The Ganesha Familia was still getting ready when I arrived at the entrance to the 17 floor. About 60 adventurers were working hard putting monster cages on top of wagons.
Giving a brief nod to Guile and Mord who were busy pushing the Mad Beetle’s I approached Scott who was resting by a wagon filled with Lizardman and Hobgoblins, at least I think they are hogboglins.
“Good to see you up, we were beginning to think you we’d have to pay for someone to carry you to Orario” Said Scott sounding incredibly tired, his remaining arm holding on to his stump with a tight grip “you sure you don’t want to rest another day?”
“I thought I’d need help to get to Orario alive?”
“Well yes but there’s no need to rush it anymore” He said and laid a hand on my shoulder “You’ve got the money from the Vouivre now and it’s not like we’re gonna leave you down here after what you did for Mord, it’s fine if you need another day or two of rest”
I thought about it, truth was I’d have been very tempted to take him up on the offer when I woke up but, after updating my falna, I was feeling much better and I wanted to see finally see Orario.
“I’m fine” I said and immediately felt an irrational amount of guilt, looking at my trembling hand I sighed “Well, not completely fine but my body is good enough”
“First time killing someone?” He guessed while motioning for me to sit beside him on the wagon
“First time in a real fight actually” I confessed and squeezed my hand in a fist to stop the shaking “I grew up in a fairly safe place”
“Well, I know it won’t make this easier but you did the right thing killing that man” looking up Scott seemed to get lost in thought “I remember when I first became an adventurer, assholes like them were everywhere. It used to be you couldn’t trust anybody even up there in Orario much less down here”
“I take it that’s not the case anymore?”
“Things are kept in order pretty well nowadays but you never know, a single mistake is all it takes for something like Evilus to come back” he sighed and scratched at his stump again “That’s why you have to kill those bastards as soon as you can, those kind of people never stop unless you make them”
Fuck, I’d much rather people get judged and sent to jail or something but I could understand his point of view, in such might makes right society killing bandits before they could cause damage or grow too strong was probably the best I could hope for.
Still didn’t make me feel better about killing someone though.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for helping Mord, we all owe you one”
“I wasn’t really thinking about him at the time” I confessed embarrassed, I still didn’t know why I had attacked the Vouivre like that but saving Mord had only been a minor consideration, It was more that I couldn’t help myself.
Everything had been happening so fast. All the blood fear and excitement of the fight had gotten to my head and I couldn’t bring myself to do the logical thing.
Scott gave me a strange look but eventually shook his head “No matter the reason you saved my friend and that’s all I care about”
I suppose I too wouldn’t care about why someone saved me as long as I got to live.
After that we just watched as the adventurers worked around us as fast as they could, I thought about helping out but, with only one good arm and no idea what I was supposed to do I’d probably just get in the way.
Soon all seven wagons were filled with cages and the caravan started going up, I watched as Guile was made to help pull one of the wagons and Mord was put to work fighting monsters ahead of us.
Without an arm both Scott and I were left closer to the wagons so we could deal with any wounded monster that got away from the fighters without having to stop the wagons or raise the alarm in case of something we couldn’t deal with.
A tall man in full plate constantly walked around out caravan making sure everything was in order or yelling at everyone involved when a wagon had to stop but we were still advancing fast for people completely on foot going up two floors in four hours.
“Why did they hire more people” I asked Scott as I retrieved one of his daggers from a dead lamia mormos, all around me I could see idle adventurers talking and joking with each other.
It looked like the Ganesha familia could do this with half those people.
“From what I understand Ganesha called most of his adventurers back for something” He said wiping the dagger with a cloth before putting it back in place “Hashana was the only powerhouse left to deal with the monsters so they had to hire a few people just to make sure, don’t want to risk monsters spawning all around and ruining everything”
We soon reached another open space and Hashana Dorlia, the huge man in full plate, called for a full stop while casually stomping on the head of a minotaur.
We sat down in a circle, and waited until Mord came back from monster extermination to start eating, the man was covered in sweat and panting hard, still not completely recovered from the bloodloss.
“Are we really gonna reach Orario today?” I asked, it was already midday and we were still in the middle of the 15th floor.
“Ah don’t worry about it, the upper floors are much smaller and the monsters are hardly a challenge, after the 10th floor it’ll only take us 2 to 3 hours to reach Orario at most”
That made sense, the place we were in was an oppressive cave system made from bare rock and filled with dark corridors, the air was humid and shadows flickered everywhere, if I didn’t have my eye I was sure it would be very easy to become lost.
Worse yet, I had to stay alert to avoid any stray level 2 monster least they spawn on top of me or rush the carts before I could avoid them but, from what I remember from the anime, the upper floors are much better illuminated and had human sized monsters at most.
“Yo Mord, good to see you’re alive!” came the strong male voice as Hashana himself dropped besides me and took off his helmet “Who’s the new guy? A little too skinny for Ogma don’t you think?”
“I resent that” mumbled Scott while biting on a piece of jerky but everyone just ignored him.
“He’s a level 1 we found on Rivira, got abandoned by his party down there when the Goliath spawned and needed some money so we hired him as a porter for a little while” Mord answered while shaking the man’s hand “He’s a good one, actually own him my life you know?”
“Really? Which familia are you from anyway?”
“Yeah about that….” I scratched at my neck trying to think of something but decided some of the truth was good enough “My god is… strange, he never actually told me his name”
“Hmm, odd” he said while scratching at his chin “then again my own god spent all our money transforming our home into a huge statue of himself with the entrance at his crotch so I can’t really judge”
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“Ogma is mostly okay but he does have his oddities” Mord shrugged while laying down on the floor for a rest
“Not telling you his name… seems like the kind of thing Loki would find amusing” Hashana mused then put a hand on his own chest and made some grabbing motions “You sure it wasn’t a petite woman? Loki’s straight as a door, she could pass as a man if she tried”
“Pretty sure it wasn’t Loki” I answered and decided it was best to change the subject “Why do you guys go to all this trouble to get dungeon monsters anyway?”
“Cuz Ganesha finds it amusing… mostly” Taking a sip from his water bag Hashana stretched his arms and sighed “I mean pretty much everything that happens in Orario is because one god or another finds it amusing but the monster Feria does give us a good amount of money, a lot of people pay to see the monsters outside the dungeon”
“Plus the chance to practice taming without having to worry about other monsters or having backup is good” said Scott “Adventurers can’t keep monsters on the city and there’s always a risk when trying to tame something in the dungeon”
“How does tamming even work anyway?” I asked Scott now genuinely curious.
“Hey don’t look at me, he’s from the taming family” he said pointing to Hashana.
“Fine, let your uncle Dorlia enlighten you! I’m not a tamer myself but, as I understand it, the dungeon creates monsters with set instructions” he says while using the handle of his axe to draw a little goblin on the floor “A newly spawned monster will always follow that set of instructions to the letter. A goblin will always try to jump at you and stab you in the face, a firebird will always pause in the air and spew flames, it gets really predictable after a while.
The longer the monster has been alive the more it learns, it adapts and grows, a tamer takes advantage of that to teach the monster to obey, the best way is to show it how futile fighting is and make it fear getting punished.
Every dungeon monster hates adventurers so it may take some time and practice to make it fear more than it hates but, after you have done it to the same kind of monster enough, you learn how to do it faster. Plus you’ll probably get a skill”
“Could you tame a monster like a normal animal? Using rewards and kindness I mean.”
“Theoretically? It is possible but I have never seen it work, I once heard Shakti say I’d just take too long to overcome the instinctual hate” Hashana told me and then smirked “Doesn’t stop some fool from trying every year, very amusing”
Patting my shoulder Hashana put his helmet back on and pushed himself back to his feet “Anyway I’d better make sure Murita has everything in order for us to move on, hey Murita!” He shouted towards a sweating Modaka and left us.
“Thinking about trying your hand at taming?”
“Maybe” I told him while lost in thought “It sounds interesting enough”
Could I use illusions to make taming faster? In Naruto there were genjutsu that messed with an enemy’s sense of time, could I make something like that.
Soon we were moving again and I had to kill a wounded Hellhound as it tried to spew flames at me, after what Hashana had told me I made sure to watch the monsters closely and quickly found a pattern to their movements.
It made predicting them with the sharingan much, much easier.
Six hours later we finally reached the 10 floor and the caravan started to pick up the pace, Hashana himself grabbed the wagon with the most monster and pulled it alone while the adventurers took care of the small fry and, in only 2 hours, we were pulling the wagons through the dungeon entrance.
My first look of Orario was… underwhelming, Babel itself was impressive I admit but I had lived in a modern city my entire life, the tower was wider than anything I had seen but it didn’t seem all that much taller than a skyscraper.
The city itself was huge, probably larger than any medieval city of my world and much better build, the streets were clean and the buildings looked both new and well built but, again, it didn’t reach the level of a modern city or have any wondrous aspect I had come to expect from a fantasy world.
No floating islands, no clearly magical castle, no spells flying everywhere, Orario most resembled a well preserved historical city sparsely dotted with modern houses and mansions.
“Come on, it’s the Ganesha familia problem now” said Mord as he pushed me away from the entrance “Let’s go sell our lot to the guild so we can get your money”
Seeing us leaving Hashana waved at us “See you at Ishtar’s place later tonight?”
Mord looked at Scott’s missing arm and sighed “Can’t, we’re gonna have to save money from now on”
Reaching the guild Mord quickly found a mature redhead with wolf-like ears on top of her head “Rose-chan marry me!”
The werewolf? Wolf beastking? I didn’t really remember the name of her race… Rose gave Mord an unamused glare before her eyes flashed to my own cast and Scott’s missing arm “I see you’re still being greedy mister Latro, how many times have I told you not to delve too deep without a bigger group?”
“Come on Rose don’t be like that”
“Enough, if you’re not gonna hear my advice the least you could do is not waste my time” she snorted but there was a glint of pain on her eyes that said she cared far more than she was showing “And who’s the new party member, I have never seen him before?”
“Roland Synclair miss and I’m not really registered with the guild yet” I told her earning some odd looks from all four of them.
“I see, I see” she said and I swear I saw a vein pulsating on her forehead, she calmly rolled the documents on her hand into a tight cylinder and wiped her arm around hitting Mord in the face with her new weapon “What the hell are you doing bringing an unregistered adventurer in the dungeon!”
“I had nothing to do with it!” Mord protested as he tried to shield himself from the enraged receptionist “We found him already in Rivira and just gave him a ride to the surface!”
“And you, what were you doing down there” her cold eyes froze me in place, damn she was hot.
“My Familia was playing a prank on me” Thank god I remembered the excuse I had used before, it had worked well enough and no way was I telling them I sprouted from the dungeon like some kind of humanoid monster.
It was my turn to get hit with her rolled up papers “If you’re not gonna tell the truth at least make up a better lie!”
I scratched at the place she hit me and looked at the party with confusion but they just shrugged “Yeah we didn’t buy the prank thing too but, as long as you did your job as a porter we weren’t going to pry”
Great it seems I’m a terrible liar.
“Here” Rose told me as she handed me a sheet of paper “Fill this up, get your god to sign it and bring it back to me tomorrow”
“Ah, is the god’s signature really necessary?”
Rose gave me another glare and shook her head in exasperation when she saw I was being serious “Yes, just so you know the guild can’t stop you from entering the dungeon but we won’t buy any lot from you or give you any quests if you aren’t registered, I highly suggest you fill that up”
Half an hour later I left the guild 65 thousand valis richer, Mord and his party were going to sell the Vouivre’s drops apart but they had enough money to pay my 10% out of their own pockets.
Night had started to fall on Orario, the party invited me to stay with them at the Ogma familia’s house but I declined, I had never heard of Ogma before but as a god he was probably some kind of asshole.
Orario was well illuminated at night, there was light coming from inside almost every house and the streets were filled with tall lamps which used monster cores instead of electricity to generate light.
The sky still wasn’t pitch black yet and I kept to the wider streets filled with adventurers so I didn’t have any problems and people were relaxed, walking around without any worries, it seems like things really were kept safe.
They weren’t even watching their coin pouch.
Looking around I briefly wondered if Bell was already in the city, had I arrived years before the start of the story? Years later?
Reaching one of Orario’s main streets I had a clear view of the giant wall that encircled the city, second only to Babel itself the wall rose above the city making me fell like a titan would soon start bashing his body against it.
Not completely impossible with the dungeon here but very unlikely.
My stomach gave a growl of protest causing the few people walking around me to give me strange looks, I had been eating frequently but, with all the healing potions in my body I was burning energy at an alarming rate and it left me starving.
Asking around, it turns out the Hostess of fertility was actually the closest place to grab a meal, I made sure to ask various people to make sure but everyone I talked to said it was a little expensive but had good food and drink.
Plus, if Ryuu was already working there I could find out at what point in the timeline I arrived without being too suspicious.
It was also a good place to ask for somewhere to stay the night, I didn’t really like that someone would know where I was staying and, from what I remember, the girls there were too strong to bother with a lone level 1.
The pub seemed to be bursting with activity, it’s lights were on and I could hear loud laugher from inside with a constant stream of clients walking in and out of the building looking satisfied and not too drunk.
Pushing the doors open I stepped into the room and looked around for a table or corner I could sit, the pub was almost full but there was an entire empty table by a corner and a few spots at the counter.
It left me feeling a little too open but, since I was alone, I sat down at the bar and gave a polite smile to the waitress in front of me, a human girl with bluish grey hair who seemed to be staring at me with an expression that seemed both baffled and… a little afraid?.
“Do you have a menu or something?” I asked after a second or two when her stare started to make me uncomfortable.
A shiver ran down my spine and I suddenly felt like a mouse being starred at by an entire clowder of cats.
Briefly glancing back I saw two cat girls frowning at me from across the room, their eyes narrowed to slits and shinning with a predatory light, one of them was even gently caressing a kitchen knife.
A mug hit the counter in front of me with unnecessary force splashing me with ale and almost making me jump, turning around I saw a huge dwarf woman glaring , her arm bigger than my tight.
“You’re new around here” she said while handing me a menu and putting an arm around the waitress, her bulging muscles clear for all to see “How do you know dear Syr?”
“I don’t?” I swallowed and said, my voice full of confusion, a drop of sweat slowly running down my face.
“Hrumph, back to work with you now” The dwarf snorted and pushed her employee away from me, I tried to open the menu but she swiped it out of my hand “I’ll get you a soup, you seen like you need a soup”
I watched as she walked back to the kitchen, I wanted to tell her I didn’t like soup but I had started to feel yet another glare at my back and didn’t dare open my mouth.
What the hell was that, I had never been in Orario before, fuck I had never been in this world before there’s no way a random girl recognized me.
If I remember correctly the waitresses at the pub were all fairly strong former adventurer, did she have some kind of skill that triggered when looking at me? And why the hell would it cause such reaction?
Wait, in norse mythology Loki could shapeshift, had I already gotten his attention after saving those elves? But then why the fear?
Shaking my head again I looked at the mug of ale and shrugged before starting to drink. Before long a green haired elf brought me my soup her eyes narrowed in suspiciousness as she served me.
Ryuu Lion looked exactly as I thought she would, she was a petite woman with delicate but sharp features, her skin was pale but it didn’t look unhealthy.
“Thanks” I sighed as I tried to avoid her angry eyes.
Didn’t Ryuu kill a lot of people before retiring?
Swallowing hard I forced myself to take a sip of the soup, I was surprised when it actually tasted pretty good, diving into my food I lost track of things around me as I satiated my growing hunger.
“Hey I want a refill here!” I was almost finished with my meal when a tall man hit my cast with an elbow and shouted in my ear.
Ugh, this is why I prefer to sit with my back against a wall.
Turning to glare at the drunken idiot I meet the eyes of the grey haired werewolf and spewed soup all over his tattooed face.
Face soaking wet Bete Loga stared at me in confusion for a second before what happened truly registered, loud laughter burst out from the Loki familia’s table as I saw a vein starting to throb on Bete’s forehead.
Fuck I forgot they came here often to party! Goddamnit had the waitress called them?
“Why you…” Bete growled almost beyond words, grabbing me by the shirt I couldn’t resist his strength as he lifted me up with one hand “How dared a weakling like… gha!”
In my defense I wasn’t really thinking straight, despite my best efforts I was still feeling on edge from fighting in the dungeon and meeting the Loki familia was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise.
Worse, as Bete’s lifted me up and started shouting into my face my mind flashed back to the man chocking me and shouting inside the dungeon
Our eyes meet for a brief moment, then my own eye spun into the mangekyou on instinct and I sent him the pain illusion I had crafter earlier while trying to grab for my sword.
The illusion broke almost instantaneously, his level far too high for it to last even a full second but it still had an effect.
Grabbing at his face Bete grunted in surprise and threw me away sending my body flying through the pub, hitting my head against the wooden wall I blacked out.