Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"Get up."
Thalie's voice startles Yang awake, causing him to immediately sit up in his bed.
"Please be more gentle with my patients," Airmid's soothing voice reaches their ears as Yang steps out of the hospital bed.
"Yeah yeah, he's been here for four days already, time to get back to work, Hephaestus expects us in an hour," She replies with a shrug.
"Ugh, too early for all this talking, I'll be there..." Yang groans out as he stretches his arms and back.
"How do you feel?"
"I told you I'm fine Medbae, I heal fast remember."
"Miracle boy is hard to get rid of, don't be late for the meeting," Thalie says as she leaves the room.
As Thalie quickly leaves the room, Yang looks out the window to see the morning sun already above the horizon.
"Uh, what floor of Babel are we on?" he asks Airmid, earning a curious look from her.
"Floor 12, why?"
"Oh, no reason, my apartment should be straight up from this room," he says while reaching down and storing his shoes inside his inventory.
"Um, you should put those on before you go..." The doctor responds, her calm demeanor masking her confusion.
"Nah, they'll just get burnt anyway..." Yang casually replies while leaping out the window, blue flames beneath his feet holding him aloft just outside the window.
"I'll see ya for the checkup Medbae, have a good day," he says with a small wave and a grin on his face before flying up toward his balcony.
"Hmm, so reckless..." was all Airmid murmured under her breath, her brow twitching slightly from her patient's actions.
After almost an hour, Yang finds himself sitting on the couch of Hephaestus's lounge waiting for the meeting to start. His goddess sitting across from him on another couch reading some papers, Tsubaki sitting beside her as Thalie basks in the sunlight coming through the large ornate window behind his seat with Welf seated in a single chair to his left.
"So, Thalie and Welf already filled me in on your encounters in the dungeon, but they didn't have much to say regarding what caused me such a high medical bill, care to enlighten us?" Hephaestus politely asks, less of a question and more of a polite order.
"Wait, didn't they see the fight?" Yang asks, a bit confused as to why they didn't tell her.
"Uh, hell no. I can't even stand in one of your big attacks, your fight melted your armor, I'd be dead if I stayed past the first clash," Thalie says, a hint of indignation in her voice.
"Yeah, again man, we aren't all Elementalists, even I had to get myself out of there, then had to wait at least an hour for the place to warm up enough for us to enter and see what happened, that's when we saw the arena frozen and you standing on the corpse of a gold dragon, charred and frozen at the same time," Welf says, a grimace on his face at having to recall the sight of his teammate like that.
"Huh, did I pass out?"
"Nope, you were awake, dazed but stayed awake all the way to camp, then you fell asleep until we were well on the way to babel." Thalie quickly informs.
"Damn, I don't remember anything past my last attack, I've never really had to use Jötunheimr in a fight before but that thing was a living forge, fire wasn't working and hitting it wasn't exactly an option either," Yang says, flexing and curling his fingers as he remembers what he put his hands through to win that fight.
"Jötunheimr?" Tsubaki asks, curious about the attack.
"Yeah, it's basically my Freeze attack turned up to 11, no Ice or anything like that since that's Water and Cold magic put together for me, this is just a wave of cold that lingers for a bit. Saps the energy out of things essentially instead of making ice," Yang explains with a shrug.
"That explains why we couldn't breath properly, felt like my lungs couldn't work until the place warmed up a bit, why don't you use that more?" Thalie asks, curious about the effectiveness of this attack.
"Because, making cold takes more magic for me, and unlike fire, I can't exactly aim it. At least right now. I only really used it because it's all I could do," Yang answers with a shrug.
"Well that clears that up, Tsubaki already gave me a report on the camp, I'd like you to give a written report as well, for the sake of practice for the next expedition, that clear?" Hephaestus says.
"Gotcha, so what next?"
"Next we need to discuss the materials you brought, Airmid made me aware that she gets first pick of the items we plan on selling, that's fine. Your armor was completely destroyed however, between the missing limbs from it and the melted chest plate and shattered shoulders, it's well beyond repair. I hate to think how hot your fight was to cause that to happen." The goddess says, casting Yang a curious glance as she looks back to her papers.
"Sorry about that, the dragon was essentially a walking gold armor around a plasma core, it took everything I had just to match the heat of its attacks honestly," he says with a sheepish look, awkwardly scratching his cheek.
"Well you won't be able to get a replacement Amphisbanea armor in time, it won't be spawning any time soon and your next expedition, assuming the meeting to plan it goes as expected, will be in a month," Hephaestus informs them.
"But, do we have anything else that can resist all elements?" Yang asks, concern plastered across his face.
"Nope, you'll have to get something either enchanted or make do with what we do have."
"Enchanted?"
"Yes, depending on the mage, the enchantment can match certain armor classes, as for defending every element AND providing standard protection at the level you need... well, unlikely," Hephaestus says, immediately causing the excitement in him to disappear.
"Shit, anything else?" Yang asks, not liking the bills stacking for him to pay already.
"You're rich!... kinda," Tsubaki says with a small smile.
"Uh?"
"You collected a lot more than a 5 man team would be able to carry back after a month in the dungeon, between the crystals and the drops, yeah you're pretty much the only adventuring team that won't be taking loans to go to the deep floors, having Welf cuts most of the adventureing costs immediately and our familia smiths get better prices for materials, you're pretty lucky." She elaborates.
"It also helps that you've got the best magic for looting, with all the stuff in your storage and the dragon fang, mmmm, not the dragon fang actually I'll be using that, but yeah Valis won't be a problem," Welf adds some insight.
"Huh, I knew money wouldn't be an issue really but yeah hearing from someone that actually understands this stuff properly is a bit, jarring, never really had anywhere near this much money before," Yang confesses.
"Hahaha, I finally get to buy the good ore!" Welf cheers as he throws his hands up in celebration.
"Yeah I've been eyeing a new dress for a while, now I've got downtime and money WE can go shopping..." Thalie says with a devious grin, aimed directly at Tsubaki; a small shiver crawls up the captain's smile.
"Whatever expenses our team has for adventuring stuff or crafting, can it be put on a team account, I'll handle it," Yang says, earning a strange look from everyone.
"That's not needed man we can handle it," Welf says, trying to figure out why the sudden suggestion was made.
"No this is what I do, you make all our stuff so you won't have as much time for dungeon crawling, Thalie probably has tasks to do for Hephaestus plus her own thing and she's gonna be helping me train on the surface a bit, and that's not even mentioning all the skills she has. All I'm good at is being strong and good at handling monsters and getting paid for it, so you do your thing and I'll hand this stuff."
"Uh, dunno how I feel about this..." Welf says.
"I won't say no to some nice new blades, especially since I do have to leave Orario for a bit," Thalie shrugs.
"Yeah, if I'm doing this that means no skimping on materials, got it, only the best of the best, on me," Yang proudly says.
"Hahahaha, alright, I'm all in for this then, just don't complain afterward, adamantine and orichalcum can get a bit pricey." The high smith replies with a grin.
Hephaestus can't help the smile on her face at the conversation that was being had, placing all her best eggs in one team was working, her Trifecta had potential.
"Right, Welf will deal with your equipment, onto other news, since the Orcus challenge small rumors have been spreading about you. No named sources yet but people are murmuring that you're attacking other adventurers in the dungeon an---"
"WHAT?!" Yang yells out, completely thrown off guard by this revelation.
"Settle down, I know they're lying. I've had Thalie looking into it since you returned, seems like people are just jealous and are lying about you. Nobody important seems to care, it's mostly the civilians that believe it and lower class teams." Hephaestus finishes with a shrug.
After taking a moment to process this, Yang can't help but feel like he should have expected more.
"Uh, why're you so calm about this?" he asks, unsure of what's going on.
"Meh, this shit happens all the time, some new hotshot gets the spotlight and people get petty and jealous. Nothing new," Tsubaki says with a shrug.
"That explains the strange looks people were giving me before we left at least, why can't people just keep their noses out of my life..." he lets out an exasperated sigh.
"That's the nature of being the world record-setter, everyone wants a piece of you. Either way, we'll keep an eye out, just be careful when you're out alone alright," Hephaestus says in a calming tone, reassuring him that he had her support.
"Hmm, guess that makes sense..."
"Alright now let's deal with the specifics of your takeaway from the expedition..."
---3 Hours later...
"I hate paperwork, so damn much..." Yang groans out.
After hours or sorting out each type of item they collected during their stay on the lower floors, deciding that samples of the newer ones need to be appraised by Hephaestus before being sold and keeping the Roc talon and its properties out of the public eye, for now, they were finally done with the loot organizing section of this meeting.
"Guess that means you aren't gunning for my job huh," Tsubaki jokes, slumped against the couch with a stiff drink in hand.
"HA! You couldn't pay me enough to be captain, hell, Thalie, you wanna be expedition commander so I can skip these meetings?"
Looking at where the woman was on the floor, neatly sorted stacks of papers in front of her as if this was just another day for her.
"NO." Her short and simple answer.
"Right, now that that's over, time for the big discussion,"
Hephaestus's words caused Yang and Welf to raise a brow, not sure what exactly is about to happen. Thalie and Tsubaki on the other hand don't seem surprised in the least.
"Well now, Yang, how have you been liking this world?"
END CHAPTER---