In the labyrinth city of Orario, inside a room of a certain inn.
Hestia stared wordlessly at Sakura, who had gotten up from the bed with an embarrassed expression, and then at An Xora and Seele, who stood to the side watching calmly as if none of this were surprising in the slightest.
"So… what Sakura means is that during the process of me granting the blessing, you learned, analyzed, understood, and mastered the underlying principles of the blessing, then took over my blessing, completed it yourself, and finally bestowed it upon yourself?"
"I'm sorry, Hestia-onee," Sakura apologized with a guilty look.
Hestia, however, wasn't angry at all. What she felt instead was sheer disbelief.
The blessing system was the very core of the gods' game in the Lower World. After thousands of years of refinement by the gods, it was already extraordinarily complete. Forget a child of the Lower World—even the gods themselves wouldn't dare claim they could analyze and master the principles of the blessing from scratch without using divine power. This wasn't something as simple as "being able to use it."
And yet, Sakura—right in front of her—had deduced the remaining steps and fully mastered the system before Hestia had even finished engraving the status, forcibly "stealing" the half-completed blessing straight out of her hands.
Absurd. Even for a goddess, it was absurd beyond belief.
"So this is your real goal, isn't it?" Hestia asked.
"You want the blessing because you intend to obtain the power to establish your own Familia, just like a god?"
"That is indeed my goal," An Xora nodded calmly.
"But we don't intend to use the blessing to found a Familia in this world."
"Not planning to found a Familia, yet still wanting to control the power of blessings… Lower World children really are hard to understand."
As a benevolent goddess, Hestia didn't dwell too long on the fact that her blessing had been stolen. There was only one thing she truly cared about now.
"Is Sakura… still considered my Familia member?"
Hearing this, Sakura—who was kneeling on the bed—nodded.
"The Familia crest on Sakura's body is still Hestia-onee's crest. In the eyes of other gods, Sakura is still a member of Hestia-onee's Familia."
Although the crest was now completely disconnected from Hestia and no longer required her to fulfill any duties as a patron deity, kind-hearted Sakura still chose to acknowledge this bond.
She treated it as compensation of sorts—for Hestia's sake. In this world, Sakura would still identify herself as a member of the Hestia Familia.
"An angel… Sakura, you're practically an angel!"
After hearing Sakura's answer, Hestia immediately threw herself into Sakura's arms, hugging her tightly as she sat on the bed, her face full of emotion.
"Even without the Familia bond, from now on Sakura is my family! A fate-bound community that no one can ever separate! If anyone dares bully Sakura, even if it means returning to the heavens, I'll make them pay!"
Sakura smiled gently and hugged Hestia back, and for a moment the entire inn room was filled with warmth and harmony.
"Alright, that's enough. It's about time you give Seele her blessing," An Xora said after a few minutes, seeing no sign of Hestia letting go.
"Also, Sakura—what does your status look like? Can you show us?"
"The status panel?"
At An Xora's request, Sakura once again revealed the blessing on her back and transcribed it into text on a piece of paper so everyone present could understand it.
『Kinomoto Sakura』
Lv. 1
Strength: [I]0
Endurance: [I]0
Dexterity: [I]0
Agility: [I]0
Magic: [I]0
"Magic"
[Magic Card Creation]
• Tool-type magic
• Creates cards imbued with different magical powers
• Created cards permanently exist and can be granted life
"Skills"
[Talent Beyond Worlds]
• Genius
• Greatly increases growth speed of all attributes
• Magic growth speed is further greatly increased
• Automatically acquires magic-related development abilities over time
That was Sakura's displayed status panel.
The five basic attributes needed no further explanation. Each attribute was divided into ten ranks, from highest to lowest: S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, with higher ranks indicating stronger attributes.
Attributes from 0–99 were ranked [I], 100–199 as [H], 200–299 as [G], and so on, with the upper limit being [S] at 900–999.
Regardless of one's prior strength, anyone who received a blessing would start with all attributes at zero. The status only recorded growth achieved after receiving the blessing. The same applied upon leveling up—previous growth was retained while the panel reset, without affecting actual strength.
As for the listed magic and skills, An Xora could only say: take it at face value. After all, even the blessing itself had already been fully analyzed by Sakura—naturally, the status panel was something she filled out herself.
Hestia, however, was deeply impressed by the magic and skills on Sakura's panel.
Magic certainly existed in the DanMachi world, but ordinary magic and magic recorded through divine blessings were worlds apart. Common magic was merely a technique, whereas magic awakened through blessings could be described as miracles—some spells even possessed abilities that astonished the gods themselves.
And for Sakura, whose talent was terrifying even to deities and who could analyze blessings at a glance, Hestia firmly believed her magic would be anything but ordinary.
The same went for skills. Just reading the descriptions conveyed overwhelming power—simple, brutal numerical beauty.
"Next is giving Seele her blessing."
This time, Hestia didn't act at all.
Instead, Sakura personally engraved the Familia blessing onto Seele. She didn't even need Hestia's divine blood as a catalyst, instead perfectly simulating its properties with magic. The end result was indistinguishable from a blessing engraved by Hestia herself.
『Seele Vollerei』
Lv. 1
Strength: [I]0
Endurance: [I]0
Dexterity: [I]0
Agility: [I]0
Magic: [I]0
"Magic"
[Genesis / Withering]
• Life magic / Death magic
• Activates, transforms, and bestows life upon all things
• Decomposes, annihilates, and bestows death upon all things
• Magic reinforcement
[Quantumization]
• Unknown magic
• Enters a quantum-entangled state, enabling effects such as teleportation, ignoring attacks, and ignoring defense
"Skills"
[One Body, Two Souls]
• Second personality
• Independent combat
• All attribute growth doubled
And thus, a Hestia Familia that had no real connection to Hestia herself was born.
To celebrate, Hestia waved her hand grandly and declared she would use all her savings to treat Sakura, Seele—her "children" in name—and An Xora to a big meal…
…fried potato balls.
After all, she had only been scraping by with part-time work herself, and treating three people meant she realistically couldn't afford anything fancy. It wasn't stinginess—she simply lacked the funds.
In the end, it was Seele who paid, using the valis she'd obtained by pawning gold earlier, and treated Hestia to a proper meal at the Hostess of Fertility. Over dinner, she and Sakura discussed their plans and preparations for entering the Dungeon.
PS:
These two chapters contain quite a bit of worldbuilding, so they might feel a bit slower. Mainly because DanMachi isn't quite as universally familiar as Arknights among readers, so I need to explain things more carefully. I can't just dive straight into the plot assuming everyone already knows the setting like I did before.
✨ Bonus Chapter Goals ✨
• 10 Reviews = 1 Bonus Chapter
• 100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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