betting to win and gaining strength

Hephaestus was taken aback when she heard Yuri accept Soma's challenge. She wanted to stop her, but the determination in the young girl's eyes made her hold back. All she could do was hope for the best.

Meanwhile, Lilly, a member of the Soma familia, was on the verge of tears. She had seen promising adventurers lose themselves after drinking Soma's crafted wines. She didn't want to see the only person who had shown her kindness suffer the same fate.

Tsubaki, observing Lilly's distress, wordlessly advised her not to get involved by placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Soma, noticing that no one was intervening, felt sure of his impending victory. He poured a cup of his most potent brew, confident that even if he lost Lilly, he would still come out on top.

When Yuri received the cup and drank its contents in one go, Lilly thought it was all over. Much to her surprise, Yuri exclaimed loudly, "Disgusting! That was the worst thing I've ever tasted."

Hearing this, Lilly couldn't process what was happening anymore and just zoned out.

Tsubaki, impressed by Yuri's willpower, wasn't even sure she could handle Soma's wine the same way.

Hephaestus, coming out of her daze, stated firmly, "She drank it, and you heard her description. Now release Lilly as you promised, and we'll leave you to make adjustments to your new formula."

Soma, realizing that Yuri's description of the drink was genuine, as a mortal could not lie to a god kept his word and released Lilly from his hold.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Yuri had switched the wine with a drink that tasted like burnt hair mixed with curdled milk, all for a single system point. She hoped never to encounter such a drink again. She also truly felt sorrow for whatever world the offending drink came from.

After exiting the Soma famillia home Hephaestus pulled Yuri aside to ask if she was okay.

Upon seeing the genuine concern on Hephaestus's face, Yuri felt reassured and admitted that while she was fine, she needed something to get the horrid taste out of her mouth.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, Hephaestus stroked Yuri's cheek and with a smile on her face suggested they stop somewhere for dinner before parting ways.

After stopping at a restaurant serving food from the Far East, they ate their fill, after leaving Lilly finally snapped out of her daze. Overcome with tears, she asked what she should do now that she no longer had a familia and no place to go.

Moved by Lilly's distress, Hephaestus pulled her into a comforting hug and stated that as long as she wasn't against the idea she hoped to arrange for her to stay with Tsubaki that night. She also made plans to introduce her to a friend who was looking to start her own familia, offering Lilly a new path forward.

Before they separated Hephaestus told Yuri to bring Lilly with her when she finished her dive in the dungeon the following morning. As she would introduce them to her friend who could potentially become Lilly's new Goddess.

With that, they all returned to their respective residences and turned in for the night. But it was unusual for Lilly who for the first time managed to fall asleep without fearing what she would wake to.

The next morning Yuri figured Lilly could use some more rest so she left quietly in order not to wake her. Once she got to the dungeon she decided to push herself today in order to test her new skills. While she knew her stats were still not quite high enough to go deeper. She figured she could see how fast she could defeat fifty monsters and then try to beat her time.

She managed to find and defeat the first fifty in around an hour and a half. Unsatisfied she pushed herself to move faster. By the time she made it to the fourth floor, she managed to drop her time to around thirty-eight minutes. However, she attributed most of the decrease in her time to the fact that the monsters spawned in greater numbers as you went to lower floors.

She finished her dive into the dungeon at around two in the afternoon and headed back to the surface. After trading the cores for Vallis she managed to get a whole 578,945 Vallis richer.

With a smile on her face, she returned to Tsubaki's house to pick up Lilly and made her way to get her falna updated.

Today as they walked into Hephaestu's workshop they noticed that she seemed unusually busy. Due to the fact that there was a line of ten people waiting at the counter to be helped. Hephaestus who noticed them enter just asked them to wait in the back room as she would need a bit before she could get to them.

With a smile, Yuri grabbed Lilly's hand not noticing how she froze, and practically dragged her to the back room. When they were inside Yuri shut the door and took a seat she turned and noticed Lilly still standing by the door.

She released a chuckle" You know I won't bite you. You are more than welcome to come in and have a seat".

Hearing this didn't make Lilly any less tense but she at least made her way over and took a seat.

Shaking her head Yuri found her actions to be cute and decided to tease her a bit. She reached over behind her back and before Lilly could respond she found herself in Yuri's lap in a tight hug. Unable to process words Lilly could only stammer out wha-wha before she turned as crimson as a tomato.

They spent the next twenty minutes just sitting there in that position before the door opened. As the door opened Lilly made like Houdini and vanished from her previous position and reappeared halfway across the room.

When Hephaestus entered the room she noticed Yuri holding in her laughter while Lilly was standing like a kid who was caught sneaking extra snacks before dinner. Shaking her head Hephaestus asked Lilly to wait in the hall for a bit while she updated Yuri's falna. Lilly could not get out of the room any faster if she could teleport.

Once the door was shut Hephaestus asked what Yuri did to the poor girl. Hearing this Yuri couldn't hold back any longer and burst out in laughter.

After calming down she explained the situation. Hearing of her teasing the poor girl Hephaestus tapped Yuri on the back of the head and told her to behave. Afterward, they started the update.

Name: Yuri Lance

Race: Human /?????

Age: 18

Level: 1

Strength: 402 E - 854 A

Endurance: 450 E - 876 A

Dexterity: 400 E - 850 A

Agility: 480 E - 887 A

Magic: 388 F - 645 C

Luck: B

Abnormal resistance: I

Skills:

Metallurgy

Fairy smith

Leatherworking

Sewing

Breath of the Fairy Queen

Body of hardship

Worriers pledge

Natural enemy

Magic:

Needle rain

Seeing that Yuri somehow gained not one but four new skills confused Hephaestus as she has led her famillia for a long time. Yet she has never seen someone gain so many new skills in such a short amount of time. Not only that but her stats also shot up faster than she had ever seen in a single trip to the dungeon.

Handing her a copy of her falna she had to ask if Yuri knew where these new skills came from and how her stats shot up so quickly.

Hearing this Yuri realized that it was probably a bad idea to get all four skills at the same time. However, it was too late to do anything about it now so she did her best to explain without talking about her system and without lying.

"While I don't exactly know where the skills came from ( not a lie she got them from the systems shop she has no clue who the original owners of the skills are or what world they came from) all I know is they allow me to get stronger faster. And the harder I work the faster the increase is".

Hearing no lies but sensing a slight deception Hephaestus figured there was something about one of the skills she was hiding. Although this was the case all she could do was trust Yuri. After coming to this conclusion she shook her head and told Yuri" You must not let others see your falna. While it's not unheard of it is extremely unusual for one person to have so many growth-related skills".

After getting a positive response from Yuri Hephaestus led her back to Lilly and they left the workshop. She explained to the two that the person she was taking them to meet while not the most reliable goddess. She has been her greatest friend for as long as she can remember. And there is no one she would trust more on either plane of existence.

Hearing this Yuri could just nod her head considering how much faith in her friend Hephaestus had.