Chapter 334
"All right, Esdeath, that’s enough. How can you treat Hestia like that? She’s our patron goddess, you know."
Kiriya finally couldn’t stand watching anymore.
He stepped forward and rescued Hestia from Esdeath’s clutches, even delivering the rebuke with a perfectly righteous expression.
"Kiriya—!"
Hestia’s eyes immediately filled with tears of gratitude.
This blue-haired woman was terrifying.
In all her time among the gods, Hestia had never met anyone brazen enough to manhandle a deity like this.
"The only person allowed to bully Hestia is me!"
Kiriya declared with complete seriousness.
At the same time, his right hand had already reached over and begun kneading Hestia’s cheek.
"Whoa, so soft. And smooth too. As expected of Hestia—your cheeks really do feel amazing."
Kiriya praised her enthusiastically.
"..."
Hestia froze.
The blank, adorable expression on her face immediately made everyone struggle to hold back their laughter.
"KIRIYA!"
Embarrassed and furious, Hestia grabbed his hand and bit down hard.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts!"
Kiriya yelped repeatedly.
Seeing this, Esdeath and Jeanne finally burst out laughing.
The faint awkwardness from their first meeting disappeared almost immediately.
"All right, Hestia. We should probably get down to business."
Kiriya rubbed the deep row of teeth marks covering his arm, still looking slightly traumatized as he hurriedly changed the subject.
"Hmph!"
Hestia turned her head away, initially refusing to acknowledge the awful man.
Unfortunately, it only took a few promises of delicious food before she quickly surrendered.
She picked up her silver needle and began updating Kiriya’s Status.
"Kiriya.
Level 5
Strength: F 301 → SSS 1377
Endurance: F 322 → SSS 1311
Dexterity: F 356 → SSS 1401
Agility: F 357 → SSS 1363
Magic: F 368 → SSS 1417
Magic: Forest of All Things, Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, Blade Storm
Skills: Strong One’s Wish, Demonbane, Mirror Calm, Divine Will Sharingan
Development Abilities: Mage (F), Luck (H), Spirit Healing (G), Abnormal Resistance (H)."
"..."
Hestia rubbed her eyes.
Then she looked again.
She rubbed them a second time.
And checked once more.
The numbers were still exactly the same!
She wasn’t seeing things!
"What the heck is this?!"
Hestia’s scream nearly lifted the roof off the building.
In what appeared to her to be only three days, Kiriya had gone from average F-ranked abilities to SSS across the board.
Even with Strong One’s Wish accelerating his growth, this was still absurd beyond belief.
Naturally, Hestia had no idea that Kiriya had not actually spent three days achieving this.
He had spent almost an entire year.
For that whole year, he had hunted constantly, fought without end, and deliberately trained every aspect of his abilities.
Then, during the latter half of that period, he had repeatedly used the body-tempering medicine to strengthen his physique even further.
Only after all of that had he reached his current state.
And even then, the result was still astonishing.
After all, even a genius adventurer like Ais had spent a long time polishing her abilities at Level 5.
"Kiriya."
Hestia remained silent for quite a while before finally giving in to her curiosity.
"Tell me honestly. What exactly happened to you over these past few days?"
"Give me a little more time, Hestia."
Kiriya smiled gently.
"It isn’t the right moment yet."
"When the time comes, I’ll tell you everything from beginning to end."
"...All right!"
Hestia blinked, then broke into a bright smile.
"It’s a promise."
Then she returned her attention to his Status.
"I’m leveling you up now."
She gave him a warning first.
"You have three new Development Abilities available: Strong Body, Swordsman, and Chain Attack."
"Kiriya, which one do you want?"
Hearing that, Kiriya fell into thought.
Strong Body—just as the name suggested—would greatly improve the toughness of his physical body, forging a physique comparable to iron and steel.
Unlike temporary enhancements from Magic during battle, this was a permanent improvement.
It would allow Kiriya’s physical durability to exceed what his Endurance stat alone should normally provide.
Even better, Strong Body would also increase the gains he received from future body-tempering training.
Swordsman would improve both his power and technique whenever he used a sword.
Chain Attack specialized in sustained offense, increasing the power and fluidity of consecutive attacks.
That last one had probably appeared because Kiriya constantly practiced techniques such as Hundred Slashes in an Instant and Thousand Strikes in an Instant.
After considering the choices carefully, Kiriya finally nodded.
"I’ll take Strong Body."
At the moment, he had no shortage of offensive techniques or destructive power.
His speed and agility were even less of a concern.
The only area that still lagged slightly behind was the raw toughness of his body.
He had once envied Ottar’s fortress-like physique.
Now that he had the opportunity to develop something similar for himself, how could he possibly pass it up?
"Okay!"
Hestia immediately updated his Falna.
"Level 6
Strength: SSS 1377 → I 0
Endurance: SSS 1311 → I 0
Dexterity: SSS 1401 → I 0
Agility: SSS 1363 → I 0
Magic: SSS 1417 → I 0
Magic: Forest of All Things, Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, Blade Storm
Skills: Strong One’s Wish, Demonbane, Mirror Calm, Divine Will Sharingan
Development Abilities: Mage (F), Luck (H), Spirit Healing (G), Abnormal Resistance (H), Strong Body (I)."
"That’s it?"
Esdeath frowned from the side.
"You leveled up?"
She looked Kiriya up and down.
"You don’t seem any different. And all those numbers got smaller."
Kiriya slowly clenched his fist.
Beneath the apparent calm of his body, he could feel an even greater and more ferocious power than before lying dormant within him.
"I need some time to adapt."
He flexed his fingers.
"A few fights should speed that process up."
"Oh?"
Esdeath’s eyes immediately sharpened.
"Was that a challenge?"
She grinned.
"Good. I accept."
"All right, enough!"
Hestia waved them off impatiently.
"If you two want to fight, go outside and do it."
"I need to update Jeanne’s Status now."
With that, Hestia grabbed Jeanne and dragged her into the bedroom before closing the door.
"Whoa, Jeanne!"
It didn’t take long before Hestia’s astonished voice came from inside.
"All of your abilities have passed S rank! That’s amazing!"
"R-Really?"
Jeanne’s embarrassed voice followed.
"I suppose... that’s good."
"Do you want to level up?"
"If possible, then please."
Jeanne answered politely.
"Hestia."
"Hehe, why are you being so formal with me?"
Hestia sounded delighted.
"Oh, right. You have three Development Abilities available too: Hunter, Spearman, and Spirit Healing."
"Which one do you want?"
"Then I’ll choose Spirit Healing."
"All right!"
Hestia’s cheerful voice immediately rang out.
"Congratulations, Jeanne. You’re officially a Level 2 adventurer now."
"At your current strength, you could probably beat at least two versions of your old self."
"Mm."
Jeanne’s answer was soft but determined.
"I can’t afford to fall too far behind him."
"Well, I can understand how you feel."
Hestia gave a small laugh.
"But you probably shouldn’t take that competition too seriously."
"Otherwise, you’re going to end up depressing yourself."
"I understand, Hestia."
Outside the room, Esdeath listened to the conversation with a thoughtful gleam in her eyes.
"This so-called Falna..."
She rubbed her chin.
"It actually sounds pretty interesting."
For the first time, genuine temptation appeared in her expression.