NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5.1
7th Heaven Chronicles
Chapter 5.1
I’ve learned over the years that, when you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.
Hire people who are smarter than you are—whose talents surpass yours—and give them opportunities for growth. It’s the smart thing to do and it is a sign of high personal humility. But hiring the wrong people is the fastest way to undermine a sustainable business.
---7HC---
(Wolf)
Dungeon/Floor 11th
May the 5th
Afternoon
They had decided to be more adventurous and descend to a more challenging floor. Killing goblins and kobolds had grown stale to them. War Shadows as well as killer ants were no better, a swipe of his blade and they ceased to be a problem, magic worked even better but it also depended on its affinity with the monster.
The real challenge started at the eighth floor where the amount and size of rooms increased and the length of the hallways between them became shorter. Everything was going well, Imps and Orcs were cut down like twain left and right despite their overwhelming number, until two Infant Dragons appeared with a third that was humongous. A monster Rex.
With a fierce grin, Seven threw herself at the one on the left and as it was always with her, she destroyed the monster’s head with a full power fist. Wolf fired a Thundara at the infant dragon on the right, almost killing it instantly, but before it died, it tried to take Wolf down with him by biting him.
The tell tale shine of golden light came from behind Wolf and struck the creature that was hit by a Slow spell. “Wolf, I sealed its movement!”, Flower shouted.
“Kill it!” Seven prompted as she was distracting the Monster Rex with a flurry of hits targeting the neck and the abdomen of the big Infant Dragon.
“Ah!” Wolf lunges toward the group blade first, enacting a piercing strike that hit it multiple times, severing its neck.
Wolf was just in time to watch Seven do a divekick at the spine of the Monster Rex and with a CRUNCH, it lost its mobility and roared in pain.
“Fucking die already!” Seven shouted as her fist was surrounded in red and golden energy and she delivered a powerful punch at the base of the creature’s neck that shattered it with a BOOM.
The monsters’ corps then started to disintegrate into the usual black dust and leave their cores and a drop that Seven immediately sucked out with her storage bracelet. “Ahh...All done.”
The dark haired woman sagged in relief as the adrenaline drained from her system. Wolf threw a thumbs up at his first wife while being embraced by Flower who glued herself at his side. “Excellent job Seven, Wolf.”
“Thanks for the healing, Flower.” Wolf said with one of his rare smiles, he was getting the hang of this new identity he had forged for himself.
At this point they were going to become level 2 really fast despite sticking to the 11th floor only, they also had the possibility to go in the mountains near Orario to hunt the powerful monsters there; but he hoped they wouldn't have to. Wolf looked at the blade of his buster sword and noticed that it was somehow… chipped. *We are getting to the limit of our starter weapons, we will soon have to switch to our most powerful ones.*
Wolf was about to walk to Seven and show her his sword and change weapons when Wolf heard keenly the sounds of footsteps walking on rough earth and stone, however the thick white mist stopped him to see further than six meters around him.
Seven and Flower took their cue from him and noticed that they were being surrounded by.. people. Seven silently signed that she counted ten of them thanks to her magical senses. Three men revealed themselves as they walked out of the mist, their armor and gear showing that they were used to fighting in the earlier floors. The other two wore cloaks with hoods but their faces were visible. They looked like thugs and vagrants.
“Lookie here, guys, a party.” The one with the big bushy beard and seemed to be their leader spoke as if he found something curious. He held onto the handle of his sword with one hand, ready to unsheath his weapon at any moment.
The man on his left with a brown hooded cloak hiding his green leather armor had his bow in his right hand and his left was twitching, but he had the cheek to leer at Flower who wore a really tight dress under her black cloak. “Aren’t they the trio of up and coming newbies?”
Wolf rolled his eyes, he couldn't believe that it was this situation again; more and more people came to fight them. All those who have been adventurers for years but have stayed at their level and never progressed.
Seven, bless her heart, spoke what he thought. “Ahh… again? How many groups of those losers does it make now, Flower?”
The brown haired beauty giggled at that. “That’s going to be the eleventh, Seven.”
Since they had gained fame in Orario there was the group of Deities that kept hounding them about how to create a territory like they did for Hestia or groups of jealous people gathering either to kill them or spar with them; Wolf had received a lot of invitations to the colosseum, it was the case as well for Seven who was disinterested by any of the challenges. Now the Thaumaturgist was seeing that it had been a mistake.
Seven cracked her neck and smashed her fists together. She was grinning with an impish smile, as she said, “So guys, you clearly came to either kill us, to steal our loot or see what we are made off.”
Putting a fist on her hips and using her free hand to make a 'come at me' gesture she said to the bearded guy and his friends. “Come at me, I won't hold back.”
The white mist around them was slowly dissipating and finally revealing the number of adventurers around them. None of the trio was worried, Wolf went slowly on the defensive with a hand tightened around his giant sword's handle, while Flower simply cast a ward around them to buff up their physical resistance and speed.
The bearded man who seemed to be the spokesperson had a frozen smile on his face. After a brief moment he said, "Oi, men, let’s give dis bitch a lesson."
"She pisses me off." The archer at his side said, nocking an arrow into his bow.
The men around them brandished their weapons and slowly advanced toward them; they didn’t try to charge them, still fearing their reputation. Wolf snorted at them, planted his sword into the ground and leaned against it. “I will leave them to you Seven, you seem to have some aggression to vent.”
What he actually meant to his wife was, ‘I trust that you can take care of them by yourself, still, I will be watching,’ but he chose to say a typical tsundere thing. Fortunately for him, Seven knew exactly what he meant.
“Aww, shuck. Thanks, Wolf.” She didn’t even turn away from the enemies coming.
Flower took something from her cloak’s hidden pocket and threw it at Seven who caught it. “Here Seven! Drink that!”
The Thaumaturgist looked at the yellow colored potion in a simple vial; she quickly uncapped it and said, “Even better!” And she drank it.
Wolf looked on as Seven’s body suddenly burst with red energy wreathing around it. “I'll show you Zangan's technique!” She said as she moved and simply disappeared from view.
"W-where is she!?" One of the men asked, looking around himself.
The others did the same, it was the archer who seemed to have a keen dynamic vision skill who noticed the blur of movement coming toward the only Mage in the group. "B-behind you!"
BANG! CRACK! Seven inflicted a palm strike that ended this Mage career as an adventurer as she broke his spine. She smiled as she said, "One less trash to worry about."
Seven caught an arrow coming for her head with a hand and… threw it back at the archer who attempted to kill her. The arrow planted in his right shoulder, the man wasn't holding his bow anymore as the pain was too intense.
Jumping up and down in place, Seven suddenly charged two other men and took them out by breaking their upper limbs. When she stopped the other men attacked her, but she fleeted like a colibri between them taking out the nearest of them. She was getting bored and felt like she was bullying the weak.
Sighing, she said, "This is tedious, just come at me all at once."
All the thugs looked at each other and then attacked all together, not realizing that it would be the last actions that would put an end to their adventuring days.
---7HC---
Babel Tower
1 hour later
Core&Drop exchange station
Eina Tulle, the half elf who was growing to become Seven’s favorite Guild staff, asked her, "So, can you tell me what happened?"
They were out of the dungeon and back to the administrative level of Babel Tower. The Thaumaturgist had found it funny when all those chained and cuffed adventurers exited the dungeon and followed them. Their Familia has been making waves lately, either because of the Vesta District being built by pure magic or how as level one they could take armies of monsters in the dungeon.
Now they were before the counter where adventurers exchanged cores and drops for Valis with a guild staff looking nervously behind her. Flower had conjured at least five fairies to keep the criminals docile. Those were powerful enough to pierce holes through thick armor like Flower had demonstrated in the dungeon when she threatened the men.
Seven who had lowered her hood to show her face, threw her thumbs behind her and said, "Those ten losers ambushed us to kill us and I taught them a lesson; as I didn't want their blood on my hands, I captured them and brought them to be taken care of by the law enforcement authorities."
A lot of the Adventurers present couldn’t stop looking at her as she was a rare beauty; with ruby red eyes and dark silky brown hair almost black that shone under the sun’s light passing through the windows. Flower, who was behind Seven, showed an annoyed look at her sister-wife. "No, Seven. They want all the details, you know, like a report."
People in the exchange laughed at Seven whose cheeks were reddening in embarrassment. The dark haired beauty crossed her arms and pouted slightly; she wanted to be done with all that happening, they had important stuff to do for the next day’s recruiting event.
She sighed and looked at Eina who had a strained smile pasted on. "Ah okay, well…" Seven let her arms fall along her side and began to say with an impish smile, "Miss Eina, when I woke up this morning to a good fuc…"
Flower came behind Seven and put a hand on her mouth with a panicked expression. Eina looked at her with a stern expression, she adjusted her glasses on her nose and said with a tight gritting of her teeth, "Not that detailed… Mrs Seven, could you start when you entered the dungeon?"
"Fine…" Seven blew a wick of hair out of her vision in annoyance and started to narrate what happened in the dungeon since this morning.
They went through the first layers and killed the monsters in droves on each floor until they reached the eleventh floor and were ambushed by three Infant Dragons, one of them being a larger variant that spewed fire. Everyone stood silent and transfixed as Seven recounted their adventure in the dungeon and how they teamed up to kill the weakest monsters before the boss and how she killed it by breaking its spine and broke its neck with two moves.
Some unrelated adventurers clapped or hollered at how impressive their feats were when she finished the tale.
"Then after we finished collecting the cores and drops, those ten cowards surrounded us and tried to kill-" Seven couldn't finish speaking as she was interrupted by the rude accented voice from the leader of the criminal party.
"They are lyin' it's them dat attacked us!" The man said in an incensed manner as he acted in a pitiful fashion.
"Yeah, we're in'cent!" Said the ex-archer missing both his index fingers.
Seven had been more than cruel when she had gotten to him as he kept trying to kill her from a distance.
The Thaumaturgist simply rolled her eyes at the counter-accusations and raised a hand in denial. "Oh please, your stupid ass can't even spell innocent right."
"Hahahaha!" Flower held on her belly and laughed throatily.
Wolf stoically shook his head and looked at the men with pity as they continued to dig their graves. "Ah they want to stall the procedure by saying we attacked them first." The swordsman surmised.
Seven looked somewhat shocked as she turned to Wolf who was guarding the criminals with the fairies. The leader of the group gave the dark-haired woman a toothy smile full of missing teeth from how she had punched them in from his mouth.
He hoped to see a desperate or angry expression on Seven’s face but all he got was a gaze full of pity and her turning to Eina and asking, "Are they that addled? I mean we are in a city chockful of gods and goddesses who can practically see their lies. Isn't the justice system of Orario enforced by Baldr, God of light and justice?"
Eina had the same look of pity on her face as she looked at the men who seemed to not be very bright.
"Desperation." Eina answered simply.
To the Guild staff's surprise, Seven waved away her comment and explained why. "Nah, I think it’s that wine from their God that reduces their higher brain function. I analyzed it and you wouldn't believe the level of relaxant and psychotropic agents in it, which appears to underlie their poor decision-making, inability to adapt to negative consequences and lack of self-insight. This horrible brew shouldn't be given or sold to mortals, through long ingestion and exposure it will inevitably kill people and put them into comas if they don't get their next fix."
Seven turned to the ten men and as if a bell tolled announced with a shrug of her shoulder, "Anyway, they will die, but meanwhile as their moral compass slowly dwindle the more they ingest that brew, they become a danger to others, they spread misery in the dungeon and in the city by gathering money at all cost to get a sip from Soma's death wine. I wouldn't be surprised that at least 20% of the deaths in the slums and the dungeon are attributed to Soma's Familia."
Everyone who wasn't from Seven's party was stunned by her speech and theories, eyes turned on the Soma familia members and looked at them as if they were dirt. Their eyes were full of loathing and they became frenzied all of a sudden.
"Lies!"
"Deception!"
They all began to shout and swear and become bolder. The leader in particular looked at Seven as if she had told him that Soma was no God. "Dis is slander! God Soma is tha greatest winemaka!"
Seven began to giggle at their reactions, taunting them. *I don't think so.*
The leader saw how she mocked them and advanced toward her, with his hands aiming for Seven’s neck. "You bitch I will-"
PEW! BAM! A pink ray of energy shot by one of the fairies pierced the ground at the man’s feet, reminding him of his place on the totem pole.
"You better shut up and stay in your lane beardy or my little friends will turn you into a beehive." Seven said with a glacial tone.
The man soiled himself as a pool of yellow smelly liquid puddled at his feet. Seven and Flower looked disgusted as the man humiliated himself. Some other adventurers laughed, others looked warily at the dangerous fairies, their Magic attacks seemed to be able to rend stone easily, they didn't want to imagine what they could do to human bodies.
Seven looked at everyone who wasn’t in chains and loudly said, "So everyone, you heard it, this scummy loser said that me and my party members are lying."
Some nodded, others didn’t say anything and waited for Seven to make her point; she smirked evilly, she put a hand on her chest and took on an almost sad expression. "However, I am afraid they dug themselves deeper in a quagmire of falsehood. Unfortunately for our ten parasites, I got an artifact that recorded their act of malfeasance. Each time the Hestia Familia descend in the dungeon we record our actions and routes."
The men’s eyes went wide, just like Seven anticipated; she theatrically turned toward the guild staff. Her cloak billowed behind her and asked Eina, "Do you want to see our story yourself, Miss Eina?"
With eyes full of doubts, Eina asked, "This… does such a thing exist?" Her hands were crossed in front of her on the counter, giving her a prim and proper atmosphere.
Seven nodded. "Oh yes, this was common in our previous country, it was used to record precious memories or used for scouting purposes."
Once again, Eina was reminded of the orders that were given to her by the higher ups in the Guild about where such outstanding people came from. Humans with the level of magic knowledge that Seven and Flower possessed wasn't normal; the land they came from should be famous but they have not heard about it at all. The Guild was taking measures to secure the city, thinking that the trio may be a vanguard for a superior power wanting to take the dungeon.
The thaumaturgist asked everyone to stand back as she was going to summon something. She opened her cloak and touched a big amulet with an oval form made of burnished gold with unknown runes etched onto it.
“Open.” She said in another language that wasn’t the local one, Koine.
The amulet somehow opened and revealed a green jewel ensconced into a mechanical background; the jewel blazed with light. Seven then proceeded to close the curtains over the windows of the exchange room with telekinesis, darkening it, enough for the crystal lighting to come on. Band of green light forming a magical overlay with runic symbols spread on Seven’s right arm.
“Now time to show you what happened.” And that is how a circular window was projected from the green gem.
An arrow symbol appeared in the black void inside the window and Seven with her right arm overlaid in runes moved it in a circular manner and the dark window filled with light and filled with image. To Eina and the other adventurers, it was like seeing a memory being played, they could see Seven, Wolf and Flower descending the stairs to the dungeon, passing the occasional adventurer groups climbing back to the surface. People didn’t even realize it, but they watched the odyssey of the Hestia Familia in the dungeon for one hour straight as they cut down monsters and emptied the floors at great speed.
Some couldn’t believe what they were seeing and had to pinch themselves; then after Seven sped up the events by fast forwarding the memory, and directly went to the Infant Dragons fight. Everyone exclaimed in surprise as they saw the beasts and how fast the trio dispatched them. Then the Soma Familia’s adventurers arrived and surrounded the trio.
The fight against them was brief and brutal as Seven showed why she was so confident. Moving her arm counter clockwise, Seven stopped the memory and opened the curtain and the light of dusk appeared and Seven turned to Eina with a big smile. “Who will you believe now?”
---7HC---
(Hestia)
Vesta Mansion
3 hours later
The trio returned home and were quickly gathered by Hestia and guided to the status viewing room; a comfortable and well furnished room where there were three massage tables at its center. The room had been created for the express purpose of Hestia to personally update her Familia members' status in private.
The trio had quickly taken off their upper clothes and laid belly first on the tables which were low enough for Goddess Hestia to straddle them and proceed to look at their status on their backs. The trio only let Hestia update their status once a week since they joined her Familia and were busy making her happy and throwing themselves into a brutal training regimen.
Seven did a short nap as Flower and Wolf updated their falna first. Hestia’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as she saw the jump in stats to Flower and Wolf’s basic abilities. It is normally impossible to go past S rank, but her children were showing how different they were from normal people once again. The tiny Goddess chose to not panic and ask them questions later, but it was at this point that Hestia vowed to never say anything about her children to another Deity she didn’t trust. This new skill that was now available for Wolf made Hestia’s brows reach her forehead, it sounded particularly strong… another thing to ask advice about to Hephaestus.
Hestia asked Wolf if he wanted to level up right now and he chose to accept, feeling that their little Familia needed him to be as strong as he could be; Wolf understood that he couldn't raise his status more than this. Hestia heard the handsome man vow to train more despite his basic abilities being outside the norm. *My children are hardworking.*
Hestia updated Wolf status with all the Excelia he accrued.
WOLF
Level 1 -> 2
Strength 1987 SS -> 0 I
Endurance 1979 SS -> 0 I
Dexterity 1990 SS -> 0 I
Agility 1950 SS -> 0 I
Magic 780 B -> 0 I
Skill: Empowerment*, Swordsman
*User become stronger, faster, more durable, with each successive hit they land on an opponent, enhancing the existing powers
"Congratulations, Wolf, you are a level 2 Adventurer!" Hestia congratulated the handsome blonde man and kissed his cheek.
He idly kissed her back, so used to his close women Familia antics that he reciprocated their attention without being asked to. Wolf smiled lazily at the tiny Goddess and took his black shirt to put it back on. "My constant delving in the dungeon in the morning is finally paying off."
Having finally finished with Wolf, Hestia then finally came to check on her favorite child. She knows she shouldn't play favorites, but there was something attractive in Flower, she reminded her of Loki but less chaotic and motherly toward everyone. She updated the brown haired mage's status on the parchment, and showed it to the topless Flower.
FLOWER
Level 1
Strength 432 E -> 864 A
Endurance 340 F -> 780 B
Dexterity 476 E -> 1952 SS
Agility 510 C -> 1000 SS
Magic 768 B -> 1999 SSS
Skill: Mage, Mixing*, Healing Power*, Treatment*
*Skills to choose for next level up
Flower pouted as she looked at her status. "I will need to train and go dungeon delving more! My stats should have been comparable to Wolf!"
Hestia laughed at her competitive child; but she understood why Flower’s attributes were lower, her child was busier and had less time to go to the dungeon. The brunette took care of managing their territory and teaching Hestia the ropes to do so as well. The tiny Goddess was strangely good at administrative work and super efficient.
Wolf chuckled at Flower and argued, “You actually doing some training in the morning with Seven would help your situation a bit more, Flower. We need to be stronger than normal even at level one.”
Slapping the parchment on the massage table she sat on, Flower growled, “Argh, okay, I will work on training more, but we will need to go over my schedule, being a Captain is a lot of work you know?”
The blonde man looked at how pitiful Flower was, stood up and went to sit at her side passing an arm around her frail shoulders; the brunette leaned her head on his shoulder affectionately. “Do you think that if I ask Seven, she would build me something to help?”
Wolf made a wry smile and smoothly answered, “You just have to ask her, preferably after sex.”
Flower perked up at this idle comment, turned her head and kissed Wolf on the cheek. “Thanks for the idea, Wolf!”
Hestia laughed, she couldn't believe how manipulative those two could be with their third members at times. Meanwhile, Seven was really asleep right now; Hestia was conflicted about waking her up due to the fact that she worked hard everyday and that it was a battle to make her take a break each night.
Walking to the snoring Seven who was laid on the massage table, Hestia woke her child up and then started up inspecting her status. The goddess's eyes almost popped out her skull as she saw Seven’s hard won basic attributes.
SEVEN
Level 1
Strength 438 E -> 1099 SS
Endurance 486 E -> 1299 SS
Dexterity 589 D -> 1309 SS
Agility 437 E -> 1989 SS
Skill: Magic Blacksmith, Metalworking*, Mystery*, Mage*
*User has the ability to use magic that revolves around crafts. They are able to forge the sharpest of swords, the strongest of armors, the greatest of statues, the most powerful of items, etc.
*Skills to choose for next level up
Seven’s body wasn't normal. Her aura was simply different from any spirit or human she has met or sensed before. She was both, like Seven had told Hestia but there was something bothering her; it was as if someone had merged a spirit and human forcefully. Hestia felt that Seven had no limit and that because of her being part spirit that she wasn't constrained by something like the natural law of this world, mortality was optional to her and she could go beyond the sapient races' limit with enough time.
The tiny goddess asked herself how powerful someone has to be to merge two distinct beings without killing both of them. She hoped that her children would tell her one day. Hestia looked at the drowsy Seven who wiped her eyes and read her status on the parchment.
"I am just shy of leveling up as well…" Seven said as she made a satisfied smile.
Hestia sat at Seven’s side as she put back on her peculiar contraption called a bra that was used to support her breasts. Hestia was still hesitant in asking for one. The goddess casually said, “Your and your spouses' growth is somewhat abnormal… breaking through S rank with your status shouldn’t be this easy. I didn't even have to choose skills for you, they automatically appeared as you approached level 2.”
“That’s because our constitution is made to absorb mana more efficiently, Hestia.” Gently answered her Goddess as she put on her white sleeveless shirt.
Hestia felt that this was the truth, but not the whole truth; Seven didn't want to say more and avoided looking into her eyes. “I see…”
The goddess of the home took in the three people who have become her world and couldn't stop thinking that she had them but that they still kept things from her; maybe they were embarrassed or ashamed? But Hestia felt that it wasn't it, those three weren't bad people. Curious about what they were hiding, Hestia confronted her children.
“Some of you have normal skills… and I can understand why they appeared due to your occupations, but what is a Magic Blacksmith? And Empowerment? Wolf, do you have any idea?”
Seven laughed nervously and scratched her right arm. "I have an idea that it pertains to being able to easily make magical artifacts?" Answered Seven with a thoughtful look.
Hestia nodded, she thought about this as well, but felt that it wasn't the whole truth. She turned her attention to Wolf who gave her a toothy smile and gathered the Goddess in his arm and placed her on his thigh. "You tell me, Hestia. I leave the Magic stuff to you girls to teach me."
This time it was the whole truth that she heard, Wolf seemed to want to focus on protecting the girls and avoid the complications that being near magic brought them. The vultures already circled their Familia because of their uncommon strength and peculiar magic.
"Wew, I am glad I am the normal one in the group." Flower said out loud as she exaggeratingly wiped her brows with a hand.
Everyone looked at Flower in disbelief; after a moment she finally noticed the doubting glances thrown at her. The brunette looked back at them and puffed up her cheek like Hestia often would. "What?"
Seven averted her eyes. "Nothing, love."
The others just laughed at Flower, who glared at them playfully. Once the tittering and the humorous atmosphere settled; Hestia, jumped off Wolf’s thigh and turned to her three children, her dress almost riding up to her ass, but she always avoided wardrobe malfunction somehow.
Hestia faced her three secretive children and said, "You three, I hope that one day, you'll be able to tell me everything you’re hiding. I know that you think that you’re protecting me, but I want to be able to know everything about you to be able to care for you."
An uncomfortable silence stretched for a moment; Seven looked stricken, Wolf snorted… not at Hestia but at Seven, and Flower looked at her sister-wife with a ‘I told you so’ expression. “See, I told you she would guess.”
Hestia became aware that yet again, this situation was all about Seven telling the two others to not tell her anything; showing a certain degree of leadership. Before this, she would have pegged Flower as the official leader of the group, but it seemed that it was Seven who held the reins in this relationship. Seven sighed and looked into Hestia’s blue eyes, the Goddess could see how much she cared for her, and she was… afraid? Why was she afraid?
Seven finally opened her mouth and said, "We will tell you everything, but not now. Be patient, okay? You need some context for our story and I need to secure the place even more before saying anything."
Hestia nodded. "Okay, I believe that I will know in time, anyway…"
Sighing in relief, Seven was happy that Hestia accepted the current situation; but at the same time she had more work to do, and their sponsor to query about telling Hestia their story.
The tiny Goddess clapped her hands cutting through the tension in the room. "Let’s go have dinner! The Hostess of Fertility has this new dish I wanted to try."
Seven perked up at that announcement, drowsiness clearing from her eyes. Hestia laughed at the dopey expression; though the dark haired thaumaturgist was excited because she would get to scout the competition for her own bar/restaurant that will open in one month.
---7HC---
(Flower)
May the 6th
Babel
Guild rented floor
*Today is the day.* Flower thought as she looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a red high necked bodice dress, embroidered with golden threads showing tasteful patterns. The bottom of the dress had a thigh slit showing a lot of Flower fair skinned and beautiful left leg. The red kimono sleeves of the dress were separate and topped with jewel-like green feathers.
Seven was simply too skilled at sewing, it made Flower want to see how her sister-wife viewed her in her mind. The dress was beautiful, enchanted to make wardrobe malfunction an impossible threat and it was impossible to stain because of the self-cleaning runes stitched into the dress; the dress was also cloth armor, as it was made out of durable mana threads.
Seven entered the changing room Flower was dolling herself in and simply looked at the brunette. Flower doesn't know how but she found herself pinned against the wall and kissed silly by Seven. Flower was swept up in the feeling of desire and lust brought on by her dark haired sister-wife. It was only after a long time that they separated.
Flower’s lipstick was all smudged and her hair was in disarray, making Seven look apologetic. "Ah crap, I ruined your makeup. Let me help you reapply it."
Seven seized the makeup kit on the table near them and took a towel to erase the smudged layer on Flower’s face. The brunette laughed as she was being worked over for five minutes. The thaumaturgist took a chair and sat her sister-wife before the foot length mirror and started brushing Flower’s hair.
Four minutes later, Seven had Flower’s long hair in a twisted and pulled braid with the top section of hair falling down Flower’s back perfectly, and she curled the ends for a gorgeous finish. Seven let go of her sister-wife's shoulder and stepped back from her.
"Wow." Flower said as she looked at herself in the mirror. "That’s better than what I did with my hair earlier… You're so good at this Seven."
"Thanks?" Seven looked entranced as she looked at Flower. "You look even better than I imagined in this dress, Flower…"
After this it was Seven’s turn to put on her Aquarius armor which was more a proof of concept than a usable one. From what Seven had told her, she came up with an enchanted armor that enables the user to use water manipulation magic; it wasn’t viable to use in the dungeon she said. Flower watched as Seven took off her hooded black cloak, she wore a dark blue bodysuit espousing her body perfectly; it was Flower’s turn to be drowned by lust, but she resisted the impulse of reaching out to her sister-wife.
The dark haired woman took a figurine from her belt pouch, it was a beautiful gold one of a woman wearing gold armor and holding a golden vase. It was set with blue Sapphire gems.
Flower tilted her head as she watched the beautiful figurine. “Is that gold?”
Seven’s red eyes shone under the mana crystal lights, she smiled as she declared, “No, it’s Orichalcum.”
Eyes wide, Flower held onto Seven’s hand and she was suddenly in her face. “Seven! How much did this cost?! And where did you get it?!”
Not losing her smile at all, Seven simply replied. “Nothing, this is materials given to us by Lilith, directly from a world from the Crystal sector we come from.”
Flower looked at the figurine in Seven’s hand, then finally let go of her. “Sorry for jumping to conclusions.”
The Orichalcum of this world was prohibitively expensive, it went easily for a million Valis per gram. Flower visibly sighed in relief, only for Seven to put a hand on her cheek to say, “Hey, it’s okay. I wouldn’t touch what the Familia has in the bank, I opened my own expense account.”
That was reassuring and… surprising. “This is news to me…” Flower thought that she was on top of things like that.
“Hestia helped me, she made an account for Wolf and you as well.” Seven answered as she placed the figurine on the ground and it visibly grew in an explosion of light, the figurine separated into parts that flew around Seven and affixed themselves to her body. It started with the greaves, next were the gauntlets, the fault and the breastplate; to finish were the pauldron and the half helmet.
Seven punched two times with each arm in a horse stance, producing a visible breeze. When she straightened up she said with a satisfied smile, "Mhm, I feel like it's super light. As if I was wearing casual clothes."
Seven then began to describe how she made the magic armor. Flower heard about artificial magical circuits, rune engraving and programming magical gems for enchanting matrices. “This particular brand of Orichalcum is from our planet and completely different from the analog metal that can be found in the dungeon, it’s made by distilling ordinary gold using Gaia's blood (hear Magma) and concentrating sunlight using large occult mirrors; it’s the strongest metal we have access to.”
*Yes, this is completely beyond me… still she looks incredibly dashing.* Flower thought.
She put a hand on her sister-wife's lips, stopping her from speaking even more. "Seven?"
Flower took her hand's off Seven’s face and with a grin the dark haired thaumaturgist replied, "Yes Dear?"
"You've become a geek." Flower laughed and pulled the other woman into a hug.
---7HC---
Flower was nervous, being on a stage today was going to make herself known. She was happy that Seven had included the soul veil enchantment in the dress, but she wasn't happy that she was going to be leered at by some unscrupulous people today. Sure, she did it at home years ago, but she knew what the score was in the city she had lived in with her mother; Orario was completely different, Flower didn't know the full lay of the land and who all the movers and shakers in the underworld of the city were.
Flower felt exposed, but fortunately for her, Wolf was at her side. He took her right hand and said, "Keep calm, you have nothing to fear, okay?"
"I can't wait to make love to you tonight…", Flower whispered.
She loved the man that Wolf had become, he was a solid and reliable partner in their polyamorous relationship. Flower knew that one day when they had kids that Wolf would be a good father to them, but first they had to build a solid foundation to turn the Danmachi world into their base of operation, the first World in a long chain of networked universes that were going to be used by the trio and their future companions to gain in power and abilities to defend the Omniversal territory of their patron, Lilith, the demon Goddess.
Seven was at Flower’s side and smiling at the two of them fondly, until a bell rang… it was finally time to receive all the prospective recruits and proceed with the interviews. Flower was the first to walk up to the door separating them from the main room; she opened it and was surprised to see that at least one hundred or so people had gathered in the convention hall.
They were all seated before the stage, speaking between themselves or simply waiting. Flower squared off her shoulders and powered through the distance between the backstage to the main stage and finally the podium. Catcalls and hollering from the men and some women rang as she walked like a panther. Flower hadn’t noticed that everyone closely followed all her movements.
Flower smiled and waved a hand. "Welcome everyone!"
The roguish adventurers and the thug looking ones didn't stop speaking and said disparaging things.
"Yo Babe, sign me up, I totally wanta join your Familia!"
"Hey, looking sexy lady!"
"A beauty!"
The brunette's smile froze; deep down she was annoyed, but hid it. She lifted her hand and cast a spell to enhance her voice. "Hello and welcome everyone."
The sound of her voice was so powerful that it made everyone who wasn't Wolf or Seven hold onto their ears. She waited for everyone to settle, and when there were no more people shouting inane and disrespectful things, Flower introduced herself. "I am Flower, Captain of the Hestia Familia."
"Thank you to each and every one of you for being here with us today. We are very pleased to be able to welcome those who decided to give our Familia a chance. To my right is the main contributor to the rise of the Hestia Familia."
A lot rode on this recruitment event, renting this floor wasn't cheap; 100000 Valis to rent this convention hall for one day. Seven was already advertising her new alcohol and food recipe after weeks of research on the local cultural cuisine; there were also the weapons and medicine that they were going to sell. The musicians that played the background music in this event were from the Benzaiten entertainment Familia; Benzaiten was a Goddess from the Far-East and she has a lot of Familia members dedicated to the arts, they don't go much into the dungeon, but some of them do as some of them could be hired as assassins or more colloquially called Shinobi.
The Familia was hired as entertainers and as security; Flower truly admired the Far Eastern Goddess. Benzaiten is the goddess of everything that flows: water, time, words, speech, eloquence, music and by extension, knowledge. She liked the Deities who had such domains related to arts.
Flower retreated and gave her place on stage to Seven who looked rather dashing, powerful and heroic. Seven’s hard gaze slid over everyone gathered, taking an especially long look at the tall, half naked, and muscular, amazoness with blonde hair. "My name is Seven, I am a Thaumaturgist, a Fighter and Business Owner."
No one said anything, but Flower saw that they wanted to; Seven continued to speak and introduce the Familia. "On my left is the one charged with the training of new members and responsible for the security in the Familia."
Wolf chose that moment to walk forward, he wore a compact silver armor with gold decoration looking like stars, his humongous Buster Sword strapped behind his back mimicked the same theme. A new type of weapon that Seven made just for him that she called a Bifurcated Sword; the Bifurcated Weapon is two weapons in one. A strategic advantage for Wolf, that allowed him to switch techniques mid combat enough to throw off the enemy's balance.
"I am Wolf, a Swordsman." Intoned, his eyes settled on everyone.
Flower smiled when she saw some of the lower level trash adventurers who came step back under the intensity of her man’s gaze.
When he was done showing dominance, Wolf said, "We will proceed to the interviews of everyone and while the rest of you wait, we have prepared food and entertainment for you. So enjoy the food and the music."
A/N: So Wolf/Cloud is level 2 and Tifa and Aerith are nipping at his heel to catch up; this is the long awaited recruiting arc!