°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
"Roses are red, Violets are blue, only for you, my heart beats true" - M̷̻͉̤̜͍̱̥̟̓̑̐̀͌́̽̅͆͂̈̓̐͘͜͝͠ą̵̢̛̗͎̩̯̬̩̰͙̯͚̭͖́͑̓̍̊̒̈̔͗͝r̷͚̤̱̦̝̱͉̙̝̹͈̠̓ͅi̴̧̼̭̘͙̓̾̉̉́̐̈́͊̽̽͝͝ą̶̧̢̩̙͍̺̦̤̬̬̥̰̯̱̝̪̥̠͍̓̒̋̊̀̂̋̉̽̃́̌͛̆̑̚̕͠͝ ̷̦̭̪̻͚͌͒̈͛̿͛͐͝Ŗ̵̲͇̼͂̀̈̍̃̓̈́̓̚ͅơ̵͖̹̻͍͙̟̔̈́͐͑͂͛̋͊̒̒͜s̵̝̟̗̰̭͔̗̝͕͇̼̣̗̳̖͎̱͕̼͍̺̳̐̿͆̎͂̓́͆͗͊̔̅̽̋̂̄͘͠͠e̸̛͕̩̜̎̽̾̇̃̆͌̌́͊̎̓͐͂̾̎̚̚͘̚͝͝͠͠
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Dungeon 5th Floor
High ranking familia would always dive deep in the dungeon, their lower leveled members always accompanied by stronger companions.
In this way, the weaker members could improve their strength safely, while the stronger members are given a challenge to protect their companions.
Normally, such a strategy would work in a dungeon, that is if the experience to level up was based solely on monster kills.
Unfortunately, in this dungeon, experience does not equal monster's slain, instead it equals true "experience" that adventurers face.
In fact, without diving into the dungeon, members of a God's familia could increase their levels and stats, albeit slower, this increase came from their "experiences".
Training ones body could improve strength, surpassing your speed through training could increase agility, studying and practicing magic would work for magic and so on.
Although that was possible, the process was excruciatingly slow, since "experience" obtained from the dungeon was more "significant". In a way, one could even quantify excelia as "a significant experience related to X".
If an adventurer experiences a battle above their current strength, after they defeat their foe, monsters and others in the dungeon, the excelia they receive would be greater than if they defeated the same enemies above ground.
Moreover, the dungeon continuously increases in strength the deeper one goes, at the moment, even the strongest adventurer's had yet to reach the bottom of the dungeon. This means that the chances to improve oneself were still there.
That being said, the dungeon, as vast as it was, ended up becoming not only a simple place to get stronger and hunt monsters but, some familia had used certain floors as a palace to test or train their members.
The Loki familia, with their strength had been able to do just that-
On the fifth floor, the Loki familia had created a blockade, they did not prevent others from going deeper but they did secure an area to do some secret- testing.
Riveria stood in this area, in her hand was the staff she had obtained from Hephaestus for a hefty sum.
A distance from her, a single killer ant was bound by chains struggling as it tried to escape the bindings.
Riveria looked at the ant, the staff in her hands before turning towards a small- kid? No- a pallum, a race of people who could be likened to Hobbits from a certain series.
This pallum, with blonde hair and blue eyes nodded at Riveria and after she saw him nod, Riveria turned back towards the ant.
She raised the staff in her hands as she began chanting-
"Wyn Fimbulvetr"
Following her chant, a magic circle manifested at the tip of the staff before a bright blue bolt of lightning shot out of the circle hitting the ant in less than a split second-
⋆꙳❅*❆⋆꙳❅*❆⋆꙳❅*❆
"Wha-"
An exclamation was heard, Riveria turned towards the direction and saw a blonde elf staring at the ant- or at least what was left of it in shock.
The ant- now a pile of ice shards, had shocked the blonde elf.
"Riveria-san! What was that?!"
She exclaimed as she rushed towards the green haired elf.
Riveria, seeing the blonde elf smiled as she said-
"Lefiya, good, now take this-"
Without any explanation she retracted her magic from the staff turning it into a small stick once more before passing it to Lefiya.
"Yes?"
"Now infuse magic power into it"
Lefiya, the blonde elf, didn't know what was going on but she followed instructions nonetheless.
What followed was the same scene as when Riveria activated the item, a look of shock appeared on Lefiya's face but Riveria didn't explain as she said-
"Now, use your Arcs Ray, shoot it at the other Killer Ant over there, but I want you to use fire enchantment"
Although her commands were sudden, Lefiya followed the orders, after all, she had already "mastered" the use of the staff.
[Unleashed streak of light, bow limbs of the holy tree. You are an expert of the bow. Shoot, sniper of the fairies. Penetrate, arrow of absolute accuracy!]
"Alio"
As she recited the spell key, a magic circle appeared on the tip of the staff and-
A crimson ball of flames shot out at blinding speed, it flew towards the distant ant, bounded in chains, changing trajectory as it was not shot directly at the ant.
*BOOM*
The flame landed and a huge ball of fire exploded at the place where it hit. The ball of fire did not explode outward, instead it maintained its shape, scorching the area and even melting the ground where it hit-.
After the flames dispersed, what was left of the ant was nothing but a pit filled with molten rock-
"This-"
Seeing the effects of her spell, Lefiya did not know what to say- at this moment, Riveria spoke, explaining to her the origin of the staff.
"This is an item called the [Imp Staff], apparently it was made using magic stones and drop materials from an imp"
"An item?"
Lefiya turned to Reveria, her eyes showing an expression that was a mix of shock and confusion plastered all over her face.
At this time, the blonde Pallum approached the two elves.
"Riveria, Gareth just came back from the 19th floor, the effects of the Gem were-"
"Frightening"
A large man appeared, his words cutting off the pallum. He gave Riveria a serious stare as he said-
"The gem you infused with your magic burned down quite an area, you should have seen the destruction, magma, flames and even some small volcanoes spewed out from the ground devastating a significant area."
"What about the gems that were infused with the magic of the lower leveled mages?"
"Not that great, it is still quite interesting though, if we store a bunch of Nine Hell powered gems wouldn't we have an easier time raiding the deep floors?"
As the two conversed, when the talks reached the point of raiding the deeper floors the pallum cut in-
"Ahem- before thinking about a raid, we need to see if there are other items that are available… maybe we could even request for some more- specialized items"
Hearing the Pallum's words, the elf and the huge man, a dwarf going by the name Gareth Landrock nodded.
"Uhm… captain- what's this gem?"
Lefiya suddenly interjected, she felt ashamed to do so as the three top leaders of the familia were having a serious conversation but hearing about a "gem" that "devastated a significant portion of the 19th floor" made her unable to hold herself back.
Although she was now regretting her decision, she still wanted to know more.
The staff she was holding should have something to do with the gem, she wanted to know what kind of item's the Captain was keeping serious note of.
"We'll talk about it later, for now, keep everything you saw, heard and experienced here a secret okay?"
Hearing the Captain, the blonde pallum, bearing the name Finn Deimne, tell her to keep things secret made her realize the importance of this matter.
She nodded her head vigorously before passing the staff, albeit reluctantly back to Riveria who smiled watching Lefiya's hesitation.
After cleaning up the traces of their actions, the Loki familia quickly returned to the surface, although they attracted attention, they already dealt with such things as they had a haul of monster drops and magic stones prepared to mask their actions.
Since it was already late, the group did not head for the Guild and instead returned to their base, an act that was not all too unheard of for the Loki familia to do.
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Loki Familia Base, Twilight Manor, Captain's Office
"Are these the items you were talking about?"
A flat chested woman, wearing what could only be called booty shorts that looked more like underwear than shorts asked, her eyes opening slightly revealing a pair or red eyes.
"Yes…"
The one to speak was the pallum captain, Finn, he explained the events that led to them testing the items in the dungeon. From Riveria being requested by Hephaestus, a simply commission to look over some items.
A good deal as she could request any one item from Hephaestus in exchange for inspecting a few items she had.
In the end though, Riveria had used her own money to purchase a few of the inspected items from Hephaestus as she had to test them out after finding something unique about them.
Now, these items were placed before Loki, the Goddess of the Loki Familia.
"I see… Ri-chan you did good"
Loki grinned, although few could decipher her expression, her familia members, being with her for so long had found out how to "see through" their Goddess' poker face.
Right now, although her expression remained the same, they could see joy oozing out of Loki.
"You guys, do you think these items are strong or weak?"
She suddenly asked, the three top executives of the Loki familia exchanged glances.
"It depends, we all agreed that the items are useful but not really that powerful at best they give the users some flexibility and variation to their abilities."
Riveria was the one to speak, presenting her explanation that had been accepted by both Gareth and Finn but Loki, despite being impressed, shook her head.
"You're right but not completely"
Loki turned to her executives, her oldest and most experienced children. She saw the look of confusion in their eyes and the desire to know- what was it that Loki had seen which they had not?
"Ri-chan, you're right your assumptions are not wrong, in fact, based on the knowledge you all have, this is the best answer you could give… here Ri-chan use it"
Loki threw the staff to Riveria who immediately infused it with her magic power.
The familiar sight, the projection that materialized and the azure-green veins that appeared on her hand and the staff.
"See that?"
Loki pointed at the veins on Riveria's hands.
"These? What are these?"
Ever since she saw them, she wanted to know what these veins were but her knowledge and that of both Gareth and Finn were not enough. They did not know what these veins were, it was a novel thing to them but Loki seems to know.
"Well, these… veins? Tentacles? Connectors? They don't have any specific name, in fact, this is the first time I'm seeing them myself but- I could see what these things do."
Loki saw the look of desire in the eyes of Riveria, she wanted to tease her more but- the special item was something that she had to take seriously.
She could not truly see what was weird about it but her senses told her that something about it was special.
Of course her act of "knowing" was just that, an act, but it was enough to keep her prestige among her children at least.
"Well, let's call them spirit threads, these things connect your soul to the staff there"
"Soul?!"
"Don't act shocked, I mean, don't you feel it? The feeling of "knowing" how to use it?"
Her words caused Riveria to panic but after a while, the green haired elf calmed down. Since Loki did not panic, why would she? If it was dangerous, Loki would have asked her to release it already.
"Anyway, that item connects to your soul, unlike normal magic swords and other items that are purely external. This item here "becomes one with its user". That feeling of "knowing how to use it" is just an extension of that nature"
Hearing her explanation, Riveria came to a realization, so did Finn and Gareth, they all stared at the staff and Finn suddenly had a realization as he asked-
"Loki… can you use it?"
His question was something normal in a way, but the implication of his question was deeper, a question that could overturn the whole of Orario- no the world.
But the response of Loki was something that both calmed Finn down and made the Captain of the Loki familia feel a sense of regret-
"No"
Loki saw Finn's expression and said-
[A/N: From this point on, things go towards non-canon territory so please bear with me. The God's would notice the weirdness of the items created by Ryuta, that's logical but what they're called… let just assume that such items exist in danmachi, weapons of God's but those have yet to be properly named, in fact, the canon story may not even tackle it. So I had to improvise, hope you guys don't get too pissed by this]
"Actually, if I could use it I would have suspected Hephaestus was using her arcanum to create weapons secretly. After all, an item that the user could connect to spiritually is something at the level of an artifact."
"Artifact?"
"A divine item, one that only a god could create, if it was made by Hephaestus arcanum, I'd be able to use it as well but since I can't use it, the item was obviously-"
Loki paused, she looked at the staff once more and a serious aura could be felt oozing from her body before she said-
"Created by man, yes, this is an item that touches the divine, a mortal creation…"
Her words caused the whole room to turn silent, all three executives of the Loki familia were trying to digest the words their Goddess had just said-
Loki could see that they didn't know how to react, her words carried too much weight and the implications of them even more so-
"Well, how bout we meet with Hephaestus tomorrow?"
She proposed and with that, the Loki Familia had requested a meeting with the Hephaestus Familia, a meeting which Hephaestus accepted the moment it reached her desk. She turned her gaze up as she sent the letter back.
"So, is this one of your skills as well? Divination or is it just you being so smart that even the trickster had fallen into your trap?"
Sitting opposite of Hephaestus, Ryuta smiled as he responded-
"Your rush to make a deal with me, the sudden call… Hephaestus-sama, if you wanted to fool someone, you should first fool yourself. The way your moving… even fooling a child would be impossible"
"I'm not fooling anyone though?"
"Then there's your answer"
Ryuta smiled as he stood up preparing to leave.
"Ryuta, the meeting tomorrow, are you going to reveal your identity?"
Hephaestus asked, the meeting- she wanted to decline but Ryuta, who had just been here conveniently after she had called him in order to talk about the results of the tests Riveria had done, requested to proceed with the meeting.
Such an act seemed uncharacteristic of Ryuta, although she had just met the man yesterday, Hephaestus, a God who had lived for an unknown amount of time could easily see what kind of person Ryuta was.
She did not believe that Ryuta would act openly, that he would reveal his identity and yet- he had asked her to proceed with the meeting even telling the Loki Familia that the creator of the items would be present tomorrow.
"You'll know tomorrow~"
Ryuta said in a teasing tone before leaving.
Watching Ryuta's retreating back, Hephaestus let out a sigh as she went over the contract she had made with him.
'Such a loan… but if it's to have him create weapons under me, even sharing some of his techniques… that should justify it… yeah… it should'
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[email protected]/lonelymountainsage
[A/N: The weird text to cover the name for the quote was intentional and has a deeper meaning, though I could remove it if ya'll want]