Burial

After hours of journey after Kazuya and the others rested in Rivira, they finally exited the dungeon. And without resting, the group headed towards the Astraea Familia base.

There Kazuya met for the first time, Astraea. Alise as the captain explained what happened at the dungeon from start to end. After the explanation, Astraea turned towards Kazuya who was silent at the side.

His armor still has some blood that has already dried. But he cleaned his face at least so his face was clear of blood. They were in a hurry so they just focus on resting at Rivira and he has no time to clean his armor.

"I'm grateful for saving them. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what would've happened to them" She said in her clear and melodious voice.

Kazuya bowed his head a bit as respect before he replied, "Your welcome Astraea-sama, I was passing by coincidentally and heard the sounds of battle. So I checked it out and the rest is history" He said honestly as that's truly what happened.

Astraea nodded as she didn't detect any lies from what Kazuya said. "I understand, but can you please follow me first to give them a proper burial? You have their corpses right?" she said.

"Yes, Astraea-sama" Kazuya answered and he along with the whole Astraea Familia, went to the adventurer's graveyard in the south-eastern part of Orario.

Kazuya helped them dig some holes and put in the corpses of the deceased Astraea Familia members, one by one. The remaining members of the familia, like Alise, Kaguya, Ryuu, and others cried too.

Only five of them survived that ambush by the Rudra Familia. Astraea didn't cry but Kazuya noticed her fist was clenched the whole time. He reckoned she was currently feeling frustrated and angry over the deaths of her 'children.

After that, Kazuya left them as he didn't want to disturb them on their mourning. He couldn't really relate to their sadness not because he can't feel emotions, but because he hadn't really known those that died.

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The next day, after Kazuya woke up, he went to a shop that sells better metals than the one he used to make his equipment. In that shop, he bought adamantium, orichalcum, and some other fantasy metals he found in there. And he also bought some monster drops from the deeper level of the dungeon.

After that, he directly went to a forging room and decided to upgrade his current equipment with better materials he bought. He noticed that his current weapon couldn't take his current strength. His sword already has chipped edges, so he decided to make a new one.

While his armor too can't take the blows of some monsters that managed to sneak in an attack. So with that thought in mind, he decided to upgrade it with better materials.

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Clank! Clank!

Those were the only sounds you can hear inside the forging room, Kazuya was using. He was also using the divine fire to melt the metals he got, which greatly help in removing some impurities in the metal. But he didn't use it that much for some reasons.

After that comes the hammering, he did that continuously to remove the remaining impurities in the metals before heating it again with the divine fire and repeating the process over again.

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While Kazuya was busy forging some big news and events were happening outside. After the news of Astraea Familia, almost being wiped out by Rudra Familia, almost all Orario was shocked.

Some expressed sadness as Astraea Familia often helps maintain peace and security inside Orario which helps many people. While others also rejoiced, those are the bad guys that were always afraid of Astraea Familia.

Meanwhile, inside Hephaestus's office. Astraea was currently inside with Hephaestus.

But it seems that Hephaestus is still wearing an eye patch on her right eye although it is now cured, the reasons are known only to Hephaestus herself.

"I heard what happened, my condolence. But may I ask why you want to meet me?" Hephaestus started speaking and went directly on point.

"I just want to personally thank you, as one of your members saved my 'children'. That's also the reason that some of them survived the ambush" Astraea said

"Who is it?" Hephaestus asked curiously, she didn't know it was Kazuya as he went directly to forge new equipment.

"I believe his name is Kazuya, hmm...that's right Kazuya Kinoshita"

Hearing that name Hephaestus was a bit surprised but quickly calmed down. She nodded, "Yes, he is a new member of my familia he just recently joined"

"What?!" Astraea couldn't help but be shock since she thought that if Kazuya just recently joined a familia then wouldn't he be low level. Even if he did join a familia outside Orario before going here he should at most be level 2 or 3.

But from what she heard about the fight, he easily slaughtered many level 3 or 4 adventurers from Rudra Familia.

Upon seeing the shock on Astraea's face, Hephaestus chuckled getting the attention of Astraea, "You can't base his strength on levels alone. I will tell you this since I know you already know his strength based on the recollection of one of your surviving members. He can contend with higher-level adventurers. He's level 2 now but he can fight those higher leveled than him. That's all what I'll say" She said, as promised she didn't tell anyone where Kazuya came from. What she said was something Kazuya didn't bother to hide, as shown when he fought Tsubaki although he was lower level than her.

"Is it a skill?" Astraea tried to probe

"I don't know, that's probably his secret so I didn't pry it off him" Hephaestus replied truthfully. She really didn't know as she didn't bother to ask him neither did Kazuya told her. Besides that secret is minuscule compared to what he said about him being from another world.

"Alright, then please excuse me" Astraea didn't ask further as she just went there to thank Hephaestus. After that, she left Hephaestus's office.

'I know Kazuya can fight those higher level than him but it seems we underestimated his strength. If he can fight multiple high-level adventurers he is really skilled at fighting' Hephaestus thought before going to work once again.