Labyrinth City, Orario.
Hephaestus' Weapon Branch Shop.
Wearing a white shirt and black slacks, with wine-red short hair naturally tied into a low ponytail, a mature woman with a notably heroic bearing had a slight frown on her face at this moment.
The black eyepatch over her right eye instead made Hephaestus look all the more dashing.
Her gaze lingered briefly on the black-haired boy lying unconscious on the sofa, before she finally shifted her helpless look to the close friend sitting opposite her—the one who gave her quite the headache.
"Hestia."
"My bottom line is letting you stay at my place for the time being, so who is this guy?"
The girl with long black hair tied into twin ponytails, addressed as "Hestia," wore an awkward smile on her youthful face.
Her voluptuous figure, utterly mismatched with that immature visage, swayed slightly as she suddenly stood up. Fortunately, the blue chest-binding ribbon kept it from becoming too conspicuous.
"That's… a long story."
"Today I went to the Adventurers' Guild to recruit familia members, and on my way back, in a passing alley, I saw this child unconscious."
At the very least, this girl wasn't lying around at home all day, eating and waiting to die.
Hephaestus felt somewhat relieved by that, though her expression did not soften because of it. "So you brought him back?"
"That's right!"
"And did you consider that he might be a member of some other familia?"
Faced with her close friend's question, Hestia was clearly lacking in confidence.
She looked at the boy's handsome face and spoke earnestly. "An encounter is a kind of fate. If he belongs to another familia, then we can count it as having done a good deed."
"And if he doesn't have a god yet…"
"If he wants to become an adventurer, then when he wakes up, I'll try inviting him!"
...
As fragmented memories continued to be absorbed, the scenes reappearing in his mind made Ron suddenly realize that his current situation was not exactly good.
After pulling an all-nighter finishing Elden Ring, he went out to buy breakfast—and was unexpectedly hit by a heavy truck.
The cessation of brainstem function and disappearance of brain electrical activity mean the end of consciousness—this is common medical knowledge!
If he could still think, then it meant there was still room to save him!
But there was no smell of disinfectant in the air. Just as Ron was puzzled by this, he caught a faint scent of orchids.
At that moment of doubt, pure white light enveloped his soul—like a lone bird adrift above the sea, finally finding an island on which to land.
It allowed Ron to gradually feel… the tangible sensation known as "being alive."
After slowly regaining control of his body, he opened his eyes little by little. The bright light hanging from the ceiling caused intense discomfort in his vision.
Immediately after—what entered his sight was a completely unfamiliar environment, not a hospital's intensive care unit at all.
A spacious room with a solid-wood style, surrounded by furnishings he had never seen before. A massive amount of information flooded into his mind, ultimately pointing straight to the answer.
'It wasn't just a heavy truck—it was truck-kun, an otherworldly teleporter.'
Anyone who's read web novels knows that transmigration is a classic trope, but he'd never imagined that one day it would actually happen to him.
'Don't tell me I got yeeted straight into the Elden Ring world?'
A sense of foreboding weighed on Ron's heart. Just as this thought arose, a completely unfamiliar voice—yet one with an exceptionally gentle tone—came from nearby: "Um…"
"Are you okay?"
Following the direction of the voice, Ron struggled to lift his head. But when he clearly saw the appearance of the girl who was speaking, his mind went blank for a moment.
The girl in a white dress had a youthful look that hovered between a girl and a childlike appearance; her beautiful features were like a miracle crafted by the Creator.
Her smooth black hair was tied into twin ponytails. Despite her somewhat childish face, it was paired with an extremely unreasonable figure.
TL;DR: baby face, huge bust.
Hestia. Blue ribbon.
'Where the hell did I get sent to?'
Recognizing the identity of the girl before him, Ron finally realized—he had transmigrated into the world of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Compared to the dark, brutal worlds of Souls-like games, ending up in "DanMachi" was obviously much easier to accept.
At the very least, he wouldn't run into some hidden bastard around a corner and die inexplicably to fodder mobs—dangerous as this world still was, despite not being as simple as it looked.
Adventurers. Familias…
As an otherworld with a supernatural system, Ron was fairly familiar with it.
The gods grant blessings to those of the lower world, bestowing upon them the authority to gain power and continuously grow stronger, and around labor and money, the familia system is established.
There are enormous differences in both the scale and nature of familias.
However, only when both familia members and a god are present can such a group truly be called a familia.
And the core setting revolves around Blessings. After receiving a Blessing, one gains something akin to an "attribute panel," through which ability values are manifested.
Adventurers who possess a "vessel."
Through repeated trials within the Dungeon, they can continuously draw out the latent potential within their bodies, including powers such as magic and skills.
'Become an adventurer?'
'When it's right in front of you like this—
it really does seem hard to refuse!'
Thinking of the Souls games, of bosses that had him stuck to the point of obsession, Ron felt a stifled frustration—his fists itching, wishing he could just open up a cheat tool.
This DanMachi world also had monsters.
No save points—but with magic and other supernatural powers, relying on technique to overcome monsters… wasn't that just another kind of single-life Souls-style dungeon run?
Not to mention that he clearly knew how the plot of the DanMachi world would unfold next. Ron felt that—this adventurer path was something he really couldn't avoid.
According to the original story, the Black Dragon crisis that would erupt two years later…
If he lacked any means of self-preservation, the outcome waiting for him would unquestionably be a remake.
He had thought about placing all hope for saving the world on the original protagonist, Bell—but he simply couldn't get past that inner hurdle.
Ron believed more in relying on himself than on others, and resolved to take his future firmly into his own hands.
After sorting out his post-transmigration situation and the unavoidable problems now before him, he propped himself up with one hand and sat up from the sofa, looking toward the figure ahead.
Hestia, who was pouring hot tea into a cup.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with his body, Ron sincerely expressed his thanks to her: "Thank you. My body should be fine now."
"I'd like to ask—"
"Where exactly is this place?"
Hestia handed the hot tea to the boy and explained patiently: "This is the office of Hephaestus' weapon shop."
"You collapsed in an alley. I really couldn't just leave you there, so I brought you back."
After explaining the whole sequence of events, the girl looked at Ron—black short hair framing his face—and her slightly upturned smile revealed sweet dimples: "Which god's familia do you belong to? Would you like me to help notify them?"
"As things stand now—I'd say I'm basically unaffiliated."
Her personality was no different from the original work: as a virgin goddess aligned with justice, Hestia treated humans with considerable kindness.
As for her question, Ron did not conceal anything. One reason was that in front of a god, any lie would have its intent perceived.
But after he finished answering—
Hestia, sitting upright before him, had a trace of undisguised expectation rise within her clear, lake-blue eyes.
"Um…"
"May I ask—would you like to become an adventurer?"