Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon - Chapter 10.1 (Patreon)

After giving her silly Caelan a pep talk and seeing him off with a pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek-

Hestia promptly rolled over and curled up in their bed with a whimper. Now that it was the morning after, her body, especially down there was aching in ways she hadn't known was possible before.

Despite how gentle Caelan was with her, he was a very big boy and it was her first time.

Despite the aching pain though, Hestia couldn't contain her giddiness at all and just basked in the morning afterglow.

….One thing she did learn as she lay there though, was that sex had a distinctive scent.

And it was all over her bed sheets.

And her.

"…I'm gonna need to wash these sheets." she realised with a groan.

And herself.

If she ran into practically any deity, they'd probably smell the heady scent wafting from her body. She wasn't ashamed in any shape or form and would happily shout about her and her precious Caelan's loving romp from the rooftops in pride…that didn't change the fact she was known as one of the three virgin goddesses up in Tenkai.

And her giving up her virginity to a mortal child would be cause for gossip and interest.

And the longer she could keep their eyes off of Caelan until he grew strong enough to ward off everyone himself, the better.

'Ugh, I've got other things to do today as well.' she whimpered mentally. While she didn't have work today, she'd promised Caelan she'd talk to Hephaestus about getting one of her shops off of her in Babel Tower or at least renting the space.

And she'd took it upon herself to pick up what he needed while he was in the dungeon so he didn't have to himself when he was all exhausted from the dungeon.

Well…she couldn't put it off. She didn't want to either. She had to show some reliability as his goddess right?

_______________

Hestia learned one very surprising fact when she managed to roll out of bed and slip her casual white dress on.

When she got to her feet and made her way out of the church that was her and Caelan's home for the moment…she couldn't walk normally.

Her steps were ginger and she had to walk with her legs spread apart. It had to be done to walk without her hips smarting.

'I used to think all those sluts were just playing it up when they walked bowlegged after sex, I didn't think it was a real thing!' the twin tailed goddess of the hearth moaned within her head as she slowly made her way through the streets of Orario towards her destination.

Etna Volcano, the home of of the Hephaestus Familia.

"…I should have totally had Caelan heal me before he left." she mumbled to herself as she trudged along. With just a wave of his hand he could have sprinkled her with some of his love(powders) for her and healed her up in a jiffy!

She was so dumb!

Super dumb!

Thankfully, it wasn't that long later she managed to reach her destination and despite some odd looks she got from some of Hephaestus' children, they didn't say anything beyond greeting her and let her into the large manor.

Her best friend looked up as she all but crumpled her way into her office, "Hestia?" Hephaestus raised a fine red eyebrow at her.

Hestia didn't answer for a moment, instead shuffling her way over to the couch she had spent months reclining on after coming down from Tenkai and all but collapsed in it with a great and powerful sigh of relief.

"I'm not giving you a single valis, no matter how pitiful a look you put on." Hephaestus added drily.

"I'm not here for money!" Hestia squawked on instinct. Her hand went to her waist where a pouch of valis hung and she pat it roughly, making the mass amount of coins within it jingle loudly, "I get more than enough now thanks to my Caelan!"

The pouch she was carrying right now had a full five hundred thousand valis for her to use as she pleased!

Way more than she needed and way more than she expected to see for a long time before she met Caelan and took him in as her first child. But, he'd not taken no for an answer and just left it for her before he shot off to go maul monsters for fun in the dungeon.

Caelan was a bit weird like that. She loved it though!

"...Right, you did pick up a child recently didn't you?" the goddess of the smith paused in what she was doing and gave Hestia her full attention, "And going by that pouch of valis, it seems to be going well, really well actually. Did you pick up someone that was in a Familia before yours?"

"Nope, my Caelan is just special," Hestia preened, sticking her nose into the hair smugly. Usually she wouldn't be so open about him with another deity, but she could trust Hephaestus, "Actually…maybe he's a little too special." her smug look faded into a grimace.

"Mmhmm?" Hephaestus hummed, "So you're here about him then?"

"You're too smart," Hestia pouted at her, "But yes, well, more that, he asked me to talk to you about something when he heard we were friends."

"I'm not giving him a weapon." Hephaestus cut that route off instantly.

"Mou! Why do you think I'm here to scrounge from you so much, didn't my big jingly coin pouch convince you I'm not like that now?" Hestia pouted.

"….It hasn't even been a month yet since I kicked you out and you came crawling back whining about how you didn't have a home, food or money." Hephaestus deadpanned.

"Ack!" Hestia choked.

She couldn't deny her shamefully recent past.

Hestia shook her head, "That's totally behind me now!" she declared grandly, "I'm here because Caelan wanted to see what it would take for you to let us use one of your stores in Babel Tower!"

Hephaestus gave her a blank look, "Use one of my stores…as in to sell things from?" she asked, getting a nod from the twin tailed goddess as confirmation, "I know you definitely don't have a product to sell, which means this has to do with your child, Caelan. Unless he comes from some merchant background or something like that or more likely going by what you said before about him being special, he has some form of skill let lets him produce a product that would make a profit selling."

As always, her best friend was far too sharp. Her mind was as razor sharp as the blades she forged!

"…Yeah," she admitted, and found herself opening up, but only because Caelan urged her on and Hephaestus was her best friend that she trusted with her life, "His skill basically lets him consume magic stones and grow stronger and even gain the abilities of monsters. I gave him that magic stone that was in the lamp you gave me when we first found the skill and he's been able to make equipment from-"

"Crystal of a Crystal Mantis," Hephaestus' cut her off, her single eye widening in realisation, "I see…that's some skill. A set of armour made from that crystal by one of my smiths would go for over a million valis easily. And that's just from that one monster alone."

"Yeah…he can make a bunch of stuff already and wants to open up a shop," Hestia admitted, "While he could open a shop on the streets pretty easily, the best place to sell stuff for adventurers is in Babel Tower."

"I see," Hephaestus mused, cupping her chin in one leather glove clad hand and staring at Hestia ponderingly for a few moments, "…Alright, but it won't be for free."

"Really?" Hestia's eyes lit up.

"I'm only doing it because you're my friend and you still need to pay me back for mooching off of me, this way it might happen sometime this decade," Hephaestus snorted, "I'll let you rent one of our shops on the first floor for three hundred thousand valis a month."

'Eeesh, so expensive!' Hestia winced. And that was just for renting a small shop! But that just went to show how amazing sales were in Babel Tower!

"Okay!" she agreed, bouncing off of the couch and wincing as pain flared in her hips, but ignored it, "Should I pay now?" she asked.

"It would save time and I'll be more inclined to help you if you pay up front," Hephaestus pointed out with a smirk, "Still, while we're on this topic, make sure you lock the falna on your child's back, if any of the others see he has that kind of skill they'll won't give you a moments peace."

"…Eh?" Hestia tilted her head to the side in confusion.

She could lock the falna?

______________________

…This couldn't be real.

Could…it?

Lili was in a bit of a daze as she stared down at the table in front of her. Atop it, sat a large pouch she'd just received from the guild exchange point after she turned in her loot.

The loot Caelan had allowed her to keep in full.

147,000 valis.

In total, she'd had thirty six Killer Ant mandibles and one War Shadow claw that she traded in. Killer Ant mandibles was where they secreted their pheromone from and was used by those who had the Mixing ability to create items such as perfumes which was why they were worth so much, being worth four thousand valis each.

Caelan had killed over seven hundred killer ants over a period of seven hours. They went in early in the morning and it was already late afternoon now, the blue sky that greeted her this morning a dusky orange.

As she stared down at the glittering gold coins, Lili felt her breath come in short, quick pants and her hands were shaking slightly.

It was…almost too good to be true.

She half expected Caelan to swipe the bag from her here and now. But, that was not what happened when he made his way over, a huge sack containing all the magic stones she'd collected today hung over his shoulder.

"Here you go Lili," he casually dumped a second pouch, just as large as the one she already had sitting before her, "That's a hundred thousand valis, took me a bit to count them out. You can count em' if you want."

She looked up at the younger boy, taking in his grinning face and couldn't help but wonder if he was actually a mirage and she was still sleeping and hadn't woken up yet.

…Both of those bags together were only a few thousand valis off of two hundred and fifty thousand.

That was a quarter of her total savings not counting the magic sword she'd stolen from a rich moron a few months ago.

Savings that had taken her over three years to build up.

And she'd gotten that much…in a single day. A crazy day for sure, supporting what had to be the most powerful and suicidally stupid level one she'd ever seen, but a single day nonetheless.

Lili swallowed heavily, "No, it's fine, I believe you," she replied and surprised herself by the fact that she actually did, there would be no point to him lying about it when he had no problem with her taking all the item drop loot as well, "What about you, are you not going to trade in those magic stones?" she asked, to get her mind off of the money in front of her and try and calm down.

"Nah, I've got a better use for them." Caelan laughed, reaching up into the sack atop his shoulder and bringing it to his face, then opened his mouth and bit down on the magic stone, crunching through it easily, chewing it up…and swallowing it all in a second or so.

…Eh?

What?

"Mr. Caelan….why did you?!" she couldn't help but ask, gaping at him in shock. He just literally ate what amounted to more than an average persons daily wage!

Actually, how did he do that even? Magic stones were as hard as stone, even with how strong he was, he shouldn't have been able to chew through one like it was a piece of bread!

"I'm just built different cute stuff." Caelan just laughed again, giving her a wink and a pat on the head, "I'll see you tomorrow Lili, same time!" he then promptly bid her goodbye.

Leaving her staring after him stupidly.

It took longer than she cared to admit to regain her mental faculties, "I don't understand that guy at all." Lili mused to herself, before turning her attention back to her pay for the day.

247,000 Valis.

That was the kind of pay day only top tier adventurers of like level three got to see!

'He's weird and a bit stupid, but Mr. Caelan is competent, strong and honest if nothing else.' she thought to herself as she giddily snatched up both pouches of coins and left the area.

She had to quickly go store this away with the rest of her savings where nobody could get their hands on it!

…So caught up in her giddiness over the massive amount of valis she'd made that day, she never noticed the short, muscular older man with raccoon ears atop his head trailing her form with a gleam in his eyes and a grin on his face.