Between the short conversations while they waited in line, Renn had gotten a basic grasp of Lili’s situation.
Especially what things were like inside the Soma Familia.
The god Soma was obsessed with brewing his divine wine and didn’t handle Familia management at all, and the captain who actually held power simply let the bullying happen.
That was what had left Lili where she was now.
As for why she was working herself to death for money, her answer was that she wanted to save enough to buy her freedom from the Soma Familia.
“…”
Renn watched her lead the way across the upper floors.
He really wanted to point out the obvious.
Would a captain who let his Familia fall into chaos and pushed Soma on everyone actually honor a contract?
Still, they’d only just met, so he couldn’t bring himself to say it and break the hope that kept her going.
Comparing his own situation to hers made the difference painfully clear.
Food, clothing, a place to live, all of it taken care of, and even his exploration gear had been scrounged up by Hestia.
Not to mention the lap pillow treatment.
“Looks like I’ve been pretty lucky.”
Renn couldn’t help feeling that.
Following Lili’s pace, they crossed the starting floors quickly, and ahead of them lay the dangerous part of the Dungeon.
Floor one.
Once the real exploration began, Lili, who didn’t have much combat ability, shouldered her supporter backpack and moved to the back of the party.
Renn took over the fighting.
After yesterday’s dive he no longer had that initial panic.
They hadn’t gone far before footsteps echoed from around a bend in the passage.
A goblin came charging out, snarling and swinging a wooden club.
“Stay back.”
Renn held his adventurer dagger in a reverse grip and signaled Lili to retreat.
He breathed in, lowered his stance, and rushed the monster.
It was the same feeling as before.
The goblin’s movements looked slow to him, the muscle memory from his basic swordsmanship was unusually clear, and his body reacted on instinct.
A flash of the blade, and the goblin’s head came off cleanly.
Its body crumbled to ash, and then came the second one, and the third.
Quick and clean.
Once the monsters died, the small magic stones inside them dropped to the floor.
“I should be able to make it to the fourth floor today, right?”
Maybe it was because his status had been updated yesterday.
Renn could clearly feel that his body had gotten a small boost in both strength and speed.
Not bad.
That steady growth in power was the reward for the effort he’d put in.
“…”
Was this guy really a rookie?
In Lili’s experience, a rookie adventurer was supposed to tense up and panic the moment a monster appeared.
But not Renn.
Watching that simple fight, she could tell his combat fundamentals were actually pretty solid.
His technique was just rough.
She hadn’t forgotten her own job, and collected the dropped magic stones and goblin fangs into the bags meant for them.
“Let’s keep going.”
As the exploration went on, Lili could clearly see the gap that existed between adventurers, especially when the goblins and kobolds started showing up in larger numbers.
At first, Renn was a little awkward when he got surrounded.
But she could also see how well he adapted in the middle of a fight.
He found the key to breaking through fast.
And when the monsters came at him in waves, his stamina seemed like it would never run out.
“That can’t be right.”
Lili had chosen to become a supporter because she’d tried it herself and knew she didn’t have what it took to be an adventurer.
So she’d settled for the next best thing and taken this path instead.
But watching Renn get used to the Dungeon at a visible pace, she couldn’t control the envy she felt.
If I could be an adventurer, would anything about my situation change?
At the speed Renn was clearing his way through, the party soon reached the third floor, the goal for this dive.
He stayed alert the whole time and didn’t let the boost in his strength make him careless about monsters that could appear at any moment.
They pushed on through the cave passages, with light still coming from the glowing fruit along both walls, and visibility only reaching about ten meters.
“According to Eina.”
“There should be a new kind of monster here, dungeon lizards.
They’re probably tougher than goblins and kobolds.”
Renn studied their surroundings carefully.
He steadied his breathing and kept his body ready to fight, until the sound of claws scraping against stone came from somewhere ahead.
He looked toward the sound.
A dungeon lizard came into view, about the size of a Komodo dragon from his old world, covered in fine pale gray scales.
It was crawling toward him fast.
“Alright.”
“Time to fight.”
*
[Renn witnessed the supporter girl’s miserable situation and came to understand that Orario isn’t as safe as he imagined, leaving him grateful for his own circumstances.]
[Affection +5]
[Affection stage: 23/30]
“!!”
She was working a shift at a weapon shop and his affection was just climbing on its own?
Hestia stared at the notice popping out of the translucent screen of the Hero Raising Plan, clearly caught off guard.
She hadn’t done anything at all!
But when she thought the message through properly, she understood why Renn’s affection had suddenly spiked.
Orario had a lot of adventurer Familias.
Almost all of them were a mess, though, and compared to what other adventurers went through, Renn must feel lucky that she’d picked him up.
“Heheh.”
Thinking about it made her a little proud.
Her newly founded Familia really was bottom-tier at this stage, and she couldn’t offer Renn much help at all.
But the two of them were reaching toward each other!
“Seven more affection points and I unlock a whole new stage.
I wonder what kind of functions the Hero Raising Plan will have.”
Right now, the daily quest function had opened up, with a chance to raise the potential Renn would have in the future.
To Hestia, that alone was an unprecedented miracle, and it meant she could eventually raise Renn into the seed of a hero.
Once the new functions opened, that process would get even shorter!
She was about to close the affection notice when she frowned, catching a detail she’d skipped over.
[Supporter girl]
When he’d shared his exploration experience yesterday, Hestia had heard from Renn about a very interesting supporter girl he’d met.
Her brows knit together.
It couldn’t still be that same supporter, could it?
“Something’s off!”