The gravel was covered over with hundreds of 10cm thick Pooli Stone slabs, an incredibly durable stone that was often mined with the region's marble deposits. With Tanya's Mage blade, they were able to quickly and efficiently carve out the slabs to get an exact fit with just enough room for thermal expansion and contraction.
The stonemasons from both familias guaranteed their work for at least 25 years, and when offered to extend that warranty out to 50 years for a mere five million valis, Tanya accepted it.
She didn't know how durable Pooli was when compared to the punishment that the Level 4's and above would lay onto it, but she figured it a pretty good deal since each slab was rather expensive by itself; if they ended up having 30 of the hundreds of slabs replaced, then the warranty would pay for itself.
The entire pad was covered by a simple but effective wood and tar roof, leaving it open air on all sides.
Tanya grinned and strode towards the open window and just as she was about to take off Loki stood up. "Oi, Tanya-chan, take me down there with you. I want to see what my beautiful money paid for, and since you kept me cooped up in the office for so long I haven't even had time to watch the construction!"
The diminutive blonde quirked her lips but she wrapped the Goddess' arm over her shoulder and grabbed firmly onto the waistband of her booty shorts. Tanya activated her flight formula and carried them out of the window and across the front lawn towards the side entrance where all of the wagons came into the compound.
When they touched down the Goddess spent a few moments getting the wedgie their short flight had caused out before she strode over towards the Goddess of the Forge. "Yo! Hephi-chan! It's good to see you again!"
Hephaestus was currently facing away from Tanya, and she got an eyeful of the Goddess' perfect posterior clad in those leather pants. How sinful!
When she turned around she caught Tanya's gaze and gave her a quirked smile. The diminutive teen flushed at being caught and bit the inside of her cheek to regain her focus.
There were over a dozen wagons in the train, some were covered others were not. The uncovered wagons had what appeared to be a dozen two-meter long railroad rails that had holes bored into them at 250cm intervals, along with thick planks of wood, rail ties, and other various bits and bobs of hardware. Another wagon, this one a double-wide, held what looked to be a fantasy-esque Smith Machine. The very last wagon looked to be carrying some sort of mobile forge.
Tanya couldn't help but grin.
They'd done it!
She'd only had a small amount of time during her Drop Item drop-offs to speak with Hephaestus, Tsubaki, and her grizzled team of smith-gineers, and during that time she dropped off onto them a variety of different workout equipment that they could possibly forge. While she had expected them to come out with them eventually, she didn't expect that they'd be done so soon!
"Woo! Look at all of this stuff! I don't even know what any of this is, but it sure looks impressive, Hephi-chan!" The Goddess of Trickery whooped as the wagons rolled past them and towards where the new High-Ranker training pavilion was constructed.
Tanya blinked as she caught sight of two figures out in the distance, and she reinforced her eyes to spot Bete and Tsubaki each carrying a set of dumbbells; and boy were they struggling. The wolf looked like his eyes were about to explode out of his face, but despite the discomfort, he had a savage grin on his face. Tsubaki looked less pleased, but her expression was determined as she made sure to match the werewolf step for step. "Looks like Loga-san and Tsubaki-dono are coming."
"Huh? Where? I was wondering where that boy was this morning!" The Goddess looked around until she looked over to where Tanya pointed.
Hephaestus crossed her arms underneath her breasts and smiled. "Those weights were far too heavy for any of our carts to handle the strain, so those two had to carry them alllll the way from the forge where we made them."
The Goddess of Trickery's jaw dropped before she started hooting and hollering. "Come on, Bete-kun! Don't let that blacksmith bunny beat you! Raah! Raah! You can do it!"
Much to Tanya's amusement, the werewolf began to pick up his pace to a trot, his lungs heaving with exertion as he pulled ahead. Not one to be outdone, the half-dwarf showed off the natural strength of her race and began huffing and puffing alongside him. The two just barely managed to make it to the gate before they lowered the weights onto the ground and collapsed onto their hands and knees.
"Yeesh, talk about heavy! If that little walk was enough to tire out Bete-kun here..." The Goddess chuckled and walked over to one of the weights and grabbed onto the thick handle and tried to budge it, but the slab of Damascus didn't even register her attempt.
"Both of those dumbbells, as Tanya calls them, are two tons each." The Goddess of the Forge snickered as she watched Loki struggle.
"Feh, if I didn't have my divinity sealed I could juggle this stupid thing..." The Goddess of Deceit grumbled.
Two of the Level 1's that had been watching the procession of wagons rushed up and offered Bete and Tsubaki a full waterskin, which they took; Tsubaki was a bit more gracious, giving the blushing young dwarf teen a cheeky smile while the werewolf damn near tore the cork out of the skin with his teeth- only offering the werewolf girl a grunt.
She seemed happy regardless.
"The heavier plates and equipment are going to need to be lifted by your Level 6's, Loki, so whenever they get back, if they can stop by then they can pick them up at their leisure."
Loki grunted. "So how much is all of this costing me? The equipment for the Level 1's and 2's cost me 10 Million valis, and I just spent 400 Million valis on the pavilion all this stuff is going. I could have bought four bottles of Soma's Top-Shelf with that much money!"
The Goddess of the Forge hummed. "Well, with the generous discount we gave Tanya-chan here, 350 Million valis is the cost."
"Guh! That's like, my wine budget for the quarter! How am I supposed to drink if I don't have any money!" The Goddess hunched over as if she'd been punched in the stomach, and stumbled over to grab Tanya by her shoulders. "Why!? Why did you have to come along, Tanya-chan!? I took you in, and all you've done to repay me is make me do even more paperwork and spend my money!"
A chortle escaped Tanya's throat. "Well, this will all be worth it, Loki-sama. That I can assure you. You saw what I can do with the Hard Stucks, let me show you the same results with your High-Rankers."
The Goddess' lips performed their best duck impersonation, but she eventually relented with a sigh. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeee. Be that way. As long as my kiddies get all big and strong, then I guess it's worth it. It's not like I can't get drunk off of regular wine, right?"
"Indeed, I'm glad that you understand." Tanya grinned.
"What?! No! This is the part where you reassure me that normal wine is completely unfit for a Goddess as grand as me and that you'll get me lots of money to buy the good stuff!"
"Well, it's not like familia will be eating the entire cost, Loki-sama. Everyone who is going to use the equipment will have to pitch in; I've already paid for the equipment the Low Rankers are using, so we're fine on that front all we'll need to do is... get Finn and the rest back so that we can train." Tanya patted Loki on the shoulder, "Just imagine how much easier the paperwork will be once they come back!"
The Goddess' frown deepened. "I like it when things get easier for me, Tanya-chan, not just for everyone else. I mean, I like it, but I don't like it... as much."
"Well, unfortunately, Loki-sama, compromise is a part of the mortal experience. I do hope that you'll enjoy your vacation here on the Lower World." Tanya's smile was Premium Plastic.
Hephaestus rested a hand on her hip, her sole visible eyebrow quirked in amusement. "Well then, I will meet with the stonemasons and we'll finish getting this all set up, Tanya-chan. I trust that you'll still be heading into the Dungeon in a few hours?"
The diminutive former-Colonel turned to the Goddess of the Forge and bowed. "Of course, I will make sure to leave everything with Crozzo-san as always."
The War Shadow shrieked in anger as Blutscher removed its clawed hands. The beast tried to retreat into the shadows, but the Mage Blade extended to its maximum length of 2.5 meters and sheared its head from its shoulders. Tanya looked around at the three dozen monster corpses surrounding her, and a smile broke out over her face as she moved around and began harvesting the drop items. She used a small knife to cut the Kobold Claws off from the hands, yanked out every one of the Goblins Fangs, and collected the War Shadow Claws.
Her sack for the 5th and 6th floors were quite full, and she decided that it was about time to clear out the 8th and 9th floors.
She made sure to stop by the Monster Pantry on the 7th to "refresh" her monster bait, soaking the sock in nectar, before taking the opportunity to collect the Purple Moth Wings; Miach-sama would appreciate these- while she wasn't officially on the quest for the wings, she didn't really take it as once she "succeeded" then he would be forced to pay out the quest reward.
The familias that knew of the Medicine God's kind disposition had all banded together to fulfill his requests without actually turning in the request. It was actually very nice to see that even in this environment some Divines could find ways to be charitable without activating the God's "Instant Refusal" reflex for someone showing him kindness.
Truth be told, if he had been Tanya's God, she would have chained him to the table to make potions while she took over the business side; if he doesn't leave the familia house, then he can't give away potions for free!
She usually waited until she had a nice big sack full of materials for him before dropping them off with Nazza, who had no problem low-balling the piss out of Tanya; not that she minded.
After that Tanya began her hunt, clearing out the 8th Floor before moving on to the 9th. The bait performed beautifully, and all Tanya had to do was fly just out of jumping range of the beasts near the ceiling and a huge murder-ball would form, and then it was simple enough to just leap down in the middle of them and cut them down to size with Blutscher.
"And that's 47," Tanya murmured to herself as she spun on her heel, interposing the spear-stave in between herself and the next leaping monster; the Kobold impaled itself through the belly before its downward momentum sheered its upper body in half. "48."
A Goblin tried to close the gap, but with the four blade-catcher spines- manipulated with a quick twitch of her hands- pierced the side of the monster's head. She pulled the spine free and rotated on the ball of her foot to cleave two leaping Kobolds with a single strike; the Mage Blade took one beast's head off of its shoulders while the other flopped onto the ground missing the top of its head. Three more Goblins tried the same, but with a simple flourish that Finn taught her, they fell to the Dungeon floor in pieces. "53."
"Not bad at all, Tanya-dono. I'm happy to see that some of my lessons are being put to good use."
Tanya immediately recognized the voice and she had to spin her body around completely because the large Supporter backpack blocked her vision.
There stood Finn, Riveria, Tiona, Tione, Leyfia, and over a dozen supporters from the Loki familia; everyone's packs were bulging.
She allowed herself a small smile before she bowed slightly. "Everyone, I'm glad to see that you're all safe and-"
She caught sight of Aiz.
The girl looked like she'd been through hell, and her clothing looked even worse; the chest of her battle dress had been torn, showing all but her nipple to the world! Tanya twitched and found a spot free from monster remains to put her pack down before she started rummaging around in it to produce a plain white t-shirt fashioned out of plain linen. She held it out to the Sword Princess and cleared her throat.
Aiz stared at it for a moment before recognition dawned on her. "Ah. For me?"
"Yes, for you. While wardrobe... malfunctions are something that every woman will experience in her career, I do believe that one should at least be prepared for such an eventuality; you shouldn't be giving every fool on the street a free show, Aiz-san."
The girl raised her right hand to her exposed breast and felt it. Slowly, over the course of a ten-second period a deep, red blush started to form over her cheeks. "I... didn't know. Thank you, Tanya-san."
The girl stepped forward mechanically and took the shirt before moving off to one of the unoccupied side tunnels. The male supporters looked at Tanya like she'd murdered their dreams in front of them. She arched an eyebrow in response and they at least had the decency to appear sheepish.
With that handled Tanya opened up her pack and began harvesting the multitude of drops; she did have to wave away the Supporters to stop them from helping- those guys and gals were trained to remove the stone as fast as possible, which was the exact opposite of what Tanya wanted.
Besides, Tanya needed to be the one to cut them out with her Mage Blade.
"That was quite a Monster Party you had gathered up, Tanya-dono." Finn made conversation as she swiftly moved from corpse to corpse, efficiently dismantling the monsters. "In my experience, one would have to run the entire floor to get that many to follow them."
"Well, I am using Nectar from the 7th Floor as bait, the white pouch tied to the strap of my pack? That has some cloth that I dipped and then wrapped up; it really gets the monsters down here going." Kobold claws, Kobold stone, Goblin Fangs, Goblin stone. Next group of corpses.
The Pallum man arched an eyebrow and walked over to her pouch to examine it, which was fine in Tanya's opinion. It was until he unwrapped it he coughed. "Tanya-dono, may I ask where you found this sock?"
Tanya looked over her shoulder to see the man holding the nectar-soaked garment in between his pointer finger and thumb. She blinked. "Ah, that? I found it in the middle of the hallway on the lower floors of the Manor. I figured if someone was just going to leave such a thing lying around as refuse to be stepped on, then it would be fine to use for this purpose."
"Ah! That's my lucky sock! I had wondered where it went!"
Tanya's neck snapped towards Tione who was now hiding her face behind her hands at her slip. She... doesn't even wear shoes.
"No, this is actually one of my socks." The Pallum man sighed and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I had wondered where the mate to my sock went and it was..."
Tanya felt her lip curl downwards as she fixed the Amazon with a glare. "I'd heard of panty-thieves, but never have I heard of sock-thieves... how despicable."
The Pallum man cleared his throat and shook his head as he wrapped the sock back up and put it in her pouch again. His eyes were firmly fixed on the Supporters who couldn't decide if they should gawp at Finn or Tione. "Now, now, Tanya-dono, I think that we can just forget that his whole conversation ever took place, yes?"
Tanya shrugged and returned to her task. "What conversation? All you asked about was what I used to gather so many monsters, and I informed you I was using Nectar from the Monster Pantry. No big deal."
Let it never be said that Tanya couldn't take a hint.
Tiona was just clutching her sides while trying not to laugh at her sister's misfortune.
Aiz and Riveria returned just as Tanya finished up reorganizing her pack; the teen was wearing the shirt over her dress but underneath her armor- the bottom of the shirt tucked underneath her sword belt.
Good. Now Loki would hopefully be less inclined to try and molest her upon their return- the Goddess had been lamenting all week about her "Aiz-tan Withdrawals".
"Well, I do believe that this concludes my hunt for the evening," Tanya said as she hefted her pack up onto her shoulders. "Shall we all walk out together?"
Tanya walked back to the surface, which was quite a novel experience considering she was so used to flying everywhere. During the trip, she went over the happenings around the familia, informed Riveria, and Finn about their new "helpers". She told them that she wrote down a comprehensive list of small changes she'd made up until she'd left for her current Dungeon run, so he would be able to read over the complete list at his leisure.
The man hummed and nodded. While he didn't seem too enthusiastic about some of the changes, the fact that they had been signed off on by Loki and Gareth smoothed everything over- not to mention the fact that he was too pragmatic to turn down increases in efficiency, and thus his free time.
Some of that free time would be dedicated to training with Tanya. The former Colonel took great pleasure in projecting an illusion of the completed High-Ranker training area; he was honestly surprised at just how much Tanya was able to get accomplished while still performing all of her other duties. "Time management is the key, as well as ensuring that you have competent subordinates. The Level 4's wanted to help, so I merely found a way for them to contribute to the familia that only required a few days of training and minimal active oversight. They cut down on the day-to-day minutiae when it comes to paperwork, which allows the Executives the opportunity to focus on what matters."
"Now, feel free to overrule me on this, Finn-dono, but I feel like the Level 5's in our familia have been able to skate by without doing their fair share of the work. I've already put together a plan to get them more involved in the paperwork of the familia; now that we have training facilities capable of stressing a Level 6, I think that this will be a boon for yourself, Riveria-dono, and Gareth-dono."
The small Pallum man had a determined look about him as they walked. "Normally I would have been distressed with the number of changes you've made in our absence; such changes are usually held by a vote between Loki and the Executives. I can see that you're used to a military-like structure where the orders from the top are disseminated down to the bottom. We don't function like that, we typically exhibit a more democratic system, with emergencies being the only time we do without such things."
Tanya felt her spine straighten up. Of course, she too would be displeased if a subordinate came in and changed the way she did things. Granted, she would first see if the new system was indeed better before making a decision. "In my defense, we were left with only Gareth-dono, myself, and Loga-san to run the entirety of the apparatus while you were gone, Finn-dono. We had to make do with training our subordinates to pick up the slack."
The Executive hummed but shook his head. "No, I didn't mean for that to sound negative, Tanya-dono. You certainly handled yourself and the familia quite well in our absence. Truthfully, we didn't expect to be down there for so long, but we ran into some unforeseen complications that necessitated we stay down here for longer than we anticipated. I won't speak more on it here, but I will say that it was far more than just being hungry for monster cores and loot."
Finn sighed and crossed his arms underneath his chest before he tilted his upper body just so to let a Goblin sail over his shoulder; the Goblin was... painfully dispatched by Tione who just couldn't help but murder the monster slowly for daring to interrupt 'her Finn-sama while he was talking!'
"If anything, I say you've done quite well. Riveria-dono and I got quite a wake-up call while we were down there." The man looked down at his hand- his thumb in particular. "If these changes can get us more time to train while not sacrificing the quality or efficiency of our operations, then I would say that we are all in your debt."
Tanya nodded in response. "Thank you, Finn-dono. I would give it two weeks, bare minimum, to let everyone get into the swing of things, but I think you will be pleased with the level of dedication and care the Level 4's are putting into making this work; they want to see all of you succeed. All that we'll have to do is figure out where to slot our Level 5's into this."
"H-hey, Tanya-chi... you... aren't suggesting that I do paperwork, right?" The younger of the Hiryute twins nervously chuckled. "Tanya-ch... no, Tanya-sama, you wouldn't do that to us, right? Right?"
The entire party got in a few good laughs at Tiona's expense, but that laughter died down when they rounded a corner and caught sight of a body lying down in the middle of a four-way intersection. The person was surrounded by slowly approaching Goblins, and Tanya fired off a half-dozen refracted beams to dispatch them. They were on the 4th Floor, in Tanya's opinion they weren't even bothering with resource-wise.
As they approached more closely Tanya couldn't help the groan that escaped her lips as the figure revealed itself to be one Bell Cranel. Riveria strode forward and ran a quick diagnostic spell on him before she turned to look at the group. "He's fine, physically. He's suffering from Mind Down."
Huh, did Cranel have a spell or a skill that utilized Mind?
Tanya sighed. "Who works themself to exhaustion like this in the middle of the Dungeon?"
The former Colonel bent over and picked the boy up by his chest plate before tossing his unconscious body over the top of her pack. He shifted her center of gravity a little bit, but she compensated that by tapping into her Flight formula. No, while she was at it, she might as well go on ahead and find out where this dunderhead lived.
"I'll drop off my haul at Hephaestus-sama's and then drop by the Guild to see where this fool boy lives."
Riveria quirked her lips and tittered behind her hand. "Are you sure? Maybe you could wait here until he awakens? Maybe give him a lap pillow? I've heard that boys like such things."
A snort escaped her lips. "I've met this boy three times now, Riveria-dono, and on all three occasions, I've done everything in my power to make this boy understand that I am simply not interested in being his paramour. Doing as you suggested would send him mixed messages, so I will have to take your 100 valis Romance Novella advice and discard it."
There was a slight, almost disappointed frown on the woman's face, but it appeared that she remembered their discussion a few weeks earlier. The elf swept back to her feet and coughed into her hand. "Very well, Tanya-dono. We will meet with you back at the Twilight Manor."
Tanya nodded and took off into the air, not noticing that Aiz was looking very intently at the boy.
"Uh... so... whose the guy?" Welf Crozzo couldn't help but crack a grin, "I didn't expect you of all people to knock cute boys unconscious in the Dungeon. This a personal conquest sort of thing?"
Tanya gave the taller man a flat stare as she gently deposited the boy onto the chair outside of the cage before moving inside to drop her pack. "I will say this only once. I am not interested in men."
A small, teasing smile wormed its way on her face. "If anything, Tsubaki-san is more my speed."
"Hey, woah now. I get it, I get it. I was just joking around." The man grumbled playfully as they began transferring Tanya's drop items and cores into the large sacks.
They worked for about twenty minutes in silence before the man presented her with an absolutely massive bag of monster cores; the thing barely fit in her pack. "Here, these are the cores you wanted me to hold onto, Tanya-san. I would hold onto them some more, but Hephaestus-sama is leery with having what is essentially Millions of valis on her premises that don't belong to the familia. It's not just because we need the room here with all of the drops you're bringing in."
Tanya sighed as she looked over at the still unconscious boy she'd have to carry. "I don't suppose I could convince you to hold onto this for one more night?"
The man smirked at her and rubbed his nose. "Nope. My Goddess wants this bag gone; she has no problem holding onto the cores until that light fades and the drop items are secured, but until she gets one of the warehouses cleaned up we're tight on space; I had to give up my room here and sleep in the community housing with all of the stuff you're bringing in!"
A slight chuckle escaped her lips as she gave the man a shallow bow. "Well then, I'm thankful for your sacrifice, Crozzo-san."
He shook his head and handed Tanya the receipt. "Yeah, yeah, 489,550 valis. Here."
The young woman smiled and slipped the receipt into a pocket. Not bad for not having any Minotaurs!
Just as she was about to pull her pack on the man stopped her. "Hey, Tanya-san?"
She blinked. "Yes?"
The man worked his jaw a little bit, "Listen, Hephaestus-sama thinks it's time for me to head deeper into the Dungeon. She said I should pick up a party and try for Level 2. I was... wondering if I could start tagging along with you- maybe get a feel for fighting more enemies with someone clearly experienced in doing so."
She closed her eyes and hummed. It would slow her down significantly, but now that Riveria was back she could resume running down to the 17th Floor to farm Minotaurs. That and with the rest of the Executives back she was certain that she wouldn't have to put up with the City Guard duty anymore either; with all of the Level 4's her workload would drastically decrease.
When she opened her eyes she gave him a look. "One week."
Tanya tilted her head. "I have a skill that allows one to grow more quickly, with me gaining additional stat points as well. If you can undergo the same training that my current Level 1's undergo for one week, then I'll add you to my party."
The man grinned. "Alright! What do I need to do?"
Tanya grinned right back, and for some reason, the man shivered. "Do you have anything you need to do tonight?"
"Uh... no?"
"Well then, be at the Twilight Manor by 10:00 pm tonight, and wear clothing suitable for training in. Your time with me starts now."
"I have a very bad feeling about this, but I made the request, so don't expect me to back out now!"
That's the spirit!
"Eina-san, do you happen to know where this boy lives?" Tanya made a show of turning on her heel to show Bell Cranel's face; the girl was gripping onto the boy's legs.
The half-elf woman pulled her glasses off of her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, I do. Normally I wouldn't give out the information of someone I am advising, but I am safe in my assumption that you're taking him home, right?"
"Yes, that is the case."
A loud sigh escaped her lips. "Alright, give me a moment to grab a map so I can show you."
7th Avenue, 25th street. An abandoned Church of all places; who builds a church when the Divines literally walk the earth?
This couldn't be real life, could it?
She was being lectured to by a pair of boobs with legs. They were certainly Divine boobs, but oppai lolis were only supposed to exist in the realms of make-believe.
"-nd just what do you think you're doing, huh? Showing up in the middle of the night with my Bell-kun slung over your shoulder like some- like a sack of grain!?" The Goddess reached out to poke her in the chest and Tanya intercepted her hand easily, drawing a startled gasp out of the small, busty woman.
"Normally, I wouldn't touch a Goddess such as yourself without some form of permission, however, I did not do this good deed just to get poked by an irate Divine. So please, get ahold of yourself." Tanya said with a severe frown, and the Goddess yelped. "I did not 'kidnap him' and 'conquer him' as you've insinuated. I am merely returning this fool boy who went overboard in the Dungeon."
The Goddess' expression changed immediately, the woman perking up quite a bit. "So you're saying that you weren't making moves on my sweet, handsome, cute Bell-kun?"
"Yes. I have no desire for the company of this boy, or any man for that matter. I prefer women. End of story. Now, will you hurry up and take him already? I cut my time in the Dungeon short tonight to bring him back safely to you, and I still have much to do."
The woman clapped happily when Tanya released her hand before she tried to pull the boy off of her pack and failed. "Heh heh heh... maybe you could help me get him inside?"
They walked into the church, moving past a bunch of broken pews. Tanya had to drop her pack off at the small stone staircase, and she moved quickly to deposit him onto the couch before returning to put her pack back on. Like hell she was going to leave this much money unattended!
"Hey! Wait!" The oppai-loli Goddess called out to Tanya just as she was about to take off through the rather convenient hole in the roof. "I never got your name!"
Tanya blinked. "I am Tanya von Degurechaff, Level 1, and Executive member of the Loki familia."
"Eh!? You're the Degu-gugugu that my Bell-kun just won't shut up about!? And you're a member of Loki-noboob's familia?!" The small woman pointed at Tanya's hovering form dramatically. "Huh. Never thought I'd ever meet an Out Worlder before."
Of course, even this idiot can smell her out!
"Anyways, just one last thing before I let you go!"
Tanya arched an eyebrow.
"Are you 100% sure that you aren't interested in my Bell-kun?"
"100%. Now, I've been held up enough. Goodnight, Hestia-sama."
"12.457 Million valis for the monster cores, and with the payment receipt from Hephaestus-sama which amounts to 489,550 valis... your total is 12,946,990 valis. How would you like your payout?"
Tanya ran the mental math. "12 gold coins, and the remainder in silver and copper."
The diminutive young teen smiled as she exited the Main Guild office with only a small bag of valis in her hand. She loved the Main Office!
"And I owe you... 2,265,723 valis." Tanya placed the coin into a pouch as well as the receipt and tossed it to Finn, who caught it without even looking.
"So. Is everyone ready to test out the new equipment?"
[Mini-interlude: Welf Crozzo]
"Oh, Hephaestus-sama, please, kill me now!" Welf Crozzo gasped for air as Tanya walked past him with two 100 kilogram kettlebells in her hands.
"Get up, Crozzo! If you think that you're tired now, just imagine how tired you're going to be after fighting hundreds of monsters!" Tanya was just as winded, but she soldiered onward.
The young man managed to stagger to his feet and pick up his own 75kg kettlebells and kept moving. The pair staggered away from everyone else to check on the Executives who were making full use of the new training pavilion.
In the center of the pavilion was a railway track that had solid Damascus bars every 25cm- each bar was drip welded in place to make a single contiguous stretch of track 60 meters in length. The entire track, thanks to it being one piece, was enchanted with the Durandal attribute, and it needed it because on the track was a heavy-duty mining cart that held a number of Adamantite Powder plates that was insanely heavy; Welf couldn't make the thing budge if he tried.
On the track was Riveria Ljos Alf, the "Nine Hells" herself. She was strapped into a harness and was struggling mightily to drag the cart from one end to the other. Tanya put the kettlebells down and shook her hands out. "Take 5 minutes, Welf-san, then we're going back."
She marched around from one station to the next, giving out advice on how to properly perform the movements of all of the exercises, complete with illusory images to really break everything down.
"-you see, there is a long-head and a short-head to the bicep, Finn-dono. As a spearman you know that there are three positions- the low-ready, mid-ready, and high-ready; these positions activate the long and short head of the bicep differently. So when you perform the curl, I want you to look at your bicep intently, see the muscles activate; that's the best way to get a good mind-muscle connection." The Pallum performed the curl slowly, not that he could perform it quickly if he wanted to- that was the 2-ton dumbbell.
"Excellent, good. Now perform the exercises on the chart here for this station. When you're finished, take a small break and wait for Riveria-dono to finish her exercise on the cart."
Welf watched the girl move around. "No, you just need to break the plane for this squat, Loga-san. You don't need to go all of the way down; I want you to fully understand how to perform the exercise first before we start adding more weight. Trying to put too much on could cause your knee to slip, and we don't want that. Tiona-san! I want to see you perform a pull-up with that weight, don't play around!"
"Sorry! Tee-hee!"
"Oooiiiii! I told you not to fuck around, Tiona! Either you get-nnnnnnnnggggggghhhhhhhhhfffffffff- serious or you get gone!"
The five minutes of rest disappeared all too soon, and Tanya walked back over with a small smile on her face. "Alright, break time is over, Welf-san, let's return to the others! Walking lunges all the way back!"
Shit.
This was only their second set and he felt like he was dying- there was still one more after this!
However, despite his fervent wish for his Goddess to smite him, he felt amazing. Tanya told him to not get any status updates for this week during his training, and they would update him then. Once his new stats were determined they would sit down and go through a plan for the Dungeon.
He was feeling stronger already.
A/N: Not going to lie, I looked at the Danmachi timeline and realized that I flubbed some things pretty badly. After spending a day being depressed about it I decided "Fuck it" and just kept on writing today. Sure, some things are a little bit off, sure Bell won't make Level 2 until two months instead of his initial one month, but at the end of the day, does it really matter? Not really. lol
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!