Hestia brushed her hands off and closed up her stall. After carefully storing away the valis earned for the day in her bag, she wrapped the unsold Jagamarukuns and carried them in her arms while she headed back home. Along the way though, someone called out to her.

"You're in a rush today, Hestia." A man wearing a white robe and his hair in a Japanese styled bun gave a casual wave and smiled. "You're usually lingering around to try and get more customers, aren't you?"

"Oh, Take."

The man... Or rather, the god, was Takemikazuchi. Or Take for short. He was someone that Hestia knew decently well and was fairly friendly with. One of the few gods that she could call her friend actually... mostly because he also worked hard to provide for his family by selling Jagamarukuns.

In fact, he was still sitting there, waiting for customers at his stall.

Hestia nodded and said, "I would, but Bell is waiting for me."

"Bell, huh?" Take smiled and said, "You're really happy about finally getting a member to your Familia, aren't you?"

"Mmhm! Though, he's a bit troublesome..."

Take sighed. "Yes. The first one is always a struggle. I can still remember how difficult it was adapting to everything in the mortal realm and taking care for my children..." He shook his head and said, "Let me know if I can help, alright? Us poor gods have to stick together."

"Hmph!" Hestia grinned and said, "Says you! I won't be poor for much longer!"

"Oh?" Take smiled. "I suppose he's paying quite the bride's price then if he's making the infamous virgin goddess so confident."

"Bride's- Bride?!" Hestia blushed and then huffed. "W-Whatever! I'm going home."

Take laughed. "Take care, Hestia! And I'm serious about the help!"

"Thanks! I'll make sure to remember!"

Hestia waved and then started walking back home.

Help... It would be good to have someone to help her sort things out. But while Take was nice, and while Miach was kind... She wanted to ask Hephaestus about it.

Bell was too special, and the only one she could trust to help figure things out was Hephaestus. Though, considering how busy she was...

"...Should I try to make an appointment?"

It would be a bit embarrassing to ask Hephaestus for favors again after all the goddess of the forge did for Hestia. But if it meant that Bell could be safe and sound when he returned from the dungeon...

Ah. Maybe she should ask Hephaestus about a weapon too? Maybe not at this moment since Bell was still learning, but...

"Eh?" Hestia noticed a fragrant smell drifting from nearby. A tasty smell. One that made her stomach rumble even after munching on potatoes all day in her breaks.

That wasn't too odd... Except that it was coming from the church. Her church.

Hestia blinked and said, "Is Bell cooking?"

She didn't take him for a chef... Then again, he did say that his grandfather died. Maybe he had to learn as a result of that?

Hestia frowned and then unlatched the iron gate. After closing it behind her and latching it again, she walked up to the church doors, carefully opening them to peer inside.

When she did...

"Reach for my haaand. I'll soar away... Into the dawn, oh I wish I could stay!"

Bell's voice echoed through the church. At the same time, the sounds of boiling water and clattering pots filled the air.

Hestia pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked inside. "Bell?"

"Gah?!" There was a crash, followed by cursing.

Hestia's eyes widened and she ran into the kitchen. "Bell!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Bell sighed, picking up a head of cabbage from the ground. "I didn't realize you were home, Tia."

Hestia stared at him, but it seemed like he wasn't injured. Thankfully, it looked like she didn't interrupt him in any dangerous parts of cooking, like chopping things up.

Bell moved the cabbage over to the sink and started rinsing it. As he did, he looked back and said, "I thought you'd be home later, Tia?"

She sat down in a chair nearby and nodded. "I was planning to, but I thought you'd be lonely, so I came back a bit early."

Bell shook his head. "That's no good. Keeping up with your work hours is important, you know. Even if I'm helping out now, you shouldn't throw that away."

"It's fine! I just didn't do overtime today."

"...Today?" Bell paused and then turned to stare at her. "Do you usually do overtime then?"

"Mmhm. The money helps and... It was always a bit lonely coming back to an empty home."

Bell froze and then shook his head. "Well, you shouldn't anymore. To both working overtime and coming back to an empty home." He smiled and said, "I'll make sure to come back early to cook dinner for us."

Hestia frowned. "That's no good! You're already working hard at the Dungeon... I can't have you cooking for me too!"

"Well, I want to. And it's not healthy living only off of fried potato snacks, no matter how tasty they are."

"Grk..."

"Anyway." Bell waved to the chair and said, "Rest up. I'll be finished in a bit and then we can eat."

"Okay."

With that, Bell went back to cooking.

Hestia focused on unloading everything. The valis she earned today amounted to... four hundred. Jagamarukuns weren't expensive to start with, only fifty valis each, and there was a lot of competition. She managed to get eight customers today, but...

Hestia sighed and then put the valis away. Pulling out one of the leftover Jagamarukuns, she started munching on it while watching Bell. "What are you making?"

"Nothing too special. Just a lamb soup with the essentials and some fresh bread."

Hestia nodded and then paused. "Fresh bread?"

"Yeah." Bell absently responded while checking on the oven. "I picked up some recipe books today and started sifting through the ones I remembered. So far it's turning out well."

"...You're a man with a lot of talents, aren't you, Bell?"

"I wouldn't say that. I'm just very knowledgeable and stubborn enough to practice a bunch of worthless skills. Though, they're turning out more useful than I thought now."

Hestia smiled and then kept watching Bell.

xxx

I stepped out into the church courtyard and then focused.

Hestia was reading a book inside after we finished eating. Just some casual relaxation before sleeping.

I didn't have that luxury though. Or rather, I didn't allow it for myself.

It would be nice to just live lazily like that, and it was probably possible for me to do so by amassing funds. But money by itself wasn't enough in this world.

That was revealed to me after reading through all the law earlier today. Money helped, sure, but it boiled down to raw power in the end.

"Freya, Loki, Ishtar, Ganesha, Hephaestus..."

I repeated the names of the more powerful familia in Orario. While they were a bit varied, they all had one thing in common: Power.

Power in the form of powerful adventurers... and also power in the form of financial and political avenues.

If I wanted to get Hestia's name up there, I needed to work hard. And the first step to that...

"Just what is this magic of mine?"

I tried to sort it out.

It was instant magic, meaning it didn't need a chant. But at the same time, I didn't know how to activate it... or was it constantly activated?

"Hm..." I frowned and then drew my knife. Maybe it was a combat spell...?

I tensed and then lunged forward, calling out 'Quantum Magic.'

...And nothing. Nothing but embarrassment.

So it wasn't that.

Then... maybe it really was something that could only be used with my other abilities?

I focused on the 'energy' floating around me that I could see.

It was fuzzy. Or rather, I realized now that it was fuzzy.

Getting my Falna opened my eyes to color, but now that I recognized things, I was starting to see that I experienced that color in like... 144p. Super low quality. Enough to tell what things were, but not in fine detail. Kind of like being nearsighted and trying to stare at things in the distance.

But it was enough to 'touch' things at least to pull them closer.

So...

I focused on the free-floating mana nearby and grabbed it with my hand.

I didn't have any thoughts after that, but the moment I grabbed it...

"Eh?"

A sudden 'zap'. Realization.

At the same time, flashes of information passed through my head. Things I had read once upon a time and forgot, but remembered with a start.

Energy could only be transformed, neither created nor destroyed. Energy equaled mass times the speed of light squared.

It was possible to put form to the thoughts one had in their mind.

Half-assembled bits of knowledge, flashing through my mind. Just like when I was fighting against those monsters. Information going too fast for me to catch, but simultaneously being instinctual enough to act upon.

And with that...

'Can I make it?'

...I tried it out.

A convenient utility. Something that would be a game changer in this RPG like world but that didn't exist yet.

I felt a surge of power. More of the ambient mana suddenly began flowing towards me. At the same time, I instinctively said it.

"Inventory."

A flash of light. A ripple in time and space... No, a tear of both, folding in on itself and latching onto me.

And then I was staring at a familiar screen.

"...Wait, what?"

It was an item inventory. Like a virtual reality game menu.

I blinked and then waved my hand through it. The window wasn't tangible and my hand passed through as if it wasn't there. Just like the 'book' and 'pen' I made last night to take some notes.

"...Does this work?" I frowned and stared at it.

Inventory... Most games had it. Since this world had such a game like system, I was vaguely wondering if it might be possible to recreate it somehow.

Of course, I didn't have the faintest idea on how to create it. But...

Using energy manipulation as a tool to cleave a portion of spacetime. Just a tiny piece that was barely noticeable and easily mended.

With my abilities, I bound it to myself with mana and then attached it to my 'core'. Then, I used the ambient mana to grow it, creating a pseudo dimension that could fit items in as much as I had mana to use to build up said dimension. In short, a space that only needed a startup fee to use but afterwards could be accessed freely.

And also one that was strictly my own.

But...

"How the heck did I do this?" I stared at my hand and then the floating inventory screen. Curious, I picked up a piece of grass and then pushed it inside. As I did, a tiny icon of it... No, the blade of grass, shrunk down in size, showed up in that inventory box.

I frowned and then tapped on the blade of grass. As I did, it popped out, floating in midair. But not really. It was in that weird, there to me, but not really existing state that was the same as my book and pen.

But when I grabbed it with my hand, the grass properly materialized, becoming real again.

"...Huh."

Curious, I unhooked my knife and tucked it inside the inventory screen. It shrank down and then slotted neatly into a tiny box in the top right corner of the item grid.

"One, two... six slots, huh?"

There wasn't much. Probably because I didn't have much mana to use... And it didn't seem to want to accept my mana either. Trying to shove my mana into the item box to expand it only had my mana pass through.

...It was probably something to do with the nature of mana? I used ambient mana to make it- No, to rip off a chunk of spacetime and fold it into that inventory, so it looked like I needed to use external mana to upgrade it.

Inconvenient... but I had a feeling it was probably for the better.

Maybe it was just to prevent things from getting mixed up and collapsing on itself. Probably that, actually.

Though...

"Is this what my Quantum magic is?"

I frowned and tried to recall what just happened.

I grabbed some ambient mana and managed to use it. And when I did, I instinctively created an inventory... spell? Ability? That I was thinking about earlier.

Was it just a creation spell then? Maybe an ability to make other abilities?

...No. That sounded convenient, but my gut told me that was wrong. If that was the case, then it would have been labeled something like 'Skill Creation Magic' or 'Synthetic Magic'.

The operative word here though was 'Quantum.'

Maybe it was physics based things? No, 'energy?'

Like Eina mentioned, Quantum was a measurement of energy. A discrete amount of energy that represented the minimum quantity of a physical entity.

The thing was, that was energy in the abstract, not energy in physics.

My magic wasn't 'Newtonian' magic or 'Physics' magic after all. And if it was purely force based, I would expect it to be something like 'Joules' magic, or 'Force'... Maybe even 'Vector'.

But it was 'Quantum.'

And the word quantum didn't only apply in physics. It was used in other places as well to broadly mean an 'amount' of something.

So then was my magic the magic of 'quantities'? Could I adjust how much I had of something?

...Maybe it was luck?

I could vaguely recall reading a bit about how quantum physics and quantum mechanics involved some wonky things with probabilities and system states, but I didn't know the details.

Whatever the case... It didn't seem to be something I could use directly. It looked helpful for support though, considering I somehow finagled an inventory ability out of it. 

Or maybe that was my Compilation skill/stat? Did it let me 'compile' information into a tangible form?

"...Really wish I had a help system with all this." I pulled my knife back out and frowned, staring at the inventory screen.

Since I didn't though, I had to find things out the old fashioned way.

Fortunately, I had infinite notetaking capabilities.

After a while of testing, I found out the following:

The boxes were only suggestions. While any items I put in that were different from each other automatically moved into different boxes, I could push them into each other to take up one box. The problem with that though was that I had to remove everything in one go and couldn't pick and choose.

Kind of like putting a box into a bigger box, I had to go through an extra layer of unpacking since the items wouldn't materialize unless I separated it.

Even then, that cramming only worked so far. After walking around the church and shoving random debris into my inventory, I found that I could only fill up a space roughly the size of my own body.

If I tried to put things in after that, I couldn't. Like, physically couldn't. The object would just phase through and fall to the floor.

I did find that I could increase the size of the inventory a bit by grabbing more of the ambient mana, but it was only about a finger's width for about a bucket's worth of mana. Though, that made me wonder if I couldn't use mana stones to upgrade it... Something to try for later.

Next up, I found out that I had a 'range' where I could pick items up.

It wasn't much. Basically limited to what I could physically reach out and grab, but it gave me some interesting ideas at least. Mostly shenanigans about grabbing severed monster parts and pulling them out later.

Especially since I found that momentum seemed to be saved with items that I picked up that way. Like, if I grabbed a falling rock, I could send it flying out from my inventory by directing it with my mind.

...Which gave me all sorts of questions on what the heck quantum magic actually entailed and if it wasn't actually a result of my other abilities, but I couldn't tell.

Anyway... Putting it short and simple, I had auto pickup and item tossing.

I wasn't quite sure if I could hide living things inside my inventory, and I wasn't too sure if I wanted to know... but it might be a good idea to try it out with monsters later. Maybe an almost dead one? Food for thought.

"Bell?" Hestia called out to me from inside the church. "Are you still training?"

I blinked and then glanced back to see Hestia standing at the door.

It was dark now, barely illuminated by the crescent moon above.

Hestia was standing in the doorway in her nightgown, a thin white one-piece that hugged her body and barely left anything to the imagination. She was also holding a tiny candle to light up the surroundings.

I shook my head and walked back. "Sorry, Tia. I figured something out with my magic and got caught up in it."

Hestia smiled. "That's fine. But don't stay up too late. Sleep is important, you know?"

"I should be saying that to you. I can sleep in, but my cute goddess has work in the morning."

Hestia huffed and said, "Stop teasing me!"

"Fine, fine." I ruffled her hair and said, "I'll stop, Tia. But seriously, there's no need to stay up on my behalf."

"...I can't sleep without you though." Hestia muttered and then lowered her gaze.

Ah. I suppose that made sense... How lonely must have she been this entire time? To have someone nearby with her...

Yeah.

I nodded and said, "Alright. Then let's head off to bed."

"E-Eh?" Hestia blinked. "Really?"

I frowned. "Didn't you want to go to sleep?"

"I-I do. But I thought you'd be upset..."

"Dummy." I poked her head and said, "We have all the time in the world for me to train. It's not like I'm in a rush to get strong, or we're pinched for cash. So don't worry about it."

"...Too cool."

"Hm?"

Hestia blushed and said, "N-Nothing!" She smiled and handed me the candle. "Here! I'll go to bed first. Blow out the candle when you're done!"

Before I could respond, she dashed off and hid herself beneath the covers of the mattress.

I sighed and then walked over to the bathroom.

What a goofy and silly little goddess I had...