The Pallum, Lyra I thought her name was, sent the man into the ceiling. As his head literally cracked through the stone and was stuck leaving him hanging. The rest of his team were also quickly put to their knees by other members of the Astrea Familia.

“Hey kid are you alright? Where’s the rest of your party?” the Pallum asked.

“Oh thank you, I’m fine and I’m a solo diver,” I said, still looking at the man lodged in the ceiling.

“Thanks the Gods that you all showed up I was so scared.”

The girls just looked at me for a moment.

“Uhm, so we heard everything you said,” a dark skinned beastkin woman said. “We were watching them watch you take out those Killer Ants, and were ready to step in if they did anything to interfere. We weren’t expecting you to…”

“Put them in their place,” the Pallum said with a smirk.

“I recognize you, you’re the boy that helped us out a few months ago, a part of the Hephaestus Familia right? I gave you my autograph. Well what did you do with it? Is it now framed over your Smithy so all that walk in know that you were blessed by-” the captain Alise was saying.

“I gave it away,” I said dismissively while drinking a health potion.

“What! Why?!”

“Probably because he knew how worthless it was, you idiot,” Kaguya the Vice-captain said.

“It’s not worthless it’s-”

The young elven girl with blond hair walked up to me.

“Hello, I’m Ryuu Lion, what’s your name?”

“Kova Nact.”

“It’s dangerous for you to solo in the Dungeon, especially so young. Is it that you’re having difficulty finding a party?”

“Not really, it’s just that my schedule is a bit different than most others because I’m a smith so I usually come down alone. Sometimes I’ll go down with others though.”

I wondered if Ardi would still explore with me now that she was Level Two, she’d be given more responsibilities and would be expected to go with them on expeditions now.

If we did go together I was sure it would be easier in a lot of ways, I could be more reckless and we could travel down further, maybe even going into the Middle Floors. That’s where the high quality Exalia that I needed to Level up was.

“This orange stuff… What is it?” the Pallum asked. “Is it from those little explosions we heard earlier?”

I didn’t answer, not wanting to give up the secret of the Sticky Bomb to just anyone.

“Hmm, you know these things might be able to help out the city in capturing bad guys without casualties. Especially for lower leveled Evilus,” She probed.

I rolled my eyes, I didn’t want to just give up an advantage I had to the Guild. It was selfish, sure, but they would want to buy my formula or try and pressure me to give it up. Then they would be on the market and the value of the Sticky Bomb would drop both ecenomically and in use as people would begin to find ways to counter it.

But there might still be something to be gained.

“Hey, so how do you guys usually do your Dungeon dives? Is it like a weekly thing or is it just whenever you have the time?” I asked.

The Pallum narrowed her eyes, trying to discern what I wanted with the information, but Ryuu apparently wasn’t as wary of me.

“We usually do two quasi expeditions a month where we will go to the eighteenth floor, we usually take about five days there and back. Other than that we will go down sometimes after we patrol-”

“Stop giving away our sensitive information to a stranger you stupid elf!” Kaguya yelled, marching up to Ryuu and poking her hard in her flat chest. “We have enemies, what if this kid sells that info and we get ambushed!”

“Don’t call me stupid you crazy woman! He’s just a little boy, and a part of a good Familia too.”

“Like that matters, even if he was a good person he could still let it slip on accident. Did you think of that? Then there is the fact that he shouldn’t know regardless, it’s inter Familia buisness.”

Ryuu seemed to realize that she made a mistake, but her relationship with the other girl was bad.

“I-its our duty to help those in need, maybe he was just trying to get some insight into how others explore the Dungeon,” Ryuu said, trying to cover for herself.

“Oh wow! Maybe you should have asked that before speaking, you fool!”

Damn the asian looking girl seemed to be a noble of some sort before, with her clothing and demeanor, but I wasn’t so sure now. She acted more like some managers at fast food places.

“Actually yes that’s exactly what I wanted,” I said. “In fact I was wondering if you girls would like a trade of sorts.”

“Ooh a trade? I’m sorry but the only people that can have my panties are Lady Astrea!” Alise said with pride.

“Ah too bad, how much for the bra then?”

She paused for a moment, then decided to gloss over it to praise herself more.

“I knew you were into me! Man, woman, young or old, everyone knows that I am a perfect specimen of beauty and strength.”

“What’s your offer? And what do you get in return?” Kaguya asked in place of the captain.

“I want more experience in the Middle Floors of the Dungeon and want to see what the Eighteenth Floor is like. So I will pay you five Sticky Bombs as well as maintaining your weapons on the way down if I can acompany you.”

“Five? Sure they seem useful but that’s hardly any,” the Pallum said. “How about the instructions on how to make them for five expeditions to the Eighteenth Floor?”

“I’m not selling that, but I can maybe bump up the amount to ten.”

“Twenty,” she countered.

The Pallum had taken over negotiations apparently.

“Fifteen and I get good picks on drop loot.”

“Fifteen but you only get picks on those that you helped to take down.”

“Deal.”

Making the solution for the bombs wouldn’t be an issue, it was going to be a bigger pain to get make the containers

“Lyra don’t you think you should leave that decision to the captain?” asked Ryuu.

“Also we don’t allow men in our ranks,” Kaguya said.

“Well its a good thing he’s a boy then and it’s not as though he’s joining the Familia or anything.”

“Maybe he just wants to have all the beauties of the Astrea Familia to himself for a couple of days so he can brag to his friends,” the werewolf girl said.

“Is that true Kova?” Alise teased.

“Well Endurance is my highest stat… So a couple of days won’t be a problem,” I said winking at her.

A few of the girls that caught the innuendo blushed, though Kaguya and Lyra just raised eyebrows. Alise smirked and gave an exaggerated wink back.

“True, you have a small frame and will be going through the Middle Floors so its good that your Endurance is high,” Ryuu said, missing the innuendo completely.

---

-A/N-

Remember  kids, its not gay if you have socks on.