Once again arriving at Hephaestus's weapon shop—although extortion and coercion were not commendable, from a results-oriented perspective, making money this way really was fast.
Standing at the entrance.
From afar, Ron spotted that busy figure, and just as he pushed the door open, the twin-tailed girl with black hair, filled with anticipation, walked toward him.
"Good afternoon, Lady Hestia."
"…"
It was the same ordinary greeting as always.
Yet through Ron's relaxed tone, the girl could still sense that trace of relief, as if a burden had been lifted. Hestia carefully examined the big boy in front of her.
After confirming that there were no signs of injury whatsoever, she finally felt completely at ease and asked tentatively, "After obtaining this new weapon, has the issue with dungeon exploration been properly resolved?"
"That's right."
"Everything's been taken care of."
Ron never thought that the greatsword Great Fortune was merely a gift Hestia wanted to give him; it was simply that the goddess did not want to ask about it outright.
Feeling the girl's concerned gaze, he nodded seriously and said, "I feel that future dungeon exploration will definitely go much more smoothly. Next, I'll be giving it my all to sprint toward Lv2."
"Do your best!"
Hestia clearly understood the potential the boy possessed. That he would break the world record set by Loki's Familia's "Sword Princess," Ais Wallenstein, was absolutely a foregone conclusion!
Hestia was already impatiently looking forward to how she could mercilessly mock that fellow at the next gathering of the gods.
Who ever said that arriving late in the Lower World meant you couldn't encounter outstanding Familia members?
It was purely because that blockhead Loki lacked the good fortune to meet Ron. Just thinking of this filled her eyes with anticipation as she said, "If there's anything you need help with, you can… just tell me directly."
"I think the relationship between a god and their Familia children should be like family. And as family… we shouldn't be so distant. You understand what I mean, right?"
"I'll pay attention to that in the future."
This was probably the Familia atmosphere Ron liked.
Facing Hestia's gaze, he did not refuse, and said earnestly, "If there's any problem I can't handle, I'll definitely tell you."
"I hope Lady Hestia will do the same…"
"During these past few days of dungeon exploration, I've still managed to earn a bit of money. I should be able to afford the forging cost of the greatsword Great Fortune."
"…"
And what awaited Ron was only the girl's relieved yet exasperated reproach, carrying the frustration of caring too much: "I already said that a Familia is a family—so why are you still saying such distant things, Ron!"
...
The abnormal monster Grafted Scion floor boss that appeared on the 7th Floor of the Dungeon was swiftly slain by Ryuu, and thus did not attract the Guild's attention.
Over these days, Zanis of the Soma Familia—after going through the compensation incident—did not continue making trouble, to the point where adventurers would avoid him whenever they saw him.
In the time that followed...
Ron's daily routine was extremely regular. Every morning, he would go to train his combat skills with Ryuu; after finishing, he would head to the Dungeon area to carry out deeper exploration.
The results were excellent.
In terms of practical combat skill, when facing the Lv4 Ryuu, he was at least no longer in a state of having absolutely no room to resist—but being able to land a proactive attack on her was still a far-off hope.
It was purely a matter of stats overwhelming him.
All one could say was that there was still a very, very long distance to go from the goal of "dating"!
And in terms of pushing deeper into the Dungeon, because there were not that many adventurers to serve as carriers, Ron did not encounter a floor boss like the "Grafted Scion."
He basically only ran into monsters like Mimic War Shadow and Killer Ant.
For Ron, whose practical combat skills had improved tremendously, the monsters simply could not stop his advancing footsteps, and he steadily pushed forward to the 9th Floor.
The amount of Soul Shards had already accumulated to a considerable size.
But up to this point, he still had not seen any chance to unlock a new Character Save Slot. He could only exchange for Revival at fixed intervals each day, and spend it during Dungeon exploration.
"If you want to get stronger, you have to be able to take a beating!"
Put simply, it meant taking hits—and the result was that every time he went to Hestia to raise his ability values, his endurance attribute would undergo a qualitative leap.
…
"It feels like the Killer Ants that used to seem so difficult… are just that, I guess…"
Ron skillfully swung the greatsword Great Fortune to break armor; immediately after piercing through the monster's body, he quickly cut off the crop on the Killer Ant's back.
To prevent the formic acid from causing an explosion.
Using the trait that a "Killer Ant" would call its companions when injured, he had already lost count of exactly how many ant nests he had dug out in the Dungeon.
However, he soon stopped in his tracks, because he had already realized that no matter how he provoked them, no matter how he exploited the monster mechanics to bug it, the Dungeon gave no response.
Most likely, it was the "extermination" mechanism triggered by an excessive number of special monster spawns…
Even with the stairs leading to the 10th Floor right in front of him, Ron had no intention of exploring, and the specific reason was also very simple.
From this point onward—the Dungeon would begin to feature all kinds of mechanisms, such as frost mist that obstructed vision. Most critically, these were native mechanisms of the DanMachi world itself.
Combined with the Soulslike style of attacking weak points and setting traps, Ron could not imagine what kind of underhanded horrors would be waiting for him next. One slight misstep, and it would be a combo of mechanisms and monsters unleashing a full-course "welcome."
"Let's head back to Orario first."
He made the decision decisively.
Thanks to Ryuu's high-intensity training, as well as the accumulation from these days in the Dungeon, Ron encountered no bottlenecks whatsoever in terms of ability value growth.
He smoothly broke through the limit of the S-rank evaluation.
But this was not the endpoint for a Soulslike veteran. Before setting out on today's exploration, all of his ability values had already reached an extremely exaggerated level.
According to Hestia, this was already approaching the theoretical upper limit of ability values within the Falna system!
When Ron left Babel Tower, the sky was already nearing dusk. Counting the time since he had arrived in Orario, he had fully adapted to the rhythm of life here.
It was nothing more than changing locations to be a corporate wage slave.
Only in his previous life, as a wage slave, working hard only meant helping pave and tile his boss's luxury mansion. But here, every day spent exploring the Dungeon translated into strength that truly belonged to him!
When he passed by the Hephaestus Weapon Shop, he picked up Hestia, who was about to get off work, and took her home along the way.
And just after returning to the communal dormitory—without even taking a moment to rest—Ron said seriously, "Lady Hestia, please help me update my ability values."
"And then…"
"I'll also need you to carry out a level ascension."
"…Alright!"
Even though she had anticipated this in advance, when it came time to truly help her Familia member undergo level ascension, Hestia could not help but feel a surge of excitement in her heart.
If there was anything regrettable—it was that her close friend Hephaestus was not at the shop in the evening. Otherwise, she could have borrowed some money; surely the celebration banquet after leveling up couldn't be paid for by Ron, right?
She took out the silver needle and parchment she had prepared long ago.
And so, after sixteen days of Dungeon exploration, Ron leveled up to Lv2, breaking the record set by the "Sword Princess" Ais Wallenstein, and became an upper-tier adventurer.
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