Familia of Heroes

by GODZILLA IS THE KING

For as long as Bell could remember, he always wanted nothing more to be a hero, except for maybe meeting a cute girl in the Dungeon. Now after a series of strange and unusually events one day in the dungeon, Bell not only meets a beautiful girl in the dungeon, but the perfect chance to live with and meet some of the greatest heroes of all. Inspired by Heroic Myth by Harouki.

6. Chapter 6

There is an Author's Note talking about a few of my decisions in this chapter and responding to a few reviews.

As Achilles opened his eyes during his introduction the first thing he was expecting to see was not a familiar looking fist, as familiar a fist can be. Of course, he was expecting the fist to actually hurt him as it slammed into his cheek with enough force to knock him off his feet even less. Though, as a testament to his skill as a hero and a warrior, he was quick to recover despite his surprise, flipping around in midair to land on his feet as opposed to his back.

"With how many times I told you to, one would think you would keep your guard up at all times." Chiron said, his tone equal parts teasing as well as chastising as the shock of seeing him visibly swept over his student's face, more than likely also stopping him from summoning his spear.

"Chiron! What was that about!?" Hestia yelled out, the surprise and anger at her Familia's captain suddenly rushing forward to attack someone who was supposed to be joining them. Bell was just as shocked as Hestia was and was still recovering from it.

"Oh, nothing." Chiron said, smiling back at Hestia as if he hadn't just attacked someone. "I was just greeting one off my favorite students in a way I know he will appreciate."

"Wait! hold on!" Achilles cut in before anyone else could say anything. "Can someone explain to me what is going on? Are you an enemy Servant or not?"

"Not in this case Achilles." Chiron answered. "This summon is a bit different than most. Instead of fighting each other in a Holy Grail War, we will all serve the same master."

"Oh is that so?" Achilles said as his gaze followed a gesture Chiron made to Bell.

"Uh, Nice to meet you! My name is Bell Cranel!" Bell greeted, his nerves running wild as Achilles approached him before giving the wild haired boy a once over to check him out. For a second, Bell was slightly worried the great hero would disapprove of him as his master for some reason before Achilles gave him a large smirk.

"Nice to meet you kid. Like I said earlier, name's Achilles, Hero of the Trojan War. You know that tendon in your ankle that allows you to walk? Well that's named after me!" Achilles said, continuing his earlier introduction to his master, though it only caused Bell's face, as well as Hestia's, to contort slightly in confusion as to what he meant.

"The Grail should start giving you information soon Achilles, but-" Chiron called out, grabbing his student's attention. "We aren't on Earth, we're on another world. They don't know about our legends, and they haven't named that tendon that here."

"Shit, you're right. Well that sucks." Achilles said as the Grail did just as Chiron said, causing him to facepalm in slight disappointment that his master wouldn't know who he was. Though it was just then that he noticed something. "Hm, is that our Berserker?"

He pointed with his thumb at Heracles, who had been standing silently where he had been when Bell had begun the summoning. However, even without saying anything, his presence wasn't one that could be easily missed. Without the surprise of seeing his old mentor again or giving a proper greeting to his new master, it was only a matter of time.

"Yeah. That's Heracles, I summoned him a few days ago before Ch-" Bell began before Achilles, who had been slightly distracted by the new information being put in his head by the Grail, realized what he had said.

"Heracles!?" Achilles exclaimed, his face lighting up with childlike excitement as his eyes widened and a massive smile grew on his face. Then, Achilles disappeared from in front of Bell in a burst of speed before reappearing in front of Heracles in less time than it took for someone to blink, eliciting a yelp from both Hestia and Bell as well as a laugh from Chiron in reaction. There, Achilles would look up at Heracles with a mix of happiness and childlike joy, contrasting the stoic look Heracles gave him as he stared down at him silently.

"Uh, what's his deal?" Hestia asked Chiron after getting over the sudden display of speed. "He's your student too apparently so shouldn't he know Heracles?"

"Well, he is one of my students, one of my best in fact, and he does certainly know Heracles." Chiron said, still smirking with amusement at the display. "Though to be more specific, I trained Achilles a generation after I trained Heracles. He more or less grew up hearing stories about his exploits, and right now he's meeting his childhood hero. It's akin to how Bell would react if he managed to summon, say, Albert Waldstein."

Bell blinked at Chiron's explanation before looking back at Achilles, still taking in Heracles, suddenly understanding it on a deeply personal level. For whatever reason, it never really occurred to him that heroes could have their own childhood heroes, after all, most stories about them never really covered their childhood or the heroes they worshiped. He wondered if Achilles would like to trade stories about the heroes of their respective worlds when they had free time.

"Can I-" Achilles began to ask, turning around to Chiron with a tone like a kid asking their parents permission to do something.

"No Achilles, you can't fight Heracles." Chiron responded before he could finish, tone akin to a father denying their child a toy or pet.

"Damn it!"

Alongside Achilles' vocal displeasure at not being able to fight against his childhood hero, Heracles was also displeased. Though he couldn't exactly make it known for obvious reasons, he was happy to have another student of Chiron here alongside them. He also would've been happy, more than happy in fact, to spar against Achilles, wanting to test his fellow student's abilities as well as his own and trade techniques.

Ignoring Achilles' curse at Chiron's response, Hestia looked questioningly back at the teacher, "Not that I'm encouraging them to fight or anything, but is there any reason he can't? Would he get crushed or something?"

"No, far from it." Chiron said with a small laugh. "In skill and fighting ability, the two of them are, for the most part, equals, but they also have a habit of getting carried away. If I let them go at each other, they would most likely flatten everything around them, including this church."

"Yeah, let's not have that happen." Hestia said, her face becoming pale at the idea, or more specifically, the idea of paying for any damages that would as a result.

"So are there any other Servants around here that I'm not seeing like an Assassin or something? Oh, by the way, where are we?" Achilles asked looking around the church to see if he could find anyone else.

"You, Chiron, and Heracles are the only Servants I've summoned so far." Bell answered Achilles, before scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "And uh, this is where we live, sorry if it's not exactly what you're used to."

"Tch, that's a shame. Was hoping to see if Castor or even Asclepius was here too." Achilles said, clicking his tongue and sighing in slight disappointment that he didn't get to see more of the heroes he grew up hearing about. "And don't worry about it. I used to live out in the woods and a cave back when Chiron was training me, I'm not exactly picky when it comes to places to sleep."

"Ah that's good." Bell said, happy that Achilles wasn't upset with the state of their living arrangements.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry for taking so long, but who are you?" Achilles asked as he finally got around to Hestia after being so sidetracked by Heracles. "I'm guessing off of that divine aura you have that you're a goddess?"

"I'm Hestia, the goddess of this Familia, nice to meet you!" Hestia said as she offered her hand up to the Servant before she remembered to clarify something, "Oh, and I should probably specify that I'm the Hestia of this world, not yours."

"Huh, well nice to meet you regardless." Achilles said, taking the hand and shaking it after taking in what she said and going through the information the Grail provided him over what a Familia was. "I never really got to meet you in my world, but I hope you're still at least still the goddess of the hearth and family. Otherwise that would be a bit confusing."

"Well don't worry about that, that's still my domain here too." Hestia said with a smile as she pulled her hand back.

"That's good. So then I guess you must've been happy that one of the first Servants summoned was your ha-" Achilles said before Chiron suddenly interrupted him before he could reveal his relationship to Hestia.

"Goddess, shouldn't we give Achilles the Falna now to make his addition to the Familia official?" Chiron said, sending Achilles a look that he knew to mean 'Don't ask' and 'I'll explain later'.

"Uhh, sure? That would probably be a good idea." Hestia said, though her tone showing her confusion at the sudden and abrupt change of subject.

" 'Falna', huh... That's the blessing of the gods in this world right?" Achilles asked after finding the definition from the Grail, receiving a series of nods from everyone else that had enough control over themselves to do so in response. "Is there anything special that I need to do for that?"

"Not really, I just need access to your back." Hestia said as she took one of her gloves off to get ready for giving him the Falna.

Rather than doing the normal thing and begin the longer process of slowly taking off his armor and shirt underneath it, Achilles simply dispelled the top half of his armor. This caused Bell and Hestia to jump in surprised as the armor briefly glowed blue before disappearing, leaving Achilles chest bare. They both wanted to question the action, but decided to leave it as Achilles got down on his knees so Hestia could do whatever she needed to, mostly because of the lack of reaction from Chiron.

For the third time today, the blue light of the Falna would fill the ruined church as the drop of the divine blood fell upon Achilles bareback, tattooing Hestia's emblem on his back as it did with the others. However, as Hestia began to read through the status, Chiron and Bell saw the goddess expression change. Change to the emotionless look they recognized from two nights ago when Hestia had first given Heracles the Falna.

Once again, without saying a word, Hestia put the status on a piece of paper and handed it to Bell. As Achilles got back up, his armor reappearing in full with another blue glow, Bell looked down at the paper with trepidation, deja vu from a few days ago coming back to him. Especially as he saw Chiron holding in laughs at his and Hestia's expense. Bracing himself, Bell looked down at the paper to read it… and once again felt his expression match Hestia's.

Achilles

Level 1

Strength: I00

Defense: I00

Dexterity: I00

Agility: I00

Magic: I00

Magic:

Troias Tragōidia-A quick cast spell that summons Achilles' chariot and it's divine steeds, capable of flight and doing damage proportional to how fast it is moving.

Andreias Amarantos-An invincibility that negates all damage unless coming from someone that has divinity, depending on the rank of divinity in relation to him. If attacked by someone in position with a Falna, damage is dependent on their level and the level of Achilles. (Current status: level 2 and lower are completely negated, level 3 are reduced to 25%, level 4 are reduced to 50%, level 5 are reduced to 75%, level 6 and higher are completely unaffected.) This is lost if his heel is ever damaged, and it does not affect attacks that show friendship.

Akhilleus Kosmos-An indestructible shield forged by the god Hephaestus that contains a miniature world. When deployed, Achilles can also cause it to expand and push further, crushing his enemies under the weight of an entire world. If faced against an attack capable of somehow destroying the miniature world, the attack is blocked at the cost of the shield being destroyed.

Diatrehkōn Astēr Lonkē-Using his lance, Achilles can create a duel field cut off to time and nearby surroundings. Divine Blessings, luck, and any other outside interference is negated, and effects last until Achilles or his opponent is defeated. However, if the opponent does not agree to the terms of the combat, effects are canceled and it can only be used against males and those equal to Achilles.

Skills:

Valour/Bravery- Negates all forms of mental interference such as charms or dazes. Increases melee damage.

Battle Continuation- Ability to ignore fatal wounds and continue fighting.

Dromeus Komētēs-Outside of his chariot, running speed is increased to the point where Achilles can instantly cross any battlefield he is in and no obstacle can slow him. Heel must be exposed in order to be used. If the heel is damaged, this skill is lost and speed is permanently reduced to 30%.

"Completely absurd, each one of you have been more absurd than the last." Hestia grumbled to herself, wondering if she would be able to handle the next one.

"This Falna stuff is pretty handy. At least now I don't have to explain what I'm capable of." Achilles said with a prideful smirk, enjoying how his ego was being treated as Hestia and Bell find themselves once again unable to properly process the power of a student of Chiron. As he read over the status sheet, Achilles found something of interest. "Oh? It looks like there are other people besides demigods that can get through my invincibility."

"So it would seem." Chiron said in thought as he looked over the same part of the status sheet that Achilles did. Though it was hardly a surprise that those with a Falna of a high enough level would be able to pierce through Achilles invincibility due to the nature of the Falna. Chiron knew that Achilles hardly minded such a thing, the more people capable of wounding him, the more people that were capable of giving him a more interesting fight. Still, it meant that Achilles had to be more careful in this world than he did in the one they originated from.

At least when dealing with adventurers. The monsters of the Dungeon, no matter how strong or powerful they were, wouldn't be able to hurt him unless they somehow landed a hit on his heel. Of course even amongst all the heroes and warriors in the Throne of Heroes, who would know this weakness and would target it, there were few that could even attempt to land a hit. Sufficient to say, the mindless monster who would have no such information had almost no chance of ever hitting it.

"Ugh, I don't have the time to deal with your insanities." Hestia said to no one in particular, grabbing everyone's attention as she began to walk toward the back of the Church and, more specifically, the door to the basement.

"Are you going to get ready for that party that you mentioned earlier Goddess?" Chiron asked as she walked away.

"Yes!" Hestia called back immediately

"...Where is she going?" Achilles quietly asked Bell, not familiar with the layout of the church or the basement it had.

"Me and Hestia live in a basement area downstairs. There's a staircase to it right over there." Bell answered just as quietly, gesturing over to the door that Hestia was heading over to. Achilles gave him his thanks as Chiron continued.

"Well about that, I took a look around while you and him were asleep the first night, and I'm certain that I didn't see any dress that could be considered formal enough for such a gathering." Chiron said, catching Hestia's attention and making her stop in her tracks. She was going to ask where he was going with this, but he turned his head to look at the other one of his students. "Heracles, did you collect those magic stones last night like I asked?"

In response to the question, Heracles walked over to Chiron and handed the bag that held those magic stones, completely stuffed to the brim with its valuable contents.

"These stones are more valuable than the ones Bell usually gets, and now with Achilles here, we can more efficiently gather them in the future." Chiron said, taking the bag from Heracles and feeling the weight of it before seeing the impatience in Hestia's eyes as she looked at him. "What I'm saying is, if you're willing to wait a little while longer and accompany us to the Guild, we can probably afford to buy you a nicer dress after Achilles is registered and we cash in these stones."

Hestia would stare at Chiron for several seconds, processing his words. When she did eventually, Hestia basically tackled him, tightly wrapping her arms around his midsection in a tight hug.

"I take back anything bad I may have said about you!" Hestia said tearfully into Chiron as he returned the hug from the alternate version of his half-sister with a smile on his face.

It took a little while for Hestia to calm down and finally let go of Chiron, during which, Achilles stopped Bell from interfering at all, even as the hug lasted a bit too long. After all, seeing the great teacher of heroes in a position even he struggled to get out of wasn't something that you saw every day. Heracles meanwhile would just watch the interaction silently nearby.

When that time came, the five members of the Hestia Familia would exit the Church, but that would be as far as Heracles would go with them. Although Eina said that the notices about him would be posted already, the odds of everyone having seen those notices so fast was highly unlikely. To be on the safer sides of things, it was decided that it would be best that Heracles stay at the church to avoid making a scene.

However, as they began to walk away, Achilles came to a stop as he seemingly remembered something, causing a mischievous smirk to grow on his face. He then suddenly turned around towards Heracles before calling out to him.

"Hey Heracles! It's im-"

"Achilles." Chiron interrupting his student while putting a hand on his shoulder and gripping it with a little more force than necessary. As he continued talking, his grip on Achilles' shoulder would not only grow stronger, but his tone would take on a more ominous air, despite not changing from his usual patient tone. "If you finish that statement, you and I will have a few private lessons later."

"Uh! Nevermind!" Achilles called back to Heracles, knowing his teacher well enough to know what he meant. In response, Heracles simply started at him for a few more seconds before eventually looking away from him.

"Excellent choice! Let's continue on now shall we?" Chiron said before letting go of Achilles' shoulder and doing as he says, prompting his student to let out a sigh of relief before noticing that Bell and Hestia were both giving him confused looks.

"Uh, what was that about?" Bell asked in a very confused tone.

"Ask me again later, it's a bit of a long story." Achilles said with another sigh before turning around to follow after Chiron.

Unsure about what had just happened, Bell and Hestia both looked at each other for a few seconds, but left with nothing else to do, they both shrugged before they both went to catch up with the two Servants.

Parthenon

The walk through Orario was a quick one, with the group arriving at the Guild within the next hour after leaving the ruined church. Since it was now the middle of the day rather than the beginning of it like yesterday had been with Chiron and Heracles' first day in the city, everyone was out and about. It also meant that, with the business in full swing, Syr was too busy to come out and greet them.

When they arrived at the main headquarters of the Guild, it was as busy as ever. Dozens of adventurers were there going about their business: cashing in magic stones, talking to their guild advisors, and looking at the notice boards to see if there was anything new, including the newly placed notice about Heracles.

"Ms. Eina!" Bell called out once he saw the half elf, before running off to go greet her. Hearing her name called out, Eina would perk up before smiling once she saw that it was Bell that had been the one to do so and that Chiron was with her.

"Hello there Bell, and you to Archer." Eina said, returning the greeting before seeing that Hestia and Achilles were with them. "Hm? Who are these two with you?"

"Nice to see you again Ms. Tulle." Chiron greeted before gesturing to Hestia, who was busy glaring up at Eina, and introducing her to the Guild Advisor. "This is the goddess of our Familia, Hestia."

"A pleasure to meet you goddess Hestia." Eina said, her tone switching from her usual one to one of professionalism and respectfulness to introduce herself to the goddess, ignoring the glare that was being sent her way. "My name is Eina Tulle."

"Yeah I've heard of you from my Bell." Hestia said, a slight undertone of mistrust as she spoke to her. "And that's my Bell! So you better not try anything with him!"

"Uhh?" Eina let out in response, not quite sure how to respond to what the goddess had said.

"Oh, and this is Rider! The newest member of our Familia!" Bell said, moving things along and introducing Achilles to Eina. Achilles, meanwhile, was looking down at Bell with a questioning look on his face. He was wondering how Bell clearly didn't seem to understand what Hestia was saying.

"A new member already?" Eina asked in a small amount of shocked disbelief, since it usually took months for familias like the Hestia Familia to get new members, like how Bell was the sole member of the Familia for nearly half a month before two days ago. "Three new members in a week, that's incredible!"

"Not really. You can blame him for me joining" Achilles responded in a shrug before gesturing to Chiron.

"Oh? Are you one of Archer's students? Like Berserker?" Eina asked, realizing what he was saying.

"Indeed!" Chiron confirmed for her the advisor. "And if you want to try advice I gave to you last time about lecturing adventurers during this orientation, then this is the perfect opportunity. After all, this is the student who was 'too quick for his own good' I mentioned that prompted me to come up with it myself."

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore! I can handle a simple lecture!" Achilles said in response, feeling slightly insulted that his teacher seemingly thought so little of his patience.

Eina blinked as she thought about the newly revealed information that Achilles was just another one of Chiron's students. Suddenly the sudden growth of the Hestia Familia, quadrupling in under a week with it's new additions, could be explained very easily. Hestia and Bell just got lucky in getting a teacher that had two loyal students willing to join him.

"Well we can test that out in a second." Eina said as she got out the registration form for adventurers and gave it to Achilles. "You just have to fill out this registration form. Oh, and make sure to put down your real name… if you're like Archer and Berserker I mean."

Achilles would raise a brow at that before looking down at the form that was given to him before looking over to Chiron to see if it was alright to give his true name. When he received a nod from his teacher in response, Achilles would shrug before beginning to fill out the registration form.

A few seconds later, he would hand the registration form back to Eina, who looked it over to see if everything was correct. When she saw that everything was in order, she would lead Achilles to one of the private meeting rooms in the back to give him the orientation like she had to Heracles and Chiron the day before.

Left with little else to do while waiting for them to finish the orientation process, Chiron, Bell, and Hestia would go to go cash in the magic stones that Heracles had collected that night before. Since Chiron had done it the day before with Bell when they were on their way back to the church for their first training session, Chiron knew exactly where to go. However, the small group were in for a surprise when they received their money in exchange for the magic stones.

"500,000 valis!?" Hestia and Bell exclaimed in shock as they received the large bags of golden coins that held their newly acquired money, staring at it in disbelief. They weren't the only ones caught off guard by the amount, as even Chiron had to blink a couple of times when he saw the amount that was given to him. Though, it made sense when he thought about it.

The amount of valis given for the magic stones was dependent on their quality, which was more or less proportional to the strength of the monster it had come from. Heracles had gathered the magic stones they had just turned in on a floor much deeper than the Upper Floors that the Hestia Familia usually collected from. So the small fortune they just received in comparison from the measly amount they had gotten from the pack of Kobolds was to be expected.

Of course, from the drastic difference between the two amounts of money raised the question of: how far did Heracles go into the Dungeon? It was a question that was easier to ask than answer despite how simple it was due to his students current inability to speak. And it wasn't like he could just ask the Guild member if he could guess the range of floors the stones came from the quality of the stones. If they asked such a question, it would make them seem like they had stolen the stones before cashing them in.

It was simply going to have to be one mystery that would have to go unsolved for the time being.

"Hm, this is more than I was expecting." Chiron said, humming in thought and breaking them out of their thoughts before he looked at them with a small smile. "Though as a bit of good news, it looks like you will have a bigger budget for your dress than expected Goddess."

"We aren't going to spend all of this on the dress though… are we?" Bell asked before Hestia could begin to tear up at the news of them getting her a new dress again.

"No, of course not." Chiron responded immediately. "In addition to saving at least 200,000 valis for getting a future home large enough to accommodate any further additions to the Familia, both normal and "special", we still need money for food along with weapon and armor maintenance for Bell. Though we could still be a bit generous. Overall I'd say around… 100,000 for the dress, 150,000 at the absolute most."

As Chiron came up with a rough budget for them, and Hestia once again hugged Chiron around his waist, nearly crying tears of joy. Clearly, she was happy with the budget and was already imagining what kind of dress she was going to get with that price tag.

"Oh, yeah before I forget." Hestia said after a few seconds, calming down as she remembered something. "I noticed it earlier, but I was 'distracted' by other things. Achilles' status sheet said that Hephaestus was the one to make his shield, is that something normal for her to do in that world or did Achilles pay for it?"

"No. It was mostly a favor for Achilles' mother, Th-" Chiron then blinked as he realized what exactly Hestia had said before looking down at her. "I'm sorry, but did you say 'her'?"

"Yeah?" Hestia said hesitantly, confused at the return question. "Is something wrong with that?"

"No, it's just… Hephaestus is a male in my world."

At Chiron's words, Hestia would blankly stare at him, which he returned just as blankly. Neither of them are able to properly imagine the differing version of the same god that they both had known for literal millenia, something that would undoubtedly get worse once they exchanged the details with one another. The bizarre standoff left Bell standing off to the side awkwardly, unsure of what to say or do during the bizarre standoff.

For the rest of the time they waited for Achilles to finish the Guild's orientation, none of them knew what else to say after that. So, they simply waited in silence for the newest member of the Familia to return. Luckily, they didn't need to wait for too much longer.

"Yo!" Achilles called out to them once he saw them before approaching them, Eina walking alongside them.

"Rider!" Bell and Hestia called back, both of them happy for his return putting an end to the awkward atmosphere.

"So how did my student do during the orientation? I trust he did well considering how fast that went." Chiron asked looking at the half elf.

"He didn't have any issues." Eina responded happily. "Though the reason it went so fast was the lecturing technique you taught me! It really was much more efficient than I was expecting."

"I'm happy to have been of assistance." Chiron said with a smile. "And pleasantly surprised that he did so well considering how difficult he was for most of my lectures in the beginning."

"I was ten! Give me a break!" Achilles said back with a small bit of exasperation before grumbling under his breath about how he wasn't that bad for long under the threat of Chiron's lessons.

"So what are you going to do now?" Eina asked out of curiosity, looking at the rest of the familia.

"Well, we're going shopping to get a new dress for Goddess Hestia since she's going to a party with the other gods tonight." Bell explained to his Guild advisor.

"You mean the banquet of the gods?" Eina asked back with a small hint of surprise. "I suppose it is around that time of the month again. Well, if that's what you're going to do than I won't waste any more of your time."

"Great! Then that means we should get going!" Hestia replied quickly as she grabbed Bell and proceeded to drag him to the exit before he could say farewell to Eina.

"W-wait Goddess! Hold on a minute!" Bell said, struggling against Hestia's grip, which he couldn't escape from somehow.

"Well, I suppose that's our cue to get going as well." Chiron said to Eina after a small chuckle of amusement at the spectacle as Achilles could only watch it confusion.

"Oh, well, it was nice seeing you all again, and a pleasure to meet you Rider!" Eina said, with a slight bow as the two began to walk away.

"Back at ya! See you in the future." Achilles called back with a wave as he and Chiron went to go catch up with their master and goddess, a wave that Eina would return before she went back to work, knowing she undoubtedly had some paperwork to do.

A few hours later.

The Hestia Familia looked upon the final result of their work for the past few hours of shopping around. They had spent the first hour simply looking for a store that sold the kind of dresses they were looking for at a decent price. After they did, it became something akin to a labour to find something that they could all agree on would look nice. Though Bell found himself being the one coming up with most of the ideas alongside Hestia since Achilles had no real interest in fashion and was only helping out to be nice to them and Chiron, despite his many skills, really didn't have much of a taste for human fashion.

Of course, Bell and Hestia wanted to question what he meant by "human fashion" since even demi humans, which they had been assuming Chiron was, had similar senses of fashion, but now wasn't the place to discuss it.

"So… How do I look?" Hesia asked nervously and with a slight blush as she came out of the dressing room so they could see how everything they had chosen looked all put together on her.

The dress she now wore was a sky blue ball gown with a floral patterned outer skirt extending from her waist to the floor, parted in the front with white frilled hems, accented by a thin matte purple lining. Ribbons of similar design embellished the lower skirt, a simpler baby blue skirt with a simple abstract design flowing all the way from the midpiece, a deep blue silk garb fastened at the shoulders with pearl accessories emblazoned with a gold topaz pendant just under the breasts. Tight, sapphire sleeves extended just past the elbows to a pearl cuff, giving way to a transparent flowing sleeve ending with the familiar simple white frills resting just past the wrist. To finally complete the outfit, two strings of pearls flowed from the large sky blue ribbon in the Goddess' hair, and a choker matching the pattern of the outer skirt, lined with pearls and adorned with another gold topaz pendant.

"Wow…" Bell said in amazement as he blinked a couple of ties, almost to make sure what he was seeing was real. "You look incredible Goddess!"

"Indeed. It seems to fit you quite well." Chiron praised as well, causing the blush that Hestia already had to to darken at the compliments from the two, especially Bell's.

"I don't know, I'm not exactly used to wearing something this stuffy." Hestia said, hooking a finger on one of the loops of pearls that were around her elbow to try and loosen them somewhat.

"I can relate to that." Achilles said, remembering the feelings of discomfort he had whenever he wore full body armor. "But, hey, at least you definitely look like a goddess now."

"Is that supposed to imply that I usually don't?"

"As nice as the dress is though, we still have to bear in mind how much it will cost." Chiron said with a small frown before looking over to one of the nearby staff members of the store. "Excuse me, but do you happen to know how much all of this will cost?"

"If I'm not mistaken-" the worker said, looking over the dress Hestia was wearing, doing the math in his head, "it should be around 250,000 valis."

When the price was given, Chiron and Achilles would both wince at how expensive it was while Bell would just flat out go pale. Had it been a week ago, Bell and Hestia would've never been able to afford even half of that price. However, even now that they could thanks to the Servants, it was still almost half of what they had just gotten earlier.

Hestia, however, suddenly looked a little despondent. It didn't really mean much to her that she couldn't get the dress, but all of her children had just spent hours working together trying to find her the best they could find. Plus, with the amount of time they had spent trying to find a good enough dress, they didn't have much longer before Hestia had to be at the banquet, meaning they didn't have any time to find another one.

Seeing this, Chiron would let out a small sigh after a second.

"I suppose we could simply send Berserker down into the Dungeon again to make up more money." Chiron said begrudgingly, rationalizing what he was about to do before looking over to the store's worker. "We'll take the dress."

Hearing Chiron's words would have the desired effect on Hestia, who suddenly began to tear up in happiness and began to make a move to go hug Chiron once again.

"I don't deserve you!" Hestia said as Chiron handed the store worker the proper payment, but was held back by Bell.

"Calm down Goddess! You might ruin the dress!"

"You're just doing this to spoil your sister aren't you?" Achilles asked with a smirk, though he now knew better than to say such things out loud, waiting until the worker walked away and saying it quietly enough to where Hestia and Bell couldn't hear him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Chiron said while wearing a small unknowing smile and delivering a hard punch into Achilles' side. "By the way, Goddess, I don't think you told us where the party is going to be taking place.

"Well, if it was any of the other gods that was hosting it, it would be at some Guild owned building, but since Ganesha is the one hosting, it will be at his house." Hestia answered, calming down enough so Bell would let her go.

"Ganesha, huh? Isn't that a Hindu God?" Achilles asked, rubbing his side where Chiron had just punched him.

"Yes." Chiron responded as Hestia and Bell gave Achilles a look of slight confusion at the word 'Hindu'. "More specifically, the god of success, wisdom, and good luck. He also has an epitaph called the God of the Masses from how popular he is."

At the brief description of their world's version of Ganesha, Hestia would blink a couple a couple of times. It seems that that version of Ganesha of that world had a lot more going on for him than the one she knew. Afterall, Ganesha was only known as the God of the Masses here.

"Wait, do you know Ganesha? Like you do with Artemis and Apollo?" Hestia asked, her curiosity peaked, though no one missed how Achilles' mood seemed to sour somewhat at the mention of Apollo.

"Well, he and the rest of the Hindu gods were more based in India as opposed to Greece like the Olympains. That is to say, they were very far away so I never got a chance to interact with him." Chiron answered, explaining what he meant with some amusement as he saw the questioning looks Bell and Hestia gave him with the names of locations. "But from what I know, he should be a quiet, humble, and highly disciplined god. Why? What's he like in this world?"

With the more detailed description of the god, Hestia found herself physically unable to imagine the Ganesha she knew to be anything like Chiron had described him to be. Making it the second time that day that something like that had happened. Was this going to be a recurring thing every time they talked about the different versions of the gods they knew.

But that thought could wait, since now she had both Chiron and Achilles looking down at her, clearly expecting a description of what Ganesha was like.

"Well..."

Later...

"..."

"..."

"...What the fu-"

"Well… it seems like your description of this version of Ganesha being more… eccentric seems to be accurate." Chiron said, interrupting Achilles as he and Bell looked in utter disbelief at what they knew to be a home people actually lived in.

That home being a gigantic statue being made from stone into the form of a man with an elephant head seated cross armed and cross legged… with a pair of large double doors right at the crouch being the only entrance.

"That seems to be an understatement!" Achilles said, bringing a hand up to his face to rub his temples and eyes before looking again in an attempt to make sure what he was seeing was real.

"Oh you don't know the half of it." Hesita said quietly to herself, choosing not to tell them that the name of the "manor" was "I am Ganesha", before shaking her head and turning to face her familia. "Well I should get going. I'll see you all in a few days."

"Are you sure you can't tell us why you're going to be gone?" Bell asked, a little saddened at the reminder that he wouldn't be able to see his goddess for the next few days.

"Nope, it's a surprise! But don't worry, I know you'll love it!" Hestia said, her confidence in her claim hiding the fact that she'll probably spend a sizable portion of that time just begging for the actual surprise to be made.

"All the more reason to look forward to seeing you again." Chiron said with a smile as he said farewell to Hestia, causing Bell to cheer up as he did the same.

"Right! See you soon Goddess!"

"So long." Achilles said, giving her a two finger salute as she began to walk away toward the weird home of the Ganesha Familia. "...So what should we do now?"

"We should probably go home, right?" Bell suggested as he put his arm down from waving off Hestia.

"Actually, I suggest we go to the Hostess of Fertility for dinner." Chiron said before elaborationing. "Not only do we have a new member joining the Familia to celebrate, but it's a chance to apologize to Syr for leaving without saying goodbye last night."

"Ah yeah that's right." Bell said, scratching the back of his head and feeling a bit bad as he remembered that he didn't actually say goodbye to Syr in the heat of everything happening last night. "And we didn't actually get anything for Berserker did we?"

"There is that too. An excellent suggestion Bell."

"Well I'm down for anything." Achilles said as he turned to walk away while making a gesture to the bizarre home of the God of Masses. "So long as that thing is not in view."

"Agreed." Chiron and Bell said at the same time in response as they quickly followed after him.

Inside the "I am Ganesha"

The party was already fully underway by the time Hestia had entered manor. She could easily hear Ganesha over everyone else, making some announcement about the upcoming Monsterphilia, but she mostly tuned him out as she usually did. She was far more interested in something else: the all you can eat buffet.

Sure, Chiron had made her and Bell some pretty nice eggs earlier, but it wasn't like she got to eat food like this for free every day.

As she made her way to the table where all the food was served, and even as she began to stuff her face full with all of the free food, she could hear all the reactions to the various gods seeing her.

"Hey is that Hestia?"

"No way! Where'd she get the nice dress?"

"I don't know, isn't she supposed to basically be completely broke?"

She didn't really pay attention to any of them, preferring to ignore most of them like she was turning out Ganesha while letting any of the nice comments feed her ego a bit more. Though that was countered whenever one of the meaner gods would make a snarky comment about her, such as calling her "loli with the big boobs". Though not that any of them mattered, although the food was nice and made for a good bonus, she was only here for one reason and one reason only.

"Well don't you look nice." a familiar voice said from behind Hestia suddenly, causing her to jump while she was eating something, nearly choking on it in the process. After she managed to swallow the food, she turned around to see a beautiful red haired goddess dressed in a dark red dress holding a glass of wine. However, the thing that made her most recognizable was the black eye patch covering her right eye.

"Hephaestus!" Hestia called out happily at seeing her old friend. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Well, as glad as I am to see you too, just to be clear-" Hephaestus began "Whatever it is you want, I won't lend you a single valis."

"Do I look like the kind of goddess who'd stoop so low as to go looking for handouts from her best friend?" Hestia responded after letting out a large gasp of indignation.

"You have a lot of nerve saying that after you freeloaded off of my familia." Hephaestus said, causing Hestia to react like she had taken a physical blow before continuing on. "And then you come crying to me that you were broke and have no family after I had to kick you out! Do you honestly wonder why I would assume you want something?"

"In her defense, Hephaestus, it doesn't look like she's hurting for money anymore." A new voice said before Hestia had a chance to respond as it's source walked out from behind Hephaestus. It was a goddess, more beautiful than any other, with long silver hair and silver eyes with skin like freshly fallen snow. Her beauty, along with her white dress that was somewhat open in the front, constantly drew the attention of the other gods, especially males. "Afterall, just look how nice her dress is."

"Hmm, you do make a point Freya." Hephaestus said in thought as she looked back over Hestia.

"Ugh, Freya. What are you doing here?" Hestia said, groaning in annoyance at seeing the goddess of beauty.

"I ran into her earlier. We were looking around the hall together." Hephaestus explained casually while taking a sip out of the glass of wine.

"Am I a bother, Hestia?" Freya asked looking down at Hestia with the smile on her face not going away.

"No...but I'm certainly not comfortable around you." Hestia said bluntly, bluntly enough that Hephaestus nearly choked on her wine in mild surprise.

"Oh, but that is exactly what I like about you though." Freya said with a small giggle, the smile only growing, much to Hestia's annoyance. Speaking of which...

"YO PHAEPHAE! FREYA!" Called out a familiar voice from behind Hestia.

"Though at least you're not as annoying as some people." Hestia said as the sound of running came from behind her, before Loki ended up running right past her, standing in between her and the other two goddesses. Though, oddly, despite their rivalry, Loki didn't seem to acknowledge Hestia's presence.

In sharp contrast to her usual tomboyish outfit, Loki was dressed in a, well, dress. To be more specific, it was a long, black shoulderless dress that reached down to the floor. It was a strange image for those that were used to seeing her in her usual manner of dress.

"It's been awhile Loki." Hephaestus greeted her. "I hear about your familia's reputation a lot these days. Seems like it's going well."

"That's flattering coming from someone as successful as you Phaephae." Loki said with the odd display of humility, a display that only caused the glare that Hestia was sending into the back of her head to intensify, especially since she still hasn't acknowledged her. "But I'm certainly proud of my children."

"By the way Loki." Freya began, getting the other goddess' attention. "Isn't it rare for you to wear a dress?"

"Well, that's because I heard a rumor that a certain chibi was going to be here, and I wanted to look my best so I could make fun of her for not being able to afford a dress." Loki said, before frowning and scratching the back of her head. "Though apparently that rumor was wrong since I haven't been able to find her."

At that last sentence, Freya began to giggle fervently as she covered her mouth with her hand, and even Hephaestus let out a small giggle.

"Huh? What are you two laughing a-" Loki began being interrupted by Hestia's voice coming from behind her, with her tone dripping with malice.

"Oh, do try that Loki." Hestia said as Loki finally turned around to see the vicious glare that Hestia was giving her and the dress she wore that was distinctively nicer than hers. "I want to hear how exactly that's going to work."

"Huh?!" Loki gasped wildly in shock, clearly not having recognized Hestia in her current dress until now. "How?! You must've stolen that dress! No way you could afford something that nice!"

"As if!" Hestia retorted in angry indignation at the accusation. "I'll have you know this is a gift from the members of my Familia!"

As the two goddesses began to growl at each other in their usual stand off with one another, Hephaestus and Freya watched from the sidelines, along with a few other gods that caught sight of what was happening. Hephaestus watched the scene with growing exasperation while Freya was clearly amused by everything that was going on.

"You two kids get along so well!" Freya said with a clear amount of amusement while being unable to even keep a straight face as she said that.

"No we don't!" Hestia and Loki said simultaneously in response, causing Hephaestus to let out a small groan.

"...Hey, Loki." Hestia calmly said suddenly before crossing her arms, surprising Loki, Freya, and Hephaestus, who were expecting things to escalate like they usually did. "I have a question I want to ask you about that Wallen-what's-it girl in your familia."

"The Sword Princess? I want to hear about her too." Hephaestus said with interest at the new topic now that the two weren't fighting.

"Huh? The little brat is asking me a question? Will a volcano erupt later?" Loki partially joked smugly, testing Hestia's patience a bit. "But sure, I'm all ears as long as I get one in return shorty."

Hestia basically had to physically swallow the growl that nearly erupted at her throat at the taunt, but she managed to keep her cool so she could ask her question.

"...Is the Sword Princess going out with anyone?" Hestia asked with some anticipation.

"Duh, Aiz is taken by me." Loki said without any hesitation but with a metric ton of pride. "I'll never let her go, and I'll never give her to anyone. I'm gonna tear apart anyone that tries to make a move on her."

"Tch!" Hestia clicked her tongue in annoyance, ignoring the slight chill that went up her spine from how dead serious Loki was at the claim and the odd looks she got from the other goddesses at her reaction. Well there goes that option to get Bell's attention away from Aiz.

"So now it's my turn." Loki said, getting Hestia's attention back to her as she crossed her arms. "How in the world did you manage to get those two to join your Familia?"

"I didn't have to do anything." Hestia responded quickly, and that was true, especially since Chiron was the one to suggested before she could even offer it. "They just wanted to join."

"Oh? Did you get new members in your Familia Hestia?" Hephaestus asked with some interest, this was her best friend after all, and she had made sure to keep an eye on her to see how she was doing even after kicking her out. And the last she had checked, Hestia only had one member in her Familia, that being a young boy named Bell Cranel. "Come to think of it, you did say 'members' earlier when referring to your dress being a gift."

"Yeah. They joined a few days ago after one of them helped Bell out in the Dungeon, after someone's Familia nearly got him killed." Hestia explained before sending a sharp glare at Loki who just shrugged.

"It's the Dungeon, what are you going to do?" Loki said nonchalantly, thinking back to how Chiron explained things last night and seeing that the stories matched.

"Well if that's the case-" Freya began as she looked at Loki, "Then I'm curious how you know about them before Hestia's own friend."

"Well, due to some… unique circumstances for one of them, there was a bit of a misunderstanding and there was a small fight between him and one of my kids." Loki explained, though she was purposefully being vague. Afterall, it wouldn't do well for Ais' image if she had attacked a level one adventurer.

Hestia seemed to realize this, and didn't elaborate any further either. As much as Hestia would've liked to put Loki on the spot, any more information would bring unneeded attention on her own Familia. Attention that could lead to more trouble later down the line.

"My, my, that must've been quite the misunderstanding." Freya said with some surprise.

"Yeah, but it doesn't really sound like anyone got hurt in this." Hephaestus said, noticing how relatively nonchalant the two were being over the serious situation.

"Nah." Loki said, waving it off. "As much as it pains me to say this, Hestia's new kid is pretty tough, and her new captain paid my Familia a visit to resolve the whole thing."

"Speaking of which." Hestia said, looking back at Loki, grabbing her attention again. "Have you and your Familia thought over the offer that Archer gave?"

"Eh, Finn is thinking it over with Riviera and Gareth, but I don't know what they're thinking right now." Loki answered with some disinterest before seeing the odd looks Hephaestus and Freya was giving them. "Hestia's new kid claims to be a teacher or something for adventures, and he offered some assistance with some of the newbies to show this whole thing was water under the bridge."

"Hm, seems like you've gotten some interesting new kids Hestia." Hephaestus stated.

"That's an understatement if I ever heard one." Loki grumbled under her breath.

"Yeah, they're all good kids… a bit too good for me if I'm being honest." Hestia said, mostly mumbling to herself near the end, and not noticing how Freya interest would peak in response.

For a second, Freya looked like she was going to say something, but was interrupted by Loki.

"Well, if you really feel that way, I'd be more than happy to take them then." Loki said, leaning down into Hestia's face, grinning fiercely. And Hestia began to angrily growl in response, Hephaestus could only sigh as she and Freya watched as the two once again began to fight.

"As if!" Hestia yelled back angrily as she pointed over to Freya as she got back up into Loki's face in return. "I'd sooner give my Familia over to her rather than to you!"

"Well that only makes sense." Loki said, while her mischievous grin grew exponentially as both of them ignored Freya's reaction, which also got her an odd look from Hephaestus. "The two of you seem to have something in common."

"What is that supposed to mean!?"

"Well…let's just say that for a virgin goddess, it's a bit suspicious that there are only men in your Familia." Loki said, grinning ferociously as she finally moved in for the kill, especially as she watched the color drain out of Hestia's face.

Loki's unsaid accusation caused Hestia to stagger backwards as if she had taken a physical blow. How had she not noticed before?! Without the context of Bell literally summoning the other members of the Familia into this world, something she would in no way explain to anyone, it didn't take much to guess what most people would think.

And Loki's point would only become stronger when she found out about the newly joined Rider.

It didn't exactly look good for her reputation.

"Why you! You're just mad because you're too flat to get such attention!" Hestia replied angrily once she recovered, causing Loki to have a similar reaction to what she just had. Meanwhile, she would internally resolve herself to talk to Chiron later on how to rig the summonings to ensure a female servant would be summoned next.

With that, Hephaestus and Freya, along with a growing number of onlookers, would brace themselves to watch a very familiar scene.

Hostess of Fertility

"Mr. Cranel?" greeted an elf with green hair as Bell, Chiron, and Achilles entered the busy restaurant.

"Uh, Hello." Bell returned the greeting, surprised that the elf remembered his name. "Is Syr here?"

"No. Unfortunately she had some errands to run today. Is there something you needed to say to her?"

"Well, I left without saying goodbye to her last night, and I wanted to apologize for that… especially since she gave me her breakfast yesterday." Bell explained, scratching the back of his head with one arm in embarrassment.

"I'll tell her you said that, I'm sure she will appreciate it."

"Oh, thank you miss…?" Bell said gratefully, bowing somewhat in thanks, before realizing he didn't actually know her name.

"My name is Ryu, and it's no problem." she said introducing herself while looking past Bell at Chiron and Achilles, who was having Ryu a curious look with his brow up, which she returned. "Though since you have your captain with you, along with who I can only guess is another member of your familia, I'm assuming you didn't just come here for that?"

"Indeed." Chiron answered for Bell, as he rested a hand on one of Achilles' shoulders. "This is the newest member of our familia, and we decided to eat here again tonight to celebrate his joining."

"I see." Ryu said plainly. "I'll help you all find a seat then."

"That would be appreciated."

Ryu then turned around, leading the trio further into the busy restaurant. One cursory glance in it's direction showed that the bar was completely occupied, along with most of the tables. So, the only option they had was to sit at an unoccupied booth.

"So, that was an elf, huh?" Achilles asked, giving another curious glance at Ryu as she walked off to go help another table while they decided on what they wanted after getting their drinks.

"Do you not have elves in your wo-old home?" Bell asked, correcting himself mid sentence as he remembered they were in public. Though he was curious what Achilles meant.

"We did, but they lived very far away so we never had a chance to meet them." Chiron explained to Bell, looking over the menu, deciding on his meal and what they would get for Heracles.

Bell found his curiosity about Chiron's and Achilles' old world rising at the new information, but didn't know how to ask about it in a way that would saite his curiosity while being vague enough to avoid the attention of anyone who would overhear him.

"So… what do you think of them then?" Bell found himself asking somewhat awkwardly, not sure of what else to talk about.

"What's there to think?" Achilles said with a bored shrug as he looked over the menu for himself. "They're just another group of people. Sure, they have some mysticism I guess, but in comparison to Ganesha's house or Archer's usual looks, they're not the weirdest thing out there."

"Huh?" Bell let out, confused as to what Achilles meant by the latter example when he processed it.

"...While I won't argue with that Rider, was that really the best way you had to put it?" Chiron asked, not exactly appreciative of having his natural species being called "weird" by one of his star students. Though he did recognize the fact that a centaur would indeed be a bizarre sight to those unused to them.

"It was just one of the first examples that popped into my head." Achilles said with another shrug, recalling how long it took him to get used to his teacher's centaur nature when he had first begun training under him.

"What does he mean Archer? Do you usually look different somehow?" Bell asked, extremely curious and confused as to what they were talking about at this point, prompting Chiron to lean in and whisper in Bell's ear.

"To simplify it a bit, I did change my appearance to better blend in upon my summoning, or more accurately, my species." Chiron explained quietly to Bell. "In life, I was something called a centaur, a humanoid with the body of a horse under the waist."

Bell's facial expression went blank, and the mental struggle he had in trying to imagine the Servant in his true form was almost audible to Achilles and Chiron. What had just been described to him was tantamount to an alien creature to him and it was difficult to imagine Chiron as it after having grown used to his human form. At least he now knew what Chiron meant by "human fashion" when they were shopping for Hestia's dress.

Meanwhile, With his point proven at Bell's reaction, Achilles gave Chiron a smug look. Chiron on the other hand decided simply rolled his eyes at his students' antics.

It took a few more minutes for Bell to come back to reality, just in time for Ryu to come back and for her to take their orders. While the Hestia Familia waited for their food to arrive, they spent the time talking between themselves. Soon though, their food would arrive, and they would soon begin to eat. However, it was then Bell suddenly remembered something that had happened earlier that day.

"Hey Rider? What were you going to tell Berserker when we were leaving earlier?" Bell asked as Ryu set down his plate in front of him, and began to walk away.

"Oh that?" Achilles said, stopping as he nearly put his food in his mouth to eat, before leaning on his hand with a smirk. "I was just trying to see one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid come to life."

"Huh? What story?" Bell asked, his interest rising at the prospect of a story that a hero was fond of.

"Hmmm, well, I can tell you it, ooor-" Achilles paused, taking a bite out of his meal before looking over to his teacher, who was also just eating his meal. "I can just let the man who knows how to tell it the best do it.".

"I suppose I could tell that old story, though it has been awhile." Chiron let out a good nature sigh out as Achilles essentially gave him the spotlight over to him.

"Now then, Bell, do you remember how Berserker hates the 'impossible'?" Chiron began after taking another bite of his food, looking over to Bell.

"Yeah?" Bell answered, remembering the two times over the past two day that the word had been said in his presence and how Heracles had reacted to it. It wasn't exactly something that was easy to forget…

"Well this story shows just how much he hates it and what it means." Chiron said before taking in a breath and beginning his story, as Bell listened with exceeding interest along with Achilles with nostalgia.

"When I had first taken Berserker in as a student, I had three other students named Jason, Castor and Ascepiulus."

As Chiron began his story, Bell recognized the names that he mentioned from the heroes that Achilles had mentioned when he had been summoned earlier.

"One day, when all of them were younger than you, I went hunting and left them to have a break for the day. While I was gone, they, as children tend to do, all got in an argument."

"What was it about?" Bell asked

"I'm not sure what it originally started as, but it eventually ended up being about whether or not humans were capable of flight or not." Chiron continued, pausing briefly to chuckle slightly as Bell's face showed his confusion at the topic of their argument. "Like I said, I don't know how the argument came to be, but the one thing I do know is that, near the end of it, one of them said that 'it was impossible for humans to fly'. Because as I finished hunting and began making my way back to them, I heard a series of what sounded like explosions."

"Huh? Did they start fighting or something?" Bell asked in surprise at the seeming escalation.

"No, instead, as I ran back to see what was the source of the commotion, I found Castor, Jason, and Ascepiulus looking up blankly toward the sky with the sound coming from where they were looking. When I asked what was going on, they all simply pointed up to the sky, when I looked at what they were pointing to, I saw Berserker, flying in midair."

As Chiron finished the story, Achilles suddenly began to laugh in amusement at his master's expense as Bell donned a look of shock and bewilderment.

"Wha-How?!" Bell asked in shock, only causing Achilles to begin laughing harder, and even causing Chiron to let out a chuckle as well.

"Well to be more accurate, he wasn't exactly flying per say. He was just using his strength to kick the air hard enough to propel himself in the air, hence the sound of explosions." Chiron explained to Bell, whose shock began to turn to awe at the feat of the young Heracles.

"Wow…" Bell said in awe.

"Yeah, now you know why I liked that story so much." Achilles said as he calmed down enough to stop laughing, wiping a tear from his eye.

"And you also now know not to use that word lightly around Berserker, because if you do, he will do everything in his power to complete the task it's referring to." Chiron said as he once again began to eat his meal.

"Oh yeah, especially since that became one of the least impressive things he did." Achilles said before taking another bite into his own meal.

Bell had a brief look of bewilderment at Achilles' claim, but didn't say anything as he looked down at his food and began to eat it once again himself. As he did, he flashed back to a few nights before, just after summoning Chiron and Heracles had materialized from his spirit form. He recalled the Teacher of Heroes calling him the "Greatest Hero of Ancient Greece", and with that story about when Heracles was younger than Bell and with what Achilles just said, it was clear that that title was no exaggeration.

Of course, that realization was only causing Bell's imagination to run wild in trying to figure out what Heracles must've done later in his life if what Achilles said was true.

After Chiron told the story, the rest of the meal went fairly normally, with the three members of the Hestia Familia eating their meals while discussing different things. A little while later, Ryu would come by to see if they needed anything else, and they would all say no. Aside from Chiron, who asked for something to help carry the food they had gotten for Heracles.

Shortly after that, they would all finish their meals, and begin to head home, to end the day, along with an extra meal for the other member of their Familia.

The dress that Hestia was wearing was the biggest pain in the neck for writing this fic yet, and wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it delayed this update by at least a week. It's mostly just the anniversary dress that Hestia has from Memoria Freese, but, between me and my beta reader, it probably had been described at least six times. And then I had to put a price tag on it.

Speaking of money, I also finagled with the 500,000 valis that they got from the magic stones that Heracles brought a little bit. Since there isn't exactly a guide for how much an individual magic stone is worth, I had to guesstimate. Since we know that a minotaur's magic stone from the 15-17 floor range is 50,000 valis as compared to the 1,200 valis from a collection of magic stones on the Upper Floors, I figured that it wasn't out of the question that magic stones would be at least 60,000. And then you have to multiply it a few times over since Heracles spent a decent amount of time collecting them.

Also, since I got multiple people questioning it, I should probably explain why Heracles defense stat went up despite God Hand… existing.

No, Heracles didn't go deeper than Floor 20, nor did any monster actually break through the defense of God Hand. However, to slightly paraphrase the wiki, God Hand isn't like Magic Resistance where it completely nullifies the attack. Instead, God Hand allows the attack to actually hit Heracles full force, but negates the damage. And with my understanding of how the Falna works, that means he should still gain the excelia of getting hit, though maybe at a decrease.

Add in the fact that Berserker Heracles doesn't even attempt to block attacks that he knows won't break through God Hand, and was fighting level 2 enemies while technically being level 1, that means he got a decent amount of excelia. Though that could definitely be up for debate since it's two very different systems from two very different series meeting and interacting, that is just the way that made the most sense to me.

That story of "flying Heracles" was inspired from a funny fan comic of FGO called "the NEW Twelve Labors", which I recommend reading since it is very funny. This is as good a point as any to remind people that I will be taking liberties with Heracles based on my own interpretation of the myth. I won't be doing anything that would contradict Fate cannon, but adding to it.

Finally, when I was half way through this chapter, I was reading the Danmachi manga and found a direct reference to the Achilles' heel… Since I have already said that this world is a different one from ours, this reference and others like it is going to be ignored, mostly because I want to preserve my sanity from trying to rationalize how this very different world with a very different history had events that were close enough to our myths for them to have the same names and phrases.