Chapter 42.

Adrian held up his Sword and she dropped it onto the gemstone. He blinked in surprise as dozens of Swords were immediately unlocked...and the result was that the stats of his Filolials ended up skyrocketing. There were a lot of boosts to their stats, skills and other parameters.

"Thank you," he said, meaning it, she had just boosted the chances of their survival manifold...and given him a lot of incentive to create an army of Royal Filolials. He wondered if she had planned that.

She smiled and nodded and then started to transform into her Filolial form, clearly preparing to leave and normally he would be glad to leave it at that...but he could see now that his assumptions about her had been born out of fear, she was a hell of a lot more predictable than he had assumed and he needed a good rapport with her given that he would probably never be able to match her in combat.

"Fitoria," he asked, "Would you like to have dinner with us? I have an idea I'd like to propose and I'd like to thank you more concretely than just through words."

She hesitated but a look back at camp, where a massive pile of food was laid out, covered up but still fragrant, seemed to convince her to stay. Fitoria nodded, "Alright," she said and transformed back into her human form.

He smiled, reminded himself to treat her like an Isis who wanted lesser affection and not like a goddess out to destroy him, and said, "Is there something in particular that you'd like to eat?"

Her tilted head and contemplative look just reinforced his impression of her. She was surprisingly childlike in a lot of ways. And that could be used...he could only hope that she didn't kill him if she realized what he was doing but he had just realized that he needed to deal with her, he needed her to realize that he was a person who was trying not just something she had to deal with as a part of her duty and there was no way to do that without taking some risks. Hopefully, she was in a good mood after finding two successors.

Fitoria ate dinner with gusto. It was odd to realize that his decision to invite her to dinner might have been the best possible move he could have made.

She was sitting next to Isis and Trystan and was eagerly comparing different dishes. The dinner was simple but he had made a large variety of things to eat rather than a large amount of a single choice. Normally he would not bother with such a thing as it was inefficient. It took almost the same amount of time whether he cooked 1 kg of one type of food or 100kg of the same, but making different options took a lot more time. Thankfully, he had several types of prepared variants stored in his Sword and he had used a fair number of them. It was absurd and wonderful that storing food didn't harm it in anyway. It was just as delicious and tasty as if it had just been created.

His little tactic had worked well and Fitoria was clearly enjoying her meal. Adrian had to wonder if she had eaten cooked food recently. He knew that Filolials could eat uncooked meals of a very, very broad variety so she might have had just been eating things raw...if she needed to eat at all. After all, he didn't understand the nature of her immortality, it would be unwise of him to assume that she needed to eat.

Honestly, watching her eat her food messily, try to make sure that she got most if not all of her favourite dishes and slowly try out every dish before rapidly consuming it if she liked it before asking for seconds, made Adrian realize, yet again, that she wasn't just a Goddess who could kill him, she was a person. And just like any other person she was flawed and broken in more ways than one. In fact, her millennia-long lifespan had probably helped her stack up on flaws.

Still, all this went a long way to reassure him that getting to know her was a pretty decent move. Though there were some risks, it was good to see that he was successfully minimizing them...assuming that she didn't find his request to be problematic.

Dinner went on for a while with Trystan and Fitoria getting into an unacknowledged contest where they each tried to eat faster and faster. But eventually, it ended and Fitoria walked up to him as he was putting away the dishes and absorbing all the leftovers.

"What did you want to speak about?" she asked bluntly.

Adrian turned to her and then drew out a small cloth from his sword before saying, "You've got some stains here," he said handing her the cloth as he pointed at his chin.

She blinked but took the cloth and wiped her face properly. He waited until she was done and was looking at him expectantly before starting.

"I wanted your supervision while fighting a Wave that you normally deal with," he said, before clarifying at her confused expression, "You said that you deal with the waves away from civilization right? I'd like to have a...trial run you could say, where the only problem with not suppressing the wave is a few more monsters added to an area which can be either dealt with later or by you. What do you think?"

"Trial Run?" she mumbled, even more confused, "Why? You're strong enough to defeat these initial waves."

"It's nice to know that but it's not a matter of power," he admitted, "but I want to make sure that I have a good set of tactics in mind when I'm dealing with a Wave in a populated region. I'd rather make mistakes when I'm an area that is not populated. In exchange for this one time favour I'll take over that Hourglass, it'll be my duty to deal with it from now onwards if that's alright with you."

She tilted her head, "There is a Wave that will start in four days. You can fight it if you want." she said with a shrug, completely apathetic.

Adrian raised an eyebrow, wasn't she devoted to fighting the waves? Or was it simply that he was a Hero and his volunteering for this was a positive? He needed to know more about this girl. It was seriously unnerving that one of the few people in the world he could never surpass was so...odd and difficult to predict.

"I'd like that...assuming that you're willing to back us up if need be," he said, four days was a little earlier than he had anticipated, enough to get his party to level 50 sure, but not much more than that.

"Back you up?" she asked.

"Help us survive if we are overwhelmed," he clarified, "We'd probably be fine but I'd like some guarantee and your help is the best security we can get."

She snorted dismissively, "You're strong enough to defeat the wave you don't need my help." she said, waving her hand, "I'll take you to the Hourglass and help you Class Up your party but you won't need anything else."

He sighed, "You're probably right," he admitted, "but I'd like to have you around just in case, it'll only be for the first wave and you'll never have to deal with this hourglass' wave again. Please."

It grated on him to beg for her aid but if she agreed, for whatever reason, he would have guaranteed his survival and that of his party with no questions asked. Adrian had already fought the monsters around the Seaetto Region and found that even those which had emerged from the Wave to be weaker than those from the Dragon Territory. Frankly, he wasn't worried about any individual monster from the Wave, save for the Wave Boss. What he was worried about was the fact that they would be facing down a horde of monsters. He didn't know how well coordinated they were, what area they would be unleashed at or what sort of strength maxima he could expect.

Fitoria was terrifyingly strong and a horrifying enemy to have...but she was also the best possible backup. It was a pity that she looked annoyed at his request. Probably pissed off that he was making her attend despite the fact that he was going to deal with the wave.

She folded her arms and thought about it for a moment before nodding, "Fine," she said, "I'll take you to the Hourglass."

Adrian smiled, "Thank you very much," he said, "I appreciate this Fitoria."

She nodded and then closed her eyes, everyone around them, who had been listening to our conversation even as they packed up the camp had to cover their eyes as a glowing carriage just appeared in the middle of the clearing.

It was a beautiful blue carriage. The interior looked exquisitely designed and it looked like it was made for Royalty. Fitting that it belonged to the Queen of All Filolials but more than incredible design it was the gemstone embedded in it that drew his eye. The blue coloured gemstone had the same look under Mana sight that gem in Adrian sword did.

She could have a weapon just like he did. That had some very interesting implications...he would have to see if he could get Isis or Trystan a weapon of their own.

"Let's go," she said, pointing at her Carriage, "It won't take us long to get to the Hourglass."

"Cool!" said Trystan, sounding incredibly excited, "Can I pull it? Please!"

"No," said Fitoria sharply, "It's my carriage,"

Adrian stared at the girl who actually looked annoyed for the first time and decided that he may as well ask, "Is that Carriage like my Sword? As in only one person can use it?"

It would explain why she didn't bother with a weapon and why she was so ridiculously strong. He hadn't expected that he would get an opening to ask her what it was so soon. He'd have to thank Trystan later.

Adrian half expected her to lie or deflect but she just nodded and then guided them into the comfortable carriage. To his surprise, she sat with them and simply said, "Portal," before telling them to walk out but Adrian didn't need to walk out to notice that they were already near the Hourglass nor that they were nowhere near the forest they had been in. Blindsight and the Map Sword confirmed his suspicions. He was thousands of kilometres away from Melromarc. It was both relieving and terrifying. He needed to get the Portal Sword.

The area they had shown up in was a massive plateau surrounded by mountains on all sides. The ruins that populated the Plateau were massive and surprisingly intact but what struck him most was the sheer number of monsters in the area. There were hundreds but other than that the river, natural defences and excellent soil marked this area as a truly excellent place to live. Adrian wondered why this place had been abandoned but shrugged it off. There were simply too many possibilities, though a war was the most likely option.

Adrian used a Thousand Sword Skill to clear out the ruins, and they moved towards the large central structure, probably a temple or a palace that housed the Hourglass. Raphtalia, Rifana and the Filolials were looking around like a bunch of tourists but once they arrived at the Hourglass they went silent.

"Time to get you all Classed Up," he said, feeling a thrill of satisfaction. He no longer had to worry about Cal Mira, at least not for the moment, and probably not ever.

This had been a surprisingly good day despite the horrible start. He watched on with a smile as his party Classed Up, ignored the bright light from the Hourglass, and felt immense satisfaction as they had their stats doubled in an instant.