Recruitment Ceremony II part 1

HEY!

Yeah, you're not dreaming, this is a normal, 3K word long chapter.

Woah... 

As I said before, normal releases from today onwards. For this Novel.

I was thinking about releasing Zero Fate today as well, but I went against it.

I'll return definitively next week, together with image creation.

For those that forgot or want a quick recap, things went like this:

End of July ->

Silver went to the Dungeon to fight a strong monster as one of his accomplishments for a Level up, meeting with the returning Loki Familia from their most recent Expedition.

They climbed back up, fought Amphisbane, and went on their way, with Silver returning first to have Haruhime transferred to the Hestia Familia while Ishtar was dead drunk.

It worked perfectly.

At this time, Silver's curiosity let him to Phryne's basement where he saw what he did to a child, leading him to become somewhat emotional.

He decided that it was time to do something about Phryne's behavior, and he wanted it to be a direct method.

The War game happened and we jumped a month that contained many interesting Events.

It's now the Start of September and the first day of their recruitment that will introduce many characters as we finish the preparations for the next Arc that will involve Silver's activities outside of Orario.

There is a lot I would like to say and clarify, but if I did so, this would turn from around 300 words to 1000+ so let's stop here.

I hope you're all enjoying the story, and I would like to say, welcome back.

We'll likely not stop anytime soon, so put on your belts, we're about to cruise.

Peace!

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/Crack… Fall.../

'As the cavern around him crumbled, stone fragments rained around him.'

'Opening his eyes, Silver straightened his back, looking at the destruction around him, exhaling as he took in a strong but short breath.'

"Haa... I overdid myself on that one..." He mumbled as he opened and closed his hands

I'm still far from reaching the destructive power of Nine Hells, but I'll get there eventually.

This isn't bad though, as the stone in the Deep floors is extremely resistant, this degree of power for my Level is already absurd...

"..."

But not enough.

...

/Silence.../

"Hum... So?..."

"No more monsters?..." He asked as he raised an eyebrow, looking at the bodies on the ground

"It seems even the Colosseum has a limit."

/Crack... Boom.../

/Tremble.../

'As he said that, a large rock in the ceiling cracked, falling onto the ground with a loud thud, making the ground shake around him.'

'It was clear to him that the Dungeon would take some time to fix this place to its former glory, until then...'

"There goes my training spot… I guess I'll take a few days off and let the Dungeon fix itself in the meantime."

Well, I do have some things to do this week, including finishing healing my arm.

'As he thought of that, Silver looked at his left arm, it had been healed all the way to his elbow, but no more than that.'

'As he said before, he fully focused on healing one arm at a time to maximize the efficiency of the process, so he started with his dominant one.'

'Having one fully capable arm was quite the strengthening for him, especially since he was unable to fully replicate his real strength through Plasmids alone.'

'He was more confident in his flesh than he was in his abilities... Though weren't they one and the same?'

"Sigh... Had I actually just focused on healing it, I would've been done by now." He said with some slight disappointment as he kicked a rock on the ground

I underestimated the strengthening of my own abilities due to the Level-up, had I put faith in it...

But still… Staying put would've been a bit too monotonous.

It's the difference between 3 weeks of pure boredom and a... Regular month?

/Grab.../

'Crouching on the ground and grabbing one of the translucent magic stones, Silver gazed at the faint magical power it held.'

'The lights within flickered like faint stars in the night sky, ephemeral and distant, beautiful and mysterious, elegant even.'

'He couldn't help but be amazed at the sight of such a distinctive material.'

'Silver proceeded to store all drop items in his pocket space before materializing a door in front of him.'

"Time to go, in fact, what time is it?..."

I'm pretty sure I've been here for a bit over a day, but what I feel and how long has actually passed are two completely different things.

They say time is processed differently depending on what you're doing and how you feel while doing it...

They're right.

'Taking a small pocket watch from the same place he stored his loot, Silver quickly read the time, only to have his eyes pop out as a bead of sweat fell from his forehead.'

"Oh no… I'm late… Very very late…"

I've been here for two whole days!

I was planning to leave around the night of the day before the start of the recruitment so that I could stay with everyone and help them organize everything, including welcoming all of the guests, helping Hestia practice her lines, seeing what Daphne wants to lessen her workload...

That's only a part of it.

'But he didn't rush into his magical door yet.'

'Instead, he looked at his ragged and deplorable body.'

If I arrive like this they'll kill me for real this time…

As such…

/Light!/

'Faint light covered his body, and when it vanished, all of his dirt and injuries had vanished.'

"Appearance... Half done."

'After that, Silver took out some fancy clothes he had bought a few weeks ago.'

'Using his Plasmids to put them on in an instant, he used his powers to also make his hair, and trim his very faint beard.'

'Albeit he didn't have that much hair growing on his face, it did accumulate over time.'

'He was supposed to be 18 after all.'

'Sometimes he envied Pallums for how effortlessly they can keep their faces clean, while he also felt sorry for the Dwarves as most of them just gave up on such tasks altogether, even if they wanted to give their beards a certain unique style...'

"Clearing my beard is easy peasy at the end of the day anyway." He said lightly as hair fell on the ground, only for it to be brushed off by the wind

'Like that, in the blink of an eye, Silver looked incredibly galant.'

'He also quickly brushed his teeth and made his hair shiny by passing something on it.'

(In fact, go take a shower and brush your teeth... Again)

'There was only one thing left…'

/Flash…/

'Golden light was released from the end of his left arm, reaching for the stone on the ground, and slowly, it took the shape of a forearm and a hand…'

'The light then eventually lost its sheen and the stone underneath it became smoother as it turned into another material.'

"Done." Silver said out loud as he finished making a false arm

It'll do the trick, for now.

'As he opened and clenched his fist, he nodded in satisfaction as he felt the wind run through his fingers.'

'It wasn't exactly the same he felt on his other hand, but it was close enough.'

'Checking himself in a mirror made of ice, Silver went through a series of checkups one last time before turning around and saying:'

"... Dungeon, I'll come back soon, so make sure to prepare some juicy enemies for me."

'Silver didn't know if the Dungeon could understand him, but he had already figured out that it was indeed possible to provoke the Dungeon into doing something.'

'The Dungeon was already shown to be capable of reacting to certain stimuli, such as when adventurers were in peril, it would try to finish them off by sending monsters around them or even leading them into traps.'

'Or even how it reacted whenever a God's aura was released inside it.'

'And if its hate for the Gods wasn't enough, within this area, if he screamed loud enough, then the Dungeon would reply by sending more vicious and violent beasts for him to kill.'

'Well, that certainly wasn't the Dungeon's intention, it was the contrary in fact...'

'Unfortunately, Silver wasn't that easy to kill.'

'In simple terms, by acting like a Gladiator in the Colosseum, the Dungeon would reply in kind... If you lasted long enough.'

'Most avoided this place like the plague exactly due to this.'

'As a consequence, little was known about this place and none knew why the Dungeon made such a place, perhaps some God knew why, but they would never share it.'

'Yet, Silver liked it.'

'Because in here, he didn't need to seek enemies, they made their way to him on their own.'

'It was the perfect training grounds he had been testing himself on for the past few weeks, gathering money and materials for the big influx of newcomers that would arrive in the next few days...'

/Step.../

'With that, finally, without stopping for anything else, he opened the door and went to the Manor, taking a step through the translucent layer of the door…'

/CHATTER!/

'Only to be met with the hysterical screams of multiple girls, all very much unpleased with his disappearance at such critical time…'

...

'But after fighting for his life, he managed to live through them, or better put, he threw the problem to someone else… Himself.'

'A problem for the 'him' of the future to worry about.'

'Because he was certain that after this recruitment was over, he would be hearing an earful… Or if he was lucky, they would forget about it.'

'For now, he needed to go meet his Goddess and see if she was ready for today.'

'Hestia would always end up getting herself tangled in something, be it her hair, her clothes, or her own tongue as she tried to memorize what to say...'

'This time, he wouldn't be giving a speech, it would be her together with Daphne.'

'He would only be there to look cool and imposing…'

'Maybe that was why Daphne didn't murder him the moment she saw him, as she either had too much going on in her head for now…'

'Or she couldn't really bother to argue with someone whose sole job was to stay put, being too tired to think of anything else apart from her own lines.'

'Silver doubted Daphne was 'that' tired, but he wouldn't question her.'

'So as to help her a little, he used his Plasmids to soothe her mind greatly, and albeit she appreciated his help, that didn't seem to invoke even a single smile from her lips.'

'Dropping his head in slight defeat, after asking a few questions and chatting for a minute or two, Silver went to meet Hestia, greeting whoever was on his way the same way he did with Daphne, by giving them an energy boost.'

'That seemed to calm them down, at least that way, he slowly softened them up, that way, once this was over, he would reward them all with some good sweets, and hopefully, their complaints would magically vanish into thin air.'

'It was at that time that he thought… Shouldn't I have just used clones to do all of this work?'

'A few weeks ago, Silver offered to help Daphne in her work by doing all of the paperwork for the Familia.'

'Of course, at the start, he did the job easily, sitting down and grabbing a fancy writing pen, he signed and signed, stamping the seal of the Familia on more papers than he could remember…'

'But midway through that, he realized how inefficient that truly was, so he made use of the tool he knew most.'

'Plasmids.'

'There were many ways of automating the process of signing papers, but only one was actually viable... To employ clones.'

'However, creating a clone to do his job wasn't as easy as it sounded.'

'There were a handful of problems he had to overcome if he wanted to even remotely succeed in achieving what he sought through them in the first place.'

'But with the help of multiple articles on the use of magic stones, Silver found a way to use one as a power source for a clone, allowing him to go far away and leave it behind even after going well beyond their usual connection range.'

'Of course, it wasn't really efficient, nor was the clone powerful, but it was more than enough for the simple task of… Signing papers or chatting with whoever appeared by his Office.'

'And of everyone, only Hestia and Daphne know of this ability of his, the latter learning about it when he came back through his portal at an inopportune time, making Daphne witness the bizarre sight of two Silvers in the same room.'

'Still, she took it all rather quickly, not being surprised... Perhaps a clone was the least of her worries regarding her Captain's abilities...'

'Even then, when Silver proposed using his clones to just do the heavy work of the Recruitment Event, she refused.'

'For the same reason she refused his help several other times before.'

"... A Familia helps each other stand, we should not rely on the shoulders of one to do so..."

'Daphne's answer was rather robotic as if she had trained multiple times… But it wasn't lifeless.'

'Despite her clear practice to say this, she seemed to believe in her own words… At least now she did.'

'Perhaps before, she had been trained to say that time and time again, not really believing in those words...'

'But now, she had been given a reason to trust them.'

'She... And many others have changed.'

'Daphne, in particular, was a proud woman, having refused help not only from him but others too.'

'That was only who she was, a habit she created by not trusting anyone apart from Cassandra for many years on end...'

'Yet recently, her stubbornness has slowly been chipped away at the warmth within the Hearth Manor.'

'Because if there was one thing more stubborn than her pride, then it would be the comradeship these girls have.'

'And above all, having a dozen Silvers moving around wouldn't exactly convey a good image for the others... It may even lead to complacency.'

'So Silver's idea of running the Familia with clones would have to be unfortunately discarded, though his clones would always be ready if the situation permitted.'

'And no, stop your ridiculous thoughts.' The Narrator said with a sharp gaze as he looked at the reader doing a funny expression

"..."

I'll give you a vacation after this is over.

You and everyone else.

'So as he looked at her vanish in the long hallways of the Manor, Silver could only faintly smile, this time, for real, he went to meet with Hestia.'

…

/Inside a guest room somewhere on the First floor…/

/Chatter…/

'Silver approached the room Hestia supposedly was in.'

'But by the looks of it, she wasn't alone.'

"Hm..."

I hear quite a few familiar voices...

/Creak…/

'Silver opened the door, and everyone inside the room stopped talking to look at him.'

"..."

It's certainly… Stuffy…

Just how many people did Hestia invite this time? I knew there were quite a few, but isn't this quite the increase from last time?

'6 Gods… Miach, Takemikazuchi, Hestia, Leto, Artemis, and another Goddess he hadn't seen before were in the room.'

'Together with their children Children… Albeit it seemed not all were inside this room.'

'Each God had one of their children by their side, including Hestia.'

'It was Emma, the timid but kind girl who had already become a key part of the Familia, just like anyone else.'

'And at the corner of the room, serving tea and sweets was Haruhime, looking as formal and polite as ever.'

'This made Silver think of Lili, just where did the little girl run to?'

'But he quickly shook these thoughts from his head, because he clearly had something bigger to deal with in front of him...'

"..."

""...""

'They all looked at Silver in silence, waiting for him to say something…'

"Sorry, wrong room." He said with a small smile as he closed the door

"HEY!"

'And while everyone smiled lightly at his own little joke, Hestia jumped from her seat with impressive agility, her lack of care for herself forced Silver to open the door again to prevent her from falling.'

"Oi, your dress is expensive, please be careful of any sudden large and quick movements…" Silver said slowly as he caught her in the air, putting her on the ground

Isn't she embarrassed...? Of course not.

That's just who she is.

"Humph! You're late!"

"... Yeah." He said as he raised his head to look at everyone

"... Apologies for being late, I'm happy you're all here."

'As the mood lightened, Silver and Hestia made their way to their own seats, greeting and laughing with the others as the clock spun slowly above their heads.'

'Soon enough, the welcoming ceremony would start.'

…

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Notes

Well, that's it, a very lighthearted chapter, most of the next few chapters will be like that.

I was thinking of making more fighting/serious chapters, but that may have to wait for him to return from the outside.

To explore the Deep Floors, fight the Monsters Rexes, and reach the unknown while dealing with Evilus, this is likely what that Arc will be about.

As for this one, it's about Silver dealing with the aftermaths of the War game, preparations for what I just said, and his desire to go outside.

This will be enforced quite a few times lol.

For now, I'll be posting a chapter of Zero Fate on my P@treon and also another chapter of Danmachi in it.

I hope you all have a phenomenal day, until we meet again.

Your writer, the lazy ass me.

Peace!