Chương 6: Chapter Six: Shaking Down an Old Man For His Pocket Change. (And Other Fun, Wholesome Activities)

Quick Authors note: I had made edits to chapter two on RR a month ago that I forgot to copy over to my Docs, so a piece of important info didn't get carried over. The only important thing that changed was the last sentence of the chapter. I have made the edits to the rest of the sites I've uploaded to. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Hyena Werks, A proud Orario Company. DanmachiXDnD Nonhuman semi SI X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Chapter Six: Shaking Down an Old Man For His Pocket Change.

(And Other Fun, Wholesome Activities) X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X For all of Dian Cecht's grandiose displays of wealth, his store was an almost shockingly normal pharmacy, albeit a more old fashioned one with a magical veneer. Murky-brown glass bottles filled with solutions to every ailment a person could suffer from lined the wooden shelves all throughout the store. While the cabinets hugging the walls held the fancier, more expensive clear-glass phials and crystal decanters behind protective glass doors.

Off to the side of the sales counter was a small sitting area that looked, bizarrely enough, as though it was lifted straight from a modern hospital's waiting room. The only people currently in the store was a vaguely familiar looking clerk, a silver haired woman dressed kinda like a turn of the century nurse out of the early nineteen-hundreds. And a group of three armed and armored, slightly haggard looking human men at the counter.

Our group's entrance went ignored as we came up behind the three while they haggled peacefully, if fiercely, with the clerk over the sale of what they kept referring to as 'purple moth wings'. The only acknowledgment we received was from the girl as her eyes flicked briefly to me, then Loki, and then right back to the adventurers in front of us to continue bartering without so much as a hint of hesitation. Thankfully, it wasn't long before they concluded their business.

Leaving both parties equally unhappy with the deal, as only the best compromises do. The three men didn't even give us a glance as they stormed out with a smaller bag of gold than they hoped for in hand, muttering darkly all the while. The clerk's frown didn't ease an inch as Loki and I approached the counter. In fact, her eyes grew harder as the Goddess draped herself over the counter while giving the nurse a sickly sweet smile.

"Good morning miss Teasanare ~" She sing-songed out.

"Max and I are lookin' for the old man, is he in?"

"Lord Dian Cecht-'' She deadpanned, not letting an iota of emotion leak into her voice at the Goddess's flippant attitude.

"-Is currently busy, and will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. I would be happy to help you schedule an appointment ahead of time, however." Loki simply leaned even further forward until she was standing on her tippy toes to be face to face with the clerk, her grin remaining firmly on her face.

"Tsk-tsk, miss Teasanare, you should know that you can't lie to me. We all know that he can spare just a few minutes to meet with his fellow God." The now named Teasanare remained impassive as she stared Loki down. But it wasn't until her eyes flashed towards Loki's familia standing behind her did she give in.

"Very well, I will go and see if he is available, please excuse me." As she walked off behind a door labeled as 'employees only' it finally struck me where I knew her from. She had been present at my interrogation yesterday, standing behind Dian Cecht. If she was strong enough to be Dian Cecht's personal guard, then why was she wasting her time acting as a sales clerk? Couldn't they have foisted that scut work off to one of their subordinates?

I didn't have long to ponder the question as Teasanare came back with her God in tow after only a few minutes of waiting. His already strained smile at Loki's presence became even more brittle when he saw me standing next to her.

"Good morning Lady Loki, mister Maddic. I'm afraid I am in the middle of some rather important experiments right now, so I will only be able to spare a moment or two. But regardless… To what do I owe the honor of a visit from one of my most loyal customers in person?" The man finished with a closed mouth smile that seemed particularly forced.

"You know exactly why we're here, Dian." She said with a gesture towards me.

"I seem to recall a particular promise you made to my friend here yesterday." Dian Cechts eyes flicked to me again before they went back to the Goddess.

"Ah, yes- the possible restitution for those potions I investigated at Ganesha's request." Loki and I shared a pointed look. I guess the Goddess had this guy's personality nailed down, because he was absolutely going to try to get out of paying me.

"Well, I was reviewing Orario's customs and immigration laws, and as it so happens, one must be a citizen to be eligible to receive compensation for any damages incurred during a goods and assets seizure." He said with a hint of the same cockyness I saw from him during the interrogation.

"And any hypothetical monetary compensation would be paid for by Lord Ganesha's familia as they are the ones who took you into custody. So I'm afraid you'll have to speak with them about getting money for your damaged goods." He concluded with ersatz chagrin.

"But my potions were not destroyed, they were used- by you." I spoke up for the first time since entering the store, forcing Dian to look at me.

"I seriously doubt Ganesha directly ordered you to start dumping all of my hard work down the throats of some rodents."

"I was asked to verify the function and quality of your potions, mister Maddic, and that is what I did." He said in a huff while crossing his arms.

"And while I admit that I may have been a bit… overzealous in my task, I can hardly be held responsible for simply aiding Lord Ganesha's investigation. Now, as much as I would love to stand here and argue with you two all day about who owes who what, I have time sensitive research that I must return to. So unless you-"" You will pay me-" I spat, my anger that had been bubbling under the surface at his contemptuous attitude immediately exploding into an unholy fury at this God's attempted dismissal.

"-Or, I will sell my potions to Loki and her allies at a loss and undercut your whole familia." Maybe I was still a tad bitter at this God wrecking my shit… or hell, maybe I was just cranky over not getting any sleep last night. But either way I was not letting this fucking God get away with disparaging me like that.

"How does that sound, Lady Loki?!" I asked with malicious fervor while swinging my head to face the Goddess, who was wearing an equally malevolent grin before Dian could respond.

"With me as an in-house alchemist to make all your potions, you wouldn't need Dian Cecht at all! I would be able to handle all your medical and material needs for free!" I don't recall ever being a particularly vindictive person before Max and I became one. Or at least I wasn't the kind of guy who would cut off his own nose to spite his face, as I always figured it was quicker and easier to simply cut my losses and distance myself from whoever had wronged me.

But apparently Max definitely was the kinda' man to toss himself off a bridge if he thought it would piss off the people watching, because I was fully prepared to go through with my threat and willingly chain myself to Loki. Just to enact some petty revenge against the being in front of me. And I think both of them detected the truth in my words as Dian Cecht and Loki's faces filled with dread and glee, respectively.

"N-now wait a minute!" The God of Healing stumbled over his words in a rush to speak before Loki could, clearly alarmed about how quickly my mood changed.

"There's no need for any rash action! As I said, Ganesha would normally be the one paying for your potions. But if you are in need of funds now my Familia would of course be happy to front you the money and then collect the debt from Ganesha later on your behalf!" He finished with a very labored smile, his eyes filled with desperate panic and furious anger in equal measure. I only stared at him for a moment before letting a vicious, toothy grin come over my muzzle.

I knew that I might be making a powerful enemy this day, but the utter euphoria that came over my being from'beating' a God with only a few words washed any and all conniptions I had away." That sounds more than agreeable, Pack Lord Dian Crecht." The God gave me a sour look before having a hushed conversation with the clerk whose name I had already forgotten. After which she disappeared behind the door once more.

The God's gave a token effort for polite conversation to each other in the awkward silence that followed. With Dian inquiring about how Loki's latest expedition went and how his potions performed and so on.

I was too busy struggling to read the labels on all the bottles behind the counter to pay too much attention. They were all written with the same God-awful handwriting I had seen so far, so it was like trying to read hieroglyphs that were penned by a kindergartener with especially bad ADHD than any discernible work of the English language. The bottles all contained various Dungeon produced ingredients. Ranging from monster parts like ' Unicorn Horns'and' Blue Papilo dust' to dried plants and preserved herbs.

Some of which I even recognized from my reading last night; Such as Powdered Silver Lis petals and dried Akarigoke. Before I could inquire about the cost of some samples, the clerk came back with a jingling cloth pouch bulging with the unmistakable shape of gold coins. As she passed over the weighty purse without fanfare, I gave Dian a considering look as I exaggeratingly weighed the bag in one hand.

"You know, Cecht… I suddenly seem to recall something else you owe me. Because I distinctly remember that you still have one of my potions that I forgot to take off you after my interrogation." Dian's already pale face whitened further at my words, his hand making an aborted twitch towards his pocket.

"A-a potion? I'm afraid that I have no idea-"" That's a lie~" Loki gibly whispered out at my side before the God of Healing could dig himself deeper. I just wordlessly held out my paw to him, to which he reluctantly took one of my vials, that was now three-quarter empty, out of his pocket and placed it in my palm while refusing to look me in the eyes. Like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I spared a glance at the small pinch of red liquid still sloshing around in the flask before continuing to stare at this fucking thief.

"... Time sensitive experiments, huh?" Before my swiftly rising anger could get the better of me, Dian, also anticipating the coming explosion, quickly reached over to the cash register, pulled out a fistfull of gold coins and wordlessly dropped the money down in front of me. I didn't even justify the money with a look. I let the God sweat under my furious glare for a moment before gesturing to the rows and rows of bottles behind him with a small nod.

"I think I want something else as payment from you, thief." X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X I left the store not too long after that with a definite spring in my step, the Loki familia on my heels. My BoH now held more money than I had ever even seen in either life… More money than I knew what to do with to be honest. Along with several samples of Dungeon ingredients that I absolutely knew what I was going to do with. I still felt a red hot anger burning away in my chest at that thief trying to reverse engineer my work.

But it was tempered by the knowledge that, when I found a place to work from, I was going to utterly destroy that Being's life's work by tearing his monopoly on medicine to itty-bitty shreds in my claws. My diabolical plans for global domination of the medical field via affordable healthcare and ethical business practices was interrupted when Loki brushed past me, her hands folded behind her head and an ear to ear grin on her lips.

"C'mon, Max. We have a bit of walking to do if we're going to give you the grand tour. Oh, and wipe that creepy grin off your face, you're starting to freak me out..." X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X With the denizens of Orario still scrambling to get out of our way, we made good time through the city. The first stop on the tour was, of course, the ginormous tower that jutted up from the center of the city. The Tower of Babel, which was a very …

interesting name, was fifty stories of nothing but stone, mortar, and magic that quite literally overshadowed everything else in the city. Something I couldn't have appreciated until I saw it up close was the incredibly complex carvings that traced the stone all the way up the tower. With each 'story' of the tower being dedicated to a certain cultural motif. From Egyptian hieroglyphs to Roman columns and everything in between, all the reliefs were rendered with an uncanny, bordering on inhuman attention to detail.

With my probationary status, I wasn't allowed to actually enter the tower, but apparently it was filled with stores that catered almost exclusively to adventures. With the rest of the space that was left over being dedicated as luxury apartments for the ultra-rich Gods of Orario. The Tower served a second purpose other than being an overpriced shopping mall, though. It also acted as a magically reinforced gate to the Dungeon.

Through means only known to its original creator, as well as the Gods that destroyed and rebuilt it in their image, Babel effectively sealed the fell labyrinth below. Preventing it from realizing is millenia long quest of global genocide by flooding the surface with unending hordes of its monstrous creations. After a brief walk around the picturesque plaza that surrounded the tower, I was taken to The Pantheon, the headquarters for the 'Guild'.

When I asked Loki what they were the guild of, she cryptically answered " everything". Thankfully Riveria's chimed-in explanation was much less ambiguous. In short, they were basically the 'civilian government' of the city, or at least as close to one as a city that was overflowing with actual Gods could get. They're primary function, however, was managing and advising adventures as they plied their trade by delving the Dungeons depths.

When I first heard that it was the 'adventurer's guild', I was expecting to be shown your classic, slightly seedy tavern. One with a gruff, wise cracking former adventurer with more scars than unblemished skin running the bar cum bounty table. A place where plucky young adventurers could go in and pick a quest from a cork board full of jobs written on little pieces of paper. All the while grizzled veterans could gather around shoddily made tables and swap war stories over a drink… Or something like that.

So my disappointment was immeasurable and my day ruined when the Loki familia ushered me into a building that was indistinguishable from an entirely ordinary, modern-day bank. Complete with glossy marble floors that smelt of fresh wax and a customer counter that ran the length of the room; Manned by clerks dressed in identical suit vests, collared shirts, and fake smiles. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The pure banality of it all left me dragging my paws with my head hung in defeat as I followed Loki through the Pantheon's gilded halls to be introduced to an elf that reeked of fear. Royman Mardeel, the head honcho of the place under the ever mysterious Ouranos. In defiance of the usual elven stereotypes of grace and beauty, Roy was a short, rotund elf who struggled not to waddle as he led us through the Guild's, well… gilded halls.

Though his immaculately fitted suit and vest was clearly a cut above what the rest of the guild workers wore. His terrified green eyes never left my own as he introduced himself while dabbing his profusely sweating forehead with a silk handkerchief. He only began to calm down a bit as I returned his greetings in Maedmux's best 'Lord-of-the-Manor' act, complete with my full name and a sweeping bow.

We didn't stay for long after that, with Roy giving an abridged rundown of Guild services that would be available to me if I'm granted citizenship. As well as what services are offered to adventures in general. Roy proved to be a wealth of information as I inquired into the possibility of setting up my very own store in the city. He was, dare I even say, helpful- when it came to bringing me up to speed on local ordinance and laws.

Before we left he even promised to help me get in contact with people who were currently selling land! The next few stops went by without incident, as Loki was briefly showing me to some important landmarks, such as the Amphitheatron, which was just a relatively small Roman Colosseum with a weird name. Along with the entrance to the city's 'bad side of town', Daedalus Street. With Finn warning me to never venture into its labyrinthian depths if I didn't want to be shanked in the liver for my spare change.

The tour ended at an open air market that ran the entire length of one of the streets that run through the city from the gate to the tower. The din was deafening as people of all races were hawking their wares from colorful tents, stalls, and buildings with open fronts. Thousands of others walked the promenade as they bustled to and fro between merchants.

Not even my presence here was enough to interrupt the unending flow of coins and commerce, with people only sparing me a glance before noticing the Loki familia by my side and hustling off to continue their business. The charming atmosphere was ' slightly blemished', however, by the ungodly stench of the solid mass of humans in front of me. Not even the alluring aroma of spiced meat and other foods being sold fresh could cover up the stink of thousands of bodies all crowded together like this.

Instead, it all mingled and mixed to create an utterly disgusting new smell. Change of plans, forget health potions or weapons- The first thing I'm making when I get established is deodorant. Loki glanced over at me and had a good chuckle at my miserable expression. With both paws clasped firmly over my nose, and my ears pressed flat, I must have looked like a kicked puppy.

It took some enticing on the Loki familias part, but they eventually convinced me to at least walk the thoroughfare to see if anything caught my eye. Most of it was useless knick knacks and keepsakes that only suckers- or tourists who also happened to be suckers could be tricked into buying. Anything worthwhile was already being sold by dedicated shops run by wealthy familias, so I didn't hold much hope for finding anything interesting in this obvious tourist trap.

I did spy some Dungeon ingredients being sold directly by a group of cagey-looking adventurers, but it wasn't until we were already halfway down the street did I see something actually worth my while. Sitting criss-crossed on a thread-bare blanket was an elderly woman dressed in a frayed brown robe and gray shawl. Her weathered skin and calloused hands spoke to a long life of hard work. The woman's attention was focused solely on the mortar and pestle in her lap that she worked with a sure, deft hand.

But what had actually caught my eye from all the way across the street was the other stuff on the blanket. Weaved baskets and clay pots filled to the brim with all manner of herbs and fungi, both mundane and magical, surrounded the old lady. It was a truly impressive collection of alchemy ingredients that ran the gauntlet from banal to deadly. Ranging from sticks of cinnamon to stalks of Angels Trumpet. Bushels of Fluxweed to Foxglove flowers. Dittany clippings to full Death-caps.

And with just a glance I could tell that all of it had been clearly harvested and preserved by a true master in the field. Even from where I stood, I could still smell the cloying scent of countless herbs and spices that clung to the woman like a second skin. Before I knew it, my paws had taken me right up to the edge of her blanket, until I was practically looming ominously over the woman and her herbs. As my shadow fell across her small form, the old lady finally deigned to look up from her work.

Her deeply wrinkled face didn't shift a single whit as we made eye contact, save for slightly raising a wispy eyebrow before turning back to the stone mortar with a snort.

"And here I was thinking that my grandson had been pilfering my mushroom stock after he came home rambling on about some pet monster walking around the city…" Her eyes flicked past me, no doubt seeing the Loki familia at my back before returning to my face.

"I guess I owe him an apology for tanning his hide, then." I was too busy mentally cataloging her goods to give her monster comment any mind. She had enough here to keep me in stock for months! With just what she had out on display was enough to make hundreds of different potions! I gave her a toothy grin as I spoke.

"Say, Granny, how much fo-'' Before I could finish, her hand holding the pestle snapped with blistering speed. Catching me right in the fucking shin with the small stone club. I heard the smack of stone on flesh before I even registered her arm moving and felt the ecompaning flash of searing pain. Leaping back with a howl while clutching my shin, I snarled at the lunatic who attacked me out of the blue."

WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR MALFUN -" A threatening gesture with her pestle shut me up right quick as the lady glared at me from under her shawl.

"Now listen here, welp, the only one who can call me 'granny' is my adorable granddaughters. To everyone else I'm ' ma'am' and nothing else, you got that?!" She hissed with a wiggle of her pestle that she was still holding pinched between her thumb and forefinger as if it was a fencing blade. I gave my aching leg one last rub before easing it back onto the ground while giving the crazy lady a sour look. A part of me wanted me to puff up and get angry…

But a much larger part of Max demanded that we give this strong, venerable Matriarch her due. So with pinned back ears and a dipped head, I muttered a quiet "Yes, Ma'am…"" What was that!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" I yelped with a flinch at her unexpected yell, unconsciously snapping to attention with my ears perked forward and my paws clasped behind my back.

"Hmpf, better." She grunted as she went back to grinding what I could now see was poppy seeds in her mortar.

"Now, are you here to buy anything, or are you just here to scare away all my customers?" A quick glance over my shoulder proved her right, as we were apparently causing quite the scene. With a ring of people who stopped to rubberneck at the sinister looking hyena-man getting taken to task by a little old lady.

"Uh, yes Ma'am. I was hoping to purchase…" I couldn't help but trail off with a shiver as she glared at me with a gimlet eye; How can this geriatric herbalist be so intimidating? She's just sitting there, but she's doing it menacingly somehow!

"... pretty much everything you have?" Surprise flashed on her face for only a moment before it slowly morphed into a gap-toothed smirk that pulled on her laugh lines. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X"Ya' know you just got hustled, right?" I only spared Loki a quick side-eye before turning back to the mushroom-filled glass jar in my paw. Red Amanita Mushrooms, or Amaranth Blight's, as they called them here, are actually fairly difficult to gather despite their relative abundance in nature.

With their delicate caps that are easily crushed by even the most delicate of hands. And their soft, spongey stalks that were quick to rip and tear if pulled up even slightly incorrectly. A damaged shroom' loses much of its potency as the various fluids inside leaked out. Not to mention improperly collected ingredients are harder to work with and spoil a lot faster when they're all torn up.

Max had spent more than his fair share of time on his hands and knees rooting along the forest floor and haggling over goods in the shops of accomplished alchemists to recognize quality when he saw it. And these were quality. Expertly gathered, and perfectly preserved, the glistening red mushrooms were easily first-rate ingredients. Ones that would have been sold at a premium to only privileged alchemists back in Exandria.

If I'm being entirely honest with myself, I seriously doubt that I could have harvested them myself in this good of a condition, with Max's instincts guiding my hand or not.

"No… No I didn't." I finally rumbled out in a low voice as I carefully slipped the jar into my bag. While the old la- I mean Ma'am? Miss? - slowly folded up her now empty blanket with an ear to ear grin on her face and a small fortune in her pocket. The crowd surrounding us had swelled as onlookers watched me load the entirety of this woman's stock into my hip pouch like the world's greatest magician.

Loki's lack of response caused me to look over only to see her staring at me intently, the fox-like smirk that I had grown accustomed to had been replaced with a focused frown. As the silence stretched between us and the staredown became less intense and more awkward, I finally broke and spoke up.

"What's with that look?" She held her severe expression for only a beat longer before her cheshire-esc grin swept across her face once more. There was a certain gleam in her eye that I couldn't readily identify, but if I had to guess, I would say she just had some sort of revelation." Oh, nothing ~" She said with an amused tilt as she folded her hands behind her head and started sauntering off.

"Just had a funny thought s'all, nothin' to worry your big furry head about, Max." I looked over my shoulder to see if her familia knew what that was about only to be met with a bunch of equally thoughtful expressions. Ones that ranged from extremely confused to down-right suspicious. What the hell did I do? X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X The only other stop we made as a group was when I spotted a metal wholesaler called Gobannus's Foundry.

Their typical business was exporting Dungeon farmed ores and metal ingots to Melen for global distribution, but the foreman on site was more than happy to sell me a few ingots of quality steel after I flashed a bag of money in his face. I was even able to get a single bar of adamanitie for the absurd cost of eight-hundred thousand Valis. A price to which I only agreed after Gareth assured me that was the standard going-rate for the material.

I also inquired about the possibility of getting some samples of Orichalcum and Mythril, but I was damn near laughed out of the building. Apparently high end material like that is almost guaranteed to be scooped up by the ultra-wealthy crafting familias as soon as it was brought to the surface. Finn informed me that it was not uncommon for massive bidding wars to erupt right outside the entrance over finds such as a chunk of Orichalcum ore.

Looks like I'll have to get creative if I want to get my own supply of the good stuff. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Not much happened after that, or at least nothing of importance. Loki tried to cajole me into buying some useless trinkets and such, and the twins did cajole me into buying them all a couple of rounds of drinks later that night. Not at the Hostess of Fertility though, this time they took me to a place called Hibachitei. Which was nice, but not nearly as good as Mama Mia's place.

There were no dramatic face-offs or intense lines of questioning. Just polite small talk as I was formally introduced to the rest of Loki's command. It honestly felt more like a business dinner than a tavern trip with a bunch of bona-fide, badass adventurers. So, at the end of the day, dead tired and with my eyes hanging out of my head- I stared at my bed with trepidation.

After last night I was forced to admit defeat, because no matter how hard I wanted to maintain some veneer of my old self, trying to sleep the same way I used to as a human was not gonna work… Ah hell, alright, show me how it's done, Max. Leaning back into his instincts, I started gathering up all the blankets and pillows into a pile until I had one big messy nest; Which I then crawled into and curled up like a dog after patting it down tight. I was out like a light the second my head hit my fore-paws.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X"So, are ya' finally going to tell us what's got you smiling like that?" Gareth grunted out as he folded his arms over his chest plate and leaned up against his usual spot against the wall. Loki, from her seat on Finn's desk, only gave him a closed-eyed grin before turning to the rest of her officers seated in front of her.

"Not yet, not yet. First I wanna hear from Cruz, did ya' hear any interesting rumors while we were out and about?" The blond haired, dog ear'd Second String officer in question gave his Goddess a rueful smile as he casually leaned back in his chair.

"I'm almost sorry to say this, because I know we will never hear the end of it, but your plan seems to be working perfectly, Lady Loki. While I heard everything from Maedmux actually being a cursed werewolf who can only be freed by true love's first kiss- To him being the unholy love child between a monster and a man. Hell, I even heard someone claim that Maedmux had been raised by actual hyenas before he was taken in by Salamander spirits, of all things...

But I think that the rumors have spread far enough that people in Orario won't immediately mistake him as a Dungeon monster…"

"... Also, most people are under the impression he's already part of our familia." He added to his report after a moment's pause.

"It's pretty much been the only thing people have been talking about." His peer, Narvi Roll quickly jumped in before anyone else could comment.

"A whole new species of mortals in Genkai…" The scarlet haired girl trailed off, letting the statement hang in the air. Incredible. Fantastical. Unprecedented. These words and many more like them were at the forefront of everyone's minds in Finn's office. For more than a thousand years it was common knowledge that there was nothing beyond Genkai's shores but an endless ocean. And any who dared question that belief and set sail to see what lay beyond the horizon were, without exception, never heard from again.

And so for the past thousand years the people and Gods of Genkai knew they were alone in this world. But now a being more alien than they could comprehend had quite literally appeared right on their doorstep. Upending everything they thought they knew about their world in the process. The moment of silence as everyone sat and contemplated what this could mean for them and their future was broken when the newest addition to Loki's officers, Lefiya, a young elven mage, spoke up.

"W-what did Mister Landrock mean when he asked about your smile, Lady Loki?" The Goddess huffed a small, amused snort before speaking.

"I noticed something very interesting about our new friend while we were showing him the market. I was just smiling because I finally had another piece to add to the puzzle that is Maedmux Maddic, s'all."

"It must have been something I missed, so If you could please stop with your infernal teasing and enlighten your less observant children, I would be much obliged, Lady Loki." Gareth said with amused exasperation.

"Hmmm… Would anyone else like to help their fellow Executive? Finn, Bete, I know that at least you two saw the same thing I did." The two adventurers shared a look before Bete answered his Goddess while tapping his claws against his armored grieves in agitation. …" He's not actually level eight." Loki shot up from her lounging slouch with an ear to ear grin while dramatically pointing a finger at the werewolf." Ding ding ding! We have a winner! One hundred points to mister Loga!"

The Goddess then leaned forward until she was barely on the edge of Finn's desk, just so she could speak directly to her officers.

"For those of you who missed it, when we were at the market, Max met Granny Arnica. She gave him her usual spiel after giving him a little love tap on the leg. There's no way a real First-Class adventurer would have gotten hit by something like that, let alone hurt by it…" Loki then dropped her voice into a whisper, just to emphasize the point.

"A little poke from a retired, elderly, level three had him howling in pain."

"Whoa, wait a second!" Raul Nord, a young, dark haired human man shouted in alarm.

"Didn't he flat out tell you he's a level eight? Are you saying he's able to lie to Gods?"

"Ah, He did say he was level eight… But he didn't say he was a level eight adventurer, did he?" Loki asked, with a near manic grin and a gleam in her eye that only spelled trouble to those in the room that spotted it.

"He specifically said that he was a level eight artificer." X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Author Notes: Sorry about how long this took to get out, it was a three way rumble between IRL stuff, writer's block, and I really did not like this chapter or where it was going. Especially how I keep writing Dian into being a 1 dimensional villain, but in my defense, the God is an unredeemable asshole in both danmachi, and his own mythology… So I guess it tracks?

But regardless, I felt like I needed this chapter here to establish some important places and recurring characters, as well as add some more hints to the depth of which the MC and Max influence each other. And yes, I consider them two different people. Or, maybe like, 1 and a half people. 1 and a quarter at least. Anyway, moving on… I plan for the story to start to pick up from here, with a lot of the next week being glossed over and abbreviated with only a few important moments fleshed out.

Also I've seen a lot of discussion on how Dnd and Danmachi leveling systems compare and how Max would stack up against the natives, so I hope this chapter can shed a little light on how I imagine a DnD character would fare physically against anime-land heroes that have been turned into gacha game demi-gods. Max may have been a physical power house back in Exandria, but here? he will have to use his head if he wants to thrive in this new world. Next time on Hyena Werks, Max flexes his artificer muscles for once!