"Haah haah haah, damn it."
'I haven't been out of breath in centuries, it's so uncomfortable.'
After slipping into an alley I quickly took a black cloak out of my storage space along with a half face mask.
"Where did he go?"
"I don't know, just keep looking. He can't have gotten far."
'Damn, what the hell do they even want?'
After deciding to figure that out right now, I stick to the shadows while looking for a straggler.
It doesn't take long to find one, I then stealthily sneak up behind her and drag her into an alley.
She struggles pretty hard so I hold her down which requires me to take my hand off her mouth. Big mistake.
"HELP! RAPmnnn!"
I quickly cover her mouth again and turn her around.
"I'm not going to do anything to you. I just need to know a few things."
I then take off the hood of the cloak and the mask.
"YOU'RE LORD FENmnn!"
After covering her mouth for the third time I ask her to calm down.
"Would you calm down please? I just wanted to ask why you're all following me."
"We all want to join your Familia."
"All of you?"
She nods enthusiastically in response.
"Can I join? Please?"
"I'm not recruiting. I literally just arrived in Orario yesterday. Are you all already part of a Familia? I don't wanna piss off some gods and goddesses because they think I'm trying to steal their members."
"I'm not, but some of the others are experienced adventurers of level 3 and 4, there's even a level 5 among them. Their Familia's are not going to want to just let go of them."
"Thank you for the information. What's your name?"
"I'm Emilia, Hume Bunny, 17 years old. My hobbies are archery and cooking."
"...I asked your name, not your life story. Well, I gotta go. Good luck finding a Familia."
As I walk away towards the I Am Ganesha I hear her speaking with conviction. "I'm not giving up! I still want to join your Familia."
"Maybe someday." I say while I continue walking away.
After a few minutes I'm standing in front of a big... building? No, more like a statue. It's the I Am Ganesha, a large statue of Ganesha sitting in the lotus position, that functions as the home for the Ganesha Familia.
Staring at it for a while I'm starting to feel a little bit awkward, mainly because the entrance to the building is the statue's crotch. 'Who the hell would design something like this?!
Putting these thoughts aside I walk into the building. The first thing I see is elephants, elephants everywhere. Statues, paintings and all manner of art, all elephant themed.
I walk up to a group of beast humans.
"Do you know where I can find Ganesha? I'm Fenrir, I'm supposed to meet him here."
Realizing who I am they bow and one of them speaks up. "Please follow me Lord Fenrir."
Following the little chienthrope boy, we walk up 3 flights of stairs before we stop infront of a large door with a four armed elephant engraved on it, sitting in the lotus position. Another reminder of who's place this is, just on the off chance it wasn't obvious enough.
"This is his office?" I ask the boy.
"No sir. His living quarters are behind this door." The boy then knocks on the door and a few seconds later a middle-aged azure haired woman opens the door.
"Captain Mata, Lord Fenrir is here to see Lord Ganesha."
"Lord Fenrir, we've been expecting you. Please come in." She opens the door and stands aside as I walk in. She then turns back to the Chienthrope boy. "Thank you Amir, good luck in the dungeon today." The boy responds with a bright smile and runs off.
"Lord Fenrir, it's nice to meet you. My name is Santoshi Mata, Captain of the Ganesha Familia. Please follow me, he's waiting."
I follow her as she leads me to a living room where Ganesha is sitting on a couch.
"Ah, Fenrir, I hope you've found Orario welcoming to its newest resident deity. Please take a seat, I believe there is much to discuss."
"Thank you, it's actually been a little too welcoming, especially when it comes to the Beast Humans."
"Yes, I've heard. Some of our fellow deities were not pleased their members asked to switch familias. Don't worry though, none of them blame you as far as I know. You're god of animals, it's only natural for them to feel a connection."
"About that. Isn't Artemis also a goddess of animals?"
"So you really don't know. That's interesting... You've never met any other deities before yesterday have you?"
"Just one, but he's a bit... different."
"Well, to answer your question. Yes, Artemis is a goddess of animals. But she's not the highest authority when it comes to them. You are. Probably because you don't have any other divinities, whereas Artemis has quite a few and Animals is not her most prominent divinity, that would be the Hunt. When it comes to anything related to hunting, she's the highest authority. But none of this is what we're here to discuss."
"Right, you mentioned the Monster Feria yesterday. A festival of some kind?"
"Exactly, we tame monsters from the dungeon and bring them to the surface. Yesterday, I asked you if you could control monsters and you said yes, could you maybe elaborate?"
"If I want an animal to do something, I can command it to do so. There are no limits, as long as a monster is an animal or part animal I can control them as well. So no vampires, zombies, ghosts or anything humanoid. What exactly do you want me to do with this ability?"
"With your ability we can bring monsters from deeper in the dungeon to the top for people to see, with less risk. Last year, I lost 2 of my children and 5 more were injured so badly they were forced to retire. But with you, we can bring them out without having to risk as many lives."
"What would I get in return?"
"Anything you want, within reason. If I'm able to get it, it will be yours."
"Information, for starters."
"Well, depending on the information you ask for, I could provide it right now as a show of good faith, or a down payment. However you want to look at it. In the mean time you'll have 2 weeks to think about what you want. So, what do you want to know?"
"The seal that's been placed on my Arcanum, how do I make one on my own?"
"I don't know, my seal came from Ouranos as well. But you could ask Hephaestus or Hecate, they both wear their own seals. Most others I know about wear one from Ouranos. Then there's Ishtar and Freya I suppose, but if I were you I wouldn't associate with them unless you absolutely must."
"Thank you, I'll help you out with the festival. Let's just consider the payment a favor to be determined at a later time."
"That's fine. I'll see you in 2 weeks then, that's one week before the festival. We begin gathering the monsters then.
Now that our business has concluded, on to less serieus matters..."
----
Meanwhile in the dungeon.
"Hahaha, killing them with their own blood is so much fun!"
Alice yells while she's holding a dagger made of condensed blood. The next moment she makes a vertical cut across the chest of a large white ape-like monster, called a Silverback.
The cut is deep, but the blood doesn't gush out like it should. Instead, Alice creates four arteries and connects them through the wound to the heart of the beast.
Then Alice starts pumping as much blood into it as she can while the heart keeps expanding, bigger and bigger until..
"CRACK! SPLASH!"
The Silverback's sternum cracks open and the heart explodes out of the chest of her poor victim.
"Mom?"
"Yes Duke?"
"Weren't we supposed to stick to the first few floors today? We're already on floor 12."
"Yes, but do you want to go tell her that?" Luna says pointing a paw towards Alice.
Duke then watches as Alice keeps killing more monsters in increasingly brutal and creative ways while using their own blood.
"Nope, never mind."
"Mom?"
"Yes Athena?"
"Do you think Fenrir knows about this side of her?"
"I don't know, but I've got a strong suspicion that he does not."