Despite the desire for it to just be Loki, Finn, Astraea and whoever came with Astraea, Freya, and Hermes had their ways of gathering information. So, now there was Freya, and her Ottar, as well as Hermes with Asfi.
"Well this is interesting. Looks like something juicy is happening. What's all this gossip?" Hermes said with his usually annoying smile. Taking a seat at the table with the three goddesses he started laughing.
"Hermes dear, what's so funny?" Freya asked, with a smooth tone, sipping her drink.
"Oh nothing, just that someone might think there's a harem at this table." He laughed.
"Nope."
"Not possible."
"Absolutely not."
All three goddesses were immediately in agreement, then shared a light chuckle.
"You're no fun." Hermes' smile vanished…
"I apologize for my idiot god's antics. I'll punish him for it later, we have plenty of rope left over from the last time." Asfi said bowing, hoping that Ottar doesn't just win…
"Asfi, what are you doing! You already know why I can be this bold, come on. Let me have some fun."
"Oh, what makes you so bold, Lord Hermes?" Finn asked. "Does it have something to do with Lady Astraea's familia?"
"Braver, what's with that look?"
"Nothing, I'm just, having fun, that's all."
"I see, well then, all I can say is that may or may not have something to do with whatever it is Astraea is hiding." Hermes said. "Not like I know everything about those two…" He purposefully let slip.
"Those two?" Finn raised his brow. "Who?" He looked to see that Asfi, and Ryuu reacted in an oddly similar way. "So it is related…"
Astraea kept her smile. "Ryuu, why don't you go get something to drink."
Ryuu stepped closer to Astraea, and shook her head. "No, I can't leave your side…" She said halfway trembling.
"Whatever happened down there on the 30th floor was obviously not normal. Your familia has reached the 42nd floor. That's worth a level higher in all monster levels at a minimum." Finn explained. "What happened, if it's something dangerous, we need to know about it before our next expedition." He continued.
"Ottar, bring it out." Freya said, Ottar placed a bag of valis on the table. "50 million valis, for any valuable information. But I would like to be exclusive…"
"We'll offer the same, but we want to know now." Finn interrupted.
"What? Finn, where are we going to get that kind of money just like that?" Loki asked, shocked.
"From your alcohol fund of course."
"WHAT NOT MY SOMA!!!! You can't! You can't do that!"
"Gale Wind, what happened down there. I am prepared to offer anything within my power for this information." Finn said. "Even if I have to hunt for the money myself. Or deal with Riveria's complaints."
Ryuu bit her lip. She was slightly torn, the money would definitely help her familia a lot. But, it didn't feel right.
"This isn't justice." Ryuu managed to speak. "I can't say anything. It wouldn't be right."
"Even if this information could limit the exposure of other familias to excessively dangerous situations in the dungeon?"
"You're over estimating what happened." Astraea said, standing to her feet. "Since the invitation was just from you Loki, and there's no longer anything to say, we are leaving."
Astraea and Ryuu left, no one knew where they were going, but there weren't many possibilities.
"Damn it! Why's she have to be all like that!" Loki complained. "You, Hermes, explain, what do you know!?"
"All I know is that Freya already knows exactly what the situation is. She just doesn't want to admit it." Hermes said, unusually calmly. "Though, I'd suggest you pull your children out of the way. If they come across those two, the potential for it to be… not pretty, is quite high."
"So it's the fault of these mysterious two people?" Finn asked.
"No, they prevented the catastrophe which would have played out." Hermes said.
"And what of my children? Are you saying they'd be attacked?" Freya asked for confirmation.
"It's possible, you did send a child who's completely useless against them, in every way, and then another far too weak to handle one of them, let alone both." Hermes said.
"Hermes!"
"Yeah yeah, I get it, I get it. That's probably too much. Anyway, if a fight does happen, your little Heith will definitely earn a level up if she can keep the other two alive."
"Something that powerful?"
Hermes smirked, stood, and left. Asfi bowed a couple times, then fixed her glasses and ran off to follow Hermes.
"Tsk. even after putting my soma on the line we got nothing!" Loki complained. "My heart!!!"
"Ottar, take me home, fast." Freya ordered.
…
Dungeon, 30th Floor…
"This is weird, the report said the whole floor was destroyed. Yet, there's no sign of damage?" Hedin clicked his glasses. "Even with the dungeon's recovery speed on this floor it should take at least 2 weeks for a complete recovery."
"Hey, I found something." Allen said grumbling, waiting for Hedin to see it.
"A whip? With Rudra familia's mark? Hmm, this must be where the fight happened? There's a clearing down there… Maybe Astraea familia was there?"
Heith stood in the clearing, looking up towards Allen & Hedin. She was calm, searching for anything. And then she saw something…
"Hey, Hedin, is there something standing next to you?"
"Allen?"
"No, it's a monster, pale…"
"I don't see anything? What does it look like?"
"Despair…" She said, charging at it with her hammer, striking right through the figure. "Odd, it must have been a figment… An after image or something?"
"Would you be able to draw it?"
"Maybe. I don't know if I even want to."
Then they felt the terrible feeling of something like Ottar, but more, and worse.
'What the hell is that?!" Allen said through grit teeth.
"I don't know, but we can't fight that. We need to go… Heith?"
"They're right there…"
Two people were walking right by them.
"Allen, grab Heith, and run. We're reporting this."
"WHAT? WHY!?"
"Because we need Ottar to stand any chance against those two."
The party of three fled… performed a tactical retreat. Not waiting at any floor, just bum rushing all the way to the surface.
…
"Huh, Cera, those three were weird. I don't sense any monsters?" Gamelia giggled.
"I think they meant us? Oh well, it looks like the floor is still trembling from having to spawn that thing. We should stay down here to make sure no one dies in accidents."
"You just want to sleep in the garden together, right? Right?"
"That's part of it, any time spent with you is time well spent, my wifey."
"Teehee!"
…