Chapter 28

The doors of the Loki Familia's meeting room were violently thrown open as Tiona followed by Ais stomped into the room. "Jake there you are! We tried getting your goddess's attention around your weird tower but no wanted to mess with it because of the flowing lava!" Tiona complained and I nodded.

"Keeping away people is the very reason my home is covered in lava... Can't evict me from my home if you can't actually evict me, can you?" I asked conspiratorially and Tiona giggled as she shook her head.

"Well anyway, what do you need Jake?" Tiona asked and then likewise Ais spoke softly.

"Did you have a stronger boss?"

I shook my head to Ais before shrugging. "I mean yes I certainly do but I haven't made the summon items for them. I have a plan in the dungeon in the works that will make transport and traveling issues through the dungeon an issue of the past." I said proudly and I noticed Ais's hand on the tungsten broadsword tighten at the mention of the dungeon.

"Anyway, I need an executive's help, especially a Loki Familia one as I don't want to get involved in whatever drama is happening in the Freya Familia that's severe enough for Allen and Ottar to be fighting in the dungeon," I explained and the two girls shared looks.

"Do you know what happened between Ottar and Allen?" Ais asked me but I shook my head saying all I knew was that Allen apparently disobeyed orders from Freya and Ottar was pissed, to say the least.

"Anyway, the problem is whenever I am actually tunneling through the dungeon to make the path between floors. The Dungeon gets royally pissed off and spawned a black-enhanced aberrant monster party on my own party... Thankfully it was only dungeon lizards but if it was an army of War Shadows that could have been dangerous." I sighed and the girls nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, these new weird Aberrant and Mutated monsters are a major pain! But thankfully they are worth more Hehe. Anyway, Aizu you want to help Jake with this?" Tiona asked Ais and before the blonde could verbally answer despite her simple nod another person stomped into the room.

"Wait just a minute! I cannot be the only one hearing about enhanced monsters that should only spawn in the presence of a deity, correct?! And yet you fools wish to push through such monsters?" From the ajar door came the mother of the Loki Familia alongside Tione the bustier amazon sister.

"Riveria," I said in greeting drawing her eyes to me. "I do not wish to 'push' through them but think. If the Loki and other Familia's had an easy tunnel in which they could ride carts down from the top floor of the dungeon down to Rivira without having to deal with a single monster or the obnoxious stairs that make taking carts of supplies into the dungeon such a pain. How valuable and useful would that be? To say nothing of the hours it would shave to get to and from Rivira to the surface." I pointed out and Riveria frowned.

"Plus not to mention, before Rivira, the dungeon has literally zero record of ever even with a couple gods flexing their arcanum summoning an actual Juggernaut as the floors literally are too small for such a monster to freely move as they cannot get into the hallways between the chambers in the deeper floors," I explained with Riveria grudgingly nodding in acceptance to my words.

"That is true... Fine, I and the rest of these executives have the rest of the day and tomorrow free after getting well ahead of our expedition planning." Riveria said before adding on as an afterthought. "Disregarding how you can actually break the dungeon enough to build tunnels through it. But how in the world are you building a tunnel it cannot close?" She asked.

I stood up with Ais and Tiona standing up beside me as Riveria had all but taken over the negotiating for this work in the dungeon. "I don't know about you, Riveria. But when I make something, I want it to last. When I build something whether it be a weapon, armor. clothes, or even an outhouse. I always make sure to throw on my own version of the Durandal enchantment that all but freezes the item in time so it cannot be changed in any way shape or form." I said before looking at Ais.

"Ais had you had a single issue with your sword?" I asked and Ais nodded making me blink in surprise.

"Yes, the shape, weight, and sharpness are terrible... But I like how it cannot break." Ais said nodding to me in 'appreciation' as Tiona giggled in the background at my face.

I brushed my hand down my face as I deadpanned. "In that case, I should just give you a stick that cannot break..." I muttered but Riveria heard my words and took them seriously.

"Actually, blunted wooden training weapons would be a worthy purchase to make. So after we assess your dungeon plan, we can discuss such an order of training weapons." Riveria said seriously and I wanted to shoot her with the slime gun I had in my inventory...

But taking it out in a room filled with only women? Yeah, I would like to see the coming day as they would just need to roll up my corpse in the carpet before burying me in the backyard of the estate.

"Whatever! Come on Jake let's get going into the dungeon!" Tiona said excitedly and I nodded as there wasn't anything else to say other than some small talk that would inevitably take place in the space between floors.

-

"By the way just a heads up my party member is the sole member of the Hestia Familia. Of which the Familia is temporarily staying with mine as they had a bit of an incident when Ottar and Allen were fighting. Apparently, somehow a damned aberrant Minotaur got to the upper floors and well Bell found it." I explained in preparation for meeting Bell and Ais perked up.

"Ah, that white-haired boy I saved from another minotaur?" She asked and I nodded, and she frowned with sorrow clear in her eyes as she sighed. "Ah, I am sorry for his passing if he was your friend," Ais said awkwardly and my face froze before I couldn't help but giggle.

"Well, it's complicated but yeah... Bell is still alive though I had to kill that Minotaur and that wasn't fun at all." I couldn't help but brush my hands over my chest where I could feel the phantom pain of my ribs being heavily bruised due to being smashed by the minotaur.

"How long have you even been an adventurer," Riveria asked the pressing question and I whistled.

"Man, I think it's been a week, week in a half but it's not like I decided to punch out the minotaur. I fully took advantage of my chant-less magic to drown it in magical blasts although it got a couple hits in on me. I was the one to walk away." I said proudly and I noticed both Tione and Tiona giving me looks of 'interest' in the Amazon sense even if Tione's were more of a look of taking note of my potential.

Tione was still firmly interested in her eternal shota captain who was literally forty-one years old in comparison to Tione's current age of only seventeen. Who had zero interest in her and only wanted to find a strong Pallum to marry to help with his quest to bring up the Pallum people.

"The path of magic is the path of ultimate strength in the world Jake. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer an aspiring mage despite you not walking the orthodox path of magic." Riveria offered freely and I wanted to ask her how her nine spells were going when I could pull out literally more than a couple hundred different magical items that had preprogrammed spells within them. Instead, I had a better question to ask rather than insulting her for being beholden to the stupid Danmachi magic system.

"Riveria, what would you do for like? A secondary magical energy pool within yourself so you could more freely cast magic. I mean the limited Mind pool within mages is literally their greatest weakness once they have companions and can use concurrent chanting so they can dodge and still fight." I asked and Riveria gave me a dumbfounded look before she shook her head sending the curls of green hair that escaped her loose ponytail flying about.

"Jake, I fully acknowledge you to be an unmatched craftsman besides gods and possibly some spirits but giving or creating a new mana pool within someone is impossible. The elvish race has done studies upon such a topic for dozens of millennia and has broken no ground other than storing mana inside some extremely rare gems but the mana within the gems will break down the very gems so it's just not worth it." Riveria said hotly and I smiled with the cockiest grin imaginable.

"Yeah... About that. Oh, lookie there's my bestie Bell." I said ignoring Riveria who squawked in outrage as she was wise enough to see my shit-eating grin as proof. On how I was beyond proud to have gotten something over the normally so damned haughty about their superiority with magic elves.

I all but skipped towards Bell who noticed me waving to her and as she smiled seeing me, her eyes widened as she noticed the party behind me, and most noticeably her previous crush Ais Wallenstein.

"Ais! Jake Ais!!" Bell said utterly spastically as she bowed to Ais and me before turning to flee but I grabbed her by the back of her backpack with both my hands and literally just lifted her off the ground as she ran fruitlessly in place for a couple of moments before she realized that, no she wasn't running faster than the ground could support her and instead she was off the ground and her backpack straps were lifting her armor-clad arms.

"Bell say hello to the Loki Familia. May as well introduce yourself." I said holding Bell in front of me so she died a little inside, she waved to the Loki Familia members who frankly didn't care one whit about Bell as they thought she was just a huge fan of the Loki Familia and was just super nervous to be around them.

But Ais was different. Ais had seen her previous form so as Ais's head tilted to the side, and she spoke I couldn't help but giggle before my mouth snapped shut in incredulous silence at the reply she got "You were the one I saved from the minotaur? I thought you had short hair and was maybe a boy... I guess it was just all the blood covering you." Ais said carelessly with the same damned lack of tact that she used when describing the sword that even now she was using.

But Bell's reply... Bell's answer made me stagger and let her go of her as she spoke. "Yes! I was always a girl. I just had my hair up that day Haha..." Bell lied weakly as I woodenly turned towards the dungeon and away from the group so they wouldn't see my face.