Chapter 5
Chapter 5
After I managed to finish off that dry sandwich I mentally swore that if I couldn't at least get mayo I would at least get some high quality white bread rather than this crappy rye bread that is so hard and chewy, I've had beef jerky with less chew to it.
Like really who enjoys having a sore jaw after eating a damn sandwich.
"Hestia can you update my falna?" I asked being curious about my stat changes after just a few hours of grinding along with how my quest rewards would distribute itself.
Hestia nodded hopped onto her feet and I could see the curiosity so I just turned sideways on the pew so she could easily sit behind me and then pulled my shirt off.
This time it didnt even hurt at all as she was updating my falna. It merely felt like a cool hand was caressing my feverish skin so all in all it was quite comfortable this time. "Hmm it looks pretty good for the first day and it doesn't look like all the stats got dumped into one stat from the quest and it looks like you also got a new one. I think what it does is that everyday it adds a quest and if you don't do it, it will just be there after you complete the old one...." Hestia paused and hummed in thought which gathered both me and Bells attention.
"This is interesting it looks like completing your first quest made your skill upgrade from rank I to H so now you can take the next tier of prior quests along with the daily quests huh this almost seems to be a guide trying to make you level up in a efficient way." Hestia mused idly and then I could feel her rest her a paper on my back and peel it off me and then give me a pat on my shoulder I took for her being done and quickly threw back on my shirt because it was already feeling cool in this drafty church.
I then turned to Hestia who was holding out my Falna paper which I took eagerly and quickly read and paid especial attention to the my upgraded skill.
Strength 12 I
Endurance 15 I
Dexterity 8 I
Agility 9 I
Magic 18 I
Argonaut's Journey H --Having slain ten goblins you are legible for the next step of the goblin extermination. Slay twenty five goblins for twenty five Excellia.... Warning!!! How you complete the quest will determine the following tiers of the quest and its rewards.--
-Daily quest- kill ten Kobolds for ten Excellia.
Hmm so I am guessing for example if I had Bell kill all the the goblins I would get quests too lead others to kill monsters for me but how specific would it get like would I get a quests to assassinate them if done that way because frankly I don't even really have a fighting style yet...
Like for all I know, I may decide to simply switch weapons to a trident or spear or hell just go full unga bunga and take a large club with me because frankly until the hard armored later on almost all the monsters I will see for a will be easier to kill with a blunt instrument. "Hey Hestia I have a uh weird question would it be weird for an adventure to have a pickaxe for a weapon?" Honestly other being a bit of a pain to learn how to use as a weapon I bet a miner style pickaxe would be an amazing weapon because for one durability probably wouldn't be an issue and I could use the hammer side for more squishy targets and the pointed side for trying to pierce armored targets.
Hestia shrugged looking bewildered so I just explained simply that I was curious if she ever saw anyone using them in the dungeon. "Well I do see people bring them into the dungeon but from what I know they are just used to damage the walls that way monsters wont spawn till the dungeon fixes the broken walls."
Hmm so taking an exotic weapon into the hellhole of a dungeon would be rather unusual to other people.
For the next few hours us three just talked amongst each other and became more familiar with one another until night came and seeing as the neighborhood were in didnt really have any lights me and Bell decided just to stay with Hestia rather than explore the city and I managed to convince Hestia to allow me to fuse all the broken pews within the church to make an even dozen decent quality pews that at least wouldn't give us splinters by sitting on them.
Although Hestia was willing to share the bed again that night she seemed to be in a bad mood and tossed and turned through out the night and despite her diminutive size being kicked and rolled on when you are trying to sleep will kill any idea's of rest.
Hestia seemed to recognize my irritation and how tired I was after I rolled out of bed and Bell being the rabbit with endless energy already left at the crack of dawn to get the materials I asked for but at least he was smart enough to leave a note telling us he left so neither of us freaked out.
"Hestia you alright?" I asked tiredly seeing how depressed Hestia also was because this was the fourth sigh she has made in the last half an hour.
Hestia hesitated and then groaned "Guh whatever... Jake do you think Bell loves me?" She said simply and I knew she was more or less what she was hinting at and despite the obvious affection he had for his goddess, his feelings were in no way romantic which was the opposite of what she was seeking.
I hummed in thought trying to think of the correct way to put it that wouldn't hurt Hestia and certainly not set off her divine lie detector. "Well Hestia I think Bell is still young right now seeing as he is only fourteen and, from what I can tell he certainly see's you in a more family way and not a romantic way if that's what you mean."
Hestia deflated knowing I was telling the truth or at least I was in my own view so she just dejectedly pulled her knees to her chest and started wailing and from the soft thumping noises I could both feel and hear she was lightly punching the pew with her fists. "Stupid Bell..." She muttered bitterly.
"Hestia like I said he frankly isn't a man yet either you need to get over him or wait for him to grow up into an adult." Although I say that now with all the perverts in this damn city someone is going scoop him up whether its one of the girls in the Hostess of Fertility, Loki's girls, or anyone of the other women that will fall within his path be saved and inevitably fall in love with him.
"I know I know!" Hestia groaned kicking her feet out and turning her body sideways and laying her upper chest into my lap and continued petulantly kicking her feet out so I just started petting her head to hopefully calm the frustrated mini goddess.
"I'm back!" Bells tired voice carried out from outside and deciding to be cheeky I used my already somewhat augmented strength to put Hestia onto my shoulders and started to jog outside and ignored the excited laughter of Hestia.
We all gawked at one another as we excited the church, me and Hestia at Bell for having towed a much larger cart than I expected and almost overflowing with what seemed like rocks and wood in the back half and in the front half was a literal pile of what seemed like trash from what I could see it looked broken porcelain dishware, unknown metal utensil's and a large pile of looked like clothes or blankets.
On the other hand Bell was gawking at seeing Hestia look so giddy and frankly I doubted he ever thought he would have to physically look up to see Hestia in any fashion at all.
Oh and the bonus of having Hestia's thighs wrapped around my neck was a major plus.
"Damn Bell you really didnt hold back on getting all the material's did you..." I said somewhat bitterly at the massive pile of work just sorting all this stuff was going to be.
Wait seeing that smug grin coming over his face.... That damn brat planned this load of work, He although nave isn't stupid and I can see he actually can hold a bit of spite that's good for life I suppose I just wish it wasn't directed at me.
Bell just stretched and groaned in reply before hopping in place seeming to get ready to run off already into the dungeon from what I was guessing.
"Bell do you want to get dinner tonight just me and you to discuss getting more Familia members?" Hestia asked shyly.
I awkwardly just stood there as Bell excitedly agreed and I knew her flirting just flew over his head and it seemed so did she if the way she lost some of her enthusiasm at his reaction that confirmed his immaturity.
"Hey Bell you still going to the dungeon today?" I asked and Bell just grinned and gave me a cocky wave and started to jog off as a response making my eye twitch in irritation.
Whatever he wins this round.
I grunted and started pulling the cart of debris and listened to Hestia's cheers but man its kind of sad that Bell is stronger than me seeing how much energy he still had after pulling this for a couple miles and I was already straining to pull this cart through the grass surrounding the church granted he was pulling it on the paved roads of the city.
When I managed to get the cart next to the church I saw Hestia was leaning against the churches closed front door watching me so I questioned her "Hey Hestia I think the first thing we should do is fix the churches frame and exterior, what you think?"
She shrugged "I think no matter what you do is going to be a huge improvement so you do whatever is needed. I just want to watch out for you, that way if you suffer mind down I can take care of you with an extra mind potion I've kept just in case."
Seeing my face of confusion on why she had a mind potion she blushed "Mind potions are good for taking care of hangovers..." She muttered.
Hmm actually I have an idea. I ran inside the church and grabbed a large barrel full of clean rain water slowly brought it outside and put it down with a deep thud making the water jiggle. "Jake why did you bring out our rain water..." Hestia drawled out
"Hestia I have an interesting idea go get the mind potion I want to try and fuse it with the rain water maybe we could get a barrels worth of diluted mind potion or something." I ordered and Hestia lit up and ran off and think about the building supplies and trash in the cart I then had an epiphany and remembered seeing some glass and what I thought to be an already used grimoire in the trash pile.
Jumping into the cart I grabbed said used grimoire some glass and a few stipes of what seemed to be copper and, lastly a handful of the monster stones I kept to experiment with and, then tried to picture a pair of glasses and more specifically glasses that could see through things. "Fuse" I called out and the items in my hand slowly combined leaving a steampunk style pair of glasses with the rims being made of copper and the metal was almost hot to the touch.
"WOW! Jake what's that?" Hestia cried seeing the beautiful glasses I was holding gingerly in my hands and almost playing hot potato with till it seemed to cool down.
I wonder if the heat came from using magic stones in the fusing and instead of directly answering Hestia I put on the now warm to the touch glasses and looked at her... Yup its everything I could have wished for. The glasses had only one ability which was to see 'the truth' in things and display them in text. So basically for less than a hundred dollars in materials and the majority of the material cost is in those magic stones I made Google Glasses! I was mentally hysterically at the price difference.
Turning towards the church it was outlined and a line of text soon came reading.
-Church of Hera,- No Bonus's due to disrepair,- Copper Grade- Hmm its nice to see things actually have grades and thinking I took my sword that was hanging on my side and examined it as well -Fanged Longsword,- Enhanced stabbing- Iron Grade- I will need to do more testing to find out the grades of materials and there limits not to mention being able to concretely get information on enchantments.
I handed the glasses to the highly curious goddess who then started to looking everywhere like someone putting on a VR headset for the first time and it was funny enough to make me laugh which made Hestia pull them off and pout at me.
"Alright my bad Hestia it was just funny watching you look everywhere uh please hand me the potion so I can do my last idea." I said sheepishly seeing her still awkwardly holding the potion in question. "Um can I also get a drop of your blood I feel the blood of ahhh a super awesome goddess? would make it a lot stronger..." Hestia didnt look to be buying my nonsense but she still pulled out a needle she kept for updating our falna and pricked herself and let a drop of her blood fall into my hand.
"Fuse." I called out and the blood seemed to return to its divine form and shined far brighter than the rest of the materials put together as it moved and merged with potion and the large barrel of water and I definitely was right previously if I could fuse something of divine nature without any major problems where as fusing sever large pieces of furniture wiped me out then it definitely was the mass of the fusion that would exhaust me.
Even as I think that it turns out merging a hundred gallons worth of material still was still tiring as I leaned against the cart and asked Hestia "Hey Hestia can I borrow those glasses real quick? I want to check what this is before I actually drink it."
She glumly handed me back what I was almost sure she already claimed as her own toy and I looked through them and read the info... Fuck we cant take this in front of any adventures especially any mages. I thought turning pale at the possibility of the likes of Loki's mages busting down our doors for this.
-Tears of the sky realm- Drastically increases mind regeneration for five hours, increases ease of water based magic, slightly increases water affinity,-Platinum Grade-
I wordlessly handed the glasses to Hestia and pointed at the barrel.
"We can dump it out...." She said weakly and I could understand her feeling's like this is literal godsend, granted it can't heal but still the fact it could increase a person's water affinity was huge because that would possibly allow people to develop a falna spell without having to spend hundred's of millions of Valis on a grimoire.
I just rubbed my head as I came to a quick decision and attempted to pick up the barrel. Key word attempted because I was perfectly able to maneuver barrel full of water over here but now it send to have become more than ten times more dense... Hestia just raised her eyebrow at my failing attempt to move the barrel so instead I just started rocking the barrel and made it almost walk itself back by making it pivot on it's edge's till I got it inside the church.
"Ok here is my plan we just keep the stuff in metal flasks and not glass vials and flasks because I already know for a damn fact potions don't glow in the dark and we are way too poor to buy elixir's." I gestured at the barrel emitting a soft silver glow in the shade as though there was a miniature moon stuffed within.
Hestia nodded before a nostalgic look came over her and she whispered. "Artemis would have loved to see this. It looks almost like one of the moon pools she kept in her temple back in Tenkai." Knowing Tenkai to be the upper world where the gods came from I wondered if this was actually a natural thing that could be found either deeper in the dungeon, or in Tenkai and not just something my ability made up.
I took a couple of the cups we left out from our lunch and handed one to Hestia. "Well lets give it a try then." I said and then scooped out a cup full of the silver fluid and waited for her to copy me and when she did I raised my cup and said "Cheers Hestia I wish you luck on your date."
Seeing her blush and raise her cup to down it all in one go I copied her and it tasted like almost like filtered water it was so pure but it was actually very refreshing with how it gently seemed to flow into my chest and cool my body.
"Haaa that was pretty good." I said good-naturedly and then I looked up to Hestia and she was blushing a deep red but she didnt look drunk at all though nor did I feel weird at all?
I walked over to Hestia and sat beside her on the pew she was sitting on and patted her knee "Hestia you ok?" I asked quietly with concern plain in my voice.
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