Danmachi – Card Wizard - Chapter 11

Aidan looked at the 75% completed map of the smallest floor of the dungeon before stopping Ais. “It’s about 5h45. We have to go back since we have to clean up and be in front of the hall by 6:15.” Said Aidan as he was slightly down that their time exploring the dungeon had to stop. “Besides, if Loki-sama agrees, tomorrow, we could maybe complete the map before moving to the second floor, which should increase the number of monsters to fight. It should allow us to become slightly stronger.” Aidan said with a grin at Ais, who still wanted to continue exploring the floor.

Shaking his head, Aidan took Ais’s hand before leading her towards the stairs, using the dungeon map card to guide him. After a moment, Aidan seeing that Ais was following him, released her hand. However, he was surprised that Ais didn’t release his hand. As the silver-haired boy looked back, she wore an expressionless face as she stared at their hands. Looking at her for a moment and seeing that she didn’t plan on releasing her hold soon, he shook his shoulders and held back her hand, bringing her next to him to walk next to each other.​​

Ais’s eyes then turned away from their linked hands as she stared at Aidan before turning her attention to their front. Ten minutes later, without encountering any monsters, they arrived in front of the stairs, which they immediately started to climb.

Upon arriving at the dungeon’s exit, they climbed up from the basement before giving their names to the guild worker as they made their way directly to the Twilight manor. Nodding at the two guards, the partners went straight to the armoury where they left their leather equipment. As for their swords, Ais’s blade was still fine, and he didn’t believe that his own needed any maintenance.

Going to their rooms, they both entered rapidly, and Aidan went directly to take a shower. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard for him to wash. His sword and scabbard seemed to have the same function as his clothes as they each cleaned themselves. Aidan only had to go for a quick wash to get rid of his sweat and monster blood on his face, arms and hair.

Rapidly dressing back up, Aidan took his magical card deck, which he left in his pocket while he took his sheath and held it over his shoulder as he did before. Unfortunately for him, the sword was too long for him to strap to his waist of his back. However, the sword was light and possessed great strength, which stopped Aidan from having the thought to change his sword. Not to mention that this sword was the weapon of his late father; he didn’t think he would be able to find another sword as good as this one for a long time.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he used some time to power up his cards before getting out of his room and going to the front of the manor. Waiting for a while, Aidan saw Ais come out before she came next to him.

She had changed her clothes to a blue and white dress since the goblin’s blood smudged her previous garments. With her sword strapped to her waist, she looked valiant. Aidan looked at her and her ever expressionless face before turning back his attention to the manor which their goddess was getting out.

“Alright, you two came at the right time. Let’s go to the Hostess of Fertility.” Said the goddess as the two new members followed behind her. Accompanying them was the captain of the familia, Finn, who guarded the goddess.

—A few hours earlier, while Aidan and Ais were in the dungeon—

“So, how are the recruits?” Asked Loki as she lost her usual lazy demeanour and looked thoughtful.

“From those who passed, there are few level two adventurers, but with their talents, they have almost no hope of levelling up again. Not only that, but due to their stats on the first level, they are all weak amongst the level two adventurers. They will do as supporters but nothing more than that.” Answered Finn as he shook his head.

“Are there any promising members?” Asked the jade-coloured hair high-elf. She hadn’t participated in the recruitment as she wasn’t someone who liked to deal with strangers.

“Yes.” Nodded Gareth as she looked at him. “Two children. Aidan and Ais, both seven-year-old. Whenever there was an instruction by Finn, they followed the instructions to the letter. They didn’t need to talk with each other when they had to choose their captain, as a single glance at each other allowed them to make the decision. In this way, they are already more mature than the adults who argued for ten minutes. I’ve met the boy yesterday night at an inn. He has the drive to become powerful.” Said the dwarf as he looked at the high-elf while taking a sip from his flask.

“Indeed, they are promising. When it was time to fight, both managed to surprise me a few times with their tricks and trust. They are almost perfect partners as they can understand and fight well together even after knowing each other for a few hours at most.” Said the pallum as he quieted down afterwards.

“Yes, I talked a bit with Aidan and Ais.” Continued the tomboyish goddess as she sat back with relaxation. “The girl wants to become stronger to kill the one-eyed black dragon. She seems to have some hatred towards it. She has great potential, and I’m sure she will become powerful. As for the boy, he wished to become powerful to find back his lost memories. After I helped him look into his sealed memories, we managed to see his parents, who talked to us.” The goddess paused as everyone was listening attentively, wondering what she found.

“From the memories, I saw and their revelation, Aidan is even more likely to want to become stronger. From what I saw, his parents were the strongest humans I ever saw. If they were to fight with gods in their full strength, I’m pretty sure that they would easily slaughter most of us. They are just that strong. Moreover, from what I heard, Aidan is not a regular human.” Said the trickster goddess as she sent a playful smile at Riveria Ljos Alf, the elves’ high-elf and royalty. “The boy is a high-human.” She said after a few seconds to build up the intrigue.

“High-human? That’s impossible! They were all killed in the ancient war! According to my family’s documents, the high-humans were the strongest warriors a thousand years ago. They all died during the purge of the surface monsters since they always went against the strongest!” Shouted Riveria in disbelief as she got up from her seat.

Her outcry seemed to shock the other three as this was the first time they saw her lose her composure. It seemed as if she sensed it as she immediately calmed down. However, she didn’t seem to be able to as she didn’t stop moving her leg in an attempt to relax.

“Indeed, they were all killed. However, it seemed that Aidan’s parents managed to survive somehow. According to them, Aidan is the last high-human alive. However, I want to talk about something else. What I wanted to say is that according to his parents, high humans have a maximum of 1500 in each parameter instead of 999 like everyone else. Not only that, his heritage allows him to learn everything faster and gives him a near-perfect abnormal status resistance. This kid has the potential to surpass everyone in Orario, and that includes the king, Ottar.” The goddess finished and took a slight pause before continuing. “The two of them wanted to go in the dungeon, which I allowed. I sent a member to protect them from afar just in case something happened.” Added the small red-haired goddess.

“Now, the reason I say this is because I plan to have the two kids become your supporters when you don’t go too deep in the dungeon. They need experience, training and explore the dungeon. Exploring the dungeon is especially important for that boy as his mother gave him a gift when we met her. She was a card magic user like the boy, and she helped him activate a card which is a perfect magical dungeon map.” The goddess explained the card’s use upon which all of the executives of that familia were shocked.

“I see.” Answered the pallum. “We will only take them as long as we don’t go beyond the 18th floor for the moment. Currently, they are too weak, and their probability of dying would be too high. Instead, having them learn to fight well and fight against weaker monsters would be the best. As for the details, let’s wait for the report of the member you sent to protect them.” The captain of the familia said as the others nodded.

“Alright, as for the other recruits…” They continued as the two children weren’t everyone the familia had recruited.

—Back to the present—

“Yes, Loki-sama.” Answered the two young recruits as they followed behind their goddess as they walked through the streets of the city. Aidan hadn’t had the chance to visit much of the town as he previously was only interested in becoming powerful and finding his memories. Now, although he still had sealed memories and wanted to be stronger than ever, he had already started to walk on the right path. So, he decided to learn a bit more about the city he would be living in for an extended part of his life.