[Tanya von Degurechaff]
Almost two months have passed since then, and Tanya was getting quite antsy. She had been doing some investigations on the side, spoke to some of the Daedalus Street Rats in the familia, and managed to uncover a few interesting tidbits of information that could potentially narrow down the search of the maze-like down to five potential locations. Barrow's Den, Choram's Bazar, Stanky's Spot, the Church of the Almighty Poor, and the aptly named Shank Alley. That was all their contacts were willing to do, as the word on the street was that anyone who got too close would disappear.
It wasn't as much as Tanya would have liked, but it was the best she could get. There was some talk between her and the street rats about possibly cutting her hair, getting her some ratty clothes, and dirtying her up to let her explore Daedalus as a new urchin in town; they'd even gone through the work of putting together a good back-story for her!
'A former supporter of a band of bandits escapes and makes her way to Orario, but the Adventurers ignored her pleas and punted her to Daedalus just to get rid of her after taking all over her money.'
It would explain why she wasn't emaciated and would give her a reason to have some skills with a knife, and a cut-throat background that would ward off the weaker of the opportunists. The Street Rats were pretty enthusiastic when she went as far as to pledge material support to the district of Daedalus they hailed from, the hilariously named Knee-Knocker Boulevard.
It was more a pair of rundown apartment buildings with four alleyways and a dozen struggling shops, for the low, low price of 50,000 valis a month for a year to get the place repaired and beautified she could have their aid. The little district was close enough to 3rd Avenue that the chances of their area getting vandalized were low, especially if Tanya paid for the repairs they wanted.
They really didn't want much, if anything. Just new, thicker steel doors for the apartments, shutters that could only be opened from the inside of the home, new plumbing, and some four-meter tall walls and steel gates on the alleyways that could be locked by the two medically retired Adventurers who slummed it there with the rest of them.
Tanya did them one better and paid for the upgrades outright, even purchasing inexpensive but durable paint and painting tools. A trip at the local crafts store to purchase said paint linked her in with a struggling but competent artist who she commissioned to paint the walls in murals for the courtyards of the two Apartment buildings. After that, she offered to help the businesses in their area with similar security upgrades provided they put their all behind helping her out.
Seeing the stonemasons from the Asase Ya and Geb familias, as well as some blacksmiths from the Hephaestus and Kagu-tsuchi familias roll in within a few days and begin working on building the walls and the gates turned their opinion around on Tanya.
She was a young woman of action and more importantly a woman of her word, which meant a lot on the streets.
They went through a lot of trouble teaching her everything she needed to know about how to be the Street Rat. That ate into her Dungeon delving time, but she took the Street Rats into the Dungeon with her and Welf and showed them how to be the Adventurer in return.
Yes, it cut into her funds somewhat, as she and Welf couldn't bring back as many drop items as they usually did, but the gains in combat prowess, confidence, and valis took the eight-man crew and instilled a level of pride and professionalism into them that they didn't have before.
They were one of the groups that didn't initially join Tanya in training, believing that their time would be better spent pulling extra shifts in the Dungeon to make more valis. However, when she showed that she actually cared to help them, they joined full-time in the nightly training with a fervor that matched even the best of Loki's Low-Class Adventurers.
As a small present for them for lasting the full month and aiding her in her investigations, she purchased matching sets of gear for them. Ant Chiton treated Orc Hide leather cuirasses, Kobold Claw treated High-Steel forearm guards, shin and knee guards.
Spoiler: Royal Rats Cuirass
For their weapons, she purchased a High-Steel shortsword and a High-Steel weapon of their choice- be it hammer, mace, spear, or longsword. Both weapons were treated with War Shadow Claws to make them sharper, more durable, and more lubricious.
It was an interesting time discussing the weapons with Welf because while Tanya knew that in her previous world the steels were indeed separated out into different grades, she didn't know that there were different grades of steel in Orario as well.
The weapons provided for the Guild's program were Low-Steel, which was only barely a step up from the wrought iron used in most tool-making and mundane smithing applications. The Mid-Steel was used primarily for weapons sold in the shops, and High-Steel was by far the best, but it was still far below Damascus in both performance and price.
However, these boys and girls weren't going into the 20's anytime soon, and when it came to that point they would be more than self-sufficient to pay their own way.
Hack, Thom, Wendy, Chaz, Daimi, Sven, Tabbitha, and Jaine all decided their paint their armors based on the colors of the apartment block they were born in; those born from Indie painted their armor purple and silver, while the Askai painted theirs red and gold.
Hack and Thom favored the front line, using shields with a long sword and a mace.
Chaz and Sven were the mid-guard, with decent bows capable of felling Orcs with proper shot placement as well as the short-swords Tanya provided.
Wendy was capable of magic as a half-elf, and Tanya roped her into Welf's magical training and they created a similar spear-stave for her except with far lower-quality materials.
Tabbitha was a flex-position as their 'thief' with a bow, twin daggers, and the shortsword, but she mostly functioned as the alternate for the front-line and the rear-guard while Daimi and Jaine were the designated Supporters.
Welf had started moonlighting with another party, one with the Cranel boy, and thought that the small ballista that the party's Supporter used- a Pallum by the name of Lili- could be upscaled to be useful tools. So they got modified wrist-mounted ballista in addition to their short swords.
By the end of their two months, the party went from being permanent residents of the 4th floor during the morning and part of the afternoon shift to being capable of Adventuring without Tanya and Welf hovering over their shoulders down to the 12th Floor during the Afternoon and Evening shifts.
Tanya took the day-jobbers and turned them into try-hards, the only difference was that these men and women had no illusions about their ability to survive- the streets had beaten any sense of invincibility out of them long before they joined the Loki familia. They took calculated risks when they needed to, but mainly steered clear of trouble unless it couldn't be avoided.
They took to calling themselves the Royal Rats, and they couldn't have been more pleased if they had tried, and Tanya was damn proud of them.
That made it all the worse when Loki told her to slow her roll and focus on the up-and-coming Expedition.
"We are already looking into things, Tanya-chan. I know that this is something you feel rather strongly about, but hold off and let us work. When the time is right I'll let you run off and start making overtures to the other Pillars, but for right now I need you to train up our Dungeon team, get everyone equipped properly, and focus on learning your healing magics well enough to keep our people alive down there, alright? Now, Gareth-kun told me you had some ideas about standardizing our equipment, so lay everything out for me and I'll decide if it's worth spending my money on."
It sucked, a lot. Tanya had a dozen copies of her 50-page Investigative paper, and they were honestly burning a hole in her pocket. Never once had she been told to "hold off" on such a thing before.
No, whenever Tanya von Degurechaff released a White Paper, whether it was on the equipment, magic theory, or conventional tactics, everyone clamored to get their hands on a copy.
She even made them as professional as she possibly could, using a very low-powered Refreacted Beam to laser-etch the words and illustrations onto the pages, using stills from her illusion formulas and etching them on for illustrations! Every scrap of knowledge and theory she had was in that report, and it sucked being told to do nothing with it.
However, Finn and Loki assured her that they were hard at work, but so far the information gathering they had been doing wasn't panning out so much. If they had just allowed her to spend a week in Daedalus gathering information she was sure she could ferret out the location, or at least cut down on her list of possible locations... but, the familia did have a very important item to retrieve from the 51st Floor and they needed to perform the quest again. The item in question had been a jug of some sort of spring water that they had retrieved previously during their last expedition, the one where they found Tanya and brought her back.
Apparently, during their hasty escape from the Dungeon the water in the jug got contaminated, and delivering damaged goods was in incredibly poor form. Tanya wholeheartedly agreed that this needed to be rectified immediately. They would apparently only be getting half of the previous quest reward, but they would make up their losses with the Valgang Dragon drop items past the 51st Floor that the familia could utterly strip thanks to Tanya.
Finn assured her, however, that they would be thoroughly scouting every floor to search for more disturbances. It mollified her somewhat, but rather than raging against the machine she signed up for, she just focused on training herself, Welf, and the Royal Rats since they weren't going to be able to go on the Expedition with them.
Honestly, for that Tanya was thankful.
So, training went incredibly well, and somehow Aiz Wallenstein got roped into training not only Lefyia Viridis but Bell Cranel as well. Sure, it was a pain in the ass to have the boy mooning over her, even when Tanya was grinding him into the dirt with the most hellish training she could think of, but Tanya did not count on the boy seemingly being a masochist.
It was a tough decision, but she chose to sacrifice Aiz to the White Rabbit's lovey-dovey nature and made sure to keep them together as much as possible. The boy seemed fixated on Tanya, but in time he would hopefully shift targets when he realized that he wasn't getting anywhere with her.
The boy was, however, tenacious and had this never-give-up attitude that Tanya would have cheered on if it weren't for the fact that his doe eyes were on 24/7. She pushed him harder than everyone else and then held him up as an example to the rest of the Level 1s, 2s, and 3s she was training at the "Low-Class" training ground. This lit a fire under their asses- like hell they were going to let some outsider kid from a poor familia show them up!
His sheepish and bashful personality notwithstanding, if there was another point Tanya would give the boy, then it would be that he was attentive and followed her every instruction to the letter while she trained him physically. Unfortunately, that did little to offset his airheadedness when the workout time was over.
So, she had Aiz "Limit Test" him at every available opportunity, although it appeared that getting kicked in the face only did so much to change his disposition except make him want to try even harder.
During those two months, Aiz didn't stay stagnate either.
At six weeks she did something no one else had ever done in the Loki familia by reaching 999 S-Rank in all of her stats. She struggled for two more weeks, trying to break through whatever barrier she thought she had before she acquiesced to Loki's and Riveria's suggestion that she take the Rank Up to Level 6. No matter how hard she tried, her stats couldn't rise one bit, and Tanya had to pull her off to the side for a Peer-to-Peer discussion. The young woman was frustrated enough to cry, and Tanya had to console her by telling her that life wasn't fair, but if she truly wanted to grow stronger, then Tanya would help her train even harder.
It was a simple declaration, but it was enough for Aiz to stop sulking in her room, playing around with her wind magic instead of teaching the Level 2's and 3's the fine art of the sword, like she had agreed to earlier.
Idly, Aiz noted the similarity between Tanya and Bell Cranel, pointing out their talents and absurd growth rates over this time period, and Tanya did her best to deconstruct her own growth for Aiz while she could only postulate on whatever the hell was on with Bell Cranel. However, it wasn't the stat growth that Aiz was referring to, as the boy agreed to hold off on Status Updates until Tanya gave him the okay- which was something that had his Goddess in a tizzy, but that was Cranel's problem.
No, Aiz was referencing his ability to pick up and learn from combat in a way that she had never seen before, able to take lessons learned after only a few beatings and then miraculously being able to apply them passably into his combat style. It took Aiz and Tanya kicking his face in a half-dozen times before he was able to include kicks and punches into his knife-fighting style, but when he did it appeared to be almost effortless; which was incredibly annoying because Tanya spent hundreds of hours training herself and this kid was somehow able to just learn through osmosis?
What bullshit!
She also ruminated over the fact that a boy from a piss-poor familia had a pure Mithril knife, but she couldn't really do anything about it. It wasn't her place to pry, but upon hearing that Hestia was friends with Hephaestus (she had wondered who the poor Goddess that Loki constantly ragged on had been freeloading off of), she chalked it up to the Goddess of the Forge being a big softy for her close friend and her friend's first Child.
Regardless, Aiz took the Rank Up from Level 5 to Level 6, and she marveled at just how much stronger she felt with her stats maxed versus the previous Rank Ups she had when she started. The young teen had confided in Tanya that she thought about doing a Rank Reset once all of this business was over; the Loki familia wouldn't need her strength when the threat was handled.
Tanya agreed with her somewhat, especially after looking at her previous Rank Ups: Aiz had been in the D's and C's for every stat except Dexterity and Agility, which were a respectable B and A, for Level 1, 2, and 3. It wasn't until Level 4 that she managed C's and B's in Strength, Endurance, with A's in Dexterity, Agility, and Magic.
Level 5 was the first time she had reached an S-Rank in any of her basic stats, and managing to get them all up to 999 S-Rank had done something amazing for her Rank Up to Level 6. She felt a significant difference in her abilities, and she showed this by fighting Bete- she effortlessly pummeled him into the dirt. Even the Agility that he prided himself on felt short.
Aiz Wallenstein was a completely different person upon her Rank Up, and this completely motivated the rest of the Executives to put forth their best efforts during their remaining weeks of training. Gareth, though had maxed his Strength and Endurance, had to work on his Agility training, with Riveria having him practice with her personal bow to improve his dexterity. In his free time, Tanya had him practicing some of the easier external mana control exercises.
They did this with everyone because Tanya and Riveria had gone to the Alfheim archery shop and put in an order for 1,000 Daggerwood arrows that put a sizeable dent in their funds, but if Tanya was able to enchant those arrows and the Executives were able to shoot them with a degree of accuracy then they would have an excellent tool to fight the insect monsters of the 50th Floor that had almost ruined their last expedition.
The Enchanted Daggerwood arrows fired from a powerful enough bow would easily pierce and slay the beasts before their acid could become a problem.
Tiona and Tione did incredibly well, as did Bete. Leyfia had the largest improvement out of all of them, but comparatively speaking it was because she was by far the furthest behind. As it sat she could barely handle one-on-one combat with the two parties of fresh Level 2's that Loki had sent into the Dungeon to rank up earlier with the minotaur horn-infused gear that Tany and Rivera procured months ago.
Everyone saw significant gains in their progress with Tanya's skill aiding them, and truth be told it was a shot of adrenaline to everyone involved. Years of stagnation were blown out of the water, and everyone was really fired up.
They were training and gearing up to go to war against a foe that made them flee last time with their heads held low in defeat. That would not happen again.
Loki increased the number of Adventurers going from their usual 130 to 200, which allowed them to double the size of their wagon train for all of the loot they would get from Tanya's inclusion. The Loki familia would be coming back from this Expedition fat with loot, to the point where they would need to build an actual storehouse on the side lot because holding everything in the main hall as they used to before signing it over to the Guild was not going to work out anymore.
Not to mention the fact that they needed to hold onto all of the high valis loot drops so they could drip feed them out onto the market without crashing the prices at Tanya's insistence. The market was well developed, but not large enough to handle such an influx of monster materials without tanking the prices horribly. The hide, fangs, and claws from the Dragons they were going to slay would be more than enough to drop their 50 Million valis prices down to the low single digits if they put them out on the market in one shot.
Of course, this irked Loki, because she liked instant gratification when it came to her money, but upon seeing some projections from Tanya she settled down after seeing all of the billions of additional valis that would flow into the familia's coffers over the course of the year (providing prices remained stable).
Eventually, they would have to release their materials to make sure they were used, and if they did money expeditions like these often enough the prices would plummet anyways. Better to try and ride the highs as long as possible before eventually settling on a lower price as items infused with Valgang Dragon parts became more prevalent.
Tanya was very much looking forward to having a new flight suit created from Valgang Dragonhide, even if she really liked her Infant Dragon hide flight suit there were always ways it could be improved.
Like, say for instance, using Goliath hide.
Which was why Loki was currently pestering Tanya while they were all gathered in her office filing some last-minute paperwork for the expedition.
"Tanya. There are many reasons I want you to go down there and kill that big guy, and it's not just because I haven't updated your status in over two months." The Goddess squirmed in her chair as she rubbed her cheek against a bottle of Soma's bottom shelf; Finn bought it for her for 500,000 valis to get her to stop complaining about having to update the status of damn near every Adventurer in the familia. "Though I'm not gonna lie, the anticipation is positively killing me, huuhuuhuuhuuhuu!"
"Loki-sama, I thought we agreed I would wait until the day before we departed for the Dungeon to update my status? I still have four days to eke out just a little bit of extra training in." Tanya sighed as she sat herself down in the Update Chair with her back leaning against the chest rest. "Although, I won't deny that I'm extremely curious as well."
Aiz looked up from her paperwork and blinked. "I am anxious as well."
"Oi, chibi, will you just get your shit updated so Loki-sama will stop hounding you!?" Bete grumbled from his desk, "It's hard as fuck to concentrate on this damned paperwork you dragged me into doing, and you're the only one here who hasn't had their update yet."
Riveria tittered behind her hand as Tiona leapt to her feet with her arms raised towards the ceiling! "Yeah! Paperwork break! Tanya-chi, hurry up and get your status update so we can all talk about something other than how many crates of potions go into which wagon!"
Tanya frowned and pointed her pen at the Amazon. "Having a proper load plan is incredibly important, Tiona. If you don't distribute the weight properly then you're going to end up putting significant wear and tear when there shouldn't be any. Also, having one wagon significantly slower than the others because it is overburdened will slow down the whole train."
The Amazon sighed and collapsed into her chair. "Oh, I know that! It's just... chart after chart! A crate of 100 potions weighs 20 kilograms, and the wagons can support 600 kilograms over the axel... and I have to figure out how many crates can be stacked into one wagon to get it close to the max weight without going over it! It was fun for the first few days, sort of like playing with a puzzle, but now it's just boring!"
Finn chuckled and shook his head. "Alas, this is what is to be expected of a high-ranking Executive member. Truth be told, I don't know how we managed to handle all of this work previously; without the additional hands helping us I feel like I finally have time to breathe and worry about other things."
The Pallum man looked down at his twitching thumb and clenched his fist. "We're all a lot stronger than we were before, and we have a much better idea of what to expect this time around. We're better prepared, better trained, better equipped, and we're all eligible for Rank Ups, except for Aiz-chan of course."
The blonde in question pouted a little bit but didn't say anything.
It was the truth, and the truth was stranger than fiction. The Level 6's were all ready for a Rank Up, their stats met the thresholds and exceeded them in many cases. The same went for the Level 5's in the familia. Tiona, Tione, and Bete were at their very best right now, even if their stats weren't all maxed out as Aiz's had been.
All they needed to hit Level 6 was to have the High-Quality Excelia needed, and the proper story for Loki to lay the foundation.
Riveria smiled at Finn before turning her alluring gaze towards Tanya. "That we are, Finn-dono. The only one who needs to just take the plunge now is Tanya-dono. Please, don't keep us in suspense any longer."
Tanya mulled it over in her head for a few minutes before Loki slammed her empty bottle on the table and stood up; she was... more than a little unsteady on her feet. The Goddess stumbled around her table and grabbed Tanya by her shoulders. "Tanya-chan, you Rank Up to Level 2, get us a bunch of Goliath hide to fashion wooden shields with and to make yourself a new armor suit to protect yourself with... and I'll let you start laying the foundation for a possible meeting with the other Four Pillars about our investigations."
The young teen blinked. "Are you trying to... bribe me with merely allowing me to do my job?"
The Goddess blew a raspberry. "Ppppllllbbbbttttttt~, no, Tanya-chan. I'm not. I just know that you've been working realllllllyyyyyyy hard on your Daedalus contacts, building up the Royal Rats into respectable Adventurers, and helping them out with their little slice of Daedalus. You've been running yourself ragged, and I think that Finn-kun and I have finally put together enough of a presentation that would get them involved, all proper-like."
The Pallum man looked sort of shocked at her declaration, but his face smoothed over and he fixed a Customer Service smile on. "Indeed. However, I wanted to use this Expedition to confirm some of our theories before we moved forward; if what Loki and I have... found is to be believed, then you just might be correct in some of your more... outlandish postulations."
Tanya couldn't help but smile.
While the plan to infiltrate Daedalus had been a bust, if what they were saying was true, then this Expedition just might be what they need to blow this case wide open!
A surge of satisfaction filled her, and her cheeks brightened more than a few shades. The Goddess gave her a brief squeeze. "Yup, so I know that you've gotten some initial information all planned out and stuff, so just, I don't know, give it to them or something. Give 'em a little heads up about what could possibly be coming down the road. Keep it discreet though, yanno?"
The young teen cleared her throat and nodded. "Of course, Loki-sama."
Tanya had read through her own presentation so often that she could recite everything with her eyes closed. With her numerous years of experience giving hundreds of such presentations in the past, she would surely knock it out of the park!
The other Divines would be more than happy to lend their aid and assistance to put down this fanatical menace once they knew what the Loki familia had been oh so carefully investigating these past few months.
The vindication would be oh so sweet.
Once the insurgents had been dealt with, then Tanya could return to her normal life of fighting murderous monsters and training people- best of all, this would surely take Being-X's behind-the-scenes machinations and bend them over the table to get fucked really hard!
Get fucked, Being-X! You hold no power here, and Tanya von Degurchaff is going to step on your fucking dick for daring to try and interfere with her life!
Idiot, didn't you hear Being-Y? They will suffer none of your foolishness here! Stop trying! Give up! Girls don't like it when you're too insistent! Get a life!
Heeheehee~
Tanya felt Loki pinch her cheek and she blinked for a moment before... releasing the Angalgesic formula.
Everyone was staring at her. Tiona and Tione looked worried. Bete scowled and averted his eyes. Finn's frown was severe and Gareth looked like someone had poured a mug of his favorite mead all over the floor. Aiz seemed apathetic, but her posture and the inclination of her head indicated that she was paying very close attention.
Rivera looked like her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
Ah, please, Riveria, don't look at her like that.
She just slipped.
That's all.
No need to worry.
Tanya hasn't slipped like that in weeks, she is fine. Tanya is okay.
"Good," Loki murmured as she wiggled Tanya's head from side to side as the golden glow left the young teen's eyes and her sky blue orbs returned. "Now, come on, pull your dress down and turn around already, I got a meeting with Phae-chan that Finn and I have to get to!"
The young teen blinked before she stood up from her desk and walked over to the Rank-Up chair on the other side of the room. Loki's fingers undid the claps on the back of her plain, long-sleeved sky-blue dress; this one went down to her ankles to hide the markings on her leg. If it wasn't for some tightness in the chest area, she would look quite unassuming. The sleeves revealed her muscular arms, and when the front of her dress was pulled down to her waist she took her seat and Loki giggled like a schoolgirl.
"You always wear such plain clothes, Tanya-chan. How are you supposed to show off this amazing body and attract a girl's attention if you keep it all hidden away? Muscles in all the right places.... and yet you still are nice and curvy. In five years you'll be having everybody in Orario chasing after you! Hahahahaha!"
Tanya felt the Goddess' ichor drip onto her back and the woman kept talking as she allocated Tanya's excelia. "I'll have to beat everyone off... with... a stick..."
Tanya von Degurechaff
Level 1 -> (Eligible) Level 2
Strength: 1,496 SSSS
Endurance: 1,517 EX
Dexterity: 1,534 EX
Agility: 1,573 EX
Magic: 2,082 EX
Magics:
[Calculative Magic:]
Mage ReinforcementFlightPassive ShellActive ShellClose (Minor) WoundsOxygenationMage BladeLong Distance Targeting/HomingLong Distance ObservationExplosionRefracted BeamHeatColdCluster ExplosionAnalgesicIllusionCommunication[Shape-Chant Magic:]
Spring Vitality [Falna, Spell Slot 1 of 3]Breath of Life [Falna, Spell Slot 2 of 3]
Developmental Abilities: None
Skills:
Mage Commander: Gain additional stats when near other Mages. Stats gained are proportional to the number of Mages within range.Concurrent Chanting: Able to Chant and Cast Magics while on the move. Aids in maintaining focus during active combat and evasion.Master Trainer: Adventurers you train gain additional stats, you gain half of this bonus.Enchanter: Enchant items with various spell effects using Rune-based Formula inscriptions.Marksman: Gain additional Dexterity and Agility when using a ranged weapon.Divine Retribution: Limits on the falna are removed, allowing for limitless growth within a single Rank of the falna as long as the user is focused on the goal of revenge against Being-X.
"Holy shit!" Loki cried out as she scrambled over to the table and snatched a fresh sheet of parchment out of Riveria's hand and hustled towards Tanya; the woman damn near tripping over the leg of Gareth's chair in her haste. Tanya didn't even wince when the Goddess slapped the paper onto her back and began the transference spell.
When she was done she practically shoved it into Tanya's hand while she ran back over to her desk and reached into her lower drawers and pulled out a big bottle of wine. One that was probably so expensive that Finn lunged out of his seat and snatched the bottle from her hand and had to bounce off the wall and the ceiling to cancel out his momentum. "Finnnnnnnn-kkkkkuuuuunnnnnnn~!!!!!!!! Come on! This is a reason to celebrate!"
The small man huffed and stood up straight so that he could tug down the shirt of his uniform. "Loki-sama, if I remember correctly, you said that we were going to save this bottle of wine specifically when we gain our first Level 7."
"Well, at the rate everyone is going here, I don't think Level 7 will be too far off! Hahahahaha!" The Goddess threw back her head and laughed uproariously.
The Captain of the Loki familia shook his head as he sat the wine bottle down on top of his desk. The Goddess instead reached into her other drawer and pulled out another bottle of wine. The man sighed and decided to let it go as Loki grabbed the cork-remover and started twisting away. "Loki-sama, you do realize that you have the meeting with Hephaestus-sama, right? If you're drunk when we get there, she will not be amused."
"Phaw, nonsense! Once I tell her all about Tanya-chan she'll understand completely! This is totally a reason to get smashed at-" She squinted at the wall clock, "- at 10:23 AM in the morning! Seriously! Hey, Tanya-chan, are ya' done reading yet?"
Tanya sighed and let her forehead fall onto the cushion of the chair. She was only 4 points away from EX in strength! Why did she have to cave!?
Why!?
The young teen groaned, "Fine. Might as well, Loki-sama. Please, put the wine bottle off to the side and come back over here and finish the Rank Up process please."
"Level 2! Level 2! She's Level 2! Leeevvveeellll 2! Cha-cha-cha!" The Goddess floundered on the floor towards Tanya in a horrible rendition of the "Worm", that terrible dance move from the '80s and '90s. When she shot up to her feet she pricked her finger again and opened her falna back up. Within a minute the woman pulled back and left it open. "Alright, Tanya-chan! You are officially Level 2! So what Developmental ability ya want? You have Abnormal Resist, Mage, Spearman, Ranger - oh, haven't seen that one in a while- Magic Resistance, Hunter, and... Spiritual Healing?"
"I know what Abnormal Reist does, and Hunter. Magic Resistance sounds self-explanatory. Riveria-dono informed me about the benefits of Mage, but I'm afraid that I don't know about Spiritual Healing and Ranger." Tanya bobbed her head from side to side, her ahoge swinging away as she spoke.
"Well, Ranger is a Developmental Ability that isn't typically seen outside of elvish lands; it is a skill that aids one in hunting, tracking, wilderness survival, and ranged combat. It is a skill that has a wide variety of uses, and is considered a common pick-up for elves that make Level 2; outside of Orario at the very least." Riveria spoke up as she stood up onto her feet and walked over to Tanya, "As for other Developmental abilities... it is quite odd because Magic Resistance shouldn't be available until at least Level 3, and Spiritual Healing is rarely seen on anyone below Level 5. As for what Spiritual Healing does, is it boosts your Mind regeneration by a fairly small amount every time you cast a spell."
The elf Princess hummed as she stroked her chin, "If I had to estimate how much it helped me recover I would say that... I could recover one-tenth of my total mind within three hours? I know that might not sound like a large amount, but given your prodigious Mind capacity this might not be a bad choice, but I feel like Mage would be far more suitable for you at this juncture. While you are progressing very well in your studies, you'll find that other magics aren't as simple to manipulate as healing spells."
"I should ask Lenoa-sama if she has any spellbooks on order that could fill a gap in your repertoire." Riveria rubbed her ear as she spoke softly to herself.
Tanya let out a small noise of agreement as she ran over the improvements of the Mage Developmental Ability.
Spoiler: Mage Developmental Ability BenefitsThe improvements weren't incredible, but in Riveria's teachings, she believed that the Mage ability improved such things by at least 20%.
Having 20% extra Mana, mana manipulation, mana efficiency, spell efficacy, etc, etc, etc would be a massive boon for Tanya. The additional Mind regeneration might be nice, but the Aerial Mage found that her mana regenerated quite a lot when in the Dungeon, so having the extra capacity would be more beneficial for now.
Spearman and Spiritual Healing sounded like excellent pick-ups for Level 3 and Leve 4 however; anything that allows her to wield her chosen melee weapon with greater lethality and lets her spam more spells would be massive in regards to improving her combat capabilities!
"I will take Mage, Loki-sama." Tanya finally uttered, and the Goddess chuckled before finalizing the Rank Up.
Power surged through her veins and she felt a gasp leave her lips as her inner well of mana swelled to what felt like almost double, and her magical signature flared brightly for a moment before the falna wrestled it back under control. In a daze the young woman ran the Mana Capacity formula and measured out her new mana total... her mouth went dry. She went from 50,410 motes to 82,100 motes. With a down and dirty calculation, she was at roughly 8,210 units of Mind if she used the local designation.
That was... a significant increase in her capabilities. This couldn't have been just the Mage Developmental Ability, could it?
No, this was what the Adventurers were talking about then they said that the Higher your stats were ranked, the stronger you'd be upon Leveling Up.
Was this what Aiz experienced when she Ranked Up?
She felt several times stronger than before, several times faster, and... she put her arms back in her sleeves and buttoned her dress up herself without any of the fumblings she had to deal with when messing with the teeny-tiny buttons this dress used to secure the back closed. Tanya stood up and walked to an unoccupied portion of the room and performed a standing backflip, and she simply marveled at how effortless it was, at how easy it was to feel just where her body was at every moment during the flip.
When she landed her balance felt perfect and sure.
A shiver left her spine as she activated her Mage Reinforcement formula and she felt how much simpler it was to guide the mana through her marks, she could see just how she had wasted mana before- so many wasted calculation cycles that forced the formula to run them multiple times. If the Mage Reinforcement was capable of improving all of her capabilities by four times before, then it was four times plus a little extra now.
This... this... would require experimentation.
The young teen walked over to Aiz and handed her the parchment with her stats on it before she looked the woman in the eyes. "Meet me out on the training field in 15 minutes."
The girl's lips parted and she blinked. "Okay."
Tanya stood there with Blutscher and was geared up, wearing her newest Infant Dragon hide flight suit.
She felt amazing! Absolutely incredible! Every single ache and pain she'd been experiencing the whole day from the previous evening's training was absolutely gone. Her body thrummed with power and clenched her fist, relishing in the sound of the dragon hide gloves creaking under the pressure. Power pumped through her body, and her muscles felt like they could rend steel without even trying.
The effects she was feeling were cranked up to 15 when she activated her Mage Reinforcement.
When Aiz stepped across from her and drew Desperate from its sheath, Tanya barely had the willpower to restrain herself as Finn listed out the terms for this spar.
She could hardly wait!
[Riveria Ljos Alf - Executive Member of the Loki familia]
The elf had been stunned with the extreme magical surge when Loki-sama had finished the Rank Up. Her senses were far more precise than most mages, and she could tell that the girl had increased her magical prowess by almost half. The nature of the falna meant that one's magical capacity would naturally increase as the Magic stat grew in size, and the higher one's Letter Grade, the larger that increase would be upon Rank Up... but the jump she experienced was nothing like she'd ever seen before.
Riveria Ljos Alf was known as one of the most powerful mages alive, and she had just under 13,000 Units of Mind. Tanya was well over 8,000 Units now, and she was only a Level 2.
With her incredible control and the array of extremely precise and low-cost spells she had thanks to her Calculative Magic, especially for how destructive they were... the girl would surely usurp her position by the time she made Level 4, if not before then. Considering her rate of growth she might make it to Level 4 within a year if she kept trying as hard as she did right now.
It was a very sobering thought.
Truth be told, she had always believed that Lefiya would one day be the one to surpass her and claim the title of Strongest Mage in the World, but with this Rank Up, Tanya had almost surpassed Lefiya Viridis. The young elf's beyond prodigious amount of Mind paling in the face of the boon granted by Tanya's skill.
Riveria had 4,000 Units of Mind when she started her journey in the Loki familia, and Lefiya had even more at 5,000 units. As it stood, right at this very moment, Tanya was within 1,000 or so Units of Mind... within striking distance of the Thousand Elf, the strongest elf mage the world will likely ever see in Riveria's lifetime.
Tanya will only grow stronger while Lefiya would languish until her next Rank Up.
How much longer would her dear student have until she was no longer the strongest mage in Orario? It was the one thing that had kept her low self-esteem at bay. She wouldn't be the strongest, the heartiest, the fastest, nor the most dextrous, but no one could take the crown away from her when it came to her magical ability. At least, that was until now.
The elf bit her lip as she tilted her head ever so slightly to glance at the young elf, but much to her surprise there was no anger, sadness, or jealousy in her features.
No, her first student was staring at the blonde in open wonder.
Rivera felt her heart lighten.
She blinked back the tears that stung at her eyes and turned her attention back to the field where Aiz and Tanya were receiving the rules for this bout.
Loki-sama sidled up next to her, the Goddess reaching out and grasping Riveria's hand. "What'cha thinking about?"
"Tanya will surpass me by Level 4, maybe halfway through her 3rd Step Towards Divinity if she keeps up her rate of growth. Of that, I have no doubt." The elf princess squeezed her Goddess' hand and the woman chuckled as she raised her other hand to cover her eyes.
"Man, o man... Tanya-chan just really is the gift that keeps on giving." Loki-sama began to gyrate and squirm. "Come'on, Finn-kun, hurry up already! I'm about to burst over here!"
"-both participants understand the rules?"
"Yes." "I do."
"Then, begin!" Finn's hand swept down before he took a calculated leap back, the Pallum familia Captain alighting on the stone wall lining the edge of the sparring ground near the Manor.
Riveria trained her eyes back on the fight and was utterly amazed when Tanya shot forward with the speed of a fresh Level 4, the sound of steel ringing against steel.
Aiz's eyes were wide as dinner plates as she had to adjust her stance to not be pushed back by the force of the blow. However, the skill gap was incredibly apparent as Tanya's basic blow was effortlessly pushed to the side before she lashed out with a standard counter; the young teen was just barely able to maneuver the haft of her weapon to knock the thrust off course.
They darted in and out, thrusting, slashing, sweeping, and parrying. It was clearly evident that Aiz had the edge in speed, strength, and skill, but was holding herself back to see just how Tanya could push herself.
Yes, it was like watching a fresh Level 4, of that, Riveria had no doubt; her movements were fast and powerful, but there was a small delay in her strikes- like she wasn't sure just how much power she was putting into the blow. Tanya, unlike Aiz, did not have the previous experience of quickly adjusting to one's newfound abilities.
There was always an adjustment period an Adventurer went through upon taking the next Step Towards Divinity; it was very much akin to a teenager relearning how to move and walk properly after a growth spurt.
The poor girl was all over the place; her body was off, her stance was off, her movements were not nearly as tight and as controlled as they had been before. When she dashed forward she overshot, when she leaped back she moved back far too far, and then had to run back in to engage.
It was like watching an overly powered house fire- horrifying but impossible to look away from.
Tanya would need to take the next few days to adjust to her absurd jump in abilities because this was by far the worst post-Rank Up adjustment Riveria had ever seen in her life.
Every strike was exaggerated, every parry carried with it monumental force when it should only have used the bare minimum, and every twirl and readjustment of her stave made it seem as though poor Tanya was trying to start a whirlwind with just the power of her body alone.
Bete and Tiona were absolutely beside themselves with laughter. "Oh! Oh Loki-sama! Ahahahahahahahahaha! It's a fuck'n wonder she didn't launch herself down the fuck'n stairs! Hahahahahahaha! I can't, I just fucking can't, it's too much!"
"Poor Tanya-chi, she's just Ranked Up for the first time, and it's like watching a baby deer walk for the first time! You- hahahahahah- y-you can do it Tanya-chi! J-just keep swing'n away and you'll get her eventually!" The dark-skinned Amazon was holding onto the werewolf for dear life. No, they were holding onto each other for dear life; their mutual support was the only thing keeping them standing.
In the meanwhile, Finn was pinching the bridge of his nose while muttering to himself. "I'm going to have to teach her how to handle her weapon now that she has all that strength. Again."
Riveria shook her head. No, she would need to have another weapon made entirely; what was good for an overpowered Level 1 would eventually be broken by a Level 2 with the strength of a Level 4.
Five minutes into the bout Aiz had finally adjusted herself to just above Tanya's capabilities, and it became more of an actual spar from then on. The Sword Princess not holding back with her assault- each parry led to Aiz-chan leaning into Tanya with a punch or a kick, but much to Riveria's surprise, the longer the fight went on, the more Tanya began to come back into her own. The wild flails and thrusts lowering in power and speed, helping her more easily move her body as well as the weapon.
No doubt the massive amounts of agility and dexterity were helping her get a better handle on her strength. Thrusts became crisper, sweeps had less slop, and the cleaving overhead cuts that the blade on the end of her spear-stave was made for came down with frightening speed and strength. With every punch and kick Aiz landed, her younger opponent tightened up.
It was incremental, slow but gradual.
By twenty minutes Tanya was back into her usual form, which was... decent for the amount of time that the young girl had been using the weapon. Aiz was by far the superior combatant, and it showed.
That was when Tanya leapt back a few meters and spoke out. "I think I have the kinks worked out, but I don't know what is going to happen when I activate my Mage Reinforcement, so please, be careful; my abilities should increase fourfold."
Aiz stiffened up for a moment before she nodded and became incredibly serious. Riveria could feel the magic as it swelled around Tanya's body before molding over her body and compacting into her form; a thin sheen of Mind could be felt just over the surface of her skin.
This... likely was not a good idea-
The ground exploded as Tanya shot forward with a speed that Riveria's eyes could hardly track, and when the blur of a girl emerged she was clashing with Aiz. Just like before, the blow had been incredibly heavy, but this strike was far more devastating in its power and intensity- the elf Princess could see the genuine strain on Aiz's face as she twisted the spearhead off of Desperate and parrying it to the side. When the weapon cratered the training ground Tanya's eyes widened in shock and she immediately disengaged... only to go sailing through the air like a ragdoll as the power of her leap carried her high into the sky.
Thankfully Tanya could fly because that would have ended poorly otherwise.
As Tanya hung in the air above them, looking down at her free hand in a mixture of surprise and fear, Riveria couldn't help but think that the young teen's strength reminded her of Gareth, and he was a Level 6 that had maxed his strength stat out at 999 S!
"Oho, the girly be strong indeed!" The dwarf chuckled as he stroked his beard, "Might be able to give me a run for my money, I think, but I get the feeling that she didn't use the entirety of her strength. A fourfold increase of a Level 4 might be Level 7 territory, me thinks..."
Bete and Tiona were no longer laughing.
Thankfully Tanya touched down and bowed to Aiz. "Apologies, Aiz-san... I knew in my head just what that strength increase was going to be, but actually having all of that power in my hands was... dangerous."
The girl in question gave Tanya a searching look before she shook her head. "No. It is fine. I was uninjured, even if the strength of that blow startled me."
After a moment Aiz Wallenstein looked at Tanya and spoke some words that lifted Riveria's heart. "That... Reinforcement Spell. Can you teach it to me?"
The Aerial Mage scratched the back of her head as she looked up at the clouds. "I... think I can? It will be incredibly hard, but if I can get someone to help me make you a computation orb then maybe..."
Aiz looked at Tanya before she sheathed Desperate and bowed lowly. "I would be grateful."
The young Level 2 Executive let out a gusty sigh. "Well, if you ask me so earnestly, then why would I deny you? It isn't like we won't have time on the Expedition for me to teach you. It will be a lot of math, but we'll need to get your Mind control up to par first."
Tanya rubbed her chin and looked her fellow blonde in the eyes. "I'll swing by your room tonight and give you a few Mind exercises that you can practice, is that okay?"
Aiz's blonde hair swished as she shook her head. "No, I will look forward to your instruction, Tanya-sensei."
Riveria felt her lips curl down into a deep frown. For 12 years she was always "Riveria" or "Old Hag", but Tanya gets to be called 'Sensei'?! Magna Alfs trembled in Riveria's hand.
As if sensing her impending doom, Aiz Wallenstein bowed to everyone and stated that she would go down into the Dungeon for a while and left like a bat out of hell.
"Hey! Aiz-chan! Wait for me!" Tiona called out as she disentangled herself from Bete and dashed off to the house to retrieve her Urga. Lefiya, already having her staff in hand, ran off after Aiz.
That was when Loki-sama spoke up. "H-hey! You damn kids! Get back here! You haven't finished your paperwork yet!"
Thankfully, Tanya was quite the paperwork demon, and she assured Loki-sama that she would finish up their paperwork for them. Just for today. After that, it would be back to business as usual.
"That girl is gonna give Ottar a run for his valis by Level 3," Gareth rumbled with an amused smile on his face, "That's if we can get her to learn how to handle her spear properly first."
"Indeed, her form is shoddy, to say the least, but it is more than sufficient for the monsters she has faced so far," Finn murmured as he approached, the Pallum man running a glove-clad hand through his hair.
Riveria hummed in agreement before she felt for her coin pouch. "Well then, my paperwork is complete, so I am off to the bookstore."
"Off to get ya' 'nother one of yer romance novellas, Riveria?" Gareth chuckled.
"No, if Tanya is going to be teaching Aiz some of her Calculative Magics, then I would be remiss if I did not sit in on her lessons as well. The ability to increase one's strength fourfold is nothing to scoff at... if I can get it to work even half as well, then that would give me a great amount of leeway in combat moving forward."
She left the pair stunned as she walked off- she needed parchment, and pens! A book, and maybe a travel-sized abacus!
[Tanya von Degurechaff]
"So, is it damaged?" Tanya asked Tsubaki Collebrand as the half-dwarf looked over the spearhead with a critical eye.
"Hmmm... there are definitely some stress fractures, that's for damn sure. What the hell did you do to your weapon, Tanya-san?" The dark-skinned woman lifted her face away from the blade as she held it up to the sunlight. It was sort of surprising to not see her using a magnifying glass of some kind, but to be fair, Tanya's eyesight since her Rank Up was far more detailed; being able to see the individual thin hairs on Tsubaki's belly when her nose wasn't touching it was quite a... thing.
"Ah, I uh, Ranked Up and challenged Aiz-san to a spar to test my new capabilities." Tanya grabbed one of the locks of hair framing her face and twirled it around her finger; it was one of the new things she discovered she liked doing now that she didn't have military regulations keeping her hair in check. "I experienced a very large jump in capabilities, a jump that I didn't quite anticipate. According to the others, I am now as strong as a newly raised Level 4."
The half-dwarf's head snapped over to her. "You serious?"
"I am indeed. My skill gave me a massive increase to my base stats, and with all of my abilities seemingly reaching some sort of hard-cap due to... maxing out the Letter Grade it appears that I have experienced a growth in strength of roughly threefold. I don't have the exact numbers since I didn't remember to do it before Loki-sama pressured me into finally Ranking Up; it was a spur of the moment thing." The diminutive blond coughed into her hand, her cheeks turning pink as the blacksmith sat Tanya's weapon down with a cheeky grin.
"Oh? I seem to recall a certain someone admonishing all the Adventurers because they didn't notate their limits in a... how did she describe it again? Ah, that's right, a 'scientific manner' before their Rank Up to get a feel for how the falna improved their capabilities."
Tanya flushed even harder and looked away. "I was rushed and then put on the spot, I was even sitting on the chair already. Loki-sama just kept pestering away and I folded. Which was annoying because if I held off one day I could have gotten my Strength to the max cap as far as Letter Grades go."
"Well then, that is neither here nor there, I suppose." The blacksmith murmured as she picked Blutscher up and handed it back to her. "This will need to be replaced, unfortunately. If it was just MiNoHi then I could simply reforge it, but it has a Mithril spine; there is no way I could separate it from the blade as everything has been alloyed together."
Tanya sighed and ran her hand along the Songwood haft, noting the small gouge in the wood from blocking or parrying Aiz's strikes. "If the blade is damaged, then the haft is also likely damaged as well."
"Yep, that is likely the case. Elvish woods like this don't really show the damage on the surface, so a lot of times fractures are hidden in the core. I'm not a mage, but I can tell you that a damaged staff can mess with how the Mind flows within it, so you would be much better off using this as a display piece in your room. There really is nothing like seeing your first custom weapon to remind you of these beautiful halcyon days." Tsubaki patted Tanya's shoulder with a wistful smile on her face.
Ah, Tsubaki-san, you're far too youthful and beautiful to be speaking like an old man.
"So then, what would you recommend?" Tanya looked up and gave the expert smith an appraising eye.
"Well, I would recommend that you get Chantwood if anything; it's what your Captain uses for his spear. It's fairly flexible and can withstand the strength of a Level 6 quite handily, although it can be broken with someone powerful strikes it directly." The woman spoke, leaning back and looking up towards a few of the spears hanging up on the wall that had coal-black but lustrous hafts. "However, if you experience another incredible jump in strength when you hit Level 3 then... Oathwood is the bare minimum you're going to want to use."
"I would also think that you should make your spear longer, probably 210cm, maybe even 215cm instead of the 200cm you currently have now; puberty with a falna is an entirely different beast. You'll shoot up like a weed for sure, Tanya-san, mark my words." The woman smirked and used her arms to push up her chest and give her breasts a jiggle. "You'll also grow in other places too. Just pray you don't get big boobs as I have, they're a pain in the ass and get in the way of my smithing... though I won't lie and say that I dislike the effect it has on getting some attention."
Tanya blinked and shrugged. "I don't know how I will turn out, but whatever will be, will be, I suppose. I wouldn't be opposed to larger breasts though. Considering how I am developing now I might very well grow up to be... stacked is the slang term used nowadays? Regardless, as long as I can look my best, being heavy up top or down bottom isn't really a concern for me."
Tsubaki chortled as she walked over and grabbed a piece of parchment as well as a thin leather-backed binder and sat down. "Can't say that you're the first I've heard dismiss their incoming blossoming into womanhood in such a fashion, but just don't let Tiona-chan hear you say that; she's quite sensitive about her lack of breasts."
The half-dwarf cleared her throat. "Now, as for the blade, I am thinking it is time you move straight to a pure Mithril one instead of an alloy. It will cost a pretty valis, as all pure mithril blades do, but you did bring back some Mithril nodes from the Dungeon a few months back, didn't you?"
Tanya moved and sat down across from Tsubaki and nodded. "Yes, I managed to harvest six nodes, but I don't know how much that will offset the cost."
"Well," Tsubaki hummed, "Each node can have anywhere from 50 to 100 grams of Mithril inside, so with 6 nodes you're looking at anywhere from 300 to 600 grams of Mithril; probably safer to say roughly 450 grams. Your last blade was roughly two kilograms, but if you're going to go down to the lower floors then you're going to want a larger, heavier blade; the monsters get a lot tougher the deeper you go so... I'm thinking with increase the width of the blade from 3cm to 5 cm, increase the height from 8cm to 11cm... and the length from 30cm to maybe 45cm..."
The half-dwarf hummed and rubbed the wooden end of the charcoal pencil against her lower lip. "Damascus steel ain't going to cut it anymore; that stuff stops being useful for Level 3s- unless you're swinging around a big, thick cleaver or hammer. I think that you're going to want Nosteel for the spines. It's far more durable, but it will conduct mana pretty efficiently; if you can sprout one of those Mage Blades from it then I think that will give you a lot of extra lethality options than just the blade itself."
Tanya felt her once heavy coin-pouch become instantly lighter at her recommendations. She paid off the Alfheim bow last month, and it was clear that she was already beyond it, just like she was beyond Blutscher. She made a noise in the back of her throat that couldn't be interpreted as anything but a high-pitched squeal.
Tsubaki's lone eye twinkled with mirth as she jotted down some numbers and flicked the slides of the abacus. "I think that this is going to run you somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 million valis. For everything, that is; I have a contact with the same Elfwood grower that Riveria-sama used to grow your Songwood, so I should be able to get your Chantwood at a decent price. You're going to be using a Goliath core as your center stone, right?"
Tanya latched onto the distraction like a drowning woman would a lifeline and she arched an eyebrow. "I will be going down to the 18th Floor to kill the Goliath before the expedition, yes. How did you know?"
The woman grinned as she set the abacus down onto the table. "Well, Loki-sama and Finn-sama stopped by the store and chatted with myself and Hephaestus-sama. We will be donating 20 of our Level 3 smiths, including yours truly, to your little expedition. During our discussions, she let slip that you would be going down there to harvest the Goliath hide... and my Goddess has given me some leeway to negotiate for some of that hide."
Tanya hummed.
Goliath hide was pretty rare given its two-week spawn timer, and when it died there was only a 15% chance it would drop Goliath hide. When it did it would only drop three meters of the material about a meter in width. That scroll of hide would sell on the market for anywhere from 10 Million to 15 Million per meter, but the Guild, being the cheap bastards that they were, would maybe give you 5 Million valis for it. "We're not certain if your harvesting trick will work on a Monster Rex like the Goliath or not, but considering all of the materials you've been bringing in, we think it is a pretty good possibility that you will."
"If you can get us 20 meters of that, I can knock off a fairly generous sum; 160 Million valis." Tsubaki tilted her head as Tanya ran the numbers.
That was actually quite good, all things considering; the best Tanya would get out of the Guild for 20 meters is 100 Million valis, but they would charge the Hephaestus familia 250 Million valis for the same amount. So the Hephaestus familia would acquire it from Tanya for 8 Million a meter vs the 12.5 Million a meter that the Guild would charge. In turn, Tanya would get 8 Million vs the 5 Million the Guild would offer.
It was a tidy little deal where everyone saves quite a bit of valis.
"I want a short-sword of a similar profile of my primary blade. Maybe 65cm in length, 5cm in thickness, and 7cm in height; I prefer a single-edged blade, a Far Easter styled Wakizashi, with enough hilt for a two-handed grip; a tanto-styled tip as well. Probably a 50/50 Mithril/Nosteel blend would be sufficient." Tanya projected an illusion over the table with what she had in mind. It was plain, lacking adornments other than the ornaments. "I can provide Infant Dragon hide for the grip..."
"That would run about 130 Million valis if you provide the hide..." The woman muttered, "I made a similar blade to that a few months back for a Level 3 in the Gebu familia. Tell you what, get us 40 meters of that Goliath Hide, and I'll take 170 Million off the price of your new spearhead, as well as fashion that blade for free."
It wasn't bad, actually; sure they were squeaking an extra 20 million valis, but the thing with bulk orders was that the more one purchased, the more one should save. 20 Million valis was a fraction when you were working on high-value purchases like this. Besides, it was always good to keep your suppliers happy, and a few Gold coins would be worth it.
Tanya smiled as she reached over and shook Tsubaki's hand. "I think we have a deal."
Well, so far, this was going swimmingly.
"50 Million valis, or turn around and walk right out the door." Helfin Astarine, the proprietress of the small magic shop huffed. She owned the 'Crystal Host', the establishment that supplied a fair amount of refined magic cores and crystals for the Mages of Orario. This also happened to be the shop that Riveria took Tanya to get her Minotaur core refined. The elf woman had a severe frown on her face as she crossed her arms under her chest. "I have a large number of cores that are being refined right now, and if you expect me to push off some of those orders to get a Goliath core refined in time for your expedition in four days, then you better be willing to pay."
She was far more polite with Riveria! What the hell! Simpering, bowing, scraping, 'Oh, yes, Riveria-sama! It would be a most auspicious honor to help your little Tanya-chan get this Minotaur core refined! Take face one and slay it on her own, she must be oh so very brave and powerful!'
Sure, it had been grating at the time, but where the hell was that woman now!?
Tanya felt her gorge rise. "10 Million valis is far more than reasonable, Astarine-san. Your price chart says 5 Million to refine a Goliath core, with a 30% surcharge for rush orders. I really shouldn't be paying you as much as I am willing to, but that is the absolute best you're going to be getting out of me."
"That stone is very large, Tanya-san, it will take up an entire one of my refinement pools- a pool that I could be using to refine a half dozen orders." The woman looked unimpressed. "Why would I push those orders to the side because you need this done quickly?"