Once alex and the girls reached level five the scope of their influence bloomed since there were only a handful of level six's in all of orario so most of the big decisions were made by level fives like them. this meant that even if they didn't use the prestige that came with their level most adventurers would take what they said at face value. at least until they did something that made people distrust them but even the other gods believed alex when he talked about what he did to hermes so public ousting simply ceased to be an option.
As far as hermes was concerned alex was standing between him and his goal of creating a true hero. at one point hermes thought that alex's group could fit the description but when bell showed up that changed. now despite alex and his group being the far more powerful choice hermes who was one of the only people aware of bells origin , wanted to raise up bell alone to the pinnacle. at the rate alex and his group were rising though it was clear that bell was unlikely to stand out so long as they were around.
Level five didn't change much in alex's group daily life besides the many party invitations they received from people wanting to cozy up to them. a lot of low level adventurers also sought them out to try and apprentice under them but the were all turned away. ironically this actually raised bells fame since a few people reported that he was training with alex's group. this would have been great normally but to hermes it was a nightmare since it meant bell was now trapped in alex's groups shadow. bell didn't mind at all though since he was just happy to be associated with such amazing people.
Freya had somehow gotten word of alex's new skill and finally put her worries that alex was right away. it was time for her to go all out in wooing alex once she let go of her hang ups with a clever play. freya commissioned alex to create an expanded space in her vault which she knew he would take several days at least to complete. during the time he was busy she cozied up to whichever girl happened to be available , with tsunade being the easiest to sway since she was a sucker for good booze.
The girls from remnant were a much bigger challenge for freya but she slowly got them to warm up to her. alex figured this out after the first day when tsunade informed him of freya's visit but there wasn't much he could do about it. freya was nothing if not patient as she slowly worked over the girls over the span of five months until they were great friends. even after all of this time the groups stats had only risen to b rank showing the steep increase needed to reach level six.
Alex had taken to soloing the dungeon again to speed up his leveling despite the very real threat posed to his life by doing so. goliath was beatable with only alex but the monster rex of the twenty seventh floor amphisbaena was a very different story. he could only fight against the monster on an equal playing field thanks to his affinity to all of the elements. but besides irritating the monster to no end none of his attacks did large amounts of damage due to the monsters heavy magic resistance. the rough training method worked though since alex was the first member of the group to hit level six.
The girls had only just reached a rank in their stats when alex maxed out his stats and leveled up. there was a huge change when alex hit level six as he had reached high kage levels of power and gained a stupidly broken skill called eye of knowledge that let him predict the next four seconds into the future with his left eye. hermes knew when alex's level up was made public that all hope of using trickery to get rid of him was gone , level six was only a single step away from the current highest level alive ottar who was level seven.
Alex's level up made all of the top familias nervous since he was now at the point that most of their captains were at. add on his skills and magic and many people wondered if he could jump levels and fight ottar. ottar heard these speculations and told freya about how true they likely were since alex had injured him at level three much less now that he was level six. "why don't you just duel him to find out then , who knows if he can't make you feel challenged?" she suggested.