CHAPTER 119(Tag Along)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

Standing in front of the gate to Traveller's Inn, Hermes familia's headquarters, Yang looks around and observes people going about their day on the South Main road, adventurers and civilians alike would cast glances at him as they pass, but thankfully nobody tried to speak to him.

One of the perks of not having much of a social footprint he assumed, nobody knew he was mostly friendly so they just assumed he shouldn't be approached simply because of his level.

"Yang Shen," Hermes says as he walks up to the gate, the guard escorting him takes his position at the gate once more as the god gives Yang a small wave and polite smile.

"Evening, you're Asfi?" Yang asks with a sceptical look, reaching out and shaking the man's hand.

"No no, she's my lovely captain, I'm the great messenger god Hermes," the man does an elegant bow as he presents himself to the unphased adventurer.

"Good to meet you, so where's Asfi?" Yang asks, a bored look on his face.

"Ahh, a man who doesn't like small talk I see, might I ask why you want to see my captain, I'd be worried you want to court her...but I don't believe that would go over will with your current...flavor of choice," the god says, fishing for any information he can.

"Yes I'm dating Freya, there, rumor confirmed," Yang rolls his eyes at the unnecessary antics," I need Asfi to do a job for me, it involves item making, that's all, she doesn't even need to enter the dungeon," Yang says.

"Oh, and what's the pay like?"

"We'll negotiate when I see her," Yang says.

"What if I could guarantee she agrees, all I need is a favor from you..." the sly god says, acting as if it were so simple.

"Uh-huh...favor from a level 6 and the current top expedition force... for a level 4 item maker to take a request, do I look stupid to you?" Yang sighs at the stupid request, maybe Hermes took him for a fool he thought.

"Asfi was called away on a mission, along with my vice-captain. She took our only mage with her, they've been summoned because the guild wanted her to write an in-field report while Ganesha familia deals with some new monster on the middle floors..."

"Ok, when will they be back?" Yang asks, not seeing where the god was going.

"The favor I have is for you to accompany her and just, tag along, you don't even have to do anything just be there, if you do this then you have my word as a god that she'll accept your request free of charge, within reason of course," Hermes finally said something that actually interested Yang.

"Deal, where is she now?" Yang spoke quickly, now having a goal in mind.

"They left here about ten minutes ago to meet Ganesha's team at Babel Plaza's fountain," Hermes said.

"Got it, I'll get going then, see ya," Yang says as he begins to walk away.

"GOOD LUCK!" Hermes excitedly waves as the young man walks away, "hmm, let's see how heroic you are, protecting a princess is the basics after all," the sly god whispers to himself as he adjusts his hat, walking back into his familia headquarters with a small smile on his face.

Entering Babel Plaza, Yang looks toward the fountain in front of the dungeon entrance, seeing a crowd of dozens gathered, he briskly makes his way over to them while lifting his message ring to his mouth.

"Hephaestus, you there?"

"Yes, do you need something?" the goddess asks.

"Something came up, just tell Welf I'll be in the dungeon for a bit, I'll contact you if anything goes bad."

"Uh-huh, don't do anything crazy," she says.

Chuckling to himself, Yang can't help but respond, "too late, already with Freya."

"Hmm, yeah that's fair, you really should have known better," she says, he hears a faint laugh before the transmission cuts.

"All right people, remember your formations and keep an eye on each other, we've never faced this enemy before so be cautious, no heroics!" he hears the woman standing on the fountain shout to the crowd of adventurers as he gets closer, seeing some of them carrying large backpacks.

'Those must be the supports regular people use...how much do those packs even weigh...' he thinks to himself while casually approaching the woman, the entire crowd stares at him in a mix of awe, shock, and for those who don't recognize him, confusion.

"Hi there," he gives the woman on the fountain a polite wave, her face stays neutral as she looks at him.

He takes a split second to take a look at her, something Thalie has been trying to get him into the habit of doing when he meets adventurers. Short blue hair. Orange dress with high slits to allow mobility, armored feet, and arms with large reinforced knuckle plates, a brawler he assumes.

"How can I help you, considering who you are I don't think you're lost," she says.

"You the Ganesha familia?"

"Yes, I'm captain Shakti Varma, that's vice-captain Ilta Fana," she points to an Amazon with large pink hair and gold hoop earrings wearing a brown fur bikini with a matching mini skirt.

"Cool, that means Asfi should be here, Hermes sent me to tag along on this mission," Yang casually says, noticing everyone turn toward a particular blue-haired woman in the crowd, he assumes that must be his target.

"I'm Asfi Al Andromeda, master Hermes sent you to help us?" the woman asks, as she adjusts her glasses her white cloak parts to reveal the brown dress below with what looks to be a dozen pouches on her person.

"No, he sent me to tag along, said helping was optional," Yang looks back toward Shakita," that ok?"

"It's...strange, but more muscle is always welcomed in the dungeon, I trust you to fall into place if you join us in combat," she turns back to the crowd, "do your final checks everyone and let's move out," she commands.

As everyone goes over their checklists, Yang beelines toward Asfi with Shakti at his side.

"Yo," Yang gives her a small wave, earning himself a nod from the lion man at her side, a greatsword just like Yang's adamantite blade on the man's back, only thicker.

"Did master Hermes hire you for this, if so I'd like to cancel the request, we can't afford to hire someone like you," the woman immediately gets to the point, unlike her god.

"Nope, he made me a trade, I tag along and you do a job for me, too good for me to refuse honestly," Yang says.

"I'm Falgar, nice to meet you," the lion man says, "so you aren't gonna fight?" he asks.

"If necessary but I'd rather not, I'm supposed to be taking it easy and all that, just spent seven weeks in the dungeon, and three days after I get out I'm here," he sighs at the thought.

"I see," Shakti says from beside him, "as long as we can count on you if things get rough, we can do that right?"

"Of course," Yang says.

"Then like I said, I trust you to fall into place where needed, we have three level 5s and 6 level 4s here so I doubt we'll need much help but having you here is good insurance," she gives him a nod before walking off toward the front of the crowd.

"Do you need to get anything before we leave?" Asfi asks, seeing Yang in his casual wear now with only a shirt and his combat pants and boots.

"I'll be fine, uh, thought Hermes sent three people...he said you brought your best mage I think," Yang points out, only seeing Asfi and Falgar.

Together, they both look at the ground behind them before stepping aside, revealing a tiny person, light purple hair matching her robes and pointy witch hat with a small backpack on and a silver wand in her hand.

"H-hi, I-I'm Meryl," the girl squeaks out before hiding behind Asfi once more.

"She's a bit shy, but Meryl here is my familias most talented mage, she even has the Mage development skill," Asfi says proudly, only realizing after that Yang was giving her a disapproving look.

"Something wrong?" Falgar asks.

"Depends on your next answer...how old is she?" Yang asks, his voice completely serious unlike before.

"Meryl is 10, why?" Asfi says, seeing Yang's eyes narrow at her.

"You chose to bring a kid into the dungeon, do I really need to explain what's wrong with that?"

"She's an adventurer," Asfi says.

"She's a kid."

"She's been in our familia for two years, she's an adventurer."

"That makes it worse," he says with an eye roll.

Falgar takes this moment to try to break this up before it escalates," Meryl is our mage, she's the only one in our familia with a attack area that can cover a retreat if needed, we had to bring her," the man says.

"She's still just a kid, you can't seriously think this is sane right?"

"Look, I know it's not the best situation, but it made the most sense tactically, and it's what we're doing, besides with you there she should be fine...right?" Asfi challenges him.

"Mmm, yeah, I'll keep her safe," Yang says.

"I don't care what level you are, you don't get to tell other people how to run their familia, try to remember that," she tells him, her tone gentle, giving genuine advice instead of a warning.

Taking a deep breath, Yang calms down a bit as he looks at her," sorry sorry, I just... I've got a soft spot for kids, let's get going then."

Before anyone can notice what's happening he reaches down and scoops up the Pallum child and places her onto his shoulders.

"Eep!" she cries out, blinking a few times before realizing where she was, immediately grabbing onto his head to secure herself.

"Settle down, you're staying close to me during this, what's the mission anyway?" Yang asks Asfi.

"A new monster appeared on floor 30 and we've been dispatched, a simple mission but the floor rating is deadly for my familia so Shakti is taking the lead this time," she says.

"Huh, fun, alright let's get moving," Yang says as he notices the Ganesh familia team moving out.

As they begin walking through the upper floors, with Yang and Hermes familia at the back of the formation they had nothing to do but march on, eventually Falgar couldn't help but ask something that had been on his mind since he saw Yang in the plaza.

"So, is it true?" the lion man asks.

"What?"

"The announcement?"

"Uh... about my team reaching the frontier and beating Balor, me being level 6, me soloing Udeaus or me and Freya?" Yang wasn't sure which announcement the man was talking about.

"Yes," was his simple answer.

"Yeah, all true," Yang shrugs, making the Pallum on his shoulder grab on that much tighter.

"Damn, you know most of Orario is jealous right, or scared, or wants to sleep with your girlfriend," Falgar points out.

"She'd skin them alive, she knows if that happens it's over between us so anyone that gets me closer to breaking up with her has to deal with Ottar," including himself possibly...

"Master Hermes said she was the definition of crazy in love... so that's true then?" Asfi asks.

"Oh yeah, but hey, goddess of beauty. And being around her lets me relax and just...enjoy myself, it's fun and takes my mind off my other problems. So what more can I really ask for right," Yang admits.

"Hmm, you aren't that scary," Meryl says from her spot on his shoulder.

"What, was I scary before?" Yang asks, earning only silence from the child.

"Her only memory of you was seeing you punch someone through the skull, do you really need to ask?" Asfi says.

"That was a deathmatch she knew the risk," Yang says.

"Yeah man but that doesn't change what people saw," Falgar says.

"Good thing what people think doesn't bother me, pleasing people isn't on my 'To Do List' ever," Yang says as they continue walking forward.

Eventually, as they keep walking, he hears Meryl's stomach grumble next to his head.

"Hungry?" he asks the girl, earning only nervous and embarrassed silence in response.

Withdrawing a container of preserved meats from his inventory he raises it up to her.

"T-thank you," her shy voice reaches him as she takes the bowl of food and begins happily munching away.

Looking at this little interaction, Asfi and Falgar couldn't help but wish more adventurers were like him just a little bit.

---2 Hours Later...

"Alright, we'll deal with Goliath then make camp on the 18th floor, tomorrow we'll head to floor 30 and finish the mission, Goliath suppression teams get ready," Shakti announces just outside the boss room as everyone looks at her.

"Uh, question," Yang raises his hand to get her attention.

"Um, sure," she wasn't sure what exactly he was going to ask.

"How long is your fight gonna take, that food kinda put her to sleep," he gestures to the girl struggling to stay awake on his shoulder.

"That's why she isn't supposed to eat so much in the dungeon, damn it Meryl," Asfi grumbles, embarrassed by her familia members' current state.

"Kids sleep a lot," Yang tells her as if she didn't already know," so yeah how long?" he asks Shakti.

"With the teams we have, 20 minutes," she tells him, completely serious.

"Cool, we're gonna go on ahead so this kid can take a nap in the safe zone then," Yang says as he walks into the doorway while everyone is still stunned by his words.

Before they could stop him he was already skidding down the sloped floor leading down to the boss room, fading into the darkness at the far end.

At this moment Asfi and Falgar took everything back, they didn't want more adventurers like this, not at all!

As everyone rushes down toward the room, they saw Yang casually walking with the sleepy Pallum on his shoulder as the Goliath lumbers over to him.

Frozen in shock they saw what they could only describe as a freak of nature in action.

As the monster stuck out with a massive right hook, Yang quickly kicked upward with his left leg, they could see the arm of the monster contort and shatter as their limbs met. His leg shot a pillar of blue flames out, incinerating the monster's arm completely and leaving a piece of the shoulder missing.

As the boss monster falls onto its back, the sleepy Pallum stirs awake slightly while Yang exits the room, entering floor 18 and leaving them to fight the monster.

"Are all level 6s like that?" Falgar asks, still frozen in shock at what he just witnessed as the monster rises to its feet.

"No...that's not normal at all," Shakti says as she prepares to engage the monster, "let's go everyone, into formation," she orders.

He half killed the monster with an instant attack, the least they could do was finish the job and not keep him waiting she thought...

END CHAPTER---