Chapter 7: Yamato Gentian, I am not lying. (Patreon)

"If it's only a Falna update, I can help you with that myself."

Well, of course. Astraea was a goddess who sought out the unknowns and miracles of the lower world, and an uncut gemstone was sitting right in front of her. How could she possibly resist touching it?

Renan visibly froze at the brown-haired goddess's words.

Don't get him wrong. Getting his goal handed to him directly was unquestionably good news. Besides, what did it matter who updated his Falna?

It was just that, knowing Astraea as he did, overstepping her bounds to use an update potion on another god's Familia member clearly wasn't something she would do.

Across from him, the brown-haired goddess seemed to have noticed the doubt on the black-haired boy's face. The corner of her lips curled. "Of course, before I update your Falna for the first time, I'll pay a visit to the Soma Familia and get Soma's consent."

"I see." Renan nodded.

So this was the Goddess of Justice the people of Orario talked about.

"Speaking of which..." Astraea asked with a smile, as if something had just occurred to her. "Renan, if I had really followed your original plan and introduced you to a god, how were you going to persuade her to use an update potion?"

Now that his goal was met, Renan was visibly a couple of notches more relaxed than before. He smiled and said something that, to him, was no big deal at all. To Astraea and Kaguya Gojouno beside her, though, it was enough to make them stare in bewilderment, even shock.

"I have an enhancement skill that, in theory, anyone can learn. By my own testing, with the skill active it roughly doubles an ordinary person's physical attributes, and when paired with the matching techniques, it can unleash even greater speed and strength. I'd planned to teach it in exchange for a Falna update."

Renan meant Thunder Breathing, which he shared with his self from the Demon Slayer world.

In the Demon Slayer world, it couldn't match its source, Sun Breathing, but it was still a rare sword art and body-enhancement technique. It let a mere human cut down demons, and once someone reached "Total Concentration Constant," they could even challenge the Lower Moons and Upper Moons.

Transplanted to Orario, though, a flat, fixed boost like that clearly fell short.

At the very least, Renan figured the Astraea Familia, whose weakest member was already a Level 3 adventurer, had little need for Thunder Breathing.

It was the Familias whose strongest member was only Level 2, or not even that, that badly needed this skill to shore themselves up.

That was why he'd wanted the Goddess of Justice to find him a god with a relatively weak Familia in the first place.

Still, Renan had watched the anime in his previous life, and in this one he'd lived sixteen years in the DanMachi world.

But since he'd only just arrived in Orario, he had underestimated how strongly a universal enhancement skill appealed to gods and adventurers alike.

In the next instant, just as the boy's words fell,

"Huh?!" Kaguya Gojouno's upper body shot clear over the sofa, the demure Yamato Nadeshiko act completely gone.

"You're not joking?"

Renan spread his hands, perfectly earnest. "Yamato Gentian, I'm not lying."

Kaguya Gojouno: "..."

That was when Astraea spoke again. "Renan, this may be pushing my luck, but if possible, I'd like you to teach the enhancement skill you just mentioned to my children. Of course, the Astraea Familia will pay ample compensation: Valis, first-class weapons and armor, grimoires, anything you need, we'll find it for you."

"You're too kind, Lady Astraea." Renan had always meant to trade Thunder Breathing for a Falna update. Now that Astraea's offer of help let him skip a step, he hadn't planned to use this payment to get anything extra... Oh, well, that wasn't quite true.

"I don't need Valis, weapons, or grimoires for now. But besides the Falna update, there are two small favors I'd like the Astraea Familia to help with."

Astraea's expression didn't change, but inwardly she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

She wasn't afraid of a boy who made demands. She was afraid of a boy who wanted nothing.

She gestured for him to go on.

Renan didn't waste words. He raised a hand and held up two fingers. "First, I want to confirm my current strength. Roughly what level of adventurer am I equivalent to?"

Unlike other freshly minted adventurers, even leaving Thunder Breathing's boost aside, Renan now had the strength of his selves from two worlds stacked together. In raw power he was certainly beyond the normal Level 1 range. But whether he'd reached Level 2, and where he stood within it, the monsters on the Dungeon's first five floors clearly couldn't tell him.

Astraea and Kaguya Gojouno exchanged a glance. Astraea especially was curious about the true state of this boy who had both "prophecy" and a universal enhancement skill. She nodded. "Kaguya, why don't you spar with Renan in the training ground later?"

Kaguya Gojouno didn't refuse. "Fine."

With his first condition accepted, Renan folded down one finger and raised the second. "When I go after the feat for reaching Level 2, I'd like members of your Familia to come along and keep an eye on me."

Now that Astraea had agreed to help with his Falna updates, he would certainly keep working to raise his level.

But for an adventurer with no Familia to rely on, charging off alone to the middle and lower floors in search of a level-up feat was dangerous any way you looked at it.

Once you were inside the Dungeon, anything could happen, and the deeper you went, the likelier it became.

And now that he'd made a connection with the Justice Familia, it would be a waste not to take advantage of their help.

"I'll agree to that condition as well." Astraea nodded. The moment she finished, she seemed to feel the deal was a bit unfair to the boy, and added, "And when you're ready to advance to Level 3, you can ask my children for help then, too. They won't refuse you."

Renan raised an eyebrow and accepted the kindness without ceremony. "Heh, thanks, then."

…

Nine in the morning. Ryu Lion had stayed up late last night, celebrating the expedition's success and goofing around with her friends, and had meant to linger in bed a while longer.

Instead, the clatter of several wooden weapons striking each other drifted through the window to her ears.

Faintly, she could even make out a crackling sound, like lightning on a stormy day.

It snapped her out of her grogginess in an instant.

No one in the Astraea Familia had awakened a lightning magic!