[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 9: Converging Fires

The next day, I was standing in a secret room beneath an abandoned church—the place that was currently serving as my and Hestia's home. It was a small place by anyone's standards, but it wasn't as though I had much in the way of belongings; I'd taken the couch and that was pretty much all I'd needed. When we'd woken up, Hestia had prepared breakfast with her admittedly meager means, mainly consisting of leftovers from her workplace and donations made by friendly adults. After we'd eaten, Hestia had taken me shopping for a shirt that wasn't ripped to pieces and stained with blood, wiping out most of her meager savings to do so.

"Sorry to impose so much," I murmured, touching the new shirt. It was cheap and felt like it, but I was thankful to Hestia anyway—I knew something about living on too little money, thanks to Gabe. "I'll be heading to the Guild today, so hopefully I'll be able to pay you back soon."

"Instead of worrying about that, just be careful," She said. "I'd rather you came back safely instead."

"I'll be fine," I assured her, seeing how worried she looked. I wasn't sure how much of that was the threat of the Dungeon and how much was the threat of everything else, though. "When I was twelve, I killed a Minotaur with my bare hands. I'll manage somehow."

"Uuu," Hestia said again, closing her eyes for a moment. "Really?"

"Well, maybe not," I admitted. "Technically, I ripped one of its horns off and killed it with that. Does it count as bare-handed if you kill something with a part of its body that you removed with your bare hands? Honest question."

She looked at me for a moment and then seemed to decide to just brush past that.

"Even so, be wary," She insisted. "The Dungeon is a dangerous place. While I don't think you have too much to worry about on the uppermost floors, it gets more and more treacherous as you go further down."

"About that..." I replied, tilting my head. "There's something I've been meaning to ask. How large is the Dungeon?"

I'd gotten a rough picture of it thanks to my ability to sense water, but...well, it was like only being able to see parts of a map and a relatively small part at that. When it came to weird underground maze things, all I had to go off of was the Labyrinth which had been big, even if it had seemed to mess with distance and stuff. Even so, if I wanted to find any sign of my friends, I'd need to explore as much of it as I possibly could, however long it took me to do so.

But Hestia just shook her head.

"Nobody knows for sure," She said. "While there are exceptions, generally speaking each floor of the Dungeon is larger than the one above it and the monsters also grow stronger. When it comes to the Deeper Floors, even just one can be larger than this entire city—and even monsters like the Minotaur are only natives of the upper Middle Floors at best."

I sucked in a quick breath and exhaled slowly, trying to hide my wince. That...wasn't good. It didn't change what I had to do, of course, but if it was as larger as she was saying, it would be hard to make progress—especially since it seemed pretty likely that monsters would be attacking me every step of the way. And if Minotaurs were the baseline for the lower levels...

Hestia watched me with understanding eyes, smiling a bit sadly.

"Since our family is so small, you'll have to fight alone," She said, as if apologizing. "So it's best if you proceed with caution. While I won't lecture you about your own limits, the deeper you go into the Dungeon, the further you are from help. If something were to go wrong..."

She shook her head.

"Please," She said. "Don't go anywhere you can't come back from, Percy."

I bowed my head towards her.

"I'll be careful, Hestia," I promised her before smiling. "Besides, I'm not exactly alone."

"Hm?" She wondered, tilting her head. "What do you mean?"

"I brought my dog with me," I explained, glancing around the small room. I considered calling Mrs. O'Leary, but while I'd squeezed her into an apartment before—or rather, Hestia had, when she sent us home from Luke's place—she was a lot of dog for not much space. Well, given that shadow travel tired her out a lot to begin with, I should probably hold back on using it when I was about to dive into a monster-filled death trap anyway.

"Your dog?" Hestia asked, expression a mixture of skepticism, curiosity, and worry.

"Mhm," I answered, nodding back at her. "I'll introduce you to her later. I didn't want to bring her into the city, because she can startle people sometimes."

"I...see," Hestia replied, worry increasing. She was probably wondering what type of dog I had. In fairness, I had a giant Hellhound, so that was fair.

"It'll be okay," I promised. "She's very dependable. If anything happens, she'll be there to help."

"...Okay," She said a last, still looking at me with concern. "Then...good luck."

I nodded and smiled with as much confidence as I could before turning around and walking away. For the sake of not making her worry, I didn't look back.