Taking into count his more youthful appearance, he knows that he enters Chloe"s strike zone. Thankfully, as it was a rather full day, Ryuu was also here, already accosted by Hestia. She leads them to the bar, in Alex corner, to the great deception of the black hair cat.

"You became shorter?" Said Mia while raising a brow to Alex"s appearance.

" Wasn"t a natural growth, my Flana bring me back to normal."

"Wait! Your so young?" Respond to the woman who primarily thinking that he was a young man rather than a teenager

"I"m only 14 you know." Deadpan Alex. "Anyways, today I came to celebrate, I finally found a Familia, and came with my G.o.ddess."

"Oh!" A greedy glint shine in her eyes.

"Ask what you want Hestia, meal on me."

"Your sure?"

"Don"t worry, I have enough."

"Alright then, hmm, today special and a beer!"

" As for me, a plate of roasted meat, a bowl of soup, three today main dish, and a large salad please."

"Right ho!"

She vanishes to the other side to transmit the order while Alex starts to take out money. Luck would have, today special main dish was fried fish and fried vegetables as a side dish. Due to their sheer size, that dish alone was 4,000 a helping, so he rapidly takes out 17,200 valis. The one on Alex side chokes on their beverage when they see the cost of the boy meal enough to feed a family of three for a week.

Mia sweeps the money away while bringing Alex salad and soup and Hestia beer" mug. Since it was only lunch, it was full of civilians and not adventurers, so they were able to pa.s.s a calm meal.

"Do you have any belonging you need to fetch?" Ask Alex, once outside the pub

"Hmm. I do have a few things left in Hephaistos."

"Do you need help?"

"Nah, I"m good, plus I need to tell her that I would live elsewhere too."

"Ok, I will go to the Dungeon and start to gather the money for the plot of land. Once I"m done, I would make a little money on the side to pay for the contract."

With a debt of 1,075,000 valis, he would need to either hunt countless goblins, or he could simply go for the lower floors. If before he would need to stop to the 6th floor because of his limitation, he would now be able to slaughter his way to the 12th floor, just before crossing the "first line". What he would need to do for now was to obtain crystal from the different monsters in order to create his pouches.

With around twelve new types of monsters, he would have to start to swap between them as he could only carry six of them at the same time.

Leaving Hestia to return to Hephaistos, after giving her a key and tell her that he wouldn"t be home before 7 P.M. They separate at the junction between the mains streets in front of the tower.

With his now somewhat large backpack, he didn"t gather attention, as a supporter was looked down by all the lesser adventurers. Once off the beginner road, he equips his gears and tore toward the 2nd-floor stairs. With his new speed and knowledge of the floor, it didn"t take him long to pa.s.s the shortest way to them.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors were pa.s.sed rapidly as he didn"t engage in any fight, evading monsters before they could attack. Killing off the frog shooters and war shadows while looking for the stairs, and completing his map further, was ridiculously easy, farming nicely in higher rate crystals. Stairs founds, it was time form him to update a little his defensive side.

Taking out a bunch of iron gathered in the building, and rods of carbon, he quickly trans.m.u.tes steel ingots before they morph again in chainmail made of thin steel scale rather than a ring, for better protection. With his previous strength, the weight would have been nothing, now? He could barely feel it.

Making it form-fitting, he makes a shirt and pants. Those rapidly came and fuse with his actual clothes, exchanging a little of the paddling for it, completely hiding it under two layers of fabric, and m.u.f.fling it sound at the same time. His boots didn"t need an upgrade, so he coats the exterior of his gloves, leaving the inside of the hand free for a better grip on his weapons. Using the same logic, a scale-like skin of steel appears on the back of his gloved hands.

The only thing left was a mask to cover his face of the poisonous spores. Taking the few crystals of the firsts floors, he melts them in the steel, shaping a magic steel mask with "purification" and a "timer" schemes, the first for filtrates poisonous substance, the second to know how much time the imbedded crystals could feed magic in the runes before running out. This way he wouldn"t be taken off guard during a fight and became poisoned due is carelessness.

Taking advantage of his now upgraded skill, he trans.m.u.tes a faint black paint layer on the mask, his entire clothes set also turn black. With a mask covering nearly all his face, all that could be seen was the crimson of his hair, the emerald green of his eyes, the rest completely black.

Once done, he made his way to the 7th floor.

------------------------------------

While Alex was slaughtering his merry ways through deeper floors, Hestia was able to easily meet with her friend. Raising her head from her doc.u.ment when she hears the door open without anyone announcing themselves, Hephaistos smile at Hestia smug smile.

"Seeing that smug smile on your face, you have success, right?"

"Yep!" Said the chibi G.o.ddess, making a V sign at her fellow G.o.ddess. "As of today, Hestia Familia is established!"

"Good for you, do you need anything?" Smile Hephaistos before asking.

"Nah, I good, Alex have already a house in the city, we will leave them for now on, I just came to retrieve the few things you give me until I"m able to buy them on my own."

"What do you mean?" Curiously says the redhead.

"He plans to create a shop for me while he is in the Dungeon." The blacksmith raises a brow at this.

"Would it be alright? Land in Orario aren"t cheap, such a financial burden on only a single member could be too much and..."

"Don"t worry, he was able to found a cheap land near the house, once pay for, he will construct the shop himself. He says he should be able to gather the money around a week for now."

"That soon, how much could it be worth for a single level 1 to be able to gather enough funds in such a short time?"

"Around 750,000 valis I think. He already pays 10%."

"Impossible, do you know how many monsters on the firsts floors he would have to kill to reunite such amount? several thousand! Such a burden isn"t good for his health, he could even die if he overestimates his capacities!" Shout Hephaistos worried that she could lost he only Familia member while he was trying to gather enough money.

"Calm down, when I ask him, he says that he should have enough power to roam freely until the "first line" or whatever, I need to go now, see you!"

Hestia escapes while her friend was frozen at her words, rapidly gathering her mind, she calls for the child she sends keep an eye on Hestia when she exits the building.

"I want you to go to the guild and take a look at the Hestia" Familia member. They should have updated the board and had them by now. take back as much as you could learn on him."

"Yes!"

He immediately exits the shop and dash to the guild under a few minutes. Entering the lightly crowded, he directly goes for the board end. Each new Familia were put there until they earn any recognization, be it as expedition, merchants, and the like.

While he enters, he capt the attention of those knowing him, being the only member of the Hephaistos Familia active, without being a smith, catering for his G.o.ddess needs, be it information, message to other Familia or simply lunch when she is working on a particular order and unable to quit mid-way.

Finn was here for actually the same aim because he only had a name and a physical description, he could only ask an employee. He was about to reach a booth when he saw him. Knowing his job, he became curious as to why he was there. When he directly goes for the end of the board, he understands that he was gathering information on a newly formed Familia.

Since he was already there, he decides to take also a look first before going fishing information about Alex. When he only see a single stats sheet from the Hestia Familia he wasn"t surprised, they rarely Familia starting with more than one member, when they came from the city.

What surprised him, however, was the sheet itself, the kid was only 14 but had a status that could have been already promoted to level 2 and had chosen a new, unknown Familia. With such a status, he knows their Familia would have taken him in. Seeing that he was alone in it, he knows his G.o.ddess would never agree to a transfer.

When he saw the name, he froze in place.

"Impossible! He was already nearing level 2 even before receiving a Flana! I must warn Loki now. She won"t be happy, not at all."

Throwing away his previous plan, he dashes out of the guild, bringing attention to him and the place was before hurriedly departing. When they discover the inconspicuous new Familia and it member, a large amount of adventurer dash off, running to warn their G.o.ds about it.

All around the city, the reaction was more or less similar, the new of an unknown adventurer nearing level 2 joining a new Familia make few waves but when none other new came from it it was rapidly forgotten, more so when that very Familia didn"t seem to be looking for other adventurers.

What also contributed to this was that Alex was actually never seen, for the simple reason that, by the time he would exit the Dungeon, most of the adventurers would have long since done the same.

He also revises his action plan. He would still raise early and be in the dungeon around 7:30 A.M, but rather than explore the Dungeon hours long, he would hunt more and more monster, slowly going deeper when he sees that they bring him no challenge.

This had started the very next day. Starting at dawn, he had directly gone for the 8th floors, only to goes deeper as those newly improved goblins hadn"t been up to his expectation. So, he delves in the 9th and soon 10th floors. The mist hadn" been a hindrance at all with his sense of smell.

Those floor monsters became another deception for him as the imps were fast but weak and the orcs powerful but slow. He could snipe the Bad Bat easily with his throwing knives.

While they weren"t strong, their core was worth so much more money than the goblins, the price raise greatly starting the 6th floors. So much that even the weakest was worth at least 1,000 valis. Between the 10th and 13th floors, it fluctuates from 10,000 to 50,000 valis.

With such a leap, he rapidly racks in money, turning his meager earning to hundreds of thousands of valis. The only reason why he was earning that much was that, contrary to other adventurers, he didn"t need to pat for repair, potion, and lodgement. With his pantry runes, he could buy a large amount in one go, earning better price, and stock on them.

That way the land was brought under two days after the first payment and the rest of the needed money pay to Hephaistos Familia. Done with his debt, he had still gone to the Dungeon for the next five days, earning a little more than two millions, before stopping and start to plan for the shop.