A wide smile was on her face, showing off perfect white teeth, as she took the change after handing over a fried potato looking thing, a jagamarukun I would assume based on the sign. She bowed slightly, the antennas bouncing wildly as the bells jingled. Her face was shaped like a heart, her large blue eyes were wide and expressive, displaying an earnest joy for all the others to see.
Yup. I made the right choice.
Eyeing the line, I decided to sit on a nearby bench, waiting for it to die down before asking. It would be a little awkward for me to ask, she says yes, then have to finish serving customers. So, I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Each time the line began to die down, more would rush to it.
Slowly, the sun began to make its way across the sky, from hanging directly above to dipping towards the horizon. I must have waited hours for the line to die down, only to end up inadvertently waiting for her shift to end. Another girl dressed the same way as Hestia took her place behind the stall.
I stood at the same time that Hestia grabbed a cloth bag filled with leftover potato puffs. The hours had worn her bright smile down, but she walked with a pep in her step, her uniform in hand. Right. It was time.
Walking up towards her, I opened my mouth to say something, only to realize I had absolutely no idea how to begin. Do you know what would have been really smart? Using the past few hours to think of what I should say.
"Excuse me?" I tried, falling on old habits of being overly polite to cover my awkwardness. Hestia came to a stop, looking at me with bright blue eyes. Right. It wouldn't have mattered if I did prepare what I was going to say, because I would have forgotten it right then. "Um, my name is Jericho and I heard that you were recruiting familia members…?" There. Nailed it.
Hestia blinked slowly at me, her bright blue eyes racking over my body, having to crane her head back to look at my face because she only barely reached the center of my stomach. Then she looked to her sides, then behind her when she didn't find whatever she was looking for. The silence between us stretched on for a few seconds, but they felt like hours.
"Are...you talking to me…?" Hestia asked, looking back at me with a dull expression. This...really wasn't going how I thought it was.
"Er, yes?" I answered, shifting from foot to foot.
"You want to join my familia?" She questioned, trying to make sure. I nodded, feeling a little more confident by the lack of a no.
"I do. If you'll have me," I added. A lack of a no wasn't a yes, after all.
Hestia stared at me for a long second. Long enough that I shifted from foot to foot again before blinking. I held out the flowers to her, making her look down at them with dull shock. "These are for you. Figured they'd help make a good impression?" I said, trying to sound smooth but the words came out like a question.
Hestia took them, slowly looking back up at me. "You want to join my familia?" She repeated, her bottom lip starting to quiver. Then it started to quiver really bad, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. I found myself smiling lightly at the sight, a coil of tension that I hadn't known was there vanishing.
"If you'll have me," I said, causing the dam to break. Hestia shot towards me like a speeding bullet, slamming her face against my armor hard enough that it must have hurt. That wasn't why she burst out crying, though as she wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me until the steel creaked.
We got some odd looks from those that passed by, but I didn't let that stop me from hugging her back.
…
Hestia had dreamed of this moment since she first stepped foot on the lower world. Sure, she got distracted with...pretty much everything when she actually arrived, but the dream itself never changed. She would start a familia filled with children of the lower world, they would go on adventures worthy of legends that would be told for another thousand years, while each day will be filled with joy and laughter.
After two long weeks of searching, seeking the first member of familia only to be rejected so many times it made her heart ache just thinking about it, she finally stood in the bookstore she frequented so often. Surrounded by stories, fables and legends, real and imaginary. Her first child's story would start surrounded by those that will one day be his peers.
A giddy giggle escaped her, her face sore from all the smiling she was doing. It was funny that her first child, after weeks of searching and failure, would walk up to her out of the blue and ask to join. Her eyes darted to him, standing a head and shoulders and then some taller than her, watching him as he looked over titles of books. He was so big. It was impossible to not notice it, but he dwarfed everything around him, and he wasn't just tall, but wide too. His shoulders were broad enough that Hestia was certain it would take two of her standing shoulder to shoulder to match him.
"So, how do we do this?" Jericho asked, turning to face her, earning a small eek from her when she was caught staring. Looking everywhere but at him, Hestia gestured wildly to a couch in the center of the room.
"Take your armor and shirt off so I can apply my falna," she instructed, feeling butterflies fly free in her stomach. It was happening! It was finally happening! She was going to form a familia! Another giggle escaped her, rocking from the heels of her feet to her tippy toes. She felt so light she could fly away.
The sound of Jericho fumbling with his armor brought her back down. Looking over, she saw him struggle to undo a leather strap, blushing when he caught her looking. So, he didn't have much experience putting in on and off. Maybe he was less experienced than she thought?
"Er, sorry, but, uh, could you help me a little?" He asked, going beet red when she skipped over to help him. "Thanks," he muttered when he shrugged off the armor.
"It looks new," Hestia commented, eager to learn more about her first child. Maybe it was a bad idea to say yes to the first person to ask -- Hephaestus had a long, drawn-out process to pick the best smiths for her familia, but Hestia couldn't afford that. Not to mention he bought her flowers! There was no way he was secretly evil or planning to abandon her the first chance he got when another familia made an offer-
"It is. I kinda spent my life savings on it. Figured if I was going to become an adventurer then I should invest in good armor to make sure my insides didn't become outsides." Jericho explained, taking off his arm guards, revealing a white dress shirt underneath. Hestia twitched at the reminder of the fatality rates for adventurers.
The Dungeon was alive in its own way and it desired the death of all those that walked its halls. Thanks to Ouranos, it had its rules that it followed. Certain monsters could only spawn on certain floors, they only got stronger the further you went down, it couldn't just collapse a tunnel on an adventurer whenever it felt like...it had rules, but even if it didn't break them, that didn't mean they weren't bent. It wasn't uncommon for experienced adventurers to find their ends in the Dungeon.
That took the edge off her undiluted joy. She watched Jericho unbutton his shirt, revealing a tank top underneath- oh. Oh. Heat rushed to her face until she swore steam was about to erupt from her ears, torn between looking away and gaping. Muscles clung to his frame, each movement making them ripple, straining the tanned flesh that contained them until she worried they might break free.
"Now what?" He asked, breaking her free of her hypnotized state. Blushing even harder, she gestured to the couch again.
"L-lay down on your stomach," she instructed, swallowing thickly. He was going to be an adventurer, so of course, he was going to be all muscley. Once he obeyed, laying flat on his stomach, Hestia climbed on top of him, straddling his back. It was here. The moment she had been waiting for so long. Before she set foot on the lower world. For hundreds of years, she waited for this moment.
And yet…
"Are...you sure you want to do this?" Hestia asked in a small voice, eyeing the small pin that she would use to prick her finger. "It'll just be the two of us, and I don't really have much I can do to support you. You'd...you'd be better off finding a bigger familia, you know." She knew it was true. She lived in a dilapidated church basement, she was forced to work at a sweets stall to make ends meet and even then she was scraping by.
Hestia knew when compared to other familias, who could buy potions and armor and weapons for their children, she was lacking. As much as it made her heart ache, she understood why she was rejected all those times. Mortals supported their god in exchange for their blessing, but a good god supported their familia just as much. And she couldn't do that.
"Hmmm. Maybe," Jericho began, making her heart plummeting to her stomach. "But I don't want to be in another familia. I want to be in yours, goddess of hearth. Plus, so what if we start at the bottom? Just means we can only go up."
...She wouldn't cry. She definitely, totally wouldn't cry. Her sniffling and her eyes blurring were just because of the dust -- the owner really should do something about that. After wiping her nose on her sleeve, she swallowed thickly before giving him a shaky nod. "Yeah. That's exactly right. Alright, I'm going to begin."
Taking the needle, she poked her finger with it. A bead of blood welled up that she held over Jericho's back. She summoned upon her arcanum, proof of her godhood, and blessed the droplet as it fell from her finger. It sunk into his back, light rippling like water where it landed. Her falna formed on his back, a cauldron lite with a flame, text written in the language of the gods...forming...uh…
Did she screw up? Hestia thought, her eyes slowly growing wide enough they could fall out of her head.
Jericho
Level: 1
Progress to level 2: 0/1,000,000
Strength: 0
Endurance: 0
Dexterity: 0
Agility: 0
Intelligence: 0
Sense: 0
Skills:
Gamer Body: The user's body is that of a video game
Hestia stared with growing horror. She screwed up. She totally screwed up! Intelligence, and Sense?! Those weren't supposed to be there! Progress to level 2? What?! What did it mean a million exp? He already had a skill? What was a video game?! What?
"What did I do…?" Hestia whined, at a complete loss. She was so sure she did everything right! It was just a blessing, she learned how to do it back in Heaven and she managed it fine there. Did...did she accidentally use her arcanum? No, if she had then she would have instantly been booted back to Heaven. What did she do wrong then? This wasn't the normal blessing that everyone else got!
"Is everything okay?" Jericho asked, starting to turn over to look at her, only to stop when she slapped his back, keeping him down.
"Nothing's wrong!" She lied through her teeth. Okay. She had absolutely no idea what she did wrong. The better question was what she could do about it now. She could...go to Hephaestus! And...get yelled at...a lot. She could practically hear her friend already 'what? You couldn't even manage a simple blessing? You really are helpless.'
Hestia shook her head hard enough that her bells jingled, filling the small room with the sweet sound. A pity she couldn't hear it over the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. That option was out. Hestia promised herself that she wouldn't rely on Hephaestus anymore. No, it was up to her to do something about this.
And that was...to cover her tracks!
Grabbing a slip of paper, she pressed it to his back, tracing a circle on it as his status was copied to it. Peeling it off, Hestia saw that she managed to do that right, at least. "Here, let me show you your status." She said, climbing off of him.
Jericho twisted into a sitting position next to her, looking over his first status, right next to her. He smelled like spices and oranges. Forcing her attention back on track, Hestia pointed to his status, "these are all of your stats. You can increase them through physical training, but the best way is through experience."
Words of admittance about her mistake weighed heavily on her tongue but refused to leave her mouth. He was her first child. He picked her knowing that she had nothing to offer him, that he would fight in the Dungeon alone, without any kind of support. Even still, he picked her. And the very first thing she did to repay his faith in her was to mess up his falna.
Hestia wanted to admit it, but fear overpowered desire. Fear that he would leave as soon as he joined her familia. It was one thing to stick with a useless goddess that couldn't do anything for her children, but choosing to stay with a goddess that couldn't even give her blessing right? If he left then, Hestia couldn't blame him. And she would be all alone. Again.
"That tells you how close you are to leveling up," Hestia said, hastily moving on before he asked questions she didn't have the answer to. "And this is your first Skill! I heard stories that some children start off with a Skill when they get their falna because of previous life experiences, but I never thought my first child would have one! This is really rare, you know."
Even more so because she never heard of it before. There were plenty of Skills -- Berserk, Diver, Artel Assist and so on. Any one of them appearing at on a level 1 would have most gods trying to poach him. Rarer Skills like Mystery, which allowed the user to create items that far surpassed enchantments of normal development abilities like Blacksmith or Mixing could make, would have all gods fighting over who got him. A skill that had never been heard of before?
Whether he wanted to stay or not, one of the stronger familias would take him. Most likely Loki or Freyja. There would be nothing she could do to stop them.
Hestia's expression turned grave, "which is why you can't ever, under any circumstances, reveal that you have a skill even though you're level one. Or your status in general, okay? This is really, really, really important!" She stressed, leaning in close. Jericho leaned away slightly, looking down at his status before giving a shallow nod.
"Because other gods would get interested?" He guessed, getting it half right. The gods came down to the lower world not to save it from troubled times it found itself in, but to entertain themselves. Words like unique or interesting were synonyms for fun and entertaining. The other part was...well...if he didn't know if his stats weird then, with the natural secrecy about status, he would be in the dark long enough that she could think of a way to fix it.
"Exactly. They're like bloodhounds when it comes to these kinds of things, they'll be all over you and try to take you away," she explained, her chest clenching at the idea.
"Well, we wouldn't want that. My lips are sealed," he said, giving her a lopsided grin. Hestia found herself beaming at him in response. She spent thousands of years doing little more than reading, but not even she had the words to describe the sheer relief she felt at his words. He was going to stay. He wasn't going to leave her alone. Even better, he didn't want to leave her alone.
"Hm!" Hestia nodded, savoring the feeling.
…
After getting my falna, Hestia lead me to one of the seedier parts of town. It wasn't the ghetto, but it was a long time since anyone thought to do any kind of maintenance in this part of the city. The stone slab road was cracked and broken, weeds growing in between the spaces or flat out overgrowing in some places. Eventually, she brought me to a rundown looking church.
The stained glass was broken, a door knocked in with another leaning on rusted hinges. The interior wasn't much better, the wooden pews rotting from time and exposure, weeds growing between the stone slabs with vines crawling on the walls.
"I know it doesn't look like much, but that's just for now!" Hestia blurted as she walked through the church, her ears burning. "One day soon enough, we'll be living in one of those apartments in the Tower of Babel!" She declared, walking towards a door up on the platform where the ceremonies would be performed.
"This is just our start," I agreed, getting another beaming smile from Hestia as she threw open a door, revealing a staircase. Walking down, a turn revealed a small basement area. An old green couch that saw its best days a long time ago, a small table that looked like it was salvaged. A bed dominated the small room, taking up almost a third of the space. At least it looked nice. To the right was a curtain that separated a wooden tub to do our washing.
Somehow, it looked more cramped than it did in the anime. And it wasn't just because I had to crouch down to enter the room.
"It looks homey," I said, knowing that Hestia was waiting for me to say something.
"Thanks," she muttered shyly. "Hephaestus helped me find it after I came down from Heaven a couple of weeks ago." She explained, leaving out the parts where she mooched off her for a couple of months, but I wasn't going to say anything about that.
"She's the goddess of smiths, right?" I asked, setting my armor and weapon in a corner, leaving me in the clothes that I died in. At least there wasn't any blood on them.
"She is. Hephaestus is the best! Her familia is really big and they make all kinds of amazing stuff," Hestia said, from the sound of it there were no hard feelings on her side about getting kicked out. If anything, she sounded happy at the opportunity to brag about her friend. Though, that did bring me to a topic that needed to be discussed.
"So," I started, taking a seat on the couch, Hestia quickly sitting next to me, managing to almost reach my shoulder now. "Since our familia is just starting, do you have any kind of ideas of what kind you want us to be?"
"Er," Hestia winced, a hand going to one of the jagamarukuns.
"Because there are all kinds of types, right? I mean, do you want me to try to aim for a particular development ability like Mixing or Blacksmith?" With one of those, I could craft potent potions items or weapons, far beyond what I could manage with the Skills. Though, since I had a different variation of the gamer system, I would have to find out how easily I could gain them. "Since you like books, we could do something with that."
"...What do you want to do?" Hestia asked, deflecting the question.
That was a good question. "I think I want to dive into the Dungeon. It'll be dangerous doing it solo, but I think it's worth the risk." If only to find out exactly how my system worked. Gamer Body gave me some hints, but I needed to find out the specifics as soon as I could. Hopefully, I could get the stupidly fast strength gains that gamers typically had. Ideally, it would be comparable to the insane jumps in growth that Bell had because of Realis Phrase.
"Okay," Hestia nodded, not exactly sounding enthused about the prospect. I gave her a lopsided smile, reaching out to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I'll be fine. Between my armor and my height, the goblins won't be any trouble," I said, having absolutely no idea if I was lying. I must not have since Hestia looked reassured, my words not tripping a built-in lie detector that all gods had.
"You won't go past the first floor?" Hestia asked though it sounded much more like a request.
"I won't go past the first floor," I promised, giving her shoulder a squeeze. She gave me a slight smile in return, reassured. That was good. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally trip on an emotional landmine and have her forbid me from entering. She was too new at this, and so was I even if I had a decent idea of what I was doing. In theory, at least.
The touching moment was ruined by Hestia's stomach growling. Loudly. She eeped, clutching her stomach while I just looked amused. Heat rushed to her face as she stammered out, "i-its because I had to skip my lunch break!" She explained, making my eyes dip down to what served as her dinner. A potato thing and some kind of paste.
"You can still have some, though!" She said, mistaking my glance for hunger. "I-"
"Thank you, but I can always get myself something latter. Actually, would you want me to get something for both of us?" Something that actually had some nutritional value, maybe? However, Hestia shook her head so hard that I spared a worry that she was going to give herself whiplash.
"It's fine!" She said too hastily, still clutching at her empty stomach. "You don't have to do that," she decided, looking longingly at the food before her. I don't think it was possible for someone's words and actions to be more at odds. She was practically drooling.
"I do, actually," I said, grabbing the potato thing and holding it out to her. She looked at it, then at me with confusion. "You're my goddess. It's my job to support you." That was a good line. I'm mildly impressed with myself. Pressing the potato thing towards her, Hestia gingerly took it. "For example, before I asked to join your familia, I was watching you work." And it looks like I used up my quota of suave social skills and made myself look like a stalker.
"You skipped your lunch, didn't get a break and they never stopped coming," I said, earning a nod as Hestia began nibbling the potato thing. I knew exactly how much that sucked. Worse, the slippers she was wearing wouldn't offer any lumbar support. "Your back and legs must be killing you."
Hestia looked surprised, "how'd you know that?" She admitted, finishing off the potato thing. She looked honestly shocked, it was enough to get a laugh out of me.
"Because I used to work at a store like yours, and it never stopped. I'm actually surprised you had the energy to give me your blessing, I would have dropped into bed after a day like you had." I complimented, gesturing to the potato puffs for her to have.
Hestia huffed a laugh, "of course I did! I was scared that I wasn't ever going to get a familia." She said, grabbing the potato puffs, and after making one last offer for me to take one that I refused, she swallowed them down so fast I doubt she chewed.
"So, let me support you," I murmured, gesturing to her legs. She gave me a confused look in response. With a slight grin, I explained, "you said your feet hurt, right? Let me take care of that for you."
For a split second, I worried that I might have pressed too far when a hesitant expression appeared on her face. Prompting me to continue with, "I'm trying to impress you, Hestia." I admitted, "I have no idea what I'm doing and I want to make sure that we get along." In my experience, blunt honesty was always the way to go when you had no idea if your flirting was working. Either it worked great, or let you know you were wasting your time and making someone uncomfortable.
Hestia lite up, a giggle bubbling out of her. "So am I," she admitted, raising a leg so I could grab her foot. Cupping it, I pressed my thumb into the center of her foot, getting a startled groan from Hestia. She gave me a wide-eyed, embarrassed look, but I just smiled in response and got to work.
My technique was nothing to write home about, but sometimes that didn't matter as much as letting the tension ease out of you. Before long, Hestia was laying on the couch, one leg in my lap as I gave her a foot rub.
"Jericho?" Hestia whispered softly, her eyes closed as her aches and pains were steadily rubbed away.
"Hm?"
"I'm really glad you joined my familia," she said so earnestly that it gave me pause. My eyes glanced at her face, trailing down her skin tight dress, her cleavage threatening to spill out of her neckline, then to her waist. I always thought the white underskirt was either a pair of shorts or part of the dress, but I was surprised to see that they were a pair of white panties with a small blue bow on the front. All of it was revealed to me from how short her dress was and the angle I was giving her the foot rub.
Then I smiled, continuing to massage her.
"I am too."