10 Chapter 10 - Celeritas

Laurens decided it was good to take a small break today since he had quite a lot to do, checking how much it cost to get a better house, a new weapon and just walking around Orario for a bit seemed like a good idea.

Hestia couldn't go with him since she had to work and refused to quit her job after he told her how much he had made, although she was extremely shocked and happy he was this capable, she didn't want to mooch of him and wanted to provide for him instead.

'Just in character alone she is probably one of the best Goddesses' Laurens smiled to himself as he walked along the busy streets in Orario.

"Ummm.... Are you going to the Tower of Babel?" A soft voice sounded from Laurens' side.

Laurens looked at the woman and nearly threw her a cold look, she had bluish gray hair that she kept tied with a small knot in a ponytail style. Her eyes were the same color as her hair and she had a light peachy colored smooth skin.

She also wore a white blouse with a leaf-colored knee-length long skirt with a slightly long half apron around her waist. And lastly, she wore a pair of brown boots over black stockings which made her the fitting image of a maid in the Hostess of Fertility.

'I thought by using Bete as a warning she would atleast be more careful, but it seems I underestimated her obsession....' Laurens thought inwardly as he looked at 'Syr'

"I might be going later, I'm first going to get breakfast" Laurens said with a friendly smile expression.

Syr just brightly smiled and asked, "How about eating inside the Tavern? We're almost going open!"

"Fine by me" Laurens shrugged his shoulders and just walked inside, completely ignoring Syr who looked at his back.

'Let me see what game you're playing, Freya' Laurens grinned and took a seat at the bar.

"Ah, It's you kid! How was the booze last time?" An energetic voice came from the kitchen and Laurens saw Mia walking out the kitchen door with an elf in the same clothes as Syr.

She wore the maid outfit of the Hostess of Fertility with sky-blue eyes that seemed to have a glow in them and green hair. Although her curves were not like Hestia's, she was after all in Elf but that gave her an unique charm considering her temperament.

Come on! If men thought about Fantasy Worlds, Elves would be the first topic they thought about, if you didn't you were just built different.

"Hello Mia, quite good actually.... Sorry about the table though" Laurens grinned at Mia who just shrugged it off and threw the menu towards Laurens.

"Tell me what you want to eat, you should eat more to keep that body of yours in shape!" Mia said with a wide smile as she put on her apron.

"One of everything!" Laurens didn't even look and threw the menu back with just as much force as Mia who couldn't help but grin and say,

"Is this becoming a habit? Ordering one of everything?"

"Naturally, got to keep my body up to par somehow" Laurens laughed.

"My name is Laurens by the way, nice to meet you two" Laurens smiled and stoke out his hand towards Syr who happily shook it and said, "My name is Syr, I work here as a maid!"

She even went as far as making a little pose at the end which made Laurens almost laugh but cringe at the same time since he knew how ruthless Freya could be.

Laurens walked towards the Elf and stoke out his hands without much thought, "Nice to meet you too"

She looked at the hand with a stone expression and just stood there before an excited Syr jumped over and said happily, "Don't be so stiff! We will see each other a lot from now on anyway! She is called Ryuu!"

Syr grabbed the Elf's hand unceremoniously put Ryuu's hand into Laurens who just shrugged and shook it with a light smile on his face.

As they both shook hands, Laurens just kept looking at her and expected her to withdraw her hand but she merely looked at their hands and said, "Nice to meet you... I'm Ryuu"

Feeling her body slightly shaking, Laurens decided to stop teasing the poor elf. Although he knew some of her story, he didn't know everything and didn't want to push it.

"By the way, does one of you know a good store to purchase a decent weapon at?" Laurens asked in curiosity, Ryuu was a Level 4 Adventurer and Syr was.... well, you know.

"What is your price range?" Unexpectedly it was Ryuu who spoke up before Syr who pouted at her friend for being so fast.

"6.000.000 Valis" Laurens said after thinking for a bit.

"Weren't you an adventurer since only 2 days ago?" Ryuu asked with a confused expression, she had heard about the stuff that happened yesterday how a new adventurer made a bet with the entire Loki Familia and yet he already had 6.000.000 Valis?

There was no way that the Hestia Familia had any money, so that meant he actually got that on his own after just 2 days?

"You should go to Hephaestus's shop then, although their stuff is expensive, it's worth the price" Ryuu said after a short thought.

"I guess I will look there first then, Thanks" Laurens said which made Ryuu look away with a neutral expression, but Laurens could see she was in distress because of something since she kept feeling her hand for some reason.

Laurens just talked a bit more with Syr while Ryuu was more of a spectator due to her silent nature and sometimes corrected some information Laurens had.

The two of them taught him a decent bit about the Dungeon's environment like if you fought Blood Wolves after smearing yourself with mud that was on the 10th floor, their sense of smell which was their biggest advantage would be heavily impacted since they just smell the smell they normally smell but moving around.

They also told that the strongest Monster on the 10th floor were a group of 5 Elite Blood Wolves, which were merely 1.5 times stronger than a normal Blood Wolf but their claws could drop which were extremely valuable in making weapons.

If it was just 1.5 times stronger than a normal Blood Wolf and a group of 5, Laurens was sure he could kill them with quite some ease now.

"Aahh.... that really hit the stomach" Laurens relaxed as he sat at the bar with a full stomach, Ryuu and Syr's mouth twitched as they watched the rows of empty plates that were enough for 10 people to have dinner and couldn't help but grin a bit aswell as they reached for the empty plates.

"Kid! Do you want more?" Mia screamed from the kitchen.

"Same order!" Laurens instantly yelled back which nearly made the girls fall face first, just how much place did he have in his stomach?!

"Coming!"

Laurens looked at the girls and asked, "Something wrong?"

"No.... No, nothing" Syr said with an innocent smile on her face while Ryuu just looked at him.

Mia was faster than the first time and delivered the food before Laurens could take a proper breather, yet he still wolfed down the entire meals without a problem.

"Please come visit again okay?" Syr asked with an innocent smile on her face as Laurens was about to leave.

Laurens merely smiled at Ryuu and said, "Sure"

Syr had a different light shine through her eyes as she noticed he didn't mean because of her but she managed to hide it perfectly, or so she thought.

If someone wasn't paying attention and didn't have heightened senses like Laurens, they wouldn't notice the small break-ups in her acting, but Laurens had been on guard against her the entire time.

As for Ryuu? It seemed as if she was getting in Syr's way, which made Laurens yet confused since she didn't know Syr's identity yet.

Everytime Syr told him a good location to kill Monsters she heard from adventurers in the Tavern, Ryuu would tell him several different locations that were also a good grinding spot.

Laurens had caught on quite quickly that Syr was acting extremely suspicious by saying only one spot on each floor.

He decided to just put it to the back of his mind and just get a new weapon, he might want to get Hephaestus to get her to teach him smithing or something since Weapons were extremely expensive and knowing himself, he knew that they would break often.

Laurens walked into one of Hephaestus' shops and started walking through the various shelves, there were so many kinds of armor that Laurens even had the thought of buying one but eventually shook his head and refused.

'If my body is stronger than training Strength would also be simpler since my body could handle the new-gained strength more easily so having armor is not worth it' Laurens just shook his head and walked past the armor shelves and stands.

It was quite busy inside the store with several groups of adventurers looking for new equipment for their trips inside the Tower of Babel.

As Laurens arrived at the weapons, he saw some interesting swords that had either strange curves, were completely straight or over a meter long.

Some were priced for 100.000 Valis and some were priced over 20.000.000 Valis, yet this was just a branch shop!

As Laurens held some swords and felt their weight, balance and sharpness, he couldn't help but think about yesterday, any sword here could cut the one he lost yesterday against the Mutated Blood Wolf with ease....

He spent around an hour just walking through the shelves, feeling each sword before finally seeing a sword that caught his eye.

It had a golden handle with a black guard that was edged with gold aswell, the blade was matt black but the edge had a red wave-like pattern on it which made it look extremely beautiful.

[A/N: I love to add pictures to what I mean so here;]

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[Celeritas]

Price: 5.319.000 Valis

[Information:]

> A weapon made from Light Metal, White Wood, Moon Stone, Vouirvre's Tear and other Miscellaneous materials, a failed product from the Goddess Hephaestus.

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Laurens looked at the price in confusion, the sword looked like a Katana with a beautiful black sheath that had all kinds of patterns engraved in it and a golden thread circling around it, yet the price made no sense.

Laurens walked towards the counter and put the sword on top of it without saying anything, the man looked at Laurens and said,

"Kid, are you sure you want this one?"

"Is something wrong with it?" Laurens asked, a defect weapon wouldn't put into one of Hephaestus' shops as far as he knew.

The man grabbed the sword and held it in front of Laurens while pointing at the blade before saying,

"You probably noticed that the price is extremely low for a weapon that has been forged with a Vouivre's Tear, that is because despite the Gemstone being grinded to pieces before having all kinds of Miscellaneous materials like Calming Grass, Ancient Pink Rose and a Fairy Heart were added to try and calm down its wild nature since it's part of the Dragon Race Monsters"

The man looked at the sword with a slightly scared look before looking at Laurens again and said,

"However, that was a failure. The Vouivre was a mutated one, so it was multiple times stronger than a normal one despite them being just as rare as a Unicorn, the Level 8 adventurer of the Zeus Familia had used this sword, but the God Zeus told him to bring back the weapon with as reason that he was too soft for the sword."

Laurens looked at the man in confusion and held the sword in his hand, he didn't feel anything that weird about it, instead, he felt extremely comfortable holding it.....

"Thank you for kind thoughts, but I will buy it" Laurens smiled and put the money on the counter.

"Suit yourself, just be careful out there" The man sighed and slumped his shoulders, he wasn't in the position to lecture the kid, he just hoped that if the God/Goddess of his Familia saw the sword they would forbid him to use it.

Outside, Laurens was walking through the busy streets as he held the sword with a complicated smile,

'In the end, I can't resist....' Laurens helplessly smiled as he held the sword in his hands, he didn't get a omnious feeling from the sword like the man had and instead it felt as if it was an extension of his body.

He bought a few extra sets of clothes for the Dungeon, casual and even bought a suit since Apollo might try the same thing with him as Bell in the Anime before hurrying home.

Since nobody was there, he didn't hesitate to drop his stuff off and went towards the Tower of Babel.

***

"Ais, why are you so reckless today?" Riveria looked at Ais' arm that was clearly broken, normally Ais was extremely calculative and planned her moves beforehand, unlike the behavior she showed now, it was like she was back to being the 9-year-old brat that went headfirst into everything to get stronger even if it meant destroying herself.

Ais didn't respond and merely gave the same deadpan look at Riveria who had a look concern and anxiety on her face, normally, she was the calm one, but she was one of the people that knew of the old Ais.

"Is it because him?" Riveria asked after she handed Ais an Elixer.

Ais' body obviously shook which made Riveria certain that the man that confronted their Familia had something to do with it.

"Did he make you that angry that you have to be this reckless?"

Ais looked at Riveria and shook her head with a complicated gaze which made Riveria even more confused.

"Ais, then what is it that makes you like this"

"Do you remember that when the Loki Familia found me, I was near death and sealed?" Ais looked at the ground, not sure if she was imagining things, confused or just stretching everything out way too far.

"Yes, if it wasn't for Loki doing something, you would've died but what does that have to do with this?" Riveria looked at Ais with a skeptical expression, Ais had been in a state which nobody could survive in, unless they weren't human...

Riveria was one of the only people that knew Ais was a half-spirit, it was probably the greatest secret she held and would die with.

"Back then, I heard the words 'It's not your time yet', then I saw a giant who's face was invisible and a huge golden wheel with the 12 Zodiacs on it and after that my body started slowly healing.... That voice, it's too similar to his voice" Ais said after thinking for a while and looked into Riveria's eyes who slightly trembled but shook her head,

"Ais, you know yourself that that Laurens person is only a 19 year old human"

Ais just merely gave her a determined gaze to which Riveria sighed, there was no use persuading Ais when she set her head to something.....

"Then try to find out, but you should keep this for yourself for now...."

"Mhm"

"But Ais, remember, he has a Falna...." Riveria persuaded one last time but noticed that Ais wasn't even listening anymore.

She sighed and walked out of the tent that stood in the middle of their camp, it was clear she had to meet this man if she wanted Ais to stop her behavior.

Meanwhile, Ais had determined look and stood up, she grabbed her sword and remembered the gaze of the young man at the Tavern.

Clear disappointment, not scorn like her Familia thought but just disappointment.... But why?

'It can only be him'