"Bell-kun, how much did you sell those daggers for?"
Hestia pushed aside her worries about Eina and started to focus on the final selling price.
Of course, she also needed to ask about how everything was handled in the end.
Even though Hestia wasn't very familiar with the workings of the Guild, she still had more experience than Bell and could guess about things.
"Each dagger was bought for 100,000 valis. Aside from the 20 daggers I kept, the remaining 264 were all sold and got a total of 26.4 million valis."
"That much!?"
Hestia wasn't completely clueless about money.
During her time freeloading at Hephaestus' place, she comes to understand the concept of money. And because of that, she understood just how big of an accomplishment Bell had made.
After all, this amount of money resulted from just a single day's work for Bell.
But seeing her eyes shine with excitement, Bell felt like he needed to remind Hestia about something.
"Hestia-sama, I think you should calm down a bit first. The reason I made such a big profit today is really because of the Goblin Daggers. Those daggers don't have many restrictions since they're weapons dropped by goblins on the first floor. However, they're extremely sharp, even sharp enough to fight middle-floor monsters, which is why they sold for such a high price. If I were to go to other floors and get other loot, they wouldn't sell for nearly as much unless the drop items are similarly sharp weapons."
Hestia's mind began to cool down. Now that she thought about it, she understood the reason.
After all, the sharpness of Level 1 adventurers made the weapon valuable.
Moreover, the drop items from the upper floors wouldn't fetch high prices from the Guild unless Bell hunted goblins on the first floor every day.
Unfortunately, it would draw too much attention if a large number of Goblin Daggers started circulating within Orario.
After considering the risk of exposing Bell's secret, Hestia gave up on the idea of getting rich through this method.
"Hestia-sama, I think we should try to build a long-term partnership with Hephaestus-sama."
Hestia's eyes lit up instantly.
After listening to Bell's summary from today, she felt her chances of convincing Hephaestus had just increased.
Even though Hephaestus didn't lack resources, Hephaestus Familia was still pretty big, and having extra materials for forging wouldn't hurt.
Moreover, Hephaestus would certainly not mind allowing Hestia's Familia to become one of the suppliers of drop items.
Thanks to Bell's luck, they could guarantee a large amount of drops.
"Indeed, it's worth discussing things with Hephaestus. Bell-kun's luck is very beneficial for us. If we form a partnership with Hephaestus, you will have a steady channel for handling drop items. Plus, I could ask Hephaestus to make a weapon for Bell-kun."
"!?"
He was slightly surprised.
From the beginning until now, Bell hadn't mentioned anything about weapons.
How was Hestia-sama thinking of asking Hephaestus-sama to make a weapon for him?
He quickly stopped her.
"Hestia-sama, do you know how expensive the weapons Hephaestus makes are? Even if we doubled our entire fortune, we still wouldn't be able to afford to ask her to craft a weapon."
...
In the evening, Hephaestus' shop closed early today.
Hephaestus helplessly looked at the grinning figure in front of her.
In this moment, Hephaestus could sense that Hestia was definitely bringing trouble.
After all, they had known each other for so many years, and she could tell just from the slightest gesture what kind of trouble Hestia was about to bring.
"Hestia, didn't you just leave yesterday? Why aren't you at home, talking about your child's first day in the dungeon?"
Hephaestus was careful not to respond directly. She had already guessed that Hestia was about to deliver some kind of news and had been very cautious from the beginning.
Hephaestus certainly didn't want to be tricked by this idiot.
However, Hestia didn't pay any attention to Hephaestus' cautious behavior and kept smiling.
"Bell-kun has already told me about his experience in the dungeon. After updating Bell-kun's stats, I brought him here with me. Hephaestus, can you guess how Bell-kun's stats turned out?"
Hephaestus looked at Hestia's beaming smile.
Just from that smile, Hephaestus could easily guess that Bell's stats had improved dramatically.
Otherwise, Hestia wouldn't be so eager to show off, but Hephaestus wasn't sure what the exact numbers were.
"His total stats exceeded 500 already?"
Hephaestus was already exaggerating in her guess. After all, no adventurer in the past had ever managed to exceed 500 in a single day.
"Hmph~ Of course not. How could my Bell-kun be that average?"
Hestia chuckled proudly.
Hearing Hephaestus' guess, she was happy that it met her expectations.
Hestia knew for sure that Hephaestus wouldn't be able to guess how much Bell's stats had grown in just one day. After all, she was even shocked when she helped update the status.
"Bell-kun's growth today was incredibly fast, you know. Hephaestus, don't freak out."
"Alright, alright, just tell me already."
Seeing Hestia's smug expression, Hephaestus didn't feel bothered. She had known from the start that Hestia had come here to show off, and she didn't mind it.
However, the fact that Hestia referred to a total stats exceeded 500 as "average" made Hephaestus curious about just how much Bell had grown in a single day.
"Hmph~ The lowest stat of Bell-kun's growth today was close to 300, and two of his stats even exceeded 400."
"!?"
Even though Hephaestus had prepared herself, she couldn't help but be shocked.
The lowest stat was nearly 300, and two of them had surpassed 400.
That meant the other two stats were also above 300. In short, Bell had accumulated at least 1,700 excelia in a single day!?
This left Hephaestus looking at Bell, who was standing behind Hestia with surprise in her eyes.
Even though she didn't pay much attention to the strength of her familia members, she did hope her children would grow quickly.
The speed of Bell's growth was beyond what she had imagined.
Hephaestus shot a glance at Hestia, who was still grinning proudly.
Since Hestia was too excited to think clearly, Hephaestus decided not to ask this idiot any more questions.
Instead, she went straight to the point and asked Bell.
"Go ahead and tell me. What's the real reason Hestia brought you here?"
He gave a slight bow.
Since the question was for him, Bell took a small step forward, carefully choosing his words before answering her.
"Hephaestus-sama, Hestia-sama hopes that our Hestia Familia can form a long-term partnership with your Hephaestus Familia."
"Oh~ So you're here for a collaboration, huh?"
Hephaestus immediately became interested. She didn't really care much about other things, especially Hestia's usual lazy and silly behavior.
But if it was about a partnership, Hephaestus was definitely intrigued. She was eager to hear what the terms of the collaboration were and why they suddenly wanted to work together.
Hephaestus gestured for Bell to continue.
Bell noticed the shift in Hephaestus' attention and quickly changed the subject.
"It's like this. After I came back today, I gained stats related to luck when Hestia-sama updated my stats. Today, in the dungeon, I ended up getting 284 Goblin Daggers as drops. I think that in the future, the amount of loot I get from monsters will be a lot, so I'll need a way to sell or handle all these items."
Hephaestus looked at Bell with a slightly puzzled expression.
Bell's skill and magic were already crazy enough yesterday, but now he had awakened luck.
Even Hephaestus thought it was a bit too unbelievable. What was even more shocking was that this luck had resulted in the dropping of 284 daggers.
The amount was strange, and the drop rate itself was terrifyingly high.
No wonder Hestia had suddenly brought Bell to her shop. After learning the reason, Hephaestus didn't really mind the idea of collaboration anymore.