Is It Wrong To Seek Power In The Dungeon - 2.1 (Patreon)

The journey towards Orario was long, but not perilous as it would be for most who travelled alone.

After all, even without a falna, you were strong.

The temptation was there to stop in Melen before you arrived in Orario, or even before that, pay a visit to the village where you knew Grandpa Zeus lived and finally meet your adopted cousin Bell now that you had finally sallied out on your own independently from your father and the clan.

But, you resisted the urge.

Despite being a trained warrior from a young age, the plights of the weak rattled you, made you sentimental, dulled your edge. If you went to Melen, you did not think you could resist Njord's offer to join his familia when he needed the help as he did even if it would limit your potential.

And knowing how much the likes of Alfia and Zeus cared for your cousin Bell, you may just find yourself putting down roots for a while to make sure he would be ready himself one day to head out and venture down the path of an adventurer.

Selfish as it was, you had to think about your own potential. You had promises you had to live up to after all.

You could not step into the role Alfia, Zald and Erebus sought a hero for, without pursuing your potential to the limit.

So you did not let those urges consume you.

That did not however stop you from resting at almost every village along the way and taking care of any monster infestations they had in the area that troubled them.

It took an entire month of travelling, but finally you arrived on a massive crest of a hill overlooking your destination.

Orario, the Labyrinth City, the stage where the Sword Oratoria concluded. The capital of the world and where the strongest gathered. The place where heroes were forged.

The crucible which would forge your own story.

It was in a word…massive. You had travelled to quite a few kingdoms over the years, but none so far could compete with Orario in sheer size when it came to their capital cities.

Orario had a population that rivalled many full kingdoms, never mind just one city of their territories.

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You made your way down the hill towards the entrance of the huge walled city and as you did, you noticed a huge line outside the gate, hundreds of people long.

'Pain.' you grimaced as you took your own spot.

Perhaps your biggest weakness of all, was the fact that you were not particularly adept at sitting still for great periods of time. You were always active growing up, whether that be travelling, training, fighting, smithing or reading.

You always had something to occupy your mind.

Sadly all you had right now, was a massive sack you held over your shoulders containing all the magic stones from monsters you'd hunted since that very first goblin you had killed.

By your fathers own advice, you had never cashed any of them in and saved them up until now.

You truly should have brought a book.

Doing nothing was a waste of time. Even sleeping was doing something in restoring your energy!

It took an entire hour before you the line moved up enough that you reached the gate.

You were getting so antsy you had been fighting off the urge to pick a fight with anyone that looked remotely strong to pass the time.

You simply did not because you knew most could never measure up to your strength, superior from birth and honed in the forge of constant combat and training since you were a toddler.

"Heya!" a girl, or rather woman greeted you as you stepped up. She was of average height, with short slate blue, almost grey hair and bright sapphire blue eyes, clad in a pure blue top over a kind of short dress that was black in the centre and dark grey on the sides of it and leaving enough for a large canyon of cleavage to be in view, as well as a pair of black gloves that reached above the elbow, on her hip was a blue and golden hilted sword sheathed in a blue and white sheath, "Name please? And ID if you have it."

Her appearance was such that you could not properly gauge her age. She could be anywhere from your own age to her early twenties.

The falna truly muddled these types of things and made it hard to these kind of things out.

Though if nothing else, you could tell one thing.

She was strong.

"Artair Bein, I don't have any ID," you replied crossing your arms and frowning, your father had not told you anything of this sort before, "I'm here to become an adventurer if that helps."

"Ah, pretty standard stuff then, easy enough to rectify, you only really get an ID if you're here for business or an adventurer anyway, we just need to check that you don't have a falna," the female shrugged, and looked you up and down and smiled, "Guess I don't have to ask you to raise your shirt at least, can you turn your back to me?" she asked as she reached into one of two satchels at her waist and pulled out some kind of vial.

You shrugged, turning away from her, showing her your shirtless build, "Well, with a build like that, people will for sure want to snatch you up," she mused aloud and you heard the vial pop as the lid was taken off and a splash of cold liquid hit your back, "…Hmm, you're clean looks like."

You blinked, turning back around to face her, "What was that?" you asked.

"Status thief, it's a special magic item that let's us check if people have a falna that's just been hidden by their god," she shrugged, "I'm Ardee by the way, Ardee Varma, part of the Ganesha Familia. If you're looking for a Familia, I'm sure our patron god would be glad to have you with how built you are."

Ganesha the lord of the masses. In your fathers words, he was a respectable god, but one that protected the people above all else. He would not permit you to ever pick a fight with the Loki familia if you joined him because it would put the people in danger.

Yes, a respectable god indeed, but not one that was really favourable to you. For not even you knew how you would react in the face of the Loki Familia.

Your emotions over your fathers hatred of them and the death of your mother…were complicated.

"I'll keep that in mind," you inclined your head and filed her name away for later, "Is there anywhere I should check out that would let me gather information on what Familia's I should check out?" you asked.

"Well, the Pantheon with the guild has a list of them all," she pointed out with a smile, "But…if you want the juicier side of things like rumours and all that, you'd be better hitting up a bar or something. Actually, there's this really good one where an old friend of mine works, called the Hostess of Fertility, easy to find it's on the Western Main street, can't miss it."

You nodded, "…Thanks."

"Not a problem, happy to help." Ardee beamed, happily patting you on the shoulder, "Welcome to Orario! Hope to see you make a name for yourself rookie!"

You chuckled, "I will." you replied confidently.

And you would keep her in mind. After all, you had not forgotten what else your father had tasked you with.

Finding strong women to birth your own children in the future to continue your bloodline. And this Ardee woman was attractive, with an agreeable personality and though you could not tell how much…your very instincts told you, she was strong.