Ais eventually calmed down and she slumped against my chest resting her chin over my shoulder.
I could tell she was probably a bit overwhelmed with what we just did so I moved us around so I could lay on the bench, and she was able to just relax between me and the back of the heavily padded bench, so this position wasn't really all that uncomfortable or anything.
"This reminds me of when I was younger and Riveria would allow me to sleep on her lap after she would tutor me in the library." Ais murmured as she got herself comfortable by wrapping an arm around my mid-section and resting her head on my chest and I could feel her tapping her finger against my side as she was seemingly tracking my heartbeat.
"Do you consider her a mother figure to you?" I asked wondering how she felt about another woman stepping in to raise her as even with being sealed away for literally centuries it was basically a simple nap for her and was only to be awoken with everything she knew torn away and only remembering the pain of seeing her father fail to kill the Dragon.
She nodded and I could feel her long golden hair dragging across my chest with the movement. "Yes. Loki has adopted a number of children into the Familia specially to prod at how motherly Riveria is."
'Well, they literally do call Riveria, Mama in there so it fits.' I thought and then remembered how she was also pretty fond of the Hobbits and even questioned Gandalf at points on why he allowed the other Hobbits besides Frodo to join.
Ais's breathing was starting to even out so I didnt bother to further question her and just yawned while wondering what all the girls were doing downstairs.
--
I was awoken from my nap by the basement door in question being thrown open with a mighty crash. "Jake it's time for you to update your falna and level up!" Hestia cried out her shouting voice echoing through the church.
Me and Ais bolted up from our booth in surprise as Hestia strode through the door she kicked up and it seemed our adventurer instincts worked out as she thought we were napping beside one another obviously tired after our battle today.
"Loki and Riveria are coming around the corner so wake up you two." She chided at us.
Ais blankly just nodded obviously still a little emotionally strained from the day's events if not physically at this point.
"Hestia let's do my level up after we give our report to Loki, and we can discuss whatever development ability I qualify for." I spoke making Hestia pout and finally nod.
"Fine... I just want you to level up so I can rub in the fact you are already level four with the next Denatus coming." Hestia groused at me cutting off her fun.
'Man, that month long trip in LOTR and just dealing with Alfia and her made the last couple months fly by.' I thought wondering whether they were going to bother to give me a new title or something. To be honest though I was kinda invested in my Orion title as Artemis was my favorite girl when this world was just a fictional place to me.
I no longer had any time to think as Hestia soon escorted Loki and Riveria inside the church and guide them to sit in the bench in front of me and Ais.
"Oiiii Ais why are your lips swollen and why does Jake have a bruise on his neck!" Loki cried pointing at me franticly and I could only feel my neck and as I pushed my hand against it, I could feel a light stinging feeling and knew Ais was up to no good when I fell asleep.
"I marked my territory..." She said blandly with zero shame, but her next words made me facepalm. "I did what Tione says she would do to Finn when she finally made him realize how much he loves her."
Not only me but also Riveria and Loki facepalmed at how the airhead followed the amazon ways of courtship.
"Hestia control your manwhore! He can't take my Ais!" She cried out dramatically
Hestia as I imagined had a devious grin at the thought of me snatching Loki's most beloved member from her and I could see the deviant Greek nature coming out as she was unleashing her NTR vibes.
"I call dibs on their children!" Hestia yelled making Loki pick her up somehow by her cheeks.
"There's no way in hell Ais's beautiful children will go to a shrimpy small Familia like yours!" She roared before squealing as Hestia took advantage of that strap that wrapped around her nonexistent breasts to give the mother of all nipple twisters making her likewise twist the short goddess's cheeks within her grasp.
"Haaa." I could literally see the shear disappointment in her goddess rolling off Riveria, even though this was pretty funny for me.
"Alright girls that's enough." I said and then gently broke them apart with Ais's help.
Before I could try to mediate the situation Loki got back up to her old habits as Ais was no longer wearing her armor and was just in her literally trademarked white backless dress with ample side boob showing. I could only hear a perverted giggling before Ais in one swift motion dropped Loki on her ass beside her and as her head was next to her hip, she brough her fist upon it making the goddess whine in pain as Ais deadpanned. "Don't touch my breasts, those are Jakes now."
I could see Riveria judging glare being pointed at me and if anything, Hestia looked assured of her supposed victory as she covered her mouth with the back of her hand and laughed heartily at the defeated form of her rival.
"Loki let's get just get to our side of what happened as this isn't going to be solved anytime soon." I tried to move the conversation along.
Soon enough I was telling the disbelieving goddess about what I learned within Knossos and how it was infested with Violas and Evilus members not to mention how a god was experimenting on how to make a series of new black dragons for whatever reason.
"Wait so you are saying that just because one of the Ikelos goons tried to rob you that you decided to destroy a work of art centuries in the making and just happened to unearth a conspiracy to basically kick start the apocalypse."
Now that I think about it, if whoever was making these Violas decided to cut them lose in the far mountains or corners of the world away from Orario to breed unmonitored or contested for a couple centuries the resulting army could easily wipe out Orario with the horde of monsters tearing there way under the ground and even the strongest adventurer couldn't kill them all before they destroyed all but the tower of Babel which was made by the gods.
That's also not considered the evil god creating an army of mutated dragons like Alfia somehow managed to create an army of Behemoths even if they were weakened.
"Well honestly I have noticed a pattern of whoever tries to interfere with my growth has had there home/base of operations burnt down." I replied making Loki blanche at how truthful I was, I mean keep in mind what happened when a member of Soma attacked me. There wine house burnt down with Zanis dying and Soma literally doing the Orario version of the Hunger Games to get his members culled to a manageable number and not just druggies.
Freya had her penthouse burnt down with her inside it. Her Familia fell apart after she tried to interfere with my and Loki's business. Then finally her main Familia mansion burnt down during the first series of attacks during Monsterphelia.
Finally, there was how Ishtar fell apart after I snatched my fox girl.
Basically, everyone who I got involved with in a negative light had their lives ruined either by my hand or by their rivals ripping them apart.
"Well, alrighty Jake you have fun with that but thanks for the report. Now me and my girls have to return, and I have to convince Ais that you are no good for her." Loki responded candidly about her trying to future plans.
Loki then grabbed Ais who for whatever reason allowed the goddess to throw her over her shoulders and run out of the church as Riveria sighed again at her goddesses' antics. "Forgive my goddesses antics but it is for the best I retire to send this report to the guild, and I imagine the Loki Familia will be planning a punitive expedition to fully explore Knossos in case there are more monsters hiding within."
I nodded and Haruhime gracefully escorted the princess out of the church as Hestia went to update my Falna, for my level four rank up.
Jake Barris
Level 3
Strength 1478 SS
Endurance 1500 SS
Dexterity 1489 SS
Agility 1490 SS
Magic 1500 SS
Skills.
Argonaut's Journey- mentally delivers a daily quest that when accomplished will provide Excellia and also provides Excellia based on participation to party members.
-Hero's loot- After killing a foe in which you play the hero acquire Excellia from either the foe or scaling in difficulty and renown received. -
Development Skills.
Spirit Healing- Regenerating mind scaling with the lack of total mind amount.
Pure Body- Protects body from all environmental dangers and uses mind to permanently acclimate body to situations.
Magic:
Creations Negation of Entropy 'Combine'. Non sentient Objects must be touching users' skin in order to combine at cost of both stamina and mind to form something better than the sum of all its parts. -
Overloaded Barrel. Non-Chant, magic that allows user to overload magical action for user or ally at expense of user's mind fivefold or higher for double cost and higher. -
Myriad Worlds marble- Non-Chant, partially hypnotizing user allows him to bring a world he considers fictional to his own and the deeper hypnotized user is the more realistic the world.
"Ok so you still have the previous choices, but you now have a couple new ones being Luck, and Magic Resistance." Hestia explained and once again I was torn between the new options as things like Hunter which helped me kill things I had already killed before was useless to me along with magic resistance being a less attractive option to me because my Pure Body skill is already helping me become acclimated to extreme temperature's so most elemental magic will fall off and be useless against me at some point not to mention my armor which is phenomenal at blocking magic attacks.
"Let's go with Luck as I imagine that will help me get more drop items to fuse and it will help me on my adventures in other world." I responded after thinking about my options.
"Hmm alright I am adding it.... Haha you are now level four Jake!" Hestia cried and threw her hands over my shoulder's from behind and I could feel her cleavage pressing into my bareback.
Hestia after a moment of skin ship pulled me up to my feet and towards the basement. "All the girls including Syr knew you were going to level up, so we decided to have a little private party hehe."
I knew exactly what she meant as Freya has been hinting that Syr would like some casual fun with Freya no longer taking her form and messing with her emotions she was finally clear minded when it came to me and just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
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