Misconception of ‘Power’

Hestia exited the Tower of Babel from the Denatus that was filled with disappointment, mainly because of how things became so one-sided. And because of that, bets wouldn't even be available, since no one would put any money on Hestia's side.

Compared to the previous War Games, this could potentially become one of the most boring ones.

Behind Hestia were Takemikazuchi and Miach who were making strange faces. "I-is that fine, Hestia?", asked the former.

Hestia continued walking without looking back, "It's fine. This is what Kisuke-kun wanted."

With a remorseful voice, Miach said, "I'm really sorry about this, Hestia. It should be me who should be helping you, but you have to take this route because of that child."

"You really don't have to worry about that, Miach. If I had to say anything, it became more convenient for him."

Miach and Takemikazuchi's eyes widened at Hestia's words, "How can you say that? Isn't your Familia in even more danger because you decided to help Soma's child?"

Hestia couldn't say that Kisuke became even happier when Soma's child got involved. For him, it was even more of a gain.

Seeing that Hestia didn't want to answer them, Miach continued, "If there's something we can help with, please don't hesitate to tell us. If it's just us, without asking our children, we're willing to take the risk of helping you."

"That's right, Hestia. I'll try to convince my children if you decided to request our help.", added Takemikazuchi.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to do so if needed, but since we took this path, we have plans."

Takemikazuchi then started rubbing his chin, "Still, I never thought that it'll go down exactly as he said it. It's like he scripted that whole Denatus."

"Right... If those Deities knew about this, their attention wouldn't be on those three girls and I'm pretty sure most of them would scramble for him.", commented Miach.

"Well, let's just say that Apollo became extremely predictable after revealing his desires. His petty personality is not one you would describe as unforeseeable, you see." Hestia then faced them, "We should be on our way. We don't want Apollo to put more restrictions on us with him seeing us together like this in public."

"Understood. We shall see each other later as planned."

Hestia then returned, but instead of going through the normal passage, Hestia used the teleportation circle that Kisuke had placed in the shop.

Once in the underground hideout, Hestia immediately saw the faces of those who dived in the Dungeon a few days ago and smiled happily, "You're back! Welcome home~!"

Sona approached her and gave her a light hug, "Welcome back, too, Hestia-sama. And good work out there."

Returning the light embrace, Hestia replied, "I just did everything Kisuke-kun instructed. I never thought that it'd go that smoothly as well. And here I thought I'd have to adlib more to irritate that annoying God."

Clapping his hands, Kisuke garnered everyone's attention, "Let's have lunch for now and update your Status after eating."

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Sona, Aika and Koneko were the first ones to update their Falna and since they only went to the Dungeon to facilitate the new members' adaptation, they didn't gain much. Only a total of 50 points across the board.

Even then, it was still a very monstrous growth compared to the residents of this world.

The next one to update her Falna was Serafall, as per Kisuke's request.

Different from Akeno and Irina, Serafall operated separately from the rest most of the time. Due to her mastery that could be compared to Kisuke and Yoruichi, Serafall was fully capable of going to the deeper floors where stronger monsters lurked.

Since the monsters on the upper and middle floors didn't have very much, if any magic resistance, they were easy prey for Serafall and her masterful use of Ice Magic. By freezing the monster's vital parts and crushing it using her martial prowess, most of the monsters were instantly killed by her and Serafall was able to go down as far as the 21st floor.

Still, Sona couldn't help but worry about her big sister whenever she goes off on her own, since every time she would return, Serafall was always running critically low on potions and had a few broken bones.

Similar to Kisuke and other the 'risk-takers', they could only use the Magic Power and Ki provided by the Falna to strengthen it. As such, they could only use their natural bodies, naked from any form of defensive measures, to keep up with the offense.

After updating her Status, Serafall gained around 500-700 on each of her parameters, which greatly scared Artemis. She had to use Hestia's help to calm down who explained to her that this was 'normal'.

As someone who had already experienced running a normal Familia, Artemis couldn't easily accept the result. However, seeing Hestia's 'everything is normal' face, Artemis chose to finally abandon all of her concepts of a normal Familia to run her current one.

Next were Akeno and Irina. This time, Kisuke requested Artemis not to reveal their new Status until she updated both of them. Artemis granted his request and updated them, only to be shocked again after seeing both Statuses.

If Artemis had never met them, she wouldn't have been shocked by Akeno and Irina's statuses. After all, their parameters only increased a total of 10 points across the board. Much lower compared to Sona, Aika and Koneko, who only assisted them. A very normal increase by this world's standards and common sense.

"Huh? What's the meaning of this?", asked Hestia in confusion.

"Kisuke probably already holds the answer.", replied Sona as she looked towards Kisuke while fixing her glasses.

Akeno and Irina were also making disappointed faces. Despite working so hard, they didn't think that their gains would amount to almost nothing. "Was it not enough?", murmured Irina under her breath.

Immediately, Kisuke responded to that, "Yep. Your efforts are not enough."

Kisuke's honest answer made both of them clench their teeth and fists in frustration. They could work even harder, however, they didn't know why their gain is so small compared to the others. This gave both of them a cloudy perception, asking themselves if extra effort is really enough. Maybe, they didn´t have any talent, and chasing after them would just be a futile endeavor.

Their expression of self-doubt became very apparent to everyone within the room who became worried about them. Serafall also knew how dangerous this was in their current development phase and if not resolved, it could very much cripple their potential.

Serafall was about to say something but Kisuke beat her to it by chuckling, "Ki-tan!?"

Kisuke ignored Serafall and said with a slightly condescending tone, "You think power is that easy? Do you think you're some miraculous individuals? Get off your high horses. That power isn't yours to begin with. You can say that this is the price of your decision."