Preparations

"Ow, ow, ow...did we not agree that we were both even?" I bemoaned as I nursed a myriad of cuts and grazes that littered my body.

After I basically broke the perimeter wall of our manor with Finn's body, the Pallum had released divine judgement by trying to run me through with his spear. Or that's what it looked like but in reality he was trying to keep me alive as much as possible while torturing me the whole way through in front of our audience.

I guess I deserved it, but it turned out that my captain had a scummy side to him. He was obviously well practiced in extreme precision which was funny because his spear was twice the size that he was.

Instead of giving me some serious wound, he made sure that the tip only 'just' cut me, the kind of cuts that were more irritating than painful and made it difficult to move around like I usually did because I'd be assaulted by a burning sensation accompanied by extreme itching which drove me round the bend.

In the end it turned out that my combat skills still left much to be desired as Finn easily dismantled my defences with his own spear genius. I mean, it was less skill but more in how much speed the two of us could move at.

Overall it gave me an accurate measure of where my skills were at. I surmised that my current base power matched that of an S ranked level 4 but still fell short against a peak level five. Or as peak as it could get when it came to Finn since STR was one of his weaker areas, making his fighting style more centred around skill and speed.

I guess it sort of restored our usual reputations for the time being. He was captain after all and if he had let me get away with kicking him like that, he would have probably had bad repercussions as a result. And I got the feeling that it was best if I didn't pop out the demon form around him for a little while. I definitely got way too cocky with it.

I didn't want to know what would happen if I made him bust out that berserk mode of his. 'Hell Finegas' was it? Yeah, if he used that now, I probably wouldn't fare against him much better than I did against Ottar.

I'd still managed to appease him though by fixing the wall. The wall was made of stone, which made it a part of earth magic (I mean pretty much all rocks and metals were a part of earth magic) so I'd restored the wall to it's previous state. But judging by the nervous laughs I was getting from my Familia colleagues as well as the looks of pity I was getting, I was not out of the woods just yet.

And yet even as I closed my wound with healing magic, I couldn't stop the bubbling excitement within me because of what was awaiting us tomorrow. My first deep dive into true hell that was the moderate and hard levels of the dungeon.

I'd made good progress in this game. In just a month, I'd cleared beginner's difficulty by myself, something that took average adventurers years to do. And now we were going down deeper in collective efforts which meant we'd stay down there longer and give me more time to acclimate.

The only way this could go wrong was if the Dungeon decided to make this even worse for me. But I wasn't by myself, so what was the chance of that happening?

---

(Next Day)

Things kicked off to as smooth of a start as it could get. Of course it was the winter season, so getting up early meant waking up with stiff muscles and drowsiness that tempted us to go back into our covers.

But the experienced executives would not have it and so terrorised us greenies out of our beds. Or rather those greenies because even in my past life, I had been good at getting out of bed on time.

The only difference this time around was that instead of it being pretty much quiet in the manor in the early morning hours, there was a lot of hustle and bustle as people quickly got up, crowded the bathrooms to refresh themselves, got the best piece of breakfast they could get as they would be subjected to nothing but rations for the duration of this expedition and then move outside to a gathering where Riveria could pick our heads out and check our names off the list.

All the while the frosty mists of winter morning condensed on our skin and the icy breeze blew my massive cowlick out of my eyes. I was dressed moderately warm in clothes that were just a tad bit thicker. Contrary to what you may think, people didn't really bring a change of clothes down in the dungeon.

In a place where you were constantly surrounded by the risk of death, and you had to be light in order to move as fast as possible, clothes were just a drag. Already I was not looking forward to the smells I would be experiencing in this. I would probably stay clean with water magic but the rest of them were going to be stinking.

Those amazons though were still dressed as skimpy as ever. I mean, did they not even feel the cold around them? Especially those that were Level 1? Perhaps it was a racial thing. They were after all called Amazons and not humans despite being practically humans themselves.

They did have special characteristics of their own, like being extra resilient, a 'little' bit immodest and muscle-heads most of the time. Then there was also the fact that no matter what other race they procreated with, the resulting offspring were always Amazonian.

Kind of reminded me of the goblins from Goblin Slay- NOPE! There was no good in thinking about that, especially where we were going. I didn't even know if any monsters did anything like 'that' here. Although...if I found a single whisper of anything of the sort happening in this world, I didn't care for the consequences.

I would unleash Chaos upon the dungeon and destroy it once and for all. Screw whatever happened to my body but I was not letting something like that happen in this world. Some elements of Danmachi were indeed Dark Fantasy but nothing of 'that' extreme.

The screams Fighter made in the first episode...even now they made me shudder. Hell if I was going to let anything similar happen to anyone in this world, especially to any girls that I knew.

Anyway, Finn made a shout of 'MOVE OUT!' after one of his signature motivational speeches and we semi-marched towards Babel. What surprised me was the reception that we received when we arrived at the tower and as we were walking along.

Some of the civilians and a few of the adventurers too had come out onto the streets waving to us and wishing us good luck on our journey as we approached our destination.

"It's a usual thing with them." Vira, the purple haired elf and one of my very few elven friends here said to me. "Being the Loki Familia and the superpower that does regular expeditions has them gather around in the streets wishing us good fortune as we kind of make the economy go around with our spoils from the dungeon."

"I'll say it's heart warming." I said back to her as we walked, the tower growing bigger and bigger. "I also find it a little hypocritical."

"Here we go." The older girl rolled her eyes. "What dark side have you seen now?"

"Oh nothing. It's just that do you see the same treatment being given to soldiers as they leave home? Happy and thankful wishes?"

"Don't they get that from their loved ones?"

"I mean a public show of morale?"

She gave me a raised eyebrow. "Uhm, yes? They always do that. What makes you think they don't?"

It was my time to raise my eyebrow.

Maybe it was just my world. I couldn't remember the last time that had been a public farewell to lift the morale of soldiers back on Earth. I guess in the 'perfect modern world' people were just that much more selfish.

I mean who was I to speak? I too did not cheer any soldiers as they left for war but to be fair, not many wars did happen.

Well, before I died, what looked like the prelude to World War III was beginning what with the Russia-Ukraine thing. I wonder how that was going along.

Because if the worst had happened, then maybe Nekros did me a favour. Although I wondered how many nukes the Dungeon could take before it was out for the count.

Hmm, maybe another experiment in the works- NOPE! NOT. ANOTHER. THOUGHT! on that subject. That was way too dangerous waters if anything else.

As we reached Babel though, I spotted one familiar face in the crowd. A grey-blue haired girl with a cheery face and a giant sword by her hip waving enthusiastically to us as we lined up in front of wagons and crates that had been delivered for us in front of Babel. Our supplies, if you want to know.

I waved back to her a little more erratically than my friends and Ardee perked up as she caught sight of me. I waved her over, and as she walked over to me, I greeted her with genuine gratitude.

---

(General POV)

"Hey Ardee."

"Hey there, Skelmir'Of?" She said cheekily.

"Ugh, please don't remind me of that."

"What? You don't like it." She grinned at me.

"Just...drop it so I can thank you properly."

"For what."

"For bringing me back from the 18th floor that day. They told me how you and your Familia members carried me back unconscious to my Familia home. I would probably have died back then."

"Oh, that was nothing." She waved her hand. "It's kind of what we do. You know, police force and damage control, helping people and the like. What happened to put you in that state anyway?"

"Umm...it's probably best if we didn't talk about that." He tried to reason.

Ardee narrowed her eyes as she leaned forwards. "Hm, pretty suspicious don't you think?" She said in mock seriousness before she leaned back again with her usual smile. "I mean, it was the safe zone after all, where monsters are not supposed to be. And yet it looked like a fire storm had rolled through. I'm still not sure if the Dungeon has reversed it yet."

'She's not that far off the mark.'

"Well I'll be sure to tell you if it hasn't when I get back. And anyway, we'll be taking out Udaeus for you since your Familia couldn't do it."

"Not news to me." She replied. "Your Familia is already known for taking that beast out. And speaking of, I hear you levelled up again a few days ago."

"Yes I did." Lyze grinned. "Now I'm the same level as you are. Told you it wouldn't take me long."

"Yes you did say that." She said thoughtfully. "But I bet I'm still stronger than you. There's no way you've gotten used to your new strength. And I've been level 3 way longer than you have."

"I don't knooooow." Lyze stuck his tongue in his cheek and tilted his head backwards in an obvious display of sarcasm. "I guess we'll have to see when I come back, don't you think."

"Yes. Come to think of it, we never did get to have our little spar did we? I've been back a little while now."

"Well the captain is already mad at me. I don't want to start anything here and have him lecturing me again. It was painful enough last time."

"Good to see you're still a kid." She giggled and ruffled his hair, making him grumble.

"I won't be small for long." He said stiffly. "Just because you're a beautiful lady, don't think that I won't remember this moment when I mop the floor with you."

"Wait until you're a little older before you start complimenting me like that." She waved her finger. "And true, you may have grown taller, but I'm still older. And I'm definitely stronger, so you still have a bit of ways to go before you can win anything with me."

"Not so sure about the stronger part." He said as he folded his arms and shrugged his shoulders. "And I have a thing for older girls too. I'm positive I can win you over."

"Really?" she raised a brow.

"Really really." 

"Hm."

"Don't hold your breath Ardee. Once I'm back, I'm going to win one over you."

"Wasn't it win me over?"

"Nope. Over you first and then you over afterwards."

A pregnant silence filled between the two as Ardee contemplated his words. His innocent smile did nothing to disprove the sneaking feeling she had that he knew well what he was doing with his wordplay. But if she accused him of anything, people would give her dirty looks for talking like that with a kid.

"Keep dreaming Skelmir'Of." She waved at him. "Bye-bye now."

"See ya." He waved back to her.

Finn clapping his hands caught the boy's attention as the captain addressed them all once again, going over their objectives. To Lyze's surprise, Finn dropped a bomb on them with a particular piece of news.

Some members of the Hephaestus Familia, their captain included would be joining them in their expedition as a joint effort to mine adamantine veins deep in the Dungeon. Not far behind where Finn was standing on a crate, he could see Tsubaki in some armour with a few weapons at hand looking determined and just as ready to go down as they were.

Lyze grinned as he felt that this expedition would be so much more fun than he originally anticipated. He and Tsubaki got along well, and hopefully the two of them would have a good time during the couple of weeks they were to spend in the depths.

After another speech, Finn waved him over to a few crates that were meant to be the stuff he was supposed to hold in his hammer-space. Fittingly, they were marked with his alias, which just made him grumble again. The more he heard that name, the more he was beginning to dislike it.

Finally with one last collective cheer, the Loki Familia began to descend down great spiral stairway, eager to see what adventure lay ahead of them, and hopeful they would return alive.

---

Far above in the top of Babel, Freya looked down upon the massive congregation moving systematically down into the jaws of death. Out of the many vibrant souls passing through, one in particular stood out to her.

It's vibrant light cast a great shadow upon the rest, nearly blotting them out from view. Even now, he radiated magnificence that was soothing to her eyes. But all the same, Freya prayed that he came back safe. 

Her clairvoyance tool would become useless beyond a certain point which the Loki Familia and therefore her Odr were bound to pass by. And when that happened, all she would be able to rely on to keep seeing him would be his Hero's soul.

If he died down there on his first deep dive, then he would not be getting away from her. Wherever his soul went, she would follow. And wherever it did go, she would be with it every step of the way. Never would she let it out of sight now that she had found him.

As if sensing her thoughts, Ottar voiced a suggestion to his mistress.

"Should I send our stealth unit down there to safeguard him?" He asked her.

"No." She said immediately. "He would pick up on them immediately. Anyway..." She picked up one of two figurines from her tea table. One was a perfect ice sculpture of her in all her beauty. The other was a gold statue of her beloved in a heroic pose that struck something deep within her and made her shiver in anticipation for what the future held for him. "...husbands leave home all the time to take on the world. It is a duty of a wife to trust him and be there waiting for him to return home, with warm open arms and a heart full of joy."

'But his home is not exactly with us, my Goddess.' Ottar grimaced internally, showing none of it on his face. 'Nor is he committed to you like that just yet.'

Still, Ottar had high expectations of the boy. Ever since the Zeus and Hera Familia had been banished from Orario, Ottar had grown lonely at the top even though it had been a place he'd yearned for. As such, his drive to become stronger died down, as there were seemingly none who could challenge him for his throne, and with that motivation gone, he could not yet level up to level 7.

The scar over his eye began to itch as he felt the fire rekindle inside him at the thought of that boy, the one who had so brazenly challenged him for the pinnacle of adventurers yet actually possessed the strength to back his claim.

Strength that only grew at an alarming rate. Ottar wouldn't be surprised if the little monster came back with yet another absurd increase in power. But if he did, he would only be fulfilling the Boaz's high expectations of him. And strengthening the hope that Ottar would have found an equal, one whom he could compete against, each pushing the other to new heights as the undisputed strongest of Orario.

Such a future made the Boaz lift a hand to his scar and grin slightly in excitement. Freya, through her Falna, sensed her child's broiling emotions and smiled to herself. Her Odr had stoked the dead flame in her favourite child again. The seemingly lost passion Ottar once had was returning in full swing.

Little did her child actually comprehend the full scope of the power of Lyzof Keele, and what he would bring upon the world. An age of greater excitement than the one they were in now. One of mayhem and unpredictability, an age of utter Chaos.

And Freya would stop at nothing to make sure that such a future came to pass. 

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