Seeing the situation here, everyone was a bit surprised. In just a few short days, this place had already opened to the public.
After taking a look around, they didn't dwell on it and immediately left. They needed to head home before the sky turned completely dark.
There weren't any bus routes established here yet, so their only option was to rely on their own two legs to walk back.
They returned the exact same way they came. Once they reached the city district, the group parted ways. Ren Isana took Asuna, Bell Cranel, and Haruhime Sanjouno back to his apartment.
The moment they arrived, Hestia came running over. She looked at Ren and the others with pleasant surprise. "You're back!!"
"Hestia-sama!" Bell and Haruhime hurriedly greeted her.
Seeing Hestia, Ren immediately said, "Hestia, update their Falna. They performed well this time, so they should probably be able to level up."
He was currently looking forward to seeing Haruhime acquire [Kokonoe] after leveling up—the magic that could grant a level boost to multiple people at once. As long as she obtained that magic, Haruhime would become the ultimate Supporter.
Hearing Ren say this, Hestia instantly perked up. "Alrighty! I'll update their statuses right now. Haruhime, you're up first."
With that, she pulled Haruhime into her room to begin the update. Seeing this, Ren turned to Bell. "Bell, Hestia will update yours in a bit. Go ahead and head back to your room for now."
Ren glanced at Ais and the others, gave a nod, and then opened his own door and walked in. He planned to wash up first; after spending so much time in the Dungeon, he felt like he had been thoroughly marinated in its stench.
The others also returned to their respective places, their first priority being to wash up. Just as Ren stepped out from a nice, hot shower, Hestia knocked directly on his door.
Ren opened the door, and Hestia looked at him with sheer excitement. "Ren, this is incredible! Haruhime leveled up, and so did Bell! Bell even broke past his limits!!"
As she spoke, Hestia handed Ren two sheets of paper containing their updated status information. Both of them had leveled up, and Bell had only broken through after raising all of his stats to SSS.
She had never even heard of such a thing happening before. As for Haruhime, she had indeed acquired the magic [Kokonoe] upon leveling up. After reviewing Haruhime's status, Ren's gaze shifted to Bell's sheet. The boy had gained a new skill called [Admiration].
It wasn't the exact same skill from the anime, just the single word [Admiration]. Looking at this skill, Ren raised an eyebrow. It seemed the boy had indeed been influenced, but who was the object of his admiration this time?
*Could it be me?* Or perhaps he admired everyone in the Hestia Familia? After all, he was currently the weakest among them. Whenever they were killing monsters in the Dungeon, he would always watch everyone with envious eyes.
Having formed a rough guess in his mind, Ren spoke slowly, "Focus on training Bell from now on. In the future, he will be the second captain of the Hestia Familia."
Ren directly finalized the matter. He had already brought this up with Hestia before, and she was well aware that Ren couldn't remain the captain forever.
After all, whether Ren and the others would even go to Orario in the future was another story entirely. Hestia had already mentally prepared herself for this. Although she felt a bit gloomy about it, she still nodded.
"I'll listen to you!" What else could she say? Tell Ren not to leave? Stop joking. After learning about the unique circumstances of Ren's world, Hestia couldn't possibly say something like that. How could a tiny place like Orario ever tie down people like Ren and his group?
Ren nodded without saying anything more. He directly burned the two sheets of paper in his hand, using wind magic to sweep the ashes into the trash can. Then, he turned to Hestia. "Update mine too."
Hearing this, Hestia nodded excitedly. She hurriedly said, "Then lie down on your stomach, I'll update it right now."
After speaking, Hestia ran over to the sofa and motioned for Ren to lie down quickly. She was incredibly curious about Ren's status board. After all, Ren had broken through right after returning, and she really wanted to know what level he had reached now.
Ren lay down on the sofa. Hestia reached out and released her Divine Power. A drop of golden divine blood appeared and fell onto Ren's back. The next moment, his status board manifested.
Hestia stared at the information on his back and froze, because what she saw this time was completely different from what she had seen before.
Level: Lv.5 (15%) Talent: ? Development Abilities: ? Martial Arts: [Omni-Weapon Mastery], [God-Slaying Blade] Magic: [Wind Spirit Possession], [Spatial Perception], [Elemental Domination], [Dimensional Barrier], [Healing Magic], [Piercing Magic], [Shield of Sighs], [Spatial Magic], [Calming Magic], [Purification Magic], [Shadow Stealth]
Hestia looked at Ren's status board with a dumbfounded expression. Anyone else would have thought she was looking at a completely different person. Bewildered, she asked, "Ren, why is your magic all different now?"
What was going on? She clearly remembered it wasn't like this before. Ren's previous skill list had been incredibly long, packed with an absurd amount of magic. But now?
"Because I consolidated all my magic. I fused all the compatible spells together into single, unified ones. So the status board reflects that now?" Seeing that Hestia had finished the update, Ren pushed himself up from the sofa.
"I see. I was wondering why the names had changed." Hearing Ren's explanation, Hestia suddenly understood. So Ren had integrated his magic. The total number certainly looked much smaller now.
He must have merged a lot of spells together. Hestia didn't dwell on it any further. Instead, she said excitedly, "You're already at 15%! It looks like your harvest in the Dungeon this time was really good."
Hearing this, Ren shook his head. "Actually, it's not that great. I killed that guy Apollo earlier, and I broke through as soon as I returned here. There was probably a lot of excess Excelia, right? Around 10% or so. No matter how much trash that guy was, he was still a god, wasn't he?"
He said that, but in reality, Ren knew very well that he was already at 10% before. During this trip to the Dungeon, he had killed several Floor Bosses, and even a special boss.
Not to mention all the regular monsters. After all, Ren had slaughtered those monsters in massive droves. Yet despite all that, he only gained 5%? The Excelia gain was still far too low.
Hearing Ren put it like that, Hestia was also stumped. Was that how it worked? It seemed to make a lot of sense. After all, no matter how weak Apollo was, killing him couldn't possibly just give Ren enough to break through a single level, right?
There definitely had to be overflowing Excelia. If it was really as Ren said, then his harvest this time truly wasn't much. Thinking of this, Hestia couldn't help but ask, "Then are you still going back down there?"
"Of course I am. No matter how you look at it, it's still Excelia. How could I give that up? Even if it's a small amount, even the smallest mosquito is still meat. I'm planning to grind my way to 50% or even higher before university starts." To Ren, this felt slow, but in reality, it wasn't slow at all.
It was purely because Ren's previous leveling speed had been far too fast that he felt it was slow now. Gaining 5% Excelia in half a month was already considered incredibly fast.
Hestia didn't say anything more. She had thought he didn't want to go to the Dungeon anymore. As the two were chatting, Asuna and Haruhime came downstairs. Seeing Asuna, Hestia waved her over, planning to update her Falna as well.
Borrowing Ren's room for a moment, Hestia pulled Asuna inside. It didn't take long before they came back out.
Hestia immediately said, "Asuna's Excelia bar actually went up quite a bit. She's reached 19%. It seems they gained a lot more?"
She remembered Asuna was only at 7% before, and now she had shot straight up to 19%. It was important to note that unlike Ren, they hadn't broken through on their own upon returning; they were still building on their previous stats. Hestia remembered this very clearly.
"That's right. After all, my level is higher, so it's normal for me to gain less Excelia." Ren wasn't surprised at all. It would be weirder if their Excelia hadn't gone up. After all, Asuna and the others had been the main vanguard killing the majority of the monsters recently.
"What's the situation on your end?" Asuna asked as she walked out of Ren's room, having adjusted her clothes. She was full of curiosity. Was Ren's yield really that poor?
"I only gained 5% Excelia. Compared to you guys, it's honestly way too little." Ren didn't hide anything and truthfully explained his situation.
Hearing Ren say this, Asuna was also a bit surprised. Only that much? No wonder Ren had said what he did earlier. If that was the case, it really was quite low. She knew exactly how much Ren had done down there.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. I'm starving. Let's go out and eat." Ren glanced at the time and looked at Asuna and the others. They still hadn't eaten dinner since returning from the Dungeon.
Everyone agreed. They immediately headed out to call Ais and the others, then went downstairs together to find a restaurant outside to settle their dinner.
While heading downstairs, Ren looked at Ais with a bit of confusion. "Is Riveria not here? Why haven't I seen her?"
Hearing Ren's question, Ais explained, "She's outside. It seems she rented a place to serve as our new headquarters, so she hasn't come back yet. I already sent her a video call."
Ren immediately understood. It seemed Riveria hadn't been idling around during this time either; she had already sorted out the Loki Familia's new headquarters.
Setting up a headquarters here meant they were planning to develop their Familia around that Dungeon, right? After all, the Dungeon was what they were most familiar with. Being here would allow them to better grow their Familia.
"Should we set up a Familia headquarters too?" Hestia looked at Ren with a hint of anticipation. In this world, their Hestia Familia didn't even have a proper gathering place.
"No need. We'll be heading to Nexus Island in a while, so there's no point in setting up a headquarters here. Even if we do set one up, we'll do it over on Nexus Island." Ren flatly refused. They were going to Nexus Island soon anyway. Setting up a headquarters here would be a pure waste of money and completely unnecessary.
"I suppose you're right. Never mind then." Hearing Ren's reasoning, Hestia felt it made a lot of sense and didn't press the issue any further. Everyone followed Ren to a restaurant, ordered some food, and began to enjoy their meal.
After eating and drinking their fill, everyone returned to the apartment together. Ren took out his phone and saw that the people in the group chat were discussing the status board updates. Looking at these messages, Ren felt that he could probably have Hestia unlock it directly, or rather, modify it so that it wouldn't require manual updates every time.
Otherwise, it would be quite a hassle. If they could update it themselves anytime and anywhere, wouldn't that be much better?
Ren began to simulate the operation method in his mind. After finding a certain degree of feasibility, he sent a message to the group chat.
Ren: [@Hestia, let's update everyone's statuses tomorrow. While you're at it, add an auto-update function so they don't have to keep looking for you all the time.]
Immediately after, Ren sent the method he had just researched into the group chat. It didn't require using divine blood for every update; she just needed to seal a bit of Divine Power inside everyone's bodies.
The previous Falna system was designed that way because gods couldn't use Divine Power in the lower world. But in this world, Hestia *could* use her Divine Power. Therefore, there was absolutely no need to seek her out for every single update.
In her room, Hestia's eyes lit up when she saw Ren's message. It seemed like this could actually work! She ran a quick mental simulation of the method Ren described and found it to be highly feasible.
Thinking of this, Hestia excitedly got up, opened her door, and ran out to knock on Asuna's door. Asuna, who was reading a book, heard the knock and used her perception with a hint of confusion.
Realizing it was Hestia, she walked over and opened the door. Asuna hadn't checked the group chat, so she didn't know what was going on. She asked in confusion, "Hestia, what's wrong?"
"Asuna, let me update your Falna and add an auto-update function to it! This is a suggestion Ren just gave me, and I think it'll work." Hestia quickly explained her intentions.
Hearing this, Asuna was a bit surprised. She immediately let Hestia in and said, "Auto-update? If that's really possible, it would be a huge help."
She was more than happy to cooperate with Hestia's experiment. It wasn't like anything would go wrong anyway, and if it actually succeeded, it would be fantastic.
Hestia tinkered around on Asuna's back, directly sealing a trace of Divine Power inside and then completely masking it. Until this Divine Power was exhausted, the Falna would constantly update itself. No matter what she did, it would be recorded as Excelia.
In other words, from now on, she only needed to inject Divine Power, and she wouldn't have to worry about anything else—even when leveling up. If the Divine Power ran out, the Falna would simply revert to its original state.
After some tinkering, Hestia successfully sealed the Divine Power into Asuna's body. She said excitedly, "It worked! With this, your Falna won't need to be manually updated for months."
Hearing Hestia's words, Asuna said with pleasant surprise, "That's wonderful. This way, we should be able to feel ourselves getting stronger at any given moment."
Hestia nodded. That should be the case. When the time came, she would just need to replenish the Divine Power. After chatting with Asuna for a bit, Hestia took out her phone, sent a message to the group chat, and then walked out.
Since it was a success, the next step was to update Haruhime and Bell, and of course, Ren. She went and updated Haruhime first, then went downstairs to find Bell and sort his out, and finally went to find Ren.
After Hestia injected her Divine Power into Ren's body, Ren couldn't help but ask, "Hestia, what exactly is Divinity? I've noticed that the most abundant aspect of your power is Divinity."
Ren's sudden question made Hestia freeze for a moment. She looked at him in confusion. "Divinity? Are you researching my power? I can't really explain that, you know, because my Divinity is something I was born with."
She honestly didn't know. It was something she inherently possessed, so how was she supposed to answer? She was powerless to help with this question. She just hadn't expected Ren to start researching Divinity.
"Then how can one acquire Divinity? You should be able to feel it now, right? I've fused my Magic Power and True Qi together, but I feel like I'm missing just one little thing before it can undergo a complete metamorphosis." Ren sat up from the sofa and looked at Hestia.
The situation inside his body definitely couldn't be hidden from Hestia, who had already recovered her powers. It was precisely because of this that Ren had suddenly asked her this question.
Hearing Ren say this, Hestia scratched her head. "If a human wants to acquire Divinity, it seems a bit difficult. But the most straightforward method would be to become a God Slayer..."
Speaking of this, Hestia suddenly blinked. She looked at Ren, pondered for a moment, and then came to a sudden realization. "I almost forgot! You already successfully slayed a god, but you didn't become a God Slayer. That's because that guy Apollo's Divine Power was sealed at the time and hadn't been unlocked. Otherwise, you would already possess Divinity by now!"
Saying this, she patted her chest, speaking with lingering fear. "Thank goodness Apollo's Divine Power was sealed. Otherwise, you might have been cursed by him. That curse would stay with you forever. Although it would grant you Divinity, it would also make you the public enemy of all the gods."
It could only be described as a blessing in disguise. That curse had both pros and cons, but Hestia really didn't want Ren to become a God Slayer. It would terrify her, because God Slayers were simply too frightening to gods!
Listening to Hestia's words, a thoughtful gleam flashed in Ren's eyes. *Because Apollo's Divine Power was sealed, he couldn't cast a curse on me to make me a God Slayer? And then Director Ken told me to keep the corpse?*