Bell came back upstairs a few minutes later, hair still a little damp, a towel draped over his shoulders.
The first thing he notices is Kaelis and Hestia sitting way too close together on the bean bag.
Hestia's face is bright red, and Kaelis looks far too pleased with himself.
"…Goddess? Master? What's going on?"
Hestia flinched like she'd been caught doing something illegal.
Bell's eyes drifted past them and unto what they were on.
They were sitting very close together on the bean bag.
And Hestia's face was still bright red.
"…Is something wrong?"
"Nope," Kaelis answered without missing a beat. A smug smile still on his face.
"N–Nothing at all!" Hestia added immediately.
Bell frowned. "…You both answered at the same time."
"Coincidence," Kaelis said calmly as he waved off his concern.
"A totally normal coincidence!" Hestia nodded way too hard.
Bell clearly didn't believe them.
Hestia coughed into her fist and abruptly changed topics. "A–Anyway! Bell! Do you want a status update!?"
"…Y–Yes, Goddess."
"Good! Sit!" she pointed at her old red and black settee.
Once Bell lay down with his back facing upwards, Hestia pricked her finger and let her blood fall between his shoulder blades.
"…Alright… let's see…"
After a few seconds passed with her fiddling with his status,
"…Eh?" Hestia froze at what she saw.
Bell blinked. "Goddess?"
"…Hold on." She leaned closer with one eye open. "…No, that's not right…"
Seeing the numbers aren't changing or getting blurry, her eyes widened.
"B–Bell, your stats—"
Kaelis tilted his head. "Are…are they bad?"
"They're not bad!" Hestia snapped. "They're insane!"
Bell stiffened. "I–Insane…?"
"All your basic stats jumped from I0 to solid F-rank!" she said, staring slack jawed.
"Strength, Endurance, Dexterity—everything's in the three hundreds!"
"R–Really!?" Bell's eyes lit up.
"And your Agility—" she stopped, stared again, then shouted,
"C-rank! Over six hundred!"
"…C!?" Bell squeaked.
Kaelis on the side was just cringing at the two making noise like ladies and rethinking his choice over the last 4-something years.
Bell has barely gotten any character development throughout those years due to him being around Kaelis who is a possessive teacher the whole time watching over him like a hawk.
It's about time I make him go out on his own. He ain't gonna die when I'm not looking, right?
He sighed.
Hestia slowly pulled her hand back, staring at him like he'd grown another head.
"This doesn't make sense… Bell, you only went on one dive."
She peered straight at him.
"What happened down there?"
Bell laughed weakly and scratched the back of his head.
"I uh. I kinda fought a lot…all the way to the tenth floor."
He quickly turned his face away, refusing to meet Hestia's gaze.
Her face says it all as she stared at him with a piercing glare.
Bell raised his hands hurriedly. "I–It was scary at first! But Master was watching the whole time! He stopped me if I messed up!"
"That doesn't make it better!" Hestia shouted.
Kaelis flashed a thumbs up. "Stress accelerates growth. Fear sharpens instinct. Bell did well."
Hestia rubbed her temples in frustration. "What is wrong with my familia."
She didn't even bother to address Kaelis going into the dungeon.
Bell quickly tried to lighten her mood. "But Goddess! I feel stronger now!"
He flexed his muscles as he began hitting poses.
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then sighed.
"…I'm proud of you," she said stiffly as if she's a robot.
This child of hers, from the moment he joined her familia, has been making her go through so much.
"Huh. You broke her, Bell."
"It's my fault!?"
Hestia's eyes slid sideways to Kaelis.
"And you… warn me next time you turn my child into a training experiment."
Kaelis nodded. "I'll consider it."
"…You won't, will you."
"No."
Bell laughed nervously.
Hestia sighed again—then smiled despite herself.
"…Honestly… what kind of familia did I end up with? I'm going to bed."
She headed for the basement.
"Wait," Kaelis called out, making her turn to face him. "Here's the money. Pay off your debt tomorrow."
He placed the punch onto the old table.
"Mmm, sure."
They watched her was she disappeared down the stairs.
"Aren't you going to bed as well?" Kaelis turned to Bell.
He nodded, "Ah!" Bell went and grabbed his sleeping clothes from the chest before heading down as well.
Silence quickly descended upon the room.
Now that everything's out of the way, he decided it was time to increase his knowledge and power the way he always does—study and understanding.
"Which one should I start with first?"
Sitting crossed-legged with his arm propped under his chin, Kaelis gazed calculatingly at the numerous materials scattered in front of him.
Now that he got everything else out the way,
"This metal seems like a good start…"
He picked up a dull gray piece of metal. It looked like ordinary iron.
If it hadn't come from the Dungeon, most people wouldn't think twice about it.
But well, he gotta see what it's got.
Kaelis spread his spirit over the metal, focusing on its structure.
He examined how it held together, where it resisted stress, and where it gave way.
It was denser than normal iron, not heavier, but packed tighter. There were small irregularities throughout—not damage, but signs that it had formed under unusual conditions.
It was denser than normal iron—not necessarily heavier, but packed tighter.
The structure itself was uneven in certain places, but that could be attributed to its unprocessed form.
As he continued analyzing further, he noticed something else that made stop and pause.
When going about his regular process, he usually converts his spirit into decent types of energy to see how they react to various different elements.
It's a necessary process.
So when he introduced a small amount of magic that's made up of natural and spiritual essence to it, the metal didn't simply absorb it or let it pass through.
Instead, there were tiny vein-like pathways that the energy moved through its internals faintly, circulating briefly before settling.
That means its properties are Magic Conductivity… Nice.
No wonder it's denser but isn't heavier than regular metal. This is the first I'm seeing one with literal veins.
In other worlds, people just coat the weapons in magic or whatever to enhance them but with these circuits, it might just be able to create basic magic powered tools.
The flow wasn't as efficient though, because it broke down quickly, but it was there.
He adjusted his focus, tracing those pathways and noting where the circulation stalled or dispersed.
It wasn't suited for heavy enchantment, but it could support reinforcement or low-level magical effects.
He got some pretty great ideas for what he could use it for.
After pulling his spirit back, he set the metal down as he felt his soul's size gained a slight increase.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was daytime from the sunlight shining through the cracks and crevices along with the old windows pushed open.
What time exactly, he couldn't actually tell.
It could even be days now and he wouldn't know. He would have to wait until either Hestia or Bell to tell him.
Either way, it's no problem for him. He has at least 5 different materials before him.
He reached for another piece.
This time, a monster dropped item. A finger shard from one of the war shadows that they killed.
He waited a few seconds before he once more spread his spirit over the shard.
Another round of studying and understanding underwent.
A few more days passed with Kaelis continuing his study of the materials he had gathered.
During that time, Bell began diving into the Dungeon on his own.
He took things carefully and managed to get by without major trouble, while Hestia spent her days working at Hephaestus Familia's shop.
Chapter 72 end.