Ep. 46 – Joining a Familia, Dungeon

She looked at us from head to toe and said: "Adventurers? You? You hardly look the part."

"Oh, I can assure you that we are very powerful. Probably enough to wipe the floor with a Level 5, so let's get to the bureaucratic stuff." I said. I was looking into her eyes, not because they were particularly beautiful but because I was looking for information about language and writing. I noticed that the villager had a heavy accent compared to this employee. I quickly looked at Weiss and transferred the knowledge. She would do it to the rest.

The girl sighed a little then said: "Fine, have it your way. I am Rose Fannett. If you decide to become adventurers, I will be your advisor. Here, take these forms and complete them. Do you have a Familia already?"

"Thank you. No, we don't have a Familia yet. Do you have a list of all Gods and Goddesses currently in Orario?" I said, while filling in my form with the bare minimum, the rest of the gang was copying my example. "Here, the form."

"Quite fast. Let's see…" she said while bringing out a rolled-up piece of parchment. "Any particular areas you are all good at?"

"Fighting, exploration, scouting, magic, then we all have our specialties." Said Ruby, like it was nothing.

Rose was a little surprised to hear that since we can all do basically everything an adventurer needs to do and more.

"I see. There are several Familias that could suit you…"

"Oh, we were thinking about joining the Hephaestus Familia or a magic-oriented one. Otherwise, the Loki Familia or a less known one, possibly without other members in that case."

"Quite specific. Have it your way. We can arrange a meeting with Hephaestus-sama and Hecate-sama, she is the Goddess of Magic. Loki-sama might be a little difficult to convince, but arranging a meeting shouldn't be a problem, if you want. As for the less known Familias and those without many members, here is a list." She said.

I nodded and took the list, then turned to the gang.

"Look, here there are a couple of Familias that would suit our needs. Ereshkigal and Miach would be the best. The first doesn't have adventurers while the other is focused on potions and medicines. Hephaestus would be an easy one since I can just create a couple of weapons and she will accept us. Hecate should be the same if I show her a little part of our grimoire, like the introduction. Loki is a little more complicated. That woman loves chaos and I am sure our life wouldn't be smooth sailing. Which one do you think we should join?" I said.

They all looked thoughtful for a second, then responded together: "Loki, it sounds like fun!"

If they had tried to say that together, they would have failed. Also, fuck. Also, it is true that it will be fun. I turned back to Rose, who was currently bored out of her mind.

"As you might have heard, we would like to meet with Loki first. Do you mind arranging a meeting?"

"No suffix, huh? That might offend someone. I will arrange your meeting. Wait a moment here."

"Ah, since we have to wait, do you have a library or something similar?" asked Blake.

"Yes, we do. Just upstairs."

We nodded and went to the library. It was just a small room with bookshelves filled with books on the Dungeon, Adventurers, Gods, and so on. Since they were all dusty and overall didn't have a nice feeling, I analyzed them with my semblance and made grimoires with their knowledge inside for the gang. 'Ugh, I really hope nobody jacked off on those books…'

Anyway, not even ten minutes had passed but Rose had already organized a meeting with Loki at her Twilight Manor.

Rose asked if we needed a guide, but we already have the map of the city in our heads thanks to the Guild's library, so we refused.

Going towards the exit, two guys stopped us.

"I will ask this first: are you here to cause trouble or not?"

"Huh?! Trouble?! You bast-" the one on the right started saying. He didn't get to finish as I fisted his ugly face. It caved in and wasn't a nice sight.

"Weak. Hey, what Level was this guy?!" I asked loudly.

"L-level 1." Said some adventurer to the side.

"A small fry then." I looked at the other guy and messed with his head a little. He dropped to his knees and started recounting every sin he has ever committed and what he knows about his companion. I was disgusted when I heard something about rape and abduction, so I completely erased his mind. He was a vegetable now.

"Ok, wow. Not even an hour in the city and we already took care of two human wastes, what a day! Let's go." I said and went outside, followed by the gang. Ruby though took her scythe and stabbed the first small fry. Brutal, but I guess she took those crimes way more seriously than me.

Anyway, let's forget about the disturbance back there. I don't even care if they send the guards after us, I will just modify their thoughts and memories. I doubt that will be the case since the second thug confessed a lot of juicy crimes, so the guild will probably keep this under wraps.

I'm digressing. The gang and I exited the Guild and took our sparrows out. There are a lot of magical gimmicks around, so why can't there be a flying vehicle? At any rate, we arrived at the Twilight Manor at record speed. There were a couple of guards at the gate, so we stopped there. We could easily enter, but we are talking about a powerful Familia with possibly a few Level 6's here, we can't just outright provoke them. We stored our sparrows and talked to the guards.

"Hello there! We are here to meet Loki… sama." I said. 'God, I hate suffixes.'

One of the guards went to confirm with, I guess, Loki or some other executive, while the other just stared at us.

"So… Work's been treating you well?" I asked just to start some small talk. The guy didn't even respond. "Tough audience, huh…"

I saw the second guard come back. "I have confirmed your meeting. Please follow me, I'll bring you to Loki-sama.��� He said, so we started following him.

He led us through the place and boi was it big. Not as big as Hogwarts, but surely as big as the Malfoy Manor. We were led to an office and we saw Loki at her desk. She smiled at us and pointed to the chairs in front of her. There weren't enough and I was pretty sure the Goddess had done something to them, so we simply trasmated our favorite armchairs from the ship. Heh, her face was priceless when she saw 'spatial magic' done silently and instantly by ten people at the same time.

Then, I had the terrible idea of messing with her, after all she will be difficult to convince. I will have to talk big a little and make her interested.

"So, are we going to wait long for the Goddess? We did come here pretty quick, so I guess she is still busy… May I ask what your name is, random little girl I absolutely don't recognize?"

I got elbowed, and punched, and slapped. Loki couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I would be Loki, the Goddess. Pleasure to meet you, random guy I totally don't know." She said.

"Well played. I am Tula, these are Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Blake, and Sun. We come from afar, very far, and would like to join the Loki Familia." I said, introducing everyone one by one.

"I see. Now that I know your names, I must tell you that I don't just accept anyone. What can you do?"

"Magic, swordsmanship, archery, blacksmithing, enchanting, recon, a little bit of everything. Everyone here can do all sorts of magic, fighting, and recon. We also have different specializations. Also, just by feeling, we can beat any Level 4, hands down. That's what we can do."

"Mind giving me an example of your magic? Maybe a spar with one of my members as well? You can choose a representative, if you prefer." Asked Loki. She probably wants to check everything I said, so I will play along with her.

"Sure, how much of the city should I destroy? Maybe the tower there? As for the spar, you can pick your best member and I'll fight." I asked, creating a 'Nova Ball' in my hand and moving towards the window. "So? How much of the city?"

"Nonono! Don't test your magic on Orario! I meant during the spar! For the love of me, you are a difficult one." She said, massaging her temples. "Let me rephrase that: 'Could you show me what you can do in a spar?'"

"Yes, I can. As I said, please call the best member of your Familia. They should be level 5 or 6, right? Actually, no. Don't tell me, let me guess…" I looked at her eyes and checked her thoughts. "You're thinking about two people: Riveria, a level 5 magician on the verge of becoming Level 6, and Gareth, also a level 5 fighter on the verge of becoming level 6. Fine, challenge accepted. I can fight them at the same time so we can be done quickly." She looked shocked. "Oh, don't look at me like that. You can ask me if you want to know so badly. And, sorry, but I am happily married, so you can't seduce the answers out of me."

"So, how did you read my mind?" she asked

"Oh, Loki… Didn't you ask me to show you some magic?"

She nodded and said "Come in."

From behind her, a hidden door which I had already noticed opened and Finn, Gareth, and Riveria came out.

"Oh, so you were prepared, random little girl."

"Yes I was, random guy. Come on, let's get this spar started. Oh, I forgot to ask: what level are you guys?" Loki asked.

"We don't have Falna. Level 0, if it exists." Said Jaune. I was too concentrated on reading the three executives' minds. Now I understand why Dumbles does it: it just gives a sense of security and 'I got this', you know?

We were currently in one of the training areas in the Twilight Mansion. I was facing Gareth and Riveria. Loki, Finn, and the gang were watching on the side. Scratch that, the gang was eating some snack while looking around.

"So, should we start?" I asked taking out my 'Raze-Lighter'.

"A magic weapon?" asked Loki.

"No, an enchanted weapon, almost indestructible, sharp as hell, fiery. Pretty nice to cut the lawn." I answered.

Loki was a little confused, but started the countdown. Now then, I will address something that everyone is probably wondering at this moment: 'You said that you can face against any Level 4 so why are you facing two quasi-Level 6's?'

Fear not my friends, for I have a reason: I should theoretically still be capable of fighting against Level 5's, maybe not wiping the floor but with relative ease, but Level 6's? I don't know. Two quasi-Level 6 opponents will allow me to understand where me and the gang are now. If everything goes wrong I can still revive.

Anyway, back to the spar. I just waited for the countdown to end. I had a relaxed stance but was still paying attention. I don't know of what Gareth is capable of in terms of speed, so I am testing him. How much time would he take to get here? Riveria isn't a problem, I can just cut the magic or stop it with my eye powers.

When the countdown ended, Riveria started a long-ass incantation, so I just casted a confusion charm on her. She started swaying side by side and had to stop speaking to not throw up. Oh, so devilish.

Gareth on the other hand was also assessing me, totally uncaring of the poor Riveria behind him. I saw no other way than to attack, so I did. With magic though. I casted a modified version of the Tarantallegra spell on him, which would force him to move as fast as he could. I looked at his feet and determined that he was certainly fast, faster than me normally, but not as much as I thought.

"Okay, I have seen what I wanted to see. You are not interesting anymore. Sleep now." I said and casted a sleeping curse on both him and Riveria. "What a pity, I kinda wanted to try the sword after my upgrade. Well, who forced him to be that slow? So, Loki… Your best members are only these? I didn't even have to move!"

I need to get her riled up and increase her desire for us. The more I keep my abilities a secret, the more she will be curious. That should get us in. Hopefully.

"Yes, I have seen your spar, thank you. Would you be so kind to wake them up?" she asked, pointing at the sleeping duo. I dispelled my magic and Gareth immediately shot awake and rushed at me. Not very cash money, I must say.

I used some of my support magic to make our speeds the same and closed the distance. He went for a wide swing with his axe, so I lightly jumped and landed on his weapon, touching his nose with my blade. He stopped and didn't move for a bit.

"I don't mean to offend you, but shouldn't you be old, with a lot of experience? Seriously, a wide swing against an unknown opponent? That was basically suicide." I said. It's true. "Against an unknown opponent, someone you don't know the capabilities of, you should never leave such a big opening. Maybe against monsters that can pass, but against humans? Nah."

I jumped off of his axe and went back to the gang. Weiss was smiling a little while Yang and Ruby were clapping. Don't know why, that was probably the most annoying 'spar' I had since I was reborn, which means 'ever'. Well, on the upside, I discovered I can probably thrash a Level 6 by getting serious and might be able to fight on almost equal ground with a Level 7 by going all out.

"So, Loki. How about we discuss you giving us Falna? Don't you wonder what we will be able to do at level 2, 3, 4, and so on? The curiosity is gnawing at you, you know you want to discover something interesting." I said, moving closer little by little, just to act creepy and, hopefully, mysterious. When I arrived in front of her, I bent forward a little and whispered in her ear: "Come on, you know what to say."

She shivered a little then said: "Welcome to my Familia! Let's go back to the office and give you some Falna."

I looked back to the gang and did a thumbs-up.

Anyway, we got Falna. I was a little worried that it wouldn't work on me since I have a robotic body, but guess what? It worked. God-level bullshit magic right here. I also analyzed Loki's Falna, so now I could theoretically recreate it and improve it. Maybe I will do that later, when we get a feel for the dungeon. Oh, on a side note: Loki's facial expressions are adorable. I looked in her mind as she was reading our status pages. Her thoughts can be resumed as: 'WTF is going on here?! Are these even skills?! And this guy… He ain't even human! Ah, right, the fucker can read my thoughts. Not cool, man, not cool.'

Yeah, so apparently Gods get more information than I thought, so she knows I'm something called 'Exo', which tells her absolutely nothing. Well, all of our skills are from other universes, so she wouldn't recognize them. I checked on my interface and I have the same skills along with something called 'Magister of Magic' and 'Aura Master'. The first skill basically gives me free reign over magic, which means I can do whatever the hell I want, no need for complicated spells and whatnot. The second skill gives me full control of Aura and my semblance. Yeah, basically nothing new.

"So Loki, like what you see?" I asked her just to tease her.

"I swear to me, you are already a nuisance. Get to the dungeon or something!" she said, dismissing my question.

"Got it! We were planning on walking around a little, but going to the Dungeon now might be a good idea. Let's go, we'll dive a few floors then come back here for a level-up, hopefully." I said, turning to the gang.

"As if, Ais took a year. You seriously think you can do better?" said Loki.

I pointed to Finn: "Let him tell you." Then I turned back and left. I didn't even see Finn nodding to Loki's questioning gaze, though I don't care.

Anyway, that brings us to now, two hours after our little Falna-giving ceremony-thing. We are currently on the 23rd floor. The enemies are seriously weak until now, I hope that they get stronger after the 30th floor, otherwise this universe will probably be a bust as well. After I got my first bit of excelia, I felt something happen to my Akashic Engine and surprise, surprise, I can generate infinite excelia. What the fuck. After that, we descended floor after floor to find a decent opponent, but tough luck I guess. Oh, we did spend a little bit of time on the 18th floor since Rivira was there. I went around with my semblance constantly active and found some cool materials, in particular from monster drops. After I visit Hephaestus' private material stash I will upgrade our gear again, probably. It only takes some minutes, so it's not too difficult.

I was currently sporting my Bow, the 'Wish-Ender', since I hadn't used it at all since I got it. Plus, a bow is suited to this era and it actually feels really nice to wield. It might even become a go-to, along with the 'Last Word'. Anyway, on the way to the 23rd floor, I basically left all the work to the gang, while I scouted for enemies. To be honest, I think my luck is really OP since we were constantly being attacked by monster parties. Well, the small fries and medium fries didn't even constitute a warm-up for them, so they quickly became excelia.

We wanted to arrive to the 36th floor, but I guess that would be pushing it: it's almost dinner time. What? Did you think it was pushing it due to our strength? Seriously? I wish, at least these monsters would be entertaining. No, the real adventure will start in the deep and unexplored floors. Today we will end our exploration on the 24th floor.

Well, if there is a plus side, it's that we were hit with enough attacks, which barely even tickled, to probably get the 'Abnormal Resistance' development ability. Not that we need it, though. We stopped by at the guild before returning to the Twilight Manor. I saw that Rose was free, so we went up to her.

"Hello there, Rose! So, we got into the Loki Familia and we also wanted to convert some magic stones and other drops."

"Congratulations on getting into the Familia. It's one of the best in Orario. You have already gone into the dungeon? What floor?" she asked

"24th, it was getting late so we stopped early. By the next time we will reach the 36th. Anyway, here you go, this is the first batch of stuff, you might want to get some help." I said while plopping a comically large sack of magic stones and drop parts on her desk. Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and it was amazing. Ah, I love breaking common sense sometimes.

Anyway, after a long and arduous counting session, we were paid. It was a ridiculous amount, literally. I immediately stored the whole sum. It will be added to the treasury later. Some unfortunate nobody that wasn't here in the morning tried stopping us, but I wasn't having it and broke their spines. 'No more walking for you! Ah, I love being evil.' Oh, I also got them to confess any crime they committed. This time Yang blasted their legs. Something about pedophilia got her really mad. Well, I was about to do worse, so she actually saved them. 'Doing it with adults is one thing, but children? Instant death sentence!' Then I had my existential crisis: are Pallum legal? Like, they are lolis and shotas, but they could be old men and hags… Oh God, why did I think about this?

I debated whether they are legal or not on the way back to the manor. Weiss read my mind and started laughing her ass off, which was quickly followed by the others. 'Ha ha… Laugh, come on, laugh! I am having an existential crisis here!'

After reaching the manor, the guards had changed. They were evidently alerted by Loki or someone else, since they opened the gates and saluted. We waved at them and exchanged a few pleasantries. These guys are standing here day after day doing their job. In event of an attack they would be pretty useless, but still they deserve some respect. Anyway, we looked for Loki and found her in the office, still staring at her papers.

"My, my… Loki-chan is working? Dear, mind pinching me, I think I'm dreaming." I joked. I was punched though.

"Oh, it's you. What? Did you get scared of the dungeon?" Loki asked, raising her line of sight. She was quite tired. I decided to be good to the Goddess, at least today, so made some of Ozpin's coffee. I had analyzed it back in Remnant, but I never actually produced it.

"Here, take this. It'll pick you right up. Mind updating our statuses? We reached the 24th floor so we might have enough excelia to level up."

She spit out the coffee I offered. Maybe I was expecting this, but there is no proof. I'm evil.

"24th?! You?!"

"I thought you might not believe me, so I took a photo." I said and finally got some use from those hard-light projectors I assimilated in my wrists. The photo depicted the 10 of us in the forest-like environment of the 24th floor, though you wouldn't be able to tell exactly what floor it was.

"Fine, get on the couch, I will update your statuses. But! Since you're knew, you will have to bring me dinner!" she said

"Hm… Let me think… Eh, sure, I'll bring you dinner as a reward for being a good little girl."

"You're the only one that would call me, the great Goddess Loki, a little girl!" she said with a smile. Guess this little bickering helped her relax a little from that paperwork. Ah, it's related to us. Sorry, little Loki.

Anyway, the first to get the update was Jaune, then the rest of the gang. I was analyzing how everything worked since I wanted to be able to update statuses on my own. I theorized that since I am producing excelia, not only will I have an incredible jump in status, but the gang will gain excelia by sparring (read as 'get their ass handed to them') with me. In that case, they will be able to grow stronger even outside of this universe. Anyway, it was quite simple, and I should be able to do it myself. Actually, I will create a ritual that will have our statuses self-update from now on. Shouldn't be too hard.

What was I saying? Ah, yes. The gang went first. They all capped their statuses and jumped to Level 3. They capped so much that they had SSS in everything for Level 1 and Level 2. They also gained a development ability: 'Hunter'. It would be pretty useful, in particular if it worked even outside this universe. Then came my turn. And that was fun.

"Hey, Loki, my dear Goddess… Until what level can you update my status?"

"Who's your dear Goddess?! I can update your status indefinitely, theoretically. Wh- No. Please don't tell me he did something crazy. I've had enough for a single day." She said, turning to the gang in the middle of her sentence.

"Knowing my dear, he did something absolutely impossible and will somehow find a way for us to do something similar." Said Weiss

"Yeah, that wouldn't be the first time!" added Yang.

"Like giving us Light and magic." Concluded Ruby. The others were nodding all along.

Loki sighed and said: "You know what? I don't want to know. Let me update your status and get out of here." She started the process-cerimony-thingy for the status update and boi did it take long, so I decided to tease Loki.

"Loki, I know that my back is very sexy, but the only ones that can straddle me are my wives, so… Loki? You there?" Seeing as she wasn't responding, I got a little worried. I am asking her to update a status with constantly increasing excelia, so I don't know how she would react. I turned my head around and saw that the redhead was staring at a paper, then she crumpled it and took another one, just to repeat the process.

"Congratulations, you are officially a monster. What can I do to get you out of my Familia?" she said, waving the paper at my face. I took a glance at it and it was entirely corrupted with scribbles. No, not that strange writing thing they have here. It was like a corrupted text that is all jumbled up and illegible.

"Guess we found the limit of your updating capabilities. I will have to do it myself then. Thank you, Loki, but I have no intention of leaving the Familia. I wouldn't be able to tease you after all."

"No, I don't want to know! Lalala! I'm not listening to you! Get out before you destroy my common sense even further!" she said, pointing to the door.

"Ok, I'll bring you dinner later. Good work, little girl." I said, putting back my shirt and taking off with the gang. I left her some more coffee on the desk.