In the forgotten ruins, a shabby old church stood with a roof to shelter from the wind and rain.
Inside the church, there were still many chairs used for worship, most of which hadn't rotted yet.
After a bit of searching, they found a few things that could still be used.
There was also a confession room inside the church. The room was very dusty, but it had a sofa and a bed that wasn't particularly worn out.
However, what baffled them was why there was a bed in the confession room. It was hard to understand what the bed in the confession room was for.
The sheets on the bed didn't have any weird stains, but they had turned gray as they hadn't been used in a long time.
Fortunately, Bell had clean sheets in his storage that he could use. After doing some simple cleaning, three hours had already passed.
"Ah..."
Hestia just lay down flat on the bed she had tidied up, and cleaning up this ruined church had really taken a lot of energy.
In just three hours, she'd done more than she had since coming to the lower world. So, now, Hestia was utterly exhausted.
Lying on the slightly firm mattress with her whole body sore, Hestia couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic about her former boring life.
'This is so much worse than at Hephaestus' place.'
But as soon as she turned her head, she saw Bell, who had also just finished his work. The lazy and exhausted look from earlier instantly disappeared, and she even sat up straight from the bed.
'No, Hestia! You're not in that lazy, useless goddess anymore. You have a famillia now!'
Just thinking that, Hestia immediately sat up.
"Bell-kun."
As Bell, who had just finished his tasks, turned around, he saw the goddess sitting and watching him.
After finishing his tasks, Bell turned around and saw Hestia sitting there, staring at him.
However, the way she was sitting made him step forward and apologize, and he gently tried to adjust her carefree sitting position.
The white dress showed everything when she sat cross-legged, which wasn't a very good view.
"Hestia-sama, you should be more careful when wearing such thin clothes. That kind of position makes it too easy for... you to expose yourself."
"Ah!"
Hestia asked, quickly grabbing the hem of her dress with both hands, and her cute face turned bright red.
It was clear she had forgotten that they were going to live together from now on and that it would be with a young man.
'Mm, from now on, I'll be living with Bell-kun. I need to pay more attention to these things.'
Taking a deep breath, Hestia made some adjustments before speaking up.
"Bell-kun, you are the first member of my Hestia Familia, and you need to be careful too. You're my only family member, and if something happens to you, I'll be really hurt."
The meaning behind these words was almost like saying, 'please don't do anything reckless' without actually saying it.
Of course, Bell understood what she meant. He wasn't an idiot, nor was he someone who would recklessly take dangerous risks.
He knew that many things needed to be done step by step to succeed, and rushing too fast could lead him to death.
"Hestia-sama, don't worry. I seek power, not death. It's inevitable to put in effort and face risks to gain power, but I will move forward step by step. I won't just rush straight into the Dungeon without thinking."
"Hoo~ That's good."
Hestia visibly let out a sigh of relief. She was genuinely worried that her famila member might become too obsessed with power and end up falling into the Dungeon.
Even though she had never had a familia before, Hestia had often heard from other gods in Orario about how many young adventurers would recklessly throw themselves into danger.
She didn't know about the others, but for Bell, Hestia truly didn't want that kind of thing to happen.
"So, Bell-kun, what are you going to do next? Do you like to go to the Dungeon and get used to the environment?"
Bell nodded slightly.
"That's the plan. The outside world is very dangerous, but I've heard the dungeon is even more dangerous. I'm not planning to go to any dangerous places until I've gotten used to the dungeon and leveled up."
The Dungeon was undoubtedly dangerous.
Given the dangerous nature of the Dungeon, Bell didn't plan to go too deep.
He wasn't an experienced adventurer, and he needed to spend time gaining experience in the Dungeon step by step.
'I guess I don't need to worry too much about this kid.'
At this point, Hestia truly felt relieved.
A desire for strength wasn't a bad thing, but it needed to be kept in check.
Hestia no longer needed to worry about this and looked at him with approval.
"Yes, Bell-kun, your thinking is correct. The Dungeon is a very dangerous place, and as a new adventurer with little experience, what you need to do isn't go deep into the dungeon but slowly gain experience. You need to get used to the Dungeon and understand that the Dungeon always has a desire to swallow everything."
"The desire to swallow everything... Is the dungeon really alive?"
Bell raised an eyebrow, then his expression grew serious as he furrowed his brow.
Hestia nodded solemnly, her expression cautious and wary as she spoke.
"The Dungeon is a living entity. However, it doesn't possess self-awareness, and it only reacts based on instinct. It has been alive for as long as anyone can remember, like a womb that nurtures monsters. It despises the gods and can give birth to monsters at any moment, intending to devour the entire world."
"That's why Orario is built on top of the Dungeon. The goal is to keep the number of monsters that the Dungeon spawns under control. If the Dungeon isn't kept in check, the monsters it makes could spread and destroy the world. The deepest level of the Dungeon is said to be the core. They say that because the core is being controlled, the dungeon has become a place that keeps spawning more and more monsters."
That was all Hestia knew.
The deeper secrets of the Dungeon weren't something she had access to—and even among the gods, not many actually knew the whole truth.
The reason she told Bell all of this was to help him understand just how dangerous the dungeon really was.
After hearing this information, Bell's first thought was, 'The One-Eyed Black Dragon.'