[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 48: Covering part 1

"Lili apologizes," The third member of our party said, bowing her head slightly after rushing into the Hostess of Fertility, apparently in a hurry. "Lili needed to make arrangements with a Gnome she knows."

"A Gnome?" I wondered, frowning. Oh right, there was a store owner or something. Funny how some spirits are just hanging around, I guess.

"What do you need to make arrangements for, Lili?" Welf asked, focusing on what was probably the more important question.

"Lili needed to find a place to live," She said. "Lili's friend was kind enough to let her live in his home, in return for some work around the shop, but several things needed to be done beforehand."

"Oh, so that's it?" I wondered, tilting my head to the side. "But, if you needed a place to live, you could always have stayed with Hestia and I. I mean, we are a Familia now."

"You made it official?" Welf asked, looking between us and smiling. "Congrats. With this and your Level, it definitely seems like Hestia Familia is on the rise. Has your rank increase?"

"Lili was glad to accept Mr. Percy and Lady Hestia's generosity on short notice," Lili told me, bowing her head slightly as she ignored Welf's words. "But Lili doesn't want to be an imposition and overcrowd your home. With three of use living together, thing might get a bit..."

I couldn't really argue with her on that front—the room beneath the church hadn't really been built for three people. Hell, it was barely built for one person. What's worse, with the recent debts we'd incurred and the various expenses, on top of my temporary break from the Dungeon, my plans of getting us an actual home seemed to be getting further and further away.

"Yeah, sorry," I said, not sure how to answer and settling for embarrassment. I'd have to think of a solution to it and my many, many other problems later; for now, I just changed the subject. "And I have no idea what that is, Welf?"

"Your Familia rank?" He asked. "It's just the decided level of your Familia. It goes from I to S, just like Abilities, but it's a paperwork thing, not a Status thing."

"But is it a good thing?" I wondered.

Welf made a face.

"It is and it isn't," He said. "I mean, on the one hand, it's an acknowledgement of a Familia's strength and success. On the other hand, the only thing it really does is decide how much a Familia pays in taxes. The higher ranked your Familia, the more you have to pay, basically. The rank itself is decided by a number of things, but the most important are number of members, the Levels of members, and how much money you're making off businesses or the Exchange or whatever. Since Hestia Familia was something like a month old and only had you—and most people probably didn't know what that meant—I'm guessing your Familia was probably rank I or something, but with two members, one of whom is Level 2, there's no what that hasn't changed. It's more something for Hestia to worry about, though; I was just curious."

I grimaced slightly at that, briefly attempting to do some calculations in my head before remembering that I hate having to do math and stopping. What mattered was that expenses just kept piling up when I had no money. It was almost enough to make me reconsider getting Mage; I honestly didn't care all that much about money beyond what was necessary, but it might be nice to just change that to 'I don't have to care about money, period.'

But, on the other hand, I had plenty of other ways to make money, so it was just a thought. More importantly—

"Hey Lili," I said, trying to put my steadily growing monetary issues aside more the moment. "Do you want another spell?"

"Huh?" Lili asked in response to the bizarre question, furrowing her brows and looking my way. "And also...Mr. Percy, why is your shield glowing?"

"It's magic; don't worry about it." I brushed off again. "And I meant just what I said. If you want, I can take Mage and then I might be able to make Grimoires. In that case, I should be able to give you another spell. I asked Welf the same question."

"And Mr. Welf said no?" Lili guessed, looking his way. "Lili supposes there isn't much point in giving spells to a man who can take down a Floor Boss with a few swings of a sword."

"Hey, it wasn't quite that simple," Welf complained.

"Yeah," I said. "You left out the part where I had to do all the work."

"But yes," Welf continued, speaking over me. "That's kind of where I was coming from. I don't really need the destructive power and for a frontline attacker like me, anything with a long-chant is going to be useless. Even if I got a really powerful spell, it'd just be wasted on me. But you don't have to agree with me; after all, you're our supporter, and so you'd naturally be in a pretty good position to use spells, and it never hurts to give you more options."

"Lili takes it that the choice has come down to Hunter and Mage?" She somehow drew from that. "Lili expected as much from the beginning."

"Well, they're both good choices," I said with a shrug. "It's not like it would hurt to have more magic on our side, either. I mean, I use the stuff all the time."

Lili paused to consider that for a moment.

"As always, Lili is happy that Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy think about her so much," She answered slowly. "But Lili does not want to make them go to such lengths on her account. Or rather, instead of the mystery of getting a new spell, Lili would rather know for sure that Mr. Percy will be safer in the Dungeon. Of course, Mage would also help in that regard, but Lili worries about the structure of Dungeon getting in the way. More importantly, however, Hunter can only be gotten at Level 2, but Mr. Percy can always get Mage later. Lili thinks that it's important, but that Mr. Percy would be better off with Hunter and Mage than with just one or the other. Even if it might make things more difficult in some ways for now, Lili thinks it would be advantageous in the long run to consider it carefully now. Mr. Percy and Mr. Welf are both aiming for something that's still far off, right? As such, growing as strong as possible over time is also important."

"As expected, Lili has a well thought out response," Welf said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly. "Now I feel a bit childish for just picking up Blacksmith without a second thought."

"There's no need for such a thing in Mr. Welf's case," Lili said, shaking her head. "After all, Mr. Welf is our smith—Blacksmith should naturally be the priority among potential abilities. If Lili were to guess, Mr. Welf likely also had the choice of Abnormal Resistance, correct? And possibly Hunter? Both of those would be undeniably useful, but for Mr. Welf, and without any disrespect meant, Lili would rank the importance of his abilities as a member of the party as follows: Blacksmithing, Anti-Magic, and then his actual combat ability. That's not meant as a mark against Mr. Welf's skill, but simply to emphasize the importance of the other things. Blacksmith is, essentially, an ability that supports the entire party, as the strength of Mr. Welf's craftsmanship is vital to keeping the party safe and equipped. Even counting it separately from Mr. Welf's magic swords, it's a tremendously important ability for exploring the Dungeon and is important to keep at a high rank. Also, while monsters that use magical abilities are rare on the upper floors, they become increasingly common deeper into the Dungeon, and Mr. Welf's spell is a great weapon against them. Sadly, while Mr. Welf's combat abilities were very good for a Level 1, they're only above-average for those who've crossed over to Level 2."

Lili sent an apologetic look at Welf who just shook his head.

"No, I get it," He said easily. "I didn't get Hunter, anyway. I guess it's because Percy actually does most of the killing or because we've only fought together for a couple of weeks. Even after Lady Hephaestus told me the other options, I had no regrets; I'm just a little embarrassed that I didn't think about it the way you did, Lili. Besides, I got a new skill to help with stuff like that."

"...Oh, right," I said, remembering something before taking the paper out of my pocket and sliding it towards him. "I caught a glimpse of your Status on accident, Welf, so there's mine. I think our skills are brothers or something."

"Huh?" Welf wondered absently as he unfolded and smoothed down the page. "Wait, Percy, this is—wait, what!?"

"Anyway, you're sure you don't want a Grimoire, then?" I asked Lili, ignoring Welf's sudden exclamation.

"It is tempting," Lili admitted. "But Lili is sure. And also, Lili owes Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy so much already, adding tens of millions of valis to it would be a bit much, no?"

"You don't owe me anything, Lili," I said. "We're family now."

Lili smiled but lowered her head and didn't answer, so after a moment I sighed and shrugged.

"I'll tell Hestia that I've decided on Hunter, then," I said, more glad that the decision was over with than about any possible results. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you two something. We'll be avoiding the Dungeon for a while to let things cool down and make preparations, but I figured we should have a plan for our hopefully-triumphant return. Just preparing better items and equipment is all well and good, but..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Welf said, smile turning a bit nervous. "If we run into a plant monster or Floor Boss again, we want to be prepared. Which is why, on top of making new, better quality equipment, I'll make sure we have at least a few magic swords to go with us. Seemed like it'd be a good place to start, at least."

"Lili thinks that we should begin carrying more High Potions and High Magic Potions," She proposed quietly. "Normal potions can do a great deal for pain and minor injuries, but they're primarily useful for restoring stamina; in comparison, High Potions can stop heavy bleeding and close major wounds. Similarly, Magic Potions can restore mental strength, but it's nothing compared to the effective of a High Magic Potion. We've carried a few of them around before now, but...now that both of you are Level 2 especially, Lili feels that we might wish to start converting to them entirely. While it would be wise to carry at least a few potions just to help with exhaustion, Lili would prefer to be able to deal with major wounds than be able to tend to minor ones."

"Good idea," I said. "And I'll see what I can make on my end. It's a bit dangerous, but...it can be nice to have some Greek Fire on hand in a pinch. I'll see if I can make any more elemental stuff, too. Beyond that, though, are there any ways to get stronger without going into the Dungeon?"

"Hm?" Lili asked, cocking her head to the side and looking confused.

I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. If it were that easy to get stronger without putting yourself at risk, everyone would do it. If there did exist good ways of leveling up without fighting monsters and such, odds were good that they had risks that made fighting monsters preferable. But...under the circumstances, risks to me were still better than risks to everyone around me.

"...I don't know of any good ways, but maybe you should ask a high-level adventurer?" Welf suggested, seeming to understand. "You know a few of those, right?"

I blinked and looked his way before frowning to myself.

"Actually, that's a good idea," I said before turning in my seat and raising my hand. "Hey Ryuu! Can you come over here for a sec?"