The Hostess of Fertility was as bustling as Hachiman remembered, a whirlwind of laughter, loud conversations, and the clinking of mugs that violently contrasted with the somber silence of the alley he had been in just hours before. He entered, trying to blend into the crowd, seeking only a quick meal and perhaps a bit of forced normalcy to clear his head after the macabre events. He didn't recognize any particularly notable adventurers among the customers, just the usual ebb and flow of tired or lively faces.
As he looked for an empty table in a discreet corner, he felt the stares again. They were more persistent this time, less disguised than the previous morning. The whispers followed him like an annoying shadow.
"...it's really him..." "...the Black-Armored Novice..." "...Level 1 who killed a Level 2? Impossible..." "...must have had help from Hephaestus..." "...pure luck, I bet..." "...look at his face, looks like a dead fish, how could someone like that..." "...I just hope he doesn't bring bad luck..."
Admiration, astonishment, disbelief, jealousy, envy, and even poorly disguised contempt – Hachiman felt the full range of reactions directed at him. 'Wonderful. Now I'm a circus attraction.' He pressed his lips together, ignoring the comments, and finally found a free table in a relatively isolated corner. He sat down, wishing only to eat and get out of there.
Almost immediately, two waitresses approached. One was the green-haired elf, Ryuu Lion, whose expression remained cold and distant upon seeing him. The other was Syr Flover, with her sweet smile and deceptively ordinary appearance, almost plain compared to the tavern's other more exotic attendants.
"Welcome back!" Syr greeted with a bubbly enthusiasm that seemed a bit forced to Hachiman. "What will our dragon-slaying hero have today?"
Hachiman ignored the title. "Anything quick. Stew, bread, water," he requested casually, his stomach still too unsettled to think of anything elaborate. He just wanted to fill the void.
"Got it!" said Syr cheerfully. She turned to Ryuu, who was observing Hachiman with a distinctly judgmental look. "Lia, could you fetch our special customer's order?"
Ryuu merely nodded rigidly and walked away towards the kitchen, without addressing a word to Hachiman.
As soon as Ryuu was gone, Syr leaned over the table, her eyes shining with an intense curiosity that Hachiman immediately found suspicious. "So... Hachiman-san!" she began, acting like a fangirl. "What's it like? Being an adventurer? It must be so exciting! And you defeated an Infant Dragon! Alone! What was it like? Was it scary? Did you use some incredible magic?"
'Here we go,' thought Hachiman, wary. Was Syr genuinely curious, or was it Freya using the innocent facade to probe him? Impossible to tell. He decided to play it safe. "It was... complicated," he answered evasively. "Monsters are dangerous. I was lucky and had good equipment." He gave some basic, non-committal facts about the fight, completely omitting the power-up from his Skill and the projection of the bow.
Syr listened intently, asking more questions about the Dungeon, about monsters, about what it was like to be famous. Hachiman answered concisely, offering the minimum possible information, feeling increasingly uncomfortable under her seemingly innocent scrutiny.
It was then that Ryuu returned, placing the bowl of stew and bread in front of Hachiman with a restrained thud. She had clearly overheard part of Syr's small talk. "I still can't imagine," Ryuu said coldly, her gaze sweeping Hachiman from head to toe with ill-disguised disapproval. "Someone so... common... achieving such an incredible feat. It's truly surprising." The insult was implicit in the word "common."
Hachiman, who was already on edge after the day's events, felt the provocation. He looked at Ryuu, a humorless, sarcastic smile appearing on his lips. "Oh, I deeply apologize for exceeding the limited expectations of 'miss don't-touch-me'," he retorted, his voice low but sharp, directly referencing the previous incident. "I know you elves have your fussiness about physical contact, but maybe you should keep your judgments to yourself, especially when you don't know what you're talking about." He knew he was being an idiot, poking at the wound of her elven sensitivity, but the combination of post-killing stress and her veiled arrogance pushed him over the edge.
Ryuu's face flushed violently, not with shame, but pure anger. Her lips tightened, and she opened her mouth to respond, probably with something equally cutting, when Mama Mia's voice thundered from the counter.
"Syr! Ryuu! Stop dawdling and get back to work! We have customers waiting!" The tavern matron's gaze then landed on Hachiman for an instant. She showed no disapproval of the argument; instead, Hachiman saw something that looked like a brief, almost imperceptible nod of approval before she returned to supervising the hall. 'Does she approve of me talking back to the elf or for killing the dragon?' he pondered, confused.
Ryuu shot one last withering glare at Hachiman before walking away stiffly with Syr (who gave Hachiman an enigmatic smile before leaving). Hachiman sighed and turned his attention to the stew. He ate in silence, ignoring the surrounding whispers, just focusing on regaining some energy. When he finished, he called another waitress and ordered a generous, more expensive portion of roasted boar and some fine pastries. "To go," he specified. 'At least I can bring something nice for Aqua.'
Arriving home, he found Aqua likely bored after a whole day without him to bother. The sight of the expensive, fragrant food from the Hostess of Fertility, however, instantly improved her mood.
"Boar! And sweets!" she exclaimed happily as Hachiman placed the order on the table.
While they ate (or rather, while Aqua devoured most of it), they talked a little. Hachiman gave an extremely edited version of his day, mentioning only the Dungeon hunt and completely omitting the encounter with the followers and his subsequent actions. After they finished, curiosity about his progress that day consumed him.
"Aqua, can you update my status again, please?"
She readily agreed. The blue light shone, revealing the results of the intense day of hunting on floors 11 and 12, now with his Rank A/S stats.
Hikigaya Hachiman Level: 1 (Initial Status of the Day: Str:A-818, End:A-851, Dex:A-806, Agi:A-835, Mag:SS-1099)
Strength: S-973 (Gain of +155) Endurance: S-991 (Gain of +140) Dexterity: S-961 (Gain of +155) Agility: S-988 (Gain of +153) Magic: SSS-1100 (Gain of +1)
Magic: [Unlimited Blade Works] (Hidden) Skill: [A Loner's Protection] (Hidden) Development Ability: [Blacksmith: G]
'Rank S! Finally!' Hachiman exclaimed internally. All his basic stats had broken through Rank A and entered Rank S, landing in the high 950-990 range. He was at the absolute peak of what was considered possible for Level 1 in physical terms. Magic, on the other hand, had only risen a single point, from SS-1099 to SSS-1100. 'So 1099 wasn't the limit... but the gain has almost completely stopped. Looks like I've really hit the ceiling for Magic at Level 1.'
"S! S! S! S! And SSS!" Aqua cheered upon seeing the results. "Hachiman! You did it! You maxed out Level 1! Do you want to level up now? You can! I'm sure!"
Hachiman looked at his stats. Rank S in everything except Magic, which was SSS. The option to level up was there, pulsing in his Falna. It was tempting. Level 2 would mean a huge jump in base power. But... he had just reached Rank S in basics. His Magic had stagnated at SSS-1100.
He thought deeply. 'Is there still some minimal excelia to be extracted here? Some final point before 999 in basics? That 1 point in Magic... does it mean there's still something? Or was it just a system rounding?' Prudence, and perhaps a stubbornness to squeeze out every last drop of potential, won out.
"Not yet," he told Aqua. "I want to go to the Dungeon just one more day. Tomorrow. I want to see if there's any difference now that I've hit Rank S, if I can still feel any minimal gain before leveling up."
Aqua pouted, impatient to see her follower get even stronger, but nodded. "Alright. But just one more day!"
Scene cut
On the highest floor of Babel, in the opulence of her private chambers, Freya watched the city of Orario glittering below. Ottar and Allen stood silently in the shadows, awaiting her orders. A faint blush adorned the Goddess of Beauty's cheeks as she thought of one particular soul.
'Bell Cranel...' she sighed internally, a dreamy smile on her lips. 'Ah, my Odr. So transparent, so bright. That pure soul... so perfect to be my fated companion. Watching him grow, overcome challenges... it's the most exquisite entertainment.'
Her divine gaze, however, was not limited to a single point of interest. There was another soul that had captured her attention recently, in a very different way. She concentrated, seeking it in the vastness of the city below.
'And then... there's him.' Her vision found Hikigaya Hachiman's soul. 'So... peculiar.' It wasn't Bell's blinding whiteness. It was a soul that seemed, at first glance, surprisingly common, almost gray, opaque. But then, it flickered, changed. Freya watched fascinated as different aspects emerged and receded. Sometimes, it shone with a protective, stubborn blue, an unexpected resilience. At other times, it flashed with an intense red, not of passion, but like a cold flame of determination and perhaps contained anger. And, most intriguingly, there were moments when it took on a metallic aspect, like steel being forged, shaped under pressure, gaining strength through adversity and from a nature that seemed intrinsically linked to creation and copying.
'A common soul, yet even so common, so special in its complexity and mutability,' Freya pondered, chin resting on her hand. 'Can such a soul truly defy expectations, become something more than it appears? Or is it just a flickering candle, burning brightly for a brief period before extinguishing, emitting only a false, temporary splendor?' His unpredictability was... irritating. And intriguing.
She smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes. Bell's soul was her ultimate goal, her Odr. But Hachiman's soul... it was an interesting experiment, an unexpected variable in the grand game. Either way, events needed to follow their course.
"Ottar. Allen," Freya said, her voice soft but laden with command. "Follow the plan."
The two executives nodded silently and moved to carry out their goddess's orders. Orario was about to get stirred up again.