, they'd bleed money trying to achieve the same thing. Weapon costs would raise too high, and with damaged crystals they wouldn't be able to pay for repairs or replacements," I murmur, and my goddess's head bobs as she perceives the truth, "But tell them to go for the crystals the last half-hour to hour, every other day or so, increase their kill rate to try and get some Drops."
Hestia's eyes glitter at that, quickly cottoning on to the unspoken implication.
"They might be able to do the same," she mutters, mulling it over with interest, "Skills are rare, -well, for people that aren't as crazy as you-, but if you got Luck from gathering a ton of Drops, that might be the path to getting the Development Ability. Why hasn't anyone figured that out before though?"
"Well, two potential solutions to that. One, they did, and didn't tell everyone. That's unlikely, because more adventurers from a single Familia would have increased Drop rates far more than other Familias," I hum in thought, "My second idea, and the one I think is most likely, is that they got Luck, but had no idea how they got it. They'd keep their damn mouths shut so nobody got interested in their shiny, rare Development Ability."
"Without a Skill name to tip them off, they wouldn't have a hint that sacrificing assured profits in favor of increasing speed for higher Drop rates could lead to Luck," Hestia smiled, "Why wouldn't they go for the money?"
"That's their lives on the line, yup," I smile down at her, "You'd have to be crazy to kill monsters solely for the sake of getting stronger, rather than for money."
My cute, short little goddess huffs at that, blue eyes glaring up at me and her arms now fully crossed beneath her chest. She taps her foot, and closes her eyes, face scrunched up in thought.
"You need to get a Supporter, you know? If it turns out your Drop rate has increased, you're going to need someone to carry all your stuff, and you can't expect normal people to keep combat up with you. They'll need to have one of those Supporter Skills."
"Or I could invent a bag of holding."
"All bags hold, Ken," Hestia smirks at me, triumphant in her snark, not her point. "That's what they do. You open the bag, you put in the thing, it gets held."
I roll my eyes at that, smiling fondly at my goddess.
"The idea is a bag that holds more things than the space inside it should manage. I'm not sure if the idea's a bust until I get Mystery though."
Hestia shifts slightly, nervously frowning at me.
"About that, Ken…" she murmurs, trailing off, amusement quickly dying out.
I stare at her, closing my eyes as I realize that I'm not going to like what she's going to say considering her sudden shift to evasiveness.
"Just out with it," I groan, "I'm clearly not going to like it, so you may as well-"
"IthinkyoushouldtakeLuckinsteadofMysterywhenyoulevelup," Hestia quickly babbles.
I blankly stare at her, before slowly burying my face in my hands.
"Now listen, Ken," she begins, and I moan into my palms, "No, no, listen. I don't think Luck just increases Drop rates! It feels like it will keep you safe. I… I'm not sure how, but-"
"Fine," I grunt, cutting her off, "Fine, just… fine. I will take Luck. If I'm right, then it will increase the amount of stuff I can use for making magical items later."
Hestia rushes forward to wrap her arms around me, and as I lean down to hug her I silently lament that I can't feel her breasts through my armor.
"I'm sorryyyyy," Hestia quietly squeals, "I know you really wanted it!"
"No, no, it's okay," I sigh, "I'll just take Mystery at Level Three."
Hestia's arms tighten around my cuirass, before she lets me go.
Then she reaches up to firmly grasp my face, pulls me down, and stands on her tiptoes to give me a quick kiss on the cheekbone above my beard. I rapidly blink in response, a little stunned at the unexpected display of affection.
Then she turns to quickly sprint away, a brilliant flush already having crossed her face.
"Goodbye! Come back safe!" she squeaks as she leaves, slamming the door to our bedroom shut behind her.
Huh.
"How about that?" I wonder aloud, slowly raising a hand to my cheek.
As I turn to leave, a smile refuses to leave my face.
Fuck Bad Bats.
The sheer fucking hate I feel for these goddamn bats cannot be understated.
The monsters gather with spacing and keep flight behind hordes of monsters that distract me, using the cover to safely use their magic screams to cause blinding, shooting migraines. I'd initially just gone through the normal pains of flushing the headaches out through purely natural processes, but had slowly been experimenting with pushing a bit of Mind at the problem to make it work faster.
It isn't casting spells. It doesn't have the feeling, that phantom sensation of shapes. The idea of shapes? Whatever the fuck kind of logic this world's magic spells run off of, it isn't that. It's closer to cantrips, honestly.
Using Mind to increase heat to the point you get a small fire. Solidifying magical energy into threads. Temporarily shifting the colors of something. Cleaning something, albeit not particularly well.
Small, tangentially useful magic that people don't generally bother with because of the dedication it takes to get to that point.
Elves? They've got magic from the starting line. To them, cantrips are, well, I don't really know, but it's probably the equivalent to learning to snap your fingers, whistle, or fold your tongue. Granted, ultimately more useful, but the rest of mortal-kind?
Why bother jumping through multiple rituals just to learn cantrips, when the really enticing stuff is so difficult?
Well, my rapidly vanishing headache is one reason.
No fucking clue how it works, but by thinking about all the processes I manipulate to make my head stop pounding and then pushing Mind at it, it works faster than it should.
It's either alchemy or martial arts bullshit.
Lenoa didn't have books on alchemy as she ran her shop focused on spell-casting and spell-casting appliances, but the basic gist of alchemy was simple.
One half chemistry, one half magical energy.
That was literally it too, there was a dividing line between actual chemistry that got researched, and the point magic entered the equation. Using magic had twofold points of activation; either through magical reagents, or using your own Mind, albeit the latter option lacking any special effects that reagents inherently contained.
Neural chemistry was, well, I didn't know how the hell it worked, but I knew it was a thing. If I'm opening blood flow and releasing feel-good healing chemicals to get over headaches, pushing Mind (and thus magical energy) at the processes could passively be giving me something to the effect of a weak, but otherwise highly specialized potion.
Alternatively, it was martial arts nonsense and that by using my Mind to push magical energy at a bodily process, I was doing some sort of incredibly minor life-energy manipulation analogue, a la shonen genre staple.
Either way, the process was measurably better, and I could figure out if it was the latter by pushing Mind at my body while moving.
Intent was heavily important with the headache removal, a lack of focus on the intended effect quickly cutting off any boost to the process, so if I were to focus specifically on the act of clenching muscles and moving them while pulsing my Mind… hrm…
I figured it couldn't hurt to test out using a little extra Mind on the way down, keeping an eye on my mental resource.
I was venturing down to the fifteenth floor, so any advantage that strengthened me aside from Modius Temperance and Thiurdos was a welcome one. Even if it was a minor boost compared to Modius, it was a separate effect, thus valuable.
Thiurdos itself was incredibly useful, though less effective on some monsters such as the Crystal Mantis.
Note to self; buy or commission a small but decently sized war hammer from Welf.
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAGH!" a deep, rumbling roar echoed out behind the monsters I'd fallen into a gentle groove fighting against, muscles and lungs lightly burning from the warmup exertion.
I glance in the direction of the sound, the monsters I'm fighting to likewise turn towards it, and we all catch sight of a very large cat whipping around a distant corner, hauling ass right towards me.
Invigorated at the sight, the monsters turn back towards me, ready to end my life. In response, I turn up the gentle warmup into high-speed blending, quickly moving to cut down more monsters.
"Thiurdos," I chant, charging my sword, a few daggers I quickly palm, and finally a single Hard Armored that I had kicked in the direction of the tiger monster.
The armadillo creature had wandered down two-to-four floors from where it had spawned, only to prove itself incredibly useful to me. It's hard shell belied weak guts, and my non-weakened Thiurdos damaged it an shot it like a cannonball towards the tiger.
That's kinda neat, actually. I'd known that Thiurdos' speed boost applied to the wielder of enchanted weapons and it's effects applied to projectiles, but I hadn't known that turning a living being damaged by it as a DOT would give the increased projectile speed buff.
Uh… wait, isn't that a really good reason to not use it on myself, lest I get fucked over and turned into a projectile.
I throw my two knives at the Bad Bats and cut down several more monsters, though I keep careful focus on the Hard Armored as it slams into the snout of my target. The Hard Armored shrieks in dying agony, unrolling, revealing broken, bruised flesh.
It only takes a moment to imagine myself in that position, body flung at high speeds into a wall, armor lacking an inherent magical protection that the monster has.
Fucking hell. Guess that's a bust, but turning monsters into projectiles is now on the table, which more than makes up for it!
"Thaaat is a goddamn Ligerfang," I grumble aloud. "Are you shitting me? I haven't even been on this floor for a full half hour yet. Fuck the Dungeon."
You hate me, and I hate you.
Now gimmer all yer Drops and make me rich off that sweet, sweet impotent rage.
By the time the Ligerfang shakes off the pain and shock of essentially getting struck by an electrically charged bowling ball, I've already finished off my surrounding monsters and quickly, but cautiously start approaching it.
Rage. Hate and rage fill it's expressions.
It's a hell of thing, the energy monsters have to them.
Even excluding the utility to killing they often have, hands for grabbing and highly lethal natural weaponry, it's the general vibe to them. Emotion, single-minded drive, the sheer will to carve through everything the Dungeon's pointed them at.
Animals can experience emotion, but this is too much all the time. Unnatural.
My grandmother had grown up as a farm girl and had told me stories of boars. Called them damn beasts, the closest thing to genuine monsters that roamed the land.
Bears and tigers and so on, they killed because that was in their nature, predators killing because that's what they'd been built to do over so long.
Boars though? Cruel, hateful things. Evil, even, she'd told me.
The Dungeon's monsters outperform them though, a sort of artificial distillation and amplification of that spite present in all monsters I'd fought.
"Look at you," I chuckle, "What a pussy."
The Ligerfang snarls, and I calmly eye it as it whips to charge at me. It's breed of monster are slightly weaker and less durable than Minotaurs, but it makes up for that power in what the cow monsters themselves lack; speed.
Minotaurs are decently slow for their power, meaning the average adventurer can nimbly dodge them as they cut them down, but Ligerfangs are high speed threats that dart around, applying their own mass as a threat. They aren't even that much damn weaker, from my understanding.
I grunt, and dodge out of the way a moment before it leaps, pulling my sword back to swing towards a neck artery as it flies back. Though Hunter is active, I haven't killed a Ligerfang yet, so I'm solely running off the boosts of Modius, Berserk redlining, and Thiurdos increasing cutting damage in addition to lightning.
"ROOOOAGH!" it shrieks in pain as it lands, though not pausing as it quickly turns towards me to run me down.
I juke to the left, and swing for its eye. I backstep a powerful swipe that whips the air around us, claws breezing just past me, and step forward to slam the hilt against it's temple. A cut. A dodge. A cut. A hop. A punch to its eye.
I almost feel bad, bullying the damn thing to death, as muted confusion and fear appear alongside the hateful rage, and as it turns to flee, I get opening enough to slam my sword through its mangled-eye into its brain, and murmur a quick, "Thiurdos," to apply damage directly into its body as I'd done the Hard Armored earlier.
I warily eye its dying motions, before it falls limp, body dusting from the brain damage. Its crystal falls to the ground, and a large swathe of fur attached to incredibly thin skin falls to the ground beside it.
Ligerfang Fur, a decently rare Drop on my first Ligerfang kill.
How Lucky.
"Hey Prana," I force out, breathing heavily, "Who's your friend?"
The smaller, older Amazon had shown up a distance away partway through the fight, twirling her loaded sling in case I needed help.
"Hello, Ken," the natural ganguro murmurs, walking towards me, eyeing the Drop for a moment, before turning her gaze to me with a dim hunger in her eyes, "This is my friend-"
"I AM HASHANA DORLIA!" the very large man loaded with muscles beside her cheerfully greets himself, "What are your intentions with my friend?!"
Prana's brow furrows in confusion for a moment, before realization settles in and a vaguely dead look enters her eyes.
"Hashana, I am a thirty-eight-year-old woman-" she begins, only for the very large man to cut her off.
"-With the heart of a maiden!" Hashana says to her, before turning back to me, "Well, what of your intentions?"
"I intend to be a good friend, and endeavor to strengthen my hips so that they don't suffer her graceful touch," I answer with a wry smirk, evening out my breathing.
Prana turns a slightly betrayed look my direction, only to flush as I shoot her a soft smile and wink.
Ohhhh, my horny kuudere waifu can't be this cute!
"Hmmm," Hashana eyes me carefully, before smiling, "Great! You seem like a good guy. I haven't seen you before during your training with Prana, but she's had a lot of great things to say about you."
Prana turns a warning look his way, and he raises his hands with an artificially innocent smile.
"So you're the Captain of Bell's Familia, huh?" he asks, rubbing the back of his head.
"You know Bell?" I blink at that. I mean, the kid's allowed his own life and friends, but he hasn't said anything about this very large man.
"Hah! Sorta!" Hashana smiles, "I met him at the Guild, back when he was trying to track down where the Hestia Familia was located. He was asking adventurers about her, and I knew you were the Captain of her Familia, so I wandered on over and helped him chat up a cute young half-elf Guild employee."
I smile at him, crossing my arms and giving a respectful nod.
"You're a hell of a guy, Hashana."
"I try."
Prana gently raises a hand to her face at our antics.
"Ken, would you like to accompany us for a while?" she asks, "Your incredible talent with bow combined with reaching Level Two means that you can aid us as we go deeper, getting increased pay and better Drops."
Mou, Prana, that clinical way of speaking is super cute, you know?
"Sure, I'd absolutely love to join you guys," I awkwardly scratch my beard, "But, uh, I'm not Level Two yet."
"What?" Prana's face flattens out, "You killed a boss monster three levels in power above you, and you didn't level from it?"
"First off, I qualify for levelup, I'm just trying to increase my stats by a decent amount," five-hundred to one-thousand beyond the limits of what any other adventure has ever reached or is capable of reaching is a 'decent' amount, right? "Second off, how the hell do you know that?"
Hashana is likewise intrigued. He'd glanced at me in surprise at Prana's statement of fact, but how the hell did Prana know that fact?
"Tiona Hiryute told others and I about it," Prana calmly explained, "She seems to be something of a gossip."
I groan aloud, raising my hands to rub my eyes, before firming up to join my new party as their artillery piece.
Fucking, ugh, goddammit Loki. You're fucking me over even without your own input.
Now I know what you're thinking. 'Is it possible to be as cool as Crow?' Unfortunately, no," I sigh, shaking my head sadly as I ventilate a few more monster skulls as the two older Ganesha adventurers mow their way through them in melee, "But with time, you may be."
"Are you talking to us?" Hashana yells back in amusement, "Because you're still two levels early to be that arrogant."
"Oh, no, I was talking to the monsters!" I shoot back, nailing a minotaur that had been attempting to approach him from a bad angle.
Man, it's just… always the eyes. I always go for the goddamn eyes. On the one hand, it lacks originality, but on the other hand there's a big shiny critical hit point right there, so why not go for it?
"Kinda mean, don't you think?" Hashana laughs, "Telling them they can get better with time, only to kill them?"
"I said they could get better with time, not that I'd give them that time," I easily respond, launching a throwing dagger down a Bad Bat's throat just for the hell of it. "Should a monster avoid a fight, then clearly they're wise enough to deserve life. These monsters chose death the moment they chose to face us."
Hashana glances back at me with an inscrutable look for a moment, before quietly turning back to the fight and cutting down a few more monsters.
Huh. Weird.
"There are a few more minotaurs coming around the corner down the left path," Prana calls out, "Can you take care of them."
I blink at that, before nodding, "Sure, when are they-"
Three minotaurs race around the corner she'd pointed at, and I loose a shot in a moment, the two surviving minotaurs jerking to the side as their ally is magically transformed into a corpse.
"Fucking hell," I breathe, "Did you hear them?"
"Yes?" Prana answers, side-stepping a Ligerfang before delivering it a brutal uppercut, "I am higher level, you know?"
"Man, those sensory buffs are something else," I mutter.
"Buffs?" Prana's brow furrows for a moment, before understanding settles in, "I suppose so. You don't really notice them with the slow rate of Basic Ability accumulation."
"Yeah! The increase is generally more noticeable around level-ups!" Hasha agrees.
I mean, I kinda have. Shooting up a couple hundred points in Utility over a short period of time made a massive difference in hearing and sight. It's just that the ability to hear monsters coming a large distance away from while you're in the middle of a melee with screaming monsters is pretty damn impressive.
"Hrm, Hashana! Can you pass me that arrow in the minotaur to your left?" I call out, launching my last arrow at the first of two minotaurs that had regained its composure, thus being the first to join its compatriot on the ground.
The third and final minotaur stares at its two dead allies, glances up at me, then turns to flee.
"Holy shit, a smart monster," I chuckle, "Ah well, that's kinda neat to see! Anyway…"
Hashana obligingly throws me the requested arrow, and I pluck it from the air, quickly drawing it as I do so.
"Thiurdos," I chant, the arrow sparking a moment, before screaming as I loose.
It shrieks, a brilliant white bolt that slams between the vertebrae of the higher level monster, the spell providing just enough force to slam through its thick hide.
The minotaur hits the ground, body jerking and shaking as lightning courses its body from
its spine.
Yeah, I uh, man, I really go for some classic attack points, don't I?
"Welp, that's my last arrow until I can pick them all back up," I grumble in amusement, stepping forward and drawing my blade and enchanting it. "Thiurdos. Oh, yeah, how are you guys liking the lightning enchant on your weapons?"
"I love the speed boost," Hashana breathes in wonder, "I don't suppose you're available as a full-time Supporter?"
"Unfortunately not," I drily answer, "Not a good look for a Familia to have their Captain solely operating as a Supporter. Occasionally to rub shoulders and network with stronger Familias? Sure, but not full-time."
"The spell is highly effective," Prana calmy notes, even as she stabs her spear into the large cat before her, twisting and jerking down to gouge a hole into it. "You said you learned this from a reusable Grimoire? Would you mind renting a copy out to me? The increase to melee is useful, but enchanting my sling ammunition is far more enticing."
"Mhm, takes a while to learn from though," I answer as I stride forward, swinging as a monster tries to strike at me. "I've made a few three-circle books though, so that should help out."
Both adventurers' eyes flick towards me in confusion at that.
"Erm, more circles make it better," I answer the unspoken question, "Gets harder to make more circles though."
They turn back to their respective fights, Hashana grinning and Prana giving a single nod in understanding.
I can't wait to hit Level Three. Gonna kick so much ass.
"Man, I love my job," I chuckle, joining the melee in person, off-hand holding my new Grimoire to pull knowledge from in case anyone gets hurt.
"I'm happy to have you here, Crow" Prana murmurs.
"Happy to be here, Peach," I shoot back with a grin and a wink.
Hunting monsters alongside a couple of kickass warriors?
There isn't anywhere I'd rather be working.
Hephaestus
"Hephaestusssss!" a call rang out.
The forge goddess sighed at the familiar tone, a fond, exasperated smile crossing her face.
"Hello, Hestia," Hephaestus answered her old friend, "What do you want, Hestia?"
Hestia came to a stop before her best friend in two whole worlds, before glaring at her with puffed cheeks.
"Uoh! You damn bratty forge goddess!" Hestia attempted to chastise her. With chest thrust out and hands on her hips, she was sure she was posing a great visible threat.
Hephaestus flat look and single-eyed stare didn't mean she was failing! It wasn't! It meant the goddess wasn't clever enough to realize the threat!
Yeah!
"Says the cheeky twin-tailed brat," Hephaestus easily responded, dealing a critical blow to the shorter goddess.
"Youuuu," Hestia wheezed, firm posture collapsing, "Bully."
"Only for you," Hephaestus smiled fondly.
The hearth goddess grumbled, but moved forward to hug the forge goddess, who in turn allowed her close and answered in turn, arms wrapping around each other.
"I need-" Hestia began, only for Hephaestus to cut her off.
"I knew it," Hephaestus lamented.
"Oi," Hestia grumbled, before a devious, unseen smile crossed her face, and she reached a hand down from the hug.
"Hey!" Hephaestus squawked in sudden pain, quickly shoving Hestia away, "You just pinched my bottom!"
"Hehehehehhh~" Hestia replied with an evil smile, "Nobody saw anything, so clearly nothing happened."
"You've got the smile of a degenerate old man."
"How dare you!"
"Have you been trading notes with Zeus?"
"Oi!"
"Oh, that's right, he prefers defenseless breasts, while you go for defenseless ass!"
"OI!"
The two friends glared each other down for several moments, before both visibly settled the matter and put it behind them.
Just another moment in eternity.
"I dunno where to buy this stuff," Hestia admitted, slapping a note down on the table beside them, "Ken's asking for books on clockwork engineering and physical examples. I, uh, that's some really new stuff, isn't it?"
"Not exactly," Hephaestus answered, moving to sit down, guarding her rear as she walked past her friend, the shorter goddess rolling her eyes at the motion. "Clockwork has been around a long time among mortals, but the field has advanced since relative peace has been achieved among the mortals with the Dungeon being sealed by Ouranos."
"Peace," Hestia snorted.
"Relative peace," Hephaestus idly corrected, "I know what I said, and chose the word intentionally."
"Sure, I guess," Hestia sighed, "Just hard to consider it peaceful when they're always killing each other."
Hephaestus glanced at her friend with a frown.
Rare was it that Hestia burdened herself with the simple facts of mortals attacking each other. It tended to lower her mood, so she turned her focus elsewhere until such matters were brought to her attention again.
"Are your Children okay?" the forge goddess tentatively questioned.
"They're fine," Hestia bit out, waving a hand, "You know how it can get in the Dungeon."
Did Hephaestus know that? She did, she did more than the more freshly descended goddess, and with such a short time she had a feeling Hestia didn't know everything she thought she did.
Tch, just like her to dodge a question through accident rather than intention.
"Hmmm," Hephaestus turned her eye back to the note left by Hestia's first Child. "A few of my Children have branched out into mechanical work. I'll reach out to them to get the requested items and sell them to you at a decent discount."
"Uh, thanks, we'll try and do you some favors too," Hestia shifted, embarrassed, "Ken talks about deals with other Familias and, uhm, giving in turn for the taking."
What's this? Hestia growing as a person and offering deals in turn for favors received?
Wonders never cease, it seemed.
The focus on Ken was… well, Hephaestus knew her friend had a crush on the Child, and even if it hurt a bit, she was happy for her friend. It was, however, a bit telling. Even though Hephaestus knew not what was upsetting her friend, it was clearly about her Crow.
"Why not stay a little while, have some warm tea with honey?"
"Ohhh, yes! Thank you," Hestia's bright blue eyes glittered greedily, hunger clear in them.
Hephaestus smiled fondly at the hearth goddess, who blushed in turn. It was her duty to raise her friend's spirits when she was down.
"Quite strange, isn't it? That a civilization goddess would be so slovenly?"
"Quite strange, isn't it? That a forge goddess would have such a soft ass?"
Hephaestus' eye twitched in response.
Her friend certainly made helping her difficult sometimes.
Hestia
Walking was the worst, Hestia thought to herself.
Wait, no, running was worse.
She shuddered at the memories of Ken screaming at her and her Children as they marched and ran.
Why had she thought that was a good idea? She'd wanted to know an aspect of her fledgling Familia that her first Child seemed intent on including as a permanent requirement. She liked it, the thought of standards that all her Children would need to meet, slowly shifted to match the difference of each race.
Hestia didn't care about who was stronger. The elves with magic, the dwarves with their durability, the amazons with their strength, or the advantages of the beast races. She simply wanted Children to love and dote on.
Volunteering to go through their training to see what it was like had seemed to be a good idea at the time.
She couldn't go into the Dungeon, so she'd at least observe and participate in their training! What a terrible idea that'd been! Ohhh, the proud look Ken had given her at the start. The disappointment when she faltered.
The pride again when she'd completed the training though… was it worth it? It had only been four weeks, barely any time at all, and it was done now so. Urgh.
Sometimes people called her dumb, but that was one of the few times she really wondered if they were right.
Wait, Loki was one of the people that called her dumb.
Loki was never correct.
Ergo, Hestia was not dumb.
The short goddess smiled blissfully as her world view realigned itself; beginning to hum as she approached the Erlang Shen Familia entrance.
"UUOOOOHHHHHH!" Hestia cheerfully cried, eyes sparkling as she took in her surroundings of the waiting room for the Familia.
"Do you like the Erlang Shen headquarters, Lady Hestia?" Sakura, the young woman that had let her in smiled, "As our Familia is mostly several different businesses linked to our god, our god's home isn't where the majority of us live."
Rather than a homey entrance, there had been a waiting room gussied up as a small museum and display area, filled to the brim with different kinds of crystal-powered technology that had been produced by members of the Erlang Shen Familia.
All manner of devices were readily visible.
Air conditioners, stoves, water heaters, hair dryers.
Hestia hadn't heard of a hair dryer before, but she could certainly guess what it was!
"Where can I buy one!" the hearth goddess shouted in glee, pointing at it. Ohhh, Ken would like it too, she bet!
While his hair was decently long for a man, she bet it was awful to have water in his beard.
"That's a recent development, and currently a prototype. Well, the item on display is simply a showpiece," Sakura hummed, the cream-haired Sheep of Far Eastern descent murmured, gold eyes narrowing in thought, "Until a lot of models can be produced for new consumer goods, they're luxury goods. It wouldn't do to have someone break into the entry of our god's home and steal a prototype's design. Nothing like it's existed before, outside of a few cantrips. Not everyone can learn magic so easily though, so this will make our Familia a large amount of money."
Aha… 'luxury good.'
'Nothing like it's existed before.'
Weren't those just fancy ways of saying, 'When we start selling them, they're going to be really expensive?'
Sakura let out a gentle chuckle at the pinched look on Hestia's face.
"Yes, many apologies, Lady Hestia," the Sheep woman gently spoke, "But in order to get the money to more easily mass produce the models-"
"No, no. I get it," Hestia sighed. It was always money, wasn't it?
A clever little lie the mortals had invented. When time is at a premium and effort is difficult to measure, make an arbitrary, imaginary unit to sum up both.
It wasn't initially necessary in Tenkai, given that the population of gods was so low that things had initially (and often still did!) run on a barter economy, but the ease of use had quickly moved the evil the mortals had invented to the heavens.
Who was Hestia kidding? The second mortals had started using money to gamble and acquire… sexual relations… well, of course the gods were going to follow suit.
Using it for actual trade was more of an afterthought, really.
"Early models are works of art though, and are often expensive enough that the customer is entitled to ask for customization?" Sakura helpfully offered.
Hestia hesitated at that, thoughts of a silver machine with a crow etched into it flashing through her mind.
"Mmmm," she murmured with a small smile. "Maybe."
A door opened at the end of the room, and a fellow divine walked in.
"Hello, Hestia. It's a pleasure to see you, considering how rarely we've met in Tenkai," he declared with a gentle smile.
He was a well-built man; not too muscled, but certainly not weak. Firm posture, calloused hands, and sturdy, functional clothing designed more for pockets and resistance to tearing than any sort of fashion.
This was the god Hephaestus had recommended her to ask for helping Ken find information on mechanical knowledge. Engineering and heroism were two of his aspects, and he was a fellow god of civilization.
"Erlang Shen," Hestia smiled back, "It's good to see you."
"I'm surprised you managed to pry yourself from your fire in Tenkai long enough to come down to Gekai," Erlang Shen grinned lightly, taking the edge off of his comment. "Although I'm far and away more interested in why you decided to visit an engineering Familia? Decided to order custom work? If so, I'm sorry to say that while modification of a device's appearance can be relatively simple, technological development is a more difficult prospect."
"Oi," Hestia glared, flushing at the comment about her heavenly fire, before addressing his next comment. "No. I'm here on request of my Captain; Ken Crow. He's looking to study clockwork design for… something. I'm not really sure what, but he seems excited about that."
To the side, Sakura tensed slightly.
"A competitor?" she muttered, trailing off, now looking at Hestia uneasily.
"Eh?" Hestia boggled at her.
"Even if they were to make a truly massive improvement over one of our designs, we still hold patents. The guild's taxes for an Exploration Familia producing consumer good on top of the cut we'd take would quickly dissuade the Hestia Familia from continuing down that path," Erlang Shen cheerfully waved off his Child's concerns.
What a ruthless god!
Hestia kind of respected that!
Also feared it a little, so it was a good thing that Ken didn't have any plans to supplant their patents!
Ken, uh, he didn't plan that, did he?
Hestia fought down the urge to nervously sweat,
"Wait, how do you know we're an Exploration Familia?" she wondered.
"I keep an eye on new Familias," the engineering god smiled. "It pays to keep up with potential customers and competition alike."
He hummed for a moment, lifting a hand to his chin, and staring at her in thought.
"Now what's this about clockwork machines specifically?" he asked the visiting goddess.
"Well," Hestia smiled brightly, "I don't know much about it, but he only really wants books on clockwork, and how to power stuff with crystals? Nothing about anything else, really."
Her fellow god squinted at her in interest and light confusion.
"He wants to build self-powered clocks?" he thought aloud. "Well, I suppose there's a market for it. That isn't really something we can patent too easily, considering that crystal-powered motion is entry-level enough that the moment one person releases that technology, countless copycats will appear. It's such a basic principle that it's almost worthless to even try to defend the copyright."
Sakura glanced at her god, "Erlang Shen?"
"Hm, well, it shouldn't hurt," the god smiled, "Anything developed would be different enough from our machines that it's harmless. Who knows, he might make something interesting with time! Well, if he can keep up with it for a few years, anyway. He's a novice at best if he's asking for introductory materials, right?"
Hestia considered the apparently absurd rate at which Ken learned.
Paying Hephaestus for a bow he didn't know how to use, then learning in a week, with the second week to polish up his skill, if Hestia's friend's complaints were to be believed.
Technology was a rapidly expanding field, but an individual's development rate could be said to be far slower. The hearth goddess didn't know too much about it, but there was a process to it that was kind of like Hephaestus's blacksmiths? Practice, design, creating, failure, then repeating it all. Iteration.
It would be absurd to say that Ken would be any faster at it than anyone else.
Nevertheless, Hestia was hesitant to bet against him now.
He'd known without a shadow of a doubt that he would rapidly learn archery. He was too much of a penny pincher to spend money on something that he wasn't sure he'd be able to use. Ken spent money on quality goods, yes, but only usable goods.
The interest in this specific field of technology was… well, it was too specific.
Hestia believed that Ken believed in himself.
She had yet to see him fail.
"So, let's talk price!" Hestia jovially declared.