The next day, early morning.
Dawn had just begun to break, and Reiger had already awakened.
He glanced around the somewhat unfamiliar room, remaining still for a moment before he realized.
"I almost forgot, I've already moved into the Dusk Mansion."
This is one of the numerous towers of Dusk Mansion, situated on one of the upper floors.
Yesterday, after updating his abilities with Loki, Reiger was arranged to stay here.
This room in Dusk Mansion would be Reiger's residence within the Loki Familia's headquarters.
From now on, barring any accidents, this place would belong to Reiger for him to use as he pleased.
Reiger got out of bed, first peered at the dimly lit window, and then began to wash up.
After cleaning up, Reiger found a set of clothes at his room's doorway, seemingly placed there at some unknown time.
"These were prepared for you by the head deity."
Reading the message left on the clothes that seemed from a senior member within the familia, Reiger was silent for a while before quietly thanking them in his heart and changing into the clothes.
As for his own clothes, wearing them again was out of the question.
After a day and night of strenuous effort, his clothes, stained with blood, mud, and dust, had honorably served their purpose and were beyond repair, fit only to be discarded.
Lacking any alternative clothing, Reiger had no choice but to accept the goodwill of the head deity and the familia seniors.
However, the kindness offered by the familia seemed not limited to a set of clothes but also included a heavy bag filled with gleaming coins.
Inside the bag, there was also a message.
"There are a hundred thousand valis in total here, consider it your startup fund. Use it well. You are not allowed into the underground city until you complete the task I gave you last night!"
Without any need to guess, this message was most likely left by Reiger's head deity.
This reminded Reiger of the task imposed by Loki after updating his abilities the previous night, and a slight bitter smile appeared on his face.
"It seems, without completing those preparations, Loki won't allow me to enter the underground city again."
Well then.
Since it's beneficial for him, best follow the arrangements of the head deity.
Reiger picked up the somewhat heavy money bag, considered it for a moment, and eventually decided not to carry it on him but to store it in the dimensional cube's storage space.
The third rule of the "Dimensional Cube User Manual" states that the cube has an attached storage space, which can be opened and used at any time.
Reiger had tried the operation of opening the storage space attached to the Dimensional Cube back in his original world while lying in bed recovering from injuries.
Thereby, he wasn't unfamiliar with its operation.
"Store."
Following a silent command in his mind, the money bag disappeared from his hand.
It had entered the storage space of the Dimensional Cube, being stored away by the cube.
Storing items in the storage space is simple: just touch one's belongings and silently think "store."
To retrieve items, it's similar; first sink one's consciousness into the storage space of the Dimensional Cube, see the inside of the storage space, locate the item to be retrieved, and then silently think "retrieve."
Once familiar with this operation, the storage space of the Dimensional Cube can be very convenient for the user.
During that one month of recovery, Reiger had already become familiar with the operation of the storage space, and now, both "storing" and "retrieving" could be done in less than a second, convenient and quick.
After finishing all this, Reiger finally opened the room door, stepped out of the room, and came to a long corridor.
Upon closer inspection, this corridor turned out to be suspended in the air.
As the headquarters of the Loki Familia, the many towers that form the compound of Dusk Mansion are interconnected.
The lower halves of several spires are connected, while the upper halves extend out connecting stone corridors between the towers, appearing from the outside as several towers interconnected by numerous complex and disorderly passageways.
Reiger was walking on one of these aerial corridors, which allowed a view down into the courtyard and looked quite plain.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Several familias' members, who got up early and seemed busy with some tasks, passed by Reiger, greeting him as they went.
"Good morning."
Reiger naturally did not ignore them, returning the polite greetings, before eventually walking down the corridor, exiting Dusk Mansion through the courtyard to the familia's main gate.
"Morning, newcomer, heading out this early in the morning?"
"Don't end up coming back in tatters like last night, alright?"
The guards at the gate, recognizing Reiger, greeted and advised him.
"No, please rest assured." Reiger was somewhat embarrassed but managed to flash a respectfully polite smile before moving on.
Only when he reached the main street did Reiger feel the weight of their gazes lifting from his back.
"The seniors in the Familia are quite enthusiastic and very kind-hearted too," Reiger let out a breath and reflected inwardly.
In his previous life, those who gathered around Reiger were generally people with ulterior motives, only showing fake smiles in his presence and hardly anyone genuinely cared or was considerate towards Reiger like the members of the Loki Familia.
Thus, Reiger was still quite unaccustomed to it.
Including yesterday's incident where Loki displayed a displeased expression all evening because Reiger had been out for a day and a night, Reiger was actually quite unaccustomed to it, thus he was more silent than usual.
Of course, all this was because Reiger knew that these people truly cared about him from their hearts, which made him feel uncomfortable.
This was something he rarely experienced, and feeling uneasy was quite normal.
Fortunately, having recuperated for a month in his original world where Yuri's attitude towards him wasn't bad either, Reiger managed not to be completely overwhelmed, otherwise, he might have really felt at a loss.
Overall, the atmosphere within the Loki Familia was quite comfortable for Reiger.
"Although I had somewhat understood the Loki Familia through the original works, my decision to join the Loki Familia wasn't without consideration of the friendly atmosphere within, but after experiencing it myself, the feeling is still different,".
Reiger could only remark thus, then he shook his head, shaking off the thoughts in his mind.
However, Reiger's mood had inevitably become much better than usual, making his steps stronger than usual as he moved, and he inwardly noted everyone's help and concern, promising himself that he would definitely repay them if he had the chance.
That was just the kind of person he was, always deeply impressed and highly valuing the kindness and goodwill of others.
Perhaps, was it because in the past he seldom encountered people who had purely good intentions towards him?
Thinking this, Reiger slightly mocked himself internally.
"Forget it, better not to think too much anymore."
Having decided to let go of the past, dwelling on those things would only increase his troubles.
Reiger quickly switched his thoughts and started to handle important matters.
"There's a lot to do today."
Last night, Loki gave him several strict orders that he had to complete.
"First, I need to prepare a new weapon and armor suitable for exploring the underground city."
"Next, finish reading the books I found in the headquarters' library last night, and memorize the terrain, maps, and information about the monsters on various floors of the underground city."
"Finally, go to the guild and register as an adventurer."
These were the three tasks Loki had assigned to Reiger.
Only by completing these tasks could Reiger enter the underground city once again.
Rather, typically, those who wish to enter the underground city would complete these preparations first before considering entering, but Reiger disrupted the order, going into the underground city first and then coming back to do these preparations, which was indeed surprising.
If Reiger hadn't awakened a magic and three astonishingly effective skills, with the capability updates from last night nearly driving Loki mad, Loki might have even ordered Reiger to find a team and prohibited him from entering the underground city alone.
Now, having him do just these three preparations was already quite lenient of Loki.
"As for the books, I pretty much covered them last night, at least I memorized the information about the first few floors of the underground city."
Reiger, whose memory was extraordinarily sharp, wasn't hindered by this at all and had completed the task the night before.
The remaining tasks were two-fold, to register at the guild and use the start-up funds to purchase weapons and armor.
"I'll go register at the guild first."
Having made this decision, Reiger recalled the city map he had memorized the night before, and headed towards the northwest.
The main street located here was bustling early in the morning; not only were many shops open, but the stalls on both sides were also set up one after the other.
On the road, many people were coming and going, including humans and various demi-humans, many of whom were fully equipped, clearly not to be trifled with.
Reiger walked down this street, pushing deeper, and eventually joined many others with the same destination at a grand temple.
It was a building made of white columns.
In the spacious hall made of white marble, there were many fully armed people bustling about, making the hall overcrowded.
This was the guild, the official institution managing Maze City Orario.
Mose who appeared here were adventurers, people whose duty and goal was to explore the underground city.
Reiger blended in among them and approached a counter.
"Hello, please help me register as an adventurer."
Reiger addressed the lady at the counter.
"Okay, please wait a moment,"
The lady behind the counter immediately and expertly took out a piece of parchment and began the registration.
"Name?"
"Reiger Brillhaut."
"Race?"
"Human."
"Age?"
"...17 years old."
Reiger initially wanted to state his age from his previous life, but it seemed somewhat inappropriate given the appearance of his current body, so he reported his age from this lifetime with some hesitation.
"Which Familia do you belong to?"
The staff member, unaware of Reiger's complex emotions, continued to ask.
"The Loki Familia."
Reiger responded without much hesitation.
However, at that moment, a brief silence fell across the room.