Danmachi – Infinite Mana System

[Chapter Size: 1740 Words.]
Lucius POV
Dungeon, Eighteenth Floor.

...

...

Dungeon, Eighteenth Floor. Hermes finally appeared with Asfi by his side. She was staring at me strangely, not like a romantic interest, just studying me after seeing my fight with Mikoto. After witnessing me cast spells with some short chants and some without, it was normal as everyone does when they see an anomaly.

"HEE!" Riekling, who had been watching the entire fight, groaned at Hermes and his daughter. 'Even you feel he's not trustworthy, huh, Riekling?' I looked at my friend and thought.

"You must be Lucius, the second member of the Hestia family..." Said Hermes, looking at me while adjusting his famous hat. "And you are the God Hermes. To think there are three gods on this floor. I fear what the dungeon can do if they sense them here..." I made a joke, but I was intensely trying to study the god in front of me. There are only two gods, as far as I know, that I need to be quite cautious about, one of them is Freya, and the other is the god in front of me, both great manipulators, ready to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals.

I'm not too worried about the god from my old family. If he doesn't interfere with me or Hestia, I don't care about what he's doing, unlike these gods. He's like Apollo and even a great friend of his, but he's the easy-to-deal-with type with a bit of force, which I hate is about politics and manipulations, something that these gods I have to be careful with use to achieve their goals.

"HAHAHAHA" He nervously laughed at my words, but he knew it was just his act. "I hope that doesn't happen..." Asfi lamented, seeing the gravity of my words beside him. Her concern is not unfounded. With two gods here, the dungeon sent a mutant Goliath. Imagine 3, and not to mention that I unleashed the power of a higher deity when I leveled up. I hope things stay like the canon.

"I wanted to thank you for the rescue you did with Bell. He's very special, and I would regret it a lot if he died like that..." Said Hermes after a silence settled between us. Mikoto was a little embarrassed by these words, seeing that she and her family were the reason Bell almost died. Ignoring her, I spoke again.

"As I told Hestia, I did what I should have done as a family member... There's no reason to be surprised by that," I said calmly. "Hahaha! That's the way to talk, young man!" He said. And seeing that there wasn't much more to say, as I didn't give him much opening with my gaze, he studied me enough in this exchange. Suddenly, he turned to leave with Asfi by his side, but not before stopping suddenly and speaking a few last words after a few steps.

"An adventurer expelled from that "God" who seeks strength above all else in his family, joined the Hestia family and reached level 2 a few days after Bell, and his magic demonstration is quite interesting, very interesting... I look forward to hearing more about you in the future!" He said. Simple words, but I could see that there were many hidden things in them, and I am not a very intelligent man in politics or manipulation to understand the real meaning. But anger took hold of me, even without fully understanding what he meant. I am tired of damn gods who want to control you. Hearing these words, I couldn't help but let my eyes start to glow with amethyst light. I was holding back from releasing my magical aura, regardless of whether he was a God or a god directly trusted by Uranus.

As I always thought, I was never good at listening to such nonsense. I always hated these manipulations and political games, preferring to solve my problems and challenges with strength. Asfi remained calm on her face while my threat was unfolding on the scene, but I saw her hand move slightly to prepare for any attack coming from me. I could explode at any moment while trying to control my anger.

"Well, let's go, Asfi-kun, we can't disturb these young ones who just want to be alone in the middle of the forest..." Hermes said, provoking us, and continued walking, entering the forest without caring about how I was showing anger in my glowing eyes. Mikoto blushed a bit hearing Hermes' words, as there was a misunderstanding here.

"Don't mind that God, he's always like that..." I tried to reassure Mikoto. "I can understand... But... what was all that?" She asked, as my exchange of words was not normal, and my expression of anger on the verge of exploding did not go unnoticed by her.

"Complicated things, sensei, complicated things..." I said, sighing, not wanting to delve too much into this delicate situation. Mikoto was about to say something; however, other voices appeared in a corner of the field where we fought.

"It's him, isn't it?" We heard that voice and turned to see a group of 5 girls looking at us. 'What the hell is it now?' I exclaimed internally, seeing new guests that I couldn't identify at first, as they didn't seem like members of the Loki family camp.

"Hmmm... Mr. Lucius? Remember me?" Said a black-haired girl among the group, who took the lead. She seemed a bit shy. "Nicole?" I asked, it was the girl I rescued on the fifteenth floor. "You remember!" She said happily, which left me a little stunned, because why would I forget a name so easily?

"How could I forget? I can forget what I ate yesterday, but I wouldn't forget someone I rescued from a bunch of Minotaurs, right?" I said to myself, trying to understand why the girl thought I would forget her after our peculiar encounter.

"Mr. Lucius, I'm Holanda Fox, the captain of my family. I wanted to thank you for saving our team member when she was in great danger!" Said a half-elf sincerely. I noticed that she was an archer.

"Lucius, I'll go back to my family, which is also at the camp. See you later." Said Mikoto, wanting to say goodbye. "Yes, see you later, then." I bid farewell, as I had to pay attention to a new group from the Aphrodite family.

After that, Mikoto returned to her family at the camp, and I ended up walking through the forest with a bunch of girls trying to strike up a conversation with me while Riekling was being hugged and shared by all the girls. Aphrodite, as she had told me before, went to Hestia to meet me as soon as she heard about the rescue I did for her daughter. But once she heard about Bell being trapped on the intermediate floors, she offered help to repay what I did for Nicole. The girls were friendly and fun, so I spent the rest of the afternoon talking with them while walking through the forest.

"Well well, I can't believe you're so comfortable with my daughters, Lucius-kun..." A voice interrupted us, and Aphrodite appeared before us, striking her pose and trying to be charming.

"Aphrodite-Sama!" Several female voices exclaimed for her.

"I don't have any men in my family, but I can accept you very well, Lucius-kun. How about leaving that ugly Goddess of yours and getting into the good graces of this beautiful Goddess here?" Aphrodite said, winking one of her eyes while referring to herself.

"Who are you calling an ugly Goddess!!!" Shouted another voice coming from one of the bushes, falling stunned and enraged. It was an angry Hestia, and she didn't waste time when she got up and jumped on Aphrodite's neck.

"LET GO OF ME, YOU LOLI GODDESS!" Said the blonde goddess while attacking Hestia's cheeks as well.

"Aphrodite-Sama!" The girls exclaimed in concern, and I could only sigh as I walked over to separate the two goddesses rolling on the ground.

Some time later.

Using my healing magic, I cleaned the cheeks and a reddened neck. Now, there was a group of girls surrounding Aphrodite, and I was next to Hestia.

"Can you two stop fighting for a bit? I don't want to see either of you accidentally using Arcanum and making the dungeon aware that there are 3 gods on this floor!" My voice was loud enough to reach both. I scolded them seriously. They just crossed their arms and turned their faces to opposite sides.

"Aphrodite-Sama, I appreciate your invitation, but I won't leave the Hestia family. She is my Goddess, and I don't like you asking me if I want to leave my current family. That's disrespectful!" I said seriously. I don't like her asking me these things, even though she only does it in front of Hestia to deliberately annoy her. It feels like an insult.

Aphrodite, hearing my words, pouted and mumbled something like, "Fine, I won't do it again..."

"Great, why don't we grab something by the lake before the camp? Let's gather tonight and make a big grilled fish by the campfire!" I suggested, and all the girls agreed.

Walking to the lake, we picked up some fishing rods near some structures built by the adventurers themselves. There were places where adventurers left fishing equipment for anyone who wanted to use it.

I, Riekling, Hestia, Aphrodite, and the girls went fishing then. It hadn't been a long time with Hestia yet, so it was good to have some time with my own goddess. Even if that time was shared with an Aphrodite trying to flirt with me all the time while Hestia argued about its implications.

I just wasn't sure if she flirted with me because she really liked me or was just trying to annoy Hestia, since it worked quite well.

At the end of the fishing, I caught 2 fish of 3 meters, Riekling caught 4 fish of 5 meters, although I had to pull the rod for him, and the girls caught common fish. The goddesses didn't catch any fish because they only knew how to offend each other and scare away all the aquatic animals with their noises.

------------------------------