87 Familias Sprouting Like Weeds

In one of the darkest corners of Orario, it was a sight like any other. A pair of siblings was running away from 'the bad guys' - men and women clearly belonging to the criminal underworld of the city. There was no hope for the two, their only potential solace being the chance for a swift death.

Although it was such a common scenario that almost always ended in the exact same way, this time, it was different. The assailants were swept off their feet by a strong gust of wind. Before any of them had a chance to react or regain their footing, they were knocked unconscious by fierce and practiced blows.

In the relative darkness of the alley, the old but anything but frail figure of a gallant man seemed like a rising sun to the shivering and terrified boy and girl, bathing them in warmth and security.

"There is nothing to fear, kiddos, I'm just here to help."

With a relaxed smile, the man sat down at a safe distance without attempting to further approach the traumatized siblings, then he told them about how he had been passing by and saw them in a tough spot and engaged in lots of other small talk. Slowly but surely, even without them needing to respond to everything he said, the two became less wary of him.

After a while, a small sigh escaped the old man's lips.

"You felt pretty helpless and powerless today, I'm sure. That's why I'm offering you a choice. How about joining my familia and receiving my blessing?"

-----

When their less ignorant and foolish brethren finally left Babel in huge numbers, Aparctias and Kaikias stealthily followed them into the city. They didn't want the others to look at them like idiots for not taking the helping hand that had been offered to them out of good will, so they did their best to not get noticed. Well, 'their best' wasn't really any good, though. Although a couple of the veterans amongst the other gods saw them in the distance, their pathetic sneaking attempts only made them chuckle. Now that they had calmed down and reminded themselves of their goal, there was no need to make things even more difficult for their less smart kin. At least not until the competition really began.

But why were the two following them anyway? The reason was simple, they just had no idea what to do, as seemingly nobody was interested in joining their ranks. Still, the Lower World's mortals couldn't possibly all belong to familias already, right? After their in-depth introduction to this place, the others definitely knew where to look.

Sure enough, it took the two only a couple of minutes to realize how incredibly stupid they had been. The heart of the city that was gathering the strongest of the Falna-blessed warriors of these lands was the very worst place to search for newbies. But outside of it? Well, the search suddenly became a lot easier. At least that was what they thought when they saw a few of the others convince some of the children to follow them. They didn't know what words had been spoken as they were too far away, but from the mortals' behaviour, it really seemed like they had joined these particular gods' and goddesses' ranks.

"We can't just fall behind like this! You there, scrawny boy. Do you want to join my familia?"

All that Aparctias got in response was an annoyed snort. Even after experiencing continuous rejection, the naively arrogant god hadn't changed his approach sufficiently yet.

Kaikias, however, was faring much better. What Magic did he use to achieve such miraculous results? None, besides basic respect and common courtesy, something quite foreign to a vast majority of the godly community. Well, in any case, he still ended up empty-handed and alone. There was a good piece of news, though.

"It seems like the minor inconvenience of us being home- and penniless is more grave than I expected. All of these promising children ran away after we told them the truth of our circumstances…"

With a heavy frown, Kaikias was massaging his forehead. His brother, however, just shot him a confused look, feeling like he was staring at an idiot.

"Isn't that problem easy to solve? Watch me!"

The next one that Aparctias approached was a somewhat sturdy male Raccoon Person. After the usual introductions, finally, it was time for the most important question on most potential adventurer's minds - the one that he had been anticipating.

"What does your financial situation look like?"

With a hand over his heart and a saintly, magnanimous smile, Aparctias spoke solemnly.

"Mine might not be the richest familia, since we just started out, but we have a roof over our heads and enough money to feed us to last through our days. I won't lie to you, it's not the best, but it's far from the worst. Also, there is a lot of room for improvement, especially with more promising children like you on board!"

At first, the citizen had been quite wary, but that refreshing smile and these words that sounded like music to his ears melted away all of his worries. He bowed deeply and agreed quickly, afraid that he would miss this Heaven-sent opportunity. As he wasn't shy and the two were in what could be considered more of a back alley with little traffic, the Raccoon Person asked his new god to give him his Falna right then and there, which the latter did happily.

When all was said and done, Aparctias turned around with a victorious grin plastered all over his face.

"How was that, brother? I already got my first on---"

The scene that greeted him left him baffled and shell-shocked. A group of decently good-looking girls and women had formed around Kaikias, who seemed to be both flattered and slightly overwhelmed by their fervent attention. Even when compared with other gods, his suave looks and outstanding demeanour were enough to make quite a few maidens fall head over heels.

"They said that they want to work for me… and be with me…"

Helpless as he was, he could only stare at Aparctias, hoping for him to rescue him from the encirclement. Sadly, all he got in response was a glare filled with scorn, jealousy and amusement. Well, and quite a lot of confusion.

'What the hell happened? I only looked away for a couple of minutes, yet here we are…'

Although everything seemed to be going splendidly at face value, in the near future, both gods' familias would experience growing pains. A familia built upon a 'solid foundation' of lies had a tough time lasting, same for one made up of lots and lots of unfortunate maidens lusting after the same man. The Lower World hath no fury like a woman scorned. It was even worse if there were many of them.

-----

In the late afternoon, in Loki's study.

"It's just as we feared, they're all undoubtedly here for Ais."

With a frown, Riveria was reading through the intelligence report about various previously unseen Wind-related deities filling out familia creation-forms at the Guild. Right next to that, there was a document containing information about the mostly comical and incompetent invitations that these gods had graced the populace with.

The successful ones had either rescued their now-children like damsels in distress, had let their very influential names pull their weight or just happened to have very agreeable personalities. Of course, plenty of lies were employed too, leading to a plethora of complaints about the respective gods flooding the Pantheon. Still, despite all of that, close to thirty familias had been born in less than a day, some even with tens of members. For the lowest and weakest rung of familias in the city, this meant that there were now a lot more competitors… but for the very top, nothing had changed, even ever so slightly - for now.

The Loki Familia wasn't the only one that had received this intel, far from it. As such a major and unusual event was easy to notice, most intelligence agencies in the city had made a lot of efforts to learn more about it and then forwarded all of it to their regular customers.

"Most likely, yes. In all the time since I've come here, I've never seen something like this happen. Thankfully, most of them seem to have no idea about what they're getting themselves into, or how big of an investment that they need to make to even resemble a small threat in the Lower World."

Even though her mood was clearly far from perfect, Loki was still smirking to herself. Every now and then, she took a sip from a glass of expensive wine, relaxing increasingly more any time a mouthful of it made it all the way to her stomach.

'It seems like the old man has also decided to come and take a stroll. With his personality, I guess he is the only one that we don't need to worry about too much. Anyway, I haven't seen him in ages, maybe I should invite him over for a drink sometime…'

Her Captain's words soon snapped her out of her nostalgic thoughts.

"A huge number of rookie familias out for one of our own's blood is certainly… new. But as long as we don't let our guard down, I can't see any way for them to pose a danger to us. The least that we should do, though, is to prohibit our weaker members to leave our home in small numbers, or even alone. Just in case."

Both of the other Top Executives and their goddess agreed with Finn's words and nodded resolutely. Underestimating an opponent had cost this city many talented and beloved adventurers in the past - they wouldn't make the same mistake. They had even debated killing the newly arrived gods and goddesses along with their recently built familias but soon discarded that idea. Sending a god back to Heaven was bound to be anything but a stealthy act, not to mention that it was highly illegal… just like killing innocents. Well, the latter was considerably easier to pull off, but it would leave a bad taste in all of their mouths, so they wouldn't resort to it unless absolutely necessary. None of these new familias' kids were aware of just what kind of dangerous, life-threatening game that they had unknowingly become pawns in.

"Should we increase the manor's defenses as well? You said that they are able to perceive her thanks to her Divinity, so wouldn't they be able to follow that trail all the way here once she is back?"

Riveria's question made Loki shake her head, before ultimately shrugging helplessly.

"They won't be able to detect her as long as she makes sure to not exude any Divine Aura or use her Divinity. Only in those moments will they be pointed in her vague direction. So if she behaves smartly, we won't ever have to worry, but we all know that accidents happen. It's better to be safe than sorry."

Her familias three leader figures were amongst the first that Ais and Isaac had revealed their changes to. They were extremely trustworthy and already knew a few of the mysterious man's various secrets. What harm could one more possibly be at this point? Even more than that, the three had practically raised Ais together from a very young age, so they were extremely close to her. None of them could even imagine a situation where they would betray her. Amusingly enough, they didn't have too huge of a reaction when they were told about her ascension to godhood, because they had all been convinced that she would make it there at some point in the future anyway, considering her past. Another reason was that they didn't worship deities to an unreasonable degree - they were quite rational in nature, compared to most mortals.

"All of that aside, was it really the right choice to allow Ais to enter the dungeon?"

Gareth's expression was full of worry and he was subconsciously clenching his fists. Not only would the dungeon do its very best to end any divine intruders once it noticed them, but it would also prevent the respective deity from returning to Heaven after their death, actually 'killing' them, in a way. Well, none but a few knew what exactly happened to those unfortunate gods that perished in the dungeon, so this couldn't yet be fully ascertained.

With an unhappy harrumph, Loki suddenly downed her glass in one go, then she reclined further into her sofa helplessly.

"We all know that we have no way of stopping her if she really wants to go there. Still, with that instantaneous teleportation ability, she should at least be able to brace all known dangers down there, and even most of those that we haven't encountered yet. After all, she only needs a thought and there are not many things faster than that that we've heard about so far. As long as she still has a chance to react, she'll be perfectly fine. Rather than during the time where she'll be Isaac's bodyguard, I'm more worried about what might happen to her throughout the next expedition, or whenever you all decide that it's time to head deeper in secret. Those unexplored floors do pose the highest risk."

The group collectively sighed, before Loki tried to cheer them all up.

"On the bright side, should she decide to use her Divinity, although the dungeon would be enraged, she should be able to react to danger even more quickly, massively increasing the chances of a successful escape."

It took a while, but they all managed to calm down. There just had been too much nigh unbelievable news recently for their nerves to not be stretched taut. Suddenly, Gareth remembered something else that had been buried underneath all the other points of discussion but was still on today's agenda.

"What about that scum of a god that the lad assaulted today? Any trouble that we need to look out for?"

An even more mischievous smile than usual played across the trickster goddess' lips.

"We don't need to worry about that. Let's just let Isaac have his fun and enjoy the show."

-----

Late evening, in the healing center of Babel.

Although he had been sent here in a really miserable state, the blue haired god had still managed to survive. The Guild's best facilities weren't just for show, neither were their extremely pricey healers' services. Additionally, a god's cockroach-like lifeforce had played an important role in the speedy recovery as well. By now, the god was exhaustedly lying in one of the patient beds, still far too weak to move. Nonetheless, there was an unquenchable inferno of fury burning in his eyes.

'Who does that ant think he is!? Just you wait, I'll make you pay for that a hundredfold, no matter what!'

His previous goal for coming here had been completely forgotten. Now, he only wanted to get revenge. In all honesty, he had also intended on making all of his other assailants disappear from this world, but sadly, everything after Isaac's ruthless stomp was just a pain-filled blur. His behaviour hadn't made him any friends, so nobody would rat out the furious souls that had given him a beating, as most thought that it was the least that he had deserved. Ultimately, the god couldn't remember anyone's face but that devilish ant's.

'On my name of Ferthur, I swear that I'll rip your heart out and eat it in front of your loved ones!'

With his hands balled into fists, the arrogant god subconsciously used the very last bit of his current strength, causing a small breeze to lift his blanket slightly. By the time that it had started to descend again, his consciousness had already slipped away.

Little did he know that the next time that he would awake, he would soon faint again - this time because of the enormous debt now plaguing him thanks to the treatment and medical care.

-----

During the night, Isaac returned to the 24th floor to hunt for rare monster species that he had missed. Thankfully, he got lucky in the end, as one of them did actually cross his path.

It was a Vouivre, a female humanoid dragon monster with blueish grey skin. They had a red jewel-like stone on their foreheads called the Vouivre's Tear, which gave them the ability to subject their enemies to various mind-altering effects. It was similar to falling into a swamp of illusions, but as it was extremely potent, its mana expenditure was also enormous, which was why the monsters couldn't keep it up for long. They had lengthy black nails akin to claws, long hair of various colours and could extend dragon-like sturdy wings from their backs. They shared all of the same weak points of the rest of the mostly humanoid monsters and when they weren't capable of using their special ability, their only way of attack was their nails, while their only method of defense was to shield their bodies with their wings.

In all honesty, they were tough opponents, especially for normal adventurers, but for Isaac, whose mind was all but impossible to influence this easily, it felt like a walk in the park. Still, he took note of them to warn his students to immediately escape from them unless they had prepared a fool-proof strategy.

Sadly, just one specimen wasn't enough for Isaac's extensive research, neither did the Vouivre drop anything besides its magic stone. What rotten - or rather, completely reasonable - luck! From what he had learned, the Vouivre's Tear sold for a pretty penny, so it was sure to be an interesting object worthy of extensive research. Oh well, maybe next time.

By the time that he returned home, Isaac's Level 2 monster slaying quest had progressed to 18,533/19,000 while he had gained another 10,500 AP.

-----

About one hour later, on a rooftop somewhere close to the Twilight Manor, a certain jackal-eared temptress was stretching, bored out of her mind. In stark contrast, her Elven companion didn't even look away from the manor's entrance for a single second.

"I can't believe that we drew the short end of the stick again…"

Grumbling to herself, Tabitha finally settled down next to Suicia again, still anything but happy. Whenever they had been assigned to protecting Isaac's students, they had to fight off a multitude of assailants - it was anything but any easy and relaxing job. Besides just the two of them, there were still quite a few of their familia's members scattered in the surroundings, at regular intervals forming a massive surveillance formation. In any case, they had been chosen for the most important duty, which was to protect them from as close as possible.

"Stop whining, here they come. Get ready."

As the magical formation protecting the manor didn't shield its entrance from view - perhaps deliberately - Suicia could soon see the group of Aselina, Jakk, Kalin, Mina and Quinn heading to the gates, at last giving her a reason to shut up her friend's complaints. She wasn't the biggest fan of her work either, but she would never slack while doing her job. And neither would Tabitha.

"Fine fine, I get it. I really wonder when I'll get a chance to meet these little ones' hot teacher again…"

With a cute yawn and another seductive stretching session that almost made her ample breasts spill out from under the extremely minimal top that she wore, Tabitha grabbed her whip. From one moment to the next, her air changed completely, transforming her from an erotic seductress to a cold, emotionless hitman and mercenary.

Even though she had been with her friend countless times during these drastic changes, they still made Suicia sigh in amazement every now and then.