7

"You sure brat? This blade won't hold up past floor six." The grizzled clerk informed me with overblown concern, as if he actually gave a shit and wasn't just trying to get a better sale.

"I just need something tough and cheap." I informed him, a statement that had his 'I'm old and I know better than you' look waning.

"I got Killer Ant infused blades in the back, they'll last a helluva lot longer." He tried again, to which I gave him a flat look.

"Had to try at least. That's four and a half thousand for the pair." He listed to which I nodded and paid up. I wasn't certain if bartering over price was a cultural norm here or not, but the price was decent enough and I wasn't going to be using store bought weapons for much longer anyway.

"Good luck in the dungeon kid, you're gunna need it." He warned me with a grave tone that I promptly ignored.

I nodded idly, awkwardly fastening the two blades to my left side; I'd need to work on my rigging for this. "You too." I added without thought, exiting the store and heading back the way I came as he snorted. I was pretty sure one of the weapons stores I'd checked earlier had an armour section that I didn't get around to, so that was my next destination.

Babel was… weird, like a themed mall that went completely out of pocket and then wrapped right back around to being incredibly high end. At this time of day it was practically empty, just a handful of early risers mostly doing window shopping before they headed into the dungeon, and were therefore in full armour, which really added weight to the whole medieval luxury theme this place had going on.

I stood out a bit with my lack of armour, but my set was nearly totalled and it would have been really obvious to the Loki lot that I went back into the dungeon if I showed up looking like I'd been through a wood chipper. So, either I got something here and now, or I was going in bareback.

Which honestly? Probably not the worst thing, my endurance stat needed grinding, my potion reserves were topped up and I was heading in with a safety net anyway… Just that thought alone was enough to make me me feel like my life had probably taken a dark turn somewhere, and unfortunately I couldn't for the life of me remember what that turn could have been.

It was the internet, it was the goddamn internet and the hacker known as 4chan. Fuck that guy.

A shock of red hair in the corner of my vision pulled me out of my perhaps slightly unhinged thought process and back to reality, leading me to stop and take in the sight of Judith pressed up against the glass of another weapons store, all but drooling over the hand-and-a-half blades on display.

"How's it going Red?" I asked, bursting out into laughter as she started at against the window and slammed into it with a meaty thud.

"E-Elric!?" She uttered in shock, staring up at me as she nursed her forehead, a bright blush on her face.

"You alright?" Her hand stalled on her forehead, before lowering her hand sheepishly, her blush deepening.

"Y-Yeah, how about you? I mean- after…" She trailed off, seemingly not knowing how to bring up her familia trying to fuck me over. Which was fair, it'd been done to me and I didn't even know how to feel about it to be honest; the whole thing was so sudden and resolved so quickly that I hadn't even processed how I felt about it before throwing myself head first into the dungeon.

The fact that I hadn't slept since also probably wasn't the best, but fuck if I'm going to waste time sleeping for small things like emotional stability.

What really muddied the situation however was that I was actually quite apathetic to the whole thing, at least on a surface level. I chose Hestia because I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to stand out in other familias -a worry now voided by Qahnaarin- so getting forced into the Loki famila in many ways would be a step up for me. And hell, my whole plan of ingratiating myself with Judith and them was to open up relations with the familia, something this situation had essentially accomplished from the get go.

If that was all there was to it I probably would have been celebrating, but of course that wasn't the case, because I had Hestia and I did care for her. The problem with that though was that I'd only known her for a couple of days, and I had a suspicion that my feelings were -at least partially- informed by my desire to appease her for the sake of my goals. On top of that complicated mess, Hestia cared for me a surprising amount and while I could be blunt and stubborn as a bull, I wasn't a complete dick, and thus had to account for how my actions would hurt her as well.

In short, shit was messy if I got too deep into it, and it was much easier to just accept how things played out and resolve myself to be more careful in future.

"I'm… good." I finally commented, meeting Judith's worried gaze steadily. "Not thrilled with how things went down obviously, but I can deal with it."

Which honestly? That was pretty true, I was used to games dumping those forced loss cutscenes on your ass for the sake of the story. Being able to roll your eyes and just deal with shit was a needed skill as a gamer, and it helps that this particular shit was a direct result of my actions. I'd rather have that then the infamous 'walk into a room and get knocked out' cutscene; literally nothing ruins your immersion more than that shit.

"I… I know you probably don't want to hear this from me, but they explained thin-" I raised a finger to silence her, nodding around us at the adventurers skirting around us, any one of which could have been listening in.

"Maybe not here yeah?" I smiled blandly.

Judith let out a small noise of realisation, before immediately ducking her head. "Sorry…" She finished quietly.

"It's fine, we've got all day anyway, you can tell me later." I reminded her, as eager as I was to avoid people hearing about my whole deal with Loki, I was also interested in Judith's explanation. While it would certainly be dressed up to put Finn's plan in the best possible light, I doubted that it would be a total fabrication, and may provide some more insights into his motivations.

Going by our conversation I was fairly convinced that his goal was a mix of wanting to open relations with me and forcefully stopping me from drawing the attention of other familias by threatening a war game; all based on the perceived value of my potions. But having another layer of insight into that could only be beneficial.

"Huh, yeah we can… talk about it later." She uttered, before blinking up at me. "Wait what are you even doing here?" Seemingly just realising where she'd ran into me.

"Shopping, just got these." I stated, patting my new blades.

"Given the, armour you were wearing yesterday and the value of the potions you were just handing out, I thought you were just cheap with gear." Judith commented bluntly, before eyeing my blades speculatively. "You any good with two swords?"

I grinned cockily at that, the certainty of my new perk still fresh in my mind. "Better than I am with one." Now that earned me an interested look from the red-headed girl.

"Good enough to get to the sixth floor?" She asked, an eager gleam in her eye.

"With you guys backing me up? Easily."

"Hah, now that I have to see; what are you shopping for, I might know a place." She grinned back, her battle junkie side coming to the fore.

"Armour, I got my old set from out of town and well…" I trailed off as she nodded with a queer expression on her face, I hadn't quite realised how obvious the low quality of my gear was, but I guess to adventurers who spent a good chunk of their time milling around with higher levels and their gear, it must've been pretty apparent. It might also be true that I had no idea what to look for in terms of gear before my skill kicked in.

That perk in steel weapon forging genuinely came in clutch for picking out these swords.

"You walked into the dungeon with surface gear?" Judith gave me a nine-yard stare that had me nodding with faux smugness.

"And I still ran circles around those dirt lickers."

She rolled her eyes at that. "Well, I do know a good place that sells full sets of armour around here; you got like ten thousand valis on you?"

"Lead the way Red." I nodded to which she grinned.

"Not a fan of armour myself, it's a bit too…" She trailed off, gesturing at her upper body, I couldn't really tell if she was talking about her sizeable breasts or just upper body movement in general. The former I obviously couldn't relate to, but the latter I'd definitely felt; my previous set having restricted my movements more than alittle in several hairy situations.

"Or at least I wasn't," Judith went on, barely taking a breath as her face lit up. "But Ais, she's one of our- oh y'know Ais? Yeah, she's got some really cool armour and she's a full-on speed fighter, so I thought; if she's wearing armour, then what's my excuse y'know?"

"None I guess." I comment with a shrug, before smirking at the clearly passionate girl. "Though I really hope you don't end up going for her half a boob plate."

The fiery girl stared back at me blankly before a blush crept up her cheeks and she turned away, pushing my smirking face back. "I-Idiot!"

"Eh? You planning on taking up her Loki-approved tiny mini skirt as well?" I teased.

"H-HELL NO!" She shouted, anger overpowering her embarrassment as she whirled around to stab her finger into my chest. "Ais is just- ugh! You wouldn't get it."

"Yeah, yeah, she's a perfect snowflake who can do no wrong." I rolled my eyes, remembering exactly how people treated her in the show. Bell was far from that girls only simp.

Judith just huffed at that, rolling her eyes. "Don't say that shit around the others, they'll skin you alive."

"We had a word for people like that back where I came from." I told her, drawing a perplexed look from the red head. "We called them 'simps'."

"You've got words for the weirdest things..." Judith concluded, shaking her head.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, being a simp was only a bad thing if you had a cock." I paused as Judith choked on air, before turning to her seriously. "...You don't have a dick do yo-"

I raised my hands in surrender as she raised her fists, though I could do nothing about the teasing smile playing across my face.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't you start on the tomboy jokes as well, I got enough of them when I was kid."

"No worries Red, where I come from tomboys were highly desired." I declared, primarily just to fuck with her.

I chuckled as she flushed, twisted in confusion and then ultimately seemed to decide that fleeing was her best option, scurrying off without a word; I followed her at more leisurely pace while giving her some space. After a minute or two, she veered off into a clearly cheaper store -kind of like the one Bell visited in the anime- dominated by bulky shelves piled high with small crates of armour.

Realising she didn't seem like she wanted to talk to me right now, I bumped Judith on the shoulder and said, "looks good," in thanks before heading deeper into the store.

What I was looking for was in the back, a well cared for aisle filled with crates of armour made by the rookie smiths of the Hephaestus familia, all sold at near cost on the promise of getting their names out there. Judith shadowed me at a distance as I wound my way through the offers, dismissing most out of pocket due to forging defects I would never have noticed a handful of days ago. Those that did pass my rather basic quality standards generally failed the next step, the vibe check.

Appearance plays a far greater role in heroics than anyone really gives it credit, people like to pretend that they're above that kind of shit, that they're not shallow twats. But unfortunately that's absolute horseshit; if you don't look the part then you're not going to get treated the part, not without a lot of evidence to contrary at least.

All of which is to say that I needed some good looking armour, and I needed it in the heroic register; so whites, silvers and lighter colours, with darker colours and shades as highlights at most. That's my middle school art theory coming in clutch by the way. The only problem with this however, is that the majority of Hephaestus' rookies don't seem to give one lick of a shit about how good their sets look, either that or they're just incapable of altering the aesthetics in the first place.

Seriously, who designs pauldrons to be cube shaped? It's not goddamn minecraft.

It took damn near turning the aisle upside down before I found something decent. A solid set of light armour with decent lines, scored down to a light, brushed metal finish with actual joint guards to catch blades as they skitter off, instead of just guiding them into your soft parts. It definitely didn't give off hero vibes by any means, but more of a 'promising rookie' kind of deal.

"You probably shouldn't..." Judith's warning trails off as I finished strapping the armour on. It needed some adjustments here and there in terms of the metal shaping, but I couldn't exactly do that in front of Judith. A grindstone and a workbench for the church were definitely near the top of my to-do list; both for being able to do this shit in private and for those sweet, sweet smithing buffs.

"I'm going to buy it, no worries." I placated her as I stand up and test the limits of motion and fit of the armour; all and all, it was much better than my last set. I smile at Judith as she looks me over. "Any good?"

"I'm still annoyed with you, but…"

"But?"

"It looks kinda- okayish on you." She admitted with a small blush.

"Thanks Red." I trail off with an awkward laugh. "Lemme just pay for this and then we can meet up with the others."

-

Orario, Babel Park

Judith

"That thing I wanted to talk about earlier, think we're safe here?" Judith spoke quietly as they sat together in a quiet part of the massive open area that surrounded Babel.

"Not going to lie, I have no idea what adventurer senses are like…" Elric muttered with a sigh. "It's like this world hates privacy."

She found herself nodding in spite of herself, the rooms at the manor were sound proofed and all, but it still felt like you had absolutely no privacy when half the people in the dining hall could smel- do the shit they could. It was fucking embarrassing, and people wondered why she preferred being in the dungeon.

"If I…" She swallowed her embarrassment. "If I whisper it... is that alright?"

Elric's blue eyes met hers, a sparkle of amusement entering them that automatically had her wanting to hit him; for someone she actually didn't mind spending time with, she sure spent a lot of time wanting to beat his teasing ass.

"If you want to be that bold." He spoke in that tone, and like magic her blush returned despite her best efforts.

This fucking guy.

"Not another word." She growled, before swallowing her embarrassment and leaning in as he made an odd gesture across his lips. "I'll keep it short… the elf said that our cap was worried you about you oversharing and y'know… attracting attention." She tried her best not to say anything that could be easily understood by outsiders, but it probably came off as awkward as hell.

Elric nodded looking unsurprised, which given how unflappable the guy was, wasn't really a surprise.

"So they used that as a warning and a bargaining chip to force you to stop drawing attention." She whispered, trying her best to convey what Riveria had told her. What happened last night had really worried her when she first saw it go down, and it took the Elven Princess sitting her down and explaining things to really get it. Last night was a mistake on their part and if that wasn't conveyed properly… "The cap admitted it was a mistake."

She nodded, not quite satisfied with her explanation -she wasn't great with words- but satisfied enough to leave it there; that is until Elric leaned in.

"Did he apologise?" He whispered, and she froze, her mind quickly trying to recall if…

She stayed silent as he leaned back, unable to really say anything. "Don't worry about it, things like group politics are complicated and annoying as hell." He sighed with a half hearted smile and she couldn't help but nod along, even if her mind was elsewhere.

If you make a mistake, you say sorry, even a street brat like her understood that basic rule. She'd taken that as a granted and just kind of assumed her boss had done so.

Well just because he didn't...

"Hey, Elric?" She opened quietly. "I uh, never did thank you -for y'know- not holding it against me… for healing Fil and just- I'm sorry for what happened." She finished lamely, hoping her stumbling delivery conveyed what she hoped it would.

Elric took one look at her and promptly burst out laughing, sending a shooting wave of her embarrassment and anger through her entire being. He dodged out the way of her furious retribution and smiled at her. "You had nothing to do with it Red, I'd have to be one hell of a dick to hold that against you."

And just like that her anger vanished and she was left without wind in her sails. "Just accept my thanks i-idiot, at least for taking care of Fil and all that."

He paused, finally seeming to acknowledge her seriousness, before immediately ruining the moment by ruffling her hair. "You're welcome Red."

This guy...

She rolled her eyes and swated his hand aside, before settling in to wait for their teammates to show up. As they waited, they made idle chatter to pass the time, watching as the sun rose over Orario and adventurers began to fill the plaza, an easy air between them.

"...Yeah I've got no clue how to go about getting magic." Elric responded to her curious question. "We don't exactly have the hundreds of millions needed to justify that kind of expense."

"H-Hundreds of millions?" She uttered, feeling… something at just the thought of that much money.

"Yeah, Grimoires are expensive as all get out and the only other way to gain magic is it just appearing in your Falna like a skill." He went on casually, his tone conveying a sort of annoyed acceptance, like he somehow knew those barriers to entry were only a matter of time for him.

"Doubt I'm ever affording that, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed." She muttered.

"Well, you're in a better position than me." Elric admitted with a thoughtful look on his face. "Things that expensive aren't something you can just buy; you need connections that your familia definitely has and mine definitely doesn't."

"That's… kinda unfair." She admitted with a frown.

Elric laughed. "Just another obstacle to overcome." He said with such confidence that she couldn't help but believe him. She didn't know where it came from, but he always seemed to be like that; always confident, always smiling.

He was weirdly similar to her captain like that.

"Oh, looks like Nord couldn't make it." Elric suddenly commented, following his gaze she found the others walking over with Anakitty Autumn, a level four from her familia that operated in the second string force alongside Mr Nord.

Judith sighed, this felt like something her captain arranged for some reason that was probably beyond her.

"You alright?" Elric asked, his eyes still on the approaching party.

"Yeah, I just…" She trailed off, huffing in annoyance. She'd liked Mr Nord; he was pretty relaxed all things considered, and he was just about the only teacher who was willing to stay past hours to let them try for longer. He also didn't feel the need to subject them to stupid long lectures about being reckless, like that windbag Lloyd.

"They probably switched him out because of me; I'll say something when I get the chance." Elric claimed, making her smile.

"You don't have to do that…" She trailed off, not sure exactly on how Elric felt about him after last night, but wanting to give him an out just in case.

"It's the right thing to do." He smiled, standing to meet the group halfway. She rose with him, matching his pace until they were all together again; something that sent a tingle of anticipation up her spine.

The dungeon was waiting.

"Elric, right? Raul told me a bit about you." The Anakitty greeted them warmly, sending a smile Judith's way. By her side Ilya nodded in greeting and Filian… the stupid flowery elf was trying to look as small as possible at the back of the group.

Judith rolled her eyes, it was probably some dumb pride thing. She didn't understand Elves worth a damn; they had a bunch of weird, seemingly made up rules that just seemed to be there to look down on others, like that whole shit about not being able to touch other races. Whatever was going through his mind, she'd leave the perv to it. Worst case one of the other elves in the familia would take him aside and deal with it.

"He's sorry he can't be here by the way, Finn's got him working overtime." Anakitty relayed.

"If that's got anything to do with me, then you can tell Finn to blow it out of his ass, miss…?" Elric's blunt statement had everyone leaning back, eyes wide. Judith felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck as she recalled his earlier promise, somehow this and 'saying something' really didn't feel like the same thing.

"…Autumn." Anakitty offered, blinking in befuddlement. "Sorry, are you sure you want me to tell that to…?" She asked slowly, the cat ears atop her head twitching.

"Of course." Elric responded bluntly and Judith couldn't help but admire his balls if nothing else.

"Right, well... Loki-sama asked me to pass this along, she hopes you'll join her in a couple days to discuss business." The catgirl recovered from her disbelief admirably only to stumble over the last word, her cheeks flushing as she handed over a neat piece of parchment decorated with fancy calligraphy.

"I'm guessing she didn't use those words." Elric smiled dryly.

"No, no she didn't." Anakitty sighed, sharing a weary look with her tall teammate, before he glanced down at the card and his eyebrows raised.

"Is this...?" He trailed off, igniting Judith's curiosity.

Leaning in to read it, she stumbled over the first few words again and again like a broken record as Anakitty's embarrassed response passed her by.

"T-That's a fucking brothel!" Judith shouted in shock and no small amount of anger, though even she couldn't even tell who she was angry at.

Loki, it was definitely Loki.

Her eyes shot up and met Anakitty's who gave her a long suffering, commiserating look that told Judith that she understood.

"Fuck! You're not going through with this are you!?" Judith spat out before she could control herself, turning her glare on her teammate; part of her aware that she wasn't really being fair to him.

"Probably don't have a choice." Elric hummed calmly eyes glued to the parchment, his honest statement cutting the wind from her sails. "If a Goddess wants to meet you in a brothel, then that's what happens, especially if you already have business."

She fell silent at that, her anger not quite disappearing, but at least abating with no outlet for her annoyance.

"Cheer up Red, it's not that big of a deal, hell you can come along if you want, I've got a plus one apparently." The man joked, his smile not waning in the slightest as he blatantly invited her to a brothel. She gave him the deadest look she could possibly manage, and he just fucking grinned. "Well, it would be pretty funny to bring my Goddess instead, but I don't think we'd get much business done."

Judith froze, the image of her Goddess getting thrown overhead into a bar table replaying in her mind as p-prostitutes were overlayed into the background. Her familia wouldn't recover from the reputation loss.

"I-I'll think about it…" She offered with a stutter; the things she did for her familia…

Elric laughed. "The Gods'll corrupt us all eventually, best to take it on the chin."

"I'd rather they didn't." Anakitty coughed, Ilya nodding alongside her with a rather spooked expression on her face. "Shall we get going then? The Dungeon's waiting."

Judith grinned, her spirits rallying at the thought of hitting the dungeon, of getting stronger.

"Fuck yeah."