Chapter 25

I knew Loki was going to be able to throw off the effects of that elixir fairly soon as Hestia wasn't affected for it all that long as well.

"Ok so we need to iron out a plan of action for when Loki comes back in a few minutes. Now what do we need from her and what can we hope to get extra." I said making the main hall of the church go quiet.

Hestia was sitting on a chair with her eyes closed in deep concentration and then with a loud pop noise I felt that presence hanging over our shoulders get thrown away. Hestia grinned as she hopped to her feet and stretched as though she was cooling down from a good workout. "Heh, I gave that nosy skank a bloody nose with that." She said viscously making me raise an eyebrow in surprise. She explained seeing us all looking at her confused "I was able to follow along the connection to whoever was watching us and then used the wards inherent magic to carry a teeny tiny piece of my hearth fire that way we can discuss Familia business without anyone prying in..."

I quietly walked outside and ignored the people's calls of confusion and yup... The fucking Tower of Babel was on fire. Well not exactly on fire but I could see a dark black smoke emanating from the upper level's window's/balcony.

I cheerfully skipped back inside. "Sorry just wanted to make sure the wards weren't messed up from Loki and whoever was peeping on us."

Lili showed off her street knowledge as she pointed out the main factor to whatever we negotiate with Loki. "So, we obviously have goods she wants but exactly what do we want the most from her?"

Hestia grimaced as she plainly didnt want anything to do with Loki in general, but Bell answered. "We could use some lessons on fighting in general or a guide for in the dungeon."

Hmm honestly the guide thing could be a huge game changer because of my quest ability as it doesn't matter what level the person is so long as they register within my party, and we continue to kill the monsters set for the quests we all get the stat points and a single or couple level 3's being rotated around won't hurt the operations of the Loki Familia at all. But the one problem with that will be how to explain for example my current quest -Kill one hundred goblins from the eighth and ninth floors for one hundred stat points.

There's no possible way for a level three to gain twenty-five stat points in all their stats just by watching a small group of level ones kill a dozen plus goblins...

"And how would we explain my quest system when they inevitably gain a hundred stat points playing babysitter?"

Silence.

Hestia sighed. "Jake maybe we are looking at this the wrong way." We all looked at her as she was clearly in deep thought, and she continued after clearly getting her thoughts in order. "Maybe you are just what Orario needs to get within the truly deep floors I mean just think about it with the wards you can make, towns like Rivira will sprout up within the more open floors and be almost impossible to destroy as even a level five got thrown by it."

She then gestured wildly at the weapons we were all holding as well. "And arguably the most important thing is the equipment you can make by the literal cart load whether it's enchanted armor, weapons, or I bet if you got some blood from Hecate, you would be able to mass produce the likes of Grimoires easily bringing the whole strength of Orario to tenfold within the year..."

'She honestly isn't wrong... Have I been going down the wrong path with my abilities? Should I have emulated the person who had the fusing abilities more and just fused literally mountains of materials into God tier objects overtime?' I thought glumly before realizing the answer was plainly yes, the combination of the fusion abilities and having a large group helping me power farm my quests would have probably made me a level two already if I was able to join the Loki, Freya, or even the Ishtar Familia when I first arrived.

'Hell, maybe that's what whatever being sent me here wanted when I was literally dropped within a couple minute walk from the redlight district.'

Both Bell and Lili nodded to the logic that Hestia pointed out and I knew the discussion was practically over as let's be honest I had zero reason to deny such a plan other than my pride of what trying to work my way up the fantasy corporate ladder? No, it's going to be much smarter to just form an equal partnership of me being the supplier of one-of-a-kind goods and them making sure that some pyscho's from the remnants of Evilus, or Enyo don't snap my neck in our sleep as assassin's are common enough in this world.

"Jake can we share your falna as proof to get the best deal or something." Bell asked and I almost snorted out of hand and denied, but I thought about it for a second and had a bright idea.

"Give a second I have an idea and if it works, we can do that." Both Lili and Hestia looked rather surprised as I gave in so easy to showing off my Falna and potentially sharing all my secrets but let's be honest Loki is a trickster god. It will be simply far, far, easier to just be honest and make a plan of action for Loki's Familia to grow heavily along with a couple more material oriented Familia's we could trust like Hephestus or Demeter and basically corner Orario in an arms race to become the new Zues/Hera Familia.

"Fuse." I said and I fused together a drop of Hestia's blood into a spare guild contract I kept, and it became almost blank paper with only a couple lines stating the terms and price which I filled out.

-Divine Contract- Bind's the deity and all who share the blessing of said God into terms stated and will force contract breaker deity back into Heaven if deeply betrayed and all members will not only lose the power of the Falna, there Falna will be corrupted so no other deity can add them too there Familia.- Platinum

'This is a little too fierce isn't it' I thought wryly but then accepted it as I knew many gods would love nothing better than to knock over the neighboring castle even if it is serving their interests. So having a big scary stick would act to keep any thoughts of betrayal buried deep should we sign such a contract.

"Jake she's back!" I heard and rushed back upstairs, and I saw a duo of elves flanking Loki, one was clearly embarrassed holding her staff and was somewhat hiding behind the older, calm elf.

Obviously, the calm elf was Riveria and the shy one I am assuming is Lefiya the racist elf that always just calls Bell, Human.

"Welcome into our humble home Loki and ladies." I spoke welcomingly and waved towards a table and pew setup for us to be able to sit across from one another.

"So, any chance I could get more of that Elixir? Mama River took it all away from me and locked it up." Loki asked pleadingly putting her hands together.

Riveria cut her off. "You may not drink it outside of the Twilight Manor, I don't want to hear about you propositioning a door again..." She said clearly frustrated with her goddess and Hestia and Lili snickered at the thought.

"Well, that depends on what kind of deal we can make here." I led and it seems that it would be me and Riveria doing the negotiating as frankly both Hestia and Loki would likely ruin it by sniping at one another. "So, I assume I will be negotiating with you Miss Riveria." I said respectfully as she was the backbone of the Loki Familia with her taking care of morale and dealing with recruitment's where was Finn though being the captain did mostly the paperwork and other more menial things.

"Please just call me Riveria, Jake and I wanted to apologize for yesterday if I came across as threatening, I was rather stressed with what's been happening as of late." She said gently and then bowed her head in apology to making me feel a good deal better already about this.

I pulled out the contract and laid it gingerly on the table "Ok so seeing as you are speaking for the Loki Familia you must understand this contract is magical and will even bind Loki and Hestia who will face dire consequences should they be broken on either side."

'I say that now but honestly our side is mostly in the clear as I could simply fuse the contract into something else and make it null and void should something catastrophic happen.' I thought.

Loki swiped the contract from the table and studied it heavily and I knew this would make or break our discussion as she gently laid it down on the table and spoke solemnly. "The contract is real and that's a scary thing you got there kid. Now before I say or agree to anything I am going to need proof of what you are offering as despite how valuable that elixir is and how it will help the magic users of my Familia it's not worth binding my essence to."

After a quick whisper session with the Familia we agreed that we weren't going to share anything till she signed at least a contract stating she will keep the specifics of my Falna quiet.

After telling Loki our terms she didnt hesitate to sign as just keeping my particular Falna secret for a couple years was nothing to a goddess who has lived for countless millennium. "This is fucking bullshit!" She cried rolling on the ground in jealous agony after reading my Falna and having the enormity of it explained as Hestia stood above her laughing obnoxiously at the depressed goddess.

Finally, Lefiya spoke up "Why didnt you join a better Familia with such a strong set of Skills and magic?" The whole room went silent as they all deep down had that thought.

"Well honestly I didnt have these abilities before I had my falna, and Hestia has treated me well so I wouldn't abandon her." I said simply and they couldn't deny the simplicity of what I said.

"Now as a symbol of good faith Riveria would you do me the honor of making your staff a tool a god could be jealous of?" The woman in question frowned lightly and I understood her issue as I was asking for a piece of her literal homeland as it was made from a piece of the world tree or something, Holydite, and nine treasure stones which could hold mana for her.

But I had a plan for it as I remembered a spell she had, and I could buff it. Whereas for Lefiya if I made something for her it wouldn't be A of the highest quality, and B She simply wouldn't be able to use it to its fullest potential.

"Riveria let him do it. He is speaking the truth." she grinned in rabid expectation

Loki had to harass the elf princess for a couple more minutes till she finally and very reluctantly handed me her staff gingerly. "I don't need to say it's very important to me Jake so please be careful." She said softly and I nodded with all due respect to what amounted to a Picasso art piece being handed to me.

After collecting the other principal ingredient being Loki's blood which in contrast to Hestia's regular whining readily gave a whole vial without complaint, I started fusing them with a single strong desire in mind.

-Winter's Final Breath- Can store spells into treasure stones to be used without chant or magic circle summoning. Two hundred percent power increase to ice spells and halves the mind cost for spells using ice magic. -Platnium+

This is the strongest thing I've made so far but it makes sense as it's literally one of the best staves in the world even before I fused it and now, I am sure it probably is the best bar none.

Before I could react, the elf princess snatched it out of my hand's and was inspecting it as though it was a baby, I did a back flip with. I pushed down any irritation to her being rude because I have seen men getting there guns back after getting them worked on and treating them just as lovingly.

"Ok Loki I think this will prove as ample evidence as to what I will bring to the table and here is what we want in return for my services." I quickly explained the properties to the magic stave and Riveria quickly proved it by chanting a spell and storing it within one of the gems which started glowing a soft blue and letting off a chilly mist.

"Seriously are you a spirit?" She said incredulous at the literally priceless stave in front of her held dearly by the woman she considered the most mature of her family.

"No, I am fully human as far as I know." I replied honestly and didnt bother to tease her.

After a few more minutes explaining that we wanted a chaperone in the dungeon, material support, and a weapon teacher. Hestia explained how the quest system worked so the people sent would not suffer from having to babysitting us and would still grow at a strong pace especially if they were already nearing a level up to as getting stats the later in the level you were the harder it was sealing the deal.

I could see Loki wanted nothing more than Hestia to suddenly fall down a flight of stairs with how jealous she was as my abilities literally would make the both of us match the previous Zues/Hera Familia alliance in strength in a couple decades. Jokes on her though I was going to level up within the next couple weeks if we abused ourselves in the dungeon and then the sky would be the limit.

Lefiya squirmed holding her staff and basically all the occupants could tell she wanted her own staff to be upgraded. "Heya kid why dontcha you help Lefiya out with her staff huh." She said obviously generally happy with how this was going but was a disappointed I was cutting off Hestia from engaging in any bickering that would allow her pity points or leverage.

"I believe it best that we wait for her and your other members to make a list of what you desire to be created/enhanced and in return I can send a material list to meet the trade and provide the best service." I replied and then thought 'I will double the prices of objects I request to enhance our own stuff while I am at it anyway.'

"Sorry Lefiya I don't know you that well or what would best enhance your abilities." I added shrugging seeing her slump.

Loki steered us back to the details in the contract "Ok I agree with the chaperone as it benefits everyone involved, hell it helps us more with the easy stat points. and the material budget you listed is what we spend on potions in a month heh, but anyway do you guys have any plans on who will teach weapon skills?"

I thought 'Hmm honestly Finn would be the perfect teacher to teach Bell how to use his Insect Glaives along with sharing a more agility-based fighting style but who could teach me, Gareth the heavy weapon dwarf maybe?"

"Bell would best be suited to learning from Finn if he has the time as they are both agility-based fighters and he is using a spear of sorts. Lili has her own path maybe one of your amazons could teach her some hand to hand so she can get some distance and be able to use her crossbow." I listed and they waited for me to answer for who would be best to teach me.

Hestia cut in before I could say Gareth or even Bete. "He specializes in elemental manipulation along with using his weapon in conjunction so Ais Wallenstein would be the best, as her wind manipulation may be different from fire, but both are similar in how they are formless and can be shaped."

Loki cried out "So you just wanna steal my Ais! Never!"

Riveria pinched her nose at her goddess's actions "Loki its true he does use his fire manipulation like Ais does with his weapon that makes her logically the best teacher for him." Loki just grumped and scowled but couldn't respond.

Bell likewise pouted for a couple minutes knowing I was going to be able to learn from his crush, but I think he was self-aware enough that he knew he would have been a stuttering mess and didnt want to embarrass himself before he could get used to being around her and being in the Twilight manor would do that just fine.

We talked for a few more minutes about the finer details till finally Riveria declared she was going to be needed back at the manor soon. So, they left within the next couple minutes and left us to lay back in our seats and exhale in relief as it went so well.