Chapter 68: Hestia: Who Exactly Is Stealing My Home! (Subscribe Request) (Patreon)

BYD.

"This damn thing... it can't be the rare-species young dragon you mentioned, Lili — the one with an insanely low encounter rate that only shows up on Floor 12, could it?"

On the way back to Orario—

Rozz stared at the massive shape gradually taking form in the spacious cavern ahead, and his expression grew visibly tense.

Young Dragon.

Sure, it was technically related to dragons, but its build reminded him more of the giant lizard-type creatures from those monster-spectacle shows back in his past life...

A rough glance put its size at around four meters.

The monster's massive body was covered in dark brown scaled armor, and its crimson, savage eyes burned with murderous intent, all of it aimed straight at him.

Just standing there in front of him,

Rozz felt an overwhelming sense of pressure. If he'd only just unlocked Mana Burst, something like this would've been a real test of his mettle.

But right now, things were different.

After a grueling string of back-to-back fights against other monsters on this floor, his Stamina was barely enough to get him back to Orario.

He'd never once expected a boss encounter on top of all that!!

Rozz's face darkened. The danger level here was about on par with a rookie stepping out the front gate only to run straight into a Tree Knight guarding it.

He murmured quietly, "My whole life's been like walking on thin ice... you think I'll actually make it to the other side?"

Noticing the young dragon up ahead — a monster an ordinary Adventurer would never even get the chance to encounter — and Rozz's grim expression,

the Supporter girl's mind went blank with shock.

Even Lili hadn't imagined their luck could turn this bad — and worse, this rare-species boss stood squarely in the path back.

There was only one way: forward.

Even backtracking wouldn't help; no other route led back to Orario from here, only deeper into the far more dangerous mid-tier floors.

Fighting was their only option.

She looked up at Rozz, sensing the exhaustion etched across his brow. "Rozz, can you... still fight right now?"

"Of course I can."

Giving up the moment things got hard —

sure, in Rozz's eyes that would have been the easier road, but it was a loser's mindset. Becoming a proper Adventurer meant being ready for exactly this.

He rolled his shoulders, his expression turning serious. "But I can't promise I won't get kicked to death by this thing like some pebble in the road."

Given the situation,

Lili didn't hold anything back. She pulled the Magic Sword, Chestnut Flame, from her Supporter pack — it seemed to ripple like liquid fire.

This Magic Sword —

— was actually something she'd picked up a while back at a goblin general store, sold to her cheap by the shopkeeper as a self-defense tool.

Even when surrounded by a swarm of Killer Ants,

the Supporter girl had never once thought to use it, because she knew Rozz's strength alone was more than enough to handle it.

But this situation was different.

Facing the rare-species young dragon, Rozz was clearly not at his best — whereas normally, this guy would stand in front of her without a hint of hesitation.

Lili wanted to do something.

"This Magic Sword of mine... it can probably unleash a magic attack on par with a Lv2 Adventurer. It might actually stand a chance against the young dragon."

"The only catch is, once it's used, it's done for good..."

"A Magic Sword?"

Rozz's expression shifted with surprise. A weapon capable of unleashing Lv2-level magic attacks had to be worth a fortune.

But in a life-or-death moment like this, making it back to Orario alive mattered far more.

He rolled his shoulders, a trace of regret in his voice. "If Hestia were here right now..."

"...this sword definitely wouldn't be wasted on... ah, never mind."

"Why?"

Honestly, if a god came down here,

whatever situation they'd end up in would be far more absurd than a rare-species young dragon — it would only trigger an even more ridiculous chain of events!

Especially when it involved being alone with Rozz.

Bringing up another woman left a sour taste in the Supporter girl's heart. "I don't think it'd be wasted, personally."

"Safety matters most."

"...Mm."

Something about the way she said it felt like Lili had misread the situation entirely.

Rozz looked ahead at the massive monster still some twenty meters off and explained with a smile, "Honestly, I don't even know the reason myself."

"It's just..."

"No matter how exhausted I get exploring the Dungeon, even the slightest contact with Hestia and my spirits lift right back up."

"Heh..."

Lili said nothing.

She simply waited until the young dragon came within attack range, then decisively activated the Magic Sword, Chestnut Flame, channeling everything into it without holding back.

In an instant —

— flames erupted with terrifying heat, coiling like a serpent-dragon as they surged toward the rare-species monster.

The blaze lit up the dim cavern passage.

Boom!

The magic power stored within the sword erupted into a violent explosion the moment it touched the young dragon, a wave of heat washing over everything.

It was a dazzling, brilliant sight.

But as its stored mana drained away, the sword in Lili's hand visibly dimmed, cracks spreading across its entire blade.

As the smoke from the explosion gradually cleared,

the massive young dragon ahead was clearly hampered in its movements, its scaled armor scorched all over.

In the weaker spots of its armor, a bloody gash had been torn wide open.

The searing pain made the young dragon throw its neck back and unleash a deafening roar: "Ghraaaaghh..."

This should have bought Rozz some time.

Lili tossed aside the now-ruined Magic Sword and looked over at the black-haired boy beside her, recalling what he'd said just moments ago.

[Cuddling with a god can restore your condition.]

There was no reason it wouldn't work for her too!

And so —

— the Supporter girl rose up on her toes, grabbed Rozz's collar with both hands, and summoned every scrap of courage she had in her life to press a kiss to the corner of his lips.

Because they were pressed so close together,

Lili could even catch the scent that belonged only to Rozz. When their eyes met, she noticed the dazed look in his.

She let go at once, her cheeks burning, and murmured softly:

"...Um."

"This is as far as Lili can help. The rest... is up to you. Don't get the wrong idea — I just heard what you said a moment ago."

"I wanted to help restore your condition."

So you're not trying to be my mother after all, huh?

Just as Lili had said, Rozz could feel the lingering softness and warmth on his lips, and with it, a sense of strength flowing back into him.

He could feel, too, the Supporter girl's fierce will to keep him alive behind it.

Besides —

— he didn't want his Adventurer career, barely begun, to end right here. He glanced at Lili beside him, her face flushed red, her eyes darting away.

His spirits soared!

Rozz's smile turned confident and free, and he decisively triggered his Mana Burst Skill. In an instant, his body was wrapped in a pale blue glow.

Gripping the katana in his hand, his eyes hardened with resolve:

"Now then,"

"I'll take it from here. After all, ever since I officially became an Adventurer, my whole goal has been to survive and live well!"

After the Familia expedition had ended,

that didn't mean Ais Wallenstein was slowing down. She still ventured into the Dungeon alone, taking on commissions posted by the Guild.

These all counted as extra income.

After all, every time she explored the Dungeon, her Skill, Avenger, meant her weapon repair bills came out to a small fortune.

This time,

the girl known as the Sword Princess had taken on a commission from a Miss Amid, tasked with heading to Floor 20 to gather special materials.

Relying on her wind magic, Ariel,

making a same-day round trip to those floors was nothing for her. Just as she finished gathering the materials and was making her way swiftly back to Orario,

far off in the distance,

in the passage she had to pass through on Floor 12, she caught, with keen senses, the presence of a monster.

"Hm..."

There must be other Adventurers fighting nearby.

And in the Dungeon, one never interfered in another Adventurer's fight without permission.

Ais knew that rule well.

But just as she decided to wait for the fight to end before moving on, her calm, still gaze fell on the battlefield ahead.

More precisely —

— whether it was the dragon-kin aura radiating off the young dragon, or the Adventurer wrapped in pale blue mana fighting it,

neither was something Ais could simply ignore.

She forced down the intense hatred she felt toward dragon-kin monsters and fixed her gaze on Rozz, locked in the thick of a ferocious battle.

"What is this?"

Magic.

As a Magic Swordswoman, Ais's own grasp of magic was nothing to scoff at — she'd even mastered Concurrent Chanting, something most Adventurers could never learn.

But watching Rozz,

she saw an effect that felt oddly familiar, something that seemed to share a similar principle with her own Ariel.

Looking closer,

she could still tell the difference clearly: hers was a wind-attribute enchantment, while this unfamiliar male Adventurer before her —

— seemed instead to be coating his body in dense mana, boosting his physical stats and the sharpness of his weapon.

How interesting!

Watching the battle from a distance, Ais could tell Rozz's fighting style wasn't flashy, but it was solid — built on a firm, dependable foundation.

"It's like..."

"...a style honed through countless real fights against other Adventurers?"

Plain, unembellished, yet effective.

This young dragon — the kind that would give most Lv2 Adventurers a serious headache — seemed to have no way to fight back against Rozz at all.

It stayed purely on the defensive the entire time.

And the moment Rozz pulled back to a safe distance before surging forward again as a streak of pale blue light, Ais already knew how it would end.

The battle was over.

The pale blue mana coating his blade pushed its already sharp edge to its absolute limit, and as the flash of steel cut through the air —

— it looked like a flowing rainbow.

Rozz wrung the last of his Stamina dry, pushing Mana Burst's output to its maximum, and swung his final blow at the young dragon's neck.

The weapon in his hands tore through the monster's defenses like they were nothing.

Even the young dragon's massive head was severed instantly by the razor-sharp strike, and its enormous body crumbled into gray dust in a heartbeat.

Poof!

A deep purple Magic Stone the size of a baby's fist dropped to the ground with a crisp clink, marking the battle's end — and his victory.

Rozz immediately deactivated his Mana Burst Skill.

With his Mind overtaxed from the strain, he felt dizzy and lightheaded, slumping to the ground with an exhaustion he couldn't even put into words.

"Damn..."

"If that last attack hadn't landed, I really would've gone Mamba out for real, huh?"

Rozz's chest heaved. He felt like he'd been drained dry dozens of times over by some gorgeous girl — even lifting his arm felt like too much to ask.

Exhaustion.

Still, the outcome was undeniably good — stumbling onto a rare-species young dragon in the Dungeon, a monster that powerful, and barely scraping out a win only by giving everything he had!

"The fight's over, at least."

"So how exactly are we supposed to get back to Orario now?"

Having witnessed the young dragon's defeat, the Supporter girl didn't bother collecting the drops. She noticed only the exhaustion in Rozz's eyes.

Something clenched unexpectedly in Lili's chest.

She knelt on the ground, checking over and over that he wasn't hurt, then offered the battle-worn Rozz her own lap as a pillow:

"Are you okay?"

"Just feels like I've got no strength left anywhere. Probably some aftereffect from... overusing Mana Burst, I guess."

There was really nothing wrong with Lili's figure!

Even as a Pallum, when she offered her lap as a pillow, Rozz could still feel just how soft it was.

Thinking about what lay ahead,

he felt a headache coming on and said, a little helplessly, "Don't worry about anything else. I just don't know how we're getting back to Orario."

Just as Rozz was mulling over the problem, a golden-haired girl appeared in the distance — clad in a distinctive silver breastplate, with an air as cold as an iceberg.

She was walking straight toward him and Lili.

Perhaps sensing the wariness in Rozz's eyes, the expressionless girl tilted her head slightly. "Do you need help?"

"Yes, yes we do!"

There really were plenty of good-hearted Adventurers in Orario — though, more often than not, they happened to be gorgeous girls.

"Once Rozz gets home today, I'll give him a Status Update, then some Cuddling — see if I can max out his Affection completely."

The benefit of having the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan...

wasn't just about personally raising a future hero — it also let her check Rozz's current Affection stage toward her, anytime, anywhere.

Hestia was delighted.

Right now, Rozz's Affection toward her sat at just 53 — nowhere near the level of romantic love yet. Confessing to him directly at this point...

didn't feel like a particularly safe bet.

Better to wait until Rozz's Affection was completely maxed out, then turn that reverence for a goddess into a full-blown, mother-complex love for his 'partner.'

"Hehe..."

"Now, let's see how Rozz's exploration went today!"

The girl-goddess couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from curling upward, as if she could already see a blissful, happy life waving at her from just ahead.

Hestia eagerly pulled up Rozz's Exploration Log.

[Through the creative insight granted by his magic, All Creation, Rozz organized the effects of his Skills and successfully mastered a brand-new Skill.]

[Mana Burst: Lv1]

[After a grueling Dungeon expedition, just as they planned to return to Orario, Rozz and Lili encountered an unprecedented crisis.]

[Facing a young dragon that seemed impossible to defeat.]

[A weary Rozz sincerely mused that if only he could Cuddle with a goddess, he'd surely recover enough to kick the monster to death with ease.]

[...]

[Rozz was kissed against his will. He lost his first kiss.]

[Rozz received a brief boost, and combined with his Mana Burst Skill, used masterful technique to defeat the rare-species young dragon.]

[Just as Rozz was racking his brain over how to get back to Orario...]

[An Adventurer girl passing by — the Sword Princess of the Loki Familia, Ais Wallenstein — decided to help Rozz make his way back to Orario.]

"...?"

Hestia stared at the translucent screen of the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan. That her own boy had managed to defeat a rare-species young dragon —

— was, without question, something worth celebrating.

But still...

the girl-goddess found she couldn't feel happy about it, no matter how she tried. Shouldn't his first kiss, by all rights, have belonged to her?

"What the hell — seriously, who's out there stealing what's mine?!"