Chapter 141
Hestia’s punishment did not go smoothly.
Because Kiriya was not the kind of adventurer who would meekly surrender and let his goddess do as she pleased with him!
He had a deeply rebellious streak.
The more he got pinned down, the harder he pushed back.
Watching another fierce battle about to break out, and knowing she wasn’t in top form for it, Hestia decisively changed the subject.
"You were gone for half a month. Don’t you want to see how much your Status has grown?"
Kiriya’s movements stopped.
He set down Hestia’s little foot, turned his back to her, and bared his muscular upper body.
Looking at the solid lines of muscle right in front of her, Hestia felt her eyes almost lose focus.
She quickly shook her head, shoved away the ridiculous thoughts rising in her mind, and pricked her fingertip with a silver needle to update his Status.
Senju Kiriya
Level 3
Strength: G 245 → D 512
Endurance: G 234 → D 538
Dexterity: G 267 → D 576
Agility: G 251 → D 561
Magic: G 276 → D 589
Magic: Forest of All Things, Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, Blade Storm
Skills: Strong One’s Wish, Demonbane, Mirror Calm
"Hmm, same as ever." Hestia remarked, then handed the copied parchment to Kiriya and picked up a glass of water to wet her throat.
Kiriya took it, glanced over it, and frowned.
"My main stats only reached rank D?"
"Pfft—"
Hestia spat out her water and broke into a fit of violent coughing.
But instead of tending to herself, she pointed a trembling finger at Kiriya. "You... you... Don’t act like that isn’t ridiculous!"
In just over half a month, his Status had climbed from rank I all the way to straight D’s.
It was a terrifying rate of growth. And this guy actually had the gall to call it slow!
Nobody complained quite like this while showing off!
At that, Kiriya gave a dry laugh and let it drop, turning his attention instead to his Magic and Skills, and sank into thought.
"What’s wrong? Is there some problem with your skills or magic?" Hestia leaned in to ask.
"Mm." Kiriya thought for a moment, then decided to voice what was on his mind.
Hestia might look young, but she was a goddess who’d lived who-knew-how-many tens of thousands of years.
When it came to insight and knowledge, she had plenty.
"It’s about these eyes."
Kiriya activated his Sharingan, and his wine-red pupils turned toward Hestia.
"My body is a little special.... There are two kinds of power hidden in my bloodline. The first awakened through the Falna system and became magic. That’s Forest of All Things and Everflowing Vitality. The other one is these eyes."
"Before I met you, I went through something incredibly painful. Under that intense emotional shock, these eyes awakened. But that was only the beginning, they still have a lot of potential."
He paused.
"The problem is, I don’t know how to improve them."
After that, Kiriya explained the Sharingan to Hestia in detail, especially how it awakened and evolved.
Of course, he did not tell her that he came from another world.
Instead, he described it as a kind of bloodline magic, or perhaps an innate talent. He wanted to see whether Hestia’s experience as a goddess could give him any useful ideas.
Ever since he had awakened Wood Release and the Sharingan, the two powers had developed at completely different speeds.
Under the Falna system, Wood Release had grown rapidly.
As his ability values rose, both its strength and his control over it had improved by a huge margin. It had already become one of his strongest trump cards.
The Sharingan, however, had improved painfully slow.
At first, its insight and copying abilities had helped him learn taijutsu and swordsmanship more easily.
But as he grew stronger and the level of his battles rose, the two-tomoe Sharingan no longer felt like enough.
He urgently wanted to push it further.
He was not asking to jump straight to a Mangekyō Sharingan and start throwing around giant chakra avatars, but at the very least, he wanted to use genjutsu properly.
"The eye that reflects the heart... awakened through gaining love and losing love?"
Hestia’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, clearly fascinated.
"As expected, the lower world really is full of endless possibilities. To think something like this exists..."
"Save the impressions for later. Advice first."
Kiriya reminded his goddess to focus on the main point.
"I know, I know."
Hestia quickly sat up properly and began thinking, carefully choosing her words.
"Based on what you’ve said, the Sharingan seems to awaken when a person experiences extreme emotional turbulence, causing a special kind of energy inside the body to surge and stimulate the eyes."
"Mm-hm."
"So I have three suggestions."
Hestia raised one slender finger.
"First, try to place yourself in situations where your emotions fluctuate intensely. It doesn’t necessarily have to be losing someone precious. It could be extreme anger, a powerful realization, or some kind of deep resolve. Anything that strongly shakes the heart may stimulate that special power inside you."
"Second, try letting the eyes absorb pure external energy. Think of it as giving them nutrients and seeing whether that triggers a change."
"Mm, mm."
Kiriya nodded repeatedly and started making notes.
"Don’t think those first two are easy," Hestia warned him. "A huge shock to the heart isn’t something you can just find whenever you want. And as for pure energy, I’ve never heard of a place in the Dungeon or on the surface that can provide it in large quantities."
"So don’t neglect the third method."
"Use the eyes more in battle. The more often you use them, and the stronger your desire for them becomes, the more likely the Falna may respond. If that leads to a new skill awakening, that would be ideal."
At this, Hestia sighed.
To have such wonderful talent, yet be stuck unable to advance an inch for some reason—it really was a shame.
Kiriya, on the other hand, had a bright gleam in his eyes.
The first and third methods aside, whether those panned out came down to luck.
But the second—a large amount of pure spiritual energy—he actually knew of a place he could find that.
At the thought that he might upgrade his Sharingan to three tomoe, and maybe even reach the Mangekyō or Eternal Mangekyō down the line, Kiriya grew so excited he couldn’t help himself.
He swept Hestia into his arms and planted a hard kiss on her.
"You’re brilliant, Hestia." Kiriya laughed loudly, the sound rattling the ceiling.
"Well, glad I could help." Hestia was pleased too.
But the smile had barely bloomed before it froze on her face—because she noticed her body being scooped up sideways in Kiriya’s arms and carried straight for the bedroom.
"W-what are you doing?" Hestia’s voice trembled.
"Repaying my patron goddess for her kindness, of course." Kiriya said with a perfectly straight face.
"Don’t worry. As your follower, I’ll devote myself body and soul, to my very last breath!"
"Don’t use fancy phrases in a situation like this!" Hestia protested, only to be shut tight behind the bedroom door.