Summary of previous Ch: The group reached Orario, Ais was introduced to the Miach familia as set-ep to pass the vigor-wasps off to them. Ais is also introduced to many Hermes familia members, she participated in a minor prank on Blake, and was talking to Shippo.

A;N: I changed the title, the original was too misleading given that any harems will most likely be near the very end of the story if I ever get there.

Ch 9: Settling in Orario continued; learning and preparing

After thinking a few seconds, Ais finished her sentence. She planned to set up another mini-training course like she had for Tsuki and Naaza.

". . .It would be better to feed the vigor-wasps outside if all possible to have more space, but there can't be a lot of sharp objects or corners either since vigor-wasps are very frail and not all of them have a very good sense of self-preservation. Do you know a good place?"

Shippo nodded and said. "There is a portion of the back-yard training grounds that is just open space that should work out, do you need anything special to feed them you need to grab?"

"No, I have everything I need in my great Jagras bag and in my inventory skill." Ais responded.

The two then walked back through the lobby, outside, then around the Traveler's Inn to the back-yard.

Shippo mentioned "There is a door coming from the kitchen that would have been easier, but I am banned from it anytime it is near a meal-time because I kept bothering the cooks for snacks and sweets."

Shippo then walked past a few training dummies and the archery range to a large open area and waved. "Is this good enough?"

Ais nodded and started retrieving feeders, strips of leather, and even some of the empty large baskets from her inventory to set up a basic course. Then she filled the feeders mostly with null-berry juice but some normal juice and sugar-water as well, and drizzled honey on the leather strips and tops of the baskets that she kept closed to prevent the vigor-wasps from trying to make them into new homes prematurely.

Then she got out the four baskets from her great Jagras bag and opened them to release the vigor-wasps one group at a time, making sure to give basic directions to the vigor-wasps regarding where to feed. As she kept an eye on the vigor-wasps to make sure they did not fly off she also spoke to Shippo.

"I'm not sure how much you know about vigor-wasps so I'll start with the basics, then go a bit into why Orario does not have a hive here yet. . .

Those large unwieldy sacs that are slightly glowing are somehow part of the vigor-wasp's bodies, it is like a translucent stomach for the vigor-wasps. It is filled with a special nectar that vigor-wasp automatically convert what they drink and eat into. If that sac is punctured unless there is immediate aid given in the form of a dab of honey to re-close the hole and lots of juice to give the vigor-wasp energy to heal and recover what was lost the vigor-wasp will slowly die. . .

The fluid in those sacs is called vitality nectar. That nectar can heal wounds, cure most minor blights, and give a boost of revitalizing energy if there is enough of it sprayed on a wound, afflicted area, or ingested. . .

The vitality nectar is also a key ingredient in most of the healing potions that Monster Hunters outside Orario use. . .

According to Tsuki of the Miach famillia potions made with vitality nectar are better than the equivalent versions here in Orario. . .

A vigor-wasp's diet is most similar to a bee or other pollinating insect; they feed on flower nectar, small amounts of fresh water, fruit juice from actual fruit that has thin skins such as berries and honey when they can get it in the wild, but can drink sugar-water as well when domesticated. However there are two special ingredients that vigor-wasps need to breed and in their early growth stage that are not common at all here in Orario but are relatively common south of here near Asteria and some of the places Monster Hunters go to.

Here in Orario those specific ingredients are expensive and have too much value on their own for anyone to want to waste them as vigor-wasp food. Vigor-wasp breeders and botanists have known those requirements for decades, but for whatever reason no one from Orario asked the right questions or had any time, money, or willingness to bring both an entire vigor-wasp hive and those expensive ingredients all the way back here. So that is why there is no hive yet in Orario." Ais lectured even as she kept watch, rotated the vigor-wasps and what they fed on, opened and closed baskets as needed, and refilled feeders or smeared more honey when it got too low.

When she reached the basket with the growing great vigor-wasp she pointed it out to Shippo.

"That larger vigor-wasp is midway to becoming a great vigor-wasp. . . Somehow a Palico or lightweight child like me can even ride a great vigor-wasp as it slowly flies. . .but only when the great vigor-wasp is trained to obey from the time it was normal sized will it even try to fly with a passenger. . .and only for the one it views as leader or source of food. . ."

Shippo had looked on in slight interest but mostly boredom as Ais released the vigor-wasps while lecturing but when Ais mentioned that some could actually ride a great vigor-wasp he suddenly looked much more interested and eyed Ais speculatively, trying to guess if he was lightweight enough to count. When Ais continued to explain that you basically had to be the one raising the vigor-wasp for it to even attempt to fly with a passenger he had looked disappointed. Ais smiled to herself at the expected reaction, even if it was slowly everyone liked the idea of flying after all. . .

Ais continued to talk as she waited for the mid-size vigor-wasp and the others in that basket to finish feeding.

"Some people from the Airmed famillia are already growing one of the ingredients for breeding vigor-wasps here, and now that Hermes knows the importance of that ingredient and has decided to establish a vigor-wasp hive and knows his famillia can import the 2nd ingredient from Asteria in bulk people can actually start establishing a hive or even multiple hives here in Orario. Helping establish this hive here in Orario is a very valuable service, basically what I am paying to get my falna and spend some time here without completely joining the Hermes familia. I still want to spend some time in Asteria and want to become not just an Adventurer but also a Monster Hunter in the future. I like the idea of both."

Ais said while continuing to guide the vigor-wasps in their feeding, then directing them back to the basket, closing the opening, and releasing the next set of vigor-wasps.

After the vigor-wasps were all fed the sun had started setting so Ais and Shippo returned to the dining hall which was now much more crowded with people. Ais asked Shippo

"Why do the night adventurer's get up a few hours before dinner-time to have breakfast and then stay for dinnertime as well? I would think that if you are all nocturnal you would only get up for a meal at our dinnertime then leave to go to the dungeon immediately after rather than eating breakfast then dinner only a few hours later."

Shippo responded

"Some do, but then again dinner is a near-mandatory meal-time when announcements are made, and meals in general are also more limited in variety. Although not usually served feast style like last night, major meals are always something the cooks make in bulk and serve up for everyone with very few requests. Dinner usually has some sort of soup or stew, and a lot of meat and veggies. Most do not want their first meal of the day to be a heavy meal or be half-asleep still when an announcement is made. So we get up a few hours earlier, have a light meal and deal with any errands like restocking on potions, getting equipment repaired or replaced and so on since most shops are closed at night so we have to be up earlier anyway to get there while the shops are still open.

Then we eat dinner and listen to announcements, then go to the dungeon after-wards. We stay in the dungeon for a good portion of the night and sometimes even until early morning usually with a packed meal or two. Then when everyone else is just starting to head to the dungeon for the day, we return, have another quick meal and go to sleep for a good portion of the day-time. The dungeon at night is slightly more dangerous, but in the safety of a group that just means better rewards.

It is strange and sometimes spooky to be up when everyone else is asleep, but can be quite fun too.

Remus and Sirius stay up a bit longer after sunrise to set up their pranks then they can be 'innocently sleeping' when the pranks go off. When I help I do the same. That way we avoid the worst of the anger from whoever we have set up a prank for, since by the time we wake up again the people will have had time to clean up and cool off their temper."

Shippo explained the reasoning for having a breakfast a few hours before dinnertime and then briefly also explained a bit how the pranks worked out as well.

Ais nodded thoughtfully in acknowledgment, then waited for the food to arrive.

The dinner that was served was not nearly as fancy as the semi-feast last night, but still served by Velvet and Keats from those carts. It was a stew with small bits of meat and veggies, thankfully fresh meat rather than salted meat with the main meal being a large bit of chicken served on top of a pasta or a large salad with lots of slices of chicken on top. So there was actually some choice, between a salad or pasta with the chicken but not much. Ais could see why most would not want to have this as their equivalent to breakfast.

After dinner Robin guided Ais to the library and picked out 3 books explaining. "These are copies of the orientation material the guild of adventurer's give out. The most useful one is the book of maps and monsters for the 1st 10 floors. The guild originally kept the copies in the guild and only allowed adventurer's to go over them with assigned advisers, but quickly realized that they did not have enough advisers to help out all the adventurer's.

So now every famillia is given at least one copy, but can pay for more copies. We are expected to go over the material with you and before you enter the dungeon you will have a small test both verbal and written from your assigned 'adviser' to make sure you know all the information.

The 2nd of the books go over the basics of deciding what weapons to use, signs of a monster being spawned, signs of various dangers in the dungeon, how and when to use potions, and the basics of extracting magic stones. It also has a guideline for how strong an adventurer's stats should be before daring to venture to a lower floor.

There is a third book that goes over all the services the guild provides in general and a very repetitive listing of scenarios of 'what to do in case of'. . .which basically can be summed up as 'run away when there is danger and ask for aid if there are other adventurer's nearby' for newbie adventurers and some common sense solutions to issues people might face in the dungeon. There is also a list of recommended supplies that an adventurer should bring with them into a dungeon other than the obvious weapons and armor such as a flashlight, rope, a bag to hold materials as well as magic stones, water, and food.

You only need to skim through the 2nd and 3rd book since you won't be going into the dungeon alone and everyone else would already know what is in those, but it would be better to memorize the maps for the first 5 floors at least and make sure you know all the monsters common there before you enter the dungeon since the test requires that knowledge to pass." Robin explained.

Ais nodded in understanding and said "Okay, I'll go over these tonight."

After that Ais returned to her room and went to sleep for a few hours, then woke up and turned on a small light. She fed the vigor-wasps then started reading the books.

Ais decided to look at the book of maps and monsters on the first 10 floors since Robin had said that was most important.

She found that the first 4 floors did not have much variety. The first floor only had 6 rooms or cave openings with tunnels leading to them. There was one big one at the bottom of the stairs, which was apparently safe enough that there were small stalls set up selling extra items for the adventurers. Then two tunnels lead to more caves, that then lead to each other and had another two tunnels leading to either a dead-end cave or the cave that lead to the stairway going down. Only 3 monsters were listed, although there was a note that monsters from the 5th floor sometimes came to the 4th floor.

But the only monsters in floors 1-4 were Goblins, Kobolds, and Dungeon Lizards.

Goblins were generally 1 meter (3 ft tall.) and had either green or blue slimy skin. They were bipedal, but not very smart or capable of speech. Their magic stones varied in size from a small child toenail, just round to a big toenail of an adult.

Kobolds were generally just below 2 meters, at 6 ft 3-5 inches but could be taller if they were irregular. They were basically big dumb humans with wolf heads and a few other wolf features. They did hunt in packs like wolves so there was some cleverness and danger for solo adventurers. They usually had gray fur but could have other colors sometimes. Their magic stones were the size of a heel or sometimes a knee-cap.

Dungeon lizards were listed as varying in size and color. They could be 1 ft high all the way up to 4 feet but were always much longer than their height, around 1.5-3 meters (5ft to 9 ft). There was a small color picture of the most common type of dungeon lizard. They had greenish brown scales and had large teeth that they used to bite adventurers, with very long tails that they sometimes used as whips or clubs. Their magic stone size depended on the size of the dungeon lizard defeated.

The walls of the caves from floor 1-5 were a light blue-gray with luminescent blue moss. The ground was a mix of browns with many light blue pebbles. There were occasional glowing crystals in the ceiling but they dimmed or went out completely during night-time.

The 2nd floor had 8 caves and lots of tunnels connecting them all, again with 2 bigger caves near the staircases. The 3rd floor had 12 interconnected caves and a 1 big long tunnel that lead no where. The 4th floor had 15 interconnected caves and 2 tunnels that lead no where.

When Ais reached the 5th floor in the book she saw two new monsters listed, although they did not look all that scary to her.

The dungeon fly was like a fire-fly in that they had butts that could glow sometimes. They were listed as being around 1 inches wide/tall and up to 4 inches long. They could not really do damage to any adventurer even when they flew at their top speed and tried to ram into someone. But they did often distract adventurer's while they were fighting other monsters by flying into their face and trying to blind them with a strobe glow. They also seemed to lead monsters from other caves to the adventurer's if they were not dealt with so they were a major nuisance. Their magic stones were tiny, the size of an apple seed only without the pointed end and were only useful for grinding up to add to potions or enchantments. However due to their small size they could be eaten whole by many of the other monsters to make the other monsters into irregulars.

The dungeon bats always spawned from the ceiling in groups of at least 3 and up to 9 and could bat someone with their wings or bite them. They looked like normal bats, so were brown, gray, or black but were often 4 feet long. They did not do much damage individually but could be dangerous in large groups. They also frequently followed the dungeon flies, and ate the dungeon flies as well to become irregular stronger versions. So if dungeon flies were leading them large groups of up to 30 dungeon bats could converge to try to overwhelm adventurer's. Their magic stones were generally thumbnail sized, just round. But the magic stones could get as large as a big toe or a small fruit sometimes from the many irregular versions.

The fifth floor also had 20 cave rooms of varying size, some quite large. There were multiple dead-end tunnels. The ceiling was also much higher, reaching up to 16 feet high in some places. There were even a few stalagmite and stalactite growing in parts of the caves. Most of the tunnels were large enough to spawn monsters as well so it was heavily recommended to be in a party or have most stats at H with 1 being at least low G before entering the 5th floor. The tunnel system was a mini labyrinth, with over 5 tunnels leading to dead ends just wide enough to spawn monsters but not leading to other caves or the stairs either up or down.

Ais knew memorizing the first 4 maps would be easy but the 5th would take a bit longer. She might even need to try drawing out the map on spare pieces of paper to refer to it since there were a lot of tunnels and caves.

Still, only the Kobolds were adult size or bigger. All the other monsters were about the same size as Ais, smaller, or only a bit taller or longer. Since she was 3 feet and 6 inches tall or 108 centimeters, an average height for her young age.

Ais checked the time, by glancing out her window at the moon, then meditated, fed the vigor-wasps again, and skimmed through the other books.

They were as Robin described. Since Ais already had her swords, daggers, and bow the book describing potential beginner weapons was pointless for her. By the time she broke her weapons she would have enough vali to buy better equipment than the guild offered.

The book describing services and scenarios was a bit more useful.

Ais did note that among the services listed by the guild there was a training hall near the guild building where there were special target ranges, training dummies, and even people hired by the guild who were willing to teach the basics of using weapons for a fee. Ais knew the Hermes famillia were willing to help out but if they were ever too busy she could go there to practice her weapons, especially her bow if the target range had moving targets.

The guild also had exchange desks open 24 hours, although with only a single staff member at night, that gave vali for magic stones and monster drops.

There were also advisers who helped recommend which floors newbie adventurer's were allowed to go to based on stats, equipment, and skill. Just in case the adventurer did not read the recommendations in the books. Ais hoped that since she would be in a party she could at least go down to the fifth floor by the end of the week.

Ais felt that she should definitely be able to handle the monsters on the first 5 floors, and with her bow she would be able to take out many dungeon flies and bats, with them being very good target practice too. She would need to buy or craft a lot more arrows once her group started heading to the 5th floor regularly but otherwise Ais felt that she was already prepared for the dungeon monsters.

Ais checked the time again by glancing out her window, and also listened for the sounds of people. It was still to early so Ais went back to reading the book of maps and monsters. She studied the maps and tried to memorize them, while also reading about the various monsters on the lower floors. There were 2 new monsters on the 6th floor, War Shadows and Frog Shooters.

Frog shooters were giant one-eyed frogs, usually green and yellow that varied in size from 4 feet all the way to 7 feet tall. They could shoot out their strong tongues to ridiculous lengths and also leap high to avoid attacks or attack from different angles. With the Frog shooters also having more irregular stronger versions since they also frequently ate dungeon flies or even dungeon bats and their magic stones, and when they ate enough they became much stronger, faster, and tougher. The frog shooters also frequently followed dungeon flies who lead them to adventurer's, occasionally going to the fifth floor when a dungeon fly lead them there.

War Shadows were the first monster that seemed scary to Ais. They could vary in size from 6 feet tall to 10 feet. They were shaped vaguely like men that had long claws instead of normal fingernails. They were all black other than their eyes and teeth inside their mouth. They had razor-sharp claws that could be as long as swords and could manipulate their bodies to twist out of the way of most attacks, even creating temporary holes in their bodies if it meant avoiding an attack. They also had long razor-sharp teeth, but would only try biting if their claws were damaged. They had very tough skin even if they were hit and could move very fast as well.

Although it was noted that they were very weak against any magic attacks so hopefully Ais could use her Ariel tempest better to attack them by the time her group went to the 6th floor.

It was heavily recommended that adventurers did not go to the 6th floor until some stats were at least F or most were high G and they had at least 1 month experience with the dungeon, preferably much more if they were solo so Ais had time to practice with her magic spell.

After checking the time again, Ais fed her vigor-wasps again and finally left her room since although it was not quite dawn it was close and she could hear a few people moving about.

Ais headed downstairs and to the kitchen area, seeing not just Keaks and Velvet but a few more men and women in uniforms there. They were all busy cooking and taking and setting out plates and utensils from a large tub-like thing that had lots of racks and small open basket containers. Ais figured it was a crude dish washer powered by magic stones somehow, and the dishes had been washed overnight. She also decided that Velvet and Keaks had enough help today and that she would be in the way if she wanted to help or lingered in the kitchen, so chose to wait out in the dining room for a few minutes for the various people to have time to finish cooking. She had put the 3 books in her inventory so she could keep reading them if she wanted too throughout the day. She took out the book of scenarios and started skimming through them.

As Robin had said, the book described the sounds and looks of large groups of monsters being spawned, called Monster parties and recommended retreating if an adventurer heard many of those sounds. Apparently Monsters always spawned from the ceiling and walls in the upper floors, though in lower floors some could spawn from the floor for some rare monsters. There were always cracking sounds and a slight bulge where a monster was spawning, so hearing many cracks and seeing many bulges was a sign to get away fast.

There were also something called Pantries starting in the 7th floor that were basically cave rooms that grew lots of food for monsters, before the 7th floor the monsters ate the moss of the cave walls, other monsters on rare occasions, and any adventurer or their food they could get.

These pantries were both very dangerous and potentially valuable since huge groups of monsters headed there when they got hungry and even more would come running or be spawned if there seemed to be any danger to their food. There was a lot of traffic of monsters heading toward or from the pantry so even groups of Adventurer's could be overwhelmed but at the same time if they were careful they could get lots of magic stones or find rare monsters if they watched the pathways near the pantries.

Ais was happy to get more information on the dungeon, but also wanted to catch Thane, Pot or anyone else who used a bow for a short lesson before she had to head toward the Miach blue pharmacy to start showing Tsuki how to feed and train the vigor-wasps.

So after reading a few scenarios and getting that information she went back to the kitchen and picked up a breakfast plate that was one of only 3 that had just been set on a table near the door. There were some options for breakfast, but the most appealing for Ais was scrambled eggs, some meat that resembled bacon, toast, and orange juice. There was also a big pot of oatmeal being made, with plates that had empty bowls with smaller bowls of chopped nuts or berries and a jar of honey to the side of the pot or she saw a plate of waffles with sausage. So breakfast was definitely Western most of the time.

While eating breakfast Ais kept an eye out for Thane, Robin, or Pot. Eventually she saw Thane arrive and get breakfast. He chose oatmeal. So after putting her own dishes back into the kitchen to be cleaned Ais slowly walked over and sat near Thane, then took out one of her books again while waiting for him to finish.

Ais did talk to Thane before starting reading though.

"Thane, If it is not too much trouble would you help me out with using my bow and aiming my arrows better after breakfast? I have to be somewhere else by 9 am so it will have to be a short lesson and I don't have any arrows left that are good enough to use so hopefully there are some in that storage room in the back or the armory wherever that is. If there are no arrows I'll try to find more from somewhere and ask for a lesson once I have them. Finish eating while you think, I don't need a response right away."

Ais then took out the book of maps and monsters and started trying to memorize the maps. She would look at the map, then close her eyes and try to visualize how things would appear when she was walking so did her best to imagine walking downstairs, then seeing a big cave with stalls that had miniature walls surrounding them. Bypassing those stalls and seeing two holes leading right or left, going right and then seeing a fork leading more right or strait. Taking a fork at random then seeing another cave with monsters. Imagining fighting those monsters then going down another tunnel. Then she would open her eyes to see where that tunnel lead: to a dead-end cave or a cave that connected to the last cave leading to the stairs going down to the next floor. She then imagined facing more large lizards, goblins and kobolds, being forced to backtrack, and so on. She imagined how she would use each of her weapons to either weaken or kill each type of monster.

She had only imagined finishing mentally exploring the 1st floor by the time Thane finished his breakfast.

But Ais felt that she had memorized that map very well and come up with a good strategy for each of the various monsters she could face, with the Kobold being the most difficult and her having to use a poisoned arrow and do a lot of dodging and minor slashes to finally kill it. She knew that she would be in a group so might very well not actually manage to kill any Kobolds the first night in the dungeon depending on who she was with and how impatient they would be.

Thane left to put his dishes away to be cleaned then came back to Ais and cleared his throat. Ais glanced up, then closed the book and put it back into her inventory. She had strapped her bow and empty quiver to her back, and was carrying her two daggers as well, but had left her swords and her great Jagras bag in her room to let the vigor-wasp sleep and because her swords were awkward to carry and sit with still. With a glance at the sun she knew she only had another hour before needing to feed the vigor-wasps again.

So she stood up and glanced at Thane expectantly for his response.

Thane spoke up then.

"I do agree to help you, at least for a few hours this morning. Let's see if we can find arrows that you can use first. The armory will have some, but maybe not of the kind you can use since from what I have seen both your bow and arrows are quite small, but not small enough that the blow-darts Pock uses would work. Even Pot's bow and arrows are a bit bigger since he is strong enough to use them with his falna granted strength.

But for the most part you simply need practice and more practice. I can give you tips, like leading the target for hitting moving targets and throw wooden, stuffed bags, or ceramic targets for you to hit mid-air or have someone else do so. But hitting actual monsters in the dungeon will be better when it comes to learning how to predict movements and properly lead the target. You will likely need both cheap arrows you do not care about in bulk and slightly sturdier arrows you can retrieve to use again.

Most can be bought, though that does get expensive. But if you don't know how already I can show you how to make your own arrows which is better if you have time since you will always know what quality arrow you have if you make your own. From what I've seen while on our journey you are still slow to notch an arrow, aim, draw the string of the bow back and release the arrow. So practicing to increase your speed will be good as well. That way even if you miss the first few times you will hit a target eventually.

Since you do not have a large bow capable of adding strength to your arrows you will need to make up for that with rate of fire and the fact that they will be poisoned. Since you have that inventory skill if you are serious about using bows you might upgrade to a stronger bow once your own strength increases due to your falna, saving the pukei bow for adding poison to the arrows if that manages to work without using the same bow. I have never bothered with poison so don't know how this infusing a poison element to arrows works. "

Ais nodded in acceptance. She had hoped that Thane would have a way to teach her how to improve, some special technique since he was so very accurate and fast but it seemed that she really just did need yet more dull practice. He might be so good due to putting in hours of practice for months and months especially against the actual monsters of the dungeon. So Ais basically just needed a large supply of arrows and maybe a bit of supervised help from Thane for the first hour or so, then she just needed to set aside time to practice every day. Getting the arrows, time, and forcing herself to practice was the real issue.

Ais needed to stop to feed the vigor-wasps every two hours, plus other practice with her other weapons, helping teach Tsuki how to train and feed vigor-wasps, and whatever else would come up such as the trip to harvest all those monsters. Trying to re-learn how to have fun with Shippo would also take time and sounded much more interesting than endless practice. Repetitively sending arrows at targets, retrieving arrows if they were not damaged, then sending them out again would be boring compared to all the other things Ais could do instead.

Ais would force herself to set aside some time, but felt that joining the night adventurer's and practicing against live monsters, especially the dungeon flies and bats whenever they reached the 5th floor would help the most since it would be both useful, semi- profitable, and necessary for someone to handle those types of monsters.

Thane lead her to a to the lobby, receiving room or whatever the entrance of the Traveler's Inn was called then lead her through another hallway leading from it. That hallway branched and had some doors on both branches, so far Ais had only followed it to find the library. But apparently one of the doors, which was heavier than normal and locked lead to the armory. Thane unlocked the door with a key from his pocket, and Ais saw the Hermes famillia armory.

It was smaller than the Hera or Zeus familia armory and not nearly so full. There were still shelves, racks, stands and so on, but the room itself was smaller and half-empty. There were a few sets of leather armor, daggers, knives, swords, shields, spears, bows, arrows, basic staffs, and so on but only 3 or so of the bigger weapons at most. There were more daggers and knives, but not by much.

Thane commented "Most keep their weapons and equipment in their rooms or on the rack by the doors since it is easier. This is mainly here for new member's of the famillia. Since even if it is basic this is slightly better quality than what the Guild of Adventurer's provides. We let new adventurer's use those weapons 1st of course, but if they do not have enough Vali to buy new equipment once the equipment provided by the Guild starts wearing down they can use these instead until they have enough Vali to buy better equipment. Lets check and see if any of these arrows work or if you can draw one of these other bows. After all for practice you do not need poisoned arrows and it would be a better to start getting used to a more standard bow anyway.

Thane grabbed up all 3 of the bows and quivers of arrows. There was also a crossbow that he considered briefly, but in the end he just grabbed the bolts that went with it to test if they would work with Ais bow since the bolts were actually a similar size as Ais old arrows, just made entirely of metal, with no feather's at the ends and shaped a bit oddly to better work with the crossbow.

Thane then handed off the bows and arrows to Ais, asking her to store them temporarily while they headed toward the target range to see if Ais could use any of those.

Once Thane had lead Ais outside they went toward that target range and Ais proceeded to try to use any one of the three other bows. She found that if she strained she could just draw a re-curve bow and a smallish normal bow. The long bow was impossible for her to even put the string on. But her aim was terrible since using those bows was near the limit of her strength. Although awkward, using the arrows from all those bows with her normal Pukei bow was slightly easier, although it still threw off Ais aim slightly. Although the right size the crossbow bolts flew much differently than a normal arrow and Ais could only use them from close range since they were too heavy to use normally.

After watching and trying to help for a while, about 40 or so minutes Thane finally said.

"Keep that small re-curve bow for now, even if it is at the limit of your strength now with a few weeks practice and increased strength it will be easier. Keep the arrows that came with it as well, they are the closest to what you were previously using. I'll see if I can gather materials for you to make your own arrows and give you a lesson in crafting different types of arrows properly in the next few days. If you alternate trying to use that re-curve bow and your own Pukei bow it will help you in the future a lot. Trying to hit moving targets will be beyond you until you have a chance to practice increasing your speed and adjust your aim again, but basically in our storage shed we have numerous wooden discs with painted targets. When you feel more comfortable with the re-curve bow or have your own arrows again you can ask someone to throw the disks for you to practice with. But you need to be much faster than you are now to hit a target thrown in the air."

Ais sighed a bit, then said

"Thanks for helping Thane. I don't want to specialize solely in the bow so I don't know how much time I will dedicate to practicing, using my swords or daggers is easier and more interesting. I do know I want to be better with my bow and arrows than I am now, since bows and arrows are too useful to ignore. There are many monsters out there that are far too dangerous to get up close to as I am now, so at least with a bow and arrows I can contribute in some way. I guess there is no shortcut to getting better so I'll just have to set aside some time to practice in between everything else.

By the way, is there any special way to practice in bad light condition's? Most of my days are going to be used helping teach Tsuki how to feed and train the vigor-wasps so I was planning on going to the dungeon with the Night Adventurer's. But I know I rely heavily on my sight so my aim would be terrible if I tried using my bow and arrows in the dimmer light of the dungeon at night. As a half-elf even in dark my eyesight is probably better than a normal human, but still not nearly as good as during the day. I'm good at spotting movement but I don't know how that will translate to my aim." Ais explained

"When you have your own arrows I'll give you a lesson at night, but mainly using a bow and arrow at night means relying on your hearing, what little you can see, and even more practice than aiming at daytime. If you want to use your bow and arrows in the dungeon at night then you do need quite a bit more practice before you can be relied upon to hit your targets.

Having many many arrows and trying to send them as fast as possible might be best if there is no one engaging the the monsters up close. Goblins, Dungeon lizards, and Kobolds are not incredibly difficult targets to hit, but they will try to dodge so by itself that will increase the difficulty. Dungeon flies and Bats would be much harder to try to hit given they can fly very in very erratic ways.

As expensive and time consuming as it sounds, making a huge amount of arrows to practice with or use in the dungeon will help the most for now. I gather most of the materials to make arrows myself since it is cheaper, so it is not too hard to gather more for you as well. But maybe you can come with me some day to store massive quantities of the wooden branches that are best to use to help pay for what I will give you now. Since I know you do not have any Vali yet.

Also always try to retrieve your arrows when it is safe to do so. Even broken, the material can go toward making another arrow or at least firewood if nothing else. We might have the Seleo forest right next to us so wood is not too hard to come by, but there are monsters there so wood is not that cheap either. Since anyone harvesting wood needs to also hire guards to fend off the monsters, or already be an adventurer capable of defending themselves. Proper feathers are even rarer since birds are very hard to catch and the few who breed them use the feather's to stuff pillows and such as well. There are also not many monsters with feathers around this area. Shaped arrowheads of stone or metal take time to make as well.

So even cheap arrows should not be wasted. When we go to harvest all the monsters you have stored in your inventory I will retrieve all the arrows stuck in their bodies. Unfortunately turning them into fire arrows as I did means they will all be damaged, but parts of them will still be useful." Thane responded.

Ais blinked in surprise. She was resigned and had expected Thane to respond that practice was needed for using a bow and arrow at night, but had no idea he would go off on that tangent about the value of arrows after deciding that many arrows were the best way to help her improve. Ais had no idea that there was so much trouble just getting the materials to make arrows. Eleanor and Elaine had provided her arrows previously, or she had bought them before this. They had not seemed that expensive. Either that was yet another difference between Asteria and Orario or Thane was a very spendthrift person.

"Okay, then. I'll keep all that in mind. Is this lesson over for now? It is about time that I feed the vigor-wasps again. I can come back after that if you want, but it seems that you have taught what you can for today. Hopefully Robin or someone will be up to take me to the guild to get registered and take that test. I'll probably fail the first time since I have only memorized the map of the first floor, but at least I will have a better idea of what I need to focus on. Then I'll need to get ready to head toward the Miach famillia to start teaching Tsuki. After that I'll some have free time again, hopefully for at least 4 hours but you will probably already be in the dungeon or gathering materials for arrows. I am not sure when I'll be allowed to go into the dungeon, but even if I was allowed to go tomorrow night I should be fine anyway. I won't need to rely on my bow and arrows for the first few nights probably so I'll have time to make my arrows and practice. Early morning or mid-afternoon are probably the best times we can meet for lessons until Tsuki has made enough arrangements to take over the care of the vigor-wasps full-time. But I do appreciate you taking the time to help me Thane. Thank you." Ais responded.

Thane nodded and said.

"I do enjoy teaching and helping those in our famillia learn bow-craft. Regardless of you only being contracted to us for now, it is clear to me that you will be a valuable member of the Hermes familia in the future so it is only right to help you now. The contract is mostly a formality in your case while you are here. It just lets you have a guideline of the minimal expected behavior on both sides. While here you are a member of our famillia, and even when you leave here unless you deliberately try to cut all ties you will still be a member, just focusing on different things than most of us do. I hope you have a good day and will meet you soon to go over making your own arrows and help you get a start on using the bow and arrow at night. Goodbye for now Ais."

Then Thane nodded again and walked away to go about his own business.

Ais stored all the bows and arrows in her inventory, planning on returning most of them soon, then hurried to her room to retrieve the vigor-wasps so she could feed them. It was around 7 am or so since she had gotten up around 5, eaten breakfast, read while waiting for Thane to finish his own breakfast, and then had that hour long lesson and mini-lectures from Thane. That meant it would be exactly time to feed the vigor-wasps again when she met Tsuki at the Miach Blue Pharmacy around 9 am.

After feeding the vigor-wasps Ais kept the great Jagras bag on her back just in case then headed toward the dining room and lobby again to see if Robin or anyone else she knew were free to take her to the guild to register her. Thankfully Robin was up by now and just finishing her breakfast. So Ais took out the book of maps and monsters again to get a start on memorizing the 2nd floor. After about five more minutes Robin was done eating so Ais quietly walked up to her and asked

"Are you free to take me to get registered at the guild? I don't think I could pass the test right now, I only memorized the map of the 1st floor and part of the 2nd so there is no hurry if you want to wait until later in the day or tomorrow. But even if I fail the test that could help me get a better idea of what to focus on. I am also not absolutely sure I know the way to the Blue Pharmacy yet either so in 2 hours if I could get someone to guide me that would help.

Thane already helped me a bit with my bow, but since I was out of arrows he mainly had me trying to use arrows from the smallest re-curve bow in the armory and even trying to use that re-curve bow. We need to return the other bows and arrows that are too big too. Even though it is very hard to use right now Thane recommended I try to practice using the smallest re-curve bow. In the next few days Thane will bring materials and teach me how to make my own arrows. Then I will have to practice a lot to get better, Thane says. But I can get some of that practice in the dungeon since I also have my swords and daggers, and can act as a supporter if all else fails."

Robin chuckled at Ais eagerness and replied.

"We can start the process of getting you registered at least. Hermes needs to fill out a form acknowledging our famillia's responsibility for you first. But now that we are here in Orario other than catching up with updating the status of those that were here he is not nearly as busy as he was in Asteria so he should have the form done by tomorrow. When you are not busy teaching Tsuki about the vigor-wasps we can go over your equipment, get you a few minor potions, and you can keep studying, training, or relaxing as you choose. You can also speak more with the Night adventurer's once they start waking up, have a brief spar with someone so we can get a better idea of your skill level or even get to know some of the other famillia members around here as well.

It would probably be best to wait until after all the large monsters are harvested in a few days before you actually go into the dungeon since as Thane said you will need more practice with your bow and arrows. And even if according to the description of your Inventory skill magic stones have their own special slot it is still a bad idea to go into the dungeon with all those corpses still in there I think. Since there are occasional monster drops that will need to be stored and we have no idea whether stored things stay in the inventory if you are knocked unconscious or suffer from mind-down."

Ais sighed at the delay but nodded in acceptance of Robin's words. They made a lot of sense.

Robin stood up, returned her dishes to be cleaned, then said.

"Well, my main job right now is guiding you and making you comfortable here until you have settled in properly. I have various other stuff to do when you are busy but nothing urgent today. So we can go to the guild to start the process of registering you then head toward the Miach famillia. I think there is a map of Orario at the guild as well that we can get a copy of. I can buy you a few potions while at the Blue Pharmacy and then depending on how much time Tsuki can devote to the vigor-wasps or if she already has a place to keep them we can figure out what else to do today after that. I will introduce you to at least one other person in the guild who can take over acting as a guide since I will want to be involved in setting up the trip to harvest the monster corpses and get a bit of time in the dungeon myself later starting tomorrow."

Ais nodded again and said simply "Okay, sounds good to me."

Robin then lead Ais back to the tower of Babel and through it toward the district the Guild building was in, commenting as she did.

"Even if it might seem longer to head toward the Tower of Babel to get to other districts it is simpler to navigate that way. We would have to go up and down 1 ladder, through the market district, up and down another ladder, and then walk through or around a good portion of that district, which has a few fenced famillia homes and the large fenced Airmed garden to reach the Guild Building. The Guild building is in the Northern portion of the district, just a bit northwest of the Tower of Babel.

At least the Blue Pharmacy and the Guild building are in the same district even if the Blue Pharmacy is far south and west of the Guild building. The Airmed famillia home and garden are near the center of that district as well so you will likely become familiar with it soon enough if the Airmed famillia let Tsuki cultivate the vigor-wasps there."

They eventually stopped in front of a big building, 3 and a half stories high with a sign in front saying "Guild for Adventuring," When they entered one of Feline's memories of a Bank intruded since the area was apparently set-up very similar to a bank. There was a secured area with a sign saying "Exchange" above it where the only access were windows with slots beneath to put things in a drawer that could be pulled open or pushed back toward the other person behind the window. There was also mostly open space with lines and dividers for people to stand in line, and desks all along the sides of the building with dividing walls and comfortable chairs, with "Advisers" above those desks.

The only difference between a bank and this guild that Ais could see was that there was a staircase with the sign "Private Advising & Tests" above it in one corner. And there was another large desk in the center of the building with a sign saying "Registration and Other services" above it. There were also 2 small tables on either side of that desk with pencils chained to the table. It was all meant to be well organized. There was already a general line in front of the desks for Adviser's and the Registration, with many people in armor standing and waiting for their turn. There was only one desk open for "Exchange" but there was also only 1 person waiting for their turn while someone else dropped a pouch full of stones into the slot.

Robin sighed at the sight of the line then moved to stand behind the last person in the "Registration" sign. After waiting for 15 minutes it was finally the turn of Robin and Ais to be helped. Robin clearly stated "Registering a new member of the Hermes famillia, and requesting an appointment with a private adviser for the test regarding entrance to the dungeon for that new famillia member."

The man behind the desk nodded, and brought out multiple paper forms to be filled out for that registration. He handed them to Robin. He then checked a book and said. "Sophie, the adviser generally assigned to help with new adventurer's of the Hermes famillia among others will be free for a private advising session and can have the test material ready tomorrow at 10 am, 1 pm, or 4:30 pm. The day after that or even later Sophie will have more openings if you are willing to wait. "

Robin glanced down at Ais and said "Do you want to try taking the test tomorrow or wait until later? Since we are likely to wait until after the trip to Melen before letting you join a group going into the dungeon anyway just in case there is no true hurry."

"If there is no penalty for failing the first test I don't mind taking it tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll have the maps of the dungeon floors all memorized by then but everything else I should be good on by then. Maybe the time at 4:30 pm to give me a bit more time to study and get most things I need to do done for the day." Ais replied.

Robin shrugged and then replied to the man behind the desk. "An appointment with Sophie tomorrow at 4:30 pm then for Ais Wallenstein, Ais will return all these forms properly filled out and give them to Sophie at the same time if that is okay."

The man agreed, then asked Robin for the spelling of Ais's name to be sure he got it right, he wrote that down in the book and glanced down at Ais to address her.

"When you come in tomorrow, go up the staircase, sign in with the secretary, then you will be directed to the room Sophie will be waiting for you in. Even if you somehow pass the test, you cannot enter the dungeon until your paperwork is processed, you will need to meet Sophie to confirm the paperwork is in order at least 1 more time so set up another appointment as you are leaving.. Do you understand that?"

Ais nodded and said "I understand."

After that Robin and Ais left to go to the Miach Blue Pharmacy. As they walked Robin pointed out the Airmed garden and famillia home, then they walked around the fence and eventually made it to the Blue Pharmacy Miach famillia home and shop.

Tsuki welcomed them with a smile and a comment. "Glad you are here now, Boann knows enough to take over for this slow time."

Tsuki then gestured at a slightly short human woman standing beside her. The woman was wearing a blue blouse with embroidery of rivers with small fish and birds on the rivers. She also had a skirt that had similar embroidery as the blouse, just more complex. That woman had black hair with blue streaks and gray-blue eyes. The woman had large breasts and wide hips, so an hourglass figure.

"Ais, this is Boann, she is a fellow famillia member who has been acting as my aide. She is a mother of twin boys a few years older than Naaza. She will take over most of my duties in tending to the shop while I focus on the vigor-wasps and trying to improve all of our potions with the new vitality nectar from them. Then we will probably rotate tasks to avoid boredom. Boann, this is Robin and Ais of the Hermes famillia, they have brought the vigor-wasps all the way from Asteria and made a deal to sell them to us after teaching me how to properly train, breed, and harvest vitality nectar from them them as well as giving a starting amount of vigor-wasp food and basket-homes. In exchange for samples of the new potions I will be mixing and 1.5% of the profits from selling the new potions for 1 year."

"Nice to meet you Ais and Robin, thanks for giving the Miach famillia this opportunity." Boann responded with a warm smile

"Nice to meet you as well, Boann" Robin replied

Ais nodded and said "Good to see you Boann."

"So Ais if you can start teaching me how to train and feed the vigor-wasps I have a bit of time today. Do you mind if Naaza tags along for this as well? We can use the greenhouse again for now.

The Airmed famillia agreed to let us house the vigor-wasps in their garden in 2 days, they just want to make sure their bees that they keep are settled in one area and set up a divider for the area the vigor-wasps will be staying in. I was not sure how well the bees and vigor-wasps would get along given they would both be competing for the nectar from the same flowers so I asked that for now we keep them mostly separate until I know for sure they won't try to kill each other.

By then I should be mostly free to take over cultivating the vigor-wasps for most of the time, although I ask that during the peak hours of the shop you continue to feed the vigor-wasps at least twice a day until the end of this week. Peak hours for the shop are around 6am until 8am, and 5 until 7 pm. Umm. . .Are vigor-wasps like birds that sleep at night or do they have to be fed even at night like infant babies?"

Tsuki requested and asked.

"Sure, Nazza can come along. She can even help with training and feeding the vigor-wasps if you supervise her a bit. Although I don't know how much attention they will pay her on a normal basis, if Nazza is involved in their feeding and training the great vigor-wasps may even let her ride on them once they grow big enough. I am not sure how much having multiple care-takers will affect the obedience of the vigor-wasps, so I don't know for sure that this specific growing great vigor-wasp will obey her. But if she stays involved then the next generations of great vigor-wasp will obey her and let her ride on them for short periods as long as you also encourage them."

The group of Tsuki, Naaza, Robin and Ais started walking out of the Blue Pharmacy toward the greenhouse as Ais continued speaking and lecturing. Naaza had cheered at hearing she could come and cheered even louder when Ais mentioned that if she was involved in training and feeding them Naaza could ride any great vigor-wasps.

"Vigor-wasps have a relatively short life cycle, about 3 months for them to hatch from eggs, grow, live, breed, and then die in good weather if nothing else kills them. But they are old enough to start breeding about 3 weeks after they hatch, and they hatch within 3 days or so of the parents laying the eggs. They live slightly longer but breed and grow less in cold weather. I'm sure that Nazza will have a lot of fun for a few years or so until she grows too big and heavy for the great vigor-wasps to carry if she stays involved in feeding and training them." Ais said with a smile at Naaza as she came to that part of her lecture.

In answer for your 2nd question Tsuki.

Vigor-wasps can sleep for long periods like a human but wake anytime there is activity around them regardless of the light, since they are their own source of light with their slightly glowing sacs of vitality nectar. They need to be fed a lot while awake. But if it is quiet they can go most of the night sleeping, maybe being fed once every 6-7 hours at night, although the more frequently they are fed, the more they breed so since I wake up a lot I usually feed them every 4 hours at night. Still, once their number is at least doubled of the current generation as long as there is some null-berry juice and Vespoid honey they can keep breeding at a slower rate while still maintaining healthy numbers.

Currently I have a large hive, at 32 from my last count since more survived the journey than I expected. However some of them are probably near the end of their life cycle so wait until at least one generation has hatched, in the next 3 days before you start actively harvesting them. The ones that fly very slowly should be harvested first, they are the older ones and they sometimes become suicidal and kill themselves to give their nectar to the rest of the hive even if you don't harvest them.

You can cut down on the Vspoid honey and null-berry juice feedings once that generation are at least a week old, but should have at least a small amount available a few times a day. Maybe you can leave feeders and smears of honey out and just re-fill them every 4 hours or so when the feeders start getting empty and the smears are cleaned as long as you keep track of how many vigor-wasp are around that are breeding age.

No one has been able to tell the gender of a vigor-wasp until they begin mating, and it is sometimes uncertain even then, so making sure there are at least 12, but preferably 18-25 vigor-wasp at all times generally means that the hive is a healthy number that can easily replace lost vigor-wasps from being harvested as long as they have enough of the right kind of food.

If the vigor-wasps are in an enclosed garden they will likely stay there and also feed on the flower nectar or any other berries or fruit without tough skins so won't need quite as much sugar-water or normal juice." Ais finished that lecture as they had arrived at the greenhouse and were standing on a path near the center.

Ais then carefully set her great Jagras bag down and brought out the 4 baskets of vigor-wasps. Since she was not sure if Robin wanted her to share her secret yet she pretended to pull out all the feeders, strips of leather, liters of juice and sugar-water, and a large jar of vespoid honey as well as a small wooden spoon to collect the honey and smear it from the bag while quietly mouthing "inventory" to activate her skill, she had done the same for her previous demonstration, acting almost like Feline's memories of a stage magician.

Once everything was retrieved Ais showed both Tsuki and Nazza how to carefully unscrew the feeders, fill them, and flip them upside down without spilling the liquid. She also told Tsuki and Naaza.

"I'm not sure if I'm repeating myself, but you don't really need to smear the Vespoid honey on leather, as long as there are no sharp objects nearby like the branches of a tree then any surface will do."

Then Ais guided Tsuki and Naaza in how to open up one basket at a time and start feeding the vigor-wasps.

"Here, see this little part sticking out, unlatch the loop from it and then one part of the basket is designed to easily bend outwards and make a little ledge for the vigor-wasp to crawl onto before launching themselves in the the air. And there goes the first one!"

The watched the first basket slowly empty itself out and Ais directed the vigor-wasps in where she wanted them to feed with gestures pointing and a few simple words.

"Feed, move, Null-berry, move, go to honey, move."

"Now, point at the feeder or strip of leather you want it to feed from quickly. They are hungry so will go to the nearest one automatically if you don't direct them after 3 seconds, but especially in a place like this they need to know to what is safe to feed from. Since otherwise after a while they will try to eat from any flowers, feeder like objects including normal cups, and fruit in the area, regardless of if the flower or fruit is poisonous to them or not. I keep track of how long each vigor-wasp is at each type of food and have them rotate until they have eaten at all 3 kinds of food."

"Tsuki, this part of the training should remain regardless of the purpose you want the vigor-wasps for. Since I know many medicines are actually mildly poisonous if not taken in the proper dosages or mixed with other things that part of the training should remain regardless. Once you are in a garden or if you want to raise a small hive here, just direct them to safe flowers and fruit and supervise them for a few days, shooing them away from what you want them not to feed on. Some might disobey and die for that, but the remaining ones will finally start listening. Just remember, every new generation needs to be supervised and taught, their elders might teach them a little but vigor-wasps might care for the collective in general but are not truly hive-minded most of the time."

" Since vigor-wasps need to be quite close to a wound for their vitality nectar to reach it if the nectar is being used directly to heal on its own, directing them to actual armor, skin, or clothing by smearing honey on those items is the next step in training them to sacrifice themselves to heal the injuries of others on the field. But again, since you plan on simply adding the vitality nectar to potions that type of training is probably unnecessary unless you decide to try using the vigor-wasps in the dungeon once you have enough extra vigor-wasps to form a small separate hive."

Then after letting that group feed for a bit and when they started flying about randomly rather than always heading for the nearest source of food Ais started chivying them back to their basket as she asked

"Naaza or Tsuki could you try opening another basket and start trying to direct the new batch of vigor-wasps? They will likely ignore you and head for the nearest feeder, but that will leave that feeder overcrowded so I will get them to move on after I get all these back in their basket."

With a great smile Naaza eagerly opened a basket and watched the vigor-wasps crawl out then fly trying to enthusiastically copy Ais movements of pointing and walking to where she wanted the vigor-wasps to go as she shouted "FEED!" "No, Move over there!"

Ais helped Naaza out and then resumed talking to Tsuki.

". . .I am not sure that the vigor-wasps would survive long in the dungeon given all the hostile monsters spawning near randomly I read about, but I can write down the instructions for how to start training them in that way if someone in your famillia ever decides to try that method. It does work outside Orario for the monster hunters and Palicos after all, and monsters might not be as hostile to vigor-wasps as they are to people so it is possible. . ."

Ais stopped to make sure the vigor-wasps were rotating what they fed on with Naaza happily copying Ais by following her, repeating her movements and shouting after Ais had spoken a simple command. Ais also asked Tsuki to re-fill some of the empty feeders and apply more honey to the strips of leather since the vigor-wasps had decimated the earlier supply.

Ais then continued her lecture.

"In a way vigor-wasps are considered a part of a supporters job to the Palicos who are the main supporters for Monster Hunters near Asteria.

Palico's are a bit more active in their supporting role than what I hear most supporters here in Orario are. Although I'm sure some supporters here are just as active in their own way. Palico's are very loyal to their Meowsters. Meowster and Palico usually work in pairs, but groups also gather and work together regularly in big expeditions and against the very dangerous large monsters.

Palico's not only carry the equipment, and harvest the valuable parts from monsters. Most also use various gadgets and minor weapons designed to poison, stun, or otherwise weaken a monster. Vigor-wasp spray is called a gadget, even though it is basically smaller versions of these baskets with highly trained vigor-wasps that the Palico direct near wounds and pierce the sac to spray vitality nectar where it is needed in the midst of battle. Some very well trained vigor-wasps in their later stages of life will even splatter their sac over a wound without the need for their sac being pierced at a Palico's directions.

There are a few different gadgets that Palico's also learn to use, but most start out with vigor-wasp spray and maintain a small well-trained hive just in case even after they learn the other gadgets or how to use weapons.

If I have to start out as a supporter I want to at least be a Palico-style supporter, so I know the basics of a Palico's entire job. I'll move on from vigor-wasps for now, which is why I am giving up the entire hive. But they are easy to find near Asteria and a botanist I know maintains a small hive for me back home while using the vigor-wasps for her own purposes if I ever change my mind. And maybe in the future that style of supporting will catch on and you'll have either members of your famillia or even supporters from other famillia who want to try bringing vigor-wasps to the dungeon. Maybe Naaza will want to try that out sometime when she is older if she ever decides to go to the dungeon." Ais added with a glance and smile at Naaza.

Ais stopped lecturing to chivy this set of vigor-wasps back to the basket as Naaza gleefully opened a 3rd basket following Ais directions. That basket had the near-great vigor wasp and two others. Naaza gleefully looked at the large vigor-wasp that had already begun growing again and was at least a few inches bigger than it had been for the last demonstration the previous day since Ais had been feeding the vigor-wasps very often. This vigor-wasp was now close to 3 feet long.

Ais went on a bit of a tangent in her lecturing.

" There is probably some magic involved in how vigor-wasps can fly at all with such large sacs so great vigor-wasps can somehow carry people or Palico's that are only a little smaller than they are themselves somehow. A great vigor-wasp generally stops growing at around 4 ft and 11 inches long, though some rare ones grow even bigger.

After the great vigor-wasp stops growing it starts entering the later stages of its life at that point. They are mature enough to mate a week before they stop growing, but generally wait until their growth ends. If there is another great vigor-wasp nearby it will mate, or I guess if it is female a smaller male vigor-wasp might be able to mate with her, but I have only ever saw a great vigor-wasp lay eggs the one time I managed to raise two great vigor-wasp together. Those eggs hatched another two great vigor-wasp but I did not have the patience or willingness to feed them both so I sold one of them for the nectar when it was mid-size like this. The remaining great vigor-wasp never laid eggs that I saw, so it was probably a male or could not mate with the smaller vigor-wasps. But if condition's are right any hive will have at least one vigor-wasp start growing to great size. Eggs from great vigor-wasp are more likely to hatch into great vigor-wasp, but they also eat much more than normal vigor-wasps especially when they are still growing so you will have to decide how many you raise at a time."

Ais decided to transfer the normal size vigor-wasps to a new basket rather than putting them back in with the near-great vigor-wasp so after the vigor-wasps were feeding she got out an empty basket and a long- handled flexible brush and showed Tsuki and Naaza how to carefully brush honey along part of the inside of the basket. She kept those two away from the strips of leather with honey until the end, then directed them to the basket for that part of their feeding but left that basket open.

She then started winding down her lecture as if she had not stopped and gone at a tangent at all.

" It is a lot of work and takes time to fully train vigor-wasp so it seems likely that it will be rare for people to try bringing vigor-wasps to the dungeon. Potions are more convenient after all but other than food vigor-wasps are self-sustaining so some might eventually decide to do so once vigor-wasps are more common here.

Again, Vespoid honey is easier to gather near Asteria so it is very cheap to maintain a small hive there. But maybe after 10 or 20 generations the descendents of this group might be able to breed with normal bee honey as well, the Botanists never kept their experiments going that long in Asteria that I know of. They just tried it for a few generations and found that bee honey did not work for some reason. But if the Airmed family keeps normal bees you will have a chance to try seeing if maybe vigor-wasps can adapt and evolve over a long period of time for them but within a lifetime for us."

Then Tsuki opened up the last basket as Ais finally got the near-great size vigor wasp back into its basket. This basket was a bit more crowded than the others, with 13 vigor-wasps so Ais directed 5 to the new basket by brushing more honey inside it and having those five feed there as their final allotment of food.

Ais had both Naaza and Tsuki practicing directing the vigor-wasps, enforcing their orders with her own when the vigor-wasps disobeyed, but this group had at least half obey Tsuki and Naaza's combined efforts even without Ais reinforcing the order.

Robin had left at some point to speak more with Boann and buy some potions and came back just as Naaza and Tsuki managed to chivy the last vigor-wasp back into the basket.

Tsuki offered "Ais, I can keep the vigor-wasps in their baskets in the greenhouse for now, as long as you are willing to come back to supervise and enforce Naaza's and I's orders when the next major feeding takes place in another 2 hours. I can probably keep this up for most of today, just make sure you are here, maybe supervising Naaza if she still wants to help out by then, before 5 pm when Adventurer's start coming back from the dungeon in great enough numbers that Boann will not be able to keep up yet."

Ais agreed and left the now 5 great baskets along with the near- empty feeders. She then hesitated and said that

"The juice might start going bad if left in this heat, the greenhouse is greater than normal room temperature after all. My great-Jagras bag has a cool section that I keep the juice in, and it takes over a day for the juice to go bad in normal room temperature even when it is sealed improperly. So you might store the juice and maybe the Vespoid honey inside and in a cool place if possible for the juice. Sugar-water will eventually grow mold as well, though very slowly under normal circumstances. So it is okay to leave the feeders here for now, but you might want to clean them out every day or so if there is any residue left like now." Ais had fibbed slightly about her great Jagras having a cool section, but she knew that some Palico and Monster Hunters actually had deluxe versions that had that aspect so it was not much of a stretch.

". . .So I can drop off all the food necessary for the rest of the day in the Blue Pharmacy and if you have enough space we can store the the rest as well, or I can keep bringing each day's worth of food. The sugar-water and normal juice will likely run out by the end of the week or even earlier depending on how many new vigor-wasp hatch so you will need to buy or make more. I focused on storing as much Vespoid honey and Null-berry juice as I could since we did not know if the null-berries were growing well here and of course there are no Vespoid anywhere near here to collect honey from."

The group then went back to the Blue Pharmacy where Ais pretended to take the Vespoid honey, null-berry juice, sugar-water, and cranberry juice out of her great Jagras bag, although it was actually from her inventory, and Tsuki found a place to put them, some in a large fridge. That way once Tsuki was confident enough to feed the vigor-wasps without Ais supervising she could do so.

Then Ais double checked the time and told Tsuki that she would be back in a bit less than 2 hours. Since it was 9:45 am Ais would be back around 11: 10 am to make it two hours from when they started feeding the first basket of vigor-wasps.

Ais asked Tsuki " Please start setting up the feeders in the greenhouse by yourself or with Naaza around 10: 55 am, I will walk directly to the greenhouse rather than going to the Blue Pharmacy, quickly double check your work, and then you can start the process of feeding them. I'll just reenforce your own efforts. That way you can learn how to do everything yourself and start building authority with the vigor-wasps as quickly as possible. If all goes well by tomorrow during the lull period you can feed the vigor-wasps by yourself so I can have a good portion of the day free. When we transfer the vigor-wasps to the Airmed garden I'll supervise again for 1-3 days to help you teach the vigor-wasps which flowers and fruit are safe for them to feed from, which need to be avoided, as well as try to get them to mostly stay in their section rather than the section with the bees."

After that Ais and Robin said their goodbyes and on the way back Ais paid careful attention to how to get from the Blue Pharmacy area back to the Traveler's Inn, so that she could make the trip by herself rather than relying on a guide all the time. Robin still took her back through the Tower of Babel, then through it to get to the other district.

Once they got back Robin searched around a bit, and discovered that a Hermes famillia member named Kagome had taken the day off from going into the dungeon so decided to introduce Ais to her so Ais would have someone else to act as a guide or just be able to answer basic questions when Robin was too busy. When they found her Ais looked and saw Kagome was a slightly older teen, with long black hair hanging freely and dark gray-blue eyes. She had a large long bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back, and wore white and red miko clothing.

Robin walked up to Kagome and spoke:

"Kagome, this is Ais Wallenstein. She is from Asteria and new here so if you have spare time could you act as a guide for her when I am too busy. She will mostly be joining the Night Adventuring party with Shippo after we have made a few preparations, although she might join your group as well as a supporter at some point, she will just be too busy during the day for a while, since she came here to help establish a breeding vigor-wasp hive and the Miach family will need her help for a while during the day.

Mostly I ask that you escort her to and from the Blue Pharmacy a few times until she knows the routes to get there when she needs to today, as well as other places she might need to go. Maybe give her a tour of the Traveler's Inn and grounds and introduce her to some other members of the famillia if you have time. She knows everyone who went to Asteria and I introduced her to the Night Adventurer group as well. Strangely she has not officially met our Captain Asfl yet, although I'm sure Asfl already knows who she is."

"Okay, I'll be happy to act as a guide for Ais here today and when I have free time." Kagome replied with a smile.

Robin nodded in relief and said "thanks Kagome." Then she turned to Ais and said, "are you okay with me leaving you in Kagome's hands for now? I'll still be around today if you really need help but I might as well get started on the preparations for our big trip to Melen and harvesting all the large monsters stored in your inventory such as getting enough tools for that harvesting."

"I should be fine. Thanks for taking the time to help me so far Robin." Ais responded.

Then Robin left and Kagome gave Ais a brief tour of the Traveler's Inn. Ais had already seen most of the truly interesting rooms such as the library, armory, kitchen and lobby. The rest was all rooms for people to sleep, bathrooms, and offices for the high ranking members. When Kagome showed Ais the armory Ais returned the extra bows and arrows from her brief lesson with Thane and mentioned why she had them.

"Oh? Maybe I can help you improve as well Ais. Although obviously I use a long-bow. They take longer to learn properly, I still have not mastered it yet, but it is worth it to me. I usually use a skill I have to help me guide my arrows and make them do more damage to monsters. But I can also use my long bow as a short staff on those occasions when there are enough monsters to reach past the people who focus on melee attacks and shielding. I am transitioning from being mainly a supporter to becoming a ranged specialist in our main dungeon explorer group led by our Captain Asfl."

"Thanks, I may take you up on that when Thane is busy, although his main suggestion was crafting a lot of arrows and practicing a lot to improve my speed, accuracy, and strength.

Practicing can be boring and I have only been training for a bit longer than a month, most of that without a falna so I only know the basics so far. I do want to improve with bows and arrows, but not just them but my daggers and swords as well." Ais responded.

"Well, variety can be useful even if it means much more work to truly master any of the weapons. But so far you seem to be very determined Ais, so I'm sure you'll do well!" Kagome said cheerfully.

Kagome them lead Ais to the 'backyard' which had many areas dedicated to training. There was a target range just for practicing with bows and arrows, a lot of areas with training dummies, including ways to make them move slightly, and various circles of mostly open space for plain sparring practice. There was one large storage shed that Ais had already seen and a lot of bins and small sheds with training equipment scattered near most of the training areas. That tour only took 5 minutes since Kagome basically just pointed at an example of each area and said what it was for, then pointed at the small storage sheds and bins and told Ais that they held some basic extra equipment.

"At least for now you should train with supervision or at least a training partner, so there is not much point in giving you a detailed tour of the training grounds. And really, what is the point of a tour anyway? Most things will be obvious. Unlike our armory and the main storage we don't bother with locks for all the other smaller storage sheds and bins so you can find everything on your own later.

Its late enough that all of the main dungeon exploration group are already down in the dungeon, so there is no one else to introduce you too and you are probably sick of introductions by now anyway.

Do you want to go to a weapon shop that sells arrows so you don't have to wait for Thane to teach you how to make your own? I'll buy enough to fill one quiver for you so you can get in some practice with me today if you want. You can pay me back later on once you have made some vali for yourself. It takes a lot of time to craft arrows from scratch even if it is a lot cheaper. So I do both, because I never have enough time or the willingness to make enough arrows to keep me supplied all the time, but I also don't make enough vali to always buy all of my own arrows especially since most of my arrows end up to damaged too salvage much from." Kagome spoke, pausing to catch her breath, but not actually waiting for answers to any of her questions until she finished.

Ais thought for a second, recalling what the actual question Kagome asked was and mentally going over her general schedule of when she needed to go back to the Blue Pharmacy to supervise and help Tsuki and Naaza and decided there was probably enough time to go to a shop and get some practice in, especially since other than mealtimes and supervising Tsuki and Naaza with the vigor-wasps Ais did not really have anything else she needed to do this day. The general tour Kagome had took her on only lasted about 15 minutes so Ais had over an hour until she needed to leave again.

"I would like to go to a shop and get some arrows if you don't mind, Kagome

Depending on how long it takes to reach a shop and buy the arrows we might not have too much time to practice immediately because I'll need to help Tsuki and Nazza of the Miach famillia with the vigor-wasps. When I get back from that we can put more practice time in before I need to leave again. I will have to go to the Blue Pharmacy several times today, and both traveling, feeding vigor-wasps, then coming back takes about an hour. Then I can return here, spend another hour practicing or eating when it is lunch, then repeat the whole process with the vigor-wasps. In a few days Tsuki and Naaza of the Miach famillia will not need my supervision or help at all during the times the shop is slow, but then again they might be transferring some of the vigor-wasps to the Airmed garden by then and will need help keeping the vigor-wasps from feeding on poisonous flowers and making sure the bees the Airmed famillia keep don't try to kill them." Ais responded and explained.

"Okay then, follow me to a good weapon shop with lots of different bows and arrows that I know! Kagome said cheerfully.

Kagome lead Ais to a weapon shop called "Bob's Bows and Bits" that had a few of of many kinds of bows, a huge amount of arrows, some spears, and throwing knives. Kagome bought a bundle of 50 small sized arrows there, along with her own arrows telling Ais that

"Although this is way more than a single quiver buying in bulk is cheaper."

By the time the two got back to the Traveler's Inn it was almost time for Ais to leave for the Blue Phaarmacy so Ais told Kagome "I am pretty sure I know the way, you can practice or whatever, I'll be back in an hour and can practice with you after that if you don't mind.

Ais made her way to the Blue pharmacy of the Miach Famillia and met Tsuki and Nazza at the greenhouse as promised. She mostly supervised and reinforced the orders when a few stubborn or stupid vigor-wasp ignored or were confused by orders coming from both an excitable child and an authoritative but quiet woman.

Then Ais returned to the Traveler's Inn, met Kagome at the archery training grounds and they both practiced with their bows and arrows, first at the static targets, then taking turns throwing wooden disks in the air for each other.

"Wow! You can draw arrows, aim and send them so very fast!" Ais complimented Kagome when she first saw Kagome's skill with the bow compared to herself.

When they had moved on to the moving targets Kagome had managed to hit 8 out of 10, and just barely missed the other two, hitting the edge of the disks with the arrows bouncing off. In comparison Ais had only managed to a single 1 of the 10 disks, and the arrow bounced off. With most of the disks falling to far before she could even release her arrows.

"You are not too bad yourself considering how very young you are and how short a time you have had to practice with your bow Ais. With that progress you will be as good as me very soon as long as you keep practicing and get more experience in the dungeon" Kagome complimented and encouraged Ais.

The rest of the day continued in a similar manner, although Kagome and Ais changed things up and practiced with dulled swords for Ais, with Kagome using her longbow as a makeshift staff. The day after that Thane finally had enough time to to go on a minor expedition with Ais to Seleo forest to collect many small branches of wood for arrow-shafts and teach her how to make massive amounts of many different arrows. Ais had studied overnight and although barely, she did well enough on the generic test to qualify as an Adventurer allowed into the dungeon, although not solo. Robin also stopped by and told Ais that the very next day the Hermes familia would go on a minor expedition to the nearby town of Melon, which hugged the shore of LoLog Lake in order to use their facilities for harvesting and cleaning the body-parts of all of the large monsters in Ais Inventory.

A.N.: As any reader can see I have been steadily losing interest in this story, I think I wrote myself into a hole with the vast amount of boring, slice of life details I have been including. So in the future boring parts will be summarized or skipped in favor of interesting scenes. Ch 10 will be posted in a week. But I have pretty much abandoned this story, so it will be a summarized version of what I planned for Ch10, plus a summary of what I planned for the whole story itself. If anyone likes any ideas or characters in my story feel free to adopt them, or even re-write and adopt the story itself although I hope you tell me so I can read your take on them.

2nd A.N: I have been writing a bunch of other fanfic short stories that caught my interest. I will be creating a snippet thread with a general overview of those stories, the one that gets the most interest will be continued in more detail.