Hestia: Please Be Gentle with Seele-I Can't Bear to See Her Hurt... / The Fastest Level-Up on Record; Heading to the Loki Familia

"After we finish eating, I'll update your Blessing Panels and see what you gained today."

At that, Seele and Sakura smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, Big Sister Hestia."

Although Sakura could update her Grace information herself even without Hestia, Hestia had insisted yesterday that the task be left to her in the end.

In Hestia's words, if she did not even need to update their Grace information, then what purpose would Hestia serve in the Hestia Familia?

It was one thing for the God's Blessing to have lost its connection to her, but if she also lost the chance to personally witness the growth of her Familia's children, she really would cry.

And so, after they finished eating, Seele and Sakura took turns lying face down on the bed in the church while Hestia updated their Blessing Panels.

Seele

Level 1

Strength: B756

Endurance: D572

Dexterity: B749

Agility: A823

Magic: A856

Looking at the Blessing Panel before her, Hestia's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Is this improvement for real? In just one day, most of your attributes rose above B, and two of them even reached A?"

Even considering that Seele possessed a skill that doubled her attribute growth, achieving this much on her first trip into the Dungeon was utterly terrifying. It would not be an exaggeration to say it surpassed everyone in Orario.

Even level 1 Adventurers—including those level 6s from the Loki Familia and Freya Familia—generally only had average attributes around C to B when they leveled up. Only individual attributes could reach A, and they had accumulated those stats over one or two years, or even several years.

In other words, Seele had not only completed in one day the path that those level 1 Adventurers needed years to walk, but had directly reached the average attributes they possessed when leveling up. As long as she achieved one more Great Feat, she could level up immediately.

"But Seele barely participated in any battles today."

Even Seele herself was somewhat puzzled by the extent of her increase. Since she did not actually need the Grace's improvement that badly, and their main purpose had been to train Sakura, she had not been particularly proactive about raising her attributes in the Dungeon.

She had not expected such an enormous increase even so.

"This just means Seele has great talent. Even uncovering a tiny fraction of it is enough to equal years of accumulation by other Adventurers. If you train a little more seriously, I'm sure you'll easily raise all your attributes to A, or even S rank."

"Is that so? Seele understands. From now on, Seele will train seriously and won't disappoint Big Sister Hestia."

The talent of a Herrscher Body was naturally beyond question. But besides her Herrscher talent and her skill that doubled attribute growth, another major reason Seele could gain so much in just one day without fighting much was that, unlike other novice Adventurers, she was not an ordinary person.

Strictly speaking, Seele was a max-level veteran pretending to be a level 1 newbie. Although her Blessing Panel was indeed only level 1, if it came down to actual strength, even Orario's strongest Adventurer, Freya Familia's Berserker Ottar, was far from being Seele's match.

By that standard, it was only natural that a few casual moves, enhanced by talent and skills, would produce gains far surpassing what other novice Adventurers accumulated over a long period.

And if Seele's updated panel left Hestia in disbelief, Sakura's updated panel left her completely dumbfounded.

Sakura Kinomoto

Level 1

Strength: C614

Endurance: D523

Dexterity: C644

Agility: C681

Magic: SSS5684

If Seele's attribute gains had benefited somewhat from her strength, then Sakura's gains were genuinely shocking.

One day. SSS-rank Magic. Her Magic attribute had soared from 0 to over 5,600.

Since the gods had descended to the mortal world, Hestia had never even heard of a panel like this. Before Sakura, the limit for any single attribute on every human Adventurer's Blessing Panel had only been S rank—no more than 999 points in a single attribute.

So what exactly was this Magic attribute before her, rising from zero to over five thousand in a single day?

If Sakura had not been her child, but a member of another God's Familia, Hestia would have had to ask, "Is she even human?"

More importantly, aside from her attribute gains, Hestia discovered that Sakura had already completed a Great Feat. In other words, if Sakura wanted to, she could level up right now.

"As for the Great Feat, it was probably because she analyzed the God's Blessing."

An Xiu spoke from within the room, offering his guess.

Great Feats could not only be achieved through battle. The key was accomplishing something ordinary people could never do.

Analyzing the God's Blessing was a Great Feat so shocking that, if leveling up did not require completing a Great Feat each time, this one accomplishment alone would probably cover the Great Feat requirements from level 1 through level 9.

"Then does Sakura need to level up now?"

Hestia asked.

If magic was her primary means of fighting, and she did not need to care too much about raising attributes besides Magic, then Sakura could directly become a Level 2 upper-class Adventurer. After all, SSS-rank Magic had already far surpassed the limits of ordinary Adventurer attributes.

However, An Xiu shook his head.

"Let her raise her other attributes a little more before leveling up."

The Favor System of the DanMachi world was a good opportunity to somewhat make up for Sakura's weakness in physical ability. Sakura in the original work was powerful, but she had always been somewhat of a glass cannon.

Now, with the convenience of this world's Favor System, they could raise attributes other than Magic a bit more. With her skills and Sakura's own talent as a foundation, even if her other attributes could not compare to Magic, they would still improve quickly.

There was no need to raise every attribute to an absurd SSS rank. As long as they all reached A or above, she could level up. As mentioned before, this world's Grace could somewhat compensate for Sakura's physical shortcomings, but only somewhat. To truly solve that problem, relying solely on this world's Grace was clearly not enough.

There was also no need to worry that raising other attributes would delay the growth of her Magic. After Sakura had completely analyzed this world's Grace, it could only help her tap into her potential; it could not lock that potential in place.

Therefore, SSS Magic was merely the limit marked by the Blessing Panel. It was far from Sakura's true limit.

Hestia: Please Be Gentle with Seele, I Feel Bad for Her...

Just like that, three days passed. Including the first day, a total of four days had gone by.

Over those four days, Sakura successfully raised every attribute except Magic to A rank. Seele, meanwhile, raised all her attributes to S through SS rank and killed several Minotaurs judged to possess Level 2 strength, thereby completing the Great Feat needed to level up.

Yes, although Minotaurs—monsters judged to have level 2 strength—could be killed by Seele in a single blow, the Favor System judged it as a level 1 Seele killing monsters that even level 2 Adventurers would find exceptionally difficult. That naturally counted as completing a Great Feat.

"Alright, you've both successfully leveled up now."

Inside the abandoned church, Hestia wiped away nonexistent sweat and spoke to Seele and Sakura after they had leveled up.

After witnessing the two girls' terrifying growth rate over the past few days, seeing their cleared panels after leveling up felt strangely unfamiliar.

There was no need to mention Seele's attributes, all of which had been at least S rank before leveling up. Sakura's other attributes had been somewhat lower than Seele's, only A rank, but her Magic attribute had reached a terrifying 9,999 points—just one point short of ten thousand.

The reason her Magic stopped at 9,999 was not that Sakura could only improve to that value. After reaching 9,999 points, she could still feel her Magic increasing, but those gains no longer appeared on the Blessing Panel.

9,999 was the maximum attribute value the Blessing Panel could display, and Sakura had reached that limit on only her second day in the Dungeon.

"Should we go to the Guild and submit the new information next? If we update your registered Levels to Level 2 now, we can still make it to the Gathering of the Gods half a month from now."

The Gathering of the Gods was a meeting held once every three months, where a group of bored Gods gathered to brag, have fun, and give representative titles to the newly emerged Level 2 Adventurers of various Familias.

For that reason, only Familia Gods with Level 2 upper-class Adventurers were qualified to attend. Hestia had once had no Familia at all and ranked at the very bottom among the descended Gods, so naturally she had not been qualified to attend.

But now...

Looking at Seele and Sakura before her, Hestia could not stop the corners of her mouth from curling upward.

Didn't expect this, did you? I got the underdog comeback script too!

Level 2 in four days. If that flat-chested Loki found out, wouldn't her eyes pop out?

No, she could not get too carried away. She had to maintain her image before the children.

"If we rush to update the registered Grace Levels, there's a high chance the Hestia Familia will be targeted by people with ill intentions."

An Xiu spoke calmly.

Knowing the plot well, he understood that once they immediately went to the Guild to submit the new registration information, the Hestia Familia would almost certainly be targeted.

After all, Bell, the original protagonist, had been watched by the Apollo Familia after rising from level 1 to level 2 in one month. Now that Seele and Sakura had leveled up in just a few days, the situation would only be more dangerous.

But An Xiu did not mean that Seele and Sakura should hide themselves.

What was the big deal if someone targeted them? As long as the Gods of this world did not remove the seals on their divine power and act personally, who could defeat Seele when she went all out?

With such an absolute advantage in strength, villains like the Apollo Familia from the original story were simply here to deliver wealth.

So they had to go to the Guild. Not only would they go, they would go openly.

Whether the Hestia Familia could move from this abandoned church into a grand mansion depended on when the Apollo Familia came to deliver their gifts.

"As long as you're confident."

After hearing An Xiu's plan and realizing that the man before her intended to treat those with ill intentions as prey instead, Hestia did not say much. She merely nodded.

She was not worried about whether Seele and Sakura were strong enough. Sakura aside, the aura of life and death that Hestia had sensed from Seele on the street that day—an aura no weaker than a God's authority—had been real.

After all, in order to lure Hestia in that day, An Xiu had deliberately told Seele and Sakura not to conceal their auras in the slightest. Forget descended Gods—even Adventurers who had reached the level 6 heroic realm could likely sense that Sakura and Seele were extraordinary.

After successfully luring Hestia in, An Xiu had Seele and Sakura conceal their auras again. Unless it was a special God like Freya, who could directly see people's souls, ordinary Gods could no longer detect anything unusual about them.

That was one reason An Xiu was certain that after Seele and Sakura revealed their talents, someone would take the bait instead of being scared away.

"It's already getting late today."

Hestia spoke after glancing at the evening sky outside.

"We can go to the Guild tomorrow. Sakura and Seele should get some rest early."

In Hestia's eyes, Sakura and Seele were at an age when they were still growing. Exploring the Dungeon every day was tiring enough; they could not keep staying up late.

However, An Xiu had a different opinion.

"Sakura, go rest first. Seele, come find me later."

At that, Seele, who had been quietly sitting at the edge of the bed, nodded with a faint blush on her pretty face.

"Seele understands."

Seeing this, Hestia's eyes widened as she sprang to her feet in fury.

"You beast, are you going to ravage Seele again?!"

In fact, Hestia had witnessed this scene more than once. Ever since she met An Xiu, Seele, and Sakura, it had happened every day.

Not only did this bastard spend the Valis Seele and Sakura earned from exploring the Dungeon on food, drink, and entertainment, but at night he made Seele serve him despite her exhausted body after a full day in the Dungeon.

It would have been one thing if they gave equally to each other, but Hestia could see that their relationship was unequal. An Xiu was completely taking from Seele one-sidedly.

Yet Hestia could not say much, because Seele was entirely willing to let the man named An Xiu treat her this way.

So aside from angrily calling him a beast and silently feeling sorry for Seele, there was nothing she could do.

"Th-then, even if you really are going to do it, could you please be a little gentler with Seele? I'm begging you."

Watching Seele obediently walk over and let An Xiu pull her into his arms with just a beckoning gesture, Hestia spoke with utter humility.

Fastest Level-Up Record, Heading to the Loki Familia

The next day, Seele and Sakura went to the Guild early in the morning to update their registration information.

By noon, news shocking enough to stun countless people had spread throughout Orario.

The fastest level 1 level-up record once set by the Loki Familia's famous Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, had been broken—and it had been broken by two people at once.

And it had been reduced from one year to just four days!

The news was so absurd that people suspected the Guild had made a mistake. Yet the Guild repeatedly stated that the information was accurate and even posted a notice for it.

That action thoroughly confirmed the news was genuine. Posting a notice was equivalent to the Guild staking its own reputation on it.

But that only made it harder to believe.

"A newcomer who just received the God's Blessing reached Level 2 in only four days?"

"And two people like that appeared at once?"

"What kind of joke is this? Even the Sword Princess took a whole year back then!"

For a time, the names Seele O'Flaherty and Sakura Kinomoto spread throughout all of Orario.

No one could blame them for reacting so strongly. The news was simply too shocking.