"Ahem. Let introduce her. This is Lili."
Pulling the prum girl forward, Drake introduced her to Hestia.
"She's a partner I t after becoming an adventurer, and she's also my supporter."
"Eh… A child from the Soma Familia?"
Hestia sized up Lili in front of her, keenly sensing the source of the Grace of the Gods she carried, then looked at Drake in surprise.
Even Hestia had heard of the Soma Familia's "bad reputation."
As expected, her gaze toward Drake clearly carried the question: "Is it really okay to let soone from the Soma Familia work as a clerk?"
"Don't worry. Lili is a good kid."
Drake patted Lili's head and guaranteed it.
"She's also very hardworking, so she can help quite a bit."
With Lili watching the shop, so basic goods, such as Lesser Potions, torches, and arrows, could be restocked directly.
In addition, Drake gave her part of the crafting permissions, so she could also make items like Flaming Arrows.
Although this ant the herb garden in Terraria would need soone else to look after it, Drake currently had enough manpower.
At worst, he could have Saya or Rei Miyamoto temporarily fill that role.
"Lili… Lili will work hard!"
Although she was sowhat unwilling to return to Orario, Lili still pumped herself up and accepted Drake's order.
However, the fact that her coworker was a genuine goddess gave her quite a bit of pressure.
"Relax. Lady Hestia isn't the strict kind of goddess."
Seeing that she was sowhat restrained, Drake comforted her.
"Lady Hestia, please help her get familiar with the shop's work environnt."
Although Lili had helped out on the first day the shop opened, the custor flow back then had not been nearly as heavy as it was now.
"No problem!" Hestia said confidently.
"As the senior employee in the shop, I'll teach her properly!"
"Oh right, do you have any spare uniforms?"
"About that… I don't."
Drake glanced at the outfit Hestia was wearing.
He had obtained it for free from a high-end boutique in Tokonosu City, so naturally, there was no second one.
The main colors of the outfit were blue and white, which suited Hestia very well.
Its style was also relatively conservative. It did not expose as much skin as her original outfit, while still looking attractive.
After keeping the matter of work uniforms in mind, Drake began dealing with the work at hand.
He planned to add a few new products to the shop while improving his basic ability values.
After all, with the [Terrarian Craftsman] skill, Drake only needed to craft new equipnt to easily raise his stats while barely lifting a finger.
"The materials dropped after defeating the Desert Scourge last ti should be enough to make a full set of armor."
Drake searched through his inventory and placed the scattered materials on the table.
Every two Pearl Shards, Corals, Starfish, and Seashells could be crafted into one "Sea Remains" at a furnace.
After using up the basic materials he had on hand, Drake obtained twenty "Sea Remains."
Crafting a full set of "Victide Armor" required twelve.
If he wanted to craft the Victide Armor sets for all classes, he would need twenty-four in total.
However, as a low-level armor set, the bonuses between different class versions of Victide Armor were not very different.
Moreover, judging by its defense and set effect, it was not as good as the Jungle Armor Drake was currently using.
Drake only intended to make one "warrior" version of the armor and display it in the shop window as decoration.
As for the remaining eight Sea Remains, after repeated consideration, Drake finally made a pickaxe and a magic book.
[Greatbay Pickaxe (Green): Has 55% pickaxe power. Can mine Demonite Ore, Crimtane Ore, teorite, Prism Shards, and Prismite.]
[Coral Spout (Green): Casts the "Coral Spike" spell, dealing 8 magic damage. Costs 7 mana per cast.]
The Greatbay Pickaxe was a tool Drake intended to use himself.
In Terraria, pickaxes could mine different ore materials depending on their "pickaxe power."
If a pickaxe's power was too low, even if one encountered high-grade ore, it would be impossible to mine.
For the ti being, the Greatbay Pickaxe, with 55% pickaxe power, was already the best pickaxe Drake could use.
After this, he would need to defeat certain bosses and use boss materials to craft higher-grade pickaxes.
"Once I kill the Eater of Worlds, I can jump straight to Hellstone materials."
"Then I can go back and craft the equipnt I skipped to raise my ability values…"
While thinking about his next course of action, Drake stored the excess materials back into his inventory.
[Coral Spout] sounded a little strange by na, but in reality, it was a magic book.
In Orario, magic books were generally rare items that might allow soone to learn the spell written inside after reading them.
But Terraria's spellbooks were more like magic swords. They were a type of weapon.
As long as one consud mana, one could release the magic inside the spellbook without needing any special aptitude.
In terms of pure combat effect, [Coral Spout] was not as good as the Superheated Thermionic Beam Cannon in Drake's possession.
However, this magic book had two attack forms.
One fired coral fragnts like a shotgun, dealing damage.
The other gathered power and fired a large coral fragnt that could attach to an enemy, dealing continuous damage.
After retrieving the large coral fragnt, one could directly recover 150 mana!
That was its important function!
One had to know that even a Lesser Mana Potion could only recover 50 mana!
In addition, after retrieving the coral fragnt, one would also obtain a buff called "Coral Symbiosis."
This buff could increase the spellbook's charge speed and deal additional damage.
Even an adventurer who knew nothing about magic could temporarily act as a low-level mage apprentice after becoming familiar with how to use this spellbook.
In combat, they could fight using magic.
If converted into the "magic" of the DanMachi world, it would roughly be equivalent to a spell with two chant lines.
"I'll wait until after leveling up and obtaining the Stigma Alchemy skill before putting it on display."
After thinking for a while, Drake decided to temporarily seal away this magic book.
In theory, as long as Drake crafted enough magic weapons, he could use any number of spells.
From weak sparks of fla to the "Last Prism," which could pierce through the world…
For Orario adventurers, who could at most master three spells, this thing was still a bit too ahead of its ti.
"This should be about enough."
After making a full set of Victide Armor, a pickaxe, and a magic book, Drake vaguely felt that his attributes could no longer continue rising.
It was like a water tank that was already full. Even if more water were poured in, it would simply overflow.
...
In order to avoid wasting the later effects of [Terrarian Craftsman], Drake went to Hephaestus early the next morning to prepare for his level-up.
"I was wondering how long you would wait."
The goddess, who was tempering a mold, heard the door open and looked up with a slight smile.
"You no longer need to stay at Level 1?"
"Mm. I feel like I've already reached the limit."
Drake nodded and said firmly,
"Goddess, please update my status and raise my level."
"As for the Developnt Ability… sa as before, I choose Stigma Alchemy."
Seeing that his attitude was settled, Hephaestus's fla-tempered red eyes softened with warmth.
"Okay."
There were no unnecessary words. As usual, Drake removed his shirt and lay down on the table.
As the goddess dripped divine blood onto his back, she sighed with emotion.
"You've reached Level 2 as well… Normally, I should be saying sothing like that."
"But your leveling speed is far too fast. My mories are still stuck on the mont when you first received the Grace of the Gods."
"Is that so? I've experienced quite a lot myself… many rich adventures."
After he said that, Drake noticed the goddess's hand stop moving.
"Goddess, you're not still worried about what happened before, are you?"
"Not really."
Hephaestus teasingly patted Drake on the back.
"The level-up is already complete."
"…Huh?"
"Don't tell you thought there would be a burst of crackling light, as if you couldn't wait for all of Orario to see it?"
Although Drake had heard that one's body would not visibly change during a level-up, he really felt as though nothing had happened just now.
At the very least…
Couldn't there have been a "Congratulations on leveling up" notification or sothing?
"[Level Up] will not alter your body structure, so don't hold that kind of expectation."
Hephaestus threw Drake's clothes over and explained,
"However, your [Status] has indeed been sublimated. Your [vessel] has risen to a higher stage."
"When you fight the enemies you fought before, you will definitely notice the difference."
The goddess finished speaking with a cheerful smile, then handed Drake a record sheet filled with the common language.
Divine text could only be read by gods, so it needed to be translated into the "common language" and written on paper so adventurers themselves could see the changes in their status.
At this mont, Drake's status had beco very different from before.
[Drake]
Level: Lv.2
Basic Abilities:
Strength 0 I
Endurance 0 I
Agility 0 I
Dexterity 0 I
Magic 0 I
Developnt Ability: Stigma Alchemy
Skill: Terrarian Craftsman
After leveling up, his previous ability values were cleared and reset to zero.
This was sothing Drake had known for a long ti, so he was not surprised.
Instead, he turned his attention to the Developnt Ability he possessed.
[Stigma Alchemy (I)]
[ Increases understanding and manipulation of elents and the microscopic world.]
[ Significantly improves this ability's effects when obtaining "Soma."]
[ Unlocks "Decomposition" ability.]
If he had still held so doubts before, then when Drake saw the word "Soma," he could finally confirm it.
This "Stigma Alchemy" was the sa "Stigma Alchemy" from his mories!
The only problem was—
"Speaking of which, what does Soma an?"
Hephaestus had naturally seen the description in Drake's status and asked with great curiosity.
"Who knows?"
Drake gave a light cough and shifted the topic.
"Goddess, aren't you attending the Denatus? It should be about ti, right?"
"Ah… I almost forgot because you didn't ntion it!"
Hearing Drake's reminder, Hephaestus suddenly reacted and hurriedly began tidying up.
....
Today was the "Gathering of the Gods," also called the "Denatus," held once every three months.
On this day, the gods of Orario would gather together, laughing and drinking at a grand banquet.
To summarize it in Hephaestus's words, it was a eting where a group of idle gods with too much free ti gathered together to stir up entertainnt.
As for the source of that "entertainnt"…
It was deciding titles for Familia mbers who had [leveled up] during that period.
Starting from Level 2, Familia mbers gained the qualification to be granted titles by the gods.
Ais's title, [Sword Princess], was also a title given by the gods.
Incidentally, only gods who had Familia mbers at Level 2 were allowed to attend the banquet.
Goddesses like Hestia, who had no Familia mbers, could only be kept outside the door.
From another perspective, a god's Familia mbers were like hostages.
While making fun of other gods' children, they also had to place their own children before the gods.
"Please, Goddess."
Drake made his request to Hephaestus with a serious expression.
"Please make sure to fight for a decent title for . At the very least, don't let it be sothing like Pink Fluffy Bunny."
"Ahaha… I'll try."
Hephaestus could only respond to Drake's expectations with a rather weak smile.
Judging from the attention Drake had gained by reaching Level 2 in half a month…
Those gods who loved drama and feared no chaos would definitely stir things up at the banquet.
"But Goddess, are you planning to attend the banquet dressed like that?"
Seeing that Hephaestus was already preparing to leave, Drake looked at the goddess in her thin top and black trousers, his expression sowhat subtle.
Forget formalwear—this outfit looked closer to n's clothing.
"What's wrong with these clothes?"
Hephaestus glanced at what she was wearing and did not feel anything was wrong.
She had always been this casual. It was not like she was attending a serious banquet anyway.
"I think you need to shock those gods."
"That way, they won't dare brush you off with so weird title."
Since this concerned his own reputation, Drake went all in and began advising his goddess on her outfit.
"As it happens, I have a formal dress here. Goddess, you can try it on… I'm sure the effect will be excellent."
"R-really?"
Perhaps because this was the first ti she had seen Drake look so serious, Hephaestus was stunned for a mont before reaching out to take the clothes he handed over.
This outfit was none other than the wedding-dress vanity item Drake had gotten from the Zombie Bride.
Leaving aside whether the DanMachi world had the concept of a "wedding dress," this outfit itself was an extrely gorgeous formal gown.
"This… wouldn't it be a little unsuitable for ?"
Hephaestus hesitated slightly. She could tell that this outfit was very finely made.
However, she was used to dressing casually, so she was not quite accustod to such formal clothing.
"Goddess, you need to have confidence in yourself. Once you put it on, you'll be the brightest star of the day."
Drake spoke with obvious regret.
"The only pity is that I won't be able to see what you look like wearing it."
The goddess of forging, who spent every day alongside furnaces and hamrs, suddenly changing into a magnificent gown—
What mattered was exactly that contrast.
Seeing Drake's disappointed appearance, Hephaestus lowered her head and looked at the white dress in her hands.
Then she suddenly said, "There's still so ti. How about… I try it on first and let you see the effect?"
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