3 Chapter 3

As the woman inspected me, I gave her a once over and had no doubt in my mind that this was the Goddess, Fortuna. We stood there for a moment, silently inspecting each other, before she finally broke the silence and spoke.

"Are you looking for a familia to join by any chance?" She asked, but from the way she said it, I had a feeling that she already knew what I was going to say.

Despite my answer being obvious to both of us, I still voiced it aloud, "Yes, in fact, I'm here in Orario looking for a Familia to join,"

"Great, I knew there had to be a reason we bumped into each other. I was just thinking about finding a strong human to be the first to join my familia." She said, sticking out her hand for me to shake, "I'm Fortuna, Goddess of luck/fortune,"

I reached out and shook her proffered hand, "I'm Galahad, pleased to meet you,"

"How about it, Galahad, want to be the first member of my Familia," She asked with a victorious grin on her face.

"If you'll have me, I'll be honored to join," I said, bowing slightly to the Goddess.

"Then let's head to my shop. That will be the unofficial headquarters of the familia for now," She said excitedly, dragging me toward one of the many entrances to Babel.

As she dragged me along, she gave me the basic details about what would be the current living arrangement for the two of us, "I have an apartment on the 21st floor of Babel, but since I'm not rich and powerful with a big familia, it is fairly quaint and not too big. However, it will make due while the familia remains just you and I,"

From what I understood about Babel, the floors past the 20th were full of apartments, mostly for the gods, with the higher the floor, the bigger, better, and more expensive the apartments. I couldn't help but admire the tower as we passed through the entrance. I could see the majority of people on the ground floor heading for the center of Babel to go challenge the dungeon, but a good chunk was making their way up the floors. I was defiantly excited to live in the same building as the dungeon despite not having open space to train while living in a shared apartment.

"By the way, what floor is your shop on?" I asked casually as we took the stairs.

"The ninth. I got a pretty good deal on it," She said conversationally while we walked up the seemingly endless flights of stairs.

"What do you sell, if you don't mind me asking," I asked, genuinely curious about what a Goddess of luck would sell in a shop.

"I run a high-end fashion and jewelry store. Most of the clients are either gods and goddesses or Orario's elite," she said, sounding neither boastful nor too interested in the prestige of her shop, "Though I do make some stylish clothes that work for casual adventurer clothing too,"

"Will one of my duties involve me being a walking billboard," I said jokingly, not really minding the idea.

She laughed and responded, "Only if you want to, I have had a bit of trouble breaking into the market of adventures since most don't care about wearing nice clothes after risking their lives in the dungeon all day,"

It was my turn to lightly laugh, "I don't mind, it will be nice to get some free clothes,"

She turned her head and shot me a knowing smile before we both laughed. As we lapsed into a comfortable silence, I reflected on my meeting with Fortuna so far. I was glad that we seemed to have a comfortable dynamic with each other so far, and I felt that it was a good choice to have her as my patron Goddess. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the shop, passing by the many floors of Hephaestus Familia's workshops to get to Fortuna's shop. As we arrived, I looked at the sign hanging over the door that read 'Fortune's Fineries,' which elicited a chuckle from me.

"Do you like the name?" Fortuna asked with a big smile, "I named it myself,"

"I think it's very distinctive and to the point, so yeah, I do like it," I said truthfully as she unlocked the door, and we entered.

After we both moved inside, Fortuna moved back to the door and locked it, "Don't want to have customers walking in while we are discussing familia business," she said as she led me to a backroom full of jewelry and half-made dresses and suits.

She gestured for me to sit or lay down on the table while she imprinted the status on my back. I removed my shirt and sat on the table with my back to Fortuna. I waited a moment while she prepared everything, not really knowing what feeling to expect when having the Falna imprinted on my back. A moment later, I felt something like a cool breeze wash over my back. It was neither a good nor bad feeling, and it was over quickly, not leaving any time for me to analyze the feeling in depth. Then, I felt a paper being placed against my back, then it was over.

I herd Fortuna give a low whistle from behind me, "Magic and a skill right off the bat, I certainly am a lucky Goddess," she said, handing me the paper.

[Galahad

Lv. 1

STR: I-0

END: I-0

DEX: I-0

AGI: I-0

MAG: I-0

- Magic -

Magicule Manipulation

- Skills -

Tensura]

I nodded appreciatively when looking at my status paper despite the fact that I knew what would be on there beforehand. Then I slipped into Thought Acceleration and realized when looking at my status that there were no skills present that would allow me to breach the S-999 stat limit, but I decided to ask Great Sage just to be sure. So, in the stretched-out moment of my enhanced thought process, I had a quick chat with Great Sage.

"Great Sage, with my current skills and abilities, do I have any way to break through the S-999 stat limit?" I asked seriously since this is vital information for my future growth.

[Since you currently possess no skills natural to this world or otherwise that allow for one to break past their own limits, you can't break past the stat limit]

"Hmm... Are there any ways to change that anytime soon?" I asked while considering my circumstances.

[Negative, it is currently unknown how the host could acquire a skill to break the stat limit in a time-efficient matter. It is recommended that you make sure to get all stats to S-999 before leveling up to maximize your strength, especially while lacking any skill to break the stat barrier]

I let the conversation with Great Sage drop while I remained in my accelerated thought process. It certainly wasn't ideal to get limited to S-999, but it certainly wasn't anything I would kick and scream over. The only person I remember being able to break through it in the whole series is Bell, but he is a major exception, not the rule, so I should be fine, even if it sucks to have a solid strength ceiling per level. 'I'm sure my system will make up for the stat ceiling,' I thought happily, letting my enhanced thought process slip away.

I sat up with the paper and looked at Fortuna with a wide grin, "What's next?" I asked, only to receive a wide grin in return.

"First thing on the agenda is to get you out of those disgusting clothes. They totally ruin your aesthetic by not highlighting your natural handsomeness. Now that you are a part of my familia, I will consider it a personal slight against me if you ever wear anything less than the best," She said seriously as she went to one of the multitudes of clothing racks in the store.

"You don't need to fuss over me since I'm your first familia member," I said casually, but couldn't help but agree with her in my heart.

"I'm not fussing," she said distractedly as she pulled out an outfit from a shelf with an approving look, then turned and tossed it to me, "Try this on,"

I turned the clothes over in my hands, instantly recognizing them as the outfit that Khun Eduan had appeared in, most often in Tower of God. I immediately walked over to a dressing room to remove my clothes and slip on my new outfit. I couldn't help but notice my incredibly built body as I did so, but I quickly turned my attention back to the clothes. Once I had the outfit on, I admired myself in one of the shop's many mirrors while Fortuna stood beside me, nodding. I had to give the Goddess credit, she was right about what a change of clothes could due to highlight one's appearance.

"The final piece to the puzzle," she said as she handed me two blue metal band earrings that I quickly put on to complete my full transformation into Khun Eduan.