When I came back, everyone was still asleep. I quickly went back to bed and went back to sleep right next to Hestia.
Everyone else got up roughly 2 hours later. I was used to staying for a few days at a time so I wasn't super tired.
"Bell, Ready to go?" Lily asked
"Yup,"
Hestia had already set off for her job so Lily and I walked to the dungeon where we would meet up with Welf.
"Lily,"
"Yes?"
"I need you to do a real task for me, your first one,"
Her face tensed up a little "I need you to go to the Soma Familia and get out of their familia,"
"Wait, Lily understands that her familia isn't well perceived but Lily is currently dead to them,"
"No, I am taking over the economy of Rakia through the Soma Familia. The guild will obviously see what is happening and will intervene, banishing the Soma familia from the city. From there though the Soma Familia will end up going to Rakia and setting up shop there, from what I've heard about Aries he won't like having the Soma Familia there because who would want someone who could have more influence than him in the city. So once he finds out what is happening he is going to banish all alcohol in the city. The people then are going to revolt, leaving Aries with a choice. Either keep the alcohol but then get rid of his authority, or get rid of it and be the king of nobody,"
"Just...How do you see these things?"
"I hate that, everyone always asks that,"
"Sorry but-"
"Lily, I'll say this once, you have potential. You have a brain that has the potential to destroy others,"
Lily's eyes widened at this. It was most likely the first time anyone said that she had potential. The first time anyone genuinely seemed to care.
"I can give you a hint, but your brain has to pick up the rest from there,"
She gave a quick nod.
"When you are trying to manipulate or outsmart someone you can't only think about what you're going to do. While it's obvious the most important thing is thinking about what your opponent will do. When fighting someone hot-headed using super intelligent plays doesn't work best, provoking them does. Understand?"
While it was obvious it is something everyone forgets about, people get so focused on what they're going to do that they don't think about what their opponent will do.
We walked the rest of the way there in silence but when we arrived we said hi to Welf.
"Alright, you ready Welf?"
He gave a nod with a smile.
Today we planned to head down to the middle levels. Right before we went in though Eina came running to us with some items in her hands.
"W-WIAT!"
"What is it Eina?"
"Well, I wanted to give these to you when you got out of the dungeon a few days ago but...You said we would talk later so I figured I would just get them for you, so here you go,"
It was salamander wool.
"Thank you,"
"This is some amazing quality!"
"Thank you, Ms. Eina,"
After expressing our thanks we headed down to floor 11.
We were fighting fire hounds as our first opponent on these floors, and while they were tougher they still weren't too difficult to beat, plus we had the salamander wool to protect against their flame breath.
Things were going well and we were fighting in a dome area when we heard footsteps. Lily and I recognized what was happening immediately. These guys were trying to pass off a giant hoard of monsters.
'Freya? No, she wouldn't make something this lackluster,'
"Bell,"
"Lily, this is what's going to happen alright?" I whispered in her ear about the plan and Welf was left in the dark as the people came closer.
When I was done explaining Lily seemed a little nervous but gave a nod.
The people passed us and there was a girl with blue hair who cried as she looked at us, I simply just stared at her with an expressionless face.
They ran past us and we soon followed in the more closed tunnel.
I used shadow spikes to pick off some of the ones in the back but even if I went all out I don't know if I had enough magic to kill all of the monsters here.
"Welf, ready yourself," I said as I let the 5 hounds use a fire breath that cracked the floor we were on.
As soon as I was airborne I grabbed both Lily and Welf and started counting.
'1...2...3...4....5....6...7....8,' We then finally hit the ground and while I took the most damage I was still fine overall. Lily and Welf were around the same as me since they had worse stats than me.
"We fell for 8 seconds, and while I was able to see the depth of the floor while we were falling it is likely we fell down two floors,"
"You Mean-"
"Yes Welf, as of right now we are on the 13th floor, and we are going to go deeper,"
"Why are you not freaking out?! We don't even know where we are or how to get out!"
"Relax, just follow Lily and I. By the way, good acting Lily,"
Lily made sure to act like she didn't see the raid coming when they saw us, adding to the guilt they would feel.
Lily gave a smile in return.
"Alright, follow me,"
We walked around for an hour when Welf spoke up.
"Do you have any idea where we are going?"
"Yes and no, if I wanted to leave I could do so already. I made sure to memorize floors 11-15 before coming here just in case a certain someone wanted to try something,"
I was constantly wary of Freya. I had no idea when she would try something again or what she would try and do. Having as much info as possible is always important.
"Like I said before we are not trying to leave. I have some ideas of what we going to do and because of that, we are going down to the 18th floor or in other words the rest zone,"
"...You're insane. Just tell me how I can get out then,"
"Nope, if you go back alone then my plans will get screwed up. If you plan to run I'll break your ankle, that'll add to the effect anyway,"
I was speaking in a happy-go-lucky tone so having me tell Welf I would break his ankle like this would be seen as a joke by most people.
"..." He didn't say anything.
We walked around for 10 more minutes and we found what I was looking for, a hole.
"Jump down," I then shoved Welf down and I followed then Lily.
The goal was to get as dirty as possible and as hurt as possible. If we came out not injured enough then I would give everyone a few cuts. If we weren't dirty enough I would rub dirt off everyone.
When we landed I saw a very small piece of Adamantite. I smiled as I took it. Tucking it in a spot right beneath my heart, but making sure it was tucked in a spot that would be a non-vital area.
'Looks like I can get that also going early as well,'
(Hermes POV)
"My, oh My how wonderful is it to be back here!"
"We were here only a little while ago Lord Hermes,"
"Well, I only say that because it feels like so much has changed,"
I looked at one of the many posters around of the fastest-growing adventurer.
"Let's see how good you are, Prodigy,"