Chapter 7: Metal Bars and the Mine Elevator.
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One of the dungeon's defining characteristics was that each successive floor was larger than the last. By the time Kihara reached the third floor, the cave passages had opened up into chambers spacious enough for an adventurer to swing a polearm without hitting the walls — a significant upgrade from the first floor, where even a standard longsword required constant awareness of the surrounding rock to avoid getting the blade caught mid-swing.
Apparently, at sufficient depth, individual floors rivalled the footprint of Orario itself.
On the way down, Kihara passed several adventurer parties. Neither side initiated conversation. Wariness toward strangers was as fundamental a survival skill in the dungeon as knowing which end of a sword to hold — there were no laws here, no divine oversight, nothing to prevent disputes from being resolved through violence. Conflicts between adventurers over resources, or between rival Familias pursuing old grievances, were common enough to be unremarkable.
He spent some time on the third floor clearing out the local monster population, then estimated from his food consumption that evening had probably settled over Orario by now. He tallied his magic stone haul and made his way back to the surface.
Three floors of fairly cursory exploration, but not without discoveries.
First: the dungeon contained the same ore deposits as Stardew Valley's mine. He'd watched a blacksmith-type adventurer working a vein with a pickaxe and confirmed the match.
Second, and considerably more interesting: the mine elevator from Stardew Valley existed here too, planted at the entrance to the first floor. Only he could see it. Whether it could transport other people remained to be tested.
He converted his magic stones to falis at the Guild, then paid a visit to the Hephaestos Familia — where he spotted copper bars, the precise material he needed to craft a Tapper. Unfortunately, a smithing Familia had no particular reason to sell raw metal stock. That wasn't what they did.
Which left him with three realistic options for acquiring metal ingots: the black market, a Guild commission, or organising an expedition and bringing a blacksmith along to work the ore on-site.
The ingot problem is solvable, he thought, walking back through the early evening streets. Next priority: Ouranos's three tasks. Start with the easiest — reaching floor twenty.
Of the three conditions Ouranos had set, reach the twentieth floor was the only one that didn't involve killing an evil dragon or eliminating a heretical god. The other two were, by any reasonable standard, enormous. The bar Ouranos had set for taking Hestia home was, objectively, absurd.
All of which became entirely abstract the moment he opened the front door.
Hestia had heard the latch and come running. She was wearing a kitchen apron — stretched in certain architectural directions by what lay beneath it — and holding a pair of long cooking chopsticks dusted with flour. The moment her blue eyes found him in the doorway, they lit up with the simple, uncomplicated brightness of someone whose day had just improved without warning.
She smiled, and it was the smile of someone who had been waiting.
"Kihara-kun, welcome home~ Dinner's almost ready!"
"I'm back." He reached into his dimensional storage. "Here — today's earnings. You should be the one holding the finances."
"R-really?!"
"Of course—" He paused, nose wrinkling slightly. "...Is something burning?"
"AHHHHH—"
The joy evaporated. Hestia spun and sprinted back to the kitchen, wailing at full volume. "My hash browns — I worked so hard on those—!"
Half an hour later, she sat at the dining table in a state of profound dejection. Her twin tails drooped. On the plate in front of her sat a stack of hash browns the colour of old mahogany.
"Kihara-kun... I'm sorry. I ruined dinner again."
"They're just a little overdone. They haven't reached full coal yet." Kihara picked one up and bit into it. The crunch was considerable.
"Not bad, actually."
Hestia leapt out of her chair. "Don't eat those — you'll hurt yourself — give them back—!"
"You made this for me. I'm not wasting it."
"There are times when wasting things is the correct choice—!"
She grabbed for the hash brown and missed. After two more failed attempts, she changed tactics entirely — climbed directly onto his lap, sat facing him, and seized both his shoulders.
"Spit it out."
"I decline."
Hestia, in her desperation, played the only card she had left.
"If you keep eating that, I won't scrub your back for you."
Kihara went very still. "...You were going to scrub my back?"
She turned her head aside, a dusting of pink across her cheeks, and gave a small nod.
He removed the hash brown from his mouth immediately.
"What are we waiting for? Bath. Now."
He scooped her up in a princess carry and broke into a purposeful stride toward the bathroom. Hestia beat a light, rapid rhythm against his arm.
"W-wait — I didn't say I was getting in with you—!"
"Just the back-scrubbing?"
"Yes, just the back-scrubbing!"
Kihara set her down with visible disappointment. "...Fine. I'll go wait in the bathroom."
"Honestly..." Hestia pressed a hand to her chest and waited for her heartbeat to find its way back to a reasonable pace. "Men. I really do need to be more careful."
She reached into the valley of her chest — that breathtaking topographical feature — and produced a small booklet she'd apparently been keeping there for convenient access. She settled onto the sofa and opened it under the lamp.
The title on the cover, illuminated by the warm light, read: One Hundred Techniques to Leave a Man Completely Helpless.
Elsewhere in Orario, the Soma Familia's base of operations smelled, as it always did, predominantly of wine.
Familia captain Zanis Lustra had recently received news that the Level 2 adventurer he'd paid a significant sum to recruit had been killed in a duel at the arena — apparently having stepped in on behalf of some of the Familia's lower members while Zanis himself was occupied with a trade negotiation. His mood was not good.
"Useless. Every single one of you, useless. Beaten by a civilian—"
"But Captain, that civilian also beat a Level 3 from the Ishtar Familia—"
"Then he's better at being useless! What do I care? My falis are gone and I have nothing to show for it!"
The assembled Familia members developed a collective interest in the floor. The silence held until a fox-person who spent most of his time operating in the black market raised one hand.
"Captain. Word is he's been registered as an adventurer. A party spotted him solo-exploring the second floor today. We could..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
The Soma Familia supplemented their income through various methods that the Adventurer's Guild would have taken a dim view of — fraud, extortion, and, in the dungeon specifically, a technique known informally as monster baiting: deliberately driving large groups of monsters toward other adventuring parties mid-combat, then collecting the equipment from the bodies once the monsters had done their work, and selling everything through the black market.
It was efficient, undetectable, and entirely outside the reach of any authority willing to do something about it.
The fox-person's proposal was clear: use Kihara's solo expedition as an opportunity. Bait the monsters. Collect what remained.
Zanis's face was mostly shadow, but his hand moved to adjust his glasses.
"He's actually wealthy? Not just putting on a show?"
"Multiple people watched him buy several outfits worth over a hundred thousand falis each. In person."
"Good." A pause. "Handle it. If it goes well, I'll arrange extra divine wine for you next month."
At the words divine wine, the fox-person underwent a visible transformation — the specific kind that happened to Soma Familia members when their particular addiction was invoked. He dropped to his knees and knocked his forehead against the floor.
"Thank you, Captain — thank you! Hey, you — that girl — Li-something — get up, you're helping me with preparations!"
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Thank you for reading.