11 [10]Travels
"Up! Down! Up! Down" Yelled Francis at the trembling figures on the floor.
It's been a week since the Lopez brothers and Uriel have traveled to Orario along with the Artemis familia.
During this time Francis has taken the time to properly train both Uriel and Alex. It was tough for them at first since it was the first time any of them had performed excessive exercise but they both managed to adapt quickly.
Thanks to that Francis managed to teach some basics of his Aincrad style swordsmanship.
The essence of the Aincrad style is the art of continuous slashes and attacks that flow togheter and continue infinitely unless interrupted.
Basically it's attacking without stoping. No stops, just continue attacking and perfectly connecting attacks.
Alex was pretty decent at it, tough it took him a while to pick up the basics.
Uriel on the other hand.
She was an absolute prodigy, not only did she manage to to pick up the style immediately. She even managed to perform [Vertical Square] without Francis ever teaching her the move.
She truly had frightening talent.
The second thing that Francis whent through training was Uriels powers.
She might not have noticed because she blanked out but she managed to conjure fire that even Francis was scared off.
Good thing that a gentle pat to her head can calm her down.
Francis had Uriel attempt to activate her skill again but sadly it was to no avail.
Francis figured that it had some sort of requirement that had to be met so the skill could be activated. But he'll only find them out once they join a familia and their skills show in the status.
"198, 199, 200, alright you two can stop" panting heavily Uriel and Alex dropped tiredly.
"Alex take a bath and make yourself breakfast, Uriel take a bath also I already made you your food" Ordered Francis.
"Hey why do you make breakfast for her and not me!" Exclaimed Alex, during this whole time Francis has been gentle and nicer to Uriel than he would to him.
Alex felt that he was being unfair
"Are you a cute blonde whose head feels like clouds" Retorted Francis shamelessly.
Uriel blushed as she got up but Alex... Alex was fuming with anger.
Knowing that bickering with him was useless he stormed of to the nearest river to take a bath in anger. And uriel did the same tough in a different location.
"You know, you really are being unfair" from the trees shadows came a figure, her blue hair glistening in the sunlight as she walked towards Francis.
"Well Uriel already has my sword style down to the core the only thing she needs is experience and for me to teach her some sword skills. Alex on the other hand still need some work along with what Uriel needs to learn" Besides Uriel being Uriel, he went hard on Alex because he didn't want him to get hurt because he wasn't prepared. Better suffer now without consequences than later with consequence.
"But what are you doing here Artemis?, you dont usually come here to talk me"
Over the week Francis has becomes good friends with the Artemis familia, the girls not having much contact with decent males played a big part of it. Unlike most males Francis didn't ogle them or look at them lewdly. They did know that he took peeks at them but it felt more of a stare that appreciated their beauty.
Because of this and his easy going personality all of the girls got along with him, especially Lante, Rethusa and surprisingly Artemis.
There was tension between them at first but they got along eventually, they got close especially when Francis told stories during dinner.
The stories he told were anime and light novel plots with a few things changed like modern setting and times that wouldn't be relevant here in a fantasy setting.
Thanks to that Artemis became open when hearing his stories.
And for woman that has a thing against men, she seems to like the romance stories Francis tells.
"I'm just here to warn you quickly, were not far from orario in fact we will arrive in two days.But you and your brother being travelers form afar, I am quite sure that your not aware of the problem occuring in orario right now" spoke Artemis in a serious tone.
'Problems?, what problems... Fuck she's still alive along with her familia meaning that we're in the Evilus arc' tought Francis grimly.
Before the canon Danmachi, there was a evil group called Evilus that tormented orario for years.
Their goal being to spread chaos. But their main goal was to unleash the monsters from the dungeon. Alfia and Zald while we're absolute monster would also join Evilus but that was just to make themselves an enemy so that adventurers would become strong enough to face it.
The black dragon, the monster that ended the two two top familia.
Hera and Zeus.
Sadly he doesn't remember much about the Evilus arc besides some key detail like the Astrea familas death, Artemis familas death, and Ardees death.
... Dam that's a lot of dead people.
"I'm guessing you know about them" Artemis noticed Francis frown, it could have been because of the obvious evil name but she sensed that it was something else.
"Yeah I do know about them, not the friendliest bunch right?"
"*Giggle* They definitely aren't friendly"
A long defeaning silence followed after. Artemis came over just to warm him about Evilus but now that its over she doesn't know what else to say. She could just get up and leave but it felt awkward to do so.
"Whant to hear another story" suddenly spoke up Francis.
He also didn't know what to say to her so he did the only thing he knew she liked.
His stories.
"Mhm" said Artemis with a Hum.
"Alright so let's go with this one, a long time ago 10,000 people were kindaped by an evil god and put into a floating castle named Ainrcrad. It was an immense and beautiful castle with a hundred floor, and the only way out was for the 10,000 people to clear them all"
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"Hey don't you think their to close"
"Yes, last Artemis has never gotten close to any man"
While Francis was telling Artemis the simplified SAO plot,.Rethusa and Lante spited on their figures.
"Do you think he could be 'that' " asked Lante.
"Her Orion?, who knows. But I hope he is, lady Artemis should explore love like any human would. After all the reason the gods came to the mortal realm was to experience how it was to be one"
"Yes I hope so, maybe Lady Artemis will abolish her dating rule once she does!"
As the day went by both Rethusa and Lante spied on the two figures sting side by side.
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Night finally fell and the stars light up the sky. In the forest, laughter could be heard along with singing.
"Hey Francis are you cooking" asked one of the Artemis familia girls.
"Hm?, wasn't Rethusa going to make food today?" Asked Francis.
"Well her food is good and all but yours is in a whole other level!, please make the aquirel sandwiches you made last night" begged the girl, the other familia members also nodded as they themselves were looking forward to his food.
Rethusa's food was good and all but the way Francis cooked was on a whole other level. Thanks to his above average modern cooking skills and the spice box he obtained from the system rewards, Francis has managed to make food that had enchanted the whole familia.
"Hoh, you don't like my food?"
"!!!" The girls tensed up in fear hearing the voice behind them.
The girls panicked seeing Rethusa behind them
Since when was she there?!.
"Come on now Rethusa stop teasing them. Here I'll give you two instead of one" Chuckled Francis as he handed over two seasoned squirrel sandwiches to the happy Rethusa.
"We got a problem, there's a small village maybe a nomad tribe being overrun by a small moster wave" one of the scouts suddenly came to camp as she announced the news.
"TCH!, just when Francis made food" complained Lante but she still went to her tent so that she could gear up.
The other also got up from their seats around the campfire and started gearing up.
'Sigh~, just when we were about to make to Orario' tough Francis with a tired sigh.
