Although Freya dared not directly use her 'Charm' authority for fear of Hestia's hysterics,
with tens of millions of years of life experience, she was confident she could easily string Levi Bright along.
When the time came, facing Hestia's accusations, the gray-haired goddess could simply brush it off by saying Levi himself had a change of heart.
As for whether the other party would believe her, hehe~ that wasn't something she needed to worry about.
However, the presence of a goddess was a bit too sublime; it might scare him away at first…
"I've got it!" Freya clapped her hands together, her words tinged with joy and mischief. "I'll approach him using the identity of 'Syr Flova'."
"Besides, how can a child with such a dazzling soul hide himself away? It's such a waste."
"I remember, back in Tenkai, Hestia and Apollo didn't seem to get along~ In that case…"
Listening to his goddess of beauty's plan, Ottar, standing to the side, said nothing, merely remaining silent.
…
Hiding in the shadows, Freya thought she was the hunter, little knowing that the moment her emotions fluctuated, Levi had already sensed it through his character panel.
[Current Blessings Held:]
[Part Two · The Twisted Love of the 'Goddess of Beauty' Freya II: Mental Abnormal Resistance greatly increased]
Levi, who was walking towards the Dungeon entrance, suddenly stopped in his tracks. The next second, he resumed walking as if nothing had happened.
He suppressed the instinct to look up at Babel, pretending he hadn't noticed anything at all.
Internally, however, he was plunged into deep confusion.
'How did Freya's affection for me increase?'
'I shouldn't have done anything that could have piqued her interest, right?'
'Or perhaps…'
The boy, his eyes hidden by his hood, quickly came to a conclusion:
'Did my soul undergo some kind of transformation?'
In the world of DanMachi, everyone's soul is unique and has its own fundamental color.
But this didn't mean that a soul wouldn't change after experiencing various events.
When he first acquired the 'The Goddesses' Loving Protection' magic, Levi didn't say it out loud, but he had been curious about what his own soul was like.
After all, he had attracted the attention of Freya, a goddess capable of seeing the light of souls.
But as the other party took no further action in the following days, he soon pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind.
After Hephaestus's validation, Levi had confirmed that a Level I affection had not yet reached the point of romantic love.
In other words, his soul might be somewhat peculiar, but it definitely wasn't alluring enough to be included in the Goddess of Beauty's hunting grounds.
But at this very moment…
'Is it because of 'Constellation Resonance'?'
'Or is it because I switched to a higher-level set of Artifacts?'
'Or could it be both reasons?'
Levi's thoughts ran wild. But it was clear that until he actually met Freya, or her alternate persona 'Syr', all his speculation would remain just that.
Thinking of this, Levi couldn't help but sigh.
'What a pain…'
In the anime from his previous life, there were only a few named goddesses who appeared.
Among them, Levi's favorite was, without a doubt, Hestia. Her personality and appearance seemed perfectly tailored to his tastes.
And for that reason, even if it was a bit unethical, after discovering that Hestia hadn't yet met the original story's protagonist, Bell Cranel, Levi made his move at the first opportunity.
As for other goddesses who also received significant attention, like Hephaestus and Loki, it would obviously be a lie to say he had no favorable impression of them at all.
Men will be men, after all.
There was nothing to deny, especially since the magic he awakened was 'The Goddesses' Loving Protection'.
But if asked if there were any goddesses he disliked…
Then, Levi wouldn't hesitate to immediately answer: "The Goddess of Beauty."
Yes, the Goddess of Beauty.
To be precise, the Goddesses of Beauty!
He disliked all Goddesses of Beauty.
It wasn't because they were promiscuous or had chaotic private lives.
They weren't his lovers anyway, so why would he care about that?
The real reason Levi disliked the Goddesses of Beauty was their 'Charm' authority, which they could use at will, ignoring the will of others.
No one would want their free will stripped away, to have their every thought and action controlled.
This was especially true for Levi who, with his pay-to-win system, was destined to stand at the pinnacle of Orario as long as he didn't die prematurely.
And a Goddess of Beauty, or rather, a Goddess of Beauty driven by 'love', was undoubtedly the biggest and most troublesome wildcard.
That being said, there was nothing Levi could do about it at the moment.
He couldn't just run up to Freya's alternate persona, Syr, simply to verify his suspicions.
He even had to maintain his current routine as much as possible to prevent the Freya who had her eyes on him from noticing anything was amiss.
'Tsk, I'm still not strong enough,' Levi clicked his tongue and thought to himself, 'I also need to find a way to increase my own Charm resistance.'
'Hopefully, after I reach Lv. 4, Bell's 'Liaris Freese' skill will become available in the permanent gacha pool.'
Muttering this to himself, the boy with short, pale-gold hair stepped into the entrance of the Dungeon.
Before leaving their headquarters, Levi had already confirmed, by consuming proficiency-boosting tickets, that his Lv. 3 ability values were effectively double his Lv. 2 values.
And in the process, whether it was the recently acquired Guhua Spear and Favonius Bladework, or the Hunter's Archery and Stellar Conquest Spear Arts he had been learning for some time, all of them had reached mastery under the supply of an inexhaustible amount of proficiency-boosting tickets.
In particular, the Stellar Conquest Spear Arts, a four-star martial art, had allowed Levi to master a technique to condense single-use, transparent steps under his feet with mana after he reached the master level. This now gave him the ability to change direction mid-air to some extent.
In a way, the current Levi, aside from his body and instincts not having fully adapted to the newly allocated points, had already reached his most perfect state!
As for what came next…
Arriving on the 5th floor of the Dungeon, he didn't continue down the main path to the next floor but instead took a series of winding turns, soon appearing at the edge of the current level.
The next second.
As his item inventory opened, a drop of blood radiating a golden light fell from the opening.
[Divine Blood · 7-Star: Blood of a god provided by the 'Goddess of the Hearth' Hestia, bound by a command spell, containing a powerful, yet-to-disperse divine might.]
Levi raised his right hand and drew a rune over the drop of divine blood held in the palm of his left.
He then let out a short cry: "Release!"
Immediately after, the unsealed divine might began to spread in all directions.
A dozen or so seconds later, the cave Levi was in began to shake violently.
Countless rocks fell from the walls on all sides, revealing, within the southern stone wall, a creature nearly half a size taller than its usual kin, its body covered in menacing bone spikes, clearly not an easy foe—a young black dragon!
_____
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