Time flowed on.
With Lin Dong and Sakura leading, and Mikoto scouting, the group returned to the surface without incident.
Just as Lin Dong moved toward the Guild counter to exchange today's loot for valis, a familiar voice came from nearby.
"Lin Dong! You finally came out!"
"Hestia? Why are you here?"
Lin Dong turned. A petite figure rushed into view.
"I heard from Hephaestus that first-time dungeon runs often end in injuries. I got worried and came to check."
Hestia ran a quick circle around Lin Dong, visibly relaxing only after confirming he wasn't hurt.
"See? Not that dangerous. Hephaestus always likes to scare me."
"It is dangerous," Lin Dong said, tapping the armor. "I didn't get hurt because you bought me good gear."
Thunder Breathing boosted combat power, but it also burned stamina fast.
To conserve stamina and maximize farm time, Lin Dong hadn't used Thunder Breathing before Takemikazuchi Familia arrived.
Relying only on his "three-Lin-Dong" physical base against a swarm, he still got clipped a few times.
If Hephaestus's gear hadn't been solid, he would've come back with visible injuries.
"…Then I misunderstood Hephaestus." Hestia rubbed her cheek awkwardly. "I'll thank her properly later."
She quickly shifted topics.
"By the way—who are these people?"
Lin Dong: "They're from Takemikazuchi Familia. I ran into them while hunting."
"Oh, Takemikazuchi's kids."
Hestia tilted her head and inspected Sakura's group.
…Normal.
Lin Dong is better.
On the other side, Sakura looked curious.
"Hestia-sama, do you know Lord Takemikazuchi?"
Hestia nodded. "Of course. We worked part-time at the same shop."
After Hephaestus kicked her out, Hestia worked briefly at a fried potato ball stand to survive.
Takemikazuchi had been there too. Both were easygoing, and they became friends quickly.
And in those chats, Takemikazuchi talked about his children the most.
"So you're the goddess Lord Takemikazuchi mentioned…" Sakura realized.
Takemikazuchi had apparently referred to Hestia as the "little goddess," which was why Sakura hadn't connected the name immediately.
"Lin Dong said he wanted to visit Lord Takemikazuchi."
Sakura hesitated, then offered, "If Hestia-sama is here too… would you like to come to our Familia as guests?"
"Visit Takemikazuchi?" Hestia looked at Lin Dong.
"He's a war god," Lin Dong explained. "I want to ask him about some things."
Then he looked to Sakura. "We have other business today. I'll visit tomorrow."
...
After parting ways with Sakura's group, Lin Dong and Hestia exchanged loot for valis and returned to the church basement.
After dinner, Lin Dong pulled Hestia to the bed for "serious business."
Lin Dong — Level 1
Strength: H101 → H167
Endurance: H113 → H134
Dexterity: H107 → H190
Agility: H116 → H198
Magic: I0
Spells: None
Skills: Unify
"Huh? Why did it increase so much?" Hestia stared at the fresh status sheet.
New adventurers did grow faster than high-level ones, but this was still abnormal.
In a single day—excluding Magic—his four stats rose by 252 total.
If you said that out loud, nine out of ten people would call you a liar.
The tenth would take you to the hospital.
"It's probably the skill," Lin Dong said. He was surprised too.
He looked at the newly awakened Unify.
Unify: The greater the number, the stronger the effect.
Its description was unusually short.
Because of the mist plaza, Lin Dong had initially interpreted it as: the more counterparts he contacts, the stronger his physical base.
But now it looked like it also included a growth acceleration component—letting him gain more status from combat.
"Growth acceleration… I didn't know skills like that existed," Hestia murmured.
"If this pace continues, you'll hit Level 2 soon."
Lin Dong calculated. "Counting time to accumulate excelia… about two to three weeks."
"That's insanely fast," Hestia said, shocked.
In Orario, the "fastest" record-holder was the Sword Princess of Loki Familia.
Even she needed about a year to go from Level 1 to Level 2.
Lin Dong's pace crushed that.
"Leveling can wait," Lin Dong said. "I need to find a grimoire first."
He looked at Magic, still stuck at zero.
The mist plaza connected worlds. Someday a "magic world" Lin Dong could arrive.
He couldn't afford a huge weakness—at minimum he needed one spell and a Magic stat that could be trained up.
Hestia frowned. "A grimoire… that's something only someone who maxed rare talents like 'Magecraft' and 'Mystery' can write. We can't afford it."
"Yeah. We can't."
A grimoire could guide an adventurer to the most suitable magic. Its value was obscene.
Even if you had a channel to buy one, you were looking at tens of millions to hundreds of millions of valis.
Today, Lin Dong had farmed at high intensity all day.
After maintenance costs for armor and weapon, he'd earned about seventy thousand valis.
At that rate, saving up would take more than two years.
"Then we'll have to use unconventional methods," Lin Dong said.
"Unconventional…?"
"I'm going to trigger a War Game."
War was the fastest way to complete primitive accumulation.
Better than scraping together money: take another Familia's wealth in one blow.
"Ehh… that's not good, is it?" Hestia hesitated.
As a homebody goddess with a generally lawful-good personality, initiating a War Game was hard for her.
"If you still think it's wrong after reading this, I'll drop it."
Lin Dong already knew her temperament, so he pulled out a prepared document and placed it on the table.
"Soma Familia Development History?"
Hestia read the title and opened the first page.
Ten minutes later, she put the document down with a grim face.
"Is this all real?"
"Yes."
"How certain are you?"
"One hundred percent."
"Then we hit them."
Hestia said it like a verdict.
...
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