Hephaestus Weapon Branch Shop.
Back at her friend’s place, freeloading again, Hestia shut herself in her room and immediately started digging into the new function.
Daily quests.
Perfect!
Just the thought of getting more involved in raising her follower filled the young goddess with nerves and anticipation.
Hestia sprawled lazily across the single-seat sofa.
None of the mature act she’d put on during the day was left.
She crossed her legs without a care for how it looked, one slipper dangling off her toes.
“So…”
“What exactly is a daily quest?”
[Renn has only just become an adventurer and has no combat experience.
He feels lost about the Dungeon exploration ahead of him.]
[Quest requirement:]
[Please have the player train the character Renn in combat.
Upon completion, there is a chance to increase the character’s potential.]
“?”
The requirement was simple enough.
The Dungeon was dangerous, and one careless mistake could get a rookie adventurer killed by monsters.
The logic was obvious.
Hestia understood it perfectly.
Her problem was the requirement itself, because when it came to being lazy, she was the real authority.
But how exactly was she supposed to train Renn in combat?
She ran into the wall and, out of habit, wanted to just give up on it.
Then she remembered that finishing the training quest had a chance to raise Renn’s adventuring potential across the board.
All at once she felt like she really did need to put in some effort!
Effort in finding a friend to help, of course.
Demeter?
Definitely not.
She ran an agricultural Familia in Orario.
Hephaestus was even more out of the question.
She’d already lent Hestia plenty of money, and Renn’s future exploration gear would have to be squeezed out of her too.
Turning it over, the goddess remembered a friend she’d known back in Heaven.
She’d even seen him working at a jagamarukun stall not long ago.
Takemikazuchi, the god of war.
As the god who presided over martial arts, teaching Renn the basics of combat should be no trouble at all, right?
“That’s…
exactly what I should do!”
Most importantly, Hestia was sure that given their relationship, and given that Renn was her very first follower, he wouldn’t turn her down.
She bounced up off the sofa and set out in her slippers.
But just as she was leaving her room to go find Takemikazuchi.
She ran straight into Hephaestus, who’d been looking for her.
Hephaestus might find Hestia exhausting, but she still came by in person at mealtimes to tell her.
“Dinner’s ready.”
“Ah…”
Hestia stopped.
Compared to dinner, finishing the daily quest was clearly more important.
“Just save me some.
I’ve got something to take care of.”
“Hm?”
“I’m going to see Takemikazuchi.
Renn just became an adventurer, and he doesn’t have any combat skills, so I want to find him a teacher for some special training.”
“That’s absolutely going to help him with exploring later!”
Recruiting a follower and giving what help you could.
As far as Hephaestus was concerned, that was already doing the job properly.
And here Hestia was, trying to find Renn a master to teach him martial arts.
Honestly.
Why did she get the feeling this girl was being a little too enthusiastic?
“Hestia, do you really need to go that far…?”
“Renn is the only one in the Familia.
If everything has to rest on him…
I’m sure it’ll be really hard on him.” She answered without hesitating.
And thinking about that game called the Hero Raising Plan, facing her friend’s deeply skeptical look, she lifted her head.
“Besides, I think…”
“Renn is different from other adventurers!!”
“…?”
Hearing that, Hephaestus had the odd feeling she’d heard this conversation before.
Back in Heaven, when a certain god was chasing after Freya.
He’d said something very similar.
Freya’s a good girl.
She’s different.
…
Living off a woman with a clear conscience?
Renn wasn’t quite that shameless.
After a simple dinner of jagamarukun, he washed up and lay down on the plank bed in the dormitory.
He thought back over the day.
Even now he hadn’t adjusted to going from office drone to adventurer.
Put simply, his head was still spinning.
If he had one real regret, it was that he’d never finished watching DanMachi before he transmigrated, which meant he had no clear idea of the key characters or the plot.
Otherwise, with an audience’s view of everything, he at least wouldn’t be stuck stumbling around like this.
“Damn it.”
“Being an adventurer apparently means fighting in the Dungeon.
One slip and my life probably ends in some monster’s jaws.”
Before transmigrating, the closest thing he’d had to a real battle was piling on some lunatic in an online flame war.
In real life, Renn had never touched anything like it.
The best he could claim was playing a few high-difficulty action games.
It gave him a headache.
He’d landed in another world full of supernatural power and become an adventurer, and plenty of practical problems hadn’t gotten solved at all.
If anything, he was now boxed in from both sides.
Quit?
That would be a poor way to repay all the help Hestia had given him, and more than that, Renn wanted to change how he lived in this new world.
So he’d keep being an adventurer.
Which meant gear, learning how to fight monsters, and learning how to explore the Dungeon were all problems he had to get past.
“Well, it’s come to this.”
“Might as well sleep first…
worst case, I find a rookie party that needs someone, get used to the place bit by bit.
I’ll get on track sooner or later.”
A full day of running around had worn him out.
Sleep kept rolling over him, and once he pushed the scattered thoughts aside, Renn drifted off quickly.
Then the door to his room opened again.
The air filled with the smell of jagamarukun.
Renn slowly opened his eyes.
Outside the window the sky was only just starting to lighten, but there were already footsteps and voices from adventurers in the hallway.
Thinking about his situation, it seemed like he had no reason to be lazy.
Just as he was about to get up, he noticed the young goddess standing in his room in a white dress, holding a bag of jagamarukun.
Hestia.
The smile on her face was as bright and energetic as ever, with none of the distance her status as a god should have brought.
Like a loli mom doing her best to act grown-up.
“Good morning!”
“Renn.”
“I figured you wouldn’t have any combat experience since you just got to Orario, so today I’m taking you to see Takemikazuchi, the god of war.
He’ll teach you how to fight.”
“…”
Honestly, Renn suddenly felt that calling Hestia “mom” yesterday was, in hindsight, a pretty accurate choice.
[Affection +2.]