I miss the music.
It would be difficult to explain to someone that hasn't been through a long situation where technology simply isn't an option. Half the time I'm singing in the Dungeon it's to shut up the neurons that are craving to fill the silence with music that I'd have been blasting all the time back home on Earth.
Sure, I could just flick them off, but doing that for every little old thing about the human condition that bothered me seemed like a fast track to becoming Stanton Parish 2.0, the original Hypercognitive, and man, fuck that guy.
It wasn't only the music, sure, but it's in the little things. My old kindle and mp3 player I'd stubbornly held onto solely because their battery life far exceeded my phone for their purpose of containing entire libraries worth of books and music, and my phone with movies and shows. My laptop and external hard drives with stocked up games for when I really wanted to kill a battery fast.
Just being able to kick back and laze around with entertainment whenever was… well, it was honestly kind of an addiction, but I miss that shit.
The monster hunting is nice though, and watching a bunch of teenagers turn into competent adventurers under my tutelage… oh, yeah. Feels good man.
You lose a little, you gain a little. The grass isn't greener, it's just a different shade of green.
Here I am all kitted up to go Dungeon-diving again, humming a little tune of an old, familiar song as I stride towards the entrance of the Guild. That's some of the nicer shades of green grass too. Looking good in medieval gear.
I've always appreciated the Guild's sense of design and layout. It's just solid. Not too fancy or ostentatious. Large, sure, and built with materials specifically chosen for their durability and ability to last, with some thought put into appeal, but nothing… too much.
You'd walk in and be impressed, but you wouldn't quite grasp just how much money flows through the Guild's hands. How many pies their fingers are in. They take a small but decent cut of everything, measure it out, and then put it to maximum usage.
Ouranos does some good fucking work, and he isn't going to have whatever plan he's cooking up get shit on by the greed of mortals.
A flash of pink hair distracts me from my thoughts, and I grin as I divert my course over to my favorite woman to bother (that's part of the Guild, anyway).
"Heyyy, Misha," I greet the short young woman, walking up to her with a wide grin.
"Oh no," Misha 'greets' me back. "What have you done? What do you want?"
"There's that famed Guild neutrality," I chuckle.
"Piss off, Crow, I know what you're about," she says, but closes her eyes for a moment, before opening them again with a smile. "Hello, Crow, how may I help you?"
I stare at her blankly for a moment.
"I ever tell you that I'm honestly impressed how quickly you're able to do that?" I ask her.
"It's one of the first things they teach us, sir!" she peppily responds.
"…Right. Service jobs are rough," I rub my beard in thought for a moment, before falling back on my reason for being here. "Anyway, I'm here to see Eina Tulle instead of you. One of my Familia told me she wanted to see me about something?"
'This isn't my problem.'
I can all but see the thought flash through her mind as here eyes light up slightly, before a mischievous expression flicks across her face.
"Well, that's wonderful news, Crow!" Misha giddily responds, clearly trying to bottle down glee. "I happen to know right where she is, and if she wanted to request a Familia Captain's time, then it would behoove me to facilitate your meeting as quickly as possible."
Behoove her? Facilitate my meeting?
Man, Eina, this girl's all too willing to throw you under the bus, isn't she?
I dutifully follow behind the much shorter woman, a sense of amusement filling me as I do so.
Misha quickly zeroing in on a brunette, green eyed half-elf. Eina stares at us in confusion as we approach her, and the younger of the two cheerfully waves at her as we reach her.
"Hi, Eina! This is Captain Crow! He's your problem now!"
Then Misha does an about face, and quickly walks away. The pair of us stare after her, both bemused, though for seemingly different reasons.
I turn to Eina with a grin.
"Hi, Eina! I'm Captain Crow! I'm your problem now!"
Eina, bless her soul, looks like she's trying to fight off a headache. Curious, that.
"These rooms are sealed to ensure silence and privacy," Eina begins, only for me to lift my hands.
"Yup, been there, done that," I agree, "Worked out a deal with Ganesha Familia a while back."
Eina blinks at that, before recognition flashes in her eyes.
"Ah, the incident with the tamed Jack Bird?" she asks me.
"Yup. The Jack Bird. The Jack Bird that I tamed. The tamed Jack Bird," I easily agree, and the half-elf's eyes narrow at me. "So anyway, you wanted to talk to me about Regal Team? The three Pallum, by the way, the name for the group is a recent development."
"Yes, I wished to," Eina begins, only to trail off after for a moment, "And Bell as well?"
"Bell as well?" I ask, brow scrunching slightly as I do so.
"The three Pallum and Bell?" she slowly asks, "All on… 'Regal Team'?"
I nod, "Yeah, they team up."
Eina gives me a hard look for a few moments, and I stare back, guileless, the very picture of innocent man. Innocent, tall, muscles, scruffy man. Pure innocence.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me about how your adventurers handle the Dungeon?" she asks, politely, and willing to drop it considering the Guild's neutrality. It's easy to see she really, really wants to know.
"Sure," I cheerfully grin, "See, I call it the Revolving Party System, or just the revolver system for short."
"Your Regal Team already told me about it," she politely interrupts me, "I was more curious about the training methodology and preparation for the Dungeon."
I deflate slightly at the first bit. Cowabummer. I immediately bounce back at the question about their training sessions!
"Oh, oh boy," I grin widely, "I sure don't mind telling you all about the training regimen I put them all through."
Eina gives me a warm smile, "Thank you, Captain Crow."
"No problem," I give her a smile in turn, before beginning my explanation. "So, I wake them up at five o'clock every morning for their pre-breakfast jog. They aren't fit at the start, so we only do a half mile."
Eina stares at me blankly, and I take that as polite permission for me to continue.
"Then breakfast, then the swordplay lessons. Then more jogging, half mile again. Push-ups, sit-ups, weightlifting after the run. Stamina potions? Best idea I ever had; Miach's skill is incredible," I smile, "We do the Magic Ritual in the morning too, and I stick a spell tome in their hands so they can learn Modius Temperance. Also, the knife throwing, can't forget that."
"Wait, hold on," Eina holds a hand up, blinking rapidly, "How much do you make them run?"
"A lot," I close my eyes and give a peaceful smile, "The mortal body can take a lot, and between sips of watered-down stamina potion, healing potion, and cramming them full of healthy foods, they adapted pretty fast. Unfortunate shortcut though, I'd rather their training be for two to three months without the blessing so that they get used to mortal limits and go into the Dungeon with a respect and reliance on Modius Temperance."
Eina stares at me, before asking, "You're going to change the training plan you put Hestia Familia recruits through?"
"Oh," I grin widely, "Oh boy, am I? Haha, I sure am! Do you know how much mortals are capable of without a divine blessing? A lot, Eina! I plan to drag every bit of potential I reasonably can from any candidates before Hestia will give them her gift."
Then I regale Eina with my tentative ideas I'm still workshopping.
I want at least three months for recruits to get trained. One month for the initial physical assessment and training, a second month for increasing the workload and polishing up skills, then a third month solely focused around building up Mind reserves and getting them used to using Modius Temperance as efficiently in combat as possible.
The marching would stay, of course, and she'd given me an odd look at that, though I'd merely shrugged it off.
There's a lot of stuff from my time in basic training that wasn't fucking necessary for a Familia. The uniforms, the tidiness, the cleanliness. It all served its purpose, but that purpose was for a massive military.
Marching was good for training people to do what they're told when told to do it.
Also, it looked nice.
So I rambled, gestured, and talked about future plans on how to turn my happy little Hestia candidates into happy little murder machines, all while Eina slowly stopped asking questions, simply allowing me to talk.
"He's a maniac," Eina whispered to her friend after the Hestia Captain had left.
"Eh," Misha shrugged, "You get used to it."
"No," Eina disagreed, staring blankly into the distance, "No, I'm not sure I will."
"Eh," Misha repeated, before moving to get back to work, "That sounds like your problem."Kindness and mercy aren't always virtuous.
It's a truth I know, but have trouble accepting sometimes. How can't I? Kindness is acting well towards others, and mercy is withholding the force you can bring down on others.
They're good, or at least they can be, but sometimes they're… less so.
Kindness can be an act. A treacherous lie to hide a rat's nature. Mercy may be withholding your force upon others, but sometimes they don't deserve mercy. Sometimes they deserve the consequences of their actions.
It happened with those assholes that attacked me, and every other piece of garbage that kills people for the shits and giggles. They yuck it up, have their fun, and then eventually they get run through by someone they fucked over hard enough, or when they ended up in over their head.
Yet, knowing that, I still felt it was worth an attempt.
Even if I really, really wanted to pick this asshole up by his ankles and slam him into the Dungeon walls. I could do it too, goddammit. Hell, even if it would have been rough, I could have managed it before Hestia's blessing, though it would have taken some doing.
Throwing that much dead weight around was more about leverage and the will to keep swinging, but I suspected that I would have found the drive to keep throwing him around.
"Wow, you sure are beating up a little girl!" I cheerfully greet the man.
Long black hair, sharp features, clear skin. The kind of guy that could easily be considered decently attractive, if his face weren't twisted up in rage.
Also, if he weren't beating up a little girl.
Deep in the Dungeon, people can get away with all sorts of shit. It's lawless. It's hell. Speaking of hell, there are some cultures in Gekai that genuinely believe this place to be a hell, with monsters being evil humans reborn in twisted forms.
"Stay out of my business," he spits at me, kicking the small brunette.
Honestly, in a twisted way, I can't argue with those beliefs. Some humans do come down here to be monsters, after all.
"I'll cave your fucking face in if you don't stop right now," I shift gears, tone suddenly flat, and he turns to glance at me with a small spark of worry that he quickly buries.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he blusters.
"I'm your bud, bud! We're all friends here, no need to be so uptight, man!" I grin widely, expression seemingly genuine as I wave a hand cheerfully in front of me. My left hand, specifically, while my right hand remains on my sheathed blade, where it has been since I walked up.
The young man stares at me, expression wary at my rapid shifts in tone and emotion. Good, always keep 'em guessing.
"She's been cheating me on money, and when I confronted her she threw monster bait to try and escape," he huffs.
I glance down at the brunette girl wearing white and red, painfully clambering up towards her back, glancing at both of us in fear.
"Sheesh, that's unfortunate," I let out a wry chuckle, "Confronting someone weaker than you in the Dungeon, where no one's around to see and the only escape routes are filled with monsters? Beating the shit out of her as your personal revenge? I can't see why she would feel the need to bury you in monsters to escape."
"She deserves what she gets," he spits, although the rage is gone. The edge has been replaced with a wariness.
I'm taller than him, better built than him, and my emotions are alllll over the place.
Much more threatening than a little girl.
How pathetic.
Hopefully not pathetic enough to need killing, though.
"You willing to stand by that?" I smile softly, raising my left hand open in a sign of ease, right hand still on my sword. "You willing to die by it?"
"It… won't come to that," he responds.
I hum in thought, considering him, before asking, "Because we won't fight?"
He stares at me, "I want her to give me my money back. I'm not going to let some piece of shit Supporter cheat me when it's my life on the line."
"My man's speaking some sense," I nod along, "You can have all the crystals, Drops, and valis I have on me."
His eyes widen for a moment, before narrowing.
"Is this a trick?" he asks, all twitchy-like.
"Nope. No tricks. I'm seven hours deep into my grind, and it's been a lucky day," I smile, "See, my stamina's real good, y'know? All those monsters, all those Drops, and I'm still fresh as a daisy. Ah, well, I say no tricks, but I've actually got more Drops than crystals."
"What?" he whispers in disbelief.
"On account of me going for the crystals more often than not, mind you," I tilt my head consideringly, "Part of why I'm so fresh. See, I just like fighting, more than the money. More monsters means more chance of Drops. So, you'll take the deal?"
It is, of course, partially bullshit.
Not the part about the crystals, or even that I'm lucky, but how long I've been down here.
Three hours. Three hours and I've got a pretty good number of Drops, noticeably more than I'd received before gaining the Luck Development Ability. Nothing crazy, but enough that I knew it was going to be a headache to worry about all the Drops once I properly unlocked the Ability and started leveling it up.
Thing is I don't want this prick to question too hard the number of Drops I've got, and some adventurers do have lucky days.
He visibly crunches the numbers, before deciding that profit and lack of a fight are better than the risk of a fight and getting his jollies off beating his old Supporter. He frowns and grumbles, "…show me what you have."
I reach down to my coin purse and toss it to him, then my small bag of crystals. Then I shrug off my backpack, carefully moving so that I visibly have a hand on my sword at all times, his eyes carefully watching me, and I toss my backpack.
He peeks at the crystals and grimaces, looks a little more positively at my coin purse, and when he makes his way to the backpack, his eyes widen.
"You had a really good day, huh?" he asks, partially stunned.
"They hit every now and then, and I really can't undersell just how many more monsters you can go through when you're aiming for the crystals most of the time," I cheerfully respond, before deciding to remind him what the stakes are. "Still good for a few more fights today though."
"This doesn't make up for all my losses," he mutters, staring into the bag, thus not noticing my hand tighten around the hilt of my sword. "But it makes up a big difference. Better to cut my losses now that they're smaller."
"Glad to hear it! Pleasure doing business with you!"
Paying you to get the fuck out of my space and stop breathing my goddamn air is worth every vali lost.
What follows is a terse little walk where we each go around each other, a wide berth of space between us, each eyeing the other down, before he eventually breaks away into a light jog towards the Dungeon's exit.
"Here's a potion," I sigh after he left, "It isn't particularly strong, but it's more than enough for bruises and any possible fractures, should you have any."
The girl hesitantly takes it, chugs it, and breathes a sigh of relief.
Then her expression deadens a bit, and she spreads her legs, reveling her panty-clad crotch to me.
"Thank you for saving me, Mr. Adventurer," she mumbles in a hollow tone, "Lili is ready for you to take your prize."
Gods… just...
Fucking damn it all.
Is it really that wrong that I just want to kill shit in the Dungeon?
LastSeduce him."
The young girl sitting before me with her legs spread open (giving me an admittedly nice view) stares blankly in response.
"Lili does not… understand?" she mutters.
"Oh, wow, you don't understand. Well, let me walk you through it, then," I shake my head, sighing.
I gesture out to the stone walls surrounding us, at any moment ready to birth monsters with the sole life purpose of transforming us from people into paste.
"Welcome to the Dungeon, it doesn't like you very much," I cheerfully begin.
"Lili is aware," the girl huffs, legs still spread.
Touchy, touchy~
Careful there, that carefully manufactured mask is starting to slip, and your womanly allure right with it. All that effort to appeal to my ravenous libido is going to waste!
"Lili doesn't seem to think too highly of me to think that I'd forget it so easily," I retort, "Don't get me wrong, the view is great. White panties? Good choice, always gotta appreciate the classics, and they hug your figure real nice like."
Lili's legs slam shut, and she glares at me.
"Woah now, no need for that!" I grin, "That's a pretty unfriendly look for something you chose to do entirely on your own. Now, where was I?"
"Lili believes you were rambling, much as you did with Ged," she grumbles.
"Right, right, so your situational awareness is about on par with his," I smirk, and ignore the resulting glare, "So, lets break this down; you're getting the shit beat out of you because you scammed some chucklefuck and a guy shows up. Yeah?"
Lili simply stares at me with an unimpressed look instead of responding. So cold!
"Real weirdo, mood's up and down, all over the place. Hand never leaves his weapon, and he doesn't mind sacrificing three hours of pay to save your ass from a situation you landed your own damn self into, and you thought, what? 'I'll seduce him.' That struck you as a good idea, that I was potentially unstable and stupid enough to forget this hell pit wants us all dead?"
"…you told Ged it was seven hours of work," Lili slowly replies.
"I sure did, and you both believed me," I idly reply, "How much did you two agree you'd work for?"
Lili stares at me for a moment before answering, "Lili agreed to take five percent."
"Mhmmm," I give her a bland smile, "How much did you actually take?"
"…thirty percent," she grudgingly answers.
"So, if I offered forty percent, would the extra ten percent be enough to keep your mouth shut about any oddities you happen to notice?" I ask her, keeping up the same, uninvested smile.
Lili considers that, visibly crunching the numbers and the new information she's gained compared to what she'd previously thought. Judging by the ever so slight grimace on her face, she's coming to the conclusion she'd really rather not.
Seems Lili doesn't want to enter a contract where the other person already knows she's a shitter, thus on guard, but the pay is just too enticing.
How odd. Almost like she's used to fucking other people over or something.
"Looks like someone's in need of money," I give her a knowing wink, and her grimace deepens.
"Lili's funds of are no importance," she replies, and she glares at the wide grin I give her. "Forty percent is… fine."
"It's better than fine, and you know you won't find a better deal with anyone else," I reply, tone so goddamn honeyed it almost makes me sick. Almost.
The look on Lili's face makes it worth it, as I let her know that I know that she's full of shit.
"Lili finds your terms to be acceptable," she slowly replies, "Lili will perform all Supporter duties and keep quiet of anything out of the ordinary, in turn for forty percent of all profits."
Thank fuck.
It was getting annoying carrying all my shit, when it was filling up that fast. I'll still carry my bag and some essentials like food and potions, but the Drops were getting to be a bit much. Increasing the rate at which I kill monsters, or, Hestia forbid, actually unlocking Luck like she wants me to do? Too much.
Lili was, funnily enough, a real stroke of luck to find.
She knows her shit, knows when a good deal falls in front of her, and most importantly, as long as I don't make the situation actively hostile for her, she knows to not let a good thing go.
Forty percent of an adventurer's pay is some good shit.
Forty percent of my pay is a different ballpark, even if not to the degree of a high Level adventurer.
I want to tell her that I've got her back. That as long as she has mine, I'd help her out with anything she needs. That I'll pay everything she deals me back to her, both good and bad.
But Liliruca Arde is a hot fucking mess of neurotic issues, however understandable they are, so I don't say anything I want to.
Instead, I'll have a grand old time being a low-consequences dick until she gets over her shit.
"I'm glad that Lili finds my terms to be 'acceptable'," I let out a very obviously fake breath of relief, "She really had me by the balls. I was worried she was going to take me up to fifty percent."
She huffs as she stands up, shouldering her massive backpack, and frowns up at me.
"Lili thinks you're more trouble than you're worth," she grumbles, "Also, the 'reward' is no longer available."
"Uh-huh," I easily reply, "Tell you what, next time you decide to 'reward' me, make sure you have better weaponry than two daggers to knife me in the back with."
Lili blinks at me in shock, and I meet the expression with a flat stare in response.
That's right, you little shit, I know what you're about.
"Now then, name's Ken. Ken Crow. I kill monsters for a living because I think it's really fun. Here's to a long and prosperous working relationship where neither of us are forced to fuck the other over," I greet myself.
My brand new Supporter squints at me for a moment, before taking the olive branch offered.
"Liliruca Arde. Supporter. Charmed," is her simple reply, before she moves to fall behind me.
I snort, "I'm sure you are. Now lets get this show on the road."
The next few hours are pretty nice, being able to focus solely on monster hunting without having to worry about carrying all the Drops.
The expression of mild pain from Lili when I'm true to my word of smashing monster crystals is sweet.
It isn't quite as sweet as her struggling to hold down her disbelief at the rate of Drops I'm getting in turn, and the realization that I'm good for both my word and my money.
This is gonna be fun, I can just tell.
Lili
He wouldn't stop humming.
The adventurer, Ken Crow, continued to hum throughout the rest of their trip through the Dungeon. Nearly the entire time, in fact. At first it had been annoying, the sound of it ill at odds with the ever-present danger the living pit posed to them.
It hadn't ever stopped being annoying, but Lili had eventually grown disquieted at the fact that the only time he bothered to take a break was during thrusts of his blade that required enough force that humming simply wasn't feasible on a physical level.
He would stop, take a breath, thrust into the monster's crystal, adjust himself, then immediately begin again.
He didn't slow down. He didn't stop. That alone was unnatural, but surely the humming would have more quickly pushed him to even mild tiredness.
Lili knew what adventurers were capable of, how long they could fight. Even with the improvements derived from divine blessing, they were still mortal.
More than mortal? Perhaps, but mortal nevertheless.
Some races were more adept at skill, others more physically capable by birth, but they all had roughly similar failings. They all needed to rest, drink, and relax. Not simply from physical exhaustion, but mental exhaustion, as the stress of life and death fights accrued atop them until they weren't paying attention through no fault of their own.
That was when the monster bait was best dropped to make a quick escape.
Lili's eyes tightened as the thought flicked through her mind.
Yet, Ken Crow didn't seem to require any of it. He didn't slow down, take a meal break the entire time, unless Lili were to count a single mouthful of dried meat, berries, and a swig of water to qualify as a meal, which Lili did not.
He kept humming, which should have burned through his stamina more quickly with the jogging pace he insisted on keeping up, even as he kept firing his bow without stopping. Another oddity that even elves Lili had supported weren't regularly capable of.
He was an abnormality of a kind Lili understood just enough to know she couldn't properly understand.
An alchemist's experiment? The child of man and monster? Perhaps a war god that pushed his divinity down even further to seem completely mortal?
No, he couldn't be the last, as even the stamina of gods wasn't exhaustless in their physical forms, unless they used their divine powers.
"Aha, Mister Ken's pretty amazing at fighting, Lili thinks," she had said, ready to attempt fishing for information on what was going on with him.
"I know exactly how amazing I am," he had replied, fully turning to her with a knowing grin.
'And you don't,' his eyes seemed say, glittering in amusement.
Then, without breaking eye contact, he raised a hand to grab a knife from his bandolier of them and whipped it down the length of the Dungeon hall, nailing a Bad Bat in its crystal.
Lili quietly stared as a Bad Tooth fell to the ground.
She hated this so much, just more nonsense to the pile. An adventurer that destroys crystals? Madness, there was no profit to be made from Drops alone.
Unless, of course, you could reliably gather more Drops.
You couldn't game chance, as even simply adding more monsters to your kill tally meant that while more Drops would be gained, more effort would be expended, and more damage would be gained to your weapons.
Ken might have endless stamina and go straight for the crystals to reduce wear and tear of his equipment, but there was a breaking point where that failed. Where you simply had to accept that you weren't making enough money with the quantity of Drops you were getting and went back to the tried-and-true method that everyone had done for a thousand years because nothing else worked.
"So, if I offered forty percent, would the extra ten percent be enough to keep your mouth shut about any oddities you happen to notice?"
He was getting too many Drops. Too, too many.
It wasn't the highest rate she'd ever seen, with adventurers occasionally getting lucky in fits and bursts, but it was consistent.
Drop rates were never consistent.
She'd planned to leave him. To take the agreed upon forty percent of the pay, slip away for the night, and never use this form with Cinder Ella again. Ged and Ken both knew this form of Lili, and both knew that she was a treacherous Supporter. Nothing, Lili had thought, would be worth working with someone that knew who she really was.
Then again, Lili hadn't really believed Ken when he'd said that three hours of work had provided regular enough Drops to match a normal adventurer's full day of work. She hadn't believed his work schedule either, sure that it was just regular, cocksure adventurer arrogance.
Seeing truly was believing, and Lili was desperately working to convince herself to leave, to just leave and go back to the slow grind where whatever adventurer she could sucker didn't know she was anything other than a child, and she could skim her thirty percent.
Instead of forty percent of Ken Crow's paycheck, to just keep quiet about his absurd nonsense that nobody would believe otherwise. To keep working with someone that she wouldn't… that she wouldn't use monster bait on at the end.
The Supporter was failing at convincing herself to follow through with what she truly knew was common sense, and she hated it.
"Oh, yeah, and it is Hephaestus make," Ken commented as he turned to walk down the now completely cleared hall.
Lili felt a chill go down her spine at the comment.
"Lili… isn't sure why you're bringing that up?" she offered, a wobbly smile.
"I just noticed you saw her mark a little while ago," he idly continued, beginning to walk towards the Bat down the hall.
A cold sweat quickly accompanied the chill she felt, along with an uncomfortable difficulty in breathing from panic.
She held no illusions about what she did, and likewise knew she was a professional at scoping marks. She never analyzed them when they could clearly see her, instead watched them when they were attacking monsters.
His eyes had been trained on a monster a direction away from her when she'd noticed Hephaestus' own personal mark on his bow.
"Aha, well, it's a nice bow," she admitted, cringing in her soul at the understatement towards the weapon of literally divine make, "But Lili thought you couldn't see her from back here?"
"Your gait changed a bit; you turned a bit with your head to look at her mark, and you sped up a bit noticing it," he smiled, as though saying something he knew she wouldn't believe, but she did.
What was awareness of his surroundings to that degree at Level One when he effectively had the stamina of a much higher adventurer and Drop rates second to no one.
He could probably kill a minotaur, in fact, which was on par with a… Level Two adventurer.
"Ah, Mister Ken," Lili hesitantly asked, "Have you fought a minotaur before?"
"Sure, killed a ton with arrows and Thiurdos back on the Loki expedition," he easily answered, before grumbling, "Before the expedition got called early."
He paused for a moment, "Also killed some ligerfangs too, when I was traveling with Prana and… Hashana."
Lili recognized his tone when speaking the second person's name. Another adventurer lost to the depths of the Dungeon.
The thought quickly faded in favor of information more relevant to her.
Ken Crow was a Level One adventurer that had killed multiple minotaurs and ligerfangs, and, apparently, had gone on an expedition with the Loki Familia.
"Lili wasn't aware the Loki Familia accepted payment to travel with them on expeditions," she muttered, as Lili had heard other Pallum mention that their Captain was a glory-hound with his head buried so far up his ass he could see out his eyes a second time.
"They don't. Riveria hired me as her Supporter for the trip, and I helped with some, ah, unexpected surprises," he grunted in annoyance at the end, leading her to suspect that that had something to do with why the expedition had been called off.
Lili boggled at it though, worried that while one part of her vehemently rejected it as incredibly improbable, while the rest had spent the day quickly coming to understand why the elven princess would feel that was a reasonable course of action.
"Hey, that makes us Supporter buddies," Ken brightly declared, as though he weren't a walking implement of murder pretending to be human.
As though he couldn't regularly kill monsters that fresh Level Twos struggled with.
Was he strong enough to kill Zanis?
Lili's pupils dilated at the thought as she fell into step behind her new boss.
The new thought rolled in her head and was washing everything else away. All the worries of him knowing who she was, all the worries of this seeming too good to be true.
He was this strong at Level One. So, if he leveled… then he would be…
He'd be her friend. She'd be his best friend. Lili would do anything, anything to gain his loyalty.
Zanis said she could leave in trade for a million valis, but if he went back on his word…
"We sure are!" Lili brightly answered back, "Best buds!"
Ken side-eyed her oddly, before awkwardly shifting his gaze back to the Bad Bat drop.
That was fine, as Lili had made her mind up, eyes glimmering in the Dark of the Dungeon.
She'd be free through money Ken gave her, or the violence he found as easy as breathing.