Chapter 66: Search and Contact

Heeding Alfia's advise, Lars went to the wheat manor to mess around and have fun.

"Hmm? Lars, what's the matter?" Demeter was wearing a sun hat as she picked some crops from vines.

"What's the matter is, you're not using the magic tools we gave you." Lars crossed his arms and Demeter chuckled.

She pointed to the direction of their fields outside Orario. "The children over there are using them. I quite like picking the bounty of nature manually."

"Hah, I guess if you say so. Hi, Persephone." Lars greeted his captain nonchalantly.

"Ara, it's farmer-kun." Persephone chuckled at his alias.

It was pretty appropriate too, even if the others do not know why Demeter picked that as his nickname.

Because he's Orario's number 1 farmer, bringing in food from the dungeon. Hundreds of tons of them in fact.

"Back to square one, what's the matter Lars?" Demeter asked with a soft smile.

She was more relaxed now, learning that he didn't go to Telskyura in order to commit genocide and deicide.

There were actually no deaths on the side of Telskyura due to Airmid. Though she did have to make a couple of prosthetics due to her usage of daybreak, blowing a couple of limbs off here and there.

Truly a harmacist. "Well, you've been working hard. A man's gotta give back and pay some of his debts, no?" Lars grinned.

Demeter did a lot for him, and he knows it. She's the reason they are comfortable right now.

And even though he killed Rudra, she didn't really fault him for it. Instead, just accepting it as a fact that he needed to go.

"You don't need to do that you know? You're a part of my familia." Demeter smiled softly.

"Well, if you say so." Lars shrugged and he pretended to walk away.

"Sike! You're going with me!" Lars used his psychokinesis on her and Persephone waved goodbye at them as Lars kidnapped her.

"Mou, you could have done this more gently. A lady does not like forceful men." Demeter huffed at him.

"Hmph, tell that to women that love excitement and can change "bad" men." Lars quoted the air and Demeter didn't have a retort to that.

"Well, they're not the majority." She huffed at him and Lars snorted.

"You go to the fisherman for advice to catch fish, not the fish, Demeter." Lars rolled his eyes.

"That... That's true." Demeter just gave up with a sigh, he was too quick with his rebuttals.

He then put her down and he started pulling her. Going through the busy streets of Orario, they arrived at the market place and Demeter looked at the stalls fondly.

"Hmm, are those our merchandise?" Lars noticed her expression.

"Yes, isn't it so fulfilling? Being able to provide for so many people? And with your cheap dungeon crops, children who struggle can buy more food." Demeter was happy.

He insisted that the Demeter familia's dungeon crops have a different price for children, especially the street urchins.

It's pretty easy to not get duped anyways. Because those who live in poverty won't ever buy in bulk.

"Yeah, you're right. Though I did hear that there's a crazy bitch in Daedalus street that swears poverty is the way." He snorted.

Minimalism is fine with him. But a god that advocates poverty? That definitely rubs him the wrong way.

"Ahh, that goddess?" Demeter donned a face of disgust.

"Let us not think of unpleasant things." Demeter sighed and he nodded in agreement.

They then arrived at a cafe and Lars ordered one of everything once again.

"What brought this surprise on?" Demeter had a teasing smile on her face.

"Alfia told me to relax a bit. So here we are, and I want to show my appreciation to my goddess a bit." Lars winked at her.

"Such a gentleman~" She chuckled. "So, what made you descend to gekai?" He was interested in how she came to that decision.

"Well, in tenkai. There is no poverty in the mortal sense. Gods can have less property than others, that's about it.

No starvartion, the feeling of your own stomach digesting itself because you do not have anything to eat." Demeter frowned.

"And the mortal world suffers a lot from that. Especially in areas that cannot protect itself from the monsters that roam the earth." Demeter remembered those hard times.

"I descended not to have leisure, but to give the people a basic need that was hard to get fulfilled back in the past, food." Demeter smiled.

"With the hope that less people will starve to death, I started my familia and we naturally grew over time. It was hard at first, but it was worth it." Demeter had a soft smile on her face.

"Hmm, that's admirable." Lars thought he was correct in choosing her as their goddess.

She is not only quite logical, she's also a kind woman.

"Enough about me, how about you? How did you even start to build Monstro?" Demeter asked.

And nobody except Fels, Ouranos, Astraea, and Hermes knows about it. So it was fine to talk about it.

Hiding in plain sight, so they say. "Alfia and I actually lived in the 39th floor for a year before we moved around." He chuckled.

Remembering the hard times where she beat him up with a stick every day.

"We found Ray trying to check us out, Alfia got to her and we went to their place." Lars winced.

"Why? What happened next?" Demeter noticed his expression.

"Remember the nightmare on the 27th floor?" Lars sighed and Demeter nodded.

"Well, there was a Pallum that wore dragon scales as armor back then, saving tons of adventurers right?" He smiled wryly.

"No way... You were what? Not even a teen?" Demeter blinked.

"Yeah, I didn't even have a falna." He laughed at his idiocy. But it still helped a lot of people.

"People still talk about that mysterious guy. They say he was like a storm, ending the monster parade with an earthquake, I guess that was her?" Demeter was hooked.

"Yeah, she eviscerated everything after I fought a green dragon. Ahhh, youthful indescretion." Lars reminisced.

"So heroic~ it totally matches with your handsome face." Demeter put some whipped cream on his nose.

"Hey, I thought you dislike wasting food." Lars raised a brow at her.

"It's just a little." She had a seductive smile on her face as she licked her finger.

"Woman, there are starving children at the empire." Lars deadpanned at her.

"Hah, don't remind me of that place. All they care about is territory and wars." Demeter rolled her eyes.

"Well, if they ever had the bright idea of attacking Orario. Maybe I can usurp the throne and turn into an emperor?" He laughed.

"That's a good idea, I'll wait for that day to happen." She laughed with him and they enjoyed their day.

After roaming around some more, Demeter was pleasantly tired and he carried her, princess style.

"Hey! You only bought me a meal mister. We haven't even had our 2nd date yet." Demeter pouted at him.

"Hmmm, you dirty girl. What did you have in mind?" Lars teased her.

"Nothing in particular." She huffed and he gave her a little peck.

"Thanks for everything Demeter." Lars smiled at her softly and she nodded.

"We're in this together, you're a part of my familia, don't ever forget it." Demeter beamed at him.

"Not the nickname though, it's so mundane." Lars rolled his eyes.

She fake gasped. "After I fought the gods to give you a normal one! I should've agreed that your alias should be mister cucumber." Demeter shook her head wistfully.

"Huh? Why?" He shuddered at the nickname. "Because you're always followed by amazoness. The gods concluded that you're gifted~" She looked down.

"Pervert." Lars huffed at her and they chuckled.

__Traveller's inn__

"Hey, Asfi. Is Hestia putting on some work?" Lars asked the captain of the familia.

Hestia winced and Asfi sighed. He handed her a nice, glass of wine and her eyes twitched. But she accepted it nonetheless.

"Hestia's... Technically doing her work." Asfi rolled her eyes.

"Hmm, what do you mean by that?" Lars raised a brow.

"She found a loophole, asking the familia members to calculate the taxes for her after making intentional mistakes. Also doing it on the paperwork without even checking them so everybody will pitch in." Asfi sighed heavily.

"L-Lars... Remember I'm technically correct in my methods. The best kind of correct." Hestia backed off a bit after he stared at him.

"I'm cutting off your allowance... Ahem, I mean payroll." Lars deadpanned at her.

"Nuooo!" Hestia did an orz as she still had to pay back her debt to Hephaestus, Demeter, and Astraea.

"Why are you so lazy anyways? This is the chance for you to learn everything you need before forming a familia." Lars rolled his eyes.

"B-but Asfi's too hard on me! She's always going do this! Do that! You're wrong!" Hestia pouted like a kid.

"Aww, did the meanie over there bully you." He patted her head while looking at Asfi.

"Tche, you know damn well I wasn't shouting at her." Asfi clicked her tongue, enjoying her glass of wine which was extra filled up.

"Tehe~ I got caught." Hestia tried to act cute. Lars started pinching her cheeks and he lifted her up, making her chest jiggle.

"You're going to save up another way missy. Part time jobs are a dime a dozen here in Orario. And you'll still be helping Asfi, without lazing around. For all the troubles you caused." Lars lectured her.

She groaned, but she did know that Lars was trying to condition her to being a familia's patron goddess.

"Yes, I am sorry." She apologized sincerely. "As long as you know why we're doing this. Run along now, read these." Lars gave her some novels.

The romcom ones that you could sink hours into even though the relationships don't develop at all.

"Thanks Lars!" She grinned at him and she went to the common room to read them on the couch.

"Hah, you spoil her too much." Asfi looked at him suspiciously.

"What?" Lars raised a brow. "Are you just trying to seduce her so you'll have a divine virgin?" Asfi walked up to him and she stared through his soul.

"Like I care about that crap. And besides, I'm closer with Artemis. It's more logical to go after her than Hestia." Lars shrugged.

"T-that... That is true. You're just bragging at this point, you gigolo." Asfi backed off.

"You might get me pregnant if I get too close." She teased him and she chuckled.

"Do you even know how babies are made, Asfi?" Lars laughed at her offended expression.

"Anyways, any news about them?" Lars couldn't help but think that they should've been out of supplies by now.

"Sorry, no news of them." Asfi shook her head slowly.

"Okay, call me when you got some. Try to understand Hestia Asfi. The woman's been a shut in for eons." Lars thought that rehabilitating people just need a little help and a nudge.

"Fine, it's not like she's worse than Hermes-sama anyways." Asfi smiled softly.

__58th floor__

Down at the depths of the deeper levels, Alfia was grinding stats and she stood in front of the dreaded Valgang dragons.

Called the dragon's vase. It was a huge floor that had crowds of drakes that could shoot flares through multiple floors up to the 52nd floor.

"Never did understand why these things are called dragons, they're obviously wyverns." Alfia looked at them and they didn't have arms like the Balor or the Cadmus dragon.

She activated Silentium Eden with a quick chant and the monsters fired a barrage of beams at her.

They hit her barrier of anti magic and Alfia scoffed, continuing her leisurely walk towards them.

When the beams finished, everything around her was molten. But not a singed hair or a piece of burnt fabric was seen on her dress.

She stepped forwards, but before her foot landed on the lava below, she disappeared.

The dragons looked frantically for her, but they suddenly heard cries behind them as alfia swung a Valgang dragon by its tail and she used it as a club.

Beating them to death with the dragon she got in her hands, Alfia slaughtered hordes of fearsome drakes with her bare hands.

"That should increase my strength a bit." Alfia dusted her hands off and she continued towards the 59th floor.

Equipping some equipment for the icy desert waiting for her, she looked like she's going for an expedition on Antarctica.

"I always hated this floor. Hmph, the cold never bothered me anyway." Alfia descended.

But what greeted her, was a goddamned jungle that was humid as hell.

She got pissed immediately, thinking of using Nero Angelus.

"Calm down, something is wrong." Alfia returned back to Monstro to report to Lars.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.