[Tanya von Degurechaff]
"And this concludes my report on the events of the Quest down on the 24th Floor," Tanya spoke clearly from her position in the middle of Loki's office. Every Executive was in attendance, "I am open to questions."
She did her best to keep the report succinct, but at Loki's insistence- "because you won't let me update your falna and see the action for myself"- she used her Illusions combined with the recording feature her Type-95 marks had to play everything of note.
This included their rescue of the Kagu-tsuchi familia members, their interactions with the Hermes familia, the investigation of the 24th Floor, and the entirety of the battle against the Violas, the Viscum, the mysterious Adventurers who were supporting them... and Tanya's utter annihilation of the robed suicidal cultists.
Much to Riveria's dismay, this also included the frighteningly severe wounds Tanya sustained as well.
It was always interesting to see the playbacks and note just how different she was when utilizing the Analgesic formula- she likely wouldn't have taken the hit that broke her legs from the first Viscum, but at the same time she would have lost Blutscher and likely would have been rendered combat-incapable from the glancing blow that turned her arm and shoulder into gelatin.
Tanya's screams when she was dropped onto her broken legs- seeing them bend in ways that she really shouldn't as she fell next to Andromeda- brought back the horrid memories of that injury and more than once she had to fight down the bile that threatened to erupt from her throat. Riveria was beside herself, the woman fighting to keep her composure as the fighting went on, her armrest having been reduced to splinters the moment they stepped into the pantry and saw the hundreds of Violas.
Finn and Gareth bore the gruesome sights with rough composure, while Aiz had a soft frown. More than once she clenched her fists and turned her head away from Tanya, and Bete was no better as the scowl he had on deepened to the point where one might have mistakenly believed it had been put on his face with a hammer and chisel.
No doubt the pair felt a lot of the hardship and suffering that everyone endured was because they weren't fast enough to put the Bitch down so that they could return to the fight. Tiona and Tione had carefully sculpted blank faces, but the elder sister was far better at keeping her bubbling emotions under control.
Finn laid his palms flat on the table and shook his head. "I don't believe we have any questions for you, Tanya-dono. Your report, as well as the illusions, were far more than sufficient."
Tanya bowed slightly and took her seat in her chair next to Riveria.
The Pallum man licked his lips as he formulated the words in his mind. "I think that... with this as evidence, we will need to start thinking about our moves more carefully."
Tanya nodded and held out her hand. When the man acknowledged her, she began to speak. "I think it is quite safe to say that as of this moment we were dragged into a Proxy War- whoever is running the Monster Birthing operations, and whoever is pulling the strings behind this Mysterious Robed Quest Giver, are indeed at war with each other. The issue is that organization behind the Monster Birthing facility on the 24th Floor, clearly has designs that end with the destruction of Orario and the return of the chaos of one thousand years ago."
"And what makes you say that it is an organization?" Finn ran his hand over his bottom lip as he played the Devil's Advocate.
"They were incredibly organized for a Religious Murder Cult, too well organized in my opinion. That leads me to believe that the Cult itself is there to mainly provide fodder and manpower for dangerous work, which means that they are only a facet of a larger power structure. As Asfi so obviously pointed out, there were hundreds of cages, which means that the Violas they were birthing were being tamed and then moved elsewhere." Tanya projected the image of the Monster Pantry to give flavor, highlighting some key areas- the cages, the taming equipment, the wagons- that were there before her Dual Explosive spell vaporized them all.
"I find it hard to believe that a fanatical religious cult could exist..."
Tanya's mouth twisted as she searched her memories. "I wouldn't be surprised, considering any God that is worshipped in this world already walks the Lower World, and you can walk up to them on the street and listen to their teachings directly. It is hard to misinterpret a Divine's word when you can hear it directly from their lips. Now, whether that word is worth anything is all up to the person listening, but considering there is a Goddess of Poverty in the poorer areas of Daedalus Street who preaches that being poor is a virtue and to eschew all materialism and wealth to live like rats because being successful in life isn't something to strive for..."
Her lip curled as she showed the robed fanatics with their explosive vests. "I am quite experienced with the likes of those shown. People who're so distraught and downtrodden that they will latch on to anything if it offers them the salvation they seek."
"However, I am getting off-topic." She shook her head and moved back to the cages, and then projected the Violas erupting from the city streets. "The number of cages and wagons they had there was staggering. Hundreds. There is no way they would be able to sneak them up to the surface and into the city without someone noticing them; the guards at the entrance to the Dungeon, the City Guard, even the hundreds of Adventurers that work the night shift in the Dungeon. As Riveria-dono has pointed out to me in her lessons, all wagons entering and leaving the Dungeon are inspected, so unless they have half of the Guild and City Guard on the take then there is no way for them to make this happen unless..."
She projected an illusion that was divided in half.
On one side was an overhead view of the City of Orario, and on the other side was a somewhat accurate representation of the Dungeon underneath the city shown from the side view. The interesting thing to note about the layered Dungeon map was that there was a branch that forked away from the Dungeon quite a fair distance away. Tanya highlighted this passage. "There was a second Dungeon entrance someplace where the Guild does not own."
There were a few gasps, but most of the room remained silent. "It sounds impossible, but this group has already shown themselves capable of completely manipulating the Dungeon without receiving any sort of push-back. While this is just anecdotal, during my education with my Guild Advisor it was pointed out that excessive damage to the Dungeon often causes severe reprisals against the perpetrators, and modifying large portions of an entire floor is- in my mind- something that should warrant action from the Dungeon."
"If they can manipulate the Dungeon to such an extent, then I think that between the two options of the City Guard and the Guild being compromised to the point where this organization can smuggle such large monsters into the city with everyone being none the wiser, or there possibly being a second entrance then... I think the second entrance is far more likely." Tanya let the half of the illusion fade and focused on the city, where she highlighted the insane maze that was Daedalus.
"They either have the second entrance outside of the city, or they have it someplace where they can move freely and without much scrutiny. If I was to have a second Dungeon entrance, my money would be on Daedalus." She zoomed in further, but the maze-like nature of the city's poorest district made it hard for one's eyes to focus. "I have not been to the district personally, but having fought against... irregular forces in locations such as Daedalus, I can promise you that it serves many purposes: It is hardly trafficked by any sort of authorities, the labyrinthine like layout makes any sorts of searches time-consuming and difficult, any sort of searches that would take place would be spotted coming from miles away. In addition to that, they would be able to conduct their operations with little fanfare or interruptions because the poor and desperate would be willing to turn a blind eye for any sort of favor; be it coin, food, clothing, or shelter."
"If anything, it is likely where the Cult has been recruiting from. People go missing all of the time in poor districts, making it an ideal ground to pull in manpower and resources without attracting any sort of attention whatsoever." Tanya worked her jaw for a moment and looked over the room. "It sounds like baseless speculation, but if I was the leader of an organization that had goals to sow chaos and destruction while working with little resources against a far stronger and better-organized foe, that is exactly how I would do it."
"Manpower in the form of the downtrodden masses who look at the world with spite because of their misfortunes, whether self-inflicted or not. A ready-made district that is hardly- if ever- patrolled or searched where I could camouflage my activities. Plenty of poor who would be willing to turn a blind eye towards my movements for a bit of coin." She popped her neck and leaned back in her chair, "The only thing I would need would be a figurehead that the people of the area could look towards and rally around quietly. Someone that didn't need to be spoken about because everyone in the gutter knows of 'Johnny Streets' or 'Jane Poverty'. Take the culture that the poor have built up and then use it to further my own ends."
Finn hummed and took a sip of water from the cup in front of him. "Indeed, everything you've laid out does line up. While I myself do not hail from Daedalus, there are a few Level 1s in the familia who do, and they are far more tight-knit than one might expect from disparate street rats. They act and think differently from their fellows, which causes... friction sometimes."
Tanya grinned viciously. "Well then, if you can ascertain whether or not they are loyal to the familia, then maybe you could convince them to get in touch with some of their contacts? Try to get a feel for the climate and see if some information can't be dug up? Nothing fancy- information for coin, food, clothing; the essentials, and nothing that would stand out. A poor man in the district would stand out if he suddenly stopped wearing rags."
Loki chuckled and rested her cheek against the palm of her hand. "You are certainly devious, Tanya-chan! I can't say I don't approve though, bbbbuuuutttt~ these are just hypotheticals, yeah? We don't have anything concrete so it's not like we can actively take steps, yanno?"
Tanya nodded along with her Goddess' words. "Indeed, that is the case, but if we do not take steps to at least come up with a framework of our enemy's possible actions, then we will forever be reactionary and always on the back foot. While I am certain that we are strong enough to decimate the organization with just the people in this room, we will have to be successful in every action we take, while the enemy will only have to be successful once to erode away trust in the system that is in place."
"The Violas attacking was a probe, to test the city's responsiveness to attacks, and quite possibly a move to discredit the Ganesha familia and sow distrust over the city's protectors."
"Oh?" Loki leaned in and licked her lips. "I think I know who was responsible for the debacle that was Monsterphilia but please, go on. Indulge me."
Tanya blinked but she removed the highlight from Daedalus and moved over to the Colosseum where several black dots that were highlighted in white popped up. Next to the map timestamps and descriptions appeared next to it. "At approximately 9:20 AM, over two dozen monsters from the Upper Floors escaped the holding pen and moved out onto the streets. Ganesha familia members were alerted and moved to contain the breach, but by that point, they had already spread out into Daedalus, where its mazes made tracking them and destroying them difficult. At approximately 9:25 AM, Ganesha staffers contacted various familias in the area, to include us, and asked for assistance in slaying the escapees."
She then created purple dots and had them move from the Colosseum and out towards where Tanya, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and Aiz encountered the Violas. "Less than 10 minutes after the escape of the monsters, the Violas appear and start to attack."
Tanya pushed the illusory map up towards the ceiling so that she could display the recordings from her flight. Focusing on the rippling of the streets as the Violas emerged and started their assault. "If you track the movements of the Violas, they are all originating from the exact same place- or that it what it would appear..."
"It looks as though those Violas came from the Colosseum," Riveria murmured as her eyes tracked the movements.
"Indeed. I think that the attack with the Violas was merely an attack of opportunity. The monsters escaping offered the perpetrators the chance to deploy a few of their new monsters to see how they would fare against the Adventurers of the cities. This would allow them to view their combat capabilities, but also sow some confusion and division by fingering the Ganesha familia as the culprits. While the Ganesha familia and the Guild could easily disprove such accusations by showing their paperwork, do you think that the average joe on the street would believe such a thing?"
Tanya shook her head, "It wouldn't be the first time a Divine has done something foolish to earn the public's attention, one might say that the whole Monsterphilia event is one such thing; after all, what wouldn't attract the public's eyes more than a monster most never have seen before? It would be easy to whisper that line of thinking into the ears of the gossip mongers, and within the day it would be all over the streets."
She smirked, "In fact, that was just what I had heard after working with the Ganesha familia, but that was easily disproven because of one simple fact."
Surprisingly, it was the now bouncing Tiona who opened her mouth and shouted out. "The number of monsters that appeared didn't match the number of monsters that the Ganesha familia brought to the surface, right?!"
This couldn't help but make Tanya smile. "Yes, indeed, however, what brought you to that conclusion?"
The Amazon splayed herself in her chair, a finger coming up to tap her bottom lip. "Um, well... it was all over the promotional posters, I think? 'Come see the Ganesha familia display their prowess by taming 30 different monsters from the Dungeon' or something like that."
"Exactly," Tanya snapped her fingers and pointed at her before she turned her head towards Finn. "I do believe I remember you stating that there were over 100 Violas that were killed in the fighting, yes?"
The man reached into his desk and pulled out some parchment, rifling through them before stopping on one sheet in particular and nodding. "Yes, 102 Violas, not including the Violas Rex you slew."
"So that leads me to believe that the attack turned from a dry run- an attack of opportunity- to more of a debacle on their end. If the large numbers of Violas utterly defeated the narrative that the 'Ganesha familia brought them to the surface and then was irresponsible in their handling', then the arrival of the Violas Rex blew it completely out of the water." Tanya rubbed her cheek, "There was something that they didn't plan on. A variable that they didn't account for, and that was what threw their scheme into disarray."
Riveria gave Tanya a smug little while. "They didn't account for someone with a large enough magical signature to draw the Violas, and the Violas Rex, out of the sewers and into combat. That is where I believe you are going with this, Tanya-dono?"
Tanya blushed a little bit and moved the combat recording forward, right to the point where she had her embarrassing temper tantrum. "While I don't mean to puff myself up, I did have a bit of a... loose moment in regards to controlling my magical signature, yes. But if you watch the footage the number of Violas was rather small before my magical outburst- less than a dozen."
"Now, watch what happens after the outburst." Everyone watched as dozens upon dozens of Violas began to surge up from the streets, and they weren't coming from the direction of the Colosseum, no, they were coming directly from Daedalus street. The footage showed Tanya picking up Lefiya and the Violas followed them through the side streets and alleyways until they all congregated on 3rd Avenue where the elf could fire her spell off without destroying potentially hundreds of businesses and homes.
"They came runnin' like tha' dinner bell was'a ringin'." Gareth rumbled for the first time since the meeting started.
Tanya nodded. "Indeed. While I might have been the initial pull that likely caused the Violas that were either hibernating or caged beneath the city- to include the Violas Rex- I can't claim that I was what kept them coming; I'm fairly certain that the large magical output that Lefiya was pushing out with her spell was a contributing factor. If these beasts will chase after a single monster core when tossed in another direction, then the output between myself and Lefiya was likely all that was needed to get them to frenzy as they did."
"The last piece I want to point out is where the Violas Rex emerged." She showed the hole that was outside of the city wall, "Note that it too was right next to Daedalus; the district, in fact, butts right up against the wall."
"The Violas and the Violas Rex all originate from the same source, and that source is Daedalus." She dissipated the illusions and brought up a bulletized list titled:
'Why I think there is a Second Dungeon Entrance, and Why the Entrance is in Daedalus':
'The fanatical cult having easy access to resources and manpower via the poor and disenfranchised of Daedalus.''Cages and wagons to transport from 24th Floor Monster Pantry to the surface.''Daedalus is the perfect location for hiding anything that they don't want to be found.''The Monsterphilia narrative that was attempted to be spread to slander the Ganesha familia and the Guild.''The Attack of Opportunity- started out very small scale, and then became much larger? Wasted element of surprise? Why?''Initial Viola movements made to look like they were coming from the Colosseum, but then the majority came from Daedalus?''Likely unintentional involvement of the Violas Rex. Why display the capability to create Boss-Level monsters so early? Made a mistake of utilizing the Viola monster as a template and brought it too close to the surface?'[....]
The list was a good thirty points long and stretched all of the way from the floor to the ceiling, but they laid out facts and then asked questions. Finn and Riveria were copying her list as she listed them out.
"All in all, that is why I believe we should be taking steps to at least put together a plan to begin investigating. Putting in place a framework to begin answering the questions we need to have answered, lest we find out at the most inopportune time... and they will strike when we least expect it. They've already proven that they have the informational gathering capabilities, along with the Tamers needed to take advantage of a ten-minute window of monster escapes, so they do have eyes and ears, and a network in place to carry that word in Daedalus."
She let the silence hang for a few moments, giving everyone else an opportunity to speak up before she finished. "It is in my opinion that we need to at least get the Top Five familias involved; Freya, us, Skadi, Hephaestus, and the Inari familias."
"Why would you want to get the other familia's involved?" Finn asked, the man bringing the end of his pen up to his lips.
"Yeah! You try'n to make me look weak, Tanya-chan?" The woman tried to sound and act affronted, but she had the biggest shit-eating grin on her face, and she could hardly hold back her chortles to even speak.
Hardly professional, but she could admit that the levity the Goddess brought to this heavy meeting was nice. It was far more relaxing than having a room filled with cigar smoke and stern-faced Generals.
She cleared her throat.
"I don't believe that asking for their assistance in a matter as grave as this is any sort of weakness. They represent the five pillars of the community, and I think that if we attempt to handle this all on our own then we will be met with stiff resistance once it comes time to display our findings. More importantly, this will be a large undertaking, and it is likely that the other familias will have tools, training, information, and resources that we are lacking. If anything, a different perspective would be good- a sounding board... ah, a wall to bounce ideas off of would not go amiss at the very least."
She hummed for a moment. "At the very least, this affects not only us but everyone in the city. If it is found out that we have been withholding information because we wanted to try our hands at playing Junior Detectives without asking or consulting the other powers in the city, then we will be in for a major scandal if another attack happens; we would be raked over the coals if there was any chance at all that it could have been prevented if we'd only informed our fellow pillars."
Finn nodded. "A very apt point; the damage to our reputation would be difficult to overcome if such a thing were to pass."
"Besides, if we were to get the Top Five involved, I feel like that would actually get the Guild to open up to us. Either by applying pressure to force them to divulge what they have or by showing them that the Five Pillars are supportive of the Guild and are willing to assist directly- thus getting them to show us the information they have collected. I didn't appreciate being used as a disposable proxy to investigate the 24th Floor; if we had handled that situation any differently, then it is highly likely that most of us would have perished down there." Tanya finished out.
The Captain of the Loki familia cleared his throat and stood up from his chair. "I believe that this isn't something we should jump into right away, but this does bring up a lot of interesting questions that we will need to find answers to as well. We will compile everything we have and then deliberate another day. If that is all?"
The room shook their heads. The man gave everyone a tight smile. "Very good, then you are all dismissed."
Everyone got up to leave except Finn and Loki, and Riveria made a beeline towards Tanya. "Tanya-chan, I know that you only got out of the Dungeon yesterday, and just woke up from your Mind Down today, but I would like if you would go to Miach-sama and have him look you over. The wounds you sustained were quite severe, and even magic and potions can heal incorrectly."
[Finn Deimne - Captain of the Loki familia]
"You know that you're playing with fire, right Finn-kun?" Finn stiffened as his Goddess draped herself over his shoulders and pulled him tight to the back of the chair with a hug.
His Goddess was annoyingly affectionate at the worst of times.
Still, that didn't stop the Pallum from filling out the Requisition Form for Gareth to approve; they were going to need more training equipment for the Low Rankers. "I don't know what you're implying, Loki-sama."
"Kukukukukuku." She released him from the hug and moved back over to her armchair at the head of the table and splayed herself over it, her legs hanging over the side of one arm while her head rested against the cushion on the other arm. "I think you do, Finn-kun. Do you think I haven't seen your request to conduct another Deep-Dive Exploration? One outside of the cycle that me an' Freya have worked up?"
He finished the form and sat it off to the side before he put his pen down and interlaced his fingers. The Pallum gave his Goddess his undivided attention, even as she appeared to be engrossed in tracing out the patterns on her chair with her fingertips. "I don't want to get the other familias involved, not yet, not until I have something concrete I can give them."
She grinned and used a little bit of mortal magic to create an illusion that hovered over the table. The illusion was that of Tanya standing in front of all of them, giving their report. It lasted long enough for him to study it before it switched again to Tanya's list of suspicions. Most of them were based on facts, but some of the key ones were based on conjecture and speculation: 'Well if I were an evil and nefarious organization that wanted to sow chaos and discord then I would do all of these things'.
"To make it even better, she doesn't know the little nuggets of information that Bete-kun and I managed to put together... like the fact that we encountered Dionysis and his Filvis-chan while we were leaving the underground sewer systems... their scents were there previously, and they were walking right towards it! She didn't know this and yet she was already able to point out that Dio-dio was full of shit just from my conversation with him in the garden."
Ah, he had wondered why she didn't bring that up in her list. She didn't know the findings of Loki-sama's side-investigations. If she was able to put all of that together without having background knowledge of Evilus and their doings... then she was proving to be incredibly perceptive.
"When put together, I think that Tanya-dono makes a compelling argument, but there are still too many unknowns for my liking. If we brought this up with Top Five and we were wrong then we would be seen as jumping at shadows. It would make us a laughing stock; gossip like that would eventually trickle its way down to the other familias, and we would look incredibly foolish." Finn spoke, articulating his words carefully.
The possibility that this was a splinter of Evilus that had survived his purge was not something he wanted to think about.
It was him, after all, who assured the citizens of Orario that Evilus had been killed to the last man and would no longer threaten the people. Having such a thing turn out to be patently false would be incredibly detrimental to his image.
If a splinter of Evilus was involved, then he wanted to solve the issue himself, without outside interference. If the Guild was keeping silent, then they would keep silent when Finn lead the Loki familia to purge them again.
The people of Orario wouldn't need to know of his failure.
"You're telling the truth, but you're not telling the whole truth, Finn-kun." The Goddess chuckled, "You have a bee in your bonnet when it comes to Evilus, but, how could you not? After all, it was your little claim to fame, right? 'The Braver has cut off the head of the snake!' the people cried from the streets. It is what put you on the map as being anything other than just some Pallum Adventurer."
Finn frowned but it didn't phase the Goddess at all.
"Now, now, don't give me that look. I'm just pushing your buttons, it is what I do after all." Loki-sama waved him off with a grin on her face, "I don't really want to go to the other Divines myself, especially since this is one of the juiciest mysteries we've come across since Evilus surfaced the first time around."
"The investigative work, the planning sessions, the speculation, the postulation, the drama!" The Goddess rose to her feet and grabbed the nearest bottle of wine- a standard vintage since they'd cut her off from the more expensive alcohols to pay for their equipment- and took a hearty swig from it. "This is why I'm here, Finn-kun! The fun! The excitement! The intrigue!"
She strode up to him and cupped his cheek with her free hand while the hand that held the bottle went up to wipe an errant droplet of wine that threatened to slip off her chin. "I would be loathed to give up such excitement to the others. This is our little detective drama, yeah? The moment we get them involved is the moment this stops being fun and becomes work, and I hate work."
Her thumb stroked his cheek as she took another pull from the bottle. "I'll back your ploy to get another expedition put together, though the best we'll be able to get is a month away, maybe two at the latest; Freya is going to want a good explanation as to why we'd be cutting into her exploration window."
When she removed her hand from his cheek Finn bit his lower lip. "What about the other Executives then? Tanya made a number of salient points about getting the other familias involved in this, if we fly in the face of her reasonable stances then this might very well lead to our undoing."
"Heh, Tanya-chan sure is an exceptional individual, isn't she? Turning heads wherever she walks, and not just because she's such a little cutie." Loki-sama strode over to the window and gazed out the window at the city below.
"Only been here a month and a few weeks and yet she's already got everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. Riveria adores her, Gareth like the fact that she helped him iron out his logistics duties and gotten him some help, Aiz is fascinated by her growth, and even little Lefiya who once looked at her like a mouse would a large cat is now all blushes and stutters whenever her name is brought up."
The Goddess leaned back, craning her neck to look at Finn in a way that had once been unsettling to see, that cheeky grin on her face. "If you haven't done it yet, you should toy with her- all you gotta do is say, 'Oh, hello Tanya-chan' when she's around and the girl becomes pudding. She's acting just like she did when she first discovered how cute Aiz-tan was. So adorable!"
She righted herself and then turned her body back towards him, leaning her shoulder against the window frame. "Why, she's even got Bete-kun following her orders. Suuuurrreee, he grumbles and growls, but there is something about her that has him wagging his tail. It's seriously cute. I wonder what happened between them that would lead to such a relationship?"
Her eyes went from their usual slits to be completely open.
She was serious.
"If you fuck this up, Finn-kun, then there might be some serious consequences." Her eyes narrowed back and a grin slipped back onto her face as if it had never left. "Not that I would throw you to the wolves even if you did fuck up, you're mine, Finn-kun, and I'll never let you go. Reputation? Power? Who gives a fuck about those things? While I do enjoy my lifestyle, I got to say that I wouldn't be opposed to giving it up and starting again at the bottom."
"I clawed my way to the top before, it would only be easier the second time around." Loki-sama took a seat behind her desk and sat her bottle down to stare at the paperwork strewn across it. "I'll start looking at the Guild board and putting out feelers for requests for high-valis items in the Lower Floors. If we have a need to go down there for a quest, Freya will more than likely wave it off. Probably."
This was probably a very foolish move on both of their parts, but Finn couldn't be any happier with the situation.
It was a chance to bury the rotting corpse of Evilus once and for all, and he'll be damned if he didn't take it.
Sure, it would be difficult to sway the others into agreeing to another Expedition, especially when he would have to slow-roll Tanya and downplay her words, but it would be worth it.
Finn smiled.
To him, reputation was everything.
[Welf Crozzo]
"So, you bailed on me yesterday," Welf grumbled playfully at the young woman standing in front of them. "I was almost expecting you not to make it today either."
Tanya von Degurechaff cut a striking figure in her suit, even with all of the damage it was sporting. The leather was abraded all to hell in multiple areas, torn and stitched together with leather lacing in others, and the once fluffy white of her suit's collar was now yellowing with noticeable pink splotches. He knew bloodstains when he saw them. She was down to a single quiver when she normally carried two, and even then it was barely half full.
They were waiting on Tsubaki-sama to finish re-collaring the new spines as they had been severely damaged. Internally Welf lamented the work he was going to have to do in the morning to get the Damascus straightened back out; considering Tanya was a Contract Client in all but name, it fell to him- as her contracted blacksmith- to ensure her needs were taken care of.
The only reason Tsubaki was replacing the spines was because she was strong enough to remove the collar and put the new spines in place with her bare hands- Welf would have needed half an hour to pull the pins and pry the set-up apart and put it all back together.
"For that, I do apologize, Crozzo-san, there was an emergency that needed to be taken care of." The young woman frowned slightly, her eyes downcast at the floor.
He huffed a little bit to lighten the mood some, it was obvious that it was something serious, but the fact that she had to cancel their first dive together to handle that situation obviously annoyed her. It felt good that she wanted to keep her promise to him. "Don't worry about it, if it was something bad enough that you needed to cancel on me, I completely understand."
She sighed and leaned back against the railing of the storehouse's front porch, her gaze rising up towards the clouds. "It was indeed bad. I cannot give you any specifics but think of it in terms of a six-man team of Level 3s getting swept away in a flood of monsters... on the 24th Floor."
He winced. Yeah, that was bad alright- Level 3's were supposed to be capable of running solo up to the 31st Floor. For a six-man party to put into a situation they couldn't fight their way out of on the 24th Floor? That sounded horrible. "Well, what are you thinking of doing for us today then?"
That got her to blink and she used some of her magic to create illusions, and she began going through a simple but highly detailed plan for their farming today. They'd hit the 5th and 6th Floors for the War Shadows, and she would test Welf on how he handled the larger packs of Goblins and Kobolds during the evening time. If he did well then she would take him to the 7th Floor to try his hand at the Killer Ants. They'd swing by the 8th and 9th Floors to collect more Kobold Claws and Goblin Fangs, not that they even needed them at this point- Hephaestus-sama was having the warehouse a few streets over cleaned up and renovated already because the storehouse was almost overflowing with materials.
It would all culminate into a trip down to the 10th Floor to fight some Orcs and Imps.
"Hopefully there will be an Infant Dragon for me to slay down there, I need to have a new suit made as this one is starting to fall apart on me. Infant Dragon skin is supposed to be rated up to the 25th floor, right?" The young teen looked up at him.
He grinned.
This was the best part about Tanya- she was always asking questions! If anything, working with her had made excellent practice for him when he had to work some of the stores in the Tower; she had questions that more seasoned Adventurers would ask, and it allowed him to flex his knowledge. On the few occasions he didn't have the answer he was able to ask Tsubaki-sama.
"Yeah. Short of Goliath Hide, Infant Dragon skin has the best mixture of durability and flexibility that you can get. The stuff is far tougher than Orc Hide, but getting enough Infant Dragon skin to do anything more than fashion a coat is tough to do; last I checked the loot tables at the Guild said it was a 1/20 drop, and they only spawn every so often." Welf couldn't help but grin at her. "Though I don't think that will be a problem for you."
"No, indeed it won't." She chuckled, and he chuckled along with her until she perked up. Welf turned his head and saw Tsubaki-sama striding towards them with her spear-stave held triumphantly over her head.
Don'tstareatherbellydon'tstareatherbellydon'tstareatherbellydon'tstareatherbelly- safe!
Welf couldn't stop the small exhalation of air that left his nostrils as he successfully managed to not ogle his most exquisitely beautiful Captain.
Oh, he knew that she liked it when people looked at her- she wouldn't walk around dressed as she did otherwise- but that didn't mean she didn't like it when he tried to keep his eyes level with her own. He was a gentleman, just with a hammer instead of a cane. She liked that, right?
While most men stared at her breasts, Welf's eyes were always drawn to her belly button and that succulent pad of flesh and fat just below it. Gah! He just wanted to sink his teeth into it and make her squirm! Was she ticklish? Or would she moan? Or... would she grab his head and shove him down lower?
He bit the inside of his cheek and gave her a polite bow as she strode up. The grey pants he wore were roomy, but not roomy enough to conceal a stiffy! "Tsubaki-sama."
"Here ya go, Tanya-san, one spear-stave all fixed up and ready to go!" The woman gave it a twirl before she handed it over to the diminutive blonde.
The young teen smiled and bowed her head appreciatively once the blade had been covered and the staff sheathed on her back. "Thank you very much for seeing to its repairs so quickly, Tsubaki-dono."
"Bah, whatever emergency you went to handle yesterday did a number on it, but since you're taking Welf-kun here with you it needed to be in top form." The woman placed her hands on her hips and grinned broadly, "Can't have you walking around with broken equipment, can we?"
With that, they exchanged a few more pleasantries, and Tanya gave Tsubaki-sama a quick rundown of what they were going to be doing in the Dungeon, and after that? They were off!
"Shit!" Welf was nearly thrown forward when a Kobold tackled him from behind, the little bastard managed to sink its teeth into the meat of his back before he tossed it off and ran it through with his greatsword. He didn't have time to check his wound because he was already backpedaling to interpose his blade in front of a Goblin's claws. The blacksmith twisted his body- oh shit his back stung like crazy- and deflected the monster's charge; he wasn't at a good angle to strike it with his sword, so following Tanya's instructions, he lashed out at it with a side kick that crushed its ribcage and sent it tumbling away.
"Your entire body is a weapon, Welf. Use it."
He spun on his heel and cut another Kobold down before using the momentum from his swing to lash out with a punch that caved a Goblin's face in; a fang broke off and was embedded in his hand, but a quick flick of his wrist sent it skittering across the ground. He intercepted another monster's lunge with a front kick before firming his stance up to swing his sword through a leaping pair of goblins.
As their bodies tumbled in separate halves, Welf turned around and quickly surveyed the area twice before finally relaxing.
The relaxation was a ruse, however, designed to draw out the War Shadows that were fond of popping out when you least expected them to. Welf spun on his heel and thrust forward, skewering the monster through its magic stone, which was a fuck-up on his part. He stared at the lost valis and cursed. That could have been 6 War Shadow claws and a magic stone!
"Spring Vitality."
Welf let out a sigh of relief as he felt the bruises, cuts, and scrapes he had taken in this particular fight heal up.
That was a problem. Why?
Because he was supposed to see her approach before she healed him or he would fail the "Situational Awareness" portion of her little exams; if he couldn't see a blonde girl floating towards him, then would he be able to notice a sneaking War Shadow?
"Well, other than failing the SA portion of this exam, again, I think you are making considerable progress in this dive, Welf."
That was another thing that threw him off. In the Dungeon she dispensed with his surname and the accompanying suffixes and just called him by his given name. She said it was to cut down on unnecessary things, but it just rubbed at him a bit when she went from the most impersonal 'Crozzo-san' to his given name at the drop of a hat.
It wasn't a deal-breaker or anything, but it did take him some time to adjust.
"You said that the largest group of monsters you fought at a single time was what, seven?"
"Yeah, seven. Although this time was... twelve?" He nodded and began walking with her to collect the monster cores and drop items from the corpses. Her Mage Blade spell was truly something else!
She smirked at him as she lifted up the first War Shadow corpse's hand and cut off the claws before doing the same to the other hand. When she yanked out its monster core the fingers attached to the claws vanished into ash, but the claws remained. "Fifteen. You really should keep better track of how many you kill, Welf. The typical groups this time of day range from eight to fifteen monsters, keeping track of how many you slay gives you insight into just how many more there could be when in a particular fight. If your kill count starts to climb above the known maximum, then you know that something is off, and can make a decision to stay or retreat."
The Goblin Fangs were cut out, the Kobold Claws were cut off, and everything went into his sack, which was placed into his much smaller backpack. "When the blood starts flowing it becomes hard to focus, so counting out the kills keeps you aware, even when you don't have the time to think. You don't want to be 25 kills into a fight and utterly exhausted when you realize that you're fighting an irregular group, or the beginnings of a Monster Party, right?"
Welf grimaced but nodded his assent. Yeah, Monster Parties were the primary killers of Adventurers on the 1st through 6th, and 8th through 9th Floors. The Killer Ants were almost always a Monster Party in and of themselves, so unless you were doing a Quest to collect Ant Chiton then it was typically best to steer towards the fastest path to the 8th floor.
"So far, I give you a passing grade for this group. You were injured, but they weren't bad enough to do more than slightly hamper your movements if you had to fight longer. You only let one monster sneak up on you, and managed to get it off with minimal issue." She pulled on her magic and cast an illusion that went through his fight from start to finish, "They surrounded you, which these monsters are wont to do, and you did well in picking the direction that had the weakest opposition and decisively engaged them to break the encirclement. After that, you evaluated your opponents and created space, forcing them to come at you one at a time instead of staying stationary."
He shook his head and scrubbed the dried blood on the back of his hand off on his black kimono top. "Yeah, getting dogpiled by six goblins once was more than enough for me."
Tanya hummed as she checked her watch, and a Mage Blade sprung to life in her hand as she drew out a long cut along the wall. "Let's stop and enjoy our dinners before we continue on. We still have four hours left of this dive, plenty of time to eat, and then head down to the 10th Floor and look for an Infant Dragon. You might as well sharpen your blade while you are at it."
Welf nodded and retrieved his whetstones and his water skin and proceeded to give his partner a quick treatment while Tanya pulled out the two Take-Away meals that the Hostess of Fertility sold.
All in all, he'd killed more monsters two hours into this dive than he did in a whole day when working the mornings, and that was money in his pocket!
When they reached the staircase down to the 10th Floor Tanya told him to sit tight for a few minutes so she could scout around. Which left him sitting at the top with his feet dangling over the edge while he watched the young teen soar through the air. Occasionally a searing bar of light would flash out, no doubt an Imp tried to intercept her, and it made him wonder just how many other spells she had.
Was it that spell that had killed so many men?
An explosion rang out and the force was enough to force the mist to part.
No, it was probably that one.
When he saw her coming back in the distance it was with three other figures. Two limp figures dangled from her hands by their belts, and a third clung to her back. Welf sighed.
Shit.
When Tanya touched down she gently placed the two obviously deceased young women- a catkin and a cheinthrope- onto the first landing of the staircase before she gently pried the young human man off of her back and healed him.
"Th-they're gone. I... I killed them." The young man blubbered as he crouched over their bodies and cradled their heads close to his chest. "I shouldn't have brought them down here, they were my responsibility an- and I GOT THEM KILLED!"
Welf swallowed and hardened his heart, but he didn't look away. This was the price of overconfidence. The price of failure in the Dungeon.
Those who averted their eyes in his opinion were the ones that inevitably died, or got others killed.
Every Adventurer looks at the white-covered cloth that gets brought back up the stairs on occasion, and almost all of them think to themselves 'sucks to be those guys' and not 'that could happen to me'.
"What happened?" Welf asked as he strode over to Tanya, who was busy pulling out a pair of white sheets that were provided by the Guild along with the twine rope.
She helped the young man wrap his two companions up, using the twine to keep the sheets closed securely. Once that was done she rubbed the back of her glove onto her cheek, either unknowingly or uncaringly smearing one of the girl's blood onto her face. "Well, I found the Infant Dragon I wanted... I just didn't want to find out about its location like this."
"H-hey," The teen looked up at Tanya, "You're going to kill it right? That Infant Dragon?"
She nodded. "I am."
"G-good. Show it no mercy, p-please. For them. Turn it into a jacket or a fucking handbag, I don't care, just- just don't let it live for a second longer than you have to." He wiped at the snot dribbling down his face with his hand before he knelt down between the corpses of his two friends and fished their rapidly cooling hands from out of the bundle.
"Welf. Can you watch over him while I hunt it down?"
He nodded, "Yeah. I take it we'll be helping him back to the surface?"
"Indeed. We'll come back down here tomorrow to hunt you some orcs." She looked at the silently sobbing young man and blinked back a few tears of her own before shooting off into the foggy sky of the 10th Floor.
When she returned it was with her pack busting at the seams with Infant Dragon skin, and a large one and a half meter wide roll of it strapped to the top. Infant Dragon fangs pocked out of every pocket.
Without further ceremony, she picked up the first corpse and carried her bridal style while the young teen picked up the other. "Welf, you're on point. Protect us with everything you got; we have precious cargo after all. I'll support you with spells as needed."
As if sensing how important this journey back to the surface was, the Dungeon seemed to throw everything and the kitchen sink at them. Welf lost count of how many monsters he slew because the damn things just kept fucking coming!
Tanya and the teen, however, kept their pace the same. It was... a funeral procession for two fallen Adventurers, and while Welf thought the sentiment was beautiful beyond words, he did wish that they would hurry it up just a little bit!
A ragged breath escaped his lips and he downed a stamina potion at Tanya's insistence. She was teaching him something, this he knew. A desperate battle with wounded comrades who couldn't move faster than a walk. This was a common scenario in the Dungeon, but hearing about it and experiencing it were two different things. His everything was cranked to the max, his eyes were constantly searching every shadow, his ears straining to pick out anything other than the slow steps of the two behind him, and his legs were constantly working to engage the monsters before they got too close.
A few times they slipped past him, but Tanya held off on engaging them with her beam magic until they were almost right on top of them. He managed to successfully intercept all of them but one.
That one was all that was needed, however, for him to feel the loss deep within his gut. Had they truly been injured and unable to fight then his one failure would have been their lives.
Welf hissed as he drank a healing potion, feeling the two cuts that went from his ribs down to his hips seal up. The itching was almost unbearable. While his wound was mending Tanya and the teen stood silently by, waiting for him to recover before they moved on. A War Shadow caught him by surprise, the only warning he got was from Tanya as the young man they were escorting couldn't peel his gaze away from the corpse in his arms for anything other than to make sure he wasn't going to trip and fall while carrying her.
"You're relying on your hearing too much, and not enough on your eyes. Keep your head on a swivel, Welf."
The monsters slowly started to abate the higher up they went. Groups of 40 dropped down to 30, then they dropped down to 20. The closer they got to the safety of the First Floor, however, the more wounds he seemed to take, but the monsters never got close enough to threaten either of his charges again.
He spun, cleaving through a Kobold before lashing out with a kick that caved in a Goblin's ribs. He threw his Greatsword and it speared another Kobold to the wall when they approached Tanya, but that just left his hands free to grasp the two leaping Goblins by their necks and snapping them with his hands, spinning and using the momentum to hurl them at the closest group.
He felt like he was dancing.
His foot lashed out and folded a Kobold over and kicked it down the corridor. A War Shadow leapt out from behind a corner, but he was ready; the claws on the right hand scrapped over his ribs, but he took great relish in snapping the offending appendage and then spearing it through the face with its own claws. He hurled the corpse towards a Kobold and knocked it to the ground, its weight holding it in place long enough for Welf to crush its skull under his boot as he retrieved his sword from the wall.
With no more opponents, he reached into his pouch and downed half of the healing potion, and felt his flesh sizzle and reform. The itching was horrendous.
To think that he used to only delve into the Dungeon with a single potion before, all because he couldn't stomach paying 500 valis for more than one. It was a low-grade potion, and Tanya made sure that she had the high-grades that ran 10,000 apiece.
He'd still followed her packing list, as she had instructed, and carried six potions in a pouch that she designed and had commissioned, as well as an additional five potions in a hardwood case in his pack. He'd used almost all of his healing potions on this trip back up to the surface. Had he stuck with his old mentality he would probably have died long ago.
Not that Tanya would have allowed it to happen, but she wouldn't have taken him down into the Dungeon to begin with if he just brushed her orders off.
His final stamina potion was downed and he felt the aches in his body recede as energy returned. He was going to need to double the number of stamina potions in his 'kit' from now on; even if they were 2,000 valis, they were well worth the money.
Come on, Crozzo! Head in the game! Two floors to go!
Thankfully, the numbers tapered off to a trickle, and other Adventurers started to show up, and... most of the averted their eyes at the sight of the white sheets... but others stared directly at them. They understood.
When they crested the staircase and made their way over to the Department of Recovery, a small section of the Guild that handled corpse recovery and corpse preparation, Tanya turned to the young teen as they watched the Guild Specialists take them away.
"Are you going to bury them?"
He nodded. "Y-yeah. Most other familias cremate their dead, but... we have a small cemetery in the back of our familia. Polly would... Polly would want to be buried next to her sister."
The tears flowed as he sniffled and wiped his face off on his shirt. "Talia said she had a spot reserved just for her sister when it was Polly's time to go. She was morbid like that, always writing dark poetry and stuff, but she knew that death is just an eventuality for us. Never thought it would come so soon though... Talia is going to kick my ass when it comes time for me t-t-to feed the w-wildlife. Heh."
Tanya reached up and grasped his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze before she reached into her coin pouch and dropped what looked to be 30,000 valis into his hand. "Give her a good coffin then, at least that'll probably lessen your beatings, right?"
He chuckled wetly but nodded before enveloping Tanya in a hug. "Thank you for saving me. Thank you for not leaving them behind. Most people would have just left us."
"I'm..." The young girl's eyes went far away for a moment before she smiled sadly. "Just like most people, but in this instance, I was... actually able to do something to help."
Welf chewed his lip. "What familia are you with, kid?"
The young teen broke away from the hug and sighed, "The Apollo familia, but I might not be for much longer. He... doesn't tolerate failure very well. Not that I would blame him... I knew that they weren't ready to go down to the 10th but they just wanted to fight something big. They were getting too strong for the other monsters, and I caved when I... when I should have held firm. I can blame the Infant Dragon all I want but ultimately this is my failure."
They left the young teen when the Guild attendants informed him that his companion's bodies had been cleaned and blessed.
When they left the Tower of Babel their packs were full to bursting, but their hearts were heavy.
Welf Crozzo learned far more than he ever wanted to during his first day with Tanya von Degurechaff, but he knew that they were lessons he was going to learn sooner rather than later.