Following the old man to the outskirts of the city Aurathia and Nero arrived at the bottom of a steep cliff
"Your new house is up here" stated the man, turning to Aurathia "normally I would offer to help carry the gods and goddesses of the Familia's up at this point if they still wanted to have a look at the property, but from the looks of it I won't need to do that with you" he smiled
"Not even in the slightest" Aurathia chuckled before grabbing onto the wall and starting to scale it with little difficulty, turning around with a teasing smile to say to Nero "you coming or what?"
"Right behind you" sighed Nero before making his way after her, the man following a route that he seemed to have taken many times before "so how high is the property?"
"About 100 meters, pretty much unclimbable for normal people without gear and tall enough for rookie adventurers to struggle with it, but if you get used to it or get to a higher level it's not so bad"
"Adding a good climb to my morning routine to get to the wall for my jog and then another for getting back up sounds great" beamed Aurathia, clearly enjoying the climb
"I'm going to have to train on this tonight in order to get used to it and make it easier for myself" thought Nero as he was still only a level 1 meaning that even though he knew he would be able to make it to the top, he would probably need a minute or two in order to recover once he was up there
"Need a hand there kid?" offered the man
"No, I can do this" Nero panted in return
"That's the spirit Nero" Aurathia smiled, turning back to look at him effortlessly "just think of this as another way of increasing your stats" smiling confidently before turning back to the climb and going even faster
"That goddess of yours seems stronger than alot of the rookie adventurers that I've seen" commented the man
"You're not wrong there" agreed Nero, refocusing his efforts on climbing
A few minutes later Nero arrived at the top of the cliff, Aurathia already walking around checking out the ground, her breath not being affected even the slightest even after the climb she had just done, compared to Nero who was struggling to stay standing and was taking deep breaths
"Finally made it huh" teased Aurathia
"Hey not everyone is as strong as you" complained Nero
"Don't forget that not as many people are as toned, have as much stamina or are as well trained as me" she continued teasing
"And so humble" grumbled Nero
"Alright enough joking around" laughed Aurathia "let's check this place out, I'm already quite satisfied with the climb and there is a good amount of space up here for sparing or working out on, let's go have a look inside to check out what else this place has"
"Sounds like this is the bit that you need me for" the man chimed in, taking out a keyring full of keys, inserting one after another into the lock to find the right one
"Why does this place need a key? who in their right mind would try to rob this place?" Nero asked with a chuckle
"Like you were told the original owner of this place was a very paranoid god, not only the front door every single room has a lock on it and even the cabinets and draws in all of the rooms come with one too" laughed the man, showing the massive keyring that he was holding that had hundreds of keys on it
"Well at least we can offer anyone who joins my Familia guaranteed privacy" smiled Aurathia "but could you take some of the locks off of some of the things that don't need them, the kitchen won;t need locks and I want to be able to easily access food when I'm hungry"
"Sure thing, that won't be a problem" replied the man, finally finding the right key and opening the door
The insides of the building, though dusty, looked incredible, a large entrance hall with a grand staircase leading to the second floor and multiple rooms visible even from the ground floor, a large food hall visible though a set of open doors on the left side of the hall and what seemed to be the entance to a large Familia sized bath on the right side of the hall
"So I'm guessing you only ever lock the front door to this place?" asked Nero
"Yeah it was a pain in the ass to open every single room everytime that I brought someone here so I just left the doors to the rooms I showed people open, it makes things alot easier" the man answered
"This is perfect" Aurathia commented happily "the food hall is big enough for when the Familia expands and the bath is huge and looks like it will be a great place to both relax and wash up" running through the rooms
"Glad you like it goddess, and it should look even better once we get the whole place cleaned up, should be ready for you in about a week and we'll send you a notice once it is to the residence that you put down as your current base" explained the man
"A week can't pass by soon enough" Aurathia smiled
"Alright I'll leave you two to keep looking around while I go open all the rooms so that the cleaners can get in once they get here, you both ok to make your way back down once you're done"
"Yeah we should be fine, thanks for leading us here" Nero replied
"Think nothing of it" remarked the man before joking "the only problem with this place finally being sold is that I'll have to come up with another way to keep in shape" he laughed
"If you ever want me to train you I help out at Takemikazuchi's place in the mornings or if you want a more personal lesson feel free to come here late in the afternoon and I'd be happy to spar with you" chimed in Aurathia from the second floor, having already checked all of the room and decided that the biggest one at the top of the stairs as her room
"I'll keep that in mind" chuckled the man as he got to work opening the doors as Nero and Aurathia continued looking around the property.