A month has now passed since Jaune started teaching Haruhime. After a week of teaching Haruhime, Jaune thought it was time to learn some spells. Jaune taught her lightning bolt, fireball, heal, barrier, etc. They were simple spells but quite useful. However, Jaune wasn't only teaching her magic. He made her learn to use a sword or spear since her magic could run out. She needed another way to fight in case it happened. Haruhime chose to learn the way of the sword.
Every day, Jaune would bring Haruhime to the dungeon to gain experience. At first, Haruhime was dodging against the monster so much that she couldn't counterattack, but eventually, she got better and better.
Currently, Jaune was in the shop speaking with Hephaestus. The goddess was asking Jaune once more if he could join her Familia. This started a month ago when Jaune gave Hephaestus' order. She was impressed with Jaune's creation that she invited him to her Familia. However, Jaune was not willing to join.
"Can I ask why you're unwilling to join my Familia?" Hephaestus asked. "It's not something I did, is it?".
"No, you've been wonderful," Jaune said. He was telling the truth. Hephaestus was quite a relaxing person to interact with. "It's not that I'm unwilling to join your Familia. It's that I'm unwilling to join any Familia".
"If it's not too much trouble, can I ask why you refuse to join a Familia?" Hephaestus asked. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to".
"Alright, I'll answer your question if you show me what's under your eye patch," Jaune said. "Similarly, you don't have to show me if you don't want to".
"Hmm…" Hephaestus was thinking and considering Jaune's proposal. "Alright, I'll show you what's under my eye patch. I'm warning you now, it's not for the faint of heart".
Hephaestus then took off her eye patch to show the disfigurement on her face. It looked as if it was corroded by something and had yellow light pulsing around it. But Jaune knew right away when he saw it. It was a curse. A curse from a God or Goddess. Hephaestus saw that Jaune had a disgusted look on his face. However, she misunderstood why Jaune had that look.
"It's disgusting, isn't it?" Hephaestus said with resignation. Jaune was still looking at her. "You don't have to keep looking at it. Many people have run away from me after seeing my full face".
"Do you mind if I take a closer look at it?" Jaune asked. Hephaestus was confused after hearing Jaune's question. "If you thought that I was disgusted with the way you look, then you're wrong".
"But I saw that your expression after seeing my disfigurement," Hephaestus said. "You don't have to lie to me".
"I wasn't disgusted at your disfigurement," Jaune said. "I was disgusted at the person that did this to you. This type of curse can only be done by a god or goddess. I don't know why they did it, but they are the ones I'm disgusted at, not you".
"He-he-he! You are an oddball," Hephaestus said with a giggle. She saw that Jaune wasn't lying. "No one has ever wanted to take a closer look at my face after seeing it".
Hephaestus then allowed Jaune to take a closer look at her disfigurement. Jaune used (Detect Origin) on it. And he was right. It was indeed a curse. After knowing that, Jaune used (Sever Origin Connection) to destroy the curse. A curse made by a God or not, it's nothing in the face of (Sever Origin Connection). The pulsing yellow light around the corroded eye disappeared. However, Hephaestus face was still disfigured. Seeing this, Jaune used (Divine Healing) to heal the disfigurement.
Jaunt then reached inside his drawer and took out a mirror to show Hephaestus her reflection. The goddess had a face of shock after what she saw. The side of her face she hated was back to normal. She couldn't believe it.
"Is that a magic mirror that shows a person what they would look like if they were normal?" Hephaestus asked. Jaune was going to say no, but she didn't let him finish. "You nearly got me. I thought that it was gone".
'The mirror is an ordinary item," Jaune said. Hephaestus went wide-eyed. "I removed the curse that caused your disfigurement and used healing magic to heal the disfigurement".
"S-So, it's really gone," Hephaestus said. She then touched her face while looking at the mirror. "Thank you! I've done so much to get rid of it for a long time, but no one has been able to".
"Now, as I promised," Jaune said. "The reason I don't want to join any Familia. That's quite simple. The moment I receive the Falna of a God or Goddess, the only way to break the limit of a mortal would be to kill monsters that give Excelia. The number of magic one would be able to use would be limited to three. There is a way to bypass that, like the elf from the Loki Familia who has nine. But the fundamental issue is that I don't want Excelia to be the only way for me to get stronger. True, it would make me stronger faster in the initial phase, but further down the road, it would be a limitation".
"I see," Hephaestus said. She knew that what Jaune said was true. "And with your strength, you believe that the monsters in the lower floor would still not be enough to beat you".
"I've been to the forty-ninth floor," Jaune said. "I even used an item that made the dungeon create irregular monsters that far surpass the boss on that floor. Yet, I was able to kill it with ease".
Hephaestus and Jaune continued conversing until a new customer came to the store. Hephaestus decided to return to her Familia Manor. However, she didn't forget to thank Jaune for what he's done for her with a kiss on his cheek. Scáthach, who was in Jaune's shadow, jolted. She wanted to come out and show the goddess what's what.
After Jaune took the customer's order, he headed to the smithing area and asked Haruhime to handle the front desk. Once he was out of people's view, Jaune asked Scáthach to come out of his shadow.
"What do you want?" Scáthach said. She sounded jealous. "If you need something, why don't you ask that goddess you were being chammy with".
"How would that work?" Jaune said. "The reason I asked you to come out is that I felt that you were upset".
"Me? I'm not upset," Scáthach said. "What reason would I be upset? I mean, it's not like you made a promise to be strong enough to beat me so that you can prove that you are worthy of being with me".
"And I'm still striving for that," Jaune said. "It's the reason why I'm fighting powerful monsters in the dungeon every day. I've finally reached the ninetieth floor. Soon I'll be able to reach the hundredth floor, then I'll use the divinity of Gáe Bolg to force the dungeon to create its most powerful monster. Maybe then, it would be able to push me to break past my bottleneck in my fighting style".
Scáthach then went back to Jaune's shadow. Everything Jaune said was true. Not a single lie was uttered by Jaune's mouth. She couldn't believe that she was jealous of a single kiss when Jaune was trying to prove himself to her. However, Scáthach knew that with Jaune's personality, more people would be attracted to him. That's inevitable. No matter, she would be the first.
"Huh? What the hell am I thinking," Scáthach said. "Why would I want to be first? First for what?".
The following morning, Jaune was in his smithy. He was forging a sword for Haruhime. While training her to wield a sword, Haruhime has been using a (Training Sword – Uncommon) which can change form depending on the sword the wielder desires. For Haruhime, it was a katana. Therefore, Jaune was forging her a katana.
The katana Jaune forged her had a beautiful silver blade, golden tsuba, golden fox menuki, green same-gawa and a golden ito. Once Jaune gave the sword to Haruhime, she loved it. She then gave Jaune a hug. Once again, Scáthach jolted in Jaune's shadow.
"Thank you for forging this sword, Jaune," Haruhime said. "This is the first time someone gave me a gift. I love it.".
"All I ask is that you work hard to get stronger," Jaune said. "Tomorrow, I will close down the shop for a week. I want you to concentrate on your training. Since you're already familiar with basic magic, it's time for you to learn a more advanced magic".
Haruhime was excited to learn even more magic from Jaune. Though, she was confused. She heard of people having many magic abilities like the Nine Hell from Loki Familia, but she didn't know that you can learn magic. She thought you can only get it through the blessing of a god, levelling up and a grimoire.