C17: immortal Conference *
Word count = 2732 on 1/8/2024
The next day arrives and both Raikou and Axel are completely sore. Axel's hips feel like they are gonna crumble from the strain as his back cracks as he gets up and changes the bedsheets. Opening the windows throughout the home as well due to the overwhelming scent that is lingering about. He also puts up a closed for business sign on the door to inform the students that Raikou is out of commission today. They both are really but he is at least still injured a bit while Raikou is taking a bath to wash off the deluge of seed she was covered and filled with.
Axel rests for an hour more as he makes breakfast for himself and his goddess. He gives her the food and after eating they indulge in their lust a bit more as Raikou is wearing a wide apron as she thought she would make breakfast and didn't change. The apron is the only thing she is wearing which is the reason for their newfound arousal. After making a bigger mess in the kitchen, they finally get to cleaning the house and dojo for the next few hours. A thick chemical smell wafts through the dojo as the leftover seed has seeped into a few of the mats and replacements might be necessary but that will have to wait until they regather funds.
Axel suggests to use the monster cores he gathered in his last journey but Raikou stated that the money from those would help Axel regather supplies as well as sustain their groceries as she has already paid off this month's taxes for their home, as such they're not outright suffering due to the medical bills to Dian Cecht.
While the duo finish up cleaning, they hear a knock on the front door and find Astolfo is visiting. She says hi to Axel and then pulls Raikou aside. "I don't know if you realize but the next Immortal Conference is in a few hours. I wanted to bring up a topic regarding your familia. I hope you will support my choice in this decision." 'whisper whisper whisper'
"What! Are you sure? uggghhh, alright. Ill handle it for you. This could be good for Axel as well" Raikou is surprised but understands and reassures Astolfo in regards to the matter she told her about.
"Well, we got that out of the way, On the other hand, the next god's Denatus is supposed to be in 2 days. You better report the level up if you want to get him a good title." Astolfo says and then heads out to prepare for the conference.
"Goddess, what is this conference?" Axel couldn't help but overhear the name
Raikou begins to explain, "The immortal conference is like the gods denatus where we just share news about our livelihood, solve matters that require assistance as well as party a bit as while we are living as neighbors, we are all busy people who are trying to keep our homes and thus cant recklessly be lazy." She explains a bit as she begins to get ready for the meeting as well. She was informed earlier as well but with Axel's emergency, she had forgotten and luckily was reminded by Astolfo.
She spends the next few 1 and a half hour before the conference to prepare and pack a few things up. Axel asks, "What do you need all that for?" Raikou spends by saying, "We all bring a few snacks to include in the small banquet. Part of it involves exchanging all of the different cultures of our homelands but I don't have enough time to cook so I can only get a few random snacks", she says while also gearing up in a far eastern stylized armor with a bow hanging on her back, a sword at her side "As for the other bags, The 'outfit' I wore yesterday didn't belong to me. I only borrowed it in the last conference which was shortly after you joined me." she finishes up
"Why do I only hear about this now?" Axel questions while thinking if he at all had seen or met the original owner of 'that outfit'.
"Because it's not important" She simply states and Axel can only accept that logic.
Raikou waves off to Axel before heading out while Axel focuses on training his new skill Parasitica Corpus in the limits of his skill, he finds that he can create beast like claws by manifesting bone spikes around his fingers so that he can essentially turn his hand into a sort of rapier or saw blade on his hand which would make it easier to kill monsters with harder defenses like killer ants. He can beat them much more efficiently and he is aware of what monsters remain in the upper floors, Infant Dragon and Minotaurs. Both are dangerous in their own right unlike all the other monsters until now that they were all speed focused.
While Axel was training and recovering, Raikou went out to the conference. A host which was Astolfo this time around for the conference was able to rent out the arena used by the Ganesha Familia as that is where most of their connections are linked to. Astolfo had already prepared everything in the coming days but had changed outfits to pinkish armor to signify their own status as a knight. Many others start to show up and are wearing similar style clothing. Be it some form of armor with swords, halberds, bows or cestus to exemplify their martial prowess.
They all take their designated seats as the immortals are split between 3 regions which is Far East, Desert Folk (middle east) and Northerners (Europeans). The Far East which Raikou is part of is considered as one of the leaders. SemiRamis takes the leadership position of the most abundant group which is the Northerners, of course as the host, Astolfo takes a half leadership position. White the Desert Folk which is the most sparse due to a few trying to establish their own familias in Kaos Desert[1], primarily some of the larger cities but not weakening the authority of it's main group. As such, the current leader is a sparsely covered Nitocris (caster style) and a silver armored Ptolemy (young archer style).
Astolfo as the host states, "I welcome all my fellows to our annual meeting. Glad to see that nothing changed and that we have a few guests joining us in the current meeting" Astolfo says, indicating Artoria, Morgan, and Mordred who nod in response to the hosts' words. A few supporters who were hired by Astolfo to serve as servants arrange all brought snacks while Astolfo finishes his greeting speech before allowing any who wish for it to begin snacking it while others begin to gossip amongst others.
Part of a certain conversation includes the mess of noises that rose up the day before which causes Raikou to blush a bit as she flashbacks to the bouts of pleasure she felt but she offers no comment in regards to the details with the exception of, "I simply did my motherly deeds with my child, nothing more." It gives one an impression that she is pure even though everyone here can tell that is not the case and they try to interrogate the details out of Raikou who stands tall against methods to coax Raikou to spill the details of the ravenous sex she had with her 'child'.
After an hour or two of people getting comfortable, Astolfo attracts attention once more as they say, "The next module of the conference shall start now, Everyone may raise their hands if they have any issues that involve us as Immortals, be it minor issues or the unlikely greater issues and concerns."
Artoria Pendragon raises her hand first and speaks up about the incident of the behemoth variant monsters. Describing their strength, specialization and then a few instances of how she fought them. Her discussion ended after half an hour before Raikou was the next person to raise their hand as she spoke up.
"Astolfo has brought it to my attention earlier today that they wish to be replaced in my child's trifecta falna. Their reasoning was that they were not able to provide any form of training or help to my child that I couldn't already do. Especially since I already had my child receive martial arts training from a friendly god I know. So a position is currently open for the 2nd slot of the trifecta falna. A show of hands of those who are interested AND can provide some form of help for my child. Just know that he can't learn falna based magic" Raikou gives a speech and a series of hands rise up.
Raikou begins to judge her fellow immortals as she is sure that a good number of them have less than pleasant intentions for her child, especially after hearing about the rumors of their 'union'.
Most immortals offer only pretentious offers with the most repetitive being a difference of culture and skillset which should diversify what Axel could be exposed to and thus be able to counter but the ones who offered this were a bunch of lustful vixens. The only one amongst this group that Raikou would be willing to trust is Achilles and that is primarily due to the nature of his own actions that led to him becoming an immortal as well as the fact that he himself is also a nomadic immortal like Artoria and her family.
Raikou rubs her brows as she moves on to the next hand which belongs to one of the few giganticess amongst the immortals. This one was the adoptive child of another immortal but an evil one who was experimenting on barely living dungeon monsters during the age of heroes. Her own blood was merged with that of snake monsters which caused her and her sisters to gain scales on their bodies but while the other two take on more normal forms, this sister was more affected and her growth spurt was more pronounced as scales cover her hands and legs as well as small patches of other places on her body. She had later killed her father figure and freed herself and her sisters before they traveled along. They had to be protected by others for a while before the misunderstanding that they werent monsters was cleared up. The purple haired giant beauty speaks up as she is selected as the next potential candidate. She licks her pink lips as she says
"I, Medusa, offer my knowledge of monsters, their tendencies, especially the ones related to my blood donor monster which shows up on the surface as well as the deep floors. The petrification power they hold is a heavy threat for any adventurer who reaches that region. Especially since they regularly try to disguise themselves as humans to get others to lose their guard around them. My information should be more detailed than the guilds in regards to the deeper floors. Perhaps I can also serve as a magic teacher for him, if he is capable of learning our magic type as I heard that he cant use falna based magic but our magic system isn't falna based so there is hope for him" Her words surprise the others as she offers actual help or at least help that would make her worthy of being chosen as the replacement.
(imagine her body as the gorgon but without the tail aspect. So her looks is like a bigger version of her rider form from fate stay night except slightly more beast like) (also the gorgon would be my own custom monster for the deep floors because why not have more monsters there)
Raikou truly considers this before she says, "Im sorry but I wish to hear everyone's offers before deciding. My child is not even at the middle levels yet and shouldn't think about the deep floors just yet."
"Very well, but do keep me in mind" She says and her words have merit as a few new hands from a few spellcasters raise their hands due to the possibility that he could learn a variation of magecraft instead of being limited to just his own skills. Many recognize that Medusa is more of a specialist mage due to her learning many AOE spells which have high destruction. Raikou can only thank that more than half the spellcasters are in that stupid magic tower otherwise she would have a proper headache as she rejects one offer after another as many try to exemplify their own unique spellcasting traits but it's all the same spells and usages, just changed up to suit their own personalities.
Once Raikou ends with most of the volunteering immortals she next selects one of her own far east people to give their proposition. She actually has some more hope for this one as she knows this person quite well but is surprised by her volunteering like this. A black haired beauty with a stoic but soft expression as she regularly indulges in her books. Raikou is curious as to what this spellcaster will showcase.
"Murasaki-san. You may speak next" Raikou ushers and the soft spoken beauty rises as she speaks aloud, her harmonious voice rings out to all the collective ears.
"I seek to help to gain new source material for my poems, what I offer is my illusion magic as well guidance is fighting off illusions. One of my opera house's clients is also a proficient poison master who can teach the child to potentially acquire a falna based poison resistance through extended exposure to lower level poison and then gradually raising the poison resistance. I have records of a select few adventurers who had gotten this benefits though they were not very gifted." She offers and others are shocked once again as poison is the main reason that most adventurers are forced to get the development skill-Abnormal Resistance as the method to get this is quite dangerous which is by being exposed to a monster's poison and surviving then escaping from the dungeon.
The god Ganesha tries to streamline this process by having the purple moth captured but it's difficult but that is still a development skill that could be replaced by possibly getting a poison resistance skill that does the same thing as the development skill.
Raikou herself knows that with her childs new skill, she has a chance of resisting various abnormalities but also his devouring source should nullify poisons and even other effects like petrification which is why she is leaning more towards Murasaki san but she also doesnt want to reject Medusa. Murasaki Shikibu herself sits down and all eyes turn to Raikou as unlike others, she didn't disregard her or Medusa which means they are the only valid candidates to be chosen.
Raikou takes a few moments to ponder before speaking up to Medusa, "I thank you for the chance you offer Medusa but I shall have to choose Murasaki-san for her help in this case. Though in the future, I am willing to hire you as a teacher as your knowledge and magic help will be instrumental in the future". Medusa accepts the explanation and isn't worried about selling her knowledge and magic expertise. The guild tried to buy the knowledge from her and her sisters but the ridicule they showcased to them was what made her reject them time and time again.
Medusa is much more tolerant to her fellow immortals though many struggle to learn her magic as they don't have enough 'mind' to support too many of her spells and thus she is not a good beginner teacher and recognizes that Murasaki Shikibu would be better as a beginner magic teacher to introduce the child to their magic system.
The rest of the conference proceeds as usual with no other major issues and Astolfo introduces the next segment where the immortals can fight as representatives of their regions but mostly for fun and stress relief. But to the eyes of the supporters and other hired adventurers, they would assume they all have a blood grudge against each other as through pure skill they are all able to reach above level 3 strength.
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[1] so here I had initially made the mistake of writing Rakia but that's ares territory. I'll address this in chapter 35 when I realized this mistake