TN: This one is quite big, I think? I don't know, I don't count.
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"Here you are Caelan, this should provide you with the knowledge you desire." my guild advisor, for all of the last twenty minutes, Ron placed a book on the counter in front of me, "It'll be five hundred valis though."
I rolled my eyes, "What a rip off." I replied, but regardless I lifted five hundred valis from my pocket and handed it over to him, then grabbed the book. It was something I needed. I knew roughly most of all the monsters within the dungeon, what I didn't know was the layout the floors had. This book I had just bought, was a guild sold book with information on all the fully mapped out floors of the dungeon, and all the information on that mapping compiled by the guild itself.
"Thank you." he bowed his head politely as he accepted the payment and then bid me goodbye and moved on. I withheld the urge to sigh. Why couldn't I get a beauty like Eina or Misha? No, instead I got a straight to the point, plain faced old dude.
My eyes drifted over to a brown haired, spectacled beauty sitting at a desk behind the counter. The suit didn't show off her body well, but she was pretty damn stacked and had quite the ass on her.
Well, rather than 'quite the ass', she had a full on whooty booty pawg ass. Really not something you'd expect from an elf to be honest.
This time, I did sigh and turned away. Oh well, Eina's hot, but she ain't Hestia. Plus, she can be pretty fucking annoying on top of that. I'd rather have Misha than her, but really, Ron isn't so bad either since I can just cash in and fuck off without any lectures.
Another good thing about Ron was that when I came in and registered, he just got straight to the point, had me fill in a bunch of forums, list my familia and my goddess and we were done. It took all of five minutes at most. Sure it's most likely because Ron doesn't give a shit whether I live or die in the dungeon, the same way most guild advisors were towards adventurers, but the me that hated the thought of having to sit around in a boring ass place like the guild was ever so happy with the arrangement.
Besides, I don't really give a shit if he lives or dies either. I'm selfish like that.
I tucked my newly purchased book under my arm and made to leave. Only, I paused before I even took one step when the glinting of my crystal gauntlets and boots caught my eyes.
'These are made out of the same crystal that the crystal mantis can drop right?' I thought to myself. And I could make them on command as long as I had enough magic energy also known as mind here.
So couldn't I possibly cash these in as drop items like the goblin fangs and kobold nails I had?
With that thought, I stuffed my book in the waistband of my pants and slipped off the crustal gauntlets and boots and made my way over to the exchange booth.
"Back again already?" the man behind the counter asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah, I was wondering what you would give me for these," I replied, setting the crystal gauntlets and boots down on the counter, "The shape might be off, but they're still crystal from a crystal mantis."
The man hummed, leaning over to examine them, "True the shape is odd, but they are indeed from a crystal mantis," he nodded after a moment, before looking me in the eye, "That begs the question though, how did a newly minted adventurer like yourself get your hands on these?"
"Familia secret," I replied flippantly with a shrug, hopefully that's good enough, I remember canonically that the guild wasn't allowed to involve itself with inner familia affairs unless it was outright law breaking, "So will you buy them or not?"
"Fair enough I suppose," the man shrugged himself, "And yes, from the looks of them despite the odd shapes they are very much still pure crystal mantis crystal, so the guild will purchase them. They are a bit bigger than the usual crystal brought in as drop items, but I'm afraid that doesn't change our rates. I can offer you ten thousand valis per each piece and not a single more."
My eyes widened in shock. Holy shit! That's a total of forty thousand valis! "That'll do nicely." I said, agreeing with the offered amount. After all, I can make these as I please!
"Very well, one moment." the teller nodded and prepared to walk off to where the money was kept no doubt, but an idea occurred to me and I stopped him.
"How much does the guild sell the magic stones of Infant Dragon's for?" I asked, a plan coming to mind to gain massive growth instantly.
He looked at me oddly, obviously wondering why I'm asking such a specific thing, but replied nonetheless, "We buy them for twenty-two thousand valis and sell them for thirty thousand." he replied.
Damn, steep as fuck. But; "Then keep thirty thousand of the valis and just give me one of those and ten thousand valis back." I said. It was worth it, totally worth it since the more my stats increased, specifically my magic, the more crystal armour I would be able to make and the more cash money I'd be able to sell them for.
He merely nodded at my words, and continued on. He returned a few moments later carrying a magic stone nearly as big as my head and ten thousand valis. I thanked him, and continued on my way and left the guild hall behind.
As I did, I ducked down the side of the building out of view of the passing people and began chomping down on the huge magic stone bit by bit with my enhanced teeth, crunching it down practically into powder and swallowing it.
When I was done, I was about to go take care of the things I wanted to get done when a thought occurred to me, "Shit, I need to get some magic stones for Hestia's lamp." I palmed my face.
I about turned and headed back towards the massive towering structure that was the tower of babel, and the entrance into the dungeon.
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I ducked back down into the dungeon and spent all of ten minutes trawling through the first few rooms of the first floor of the dungeon. I took the time to kill five goblins and grab their magic stones. I wasn't sure how long one alone would last in Hestia's lamp, so I figured five would at least do till tomorrow and I'll make sure to get her more or better ones after that.
After all, with how many goblin and kobold magic stones I've eaten today, with the Infant Dragon's on top of it, I was sure to get a massive boost in my stats and become way stronger after Hestia updated my falna, and from there I would be able to go even deeper into the dungeon!
There was a spring in my step and a massive beaming grin on my face as I practically pranced my way back up out of the dungeon and through the streets of Orario. I had twenty nine thousand, five hundred valis to my name, and as such, despite how much I wanted to immediately rush home to Hestia and get my stats upgraded, I instead asked for some directions and made my way to the main shopping district.
Wanna know something interesting? This world has all manner of appliances similar the ones of my home world. Such as a fridge. They were much different from what I was used to mind you. They were basically like black cubes with transparent glass doors on the front. They looked more like the kind of cold coolers you'd see behind a bar than an actual fridge And they were expensive as hell. The only one I could afford right now, was a single cube shaped variation that reached up to just about my thighs in height.
It cost a whole twenty thousand valis. And a magic stone to power it was not included. So it was a good thing I actually went and murderized some goblins. Delivery would have cost me an extra thousand valis. Thankfully, I'm now a superhuman adventurer, I'm more than twice as physically able as I was yesterday. It was still quite heavy, but the shape of it made it more manageable.
From there, I splurged a bit more, dropping five thousand valis on an assortment of ingredients for cooking that I threw in the fridge itself to free up some room while carrying it and began my trek back to the church I'm gonna be staying in for a while with Hestia.
"Hmm?" I paused just as I walked by a clothing accessory shop, a flash of blue and white had caught my eyes.
Balancing the heavy fridge in my arms, I took a step back and peered into the display case behind the window. My eyebrows rising with interest as I began grinning, "So I wasn't just seeing things!" I laughed.
Sitting behind the window on the display case, was a set of hair white and blue hair ribbons, with bells attached to them. A very familiar set of hair ribbons. Hair ribbons that currently did not adorn the shiny black silky hair of my lovely, voluptuous patron goddess Hestia the Bestia.
My eyes settled on the price tag.
2,500.
Two thousand five hundred valis. A bit much for some hair ribbons, quite a bit more really, and I'd be down to only a mere two thousand valis, but eh, I don't care. I can literally basically grow currency with my magic power now with the Crystal Mantis armour I could make with my magic power.
Plus, they are kind of iconic with her look right, almost as much as her glorious boob string? And they'll totally score me some brownie points with her, right? It's a win, win, win, win win win. Honestly, all I do is win.
With that decided on, I squeezed my way through the entrance to the shop, fridge on my shoulder and called over to the cashier, a pretty little svelte thing with brown hair, "Hey, can you ring those up for me?" I asked her, with a smile that could totally have charmed the panties off of her if I felt like it.
"The bell ribbons?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's the ones." I nodded.
She blinked, looking at me weirdly, "You sure? We've been trying to sell them for a while, but nobody has wanted them since they're so expensive," the cashier, or clerk, whatever was more apt told me, casting a glance over her shoulder to a door behind the counter, and looking back at me when she saw nobody there, "They're apparently some adventurer smiths work, which is why they're going for so much, but who would really pay this much for some hair ribbons with something as silly as bells in them?"
"I don't make the rules love, I just abuse them." I shrugged, though I totally understood where she was coming from. What kind of stupid smith would design something like that?
"What?" she blinked, looking at me confused.
"Nothing important," I waved her off with my free hand, "So can you ring them up for me?" I repeated
"Don't say I didn't warn you," she sighed and shrugged, then eyed the fridge that had to weigh over a hundred pounds that I was casually carrying on one shoulder, "You look like a tough adventurer, and I don't want any trouble over such a silly thing later if you're unhappy with them, but if you're sure, that'll be 2,500 valis."
I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes. And only because her logic is sound. The vast majority of adventurers are piece of shit bullies if Lili is anything to go by after all, even the non junkies outside of the Soma Familia treated her like shit.
The fools! Imagine driving a cute little short stack like that into hating you, just because you wanna get doped up on same pansy ass wine.
They should be drinking whiskey, like real men, like me! What, I'm underage? Eat shit nerd, fuck the police!
Anyway, I waved off the cashier slash clerks worries and paid the two thousand, five hundred valis for my bell adorned brownie points and squeezed my way back out of the shop and continued back to the U.S.S Love Nest.
Bow chika wow wow!
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At my upfront admission, Hestia's cheeks burned, "…Well you already have that first part," she whispered lightly, before looking at me a bit hesitantly, "…Would you prefer it if you were my only familia member?"
I froze at the question.
…Would I?
"I wouldn't…mind it," I nodded slowly, "It could be really fun to be your only familia member and have the Hestia Famila become the best regardless, it would a real challenge right? But, at the same time, I'm not so stupid to wave off getting other members that would be a massive help in dire situations."
Plus you know, I'm all for recruiting Lili and such. It would be piss easy too, all I'd need to do is march through her guild, talk to Soma, he'd probably make me drink some of his pansy ass wine as a test, but it's fucking wine, so not exactly something hard to do, it's not like it's some real Scottish Whiskey or anything like that, then once I showed how weak his piss-water alcohol was, he'd let me do whatever the fuck I wanted.
Hestia gave a single nod, "Alright, you're the familia captain after all, so I'll definitely keep your words in mind, granted, not that anyone besides you has wanted to join me anyway," she sighed, but perked herself up quickly, "So, what was that box thing you were carrying?"
"A fridge, to keep our food fresh for longer." I replied.
"Oh, really? I thought they were super expensive though?" she asked, and made her way over to side down beside me.
"Oh, it was, but we don't really need to worry about money anymore, thanks to you, I've already found a way to make loads of valis quickly," I replied and held my hand up, conjuring a blue crystal gauntlet into existence around it, "This is still pure crystal from a crystal mantis, so the guild will buy them for ten thousand valis a piece."
"Eh?" Hestia blinked, "Eeeeeeeeeeh?!"
Her shock was understandable. After all, right now, going by how much magic power, or mind I have, and how quickly it recovers, I could probably make roughly ten of these a day.
Which would be a hundred thousand valis, without ever having to enter the dungeon. That would be roughly three million valis a month.
Only high ranked familia's could pull in that much from what Ron explained to me. And the higher my magic stat grows, the more volume of magic power I'll have and the more I'll be able to make.
It took a few moments for Hestia to calm down, "Oh…wow…" she trailed off, before chuckling and beaming at me, "You're really amazing Caelan!" she praised me.
"If it wasn't for you giving me that expensive magic crystal of yours last night, I wouldn't be able to do this," I smiled back, "I might have the skill, but I can only use it thanks to your kindness in taking me in and gifting me that magic crystal."
Last night I thought I'd grow way quicker in the likes of Freya's familia. But, honestly, with this, I don't need them, in fact, they'd probably hinder my growth when the rest of those cucks that licked at her feet like mangy mutts realised how much more amazing I am than them.
Give me a year. I'll surpass Ottar, or at the very least, be strong enough to give him a good fight.
"Uwa, I'm so lucky to have you as my child," Hestia latched onto my arm and hugged me tightly, "I'm so glad you chose me."
"Well, Hestia is Bestia after all." I proudly announced.
She giggled, cheeks turning an even darker red than they were previously.
We stayed like that for a few minutes, I wasn't sure what Hestia was thinking, but I was just enjoying having her latched on to me and pressed up against me.
It was only then I remembered, "Oh, hey, can you update my falna?" I asked.
Hestia looked up at me from my side before smiling, "Sure, just take your shirt off and lay down on the bed." she told me.
Nodding, I stood up from the couch and divested myself of the clothing on my torso, before making my way over to the bed and laying down, facing down.
A few moments later, Hestia joined me, climbing up to straddle my bare back and a second later I felt her gentle fingertip, damp with her blood trail gently down my spine.
The room was immersed in a brilliant blue light, and in my peripheral vision, I could make out odd lettering floating through the air and Hestia reading through it with a serious gaze.
"Wow…you really went all in, huh?" she mused to herself. She must be looking through the 'story' of what I went through today. That was one thing that would be hard to work around in general for anybody.
It was almost impossible to lie to a god. For one, they could tell when somebody lied to them when speaking, and if you were in their familia and they updated your falna, they could see exactly what you had done in the time since it was last done, like reading a new update to a story.
I didn't reply, I didn't really need to.
The only solace was, it seemed they couldn't see into the thoughts of the people with the falna through the 'story' on their back.
It was also very, very convenient for giving Hestia the full story behind things without me having to take the time to explain everything. That was kind of awesome, not going to lie.
Moments later, it was done and a rush of information flowed into my head, it was weird how naturally it just seemed to fit in as well, like it was there all along, was the best way I could describe it, almost like remembering something I'd forgotten.
Hestia reached down to hand me a piece of paper with my falna imprinted on it.
"You know, I think I underestimated just how crazy your skill is." Hestia clicked her tongue, laying down across my back and looking over my shoulder as I read over the falna sheet.
…She was not wrong. Fucking hell was she not. Even I'm surprised.
Caelan Odhar
Level: 1
Strength: G269
Endurance: G276
Dexterity: G233
Agility: G235
Magic: G248
Skills
Typhon: Rising Monster King. The power to devour the magic stones of monsters, growing stronger from doing so and gaining the abilities of monsters. Evolving physiology towards pinnacle body. Enhanced teeth. Monstrous combat instinct and the power to break through all limits.
Monster Abilities
Night Vision: The ability to see clearly even in total darkness.
Crystal Armour: The ability to generate crystal armour as over the body to enhance durability.
Enhanced Senses: Vastly enhanced eyesight, hearing and sense of smell.
Flame Breath: The ability to breath out a torrent of flame from the mouth.
Temperature Control: The ability to raise and decrease the body's temperature.
Flame Resistance: A resistance to heat and flame.
Magic Resistance: A resistance to effects of magical nature.
Magic
Holy fucking shit.
This…this is really insane. In a single day, I've gained another four abilities that may as well be skills or development abilities, or even a flat out magic spell in one. And on top of that, I've already risen a quarter of the way to the typical max stats can reach on the falna, in all categories.