Start of Expedition
Due to the explosions, Ais dropped down to the ground with a few broken bones all over her body and a bleeding head, "Ais!!!" Riveria came to Ais screaming and immediately used her healing magic on her.
Riveria was about to use her Elixir but Kisuke approached them and stopped her, "Don't waste it. Use this instead." Kisuke then passed them a small bottle of violet-colored potion. Although it wasn't as effective as the Elixir, Kisuke's potion could be compared to or was even better than a High-Potion, which was just below an Elixir, while also being cheaper as it was made from materials that were used for Medium-Potions.
He could have sold it, but it would have brought more trouble than it would be worth.
Riveria looked at Kisuke with a complicated expression but she still accepted the potion, "Thank you."
Riveria let Ais drunk Kisuke's potion and her immediate comment on it was, "Grapes?"
"Yep~. It's better than plain, slightly bitter potion, right?"
After a few minutes, Ais' broken bones were mended thanks to Kisuke's potion and Riveria's healing magic. She then stood up and faced Kisuke before bowing her head slightly, "It's my loss."
"Hmm, I thought you would be more frustrated."
Ais shook her head, "I'm frustrated. I don't even know how I lost the last round."
Kisuke then put up his right hand and a small magic circle appeared above it. A few seconds later, the air started to get sucked above the magic circle, "Highly compressed air. Once you've gathered enough air and let go of it," The magic circle disappeared and a small explosion occurred, sending out a shockwave to all those around, "This happens. I planted a few of these around your wind. You understand now, why I said your proficiency is not that great, right?"
Ais's eyes were wide open in shock. She knew that magic like this existed, but thanks to Kisuke's silent and instant cast, she wasn't able to see it. More shocking than that was, "... I wasn't even able to notice it..."
"Correct. Inside your own magic, you failed to notice foreign magic just because it used the same attribute as yours. If that's not a testament on how poor your handling is, I don't know what is."
Ais bit her lips. However, a few seconds later, she started smiling and looked straight into Kisuke's eyes with her own shining eyes, "Please teach me how to use my magic!" All the anger she felt back then disappeared as pure admiration took over.
"Nope~." Kisuke immediately refused with the same smile.
Ais's smile froze, "B-but you told me that you'll be teaching me some things..."
"Yep~. I indeed said that, but only after some payment! I haven't even received a downpayment! I'm doing business here, little girl!"
"Ah..." Ais indeed recalled something like that being mentioned, "Then I'll give you everything I got from the quest of the 24th floor."
What Ais, the Hermes Familia, and the trio received from that quest was really mind-bogglingly large. It may be due to the difficulty of the quest, but the group received a few hundred million Valis worth of items and materials from the mysterious person who gave them the quest. The Hermes Familia decided to give half of what they earned to the trio as gratitude because they understood that without them, only a few or none of them might have made it back to the surface.
"Still nope~." Kisuke rejected her again with the same smile.
Ais was devastated, "W-why...?"
"Because you'll have your expedition in two days! Did you forget!? Even Arshe-san is busy and couldn't come just to prepare for your expedition. Go and do your part and I'll accept your payment and teach you once you've returned!"
"Ah... Roger that! Please excuse me! I'm going to prepare for the expedition!" Ais then ran out, not even waiting for Riveria.
"I swear, whoever said that she's an emotionless doll is clearly lying. She looks just like a little kid who got promised a new toy to just do some chores." Kisuke muttered as he watched Ais skip towards the outside.
"She was called like that for a reason, however, I can agree to your latter statement," said Riveria with a twitching mouth.
"Being lively is good~," added Yoruichi.
"Anyways, I need to get going too. Thank you for having us." Riveria bid her farewell, intending to follow Ais. However, just before she could go up, Kisuke shouted to her, "Oh right, I'll be expecting you too once you've returned~. I'll prepare some good costumes for you~!"
Riveria almost stumbled on her way out but she didn't face Kisuke and just ran out. But Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Sona could very well see her very flushed red long ears.
Stretching his back, Kisuke intended to go back to the workshop, "Now that I've seen something nice, I need to go back to work~. I should be able to finish the basic model for warping in the next few days."
"Oh? That's nice~. Now then, Sona-chan, let's continue. I need you to master the basics before the expedition." Yoruichi dragged Sona back to training.
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Two days later, on the day of the Loki Familia expedition, everyone from the Loki Familia and some from the Hephaestus Familia gathered at the central park. Sona, Aika, and Koneko soon arrived and went to look for Riveria to arrange their position in the group.
A few minutes later, Finn, Riveria, and Gareth went up to the makeshift podium. Finn went in front, bearing the flag of Loki Familia, and overlooked everyone,
"We will now begin our expedition! Like before, we'll split our force into two groups! Once we regroup on the 18th floor, we'll immediately head down to the 50th floor! Riveria and I will be in charge of the first group and Gareth will be in charge of the second!"
"Our goal is the unknown area, the 59th floor!"
"You all are courageous Adventurers and warriors like the heroes of old! We'll gain wealth and fame from exploring the unknown! We don't need false glory at the cost of others! I want you all to swear by the light on the surface that you'll come back alive!"
"Now! Let's depart on our expedition!"
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Comments, anyone?
Alexander: Now, author-san broke my expectations for Ais. However, I've got the feeling that she becomes more and more like Koneko. As for Finn, I'm sure that there are some people out there, who would go on like "Huahh" (Spartans reference). But for me, it's more like the regular director's speech at the school. Makes me go like, "Meh, can you just start to walk?"
28th00: Hmm, I kinda wanna see Kisuke pull the classic Isekai "Science + Magic = OP" move with these two, well, three. Add basic concepts of science like physics to magic spells, the air compression and counter-current for example, and you get really nice tricks. It'd be kinda funny if Kisuke's start to teaching is "Okay class! Open up your textbooks to page 3(of 3000)! We have sciencing to do!" After all, science is the understanding of the world, ain't it? Probably not that exactly. Close enough for my fading memories of science quotes!
Goyya: Well, Ais and Koneko's personality do overlap, but there's a big difference between them and that's Ais is truly innocent while Koneko is a closet pervert.
On the science side, it's almost nonexistent due to how magic is used in this world. They all rely on chants and just let the world do the job for them.