The sun was already dipping toward the sunset, painting the white stone of Babel in alarming shades of orange and purple, when Raine and Bell finally tumbled out of the Tower's doors.
Other groups of adventurers bustled around them. Cheerful, noisy, already discussing which tavern they'd drink away their loot in. They had spent four hours in the Dungeon at most and had returned with full backpacks.
Raine and Bell looked like miners after a double shift in comparison. Dirty, covered in dust, with dark circles under their eyes. Their foray onto the fourth floor had taken almost the entire day. Where those blessed with a Falna simply hacked down monsters and moved on, they had to "dance" with every opponent, biding their time and expending precious strength.
Having exchanged their stones at the Guild (the sum turned out decent, but not fantastic considering the effort spent), they stepped out onto the square.
Before them lay a mountain of gear. Bell's armor required straightening, Raine's sword needed sharpening, and the dagger needed polishing. Someone had to drag all this to the blacksmith while the other went to save a spot in line at the bathhouse.
They looked at each other. Words were unnecessary.
"One..." Raine began, rolling his wrist.
"Two..." Bell swallowed, staring at his friend's hand.
"Three!"
"Rock, paper, scissors!" they shouted in unison, drawing the attention of passersby.
Raine threw a fist. A heavy, confident rock. Bell threw two fingers. Scissors.
A second of silence.
Bell stared at his hand as if it had betrayed him. His shoulders slumped, and a groan full of universal sorrow escaped his chest.
"Why?!" he groaned, looking at the sky. "I was sure you'd pick paper! You always play defensively!"
"Rock is reliable, Bell," Raine smirked, raising his clenched fist triumphantly to the sky. "Nothing personal. Just statistics."
He patted his grief-stricken friend on the shoulder.
"Meet you at the bathhouse in an hour. Don't forget to ask them to check the fastenings on the pauldron."
Leaving Bell, who, with the look of a martyr, began to load himself up with bags of iron, Raine shoved his hands in his pockets and leisurely strolled through evening Orario.
The intoxication of victory in the mini-game quickly faded, giving way to grim reflections.
The fourth floor.
Raine replayed today's battle in his head. Yes, they managed. They killed five lizards and a dozen kobolds. But at what cost?
"We're too slow," he thought, kicking a pebble on the pavement. "We spend too much time on a single lizard. And these are just the beginning floors."
He remembered the moment his sword had slid off the scales.
"The weapons aren't cutting it. We lack the strength to pierce defenses with brute force, and technique is useless if the blade can't cut the target. And the worst part... we fought two on one. What if there are two or three of them? Problematic."
The conclusion was bleak. Without a qualitative leap—be it a Falna or higher-grade equipment—the fifth floor would become a wall. They had hit the ceiling of human capabilities.
Lost in these thoughts, Raine emerged onto a shopping street in the North District.
The noise of the crowd pulled him from his reverie.
Near one of the stalls selling fried snacks, a small group of onlookers had gathered. Raine, driven by curiosity, stepped closer and froze.
The scene was worthy of a theatrical performance.
On the ground, right on the cobblestones, in a pose of deepest remorse (dogeza), sat Hestia.
Towering over her was the stall owner—a portly man with a thick mustache. He looked angry, yet somehow flustered at the same time.
"Hestia!" he thundered, waving his arms. "This is beyond the pale! You ate the merchandise again?! Where is the money for the sold croquettes?"
"I'm sorry!" came from the ground. Hestia slowly raised her head.
Raine barely suppressed a chuckle. The Goddess had deployed her ultimate weapon, and it was a weapon of mass destruction.
Her huge blue eyes were full of tears, ready to spill over in streams at any moment. Her lips were pursed in a trembling pout. Her pigtails drooped. She looked like a puppy abandoned in the rain, who had been kicked for good measure.
"I... I was so hungry!" she sobbed, clasping her hands in prayer. "And there were no customers... And they smelled so good... Boss, please! Give me one more chance! I'll work it off! I'll sell twice as much tomorrow! Honest!"
She sniffled and looked up at him with a gaze capable of melting a glacier.
The crowd around them began to whisper.
"Hey, go easy on her..." "She's just a girl..." "Look how he made her cry, the brute..."
The boss, hearing the whispers, rapidly began to turn red and sweat. His resolve was melting before his eyes under the pressure of public opinion and the "rays of cuteness" from the Goddess.
"Alright... enough!" he hissed, glancing around at the people. "Get up right now! Stop embarrassing me!"
"You won't fire me?" Hestia asked hopefully, not changing her pose and only intensifying the pressure of her eyes.
"No! I won't fire you! Just get up, for heaven's sake, you're a Goddess!" the man surrendered, wiping his brow. "Tomorrow is your last shift! If there are no sales, I'll fire you!"
"Thank you!!!" Hestia jumped up, instantly changing her facial expression to a radiant one, and began bowing with the frequency of a jackhammer. "You're the best! The kindest boss in the world!"
Raine, watching this scene from the shadow of an awning, shook his head.
"A Goddess..." he thought with irony. "A great entity begging for work for food using puppy-dog eyes. And it actually worked."
He turned and walked toward the bathhouse, feeling a strange mixture of pity and respect for her persistence. She was surviving the best she could.
An hour later. The Orario public bathhouse.
Hot steam billowed over the surface of the water, which smelled of herbs and soap. There weren't many people at this hour, and the echoing room was filled only with the splashing of water and rare sighs of bliss.
Raine and Bell sat in the pool, submerged up to their necks. The hot water drew the fatigue from their muscles, dissolving the tension of the past day.
Bell sat with his eyes closed, resting his head on the edge. An expression of absolute happiness was frozen on his face. The towel on his head stayed out of the water by some miracle.
"We're not going into the Labyrinth tomorrow," Raine said quietly, breaking the silence.
Bell didn't even open his eyes. His brain, steamed by the temperature, was operating in power-saving mode.
"Hmmm?" he drawled lazily.
Raine scooped up some water with his palm and splashed it on his face.
"We'll need to hit the shops, price check something more serious. Maybe look for some consumables. With what we have now, we'll just smash ourselves against a wall."
Bell nodded slowly, as if in a dream. Air bubbles rose from his nose.
"Oka-a-ay..." he exhaled, sliding even deeper into the water so that only his eyes and the crown of his head with the towel remained on the surface. "Whatever you say..."
Raine smirked, looking at his friend, who currently resembled a boiled shrimp more than a monster killer.