DanMachi World, Hestia Familia.
As soon as his consciousness returned from the Mist Plaza, Cain felt a soft sensation wrapped around his left arm.
Turning his head to the left, he saw the still sleeping girl tightly hugging his arm.
Perhaps she was dreaming about something pleasant, because from time to time she would let out a silly little giggle.
"Lili, time to get up and work."
Pulling his arm free with practiced ease, Cain called out to the Pallum girl while putting on his clothes.
Ever since their first experience a few days ago, the fully recovered Lili had developed quite a taste for it. She would sneak into Cain's room every night and battle with him until the early hours of the morning.
Once or twice was fine, but if she skipped work every day because of this, Cain, who believed strongly in equality between men and women, would show absolutely no mercy.
Seeing Lili mumble something in a daze before sinking back into her dream, the already dressed Cain leaned closer.
"Hestia is back!"
"Goddess Hestia?!"
The originally sleeping Lili instantly snapped her eyes open. She jumped up and grabbed her clothes from the floor, hurriedly putting them on.
"Master Cain! Please help Lili stall for time. Lili will be ready in just a second!"
"I refuse."
"Eh?"
"Don't rush so much. Hestia is still at the Hephaestus Familia."
"...?"
A question mark slowly appeared above Lili's head.
Looking at the black haired youth in front of her who was grinning mischievously, she finally realized what had happened.
"Really, Master Cain. You shouldn't scare Lili like that."
"I'm just helping you prepare mentally."
"Hestia will return in a day or two anyway. You didn't really think we could keep our business a secret forever, did you?"
"This... let's keep it a secret for as long as possible."
Lili naturally knew that something like this could not stay hidden from Hestia forever, but she still was not mentally prepared to face her yet.
"Master Cain, if Goddess Hestia returns, please..."
"Cain! I'm back!"
Before Lili could finish her sentence, Hestia's voice came from downstairs, accompanied by the sound of the front door closing.
"Eek?!"
Clearly not expecting such a coincidence, Lili froze for a moment before immediately panicking.
Hurriedly putting on the rest of her clothes, she pushed open the door and ran out.
"Master Cain, I'll leave Goddess Hestia to you! Lili is going back to her room to hide!"
In truth, there was no need to hide at all.
Watching Lili disappear in the blink of an eye, Cain shook his head slightly and walked toward the nearby stairs.
Just as he arrived in the first floor hall, Cain saw Hestia carrying a large box on her back and several bags in her hands as she walked toward him.
"Cain, I missed you so much! Did you miss me during these past few days?"
"I did. Just not very much."
"Eh! How can you say that!"
Hestia puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"I've been very busy these past two days. I didn't have the spare energy to think about you."
Cain was telling the truth.
Working during the day, working again at night, and occasionally squeezing in time to attend meetings at the Mist Plaza.
With a schedule like that, he genuinely had little time to think about Hestia.
"Speaking of which, my weapon should be finished by now, right?"
"Mhm! It's finished!"
Hestia, who had originally intended to keep questioning him, immediately had her attention diverted by Cain's words.
After setting down the large box she had been carrying on her back, Hestia took out a sword (Tachi) from inside and handed it to Cain.
The sword rested within a pitch black scabbard, the surface engraved with a large number of Divine Script characters.
The moment Cain grasped the scabbard, the Divine Script faintly lit up and resonated with the divine blessing engraved on Cain's back.
Gripping the hilt and drawing the sword, he could see the same style of Divine Script engraved along the blade itself.
"Looks pretty good."
After examining it carefully for a moment, Cain returned the sword to its scabbard.
"What is this weapon called?"
"Raikiri. Hephaestus said this sword iscapable of cutting through anything."
"That's a good name."
Cain hung Raikiri at his waist.
With a brand new weapon in hand, it was only natural to head into the Dungeon and test how it felt.
However, before going to the Dungeon, there was one more thing he needed to do.
"Hestia, help me update my blessing."
"Sure."
Hestia nodded.
Following Cain back into the room, she took out a needle and pricked her finger.
As divine blood radiating faint fluctuations of divine power dripped down, the blessing engraved on Cain's back rippled slightly.
"Eh? This is... Cain, did you discover something new in your sleep again?"
"Huh? You can even tell that?"
"I think anyone who isn't blind could tell."
Looking at the exaggerated status panel in front of her, Hestia narrowed her eyes and complained.
"Forget it. I'm already used to this."
After copying down the updated ability values, Hestia handed the sheet to Cain.
"Take a look for yourself."
[Cain—LV.1]
[Strength: SS1036 → SSS1167]
[Endurance: SS1017 → SSS1196]
[Dexterity: SS1079 → SSS1131]
[Agility: SS1051 → SSS1143]
[Magic: G206 → SSS1106]
[Magic: Current Propulsion, State of Selflessness]
[Skills: Unity, Song of Courage, Mind's Eye]
[State of Selflessness: Enhancement Magic. After activation, it provides a correction bonus to all abilities.]
[Mind's Eye: Greatly enhances the sixth sense and provides early warnings when danger approaches.]
"Huh?"
Looking at the newly appeared Magic ability and the dramatically increased Magic stat, even Cain let out a surprised sound this time.
Because he had shared the memories of Prince of Tennis Cain, he had already expected his four basic attributes to increase and for Mind's Eye to appear among his skills.
But the State of Selflessness transforming into Magic and appearing in the Magic column was something he had not expected at all.
People joke about it all the time, but are you really playing tennis with superpowers?
"Oh, right, Cain."
Just as Cain was silently complaining about the absurdity of the Prince of Tennis world, Hestia spoke again.
"Your achievements are already sufficient. You're basically ready to level up."
"Then let's level up," Cain replied immediately.
After pushing all of his attributes to SSS rank, the rate of growth had already begun to slow down.
Rather than wasting time continuing to grind attribute values, it was better to break through the bottleneck and advance to LV.2.
As for the fact that he had accumulated enough achievements, Cain was not particularly surprised.
Leaving aside his feat of slaughtering large numbers of LV.2 monsters in the Dungeon after receiving his blessing.
Just the fact that Prince of Tennis Cain had trained his body to develop Mind's Eye as an ordinary human was already enough to fulfill the requirements needed to advance from LV.1 to LV.2.
"Hestia, what development abilities are available?"
"Swordsman, Hunter, Magic, Abnormal Status Resistance... Huh? There's also Tennis?"
Hestia, who was checking the blessing, rubbed her eyes in confusion.
What on earth is Tennis?
Among the development abilities available, she had at least heard of the other some.
But this Tennis ability was something Hestia had never heard of before despite living in Orario for so long.
"Let's choose Swordsman."
Cain's voice sounded decisively.
Although he had not expected such a ridiculous development ability like Tennis to appear, he already knew which one suited him best.
After thinking it over several times, Cain still chose Swordsman.
In terms of practical combat effects, these two tags would basically provide him with the same type of improvement.
However, considering that a future version of Cain might appear who lives a slice of life and cannot use Magic, choosing Swordsman was the more flexible option. He could always choose Magic during the next level up.
"All done!"
After Cain made his decision, Hestia immediately began the level up ritual.
Past achievements condensed into a hammer that shattered the bottleneck known as the limit.
With the assistance of the level up ritual, Cain's capacity expanded, allowing him to break through and reach LV.2.
"So it's finished just like that."
Receiving confirmation from Hestia, Cain stood up and clenched his fists a few times.
Perhaps because the essence of the blessing system is a leap in one's level of existence.
He did not experience any obvious sensation of power surging from within after leveling up.
However, the lack of an obvious sensation did not matter as long as it was certain that his level had risen from LV.1 to LV.2.
Next, after sharing this power with Demon Slayer Cain, he could simply wait for the other's good news.
...
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