Sylphid's Happiness Revisited

Interlude 3

With everyone gathered, Welf took the lead in place of Bell. He felt woefully inadequate to take his place as a temporary Familia captain. Still, he knew that this was how Bell felt every time he would inspire his allies. He learned all he could from Eina during the several days before the mini expedition.

Fortunately, Cassandra, Daphne, Ouka and Chigusa had all joined the small expedition. Aisha was nowhere to be found, and he doubted they could afford her help anyways even if it would be heavily discounted thanks to Haruhime.

Still, they had all the supplies they would need for a week and a half dive. Lili, Haruhime, and Chigusa all held bags full of supplies. It kind of made him feel awkward that the three females were carrying everything, but this was the nature of their situation.

Welf sighed, as he caught wind of the fresh food in the stalls as the party traveled through one of the main streets. Thanks to Bell, the Hestia Familia has gained much attention. But without him it felt like they were a bunch of nobody's. Welf hoped to rectify that eventually, but at the moment it didn't matter.

He mentally went over the checklist of weapons the party had. 'Lili and Haruhime are holding my normal magic swords for emergency use only. I have the new model, which I don't plan on using. Besides that, we have several normal weapons of good quality. Most made by me, as a result each night when we rest, I can more easily sharpen and repair them. We have a small forge and anvil, and more than enough rations. A few tents that will allow us to rest on floor 18 between dives.'

Welf nodded, they had been prepared as much as possible. Still, he was worried, the last expedition had been the exact same. We had over prepared for what we expected to need, and things still went downhill sharply. He knew it was unreasonable to expect something like that to happen again, but still it nagged at him in the back of his mind.

He focused his attention as they went down the massive number of stairs that lead to the dungeon below. He would place his trust in Lili to give better commands as she had a natural ability to pick up the details that he knew he would miss.

Despite the rocky start he had with Takemikazuchi Familia, he had grown to trust them. 'I suppose the last expedition helped massively with that.' His mind wondered.

He looked over to Mikoto. "Mikoto keep your guard up and Skill active. I doubt many monsters will attack us until we get to the middle floors, but still. I would rather be careful."

Mikoto nodded, "Understood Welf-sama."

He winced at the use of an honorific, but he knew better than to ask her to stop. It was part of the culture she was raised with; it was as much a part of her as his spirit blood was with him. So, he would just let it be.

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The 18th floor never ceased to amaze Welf, it always felt like he had stepped into another world. Fortunately, the Goliath on floor 17 had already been taken care of, so the expedition had passed through easily enough. There had been a few scratches and bruises but no actual injuries. Cassandra had taken care of those discomforts with minimal mind usage.

He stopped and looked at everyone, "Right, we made good time getting here, as much as I would like to continue pushing on. I say we stop and set up camp now, what does everyone else think?" He did his best to project his voice so everyone in the relatively small group could hear.

It took a minute for everyone to make their opinion, but most agreed that waiting until they were fully rested would be the best option.

So, in the matter of an hour four tents were propped up and a small fire was started in the clearing. Welf quickly went through everyone's weapons just to be sure but found them all still perfectly sharp.