Miach asked alex and the girls to help a friend of his who had come down from heaven recently and hadn't gotten any familia members yet. the goddess hestia who had barely enough funds to purchase the run down church a bit down the way. with the sort of funding alex's seals had brought in fixing up the church was easy as most of the materials could be made with ninjutsu. the stuff that couldn't such as the plumbing and furniture didn't cost a lot to begin with so alex didn't mind spotting the goddess the money.
Alex had even added a few protective seals to the refurbished building such as a thief prevention seal and even a seal to detect someone's intentions when they stepped through the thresh hold. the bubbly goddess thanked the group repeatedly and promised to pay them back in the future but they just waved it off saying it wasn't an issue. besides that things moved along normally until the day for the groups level up came. it was right before the monster festival at the start of the summer solstice and came with a new change in the form of magic.
Yang , weiss and tsunade all gained a magic ability after they leveled up which surprised everyone. yang got a spell called champions onslaught that had the activation phrase "seek the strength to shatter mountains , feel the speed to out pace the wind , release your rage upon your enemies." the spell was apparently and enchant spell that boosted yang's strength , speed and the penetration ability of her attacks by six times for two minutes. all in all a perfect fit for the girl who loved to brawl with her fist. weiss got a widescale ice spell called winters wrath with the activation phrase "the cold does not care for anything but itself , freeze".
Tsunade got a healing spell called pain illusion with the activation phrase "pain is false , injuries a dream , awaken and walk forth" all in all they were satisfied with the spells they got. ruby , blake and alex got new skills though so they weren't that upset at not getting spells. ruby got the point break skill that let her identify weak points and increased her damage if she hit them. blake got the stealth skill that was pretty common and let her remain undetected more easily.
Alex's new skill had no precedent just like ruby's eyes of silver skill. the new skill was called celestial rise and just like ruby's skill had no description attached to it. in a similar vein alex couldn't activate the skill no matter what he tried though he did notice how he seemed to absorb sunlight more than before. it was funny how the guild staff reacted when the six of them had their cards updated for their new level as the staff members looked at them in confusion. it was common for parties of adventurers at level one to level up at the same time but far less so for those at level two to do so.
Still they were congratulated on their level ups and told they could start exploring the middle floors if they were careful. miach and hestia were invited to celebrate their level ups which they both appreciated especially hestia who had been eating the leftovers from her food stall. The food from said stall fit the bare minimum dietary requirements to sustain a body since it was made from cream , potatoes and pork. the fried puffs were pretty tasty too if you added salt and a pinch of chili powder.
Alex had even invested into the stall purchasing the two seasoning in a large amount for hestia to use since the group loved to eat the things before they headed to the dungeon. it greatly help hestia out financially as well since those who competed with her with similar cheap foods got less business when word of the improved taste got out and she got more repeat customers. she didn't thank alex for the help since he had already explained why he had invested in her stall. the group continued their usual schedule for the next week before they decided to test the middle floors.
"Everyone set?" alex asked the girls who nodded. "we will be entering the middle floors where level two monsters are common as well as the dungeons first monster rex goliath spawn on floor seven teen. we will only be going to floor six teen at most however." alex paused to let the girls speak which ruby did. "why not challenge goliath?" she asked curiously. "goliath is a level three monster as well as a monster rex so until we reach level four it is recommended not to risk it. that said we would stand out too much if we killed it so we should avoid that as much as possible." alex answered seriously.