"A sword that can cut through anything... if paired with the Execution of Light Technique, it'd be practically unstoppable." Watching the silver longsword in DanMachi Su Mo's hand, Type-Moon Su Mo couldn't help but speculate.
"Stacking both suppression and special-effect buffs... I doubt even [Man of Steel] could hold up against that."
"Agreed," Campione Su Mo nodded.
The sheer sharpness of the silver sword was already a major threat to the Man of Steel. Adding the Execution of Light Technique on top of it would likely be enough to pierce even steel-borne immortality.
"Still, for me, the [Man of Steel] is even more useful," he added.
Before, aside from having exceptionally tough bones, the rest of his body was just plain human. But now? He was steel through and through. Normal godly authorities couldn't even scratch him. Type-Moon Su Mo took a moment to feel the power within himself.
"At the rate you're collecting authorities, if I can keep up my development of the Third Magic, we might reach planet-busting levels sooner than expected."
"Looks like I need to step it up too," he added, glancing at Campione Su Mo's rapidly growing strength.
"Damn, both the heavy hitters are working so hard..."
"I better stop slacking off," DanMachi Su Mo said, thoroughly motivated.
Even though there was no word yet from the Moon Goddess, he already had a solid plan for resolving the Philosopher's Stone issue. After a bit more discussion and sharing of progress, the group dispersed. Only the Su Mo from the One Piece world stayed behind. Since he had already hit max level, there wasn't much room for growth. So, he remained to keep watch.
....
....
DanMachi World
After returning from the Mist Space, Su Mo opened his eyes. It was morning in Orario. He had just finished breakfast, and by his usual schedule, it was time to head for the Dungeon and meet up with Ais. But the sight that greeted him upon waking up was... strange.
Hestia—his lazy goddess who usually avoided getting up early—was actually standing in front of a mirror. It wasn't like she never used a mirror. Despite her cheerful and silly nature, Hestia did care about hygiene and appearance. Still, seeing her dawdling in front of the mirror before heading out? That was rare.
Wait a minute—heading out? This lazybone of a goddess was actually planning to leave the house?
"Hestia, no matter how expressionless you make your face, you're never going to look intimidating," Su Mo said, raising a brow. "What, are you playing a staring contest with your reflection or something?"
He was genuinely curious. She didn't seem to be dressing up—gods didn't really need makeup anyway. And with how naturally cute Hestia was, she didn't need any extra help.
She had been glaring into the mirror for a while now, puffing up her cheeks and trying to look stern. But instead of authority, she looked more like a child pretending to be angry—adorably ineffective.
Upon hearing Su Mo's remark, Hestia shook her head. "No, that's not it! I'm trying to look more... commanding." Then, she seemed to remember something and turned to him with sparkling eyes. "Oh right! Su Mo, sometimes you look super intimidating. Can you teach me how to do that?" The blue-ribboned goddess looked at him expectantly.
"Commanding presence, huh..." Su Mo tilted his head, unsure what she meant by that. Was she referring to Conqueror's Haki or some other kind of aura? But those weren't exactly teachable skills.
After thinking for a bit, he offered his advice. "If you want to come off as intimidating, just keep quiet, say very little, and pull out your weapon at the slightest provocation." That... was the aura of a mad dog. To say whether it sounded good or not... well, that was debatable. But at the very least, it sounded intimidating.
Of course, the consequences could be rather severe. People who drew their swords at the drop of a hat usually ended up in one of two places: either as the boss—or in the afterlife.
Hearing the first few suggestions, Hestia was nodding seriously. Talking less? She could manage that. Keeping her opinions to herself? No problem. But when Su Mo got to the final step—
"There's no way I'm going to draw a sword on someone!" Hestia couldn't help but protest.
Su Mo simply shrugged. "Can't be helped. If you were a bald, scar-faced muscleman, you wouldn't need to say anything to be intimidating. But you're way too cute, Hestia. Honestly, even if you carried a giant blade around, you still wouldn't look threatening. You're going to have to actually use it to be convincing."
Appearance made a huge impression. And Hestia, with her petite stature and childlike face—despite her ample assets—just didn't come off as scary no matter what she did. Still, hearing Su Mo call her cute, Hestia couldn't help but look a little pleased.
"C-Cute? It's not like I'm that cute or anything…" A blatant lie. In truth, Hestia was practically bursting with joy inside. But after her moment of bliss passed, a flicker of worry returned to her expression.
"Ugh, there's really nothing I can do to intimidate the other gods?" Clenching her tiny fists, the blue-ribbon goddess looked visibly discouraged.
"What's wrong?" Su Mo gently patted her head, a little puzzled.
"Why're you suddenly so focused on being intimidating? What do you need to scare the other gods for?"
After all, the gods of Orario had lived for millions—or even billions—of years. They were cunning and shameless, hardened by eons of existence. If they could be cowed by something as simple as a glare, it would only be under extreme circumstances... or due to an actual skill that enforced submission. Either that, or someone from a major Familia had spoken up.
But Hestia? She barely had any influence among them. Trying to pressure them into obedience with presence alone was next to impossible. As Su Mo comforted her with head pats, Hestia let out a frustrated little "nghh," before mumbling honestly:
"Because that Denatus we mentioned earlier... it's happening today!"
"They're going to be assigning your alias soon, and I'm worried the other gods might mess around."
Once every month, the gods held a Denatus where they assigned aliases to adventurers who had leveled up—starting at Level 2.
Su Mo, after last night's upgrade, was already Level 4. But since he had only been part of a Familia for a month, Hestia had reported him as Level 2 to avoid drawing unnecessary attention. Which meant today, he would receive his first official title.
And that was what had Hestia worried.
With no political clout and very few allies, she was concerned the gods might play a prank and assign a ridiculous or humiliating alias. If that happened, she'd have no one to turn to. A bad title could be really embarrassing.
"That's what this was about?" Su Mo blinked as it came back to him. He chuckled and looked at her warmly.
"I told you before—I don't really care what title they give me."
"But if you really don't like it, just write down the names of the ones who cause trouble." As he spoke, a rather meaningful smile curled at the edge of his lips. He didn't really care about honorifics without substance. But if Hestia did care, well... then he'd just have to flip a few Familia upside down as punishment. Let the gods understand what it meant to cross the wrong person. As for whether it might expose his true power? That wasn't an issue.
With his current level of swordsmanship, even if he only pretended to be a Level 1 adventurer, he could still easily defeat someone at Level 6. With swordsmanship like that, no one would question his status—they'd only marvel at his absurd technique. And sword technique wasn't tied to Falna. It had nothing to do with divine blessings.
"Wah! Su Mo, you can't go doing dangerous things like that!" Hestia panicked at his implication.
"But to me, that's not really dangerous at all, is it?" Su Mo tilted his head with an innocent look.
"Uh…" Hestia was momentarily speechless.
"Okay… maybe you've got a point."
With Su Mo's strength, even the Loki Familia wouldn't be a threat. Meaning—maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to keep a list of troublemakers? Thinking along those lines, she suddenly shook her head vigorously.
"No, no, that's not right! I can't keep relying on Su Mo to clean up after me!" As the deity of her Familia, she couldn't let herself be a burden forever. This time, she would help him. Resolving herself, Hestia puffed up her chest and patted the white slime clinging to her blue ribbon.
"Nope! This time, I'll make sure you get an awesome title!"
"Just wait for my triumphant return!" Mustered by her small spark of courage, Hestia marched boldly out the door. Watching her tiny back disappear, Su Mo could already picture her returning in tears after failing. After all, Hestia's track record for reliability wasn't exactly stellar in his book.
Once he saw her off, Su Mo began packing for another trip into the dungeon. Now that he had the [Silver light Sword], he didn't need any other weapons. And since he'd never worn armor in the first place, there was really only one thing to pack—food. As he was sorting his supplies, something caught his eye at the bottom of the chest. A deep crimson, semi-transparent orb glittered like a gem in the corner, catching the light like a ruby.
"Huh… this thing…"
"Isn't this the material that dropped when I took down Balor, the floor boss?"
Su Mo remembered now—this crystal had come from defeating the Level 49 dungeon boss, Balor. He hadn't known what to do with it back then, so it had sat untouched. But now, after acquiring the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception from the Type-Moon world...
If this thing came from a similar origin...
The idea made Su Mo curious, and he picked up the glowing red orb.