DanMachi Universe, Lower World, Orario.
"*Sigh* You are as ill-tempered as ever, Aislynn, my dear." Apollo said in the tone of someone dealing with a rather difficult relative.
"Get on with it, Light Bright." Aislynn said in an annoyed tone. "Otherwise, I won't even give you the chance to explain yourself."
*Grind!*
By now, Hyakinthos, who had been glaring at Tatsuo with murder in his eyes, finally turned his glare in Aislynn's direction. Hearing how disrespectful she was being to his Lord, Apollo, he was grinding his teeth so violently that everyone in both Familias could hear it.
"What are you looking at, Boy?" Aislynn asked while barely sparing Hyakinthos a glance.
Apollo also glanced at Hyakinthos when he heard Aislynn's displeased question. However, instead of saying anything to stop his most favored child, his smile only widened. He did, however, place a hand on Hyakinthos's shoulder to stop him from saying or doing anything reckless.
"There's no need to be so angry, is there, Aislynn?" Apollo asked cheerfully. "But fine, I'll make my proposal."
Reaching that point, Apollo let his gaze pass over all ten members of the Aislynn Familia. And while he smiled brightly at Tatsuo, Violet, James, Alfonzo, Elicia, Aletia, Akatsuki, Sakura, and Momo, he frowned at Zelretch, as his age did not match Apollo's definition of beauty.
"Those nine," Apollo said while pointing out the members of the Aislynn Familia he took a liking to. "Give them to me. I will surely compensate you. And the compensation will be quite grand, as they are worth it."
"I don't know if I should gloat or be jealous," James muttered while looking at Zelretch.
"Definitely jealous," Alfonzo replied.
"Hmph! If this sunshine pervert thinks he can take my Fonzie from me, I don't mind committing deicide." Elicia muttered viciously while her killing intent began to flare.
"I could just cut it off right now," Akatsuki said quietly. "I'm pretty sure no one would notice until it was too late."
Unable to hear the conversation on the other side, Apollo shuddered violently, feeling that he was in serious danger. Then, once the shudder subsided, he started to look around with caution and confusion. Meanwhile, Aislynn, who could both hear what the members of the [Dimensional Chat] were saying and see the expression on Apollo's face, fought with all her might to not let her lips curl into a smile.
"No," Aislynn replied to Apollo's offer. "My children will not be joining your Familia. And you speak of compensation. I guarantee you have nothing that could possibly measure up to their value. Not here, and not in the Heavens."
Aislynn's refusal brought Apollo's attention back to the conversation. But now, his radiant smile had dimmed. Though it was still as wide as ever. Yet, just as he was about to open his mouth to respond, Aislynn beat him to it.
"In fact, even if you were to offer all of the members of your Familia, they wouldn't be worth even one of mine," Aislynn continued. "Not even the one you seem to despise. Besides, what would I do with that useless bunch you're so proud of."
This time, it was not only Apollo and Hyakinthos who were angered by Aislynn's words, as most of the Adventurers they brought with them were now angry, as well.
There were two exceptions, though.
The first was a young woman standing 5'5" with medium-length red hair and sharp yellow eyes with a rather strong aura. This young woman, Daphne Lauros, was a Level 2 Adventurer who seemed to look down on Apollo's hobby of forcefully taking Adventurers into his Familia, as she was a victim of this practice in the past.
The second was a nervous-looking, beautiful young woman with waist-length blue hair and light green eyes named Cassandra Ilion. Like Daphne, she did not agree with Apollo's tendency to forcibly recruit Adventurers into his Familia, as she, too, was a victim of this practice. However, that was not the only reason she was so against it this time.
"D-Daphne... We really should stop Lord Apollo..." Cassandra said in a timid tone.
"Because of that dream you had?" Daphne asked in a sharp tone while rolling her eyes. "Cassandra, you should know by now, you can't rely on something as unreliable as a dream to judge a situation."
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The "dream" Daphne was talking about was one of Cassandra's Skills. When asleep, Cassandra has the ability to see catastrophic future events. Unfortunately, whenever she tells someone about them once she awakens, no one believes her. Yet, everything she ever dreams of eventually happens in reality. Even so, it seems like everyone forgets about it, resulting in all of her prophetic dreams being dismissed as simple nightmares.
Meanwhile, back at the point of confrontation between Aislynn and Apollo, it looked as if things might escalate. Yet, despite Apollo's arrogance, he was not dumb enough to order his Familia to attack. Because he was well-aware of Aislynn's ability to simply flip the board if she chose to.
"Are you sure you want to deny me, Aislynn?" Apollo asked with his eyes narrowed.
"You make it sound like you could actually do something to me if I don't give in to your idiocy." Aislynn said dismissively. "On top of that, I haven't even come to you for compensation after your captain sent members of your Familia to attack my captain in the Dungeon. But you actually have the nerve to threaten me?"
That actually brought Apollo up short. He then turned to look at Hyakinthos with a question in his eyes.
At the same time, the nearby Adventurers began to gossip while stealing glances at Hyakinthos.
"That sounds just like something the Apollo Familia would do." A cat-girl said quietly.
"I know." A human girl replied. "They did something like that when they took Asa from us."
"Yeah, and when she defended herself, they accused her of viciously attacking them." Another human woman said through gritted teeth. "Then, they challenged us to a War Game and forcefully took her from us when we lost."
Similar conversations could be heard throughout the crowd in low voices. However, Apollo paid them no mind. Because despite being shameless, his actions did not break Orario's rules. Instead, he was waiting for Hyakinthos to answer his unasked question.
Meanwhile, Hyakinthos was glaring at Tatsuo. Because despite the fact that it was Aislynn who called Apollo out, he blamed Tatsuo for everything, simply because he knew better than to speak out against a god. However, before long, he could not stand the weight of Apollo's gaze. So, he nodded his head, admitting to Aislynn's accusation because he knew lying in front of a god was futile.
Seeing Hyakinthos nod his head, Apollo gritted his teeth. However, instead of getting angry at Hyakinthos, he turned his anger towards Aislynn.
"Clearly, your children must have done something to offend my Hyakinthos," Apollo said in an angry tone through gritted teeth. "There's no way my Hyakinthos would attack your Familia unprovoked. So, it is obviously you who should be compensating me. And as compensation, I want those nine children."
As he spoke, Apollo pointed his finger at the nine members of the Aislynn Familia he pointed out earlier.
In response, Aislynn threw her head back and laughed. In fact, she laughed so hard that tears began to well up in her eyes and she had to hold on to Tatsuo to maintain her balance. Then, after laughing for nearly a minute, Aislynn used her free hand to wipe her eyes before turning a vicious glare in Apollo's direction.
"Are you sure you really mean that, Apollo?" Aislynn asked sharply. "Every god in this city knows which divine ability has followed me down to the Lower World. And it's a fact that it is taken as proper evidence in all cases. So, I'll ask you again, are you really sure you want to go this route?"
If looks could kill, Aislynn would have died dozens of times over from Apollo's glare. Despite the anger he was feeling, Apollo did not say anything to refute. Instead, he turned away and waved to the members of his Familia to follow him. And to everyone's surprise, Aislynn just let him go.
"Well... That was fun," James said with a shrug. "But I'm curious, why did you let him go without getting that compensation you were talking about?"
Instead of answering, Aislynn turned to Tatsuo with a smile. Clearly, she wanted to test him by hearing his answer, causing the young half-dragon to sigh in exasperation.
"Because that guy's gonna become a stepping stone for us when we Level Up," Tatsuo said while shaking his head. "Just imagine how it will look when our Familia of eleven puts down his hundred-man-strong Familia in a War Game."
"Yeah, that would look pretty badass," Alfonzo said with a wide smile. "We'll all show that we're capable of going one-against-ten if the Level is close enough, right?"
"Honestly, we could probably take that whole Familia right now," Akatsuki said while looking towards the retreating members of the Apollo Familia. "If their captain wasn't included, anyway."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of us could win a one-on-one fight with a Level 2," Violet added with a nod. "And if we worked together, we wouldn't have any problem fighting everyone else in the Familia at the same time. But a Level 3..."
"That would be too much for us." Sakura said, finishing Violet's sentence.
"They're just lucky we can't use our real abilities yet," Elicia said with a smile. "Otherwise, we'd already be the strongest Familia in Orario."
"Although you're right," Zelretch said with a smile. "Perhaps you shouldn't say it so loudly. Otherwise, we look like lunatics when normal people hear us."
Luckily, as soon as the Apollo Familia left, the other Adventurers in the plaza stopped paying attention to the Aislynn Familia in favor of gossiping among themselves. And judging by the excited expressions on their faces, this news would spread all around Orario by the time Tatsuo and the others came out of the Dungeon in the evening.
"Anyway, we can think about that later," Tatsuo said while shaking his head. A moment later, he turned towards Babel Tower and continued as he started walking. "For now, let's focus on getting to Level 2 as soon as possible. Then, we can start causing trouble for the Apollo Familia however we want. Besides, that Cassandra chick's prophetic dreams might come in handy one day."
Hearing that, the other members of the Aislynn Familia smiled. Then, they followed him into the Dungeon.
DanMachi Universe, Lower World, Dungeon, 5th Floor.
Several hours passed after the Aislynn Familia entered the Dungeon. And just like the day before, James, Alfonzo, Lici, Violet, Aletia, Akatsuki, Zelretch, and Momo broke into their teams to hunt monsters on the Fourth Floor while Tatsuo and Sakura headed down to the Fifth Floor to hunt.
Unfortunately, Tatsuo and Sakura did not run into even a single War Shadow during their hours of hunting this time.
"Seriously?" Tatsuo said while swiping his tail through a Kobold's neck as he lunged towards a Goblin with his hands covered in [Spatial Energy]. "I know War Shadows are supposed to be rare on the Fifth Floor, but not even one today?"
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"That's just the way it is," Sakura said softly. "But we'll see more once we find the entrance to the Sixth Floor. We'll run into Killer Ants, too."
"Yeah, I know," Tatsuo replied while ripping the magic stone out of the Goblin's chest. "I just want more of a challenge. But these floors are just too easy. The monsters are too weak, and the spawn rate is too slow."
"Aren't you afraid of another Irregular Situation happening when you say something like that?" Sakura asked as her shadow expanded to collect the magic stones from the monsters she and Tatsuo just killed.
"Nah," Tatsuo replied while shaking off the blood on his gauntlets. "That kinda thing only happens when Lici says it."
Crack!
As soon as Tatsuo finished speaking, a crack opened in a wall down the corridor.
"You were saying?" Sakura asked while glancing at Tatsuo with a small smile.
"That doesn't prove anything," Tatsuo replied while looking down the corridor to see what would climb out of the crack. "By the way, isn't that crack bigger than usual?"
"It looks that way," Sakura replied while also eyeing the crack in the wall.
With that, the two waited to see what kind of monster would climb out of the crack in the wall. And to both of their surprises, it was a monster neither had ever seen before.
With a single, large, prominent eye in the middle of its head, a nearly three-foot-tall, green, toad-like monster squeezed out of the crack.
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"That's a Frog Shooter, right?" Sakura asked after the monster emerged from the wall.
"Yeah, it should---" Tatsuo said before he stopped abruptly and pushed Sakura to the side while jumping in the opposite direction. "Move!"
{Pic}
After pushing Sakura out of the way, Tatsuo started running along the wall opposite the one the Frog Shooter climbed out of. And as he moved, he was forced to constantly duck and slide away from the Frog Shooter's tongue.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
As the Frog Shooter's tongue soared past Tatsuo, it repeatedly smashed craters into the corridor's walls. However, because it was so focused on Tatsuo, the Frog Shooter did not notice the shadows creeping towards it across the floor. Then, before it could react, the shadows Sakura controlled rose from the ground and wrapped around the monster's limbs.
"*Croak!*" The Frog Shooter croaked in surprise when its legs were entangled.
"Nice!" Tatsuo exclaimed with a grin before he vanished from where he stood with a [Blink].
In the next instant, Tatsuo reappeared above the Frog Shooter with his arms spread wide and covered in [Spatial Energy] with a pair of magic circles flaring to life in front of them.
"[Void Dragon's Wing Attack]." Tatsuo chanted as he swung his arms through the magic circles.
*Swish!*
With Tatsuo's movements, a pair of whip-like streams of [Spatial Energy] extended from his hands before lashing towards the back of the Frog Shooter's head. Then, as soon as they made contact with the monster's head, they cut through it with little effort, splattering the monster's head into chunks of gore.
*Poof!*
A moment later, the remainder of the Frog Shooter's body turned into a cloud of black ash, and a magic stone fell to the floor in its place.
"No drop this time," Sakura said as she approached Tatsuo.
"You probably wouldn't have wanted to pick it up even if it dropped anything," Tatsuo replied.
"Why? What kind of stuff does a Frog Shooter drop?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Alchemy materials like Frog Eyes and Frog Tongues," Tatsuo said with a grin.
"How much are they worth?" Sakura asked without changing her expression.
"Yeah, I forgot, the girls in the [Dimensional Chat] aren't like normal girls," Tatsuo said with a chuckle. "Anyway, let's keep going, we still have a few more hours down here."
"Yes, let's go," Sakura replied with a nod as her shadow swallowed the magic stone.