10

"Mou~ can you sit still while I'm doing this?" Hestia whined as I pounded out the shape of my new parrying dagger, its counterpart already forged and resting on the work bench beside us.

"You're the one who said we didn't have time." I grunted, forcing myself to work quicker on the long dagger, honing its length to that sweet spot I'd discovered after days of experimenting, a length that was just shy of what my power would class as a sword; all the speed of a dagger but with the reach of a short sword.

I'd tried the same thing with its partner, but the almost-greatsword hindered more than it helped in the tight corridors of the dungeon. Plus it made drawing a pain in the ass.

No, instead I'd gone for something more traditional in length, but thinner and with a nice flex from the new 'light' metal I'd gotten a perk to forge it with. Tsubaki called the metal 'nosteel' as opposed to whatever the fuck we called elven metal in Skyrim. The important part though was that it was light, could hold an edge better than steel and its natural flexibility meant I could use it like a firmer spring steel.

Which meant that while it looked like something out of an eastern take on European fantasy, with its thin cross guard, form and blade, it was stronger, faster and sharper than any blade I'd owned until now. And damn if it didn't feel good.

It might have taken me the two days since I worked out my deal with the Hephaestus familia, but I was finally producing weapons that felt like they were mine, like they were tailored to me, instead of just whatever steel I could get my hands on.

"I'm all for you feeling safer going into this Elric-kun -I am- but you're not planning on picking a fight are you?" Hestia asked, which was probably a reasonable concern given how hard I was working to get new weapons ready for an ostensibly peaceful meeting.

"Whenever you progress to the next stage, you always make sure you're fully equipped." I explained briefly, mind turning over the sheer amount of games that sprang bullshit on you the second you went to some major 'safe' event or another. You always prepared for this kind of shit, that's gaming 101. And if you have to unequip to progress?

Well that's when you need to start pulling some shit out of your ass.

"Eh?" Hestia's confused voice echoed behind me. "Stage?"

I coughed awkwardly. "Don't worry about it; just think of it like a status symbol."

"Oooh…" She uttered, redoubling her efforts with a soft, "umu!" I couldn't tell if she was just being polite about that, but either way I had a blade to work.

Shaping and grinding done, I began normalising the nosteel dagger, a process that instead of air cooling, oddly used a warmed oil bath of a specific mix that Tsubaki helped me with; another thing I'd have to thank her for later. Right now the woman was off in the dungeon testing weapons, which was also why I felt comfortable enough asking Hestia to check my Falna; Tsubaki had a dangerous habit of randomly exploding into any room I was in.

I'd have to catch her later.

"All done!" Hestia announced jovially, pressing a sheet of paper to my back and tracing over it. "Be in awe Elric-kun, for your Great Goddess has taken things to the next level!"

I blinked, staring at the sheet suddenly shoved in my face.

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •

Elric Carne

Lvl 1

Str - H 118

Vit - I 069

Dex - H 133

Agl - H 102

Mag - I 000

Magic:

Skills:

[Qahnaarin] The bearer's existence in this world is a miracle, their steps an impossibility; they face this new world with the stars' guidance written into their soul. (1)

Alchemy – 29

Alchemist 1

Block – 25

-

Light Armour – 36

Agile Defender 2, Custom Fit

One-Handed – 42

Armsman 2, Dual Flurry 1

Smithing – 32

Steel Smithing, Elven Smithing

Sneak – 20

-

Speech – 24

-

• ⋅☾ ☽⋅ •​

"Sasuga Hestia-sama…" I offered distractedly as Hestia did a little dance of victory behind me, my eyes somehow managing to track and read the newly formatted Falna as it flailed around with her motion.

My cursory glance over the stats told me everything I already knew; that my vitality growth had fallen off since that first day -propped up only by the times I'd intentionally let a monster tag me- and that my agility had likewise declined. Agility had once been my highest stat, but it was now falling behind because of a lack of enemies that could actually challenge me in the speed department.

To put it bluntly, both were victims of the promise I'd made to Hestia to stay away from the seventh floor. A mistake I wouldn't repeat again, even if it meant bluntly telling Hestia no to her face. Pandering to her was all well and good when it didn't cost anything, but my growth wasn't something I could fuck around with on the vague chance that her being annoyed with me would effect my skill acquisition.

That part of my Falnic theory-crafting was unsubstantiated for a reason.

On the bright side at least, my inflating skill and speed with blades seemed to have actually increased my dexterity growth day over day. Likewise my strength stat had maintained a fairly steady growth, probably due to my increasingly efficient massacres of the fifth and sixth floor pantries.

Which meant that I was making up for less efficient growth with the raw numbers provided by my Skyrim skillset's growth. That was good in the short term, but probably not sustainable as the gap between me and monsters widened.

The Skyrim skill block on the other hand was interesting to see laid out like this, it was both humbling to realise how far I'd come in the half a week I'd been at this, and aggravating to realise that I was using less than half the skills available to me. Some couldn't be helped, a good build needs to be optimised after all and there's rarely a point to simultaneously levelling two armour or weapon skills, but others like the entire magic tree kinda stung to just see missing entirely.

I had two ideas about how to kickstart my magic; one was just throwing a grimoire at the problem and hopefully solving it at the low, low cost of a hundred million valis. The other was to dedicate a point to the tree's first perk and hope that just magically taught me how to cast. The only issue there was that I always had other perks open for purchase, that were less risky and more valuable to my current build.

Speaking of; "can you put the perk into Armsman three?"

"Ah?" Hestia paused in her celebration at my words, freezing up in embarrassment. "Yup! Sure thing Elric-kun! Lemme just get right on that…"

I closed my eyes as she played around, centring myself and breathing deep as I waited for the rush of knowledge and instincts to come. Not all perks were created equally, and the damage perk for one-handed was one of the big ones in terms of information, and if my guess was right, it'd only get more so with levels.

With the swipe of a finger that tasted of war, my soul settled and the knowledge that came with it just seemed to appear, clicking into place instead of settling. I opened my eyes and I was holding the nosteel sword, my eyes raking along its slivery-blue length as my body spoke of instincts for the blade I didn't have moments ago.

I breathed out and forced myself to relax, ignoring the itching part of me that wanted nothing more than to run into the dungeon and cut through everything that got in my way. Now was not the time for cutting, as sad as that sentence was.

"Thanks, Hestia." I said sincerely, glancing over my shoulder to smile at her.

"Bububu!" She uttered nonsense back, pointing her finger demandingly at me. I blinked. "Back to work mister! You've only got an hour!"

I shook my head as I turned. "Right…" I chuckled. "Just wanted you to know you're appreciated."

A choking sound echoed behind me, only deepening my laugh. Heeding my tsundere Goddess' advice, I pulled the knife from the oil bath and began to heat the blade for another round of honing. Normally with steel you were one and done with honing at this stage, but nosteel was a particularly stubborn metal that you had to fight during normalisation, to hone it again and again as it fought to regain its former shape in the pseudo quench.

That was part of what made it such a good metal; you had to force it to take the shape you wanted, but once it took shape, it would hold onto it with the same level of stubbornness. It might flex, but it almost always returned to true.

"Elric…" Hestia spoke up, her voice calmed from before, more serious. "Are you sure you don't want me there?" She asked the question she'd asked three times now.

"Can you stay calm around Loki?" I returned for the third time.

Her silence was the same.

"Well then…" I pulled the long dagger from the fire and smiled at the multi-toned hue that painted the once blue blade. "I guess I better do enough work for the both of us."

"U-Umu! You can do it Elric-kun!"

-

"I was told to expect you, Lord Adventurer, right this way." A scharmy attendant bowed nervously, gesturing me down a moodily lit hallway adored in silks of every shade of red. I nodded my thanks, but kept one hand resting on my sheathed blades, smiling as the man seemed to get the message and kept his distance as he trailed after me.

Past the darkened hallway and behind yet more veils of soft fabric was a sight straight out of every teenage boy's dream; girls dressed fit for a sultan's harem gyrated on a brightly lit stage, their attire little more than see-through silk, eyes heavy and alluring as they swayed to a deep beat.

The lead dancer -a beautiful blonde woman with bright blue eyes- locked gazes with me as I entered. Beneath the red veil she wore around the lower half of her face, a sultry smile formed and her eyes smouldered.

For a long, electrifying moment I stilled, transfixed by her.

It took a minor effort of will to break the staring contest with the incredibly attractive dancer and turn away. Was it some kind of welcoming technique? Make the patrons believe they have a personal connection with one of the dancers from the moment they walk in?

I clicked my tongue and let out a humoured exhale; apparently the girls here were a little dangerous.

Ignoring the fat attendant who was trying to get me to follow him, I instead scanned the room. It was empty aside from Loki members, filled specifically with men and a lone woman who looked far too into the dancers to be here for anything but tits. All of them were dressed casually in loose clothing, either drinking or taking lap dances in the more shadowy alcoves attached to the large room.

I snorted as I realised what this was.

Looks like Loki decided to invite me to one of the perks of being part of her familia, specifically the one that Nord mentioned on the day we met. Sure enough my eyes found him, slack jawed as a girl dressed in harem garb ran her tanned ass up and down his lap, her heavy eyes glimmering in amusement at his reaction and a self-assured smile beneath her veil.

"Lord Adven-" My gaze returning to the attendant was apparently enough to make him to clam up, his sweating frame looking like it would rather be anywhere else right now. I doubted I had that kind of impact yet, so his fear probably came from the idea of offending Loki's guest.

"Leave." I said simply, relieving him of his duty and ignoring him to make my way to where I'd spotted Loki's inner circle.

Settled in its own area, surrounded by the male Loki executives and a small troop of serving girls in skimpy garp was the Goddess herself; currently leaning over the railing circling off the area and swinging around a wad of cash as she hooted at the stage like a monkey.

Now, as a gamer I'd encountered my fair share of stupid looking bosses, but goddamn if Loki wasn't stretching the bounds of what I could take seriously. So I ignored her and made my way over to Finn, perhaps the only clear eyed man in the entire establishment, and the only one looking at me at that.

"Finn Deimne." I greeted.

"Elric Carne." He nodded amicably. "You've come a long way in only a few days." He commented, as his eyes took in my gear.

"I'm an old hand at smithing, made it myself." I played it off, smiling.

"Oh? We'll have to-"

"-OI!" An aggressive voice broke into the conversation, and I was forced to acknowledge one of the biggest knobs in the Loki familia, Bete Loga. He was a grey-haired chienthrope who's whole point in the anime was to be a raging dickhead. "Ya gunna move or what? Ya stinkin' up the whole view."

The man looked two seconds away from attacking me like the rabid dog he was, and given that he was an executive and thus something like a level five, I didn't particularly want to give him a reason.

"Sure." I replied curtly.

"We can talk over there." Finn smiled and rose, gesturing over to a table in the corner of the area away from others.

I exchanged nods with the old dwarf left sitting with the chienthrope and trailed after Finn.

"Sorry about Bete, he means well." Finn offered, clearly lying.

"He's the type that only respects strength right?" I ask, and he nods with a played up weary look as he takes a seat at the table.

"In a business like ours, those kinds of mindsets tend to do well."

"Anything for motivation." I comment, adjusting my blades as I sat opposite. "Coincidently, can he hear us right now?"

The halfman just kept smiling at that, not offering anything.

"Fine, so how do you want to do thi-"

"-OOIII! FIIIIINNNN!" Loki's voice cries out over the low chatter of the brothel, right before she seems to just materialise next to us. "And~ dochibi's brat! I can't believe you guys started the meeting without m- Eh…?" The Goddess paused, staring at my outfit in confusion.

"Loki-sama?" Finn tried.

"Brat…" Loki began, her tone perplexed. "Who the fuck comes to a brothel in armour? And tight pants!" The Goddess angrily gestured at my outfit.

"Well your captain for one." Finn shares a commiserating look with me at that. "And woman, you're a lesbian, worry about your own plumbing."

"Hah? Ya think I've never had a cock before brat?" Loki shot out, leaning against table as I just blinked; I didn't think I'd be finding out that Goddesses could go full futa today, but life is apparently an eternal surprise like that. "I'm a Goddess; I've been ploughing women with great big honker-honkers since long before you humies were formed from the dirt!"

I leaned back in my chair, just processing that particular diatribe as Loki started to look increasingly smug, seemingly thinking that she's won this particular argument. "Well brat? What d'ya think about that huh?" She asked eagerly.

"I think… that's pretty sad?" She immediately reared up, looking ready to cut in so I went on. "Millennia of experience and yet your game is still so weak that you can't even get into the pants of any girl in your own familia."

Loki choked on her words, looking surprisingly like someone had kicked her in the balls. Meanwhile Finn jerked and coughed into his fist to cover his laugh.

"Honestly, I feel for you." I offered in sympathy, knowing that she could tell that I was being genuine. "Having zero game and being that flat? That's rough." I smiled as gently and sympathetically as I could, desperately fighting to keep the smirk from my face as I twisted the metaphorical knife.

Loki seemed to contract in on herself, clenching the table as a subtle whine seemed to emit from her shaking form. A bark of laughter from the table over seemed to send her over the edge, and she rose up slamming her fist into the table.

"Finn! Beat this smug little pricks' ass!" She yelled, pointing straight at me, and suddenly I couldn't help it any more; I laughed right in this Goddess' face and that set Finn off as well. "Finn! Ya're supposed to be on my side!" She whined, sounding increasingly petulant as fake tears leaked into the corners of her eyes.

"Tch!" She did the tsundere thing, crossing her arms and turning away from us when we just kept chuckling. A half beat later she tried again, sniping at me defensively. "What are ya lookin' at, brat?"

"You, your pose, Hestia does it as well." I smiled with a shake of my head, as Loki freezes looking down at herself. "I was just thinking that you weebs seem more alike than you care to admit."

"Weeb…?" Loki utters pitifully, looking like she took critical damage as collapses into one of the chairs. "Finn… please… yer my captain, just beat him up a little!"

"Apologies Loki-sama, I can't do that." Finn smiled deviously, looking like he was having a great time watching his Goddess suffer.

"Why?"

"He's a guest Loki-sama." He dutifully reminded her, chuckling as the last saps of energy drained out of her and her head collapsed onto the table with a thud. And just like that, my familia was two for two on bodying Loki into tables every time we met.

I smiled widely at Finn, suddenly feeling rather invigorated for the coming negotiations.

"Shall we get started then?" He smiled back just as widely.