If you wanna read ahead of my stories, you can check out the advanced chapters on my subcribestar, at the same username - 0Jordinio0
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She however could not deny she wanted to go on one.
It was just so crazy he was talking about it right now!
She wished she could have the same kind of strength and confidence he exuded.
…Perhaps one day in the future after she had finally got rid of the Soma Familia's mark and trained with Caelan as he offered, she could obtain a sliver of the same kind of strength he had.
"What time is better than when we're on a nice, quiet stroll together?" Caelan laughed in return, "Well, I do know one place myself. It's called the Hostess of Fertility, I hear the food is great there, if a bit expensive for normal adventurers."
"…That name sounds familiar," Lili hummed nodding, "And what do you mean expensive for a normal adventurer?"
"Well it's pretty much a tavern for adventurers," Caelan shrugged, jostling her lightly, "The cheapest meal you'll find there is like four hundred valis I think."
Lili blinked, "…That is quite an outrageous price, Lili admits, but as expected for a place that caters to adventurers."
And it was outrageous. The average working person in Orario, working a full time job would make roughly in the range of four hundred to five hundred valis a day. The average wage was between forty and fifty valis for decent full time jobs.
Goddess Hestia worked at a food stall from what Lili had learned upon meeting Caelan's goddess, and only made thirty valis an hour.
The average working adult couldn't even afford the cheapest meal of this place Caelan was talking about with a full days earnings.
There was a reason why there were so many adventurers in the dungeon city of Orario. It wasn't out of any grand desire to clear the dungeon, kill monsters and protect the world. But simply that, even the weakest of monsters within the dungeon, the goblins and kobolds on the very first floor dropped magic stones worth four hundred valis.
Killing a single one in a day, gave an adventurer the same wage as the average full time worker in Orario.
…Which was another reason Caelan was absolutely absurd as a person. He literally bled out more valis in a minute, over six hundred and fifty times more than the average full time worker in Orario made in a month.
"Yeah it's a cool place though, I've heard," Caelan continued on, not at all privy to her awe over the surrealness of his existence within her mind, "Apparently pretty much everyone who works there are all cute girls who are former high level adventurers, we're talking like level four here and the owner of the place is a level six who used to be the former captain of the Freya Familia."
A…tavern full of level fours and the former captain of the Freya Familia, who was level 6.
Lili stilled as she tried to digest the absurdity of such a group, working in the service industry, in a tavern of all things. If they actively fought together, that would make them more or less one of the strongest groups in the entirety of Orario.
Perhaps the fourth strongest? Freya Familia was the strongest of the familia's in the world currently, and in second place would be between Loki Familia and Ganesha Familia.
The Loki Familia had three level six's, and four level five's. But, Ganesha familia was well known for having over thirty upper tier adventurers of level three, multiple level fours, and a full eleven level five's.
Wait-
"Cute girls?" Lili asked the boy drily.
"Yup," Caelan tilted his head to grin up at her, "A few of them are almost as cute as you."
Her cheeks flushed a deeper red. He was so blunt and free with the compliments!
That clinched, that was definitely why he wanted to go. It had nothing to with it being an adventurers place, or them all being high level, but because of all the cute girls.
"Mr. Caelan is truly the greatest enemy of all womankind," Lili sighed in defeat, plopping her chin back down atop his soft spiky messy two toned hair, "So greedy, you've already charmed Lili and a goddess, yet you want more." she pouted.
Though she had already accepted that, she just felt the need to voice it anyway and gripe a little.
Caelan merely laughed in reply, completely unashamed.
And it wasn't long before they reached the top floor and turned into the wing of the massive home where Soma's office was.
As they into it though, there was somebody there and despite herself, Lili felt her heart leap into her throat, reflexive fear filling her at the sight of a tall, willowy man with sallow skin and short wavy dark blue hair, clad in an expensive blue business robe and spectacles framing his face.
Zanis, the captain of the Soma Familia.
"Well now," the man snorted as he caught sight of them, "I was wondering who was behind all this ruckus, and it just turns out to be you Arde? Have you taken leave of your senses then finally?" he gave a scoffing laugh and began walking towards them.
Caelan paused and said nothing, but nudged his shoulders up into her thighs jostling her a bit, prompting her to speak.
"Zanis…" Lili swallowed heavily as she said his name. She remembered the last time she saw him, when he threatened to sell her to the Ishtar Familia and the pleasure quarter if she tried to run away from the Soma Familia ever again.
"Now who's this brat I wonder?" Zanis continued on as he approached them, a smug smile on his face, "I've never seen his face before, and I keep track of who needs an eye kept on them. Did you make a deal with some fool who recently managed to level up? I wonder how you managed it, have you been warming his bed you little-"
Zanis never got to finish, and Lili felt the world blur around her for a moment, bleeding into a whirling kaleidoscope of colour-
And then a high pitched squeal rang in her ears, and the world returned to normal.
And found herself looking down upon Zanis from Caelan's shoulders, from directly above. As the man doubled over a foot, that was buried between his legs, his eyes bulging in agony.
The squeal?
That was still going, and coming from his mouth.