Chapter 4: An Arduous Task
(This chapter was uploaded on Tuesday 25/June/2024 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)
('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the chapter's footnotes.
"..." small moment of silence.
"Talking"
[Different Language Dialogue] (What language it is: Accent if necessary)
"He-" Someone was interrupted.
'Inner Dialogue'
{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}
(PoV)
(Flashback, including the text)
Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.
(Line Break)
(Day 6, noon)
(Henryk's PoV)
'And here we are, at the dungeon's entrance again. Good thing Fey's flight shortens the time required to reach our destination'
I got the chills, the chills of thrill, from my first ride with her on our way down. She was fast.
If I were to put her speed into perspective, Fey's speed broke many vehicle speed limit laws across the globe. And hear(read) this, that's with me on her back while she was still a level 4, slowing her down somewhat.
The end result? I was feeling the air trying to pry my skin off my face as we descended to the 22nd floor.
'I wanted our encounter to seem more natural as I naturally came here with Bell a few months later, but I need to meet them now. I need their help to make Fey a level 6 monster'
I was, of course, thinking of the xenos hidden village on the aforementioned floor. If I can make use of something, I will.
'I hope Fey's presence sways them to accept us'
Forming a relationship with them this early might feel unnatural on their end, but I have a positive view of them due to the show.
'Adventuring with Bell, we might've met them months from now. But making deviations in the timeline's necessary to make things easier to deal with later down the line, hopefully' I reasoned with myself. The timeline got screwed already by me simply existing. It was a must to alter it some more so I don't try to rely on the wrong version of the future knowledge I have. Though, things will be relatively the same for a while.
We, after an hour of entering the dungeon, reached the 22nd floor and searched for an alcove. The hidden village was hidden behind one of the large crystals to the wall. Good thing the floors starting from the 10th became big rooms. That allowed Fey to zip her way through them using {Pétagma Velóna}.
"Fey, all you need to do is destroy the crystals on the wall" I told my dear daughter as I stood on my feet.
"Yes! Papa!" Fey... She headbutted the first one. Don't get me wrong. She did break it, though not completely, albeit harming herself. But that's bad practice.
"My daughter, hit them with your beak, not your head" I told her in fear of her getting a concussion. Also, {Summus Impulsum} would definitely be of help against crystalline material, since her beak deals blunt damage.
"Roger that!" Fey complied while saying something she shouldn't know the meaning of.
'Whoa there. Where did she learn that... I guess I do know why. She probably remembers all that embarrassing cosplay both Norman and I did. She lived her everyday with me, observing my life. Of course, she'd know some things and references that no other gets here' I thought, facepalming. While reflecting on this moment later in my life, I remembered that I was smiling.
*C̷̷̸̷̸̜͚̳̼̻̑̑̕͝͝Ṟ̴̷̵̴̶͓̘̯͚̃̏̽̽̚A̸̶̸̵̶͍̖̱̖̗͊̅̇͗̋Ṡ̶̶̴̷̵̨̟͖͇̝̏̋̈́̂H̷̶̸̵̷̛͎̥͈̄͑͌́͜ͅ!*
I was knocked out of my thoughts when the thundering crash was followed by crystal dust flying everywhere. I quickly ran away to avoid crystals lacerating my lungs and eyes.
"PIIIEEE!!" I heard Fey's pained peals. It pained my heart as if I was the one hurt.
"Come here!" I urged her as I was taking a magic stone out.
"PAPA!" Fey cried tears of blood as the crystal dust already injured her eyes. She blindly slammed into me, knocking me on my back violently. Though that happened, I succeeded in throwing the magic stone into her open beak before she closed it.
(Line Break)
"So, this human man is your father?" A voice asked someone.
'Where am I?'
I started stirring awake because of the bobbing back and forth movement.
"Papa's Fey's papa" I heard Fey's sad voice.
'The owner of that voice was speaking to Fey?'
When I opened my eyes, I noticed Fey's feathers.
"Fey's feathers... Heaven..." I blacked out again.
When I came to next, I started stirring while hearing the voices of many animals.
I gasped hard as I hurriedly opened my eyes and righted myself to have a look around. I deluded myself for a second there that we were back in the forest.
"Calm down, man! Nobody's gonna hurt ya!" I saw a red lizardman 'smiling' at me, with all his sharp teeth shown.
"So, it was the xenos hidden village, not my home forest, huh?" I said as I leant back onto what I assumed to be Fey's side.
"Henryk Williams. Nice to meet you, xenos of the 22nd floor" I said as I closed my eyes. I felt my internal situation using miniscule movements of my muscles. There was no pain. I picked myself off the ground.
"Lyd. Nice meetin' ya', Hen-chi!" Lyd welcomed me to their village.
"..." I stared at his stretched hand. He was clearly trying to be friendly. But did he forget? Humans're fragile. "Lyd, my hand'll break if you squeeze it" I pointed out as I shook hands with him.
"My bad... ha... h-haha..." He said while sheepishly scratching his scaly head.
I looked down at him as he was barely any taller than Bell.
"If I could ask, what led to me being allowed entry?" I asked Lyd.
"Well, where do I start..." He scratched his chin, or where should be his chin. "When we first heard the crash, we thought that the 'Hidden' in 'Hidden Village' was gone" That made me chuckle a bit, with him smiling. It was a joke that both of us appreciated. "We waited patiently with our weapons drawn. And when no one showed up, we grew uneasy" Lyd started telling me the story.
The summary of what happened boils down to them checking what caused the crash, something they would need to strike seriously to make happen. When they reached the end of their village's entrance, they saw Fey 'bowling her eyes out' over me. Fear, a harpy, was consoling Fey as Ray held Gros back so he wouldn't attack me.
When they finally calmed Fey down, they eased her into answering them. As luck would have it, Fey asked them if they were the monster people we were supposed to meet. They looked amongst themselves then back at her. They nodded.
They invited Fey inside, with her insisting on giving me a piggyback inside. She let no one touch me or get too close. And when Gros got the chance to mock me for being human, Fey gigantified and flew at him, tackling him into a wall, stuck to his body all the way there. The resulting impacts were amplified by {Summus Impulsum}, digging him into the wall and embedding him there, his consciousness fading in and out.
The funny tidbit was when Lyd described the bunny xenos point of view. It was as if a nightmare descended on the village. Fey kept eying them as prey until she put her head down to nap as I was out and leaning on her.
During the telling of the story, I was informed of the names of some important characters, not that I didn't know them already. They were Lyd himself, Ray, Fear, Gros, Four, old man Gryuu and some others, including the best xenos after Asterius in my opinion, Aude the war shadow.
"Everyone! Our new friend woke up!" Lyd stood up and shouted.
'When did I become friend? I literally just showed up and was awake for less than an hour' I was flabbergasted at the sheer openheartedness of this lizardman. This very nature might be what allowed Bell to become friends with them later in the story.
I was swarmed by warmhearted xenos who knew not fear but the warmth of a new face.
It felt stuffy to be hugged by all these fearless xenos. But in all honesty, the fluffiness of some of them made it tolerable. Well, except for Gros's thousand-mile stare. I ignored it, as if telling him that both he and his stare weren't even there.
"So, what brought you to our village? And did Ganesha tell you of its location?" Lyd sat down to talk to me. By now, the welcoming hugs and well-fare wishes from the xenos calmed down and came to an end. Only those interested in why I came here remained, which was most of them.
"I came here to have Fey fight one or two of you. She's as strong as a level 5 adventurer with maxed parameters. It's important for us, as we need the boost in strength my skill will grant her if she succeeded in achieving something in that fight" I explained to them without directly stating that what powers her up is falna.
"Then, as token of our newfound friendship, let me fight her myself. I'll be careful not to hurt her" Lyd said while patting the handles of his blades.
"Hurt who?... Fuaahh!" Fey woke up and yawned. I patted her head, much to her pleasure.
"We were tal-" I was interrupted.
"PAPA! FEY'S SORRY! FEY'S TRULY SORRY!" Fey shrunk down and jumped at my chest. She kept rubbing her face over me repeatedly while apologizing profusely.
"Shush, dear. Your papa isn't hurt. There's nothing to worry about" I comforted her while assuring her of my wellbeing.
"FEY'S SORRY! PAPA!" She kept apologizing for some time after that with me constantly giving her words of comfort. Occasionally, I'd say that I love her. I avoided pairing it with 'still'. If that word was added, it opened her mind to the possibility that I could gradually, but surely, come to not like her anymore. I didn't want that.
"As I was saying, we were talking about Lyd here fighting you. That might just push you that extra step" I said as I hugged her neck, which she leaned into.
Fey gigantified and stood up with me clinging to her, causing me to get disoriented a bit from the sudden change in posture.
After I helped her wipe away the remnants of her tears, Fey was led to an open space in the hidden village. She was to duel Lyd there.
"What species is Fey?" I heard a voice from behind me, a voice that shouldn't exist as there was not a soul behind me a moment ago.
I reacted on instinct alone and turned with the back of my left hand sailing towards the source of the voice. I forcefully stopped my hand when I saw a glimpse of feathers gathered in a high ponytail.
"Haah" I sighed while retracting my hand away from a nonchalant Ray. "Someone'll get hurt next time you appear out of thin air, and it's probably me that's gonna get hurt"
"I will keep that in mind" She tittered with a wing covering her mouth.
"Fey's an eagle, just a plain ol' eagle. The skill that allowed her to get stronger with magic stones turned her into a xenos" I gave my late answer as I turned to see what blurry mess their fight became. I was surprised to be able to barely trace Lyd's blades. Fey? She was nowhere to be seen. It seems that she wasn't going full speed while carrying me on her back.
'How considerate of her, that cute little girl'
"She was an animal... then turned into a monster that happened to also be a xenos? Are you an incarnation of the dungeon's will or something?" Ray asked. She didn't know anything about my skills, thinking they were a single skill.
"From which random corner did that come from? I'm a pureblood human, for all I know" Well, I am a pureblood human, as there was no other race in my world my parents could be from.
Fey was momentarily seen when she stopped to turn back every time she dashed at Lyd. She was employing a hit and run tactic. She'd use {Pétagma Velóna} to accelerate towards him as fast as she could, blurring off my vision, then appearing with her balled-up talons getting parried by Lyd's blades. After she bounces off of Lyd's blades, Fey then goes to a high point of the room and turns around to repeat it all again.
"Henryk, your appearance here, today, brought us a ray of hope. With you around, we know that some people from the surface do not hate us just because we look like the monsters they knew. Thank you" Ray said as we were looking at Lyd trying to breath fire at Fey, only for him to get his mouth shut forcefully, virtue of an eagle's punch.
"Think nothing of it. I have an eagle for a daughter. Little to no difference is made when befriending intelligent monsters like you" I shrugged my shoulders a little.
"Again, thank you. And be careful around Gros. He does not like surface dwellers like you at all. If he hears you describing us as monsters under any capacity, he would fly into a blind rage" Ray said with a slightly wider smile.
"He doesn't look like someone who'd fly into a blind rage easily, though?" I refuted it. I knew little of him, but I knew that he was capable of controlling his emotions well. He was able to make choices even when Dubious Hermes made them go on a supposedly mindless rampage.
"I do not know why, but you were taking steps away from me moments ago. Are you scared of women with humanoid shapes?" Ray asked as she took a step closer to tease me over it.
'Okay. That was just plain wrong'
"I'm not scared of women. I'm just used to living alone, isolated from other people regardless of their race. And although I'm into women, I just don't want to be needlessly close to them, especially physically" I looked her directly in the eyes and grunted. It made her giggle some more before we heard a metallic cracking sound.
All of us looked at Lyd. If one focused closely at his forearms, they were shaking ever so slightly from the impacts delivered by Fey. His blades also started cracking, as Fey's strikes seem to have landed on the same spot coincidentally.
'Fey, try grabbing his arm and throwing him to the ground' I told her to switch tactics.
Fey, my innovative little angel, added her touch to the thing I told her to do. Instead of just tossing Lyd to the side, she held onto him as she ascended to the highest point of the room.
"PIIEE!!" She then sped towards the ground and rotated her body so Lyd hits the ground first, discharging all of their momentum into the ground. Fey used {Pétagma Velóna}'s high speed augmentation to change directions before she herself hit the ground, which ended in failure as a subtle thud resonated around the room. Fey wasn't hurt, to my relief.
'That... is scary... How does she go from innocent to brutal like that? And what of the idea of using her skill that way? I don't remember discussing her skills with her... Did she do that... all of that, purely out of instinct?'
"That is an impressive display of skill!" Ray praised Fey's performance. Noticing how close she was standing; I moved a few steps away discreetly.
"Ugh!" Lyd grunted loudly as he dug himself out of the ground. "My bones felt those hits!" He sat down, visibly tired. I walked up to him and offered him my hand. He took it and I pulled him up, an arduous task due to my low level and his heavy body.
Now, normally, some other xenos would go help Lyd up. But since they saw me go to help him up, they looked at me walking there as a sign of treating them like people with no discrimination. They were right. If I discriminated against them, I wouldn't have come to their village to begin with, not without an army of level 5 monsters to wipe them out. Then Fey comes into the picture. I wouldn't discriminate against my own daughter, would I?
'He's heavier than he has any right to be, I'll give 'em that'
"Let's celebrate!" Lyd announced. He was happy about something.
"OOHH!!" Many shouted their agreement.
"BOUUGH!" Especially Four. He was very vocal about it for some reason.
"Tsk" Gros just up and went off into whatever oblivion hell he originally crawled out of.
I asked them about the time and they told me that it was late at night now.
'That's bad. My lady would be freaking out right about now. I didn't tell them that I'll be in the dungeon this late'
"Let's meet again, Hen-chi!" Lyd waved his hand.
"I hope we will, Lyd, all of you. And don't call me by that nickname when we do" I said my urgent goodbyes and hopped onto Fey's back. She took me out of the dungeon in less than an hour this time, as I told her to go as fast as she could. Of course, I was stuck deep into her feathers to avoid getting thrown off her back.
"AND TELL FELS NOT TO RAT ME OUT TO OURANOS!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I hoped Fels was hiding themself in some shadow around the cave and listening in on us.
(Line Break)
(3rd person PoV)
"DO you know how dangerous it was? Staying in the dungeon for prolonged periods of time as a newcomer is very dangerous, Henryk!" Hestia was venting the burning feeling that has been in her chest for the better part of the last few hours. Her worry over Henryk's wellbeing made itself apparent when she checked him first then berated him for being late without notice.
She updated his falna and came out running for his blood after he ran away from her piercing gaze. Henryk pacified her by promising not to do it again, or at least sending a message her way if he could not come himself to tell her. She reluctantly allowed Bell to take her to her bed in the basement, muttering something all the way down. ('1)
Bell came out of the basement and sat beside Henryk awkwardly. He fidgeted a little before his little heart found the courage to ask an important question.
"Henryk, why are you not coming to the dungeon with me? Have I made you upset?" Bell was on the verge of tears.
"Not that, and don't assume that you made a mistake immediately" Henryk said, lightly tapping Bell's shoulder with his large hand.
"Then, why?" Bell demanded an answer.
"Ra... me... t..." To his luck, his natural predator was sleeping, as it was her bedtime now.
"I needed something to be done and attended to it. Both Fey and I will be going out of the city tomorrow to finish some business for over a week or two. We may be able to go to the dungeon together after our return" Henryk told Bell as he looked at the peacefully sleeping Fey.
"Promise?" Bell asked while wiping away his unshed tears.
'A hurt bunny' Henryk knew of one person who might kill to have this bunny for herself if she saw this sight.
"Not happening. We can't make a promise about an inevitable thing" Henryk said. He was fine going to the dungeon with the little boy, if only at the start. He knew that he would fall behind quickly without a growth-type skill. And if he relied on tamed monsters, he would go full-throttle and tame many of them to strengthen them. That would take all his time, and in the meantime, Bell increases his level with astronomical speed.
"Um" Bell nodded his head, unsure of what to expect. He went to bed and had a dream that night, one where he was walking onto an adventure with a giant walking by his side and a few others.
(End of Chapter)
'1:
Yes, she saw his actions from when she first gave him his falna some days ago until now. She now knows how many 'reckless' things he did without supervision.
Him going to the 22nd floor and the xenos' existence? She now knows about both. It's just that her mind wiped out all thoughts to chase a fleeing Henryk up the stairs. Oh, don't you worry. She will remember it later.
(Line Break)
Name: Henryk Williams
Familia: Hestia Familia
Level: 1
STR: I0 --> I71 --> F301
END: I0 --> I84 --> F314
DEX: I0 --> I68 --> G298
AGI: I0 --> I12 --> G242
MAG: I0 --> G230
(I will explain this 'unreasonable' increase of stats as the story progresses. Trust me)
Magic: None.
Skills:
Doúlos Typhon (Typhon's Slave)
Pseudo Benedictio (Pseudo Blessing)
(Line Break)
Name: Fey Williams
Familia: Henryk's Familia
Species: Harpy Eagle
Variant: N/A
Level: 5 --> 6
STR: S999 --> I0
END: S999 --> I0
DEX: S999 --> I0
AGI: S999 --> I0
MAG: S999 --> I0
Flight H
Silent Raptor H
Abnormal Resistance H
Intimidation I
Acceleration I
Magic:
None.
Skills:
Xenos
Megálo Anástima (Sizable Stature)
Deliniens Plumas (Soothing Plumage)
Syngeneís Pnévma (Kindred Spirit)
Pétagma Velóna (Flying Needle)
Syntriví Δαγκάνα (Crushing Claw)
Summus Impulsum (High Impact)
Expeditus Oculos (Unhindered Eyes):
Eyesite is never hindered by anything that is even slightly see-through.
(Line Break)
Wow! I did not think I would be this motivated! Not after what was happening IRL for some time now!
But away from real life, this chapter was for the sole purpose to make Fey see through the dark. Yes, I made this chapter just to make our sweet paralysis demon have more utility by giving her night vision. The dark? It is see-through. It is not a solid material with a non-crystal molecular structure. Coupled with the natural lights of dungeon, weak as they are, Fey would be able to see as if it was daylight.
A 'quick' question for the deep thinkers. What happens when a dream no longer needs its dreamer?
Have a nice time, ladies and gentlemen.