3 CHAPTER 3

Part 1

The horses trotted down the road made out of stones, it seems the map was even more wrong than I imagined... The town we were supposed to stop at to rest? It didn't exist!

"Is that a fortress?" Orion stood up slightly to look further.

I raised my head and looked forward, there was a patch of grey that seemed to extend far to the left and right.

"I don't think so... Maybe it's a city wall..."

"Are you sure, Theseus? This doesn't seem to be big enough... No, wait! Is that... a tower?"

Hearing our words Hades opened her eyes and watched with us the approaching city, her eyes started to shine as a big smile bloomed on her face.

"This is it! We are here! Orario!"

Could it be? Are we really so lucky? Heavens... never again I'm going to complain about a map...

"Hold on tight! Let's speed up!" We all took the reins and motioned for the horses to increase their pace.

Riding horses was an interesting feeling compared to sailing in a boat, the feeling of movement was way clearer and you could enjoy the strong winds that pounded your face much easier.

"Are you okay, Hades-Sama? I can slow down if it's uncomfortable." I looked behind and asked. Her hands were tightly hugging me from behind, she was shivering a little but it didn't seem like there was a problem.

"Don't worry about me!" She shouted, trying to make up for the strong winds assaulting our ears that muffled the sounds. "I'm just excited!"

Hearing this I couldn't help but laugh slightly, I knew how she felt, finally after so much time I arrived at this place.

Soon we arrived at one of the entrances of Orario, a slightly large queue extended from the entrance, fortunately for us there wasn't a single merchant trying to enter here, verifying the goods would take quite some time.

After waiting for an hour it was finally our time to enter.

One of the few guards that patrolled the gate stepped forward. He like the others wore a medium quality armor with the symbol of the guild.

"Hello visitors, I need to know the purpose of this visit or your objective here, also you need to pay a daily tax if you want to stay in the city. If you don't want to pay, you need to be an adventurer registered in the guild or be married to someone who owns an estate here."

The man was straight forward with us, thankfully.

"How much it is to enter the city? We are all here to become adventurers."

"A hundred Valis for each person."

After paying we thanked the man and rushed inside the city.

The crowded street was shining with life, with each step we took we made sure to look at every single person on the way that looked even slightly interesting, from where they came from the only other race they had contact with was the sea people, also known as Mermen or Mermaid depending on their gender.

The animal people, Dwarves, Gnomes, Pallums, Elves... Everything was new and so refreshing, it felt like they just stepped inside another world.

Was this how it felt to be an adventurer? To be surrounded by people from all around the world and from almost every race?

It's beautiful...

"What are you doing, Theseus?"

"Uh?"

Hades approached me, she had a silly smile on her face. Her eyes seemed to be savoring that moment even more than mines.

"Let's go! We have so much to do, the others won't wait for you." She pointed forward, my siblings were walking away, they were talking and making use of every second to absorb every little detail, they even forgot the two of us.

"Sorry, I got distracted for a moment."

Part 2

"So you wish to register as adventurers?"

"Yes."

"I see, please take those forms and fill them, if you don't have a god's grace yet we can recommend you a few Familias that are currently recruiting." The male elf spoke, his face was completely devoid of emotions.

"No need, we are part of a Familia already."

The elf nodded and waited for us to fill up the forms. Hades had to leave in order to take care of somethings first, apparently, every new god that arrives in Orario must speak with the higher up of the guild, a god called Ouranos if I remember correctly.

"Eh? Why do they need to know our birthdays?" Orion frowned and scratched his head using the pen. "Look, they even ask our favorite color, what the hell?"

"Maybe they use this in case someone tries to disguise as you?" Eirene tilted her head to the side with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Doesn't matter, for now, just make sure to write down whatever they ask you to, I don't want any problems now, we still have to sell our magic stones and the horses... Besides looking for an inn, food, smiths to repair our equipment, a place to take a shower..."

"Bla, Bla, Bla! Stop with that already! You're making my head hurt! I'll never remember so many things."

I could feel my eyebrows twitching, this brat!

"That's because there is only air inside this head of yours."

"Sigh..." Eirene shook her head and put down the form. "Okay, I finished. How much do you think we will receive? I know it isn't much but it took us five months to collect this many stones."

It was a good question, monsters aren't exactly easy to find outside the dungeon, although there are some areas infested with monsters, only Orario adventurers would be strong enough to get inside such places.

Hopefully, those two bags are worth 50 thousand.

As soon as we finished, I went back to the counter and gave our forms, now all we have to do is wait to receive our personal advisor before being allowed inside the dungeon.

Going back to the room they assigned for us I couldn't help but gave this place another look, no matter how much I looked at this guild it gave off a depressing feeling despite the bright white colors of the marble, and who knows what was the pillars made of.

Still, it was quite lively. Parties consisted of two or more adventurers were always wandering around, either going to the higher floors of the guild where there are many luxurious shops and an entire floor where people went to hang out with their friends to take a look at the beautiful landscape of the city or the lower floor, the dungeon itself.

Because I was distracted I didn't notice I was walking into some people, I bumped into a tall guy with grey hair, probably a werewolf. He was walking together with a quite large group, there were amazons, a blonde human girl that only carried a single sword in a dark blue scabbard and no shield, a little boy, possibly a Pallum and some other people.

"Sorry, I didn't look at where I was-"

Before I could finish speaking, he pulled me by the collar of my gambeson and lifted me off the floor as if I didn't weigh anything!

"Are you fucking blind you weakling!" As he spoke spit flew out of his mouth, I could perfectly see the fangs in his mouth as his crazy wolf-like eyes stared at my eyes.

"I might be weak compared to you, but at least I don't behave like an animal on the street!" I held his hand and headbutted him in the head, making him drop me off on the ground. I jumped a few feet away from him and put my hand on my scabbard, just in case I need the sword.

"How dare you... Bastard! I'll teach you a fucking lesson!" The werewolf gave a step forward.

He was about to jump at me but at that moment the Pallum disappeared from his position and reappeared in front of the guy. He lifted his hand and showed his palm to him. "Control yourself Bete, look at what you're doing. You will make our Familia look like a bunch of bullies."

Bete looked around and noticed the increasing number of people appearing out of nowhere to look at the situation. His shoulders trembled and he bit his lips. "But Finn, this guy-"

"Enough, Bete, he was just distracted, there is no reason to go so far. Are we clear?"

"Yes..." He grunted and gave me a threatening glance.

The Pallum sighed and turned to look at me, he had a friendly smile on his face and walked towards me. "Sorry for that friend, don't take it too badly, Bete is just a little explosive, he didn't really mean any harm."

"Is that so?" I looked at Bete, his head was lowered but from his expression, it was easy to notice that he was still enraged.

I took off my hand from my sword and nodded at him, but I didn't say anything else, when everything was all said and done, we had no reason to introduce ourselves to each other, it was just a little accident and it was unlikely that we would meet again any time soon.

While I might have feigned ignorance, I couldn't help but hold my arm as I distanced myself from them, the feeling those guys gave me was overwhelming, to say the least. I could feel every strand of hair in my body standing up.

They are dangerous.

...

"Hm? Interesting, he might be a newbie but he actually has experience huh... Well, he has the necessary to become someone interesting in the future." Finn silently evaluated the boy as he watched him leave.

"Let's go, I want to arrive on the 59th floor as soon as possible."

"Alright! Let's go!" One of the Amazons jumped in excitement and rushed forward, the others laughed at her actions and followed closely.

The blond girl, however, stayed behind and looked at the boy leaving, she blinked her eyes once, twice... "Weird."

Leaving only those words behind she turned and followed the members of her Familia.

...

"Eh? Are you alright, Theseus? What happened to you."

Hades looked at my pale face and asked. So she arrived sooner than me, well, this will make things easier, still...

Gulping I closed my eyes for a moment and sucked a mouthful of air. "I met some guys, dangerous people... if you guys ever see a Familia that has a grey-haired werewolf, a powerful Pallum, and a blonde girl, do remember to stay away from them, especially the werewolf."

"Um... Why this sounds so familiar? I think I know what Familia you are talking about, the word is on the tip of my tongue..." Hades scratched the back of her neck, while the others just stared at her, but the one who answered was someone else.

"I believe you're talking about Loki's Familia." An elven girl approached us from behind, she stood on the door with a small smile on her face. "May I come in?"

Orion looked at her with wide-eyes, if he opened his mouth one more centimeter it would probably fall on the ground.

I turned to look at her and gasped slightly. She was quite beautiful indeed, she had short brown hair and green eyes and used glasses.

"My name is Eina Tulle, I was assigned to you guys as your advisor."

"Yes, yes! Please come in, don't stand there on the door, Miss Eina, c'mon and sit with us on the sofa." Hades approached her and dragged her inside the room.

"Eh?" Eina seemed to reluctantly agree with our goddess full of energy.

I sat down as well but on the other sofa, after some time wasted with the girls talking a little, she finally turned on her professional mode.

"As you probably know, the dungeon is a dangerous place. The guild was created to manage the many Familias in the city and make sure that the dungeon is always under control." She adjusted her glasses and gave us a small book with the title 'A guide about the dungeon for dummies'.

"Well, let us start from the beginning."