For ordinary humans, if they cannot display talent, it is very difficult to join a good Familia. Sometimes, even an average Familia may not be willing to accept them.
And for the Pallum race, this dilemma is even more obvious. They are naturally small in stature, lacking in strength. Unless they have extraordinary talent, it's hard for them to gain a foothold in battle-oriented Familias.
But if it's Minotaurs, Tigers, those strong beastmen, the situation is completely different.
As long as they show off their backs without the Blessing of the Gods on the street, and that solid muscular body of theirs, they will immediately attract active invitations from various Familias.
Their powerful physical strength gives them a natural advantage in battle, making them 'hot commodities' in the eyes of the major Familias.
As for Elves, they are even more of a dream that all Familias long for.
Any unfamiliar Elf, suspected to have just arrived in the city, is bound to be pursued fervently by the main gods like stalkers.
As long as Elves receive the Blessing of the Gods, the probability of awakening magic is extremely high. This kind of talent is simply too terrifying, to the point that no Familia is willing to miss a chance to recruit an Elf.
"Oh hoo, the strong muscles of young male Lion and Tiger beastmen are simply treasures bestowed by the heavens!"
The male god Apollo's eyes emitted a strange light, his gaze fixated tightly on the two leading beastmen slaves.
These two were the ones who first picked up Emiya's projected swords and bravely charged at the frontlines of the battle against the Royal Army.
Apollo was almost drooling, his eyes roaming over their statue-like muscles and dense body hair.
His expression had completely broken down, not hiding his appreciation in the slightest, which left the other gods around him speechless.
The Ishtar Familia, following their usual style, mainly set their sights on the Amazonian females.
Familias like Ganesha's, on the other hand, were more interested in Dwarves who might possess forging talent.
And even more gods, without a doubt, set their sights on the Elves.
"Elf girls, this time I must get myself an Elf girl!", One male god rubbed his fists excitedly.
"Don't fight me for it! That Elf girl is mine for sure!", Another god shouted with determination.
"A mage—I want an Elf mage! My Familia just lacks a mage!"
A gentle-looking male god smiled and said, "Most Elves are meticulous in thought, so they should be well-suited to become doctors, right?"
Seeing him here, the surrounding gods immediately burst into an uproar.
"Mihe, you damned male god! Don't go around unknowingly emitting your charm! You are not allowed to abduct our Elf girls!"
The male gods descended into chaos, while the surrounding goddesses couldn't help showing expressions of disdain.
"Well then, these captives will be handed over to the Guild. For the following negotiations, we will send professionals to follow up."
At the headquarters of their respective Familias, the adventurers saw the long-absent goddesses: Hephaestus, Loki, and even Freya personally came to greet them.
A lot happened during the journey, but now, finally, they were home.
———
Although the war was over, the post-war negotiations were still no easy task. Especially this time, the situation was particularly special.
Normally, the negotiation should have been held between the Kingdom of Rakia, the Guild of Adventurers, and the Orario alliance led by the Ganesha Familia.
However, the foolish actions of the King of Rakia complicated things, Freya, Loki, and Hephaestus Familias got involved, plus the freed slaves, making it likely to become a drawn-out negotiation.
But these complicated matters no longer had much to do with Riveria or Emiya.
The negotiation tasks of the Loki Familia were fully entrusted to the [Braver] Finn. With his wisdom and strategy, he was fully capable of handling the situation.
The Hephaestus Familia sent a mature and steady Dwarf as their negotiation representative.
This senior Dwarf was a Level 3 blacksmith, experienced and calm. Although not outstanding in battle, he had always been extremely reliable in Familia management and governance, earning deep trust from the members.
Worth mentioning, another negotiation representative from the Hephaestus Familia was a small Pallum girl who had recently emerged in both the Familia and Orario's business world.
Her level was only Level 1, and she hadn't joined Hephaestus Familia long. Her status was so weak it was unbearable to look at. However, Goddess Hephaestus valued her talents outside of combat, in business and management, and gave her this rare opportunity.
On the other side, Hedin still couldn't rest. He had to personally participate in the negotiations. After all, the Freya Familia's captain, [King] Ottar, and vice-captain [Goddess' Chariot] Allen were clearly not good at such matters.
———
[Loki Familia's base, the Twilight Manor]
"Riveria, are you serious?", Finn stood up in shock, eyes flashing with uncontrollable excitement.
Having been companions for so many years, Riveria had seen Finn show such emotional fluctuation only a handful of times.
"That's right," Riveria nodded.
She explained in detail to Finn what had happened when Emiya and Ryuu liberated the slaves in Rakia's capital.
When Emiya and the others stormed the slave market, the first to rise in rebellion were the Beastmen and Amazons.
The roars of the Lion and Tiger beastmen males were like the trumpet of war, stirring the ferocity within all beastmen. They picked up weapons without hesitation and engaged in fierce battle with the guards.
Following closely, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans also joined the ranks of the rebels, rising up against the Royal Guards.
However, compared to these races' bravery, the Pallums' reactions were especially hesitant. One elderly Pallum even stood up to try to stop his kin from joining the fight.
He urged everyone not to easily oppose the mighty kingdom, lest they bring ruin upon themselves.
Truth be told, such behavior was not unexpected. It aligned with everyone's, Finn included, impression of the Pallum race: cowardly, timid, lacking courage, always clinging to the strong.
That Pallum elder used a seemingly reasonable logic to convince the others, 'If the attackers and those Beastmen and Elf slaves are strong enough, then regardless of whether the Pallums rebel, the kingdom will lose and we will all be free; '
'But if the kingdom is stronger, not resisting now would let them preserve in the end.'
Reasonable but shameless, this was the Pallum way of survival: gauging the winds between the strong to preserve themselves.
And just when the kin were hesitating over his words, a Pallum woman suddenly stepped out.
She picked up a sharp weapon without hesitation, reversed it in her grip, and slashed down, felling that elder Pallum who had just spoken.
"Either pick up your swords and cut down those damned Royal Soldiers, or die here and now by my hands," The Pallum woman, covered in blood, said this.
Faced with such a forceful presence, the other Pallums at that moment also instinctively followed their racial nature, submitting to this Pallum woman as the strong one.
After hearing Riveria's account, Finn felt his heart involuntarily race. His gaze sharpened, as if forming the image of that brave and fearless Pallum woman in his mind.
A Pallum who shared his courage and bloodthirstiness, wasn't this exactly the partner he had always dreamed of?
"I knew you'd react like this."
Riveria smiled lightly, "So I already invited her to join the Loki Familia in advance. She accepted as well. Though, how you handle Tione's side is up to your efforts."
Finn's eyes lit up, and he sincerely thanked her, "Thank you, Riveria. This really means a lot to me!"
However, the moment he heard the name Tione, the joy on his face instantly turned into helplessness. A headache followed.
Tione, the Amazon girl also from the Loki Familia, had always passionately and obsessively pursued him.
And she had a strong possessiveness, seemingly unable to tolerate the presence of any other woman around Finn.
"Looks like... I've got to think this through," Finn smiled bitterly and shook his head.
As strange as it sounded, if Tione, the biggest obstacle to his Pallum revitalization plan, could fall in love with someone else, that would truly be perfect.
Riveria didn't linger on Finn's troubles. After all, there were more important matters to focus on.
She looked at Finn seriously and asked, "Now that I'm back, when will the Familia's expedition resume? It was halted due to the Dungeon's disturbance, shouldn't it be time to continue now?"
However, Finn's expression turned awkward. He forced a smile and looked away, not answering immediately.
He seemed troubled, unsure how to speak.
Riveria keenly noticed something was off and furrowed her brows.
"What's going on?", She asked.
Finn sighed and raised both hands helplessly, like surrendering.
He knew he couldn't hide this from Riveria, so he confessed, "The Loki Familia's expedition... has already ended."
"While you were gone, we carried out an expedition."
Finn smiled wryly, "And… it was a huge success."
"We slew the solitary dungeon king of the 49th floor, Balor, the One-Eyed Demon King, and successfully established a safety zone on the 50th floor. Then, on the 51st floor, we also killed a powerful dragon, Cadmos."
Riveria was completely stunned, 'So now, the entire Loki Familia's first team, except for me, has already reached the 51st floor in our exploration records?'
Seeing Riveria's confusion, Finn hurried to explain, "About half a month after you left Orario, the Dungeon suddenly experienced a massive disturbance. A large number of deep-floor monsters appeared in the upper floors, throwing the entire city into chaos."
"But after that, the Dungeon seemed to enter a period of weakness. Both the number and quality of monsters decreased significantly."
He paused, then continued, "I didn't want to miss such a rare opportunity, so I gathered people to give it a try."
"At first, we just wanted to defeat the revived Udaeus to lay the groundwork for future expeditions."
"However, after we reached the 37th floor and defeated Udaeus, everyone was in great condition, so we decided to keep going."
"Unexpectedly, the expedition ended in complete success."
Finn explained the expedition to Riveria, with the main focus on the battle against Balor on the 49th floor.
"After successfully reaching the 49th floor, we quickly located Balor. The number of brute beasts around it was far fewer than usual, making the battle much easier. So I decided to seize the chance…"
Without the horde of brute beasts, Balor's difficulty dropped from Lv.8 to Lv.7, enough to offset the impact of Riveria's absence.
Then, Finn described the battle itself.
"—In the end, Alicia used her Ice Giant magic as a decoy, tricking Balor into using its death ray. At that moment, Ais broke out, rushed to Balor, and used [Magic Sword: Spiral Blade]."
At the time, Balor fired its death ray with its magic eye, piercing through the Ice Giant in an instant. Finn's heart nearly stopped. But Alicia had never been inside, the One-Eyed Demon King only struck a shell.
Immediately after, Ais took advantage of the gap after the death ray and activated [Ariel] combined with [Avenger]'s black wind.
With her extreme speed and agile movement, plus the powerful firepower of the [Magic Sword: Spiral Blade], she directly caused heavy damage to Balor.
"Then, taking advantage of this opportunity, everyone launched an all-out attack… In the end, it was I who used spear-throwing magic to kill the heavily injured Balor."
Riveria also calmed down and asked, "Then, after killing Balor, were you able to level up?"
Finn shook his head with a bitter smile, "No, although I was the one who landed the final blow, in terms of attacks, the main force that defeated Balor was the magic sword. I didn't earn many feats, so my level still didn't increase."
In the Balor subjugation battle, the one who truly gained the most experience points was Ais. All of her ability stats, especially agility, increased significantly by a large margin.
Upon hearing that Finn was still Lv.6, Riveria couldn't help but secretly let out a sigh of relief. Although Finn was her companion, if she were suddenly surpassed by this old friend, her mood would still be rather unpleasant.
Seeing Riveria's emotions still stable, Finn also relaxed.
He felt that he had talked too much and his mouth was a little dry, so he picked up his teacup and took a sip.
Riveria had already stood up and went to find Loki for a status update.
After a few minutes, Loki's sudden exclamation was heard, "Riveria, your magic power has increased to S999, and you've gained a new skill!"
The tea that Finn had just drunk sprayed directly out of his mouth.
———
[Ten Minutes Ago]
"Goddess Loki, I've come to update my status… Please, don't make that perverted expression," Riveria looked helplessly at Loki.
Loki was wriggling her fingers like a lecher, her eyes flashing with a greedy light, "Kekekeke, it's been a long time since I touched Riveria-mama's smooth skin."
Hearing Loki say this, Riveria's expression slightly froze, and in her mind suddenly flashed the accidental contact she had with Emiya in the hot spring pool.
She subconsciously thought, 'That child… would he think my skin is smooth?' [T/N: I think so, isn't that enough?]
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