13. Chaperone in the Dungeon

Waiting by the entrance of the dungeon Riveria and Aiz were looking to the sky waiting for the final member of their little party to arrive. Initially it was all the members of the familia that wanted to accompany the girl on her first dungeon run but this was immediately rejected by Loki because of the obvious impracticality of the situation. What would Orario think of her familia was looking ready to go on a deep expedition but only go to the fifth floor?!? She could already hear the other gods scream incompetence and try exploit whatever they can from the situation. This led to there being names thrown into a hat on who would accompany Riveria as she wanted to be there for Marlet's first attempt at the dungeon. Aiz had won the draw and was now waiting patiently for her winged friend to arrive, many wouldn't have noticed this but when Aiz heard her name be called she had an imperceptible smile on her lips.

Hearing the flap of wings in the distance the duo could see a small dot approaching at a massive speed from Tsubaki's forge residence where Marlet got measured and fitted into armour. The smith had enjoyed the challenge of designing something for her wings, something that still protected her but allowed her free movement and flight. To say that what she produced had even gained Hephaestus' interest and a promise to help in the final product when she levels up had made Marlet motivated. Landing before her adoptive mother and good friend (Marlet could never tell where she stood with Aiz because she barely reacted to anything) she had a smile on her face. Many people around them gave them a wide berth so as not to antagonise a powerful elf and the rising star of the Loki Familia. "You ready to hunt some monsters?" Riveria asked in a kind tone and Aiz nodded her head. "I would by lying if I said I was 100% ready. There was a saying where I came from, it went something along the lines of:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Miles was a form of measuring distance where I was from.

Quiet apt for the situation, don't you think?" Marlet had a nervous smile on her face but held her bow tightly and rested her hand on her axe that hung by her hip. Riveria and Aiz only turned sideways with a small smile on their faces for they knew everyone is different and that each person's experience inside the dungeon is their own. Marlet took in a deep breath and marched towards the dungeon entrance where a guild employee was marking individuals entering and exiting the dungeon. This was done so that should something go wrong any and all information would already be available if a search or rescue party needed to be formed. To the employee's credit, when Marlet approached him he only stuttered in the beginning of asking her to declare herself and how deep she planned to go. Marlet proceeded to explain who she was and what level she currently is, also indicating her 'party members' but they had already agreed that they would only step in if absolutely necessary. Once inside Marlet and out of sight Marlet stored her bow and quiver, opting to hold her axe in her dominant hand and the flames spell in her other. The dancing embers created additional light along with the light provided for by the dungeon. Marlet was staying vigilant of her surroundings, keeping note of Riveria and Aiz's location and any other sounds that may occur. Turning a corner Marlet saw her first monster, a goblin, be brutally slashed at by a young man in old armour. She watched as the goblin's blood covered the man up to his forearms and the goblin making a horrible screeching noise as it took its last breath.

Sensing someone looking at him the adventurer whipped around and got into a ready stance the one looking g at him was of the more unscrupulous characters but upon seeing the wings the man seemed to loose all will to fight. Marlet only looked at him with an inquisitive look before moving on causing the man a great deal of confusion as to why a monster would leave him alone. Once Marlet was out of sight the man saw 2 beauties he had only ever heard about in rumours when it finally clicked in his mind that he had encountered the adoptive monster of the Loki familia. Understanding had dawned on the man how close he and possibly his familia were to offending the Loki familia should he have attacked her. After the gods announcement that the girl had a soul and was to be treated as a normal adventurer a lot of people were skeptical. Some even believed that Loki had strong armed the other gods in accepting her winged child.

Continuing on her way down the hall Marlet saw two goblins standing next to each other with no adventurers around to claim them as theirs. Steeling her resolve and ensuring her flames were ready to flow Marlet quietly approached the two goblins from one of their blind spots. Unlike Skyrim in her past life she couldn't just crouch down and become invisible with her 'Sneak'. She had to be as quiet as possible and have the intention to be stealthy in order for it to have any effect, which was considerably low at the moment. Coming within 2 men's reach of the goblins they turned and faced the sneaking girl letting out load grunts and a shriek as though it were a war cry. Marlet didn't waste any time and launched her flames in the face of the furthest goblin and sprang at the closest goblin with her axe held high. The goblin receiving a face full of flames jumped to the side with half its face scorched off and made a beeline towards the culprit of its current face. Marlet had just dropped the axe in the crook of the closest goblin's neck and switched her hand with the flames spell to frostbite. Her axe cleaved the goblin from his neck to the middle of his chest missing the magic stone by inches, this caused goblin blood to spurt all over the axe-head. The disfigured goblin had now reached the side of Marlet ready to claw and bite at her shoulder when a thin sword pierced it in the chest causing it to turn to dust.

Aiz sheathed her sword in one fluid motion and just looked at Marlet expressionlessly, with Riveria coming up behind her, "if Aiz hadn't stepping in you would be forced to have left your axe in the goblin and either hope you have enough mind for a spell to kill that charging one or get into a fist fight. Both are undesirable for you because you want to focus on long and mid range fighting. Remember, your axe is a last resort. Not a first option." Riveria didn't want to reprimand the girl before her but she also wanted her to understand that it was small mistakes like that was the reason for a lot of the level ones dying on the beginner's road. Marlet understood why Riveria was saying this to her had nodded her head in understanding, not taking offence to the lecturing tone of Riveria.

Continuing on after collecting the magic stones into her inventory the party of 3 made their way along the corridors of the first floor. After hearing Riveria's explanation Marlet had the flames spell in both hands and the axe at her hip. Her reasoning for not using the bow on these floors was that it was too narrow for her to use it effectively, only really being able to shoot 1 arrow and then having to store all the bow equipment before confronting whatever monster appeared before her. Seeing her next burn victim before her with its back facing her Marlet wasted no time and silently snuck up until the goblin was at the edge of her flame's range. Unleashing a torrent of flames from both hands unto the goblin Marlet was easily able to track its movements as it tried to escape the inferno unleashed from the pyromaniac. The goblin stood no chance as no matter which direction it tried to escape the flames followed. By the time the goblin turned to dust the smell of burnt flesh was very prominent within the hall, Aiz furrowed her brow and Riveria frowning at the smell in the air. "You're getting better but you can't do that for the whole day, you'll run out of mind. Also I'd like to see the other 2 spells you have's effect on monsters, especially your sparks spell." Riveria wanted to see if sparks would have any effect on the magic stone always found in monsters because it was found that just like in Skyrim (for Marlet's knowledge) lightning based spells still seemed to drain magic or mind. Having experienced this first hand and confirming it with Loki, Riveria was very excited with the prospects if this turned out to yield some results. Loki had also dubbed Marlet the anti-mage magician, on account of her casting spells that drain mind of other spell-casters.

With Frostbite in one hand and Sparks in the other Marlet kept wondering through the corridors of the dungeon until she found a goblin busy eating an adventurer's corpse. Seeing the mangled state she found the body in Marlet wanted to throw up her lunch right then and there, the goblin with its head sticking into the sternum trying to get more meat out of the corpse didn't even hear their approach through all the loud chewing. Swallowing down the taste of bile building up in her mouth, Marlet launched both spells at the goblin's body. The the frostbite hitting it in the centre of its spine and the sparks making an audible clap as hit hit the small of its neck the goblin didn't stand a chance and turned to dust. Marlet emptied her stomach right then and there, needing to take a few minutes to come to the reality of what had happened to both her and the unfortunate person before her.

Riveria could only sit next to the girl and hold her knee in a comforting manner, she did want to rub her back as she had usually done but the wings didn't make that an option. Aiz however walked up to the corpse, used to this sight for a while now she searched for any magic stones he might have on his person and a means to identify themselves. Finding a small pouch with a handful stones in it Aiz only brought that and the stone from the goblin Marlet had killed and presented that to Riveria. Seeing and feeling no changes in the stone itself Riveria handed everything to Marlet to be stored. The fey did as was implied and also stood up and walked towards the corpse and stored it into her inventory as well, "I want to return them to whoever they had belonged to" was her reasoning.

Thinking that this was enough exposure to the dungeon the three of them left the first floor and headed straight for the guild to turn in their report and the corpse. There was no cheerful attitude in the air amongst the three as to them it wasn't really a successful dungeon dive, but it wasn't a failure either. These thoughts made Marlet realise that it may be called an adventure but the reality of everyone's mortality once they step foot in the dungeon became a blaring reminder that people still got hurt, injured and killed regardless of what you call it.

Asking for a private room, Marlet explained what happened in the dungeon with a few small changes. She had first mentioned the dead adventurer and, after signing an agreement to keep her secrets with Riveria taking the copy of the contract, brought out the poor soul's body who departed in the dungeon. The guild staff showed their professionalism and immediately started identifying the person, finding out that he belonged to the Demeter familia. This brought a frown to Riveria as that familia were not known for going into the dungeon. Marlet then brought out the pouch with all the magic stones, including the ones she got from the dungeon, and asked the guild to cash it in and return the money to Demeter herself. Marlet received respectful looks from everyone in the room as they knew what she was doing by this action and the image of a 'monster' lessened considerably in their minds, before them was a kind and thoughtful girl trying to do what's right.

Finished with their business, the three of them headed straight back to the Manor to report everything that happened to Loki and try and find out what was happening.