We'd managed to arrive to the Hostess of Fertility at a good time. Everything was a little slow, and all five of us managed to find seat near the entrance, with Aurelia settling down on the counter. Mia eyed her, but upon glancing at and receiving a nod from Shakti, shrugged it off.
"Mia, I ever tell you your joint is cozy as hell?" I ask the tall, beefy woman taking our orders.
She eyes me and snorts, "No, but I'll take it. Just because I don't fish for compliments doesn't mean I'll reject earned ones."
What a woman. Pretty damn tall too, not many women I've met that almost hit six foot, and those muscles, mmmm…
I don't let my eyes linger, but the smirk she gives me lets me know I've been caught out, and I click my tongue.
"Miss Grand, you were an Adventurer, right? What level are you?" Hestia asks with wide eyes, "At least three, right? You seem strong."
"I was a six," Mia inclines her head, "Took a bad injury. Even though I got it healed up it felt like a sign, or at least I took it as one. Always wanted to open a restaurant, and what better time than when time than… well, things were bad then."
I frown at that, but don't question her as it seems rude.
She finishes taking our orders and looks our ragtag group over. Three Adventurers, two gods, and a monster walk into a bar. I really hope the punchline doesn't land poorly.
"I am Ganesha!" the god smiled as he caught her eye, "It's good to see you again, Mia Grand!"
"Aye, you as well, Ganesha," she smiled at him, and turned back to me, "What about you, boyo? Went and got yourself a pet monster, eh?"
Aurelia's feathers ruffle and she glares at the much larger woman that could paste her if she so much as pecked in her general direction. Mia calmly noted the reaction, and then smirked down at the bird.
I chuckled, and Aurelia turned her rueful gaze upon me.
"She dodged my knife, I got interested, decided to file Taming at the Guild," I give her a quick explanation.
"Sounds like quite the story."
"Eh, not really. She dodged, I got invested, some monsters attacked her and I got interested," I shrug, and reach out to stroke Aurelia's floof, and she relaxes in response, "The monsters are dead and we're not. Dungeon work is pretty boring, just the same thing over and over, but Aurelia was interesting so I took her under my wing."
Shakti snickers, only to flush as we all turn to the normally composed woman.
"You are one of my people," I bow my head in respect, hiding a smile.
"N-no, it's just that she's a bird," Shakti wave a hand, and flushes deeper, "A-and your name is Crow…"
She trails off and buries her face in her hands, and Ganesha gives her a gentle pat on the back.
"HEEEEERE'S LOKI!" a flat redhead bursts in through the entrance, "WHERE'S THE JACK BIRD?!"
"Fucks sake, this gods' damned city's rumor mill," I mutter, turning around, "Oh, hello, Riveria. Hello elven cinnamon roll. Sword princess."
"Cinnamon roll?" Lefiya's brow furrows, "Is that nickname?"
"More a term from back home for people that are sweet and small," I grin as she flushes, "You know, the 'too pure for this world' sorts of people."
"Cinnamon roll," Loki slowly sounds out, glancing around and locking eyes with Aurelia, giving an unamused stare back, "I like that. The bird though, tell me the story."
"Found her. Threw a knife at her. She dodged. I chased. Monsters attacked her. I saved her. Tamed. The end," I drone out in a bored tone.
Loki glares at me, "That's how you tell it? Where's the fun, the adventure?"
"I'll save the bombastic, entertaining version for my goddess," I tease back, suddenly gaining life.
"Mouuu, Riveria, you were right, this one's no good!"
Riveria, suddenly put on the spot and having her opinions openly thrust into public without her agreement, reddens slightly. She clenches her eyes shut, and pinches the bridge of her nose.
"My goddess," she hisses out, "Loki…"
"NO GOOD!" Hestia explodes all over the taller, flatter goddess, "I'LL SHOW YOU 'NO GOOD'!"
"Oh wow, look, it's Hestia!" Loki jeers, tone shifting to blatantly artificial wonder, "I couldn't see her on account of being as small as a bug!"
"DAMN THAT'S CRAZY," Hestia returns fire with one of my tried and true fallback lines, "IT'S HARD NOT TO SEE YOU WITH HOW LITTLE YOU WEAR, EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING WORTH SEEING!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"FLAT! FLATTIE! NO CHEST!"
The two goddesses violently pinch each other's cheek and pull, all the while screaming increasingly distorted insults at each other while everyone in the Hostess of Fertility watches in twisted fascination.
"You know, Hestia picked that first bit she said from me?" I lean over and murmur to Ganesha, only for him to respond with quiet disbelief, "It's true. I'm very proud of how terrible an influence I am!"
Prana sighs, Shakti stares at me in disapproval, and Aurelia begins nibbling on a piece of lettuce Mia put in front of her.
"Hey, shouldn't you be stopping this?" I idly ask the restaurant's proprietress as the two screaming goddesses fall to the ground to wrestle each other.
"Meh, rules are no violence. This isn't violence, it's comedy," Mia shrugs and leans forward, resting on her arms, "I'll step in if they actually hurt each other beyond a few scratches and small bruises."
Riveria stares down at her and my goddess, then decisively walks around them to sit next to our group.
"Not gonna do anything either?" I ask her, snorting as I see Lefiya try and fail at getting Loki's attention.
"I don't see you making a move," she shoots back.
"Ah, gotcha, upset she outed you, huh?"
Riveria hisses a breath in, and then lets it out, "Mia, I'll take a pork cutlet with salad, please."
"I'm so proud of you, you've matured so quickly in such a short time," I shift gears to praise, and her eye violently spasms.
"Ack!" Lefiya yelps as she gets yanked down, only to have her yelps ignored as Hestia and Loki continue their fight on top of her.
"Oh yeah, now it's getting good," I nod, and Ganesha peers down with renewed interest.
Shakti and Riveria meet each other's eyes and sigh in unison.
Business as usual, I guess.
"Your food, sir," a girl says to me, and I turn to her. Brown eyes, slightly curled brown hair, nice figure and face that brings to mind the image of a polished up 'girl next door', with cat ears flickering atop her head. Behind her, a green haired elf is also placing plates down.
"Hey there, haven't met you yet," I nod to her, "My name's Ken. Ken Crow. You can call me either, but don't call me mister."
"Hee~" she smiles back, "I'm Anya Fromel, and this is Ryuu!"
The elf nods at me, "Thank you for your patronage."
"Eh, no problem. Y'all make good eats," I smile at her, "Thanks for the service. Sorry about the mess on the floor, we'll clean it up for you in a bit."
Ryuu's expression doesn't change, but Anya grins widely at that. Both curtsy, and leave those of us with food to eat.
"NOTHING BUT BLOBS OF FAT! WE CAN'T HAVE KIDS, THEY'RE USELESS!"
"FLAT! SO FLAT I COULD CUT MEAT ON YOUR CHEST AND THE KNIFE WOULD SCRAPE SIDEWAYS WITHOUT A MARK!"
"Food's here," I interrupt, and they still, turning up to me.
"I am Ganesha! This is very tasty, Mama Mia!"
"Thank you, Ganesha."
Hestia shoves Loki away from her and scrambles up back to her place beside me, leaving an annoyed goddess and traumatized elf teen behind her.
Man, these things are wild to see in person.
Extrasensory Perception. ESP for short. The idea that some humans, some special individuals, can perceive things beyond the realm of normal human limits.
At their core, Alpha abilities are a relatively 'hard science' take on ESP. Oh sure, you've got the absurd neurology-woo explanations for the shapeshifters and speedsters, but aside from them? Mostly reasonable takes on neural mutations resulting in modified perception, and how that altered viewpoint grants powers.
No magical phenomena, no psychic juice, just good old fashioned human brain meat doing shit it really wasn't meant to do.
One of the things I've found with time is that Utility, the stat for perception, doesn't just enhance my vanilla human 1.0 senses, but Hypercognition and Hyperkinesis to a degree. Each stat gain grants a little keener awareness of my bodily processes, a little better prediction of how stabby implements go into others and how best dodge stabby bits entering me.
Ais Wallenstein? She barely registers to my prediction.
Her movements are a little 'quiet' in a way I can't really explain. I can guess them, but it's more like she's reactionary to stimuli while normal people have small tells that betray them. Every cut of meat, every scoop of veggies is almost like she's just kind of… existing. Meeting her needs.
Feels like a girl that could stand in the corner of a room for hours and just… stare at nothing. That doesn't seem very fair though, because whenever Loki bothers her, flickers of annoyance and emotion flicker out.
"Ais," I get her attention, and her golden eyes flicker to me, "How good are you at killing monsters?"
"Good," she nods.
"Me too," I nod back, and go back to my battered chicken strips. I'd call them chicken tenders, but they weren't exactly the same. A touch of honey and cinnamon in the batter. Strange, but not bad.
Riveria glanced at Ais and then me, a complicated expression on her face.
"That's it?" she asks me, "You just ask her how good she is at killing monsters, and then end it with an agreement?"
"I dunno," I shrug, "Ais seems like a woman of few words. I got everything I needed from her."
It was the honest truth. In the moments between registering my question and answering, her hand had tightened on her knife, the muscles of her arm going slightly taut. I don't have super empathy, but the super-killing ability I have clearly registered a subconscious impulse of fighting. I couldn't determine quite what emotion was on her face, blank as it tends towards, but her eyes had tightened slightly.
Even if I can't really predict her until she starts moving and keeps moving, I don't think anything is wrong with her. Maybe depression, maybe just a degree of calm beyond normal. But just another person.
Ais slightly inclines her head towards Riveria, "It was a good talk?"
It was a short question, a single word response, and a two word closing response. I'm not sure that counts as a conversation exactly, but I'm happy you're getting out of your shell. With prompting.
Riveria's face implies a similar series of thoughts are going through her head, a very mildly strained smile back to Ais, who delivers a smile back. Look at you go, you adorable little murder-cinnamon bun, you're giving the elf a headache without trying and making her feel guilty for it.
No wonder Bell thought you were best girl; I have to put a little effort into bothering Riveria.
"It's good to see you talking with people outside the Familia," the green-haired elf settles on.
"Even if it's with the furry lumberman," Loki agrees with a casual insult.
Hestia starts to get angry, only to get shocked as I snort at Loki's comment.
"What about you, Trickster God?" I ask her, "Got any advice for a bottomfeeder Captain just trying to make it through the daily grind?"
Loki considers me, a thoughtful expression on her face. Slowly, a grin takes its place as she cocks her head and places her chin on a closed fist.
"You know what, kiddo? Sure. Try to get a Skill," Loki says, and Riveria shifts slightly as she turns towards her goddess, "It's tough, but if you do something cool."
"Is that so?" I ask her in neutral interest.
Beside me Hestia is trembling, glaring at Loki, but remains silent. Advice is advice, and I think my goddess doesn't trust herself not to say something about the Skill I already have.
"Oh yeah, there are tons of Skills, and they don't always match up," Loki shrugs, "Tiona and Tione both have the Berserk Skill, but there's a slight difference between the two. Skills are like crystallized memories of personal victories? Little trophies, or commemorative medals for something you personally accomplished."
"Indeed," Ganesha nods and begins to add his own part, "New Adventurers may believe them to merely Developmental Abilities that don't develop, but they're also distinct in that they're unique to individuals. Even if there are occasionally consistent methods to gaining a Skill, such as Loki's Amazon sisters both being berserkers, there are often subtle differences, or minor abilities that are different between them."
The Hiryutes are berserkers? I didn't know that. I didn't even know there was a Berserk Skill. Not that I'm shocked, it's just… hmmm, I'll have to ask Misha about a list of publicly recorded Skills.
Loki grins at Ganesha, "Hey, hey, Ganesha-chan~ I don't suppose you'd share any of those reliable Skill methods with our new rooookiee?"
"I don't suppose you would?" Ganesha calmly shoots back.
"So consistently do things a certain way, make an accomplishment, and get a Skill?" I ask. That's probably how I got Wicca Hazel; kicking an Adventurer's ass while pursuing a place in Hestia's Familia, even before she descended.
"It isn't quite that simple," Prana shook her head, "You don't really decide what skill you get, so much as you can have good guesses based on what's been accomplished before."
"Additionally, it isn't as simple as 'doing something cool'," Riveria shook her head, looking at me, "While you can't be sure that you'll get a Skill, even acting out the same methods as someone else. There's a weight upon gaining Skills. You may not know exactly why you received specific effects, but you never forget what accomplishments gained you a Skill."
"Personal goals. Beliefs," Ais mumbles, before going quiet and staring down at her plate.
I'm getting a whole lot of 'well yes, but also no' from you all.
What really matters to me is that you can get Skill effects related to other ones, even if names were different. I may not have known about the Hiryutes, but I did remember that Haruhime and Ryuu had completely different Skills that boosted Spell effects.
That meant that with thought and consistency, I might be able how to get a limit-breaker like Bell. In ten, no, a little over nine years, I could just buy it from the document but that was… I wanted it now, to get a limit-breaker on my own merits.
I knew I could do it, I just-
"Stop being boring," Loki snorted.
-the fuck did you just say to me?
"Pardon?" I politely ask with a smile, "Boring?"
"Riveria's told me all about you, don'tcha know?" Loki smirks and spreads her hands out in a 'what can you do' gesture, "Mixed bag. 'He's rude, but diligent'. Blah blah blah. Booooring. So what if you work long hours and bring in money. Diligence and consistency are just words for high performance mediocrity. You'll never get a Skill like that."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO MY CHILD?" Hestia loses the battle against herself and begins another yelling match with Loki, although neither move to get physical.
I tune them out. I tune everything around me out, and simply think on Loki's words.
'You'll never get a Skill like that.'
She isn't wrong. I hate it, but I already know it. Even if she doesn't know I have a Skill, I do. I have personal experience with it.
It wasn't the consistent workouts in pursuit of Hestia's blessing. It wasn't the lessons under Lenoa. Meeting Welf, increased diet, training under Prana, or even the trainer before her. None of those are what got me the Skill.
It was defeating Vimta when he mocked my pursuit of a virgin goddess. I was chasing Hestia, but he insulted my goal. I trashed him. It was the first and only time I've gotten a headache since arriving to Orario, but I strained myself mentally to make the most of my prediction and read that motherfucker like he was two bit bitch optional boss that had his moveset entirely measured.
'You never forget what accomplishments gained you a Skill.'
I'm kind of a boring guy, aren't I? Killing is good for stuffing the bank, and long hours are good for increasing odds of Drops, but that's something everyone does. Everyone gets crystals. Anyone can get a drop if they put time in. The numbers going up doesn't really… doesn't really matter.
Boring.
It's crushing. Disappointing. Honestly, kind of humiliating. Probably why Loki said it. It's genuinely good advice wrapped in the cold steel of a backhanded insult meant you to ignore it.
All you need to do to get a Skill is do things worth getting a Skill. Want 'Berkserk'? Go berserk. Want a spell enhancer? Cast spells harder. Want to resist Charm? Simp hard.
Want a limit-breaker? Break your limits. Easy as.
I can do that. Limits are for mundane humans, they're something for other people. I just never bothered because I didn't know you had to show consistency before making accomplishments worthy of gaining Skills.
More importantly, it wasn't profitable. I could strain my magic and my body, to great degrees, but it wasn't safe, and that started to cut into stamina which hurt my consistent pace for crystal harvesting. I wasn't a Hyperadrenal that naturally had the mental wiring for achieving peak human strength or a mighty Archmage with deep, potent reserves to cast from.
Where some would be dismayed at the thought, I found enticement. That's two limits I can keep hitting over and over again until I eventually see results. And I am going to see results. I refuse to level up until I get the damn Skill I want. I'll just keep getting more skilled at all S stats if need be.
Greatness is accrued in small steps, glory in strides.
I've been walking, and walking well, but I've only ever 'run' one time. I have no idea what my actual limits are, never tested them, so how would I have gotten a reward for breaking them?
Thanks, you bitch, I really needed that. I'll pay you back by breaking Ais's record, with higher stats to boot.
"Hestia," I interrupt in a moment between Hestia and Loki yelling at each other, and my goddess turns to see my idly scratching my beard, "Let's go home."
"But-"
"I'll make some peanut butter cookies and give you a back rub while they bake," I smile at her.
"Ohhhhh!" Hestia glances at Loki, then sniffs and haughtily glances away, "Okay, let's go! Bye, Ganesha!"
We say our goodbyes and make our way out, and the last thing we hear is Loki whining and moaning about Ais giving her a backrub and putting her hands all over her goddess body, before a smack rings out.
"Hehehehe," Hestia smiles, "That Wallenwhatsit kid is okay."
"Mhmmm," I idly respond, goddess' hand in mind, distracted making plans for alterations to my Dungeon runs.
Ah, dammit, I'm gonna need to buy more Health potions and start buying a ton of Mind potions. Fuck, does this mean I'm going to start experiencing the rat race that is the Adventurer money grind?
I've been going so hard on efficiency the idea of draining funds as I make them… no, no, it's okay. I should have more than enough in reserve to get the equipment for Hestia's Hero Camp started up. It'll be tough juggling lessons with Dungeon runs, but that means a potential third avenue for gaining a Skill.
"Don't listen to her, she's always rude and mean," Hestia murmurs, hand tightening in mine.
"Consider her words already forgotten," I smile down at the hearth goddess, "I'm already thinking about plans for expanding the Hestia Familia instead of thinking about some silly goddess with less clothes than sense."
Hestia stares into my eyes, searching, before nodding and placing her head against my arm, "Good boy."
I snort, "If you say so."
"I do."
The walk home is filled with idle chatter and jokes poking fun at Loki.
Tomorrow I'll talk to Misha about Guild business functions and start preparations for going hard in the Dungeon. It'll be tough to manage everything, but I'm built different. I'm built stubborn. Supernaturally stubborn.
Hell yeah.