With an utterly flat face, I used a pair of salad tongs to gently pick up the limp form of the Jack Bird and then take its laid golden eggs away before fusing the fresh... And nasty eggs into the necklace I made with the Jack Egg I got from Hephaestus that would increase my growth and my natural healing after washing the eggs of course.
Anyway, even with the potion for Materia's healing out of the way. I wasn't entirely in a rush to run over there to the Hera Familia's mansion. Best to let them cook for a couple days before I go over there with the potion.
Regardless though I wasn't going to just waste the rest of this new day after spending the afternoon and going into the night being given all the affection Tina could give me. "Tina, lets head out. I think we can make another attempt at messing around in the... Lets try to do an endurance run in the seventh-level Pantry to try to get a Killer Ant to tame." I said after a minute of thought.
While thinking, I realized that for a mount there were few if any really good mounts until the dense forest floor of Riveria and past that floor. But if I could fuse stuff into killer ants to make them bigger and strong enough to easily carry our weight... Having a mount that could run up walls could be a great boon in the dungeon to say the least.
So with Tina's acknowledgment of my idea... Though not exactly enthused she agreed that having a mount to cut down the long time it took to get deeper into the dungeon would be smart. But as we talked about the logistics about the long length it took for adventurers to reach the deeper floors.
I obviously thought about work around to that. Like could I setup a portal or teleportation system? And the real question, would be how in the world could I do that as the materials I used needed to be somewhat attached to the abilities they gave whatever item they were fused into.
So where could I get 'spatial' materials?
But my thoughts were cutoff as my face twitched as when we reached the Tower of Babel to go into the dungeon, I saw a crowd of midgets. I mean Pallums standing near one of the massive pillars holding up the lower side of the tower.
"Ah... They are making marks on people." Tina whispered and my face twitched as my instinctive racist irritation at the midgets had resurfaced after it had been fucked out of me by Tina.
"Not our problem," I grunted out rolling my eyes as I met the eyes of a couple of the pallums of which I couldn't even really tell their gender as they were fully covered up with scarves covering up their heads and lower faces to hide their faces after probably mugging other people and not wanting to get pinpointed for doing it.
Tina hummed in thought, but once we got into the elevator in which we paid a little fee to be dropped onto the first floor without needing to use the long staircase. Tina spoke up. "Making eye contact with them, was a bad move Jake. It makes them remember you, and that's how we made you out to be a newbie." She advised me and I raised an eyebrow looking down at her and said flatly.
"And how did that go for you guys?" I asked rhetorically.
She nodded and without shame said easily. "Yes, the coyotes met a lion and as is right in this world I submitted... But regardless enough coyotes with poisoned fangs and claws can bring down a lion." She reminded me and there was nothing wrong with her words so I grunted in reply.
This world of Danmachi sucked... I wanted my low-end one where only Freya was the danger instead of a dozen Familia's with their own level sixes and sevens!
-
Going deeper into the dungeon, we followed the line of adventurers going into the dungeon and without much issue, we made it to the deeper floors. But as we reached the deeper floors Tina spoke up. "Jake, I was thinking about what you said about having a Killer Ant mount. Wouldn't a Hard Armored or even an Infant Dragon be better with their better potential with your fusion ability?" She asked quietly.
For a moment I just twiddled with a War Shadow claw before nodding with as her words rather correctly. As at best the Killer Ant could maybe summon more ants with its death cry ability or maybe even buff other tamed Killer Ants. But a Hard Armored was already a war-horse-sized armadillo creature with large hard spikes covering its back like a Sandslash from Pokemon. To say nothing of the flightless dragon in the Infant Dragon that could naturally breathe flames and had the bulk of 'fuck you I am a dragon.'
But in the end I said wryly. "Taming a Hard Armored or Infant Dragon is very dangerous Tina... To say nothing of how the monsters are on floors we haven't even been on yet, but I physically don't have the strength to manhandle those monsters and they aren't as cowardly nor are bully bait like the Jack Bird, so I cannot tame them by feeding it spicy shit." I explained while idly wondering if a dragon of all things even registered things like spicy things.
But my errant thought was cut off as Tina laid a hand on my leg and she spoke with some weight in her voice. "Jake, our stats are already at minimum B tier, we need to get high-tier Excellia to level up. Either taming or killing an Infant Dragon would be perfect for our level-up unless we want to pay some higher-leveled Hephaestus members to take us deeper into the dungeon so we can fight a couple of Minotaurs for high-tier Excellia to level up."
At her words, I had to think for a second before with a sigh I could only reply in a weak nod. "Alright, Tina... Its a good idea, though it's going to be dangerous." I muttered and Tina replied easily.
"The danger and suspense in a story is what makes it worth its read... And thus as adventurers, we grow with our Falna reaching its next chapter." She seemingly recited from the Hera and Zeus method of throwing their adventurers into crazy quests to level up quickly and get a lot of stat points.
And thus we headed deeper. To find our fortunes in poking a dragon in the eye.