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"To celebrate your return from the expedition, let's go eat something fancy!"Hestia suggested the moment she finished updating everyone's Falna.
"I'm in. But going out to eat might be a bit much. Our familia isn't exactly small anymore, showing up in a group like that is way too high-profile. Let's just buy ingredients and cook at home," Alex said as he slipped on his shirt.
"I'm fine with that. But the cooking is all on you guys!"Hestia instantly threw all responsibility away like a pro slacker.
You're literally the Goddess of the Hearth. Shouldn't cooking be your favorite thing?
Look at Hephaestus, Goddess of the Forge, hammering away in her own familia day in and day out.
After that, everyone split up.
Alex took the newbie Bell to the Guild to exchange the loot from the expedition.
The others headed to North Street to buy ingredients.
Hestia stayed home to watch the kids, Sakura and Illya.
On the way to the Guild, Bell kept staring at Alex with sparkly, worshipful eyes.
He had originally thought the new familia was tiny and weak, maybe even with no other members.
He never expected it would already have so many people, and that they had gone on a deep-level expedition.
And the captain was Level 4 now. Completely insane.
They reached the Guild in no time. Alex nodded at the staff, found a wide open spot and unloaded every bit of the expedition loot from Unlimited Blade Works.
A literal mountain of monster drops and magic stones piled up instantly.
On top of that were three floor boss magic stones.
All the staff froze. Bell, standing behind Alex, also turned into a statue.
So much loot. How much was this even worth?
Alex finished unloading and went to sit down. The rest was Guild business anyway.
The Guild quickly called over more than a dozen staff and started sorting the haul.
It took them over two hours.
The results:Magic stones sold for 223.87 million.Normal monster drops sold for 185 million.Special materials from the lower and deep floors sold for 533.6 million.
Rounded up, the Guild paid him 942.5 million.
Bell stared at the mountain of coins, completely stunned once again.
He had never seen this much money in his life.
Alex stored all the coins in his reality marble and didn't leave yet. Instead, he walked over to the department that handled Orario land ownership.
"Hello sir, how can I help you?"The clerk, a pretty beastwoman in a black suit, asked politely. She looked like a fresh recruit.
"I want to buy land," Alex said.
"And what will the land be used for?" she asked.
"A familia base. I'm the captain of Hestia Familia. Lady Hestia only descended recently and needs a place of her own."
"Understood. Please wait a moment."She made a note, then brought out a large map.
Red areas marked owned territory.Blue areas were available to purchase.
Alex studied it for a while and finally chose the church district.
The church Hestia lived in used to belong jointly to the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia. Their members often held weddings there.
Then the Dark Age happened and the whole area was blasted into rubble.
Years passed and everyone basically forgot it existed.
Alex circled the entire abandoned zone around the church.
The clerk got nervous at first. That was a big chunk of land. What if he couldn't pay?
But when she saw the location she stopped worrying.
That area had been abandoned for so long the Guild practically wanted to throw it away. No one wanted it. They'd dropped the price year after year. It was almost free by now, and still no takers.
Big familias could afford it but had no reason to buy.Small familias wanted it but couldn't afford the annual maintenance fees and land tax for such a huge area.
So the land sat there forever unsold.
The clerk quickly filled out the paperwork, stamped everything and finally told him,"Sir, the total is eighty million valis."
Alex blinked. For a second he thought he misheard.
"How much?"
"Eighty million," she said with a bright smile.
"That cheap?" Alex couldn't help showing how surprised he was.
He'd expected at least a few hundred million. Maybe even a billion. But it wasn't even one-tenth of that.
He paid, received the land certificate and glanced through it.
The land use rights were only valid for twenty years. If anything major happened within those years, like the familia disbanding, leaving Orario, or the main god being sent back to the heavens, the rights would return to the Guild.
Alex put the papers away and headed back with Bell.
Bell went home in a daze the entire time.Too much had happened for his brain to keep up.
Back at the church, the girls had already returned with ingredients and were busy preparing dinner.
Alex walked to Hestia and handed her the certificate.
"What's this?" Hestia asked with a puzzled look.
"Open it and see," he said mysteriously.
She opened it, and her expression shifted rapidly from shock to joy.Then she dove straight into Alex's arms.
"Alex, this is amazing. Our familia finally has its own base!"
The others heard her shout and came over.
When they saw the certificate, their faces lit up as well.
Starting today, the church district officially belonged to the Hestia Familia.
Starting today, they finally had a real home.
"For the expedition profit, aside from Udaeus's black sword, everything else has been sold. Total is 942.5 million. The land cost eighty million. Add the two-plus million we had left before, and our funds are now 865 million," Alex reported.
"That's definitely enough to rebuild this whole place!" Hestia said excitedly.
"Yeah. Let's just hire the Goibniu Familia. No need to be stingy," Alex agreed.
Now that they had money, they could get the best.
He wasn't planning to manage construction details anyway. Hestia could handle all of that.
He kept 65 million for himself and handed the remaining 800 million to Hestia.
The moment Hestia saw the mountain of coins, her eyes sparkled and she dove into it, practically swimming through gold.
Everyone else smiled at the sight.
After rolling around in the pile, Hestia suddenly remembered something."Oh right, Alex. I already talked to Hephaestus about you. She agreed to teach you forging. But she's heading to the Sword-Forge City Zollingen in the Rakia Kingdom for a bit, so you'll train under her familia's captain first."
"That's great. I can finally start learning forging."Alex was genuinely excited.
Once you hit Level 4, pushing further got really hard.
Even grinding monsters in the Dungeon wouldn't help much unless he went to the lower or deep floors.
But going that deep took a ridiculous amount of time.
And if he couldn't level up for now, then learning something new to increase his strength was the best choice.
Forging was perfect.
If he could learn Hephaestus's divine forging techniques, then Unlimited Blade Works could replicate divine-grade weapons.
That was the key to evolving Unlimited Blade Works.
They all worked until evening and eventually filled the table with food.
Everyone gathered around and raised their drinks.
"To Hestia Familia becoming stronger and stronger!"
"Cheers!"
They drank late into the night. Everyone except Sakura and Illya got drunk.
Alex used magic to purge the alcohol from his own body, carried Hestia down to her basement bed, dropped the others off at their rooms and finally headed out.
Same inn as usual. Same room as usual.
He booked the room, fell onto the bed and passed out instantly.
The expedition had drained him completely.
…
He slept straight until morning.
The next day, under Hestia's arrangements, Alex headed to the Hephaestus Familia.
There he met the captain, Tsubaki Collbrande.
The strongest blacksmith in Orario.
Black hair, red eyes, eyepatch over her left eye.
As a half-human, half-dwarf, she lucked out and inherited the best of both sides.
She had the height and build that dwarves envied, thanks to her human blood.
She had the forging talent that made humans jealous, thanks to her dwarf blood.
Of course, talent was only part of it. She worked insanely hard.
Alex sized her up for a moment.Pretty face, bronzed skin, bold outfit. Honestly, she looked more like an Amazon warrior.
Tsubaki was sizing him up too.
She had to admit, his looks and sense of style were excellent. His physique was solid too. Definitely good material for a blacksmith.
"..."
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