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[Chapter Size: 2743 Words]
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"Goodbye Ereshkigal-san, I'll be going now, and as I already said, the expedition will take about a week or more. So I'll be gone the whole time."
"You can either cook by yourself, I've already restocked the vegetables and meat, if not you can eat outside, I've put the money in the jar on the table."
Saying goodbye to the goddess, I started walking towards the Tower of Babel.
It was still early morning as I had started early, my excitement at going to the expedition had woken me up early in the morning.
The main streets were empty with only a few people, going about their business.
'Daggers check, extra swords check, a few healing potions check, two mind potions check, a few random antidotes check.'
While walking towards the tower, I opened my inventory and went through it quickly and was re-checking the items which would be needed in this expedition.
The other magic stones and drop items were still there, taking up space. I needed to do something about it.
...
Look like I was the first one to reach the plaza near the tower, there were no adventurers in sight except for three guild employees standing there in a corner and talking among each other.
Two humans and one cat- human wearing guild uniform.
"Hey, hello there! Are you the guild members responsible for the expedition? I'm Light, an adventurer, I've applied as a supporter for the joint expedition and was asked to check with people from the guild in the plaza. "
Walking towards them, I greeted them with a smile.
"Hello! I'm Cyrus, and yes we're the guild representatives responsible for the joint expedition."
One of the humans, maybe around thirty, spoke out with a gruff voice while the other two also looked at me.
"And they are my colleagues, this is Heinkel and this is Kino."
"Hello"
"Hello"
Both the human Heinkel and the cat-person, Kino greeted me.
"There are a few more people from the guild who will come in later, we just came in earlier in case any adventurers come in early."
Cyprus continued,
"Also you said you were a supporter right, could you please show us the badge you've gotten from the guild? Standard procedure."
Greeting the two others, I handed Cyprus the badge I had gotten from Rose.
...
After checking the badge, Cyrus asked Heinkel and Kino to stay there and asked me to follow him.
After leading me to a side room in the ground floor of Babel and asking me to wait, he went into a connected room and brought out a backpack of about 1m big, and handed it to me.
"Here, take this bag pack, your work as a supporter in this expedition is to pick up the magic stones after the fighting's done. So you'll be in the back."
"And as your a Level 1, take these antidotes to, the yellow ones are for poison in the large tree labyrinth, and the green ones are all purpose low level antidotes."
Saying that, Cyprus handed three yellow and four blue potions to me. There were some other required items in the bag, like undine clothes for the Water City.
The bag handed to me was a plain supporters bag with no modification, even then I was able to lift and carry it without much difficulty.
We then left the room and joined the other two guild members outside.
...
After chatting with the guild members for a while, I excuses myself and sat on a bench waiting for the members of the expedition to arrive.
Just a few minutes later adventurers started trickling in, either going to speak to the guild representatives or spreading out around the plaza speaking others whom they knew.
I couldn't recognize anyone standing there. Even the famous adventures, I only knew the names and faces of only some.
So I did the normal thing, listening to the adventurers talking.
By listening, I was able to pick some info, like the group with the silver haired werewolf with the blue tattoo on his face is Bete Loga and his companions from the Vidar Familia.
They are a bunch of daredevils, going into the dungeon whenever they can.
The twenty people group at the far corner were the Dionysus Familia, they were a powerful mid-rank familia.
The doll like girl with the silver hair and purple eyes was Airmid Teasanare, a member of the Dian Cecht Familia.
Even at such a young age, she was already one of the best healers in all of Orario.
I got to know the faces of a few more people and their names.
...
Half an hour before the agreed time, the Loki Familia entered the plaza.
Looking at the pallum in the lead and the information that the captain of the Loki Familia was also a pallum made it easy to guess his identity, Finn, alias Braver.
Just as everyone was focused on the Loki Familia, a few more adventurers wearing hoods slipped into the plaza from a side road.
Following the Loki Familia, another famous group of people entered the plaza, the girls of the Astraea Familia, lead by Alise Lovell with her eye catching red hair.
'Huh, wait, what's Rose doing with the Astraea Familia? '
I saw an another head with red hair following behind the Astraea Familia members, it was a female werewolf wearing the guild uniform.
Rose Fannett, my guild advisor was walking with them.
'Ah, correct, she may be the guild liaison between the Astraea Familia and the Guild.'
Also looking around it seems like Noin did not come to this expedition as I did not see her.
Alise led her familia members directly to where the Loki Familia were standing.
Rose falling behind, started glancing here and there and finally her eyes locked onto me.
She started walking towards me.
"Hello Light, how are feeling? Nervous before the expedition? After all this is your first one, and you'll go directly to the deeper floors. "
Stopping in front of me, Rose asked me about whether I was feeling nervous or not.
I took a deep breath, and instead of any nervousness or fear about the expedition, there was only pure excitement in me.
Excitement regarding going deeper into the dungeon...
Maybe somewhere inside me, I was also a daredevil, wanting to try new things or new experiences, like exploring the dungeon or having a new adventure, without a care for anything else.
"No Rose-san, I don't feel any nervousness, instead I'm feeling excited to explore the dungeon and for the adventure waiting for me."
I gave her a wide smile and spoke my true thoughts.
Rose took a step back, her face taking on a strange look, maybe she was thinking that I would be nervous or feeling fear. But instead here I am showing a smile at my first expedition.
"Oh, okay. All the best. "
As if she didn't know how to respond to my comment, Rose fell silent.
...
The silence was broken by a person who suddenly appeared next to us.
"Rose, what are you doin- Yo, aren't you the guy who Noin was fighting with a few days ago? What are you doing here?"
Gojouno Kaguya, the vice captain, had suddenly showed up next to us at some time.
I could not even detect when she arrived, given that I was not using the Spatial Sense skill.
Rose too turned to look at her.
"Kaguya, how many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that. Wait, you both know each other?"
With giving me any time to reply to Kaguya's question, Rose started scolding Kaguya and then looked at me, when she realized that Kaguya-san said she knew me.
"Hello, Gojouno-san, yes it was me only, and I've registered as a supporter for the expedition. "
And pointed towards the supporter's bag next to the bench I was sitting on, and then turning towards Rose,
"Rose, I was training with my friend, Noin, who is from the Astraea Familia. Me and Gojouno-san are just acquaintances, if you can even call us that."
"You're a friend of Noin, then it's easier for me, Kaguya, Light was the supporter I was talking about, please take care of him in this expedition whenever possible. "
"And anyway a member of you familia is friends with him, you won't just turn a blind eye will you, Kaguya."
"Ahem, Rose, that's not fair if you put it like that, after all this is the dungeon we are talk-"
Both of them did not even think of taking my opinion and started stating their own opinions.
And this was the first time I was seeing the playful and cunning side of my advisor, who had always showed a business-only look towards me.
But they had to stop their discussion in half as we heard a voice book through the loud speakers,
"Hello, Everyone, as you may already know my name is Finn Deimne, the captain of the Loki Familia and also the commander of this joint expedition."
As soon as Finn's speech began, Rose excused herself and went towards a few guild members standing aside and stood next to them.
Maybe some guild protocol.
Me and Kaguya were the only ones left, and as I was sitting a little far away in the first place, there was some distance between the crowd and us.
"As you all know, Orario recently were through a very grueling time, we were attack from both outside the city, inside the city and even from below, through the dungeon."
"The entire city was painted red, we lost many loved ones and as hard as it feels to say we could not even do anything to immediately change the situation."
"Even then we did not lose hope, we fought our best, did our damn best, and we were successful in eliminating the threats to Orario, we once again proved that, no matter what, this is the city of adventurers, the cradle and birth place of heroes in the whole world."
"Hero's will be born whenever a need arises, who can say, tomorrow you may become a hero, I may become a hero, or even the person next to you may become a hero."
Finn's voiced dropped a little and slowed down.
"We may have brought down the Evilus and the remnants of the Zeus and Hera Familiar who had gone astray, but there are still the remnants of the Evilus in Orario, who are waiting for a chance to strike back."
"Tell me are you ready to be a hero and defeat those bastards? Will you fight for Orario once again?"
"Yesss"
"Yess"
"Yess" x n
Adventurers started shouting out loud, everyone pumped up now.
'Someone has to learn the art of speaking from this pallum, he was so easily light a fire in the adventurers here using just some simple words.'
Finn was able to easily rile up the group of people in the entire plaza.
But having merged the memories from Earth, I did not feel anything hearing this speech, this was just a tactic to rile up people.
Seeing my face which did not show much expression, Kaguya turned her face towards me and questioned, "Light-san, don't you want to become a hero and save people."
Mulling for a second, I decided to tell my real thoughts,
"It felt like all of Finn's words were based on hopes, ideals and chances. What would change even if he riles up a group of adventurers. Can a Level 2-3 fight against a Level 5 just with some encouragement?"
"Even the things he said, Orario being the birth place of heroes."
"That is simply due to a large amount of people flowing in to Orario from all over the world. "
"The large number of gods and goddesses in Orario give Falna to a larger number of people compared to outside of Orario, the people with Falna then dive into the dungeon and collect excelia."
"They grow stronger by absorbing Excelia, and then level up and this cycle continues making the adventures in Orario more stronger compared to majority of the people outside."
"Even if there were some ruins outside Orario, not all ruins contain monsters or monsters strong enough allowing one to level up to higher levels."
"And of course wherever strong people gather, competition increases, and stronger people try to grow even stronger."
"Those who become stronger than the others or at a faster pace than the others are tagged as heroes."
"Everything comes down to strength and power in the end. If Ottar didn't manage to defeat Zald, would Orario still be there, if your Astraea Familia and Riveria, Gareth and Ais did not defeat Alfia and the summoned monster, would Orario still be there."
"If one has enough strength, peace will automatically follow, why, because no one dares to go against them."
"Just imagine, instead of Ottar, who is a Level 7, if there was a Level 10 or an even stronger adventurer, would the Evilus even dare to attack, would Zald and even Alfia attack?"
"I'll tell you, a 100% no, they would not even dare to think about it."
"Hahaha, sorry, I just spoke without thinking it through, no need to take it seriously, I'm just saying what came to my head, hahaha."
Looking at Kaguya whose face was almost next to me now, I turned my head away while laughing.
"No, I felt like it's true, anyway, I'll keep in my mind those words. Thank you."
Kaguya gave a serious reply while staring directly at me, now looking at me differently than before.
...
By the time we our conversation was over, Finn had started speaking about how to diving into the dungeon and the time it would take and the routes, parties and other things.
"We are trying to limit this to a six to seven days expedition, but it depends on the conditions of the dungeon, nothing can be said in advance."
"Next the entire expedition, will be divided into three legs."
"The first leg of the expedition, you are free to form your own groups and go down to the 18th floor, or else if you want to you can join our party and move down with us."
"You can take your time as we'll wait for 24 hours in the 18th floor. We need to check and see if the dungeon has recovered from the damage done to the dungeon environment a month ago."
"The second leg of the expedition, we'll leave the 18th floor tomorrow and take approximately two days to reach the safety point 'Under Garden', i.e., the 28th Floor. We can reach the 28th Floor in two days if the Monster Rex Amphisbaena has not spawned."
"The final leg of the expedition, we'll move onward till the safety point on the 39th Floor, 'Under Springs*'. "
"We'll see what to do once we reach the 39th Floor."
"Everyone, do your best. See you within 24 hours in the Under Resort, near the town of Rivira. The people from the Hermes Familia are already there. You can check with them."
"If you don't know anyone from the Hermes Familia, check for this emblem. This is the emblem of the Hermes Familia. I'll leave it on this table, take a look at it later."
Saying that, Finn held up an shield with an emblem and then placed it down.
That's all from my side. Everyone disperse."
As Finn concluded his speech and got down the makeshift stage he was standing on, Kaguya turned towards me.
"Light-san as Rose said, you can travel with us, anyway she has spoken with Alise already, and Alise also agreed about it."
"I just wanted to check who it the supporter was, but if the others know that it's Noin's friend, I think no one will object."
Saying that, the black haired girl turned around and started walking to where the rest of Astraea Familia members were standing.
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A / N :
*I did not find the name of the 39th Safety Point, hence my own name Under Springs' as the 44th floor is compared to a volcano so I thought that 40 -44 will also have a volcano theme. And volcano can be roughly equated to a hot spring, hence the name "Under Spring".
Tried adding some characteristics to the MC- #1: A wannabe Daredevil.