19 Rivira
Author's Note
First of all, I wanted to see that in the previous chapter, there have been some typos and mistakes, Tiona is younger sister and Tione is older, the story is set 3 years before the canon so both Tiona and Tione are 14 years old.
Second, Niall's Hastur Cloak ability is a reality-bending armor that makes him untouchable for everyone and everything else that isn't two levels above Niall. In simple, Niall right now is a level 1 which means that nothing that is level 2 and below can harm him, but things and adventurers that are above level 2 can.
Now let's get to the chapter.
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The two girls stared at the boy who had a golden glowing light around him. Tione tried calming down Tiona but without success.
"What's your name? Why are your eyes so weird? What is that shiny golden light that surrounds you? What level are you? From which familia are you from?" Tiona bombarded Niall with questions. He was waiting for her to finish so he could try and get away peacefully. On the other hand, the rest of Loki Familia facepalmed at the young girl's foolishness.
Tiona finished with her questions, and she awaited Niall's answers, charmed by the boy's looks but more so by his odd glow. Being a big nerd for heroic stories sparked her imagination when she saw a boy who glows.
"Please leave me alone, miss. I don't have much time to spare..." Niall began walking away from the sisters, surprising Tiona for ignoring her questions.
"Serves you right, Tiona," Tione quietly commented, ashamed of her sister's behavior that made the poor boy uncomfortable. She smacked her sister on the head, and Tiona let out a yelping sound as her sister's hand connected with her head.
"I was just trying to be nice..." Tiona disappointedly looked down at the dungeon ground, still curious about the boy's mysterious ability.
The rest of the Loki Familia watched the boy go, surprised that he ignored Tiona since she's been very popular among the adventurers due to her strength.
"What do you think, Finn? Should we check up and see who that was or just let the mysterious boy be?" Riveria asked as she started down in the direction where Niall went.
"No, we don't want to ruin our reputation by intimidating some lower-level adventurer, no matter how odd his abilities are. My thumb also didn't throb so I don't think he was any threat, but caution is always a must. I say let it slide for now."
The trio of Loki Familia leaders nodded to each other and then gathered the rest of their members to move back to the surface. Tiona couldn't contain herself from looking back in the direction where Niall went, eager to know more about him.
"Why are you looking behind you, dumb Amazon? Did that boy charm you so much that you can't stop looking back at him?" Bete mocked the girl, kind of annoyed that one person could inflict such an impact just by his appearance.
"Shut up, you dumb dog! There's more to that boy than it looks. Shame he wasn't in the mood for a chat..." Tiona pouted, making her sister Tione facepalm.
The rest of the Loki Familia made their way to the top. Meanwhile, a blonde girl who was just thirteen years old was too curious about the mysterious adventurer they had seen before.
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"Phew, that was an interesting encounter, to say the least... I'm thankful that Finn seemed reasonable enough to recognize the foolishness of Tiona," Niall thought as he slid down to the safe floor.
A few moments passed and he landed on the green grass. Flowers and green trees around him made him marvel at how different this dungeon floor looked. It was bright as day, and looking above, Niall saw a giant crystal that offered light in the darkness of the dungeon.
"This looks nice. I need to find some nice spot and make my home somewhere here, but for that, I need to complete the quest if I want to get that building ability," Niall sighed at the thought of having to find targets to kill.
He saw the town from a distance. It looked like a wooden slum where the utter worst trash lived. The town of Rivira is also known as a very expensive place, so most adventurers avoid resting inside it.
"Guess I need to hunt those Evilus remnants since there are a lot of them and Ouranos doesn't do anything useful to hunt them down. The guild is pretty cringe when you think about it. They look for neutrality even if the nasty bastards are still plaguing the city from the shadows."
Niall bit his tongue in annoyance and moved forward toward the town of Rivira, which grew closer and closer as he approached. Standing at the town's gate, Niall was greeted by the sight of half-empty town streets filled with merchants and other folk.
Entering the town, he saw a bunch of standing shops. Some sold weapons, some armor, and some fancier stuff that attracted mostly females. He noticed a familiar amazoness from the anime who sold perfume to Hestia in the first season.
He glanced over at her, both of them making eye contact before Niall continued moving forward, trying to find a nice place to rest for a bit.
Searching around, Niall noticed a famous bar where Bors spent most of his time. He decided to enter it and take a rest before deciding what to do next. As he entered the inn, he noticed that the place was half empty, which was perfect for him.
"What would you like to drink, sir?" A cat person approached Niall, the same guy from that one episode of Sword Oratoria where both Bors and he were deciding who had the best tits among Loki Familia females.
"Do you have hot chocolate here?" Niall looked up at the cat man, taking him by surprise when the man noticed Niall's eyes.
"Uh, hot chocolate? We don't serve that kind of stuff here. Only strong drinks and water are served here, so pick one of those," Niall sighed at the thought of not being able to drink his favorite drink.
"Fine then, give me a glass of water," Niall replied, sending the catman away to fetch his glass of water.
A bit later, the cat man approached with a glass of water. "Here you go, your bill is 100 valises," Niall raised an eyebrow. "100 for one glass of water? Fine, let it be your way. Here you go."
He handed the money over to the man, and the cat person walked away back to the counter, periodically glancing over at Niall for his odd presence.
"Now, I gotta make a proper plan on how to deal with this quest. I can always murder Soma Familia, but most of them are just mindless zombies who wish for more wine. I can also try hunting Ikelos Familia since I know their location, but I'm too weak for that. Their captain is level 5 but a level 4 due to his curse."
Niall sipped on the glass of water as he stared down at the wooden table. "The best plan is to grind until I level up to level 2 and then go after remnants of Evilus. My abilities should evolve after leveling up, so I may get something even more broken than I already have. Well, I can only hope for that, at least."
Finishing his glass of water, Niall stood up and said goodbye to the bartender. Exiting the bar, he wanted to find a perfect spot for his temporary shelter and a future home where he could live.
A couple of hours later, Niall eventually found a nice corner of the floor with a bunch of trees hiding a narrow dent in a dungeon wall. It was a perfect place for a temporary shelter until Niall got his building ability.
"I'll just place my bedroll here and hide my backpack in the bush next to it. I don't think anyone ever comes to this place, so I should be set," he took a bedroll from his backpack and placed it on the dent.
A few moments later, the place looked like a small cozy shelter, with a bedroll in the wall dent and his backpack in the bush next to it. "Now I should go back to the surface and sell these crystals and maybe get a better backpack, even some survival stuff."
He picked up his backpack again and made his way back to the surface, crushing any monster that dared to stand in his way.
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Ending Words
This is a chill chapter since I wanted to upload something before I go back to my work which is tomorrow. Next or the chapter after that will be Niall leveling up most likely so stay tuned!
