Loki, a Goddess with light red hair and red eyes. Well-known to dress up in tomboyish or male attire, mainly jeans and a shirt that show off her stomach with her hair tied back in a simple ponytail. She the first to speak and went straight to business without even any introductions.

"So what's this great boon yer supposed to have for my familia?"

"Loki, first you should introduce yourself." Said Riveria from the side.

She was tall with jade-colored hair tied in a tail that reached her waist, same color eyes, and elven ears. She was wearing a green outfit with yellow borders, a white cloak over it, a black belt, a yellow sash, black leggings, and long brown boots with exceptionally beautiful features even more so than many goddesses.

"That's alright, thank you! We'll save the introductions for later so I'll be direct too. Interdimensional storage big enough to make me a veritable walking warehouse which would prove invaluable during an expedition." Since Loki wasn't interested in the pleasantries, Nox didn't bother with them either.

The two newcomers were very surprised but soon Loki asked another question.

"What familia do ya belong or belonged to?"

'Huh? Ah, I see! She must think I already have a falna since I can use such magic.' Nox thought before he answered.

"No affiliation! I don't even have a falna!"

This information stupefied everyone in the room. Even Eina thought he was simply an adventurer from someplace else once she learned of his magic.

Being a goddess of trickery, Loki didn't stay dumbfounded for long as a smirk formed in her lips.

'Great boon indeed!' She thought.

"Alrighty kid, ya probably guessed already but I'm Loki and this is Riveria the vice-captain of my familia." She introduced herself and Riveria before continuing. "And I welcome ya to the Loki Familia!" She announced.

Eina was about to give Nox congratulations but he suddenly interjected.

"Wait, wait wait! We've got to talk conditions first!" He said while thinking.

'My very existence would allow your familia's exploration of the deep floors to be far more profitable, specially when I get stronger so there's no fucking way I'll just join without some assurances.'

"Conditions!?" Exclaimed Loki.

"Don't worry! It's nothing too extravagant."

"Hmph! Fine, let's hear them!" Acquiesced Loki while Riveria looked on from the side with interest.

"First and foremost, pledge your full support for the improvement of all my abilities. This also benefits you and your familia so it's not to hard right?" Nox suggested.

"Even if you didn't mention it, that'd still happen!" Loki snarkily replied.

"Excellent as for the second. Freedom of movement, I'll go for expeditions where I'm required but other stuff is completely up to me!"

Loki seemed to deliberate on the second condition but eventually accepted it too.

"That's basically it!" Nox concluded.

'The standard stuff like keeping my abilities a secret and such, she'll do even without me requesting it.' He thought.

"And here I thought you were going to ask for something difficult!" Commented Loki.

'Hehehe! You say that because you don't know about my polymath skill! That's gonna cost you a pretty penny to support after all, to truly maximize it, I would need the resources to practice alchemy, smithing, item making and so on.' Nox thought evilly.

"Alright then, welcome to the Loki Familia once again! Just call me Loki!" Exclaimed Loki.

"Thank you for having me Loki!" Replied Nox.

"Welcome to the family." Calmly welcomed Riveria.

"Congratulations Nox-kun" Said Eina.

And so, later that day, Loki sat in Nox's bed in his room while he sat in front of her facing away. Loki was bestowing her falna to Nox and about to catch a mind shattering surprise.

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Name: Nox Lyros

Race: High Human

Gender: Male

Level: 1

Abilities:

STR: I-0

END: I-0

DEX: I-0

AGI: I-0

MAG: I-0

Magic (4 slots):

Item Box: Interdimensional storage. Different effects based on chant.

                "Open": Creates a portal to the storage near the user. Size is based on mind usage.

                "Close": Close the portals created by "Open".

                "Set": Change storage setting such as size, timeflow and subdivisions.

                "Create": Create new interdimensional storage space.

Mind Cycle: Enhance all physical attributes through the use of Mind.

Magic Missile: Light blue orb of Mind shot at the target leaving a trail of blue light. Explodes on impact.

Skills:

Polymath: Greatly increases effectiveness and growth rate of Development Abilities. Lowers the requirements for obtaining Development Abilities. Any Development Abilities whose requirements are met, are unlocked on rank-up.

Arcana: Drastically improves any magic related activity. Records all spells and curses the user perceives and allows the user to modify them or create new spells based on the principles learned from them. Creates magic circles independent of the mage Development Ability that substitute most chant requirements. The user can meditate to choose which spells to put in his magic slots. Grants one extra spell slot per level.

Exceed: Removes the limit of any aspect of the user's abilities and skills. Greatly increases excelia gain from all actions. Immune to mental effects.

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Loki didn't see his spells and curse that weren't slotted on but what she saw was far more than enough to temporarily shut down her brain.

"WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU!?" She shouted.

"The kind that is incredibly talented and handsome! If you want to call dibs, now is the time!" Nox answered smugly.

Loki simply ignored him and after putting his status on paper for him to see, she immediately locked his falna so others could not see it.

After telling Nox to dispose of the status sheet as soon as he was done with it, Loki stormed off. Likely going to discuss Nox's abilities with her top executives. Meanwhile, the cause of Loki's rush simply decided to get an early rest.

Tomorrow he would really start grinding his stats. If there was something he couldn't forgive, it was those fanfic protagonists that simply didn't grind all their stats to their possible maximum before ranking up. He was definitely going to test the Exceed skill's limits.

The very next morning, Nox was called into the captain's office to discuss how the familia will support him and vice versa. As soon as he arrived he saw Loki and all three top executives of the Loki Familia waiting for him.

"Hey, Nox! Come in!" Said Loki.

"Good morning Nox, I'm the captain of the Loki Familia, Finn Deimne, please have a seat." Finn greeted Nox.

Finn had medium length scruffy blonde hair and blue eyes with a fair skin tone ands a small, but strong body. Being a pallum, he had the appearance of a child despite being over 40 years old. He was wearing a yellow vest over a purple long-sleeved shirt and trousers.

"Good mornin' young'n! I'm Gareth Landrock!" Gareth followed through.

A dwarf with brown eyes and long brown hair along with facial hair of the same color that is long enough to form a beard. He was wearing a battle cloth and boots.

"Good morning Nox." Also greeted Riveria.

"Good morning! Nice to meet you Finn-san, Gareth-san, I'm sure you already know but I'm Nox Lyros!" Nox greeted back in an upbeat tone. Clearly he had woken up in a good mood after all, so far everything had been going more or less his way other than his anger issues.

As Nox sat down, Finn got right down to business.

"So Nox, what did you have in mind when you requested the familia's support in improving your abilities?" He asked.

"I assume, Loki has already informed you of my status yes?" Nox a'ned for confirmation.

Seeing them all nod, he proceeded with his idea.

"Basically, I'd like for demonstrations of magic for starters. Then I want to use the familia's various connections to learn smithing, potion making, item crafting and so on and monetary support to train them while I start out. As for the dungeon I can handle that myself, no need for support. Also if possible, martial training as well although it's less of a priority for me."

The executives all fell into thought.

'Hm . . . My intuition tells me that letting him go into the dungeon freely under his own discretion will work out better indeed. Magic demonstrations seem to be easy enough within the familia and if he shows enough promise, we can try and arrange for demonstrations from some of our allies.' Thought Finn.

'As for the crafting . . . Getting him teachers shouldn't prove too difficult but committing too many resources initially isn't very feasible . . . But even though he said it wasn't his priority, I think we should still give him some heavy martial training.' Finn finished his considerations.

As a great strategist and leader with an intuition surpassing even that of the gods, he quickly formulated a plan to support Nox while considering the familia's degree of investment and possible benefits at the same time.

Finn then shared his idea and Nox found it very reasonable, they decided to schedule the magic demonstration to two days later and his martial training started the very next day meanwhile, Loki would get into contact with other familias to get him capable teachers. So for today, all he had to do was meet the other members of the familia while he could do as he pleased tomorrow.

And so, Nox just walked around the Loki Familia base, the Twilight Manor, greeting the other members. It went fairly well, with warm welcomes all around except for one.

More specifically, a certain werewolf with gray colored hair, along with amber eyes, as well as a sleek tail. A blue tattoo on the left side of his face and a muscular physique with handsome features.

"I don't have time for small fry like you! Go bother someone else!" Was all Nox got from Bete Loga making him think.

'Just wait asshole! I'm a petty bastard so I'll not be able to forgive myself if I don't make you deeply regret those words!'

Ais and the Hiryute sisters seemed to be in the dungeon so he couldn't greet them yet but he met Lefiya. She had long golden yellow hair, round dark blue eyes, and elven pointy ears. She was wearing a rosette pink cape on top of a white shirt and pink corset dress with a purple bow hanging at the collar.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Nox Lyros! I just joined the familia yesterday." Greeted Nox.

"N-Nice to meet you as well Nox-san! My name is Lefiya Viridis, I also only joined a few days ago!" Lefiya greeted back.

"Is that so? Let us both get along as fellow newbies then!" Said Nox.

"Yes, of course!" The cute elf answered.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful, he thought about going to the dungeon but decided to start tomorrow and spent today inspecting the various facilities of Babel and exchanging the magic stones and drop items he got so far in the surface.

He also underwent a mandatory study session given by Eina. She was quite adamant about it but Nox was also grateful since Eina's detailed info of the dungeon would certainly help him plan out tomorrow's dungeon dive.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.