Chapter 89: This Reward Is Exclusively Yours, Shocking Hephaestus! (Patreon)

"Even if this 'Pure White Dream Room' is my cheat ability… honestly, I really don't want something I can't control!"

"BYD."

"So you want me to fight a Lv4 Adventurer, huh?"

Rozz had to admit that Miss Ryuu from the Hostess of Fertility was truly gentle, at least when she was helping with his training.

She was nothing like the Ryuu he'd met in last night's dream.

In that blood-crazed state, all that awaited him was a Lv4 Adventurer's all-out, no-holds-barred hunt.

Fun fact: in this dream trial, the body's pain feedback doesn't disappear. That included the time he'd dreamed of his own goddess, Hestia.

A completely realistic experience.

Rozz had lost count of how many times he'd respawned, because with her killing intent unleashed, Ryuu even had the presence of mind to camp his respawn point.

And all around, countless Zanis were stirring, itching to pounce.

"So tiring…"

Ever since his Level Up, even Zanis, who were also Lv2 Adventurers, were nothing more than roadside strays he could kick to death at will.

Only against Ryuu…

Rozz truly couldn't find any room to resist. He lay on the soft bed, staring at the bedroom ceiling with eyes that had lost all will to live.

"So the gap between Adventurer levels really is an insurmountable mountain. Or is it that, at the end of the day… my stats just aren't high enough yet?"

Doubting his entire existence.

Especially since he still had to explore the Dungeon as usual today. Mentally, he felt an overwhelming exhaustion.

Just then, Hestia, the goddess who'd been sleeping with his arm clutched tightly in her embrace, felt Rozz stir awake, and even her drowsiness vanished.

She raised her head.

The moment she saw how utterly numb Rozz's eyes were, she perked up.

"What's going on here…?"

Even back when she'd first started the 'Dream Training Plan,' Hestia had never seen Rozz look like this.

It was as if his body had been hollowed out. Could it be mental exhaustion?

Deep down, the girl was filled with guilt, because she felt that what she was doing was, in some ways, a little selfish.

He had to push through grueling Dungeon exploration all day, and even while he slept, Rozz was made to spend that time passively raising his Potential…

"Hah."

"With the talent Rozz has, maybe… there's no need to rush his growth so much. It'd be fine to slow down a little, right?"

Hestia's resolve wavered.

She promptly opened Rozz's 'Hero Cloud-Raising Plan,' and the summary of this training session surfaced before her eyes.

[Dream Training Plan]

[Difficulty: Easy]

[Current Status: Cleared]

[Facing a siege by dozens of Lv2 Adventurers, Rozz displayed exceptional combat acumen and killed them all without trouble.]

[Rozz has unlocked a new Skill.]

[Intuition: Lv1]

[The character's Potential has risen across the board.]

"Isn't that a gain, though?"

The goddess was completely baffled.

But judging purely by the result, the Dream Training Plan was certainly helping Rozz. Next came the compensation phase.

Before closing the 'Hero Cloud-Raising Plan,' Hestia opened the character's basic information.

[Character: Rozz]

[Level: Lv2]

[Skills Mastered: Basic Swordsmanship: Lv4, Mind's Eye: Lv2, Intuition: Lv1.]

Though these were Skills that couldn't manifest on a Falna panel, they played a vital role in Rozz's exploration.

The thrill unique to raising sims completely engulfed Hestia's heart. She felt the arm that was about to slip away from her chest, and clutched it even tighter with both hands.

Then,

the goddess gathered her courage, flipped over, and straddled Rozz's waist. The sudden motion sent the strap of her loose nightgown sliding smoothly off her shoulder.

So very white.

Her sharply defined collarbones drew two elegant arcs across her neck, and since she wasn't wearing anything underneath, her bountiful fruit was fully on display.

Realizing how improper she looked,

Hestia hurriedly caught the slipping dress with both arms, but the pose only made her magnificent bosom swell even more grandly.

And she could clearly feel the Supreme Bone, so scorching hot that even she was afraid of it.

The girl looked once more at the beloved Familia member beneath her. Noticing the shock in Rozz's eyes, she remembered the most, most, most crucial element of winning him over:

making him realize that she was NOT his mom!

"Hah~"

Hestia's cheeks burned, and even her heartbeat fell out of rhythm. She reasoned that some things only bear fruit if you take the initiative.

And so,

the unrestrained nightgown slid further down as she leaned forward, and she gently propped her elbows on the pillow beside Rozz's head.

The girl felt his scorching breath.

Hestia whispered softly, her tone brimming with an anticipation she hadn't even noticed herself: "This reward is only for you…"

"Rozz!!"

—

Could it be that his Hestia wasn't his mom at all, but an alluring, soft-bodied beauty of a goddess?

After leaving the Familia Home, Rozz couldn't help marveling at it. But he had to admit that the figures in that pure white dream were definitely not faked.

The only thing is…

he didn't yet know whether the real goddess was as hairless as the one in the dream.

After meeting up with the Supporter girl, he felt full of drive, a far cry from the will-to-live-less state he'd woken up in.

"Do you want breakfast?"

"Save it for lunch."

On the way to Central Park, Lili held out breakfast for him. He'd long since eaten his fill, but he had no intention of refusing her kindness.

It would be just right for lunch.

Rozz went over his usual battle plan and told the girl, "Today I want to push the exploration down to the Floor 15 area."

"Once we hit the goal and do a little exploring, we'll head back to Orario."

"No problem."

Somehow this guy seemed to be in especially good shape today.

Lili didn't think much of it. More pressing, she explained the floors' monsters ahead of time: "There are new monsters on the next two floors."

"Big Tigers that drop Lion-Tiger Fangs."

"And bat-type monsters. But those aren't the most important. I think the one we really have to watch out for is the Minotaur."

"Hm?"

The girl raised her head, her tone far more serious: "It's a monster around Lv2 in strength, with a roar that forces Adventurers to freeze in place."

"That's all it's got?"

Truth be told, even with Lili's explanation, Rozz had no real concept of these monsters. He'd have to meet them in the Dungeon himself.

Still…

when he heard the monsters were around Lv2, he suddenly felt a lot less worried about today's exploration than he had at first.

In that pure white dream, the weakest Adventurers had been Zanis at Lv2, not to mention the elf who'd been glaring at him like a tiger and hunting him with everything she had.

If anything, Rozz was pretty fired up right now.

But that was as far as it went, because he'd realized long ago that combat experience gained in the dream converts completely into muscle memory.

Grind yourself raw in the dream, enjoy the easy life in reality!

"It's fine."

Rozz looked at the Supporter girl beside him, whose face was clouded with worry, and reached out to gently ruffle Lili's head. "I'll handle it."

"You'd better."

Having gotten her daily head pat exactly as she'd hoped,

Lili hummed in great satisfaction, and even her curved brows spelled out the girl's… utterly delighted feelings.

…

Dungeon exploration was, without question, smooth sailing for Rozz. Even without a Status Update, he'd improved comprehensively in other ways.

Higher-grade weapons and gear, courtesy of a senior's "help."

The monsters they met along the way were all kicked to death like stray dogs on the roadside, with no ability to resist whatsoever.

"I feel like…"

"For this level of exploration, the Mana Burst Skill is more effective. If I keep using the Chidori blade…"

"it won't be long before I have to get the weapon repaired."

Rozz cleanly cut off a Hellhound's head and watched the huge body turn to gray dust and vanish.

The Magic Stones it dropped was a dark purple.

Since he had to accompany his Hestia to the Gods' Banquet in the evening, he was putting even more emphasis on efficiency than usual.

Before long,

the party reached the Floor 15 area without incident.

From Lili's demeanor, it was plain she was setting foot in this area for the first time, and her childlike face was etched with gravity.

The girl looked up.

She warned him solemnly, "From here on, Minotaurs will appear. And the most important thing… these monsters are very likely to show up in groups."

"Meaning we might run into a whole lot of Minotaurs at once?"

Itching to explore a brand-new floor, only to find the monsters nowhere near strong enough to put any pressure on him—it was a genuinely dismal feeling.

Stats really do matter.

Rozz had to admit that, as he was now… against a Lv4 Adventurer, he honestly seemed to have no way of fighting back.

He murmured, "Actually, that's good news for us."

"Heh heh…"

Lili tugged at the corner of her mouth.

But when she thought of this guy's absurdly overpowered strength, the nerves of her first trip to the Floor 15 area melted away in the banter.

The party pressed on,

and as they rounded the corner of a cave passage, several monster silhouettes slowly emerged from the shadows in the distance.

Their towering bodies nearly scraped the ceiling of the passage. Dark brown fur covered them from head to toe, and bright red horns curved forward from either side of their foreheads.

Minotaurs.

The monsters' eyes burned with a fierce crimson glare, brimming with the Dungeon's malice, fixed hard on the Adventurer party ahead.

Muscle monsters.

Walking upright on two legs, those bull-headed brutes had robust frames that could rival Changshu Arnold at his peak, after the Nine Dragons Pulled the Coffin.

With every step the monsters took, the ground gave off a dull, rumbling tremor.

"These…"

"Must be the Minotaurs, right?"

Rozz gazed at the new monsters appearing in the distance. In his view, calling the thing in front of him a "Bull-Man" would be much more fitting.

It was an especially vivid name.

And as the Pure-Love War God, there was nothing he hated more than this kind of creature. He tightened his grip on the blade in his hand. "Lili, stay safe."

"Leave the coming fight to me!"

—

Hephaestus's weapon shop

Having finished her Familia's business, Hephaestus was in a cheerful mood, which meant she'd soon have some free time.

And that meant…

it was time for her very own game time!

The red-haired goddess was especially curious what the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan's brand-new feature would do for Rozz.

She opened the translucent screen.

[Dream Training Plan]

[Difficulty: Hard]

[Current Status: Not Cleared]

[Facing the frenzied mauling of a powerful Lv4 Adventurer, Rozz gave it everything he had but couldn't win, dying over and over countless times.]

[He has unlocked a new Skill.]

[Intuition: Lv1]

[The character's Potential has risen across the board.]

[Note: A training plan too intense to complete will leave the character in extreme mental exhaustion. Players, please manage it sensibly.]

"I guess this difficulty really was a bit harsh on Rozz. He was up against a Lv4 Adventurer, after all, and that level gap is truly crushing."

"But then again…"

"better to suffer now than to suffer later!"

Hephaestus skimmed over the screen.

When she noticed that Rozz had mastered a Skill called "Intuition," even the pity in her heart melted away.

That's right…

Hestia was gentle by nature, and that was exactly why she doted on Rozz. If Hephaestus went soft too, how would they ever raise a future hero?

All the hard work he put in now would become Rozz's rock-solid foundation in the not-so-distant future, helping him climb to the very peak of Adventurers.

"Hmm."

"If it comes to it, I'll just give him a proper reward after a while!"

Hephaestus's gaze swept across the character's Potential. Noticing the numbers that had risen across the board, her heart swelled with a sense of accomplishment.

More than the settlement notice for the Dream Training Plan,

what she actually worried about was whether Rozz's Dungeon exploration would be affected. If so, she'd have to give him some timely emotional counseling.

"It shouldn't come to that."

"Hestia seemed to be in great shape today. I'd guess she and Rozz have made a lot of progress on the romantic front."

The red-haired goddess murmured, a tinge of sourness in her tone.

…

[With the goddess Hestia's encouragement, Rozz rediscovered his meaning as an Adventurer and began today's exploration.]

[Regarding last night's miserable dream training, Rozz felt no despondency in his heart. He understood that he couldn't fight above his level purely because his stats weren't high enough at this stage.]

[And so,]

[Rozz set out into the Dungeon once more, though to him, the mid-level monsters couldn't exert any real pressure.]

…

[Facing a siege by several Minotaurs,]

[relying on the combat techniques honed through the Dream Training Plan, Rozz handled himself with ease. As a monster was about to unleash its attack,]

[through 'Intuition,']

[Rozz foresaw the danger an instant ahead, made an evasive move, and killed the Minotaur before him outright.]

…

Reading the timely feedback delivered by the Exploration Log, Hephaestus's exquisite face took on a strange expression.

The red-haired goddess stared at the translucent screen, her eyes glazed over.

"What do you mean…"

"Rozz foresaw future danger for a split second and dodged it? Damn it… so you get drilled by a Lv4 Adventurer…"

"and you end up with an ability this bugged!!"

Hephaestus's eyes sparkled with a strange light. "If I raised the Dream Training difficulty to 'Nightmare,' how much would Rozz improve?"

But no sooner had the thought sprouted in her mind than she dropped it entirely. A dream simulation that was too difficult would only leave him unable to grasp anything.

It was best to keep it within the range Rozz could actually handle.

"Forget it, forget it."

Thinking that far, the red-haired goddess couldn't help murmuring, "I can't very well hand Hestia the chance to raise his Affection myself."

…

…

[Author's Note: PS: First update. The double monthly ticket event is about to end… Monthly tickets, please, nya!]