- Location
- U.S.
can it interrupt an action? like a genjutsu of him drinking the potion when in reality his arm is not moving?
Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (Danmachi / Naruto)
- Thread starter CapitaoCaverna
- Start date
Yes, but it's very hard to do well, He'd have to craft the visual illusion of the man drinking it, which is extremely easy with the sharingan, but he'd also have to copy the proprioception of the man's arm moving and make his target taste the potion, the feel of the liquid hitting his mouth as well as create an illusion of the pain he was feeling diminishing or even being gone.
As someone that wasn't trained in the art, he's not skilled enough to do all of that, and any discrepancies with reality weakens the illusion, making it easy to break, even if he uses the mangekyou. It's the kind of illusion that he could create when he's stronger and far more experienced with the skill.
He could just make the man see himself drinking the potion very easily, but the man wouldn't feel his arm moving, or taste the potion, it would be an incredebly illusion to break.
Really, visual illusions are MUCH, MUCH easier for him to create, and illusions that don't directly affect the target are easier than ones that do.
On the other hand, this is a perfect chance to use a pain illusion, causing the man to flinch and maybe drop the vial, or spill it, or just delay the action and get a chance to attack. It's not really easy to drink something while fighting.
Please not yet another skin of his teeth long drawn out fight. Fights can be fun but so much of the word count is already filled with it. Given his condition and his enemy, there are 3 ways I see this going down; either the MC asspulls a new power, he is rescued by someone else, or he needs to use izanami to save his life already and probably follows that up with one of the 2 former options. Possibly a combination of all 3.
- Location
- Nightopia
...I can't really think of a time in either series where someone actually lost a limb and got better immediately- well, Tsunade.
Two chapters later, MC gets the process for a prosthetic started.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
Nice ROB and unequal dialogue. No derp answering MC's basic questions.
I expected this MC to be another selfish asshole, but you pleasantly surprised me. I'm glad he's not a sociopath who'd use Kotoamatsukami on that healer.
Loki could be an end game boss, I don't know Danmachi that well, but then again silly trope gods... so I'll bet they are just that.
I don't think Lena is a child here, even in 10 years she'll be mostly the same. She's a killer who wants strong babies.
Kudos for recognising sword is not that good a weapon. Even in man against man, spear wins, let alone versus monters.
When he hets level 2, I suggest making an order for throwing knives that return to holster, because throwing mass produced knives at lower levels won't penetrate monsters skin.
I expected this MC to be another selfish asshole, but you pleasantly surprised me. I'm glad he's not a sociopath who'd use Kotoamatsukami on that healer.
Loki could be an end game boss, I don't know Danmachi that well, but then again silly trope gods... so I'll bet they are just that.
I don't think Lena is a child here, even in 10 years she'll be mostly the same. She's a killer who wants strong babies.
Kudos for recognising sword is not that good a weapon. Even in man against man, spear wins, let alone versus monters.
When he hets level 2, I suggest making an order for throwing knives that return to holster, because throwing mass produced knives at lower levels won't penetrate monsters skin.
Last edited:
Honestly spears are great and all but in a dungeon setting i would 100% go with a shield and a flanged mace or a morning star. Easiest weapon to use good for soft and hard targets and you dont have to worry about critters getting inside of your reach. Hell even somethingoutside of your ability to kill crippled minotaurs with caved in knees are much less intimidating.
This is abit off topic so i will add that the story is very good so far fairly well written interesting power set kinda sad we miss out on the character interactions of having a familia but thats my only gripe.
This is abit off topic so i will add that the story is very good so far fairly well written interesting power set kinda sad we miss out on the character interactions of having a familia but thats my only gripe.
Chapter 17
Finally, another chapter for this one. Sorry for the delay.
So, I'd just like to warn you guys that, as always, updates for this story will probably continue to be slow, like once a month or even longer.
I mean, I like writing this fic, but I think I made a mistake right from the begining. I focused too much on the MC and too little on his relationships with everyone else, I also focused too heavily on fighting. To be honest, that had been my goal, but I didn't manage to write as well as I wanted and it resulted in very little interaction for this story.
I really love that some of you guys like it enough that you're asking for more chapters, but it just doesn't get as much interest as my Supergirl story, and I don't have as much time as I like to work on my ideas. If I could, I'd write a chapter every week or even more, but it's just not possible with school and work.
I didn't actually lose interest in this fic so it will continue, slowly, but I'm busy with IRL things, and I'm also starting to get interested in exploring some other ideas I have, see if any of them has promisse, sorry for those who enjoy it.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
______________________________________________________________________________________
Grabbing at my vest, I threw my last dagger at the bottle, but he managed to pull the potion out of the way. Kicking against the ground, I rushed the tiger man, my hand grabbing the hammer at my waist. At my side, Lena attacked, rushing ahead of me to engage him first.
Unfortunately, the asshole was actually faster than us, and he backtracked as fast as he could, buying time so he could drink the potion before fighting. With practiced ease, he managed to pop the cork off with a thumb and I knew we weren't going to make it.
Staring at him with my mangekyou, I couldn't meet his eyes and I knew he'd be able to break any lesser illusion I sent, so I just used pain, a lot of pain. As expected, he broke out of the illusion almost instantly, but the pain made him flinch and stumble, splashing half of the potion on the floor and allowing Lena to reach him.
The amazoness pounced, her scimitar cutting at his throat, he leaned back and away from the blow, but she managed to kick the potion on his hand, shattering the bottle. With dance-like movements, she twisted in the air and cut at him again, scoring a shallow slash at his chest while he kicked her to the right and grabbed his sword once again.
I arrived immediately after, using only one hand to extend my reach, I struck with my mace towards his still extended leg. The weapon smashed him just below his knee, sending his leg back and causing him to stumble.
I capitalized on it, grabbing my hammer with both hands and delivering an upwards swing with the spike towards his chest.
Unfortunately, a combination of exhaustion, using only one hand, and him being a level two, meant that my first hit hadn't broken any bones, only leaving a painful bruise on his leg. As his foot touched the ground, he still managed to put weight on the limb, using it to retreat once again and avoid my blow while delivering a slash at my weapon shaft, aiming right at my hand.
I saw it and managed to release my grip so the sword hit the shaft instead. With incredible reflexes, the man still managed to hook his sword on the curved spike and used his increased strength to pull me closer. I tried to resist, but I wasn't even close to a level 2's strength, even a newly upgraded one.
Pulled out of position, I saw the man opening his mouth, revealing impressive sharp fangs, the fucker was actually gonna try to bite my face off! Fuck, either I dropped the weapon or he'd continue to pull me closer!
With no option, I released the hammer entirely and kicked away from him, watching my weapon fly away and his fangs close down right where I was supposed to be, he'd probably have followed up on the attack, but Lena slashed at him from the side.
The first of Lena's slashes forced him away from me, and I was satisfied to see his leg almost fail -so the hammer blow wasn't entirely useless- the second slash was parried aside and, in the third, the adventurer started gaining the advantage, his superior strength and speed showing.
Fuck, I didn't have any other weapon on me, all the rest of my gear was held on Yoshi's back. In desperation, I sent another wave of pain towards the man, allowing Lena to regain the advantage, but it was clear that, even with only one arm and a wounded leg, the man was just better than her.
My first instinct was to charge the ring and catch him in a stronger illusion but, when I started doing it, the man nearly cut off Lena's head and I had to drop my concentration to distract him with another wave of illusory pain.
Worse, my vision told me he was getting used to the damn interruptions, getting hit with such strong pain, even if only for less than a second, was still distracting, but now he was braced for it, flinching less and recovering faster, even if only a little bit.
Lena and the man's weapons clashed again and again, the blades sending sparks flying at the speed they were hitting each other. For a brief moment, they got into a bind and I saw my chance.
Feeling fear gripping me, the sensation sending shivers down my back and a strangely weightless feeling in my belly, I charged him, aiming a punch to the man's head. He pushed Lena away and slashed at me, but I had been expecting that, aborting the motion and stomping on his wounded leg instead.
The tiger man roared in pain, dropping to his knees for a second but still slashing down at me, I twisted aside, pivoting on my feet and striking out with an elbow to his head. The blow smashed his face, sending a fang flying, but only rattling him a little. It felt like hitting a wall, his much higher resistance showing.
For a brief moment, I thought that was it, his sword turning towards me and I just knew I wouldn't be fast enough to dodge the slash, heck, I didn't even have time to form a part of Susanoo to block it.
Instead of ending me, he roared in frustration and pushed himself back, rolling away and letting Lena's weapon strike the ground, sending broken stones flying all around.
Standing beside a panting Lena, I felt my heart slowing down after the scare and almost burst out in laughter again, damn that had been close. Giving her a brief nod, I finally managed to catch a breath on the fight, immediately starting to charge the ring.
Looking at the man, I saw his wounded leg slightly lifted from the ground and his arm hanging uselessly at his side. He could still use the leg, but putting any weight on it caused him pain.
"You damn weaklings, why won't you just die already!" As we stared each other down, the man finally met my eyes and I used my skill. "Argh, again with this damn pain skill, I'm going to…"
He didn't get to finish, while I had also sent the pain illusion, visual contact had allowed me to cast a greater visual illusion, one backed up by the magic in the ring. Better still, the man being in the same place, even if briefly, had finally allowed Yoshi the perfect target.
I could have gone for something complicated, but I didn't want to risk it. Instead, I just hid Yoshi's vision, noise and scent from the man's perception and, even as strong and alert as he was, he didn't break the illusion in time.
The Dungeon Lizard fell on top of his head, his weight and strength empowered by several monster cores, as well as all the gear he was carrying. Even as a level two, the man couldn't defend against that, and his wounded leg failed him, driving him to the floor with Yoshi biting down on his head.
The man released a yell of pain, but neither Lena nor I wanted to risk it, so we rushed him. Despite his wounds, he managed to throw Yoshi away and tried to get up, but Lena was there, delivering a slash to his chest that left a wide gash and must have broken several bones.
I arrived right after, grabbing his bleeding and mauled head and delivering a knee into his nose as hard as I could with all my momentum, I felt his nose breaking under my blow, and even his skull caving, his body actually went flying from the impact, falling two meters away and creating a pool of blood from Lena's slash.
Looking for a second, I saw the man still trying to get up, but he didn't have the strength, blood bubbling from his mouth as he couldn't even breathe right, his nose, and most of his face, completely destroyed.
Collapsing to my knees, I crashed from the adrenaline, feeling all my limbs trembling and losing strength. At my side, Yoshi was still hissing and circling the man, but didn't attack.
Fuck, I hadn't even been sure he'd attack once; I had gone to a lot of trouble to teach him not to attack adventurers, so I didn't know if he would even fight, but I had hoped when I saw him positioning himself on the ceiling.
We could have still won that fight without him… probably… maybe, but it would probably take more time, and have cost us some more wounds.
Speaking of time, I spit to the side and glanced back where we had come from. How long until someone caught up with us? Wiping my mouth with a sleeve, I got to my feet.
"Shit, let's get out of here, fast," I said, looking on as the adventurer tried to grab something on his chest, probably another health potion to try and save himself, before he could complete the motion, Lena finished him off by stabbing his heart. With a hand motion, I tried to calm Yoshi, but he took a few steps away from me and hissed my way. "Ah, fuck, that's just my luck."
Considering the mutated Dungeon Lizard, I saw it looking between me and the dead adventurer and considering things, it had attacked an adventurer and hadn't felt the usual pain of my illusions.
Damn, would it attack me? Did I have enough in me to kill it right now? Did I ever want to? I owed it my life more than once, and it had been growing on me. Taking the time while the Lizard hissed and backed up to charge my ring, I thought about what to do.
Fucking hell, would it continue hunting adventurers now that it learned it could kill them without repercussion?
"That. Was. So. HOT!" Lena jumped into my back, causing Yoshi to flinch as she hugged me. "That last knee to the face! So brutal! Roland Synclair, ravish me!"
Reacting on instinct, I drove an elbow back and turned, ready to defend my life. Instead, I found her on the floor, clutching her belly. Crap, did I hurt her? I didn't mean to.
"Hehe… hehe, you gave me something good in my stomach…" The amazoness said, her face flushed and her eyes turning into little hearts as her entire body trembled. "I'm definitely getting pregnant!"
This girl… Holy fuck, this girl was definitely bad news!
Shivering, I turned back to Yoshi and decided to give it one last try. If he refused to follow me, I'd leave him here. Hopefully, he'd kill a few more of those freaks and I'd ask for help from Mord or something to hunt him down another day.
Meeting his eye, I sent it a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of approval as well as the sense that he should trust me, that we were partners. That done, I finally deactivated the mangekyou, feeling relief as the skill no longer strained my vision.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I breathed out, feeling tired and eager to get away before I'd have to fight again.
"Right, we're still getting hunted," Lena said, finally pushing herself to her feet with a smile on her face and following me towards the stairs. "What about the lizard?"
"He ate too many cores, and I'm not really feeling well enough to tame him again," I said honestly. "Not when we don't have the time. Hopefully, he'll kill or at least delay some of our pursuers if he decides to stay."
"Huh, what a pity, he was pretty neat,"
Looting a sword and grabbing my hammer back, I couldn't find my dagger fast enough, and I didn't want to waste any more time than necessary. With one last glance at Yoshi, all our loot still on its back, I sighed, but started climbing up.
We were almost up to the next floor when I heard something behind and turned, seeing the lizard following from a distance. "YES!" I gave a little shout, causing Lena to glance back and smile as she too saw the lizard.
"Seems like he decided to come," She commented happily. "So, what're you gonna do now?"
"You think they have anybody watching the exit?" I asked back, "Should we try to break through or hide in the upper floors until morning?"
"Hmmmm, I'd really like to spend the night in the dungeon, just the two of us, hehe!" Lena said, her face getting an eager look, after a second, she became serious again. "Still, the upper floors are just too small; I don't think we can hide for too long."
Yeah, I kind of agreed, I had no way of knowing how many were looking, or why the hell didn't they just attack people instead of doing the monster train… unless they only had a single level 2?
Heck, were they even hunting us? I had assumed they were after me but, in hindsight, that was kind of arrogant, I didn't think I had attracted that much attention yet, and how many had that monster train killed just to take me out?
No, odds are they were just doing it to kill everyone, not me in particular. They could be a small team of level 1's led by a single level 2. The monster train… or, well, I guess they called it parade pass here? It could be used to wipe out a floor, and the level 2 would stay on the entrance to make sure nobody escaped.
Or, heck, I wouldn't usually consider it a possibility, but it could be some god's idea of fun. High level people pulling monster trains happened in video games, and the gods did come down here to have fun, I imagine it would feel like a game to them.
Together, Lena and I killed another pack of kobolds, but we didn't stop to loot them, moving on without losing too much time. Still, monster attacks kept delaying us.
Suddenly, Yoshi turned back and hissed, causing me to pause and focus, trying to hear anything.
"Fuck… Killed… can't…" I caught the faint sounds coming from far behind us. "… Hurt… far…"
Trading a look with Lena, the both of us immediately started running. Exhausted, wounded and lacking sleep, we weren't as fast as we could be, and I even stumbled on some rocks.
A goblin attack forced me to pause and kill the small humanoid, allowing me to hear the steps running towards me. Fuck, there's got to be at least four of them! I don't think we could handle four, not right now!
Starting to breathe hard, I smashed into the ramp to another floor right behind Lena, sending a wave of pain into my shoulder. The ramp up caused both of us to slow down even more, to the point that, as we were about to enter the first hallway, I glanced back and saw the five adventurers climbing up into the floor with us.
We weren't going to make it, as fresh as they looked; they'd catch up in only a minute or two. The realization hit me and I turned… could I get them all with Susanoo?
"Finally, you bastards are not escaping anymore?" One of the adventurers said, his voice filled with confidence. Pulling out my sword, I readied myself for a fight, there was little chance that we could kill them all, but I'd certainly take a few with me. "Really, you should have just died with the others, it would have been easier."
Suddenly, from behind me, I felt a gust of wind that caused me to stumble forward and nearly fall, a second later; there was another gust as a blur jumped over me.
Looking ahead, I saw one of the men fly off to smash into the wall so hard his back exploded as if he was a water balloon, a second was suddenly cut at the waist, his upper body flying off while a third was crushed into paste against the ground.
Then the second blur arrived and cut a man in half and I finally saw it was a tall amazoness with a curved greatsword. The last man was grabbed by the throat and the Amazoness just held him up.
"Yo, Newbie-kun!" The first arrival said, causing me to look at Tiona, a huge smile on her face while she flicked the giant, double headed greatsword as if it didn't weigh anything to get rid of the blood on it. "I knew you'd be alive!"
Pausing, Tiona and the new amazoness looked at each other, the taller woman lifting an eyebrow at seeing Tiona's larger weapon and how easy she had used it.
Lifting her own greatsword, the older woman nodded and then glared at Lena. "You're in trouble, you little goblin! Do you know how worried I was? I told you not to go into the dungeon alone!" Looking around a little, her smile disappeared as she didn't see anyone else with us. Dragging the man behind her as she came closer, she asked. "Where's Layla? What exactly happened?"
Finally relaxing my posture, I motioned for Yoshi to rest and, together with Lena, walked towards our rescue. Tiona seemed both faster and stronger than the newcomer, so I actually felt somewhat safe.
Damn, I hadn't realized how exhausting it has been, to have to be on constant alert while in the dungeon, and then having to be hunted. Satisfying, I won't deny that, but exhausting.
"Layla didn't make it… sorry Aisha," Lena said, throwing herself at the older woman and hugging her waist. "I-I just wanted to get to level two…"
With a sigh and a tired face, Aisha put a hand over Lena's head and consoled her.
Suddenly, I saw the captured adventurer messing with something on his chest, the motion immediately reminded me of what the level 2 adventurer had been doing and I started paying closer attention to him. A second later, I saw the bastard's face turning into a satisfied and happy smile.
"Loria, I'm finally coming to join you," he whispered and my eyes widened as I saw several pouches of what looked VERY suspiciously like bars of dynamite tied to his chest.
"TIONA!" I screamed while jumping away and doing my best to delay him.
The fastest illusion I could use was the pain one since it was one of the most useful, the most used and the most well made at my current level, unfortunately, it didn't disable him completely and his hand still pulled a string on his chest, causing the charges to ignite, their wick very small.
Fortunately, it was enough for Tiona. At her level, two seconds was more than enough for her to grab the man and hurl him away as hard as she could.
The adventurer flew through the air at prodigious speeds and, only a second later, the explosion destroyed a part of the ramp down, sending a wave of hot air that hit me like a light punch, but was far enough away to not do any damage.
"Well, that was unexpected," Aisha commented, still staring at the explosion as she combed her long hair back into place. "What the heck was that all about?"
"I… have absolutely no idea," I commented, still feeling stunned. What the fuck? Since when were there suicide bombers in Danmachi?
For a second, all four of us stared at the destruction, and my eyes were drawn to the death adventurers, did they also have bombs?
"So, Newbie-kun, what actually happened?" Tiona shrugged and asked as she looked me over, noticing my exhaustion and all the wounds. "You look good for someone who spent almost an entire day in the dungeon."
"There was someone doing a pass parade on the seventh floor," I explained, remembering the correct term now that I wasn't running for my life. "Fuck, I barely survived. Wait, how did you know to search for me?"
"Ah, yeah, Loki kinda has some of our younger members watching your movements," Tiona revealed, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
"What!? Why the fuck…?" I trailed off, utterly baffled.
"Well, she wanted to know how long it would take you to find them. Plus, she thought it was funny when you acted all paranoid," the girl revealed, causing me to grind my teeth. "You know, I wasn't actually gonna come in. As a hero, you're supposed to deal with things by yourself, but then I saw Aisha entering the dungeon at night and decided to follow her, it's the mentor's job to interfere when someone too powerful gets involved after all."
Watching Tiona nodding to herself, I couldn't help cursing in my mind. Good fucking damns it! Did I waste all that money finding a new place for nothing?
Damn, usually, I'd call that reason bullshit but, with Loki, there was no way of knowing. The bitch was just crazy enough to waste everyone's time for a prank. It actually made it worse, since it made me both worried that I was being watched and annoyed that I was being pranked.
Was that why I sometimes felt someone's gaze on me while walking in Orario?
"Say, Tiona, can I kill your god? Just a little bit? Please?"
"Nope," she immediately denied. Licking a finger, she used it to wipe my face, cleaning a trail of dried blood from my eye and then helped me straighten my back. "There, now you look properly heroic. Mou, I wish I could have seen it, was it fun?"
Fuck, now that I was no longer in danger, the weight of what I had done was starting to hit me. I had killed again. More than that, I had forced two people to fight to the death.
Could they have survived if I had let them rest? If I hadn't forced them to continue fighting? Could I have fought the rest of the monsters off? There weren't so many left when I had forced them to continue fighting.
"Fun? People died, I nearly died!" I tried to yell, but the words lacked proper bite, I was too exhausted to be angry. "It was terrifying."
"Well, I mean, I don't like when people die too, it always hurts, but it doesn't make the fight any less fun," Tiona shrugged and then gave me a small hug, looking at me as if she could see through me. "I'm glad to see you can still smile, you've got to smile for those who can't, smile so it can mean something."
Was I smiling? Yes, yes I was. For a moment, I was hit with shame, I don't think I was smiling for the same reason Tiona did… then I took in her words in and shook my head. No, she was right, what use were my actions if I kept blaming myself for it?
I forced them to fight so I could live, so I could have a chance, what use was it if I kept blaming myself for it? It wouldn't erase anything. It would only make it worse, to have, maybe, caused their deaths just so I could live in misery.
"Noooo!" Lena yelled, glomping me and pulling me away from Tiona while pressing her breasts against my arm. Despite her age, they were already surprisingly big. "Roland Synclair is mine!!"
Again, my instinct was to push the girl away, but her stats were actually higher than mine, and I didn't want to use force. I'd like to say it was because she was a woman but, in truth, it was mostly because I was pretty sure she'd like it.
For a second, I saw Tiona freeze, almost mechanically, her eyes looking at the weaker Amazon pressing herself against me and then down towards her own chest.
Tiona's smile grew even wider, but it was no longer bright, and I swore there was a throbbing vein on her forehead, their eyes met and I felt my hair lifting up at the electric discharge between the both of them.
Looking down at the young girl, I met her eyes and sent her a quick illusion, my arm suddenly burst into flames and, in reflex; she released me and jumped away.
I probably shouldn't have done that, but she had already seen a lot of what I could do with my eyes and, to Aisha and Tiona, it probably looked like she just jumped away after meeting my frown.
"Hmm, how interesting!" Aisha said, putting a finger on her chin and looking at me with a glint in her eyes.
I chose to ignore the woman, no matter how incredibly hot she was. It just wasn't the time. "Ah, hey, Tiona, maybe you should lower your weapon?"
"Huh? I thought I had sensed a little frog shooter spawning." She said, tilting her head sideways in confusion. "Anyways, newbie-kun, as your master, I demand that you tell me the whole story! It wouldn't do if I didn't hear about your first heroic trial!"
"Can we just get out of here first? I really need a bath," I replied, starting to feel all the blood and grime that had accumulated.
Both newcomers barely lifted an eyebrow at Yoshi as I approached it and, meeting his eyes, used my illusions to tell it to return to his room on the third floor and wait for me.
After that, with both Aisha and Tiona, we had absolutely no trouble getting out of the dungeon. They absolutely obliterated any monster in the way until I finally stepped out of the dungeon, feeling the first rays of the sunrise hitting my eyes.
I was finally safe! Or, well, at least as safe as I could be in Orario.
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Travis cox, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, James Williams, Michael Neal, Felrook, RavenCore, kenzie, GrumpyJustGrumpy, NotableRonin and Josh Orton for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
So, I'd just like to warn you guys that, as always, updates for this story will probably continue to be slow, like once a month or even longer.
I mean, I like writing this fic, but I think I made a mistake right from the begining. I focused too much on the MC and too little on his relationships with everyone else, I also focused too heavily on fighting. To be honest, that had been my goal, but I didn't manage to write as well as I wanted and it resulted in very little interaction for this story.
I really love that some of you guys like it enough that you're asking for more chapters, but it just doesn't get as much interest as my Supergirl story, and I don't have as much time as I like to work on my ideas. If I could, I'd write a chapter every week or even more, but it's just not possible with school and work.
I didn't actually lose interest in this fic so it will continue, slowly, but I'm busy with IRL things, and I'm also starting to get interested in exploring some other ideas I have, see if any of them has promisse, sorry for those who enjoy it.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
______________________________________________________________________________________
Grabbing at my vest, I threw my last dagger at the bottle, but he managed to pull the potion out of the way. Kicking against the ground, I rushed the tiger man, my hand grabbing the hammer at my waist. At my side, Lena attacked, rushing ahead of me to engage him first.
Unfortunately, the asshole was actually faster than us, and he backtracked as fast as he could, buying time so he could drink the potion before fighting. With practiced ease, he managed to pop the cork off with a thumb and I knew we weren't going to make it.
Staring at him with my mangekyou, I couldn't meet his eyes and I knew he'd be able to break any lesser illusion I sent, so I just used pain, a lot of pain. As expected, he broke out of the illusion almost instantly, but the pain made him flinch and stumble, splashing half of the potion on the floor and allowing Lena to reach him.
The amazoness pounced, her scimitar cutting at his throat, he leaned back and away from the blow, but she managed to kick the potion on his hand, shattering the bottle. With dance-like movements, she twisted in the air and cut at him again, scoring a shallow slash at his chest while he kicked her to the right and grabbed his sword once again.
I arrived immediately after, using only one hand to extend my reach, I struck with my mace towards his still extended leg. The weapon smashed him just below his knee, sending his leg back and causing him to stumble.
I capitalized on it, grabbing my hammer with both hands and delivering an upwards swing with the spike towards his chest.
Unfortunately, a combination of exhaustion, using only one hand, and him being a level two, meant that my first hit hadn't broken any bones, only leaving a painful bruise on his leg. As his foot touched the ground, he still managed to put weight on the limb, using it to retreat once again and avoid my blow while delivering a slash at my weapon shaft, aiming right at my hand.
I saw it and managed to release my grip so the sword hit the shaft instead. With incredible reflexes, the man still managed to hook his sword on the curved spike and used his increased strength to pull me closer. I tried to resist, but I wasn't even close to a level 2's strength, even a newly upgraded one.
Pulled out of position, I saw the man opening his mouth, revealing impressive sharp fangs, the fucker was actually gonna try to bite my face off! Fuck, either I dropped the weapon or he'd continue to pull me closer!
With no option, I released the hammer entirely and kicked away from him, watching my weapon fly away and his fangs close down right where I was supposed to be, he'd probably have followed up on the attack, but Lena slashed at him from the side.
The first of Lena's slashes forced him away from me, and I was satisfied to see his leg almost fail -so the hammer blow wasn't entirely useless- the second slash was parried aside and, in the third, the adventurer started gaining the advantage, his superior strength and speed showing.
Fuck, I didn't have any other weapon on me, all the rest of my gear was held on Yoshi's back. In desperation, I sent another wave of pain towards the man, allowing Lena to regain the advantage, but it was clear that, even with only one arm and a wounded leg, the man was just better than her.
My first instinct was to charge the ring and catch him in a stronger illusion but, when I started doing it, the man nearly cut off Lena's head and I had to drop my concentration to distract him with another wave of illusory pain.
Worse, my vision told me he was getting used to the damn interruptions, getting hit with such strong pain, even if only for less than a second, was still distracting, but now he was braced for it, flinching less and recovering faster, even if only a little bit.
Lena and the man's weapons clashed again and again, the blades sending sparks flying at the speed they were hitting each other. For a brief moment, they got into a bind and I saw my chance.
Feeling fear gripping me, the sensation sending shivers down my back and a strangely weightless feeling in my belly, I charged him, aiming a punch to the man's head. He pushed Lena away and slashed at me, but I had been expecting that, aborting the motion and stomping on his wounded leg instead.
The tiger man roared in pain, dropping to his knees for a second but still slashing down at me, I twisted aside, pivoting on my feet and striking out with an elbow to his head. The blow smashed his face, sending a fang flying, but only rattling him a little. It felt like hitting a wall, his much higher resistance showing.
For a brief moment, I thought that was it, his sword turning towards me and I just knew I wouldn't be fast enough to dodge the slash, heck, I didn't even have time to form a part of Susanoo to block it.
Instead of ending me, he roared in frustration and pushed himself back, rolling away and letting Lena's weapon strike the ground, sending broken stones flying all around.
Standing beside a panting Lena, I felt my heart slowing down after the scare and almost burst out in laughter again, damn that had been close. Giving her a brief nod, I finally managed to catch a breath on the fight, immediately starting to charge the ring.
Looking at the man, I saw his wounded leg slightly lifted from the ground and his arm hanging uselessly at his side. He could still use the leg, but putting any weight on it caused him pain.
"You damn weaklings, why won't you just die already!" As we stared each other down, the man finally met my eyes and I used my skill. "Argh, again with this damn pain skill, I'm going to…"
He didn't get to finish, while I had also sent the pain illusion, visual contact had allowed me to cast a greater visual illusion, one backed up by the magic in the ring. Better still, the man being in the same place, even if briefly, had finally allowed Yoshi the perfect target.
I could have gone for something complicated, but I didn't want to risk it. Instead, I just hid Yoshi's vision, noise and scent from the man's perception and, even as strong and alert as he was, he didn't break the illusion in time.
The Dungeon Lizard fell on top of his head, his weight and strength empowered by several monster cores, as well as all the gear he was carrying. Even as a level two, the man couldn't defend against that, and his wounded leg failed him, driving him to the floor with Yoshi biting down on his head.
The man released a yell of pain, but neither Lena nor I wanted to risk it, so we rushed him. Despite his wounds, he managed to throw Yoshi away and tried to get up, but Lena was there, delivering a slash to his chest that left a wide gash and must have broken several bones.
I arrived right after, grabbing his bleeding and mauled head and delivering a knee into his nose as hard as I could with all my momentum, I felt his nose breaking under my blow, and even his skull caving, his body actually went flying from the impact, falling two meters away and creating a pool of blood from Lena's slash.
Looking for a second, I saw the man still trying to get up, but he didn't have the strength, blood bubbling from his mouth as he couldn't even breathe right, his nose, and most of his face, completely destroyed.
Collapsing to my knees, I crashed from the adrenaline, feeling all my limbs trembling and losing strength. At my side, Yoshi was still hissing and circling the man, but didn't attack.
Fuck, I hadn't even been sure he'd attack once; I had gone to a lot of trouble to teach him not to attack adventurers, so I didn't know if he would even fight, but I had hoped when I saw him positioning himself on the ceiling.
We could have still won that fight without him… probably… maybe, but it would probably take more time, and have cost us some more wounds.
Speaking of time, I spit to the side and glanced back where we had come from. How long until someone caught up with us? Wiping my mouth with a sleeve, I got to my feet.
"Shit, let's get out of here, fast," I said, looking on as the adventurer tried to grab something on his chest, probably another health potion to try and save himself, before he could complete the motion, Lena finished him off by stabbing his heart. With a hand motion, I tried to calm Yoshi, but he took a few steps away from me and hissed my way. "Ah, fuck, that's just my luck."
Considering the mutated Dungeon Lizard, I saw it looking between me and the dead adventurer and considering things, it had attacked an adventurer and hadn't felt the usual pain of my illusions.
Damn, would it attack me? Did I have enough in me to kill it right now? Did I ever want to? I owed it my life more than once, and it had been growing on me. Taking the time while the Lizard hissed and backed up to charge my ring, I thought about what to do.
Fucking hell, would it continue hunting adventurers now that it learned it could kill them without repercussion?
"That. Was. So. HOT!" Lena jumped into my back, causing Yoshi to flinch as she hugged me. "That last knee to the face! So brutal! Roland Synclair, ravish me!"
Reacting on instinct, I drove an elbow back and turned, ready to defend my life. Instead, I found her on the floor, clutching her belly. Crap, did I hurt her? I didn't mean to.
"Hehe… hehe, you gave me something good in my stomach…" The amazoness said, her face flushed and her eyes turning into little hearts as her entire body trembled. "I'm definitely getting pregnant!"
This girl… Holy fuck, this girl was definitely bad news!
Shivering, I turned back to Yoshi and decided to give it one last try. If he refused to follow me, I'd leave him here. Hopefully, he'd kill a few more of those freaks and I'd ask for help from Mord or something to hunt him down another day.
Meeting his eye, I sent it a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of approval as well as the sense that he should trust me, that we were partners. That done, I finally deactivated the mangekyou, feeling relief as the skill no longer strained my vision.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I breathed out, feeling tired and eager to get away before I'd have to fight again.
"Right, we're still getting hunted," Lena said, finally pushing herself to her feet with a smile on her face and following me towards the stairs. "What about the lizard?"
"He ate too many cores, and I'm not really feeling well enough to tame him again," I said honestly. "Not when we don't have the time. Hopefully, he'll kill or at least delay some of our pursuers if he decides to stay."
"Huh, what a pity, he was pretty neat,"
Looting a sword and grabbing my hammer back, I couldn't find my dagger fast enough, and I didn't want to waste any more time than necessary. With one last glance at Yoshi, all our loot still on its back, I sighed, but started climbing up.
We were almost up to the next floor when I heard something behind and turned, seeing the lizard following from a distance. "YES!" I gave a little shout, causing Lena to glance back and smile as she too saw the lizard.
"Seems like he decided to come," She commented happily. "So, what're you gonna do now?"
"You think they have anybody watching the exit?" I asked back, "Should we try to break through or hide in the upper floors until morning?"
"Hmmmm, I'd really like to spend the night in the dungeon, just the two of us, hehe!" Lena said, her face getting an eager look, after a second, she became serious again. "Still, the upper floors are just too small; I don't think we can hide for too long."
Yeah, I kind of agreed, I had no way of knowing how many were looking, or why the hell didn't they just attack people instead of doing the monster train… unless they only had a single level 2?
Heck, were they even hunting us? I had assumed they were after me but, in hindsight, that was kind of arrogant, I didn't think I had attracted that much attention yet, and how many had that monster train killed just to take me out?
No, odds are they were just doing it to kill everyone, not me in particular. They could be a small team of level 1's led by a single level 2. The monster train… or, well, I guess they called it parade pass here? It could be used to wipe out a floor, and the level 2 would stay on the entrance to make sure nobody escaped.
Or, heck, I wouldn't usually consider it a possibility, but it could be some god's idea of fun. High level people pulling monster trains happened in video games, and the gods did come down here to have fun, I imagine it would feel like a game to them.
Together, Lena and I killed another pack of kobolds, but we didn't stop to loot them, moving on without losing too much time. Still, monster attacks kept delaying us.
Suddenly, Yoshi turned back and hissed, causing me to pause and focus, trying to hear anything.
"Fuck… Killed… can't…" I caught the faint sounds coming from far behind us. "… Hurt… far…"
Trading a look with Lena, the both of us immediately started running. Exhausted, wounded and lacking sleep, we weren't as fast as we could be, and I even stumbled on some rocks.
A goblin attack forced me to pause and kill the small humanoid, allowing me to hear the steps running towards me. Fuck, there's got to be at least four of them! I don't think we could handle four, not right now!
Starting to breathe hard, I smashed into the ramp to another floor right behind Lena, sending a wave of pain into my shoulder. The ramp up caused both of us to slow down even more, to the point that, as we were about to enter the first hallway, I glanced back and saw the five adventurers climbing up into the floor with us.
We weren't going to make it, as fresh as they looked; they'd catch up in only a minute or two. The realization hit me and I turned… could I get them all with Susanoo?
"Finally, you bastards are not escaping anymore?" One of the adventurers said, his voice filled with confidence. Pulling out my sword, I readied myself for a fight, there was little chance that we could kill them all, but I'd certainly take a few with me. "Really, you should have just died with the others, it would have been easier."
Suddenly, from behind me, I felt a gust of wind that caused me to stumble forward and nearly fall, a second later; there was another gust as a blur jumped over me.
Looking ahead, I saw one of the men fly off to smash into the wall so hard his back exploded as if he was a water balloon, a second was suddenly cut at the waist, his upper body flying off while a third was crushed into paste against the ground.
Then the second blur arrived and cut a man in half and I finally saw it was a tall amazoness with a curved greatsword. The last man was grabbed by the throat and the Amazoness just held him up.
"Yo, Newbie-kun!" The first arrival said, causing me to look at Tiona, a huge smile on her face while she flicked the giant, double headed greatsword as if it didn't weigh anything to get rid of the blood on it. "I knew you'd be alive!"
Pausing, Tiona and the new amazoness looked at each other, the taller woman lifting an eyebrow at seeing Tiona's larger weapon and how easy she had used it.
Lifting her own greatsword, the older woman nodded and then glared at Lena. "You're in trouble, you little goblin! Do you know how worried I was? I told you not to go into the dungeon alone!" Looking around a little, her smile disappeared as she didn't see anyone else with us. Dragging the man behind her as she came closer, she asked. "Where's Layla? What exactly happened?"
Finally relaxing my posture, I motioned for Yoshi to rest and, together with Lena, walked towards our rescue. Tiona seemed both faster and stronger than the newcomer, so I actually felt somewhat safe.
Damn, I hadn't realized how exhausting it has been, to have to be on constant alert while in the dungeon, and then having to be hunted. Satisfying, I won't deny that, but exhausting.
"Layla didn't make it… sorry Aisha," Lena said, throwing herself at the older woman and hugging her waist. "I-I just wanted to get to level two…"
With a sigh and a tired face, Aisha put a hand over Lena's head and consoled her.
Suddenly, I saw the captured adventurer messing with something on his chest, the motion immediately reminded me of what the level 2 adventurer had been doing and I started paying closer attention to him. A second later, I saw the bastard's face turning into a satisfied and happy smile.
"Loria, I'm finally coming to join you," he whispered and my eyes widened as I saw several pouches of what looked VERY suspiciously like bars of dynamite tied to his chest.
"TIONA!" I screamed while jumping away and doing my best to delay him.
The fastest illusion I could use was the pain one since it was one of the most useful, the most used and the most well made at my current level, unfortunately, it didn't disable him completely and his hand still pulled a string on his chest, causing the charges to ignite, their wick very small.
Fortunately, it was enough for Tiona. At her level, two seconds was more than enough for her to grab the man and hurl him away as hard as she could.
The adventurer flew through the air at prodigious speeds and, only a second later, the explosion destroyed a part of the ramp down, sending a wave of hot air that hit me like a light punch, but was far enough away to not do any damage.
"Well, that was unexpected," Aisha commented, still staring at the explosion as she combed her long hair back into place. "What the heck was that all about?"
"I… have absolutely no idea," I commented, still feeling stunned. What the fuck? Since when were there suicide bombers in Danmachi?
For a second, all four of us stared at the destruction, and my eyes were drawn to the death adventurers, did they also have bombs?
"So, Newbie-kun, what actually happened?" Tiona shrugged and asked as she looked me over, noticing my exhaustion and all the wounds. "You look good for someone who spent almost an entire day in the dungeon."
"There was someone doing a pass parade on the seventh floor," I explained, remembering the correct term now that I wasn't running for my life. "Fuck, I barely survived. Wait, how did you know to search for me?"
"Ah, yeah, Loki kinda has some of our younger members watching your movements," Tiona revealed, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
"What!? Why the fuck…?" I trailed off, utterly baffled.
"Well, she wanted to know how long it would take you to find them. Plus, she thought it was funny when you acted all paranoid," the girl revealed, causing me to grind my teeth. "You know, I wasn't actually gonna come in. As a hero, you're supposed to deal with things by yourself, but then I saw Aisha entering the dungeon at night and decided to follow her, it's the mentor's job to interfere when someone too powerful gets involved after all."
Watching Tiona nodding to herself, I couldn't help cursing in my mind. Good fucking damns it! Did I waste all that money finding a new place for nothing?
Damn, usually, I'd call that reason bullshit but, with Loki, there was no way of knowing. The bitch was just crazy enough to waste everyone's time for a prank. It actually made it worse, since it made me both worried that I was being watched and annoyed that I was being pranked.
Was that why I sometimes felt someone's gaze on me while walking in Orario?
"Say, Tiona, can I kill your god? Just a little bit? Please?"
"Nope," she immediately denied. Licking a finger, she used it to wipe my face, cleaning a trail of dried blood from my eye and then helped me straighten my back. "There, now you look properly heroic. Mou, I wish I could have seen it, was it fun?"
Fuck, now that I was no longer in danger, the weight of what I had done was starting to hit me. I had killed again. More than that, I had forced two people to fight to the death.
Could they have survived if I had let them rest? If I hadn't forced them to continue fighting? Could I have fought the rest of the monsters off? There weren't so many left when I had forced them to continue fighting.
"Fun? People died, I nearly died!" I tried to yell, but the words lacked proper bite, I was too exhausted to be angry. "It was terrifying."
"Well, I mean, I don't like when people die too, it always hurts, but it doesn't make the fight any less fun," Tiona shrugged and then gave me a small hug, looking at me as if she could see through me. "I'm glad to see you can still smile, you've got to smile for those who can't, smile so it can mean something."
Was I smiling? Yes, yes I was. For a moment, I was hit with shame, I don't think I was smiling for the same reason Tiona did… then I took in her words in and shook my head. No, she was right, what use were my actions if I kept blaming myself for it?
I forced them to fight so I could live, so I could have a chance, what use was it if I kept blaming myself for it? It wouldn't erase anything. It would only make it worse, to have, maybe, caused their deaths just so I could live in misery.
"Noooo!" Lena yelled, glomping me and pulling me away from Tiona while pressing her breasts against my arm. Despite her age, they were already surprisingly big. "Roland Synclair is mine!!"
Again, my instinct was to push the girl away, but her stats were actually higher than mine, and I didn't want to use force. I'd like to say it was because she was a woman but, in truth, it was mostly because I was pretty sure she'd like it.
For a second, I saw Tiona freeze, almost mechanically, her eyes looking at the weaker Amazon pressing herself against me and then down towards her own chest.
Tiona's smile grew even wider, but it was no longer bright, and I swore there was a throbbing vein on her forehead, their eyes met and I felt my hair lifting up at the electric discharge between the both of them.
Looking down at the young girl, I met her eyes and sent her a quick illusion, my arm suddenly burst into flames and, in reflex; she released me and jumped away.
I probably shouldn't have done that, but she had already seen a lot of what I could do with my eyes and, to Aisha and Tiona, it probably looked like she just jumped away after meeting my frown.
"Hmm, how interesting!" Aisha said, putting a finger on her chin and looking at me with a glint in her eyes.
I chose to ignore the woman, no matter how incredibly hot she was. It just wasn't the time. "Ah, hey, Tiona, maybe you should lower your weapon?"
"Huh? I thought I had sensed a little frog shooter spawning." She said, tilting her head sideways in confusion. "Anyways, newbie-kun, as your master, I demand that you tell me the whole story! It wouldn't do if I didn't hear about your first heroic trial!"
"Can we just get out of here first? I really need a bath," I replied, starting to feel all the blood and grime that had accumulated.
Both newcomers barely lifted an eyebrow at Yoshi as I approached it and, meeting his eyes, used my illusions to tell it to return to his room on the third floor and wait for me.
After that, with both Aisha and Tiona, we had absolutely no trouble getting out of the dungeon. They absolutely obliterated any monster in the way until I finally stepped out of the dungeon, feeling the first rays of the sunrise hitting my eyes.
I was finally safe! Or, well, at least as safe as I could be in Orario.
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Xhaustedhero, AkumaSmaG, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Icewing, Comics, DERMONIAN, Davvy chappie, Banh Bao, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, Travis cox, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, James Williams, Michael Neal, Felrook, RavenCore, kenzie, GrumpyJustGrumpy, NotableRonin and Josh Orton for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
Last edited:
I think i may have brought this up before or i dreamed it who knows but in regards to character interaction forgoing a famila for what is basically a ROB is probably the biggest problem with this fic the interactions that you can write between the mc his famila members and his god/goddes are both really important to the concept of Danmachi and really easy ways to fill the social side of a story
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
You're doing great! I didn't notice you neglecting any part of the story. Though I'm struggling to remember what happened as I'm reading dozens of fics at once...
dead
Chapter 18
So, I ended up finishing a new chapter of this one.
The chapter was writen on the phone so there may be mistakes in it, but I did my best to go over everything a few times and catch any of the biggest ones.
I'll probably post a new chapter sooner this time, since I already have chapter 19 halfway done, probably a little over two weeks.
Also, I have a new fanfic everyone seems to like, it's called "Will of the Force" and it's a Worm / Star Wars fanfic I'll be posting weekly with 5 chapters out here and another one coming Friday. Do take a look at it if you have the time.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
____________________________________________________
Finally, I slammed the door to my room closed and collapsed on top of the bed. I had taken the time to wash myself from all the blood and grime of the dungeon but, in truth, my body was moving on auto-pilot right now.
Falna or not, I had been awake for more than a day now —passing out didn't count as resting— and a large part of that day had been fighting. Even when I wasn't killing something, the sheer tension of the last hours had taken a heavy toll on me.
After getting out of the dungeon, there had been some talks about how to divide the loot and Lena had initially refused part from me without at least some reassurance we'd meet again.
Still, Aisha and Tiona had seemed to come to an arrangement, the loot would stay with the Ishtar familia, allowing them to prove what had happened to their goddess and Tiona would guarantee I'd be getting my share later.
Lena was eager to accept the deal as it forced me to meet her again and I was content on letting them sell the monster cores since I currently couldn't… as long as Tiona agreed to act in my interest that is.
Eventually, the older Amazoness just grabbed her younger familia member by the scruff of the neck and carried her away like an unruly cat, lifting a hand to wave goodbye while walking back towards the entertainment district.
At that point, I had been beyond caring, just going along with their decision and making my way back to my room, Tiona more or less leading me since, despite all my efforts, she already knew where I lived.
My teacher had been happy to do it, pestering me to tell her about my fights but, once she saw I wasn't really capable of paying attention to her words, she gave me a pat on the head, got me a tub filled with warm water and left to deal with familia things.
I honestly couldn't say how I had taken a bath by myself, only that I was clean, safe and in a bed. Unfortunately, my brain wasn't helping me fall asleep, a sense of unease at having my location known by fucking Loki filling me.
With a groan of pain, I pushed myself up and grabbed a mirror. Since I hadn't immediately fallen asleep, I wasn't willing to wait to update my own falna, having already made that mistake once.
Checking to make sure both the door and window were closed, I grabbed the broken spear blade and drew some blood from my thumb, smearing it on my back, the substance spreading to form letters and numbers, ones far different from those of only a few days ago.
Roland Synclair – level 1
Strength – F – 356
Endurance – E – 424
Dexterity – F – 365
Agility – F – 336
Magic – C – 641
Skills:
- Chosen of an Outer God
- Mangekyou Sharingan (shisui).
- Deadly Resolve: Allows one to ignore the limits of the body and continue fighting as if in top condition as long as you maintain your resolve.
LEVEL UP AVAILABLE!
For a second, I just stared at the final lines in my falna, drawn in large bloody letters. Damn, I think I had beaten Bell to level one; it had been a little less than a month and a half since I got in the world and that's how long I remember it taking him.
The offer was tempting, particularly with my body hurting as it was. I just bet I'd recover much faster if I did increase my level immediately. It also wouldn't be the worst level up in history, even if it was not ideal.
This single delving in the dungeon had nearly doubled every single one of my stats; it was a much larger increase than when fighting the Vouivre and the bandits after that.
In truth, I had barely done anything to the Vouivre, the only real contribution was casting an illusion, wasting Kotoamatsukami and surviving a second or two until the monster was killed. Compared with this time…
Really, I was kind of glad that the battle against the Vouivre and, later, the thieves hadn't given me such a large increase. In my mind, I knew it had almost been a miracle I had survived, but it had been such a poor showing… such ugly scramble for survival…
Compared to what I had done today, it would have just felt cheap if I had gotten a large increase from the Vouivre. Today, I had stretched myself to my limits. I had used everything I had learned with Tiona, fought for hours against more monsters than I could count.
Granted, none of them were even close to the draconic woman but, against her, I hadn't done anything, my survival more a result of luck than anything I did.
It was the same thing with the murderous adventurer. The first man I killed had simply been completely underestimating me. I had gotten lucky with a cheap shot I took on desperation and just flailed at him until he died.
The ones I killed today… I hate to say it, but I kind of felt proud about it. Not about killing them —that still left a really bad taste in my mouth and made me want to puke— but about overcoming them. I had WON those fights, ME, with skill and planning, not luck or chance. I'd even say luck was against me and I still won.
…In the end, I decided not to level up. I wanted to be strong, to be able to fight against things that would give even the protagonist trouble.
From the anime, I remember Bell killing the Black Goliath as a level two... I didn't know if I could do that. No, I was pretty sure I couldn't —that had to have been some bullshit protagonist thing— but heck, I REALLY wanted to try.
Forcing my falna to disappear again, I pulled myself back into the bed and laid on my back, my right hand squeezing into a fist as I thought about how strong I had to be to be able to fight something like that, how dangerous it would be, how exciting.
.
.
.
.
I woke up at night, my muscles aching from overworking them earlier. With a groan, I pushed myself to a sitting position on the bed, noting that my joints were stiff, my movement restricted to the bare minimum unless I wanted to feel a world of pain.
My head wasn't killing me, but I still had a low level headache from abusing my eyes during fights. For a few minutes, I just stayed there, looking at my body… Now that I wasn't exhausted, I almost couldn't believe I was alive, I had come so close to death so many times.
Tiona had been right, despite the terror, the disgust at what I had done, how hard it had been… It had been incredibly fun, an experience unlike anything I had ever felt in my life.
Perhaps seeing the Vouivre barreling down on me, her mouth opened wide to bite off my head had been just as scary and surviving it just as relieving, but I hadn't done it, it had lacked the sense of accomplishment I felt today.
My rational mind was telling me I should take it easy, to think about the future and really consider if I even continue in Orario. Heck, I had gotten a good haul, probably enough to pay off the witch and live comfortably for a time, even longer outside the city.
Still, the smile on my face told me I wouldn't, I didn't want to.
Finally, a growl from my stomach got me moving, the hunger finally forcing me out of the bed. With almost robotic movements, I pushed myself to my feet.
Drawing a breath, I tried to stretch, my body complaining the entire time until I was forced to give up. I briefly considered drinking a potion, I had some spare ones in the room, but I didn't know if I should after ingesting so many during the fight.
Grabbing my sword, the only piece of gear that was clean since I hadn't used it in the dungeon, I fixed it to my waist and tied the eyepatch into place over my right eye, blocking its vision and letting that sharingan continue to rest. I considered grabbing the spear shaft to use as a walking cane, but that felt like too much.
Slowly, I made my way down to the first floor, releasing little grunts with every step I took on the stairs. I was hoping I'd still be able to get some dinner despite the time and wouldn't have to go out.
I got lucky, about time really, the owner had already put away most of the food, but the soup was still on the table and there was some leftover meat I convinced her to heat up using the magic stone stove.
Pulling out a chair, I prepared to sit when it happened.
The slap reverberated through the building, the hand was small and there was very little force behind it, but it got me in the middle of the back, sending a wave of fire through every single one of my aching, stiff, overworked muscles.
Grabbing the chair for support, I glared at the damn midget that was smirking in amusement at me. She had been hiding in my blind spot and I hadn't been alert up here in the city. "So, I heard that a certain adventurer now owes their life to one of my dear children, oh, how the tables have turned."
"Loki."
"Roland," she answered, throwing herself at the chair beside mine. "So, how are you going to pay me back?"
"What?" I asked, my eyes narrowing even further.
"Well, I did provide you a First Class adventurer to teach you as payment for saving some of my children," Loki only smirked, stealing from my place before I could put an arm around it. "A life debt is pretty important, you know? I expect compensation! Or are you just gonna take advantage of poor Tiona? Huh?!"
Suddenly, a huge hand delivered a head chop on Loki, causing her to crouch down and lift both arms to rub her head. From behind, an extremely large dwarf appeared.
"Let the boy eat in peace," the dwarf spoke with a tired voice. Giving me a smile, he sat on the opposite side of the table and dropped a huge jug of alcohol on top. "Come boy, I heard about what you did in the dungeon, have a drink!"
Dropping three mugs on the table, the dwarf filled them all and slid one to me. Putting a hand in front of my plate, I stopped the mug from hitting it and finally sat down.
"Hey Gareth! Where's mine?" Loki complained and got her own mug which she promptly drank, getting a foam mustache. "Now, as for you, why'd you have to go and get in trouble like that? Ruined a perfectly good prank I tell you! I really wanted to see your face when you found out about everyone following you."
Back on Earth there was a saying, 'Don't feed the trolls', I kinda felt like I had already failed that lesson, but it was never too late to start acting smart and ignore the… goddess, at least when she was clearly baiting me.
Closing my eyes, I took a sip of the beer and felt it go down my throat, causing both my eyebrows to climb into my hairline. I wasn't exactly a fan of beer, but this one tasted so much better than anything else I had experienced in this world.
"Good? Hah, it's not every day you survive such a good fight boy, enjoy it!" Gareth laughed, drinking half his own mug into a single swing before wiping his mouth. "How was it? Been a long time since I last got into such a good scrap myself, I miss it."
"It was intense, exhausting… terrifying," I couldn't help being truthful as I started eating, too hungry to care about the guests.
"The best ones usually are. You'll have to tell me the entire story later," he laughed, noting the smile on my face despite my words. "After you speak with Tiona, she wouldn't forgive me if I heard it all before her."
"I suppose I ca- Gah!" I screamed as a second spike of pain went through my body, this time coming from my leg where Loki was poking it with the handle of a dagger.
"Don't ignore me!" she pouted, her eyes open and staring up at me.
"Enough already," I complained and moved away as the damn imp tried to poke me again, only to feel even more uncomfortable as my whole body moved. Grabbing the table for support, I considered using Kotoamatsukami right here. Surely, getting rid of her was worth it? "Fine, what do you really want?"
Sitting back on her chair, Loki crossed her legs and took a larger drink from her mug. "Sooooo, tell me about those guys that attacked you."
"Why?" I asked, narrowing my single eye at the god.
"Cuz I want to hear about them. Come on, it's not every day I learn about adventurers pulling such things on the upper floors," Loki finished her beer and threw the mug towards Gateth for more. "Not for what? Was it five years?"
"Four," the dwarf corrected, filling his own mug before Loki's, his voice far more serious than before. "Such things started slowing down five years ago, but it only stopped a year later."
Lowering my spoon, I considered both of them with a frown on my face. I had assumed such attacks were uncommon, but not by that much. I supposed it could be that there just weren't any survivors before, but I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be the case.
"Why do you even care? It's not like something like this would affect your familia, you're too strong for that."
"Boy, Loki familia does have its share of first level recruits," Gareth answered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "And, well, while this kind of thing is more Ganesha familia's job, you can say we have some personal interest in this case."
"Yep, I don't usually care about catching criminals, but those kinds of adventurers are like vermin, if you leave them alone for too long, they tend to breed," Loki said in a calm voice, but her smile was unnerving, sending a shiver down my spine. "Orario is kind of my home now and nobody likes finding rats in their home."
Damn, I had almost forgotten who I was dealing with. Loki may be playing around most of the time, but she's still capable of making me feel cold inside.
Taking another spoonful of soup, I shook myself. Hadn't I decided to stop acting like Loki was the devil without any proof? Looking back, I asked. "Somehow, I doubt that's your only reason…"
"Well, it could also be that they messed with my new toy and I want to know whose greedy hand I have to slap," she smirked, putting a finger against her mouth in feigned thought. "Either one of those."
Right, if I had to bet, I'd definitely be picking the latter reason. With a sigh, I finished my first mug of beer as well. "Fine, it's not like I want to protect those assholes. I'm also pretty sure we didn't kill all of them."
Digging my spoon on the soup again, I told them about the bastards that caused the parade pass. I didn't talk about the fight itself —I kind of wanted to share with Tiona first— but I told Loki and the dwarf everything I had seen about the suicide bombers, from their clothes and stile of fighting, to their build, hair color and even a few scars.
In the middle of the dungeon, I hadn't thought much about such things but, with my eyes, I couldn't forget the details even if I wanted to.
While their large, baggy clothes did a good job of hiding many things, small details on the parts of the skin that were uncovered or even faint shades below their clothes were as clear to me as if the bastards were decorating them with glitter.
Finally, I released my spoon on the empty plate and bit into the last piece of meat, realizing that I was also done reporting every single adventurer I had seen on that floor, including the dead ones.
"So, was that the only reason you came?" I asked, draining a second mug of beer and trying to push myself up, but my legs had cooled down from staying still too long and stiffened up again.
"Nope," Loki cheerfully replied and then poked me in the thigh again, right where I had gotten hit by a landform weapon and there was a huge purple spot.
"Goddamnit!" I yelled, reacting on instinct to move away from her and almost falling when the leg started to cramp.
"Why would I?" Loki laughed and I saw Gareth palming his face. "Anyways, it seems like you got your Falna updated but decided not to level up. Good."
"What?"
"Yeah, there was no way you weren't getting a level up after what happened and, from what Tiona reported of your training, you wouldn't be awake yet if you hadn't increased your stats drastically, but you also wouldn't be so stiff and hurting if you had leveled up."
I just… had she been poking me just to find out about my stats and level?
With a groan, I grabbed my plate and took it back to the owner who was giving me a pitying look. Did Loki even have to poke me three times or had she found out on the first slap?
"Say, Gareth, can I kill your god, just a little bit?"
"Hey!"
"Sorry, can't have that," the dwarf laughed, putting a cork on his jar of alcohol. "Here, keep the rest as an apology."
"Really?"
"You can also consider it an early gift for the achievement," Gareth nodded. "Surviving that kind of thing does deserve praise. I'd give you a tap on the back but…"
"Yeah, thanks for not doing that," I snorted. Snatching the jar from the table and keeping it by my side.
Loki too got out of her chair, throwing her empty mug at Gareth and a small vial at me. "Here, this should help relax your muscles, since you owe us so much now, don't you dare skip training tomorrow."
Looking down at the potion, I didn't recognize the color. "Just how expensive was this?"
"Not as much as you're expecting, don't worry. It's just not as useful inside the dungeon, so most people don't make or sell them, but we have a cache for training," Gareth tied all three mugs to his waist while saying.
I watched as the two of them started leaving the building but, just as Loki was about to walk out, she stopped.
"You know, my kids weren't the only ones watching you, but the others didn't appear again after you left the dungeon earlier today," the little imp looked back at me, an amused look on her face. "I knew you'd be interesting when I first picked you up."
Well, fuck. Looking down at the small vial, I considered not drinking it, but it wasn't as if I hadn't taken a lot from the goddess before. Popping off the cork, I chugged it and felt a terrible taste in my mouth, the potion burning worse than whiskey as it went down my throat.
There wasn't an immediate effect but, as I washed away the terrible feeling with another drink of the beer, I felt my muscles relaxing a little bit.
Before, I had been considering going out a little tonight, even if only for a slow walk to pass the time until I got sleepy again, take some air and enjoy being alive outside the dungeon, but, with her warning…
I had once read something about 'Once being happenstance, twice coincidence and three times enemy action' but, if there had been strangers watching me for a while now and they disappeared after my return, I don't think I was willing to wait for a third attack.
Who the hell did I piss off? Or was this some kind of amusement for my ROB?
Everyone told me bandits were rare in the dungeon, but I got attacked by a team the second time I left the safe zone. Gareth said organized Parade Passes hadn't happened in more than four years and yet, only a little over a month had passed and I got targeted by one.
Going back to my room, I put the sword beside my bed, close at hand in case I needed it and lay down. I really couldn't think of anyone that wanted me dead, I hadn't pissed off anyone and I no longer thought it was Loki.
The entire thing was made even worse because of how stupid it was. I was a level one, there were hundreds, even thousands of level twos in Orario that could beat me in a fight.
Even easier, as a level one, numbers still worked on me, they could just have a dozen level ones attack me and, while I would take a few with me, I was realistic enough to know I wouldn't survive.
This was some god with too much time in his hands wasn't it? Things just didn't make sense otherwise. But who? I had barely met anyone in the city.
Laying my head against the pillow, I groaned as my body fully relaxed. It seems like I'd have to hurry up with finding a familia and party if I wanted to stay alive. Thankfully, I think I have a plan for how to test illusions on gods, it wasn't a guarantee but, if it worked…
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Xhaustedhero, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Lynx of Chaos, Comics, Davvy chappie, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, GrumpyJustGrumpy, Travis cox, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, Michael Neal, Felrook, NotableRonin, Josh Orton, stanley seymour, AjiTae, danxzn, Louis Kasser, Joseph, JVR, Mike Bellavoir and Vegetables for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
The chapter was writen on the phone so there may be mistakes in it, but I did my best to go over everything a few times and catch any of the biggest ones.
I'll probably post a new chapter sooner this time, since I already have chapter 19 halfway done, probably a little over two weeks.
Also, I have a new fanfic everyone seems to like, it's called "Will of the Force" and it's a Worm / Star Wars fanfic I'll be posting weekly with 5 chapters out here and another one coming Friday. Do take a look at it if you have the time.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
____________________________________________________
Finally, I slammed the door to my room closed and collapsed on top of the bed. I had taken the time to wash myself from all the blood and grime of the dungeon but, in truth, my body was moving on auto-pilot right now.
Falna or not, I had been awake for more than a day now —passing out didn't count as resting— and a large part of that day had been fighting. Even when I wasn't killing something, the sheer tension of the last hours had taken a heavy toll on me.
After getting out of the dungeon, there had been some talks about how to divide the loot and Lena had initially refused part from me without at least some reassurance we'd meet again.
Still, Aisha and Tiona had seemed to come to an arrangement, the loot would stay with the Ishtar familia, allowing them to prove what had happened to their goddess and Tiona would guarantee I'd be getting my share later.
Lena was eager to accept the deal as it forced me to meet her again and I was content on letting them sell the monster cores since I currently couldn't… as long as Tiona agreed to act in my interest that is.
Eventually, the older Amazoness just grabbed her younger familia member by the scruff of the neck and carried her away like an unruly cat, lifting a hand to wave goodbye while walking back towards the entertainment district.
At that point, I had been beyond caring, just going along with their decision and making my way back to my room, Tiona more or less leading me since, despite all my efforts, she already knew where I lived.
My teacher had been happy to do it, pestering me to tell her about my fights but, once she saw I wasn't really capable of paying attention to her words, she gave me a pat on the head, got me a tub filled with warm water and left to deal with familia things.
I honestly couldn't say how I had taken a bath by myself, only that I was clean, safe and in a bed. Unfortunately, my brain wasn't helping me fall asleep, a sense of unease at having my location known by fucking Loki filling me.
With a groan of pain, I pushed myself up and grabbed a mirror. Since I hadn't immediately fallen asleep, I wasn't willing to wait to update my own falna, having already made that mistake once.
Checking to make sure both the door and window were closed, I grabbed the broken spear blade and drew some blood from my thumb, smearing it on my back, the substance spreading to form letters and numbers, ones far different from those of only a few days ago.
Roland Synclair – level 1
Strength – F – 356
Endurance – E – 424
Dexterity – F – 365
Agility – F – 336
Magic – C – 641
Skills:
- Chosen of an Outer God
- Mangekyou Sharingan (shisui).
- Deadly Resolve: Allows one to ignore the limits of the body and continue fighting as if in top condition as long as you maintain your resolve.
LEVEL UP AVAILABLE!
For a second, I just stared at the final lines in my falna, drawn in large bloody letters. Damn, I think I had beaten Bell to level one; it had been a little less than a month and a half since I got in the world and that's how long I remember it taking him.
The offer was tempting, particularly with my body hurting as it was. I just bet I'd recover much faster if I did increase my level immediately. It also wouldn't be the worst level up in history, even if it was not ideal.
This single delving in the dungeon had nearly doubled every single one of my stats; it was a much larger increase than when fighting the Vouivre and the bandits after that.
In truth, I had barely done anything to the Vouivre, the only real contribution was casting an illusion, wasting Kotoamatsukami and surviving a second or two until the monster was killed. Compared with this time…
Really, I was kind of glad that the battle against the Vouivre and, later, the thieves hadn't given me such a large increase. In my mind, I knew it had almost been a miracle I had survived, but it had been such a poor showing… such ugly scramble for survival…
Compared to what I had done today, it would have just felt cheap if I had gotten a large increase from the Vouivre. Today, I had stretched myself to my limits. I had used everything I had learned with Tiona, fought for hours against more monsters than I could count.
Granted, none of them were even close to the draconic woman but, against her, I hadn't done anything, my survival more a result of luck than anything I did.
It was the same thing with the murderous adventurer. The first man I killed had simply been completely underestimating me. I had gotten lucky with a cheap shot I took on desperation and just flailed at him until he died.
The ones I killed today… I hate to say it, but I kind of felt proud about it. Not about killing them —that still left a really bad taste in my mouth and made me want to puke— but about overcoming them. I had WON those fights, ME, with skill and planning, not luck or chance. I'd even say luck was against me and I still won.
…In the end, I decided not to level up. I wanted to be strong, to be able to fight against things that would give even the protagonist trouble.
From the anime, I remember Bell killing the Black Goliath as a level two... I didn't know if I could do that. No, I was pretty sure I couldn't —that had to have been some bullshit protagonist thing— but heck, I REALLY wanted to try.
Forcing my falna to disappear again, I pulled myself back into the bed and laid on my back, my right hand squeezing into a fist as I thought about how strong I had to be to be able to fight something like that, how dangerous it would be, how exciting.
.
.
.
.
I woke up at night, my muscles aching from overworking them earlier. With a groan, I pushed myself to a sitting position on the bed, noting that my joints were stiff, my movement restricted to the bare minimum unless I wanted to feel a world of pain.
My head wasn't killing me, but I still had a low level headache from abusing my eyes during fights. For a few minutes, I just stayed there, looking at my body… Now that I wasn't exhausted, I almost couldn't believe I was alive, I had come so close to death so many times.
Tiona had been right, despite the terror, the disgust at what I had done, how hard it had been… It had been incredibly fun, an experience unlike anything I had ever felt in my life.
Perhaps seeing the Vouivre barreling down on me, her mouth opened wide to bite off my head had been just as scary and surviving it just as relieving, but I hadn't done it, it had lacked the sense of accomplishment I felt today.
My rational mind was telling me I should take it easy, to think about the future and really consider if I even continue in Orario. Heck, I had gotten a good haul, probably enough to pay off the witch and live comfortably for a time, even longer outside the city.
Still, the smile on my face told me I wouldn't, I didn't want to.
Finally, a growl from my stomach got me moving, the hunger finally forcing me out of the bed. With almost robotic movements, I pushed myself to my feet.
Drawing a breath, I tried to stretch, my body complaining the entire time until I was forced to give up. I briefly considered drinking a potion, I had some spare ones in the room, but I didn't know if I should after ingesting so many during the fight.
Grabbing my sword, the only piece of gear that was clean since I hadn't used it in the dungeon, I fixed it to my waist and tied the eyepatch into place over my right eye, blocking its vision and letting that sharingan continue to rest. I considered grabbing the spear shaft to use as a walking cane, but that felt like too much.
Slowly, I made my way down to the first floor, releasing little grunts with every step I took on the stairs. I was hoping I'd still be able to get some dinner despite the time and wouldn't have to go out.
I got lucky, about time really, the owner had already put away most of the food, but the soup was still on the table and there was some leftover meat I convinced her to heat up using the magic stone stove.
Pulling out a chair, I prepared to sit when it happened.
The slap reverberated through the building, the hand was small and there was very little force behind it, but it got me in the middle of the back, sending a wave of fire through every single one of my aching, stiff, overworked muscles.
Grabbing the chair for support, I glared at the damn midget that was smirking in amusement at me. She had been hiding in my blind spot and I hadn't been alert up here in the city. "So, I heard that a certain adventurer now owes their life to one of my dear children, oh, how the tables have turned."
"Loki."
"Roland," she answered, throwing herself at the chair beside mine. "So, how are you going to pay me back?"
"What?" I asked, my eyes narrowing even further.
"Well, I did provide you a First Class adventurer to teach you as payment for saving some of my children," Loki only smirked, stealing from my place before I could put an arm around it. "A life debt is pretty important, you know? I expect compensation! Or are you just gonna take advantage of poor Tiona? Huh?!"
Suddenly, a huge hand delivered a head chop on Loki, causing her to crouch down and lift both arms to rub her head. From behind, an extremely large dwarf appeared.
"Let the boy eat in peace," the dwarf spoke with a tired voice. Giving me a smile, he sat on the opposite side of the table and dropped a huge jug of alcohol on top. "Come boy, I heard about what you did in the dungeon, have a drink!"
Dropping three mugs on the table, the dwarf filled them all and slid one to me. Putting a hand in front of my plate, I stopped the mug from hitting it and finally sat down.
"Hey Gareth! Where's mine?" Loki complained and got her own mug which she promptly drank, getting a foam mustache. "Now, as for you, why'd you have to go and get in trouble like that? Ruined a perfectly good prank I tell you! I really wanted to see your face when you found out about everyone following you."
Back on Earth there was a saying, 'Don't feed the trolls', I kinda felt like I had already failed that lesson, but it was never too late to start acting smart and ignore the… goddess, at least when she was clearly baiting me.
Closing my eyes, I took a sip of the beer and felt it go down my throat, causing both my eyebrows to climb into my hairline. I wasn't exactly a fan of beer, but this one tasted so much better than anything else I had experienced in this world.
"Good? Hah, it's not every day you survive such a good fight boy, enjoy it!" Gareth laughed, drinking half his own mug into a single swing before wiping his mouth. "How was it? Been a long time since I last got into such a good scrap myself, I miss it."
"It was intense, exhausting… terrifying," I couldn't help being truthful as I started eating, too hungry to care about the guests.
"The best ones usually are. You'll have to tell me the entire story later," he laughed, noting the smile on my face despite my words. "After you speak with Tiona, she wouldn't forgive me if I heard it all before her."
"I suppose I ca- Gah!" I screamed as a second spike of pain went through my body, this time coming from my leg where Loki was poking it with the handle of a dagger.
"Don't ignore me!" she pouted, her eyes open and staring up at me.
"Enough already," I complained and moved away as the damn imp tried to poke me again, only to feel even more uncomfortable as my whole body moved. Grabbing the table for support, I considered using Kotoamatsukami right here. Surely, getting rid of her was worth it? "Fine, what do you really want?"
Sitting back on her chair, Loki crossed her legs and took a larger drink from her mug. "Sooooo, tell me about those guys that attacked you."
"Why?" I asked, narrowing my single eye at the god.
"Cuz I want to hear about them. Come on, it's not every day I learn about adventurers pulling such things on the upper floors," Loki finished her beer and threw the mug towards Gateth for more. "Not for what? Was it five years?"
"Four," the dwarf corrected, filling his own mug before Loki's, his voice far more serious than before. "Such things started slowing down five years ago, but it only stopped a year later."
Lowering my spoon, I considered both of them with a frown on my face. I had assumed such attacks were uncommon, but not by that much. I supposed it could be that there just weren't any survivors before, but I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be the case.
"Why do you even care? It's not like something like this would affect your familia, you're too strong for that."
"Boy, Loki familia does have its share of first level recruits," Gareth answered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "And, well, while this kind of thing is more Ganesha familia's job, you can say we have some personal interest in this case."
"Yep, I don't usually care about catching criminals, but those kinds of adventurers are like vermin, if you leave them alone for too long, they tend to breed," Loki said in a calm voice, but her smile was unnerving, sending a shiver down my spine. "Orario is kind of my home now and nobody likes finding rats in their home."
Damn, I had almost forgotten who I was dealing with. Loki may be playing around most of the time, but she's still capable of making me feel cold inside.
Taking another spoonful of soup, I shook myself. Hadn't I decided to stop acting like Loki was the devil without any proof? Looking back, I asked. "Somehow, I doubt that's your only reason…"
"Well, it could also be that they messed with my new toy and I want to know whose greedy hand I have to slap," she smirked, putting a finger against her mouth in feigned thought. "Either one of those."
Right, if I had to bet, I'd definitely be picking the latter reason. With a sigh, I finished my first mug of beer as well. "Fine, it's not like I want to protect those assholes. I'm also pretty sure we didn't kill all of them."
Digging my spoon on the soup again, I told them about the bastards that caused the parade pass. I didn't talk about the fight itself —I kind of wanted to share with Tiona first— but I told Loki and the dwarf everything I had seen about the suicide bombers, from their clothes and stile of fighting, to their build, hair color and even a few scars.
In the middle of the dungeon, I hadn't thought much about such things but, with my eyes, I couldn't forget the details even if I wanted to.
While their large, baggy clothes did a good job of hiding many things, small details on the parts of the skin that were uncovered or even faint shades below their clothes were as clear to me as if the bastards were decorating them with glitter.
Finally, I released my spoon on the empty plate and bit into the last piece of meat, realizing that I was also done reporting every single adventurer I had seen on that floor, including the dead ones.
"So, was that the only reason you came?" I asked, draining a second mug of beer and trying to push myself up, but my legs had cooled down from staying still too long and stiffened up again.
"Nope," Loki cheerfully replied and then poked me in the thigh again, right where I had gotten hit by a landform weapon and there was a huge purple spot.
"Goddamnit!" I yelled, reacting on instinct to move away from her and almost falling when the leg started to cramp.
"Why would I?" Loki laughed and I saw Gareth palming his face. "Anyways, it seems like you got your Falna updated but decided not to level up. Good."
"What?"
"Yeah, there was no way you weren't getting a level up after what happened and, from what Tiona reported of your training, you wouldn't be awake yet if you hadn't increased your stats drastically, but you also wouldn't be so stiff and hurting if you had leveled up."
I just… had she been poking me just to find out about my stats and level?
With a groan, I grabbed my plate and took it back to the owner who was giving me a pitying look. Did Loki even have to poke me three times or had she found out on the first slap?
"Say, Gareth, can I kill your god, just a little bit?"
"Hey!"
"Sorry, can't have that," the dwarf laughed, putting a cork on his jar of alcohol. "Here, keep the rest as an apology."
"Really?"
"You can also consider it an early gift for the achievement," Gareth nodded. "Surviving that kind of thing does deserve praise. I'd give you a tap on the back but…"
"Yeah, thanks for not doing that," I snorted. Snatching the jar from the table and keeping it by my side.
Loki too got out of her chair, throwing her empty mug at Gareth and a small vial at me. "Here, this should help relax your muscles, since you owe us so much now, don't you dare skip training tomorrow."
Looking down at the potion, I didn't recognize the color. "Just how expensive was this?"
"Not as much as you're expecting, don't worry. It's just not as useful inside the dungeon, so most people don't make or sell them, but we have a cache for training," Gareth tied all three mugs to his waist while saying.
I watched as the two of them started leaving the building but, just as Loki was about to walk out, she stopped.
"You know, my kids weren't the only ones watching you, but the others didn't appear again after you left the dungeon earlier today," the little imp looked back at me, an amused look on her face. "I knew you'd be interesting when I first picked you up."
Well, fuck. Looking down at the small vial, I considered not drinking it, but it wasn't as if I hadn't taken a lot from the goddess before. Popping off the cork, I chugged it and felt a terrible taste in my mouth, the potion burning worse than whiskey as it went down my throat.
There wasn't an immediate effect but, as I washed away the terrible feeling with another drink of the beer, I felt my muscles relaxing a little bit.
Before, I had been considering going out a little tonight, even if only for a slow walk to pass the time until I got sleepy again, take some air and enjoy being alive outside the dungeon, but, with her warning…
I had once read something about 'Once being happenstance, twice coincidence and three times enemy action' but, if there had been strangers watching me for a while now and they disappeared after my return, I don't think I was willing to wait for a third attack.
Who the hell did I piss off? Or was this some kind of amusement for my ROB?
Everyone told me bandits were rare in the dungeon, but I got attacked by a team the second time I left the safe zone. Gareth said organized Parade Passes hadn't happened in more than four years and yet, only a little over a month had passed and I got targeted by one.
Going back to my room, I put the sword beside my bed, close at hand in case I needed it and lay down. I really couldn't think of anyone that wanted me dead, I hadn't pissed off anyone and I no longer thought it was Loki.
The entire thing was made even worse because of how stupid it was. I was a level one, there were hundreds, even thousands of level twos in Orario that could beat me in a fight.
Even easier, as a level one, numbers still worked on me, they could just have a dozen level ones attack me and, while I would take a few with me, I was realistic enough to know I wouldn't survive.
This was some god with too much time in his hands wasn't it? Things just didn't make sense otherwise. But who? I had barely met anyone in the city.
Laying my head against the pillow, I groaned as my body fully relaxed. It seems like I'd have to hurry up with finding a familia and party if I wanted to stay alive. Thankfully, I think I have a plan for how to test illusions on gods, it wasn't a guarantee but, if it worked…
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Xhaustedhero, Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust), Lynx of Chaos, Comics, Davvy chappie, Ian Michael, WanderingDaemon, GrumpyJustGrumpy, Travis cox, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, Michael Neal, Felrook, NotableRonin, Josh Orton, stanley seymour, AjiTae, danxzn, Louis Kasser, Joseph, JVR, Mike Bellavoir and Vegetables for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
Chapter 19
So, I'm NOT back, sorry.
I was having trouble with some of my other fics and decided to finish this chapter since a reader posted some comments a few days ago, but I'm not coming back to regular updates.
The truth is, Supergirl and Will of The Force have far more readers and Patreon subscribers so, while I really like writing this, I usually write for one of those two when I'm not trying to make something original.
I do like writing all of my fanfics but, when my time is limited I have to choose on which to focus and, to be perfectly honest, money talks.
By the way, if you like this one, do try out Will of The Force, I think it's my best fanfic right now and a LOT of people seem to think it's REALLY great.
So, yeah, probably taking another month or three for chapter 20 unless someone pays me to do it. Sorry, it's just the truth.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hurry up, newbie-kun," Tiona said, grabbing my arm and almost carrying me out of the building. "Mou, you already missed a day, I won't let you get complacent!"
Doing my best to ignore my still aching muscles, I followed after the Amazoness as she led me towards the city's wall. Out of nowhere, she dragged me to the side, taking a narrow side street instead of the usual path.
The pain from my last trip into the dungeon was almost gone, Loki's potion having worked wonders, to the point that a good stretch would have me moving normally, but the girl seemed intent on not giving me time.
Reaching the end of the street, Tiona put a hand on my chest to stop me and poked her head through the side of the building, looking around with narrowed eyes before starting to walk again.
Looking around, I did my best to search for any watchers, but I didn't even feel the usual gaze on me. As far as I knew, the people keeping tabs on me were gone. Still, she was a first-rank adventurer, I wouldn't think my senses were better than her's even with the Sharingan.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nada, everything's fine, why?" she hurriedly said but didn't slow down or stop acting like we were being followed.
"Because you're acting like we're gonna be attacked at any time," I said, my hand gripping the sword at my waist.
"What? Nope, I just don't want a certain nuisance following us," she pouted, releasing my arm and avoiding my eyes. "If you're gonna keep getting into fights like that, I have to increase your training, no need for annoying distractions. Hurry up, I want to see how much you've grown!"
Shaking my head in amusement, I continued to follow her as she tried to sneak her way toward the wall. Tiona had no talent for being a rogue so we attracted far more attention than if we walked normally, getting quite a few amused looks thrown our way.
"Here, Newbie-kun," she said when we finally arrived, extending a large purse toward me. "I talked with Aisha, this is half the loot from your last delve."
"I thought it would take more time…" I wondered. Grabbing the heavy bag, I stored the money in my backpack without counting. "Wait, were you just trying to avoid Lena?"
"Humph, she already went on one heroic adventure with you, no need to intrude on our sparing as well."
"Are you… jealous?"
"Mou, no fair! I want to go on an adventure as well!" the Amazon almost shouted, her arms lifted in the air. "The last delve was fun, but we only managed to push two floors and nothing unexpected happened, no new and unknown monsters, no dastardly plots."
That… wasn't exactly what I had asked, but I didn't think she was lying either. Well, I hadn't been dungeon delving for long, but I could definitely see how it could become routine.
Starting to stretch, I thought about what I'd do in the same situation. My own delves had been fairly eventful but, even at my level, I could probably earn a comfortable amount of money without facing much danger if I didn't push myself, taking my time to grow stronger.
I didn't NEED to be like Bell, most adventurers weren't after all, taking years for each level and being content as a level 2 or 3.
I hate to admit it, but I had never felt more alive, or more accomplished, than after I survived the last attack and left the dungeon. It had been terrifying and stressful, yes, but the adrenaline…
Yeah, I could definitely see things becoming boring if nothing unexpected was happening for a long time after that.
"Alright, Ready?"
"Tiona, why are your eyes shining?" I asked, taking a step back as I saw my teacher lifting her two-handed sword over her shoulders. "Also, why does it seem you're going to use Urga?"
"I told you, didn't I? I want to see how much you've grown!" twirling the weapon over her head as if it didn't weigh anything, she got into a fighting position. "There's no use running away Newbie-kun! Show me what you've got!"
Throwing my eyepatch down, I barely had any time as the woman charged me, a heavy downward blow aimed at my shoulder. Unsheathing my sword, I sidestepped, hitting the side of her blade and parrying it away, then it was on.
Ten minutes. Ten minutes of uninterrupted sparring was what it took to satisfy the Amazoness. Back in my world, I always thought fights lasted longer, but Ten. Freaking. Minutes. Of full power sparring against a first-class adventurer felt like an eternity even with my improved Falna.
Tiona hadn't let me breathe, every time I took a step back she was right there, in my face, trying to kick me out or, worse, weaving that huge piece of metal faster than I could move my small sword.
Still, I didn't have a single broken bone and had lasted until she stopped, a smile on her face as she dropped Urga point first into the ground and, even with its dulled edge, the sheer weight of the blade drove it twenty centimeters into the wall.
Collapsing back, sweat dripping all over my forehead, I let my back hit the floor, the sword clattering to my side. "Was that strictly necessary?"
"Yep, I wanted to see how much you've grown," she nodded, a huge smile on her face as she sat down beside me, her legs crossed. Extending a hand, she happily tussled my already messy hair. "Good job, Loki was right, you really learn fast, just like a hero. I don't even think Ais learned faster."
"Where… huff… where is your gremlin of a god anyway?"
"Dunno, she wanted to come, but Riveria dragged her away for a meeting."
I wondered what that was about, did something else happen or was she dealing with those people I faced in the dungeon already?
Slowly, I pushed my body back up. My shirt was plastered to my chest and I was still out of breath, but my body seemed to be recovering much faster than before, two hundred points in endurance had made a huge difference.
"Ready for round two?" Tiona asked, a glint in her eye.
"Ugh!" I complained, but already got to my feet, the sword in my hand. Looking at Tiona's amused smile, I couldn't help teasing. "This is because Lena has bigger breasts isn't it?"
"Gah! Leave the boobs out of it!"
In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have teased the vastly stronger adventurer just before sparring with her. Live and learn.
An hour and a half later, I drank the expensive healing potion, feeling the effects spreading through my battered body. Still, it was the first one I had consumed and, again, I hadn't broken anything. Its effects were immediate, leaving me tired but healthy.
Tiona was standing on top of the wall, balancing on the edge as she waited for me to recover and push myself up, Urga leaning safely on my side of the battlements. Turning around, I put my arms over the defenses and took a deep breath.
Damn, being able to move this fast, trade blows with someone at that level, it was so cool.
Poking my shoulder with a toe, Tiona crouched down and sat, legs hanging freely over the edge. "So, tell me about the fight, how was it?"
I thought about it but didn't speak. I had a better idea. "Come here," I said and pulled her back.
Tiona let me lower her down on top of the wall walk, sitting opposite me on the floor. "Alright, can you not resist? I want to see if I can show you something."
"Sure!"
Closing my eyes, I concentrated a little and opened them again, staring straight at Tiona's eyes and sending a visual illusion. Unfortunately, even with her permission, it didn't stick.
Tiona simply tilted her head sideways, her eyes wide as they continued to look at me in puzzlement. "What was that?"
"My skill, did you resist?"
"Not really?" she shrugged, then shook her body and relaxed her muscles even more. "Come on, try again!"
Sending my mind to the ring on my finger, I filled it to the brim with power before drawing the empowered mana and trying again, if it didn't work I'd just talk normally. No need to waste the mangekyou on this.
Either because it was enough or, much more likely, because Tiona had unconsciously broken my skill before and had fully opened herself this time. I felt the illusion take hold.
I had spent a night composing this one, it was the biggest illusion I had made but, since I had seen everything with the Sharingan, it was so integrated into my brain as to make things… far more convenient.
I remembered every monster. Damn, I remembered every stray hair ON the monsters as if it happened only a few seconds ago. Turning that vision into an illusion had been pretty easy, most of the time had actually been spent trying to include sound and feel to what I remembered happening.
It helped that I had already been trying for something like this, trying to replicate Lord of The Rings with my illusions was MUCH harder since I hadn't watched the movie with the sharingan.
I felt the drain on my mind attribute, more than half of my power was gone in an instant. Still, in front of me, Tiona's eyes went distant as she watched things from my perspective.
I didn't put everything in it, I didn't want to stay here for an hour, but I included all the important bits.
"What is this?" Tiona asked, her eyes still not focusing on me.
Eventually, I wanted to be good enough to watch the illusion with her or have a true conversation but, for now, I couldn't manage that. Still, I hadn't blocked her senses and could answer here. Hopefully, the illusion wouldn't break if she didn't try to break out of it.
"Don't try to resist," I warned, watching as her body remained relaxed. "If you do, even a little bit, I'm pretty sure you're gonna break the skill and I'm not strong enough to use it again anytime soon. I thought you'd like to watch the fight, not just hear about it."
She didn't resist, trusting me enough to simply let the illusion run its course. Like with Yoshi, I had accelerated the time inside the skill, but it still took 15 minutes for her to watch everything.
Well, not everything, I hadn't included some of the worst parts… or my use of Susanoo, but almost everything, including the majority of the fighting.
"Newbie-kun! What WAS that!" she finally snapped out of my illusion, jumping to her feet with wide eyes.
"My fight, at least what I remember of it."
"SO COOL!" She yelled. "Is that what your red eyes do? I thought they just let you see better."
"I didn't think you'd be this excited, it's not like I was fighting level 5 monsters," I said, a little embarrassed by the praise.
"No way, I don't think I was that good as a level 1!!" grabbing for her weapon, she copied some of my moves when fighting in the dungeon, only much more skillfully, clearly excited by what she had seen. "That knee to the face! So cool!"
I couldn't help smiling at her, yeah, that knee had been epic. I still felt a little uncomfortable at having killed the man —No, a LOT uncomfortable— but that flying knee with all my speed had felt… very satisfying to use.
Revealing some of my eye's abilities hadn't been an easy decision, but I trusted Tiona, and she should have already guessed many of them after our spars.
Also, Lena already knew about even more of them anyway.
Better yet, having a willing partner that could give me feedback would help improve my skill, there was only so much I could achieve without an intelligent test subject.
In truth, I was hoping to tempt Loki into asking for it. Trying to trick the God of trickery wasn't exactly smart, so I wasn't gonna do anything underhanded TO her, but I wanted to test if illusions worked on gods and this was a good way of doing it without repercussions.
If I couldn't snare her in an illusion at all or, like Tiona, she had to lower her defenses to accept it, there would be zero chance of using kotoamatsukami against any god.
But if I could snare her easily unless she actively resisted…
Yeah, Loki would probably see through me, knowing I had ulterior motives for using her, but I doubt she'd refuse anyways and she also shouldn't know about kotoamatsukami. Heck, even if she could guess I was plotting something or what that was, I think she was willing to let me do it for amusement.
It was the difference between trying to play a prank on her and pranking someone with her help. No matter if she was really the good guy she portrayed here in Orario or the asshole from mythology, she should be able to help out with tricking someone else.
"Tsk, you've been holding back on me Newbie-kun!" she pinched my waist. "Why didn't you use this in our spares?"
"As I said, it's not exactly something I can use freely. Besides, you're too strong, my skill is weaker against those higher level than me. The only reason it worked on you was because you let it."
"Very well, I forgive you."
I snorted, letting her pull me to my feet. "Also, I wanted to be able to do something like this first," I confessed. "Remember how I promised to tell you some of my stories? I wanted to be able to show them to you too."
"That's it! You're now my favorite student!"
"I'm your only student."
"Yes, but as a new heroic teacher, I'm obviously gonna have more than one apprentice, like the god Quiron," she said, nodding. "You're gonna be my favorite then."
I just shook my head, grabbing the pouch of water, I threw it over my head, getting rid of most of the sweat still clinging to my skin. I had to take a bath after this, but I already felt refreshed… even if the sparring had left me exhausted again.
"By the way, do you know if I can take a tamed monster out of the Dungeon?"
"Huh? Well, none of us use tamed monsters… hmmm, I think the guild only lets you bring them out during the monsterphilia."
"Do you know anyone who would know?"
"Well, Ganesha familia do have a lot of tammers," she said, then puffed her chest. "I can ask around if you want?"
"Thanks, I don't want to lose my lizard if someone finds and tries to kill him."
Grabbing Urga from the wall, Tiona tied it to her back and cracked her neck. "Ack, it's almost midday. Sorry Newbie-Kun but I gotta go. Are you gonna delve today?"
"No," I had no desire to tempt fate by entering the dungeon again so soon. "I need to resupply and fix a lot of my equipment, only my sword is ready for use."
"Good, even heroes need a break. See ya!"
Tiona didn't wait for me, jumping down from the wall to fall on top of a house. It seems she wasn't losing any time because she dashed away as if weightless. With a groan —I had stopped moving for too long and my muscles had gotten cold— I swung my bag over my back and adjusted the sword on my waist, taking the long way down the wall.
Later that night, I downed a full mug of beer on the Hibachitei, the bar was filled with adventurers laughing and partying, with Scott, Guile, and Mord leading a half-drunk chant around the window.
Consuming alcohol as an adventurer was strange. Even as a level one, my stomach simply wasn't big enough for me to drink enough normal beer to fully overcome my endurance. As a result, Adventurers had to either consume VERY expensive special brews or simply be happy with a light buzz.
For me it was great. I both didn't like and wouldn't dare to get truly drunk, but drinking enough to keep a light buzz was cheap and left me with only a small disadvantage that would pass after a minute or two without the drink.
It was still a risk with people after me, but only a very small one.
"To being alive!" Mord yelled, dropping on the seat beside me and almost spilling his mug.
"To being alive!" I said, sharing the feeling. "Damn monster train."
"I have to say, you have one shitty luck," Scott sat down. "Who'd have thought you'd be caught on such a large fuck up like this?"
In hindsight, I was basically an isekai protagonist, I really should have expected something like this to happen.
"So, any more cores for us from that little tussle?" Mord cracked his neck.
"Sorry, I got the other survivor to sell them," I said, not sorry at all. 15% for selling my cores was fair but that didn't mean I was gonna just give it to them when I didn't need to. "Got my share today."
"Smart," Guile nodded, still shirtless despite the cold of the night. "At least if you had a way of guaranteeing they would pay you back?"
"Tiona offered to guarantee it."
"Well, that would do it, nothing like waving a first-class adventurer about to make people honest," Mord took another swig. "I bet they were really thankful when you trusted them with all the lot."
"So, you're paying then?" Scott joked. "No way you didn't get a huge boost after what you told us."
Again, I hadn't told them anything but the rough outline of things, but a parade pass was a parade pass, lots of monsters, lots of loot and growth if you beat it. Not that anyone would want to if they could escape.
"One round," I offered, "I have to fix all my gear and pay back the witch for a magic item she sold me."
"Didn't know the old bat sold on credit." Scott lifted an eyebrow at me.
"She found the project interesting or something like that," I said, getting a nod in return. "Say, what can you guys tell me about Ishtar?"
"Ah, my friend, finally feeling up for some fun huh," Mord laughed, putting an arm over my shoulders. "Wanting some stress relief?"
"Something like that."
"Well, her girls are expensive, but the service is first class, I tell you," Mord said, getting a thumbs up from Guile and a shake of the head from Scott. "The Berbera are another thing, if you catch one of their attention, expect to be drained dry for a week."
"Talking from experience?" I said.
"Couldn't even delve for the first three days," Mord nodded, a dreamy look on his face. "But oh, it was worth it! So worth it."
"Wouldn't shut up about it for the week too," Scott mocked.
"Ha, You're just jealous she didn't choose you!" Mord said.
To that, Scott had no answer.
"What about the goddess herself, she ever sees anyone?"
"You dream big don't you?" Mord just looked at him with respect.
"She does," Guile answered. "Seen it happen once."
"Really?" I asked, leaning forward.
"Yep," It was Scott who continued. "But she's not exactly hurting for choice you know? She usually accepts a first or second-rank Adventurer… when she's not with one of the other gods. Ishtar doesn't have a problem with prostitution, but that doesn't mean she'd spare someone like us the time of day."
"Well, if you start to make a name for yourself, she may want to have a try," Mord said, asking for another mug. "Until then, want to visit the pleasure district tomorrow?"
"I thought you weren't going there for a while?" I asked. "What with your debt and all?"
"I can only work so much, you know?" Mord said, his voice absolutely serious. "Gotta relax sometimes too if I want to stay productive."
Around the table, both Scott and Guile nodded, their faces very serious as they agreed with their leader. Right, paying for sex was essential for keeping productivity… right.
Well, I had no desire to pay for sex, mostly because I wanted it to mean something… but to each their own I guess. Still, it was as good an excuse as any to get closer to Ishtar.
I had to test illusions with Loki before trying anything, but it would look less suspicious if I "joined" Ishtar familia after visiting their bordels a few times instead of just… out of the blue.
"Sure," I said. "I do have an unexpected couple of thousand valis burning a hole in my pouch."
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust) Comics, WanderingDaemon, GrumpyJustGrumpy, Travis cox, camarada fugu, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, Michael Neal, Felrook, NotableRonin, AjiTae, khepri, Louis Kasser, JVR, Joseph, Vegetables, Nisiris, Flashycow, Ryuda, Commander Miggs, Kaleb, Awais, Ty Tuttle, LordChoto, Allison Jolley, Phillip Webster, Glitched Knights, Robolo42, Zistrum, IrishxButter, Journeyman_Mike, Jason Langford, W01F, janember, AlthePal, Elia , Matthew D, rome33, Jesper Samso Birch, Austin, Pedro Belonia, Danny York, Joe Foreman, Duke, Kraxus, Invernos and Kristoffer for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
I was having trouble with some of my other fics and decided to finish this chapter since a reader posted some comments a few days ago, but I'm not coming back to regular updates.
The truth is, Supergirl and Will of The Force have far more readers and Patreon subscribers so, while I really like writing this, I usually write for one of those two when I'm not trying to make something original.
I do like writing all of my fanfics but, when my time is limited I have to choose on which to focus and, to be perfectly honest, money talks.
By the way, if you like this one, do try out Will of The Force, I think it's my best fanfic right now and a LOT of people seem to think it's REALLY great.
So, yeah, probably taking another month or three for chapter 20 unless someone pays me to do it. Sorry, it's just the truth.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hurry up, newbie-kun," Tiona said, grabbing my arm and almost carrying me out of the building. "Mou, you already missed a day, I won't let you get complacent!"
Doing my best to ignore my still aching muscles, I followed after the Amazoness as she led me towards the city's wall. Out of nowhere, she dragged me to the side, taking a narrow side street instead of the usual path.
The pain from my last trip into the dungeon was almost gone, Loki's potion having worked wonders, to the point that a good stretch would have me moving normally, but the girl seemed intent on not giving me time.
Reaching the end of the street, Tiona put a hand on my chest to stop me and poked her head through the side of the building, looking around with narrowed eyes before starting to walk again.
Looking around, I did my best to search for any watchers, but I didn't even feel the usual gaze on me. As far as I knew, the people keeping tabs on me were gone. Still, she was a first-rank adventurer, I wouldn't think my senses were better than her's even with the Sharingan.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nada, everything's fine, why?" she hurriedly said but didn't slow down or stop acting like we were being followed.
"Because you're acting like we're gonna be attacked at any time," I said, my hand gripping the sword at my waist.
"What? Nope, I just don't want a certain nuisance following us," she pouted, releasing my arm and avoiding my eyes. "If you're gonna keep getting into fights like that, I have to increase your training, no need for annoying distractions. Hurry up, I want to see how much you've grown!"
Shaking my head in amusement, I continued to follow her as she tried to sneak her way toward the wall. Tiona had no talent for being a rogue so we attracted far more attention than if we walked normally, getting quite a few amused looks thrown our way.
"Here, Newbie-kun," she said when we finally arrived, extending a large purse toward me. "I talked with Aisha, this is half the loot from your last delve."
"I thought it would take more time…" I wondered. Grabbing the heavy bag, I stored the money in my backpack without counting. "Wait, were you just trying to avoid Lena?"
"Humph, she already went on one heroic adventure with you, no need to intrude on our sparing as well."
"Are you… jealous?"
"Mou, no fair! I want to go on an adventure as well!" the Amazon almost shouted, her arms lifted in the air. "The last delve was fun, but we only managed to push two floors and nothing unexpected happened, no new and unknown monsters, no dastardly plots."
That… wasn't exactly what I had asked, but I didn't think she was lying either. Well, I hadn't been dungeon delving for long, but I could definitely see how it could become routine.
Starting to stretch, I thought about what I'd do in the same situation. My own delves had been fairly eventful but, even at my level, I could probably earn a comfortable amount of money without facing much danger if I didn't push myself, taking my time to grow stronger.
I didn't NEED to be like Bell, most adventurers weren't after all, taking years for each level and being content as a level 2 or 3.
I hate to admit it, but I had never felt more alive, or more accomplished, than after I survived the last attack and left the dungeon. It had been terrifying and stressful, yes, but the adrenaline…
Yeah, I could definitely see things becoming boring if nothing unexpected was happening for a long time after that.
"Alright, Ready?"
"Tiona, why are your eyes shining?" I asked, taking a step back as I saw my teacher lifting her two-handed sword over her shoulders. "Also, why does it seem you're going to use Urga?"
"I told you, didn't I? I want to see how much you've grown!" twirling the weapon over her head as if it didn't weigh anything, she got into a fighting position. "There's no use running away Newbie-kun! Show me what you've got!"
Throwing my eyepatch down, I barely had any time as the woman charged me, a heavy downward blow aimed at my shoulder. Unsheathing my sword, I sidestepped, hitting the side of her blade and parrying it away, then it was on.
Ten minutes. Ten minutes of uninterrupted sparring was what it took to satisfy the Amazoness. Back in my world, I always thought fights lasted longer, but Ten. Freaking. Minutes. Of full power sparring against a first-class adventurer felt like an eternity even with my improved Falna.
Tiona hadn't let me breathe, every time I took a step back she was right there, in my face, trying to kick me out or, worse, weaving that huge piece of metal faster than I could move my small sword.
Still, I didn't have a single broken bone and had lasted until she stopped, a smile on her face as she dropped Urga point first into the ground and, even with its dulled edge, the sheer weight of the blade drove it twenty centimeters into the wall.
Collapsing back, sweat dripping all over my forehead, I let my back hit the floor, the sword clattering to my side. "Was that strictly necessary?"
"Yep, I wanted to see how much you've grown," she nodded, a huge smile on her face as she sat down beside me, her legs crossed. Extending a hand, she happily tussled my already messy hair. "Good job, Loki was right, you really learn fast, just like a hero. I don't even think Ais learned faster."
"Where… huff… where is your gremlin of a god anyway?"
"Dunno, she wanted to come, but Riveria dragged her away for a meeting."
I wondered what that was about, did something else happen or was she dealing with those people I faced in the dungeon already?
Slowly, I pushed my body back up. My shirt was plastered to my chest and I was still out of breath, but my body seemed to be recovering much faster than before, two hundred points in endurance had made a huge difference.
"Ready for round two?" Tiona asked, a glint in her eye.
"Ugh!" I complained, but already got to my feet, the sword in my hand. Looking at Tiona's amused smile, I couldn't help teasing. "This is because Lena has bigger breasts isn't it?"
"Gah! Leave the boobs out of it!"
In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have teased the vastly stronger adventurer just before sparring with her. Live and learn.
An hour and a half later, I drank the expensive healing potion, feeling the effects spreading through my battered body. Still, it was the first one I had consumed and, again, I hadn't broken anything. Its effects were immediate, leaving me tired but healthy.
Tiona was standing on top of the wall, balancing on the edge as she waited for me to recover and push myself up, Urga leaning safely on my side of the battlements. Turning around, I put my arms over the defenses and took a deep breath.
Damn, being able to move this fast, trade blows with someone at that level, it was so cool.
Poking my shoulder with a toe, Tiona crouched down and sat, legs hanging freely over the edge. "So, tell me about the fight, how was it?"
I thought about it but didn't speak. I had a better idea. "Come here," I said and pulled her back.
Tiona let me lower her down on top of the wall walk, sitting opposite me on the floor. "Alright, can you not resist? I want to see if I can show you something."
"Sure!"
Closing my eyes, I concentrated a little and opened them again, staring straight at Tiona's eyes and sending a visual illusion. Unfortunately, even with her permission, it didn't stick.
Tiona simply tilted her head sideways, her eyes wide as they continued to look at me in puzzlement. "What was that?"
"My skill, did you resist?"
"Not really?" she shrugged, then shook her body and relaxed her muscles even more. "Come on, try again!"
Sending my mind to the ring on my finger, I filled it to the brim with power before drawing the empowered mana and trying again, if it didn't work I'd just talk normally. No need to waste the mangekyou on this.
Either because it was enough or, much more likely, because Tiona had unconsciously broken my skill before and had fully opened herself this time. I felt the illusion take hold.
I had spent a night composing this one, it was the biggest illusion I had made but, since I had seen everything with the Sharingan, it was so integrated into my brain as to make things… far more convenient.
I remembered every monster. Damn, I remembered every stray hair ON the monsters as if it happened only a few seconds ago. Turning that vision into an illusion had been pretty easy, most of the time had actually been spent trying to include sound and feel to what I remembered happening.
It helped that I had already been trying for something like this, trying to replicate Lord of The Rings with my illusions was MUCH harder since I hadn't watched the movie with the sharingan.
I felt the drain on my mind attribute, more than half of my power was gone in an instant. Still, in front of me, Tiona's eyes went distant as she watched things from my perspective.
I didn't put everything in it, I didn't want to stay here for an hour, but I included all the important bits.
"What is this?" Tiona asked, her eyes still not focusing on me.
Eventually, I wanted to be good enough to watch the illusion with her or have a true conversation but, for now, I couldn't manage that. Still, I hadn't blocked her senses and could answer here. Hopefully, the illusion wouldn't break if she didn't try to break out of it.
"Don't try to resist," I warned, watching as her body remained relaxed. "If you do, even a little bit, I'm pretty sure you're gonna break the skill and I'm not strong enough to use it again anytime soon. I thought you'd like to watch the fight, not just hear about it."
She didn't resist, trusting me enough to simply let the illusion run its course. Like with Yoshi, I had accelerated the time inside the skill, but it still took 15 minutes for her to watch everything.
Well, not everything, I hadn't included some of the worst parts… or my use of Susanoo, but almost everything, including the majority of the fighting.
"Newbie-kun! What WAS that!" she finally snapped out of my illusion, jumping to her feet with wide eyes.
"My fight, at least what I remember of it."
"SO COOL!" She yelled. "Is that what your red eyes do? I thought they just let you see better."
"I didn't think you'd be this excited, it's not like I was fighting level 5 monsters," I said, a little embarrassed by the praise.
"No way, I don't think I was that good as a level 1!!" grabbing for her weapon, she copied some of my moves when fighting in the dungeon, only much more skillfully, clearly excited by what she had seen. "That knee to the face! So cool!"
I couldn't help smiling at her, yeah, that knee had been epic. I still felt a little uncomfortable at having killed the man —No, a LOT uncomfortable— but that flying knee with all my speed had felt… very satisfying to use.
Revealing some of my eye's abilities hadn't been an easy decision, but I trusted Tiona, and she should have already guessed many of them after our spars.
Also, Lena already knew about even more of them anyway.
Better yet, having a willing partner that could give me feedback would help improve my skill, there was only so much I could achieve without an intelligent test subject.
In truth, I was hoping to tempt Loki into asking for it. Trying to trick the God of trickery wasn't exactly smart, so I wasn't gonna do anything underhanded TO her, but I wanted to test if illusions worked on gods and this was a good way of doing it without repercussions.
If I couldn't snare her in an illusion at all or, like Tiona, she had to lower her defenses to accept it, there would be zero chance of using kotoamatsukami against any god.
But if I could snare her easily unless she actively resisted…
Yeah, Loki would probably see through me, knowing I had ulterior motives for using her, but I doubt she'd refuse anyways and she also shouldn't know about kotoamatsukami. Heck, even if she could guess I was plotting something or what that was, I think she was willing to let me do it for amusement.
It was the difference between trying to play a prank on her and pranking someone with her help. No matter if she was really the good guy she portrayed here in Orario or the asshole from mythology, she should be able to help out with tricking someone else.
"Tsk, you've been holding back on me Newbie-kun!" she pinched my waist. "Why didn't you use this in our spares?"
"As I said, it's not exactly something I can use freely. Besides, you're too strong, my skill is weaker against those higher level than me. The only reason it worked on you was because you let it."
"Very well, I forgive you."
I snorted, letting her pull me to my feet. "Also, I wanted to be able to do something like this first," I confessed. "Remember how I promised to tell you some of my stories? I wanted to be able to show them to you too."
"That's it! You're now my favorite student!"
"I'm your only student."
"Yes, but as a new heroic teacher, I'm obviously gonna have more than one apprentice, like the god Quiron," she said, nodding. "You're gonna be my favorite then."
I just shook my head, grabbing the pouch of water, I threw it over my head, getting rid of most of the sweat still clinging to my skin. I had to take a bath after this, but I already felt refreshed… even if the sparring had left me exhausted again.
"By the way, do you know if I can take a tamed monster out of the Dungeon?"
"Huh? Well, none of us use tamed monsters… hmmm, I think the guild only lets you bring them out during the monsterphilia."
"Do you know anyone who would know?"
"Well, Ganesha familia do have a lot of tammers," she said, then puffed her chest. "I can ask around if you want?"
"Thanks, I don't want to lose my lizard if someone finds and tries to kill him."
Grabbing Urga from the wall, Tiona tied it to her back and cracked her neck. "Ack, it's almost midday. Sorry Newbie-Kun but I gotta go. Are you gonna delve today?"
"No," I had no desire to tempt fate by entering the dungeon again so soon. "I need to resupply and fix a lot of my equipment, only my sword is ready for use."
"Good, even heroes need a break. See ya!"
Tiona didn't wait for me, jumping down from the wall to fall on top of a house. It seems she wasn't losing any time because she dashed away as if weightless. With a groan —I had stopped moving for too long and my muscles had gotten cold— I swung my bag over my back and adjusted the sword on my waist, taking the long way down the wall.
Later that night, I downed a full mug of beer on the Hibachitei, the bar was filled with adventurers laughing and partying, with Scott, Guile, and Mord leading a half-drunk chant around the window.
Consuming alcohol as an adventurer was strange. Even as a level one, my stomach simply wasn't big enough for me to drink enough normal beer to fully overcome my endurance. As a result, Adventurers had to either consume VERY expensive special brews or simply be happy with a light buzz.
For me it was great. I both didn't like and wouldn't dare to get truly drunk, but drinking enough to keep a light buzz was cheap and left me with only a small disadvantage that would pass after a minute or two without the drink.
It was still a risk with people after me, but only a very small one.
"To being alive!" Mord yelled, dropping on the seat beside me and almost spilling his mug.
"To being alive!" I said, sharing the feeling. "Damn monster train."
"I have to say, you have one shitty luck," Scott sat down. "Who'd have thought you'd be caught on such a large fuck up like this?"
In hindsight, I was basically an isekai protagonist, I really should have expected something like this to happen.
"So, any more cores for us from that little tussle?" Mord cracked his neck.
"Sorry, I got the other survivor to sell them," I said, not sorry at all. 15% for selling my cores was fair but that didn't mean I was gonna just give it to them when I didn't need to. "Got my share today."
"Smart," Guile nodded, still shirtless despite the cold of the night. "At least if you had a way of guaranteeing they would pay you back?"
"Tiona offered to guarantee it."
"Well, that would do it, nothing like waving a first-class adventurer about to make people honest," Mord took another swig. "I bet they were really thankful when you trusted them with all the lot."
"So, you're paying then?" Scott joked. "No way you didn't get a huge boost after what you told us."
Again, I hadn't told them anything but the rough outline of things, but a parade pass was a parade pass, lots of monsters, lots of loot and growth if you beat it. Not that anyone would want to if they could escape.
"One round," I offered, "I have to fix all my gear and pay back the witch for a magic item she sold me."
"Didn't know the old bat sold on credit." Scott lifted an eyebrow at me.
"She found the project interesting or something like that," I said, getting a nod in return. "Say, what can you guys tell me about Ishtar?"
"Ah, my friend, finally feeling up for some fun huh," Mord laughed, putting an arm over my shoulders. "Wanting some stress relief?"
"Something like that."
"Well, her girls are expensive, but the service is first class, I tell you," Mord said, getting a thumbs up from Guile and a shake of the head from Scott. "The Berbera are another thing, if you catch one of their attention, expect to be drained dry for a week."
"Talking from experience?" I said.
"Couldn't even delve for the first three days," Mord nodded, a dreamy look on his face. "But oh, it was worth it! So worth it."
"Wouldn't shut up about it for the week too," Scott mocked.
"Ha, You're just jealous she didn't choose you!" Mord said.
To that, Scott had no answer.
"What about the goddess herself, she ever sees anyone?"
"You dream big don't you?" Mord just looked at him with respect.
"She does," Guile answered. "Seen it happen once."
"Really?" I asked, leaning forward.
"Yep," It was Scott who continued. "But she's not exactly hurting for choice you know? She usually accepts a first or second-rank Adventurer… when she's not with one of the other gods. Ishtar doesn't have a problem with prostitution, but that doesn't mean she'd spare someone like us the time of day."
"Well, if you start to make a name for yourself, she may want to have a try," Mord said, asking for another mug. "Until then, want to visit the pleasure district tomorrow?"
"I thought you weren't going there for a while?" I asked. "What with your debt and all?"
"I can only work so much, you know?" Mord said, his voice absolutely serious. "Gotta relax sometimes too if I want to stay productive."
Around the table, both Scott and Guile nodded, their faces very serious as they agreed with their leader. Right, paying for sex was essential for keeping productivity… right.
Well, I had no desire to pay for sex, mostly because I wanted it to mean something… but to each their own I guess. Still, it was as good an excuse as any to get closer to Ishtar.
I had to test illusions with Loki before trying anything, but it would look less suspicious if I "joined" Ishtar familia after visiting their bordels a few times instead of just… out of the blue.
"Sure," I said. "I do have an unexpected couple of thousand valis burning a hole in my pouch."
__________________________________________________
Thanks for my patrons : Iori Daemona Angel, AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust) Comics, WanderingDaemon, GrumpyJustGrumpy, Travis cox, camarada fugu, Rootbeerguy, High Priest of Torga, Michael Neal, Felrook, NotableRonin, AjiTae, khepri, Louis Kasser, JVR, Joseph, Vegetables, Nisiris, Flashycow, Ryuda, Commander Miggs, Kaleb, Awais, Ty Tuttle, LordChoto, Allison Jolley, Phillip Webster, Glitched Knights, Robolo42, Zistrum, IrishxButter, Journeyman_Mike, Jason Langford, W01F, janember, AlthePal, Elia , Matthew D, rome33, Jesper Samso Birch, Austin, Pedro Belonia, Danny York, Joe Foreman, Duke, Kraxus, Invernos and Kristoffer for supporting my work!
You can find my stories: Reincarnated into an H word and Reincarnated as Supergirl for free on: Patreon or you can help me out in Ko-Fi too
Thanks for the update. Personally I'm not big plan of trying to brainwash a God, way too risky for me lol. Other than that things seem to be going well for our MC. And hey, how much do you charge for a paid chapter?
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
I think the only reason I find your Worm and DC fic more exciting is that this one is being slowly forgotten, which is a shame.
Well, they're a bit more interesting anyway, coz their canon is simply more interesting than half assed anime.
I was surprised you didn't get more Danmachi horni scrubs on QQ, they're somewhat annoying on A Nascent Kaleidoscope Discord with their repeated requests for Danmachi fics.
Well, they're a bit more interesting anyway, coz their canon is simply more interesting than half assed anime.
I was surprised you didn't get more Danmachi horni scrubs on QQ, they're somewhat annoying on A Nascent Kaleidoscope Discord with their repeated requests for Danmachi fics.
Last edited:
I charge 20 dollars for a minimum of 2000 words a chapter, (I'll probably write around 3000 words since that's the length I'm most comfortable with and you get 1000 words for free, maybe a little less.)
EDIT: Yeah, I don't think I even wrote 3000k words in all of my fics together, no K at the end of that 3000!
Last edited:
- Location
- Nightopia
Damn, 3 million words for 20 bucks?! That's not even a fire sale at that point!
Good chappie is good, great work! I'm still on the fence regarding Koto-on-the-kami, but I'll just wait and see how that goes.