After we won the war game Aphrodite was able to demand any terms since, one she was the one who was challenged, and two that's pretty much how the war games of the gods work. She took Apollo's familia home which is a huge estate where he had over 100 people living. She also demanded he disband his familia, exiled him from Oriario, and took all his possessions and wealth. It took a couple week to remodel the estate we didn't need quite so many rooms so we made it so each of the rooms on the third floor was as big as a suite. There were 15 such rooms up here and if we grew to a huge size one day Aphrodite said these would belong to her elites. Her room is here as well. The second floor was pretty much around 60 regular rooms that we had no use for. The bottom floor has the kitchen, what I call the command room, several rooms with huge tables to serve our meals, a huge living room with several couches, and the most important room, the one with a pool table. We have 5 grimoires we got from Apollo but our goddess said nobody is using it right now she plans to recruit a few people and we will see who is the best fit for them. I can already tell you as captain I'm taking one as soon as I can thaw her icy heart. I didn't realize the gods have a special mirror they can use with their divine power, it's how they watched Earth from the world of the gods, and they used it to show the war game across the whole city. Haha whoops everybody saw me butcher that guy. Anyways because of that a lot of people want to join our familia. The first one who was qualified from our goddess' point of view was a dwarf named Dormul. Actually he was the dwarf from Apollo familia I fought right before the last round. Since you can't lie to a goddess we know there are no ill intentions.
"Why did you want to join us" Kelly and I are doing interviews for those that pass the goddess' questions. I brought her since she is smarter then me.
"Well your strength impressed me quite honestly and your familia seems strong for such a small size. Luna is young a little more training and I might not have fought the captain. Ragnar's blade of fire was profound. Any of us would have lost to it. If you get even 10 more people it will rival all but the strongest of familia's. I now have no where I belong and figured if you needed a front line man look no further I'm the guy for the job." Honestly once he got past the goddess I already decided he was joining.
"Honestly we do need a tank up front Ragnar is suited to it but not experienced. With you both up there it will round out our battle party right now we pretty much just have damage dealers, except Kelly here is a healer."
"Then if I may what about my wife. She wouldn't take the falna but could be a non combatant in the familia."
"The godesss has the last say but I don't see a problem. Your married she should join our family with you."
"Very good she could help cook and clean around here while we explore the depths of the dungeon." Dormul is a level 3 but he is very close to being lvl 4 a nice pick up if you ask me. After Dormul was a Japanese girl named Mikoto. She fought with a katana mostly but was also very good with a bow, and throwing knives. We added her as well to fill out a more ranger position in the party. As a bonus if monsters got close she could keep our backline safe with her blade. She is a high lvl 2 who just traveled from the East. An expedition to the colossal tree labyrinth, floors 19-24 and she might just be lvl 3. The last recruit we got was a human magic caster. She is a bit older, in her 40s, but still is attractive like a professor or something. Long brown hair, cute glasses, and a stunning face I approve of this one. Her name is Diana.
She has no combat sense as far as weapons go but 3 powerful spells. A cyclone much like mine that pushes enemies away, a firestorm that has fierce winds and rains fire, and a spell that can freeze a specific enemy in ice. She is already lvl 4 and very knowledgeable about the dungeon she could make a good strategist. Lastly Aphrodite hired a few cute girls to take care of the estate with Dormul's wife. Ragnar had to make some better gear for our new members so we decided to take a break from the dungeon. We built a forge in the backyard so Ragnar would have a place to work. We want him to feel welcome in our familia. Plus his workshop was provided by Hephaestus so he technically lost this when he left her familia.
I practically forced the goddess to get us a jacuzzi because I thought it would be nice and relaxing for our muscles after dungeon runs. So while I was relaxing our first day after the recruitment Kelly decided to join me. Seeing this gorgeous elf in a bikini several sizes to small got me excited. Just breathtaking. "May I join you?" She is blushing I think she knows I was checking her out but come on. Come out here in a tiny bikini obviously you want to be looked at.
"Of course such a beautiful woman to accompany me would make my day." I flirted with Kelly for a bit. I know she called herself my big sister but who asked her to be you know. Such a gorgeous woman and I'm friend zoned? Not cool bro. Anyways I wasn't that serious because of my love for Aphrodite. I must admit though this one is special. That night I bring all the members of the battle party to the bar get to know each other better. Also I wanted to leave Ryu a huge tip. She deserves it you know. Apparently the two women who joined were impressed with us from the war game as well. Luna and I impressed Mikoto with our fierce fighting style and strength. She wants to get stronger to support her shrine back in Japan. Diana was impressed by Ragnar. Yes he had a big head all night. She said as a accomplished mage even she would be screwed by his magic. It literally would make it blow up in her face.!And his magic sword awed her. She wanted one. He was surprisingly in good spirits about that. I guess he felt badass impressing a level 4. Also surprisingly no one cared I killed that level 4 even the dwarf.
"That guy was a prick I couldn't stand him" that was all he had to say. Well I guess they wouldn't have joined if they cared. Plus as adventures they have seen some shady stuff that goes on in the dungeon. We all got wasted and enjoyed ourselves a little to much. And of course I paid Ryu quite a bit of money. "There's no way I can take this" $250,000 is what I handed her.
"Take it Ryu you helped us win it" Ragnar
"Ms Ryu we did come beg you for help" Kelly
"You absolutely must accept this. This is the will of my goddess I will not return until I have done as she asks." I left her with that forceful reply as I had trouble getting the others home with Diana's help. I think she going to be like the mom of the familia.
After a few days of enjoying ourselves in the new mansion, and drinking at the bar. We got our first mission from the guild. As a familia that's registered for dungeon diving and not as a commercial familia, like Hephaestus, we have missions from time to time from the guild. There's a rare drop from the colossal tree labyrinth we need to get 20 of and our other objectives is to go further then we have before. Which means my goal for the expedition is the 24th floor. At these levels we can work back to Riveria on the 18th and have a relatively safe space to rest. We also want to fight the Goliath again for more hide but he won't respawn for a week. We still have plenty of money and could buy some but why when we could just get it in time. Ragnar made everyone new armor including myself. Our last stuff was fine but he got better materials and upgraded what we had. Mine had a lot of black trim to match my black sword. One thing he loved was when he worked on my sword, having Aphrodite's falna, he could tell it was exceptional.
"Man I knew it was special when I saw it in your hands. But everytime you handed it to me to sharpen I felt wierd as if it was a frail weapon. You said Hephaestus made this herself?"
"Yeah Aphrodite said she used up all her favors for that." He just chuckled at that. Coming from her familia he knew her better then most. I'm sure he's wondering how many can call for a favor from her. Since I don't wear helmets he made a hooded shirt I could wear from the rest of the hide we had from before. We also had to get fire undine cloth for everyone new to the party. Apparently Dormul didn't think he needed it but there's still occasional fire spells in deeper floors and we need our tank up front standing strong. So I bought him some anyway. He wears a full suit of plate armor and usually fights with a two handed ax. But he carry's a bid shield on his back. Tough situations he switches to that and Kelly is holding a smaller one handed ax to give to him in such cases. I felt bad we didn't have the Goliath hide for a robe for Diana since I just got a hoody made of it. But she claims her robes are fine and Ragnar crafted he fine leather armor to wear under it for better protection. Mikoto got her own light armor and a bunch of throwing knives as well. Ragnar wants to craft her a katana but he said it would be hard to make a better one for the time being. We also have two magic swords ready for our guild mission.
Quickly and effortlessly we made it to the 19th floor. Without the floor boss we had no trouble. We didn't have Diana do much since we were trying to get used to our new dinamic. Dormul and Ragnar up front with me and Luna supporting right behind or cleaving thru weaker monsters. Occasionally arrows supported us from the rear from Mikoto. I mostly felt better knowing she was there to protect our mage and healer. She alsways watched our rear as we decended deeper. The 19th floor had all new monsters for us. A type of wasp that would swarm us constantly. And a moss huge that was constantly creating body doubles we had to kill as well. Diana's fire storm worked wonders on the wasps but we had to save her just to deal with swarms when they got bad. Need to preserve magic in the dungeon.
A few days passed uneventful as we mined some ore Ragnar wanted, collected all of our drops from the moss huge for our mission, and fought monsters to level up. We would go back and camp outside the town on the 18th floor since it was pretty expensive to stay there. I definitely missed my suite at the mansion. We had a few close calls where we were running for our lives from swarms of wasps. But we always fought our way thru close enough to the hive for Diana or me to blast them to hell with our magic. Finally on our fifth day we made it to the 24th floor. Diana is surprisingly good at drawing maps and she has mapped out the 19th-23rd floors. We want to map the way to the 25th floor while we are here. So later we can go right thru this Forrest maze and reach lower floors. That's when the lower floors really start and we aren't going that far this time. We have already been dungeon diving longer then I'm used to and don't want to shoot to deep. Yes we have gotten better as a party but we have had a couple close calls.
Hours pass and we are feeling accomplished and relatively used to the new floors when it happened. We ran into a group of six dragon-kin monster. Their lower body is like a snake but they have demonic wings and horns on their heads. They seemed to be hunting a unicorn monster. I was confused at first but I guess that's how monsters are.
"My ax" Dormul hasn't asked for it many times he's obviously worried.
"Ragnar we need to hold the line Josh up here with us they can't get passed us." As a experienced veteran and a tank Im sure he knows his shit.
"Luna you heard him support us with blink if there's a good opening otherwise if one breaks thru keep them off the rear guard." As we get into formation I nod to Diana. As soon I do she starts chanting. All of her spells take a little bit to cast so I barrage them with fire bolt. Immediately the six of them tried to charge us when it rained hellfire on top of them. The first to break thru hit Dormul's shield and he was pushed back a couple feet. The second and third reach Ragnar and myself around the same time. I score a nice slash and open a wicked wound on its chest. Surprisingly it's fights like a berserker as if feeling no pain and only battle crazy it scratches with claws. I was able to block easily enough. Blow for blow as I score a couple hits. Unfortunately I wasn't ready for it to sweep my legs with its tail. When my back hits the ground I was disoriented for a couple seconds. "Blink" Luna appeared right behind it and stabbed both daggers in its neck. It disappeared in a puff of smoke as she helped me up.
"Thanks for the assist go back for now" I glanced at the others and saw they had it under control. Ragnar killed his right as the other three got to us. Dormul now had to deal with two but we were still one on one. After exchanging a couple blows with the new one. "Luna look for a chance to down one of Dormul's. Wind Nova" I blast mine and both of Dormul's to the ground. Surprised it worked so well I bury my blade in its chest and rush to Dormul. "Blink" Luna didn't miss a beat and appeared right over a fallen dragon-kin ripping huge cuts in its neck with her blades. The last got up before Dormul reached it but I left it for him and Luna. Passing by I reach Ragnar and stab the dragon-kin in the back. It turned its head to try to look at me forgetting to defend against Ragnar as he chopped its head clean off. Disappearing into smoke we watch the last dragon-kin fighting Dormul and Luna. I didn't realize until now but it had a arrow in its eye I guess Mikoto had him covered.
"Ragnar protect the rear Mikoto follow me"
I race after the unicorn. They are as rare as the dragon-kin on this floor and I want the drop. I hear some objections from behind me but I still raced off. Only checking to see if Mikoto was following we caught up within mins. Being a horse I was scared it would get away from us but between my quick magic and her bow we were easily able to persuade it to stay. After the dragon-kin I felt no trouble fighting with the unicorn. It did have magic I could shoot from its horn. It caught me off guard but I still managed to dodge it. Our drop was its unicorn horn and we rejoined the group shortly after.
"What the hell were you thinking" Kelly was shouting as soon as I got back.
"She's right you shouldn't run off" our teams mom Diana joined in.
"I'm sorry I wanted the drop I felt like Ragnar could keep you safe while Mikoto and I could catch the unicorn." The anger on Ragnar face disappeared instantly.
"I was mad you left me here but I get it now with Dormul finishing his fight you needed me to protect the ladies." He has a huge grin on his face. "Did you get the horn?"
"Yes I did"
"sweet I can make some cool stuff with the dragon leather and horns. And the unicorn horn will make a good dagger." Dormul was resting after the intense fight.
"I got to say when I saw the dragon-kin I was worried our battle party in Apollo would have been fucked. I tried not to show it. You guys did good I'm proud of you." It didn't feel that hard to me but I guess I did almost get fucked up by that first one.
"Yeah it's tail caught me off guard I always forget monsters have a lot of different means of attacks. The Minotaur caught me slipping as well back then."
"Even so Luna had our back and the magic from Diana was powerful enough to weaken them. That fire rain. Truthfully I was worried about them getting passed us. If they did it would have been a desperate situation." "Noted I do think our party has a good synergy if we get more experience we can dive deeper. Plus don't count me out I can handle myself." Diana was quick to say she would be fine. The rest of the time in the 24th was uneventful. Yes we fought like hell thru the floor but it wasn't ever a close life and death battle like we faced earlier. We found a cave near the entrance to the 25th floor and decided we would camp there. Diana taught us if we destroy the environment a bit the dungeon will repair itself instead of spawning monsters so we did just that. We still had shifts of two sit watch and do a little damage again over time. I had watch with Kelly and she sat real close to me. I was nervous the whole time but tried to act cool.
The following day we worked our way down to the entrance to the 17th floor from 18. "I want to fight Goliath he should spawn today." I got several growns in complaints
"we have been fighting for hours to get to 18." Diana was first to try to dissuade me with common sense.
"We have a couple close to leveling up. I think between our expedition and then a floor boss we will have pushed our limits."
"He's right we go forward to victory" Ragnar speaks up since he's about to level.
"You just want the hide." She chimes back. "Don't you? I mostly want it for a cloak for you and to bolster our man in front." I argue back.
"The wall of despair. I remember our last struggle here" Kelly complains.
"You won't have to drag us out like last time trust me." I have used Argonaut a couple times during our expedition but I haven't summoned that grand bell again. I'm mostly here to see if I can figure out how to force it out. We hunted the small monsters that could bother us and waited. A few hours of rest and a few more hunting trips we heard the trembling of the wall of despair. The monsters break thru the walls when they spawn and the floor boss comes from this giant one. Dormul with his shield ready gives a battle cry. Rushing to the boss with Ragnar and Luna as planned. Mikoto fires arrows as Diana greets it with a fire storm. *ding I can't seem to get it right. Dormul's shield takes the first hit as soon as the storm dies down. *ding
"Cyclone" Diana is doing all she can.
"Ignis" Ragnar uses his last magic sword.
Arrows rain down and Luna keeps up her hit and run tactics. *ding
Dormul is knocked unconscious after tanking for several mins. My charge can be up to three mins now. I think it's similar to my level. Level 2 was 2 minutes. Level 3 is 3 minutes. The damage also gets exponentially bigger the longer I charge it. I still can't move swiftly while charging, it will dissipate if I don't focus hard enough. *ding
Ragnar takes the agro while Kelly and I drag Dormul back to Diana. In his armor and with his heft as a dwarf Kelly would struggle and I needed help moving him so I wouldn't lose concentration.
*ding 3 mins
We lose Ragnar at this moment. I'm worried a normal charge isint enough. Yes we have dealt damage this time but he re grew his head before we need to destroy the crystal. Kelly is dragging Ragnar back as Luna takes agro. I think back to remember the feeling of last time when the words I said to Aiz that day hit me.
Let your feelings burn like fire
Cry out with all your desire
*DONG
"Three mins Luna" I call our "Mikoto get up there" *DONG the new members realize something's up since they have seen the small chime argonaut before. *DONG Luna distracts the boss and blinks away and Mikoto does hit and run tactics with her katana. Dormul is back on his feet thanks to the healing. The shield prevented the worst of it. It was now mangled and unusable but he grabbed his two handed ax and re joined the fight *DONG it was at this moment I realized the trigger. I needed a strong desire to protect my squad. To defeat my enemy. To be a hero. *DONG three mins
I'm of racing to the boss trying to handle my power "Glacier freeze" Diana froze his legs. Being so damn tall she didn't freeze all of him but it would work. "We got one shot Josh take it" "Mind Load, aaaaaaaaa" I cleaved the giant in half like before but this time I cut the crystal and all. Having used all my magic with mind load I amplified my already crazy damage even more. But I of course had mind down and was unconscious.
Waking up a couple hours later I was in Kelly's lap. "What did I miss?"
"We won Ragnar is up thankfully his beating wasn't so bad this time. Dormul's a mess to but he's a tough one. Mikoto and Luna each took a nasty hit in those last mins but they are better off then the boys. You just had mind down after all that hit it was insane. You cut clean thru him, his crystal, and completely severed your surroundings. Luckily Luna has blink or she would have been in trouble." "Fuck I need to go apologize to her" I find Luna and Diana on watch duty.
"Kelly told me what happened let me admit my mistake and apologize to you Luna. I could have killed you with that strike. I guess I don't know my strength."
"It's fine Josh I was barely conscious last time you used that attack. So I knew what was coming. Granted it's way stronger then when you were level 2."
"Yeah I think with the increase in magic from being level 3, since I used mind load, and the extra minute of charge time it got out of hand." Well we chatted for a bit but she let me off the hook. Apparently Mikoto had retreated with Dormul as I rushed in. Luna stayed just in case even with the Goliath frozen, she felt she needed to stay and help hold its attention.
"It was wreckless and honestly as loud as he is he will attract all the attention in situations like that. That grand bell was deafening. He was glowing, Luna!" Diana scolds Luna. "Exactly why he needs back up, Dormul wouldn't get away in time. I have to blink away, it needs to be me up front with him in those times."
"Well I can't argue with that logic" Diana backed off.
"I'll take over watch Luna go rest." Diana and Kelly are the most healthy. So the three of us covered the watch that night. As captain I needed to let my victorious team rest after the hard battle. Also I got to rest for several hours already. On the way out we mostly had Mikoto and Kelly killing the monsters to help level them up. We return to the guild victorious in our mission. Stating the 25th entrance as our end point and turning in our requested drop items. Mira informs me that we should get the water undine cloth before we venture into the great falls of the 25th-27th floors. Selling our magic crystals left us with close to 100 grand each even after putting aside 20% for the familia. We might still have some cash left over from the war game but to grow our influence will always require money.
We got back late and didn't want to wait to celebrate. We told our goddess we were back safe and went to my favorite bar. We were so lively and proud sharing our experience with Ryu and Syr along with the cat girls that worked there. We got a few envious gazes and hostile ones from other adventures. None of them dared to say anything. Apparently gutting that Apollo prick in front of the whole city left an impression. Even everyone who wasn't there saw it live on the mirrors.
The next day we all got our status updated. Ragnar and Mikoto leveled up
Ragnar lvl 3
Stats at 0
Advanced abilities
Forge D
Critical Strike E
Skills
Forge Brakkr Magic Swords
Magic
Ignus Falnus - blasphemous burn
Disrupts the enemies magical energy causeing a backlash
Mikoto lvl 3
All stats 0
Advanced abilities
Immunity D
Critical Strike E
Skills
Locate party - can sense others with the same falna in a mile radius
Locate enemy - can locate monster with the same 'experience' of monsters you have already killed in a 1,000 foot radius
Magic
Gravity magic - intensifies gravity in a 50-100 foot radius crushing all including the caster
I was last getting my status done and Aphrodite had a lot to say to me after 'seeing' all of our experiences. "You were reckless and almost got yourself killed fighting the dragon-kin. Then you forced your party to fight the Goliath after fighting for probably six hours practically straight that day. Almost getting Ragnar and Dormul killed. Not to mention almost blowing Luna up. Care to explain yourself?"
"Ummm not really." "Excuse me?"
"Well I knew Ragnar was on the cusp of his level and pushed him to his limit. I trusted Dormul to get the job done. And that tough bastard got back up and joined the fight again. As far as Luna I do feel terrible about that I had no idea the damage would be so incredible."
"Well you did good leading the familia in this trip just know your limits. Kelly's status looks good and she should level up after a couple more adventures. Dormul is far ahead of the others thru level 3 well over halfway. Your close to level 4 yourself. Your stats are were they need to be to push ahead. but you will have to overcome an exceptional foe. The dragon-kin weren't enough and the Goliath you beat before to go to level 3. But remember not to push everyone so hard in the dungeon people can lose their life easily." "I understand goddess I will take your advice."
"I decided for now you and Luna will be getting a grimoire. You depend on her quite heavily."
"Do I really I figured the guys had it the worst." "In life and death situations it has been her standing next to you. The guys have a time to play just like Kelly and Diana. Just because they take the monsters head on doesn't mean the strain is more then what you and Luna handle. You also meet the enemy head on."
"I guess your right."
"Of course I am besides Diana is maxed in spells. Kelly could use a bit more advanced ones but I want her to grow a bit first. Hopefully then she will get something incredible."
"What about my vanguard"
"I will get to them probably after another expedition I will choose which one of them gets the first one. We can't waste all the grimoires they are incredibly expensive. You might find another mage for your battle party. It would be smart to save one just in case."
"I see if we both get one and ones for Kelly we only have one to use if we keep a spare." "Exactly and while I think Ragnar has a better affinity for magic Dormul's spell is great defensively. If he gets another similar spell it could be more useful. Therefore for now I dont know who to give it to."
"What is magic to you?" "Speed" "what does it look like?" "A powerful storm crushing all in seconds" "what does it feel like?" "Powerful, forceful, impenetrable, and domineering "
I wake up in Aphrodite's bed the next morning. She has a very thin night gown on top of lingerie. I can clearly see right thru the gown. Her head is on my chest her arm holding me as I lay on my back. 'God damn she is sexy.' With my arm wrapped around her resting on her hip, I fight the urge to feel her ass. I decided this is pretty much heaven so I'm not getting up until I have to. After ten mins I hear the goddess giggle. "I was hoping you would get all embarrassed waking up like this." I guess she knew when I woke up.
"I was for sure but I was trying to play it cool" damn did I just say that? you can't lie to your diety at all. Of course that got another giggle. Man she is just the perfect woman.
Josh level 3
Abilities
Strength S 950
Agility S 1,000
Reflexes S 900
Endurance S 929
Magic S 1,000
Luck D
Hunter E
Skills
Eros Physis -rapid growth
Argonaut - active action, can charge to perform a hero shot
Magic
Hurricane - creates a defensive wall of wind, rain, and lightning around user, damage reduction while in effect, speed doubles while in effect, slight dot against enemies
Mind Load - active action, uses mind to charge an attack
Quick Attack Magic
Fire Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Wind Nova
Icicle Spear