Chapter 42: Stop Treating Me Like a Mom, Rozz! (Please Follow) (Patreon)

"Where did you go tonight?"

"..."

Facing the goddess's sudden question — her tone sounded normal enough, but he could still catch... a hint of something sour in it.

Rozz was honestly a little puzzled.

Then again, he remembered that Hestia came looking for him here every day after finishing her part-time job. Maybe she was just worried about his safety.

"Um..."

"After finishing today's Dungeon exploration, the Supporter who came along wanted to treat me to dinner. It has been pretty exhausting lately."

"So I didn't turn her down."

Noticing that the goddess's eyes hadn't quite softened yet, Rozz glanced down at the Adventurer's Exploration Guide in his hands.

He quickly added, "This guide, by the way — the waitress at the restaurant gave it to me too."

"...I see."

At least Rozz was honest by nature...

Hestia's mood had been a bit gloomy, but looking at the boy's sincere expression, she suddenly felt that gloom was pointless.

Because no matter what, Rozz belonged to her!

She turned her head aside, a little embarrassed. "It's just... I came here tonight and couldn't find you. I thought maybe something had happened to you down there."

"And then..."

"I got really worried about you!!"

That last line had taken every ounce of nerve Hestia had — an attempt to reshape, through open concern, how Rozz saw their relationship.

But right at that moment—

the translucent light screen of the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan popped up a notification.

...

[Rozz keenly felt the warm, "motherly" concern from the goddess, and gratitude welled up in him. Affection +3.]

...

Mom. Again.

Hestia's face froze, the corner of her eye twitching wildly. She didn't even look like the Demeter type.

Couldn't it be phrased some other way?

'Rozz, I don't want to be your mother, you jerk!'

She decided to change the subject, thinking instead of the Skill Rozz had gained through his own experience — the one she'd noticed while reviewing his Exploration Log today.

[Forge Onward]

The girl hopped down from the bedside onto the wooden floor, her small, pale feet — delicate enough to fit in one hand — not even bothering with slippers.

She clapped her hands and brightened her tone again.

"Hmph, hmph."

"I came to see you tonight mainly for three things. First — in a couple of days, we'll be able to move into a bigger house!"

"And then... we'll finally have a proper Familia home base~"

"...Hm?"

That was good news!

The cramped wall-mounted room would drag anyone's Mood down after living there too long, but Rozz had put up with it purely out of his passion for Orario.

That, and the fact that Hestia came by every night to help restore his sanity.

He looked at Hestia standing before him — utterly without any divine airs, fussing over him like a gentle Petite mom.

"I'm looking forward to it!"

The boy's confident tone alone was enough of an emotional reward to leave Hestia's spirits soaring.

She went on, "Second, before we move out, Hephaestus wants to treat us to a meal, since she's an old friend of mine too."

"So basically a farewell dinner?"

"Right!"

Hestia rather approved of that phrasing — she could hardly admit, in front of her own Familia child, that it was actually a celebration of her moving out.

Good kid!

Her eyes shone especially bright. "And the most important thing, of course, is your Status Update. You worked hard down there today."

"Now lie down!"

—

Rozz

Level: Lv1

Strength: C601→C688

Endurance: D577→C653

Dexterity: C620→B711

Agility: C615→B702

Magic: I0→I0

...

Skill:

Forge Onward

· Even through hardship, one presses forward without end, holding fast to the will to grow strong — increases the growth rate of all Status values.

· Immune to Charm effects.

—

As for the Status growth itself...

Hestia really had nothing new to say about it — business as usual, since his numbers had been climbing at this ridiculous rate every single time.

She'd gotten used to it.

What actually caught her off guard was the effect attached to the Skill on Rozz's Falna panel, the one called [Forge Onward].

"..."

The effect was blunt and simple: it amplified Rozz's already absurd growth rate even further.

Hestia didn't even want to imagine how fast it would get from here.

And then—

Immune to Charm effects?!

The goddess stared at the Falna panel floating behind Rozz. Weighed against the first effect, though, it actually made a strange kind of sense.

Pressing forward through hardship, holding fast to the will to become strong — and along the way, naturally, ignoring every outside temptation!

"That's incredible~"

"I can't even imagine how fast you'll reach Lv2..."

Once she'd finished the Status Update and pressed it onto parchment, Hestia promptly handed it over to the black-haired boy beside her.

Pride filled her voice. "You're really something..."

"..."

Well, he'd just take Hestia's word for it, then.

Rozz took the parchment and skimmed over his Status. The overall growth this time... wasn't much different from before.

What really caught his attention was the Skill that had appeared out of nowhere. Its effect wasn't hard to grasp — it could pass, just barely, for a strength-boosting cheat ability.

[Forge Onward]

Hmm...

That was all there was to it. But he remembered that during his last Status Update, this thing hadn't been there at all. So why did he suddenly have it now?

"..."

Hestia.jpg

Seeming to notice the confusion in Rozz's eyes, the goddess planted her hands on her hips, chest out and chin up — a pose that only made her bust look even more magnificent.

She hummed lightly as she explained, "I know what you're about to ask~"

"It's about this [Forge Onward] Skill, right? How do I put it... you can think of it as one of the Skills tied to your Falna."

"Magic too."

"None of it can be learned. It can only be awakened through your own talent — think of a Skill as a distillation of your own experiences."

"Does that make sense?"

"Thank you, Lady Hestia. I think I get it now."

Hestia had explained it with remarkable patience.

She'd broken the whole thing down and spoon-fed it to him piece by piece — if he still couldn't grasp it after that, he probably wouldn't have made it through grade school.

Rozz nodded lightly.

Maybe this was simply the thing he'd been chasing all this time, made manifest — his own inner resolve given form, granting him a boost in the Dungeon.

Pretty good, all things considered.

As long as it wasn't a negative debuff, he could live with it.

"What about magic, then?"

"Hmm... mastering it comes down to the Adventurer's talent. But don't worry, even if you're no good at it, there are other ways."

"Like?"

Rozz raised his head, a little curious.

"Grimoires. They're just... very expensive. At the auction house, you might need somewhere between a hundred million and a hundred and fifty million valis to get your hands on one."

"?"

The moment he got the answer—

Rozz suddenly felt a lot less eager about "mastering magic." Even as a warrior, surely there was still a future for him, right?

That's how he consoled himself.

Damn it,

after all this time grinding himself to exhaustion in the Dungeon, converting every drop into valis, and paying off the Adventurer Guild's taxes—

he had exactly sixty thousand valis in savings right now, and part of even that was Lili's share!!

"Meow dang it~"

"Cheat ability, save me here — I'm not even asking for much... just hook me up with the same Copy technique Yuta Okkotsu's got. Spell-copying magic would be plenty..."

Thinking about the outrageous price of a grimoire—

Rozz had never, deep down, wanted his cheat ability to show up as badly as he did right now. If he'd had a choice, he genuinely didn't want to keep being some broke nobody!

[Author's Note: Daily update 2000/4000.]