Hestia stared at Roland blankly, with an expression of disbelief, but the other party's sincere words were absolutely true.
Although her body was nodding honestly, her mind still restrained her.
"But I only have one member of my clan, so I can't give you any help..."
Hestia lowered her eyes nervously and said uneasily.
In the past, when she was searching for her family, she always failed every time she reached this step, so she looked into Roland's eyes with great uneasiness.
"As a starting point for a hero, it's perfect. A lone hero and a god with nothing. I believe this will definitely be a wonderful legend."
Looking at the dizzy Hestia, Roland smiled helplessly.
"And what is your answer?"
"I...I...of course I agree. I'd rather just say, please, become my Familia!"
Hestia's face flushed red as she nodded her head like a rattle, her two ponytails swinging back and forth.
Because she was too excited, she blurted out what was in her heart.
I'm done for. It's the first time we've met, but I'm saying words that sound like I'm expressing my love for you. Isn't that just like those romantic gods? I'm a famous virgin goddess in heaven. How can I fall in love with my own Familia? No, this seems to be very common in the underworld.
"Then, the contract is established. From now on, the Hestia Familia will lead the entire Orario!"
Witnessed by the gods, Hestia's family and the legendary hero took the first step together.
——
After a while, under the guidance of Hestia, Roland came to a shabby bookstore. According to her, she had decided a long time ago to choose this place when she would grant a favor for the first time.
She thought that for someone who loves books, this place was the perfect place to start.
The legend should have begun in a place like this, surrounded by many books.
After simply greeting the white-haired old man on the first floor, Roland and Est followed him into a room that smelled of aged wood.
Fully packed bookcases occupy all four walls of the room, and there are piles of books in front of them.
Hestia, who didn't even have money to buy books, often spent time in this library thanks to the kindness of the owner.
"Well, it's not too late for you to regret now. Once you have the grace, it won't be easy to get away even if you want to change your religion."
Hestia said seriously, "If you want to refuse, I won't blame you."
After leading Est to sit on the chair next to him, Roland also looked at Hestia.
"Don't worry about it. Just give me a Falna, Hestia."
After the contractual relationship was confirmed, Roland changed the way he addressed Hestia, and Hestia didn't even notice this move, which was enough to make the other gods of the clan frown.
She just patted the chair next to her excitedly.
"Then let's get started, Roland. Take off your upper body clothes. I will use the divine blood as a medium to engrave the sacred words on your body. After that, it will be your grace."
Roland took off his shirt skillfully and just sat on the chair when Hestia took out a box from somewhere, took out a needle, and pierced her fingertip.
The bright red blood dripped gently onto Roland's back, causing the power that belonged only to the gods to begin to manifest.
Although it looks very similar to ability values and upgrades that are common in online games, favors are fundamentally different from them.
Falna serves more as a trigger, bringing out the past history and possibilities of the one who holds the favor, turning it into a catalyst called experience points, which speeds up the process of becoming stronger.
It is not that possessing grace will necessarily make one a strong person, but grace shortens the process that those who would otherwise become strong have to go through.
After Hestia's divine blood dripped onto Roland's back, a light blue light created ripples in the air like water waves. Obscure and mysterious words slowly emerged from the light and continued to combine.
"Okay, next, just wait for the sacred text to appear, and your ability value and potential will appear on it."
The sacred text will bring out all the possibilities of the owner's body, just like a blank book. In the future, Roland's path, accumulated experiences and possibilities will be recorded on it.
Seeing this scene, Hestia nodded with satisfaction and looked at the words behind Roland with anticipation. After all, he was the legendary sword hero. What kind of potential would he have?
But because of this, Hestia failed to notice the strange expression on Roland's face at the moment.
In Roland's mind, a blank panel flashed before the sacred text.
Apart from the most basic ability values, there is nothing else, and whenever his consciousness touches those blank spaces, it will easily leave traces.
Did he fill in the original grace panel by himself?
Although the moment Hestia's divine blood merged into his body, the thousand wisdoms from the Shendu began to analyze this unknown power and turned it into his own use, but the final result was beyond Roland's expectations.
And it seemed that because he had not yet made a decision, Hestia, who was granting a favor to someone else for the first time, was also a little puzzled.
"Eh? Why hasn't the manifestation finished yet...did I do something wrong?"
Just fill it in casually, the panel is just paper anyway.
Roland did not hesitate any longer and randomly checked several of the most common abilities from the blank options.
Along with his thoughts, those mysterious sacred words finally formed into rows of template-like sequences and appeared before Hestia's eyes.
When Hestia saw the ability value appearing behind Roland, she blinked and revealed a very subtle expression.
Roland
Lv.1
Strength: i (0)
Durability: i (0)
Dexterity: i (0)
Agility: i (0)
Magic: i (0)
Magic--
[]
[]
[]
Skill--
Wisdom of a Thousands -
Any magic below this level of wisdom can be learned, regardless of the prerequisites.
The embodiment of possibility -
Super-speed growth, every time the talent reaches the upper limit, a stronger breakthrough will be achieved.
Favored One-
All options related to luck will always lead to the most satisfactory results.
Hestia carefully scanned the text on Roland's back. Needless to say, the basic abilities and levels were the same as for magic. In this world, this ability was originally a privilege that belonged exclusively to elves and fairies. Other races had to be blessed to discover this possibility.
The number of magics discovered by Falna is only three at most, and most people can only obtain one kind of magic. This number is in line with Roland's title of hero.
With such a spacious magic column, even if no magic is obtained, there will be clansmen rushing to accept this good seedling.
But the words describing the three columns of skills completely shocked Hestia. Skills reflect a person's nature and wishes, and are the easiest to guide and change. Hestia had long expected that Roland had more than one skill, but what these skills represented made Hestia unable to remain calm.
She quickly picked up the parchment that had been prepared long ago and copied the words on it while recalling the contents of the sacred text.
The Thousand Wisdoms who directly disregard the essence of the magic bar, the embodiment of possibility who disregards the growth rate and upper limit that are the greatest limitations of grace, and the favored one who is embraced by luck and seems destined to start a great cause.
Compared with other people in the underworld, they cheated too much. When this news was announced, there would be people who were so desperate that they would commit suicide instead of being jealous and unwilling.
These skills that reveal Roland's true nature are like saying that he is not a human, but a god.
Roland put on his clothes casually. He already knew the result, so he took the parchment and glanced at it casually.
"Well enough."
He gave a rather bland review.
"This level of skill cannot be described in any way... I have never heard of such a rare skill in my entire life."
Hestia felt a little emotional, but then became serious.
"Would you like me to lock your ability value for you? To prevent it from being exposed and causing a stir. Even if you are a hero, this skill will attract a lot of unnecessary attention."
"No, there is probably no one in this world who can see this sacred text against my will."
Roland stretched his body and said nonchalantly.
"Besides, it doesn't matter even if it's exposed."
If it's not closed, then it's open?
Regardless of whether Roland exposes his ability or not, since he defeated Ais before receiving the Falna, his every move is bound to attract a lot of attention.
A conspirator and an ambitious man, as long as he remains active in Orario and wants to lead an era of heroes, this city of mixed people will never stop tempting him.
"But, are the basic ability values all zero?"
Roland stared at the conspicuous number on the parchment and fell silent.
"This is a very normal situation. Falna is just an accelerator, not a panacea."
As if she was worried that Roland might be unhappy with this, Hestia hurriedly began to explain.
"It uses your current power as the basic ability. Those numbers only represent your proficiency. It's like you have received a favor now, but you still don't feel stronger all of a sudden, right?"
Hestia leaned close to Roland and gently traced the numbers on the parchment with her fingers.
"In fact, the so-called becoming stronger after leveling up is just the imagination of the children who have not received the grace. The cause and effect relationship between the two is the opposite. You will level up only after becoming stronger. In the future, you will not have the feeling of becoming stronger overnight, because in the process of training, those accumulations and abilities have been invisibly integrated into your instincts and turned into strength that you can use as easily as your arms and fingers."
"Because your natural upper limit is higher than other adventurers, even if your proficiency improves only slightly, you will feel a huge gap with your previous self. This is because the power in your body that still does not belong to you has been mastered."
Hestia was somewhat proud of herself when she said this.
"And the role of our gods is to enable you to see where you have talents and guide you to make up for your shortcomings."
To improve any ability value, you have to do relevant training in that area, attack, use magic, and run. These experiences will be multiplied back to the owner with the promotion of grace.
The maximum value of each stage is 99, from i to s, there are ten stages in total. The closer to the upper limit, the slower the growth. But for most people, when they reach d, it basically means that their potential has reached the upper limit, and the remaining growth depends on their talent and ability in that area.
Once all attributes reach D, the basic requirements for upgrading are met.
"How is it, Roland-kun, are you disappointed with Falna?"
Hestia subconsciously moved closer, allowing Roland's arm to sink into the warmth.
"No, I think that grace is a good thing."
For Roland now, the Falna was perfect. He could already feel the power in his body changing and becoming more balanced.
Because he was held by Hestia, Roland's hands and feet could not move too much, but he still stood up as much as possible and gave his other arm to Est, who also stood up and silently hugged him.
"Hmm…"
Seeing Est clinging to Roland, Hestia suddenly became angry. On the one hand, it was because Est's contract was signed earlier than hers. On the other hand, as a god who was very sensitive to emotions, she could feel that Est had very deep feelings for Roland.
This is no longer an ordinary fairy's attachment to its master, but something that requires even more vigilance.
This is heresy! How can fairies fall in love with humans? They can't even have children! Wait, it seems that gods also...
Just as Hestia was lost in thought, Roland suddenly raised his head.
"Speaking of which, grace is essentially a kind of divine art."
"Eh? Yes..."
Hestia said in confusion, "Although it is essentially a gift given to the people of the underworld, it is actually a ritual of the gods, which is why they are exactly the same. After conversion, the blood of other gods can also be used to update their abilities."
"I see. The key to a favor does not lie in the user, but in the nature of the technique and power?"
Roland nodded in understanding, his heart moved, and the power from his essence flashed behind him.
The next moment, a new information panel appeared in front of him.
Magic: I (6)
As expected, grace is essentially just a ritual, which is almost incomprehensible to humans, but it is still far from the upper limit of the Shendu's wisdom. Although many rituals have been forgotten, it is true that he is a demon wizard who represents the upper limit of the world.
This technique has been integrated into the body, and even the panel and self-renewal can be completed by Roland alone without relying on Hestia. This is the best proof.
So, if we are bolder and want to grant our grace to others, is it possible?
Although Roland does not have divine blood, he has substitutes that are absolutely not inferior to divine blood. They are the evil desires of human beings and the magic energy of fire. They are all powers with similar properties or even better.
Even noble heroic spirits will be twisted and reversed by this power, so those adventurers will surely be unable to resist this malice.
Roland's mouth gradually stretched out, revealing a joyful smile.
If this is the case, the prototype of a new family is just around the corner.
Belonging to the Shendu's Familia.