Sup, author here.
Sorry for the long silence, I've been busy writing the ending. Yes lol, you heard it right. In fact, I already finished drafting the ending as well as the side story, after story, and alternate universe.
For those who are curious, the last two remaining major arcs of my work that I finished writing will begin after Bell and the others rescued Haruhime.
Oh and btw just in case you guys missed it, this is a non harem. I'll keep my word that it won't be a harem ending, at least for the canon timeline; including the after story.
For the side story and alternate universe however, it will be a harem. But still, Yuuya will only have a maximum of two partners in either of those.
As for the last update, I've decided to change Yuuya's appearance. Here's his new face, nothing changed besides that:
_here is the image_
As for the reason why I changed it, I found myself struggling a bit when imagining the scenarios using the old picture as the reference. Additionally, I feel like the old one doesn't fit the way I imagine Yuuya to be unlike this new one.
But I'll leave it up to you guys whether you bunch prefer the old one or this new look.
That's all.
∆∆∆∆
[You have two options, Yuuya. First is that you continue in your life as if nothing happened. Your motivation remains the same and you move on.
Second, is that we go and get her back.]
A moment of silence passed.
Then finally, Yuuya answered. "I'll choose the second option." His voice full with conviction.
[Are you sure? This action will have consequences.]
"I could care less. System, she's been waiting for me for # #####. I've promised her I will come back."
The system scoffed amusingly to his response.
[Spoken just like the Yuuya I know. Alright, let's go get her back. Our destination, the #### #####.]
Then suddenly, reality shattered.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Ugh" Back in the real world, Yuuya stirred awake.
"God damn my head," Yuuya complained as he sits up while clutching his face. "Is that another dream? I didn't know dreams are supposed to make you feel like your head is used as a punching bag by a goliath."
While Yuuya is currently contemplating whether to blast his own head with a quick gospel, the sound of his awakening didn't go unnoticed to a certain goddess of his.
"Oh Yuuya! You're finally awake!" Said Hestia.
"Hello goddess, when did you arrive and what time is it?" Replied Yuuya as he rubs his temples.
"I arrived half an hour ago and you're just right in time for dinner!" Said Hestia while she walked closer to Yuuya's side. "You alright?"
"Yeah, had a dream and gave me a headache." Replied Yuuya, already trying to forget the dream even though he can't. Annoyed that it gave him a headache.
"Oof, must be rough." Said Hestia while patting Yuuya's head.
"Tell me about it."
"Well let's not dwell in that unpleasant dream of yours. How's your day?"
Yuuya chuckled. "You might want to sit first."
The evening at the abandoned church was quieter than usual, save for the crackle of a small fire and the sound of Hestia practically vibrating with excitement after Yuuya finished telling his day to her.
"Two hundred and sixty-five thousand Valis?!" Hestia shrieked, her pigtails bouncing as she stared at the mountain of coins on the small wooden table. "Yuuya! This is almost triple of what you made yesterday!Did you rob a Ganesha Familia caravan? Or did you find a hidden floor made of gold?!"
Yuuya, who is inspecting his armor, didn't even look up. "Neither, Goddess. Just a lot of monsters who didn't want to stay quiet."
Hestia lunged forward, hugging the pouch of Valis to her chest like a prized stuffed animal.
"This is... this is more than I make in three months at the Jagamarukun stand! Yuuya, we can actually afford a new stove! And maybe some real pillows!"
"Buy whatever you need for the house, Goddess," Yuuya said, his voice softening slightly. "I already bought dinner. It's on the table."
Hestia looked at the spread—roasted meats, fresh bread, and even some expensive fruits. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at her first child. "You're going to make me the most spoiled Goddess in Orario, aren't you?"
"Consider it payment for accepting a guy who waited for you the entire day in front of the church." Yuuya joked, earning a playful swat from Hestia.
∆∆∆∆
The next morning, Yuuya didn't head straight for the Dungeon. Instead, he made a stop at a small, cluttered apothecary near the West Main Street.
"I need your entire stock of Mind Potions. Low-tier is fine," Yuuya said to the startled shopkeeper.
"The entire stock? Son, those are five hundred Valis a bottle. And drinking more than two a day can give you a migraine that'll make you wish a Minotaur would just step on your head."
"I'll take twenty," Yuuya replied, dropping ten thousand Valis on the counter without blinking.
"Alright but don't blame me for the headache afterwards." Said the shopkeeper as he took the valis and counts it.
"I'll be fine."
A few moments later, the potions he ordered finally arrived. He took it, thanked the shopkeeper, and went to an alley where no one could see him.
[Look at you, a big spender.] the System chimed as Yuuya as he stored the potions in his pocket dimension.
'It's an investment, System. If one potion costs 500 Valis but lets me stay down long enough to harvest another 20,000 in stones, it's a net gain. I don't have time for natural recovery anymore. Though I am curious.'
[Speak up.]
'I don't remember any mention of side effects from drinking too much of this stuff in my world.'
[Well normally it doesn't have one. But considering it's a low-tier potion, literally the bottom, it's a small price to pay.]
'Huh, figures.' Said Yuuya as he walks towards Babel.
∆∆∆∆
The week that follows after that is a brutal repeat of actions. Yuuya became a ghost that haunted the middle floors.
His routine was mechanical. Brutal. Efficient.
He would descend to the 16th or 17th floor, use Satanas Verion to clear entire rooms, and when his vision started to blur from mana depletion, he would down a Mind Potion.
This would go on for the remaining days. Once he ran out of mind potions, he calls it a day. The next morning, he'll buy mind potions again and head to the dungeon.
Rinse and repeat.
The taste was like bitter copper and ozone, and the potion headaches were exactly as bad as the shopkeeper promised, but the results were undeniable.
This continues on until the final day where Bell finally joins the Hestia familia. Thus finally starting the story.
But before that, he has one more status update before the events for tomorrow.
"You know Yuuya, you never fail to surprise me." Said Hestia as she moves the hieroglyphs in Yuuya's falna.
As luck would have it, in the last few weeks, he also managed to gain the skill 'concurrent chanting' because of his frequent use of Satanas Verion and his mana blade.
"All of your stats have hit their limit. I don't think it can go higher than this Yuuya," Said Hestia as she looks at Yuuya's status. "And one last thing. At first I thought you were just unlucky because you don't have one despite being a level 2. But it looks like it's just running late."
"What is it goddess?"
"Congratulations Yuuya. As if not gaining another skill and maxing out your stats is enough, you now have a development ability. You have two options, one is 'Hunter' and the other is 'Mage'."
[Damn. Even I was surprised. It looks like your growth skill isn't for show after all.] The system chimed in.
'It's honestly quite scaring me too. But hey, who I am to reject it.' Thought Yuuya.
[Show off. Anyways, I recommend you picking the Mage one instead. It'll reduce your mana consumption for the mana blade as well as for your other magics. The cherry on top is that it'll make Satanas Verion even more powerful.]
'Yeah I know. It's my first pick anyways.' Replied Yuuya. "Goddess, I'll pick the mage one."
"Alright."
After that, Hestia once again moved the hieroglyphs before finally finishing. She took a paper and copied Yuuya's status to show it to him.
~~~~
Yuuya Mitsukuji
Level 2
Race: Human
Strength: 1500
Vitality: 1500
Defense: 1500
Agility: 1500
Dexterity: 1500
Magic: 1500
Development abilities:
Mage (Rank I)
Skills:
Monstrous Talent & Potential
Concurrent Chanting
Magic:
AEEOC
Skill/Magic Creation
Satanas Verion
Mana: 3000/3000
Excelia: 1,056,983/2,000,000
~~~~
To say his stats were ballooning are an understatement. With his hidden Level 1 base of 1500, his effective stats are now sitting at 3000—well into the territory of a maxed out Level 3. He was moving faster than the monsters could track and hitting with the force of a falling building.
"No matter how many times I see it, this is just crazy Yuuya," Said Hestia as she looks at his status while sitting beside him. "Just a few weeks ago, you're just a fresh level 2. Now? I can't even. All you need now is a great achievement to push you into level 3."
"The growth skill I have seems to be better than we expected goddess." Yuuya tries to play it cool even though he himself is shaken a bit.
"It's still unnatural Yuuya. Recently, I started studying a bit about this kind of stuff and by all means, your stats are outright abnormal."
"What did you found?"
"It's something like this. Stats depends from person to person." Hestia said as she started explaining. "For example, the race dwarf. If you look at their status, you'll notice that their strength, vitality, and defense grows faster than the rest of their stats. While for elves, their magic stats are superior and grows faster than any of their stats by a lot."
"But you?" Hestia stopped for a second while looking at Yuuya directly in his eyes. Her face a mix of awe and concern. "You're the whole complete package Yuuya. Not only did you now have the magic to be a mage, you also have physical strength needed to put any dwarfs at your level to shame."
"This is... abnormal. It feels illegal even. As if this kind of, whatever this is, doesn't belong here."
Yuuya's eyes widened and his breath hitched for a moment.
'Doesn't belong here.'
The mention of that particular word seemingly affected him.
Tell me Yuuya, just what are you really?" Said Hestia, looking directly at Yuuya's eyes, pleading for an answer.
Yuuya stared at Hestia's eyes for a second longer before avoiding her gaze and directing it somewhere else. "I... I don't know. I don't know either, goddess." His voice low, his expression uncomfortable.
'Here too? Do I... Do I not belong here either after all...?' Thought Yuuya.
Hestia sensing Yuuya's sour mood and realizing she just stepped into a sensitive topic for Yuuya—one that he is clearly isn't ready and doesn't want to talk about—quickly tries to change the topic.
"A-anyways! Do you know Yuuya!?" Hestia started blabbering, desperately trying to change the mood. "Today while selling jagamarukun, this kid tried the extra spicy variant! I tried warning him that he can't take it but he doesn't listen! When he took a bite, it was so spicy that he face dives towards the fountain!" Said Hestia while gesturing wildly. While Yuuya stares at her with wide eyes, surprised at the goddess's sudden action.
"And...! And..." Hestia's hand stopped gesturing and rested at her lap, her gaze following it. "I-i'm sorry Yuuya... Did I do something to upset you?" She looked at Yuuya's eye, waiting silently for answer.
Yuuya, seeing his goddess genuinely trying to change the mood for his sake, can't help but appreciate Hestia's action.
His gaze softened, a soft smile appearing on his lips—one that made Hestia's heart skip a beat—and his hand moved towards the goddess head before finally stopping at the top of it. Giving a Hestia a gentle head pat.
"You didn't do anything wrong goddess." His voice low and gentle. "It's a me problem. When the time is right, I promise I'll tell you about it."
"P-promise? You aren't upset?" Said Hestia.
"Yes. Now let's go have our dinner before it goes cold."
With that, the mood finally returned to normal.
But more importantly, Yuuya's bank account was growing. By the end of the week, after expenses and buying Hestia a few "Godly comforts," Yuuya was sitting on nearly 1,500,000 Valis.
He was still a far cry from a 200-million-valis knife, but he was no longer a beggar.
'Tomorrow is the day.' Thought Yuuya while brushing his teeth.
[Yup. The day the protagonist of this world arrives.] Chimed in the system while Yuuya gargles a cup of water.
'By the way system, I'm quite curious. Why haven't you warned me about Freya so far? Is my soul that remarkable?' Asked Yuuya before turning off the lights and laying on the bed. 'Not that I don't mind and if anything, I'm actually fine that she isn't interested in me. But I just cannot help but be curious.'
[Quite the opposite in fact. Your soul is so unique due to your massive potential and talent, that it's almost comparable to Bell's soul. But thanks to me, I managed to hide almost all of it.]
'Almost all? Meaning there is some left over?'
[Yup. Your vessel contains so much talent and potential, that even I cannot hide all of it.]
'Well, how much did it leak out?'
[Not much. In Freya's perspective, you appear brighter than most. Enough to catch her attention, but not enough to pique her interest. For her, you just looked like a a very enthusiastic individual full of dreams and stuff.]
'ah. Well that solves it.'
[Yes. Oh and by the way, this is quite the surprise for me too. I don't how and why, but something changed about Freya in this world.]
'What is it?'
[Wellllll, Freya is a virgin goddess.]
'...'
[...]
'...'
[...]
'Can you repeat that again? I guess downed too much mind potion today.' Asked Yuuya, his voice full of concern and disbelief.
[You heard that right. For some reason I can't explain either or perhaps the universe's own joke, the Goddess of Fertility, Sex, and among other stuff, is a pathetic virgin.]
'THAT GOD FORSAKEN GODDESS IS A VIRGIN!?' screamed Yuuya in his mind while his physical body back in reality is just staring at the ceiling, wide eyed.
[Yup. The same goddess that takes anyone—man or female—to the bed just because she finds them interesting, is actually inexperienced, even blushing at the mention of such things that includes the bed. Even acting like a teenage girl in love with her crush when she's around her 'Odr' or in this case, Bell. We will be able to see this front row seat once Bell arrives. At first, I thought this would affect the story by a lot but again, somehow and someway that it almost suspiciously look like an ass pull type of change, it didn't change anything—Yuuya? Are you there? Yuuyaaa? Yuuya to Gekai?] The system's yapping fell into deaf ears.
The revelation that Freya is one of the virgin goddess shocks Yuuya so much, his brain simply short circuited.
'nah fuck this, I'm going to sleep.' Thought Yuuya as he closed his eyes.
Later that night, Yuuya will have dreams about a certain virgin goddess. A fact that he cannot quite accept just yet.
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