“By the way, that kind of thing — don’t ever go telling Asfi.”
The corner of Natsuka’s mouth twitched.
The god you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be Ishtar, would it?
In that case, no thank you.
The image of that dark-skinned goddess of the Pleasure Quarter had already, beyond his control, surfaced inside his head.
Still, talk was talk.
The matter of joining the Hermes Familia — Natsuka really was giving it serious thought.
After realizing he’d landed in DanMachi, his very first reaction was, of course, to find a Familia to latch onto.
After all, no matter how much people loved to mock this world as the “floor level of the second-dimensional setting,” the [Falna] system was still pretty broken in its own right.
It could take everything a person had ever experienced and convert it all into experience and growth, steadily piling up their physical conditioning.
Tossed into a whole pile of infinite-flow settings, this ability was the kind of choice that smelled fragrant right from the opening.
Not to mention that it came with a rather idealist little bonus on top.
Namely, the awakening of magic and skills.
In a certain sense, it really was: whatever you thought about, there was a chance you’d grow that very thing.
A completely and utterly ideal-type golden finger system.
It was just that…
This god Hermes — Natsuka knew him all too well.
At his core, this guy was the ultimate utility-tool-type god.
On his lips he claimed absolute neutrality, but the moment he ran into something he cared about, he’d turn frighteningly obsessive.
For the sake of an end, his means weren’t necessarily clean, either.
Calling him an evil god, though, would be going a bit far.
But compared to those gods who genuinely treated their Familia members as family, he was still pretty far off the mark.
‘I wonder if Blue Ribbon has come down to the lower world yet.’
‘Or, put another way — has she already taken in her first Familia member?’
Natsuka’s mind was racing through these calculations.
Suddenly, a coldly clear feminine voice, pressed down with anger, came from behind him.
“Her~mes~ -sama~.”
“And just what is it that I’m not allowed to know about?”
That voice wasn’t loud, but it was cold like a knife.
It sent a chill straight down the back of one’s neck.
The owner of that voice was clearly standing not far away, but no matter how Natsuka turned his head left and right, his eyes simply couldn’t find anyone at first glance.
Hermes, by contrast, had already been petrified on the spot, that prior fit of hahaha laughter snapping to an instant halt.
The next second.
Boom!
An enormous impact suddenly slammed into Hermes’s abdomen.
This god didn’t even have the time to react before, in a single punch, his entire body was driven straight into the ground on the spot.
The ground cracked open into a human-shaped crater.
The commotion was so loud that even Natsuka reflexively took half a step back.
Gazing down at Hermes — who twitched twice in the bottom of the crater but was clearly not yet dead — Natsuka rolled his Adam’s apple down his throat with difficulty.
It was only at this very moment that he truly realized a problem he’d previously been overlooking.
Even a god like Hermes.
His physical conditioning was not something an ordinary person like himself could possibly mess with.
Let alone truly high-level adventurers.
Natsuka’s prior assessment of the combat power of the DanMachi world had clearly been a bit on the low side.
This sudden bloodlust prompted him to make, on the spot, one of the most correct choices of his life.
Stand up straight.
Admit defeat.
Apologize.
“Lady warrior, spare me!”
“This god and I really aren’t close at all!”
As the words landed.
The air in front of him rippled gently, like the surface of water.
Right after, a figure that had originally been concealed revealed herself.
Short blue hair.
Silver-rimmed glasses.
A lean, capable build.
A cold, hard air about her.
It was none other than Asfi Al Andromeda.
A high-level adventurer bearing the title of [Perseus].
A rare wielder of [Mystery].
Rumored to be the princess of a certain seafaring nation, on top of everything.
And the most crucial point of all.
She had a thing for her own patron god.
Natsuka glanced at the deep dark circles under her eyes, and his certainty about that grew even more in an instant.
This Asfi was, very obviously, already the captain of the Hermes Familia, and the Chosen Workhorse on top of that.
Her presence was plenty intimidating.
The absurd part was, Hermes had somehow already crawled back out of the crater, patted the dust off himself, and acted as if nothing had ever happened, smilingly sidling back up next to Natsuka once again.
“So, how about it, Natsuka my fellow.”
“How about joining my Familia?”
Join the Familia, and then, just like Asfi, become an excellent workhorse from there on out?
The image had barely flashed through Natsuka’s head before an inexplicable chill ran down his spine.
So he opened his mouth in a fairly diplomatic manner.
“I’d still like to get to know this world a bit more before making a decision.”
Hermes gave a shrug, not at all surprised.
After all, from his point of view, Natsuka was nothing more than an ordinary young man who’d accidentally stumbled into another world — being cautious was perfectly normal.
He of course had no idea that this kid was actually running on a natural god’s-eye view, and was very familiar with quite a lot of things in this world.
“The place we’re heading to next is the Sword Capital.”
“You’re okay with that, right?”
Not Orario?
Natsuka’s mind raced quickly, and he immediately nodded.
“No problem.”
The Sword Capital, as a place, probably didn’t leave much of an impression on the average reader.
After all, the entire main stage of DanMachi revolved around Orario from start to finish.
The cities outside of the Labyrinth City didn’t get all that much description.
But the Sword Capital, of all places, just so happened to be one of the few key locations Natsuka actually knew about.
You could tell just from the name.
It was the city in the world most skilled at forging blades and swords.
In the original work, the [Magic Sword Smith] Welf Crozzo, who had left the Rakia Kingdom, had first settled down right here.
This place, for Natsuka, was useful.
Over on the other side, having heard out what Hermes had said, Asfi too began to seriously size Natsuka up.
“Red hair, emerald-green eyes…”
“I have this feeling that you look kind of familiar.”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
She pushed up her glasses, her tone calm, but with a hint of scrutiny in her gaze.
“Haha, must be your imagination.”
Natsuka gave a dry little laugh, his expression management maxed out.
“Imagination, hmm…”
Asfi seemed to still harbor a bit of doubt, but didn’t continue to press the question — instead she switched topics.
“You’re injured.”
“Come here.”
She pulled a vial of potion out from under her cloak, poured a little onto her palm, and with brisk, practiced motions smoothed it onto the scrape on Natsuka’s forehead.
The cool, chilly touch pressed in, and the pain immediately eased up by quite a bit.
The wound even started to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“This…”
“It’s just an ordinary potion.”
“Also, you haven’t collected the spoils yet, have you.”
“Surface monsters may be weak, but every now and then they still drop magic stones and drop items.”
Asfi opened her palm flat.
Lying in the center of her hand were several magic stones not much bigger than grains of rice, along with a small, shrunken-looking length of finger-bone.