Orario, the Dungeon City, was a massive metropolis built atop the Dungeon itself, known as the center of the world.
With the Guild—responsible for managing both the city and the Dungeon—at its core, Orario gathered countless races, including humans, elves, beastmen, and dwarves.
These races gathered under various gods, received their blessings to become Familia members, and made a living in many different ways. The most common path was becoming an adventurer and challenging the Dungeon.
Because the Dungeon continuously spawned monsters—the primary threat of this world—powerful Familias took pride in reaching deeper floors, while weaker Familias survived by hunting low-level monsters and selling magic stones and materials.
In a city like this, strength naturally commanded respect.
However, despite An Xora and Seele both being extremely strong, no one in this world knew that.
After all, the locals judged strength primarily by the simple and crude metric of Blessing Levels.
From Lv.1 to Lv.9, ordinary people who received a god's blessing could train and fight to raise their stats. Once their stats reached a certain threshold, they could achieve a feat and level up, gaining even greater power and a new status sheet.
Since neither An Xora nor Seele had ever received a god's blessing, in the eyes of Orario's natives they couldn't be considered particularly strong—at best, unremarkable.
An Xora didn't care much about this, as long as no one came looking for trouble.
He and Seele went to a pawnshop, exchanged a few gold bars—courtesy of Makima's "friendship sponsorship"—for some valis, the local currency, and then checked into an inn.
Inside the room, An Xora opened the system panel once more and silently gave the command.
"System, manifest avatar."
"Ding! Points deducted. Manifesting avatar…"
Five hundred thousand points—and Sakura's magical talent stored in the system—vanished instantly.
A soft white light filled the room.
Within it, a young girl gradually appeared. She had a youthful face, short chestnut-brown hair, and wore a black-and-white short dress.
"Brother An Xora."
As the light faded, the newly manifested girl looked at An Xora immediately and greeted him with a sweet smile.
"Welcome, Sakura."
An Xora reached out and gently patted Sakura's soft hair. After a moment's thought, he extended his other hand and ruffled Seele's hair as well.
One adorable girl in each hand.
An Xora felt his mind calm down considerably.
Still, business was business.
"Next, we need to find a god and obtain a blessing."
Even without deliberate training, Sakura's magic power would naturally continue to grow thanks to her talent. But active training and stimulation would accelerate that growth, and becoming an adventurer was a good option.
More importantly, if An Xora wanted Sakura to analyze the Blessing system, she needed to personally experience the process of receiving a Falna.
That meant choosing the right god was crucial.
First and foremost, the god's character had to be good—no bottomless degenerates. Their moral standards had to be high.
Second, the Familia's size shouldn't be too large. An Xora didn't plan to receive a blessing himself, and with Seele around, Sakura and Seele didn't need seniors to protect them. A small Familia would be easier to take control of once Sakura finished analyzing the system.
Finally, there was the issue of gender.
Only a female god would do. Male gods could go as far away as possible.
Taking all that into account, there was a perfect match in Orario—and she just happened to be the heroine of DanMachi itself.
The Blue-Ribbon Goddess, Hestia.
In terms of character, although Hestia had once freeloaded in a friend's Familia and been kicked out, her moral standards and care for her Familia ranked among the very best of all gods.
And since she descended to the Lower World late, if the main story hadn't started yet, her Familia should still be completely empty.
Coupled with the fact that she was a goddess, all conditions lined up perfectly.
An Xora immediately locked onto his target and led Sakura and Seele out of the inn.
Finding Hestia wasn't difficult.
Even without using any perception abilities, simply wandering around Orario's more famous food streets made it highly likely to run into her.
And sure enough, things went exactly as An Xora expected.
After passing through a few streets near food stalls, before An Xora even needed to actively search, a certain blue-ribbon goddess noticed them first.
"That is… what?"
After finishing a day of work, Hestia was walking down the street with a tired body, thinking about how she might find a child willing to join her Familia.
Because she had descended unprepared and come straight to Orario, her Familia was still completely empty. No child in the Lower World was willing to join a Familia starting from zero—especially when the chief goddess herself seemed to have no special talents.
After freeloading for months and being kicked out by an exasperated friend, Hestia had no choice but to work part-time to survive, while fantasizing about meeting someone willing to join her Familia.
Someone she could support—or even be supported by.
As long as they were willing to join her Familia and become her family, that would be enough. They didn't need to be outstanding or hardworking.
Even if they just lived ordinary lives together, working day to day, Hestia would still feel happy.
It was in this state of mind that Hestia accidentally saw An Xora, Seele, and Sakura walking toward her from across the street.
And in that instant, she couldn't look away.
Among the three, two were completely unreadable—even to her as a goddess.
The only one she could barely perceive made her feel as though divine authority itself resided within her body.
How was that possible?!
Hestia rubbed her eyes in disbelief, repeatedly confirming that she wasn't mistaken.
That blue-haired girl truly carried an aura of life and death that rivaled divine authority itself.
As for the chestnut-haired girl and the only man present—she couldn't see through them at all.
The chestnut-haired girl felt like gazing at the vast starry sky as a mortal—even as a goddess, Hestia couldn't glimpse the whole picture. Looking deeper only made her feel strangely insignificant.
And the man… was shrouded in an impenetrable fog, offering not even the slightest opening to peer into.
So curious.
So curious.
I want these three children to become my family…
Swallowing hard, Hestia found herself unconsciously walking toward them.
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