Chapter 5: The Bond of Fate

The leaf that had already emitted a brilliant light was a fully completed skill while the dull leaves were still manifesting.

He stared in surprise at the skill section, astonished to find that there were four skills. 

Even though the last one was blurry and hard to see, it seemed unlikely to be mistaken.

'Could it be that this is a skill I naturally possess?'

The skill tree only shows skills that are newly manifested and won't show the ones were born with.

'What kind of skill is being hidden by the Goddess? Could it be one of those powerful skills even she doesn't want me to know about?'

"Goddess, it seems there is still one more skill here..."

Hestia was happily shaking her head, her twin ponytails swaying as she hugged her arms and crossed her legs. 

She was so excited that she couldn't contain herself, and Kiyo pointed at the blurred area in the skill.

"Oh, I accidentally slipped my hand earlier. You'll get three skills and one magic when you first activate a blessing. There are no more than five in all of Orario, so I've never heard of four skills before."

Hestia immediately shrugged it off, crossing her arms and looking away with her cheeks puffed slightly as she lowered her head, idly playing with her fingers.

"You're right." 

He chuckled awkwardly. 

'What kind of skill could it be? A skill I was born with... I really want to know. Why hide that skill? Is it to stop me from standing out too much and being taken by another Familia? But having three skills right from the start is already pretty flashy.'

Moreover, no one would be foolish enough to reveal their own abilities because that would only cause trouble for themselves.

"Are you going to register as an adventurer, Kiyo-kun? You'll definitely rise to fame quickly with such amazing stats." 

Hestia changed the subject. 

In her mind, Hestia had already imagined the scene of that jealous friend stomping his feet in frustration, and she couldn't help but smile smugly.

"Good luck~" 

Afterward, Hestia sweetly winked one eye and cutely gave a thumbs-up.

Then, she suddenly remembered something, blinking and looking a little worried. She hugged her head with both hands and shook her twin ponytails while wailing.

"Ahh, I think I just lost the fried potato ball stand!"

"Huh? But didn't you say it was fine, Goddess?"

He looked at her with confusion as she held her head and swung her ponytails. 

"I never said that! You must have heard it wrong, even though I really want to spend more time with you, Kiyo-kun."

"We need to hurry back, though. The owner is the kind of terrifying person who won't hesitate to scold even gods." 

Hestia reluctantly jumped off the small wooden bed.

"Make sure to do your best, Kiyo-kun. If anything happens, make sure to find me."

Hestia turned back and gave him an encouraging thumbs-up before hopping and skipping her way out of the basement.

Even though her movements seemed a bit hurried, her face was full of a happy smile from the heart. However, when she thought of the blurred skill, her lips puffed out in a little pout.

[Bond of Fate: When forming a bond with the opposite sex, both parties receive a boost in growth speed. It also gives the possibility to break through the potential limit. The effect gets stronger as the number of bonds and the depth of the relationship increase.]

'Even though Kiyo-kun already has so many rare skills, why did I end up with this skill?'

Hestia felt jealous as if something precious she had worked so hard to obtain was being stolen.

'If Kiyo-kun ever learned about this skill, he'd become a player and might even run away with another girl from a different Familia. I can't let him find out about this skill, or else one day, Kiyo-kun might get his heart stolen by some other familia's girl.'

...

"Ugh~ A god who can't use their divine power is no different from an ordinary person in this world."

Kiyo quietly said with a slight chuckle, watching Hestia's back shining with her blue ribbon as she disappeared around the corner. 

"She's so cute~."

"Next, it's time to go on an adventure into the dungeon. My first day in Orario has been unusually smooth..."

Except for the fact that he found out he had been scammed into paying 1 million valis on all those decorations.

"But now I only have this little bit of valis left. I can't even afford a good-quality iron sword."

He patted his empty pants pocket. 

The 990,000 valis had been taken by the dwarf. He also spent 7,000 valis to ride a merchant caravan from the east of the continent to Orario, and now he only had 3,000 Valis left.

He would need at least 100 Valis a day, and that's just for eating fried potato balls.

"Maybe selling this to the Witch's Shop would get me a good amount of money."

He muttered to himself, looking at the mechanical watch on his wrist.

When he sold his phone to that merchant, they were so amazed that they called it "a creation of the gods."

The watch wasn't as amazing, but he didn't think anyone would be uninterested in it with such a precise design. 

He should be able to sell it for a few hundred thousand valis without a problem.

The only issue was that this watch, along with his casual clothes, was the only thing from his original world, and it held special significance.

"Forget about selling things for now. Luckily, I had the memory to summon the Unlimited Blade Work first. Otherwise, I'd be in big trouble now."

He picked up the magnificent longsword that had been left in the corner.

"Synchronization, start."

He gripped the sword's hilt and activated the magic "Reality Marble: Unlimited Blade Works." 

A blue light of magical energy appeared in his palm, slowly wrapping around the longsword.

"It's completely different now."

Even though he had already materialized Unlimited Sword Works, Kiyo couldn't channel mana or activate it back then.

After all, he was just an ordinary person at the time and now his body's potential had been fully unlocked with the blessing of a god.

Moreover, the abilities manifested by the skill tree were only seeds, and if he didn't develop them, they wouldn't grow stronger on their own.

"The basic framework is complete."

A blue line, like computer circuits, slowly spread across the entire longsword.

"The material composition is complete."

The sword's framework and material were slowly being analyzed. As expected, it was just an ordinary iron sword with only a slightly more beautiful appearance. 

Kiyo's mouth twitched slightly. He really didn't know much about the logic behind this stuff.

"The basic framework is changing."

The internal structure of the sword was slowly modified, making it much stronger.

"The material composition is changing."

The material making up the sword gradually changed to tungsten steel, the hardest alloy known to modern humanity, capable of cutting through other metals.

The blue magical light slowly dissipated, revealing a brand-new sword.