(3rd person PoV)
"Bell, Henryk, the rest of you, I will be away for a few days to attend a gathering" Hestia said while donning a shawl over a slightly fancier dress than her usual one.
'The gods' banquet, begging lady Hephaestus for a weapon and monster feria. Almost forgot that last one' A reminder passed by Henryk's mind, stirring his memories of what the few coming days had coming.
"We should get you a new dress for Sir Ganesha's party. If I remember right, it's held at "I AM GANESHA!", their familia's home" Henryk said, cringing at the memory of the building.
"Why am I not surprised that you knew that it was a party and where it was held? And try to forget that building's shape, where its door's located and its name. It's excruciatingly disturbing and embarrassing" Hestia wanted to call Ganesha out on his weird taste, but it was his home, not hers. He has the right to make it however he wanted.
"I meet with him regularly to allow my children to walk around the city. I heard it from him, that showboat. Now, now, forget that! Do you want to buy a new dress? Especially in preparation for the party?" Henryk's excited smile hid his true intentions. It was not just the party dress they were going to buy; they would also try buying a few more things for Hestia to wear.
(Line Break)
"But I wanna use it!" Olympia shouted in protest.
"No means no, young lady!" Henryk stood in her way like an unmoving mountain.
"But my skill says I'll take no damage!" Olympia said with a glint in her eyes.
"That doesn't mean that you could ignore skill in wielding your weapon!" Henryk and Olympia went back and forth.
Olympia wanted to go with them to the dungeon with her skill active. Her dad already discussed their skills again last night. She had [Single Out], a skill that makes her near-invincible, and Henryk voiced his thoughts of not liking the way it robs her of the opportunity to learn weapon skills due to not having to worry about incurring damage.
"..." Henryk stood there, thinking of something. He sat on a pew and sighed. "Sit down, I'm gonna elaborate it for you"
"What... changed your mind, dad?" Olympia felt that her dad was stumped over something. The sudden change in his attitude also made her change hers.
"I was about to wrong you. That was going to tear us away from each other in the long term, or at least make it possible. Sorry, Olympia" Henryk apologized.
"Dad..." Her ears fell, but she shook her head and regained her mood. "You don't need to apologize, dad" She folded her arms and leaned on the wall behind her.
"I'm willing to compromise. I can take you using your skill often, but there's a condition. It's for you to not use your skill all the time" Henryk said somberly. "Only activate it when you think you really need it"
"As long as this great me can go with you" She raised her nose up with a cheeky grin.
'This wild daughter of mine!' Her actions made him more comfortable with how this came about.
Henryk thought over it for a few more minutes and came up with an idea.
"Ouros, how many [Claim]s can you deploy simultaneously? How large are they? Have you checked that?" Henryk said, hinting at the experiments.
"I am sorry to say that I did not, father" Ouros said, nodding in apology.
"Then don't let it weigh on your mind. We can always check those things at a later time" Henryk said, dismissing it in a way that made it appear as not urgent.
"Well, now that's been sorted, we'll go over our plan one more time. If you do us the honor, captain" Henryk stepped aside, leaving room for Bell to take over.
"So, the plan we agreed on involves me, Henryk, Welf and Lili to fight monsters above our levels after they were weakened for us. The others would all have been assigned a battle role with one or two having a supporting role to cull the number of corpses we needed to care about while fighting" Bell said. Henryk explained it to him the day before, and he saw benefit in it.
'Henryk gave me directions on how to act as a captain, but am I really more fit for this than he is?' Bell's doubt did not show on his face. Another thing Henryk told him is that a captain of a familia needs to be able to act confidently and conceal their emotions when necessary. He signaled for Henryk to speak once more with his hand. He was curious about Henryk's compromise.
"Gracie will stay in the back lines, carving magic stones from monsters and arranging the loot to make more space in the bags.
Fey, Alexander and Flora will remain in the backlines to heal those who need it. Occasionally, Flora would go out of the safe area to heal those who aren't able to come back. Fey's allowed to fight but needs to go back after every few monsters she kills.
Peppers, Bones and Luna will go around, poisoning every monster they could. Try your best to cover monsters captain and we're fighting the most. Peppers, if you could spray spices in the eyes of monsters during your flight, do it.
The remaining siblings will take turns to keep watch over the safety of others while weakening monsters in two groups. These two groups will shuffle members constantly to make the members more flexible with different situations.
Gracie, be ready. You will be participating when Lili takes back her supporting role occasionally. Observe how the others adapt to monsters' fighting patterns. It wouldn't do for you to learn them just then when the others already did. You could always put your observations to practice later.
Ray, you will guard us in case the others weren't fast enough to protect us. Remain on the lookout for any such cases"
'That's a splendid plan change!' Henryk thought. He purposefully avoided assigning a role for Ray, leaving her name out of the plan entirely. He did inform her beforehand, telling her why to avoid hurting her. She allowed it, even pushed for it if it was to educate Bell to become a better leader in his own right instead of only adopting what Henryk says.
"Any questions?" Bell changed the plan on the spot, but acted composed and asked the others for their opinions as if it was the plan all along.
Blanc raised his hand and was given permission to talk.
"Can I note what happens today and analyze the information later?" Blanc wanted to record more experiments. He was curious about how things worked.
"Does anyone object?" Bell asked those gathered.
No one objected. Blanc was allowed to do what he wanted.
(Line Break)
The Hestia familia party entered the dungeon. The lower the floor the higher the value of a magic stone, and the higher the risk. They decided that their best bet was to stay on the thirteenth floor. The monsters will be weakened, and the ones considered level two spawn on lower floors. Even then, Ray is there to kill any abnormality.
On their way, they tried using [Claim] to spawn some blue papilioes and purple moths, they got three and one of them respectively.
"Are you ready?" Bell called one more time.
From a nod to a grunt, all signaled yes.
"Proceed with the plan" Bell said as everyone slipped into place.
As the others started going to fulfill their roles, Henryk was instructing Lili.
"Now, Lili, we will go over your magic. Try imagining a crystal mantis that has been shrunk using Fey's skill. Do you think you can take that mantis's shape?" 'Whenever it is she reveals her full name to them, I can finally call her by her family name like most others'
"Lili will have to try first, master Henryk" Lili imagined it, a mantis that was shrunk to her size.
{Your wound is mine. My wound is mine. Echoing message of midnight. Cinder Ella} Nothing happened.
"It seems that you need to see the monster with your own eyes" Henryk was disappointed in her magi but dismissed it. It was not important for him personally. "Get to transforming to Fey. You already d... Scratch that. We will retry that after shrinking that mantis that oh so conveniently showed up in front of our eyes at the most convenient of times" Henryk did not know what higher force was giving him opportunities when he needed them without him asking for it.
The poor crystal mantis was shrunk against its will after it has been beaten up to make it more willing.
Lili chanted her magic again. She was getting her mind drained. She was swaying from side to side.
"It also seems that you didn't notice the mind drain the last time because of the overwhelming relief" Blanc was given notice of that.
"Rest here while we fight. Once you're rested enough to move, go to your assigned position" Henryk had Fey stay with her to recover her mind faster. The two girls were left in the backlines for now. Noland, as an archer, was staying in there to shoot arrows from a distance.
Henryk went to fight. He needed to go fight so he does not fall behind as fast. 'That reminds me, captain still did not get to update his falna for a few days now. We should get that done with after lady Hestia returns' Since he is here, he wanted Bell to know of his skill and consciously utilize it.
The plan they formed entailed the party fighting in what essentially counts as a circle formation. The members with level one would be standing in the middle. Only a few monsters are purposefully allowed to reach them so they can fight them in a more controlled environment. Ray stood guard as they did not know what could happen down here.
Henryk readied his mace and shield and stepped forward.
The first wave of monsters was a group of almiraj.
"Look there, many captains're coming our way" Henryk said with a reluctant gaze. He did not want to bash in the faces of Bell-like monsters.
"HENRYK!" Bell did an embarrassed Bell pose with a red face again. He got out of it fast, though. He needed to fight himself.... Ahem, the almiraj.
The almiraj were let in one by one without weakening them since level one adventurers could take them down one on one.
The first one jumped at Henryk, trying to strike him with a landform hand axe. Its attempt was futile as Henryk moved to the side and held its ears with his left hand. He slammed it to the ground as hard as he could. He then paralyzed it by breaking its neck, that ended up killing it too.
The next time, two came at the same time. They tried jumping at him from slightly different angles. Henryk took a step back and got both in line for his next attack. He slammed his mace to the head of one, shattering its skull and proceeded with the momentum to break the other's legs, as it was a little higher. After the other one fell with its legs broken, he splattered its brain matter on the floor and went after the next monster.
Bell was doing a good work of slashing them where it mattered. Eina and Henryk's words made sure he knew where the weak points of a humanoid body are and to target them even if it felt "unfair" or "dirty". His life was more important than some random monster's or that of an outlaw adventurer.
Welf was also doing good in his own way. He was swinging a greatsword around, cleaving them in half with every hit.
Ouros was using his spare knife as the spear would not be good against multiple fast enemies, ones of which could close in on him and render the spear's tip useless.
Mont was slashing at them without killing them. He was playing with them since they were just that weak to him.
Blanc was, like Welf, cleaving them left and right with his axes. He took his sweet time to find a way to kill them without spilling their blood on him. He wanted to remain clean.
Noland was in the back, trying to fire arrows at monsters without anyone nearby like usual. His aim was okay-ish, but the problem was that his arrows strayed from their target half the time. His dexterity as a level two helped him to get to this level of aim in such a short time, yet he still has much to learn.
Gladia was purposefully using [duelist] on almirajs one after the other to 'feel the thrill of fighting an opponent of equal strength', as she words it. She was using the landform weapons of their own fallen brethren against them.
Scarlet was trying [Pyromancy] and was not able to control her output as it was still new to her. Most of the almirajs she targeted were burnt to a crisp and their magic stones shattered. After starting to feel tired of using magic, she started punching them with her fists, coated in a minimal amount of fire.
They went on killing more monsters for a few more minutes. By now, it has been fifteen minutes. Lili has finally returned to shape. She has recovered enough mind to start fighting. The only issue is that it took her a few more minutes to figure out how to move all these legs. She had six of them in this form.
Lili could not talk in this form, and as such, she directly went to attack a monster. She sliced a rabbit's soft belly using her sharp scythes. She threw herself in the midst of the rabbits. Although Lily had a few close calls, her crystal body made it clear; the monsters on this floor were of no threat to her if things stronger than mere almirajs did not swarm her.
They continued to fight until they were tired. They got their stamina recovered using Fey's skill. Then, they resumed fighting again. That went on for around a quarter of an hour. Any monsters, drop items or magic stones were dragged away by Gracie to reduce the number of things to mind not stepping on. Lili helped instruct Gracie of how to do supporter tasks better and faster while she rested.
The party fought until no more than one rabbit remained standing.
"Should we continue?" Bell suggested.
"Should we go against the incoming hellhounds?" Henryk raised his mace to point at a pack of dog monsters that had fire in their mouths.
"... Should we? Do you think we could defeat them if they were weakened?" Bell wondered.
"Their magic'd still be a hassle even then, but it should be doable" Henryk said. He could hear the dreadful echoes of a certain someone's voice.
"Then we will do it" Bell saw an adventure in that for no apparent reason.
"This time, be wary of their attacks, and especially of their magic. They use fire magic from long range. Close the distance to render it useless and kill them. Weaken some of them and send them our way only one at a time" Bell gave his instructions. He was pushed into the mentality of giving orders during important moments of the party's ventures down into the dungeon.
"Is it so we could surround it?" Welf asked, readying himself for just that.
"Yes. We could kill it that way, just how a large group of almiraj is considered to be level two even though all of them individually measure as level one" Bell answered him.
The first hellhound was trying to sprint at Henryk, who was acting as the bait. He took that position since he has his metal-reinforced shield. It was not going to light on fire just from one fireball thrown at it.
The hellhound stood at a distance and tried to fire its magic at Henryk but an arrow from Noland forced it to cancel that and move to the side. It tried that until it was fed up with Noland and tried going for him. It was not given the best treatment.
"YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU?" Henryk was not going to be fast enough to do it if he was not already in the path the hellhound took. He struck down and broke one of its shins as its leg was raised backward in a sprint.
It was not given time to grieve for its legs. Henryk immediately targeted its head so it could not fire magic at them again. He As he tried to mercifully kill it without pain, it wanted to move away and accidentally made the hit reach its neck. Its neck, only breaking the bone of the spine but not ripping the spinal cord. It stayed alive and felt all the pain. It was then given mercy by crushing its head.
"Bro, you should leave us room to participate" Welf wanted to try killing one.
"The next one, bro" Henryk replied with a provocative smirk. Welf felt like wiping it off Henryk's face with a well-placed slap.
"What about calling me brother?" Bell wanted to enter that 'bro' circle of two.
"I need to call you captain so you get used to it. Welf can call you little bro for now" Henryk said while looking at their next targets.
"Then you too call me little bro! At least when we are outside the dungeon!" Bell brightened up.
The next two hellhounds were let in. They went with the same tactic. Henryk posed as bait until the hellhound was surrounded. This time, the others struck its legs when it was not looking.
The other hellhound tried firing magic at them, but Welf would not allow that in his presence.
{Not on my watch! [Burn out, illegal work. Will-o-Wisp} The magic the hellhound was preparing backfired as an ignis fatuus due to Welf's spell. Its mouth was no more. It was writhing in pain until Welf ran to it and cleaved it in half.
The poor pup which came in next was not given any chance to do anything. You see, Lili got to kill no hellhound yet, and that made her impatient. She wanted to do something herself, not just sit back and watch as they do all the work. This was her chance to prove to herself that she could fight by her own strength. As a result of that desire, the hellhound had its head shredded to pieces.
"That was all of them?" Bell asked Ouros.
"That was the last hellhound in the pack, captain" Ouros took the habit of calling Bell 'captain' intentionally. He wanted to help his father with what he intended for the boy.
A stray minotaur, which climbed two floors from the fifteenth, found the party.
"R-" Henryk was about to call Ray to kill it.
"Pa, I want to fight it" Gladia wanted to have a go against a minotaur.
Henryk thought it over for a few seconds.
"Fine, only after we take its weapon away. Your skill will bring you both to the same level, after all" He had Ray snatch its landform weapon away so that Gladia could take it on.
The duel started with the minotaur being angry that its weapon was taken away from it. It was already starting to get blinded by rage. It threw a random punch at her with its right hand, which she dodged to the right side of the minotaur. The way she evaded that attack left her in the perfect spot to deliver a hit before the bull recovered.
Gladia hit its exposed ribs with her hardest punch of the day. The minotaur did not like the feeling, so it wanted to hit her more than it already did. She kept on evading the minotaur's punches and delivering her own. Whenever she could, she struck its face. The minotaur, the poor armature, kept throwing simple punches around and receiving punches where it hurts.
After a few minutes of that happening, the minotaur was desperate. It lowered its body into a charging position and pushed forward. It wanted to gore Gladia with its horns and end the fight there. But to its dismay, when it reached Gladia, she simply jumped over it and sat on the minotaur's shoulder.
Gladia secured her position on the poor thing's shoulder and started punching its head every place her hand could reach. The blunt trauma of so many punches added up quickly. The minotaur was so dizzy and tired to even try standing up. Gladia made her last move by grabbing the minotaur's horns and twisting its neck, killing it.
After taking the magic stone, the minotaur dropped its skin as a drop item.
"A minotaur's skin... Just how good is an armor made out of that?" Welf was already fantasizing about whatever horrible names he could give the armor.
Henryk saw it a mile away. A hard armored was eyeing Gladia's open back while she was fighting the minotaur. He pretended to not see it and let it roll near them. At the right moment, Henryk interrupted its roll with a strike. He felt the rebound in his arm, but it was something he could ignore for a few minutes. The hard armored fell on the ground but it maintained a rolled body.
Henryk took advantage of the specialty of blunt weapons: they ignore a certain amount of defense. He bludgeoned its back with a full-strength strike after the other until its back gave way. The rock-like armor on its back cracked and a few more hits killed the thing. The blunt trauma has already reached its organs and messed them up a bit.
"And that's how you kill a hard armored!" Henryk said with a bloodied, menacing grin that sent shivers down Bell's spine.
The mace's head was bent in places, but that did not matter for this weapon class. The important bit is if there was a weight to fling at the target.
"Is it really?" Bell asked, a little rattled by the brutal cruelty he just witnessed.
"Does any of us have magic, aside from scarlet and Ray?"
"Not really. I guess another way is to strike its softer belly before it rolls its body"
"Yes, if we could"
They went on to kill more monsters. They found two other crystal mantises after using [Claim] to force them to spawn.
(Line Break)
Name: Fjord Williams
Variant: None yet.
Level: 2
(Empty I0 stats)
Abnormal Resistance I
Magic:
None.
Skills:
Xenos
Healing Powder
Battle Flow:
Your movement is as flexible as that of a flowing river. As long as your enemy is not overwhelmingly faster than you, you can avoid their attacks flawlessly.
(Line Break)
Name: Aura Williams
Variant: None yet.
Level: 2
(Empty I0 stats)
Abnormal Resistance I
Skills:
Xenos
Healing Powder:
Origin of Aeromancy:
Your wings have the ability to generate and control the very weather at the cost of mind. This skill prevents you from gaining any magic spells and removes already existing ones.
This skill is special. It could be taught by giving a part of your being.
(Line Break)
Name: Acco Williams
Variant: None yet.
Level: 2
(Empty I0 stats)
Abnormal Resistance I
Magic:
None.
Skills:
Xenos
Healing Powder
Flight Speed:
Your flight speed is five times as fast as it should be.
(Line Break)
Name: Melia Williams
Variant: None yet.
Level: 2
(Empty I0 stats)
Abnormal Resistance I
Magic:
None.
Skills:
Xenos
Poison Powder
Inventory:
Store things in a subspace, where time is stopped. The capacity increases alongside your magic basic ability.