Troublesome Friend

After lunch, Haru wasted no time and immediately began training. As he would have lessons again the next day, he wanted to avoid going to sleep late, so he decided to hurry, and noticed something different from before. His muscles, although unchanged, had slightly greater strength. But that was not all, in fact his resistance and speed, were slightly increased as well.

Realizing this was to be the effect of the falna, Haru decided to change his approach to training, introducing something a little more stressful on his body, and he had decided to increase in the same way the speed with which he ran to remain the time needed stable for training and at the same time improve his weaker sides.

---

The next day, Haru had to say goodbye to Ryn, and as a first step he chose to inform her in what familia he had been taken into. Although they didn't even know each other that well, in these few days Ryn had always had an eye for him, so he felt obliged to inform her, and after going into the kitchen for breakfast, Haru thanked the staff for their work since he had always enjoyed their meals, but for Haru it was time to move on, leaving behind what will be one of the many memories that he will form in this world...

Before leaving the day before, Haru had been informed by Hephaestus that he should go to her after his lessons at the Guild so that she could explain in detail all the processes that followed the creation of equipment, so, after attending the Guild's Dungeoneering class, Haru went to Hephaestus' private chambers in Babel. The adventurers guarding the area had been informed by their Goddess to let him pass earlier, so he encountered no difficulty in proceeding further and in no time at all, he was already in the same room where they had previously discussed.

After a quick conversation about how the lessons had gone, Hephaestus took him with her to another room in that house, and in no time at all there was everything needed to forge in front of him. Apparently, Hephaestus had a room entirely dedicated to forging, which had been created specifically to withstand high temperatures.

Having everything he needed, Hephaestus first showed him how the process was to be done, and once he had understood how it worked, she was curious to have him try using the hammer a second time.

At his request, Haru nodded and took the hammer. Following his instinct, he raised the hammer, and finding the point that seemed more to be beaten, Haru directed his hammer at that point, only that the results were completely different from before. Hephaestus could see that the trail she imagined seeing from his hammer was always present, yet it wasn't acting to change its trajectory, making her understand that to activate, his ability had special conditions to be met.

"Why don't you try to remember the feeling you felt when you gave that hammer to the material yesterday?"

It was the advice Hephaestus had given him, but this wasn't as simple as it seemed. Haru hadn't felt but an instinctive change of trajectory, aiming at a point he didn't think was needed the adjustment at all as he was focused on another point, for this reason it would have been very difficult for him to reproduce the feelings that preceded that hammer, and even after continuing to beat and beat, this hadn't led his mysterious skill to activate.

But still, even though that ability wasn't acting, Hephaestus could see how compared to the previous day, the hammering seemed imperceptibly more precise, and normally she wouldn't have noticed, but thanks to her eyes no detail could escape from her sight.

Haru wasn't ready to make his own equipment yet. That much was evident for Hephaestus, but it didn't mean he wasn't already showing a certain margin of improvement over the previous day, and Hephaestus was actually relieved that she was able to track him down and be the one to teach him how to do this job from scratch.

After about a few hours, however, Haru had to say goodbye to Hephaestus for the day because if he stayed with her for another time, he would have had to skip training. Of course, she was aware of what he should do, and wondered who taught him how to train on his own since from the results of the parameters, whatever training he was doing seemed very efficient...

But when asked, Haru wore a smile that barely lifted the sides of his lips.

"There was someone in the past who taught me to take care of my body."

He didn't mention the person he was referring to, but having answered her question anyway, Haru excused himself as he had more to do for the day.

At the vision of Haru leaving the room, Hephaestus sighed. The truth was that she also not only had work to do, but after that she also had to have a conversation with the Captain of her familia regarding him, so she chose to devote herself to her duties and let Haru devote himself to his own in the same way.

---

From that day on, about a week passed quickly. During this period of time, Haru had time to get used to what was Orario, but this was only the least of what had happened. Having subsequently moved into the house that Hephaestus had granted him, Haru found himself with some extra comforts, the first the one he most wanted, although instead of the shower, what a Japanese-style bathroom, only a little smaller than the public ones, and obviously couldn't complain about that.

From his routine's point of view, Haru had today the last lesson related to Dungeon, and after completing that Misha had also confirmed he would allow him to enter the Dungeon up to the 4th floor. Of course, he'll have to judge whether he should go all the way to the 4th floor or not, since Misha had a lot of faith in his own judgment.

Besides that, there was more to say. Although very slowly, his parameters were increasing as he trained, and even though three days of running had only increased his agility by 3, it didn't mean it wasn't that good, since Haru did not expect any increase from training in the first place, so that was just a little extra and If he was given it, he wouldn't have rejected it.

Related to forging instead, he had finally moved on to trying to model objects more specifically to create blades, and although the process was still rather inaccurate, from the day after Hephaestus could notice improvements in small details rather than in the evident ones he had to correct, which was even better as this would make it significantly easier for Hephaestus to explain to Haru what he had to improve.

Now waking up, Haru looked at the ceiling, significantly different from those he had seen until recently, but now with already a week passed, he was getting used to what was his new house. It was of a much higher quality than the one in which he lived in the village and even the Inn in which he had resided. It consisted of a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and another room that was very similar to the one Hephaestus owned, just to forge and last there was a rather spacious room where Haru could train quietly, even using magic in that room would have been possible, but since he didn't yet have any, he couldn't fully use the room's features.

After passing his last class in the guild, Haru was officially granted permission to enter the dungeon as Misha had promised, and seeing him with a smile on his face, Misha also felt pleased for him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't warn him again to be careful in the dungeon about any danger, even though exhaustive explanations of how dangerous the dungeon might be had been the norm in her friend's lectures.

Misha wanted Haru to keep coming back, as talking to him made her lose a bit of all the stress that accumulated in the day talking to adventurers. Although she was his advisor, Misha and Haru had a somewhat more informal relationship than that. In fact, Misha didn't hesitate to mock Haru in a restrained manner, and Haru didn't restrain himself to throw the ball back to tease her in the process, and the thing had gone on all the week, yet neither Misha nor Haru were tired of their respective behaviours, one might say that there was the right chemistry between them.

Having finished with the guild, Haru again departed from it as Misha silently prayed that he should return to her, so that they might have other minor discussions, but that were enough to make her appreciate the time spent in guild much more.

---

That day, however, when Haru went to Hephaestus as usual, he noticed that she hadn't even noticed him, being that she was strangely lost in her world.

"Hephaestus-sama.. What happened to you? You seem rather puzzled today..."

Deciding to point it out, Haru coughed before saying these words to attract her attention, and finally realizing there was someone else in the room, Hephaestus flinched before recognizing the person who had arrived.

"Ah..Haru. I'm sorry if I'm a little distracted. It's that these days a friend of mine has finally decided to descend into the Lower world, but instead of looking for members for her familia, all she does is sit around, and I don't think I'm doing well to keep her here with me."

Hephaestus was very puzzled. She was happy to finally be able to embrace her friend after so long, but she didn't think that the latter always had to sit around instead of getting busy. Of course, she knew what she was also called in heaven, but that didn't mean she would accept this behaviour, she would want her friend to show other gods that they were wrong about her, instead of accepting their teasing without even considering that their words were founded.

To her words, Haru could only realize which goddess Hephaestus was referring to. If there was one person Haru would have defined as matching all the information in his possession, then that was certainly...

"Hephaestus..!"

The voice of the goddess could be heard from behind the door interrupting Haru's thoughts, and seeing the owner of the voice open the door, Haru confirmed his speculation with a simple glance. The Goddess had blue eyes and mid-thigh length black hair tied into two twin tails which reach down to her mid-thighs. Her hair was tied with hair accessories that feature blue and white petals along with bell-shaped ornaments. She had a small frame, which further emphasized her breasts, But if that wasn't enough to deduce who she was, Haru also noticed that the goddess in question was wearing the same iconic dress she had seen her wear, a white mini dress with a blue ribbon around her neck and one tied under her breasts around her arms, and a pair of white gloves.

Hearing her friend call, Hephaestus sighed asking what she wanted, and the latter's answer soon arrived.

"I'm hungry.. Can you show me where the food is...?"

Asking this question, however, she realized that there was someone else in the room, but Hestia chose to ignore him for the time being, knowing where the food was located was more important.

'Is this really the Goddess who will soon be with an adventurer of the rank of Bell Cranel? I wonder if this world didn't follow a script already written how much would be the chances of such an event happening.'

His thoughts were wandering for a moment. He knew that Hestia would do a lot for Bell, even though the fact she tried everything in her power to obstruct his feelings for the adventurer Ais Wallenstein wasn't a good thing at all. The Hestia that stood before him was simply abusing of Hephaestus' kindness, and he would normally get in her way, but he chose not to do so and to observe the situation for the time being.

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(Next chapter is finally about the Dungeon!)