Back to the Present

Nox's participation in the Ganesha Familia's vaunted Monsterphilia . . . It was something for Orario to talk about for sure.

Luna and Ash's debut to the world outside the Dungeon. Truth be told, they had both underwent a critical and utterly shocking transformation but for the purposes of the Monsterphilia, they were told by not to go with their previous form. A humanoid rabbit for Luna and a giant hound for Ash.

"Hello Shakti-san!" Nox greeted Shakti, a few days before the preparations for the festival started, a miniature hellhound on his shoulder and an Almiraj in his arms.

"Nox-san! I'm glad you finally decided to take our Ganesha famili's offer." Shakti greeted back.

The Ganesha familia had always wanted Nox to perform at Monsterphilia since he was a tamer with super control of his monsters to the point they were utterly harmless unless threatened. Not only that, he was a core members of one of Orario's greatest familias, the Loki Familia.

Finally, Nox himself was quite the high profile individual, being know in many circles due to his work for Dian Cecht's alchemy shop and the jobs with the Hermes Familia. Even more so there were the events with the Panacea, after which his fame and notoriety became truly worldwide.

Because of those reasons, the mere fact Noc was participating in an event would generate a lot of interest, thus making him an invaluable guest to have.

Shakti guided Nox to the area in the center of a colosseum belonging to the Ganesha familia. Waiting there, was the vice captain of the familia, Shakti's second in command, a hot red haired Amazoness by the name of Ilta Farna.

"Wow! It's an honor meet such a famous personage! The name's Ilta Farna." Ilta jestingly introduced herself.

"The honor is all mine hotness! And no self respecting adventurer would not know who you are." Nox teased her back, his good looks and killer smile making her blush, even Shakti by the side was a little entranced.

*cough* *cough*

Fake coughing to hide her embarrassment, Ilta began speaking again.

"We've called you here for a little demonstration so to speak. We invited you because we trust your skills but there's a lot riding on this so we need to make sure." She said.

"No problem, I figured as much." Nox waved his hand.

"Ha! You're a pretty understanding and straightforward guy!" Ilta smacked Nox in the back.

"To be honest, I'd thought you'd be more arrogant and snobbish." She confessed.

"More your type?" Nox joked.

"Hahaha! No way! If anything, the you in front of me is much more my type!" She declared, only realizing what she said after saying it.

"Is that so?" Nox asked with a teasing look, making Ilta blush like a schoolgirl.

'Damn he's hot! Feels like I'm a young lass seeing men for the first time!' She complained in her mind.

With that little interlude over, Nox gave them a more than convincing demonstration which later became a show like no other.

Two strange monsters, totally obedient to their master, fighting other monsters or even adventurers but holding back and not dealing the final blow, letting children ride on Ash's back even, all with evident expressions of emotion.

Ash and Luna, despite being monsters, became beloved by the city and could now walk around freely without fear of getting attacked as most residents now loved them and children particularly played with them at no risk at all.

Naturally, Nox also became much more friendly with the Ganesha familia who, along with Ouranos and the Guild, were trying to slowly introduce the concept of monsters who were not to be hated to the citizens of Orario and then, hopefully the world. Their true purpose in doing this however, still eluded Nox.

From then on, Nox life fell into a pleasantly ordinary rhythm, one in which he could focus on doing what needed to be done, improving himself to face the challenges yet to come.

And, when he got bored, he could always look for trouble himself could he not? Nox already had a few ideas in mind even.

Currently, Nox was looking up at the ceiling of his 50th floor fortress while laying doon, soon, the Loki Familia would be coming down and he was deciding what to do among other things.

'I guess I'll just hide my identity and ask for a toll like a bandit . . ." He pondered.

'It's not too much to ask I think, since they'll have shops and facilities to use here, they could even fully live in this place without worries so I don't see why not ask for a fair price.' Nox thought.

'On the other hand, I could give my familia a special pass but that would involve oversharing but I think I'll discuss this with Loki first.' He finally decided to consult Loki as he trusted her quite a bit.

'Moving on though, there is this . . .' Nox thought as he looked a a special sealed vial with a very ominous looking single drop of liquid inside.

Nox called it the Tear of the Evil Eye, it was the item made with the Black Balor's drop item eye. With it as a base, Nox integrated the cursed power he once saw in Hephaestus' eye and further refined it with a divine blood concentrate before infusing the whole thing with a bunch of curses.

It was an eyedrop that would turn the eye in which it is applied into a peerless evil eye but Nox was a bit afraid of the possible consequences as, in his creative fervor brought upon by sudden inspiration, he even added divine energy and more curses than he could count to the damn thing.

'I won't use it for now.' Nox decided. It was not like he felt his power was lacking at the current moment anyways.

And so, Nox went back to the Twilight Manor to discuss things with Loki about the expedition and giver her some news about items he had successfully created and refined to perfection.

After he told he told about the fortress to Loki, she was left with her brow twitching.

"So ya have a 'ole damn fortress in the 60th floor!?" She asked in disbelief while looking at him.

"Yep! I've put in quite a lot of resources so that it can stop even the Freya Familia if they try to break through!" Nox proudly declared.

"So yer plannin' on letting the powerful familias establish a foothold there in exchange for tribute while you can guarantee security and facilities for recreation, rest, food and even workshops for the support personally to maintain the equipment as well as shops to sell drops . . ." Loki continued.

"If ya can really do ll those things . . . I think it's an excellent idea, even if yer client will be very few, they'll be high end, I know we'll be among them but you better hide your identity well or you'll attract all kinds of unwanted attention." She warned.

"I know, I even have special protections for peeping magic items and and abilities so no worries but speaking more of benefiting the familia, ours in particular, I've finally managed to succeed in putting my spatial ability into an item." Nox revealed.

"Damn Noxy! All kinds of shockin' news today!" Loki slapped her thigh.

"I'll give one of the highest quality ones for free to the familia but I'll be auctioning the rest. I'll spread the word around the world using my connections to see if some of the big player outside of Orario are interested as well." Nox said.

"Ya sure know how ta spoil us Noxy, thanks!" Loki said.

Nox suddenly kissed her and said.

"Anything for you lover."

And so, the rest of Nox's day was spent "waging war" in bed with the red haired goddess, both "fighting" for supremacy.

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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 weeks ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novels Kage of Kages and FATE of DxD, do check them out!

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