Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Hunting

The hospital inn wasn't anything special really but was simply an inn that the guild paid to leave some beds open for free in case any seriously injured adventurers came into town and needed somewhere to stay as they recovered. Otherwise the inn was just a normal one if expensive as fuck like everything else in Rivira. When I walked in with the elf on my back the guy manning the counter looked us over before speaking calmly.

"First door on the left up the stairs." he said before ignoring us.

I was perfectly fine with that as I was only here to drop the guy off since he wasn't my problem to deal with after that. The room up the stairs was clearly not meant to be used like a normal room as it had eight beds practically side by side and literally no other furnishings. The beds were simple straw mattresses covered in sheets on a wooden frame. Not exactly the most comfortable things but I suppose it is better than nothing. I unfastened the elf from my back and laid him out on one of the beds before covering him up with the provided wool blanket.-

I reshaped the hide I used as fastening back into a single piece before taking off a square of it the side of a playing card and turning it rock hard before leaving the Hestia familia insignia which was a flame with a dragon head in it. The insignia represented Hestia and her first familia member and was something she came up with that I just went with. Personally I thought just the flame alone would be enough but she convinced me otherwise since there were a lot of gods related to fire.-

To keep our familia from getting mixed up with someone elses we added the dragon head as the distinguishing feature. Anyways the reason I left this piece of hide behind for the elf was in case he wanted to thank us once he recovered. Finding someone specific in Orario with no real leads was a pain in the ass so this way he could just ask around about the insignia and find us like that. It wasn't unusual at all for people who were saved by other adventurers like this to seek out their savior in order to properly thank them.-

Once I was done I left the inn entirely since there was no fucking chance I was paying for a night there even with how late it was.

'Oh shit! I totally forgot to call Hestia!' I stiffened as the thought hit me.

I reluctantly dug out the coin used for that purpose before activating it as I walked through the trees of the eighteenth floor on my way to my secret base.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was!?" an angry goddess demanded the moment the call went through making me wince.

"Okay so to be fair it's not entirely my fault!" I said defensively.

"What did you do this time!?" she demanded leaving me speechless and even feeling a little wronged.

"I ran into a seriously injured adventurer and had to bring him back to Rivira so I was really distracted, I've been good I swear!" I said aggrieved after a moment.

"So you didn't call because you were saving someone? I guess that a pretty good reason." she said begrudgingly as though admitting I wasn't in the wrong somehow seemed weird to her.

I couldn't help but feel my eyebrow twitch at that but kept my cool since admittedly my track record wasn't the best.

We didn't talk long after that as it was kinda late and we needed to be off to bed to get up at our normal time. I myself checked my secret tree fort carefully to make sure nobody had found it and once I was sure it was secure laid down for the day. The next morning I headed back down to the twenty fifth floor and started looking for traces of that moss huge. A variant plant monster like that is bound to have some uses in alchemy that I could get by taking it down.-

Miach and Naaza should be thrilled to receive such limited and rare ingredients to experiment with. While they couldn't make it a stable part of their business the potions made from such a monster would likely be worth quite a bit due to it's unique effects if nothing else. Usually moss huge leave behind small pieces of their foliage when they travel since as plants they shed the excess as they grow. This moss huge was different though it was a sneaky little shit as it clearly went to some lengths to be stealthy. -

Following the clues I could find led me to another injured adventurer, a human woman this time with a shed of the beast being used as bait. The devious fucker was setting up a trap most would fall for in a heartbeat. That shed was usually used by moss huge as an escape tactic but this time the thing used it to make the ones watching think it was still there watching the woman slowly die while in fact it was likely hiding off to the side readying a sneak attack. I only noticed this trap because the chick saw me approaching and mouth the word trap before I got close enough to actually spring it.-

I crouched down and pressed my right hand to the ground before speaking "Reverse curse technique: Helheim!"

Ice rapidly extended across the ground and rose up as two thick tall walls with a gap in between them leading straight to the chick. Clearly the beast wasn't happy with this and tried to launch it's seeds into the ice wall but failed to accomplish anything as I was still fueling the technique as I walked up to the woman.-

"Think you can last long enough for me to hunt that thing or should I get you out of here first?" I asked seriously.

"J-just give me a potion. I s-should be able to last." she said weakly and I nodded before using one of my emergency potions on her.

The ice parted for me as I walked through to confront the monster that roared at me angrily as it tried to slip away into the shadows again.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled as used my flames tightly against my body to launch myself at it rapidly.