Within one of the poorer districts of Orario, a young man in leather armor could be seen walking down a dark street. He had a large backpack on his shoulders and a belt with two leather pouches, alongside two long swords. He looked no different from any normal lower-class adventurer in the city, though any experienced fighter would tell you that he had a gait that belied that idea. His posture, they would say, was the posture of a man of high skill.

This odd man walked into a shabby looking shop at the end of the road, a bell tinkling to announce his entry:

“Morning Miach” Adama gruffly called, sidling over to the counter where the shopkeeper was examining his one of his wares, a vial of deep blue liquid:

“Good morning, Tim. Back for more physical recovery elixirs?”

The shopkeeper’s voice was warm and low, with a slight accent that made it pleasant to listen to. The man himself had hair and eyes the same dark navy color as his potion alongside facial features that were perfectly fashioned to make the ladies swoon, though he rarely noticed their affections. Miach was another poor god, similar to Hestia, and he worked to make ends meet by running this potion shop. He blinked curiously at Adama over a dirt brown robe and shook the potion he was holding at him hopefully.

Miach’s potions were good, and he did enough business to buy better clothes than that, but he often gave potions away to people in desperate need, to the point that he often danced on the edge of bankruptcy. Tim had heard about him from Hestia. She had recommended he buy a few of Miach’s potions once their money situation had improved. They were apparently old friends.

“Yep. Give me everything that this will buy. Health, physical recovery, Mind. The works.” He said this while plunking down a sack filled with most of their savings, around 50,000 vals now.

Miach’s eyes shown at the influx of cash, immediately busying around to gather a collection of potions that would keep Tim alive in the coming days of intense training. Hestia had indicated that she would be gone for a few days, leaving Tim a good opportunity to train even harder than usual, without her worrying. Now that he was thinking about her, though, he wondered about her whereabouts:

“Hey Miach. Hestia said she needed to step out a few days but didn’t mention where. You have any idea about that?”

“Hmmm?” He murmured, examining a health potion critically, “She might be going to the Celebration of the Gods. It’s a gathering, of sorts, for the gods of Gekai. I didn’t go because I have work to do here. The Celebration doesn’t last for much longer than a day or two, though.”

Miach rustled around a bit more, before presenting the collection of potions all tied together in a neat leather case. Adama accepted them gladly and left.

That day in the dungeon was as uneventful as a day in the dungeon could really be. Tim could now cut through the monsters of the fifth and sixth floors with relative ease. He was more comparable to them in strength, now, which meant that fights with them weren’t fair in the slightest. War Shadow’s came at him two, sometimes three at a time on the sixth floor but he killed them all. There were a few dicey encounters, of course, as no serious venture into the dungeon was easy. But nothing that was a true problem.

Which meant that it was time for a new adventure.

The enemies changed again on the 7th floor. The dungeon was still the same light green color that it changed to on the 5th floor, but the 7th was largely populated by insectoid monsters. That was what he was facing now, as he stared down a large antlike creature that clicked its pincers at him in challenge. It came at him in a blur, a frontal rush bringing to bear swordlike arms that threatened to cut him to pieces.

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He deflected an overhead attack and jumped back to dodge a sideways sweep, before lashing out at the vulnerable joint in its’ arm, leaving the insect staring stupidly at the stump where its’ arm used to be. It lunged forward, trying to bisect him with its’ pincers, but he had already moved to its’ armless side, sword passing through the chink in its’ armor around the neck area.

That had been closer than it looked. The ant had moved at high speeds, and it would have cut him in half had he been a hair slower with that dodge. He also, knew, thanks to Eina, that these monsters, called Killer Ants, could give off pheromones to summon allies. Dealing with several of these at once would not be pleasant.

He spent the day on the sixth floor and spent the evening cautiously exploring the upper parts of the seventh. He got a good feel for Killer Ant attack patterns and managed to take down more than one at once, thanks to his Rippling Sword. A purple-colored flying insect descended on him at one point and managed to thoroughly cover him in a strange purple powder as he was fighting two Killer Ants. He killed it in revenge, but soon began to feel deeply ill. Poison.

Fortunately, he had had the foresight to buy a few antidotes from Miach, but he didn’t have that many, so he would have to be careful to avoid getting poisoned again.

He left the dungeon again when he felt that it was getting close to midnight, heading topside per his traditional stopping point. He didn’t act the way he usually did, though. He went home, of course, and dumped out the monster drops of the day on the couch, which included a nice purple wing from the flying insect. Then he went out, bought himself a nice dinner at one of the late-night taverns, then sat on one of the street benches while eating it.

He finished his food. Sat for a bit longer, watching the moon solemnly. Drank a physical recovery elixir. And headed back into the Dungeon.

For two more days, Adama didn’t sleep a wink.

When he needed rest, he chugged a Mind or physical recovery elixir. When he needed to heal, he had potions. He took breaks to eat, exchange his spoils for money, and train with Aiz. But nothing else. Even those breaks became sparser later, perhaps twice a day. He only left to keep up his regular meetings with Aiz and to relieve himself of all his magic stones.

Aiz commented, during one of their morning training sessions, that he seemed a bit more beat up than usual. Though when he mentioned that it was just some extra training, she suddenly got a really serious look on her face and nodded in understanding. She reminded him of Yerin, when she was plotting to do some extra training beyond the regimen he set for her. He was glad to see it, but this new determination prompted her to forget her strength again and kick him off the ramparts. He landed on the city side, cobblestones breaking his fall and his ribs, startling some poor housewife doing laundry.

Aiz apologized, and offered him a high-grade potion, which he took, though he wished there was a potion for wounded pride.

As he went into the Dungeon, he mused that he ought to restock his potion supply with Miach again soon. He would do so when he came out again that night, since he knew the impoverished deity worked at nearly all hours of the day. Not unlike himself.

Things started off normally at first.

He made his way without incident through the top six floors and down to the seventh. He got jumped by a horned rabbit, a so-called Needle Rabbit, that hopped around at high speeds and tried to drive its’ horn into his skull. It definitely moved much faster than his feet, but it wasn’t faster than his sword. He left it in two pieces after cutting it in midair, surprise attack foiled.

His trials on the seventh floor proved just as profitable as ever, though the Killer Ants proved tough and worthy opponents. At one point, he was cornered by four of them, along with a flying purple moth as backup. But a few well-placed Rippling swords and poor coordination on their part allowed him to turn the tables, despite being poisoned mid-fight by the annoying moth that circled overhead. He downed an antidote, realizing that that was the last one he owned, and resolved to go to Miach straight away. In news that was just as bad, his sword had been practically junked during that fight. It hadn’t shattered, but it was cracked beyond the point of usefulness.

He tossed it aside and drew his backup, chugging his last Mind elixir and resolving to leave and go to Miach’s early.

The thought had barely exited his head when the Dungeon began to shake.

It was momentary, and he wondered for a moment if he was going nuts. But before he could consider that thought too closely, he heard the hissing cries of more Killer Ants coming from down the hallway that led deeper into the seventh floor. They were heading in his direction, and sounded pretty irritated, so he decided a strategic retreat to the sixth floor would be the right move.

No sooner had he started running back the way he came than did he hear identical hissing coming from his escape route. It sounded like more ants had spawned from down the way he came. They were coming back towards him in a pincer attack with their brethren from deeper in the floor. He readied his sword and prepared to cut through this obstacle on his way out.

Now that plan was fine, insofar as it went, but he realized that he was in real trouble when he heard cracking sounds coming from the wall overhead. The wall opened up, spilling out three fresh ants from what looked like a black void, sword-arms flashing as they came down right on his head.

“When it rains it pours.” He grumbled internally, as he whirled to face the new threat.

This was going to be a long day.