"Goddess? She is a Goddess? Oh, dear, I've been very disrespectful! Forgive me, Goddess." Cran says, before Alexander begins to sorta shoo him out of the lab. Cran goes, willingly. As the two walk to this new place, this temple, Cran looks over at Alexander. "......I must ask.....was..that woman, with the red light..she wasn't a witch, was she....she was too, a goddess?" Cran asks, seeming worried.

Well, Cran at least didn’t struggle and allowed himself to be led out of the lab without any trouble. He could only imagine that Thoth might have had a heart attack or something if he had been forced to actually drag the older man outside. Their pace was a bit slower than he would have liked, but with an injured party it was basically unavoidable. Still… one district faded to another as he walked without pause, and eventually the sole God’s temple came into sight.

“Yeah, she was a Goddess. Doesn’t take nonsense well as you’ve probably realized,” he said as he began to climb the flight of steps that led up to the temple, pausing occasionally to make sure Cran kept up.

Once at the top he glanced around for a moment before he approached the gates in the wall that surrounded the gate. Mustering a bit of his strength given the size of them, he knocked sharply before standing back and waiting for an answer. Regardless of who answered he would simply gesture towards Cran and explain that the man had some cracked ribs in need of a healing touch.

Vincent couldn't rightly say he didn't distrust Senna as much as she was inclined to distrust him. His adult life had taught him exactly how fickle people could be, and that innocent children weren't a given; that last part went without saying in Senna's case, no regular or innocent child would join such a Guild as she had at her age.

Yet-

"Temporal Distortion?" So far, he had no reason to treat her as anything other than a helpful member of the group. He would keep an eye on her, make sure he didn't allow any circumstances like earlier to occur again and render him vulnerable- but there was no need to actively cultivate distrust between them. For now, they had more pressing concerns. "It's too well-timed to be a coincidence, so I'd say you're not far off at the very least." Coming off his experiences immediately prior, the idea of time beginning to flow faster almost seemed completely logical. Even putting the idea of the Gods off to the side, the very fact that they could teleport around the Labyrinth's floors was enough to establish that this place was running on its own bizarre, batshit-insane logic.

"And nothing quite as exciting as what you got your hands on," Vincent continued with a smile that was half friendly and half a smirk, as Senna asked him about his findings. "I collected some Poison and Acid Slime samples, either myself or Thoth might be able to make something out of it. I don't think anything I would have done could have triggered that tremor, but I swear it started the moment I started collecting the Acid Slime."

That brought him to a new line of thought.

"You don't suppose it had something to do with that... Metal Slime you mentioned?" Vincent still hadn't encountered Zhan for himself, and so could only go on what Senna, Alexander and the Lexicon could tell him. "After all, it sounds like it's still alive down there." Even going by what he knew, it seemed unlikely that the Floor Guardian could be a direct cause- but once again, it seemed too well-timed to be a coincidence.

@Zombehs
((Due to it being two days, let's say Cran's healed.))
Cran, now feeling much, much better due to him being able to breath without pain, thanks his healer, and heads out with Alexander. "...Tell me, Alexander, how did you come across such power? How did you reach such potential?" Cran asks him, obviously amazed. "Did that goddess, the one with the red light allow you such strength?"
Cran was eager to learn. Maybe with such strength, he could help change the world, for the better.

After the passage of a handful of seconds, the temple gates opened themselves, the lone figure of Vishnu standing behind them. The God looked forwards at Alexander and Cran with a warm smile, a sky blue robe covering his form.

"Ah, an injured child of man, and a warrior of Ares have come to visit." Vishnu stated simply, nodding as if agreeing with his own words. "Even I can tell why you would come to my temple; there is no need to explain. Come, come, it's safest if I treat you whilst you are lying down, to make sure everything stays aligned. Most of my Guild members are in the meditation hall, so you may come to my chamber; I will have to trouble you to help your friend there, child of Ares; this body of mine is not up to the task, as it is. I also just finished making some tea, if you would like some."

After saying these words, the God of Preservation turned around and began walking deeper into the temple grounds, gesturing for the humans to follow.

He raised an eyebrow, but ultimately bowed and carried Cran further into the temple. It didn’t take long to reach the God’s chamber, and it took even less for Vishnu to mend the older man’s injuries. He had barely sipped on the offered tea, which was quite pleasant by the way, when Cran was already back up and about. He had hoped that Vishnu would be able to educate the man, he seemed like a mellow enough God to do so, but evidently Cran did not wish to stay around.

He ran a hand through his hair as he made his way down from the temple, Cran beside him. It was more disappointing than anything at how awed the man seemed to be over what should have been common knowledge in this city. “Deities such as Ares, my own, Thoth, the one we met before this, or Vishnu, the one who just patched you up, can offer blessings to those who join their Guild. This results in increased capabilities and other such boosts. In return you offer your service to them, for whatever reasons they may want.” He turned to the Central district for now rather than head back towards the Coliseum.

“There’s an inn over there if you need a place to stay for the night,” he gestured to a building just down the street, two floors in height. “Learn more about the other Deities that exist before you make a choice, and my advice would be to avoid the Coliseum for at least a day or two. Give her a chance to calm down.” With that he would turn from Cran and head back North.

"Hmm, I don't think so. At least, that's not what my instincts tell me." Holding onto the vague feeling that the Floor Guardian wasn't involved with the strange tremors, Senna briefly considers the matters at hand before glancing back at the stairway leading downwards.

"Alexander looked pretty beat up, and it seems like you have some things to clear up before we advance. I meant to scout further into the Labyrinth alone... but after that disturbance, I'm starting to feel like it might be too dangerous. I've noticed that the Lexicon doesn't really give us all of the information when we need it, only once we've discovered it for ourselves. With something weird like this distortion, there ought to be other things that have changed further down as well. I'm thinking that it'll be a safe bet to wait for tomorrow, when we're all recovered, and then go down to tackle the Metal Slime together."

It was the obvious conclusion. The monsters of the Labyrinth respawned periodically, so if they rested a day, it was possible that they would be able to return and gather up more strength before facing the boss. With these thoughts in mind, Senna faces the exit to the Labyrinth and starts walking, her footsteps completely muffled by the lightness of her steps.

"With that out of the way, I still have some things to do around here... but I'll see you tomorrow. If you can't find me, I ought to be around the entrance to the Labyrinth, somewhere. See you."

And then she leaves. If she were a certain chuuni, she might have waved backwards all cool-like, but instead, she just kind of strolled away and disappeared into the ruined area surrounding the Labyrinth entrance. Once out there, unless stopped, she would find a nearby place and a nook to hide herself in, where she would construct a makeshift shelter and wait the rest of the day out.

The end.

With that done Alexander turned back towards the east rather than return straight to the Coliseum. This time his destination was the workshop of the Goddess Hephaestus. While he didn't imagine it would be possible for him to afford any of her creations for a while, it couldn't hurt to take a look at exactly how much they cost; all he knew was they were apparently ludicrous. Besides maybe he hammer out a deal with the Goddess or one of her Guild Members to get a weapon that would be able to handle the sharp increases to Strength he had already begun to experience.

The workshop gave a unique smell to the air from down the street as he approached, and it wasn't long after that he could hear the strike of hammers even through the walls and doors. He pushed open the doors to the storefront portion of the workshop and was greeted with a rush of heated air. The shop was completely empty without anyone even at the counter and Alexander blinked for a moment before he stepped inside, letting the doors close by themselves behind him.

After a sizable length of time, Alexander was at last greeted by a heavy-set male shambling up to the front room of the workshop, visibly exhausted and with no shortage of bruises along his body. "...h-hello." He greeted, his voice gravelly and somewhat worn, as though he had decided to party whilst having a sore throat the previous night. "Welcome to Hephaestus's workshop, how can I-"

"Oy, which of you idiots thought it was a smart idea to just walk away from your station while leaving a fuckin' Ember Stone resting on wood?!"

Interrupting the male, a shrill yell from the back cut through the air, loud enough to make both the male and Alexander flinch reflexively. Moments later, a harsh crash sounded out from the back, like a hammer had just mercilessly assaulted something.

That's probably exactly what it was, actually.

The man's face paled sharply as he turned to face the back door, swallowing weakly. "Sorry, I'll have to ask that you accompany me to the back. Somebody else can help you there." He explained, murmuring a quick prayer under his breath as he moved to step into the back of the workshop.

There wasn’t much out on display, but what little was still held Alexander’s interest and the price tags gave him enough to wince at. He scratched at the back of his head, wondering how long it would take to afford a piece like these, and looked up when a man entered from further inside the workshop. He was honestly a bit concerned from how beat up the man seemed to be, but the near-screech snatched his attention with a jolt.

A wince quickly followed the man’s reaction, and Alexander could only scratch at the back of his head and hope there wasn’t too much trouble. He did follow the man into the workshop’s actual workspace like asked though, raising a hand to shield himself from the bright flames within several forges. Several blinks allowed his eyes to readjust and naturally he tried to locate the source of the commotion that had him back here in the first place.

The interior of the workshop was...depressing, to say the least. The demographic was primarily composed of rather burly and, to be blunt, unattractive males, hammering away at hot metal while occasionally glancing at a certain figure with noticeable figure.

This certain figure was a small girl carrying a comically oversized hammer, the God Hephaestus.

"What is this shit?! You didn't heat it up enough, genius!"

Coming to a stop next to where a specific guild member was working, Hephaestus snarled in a manner utterly uncharacteristic for one of her build, glaring at the slab of metal the human was working on before lifting her hammer from her shoulder...

-And mercilessly slamming it into the guild member's stomach.

While it was obvious the God had not used her full strength, all guild members present cringed reflexively at the sight, while the struck man himself fell to his knees, eyes bulging from his head.

"Fuck's sake, is it too much to ask for someone compe-" Still muttering, Hephaestus paused as she realized that Alexander and the man who had shown him to the back had just entered.

This was followed with her hammer striking said guild member with her hammer, and some muttering about "unsupervised fuckin' ember stones". After doing this, though, she looked over to Alexander with a bland expression.

"Well? What're you doing here? You smell like Ares, so you're not here to join, and you look too poor to get anything here. Unless you've got some materials for me, get out." She stated simply, before shooting a glare at the collective guild members behind her. "Speaking of which, you fucks had better not let that Metal Slime's core get destroyed! If some moron just destroys it, all of you are going to be my punching bags for the next week!"

It looked like Heph-chan was an angry person.

‘Damn…’ His first thought was that such a weapon probably would have made Zhan a pushover. The sheer impact behind it would have probably splattered the Metal Slime like a bug. It didn’t match the Goddess’ outfit, but then again neither did her attitude…

Like the others, Alexander winced at the heavy blow that dropped her Guild member to his knees. ‘Geez…’ He couldn’t help but feel for the others. At least Ares’ violence wasn’t too unexpected given why she was a Goddess. While they looked tough enough to take a few blows from the irritable Goddess of Smiths, it still couldn’t be pleasant.

Not the most polite thing to do, but Alexander stepped aside from the man mere moments before the blow sent him to his knees. With a silent prayer to him, he looked towards Hephaestus when she bluntly addressed him. Well… judging from what he had seen, it wasn’t like the Goddess was particularly irritated towards him. Snagging Zhan’s core intact might also be enough to get a foot in the door in terms of a good relationship with the Goddess from what she mentioned as well. A consideration to keep in mind for later though. “Could one of your members point me in the right direction for materials?”