Chapter Ten

I smiled, watching the paralyzed from the waist down infant dragon, with Welf standing over it, burned, tired, sweaty, and overall, tired of the dungeon for the day.

One good strike on its vertebral arch managed to damage its spinal cord. The fight took about seven minutes, and Welf held out, relatively well. I walked over as he raised his sword and stabbed the dragon in its eye, killing it. The large body turned into dust and his body finally gave out.

I rushed forward, catching him before he fell, and dug into my pouch, taking out a stamina potion.

"I... I did it."

He muttered, breathing heavily as I uncorked the bottle, putting it to his lips and tilting his head back.

"You did, congratulations Welf."

His breathing evened out and he nodded, taking a few more breaths before getting his feet under him and standing up shakily. I uncorked the health potion and handed it to him, which he dripped on his burns before drinking the rest.

"I think that's enough of the dungeon for the day, in my opinion."

I nodded, looking at the relatively large Magic crystal.

"I'll carry that for you, come on."

I picked up the magic stone and put it inside the backpack, which took up most of the space and made it substantially heavier.

"Thanks, man, the first thing I'm doing is sleeping when I get back."

He sighed, ripping off his burned sleeve and bunching it up, putting the remains in his own backpack. I chuckled, raising an eyebrow at him.

"What? No Status update?"

He just sighed and shook his head, still grinning.

"Unfortunately, goddess Hapheistous is busy today, so no updates today, but I will know if I level up tomorrow."

Ah, that made sense. That was one of the reasons why I wanted a smaller Familia, or a Famillia with no members, all I had to do was ask and I would get the update, Hestia was just the first one on the list that had no Famillia members.

"I'm sorry about not being able to go down lower to get the drop you wanted though..."

I just shook my head, chuckling.

"It's fine, Welf we can get those later."

He paused for a moment, and blinked, looking at me with surprise written all over his face.

"You still want me in the party even after I level up?"

I thought about it for a moment. Did I? Even right now, he could barely kill that infant dragon, in fact, he would have died had I not gotten its attention by flaring my killing intent and focusing it on it to make it freeze in fear, using its basic instincts against it.

Did I want Welf in my party even after my part of the deal was completed?

"Why wouldn't I?"

___

"Excuse me, you dropped this, mister adventurer!"

I paused and looked behind me, spotting a girl with gray hair, and a similar shade of eyes in a green maid uniform, holding a small magic stone.

I narrowed my eyes at it for a moment. I had no magic stones on me right now, Welf and I cashed it in right before we went to his workshop to drop off the drops we got from the monsters on the upper levels.

It was still pretty early in the morning because Welf and I went inside even before the sun rose.

I smelled something and it smelled like fish... I don't really like fish very much...

I reached out, picking up the stone, narrowing my eyes for a moment, furrowing my brows visibly in thought, and shaking my head. I did not miss it, I checked.

"Sorry Miss, but this isn't mine, someone else must have dropped it."

I returned the Magic stone to her hand and turned to walk away. Only to be stopped by her again.

"Wait a second, are you heading to the dungeon this early in the morning?"

I turned my head to look at her over my shoulder and nodded. I wanted to know what she wanted from a complete stranger that was me.

"Oh! Wait a moment, I'll be right back!"

She ran inside the building to my left, and I raised an eyebrow. What the hell was that about? I furrowed my eyebrows, actually thinking this time. What was a goddess doing, acting like a normal mortal girl, posing as a maid in a bar?

And why did she pick me as the target of that pathetic attempt to get a customer? Well, she was persistent, I would give her that...

Now if only I could figure out which goddess she was to prepare if she was planning anything. I knew the nature of gods very well, and I could see it in Hestia too. Most of them were children playing with toys, and the toys were mortals.

My finger twitched and I took a deep breath, releasing it through my nose.

I shoved my hands in my pockets as I waited.