After Ais left, the members of the Hestia Familia finally sat down at the dining table.
"Although I can eat Mei's bento in the Dungeon, the feeling of eating at home is just different from being in the Dungeon."
After his Nen level increased, Takatsuki could eat Mei's bento every night when contacting the surface, but eating in the Dungeon was completely different from sitting in a house.
"After this, I shouldn't need to go on expeditions alone, right?"
Hearing Mei's words, Takatsuki replied: "Unless there's an abnormal situation, no. Compared to solo expeditions, adventuring and leveling up with everyone will obviously be faster."
"Speaking of leveling up!"
Kiana, chewing on fried chicken, suddenly looked up. She had just said a sentence when Mei gently tapped her: "Swallow what's in your mouth first."
She forcefully swallowed the fried chicken in her mouth.
"I has gained several hundred ability points in the past half month!"
"Idiot Kiana."
Bronya immediately retorted from the side: "We just update our ability points frequently. Although Takatsuki hasn't grown, he just hasn't updated."
"Mm-hmm! Let's update after dinner!"
Hestia suddenly remembered and said: "Oh, right, that child just now, Jerry!"
"What about Jerry? Did he cause trouble? Did you leave him in your room?"
Takatsuki only remembered he hadn't seen Jerry when Hestia brought him up.
"No, no, but Takatsuki-kun, didn't you say you wanted to see if you could bestow a blessing on that child? I tried it."
Hearing Hestia's words, Takatsuki immediately turned his head: "It succeeded?"
"Mm! Although there were some twists and turns, it was successful for now. Wait a moment."
Hestia quickly ran into the room and soon brought out a blank sheet of paper, handing it to Takatsuki.
Lost Heart Doll
Strength: I (0)
Endurance: I (0)
Dexterity: I (0)
Agility: I (0)
Magic: I (0)
"Magic"
None
"Skills"
[Lost Heart Doll]
- Seeking the Heart
A very simple panel, but Takatsuki quickly noticed something was amiss.
"No level? And this name and skill…"
He looked at Hestia with some confusion, and Hestia nodded seriously: "Generally speaking, only a small amount of divine blood is needed to draw out the potential of children in the lower world, but this child cost me a lot of divine blood to successfully activate it. And the result, as you can see, is different from yours."
Lost Heart Doll, huh? That name is quite fitting, and this skill…
It's a pity that Takatsuki doesn't know how to obtain a heart, though.
"Oh, right, one more thing, Takatsuki! Did you not put your heart into it when you made it? Why is that child's body like a blank slate?!"
Hearing Hestia's words, Takatsuki coughed and said: "It's like this, after all, my initial goal was just for it to look like a human on the outside, so I didn't create muscle lines or some physical features and details. In fact, it doesn't even have a gender. If you want to change it, you can only take out the core and remake it."
"…"
"You're too irresponsible."
Although she said that, it was impossible for Takatsuki to remake Jerry in the end, so they could only wait and see and let him develop naturally.
After dinner, Hestia directly updated Takatsuki's ability points in the living room, with everyone watching. Although Takatsuki wanted to go to his room, everyone else was also very curious.
As the silver needle pierced his fingertip, a drop of scarlet blood dripped from Hestia's fingertip, falling onto Takatsuki's back like a drop of water.
A hearth emblem and densely packed characters appeared on Takatsuki's back.
Because they had awakened their unique skills, all their ability points were locked by Hestia to prevent outsiders from seeing them.
"Let me see…"
Hestia looked at the light appearing on Takatsuki's back, numbers constantly flickering, and new abilities being continuously unearthed.
"What is this!!!!"
The others watching Hestia update the ability points beside her were all startled.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?!"
Without time to respond to the others' questions, Hestia's hands trembled slightly as she manipulated the values on Takatsuki's back.
"Takatsuki… your ability points can be upgraded."
Hestia's voice was trembling at first, but she quickly calmed down and continued: "And it's… all ability points SSS!!!"
"Eh!!!!" * 3
Takatsuki, the person involved, hadn't said anything yet, but the three people beside him cried out in surprise first.
"Um… Takatsuki, you have five development abilities: Pioneer, Fortune, Swordsman, Anomaly Resistance, and Punch."
Hestia forced herself to calm down and asked Takatsuki: "Which one do you want to choose?"
"Five, huh."
Perhaps because he had long realized his own uniqueness, Takatsuki wasn't very surprised by this. How could anything be more special than the system?
"Pioneer, then."
Takatsuki had heard of the other four development abilities, but this was the first time he had heard of Pioneer.
"Pioneer, huh? Alright, but I've never heard of this ability before. Is this the potential of the lower world's people?"
Just as Takatsuki's level was raised, another startled cry erupted: "Eh!!!!"
"It can! Still upgrade!? And it's all ability points SSS!? How did you do it?"
"Continuous sublimation, truly unheard of."
"This time, the development abilities are the four that weren't chosen before."
Since the ability points reached SSS, they were basically capped, so Hestia didn't ask if he needed to upgrade, which would have been redundant, and just upgraded Takatsuki directly.
"This time, it'll be Fortune."
But can it really be continuously upgraded?
Takatsuki hadn't heard of such a thing. Feeling the light on his back slowly disappear, Hestia placed a piece of paper over Takatsuki's back, then gently tapped it. The "ink marks" on Takatsuki's back quickly disappeared, appearing on the white paper in common script.
"Let me see, let me see!!"
Kiana, who had been anticipating this since earlier, immediately snatched it. Mei and Bronya also curiously leaned over to check Takatsuki's new panel.
Takatsuki LV3
Strength: S (931)
Endurance: S (943)
Dexterity: C (610)
Agility: C (601)
Magic: SS (1090)
Development Abilities: [Pioneer I] [Fortune I]
"Magic"
None
Skills
Doll Creation
- Can create dolls
- Enhances the abilities of created dolls
Stand: Heaven's Stairway
- Manifestation of spiritual energy
- Possesses powerful growth potential and special abilities
Death Resistance
- Special resistance gained from surviving multiple deaths
- Immune to instant death effects; greatly boosts all abilities when hit by instant death attacks
- Bonus to mental resistance, bonus to negative status resistance
- Automatically restores stamina and spiritual power
????
-????
-????
-????
"This is too exaggerated! This could totally be another level up!"
Kiana loudly voiced what everyone else was thinking.
Hestia nodded, "Yes, but I don't think we can continue leveling up. While continuous leveling might seem satisfying, the sudden increase in strength requires adaptation. Moreover, Takatsuki's ability value can clearly continue to grow to SSS, so there's no need to rush."
Aside from the ability value, Takatsuki only gained one new skill, which didn't surprise anyone else.