The Protagonist System

42 Prepping Is Fun Part One

It was at this point that Hephaestus showed up and she looked sweaty and happy. She walked to the head of the table and sat down with a sigh of contentment. Her eyes went over everyone there from one side of the table to the other, as if she was taking her time to take in the atmosphere, and she smiled. Well, she did right up until her eyes landed on me with Aiz on my lap.

“What are you doing here?” Hephaestus asked, her voice was normal despite her blush.

Before I could answer, Aiz reached into her belt and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her. Hephaestus looked stunned as she read it and stared at Aiz.

“I came to negotiate going down into the dungeon as your guard to gather resources.” Aiz said and ate a piece of meat.

“Not... not the entire Loki Familia?” Hephaestus asked, haltingly.

“We are taking a week off after our last trip.” Aiz said and fed me a piece of meat as well.

“You're doing this on your own time?” I asked, just to clarify.

Aiz nodded and I looked at Lili and Tsubaki.

“How fast can we travel if we have two or three strong people fighting to clear the way and two people gathering things up?” I asked them.

Tsubaki caught her breath and then grinned. “We could go four or five times as fast! We also wouldn't have to clear everything, just paths to where we're going as we search!”

“The levels get bigger the farther down we go.” Lili said and looked thoughtful. “That speed will be needed a lot. The old maps I saw showed that the eighteenth floor was a quarter of the size of Orario, and since it's bigger than three other capital cities combined...”

“Wow.” Tsubaki said and gave Lili a searching look. “How big would the twentieth floor be? The thirtieth?”

Lili tapped a finger on her chin as she thought about it. “If my math is right...”

That made most of the people at the table laugh. They all knew she was an appraising prodigy.

“...then the twenty-fourth floor would be about half the size of the city and... yes, I believe the thirty-seventh floor would be the size of the entire city of Orario.”

Her words surprised a lot of the people at the table.

“The lower levels are also full of stronger spawning monsters.” Someone else offered.

“I doubt we can go that far tomorrow afternoon.” I said and everyone looked at me. “We can't go tonight or in the morning. It's a lot to prepare to go that deep, especially making the food to bring and extra carrying capacity. Larger floors means larger ore deposits. Hopefully.”

That got everyone talking and nodding their heads.

“I still have lots of silver powder, so there's no worry there.” I said and looked at Lili. “I think you and I need to repair and update your backpack again. The quick fixes I did to it already won't be enough.”

Lili nodded. “If we find anything good, especially a large and valuable ore deposit, I don't want to only partially mine it and leave it there. It won't last long once we discover it because it never does.”

“Agreed. Leaving anything behind would be a shame, so I should alter one of my own, too.” I said and then smiled. “Of course, once we get close to full, we can come back to unload and go again.”

Aiz stiffened on my lap and gave me a very pointed look. “You would go right back down?”

“Of course. We always take breaks and relax before heading for the next floor and come back when we know we can't carry any more. It's not a race, even if we move like it sometimes.” I chuckled and reached over to pat my dark-skinned friend's arm. “Tsubaki likes having fun testing out her weapons as much and as quickly as possible.”

“I need a backpack, too!” Tsubaki happily squealed. “I'll fill it with different weapons and I'll test them against all the best monsters! YAAAY!”

The entire table went quiet for a few seconds and everyone in the Hephaestus Familia burst out laughing at her excitement.

Hephaestus chuckled as well. “All right. Let's talk about a contract.”

“I need to commission Tsubaki to make a set of armor for our new guard.” I said and both Hephaestus and Aiz stiffened and looked at me. “You can include it in the contract negotiations. We are partners, after all. What benefits us, benefits us all.”

Hephaestus glanced at mine and Lili's matching armor and knew what they were valued at. She nodded and finished eating before she stood and motioned to Aiz. I whispered an offer to go with her as I cast a temporary listening spell on her. Aiz gave me a quick kiss, thanked me as she politely refused, and stood. Hephaestus nodded to me and led Aiz to her office.

I turned my head away from the table and tapped my ear to cast the communication spell on my ear. It would let me listen and was cheap, because it wasn't going to last for long. Neither Lili nor Tsubaki asked me what I was doing as I listened in on the very short 'negotiation' between Hephaestus and Aiz.

Hephaestus asked her what she wanted for risking her life on such an endeavor and Aiz said she wanted to go to get stronger and would accept any payment Hephaestus thought was appropriate. That was it.

I barely held in my laugh as Hephaestus agreed to pay her with a new weapon and armor and would provide food and travel expenses as she went through the dungeon. They signed the simple contract and came right back out of the office. I dispelled both cheap spells, because I didn't want to be distracted.

“They're coming back?” Lili asked me.

That question gave me a perfect cover for staying quiet and not speaking, so I nodded and let her think that I was using my detection spell to track them. A couple of minutes later, Hephaestus led Aiz into the room and over to us.

“We've come to a suitable agreement. Tsubaki, go ahead and get started on making that armor. Bell can help you with it later.” Hephaestus said, pointedly. That meant she wanted to hide my ability from Aiz and Tsubaki nodded. “I'm going to forge her a little something personally to help protect you.”

The entire Familia gasped and stared at her, as if she had said something profound.

Hephaestus blushed slightly. “Yes, I know how much I charge for personal commissions.”

“It is a standing and open-ended contract.” Aiz said as she sat on my lap again and I didn't object or minded... at all... because she was lightly touching me under the table again. Her statement earned another gasp and everyone knew what that meant. Any time Aiz was free, Hephaestus could call her to resume her guard duty. Both women looked happy about it, too.

“I'll leave you to it.” Hephaestus said and lightly touched my shoulder. “Please stay safe.”

I smiled warmly at her. “Your generosity is guaranteeing that, dear Goddess. Praise be to you for looking out for my welfare.”

Hephaestus glowed softly and shuddered. The blush on her face made her look cute.

“Lili, we need to hand over Tsubaki's share of the money. It's why we came here.” I said.

Lili climbed off of Tsubaki's lap and pulled out a large sack of money from her backpack. “Here you go, Tsubaki. 115,280 valis.”

Complete and utter silence fell in the room as Lili handed over the bulging sack to the stunned blacksmith. The bright smile on Lili's face let everyone know that she enjoyed shocking people.

Hephaestus seemed to shake herself and let my shoulder go, nodded to Aiz and then Tsubaki and Lili, and left at a fast walk. She had work to do, just like we did.

“We should get to work, too.” I said and lightly patted Aiz's thigh. “Are you returning to the Loki Familia compound for the night?”

Aiz shook her head. “I left a note saying I was leaving for a few days to a week. I will return when I return.”

“Then the Hestia Familia offers hospitality to you, Aiz Wallenstein. Whenever you like, you have another hearth to warm yourself against.” I smiled at her and she looked at my face, as if searching for something. “No ulterior motives. We welcome you with open arms.” I said and her hand moved and gripped my length through my pants. “Any more than that is up to you.”

Aiz nodded and let me go before she stood. “I will go with you.”

Lili let out a half-laugh and a half-giggle. “I can't wait to see your face when we travel.”

I stood as well and chuckled. “I doubt you'll get what you think you will.”

“We'll see.” Lili said and put on her giant backpack. “I hope it won't take long to update this thing.”

“No one will recognize it when we're done.” I said and motioned to the side door. “After you.”

Lili walked ahead of me and I offered an arm to Aiz. She took it like a lady and we left the Hephaestus Familia building and walked around it to the rear courtyard. Aiz looked slightly confused and didn't ask where we were going, like I suspected. Lili stopped in the right spot and turned to watch us, her eyes trying to see anything on Aiz's face.

“This is a secret between the Hestia Familia and Hephaestus Familia for now.” I said and held a hand down towards the ground.

Aiz looked and her eyes didn't widen or change as the ground lit up in a twenty foot circle around us. A flash of light later, we were inside the Hestia Familia church. She looked up from the floor and gave me a single raised eyebrow.

Lili pouted and sighed. “You knew she wouldn't do anything.”

I chuckled and leaned down to briefly kiss her. “Know your audience and know the outcome.”

Lili accepted the lesson with a nod and walked over to the store room behind the altar. She opened the secret door at the back and Aiz gave her the same raised eyebrow. “Our Goddess had to hide where she stayed. For protection. She had no one to rely on and was all alone.”

Aiz stiffened slightly and reached out to lightly touch Lili's arm and nodded. Lili nodded back.

I led them down the stairs and Aiz looked around at the very nice living space and the small kitchen. “It's cozy, isn't it?” I asked and she nodded. “Lili, go ahead and get changed. We can work on the backpack after we unload the things we bought.”

“I need to take out the camping supplies, too.” Lili said and took her backpack off and started rummaging through the various compartments, then laughed under her breath. “Look! I still have an old blanket from when I was living on the streets.”

“Don't throw it out. I'll see if I can repair it and make it thicker. Waste not, want not.” I said and both she and Aiz gave me surprised looks. “It's an old saying from where I lived before.” I said, which was the truth. They would assume it was from the mountain village, though. “If you still don't want it, we can give it to the orphanage.”

“That reminds me. We should stop and grab some potions, too.” Lili said and started to pull out the furniture we bought. Aiz sat on one of the couches to watch us like a hawk.

“That's a good idea. We should start building up our own stock of supplies.” I agreed and picked up a coffee table and set it where it needed to go. “Goddess Hephaestus should have the food ordered and ready for packing by lunchtime tomorrow.”

“Should we bother with bringing things for cooking?” Lili asked and held up some beat up pots and pans.

“I'll fix them up, no problem.” I said with a nod and cast a repair spell on the table. “It's going to be simple fare if we stay longer than a day, unless we travel faster than I think we will and can set up a good base camp somewhere safe.”

Lili put the pots and cooking things aside. “I had a thought about that.” She said and pulled out a nice picture frame with a mountain scene painted inside.

“Oh? What was it?” I asked and took the small picture. I chose a good spot on the wall and repaired the painting to make it like new and enlarged it, then hung it on the wall. It fit perfectly.

“Can you make more than one teleportation circle on the bigger floors?” Lili asked me and pulled out a dresser to hand to me.

I stopped reaching for it and thought about it. “You know, I think it might be good to not have to travel miles and miles to either get back to the entrance to the floor above or to the exit to the next floor.”

“I know it's a complicated spell to connect and you're only putting one per floor because of that.” Lili said and put the dresser down and took out a large standing cabinet. “My room, please. By the corner.”

I took it and left the room to put it where she wanted it. It took a single repair spell to fix it, which meant my detection spell wasn't the only thing getting better with each level up. I went back to the living room and saw Aiz rubbing a hand over the like-new coffee table.

“I suffer magical backlash if I cast too much too quickly, so I'm used to only using low cost spells.” I told her and touched the coffee table. I transfigured it and added wooden swirls and ornate decorations all along the edges and on the legs to make it look really fancy.

“Bell, stop.” Lili said and rubbed her temples. “That started at 300 valis and is now up to 35,400.”

“Oh. Oops.” I said and walked over to her to kneel on a knee. “I should have warned you to not keep looking at it.” I said softly and gave her several tender kisses.

“The only way you could have made my skill react stronger would be if you had dropped some gold onto it and used that to emboss the filigree.” Lili said with a smile.

I smiled back. “Do you want me to give you an even bigger headache?”

“Goddess, no.” Lili said and sighed. “I need to be more careful around you.”

I chuckled. “You're just figuring that out now?”

Lili chuckled, too. “Jerk.”

I gave her another kiss and helped her unload her backpack. Holy hell, there was a lot of stuff inside. I had known she needed weight to keep her special skill active and I hadn't quite realized that she had so much miscellaneous stuff that kept it active constantly.

“We definitely need better compartments and organization for the new backpack.” I said and Lili gave me a questioning look. “Yes, it's going to take longer than you thought.”

Lili sighed and stepped back. “Then I'll take your advice and change. It's going to be a long night.”

“I shall change, too.” Aiz said and stood up from the couch.

“Lili? Can she borrow a nightdress or something? I'll enlarge it to fit her and buy you a replacement.”

Lili nodded and led Aiz through the door to the new section of the apartment and disappeared from sight. I kept working on the furniture and set up the rest of the apartment. I even changed in my own room before Lili and Aiz came back into the living room.

My mouth dropped open when they wore similar see-through nighties and neither of them wore bras. The panties were little more than a small triangle and didn't cover anything but the bare minimum, and that was only because they weren't moving very much.

Lili giggled and pointed at my crotch. “I told you.”

Aiz nodded and smiled slightly. “Where will I be sleeping?”

“In my bed.” I said before I realized what that implied. “I meant that...”

“All right.” Aiz interrupted before I could tell her I was sleeping on the couch. “Which room is yours?”

“I'll show you.” Lili said and took her hand to lead her to my room.

I opened my mouth to correct their assumptions and heard someone coming down the stairs, so I stayed quiet and let them go. As the door shut to the new section, I turned to the stairwell and saw a very sad Hestia walk down the last few steps. She carried a scroll in her hands and looked on the verge of tears.

“What happened?” I asked.

Hestia walked over to me and handed me the scroll. “You are being summoned to a tribunal.”

This was eerily similar to what happened on the last world.

“When?” I asked instead of why, because I knew why. Hestia had told the other gods and goddesses what had happened.

“In two days. They need time to question witnesses and gather evidence.” Hestia said.

I nodded. I doubted it would take them two days, because no one was left alive for them to question.

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