9

Chapter 9

Stamina potions were definitely in my top three healing items to get addicted to in an isekai world, right up there with fucking senzu beans. They were, frankly, absolutely ridiculous and I kept on discovering new side effects for the potions I was already planning on taking daily for the rest of new life. Namely those side effects were me discovering that I didn't need to eat anymore -something that I honestly hadn't even thought about until Hestia sat me down for dinner- and that my stamina was entirely beyond the pale.

I've been beating the shit out of slabs of metal for the last two hours without faltering, and that was with me speeding up dramatically at times as I tried to balance as many things in the forge as I possibly could without leaving shit in the heat too long. That more than anything had made the experience actually pretty fun, but it should have come at the cost of tiring me out even with my Falna; instead I felt great actually, all the rush of exercise with none of the burn.

It's moments like this that I really start to feel like I'm in a game.

In my forging frenzy I'd even managed to get around to making a spare pair of swords and upgrading my weapons and armour, sacrificing a few ingots to oblivion in return for resizing the armour and sharpening the blades. They were still cheap steel by the standards of Danmachi, but in my hands they'd go a lot further than they otherwise could.

All in all, I'd absolutely blitzed the shit out of this opportunity and I was suddenly feeling a lot more confident about the seventh floor. Which kinda made the promise I made to Hestia that much more… awkward? Annoying? I tried not to think about that kind of thing lest I let my feelings on the matter actually leak around a literal lie detector.

Hopefully Raul will be easier to convince than Autumn, and I can get back to making progress. Despite making smithing a bit more interesting, I want to be in the dungeon.

Killing things is just… chef's kiss.

Before I can ruminate further on that particular thought however, the door that was already hanging on by a thread made up of hopes and dreams exploded off its hinges, revealing Tsubaki who looked only moderately surprised.

"Whoops…" She grins unrepentantly, before she catches sight of what I'm doing. "It's been like an hour gaki, what are you doing?"

"Making knifes." I stare at her with a deadpan look, which she immediately ignores to circle around and check on what I was doing.

She gave me a look in turn before shaking her head. "Normally I'd shout at you for messing around in a forge, but whatever gaki." She turns a smiles on me that was full of teeth. "I've come to stea- accept your money."

"Sure."

"...You don't wanna take a bit to consider? Maybe beg for leniency?" She offers, a sly look on her face.

I give her a queer look of my own. "No, but you're clearly angling for something here."

"Well, kinda…" She laughed awkwardly, looking off to the side. "Your Goddess mentioned you might have a way to help out with a certain job, so if you're interested in waiving the cost…" She emphasised the statement, clearly implying that this was about more than just the cost of using the forge; likely something to do with Hestia's not-quite-debt to her friend.

As annoying as Hestia potentially selling me out was, I stopping myself from making assumptions, making the conscious decision to ask for more information first.

"I'll impress upon Hestia the need for information security later." I exhaled. "What did she sign me up for?"

"Garbage duty kid." Before I could ask, she clarified. "We've got a buncha scrap that needs melting, only the bits are too big yeah? Normally we'd do it the boring way but then your Goddess brought up your handy dandy little sword skill. If it works, then Hephy will consider things square and I'll drop the price."

That… wasn't bad, people finding out about my damage skill was basically par for the course if they ever saw me fighting. Telling nominal allies in order to leverage a better deal? Yeah, that wasn't too bad.

"And you want to cut this scrap with a sword?" At her enthusiastic nod, I blinked. "How did that even occur to… fuck it, I don't wanna know, let's do it."

-

"I doubt my swords are going to cut it for this." Tsubaki snorted at my words as I looked over the mountain of scrap piled up in the traditional warehouse. It seemed like there was everything from scrapped blades and armour here to even old building materials; large cross beams and supporting brackets made of a hazy blue metal for what must have been some pretty massive buildings.

Even my new swords were very much not rated to handle this, despite my skill.

"Got anything one-handed?" I followed up casually and she did, surprisingly offering up the katana strapped to her waist. I kind of expected her to be the type to cherish her weapons, to warn me to be careful with it at least. But nope, she passed off the weapon without a word, seemingly content to just watch me struggle with the weight of the blade, because holy shit was this thing heavy. It must've weighed in at least ten times the weight of my own blades, maybe more.

Swords generally are pretty light, designed as they are to take a normal man swinging them around for hours even as the law of moments works against them, but this thing was definitely not designed with normal men in mind. If it weren't for increased strength from the Falna's blessing, I doubted I could even hold it at full extension.

At the very least the blade didn't pull any magical Reid-esque bullshit, letting me draw the blue-grey steel in a motion that let the metal sing. Looking over the beautiful weeb blade, I couldn't but feel a little out of my depth. The thing was such a work of art that my blacksmithing skill didn't even know where to begin with it; everything about it was flawless, from its edge to its deeper construction and the almost hypnotic wave that ran along its edge.

"Good sword." I commented softly, turning it gently in the light of the torches.

"It's an amazing sword, not that a rookie like you would get it." Tsubaki corrected me, her smirk wide and proud as she started to exposit on the blade, unfortunately my mind was elsewhere.

Originally I'd been planning on making the most of my smithing skill, something that -in this world- would require me to pick up the blacksmith DA in place of something more combat focused. But developmental abilities take time and effort to level, something I'm in short supply of already, and the dirty secret of Skyrim smithing is that it doesn't actually provide a better base product. A daedric sword you made was identical to one you looted off an enemy's corpse.

No, the real meat and potatoes of Skyrim smithing was the sharpening and resizing mechanic, where -like I'd done with my weapons and armour earlier- I could sacrifice an ingot to increase the sharpness or defence of a weapon or armour. The exact mechanics behind it honestly allude me; I can't even recall what I did to the armour beyond the actual resizing of it, nor do I know where the ingots went. All I do know is that it definitely works, that my armour is much sturdier than it had been and my weapons that much sharper, all at the cost of a little bit more weight.

What all this meant was that I didn't need the blacksmithing DA myself, I could just take a blade from someone else and apply my bullshit on top of their own without a care in the world. DAs could take years to go up a single level and there's probably always going to be some other DA that I would benefit more from instead. Which brings me to this blade, this shining example of smithing wrought by the hand of a master and made of materials that I couldn't currently comprehend.

This… this is the kind of blade that I wouldn't mind buying for some obscene price.

"Oi gaki, you even listening?" Tsubaki's annoyed voice broke through my musings as she leaned in with an affronted expression.

I looked up and smiled. "Sorry, just thinking that you'll have a customer in me someday."

She snorted. "Come off it gaki, my babies cost tens of millions, minimum."

"I know." I stated simply. "I'll get there some day."

I expected her to snipe at me again, but instead her smirk became almost wistful. "A lowbie with dreams and an actual spine huh? Not bad; too many rookies nowadays seem content to wallow in lower ranks. Don't be like them."

"Wouldn't dream of it." She nodded contentedly at my words, waving her hand at a nearby I-beam propped up against a wall.

"Come on then, let's see this skill in action, your Goddess talked up a storm about it."

"Did she now…" I muttered, but approached the beam even as the thought of giving Hestia a noogie crossed my mind. Shaking the thought, I glanced back at the evaluating Hepheastus captain and gave her a wane smile.

"No judgements for this alright? The skill only works if I'm one-handing it." I said, covering my ass from the conventional wisdom that anyone not two-handing a sword in this situation is a dumbass.

I brought the sword low and to my left, tensing my entire body for a wide faux-draw slash. In an instant the blade cut a brilliant path through the air and tore into the metal with a vengeance, only starting to slow halfway in, before crawling to a complete stop three quarters of the way through.

I strained my arm as hard I could but it was like I was trying to cut... well, steel. The weight of the upper half seemed to be pressing on the flat sides; the more I had cut, the less structure there was to support the weight and thus the more stuck my blade became.

"I don't think I can manage most of thes-" My words cut off as an absolutely titanic force suddenly jerked the blade out of my grip and sent it careering across the room, the beam utterly bisected by its passage. I blinked down at where Tsubaki's sandal was now occupying the space where the blade was.

"You're picking that up." I say with a challenging grin, clenching and unclenching my suddenly sore hand.

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah uh." We stared each other down for a long second before she cracked up, her bark of a laugh drawing a chuckle out of me.

She didn't bend over for it like I was secretly hoping, instead flicking the blade up with her sandal and looking it over with a thoughtful expression. "Your skill… is pretty ridiculous gaki." She breathed, looking up at me with dangerously interested eyes. "If I had to guess, it improves sharpness by almost double?"

I simply smiled politely at that, not offering a comment, to which she rolled her eyes.

"Problem is your strength; this shit is everything that would normally ruin our blades, it's not your average steel." Her thoughtful expression changed into something far more devious as she suddenly squatted down in front of me, gesturing at her back with a chesire smile. "What are you waiting for gaki, get on!"

"You want me to… piggy-back you?" I had to hold myself back from saying ride there.

"Well yeah, you just need to hold the sword right? So just get my back and put those long ass arms to use!" I didn't even know if it would apply with someone else's hands on the blade, but honestly I had bigger concerns with this plan than just the logistics of my skill.

"I'm not doing that." I declared with conviction.

"What? Why not?" She pouted.

"Woman, I just can't." I had my pride as a man thank you very much.

"Men." She scoffed lightly, looking more amused than anything else. "You got any bright ideas then?"

Well, she clearly doesn't mind me getting close. I gestured for her to stay still as I circled around her and gingerly wrapped my arm around her to hold onto the blade.

"Hoh?" The woman drawls as her lone red eye follows my arm back up to look into my eyes, her body leaning into mine. "Pretty bold gaki." She smiles. "Well, let's see if you can hold on."

I masked my growing sense of unease with boldness, giving her a challenging smile as I wrapped an arm around her toned midriff, readying myself to use all my strength to hold on.

-

"Y'know, that was pretty romantic…" Tsubaki drawls, giving me a fanged smile as we made our way back to her Goddess' office, a sack filled with my weapons jangling over my shoulder as we walked.

"You threw me across a warehouse." I remind her with a shake of my head and a half smile; I could still feel the shape of the bracket I landed on, which probably meant my good chunk of my back was bruised. Still, I couldn't deny I'd had fun, some of the shit Tsubaki started pulling off as I held on for dear life was… something else, and that was her holding back.

"Heheh~" She scratched her cheek and looked away innocently. "Got a little carried away there, your skill is something else." That part was definitely true, it only took her one slice to work out that she could cut through the scrap like it was made of butter, and after that it turned into a veritable slaughter of flying bits of metal.

I'd held on for dear life, but Tsubaki had seemed to be intentionally testing my limits, gradually speeding up until everything was a blur and my grip finally failed me. Still, if the way she was looking at me was any indication, I'd at least impressed her in the process.

"I got lucky there." I lied.

"You've got no idea gaki." She smirked as we arrived at Hephaestus' office, by this point I already suspected that knocking wouldn't be involved when it came to Tsubaki and doors. What I wasn't expecting was the sight that greeted us as the doors blew open.

Namely Hestia's ass and Hephaestus' embarrassed and now startled expression.

Oh god she's doing the fucking dogeza thing again, I groaned, reaching up to massage the bridge of my nose.

"Huh, didn't know you liked that kind of thing boss." Tsubaki stated, glancing back at me as a smirk grew across her face. "We can leave if yo-"

"No." Hephaestus cut her captain off sternly, her eye seeking me out. "Your Goddess is begging me to make a weapon for you."

I nodded, having expected as much. In the first season of the show Hestia does this exact same thing for Bell out of guilt for not being able to offer him much for being part of her familia; if I had to guess, the opportunity and her worry over my dungeon activities convinced her to do the same thing here.

"I'd appreciate it if you would decline." I make my opinion known, finally startling Hestia out of the stupid pose to look at me in shock.

"E-Elric! We need thi-"

"Hestia." I cut her off, meeting her gaze. "I appreciate the thought -I do- but don't put our familia in debt for the sake of something we don't need. You're the Goddess of our familia, don't throw away your pride so easily." I remind her sternly, watching carefully as she looks away.

"I'm not, I'm just…" She trailed off, her voice small and insecure.

"My Goddess." I lay it on a little thick. "Have some more respect for yourself and faith in me, yeah?" Her eyes tear up and before I know it a twin-tailed Goddess is slamming into my midriff.

I sighed, gently dropping a hand onto her head. "How long's she been like this?"

"An hour." Hephaestus let out a noise that could have been a laugh if she wasn't trying to look stern, unfortunately for her, the warm gaze she was looking at her friend with gave her away.

"Sorry about that."

The smithing Goddess waved it away. "Just glad to see you have a handle on her."

Hestia's head popped up to glare at her friend, but ultimately didn't say anything as she let herself be tucked back into my embrace.

"If I had a handle on her, she wouldn't have told you about my skills." I state, giving a suddenly guilty-looking Hestia a look.

"Ehe~" Hestia squeaks.

"If it makes you feel better, I told her off for it." Hephaestus offers, and it did, both for having another familia look out for us, and because it said good things about my Goddess' friendship.

"Thank you." I said genuinely.

"You're welcome." She huffed, her eyes darting around the room before landing on Tsubaki. She cleared her throat. "How did things go?"

"We cleared the whole place, gaki's skill worked as advertised." The tanned captain announced, her eye fixed on the Goddess wrapped around my waist, before flicking up to meet my gaze. "He needs a bit more strength before he can do it alone though."

"Implying you have more work?" I asked.

"We've got a few more warehouses that need clearing and a constant influx of scrap… we can negotiate a fair price later." She smirked dangerously.

Hestia squirmed against me, twisting around to look up at the captain as Hephaestus coughed. "We can talk about that the next time you're here." The smith Goddess said, her gaze turning to me. "Hestia mentioned that you have an upcoming meeting with Loki?"

I blinked at the non-sequitur as Hestia's arms tightened around me. I hummed in agreement. "She thought it would be funny to meet at a brothel."

Hephaestus sighed, glancing off to the side awkwardly as her captain laughed. "Loki… she's a pain in the ass and tricky to deal with to boot, you know what you're getting yourself in for kid?" The Goddesss warned.

"I've got a decent idea of the trickster Goddess." I spoke, but my uncertainly probably leaked through a little.

Loki appeared fairly irregularly in the show despite how much screen time her children had, and a lot of her appearances were just that awkward brand of Japanese comedy where a character tries to molest girls. The relevant part of her appearances however were her meetings with her executives; there another side of Loki could be seen, cunning, intelligent and deeply interested in what she felt was best for her idea of Orario and her familia.

Active manipulators were always the most annoying to deal with, especially when they have a strength advantage and you have little leverage. The worst part however is that I don't know her full character; there was a spinoff of Danmachi called Sword Oratoria that I never watched because it was apparently dogshit. The important thing however was that it focused on the Loki familia, which means it more than certainly went into Loki's character, so I was -at most- looking at half the picture.

Loki in mythology was often depicted as evil, or at least fae-like in the 'tricking you' sense; the Loki here didn't have any scenes that indicted that kind of aspect to her, but again I was working with an incomplete picture, and that made me rather wary.

"That's about the right reaction to have." She nodded, looking bemused. "Hestia didn't go into detail about the whole thing, and I won't ask; just be careful kid, use whatever leverage you have and hold your ground yeah?" The words were a relief, both in that Hestia didn't spill all our secrets and that Hephaestus was willing to offer us advice against a nominal ally of hers.

"Thank you for the advice Hephaestus-sama." I offered respectfully, something she smiled and shook her head at.

"Just Hephaestus is fine kid." She smiles as I nod in acceptance. "Oh, and before you ask about what days you're free to rent, any day is fine, just…" Her eye wanders to Hestia.

"I'll bring Hestia." I say agreeably.

"Not what I…" Hephaestus trails off while she and Hestia seem to share a moment. "Fine kid… I'll look after your Goddess for you."

"Mou! I'm not that bad!" Hestia whined.

"Thank you." I spoke over my Goddess, giving her a headpat to soothe things over; I might have spoken about the need to maintain pride and dignity before, but this and that were quite different. Hestia above all else seemed lonely, and my dungeon crawling ways weren't helping. A friend would do her the world of good and from what I'd seen, Hephaestus was that friend.

I'd give as many pushes as I needed to if it meant things worked out between them.

Tsubaki suddenly clicked her fingers besides me. "I get it, you're playing dad!" She barked out a laugh, as both Goddesses whipped around to face her. "You're organising play dates and everything!"

"T-Tsubaki!" Hephaestus attempted to reprimand her, while my own Goddess' jaw just hung loose, seemingly unable to say anything.

"It's a full time job." I sighed dramatically in agreement, playing up the bit as my fellow captain's grin widened. I couldn't hide my own smile.

"Elric-kun!" Hestia whipped around and whined.

"Yes?" I smirked.

"Mou!" She huffed, blowing up her cheeks and slipping away from me, arms crossed and head turned aside.

Tsubaki chuckled as she saddled up besides me, not doing the whole child bit any favours as we probably looked like parents bemused by their pouting child. "Well, what are you going to do now gaki?"

I hummed, considering what to say as Hestia shuffled impatiently under the amused eye of Hephaestus. "Probably going to head back and sleep." I lied.

The smith Goddess' eye suddenly locked onto mine, but she didn't anything.

"Boring." Tsubaki snorted. "You should always end the day with some alcohol! Nothin' more romantic than sake under the moonlight."

I won't lie men, it took a lot of willpower not to call her a weeb right then and there.

Something must have come through on my face though, as she gave me sour look to cover her embarrassment. "Oi! Don't knock it til you try it gaki."

"I won't." I offer, suppressing my need to call other weebs weeb so I could be a little more genuine, if only for a moment. "And I'll take you up on that next time."

Tsubaki blinked, before letting out an amused exhale. "Sure gaki, next time." And with that, she turned and strutted away into the dimly lit compound.

"One of these days." Hephaestus began, looking at her captain's back. "She won't try so hard to act cool."

My non-committal hum drew the fiery Goddess' attention. "Don't go telling her I said that alright?" She asked half heartedly.

"You have my word, right Hestia?"

"Umu…" My Goddess let out pitifully, still not facing me.

"Right…" The red head said flatly, though her amusement was clear. "Take care you two, and look after her will you Elric-kun? The Heavens know she can't do it herself."

"H-Hey! Don't you start too Hephy!"

I just laugh and nod, getting ready to leave, my mind turning over what I said to Tsubaki; time to sleep murder.

-

War Shadows aren't a complicated monster, just one that requires stats to deal with. They're hard to see in the gloom of the tunnels, their speed, reach and lethality are a massive step up from the Goblins and Kobolds before them, but once you have that speed? Once your senses are so superhuman that the darkness no longer hides them?

They're painfully simple.

The pair sprinting towards me didn't even require any prep at this point, I just let them come at me, resting a hand on the hilt of one of my disrespectfully undrawn swords. It reached me faster than any human in my previous world could have managed and like the hundred or so before it, it leaped forward, claws extended.

It was over before it could even react, my draw slash whipping through its smokey body as I leaned aside. It didn't even get the luxury of collapsing before its stone was in my inventory and its body disappeared into motes of dark dust. The second tried to stop, it really did try, but I was already there, watching as its hate filled eye widened in bestial panic.

It couldn't even throw up its arms before my sword whipped back down and cut it straight down the middle, only deviating in the middle to avoid the magic stone as I mentally spammed my inventory to collect it.

Not for the first time that night I looked wistfully at the entrance to the seventh floor, the sheer stone staircase seeming almost seductive as it shone with the increased light levels of the floor it led to. I wanted to go, I wanted to face down hordes of ants with nothing but my swords by my side; I wanted to spam level my one-handed on the multitude of enemies, to embrace that dance of death again.

Not for the first time I regretted making that promise to Hestia.

I shook off the thought, turning to my last opponent, a particularly weary Frog Shooter. As I advanced, it retreated, bulbous eyes widening as I watched it apathetically.

Frog Shooters were an interesting creature, the first really to have a 'gimmick' namely their incredibly large and quick tongues. So instead of a humanoid that would just run at you and try to tear out your insides, it would make crude attempts at tactics; they would try and wait for you to slip up against the War Shadows before striking while your guard was down.

To me they felt almost like Dark Souls enemies. They had their tells in the way their bodies would shuffle and lean back just before shooting out its tongue, and if you had the timing right you could easily counter its strike, even if you're just watching it out of the corner of your vision.

But this one wasn't like that, it just kept desperately shuffling backwards until its back hit the wall, eyes wide and filled with an emotion I couldn't identify. Looking at it closely, I decided it would make a decent test subject.

The moment my blade was sheathed, its tongue spat out, apparently taking me as an idiot who would actually show sympathy for a bestial monster. I rolled my eyes as I leaned aside and drew one of my new knives from my inventory -specifically a longer parrying dagger- flashing the blade through the fleshy appendage before the glow of my inventory could even fade.

The creature roared in pain as I blinked down at my new knife, swishing it through the air to test the feeling. It was fast, fast in the say way I felt while dual wielding; like all the motions related to swinging the thing were sped up by some unknowable force. I swung again and this time the difference was apparent; it wasn't like dual wielding, it was faster.

I blinked as the answer came to me; in Skyrim weapons had attack speed values, with daggers being the fastest and everything else being varying levels of slow depending on the damage it did and the reach it had. Personally I preferred swords which I remember having an attack speed of one, as in base speed. Because it didn't have any effect I hadn't put any thought into it, but it seems that was a mistake.

Speed was something I had desperately needed while fighting the War Shadows originally; just being able to get your blade up between you and them was the difference between taking a wound and whittling them down. My stats had changed things since then; but that kind of desperate gap was exactly what I needed to level up those same stats as fast as possible.

So the real question was, does it stack? Passing the dagger over to my left hand I was already drawing my sword even as the goofy ass Dark Souls' frog rolled back around and tried to swing at me with a slow webbed hand. Reacting on instinct, I slashed out with the weapon most familiar to me, the sword blurring as it tore through the frog and left a bloody trail of destruction in its wake.

I blinked, looking down at the bloody sword sitting innocently in my hand, wondering how the fuck the speed buff worked on the wrong weapon, because that definitely wasn't the twenty percent I expected from dual wielding swords.

Naturally I did what all bug testers do when they encounter an anomalous situation; try shit out until you can figure out what's going on. Dagger and sword, both seem to be about half again faster than normal, two daggers is the same, and two swords hasn't changed from earlier, the twenty percent speed increase of my expectations feeling slow in comparison to the shit I could now pull off with a dagger and sword.

"It's a bug…" I laughed to myself deep in the darkness of the dungeon, a deep joyous laughter as I revelled in the electric feeling of the speed bug, the blades waggling in my hands as I longed to rip them through something. "Todd Howard… you stupid, beautiful man."

I had found my first working as intended feature and it was beautiful; it really does just work.

The feeling filled me a sense of confidence that had me craving danger, and there was only one place I knew of on this floor that could possibly challenge me. Autumn had warned the team about something called the pantry on this floor, pointing it out on her map as she explained that it was where monsters gathered from across the floor to eat.

She had warned us to stay well away from it, but that only made it sound even more fun.

It was the work of only a few minutes and a few more monsters corpses to reach it, my pace slowing as I looked over the towering room, dominated by a large quartz pillar that oozed out a substance into the basin around it. I couldn't hold in my bloodthirsty smile as I looked over the horde of monsters lapping at pool like the animals they were, my blood pounding as excitement filled me.

Drawing my sword and dagger only made things so much better as my veins sang like lightning.

-

The Dungeon, Sixth Floor

Jeroth Harlow

"DO IT NOW LASS!" Jeroth bellowed, pushing back against the group of War Shadows, his immense shield locking ranks with his partner, Merian's as the last words of his mage's chant reached his ears. Readying himself for what he knew was to come, he met the gaze of the stout woman he was bracing with and gave her a roguish grin.

The chunky woman rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide the blush crossing her square features, and by the Gods above did it make his blood race.

"-Tear! Erupt! Dance upon the skies and rend the air!" The heavy, mana laden voice of their normally shy mage, Lily picked up and Jeroth treated himself to watching his fellow dwarf's muscle ripple and tense in anticipation. "SKY BURST!"

The pressure wave slammed them like a Minotaur, pushing them back shields and all as his ear rang like a fucking bell. In his head he counted out the seconds it would take before the counter wave rushed back in and the air settled in the wake of his teammate's ruddy great magic.

Nodding at his partner, they grinned and broke ranks, collapsing upon the few survivors still staggering about, his great big axe chopping down upon them with all the force he could muster in his left arm. It was violent, dishonourable work to slaughter wounded beasts like this, even if they were abominations. But as ever he simply took solace in the fact that it was them and not him or his teammates on the ground.

"We're clear!" He called out for his team.

"WHAT?" Merian shouted, her deep voice was like music to his still ringing ears but he couldn't help but sigh; this happened every time their teammate used her magic.

"I SAID WE'RE CLEAR!" He bellowed back.

"THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT!"

"YOU'RE SHOUTING YA DAFT LASS!" He responded, no good dwarf would leave a silly comment like that on the table.

The hesitant hand of Lily touched his arm and he immediately turned to her in concern; the human was a lot of things, but touchy wasn't one of them. She was breathing hard, saying something with that quiet voice of hers that he couldn't hear over the ringing, still he could guess from the sweat dripping down the side of her face. She was out of mana and likely telling him they needed to retreat.

A good call, if an annoying one; they were here after the sun had set when no sane dwarf would enter the dungeon for debt money of all things. Debts that were soon to be called in, so they needed that money soon. But that wasn't the wee lass' fault, she had done her job and beyond.

Now they needed to do theirs.

"MERIAN, WE NEED TO GO!" He roared, startling the little human mage, but he had no idea if Merian's ears had recovered and they didn't have time to waste. His fellow dwarf glanced at Lily and then nodded pulling back with him and leaving a sizeable number of magic stones just on the floor. It was a shame, but without the safe guard of Lily's magic, they were sitting ducks in the already unusually active dungeon, especially when they didn't have the rest of their team to cover them.

They made their way back, cutting a quick path that took them uncomfortably near the pantry. But as ever, needs must.

It was as they were crossing one of the few crossroads in the area that they heard it; their recovered ears picking up the near silent, frantic footsteps and the swing of blades.

"If they're fighting near the pantry…" Merian muttered, her mind quick as a whip even as she ran alongside him.

"Aye." He grunted grimly. If an adventurer fights near the pantry, the chances of them drawing out a horde, getting overwhelmed and then letting a crazed stampede loose were not insignificant. "Blast whatever brat chose this night to die." He cursed.

They kept running, but sure enough, they could hear the near silent foot falls of War Shadows gaining on them, even if they could barely make them out through the gloom.

"We need to face them." His partner called, tone full of dwarven bravery and a resolve that made his heart swell.

They nodded as one and as she spun to face the oncoming horde, he scooped up their mage and tossed her down the tunnel out of reach, her shocked face the last thing he saw before turning back and throwing his weight in beside Merian.

"There'll be no going to hell for us…" He began, a wide grin splitting his beard.

"Because we're already in it." She finished, and by the Gods was her determined smile the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

They roared, as one shoving their massive shields into the oncoming wave, breaking the scrambling and desperate front line before moving into true dwarven combat; their shields bludgeoning and their axes tearing at their foes with endurance and strength that would make the very stone jealous.

If he could spend an eternity doing anything, it would be this, fighting by her side and holding the line with honour and bravery worthy of song. But like good things, they have to end all too soon. Blows started slipping through the cracks, scratches became gashes that impeded his movements and he became all too aware of the damage his partner was taking, her battles cries mixed with more and more exclamations of pain.

All the while their enemy seemed both countless and increasingly desperate moment by moment.

Behind him, he could make out the tell tale chant of his teammate, who instead of running like he'd hoped, had probably done something stupid like drained yet another mana potion.

"You silly lass…!" He smiled fondly even as his body roared in protest, somehow he found it in himself to shove back the horde once more and call out. "MERIAN!"

"AYE!" Her deep voice bellowed back and she fell back with him, the pair locking their shields once more, blocking off the small tunnel and bracing for the storm once more.

It was as they were holding back the desperate reaching claws of the shadowy abominations that he felt it; that tingle up your arse crack you get whenever shit is about to go from fucked to utterly fucked. And yet he was helpless to watch as a vile tongue shot out of the gloom and over their shields to slam into their poor mage, her cry of pain sounding like a death knell for them all as the War Shadows redoubled their efforts.

For once, Jeroth didn't what to do, he was tired, he was in enough pain to fell a Cyclops, and now as his gaze locked with woman of his dreams, all he wanted to do was take her away from this place, take her somewhere safe and build a life together in a humble stone hall.

The where didn't matter, only the who.

It was as he was reaching for her that he finally felt it, the scrambling had stopped. Merian looked at him in uncertainty, hand half reached out for his as they glanced at the wall of metal that had kept them safe. The moment of uncertainty seemed to drag on, until the sounds of combat suddenly cut through the silence. Jeroth listened in disbelief at his luck as the screams of countless War Shadows dying echoed through the air in all their cursed glory.

Gesturing for Merian to stay down, he leaned back, glancing over his shield just so -the way his forefathers had taught him- ever ready to duck back behind its stalwart protection. He glanced over and suddenly he understood, the desperation he'd felt from the accused horde wasn't desperation to kill, they were running away.

And when they couldn't run anymore in the face of dwarven steel, they had turned back around in desperation, switching from flight to fight like cornered animals. As he watched, he couldn't help but find it a poor choice as a pair of blades flashed in the gloom, limbs and heads flying as the blades tore a brilliant swathe through the darkness at speed he could barely comprehend.

It was a beyond beautiful sight, and a sure sign that a higher level adventurer had stumbled across the horde and decided to wipe them from the face of the dungeon.

"What is it?" Merian's voice tight and hopeful reached him, and he wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms in celebration.

"We got lucky lass…!" He exclaimed, unable to stop the laugh that bubbled up from his gut, it told a song of relief and jubilation. Even as the tension left his body and the full weight of his injuries settled, his smile couldn't be broken, especially not as partner smiled back at him; the same relief written across her broad, beautiful features, with perhaps a touch of something more.

A flicker of movement dragged his eyes away from the heart clenching sight, just in time to catch a lone War Shadow sprint out of the darkness, desperation and fear written across every expressive facet of its blasphemous form.

Jeroth tensed, ready to force his body into action, but there was no need; a human appeared behind it, his armoured form a blur of motion as he drove his steel through the abomination and ran it into the ground. Its death rattles rang out for only a split second before a long dagger flashed and its head was no longer on its shoulders.

Jeroth hadn't seen a higher level adventurer fight before, but he was sure as his asshole was tight that this was one of them. The man cut a downright heroic figure for a human and as their eyes met, Jeroth couldn't help but swallow.

"You alright?" The man asked softly, standing up and sheathing his blades.

"Aye, thanks to you." Jeroth responded in an equally soft tone as he finally, fully relaxed; this was one of the good ones. "I'm Jeroth Stonecliff of the Magni familia, can I ask our saviour's name?" He asked formally as he turned aside his shield in greeting, Merian following suite as she looked over the man curiously.

"Elric Carne, captain of the Hestia familia." Jeroth nodded in respect, a good name and a good title for a man like this. "You lot need help getting back to the surface?" His eyes went past them to their downed teammate, Jeroth glanced back and as he had expected, a Frog Shooter alone wasn't enough to take down a party member of his. Lily was already back on her feet, an empty potion in her hands as she looked up at their saviour with a shy blush.

Jeroth held back a snort at the sight -humans and their silly crushes- instead turning back to face Elric.

"Maybe back to the fifth floor if isn't too much trouble lad…" He asked gingerly, a good dwarf should make their own way through the world with only the strength of their bodies and souls to carry them. But Jeroth had more concerns than just himself, and by the look of his team it was obvious that this wasn't the moment for pride.

"It's not a problem." The man smiled a warrior's smile, it wasn't quite a dwarven smile, but Jeroth found himself respecting it none the less.