Watching the petite girl with the oversized supporter's pack leave, Keyaru didn't linger in the central plaza; he headed for the Adventurers' Guild.
He'd shown his hand to Lili—mission accomplished.
He'd planted a seed in her heart: "seize your future." It didn't even need watering. Once she started doubting the Soma Familia and proved to herself that saving money wouldn't get her out, she'd come to him on her own.
No one can refuse the chance to seize their future.
Keyaru was no exception. Restoring the Healer's glory is my duty.
"…First, cash in today's haul for valis. Later I'll have Hestia update my status; Corruption and Transformation should be locked in. As for Looting…"
Out from under the Dungeon's pressure, he finally had time to think about how to accelerate his growth.
Now that he knew how to develop skills, getting Looting itself was simple. The real question was whether that ability would work in DanMachi's rules.
In the Redo of Hero world, Looting targeted EXP and MP.
Orario doesn't use those. Before a Level Up, your stats just keep rising with training. When you hit the ceiling for your talent and can't raise them further, most adventurers choose to Level Up via a great deed. At that point the numbers reset to zero and harden into your body's base potential.
"The wiggle room for Looting…"
"…is the unhardened stat gains. As long as I control how much I take, it shouldn't be easy to notice."
Not every god is like Hestia—happy to update your status every day. Most adventurers grind for ages and wait until their god has time to refresh the sheet.
So: join a party delving the Dungeon, skim with Heal when possible, then double-dip with live combat for better-than-half the effort.
That was the most complete plan he had so far.
If he imitated combat technique with Heal and siphoned stats via Looting, could he reach white-hair-red-eyes-rabbit levels?
Maybe.
Playing it straight and training hard with a "double gain" is great—but it mostly boosts technique. Pure stat growth would lag.
Now that he was past the newbie protection window, he could already feel it: the same amount of training barely nudged the numbers. At this rate, a bottleneck was guaranteed.
Lay a solid foundation at every Level and become a numbers monster—that's a step you can't skip if you want to be one of Orario's best. And if he wanted Lili to seize her future, he had to be stronger.
"The plan's viable. Now… where do I find a halfway reliable party?"
After converting today's haul, his total savings from recent dives had reached 10,000 valis—enough to stop stressing about money for a bit.
He walked through Orario at dusk, picked up a cheap takeout dinner, and headed back to their base on South Main.
With time to think, his mind wandered. As a pure rookie, there wasn't much room to Looting. Best option: a party that could reach the middle floors.
Takemikazuchi Familia.
He thought of the long-black-haired beauty who'd helped him polish his combat the last two days.
All told, Mikoto Yamato's party looked perfect for a little "shearing." They weren't so strong they steamrolled the Dungeon, and in a group he'd get proper chances to fight. When the inevitable injuries came, he could Heal them back to baseline and… skim a little stat while he was at it.
"Honestly…"
"It makes sense. Anything serious and they'd buy panaceas—and if I remember right those run about 500,000 valis a bottle. I heal for free and skim a bit? Sounds fair."
One step at a time. Once he'd eaten and updated his status, he could look for Mikoto tonight.
Back in the abandoned church basement, Hestia was already off work. Rather than relax, she was carefully cleaning the room. She'd changed out of the fitted shop uniform.
In a white dress, the blue ribbon did its part to showcase her… righteousness, and the black ponytail draped over her chest gave Hestia the air of a young wife. The hairstyle was a little dangerous, like a widow's—but set that aside and the girl in front of him was simply perfect.
Hearing footsteps, Hestia set down her broom and looked up at Keyaru, eyes bright with surprise.
"Welcome home, Keyaru! The Dungeon must've been rough today, huh?"
She came closer, giving him a once-over. Thinking of his Heal that reset him to baseline—and his habit of treating himself out of sight so she wouldn't worry—she let it go, took his supply bag, and the two-person dinner he'd brought for them.
"It actually wasn't too bad," Keyaru said honestly. "I didn't go deep—same old monsters."
Today's real goal had been developing Heal's derivatives; he'd deliberately slowed his dive.
After shedding his close-fit armor, he took Hestia's pale hand.
"Let's eat first. If it gets cold, it never tastes as good."
"Okay!"
She could feel how hard he'd been working. The most obvious sign was the skin at the base of his thumb—callused from all the grip work, no longer baby-soft like before. Thinking of him delving alone every day tugged at her heart.
"When the weapon shop slows down a bit, I'll… see if there are any good kids to recruit into the Familia," she said. "That way it won't all be on your shoulders."
"Mm… no rush."
"Having people you can trust makes Dungeon runs so much easier!" At that, she frowned slightly—until his explanation brought a blush to her cheeks.
"How should I put it…"
"I like things the way they are now—getting one-on-one time with you every day. That's the fastest way… to grow our bond, don't you think?"
…
Her own child always managed to say the kinds of embarrassing things that made her blush.
Hestia's heart raced. She turned her face a little and looked at the steaming dinner on the table, not quite ready to answer.
Awkward, she changed the subject.
"Let's eat first, and then I'll… update your status. And… even if we recruit more children, it won't cut into our time together!"