Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden – Sword Oratoria - Volume 4 - Chapter 1.2

 
Traditionally, magic tests—often referred to as a magic user’s combat training—were held within the Dungeon. 
It went without saying that tossing spells around in the middle of the city would pose a threat to civilians and city property alike, which in turn would invite Guild involvement. 
Hosting it in the Dungeon, however, with its rampant monster spawning, guaranteed that at worst, only other adventurers would get involved. Magic users who wanted to practice avoided the established routes, venturing deep into the Dungeon to ensure members of other familias wouldn’t get caught in their spell effects (or overhear their magical chants). 
“I’ll be in your care, Miss Aiz!” 
Ever her usual self, Lefiya stood ready to go into one of the western chambers on the Dungeon’s fifth floor. 
Six days remained until the expedition. 
As adventurers began venturing into the Dungeon in droves, the elven magic user hurried to the innermost room of the floor. In front of her stood Aiz, fresh from her second day of training with Bell. 
The large squared space they currently occupied had only one exit. There wasn’t a single soul in sight, making it the perfect place to try a few spells in complete secrecy. It was first-come, first-served when it came to spots as ideal as this for spell training. Speed was key. 
While altercations between magic users looking for training spots were rare—they tended to be intellectuals, after all—the same couldn’t be said when it came to the throng of low-level adventurers trying to nab the prime locations for grinding. 
“But I really am sorry for making you join me. You’re training even me…” Lefiya gripped her staff. 
“Don’t worry about it.” Aiz shook her head, still clad in her lightweight armor and sword at her side. She would be training both Bell and Lefiya until the day of the expedition, the young boy in the early morning and her elven admirer from day till dusk. 
Despite feeling apologetic at dragging her straight to the Dungeon after their breakfast together, Lefiya couldn’t fight back the sheer excitement at being there with Aiz. 
Sure, she felt a little put out at getting Aiz after that boy, but the fact that she’d have the Sword Princess all to herself for the whole day more than made up for it. 
How about that? Do you see now? Are you jealous?! 
She didn’t even need to know a name to egg him on in her mind. 
The pointless inner conflict had her feeling not only motivated but triumphant as well. She was with her glorious idol, after all. 
Lefiya waited impatiently for her training to begin, gladder than ever that she’d requested Aiz. 
“Let’s start, then…” 
“Yes, ma’am!” 
“…So…what should we do?” 
“…” 
Lefiya almost fell to her knees. She had already failed before she could even begin. 
“Is there anything I can teach you? I’m a sword fighter, after all…” 
The two reached the same fundamental issue, though it was too late to worry about it. 
Beyond the how-tos of adventuring, there really wasn’t much a swordswoman could teach a magic user. The practical skills and combat methods of a caster like Lefiya, focused on chanting techniques and ranged attacks from the rear guard, did not have a great deal of overlap with a swordswoman like Aiz, who focused on hand-to-hand combat on the front line. 
“I’ve been thinking about what I could do with you since yesterday…but I couldn’t come up with anything,” Aiz confessed weakly, her head hung in apology. Her brain was already pushed to its limits coming up with a training regimen for Bell. 
Indeed, if Lefiya truly wanted to polish her skills as a magic user, she’d have better luck continuing under Riveria’s tutelage. That would have been much more helpful. 
Lefiya could feel the inklings of shame building like sweat beneath her collar. She’d been focused solely on being with Aiz and hadn’t considered much else. 
A heavy quiet settled over the two of them as their gazes drifted toward the ground. 
Not even the far-off cry of a monster could break the silence. 
Finally, Lefiya couldn’t bear it any longer. “What, uh…what kinds of things are you doing with that human?” 
“Mostly we’ve just been having practice duels…” Aiz began. 
But before she’d finished her thought, she suddenly understood, and she took on a considering expression. 
“…Has Riveria covered Concurrent Casting with you yet, Lefiya?” 
A look of surprise crossed Lefiya’s face, and then she nodded stiffly. 
“Th-the basics of it, yes. Though I am…not very good…” she confessed, cheeks tinted pink with shame. 
She’d been given the general knowledge but had yet to really put it into practice. As it stood now, she couldn’t handle much more than a brisk walk or light run while chanting. 
According to Riveria, her “mind and spirit weren’t ready,” which was why the high elf had been having her meditate to train her inner self. 
In reality, Concurrent Casting was more of a pipe dream for Lefiya, with training to hasten her chanting time requiring most of her efforts. Shaving off even a single second meant that much less of a burden for her party members. After all, one second in the Dungeon could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Chanting skills weren’t just important for a magic user, they were their everything. 
“It’s ’cause yer head’s as soft as tofu, Lefiya!” Loki had once told her, whatever that meant. 
Hence why she was studying the way of the “unshakable tree,” as Riveria called it. So she could keep her cool no matter the situation and prevent an Ignis Fatuus from occurring when she used magic. 
While Lefiya shamefully explained all her faults and shortcomings and everything she’d been taught, Aiz merely nodded, deep in thought. 
Aiz pondered scrupulously, her eyes never leaving Lefiya’s. “…I’m not sure if mixing in my teachings with Riveria’s will be a good thing or not, but why don’t we try practicing some Concurrent Casting? In an actual battle,” she added, making Lefiya stop short. 
“If you can manage that, you should even be able to fight on your own…I think.” 
Lefiya gulped audibly. 
Being able to use Concurrent Casting would practically make her a mobile artillery battery. It was what every rearguard magic user dreamed of. 
And Aiz had a chance to capitalize on Lefiya’s solid foundation to get a bit of sword practice while providing instruction—an arrangement that would mutually benefit both sides. 
At the very least, something would change, Lefiya thought almost hopefully. 
“Of course, it could be that Riveria only decided to teach you Concurrent Casting to instill a bit of confidence in you…” 
“…” 
“Which isn’t necessarily the wrong idea…I’m just worried about doing something unnecessary. What do you think?” Aiz pondered, leaving the final decision to Lefiya. 
As those golden eyes peered into her own, Lefiya’s gaze fell, and she gripped her staff tightly in both hands. 
Aiz was right. There was no doubt Riveria had made the correct decision in disciplining Lefiya’s immature spirit, instilling some self-confidence, and helping her grow as a magic user. 
But when? When would that confidence finally come? 
At what point could she say with absolute faith that she was no longer a burden to Aiz, Riveria, Tiona and Tione, and all the others—a feat that seemed no less difficult than scaling the world’s tallest mountain? 
In a year? 
Five years? 
Ten? Twenty? 
She couldn’t wait—that would be too long. 
No matter how tall that mountain, if she didn’t aim for the top regardless of how she appeared to others, she’d never be able to stand among those women. 
The disappointment she’d been down on the twenty-fourth floor, the cowardice she’d shown during the Monsterphilia…If only she had mastered Concurrent Casting at the time. Lefiya pondered what might have been. 
Then she wouldn’t have held the others back. At the very least, she could have been a greater asset to them. 
Even if there was risk, Lefiya wanted to give everything she had—not for the future but for now. 
Raising her head, she looked Aiz straight in the eye. 
“Please give me training in Concurrent Casting! Please help me practice!” Lefiya’s voice rang out, filled with determination. 
She would master Concurrent Casting. 
Her goal was to become a moving fortress. 
And as Lefiya stood there, eyes brimming with courage, Aiz nodded. 
“Understood.” 
The two women faced each other, weapons at the ready and their expressions the embodiment of solemnity. 
“See if you can chant and dodge my strikes at the same time.” 
“Yes, ma’am!” 
Thrusting Desperate into the ground next to her, Aiz readied her scabbard. 
Following Aiz’s lead, Lefiya, too, readied her staff. Thinking back on everything Riveria had taught her about the basics of Concurrent Casting, she prepared her mind for both chanting and moving. 
Knowing she’d have her Magic to fall back on, she focused first on the physical act of moving—lips included. It would be very remiss of her to forget that. 
Nerves of steel. An unshakable tree. 
Levying her nervousness, she took off with a start, first chant already on her lips. 
“Unlea—” 
Lefiya barely had time to begin her backward leap when an attack came from the front at an almost superhuman speed. 
“Huh?” 
The scabbard hit her square in the side before the air could even finish passing her lips. 
She let out an unnatural groan. 
“Oh.” 
With a single explosive blow from the Sword Princess, Lefiya went flying through the air, and her staff sailed skyward. 
Aiz, on the other hand, stood frozen in the middle of her attack, scabbard still in its final position. 
Lefiya tumbled across the floor of the Dungeon before coming to a stop. She moaned despondently with her arms clutching her abdomen. 
“L-Lefiya!” 
Aiz rushed to the girl’s side, an apology already on her lips. 
Lefiya had managed only two syllables of her chant. Aiz broke into a sweat, fearing she might have caused an Ignis Fatuus. 
The young elf continued groaning in agony from the floor, her body trembling. 
“I’m really sorry, Lefiya…I went at you like I was still training that boy.” 
But as soon as she heard Aiz’s words, Lefiya’s eyebrows twitched upward in anger. 
That boy could refer to none other than the white-haired brat who’d stolen her Aiz away from her… 
Lefiya’s face was heating up. Doing her best to shake off the bitter resentment building inside her, she pushed herself to her feet with an energetic pop. 
“I am…completely fine! So…keep coming like that!” 
“A-all right,” Aiz managed, stunned. 
Lefiya’s face was all (forced) smiles even as she cradled her side with one hand. Her drive to succeed had only intensified, reinforced by the burning enmity she felt for Bell. 
Fetching her staff from the ground, she did her best to compose herself. 
Then readied herself for her next bout of Concurrent Casting. 
“Huh?!” 
But. 
“Ack!” 
Unfortunately. 
“Eeeeeeek!!” 
She couldn’t make even a little progress. 
“U-unleashed pillar of—nngah!” 
Lefiya’s body finally crumpled after her chant was painfully interrupted by Aiz’s scabbard. 
Her legs simply gave out, and she dropped on her rump to the floor with a tiny thud. She let her staff slip from her hands as her chest heaved in and out. 
She couldn’t complete a single spell. 
Even with Aiz going easy on her, she was spending so much effort watching out for incoming attacks that she couldn’t complete even the most basic spell. It felt as though all she was accomplishing was practice for preventing an Ignis Fatuus backfire. 
While she certainly wasn’t about to pass out as easily as a lower-class adventurer like Bell, she was clearly running on fumes by this point. 
“I’m sorry, Lefiya…” Aiz’s gaze was fixed to the floor in front of the downed elf. “I overestimated myself…I shouldn’t have meddled with things I know nothing about…It’s just like Riveria said…” Aiz’s voice dripped with remorse. She didn’t know anything about magic users or the ideal way to give instruction on Concurrent Casting. She was nothing but an amateur. 
Upon hearing Aiz’s apology and sigh directed at her unsightly, even disheveled self, Lefiya’s lips slowly parted. 
“Miss Aiz…can I just ask…how that human is faring?” she asked, eyes boring holes through the floor. 
Aiz cocked her head to the side. It took her a moment to respond. 
Finally: “He’s very earnest. He tries so hard. And he’s incredibly honest…” As she relayed everything she’d seen, heard, and felt during the boy’s training, she couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her lips. “His growth is unprecedented…and I believe he has considerable room to grow even further,” she concluded, wonder tangible in her voice. In her mind, she thought back to the boy’s training session and the glimpse she had caught of his astonishing growth on only their second day. He had hung so fiercely on her every word, sunk his teeth into her every instruction. 
Hearing this, Lefiya’s hands hit the floor with a mighty slap. 
“?!” 
The impact and power of a Level 3 left a crack in the Dungeon floor and rising wisps of smoke. 
Lefiya’s body began to shake. 
Her despair had reached its peak. 
I couldn’t do…a single thing… 
While I’ve been doing nothing but making a disgrace of myself, that boy has only improved?! 
Fiery heat engulfed her body. The relentless waves of boiling-hot rage only further fostered the uncontrollable trembling of her every muscle. 
In her mind, she could see him. He dashed ahead of her, wearing a disgustingly refreshing smile as he said, Giving up already? Well then, I’ll be going on ahead! 
Grrrrr……!! Her mind sputtered in barely repressed, incomprehensible fury. 
Her pathetic state was unforgivable. 
She wouldn’t tolerate it anymore. 
Not when that boy was working hard enough to earn recognition from Aiz already! 
—I won’t lose! I won’t! 
This was the moment that human boy became Lefiya’s rival. 
Roaring from the depths of her lungs, she flung herself to her feet. 
Her eyes narrowed, displaying a mettle not present during her training with Riveria, shining with an overpowering determination that seemed enough to pierce through the Dungeon’s walls. 
“I can still go on. Please continue!” 
Aiz stared at the girl for a moment in wide-eyed amazement before finally smiling. 
With a nod, she readied her scabbard, and Lefiya’s Concurrent Casting practice began anew. 
Refusing to shrink back from attack after attack, Lefiya continued her song and chants, blue eyes blazing all the while. 
 
“Hey, Riveria. What’s Lefiya been up to lately?” 
Tiona was covered from head to toe in blood and wounds. 
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question…?” Riveria sighed from her position on the couch. One hand held a cup of tea while the other pressed lightly at the spot between her closed eyes. 
Five days remained until the expedition. 
They were in the parlor room of Twilight Manor, home of Loki Familia, just a bit before noon. The majority of members had already left for the day, leaving Riveria alone to rest in the lounge overlooking the street. Until two twin Amazonian sisters had appeared, their matching pareu-style skirts looking decidedly worse for wear. 
A lingering heat wafted up from their exposed dark skin as Tiona’s semi-short mop and Tione’s long silken tresses both swayed softly. 
“Tione and I were sparring! Sparring!” 
“We were both feeling a little discouraged after Aiz’s last level-up. Couldn’t just leave it at that, now, could we?” 
Tione’s slumped shoulders looked mildly out of place juxtaposed with Tiona’s overly cheerful exaltation. Of course, they were referring to Aiz’s recent progress to Level 6. 
“Indeed, but we all have our limits…” Riveria sighed again, her eyes taking in the mangled state of both their bodies. 
This wasn’t unusual for the twins. Inseparable as they’d been since birth, they were always attempting to help bolster each other’s skills, from sparring matches like this to sisterly catfights, and even included worryingly almost-literal fights to the death. Riveria knew this. 
While she had no problem with the two of them duking it out, there was a point where the risk of danger became too high. 
“You aren’t the only ones. It seems the entire familia has gotten itself into a training craze. Honestly, and right before the expedition, too…” 
Indeed, the entire faction was feeling the effects of Aiz’s recent growth, ushering in a slew of intensive practice regimens. From the lower-class members to the upper echelons, it was like they were all ablaze, everyone inspired to achieve the same greatness as the beautifully powerful face of the familia—the Sword Princess. 
This was why the manor was so empty at the moment. Everyone was off in the Dungeon or undergoing harsh training trying to follow in her footsteps. 
The second-in-command of Loki Familia sighed in an attempt to flush out her worries. 
“I bet Lefiya’s probably training, too.” Tiona thought back first to the deadly aura Lefiya had exuded that one night at dinner and then to the extraordinary new burst of enthusiasm she had been displaying recently. Could Aiz have something to do with that? 
“Come to think of it, Aiz has seemed a little off lately, too, hasn’t she?” Tione mused beside her sister. 
“You know anything, Riveria?” 
“I am just as in the dark as you two…” 
Though even as she said it, Riveria’s mind drifted back to her memories of the day prior. 
Lefiya had approached her in need of learning materials. This by itself wasn’t at all unusual, but there’d been something about her, like she was possessed by some horrifying demon. The change had been enough to make even Riveria hesitate. 
Lefiya had spent the entire night rooted to her desk, paging through book after book. She’d always been a little zealous, but her desperately repeating sessions of trial and error went beyond her normal efforts. 
Perhaps she has found a good rival to spar with. 
Riveria might not have lived as long as a god, but she was a high elf and had lived her fair share of years—she recognized this kind of change when she saw it. 
“More important…Do something about your appearance, you two.” Riveria unsubtly brought up the twins’ disheveled condition. 
It wouldn’t have surprised her if the “sparring” the two had done wasn’t closer to that of an actual battle, considering their bloodstained skin and messy clothes, hair, and faces. 
Elves were naturally fastidious, and for Riveria, looking at the two of them right now was positively agonizing. 
“Meh. We’re just resting a bit before we have another go. Why bother?” 
“Yeah, it’d be a pain anyway.” 
All Riveria could do was let out another sigh at the blithe and optimistic Amazonian sisters. 
Standing up from the sofa, she took Tione’s hand and forced her onto a nearby chair. 
“What are you doing?” 
“You want to look like a lady for Finn, yes? Then you should at least do something about your hair.” 
Riveria circled around behind the girl and started combing her long, dark hair. Using one of the combs in the parlor room, she tamed Tione’s unkempt hair bit by bit. 
“You’re actually quite…good at this, Riveria. I’d always thought that, as a high elf, you’d have servants to do these kinds of things for you.” 
“It was when I was looking after Aiz. That girl…She didn’t give a single thought to her hair. Things got to the point where I couldn’t take it any longer. I ended up learning,” Riveria explained with a wry smile. Her eyes narrowed as her thoughts drifted back to memories from many years ago. 
Tione’s own eyes slowly closed. The feeling of Riveria’s hands softly threading through her hair was a bit ticklish, but it was so wonderful at the same time. 
“No fair! Do me next, Riveria!” 
“All right, all right, just give me a moment.” Riveria’s eyes softened with a smile as she shook her head, clucking her tongue. These girls. 
Helpless between the almost catlike Amazonian sisters in their capriciousness, Riveria wove the tines through Tiona’s long hair with gentle swish-swishes that seemed to fill the room. 
“Hey, Riveria?” 
“What is it?” 

“You knew Aiz since she was little, right? Like…around the time she entered the familia?” Tiona asked slowly, watching over her sister from the nearby chair. 
“I did,” Riveria replied, not even turning her head. 
It had been almost nine years since that day. Aiz had been only seven. 
“Did you know Aria?” 
Riveria’s hand came to an abrupt stop. 
“Riveria…?” Tione turned around in her seat, eyeing the elf suspiciously. 
Riveria, on the other hand, turned her jade-colored eyes toward Tiona. 
“Where did you hear that name?” 
“Lefiya…She said Aiz was called that during that time down on the eighteenth and twenty-fourth floors,” Tiona explained sincerely, her eyes now fixed on Riveria. The two sisters intently watched the high elf, her beauty surpassing even that of goddesses. 
“Seems like a lot of weird stuff has been happening lately. New species of monsters, whatever it was that happened to Bete and the others on the twenty-fourth floor…I can’t be sure, but it seems like something serious is going on.” 
The viola attacks that’d plagued them since the Monsterphilia. 
The battle that had broken out surrounding Hashana’s control of the crystal-orb fetus down in Rivira on the eighteenth floor and the chance encounter with that monster-manipulating tamer woman, the creature Levis. 
Then on the twenty-fourth floor, as if that wasn’t already enough, the remnants of the shadowy Evils faction had decided to make an appearance, along with their schemes to destroy Orario. 
Tiona crossed her legs atop the sofa, trembling slightly as she relayed each event in turn. 
“It almost makes me wonder whether Aiz being called ‘Aria’ by those thugs has something to do with, you know, everything that’s been going on lately.” 
“…” 
“I mean, Aria’s the name of the main character in that legend, right? But that couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Aiz…” 
As Tiona trailed off, Riveria let her gaze return forward. 
Silently, broodingly, she ran the comb once more through Tione’s hair before coming to a stop, just as she’d done so many times for Aiz in the past. 
“You know anything, Riveria?” Tione asked. 
But Riveria didn’t reply. 
The only thing that changed was the tilt of her head, just enough that she could direct her gaze out the window. 
“The fifty-ninth floor…” Riveria finally said. “…There, everything will be made clear.” 
The sky reflected a brilliant blue in her jade eyes. 
 
“Y’know, yer theory was right on the money, Finn!” 
It was out on the main street, with the sun shining down and the sky crystal clear, where an unhurried voice—lazy, almost—announced its opinion. 
It was about the same time Riveria and company were having their own conversation up in the parlor room of the manor. Bustling carriages and boisterous demi-humans clattered about the cobblestones, while the prum Finn glanced up at the figure next to him. 
“How so, Loki?” 
Walking along beside him was none other than the goddess with ginger hair and cinnabar-colored eyes, Loki. 
The deity in question glanced down at her follower, hands laced behind her head. 
“When we went over everything with Gareth and Riveria! Said it yerself, didn’cha?” 
It had been six days now since Aiz had gotten them involved in that incident down on the twenty-fourth floor. 
Loki had been discussing it together with the three faction leaders in their home’s office, and it was then that Finn had said it. They still knew nothing about that creature Levis, and they were still in the dark regarding that new species of monster and their strange, richly colored magic stones. 
“We simply don’t have the knowledge to pacify that many monsters. Doing so—” 
—is nothing more than a fantasy, was how Finn had finally completed his sentence in an attempt at masking his true feelings. 
“But you actually wanted to finish that sentence like this, yeah?” Loki brought it up again, refusing to let sleeping dogs lie. And then, in a perfect imitation of Finn, “Doing so would put us on par with those monstrous underground dwellers.” 
The prum’s shoulders visibly slumped. Loki had seen straight through him. 
“It seems even a god like you could take a stab at where that was heading.” 
“And what a stab!” Loki teased, a playful smile gracing her lips. “What’s left of the Evils—they ain’t people or monsters. They’re phantoms. Which is why this whole thing with the crystal orb turned into such a big to-do. Finn, whaddaya think is down on the fifty-ninth floor, huh?” 
During their encounter on the twenty-fourth floor, Levis had told Aiz: 
“Go to the fifty-ninth floor. Should answer a lot of your questions.” 
And that’s where they were going on their expedition. To the new depths beyond the farthest they’d ever tread—the fifty-ninth floor. 
Just what exactly awaited them there? 
“I doubt someone like me could even hazard a guess,” Finn countered, his answer purposefully vague as a sort of riposte. He gave his thumb a little lick, intent on keeping his thoughts firmly to himself. 
“Though I will say that we might finally have met our match.” 
And it wasn’t just a single entity, either. It was a giant shadow made of countless, erratically overlapping lines. 
A presence entangled in the expectations of many…or something like that, Finn believed. 
“Ain’t that the truth,” muttered Loki under her breath. 
Finn watched her out of the corner of his eye, his thumb beginning to throb. 
“Hey, Finn…care if I speak freely?” Loki asked abruptly. 
“What is it?” Finn looked up to see her stop short a few feet in front of him. 
She turned around. 
In that single moment, the air between them changed, almost as if she’d taken off some kind of mask. The corners of her mouth curled upward. 
“This is why I can’t leave this world alone.” 
“…” 
“Hybrids aren’t humans or monsters. Even for us all-knowin’ gods, entirely unexpected things’re happenin’—like an ‘unknown’ that deities themselves can’t predict.” 
Loki’s eyes widened just slightly, revealing a twinkle of delight. It was almost as though she was drunk on some sort of high-grade wine. 
She could sense the unknown she had thirsted after for so long. The feeling of foreboding was enough to make her stomach curl even as the warm sun shined on the tranquil cobblestones beneath her feet. And yet that wasn’t enough to stop the insatiable elation from building in her belly. 
Loki let out a laugh of pure, unadulterated joy. 
Finn responded with a faint smile of his own, watching his goddess in silence. 
“’Course, I’m most worried about you guys, yeah? I’m all choked up about it! Make sure ya come back alive, y’hear!” Reverting back to her usual blasé attitude, Loki circled around behind Finn and gave his shoulders a little squeeze. 
They were attracting attention now. Finn forced a somewhat sardonic smile. 
“No need to worry, Loki. I’m an adventurer, after all,” he responded amid the teasing. “I know all too well the feeling of challenging the unknown.” 
Loki met Finn’s upturned gaze, pausing for just a moment before shooting him a grin. 
The goddess and prum shared a long history, indeed. 
Before long, they had resumed their walk. 
The path they followed was Northeast Main Street. It bordered the Industrial District, the city’s number two ward and the heart of the magic-stone manufacturing and production industry, and was constantly clogged with freelance laborers from various guilds and familia craftsmen. 
Being an area so focused on manufacturing, the majority of passersby were laborers in work attire. Burly middle-aged humans toted tools and materials to this place or that while animal-people studied production orders and shouted themselves hoarse. All throughout the hubbub echoed the clanging of metal on metal, interposed with the crassly shouted songs of dwarves at work. 
It was safe to say women and children were a foreign sight in a man’s world such as this. Looking decidedly out of place, the petite Finn and female Loki wound their way from the main street to the heart of the district. 
Still chatting idly, the two of them arrived at a little bungalow of a workshop. 
“—We’re here.” 
In front of the workshop, the building itself in desperate need of a good soot-cleansing, stood a goddess with hair of blazing vermilion. 
She directed her left eye, of the same brilliant hue as her hair, toward Loki and Finn. Her right eye was currently hidden beneath the large eye patch that sheathed half her face. 
“Mornin’, Phai-Phai. Or should I say ‘afternoon’?” 
The woman in front of them was none other than Hephaistos, world-renowned goddess of the forge and timeless leader of Hephaistos Familia. 
“Phai-Phai,” as Loki called her, raised a hand in greeting. 
Even with the impressive jet-black eye patch, her divine beauty left no doubts as to whether she was a goddess or not. Her ensemble of white tunic paired with black trousers and gloves exuded an air of rustic masculinity, which, when coupled with her stunning visage, no doubt marked her as the sort of person inclined to care for others. 
Hephaistos responded to Loki with a greeting of her own, red hair swaying slightly as her lips formed a weak smile. 
“Sorry for calling you all the way out here like this, Loki.” 
“Think nothin’ of it! We’re the ones draggin’ yer mates along on our expedition to keep our weapons all nice ’n’ shiny, after all.” 
Loki Familia had sought Hephaistos Familia’s help on their upcoming expedition. 
Finn had come to Hephaistos (via Loki) to request provision of a High Smith in hopes of staving off wear and tear for their weapons during their expedition. 
Hephaistos had agreed, so long as her followers were guaranteed the drop items from the Dungeon. Thus, an alliance had been forged between the two familias. 
“Your acceptance of our proposal means the world to us, Lady Hephaistos.” 
“Oh? Such gratitude from a prum of valor like yourself is a distinction all its own. It brings me nothing but honor to help you and your familia on your trek through the Dungeon.” Hephaistos’s eye crinkled in response to Finn’s deep bow. 
“Your words are too kind, milady.” Finn’s eyes closed at the goddess’s dignified demeanor. 
“This is the first time y’all are meetin’, right?” 
“It is. Though we’ve greeted each other many times in the past, this is the first time we’ve spoken face-to-face, I believe,” Finn said. 
“Let’s continue this conversation inside, yes?” Hephaistos suggested before guiding Loki and Finn toward her workshop. The two followed her into the building, surrounded by the clamorous clanking of metal on metal. 
“We’ve been asking her again and again to have a meeting before the expedition…Finally had to just come here ourselves. She really doesn’t ever leave her workshop, does she?” 
Loki just laughed. “She’s just like you, Phai-Phai! A real craftsman at heart. Seems the apple don’t fall far from the tree after all, eh?” 
“I suppose some things never change.” 
Hephaistos let out a sigh, which elicited another chuckle from Loki and a quirk of the lips from Finn. 
Immediately upon entering the doorway, they were greeted with the strong smell of iron, which permeated the air of the workshop and the considerably sized smithy connected to it. Lacking sufficient magic-stone lamps, the space was shrouded in dim shadow, the main source of light coming from the brilliant red flames of the roaring furnace. 
Now that they’d entered the building, the mad clang, clang of metal on metal they’d been able to hear outside besieged their eardrums all the more. It was there, farther inside the workshop, that they saw her. 
She was facing away from them, surrounded on all sides by some of the biggest tools they’d ever seen and pounding animatedly at an ingot on her anvil with a hammer. 
Ember after ember from the nearby furnace singed the copper skin of her cheeks; sweat poured from her face in rivulets, adding still more to her aura of gallantry. While her disciplined features lacked the feminine allure of a woman, there was a different sort of beauty about her—ferocious, like a blazing pyre: the epitome of a craftsman. 
She took no notice of Hephaistos and the others, eyes glued to her anvil as the hammer descended with one mighty strike after another. 
Finn and Loki came to a stop a few steps away from the forge. Hephaistos gestured silently for them to wait, and they complied with a nod, simply watching over the lone smith at work. 
The woman’s ebony ponytail shuddered, and with one final clang of the hammer, her hand came to a stop. Without missing a beat, she snatched the completed sword body from off her anvil with a pair of tongs. 
There was a hiss, followed by a plume of steam. A honed, polished blade came into view. A novice watching could have no way of knowing how long she’d spent on the weapon as she slapped together the hilt and flange. In a flash, the sword was complete. 
She spent a moment scrutinizing the crimson blade in her hand before finally letting out a sigh. 
“Tsubaki.” Hephaistos beckoned the woman with long black hair flowing down her back. 
The one she’d called Tsubaki turned around. 
“Oh?” As though noticing them just now, her right eye widened in surprise. Almost instantly, her face broke into a broad smile. 
“How many weeks has it been, my goddess? Need something? No, wait! Take a look at this magic sword I just whipped up. I’m pretty confident about this one.” 
As old as the woman looked, you’d almost think she was a child by the way she gleefully held out her sword, all smiles. 
“I was just here two days ago…” said Hephaistos, responding to the woman’s endless stream of words with a sigh. “We need to discuss your upcoming expedition with Loki’s team. I told you this, right?” The hint of frustration was tangible. 
“Ohh!” Tsubaki bellowed in what seemed like acknowledgment. She walked over to them with a laugh. “That’s right, that’s right!” 
“Good to see you again, Tsubaki.” 
“Well, if it isn’t Finn! Tiny as ever! When you’re cooped up in a shop all day, ya start missin’ the warmth of other people. C’mere and gimme a squeeze, would ya?” Tsubaki exclaimed before approaching the prum with her arms outstretched. 
“I’m afraid I’ll have to decline,” Finn said with a wry smile. “Tione would have my head if she found out.” 
The woman let out a bellow of laughter. 
Tsubaki Collbrande was the captain of Hephaistos Familia. 
Not only did she command the virtual army of High Smiths that made up the familia of forge work, she herself was the most skilled smith in all of Orario. 

 

She was a half-dwarf, her parents a human from the Far East and a dwarf from the continent; she boasted a set of graceful features reminiscent of her eastern origins. Standing at a good 170 celch, she was fairly tall with long arms and legs, no doubt thanks to her human blood—a quality that apparently made her the envy of her short-limbed dwarven brethren. 
Her work wear boasted the eastern flair of her mother’s homeland, the bottom consisting of a brilliant red hakama and the top consisting of nothing but a bleached cloth pulled tight around her ample bosom. As for why she kept her copper-colored stomach and shoulders bare in spite of the constant assault of embers, well, Finn had once heard her explain that the forge was “damn hot!” 
Topping everything off were a shapely red right eye and, most notably, a jet-black eye patch nearly identical to Hephaistos’s—the only difference being that it covered Tsubaki’s left eye instead of her right. 
“By the looks of it, ya made somethin’ ridiculous again, didn’t ya, Cyclops?” 
“You know I don’t like that name, Loki! Makes me feel like some kinda monster! How’d you like it, huh?” Tsubaki’s face soured as Loki snickered at the newly finished sword in her hands. 
“Cyclops” was the title given to Tsubaki by the other deities. 
Being both a smith and a Level 5 adventurer, with the combat skills to prove it, made her a bit of an oddity if not an outright demon. 
The peerless combat skills of the almost excessively unique craftsmen (Tsubaki included) was just one of the many reasons other factions rarely attacked Hephaistos Familia—that and its establishment as an invaluable familia of smiths. 
Loki snickered somewhat lecherously. “I will say yer lookin’ as busty as ever. Look! Practically fallin’ outta that thing you call a shirt!” 
“Want ’em? You can have ’em! These two lumps of fat do nothin’ but get in the way at the forge. Don’t need ’em!” 
“Guh-hah!” Loki nearly choked. She hadn’t expected her obscene remark to be met with such scathing retaliation. 
Tsubaki just cackled, the twin mounds in question bouncing somewhat stiffly within their cloth restraint. 
“Shall we get back to the subject at hand?” 
“Let’s. Time is of the essence, after all.” 
Ignoring Loki in her plight, Finn and Hephaistos attempted to steer the conversation back on track. 
“Yes, ma’am!” Tsubaki nodded between mouthfuls, snacking on a piece of soot-covered jerky that had been sitting on her desk for who knows how long while she’d busied herself at the forge. 
And with that, once Loki had recovered, the deities and captains of both familias, shrouded in the gloom of that dim workshop, dove straight into discussion regarding their upcoming expedition. 
“Look, I’m just gonna ask ya straight—how many High Smiths ya givin’ us?” 
“Hmm…Looking at smiths who are not only experienced craftsmen but able-bodied adventurers, as well…I’d say we have about twenty, Tsubaki included. Every one of them is at least Level Three, so you can have faith in their abilities,” Hephaistos replied. 
There was no telling what might happen upon entering the Dungeon. It would be to their advantage to have party members who could not only maintain their weapons but take care of themselves in a pinch. 
“That’s reassuring. Though I have to ask—will you be joining us, as well, Tsubaki?” Finn inquired. 
“For sure! I wanna see those depths for myself. That and, if at all possible, I’d like to be the one nabbin’ any new materials,” Tsubaki replied, brimming with curiosity as to what awaited them beyond the floors her own faction had traversed. She shot them a smile devoid of worry. “It’ll be a great opportunity!” 
“And what of our Durandal weapons?” 
“A-OK there! Five of ’em, each one prepped personally!” 
“Nice, Tsubaki. Thank ya.” 
“Can I ask you two to give Bete Loga an earful for me? Near impossible request he gave me! Comin’ to me cryin’ that his poor Frosvirt was all in pieces—took me forever to rebuild! Damn werewolf.” 
Knowing they’d have those caterpillar monsters to deal with from the fiftieth floor onward—nasty critters that secreted corrosive, weapon-destroying fluids—Finn and the others had left their Durandal Superiors with Hephaistos and her crew. This included the weapons for each of their top-class adventurers excluding Aiz, who already had Desperate, and Riveria, who was simply a magic user. 
Tsubaki had already finished up all the Durandal weapons, so when Bete had come to her with his Superior, Frosvirt, completely destroyed after their bout with Levis on the twenty-fourth floor, she’d been put out, to say the least. Apparently he’d come running immediately after the incident, demanding personally that she “fix it before the expedition!” 
Tsubaki had been working day and night without sleep readying the equipment for their main party. Finn and Loki both made sure to offer her additional words of thanks. 
“Though, really, I’m not sure that magic sword was necessary…” 
“Yeah, we did already order a bunch o’ Superiors from y’all, and yer stuff ain’t exactly, uh, cheap…” 
“Come now. Surely a familia like yours should have no problem getting a loan.” Hephaistos’s left eye crinkled in mirth. 
It was true that a magic sword, what with its instant, long-range capabilities, would be a good candidate for taking on those caterpillars. But magic swords were already expensive enough, let alone a top-tier model from Hephaistos Familia. 
“G-go easy there…” Loki replied with a forced laugh. 
“Though I gotta say, when it comes to craftin’ magic swords…you could do better than me,” Tsubaki mumbled to herself. 
“What, do you mean there’s someone better than you in that familia of yours?” Finn posed, to which Tsubaki nodded happily. 
“Someone far better at forgin’ magic swords! Fact is, I don’t think there’s anyone what knows more ’bout magic swords than that person in the whole world.” 
Both Finn’s and Loki’s eyes widened in surprise. 
Tsubaki Collbrande was the finest smith in all of Orario. 
Hearing that there was someone even better than her, the master smith, was a shock, to say the least. 
“For you to talk about them like that, they must be someone, indeed. Who is it?” 
As though waiting for Finn to ask just that question, Tsubaki chuckled gleefully. 
“Listen and be amazed! It’s none other than that ol’ blue blood—” 
“That’s enough, Tsubaki,” Hephaistos interrupted. “You know as well as I that our colleague would prefer their lineage kept a secret.” 
Left Eye Patch grumbled sullenly in response to Right Eye Patch’s stern admonishment. 
“Come oooon! We got nothin’ to lose! Lemme tell ’em!” 
“Good grief! It’s this kind of self-centered carelessness that’s already sent people to him asking about magic swords. Remember how angry he was?” 
It was clear to Finn and Loki that things were a bit complicated among the members of Hephaistos Familia. 
Tsubaki, however, showed no signs that she’d actually taken Hephaistos’s scolding to heart. 
“Such a waste! All that talent and he ain’t even usin’ it. Makes no sense to me.” Tsubaki sighed, her gaze falling to the red blade in her hand—the magic sword fresh from the forge. 
Then, in that moment… 
The air around her hardened. 
“Whether it’s blood or somethin’ else, if we don’t invest everything we got, us little folks’ll never get close to the domain of the gods. Things like all-powerful weapons ain’t nothin’ but dreams,” Tsubaki concluded, voice low. The ravenous glint in her right eye was enough to shame even the nearby furnace. 
It was the same glint Loki and the others had seen so many times in the eyes of adventurers like Aiz, who constantly aimed higher and higher. 
The look of pride, a thirst for more, and the insatiable perseverance of a craftsman. 
Tsubaki knew that if she didn’t bet everything, she’d never be able to forge a piece worthy of the gods, let alone one that surpassed them. It was something only she could know, having reached the highest pinnacle one could as a craftsman. 
Tearing her gaze away from her creation, Tsubaki glanced over at Hephaistos and let out a bold peal of laughter. 
Hephaistos slumped her shoulders with a sigh at her follower’s bald-faced aggression. 
“That’s craftsmen for ya. Must be tough, Phai-Phai.” 
“Mmn…At any rate, shall we return to the issue at hand?” 
Steering the conversation back on track, the quartet moved on to sketching out the expedition. 
“Is the plan to meet in front of Babel, then? And enter from there together?” 
“Yes. Once inside the Dungeon, my team and I will do our best to protect the rest of the group. While this may need to change in emergency situations, for the most part all combat should be left to us.” 
“We’ll help with half of the supplies. We’ve come this far already—might as well share the load.” 
“Thanks, Phai-Phai. Appreciate it.” 
The four of them ran through their respective final checklists before bringing the meeting to a close, and then Finn and Loki bid the others farewell and left the workshop behind them. 
Preparations for Loki Familia’s expedition were well under way.