"Huh?!"
"Yo! Long time no see, Arito!" The Goddess of Evolution smiled at me happily.
"I-it's good to see you again… what brought this? And these people are your fellow gods?"
"Aye! We are gods as well! I am known as Gogi, god of Crafts and to some extent technology as well!" a well built man with a neatly trimmed beard winked at me.
"Yeah, yeah. Get back you little… Arito. I am known as God of Agriculture Lambert. Could you tell me how you came up with the underground farm idea? No one in this world has ever tried it so far and I can't approve or disapprove," a man in a straw hat walked past Gogi and put his strong arms on my shoulders. The look in his eyes was intense, but still kind enough to let me breathe.
"I-I understand. I have this idea from the world I came from. There, we were growing pnts underground for easier temperature management. It prevented pollution, gases and damage from the environment, not to mention pest control, or rain right before harvesting wheat."
I did a lot of agriculture research back when I was writing that fantasy farming book…
"Hmm…" the look in Lambert's eyes intensified even more.
"It was also used for cultivating mushrooms, though my mushrooms always magify before becoming harvestable. They magify even when I use regur fertilizer, so I have trouble with them."
"Haah… first learn about different kinds of fertilizers and when to use which kind. Until then, I cannot give blessing to either you or the kobolds and goblins who work for you. And when you pray next time, offer some of that fertilizer to my statue, I want to take a look at it," saying his part, Lambert pced his hat on me and left.
"Haaaaah… really that guy is… anyway. Arito, tell me, what did you come up with when we didn't see each other?"
"Ah, yes. The slimes evolved like never before! I even got so many new types in the st month! I can already see how hard the next Blue moon will be."
"Hahah… yeah… Good work with that. Any new theories you developed?"
"I believe two Medicine slimes will evolve sooner rather than ter. They were feeding on materials used for healing potions and supplement potions, so I expect them to evolve into slimes producing said liquids… though, I'm not exactly sure how they will work."
"Hmm… interesting… Have you made any theories about them?"
"Well, I first need them to evolve to form any theory. The best thing I can come up with right now is that they might be capable of producing healing salves and magic restoration potions of some kind. I did see those kinds of potions circuting at the market, so I know there are people capable of making them. I never needed supplement potions, so I'm not sure how effective they are, though."
"Everything will be revealed sooner or ter," Tunetia smiled happily at me.
"Oh, here you are," a goddess intruded into our conversation.
"Culna!"
"Long time no see, Arito. Well, long time for you, our time flows differently, after all. Now tell me, how is it going with Bnche?" Culna smiled at me and sat next to the grumbling Tunetia. Three cups of tea appeared before us and all three of us took a sip.
"It really was a long time… do we really have to talk about it though?" I could feel my cheeks burning.
This feels like being questioned about my crush by a family member…
"Fufu, is that so? Okay, I won't ask anymore, your face tells me everything," Culna ughed softly, "So? Have you taken a picture of her? I know you liked to make drawings of different things you liked."
"Y-yeah… that I did… Most of them are on wooden blocks because I couldn't get my hand on paper, though."
"It's fine! It's fine! Show me please!" Culna looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Hearing her plead like that, I opened my Item box and took out some of the drawings.
""HUH?!"" The two goddesses were so surprised they froze in pce.
"Is something the matter?" I tilted my head, some wooden tablets still in my hand. There was a brownish blur in the corner of my eye, but when I turned to it, there was only the bck swirling portal of my Item Box.
"How can you use magic here?!" Culna was surprised so much, her previously sweet demeanor completely vanished.
"Oh… I don't know… you wanted to see the pictures and I remembered that I have them in my Item box so I just opened it."
"'Just opened it' he says…" Culna held her head.
"Interesting… this is definitely not from my blessing nor becoming my disciple… is it his own power? Or is it something he came with from that another world? I need to look into this… More research, I love this… Keep up the surprises, please," Tunetia was over the moon as well.
"Um… is it bad that I can use magic here?"
"No, not at all. We are a little surprised, is all! You see, the only person who was capable of doing this is now the ruler of the All-light realm. A Celestial, so to say."
"Am I going to become someone like that?"
This is bad, I am still new to this world. I don't want to leave it for some other realm!
"Don't worry, I had to use my power to change him into a Celestial, you can't become a completely different being by yourself. On that topic, I saw you picked up Ritual magic spells, so let me give you a heads up. You can't make total changes with the rituals. You might be able to turn a halfborn into a pure blooded specimen, but you can't do any drastic changes."
"So I could make a goblin into a hobgoblin, but not goblin into a squid, is what you want to say?"
"Yes. Also, for the Synthesis ritual, you will need one willing, living creature and one or more dead body parts, do you know why?"
"Because if both of them were living, the souls would cause the new monster to self-destruct? I believe chimeras made with alchemy solve this problem with Philosopher's stone, but that's just a waste of good material, if you ask me."
"You are correct about the soul issue. When it comes to chimeras, you are also correct. With my ritual spells, you can make chimeras, but do not try making them with people, without my Divine Artefact it will always fail. Plus there is this ethical issue going on since the st guy who did it… Atan wouldn’t be happy with you at the very least."
"Was the st guy the first king of Dragonfolk?"
"Yep. That guy used my tablet and created most of the now widespread demihumans. It is also thanks to him that people can breed with humanoid monsters. Just so you know, back then, there was a massive crisis and between earthquakes, extreme droughts, floods sinking 60% of the entire nd mass, diseases and wars, all races took a massive hit and nearly 75% of all fauna died out. This world was almost done for."
"Well, his ter research was most definitely questionable. All of us were on our toes until the day he died," Culna smiled bitterly.
"I can understand that."
There were human experiments during wars you would refuse to believe people were capable of doing under the guise of science.
"Oh, there was one thing I wanted to ask you. When I was traveling with the ducal family, I noticed that every here and now I can see things that were a little out of pce. It felt like someone like me or Lena came to this world before," when I said that, Culna and Tunetia looked at each other and the ter one spoke first.
"Well, let me expin something. Our world is too dependent on magic and magical devices, so most of our divine trials are based on science to lessen the magic consumption and promote technological advances. You see, the dependency on magic creates a deficit. We consume more than we can produce, forcing us to summon people from other worlds to take magic from said worlds alongside them."
"Is that the case with me and Lena too?"
"Well, in a sense. Our st summoning came to pass around three hundred years ago and the person in question died already. He was a human, so I would say he lived a long life, given he died at age of 110. We wouldn't really need to summon another person for at least one hundred years, but since the Administrator above us had nowhere else to put your souls to, we agreed. As a bonus, we got double the amount of magical power than usual. Not like Earth needs it anyway."
As Culna said that, I started glowing gold again. "Huh?"
"It looks like it's time to say goodbye," Tunetia smiled softly.
"Since your Oracle skill has leveled up enough, we will be able to talk like this again. Just come to a chapel and pray for a while. I'm sure we will be able to pick you up any time!"
"Okay, it's a deal," I nodded and let myself get enveloped in the light.
***
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the world with the rest of the ducal family and Bnche. It seemed like no time had passed since I entered the Divine Realm, so I just closed my eyes and prayed like I used to back on Earth when dad was alive.
About ten minutes after that, the rest of our group was finished with their prayers and with Bnche being the st one to rise up from her seat, we left the church behind us.
"Should we go for lunch somewhere?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, let's do that. We could try that restaurant on third south street, they apparently have some kind of cake made from Citon."
Lemon cake?
"That sounds interesting. Let's try it," I added to Laina's plea for something sweet.
We boarded the carriage and went to the restaurant in question. Since we were near the slums, I decided to go there and ask Grieva for help finding someone to defend the shop after lunch and to get introduced to the orphanage director that seeked shelter under me.
"Welcome to Cream Love! How can I serve you today?" a friendly waitress in maid uniform came to us with a wink, which made Bnche tighten her grip on my hand. Aaah, she's so cute when she’s jelly…
"A table for six, if you will. We would like some of your Citon cake," Henry pced an order with a poker face. Hard to not see Laina’s murderous look.
"Right up! Please follow me!" The maid led us to a table hidden from the eyes of other clientele and we took our order.
Since the cake would be sweet, I decided to go with slightly sour tea. Bnche went with the same choice as me, Lena went with sweet tea and the adults went with their favorite choices. The men were drinking bck tea with cream and Laina went with fruit tea and honey. She really has a sweet tooth… wonder if Henretta likes sweets too…
The Citon cake was as good as I remembered it as Lemon cake. Hmmm… I would really love to get Lemon ice cream again… Maybe I could make it with magic? The kids would love it. I'm sure popsicles would be popur too, I'm just not sure I could get people to lick something in broad daylight, they even need to cut the cake half bite size to keep up with etiquette. Now I recall the noble dressed adventurers in the capital eating fancily too… urgh, what a pain…
Well, I guess I can manage myself. Not like anyone is… watching… Lena? There is a cream on your face…
"Lena, there is a cream on your face," Laina reprimanded her daughter with a hand hiding her mouth.
"Oh, sorry, mother. The cake is so good I completely forgot about etiquette."
'Shut up and let me eat my cake how I want' is what Lena’s eyes were saying though.
Feeling exasperated, I turned to Bnche. She was holding her pte, cheeks puffed and cream on them.
What is this cute chipmunk?
"What?" Bnche asked, a question mark floating around her head.
"Nothing," I smiled at her, losing myself in the bliss as I cleaned her cheek with a handkerchief.
After getting lost in the sweetness, I reluctantly returned to bitter reality. I headed south alone, sending Bnche to the orphanage to be on the safe side. The buildings in the slums were almost monotonically dipidated with rubble in the streets cleaned up only enough for two carriages to pass each other. I could see makeshift tents built near walls with some people still living in them. Yeah, this pce is not for little kids. And there are a lot of those because of the problem with the church.
"Now then… Huh? Loo? What are you doing in the slums?" I called out to a weretiger adventurer who I once worked with on goblin extermination. He was wearing handguards made from reinforced Resin slimes's resin, which I sold him.
"Oh? Who would have thought, it's Arito. I'm on my way to teach kids here about adventuring. I heard you took under your wings some kids as well."
"Yep. I built an orphanage to the north from here. Apparently some run down orphanage wishes to get under me before winter."
"Yeah, I get that. Last year there were a lot of dead folks in the streets. The frost got them before they could find any decent shelter. Were I not living with my party, I would take some kids in, but as, no luck," Loo seemed strongly regretful about the entire thing, which made me a little sympathetic.
"I hope I will be of some help. Oh, do you know where I could find Grieva?"
"I'm going to see him as well, so I can take you," Loo waved his hand and led me to a little better looking house. Though I say it was better looking, it was missing half of the roof and only ground level was livable.
Loo walked to the doors and smmed the doors with his fist as if he was pnning to destroy the whole thing. "OLD MAN!!! I brought Arito!!!"
"Don't yell here, you stray cat!!" doors opened faster than I could notice and a fist nded squarely on Loo's belly, sending him flying. Damn, Grieva is as good as Knight captain Amberia. I couldn't even see him completely.
"Oh, hey there Arito. I'm gd you came. I was just preparing tea for the orphanage director who wants to come under you. Will you join us?" Grieva smiled at me, his hand slightly red from the punch.
"Of course. There is also one more thing I want to ask you, but that can wait."
"Sure, please come in. And you stray cat! If you want somethin’ from me, then go to the Old dy first!"
"Still pestering me like always… fine, I will ask granny, too," Loo cracked his neck and headed towards the downward staircase, most likely a basement entry.
"Don' worry 'bout that stray cat. The old dy will take care of 'im," Grieva waved his hand and invited me inside.
"Um… and who is this 'old dy' person? If you, as a boss of Slums, send someone to her, she must be important, right?"
"Ah, she's just a Witch who lived in this town since it's foundin' some eight hundred years ago. Real weird baba she is. She could live as a noble in the north, but decided to stay 'ere in the slums anyway."
"A Witch huh? I have never met one before."
"She's not someone you want on your bad side. She can curse people with just a single look, you know?" a female voice came from the room, which made me turn to her, bringing me back to the reason I came here.
The woman was of the Lorden race. Lordens are a human-like race in appearance, except they are three times stronger. Their arms are longer and have twice as big hands. They are a mostly combat oriented race with little to none magical power, but their strikes can send even elephants flying.
The woman before me had her red hair tied in the back, which made her look like she had a short fuse and was about to explode. Her golden eyes were stern, yet it looked to me she was just putting up a front. She was about a head and half taller than me, but what instantly caught my attention was her missing left arm and many cuts all over her body. Looking closer, I noticed she lost her left ear too.
"Allow me to introduce you. This is Cosli Serrea. An A rank adventurer and director of the orphanage I was talkin’ ‘bout."
"That's a former adventurer…" she grumbled angrily.
"My name is Arito Aruze. I am currently a D rank adventurer and tamer."
"Hm. D rank at your age is impressive, I guess…" she turned away from me, "As you can see, I lost my arm during a job and because of that, I cannot continue protecting the kids with my income alone. Plus, that st winter was much stronger than we could expect, so we almost froze to death…"
"I understand your predicament. How many children are we talking about here?"
"Twenty four. Four boys and the rest are girls. Everyone is between ages six and twelve."
"I see… hmm… there shouldn't be a problem with the boys, but we are running out of pces for girls."
"Huh?"
"Oh, right. We have separate sleeping quarters by gender."
"Hey Grieva, you didn't tell me that pce is fancy like that!" Cosli turned to Grieva visibly pale.
"Oh don't worry about that. That pce is really nice. Arito here was even nice enough to hire elderly women from the slums to cook and watch over the kids."
That's on Romi, not me. I just gave her green and interviewed the dies who passed her criteria. I mean, I just need to pay them one round big silver a week, talk about a total rip off!
"You did that?" Cosli looked at me with a somewhat doubtful expression.
"Well, my head attendant, Romi, picked them for me. I just hired them after talking a little with them. She's more of a director than me, to be honest."
Truth be told, some of the dies were taking care of their grandchildren for their missing, or dead parents, so this helped them a lot. The kids were doing odd jobs around town, or were picking up trash for money. I might never have seen them around where we lived, but they were an important part of the community for the entire town.
"Well, whatever," Cosli waved her heavily scarred, but still present, right hand and went to sit on a leg-less sofa, where Grieva prepared the tea.
I sat on the other side to face her and Grieva who seated himself next to her poured the two of us tea as well.
"If the space is a problem, do you think you could refurbish the pce they are staying at?"
"That is also an option. Where is the orphanage?"
"Two streets below yours… in the abandoned wood storage."
That run down ruin?! It doesn’t even have a roof!!! I swallowed my internal scream and took a sip of the tea. It was pleasantly bitter with a hint of herbal sweetness.
"That might be a problem. That building is so run down, it would be easier to just tear it down and build a new one."
"I… know…" the Cosli clenched her fist, shaking. "Even as an A rank, that was the best I could buy with my savings, since I’m not originally from this town, I had little to no trust in me."
Yeah, I guess I was really lucky to have the Ducal Family covering my back. I guess I should thank them somehow…
"Well, I'm going to buy the nd and rebuild it."
"Huh?!"
"What's with that surprised face? It was a pn to pce you under me, no?"
"Y-yeah, but this is… it feels too quick."
"Morning bird gets the worm, as they say. Let's finish the deal once we have somewhere to pce the kids though. Don't wanna sign a deal just to get kicked out of home, right?"
"Um. Yeah."
"Well, since you've talked it out, what would you like from us Arito? You came here for some other reason, right?"
"Yes. It seems my shop has been targeted recently by some unsavory individuals, so I would like to get some help to guard it. Normally, I should go to Adventurers guild with requests such as this, but the person who attacked us was confirmed to be an active D rank adventurer, hence my warryness."
"Hmm… I understand the situation… Excuse me for a moment," Grieva left the room and by the sound I could pick up, he went to the underground. In the next moment we could hear a heavy thud and shattering gss. Few minutes ter Grieva appeared in the doors, smiling from ear to ear. The fuck just happened in there?!
"Well, I talked a little with our half-faced Baba, and we decided to introduce you to a special group of people. Do you perhaps know of a mercenary job?"
"It's a job where people specialize in fighting other people, unlike adventurers who specialize more on monsters."
"Indeed. Few months ago, one such mercenary group disbanded here in the city and some of their members found themselves here in the slums."
"Since they ended up here, I expect something terrible has happened."
"That is indeed correct," Grieva nodded solemnly, "Their leader, who was as strong as any S rank adventurer, lost his leg and eyes, rendering him unable to work as he did previously."
The books from the gods mentioned that people's power growth is shackled by their bodily limits, which only after grueling training can be overcome. First major cap is between ranks E and F, these people are often called footsoldiers. Second big jump is between D and C with very little number of people climbing higher. People who cap here are often called Captains. Third cap is between A and S rank. Here it is said that you need to train twice as long as you train to get to rank A in order to overcome the cap. Amberia, knight captain of the Duke and her vice-captain are both S rankers and I have trouble with keeping up with their movement. I might be able to block a few hits, but most of it would be just due to luck.
I can defeat monsters of A rank with ease, same as Bnche, but SS ranks, like the Spider Skull bear are too much for me. Maybe I'm capped at A rank? Wonder what I would have to do to get past it. They say the Sage and Martial Queen were both Disaster level, a level above SSS rank, so I guess I should aim for that goal?
"Could you set up a meeting with them? I would love to meet them, if possible."
"Sure thing. Will you come by tomorrow? I should be able to collect at least ten guys for the shop."
"Thank you. Miss Cosli, would you be willing to go show me the building?"
"Sure, I can do that."
I said my good-byes to Grieva and left with Cosli to look at their house.
However, when we got there, the house was in a much worse state than I thought. The roof was basically gone, one of the walls crumbled all the way to the ground and the kids were living in small rooms by the sides of the warehouse.
"Sis! She's back!" The kids ran up to Cosli with happy looks in their eyes.
"Did you bring a new brother?" Some kids seemed to mistake me for another street urchin.
"No, this is Arito, a person who will be taking care of us from now on."
"Huh?! But he's just a kid!" one of the boys seemed to not be on board with the idea.
"He might not look older than you, but he was approved by Mr. Grieva," Cosli expined as she picked up one small girl.
"Did the old coot go senile already?" The boy didn't stop his rude remarks.
"I know I don't look the least bit impressive in your eyes, but I already run one orphanage, a successful business and am a D ranked adventurer with special permission to accept jobs of higher rank."
"Hah? D rank? Big sis is A rank! She has you in her po—Ack!" the rude boy didn't stop his remarks and Cosli hit him on his head.
"You idiot! How can I ever be an adventurer with a stump for a dominant hand?! I might get by with E or F rank jobs, but it's not enough money for everyone! Kobold hunts don't happen every day!"
"That is enough. Please calm down, miss Colsi, and you boy, if you can't do anything but compin, then please feel free to stay here and freeze when the winter comes. I don't have to take care of you, it is more trouble than it is worth, to be completely honest." As I spoke to the boy, my voice was ced with harsh, cold truth, he could only bite his lip and clench his fists under my intense gre.
"It really is a pain in the neck, but letting someone I know die even though I could help them, doesn't really sit right with me. So follow my rules and you will live and learn how to stand on your own feet. If you do, you might be helpful to your big sis, one day."
"Stand on our own feet?" one older girl catched up on my words as if they were a lifeline.
"We have an atelier where you can learn the basics of different types of crafts. We have woodworking, textile and pottery csses so far and I pn to build a kiln in the near future. We also have csses where you can learn to read, write and do math. Oh, and some good combat techniques to survive."
"You teach kids martial arts?" Cosli asked me with a surprised look.
"Duh, I need them to be capable of taking care of themselves. The more they can do, the better they will do in their lives once they leave the orphanage. Heck, they might even leave the town and live somewhere else, but as long as they remember what I taught them, they will be fine. Why not go take a look? They should be training right about now."
"Okay…" Cosli nodded and started helping the kids pack their belongings, mostly consisting of tattered clothes and some broken things, all in all it had little to no value. Since we were close to my orphanage, we were able to get there retively fast just by walking. We headed to the gate to the garden, when we heard voices coming from there.
"Tesshin style: Palm strike!"
"Tesshin style: Twin Ironfist!!"
"Tesshin style: Thunderstep!!!"
Why are they shouting names of their moves like in a comic book?! Who did this to my students?!!! LENAAAAAA!!!!!
Seeing the perpetrator sipping tea with Romi and Bnche, I basically stormed to them, veins popping on my head.
"What's the big idea?!"
"Oh! Arito! Look how they improved! Who would've thought that calling out the name of the move would have such an effect!" Bnche smiled at me and Lena was holding back her ughter.
"It's true. Once they started calling out their move's names, they became increasingly more powerful," Romi added with a satisfied nod.
"Why though?!"
What are you doing with my beautiful martial art?
"Aniki!! I finally mastered the technique you showed me! I should've known that only a master doesn't need to verbally call out the name of his move! I will work hard to match your strength one day!" Rifa smiled happily.
"Happy to hear that, Rifa. Could I ask you to show me your Status card?"
"Of course Aniki! Anything for you!" Rifa wiped off his sweat and ran to his room, where he was keeping his status card.
"Hey, did you see that?"
"That's hard to miss! That Rhinofolk boy pierced such a thick stone sb with a simple strike! He must be a master martial artist!"
"Tesshin style… I never saw such a well defined technique. Even Lorden Style could take a page from what I saw… I guess precise energy manipution is the key?" Cosli was surprised by the kids' training regiment. I'm surprised too, I never thought this would be happening here.
"Tesshin Style: Palm strike…" I whispered the words Rifa said previously as I copied his moves.
Hmm… I see, it works simirly to spells, but it drains my Physical Prowess instead of the Magical one… Does that mean that I was doing something wrong in my training? Maybe learning these 'Styles' would help me level up the other combat techniques. I was too dependent on magic anyway… Or maybe I should learn how to combine the two.
"Woo-hoo! Nicely done, Arito!" Lena cpped her hands with a big grin on her face.
"We'll have to talk, Lena. Just you and me, I hope you understand why," I smiled coldly at her.
"I'm back, Aniki! Here, take a look!"
"Thanks Rifa…"
Name: RifaRace: RhinofolkAge: 10Magical Prowess: 125Physical Prowess: 7,853Affiliation: Risha Kingdom, Nomille Duchy
Combat skills: Unarmed combat 5, Energy manipution 3, Energy Shield 3, Total concentration 2, Tesshin style Technique 2Magic skills: Null magic 2Everyday skills: Cooking 3, Housework 2Resistance skills: Poison resistance 5, Disease Resistance 4, Mental Pain resistance 4, Stench resistance 4Special Skills: Food Storage 3, Survivalist 4,
Titles: Orphan of Au city Tesshin Style Novice
Protections: God of War Corpan
Whoa, his skills jumped up so much in the st few days! And Tesshin Style Technique?! Did my martial art become a skill?! He even got the Tesshin Style Novice title!!!
"Wow, you've grown so much, Rifa. I'm proud…" I nodded as I returned him the Status Card and called out to the dwarven girl who was practicing her earth magic, "Venti, could you make me a stone pilr like the one you were using?"
"Of course big brother!
"Thank you! Now then. Watch and learn, I will show you one of the Master style techniques."
"""Yes please!!!""" the novice trainees smiled with sparks in their eyes.
I strengthened my lower body, concentrating on the explosive power of my leap and hardened the excess energy around my fists "…Tesshin Master Style: Diamond Fist…"
I hit the stone pilr approximately in the middle and the pilr practically exploded. Were the wall not reinforced with resin slime's glue, it might very well fall apart. There was almost nothing left of the pilr and the wall was decorated with a ring of shrapnels.
"WOW!!!"
"Aniki's so amazing!!!"
"I see, he strengthened his fist with energy to the point it could rival a diamond and then struck at a weak point of the pilr… it seems simir to Lorden Style's Destroyer Fist, but much more concentrated, sharpened to a point, even…"
Everyone seemed impressed, which made me slightly uneasy. I mean, it's so embarrassing!!! Calling out a name as if I was some kind of action character…
"Well then, no—"
"—I'm sorry for being so rude!" the boy from before bowed deeply to me.
"Ah… it's fine, don't worry about it. Anyway, it might be a little cramped here from now on, but I ask you to try working things out here! Once I'm done with rebuilding the building into a proper orphanage, everyone will get their rooms back, so be nice to each other in the meantime!"
"""Of course, Aniki!!!"""
I have such good kids… but now it's time to punish this bad girl.
"Eiiik!!!" the criminal in question, Lena, could only shriek as she felt my evil gaze. I shouldn’t enjoy this, but I think I will.