Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon? - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Another day of work, and another ten rejections.

“Uwaaaa,” Hestia moaned in defeat, burying her head in her ragged pillow, “I really didn’t think this would be so hard!” she lamented.

She’d had the plan already built up in her head long before she ever got to the first of the queue and was allowed to descend from heaven down here to the lower, mortal realm.

She’d come down, meet a lovely child and give them her blessing. Her first child would shine like a bejewelled star as he began carving his legend into history, attracting others like moths to a bright burning flame. Together, their family would grow and grow through hard work until they made a legend that would last a thousand years and more.

But here she was two weeks after Hephaestus kicked her out, living in the basement of a decrepit church, the only things to her name being a few different outfits and some ragged furniture. She supposed she should be glad she even had this much, and that was only because her dear friend had helped her get her job selling jagermankun’s, potato balls for thirty valis an hour.

And who could forget the over forty rejection she’d had so far from people she had tried to recruit for her familia?

“Maybe tomorrow will have more luck?” she mused hopefully. She got up from her bed and made her way over to the only appliance she had, a small lamp powered by a decent level magic stone. It was the last hand out Hephaestus had given her.

Just as she was about to turn it off and flop into bed and go to sleep, the loud sounds of knocking on a door echoed down to the church basement.

“Eh?” Hestia blinked in confusion. That was odd, nobody had come to visit her here besides Hephaestus.

Turning, she made her way upstairs into the church hall and to the door. When she pulled it open, she peered curiously at the sight that met her.

It was a young teenage boy. Quite a bit taller than her, she barely came above his stomach. He was wearing very odd clothing the likes of which she’d never seen before The style of it was very distinct and pleasant, he even had a glittering gem that looked like a diamond stud hanging from his left ear. His outfit looked really expensive. He had a masculine, slightly tanned face, light blue eyes and a head of short spiky black hair with blonde strands running all through it.

..And there was dried blood all around his mouth and staining his jacket a bit. It was lucky it was black in colour! Hestia barely held back a yelp at the sight of it all.

“Em...Can I help you?” she asked the boy.

He scratched his cheek, “Um, I hope so,” he answered with a nod, “I’m Caelan, Caelan Odhar. You’re the goddess Hestia right, the goddess of the Hearth?”

Caelan, what an odd name, she’d never heard of a name like that before. “That’s me yeah.” Hestia nodded, wondering what he wanted with her.

“That’s good,” he grinned at her then and she felt the distinct urge to find something to help wipe that blood off of his face, “I heard you were looking for familia members. I’m here to join if you’ll have me.”

..Eh?

Hestia blinked slowly as she took in what he said. Did she hear him wrong? Or was he looking for somebody else? But..she was the only one here. And he did say her name and even her main domain up in heaven.

Silence stretched on between them for a few seconds as she tried to process what he said.

“..You want to join my familia?” she questioned, pointing to herself just to make sure.

“That’s right.” he nodded.

She’d dreamed of this moment since she before she first set foot in the lower mortal world. She’d tried so hard over the past two weeks to recruit others. How ironic was it, that her first recruit would come to her?

Giddiness filled her suddenly, “Okay, I’ll be glad to have you Caelan!” she beamed up at the boy and stepped forward, wrapping her hands around one of his and pulling him inside the church with her. She’d really wanted to apply her blessing to her first child in her favourite book shop, but she was too excited to feel the desire to drag him all the way there, besides it was late, the book store was probably already closed at this point.

He laughed lightly himself, letting her drag him inside. “So how do we do this?” he asked as she directed him downstairs.

“Umu,” Hestia let go of his arm when they got to the bottom for the narrow staircase and pointed at her bed, “Just take your jacket off so you’re shirtless and lie face down on the bed so I can see your back.” she directed, even as butterflies filled her stomach with giddy excitement.

He stepped towards the bed and unzipped his jacket. Hestia’s eyebrow rose in interest when she saw a second jacket layered within it as well that he unzipped. When he pulled it off, he was clad only in a sleeveless white top, which funnily enough had a hood of its own. What odd clothing. Interesting though.

He hung his jacket over the couch, and then reached down and pulled his hooded white top up over his head and deposited it on top of his jacket leaving him bare from the waist up. He was surprisingly broad shouldered for his age and quite well muscled. Which meant good things for him since he already seemed very fit.

He slowly lay down on his stomach on the bed and Hestia swallowed as she climbed up after him, settling on the small of his back, her legs on either side of him.

She lifted her hand and was about to bite her finger to draw blood, but paused, hesitating. “Are...are you sure you want to join my familia? You’ll be the only member, and I can’t provide much for you at all,” Hestia asked as she bit her lip, “With the look of you, I’m sure an already established and strong familia wouldn’t hesitate to take you in.” as much as she was kicking herself for bringing it up, she wouldn’t want a child to regret joining her useless self.

“Possibly,” he replied and Hestia felt her stomach drop, “But I think I’d rather join yours. You’re the goddess of the heart and family right? That’s a lot more appealing to me than say a goddess of trickery and war.”

It was odd for humans to know their domains so well without being told, but she honestly couldn’t find it in herself to care about that fact when he put down the thought of joining flat chest Loki for her, even if only hypothetically.

She sniffled, and held back the urge to cry in happiness, she wouldn’t let herself ruin this moment!

“Besides, bigger familia’s mean less attention from the god or goddess right?” he mused, looking over his shoulder to grin her at, lips still smeared with blood, “I think I’ll prefer getting all your attention to myself for a bit until I get strong enough to make everyone want to join your familia.”

Uwa, mortal children sure could be cute! And so bold to say something like that to! His grin was infectuous and she found herself smiling back at him as happiness threatened to overwhelm her, “Alright then, I’ll spoil you with all my attention then Caelan!” she promised with a giggle.

She was about to bite her finger when something glinting caught her eye and she saw the needle she had kept prepared at her bedside. ‘I’m so dumb!’ she scolded herself, reaching over to grab it. At least like this, it would only be a little prick.

She poked the needle to her thumb, a small bead of blood welling up to where she pricked herself. She held it over Caelan’s back and let it splash down onto his back as she summoned her godly power, her arcanum. Light rippled into existence as her bead of blood was absorbed into his back and her falna appeared on his back, while she felt a connection form to him, her first and only child in the back of her mind.

Caelan grunted then, a sound of pain leaving him and Hestia watched wide eyed as the muscles on his back rippled and grew ever so slightly, becoming more toned.

‘Eh!? Did I do something wrong!?’ she panicked looking down at the falna formed on his back. Her eyes felt like they could fall out of their sockets with what she saw, she was that shocked.

Caelan Odhar
Level: 1

Strength: I1
Endurance: I1
Dexterity: I1
Agility: I1
Magic: I0

Skills
Typhon: Rising Monster King. The power to devour the magic stones of monsters, growing stronger from doing so and gaining the abilities of monsters. Evolving physiology towards pinnacle body. Enhanced teeth. Monstrous combat instinct and the power to break through all limits.

Monster Abilities
Night Vision: The ability to see clearly even in total darkness.

Magic
​

What is this!? Did she use her Arcanum by mistake? No, she shook her head, if she did, she’d have already been booted back to heaven. It wasn’t unheard of for children to have a skill or two starting out, but nothing like this! And his stats didn’t start out at zero, like they were supposed to, at least. And she’d never heard of this absurd skill of his, Typhon.

“Um..Caelan are you okay?” she asked, at a loss.

“..Yeah,” he answered after a moment, “I feel weird though. Is everything okay?”

“I think so,” Hestia nodded, “...You just have a skill already that I wasn’t expecting.” if it was anything else as absurd, she would maybe cover her tracks. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t something he could truly get the benefit out of without knowing himself.

She grabbed a slip of paper from her bedside table and lay it on his back, burning the falna onto it for him to see.

“Eh, really?” he asked, sounding shocked, “But aren’t skills supposed to be really hard to get.”

“They are..usually,” Hestia agreed as she finished up and crawled off of his back, allowing him to sit up, “Yours is definitely an odd one too.” a very powerful odd one.

When he sat up and looked at her, her eyes widened when she found bright crimson red eyes staring back at her, so bright they seemed to almost glow. ‘Night Vision! Is this because of his skill? His eyes changed!’ her thoughts raced.

‘Evolving physiology towards pinnacle body.’ that had to be it.

Those newly crimson red eyes of his went wide when she handed the sheet of paper to him and he read over his status, “What the…!” he gaped in shock.

“It’s really rare for someone to tart off with a skill, never mind one that’s as powerful as the skill you have,” Hestia pointed out as his eyes roamed over it, a skill powerful enough it opened up another section just for monster abilities, “...you should keep it a secret. If you don’t, lots of gods are going to end up hounding you and trying to steal you away.” fear filled her at the thought. Never mind just the run of the mill gods, even the gods of top ranked familia’s would want to snatch him up, like Loki, or worse, Freya! It was just that unbelievably powerful of a skill.

“Night Vision...is this because of that goblin’s magic stone I accidentally swallowed earlier?” he wondered, looking over the piece of paper still. Hestia’s eyebrows rose. That explained where the stats on his falna came from, the magic stone must have still been in his stomach when she applied her blessing!

Some like Freya or Loki could outright just give him magic stones from monsters from the deep floors of the dungeon and he would ascend rapidly in strength.

“..I understand,” Caelan nodded, he turned to her and grinned lightly at her, “I’ll need to keep a tight lip on this until I’m strong enough to tell them all to buzz off. You’re the goddess I chose, I don’t want any other ones.”

Hestia sniffled at his words, and she couldn’t hold herself back, “You’re such a good boy Caelan!” she lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly to her chest. Though, even with all her body weight slamming into him, he only rocked back slightly and she ended up sitting in his lap, thanks to his newly enhanced physical abilities with her falna applied.

As she hugged him to her chest rocking back and forth in joy, Hestia’s eyes went to the light source of her room. The magic stone powering it, from what Hephaestus told her was from a Crystal Mantis, a monster from the middle floors.

“Goddess Hestia?” Caelan blinked and looked at her in confusion when she disengaged from the hug and stood up, making her way over to the lamp.

“..I can’t offer much, but I can at least give you this,” she said, unscrewing the magic stone from the lamp, casting the room into darkness. She could barely see at all, and what she could see was only thanks to the dregs available to her even while her Arcanum was sealed. Still, his eyes glowed in the darkness letting her see him and the magic stone itself gave off a faint glow as well, so she could get over to him pretty easily without tripping over anything in the darkness, “This is a magic stone from a monster from the middle floors….if you eat this, with your skill it should make you strong enough to survive the first few floors of the dungeon.”

“..This must be worth quite a lot, are you sure?” those glowing crimson red eyes staring at her, hesitantly.

“Yep!” Hestia nodded instantly, without hesitation, “Your life is more important to me being able to read at night..besides, I can just buy a lesser magic stone to power my lamp after a few hours of working.” rather, with how much she earned, she'd need to work for twenty hours to afford the cheapest magic stone available. The guild from what she knew, bought the lowest tier magic stones of goblins for four hundred valis, but sold them for six hundred.

What a scam!

“...Alright then,” Caelan nodded, accepting the hand sized purple magic stone from her. The glow of the stone rose up to just below his glowing eyes and she flinched as she heard a crunch and the stone break apart. His enhanced teeth from his new skill tearing through it easily. After a few moments of crunching it down, he swallowed it all and his eyes settled on her, “...I don’t feel any different.”

Ehhhh? Don’t tell her she just wasted the gift from Hephaestus!?

“Lie down on your back again, let me check your status.” she hurriedly told him.

Caelan did as told, and a few moments later, she was on his back and pricking one of her other fingers with her needle, though it was a pain to find it in the darkness and she had to get Caelan to get it for her. That Night Vision was really handy it seemed.

The darkness of the room lit up as she called upon her Arcanum and updated his falna. And as soon as she did, she watched as the numbers on his back began to rapidly rise and Caelan grunted, moaning in pain beneath her as she felt his muscles shift under her legs.​

Caelan Odhar
Level: 1

Strength: I61
Endurance: I76
Dexterity: I51
Agility: I51
Magic: I25

Skills
Typhon: Rising Monster King. The power to devour the magic stones of monsters, growing stronger from doing so and gaining the abilities of monsters. Evolving physiology towards pinnacle body. Enhanced teeth. Monstrous combat instinct and the power to break through all limits.

Monster Abilities
Night Vision: The ability to see clearly even in total darkness.
Crystal Armour: The ability to generate crystal armour over the body to enhance durability.

Magic
​

“...What a truly absurd skill!” Hestia gasped as she looked down at his back in awe. This was perhaps one of the strongest, if not the strongest skill she’d ever heard of! It would usually take weeks for someone of his level to reach these kind of stats in the physicals alone, never mind unlocking his magic stat! Yet, from eating a single a magic stone, albeit from a powerful monster of the middle floors, he’d jumped this high already!