(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 5/April/2025 9:16 PM, timezone GMT+3)
Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.
(Line Break)
(Tuesday, 20/10/1058)
(3rd person PoV)
"I AM GANESHA!!" It was then that Hashana knew, something was amess.
He facepalmed, hard, then sighed.
"That showboater!" Hashana sighed tiredly. "He should just open a circus if he wants to act like this"
"I. AM. GANESHA!" They saw him making a ridiculous pose, and announcing his name with a tone to match, at least by the lower realm's standards.
'Is he posing for a bodybuilding championship or something?' Henryk was lost for words to describe what he was seeing. His mind opted for the closest thing, as nonsensical as it was in the context of this world.
He sighed again. "At least we found him quicker"
A short walk down some stairs into an underground open space, they found the god performing overdramatic poses to show his muscles to absolutely no one.
"Lord Ganesha! A tamer is here to see you!" Hashana called Ganesha out of his personal world.
"Oh! Is he this young man?" Ganesha caught sight of Henryk and Futura. It was a clear tell with Futura, a man-sized wolf, following them calmly.
"It's an honour to meet you, god of the masses" Henryk said with a hand stretched for a handshake. "My name's Henryk Williams"
"Heloo" Futura did not nail it this time. She shyly looked slightly to the side.
"Good attempt, but you failed. You-" Henryk stopped when Futura's ears straightened up and her tail flared. She was ready to fight if he said anything more in regard to her age One. More. Time.
"Good job, Futura" He patted her head again, something that warranted a bite regardless of what was said. Futura started play-biting him as a warning.
"This is fascinating!" Ganesha started laughing boisterously. He was enjoying himself. "Consider converting to my familia later!"
"Well, what should I do now?" Henryk asked, struggling to get his hand out of an angy puppy's mouth. (Intentional typo)
"Wait" Ganesha said in a charismatic way. It baffled Hashana, who was used to a Ganesha that was the furthest from being serious.
"Ouranos! I request permission!" Ganesha said into the air.
'You don't say...' Henryk felt something unsettling moving around him.
"State your purpose!" The voice of what sounded like that of an old man reverberated throughout the large, open space within the room. It was not loud, and the voice was composed, yet it was loud, however that contradictory statement could be possible.
"A brief moment of inspection. I want to confirm my suspicions about something that could make our work much easier" Ganesha replied.
"..." The voice, which was supposedly Ouranos, did not reply immediately. "Permitted" Henryk felt the unsettling feeling disappear with the voice.
"Wh-!" Henryk could not fully say his question before the unsettling feeling returned. This time it was not the voice but Ganesha that was the source of the feeling.
'I don't think mortals should be able to perceive arcanum as intensely as I do right now. Either that or Hashana is resisting the feeling' He then looked at Futura. 'But if that was the case, then Futura's no mere mortal wolf. Good gods! What kind of wolf do I have with me?!' He lamented his lack of a sense of humor. 'But in all seriousness, this means that mortals shouldn't feel arcanum this strongly, if at all. I should look into this under the guise of how to recognise gods from mortals'
While Henryk thought it over, Ganesha retracted what little of his arcanum that he released. The unsettling feeling Henryk felt disappeared as it did with Ouranos's voice.
"What is this wolf? Where did she come from? And the most important question is, how did she gain sapiens?" Ganesha asked.
"A silver wolf of the forest on the foot of the Great Mountain Range, surrounding the village of Preblica. I found her alongside 3 pups with their sapiens already developed" Henryk revealed the truth all too easily. There was no reason to hide this part of it.
"Do they listen to you? And to what extent?" Ganesha asked.
'His first impression indicated a jolly buffoon and a showboater. He didn't strike me as someone who could get this serious' Henryk thought. 'I should stop attempting to evaluate deities based on my mortal standards from now on'
"They're willing to pull a loaded cart with two passengers if I requested their help. And if I didn't want them to attack something, they refrain unless it is to their detriment" Henryk said. He was looking for any changes in Ganesha's posture that could show a reaction.
"Show me something" Ganesha said with his arms folded.
(In the familia's training grounds)
"What level are you? And how does your wolf measure against you?" A man said. Henryk specifically requested to be pitted against a man to avoid getting in a touchy-feely distance of a woman. This man is a level 2 member of Ganesha's familia who wears a mask that covers his entire face.
'Futura, be honest with me. How much weaker am I?'. Henryk said to Futura while cupping his chin to pretend that he was thinking deeply about it.
'So, you noticed' Futura said nonchalantly. She expected him to notice at some point. 'When did you?'
'Several months ago' Henryk kept his reply short. He was silently telling her to hurry and answer his question.
'I myself should be around twice as strong as you are. I don't know about the others' Futura said.
"She should be stronger than me. I won't be able to overpower her in a contest of strength" Henryk said. He kept the magnitude of difference between them ambiguous.
"Let's start, then" The man said in a coldly composed voice. "Try to get me out of this circle" The man said as he drew a circle with the butt of the wooden spear he held.
'Futura, I'll whisper random things into your ears, but I want you not to lash out if you didn't like something' Henryk said through the now open link.
'Why?' Futura said.
'We need to trick them into thinking that I necessarily need to tell you things with my voice' Henryk whispered random things into Futura's ears, his eyes flitting around their opponent as if to search for weaknesses.
'Circle behind him' Henryk instructed as he whistled.
Henryk rushed at the man from the front while Futura awaited further commands behind the man.
'Good call. Surrounding an opponent to strike at the back is a wise use of numbers. But it has flaws when there are only two opponents. I can turn a bit, and I see both again' The man did as He thought. And as he deduced from experience, he had Henryk and Futura in his sights again. 'What would you do now?'
Henryk whistled again while telling Futura to go behind the man again but close in on him, stopping at a safe distance but in a stance ready to pounce at his back.
Henryk relentlessly attacked the man with the spear's wooden head. Since there was no real risk of injuring his opponent, he went all out.
Seeing an opening, one Henryk intentionally disguised as a lack of experience or overconfidence, the man stabbed the butt of his spear into Henryk's abdomen, pushing him back. He then stabbed backwards before turning around to find Futura, who lunged at him but retreated to dodge his attack.
'As I thought' The man squinted his eyes. 'I felt something was wrong with that opening. There is a possibility that he made it artificially to lure an attack out of me. In a setting safe as this one, it's fine to use this tactic. But was it really intentional? Or was it not? I could judge that after the mock battle is over'
The man then tried to keep both in his line of sight again but ducked and used his spear to deflect as soon as he turned around. What he saw when he turned his head was Henryk's spear rapidly approaching towards his core with impressive precision. It was aimed at where his solar plexus would be if he turned around without deflecting.
'And even if I did not turn around, it would have been my spine that received the attack instead. I should take him a bit more seriously. From now on, I will attack him whenever he approaches' The man resolved himself. The time to take this test easy was over.
As he just deflected the spear, he assumed a proper stance and swept his spear under Henryk's feet, which Henryk jumped over. Hearing some footsteps behind him, the man continued with the momentum and deterred an attack from Futura.
Henryk tried to take advantage of this opportunity but backed away when he saw the man giving him a side-eye while keeping his other eye partially trained at Futura.
Henryk stalled for time by circling around the man slowly.
'The earlier move was intentional. I'm sure of it now' The man thought as he got a bit more wary.
'Futura, I'll try to force him to bend himself backwards or to one side. When I do, use your head to push him off balance by pushing his feet off the ground. When pushing him off his feet, scoop him up so his strength and foothold mean less than they should' He said to Futura.
'Pushing him off balance from the side wouldn't work, would it?' Futura asked. She did not understand the human's bipedal stance perfectly, but she compared it to her quadrupedal stance. lowering oneself closer to the ground made it harder to fell that individual. That applied to their opponent as well, since he stood with his legs somewhat spread apart.
'No' That was all Henryk said as he rushed in again. This time, he made a reckless diagonal slash which the man dodged by sidestepping. What the man did not account for was the next transition.
The man's prior experiences taught him that such commitment locked the attack in without room to change course. But he did not face an opponent who accounted for this weakness. Henryk's family recorded stances that allowed for the commitment to an attack and suddenly changing course mid-swing using a spear. One such stance is the one Henryk chose to perform this attack. He leaned a bit back as he held the spear like a battering ram mid-swing. He rammed his spear at his surprised opponent, stabbing at him with the tip of the wooden spearhead.
The man had to bend his back to dodge the sudden stab. To prevent further chained attacks, the man pivoted his spear's butt to the ground and used the shaft to push Henryk's spear aside. During that altercation, he noticed Futura's head coming into his field of vision at the last moment. He had no time to react before his feet said goodbyes to the ground. As he was falling back down, Henryk grabbed him by the foot and threw him out of the circle.
The man developed some suspicions of Henryk's experience. He looked at Ganesha and the god nodded. He knew what his familia member wanted to say.
"Where did you get this much experience fighting people?" The man sternly asked.
"Manuals. My family's techniques were specifically designed to fight people, not monsters. As for her, I taught her" Henryk said calmly. He was not acknowledging the man's threatening tone of voice.
"Raj, you could take the rest of the day off. Do what you want with your time as thanks for helping me with this personal matter. " Ganesha said with a wide smile. He was pleased with the display of vocal and non-vocal control Henryk had over Futura's actions.
"Om Ganapati Namah" The man, now named Raj, bowed his head to Ganesha while pressing his hands together before his chest. He then followed Ganesha's instructions and spent the day training after responsibly handing his work over to fellow familia members. (AN: This needs to be addressed here, not in the foot note. If there are any people who see a problem with the way I used this phrase, complain immediately. I will change it into an English phrase that I'm more used to using. Seriously, I do not want to offend people over this but saw fit to use it due to the aesthetics of the familia and the Hindu god they serve, Ganesha, the lord of the Ganas. I wanted his familia member to show him the proper respect according to the way it's done in Hindu religion, not the way the religiously and culturally unrelated English greetings go)
"You must know that this wolf is an artificial monster, a creature, not an animal. Do not spread the word about what a creature is, for the masses would be thrown into a great panic" Ganesha said. He then struck a pose with a hand over his hip and the other spread in front of him. "I AM GANESHA!" He shouted loudly. "I allow you to tame and accompany animals and monsters into battle! Be sure to come for an inspection every time you tame a new monster!" He turned away in a flamboyant manner and left Henryk there, alone and possibly lost.
"Did he... just leave me alone in his familia's home?" Henryk said. He was lost for words.
'He did' Futura said.
"I AM GANESHA! AND I WILL TALK TO THE GUILD ABOUT THIS PERMIT!" Came in Ganesha's boisterous voice.
Futura walked in front of him and turned her head back to look at him. 'You can follow me if you are lost' She then sauntered off.
"Please, by all means, lead the way" Henryk sarcastically said before following her.
(Later)
"What did you say?" Henryk received a judging glare. "I think I heard wrong"
"You heard me right" Henryk returned her look with a mirroring one of his own. He judged her, harshly. "I requested you to prepare tremendous pieces of fabric to make clothes for a woman who is taller than 6 meders, maybe up to 7 or 8 meders" Henryk repeated his words. "Bill it on Loki" He showed a piece of cloth with the Loki familia's emblem on it. Tiona was just outside, playing with Fey. The fact that the seamstress could see Tiona, a famous member of Loki's familia, confirmed the legitimacy of the emblem.
"A skill?" The seamstress said while pinching her nose. If she was going to do this, she wanted to know the reason behind such a ridiculous request.
"Is there even a need to ask?" Henryk said with a blank look. 'Well, she thinks that it's a skill that only increases Shira's height. Let her be mistaken. She doesn't need to know this now'
(End of Part 2 of the Chapter)
Greetings, dear readers
First and foremost, I must insist that, for anyone who found it uncomfortable to read, or hear in case of audio book, that phrase Raj said, tell me. I will change it as soon as I read your comment. I meant no offence by writing that phrase there.
What do you say about the mock battle between Raj and the duo of Henryk and Futura? I rewrote this one thing at least two separate times from scratch just to get it right (At least to me, anyways). I want your input on how I could have made it better.
And what do you think of the interactions between Henryk and Futura? Disregard that weird and/or unsettling line in the middle. It will be brought up and explained later.
Be well, ladies and gentlemen.