"What?" Zhang Ruofeng had only just wrapped his head around it when the soreness in his muscles forced him to settle down again. But Perman looked only eleven or twelve, and she already had a daughter? From the way she spoke, her daughter was old enough to live independently.
"Is it really that surprising that I have a daughter?" Perman rolled her eyes at Zhang Ruofeng. "She's already fourteen this year. I'm not comfortable leaving her in the countryside all the time, but it isn't safe for her to stay with me either. After all, I've made plenty of enemies." Her expression softened, then turned troubled again.
"If I hadn't made so many enemies when I was young, do you think our Familia would have had to open a shop in the corner of that shopping street?" Zhang Ruofeng thought about it and realized she had a point. It made no sense that someone capable of making a powerful potion like Dragon Blood would be minding the counter in that shop.
"The woman I used to lead around by the nose reached Level 4 while I was away. Her Familia is now much stronger than our Medicine God Familia, so I can't set foot in the Dungeon lightly. As long as I'm not around, she won't go after the other members, but my daughter is another matter. Besides, more than one or two women were jealous of me back then. Rather than have her stay by my side and suffer, I'd feel better if she came with you. Anyone who can withstand the corrosive effects of Dragon Blood seems trustworthy enough to me." Perman's expression turned animated again.
"So you think I'm some kind of monk..." Zhang Ruofeng spread his hands helplessly.
"As long as I don't spend too much time with her, no one will realize we're mother and daughter. And joining the Flower Goddess Familia would give me an excuse to see her often." Perman explained her predicament, and Zhang Ruofeng had no way to argue.
"Your Familia still doesn't have a leader. If you manage to break through to Level 2, you'll probably become its leader. When that happens, please look after my daughter." Perman bowed slightly. Zhang Ruofeng had never seen her look so serious.
"Sure. Although I still don't know whether you helped me more than you messed with me, I'll do everything I can," Zhang Ruofeng replied solemnly. "But first, you'll need to get my Main God's approval."
Perman burst out laughing. "With how serious you are, if you ever became a lecher, you'd probably be quite the handful. Ha ha..."
"It's all your fault!" Zhang Ruofeng glared at her in mock anger, but Perman easily ignored him, leaving him to lie helplessly in the bathtub.
"Well, it'll take her a few months to get to Orario. You don't need to rush. Get stronger first, so I can feel comfortable entrusting my daughter to you." Perman finished speaking casually. Ignoring whatever Zhang Ruofeng said, she turned and went to join the other women. Zhang Ruofeng lay helplessly in the tub and drifted into a dazed sleep.
By the time Zhang Ruofeng woke up again, the sunlight outside had grown blinding. It was probably around noon. He tried to get up, struggling several times before finally climbing out of the bathtub. The moment his feet touched the floor, they began to tremble uncontrollably. It felt as if someone had stuck a high-voltage wire into the soles of his feet—painful, itchy, and unbearable.
"Ruofeng, you're awake?" Seeing Zhang Ruofeng dripping wet and trying to dry himself, Xin Mu went over to help.
"I'll do it myself." Zhang Ruofeng didn't dare let a woman help him with this. After sending Xin Mu away, he took off his pants and wrung them out. Even that alone left him drenched in cold sweat from the pain.
Still, Zhang Ruofeng gritted his teeth and dried himself off, then put his pants back on. He picked up his freshly washed shirt, put it on, and began limping out of the bathroom.
"You seem to have pushed your muscles to the limit," the goddess said as Zhang Ruofeng came downstairs. She stopped working and turned to him. "Perman has used up your body's ability to repair itself. At this point, even healing potions can't ease your pain, so you'll just have to get used to it."
Zhang Ruofeng gave a bitter smile and slowly lowered himself onto a chair in the corner. Compared with last night's agony, his aching muscles felt almost blissful. Wait, lunch... He immediately realized there was a serious problem. He could barely move, and as far as he knew, Xin Mu couldn't cook. If Fura made the food, he'd probably feel even worse. His expression twisted at the thought.
"I know what you're thinking!" Fura had seen Zhang Ruofeng sitting there with a worried look on his face. She spoke to him irritably. "Lunch today is the same biscuits you ate in the Dungeon." She took out the food Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu had eaten in the Dungeon: cheap, oversized biscuits that tasted pretty ordinary.
"Recover as soon as you can. If they weren't so convenient to carry in the Dungeon, I wouldn't want to eat these biscuits." Xin Mu came over and handed Zhang Ruofeng a cigarette. "You're allowed to smoke indoors today. The goddess and I talked it over, and there's a window in this corner we can open. You won't have to keep going outside from now on."
"Our Familia really doesn't have enough people. If any of you get hurt, it has a much bigger impact on our daily lives." Fura sighed. If any of the seven members of her old Familia were still alive, the three of them wouldn't have to work so hard.
"Hey, have you heard?" A man who looked like an adventurer rushed into Fura Flower Shop and grabbed his companion, who was choosing flowers. He whispered something to him, and then the two hurried out.
"What happened?" Zhang Ruofeng frowned slightly. Things seemed to be getting strange. He couldn't imagine what had caught the adventurer's interest so suddenly. The two of them had looked terribly rushed.
"Ah, if I'm not mistaken, the Zeus Familia is returning today. A couple of days ago, I heard from other gods that one of their adventurers had seen the Zeus Familia's first-class adventurer, Wind-Chasing Leg, on the eighteenth floor. It seems their main force was running low on supplies. In any case, Wind-Chasing Leg has already reached the middle levels, so the Zeus Familia should be back this time." The goddess replied to Zhang Ruofeng. After all, he and Xin Mu still didn't know much about the adventurers of this world. "It's only natural that you don't know much. The Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia have always wanted to explore deeper into the Dungeon. We don't know how this expedition went, but they were gone for a full three months. They must have found something."
"They stayed in the Dungeon for three months?" Zhang Ruofeng was dumbfounded. It was a dark place with little food that humans could eat, and they were under constant pressure almost the entire time. Lasting three months meant they had to be mentally tough, too.
"After all, the Zeus Familia is the strongest spear in the world. It has nine first-class adventurers, and as many as ten adventurers just one rank below them. It's the strongest Familia, and over the past thousand years, it's produced several great heroes. Although they failed to fulfill the adventurers' long-held wish, many people still sing their praises." Fura had been in the Lower World for nearly a hundred years. A hundred years was pitifully short by a god's standards, but she had seen far more of Orario than Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu could learn from just a few days of observation.
Seems I should learn more about this world. Otherwise, I might get tricked again by someone with a shady past like Perman, and I don't think I could take it. Thinking about his new skill made Zhang Ruofeng's stomach turn. Its worst drawback was that it had greatly weakened his resistance to women. There were no specific numbers, but he figured he could no longer keep his heart as still as water.
"Ha..." Zhang Ruofeng silently took a drag on his cigarette, feeling utterly gloomy.
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