Within the girls' tent, another round of introductions had begun and it didn't end there, as other people from other Familias arrived at the tent and introduced themselves too. Of course, no man could approach as it was the girls' private area.
There were those from the Freya, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ganesha, Takemikazuchi, and Miach Familias. While not all of the girls in the expedition had come, except for any members of the Kali Familia who had no interest in anything other than fighting, the high-ranking members of all the other Familia had come to gather more information.
As a result, the tent became quite crowded and Riveria had no way to send these girls back out and could only rub her forehead in frustration, 'Well, I should be thankful that not everyone is here.'
"Now then, we all know why we gathered here so let's drop the pretenses. Ask what you want to know, however, you can't force an answer and if our guest here doesn't want this rude questioning, I'll have to ask everyone to leave." Riveria then turned to Tenestra, "Please be honest if you don't like what's happening. Of course, you could use this as a chance to have your own questions answered too."
But before Tenestra could give a response, Mia interjected, "Hold on. Before we start, I'd like to know what's going on on the surface right now. I know that we sent some people up to get a few emergency supplies and we will get the news once they've returned, but that'll take a week or so if they want to move carefully.
"Before we left, there was a sudden influx of people coming into Orario and we technically left our Deities unguarded. I'm sure most of you wanted some form of relief, even if you know the Deities wouldn't be killed by us mortals. But that doesn't mean accidents can't happen."
Everyone became silent and some of them even silently nodded at Mia's words. Even if it's very safe in their quarters within the Tower of Babel, that only applies if their Deities stayed still and waited for them. With new and interesting things happening in town right now, they doubt they could actually do it.
"It'll be fine.", Line's first words to the question, "Each of the Deities that participated in this expedition were given a Magic Item that will automatically protect them if harm was about to reach them. That was Medusa-san's answer when I asked her the same thing. It was apparently made by Kisuke-kun himself and could protect them for about half an hour from most accidents and will also alarm his comrades to respond immediately and have them pulled out in case of emergency."
But except for the members of the Loki and Freya Familia, everyone's brow furrowed in doubt, and Shakti stepped forward, "I already noticed that you lot seem to trust Kisuke Urahara way more than necessary and I know that he's the main inventor of that strange vehicle, but to claim to have made an item that protects someone from most harm and even have the Deities who can't use Magic Power at all use them, it would mean that it didn't need activation from the user itself. Do you realize how unbelievable your words are?"
Line smiled wryly and understood her suspicions. Without being able to form a proper way to explain it, she just said, "But if it's Kisuke-kun we're talking about here, 'most accidents' probably include even if the whole Tower of Babel collapses with the Deities inside of it."
"Huh?", Shakti only let out a dumbfounded sound.
Asfi also stepped out and said, "That's not an explanation you know? You only made a bolder claim."
Riveria sighed as she also didn't know how she would explain it to them, "Just think of it like this. Those two who led us here, even them couldn't follow what was going on in his head. Even by those two's standards, I noticed that he frequently throws them off."
Those that didn't know were obviously shocked and disturbed by her words, however, "...Riveria-san, that isn't an explanation either."
"As expected, not everyone knows what he's truly capable of, even here. Looks like I won't be able to gather much more information than I already have on him." Tenestra suddenly interrupted, gathering everyone's attention back to her.
"Ehem," Tenestra then cleared her throat and stood straight up, "I'm just going to say this once so listen closely. When Line-chan said that 'most accidents' covers the collapse of that tower, it's definitely true and she may have even been downplaying it a little bit."
Those around were about to say something but Tenestra didn't allow them by gesturing and pulling out a crystal from her bag, "Before you say anything else, allow me to show you something."
Placing the crystal on the nearby table, Tenestra explained while injecting her own Magic Power on it, "This is called a Memory Crystal. Kisuke Urahara started producing these in the Dizara Region as some sort of surveillance peripherals. This allows you to record imagery and sounds of where the front side is pointed upon activation and display them on the backside."
As she finished her explanation, a floating screen appeared on top of the crystal, similar to when the Gods use their powers to view and share with everyone when there's a War Game going on.
The first thing they saw upon activation was a white, immaculate, and breathtaking tower that seemed to be out of this world under the crystals that gave off light, signifying that this scenery was inside a massive Dungeon floor.
Everyone remained speechless as the clip played through, showing the exterior and interior of the tower and even the dome that was being used as a training ground on the side of the tower. They were not just taken away by the strange sights, but also confused and wordless about all the technologies and Magic that was displayed in use. All of it went against their common notions of infrastructure and the first thing that came to their minds was this building was not made of by people's hands but the Dungeon itself.
"This is known as the Tower of Desires among the Mercenaries of the Dizara Region. As you can see, it has technologies never seen before, and just moving between the floors already employs Teleportation Magic that no one seems to have understood how it works yet. From strangely elegant rooms and recreational floors to biometric scanners, all of it requires countless generations of engineering and Magic development before we could have something even remotely similar.
"It wasn't shown in this recording, but aside from the dome where everyone could use to train and study as long as you're not banned and you have money to spare, there's also a Teleportation Deck not far from these buildings that were directly connected to the first safe zone within the Dungeon. Anyone can use it as long as one pays up, resulting in a massive influx of Mercenaries on the deeper floors. In just a few weeks of this activity, the overall average Level within the region was estimated to have increased by 2."
Lily, who came as Miach Familia's representative, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and muttered, "Two levels in just a few weeks!? That's ridiculous! Even Bell-sama was only able to do it within a few months!"
Tenestra turned to her and smiled, "The thing is, within that dome, records and training procedures for Ki and Magic Power are publicly available and members of the Hestia and Artemis Familia would frequently gather there to train. Not just watching, but some people were able to spar with them, giving everyone great insights into these power systems.
"The point is, this magnificent tower that no one would be able to replicate in an innumerable amount of years was solely built by Kisuke Urahara within three days using an enormous amount of Adamantite and Orichalcum that he got from somewhere."
Not just Riveria, but everyone who knew the current state of Knossos shuddered at a certain possibility.
But Tenestra only noted this and continued, "And you know what he said when we first discovered this tower?"
Tenestra cleared his throat and did her best to imitate Kisuke's mannerism, "[Welcome to our camp~!] The bastard only considered the greatest creation in the history of mankind as a simple camp!"
Editors:
28th00: Hah! I forgot he did it just to flex! Also to distract Ophis. Honestly, the latter is the more important thing here, wasn’t she making her own ‘rival’ tower too? I fear for the sanity of all who enter the front door and end up on the 40th floor, then try to leave through the still open door and end up on the 22nd floor instead.
Redemperor D
All sorts of discussions erupted as soon Tenestra finished her words and Line could only smile proudly among the girls expressing disbelief, awe, and fear.
Line clapped her hands to refocus their attention and said with a big smile, "And that's it. It may sound unbelievable and you're free to discard everything you just heard and saw. In any case, we answered your question regarding our Gods' safety. And if you still think we're lying, the only thing you can do now is rush towards the surface. Don't worry. No one's going to stop you and I think I'm close enough with Yoruichi-san and Serafall-san to ask them to allow anyone who wants to leave."
The wide smile on her face exerted an invisible pressure that even those from Loki Familia felt a little bit scared. The Line they knew wouldn't be able to emit this kind of menacing aura while wearing a joyful expression. She had truly changed.
The subsequent quietness was able to give Line a chance to finally answer their real question, "Before we entered the Dungeon, I also asked around about the sudden surge of people in the city. What I found was they were people from Altena trying to confirm the veracity of the rumor about Magic Control and the people from the Sword Smithing City Zolingham who came because Hephaestus-sama contacted some engineers over there to assist with the building of a smaller city outside of Orario to serve as a factory for the Magic Powered vehicles.
"There are other people who came from other places too, but not as many as from the former two. You could say that Orario is currently expanding, not just as a Dungeon Town and Magic Stone exporter, but also as a Research Center and for Magic Development."
After those passive-aggressive words, Mia sighed and stood up from where she was sitting, "That is more than enough. I've already heard what I wanted to hear. And it looks like the guest from Astarte Familia won't say anything since she hasn't seen how we do things around here. We'll take our leave. Have a great rest and I look forward to working with you."
Mia beckoned everyone from the Hostess of Fertility to follow her and aside from Ryuu, who hesitated a bit, everyone else followed her.
There was so much for everyone to digest and the Hostess of Fertility leaving created a similar idea in their heads. One by one, groups of girls slowly left and even those who didn't intend to leave had no choice but to follow the crowd.
As Riveria watched this, she thought that Mia had aimed for this because the moment she took her leave was too abrupt and precise.
Soon enough, only the inhabitants of the tent and the two new additions were left, "Looks like that group's activities are a lot more inconspicuous around here compared to what they were doing in my place."
"If they had no problems showing their dominating force, then that's probably true.", replied Riveria, "I apologize on behalf of everyone for earlier. I didn't think they'd all come here out of curiosity."
Tenestra chuckled and said, "It's fine~ It's actually really refreshing to see rival Familias having a civil discussion and end it at that. At my place, when you become isolated and have shown a clear disadvantage, you'd be lucky to get out alive."
The girls who had less experience tensed up but Riveria remained calm and replied, "I see. Looks like the Dizara Region isn't for faint-hearted individuals. Though I assume you'd also take advantage of your enemy in that position."
Tenestra smiled and a bit of her bloodlust leaked out, which was clearly felt by everyone, "Of course. It's not every day you can reduce the threat of your enemies."
The Amazoness sister's interest was piqued even further because it's a familiar bloodlust to them. A bloodlust that one can only develop through constant life and death battles against other people. Meanwhile, the others were taken aback by this sudden change.
Riveria nodded in understanding, "Naivety will not only lead to your own demise, but also those who you care about. As long as your conscience and moral upstanding won't deliver suffering to others, there's nothing wrong with coldly erasing those who threaten you."
"But enough with that," Riveria then suddenly turned to Line with her expression deepening in solemnity, "Line. What does Kisuke want to happen? What is all this for? I refuse to believe that this is just for charity. What price are we paying here?"
The sudden change of tone caught Line off-guard, but she was able to recover immediately as she was already expecting this question from her, 'My words weigh more than theirs, huh...' Line recalled Yoruichi's statement back then. Similar to hers, Line returned the expression of solemnity and said, "Truth to be told, I don't exactly know why they're doing this, but they explicitly implied that something big was about to go down and they were just giving us a surviving chance."
Riveria frowned and Tenestra who didn't know anything about this was startled. However, the two of them had different and diverging ideas. While Riveria was wondering what sort of event could make Kisuke say it's something big, Tenestra was reaffirming that Kisuke's group indeed had more information than they let on with what's currently happening within the Dizara Region.
To those around them, however, they had no idea how serious this was and could only continue listening to get more context.
After a few moments, Riveria asked, "What did you witness?"
Line stopped for a moment and thought back to everything that was revealed to her. From the fact that only Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Aika were the only Humans from their group, to Kisuke's battle against Team Lightning in another world. While she wanted to tell them everything, she didn't want to betray their trust. Besides, even if she did, there's no way they'd believe all of it despite laying all the foundations required for them to accept it as truth.
After all, even Line couldn't believe it at first despite having the front seat in all of that. It's really just that hard to change one's perception, especially to those who had grown old and were strongly set in their own beliefs.
"I promised not to say anything about what they are doing, but from my understanding, the beginning Age of Gods is imminent. If you want to know more, please ask Loki-sama."
Age of Gods. A both easy and hard to understand phrase. Line didn't want to sound cryptic, but that's all she can tell them.
Riveria sighed and took out a medallion engraved with Magic Circuits with a small Magic Stone in the middle, "Then let's ask Loki now."
Everyone became confused at her words but they got their answer when Loki's playful voice suddenly rang out from the medallion, "My~ Age of Gods, huh? Does Kisuke intend to wage a war or are these actions a result of being backed into a corner? I wonder which it is?"
"Loki-sama!?" exclaimed all of her children.
Line, on the other hand, immediately turned her attention to the one who brought the medallion out, "Riveria-sama! This is!?"
Riveria smiled and answered, "It's a pair of Magic Tools that sends and receives sound when activated. I developed it back then while experimenting with various things and I gave the other half to Loki before we left for the expedition. I kept it a secret from everyone, because I wanted to use this as an advantage."
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While talking among themselves, Serafall suddenly stopped speaking and held the side of her head, "What's wrong?" asked Yoruichi.
Serafall didn't answer for a few seconds until she closed her eyes to confirm something before nodding to herself and saying, "The surveillance barrier that I erected on the camp detected an outgoing communication Magic. It seems that Ria-tan was able to develop a Magic Item for communication. While it's primitive, to think she'd be able to do something like this so early on, it seems like we're underestimating them."
"That's amazing, isn't it?" Yoruichi let out a voice of admiration.
"It is. She only received the basic articles regarding Magic, but still managed to figure things out on her own and advance."
"But did she show any signs that she's capable of that?"
Serafall shook her head, "From the looks of it, she hid her level of competency."
"Heh~? If she can do that, I guess it's time to trust her with bigger things. I'll leave her to you, Serafall. If possible, I'd like her to take control of some of the barriers that Kisuke left behind."
"Of course, I can take care of her~ It's fun to see geniuses like her have fun while growing." Serafall happily agreed, "But only if she is capable of resetting her Level to 1. That's the minimum she has to do to go beyond this world's constraints."
Editors:
28th00: Riveria is a genius for a reason. Danmachi is primitive, yeah, but not stupid. They fell pretty hard into the Divine Crutch for the unstable magic of their world being easier, stronger and safer with a falna spell slot.
Redemperor D