The Protagonist System

We made it to Level 13 and had to stop, because it was the first level of what was called the Middle Floors and Tsubaki needed to change her preparations for the different monsters we would have to fight. She didn't say anything about mine, because my magic made the mythril sword she loaned me so versatile. Her amulet also let me cast second tier magic every half hour with only minor pains and irritations.

Lili also looked beat and very happy. As she waited for me to create the latest teleportation circle for us to use to go back to the Hephaestus Familia compound, she giggled as she lightly shook her giant backpack. Tsubaki and I could easily hear the sound of thousands of clinking crystals.

“It's going to take them hours to count it all! Ha ha ha!” Lili laughed, happily.

“I don't know why. You already know how much it's worth.” Tsubaki said and rubbed Lili's head.

Lili looked up at her with a smug smile. “I want to see them work hard for something I do easily.”

Tsubaki nodded. “It's good that you trust in your skills. They won't fail you when you need them.”

“...aaaand done.” I said and finished covering the teleportation circle and added the various protections to hide it. “Whew! I'm not tired but I'm exhausted. Does that make sense?”

Tsubaki walked over to me and slapped my backside, which made me yelp. “Maybe if someone kept his greedy little hands off of us every time we had to stop to take a break, you wouldn't be exhausted.”

I rubbed the cheek of my butt as Lili covered her mouth and giggled. “In my defense, I will find or make you a mirror big enough to show the both of you one reason I think you're irresistible.”

“Only one?” Tsubaki laughed and slapped my other cheek.

“Hey!” I said and rubbed the new soreness.

“I didn't say I'd keep my hands to myself.” Tsubaki said with a grin.

“Okay, maybe two or three reasons.” I agreed and then felt a small hand lightly rub where the first slap had hit me. I looked down and smiled warmly at a slightly blushing Lili. “Ready to go?”

Lili nodded and kept her hand gripping my cheek.

“We'll eat supper first and then head to the Guild Hall. I have a barrel of wine for them, too.” I said and powered up the teleportation circle. We disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in the Hephaestus Familia compound.

We were almost immediately swarmed by most of the members and a slightly smiling Hephaestus and a grinning Hestia came out to greet us.

“Lili, if you would do the honors.” I said and gave her a slight bow.

“As long as you give that corny speech again.” Lili said with a grin.

I snorted and she giggled. “I only meant it as a joke!”

“I know.” Lili said and motioned for me to get on with it as she took off her backpack and opened it.

I chuckled and took a deep breath. “I greet thee, my fellow purveyors of the bounty of the earth, to claim that which the world has seen fit to bestow upon us for our toil.” I said and everyone stared at me. “Fresh from the twelfth floor and from inside the lairs of the rare Silverback and Baby Dragon spawn points, my devoted Familia member presents to you, the embodiment of the monster's power!”

Lili climbed into her giant backpack and used her own shovel as she started shovelling out the ores we found. Iron, gold, silver, and platinum. Everyone was completely silent as Lili unloaded several tons of ore, much more than should have technically fit inside of her backpack.

“I can't get the dregs until I empty the monster crystals and loot drops from the front section.” Lili said and climbed back out with a light sheen of sweat on her brow.

“Allow me.” I said and reached inside the pack and used a summon spell. A moment later, the much smaller chunks flew out of the backpack and landed on the right piles.

“That saved me a lot of time cleaning it out.” Lili said and pulled me down to kiss my cheek. “Give me a hand with the skins, scales, and horns.”

No one spoke as we piled up the monster loot drops and someone made an odd sound when they saw the piles of wyvern scales and shed horns we had gathered from the dragon's den. When I pulled out the rare Silverback pelt, I found out that it was Hephaestus that made the odd sound and she stood in front of me with a pleading look on her face.

I looked down at the pelt and back at her face. I then glanced at Tsubaki and saw her nod, so I held the pelt out to her Goddess. Hephaestus hugged it to her face and rubbed her cheek on it, then she shocked everyone, including me, by stepping forward to give me a deep kiss right on the lips.

A strangled cry came from someone and I didn't have to look to know that it was Welf Crozzo. His crush on Hephaestus was well known, as was her refusal to have relations with a child from her Familia. She had blessed him and would feel extremely guilty if she took advantage of him like that.

“You will dine with me in my room.” Hephaestus said with a blush, because her normal bluntness couldn't be overcome after a single night together.

I bowed my head. “Of course, Goddess Hephaestus. I would be honored to join you.”

Hephaestus nodded and quickly walked away, stopped, and came back. She folded the pelt into a partial bag and scooped up a good amount of the platinum ore and some of the gold to put inside, nodded again, and pretty much ran off.

“Um... yeah. That happened.” Hestia said with a shake of her head at her friend's antics.

“Ha!” Tsubaki barked the laugh as she motioned to the piles of ores and items. “Our goddess has already taken her tithe from the haul. Go ahead and split the rest.”

The men and women cheered and quickly divided up everything and took their shares to their own forges and smelters to get to work. Supper would be delayed because they would all be busy.

“Lili, are you keeping track of it all?” I asked and Lili nodded as she took out a small notepad and wrote out the values of the ores and loot drops that the blacksmiths took. “What's the total look like when compared to the amount I owe Tsubaki?”

“You're down to about three-fourths of your debt, assuming she didn't give you a discount.” Lili said and smiled at Tsubaki. “I'm not including personal acts as discounts.”

Tsubaki laughed and rubbed the top of Lili's head. “This isn't the Ishtar Familia. We're having fun and enjoying ourselves. Why would we have to pay for that?”

“I would be extremely in debt if I had to pay for everything that's happened to me.” I joked.

“Who said you didn't pay in other ways?” Tsubaki asked and gave me another kiss.

“I have work in the morning, so I'm staying here again tonight.” Hestia said.

“You're still working?” Tsubaki asked.

“I can't just quit my job as soon as things start getting better for me. What kind of person would I be if I was that selfish?” Hestia asked.

“Her bright smile and happy attitude brings in a lot of business for them, too.” I said and Hestia blushed.

“They gave me a chance when I had nothing else, so I can't abandoning them.” Hestia said, her voice full of determination.

I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Maybe we can visit the bookstore you like in a couple of days.”

“I'd like that, my Bell.” Hestia said and kissed my cheek back, waved to Lili, and went back inside.

“We're ordering out tonight, so go get ready for your date with my Goddess.” Tsubaki said.

“Is it a date?” I asked, teasingly.

Tsubaki quickly turned me around and slapped me on the butt again. “Get moving and you better treat it like a date! She asked you for it!”

I laughed and rubbed my butt with one hand and held the other out for Lili to take. “Come on. You can help me pick out something nice when I drop you off home.”

Lili put on her backpack and took my hand. “Are we going the long way?”

“Not this time. I'm saving that for when I walk Hestia home.” I said and smiled. “She hasn't seen what I've done to the outside of the church yet.”

Both Lili and Tsubaki softly laughed.

“She's either going to kill you or demand you change it back.” Lili said, wisely.

“You're assuming she's still going to be conscious afterwards.” I joked and she giggled.

We stepped onto the teleportation circle and waved to Tsubaki, whom picked up her own share of the loot and waved back. A flash of light later and we were inside the church and I brought Lili downstairs. Her room had been easy to add next to Hestia's and she loved having so much space that was all hers. She changed out of her armor and hung her backpack up on the wall beside her clothing cabinet.

“All right, let's go see what you think is appropriate clothing for a date with a goddess.” Lili said and took my hand again and we went into my room.

Ten minutes later, there was a pile of discarded clothing on my bed and Lili shook her head at it.

“Why don't you tell me what you think I need and I'll draw it out?” I offered and we sat down at the small table and did just that. I wasn't surprised when the sketch was like an old-fashioned eighteenth century suit with a vest, petticoat, cumberbund, puffy sleeves, and frills down the outside seam on the pant legs. All that was missing was the white puffy wig and fake makeup to make it complete.

I changed the shirt to be more practical and reduced the frills, dropped the cumberbund, and would leave the vest unbuttoned. Some cheap transfiguration on my normal clothes later, I had the light blue outfit ready and Lili helped dress me. When her hands lingered on certain places of my anatomy more than necessary, I didn't mind or commented on it. Her constant smile told me that she appreciated it.

“I suppose you're mostly presentable.” Lili said and rubbed her small hands down my lapels. “It should be good enough for a private audience with a divine being.”

“I'll be sure to note the look on her face to see if she approves.” I promised and bent down to lightly kiss her. “Thank you for your help in showing me what higher beings see as the proper effort when meeting them in a more formal setting.”

Lili blushed a little and looked pleased. “We're not turning in the monster crystals until tomorrow with this change in plans, so no giving away what her Familia's share is going to be.”

I chuckled. “With the way she was cradling that pelt, I doubt she remembers that we gathered anything else. She didn't even touch any of the rare wyvern scales.”

Lili softly laughed and nodded in agreement. “Have fun tonight and I'll see you in the morning.”

“Don't eat breakfast. We can go out and start our date early.” I told her and she smiled. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Lili said.

I grabbed a special bottle of wine before I walked up the stairs. I heard her soft whistle and chuckled at her copying what I did when I saw her in the bodysuit the first time and her doing it back to me. I reached the teleportation circle and shrunk the bottle to put into my pocket before I used the circle to transport myself to the Hephaestus Familia compound.

A passing guard waved to me and I waved back before heading inside the main building. I knew where her room was from the last time I had gone to see her there and knocked on the door. The door opened and I caught my breath. Hephaestus wore a silky blood red dress that hugged everything and I could easily see that she wasn't wearing anything underneath. She also wore a very expensive fur wrap that looked suspiciously like a piece of Silverback pelt.

Hephaestus saw me taking all of her in and she blushed prettily. “Please, come in.”

“Thank you, Goddess Hephaestus.” I said and bowed slightly, then stepped inside and shut the door. “Your stunning beauty nearly made me forget my manners.” I said and ignored her surprised sound as I locked the door and cast a barrier spell on it. A silence spell was next and then an avoidance ward.

Hephaestus gave me a wide eye at the magic use and that let me know that she knew what I did. So, I decided to let her feel a bit more as I put a hand behind my back and created a dozen red roses. Her mouth opened, probably to ask what I had done, and I brought my hand around to my front and presented the bouquet of flowers to her.

Her face matched her hair color as she graciously accepted the roses and dug her face into them to take several deep sniffs. It was almost funny that she would react like that, until I remembered that she was probably like the high school girls in the last world I had been in. They were not used to someone giving them flowers or flattering them with genuine compliments.

That revelation made me change my priorities for the evening. I tailored my expectations to that of a first date and acted appropriately. I took her hand and gave it a gentle kiss, then led her over to the table that had been set up with food already on it. I sat her on one side of the table to give her the best view of the room and I sat across from her.

“Thank you very much for allowing me to spend some personal time with you, Hephaestus. I know how precious your time is and I'm grateful that you believe I'm worth your attention.”

Hephaestus blushed even more and looked a little stunned at my words.

“I see you've made use of some of the materials our team managed to procure today.” I said and motioned to the wrap she wore.

Hephaestus raised a hand and lightly pet the wrap. “The clasp is iron and platinum with gold accents.”

I smiled at her. “You do great work to have finished it so quickly.”

“It deserved nothing less than my best.” Hephaestus whispered as her hand kept petting it.

I nodded at her words. “Will you be making a coat or something with the rest? Maybe a cape?”

Hephaestus softly laughed. “Can you imagine wearing a cape around an active forge? It would catch fire almost right away!”

I laughed with her. “I was going to point that out and you beat me to it.”

Hephaestus reached for her glass of water and paused. “Bell, you wouldn't happen to have...”

I reached into my pocket and took out the bottle and enlarged it. She gave me a demure smile and quickly dumped the glass of water out and held it towards me. I chuckled and uncorked the expensive Soma wine and only half-filled her glass.

Hephaestus gave me a pointed look as if questioning my sanity.

“This is a bottle of the good stuff.” I explained and her eyes widened. “Yes, that good stuff.”

Hephaestus smiled and took a single sip. She shivered at the taste and nodded, proving that she knew what the real wine tasted like, and we ate the food on the table mechanically as she slowly sipped the wine.

The food wasn't anywhere near as good as what I could make; but, it was food and we needed to eat, so that's we did. She finished her half-glass of wine and made a disappointed sound, easily giving me a pointed hint. I held in my laugh at that and gave her another half-glass.

Hephaestus hummed happily and stood, took my hand, and led me over to a loveseat at the side of the room. She had me sit and she sat right beside me as she leaned heavily into my side. She took another sip of wine and gave me a 'come here' look. I knew this because she also did the finger curl to get me to move me closer, not that I could.

Then again, the only space left was between our faces, so I leaned in and kissed her. Hephaestus moaned at the intimate touch and her arm went around me as we made out like teenagers on our first date.

“Tell me about yourself, Bell.” Hephaestus suddenly said.

I looked into her eyes and knew she was being sincere in her request, so I told her all about Bell's history and how he ended up in Orario and looking for a Familia to take care of him. Hephaestus let out a loud and disappointed sigh and told me that she regretted that her idiot of a child kicked me out when I approached their compound.

She also apologized that she might not have accepted me if she had been told about me. Before I could ask her why, she explained that they had hundreds of teenagers every year try to join their Familia and none of them had any skills or potential.

Even if they had an active Falna, and none of them ever did, they wouldn't have any skills that her Familia could use to their advantage. Generic skills couldn't benefit a Familia like hers and any special skills were so rare that the stronger Familias always took them for themselves.

That made a surprising amount of sense. Even if a smaller Familia found someone worthy, they were quickly scooped up by a stronger Familia before anyone else could and put them to use.

The rest of the evening was spent with us exchanging stories and experiences, then we were in bed and Hephaestus enthusiastically gave me the next instalment of Karma points that I would need to remove the curse from her eye. It wouldn't heal it, though. That would require different magic. I wondered if I could learn it, even with my magical backlash limitation.

Would healing things hurt me too much? What about casting it on myself? I asked in my mind as I drifted off to sleep while being snugly cuddled by a Goddess.