That day the weather was clear, not a cloud in the sky, the sunlight mild and gentle, refreshing to the spirit.
For whatever reason, every day Loki Familia set out on a campaign seemed to have weather this fine, as though the gods still remaining in Heaven were all looking forward to this feast and had adjusted the weather with Arcanum, so that the expedition force wouldn't be affected by foul weather and could set out in good spirits.
Inside the Labyrinth City Orario, at the city center where the eight great streets that divided it evenly all converged, in the open Central Plaza, crowds of adventurers formed the usual tide of people, every one of them fully armed, some in groups, some alone, heading for Babel to challenge the Dungeon.
But when Loki Familia's expedition force came marching through in force, the crowd changed all the same, some stepping aside of their own accord, some stopping to watch, until a thick atmosphere rose across the whole plaza.
People turned their eyes toward the members of Loki Familia's expedition, and the group at the head in particular drew over ninety percent of the gazes in the plaza.
Braver, Finn Deimne, Lv.6.
Nine Hell, Riveria Ljos Alf, Lv.6.
Elgarm, Gareth Landrock, Lv.6.
Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, Lv.6.
Vanargand, Bete Loga, Lv.5.
Amazon, Tiona Hiryute, Lv.5.
Jörmungand, Tione Hiryute, Lv.5.
A whole set of first-class adventurers who ranked among the very strongest in Orario and in the lower world besides, they were the unquestioned focus of any crowd in any setting, the ones who drew every eye.
Before fame great enough to shake the world, even Lefiya, the Thousand Elf, who normally drew attention wherever she appeared, was reduced to a supporting player here, to say nothing of Raul, Anakitty, Alicia, and the other core members of the Second Army.
Of course, when it came to the degree of attention, Leo now stood above even Ais and the rest.
He could feel clearly that most of the gazes in the plaza landed squarely on him, some full of astonishment, excitement, fervor, and admiration, others full of envy, jealousy, scrutiny, or appraisal, the whole range of human nature on display.
In the past, Leo would certainly have felt uncomfortable about it.
But by now he had grown nearly used to these outside gazes.
So although Leo still wore the Giant's Battle Garb today, the hood he would have put on for this sort of occasion in the past, this time he left off.
That surprised his companions somewhat.
"Weren't you always trying to keep a low profile? Why aren't you hiding yourself today?"
Tiona nudged Leo with her elbow, teasing, and got an eye-roll from him in return.
"Is there any point in hiding now?"
The reason Leo gave was as simple as could be, and thoroughly convincing.
"True. With how famous you are now, one lousy hood doesn't make any difference at all whether you wear it or not. People will recognize you at a glance."
Tiona laughed, which made Tione, spinning a kukri beside her, sneer.
"You should have done this ages ago. What kind of man skulks around hiding himself? Look at the captain. He's so small, but every time he walks at the very front with his head up and his chest out. That's what a man with real presence looks like."
As she talked, Tione promptly started swooning over Finn's back.
"You're comparing me to the captain?" Leo said with a laugh. "The captain has a few decades more experience than I do. He's seen this sort of scene plenty of times."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tione's expression froze, and then she flared up in embarrassment, shouting, "The captain doesn't look one bit like a middle-aged man in his forties! He's so cute for his age... no! He looks so young!"
Her voice was rather loud with that. Others might not have heard, but as a Lv.6 first-class adventurer with keen ears and eyes, Finn clearly did.
The corner of the Pallum leader's eye twitched almost imperceptibly at the head of the column, and his previously dignified bearing collapsed a little for no clear reason, while Riveria and Gareth, walking half a step behind him, nearly failed to hold in their laughter.
The members close enough to hear had their shoulders shaking and their cheeks flushed, all of them looking like they were struggling badly to hold it in, and even Bete couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from curving.
"Ha!" Bete had far fewer reservations and simply laughed out loud, delighted. "A middle-aged man in his forties... and so cute for his age... hahahaha!"
Only then did Tione realize she had misspoken, and she flew into a fluster.
"That's not it! I absolutely wasn't calling you old! Captain!"
"...Mm, I know. Thank you, Tione. It would be nice if you could stop saying it so loudly."
Tione hurried forward to explain, only to receive a helpless reply from Finn.
The whole group finally burst out laughing, and even Leo and Ais exchanged a smile, so that the somewhat tense atmosphere loosened and turned rather cheerful.
And so, talking and laughing all the way, Loki Familia's expedition force arrived in front of Babel and came to a stop there.
The people around them tactfully made way, clearing a wide area, not daring to approach the expedition party.
There was one group, however, that did not step aside. Instead they seemed to have been waiting here for Loki Familia to arrive, and rather than retreating they came forward to meet them.
These people all shared one common feature, which was that every one of them carried a large toolbox on their back.
Seeing them, one word flashed through everyone's mind: "smiths."
The smell of iron about these people and their tough craftsman's air were far too obvious. Any adventurer who saw them would identify them at once, and beyond that, a mark could be faintly made out on them.
"Hpalotoc."
"Hephaestus Familia..."
Ais quietly named where they had come from.
They were the Familia of smiths reputed to be the finest in Orario and in the whole lower world, Hephaestus Familia.
"Wh-why are people from Hephaestus Familia here?"
Lefiya, who had stayed behind Ais the whole way, saw this and exclaimed in surprise.
"Hm? Do none of you know?"
As the next-generation commander Finn was deliberately cultivating, Raul seemed well aware of the matter, and he spoke up with some puzzlement.
"On this expedition, we'll be cooperating with Hephaestus Familia."
Anakitty beside him spoke up as well.
With the two of them explaining, those who hadn't known learned the whole story from beginning to end.
At bottom, it all came from the effects of the last expedition's failure.
Because of those worm monsters that could dissolve weapons and supplies, Loki Familia had come back from the last expedition defeated, not only failing to reach the planned unexplored region but also losing a large batch of weapons and equipment, and in the end they could only withdraw in disgrace, unable to press the expedition any further.
To avoid running into the same situation as last time, Finn and the others had discussed it and reached a decision.
Namely, that on this expedition they would bring along smiths who could forge weapons and repair them.
"As long as we have smiths in the party, even if something happens to a weapon we can repair it immediately. We won't have to worry about losing our armaments and being unable to continue the conquest, and we won't need to prepare large numbers of spare weapons either, just some for emergencies."
"That way we can also save a great deal of baggage space and use all of it to carry Magic Swords."
"These Magic Swords will be equipped by the lower-ranked members and used to defend the base. Then even if we run into a situation like last time where the main-force members are sent out, those members alone will have a way to hold off the worm monsters."
That was Finn's calculation.
Magic Swords was what people called weapons that could produce the same effects as Magic.
Some could cut out flames with a light swing, some could cleave out lightning with a heavy chop, and some only had to point from a distance to give shape to storms, ice and snow, or sandstorms. They were true "weapons that could use Magic."
Weapons with this kind of magical ability could unleash the Magic attached to them without a chant, so every Magic they released was an instantaneous, chantless bombardment.
Such weapons were as suitable as could be for dealing with the worm monsters, which reacted strongly to Magic and couldn't be fought at close range.
With this batch of weapons, even if every main-force member left the base this time, the base should have a way to hold off the worm monsters that attacked, and there would be no repeat of last time, when the worm monsters had nearly broken through the camp.
For this the Familia had bled heavily, running all over the city's weapon shops and finally coming up with over thirty Magic Swords, every one of them top-grade goods and outrageously expensive.
A Magic Sword's power varied with its quality, from weak ones that might not even match the ultra-short chant Magic a Lv.1 Mage could cast, to strong ones that could rival a bombardment from a first-class Mage going all out, so their prices differed enormously as well.
Even so, the weakest Magic Sword was probably worth several hundred thousand to a million valis, and powerful Magic Swords easily topped ten million valis apiece, only somewhat cheaper than First Class equipment.
And that was because Magic Swords had a limit on their number of uses. Once that limit was exceeded, the Magic Sword shattered and was scrapped on the spot. Otherwise a weapon that could use Magic without a chant could never be worth only that much.
For this expedition, Loki Familia had spent close to a billion valis preparing that batch of Magic Swords, which showed just how great a sacrifice they had made for it.
And that was nothing yet. If the expedition went smoothly, all the rare items and materials obtained after reaching the unexplored region should be enough to make up that expense.
But as it happened, to deal with those worm monsters and completely solve the problem of armaments possibly being scrapped, Finn and the others had also invited Hephaestus Familia to accompany them.
Hephaestus Familia was no small Familia. Any of its senior smiths could forge high-grade equipment.
Getting a group like that to come along, anyone could guess, would not come cheap.
"The captain already made them a promise. As the condition for coming along, every weapon material we obtain from the Deep Floors during this expedition has to be handed over to them."
Alicia said it quietly, and everyone drew a breath.
"...Every weapon material obtained from the Deep Floors during the expedition has to be handed over to them? Then can we even break even on this expedition?"
Line murmured, and quite a few of them looked at one another.
They could all foresee that the Familia was likely to run a loss on this expedition.
"Why pay a price that big to invite smiths from Hephaestus Familia?" Tiona muttered, not understanding. "Even if we need someone to repair weapons, there's no need to specially ask a big Familia like that, is there? Wouldn't a smith from some small Familia do?"
That way the cost definitely wouldn't be this large... that was what Tiona was getting at.
"Are you an idiot?" Bete seized the chance and jeered without mercy. "What smith from a small Familia has the ability to repair our weapons? And even if there were one, do you expect those small fry to swing a hammer and knock away the monsters that get close to them?"
Tiona was left with nothing to say.
It was true. The main weapons of these first-class adventurers were basically all First Class equipment, and low-grade smiths from small Familias couldn't possibly have the ability to repair them. Even sharpening a blade would probably be a struggle for them. Only senior smiths who had obtained the Blacksmith Development Ability could repair weapons at that level.
Even the ordinary members of the expedition party, who were generally around Lv.3, basically all used Second and Third Class superior equipment, which low-grade smiths without the Blacksmith Development Ability simply couldn't repair.
And to have acquired a Development Ability meant those smiths all had to be senior smiths of at least Lv.2.
Search all of Orario and there were probably only a handful of Familias with both superb forging technique and numerous senior smiths whose combat ability exceeded that of ordinary adventurers, and Hephaestus Familia was without question the most reassuring of them.
After all, they had to go on an expedition to the Deep Floors, so the smiths who came along had best have a certain amount of combat ability so as not to drag them down.
So after considerable deliberation, choosing Hephaestus Familia to accompany them was the natural conclusion.
"Looks like Finn and Loki both went all out for this expedition."
Leo smiled slightly and said as much.
They all looked at one another, and then all looked toward that group of smiths coming to meet them.
"..."
Ais even softly called out the name of the one at the very front.
It was a female smith with an eyepatch over her left eye, wearing the bright red hakama distinctive to the Far East along with continental-style battle clothes, with vambraces, pauldrons, and other armor on as well, and a tachi in a lacquer-black scabbard at her waist. She was full-figured and healthy, with black hair and red eyes.
Leo knew this person.
No, rather, there weren't many people in all of Orario who wouldn't know her.
She was the captain of Hephaestus Familia, the strongest smith in Orario, Tsubaki Collbrande.
Her Level was Lv.5, and her alias was Cyclops.
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