The one who greeted him was a female Chienthrope with black hair, brown eyes, light brown, and ears representing her race on the sides of her head. It was hard to say she was beautiful, but her appearance couldn't be said as bad, and it gave off a friendly image.
As Isao entered, he noticed that she wasn't the only guest; there were many guests inside, and each of them had done their own things, from singing, playing, or simply talking. However, as he entered, all of them stopped, and they did and looked at him with surprise and doubt.
Still, Isao was cornered about something else.
Who was she again?
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" The female Chienthrope looked at Isao worriedly.
"You are... Lala, right?"
"...."
"Ah, no, it's Lily!"
"Um... Isao-kun, I think her name is Lulune."
"Oh, right, Lulune!"
"...."
Lulune cried silently as Isao didn't even remember her name. Still, even if she felt sad, she had to say, this guy smelled really nice.
Still, Isao didn't care about her reaction and sat on the bar seat the second from the end, just right beside Lulune.
"Huh? That seat is..."
"What would you like?" The pub owner asked.
"May I please have a Jagamarukun in green tea flavor."
While he felt weird because of this taste and password, Isao said regardless, causing Lulune to fall.
"Huh? You are the reinforcement!"
As Lulune was dumbfounded, the rest of the guests were also dumbfounded.
Naturally, Isao, Daphne, Cassandra, and Ryuu also looked at everyone, realizing that all of them would be their allies in this quest.
"Huh? Our reinforcement will be the centipede!"
"What is his Level again...?"
"Level 3! I know from the last time that he is a Level 3!"
"Wait! Wait! How long before he came to Orario again?"
"Still, if he could defeat hundreds of people when he was a Level 2, then how strong was he when he was a Level 3?"
The commotion happened among the group as they didn't expect Isao to be their ally.
Iinuma Isao.
If it was before, no one might have known this name, but now, everyone knew him, especially his feats in defending all the suicide bombings on the entire Orario with his pink barriers.
"Are you sure that he will be our reinforcements, Lulune?"
A beautiful young woman with glasses and short cyan-aqua-blue hair stepped forward.
"Ah, yes, it should be Iinuma-kun." Lulune nodded.
"Perseus..." Ryuu looked at this young woman in a complicated mood.
The young woman also looked at Ryuu, and her expression was complicated as she knew her identity. "Gale Wind..." Isao and his group aside, she didn't expect Ryuu Lion or Gale Wind to be part of their reinforcement.
"Do you know her, Ryuu?" Isao asked.
"Who didn't know her?" Ryuu said helplessly.
"Well, you are right."
Asfi Al Andromeda.
The captain of the Hermes Familia and one of five holders of the rare ability in Orario.
'Well, it should be five if they include me.'
Still, while he and Asfi were famous, Asfi was famous for being known as an item maker known as "Perseus." With her ability, she could craft many types of potions and items. There were many of her inventions, such as a harp that would charm specific monsters or flying shoes that she wore at that moment.
Frankly, compared to her, Isao realized that his creativity in creating a magical item wasn't as good.
"Did you accept the quest from that suspicious guy in a black cloak?
"Ah, yes, just a few days ago, a guy with a black cloak came to me and asked for help. I wanted to refuse and reject him..." Lulune had a bad memory of Fels, especially when Fels was the one who gave her a quest that made her almost die in the Rivira. as she was being chased by Revis (the red-haired woman that Isao and Aiz fought before).
"Then he threatened to rat out my level and dragged us all along, right, Lulune?" Asfi looked at Lulune angrily.
"Hahaha..." Lulune could only laugh awkwardly.
"You should pay your tax." Isao looked at them speechlessly.
Every Familia had to pay a tax, which the guild collected based on the level of its members. Those small families didn't have to pay much, or even none, but those major families had to pay a great deal of tax.
Many members of Hermes Familia lied about their real level, decreasing the amount of tax they paid. Naturally, this was illegal, and if their act was known, they had to pay a real amount of tax along with fines for evading their tax.
"...unlike you guys, we don't have many sources of income except for the dungeon, and our expenses are high due to our deity's selfishness."
Frankly, Asfi felt jealous of Isao's business ability. The two of them were also famous for being item makers, but unlike her, who couldn't make money, Isao made a lot of money and was probably one of the richest men in the Orario.
If possible, she wanted to work with him to make money, but let's put that matter aside now.
"Anyway, we will be working together from now on. Let me introduce myself. My name is Asfi Al Andromeda."
"Iinuma Isao. Nice to meet you, Andromeda-san."
"Just call me Asfi. It's shorter and easier to call."
"Then, you can call me Isao. It's easier to call."
"Okay."
As the two shook hands, Isao naturally replicated Asfi's DNA.
Still, some guys within the Hermes Familia looked at Isao and Asfi worriedly, afraid their captain would be stolen.
"Let me go over the details of the request. Our destination is in the pantry on the 24th floor, and our objective is to find out the reason behind the large number of monsters appearing and eliminate them. Am I mistaken?"
"No, you are right."
The pantry is a giant quartz crystal of which two or three exist on every floor. A clear liquid flows from this crystal. Monsters born in the dungeon use this as a source of nutrients.
"Though, let me add something."
"Please." Asfi nodded, thinking that Isao must have known something that they didn't know, considering his famous intelligence-gathering ability.
"Our first objection is to investigate. As for the elimination of monsters, you can ignore it and just run away if it endangers our lives."
"I see." Asfi nodded as she fixed the frame of her glasses. "Can I ask the reason? I think with our members, we should be able to deal with monsters on the 24th Floor." More importantly, Isao's strength was obvious to all.
"Well, there might be a high chance the remnants of Evilus might later."
"....." Everyone.
All the members of the Hermes Familia were dumbfounded and widened their eyes and mouths in disbelief before all of them looked at Lulune.
Watching all of their expressions, Lulune could only laugh awkwardly. "Hahaha..."
"LULUNE!!!!!!!"
Meanwhile, on the surface, Hestia comes to visit Hephaestus since she has nothing to do, especially when Isao leaves for the dungeon for a quest.
Watching her best friend, who was lazying around, mooching the snack in her office, Hephaestus let out a helpless sigh and said, "If you have nothing to do, how about you work at my shop and repay your debt?"
Frankly, Hephaestus thought that Hestia had never changed and that this goddess was as lazy as ever.
"It's fine. Our debt is being paid by Isao's body, right?" Hestia looked at Hephaestus with misty eyes and asked, "How is it? Was Isao-kun's body good?"
Hephaestus could only lower her head and apologize. "I-I am sorry..." She might be the debtor of Isao and Hestia, but even so, she couldn't raise her head against Hestia, especially when she had made a move on Hestia's first and most loved children. It could be said she betrayed the trust of her best friend.
So, facing Hestia's stares, Hephaestus could only admit defeat.
"Though, are you okay? You appear listless, you know?" While Hestia was sad that Hephaestus had made a move on Isao and often made her bed shake violently as if being hit by an earthquake, she still cared about her friend, especially when she saw Hephaestus didn't appear well.
"Frankly, I haven't felt good for the past few days. I feel nauseous and exhausted for some reason."
As a deity, it was impossible for her to get sick, yet why did she feel that she was sick?
"Isn't it bad? We shouldn't ever get sick, right?"
"Yeah. I know that." Hephaestus would be lying if she wasn't worried about what was happening to her body. What would happen to her? One of her eyes had disfigured, then was she going to get sick again? If so, then she was afraid that Isao would leave her, she thought.
'No, no. If it's him, he might take care of me...'
Hephaestus blushed, but then, she stopped thinking as she started to feel nauseous. "Ugh..." She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hold her vomit.
"Let's visit Dian! He might know something!"
Even if this friend of hers had made a move on her lovely Isao, Hestia still cared about Hephaestus' well-being.
"Well..."
Hephaestus nodded and agreed since she had been thinking of visiting Dian Cetch Familia, but she was afraid to go alone. Still, with Hestia's company, she wasn't afraid anymore; she hoped for Isao to return as soon as possible, especially after she heard what was happening to her body.