Considering the dungeon difficulty, Xyros felt his stated goal was pretty conservative. Just fighting that elite Goblin alone, he'd already found it tough.
And that wasn't even considering what other kinds of monsters the Dungeon's hatred might spawn.
Survive. An adventurer could be useless, but they couldn't be dead.
Having accepted the whole "get soul fragments from kills" system, Xyros's plan was simple: focus on grinding to unlock the [Character Save Slot].
Otherwise, dealing with those stat-check monsters was going to be impossible.
"Feels like I'm gonna have to pretend to be busy from now on."
Leaving the Guild, Xyros headed straight for the Hephaestus Arms branch. His armor had been pierced by that curved blade during the elite Goblin fight.
He didn't really care about how it looked.
But a gap in the armor meant reduced defensive performance.
To avoid wasting [Rebirth] charges on minor monster scratches, he at least needed to ask about repair costs.
But before he even reached the shop, a certain figure caught his attention. Standing at the entrance of Hephaestus Arms was a girl in a staff uniform and brown leather shoes.
Instantly recognizable.
Sleek black hair tied in twin tails. The slightly ill-fitting uniform was stretched taut by a figure that completely defied her youthful features.
It was Hestia. She was clutching a thick stack of flyers, handing them out to passing adventurers one by one.
Working hard to pay off debts, the girl hadn't noticed Xyros's approach yet. Her voice was tired. "New weapons in stock! Come take a look if you're interested."
"High quality, fair price, the best choice for your Dungeon explorations~"
But adventurers rushing to Babel rarely paused. Even if Hephaestus-made weapons were suitable for ordinary adventurers, the price tag was something else entirely.
Just as she was getting a bit discouraged, a familiar voice reached her ears. "Lady Hestia, how much would it cost to repair some armor?"
"Xyros?!"
"You're back?"
Following the voice, Hestia perked up and turned around.
The moment she saw the armor pierced through at the abdomen, her brow furrowed deeply. Unmistakable, genuine worry filled her eyes.
Good news: Xyros had listened to her and evacuated the Dungeon after using his [Rebirth] charge.
Bad news: The Dungeon's difficulty might be even higher than she'd imagined!
"Gave it my all and beat the Goblin jock."
That was Xyros's succinct summary of his first Dungeon experience. Seeing Hestia's puzzled look, he elaborated:
"You know, a Goblin, but way buffer than usual."
"The rare kind with better weapons and actual combat skills. But in the end, I was the better fighter and took it down."
He explained mainly to keep Hestia from worrying.
He added, "Being hated by the Dungeon does make things tricky, but it's not all bad."
"High-intensity fights definitely help boost my stats!"
"It's good… it's good you can see it that way."
Hestia had been worried that the brutal Dungeon difficulty might make Xyros want to quit. But judging by the results, this child she'd found had a surprisingly positive attitude.
As for the armor repair issue, the goddess puffed out her chest confidently. "Leave the armor repair to me! It's not that busy at the shop right now anyway."
"Need me to update your status?"
"Is that convenient?"
According to Eina's description, ordinary Goblins were like stray dogs. The elite Goblin he'd fought was easily several times stronger.
Even though he hadn't been in many fights, Xyros couldn't help but look forward to seeing how much his stats had improved after getting worked over by that entrance-camping elite!
"Convenient."
"Updating status doesn't take much time at all."
More importantly, Hestia was equally curious. What kind of surprise would Xyros, with his unprecedented talents, bring her?
She tucked away the flyers she'd been handing out and pulled the young man by the hand into the weapon shop.
Ignoring the curious glances from other staff, they made their way to Hephaestus's office. After yesterday's experience, the process was becoming familiar.
"Okay!"
"Shirt off. Lie down on the sofa."
Standing by the sofa, the girl didn't hesitate. She pricked her finger with a silver needle and squeezed a drop of crimson divine blood onto Xyros's back.
A shimmering light appeared. Obscure divine script emerged on his skin.
It recorded the stat increases from Xyros's recent training and Dungeon exploration, overwriting his original base stats.
Then the panel, so complex even a god might struggle to comprehend it, appeared once again before Hestia's eyes.
XyrosLevel: Lv. 1
Strength: I0 → H103
Endurance: I0 → H110
Dexterity: I0 → I86
Agility: I0 → H107
Magic: I0 → I0
After transcribing the stats onto parchment, Hestia's gaze lingered on the updated values. Surprise filled her eyes.
Just basic training and a short Dungeon expedition, and Xyros's overall stats except for Dexterity and Magic had all jumped a whole grade from their initial levels!
"Is this stat growth… a bit ridiculous?"
Maybe it was the new adventurer bonus period.
At this rate, even among all the Lv. 1 adventurers in Orario, Xyros would easily be considered a top-tier talent.
What kind of rookie nets a total stat increase of nearly 400 points?
Hestia felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The talent her new Familia member was displaying fully justified all the effort she'd put in recently.
But thinking about what lay behind those stat gains, Xyros pushing himself to the limit, fighting for his life against monsters while burdened by the Dungeon's hatred…
The girl felt this increase was something Xyros had earned. She handed him the parchment. "Xyros, your talent is truly exceptional."
"But further stat increases will be harder to come by."
"Keep up the good work!"
"…"
Xyros understood the principle of gradual accumulation. Seeing the changes in his stats, he felt like all the effort had been totally worth it.
Given the intensity of future Dungeon monsters, even if the pace of stat growth slowed down, it would still be way faster than for ordinary adventurers!
But then he thought about the setting of the Danmachi world. Many adventurers, due to their own talent limitations, couldn't even reach C-rank stats.
They got permanently stuck in the D-rank range of 500-600.
Xyros felt a bit wistful.
He knew this wasn't the limit for adventurers. In the original story, Bell, the protagonist, could break through the S-rank cap with his stats.
"Something tells me…"
"The road to becoming a stat-check monster is gonna be a long one."