Chapter 9

{Loki POV}

I hear the sound of Cain's rhythmic breathing, this guy falls asleep like a rock. Also how can he be so forward, asking me to sleep with him. A realization comes across my mind, maybe he respects me too much because I'm his goddess so he wouldn't want to enter a relationship with me.

I was in thought about how to fix the issue when an idea popped up in my head, what if I take off my clothes and sleep next to him in my underwear, surely that will break the mold he has!

There was one small issue with that plan, I had to get out of this bed, the bed with Cain in it, and frankly I didn't want to leave behind his comforting aroma and rhythmic sound of his heartbeat.

But, eventually when I steeled my resolve I made an attempt to leave the bed, only for Cain's strong arms put me in an embrace locking me where I was laying, not that I hated my position though, it just meant my plan was going to be delayed for a day, while I instead enjoyed this moment.

{Cain POV}

I woke up with tons of energy, like yesterday Loki was breathing into my chest but this time she was being embraced by none other than myself. Must have done it in my sleep, I shrug as I get up. I look outside my window and realize that its about breakfast time, I got ready and left to the cafeteria.

Two days ago now, the day before I left, Loki had officially announced my arrival and some of my background to the entire familia, most had already seen my face because there was a well known rumour surrounding what I was doing, intruding on Riveria's and Lefiya's training sessions, luckily only the executives knew about the morning training with Ais, if they had known that their reactions might have been more aggressive.

Speaking of aggressive, Bete Loga had came back from his solo expedition three days ago, needless to say he wasn't the most kind person I've ever met, but it's to be expected with how he operates, he respects the strong and not much else. Luckily for me, the other executives and Loki were able to convince him of my potential, throughout the days turning hate in more of a begrudging respect, he was actually the last person other than Ais I sparred with before my first expedition.

Getting out of my thoughts by arriving at the cafeteria I see only Finn and Riveria of the executives present, I guess I'm a bit early perhaps, I walk up to them and sit down.

"What are y'all talking about?" I inject myself into the conversation. Finn sighs.

"Getting an expedition ready, its just about that time and Loki spent so much on her prospect." It felt like Finn wasn't too happy with the fact that Loki spent so much money on my equipment. Nonetheless he did not put any of the blame onto me, especially when he heard about how it was Loki who was the one to push Hephaestus to make one for me, not the other way around.

"An expedition! Do you think I could join? when are you leaving?" I asked enthusiastically, an expedition is a great way to level up, I should make use of this chance. Finn sighed again. Riviera stepped in to answer my questions

"For you to join, it might be difficult, you would have to make exceptional progress in the near future, since we plan on leaving in 3 and a half weeks, or after the next Goliath spawn" I nod understanding that it might be unrealistic to join on this expedition, but I believe it might still be possible. They continued their discussions on how they will go about the expedition, I sat around and finished up my food before returning to my room.

In front of my room I noticed a nervous Lefiya in front of my bedroom door, trying to work up the courage to knock. It was cute to see, you could almost see the internal debate she was having just based off her facial expressions, I approached my fellow student.

"Yo! Lefiya, what are you doing?" I ask, I surprise her and she looks over to me with an embarrassed face, realizing it was me her embarrassed face somehow gets even redder, I also see tears beginning to form at the edge of her eyes. Not much long after she runs into me throwing her arms around me.

"Lefiya, what's wrong?" I ask with more concern than the last time I asked her a question.

"I just had a bad dream that you didn't come back from your first outing as an adventurer, sorry for my overreaction." She stopped her hug and bowed apologetically.

"Its fine Lefiya, if that was all, I'll take my leave so I can get ready for the dungeon today." Despite Lefiya looking a bit sad she nodded meekly and went down the hallway in the direction of the cafeteria.

I enter my room and see Loki still asleep on the bed, deciding to play it safe I take the Nightcrawler set and Yin to the bathroom to get changed and ready. Soon after I leave for the dungeon.

Today was yet another slow day for Hestia I observed went up to order some food for the day.

"A Jagamarukun please Hestia" I bring hestia out of her deep thoughts with my order.

"Oh! Cain, I was hoping to see you again" She says as she starts on the sole Jagamarukun I ordered. I was curious and tilted my head to signify for her to continue.

"I won't be open for as long today since I have to hopefully get some recruiting done!" She says energetically, and hopefully.

"I wish you the best in your endeavor" I say wholeheartedly, Hestia continues working on the Jagamarukun with a small blush apparent on her cheeks. This nice moment was soon broken by a feminine voice coming from behind me.

"Excuse me! Please don't hold up the line!" This voice said, I moved to the right a bit to let them order while still being ready to receive my food.

"Thank you, sir!" The woman said as she approached the stall to order, this woman was wearing the Hosstes Of Fertility uniform, and as my eyes drifted to her head, she was easily identifiable as Syr Flova, Freya secret identity.

I stood there patiently waiting for my food as Syr ordered a couple Jagamarukuns asumably for the rest of the employees. Now that she was also waiting she to analyze the person that was in front of her. Though I feel that she set this whole thing up.

"Aren't you the guy who was with Loki and The Sword Princess a while ago?" Syr asked, part of me felt like I should just not respond, but against my better judgement I answered.

"Haaaaa, yes that was me, I was getting dragged along by Loki." I said with a sigh. My answer enables Syr to go on.

"Really?! Are the rumours true?! Which one do you like the most?!" Syr said energetically, I could see Hestia struggling to keep her rage in check as Syr edged closer and closer to me as she continued talking about my Familia members.

"I don't know what you mean, we were just going to Hephaestus for some equipment." My phrasing caught Hestia off guard whereas Syr seemed to deflate since the drama surrounding it seem to have went away.

I waited for my food in awkward silence as Hestia glared at me while Syr was spacing out. After what felt like an eternity I was able to receive my food for the day and went on my way to the dungeon, something about Hestia's look told me that I was not done with her yet.

After having escaped that the dungeon did not feel like a bad place to be. I continued my descent down to the middle floors like las time.

Unlike last time I had Yin to help me out in those close quarters situations, but it was still difficult to progress at a fast pace because of the fast respawns the monsters have.

I made my way back to the 15th floor way faster than last time thanks to Yin as well as my stats going up.

Then I steeled myself to face the 15th floor this floor has Minotaurs, Hellhounds, Ligerfang, Crystal Mantis', Dungeon Worms and other rare spawns.

I made my way through the floor encountering a couple of monsters along the way, I found out that I was able to defeat Minotaurs in a 2 on 1 fairly easily, same with Ligerfangs but adding a third proved to be too much for me to handle, I couldn't keep up with their coordination and would have to result to evasive maneuvers and try to pick one off from distance using magic.

  A real deadly would be  a couple of Minotaurs with Hellhounds but they don't seem willing to cooperate with one another, I've only seen Hellhounds cooperate with eachother and Cystal Mantis' on this floor.

I reached the 16th floor but I figured that I should leave, instead of going to Rivira I should go there in the near future, it would greatly increase my excelia gain, but I'm still not sure when in the canon I am.

I think that Bell will soon arrive in Orario, wasn't it something like 3 weeks after he joins the Hestia familia he runs into the Minotaur?

I continued pondering about it when  I saw the goddess I was pondering about holding up a sign in a desperate attempt to get adventurers to join.