22 Changing orario.

After resting a little, astraea familia along with lio left the dungeon, by the time they reached the surface it was already morning.

On the surface when they emerged, they were greeted by a crying astraea,

Upon seeing us, she ran straight to her familia. Guess the news of Rudra familia plans were already spread.

a worried Ganesha, a usual not giving a fuck, shiva.

Astraea along with her familia went towards the medical ward of babel to get themselves checked before returning to their home.

Upon reaching the Inn, hermes was already there on his knees begging for forgiveness.

I decided to take this chance to get what I needed, I told him to find the lair of the black dragon, a place where it currently was, or it frequently visited if he wanted my forgiveness. And he readily agreed.

To get large amounts of mana from the surrounding, I need to have some kind of connection with the nature. That was what I could gather while studying about the rules of this world.

The only known way to do that is through the blessing of a spirit.

But lesser spirit like undine, and salamander won't cut it. They are incapable of giving their blessings to mortals, the only one's who can are the great spirits.

All the great spirits disappeared before the advent of gods, their disappearance was one of the reasons why gods decided to give there blessings to mortals, Falna.

Most of the spirits, maybe all of them, were devoured by the dungeon.

But I knew were I can find one of them,

The great spirit of wind, Aria.

She is supposed to be captured by the black dragon. Now studying the rules of magic of this world's magic I could understand why the dragon was keeping her,

It wanted the spirit's blessing. And prevent others from getting her blessing because the last one took one of his eyes.

It was quite smart. That was the reason that I could foul it with [Tsukuyomi]. If it had been a blood thirsty rampaging monster, then it would have been bad.

Even the black dragon had limits on his usage of attacks such his fire breath and speed, but with her blessings,

A speed supported by the winds, protection of the wind, continuous supply of mana from the surrounding, meaning

A monster the size of a building with a barrier, ludicrous speed and infinite ammo,

Yahhh, No. I need to kill that thing. Quickly.

But searching it will take time since people lost track of it after it crossed the kaios desert. Then again he didn't get the blessing in the past 1000 years, I think I still have some time.

Laying down, resting in my room, I didn't realise when I fell asleep,

On waking up it was already lunchtime, I went downstairs of the Inn we booked. Yes we booked the entire Inn, it was a small Inn, so it wasn't that expensive.

Upon reaching the downstairs in the dining, I saw everyone gathered there. Guess they were making plans for lunch,

"alright I will make lunch" Artemis exclaimed.

Shiva dropped the book he was reading.

Callon, the elf of the familia and the vice captain, a level 3, fell off his chair.

The rest of the members started panicking,

"you don't have to, goddess. The chef here will take care of it" Arcadia, the werewolf and the captain of the familia, a level 4, said nervously.

It happened around an year ago, yes this is 'flashback no jutsu'.

when we came back from elsos ruins where the creepy one eyed scorpion monster, Antares, was residing.

After returning from the ruins, Artemis suddenly declared her intentions of cooking dinner for us,

At first I was interested, she sounded excited but for the past 5 years she never cooked, but the expression on the face of her familia and there silent denial made the reason obvious.

Yes, this was the scene were the protagonist finds out that the strong and seemingly perfect female character absolutely sucked at cooking and the rest doesn't have the galls to say otherwise.

Shiva realised the fact alongside me and quickly excused himself saying, he needs to water the flower,

The shit watered the flowers till next morning.

Meaning he didn't came back till next morning. And no one even realized, poor guy. I didn't know weather to pity him or not. But he was spared from the whole shenanigan.

"it can't be that bad" But I just had to raise that flag.

Artemis practically hopped towards the kitchen, you are going a little out of character here lady Artemis.

Food was served, it looked normal. I ate a bite,

It wasn't that bad, it tasted bland, or didn't taste, like bread. But my face paled when suddenly a notification appeared in front,

[the skill 'fountain of youth' is activated]

I looked at the food, then at the smiling Artemis, then at everyone else who were already praying that my soul finds peace.

I looked at the food,

It tasted bland, tasteless, like bread not because it was bad, no

My taste buds were damaged from the abomination of a dish I just ate. I swallowed the bite, and again [fountain of youth] was activated.

Needless to say, after that day we kept Artemis as far away form the kitchen as possible.

Coming back to present situation.

"I think they would like to eat the food of orario, we won't get my chances of that." I said. As the others looked like I was Jesus. Yes worship me peasants,

Ahem, let's not go down that road. Artemis pouted at my words. Seriously my lady, you are going out of character here.

Now that I think about it,

"how did you know the book I was reading" I asked, I usually read in my room as a time pass.

Artemis face was red. As her familia looked at her, wondering the same thing as me.

"did you go in my..." I couldn't finish as Artemis stormed out of the building.

"wait, goddess" Arcadia went after her.

Me along with shiva and the rest of Artemis familia looked at the door where our goddess dashed out of,

Shiva nudged me,

"you remember the part about seducing. It might actually work"

"shut up or I will hang you on top of babel"

.....

After that Artemis avoided me like the plague. Well guess she needs time.

It was early morning, as I was standing in front of mirror. We will leave orario and go to Atlanta right now, but I had a bigger problem,

Artemis behaviour proved that it was here.

"guess I do look good" I said as I posed in front of mirror.

It was my popular phase, took some time but it's here. Fuck yah.

When suddenly the doors slammed open.

"oi stop checking yourself and start packing" shiva barged in my room.

This little, calm down,

Inhale, exhale, inhale ,

I picked him up,

Opened the window,

"next time, knock before entering"

and threw him out. Amen.

Meanwhile in the Stardust Manor. Astraea familia base, Astraea along with her familia were gathered and were celebrating.

"congratulations" she exclaimed as many of the members started cheering.

It was the celebration of multiple members leveling up,

"thank you" Alise said happily, she was now a level 5,

"hmm" Ryuu nodded with a slight smile, she had an achievement worth of leveling but her stats were still low so she would have to hold the update.

"it was a very good outcome" kaguya said, she was maintaining her graceful look but internally she was jumping with joy, because she was a level 5 now.

"do you have any idea how afraid I was when Ganesha told me about what Rudra was planning" astraea said with a tear. It was a miracle that they survived.

At night while sorting out work for her familia while they were out on the expedition, suddenly astraea heard a loud 'I am Ganesha' from outside.

Upon arriving outside she was met with Ganesha familia along with shiva and hermes,

She felt nervous about why all of them were here, weren't all them had to deal with evilus.

Ganesha told her what was happening in the dungeon. As her body almost returned to tenkai,

Both Shakti and ardi had to held of astraea who almost ran inside the dungeon.

Hermes told her to not worry as 'the destroyer' had already gone to the dungeon to save them but that still wasn't enough to console her,

What if he doesn't reach in time? What if he doesn't help them? What if they are already..., numerous questions emerged in her mind as she could do nothing but to wait,

Next morning when her familia finally emerged from the dungeon was when she found solace.

They were battered and bruised, they had definitely seen better days but the most important fact was that all of them returned safely.

After departing form the dungeon entrance they went straight to the babel hospital where there wounds were cleaned and sanitised.

That's when her familia told her about there experience in the dungeon. How Rudra familia attacked them, then a weird and powerful monster suddenly appeared, and how lio saved them only to throw the monster at them again.

Astraea almost stormed out to the Inn the guests were staying to demand an explanation, but her familia stopped her.

The reason was apparent when she started updating there status,

All of them had improved tremendously,

It was an opponent they stood no chance again yet they emerged victorious. It was obvious that they would improve that much.

Four of her familia's members including Lyra were now level 4 and alise along with kaguya were now level 5, even ryuu had a chance to level up but she denied to increase her stats first.

They now were officially an A rank exploration familia. On par with Ganesha familia. But that when astraea dropped the bombshell,

"I think we should convert our familia to a full time police force"

" "huh?" " everyone else exclaimed. But when they gave it more thought it starts to make sense.

It wasn't just the resent incident but what will come after this,

They had resently received the reports from the guild about the monster they faced. It was named juggernaut.

There was a gag order on the new monster and it's details. It was a monster summoned by the dungeon when a lot of damage is done on the floor. It was a monster way above the level adventurers would find on that floor and its primary objective is remove the cause of damage.

But oddly so, that thing wasn't the actual monster on the floor, no it was the adventurer who almost crushed it beneath it's feets.

Now it was quite obvious that ouranus will call back the two great familias soon and when that happens the playing field will change.

Astraea familia was only behind freya, loki, Ganesha and Ishtar familia, after this whole incident they can proudly say that they are only behind loki and freya familia in terms of strength.

All of them couldn't even come close to the giants that were zeus and hera familia,

And then there was their saviour, the destroyer. The strongest adventurer,

After monsters like these arrive, orario will be thrown into utter chaos, guild and Ganesha alone will not be able to handle it.

"it is much better option for us, even the guild said they will support us" the familias main source of income was the dungeon, the police work was more of the member's as well as there goddess's wish of a fair society where justice is served, even to the most privileged.

Now that the guild was supporting them, they focus on the police force job but still,

"you can still go to the dungeon but.." astraea voice broke midway as she tears started forming in her eyes.

Seeing her expression her familia all jump on her, and they all shared a good group hug.

"Well we can get extra cash here" neze took out several posters,

On one of them states 'hostess of fertility, now recruiting members. Only females allowed' among many.

There were many part time job posters there, all of them had one thing in common. Only female were allowed.

"this is good" Lyra said while going through them.

"were you waiting for this" Cecily asked neze.

"I was thinking of quiting adventuring anyways" neze shrugged. As some others in the familia also agreed. They had there fair share of dungeon trouble.

The party continued as the members talked away about what they will be doing for now on.

They won't be doing adventuring and police work wasn't full time so they need other stuff to do.

Lyra, the pullum of the familia, looked on at the familia's executive as they discussed the future of the familia. IN the middle of A PARTY.

They need to get there priorities right.

When she suddenly heard the a name in the discussion, looked at ryuu and alise, and grinned,

"they are leaving today" kaguya said, she thinks we should go wish them safe journey.

"if there is something that can make him feel unsafe, I doubt our blessings will do much" alise scoffed, she still didn't like the guy. But hen again he was the reason they survived down there.

"I think focusing on the current condition of our familia is more important" ryuu said.

"it won't take much time" Cecily replied,

"oh! Lio-San" Lyra suddenly shouted.

As both ryuu and alise zipped there heads towards the entrance

No one was there.

By the time they realized, the deed was already done,

They looked back,

Lyra was grinning, Cecily was smirking, kaguya was covering her mouth with her sensu (japanese hand held fan), astraea was giving them a loving smile, as if to say she can understand.

Alise started shouting at Lyra, who laughed and ran off.

Ryuu stood there and remembered the time in the dungeon,

He didn't knew basic courtesy, he is arrogant, he didn't care about justice, is selfish,

As a slight blush appear on her face,

But he isn't so bad.