Chapter 17

I made my way up to the 21st floor slowly. It was slightly uncanny to see all the busy floors of Babel devoid of life, but everything was still as brightly lit as noon, thanks to Magic Sense. I walked along the empty shops and considered today's events. I didn't like how much I was forced to show today, but I wasn't sure exactly what the others saw. So basically, everything could be exposed or nothing. Today was good for me getting a judge of my strength, though.

"Great Sage, do you have any idea what the stats of those level twos I fought were?" I asked mentally as I ascended another flight of stairs.

[They most likely were on the lower end of level two, with stats between H and E]

That took the wind out of my sails slightly, but I still defeated two level twos. Given that one basically finished off the other with their magic, then I killed the second while they were tired and enraged, but a win is still a win. I was also sure that I would have done better by using more of my abilities, but that wasn't a good option at the time. The most valuable thing I gained from this mission was my undoubtedly large leap in stats after the battle. I was sure that I had defiantly rocketed up, hopefully to the S, A, or B ranks, but I wouldn't know until I got Fortuna to update my status.

I arrived at the 21st floor just in time to look out the large windows at the glittering sunrise. I watched as the entire city and surrounding plains and mountains were covered in a warm golden glow. I stood there for a few seconds just to take it all in before heading inside. Inside I found Fortuna yawning and doing some stretches in front of the large living room windows. I found the sight to be slightly comical, 'A goddess doing stretches,' the thought nearly made me laugh.

Fortuna caught sight of me in the reflection on the glass, "Did everything go alright?" she asked, still doing some light stretches.

"Check for yourself," I said, collapsing on a couch and pulling my shirt off,

I heard the goddess sigh as she approached, "I'm not gonna have to update it every day, am I?" she said in slight annoyance.

"Just trust me," I said as she pulled out a sheet of paper and put it to my back, all the while, I was chanting, 'Please S rank,' over and over in my head.

I heard her start with a gasp and mutter, "At this rate, I might need to do it every day," as she handed me the paper, and I looked at it in shock.

-

[Galahad

Lv. 1

STR: H-155 >>> C-641

END: H-134 >>> C-603

DEX: H-117 >>> D-534

AGI: I-99 >>> D-564

MAG: H-188 >>> C-652

- Magic -

Magicule Manipulation

- Skills -

Tensura]

-

"Not even a single B rank," I nearly shouted at the paper, "I'm getting scammed, those were level twos,"

"WHAT," Fortuna cried, catching the end of my sentence clearly, "What happened down there?"

"Didn't you just see it through the Falna?" I asked, confused.

"I was too caught off guard by the massive leap in stats," She said, sitting down beside me and looking at me in concern.

"The general idea is that we got ambushed on our way back up. We all ended up surviving, but one of the Hephaestus familia members we were escorting got injured. We're meeting back up for the rewards today at noon," I said simply, giving her the condensed version.

"Did you find out who was attacking you?" Fortuna asked, enraged on our behalf.

"We were focused on getting the injured member out, I don't think any of us actually got to know the identities of our attackers," I said with a small yawn as the day started to catch up to me.

"Well, you should go to bed, I'll wake you up an hour before noon," Fortuna said firmly, reminding me a great deal of a mother ordering her sick child to bed.

"Okay," I said, making my way to bed after stripping off my clothes.

I quickly fell asleep, waking up only after Fortuna took a running leap onto my bed, crashing into me like the meteor that killed all the dinosaurs. I groaned as I was awoken violently by the trauma. I looked over to the goddess with an offended and pitiable look on my face as we made eye contact.

Fortuna gave an indifferent shrug, "I tried to wake you the normal way, but you weren't budging. Your meeting is soon, so desperate times call for desperate measures,"

I sighed as I got up and got dressed quickly. I removed some dried meat from my storage as I placed my spear on my back and headed down the floors of Babel to our meeting location. Once I arrived in the shop, I saw that I had been the last to arrive, but since I was still on time, I merely gave everyone a nod before taking a seat on one of the chairs in the room. Now that I was here, a large dwarf began to hand out our rewards for the mission. I couldn't help but notice that neither Hoghath nor Logan was present.

"Each of you will receive 50k Valis as a reward for this mission due to the unforeseen events that took place during its execution. Plus, here is a voucher that can be used at any Hephaestus familia shop for a free weapon repair service from one of our blacksmiths." The dwarf said, handing out bags full of coins and a slip of paper to each of us.

With our rewards collected, each of us stood, ready to take our leave, however, the dwarf called me back, "Actually, there is one last quick thing regarding you, Mr. Galahad."

"Just Galahad is fine," I said as I walked back toward the dwarf, getting odd looks from both Emma and Acreon.

The dwarf ushered me back into the shop before closing the door behind me, "The goddess would like to meet you," he said, saying it as if there was no way I would ever refuse, which, to be fair, I wouldn't refuse.

We then walked back out of the shop and up a few flights of stairs to the main shop of the Hephaestus familia. It was an elegant shop with only the most expensive and highest-grade of weapons and armor. Only the highest-ranked adventurers could afford anything from this store. I didn't have too much time to take everything in since I was guided into a large backroom. The room turned out to be a meeting room of some sort since it was filled with a large table and quite a few chairs. That wasn't what caught my attention first, my eyes locked onto the crimson-haired goddess as soon as I walked inside.

If it wasn't clear from her hair color, the eyepatch certainly gave away her identity, I gave a quick bow and spoke, "It's an honor to meet you, Goddess,"

It was then that I noticed Hoghath off to the side of the room and couldn't resist some friendly banter, "Still alive, Hoghath?" I asked with a smile.

"A mere arrow wouldn't be enough to bring me down," He said in a notably altered voice, his words scratchy and seemingly difficult to get out, but he seemed to be in good spirits.

"About that," Hephaestus cut in, "I heard it was only because of your healing magic that Hoghath here survived,"

"I simply tried my best to save him with the means I had available to me," I said with a shrug.

The goddess was gazing at me intently, all the while as if she was trying to look right through me to see my motives. In the end, she nodded approvingly and turned back to me with a small smile before speaking.

"Hoghath and Logan both feel that there should be a reward for your aid in saving Hoghath's life, and I agree. I will grant you one request that I will do my best to fulfill," She said simply, causing my mind to race with all the possibilities.

I thought about asking for a new weapon or armor, but in the end, I thought about the familia, "I would ask for your support," I said, causing Hephaestus's eyebrow to raise slightly, "My goddess, Fortuna, would like to become more of a crafting familia, so..."

"So you would like the support of the Hephaestus familia backing you?" She asked, clearly not a stranger to requests like this.

"If it's not too much trouble," I said humbly.

"Consider it done, I will meet with Fortuna personally to discuss the details sometime soon," Hephaestus said with a nod.

Knowing that I had been dismissed I thanked her, gave one last nod to Hoghath and followed the same dwarf that had led me here out of the room.