Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C18: New Member, Denatus, and Title

Word count = 1904 on 1/10/2024

With the conference ending after a few hours of combat stress relief as well as the spell casters getting annoyed at each other as a few have overlapping capabilities and insulted each other a bit during Raikou's decision process which led to a pretty destructive situation. Luckily Astolfo rented out the coliseum for the night as there is plenty of space for fights. Plenty of bets went around to see who would win as Astolfo served as the impartial judge since 'she' doesnt have anything to do now that she has given up her position in the familia to Murasaki Shikibu.

As such the conference finally ended and Raikou led Murasaki to their home, it is already evening in Orario as they finally arrived at Raikou's dojo/home. Axel who is still awake and making dinner comes out saying, "Welcome back goddess. Oh? Do we have guests? Would you like to join us for dinner since it's so late?" he asks unaware of who Murasaki Shikibu is.

Raikou shakes her head as she begins to explain, "Astolfo said that they wish to transfer their responsibility to another immortal since they felt they couldn't contribute to your growth at all. This is Miss Murasaki Shikibu, a famous poet who will be your beginner magic teacher as well as teach you how to resist illusions. I hope you both get along."

Axel undergoes shock as he already is upset from before for Astolfo lying to him, it was a simple lie for him to disappear and he essentially forgave them but this is different. Astolfo is a great friend, so suddenly finding that they are just giving him away like a hand me down is a real kick to the nuts. Sure the replacement is a beauty but the emotional damage he is taking due to this abandonment is heavy. Especially since Astolfo didn't tell him this news themself but only learning it from his goddess after she got a replacement.

Raikou can see the changes in expression on Axel through both his facial expression as well as the aura he is releasing. It's late so she wants to go to bed and snuggle up to Axel after sending Murasaki-san home.

"Alright baby, take your shirt off. You can berate Astolfo when you next see them. Maybe punish them like the bad child they are for not telling you themselves. But miss Murasaki still has to walk home and we are delaying. So get to bed" Raikou pushes Axel to bed. He takes off his shirt which shows off his far improved physique compared to when he first got his falna. Murasaki Shikibu swallows some saliva and looks away with a blush, wishing she could be buried in her books. Axel lies down and Raikou promises Mursaki to begin the take over procedure which just requires her to drop a drop of blood over Astolfo's zone and like a falna initialization. The falna tattoo gradually changes to a hilltop flower field with a lady reading a book, surrounded by nature and at peace. Small animals surround her in peace, as if listening to her as she speaks. Murasaki then gets a good view of Axels falna which isn't that different except Raikou's name being added to the Odr skill and showing that his strength growth rate is 'enhanced'. The implication of the skill makes her blush harder before her attention is taken back to the other skills related to his soul.

She learns that Axel truly can't use falna magic and she wonders if it's even possible for him to learn her magic or if it would be like monsters of old, before the dungeon [1], She can only take things one step at a time as she attempts to teach her new student. But with the falna connection established, she bows to Raikou and takes her leave. Axel tries to send her off even though he is still awkward around her. But she moved too fast and he was still shirtless which would have made her avoid him anyways.

Seeing Murasaki off, Raikou eats dinner with the shirtless Axel before they move to bed. Both are still very satisfied from before and thus not in a rush to get passionate again as they have plenty of time to do so.

The next two days pass by quickly as Axel's leg gets ever closer to recovering. He even attempted the usage of one of his smaller monster cores and felt an extremely less amount of pain as compared to the first time. He summarizes his discovery as the fact that his body got adjusted to the dungeon pure 'mana' which is great as he always felt all tingly whenever he used his skill in the dungeon. It's not enough to actually affect his combat power but it was always annoying. But now he might not be affected at all which means he can strengthen the absorbing force until he reaches his limit. This means that he will recover his stamina, mind and body faster in the dungeon.

Absorbing the stone sped up his recovery which means that it's possible that tomorrow he would be able to rejoin the dungeon along with getting his new title today.

Speaking of, Raikou along with Murasaki have just arrived at a party which is being hosted by Loki this time around for the monthly Denatus. Next month Ganesha will be the host. This both gets a few gods in attendance excited as well as nervous because of Ganesha's personality but with Monsterphilia just around the corner, it is guaranteed that it will be an exciting month.

As both Raikou and Murasaki enter the building, they attract quite a bit of attention as there are plenty of lower status gods who don't care about the grudges established between gods and immortals and fully enjoy the beauty of the two ladies in attendance. There is a small group that just doesnt care about them and keeps to themselves (gae) and then the third group which is confused why the immortals have joined the party until they hear that a new record breaker has arrived at Orario and became level 2 after just a bit more than a month but then another god reveals that the child didn't enter the dungeon until at least 2 weeks passed and then another week of off and on which means that their total time is around 3 weeks and not a month.

The rumors spread around and all groups exhibit their shock as 3 weeks is crazy by any standards, a few gods with a well dressed tangerine haired god with a leaflet tiara standing at the forefront with notorious thoughts for the young adventurer. He will have his children analyze the capabilities of the child as even Loki's own Sword Princess had taken a year to reach such a record while the other is 3 weeks. The comparison is too great.

A certain flat chested shorty is hiding away as she listens to the comparison to her precious Ais. She is especially intimidated since the two immortals are both tall big chested women like Freya and so she is constantly feeling double damage from every rumor. She can only stifle her annoyance as she finally comes out and greets the gods. Letting them enjoy the food, dance before the time finally comes for title. It is only around this time that a rather famous person finally shows up at the party. The goddess Freya, in full luxury, attracting attention and a few brave few even compare her figure to the two immortals in attendance to discuss if bigger is better.

A big group is settled on the epitome of giant mommy milkers, a smaller but still sizable group proclaims medium is premium while the smallest group is those that consider flat is justice and are typically avid supporters of Loki. The scales of their discussion brings out a giggle from the two immortals and Freya. Raikou takes this chance to greet freya, though a hint of annoyance is shown on her face while Freya looks in a great mood as they talk. This is mostly due to the fact that Freya took Axel's first time.

On the other hand, Freya greets Murasaki as she has heard of the passionate poet from a few of her associates who proclaim her genius. Raikou also takes this moment to state that Murasaki is Astolfo's replacement to which freya shows no change in expression while internally she is thinking of how long this lady will last before falling for the child just as the two others have.

The title assignment finally reaches Axel's name which attracts the 3 ladies' attention. Raikou especially wants to get her child a proper title. She almost chose violence when someone had the audacity to proclaim "Fist Fighting Fighter" and "fist is Righteous

(a reference to Burning Fighting Fighter)

Luckily a few gods gain a conscience due to the thick killing intent pressing down on them and they call out titles like: Monk, Berserker, Guardian, speedster, Exceed. An idiot said Punchy boy and got mocked out of attendance as they didn't want a public god culling to occur.

Unfortunately there is a complete lack of information about his fighting style except that he exclusively uses his fists. Loki finally suggests Brawler which gets the most resounding acceptance. Both Raikou and Murasaki were accepting of the other names too except the first few. Freya had to hold back a lot to not outright proclaim the title of Freya's Odr. It took a lot of restraint from her end. The rest of the level up names are documented by the guild members in attendance and the party finally ends where Raikou returns home too.

She finds Axel doing stretches or other simple exercises at home, "Welcome back goddess, did the Denatus go well?"

"Yes it did, you finally received your title and it's not embarrassing."

"That's good, I hope you didn't face too much trouble"

"Only trouble is Freya" Raikou mutters to herself but Axel has his back turned so he didn't hear her nor see her talk.

"Your title is now Brawler. You want to actually be seen by others a bit more so that you can get a better title next time around." Raikou says and Axel nods as he also proclaims that he recovered with Raikou checking his leg to make sure he isn't lying. Her study reveals that Axel isn't lying and has recovered. She can only assume it's due to his high stats upon leveling up. She still suggests that he be careful as he returns to the dungeon as all his equipment was destroyed last time around.

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[1] I'm essentially adding the ancient history that before the dungeon existed, monsters still existed but were naturally born instead of dungeon spawns. Because obviously it wouldn't make sense for all the fate servants to be using magic circuits, so for example: someone like Medea uses the language of the gods to cast her spells. Others use similar catalysts or magic circles for their spells. FYI: Murasaki did not experience this but as an avid book reader, she had found records of those times, though they were decrepit and likely only told tales of beings that used magic without magic symbols.