After reaching Rivira, Bell, Welf, and Calvin sneaked out to the 22nd floor.
"This is the second time this forest gives me the creeps" Calvin said looking around the misty forest.
"Now that you say it, it is a lot darker than usual..., maybe we should have told the girls to come with us" Bell said looking back.
"No, I think that whatever we find here should be kept within the Familia" Welf said.
After a while of walking, they finally found the spot where they found Wiene, but they couldn't really find something out of the ordinary, so they decided to look around the general area of the 22nd floor.
And after a few moments of walking through the forest, they saw a hooded figure in front of them, but as strange as it looked, they didn't put any attention to it and walked past it.
'Should we ask him?' Bell whispered to Welf and Calvin, but before they could answer the figure spoke.
"You smell like one of us" it said with a calm yet firm voice making the trio get into a defensive stance.
"Tell me where she is" the figure continued.
"Who are you talking about?" Bell said although he of course knew who was it talking about, he couldn't let that information go that easily much less not knowing the intentions of the figure in front of him.
The figure looked at him for a moment before speaking again.
"You must be the one Fels told me about, I want to ask you something," it said looking at Bell "do you think we can coexist on the surface?".
"I-" Bell was about to speak but the figure cut him off.
"You kill us, we kill you, is it perhaps destiny?" it said and then turned to Calvin.
"Fels told me about you too, do you feel the Dungeon? Were you born from it like us? " It asked.
"No...? And how is the dungeon supposed to feel like?" Calvin said.
'I do feel the bent inside the dungeon walls, but feeling the dungeon itself..., I also have a strange feeling every time I come here... like something that it's just in the background not monitoring me but aware of my presence inside'
"I see, then you must be the reason the dungeon has been acting like this" the figure said looking at Calvin.
"As for you," it said looking at Bell "I will have faith in you" the figure spoke before flying into the air and disappearing into the woods leaving a bunch of feathers behind.
"What?" bell said confused while grabbing a feather out of the air.
"Could it be, another talking monster?" Welf said.
"Yeah..." Calvin said looking in a particular direction.
'So fast... I could barely keep up with its speed and what's with the dungeon acting differently? Was it acting differently all this time? As far as I know, it's been like this since forever, right?' Calvin thought crouching down to touch the ground.
Touching it he felt the bent inside the floor, but even if it was close, he couldn't interact with it in any way, it was like trying to move an object in constant motion it would just ignore his commands.
'Like an unending river with an extremely strong current...' Calvin thought getting up and looking at the confused duo beside him.
"At least we know there ARE more of them," Calvin said making Bell wake out of his stupor.
"Y-yeah we should tell this to Hestia," Bell said putting the feather in his pocket.
After that they made their way to Rivira while Welf and Bell were thinking about what the figure said to them, Calvin of course didn't care about those words, after all, he had killed his fair share of living things.
But now that he looked back at himself, he didn't feel anything the first time he killed, maybe he was just bad in the head? Or just a side effect of being the Ravager?
Walking back to Rivira they passed by some adventurers being the one with a red spear the one who stood out the most.
The adventurers kept walking for a few moments before the one with the red spear looked back at the trio with a sinister smile.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Later in the surface<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Back at the surface, the team was parting from Aisha and Ryuu
"I am quite intrigued by what you did back there... but I don't really care that much" Aisha said while looking at Bell and Welf that seemed pensive and a little down, she then looked at Calvin and smiled because it seemed that her 'prey' was unperturbed by whatever they encountered in the dungeon.
"Cranel, if you have any problem don't hesitate to ask for aid" Ryuu said from behind her cloak.
"Thank you, Ryuu but this is a 'Familia' type of matter" Bell said, you could tell by the way he said it that he didn't want to talk at the moment.
"I understand, see you then" Ryuu said making her way to the Hostess of fertility.
Bell looked at Ryuu for a moment before setting his eyes on Aisha "As for the compensation-" Bell said only to get cut off by Aisha.
"Forget that! I'll take him as compensation if he agrees to of course" she said grabbing Calvin by the arm and looking at him with challenging eyes.
'Give up while you can boy, cause' this time I have a little gift for you' She thought.
'Is she assuming I'm going to quit? Because if that's the case she couldn't be more wrong' Calvin thought returning the challenging look.
"And why would I deny such an offer?" Calvin said.
"Then I'll see you in the usual place tonight" Aisha said walking away while Calvin watched her go.
When Aisha got out of sight Calvin looked back at the team that was looking at him with incredulous looks on their faces especially Lily that seemed to have a hint of disgust on her face.
"What?" Calvin said crossing his arms.
"Really? Whatever" Lily said massaging her head and turning to look at Bell and Welf" So, what did you find?" Lily Asked them.
"Well, I think we should talk about it later" Bell said. Lily didn't really like that answer but by the tone he was saying it, she didn't retort back.
"What about a walk before going to the mansion" Welf suggested getting a nod from Bell.
"Fine then, I'll go to the mansion with Welf and Calvin so don't come back too late" Lily said going back to the mansion a little angry that her teammates were keeping secret the thing that they came here to discover.
After they left, Bell went on his way thinking if there was a way that humans and monsters could coexist.
Calvin looked up seeing the sun going down meaning it was afternoon and he still had Warp to use so he decided to go home to relax a little, although he wanted to train before relaxing but he guessed that Bell might not be in the mood for a spar and Learner… he might no be able to beat her in combat but at least he can beat her in bed so that's a partial win for him.
Walking past a restaurant Welf salivated at the smell of food, seeing this, Lily decided to stop by and grab a snack.
"You want to eat something?" Lily asked Welf.
"I- uh, yeah" Welf said, he was about to deny when he remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since halfway to the surface in the dungeon.
"Alright, and you Calvin?" Lily asked Calvin who was checking his status but to Lily, it seemed like he was just looking at the nothing in front of him.
"Ah, no thanks, I'll keep going home" Calvin said closing the System window and putting his attention in lily.
"Okay then, we'll arrive later" Lily said entering the restaurant with Welf.
Walking through the empty streets Calvin suddenly heard something a few streets to the side.
Getting closer to the sound he could identify voices but he also noticed at least 10 other people hiding in the surrounding.
'What could be so important to have it this secured?' Calvin thought wanting to hear what the people were saying.
'Maybe it's something that could benefit me' he thought as his feet started sinking in the ground.
[Phasing]
[39/40 Bent remaining]
When he was completely underground, he navigated to the source of the voices and recognized that one was Hermes but he didn't know the other one.
"Your Familia wouldn't happen to be trafficking, right?" Hermes asked the person sitting beside him.
"Hehehe how could I, the kids do it, I got nothing to do with that" The man with tired eyes
"Someone is trying to wreak havoc in Orario, and I just wanted to find out if it was your doing" Hermes said with a serious expression.
"Gyahahahah! Those little bastards, there are times when they forget they are talking to a god, they use me to do their chores! But their silly doings make me laugh you know, it is my only pleasure" Ikelos said.
"It is also your responsibility as a god to control your Familia" Hermes added.
"Those kids are already out of my reach they are driven by their own pleasure, just like us gods" Ikelos said getting up.
"So, as long as they keep making me laugh, I won't stop them, you can keep spying on me all you want" Ikelos said looking at the various spots where the members of the Hermas Familia were hiding "It's futile" he said walking away.
Hermes thought about the previous interaction before sighing.
"*sigh* Gods driven by pleasure are the most troublesome" Hermas said before speaking again.
"Come out Calvin" Hermes said Looking at the ground startling Calvin in the process.
'Damm, he could see me?' Calvin thought phasing to the surface and taking a seat beside Hermes.
[Phasing]
[35/40 Bent remaining]
Calvin's actions surprised the rest of the Hermes Familia as they didn't detect a thing.
"Calvin, you shouldn't meddle in God's problems, but even if you do, I can do nothing except give you a warning" Hermes said.
"Yeah, sorry for that, I thought that it would be interesting" Calvin said not underestimating the power of gods anymore.
"Don't worry, since it's the first time you do this, it'll be just a warning, but if you keep going, I won't assure you wellbeing" Hermes said looking at Calvin.
'A threat? But it seems like this guy wants me to keep interfering in God's stuff' Calvin thought.
"But if you decide to keep doing it, I must ask you a question, do you want to join my Familia?" Hermes asked shocking the members of the Familia.
"No, thanks I think the Hestia Familia is good enough for now" Calvin said not wanting more trouble.
"I knew you'd say that, then what about helping me with something?" Hermes asked again.
"Depends on what that something is and what I get from helping you" Calvin asked, not seeing a reason to help Hermes.
"Just a little plan of mine, if you accept, you can ask me anything you want, not reserved to mortal stuff as I am a god too" Hermes said getting up.
'A plan? From this guy? Surely nothing good will come of it, but also having a "competent" god in my side doesn't sound too bad' Calvin thought about the pros and cons of helping Hermes with his plan.
"I accept" Calvin said getting up and facing Hermes.
"Good, now I'll tell you what to do when the time comes, for now just take this" Hermes said, taking out a folder from his satchel.
Calvin took the folder that had various lines as a symbol over it.
'The Zeus Familia?' Calvin thought at the sight of such a strange symbol that he recognized from a book he read in the guild.
"What's inside?" Calvin said only to realize that Hermes wasn't there anymore.
"Well, that was rude" Calvin said looking at the horizon that was turning orange as the sun settled.
'It's getting late, I should go back home' He thought walking back to the mansion.
Sorry for not posting for a while, I had some personal problems and I couldn't stop thinking about it, then again as I said at the beginning of the fanfic, I do this for fun so don't expect frequent uploads although I'll try to keep it at 1 chapter per week.
If you liked the fanfic until here a comment or an honest review is always appreciated.
That'll be all thank you for reading and see you next chapter :D