Loki never allowed her to leave the Familia Walls until she was older. She said it was because of her potential, and that the Falna she was blessed with wouldn't have its greatest value on her when she was just a child.
She looked up to her as a mom, though she would never say it outloud, and so it was obvious she took her advice as a good daughter should. Her patience had eventually paid off. She had turned 13 a week ago, having read countless stories about older heroes who were viewed as famous teachers regretting their rash decisions due to persistence, they refused to listen to advice and broke their foundations apart piece by piece, only realizing it as they grew older. Ais didn't want to be like them. She wanted to eventually slay the One Eyed Black Dragon and avenge her parents and she couldn't do that if she broke her foundation.
So she got her Falna, and after years of light training and studious efforts she managed to be free and traverse the dungeon alone, her Familia confident that she would be safe.
The 6 Floor decided otherwise. It managed to sneak a Bugbear, a Verifiable Level 2 Monster that just so happened to be overwhelmingly more than she could take, down to her Floor, and she had knew that no one else would be able to survive if someone didn't step up.
She took the mantle, courage filling her bones as she had pressed forward to save the people who decided to run away in fear, in the corner of her eye a man standing in wait as if observing her with curiosity, but she had no time to think.
Drawing her smallsword forward, she attempted to go for the vital points as Loki and Finn taught her to, the lessons echoing in her head even now.
They would ultimately fail, it's skin was too hard for her starter weapon that snapped off, and her only thought the moment it happened was to run deeper in the dungeon, to pass the monster on someone atrong enough to handle it.
Ducking under a swipe of its claw, and rolling under its legs, her eyes darted about to find the pathway to the deeper floors.
Then, she felt someone grab at her collar to pull her away from the lunging bear, pushing her behind him to fall onto her lower back, a sharp sound echoing in her ears as she looked up and saw that very same bear cubed.
Turning away from his sword dripping with blood to stare at her savior, she burrowed his features into her memory, amazed at his beauty.
Blonde Hair, Green Eyes, a Sharp nose, beautifully forged armor with Blue Lines seemingly drawn on it, parallel to each other with an S on the upper middle part of his chest, and another S on the lower left part of his bicep. On his waist lay 6 leather straps, attached to the bottom half of his chestplate, while the upper half contains 3, his small cloak flailing as he turned to face her with his dazzling eyes.
"Are you okay?" His words brought clarity to her mind as she realized he was talking to her!
"I- IMOKAYSORRYTHANKYOUVERYMUCHBYE!" She flushed in embarrassment as her savior saw her bloody and dirty body the result of slaying dozens of monsters before her encounter with the Bugbear, and ran.
"What a weird girl…I wonder if she's apart of the Loki Familia. Speaking of, it's been 6 Years... I hope mom won't be too hard on me." He cracked a soft smile as he remembered the cute face of his Godess, who he looked up to as the mother he was absent of in his past life.
Then he remembered her disciplinary attitude whenever he did something bad and shudddered. "Well, let's go up a bit slower… why walk in to the gates of hell when you could walk up a few steps to heaven?"
…
"L-Lookiiiiii!" The tearful shouts of young Ais echoed in the Twilight Manor as The Goddess found herself laying up from her desk as she turned to a tearful Ais jumping onto her.
"W-oa-h!" Knocked off of her desk to coddle the young girl in her arms, Loki's eyebrow twitched as she tried not to flip the girl upside down for a spanking, especially since this wasn't the time.
"Haa… what's wrong girl?"
"I encountered a Bugbear!"
"Huh?! What floor were you-"
"I didn't go past the Sixth Floor I swear! I don't know what happened, but it appeared out of nowhere! I tried to poke it through its eyes, b-but my sword shattered!"
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Slow down! Take some deep breathes and explain everything from the source."
"Well- hmf, hmf, after my sword broke down, someone saved me, but I couldn't thank him properly because of my dirty body!" Loki tried to ignore the innuendo that Ais didn't mean, and the blood on her shirt that she now realized was because Ais was indeed soaked dirty.
"Well, how about you tell me what this savior of yours looks like after you take a shower and while I give you an update? A week of going into the dungeon should be rewarding for your talent." Loki decided to not delve into this topic for her sanity, if the boy who saved her was someone from a bad Familia Ais wouldn't put any attention to him other than suspicion, She raised this girl well and wasn't against her marrying to another Familia member if they were of good origin, but she made sure to give her the talk about do's and don't's for romantic and physical relationships. Otherwise she would just give a hand to the God who leads the child who saved Ais in the future.
"R-really?"
"Yes, I promise. Everything you know about him, if I don't know em I'll take you to the guild to ask alright?"
Ais nodded into her chest and stood up in embarrassment as she apologized for dirtying her shirt and heading to the shower after being consoloed a bit longer.
"Really that girl is almost as worrying as that boy. It's been what?- 6 years since he went past the 71st Floor? His stats should've been full almost 5 and a Half years ago, if it wasn't for his stupid agreement with Hefaistos he'd have been Level 7 already."
"Oh? Is that why he left?" Loki froze as the secret she kept for years was revealed to the Captain of her Familia, who would most definitely not accept being uninformed any further.
"Your thumb was throbbing again?"
"My thumb was throbbing again. Tell me of the details?"
"As long as it's only you here."
"It's just me, I evacuated everyone already."
"Cool. You saw that the armor he had before was Tsubaki's best, and that it definitely wasn't able to withstand the 62nd Floor after that time he came back right?"
"Of course, the only reason he survived was because of his stats being as perfect as they could be before each Level Up he had. Even the only thing left of his sword was just the handle."
"So Hefaistos promised to make him one piece of equipment at its greatest Value, not as a nice and expensive token of friendship from Goddess to Goddess, but as a reward for a quest."
"She asked for something near impossible didn't she?"
"Only for him to bring the batch of materials she required to make the weapon.Sadly the materials have to be, regardless of it's quality something she's never seen before, and She's seen everything up to the 71st Floor according to her."
"So he can only go further down in hopes of there being a vein of Ore to Mine, or Mob Drops with Great Quality from Floors unknown?" Finn frowned in worry and Loki Shrugged as she nodded.
"Right. I didn't tell you because your instinct may not be able to detect anything, which might make you more worried than if you didn't know. The big guy agreed, but also added that if we weren't to tell you, we were not to tell anyone. The Familia knowing something only you are left out of would be the same as saying our captain is untrustworthy, and not to mention you're the most reliable person in his mind, telling someone that wasn't his brother would be disgraceful and shameful to you both. If anything making it a surprise for you was how he viewed it."
Finn's frown disappeared as smile overtook his face, the reply leaving his lips with a triumphant tone. "Heh. None of us have to worry then, I sense he's back, and with good news."
"Eh?!" Loki's jaw dropped open slightly before she laughed cheerily (Read Darkly).
"Hahaha! That boy really worried me! He must've really wanted to be punished by coming back this late." Finn backed away as he realized he really shouldn't have said something, and sent a mental apology to his little brother who wouldn't be aware of the trauma he'd gain.
"Loki! I'm ready for my update!"
"Alright tell me about the boy!"
…
"Man I haven't seen you in years Hefaistos! I Went all the Way up to Floor 78 this time… I killed the Monster Rex there got its drop items, and found lots of places that would qualify as Ore Mines, All of them are things I haven't seen, and you should have never seen them in the Lower World Either. Though maybe the Upper Realm is different now that I think about it."
"Alright, I get your point. Show me what the materials are."
"Firstly, This ore that surpasses Orichalcum in Durative Quality and Mithril in Magical Conductive Quality, from The Lavalands on Floor 76, considering all of these qualities and your comission, I gave it the name Heffiya Ore in hopes of it being something you've never seen". The Ore was Black and Red, like a Ruby that combined with the Darkest Obsidian you could find, a glance at it and she could already tell that she'd seen it before, but considering his thoughtfulness in the name she wouldn't say something about it, she'd never seen the Monster Rex on the 78th Floor anyway, that's why she descended, only unknown materials like those would interest her.
"This is a Unique Ore I found right at the end of Floor 77, saturated in Light, Fire, Darkness Wind and Ice Magic, Originally it was this Ore, but the after at least a year they evolved into this, it's even more durable and conductive to magic then this one, if Heffiyas Ore was twice the Value of Orichalcum and Mithril put together, this was hundreds of times more Valuable than the Heffiyas Ore, I am 90% sure that this Ore was made out of coinicidence and fate, so Instead of giving it a name based on yourself, as after discovering it I figured you already knew of it, I named it after myself. It's called Artuen Ore."
Her exposed eye widened in surprise as she saw the miraculous ore, the reason why the Heffiyas Ore was so valuable and also why she didn't refuse the name he gave it was because of the perfect balance it had after being affected by magical environments. It was tempered through the Lava surrounding environments until it was blackened in its cave. From there, it would eventually gain firey magic properties while keeping its durable qualities, making it the near perfect metal to forge with, the only downside being the difficulty in making it forgeable and its scarcity, fire magic was especially conductive because of its birth origins but even still its neutral Magic conductive properties were leagues above Mithril. Not to mention this Black, Red, White Green and Blue ore, which she'd never seen before, but could easily tell he was completely right, and that their were even more things he hadn't discovered about it.
"This ore. I've never seen it. If you want you can use the Monster Rex Drop Item to enhance its properties. It's greatest value is its adaptability so don't worry about what it is."
"…You're cute when you are this passionate. Sure, the Monster Rex was a Super Giant Bat that could heal itself and amplify its power by sucking or drinking blood from other monsters and probably us too, I never gave it the chance to do such a thing so it's unconfirmed, it's Overall power is Level 9 in Every Statistic, but no Level 9 should be able to kill it without the means to prevent its Natural or Amplified healing. It's drop item was its fangs."
Hefaistos coughed to hide her embarrassment, glaring at him as she forced him to say his choice of equipment. "Just pick what you want me to forge."
"A One Handed Longsword, double edged. If there's Anything else about it's body I'll leave to you, as for an enchantment… something that enhances its offensive capabilities. A Curse that lands with every consecutive hit, applying a doubled gravity amplification, or a plunder effect that makes it stronger with each monster killed, I don't know to be honest do something you think is interesting I guess."
Hefaistos smiled slightly as she commented in appreciation to his choices. "A plundering function? With this Bat Fang I could make it happen. I'm honestly surprised you didn't ask for that mutual growth function."
"That wouldn't be suitable for my Familia should I ever die. It also allows my weapon to grow stronger than me over time, which would allow me or someone else to challenge stronger opponents, and would eventually make it a weapon that only The Strongest Swordsman could use, surpassing something that's bound to a Familia."
"Hmm. Very Well, I should have it done in a month. I'll send someone to notify you when it's complete."
"Cool. Now I've gotta go tell mom I'm back, see you later Heffie!"
"Until next time."
"Oh! By the way… your hair's really pretty. It makes you seem like you're the perfect partner to bring to a party."
Bang!
His last words echoed alongside the slamming of her door, a blush creeping up her face as she had subconsciously relaxed and cuffed her red cheeks with each palm.
"He said I was pretty…."