Chapter 18

As we staggered into the guild with our haul me an Lil turned in our loot as Bell and Medusa relaxed. "Thud. A palm slammed onto the guild counter as Eina was paying attention to the monster stones we turned in and realized they were far beyond what was within our experience level technically. "Hestia Familia come speak with me privately please." She clearly said and I could see her eyebrow twitching but I wasn't going to be browbeaten by her.

"Unless it's confidential information it should be fine for you to say it here right," I replied candidly making the palm she slapped onto the table curl up into a fist

"Fine! Why are you dragging Bell into dangerous situations?!" She yelled making the guild go quiet but jokes on her I went to public school so public pressure isn't as big a deal.

"First of all, Bell is my captain, so he is the one deciding where we are going in the dungeon not to mention as his I repeat his advisor, your job is to advise him about the dangers of the dungeon and not to decide our schedule."

She looked about to scream at me but as she opened her mouth, she must have realized I was speaking the truth. Because she truly did have zero control over our actions her only job was to advise, and the important duty was to make sure we pay our taxes.

She sighed and turned to Bell who silently approached us and basically repeated herself, but the difference was Bell folding like a stack of cards and kept apologizing.

"Enough you mother hen." I groaned and as she turned her renewed fierce expression on me I took the winds out of her sails. "If you keep nagging out like that, you will never get married..."

"OOhhh! He got you Eina!" Misha laughed at her fellow coworker.

I made sure to keep the drops we kept from the dragons as I knew they would likely be extremely useful because even if these drops are of a lower quality I can always use the higher leveled dragon drops that come around later.

"Alright, it's time to get going home," I called out seeing as we got all the paperwork done but before we could leave Eina grabbed Bell's shoulder.

"Bell I am sorry for laying into you earlier, so how about tomorrow during the Monsterphelia I get you something to eat or something."

Bell nodded excitedly and made plans on where to meet while I decided to actually go see the monsters being tamed maybe I could one day get a monster mount by making a slave collar or something.

After we left and made our way toward the now-fixed church, I noticed the street we were on was empty, so I raised an arm making us all stop and I turned to Medusa. "Ok Medusa, what do you plan to do now?" I asked the woman who had been silent since we left the dungeon.

"I just want to be left alone for a while to think."

I knew I shouldn't push otherwise she would likely retreat further into her shell as I could tell she was normally a quiet person at heart anyway.

"Alright well, the Hestia Familia welcomes you if you need some help in the dungeon or just an ear to listen to what happened."

She nodded and went in a separate direction from both the way we came, and we were heading so thankfully she wasn't going straight down to the dungeon. "Master Jake, why did you invite her? She looks like trouble."

I snorted and gave Lili a wry smile. "Probably just as troublesome as you eh."

Bell laughed in the background as Lili pouted because she literally had no grounds to argue in her favor. She had her own revenge as we kept walking back home, she fell back a bit out of my sight and the next thing I knew, I was almost face-planting as she jumped on my back and wrapped her legs around my chest.

Bell seeing Lili hanging on my back burst into hysterical laughter as he pointed at us he managed to gasp out. "She is so short it looks like she is the backpack when from the back Haha"

Lili scowled at Bell and if it wasn't for her knowing I wouldn't let her just jump on me so easily again I didnt want to have to fight her off my back I knew she would probably run up and kick Bell in the shins or something.

"Bell at least I can touch the person I love Bleh." She stuck her tongue out at Bell as he staggered clutching his heart at the burn.

"Enough." I groaned as I could feel Lili reaching into her backpack knowing my luck, she was about to shoot Bell and that would thoroughly ruin my day if I had to lug Bell back in whatever condition he was left in.

"Fine," they said in unison and thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful until we walked through the front door and just as I was about to shrug Lili off, I was slammed in the chest by Hestia trying her best impression of a spear ramming into my gut making me groan in pain as I fell onto my back crushing Lili making her cry out in distress.

Hestia was silent lying on my chest as I groaned in pain. Seeing Bell standing on the side of the affair I waved him over to help and he was able to help me to my feet.

Now I just looked ridiculous with Hestia hanging from my front and a clearly sore Lili groaning about me hitting her nose still hanging off my back.

"Ok both of you get off..." I chuckled making the silent Hestia's head shoot up and as got off and looked over my shoulder she saw the Pallum whose head did not even reach my hip was over my shoulder probably making a face at her with how quickly her own expression turned sour.

"That means you too, Lili get off or I will spank you again..." For a moment her legs tightened around me but then she slowly got off my back obviously conflicted.

"Ok now. Hestia, we have had to say lightly a fucking stupid day so could we get our falna upgraded."

She nodded took my hand led us over to the pew she was clearly lying down on as it was covered in a pile of fabrics as I looked around, I saw a bunch of other materials including a pile of trash/broken weapons.

"Good job getting all the stuff I hope it wasn't too difficult to lug it all around?" I said patting her head making her preen in pride.

"No, I hired a group of kids at the local orphanage to help me seeing as you guys are bringing in enough money now, I figured I could help a little..." She said and slowly trailed off and I smiled seeing how much she just wanted to be of assistance as it wasn't like she could go in the dungeon with us.

"Good work just make sure those kids don't steal from you or something."

Hestia turned me around and started working on my Falna. "I will be careful don't worry. Oh, also I took those magic glasses, and I made sure the stuff I bought was of a higher material quality."

Huh, that's a pretty good idea just taking those magic glasses to check out all the stalls. Who knows I might find a couple of diamonds in the rough.

"Ok here you go. Bell your turn now." She called after handing me my falna's paper.

Strength 437

Endurance 476

Dexterity 369

Agility 408

Magic 509

Skills:

Argonaut's Journey I Argonauts Adventure. - 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 acquires Excellia from either the foe or scaling in difficulty and renown received. -

Magic:

Creations Negation Of Entropy 'Combine'. Non-sentient Objects must be touching user's skin in order to combine at the cost of both stamina and mind to form something better than the sum of all its parts.

Hmm looks like I am making good progress and after trading papers with Bell I saw we were basically well on track for getting SSS rank stats within all our stats before our level, whether Freya would throw a monster rex at us, or we marched down our way to Riveria as a level one challenge.

Now seeing as I am not sure as what is the maximum stats, we can collect in each stat I am going to consider 1500 stat points as the goal for peak SSS and I know we won't grow nearly this much in such a short interverbal if it wasn't for me turning in my quest's and that so-called Heroic Stand that made me gain so much Excellia.