(Lyze POV)
The next day, I was sat in the middle of my room, on a small rug with my legs crossed and my arms at my side. I had begun practicing meditation again. During my training with Nekros, he regularly used to make me meditate after a particularly hard task.
I could not deny, it was very effective. As much as people like me used to make fun of it and call it a cringe shonen practice, it did wonders for a battle hardened soul. It helped me centre myself and get my emotions under control. The aftermath would be a clearer mind and sharper movements in battle.
The problem was, it took a great deal of patience on my part to do this. If you have not figured it out by now from my incessant need to get stronger, I was not very patient and due to that, I was not very tolerant of the stillness and the quiet of meditation.
I had actually neglected it entirely ever since I came to Orario, and I assumed that it was due to that reason in part I had been quite tumultuous. With the worry over my face to face with Freya settled, I found myself in peace once again, calm and happy to some degree I guess.
So I decided to try meditating again. Yet again, it was proving to be very hard for someone of my character. Fortunately though, after shuffling around a bit and brainstorming ideas on how to cope, I found something that was distracting but at the same time immersed me deeper into serenity.
Thread.
One of the three powers bestowed upon me by a singular drop of Nekros's blood. It's about time I finally explain how it worked.
I only ever experienced Thread in it's full capacity whenever I turned Chaos Vision off. With my sight gone, I had to rely on my instincts and my other senses to guide me through life. But Thread provided a whole new sort of vision.
Living things around me appeared in my head like a cluster of glowing smoke in the form of that particular person or creature, amidst a sea of blackness. Whenever someone made any sort of movement be it with an object or their bare limbs, a colourful string would suddenly stretch out from the limb in indication of which direction it would go in, hence the name of the ability.
That was how I was able to predict oncoming attacks. It really was a cheat ability, and the only way to overcome it would be a lucky surprise attack like the when dwarf shield bashed me. Usually I would have seen it coming but because I'd been overwhelmed by so many foes at once, I hadn't had time to register his oncoming attack.
The other way would be how Finn and Ottar would get one over me. Even if I saw them coming, it mattered little if they moved too fast for my body to react in time. But there was no denying, the ability had saved my skin one too many times.
But when incorporating it into my meditation, peace gained a whole new meaning. Nekros had told me that the abilities that his blood gave me would be at master level when I got them. Being a master of an ability does not make you the best. After mastery comes refining, and that was what I was doing.
The more I was at peace with myself, the wider the range was. With enough time, my perception eventually reached all the way to the first floor where I could feel the cook moving around in the kitchen, Finn scribbling away in his office, Loki sneaking around in the showers as the returning women from the dungeon washed themselves off the grime of an expedition.
Ugh, the things the don't tell you in stories.
Because we were such a large Familia of over a 100 members, bunches of third and second class adventurers would go on small expeditions into the dungeon where they would stay for a few days to farm monster parts before returning to the surface.
Large expeditions happened at sort of regular intervals. One these expeditions, majority of the Familia would go with only certain members left behind. The executives would take the best fighters and the combat squadrons down deep into the harder floors. Simply traveling down there would take weeks, so a large scale expedition would take anywhere between a month to two.
That was only when they went as far down as the 50th floor and safe zone. By this point in the story, that was as far as the Loki Familia reached in a large expedition. The journey back up took longer than it did to go down due to laws of physics.
Is it easier to go up a hill than it is to go down?
Not to mention how worn out the adventurers would be from having to fight their way down there. Encountering a monster rex on the way up was a pain.
But what was truly horrifying was how BAD they smelled when they returned from minor expeditions. Only places like the safe zone had safe bathing facilities (apart from the Anglerfish monster spring somewhere further up in the dungeon which I was wanting to find if the OVA's were to be believed), and adventurers did not have much of an opportunity to clean themselves.
As a result the blood from monsters and sweat would build up along with the grime. The stench would be overwhelming to say the least, so much so that adventurers immediately threw themselves into the showers the moment they came home.
I had the unfortunate accident of being pressed into an Amazon's chest when I bumped into them in the hallway once after one of their minor expeditions. They smelled horrific, and I was dreading what adventurers would smell like after a major expedition.
Using Thread so much continuously and actively made me lose physical sensation of my body as I immersed myself into the flow of the universe. And there was a good reason for that because I vaguely sensed myself floating in the air like they do in cartoons. Well, for once I was enjoying myself.
It was somewhat early in the morning although there would not be that much of daylight as it was winter, and I spent the next couple of hours just floating there peacefully, my breathing measured, my magic settled and my soul at peace.
Speaking of that actually, there was another reason I was doing this though. Freya had told me that my soul was in image a silver flame in which Chaos was nestled. That told me one thing; every time I had met Chaos in person, somehow my consciousness had taken me to a sort of 'soul-space' inside of my self.
Every time I had done so, it was when I was in a serious state of unconsciousness, beyond mere sleep. The first time around was when Nekros had taken my spirit from my body back to Valaron to check in on me. For that to happen, a person has to be in a very deep sleep. The other time had been when Ottar beat me to the brink of death and I didn't wake up for two days.
I wanted to find a way to enter that space a will, for a few reasons. One being why Chaos seemed so familiar to me. It was just so frustrating that I couldn't put my finger on why the entity seemed so familiar. I felt that if I spent enough time with, I would figure it out by I would be taken out of that space before enough time passed.
Meditation was one of the ways I thought it would be possible, but two hours of solid practice proved nothing even when I turned 'Thread' onto myself. Eventually I decided to come out of it when I felt a familiar presence leave Finn's office and come up to my room.
They entered without knocking, and even to my own surprise, there was only one person I tolerated doing that. I directed Chaos Magic to my eyes as vison opened up to me again to find Ais standing at the door, geared up for combat as she looked at me shyly.
"The captain would like to speak to us both." She said.
"Sure." I replied as I got up from my seat. "Any idea what it's about?"
"Finn said not to say until we were both there."
I furrowed my brows in confusion as I sensed a foreboding. Something important was headed my way...and just when I finally had a bit of peace and quiet.
---
When I entered the captain's office, I was surprised to find Lili sitting in one of the guest chairs in a new set of clothes. I momentarily found the sight funny, seeing Lili, the younger Pallum sitting nervous in front of Finn.
In their previous Lives, Finn who was then Dim idolized Lili who was Fianna as his hero and his older half sister. It was funny seeing how Danmachi reversed situations in reincarnations.
Argonaut saved princess Ariadne of Lakrios from a minotaur. In canon, in their new lives as Bell and Ais, she saved him from a minotaur. Argonaut had been two years older than than Ariadne, Ais was two years older than Bell.
Funny, huh?
It also set me wondering on whether or not Zeus actually knew about Bell's past life, for Argonaut had in fact shared a connection with Zeus the the spirit Jupiter.
If anything, my ultimate theory was that Zeus faked his death and spurred Bell onto becoming an adventurer so the same drive and persona of the Argonaut would reawaken in the boy. It was the Argonaut who brought forth the Age of Heroes, so I suppose Zeus wanted him to do it again in a new identity.
...If I didn't find the power to go back home by the time canon swung by, what position would I fill in this branched timeline? The wielder of Excalibur would be a hero regardless, and Nekros told me I would be the greatest.
Was that the point of my being here? Was I supposed to take Bell's place?
"Ah, good. You're here Lyze." Finn smiled as we entered and shut the door behind us. I snapped out of my musings to reply.
"Yes, Captain. What did you need from me?" I asked.
"Well first thing's first..." He said as he put his pen down. "Have you fully recovered from your last time in the dungeon."
"I guess I have by now. Yes."
"Good. That means we can get straight down to business." His face took on a more serious expression. "This morning, the guild sent out both an alert and an announcement. The Soma Familia has been found guilty by evidence of numerous crimes, that is certain members. An investigation that was carried out by guild officials uncovered their misdeeds and now names on a list of people have been marked as wanted." He leaned forward looking at me. "It would appear that Miss Lili here is not amongst them."
Inwardly I was impressed. It looked like Freya was really serious about this arrangement if she took action this swiftly. It made me think of what other things she could do if she was bale to do this so easily.
"They also seemed to push the notion that any member of the Soma Familia whose name was not on the wanted list was to be allowed to go free and join other Familia if they wished." Finn continued. "In light of this, Lady Loki expressed a desire to take in Lili entirely because you seem to like her Lyze, and because she seems to have become friend with Ais."
"Wait, you have?" I asked as I turned my head to the two girls. Lili blushed a little as Ais nodded. "Over what did the two of you become friends?"
"It's a secret." They both simultaneously said although Lili said it with some more passion and...franticness? I raised my eyebrow at their behaviour.
"Anyway." Finn said as he gave them a knowing side-eye. "Loki would have given her blessing right way but she is... 'unavailable' at the moment."
In this Familia, that translated to Loki having tried to grope one of the more militant women of the Familia and she ended up unconscious as a result of probably a particularly harsh bonk on the head. Why was I not surprised?
"I guess you had something in mind for us to do while we wait for her to regain consciousness?" I said.
"Yes indeed. Our major expedition will be coming up very soon, in a little over a week's time. On a side note, I'd like you to be here in my office when we're going over the plans."
"Really?"
"Yes. Why?"
"I-I'm just a third class member. What place do I have in the proceedings?"
"That will be revealed at a later date. For now, I assumed that the three of you get in a little practice." Finn pointed at all of us. "Out of our third class members, you and Ais are the most powerful. Furthermore, out of those who will find this to be their first expedition, you are the only one who has managed to single handedly clear the middle floors by your lonesome Lyze. As such, the two of you will be at the forefront of our second string group, right in front of our supporters and behind the vanguard.
I believe that you three should get a little practice in before then. I want you Lyze to help Ais get a little Familiar with the middle floors as she has not yet gone there. Miss Lili will act as your supporter since you're so adamant on claiming her as such. This is meant to be an exercise for all of you. I want you all back before sundown as well.
One more thing, do not go beyond the 13th floor. Ais is only meant to garner a taste of the middle floors, not a full experience. You can very easily traverse it but bear in mind they cannot. An absolutely NO engaging Goliath either Lyze. Save it for the expedition."
"You'd let me fight it during the expedition?"
"Well, yes." Finn smiled. "The time you levelled up and the time you stole the Astraea Familia's quarry has made you infamous for taking down the beast alone. I'd like to see in person how you do it. Heed my words Lyze. Don't make me regret putting my trust in you."
"I won't let you down."
"Good. Don't talk to hooded strangers, stay at the front of the line so you suffer no surprise attacks Lyze and just make sure that Lili makes it out safe. She also has not yet gone to the middle floors so this will be a new experience for her. She will be joining the supporter group who have all been there at some point, so this will help to make sure she doesn't feel like the odd one out when the expedition comes. That will be all."
"Okay Finn." I nodded as the three of us began making our way out of the room. "We'll see you soon, I guess."
Finn seemed to wait for Ais and Lili to exit the room before he called out again.
"Oh, one last thing before you go Lyze."
"Yes."
Finn sheepishly stuck his hand somewhere beneath his desk and pulled out a few sheets of paper as he smiled at me.
"I have to tally these other bills as well for the expedition. Could you maybe...help me out a bit?"
"..."
I got it done in two minutes and left a relieved Pallum sighing happily as he leaned back in his chair. Something told me that this would become a habit.
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