《Danmachi- Hell’s Forge》


 Reincarnation is a bitch

    Reincarnation is a bitch


    You know how everyone of those reincarnation stories have the main character just show up in a new world just fine and totally not on the verge of death? Yeah I didn''t get that treatment. Instead what I got was one second making a deal with some weird blinding thing(I refuse to consider whatever that was a person) and the next I was screaming because it was like a truck hit me and I didn''t have the good luck to die immediately. The next part got a bit .... fuzzy.-


    Look I''m not making excuses or anything but I legitimately can''t recall exactly what happened as panic set in and I tried to do anything I could to fix myself. All I know was I felt a surge of <em>something</em> rush out of me before I passed out. When I came to next I wasn''t in pain anymore and was in for quite the shock. First thing I noticed was that I was half naked with only a simply pair of rough shorts on. When I say rough I mean it too as it was like bup or something with literal rope holding the waist up.-


    The second thing I noticed however was that on my chest and stomach were ck markings like a tattoo I definitely didn''t have before. It probably would have looked badass if I wasn''t kinda out of shape and had a little bit of a belly on me not fat mind you. It looked kinda like a ring of mes with a weird symbol in the middle of it. At the back of my mind I somehow knew exactly what the markings represented, my cursed technique {Hell''s Forge}. I instinctively knew what the technique did but that didn''t mean I couldn''t be a little irritated that I had no idea how to use it.-


    With a sigh I could only choose to ignore that for now and take a look around to see where the hell I was.


    ''Trees, nts, and rocks as far as I can see. This tells me nothing beyond the fucking obvious, I''m in a forest.'' I thought with a groan.


    "What was it all those survivor shows kept saying about situations like this? I think it was to head west, maybe?" I muttered before checking the suns position.


    To this I just looked at the shadows the trees cast. I watched the shadows for a good hour or so before I felt confident that I had figured out which direction I should go.


    ''Even if the sun sets in the east or north or some other weird shit in this world I at least know I have a direction of some sort.'' I thought with a smile as I ventured forth.


    "Fuck! Shit! Damnit! Ow!" I cursed like a particrly verbal sailor as I walked because as I failed to realize previously walking barefoot through a forest is actually painful as hell. Every few steps on the otherwise soft forest floor led to me stepping on a small sharp rock or hidden stick or my personal favorite, antlers. Did you know deer apparently shed those damn things? Because I very much did not until now and believe me stepping on them barefoot is not a fun experience.-


    I kept them though as I was trying to get my technique to work since some shoes would be fan fucking tastic. My technique {hell''s forge} was quite simple in how it worked and had a lot of potential(kinda why I chose it). The way it worked was that I could take anything that came from a living being and through the technique "forge" it into a different shape by my own imagination. Deer antlers qualified obviously so I wanted to "forge" the ones I had collected via stepping on them into a pair of slip on shoes, crocs.-


    My problem came in the form of me not actually having cursed energy to use the technique. No fucking idea how that happened to be honest with you as an innate technique and cursed energy to use said cursed technique were kinda a package deal but here I was with a technique and no energy. The worse part was that I know for a fact that the energy I did have was NOT the curse variety. Why because none of my anger at the constant pain in my feet was doing anything to it at all of course.-


    The energy just flowed through my body in a nice calm manner regardless of how I tried to get it to do anything at all. Honestly speaking if it wasn''t for the pain in my feet I might even appreciate the view as like most forests it was kinda nice in this one, cool yet warm and full of life. As a result I noticed immediately when shit got quiet all of a sudden.-


    "Gihehe~"


    I heard a sounding from my left and my attention narrowed in on it as a sort of primal fear came to me. The sort of feeling one might get at the zoo when a lion attacks the ss separating you from them. I knew why too the moment the source of the sound jumped into view. A humanoid creature standing about four feet tall with green skin and a scrawny build holding a wooden club, a goblin.-


    The creatures weird yellow eyes that reminded me of a goats locked on to me and my fight or flight instinct kicked in. I immediately got in a boxing stance while holding an antler in my hand like it was a weapon. "THUD-UMP THUD-UMP!" my heart beat was the only sound I heard as it pounded in my ears and I prepared to enter a tango of life and death with the very much hostile monster.-


    "THWACK!"


    An arrow came out of seemingly nowhere and sank into the goblins forehead before I could however. The creature fell on it''s back without any fanfare and twitched a bit before going still. It was so sudden that I couldn''t even flinch before my foe was dead. This didn''t make me rx however as logic told me that whatever or whoever killed the thing might be a far bigger threat.


    "You can rx, if we wanted you dead you wouldn''t even realize it before you hit the ground."


    A female voice spoke from behind me causing me to leap away from the sound by reflex.


    "Rather twitchy this one eh captain?" another female voice asked sounding amused.


    From the shadows around me several woman walked out where I could see them in various types of clothing including metal armor and even some that were wearing almost nothing at all. Those ones I noticed all had dark hair and skin and were eyeing me in a way that made me ufortable. A woman who appeared twentyish like me with reddish brown hair and a green cloth shirt with no sleeves and brown leather pants with a sash and gloves spoke.-


    "I am the captain of the Artemis familia, Rethusa! Why are you here in the forest? And why do youck any clothes beyond those shorts?" she demanded with a serious expression.


    AUTHOR NOTE: I wrote this story as the choice made by my patrons and have a little over twenty chapters of it already on my P atreon.


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    Just remove the spaces

 Artemis familia

    Artemis familia


    "I honestly have no idea, First thing I remember was waking up in that direction about four hours ago and following the sun to try and reach civilization." I said with a shrug while pointing the direction I came from originally.


    "You seem awfully calm for someone lost in the woods." Rethusa said questioningly.


    "No point in panicking as far as I am concerned, not like it would help to do so after all." I said honestly.


    I truly meant it too as I knew that I was in a different world from Earth but nowhere in the history of ever has panicking done anyone any good on more than an idental basis. I watched enough movies to know that panicking typically gets you killed instead and tried to use my head for this situation. Rethusa looked at one of the scantily d dark skinned women and ordered her to follow my tracks to verify my story.


    "As for you my Goddess will decide what should be done with you." the red head said coolly.


    I was confused about something and asked a question that I probably shouldn''t have from the reaction it got.


    "By goddess do you mean figuratively or metaphorically or something like that?" I asked and all the women froze.


    "You don''t know?" one of the women asked in shock, an expression they all shared.


    "Something tells me I asked a stupid question, can someone exin why?" I asked with a bad feeling.


    "A goddess from heaven, like all the gods and goddesses." Rethusa said and I shook my head.


    "Not ringing any bells I''m afraid." I said honestly.


    "What exactly do you know about the world atrge?" Rethusa asked with an expression that said she had a clue what was going on.


    "Hmm, well lets see there''s my name. I know how to speak and write and I know how to count money. That''s about it though, on second thought that''s probably not good is it?" I asked with a frown.


    I had this sneaky suspicion that I was missing some very important information about this world that was making me stand out badly to these women who were from here originally.


    "Amnesia, do you have any wounds on your head?" Rethusa asked seriously.


    I patted my head and sure enough on the back of it there was a lump I didn''t notice until I touched it.


    I nodded and she sighed "You were probably traveling on the road nearby to Orario and got mugged by bandits. One of them probably hit you in the head and messed up your memory." She said and all the other women looked at me in pity.


    "If you say so. Any idea what happens from here?" I asked with a shrug.


    "You are a strange man ..." Rethusa said but paused when she realized I hadn''t introduced myself.


    "Alexander Drake but I prefer Alex. Plus I think I''ll take that as aplement since being normal is overrated." I said with a chuckle and a smirk.


    "If you say so." she sent back with a smirk of her own before continuing "Anyway to answer your previous question about whates next we will wait for our Goddess Artemis to find us before likely escorting you to Orario and then to the guild who should be able to help you further." she said seriously.


    ''Judging from what was said earlier literal gods and goddesses walk thend and I can only hope that this version of Artemis isn''t like the one I am familiar with.'' I thought with a shiver at the myths involved with the Greek goddess and men.


    To exin the old Greek myths about the goddess by that name all but painted her as someone who was not on the best of terms with the male poption. There were some downright disturbing myths involved with her punishing men who peeked at her bathing or something like that. Now I was not a pervert or anything like that but that didn''t I wasn''t nervous at the idea of meeting such a being. Not to mention this was a literal deity we are talking about here which was concerning enough by itself.-


    After about thirty minutes a group of women with one in particr that caught my attention showed up. The one my attention was focused on was beautiful with strangely perfect proportions and long tied up blue hair and green eyes. She had this presence to her that made me feel in awe as well.


    ''That must be the goddess then , strange that other than the weird sensation she gives off she appears no different from a normal human.'' I thought as Rethusa exined the situation.


    The blue haired woman looked at me "Is what my captain true?" she asked seriously.


    "Hmm what? Ah sorry I was lost in my thoughts can you say that again?" I asked an awkward smile.


    "My captain told me of your story, is it true?" The blue haired woman asked again sternly.


    "As far as I know though for reasons that are obvious that isn''t that very far at all , meh it happens." I said with a shrug since I didn''t really care.


    "And you truly didn''t know of the gods walking the world?" the woman asked curiously.


    I shook my head "Nope, real kick in the head that bit , pun very much intended." I said with augh at my own joke.


    "Are you insane?" she asked with a funny expression as she tilted her head to the side slightly.


    I shrugged "Maybe just a little but I won''t tell anyone if you don''t." I said with a grin.


    "Whatever the case my familia will see you to the guild in Orario worry not." she said seriously while ignoring my antics.


    "And there''s that word again "familia". What does that even mean anyways?" I asked curiously.


    As I was led out of the forest I got a rundown of the very abridged world history but could get the gist of the situation. Basically this world had something know as "the dungeon" that spawned monsters that invaded the rest of the world for some reason and the gods created heroes to fight back using their spirit partners before at some point descending from heaven themselves to give their blessings to the mortals here.-


    The ones who got these blessings were know as adventurers and grew through effort, battle and feats in groups under their respective gods called familias. In my currentpany for example each of these woman had Artemis''s blessing and as such were her familia. There were also multiple races in this world as well. As I said though this was a heavily abridged version of the world history and there was more details I would learnter.-


    "Being an adventurer sounds like a fun idea. Might even have been my original n before I wound up in that forest." I said after my brief history lesson was over.


    "Well you certainly aren''t faint of heart considering you tried to fight a goblin with a shed antler of all things." Ariande who was one of the amazons I learned about said with augh.

 Races, Shedding rust and falna

    Races, Shedding rust and falna


    Amazons were a strange race that at first nce appeared human but a key difference was that they ALL had a single defining feature, they were female. Every single amazon was a woman and as a race they made more of themselves by mating with the males of the other races. The scary part however was that despite being human in appearance they were nearly twice as strong physically as any normal human woman with the exact same built. The next race I felt worth mentioning was one that if anything were actually disadvantaged rather than gifted as a whole, the pallums.-


    The only greater than average innate trait that pallums had over humans that were considered the weakest race was that they all posses sharp eyesight and can see in the dark. Unfortunately however the race was also on average four feet tall and had thin wiry bodies that were even weaker than any average humans. Other than that there were the usual fantasy races such as elves, high elves, dwarves and beast folk. Elves of all types were much like all of earths fantasy depictions, typically fair skinned magic wielders with long ears and a dislike of other races.-


    Mind you this was a cultural thing in this case and not an innate one but I think it hardly mattered as racism was racism. Dwarves were also short sturdy folk with an affinity for alcohol and earthen based activities and magics. Beast folk were, and I am not being racist here as I asked, basically humans with animal features like ears and tails and sometimes rare innate traits rted to their animal side. So yeah cat girls were a thing and they also had the whole meow speech tic as well in most cases.-


    There was also a whole list of crossbreed species that tended to have an ufortable amount of human halves involved as well but those were a dime a dozen and typically had traits of both their parent races and as such not really worth talking about. Anyway after leaving the forest I was ple4ased to find out that the road that ran between the dungeon city of Orario and the outside world next to the forest was cobble stone and thus much easier on my feet. We were apparently a good weeks walk away from the city and had nothing between here and there beyond the great ins that I learned was to the north of the city.-


    At the end of the first day I decided to see about shedding my gut before we reached Orario. Like I had stated previous I wasn''t fat or anything like that but I did have a slightly protruding belly. My smart Idea was that since I had about a week of travel ahead of myself with the Artemis familia who obviously had their shit together I should ask if they can help me get in better shape before we got to the dungeon city, they agreed and my torment began.


    They are fucking demons I swear to whatever is higher than a god. I had to run until I copsed and if I slowed down at all they would hit me with arrows that had the pointy bit removed and then padded. AFTER I copsed from running it was hydration and then push ups, so fucking many push ups. FINALLY my day ended with crunches and sit ups until I literally couldn''t move any more. A single sip of potionter and all that bodily destruction was fixed into working order for the next round of torture.-


    It was a hellish training regiment and I would have reeked to high heavens if it hadn''t rained and washed off the stench on me the day before we saw the city on the horizon. Despite this however the absolutely brutal amount of exercise and protein rich meals from meat they had previously hunted had gotten rid of my protruding gut entirely, now I was just thin and weak. A week wasn''t enough to make a qualitative improvement in my fitness but it did "shake off the rust" as Rethusa put it.-


    Speaking of potions I definitely asked about that and learned some really interesting stuff about both the alchemy and oddly smith professions involved at an adventurer level. Alchemy was basically medicine making using herbs and other ingredients found in the dungeon or even in the normal parts of the world. The "mortal" stuff was just normal medicines but the adventurer grade shit like what I kept sipping over thisst week had downright miraculous properties when used on a normal person. Overnight overexertion repair, flesh regeneration, disease instafixes and even in the high level adventurer grade stuff limb regeneration.-


    There was a downside however that put a damper on any oundish n I coulde up with was that potions stopped working that well on adventurers as they got stronger and reached higher levels. I don''t mean levels figuratively or metaphorically here either as the blessings of the gods were called "Falna" and operated on a level system suspiciously simr to a video game characters status screen. Artemis was kind enough to show me what a status sheet looked like after removing any information that was private from one she had from thest round of updates she made.-


    Name:


    Race:


    Level:


    Strength:


    Endurance:


    Agility:


    Dexterity:


    Magic:


    Spells:


    Skills:


    Apparently the lowest a stat can be was "I" rank and the highest was sorta unknown but the minimum need to level up was a single stat at "b" rank or 700 as each letter rank came after a hundred points were in the stat all the way until you hit "ss" rank which jumped up to 250 points above "s" which was 901 to 1000. When you leveled up your status reset but it wasn''t like you lost that progress or anything so much as it became your new base or foundation. Each stat point also counted for more at a higher level as at level two each point was worth 1 and a quarter of the same point in level one.-


    It was something abouting closer to divinity ording to Artemis but was she was rather cagey about the details of the topic so that was the best answer I got for why that was. Moving on you had skills and magics which was where things got blurry. See skills were sort of like buffs or in some cases debuffs that manifest out of the power of the falna in addition to the traits of the person whose falna it shows up on. They can also be earned through great effort and seriously dangerous activities like soloing a boss or oveing a crippling phobia, again vague as hell on the details about that topic.-


    Anyways skills could be in like a t bonus in a certain scenario to downright broken such as giving a whole ass magic system or even making thews of reality your bitch to a minor level. I was almost willing to bet my right leg that my cursed technique will get counted as a skill when I get a falna for myself and if not it will be a spell. Speaking of, spells were magic , no no seriously like it''s kinda that simple. Someone could TECHNICALLY only have three spells in total(that emphasized word is very important to remember here) and what they did depended on the spell in question. In most cases spells worked in a three step manner, speak the incantation, pay energy, cast the spell.-


    This was where the emphasis on the word "technically"es in as if there is enough of a resonance between ones spells you can mix them to create new spells that aren''t actually counted as a spell beyond the three you have. The best example of this was the high elf Riveria Ljos Alf who had the moniker "nine hell" for this exact reason as she turned her three spells into nine. Anyway spells are magic as simple as that and are either innate or you earnter via two methods, leveling up or magic grimoire. Theter of which basically just forces a spell to manifest for you to use and has unpredictable results.

 Leveling and dark age

    Leveling and dark age


    (Author note: This is thest info dumpy chapter I promise.)


    To be clear though there is magic beyond the stuff that the falna gives ess to but it is considered extremely inefficient and takes a long time to use for less than ster effects apparently. When I asked how one would go about leveling up the answer I got was a little confusing. So ording to Artemis the falna worked by gathering "excelia" which was sorta like money in that adventurers got it for putting in effort and challenging their limits throughbat or crafting it didn''t matter much which it was apparently.-


    Anyway that excelia was then "spent" on improving the adventurers stats based on this effort when their god updated their falna. So ording to Artemis mortals could only contain so much excelia depending of a bunch of factors she refused to exin beyond ones level and innate talent. So it was sort of like mortals were a cup that you could only add so much water to before it overflowed. This all made sense and I could grasp it easily but the next part didn''t. Unlike a cup however a mortal CAN''T overflow their vessel with normal excelia which was also a condition for leveling up.-


    Artemis was vague about it either on purpose or because she honestly wasn''t but ording to her adventurers need to gather "high excelia" by performing impressive feats ording to the gods in order to overflow their vessels and level up. The problem I was having trouble wrapping my head around was figuring out what scale if any this feat gauge was based on. Like if a god thought you surviving another year was impressive would that work? What about if a god never thought what you did was good enough? What then? Would you just never level up at that point?-


    Like I said it was a confusing answer and even worse apparently nobody had ever actually thought about these sort of questions because when I shared my concerns Artemis didn''t have any way to say they weren''t justified. Not to say she didn''t try because she did but she was just as confused as I was so it didn''t really work. At least she was able to tell me what leveling up actually did besides the standard answer of "make you grow up big and strong". Leveling up expanded and improved an adventurers vessel so it could contain more excelia and in greater purity as well.-


    The way gods understood it was that the higher the level and the more powerful an adventurer got the closer to divinity or "arcaenum" as it was apparently called they got. This made me think that if an adventurer got far enough they could themselves be a god which Artemis agreed made sense if that was truly how the falna worked. One would likely then ask the question "but what about demigods then?" The answer of which was that they didn''t exist. In exchange foring down to the mortal realm gods sacrificed two things while here, their power and the ability to procreate.-


    To be more specific the former was actually sealed and they could get rejected from this world if they released those seals. Theter however was well and truly missing from their mortal forms entirely which is why they tend to refer to those who have falnas as "children". Quite literally the ones who bear the falna of a god are the closest thing to offspring they have here in the mortal world. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase "adoptive family".-


    After a week traveling together I was fairlyfortable around the Artemis familia and I am willing to say they felt simrly.


    "That must be Orario, it''s bigger than I thought if we can see it from here." I said as we crested a hill and far into the horizon stood the colossal structure.


    "That''s the dungeon city for you though. The only ce in the world that you can find everything. See that huge pir in the middle? That''s Babel, supposedly it was made my Ouranos himself when he first descended to Genkai." Ariande said exined as she walked near me.


    "I reckon at our current speed we will arrive in another four hours. This should be plenty of time for us to report to the guild and get you settled." Rethusa said seriously.


    "Much as I like roughing it out in the wild with a bunch of prettydies I could definitely go for a bed right about now, I might even settle for a couch to be honest." I joked and most of the familiaughed and even Artemis herself had a ghost of a smile.


    As we got closer to the city I noticed something quite concerning, cursed energy. A metric fuckton of the stuff radiated from the city like hundreds had been killed in horrific and terrible ways. None of it was recent though as the energy felt stagnant like it had sat there for years already.


    "So it didn''te up until now but is there any topic i should avoid mentioning while in the city? You know like a tragic event or some bad history everyone wants to forget? Got no memories remember so a heads up now would save me the trouble of finding outter." I said fishing for a clue about what I was seeing.


    And oh boy let me tell you I was not prepared for what I learned. It was known as the dark age and was a period of eight years starting from the failure of the Hera and Zeus familias to kill the one eyed ck dragon. That failure resulted in all the high end power of those two familias to be destroyed and allowed the two current hegemons to step into the light after they seized power and exiled both Hera and Zeus from Orario.-


    Freya with her powerful Ottar and the rest of her familia of worshipers and Loki who yed a supporting role but still has the second most powerful familia in Orario. Sadly those positions of power came with a terrible price as with the Zeus and Hera familias who had reigned supreme over thest thousand years gone the darkness they had kept at bay came a knocking, Evilus. Dark or mad god run familias whose only noticeable goal was to sow as much death, destruction and chaos as possible.-


    Seven years ago the final blow was dealt to Evilus ording to Artemis but the wounds they left behind still hurt even now. It was some heavy stuff and exined the cursed energy floating that nketed the city like a fog. Knowing what I did about cursed energy though I did wonder why it hadn''t turned into a cursed spirit but then I realized something interesting, it was inert. The energy wasn''t active like it was in it''s usual world and was in fact totally harmless unless something were to make it active. I won''t lie and say I wasn''t tempted to gather it up and use it but I could tell that as I was right now I had no hope of containing that much energy.

 Orario

    Orario


    The city grewrger andrger the closer we got to it until I began to question whether or not the ce was built by these seemingly medieval people. Reason being the nearly two hundred foot tall SOLID stone wall that surrounds the entire thing and was nearly as wide as a standard twone road back on earth. This city was sorge that when we were standing in line to go through the gate I couldn''t see the end of it by looking to either side like it epassed the entire side of the horizon.


    Apparently the wall wasn''t there to protect the city so much as to keep any monsters that break out of the dungeon from escaping. I mean it made sense but considering the goblin I met briefly a week ago I am pretty sure the wall failed to do it''s job. Anyways the entry procedure for the city was rather straight forward as the guards took one look at the Artemis familia before sending us through since they were regrsing and going from the city. Inside the city was downright fascinating as immediately you were hit with just endless rows of buildings of every sort of architecture imaginable.-


    Most were noticeably made of stone and wood though which Rethusa told me was because it was the easiest to rece in case it got destroyed. The shops, oh the shops! Every variety for as far as you could see, potions, food, clothes, weapons, you name it and there was a shop for it right near the gate hawking their wares.


    "Don''t even think about buying anything from these stores if you value your money." Ariande warned seriously when she saw me looking around excitedly.


    "Why not?" I asked curiously.


    "These ces are newbie traps, Not saying they don''t sell good stuff but it''s all way more expensive than the stuff closer to the dungeon. I''ll show you a couple shops that will do for you until you get to at least level two since they are on the way." she said with a smile.


    "I appreciate it!" I said gratefully.


    "It''s fine. Truth is we all feel kinda responsible for you after getting you here you know what I mean?" she said waving off my thanks.


    I nodded since I could understand the sentiment fairly well. It was a bit like rescuing a baby squirrel from a felled tree until it could take care of itself. An amusing thought now that I had it, me in a squirrel costume that is.


    "You said you wanted to be an adventurer right Alex? Any Idea what sort of weapon you want to use?" She asked after we left the shop conversation behind.


    "Hadn''t really thought about it to be honest. Hey is punching the monsters to death an option?" I asked with a chuckle.


    "Eh not until level two at the earliest and even then you''d need to specialize in strength and endurance." Ariande said after thinking about it for a moment.


    It was a joke on my part so my surprise could be understood when she t out told me that at some point it was totally doable. It basically tipped me off that any weapon was an option as well as your fists were as raw damage as you could get with weapons being force multipliers instead. I fell into thought as a result and allowed Ariande to physically guide me as we walked.


    "I think I know what I want to use." I said suddenly which caught her and the rest of the Artemis familia off guard.


    "Well don''t leave us in suspense whatchae up with?" Ariande asked curiously.


    "I think I want to use a hammer. The sort meant for two hands but that has a short handle so I can use it with one hand." I said with a wide grin.


    "That''s a new one for me to hear about. Can you give better details like dimensions and weight?" Erisa a half-dwarf woman who had the cksmith developmental skill in the familia asked curiously.


    "Do you have a piece of parchment and some coal? If you do I think I can draw it out." I said honestly and even though they didn''t it was an easy fix by stopping into a general goods store for them.


    I took the parchment and coal stick and carefully sketched out Thors hammer from the marvel movies I remembered. On earth it would be impractical to use the thing as a weapon but here adventurers were super human so it was totally doable. The idea alone got me excited and I may have gotten a little over detailed in my sketch of the hammer. Front, side and top views were each drawn out to the best of my memory alongside the length and width of every part.


    When I was done i handed the parchment over to Erisa who looked it over with a critical eye. "Hmm, at first nce this design seems impractical but if you were to turn one side into an axe head like this it should work on any kind of monster." she said after sketching out her modification.


    Surprisingly it was simr to the storm breaker axe Thor used in theter filmsexcept the axe head was square shaped like a giant wedge and the handle was much shorter and of course had the standard Mjolnir hammer head on the other side. I loved it immediately.


    "That''s perfect!" I said with a wide smile as I admired the design.


    "If your first one is made out of steel I think you aught to be able to get it for cheap, Hell I think a few smiths would give it to you for free just because of how unique the weapon is. Bit of a warning though you should also get some gloves or you''ll shred your hands on the handle from the weight in each swing pulling at your skin. After you raise your endurance though it should be alright to go bare." Erisa said helpfully.


    "Thanks for the advice I''ll try and remember it. To be honest though I am surprised none of you are trying to convince me to use a different sort of weapon instead." I said honestly.


    "Nah sometimes a weapon just calls to you and you gotta embrace the call. We could all see the yearning in your eyes just looking at the sketch. That weapon theres got your name on it and that''s a precious thing for an adventurer, shows talent." Ariande said seriously and the rest of the familia nod when i look at all of them including Artemis.


    "Truthfully you''ve got it easy since you know what weapon you want to use before bing an adventurer. Most of us just pick up whatever we can since nothing calls to us. Means weck the passion for the weapon that you have and take it from me that passion goes a long waywhen ites to mastering your weapon." Erisa said seriously and many of the women grimace at the reminder.

 Trip to the guild

    Trip to the guild


    I could tell that most of them had a simr issue at some point in the past from their reaction. It was sort of funny to me to be honest as they could each break me in half like I was made of cotton candy yet they had to suffer in a way I won''t to get there. Not to say I couldn''t rte though as I was quite the weeb on earth and had to my great shame tried to learn how to wield a sword at one point and failed miserably.-


    Anyways we headed to the adventurers guild after that while a few of the familia left to set an order on supplies for their next departure from the city as they never stayed long. True to her word Ariande pointed out a few shops that would work out well for a newbie adventurer as we walked. She also pointed out a few buildings I should avoid since the stuff they sold was quite dangerous but not for the reason you might think.


    "Soma wines are sold there, stuff has an extremely addictive quality to it. I''ve seen people get turned into husks from being unable to resist the urge to get more after trying it." She warned seriously.


    She might as well have not said anything at all as the higher concentration of cursed energy on those buildings alone would have stopped me from checking them out. Cursed energy is literally powered by negative emotions like anger, grief, fear, doubt, greed, envy and so on so anywhere that has a lot of the stuff is probably best left alone. About halfway to the guild though I shivered as I felt a gazend on me that felt different than normal, like all my secrets wereid bare before it.-


    "Is it just me or does anyone else feel like they are being stared at right now?" I asked worriedly and Artemis looked concerned,


    "It may be a god who specialized in souls, try to ignore it." She suggested and Iplied though it was quite hard.


    Getting stared at while feeling naked was highly ufortable and as a result tended to be hard to ignore. Thankfully it seemed to work as the gaze vanished just as fast as it appeared shortly after that.


    "I thought gods couldn''t use their powers here?" I asked confused.


    "We can''t but if a god is powerful enough in a certain field they may be able to use unusual abilities despite being limited to a normal mortal body. In much the same way I myself am stronger whilst under moonlight and my brother Apollo is stronger during the day. Speaking of my brother you would do well to avoid him if you can, he is of peculiar tastes." Artemis exined and added a warning at the end.


    "I will keep this in mind if I evere across him in the future." I said with a nod.


    We stopped briefly at a clothing store where they bought me a pair of boots, pants and a rough cloth shirt. It was a in outfit but much better than what I was walking around in before this as I now actually looked fairly normal. Walking around with next to nothing on was an amazonian trait I didn''t feel like copying for no reason. Shortly after that we made it to dungeon square which was a sort of wide open clearing around the entrance to the dungeon and Babel that had adventurersing and going constantly.


    Deodorant was unfortunately not a thing with adventurers so the whole area smelt of blood and sweat which made it quite the stench. To my earth born nose it was enough to make me grimace in disgust. A fact the Artemis familia noticed and made fun of me for.


    ''Yeah definitely going to find an alchemist to create deodorant and poprize it in the future. Maybe like a powder that keeps the smell of a hard days delve in the dungeon from wafting off into the air?'' I thought seriously as we approached therge building off to the side of the square with a huge sign hanging above the doors that read {Adventurers guild}.


    Surprisingly the guild was very orderly and almost reminded me of a bank in a way as adventurers came in turned over their profits from the dungeon to a teller and then got paid the market rate for them. In a different part there were members of the guild helping adventurers with gear and preparation for going deeper in the dungeon. Over to the side was arge board with parchment nailed to it that had details on requests for adventurers going into the dungeon toplete.


    The Artemis familia walked up to a counter and the teller a mature red head withrge canine ears on the top of her her head smiled at them.


    "Wee back goddess Artemis! I take it you havepleted the requests you tookst time you were here?" she said in a polite and friendly manner.


    "Always miss Rose. This time we came across a bit of an anomaly on the way back while hunting in the forest. He seems to have been waid by bandits on his way to Orario and left in nothing more than a pair of shorts in the forest with a head wound that has robbed him of his memories." Artemis said while motioning to me.


    "Alexander Drake, but I go by Alex a pleasure to meet you." I said with a smile after stepping forward.


    "Rose Fat, the pleasure is mine." she said politely before turning to Artemis again "I imagine you wish for the guild to help him until he can support himself or joins a familia?" she asked seriously.


    Artemis nodded "He has already decided on bing an adventurer so perhaps the easiest route would be to allow him to see a list of familias that are recruiting and set up an appointment with the god in charge of it. For lodging we can put him up at an inn room for at least a week but will be leaving again after that time." the goddess said calmly.


    Rose nodded "Give me a moment to retrieve the list of recruiting familias." she said and walked away while we waited.


    "What sort of familia are you hoping to get into?" Ariande asked me curiously.


    "Hmm, probably one that would let me go into the dungeon by myself. I have a feeling that I won''t y well on a team." I said honestly.


    "Sounds like a small familia might be best then, most gods tend to advocate teams if they can and only a small familia wouldck the personage to do so. I am surprised that you would want to risk solo diving though, it''s not advised for a reason." Rethusa said sternly.


    I shrugged "Nothing for it my gut says it wouldn''t turn out very good and I am inclined to agree, it seems to know what it''s doing so far after all." I said with grin.

 Ambition

    Ambition


    Rethusa rolled her eyes "Of course that would be your answer. If you eventually die from following that gut of yours know that I told you so." she said jokingly.


    I chuckled "Then i just need to make sure I die for some other inane reason, oh what about finding the one eyed ck dragon and taking a leak on it? That sounds like it would make an interesting story don''t you think?" I asked with a cheeky smirk.


    "A good death." Ariande said with a wide smile and a thumbs up.


    A few momentster Rose returned and set down a small ledger that was rather thin all things considered.


    "You are in luck as the list was just updated this morning and as such has the best selection you could ask for and what they are looking for if anything at all." Rose said as she set the ledger down on the counter.


    "May I?" I asked and she nodded to give the go ahead so I picked up the thin book and opened it.


    (Apollo)


    size: medium


    Type: exploration


    wanted: Mage


    (Apophis)


    Size: medium


    type: exploration


    Wanted: Warrior


    .


    .


    .


    (Hestia)


    size: No members


    Type: N/A


    Wanted: No specifications given


    The list was fairly simple in design but it gave most of the information someone applying for a familia might look for. I intentionally ignored all the familia looking for a specific type of adventurer since I wasn''t quite sure what I would end up as after my cursed technique got usable. That sadly limited the list down to only three options. The Hestia familia that was clearly just starting out since it was listed as having no members. The Loki familia that only had talent as a requirement confusingly enough. Like how would most people even know if they were talented or not before receiving their falna?-


    I was a bit of an exception since I knew right away that my cursed technique alone made me considered talented but for everyone else it was an unusual and frankly unreasonable requirement to try and match. The final option was the Miach familia but Artemis directly told me I wasn''t allowed to join that one on ount of the god Miach being a gigolo or something like that. it was hard to tell since she muttered it under her breath while ring at the name.


    "In that case the Hestia familia is the only option that fits for me since the Loki familia is well known for their expeditions and teams." I said setting the book down again.


    "She can be a bit of a handful but Hestia is a good choice." Artemis said with an agreeable nod.


    "If that is your choice I will arrange to have a meeting between you both. Please check in regrly for an update." Rose said calmly while taking the ledger back.


    We left after that and unlike what I had expected the Artemis familia didn''t actually have a house that they operated out of but rather just booked an entire small inn to themselves when they were in town. Suspiciously though the inn in question was called {The moon and bow} and had no other customers at all. The reason for that was apparently the owner who was a beastkin woman named Irene used to be a member of the Artemis familia but left to pursue romance as it was forbidden to do so while in the familia.-


    She and her husband had bought a broken down building at the outer edges of the city that was basically abandoned and thus cheap and ran it as an inn for newbie adventurers and when they were in town the woman''s old familia. It was rather funny to see how the familia and the woman got along as many of those in the familia were clearly jealous of Irene for getting hitched. Just because romance was forbidden while in the familia didn''t mean those in it didn''t wish for it, only that that longing was out weighed by their desire to remain.-


    It was also why I got ufortable originally when the amazons of the familia first met me. The gazes they had were those of someone judging if I was a worthy candidate to be their mate, I failed in case it wasn''t obvious. Amazons as a race had a "type" that they wanted as a husband, strong. That was it, that single word was their only real requirement in most cases. I am not ashamed to admit that I am definitely not strong at all, hell I never NEEDED to be until I died and came to this world.-


    Earth was a ce where physical fitness was basically pointless if you weren''t an athlete of some sort or enjoyed exercising. You simply didn''t need above average strength unless you fell into those categories. Why would I go out of my way to workout and eat healthy when all it aplished was determine whether or not I lived a slightly longer miserable existence? So I simply lived my life day by day as I saw no point in caring beyond that.-


    Here though? Godhood was an actual possibility, one that a bonafide goddess had confirmed was possible but unlikely. Regardless of how unlikely it was I wanted to chase that possibility with everything I had. Suffering was inconsequential in front of such a lofty goal and I knew it. But like any earthling will tell you that was a long term goal but in the short term I needed to set more reasonable goals. My current goal is to work on my fitness and join a familia to get a falna.-


    After that I will spend however long and however much effort it takes to hone my skills and power to perfection. The best part is that I am actually fairly certain that if I expand my cursed technique enough I can also earn a fortune by creating weapons and armor unlike anything this world has ever seen before. I knew this because I had taken a look at the weapons and armor of the Artemis familia and got a rather curious piece of information from my techniques instinctual understanding, they were made of parts taken from a living thing.-


    "Drops" they are called, pieces of a monster that remain even after the rest of the body turns to smoke from the magic stone being damaged or removed. Smiths in this world could apparently turn these drops if they were the correct sort into weapons or armors. These equipment were also much more resilient and powerful than normal metal weapons usually. In fact almost any gear for an adventurer beyond a certain level of power required these drops to be made.-


    My cursed technique as a result made me uniquely suited for the smith profession but that would be a cop out on my part. While there was no shame in sitting in a forge all day and crafting things like literally every other smith in this world that was not a path to godhood. Far too many had traveled it for that to be true, no I needed to go beyond the normal and into the realm of the extraordinary to even have a sliver of a chance at reaching my goal.

 New familia

    New familia


    It was frankly kind of sad how little variation there was in adventurers in this world from my understanding. Most walked a path that was nearly identical to that of someone who came before them. Train, delve, rx, level up, repeat, it was this same monotonous pattern over an over again for the vast majority of adventurers who weren''t crafters. The problem was that it simply stopped working at a certain point and you needed something to keep the adrenalineing. I had used my time with the Artemis familia to understand that following someone elses path simply didn''t go anywhere.-


    No one else seemed to understand this however if what I understood from the girls of the familia was anything to go by. Despite nearly two decades having gone by since the fall of the Hera and Zeus familias the highest any adventurer had gotten was level seven. Inparison the Zeus and Hera familias even had level eight and nines in them while level sevens weren''t umon apparently. It wasn''t a matter of age either as those same level nine and eights had been only forty or so from what I gathered by asking around.-


    They had also apparently held these levels for a few years as well so I would guess they were at most thirty five or so when they reached them. Inparison Ottar had been level seven for seven years now and was thirty two. The information I got on him was mixed though as some thought he was purposefully preventing himself from leveling up to eight for some reason while others thought that was his limit. If the former was true then I truly wished to know what it was he was waiting for. If theter was true however I had a hard time not considering him rather pitiable.-


    Anyways I spent the night at the inn and slept like a brick the moment I touched the bed after cleaning myself with a bucket of hot water, bar of soap and a clean rag. Showers were apparently only for those with a lot of money since the ones in this world ran off of magic stones. Apparently fucking everything ran off magic stones collected from the dungeon. It was nice to know that I could make a living by delving at least. Perhaps not a great one until I got stronger but enough to survive at least.-


    "Want to go check in with the guild to see if they have gotten ahold of your soon to be goddess?" Ariande asked over breakfast of oats with fruit.


    I nodded "I''ll probably make a habit of that until you guys head out again and spend the rest of my day trying to learn as much as I can about the dungeon to prepare." I said honestly.


    "A solid n, if you are in luck you shouldn''t have to wait very long to meet your new goddess and get a falna." Rethusa said approving of my n.


    After eating Ariande and I headed out to go check the guild for an update while the rest of the familia scattered to make the most of their time in Orario. If I had to guess the time based on the sun I''d say it couldn''t be more than two hours since sunrise. That was a sleeping schedule that I had needed to get used to with the Artemis familia over thest week and day, waking up when the sun came up and going to sleep when it fell.-


    That was a rough transition let me tell you and not one that the familia took any pity on me with. It was wake up, eat, exercise until I dropped, sip potion, dinner, repeat all starting from the first rays of the sun touching this part of the world. The funny part was that I was always so exhausted by the end of the day that trouble getting to sleep because it was early by earths standards wasn''t even an issue. Anyways I had adapted within five days of that schedule and now I doubted I even could sleep in longer than maybe an hour or two past dawn now.-


    Orario was much more lively at this time than when we arrived yesterday as adventurers headed to where ever it was they needed to go which was probably the dungeon. Food vendors were trying to tempt people into buying their foods while stores had people hawking their wares. All in all it was just as you might imagine a bustling city to be during the day. The guild was surprisingly empty at this time though but I suppose that made sense as most adventurers were heading to or were in the dungeon at this point in the day.-


    When we walked in I immediately noticed a goddess was present just from the sheer otherworldliness that all deities seemed to have. She was fairly short to be honest at about four foot seven and had a disproportionallyrge bust that didn''t fit her petite body at all. She had long ck hair that was tied up into twin tails with white ribbons and a wless paleplexion.


    "You are in luck goddess Hestia the one interested in joining your familia has just walked in." Rose who was dealing with the goddess said calmly.


    "What? Where?" the goddess asked eagerly as she turned to look around and I raised a hand "Yo." I said with a smile.


    She smiled widely and rushed over but almost tripped in her excitement so I had to catch her.


    "Easy there! I''m not going to vanish I promise." I said with a chuckle as I hoisted her to her feet.


    "How embarrassing, I got a little ahead of myself there. My name is Hestia!" the small goddess introduced her self eagerly holding her hand out.


    "Alexander Drake, Looking forward to working with you!" I said shaking her hand with a smile.


    That was pretty much how I ended up with my goddess from that point onwards. The guild registered me as being in the Hestia familia and assigned Rose as my adviser though she was very unhappy with it. Ariande congratted me on joining a familia and lead me and Hestia back to the inn where Hestia and Artemis hit it off immediately as old friends from heaven. There was a bit of a celebration that the familia hosted in mine and Hestia''s honor since we were both broke as hell.


    At the end of which they revealed that as a gift they had gotten me my weapon based on my designs and a pair of leather gloves in secret to surprise me. Honestly they were great friends to have and I thanked them a whole bunch with a huge smile for the rest of the party until it was time to head to my new home that Hestia had. Apparently I underestimated exactly how bad the financial situation was as the "home" in question was an abandoned and in heavy disrepair church at the base of the wall also known as the "forgotten area".

 Status and experimenting

    Status and experimenting


    "If I take some of the decent wood from the nearby abandoned buildings I should be able to at least fix most of the damaged parts." I said as I looked over the walls of the church after arriving.


    "You know how to build houses?" Hestia asked surprised and strangely excited.


    "Not really but this isn''t building a ce from the ground up but merely recing damaged parts. Since the boards are bare I can just rece each of the damaged ones by pulling out some nails and putting a better board back in it''s ce with those same nails if they aren''t rusted through." I exined honestly.


    "That does seem doable now that you mention it,maybe we should wait until we can afford to get professionals to do it though?" She said clearly reluctant to do any renovation without the assurance of it turning out okay.


    I shrugged "Your call, I''d be fine either way since it looks good enough to stop the rain and cold from getting us in our sleep." I said honestly.


    "Righto, now hurry up and get undressed so I can give you my blessing." She said cheerfully.


    "You could have worded that better but at least I know what you mean." I teased and she looked confused for a moment before turning red when she figured out what was wrong with what she said.


    "Mo~ Just take your shirt off andy down already!" She ordered embarrassed as we walked into the church''s basement that had a couch and a bed and that was about it really besides the bathroom.


    "If you say so." I said as I took my shirt off as ordered and I noticed the curious look she threw the tattoo like marking on the front of my torso.


    "I had it when I woke up in the woods with no memories about a week ago so not much I can really exin about it since I myself have very little to go off of." I exined honestly as Iid down on the couch.


    "The guild employee told me about that, it sounds horrible." She said sympathetically as she sat on my back.


    I would have shrugged if I could have "It''s not that bad really, then again the Artemis familia were quite helpful at answering any questions I had. Surprisingly enough not having any memories is actually rather freeing since without a past I have nothing stopping me from moving forward." I said honestly.


    It was true too as I had no family, friends, responsibilities ,nothing at all that could weigh me down. I could truly be considered as at rock bottom but that simply meant the only way I could go was up. Hestia seemed to appreciate the sentiment if the way she hummed was any indication before I felt a drop of something warm fall on my back. The room lit up as the falna formed and began to take shape on my back.


    At first it was just like an intense heat flowing through my body from my back but as soon as it touched the symbols on my chest and stomach it turned scorching and painful causing me to grit my teeth and clench my fists.


    "Is this normal? Nobody told me it was supposed to be painful!" Hestia said panicking once I started to show pain.


    The painful heat dulled after about ten minutes and all I was left with was a tingling sting like I had a bad sunburn all over my body. Irritating but something I could deal with without much issue.


    "I think it''s over now." I said honestly.


    "Are you okay? you are burning up under me?" she asked worriedly.


    "Really? I feel like I have a sunburn but otherwise totally fine. Maybe it''s a skill of some sort, Artemis said that happens sometimes." I suggested while surprised to learn my body temperature was so high.


    "Did she? I guess she would know more than me about it what with you being my first child and all. Give me a moment to copy your status to a piece of parchment and we can go over it together." she said getting up and rifling around in a bag over in the corner where she eventually pulled out some parchment and set it on my back and did something with her finger.


    "All done!" she said and I got up before putting my shirt back on.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:10(I)


    Endurance:10(I)


    Agility:10(I)


    Dexterity:10(I)


    Magic:10(I)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    "Is this bad? And whats cursed energy or techniques?" Hestia asked confused.


    "It doesn''t look sound bad at all though that part about not being able to use normal magic stings a bit. Also I am pretty sure cursed techniques are just ways to use cursed energy which seems like a recement for mana. Let me give it a try." I said seriously and held up and hand and began to concentrate on it.


    At first nothing happened but as I got more and more frustrated a dim ck and bluish glow started toe from my hand but it vanished the moment I got a rush of excitement.


    "Not really all that impressive is it?" Hestia asked with a awkward look.


    "It seems to rely on my own negative emotions to manifest right now but maybe that''s just because I am not very skilled with it yet?" I said without having any clue if I am right or not.


    It certainly sounded right given what little I actually knew about cursed energy from the anime. Like you could have a lot of cursed energy but not be able to use it very well or at all like Yuji at the start.


    "I see and what about this spell "Hell''s forge" do you think you could use it?" Hestia asked finding what I said reasonable.


    "I need something from a living being but I think so. Do you think wood counts as something from a living being?" I asked with a grin as I had an idea.


    My goddess obvious didn''t see my grin as she thought about the question for a moment before saying "Trees are alive so I think so, why"


    "If I''m right we may not need to wait that long to fix up the church. Help me find a loose piece of wood to try the spell on." I said and she brightened up as she realized what I had thought of.


    It only took a small amount of time to find a piece of rotted wood that had fallen from the walls up top.


    "Here goes something, <em>Hell''s</em> Forge!" I called the incantation and immediately felt a harsh draw on my energy stores as a bright ck and blue me came out of the hand holding the wood and fully covered it.


    I pictured an image in my head and willed the spell to work and slowly but surely the wood began to transform until I was forced to stop barely halfway through as I felt my energy get dangerously low. The mes vanished and I felt drained but couldn''t help by grin widely as the rotted wood was now nearly pristine and pointed like a stake at one end. "It works!" I said excitedly.

 Grinding

    Grinding


    The wood was still horribly rough and definitely not anything like the image I had in my head but it still proved that my idea was feasible.


    "Are you alright?" Hestia asked far more concerned about me since I was slouching from exhaustion as most of my energy had just been consumed.


    "I''m fine. Just a bit drained is all, but look it worked!" I said showing her the wood.


    She studied it carefully "Well it isn''t rotten anymore and the shape is a little different but it''s kinda rough isn''t it?" she asked confused.


    "That''s actually my fault. I didn''t realize just how fast using the spell would drain my energy and only had enough to change it to this point." I said honestly.


    "I see. This looks like a really useful magic and it''s pretty too, congrattions!" Hestia said with a bright smile.


    "Thanks. I bet if I focus on repairing the church bit by bit I can train my magic stat really quick!" I said with an eager grin.


    "You aren''t going into the dungeon?" Hestia asked surprised and I shook my head.


    "Not yet, I need to raise my stats first through good old physical training or I am like as not just going to struggle pointlessly. Unlike most newbie adventurers I have actually seen a goblin before and I know for a fact fighting just one of them would be a struggle for me at the moment not to mention ording to the girls in the Artemis familia the things rarely are alone." I said seriously.


    "Umu, better safe than sorry." she said agreeing that my n made sense.


    After that we went to sleep with her in the bed and me on the couch that was not the mostfortable but not horrible either. Unfortunately I learned a rather bothersome fact about my goddess when I woke up in the morning, she was clingy. Sometime in the middle of the night she had gone from the bed to on the couch using me as a body pillow. Let me tell you there is nothing more awkward than waking up with morning wood only to find that a small but beautiful woman was rubbing on it unconsciously since it was poking her in her sleep.-


    Even worse was when she woke up and realized what she was doing shortly after you did, the silence was deafening. We ate a couple pieces of cheap bread with tomato red faces for about thirty minutes before she went off to her day job selling jagamarukun which were basically potato croquettes or deep fried breaded mashed potatoes with salt or sometimes meat. I on the other hand found an exposed board in the upstairs chapel room and poured most of my energy into it to try and restore it to perfect condition.-


    Thatsted for all of about a second before I was out of energy because as it turned out size DOES matter when it came to how much energy something took to change with my cursed technique. While I was waiting for my energy to refill I got to work working out with my new weapon. Since I was going to be carrying the thing around constantly in the Dungeon it only made sense that I also worked out with it so that I could get ustomed to handling it. For example I went jogging and carried it with me despite my body not liking the misced weight at all.-


    My legs were used to carrying some extra weight from the gut I used to have but my arms were screaming in pain as I jogged. I had to switch hands a few times before my legs were also burning from exertion and I was out of breath. After that was crunches to work on my core strength and then practice swings with my weapon to work on my form. Let me tell you swinging a twenty pound object with one arm without losing bnce was not easy at all with average human strength. I stumbled and fell several times but I was stubborn like that and never stopped until my arms were both feeling like jello.-


    Ignoring my own pain I dragged my weary body into the church and after depositing the weapon bellow went back to the wooden board I had worked on previously to burn through my refilled energy pool again. Once that was done I sat on the floor next to it to wait for my goddess to return while using any energy I refilled during that time to slowly, bit by bit, restore the wood to perfect condition. Hestia returned about an hour or so before the sun went down with a bag of leftover food from her stall that hadn''t been sold.-


    "Are you going to be okay?" She asked worriedly when I groaned and shook while standing up.


    "Yeah I''ll be fine, just feeling the pain thates with working out is all." I said reassuringly despite knowing I probably over did it.


    No I DEFINITELY overdid it as after eating I went to sleep and woke up feeling like I went five rounds with Tyson. I spent the next three days recovering while using my cursed technique every chance I got. Waking up every morning with my goddess using me as a body pillow had also sort of be a habit we didn''t talk about ever.-


    She wasn''t flirting or anything like that which was the only reason I knew that she wasn''t doing it intentionally and chose to just go with the flow and ignore it as a result. My next workout session on the fourth day was much more rxed than my first and I stopped the moment my muscles started to really ache. I was making good progress on repairing the church though as I had fully restored exactly two wooden boards for all my effort. At the end of the week Hestia updated my falna and I got to see if it was worth it.-


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:10(I) ->47(I)


    Endurance:10(I)->83(I)


    Agility:10(I)->39(I)


    Dexterity:10(I)->24(I)


    Magic:10(I)->179(H)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Honestly speaking I wasn''t surprised at all to find that my fasted growing stats were magic and endurance considering what they represented. Each stat in the falna had specific purposes and thus got increased by performing actions rted to them and endurance was your stamina and literal toughness stat. By over working my muscles I had seriously pushed the stat forward since I had overwhelmed my bodies natural durability. As for magic that was basically increased by simply using as much mana or in this case cursed energy as possible and working the power to it''s fullest at level one. Increasing the magic stat also had the wonderful bonus of also increasing ones efficiency and volume of energy.

 Grinding(2)

    Grinding(2)


    It wasn''t a massive increase right away mind you as that wasn''t how falna worked but over the next few days my body would adapt to my increased stats and I would be quantitatively superior than I am at this moment. As I said though my body would need a few days to adapt to my new stats so that meant there was no real point in updating my falna again until that point. Even then though I would want to wait until I felt I had made decent progress before I did it again.-


    I also knew that as my stats got higher and higher I would need to push myself much harder to see any improvements and even then it would be very slow. I wasn''t sure when exactly the cut off point for "easy stat gain" was but I wanted to use it to my benefit while I could.


    "You really worked hard huh?" Hestia asked with a proud smile as she looked over my status.


    "I certainly tried, though admittedly I was a little too overzealous about it at first." I said with a grin.


    "Does this mean you will be going into the dungeon now?" She asked worriedly.


    I chuckled "I don''t n on even attempting it until I reach at least G rank in all my stats so you don''t need to worry your pretty little head about it until then okay?" I said and she smiled and nodded.


    After that we went to sleep and got into our routines over the next week that I could subtly but surely feel the incremental adaptations my body was making to my higher stats. My energy pool increased but double it''s original amount which sounds like a lot but it was still effectively useless for any real length of time. My raised endurance stats had basically convinced me that it was the best stat of all as I could jog longer, do more crunches, swing my weapon more and I recovered from my workouts faster.-


    My understanding was basically that more endurance meant more stamina to raise all the other stats minus magic. In that regard I began slightly overworking myself with every workout so that stat would get a bigger than normal boost on my next update. I did make sure that I was only slightly overworking my muscles though so that by the next day I could still workout. My magic stat was also likely to gain arge boost again as I emptied my energy pool the moment I filled it to repair the church.-


    There was a slight issue I quickly noticed in the form that while my volume of energy increased the speed it was restored had not grown to match that increase though it had grown some. In addition while I could use cursed energy without my technique I was still having trouble controlling my emotions to do so and hadn''t had any sess doing so without negative emotions yet. Not for ack of effort mind you but I was sort of winging my control at the moment so obviously I was making slow progress.-


    Cursed energy didn''t exactlye with an instruction manual and unlike in the anime I had no one able to teach me how to use it properly in this world. This wasn''t all bad though as while I had to struggle more to grasp it by myself I also didn''t have anyone to try and limit my potential with false information. As far as I knew cursed energy had no limits and I was working with that as a premise for my practice.-


    This time I waited until two weeks had passed before I asked to update my status again during which point my daily exercise was starting to show gains. My bodies muscles were slowly and imperceptibly growing more defined as time went by and by the time I asked for an update I was starting to gain the faintest hint of a six pack and strong limbs. My biggest issue at the moment was definitely diet though as I was barely able to support these gains with what we ate.-


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:47(I)->115(H)


    Endurance:83(I)->167(H)


    Agility:39(I)->101(H)


    Dexterity:24(I)->78(I)


    Magic:179(H)->272(G)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    As you can see I had raised all of my stats except dexterity to at least H rank which was not bad at all for being an adventurer for three weeks without going into the dungeon once. It would have honestly been much faster had I gone into the dungeon though since falna worked by converting excelia to stats and without actually killing anything I had no real excelia to transform. You passively generated some when you exerted yourself as I had been but you got far more via life and deathbat like that found in the dungeon.


    "You should work on your dexterity some more, it''sgging behind the rest of your stats. Also is your magic stat supposed to grow this fast?" Hestia asked concerned.


    "I think it might be a hidden bonus from my skill, it does remove all chances of me learning any normal magic so it mightpensate by making my magic stat grow faster than normal. As for dexterity I am not entirely sure how to train that stat. Do I just like stretch or is there more to it?" I said honestly confused at the end.


    "I will ask Miach, maybe he knows." Hestia said casually.


    "Miach? I think he was on the list of familias recruiting at the guild but Artemis said I couldn''t join him for some reason" I said curiously.


    "Umu, he is very good with women and had many partners in heaven so Arty-chan didn''t like him all that much. He''s not a bad guy though unlike Zeus or Hermes who are real perverts." Hestia said honestly.


    "Ah personal bias that makes sense. If you say he''s a good guy then he must be worth knowing, maybe introduce me." I said with a smile.


    "Hmm what about your training?" she asked with a frown.


    "Bah! One day won''t make any difference, besides maybe he knows a better way to train my stats than what I have been doing?" I suggested and after some thought she nodded in agreement.

 A possible use

    A possible use


    We ate dinner after that and went to bed like normal and in the morning we both set off for the Blue Pharmacy that Hestia said was where Miach usually was. The "forgotten area" was just as bad as you might expect somewhere with that name to be as there simply wasn''t many people living there what with the area basically being abandoned and run down. I spotted a few ces as we walked that I noted mentally for lootingter since they had inorganic parts that I would need if I wanted to fully repair the church.-


    Namely ss that was still intact or mostly intact that sat in the empty buildings windows. The churches ss is broken in every window and since my technique didn''t work on stuff that didn''te from a living source I needed unbroken ss to repair them. As a positive though when I did go to rece the ss in the wooden window sills I could stylize it up by having the wood form around the ss as though the trees it came from had a ss pane perfectly set between two pieces.-


    Honestly I was halfway tempted to remove all the inorganic parts of the church over time and just fuse the wood of the walls and roof into a big ass tree. Unfortunately Hestia very much disliked that idea so I could only chose to put it off until I could purchase the cheapnd and buildings around the church and slowly bring my vision to life over time as we expanded. Soon enough we reached the small and clearly understaffed Blue pharmacy shop.


    "Ah! Goddess Hestia, wee! My lord has not informed me of youing to visit today but then again he does many things I am not the biggest fan of." A dog beastkin woman with a sleepy expression and slow way of speaking said when we came in.


    "This was a sudden decision on our part actually." I said rifying that Miach hadn''t known we wereing.


    "I see, you are the newbie Hestia has been bragging about for the past few weeks then?" the woman asked casually while looking me over.


    "Alexander Drake, a pleasure." i said introducing myself politely.


    "Naaza Erisuis, I look forward to your business." she said with a predatory look.


    Not unlike the gaze one might expect from a conman who was after your money. I was unbothered though since it didn''t matter so long as I never fell for whatever tricks this woman pulled out of her sleeve.


    "Could you let Miach know we are here please?" Hestia asked and Naaza sighed but left to do so.


    A few momentster a handsome man with dark blue long hair and matching eyes walked out the back doorway. Like every god I had met so far he had this sort of otherworldly vibe to him that made it hard to not notice his deific status.


    "Good morning Hestia, Naaza said you wanted a bit of a chin wag?" Miach said with a slight Irish sounding ent and curious expression.


    "Umu, We wanted to get your advice about raising stats since we are a bit lost on it ourselves. So far Alex has been working out and using his magic as much as he can which has gotten him to H in all but one of his stats but we weren''t sure how to effectively raise dexterity." Hestia exined and Miach had an understanding look.


    "Has he gone into the dungeon at all?" Miach asked and we both shook our heads


    "I see. In that case exercise is the best way to raise most of the stats, as for dexterity maybe try stretching or something that requires precision with the fingers. Naaza here makes potions and that stat is usually her fastest to grow as a result. Some of the best potions in Orario in fact, my father said so himself." Miach said proudly while Naaza blushed at the praise while her tail wagged a bit.


    "Dian Cecht did? Must be true then since if anyone''d know it would be him." Hestia said impressed.


    "Yes I couldn''t be prouder of her. But I couldn''t help notice you mentioned Alex here has magic, if you don''t mind me asking, what it is?" Miach asked curiously.


    "It''s a bit vague but from what we gather I can manipte, refine or restore anything from a living thing." I said honestly since my goddess trusted him I felt I could at least attempt to do the same.


    "Could you regrow an arm by chance?" Miach asked hopefully.


    "No clue honestly but even if I could I doubt I can at the moment anyways, the spell is an absolute energy hog. From what I have found therger or moreplex the thing I am using it on the more expensive it gets." I said honestly.-


    "Would you mind giving it a go if we gave you some potions to restore your mana then?" Miach asked much more excited looking.


    I looked at Hestia "Can we tell them about the skill or no?" I asked since that was entirely her call.


    "Yes." she said before looking at Miach and Naaza "But both of you have to promise not to share this information with anyone else first." she said seriously.


    "You have my word Hestia." Miach said firmly and Naaza nodded in agreement.


    "I don''t use mana or rather I can''t use it due to a skill I had the moment I got my falna. Instead I use something called cursed energy. As a result I don''t even know if a mana restoring potion would work on me." I revealed and both Miach and Naaza looked shocked.


    "Sounds like theres more to that skill than you have said but we won''t pry. Still your concern is well warranted. Mana potions have been specifically designed with mana in mind so we have no idea what might happen if you drank one. Best case scenario the potion works without a hitch for your cursed energy just like it was mana. Worst case though it will cause your body to have mana and cursed energy sh until the effects wear off. if you are willing to try it with a weak mana potion we can find out." Miach said with a suggestion at the end.-


    Hestia looked at me in concern as I nodded "If I am going into the dungeon eventually anyways I should know whether or not I should carry some mana potions with me." I said honestly.


    Miach nodded in understanding "First you need to empty your energy like anyone using a potion would normally." he said seriously.


    "I need a target for my cursed technique in order to do so." I said honestly.


    Miach scrounged around for a bit beforeing up with a blue leaf that was withered and dry. "Would this work?" he asked and I nodded as he handed it over.


    "<em>Hell''s forge!"</em> I spoke the incantation and Miach and Naaza flinched slightly as the blue and ck curse mes sprung to life over the leaf. I focused on refining the leaf, adding moisture and removing impurities, that sort of thing while my energy plummeted in about a second after I started.

 Over limit

    Over limit


    I finished up right before I fully ran out of energy and handed over the leaf that now looked like it had just been plucked from the nt and had a slight gleam to it.


    "My word! This is one of if not the best looking Azure leaf I have ever seen and so fresh as well!" Miach said with an impressed expression that Naaza also shared.


    "I would hope so, it took nearly all of my energy to make it like that. What is that leaf even used for anyways?" I asked curiously.


    "It''s one of the primary ingredients for the elixirs that restore even high level adventurers health and mana. Usually they are controlled heavily by my fathers familia. But I managed to get a dried leaf from the market that I haven''t been able to use until now since as it turned out the leaves properties are held within it''s juices." Miach exined without looking away from the leaf.


    "No wonder it was so expensive to restore and refine despite only being a single leaf." I said rather surprised at the true identity of the leaf.


    "So long as mana potions work on you I have no doubt that you aught to be able to regrow Naazas arm with your spell!" Miach said after carefully storing the leaf again.


    "Wait a second, what do you mean regrowing Naazas arm? Doesn''t she have two arms already?" I asked confused as hell.


    Naaza grimaced but rolled up her right sleeve to show that the perfectly functional arm she had was in fact a prosthetic that was made of a shining silver metal. I was shocked since when fully covered like it was I thought it was a perfectly normal arm as it perfectly matched her other and moved smoothly and quickly.


    "It''s so convincing I truly though it was a normal arm, I apologize for the difort." I said honestly.


    "It''s not your fault since I try to keep it hidden and it is a top of the line prosthetic from the Dian Cecht familia after all." Naaza said waving off my apology.


    "I am going to be honest, I am unsure whether my technique will work on you since you are a living thing and not something taken from a living thing but not alive like that leaf. I am willing to test if I can use mana potions if you are willing to ept that possibility." I told her seriously.


    "I am willing to make that gamble." she said with a determined look.


    Miach nodded in agreement before reaching over to the nearby shelf and taking off a single vial of yellow liquid the color of a banana but that was as smooth as water. "This is a low level mana potion, try taking a small sip of it to see if it has any effect." he said as he handed it over.


    I looked at my goddess and carefully took off the cork sealing the liquid in before pouring a small amount in my mouth and swallowing it. It tasted of bitter medicine which was unpleasant but something I could handle. We all waited with baited breath to see what would happen but I didn''t feel any different than normal.


    "Er, Is it supposed to take this long?" I asked and before I could get an answer there was a change.


    In my reservoir energy started to pour in like a wave quickly filling it to the brim but that was when a problem came about, it didn''t stop. I started to feel a bit bloated then I started to feel hot and finally my body began to exude cursed energy and I panted like I was burning up and judging from the expressions on everyone''s faces I must have looked like it too.


    "Too *ha ha* much energy! *Ha ha* Need to vent!" I said panting heavily as I grabbed Naaza roughly "<em>Hell''s Forge!"</em> I spoke the incantation before anyone could stop me and began to will the cursed technique to restore her arm.


    My cursed mes burst to life on Naazas body and she grit her teeth in pain but her shirt at the shoulder began to tear as her body began to slowly regrow the arm that was once there. The prosthetic that was taking up that space however was getting pushed away by the newly regrown flesh and bone thus the shirt was ripping from the pressure. Naaza resolutely tore off the fabric and prosthetic with her left arm and the regrowth now unobstructed elerated drastically. My energy reservoir concerningly never dropped below halfway for the entirety of the regrowing process despite my technique literally burning through it at a staggering rate.-


    In the end Naaza was left with a brand new arm that mirrored her other. I was still overflowing with cursed energy though and had to make a desperate gamble to get rid of it, I tried to force it out of my body without negative emotions. It was hard to describe but it felt like I was pressing against a barrier with the energy until the pressure was too much and the barrier was shattered and my cursed energy flowed freely out of my body in a violent burst. I didn''t realize it but the cursed technique markings on my stomach and chest began to expand at this moment and ck tattoo like bands appeared on my shoulders and two sigils came into existence on my shoulder des.-


    At this point the energy finally stopped surging into my reservoir and I felt light headed for a moment before copsing. That was my first experience with themon magical phenomenon known as "mind zero" which happened when a mage used more magic than they can handle in a short period of time. In my case I had used the equivalent of twenty times my current max energy amount in all of a few brief minutes.-


    "Ugh my fucking head!" I groaned when consciousness finally started to return to me.


    "Easyd, you are suffering a nasty case of mind zero. Give it a few minutes and the headache will ease up a bit." Miach said as I went to sit up.


    "Alex!" I heard Hestia yell before feeling a softness covering my face and suffocating me alongside a weight on my chest.


    ''Pretty sure she''s suffocating me in her boobs, I am strangely okay with this.'' I thought despite tapping out in hopes of someone saving me.


    The weight vanished and I could suddenly see and breath again which was nice I suppose. Looking around I saw Naaza holding a struggling Hestia while Miach just had this amused look on his face as he gave me a sly wink.


    "I''m fine Hestia, well I could really use some water but I don''t think it''ll kill me to wait." I joked despite it feeling like I had a gori punching my brain.


    My goddess was released and thankfully didn''t try and smother me to death this time but settled for a concerned hug. It was nice to be cared about like this, warm I suppose is a good way to describe it.

 Dilution and potion idea

    Dilution and potion idea


    "I must sayd your reaction to that mana potion was quite unexpected. From what I could tell you were literally overflowing with energy, something that should be impossible." Miach said seriously.


    "What do you mean?" I asked confused while giving up on prying my goddess off me since she had me in a death grip.


    "Mana potions no matter how good are only supposed to refill the drinkers mana. The leftover effects of the potion are wasted after that. In your case however the small amount of a low mana potion you swallowed not only refilled your energy but also exceeded your maximum amount as well and not by a small amount either. It''s just my theory but I think that it has something to do with that skill of yours. Maybe what it actually does is convert any mana in your body to this cursed energy of yours and so the potion kept trying to refill a mana reservoir that was perpetually emptying." he exined seriously.


    "If the conversion of mana to cursed energy was efficient enough that might exin why I got so much out of so little as well." I said finding his theory reasonable.


    "Indeed, speaking of can you try and guess roughly how much the small amount of the potion you drank gave you so that Naaza and I can try and make a diluted version that would be safe for your consumption?" Miach said and I was surprised by the offer.


    "I might be a little off but around twenty times my previous full amount. After that experience however I imagine my magic stat will increase drastically." I said honestly.


    Miach nodded before starting to mutter with Naaza over the right amount to dilute a mana potion by to achieve the same effect as a normal low grade potion. To me though it was a bunch of nonsense that I couldn''t understand at all. Sounded like chemistry and I flunked that ss by a lot. Choosing to stop wasting my time with the two potion makers I turned my attention to the more pressing matter at hand, a certain clingy goddess.


    "Uh Hestia could you perhaps let me go now? My headache is going away but you don''t exactly weigh nothing you know." I said and I could have sworn that I saw a vein pop on her forehead.


    "Are you calling me fat?" she asked with a dangerous glint in her eyes.


    I shook my head vigorously "Not at all but I am rather ufortable like this." I said honestly.


    While she was fairly soft that didn''t mean having ny five pounds of goddess sitting on your chest was fun. She looked a little peeved but still got off me which was a literal weight off my chest and let me finally sit up. As Miach promised my headache was easing up over time and was now much more manageable than say five minutes ago. I remember that something had happened to my cursed energy just before I passed out from mind zero but I wasn''t going to risk it by experimenting until I was clear of my current condition.-


    "You had me terrified when you burst into me like that, I thought you were going to die!" Hestia spoke and got teary towards the end.


    I reached out and rubbed the top of her head "While I am happy you care so much, have some faith. I am nothing if not stubborn and won''t let just anything im my life you hear me?" I asked with a confident smile.


    "Umu, I''ll find your soul and torment you for a thousand years if you leave me for no good reason understood?" she asked with her own smile.


    "Sounds like a drag, I think I''ll pass." I joked and we bothughed.


    "Good to see you are back to fine spirits. Naaza and I are done figuring out how much we should dilute a normal mana potion. With the information you gave us this new diluted potion should restore your reservoir and not overflow it by more than a small amount at most which will be fixed as your magic stat increases." Miach said after we finishedughing.


    "Thanks for the trouble, just let me know what I owe you and I''ll pay you back when I can." I said thankfully.


    I meant it too since it was better for me to have found out about my sensitivity to mana potions in a semi controlled environment rather than by chugging a full undiluted potion in the dungeon and exploding pathetically. I might be wrong but I am pretty sure the only reason I didn''t explode from the small amount I drank earlier was because regrowing Naazas arm was just that expensive. by my calctions the amount of energy I used was the same as I would normally have at H rank magic at level two.-


    In other words I had used WAY more cursed energy than I had any business with at my current level of progress. It probably wasn''t a pointless amount of danger I suffered even if we disregard Naazas new arm as since I had pushed my energy and technique beyond it''s current limits my stats were likely to show great improvement on my next update. It may even be enough to be time for me to enter the dungeon for the first time.


    Miach interrupted my thoughts with something that caused my brain to short circuit for a second. "Oh no we could never ept your money after you risked so much and gave my child back her arm and I pray her hope as well. All your potions at the blue pharmacy will be free for as long as youe here." he vowed solemnly.


    As you can imagine I had trouble epting this vow as it made no sense logically and could even be considered foolish from a business standpoint.


    "Wait! While I appreciate the sentiment that is far too much to ept! How about you give me free mana potions since those should be the cheapest to purchase since they are so heavily diluted? AH! Wait can I request a custom potion as well, one that if you seed will bring you a great deal of money?" I spoke hurriedly while getting a great idea towards the end as well.


    "We can ept the mana potions being given for free since as you said them being so diluted makes them much cheaper. What is this custom potion though and how would it bring us a bunch of money?" Naaza asked before Miach could speak again.


    "Have you ever gone through the dungeon square when people areing from the dungeon?" I asked and they both nodded confused. I continued at this point "Then you are likely familiar with the stench they leave behind as well. My idea is a potion that removes this smell or at least hides it until the adventurer can bath. If you advertise correctly I can''t see why this wouldn''t immediately be a big hit in the city and perhaps further."

 Control and possible profit

    Control and possible profit


    Both Miach and Naaza looked intrigued by the idea.


    "A potion that removes or suppresses ones odors until they bath? At first nce this appears to be a frivolous and pointless thing but I remember smelling foul after returning from the dungeon so I can see the appeal." Naaza said seriously and Miach nodded in agreement.


    "We would need to do some experimenting but I believe your idea should be achievable within a month." Miach said seriously.


    "That''ll do perfectly. Make as much as you can and store it away and once you have enough for a few hundred people at minimum let one of us know so we can start advertising it." I said seriously.


    "A-a few hundred!? It''s not possible that so many would want it is it?" Miach eximed in shock.


    I chuckled "You seem to heavily underestimate just how much an adventurer reeks after a long day delving. Besides a few nutjobs with some screws loose the adventurers that put up with the stench only do so because they have no choice but to do so. We change that and I am almost willing to bet my left arm that you''ll see more business in a single day than you have in years." I said with a grin.


    "You don''t seem to be lying so I''ll take your word for it on faith but know that I doubt it wille to pass as you have said." Miach said skeptically.


    Hestia and I left after that before heading home since it had been a good few hours between us traveling to the pharmacy and me getting overloaded with cursed energy. I was apparently knocked out for two hours due to the severity of my mind zero state and as a result we only had at most another three hours of daylight left. An hour of that was used just getting back to the church with thest two being us eating some cheap food we got from a vendor who was about to shut down their stall for the day.-


    Hestia needed to shell out some of her savings for the food but I promised that we would be better off once I got started in the dungeon. I meant it too as that ce was a veritable treasure trove for my cursed technique. From drops to the monsters themselves I highly doubted that I couldn''t find a way to earn a hefty profit from the ce. That was just on the first few floors mind you as I was curious if the unique metals taken from deeper in the dungeon could also being manipted with my technique. My thought on that was that if the dungeon truly was a living thing like many believe then those metals should technically count as being from a living being and thus subject to my technique.-


    Even if that wasn''t the case though I still win as I can finally put that theory to rest entirely. Anyways we went to bed for the day and woke up nice and early like usual the next day. Holding out my hand I willed my cursed energy toe forward and to my surprise blue and ck me like energy appeared without any issue at all.


    ''So that breakthrough I felt was my body bing better at moving and controlling cursed energy.'' I thought as I moved my hand around and the cursed energy flickered and swayed as though it was truly me.


    Focusing hard I began to try and move all the energy to a single finger of my hand but failed as the amount of energy dropped when I attempted it. I was stubborn though and sent more energy to my hand before trying to stuff it all on a single finger again. I continued this until I ran out of energy before starting my workout to get my other stats moving as well. For my dexterity I took my weapon and grabbed a piece of wood from a broken up building near the church to begin trying to carve. Fun fact trying to carve with an axe head is no simple feat and prone to failure but damn good practice controlling fine movements.-


    A single twitch in the wrong way and all my work up to that point was ruined and needed to be undone with my cursed technique. This practice was a great way to practice fine control of cursed energy as well since I was trying to limit the amount of area my technique touched to only the ruined part. Interestingly I discovered that if I used my technique on two separate things I could in fact fuse them together which meant any wood I shaved off identally could be added to the piece I was carving again.-


    By the time Hestia came back my block of wood looked like some eldritch creature had gotten a hold of it, it sucked. Then again I had literally just started learning how to carve and was not using the best possible tool for this sort of thing. ''I should really get a knife for this kind of thing. Maybe I can make one if I get lucky and get some goblin teeth.'' I thought as I wolfed down three of the fried potato things with ham that Hestia brought back for us.


    "Hey hestia do you know any butchers in the city, specifically the sort that might have bones they have no use for?" I asked having a really good idea suddenly.


    "Hmm, I think theres one a bit down the street from my stall why?" she asked curiously after swallowing her bite of food.


    "If I can get some bones I can use my cursed technique to refine and shape them into stuff you can sell. Things like bone chimes, rings, nes and bracelets. You can definitely sell them for a decent bit on top of your jagamarukuns. The best part is if anyone asked how they were made you can be honest and say a spell did it." I said with a grin.


    Her face brightened as she smiled "That might work! I''ll try and convince the butcher to let me have some bones tomorrow! It doesn''t matter what condition they are in right?" she asked and I shook my head.


    After we finished eating we went to bed eager for the next day since if everything worked out we could improve our financial situation some with the sale of these bone items. I didn''t even want her to sell them for a whole lot of money either since they would likelye from free bones anyways and I was more than happy for the practice with my technique. Obvious the better quality ones with more details and nicer appearance would be sold for more money but I doubted many would buy the stuff as anything more than a nifty trinket. I spent the next day the same as I spent the previous and made a small amount of progress with my cursed energy control. When Hestia got back she had an extra bag that was filled with broken bone pieces that looked as though someone had taken a hammer to them.

 Figurine

    Figurine


    I am not talking about like if a butcher idently hit a bone with a cleaver and we only got the shard that came off. No I mean it was clear that these were pristine and solid bones that someone had intentionally busted up. Before I lost my temper though I made sure to ask Hestia what the deal was with them. Thankfully I did too as she exined that the butcher busted them up since he said it would be easier to stew for broth that way. It was a simple misunderstanding on the butchers part rather than any malicious thoughts.-


    Taking the bag from her I set it down while we ate dinner before grabbing five shards of bone and activating my cursed technique. The mes covered the bones and I managed to fuse them into a single orb the size of a muscadine grape before my energy ran out. It was rough and had several cracks but it was just a base for me to work with.


    "I''ll probably need a few days before I have any amount worth selling so by the time I get my next update then." I said honestly and Hestia nodded.


    "Do we need to worry about health issues with these bone pieces?" she asked but I shook my head.


    "After refining them with my technique they will not have any flesh or bacteria on them so they can be considered mineral in a way, no different from rocks you might find on the ground." I exined calmly.


    "Why? Aren''t flesh and bacteria considered from living things as well?" she asked a little confused.


    "They are but the way my technique refines things is by simply removing whatever I don''t want and perfecting whatever I do want. In this case the flesh and bacteria are unwanted and as such will be burned away. The only real limitation I have is my own understanding of the thing I am working with as well as my imagination." I exined with a smile.


    She seemed happy with that answer and we went to bed shortly after that. The next day she left for her job and I went to work refining the orb of bone I made the previous night until I was out of energy. Then I started my physical exercise and pushed it a bit harder than normal as I had noticed that as my endurance stat went up it took less and less time for me to recover from merely sore muscles. Not by a lot mind you but enough that I could go just smidge harder than would be a good idea for a normal person.-


    After my workout left my body burning I sat down and went back to working on the orb. One more refinement after that and the bone orb was ready to be shaped. The bone was now wless and had a dull but eye catching whiteness to it that was nice to look at by itself. Once my energy refilled naturally I began to shape the orb into a small humanoid form but with thin gossamer insectoid wings on it''s back outstretched as if to fly. that alone took me nearly four whole amounts of cursed energy toplete simply because of how detailed I made the figurine.-


    I made realistic wings, body shape and a pretty little face with short hair tied up in a bun, I made a small figurine of Tinkerbell. It was only about an inch tall but the level of detail alone was enough for me to be confident that at least someone would be interested in it. Just before Hestia would normally be returning I had the brilliant idea to add a small but noticeable symbol on the thigh of the figurine. This was a simple makers mark that I would be putting somewhere on all my works from now on.-


    Shortly after I began to fuse some more bone shards together into another orb Hestia returned and saw the figurine.


    "So pretty!" she said fawning over the thing in awe.


    "I don''t want to sell anything sub par so I spent a good bit of effort on that little trinket. You can sell it for however much you''d like after I make three more. If they are not very popr I will switch to something else like jewelry." I said not really caring all that much since with my cursed technique I can always make more.


    "How could this not be popr!? Do you even see how pretty it is!?" she eximed like the mere idea that the figurine wouldn''t be popr was sphemy of the highest order.


    "I mean yeah it''s nice to look at but it''s not all that useful is it?" I asked confused why she was acting like this.


    This was the city of adventurers after all. While I might be wrong I sort of doubted an adventurer would spend a bunch of money on something that serves no purpose beyond looking nice. I certainly wouldn''t but then again I could be totally wrong. Hestia didn''t try and argue with me about it but said that she''d take it with her tomorrow but not to sell. I didn''t see any issue with that and dug into the food she brought before heading to bed. -


    Like she said she took the figurine with her in the morning and I repeated the process I went through the previous day to refine an orb of bone before shaping it into a figurine with my makers mark. It was surprisingly easier than before ever so slightly which I was sure was because I had experience this time. I didn''t make Tinkerbell this time but took the same body shape and modified the face, clothes and hair so it was another fairy entirely in a different pose as well. I wanted to try and keep from using the same design more than once unless someone asked for it .-


    When Hestia returned she had a massive smile and a small bulging sack of coin in her hand that caught me off guard.


    "Um, Hestia where did you get that bag of Valis from?" I asked with a sneaking suspicion that I knew the answer already.


    "I took the little fairy up to my stall and had it sitting at the front and someone noticed it and asked if i was selling it. I told them I wasn''t but they really wanted it and soon there was a whole crowd of people offering a bunch of money for it!" she said all excited about her day.


    I deadpanned at her "You sold the figurine didn''t you?" i asked calmly and she nodded.


    "For twelve thousand Valis! When I said I would have more soon the crowd went nuts!" she said with a wide smile.


    I wanted to be mad really I did but twelve thousand Valis is not a small sum for people in such dire straits like us. Valis was the currency in this world and was represented in three different denominations gold, silver and bronze. Bronze coins were worth five Valis, Silver coins were worth twenty bronze coins and Gold coins were worth a hundred silver coins. That sack had one gold coin and a bunch of silver ones in it. To make things clearer a loaf of white bread cost between ten and twenty Valis and a gourmet meal may cost at most six or seven thousand Valis for REALLY high end but normal foods like caviar.

 To the dungeon

    To the dungeon


    A meal made from dungeon ingredients however could go as high as half a million Valis. Needless to say I was quite justified in my shock at the amount of money we got all of a sudden.


    "Who the hell just carries that much money around?" I asked genuinely confused.


    "I don''t know who it was just that everyone seemed afraid of him." Hestia said honestly.


    "Can I get a description? I don''t think that just anyonemands that sort of acknowledgement." I said with an ominous feeling in my gut.


    "Hmm, well it was really big Boaz with short hair and he felt like really strong." Hestia said trying to be helpful.


    "Well the good news is that i think I know who that is but the bad news is we REALLY don''t want his goddesses attention." I said with a tired sigh.


    "Is he famous or something?" Hestia asked confused why I sounded so worried.


    "Famous doesn''t even begin to cut it. If I am right that is the most powerful adventurer in Orario, Ottar of the Freya familia." I said honestly.


    Hestia stiffened "Why in heavens name would someone like that be in the stall area!?" she eximed.


    "I am not personally acquainted with the man but from what I have been told there are two reasons I could think of. First that he had business elsewhere and was passing through but noticed the figurine and thought Freya would like it. The second was that Freya herself saw the figurine and told him to go get it for her. Either way I am debating whether or not to even give you any more of the things since we can''t withstand the attention of a familia like that." I said seriously.


    "But the money?" Hestia asked reluctantly.


    "It''s your call but I will keep making the things if you still want to sell them. Though I suppose it''ll take a while longer since I will be going to the dungeon tomorrow since today is update day." I said with a shrug.


    Whatever choice my goddess makes was obviously going to be the way we deal with things since despite her being a bit carefree she had a pretty good head on her shoulders. Besides that I couldn''t be bothered to focus on anything beyond personal growth and left it to her as the head of the familia.


    "Oh yeah that was today wasn''t it? Excited to see how much you''ve grown?" Hestia asked with a yful smile.


    "Always. Every single point is just another step towards my ultimate goal." I said with my own smile.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:115(H)->256(G)


    Endurance:167(H)->312(F)


    Agility:101(H)->221(G)


    Dexterity:78(I)-> 201(G)


    Magic:272(G)->627(C)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Like I had expected I had reached G rank in all of my stats and even exceeded it in endurance and magic. Reaching C rank in magic was a little shocking but considering what I had to go through to get there I was not surprised all that much. More likely than not that would end up being the first stat to reach the limit of 999(S) at this rate. I can''t really exin why but the idea of that being the highest possible amount before you have to level up bothered me.-


    Like the falna was supposed to eventually in theory turn a mortal into a god so why was the limit so low? It didn''t make any sense to me but I suppose I wouldn''t ever get an answer to that question. We ate dinner and went to bed after i got my update since we would both be leaving the church tomorrow. She would be taking my new figurine to the market with her which was not the best idea but I couldn''t really argue with it as we were hurting financially at the moment.-


    Unlike usual when I woke up in the morning I didn''t n to stay near the church but rather was going to swing by the Blue pharmacy to grab some diluted mana potions and check on things there before heading to the dungeon. Orario was always so busy early in the morning as people moved about toplete errands or head to the dungeon or open shop. As I moved through the crowds towards the Blue pharmacy I couldn''t help but be excited by the idea of my first real adventure.-


    It wasn''t going to be some epic tale of conquest or anything since I wasn''t going to go any further than the first couple of floors that only had goblins spawn in them. I was hoping to get some teeth to drop naturally before I began to experiment with my cursed technique on the dead bodies to see if I could increase the drop rate that way. In theory I could actually just turn the entire body into a drop by simply transforming it with my technique without taking the core from the body.-


    That was definitely going to cost way more energy than it would be worth though so I wouldn''t be trying that anytime soon. After about a thirty minute walk at a rtively fast pace I reached the Miach familia shop and opened the door which set off the ringer.


    "Wee back Alex. Here for some potions i take it?" Naaza who was sitting behind the counter said in a friendly manner.


    "Good morning Naaza! How is that arm treating you?" I asked with a smile.


    She flexed the new arm a couple times "Itcks any muscle memory so I am having to retrain it all from scratch but it works just like it is supposed to." she said honestly.


    I nodded "I am not surprised since it IS a new arm and not the one you lost so obviously the muscle memory is missing. Still it is good to hear that there is no problem with it. I need a couple of diluted potions since today is my first time going to the dungeon and I want to be prepared." I said casually and she moved to get my order.


    She put three vials on the counter though which confused me since one of them was green while the other two were the expected watery yellow.


    "This one is a healing potion. The first dive can be a bit rough so you may take some scratches or scrapes." she exined and I nodded before carefully putting the potions away in a small sack that Hestia bought for carrying stuff in.


    "See youter!" I called with a wave as I left the shop and started to make my way to the Dungeon at the center of the city.


    On the way I bumped into a girl carrying a paper bag of ingredients which spilled onto the ground. She had grey hair and eyes and looked panicked when the stuff fell on the ground.


    "Ah sorry about that here let me help you!" I said embarrassed and bent down to pick up the stuff on the ground.

 First delve

    First delve


    I picked up all the produce from the ground and put it in the bag.


    "Oh no! The tomatoes have gotten bruised! Mama Mia is going to kill me!" the girl said fussing over the bruised red fruit.


    I held out my hand "Give them to me and I''ll fix them up for you. it''s the least I can do after identally running into you like that." I said honestly.


    The girl looked confused but did as I asked and with a quick application of my technique the tomatoes were as good as ever and I had even improved the vor by a small amount.


    "You magic is beautiful and useful, would you consider working at the Hostess of fertility?" the girl asked with a bright smile.


    "Not for me I''m afraid, I''m an adventurer at heart. Thanks for the offer though and please do have a good day." I said before hurrying away as I was still very eager to get into the dungeon.


    The girl seemed nice and all but I had better things to do than socialize. After rushing for a good forty minutes I finally reached the entrance to the dungeon. It was under the tower of babel and had two guards at either side of the door who were ignoring everyone entering the dungeon which made me think they were here more for the monsters than the people. The entrance to the dungeon itself was a winding rough stairway that appeared to have been carved from the walls themselves.-


    Unlike most people think the first floor of the dungeon actually had a bunch of different zones that could be found via the "doorways" along the walls of the stairs but all lead to the lower floors eventually. I like so many other adventurers chose a random entrance and entered the first floor proper. Theyout of the first few floors was the same with it having dark stone walls like that of a cave but strangely weren''t pitch ck at all for some reason and you could see easily here.-


    I immediately walked over to a wall and put my hand on it and trying to activate my cursed technique but I got no response but not for the reason I had expected. I could feel that the dungeon was alive or at the very least had something indistinguishable from it but my technique was simply unable to effect the thing.-


    If I had to exin it was like my technique tried to attach itself to the dungeon but simply couldn''t get a grip if that makes sense. Despite this however the dungeon clearly DIDN''T appreciate the attempt as the walls crumbled and five humanoid creatures with green skin and wooden weapons came from them, goblins. I cursed and quickly drew out my weapon before rushing at the first goblin nearest to me that was still disoriented from just being born. Swinging wide with the hammer part I connected with the side of it''s head.-


    "CRUNCH!"


    I flinched as I felt the flesh and bone crack and shatter on impact through the hammer. It was a sickening sensation for someone who had never killed anything intentionally before like me but I didn''t have time to contemte it as the rest of the goblins yelled and charged at me. The first goblin was obviously dead considering I had copsed it''s skull with my very heavy weapon. I knew from the Artemis familia that monsters in the first four floors weren''t much more durable than a normal human so it honestly wasn''t that difficult to kill them quickly if you hit the right spots.-


    Of the four remaining goblins it was one with a wooden club that reached me first and the thing viciously leapt up and tried to crack my own skull with the thing. I dodged to the side and swung my axe head side at the goblins side which I immediately regretted as the ribs crunched and split with blood pouring out and this awful sound from the lung getting crushed came from the goblins mouth. The weight of the blow sent the creature sprawling to the side making a terrible gurgling sound as it tried and failed to breath.-


    Again I had no time to deal with the mental pressure this brought to my mind as the next two goblins arrived, one with a sharp wooden spear and one with a club. My only saving grace was that these things were wild and didn''t work well together. the spear goblin tried to stab me but the club goblin got in the way ending up getting stabbed in the back. It got hit in the perfect location for the magic stone to get hit which killed the thing instantly and it exploded into ck smoke with red sparks in it.-


    Unlike what I was expecting however where the smoke would just clear out like the Artemis familia had told me it instead got sucked into the tattoo on my chest.


    ''The fuck?'' I thought inplete confusion but snapped out of my shock when the spear goblin didn''t stop trying to kill me.


    Thest goblin that also had a spear caught up and I had the y dodge the stabby sticks for a good five minutes with not great results before I got an oppurtunity to crack my hammer side against a skull again leaving me to deal with only one goblin.-


    Thest goblin had no sense of self preservation and went to stab me again but I frankly had had enough of getting cut up by barely dodging the things and after avoiding the spear grabbed it with my left hand and activated my cursed technique. Immediately the wood that the goblin was holding grew spikes through it''s palm making it scream and try to drop the spear. taking advantage of this distraction I stepped forward with my weapon and brought it down as hard as I could onto thest goblins head.-


    The skull was totally demolished with blood pouring out everywhere as the goblins body dropped. My senses were alive as adrenaline coursed through my veins and I was gasping and panting heavily in exhaustion. It took five minutes for me to recover and start to calm down and another thirty to stop vomiting as my mind caught up with the brutal nature of what I had done. Don''t get me wrong I understood the necessity of it but that didn''t mean actually doing the stuff wasn''t hard on the mind at first.-


    The fact I had basically killed four things at once definitely hadn''t helped at all. If it was only one like I had originally nned then it wouldn''t have been so bad but I pissed off the dungeon a little and got four. Next came the really ufortable part though, magic stone collection. Monsters all contained magic stones somewhere in their body, usually the chest, that you needed to harvest or risk a variant showing up which was a mutation of a normal monster that grows by eating magic stones. Interestingly a monsters body won''t vanish until the stone was harvested and drops don''t appear either.

 Variant

    Variant


    I walked over to one of the bodies and gagged but rested my hand on it''s face.


    "<em>Hell''s forge!"</em>I spoke the incantation and blue and ck mes came to life from my hand covering the goblins body.


    I focused only on the part that normally dropped however and used the technique to refine the teeth ever so slightly before cutting off the energy as I was getting low. Steeling myself I raised my weapon before bringing it down right on the goblins chest with the axe side. the ribs split open to reveal the magic stone that was intact and trying not to throw up again I reached into the cavity and tore it out causing the body to burst into smoke and embers that got sucked into my tattoos.-


    "Well at least I know that wasn''t just a freak incident now." I muttered as I tried to sense if there was anything different about my tattoos or body but there was nothing at all.


    The magic stone in my hand was bloody and about the size of my thumb but perfectly intact with a shifting smoky looking energy within its ck crystalline form. On the ground though I saw something that improved my mood immediately, a full set of teeth that were white. Before jumping to any conclusions though I went through the gruesome and unsettling process of extracting the stones of the other three goblins and didn''t get any drops at all from them which told me that I was right. If I refined the drop before harvesting the stone from an intact body I could get that drop guaranteed.-


    The next step however was checking if the teeth I got this way were the same as a normal drop which meant I unfortunately needed to go hunting for more goblins. I didn''t need to worry about blood though as with a quick flex of my cursed technique it all burnt away. Once I mentally prepared myself I walked further into the dungeon to search for more goblins. The monster spawn rate in the dungeon was based on the power and depth the monster was on. As a result the dungeon churned out a new goblin once every twenty minutes or so which was why adventurers weren''t constantly fighting over the things if they were even hunting them.-


    After reaching level two which was a point most people easily achieved in time with effort most adventurers ignored the goblins because they weren''t worth fighting. Then of course you had the second sort of adventurer that killed everything that moved and ignored the dropped stones despite the fact that doing so could result in a variant popping up simply because it was unprofitable. I unfortunately came across one such variant this dive though it was thankfully a new one and not out of my strike range but definitely close. See I was prowling the stone path of the dungeon when just up ahead I saw the damn thing.


    At first I thought it was a person because it was about as tall as the average human and had pale grey skin so I thought it was just some shirtless dude down here, I was wrong. The variant seemed to sense me and turned before I could call out in greeting and my voice died in my throat when I saw the face of the variant. Long canines and bloody red eyes that made me think of a predator staring at prey.


    "Oh shit!" i shouted as I quickly reached into my pouch and took out a mana potion that I popped the top off of and down the moment I realized what I was not more than fifteen meters away from.


    There was no saving the vial though as the variant charged rapidly with a rusty sword in hand which forced me to toss it and focus on the threat.


    "GRRAAAAAH!" the thing screamed viciously as it swung the de so fast that I barely dodged it by leaping to the side.


    ''I need to grab it.'' I thought immediately recognizing that I was outmatched in physical stats.


    Magic though? Oh I had some real nasty ideas about how I could use my cursed technique in battle. Admittedly one of them was to straight up rip off Mahito and transfigure my opponent in a way that renders them harmless or at least less likely to harm me. In this case I was going to seal the goblins mouth and nose before letting it suffocate to death. I know really fucked up but you couldn''t convince me that the alternative of this thing probably bringing me to the point of near death from a direct sh would be a better option.-


    I figured out how I was going to grab the variant in no time at all and I was frankly not that thrilled at the idea but it was admittedly the best I coulde up with. When the variant charged at me again I steeled myself and moved towards it instead of away. I didn''t get stabbed or shed thankfully as I wrapped my arms around the thing like a very aggressive hug before activating my technique. I definitely got shed across the back after that however as the cursed mes consumed the goblin variant and its lips and nostrils fused shut and it tried it''s hardest to get me off.-


    Once my work was done I punched the variant in the nose as hard as I could before distancing myself. I could feel the cut on my back but it didn''t hurt too much thanks to the adrenaline and while the variant wed at it''s face after dropping it''s sword I snatched said weapon. I couldn''t help but grin when I held it as my technique told me it counted as from a living thing. Reaching into my pouch I grabbed the health and mana potion before downing them both and putting the empty vials back.-


    I felt an itch from my back and my energy reservoir threatened to over fill since the effects of the previous potion I took were still in effect. This time it was intentionally done as I activated my technique and began to refine the sword so that it became a guaranteed drop. Once I felt I had done enough I crossed my fingers prayed to Hestia and used my cursed technique on myself to try and heal the cut on my back. The pain vanished as surprisingly the technique didn''t hurt me at all when I used it on myself. -


    Even more surprising was that the energy burnt by the technique was the lowest it''s ever been and I suddenly realized I had been putting the carriage before the horse. My technique was meant to be used on me but using it on things outside myself was the extension of the technique and thus a massive energy sink. Looking at the variant that had copsed at this point with a blue face and was in it''s final throws as the life fled it''s body I sighed and walked over to it and sank it''s own de through it''s chest to retrieve the magic stone.

 Guild trip

    Guild trip


    When I retrieved the stone the variant burst into a much bigger than normal cloud of smoke that had blue embers in it rather than the red of the normal goblins. The stone was also three times bigger and clearly of a higher quality. The smoke got sucked into my tattoos again but this time I actually felt a difference. It was hard to describe but it felt almost like a drop of liquid had appeared in my mind. What it meant and what uses it had I wasn''t sure about but it certainly didn''t feel like it was a bad thing.


    Anyway I got the sword as a drop and to my surprise the variants entire skull. It honestly looked almost like a human skull but the details were off and the mouthful of very sharp teeth said otherwise. Still I bagged the thing since loot was loot and it might prove usefulter. After this encounter I was firmly andpletely done with this delve and started heading back to the surface. I had to hang the sword awkwardly from my hip since it was a raw de without a sheathe but nobody said anything so I just rolled with it.-


    I headed over to the guild nearby to sell my loot and verify whether or not the goblin teeth I had still counted as drops. The ce was absolutely hopping with activity as many other adventurers also came to turn in their loot for coin. I quickly found my way over to Roses counter that was mostly empty.


    "Yo!" I said cheerfully and the werewolf woman red at me.


    "Oh well if it isn''t Mr. Drake who I haven''t seen since I was assigned to him and I thought died in the dungeon. What can I do for you today sir?" she said in the most passive aggressive manner ever.


    "Okay that''s fair I probably should have checked in but I was busy training really hard before I went into the dungeon. Got all my stats to G before I even stepped foot in the ce, a decision i am happy to say was a damn good one. Today was the first time I delved in fact and I even came across a fucking variant goblin of all things. Probably some asshole left stones on the ground without care if I had to guess." I vented my sorrows to the woman and she gave me a weird look like I was missing some screws.


    "So you haven''t been delving the whole month?" she asked suspicious.


    "Nah I was training my stats up to G first and getting a hang of my weapon and magic. Today was the first time I''ve actually stepped foot in the dungeon and I got ambushed by four goblins THEN I ran into a variant bastard, hold on I think I already mentioned that?" I said with a pause towards the end.


    "I would like to say you have a good head on your shoulders but I think you might actually be insane. Also you said you came across a variant goblin? Can you describe where and what it looked like so the guild can issue a quest to exterminate it?" Rose said very seriously towards the end.


    "Hmm? oh! Theres no need I already killed it, speaking of I have some drops to turn in." I said before digging out the skull so I could get to the teeth and stones at the bottom of my bag.


    Rose just stared at the skull dumbfounded while I did this and she wasn''t alone as some other people had taken notice of the skull as well. I set all the teeth on the counter before putting the skull back in the bag since I was going to keep it for personal use.


    "Here we are, twelve goblin teeth and six magic stones with one broken and one from the variant." I said cheerfully as I handed over my loot.


    "So you actually fought a variant and won?" Rose asked astonished.


    "I am pretty sure it was a newly evolved one but I did yes." I said nodding in confirmation.


    "I see." she said neutrally as she moved on to testing all the loot and I was especially worried about the teeth but they passed inspection just fine.


    "The variant stone is approximately equivalent to a grade three stone or a stone from an ogre for a value of two thousand valis. The teeth are worth fifty valis apiece for a total of six hundred valis. the broken stone is worth a t rate of fifty valis. each normal goblin core that is intact is worth one hundred valis for a total of four hundred valis. Yourplete turnover is three thousand fifty valis is this eptable?" Rose said breaking down the going price of things.


    I nodded "Yep that sounds good thanks for the help." I said with a smile.


    Rose just looked at me nkly before counting out the coin and putting it in a small bag that she handed to me. I left the guild after that and totally missed Rose gawking at the shed bloody back of my shirt. On the way back I was called out by the girl who I bumped into hours before hand and helped with the produce.


    "Hey! Over here!" she called and like anyone would at that sound I looked ,that was a mistake.


    She rushed me and before I knew it all my valis was gone and I was eating a hearty meal at a restaurant and bar called the hostess of fertility. It was a quaint little ce that made me nervous as hell for one reason, every single person there save one was level four minimum. The owner was a massive dwarven woman who was level fucking six. The food was good and all but I didn''t want to find out what happens if I criticized the food and kept my mouth shut about it needing some salt.-


    I made sure to take some food home for Hestia since I thought she''d appreciate it and said goodbye to the girl who I learned was named Syr. The owner Mia had apparently heard about my magic from Syr and offered to pay me to swing by everyday in the morning to enhance the vor of the ingredients after the tomatoes I had improved earlier proved to be a big hit when used. I was honest and said I''d try to stop by when I could since I could always use the coin but that I might not make it since I''d be hitting the dungeon a lot more.-


    That answer was easily epted and i was told it was an open offer. I wasn''t sure but Syr seemed pleased with the whole arrangement but then again I was about as versed with the opposite sex as a rock. I was damn good at treating people like i wanted to be treated but that just meant I wasn''t hard to get along with. I avoided romance like the gue it is though and was perfectly happy being a single man forever.

 True purpose

    True purpose


    I stopped by the Blue pharmacy on the way back to the church and dropped off the empty vials while grabbing some more potions for the next day including a few extras for when I was practicing my technique making bone figurines. Once I got back to the church i got started doing precisely that since my energy was full and I didn''t want the bones to start rotting. To prevent that I actually fused and refined all the bones together at once into an orb the size of a basketball thatcked anything capable of rotting.-


    From there I downed a potion and got to work turning the bigger orb into about thirty smaller orbs that had ws still since I was trying to be as efficient as possible. A thing I learned about my technique was that if I gave it a vague order like "regrow the arm" it would use my own understanding of what exactly that meant as a base to aplish it and thus I could regrow an arm with a seemly low amount of energy. In the same way however if I tried to make the orderplex like "grow out the bones, then the muscles, veins and skin." the cost would grow to massive proportions.-


    This was why it took me such arge amount of energy to add all the artistic details to my figurines, I was making incredibly precise orders that as a result cost me in efficiency. It was not about the amount of energy I was using when I crafted the figurines but rather the level of fine detail I was adding in exchange. For this reason I was able to turn all of these orbs into vaguely fairy like images for about a quarter of my energy each but thatcked any individualistic features or fine details.-


    I needed to drink another potion before Hestia came home in order toplete a figurine that this time had butterfly wings and amazoness features and clothes. It was honestly the easiest design to make considering that most amazoness are damn near exhibitionists that wear next to nothing. Thanks to that I doubt there is a male in Orario who can''t vividly imagine their features. When my goddess finally did show up she was pleased to report she had sold the other figurine for eleven thousand valis this time though to a different person.-


    "Oh right the butcher wanted me to let you know that he doesn''t mind trading the bones for a figurine since his wife wants one." Hestia said with a smile.


    "I see. I already ate dinner and brought you some food from the ce I ate." I said pointing at the takeout bag sitting on the table.


    Unsurprisingly Hestia was absolutely thrilled with the food but I couldn''t really me her since we have been living on what she brought home from work all month.


    "I think I should get an update today to see if my trip to the dungeon improved my stats by a lot or very little." I said after she was done eating and she agreed.


    Like usual she straddled my back and dripped a drop of her blood on my back which sent up a bright lightshow as my falna updated. Unlike usual however I felt the drop of "liquid" in my mind vanish in the process but Hestia didn''t seem to notice anything off. She finished up the process and copied my status on a sheet of paper before letting me up so I can take a look at it.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:256(G)-> 320(F)


    Endurance:312(F)->402(E)


    Agility:221(G)->295(G)


    Dexterity:201(G)-> 276(G)


    Magic:627(C)-> 814(A)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    All of my stats took arge jump forward based on how much I used them today and I realized exactly what I absorbed through my tattoos, excelia. Or at the very least updating my falna used the stuff in ce of excelia to improve my stats based on my efforts but much more than I actually put in the work for. It wasn''t an unreasonable amount of increase though so I will at most grow abnormally fast but not enough to draw concern. Still the fact my magic stat had hit A rank meant I was soon going to find out for sure whether S really was the limit or not.-


    "Goodness! Your stats exploded after only a single trip to the dungeon! At this rate you might level up before the end of the month!" Hestia said excitedly and full of pride.


    I just nodded but didn''t tell her that I wasn''t nning on leveling up before I felt like there was no more progress to be made at this level. The higher my stats were at this level the better my foundation for godhood would be so I didn''t want to improve my vessel by leveling up until I couldn''t refine that foundation any more. Nothing short of the absolute limit of what my vessel was capable of was eptable.-


    After that I refined the sword I got earlier a bit before calling it a night and heading to bed. The next day Hestia took my newest figurine and went to work while I headed to the hostess of fertility before going to the dungeon. In the bar and restaurant Mama Mia thankfully kept me away from the girls who worked there as I improved the ingredients before handing me three thousand valis and sending me on my way. Syr had shyly given me a boxed lunch she made as well which I thanked her for politely before leaving.-


    Her cooking was terrible I found out. Too much salt and some stuff was burnt to the degree I had to use my technique just to fix the whole meal. Still it was better than nothing at all so I didn''t mind it all that much. The first floor of the dungeon was the same as yesterday in that it was a strangely cave like ce that had supernatural lighting. The green skinned goblins like always were stupid and murder happy leaping at any adventurer theye across. I myself had the vicious little bastards figured out and was able to calmly face one without any issue after finding one.-


    That was the trick though, finding one. Unlike some sort of fucking video game the low level creatures were not in fact everywhere but actually took some luck or time looking toe across. I was sort of tempted to try and piss off the dungeon to make things easy on me by getting a group to show up but something told me that at some point the dungeon would either stop reacting or send something that could actually kill me. Neither option felt like one worth looking forward to so I chose to leave it be and hustle like every other adventurer.

 Contemplations and solemn lesson

    Contemtions and solemn lesson


    As I walked through the dungeon in search of goblins to desensitize myself to killing on I pondered the nature of monsters. Nobody actually knew all that much about them beyond how they tend to be after they spawn. Like how exactly the dungeon spawns them, why they have magic stones or why they go poof when you damage or remove said magic stone despite being very much solid flesh and blood things? All these questions went entirely unanswered and from what I can tell nobody even bothered to try and answer them.-


    What gave me a clue to them however was the fact that after a monster goes poof my tattoos absorb the smoke. To most people my tattoos are just decoration but I know for a fact that they are the physical representation of my innate technique. The fact that the smoke is absorbed by my tattoos means that monsters might in fact be this worlds version of cursed spirits and by killing them my cursed technique takes the special form of energy thatprises their bodies as fuel for my growth. That was my theory anyway and might be wrong but also raised a concerning question about myself if true, was I really human?-


    My falna said so and so did everyone around me. But if that was true why was my body alonepatible with the energy thatprised a monsters body if they are indeed this worlds type of cursed spirit? Is it just coincidence because of my technique or is there something more to it? I thought about this until I finally came across a goblin. It looked the same as all the others and had a wooden club as it noticed me and charged screaming wildly.-


    As an experiment I covered my fist in cursed energy and dodging the overhead strike of the goblin decked it as hard as I could in the face. Nothing strange happened though, it was a normal punch with a normal effect of breaking the nose and sending the goblin sprawling.


    ''So it isn''t just a matter of cursed energy then but something else as well, but what?'' I thought as I walked up to the goblin struggling to get past the damage to it''s head.


    Dropping my knees on it''s arms to hold it down I ignored it''s violent struggles and ced my palm t against it''s chest before sending cursed energy to it. At first nothing happened but eventually the goblin started screaming in pain and I saw that it was faint but a bit of charring was starting to appear on the part of the goblin I was pressing down on.


    ''So my cursed energy was traces of fire in it, perhaps I can refine this into actual fire then?'' I thought and gave it a go by picturing a violent me as I willed my cursed energy to take that shape on my hand. It was slow but the longer I kept up the flow the hotter my cursed energy got burning the goblin worse and worse before I hit a barrier. My cursed energy simply wasn''t getting hotter anymore not because it couldn''t but because I could feel that something was missing like a key to what I wanted was not there and my progress was stopped as a result, it was frustrating.-


    ''I felt something simr when I went over my limit on cursed energy after drinking that undiluted potion. Oh I see! I need something to inspire me, something that gives my cursed energy an edge for the briefest moment. I almost forgot that cursed users need stimtion from danger to grow rapidly.'' I thought quite happy with my discovery and realization.


    So happy in fact that I drew my weapon and put the goblin out of it''s misery by bashing it''s head in. I retrieved the stone and felt the smoke get sucked into my tattoos. Perhaps I didn''t get an answer about what monsters were or why I could absorb their discorporated forms to grow stronger but I did make an important discovery none the less. Learning that I might be able to turn my cursed energy into me was a very valuable thing indeed.-


    I moved on from there looking for the next goblin to hone myself on. It took me a good fifteen minutes but I did find a goblin though not in the best way as it was beating a dead adventurers body with it''s club. Looking at the clothes of the body it was all too easy to understand what had happened. This was a hopeful young man who underestimated the danger of the dungeon even on the first floor and it cost him everything. The continued desecration of the body however pissed me off.-


    I get that monsters kill people and I can even understand that monsters don''t have any moral code and act instinctively but this just enraged me. In my anger I charged the goblin that paused mid swing at the body to look at me just in time for my weapons hammer side to smash into it''s face at full force.


    "CRRRACK!"


    The impact reverberated through the air as the skull of the goblin burst apart from the sheer force of the blow pressing against it''s side. I didn''t care about the gore and ced my hand on the adventurers body.


    "<em>Hell''s forge!"</em> I spoke the incantation and ck and blue me sprung to life on the body as it began to turn to ash and vanish.


    "I can''t take you out of here but I can at least make sure your body won''t be brutalized anymore." I said firmly as I cremated the body on the spot.


    Amongst the remains was a small dagger with a familia crest on the handle that I put in my bag to return to the adventurers familia. I harvested the goblin coldly before moving on with a firm lesson on not getting too full of myself lest I end up like that young man. I ended up getting five more goblins with all of them giving me about twelve teeth thanks to my technique once I remembered to apply it. I left the dungeon and saw that a goddess that looked like a Pallum was asking about if anyone had seen her child.-


    "Is this your crest?" I asked gently after presenting the goddess with the dagger.


    The goddess looked at the de and tears filled her eyes as she shakily reached out to take it.


    "Did he suffer much?" she asked with a sob.


    "I do not know as I came upon him after he was killed. The goblin responsible was desecrating the body so I killed it and cremated the remains to prevent another from doing so after I left. That dagger was the only clue I had to the familia that the adventurer belonged to, I am sorry for your loss." I said respectfully.

 New friend

    New friend


    The goddess thanked me for my actions before leaving to grieve more privately and I just watched her go.


    "Wipe that look off your faced! You''ve done what was good and proper and should be proud of it!" A gruff voice said as I felt a heavy hand pat me on the back.


    Looking at the source of the voice I found a dark skinned dwarf man with heavy armor and a wide toothy grin.


    "Hroldar, Ogun familia!" the dwarf introduced himself while holding out a hand.


    "Alexander Drake, Hestia familia but I go by Alex." I said shaking the hand.


    It was rough and calloused but Hroldar clearly held back his strength since the shake was firm but not harsh.


    "Well met Alex! It is good to find that this city has uing adventurers who''ve got their heart in the right ce. Nothing wrong with a bit of glory or wealth but those should alwayse after what is right." Hroldar said with a smile.


    "How''d you know I was an uing adventurer?" I asked curiously.


    "Your geard, no offense but it''s sorelycking for anything other than the first few floors. Not to mention how you acted with that goddess there, a vet would be calmer. It''s a sad thing toe across but anyone''s whos been at this long enough has been in the same spot once or twice. Now lets get you to the guild to turn in your loot, good deeds rarely keep the belly filled by themselves aye?" he said with a smile and we headed over to the guild.


    When we were done Hroldar was looking at me oddly as I walked out of the guild with a total of three thousand seven hundred valis more than I walked in with.


    "Be honest with med, you got a skill that increases drop rate for you? It''s not unheard of but it''s not exactmon either." Hroldar asked curiously.


    I shook my head "Nah I''ve got no skill like that." I said honestly.


    ''I should probably start holding back some of the drops I harvest to prevent suspicions from building.'' I thought seriously.


    "Musta just been real lucky then to get so many teeth. Most goblins only drop three or four if any at all." Hroldar said not doubting me at all.


    "I don''t know, maybe it''s my just deserts after the shit luck I had yesterday." I joked and he raised an eyebrow.


    "I delved for the first time yesterday and I shit you not I came across a variant goblin that looked like it had just evolved. Some asshole was probably killing goblins on their way further down and left the stones behind. Anyways this goblin was as tall as me and had this pale skin with red eyes and long fangs..." I told my tale with great enthusiasm leaving out how I killed it since that would reveal my technique.


    "You''re right that is some shit luck. From the sounds of it though that variant was a fresh one so you might be onto something with that idea someone killed the goblins on the way down and didn''t grab the stones. Guild''ll p a hefty fine on anyone reported doing it more than once but theres always a few who do it anyways. Buncha selfish fools in my opinion." Hroldar said spitting on the ground in disdain.


    "Alex! Pleasee in and have a seat!" Syr said with a smile as we arrived at the hostess.


    "Not today I''m afraid, gotta save up you see. I just came to drop off the container for the meal you made me is all. A bit of advice from someone''s whos had to learn how to cook before, taste the food you are cooking before and after adding salt or seasonings. It''ll help you determine if you need more or it''s just fine as is." I said while handing over the lunch container with a smile.


    Syr seemed to dete when I said I wasn''t going to stay but paid close attention to the advice I gave her and told me she''d remember it for the future.


    "Shame you''ll not be staying Alex, would''ve loved to share a pint as we got to chattin." Hroldar said with a grin before wishing me well and heading into the restaurant himself.


    I on the other hand went to the Blue pharmacy to drop off my empty vials and rece the potions for tomorrow and my practice at the church. Once I got back to the church I wasted no time at all grabbing one of my undetailed figurines and began to shape it and form the fine stuff. This one was a Pallum based fairy with long smooth hair and dragonfly wings holding a pair of small curved des in an attacking pose.-


    The wings were the trickiest part as a dragonflies wings have a lot of small details to them. I was getting good at this process and was quickly starting to be more efficient with my energy usage as I worked. Surprisingly I only needed a single potion toplete the figurine this time and even had a little cursed energy to spare. The potions were getting less and less effective however as my reserve grew to match my magic stat at every moment in a slow but continuous process.-


    If the growth followed the same speed as my previous updates the growth would reach my current status in another three days or so. Still I had another potion set aside for practice and waited for my reserve to refill before downing the potion and working on refining the sword I got from the variant as the material was surprisingly hard to refine. So far I had gotten the rust off of it and had barely improved the des hardness and durability. Don''t get me wrong though the de put any steel weapon in this city to shame by quite a lot.-


    I was tempted to transform the thing into my own weapon type or at least fuse the metal into my weapon but that felt wasteful to me for some reason. I couldn''t even begin to tell you why but it was just a gut feeling I had and I tended to listen to those. So here I was instead making the already good de even more exceptional by burning through my cursed energy like rocket fuel. The design of the sword wasn''t anything special but a single nce at the thing was enough to tell anyone that it was far beyond normal des.-


    ''I wonder if I could add a cursed attribute to the thing and turn it into a cursed tool?'' I had this sudden thought and it consumed my mind.


    ''What makes a cursed tool a cursed tool? Is it just the ability to house cursed energy on it''s own or does it need a technique or restriction carved into it?'' I pondered seriously as I closed my eyes and let my cursed energy flow along the de and try to prate it.

 Crafting stuff

    Crafting stuff


    My mind sorta fogged out at this point as I focused entirely on the de and my cursed energy flowing along it. Yet much like when I tried to turn my energy to me earlier something was missing and I couldn''t push the energy into the de more than just a little. Opening my eyes with a frustrated sigh I felt like swearing that the cursed energy was unfairly difficult to use. Left with no way forward at the moment I set the de aside and grabbed another oddity I possessed, the variant skull.-


    I knew that variants had guaranteed unique drops upon being killed but it was never the same. Not only that but it was very rarely worth making the things artificially as if you had the strength to do so you were also probably too powerful for whatever drop came from the variant unless it was a very specific type of monster or one from the deeper floors. For example lets say a level five wanted to get a powerful healing type item but couldn''t afford tomission one from a deep floor unicorn(yes those were real here) for whatever reason.-


    That same level five could in theory find something really weak like say an Almiraj(red eyed horned white rabbit of fluffy death) and then force feed it a damn near lethal amount of healing potions or ingredients before stuffing magic stones down it''s throat. If they are lucky the thing will evolve in the direction they want due to the healing potions as a catalyst. Then it is merely a matter of force feeding the thing magic stones until it reaches level five or six in terms of power and healing potency before killing it and hoping it''s drop has the properties you want.-


    As should be clear however this is a very time and resource intensive project and also a huge risk as not only is it highly illegal but you may not get a drop item with the properties you want at the end if you do take this route. In addition the drop will also be weaker than a naturally more powerful monster such as a unicorn. All in all unless the monster is by itself extremely rare or valuable then artificially creating a variant monster is not worth it.-


    What I mean to say with all this information was that this skull was either very good for me or totally useless and I had no clue which it was. Obviously I could refine the thing but again the question of whether that was worth doing popped up. ording to the Artemis familia a good smith could take one look at a drop and tell if it was worth something or not but I was neither a smith or appraiser. I was just a dude with a really useful cursed technique and a newbie adventurer. Unfortunately my gut was silent on the matter with the skull so here I was staring at the skull like this was Hamlet.-


    Honestly the only thing of note as far as I could tell was the hardness of the thing. That and how fucking sharp the teeth were after I sliced my finger open on one of the things after barely touching it. The skull surprisingly enough was totally fine after I hit it with my hammer to test it''s durability. In fact there wasn''t a scratch on it which of course lead to the current moment where Hestia walked into the room to see me about to cleave the skull with the sword.-


    "I know this looks bad but I promise I have a logical exnation." I said after seeing her shocked expression.


    "What could possibly make this make sense?" She asked disbelieving me.


    "Well this skull is a drop item and I am testing it''s durability, if it''s good enough I am thinking about turning it into some armor." I said trying to sound convincing.


    She looked suspicious but told me to continue as i was and with a might swing I achieved nothing besides losing my grip on the handle of the de because of my poor form on impact. Luckily I did hit the skull and found that even still it didn''t have any marks on it at all. I couldn''t help but grin when I saw this since this meant the thing would in fact make a good piece of armor. The trick was I had to figure out what sort of armor to turn it into as it was not very big and thus a few options were totally out. After a bit of internal debate I chose to turn it into a set of bracers.


    There was just enough material for me to barely make it work to cover my forearms and as an added bonus I could take the teeth and fuse them into the axe side of my weapon to make it stupid sharp. Obvious I wasn''t going to do all this now butter when I have enough energy to do so. Still I told Hestia my n and she approved of me getting armor since it would help me stay alive in the dungeon. We ate and I told her about my day while she mentioned that the butchers wife liked the figurine she got.-


    After that we went to sleep since we were both rather tired otherwise. The next morning I got up and after stretching set off for the dungeon. I stopped by the hostess and enriched the ingredients again for another three thousand valis. Syr once again gave me a meal she made for me while telling me that she remembered my advice and it helped a whole bunch. Dungeon square was active as always when I got there but to my surprise Hroldar was waiting for me near the dungeon entrance. He had on his armor and surprisingly had a god with him as well.-


    The god was a tall man with dark skin and a mostly bald head with the exceptions being five short beaded dreadlocks at the back of his head. The gods clothes were a simple open chested sleeveless vest and shorts that showed off his muscr body.


    "Morning Alex! I hope you don''t mind but after I told Ogun about you yesterday he wanted to meet you personally." Hroldar said with a smile as I walked up.


    "Alexander Drake, he only said good things I hope?" I said holding out my hand to shake the gods hand.


    "Ogun and yes he spoke positively of you. It is rare he takes a shine to someone so I make a point of meeting those he does." The god spoke calmly as he shook my hand but I could feel the power in that grip, this was no soft god but a warrior in his own right.

 Chat and lessons

    Chat and lessons


    "A good habit to have. Makesworking easier I imagine." I said and Ogun nodded.


    "We are not arge familia and like to only associate with like minded people. For example I recall that Hroldar said your Goddess was Hestia correct?" Ogun asked and I nodded.


    "In truth I am the first and only member of the familia at the moment and we are still getting a firm foot under us." I said honestly.


    The god smiled "I know of Hestia from my time in heaven but haven''t met her personally though what I heard of her speaks well. As for getting a foot under you Hroldar has asked permission to help in this regard."


    "Ayed. I noticed your weapon yesterday and figured I might be able to give some help on using it since I use a heavy weapon myself with my axe here." Hroldar said showing me his battle axe that was quite heavy looking indeed.


    "The help would be appreciated since I have been winging it with this thing after I designed it." I said with a smile.


    "Really? I admit the weapon had me a bit confused at first, how''s it work roughly?" Hroldar asked and Ogun also looked interested.


    "The blunt end here is for anything that a cutting edge might struggle with and the wedge side here works in about the same way as your axe head does. I know that most weapons like this would have a longer handle but I wanted something that wasn''t so unwieldy in tight spaces." I exined proudly.


    "Sounds like a versatile weapon, lots of utility. Mind if I give it a few swings?" Hroldar asked and I handed my weapon over.


    He stepped back a bit and gave the weapon a few swings in various stances using both the hammer side and axe wedge side. Unlike me he clearly knew what he was doing and the weapon certainly moved exactly how I imagined it would in the hands of someone with a higher level. Once he was done Hroldar smiled and nodded at the weapon in approval before walking over and handing it back.


    "The potential for the thing is limitless so long as you can deal with the weight ying hell on your wrist and shoulder. I imagine as you level up you''ll be upgrading to better materials and greater weight right?" he asked and I nodded.


    "Was thinking goliath teeth for the next version. A bit expensive to buy from the market but I think well worth it." I said with a smile.


    "Ha! You sound like those smiths in the Hephaestus familia." Hroldar said with a chuckle.


    "I''ll take that as apliment since I am a craftsman myself though a bit different than those lot I believe." I said pleased.


    "A craftsman not affiliated with a crafting familia? That''s quite a rarity, are you any good?" Ogun asked surprised.


    "Depends on the situation but so long as drops are involved and you don''t want added effects I guarantee that my work is the best in the city. Sounds arrogant I know but I am willing to let youpare any of my works to any other level one smiths and prove my im." I said proudly.


    "You truly seem to believe what you say which is the only reason i am not dismissing your ims as rubbish. That said the world is a wide ce and it is never good to im to be the best at anything lest luck conspire to prove you wrong. Give me a few days and I''ll put forth a test to see if your ims are true." Ogun said wisely and I agreed since I was quite confident.


    After that Ogun left and Hroldar spoke up "Lets head into the dungeon so I can show you a thing or two about how you might use that piece there." he said with a grin and I followed behind him.


    We didn''t go far, only the first floor where we found a goblin so Hroldar could see how i used my weapon first. I didn''t have any issue dispatching the goblin and mypanion looked on with a serious expression.


    "You''ve got the makings of a good style going but you are ignoring a part of what makes that weapon special, it''s nimbleness. You are using it exclusively like it was a normal battle hammer or axe but it''s not with a handle that short. You might try and use the thing to parry since it''s nimble enough ands got the heft to redirect an blow. Lets find another goblin so I can show you what I mean." he said and I agreed.


    We searched for another thirty minutes seriously before we found another goblin and Hroldar borrowed my weapon to demonstrate what he was talking about. The goblin had a spear and went to stab at Hroldar but he moved his right hand that was holding the weapon in such a way that the spear was thrown to the side as it slid across the hammer face missing himpletely before the blunt head elerated right into the goblins face. I was excited to see this as it proved that my weapon was usable in various ways that even I hadn''t thought of.-


    "Now we need to find another goblin so you can give it a go. Other than that you only really need experience and to work on your stance a bit to be set from here on." Hroldar said honestly.


    "What''s wrong with my stance?" I asked confused since i had copied a standard foot cement from all the martial arts movies I saw on earth.


    "Not a thing if you used a spear or halberd where being rooted in ce was a good thing. That weapon is not the sort that gains anything from you sitting still though, it''s a fluid thing meant for hitting while on the move. Don''t get me wrongd it''s a perfectly usable stance when you need to stand your ground but for what you want to aplish it''s rubbish. Bend the knees like this, no a bit higher." Hroldar said as he began to show me a better stance to take.


    The final result felt awkward but I had to admit it was certainly much more fluid than what I was doing before. Hroldar made it clear though that this was a stance purely forbat as otherwise there was no point in using it. After that we went on to hunt another four goblins before calling it a day and Hroldar didn''t even want any of the stones or couple teeth that dropped naturally since I wasn''t willing to use my technique while there was an audience. Not to say I didn''t trust Hroldar as he had plenty of opportunities to backstab me while we were down here already but had been nothing but helpful and even taught me willingly but I knew that my technique was REALLY valuable.

 Bell Cranel

    Bell Cranel


    And I don''t mean in the way he originally thought where I simply got more drops. While that was certainly a factor but my cursed technique was a veritable treasure trove because of the sheer versatility of what I had discovered it capable of through trial and error. Healing, drops, item creation, ingredient improvement,bat application and who knew how many other things it was capable of make it damn near an omnitool for any need one might have. Something like this simply didn''t exist, it was unique to me alone and that was dangerous to share with others.-


    If you are wondering about the whole hostess of fertility thing I made sure that they only knew a single facet of my technique which was my ability to enhance ingredients. Skills and spells that could do that did exist already and weren''t all that umon either for crafters that didn''t delve more than absolutely necessary. But for a new and small familia like mine that didn''t have anyone over level one exposing my technique would only cause the gods to dere a war game to snatch me to their roster.-


    Anyways after that trip I only got a bit over a thousand valis and headed home after turning the food container back over to Syr and giving her some more advice like how to make boiled soy eggs which happened to be a favorite of mine. It was literally just boiling eggs and then soaking the deshelled eggs in soy marinade overnight. They were a quick and easy food that tasted amazing in my opinion. After that I hit up the Blue pharmacy to restock and trade out potion vials before finally making to the church. Rather than work on another figurine though I instead grabbed the variants skull and began the refine it.-


    The thing resisted me every step of the way because of it''s stupidly high durability but by the time Hestia came home the grey hard skull had turned ck and had a sinister gleam to it. Three fucking potions were the price I paid to refine the damn thing to this degree and I could tell instinctually that this was the best I can do at the moment. All that was left was the separate the teeth from the skull before transforming the skull into bracers.-


    I was confused when Hestia came home as she was not alone but had a scrawny white haired boy with her.


    "A new member already? Thought I''d need to get to level two or higher before we started getting any." I said casually as she brought the by down to the room.


    "Umu! I bumped into him on the way back from work and it turned out he was looking for a familia!" She said puffing out her chest proudly.


    "Well if the goddess says you''re in then you''re in, wee to the family kid." I said with a smile.


    "T-thank you for having me!" the boy said loudly and nervously.


    "Whats your name kid? Mines Alexander Drake but I go by Alex." I asked while introducing myself.


    "Bell Cranel Sir!" the boy said stiffly which made it clear that he wasn''t sure how he should act.


    "You can rx Bell and drop the stiff attitude, we don''t do that here." I said with a smile.


    Bell slouched with a sigh of relief at that and I motioned him to take a seat on the couch.


    "Now if you would take off your shirt so Hestia can grant you her blessing we can make this official." I said and he paused for a moment before taking off his shirt.


    Hestia did her thing and soon we had Bells status sheet to look over.


    Name: Bell Cranel


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:10(I)


    Endurance:10(I)


    Agility:10(I)


    Dexterity:10(I)


    Magic:10(I)


    Spells: none


    Skills: none


    "Nothing special it seems but that''s just fine since it means you are a nk te and can go any direction you want." I said patting the boy on the back reassuringly as he looked dejected not seeing anything special on his status.


    Bell brightened up at that "You really think so?" he asked with hopeful eyes.


    I smiled "Yeah not a doubt in my mind that if you put in the work you''ll turn out alright in the end." I said honestly.


    I meant every word too as the falna responds to emotions and effort so no matter how talentless you are if you are willing to push yourself to constantly improve, you will. After that we all headed to the hostess to blow through fifteen thousand valis to celebrate Bell joining the family. Syr was acting odd when we were there though as she was looking between Bell and me with a strange expression.


    Hestia as it turned out was an absolute light weight when alcohol was involved and needed to be carried home after our small celebration. Once back at the church I told Bell to take the couch as I simply removed my boots and flopped on the bed with Hestia in my arms to save Bell from getting sneak attacked and used as a body pillow by her sometime during the night. It was funny how quickly I gave up on the idea of sleeping alone after moving into the church originally.-


    There was nothing romantic about this whole scenario either but merely just a thing I had gotten used to after Hestia turned out to be a clingy ninja. No, seriously the woman somehow got out of the bed, walked over to the couch and THEN somehow managed to slip under my nket toy against my chest all without waking me up. I am NOT a heavy sleeper so unless she was a ninja I had no fucking idea how she pulled it off every single night. Knowing that she was unstoppable in this regard I chose to spare Bell that experience as the boy was na?ve and innocent.-


    My sacrifice paid off as the goddess was right where I left her when I woke up in the morning. Thanks to her being a light weight she didn''t even have a hangover beyond a slight headache that went away shortly after she woke up.


    "Why can''t Ie to the dungeon with you though?" Bell whined when I stopped him from following me.


    "Because as you are right now going to the dungeon is a death sentence. Look just do what I did and raise your physical stats to G rank and then I might take you with me. Trust me on this and you''ll thank meter when you do go to the dungeon. In the church theres a sword that should work well to get you familiar with holding a weapon, use that today and tomorrow I''ll spend the day creating a routine to follow in order to raise your stats. The only reason I am not doing that today is that I am pretty sure that I have a friend waiting for me at the dungeon that I need to let know whats going on." I told him seriously.

 Deeper

    Deeper


    Bell was unhappy with my arrangements but did decide to at least listen to them for now and went back to the church. Once I was sure he wasn''t just trying to trick me into leaving so he could follow me I finally made my way to the dungeon. I was a bitter than usual but Hroldar didn''t seem to mind.


    "Lets go a bit deeper today since these first floor goblins aren''t giving you much of a challenge. Fourth floor ought to do since that''s when groups of goblins or kobolds start showing up." he suggested and I couldn''t help but agree.


    I won''t say that killing the goblins on the first floor is boring exactly since if I fuck up I run a risk of serious injury or death. But at the same time theres no challenge in killing these goblins as I now have higher stats than them in all regards and add on my mind and it really is time to go deeper. I''m not ready for the newbie killer floors yet though as War Shadows and Killer Ants are a whole different sort of monster than the dumb goblins.-


    I met my first Kobold on the way down to the fourth floor and I was rather disappointed. Kobolds were for theck of a better description dog goblins. What I mean by that is that they were the same size as a normal goblin and had nearly identical stats but had the heads of dogs and fur all over their bodies. Unlike goblins however kobolds dropped their hide as well as their fangs as drop items with the former being used to make leather for low level armor and theter having the same use as goblin teeth.-


    I wanted to get some hide to use but with Hroldar with me I couldn''t use my technique as I pleased. Eventually though we reached the fourth floor and I noticed that the walls were a mix of two colors instead of the usual bluish color I was used to. This wasn''t anything surprising as the fifth floor to the seventh floor all had light green colored walls from my research on the matter.


    "Alrightd I''ve seen that you remember what I showed you yesterday, now it''s time push it to it''s limit. First group we find you''ll deal with alone." He said and I nodded.


    It didn''t take long for us to find our first group either as no more than five minutes into looking we discovered a group of five monsters, three kobolds and two goblins with varied equipment and their backs towards us. Hroldar waited at the back as I rushed the group which drew their attention just in time to see me copse the skull of the unlucky kobold bringing up the rear.


    "GRAAAHH!"


    "AAARP!"


    The monsters screamed their feral battle cries and came at me as I switched into my stance. First up was a goblin with a club that I deflected a strike from before sending my own to dispatch it. Things got tricky after that as the two kobolds and goblin all reached me at the same time and attacked as well. I dodged to the side before throwing a punch straight into the eye of one of the kobolds as I did so which made it back off while grabbing at the damaged eye. Using that opening I circled around it as thest kobold and goblin went to stab me with their spears thus having them dispatch the thing for me.-


    Now there was only two monsters left and I chose aggression to keep them from recovering and possibly rubbing their two braincells together and figuring out how fucked they were. Monsters are murderous sure but they are also smart enough to run away in fear should it ovee their innate hatred of us adventurers. It tends to be rare though as there is usually not enough pressure on them to do so or the adventurer dealing with them is careful not to let them escape. Shortly after that I was taking deep breaths as I had pushed myself a bit to handle this group even if I had avoided getting injured.-


    "You got the knack for it nowd so I think this''ll be thest time I delve with you unless you manage to level up. I''ve got my own delving to do after all." Hroldar said with a heartyugh.


    "I appreciate the help either way so thanks." I said honestly grateful.


    "Bah, don''t worry about itd I''m always happy to help a newbie get their legs under them." he said waving off my thanks.


    I ended up fighting three more groups each with no less than three monsters and no more than six before we called it a day. I had to admit I could understand the appeal of diving deeper and deeper as while the danger increases so too does the rewards. This one trip earned me four thousand and fifty valis as well as two kobold hides that I kept to use for myself. Syr dragged me into the restaurant when I was about to pass by.


    "You never came this morning!" she said with an angry pout.


    "Sorry about that but I was runningte due to the newest member of my familia not wanting to stay behind to work on his stats before he went to the dungeon." I said honestly.


    She had a look of understanding as she calmed down "I suppose i can forgive you just this once but don''t make a habit of it." she said firmly.


    "Wasn''t nning on it but I''ll be double sure to keep that in mind from now on. Oooh maybe I''ll write a note that says "Go see Syr or she''ll stomp on your foot" that''ll motivate me I think."I joked and the grey hared girl huffed in mock anger.


    "If your not buying something go away and let her get back to work!" Mama Mia yelled our way and I hurriedly said my goodbyes before leaving.


    On the way back to the church I grabbed a bunch of extra potions from the Blue pharmacy and when Naaza asked what was going on I exined about Bell and my side projects needed a bunch of energy toplete. She totally understood what i meant and handed over the potions without any problems after that. The whole free mana potion thing we had going on was a great thing in my opinion as I was burning through these things like a dehydrated man given water.-


    Okay that was probably a bad description but you get the idea. Anyways I made it back to the church and found Bell staring at the sword in awe.


    "Not what you were expecting from it was it?" I asked with a knowing smile.


    "Are all swords this amazing?" Bell asked excited.


    Iughed "I believe I speak honestly when I say that all low level adventurers wished that was the case. No that particr sword is a drop that I got from a variant goblin and refined into what you see there, not very pretty but a better weapon than any level one adventurer should have normally." I said proudly.

 Bootcamp

    Bootcamp


    "Is that why it felt weird to hold?" Bell asked shocked.


    "No that''s because the sword is too big for your scrawny body. Sure you could use it as it is but you don''t exactly strike me as the sort to use a sword that size. How about I turn it into a shortsword and a dagger and you try it out then?" I suggested and he looked confused but nodded.


    Grabbing the sword I covered it in cursed energy "<em>Hells forge!"</em> I activated my cursed technique. Under bells awestruck eyes the sword began to thin as metal flowed like it was alive away from the de and into my left hand and then into the shape of a ka-bar dagger. The work was shoddy though since I traded precision for general shape transformation. It was an easy fix though as I downed a potion and waited till I refilled my energy to sharpen and pretty up the des. I didn''t like how they didn''t look the same though and changed the sword into arger longer version of the ka-bar knife. For extra effect I darkened both des and the final result was two dull grey des with a thick spine and single sharp edge.-


    "Try them out." I said tossing the des to Bell who wisely chose to avoid them rather than catch them.


    He tentatively picked up the dagger with his left hand and then the sword with his right hand and took a few swings with both of them. His form was dreadful though as his grip was way too tight and his wrist was bent. Not to mention that his stance was non existent and he had no power behind his swings as a result.


    "I take it you like them then. Those are yours now since they were wasted in my hands anyways and you''ll need a weapon. Before that though I''m going to beat you into shape so you don''t waste my work and die early." I said with a grin.


    Bell just tilted his head in confusion but I didn''t exin since he would find out tomorrow. Oh I was going to go all sorts of drill instructor on the poor fellow. I''m talkingps, pushups, crunches, shadow boxing and maybe even light sparring to get him used to hostile contact. And thanks to therge amount of potions i grabbed he''ll have a nice obstacle course as well.


    "That was magic right?" Bell asked once I finished making a figurine that was an elf this time in robes with feathered wings.


    "Not exactly, that was my cursed technique "hell''s forge". I actually can''t use magic due to my skill and instead I have cursed energy and this is my innate technique. Lets me refine, transform and shape anything that came from a living source including something still alive. I am quite happy with it so far as it has many uses both in and out ofbat but right now my greatest use for it is that I can craft wonderful things with it like this figurine. Did you know that these things sell for thousands of valis each? Quite the demand for them from what i''m told." I exined proudly.


    "Can I learn how to do that too?" Bell asked eagerly.


    "Afraid not, this isn''t the sort of thing that can be taught. More likely than not you''ll just get a spell of some sort in time." I said honestly.


    Bell looked sad about it but got over it quick enough and went to messing with his new weapons. Hestia got home and we all ate before going to bed again though there was a funny conversation where she got all embarrassed about sleeping in the same bed as me like she didn''t wake up everyday using me as a body pillow regardless of our previous sleeping arrangements. The next morning Hestia left for her food stall but Bell and I stayed behind. I used a few potions to turn some nearby broken furniture pieces into obstacles around the church and then I made Bell run the course until he dropped.-


    I let him rest for a while to catch his breath before making him give me pushups until he couldn''t anymore. Then for the final touch I had him do crunches till it hurt to breath.


    "Fantastic effort Bell , now pick yourself up and take a stance so we can spar." I said with a smile that must have made me seem like the devil in the boys eyes.


    "But I hurt all over and my hands are shaking!" heined but I was having none of that as I popped the cork of a healing potion and stuffed it in his mouth forcing him to down it.


    "Problem solved now get up and take a stance." I said still smiling.


    Hourster Hestia came home again only to find Bell passed out and me working on my new bracers that were strapped to my arm with kobold hide.


    "What happened!?" she eximed in horror as she went to go check on Bell.


    "Nothing to worry about, I just trained him a bit. On a rted note you might want to update him since his endurance likely grew by a lot." I said casually while using my technique to smooth out my bracers and remove the rough edges.


    The two bracers were simple long dark colored pieces of material that covered my forearms and were held tightly in ce with the reshaped and refined kobold hide I brought from the dungeon yesterday. Getting the rough shape was not all that expensive but working out the ufortable or rough parts took much more energy. I finished them up about the same time Hestia finished updating Bell and just smiled at the dirty look she gave me after she saw the jump in the endurance stat he got, all the way to fifty seven in one day.


    Okay so admittedly I might have gone a little too hard on the kid but in my defense it was for his own good. To be honest though Bell had a knack for quick learning as he absorbed what little I could show him like a sponge. Like I had mentioned previously I did try and learn how to use a sword properly back on earth and though I failed that didn''t mean I didn''t retain some of that knowledge. It was just the basics though such as grip and footwork but for a total amateur like Bell it was perfect.-


    Still i had already told the boy what his training pattern until he raised his physical stats to G rank would be and he begrudgingly agreed. It was pretty much just a scaled down version of what I put him through today with the sparring between us in the evenings when I get back from the dungeon. I was even going to be so kind as to grab some killer ant carapaces and kobold hides to make into armor for him so he would be better prepared when he finally got into the dungeon.

 Not great luck

    Not great luck


    Bell slept like a rock after he ate and went to bed and I had no trouble getting to sleep either. The next morning I got up stretched and strapped on my new bracers before setting out for the dungeon. I made a brief stop by the hostess to enhance the ingredients and pick up the meal Syr made for me before setting off. It felt the same as usual when I went into the dungeon as the stone walls were just as bleak and quiet as normal. I didn''t even bother testing my new bracers since I knew for a fact that these goblins couldn''t even scratch the things.-


    As I went deeper and deeper into the dungeon I came across three goblins and two groups of monsters that I separated and killed in a systematic fashion. I made sure to collect a whole lot of kobold hide using my technique before harvesting the stones and smoke from them. Thanks to not updating recently I felt like I had three drops of whatever that stuff was saved up for my next update which should be a good chunk of stats at that time.-


    The fourth floor was just like before with the blue and green walls that got more and more green the closer to the fifth floor you got. I only ran into a single group of monsters there with it being three spear wielding kobolds and two club goblins that apparently didn''t understand safety since they rushed ahead right when the spears were stabbing at me. I didn''t have to move a muscle to watch two of the five die to their own side. The final three were stupid creatures that i threw cursed energy on making them panic thinking they were on fire before crushing their heads before they figured out that was not the case.-


    Monsters didn''t start growing brains until the seventh and eighth floors from what I was told so using trickery like this was way too easy. The fifth floor had aplete recoloring and theme as the rooms got bigger and the hallways shorter while the walls were a light green color. I was cautious as I walked through this area as there were four new monsters on these floors that were slightly tricky to deal with.-


    Dungeon lizards were person sized lizards that hung from the ceilings and dropped down on unsuspecting adventurers. This was obviously not an ideal situation to be in and could very easily lead to death. The second monster was the frog shooters that were again person sized frogs but this time there was an unusual detail in that they only had a single eye in the center of their head. This monster attacked by sending their long, fast and sticky tongues at adventurers and trying to eat them whole. I was told it was an slow and gruesome death as the monster chews you while it tries to swallow.


    The third monster, war shadows, were vaguely humanoid monsters with the standard two arms, legs and single head but that was where the simrities ended. Their bodies were tall and slender with three sharp ws at the end of each "hand" and their magic stone in the center of their heads on the outside without any other features beyond their ck body. Unlike goblins and kobolds war shadows were fast and stealthy as their preferred method of attack was ambush. For an adventurer who was not careful enough this element of surprise proved fatal which unfortunately meant many newbies fell to them. I thankfully had the foresight to ask about what I would need to deal with in what part of the dungeon and knew to keep an eye to the shadows.-


    The fourth new monster was not all that dangerous on it''s own but had the bad habit of calling friends if injured and not killed quickly. Killer ants were basically just red fire ants scaled up to the size of people and besides the hard carapaces that prove to slow down shing weapons they only became hard to handle if you either don''t kill them fast enough or get rid of the bodies fast enough. In either of those scenarios they release a pheromone that attracts more of them and the stronger the presence of the pheromone the moree.-


    To put it simply they are swarm tactics manifested and need to be dealt with swiftly to prevent getting overrun. My first customer turned out to be a war shadow that i spotted in a dark cubby against the right wall.


    "VVVVVVVV!" the monster hummed in anger when it realized that I had spotted it before charging at me ws extended.


    The monster was much faster than any goblin or kobold for sure but I was prepared for this as I deflected the right ws with my left bracer which made a screeching sound like metal against metal. The left ws were redirected by my weapon as I cleaved the creatures head from it''s shoulders with the sharp side of it. The body iled about for a bit like a snakes would before stilling and allowing me to use my technique to make the things only drop, it''s ws, a guaranteed thing. Once that was done I ripped the stone out of it''s head which was an ufortable feeling but i ignored it since it ended the moment the monsters body went poof.-


    Like I expected I got more smoke for killing this stronger monster and knew that I was probably going to chase after stronger and stronger monsters to get that extrarge serving of smoke for my whole career. Grabbing my spoils and putting them in my bag I carefully move on and frown as I don''t find any more monsters for quite a while.


    ''It''s probably just bad luck.'' I thought and took out my meal to eat and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was four soy eggs and rice with beef in it.


    I ate quickly while keeping an eye and ear out for any newly spawning monsters but it was all quiet. I put away the box and no sooner stood up before hearing the sound of heavy footsteps approaching my position. I thought it was probably a frog shooter moving about and stood waiting at the ready only for a meaty dark hand to grab the frame of the hallway the sound wasing from and pull the rest of it''s body into view.


    "Oh fuck you Murphy!" I cursed as the bull headed minotaur stepped into the room.


    Minotaurs were seven foot tall humanoid monsters with thick skin, bull heads and the ability to wield weapons, they were also level two monsters. My insane ass didn''t immediately try and book it though in the face of this definitely too strong to fight monster. No I skipped flight and went straight to fight mode as I took a stance and red my curse energy as adrenaline pumped through me.


    "RAAAAOOO!" the minotaur bellowed and our dance of death began to y out.

 Enlightenment and meeting

    Enlightenment and meeting


    The minotaur was fast, faster than me at least as it charged me with it''s horns down. No doubt intending to eviscerate me with the things but I leapt to the side and let it crash into the wall behind me. Rock dust filled the air as the charge broke the wall and sent rock and dust into the air. it wasn''t enough to obscure the beasts though as I saw it''s silhouette through the cloud and stood at the ready for whatever it did next. Unfortunately I wasn''t expecting it''s next move as it grabbed a stone and lobbed it at me full force.


    "CRACK! OOPH!"


    The sound of bones breaking and the air in my lungs getting sent out filled the air as the stone hit me on my right side at the bottom of my ribcage breaking two of them in the process. I fell into a coughing fit that hurt like a motherfucker as my body desperately tried to inhale air. The minotaur drooled and breathed out steam from it''s nostrils and started walking towards me since it could likely feel my weakness.


    ''FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!'' I cursed over and over again in my mind trying to find a solution to survive, no TO WIN.


    I hate losing, I detest it with every fiber of my being and I was desperate to win, to seed at this point. And my cursed energy responded as I fell into a foggy state of mind.


    "<em>BURN."</em> A simple word escaped my lips like no more than a gentle whisper, then the heat came.


    ck and blue cursed mes erupted from me as the temperature of room rose by dozens of degrees in an instant. I was working on pure feral instinct at this point as my pain and the surrounds all stopped being relevant. All that mattered was this foe before me.


    The minotaur bellowed angrily and ran towards me but failed to reach me as the mes covering my body burned it merely a foot away from me. It''s skin bubbled and flesh charred in an instant as the cursed mes as if alive snaked up it''s arm from that briefest of contact and hungrily gorged itself on the meal it found. I swung my weapon and found purchase on it''s own ribs as my cursed energy surged in the tiniest moment before impact and the air warped as ck lightning sparked.


    "<em>ck sh</em>!" I yelled as the minotaurs ribs broke and it spat out a mouthful of blood as one of them pierced it''s lung.


    It all suddenly felt wrong, the stupidly inefficient way I used my energy, the flow of it in my technique and body. I fixed all of that in an instant and the results were immediate. The mes condensed and turned into a demonic ck corona an inch away from my body and weapon but multiple times stronger than before as the stone above me and beneath my feet began to glow white hot and melt at a rapid pace.-


    "<em>Hell''s forge!"</em> I spoke and the cursed energy repaired my broken ribs and damaged insides in an instant.


    I didn''t skip an beat and began to wail on the minotaur that hadn''t recovered from my first ck sh so by the end of my fourth it gave up the ghost, ckened and insides liquified. I didn''t even notice that someone had shown up and cked out as mind zero hit me hard. I may have gotten the enlightenment of ck sh but I had gone way beyond my limit on power expenditure and once the minotaur was dead I dropped like a sack of rocks.-


    I have no idea how long I was out for but when I came to I heard two female voices talking.


    "Any idea what sort of heat would do that? Theres no way a level one could produce such a thing." a mature but young sounding voice said sternly.


    "But the proof is all here that says a level one DID produce it! And Ais said he was glowing ck the whole time, she doesn''t lie and you know it." another younger and more energetic voice argued.


    "He''s waking up." a new monotone voice said silencing the other two temporarily.


    I groaned as I opened my eyes but was confused to see boobs above me and a blonde haired girl looking down as well with a weird mix of curiosity and nkness. I tried to sit up but my head THROBBED in pain at the movement and I groaned.


    "You have experienced a bad case of mind zero and may need a few minutes to be able to move." The mature voice said and my gaze flickered in the direction I heard ite from.


    There was two people there, a petite short haired amazon with a wide grin and a modestly dressed green haired elf with curiously longer than normal ears.


    "Second time in thest two months, this is bing a bad habit." I said with a chuckle that made my headache spike for a moment.


    "Hey hey~ Ais said you were all glowing ck and my and stuff, what was that?" the eager amazon asked with overflowing curiosity.


    "Magic and a bad idea obviously." i said while trying to dig through my bag at my waist without looking for a potion.


    "What sort of magic exactly? It''s unheard of for a level one to have that much firepower. A level two rarely but not a level one." the elf said in a very know it all fashion.


    "No idea, I''m not some schr on the stuff." I said honestly.


    I couldn''t even begin to exin why or how the hell anything I did worked when it involved cursed energy, it just did and that was good enough for me. The elf however didn''t look happy with my answer but at least seemed to believe me. I smiled as I finally felt a ss vial with my fingers and fished it out of my bag and brought it close to my mouth and ripped out the cork with my teeth and downed the potion.


    "You could have just asked for a potion if you needed one, we have some spares." the elf said seriously.


    My headache rapidly retreated as the potion took effect and I winced as I sat up. "I have a bad reaction to the normal potions, these are specially made just for me." I exined and she nodded in understanding.


    "I''m Tione! Tione Hiryute!" the amazon girl introduced herself with a wide smile as she got all up close and personal.


    "Alexander Drake, I go by Alex though." I said calmly while stretching since I was stiff.


    "I am Riveria Ljos Alf and that is Ais Wallenstein, she was the one who found you towards the end of your fight with the minotaur. An apology is owed to you as we got careless and identally sent the monster fleeing to the upper floors where it found you." Riveria said and bowed slightly.


    "I assumed as much, the someone scaring it up here part not the you did it part. Speaking of that grilled beef where is it?" I asked looking around and not seeing the corpse.

 Chatting

    Chatting


    (Author note: Slight retcon as I meant Tiona this whole time but got the two sisters names confused, that is all.)


    "HAHAHAHA! Grilled beef! That''s a good one!" Tiona said whileughing.


    "Yes about the matter of the minotaur, we took the liberty of harvesting it since we assumed you wouldn''t want the dungeon to reim it. At that time we discovered that the smoke produced was absorbed into your body. Is this some sort of skill or magic and if so can you tell me how it works?" Riveria said curiously.


    "Ah I see! While I can understand your curiosity that is a private matter." I said seriously.


    "Yes of course. Please ignore my rudeness, I meant no offense." she said hurriedly to reassure me that she wasn''t trying to be rude.


    The details of ones skills and magic was very much a private piece of information and asking for them was frowned upon. While some adventurers or gods boast about the details publicly it was a widely epted opinion that most of the time it was wrong or purposefully iplete. By knowing ones skills and magics leaves an adventurer vulnerable to a good degree. For example if you had a skill that buffed you in a certain circumstance for a certain amount of time before weakening you greatly someone could wait until you were weak to ambush you.-


    "No harm done so it''s fine but besides the stone did the minotaur drop anything else?" I asked glossing over the other matter since it really wasn''t a big deal since she wasn''t trying to force the information out of me.


    "Yes though I don''t think it is worth keeping as the minotaur dropped it''s hide and well you did quite a number on it." the elf said as Tiona showed me what she meant.


    Like she said the hide was charred and had holes in it that truly made it nearly worthless to anyone else. To me though the thing was perfectly usable as a bit of repair and refinementter I could have it better than ever. Yay for having a useful cursed technique.


    "I''m sure I can find a use for it somewhere." i said as I took the hide and rolled it up before stuffing it into my bag.


    The magic stone of the minotaur was muchrger than any I had gotten to date as it filled my hand and was clearly filled with much more mana. I barely managed to fit it into my bulging bag that was clearly too small to hold any more. Checking my weapon I sighed as I saw that it was cracked all over and starting to crumble.


    ''Looks like ck sh was too much for it to handle. I suppose that was to be expected from a simple steel weapon.'' I thought as I holstered the weapon.


    "OOH now theres something interesting! You hit that grilled beef so hard your weapon broke huh? I used to do that all the time before I got my Urga here." Tiona said while showing off the odd dual sided greatsword that she wielded.


    "How about you let the Loki familia pay for you to get a new weapon as an apology for the minotaur attacking you?" Riveria asked sincerely.


    I shook my head "I was nning to craft an upgraded version anyways since i am approaching the next level. If you can get me some decent drop materials though I would appreciate it." I said honestly.


    "You''re a craftsman?" Ais asked with a confused look that the other two mirrored.


    "Yeah yeah I know I don''t seem the sort but that is where my specialty lies. Crafted these bracers myself in fact." I said proudly showing off my work.


    Tiona looked at the bracers closely and casually flicked one of them which produced a loud chime while making my arm snap from the sheer force behind it.


    "Oops? Those are pretty good stuff though, not a crack on them even after that." she said seemingly more interested in how she hadn''t broken my equipment rather than how she HAD broken my arm.


    I grit my teeth from the pain and silently used my cursed technique to fix the break slightly. That was the biggest benefit of the enlightenment of the ck sh, I could use my technique wordlessly now. It would obviously be stronger and more efficient if I did say the incantation but I didn''t NEED to say it now. Thanks to me using the technique internally none of them even noticed that I fixed the break already.


    "How bad is the damage?" Riveria asked apologetically since she felt terrible that Tiona''s carelessness had caused something like this.


    "Feels like she cracked the bone but I''ll be fine in a day or so." I said honestly.


    "A day? Usually a cracked bone however slight would take at least a week to heal?" Riveria said confused.


    "I''m more durable than usual I suppose." I said with a shrug.


    The elf looked at me suspiciously but didn''t try and argue with me. In the end I told them where they could find me and we parted ways after they escorted me out of the dungeon on ount of me not having a usable weapon and all. Rose actually chastised me for fighting the minotaur instead of running away when i went to turn in my loot for the day at the guild. I can''t say it wasn''t worth it though as the minotaurs intact stone was worth nearly double my normal daily ie of about three or four thousand valis.


    Eight thousand valis for that single stone and the addition of two and a half thousand from my other in monsters set me at ten thousand for this one trip alone. The biggest gain though was the "liquid" I felt inside me that was nearly an entire cups worthpared to the two or three drops I previously had. I was seriously eager to see just how far my stats would jump thanks to this amount of stuff.


    Hell it was entirely possible I might max out all my stats if the single drop from myst update was any clue. Anyway after turning in my loot for money I stopped by the hostess to drop off the food container and tell Syr that the food was good before heading to the Blue pharmacy to turn in my empty vials and get some more potions. I needed them too as I would be using my technique a lot in the next few days as I couldn''t delve weaponless or rather I could but wouldn''t.-


    On the way home to the church I had already fixed my arm entirely just because the pain was annoying. Bell wasn''t cking off either as he was practicing with his weapons in front of the church when I walked up. We sparred a bit after that before I took out the drops I kept from the dungeon including the minotaur hide and began to patch and refine them up. The difference in cursed energy expenditure between yesterday at this time and now was night and day. I might as well have been a faucet with an extra hole in it for how much energy I wasted before.

 Update

    Update


    If before it may have taken all of my energy to fix the holes in the minotaurs hide it now only took a quarter instead. The reason for this was that I wasn''t just throwing cursed energy at the target with a vague will of what I wanted to happen but infusing my will in the energy in a precise manner before using it thus getting a much higher efficiency out of the technique. My new favorite thing though was my new cursed mes. They burned ck and were highly destructive with a sort of "aliveness" to them that reminded me of an attack dog.-


    In my hands the mes were as well behaved as a lovingpanion but the moment they touched something that wasn''t me theytched on and consumed it relentlessly. I couldmand the mes to release whatever they got ahold of which was why the church hadn''t been burnt down on ident but it was VERY hard. In a way it seemed almost like the mes were reluctant to give up any form of "food" they found. If nothing else this just told me that teaming up was out the window entirely when I delved.-


    Could you even imagine what would happen if my own teammate got touched by my mes while we delved? It was simply for the best if i delved alone instead since I wouldn''t need to hold back then. Admittedly this made my future in the dungeon just that much harder but there was nothing for it really and I now needed to put in extra effort to keep up and exceed those that needed a team to delve deep. Anyways by the time Hestia got home I had fixed and refined my entire stock of hides and was in the process of turning them into the flexible parts of armor for Bell.-


    I was shaping three fused kobold hides into a pair of flexible but tough pants when the small goddess entered the room.


    "Did you do something with your hair? You seem different for some reason?" she said while looking me up and down with a confused expression.


    "Well I almost died and made a serious breakthrough in my control and use of cursed energy so maybe that''s what you are feeling?" I suggested casually and she freaked out.


    "What do you mean you almost died!?" she eximed in shock and Bell was not much different since I hadn''t told him either.


    "Oh well some really strong adventurers had apparently gotten a little careless and scared a minotaur up to floor five where I was. I killed it after I broke through with my energy in the heat of the moment and then I got the meet those adventurers, they were interesting people. Speaking of do you mind updating me since I am dying to find out how much my stats grew since myst update?" I asked with a cheeky grin.-


    "You! How dare you y with my feelings like this!" Hestia yelled angrily and began to beat on my chest but i just wrapped my arms around her tightly.


    "Rx, it''ll take more than death to kill me." I said with a smile.


    "That''s not how that works!" she said with a upset huff.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1+(can level up)


    Strength:320(F)-> 745(B)


    Endurance:402(E)-> 863(A)


    Agility:295(G)-> 714(B)


    Dexterity:276(G)-> 697(C)


    Magic:814(A)-> 999(S)-> 1500(SS)-> 2270(X)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extension: Hell fire)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    "What!?" Hestia eximed after my update was over.


    "I knew it!" I said with a wide grin as I looked over my new status sheet.


    I was pleasantly surprised with my new skill that would give me a massive edge anytime I leveled up in the future since I had assumed the enlightenment of ck sh to be a single time thing but clearly I was mistaken. The biggest thing though was that I finally knew for a fact that S rank wasn''t the limit one could achieve. In fact I had shot to more than twice that supposed limit to a whopping two thousand two hundred and seventy in my magic stat dictated as X rank. Incredibly that didn''t even feel like the limit yet as I had a gut feeling that I could go even further.


    I was fairly certain that when my body finished adapting to my new stats I would have the magic of a level two despite only being level one. Or I could totally ignore all of the benefits of waiting and level up now since I apparently qualified for it. Fuck that! I was going to polish the shit out of my stats until I couldn''t anymore and only then level up. I had a gut feeling that anything less would force my path to godhood to an abrupt end in the future. I was possibly insane but I did not do things by half if I had any say in the matter.-


    I wasn''t all that surprised to find that my mes had shown up either as an extension of my innate technique though the name was rather suggestive. Obviously it just made sense that hells forge would operate using hell fire but what exactly hell fire was might be a bit of a problem. Sure it could just be a name and not mean anything but if it was infact hell fire then i couldn''t go showing it off randomly or some god was likely to recognize what it was and might throw a huge fit about it.-


    My only gripe with my update was that all the "liquid" I had collected had been used and I hadn''t even hit A rank in all my other stats beyond magic and endurance. Yeah I know I was just being petty but that was the smoke of a level two and several level one monsters after all. I was thankful to learn that the stuff could let me breeze past the "limits" that a normal person might struggle with though. Actually i suppose it was more along the lines that I didn''t breeze past them so much as forced my way through.


    Thinking about it that is probably not really a good thing huh? I mean most limits exist for a reason right? So going past them likelyes with some risk to ones self if that was true. As I learned the next day I was very much correct, limit breaking came at a cost. To be specific it came at the cost of what I hatefully refer to as "Vessel sickness" or basically a flu hyped up to twelve as your vessel struggles to contain power beyond what it should, It was loads of fun can''t you tell?

 Down with the sickness

    Down with the sickness


    I''m a tough bastard though and only had to deal with feeling like death for three days before I stabilized again. I sent Bell to the hostess while I was sick to let Syr know what was going on since i didn''t want to deal with that problem when I saw her again. My gut told me that I really didn''t want to make her mad so I tried to keep her neutral with me at the very least in any given instance. I wasn''t sure if she was actually just that nice or if she had a thing for me but either way neutrality was the way to go for me. -


    Yeah I was friend zoning the fuck out of her but I REALLY wasn''t interested in that sort of thing. On the third day when I was starting to feel better Tiona showed up with a whole satchel of drops for me. It was like christmas as none of them were below level two monsters and I even got a goliaths tooth. The Loki familia was A okay in my book after this as they took responsibility and even gave me a bunch of expensive drops to craft my weapon again as an apology.-


    There was a small issue though with Tiona going nuts after discovering that I was the one who made the bone figurines. The bag of drops was really heavy and I was sick so she brought it into the room for me which was when she saw all my unfinished figurines.


    "Could you make one that looks like me? OOH what about Ais or Riveria?" she asked excitedly and I sighed.


    "I could but not right now since I am not feeling well as you can see." I said in a nasally voice as I was sitting on the couch wrapped up in a nket.


    "Hey what about the clothes, could you make them look like us naked?" she asked with a lewd expression.


    "First off, bad, no horny. Second I would need to see what you all look like naked to do that as otherwise the details would likely be off. In other words no I can''t nor would I even if I could as that is a breach of privacy." I said seriously.


    "Hmmm, I don''t mind showing you if you leveled up a few times. Level four minimum to try and take me off the market." she said with a yful wink.


    "I''ll keep that in mind. Now if that''s all I''d like to go back to sleep so I can get rid of this illness faster." I said tiredly and she shrugged before saying goodbye and leaving while swaying her hips intentionally on the way out.


    ''Now to embrace the sweet relief of sleep.'' I thought as I started to nod off only to hear a new voice from upstairs.


    "Yo Alex you here!?" I heard Hroldars voice call out from therge church room above me.


    ''Ugh, more guests.'' i thought bitterly as I hauled my weak body up the stairs to see what Hroldar wanted.


    "Bloody helld you look terrible." the dwarf said when he saw me and I had the force myself to remain polite.


    "It wasn''t nned believe me. Anyways why are you here?" i asked confused.


    "My god said he''d set up a trial to see if you are as good a craftsman as you say you are and he just got it finished. Somehow he convinced Hephaestus herself topare your work to something from her best level one. Trick is you both are to make a dagger out of a minotaurs horn and then she''llpare the two. I''m here to drop off the horn you''ll be using." he said with a grin.


    That whole part of the conversation had totally slipped my mind what with how eventful my time since then had been.


    "How long do I have?" I asked since I was confident in my work to a great degree after getting the enlightenment of ck sh.


    "Three days starting tomorrow and remember no supplementary ingredients for this test, just this horn." Hroldar said as he handed over the solid brown horn about seven inches long and two inches wide at the base.


    "Anywhere specifically I should go to drop the de off after I''m done with it?" I asked and he shook his head.


    "Nah I''ll be dropping by in the afternoon to pick it up on the third day. You go get some rest though as you really do look terribled." He said before leaving and I was all about doing exactly that.


    The next day I had a bit of a runny nose still but otherwise felt fine and got to work on that dagger. It was a simple design really as I got rid of all the impurities in the horn before transforming it into a bowie style de with a slip guard and spiraled handle for grip. Then I did what would set my de apart from any other at this level, I refined it. The finished product was so sharp that I could cut through iron like butter and so durable that nothing I did to it without my cursed energy so much as scratched it much less chipped the edge. Overboard? Absolutely! Worth it? Definitely!-


    I imed to be the best level one craftsman in this city and I damn well mean it too. Plus knowing that Hephaestus herself would beparing the two des meant I needed to bring my A grade not to be embarrassed. Ironically I didn''t even need the entire three days to finish the de but only one. Thest two days I spent fixing up the church now that I had enough energy to do so as well as the time for it. Bell had spent thest few days getting used to his new leather armor I made him before my sickness hit.-


    Mostly it was just him working out in it and practicing the little bit i had taught him about how to use his weapons. Still his improvement was clear to anyone with eyes and I was thinking about letting him go delving soon even if his stats didn''t reach G rank. Sparring with me was great and all but there was a difference between facing someone you know won''t seriously hurt you versus a monster that literally wants to rip you apart. It was a whole mindset thing and Bell needed to adapt to that as soon as possible.-


    I am quite proud to say that by the time Hroldar came to pick up the dagger the church had gone a full one eighty and looked brand new. It was rather amusing to see the look of confusion on his face as he looked around. I had basically tore out anything that didn''te from a living source other than the ss of the windows and reced it with hardened refined wood I "appropriated" from nearby abandoned buildings. Just for shits and giggles I also put a very much alive tree in full bloom at the top of the church grafted into the wood so it worked like root extensions into the ground.

 Comparison

    Comparison


    I made sure to keep the shape of the church the same as it was before though since Hestia wanted it to stay that way. As a result it looked like the church now had a tower at the top of it and had been refurbished but needed a new coat of paint. All in all I was quite satisfied with my work since it meant we didn''t look like we lived in a condemned building anymore.


    "Can''t say i''m a fan of all this wood but it looks decent enough I suppose." Hroldar said as he looked over the building from the inside.


    "Well it was either wood or drop items and I could only afford one of those in that amount." I said with a shrug and heughed.


    "A house made of drop items HA! That''s a level ofvishness that even Ishtar wouldn''t be willing to do!" he said thinking I was joking.


    "If you say so, anyhow here''s the dagger. Be careful with it as that edge will go through damn near anything it touches including you." I said as I handed over the simple cloth wrapped de over.


    Hroldar looked doubtful until he went to unwrap it and sliced off the topyer of skin on his finger like it wasn''t even there.


    "You weren''t joking! That''s a terrifyingly sharp de right there, you didn''t trade durability for this sharpness I hope?" he questioned and I shook my head which he seemed to ept before putting the de away carefully and heading out.


    -----------------------------


    (At theparisonter)


    A total of five people were in the office of the goddess Hephaestus at the moment with one of them being herself. The others were her best level one smith, her captain Tsubaki, Ogun and Hroldar.


    On her wooden desk sat two des wrapped in cloth that had been presented to her forparison. In truth she felt that no work from someone at this level was worthy of her personally looking at but Ogun was a friend and she happened to owe him a favor.


    "Well I suppose we should get this over with since I still have a bunch of paperwork to do." the forge goddess said from her seat as she picked up the first de and unwrapped it.


    It was a bollock style dagger seven inches long and with a double edged de. She turned it this way and that before flicking the t of the de and listening to the sound it made.


    "Good basics and a solid make but there is a slight weakness in the de here probably from a heating issue at one point. This is your work then Henry?"she said looking at her level one smith who nodded humbly.


    "Bit of warning with that next de, the des razor sharp and sliced off part of my finger here when I unwrapped it in a hurry before." Hroldar warned seriously and the goddess raised an eyebrow but was more careful than usual as she unwrapped the other de.


    This new de was a single color and gleamed in the light but she furrowed her brow when she saw all of it. The design was simple but efficient and at first nce it was perfect. That was the first problem she saw, there were no ws. When a smith worked a material there were always minute ws that were left behind, hammer marks, stress cracks, heat marks things like that. But there was none of that here as though this de had simply never been touched by a hammer or me of any sort.-


    Next was that it was all one piece, there was no gaps or differentiating ces from the de and handle. If the de had been from somethingrger like a dragon tooth or something she could understand seeing this yet it was clear that just like her own smith this was from a minotaur horn. She became serious as she began to try and truly figure out how the de was made and it''s properties. Sharpness, durability, bnce, she tested each of these things unlike with the first dagger which made the four watching realize that something was wrong.-


    "Who made this?" she asked with a serious look at Ogun who frowned.


    "Is there some sort of foul y involved?" he asked fearing the worse.


    "I have no idea." she said honestly as she looked back at the de with a conflicted expression.


    "What do you mean?" Tsubaki asked confused at her goddesses words.


    "I mean that as far as I can tell this de shouldn''t exist. Even when I myself craft something there is always small ws that can''t be removed from a material or a loss of potential somewhere. This de doesn''t have any of that, it''s one hundred percent potential from the horn made manifest without a single w anywhere, a perfect object, a paradox." the red haired goddess said honestly.


    "Are you saying that the person who made this surpassed you?" Ogun asked in disbelief.


    "No, despite what I just said this de is not much different than this other one existentially speaking. The smith developmental skill or in my case forging domain allows a smith to exceed one hundred percent potential by adding effects to our creations. Without seeing an added effect beyond what even I can create there is noparison between the two of us." she said honestly.


    "Sounds like that guy might not have been as arrogant as he sounded then." Hroldar said with an odd look.


    "What do you mean?" Hephaestus asked curiously.


    "Ah well he said that when it came to crafting drops he was the best in the city if no added effects were added. We set up this test to humble him a bit actually, kinda backfired from the looks of it." Hroldar said honestly.


    "Sounds like an interesting fe!" Tsubaki said with augh.


    "I''ll owe you another favor if you could work to facilitate a meeting between me and the person who made this de, with their god preferably." Hephaestus said to Ogun seriously.


    The dark skinned god himself had an odd expression at this request though. "You may actually have better odds of that than myself." he said honestly.


    "Why?" she asked confused.


    "Because he is the first child of Hestia''s familia." he said and the red haired goddess froze in shock.


    "How in heaven did Tia manage tond a craftsman like this? I mean she''s a good goddess without any doubt but she is about as adept as a brick at craftsmanship." the goddess said in disbelief.


    "Yeah about that, the guy himself is kinda an oddball as far as I can tell. He doesn''te across as a craftsman at all and if anything is more a delver like me or most other adventurers and don''t even get me started on how he fights, that dudes got a mean streak to him even if he likes to hide it behind a friendly personality." Hroldar said honestly.


    "I suppose I should reach out to Tia then so I can meet this child myself." Hephaestus said with a headache.

 Research and relaxing

    Research and rxing


    (Normal POV)


    I was entirely unaware of what was going on at the test due to the de I gave Hroldar and even after it was over he never showed up so I totally forgot about it. Instead I worked on testing my new mes to get a feel for what they were capable of, the answer to which wasplicated. See the first thing I tested was the temperature of the mes by using iron since I knew how hot it had to be to melt the stuff and how much hotter it had to be to melt it faster than that minimum point.-


    Turning the fire to as hot as i could burned through my energy(pun very intended) at extremely high speeds but could turn a three inch iron nail to g in about half a second. This meant my hottest was about 1700 or so degrees Celsius. Hot enough that even being near it should make things very ufortable if not downright hostile. That was where things gotplicated as neither Bell or myself could feel anything more that a normal warmth from like a campfire or something simr.-


    In addition to that my fire COULDN''T burn me, like at all.Yes I know you are likely asking how i knew that and the answer was because I tested it. Don''t fucking judge me this was something important to know. Anyways I could re my fire up as hot as I wanted and then stick my hand in it and nothing would happen, I may as well have been putting my hand through air. Another thing I discovered was that my fire needed to be kept away from water at all fucking costs. Not because it acted like a grease fire but because it ate the water and grew rapidly.-


    Electrolysis is the process of separating oxygen and hydrogen that existed in water, both of which were mmable as all hell. My mes being the weird shit they are could apparently skip the whole separation step and burn both of those in their bonded form. In other words water might as well be fucking gasoline as far as my me was concerned. The good news was that the water capital floors of the dungeon were going to be a fun experience for me since I needed to be extra careful not to burn the whole ce down.-


    A nifty use for the mes I discovered was that I could condense them before unleashing a violent st in a single direction with them that I affectionately refer to as my "fuck everything in that direction" attack. Why? Because that st traveled for quite some distance and THEN the mes started to spread and consume everything. The attack was practically made for killing huge groups at once and it did not discriminate hence , fuck everything in that direction. Bell was so jealous by the way because it looked awesome and it was effective.-


    Admittedly I might have gotten carried away as I stood in the zesughing like a hyena. Anyway pyromaniac tendencies aside I could safely say that my new mes were fantastic as a personal form of magic. ording to Miach and Hestia thankfully the name hell fire was just a name and not actual hell fire since that was technically a divine substance and shouldn''t be possible to manifest in the mortal realm to begin with. As an added note Miach said my mes were shit as far as alchemy was concerned which i suppose is fair considering it ate the sk he tried to experiment with, my mes weren''t picky.


    Other than that I had gotten to work recreating my weapon with the drops that Tiona had dropped off. I fused the goliath tooth with an infant dragon fang and a green dragon horn to create a super hard and durable material for the weapons head that I refined as far as I could before it started taking my entire energy pool for a miniscule improvement. The axe head side was also ridiculously sharp as well which in addition to it''s very high weight made it very effective.-


    The handle was made of three minotaur horns fused and refined into a single foot long and inch and a half wide cylindrical handle with a skull shaped pommel just because I could. The final weapon weighed easily two or three times as much as my previous one due to it''s stupid density and even with B rank strength I had trouble using it. The effectiveness of each attack however was not something to sneeze at. That was a lot of weight moving fairly fast after all so that was to be expected I suppose.-


    Spent a couple of days practicing with my weapon before I finally felt confident to head back into the dungeon. Bell on the other hand was making astoundingly fast progress as with his most recent update he was at H rank in all his physical stats but hadn''t gotten anywhere with magic which was to be expected since hecked any way to use that stat. His foundation was solid though as he had taken what I had taught him as well as what he figured out from our spars to get a handle on how he wanted to fight.-


    He was actually going in the exact opposite direction from myself as I wanted to hit the hardest without sacrificing maneuverability while he traded impact for speed and quantity of attacks. Neither path was wrong but both ended in different ways given enough time. Mine ended with each strike of mine being a potential death sentence while his ended with a death by thousand cuts type scenario or as a distraction so a heavy hitter like me can safely move in for the big ticket damage. If it wasn''t for my magic not being team friendly we would probably make a very effective two man unit in the dungeon.-


    I had made a bunch of figurines already which Hestia had moved to selling instead of Jagamarukuns since they brought in way more profit. They were apparently very popr with the gods and women in the city to the point that she was sold out mere minutes after she opened in the morning. This meant she got most of the day to do whatever she wanted after that which tended to be herzing about at the church or cheering on Bell as he trained. Thanks to this influx of money we were now eating good food nightly.-


    Unfortunately all good thingse to an end eventually and Hephaestus finally got a chance to catch Hestia and ask about me. It was odd really as the red head was downright flirtacious when she introduced herself. Hestia had apparently told the goddess how my cursed technique worked since they were friends and now the red head was trying to poach me to her familia openly. I myself wanted nothing to do with the woman as the looks she was giving me made me feel like she was moments away from eating me.

 Threat and advertisement

    Threat and advertisement


    It wasn''t exactly lust that her gaze held so much as a desire to possess me like one would covet jewelry or money. Not greed since she was clearly aware of and thought of me as a person but about as close as you can get to it.


    "Ahe on, I am even willing to personally teach you if you''d only join my familia!" the red headed goddess said as she tried to tempt me for the umpteenth time to join her familia.


    "And as I''ve said for thest three hours I am perfectly happy where I am right now!" I said irritated at her persistence.


    Hestia had argued with the red head for the first hour or so before understanding that I wasn''t going anywhere and just chose to leave me to deal with the forge goddess alone.


    "But your abilities are wasted here! Hestia can''t teach you how to hone your craftsmanship and I am the best in the entire world at it!" she said trying very hard to convince me.


    "Lookdy if you don''t stop bothering me about this I will turn your body into a pile of mush!" I threatened finally done being polite.


    To add extra pressure to my threat I red up my mes around my body causing her to recoil in fear.


    "It was amusing to watch until now but you''ve crossed a line." A voice said and I moved out of the way as a woman with dark skin and long brown hairnded where i was just standing.


    She held an unsheathed de out in front of her at the ready while Hephaestus quickly stopped her from attacking.


    "Wait Tsubaki, he''s obviously bluffing! Theres no way anyone would actually be insane enough to attack a god!" she said seriously.


    She was right in that I wasn''t that crazy or rather stupid. Attacking the god isn''t the issue but rather the reactions of the rest of the gods after that fact. A mortal willing to attack a god might also be willing to kill one and that was something the gods won''t abide as it threatens their fun down here as once they are banished back to heaven they can''te back for at minimum centuries. I attack a god and all the other gods will band together to kill me regardless of the circumstances.-


    "Oh I know that he was bluffing but I won''t just sit back and watch some level one bastard threaten you." Tsubaki said with a stern expression.


    Every instinct in my body was screaming at me but I just took an unarmed stance while coating my body in mes to act as armor. I was also continuously increasing their density and heat which had started to cause the air around me to warp and the soil below my feet to melt.


    "Fine! You''ve made your point and I''ll leave you alone now so please stop the hostility!" the goddess said practically begging at this point.


    She wasn''t the one i was worried about though and it was only when Tsubaki began to sheath her sword that I dismissed my mes everywhere except my hands that stayed at the ready.


    "Tch! You''ve got a pair on you alright but try and remember your ce next time, I won''t let you go so easily otherwise." she said firmly before leaving with her goddess.


    It was only after they got very far away that I rxed and retracted my mes fully while noting that just that small pissing match cost me nearly three quarters of my energy.


    ''Looks like I need to hurry up and reach the true limit of my stats so I can level up. These mes have monstrous energy consumption rates just like my technique.'' I thought with a sigh before going back into the church.


    I didn''t get the chance to go dungeon delving the next day as Miach and Naaza showed up super early and very excited.


    "We finished the potion!" Miach said with a wide smile.


    "Oh? How wells it work?" I asked interested in whatever type of deodorant potion they had created.


    "Well at first we struggled to figure out how to make bodies stop producing smells from them consuming the potion but that failed to include blood or sweat. Then it came to me, what if instead we made something that you pour OVER the body to eliminate smells? I even had Naaza test it and it worked wlessly as I couldn''t smell anything even though she was covered in goblin blood!" Miach said excitedly.


    I chose to ignore the fact that for a level four like her she probably had to really try just to get that much blood on her. "So what you are saying is that it is ready for sale then?" I asked and Naaza nodded.


    "Alrighty then just give me a bit and I''ll print up some fliers to advertise it." I said as I headed over to a pile of wood scrap at the side of the church.


    "Um how exactly are you going to print up fliers?" Naaza asked confused.


    I grinned "Well paper is created by turning wood to dust before boiling it into a mash to pull out the tannins and then bleaching and molding it into sheets. Using my cursed technique i can do all of that myself in mere moments so long as I have wood on hand and the best part is i can form the paper with the words already on it, no ink necessary." I said honestly.


    "Your technique is ridiculously useful , I''m envious." Naaza said with a smile.


    I hummed in acknowledgement as I started turning this scrap wood in high quality posters with fancy designs and everything. The actual advertisement itself was asimple thing in big bold lettering that said <strong>[A REVOLUTIONARY NEW POTION CREATED AND FOUND ONLY AT THE BLUE PHARMACY! THE DEODERANT POTION REMOVES ALL THE SMELLS FROM ONES BODY AFTER A HARD AND ROUGH</strong><strong>DELVE!]</strong>-


    "Simple and gets the point across while also catching the eye, good job Alex." Miach praised as he held up one of the posters.


    "Now then we just need to get these into the hands of thedies at the hostess and posted on the walls of the streets and pretty soon you should have your first customers. I''ll take the hostess since I already have a business arrangement with them while you three set them up through out the city." I said as I passed stacks of posters to Bell, Naaza and Miach while keeping one for myself.


    We split up after that and as I said I headed to the hostess and managed to sweet talk Mia into passing out posters to customers in exchange for a weeks worth of enhanced ingredients for free. I honestly lost out on that deal but not by so much I was willing to make a fuss about it. By the end of the day all of Orario was covered in advertisements.

 Developmental skills and killing spree

    Developmental skills and killing spree


    With that done I called it a day and headed back to the church to try and push my cursed energy through my weapon again since I really wanted to be able to craft cursed tools due to the sheer versatility of them. A cursed tool creator didn''t actually need to be able to personally use a cursed technique in order to make a tool with it attached. While also true that the mostmon cursed tools are ones that just have cursed energy imbued in them that was by no means the limit to what was possible.-


    In fact from my understanding of the subject that was just the first step in most cases. All it was was turning whatever the tool was into a vessel to hold whatever cursed technique was being added to it. From there the manga didn''t really give all that many details about how cursed tools are made other than that the power had something to do with the skill and power of the craftsmen themselves. For example a third grade sorcerer couldn''t make a special grade cursed tool without seriously weird circumstances that usually involved a lot of sacrifice and death.-


    Before I could even dream about making a special grade tool though I had to first figure out how to imbue cursed energy into an object permanently. Even after having gotten the enlightenment of ck sh I was not making much progress in this regard as while I could coat an object in cursed energy temporarily it dissipated rapidly if I stopped. My gut told me that I may in fact actually need to wait until i leveled up to make cursed tools which kinda sucked. It made sense though since no one could add effects to equipment without the cksmith developmental skill which could be gotten only when leveling up.-


    Developmental skills are different than the normal sort as they are basically buffs given by the falna upon leveling up that are offered by what you have done in your life up to that point. cksmiths tend to get the associated skill, alchemists get mixing, archers get archery and swordsmen get swordsmanship and so on. Developmental skills are categorized in three categories, upational, augmentation and supportive. The first type was skills like archery and cksmith that you got because of your upation. -


    The second and third types were slightly more argumentative in nature as to some degree many skills could be counted as one or both. Mystery for example was a skill that usually was counted as augmentation if used by a crafter as it allowed unusual and rare things to be done when used in conjunction with the cksmith skill. However if used in conjunction with the mage skill it could be counted as supportive. The difference between augmentation and supportive skills was that the former added an extrayer of depth andplexity to whatever it was applied to. Thetter on the other hand merely granted a jump in efficiency and power to what it was applied to.-


    Unlike normal skills developmental skills also had ranks that grew with the skill, knowledge and power of the person that had them though improving the rank of a developmental skill was notoriously hard with the highest ever recorded only being C rank. The reason for this was actually very well known too. Basically the only way you could get a developmental ability higher than this was if you focused so much on it that all the rest of your other abilities simply atrophy and can''t improve any more.-


    It basically meant sacrificing all else to focus on this one aspect of yourself and it simply wasn''t worth it. Very few things ever actually require a higher developmental ability than that after all. Technically it was spected that you could also raise a developmental ability by simply pushing what it allowed to the extreme and thus not have to sacrifice all else but the theorized methods of doing so were self inflicted torture without a shadow of a doubt. For example it was theorized that you could raise abnormal resistance by continuously exposing yourself to poison, curses and debuffs like that in higher and higher potencies.-


    This was a dangerous game though as if you go even a little too far you could end up dead or worse from one of your "doses" of your chosen affliction. Like I said though there was no point in going for higher than C rank unless you were basically left with no choice. I assume that in order to create cursed items I needed either the cksmith or mystery developmental skills.


    ''Looks like it''s time to head back into the dungeon and go on a killing spree to max out my magic stat and find out what it is so i can raise my other stats to that point as well.'' I thought slightly impatiently.


    After making this decision I spent the rest of the day making figurines while even moving away from humanoid races and onto monsters. I didn''t just choose monsters from this world either but ones from myth, tv and anime as well. I made one of each goblin, kobold, war shadow and griffin with thest being the hardest due to the sheer level of detail I added to each feather. Hestia was surprised to see these monstrous figurines but still thought they were beautiful in their own way and nned to sell them as well.-


    We ate and the next day I stopped by the hostess and improved the ingredients, got my lunch from Syr who was rapidly improving with each meal she made and headed to the dungeon. Once in the dungeon I didn''t bother trying to get drops but went straight for breaking the magic stones in the monsters as fast as possible since I was after that smoke rather than money or drops. I still collected any that appeared alongside the magic stones but otherwise I didn''t care.-


    I had a slight panic attack when I finally stepped unto the fifth floor since that was where the minotaur had shown up at but I managed to calm myself by repeating "That was a freak ident" multiple times in my head. Frankly speaking war shadows were by far the easiest monsters for me to kill on this floor since their stones were right in in view on their faces. I just needed to hit them with a quick spark of me on it and they went poof almost immediately.-


    My first encounter with killer ants was unpleasant to say the least as the fuckers kept running when I''d rapid kill all of them except one somehow which made that one summon way more. At some point I stopped trying to go melee and just reset the board with a fuck everything in that direction style me st. That turned out to be a poor decision as the mes didn''t kill the ants immediately and spread to the others that came as a result like a perpetual motion machine until the dungeon clearly decided that was enough of that and stopped sending more ants. That was fine by me though as I had gotten a fuck ton of liquid from that, almost as much as i got from the minotaur in fact if that tells you how many fucking ants showed up.

 Getting close

    Getting close


    Even though I wasn''t after drops I still got quite a lot from my massacre of the killer ants with my bag quickly proving horribly insufficient to hold them all. I sighed at this and decided that I needed a bigger bag or at the very least one that had a spatially expanded interior so it could carry way more. The little sack I carried at my waist was not bad at all for most level one adventurers but I was not most now was I? In the end I had little choice but to use my technique topress a great majority of the ant drops, which was carapaces and pincers in this case, into balls of hard material that were hyper dense.-


    Even then I barely was able to collect everything including the stones in my bag. Leaving the dungeon I headed to the guild and dumped all the magic stones in front of Rose.


    "What on earth happened for you to collect so many stones!?" she asked horrified.


    "I ran into a group of killer ants and everything going fine as I killed them real fast by breaking their stones but for some fucking reason thest one would always run away and call more and well you should be able to guess how that went." I said slightly annoyed just remembering it.


    "I see, most level one adventurers tend to run away when killer ants start swarming you know." she said in a chiding tone.


    I shrugged "I am not most level one adventurers." I said casually.


    "Clearly not but don''t go getting a big head and dying because of it you hear me?" she said sternly and I chuckled but nodded.


    I got seven thousand and change valis from this delve even though I didn''t turn in any of my drops(mostly because they weren''t in a shape that would allow it). I headed to a general store after that and bought arger backpack for four thousand valis before dropping off the food container at the hostess and passing by a super busy Blue pharmacy on my way to the church. Like I had expected business was booming once the first few people came to try this new potion and spread word that it wasn''t a hoax. Information moves very fast in this city so I wasn''t surprised that the pharmacy was so busy only a day after they had started selling the thing.-


    I didn''t intend to ask for a cut of the profits since beyond the idea and advertisement I hadn''t given any help at all developing the thing. Honestly I felt for Miach and Naaza as they weren''t doing great financially either as everyone preferred going to Dian Cecht for potions even if they were way more expensive. With this new potion though they should get some fresh blood injected into their familia and more business as well. I didn''t doubt that there would be alchemists copying the potion soon enough but the business was never the reason for me to give them the idea.-


    Frankly speaking this was a two birds with one stone type deal as I was repulsed by the smell of the dungeon square and they got new life injected into their familia and business, a win win. Obviously there would be a few people who wouldn''t bother with the potion but if even fifty percent of the daily adventurersing through the area did then the stench would decrease dramatically. Bell was diligently practicing in front of the church when I got there while Hestia was lounging nearby watching.-


    I wasn''t all that surprised since if she could she was fairlyzy most of the time but could still put in the work if she had to.


    Good news bad news time~" I said with a smirk as I walked up.


    "What is it this time!? Another variant!? A minotaur or some other insane thing!?" Hestia questioned angrily, clearly done with my shenanigans.


    "Ah now don''t be like that you know just as well as I do that i am growing up big and strong from all of this." I said with augh.


    She looked like a chipmunk when upset as she puffed out her cheeks and and stomped her feet if she was standing up.


    She sighed in despair "Fine fine what is it this time?" she asked rubbing her temple like she had a headache(which she probably did).


    "Well I happened to kill a whole mess of killer ants so I think it''s time for me to update again and hopefully hit the actual limit in my magic stat, that''s the good news. Bad news is I am probably going to get sick as hell again after the update, I hope not but well my lucks not the best in this regard." I said with a shrug.


    "That''s it? I was sorta expecting something insane but that actually sounds pretty normal?" she said confused.


    "How many killer ants Alex-san?" Bell asked curiously.


    "I don''t know like a hundred or so I think, hard to count really since the whole are was on fire." I said casually.


    Hestia facepalmed "And there it is, one of these times I''ll learn to expect this stuff." she said frustrated.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1+(can level up)


    Strength:745(B)->927(S)


    Endurance:863(A)->1036(SS)


    Agility:714(B)->859(A)


    Dexterity:697(C)->801(A)


    Magic:2270(X)->3000(~)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extension: Hell fire)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    "So that''s what the true limit is, it doesn''t even have a lettered rank but this odd symbol." I said glossing over the rest of my stats.


    What I didn''t say was that I could FEEL the fact that this was the limit as my body felt bloated and strained right after the update. It wasn''t a full body bloat either but more along the lines of having overeaten by a bit and the food having expanded in your stomach. Ufortable but manageable none the less. Knowing what the true limit was i now needed to raise my other stats to it before leveling up immediately or risk my vessel exploding.-


    It was going to be hellishly risky on my part as the closer I get to the limit in each stats the more strain my vessel will be under trying to contain this power it has no mortal business holding. Knowing this I was fairly certain that my next update would be my final one in level one. I won''t lie and say I''m not nervous about that thought since as far as I know I am likely the first person to ever level up at truly maxed stats not to mention whatever effect my cursed energy might have on this process.

 Existential crisis

    Existential crisis


    I wasn''t stupid enough not to recognize how unique my situation was. I was only able to reach the true limit because of my uniqueness. But logic said that I pay a high price for these benefits and that scared me. One might look at my skills and and cursed technique and you see all the benefits but ignore the cost of them. My first skill for example means that I don''t have mana and can''t use magic. I''ve seen enough anime and read enough books to know that mana was a superior energy type and I traded that for something worse.-


    Cursed energy and techniques were ultimately limited in what they allowed even if they appear overwhelmingly better than mana and magic at first nce. Take my cursed technique for example that has so many uses that it could make anyone in the world jealous. The essence of my technique though was that I could refine and transform anything from a living source. Thatst bit was a HEAVY restriction for a craftsman. There are many things that I can''t use my technique on so instead I need to work extra hard to close the gap with the things I can use it on.-


    The existence of the dungeon that is alive is the only reason my cursed technique is so valuable as without it like if I was on earth my technique would be way more difficult to do anything meaningful with. Even further I had to learn everything I knew about cursed energy from what I had from the mangapared to the mages of this world that had thousands of years of research and experimentation to perfect what they knew of mana. Can you even begin to imagine the sheer handicap that put me at?-


    I almost died just to discover that as a lower form of energy mana potions are several times more effective on cursed energypared to mana. Then there was the need to make breakthroughs in how I used cursed energy and my technique that normal adventurers don''t need to do. Mana and magic in this world functioned in such a way that purely training is pretty much all anyone needs to seed at it. Cursed energy isn''t like that, I need to suffer intense experiences in order to grow.-


    Then you might ask about advanced cursed techniques like domain expansion and reverse curse technique and I can say for certain that I have no fucking idea. The manga''s information on how those work exactly was vague as shit beyond negative and negative cursed energy made positive and that domains were an expansion and manifestation of ones innate technique. You see the sheer amount of fucking nothing that tells me? How does two negative make a positive? What the fuck does expanding and manifesting a technique even mean? All these details that a mage in this world would know as a matter of course for mana are things I have to figure out on my own.-


    I know I make it seem like it''s easy but the truth of the matter is that I''m flying by the seat of my pants here and just hoping to whatever being will listen that I don''t implode. The funny thing is that what terrifies me the most is one way I can think of as obvious to improve my own stats, self refinement. I could totally use my technique on myself to improve my body and by extension stats but i am scared to try.-


    I have no idea what that may do to me. Will I stop being human? Will I be a curse hybrid or full blown cursed spirit? I have no idea at all and that alone terrifies me into avoiding it at all cost. What has me just as nervous is that I have no idea how leveling up will effect me since I don''t have mana. When a normal adventurer levels up their vessel is expanded and refined in a metaphysical sense but otherwise they are the same race as before since mana was already just as much a part of their existence as anything else.-


    Them getting closer to their mana didn''t affect them at all but cursed energy was not the same at all. If when I level up my existence bes closer to cursed energy I may lose part of my humanity in the process. At some point I will end up more curse than human if that happens and I have no idea how that might effect me. I might be the same as always just different racially or I might turn out like all other curses that are evil things that are better off destroyed. My only hope was the innate traits of the falna itself that responds to the emotions and desires of the person it is attached to.-


    I don''t want to lose what makes me me even if that meant I would gain much more power. I desire godhood but not as some sort of evil deity manifested through cursed energy. I hope with all that I am that the falna picks up on my will and desires when I level up and offers me a way forward as it has with so many other adventurers who have put in the effort to achieve their dreams.-


    I seem to have gotten rather side tracked now haven''t I? Where was I? Ah right well after determining that my next update would likely be thest before I leveled up I began pushing my physical abilities after each trip to the dungeon over the next few days. While I was doing that Bell had reached G in all of his physical stats which meant that it was finally time for him to go delving himself. Honestly I wasn''t worried all that much as his new armor made from the hides I collected and the refined carapaces and pincers of the ants meant unless he got way over his head nothing on the first four floors should be able to kill him unless it was a variant.-


    In addition I made sure that his weapons and armor didn''t stand out as anything valuable even if they were so nobody should get any funny ideas about killing him for his gear. Yes that was a very real possibility in the dungeon as some adventurers made their fortunes by robbing and sometimes even killing weaker adventurers. It was usually reserved for further into the dungeon though so he should be fine.-


    As I discovered limit sickness only applies the first time you break your vessels current limit in some regard. After all something that is broken can never be unbroken as even repairing the thing doesn''t remove the fact it had been broken. Still I avoided using my cursed energy since I wanted my next update to send all that smoke to my physical stats to get them to the limit. In this regard the dungeon had been oh so helpful as I hadn''t ran into a single ant even after reaching the seventh floor as if the ce was making them avoid me which made sense considering thest time.

 Stockpiling

    Stockpiling


    What the dungeon wanted was widely epted to be nothing short of killing all the gods and people on the surface and this meant that any adventurer who delved was a target. Most of the time the dungeon followed a tried and true methodology and ruleset when dealing with adventurers but for select few scenarios it was understood that the dungeon might even go out of it''s way to bend some of these rules. One such rule that was broken was if the dungeon determined that a monster was too helpful for an adventurer and thus prevented them from meeting them.-


    This could be ovee of course if you were stubborn enough about what you were after since the dungeon still had to deal with other adventurers likely on the same floor but for casual delving like mine that wasn''t something I was after. Last time i had harvested close to a hundred or so ants so the dungeon had decided that I shouldn''t get that oppurtunity again. I didn''t have any issue at all with that since just by going deeper I could go for quality rather than quantity of smoke.-


    The eight to ninth floor had another d¨¦cor change as the size of the rooms began to get bigger and the ceilings taller while moss grew along the walls. There were no new monsters on these floors but the ones from the previous floors appeared stronger here. Everything got faster and hit harder while also getting slightly smarter in how they fought. My stats were almost equal to a weak level two at the moment except in magic but since I wasn''t using that at the moment it didn''t matter. These were still level one monsters though so I had little issue smashing through them.-


    Floor ten was were things got tricky for me as Needle rabbits, Orcs, Imps and Bad bats all start appearing and were all ssified as high level one monsters that a normal level one needed at least B rank across the board to even attempt to fight. Needle rabbits were as the name implied rabbits with sharp horns on their head. They are fast and hard to spot in the misty terrain of the floor as they are white in color. Orcs were the firstrge ss monster to appear in the dungeon standing over ten feet tall and being fat green skinned humanoid creatures with pig snouts, tusks and ears. -


    They also used uprooted trees as weapons so obviously you don''t need to be told what getting hit straight on by them might do to you. Imps were small thin red skinned humanoid demon creatures with small bat wings and a single sharp horn of their perpetually grinning heads. They were also known as dungeon thieves since they had a habit of trying to snatch bags or loosely held weapons while the adventurers were distracted. Finally there were the Bad bats that were just really annoying bats that swooped down randomly to cause problems since they stayed on the ceiling otherwise.-


    None of these were a problem individually but the issue was that monsters never spawned alone on this and the next floors but rather in groups. Each group was also never smaller than three monsters so I had to stay on my toes on this floor. Orcs proved the most troublesome as their tall heights and long reaching weapons meant that I couldn''t easily smash their skulls and be done with it. Those swung trees moved rmingly fast and when there was more than oneing at you it was hard to do anything beyond dodge constantly.-


    I eventually got used to the way things operated on this floor and got my first kills on these Orcs when they over extended their swings and left their knee caps open briefly.


    "CRACK!"


    The sound of my blunt end snapping the bones in the left leg of my target was music to my ears as I dodged the falling monster and his friends swings. Quickly dashing behind it I brought my weapon down on it''s head that was now within reach and left that Orc dead.-


    Monsters were ruthless though and the two remaining Orcs swung their weapon into the corpse trying to get me in the process but i had already move out of the way having expected it. The corpse exploded into smoke that got sucked into my tattoos as the heavy strikes crushed the magic stone. Using that brief window i dashed to the next Orc and swung the sharp end of my weapon across the right knee of the second orc, cutting through it like butter. My new weapon was badass and these monsters didn''t stand a chance against it.-


    Blood sprayed out of the wound and the Orc roared in pain for a moment before it''s friend struck it with it''s tree trying to hit me and onlypletely crippling the orc instead. Movement is key in the dungeon, a fact I had learned and made sure I implemented constantly. If you stand still for more than a moment you be vulnerable to attacks. The final Orc was dispatched shortly after that and I got to harvesting my spoils while maintaining my vignce. This floor and the two after it were well known as the ce that most robberies happened and I preferred not getting taken by surprise.-


    Reason being that these floors were deep enough that adventurers were now worth robbing and that the constant mist made it easy to set up ambushes. Add these things together and well you can figure out why it''s not rmended toe here alone. To be fair though it''s not rmended to delve alone either but people still do that so it is what it is. I myself was a poor target for robbing as I didn''t wear armor and was constantly vignt. Not to mention after watching me dismantle Orcs without getting even a little winded showed I wasn''t some soft target that wouldn''t fight back.-


    So while I wasn''t concerned about getting robbed i was still paranoid enough not to take that for granted. I hunted down another set of Orcs and some needle rabbits that decided today was a good day to die as well before calling it for the day. I earned Thirteen thousand valis from my loot which showed that the deeper you went the more valuable loot was. Rose was a little upset at me for going that deep alone but after I showed her that I was without anything more than a few cuts and bruises from near misses and dodges she left it at scolding me for my recklessness.-


    I loved how walking through the dungeon square no longer smelled of blood, sweat and other unpleasantness thanks to the new potions that had taken the city by storm. The potions worked so well and were so popr that even Ishtar hadmissioned perfumed and airborne versions that she used in her brothels to remove that particr stench from them without burning an ungodly amount of stupidly strong incense. I only know this because Naazained to me about it when I went to drop off my vials and get more potions.

 Divine gaze

    Divine gaze


    While there was still a minor odor in the area it was far more reasonable than it used to be. From the guild I headed to the hostess to drop off the food container and to my surprise found Bell there.


    "Let me guess, Syr dragged you in and tricked you into buying food right?" I asked with a smirk as I took a seat at the same table.


    "How''d you know?" he asked surprised.


    "She got me the same way after my first delve, girl seems to know when you''ve got money on you for some reason." I said with a chuckle and Bell paled and looked very ufortable.


    It took me a moment to realize he wasn''t looking at me and awkwardly turned around to find Syr standing there with a very unfriendly smile.


    "I''m not apologizing!" was the first thing that came to mind and I said out loud.


    "Oh that''s fine, hey mama Mia! Alex here ordered the special! With wine!" she called out without looking away and now it was my turn to pale.


    "Ayeing up!" the dwarven women called with a amused look.


    The meal was great and frankly way too much for me to eat alone but gods damn was it fucking expensive as I lost all of my money and ended up having to volunteer another week of free improved ingredients to pay for it.


    ''Lesson learned I guess, even Syr has a mean side to her.'' I thought with a sigh as we headed home to give some of the food we had to Hestia.


    -----------------------------


    (POV Freya)


    I remember it vividly, the day Alex introduced his existence to me. I was using Horns skill to take on the form of Syr that allowed me to search for my Odr without my charm ruining it. Mia had sent me out to gather ingredients for the days meals and I was on my way back when he bumped into me. At first I was too focused on collecting the fallen ingredients that had been damaged from the impact to notice but after getting a good look at him he was a surprisingly in looking individual.-


    Neither handsome nor ugly but someone you''d blur out on the street if you weren''t careful. Alex himself though left a deep impression on me for two main reasons, his soul and his force of personality. He just had this way of acting that you couldn''t help but get pulled into and before you knew it following alongside. He was mad without a doubt as there was this strangely enticing mix of impulsivity and paranoia to everything he did that was hard not to be interested in. His soul was what truly drew my interest as it was like an abyss that devoured everything yet was not evil somehow. I remember how my heart would race just looking at it as I felt as though one wrong move on my part and that abyss would gobble me up, it is intoxicating.-


    His magic was also not as simple as he made it appear at first nce. There was something about it that made me nervous for some reason and the things that could truly aplish that were few. It was a beautiful manifestation of blue and ck mes that I theorized might be transmutative in nature and thus dangerous for us gods. It was something only us older gods knew but with our divinities restrained in these mortal frames we were very susceptible to transmutation as while not our divine forms these bodies were tied to them.-


    What this meant was that if we were transmuted as we currently are there was a high chance those changes would appear on our divine forms as well. To be honest I was quite hopeful that Alex may be my destined Odr and worked to draw him closer to myself as Syr for that goal. At first I simply tried to make him food for his trips to the dungeon but to my surprise he was rather blunt about telling me my food wasn''t all that good. But then he''d turn around and give me advice on how to improve.-


    It was an new experience for me like nothing I had experienced before. A strangely enticing mix of soft and hard that led to personal growth. You can imagine my shock to find that I, a goddess of beauty and war, had actually started to get good at preparing meals for someone else. I was nowhere near as good as the others at the hostess but I was getting better over time. Perhaps no one had noticed it but Alex reminded me of Alfia the silence in terms of talent as he was rapidly growing more powerful.-


    As if fate itself had conspired to confuse me though another anomaly had appeared in the exact same familia as Alex. Bell Cranel was best described as "cute" more than handsome as he was pure, too pure. His soul was the pr opposite of Alex''s as it was the purest white and radiated outwards in a blinding manner. Seeing them sitting next to each other frankly caused me to freeze up as my mind simply couldn''t understand what I was looking at. Pr opposites yet in perfect harmony as if their very essences weren''t poised to sh violently.-


    It was beautiful in a way I can''t even find words to describe. Meeting Bell Cranel had thrown my mind into disarray as Horn had needed to take my ce as Syr for a few days after that much to Ottars concern as he wanted nothing more than to help me but was helpless for all his power to do so. I had two candidates for who might be my Odr at the same time and I was stuck on how I should handle this matter. If there was only one I could slowly groom them for the role they were destined to fill while getting close to them as Syr but for two that simply wouldn''t work.-


    Sure I could engineer events to spur their growth but as for getting close to them there was no way I could get both and the prophecy was clear that I only had one Odr. I had to figure out which it was or perhaps I had to choose? Prophecy was tricky like that so it was possible that is the case just as it is equally possible that I was wrong. Assuming I did have to choose though I would probably pick Alex as what I can see of him shes less with who I am then Bell.-


    I am a goddess of beauty and war so I was not some pure maiden filled with virtue that would pair well with Bells innocence. In recent days Alex has concerned me greatly as I saw something i was very familiar with from Ottar himself, a strained vessel. A unique state where an adventurer has pushed their vessel beyond the safe limit and as a result has strained it to keep itself intact. In a way it is a bit like filling a balloon and then adding more air to it as at some point the balloon will pop if you add too much.

 Leveled up

    Leveled up


    (Freya POV)


    Unlike Ottar however Alex had strained his vessel much more than I had even thought possible. After discovering the "limit" of stats could be surpassed and that it was actually necessary in fact to reach higher levels I had all my children try and reach what I believed to be the true limit of rank SS 1500. Ottar and two others however were the only ones capable of doing so in any reasonable amount of time. It took a very special mix of personality and conditions to reach that point however which I unfortunately learned my familias environment was not the best at nurturing.-


    To be honest most of my familia wasprised of mortals that had fallen victim to my charm and wanted nothing more than to possess me for their own. This as a result led to a lot of infighting and cut throatpetition to earn my favor that also stifled their talents in the process. The falna unfortunately doesn''t work well under those conditions so very rarely do any of my children ever reach above 999 S. Alex somehow had pushed even further than SS and his vessel was in terrible shape as a result, for now though I will watch with bated breath.-


    (Normal POV)


    Even with the higher quality of the smoke given by the monsters the further down I went I still didn''t have as much liquid as I did from that single minotaur. This alone showed just how wide the qualitative difference between a level one and two was. To be honest I knew that the only reason I had even managed to kill that minotaur was because of ck sh or perhaps it would be better to call it luck. I got lucky, the exact thing I needed at the exact moment i needed it to survive. That was practically the story of cursed energy in a nutshell.-


    Ironically the falna was the perfectpliment to my cursed energy as through effort and pressure it allowed one to grow which was very synergistic with cursed energy. Perhaps that was why my growth was so rapid? I was gaining improvement from two sources at once so obviously I would grow much faster than the vast majority of adventurers. I couldn''t help but wonder if that would change after I leveled up. -


    Hear me out, so the falna is a representation of the path to godhood with the higher level you go the closer you got to it. At the moment my cursed energy and falna were working to allow me to grow both together and separately at different points. But after leveling up the two will more likely than not fuse even further as cursed energy is now integral part of myself. It''s kinda like when a video game developer puts out a game and updates it with a patch to fix a bug. Right now i am pre-patch but after I level up I had a gut feeling that I was going to get a hefty restriction ced on me.-


    Don''t get me wrong the falna NEVER applies a debuff without some sort of big upside as well but I was rather nervous to find out what that was exactly. Still I spent my next few days delving and building up more and more liquid until finally at the two and a half month mark since I became an adventurer I was ready to get myst update at level one as well as my level up to two.-


    "Are you sure about this? We could just level you up and not risk it?" Hestia asked concerned and very worried for my safety.


    "I am afraid of what may happen if we do this but I know that if we don''t I would likely regret it for the rest of my days, do it." I said steeling myself for what was undoubtedly going to be an agonizing process.


    Hestia nodded seriously and as Bell watched from the side as she updated my falna for thest time at this level.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Human


    Level:1+(can level up)


    Strength:927(S)-> 1500(SS)-> 2000(X)-> 3000(~)


    Endurance:1036(SS)->1500(SS)-> 2000(X)->3000(~)


    Agility:859(A)-> 999(S)-> 1500(SS)-> 2000(X)-> 3000(~)


    Dexterity:801(A)-> 999(S)-> 1500(SS)-> 2000(X)-> 3000(~)


    Magic:3000(~)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extension: Hell fire)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    At first it was a pleasant warm spreading through my body that I hade to recognize was the falna updating but then came the pain. Agony like thousands of fire ants chewing on every inch of my flesh and my blood boiling in my veins. Speaking of blood the stuff started to seep out of my pores, eyes and nose as my body began to copse and fail under the pressure. Hestia panicked and immediately leveled me up causing all hell to brake loose. Remember that massive amount of passive cursed energy just floating about over the city?


    It resonated with me when I leveled up and for the briefest moment became visible to everyone in the city as it became active. It turned invisible almost immediately but the damage was done as all the people in Orario were after answers now. As for myself I was entirely unconscious after getting leveled up as my brain went into self preservation mode. I was quite thankful that I had told Hestia what I wanted as a developmental skill already so she had been able to take it for me. I was entirely out for a whole week after that as my vessel refined itself based on my values at level one.-


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Cursed Human


    Level:2


    Strength:0(I)


    Endurance:0(I)


    Agility:0(I)


    Dexterity:0(I)


    Magic:200(G)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extensions: Hell fire, cursed tool creation)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    Vessel of Sin: Hells forgemaster carries the burden of all mortal sin and is tasked to purify it from the souls of the dead. Permanent increase to crafting with cursed energy. Permanent decrease to all stats for each innocent soul killed and increase for each sinful soul killed. Grants skill: Soul gaze.


    Soul gaze: See the souls of all things and their sins.


    Developmental Skills: Curse-smith: Cursed energy specific variant of the cksmith skill.


    Mostly positive more than negative if I do say so myself but there was certainly quite a lot that I was less than pleased about.

 Cursed gaze

    Cursed gaze


    For starters my fear that I would stop being human came true as my race now read as cursed-human. I didn''t feel any different despite this which was great as I still felt joy and all the other normal emotions just fine. I also didn''t have any weirdly evil or depraved impulses so you know , yay. My new skill was a huge bummer though, [Vessel of Sin] was was clearly a twisted skill born from my cursed energy and fears that honestly put a huge limiter on me. That line about it being a burden was not a joke.-


    I constantly felt like I was moving underwater, like my body was being pressed in on from all sides. I wasn''t physically limited per se as I still could move as fast as normal and could hit as hard as usual but felt like I wasn''t if that made sense. My additional granted skill [Soul gaze] also sucked ass as I was practically blind. Fun fact the skill was CONSTANTLY active and another fun fact, souls were bright as shit. Like staring at the fucking sun bright. I tried to get used to it really I did but man did Bell and Hestia not make it easy.-


    As a goddess Hestia''s soul was MASSIVE and pure golden with silver streaks which was beautiful but a pain to get beamed with constantly. Bells soul was white, like pure fucking white which tracked considering how innocent he was. Let me tell you after I woke up from my admittedly self induceda seeing both of those immediately was a highly unpleasant experience. Honestly the only "good" news besides me getting one step closer to godhood was that I could make cursed tools now.-


    As it turned out I did in fact need the cksmith or in my case Curse-smith developmental skill to create cursed tools. Not to say I don''t absolutely suck ass at it because while I CAN make cursed tools I clearly have no idea what I am doing in the process and it shows. My first attempt went feral and had to be put down, may it rest in pieces. You are probably all like "Hey aren''t you sort of skipping all the reactions from Hestia and Bell and stuff?" and the answer is yes, yes i am. I got yelled at, like a lot, it wasn''t a fun time for me.


    Even more unfun for me was that my tattoos got bigger, again. This time I got some new marks on my face and arms which was just great for my self esteem let me tell you. On my face I got two ck dots on my forehead that I was pretty sure represented horns. On my arms I got four new tattoos, a pair of matching ck bands on my wrists and two hollow ck triangles on the back of my palms. I mean the new tattoos didn''t look bad at all but I wasn''t a huge fan of them personally.


    Lets see what else was worth mentioning? Ah! Well I lost like two weeks of time recovering from my level up as my vessel rebuilt itself. That was a bit annoying but at the end of it I had somewhat gotten used to my new senses and power. I found out my soul was ck by the way which was frankly confusing to learn since at first I thought I didn''t even have one since I didn''t see anything. It was only after REALLY paying attention that I realized that I couldn''t see anything because it was too gods damned dark.-


    Not sinful though as I discovered afterparing my soul with those of other peoples in public. Sin interestingly enough came in a hue of colors ording to my new skill which I had to carefully figure out. For greed it was a yellow, lust was purple, wrath was red, sloth was a pale gray and pride was brown. Envy and gluttony surprisingly enough weren''t actually a sin ording to my skill or perhaps they fell under one of the other sins somehow.-


    As I learnt most souls wereprised of a single over arching color and then "stained" with the color of their sins. Some souls like Bells or I suppose my own in a way were brighter than others which meant something I''m sure but what was beyond me for the moment. I had a sort of instinctual judgement of how much staining was needed for a soul to be counted as innocent or sinful which I attributed to my new skill. Roughly speaking more than half a soul being stained was the dividing line for it to be "sinful" which was a high bar to cross it seemed as not even some of the people moving shadily out of Daedalus street were that stained, usually.-


    My next meeting with Syr wasplicated to say the least as it went like this.


    Our gazes met and we both froze when it became clear that we were both staring at the others soul. Her soul was massive and a rich mix of purple, silver and red with sins the same color staining it ever so slightly.


    "You''re a god?" "You can see souls?" we both asked at the same time awkwardly.


    I went to speak again but she hurriedly stopped me. "Not here! Follow me." she hissed looking around nervously to make sure nobody heard us.


    Syr leading me into the hostess had Mama Mia looking confused for a moment from behind the bar before getting serious when Syr gave her a look. I got led to an empty room above the main area of the hostess.


    "Why the act?" I couldn''t help asking when she shut the door.


    I was frankly astonished to find that the friendly and kind Syr that I hade to know was in fact a goddess and one with some rather questionable sins.


    She sighed "I am looking for something and I believe being myself would make it difficult to find it. You need to understand that being who I am means I have many enemies and few allies. if I ever found what I seek they may move to take it from me. I mean no harm ying mortal I swear." she said sincerely.


    "If you are wondering about this whole soul sight thing I got it after I leveled up, it''s been an unpleasant couple weeks." I said honestly.


    "I can imagine, i myself sometimes wish I couldn''t see them as it can be a heavy burden to bear. Could you please try and keep my being a goddess a secret, I would take it as a personal favor if you did?" she said practically begging.


    "You seem to be awfully attached to this role of yours so I suppose I can act as though i haven''t seen what I have. But I demand that you don''t make fun of my tattoos in exchange." I said with a smile and she giggled.


    "It''s a steep price but I think I can live with it." she said and we shook on it.

 Cursed tools

    Cursed tools


    After that things were pretty much back to normal though there was a slight problem in that Hestia had to report my level up to the guild. It was one of thews that familias had to abide by and Hestia was a prettyw abiding goddess and as a result I got put on st as the record holder for the fastest level up. Funnily enough I had actually taken the record from Ais who had leveled up in about six months. Loki was not happy at all about it ording to Hestia who gloated about it.


    I can''t say I was a fan of my adventurer nickname though as it was [ck mark]. To exin how nicknames came about you needed to understand that every six months the gods got together in an event called the Denatus. During this event they discuss recent issues and otherwise socialize with each other before deciding on the aliases of any new level two adventurers or any higher leveled ones than that that need new better aliases. Unfortunately the gods had this sort of hazing tradition where they always choose an embarrassing or childish name for new level twos.-


    As a clearly talented up anding adventurer the gods took one look at my info and decided to get mean about it. What I ended up with wasn''t the worst alias but was super fucking shallow as they basically called me tattoos and called it a day.


    ''What am I missing?'' I pondered with a frown as I looked at mytest failed cursed tool.


    Over thest three days I had been spending most of my time adapting to my new sight and trying to make a cursed tool sessfully. The first of those was going fairly well as I was slowly learning how to sort of zoom out if you would so I can see normally.


    ''Time to start again.'' I thought as I picked up the bone bracelet that had grown teeth and was trying to bite me.


    I used my cursed technique on it and after screaming for a bit it turned back into normal bone shaped into a bracelet. This time I carefully coated the thing in cursed energy and began to try and infuse the energy into it. This was the first step of the process but it was what came afterwards that was where I always made some sort of mistake.-


    Infusing cursed energy into an object came second nature to me which made sense as that was how I used my technique to begin with. It was only when i tried to add properties to the energy that things went sideways. At that point whatever I was working on seemed to turn into a sort of cursed spirit that was feral and attacked indiscriminately. The frustrating part was that some of them even had clear innate techniques but were useless to me due to their aggression.-


    I can''t even begin to say how many of these things I had to kill at this point or even the looks of horror Hestia gave me whenever I made one. These cursed things weren''t alive but rather seemed a twisted mockery of it ording to her and disagreed with her on a fundamental level. Until I figured out how to create normal cursed tools however there was nothing I can do about that. This time for example I was focusing on infusing the energy with the property of [polished] to try and make it more appealing without any danger.-


    As the energy changed I thought that I had finally seeded only for the bracelet to sprout an eye with three pupils that stared right at me. With a sigh I restarted and reset the bracelet back to normal.


    ''Hmmm, what if I try and put a restriction on it first?'' I wondered slightly conflicted.


    This was counter intuitive as you would think that you would need a technique first before you pped some sort of restriction onto it. That was how it was usually done anyways as a curse user like me would apply a restriction to ourselves to buff some aspect in exchange for something else but usually only after having a technique to begin with.-


    Using this knowledge I was trying to add effects to my pieces without the restrictions that I was going to addter to improve their quality. Still once I had the idea of doing the opposite ittched onto my mind like a maggot on food and dug in. I repeated the process of infusing cursed energy into the bracelet but rather than adding a technique I focused on adding a restriction in the form of "this object will never be alive." just as a test.-


    "HAHAHAHAHA!" I cracked a wide smile and broke intoughter as the bracelet rattled for a moment before finally settling as cursed energy wreathed it quietly despite me not adding anymore.


    I had found the trick after three whole days of experimenting based on normal logic. I couldn''t help but be amused at how screwy it was to actually create a cursed tool. The steps were all so wrong and out of the box that it would take ages for someone rigid in their thoughts to figure it out without teaching. I was almost willing to bet if I wasn''t willing to try the bullshit I thought of on the fly at this point i also would have taken way longer to figure it out.-


    Now that I did figure it out though I tested if I could even add a technique to the item at this point and lo and behold I could. The bracelet shone as though instead of bone it was pearl when I added the [polished] property to it. Encouraged by this I tried to add another property as well [durability]. At first it appeared to work but soon the bracelets energy began to grow unstable and before I knew it the thing blew up sending shards of bone everywhere.-


    I frowned at this as it was clear just looking at it that this wasn''t a matter of the two properties shing or even being too much for the material to handle.


    ''Perhaps it is because I tried to add them one at a time instead of all at once?'' I thought and grabbed another bone bracelet that I had made to practice on.


    First I ced the same restriction as i had the previous one and then this time I split my focus to add both the properties at the same time this time which was slightly difficult. The bracelet rattled violently as the properties engraved themselves in the energy and I watched carefully at all the changes and as I expected the energy stabilized and I was left with a cursed tool that had both the [durability] and [polished] properties. Granted these properties were amongst the most basic ones possible even for a normal cksmith but I still finally figured out how to make cursed tools which was worth celebrating.

 Cursed tools(2)

    Cursed tools(2)


    I wasn''t the sort to rest on myurels though and began to expand and chronicle my findings with the limitations and rules I needed to follow when crafting cursed tools. After about a hundred experiments that branched off my previous discoveries and idea I had a list of things that I could follow to make sessful cursed tools. First was that at the material I used determined how powerful I could make the tool. This was further divided into two categories, refined and unrefined that each had their own pros and cons.-


    Refined materials I discovered held sturdy and straightforward properties like [durability] and [polished] better than more esoteric and flexible properties like [channel] and [control]. Unrefined materials were the exact opposite. Anyways the base material itself also yed arge part in how powerful I could make a cursed tool. So far I had determined that in order of power from weakest to strongest the scale went organic cloth, flesh or hide, bone, wood, stone, metal, dropped cloth, dropped flesh or hide, dropped bone, dropped wood, dropped stone, dropped metal, dungeon wood, dungeon metals in normal order of usefulness and finally magic stones.-


    For the metals found in the dungeon I was referring to, mithril, orichalcum, adamantite, aqua iron, deep iron, me iron, crimsonite and fulgur ore. Each had a different use but usually the best was pure adamantite followed by orichalcum and mithril. It cost me a pretty penny to buy a small amount of each of these let me tell you as even mere marbles of the stuffmanded a hefty price. I should also rify that Magic stones can''t be used as is to make cursed items or they''ll detonate in a spectacr fashion.-


    No I can only use magic stones after all the mana has been drained from them rendering them "useless" ording to normal practices. I had discovered this on ident actually as the magic stone poweredmp we used ran out of energy and need to have the stone swapped. I had a ''Fuck it, what''s the worse that could happen?'' moment and tried to turn the spent stone into a cursed item. Only to realize that the damn things can be refilled with cursed energy after they are spent and used to empower cursed items if added during the creation even though the stones themselves can''t hold any cursed properties.-


    Moving on from materials the second set of rules I discovered was that I couldn''t add more than six properties to anything if they had no synergy to them. This wasn''t a hard rule so much as a '' I suck at making shit'' type rule. Each new property required a lot of focus to add and at the moment I was simply unable to go beyond six unrted properties and that too only if I was willing to sacrifice quality for quantity. The next rule was that imbuing techniques required strict restrictions or I''d make a cursed spirt instead.-


    That whole loose "this thing won''t ever be alive" restriction was not enough to prevent the item bing a cursed spirit and I needed real bnced restriction to safely add techniques to things. Even further if I wanted those techniques to actually be somewhat useful I needed to trade things for it. A good example is that I made a ring that can summon and control water but the trade off was that it can''t summon more than five gallons at a time, it can''t control water further than twelve feet away from the wearer, it uses the wearers energy as fuel for all actions, it will never be alive and is quite fragile.-


    Like I said I had to be VERY specific about what the technique allowed and didn''t allow if I wanted something useable that wasn''t a cursed spirit. As a fun addition I also had to use the negative emotions rted to whatever technique I was imbuing to add a technique to something. For the ring it was fear of helplessly drowning, dark huh? Speaking of cursed spirits I had sorta figured out how to make cursed spirits I created loyal to me and it was pretty much by adding restrictions to them that turned them into my ves upon birth, I wasn''t a big fan of it.-


    I tested to see if it was possible and after confirming that, yes it was, I destroyed the cursed spirit and promptly put it in the "do not do again" pile of notes. That might be really wasteful but you''ll forgive me if the idea of ying god and owning ves didn''t sit well with me. Creating something alive and aware just to enve it at the moment of it''s creation was just cruel on a level I wanted nothing to do with.-


    Sadly cursed spirits were malicious beings by nature and I couldn''t create one out of positive emotions at the moment. I had a theory that it may be possible to do so if I figure out the reverse curse technique but until then i was shelving this idea. Anyways the final rule I had figured out was that the power of my cursed tools was capped by my own skill and power. In this regard I was effectively on the same level as any other level two craftsman in terms of how powerful my creations could be.-


    Sure refining the unholy hell out of a material before shaping and "enchanting" it made my stuff more generally better but actual utility was the same as any normal craftsman my level. I could probably exceed this cap if I were to do so sketchy shit like tying my crafts to blood sacrifice or gods forbid life sacrifice. But I honestly didn''t see any reason why I SHOULD resort to that sort of thing. Add on that I was fairly certain that I would get hunted down for these "heretical practices" if word got out and I was double sure I wanted nothing to do with it.-


    While I was busy getting the rules and knowledge of cursed tool crafting figured out Bell was making good progress in the dungeon. I had effectively spent an entire month just adjusting and figuring out this new stuff after leveling up and in that time he had grown most of his physical stats to C rank and had even gotten a skill after an embarrassing run in with Ais who he clearly had a crush on now. He had apparently ran into a variant war shadow and gotten saved by her but had run away afterwards.-


    The story was honestly adorable as it just went to show how awkward he was around women. Weirdly though he got a skill from the encounter that frankly sounded like some next level bullshit. Liaris Freese, which let him grow more quickly depending on the strength of his feelings. Look my growth because of the smoke I absorbed was anomalous and all that but his skill was in cheating. It was literally warping reality on a minor scale based on his emotions to make him improve faster than he should.

 Experimental tools

    Experimental tools


    Hestia tried to hide the skill from us but I was having none of it and simply restored the smudged out words. I can''t say I me her though as this was basically a t out deration that Bell was in love or at the very least was interested in Ais. To be honest i was slightly offended that he hadn''t gotten the skill out of desire to be like me since I was an impressive motherfucker if I do say so myself. Ego aside I suppose I was happy for him as he was pretty much set so long as he didn''t die early.-


    "Are you sure you are ready to go back into the dungeon?" Hestia asked worried after I had made my intentions to return to delving known.


    "Yeah, it''s about time I got back into the swing of things now that I''ve got my feet under me again. Making cursed tools is fun and all but it''s also costly and in order to raise my stats I need to kill some monsters." I said honestly.


    "You could at least take Bell with you so you can watch each others backs." she said and I shook my head.


    "Right now we''d just get in each others way if we did. Plus I can''t use my mes if I am in a team without risking injury to whoever was with me. Believe me I find it just as annoying as you do since that also means I can''t have a supporter either but that''s just the way things are." I said with a shrug.


    "Just try and be careful alright?" she said and I nodded seriously.


    Leaving the church I couldn''t help but be a bit excited to get some input on my newbat rted cursed tools I had on me. I had crafted a total of five that I nned to test today. The first was a shield I had crafted for my left arm that had a force reversal technique on it along with the [durability] and [hard] properties. The way the shield was supposed to work was that it was supposed to absorb the force of any attack that hits it and at a time of my choosing release all that force back out the front with a shield bash. If it worked I was looking forward to a bright future.-


    The second item I made was actually a pair of items in fact but was basically my attempt at making a phone using my technique.It was a small coin with an ear on one side and a mouth on the other that was supposed to allow someone holding one of the two to talk to the person holding the other regardless of distance. If it worked I was nning to equip each member of the familia with one in the future to give us a huge edge while deep delving or if we get separated.-


    Can you even imagine how great it would be if we could just like tell someone on the outside that we had an issue and needed help while on say floor forty two? Game. Changing. Moving on we had my third experimental cursed tool that was supposed to work as a metal detector. Look I didn''t mind spending so much to experiment when I had no other option but if I could just like mine the damn metal myself from the dungeon i am always going to take that option. But like any mining familia will tell you finding the metal is half the challenge as the dungeon is always shifting slightly and adding or removing the metal from locations and as a result it was a pain to find sometimes.-


    If this item worked I could stock up on the good shit and work to outfit myself and Bell with gear that would make level fours jealous. I''m talking full cursed armor out of orichalcum or adamantite that turned us into walking tanks. I''d have to figure out how to make cursed tools capable of growth though since when I tried that the item actually ended up getting bigger at a slow but constant rate.-


    That is to say the technique took the wording very literally rather than how I was hoping. I knew the idea was possible since Hephaestus and her captain Tsubaki were able to make gear that could grow with it''s user but that they rarely did since it was extremely hard. I''m a prideful bastard though and couldn''t help but try and one up them by doing it at level two. The worse part about my attempt though was that it also rendered the material unusable since while the size increased it was nothing but impurities dragged from the air in truth.-


    Anyways my fourth item was my attempt at a spatially expanded bag. Admittedly i had underestimated how hard it was to make spatial items as the attempt took me all of my cursed energy and I had a sneaking suspicion it actually destroyed whatever I put in it rather than store it. I couldn''t really test it fully at the church because I was running out of stuff and didn''t want to waste what little I had left. The final item was perhaps not something I should have made but my inner pyro won out and I made a cursed tool version of a grenade.-


    It was basically just my mes stuffed andpressed in an orb the size of a baseball that I could lob in order for it to explode on contact. It wasn''t my proudest moment but I won''t lie and say I''m not excited to see it in action. Anyways I stopped by the hostess to enhance some ingredients before head to the dungeon with my Syr made meal in my normal bag. On the first floor I tested out the shield and was slightly disappointed to learn that it BARELY managed to store three attacks from a goblin before breaking as it couldn''t handle the force anymore.-


    I also tested the coin as well and Hestia who had the other one could talk to me just fine but this was only the first floor so that may change as I get further down. My theory about the spatial bag was also true as it shredded anything I put into it and exploded after "eating" a magic stone. That just left my grenade and the metal detector but the first was not something I was going to waste on a goblin and theter wouldn''t even work this close to the surface as the metals didn''t start showing up until the tenth floor at minimum.-


    I didn''t even bother killing the kobolds or goblins after testing the other stuff and just hurried down towards the tenth floor where the monsters would actually be worth killing. I can''t even begin to describe how strange it felt to be moving at fast speeds but feeling like I wasn''t as I sprinted through the floors. Well fastpared to when I was level one anyways as I think my current top speed was only slightly faster than the fastest human on earth at about twenty seven ish miles per hour at a full sprint.

 Infant dragon

    Infant dragon


    Soon enough i reached my target floor and slowed down to catch my breath since so much sprinting took a toll on me. The dungeon had a habit of not having monsters at the start of floors when there was a design change like this so I knew I could afford to rx a bit. Not for long mind you as if it sensed that someone was camping the entrance it''d start spawning monsters there until they moved. I only needed to catch my breath though so it shouldn''t be an issue.-


    While I was doing that I pulled out apass that I may or may not have ripped off from pirates of the Caribbean which was also my metal detector. Flipping open the lid I watched as it spun for a bit before pointing off to my left. Grinning I followed the direction until lo and behold I found a small chunk of impure mithril ore growing out of a crack in the wall of the floor. It was a dull grey blue crystal substance that was in truth metal when refined. I wasted no time at all smashing the ore out of the wall and then refining it on the spot to get the nugget of pure mithril the size of my thumb from it.-


    It wasn''t much but it was proof of the tool working and that was all I needed. That of course left my grenade to test and I wanted to see how it did against an orc. Walking through the thin mist I came across some needle rabbit and imps but no orcs on the tenth floor so I went further down to the eleventh. The mist was thicker here but not so much as to cause me issues seeing into the distance quite yet though things further away were rather hazy. As I result I noticed that this floor just like the previouscked any orcs which confused me that was until I heard it.


    "ROOOOAAAAR!"


    A roar loud enough to echo into this floor from the next and my eye lit up. ''An infant dragon, how lucky!'' I thought happily and rushed towards the twelfth floor killing the monsters that got in my way.


    Infant dragons were a special type monster much like deep floor unicorns and the first floor Jackbird that rarely spawned in a specific set of floors and was the most valuable thing there. Unlike those two monsters however infant dragons were a sort of miniboss type monster sitting at a firm level two ranking normally and highly aggressive to the point of actively hunting the orcs on the floors it spawned on. The things rarely ate magic stones though and were often hunted down shortly after they spawned so variants were rare though not unheard of. In the few cases where one does turn variant it''s usually because someone got cocky and ended up eaten including the magic stones they had on them.-


    I , in theory, had the stats of a middle level two and thus an infant dragon was the perfect opponent for me to test my grenade on before fighting myself. Naturally I wasn''t the first person to arrive at the area the infant dragon was at. I was actually the third as there was a party of three currently fighting the monster. The party consisted of an amazon and two human men, one of which was a supporter if the huge backpack they had was anything to go by. The amazon used a scimitar and was constantly making shallow cuts against the monster.


    The human who was fighting used a spear to take pokes at the infant dragon but neither fighter was doing any real damage to the beast. Not that they could be med as the "infant dragon" wasn''t just a fancy name but was very literal. I''m talking four ws and wings on the back with extremely hard scales and the ability to breath an element. Much like other types of dragons the infant dragons came in a variety of elemental vors that influence their appearance. This one had a bright blue color to it''s scales and as a result I knew that it was a lightning type dragon species monster.-


    Much like "adult" dragons scales and hide an infact dragons scales and hide were highly resistant to damage. This meant trying to bleed it out or cause small wounds to kill it simply had no real chance to work. I had no intention of stepping in however as unless an adventurer asked for help jumping in was a fast way to create arguments. As a result there was a sort of etiquette to situations like this where an outsider waits until the fight is over or is specifically asked to help.-


    The porter looked at me suspiciously but i merely smiled and waved from my spot while I waited. Despite not really harming the monster the two fighters were otherwise doing fairly well as they were avoiding injuries themselves as well. They had also both noticed me but chose to quickly ignore me since I was following the rules.


    ''It''ll be my turn soon enough as they are both starting to show signs of fatigue. One of them will slip up soon and they''ll need to retreat or risk death.'' I thought as I paid close attention to the fight.


    Judging from the reluctant looks the two fighters were throwing my way they had also figured this out and were debating about whether to ask me to jump in or just forfeit any loot and leave. If I jump in I am per the unspoken rules allowed a part of the loot which meant less for them but if they leave they won''t get anything but won''t have to suffer the fate of sharing loot with a stranger either. That may seem like a no brainer as some loot is better than none but depending on how proud they are it was also humiliating to have to ask for help.-


    Judging from their reluctance I''d say they are pretty proud individuals as they REALLY don''t want to tag me OR leave. That was fine by me though as I win regardless of what they chose to do. Five minutester my prediction came true and the human fighter was slow on the dodge and got a nasty gash on his right arm from the infant dragons razor sharp ws.


    "Fuck Retreat!" he called out with an upset look while the amazon looked reluctant butplied as she disengaged.


    The infant dragon smelling the blood went in aggressively to prevent their escape but i hit it square in the side with my grenade.


    "BOOM!"


    ck mes ripped out of the orb on contact and quickly covered the monster that roared in pain and rolled as the impact of the explosion rocked it''s insides. This provided a perfect opening for the two fighters to get out of range while I moved in. I sprinted through the ck mes on the ground ignoring them since they couldn''t burn me to begin with and with a twist of my waist and shoulders I threw my full strength and umted momentum into the swing of my weapon straight into the burning writhing monsters ribcage.

 Author chapter(Not a chapter)

    Author chapter(Not a chapter)


    I end up having to make one of these chapter for a lot of my stories at some point when I get a bunch ofints or gripes about something and I feel the need to address the matters. So here we are with me the author here to exin some stuff that I probably shouldn''t have to but do since it wasn''t abundantly clear despite me writing it into the story.


    First up we have why I had Alex go into the Hestia familia despite it being such a "vani" option. Gonna be blunt here but we don''t know shit about almost any other familia in Danmachi. Best we get is little tid bits of information and the asional introduction to a character that we''ll probably never see again in most cases. In case it wasn''t crystal clear that isn''t a whole hell of a fucking lot of information to work with. The Hestia familia on the otherhand we see grow from rock bottom to where it is now and is in fact the only familia we know that much about. That is why I chose it for the familia that Alex is in.


    Second on this list of things that I have to exin is that is is a FANFICTION! That means I took creative liberty with the story, the world and a few other things that everyone and their cat keep pointing out. If you are reading this because you are expecting everything to be the exact same as the source material then I''m sorry to say you are in the wrong ce.


    On the topic of things I changed is the timeline that this story is ying out on. I REALLY didn''t like how rushed the original Danmachi timeline was. For those not aware the entire fucking story takes ce within the span of one year. That means that in canon Bell goes from a weak nothing to a monstrously high leveled powerhouse in the span of an entire year. To put that into perspective in canon it took Ais an entire year to go from level one to level two. Like I said the story was frankly cramped as far as timeline was concerned and I wasn''t alright with that so I changed it. I made it take longer for things to happen and spaced stuff out in a much more reasonable time frame.


    Moving on we have the thing i have been getting a bunch of criticism for, power scaling. I have in fact boosted the average power of each adventurer in Orario at the time of them usually leveling up. See most adventurers went for leveling up as fast as possible and as a result didn''t have max stats at the first limit before they leveled up. What I did was raise the minimum bar to level up, Hell I even covered this fact in one of the previous chapters.


    In canon the minimum you had to raise a single stat to to level up was D 500 and the average adventurer would have a single stat at B 700 or A 800 before they leveled up while the rest were different based on their experiences and fighting style. The average canon falna stats looked something like this as a result.


    Level:1


    Strength: 536(D)


    Endurance:559(D)


    Agility:760(B)


    Dexterity:620(C)


    Magic: 332(F)


    This felt wrong to me so I changed the average minimum a stat had to be to B 700 so that the on average adventurer would have higher better stats like this instead when it came time to level up.


    Level:1


    Strength: 636(C)


    Endurance:659(C)


    Agility:960(S)


    Dexterity:820(A)


    Magic: 432(E)


    I also modified the stats of the truly elite adventurers falna to have been raised to the SS 1000-1500 level in one or two stats with the others being at minimum of B 700 because if you are going to make elites elite actually fucking give them stats that say so. You add on the fact that each stat point at level two is worth one and a quarter of a level one stat point and that difference grows the higher the level and Alex''s stats while very high aren''t TOO unreasonable. He''s not as strong as a level five or six like you people keep saying but at MOST a high level two or weak level three. At the same time however this also means that it''s going to be even harder for him to level up in the future because you actually need to do something impressive in regards to your current self to qualify to level up.


    This means in exchange for the best possible status sheet he will need to go challenge shit that would kill people a level or more higher than him to level up to three and it will be even harder after that. Moral of the story is that yes as a matter of fact there is a bnce in y so that he isn''t unreasonably overpowered without a serious downside.


    Moving on to thest thing I keep gettingments on, Romance. There is romance in this storybut that doesn''t mean it''s the focus of the story or really anything more than a side note. Contrary to what people keep saying Danmachi is not a romance story but an adventure story with a heavy romantic harem subplot. It''s about Bell adventuring and growing stronger while in the process attracting women to him by just being himself. In other words get off my back about it as theres nothing wrong with Alex not chasing skirt or dating and focusing on his goal instead. As I said there IS romance however so shut up about it already.

 Disappointment and robbers

    Disappointment and robbers


    "CRAAACK!"


    The impact caused the scales I struck splinter and the ribs underneath thatyer of skin to break and bow inwards puncturing the monsters lung causing it to spit out blood as the lung filled with the stuff before it got expelled as the beast tried to breath. My mes were ravenously scorching the beast as well as the more vulnerable parts like the wings leather and the eyes were consumed greedily.


    "RAAH!"


    The monster tried to roar but it was watery and pathetic from the blood in it''s lung and throat. In a desperate bid to survive the monster thrashed about which I leapt up to avoid as well as line up my next attack. Twisting midair I brought down the blunt end of my weapon onto the spine of the beast using my full strength and gravity this time.


    "CRUNCH!"


    The scales shattered but the spine didn''t break though the monster copsed from the force. I was a little disappointed at how easy this was so far but I admit that might just be because I actually was higher up the food chain than it was. Sure we could both be considered level two but the guild based this monsters power off a normal level two with B rank stats across the board when they had leveled up.-


    Comparing such a being to myself wasughable to say the least since I had leveled up to two with truly maxed stats across the board. Compared to the seven hundred or so of B rank stats I was nearly three times higher up than that upon leveling up. To the three watching this pathetic disy on the infant dragons part they likely thought i was level three or even higher when we were actually the same level.-


    By the time the monster finally had enough bullying and died I was pretty sure they had given up any desire to sh with me over the loot. In fact when I removed the magic stone from the corpse they watched on and didn''t say anything even after therge amount of smoke flowed right into me through my tattoos. As far as drops went I got a fang and about a dozen scales that were intact and another dozen not so intact, well and the magic stone that was the size of a coconut.-


    "p p p"


    The sound of hands meeting rang out slightly in the distance beyond where I could see thanks to the dense mist of the twelfth floor. Momentster a party of five men with jeering faces and greedy looks walked out of the mist to where I could see them. I frowned when I saw their souls that shown with sinful nature and many sins rted to greed, lust and violence. I''d be an idiot if i didn''t realize that they were here to either rob or murder me if not both.


    "That was a wonderful show you just put on but you must be dreadfully tired after using so much magic right? Why not just leave that bag here with us to hold onto and take a nice long nap?" the guy clearly leading the group said with a not very friendly smile.


    I couldn''t helpughing at this though as I realized that this group of robbers thought those mes were from me using magic. If that were actually true I might have been worried but the thing is those mes were from yesterday when I made that grenade. In other words I was sitting at a full tank of energy right now and they thought i was unable to use the mes against them.


    "Looks like we have an arrogant one fes lets take care of the leftovers before we teach him the real way of things." the leader guy said cruelly as the smile fell from his face.


    The party swarmed towards the three who were here earlier that raised their weapons fearfully to fight off the enemies. I smirked coldly from my position though and with a wave of my hands sent out hell fire in a wide arc to encircled all of us in a ring of fire.


    "Impossible! You should be near mind zero after using so much magic!" The leader eximed in horror.


    "Oh you would certainly be correct if it wasn''t for the fact THOSE mes were from a magic item and not me. You lot have three options now, first you surrender quietly and I drag you all to the guild. Second you try to flee and all die in agony as my mes devour you. Finally you all try and fight me at which case I''ll kill all but one of you. Thest one still gets dragged to the guild though. Oh wait silly me I forgot about the fourth option, you kill yourselves before I can catch you. Like tag but for keeps." I said with a casual smile.


    "I refuse to believe you can take on all of us at once get him gu- URK!" The leader went to say only to be cut off as one of his party put a de through his chest, killing him.


    I raised an eyebrow at this in surprisebefore they person who stabbed him which was a slimy looking human man spoke.


    "Bastard was about to get all of us killed. Those mes made even an infant dragon helpless and you think fighting against the guy who can summon more is a good idea? Die on your own but I''ll take the guild over death any day!" he said spitting on the still warm corpse.


    "<em>Daamn~</em> Welp Rip that guy, that was cold as shit man. Still I can feel your sincerity so if you just toss your weapons over that nice wall of fire there and walk over to me slowly with your hands where I can see them at all time you''ll live past today. Try anything funny and I''ll reduce you to ashes before you can blink though." I said calmly.-


    All four of the remaining robbers did as I said and tossed their weapons over the wall of fire flinching as the mes red up and started consuming them. When they arrived close enough i had themy down on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs. One of them tried to reach for a hidden weapon at that point, likely a throwing dagger, and paid the price with their life. Oddly i didn''t feel anything after killing a person for the first time and I couldn''t help but wonder if this was a side effect of my bing more closely intertwined with cursed energy.-


    Sure I had grown desensitized to killing monsters but a person was a whole other sort of thing as far as I am concerned. I thought that I''d feel sick or something but my emotions didn''t waiver even a little which was disturbing to recognize. Thest three robbers got tied up with some of the rope I always carried on me after I searched them for held out weapons.

 Hassle

    Hassle


    So that whole ring of fire thing I did might have been a bluff since my control over my mes wasn''t that good. Don''t get me wrong I could certainly hold it in ce but it took a huge amount of effort on my part as the mes wanted nothing more than to go wild and set the whole floor aze. Once the robbers were good and secured I had to retract the mes and put them out which was a serious struggle. The three adventurers left as soon as I did which I wasn''t surprised about though I did think it was rude.-


    They could have at the very least offered to help me drag these people up to the guild but whatever. I stopped at the fourth floor to eat my meal that Syr made(pulled beef with mushroom gravy and cornbread) and one of the robbers tried to be smooth and make a silent escape while I was eating, I broke his foot. It slowed us a bit with his hobbling and whimpering but I ignored it. Eventually we made it to the surface and I was stopped immediately.-


    "What''s going on here?" One of the guards at the dungeons entrance asked seriously.


    "These three tried to rob me on the twelfth floor after I got done fighting a monster and I captured them to take to the guild." I said honestly.


    "Hmmm, you don''t look like you got into a fight with them though." the guard said suspicious.


    "That''s because I didn''t fight them but rather gave them the option of surrendering quietly or dying and they chose thetter option." I said getting rather irritated at the hold up.


    The guard scoffed "Like I''d believe that a newbie like you could get people like that to surrender without a fight." he said mockingly.


    "Look man I frankly don''t give a shit what you want to believe or not. I am going straight to the guild which is literally right fucking there so you are more than wee toe with but move out of the gods damn way." I said having enough of this nonsense.


    The guard snarled in anger and looked like he was and to try and hit me when another voice spoke up from nearby.


    "Whats going on here?" the female voice asked sternly.


    Looking over I saw that it was an azure haired woman with a spear in her hand.


    "This guy is stopping me from taking these robbers to the guild is what." I said angrily.


    "Is this true?" the woman asked the guard who looked very ufortable under her gaze.


    "That''s what he says but his story makes no sense! How could a newbie like him possibly subdue three..." the guard spoke but i cut him off.


    "Five robbers, one of them got stabbed in the back by this guy here and the other tried to get me with a false surrender sneak attack and I killed him for it." I said seriously.


    "That makes even less sense!" the guard said red faced.


    "Whether his story makes sense or not he was taking them to the guild was he not?" the woman asked sternly and the guard floundered for a moment.


    "Well um, Yes?" he said quietly.


    "Then all you should have done is see that they actually reached there, not impeded him." she said firmly.


    "Yes Captain." the guard said with a defeated sigh.


    "Hmmm, If I am not mistake you are ck mark correct?" she asked and my facial muscles twitched at the mention of my alias.


    "I don''t like that name but yes that is what the gods chose to call me. I go by Alex however." I said honestly.


    "I see, then it would appear you didn''t do as the rumors suggest and reach the bare minimum to level up quickly. Can''t say I am not curious as to how you managed it." she said calmly.


    "Well First I fought and killed a variant goblin on my first delve, then got caught in an ant swarm and finally fought and killed a minotaur to get the achievement I needed to level up. After that I just needed to work on raising my stats as high as I could." I said with a grin knowing damn well how nuts that sounded.


    Both the woman , guard and my prisoners looked at me in shock.


    "How the hell are you still alive with luck like that?" the guard couldn''t help but ask incredulously.


    I shrugged "I really didn''t feel like dying, such a pain in the ass you know what I mean?" I asked and they all looked at me like I had grown an new head.


    "Great, another madman with a falna. Just what this city needed." the woman said sarcastically.


    "Hey! I''m not just "another" madman but THE madman, theres a distinction!" I joked with mock offense.


    "Ugh, whatever just get those three to the guild already." the woman said rolling her eyes at my antics and I wasted no time dragging my prisoners to the guild.


    Rose was less than pleased to hear about mytest exploits and I hurriedly left the guild after cashing out the mana stone from the infant dragon since I had no use for it as it was and couldn''t empty it of mana myself. She had looked about two seconds away from reaching over the counter and beating the ever loving hell out of me.-


    Honestly though, I have a three date rule before things are allowed to get physical after all. Jokes aside she really was pissed at me for being such a problematic individual and reckless to boot. It could be worse though as I could be picking fights with a bunch of familias for next to no good reason, wouldn''t that be ridiculous? I might be bold and proud of it but I knew where my limits were and didn''t go making issues I wasn''t sure I could probably handle.-


    Obviously some things were out of my hands like with the minotaur but at that point I just said fuck it and did my best and really what more can be asked of anyone? Heading home from the guild I stopped by the hostess to drop off the food container andpliment Syr on her progress as far as cooking was concerned. Then I headed to the Blue pharmacy to grab some slightly higher concentrated mana potions as my old diluted ones weren''t hitting the same usefulness as before I leveled up.-


    One of them used to give me about three quarters of a full charge but after I leveled up it dropped precipitously to a mere quarter. I wasn''t surprised really since my blessing of ck skill set my magic stat at G right off the rip and each stat point at level two was worth one and a quarter of the same one point from level one. This meant on top of what I had before I leveled up I had way more cursed energy that was also purer as well.

 Plural and commission

    Plural andmission


    Leveling up wasn''t as simple as just reaching the next threshold of strength like in video games despite what the falna shows. It was a very literal refinement and evolution to a higher existence. This meant all parts of a person are enhanced and made into stronger forms of themselves. That included whatever type of energy you used for your magic stat which in my case was cursed energy. This was also why the same magic showed wildly different power after one leveled up. Simply put the fuel for this magic had improved and so the effect of the magic itself also improved.-


    After leveling up my cursed energy had also be more pure and refined so I was able to do more with less. There was one thing though that bothered me ever since I got my falna, a detail that felt off.


    {Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.}


    At first nce this description has nothing wrong with it or out of ce if you looked at it from the perspective of this world but that changed with my knowledge from earth. Techniques, as in more than one. That one word bothered me as from what I knew of from Jujutsu Kaisen you got ONE cursed technique and that was it. But this very specific wording on my skill made me think that just maybe I could be the exception to this rule. The trick was that I simply had no clue how I would even begin to understand how to aplish this if it was true. I wasn''t like everyone else with the falna who could naturally manifest new spells when they leveled up or use a grimoire to force the process.-


    Or could I? It dawned on me that I honestly didn''t know how a grimoire would effect me. It could in fact work perfectly fine and simply cause a new technique to appear or it could be like my first drink of mana potion where I was gambling with my life. Grimoires were meant to bring forth magic in an individual which was based in mana that was a higher form of energy than cursed energy. I had a theory that before I could even attempt to use a grimoire I should raise my cursed energy to match at very least the normal mana of a level one.-


    I wasn''t sure when that would be possible but I assumed when I could consume an undiluted lesser mana potion without risk that I had reached that point. For now though I focused my attention on cursed tool crafting and my current cursed technique. I still had so much to master that even thinking about getting another technique was foolish of me. For example out of all of the cursed tools that I had brought to the dungeon the simplest ones were the only ones that passed the test.-


    One of those tools was literally just a container for my cursed mes that exploded on contact. The only tools worth celebrating about was themunication tokens that let me talk with Hestia who was in the church on the surface while I was in the twelfth floor of the dungeon and the metal detectorpass. Those tokens in particr were Hestia''s favorite creation of mine even if they were a bit creepy with the ear on one side and the mouth on the other. It was thanks to them after all that she knew about what had happened mere moments after it happened.-


    While I was tinkering with making another token set for Bell we got a visitor that we hadn''t expected.


    "Hroldar? Awfullyte to be making a visit no?" I asked seeing the dwarf outside the church.


    He shrugged "Nothing for itd this was the only time I knew I''d be able to catch you here. You are usually in the dungeon for most of the day. Or at least you were before you went an leveled up, quite the surprise that." he said honestly.


    "Just got unlucky enough to have to fight a minotaur to death is all, most of my time was spent raising my stats till I was satisfied with them after that." i said honestly.


    "Aye, that''d do it if you won which you clearly did." Hroldar said nodding in understanding.


    "That reminds me but why''d you take so long to visit anyways? I was stuck here for nearly a month after I leveled up but didn''t see hide nor hair of you." I said curiously.


    "Ah, that was bad luck really as you leveled up right before my familias annual expedition to the middle floors to stock up on resources. We just got back a couple of days ago and I had been busy going over our inventory till now." he said with a chuckle.


    "Well pleasee in and make yourself at home, assuming this is a social visit that is." I said opening the door widely.


    He shrugged "Bit of both actually, came to put in a fewmissions as well to see how you were doing. You seem well enough, gotta ask though whats up with the tattoos anyway?" he asked curiously.


    "They are symbolic." I said not lying but also not really saying everything.


    "Not the strangest tradition i''ve ever seen, met a Pallum once that had a tree he''d lick for luck before delving each day. Didn''t seem to work since he got killed by a green dragon after his lover betrayed him." Hroldar said with a shrug.


    I couldn''t help imagining the scene he described with an odd expression.


    "Well regardless whats this about amission?" I asked changing the topic as we took a seat on the restored pews of the church.


    "Afterdy Hephaestus confirmed you weren''t lying about your crafts lord Ogun and I decided we''d go to you if we needed something made and as it happened we just got a new level four after this expedition and you also leveled up so we assumed you grabbed cksmith as a developmental ability and could add effects to your works. After that well here I am." he said honestly with a smile.


    "You are right I did grab smith when I leveled up and have been experimenting with it since I got it with mixed results. If you want any of the standard properties though it shouldn''t be an issue." I said honestly.


    "Good on youd so what we need is a sword like this but the best you''ve got in you. We will of course provide the drops and have half the payment upfront, two hundred thousand Valis." Hroldar said as he showed me the sword he brought with him and it was a fairly simple arming sword about a meter long.

 Details and Bell’s upgrade

    Details and Bell¡¯s upgrade


    "The sword itself will be easy enough to create in shape but I need details about whoever is going to use it if you want my best work." I said honestly.


    "Eh? Most smiths just need to know what the weapon is to make an order so why are you different?" he asked curiously but clearly believing me.


    Not surprising really as I basically got endorsed by Hephaestus herself because of theparison. She said that I was the best at level one like I had said so Hroldar and Ogun were very likely to take whatever I said as gospel so long as my reasons made sense.


    "Well if you wanted a weapon that was good generally speaking then I wouldn''t need any details like this. I''d simply p [Durability], [Sharp] and [Resistant] properties onto the de and you''d have a weapon that was useful in literally anyone''s hands but not the best in anyone''s hand either. What you wanted instead was my best work and that means I need to know things like what stats the person favors, if they block with their weapon regrly, do they have a magic that uses their sword, do they prefer hard straight on attacks or fast shallow ones, things like this. By knowing all this I can make a weapon that is perfect for the job it was needed to perform." I exined and Hroldar looked amazed.


    "Bloody helld, that sounds almost like you were trying to make a top rate weapon rather than something for a level four." he said honestly.


    I shrugged "You asked for my best and that is how you get my best. Besides, if I''m going to be the best craftsman in this city I need to strive for perfection even when creating mere silverware." I said with a grin.


    "Ho? Lofty goals I see but you seem to have what it takes to reach them so you''ll hear no nay saying from me. I''ll need a couple days to get the information you need if that''s alright?" He said and I nodded.


    He stayed and chatted casually for a bit after that but left since he had stuff he still needed to do as the Captain of his familia besides this visit. I wasn''t joking about the information I asked for either as depending on the answers I had to swap out properties to have ones that fit the wielder perfectly. While there were patterns that every type of weapon was used for normally each wielder of the weapons was unique and differed in ways that needed ounting for when crafting a weapon.-


    For example if a sword wielder relied on a shield to block rather than the sword itself I could trade [Durability] for something else like [Severing] or [Bleed] that increased it''s lethality at the cost of longevity. Ifthe weapon was brought for regr maintenance and treated as it was supposed to be though that would hardly be an issue.-


    I would like to point out however that even without [Durability] everything I fully refine is already stupidly tough to begin with so even without it the longevity is still great. For example a fully refined piece of pine wood had the toughness to take a hit with a regr steel sword and barely get a scratch, pine is an inherently soft wood mind you. You may be wondering why I hadn''t added any properties to my own weapon since I would obviously know my own information. The answer is simply that there was no point for me to do so right now.-


    My weapon was made of materials that were typically used to make second rate weapons which was easily more than good enough by themselves but I had fused several together. In other words my weapon just from a material standpoint was a higher level than I was at the moment without any properties added. Like I said it wasn''t necessary and served no point as I was wasn''t skilled enough to turn it into a proper cursed tool or use it to it''s full potential even if I could, hence pointless. Bells weapons though were a whole other matter.-


    Besides the materials innate strength and the edge I gave it and maintained the weapons had room to be improved with properties. The trick was that I had to choose which properties to add as if I wanted to make the weapon the best I could which meant that I had four properties each without risking them being weaker than normal six total if I wanted to sacrifice some power. [Durability] was a must as Bell abused the unholy fuck out of his des using them to regrly block and redirect attacks. For the dagger I could add [Severing] since ording to Bell the dagger was more defensive and evasion based while the sword was mostly for his attacks.-


    In other words the dagger was secondary and utility in use and didn''t need attacking properties as much. In the same vein of thought I suppose [Splitting] can also be added so he had an easier time retrieving magic stones since monster bodies can be quite sturdy even after death. Finally I think I can round off the dagger with [Piercing] since he quite favors stabbing things with his dagger. I understand that these properties sound the same but they in fact do different things.-


    [Severing] and [Splitting] for example were used to aplish two separate but simr things. [Severing] for example put emphasis on dividing softer things like skin, flesh, nts and rope. [Splitting] on the other hand was all about the harder stuff like bone, wood and metal, think of an axe if that helps. One is soft and the other hard and it was the craftsman''s job to apply the correct one. Moving on to the sword Bell used I already had [Durability] picked out to go on there but the other three were more tricky as he wasn''t going to only fight one type of enemy in the future.-


    [Bleed] was a fairly safe bet since most monsters and ALL people have blood to shed so that was an easy one but the other two were less so. You may think [Sharp] would do but Bell wasn''t ever trying to cut through a monster but was more about opening a bunch of wounds or going straight for the magic stone. His shes were light but frequent so having a property for cleaving things apart wasn''t the best fit. I ended up going with [Piercing] so he could hit the magic stones easier with lunges that utilized his speed.-


    The final property was a pain in the ass to settle on though as there were so many that fit his style but I could only choose one more. We ended up having a discussion about it and he surprised me by choosing one I hadn''t expected as it was close to magical in alignment, [Gravity]. Not to be confused with [Weight] that increased a weapons weight in a straight forward manner. No [Gravity] was an anti-block property as effectively what it did was only applied when swung vertically. Swing up and your attack will be faster than it should like it had less weight and the opposite was true as you swing down your weapon will move faster but feel like it was way heavier upon striking.

 Scouting the market

    Scouting the market


    Due to this weapons that had this property were extremely hard to block if you weren''t aware of it beforehand. This was why it surprised me that Bell wanted it on his sword as his style was all about skirting around defenses to leave small but meaningful wounds. If it wasn''t for his aversion to poisoning his des I would liken his style to one suited for assassination. [Gravity] Was a direct confrontation property which shed heavily with such a style but if that was what he wanted I wasn''t going to argue.-


    Enchanting his weapons took me only a couple hours since I needed to fuse a cursed stone into them and then tie the four chosen properties per weapon to them and into the weapon material itself. This obviously took a lot of focus and cursed energy to do which cost me four potions and two hours of nonstop work. The final results looked no different than before but hummed with cursed energy and radiated a dangerous feeling. Bell was thrilled with the upgrade and almost rushed straight back to the dungeon despite howte it was to test them out.-


    The next day Bell went to the dungeon but I stayed back in the city since I needed to go looking for a magic item shop so I can try and roughly price check a grimoire. I of course had some other things I needed to do like create some more experimental cursed tools and replenish our stock of figurines as we were starting to get low. I admit that when I had first started making the things I hadn''t expected to earn so much money from them. But with Hestia selling four a day at a minimum of ten thousand valis each she brought home forty thousand a day on a bad day and even up to fifty thousand on a good one.-


    Apparently they were collectors items due to the fact I tried not to reuse the same design twice and even if the character chosen was the same the pose and feel of the figurines were never identical. The funny part was that ording to Hestia the people who buy the things were split into three camps. The race camp that went only for the figurines in a particr race. The monster camp that only wanted my monster figurines and the aesthetics camp that only went after figurines that fit the standard definition of beauty.-


    Apparently there was even a camp of people pressuring Hestia to convince me to make more erotic figurines as well since all mine were rather modest by covering all naughty bits and they wanted to see them. I was having none of it though as unless I was going to get paid way more for it I wasn''t going to make stuff like that. Even without doing so we were still bringing in a good amount of money everyday after all and it was way too popr for me to see it suddenly stop.-


    Anyways the streets of Orario were cobblestone brick and not dirty per se but not spotless either. People walked about freely with some chatting and other focused on their goals. I myself was casually walking down the street towards a magic shop that the girls at the hostess had suggested might have books on magic and possibly even grimoires. To be fair though they did warn me that most grimoires get snapped up immediately despite their high prices as the promise of a potentially game changing magic was more than enough for the bigger familias to spend so much on a one off item.-


    It also didn''t help that you needed both the [Mage] and [Mystery] developmental skills on top of being level three at MINIMUM to make one. To put that into perspective there are only five people recorded in the city right now with the [Mystery] skill of which only two also have the [Mage] skill. Both of which were the sole creators of the entire cities supply of grimoires. Supply and demand was so grossly unbnced that the prices publicly stated for one began at one hundred million valis.-


    I didn''t think I would find a grimoire today but I at the very least hoped to be able to get an urate gauge of the price of one beyond the rumored prices. Eventually I entered a small ce tucked out of sight called [The witches secret house]. The shop was a cluttered mess of books and ingredients and behind the counter was a woman who was the definition of a witch from earth. Old, moles, sharp nose, curved chin, pointed hat the whole shebang. The woman looked up at me and grinned a missing toothed smile.


    "Oho? Goodness me a new face in this out of the way ce, now how did that happen?" she asked teasingly.


    "The girls from the hostess of fertility told me I''d find information on magic here." I said calmly.


    "Ah! You must be that young man who has been worming your way into those beauties good graces then! Ah to be young and looking to score, how I envy you!" the woman said with a cacklingugh as I shifted ufortably.


    I knew her type, the tease you relentlessly type. They don''t mean any harm with it but that didn''t mean it was fun to be on the receiving end of their attention. While it was true that every girl at the hostess was a beauty in their own right I was definitely NOT trying to get with any of them, I valued my life thank you very much.


    "You jest but Mama Mia would skin me alive if she even thought I had such ideas, I truly am here for information on magic." I said honestly.


    "Tsk Tsk, no need to try and defend yourself from me I won''t tell anyone I swear. Fun aside I would hope that those girls would have told you my rules, you pay upfront in either valis or with something unusual. If you choose the second route I decide how valuable the thing you give me is and I won''t argue about it. If you try and scam me i''ll boot you from this ce in an instant." she said seriously and I nodded.


    ording to the girls at the hostess Lenoa here was the experimental type mage and was always testing new things and looking for curiosities to study. I came prepared however with something I was certain would catch the woman''s attention, a cursed stone.-


    cing the glowing stone on the counter the old woman''s features wrinkled further as she looked at it. "A magic stone? No? How is that? What!? You! Boy! Where did you get this stone!?" she started out at a mutter but was practically hysterical towards the end of her speech.


    "I believe that wasn''t the game now was it?" I asked with a grin of my own.


    "Don''t y coy with me boy!" she shouted angrily.


    "Does it matter? I have it now and you very clearly want it, so name a price." I said with an amused smile.

 Negotiations

    Negotiations


    "Tsk! Of course those girls would send a tricky customer my way." the woman''s emotions flipped to mild annoyance in an instant and it was clear she was acting before.


    "Almost had me believing that you had lost control of your emotions for a moment there , still my point stands." I said still smiling.


    "I can''t make an offer loathe as I am to admit it. Whatever THAT is is without precedence. Nothing like it has ever existed as far as I know, as a result I have no idea how much it would be worth." she said with obvious annoyance.


    "Well we seem to be at an impasse then. Tell you what , you tell me the actual price range of a grimoire and let me take one of those books on magic over there and I''ll let you have that stone, sound good?" I offered calmly.


    "Do I look like I was born yesterday brat? Those books are valuable in their own right and what would a low level adventurer even need to know what a grimoire costs anyways, not like you can afford one. Besides theres no telling if you are ripping me off with this stone." she said with a scoff.


    "You said it yourself, that stone has no precedent. Surely that alonemands a respectable price, no?" I asked and the woman looked hesitant to disagree.


    Seeing this I pressed a little more like a devil whispering in your ear to make a bad decision. "Look at it this way if it pays off I''ll be the one at a loss here instead and by no small amount to boot." I said with an urging tone.


    "Fine! Fine! You can take one book but I chose the book!" she said annoyed.


    "A pleasure doing business with you!" I said with a grin.


    I ended up leaving the shop with a rather basic introductory book on magic and the price range of a grimoire. I wasn''t surprised to learn that the public price of a hundred million valis was the starting point of the things not the average selling price. The high end of the range was three hundred and fifty million valis with the true average price being roughly between two hundred million and two hundred and seventy five million valis for a grimoire.-


    With my objectiveplete and some time to kill I headed back to the church to experiment with cursed tool crafting some more. The book on magic was frankly useless to me but that wasn''t true for Bell who was quite jealous of my magic. Not bitter because he''s a ball of innocence and warmth but envious all the same. You may also be wondering why I wasn''t throwing myself into the dungeon to grind my brains out since I was still so weak. The answer was because there was no reason to rush, the path to godhood is a marathon not a sprint.-


    All rushing forward would aplish was to make my path either very narrow and rough or cut it off entirely as I''d slip up along the way. My goal wasn''t going anywhere and as much as I may reject the standard craftsman path that didn''t mean that crafting wasn''t an important part of my own. Creation and destruction in equal parts if you would, I kill and ughter in the dungeon to fuel my growth but I also use my power to craft marvels of power that bnce out that scale. My stats were easy to raise but my prowess as a craftsman needed constant experimentation and discovery.-


    In terms of pure time investment it should be obvious which of those two sides took the most to raise properly. Anyways once I got back to the church I was surprised to find Hephaestus there with her captain.


    "Oh! Did you get what you were after Alex?" Hestia asked curiously as I walked up.


    I nodded "I did. I''ll be heading down below to experiment for a while now since I''ve got some time to kill." I said casually.


    "Oh? Perhaps you have some more fascinating creations in mind like these coins?" Hephaestus said in a curious manner that made me sigh.


    "You weren''t supposed to share those you know." I said sternly to Hestia who looked embarrassed.


    "No reason to me her since it''s not her fault really. My visit was not something we had scheduled so she tried to hide the thing from me but Tsubaki has sharp hearing as a level five and found it. I must say it''s a marvelous creation to say the least, revolutionary even. A method tomunicate with a person regardless of distance or location is an extremely valuable thing. I''d like tomission some if that''s not too big a problem?" the red headed goddess said with a smile.


    I would also like to point out that I was positive she was not here for Hestia to begin with. It was small things that weren''t likest time she was here. Her clothes were nicer more dylike" if you prefer and also more revealing. She had her hair clearly washed and styled and had on a small amount of makeup that none who is ever near a fire would be caught dead wearing since it was oil based. I wasn''t dense enough not to realize that she was here peacocking for my attention.-


    "That''s between you and her, I''m just the craftsman. Btw I preferred you without all the extra stuff, felt more authentic that way." I said casually before heading down below.


    I wasn''t just messing with her either as I genuinely thought she looked better as she was before. She was clearly ufortable with all this extra stuff on her and in those clothes which took away from her natural charm. I liked tomboys, no point in denying it really. Perhaps I might give romance a chance in the future but for now it would only distract me and I didn''t need it. Anyways while Hestia was left to negotiate with the red haired goddess I focused my attention on my current resource cursed tool idea. See there was a rather booming magic sword market but a severeck of products avable that created resources like water, food and healing at the cost of mana.-


    This is where I came in with my reusable magic items that I could charge a stupid amount of money for and get away with it too. Some gods or goddesses may try and make moves to possess me if I made it obvious I was the source but I had a n for that. My cursed technique is a lovely thing that would let me quite literally change my face, skin color, voice and even height if I was careful so good fucking luck trying to figure out who I was after that. If I was also wearing organic clothes I could change those as well so tracking me was a nightmarish task.

 Chatterbox

    Chatterbox


    This was all predicated on whether or not I could sessfully create a cursed tool like this to begin with so lets not get ahead of ourselves here. I had given the water creating and controlling ring to Bell who told me that it worked fine but was rather weak after he passed the ninth floor and entered the tenth. That was as I discovered not something I could fix either as I was apparently too weak to summon enough power to create truly powerful cursed tools. This was one of the ws of my inferior energy type rearing it''s ugly head unfortunately as I knew for a fact that a level two magic item had no such issues.-


    A level two that could make magic items could create them strong enough to mimic a level threes magic attack but had limited uses before breaking. Still cursed energy wasn''t about extremely powerful effects but rather turning weak effects powerful through very borate uses or expansions. Take the special grade cursed tool [Inverted spear of heaven] for example that simply dispersed all cursed energy it came into contact with it.-


    In a cursed energy users hands it was worse than useless, it was a hinderance. but used AGAINST a cursed user and well it was a fucking nightmare as it scattered all cursed techniques with a simple touch regardless of what they did. That meant no domain expansion, reverse cursed technique, barriers or any attacks either worked. That sounded powerful right? Truth was it was actually very weak in literally any other scenario. All cursed techniques were more or less the same way, my own was no exception. You put me in a solid steel box and I will be entirely helpless, hell you could drop me in the middle of the ocean and I''d be fucked six ways to sunday. -


    What I had to do however was not create overpowered items right off the rip but useful ones instead. Bells water ring for example sucked offensively but I guarantee that if I were to put it up for auction it''d sell for a small fortune due to it''s tactical uses. The biggest limitation that the deep delving familias have is theck of food, water and restorative items found there. They instead have entire toons of people who are meant to carry these things into the dungeon.-


    But what if they didn''t have to? What if instead they simply had to have some of their members casually wave their hands to have an effectively unlimited source of water or food? How much do you think that they''d be willing to spend in order to have such a thing? I don''t know for sure but I do know that it won''t be a small amount. Hell even the water ring that Bell has that could only summon and control no more than five gallons at a time would sell for a pretty penny.-


    The trick that I wanted to pull off though was to create a set of cursed tools that covered all the bases and then sell them for a massive mark up. A ring for water, a ring for food and a ring for healing that all only cost the user some time and mana. I could even call it the [Exploration set] and rake in the payday. Obviously I wasn''t just going to mass produce the things either as that would merely cause me to miss out on future profits. No I was going to spread out the sale of the things after demand reaches insane proportions like that of grimoires. -


    Making the water creation rings were easy since I just copied the one that Bell had but the other two were less easy. As it turned out healing was not really something that cursed energy was good at. In fact it was really really fucking hard to do even if you knew how to begin with, spoilers I don''t. Needless to say my idea flopped like a fish out of water before I could even get excited about it. Making food though in exchange for mana was totally possible though I doubted anyone would actually WANT to eat it.-


    See I created a ring that converted energy to this sort of thick grey paste that was chock full of nutrients but looked and tasted downright lethal. It had no smell so i had no warning at all before I tasted it myself. It was like I had eaten concentrate of bitterness as I almost immediately threw up. I destroyed that hellish artifact and after failing to make anything that worked as food gave up. Well it sucked that I couldn''t pull off my idea but as I said the rings of water I made were valuable on their own and I still nned to sell them.-


    For a start I made four of them and set them aside as I moved onto a different project that I had in mind. The idea for this was to create a box that you could slot themunication coins into in order to have multiple lines ofmunication open at the same time without having like a dozen different coins working all at the same time. I seeded too and affectionately refer to the item as the chatterbox. The way it worked was by slotting up to a total of ten coins into the box.-


    The box itself concentrated all of the coins connections into a single rotary phone looking area that had ten differentbeled cursed stones that lit up when the corresponding coin was used. Basically rather than having to monitor all the coins separately you could instead watch all of them at the same time. By picking up the phone looking part and touching a stone you could talk to the corresponding coin and the best part in my opinion, swap to another coin by simply touching a different stone.-


    Right now my familia only had me and Bell with coins so the other eight slots were free but if I throw some of these into the deal with Hephaestus and her own coins she could increase her efficiency greatly.The only real downside to the chatterbox was that ten different coins was the limit I could stretch the technique on the item to. This meant for a massive familia like the Hephaestus familia she was going to need a LOT of these in order to truly make the most out of it. That was her problem to figure out though as I did what I could at the moment.-


    The next day I unfortunately wasn''t able to go delving as Hroldar and Ogun both showed up with the new level four from their familia. While I could understand the level fours presence given the nature of the information I wanted being rather personal Ogun''s presence was an entirely different thing all together. When I asked about this the dark skinned god said he was merely interested in seeing how I would take this information and transform it into a powerful weapon.

 The difference and vault

    The difference and vault


    I shrugged at this and got to questioning to level four about all the details I needed.


    "Do you use one hand or two? Do you regrly block attacks with your weapon or avoid them altogether? Do you prefer to charge straight on towards your enemies or do you prefer smaller safer strikes?" All of this and then some.


    The level four looked ufortable answering some of these questions but after Ogun nodded told me everything I wanted to know.


    "Alright so from the sound of it your perfectbination of properties is [Durability], [Sharp], [Splitting] and [Weight], does thatbination sound good. Or would you prefer to substitute a property for another?" I asked calmly after exining what I thought was the perfectbination for the weapon.


    "Uh, that sounds good I think?" the guy said not understanding the context behind what I asked apparently.


    "I suppose I should step in here since I understand what you are asking. Yes Alex thatbination seems like a marvelous fit for my child. As promised Hroldar has the materials and half the payment already ready. If it''s not too much trouble could I also ask how long this will take toplete?" Ogun asked after speaking up for the level four.-


    I shrugged "Depends on the materials as some are harder to work on then others." I said honestly


    Hroldar took this as his cue and dragged arge sack over and set it in front of me with a loud "Clink!" of metal moving against itself. I didn''t hesitate to open the sack and dig out the materials. With each one I took out I used a quick burst of my cursed technique to fully understand the makeup of each thing. Not enough for it to be seen but enough for me to know what I was working with roughly.


    "Two chunks of deep iron ore with a twenty two and thirty percent impurity rating, a Goliath tooth, three skull sheep bones and a crimson coral branch. Not the best possible materials for a weapon at this rank but better than average. Give me two days and I should be done or close to done by evening on the second day." I said honestly.


    "That faster than I expected, certainly faster than any other smith we''ve used in the past." Ogun said surprised.


    "I don''t like to waste time or lie about how long it will take me to finish a project." I said honestly.


    They left after that and I was left with arge sack of coin and the materials effectively by myself at the church. Heaving the very heavy sack over my shoulder after standing up I headed down into the basement where we all lived and I did all my work. This dingy stone room had changed much since the day I first took up residence here as there was now two clean and nice beds, a tall wooden shelve that held all my finished figurines against the wall.-


    There was also a chest that held all my materials as well as a safe in the corner with it''s face sticking out of the ground. When opened one would be surprised to realize that there was adder inside of an empty space and if thatdder was climbed down you''d reach a massive wooden room even further into the ground than the basement that was filled with piles of coins all sorted by denomination. I walked over to the smallest pile with the sack and dumped it out adding all these gold coins to the hoard.-


    While this sounded like an impressive room to have it was for the vast majority of space entirely empty. The trick was that this treasure hoard was entirely inessible without me moving the reinforced wooden wall that hid it after entering the vault. It was a sort of false back wall type deal except the back wall was a real wall and the only way to move it was with my help. Even with these method employed I still wasn''t totally happy with the vault as I wanted to turn the ce into a thieves worst nightmare by turning it into a cursed tool with an unholy amount of lethal measures in ce for trespassers.-


    You may be wondering when I had this area created and the answer was at the same time I renovated the church. It wasn''t particrly hard as I just used some wood like massive hands to dig out the dirt and stone under the basement before solidifying the walls with refined wood to keep out water and hold up the church above it. I burned a fuck ton of energy to do it but I''d say that it was well worth it.-


    I even had a small rug and chair that sat over the safe so any visitors wouldn''t realize that it even existed. If you are curious why I even felt the need to make this addition to our humble abode the answer was simply because of thieves. We were in the "abandoned" part ofOrario and while the church looked about a stiff breeze away from getting knocked down thieves didn''t pay it any attention. After I had fixed up the ce though I had noticed a few not so kind gazes on the ce and we couldn''t always be present.-


    Eventually one of these people was bound toe in here to ransack the ce, hence the secret money hoard. I couldn''t give less of a fuck about them stealing the figurines or even the less precious materials I kept in the chest but the money was a whole other issue. The materials and figurines I could rece really cheaply since I didn''t keep the good shit in the chest but you take our savings and that was a massive loss. As of right now we were sitting at a little under two million valis after my recent deposit which was quite a lot.-


    Anyways I put the rug and chair over the safe door and took a seat with these materials to craft a sword.


    "<em>Hell''s Forge!"</em> I spoke while starting with the deep iron ore.


    The two coconut sized chunks of ore immediately turned liquid under my techniques power and the impurities burnt away yet the liquid flowed around my hand in defiance to thews of physics. With a flourish of my fingers the liquid gathered up and formed a thin rectangr bar before solidifying and dropping onto my palm. Setting it aside I grabbed the goliath tooth that was a yellow shiny white material the size of a basketball.-


    Unfortunately quite a bit of it was impurities so after removing them it was reduced to barely a grapefruits size. The same held true with the crimson coral and Skull sheep bones as well but that was just how it was with drop items. I didn''t mention it previous but crimson coral was a drop that came from a water pce floors rare monster known as a Coral golem and was prized for it''s sturdy wood like quality in weapon crafting and had a lovely red color, hence the name.

 Ideas and finished sale

    Ideas and finished sale


    I refined and transformed thest two materials into pure blocks as well before taking a break to refill my drained energy reserves. As I waited I wrote down some of my ideas on cursed tools in my notebook that I crafted for this exact purpose. While I trusted myself not to forget important details I felt that it was always a good idea to write stuff down just in case. In a manner of speaking I was writing a tome on cursed energy that used what I knew from my time on earth as well as what I discovered on my own here.-


    For example I wrote down my theory that all cursed techniques had an elemental affinity and that it was possible to use those elements. My evidence of this was of course the mes Sukuna was shown to use as well as my own mes. While my technique was called hells forge it didn''t actually use mes like a traditional forge would. Despite this my falna clearlybeled my mes as an extension of my technique so my theory was that each technique might also have an elemental affinity.-


    Admittedly this was a rather flimsy theory as I certainly didn''t have enough information to say for sure. I also had other theories and conjectures in this notebook like my experiments on cursed tool crafting and even my attempt at understanding the ck sh phenomenon. To be specifically WHY ck sh caused a curse user to experience a state of enlightenment. If it was just a rare event that caused an attack to be way stronger than it had any right then that was one thing. But I couldn''t understand how it caused something clearly mental or spiritual to happen with a physical event.-


    How a ck sh urred was exined in the manga but the reason it did what it did was not clearly defined or even addressed merely epted as being the way it was. Anyways once I refilled my energy reserves naturally I grabbed the blocks of material to move onto the next step. First I fused the goliath tooth, deep iron and skull sheep bone materials together into a dull dark yellow-grey material that I shaped into a standard arming swords shape. The crimson coral I then fused into the final shape visible on the de and handle as a vibrant red swirling pattern.-


    For the finer details I carefully added grooves on the handle for grip and a smooth round pommel. The final step was to add a razors edge and fully solidify the weapon. I drank a potion and got to work imbuing the properties chosen into the weapons materials fully. I had secretly included a small cursed stone inside the pommel to empower these properties before leaving my touchmark and calling it done. This entire process took me the rest of the day but I was done before the second day which was faster than I told Ogun.-


    I could only shrug since this was the first weapon I had crafted from scratch since I was level one so obviously I was a little off. I had in fact expected it would take me a full day and a half toplete but it only took me a day so at least I knew this now. Still I had extra time and some extra materials as well so I figured I may as well make a sheathe as well. I added [Durability], [Resistant] and [light] to the kobold hide sheathe that I put the sword in. -


    When Hroldar and Ogun showed up in the evening of the second day alongside the level four I was waiting in the upper floor of the church writing in my notebook.


    "Didn''t take you for the sort to go keeping a journal." Hroldar said surprised.


    "This is a notebook, not a journal. I use this to keep track of my ideas and discoveries not for personal business." I exined calmly while finishing the sentence I was writing before closing the book.


    "Oh? Now that sounds like a valuable thing to possess indeed." Ogun said with an interested look.


    "I doubt it since the entire thing is in code and only I have the cypher. Even if you somehow figured out the code I also made sure that I used nonsense words that only I know the meaning of as well in it." I said with a scoff.


    "Rather extreme lengths to go to for something without value." Ogun pointed out but I shrugged.


    "I value my privacy and this notebook does possess my ideas and discoveries so having it get stolen would suck quite a bit. May as well make stealing it a pointless thing then. Anyways the swords ready, I named it [Red current] by the way." I said reaching next to me and tossed the sword and sheathe to the level four.


    He caught it and with a nod from Ogun unsheathed it to be looked over. Hroldar lightly touched the edge with his finger tip before sucking in a breath as he started bleeding without even feeling the cut until it was toote. Ogun curiously ran a finger along the t of the de to try and feel any imperfections but obviously there were none. The level four was just marveling how great the de felt in his hand during this time.-


    "Truly remarkable work, even with myck of experience appraising weapons I can tell that this is a masterwork." Ogun praised.


    I shook my head "It is my best piece so far but not a masterwork, my level is far too low to make such a thing unfortunately." I said honestly.


    "Theres no need to sell yourself shortd this des almost as good as my axe and that''s a bona fide first grade weapon." Hroldar said seriously.


    "I didn''t say it wasn''t an excellent weapon , just that it was no masterwork. The high quality of my craftses from the treatment I give each of the materials and the sturdiness of my creations. But as far as properties go I''m afraid those that I imbue are quitecking inparison. Not poor mind you just far more normal for a level two smith. As it stands right now I have much room for improvement in that regard so as I said it''s not a masterwork." I said seriously.


    "That''s a surprisingly well reasoned thought process. Not to say you don''t have a decent head on your shoulders but you seem to have a few stones rattling around up top normally." Hroldar said with a chuckle.


    "Yeah I get that a lot, wouldn''t change it for all the valis in the world though since it lets me think more freely than you normal folk." I joked with a smirk.


    "Aye, a bit of madness is a makers mark my Da always said. Never understood it till I became an adventure though." Hroldar said with a toothy grin.


    "Well as much as I''d like nothing more than to chat idly for the next few hours we do have some matters to attend to still." Ogun said and calmly and Hroldar dropped off the other half of my payment in another sack before they said their goodbyes.

 Space experiments

    Space experiments


    Much like with the previous half of the payment I deposited this sack of coin into the vault where it was supposed to go. For the rest of the day after that I spent my time working on creating spatial bags with mixed results. The first attempt of the day sort of imploded on itself and just like winked out of existence. Let me tell you watching that happen less than a meter away from you will put your balls in your throat if you''ve got them. That was fear on an existential level and not something so easily shook off.-


    My second attempt could technically count as a sess as the space within in the bag did indeed get bigger, by about a millimeter. I measured and everything and was rather irritated at the stupidly high energy cost for such a small amount of extra space. I was REALLY detailed about the restrictions when creating this item and as it turned out went overboard which meant that so much energy went into just the restriction that almost none went to the technique itself. It was a valuable lesson if nothing else and got set aside for future reference.-


    My third and fourth attempts were both failures on a material standpoint as standard cheap cowhide bags couldn''t carry such a powerful cursed technique. Make no mistake anything rted to space and time were powerful things. If you are wondering why I was attempting something like that when I was obviously not ready for it then my answer was simple. I needed to do this now while I was too weak to actually cause an issue rather thantter when a single mistake might erase a quarter of the city on ident.-


    Right now any failure I had was localized to the church and pretty much harmless but if I made those same mistakes at say level four the power in each cursed tool I made would theoretically hold the potential to cause mass destruction. Mix that with something as vtile as space maniption and you run a serious risk of causing a whole portion of the city to cease to exist. I''m talking you blink and suddenly a quarter of the city is an empty crater with perfectly smooth edges. Yeah not a fun thought to have so naturally I was trying to find the correct form for these spatially expanded bags while I couldn''t cause something like that.-


    It was a little pricey but I purchased some minotaur hides that I turned into bags and began trying again. This proved a good idea as the far superior minotaur hide bags were MUCH better at holding cursed energy inrger amounts as well as more powerful techniques being imbued into them. My fifth attempt was on the right track but skewed a bit as the space around the bag was expanded which let me tell you is some trippy shit as it looked like my arm stretched by another foot or when holding the bag.-


    I tried to turn the bag inside out but ended up creating a spatial crusher in the process. By that I mean the expansion pressed against itself from all side creating a point in the center of the bag that pushed against whatever fell into it. This pressure crushed whatever the object was until it was made into a hyper dense sphere that couldn''t bepressed any further. I was pretty sure that if I kept adding stuff to the bag it would eventually form a ckhole and thus I reset the bag entirely.-


    My sixth and final attempt for the day was also a failure and much like my first imploded though taking my right hand with it this time. It was rather troublesome to be honest as I had to drink two potions and use a whole reservoir of cursed energy beyond that to regrow my hand. Even after that i had the unfortunate situation of having to "tweak" my new hand with my technique for the rest of the day before I felt normal again. I made a note to try and figure out how to use my technique from a distance if I wanted to experiment like this in the future.-


    I didn''t need a lot of distance of course but as I discovered through this event the fact I had to be physically touching something to use my technique left me vulnerable to blowback like I had just experienced. There was no time for me to throw the bag before it imploded or drop it at all, one second it and my hand holding it were there and the next gone. I felt no pain or anything at all for a few moments after it happened which let my vision register the loss of my hand before my arm did.-


    Thankfully Hestia was up top in the church when this happened so she didn''t realize that I lost my hand. I wasn''t going to mention it either as I knew for a fact if I did she would ban me from experimenting like this.I made sure to erase the small amount of blood that I lost from the floor and even while fixing my new hand to get it back to normal I acted like nothing was going on. As much as I could appreciate her care for Bell and I there was simply no feasible way I wasn''t going to get injured by experimenting in the future.-


    In this case I paid the price of progress in flesh and blood and more likely than not I will have to do so again in the future so getting banned from experimenting was not something I could allow. Thankfully if she did ever discover me in a situation where I lost a limb or the like I could at least regrow it which definitely helped my case. There was a side effect of regrowing a body part that I discovered however that Naaza had neglected to mention, I was STARVING.-


    I don''t mean like really hungry but rather my body was in a genuine state of starvation as all the stored fat or extra energy in my body was converted to flesh and bone to make my new hand. As I mentioned some time ago my technique doesn''t create anything new but merely rearranged and utilized what was already avable. In the case of regrown limbs my technique takes the route of using the bodies own stored energy and fat or extra muscle to achieve this end.-


    I noted this down in the notebook as it was important information in the future as if I was going to regrow another limb in the future I was going to force that person or myself to eat a feast before hand. In theory this should help mitigate the strain on the body that I and no doubt Naaza felt. The fact she hadn''t mentioned it also peeved me just a smidge because this was VERY important information. I was going to ask her about it tomorrow before I headed to the dungeon.

 Middle floors

    Middle floors


    "Oh that? Yeah I felt it too but it went away after eating a big meal so I figured it wasn''t a big deal." Naaza said the next day when I asked her about it.


    "Of course it''s a big deal! Do you have any idea how bad it would be if I tried to regrow a limb of someone malnourished? They would probably die!" I said angrily.


    "Well how was I supposed to know that, do I look like a healer to you!?" she countered and I was left speechless.


    Like she wasn''t wrong exactly but at this same time the logic waszy to say the least. Obviouslymon sense states that if my technique can''t find any extra stuff to use to regrow the limb it would take from vital stuff instead. Can you imagine how fucked that situation would be? I would be all heroic and shit in my head, you know swooping in and restoring a lost limb, only to let the person get buried with aplete corpse instead as my technique cannibalized their vital organs. Still I couldn''t really me her for not putting much thought into the matter since it has little to do with her as my ability.-


    "Haa~ Just tell me if something like this happens again alright?" I asked and she nodded nomittal.


    After that I walked along the cobblestone main street of Orario towards the hostess as people went about their business in the same way. True to it''s name I saw adventurers where ever I looked with all manner of weapons from staves, swords and axes all the way up to daggers and cestus. There was no real dominant race in the poption either as I saw equal parts humans, dwarves, amazons, elves and beastkin races.-


    Like usual at this time in the early morning Syr was waiting form me in her servant outfit like looked a lot like maid outfit from earth but was green instead of ck. It was easy to know when she spotted me too as I was now hyper aware of my own soul and thus knew the moment she looked at it.


    "Good morning Alex! Heading to the dungeon today?" she asked after greeting me with a smile.


    I nodded "That was the idea, I was thinking of going to the middle floors this time since I was rather disappointed at the strength of the infant dragon I killed. My hopes that the numbers will prove a better challenge to sharpen myself against." I said honestly.


    She frowned at me "You never told me that you killed an infant dragon?" she said usingly.


    I shrugged "It didn''t seem important really as the thing was frankly easy to kill, though I suppose for most other level twos the fight would indeed be pretty hard." I said casually.


    "If you say so" she said with a roll of her eyes. "By the way Lenoa said she wants more of the thing you gave her but wouldn''t say what it was when i asked. Out of curiosity what did you give her anyways?" she asked curiously.


    "Just a thing I had lying around. Some sort of unique magic stone." I said not technically lying.


    Now that i knew she was a goddess i knew how pointless lying to her was so I started exploiting the loopholes to the gods innate ability to tell when a mortal lies to them. For example technical truths still count as truths to them and they would need to figure out when someone used one on them like every normal mortal.-


    Most gods however just take a truth for granted and are thus easy to mislead if you know what you are doing. Syr looked suspicious of my answer though which means she probably felt that something was off.


    "It must have been something special if Lenoa wanted more." she said pressing the matter.


    "I doubt it is more than a mere curiosity since the thing can''t even be used as fuel for magic items, I tried." I said both giving her information and not at the same time.


    This worked as she seemed satisfied with my answer. "Well I suppose I shouldn''t keep you any longer lest Mama Mia scold us. Best to stay on her good side after all." I said bidding my farewell.


    I could feel her gaze on me periodically until I got in the dungeon where I assume she was unable to see. I blitzed past the first twelve floors without killing a single monster I came across, except the killer ants because fuck them in particr. Thus after a good hour and a half of travel I arrived on floor thirteen at the start of the "cavebyrinth" floors.-


    The entire area was fairly wide at about five or six meters across with floors and walls made of rugged bedrock. The light was dimmer and the air heavy with humidity that clung to my skin. From this floor to the seventeenth I had to deal with the first non-rare level two monsters as well as some other high level one monsters. Hard armored, Silver backs, Wyverns, Crystal mantises, Lamia Mormos, Hellhounds, Almiraj, Dungeon worms, Minotaurs and Ligerfangs. Hard armored were giant armadillo creatures that like the name implied were covered in hard armor ted skin that made them hard to kill without flipping onto their bellies.-


    Silverbacks were massive white furred gori monsters with silver colored fur on their backs, hence the name. Wyverns were pink scaled draconic monsters thatcked the breath attacks and sheer raw power of an actual dragon but could still fly. Crystal mantises wererge praying mantis monsters with crystal bodies that were also attracted to crystals or shiny objects for some reason but had no specific coloration. Lamia Mormos were monsters much like the myths of earth as they had the lower half of a serpent and the upper half of a beautiful woman though with blue skin and razor sharp ws at the ends of each finger.-


    Hellhounds were basically fire magic spewing wolves with ck fur and red eyes.Almiraj were white rabbits with red eyes that were universally known as one of the cutest monsters in the dungeon but were vicious little shits. Dungeon worms were just man sized earth worms with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Minotaurs were a weird fusion of man and bull and had the ability to wield weapons making them popr sparring partners at higher levels. Ligerfangs on the other hand were huge feline monsters that had the manes of a lion and the stripes of a tiger on their silver and ck furred bodies. They also possessed massive front teeth like a sabre toothed tiger from ancient times.-


    Like you may be able to infer from this roster of monsters this was where the dungeon stopped ying nice as not only was there a sharp increase in power from here on but the spawn rate was also greatly increased. In other words it became a very very bad idea to try and solo these floors and beyond as more monsters were likely to show up until you are overwhelmed, I was so excited.

 Floor thirteen and nerf

    Floor thirteen and nerf


    My first impression of the middle floors was that it sucked ass. It was humid and the monsters were annoying to deal with. See i entered the thirteenth floor expecting a grand challenge only to be met with monsters that were overall weaker than the infant dragon but much more numerous. The drops though were so worth it. Crystal mantis carapaces and wings, Wyvern hides, fangs and bones, Lamia ws and scales, Hellhound hides and fangs, Almiraj fur and horns and Dungeon worm slime could be easily obtained by me as I ughtered my way across the floor.-


    I was effectively a mid tote level two in terms of stats so naturally these high level one and low level two monsters were no match for me. My first monster encounter was with a pack of Dungeon worms that burst from the ground to attack me. I ducked under them and got them with the sharp side of my weapon that cleaved their soft bodies in two halves that writhed in pain on the ground but were helpless to stop me from refining them with my technique for those sweet guaranteed drops.-


    Dungeon worm slime was an alchemical ingredient that served some purpose or another but I really didn''t want to know what for my own peace of mind. I imagine that drinking potions bes rather hard when you know exactly what sort of disgusting stuff went into making them. I am perfectly content in my ignorance for this matter thank you very much. Next up on the chopping block were a group(flock? herd? swarm?) of wyverns with those pretty pink scaled hides. I can say with absolute certainty that flying monsters are officially my most hated kind of monster. -


    These pink fuckers kept diving at me from different angles before flying away while I dodged turning the entire fight into a big game of cat and mouse. Then to add insult to injury more monsters , Almiraj and Hellhounds this time, spawned in waves that i had to deal with at the same fucking time as the cowardly pink flying lizards. By the time I was finally able to kill thest wyvern I was surrounded by no less than twenty monster corpses that I needed to refine and harvest. THAT took me a good hour to finish because , guess what, more fucking monsters spawned.-


    I can''t say it was a waste of time though as I now had WAY more of that smoke liquid that ever before. Like three gallons of the stuff roughly by my estimation and then all these lovely new drops that I got to experiment with. All in all I''d say my first foray into the middle floors was well worth it as after getting nagged at by rose for my reckless delving I cashed out for the day at a whopping twenty six thousand valis. The value of the stones and drops grew exponentially the further down you went after all so this number would only increase as I went further and further into the dungeon.-


    "I swear to heaven that if anything weird shows up during this update I''m going to tell Hephaestus that you want to go on a date!" Hestia threatened when I asked for an update after returning home.


    "You wouldn''t!?" I said with a look of horror.


    "You deserve it for causing me so much stress!" she said with a huff.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Cursed Human


    Level:2


    Strength:209(G)


    Endurance:225(G)


    Agility:208(G)


    Dexterity:209(G)


    Magic:562(D)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extensions: Hell fire, cursed tool creation)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    Vessel of Sin: Hells forgemaster carries the burden of all mortal sin and is tasked to purify it from the souls of the dead. Strengthens soul over time. Permanent increase to crafting with cursed energy. Permanent decrease to all stats for each innocent soul killed and increase for each sinful soul killed. Grants skill: Soul gaze.


    Soul gaze: See the souls of all things and their sins.


    Developmental Skills: Curse-smith(I)


    "It''s a lot less than before?" I muttered in confusion as I looked at my stat gain.


    "Obviously, you''re level two now so of course you aren''t growing at the same pace as before." Hestia said mater of factly.


    In theory what she said made perfect sense but the numbers weren''t adding up here as before I leveled up a mere cup of the smoky liquid was enough to give me thousands of stats points. Yet now almost three gallons of the stuff only gave me about thirteen hundred stat points, this made no sense. I looked over all of the changes I got from leveling up and started trying to figure out what was stealing so much of this smoky liquid as that was the only thing that made sense. I almost missed it but there was a small addendum to the [vessel of sin] skill in the form of four words, Strengthens soul over time.-


    ''That wasn''t there when I initially leveled up, a hidden attribute or did it show up because of some sort of external force?'' I thought with a frown.


    It was only after Syr asked why my soul looked slightlyrger the next day that I realized that SHE was the external factor. Apparently my hyper awareness of my soul that detected her gaze on my soul had triggered a self defensive adaptation to form in my [vessel of sin] skill. In other words her innate ability caused my falna to nerf my smoky liquid growth, well that''s not actually true as I still grew the same amount just in a different way from my stats.-


    I will be honest here, I don''t have a fucking clue what my soul growing stronger will do for me. Like obviously a stronger soul is just better than a weaker one but whats the difference? Will I gain better control of my cursed energy, will I be able to make better shit earlier? Shit like this that I really really wanted to know but could only wait to discover. I felt like a kid who got an brand new video game on christmas only to get grounded for the next month and have to stare at the thing in longing, the worst form of blue balls am I right?-


    Hypothetical orgasm denial aside It kinda sucked that my stat growth got nerfed like this and the worst part is I genuinely can''t even get mad a Syr for it as she can no more control her ability than I could mine. It was constantly active and we both just had to live with that and move on with our lives. I pouted over the next two days as I buried my head in experimenting with my new drop items with mixed results.

 Magic stone converter

    Magic stone converter


    To be clear I purified the worm slime and sold that directly to the Blue pharmacy and kept the normal drops for myself. My first experiment was with the crystal mantis carapaces and wings and I was frankly unable to use them in the best way. Both of the drops were most useful in the creation of staves but the problem was that to make the best staves you needed to [mage] developmental skill which I obviouslycked. Crystal mantis drops like the name implied were made of crystal and as such while fantastic at passing mana through for magic but were also brittle and thus not well suited for a melee weapon or armor.-


    It was perhaps wasteful but I could only either sell the stuff to the guild or turn it into windows. I of course did thetter option since the end goal was to turn the church into a fortress made out of drop items. Naturally this also included the windows which were ironically the only part of the church I couldn''t weaponize before now since the ss didn''te from a living source.-


    The drops being crystal meant that all I had to do was tten them out into the shape of a pane of ss before transforming the color of the crystal to be perfectly clear. I debated about whether or not to put the Hestia divine emblem on the windows but Hestia was vehemently against the idea since that would be tacky ording to her. She was the boss so regr clear crystal windows it was. The other drops were thankfully so much better suited for my purpose as they were all for weapons and armors. Wyvern scales were surprisingly the most interesting in how much energy they could hold before it became too much for them.-


    A single scale could hold no less than twelve different properties(albeit weak one) before it cracked and broke apart. With that in mind I fused twenty of the scales together into a single solid pink te of material. I then repeated that process again until I had two tes of material roughly circr and exactly two feet across. Next I refined these tes as much as I could regardless of energy(which was considerable) until they were insanely hard and sturdy. Once that was done I carefully started imbuing the tes with a technique that I had high hopes for.-


    The technique had exactly two functions and a whole mess of restrictions due to how easily it could go wrong. The functions were simply to extract mana from magic stones without destroying the stones and to convert that mana to cursed energy to get sent back into the stone. I split this technique between both of the tes and prayed to Hestia that it worked. If I was sessful my supply of cursed stones would suddenly explode which would open me up to many avenues of crafting.-


    At the moment it should be understood that I needed to wait for a magic stone to get empty before personally turning it into a cursed stone. I also couldn''t go out and purchase the empty stones as first they are crushed and turned into fertilizer for the fields of the city and second that would be suspicious as all shit if someone went out of their way to buy something universally epted as near useless when empty. With this setup though I could simply have Hestia feed magic stones into the are between the two tes and then wait to collect the finished product.-


    Sure this is basically having my goddess working for me but she justzes about most of the day anyways so it''s no big deal if she has something like this going on as well. Plus it''s not like this is super hard to do either as it''s ce stone, remove stone, repeat and profit. Plus she could literally just have a pile of magic stones next to her that she could be sitting down and going through as she did it. All the really hard parts of the process get done by the two tes.-


    Of course that was all in theory before I actually created the set up. As you may have already guessed however nothing I do ever goes that smoothly as far as first attempts in crafting so the set up became a detonation point instead. As in it looked like it was going to work but the moment the mana was extracted from the stone it overpowered the cursed technique and exploded. I was smart however and was hiding behind a wooden shield the size of my body the moment I put the magic stone in it''s designated location.-


    "Hmmm, first attempt is a failure from mana riot. Perhaps if I slow down the extraction rate drastically the technique wouldn''t get over powered?" I muttered as I pieced together the tes again.


    My next attempt also failed , followed by the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh attempts failing before I finally seeded on the eight.


    "I''m going to need more than one of these things aren''t I?" I muttered with a sigh as I calcted the amount of time it would take the set up toplete a single grade two orc magic stone.


    Two hours, it was going to take two whole hours for the set up to fully extract all the mana safely, convert it to cursed energy and then stuff it back into the empty stone. By my calctions it would take even longer for higher grade andrger stones like the infant dragon or level two monster. This unfortunately was the best I could do at the moment however as I was getting dangerously close to overclocking the material limit of the scales. I made another three of the set ups before moving on to the other drops that I found were worse at holdingrge amounts of energy but had their own affinities that could be used in future crafts.-


    I directly turned the Almiraj hides into fluffy pillows that Hestia absolutely adored since they were so soft and wonderfully white. The horns I kept to turn into handles and the Lamia, Hellhound and Wyvern drops I had left over I just experimented with in various way until I was satisfied with my discoveries. Something curious happened the next day as Bell borrowed a book from the hostess that turned out to be a grimoire he used. I was suspicious that Syr was involved but she swore it really had nothing to do with her.-


    The funny thing was that all the girls at the hostess were of the same mind about the matter "It sucks to be the person who forgot it." and easily moved past it. I was pretty sure that Bells new magic [Bolt] was the most broken spell ever as it was basically pure mana but it could take elemental properties if he added "fire, water, earth and wind" to the incantation which was a super short "<em>Bolt</em>!".

 Bell’s time

    Bell¡¯s time


    "So you mean to tell me that you ran into the dungeon and then proceeded to go ham with your new magic until you entered mind down? Not only that but you got found by these two out of literally everyone in the city?" I asked Bell with a twitch of irritation.


    On the restored pew of the church Bell sat with a red embarrassed face while Tiona was grinning nearby and Ais was nk faced watching this unfold curiously.


    "Um well, I uh got carried away, I guess?" Bell said sheepishly.


    "Don''t be too hard on him Alex, it happens to most people when they first get magic. Seen a buncha newbies in the familia do it to themselves though usually they don''t do it in the dungeon." Tiona said cheerfully.


    "I did it." Ais added trying to be helpful.


    "While I appreciate you both trying to help Bell get out of trouble the fact of the matter is that I specifically told him to do all his testing here where I could help him if things got out of hand and he didn''t listen. The dungeon must have been feeling especially merciful today because otherwise only sheer dumb luck kept him alive." I said seriously and Bell shrank into himself a little more.


    "Ah well can''t really argue there , gotta follow the captains orders after all or things fall apart." Tiona said with a nod that Ais shared.


    "Thank you for agreeing with me , now what can I offer you as repayment for getting this knucklehead back safely?" I said with a smile as I ruffled Bells hair.


    I wasn''t truly mad at him so much as disappointed that he ignored my advice so recklessly. Beyond all else though I was simply happy that no harm came to him because of this mistake. Gods know that a single different factor and I might never have seen him again as the dungeon ate him.-


    "We didn''t do it for a reward but since you asked ..." Tiona said with a mischievous grin.


    I was fleeced in and simple as the girls both picked out three of my figurines that they took with them as repayment. While not made from valuable materials each figurine was still highly prized if sold normally due to their collectability. Tiona took an armored knight figurine, ball gown wearing amazon figurine and sleeping bear figurine. Ais took only dragon figurines though of different varieties as she took a western dragon, a flood dragon and a serpent-like winged dragon figurine.-


    It was a steep price for merely lending such a small amount of help but I wasn''t going to quibble about something like this. Bell however looked mortified watching so much "money" walk out the door, well skip in Tiona''s case but you get the point. That alone made it all worth it in my opinion because I doubt he''d forget about this for a LONG time toe.-


    Don''t get me wrong though I was still going to punish him for this and I had the perfect way to do it. Cardio, lots and lots of cardio, cardio until he dropped from exhaustion which for an adventurer with his stats would take a while. As anyone who has ever actually done cardio will tell you, it''s a miserable time. I also may or may not have forced Bell to wear a full set of [Weight] property gear as well that added a hundred extra pounds to him. Yeah I''m sure he''d not be forgetting this anytime soon after he woke up.-


    Moving on from that little event things went smoothly for all of another week before in standard otherworld fashion shit hit the fan. Thankfully it wasn''t my shit this time but Bells , again. My familia apparently has a serious problem with Minotaurs because Bell also ran into one that he also managed to kill somehow which gave him his level up though at SS 1500 stats unlike my outrageous max limit 3000 ones. I suppose it doesn''t really matter though as his new status sheet was a bit odd.


    (BEFORE)


    Name: Bell Cranel


    Race: Human


    Level:1


    Strength:1500(SS)


    Endurance:1500(SS)


    Agility:1500(SS)


    Dexterity:1500(SS)


    Magic:1500(SS)


    Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.


    Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.


    (AFTER)


    Name: Bell Cranel


    Race: Human


    Level:2


    Strength:0(I)


    Endurance:0(I)


    Agility:0(I)


    Dexterity:0(I)


    Magic:0(I)


    Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.


    Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.


    Argonaut: Enduring all hardship in the name of sess.


    Developmental skills: Luck(I)


    "This new skill is odd, it doesn''t actually tell us what it does. Your developmental skill is not much better but at least there are records of that so we know roughly that it boosts drop rates and luck based events." Hestia said with a frown.


    "Well it''s not quite as messed up as my own status sheet when I first leveled up but you are definitely just as abnormal. I mean theres that frankly unfair magic of yours paired up with these two skills , one of which is certifiably cheating and the other that doesn''t exin what it does but definitely sounds strong. A strange DS is hardly that odd inparison." I said honestly while ruffling his hair, he hated when I did that.


    We went out to celebrate his level up at the hostess and this time I made sure to bring much more money since that stuff was expensive. In a funny way Bell had pushed Ais''s record for leveling up to two down to third ce as he was sitting at three and a half months as an adventurer before leveling to her six months. -


    She didn''t really care besides asking what our secret to getting so strong so fast was but we were honest and exined that she couldn''t replicate it. Loki though was all up in her feelings about it though she made me very ufortable to be around as she ogled me openly. It came as little surprise then that her soul which was massive and colorful was also tainted with the sin of lust.-


    I wasn''t terribly surprised at the color of her soul considering the mythology on Loki from earth as a trickster god. Then again not every myth was entirely trust worthy since Hestia wasn''t Artemis and Hephaestus''s Aunt in reality so I took all my earth myths with a grain of salt here. Don''t get me wrong they were more or less reliable but some of the details were simply off herepared to the myths from earth.

 Investigation

    Investigation


    (3rd person pov)


    Ever since the day the dungeon city of Orario saw the myriad colored smog of energy floating above it something had changed. Those above level four felt it , like a sudden shift in the winds but from a direction they were unfamiliar with. The top familias of the city and the hidden darkness that lurked beneath the streets and around every corner sought answers but it was to no avail as no records of a simr situation existed. Tension rose in these groups as they felt something brewing and could only prepare for the worse.-


    Nearly two months passed and nothing could be found so Orario went back to operating as per usual though did not forget the oddity of that day. A new piece of news started circting at this point however of an up anding familia that had broken the famed Sword Princess''s level two leveling speed not once but twice. The first time was something that created quite a buzz, especially when the one who leveled up was also already indirectly famous for creating the "bone figures" that had be a hit in the city.-


    Despite this it wasn''t anything that most paid much heed to. That changed when the second member of the same familia, an adventurer of no renown, also broke the record set by Ais Wallenstein. This double feat of record breaking caused many gods to demand an exnation from the goddess of these two adventurers, Hestia. They called foul y as the situation was unbelievable and thus they thought the goddess had raised her familia members through forbidden means. An emergency meeting was called where the goddess Hestia had to prove her innocence. As the most trusted god for his neutrality in all regards Hermes was assigned to look at the evidence and speak of the truth of this matter, that is where Alexander Drake came into y.


    (1st person POV)


    This trial caught us all off guard to say the least as one moment we were celebrating Bell''s level up and the next we were standing before a host of gods all radiating a small amount of their divinity to pressure me and Bell. A god with smooth wheat brown colored hair wearing a feathered hat and traveling clothes spoke up grandly from the center of this ce like reminded me of an old roman theater.


    "Today the divine host of Orario has gathered to investigate the unusual circumstances surrounding the Goddess Hestia''s two children''s level ups!" The god said with a flourish of his hands that seemed to keep his audiences rapt attention. He continued "I, Hermes, have been given the duty to interrogate these two mortals in front of you all to put this matter to rest once and for all so without further ado let us get this investigation underway!" Hermes said grandly before turning to us.


    "Lets start with the Captain of the familia, Alexander Drake or better known perhaps as ck mark." Hermes said with a gleam in his eyes that didn''t look like a good thing.


    "Ask away, I have nothing to fear since I have done nothing wrong." I said with a challenging smirk that clearly bothered the god as his eyes narrowed.


    He wasn''t the only one either as the gods in the bleacher like seats began to scoff, look doubtful or even some angry after I spoke. It wasn''t surprising really as in my situation most mortals would be so nervous that they barely be able to stand much less speak so boldly. The thing was though that I could literally see the souls of these gods and that meant all their acting was pointless as I could see their very essence, gods were just people with a lot of power and that''s all.-


    "Well if you are so confident lets start off with some simple questions to establish a baseline. What is your name?" Hermes asked sternly.


    "Alexander Drake." I answered never dropping my smirk.


    "What is your gender?" he asked.


    "Male." I answered.


    "Very good now you need to tell a lie so we can make sure that you aren''t able to deceive us." Hermes said sternly.


    "Easy, We cheated to level up as fast as we did." I said with a cheeky grin knowing that all their lie detecting abilities just went off at the same time.


    There was disbelief, anger, doubt, and all around uproar with that simply statement from my lips. Hermes looked at me with what I could only amount to irritation at how easily I had just yed him to throw this entire meeting into chaos. Oh I knew exactly how this was going to go the moment he started doing the same thing they did with polygraph tests back on earth. The two truths and a lie method to determine validity of an interrogation.-


    What I did was simply throw the usation of us cheating to level up so fast unto it''s head as my lie. If you are wondering why exactly I did this it was simply because I had a gut feeling that if Hermes had his way he''d make this troublesome for me by asking things private or that I simply couldn''t answer. To stop that I t out made it impossible to continue questioning me freely as I had already covered the main topic so it would be wrong to ask any unrted questions and he clearly knew it.-


    "Straight to the heart of the matter is it then? Fine, Goddess Hestia I would ask that you unlock Mr. Drakes falna so that I may verify that theres been no foul y involved. Of course I swear on my arcaenum to you that any information best kept private shall remain so if there is indeed no issue." Hermes said to Hestia calmly but firmly.


    I looked at her and she nodded so I took off my shirt which elicited gasps from the gods seated as my full set of tattoos were revealed. Hermes himself looked at them with a critical eye.


    "What is the purpose of these tattoos?" he asked unable to deny his curiosity.


    "They are symbolic." I said honestly.


    He hummed in acknowledgement before looking at Hestia who rather reluctantly unlocked my falna letting him read it. It was rather amusing to watch his eyes widen to the point of bulging and his jaw practically hit the floor.


    "Seen enough yet?" I asked impatiently since I was standing here without a shirt and it was making me ufortable to get ogled by so many people like this.


    He regained hisposure but he no longer looked so hostile when gazing at me but rather brightly instead?


    "There was no foul y as far as his level up was concerned." Hermes proimed loudly and all the gods here begrudgingly seemed to ept that answer.


    After that it was Bells turn and the god looked between the two of us with an odd expression but dered that we were innocent of the usation levied against us. The emergency meeting was ended there though quite a few gods and goddesses came to bother Hestia, Bell and I to try and figure out what made us so special.

 Vows and charade

    Vows and charade


    None of them even bothered to ask Hermes what he saw as the god had sworn on his arcaenum to keep it to his self and that was no low promise. The closest equivalent to such an oath I knew of was a permanent binding vow using cursed energy. Binding vows were something I was avoiding heavily at the moment for the simple fact that they made me ufortable. See the way they work was via three primary configurations, restriction, oath and trade. Restriction type vows as the name implied put on a restriction to a person and in exchange they gained heightened power for however long the restrictionsted.-


    Permanent restrictions or the harsher restrictions were the more power you got from them, an equal bnce of buffs and debuffs if you will. The second configuration of binding vows, Oaths, were more one sided in nature as it was basically making a promise with actual penalties if you fail to keep it. These are typically used to verify truths or keep things private but also could more or less turn whoever used it into indentured ves until they fulfil the promise they made. Naturally this type of vow also gives a boost in power to the one who used it but it''s negligible most of the time.-


    Finally was the trade type binding vows that were more or less just an exchange of benefits between two or more parties like a sale. The catch here was that weaseling out of your end of a deal in this regard was not an easy thing and ALWAYS ended badly for you if you did it. When a god swore upon their arcaenum like Hermes did it was almost the same as setting up an oath type binding vow with serious consequences if they broke it.-


    The only real difference besides the energy type used to aplish it was that the god that made the oath got no boost for doing so, it was all downsides and no upsides besides reinforcing trust in them. Hermes worded his oath in just such a way that he would only be able to share what he found from reading our falnas if and only if he found something wrong, which he didn''t. Obviously both Bells and my falnas were insane but all entirely possible within the normal rules of the falna.-


    This meant that asking Hermes about our private information was not even a real option unless Hermes felt that he got more than he risked by revealing the information.


    "It must be a skill right!? Tell us what it is!"


    "Are you single!?"


    "You can join my familia if you want to!"


    "Our children should delve together!"


    "Can I order a bone figure!?"


    All this and more as the gods and goddesses fervently surrounded our three person familia after the investigation was over. It was fucking irritating me to no end and I was getting more and more tempted to bust out my mes to get all these people to back the hell off. They all scattered however when a single soft, sensual almost butmanding voice spoke up.


    "How uncouth, as gods should we not show more decorum in front of these mortals?~" the voice caused all the gods and goddesses to stiffen before parting to reveal the owner of it.


    A single goddess with long silver hair like silk that had perfect proportions with pale wless skin and deep violet eyes that twinkled with an enchanting light. Her smooth beautiful face held a casual smile. Her outfit was a simple ck dress that hugged her proportions enticingly but covered everything it was supposed to though showed most of her left leg when she walked due to the open from mid thigh to the bottom of it.


    I grinned when I saw her soul however "A pleasure to make your acquaintance miss...?" I said knowing that she was likely stepping in to help us out.


    "Freya, the pleasure is all mine Mr. Drake. The bone figure that Ottar purchased from Hestia is one of my most prized possessions." she said still casually smiling.


    "Oh no, it looks likes she''s charmed another one." a quiet murmur was spoken by a god somewhere and many of the gods had a helpless expression after hearing it.


    I ignored that however as it wasn''t even remotely true "Ah yes I remember that day quite well, admittedly I was rather concerned when she told me about it. Your familia doesn''t have the best reputation you understand." I said with a chuckle but it was like a gun went off as all the gods and goddesses had horrified expressions as it was an open secret that you DON''T badmouth Freya or her familia publicly.-


    I of course knew this but I also knew Freya or rather I suppose I should say I knew Syr, her secret identity. The woman I knew wasn''t opposed to criticism so long as you weren''t being malicious about it and at this moment I wasn''t, I merely stated a fact that I doubted she didn''t know.


    She sighed in a way that made her seem the victim "Most of those rumors are grossly exaggerated I can assure you though I appreciate your candor in this matter." she said sounding sincere.


    No one else seemed to notice it but Hestia had a confused look from next to me as she watched this interaction between Freya and myself. I could understand why too as I was clearly not charmed like the other gods believed. In fact I doubted that that innate ability of all beauty goddesses would even work on me to begin with and may instead just give me a boost in cursed energy. Lust, obsession and greed to possess are all things that fall under sins and as it happens I just so happen to have a skill that pretty much negates those things on me due to it''s nature.-


    Hestia knew this too which was why she was looking confused about the fact that I was acting like a polite person which I definitely am not. I wasn''t abrasive or anything like that but I definitely didn''t bother with troublesome stuff like manners. The answer to her unspoken question was that I was ying the part of a charmed individual if one who wasn''t reduced to a jabbering mess. The reason for this charade was to try and get these other gods not to get any funny ideas out of fear that Freya would strike back against them.-


    So long as these gods and goddesses think Freya is interested in me or Bell they would try and keep their distance. I may be wrong but I was pretty sure that this was Freya''s reason for stepping in to begin with.


    "It''s fine. An interesting little tid bit you should know is that that bone figure was actually the very first I ever crafted. Those collectors would likely pay a high prize to own such a thing." I said with a chuckle.


    "Truly? In that case it''s much more precious than I thought and I''ll definitely keep it for myself." she said with a interested look.

 Meet and greet

    Meet and greet


    I shrugged "Up to you, just thought you''d like to know." I said with a smile.


    "I do enjoy the knowledge yes. Ah, but we really mustn''t keep all these people here with our idle chatting. I shall take my leave now but don''t hesitate to approach me if you ever need anything." she said with a smile before leaving with a sultry sway of her hips.


    Like nned the other gods and goddesses with any desire to poach Bell or I left quietly while only those with intentions rted to other matters and thus not having to fear Freya were left. A total of which numbered only six.-


    The first was Hephaestus to discuss our coin deal that was still in the works and being finalized. I couldn''t help but find it amusing how confused she was when she discovered that I wasn''t in fact charmed by Freya. She only discovered this because she specifically went out of her way to look for it, likely out of self interest. Like I said I wasn''t dense enough to miss the signs of her trying to get my affections but that didn''t mean I couldn''t ignore them.-


    Cruel perhaps but she was immortal and I very much was quite limited in time so she while could afford to have distractions like romance, I couldn''t. Moving on the second god was Ogun who was smiling like he had won a bet as he said proudly that he had insisted that I was innocent of this usation. I knew that he had indeed tried standing up for me but without undeniable proof none of the other gods believed him. There was nothing for it unfortunately as that was just how gods were in general about stuff they had their minds set on.-


    Stubbornness was all toomon ce amongst their number but considering while they were in heaven they were denied almost nothing it wasn''t so hard to understand why. Anyways Ogun merely came to congratte us on the achievements as well as warn us to stay away from the Freya familia. The third was a goddess with massive boobs and honey colored hair that was the definition of a milf, Demeter. She was mature looking with a body that left you staring even if you didn''t intend to.


    "Ara Ara, Mr. Drake if you continue looking at me like that I''ll blush." the goddess teased with a giggle after catching me staring.


    I coughed awkwardly while looking away embarrassed when Hestia red at me. I couldn''t help it damnit I was a perfect heterosexual male so there was no way in hell I wasn''t going to take an eyeful of such a bountiful "harvest". Anyways Demeter just wanted to catch up with Hestia since they hadn''t seen each other since they were in heaven but the goddess also made it known that she wasn''t worried about the result of this investigation at all.-


    The fourth god was a light brown skinned man with a clean white robe and straight bound beard on his chin and nowhere else.


    "I have been following your work with the bone figures for quite some time and must admit that I am a big fan. The lifelike imagery and imaginative creatures are always a pleasure to see. Ah, where are my manners. I am the god Ptah, God of artists." the god said with an eagerly held out hand.


    I shook the hand "Alexander Drake, an artist of sorts I guess." I said awkwardly.


    I honestly never considered what I did with the bone figurines to be art but when a literal god of art is a fan of your work saying otherwise kinda loses any purpose.


    "I was wonder if I might ask for a custom piece for my personal collection? I am more than willing to pay handsomely of course." Ptah asked eagerly.


    "Depends on what you want as I don''t make erotic pieces but otherwise it shouldn''t be any issue." I said honestly.


    "I can respect not wanting to cross such a line in case you identally depict a person who truly exists. But I was more interested in one of the monster figures, the one with the body of a lioness and the upper torso of a beautiful woman. The sphinx. Though what I want is a figure made life-sized if possible. As I said money will be no issue at all. " he said with a smile.


    "That particr creature is quiterge, are you sure you want one of those made life-size?" I asked astonished by the request.


    Sure I could do it but it would be a challenge even for me as a sphinx was about the size of an infant dragon after all, maybe a bit bigger.


    "Oh absolutely! I was hoping to use it as the centerpiece for my familias manor in fact!" he said eagerly.


    "I don''t mind but you''ll need toe to our familias home to discuss the details of thismission." I said honestly and he agreed without hesitation.


    The fifth was a goddess with dark hair and pale skin not from being fair but because it was untouched by the sun. Her eyes were ck and shiny like obsidian ss that peered at you calmly. What bothered me however was her soul that looked suspiciously like my own in that it was nothing but purest ck.


    "Nyx" Hestia breathed out warily.


    "Hestia, so very good to see you away from that stuffy bright me in heaven. And I must say that I am surprised to see that you have a child like this in your familia. Such a deep resonance to my arcaenum he has. Why I almost want to snatch him up for myself!" the goddess said with a predatory smile as she spoke that gave me goosebumps.


    "He''s my child and don''t you forget it!" Hestia said standing between us defensively.


    Nyx just smiled wider before walking past us and whispering in my ear as she went "I''ll be watching your progress with bated breath, little soul~" she spoke sensually and I stiffened.


    I wanted really really fucking hard not to take that first meeting to heart but something about that goddess bothered me on a deeply primal level and I wasn''t sure why. Anyways the final god left to speak with us was no other than the god that had personally verified our innocence himself, Hermes.


    "No hard feelings i hope? I was simply doing my job after all." he said with a friendly smile.


    "In that case why are you still here? Surely you don''t want to talk about what you saw, after all what''s it got to do with you at this point?" I asked stopping the god in his tracks.

 Annoying matters

    Annoying matters


    "I suppose you aren''t entirely wrong but there is no way I could ever not be interested in such wonderous falnas. Why your falna for example, so very many dark aspects, cursed energy, hell''s forge, hell fire, blessing of ck, soul gaze, your race. If I didn''t know any better I''d swear you were almost a true demon." the god said with a victorious grin.


    "No need to threaten me god, you have plenty of weaknesses I can grasp as well. Your precious familia for example. It would only take me a mere moment , the lightest touch and two words to disfigure them, transform them into monsters to be ughtered on sight. Such a tragedy it would be hmm?" I sent back causing his face to darken.


    Oh yes Hermes was a maniptive bastard without a doubt but he also definitely knew that I wasn''t merely bluffing at this point. One look at my status and the sort of harm I could cause if properly incentivized was crystal clear. The best part is that it would be almost impossible to stop me if I truly followed through with this set of actions unless he was willing to permanently leave Orario and he knew this.-


    "Of course I believe it best if we try to y nice so you keep what you should to yourself and keep your manipting hands away from us and we''ll get along just fine." I added while a smile that didn''t extend to my eyes.


    He sighed "Fine fine, I know when to gracefully bow out and I am the one at a disadvantage this time. Perhaps however now that we''ve gotten that bit of unpleasantness out of the way we can discuss future cooperation?" he said with a smile flipping the mood one eighty.


    "Gonna be honest here that''s up to her, you want something made talk to her. Oh right I should add that teaming up in the dungeon is off the table since my mes don''t y well with others. Too much risk of getting my partners caught up as coteral damage when I go all out." I said with a casual shrug without getting thrown off by his sudden switch in mood at all.


    "That is unfortunate to hear but not a deal breaker if your creations live up to your falna. So Hestia, dearest Hestia how''s about we have a chat about how we can both make a vast amount of valis?" the god said with a wide smile.


    It was extremely amusing to watch my goddess go from basically sitting back and letting me handle everything to having to deal with an eager Hermes. I did have to warn him a few times when I saw his eyes wander to ces they shouldn''t during the conversation but otherwise there wasn''t anything weird about the conversation. There was however a VERY annoying few days after this investigation that we had to deal with.-


    First and foremost was that we were the talk of the city for a few days before the gods got bored and turned their attention elsewhere. What that meant was a lot of attention from, jealous, ill meaning, fans or fame seeking people when we were in public. The jealous ones were all spite and no bite. The ill meaning ones tended to have sinful souls that I gratefully reaped for stats in secret and if they didn''t tended to vanish in the dungeon after following me in. I felt nothing when I killed these people nor when I left them crippled in front of monsters to get killed that ways since that was a loophole in my skill.-


    The fans came in three vors of increasingly annoying levels. The first was the amazons that wanted to mate with Bell and I for our talents. Mostly this involved a lot of seduction attempts to some even bluntly asking to fuck. Bell turned into a tomato more often than not in the face of these girls which was hrious to watch. I myself just rejected their advances casually since I didn''t want to waste time like that.-


    The second type was the newbies to Orario who all hoped to be the next us and shoot to fame by leveling up at rocket speeds. These fans were unfortunately not likely to ever aplish that if my soul gaze was to be trusted. I saw very very few souls that shone quite as bright as Bells and mine did and ording to Syr/Freya that was how she knew how talented someone was. I should probably mention that I was taking lessons on how to best use my soul gaze from her as well and in the process that my own version was slightly different than hers.-


    For example I could see the sins of staining a soul but she instead could see the emotions of the soul when she looked at it instead but not the sins. Hers gave her a way to better manipte people and understand what they were thinking at any given time thanks to this difference while mine allowed me to more or less judge someone''s past actions and make predictions on their future actions as a result. It was fascinating how simr yet different the same ability worked in two different people. Anyways the third type was the "apprentice" type.


    Adventurers that sought Bell, Hestia or myself out to try and learn under us or join our familia for that reason. They were by far the most annoying to deal with as they had a problem taking "no" for an answer. You know the sort of people that think that if they learn from clearly talented or sessful people that they themselves will be talented, irritating buggers the lot of them. Finally came the fame seekers, adventurers that came to challenge Bell or myself tobat to prove try and use us as stepping stones by publicly defeating us.-


    More often then not we ended up just rejecting their challenge and the matter ended there but for the few who tried to insult us or even worse our familia to pressure us, we curb stomped them. The trick was that only those who just leveled up to level two or those at level one could use this method and good fucking luck finding anyone else at that developmental stage as monstrous as us. Hell I ended up even putting mid level twos to the dirt with sheer physical stats alone much less beginner level twos like me(I didn''t kill them btw).

 Commission work

    Commission work


    Other than that there wasn''t much worth mentioning after the investigation was over besides perhaps that my bone figurines had started going for a higher price as the fame made people want them more but the supply was less than the demand. I specifically told Hestia NOT to sell more of them even if we had the supply to meet the demand because this way the price will stay a nice amount while also being fairly consistent. This may be a bit greedy but it should be remembered that these figurines didn''t serve any practical purpose and were purely decoration.-


    No one HAD to buy the things or risk some terrible fate. It was purely a luxury item so naturally I would treat it as such and let the customers set the price. As a result it was valuable because people said it was valuable, like diamonds or other "precious" gemstones. The funny part was that some people had tried to copy my bone figurines but failed every single time as they always had ws and details that became obvious as time went on. My favorite example was this one alchemist guy that melted down bones with a special potion before hardening them again in molds.-


    Once the bones hardened again from the potion wearing off the result was indeed a detailed figurine but there were always these small cracks or discolorations that he couldn''t get rid of. Honestly I apuded the mans ingenuity and even had a couple of his figurines myself as even while imperfect they reminded me that this world was full of impressive people. One of the biggest issues that these fakes had however was that they failed to mineralize the bones so the figurines would rapidly decay when left exposed to the elements unlike my own.-


    My figurines were all entirely mineralized to prevent this exact issue and thus were more stone than bone you could say but no one else has managed to replicate this yet. About a week after the investigation ended Ptah came to visit the church bright and early eager to work out hismissions details.


    "As I said previously I would like a life-sized sphinx statuette made. Please feel free to request anything you feel necessary to make this a reality. Money will be no issue at all." He said with a wide smile.


    "Well first lets get the materialposition out of the way. Now I have a few options that you may choose from as per your own aesthetics and preference. Naturally the detail of the finished product will be the same regardless of the material but this way I can guarantee satisfaction. The materials and solidity are denoted by price so you can even choose an option that is pleasing as well." I said seriously as I handed over the list.


    "Oh my! Such fine quality paper, do you by chance make this as well and if so would you be willing to sell some?" the god asked while rubbing my self-made paper between his thumb and forefingers appreciatively.


    "I do indeed make the paper and admittedly I hadn''t thought of selling it until you asked but I see no reason why I couldn''t." I said honestly.


    "Wonderful wonderful, now let me take a look at this material list of yours." Ptah said with a happy smile.


    I waited for a few moments while the god scrutinized the list seriously. It wasn''t a particrly long list as effectively there were roughly six options, normal wood, normal bone, dungeon wood, monster bones, dungeon stone and dungeon crystal. Naturally the stuff from the dungeon and monsters was more expensive depending on the difficulty of acquisition.


    "Hmmm, I must admit you have me in a bit of a bind as while I whole heartedly agree with the prices you have set for these material I am torn between each of them as I can imagine they would each have their own charm" the god said with a sad smile.


    I nodded in understanding "I anticipated this issue and went ahead and created a few sample pieces out of each material to help if you''d like to peruse them?" I offered casually with a grin.


    "Such preparedness is worthy of praise, please do show me what you have!" the god said excitedly.


    I got up and went down below to retrieve these test pieces I made since I figured that since I was treating these figurines like a luxury product I may as well go all out with it. These six figurines were of the same creature in the exact same position and in the same level of detail as well.


    Ptah had bright eyes as he looked at each of these pieces with a skilled appraisers gaze.


    "Marvelous, absolutely phenomenal! I believe I have my choice made after feasting my eyes on these beauties. I would like to choose the dungeon crystal option! The way the light seems to resonate and cause this figurine to shine would no doubt prove positively stunning in my familias manor, yes I simply must have it!" the god said with an almost fanatical expression.


    ''Why am I not surprised that the god of art is obsessed with the stuff?'' I thought with a mental chuckle.


    "Welp this is where my part of this process ends and the rest is between you and my goddess here." I said casually as I pointed to Hestia as I got up.


    Honestly speaking Ptah was surprisingly agreeable to whatever Hestia said as they worked out the size, price and payment method that was going to be used. Part of the deal of course was that Ptah would have to provide the materials I would be working with but Hestia assured him that I didn''t need a single massive chunk of crystal and many smaller ones were fine so long as together it all added up to the right amount.-


    The final price of this single work of mine came out to a whopping four million valis which was a frankly absurd amount of money for what was a decorative statue in the end but hey that''s how it is with luxury goods. Half of the payment came upfront and with Hestia''s permission i used it and our saved funds to purchase the surroundingnd by the church so I have the room I would need to privately work on such a massive statue, my own little workshop if you''d like.

 Finger licking good

    Finger licking good


    To be clear it was just the six plots ofnd on either side of the church that added about thirty yards ofnd to either side of the church to our possessednd. That may seem like a lot but in truth that was pretty average for decently sized familias. Even worse was that until I took the time to tear everything down thatnd would look like a bunch of abandoned buildings still. Destruction was WAY easier than creation though so all I had to do to fix this issue was unleash my mes and watch that shit burn until nothing was left.-


    If you are wondering why I didn''t reuse the wood from the buildings it was simply because I didn''t feel like it. Hestia might have preferred the churches original shape and design and I maintained it as a result but thisnd was mine and I wanted to get creative with it. That means it was time for me to go all evil superviin and make an undergroundir! Well okay so half and half really but the point still stands.-


    I wasn''t going to use wood for this project though as I wanted to make myir a gods damn nightmare to breach. To aplish this I grabbed a massive tarp and headed to the dungeon to ughter me some orcs. My n was simple really, I was going to refine the things entire skeletons and use their bones to build my base, fucking metal as hell right? Obviously this was going to take more than one trip but I was more than happy to put in the leg work. Killing the orcs was also easy as shit as I just ran up to them and used my cursed technique to seal their eyes, ears, noses and mouths before patiently waiting for them to suffocate to death.-


    Naturally I also spent some time hunting down any metal I could find on floors ten through twelve with my metal detectingpass. I got some really odd looks when I first left the dungeon with a massive makeshift sack of ttering bones on my back but no one stopped me and after repeating this process for a week the guards had even given me a new nickname [Bone collector], which was still better than the one the gods gave me in my opinion.-


    Still after a week of ughtering orcs and otherrge type monsters and dragging their entire skeletons back to the church I had enough to make the above ground portion of myir. Cheeky ass I am I even set up a big cloth curtain to stop anyone from seeing me create the building. I had the bones all piled up like small mound of corpses in ce when I got started by cing my hands on to side of the pile.


    "<em>Hell''s Forge!"</em> I spoke and the ck and blue curse energy began to pour across the entire pile like it was soaked in gas before hit with a lit match.


    If anyone could see what was going on they''d be astonished to see all the bones melting into a pond of discolored liquid before that liquid turned into a huge perfectly t rectangle. I took a break to restore my cursed energy because this was obviously not a energy cheap process. This meant I downed potions like they were water on a hot day. Still my next move was to raise the walls from this bone foundation which I did by causing the bone to rise on the sides to my chosen height roughly before fixing the shape manually.-


    I was a bit miffed to discover that I didn''t have enough bone to create the roof and had to make a couple more trips to the dungeon to collect the stuff. By this point the crystal for Ptah''smission was starting to show up in a bunch of chunks the size of a person. I just stored them in my unfinished building while I worked onpleting it. Finally though after a week and a half of effort I had a big ass hollow rectangle of monster bone set up which left me with the fun part of this project, decoration!-


    I transformed the walls on the outside into a false appearance of a stone brick construction, seams with uneven mortar included. Then I literally raised the roof into long chinese style tile design that looked marvelous from the outside but was totally transparent on the inside. The final touch I used the metal I had collected to create an alloyed metal door to seal the ce shut when I wasn''t here. It was a simple thing that sat on internal hinges that had a single handle and cursed tool lock of my own design.-


    I was quite proud of my lock too as I imbued it with a cursed technique to recognize my finger print so i just needed to stick my thumb in the socket to unlock the door. The best part was that i added a cannibal mechanism to the lock so if anyone not registered tried it they''d loose that digit. The only real security issue left was the air vents I had to keep me from suffocating in here as I worked. Lighting was easy as I just made some cursed tools that produced light and that was that.-


    "It looks suspiciously normal for you." hestia said with a wary look as I showed off my new building.


    I clutched my chest over my heart dramatically "I''m offended that you''d think so little of me! All the fun stuff is just well hidden." I said with a grin.


    "I knew it! Alright so what insane stuff have you casually added to this ce then?" she asked curiously.


    "Well the door eats fingers, then the walls have inbuilt lighting sources and finally the roof is actually transparent on the inside." I said casually.


    "The door eats fingers!?" she eximed in horror.


    I smiled proudly "Hell yeah it does!" ps door "This baby can eat so many fingers!" i said with augh at the look she gives me like I had gone off the deep end. "Chill, it''s an anti theft measure so unless someone without permission tries to get in you''ve got nothing to worry about." I reassured her that I wasn''t THAT mad quite yet.


    Might get there in the future but not at the moment so everything''s fine and nobody needed to start worrying about it for the time being.


    "Why would you even make something like that?" she asked with a confused look.


    "Ah well most locks can be picked but THIS lock will eat your fingers if you try so like it''s way better right?" I asked with a wide smile at my impable logic.

 Skills

    Skills


    "Why are you like this?" Hestia asked with a long suffering sigh.


    "What, I''m right aren''t I?" I insisted.


    "Well um yes? But still!" she said angrily.


    "See it''s fine then and besides you have to admit that it would be kinda funny to hear about a bunch of thieves missing fingers." I said with a chuckle.


    With that my little construction project came to a close for the moment and I could finally throw myself into the middle floors before the monster rex to raise my stats. Obviously I got a good deal of smoke from killing the orcs to make my new workshop but as it was from level one monsters the amount was not optimal.-


    While I was busy with all this Bell was dealing with his own issues in the form of his new porter, Liliruca Arde. She was a feisty Pallum girl that had been tagging along with Bell as a porter for a while now but her familia was starting to cause problems for Bell due to it''s nature. She was a member of the Soma familia and despite Soma wine being the most expensive and popr in the city the familia environment itself was a rotten ce.-


    For starters the "initiation" into the familia involved a newbie being given a single shot of true wine brewed by the god himself. The problem came in the form of that stuff being hyper addictive and thus sent the person who drank it into a frenzy for more and thus indenturing them to the familia by debt. Lili''s parents had effectively sold her into the familia to pay for some of their debt and she had her own to pay and well the familia didn''t exactly want it''s members to be debt free since that means less profit for them, you get how this story is going.-


    One thing led to another and now Lili''s problems had be Bells because he''s just the nicest person ever. I had bluntly told Bell that he could just get Soma to release her from the familia to fix this whole thing but the issue was getting to the god as he was weaseled away deep in his familia manor. I suppose that I should also rify that Soma wasn''t the reason for his familia being such a bad ce. See the god used to be a bright and happy person before he came down from heaven.-


    He became disillusioned however when he discovered that mortals that drank his wine lost themselves to it and thus couldn''t enjoy it as he intended. From then on he ceased to care about all else beyond creating the divine wine endlessly. His familias captain hijacked the familia and from there turned it into the toxic ce it is today because Somacked the will to intervein or stop it. In a way I pitied the god as he had effectively lost the will to live and was merely existing at this point.-


    Bells not the most outside the box thinker though and instead of just having Hestia force her way in, because nobody is stupid enough to attack a god and thus stop her, he is effectively waging a shadow war on them until they are forced to consider releasing Lili. Now I could step up as the captain of the familia to solve this issue real easy like but this was his mistake to learn from and unless the Soma familia goes too far with it i''ll keep it hands off.-


    "Why do I have to deal with you people when Bells the one causing trouble?" I asked with a sigh when three soma members ambushed me in the dungeon.


    "Nothing personal but you gotta take the fall as his captain." one of the dudes said with a slimy smile.


    "Thankfully your souls are all sinful or this might get annoying, burn away for your transgressions and try to be better people in your next life okay?" I said calmly before releasing a wave of me at them.


    The adventurers screamed as the mes consumed them and I yawned in boredom while casually watching their souls get purged. As I had found out the boost in stats I got from killing each sinful soul was actually terrible at barely three or four per kill. In addition it turns out my apathy towards murder was in fact a side effect of my skill. I know this because even thinking about killing an innocent soul makes me feel sick. Yay for morally questionable mind altering skills! Sarcasm aside this at least let me understand how the falna worked a bit better when ites to skills and magics.-


    Skills weren''t just one off buffs that showed up and that was that but rather were very literal representations of you in some way. My skills minus [soul gaze] were each a sort of amplified representation of my own will, fears, hopes and experiences. [Vessel of sin] was from my fear that I''d stop being me and would turn into a monster as I grew stronger. The skill now basically turned me into a technically "righteous" existence as a result. That unfortunately meant that Bell was practically doom driven due to his two skills. [Liaris Freese] was all about growing based on the strength of his emotions.-


    [Argonaut] on the other hand was apparently all about enduring suffering to achieve sess. It was a match made in hell if I ever saw one. Bell had literally caused himself to be built for hardship since these things on a falna were very much permanent. He could get Hestia to strip his falna from him but if any god gave him another those skills would be there waiting. They were a part of his very existence now for better or worse and every other adventurer with a skill was in the same boat. Heavy thoughts aside I delved until i started getting swarmed by level two monsters on the sixteenth floor .-


    Sidestep, smash, backstep, sh I moved in a dance of aggression and death within the minotaurs never stopping for more than a moment after each swing of my weapon. Blood fell on the stone floor from me as well as my foes.


    "SLICK!"


    A rough stone de draws across my back cutting it open shallowly but with a small flex of my will the cut seals shut almost immediately. I had gotten quite good at flesh mending with my technique in battle but I had hard limits. One such limit was that anything deeper than a millimeter took too long and too much focus to deal with. Another was that i couldn''t heal burns or disfigurement during a fight either. Finally was that anything I mended like this leaves a scar on me permanently. I could of course remove the scarster with my technique if I wished but I preferred to keep them as a reminder of my ws that I needed to correct.

 Learning through pain

    Learning through pain


    For example using this method I discovered that I tended to leave my back exposed quite often and as a result had been slowly correcting that w through trial and error. For anyone else this method of patching ws would be suicidal as the injuries would start adding up until they''d drop from blood loss. In my case however I sealed the shallow wounds almost before they had a chance to bleed and adjusted my movements and focus to correct the discovered w. Despite this however I wasn''t feeling challenged at all fighting these level two monsters.


    It was all because of my mes, no matter how much pressure these level two monsters put on me with their numbers I knew that if it ever became too much I had something I could use to trivialize the fight. It would be oh so easy to just send the mes out and sit back while they did all the work because of their nature. I knew however that this was a w in and of itself as if I relied on my mes to handle all my issues what would happen when I couldn''t for whatever reason?-


    The answer was simple and clear as day, I''d die. If I relied on my mes to handle all my enemies then I''d just be leaving myself vulnerable in the case they didn''t work. Understanding this I relegated my mes to ast resort or something I used when I didn''t want to waste time fighting something or someone. This caused me no small amount of suffering but that was where the falna and cursed energy excelled the most so my gains outweighed the cost. Perhaps my stats weren''t growing rapidly but my skill inbat was improving by leaps and bounds.-


    I had even started being able to react to the way the monsters moved to attack and counter before they finished or even interrupt them sometimes. There were patterns in how they moved and after fully immersing myself in the battles I started to recognize these patterns and react preemptively. It was pretty clear to me however that no level two should attempt to learn this trick of mine. The speed between the action of the monster , your brain recognizing what''s happening and you moving to react to that recognition was so tight that it created an ungodly amount of fucking strain on me.-


    It was an advanced concept that probably only became really viable at higher levels, maybe four or beyond. Despite figuring this out I still tried to master this new way of fighting because I also knew that the falna tended to reward effort with the harder something was the better the reward for putting in the effort. So while this way of fighting was more suited for a higher level adventurer it was still possible to pull off at my level in exchange for a sharp increase in difficulty.-


    "Are you sure that you need to go so far?" Hestia asked worriedly when I came home once again covered in my own blood with more new scars adorning my skin.


    "Believe me I wish I didn''t but if I am to grow the fastest only by going to such lengths is it possible." I said feeling mentally drained.


    "And what about these scars? Why do you insist on keeping them when all they do is remind you of pain?" She asked unhappily while tracing my newest scars with her finger tip.


    "I''ll remove them when I remove the w in mybat style that created them in the first ce. Think of them like progress markers rather than reminders of pain. Each one I take away means Ie just that little bit closer to my goal. And when the day eventuallyes that my skin holds no scars you''ll know all this pain and effort was worth it." I said with a smile as I imagined that future.


    "I worry you know? That you''ll go too far and nevere back. That one day you''ll lose something you can''t just fix with that power of yours." she said softly and I just pat her on the top of the head.


    "I''m harder to kill than a cockroach so don''t you worry your pretty little head about it. I mighte home a little worse for wear but make no mistake I will ALWAYSe home." I said confidently.


    After that short but heartfelt chat it was time to work on mymission that was taking a while due to how energy intensive it was. I had already fused all the crystal together and removed all the impurity from it leaving it as pure shiny crystal. I activated my technique and began to shape this mass of crystal into a very vague lioness body if the lioness wasying down.-


    The neck and chest area however was left raw and unformed since those were going to be turned into the woman''s torso. Despite this however I was burning through cursed energy at an rming rate simply due to the sheer size of the material and how much it was resisting transformation. Yes my technique could be resisted though if I paid enough energy I could ovee that resistance. At least that was the case for nonalive things like metals and crystals such as this.-


    Transforming a living material like a monsters anatomy cost an excessive amount of cursed energy as their resistance was way more intense and in level two monsters I even risked mind zero from the sheer amount of resistance I felt. Thanks to this I was able to understand or at least theorize how my technique would improve as I grew stronger. Right now my techniques was barely strong enough to work on dead level four materials or alive level two materials and by growing stronger this limit would also increase.-


    In theory my technique might even be able to ovee the dungeons resistance by the time I hit level seven or eight. Anyway this dungeon crystal was a dead material at around level two or three judging from the resistance I felt from it which meant I spent a veryrge amount of energy just shaping the general form of the crystal statue. Ptah was already aware that this was not a project that could be done in a short amount of time and was fine waiting a month or so for me to finish it.-


    I had already decided that I wouldn''t update my falna again until I finished this statue or something happened that forced me to need a power up for some reason. The reason for this was simply that only at that point would I see any decent growth in my stats. There was just something about my numbers jumping forward that was highly satisfying.

 Routine

    Routine


    Thanks to this I started getting into a routine over the next month of waking up early, stopping by the hostess, delving to floor fifteen or sixteen, spending a good six or seven hours getting knocked around and killing any and all monsters that want toe at me. then I''d turn in the excess materials or stones i had to the guild to keep up appearances, head over to the hostess again to eat dinner, head to the Blue pharmacy to restock on potions and turn in my empty vials and finally head back to the church to spend the rest of the night working on the statue until bed time.-


    It was a very rinse and repeat process but that was sort of the way this worked for most adventurers in truth. Contrary to what it may seem this life was actually very simple most days and rarely worth mentioning. Bell was having a less simple time of things over thest month however and I even had to step in at one point because things were escting when they really didn''t need to. As it turned out those people from the Soma familia that fucked around and found out kicked the proverbial hos nest when they went missing.-


    Aggression between our familia started blooming but the soma familia couldn''t dere a war game even if they REALLY wanted to. Reason being Soma didn''t give enough of a shit anymore to actually dere one. The god was never seen in denatus meetings and was for the most part removed from this situation entirely. His whole familia was basically acting solely under the orders of his captain and a mortal could only do so much based on thews of this world.-


    Hestia however wasn''t the sort of person to put forth a war game unless the other side was a REALLY big issue and the soma familia was not. They were rich sure but they weren''t strong by any means with most of their members being level two and the captain himself only being a low level three minleveler. For reference a minleveler is someone who gets a single stat to the minimum needed to level up(B rank) before they level up. After reaching level three the guy pretty much stopped adventuring and focused on lording over the Soma familia and as such was only at the start of level three.-


    Even worse was that the guy had this habit of making anyone getting close to level three in the familia vanish to protect his spot as top dog. Yeah real nasty piece of work that one but hardy a threat to even Bell so i left the matter alone until the guy started hiring mercenary type adventurers toe after Bell. Don''t get me wrong it was the right move on the guys part once he figured out no one in his familia could handle Bell or me. That said the Soma familias wealth was a VERY dangerous factor when applied to mercenary type adventurers.-


    The wine they sold went for hundreds of thousands to up to a couple million valis a gallon jar depending on quality and they had been selling hundreds of jars a month for years now. Naturally this meant that the amount of money they can throw at mercenaries allows them to hire the dangerously powerful ones sitting at level four and five without sweating. So far the Soma captain had only had level threes harassing Bell but the precedent was there for him to get someone higher involved and so I stepped in.-


    My solution was simply to have Hestia march into the Soma familias headquarters with Lili and Bell in tow before forcing soma to settle this matter personally. This was where thing took a turn for the worst as far as the captain of the familia went as soma gave the Pallum girl a test. She had to drink a cup of undiluted divine wine and while under it''s effects choose to forsake more wine to join our familia. The captain thought she''d fail and choose more wine but to his horror the girl chose to leave the Soma familia to join ours.-


    The reason this was to his horror was because this single seemingly simple act of not losing herself to the wine woke the wine god from his stupor. He regained his spark of passion and all but begged Lili to stay as he finally found a mortal who could enjoy his wine without losing themselves. She ended up joining us anyways while the god stripped the captain of his falna for his transgressions before taking control of the familia again. And that as they say was that as far as that whole fiasco was concerned and we even got allied to the Soma familia as a bonus.-


    Beyond that it was business as usual in the Hestia familia with Bell and I both delving most days and if not working on improving some other facet of our abilities. In my case creating this statue was proving to be a worthy challenge in and of itself as I needed to be hyper aware of each and every minute detail to deliver my standard quality for my creations. I''m talking fur density, fur patterning, fur texture, fur length, skin texturing, veins, arteries, capiries, muscle definition, cloth texture, realism, expression, the whole shebang. -


    I went all out on this statue and towards the end of the month you could tell as if it wasn''t obviously made of crystal the statue looked moments away from standing up and walking around. I thought about shading the entire thing in the colors the creature would actually have but I decided against it due to the fact that it would ruin the natural beauty of the crystal. Finally a scant three days before the end of the month Ipleted the statue and finally allowed Hestia, Bell and Lili to take in it''s radiant splendor.-


    As I discovered over thest month I REALLY didn''t like people seeing my unfinished work and had been keeping everyone at bay until it was done.


    "It''s so pretty!" Hestia said with big bright eyes when she finally saw my creation.


    "Lili thinks you might have gone overboard." the small Pallum girl said in shock as she examined the statue in closer detail.


    "Maybe we can have one for our familia too! How about a minotaur since we both used one to level up!?" Bell suggested excitedly.


    "Vetoed! Nope! Absolutely not! I have been getting knocked around by those steaks for the past month and I''ll eat my shoes before creating a life-sized statue of one that''ll stick around for longer than a day or two!" I shot down that idea immediately.

 Art

    Art


    "That reminds me now that you''vepleted this statue are you going to update your falna now?" Hestia asked curiously.


    "I actually have onest thing to do before I do that and if it works I''ll have a nice surprise waiting when I update." I said with a grin.


    "Something tells me I don''t want to know what you have nned so i''m not gonna ask." she said dryly.


    "Your loss I guess, now who wants to go with me to find Ptah tomorrow?" I asked with a smile.


    Nobody wanted toe much to my disappointment so I could only shrug and lock up for the night. The next morning I woke up, pried my goddess off me and headed to the bathroom to get dressed. I wasn''t going to be delving today though as I needed to have Ptahe collect his statue and pay for it. I also had other ns that hopefully panned out as it would prove VERY usefulter when the size of the monster rex''s and a floors in the dungeon start getting very veryrge. I''ll exin more on thatter when I get to working on it.-


    Leaving the church I headed over to the spot I knew that I''d be more than likely to find the art god in, The artist hut. A not so urate name as it was by no means a hut but rather arge gallery that was collectively run by Ptah, Bragi and Calliope who were all gods with a domain rted to either creativity or art in some form. It was a huge marble building that they used to show off any art they found in the city that caught their eyes. It also was open to the public for a small fee of three hundred valis and after being open for a few years had paid for itself practically and was all profit after that.-


    I paid the fee to enter the ce and was not surprised to find that there was a small area that had no less than twenty of my figurines set behind a ss disy case. My work was not the only art here though, far from it in fact as there were paintings, sheets of music and even weapons and armor that were decorative in nature rather than functional.-


    I found Ptah in the area with the sheet music humming a tune that I was fairly certain was the music on the sheet with a smile.


    "Good morning." I said politely and he turned to look at me in surprise.


    "Ah! Mr. Drake how wonderful to see you! Are you by chance here to peruse the rest of the fine art mypatriots and I discovered?" He asked with a happy smile.


    "Can''t say I won''t in the future but today I am here for yourmission, it''s finished." I said with a smile of my own.


    His face lit up in excitement "Marvelous! Comee I simply must see what masterpiece you''ve prepared for me posthaste!" he said eagerly trying to drag me out the gallery.


    "Now theres and expression I recognize,missioned some over the top piece yet again and learned it''s finished?" a deep voice asked humorously.


    Turning to look I saw a muscr god with long brown hair and a thick beard walking towards us.


    "You know me well Bragi, Imissioned Mr. Drake here to create a life-sized Sphinx statue out of dungeon crystal and he''s just informed me of it''spletion. Would you care to join me in taking a look?" Ptah offered, clearly on good terms with this god.


    "Drake? As in the creator of the bone statues?" Bragi asked surprised.


    "One and the same old friend." Ptah said with a nod.


    "Bragi, god of poetry and the arts. Your works with bone have been quite a popr topic for a while now." Bragi said holding out a hand with a smile.


    I shook the hand and was surprised by the strength in the grip "Alexander Drake, nice to meet you." I said honestly.


    "Now that we have gotten introductions out of the way will you be joining me in seeing the work Imissioned?" Ptah asked still friendly but rather impatient.


    Bragi chuckled "Always so filled with energy eh old friend? I have no prior appointments to attend so if you''d have me I''d love to witness this spectacle." the god said with a smile.


    "Wonderful! Come,e and see!" Ptah said leading the eagerly.


    "Before we get there I should warn both of you not to try and open the door if you value your fingers." I said seriously on the way.


    "That''s an unusual warning, some sort of reason behind it?" Bragi asked curiously.


    "The locking mechanism is designed to unlock only when it''s registered users ce their finger in it. If anyone else tries the door will devour the offending finger. The best part about it is that it''s impossible to pick your way in thanks to this." I said with a proud smile.


    "Such an inventive idea! I imagine it must have taken you quite the amount of valis tomission?" Ptah asked curiously.


    "Not at all, I was the one who created it after all." I said honestly.


    "Truly a man of many talents it seems Mr. Drake. Perhaps I mightmission a piece of yours myself should I have want for such a thing." Bragi said impressed.


    We idly chatted about my bone figures and what other things I did. They were both surprised to find that I made weapons and armors as well as "magic" items beyond just the none magical items like paper I created. Eventually we got to the church and Hestia waved at us as I led the two gods over to my building.


    "Oh now theres something you don''t see everyday! Is this entire building made of bone?" Ptah asked in amazement as he ran his finger over the outer walls.


    "Good eye, I colored and textured the whole thing to look like stone but you still figured out that it was made of bone." I said genuinely impressed that he figured it out at a nce but that''s a god of art for you I guess.


    I led the way over to therge metal door and unlocked it with my finger while the two gods watched in interest as the bolts holding it firmly shut all retracted into the door like a vault before the door smoothly swung open.


    "Stunning, simply breathtaking! Look how the light seems to make the whole thing shine like diamond and yet this detail and precision makes it seem like it will start moving at any moment! You''ve out done yourself Mr. Drake, I could not be happier!" Ptah said with the eagerness of a child set loose in a candy store with no restrictions.

 The final step

    The final step


    "I''m d you like it, now we just have to figure out how to get it to your manor. Don''t get me wrong it''s definitely not fragile or anything but it is ratherrge and heavy." I said honestly.


    "That is simple really, I''ll just hire some adventurers to haul it back to my manor. If all goes well it will be in ce by sunset." Ptah said unbothered by my concerns.


    I suppose I shouldn''t have expected anything different from him really as clearly he couldn''t care less about shelling outrge amounts of money for art. He had quite a lot of money anyways as his familia was well known and requested for their artistic works that brought in loads of money for them. They were a "business" type familia and as a result didn''t really have any members who delved and fought monsters regrly.-


    After that the two gods left and Ptah came back with a team of adventurers hired to move the statue just like he said. I almost felt bad for them really as the statue was refined dungeon crystal and weighed an easy eighteen tons. The group of twenty men were all between level two and three with high strength builds and even then they BARELY managed to load the statue onto the massive cart they brought for it.-


    Ptah handed over the other half of the payment for the statue and I told him I''d like a break to recharge before doing anothermission like this. It was funny to see his face as he was clearly about to ask for that very thing but I really was burnt out a bit from this statue. There was something about the sheer scale that I was working with that stressed me out.-


    I knew what it was too, my desire for perfection in what I made. I stressed about missing some small detail or having something out of ce because of the size. For some reason I didn''t mind imperfection in my cursed tools but when it came to stuff like my figurines or this statue I didn''t want to settle for less than my absolute best. In hindsight that might actually be why they were so popr. All people want perfection in some form, we crave it without knowing in most cases. -


    So when presented with an example that approached that concept our brains immediately want to impulsively and irrationally possess it. Thanks to this my figurines that pressed that button were things that you couldn''t help but impulsively buy. I from this understanding also figured out why i didn''t mind imperfections in my cursed tools, I knew I couldn''t obtain it. That was the nature of cursed tools and energy, there was always a downside, a w. True perfection was an impossible concept to achieve with the stuff and I, knowing this, didn''t agonize over failing to attain it. It was expected instead, embraced if you will.-


    This rted in fact to the thing I wanted to achieve before i updated my falna again. I wanted to push my limit from four properties in an object at full strength to five. Now that might sound easy but it very much was not. In truth that was a whole twenty five percent increase which I felt in my gut was something I NEEDED to hit before I updated. Why I felt this need I have no idea but my gut hasn''t led me wrong since I got to this world so I was going to fucking listen.-


    This of course led me to sitting in my now empty workshop staring at a goblin tooth dagger nkly.


    ''I''ve got no fucking clue where to start!'' I mentallyined, I was stuck.


    Once I figured out how to make cursed tools originally the process was pretty instinctual but now I ACTUALLY had to figure out how to improve in it rather than just messing with the standard settings. That''s all I had really done until now, follow the rules I discovered to achieve a predictable result. I hadn''t actually tried to go beyond those rules and something told me that was the problem here.-


    Even my experiments with spatial cursed tools was done by following the rules I knew but tweaking the technique I was imbuing as well as the restrictions within those rules. Now however it was clear that I needed to go beyond the rules to achieve a consistent increase in properties on all my future projects. I tried to brute force it at first thinking that was the solution but it became clear that that wasn''t the strat when I started hemorrhaging cursed energy which was quite unpleasant let me tell you.-


    You ever get like a really bad cut or nosebleed and FEEL the blood leaving your body? It felt like that, yeah I immediately shut that shit down real fast. Well if brute force was off the table that just left finesse and I will admit that wasn''t exactly my strong suit. I liked my freedom to just DO things as I wanted. Probably my less than sound mental thought processes fault for that one but it was either go a little insane or break entirely on earth. Sanity didn''t really work out all that well there after everything started to look hopeless.-


    Working till your body was on the verge of copse just to be able to barely survive and having no hope of ever retiring tends to break ones will to live. From there the insanity rears it''s head and you end up entric, suicidal or murderous. I ended up seeking escape in anime and other media which in turn made me entric. Sorry about that I''m getting off topic here, the point I was making was that I was having trouble with this improvement that was probably actually easy. I tried chaining properties together but all that ended up doing is fusing them together into a more powerful property with both the effects but the same cost.-


    Obviously this was a great discovery in and of itself but it wasn''t what I was after. To be honest I probably should have figured that out a lot sooner but to be fair I AM sort of winging it. The Jujutsu Kaisen manga was not super detailed on the how of things like this so much as the what they did. I was pretty much working off of snippets of iplete information and crossed fingers to figure shit out.-


    My third attempt at adding five properties to a weapon made me want to bang my head on the wall when it worked. Remember when I said it was probably so simple thing I should have easily figured out? I was on the fucking money because my third attempt was to structure the properties in a pentagram mentally. Not because pentagrams have any actual power or anything but because I was all like "well what if I put the properties in a geometric shape?" and then tried it and lo and fucking behold it worked. The answer was so damn simple that I had to actively control myself fromshing out in anger when I figured it out.

 Curses and souls

    Curses and souls


    Once we got done with our meal we headed back to the church and passed out. In the morning I was jealous of Hestia who wasn''t suffering from a hangover while my head was throbbing. Besides that however I was fine and decided to take the day to rx a little. I needed a few days for my body to adapt to my new stats anyways so it was fine. Eventually my hangover faded and I was left with the pleasant feeling of my cursed energy reserves growing slowly but continuouslyrger.-


    I wasn''t looking forward to my next update however as my magic stat was already really fucking close to the first limit of 999(S). I was more likely than not going to get leveling sickness again when I broke that limit which was bound to be just as unpleasant as ever. Kinda jealous of Bell skipping that as he broke the limit and hit the second one before leveling up all at once. His level up meant his body dealing with having broke the limit got rolled up into his vessel being reforged. This meant he was hale and hearty the whole fucking time and didn''t get sick at all.-


    Don''t get me wrong the fact I absorbed the concepts of monsters in order to raise my stats was broken as all hell too but his skill waspletely unfair. Gonna sound like a dick joke but at least my soul was bigger than his now. [Vessel of sin] came in with that soul strengthening thing it does now after my update and I can confidently say that it did , in fact, improve my ability to utilize cursed energy. A minor increase mind you but an increase none the less!-


    If I had to quantify it I''d say maybe like a one percent increase if I am being entirely honest. It was a humble amount sure but eventually that amount will get to a very respectable level. If my calction were right in fact I''d say at about level four I''d have a twentyish percent increase in cursed energy efficiency. That is assuming the cost of each increase doesn''t go up by a massive amount though so who knows. Other than that however I have no idea what other benefits a stronger soul confers on me if any.-


    Like in theory there DEFINITELY should be more but as to what exactly those were I have no idea. Souls were a very ill recorded topic of research in the this world so even when I went looking for information I found only a single mention of the things and that was in a book on curses, the normal sort I mean. Contrary to the naming scheme cursed energy was not in fact rted to actual curses. An actual curse was merely a sort of negative magic effect that tended to be temporary but could be permanent if you were hit with enough.-


    A rather popr curse was [anti-healing] and from the name alone it should be pretty damn obvious why that was so popr. Unfortunately actual items with cursed effects were illegal as shit so if you get caught with such a thing it was exile, prison or death for you. The difference was mostly to do with your level and how "dark" the curse was. Have something with the aforementioned curse at level one or two and exile was a pretty high oue if you didn''t hurt anyone with it when you were caught. Have something with [agony] on it at level one or two and it''s prison or death.-


    Have anything with a curse on it after hitting level three and it''s an increasing likelihood that you get killed immediately. A particrly fascinating but dangerous curse was the [level down] curse that forced the person inflicted with it to drop a level temporarily. That curse is instant death by the way as it served only a single purpose, adventurer hunting. The thing that was fascinating about that curse however was that it directly acted on the falna which was a surprisingly rare thing. In fact there was only maybe four things ever recorded to do so.-


    The curse, status thief which was a potion that forcefully revealed ones hidden falna, a unique magic, and the gods themselves. That was as you should be able to tell a very small number considering the thousand years that the falna has been mainstream in use. Admittedly most people wouldn''t need to be able to effect a falna directly like that but the scarcity of things that did after so long seemed odd. Anyways as I was saying about souls the only mention of the things I found that spoke of them directly was in regards to the [damnation] curse.-


    A moremon name for the curse however was the [god killer] curse. This curse existed in exactly one and ONLY one scenario, a mortal killing a god. The details of this curse ironically enough was something the gods went out of their way to make public knowledge. It was very simple really as if a mortal kills a god that god inflicts a curse mark on the soul of the mortal and upon the mortals death that soul falls into the killed gods hand to be tortured for eternity.-


    This curse was one of the reasons deicide was something only a truly deranged mind would even attempt. The kicker though was that all the other gods can sense this curse and as a result are usually the reason the mortal dies as they gang up on them with their familias. That was it on souls that one tiny thing was all I could find on the subject. It was disappointing to say the least but nothing I could do about it as Syr/Freya refused to tell me anything about the topic as it was taboo for a god to share divine information with a mortal.-


    Make no mistake about it either the nature and knowledge of souls IS ssified as divine information. Syr did tell me however that by the rules anything I myself discovered on the topic was free to be shared with the world so long as it didn''t directly threaten the gods themselves. It was some rule about not interfering beyond a certain point in the development of the mortal world. As a mortal anything I discovered was fine but the gods weren''t allowed to share information beyond the mortal worlds current understanding.-


    I understood why this rule was in ce too. In heaven the gods were knowledge wise practically infinite and unlimited. They had ess to all the secrets of creation if they chose to spend the effort to look at it. As a result even though the gods squandered that oppurtunity their knowledge on some subjects were VASTLY beyond mortal understanding and sharing it would do more harm than good. There was also the fact that the gods enjoyed watching us mortals grow and develop.

 Plans and shield

    ns and shield


    While I spent the next few days allowing my body to adjust to my new stats I began experimenting with my recent discoveries. For example I remade the water ring with this new information and it was easily twice or more times as powerful as the original. The original five gallon limit had rose to twelve and the distance limit changed from a set distance to "within sight". The best part was that the cost of the ability was still the same as the original. This made me think that the structured nature of the discovered method had more to do with efficiency than power.-


    Sure the power went up for the final result but my gut told me that was actually because the efficiency of my previous products were just that abysmal. That made my eye twitch a bit but I let it go. Anyways thanks to this new efficient method of cursed tool crafting I went back to one of my old designs that I had dropped when I thought it was not feasible, the reflector shield. For those that forgot what that was I had tried to make a shield that absorbed the energy of attacks before sending all the energy out at once at a time of my choice.-


    The original attempt at this worked but had such a low thresh hold for overburdening that I deemed it a failure. My hope was that with this new method I could possibly get the idea to work decently. So long as the shield could withstand a full strength hit from me as I am right now I''d consider the idea a sess. This was no small amount of strength either as at this exact moment my strength was sitting on the lower end of a middle level threes.-


    My update had pushed me firmly past the level of a level two and into the realm of a level three before taking it a step further. By my calctions I''d be about as strong as a new level four when I was finally ready to level up to three. Such exceptionalism came with a massive downside however in that my requirements to level up are now probably as high as a level threes to hit level four. It will only get worse the higher I get unfortunately but it was a price I was willing to pay for a shot at godhood.-


    Anyways if I could get a shield to be able to absorb a full strength strike from me then it meant I could in theory return that exact same amount of power at a target any time I wanted which would definitelye in handle. I wouldn''t need to wait for an opening anymore to counter attack, I could make one instead. Before any of that though I had to seed in creating the thing first. For materials I was honestly rather spoilt for choice thanks to my metal detector and the drops I had hoarded over thest month.-


    Obviously it was only stuff from floor one to sixteen so at most level two materials but there was a good selection of monsters I had harvested parts from. In the end I went with some Minotaur horns and Almiraj hide that had a cross shaped te of mithril across the face like a big "+". Naturally I first refined and shaped the horns into a standard circr buckler that I the fused the Almiraj hide to the back of as straps and padding. Finally I fused the mithril onto the center of the shields face.-


    The final result was pretty in looking but was a deceptively sturdy shield that would likely even survive without issue under an assault by myself. That wasn''t what I was after however as I wanted that reflective technique or the shield would just be a normal shield for me. Don''t get me wrong I was fully intending on adding a shield to my fighting style because I REALLY needed a way to defend against magic or ranged attacks. But I didn''t want that shield to just be a tough but otherwise ordinary piece of equipment.-


    I had ns for my eventual load out that would make me a nightmare to fight against for literally everyone. You want to talk about match up? Imagine having to fight against someone in a full kit that was purposefully designed to counter every environment, type of attack and that was next to impossible to damage. That was what I had in mind for my loadout in the future and the best part was that it was totally possible if I deck myself out in special grade cursed tools. For now though I needed to work on this shield.-


    For the restriction I started with the standard issue sort like "this will never be alive" and "this can only be used by Alexander Drake". The rest after that were more technique specific restrictions that were supposed to make sure the technique I imbued at the end functioned exactly how I said and ONLY how I said, none of that bacsh shit. Once this hollow gem cage was formed out of restrictions I began to pour in the technique I wanted which "filled" the hollowness of the cage. With this done I imbued the cage gem structure into the center of the shield.-


    The shield shuddered for a moment as the curse technique and restrictions settled in it''s new vessel. The center of the "+" swirled and formed a symbol but that was the only change the shield underwent.


    ''So far so good, now to test the limit.'' I thought calmly as I set the shield down and grabbed my weapon from nearby.


    I lifted it high and breathed out as I smashed down with my full power.


    "BOOM!"


    The sound of the collision reverberated through the air, walls and floor of the workshop as the shield didn''t move at all but developed a cracks across it''s form.


    ''Hmm, it couldn''t handle that amount of power but wasn''t far from being able to so perhaps it''s possible with some tweaking?'' I though while examining the shield closely.


    There were about a dozen hairline cracks on the shield that ruined it''s structural integrity but the shape held and was otherwise undamaged which meant that it had been a fairly close thing. I overwhelmed the technique which in turn overwhelmed the shield itself but I didn''t do so by so much that it could be considered aplete failure. In fact quite the opposite really as in the hands of a normal level one or two adventurer this technique would be perfect for any normal monster they would likely face.-


    ''I''ll rece the technique from the shield with one made for Lili and shrink it a bit before giving it to her since she is not as durable as Bell and needs better defenses.'' I thought as I repaired the damage and removed and reced the technique with simr restrictions but made for her rather than me.

 Forgemasters visage

    Forgemasters visage


    Thanks to this experiment I knew that I was still not QUITE ready to make the shield the way I wanted and moved onto a piece of equipment I had been neglecting but probably shouldn''t, headwear. Admittedly my head was my single most vulnerable ce on my body as it was the only ce that I had zero chance of surviving if damaged. Hell if I used my technique fast enough I could survive having my heart pierced but brain damage is an instant kill on me. Despite this I have left my head unprotected until now.-


    There was no excuse or grand reasoning involved this time I just simply hadn''t cared to do anything about it until now. People naturally try and protect their head and vital parts and I was no different so I hadn''t felt the need to have head protection. I knew that needed to change before I tried going deeper into the dungeon. Unlike pretty much every other adventurer I was a true solo delver and that meant I either had to have protection for my head or the sort of perception that couldn''t be caught off guard.-


    Having both would be for the best but I simply knew that there was no way in hell I wanted that sort of perception. Can you even imagine how bad it would suck if you literally couldn''t miss any detail of your surrounds ever? Someone farts and you suddenly felt like you had been hit toxic fumes or you see all the dirt and crusted stuff on everyone''s hands? Yeah no I would probably want to l kill myself with senses like that and chose to just protect my head with armor instead. For the technique on the piece I wanted something that would make it versatile.-


    My idea was to make something about like Tosens hollow mask from bleach. The thing covered his entire head without any openings at all really save the narrow slit down the middle. I on the other hand want to remove the slit entirely leaving my entire headpletely leaving a smooth bald surface to work with as a base. I needed a way to breath so I just added a standard sharp toothed hollow mouth and nose. For vision I made the inside of the thing transparent so even if you couldn''t see my eyes I could see just fine.-


    For my hearing I added sharp ears on the sides that had small holes inside of so the sound reached my ears perfectly without actually exposing them. The for aesthetic purposes I had Darth Maul style horns on top of the otherwise bald top. The final result was intimidating to say the least even if it was only a proof of concept type prototype that was made of simple refined bone. The solid white of the bone seemed off to me though so I darkened most of it until it was dark colored, almost ck.-


    The only parts I left white were the horns and teeth of the head piece giving it a nice contrast that I liked. With the shape and coloration done I slipped the entire thing over my head and began to make minor tweaks to the shape so it fit me snuggly butfortably. The only annoying part was getting the mouth to open with mine that I solved by adding a hinge at the side that pushed open the teeth when I lowered my own jaw. Still I was fairly satisfied with the thing as is by the time I was done as it was almost unnoticeable when I had it on besides the weight and feel of the material.-


    ''Now I just need to make a version out of something more durable and turn it into a cursed tool.'' I thought with a grin.


    After some debate with myself I decided to get into my stash of orichalcum that was renowned for being stupidly durable and adamantite that was one of the best metals for imbuing magical properties into, both of which the dungeon made. I didn''t have a lot of the stuff since it was rare beyond rare to find on the floors I frequented but I still had just enough for a single helm in the style I made.-


    The two metals were also NOT supposed to alloy together at all but my cursed technique didn''t give a fuck about that and did it anyways. The resulting fusion was stupid durable AND great at holding properties. It was also kinda heavy but that was less important in my opinion. Using my technique some more I shaped this lump of metal into the exact same shape and size as the prototype I made previously.-


    I also turned the material transparent on the inside and this just left me with the cursed technique that I wanted to imbue and I already had the one i wanted chosen. [Environmental adaptation] or to exin in detail the ability to allow me to be unaffected by external environments. This meant I could breath underwater, in a cloud of poison, or in an environment without oxygen. The best part is that the technique has a quite a few restrictions already built into it just by virtue of how it functioned. This meant that with the restrictions I add manually in addition the technique willst me a long time.-


    Cursed tools with more restrictions also tend to be more powerful as well so once I imbued this technique on the prototype because I had to test it I''ll know what I''m looking at for the real deal. The answer it turned out was a little more restricted than I had thought but not by so much that it still wasn''t a good piece. I had not ounted for the time it would take for the adaptation to the environment to ur but it was merely thirty seconds so it wasn''t something that would cause me much issues on the real deal.-


    The final touches of course were the changes of the metals coloration to match the prototype more or less though the shininess remained which I was fine with.


    "I dub thee [Forgemasters visage] may you serve me well in the times toe!" I said dramatically beforeughing at my own antics.


    With that done I was pretty much set to go back into the dungeon tomorrow. The look on Lili''s face when I handed her the shield i made prior was hysterical. She looked at me like i was insane for just handing such a valuable item over so casually. That was until I told her that I was the one who made it at which point she looked more amazed at me than anything else. By this point she knew I made statues and figurines and stuff like that but she hadn''t been let in on my actual crafting side of things, mostly cuz I forgot to.

 Sunny problems

    Sunny problems


    I kept my new helmet/mask in my bag and only put it on when I was already in the dungeon after the first day wearing it in public led to me almost dying. See I had it on and was about to make my way to the hostess when Tiona showed up and mistook me for a monster. She broke like eight ribs with a single drop kick that hit me before I could even react. She felt really really bad afterwards but I didn''t me her too much considering it was rather monstrous looking.-


    That said I somehow got suckered into training with her for a month after that when hestia brought it up when Tiona asked what she could do to make it up to me. Said "training" was in fact more surviving her onught than actually getting taught anything. I mean it was great for my predictive countering thing I was working on with the Minotaurs but was brutal in every other way. That woman didn''t know the meaning of the words "holding back" as I lost count of the amount of times she broke a bone, almost killed me or sent me over the side of the wall. Thatst one was my least pleasant experience.-


    We trained for an hour on top of the wall just before sunrise and the first few times the chick literally kicked me off the wall on ident. She seemed happy that I survived the falls each time and praised me for how tough my body was. Fun fact by the way you have to be at least level three with high endurance to survive falling at terminal velocity. Something I learned from Tiona after she asked how I pulled it off. I refused to tell her that I was about equal to a new level three stat wise, not that she cared all that much.-


    I will admit that I couldn''t really stay mad at her for all the near fatal injuries or close calls when I knew that she was simply not all that cut out to train others. She was savage forck of a better word. Not feral exactly but she fought like a predator more than a person and she wasn''t very good at controlling her strength as a result. She tried but if I did something that caught her off guard or got too close to her with an attack she''d momentarily stop limiting herself and I was NOT able to handle that level of power no matter how brief.-


    She was level six and my body was barely at level three so obviously I broke more bones than I wasfortable with over the next month but at least I wasn''t the only person having a rough time of it in the familia. I have no clue how he keeps aplishing it but Bell had somehow managed to pick a fight with the Apollo familia. ording to him and his teammates Lili and Welf, a red haired cksmith oddly enough, they went to get some dinner after a days delving and got into a brawl with members of the Apollo familia.-


    Bell got beaten like a dog by the level three captain of the familia who held the nickname{Phoebus Apollo} and was almost seriously injured had the werewolf of the Loki familia Bete Loga not called the fight to an end. Unlike the whole thing that happened with the Soma familia the Apollo familia didn''t try to involve me at first, no they involved the entire Hestia familia when they set the church on fire.-


    It went out fairly fast thankfully since all the wood was refined and thus didn''t burn very well but I was PISSED. I didn''t even bother hiding it either as I found some Apollo members bragging about it in a bar and proceeded to break both their legs and both their arms. The guild fined me heavily for "disturbing the peace" and I paid it with a fucking smile on my face. That was where things got particrly suspicious however as we got invited to the ball Apollo was hosting.-


    To be more specific Hestia got invited and she was allowed to bring her captain with her as per protocol.


    "He''s probably going to challenge us to a war game." I said casually on the way to the manor of the Apollo familia.


    "And who''s fault is that after you went and did such a thing to his child?" Hestia said with an nervous look.


    "They started it. Besides you know how powerful I am so even if we are out numbered by so much I can handle it. The penalties from killing the ones with innocent souls is gonna suck though." I said unbothered by the almost guaranteed war game.


    "If and I mean it, IF we get challenged to a war game what conditions do you think i should put forth?" she asked seriously.


    "Well first off try and make it a siege or duels if you can though we may need to goad Apollo to aplish that. Second we want everything his familia has while he gets exiled from Orario, the manor and assets we can sell for money since we have the church but the weapons and treasures are what will really pay dividends. I can use the materials for most of them myself and we can sell back the rest to the members of the familia afterwards in exchange for favors or even recruitment." I exined calmly.


    "Recruitment?" Hestia asked confused.


    "Perhaps you haven''t noticed it but Bell and I are growing very fast. Problem is two powerful people does not a powerful familia make. We need numbers if we are to grow to match and one day surpass the likes of Freya and Loki." I said slightly dramatically.


    "Umu, makes sense. Don''t know if I trust you not to lead others into being weirdos though." she said while giving me an odd look.


    "Why I would never! I thought I had done a fabulous job with Bell, he only causes trouble periodically after all!" I said offended.


    "This is the literally the second familia he''s gotten into a fight with in as many months." she pointed out.


    "Bah, that''s just statistics! I''m sure he''ll not make trouble again for at least a month after this whole thing finishes up." I said waving it off.


    "That''s not reassuring at all!" she said hitting me angrily but I just grinned.


    "You say that but I''m having a great time over here! After all whats life without a little excitement thrown in every now and again?" I asked with a wide smile and augh.


    "You''re insane!" she said angrily.


    "Are you just now figuring that out? Tsk tsk you really should pay more attention." I teased and she just got angrier, it was a good time.

 Ballin

    Ballin


    We made it to the gate of the Apollo familia manor and the guards there merely red at us but let us in without a fuss. There were already dozens of gods and captains in the ballroom just chatting and socializing when we walked in. Hestia and I got strange looks from the others gods and captains since it was public knowledge at this point that we were in conflict with the Apollo familia. Anyone with half a brainstem could tell that this little get together was going to get entertaining at some point. We split up with Hestia heading to the food table and me just loitering out in the open.-


    "Bell seems to get you all in the most trouble, first was Soma and now Apollo? At this rate he''ll end up annoying the Freya or Loki familias." A male voice with an ent said and I looked over to see Miach and Naaza approaching in a suit and dress respectively.


    "You know she said something simr on the way here but I just don''t see what the issue is. So far we could handle everyone he''s picked a fight with and I can''t imagine he''ll change so why not enjoy the ride?" I said with a smile.


    "Still as mad as ever I see." a female voice spoke up and I saw Loki and Finn(her captain) walk up.


    "Sanities overrated but I suspect you know that already. Now where are my manners Alexander drake." I said with a grin.


    "Finn Deimne and of course my goddess Loki." the small blonde Pallum man said with a friendly smile.


    "Tiona''s been saying some rather interesting things about you, you don''t look like much though?" the red headed tomboy goddess said with a curious look while looking me over.


    "I might not be the most outstanding person but I promise my performance is anything but." I said with a grin and a wink.


    "HA! You and me''ll get along just fine boya, I prefer the fairer sex though." she said with a smile.


    I shrugged "A shame, you are just my type." I said unbothered by the rejection.


    "How''d someone like you end up with the loli cow anyways, you don''t seem the sort to get along?" Loki asked curiously.


    "Oh I''m not a scoundrel horndog or anything like that you just struck me as the sort of woman to enjoy a no strings attached turn in the sheets is all. Other than that I wanted freedom when I went looking for my familia and she offered it, the rest as they say is history." I said.


    "Why not apply to our familia then? We offer our members a lot of personal freedom." Finn asked clearly curious what I''d say.


    "I had thought of it but you guys are well known for your teams and I didn''t think I''d work all that well with others. I was right too as my magic is very friendly fire prone when fully unleashed." I said summoning a small ck me above my hand.


    "Some sort of intuition then? It''s rare but not unheard of for a nonadventurer to have a feeling about stuff like that. Would also exin what Tiona''s been saying about how you seem to predict her moves before she does them." He said with a thoughtful look.


    I didn''t feel like correcting him either as in this case the misunderstanding was in my favor. Loki wondered off at some point and he had to go after her since she apparently caused trouble otherwise. Miach and Naaza had also slipped away while I was talking with Loki and Finn so I was alone again though not for long.-


    A dark shadow fell over me and I turned to look behind me only to find Ottar staring down at me.


    "Damn son, you''s tall as hell. You got some sort of special diet or is this all natural?" I asked unbothered by him looming over me.


    "Natural, you are unusual." He said with a straight face.


    "Oh? How so?" I asked surprised by his answer.


    "Few level sixes are willing to meet my gaze and yet you appear unaffected, it is strange." he said bluntly.


    "You are certainly strong enough to respect but why would i bow or cower from you when I aim to surpass you, to surpass everyone who came before you?" I asked with a grin.


    That got a reaction as for the briefest moment his eyes lit up and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards before it was gone, under control.


    "I will wait for the day you can stand as my equal." he said before moving as Freya walked up.


    "Color me pleasantly surprised, I had Ottar introduce himself to you but I had never thought you''d get his approval so easily. Why I haven''t seen him this excited in a VERY long time, not since Zeus and Hera ruled this city in fact." she said with a smile.


    "I suppose that makes sense. He seems like the kind that enjoys having rivals and probably got thrilled at the idea of having one again." I said with a shrug.


    "Is that so?" she asked the giant man and he nodded with a slightly embarrassed look.


    "Ah but that reminds me I have a favor to ask of you." I said casually.


    She looked surprised "I never thought you of all people would ask for help, especially not for something so little as this." she said slightly disappointed.


    "Don''t go jumping to conclusions, I can handle Apollo easily but things could get messy if anyone tried to shove themselves into this matter for some reason. I would like you to keep that from happening that''s all." I said correcting her misunderstanding.


    "Oh that? You may as well have not asked since I would have done so regardless. Was that all you wanted , nothing else perhaps more personal?" she teased.


    "You know i''m not interested right?" I asked with a sigh and she giggled.


    "Oh I know but teasing you is just far too much fun. Plus I couldn''t help but notice you trying to make a move on Loki of all people, notorious womanizer that she is." Freya said with a smirk.


    "I can''t really understand you girly sorts but tomboys I can understand perfectly and as a result they appeal to me more. It helps when I know I can''t knock them up too." I said honestly while shrugging.


    "The amazons must be a dreame true for you then." she said teasingly and I shuddered.


    "Nah way too baby hungry for my taste. I like rolling in the sheets as much as the next guy but the idea of having children gives me chills and not the good kind." I said seriously and sheughed.

 Ballin(2)

    Ballin(2)


    We chatted for a bit after that casually while those paying attention to me looked like I had suddenly grown three more heads and wings. It wasn''t hard to figure out why either as I was talking to Freya like we were equals and Ottar hadn''t ripped my head off yet. His devotion to her was a well known thing so the fact he seemed totally chill with me casually talking andughing with Freya was making people question if I was real and if so how in the fuck I pulled it off.-


    My answer? Get good fuckers! Nah it was just because I was likely the only person who was aware that she daylighted as a waitress and didn''t give a shit. Everyone else who knew more likely than not treated her respectfully or kept their distance from her alter persona. Me though , I knew the chick as Syr first and Freya second and we were friends more or less. As for Ottar I was fairly certain he had been aware of this casual friendship for a while now and may even been told by Freya to pay it no mind which he did because he''s just that devoted.-


    The dudes the sort of guy that would see the world literally burning down and if Freya said to ignore it he would act like nothing was happening. He was the sort of pious that Christians had wet dreams about, absolute devotion to his goddess. Hype for Ottar aside I was at this point being listed as an anomaly by nearly everyone here and that A-Okay in my book. People tended to avoid stuff that they couldn''t understand. There were exceptions to this rule of course but majority wise this held firm, at least in my experience.-


    Soon enough it came time to dance and I decisively said absolutely not and moved away from the dancefloor. Freya also went to go socialize with the rest of the gods and their children while I found a nice wall and stayed there while keeping an eye on Hestia. After a few songs yed and some people got a few dances in the room dimmed and a spotlight, no idea how they pulled it off to be honest,nded on a curly haired god with a very punchable face and fine golden and orange silk clothes.-


    "Wee one and all to my regrly held Helios ball, tonight we have an especially exciting announcement. I, Apollo challenge Hestia to a war game on grounds of her captain attacking one of my children and cruelly crippling them!" he said while dramatically pointing at something that the spotlight swiveled to reveal.


    It was of course the dude a broke the arms and legs of wrapped in bandages while using crutches to walk with a single leg in a cast. The guy was loudly moaning about the pain and just all around ying the victim act.


    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I burst intoughter at the guys appearance which seemed to piss off Apollo who clearly didn''t enjoy his show being upstaged.


    "Who is that!? Who dares tough at the suffering of my child!?" the god roared.


    "Tap, Tap, Tap Tap." the sound of my feet across the floor echoed in the silence of the room as I walked out of the dim light and into the spot light with a wide grin.


    The guy acting injured paled at the sight of me as I approached.


    "My oh my, I recall breaking both of your arms and legs and yet you only need one cast? And you have your head and chest wrapped in bandages as well? I''ll give you a chance to walk away like you are obviously able to and end this farce on your own or I''ll turn it into a reality." I said with a predatory smile.


    "You would dare threaten my child in my presence!? In front of so many gods!?" Apollo scream in outrage but I ignored him to stare down the adventurer.


    "Fuck! You lunatic!" the guy yelled fearfully as he retreated in fear when it became clear that I was not bluffing.


    "See was that so hard? Now then I believe we shouldn''t y around with pointless falsities don''t you agree god Apollo?" I asked with a smile while the god in question had a hideous expression but held his tongue since even he seemed aware that if he said anything it would only y into my favor.


    "Not going to answer? No matter. If I heard you correct you challenged us to a war game, I can ept on behalf of my goddess however there is a condition attached to this eptance." I said casually as I walked over to a nearby snack table a plucked up a bit of skewered cheese.


    "Well what is it mortal?" Apollo asked still clearly angry but at least pleased to see me walking into his "trap".


    "Mm, that''s some good cheese. Why are you looking at me like that? Oh right the condition! Well we will only agree if the "game" is a siege set in a week from now, with you as the defender of course." I said savoring the cheese as it really was quite good, sharp with a slight peppery note.


    "Done! You won''t back out now will you dearest Hestia?" the sun god questioned as a spotlightnded on her.


    She shook her head and gave him a smug look "You''re going to lose Apollo just wait!" she said confidently.


    "Urg! How are we supposed to win against so many people!?"ter when we returned to the church she was not so confident.


    "Chill, you think I wanted a siege just because it will be a cool tale if we pull it off? I have a n." I said reassuringly.


    "Well what is it? Sabotage? Infiltration? Assassination?" she demanded while trying to guess.


    "All good guesses but wrong. I''m going to walk right up to the front door and march straight to their captain." I said with a nod at my own genius.


    "This is no time for jokes Alex!" Hestia screamed angrily.


    "First I''m not joking and second you can seriously rx we have this in the bag I promise. And I NEVER break a promise." I said seriously enough that she actually paused to stare at me.


    "That... wasn''t a lie? You never break a promise, really?" she asked as if that was such a shocking thing.


    I nodded "Nothing short of being physically unable toplete a promise has ever stopped me before, it''s never been that bad but you get the idea. This is one of the reasons I don''t make promises lightly." i said honestly.


    "Fine but if you break that promise I''m giving you to Hephaestus!" the small goddess threatened but let the matter rest.


    "All the more reason not to fail then, I rather value my freedom at the moment." i joked.

 Preparation

    Preparation


    (3rd person POV)


    There was a small mini-denatus meeting the next day to make things official and set the "prizes" for both sides if they won.


    "Upon my victory I shall take possession of Bell Cranel as well as a single night of intimacy with Hestia." Apollo said with a lustful look.


    Hestia scowled "If we win I want all of his familia''s assets, the disbandment of his familia permanently and the exile of Apollo from Orario." she said firmly and even Apollo who was confident in his victory flinched slightly at the conditions as they were very vicious.


    At first nce they seemed like a forced reset outside of Orario but the key here was that he won''t be allowed to recreate his familia if he lost as she added the word permanent to the disbandment. This meant he couldn''t rely on his familia to earn money and would have only his own work to rely on which was a horrible fate for a person such as himself. More likely than not he''d cave to the circumstances and depart back to heaven of which there was noing back from unlike if he was killed.-


    "The form of the game is a siege with the Apollo familia on defense and the Hestia family on offense. The time is in six days at noon and willst a total of a three day maximum that if the Hestia familia fails to capture the g within is grounds for automatic loss. Are there any rules to be implemented in addition?" Hermes who like always was the neutral party asked.


    "She''s not allowed to receive any outside help." Apollo said with a smug look like he had trapped Hestia.


    "That''s fine since I don''t need it. Apply the same rule to him as well." Hestia said calmly but Apollo scoffed.


    "My familia outnumbers yours a hundred to three and you don''t even have a single level three, just admit that you have no chance of winning already." he said mockingly.


    "Is that everything?" Hestia asked Hermes while ignoring Apollo.


    "All that is left is to gather in six days at noon to witness the war game begin." Hermes said with a nod and Hestia nodded before leaving confidently.


    (Normal POV)


    Once Hestia returned from the meeting it was time to prepare for the war game and I had some ideas in mind.


    The first of which involved me making a quick trip to the dungeon to collect some materials. Specifically I needed to collect Crystal mantis, War shadow and Wyvern parts. In addition to this I had to use my only level two cursed stone. The final product was bound to catch people off guard on the day of the war game. With that little surprise done with I moved on to my next bit of preparation. For this I used some of my Wyvern scales and leather to craft a pair of armored boots with little Wyvern wings on either side of the ankle and a cursed stone imbedded in the heels.-


    Once that was done I imbued the boots with a single technique and a bunch of restrictions to increase the final results power. The technique I chose was [Air step] or the ability to pay a small amount of energy to create a temporary tform of solid air under your feet that you could kick off of. I wasn''t capable of making a tool that allowed for flight yet but this was the next best thing if used correctly.-


    This pair of boots wasn''t for me though but rather Bell who''s style ofbat was well suited to it. They would also dramatically increase his threat level as unlike most people who are effectively unable to change trajectory mid air Bell won''t have any such issue. I did of course test the boots before I gave them to Bell and I was pleased with their performance. Each boot had exactly three uses before needing a cooldown of a minute to reset. This meant in total Bell could make six mid air redirections before getting grounded for the next minute.-


    If he timed it right he could make this more usable by only using three charges on one boot before using the other boots charges during the minute the other boot was resetting, effectively giving him near infinite redirections. Bell looked at the boots with stars in his eyes when I gave them to him and told him what they did and how to use them. Lili looked jealous but I assured her that I had something special nned for her as well. I did too as her magic [Cinder E] that let her transform into anything about the same size as her had uses that only someone as unhinged as me could possibly think of.-


    For example what if she turned her skin into Orichalcum? Her magic was transfiguration based so why couldn''t she transform her body into a different material temporarily? The answer I found from asking was that her magic could do it but it was wed and broke if she was hit. So naturally I wanted to "fix" her magic and make it so she could actually turn into a different material. To achieve this I needed her help so I could sync up the item I made to her magic so she didn''t kill herself by ACTUALLY turning into a her-shaped statue of Orichalcum.-


    The goal was to give her all the benefits of being made of the material without any of the downsides like immovability. The final product used her magic as a base and allowed her to very temporarily transform her entire body into another material without negatively effecting her at all. It was a simple band ring that I named[Midnightsment]. As we discovered she got a massive buff when she transformed into Orichalcum or any material really just that that one had the biggest impact.-


    Apparently by transforming like this her body began many times heavier and denser which meant if she could muster the strength to throw a punch she hit WAY harder than normally. She was also very difficult to injure as her durability became like that of whatever she turned into. The biggest downside was that she simply didn''t have the stats to support this transformation for long. She was level two sure but she had leveled up as soon as she could and was still at I rank in her stats so naturally her mana and physical strength were terrible.-


    She had a limit of about two minutes transformed before the cost was too high and she changed back to normal drained and exhausted. Despite this she thanked me profusely for the ring that meant she was no longer powerless to fight back or to drag Bell and Welf down inbat. Quite the opposite in fact as if she used it right she could act the role of tank for them and if she raised her stats high enough from now on maybe even as a frontline fighter.

 Surprise

    Surprise


    All that was left at this point was to get somest minute updates on their falnas and for Bell and Lili to practice for the next few days to get a handle on their new items. If you were wondering why I left out Welf despite him being on Bells delving team it was because he wasn''t a part of the familia and thus couldn''t help us to begin with. He was still a part of the Hephaestus familia and thus unable to do anything beyond watch from the sidelines, you could tell it was eating him up inside too but it is what it is.-


    As much as I would have liked to get my falna updated like Bell and Lili did the afternoon before the day of the war game I was simply too close to the first "limit" of the magic stat and I was likely to get limit sickness when i shot past it and we couldn''t afford it at this time. Still Bell showed great growth since his level up and Lili had a pretty normal falna to be honest.


    Name: Bell Cranel


    Race: Human


    Level:2


    Strength:0(I)->357(F)


    Endurance:0(I)->268(G)


    Agility:0(I)->473(E)


    Dexterity:0(I)->426(E)


    Magic:0(I)->579(D)


    Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.


    Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.


    Argonaut: Enduring all hardship in the name of sess.


    Developmental skills: Luck(I)


    _________________________________


    Name: Liliruca Arde


    Race: Pallum


    Level:2


    Strength:129(H)


    Endurance:245(G)


    Agility:70(I)


    Dexterity:60(I)


    Magic:54(I)


    Spells: Cinder E(incantation: Your wound is mine. My wound is mine. Echoing message of midnight.) Transforms the user into anything around their size


    Skills: Artel assist: When the user is carrying a certain amount of weight this skill will helppensate with abilities. The amount ofpensation depends on the weight.


    Developmental skills: Abnormal resistance(I)


    It was rather funny really that Lili''s skill that she''s had since she was in the Soma familia worked amazingly with her new ability to transform into another material as her density and thus weight increased dramatically. It was obviously a skill designed to help a supporter handle the load of the stuff they were carrying but when paired with this new trick it made her a threat despite her low stats.-


    "Alex-san you are about as strong as a level three right?" Bell asked me seriously and I nodded.


    "One at the bottom to low middle of the level yeah, why?" I asked curiously.


    "Can we spar? I want to see if I can face Hyakinthos as I am." He said determined and I agreed.


    Shortly afterwards he got his answer and I adjusted the n slightly at his request.


    The next morning Hestia wished us luck as we set out for the fort in the ins outside Orario that had been repurposed for the war game. Originally it was built by Rakia during one of their many campaigns to invade Orario under Are''s leadership but had been abandoned after they got chased off. It was a simple single gate stone structure with four high towers and many archer holes in the top of the walls and arge courtyard. It was a good forty or fifty feet tall on each wall and a good seventy yards long for each wall as well.-


    It was just big enough for the Apollo familia to man properly but not so big that they left gaps in the defenses. There was a horse drawn cart ready to take us to the fort when we arrived at the city gate. On the ride to the fort I took out my helm/mask and put it on since I was going into battle. In myp rested my special surprise wrapped in cloth to keep it hidden while my weapon sat in my belt loop holster.-


    After a two hour ride we got off the cart and started walking towards the fort ready to tackle the Apollo familia that waited within. We still hadn''t arrived when noon approached but the fort was in sight not more than fifteen miles ahead of us. The glint from the top of the walls told me that the Apollo familia spotted us with a spyss and readied themselves for the conflict.


    "They''ll try to stop me after I start but buy me a minute to finish." I said to Bell and Lili as we got within two miles of the fort.


    They looked at me confused but agreed though I am pretty sure they wouldn''t have if they knew what I had nned.-


    It was going to be absolutely overkill and unnecessary but I had prepared this surprise for that exact purpose. It would make a hell of a deterrent as well for any other enemies we might maketer. Anyhow once we got just outside the standard range of an archer or mage I stopped and slid the surprise off my shoulder and firmly into my hand. The people we could see on top of the wall tensed as I began to unwrap my surprise revealing it to the entire city of Orario and the gods watching from the divine mirrors.-


    As the cloth fell away a long thick staff with a body of the ckest crystal and a head of ws held around the cursed stone was revealed. I casually found the center of the staff and pointed it''s head towards the sky.


    "<strong><em>Before creationes destruction!"</em></strong> My voice echoed around loud and clear.


    The moment thest syble left my lips ck mes erupted from the staffs tip like a mighty river of deathe to corrupt the world. Bell and Lili leaped away from me in fear but the mes did not touch them, in fact the mes did not fall from the sky either but gathered. No one moved, they couldn''t as a massive sphere of ck me floated in the sky like a second evil sun. The mes stopped spewing from the staff and the dark sun above began to fall slowly at first but picking up speed as if to crash cmitously into my still raised arm.-


    If anyone wasn''t mesmerized by the disy they might notice that the mes had no heat to them or rather that it was seemingly absent as though this was an illusion. The moment the dark sun touched the tip of the staff on it''s descent however that changed abruptly. The air rippled at the point of contact and all the grass within half a mile dried up and shriveled as an infernal heat rolled over it. The dark sun stopped however and though you couldn''t see it sweat appeared all over me from the strain as I began to condense the dark sun smaller and smaller. This was when the Apollo familia snapped out of it and realized that whatever I was doing was NOT something they wanted to finish.

 One sided beatdown

    One sided beatdown


    Arrows, spells, stones and even people all rushed from the fort in a mad attempt to stop me but Bell and Lili quickly moved to intercept these things as the dark sun got smaller and smaller. Bell had managed to somehow time the creation of the air tforms under his boots with the flying attacks to cause them to stop prematurely while Lili turned into a dark metal and simply tanked whatever he missed. By the time the first adventurers from the Apollo familia got close it was toote as I had finished my preparations.-


    The dark sun was now no more than an abyssal dark orb the size of an orange at the front of the staff. I pointed it at the gate of the fort.


    <strong><em>"Eclipse!"</em></strong> I spoke and unleashed my attack.


    The world vanished. I couldn''t see, smell or hear anything once the attack was released or to be more specific I was being overwhelmed with sensory information. Just as fast as it came however it ended and I could witness the aftermath. A molten trench nearly thirty yards across and over a mile long extended from in front of the staff I was holding out. The middle of the fort was entirely gone alongside everyone and everything that had been there.-


    "CRACK!"


    In the silence after the attack the first sound to appear was the sound of the staff spiderwebbing along its entire length before the wind blew and it turned to dust that went with the breeze. I had expected this however as I knew that I was not at the point in my crafting were I could create something like this and expect it tost beyond a single use. That staff was created with one ability and ONLY one, the ability to enhance and contain my hell fire.-


    This level of power was far beyond me by myself so I created an amplifier for my mes with a massive amount of restrictions and one single use, just for this moment. I staggered on my feet however as the bacsh from killing so many "innocent" souls hit me. My eyes watered and my hands shook as I was assailed with a massive amount of guilt and weakness as I FELT my strength, my stats, leave me. Despite this show of weakness no one dared to try and capitalize on it , fear prevented it.-


    That fear was a very logical thing as this sort of destruction was the sort of thing you''d expect from a level four or five mage , not a level two who was not a mage. None of them came to this ce expecting to deal with that sort of thing. In fact most of these adventurers probably thought that this was going to be an easy win for them. I stabilized from my penalty after about a minute and squeezing my fist I estimated that I might have dropped an entire rank in each of my stats for that good thirty to forty souls i had killed.-


    While Apollo was a pretty shitty god his familia members still had mostly innocent souls so the penalty I paid to kill so many of them was very steep. While my body had stabilized however my cursed energy had definitely not. In fact it was practically rioting at the moment and the only reason I wasn''t suffering from that was that my energy reserve was a smidge off from me hitting mind zero. As a lovely little side effect my head was pounding like someone had decided to use my brain as a tennis ball.-


    I wasn''t going to chug a mana potion though as I wanted my cursed energy to chill the fuck out first. I took a step towards the forts now wide open front and none of the Apollo familia were brave enough to get in my way, at least not at first. It was only after their brains rebooted and they remembered that if they didn''t stop me they''d need to find a new familia. It wasn''t loyalty exactly that got them to try and stop me so much as personal benefit.-


    I was sluggish and a smidge slow to act as I got swarmed with all sorts of weapons from all directions as I set foot in the fort. Bell and Lili had me covered though as they followed close by my side as we fended off the assault. It was rough at first but as time progressed my mind and body sharpened up and adapted to my new state and that was pretty much all it took to seal the fate of the Apollo familia. Even after the stat drop I was still in the power range of a level three and besides the captain of their familia they only had level twos and ones.-


    Dodge, block, swing, grab, dodge, this was the set of actions that I went through over and over again in a different order to dispatch more and more of the familia, knock out not kill mind you. Once about twenty were left the captain of the familia decided that he needed to step in as it was clear that if he didn''t it would be him versus both Bell and I as Lili had gotten taken down after her transformation ended.-


    It was a discus of meunched at myself when I wasn''t paying attention.


    "FWOOSH!"


    It exploded on contact with my back and I staggered from the impact with a hiss of pain. My shirt and back had been burnt up and my skin bubbled and cked from the heat. That was all though as thanks to my cursed techniques influence on my body I was quite me resistant. Under the shocked gaze of mortals and gods I flexed my back and activated my cursed technique wordlessly to fix the damage the magic had done. This put my reserves back to almost empty but my back was now unblemished as I turned to stare down the caster.


    "Wait your fucking turn, I''ll deal with you in a minute." I said firmly and the dude legitimately backed away with a horrified look on his face.


    "Monster!" he shouted at me but I merelyughed before turning my attention back to the stragglers.


    Soon enough all that was left was a ck haired girl with a traumatized look on her face protecting the unconscious form of a red haired girl in a corner. The awake girl was holding a staff but was clearly too terrified to use it as I approached.-


    "You should join our familia after this is over, you seem like a good fit protecting your friend like this." I said with a smile not that she could see it.


    Both of their souls were clean and clear of sin and I was especially interested in the strange features of this girls soul that I had not ever seen before in another soul. It was as though she had a sort of fog covering a part of it that seemed to try and incite disbelief about something but I had no idea what exactly.

 The end and the other perspective

    The end and the other perspective


    "Y-you aren''t going to kill us?" the girl stuttered out clearly surprised.


    "Nope, Still got to knock you out though rules and all that, no hard feelings yeah?" i said with a smile before sucker punching her just hard enough to put her out but not enough to serious hurt her.


    I holstered my weapon under the confused gaze of gods and mortals alike before walking over to the nearby stairs and taking a seat.


    "What are you nning monster!?" the captain dude demanded.


    "Not a thing but unless he fucks up this next part, but otherwise its got nothing to do with me." I said casually while pointing at Bell.


    "You think HE can defeat me, What a joke! Thest time I fought him he couldn''t even keep up with me!" the man said clearly insulted at the implication.


    "He''s not the same as when you fought him previously. Besides if I have to fight you I''ll be a lot less nice about it than he will. Might disfigure you out of irritation and we certainly wouldn''t want that now would we?" I asked casually but meant every word.


    He clearly picked this up as he shuddered and decided to deal with Bell first after all. I meanwhile turned my attention to quelling the chaotic cursed energy in my reserve. It did NOT like that penalty I took so now I had to calm it back to rtively normal as otherwise I''d need to vent it near constantly rather than allow it to regenerate and cause me problems. Now that I had a moment to focus on this task it wasn''t particrly difficult as I just had to force it to sit still for a few moments which chilled it out.-


    Once that was done I started to pay attention to the fight between Bell and the captain dude. It was fairly even as the guy was only just a bit faster than Bell but more limited since unlike Bell who had magic AND aerial movement ability the guy just had magic. His magic also took longer to prepare than Bells and was less useful as well.


    "<em>My name is love, precious child of light. I offer my body to my sun. My name is sin, jealousy of wind. I call a gust of wind to my body. Released ring of fire - Come, wind of the west!"</em> he chanted while fending Bells attacks off.


    When he was done a discus of fire formed and shot after Bell but unexpectedly homed in on him so he couldn''t just dodge it. When It got close enough the captain dude spoke again.


    "<em>Rupele!"</em> he called and the discus exploded throwing Bell sideways with a few burns.


    Bell wasn''t just going to take that though and held up a hand.


    <em>"Light-bolt!"</em> he called and white energy rapidly gathered in front of his palm before exploding in a blinding sh.


    "ARG! My eyes!" the captain dude screams while covering his eyes.


    I couldn''t exactly me him either as Bells magic was as vicious as it was versatile if used right. See the way it worked was that he had a total of six elements he could add in front of the word "bolt" to create different effects. Wind, fire, water, earth, light and dark. Wind created a st of high pressure wind that was good for knocking things away. Fire created a straight up explosion of the stuff directed where you point. Water released a thin beam of fast pressurized water that cut anything it hit. Earth spawned a literal stone that gotunched at the spot pointed.-


    Light was effectively a shbang without the bang and dark was basically a curse of slowness if you got hit with it as it suddenly felt like you were moving underwater. Yeah Bell''s magic was broken as hell when he actually used it right. That short chant time also meant that he was able to spam that shit if he wanted to though it was a bad idea due to the cost involved. Anyways with the dude blind Bell rushed in and started slicing him up like a christmas ham.-


    The guys armor was some decent stuff and so held up against the rush pretty good so that by the time the guy could effectively defend himself again rather than il his sword around in a panic he had only taken surface level cuts. He yed off being blind longer than was actually true to try and hit Bell while he was in midair only for Bell to create an air tform to move away without a scratch.


    <em>"Wind-bolt! Dark-bolt!"</em> Bell chained two spells back to back that knocked the captain off bnce and then weakened him.


    Bell didn''t use any more magic for the rest of the fire after that but he also didn''t need to as the captain dude was now the one getting overwhelmed and soon enough dropped from blood loss at which point Bell knocked him out.


    "Tap Tap Tap Tap!"


    I pped slowly while Bell panted tiredly but had a satisfied smile on his face.


    "Very good job, you probably could have finished it faster if you hadn''t toyed with him a little but I think I''ll let it slide this time." I said teasingly congratting him.


    The boy just smiled and scratched his head in embarrassment at being called out.Still like this the war game was over and it was time to collect the spoils of our victory.


    ____________________________________


    (3rd person POV denatus hall, hours ago)


    The gods had gathered in the denatus hall at the upper floors of Babel to witness a war game between the Apollo familia and the Hestia familia.


    "I hope you are prepared to pay when you lose Hestia." Apollo said with a lustful smile.


    "Enjoy thest moments in Orario you pervert!" Hestia shot back before choosing to ignore him.


    "The appointed time is upon us mypatriots. Ouranos I request permission to use the divine mirrors!" Hermes called and an older heavy voice spoke up from nowhere and seemingly everywhere.


    "Granted!" It spoke.


    Hermes glowed golden for a moment as he released his divine power and snapped his fingers. Immediately several "screens" disying both the fort from different angles and the trio from the Hestia familia appeared in midair both in this chamber as well as all over Orario for those watch from elsewhere.


    "What is that!?"


    "A monster!?"


    "Some sort of helm?"


    "How fitting.~"


    Gods in the chamber immediately were immediately drawn to Alex''s current appearance as he walked with Bell and Lili towards the fort.


    "My goodness what a frightening visage the captain of the Hestia familia has chosen to wear! How does he see out of it without any eye holes?" Hermesmentated through the "mirrors".


    "The inside is transparent I''d wager, his workshop is very simr. Such a wicked appearance he chose though, I love it!" Ptah said with an excited smile.


    "Forget that I want to know what he has wrapped up?" Loki said and they all finally noticed the thing resting on his shoulder wrapped up to conceal it.

 Shock and awe

    Shock and awe


    (3rd person POV Denatus chamber)


    Many gods look at Hestia hoping that she could spare some insight on the mysterious item.


    The small goddess shakes her head "All he told me was that it was a surprise that he whipped up for this." she said honestly and helplessly.


    "Oh and the Apollo familia has spotted the approaching Hestia familia and began setting up defensive and offensive lines to defend the fort!" Hermesmentated excitedly.


    The gods watched with bated breath to see how the Hestia familia would deal with this situation. The were surprised when they stopped so far from the fort and even more so when Alex started unwrapping the thing he was holding.


    "A staff?"


    "What material is that?"


    "So pretty!"


    "I want one!"


    "Me too!"


    The gods chattered excitedly at the staff that gleamed under the sun within Alex''s hand. They watched him raise the staff curiously but that rapidly turned into shock and awe at what happened next.


    <strong><em>"</em><em>Before creationes destruction!"</em></strong> Alex''s voice rang out clear and firm from the mirrors.


    Then the ck fire erupted from the staff making the gods and mortals alike watching this y out gasp in shock, awe or in a few cases, horror.


    "Impossible! She''s cheated somehow, theres no way that a level two could have that much power!" Apollo screeched angrily and full of usation.


    "Are you implying that this mortal has somehow managed to fool the perception of all of us gods at the same time?" Nyx questioned Apollo with a very unfriendly look.


    "Well um no, but surely you can see that this is clearly impossible? He is a level two for goodness sake and not even a mage at that!" Apollo said defending himself fearfully.


    "Would it not be more likely that we simplyck the necessary information to determine whether or not it''s possible? For all we know that staff might demand a massive cost to achieve such results?" Hephaestus asked and many of the other gods nodded in agreement.


    Apollo went silent at that but still red hatefully at the mirror disying the events of the war game. He got even more upset when he noticed the clear resemnce between the massive ck me sphere and the sun in the sky. The gods watching in eager excitement as the dark sun fell and the signs of it''s heat appeared while it started condensing.-


    When Lili and Bell started defending Alex from the Apollo familias attacks the sun god erupted in anger again.


    "Hestia''s familia are obviously using outside magical items! Surely that is against the rules we specified right!?" he demanded and Hestia scoffed.


    "Alex made all of that himself, there is not a single thing that was gotten from outside." she said firmly.


    "Absurd! A mere level two couldn''t possibly create such things! Hephaestus your familia is the experts on such matters I''m right aren''t I?" the sun god said desperately looking for validation to his words.


    The forge goddess sighed "Normally you''d be right however that man is anything but normal. I can personally confirm that he certainly possesses the capabilities to craft such things. If I recall correctly Ogun here has even gotten a first rate weapon made by Alex." she said honestly.


    The dark skinned god chuckled at being called out "I had not expected it be exposed so soon but she speaks true. It was named [red current] and has since lived up to this name spilling much monster blood in the dungeon." he said calmly.


    <strong><em>"Eclipse!"</em></strong> Alex''s voice echoed out again and the attention went back to the mirror as he unleashed his attack.


    "AAAARG!" Apollo cried out in anguish as his connection to so many of his children was cut in an instant.


    "How ruthless!"


    "He looks so handsome!~"


    "Such power!"


    "A devastating blow to the Apollo familia by Alexander Drake!" Hermesmentated while the gods collective reacted.


    "Look! The staff is crumbling!" a god pointed out and indeed they all saw the staff crumble to dust and blow away in the wind.


    "So that''s how he did it, clever!" Hephaestus eximed in admiration.


    "He traded endurance for power, a risky strategy but one that has certainly worked in this case. That power was nothing to scoff at." Lokimented seriously.


    "The cost must be much higher than just that though look he seems to be on the verge of copse!" another god called attention to Alex''s wretched state.


    "Attack him! Kill him! Do something damnit!" Apollo raged at the mirror as he saw his familia frozen in fear and shock as alex rapidly started to recover.


    After that they watched excitedly as the Hestia familia fought their way through the remaining members of the Apollo familia. They watched as Lil was taken down and how Bell and alex were like unstoppable juggernauts. They watched Alex seemingly regenerate from the sneak attack the captain of the Apollo familia hit him with. They saw Alex extend an invitation to one of the Apollo familia members that was protecting their friend. And finally they watched Bell fight against that same captain while alex sat nearby and rxed.-


    "Ladies and gentlemen that''s it! In a shocking upset the Hestia familia is the winner of the war game!" Hermes called out from the mirrors and with a snap of his fingers ended the broadcast.


    "Hestia please be reasonable! I''m sure we cane to some sort of arrangement?" Apollo threw away all pride and begged Hestia for mercy but she scoffed.


    "You agreed to these terms so it is only natural you should be prepared to pay them. You brought this on yourself." she said firmly.


    It took two days for all of the Apollo familia''s members to be stripped of his falna and all of his familia''s assets to be legally passed over to Hestia. It was an event that stirred the whole of Orario as none had thought the Hestia familia capable of winning and in such a decisive manner no less!-


    The Apollo familia might not be a first rate familia but they were ranked way higher than the Hestia familia. This was something the guild changed after this victory as the Hestia family was now a third rate familia even while only having three members. It was a matter of quality over quantity for the guild and this meant that the familia was going to start performing quests for the guildfor the records. Stuff like full expeditions as far as possible, resource collection quests and stuff like that.

 Aftermath

    Aftermath


    (Normal pov)


    I won''t waste time with all the stuff you already know about on my status but here''s what happened to my stats after I had Hestia update me once the game was over.


    Strength:524(D)-> 463(E)


    Endurance:658(C)-> 582(D)


    Agility:515(D)-> 467(E)


    Dexterity:521(D)-> 451(E)


    Magic:957(S)-> 911(S)


    The only thing that hadn''t dropped a rank was my magic stat and I was fairly certain that took all of the smoke I had saved(not much) as well as whatever excelia I got for unleashing that one attack.-


    To put it bluntly I had paid a rather heavy price to warn anyone in the future against fucking with us. Add on the absolutely mind fogging guilt that I felt as my skill went the extra mile to make me feel really bad about killing so many innocent souls and you could say I was DEFINITELY not in the mood for any bullshit. However bullshit was in the mood for me and I had to personally deal with stuff as the captain of the familia. Paperwork, certifications, taxes, inventory and new members(just two thank Hestia).-


    Hestia wasn''t having it easy either as she also had just as much work if not more than I. The passing of stuff from Apollo to the guild and finally to her was entirely her responsibility. As was putting her falna on the two new members, Cassandra and Daphne. I''ll get to them in a minute but for now I should mention that we are rolling in money now. All the money the Apollo familia had, all the weapons, armor, buildings, art, everything they had was now ours. I had to inventory all of that and then decide with Hestia what we are selling and what we are keeping.-


    The equipment and possessions that was our new members we kept obviously but most of the rest we loaned to the now familialess adventurers of the Apollo familia in exchange for a lot of IOU''s. All the raw materials we kept but the art, properties and misceneous items like furniture and what not was sold off through the guild. The final total profit we made was a staggering two hundred seventy three million and change valis. We were t out told that if we had kept and renovated the mansion it would have sucked away the vast majority of our profits.-


    Material wise I was practically drooling at the list as there was some seriously rare and useful shit that Apollo had collected for mere aesthetic value. Unicorn horns, Vouivre''s tears, Mystic crystals, Jack bird eggs, a treasure tree, deep crystals and most valuable of all and my personal favorite, a draconite the size of a cherry. The rest of the materials were just the standard stuff they collected to turn into equipment for any new members they got. I''ll go over the juicy stuff in detailter but for now I suppose I should talk about our familia''s two newest members.


    Name: Daphneuros


    Race: Human


    Level:2


    Strength:751(B)


    Endurance:559(D)


    Agility:934(S)


    Dexterity:870(A)


    Magic:347(F)


    Spells: Raumure:(Incantation: Follow blindly the sun in the sky. Blossom armor ofurel, so that all will flee from thee) Protection magic that raises the users endurance andrgely raises their agility. It''s effectiveness is based on it''s users magic stat.


    Skills: Elios passion: slightly raises agility and grants the developmental ability [escape] temporarily if being chased.


    Developmental skills: Abnormal resistance(I)


    __________________________


    Name: Cassandra Ilion


    Race: Human


    Level:2


    Strength:129(H)


    Endurance:245(G)


    Agility:70(I)


    Dexterity:60(I)


    Magic:54(I)


    Spells: Soul light:(incantation: Heavenly light, once rejected. Merciful arms that save my shallow self. Rescue my miserablepanions in ce of my words that can not reach them. Oh sunlight,may you beat back ruin.) An area healing spell that is able to increase it''s effect based on the amount of mana the user uses.


    Cure Ephialtes:(incantation: Cure Ephialtes) Cures status ailments and can also remove curses.


    Skills: (looks nk, not actually nk, will exin soon)


    Developmental skills: Treatment(I)


    First up we have Daphne a neatly managed red haired girl who made it abundantly clear that she only agreed because Cassandra begged her to and because she didn''t trust us not to bully Cassandra. Yeah she was blunt as hell about her opinions and thoughts but we were fine with that. Her status was nothing particrly special but it was still counted as good for a level two. She used a rapier style sword for her weapon and fought with a high emphasis on piercing stabs without getting hit. All in all a good addition to the familia.-


    Next up we had the ck haired girl Cassandra who looked unusually happy to join our familia and had even dragged her friend along. She was quiet spoken and sort of shy but had apparently seen it in a dream that she should join the familia which meant she was either crazy or there was something else at y here. Her stats made me excited though as she was a healing and you know what that means, Healing items! If I could stuff her healing abilities into an reusable item I could sell that shit for a fuck ton of money.-


    Her stats were a bit low but considering she was a back line healer style mage who had just reached level two recently that was to be expected. Her equipment consisted of a charm and a staff for channeling her mana into her spells. She was very happy to see that no one in the familia seemed to care about her previously being part of the Apollo familia though Daphne treated us with skepticism. Made no difference to me either way as I weed them both with a wide smile.-


    Thanks to a small argument between Daphne and Cassandra about her "prophetic dream" leading her to the choice of joining the familia I figured out why Cassandra didn''t have a skill or rather did but it didn''t show up on her falna. No clue what it was called but the skill concealed itself even from the falna via her soul and every now and then gave her prophetic visions that always came true yet no one believed her about. It was like a curse built into the skill itself to stop people from noticing it and capitalizing on it''s effects.

 A big cynic

    A big cynic


    It was fascinating to me and shocking to everyone else in the familia when I exined it to them.


    "Why doesn''t it work on you then if what you say is true?" Daphne demanded disbelieving me.


    "Probably because unlike everyone else I can actually see the thing thanks to my skill [Soul gaze]. It''s very hard to convince someone they hadn''t seen something when they are staring right at it. My guess is that whatever part of it it is that makes others disbelieve her about it uses the fact it has no tangible proof beyond her never being wrong. It''s a rather cruel gift if I''m being honest as you can save so many lives, change destiny itself but only by your own actions as no one else will believe you." I said with a shrug.


    "Sounds like a curse more than a gift." Hestia said with a pitying look at Cassandra.


    "That sounds all well and good but I still don''t believe that she can see the future or you for that matter." Daphne said bluntly while Cassandra looked sad.


    "What exactly is so hard to believe? I have the power to y with flesh, bone or anything else from a living source like it was y. Bell literally warps reality to elerate his growth simply because his feelings are strong and Hestia is a literal goddess. How is my ability to see souls or her ability to see the future in a cryptic way but still the future any harder to ept?" I asked seriously.


    "Yes but what proof do you have about any of that? Gods are there, you can see them and talk to them and touch them but you can''t do any of that with everything else you have said." the red head said stubbornly.


    "Are you stupid? That stuff minus her ability is written on our backs for anyone who can read it to see. It''s there in undeniable fashion or is the falna not enough for you?" I asked getting a little irritated at her ridiculous argument.


    "I won''t believe it until I see it for myself." she insisted.


    "Fine then look for yourself then." I said while removing my shirt to show off my falna.


    "I don''t know how to read hieroglyphs, that could say anything." she said with a scoff.


    I rolled my eyes but had Hestia copy my status onto a piece of paper in front of her.


    "There satisfied and if you say that Hestia messed with it I give up since you clearly won''t listen to logic and reason." i said tly.


    She looked over the paper with a frown and clear shock but at least finally seemed to ept that I did in fucking fact know what I was talking about.


    "Lets say I believe you, what changes?" she asked clearly worried about my intentions.


    "Not a damn thing." I said with a grin.


    "What!?" she eximed dumfounded.


    "Yeah not a thing changes because of her ability. I didn''t invite you two because of that I did it because both of you are sinless, not a trace of sin on either of your souls. You wouldn''t know it cuz you can''t see the things like me but that is incredibly rare in this city. Keep in mind that having sin on ones soul doesn''t necessarily mean one is evil just that they have done things they shouldn''t have at some point. Amon one for example is a lot of men have the sin of lust on their souls because they went to the pleasure district for an obvious reason. Are they evil? Not really but what they did was sinful." I exined honestly.


    "You mean to tell me that you stopped in the middle of a war game to give your enemy at the time an invitation to join your familia, because we had sinless souls?" Daphne asked dumbfounded.


    "Yep that sounds about right." I said with a grin.


    "Are you insane?" she asked genuinely concerned.


    "Just a little more than usual. Oh right probably a good time to mention it but don''t try to break into my workshop, the door literally eats fingers." I said with augh at her expression.


    With that conversation out of the way I can finally exin all those materials I said I would before. Unicorn horns, Vouivre''s tears, Mystic crystals, Jack bird eggs, a treasure tree, deep crystals and a draconite. The first four were guaranteed drops from four rare monsters that are as I just said RARE. Treasure trees were a sort of special dungeon specific trees that for some reason or another grows precious gems on it''s bark that have a plethora of uses, It is a literal tree full of treasure.-


    Unicorn horns had a few uses with the mostmon being ground up and turned into high level healing potions. By themselves Unicorn horns have poison purification properties and are highly prized healer catalysts. Vouivre''s tears are the red gems that adorn the foreheads of the dragon women monsters and are once again highly prized catalysts for mages. Mystic crystalse from the cat like Carbuncle monster and follow the same uses as Vouivre''s tears though much more potent. Jack bird eggs are just solid golden eggs dropped from killing a Jack bird. They have uses in alchemy and enchanted jewelry but that was about it.-


    Deep crystals were a sort of crystal that were considered amongst the pinnacle in terms of catalysts for mages. Finallyst but certainly not the least was the single draconite. These hard metal ores were born within a dragons body and only when it has lived a certain amount of time or reached a certain level of strength. Naturally this meant they were stupid rare to drop and even when they did they were considered almost useless for a single reason, they were impossible to forge.-


    The things were extremely potent magical conduits and held enchantments of vast power while being durable as hell but therein lied the issue, they were TOO durable. No amount of me could so much as soften them and no other methods seemed to work either whether it be alchemical or magical. As a result the things while naturally valuable were little more than curiosities for most people unless some idiot chose to stick one on the end of a staff as a conduit. I say that but the things do work well enough for that role I suppose.-


    It just seemed like such a waste to treat the stuff like a mundane conduit when it held such potential. Potential that I rudely discovered was beyond my ability to tease out of the fucking thing. It was simply TOO high level for my cursed technique to aplish anything on at my current level. As I had stated before level four dead materials was my limit at the moment and this thing was more likely than not WAY higher.

 Testing

    Testing


    I could only sigh and vault the stuff for now and turn my attention to my other goodies.


    ''Oh the things I could do, the things I shouldn''t do~'' I thought with a wide grin as I looked at my precious materials.


    Before all else though I snatched up a Unicorn horn that was a spiral sharp pearlescent thing and activated my cursed technique. The shiny horn immediately flowed like liquid as ck and blue cursed energy flickered over it''s surface, refining it. My energy expenditure was sky high because the horn was borderline level five and at the absolute limit I could work with.-


    It was slow going refining the horn but after three potions and my original amount of energy I managed to pull it off. The final result was a small block of white material that literally glowed with innate power because of it''s sheer purity and quality. Unfortunately once I stopped the material settled into it''s new state and exceeded what I could work with as it was now either level five or perhaps even six. That was fine though because it just meant that I had a higher level material to work with after I grew strong enough.-


    The mystic jewels and Vouivre''s tears were t out beyond my ability at the moment and only the deep crystals and Jack birds golden egg were things I could use both before and after refining them. The deep crystals bordered level five after being refined but didn''t cross that line thankfully and the Jack bird egg was level one originally but hit three after being refined. Interestingly the egg gained additional until now unknown properties after being refined of all it''s impurities and improved as much as possible.-


    For starters the golden material was now an absolutely phenomenal energy conduit now. To the point in fact that I could safely state it matched even the likes of a level five conduit material like the Vouivre tear. There was a downside however in the form of it''s durability and thus longevity being absolute shitpared to a Vouivre tear. An additional property the golden material had other than that was an affinity for the wind element. I discovered that nifty thing because the golden egg now had a weak but ever present breeze around it, almost unnoticeable but there none the less.-


    Unfortunately none of the magics used by the members of the familia were wind element except Bells one of six vors of [Bolt].


    ''Perhaps it''ll prove useful for some sort of cursed toolter.'' I thought setting the things aside.


    The deep crystals on the other hand irritated me to no end for a simple fact, they were brittle after refinement. I''m talking flick it too hard and it would shatter type brittle. The tradeoff however was that it could take a titanic amount of energy now. I tested it and Bell could stuff nearly ten full reserves of mana into the thing before it started to crack from energy strain.-


    In hindsight I probably should have expected so much energy used for a spell to cause amotion but I had hopped that aiming at the sky with Bells [wind bolt] would go unnoticed since it was basically just an upward st of air, I was so wrong. The sheer amount of mana in the crystal overcharged the spell by so much that the resulting st literally sted apart a cloud just minding its business thousands of feet overhead. It would have been easier to find someone with three eyes than someone who hadn''t noticed.-


    Thankfully the source of that st was not discovered so all anyone outside the familia knew was that someone had sted apart a cloud from somewhere in the city. Funnily enough no one really care about it either as once you hit level five or higher feats like that became ufortablymon. For example a level six who had specialized in the strength stat could throw a house from the middle of the city to the wall without it ever touching the ground once. That sounds impressive but it was increasingly important to have such power the further you delved into the dungeon.-


    The reason for this was because not only did the monster grow in power but the actual size of the floors increased exponentially. The dungeon was a bit like an underground pyramid in how it''s size increased the further down you went. The twenty fourth floor is half the size of Orario while once you get to the thirtieth floor the dungeon exceeds Orario in size by more and more. I''m not talking just width either but height as well with the thirty ninth floor being said to be as wide as half the great ins surrounding Orario and so tall that it has it''s own rain cycle.-


    Anyways I suppose I should mention that we once again had a bunch of people try and join the familia after the war game and quite a lot of people wanting tomission items from me as well. I had to interview the people with Hestia but none passed as they were either too sinful, wanted to join for the wrong reasons or had the audacity to make demands of us in exchange for them joining.-


    We needed people sure but we had high standards for those we would ept. Themissions were far more interesting inparison though some we rejected immediately for different reasons. I had no less than fifty people try andmission a staff like the one I used in the war game and I had to exin every damn time that it was useless for literally anyone who wasn''t me. The thing was meant to enhance and contain my mes and ONLY my mes. It might as well not even be considered a staff for anyone else but rather a pretty stick you can bonk people with.-


    Learning that got all but two people to withdraw their request for such a staff. The first who still wanted one was ufortably enough Nyx and the other was Ptah who loved the aesthetic of the thing. Ptah also wanted a version of my mask/helm which was much more reasonable since he didn''t want the technique on it but rather merely to disy it so all form but no function. Then again other than myself no one even knew that my head piece was actually a cursed tool so he might not have known that it was an option.-


    The rest of themissions though were either things I didn''t want to make like erotic sculptures or weapons for people with sinful souls that I was almost certain were either Evilus or just normal scumbags. I didn''t let it slip what I thought of these people but denied their requests either way. You may be wondering why I thought they were Evilus when everyone knew that that group of people were destroyed years back? The answer was simply that I knew from Earth that people like that NEVER truly disappear but merely wait in the shadows where you can''t see them until an oppurtunity to reemerge shows up.

 Guild visit

    Guild visit


    It was a bit like with american politicians on Earth in fact where they could get caught in some sort of scandal but simply fade into the background rather than truly get any meaningful punishment. Evilus obviously got more than a simple p on the wrist but the idea was the same, the problem still existed just in the background out of sight. I wasn''t going to draw the attention that calling them out would though as to be honest it wasn''t worth the effort when they weren''t my problem as a mere level two to deal with.-


    Perhaps a bit callus of me but it was simply not my problem at the moment so I wasn''t going to make it my problem if I could help it. Anyways I ended up taking a total of twelvemissions including the ones for Nyx and Ptah. The rest were weapons of various sorts since apparently Ogun had spilled the beans on that weapon I made for him and Hephaestus had backed him on the quality of my stuff. Ironically the Guild actually ended up summoning me and Hestia to discus our familia''s ssification.-


    "Mr. Drake , Goddess Hestia I thank you foring on such short notice but there is a small matter that demands urgent correction due to your familia''s increase in rank. As you both know when a familia ranks up the first time they are required to undergo quests but the nature of those quests change based on the orientation of the familia in question with explorer type familia getting gathering or mapping quests in the dungeon and crafting type familia crafting rted quests. Your familia is in a rather... Unique situation at the moment. You are listed as an exploration type familia but the recent information on Mr. Drakes ability in the crafting department has us concerned you are ill suited to the exploration ssification." Mardeel Royman said seriously.-


    Mardeel Royman was to put it bluntly the fattest fucking elf I have ever seen. So a bit of context here is that most elves are lithe narrow bodied people regardless of diet or exercise habits, it was gic that they were all skinny. You can imagine my shock to discover the head of the guild who was an elf looked like a fucking pear with thick short arms and legs.-


    If I didn''t specifically know for a fact that he was an elf and could see his ears being pointed I would have though the guy to be a fat human with his looks. He was also arrogant as all shit as he had a look of disdain when speaking to me. I had this overwhelming urge to pluck out his eyes when he spoke to me that I had to constantly wrestle with mentally, I wasn''t a fan of the man.


    "The exploration status is still urate as a whole for the familia as I and the rest of our members regrly dive the dungeon. My own crafting abilities are just that, only my own and have no bearing in this regard." I said firmly.


    "So you say but the guild believes that switching to a crafting ssification would be more lucrative for all parties involved." the elf said with a nd expression.


    "Sucks to be you then, exploration it stays." I said not willing to budge an inch.


    "Hmph! It is not up to you but rather the true leader of the familia, Goddess Hestia will no doubt be of a different opinion." the elf said blowing me off and I may have let just a little of my murderous intent loose, just a pinch I swear.


    I like to think that I''m a reasonable person to deal with most of the time but when you treat me with disregard and disdain from the moment I meet you my good nature finds it''s limits. Apparently it was only once he felt my not so friendly intentions that this fat fuck seemed to remember that I was a level two about as strong as a level three and he didn''t even have a falna. We were also alone in his small office so even if he shouted no one would be able to save him before I finished him off.-


    I didn''t act on my violent impulses but both of us knew I was sorely tempted.


    "As Alex said our familia is better suited to the exploration ssification. If that''s all we''ll be going now." Hestia said firmly before standing up and turning to leave the office.


    I went to follow her but paused briefly to turn back to look at the pale elf. "A bit of friendly advice from me to you. Don''t get any funny ideas about our familia or you''ll find that I am not a person you want to have a grudge against you." I said with a sharp look.


    My warning must have worked because the ssification stayed the same as always and the first mandatory quest we got was a fairly standard one, reach floor seventeen. We didn''t have any members over level two so the floor of the first monster rex was the furthest the guild was allowed to ask us to try and reach. I easily solved that quest by dragging Rose down there and then bringing her back safe and sound.-


    She was unhappy to have to take the trip but at least afterwards she seemed to less angry about the fact I solo delved so I count that as a win. I worked on mymissions at the end of the days after returning from the dungeon but most of my day for the next month after the war game was spent with me ughtering anything that moved in my range of vision from floor one to sixteen. The drops were also nice from those delves but my main goal was to stock up an absolute fuckton of smoke.-


    If I was going to cross that first "limit" for level two in stats I was going to go all the fucking way to get the limit sickness out of the way all at once. I finished mymissions right before the end of this month and was now ready to get my update.


    "It should be fairly standard issue this time with a t stat increase." I said reassuringly since Hestia looked reluctant to update me.


    Not that I could really me her as all gods get a sort of "feel" for what their children experienced whenever they update them and she broke down in hysterics after thest update when the war game was over. Yeah the bacsh from my skill was that intense and as a result she was now quite hesitant to update my falna in case I had experienced some other traumatic bacsh. I hadn''t but her concerns weren''t entirely unjustified either.

 Updates

    Updates


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Cursed Human


    Level:2


    Strength:463(E)->649(C)


    Endurance:582(D)->775(B)


    Agility:467(E)->612(C)


    Dexterity:451(E)->598(D)


    Magic:911(S)-> 999(SS)-> 1500(SSS)-> 1772(X)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extensions: Hell fire, cursed tool creation)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    Vessel of Sin: Hells forgemaster carries the burden of all mortal sin and is tasked to purify it from the souls of the dead. Strengthens soul over time. Permanent increase to crafting with cursed energy. Permanent decrease to all stats for each innocent soul killed and increase for each sinful soul killed. Grants skill: Soul gaze.


    Soul gaze: See the souls of all things and their sins.


    Developmental Skills: Curse-smith(H)


    A months worth of grinding gave me a sharp increase in stats with my magic stat as per usual growing the most and enduranceing up second due to my rather masochistic method of training out my ws. With my current stats I was considered a high level two though not a peak one as that would involve my stats being B rank at least across the board. Despite that however I was now easily as powerful as a mid to high mid level three in terms of pure stats. This meant I could with the right approach and matchup jump two whole levels and survive a fight with a weak level four.-


    That was damn impressive but I was dreading the level up conditions I now had because I might actually have to fight and beat a level four to level up to three after I max out my stats again. Thankfully I had a perfect target in mind for that though i''ll need to solo it for it to work which will be extremely dangerous for me even if I went all out, the Goliath. The first monster rex was a level four monster that had strong regenerative abilities and tough body that in addition to it''s size and power made it dangerous even for whole parties of level fours to fight.-


    Unfortunately I NEEDED that sort of challenge to qualify to level up which means I''m going to need some serious prep work. Unlike myself however Bell apparently lucked out or cheated if i''m being honest and qualified to level up after defeating the Apollo captain in singlebat. I''ve said it before and I''ll say again, his skill is fucking busted as hell. With his strength at that time there was no way that fighting someone so mediocre for their level would be enough to qualify him for leveling up but that was where his skill came in with it''s reality warping bullshit.-


    The fight was vitally important as far as he was concerned so he got more of an "achievement" from winning it. Now he had been honing his stats like myself to prepare to level up though he had to suffer limit sickness this time after he broke the first limit which helped me feel better. Still despite that his stats were now higher than mine which was irritation to see.


    Name: Bell Cranel


    Race: Human


    Level:2+(Can level up)


    Strength:357(F)->715(B)


    Endurance:268(G)->728(B)


    Agility:473(E)->915(S)


    Dexterity:426(E)->912(S)


    Magic:579(D)->999(SS)


    Spells: Bolt:(Incantation: Bolt) Summons a bolt of pure magic for attacking, can be augmented with one of the elements by saying it alongside the incantation. Example: Firebolt.


    Skills: Liaris Freese: Reality is merely the lies we tell ourselves. Augments growth proportionate to the strength of ones feelings.


    Argonaut: Enduring all hardship in the name of sess.


    Developmental skills: Luck(I)


    Obviously I was still stronger between the two of us and that wasn''t likely to change though the difference in strength was starting to close.


    He nned to reach 999 in each of his stats before going ahead with the level up mostly because unlike me he actually felt that SS rank was the most he could handle safely and he wasn''t willing to risk trying for higher. Can''t say as I me him when we all learned from my previous level up that taking that risk can in fact mean a terrible death if you aren''t prepared. My vessel had been in the process of copsing when I leveled up to the point that I had to skip preparing for that level up and take it directly or die.-


    I had no intentions of repeating that mistake this time and was going to prepare for my next level up before I take thatst update. I even had a time frame of how long it would take me to collect the smoke I needed to hit level two if i stayed in the floors before floor seventeen and it made me have an ugly expression.


    ''A month and a half. It would take me almost two more months to max all my stats if I don''t go deeper.'' I thought with a frown.


    That was an uneptable amount of time as by the same calctions Bell would only need three weeks at most with his current speed. Look I get that what I was trying to do was WAY harder than what he wanted to do but I wanted to at least try to keep our level up times somewhat simr at least for this next level up anyways. His growth while still being increasingly difficult as he grows simply won''t be anywhere close to as hard as my own path.-


    The trade off is that at the end of our respective paths I will be massively better on a qualitative level. Already my soul alone was now noticeably greater than his own with the slow strengthening it gets from my skill. If we both reach godhood I''ll likely be a good bit higher up on the pecking order than he would be given our paths. Sorta like how Zeus is higher in the pecking order than say Thor or some other god of lightning. In essence their domains are simr but Zeus''s was qualitatively higher than the others.

 Expansion

    Expansion


    Anyways with those updates out of the way I decided to move onto a sort of project that I had wanted to do for quite some time now, creating a proper home for the Hestia familia. Lets be honest here with the addition of Daphne and Cassandra things had gotten kinda cramped even with the temporary extra bedrooms i created for them and Lili. The church was simply no longer adequate for our needs. With this in mind and with Hestia''s permission I bought up all thend in every direction around the church of twenty five acres. -


    Let me tell you even with these abandoned properties being fairly cheap it still cost us a good thirty mil to snap up all thatnd off the market. Then of course came the fun part, leveling the whole fucking thing. Any preexisting structures were subject to my hell fire because I had no need for basic wood, ss and stone in such amounts. The Ganesha familia members showed up no less than three times to make sure I wasn''t trying to burn Orario to the ground only to leave with an apology after I showed the deed to thend and exined myself.-


    I couldn''t really me them since my burning of the area had a thick column of smoke rising into the sky that the whole city could see. The Ganesha familia weren''t the only ones interested in seeing what was up over here.


    "Hey Alex whatcha doin!?" Tiona called as she ran and jumped over the mes over from the distance.


    I waved my hand and judged where she was going tond before taking three steps to the left and waiting.


    "Crack!" she hit the ground hard enough to crack it but was unharmed.


    "If you would have waited I could have just made a gap in the mes for you to pass through." I said with a chuckle.


    "Meh, this way was faster." she said with a shrug.


    "I suppose so. I''m clearing out my familia''s newnd since you wanted to know." I said honestly.


    "Aren''t you guys like rich now? Why not just hire someone to tear it down for you?" she asked with a confused look.


    "And miss a chance to let my pyromaniac side out? Never." I said with a grin.


    "Oh yeah we had this big meeting to talk about if we ever had to fight you after that war game. I said that wasn''t gonna happen cuz you guys are like SUPER nice and all that but the captain said that we needed to talk about it just in case something changed. Didn''t get very far when we realized we knew nothing about you guys really." she said casually.


    "I doubt your familia was the only one who had a meeting like that, I might have gone a little bit overboard." I said with a chuckle.


    "I thought it was awesome! You were all like "Destructiones before creation!" and then was all woosh and bang and it was awesome!" she said excitedly.


    "I also thought it was awesome but Hestia yelled at me for like an hour for doing it!" Iined.


    We chatted for a while after that while I controlled the burn of the mes to stop at the edge of ournd that I had marked before hand. Eventually she saw the suns position and split since she was actually supposed to be preparing for the next expedition. By the end of the day though I had cleared out the full area which was now a scorched uneven ground with a bunch of holes from my mes burning out the foundation of the buildings that used to be there.-


    I had to spend the next week after that expanding a hole at the front of the church to turn into a poolter while using the dirt to fill in the other holes I created. I ended up having to shift the entire topyer of the property to fill in the holes but on the positive side the dirt was now ready to be seeded with grass and flowers after I effectively tilled out all the rocks leaving only fertile soil behind.-


    For the pool I had Bell and Lilie with me into the dungeon to harvest a huge amount of crystal that I then smoothed out in the empty hole in the ground and colored a nice dark blue. I took a water ring and modified it slightly to only turn on when the water got bellow a certain point in the pool while using a cursed stone as a fuel source. I also added a water quality maintaining te cursed tool at the bottom of the pool so it would always be clean and clear.-


    The pool was entirely my idea but after it was done you''d be lucky to ever find Bell not in it when he was rxing. The guy absolutely loved the thing since apparently his farm that he grew up near had a pond nearby that he regrly swam in as a kid. With the pool done I turned my attention to finally creating a housing building for our familia. The church however was to be left as is ording to Hestia and I also wasn''t allowed to put any weird ideas I might have into the building.-


    I was heartbroken to hear this as it simply wouldn''t be home without finger eating doors and walls and floors that drank blood to clean up after the doors. I had other ideas too like intruder raping rugs(patent pending) and LSD tripping walls. Hestia shot down all of those though so I could only make a "regr" building, like a plebian. It was basically just a two story tall rectangle with twenty rooms big enough for a bed, dresser, desk, closet and bathroom. Yes each of the rooms had their own bathroom because sometimes everyone needs privacy when they drop a big stinky.-


    At the far end of the building was arge kitchen with no expense spared stocking it with equipment. Other than that there was honestly nothing special about the ce and it killed me inside to make it so boring. Hestia was happy with it though so I onlyined a little. It took me about a week to get the whole ce made though since unlike my workshop this building was just normal wood and dungeon crystal windows like the church. Hell if anything the biggest challenge was chugging potions to fuel my cursed technique to get such a massive project roughly formed.-


    Even though all the rooms and everything were identical the sheer size of this building meant I was practically inhaling potions one after another. It was an excellent bit of practice if I do say so myself and I do. I was a little off it seemed about when Bell was going to level up as he hadn''t quite gotten to his goal yet but was only missing about a hundred stat points to get it so I figured another three or so days would be the time.

 Hitching a ride

    Hitching a ride


    "That''s insane! You don''t even have abnormal resistance!" Hestia protested my n to dive even deeper into the dungeon.


    "Yeah but to be fair I''m not getting enough of a challenge from the middle floors anymore even from therger groups of monsters. I need something stronger, more dangerous to sharpen my ws against. Otherwise Bells gonna leave me way behind with how fast he levels up." I insist.


    "Bells not trying to raise his stats to the ridiculous level you are!" she shot back without backing down.


    "Ohe on I''m not being TOO unreasonable here I won''t even go deeper than the great treebyrinth, I promise." I pleaded.


    She looked conflicted but more likely to agree since I promised and I don''t break those.


    "I still don''t like it, but I will let you go since you shouldn''t be in too much danger with your strength." She said and I grinned.


    If I''m being honest here I probably could have gone to the grand treebyrinth without telling her first but the chances that I would get spotted that deep and the information got back to her was not small enough that I felt the risk was worth taking.-


    Still with that taken care of I had to prep for my first trip done that fair and that meant it was time for paranoid packing. Healing potion, mana potions, antidotes, food, a water ring, a tent, the fucking works. I was prepped for my own personal expedition and that meant I had two separate bags on me. The big bag had all my nonessentials while the smaller one had my essentials and a bunch of empty space for any drops or materials I collect while I was down there.-


    I didn''t n to return to the surface for quite some time as I''d live and fight with a base camp on floor eighteen, the first safe floor Rivira. This was so that I could save time and go straight to ughtering monsters shortly after waking up and until just before I called it a day. Rivira was sort of a tropical ce with lots of trees and even a glowing crystal ceiling way overhead that you could use to tell the time. It dimmed at night and got bright during the day which was rather interesting in my opinion.-


    As the name suggested the floor was also "safe" in that no monsters spawned on the floor though they dide up from bellow or fall down from above which had caused the adventurer town of Rivira on the floor to get destroyed and rebuilt like thirteen times so far. I had no intention of staying in the town during my time down here though as everything had stupidly jacked up prices. No I was just going to use my technique to fuse some of the trees together into a makeshift house. It wouldn''t be anything fancy or anything but it would keep anything from attacking me while I slept.-


    Before all that though I had to get down there first which is why i was currently talking with Finn of the Loki familia.


    "Mind if I help fight the Goliath?" I asked after he agreed to taxi me to the eighteenth floor.


    "I''m sorry but we already have ns for the Goliath drops." he said calmly.


    I chuckled "I don''t want any of the drops, I want practice for when I have to fight itter and the smoke from when it dies. No doubt you already know that I absorb the stuff from Riviera, Tiona and Ais." I said casually.


    He nodded "They told me that you said it was some sort of skill, I might be inclined to allow you to utilize it if you can swear that it won''t interfere with the drops." Finn said with a stern look.


    "I promise that it''s an entirely separate thing from the drops. As an added bonus Ill throw in an item i made in off case the Goliath doesn''t drop anything so that you don''t walk away empty handed either way. It can create water by using the wears mana." I said while showing off the water rings effect.


    Finns eyes lit up when he saw it in action and he asked about it''s number of uses and even if there was anything that could effect it''s abilities. I didn''t mind exining everything he could possibly need to understand about the ring since his familia were the target for me to sell the things anyways.-


    "Do you by chance intend to sell more of these rings in the future? We would be willing to pay handsomely for them as they would serve to lighten our loads by a considerable amount on each expedition?" he asked seriously.


    "That was the idea though as should be obvious I won''t be mass producing them as it takes quite the effort to make even one. Besides don''t act like I''m just giving you this one, it''s coteral in the unlikely case the Goliath doesn''t have any drops. Can''t sell it to you anyways as I need it for my own stuff during my delve." I said honestly.


    "A shame, it would have freed up much more room for loot on this expedition." Finn said disappointed but he seemed to understand.


    That was how I ended up hitching a ride through the dungeon with the Loki familia on their regr expedition to the deeper parts of the dungeon. All the way through the first sixteen floors it was a breeze as everything that got in the way of the group got dealt with by the weaker members while anything too strong for them got dealt with by the stronger folk.


    "You haven''t used any of your magic when you fought the minotaurs, why?" Riveria asked curiously after i helped deal with a group of minotaurs..


    "My fires not very good in a team type situation, tries to consume anything other than me around which in this case means you folks. Besides that the only way I don''t insta-kill those things is if I limit myself to not using the mes." I exin honestly.


    "Ah so that''s why all the reports say you solo delve!" The Dwarf Gareth said in understanding.


    "Yeah I''m not spec''d for teamwork so I go alone. It''s much more dangerous but at the same time far more profitable since all the loot belongs to me alone and the only persons weight I have to carry is my own." I said with a smile.


    "Can''t say I envy youd, dungeons a merciless ce when you''ve got no one to watch your back. imed more than a few because of circumstances like yours." Gareth said seriously.


    I shrugged "It doesn''t really bother me to be honest, in a way it''s kinda nice since I can experiment and explore at my own pace without having to worry about keeping up or holding back for my teammates." I said honestly.

 Monster rex

    Monster rex


    "We''reing up to the seventeenth floors entrance so I believe it prudent that I ask you not to use those mes unless I specifically say otherwise Alex." Finn said in a way that made it clear that this wasn''t up for debate.


    I nodded "I wasn''t nning to anyways with so many people being involved in the fight. I was going to be relying on my trusted partner here to chip at the beasts ankles." I said with a smile as I patted my holstered weapon.


    Finn nodded "The configuration we were going with before you joined us was Tiona, Tione, Lefiya and Riveria with Lefiya and Riviera being the main damage dealers with their magics but I think we can swap you in with Tione''s ce as a physical fighter. That good with you?" he asked after exining the n and I grinned.


    "Not a problem." I said eagerly.


    With that settled I left my big bag with those not participating and slipped on my helm/mask.


    "Creepy." Lefiyamented when I did.


    I chuckled "I didn''t make it to be pretty but to keep my head protected without messing with any of my senses or stopping me from drinking a potion if I needed to." I said honestly.


    "You mean that mouth there''s not for show?" Riveria asked surprised.


    I shook my head and moved my jaw so the hinge of the mouth moved to open up "Nope I can''t eat with the teeth but the mouth opens and closes easily in case I need to drink a potion. Admittedly I could have just made the teeth less predatory but it seemed like a fitting aesthetic choice given the rest of the design." I said as I moved my jaw again and the hinge shut tight again.


    "And the ears?" She asked intrigued.


    "They work like normal ears and funnel sound from all directions into my actual ears. The appearance was merely to take advantage of the increased hearing that pointed ears have over my round human ones. Before you ask about theck of eyeholes that is because the inside here is transparent so I can see perfectly normal." I exined happy to share my own genius.


    "Fascinating, You''ve managed to create a form of head protection that not only doesn''t impede you in any way but alsopletely removed any weak points that could be targeted in normal head pieces. If it wasn''t so unnerving I''d suggest to Loki that we make amission for something simr." Riveria said thoughtfully.


    The conversation ended there as we walked into the massive chamber that was the entirety of floor seventeen, the boss arena if you would. It was almost entirely made of stone with the exception of the left most wall that was made entirely of shiny crystal and even had a fancy nickname [The wall of sorrow]. It was where the monster rex spawned from which was why it had that name as it was the stopping point for adventurers for the longest time until the boss was final ovee.-


    True to form the massive room started shaking when we walked in and the crystal wall began to crack and lose pieces of itself as the dark skin and hair of the massive Goliath appeared from behind the stuff. The Goliath was forck of a better description a dark skinned human scaled up to about seven meters tall with ck sclera and red irises. The mouth was also bigger than normal kinda like the titans from attack on titan now that I think about it.-


    "GRAAAAAAAAH!" the monster roared as it freed itself from the crystal wall all while ring at us.


    "Gimme them ankles!" I yell as I burst forward weapon drawn towards the slow moving giants legs.


    The monster swipes a fist at me but I just jump up and onto it''s fist which it did NOT like. The other armes at me while the arm i was on shook a lot to try and shake me off but all this size and strength didn''t mean the monster moved fast at all. In fact I''d say it was just barely slow enough for me to handle so like high level three round about.-


    The rest of my temporary party didn''t just sit back while I did my job, which in this case was make a nuisance of myself while the mages chanted their spells. Tiona was grinning from ear to ear as she rushed in with me but while I went high she was at the monsters ankles with her Urga. The thing had very tough skin and tendons so even her strength only allowed her to cut the tendon of one of the legs with a full on sh.-


    "GRAAAAH!" the monster roared in pain as it fell over which was not an oppurtunity i missed.


    I kicked off the tough flesh of the things arm when it started going down and held my weapon sideways.


    "CRACK!"


    A sound not unlike a sledgehammer hitting a brick rang out as my weapon mmed into the Goliath''s nose. The recoil took me by surprise because for the first time ever I hit something that didn''t move when I hit it which means I got moved instead. Blood shot out of the monsters nose and it''s eyes lost focus as it''s mind got fuzzy from the head trauma.-


    "Back!" Tiona called to warn me to get out of the st radius of the mages.


    I heeded the warning and ran out of there the moment I hit the ground from my recoil induced fall.


    "Wynn Fimulvetr!"


    "Wynn Fimulvetr!"


    Both elves finished their chants at the same time and two waves of white frost one smaller and one much bigger shot forward and struck the monster freezing it solid.


    "Heya!" Tiona immediately leapt forward and smashed her de into the frozen monster which shattered it''s now brittle form.


    A wave of thick ck smoke poured out as the the magic stone and a singlerge tooth fell to the ground alongside the leftover frost. Everyone stared as the smoke rapidly flowed through the air and sank into my body. I couldn''t help but shudder in pleasure at the unbelievably thick and high quality smoke filled me more that even a month of grinding had aplished before this trip.


    "That''s the good shit right there!" I eximed with augh as I holstered my weapon.


    The fight wasn''t very long but as anyone who has ever fought before can tell you they so very rarely dost all that long. Even less so when the opponent is outnumbered, out strategized and outgunned by arge amount. Honestly the only purpose I and Tiona served were as the distraction while the mages chanted their magic which was basically guaranteed death for the goliath that couldn''t dodge.

 Rivira

    Rivira


    "Fascinating, you caught me off guard so I couldn''t observe this processst time with the minotaur very well but it appears that this smoke from the monster gets sucked in through those tattoos. I thought they were symbolic?" Riveria pondered out loud.


    "They are symbolic but they also have a practical function as well, I never said they didn''t after all." I said with a grin as I picked up the drops from the ground to hand to her.


    "Ah I see a half truth so that you didn''t trigger the gods lie detection ability, seems unnecessary if you are willing to share this information like this." the high elf said confused.


    "I was just messing with Hermes is all since the guy had ns to make trouble for me, you could see it in his eyes." I said with augh.


    "I see." she said but clearly didn''t approve.


    Can''t say as I me her since I it wasmon knowledge that Hermes was an extremely well connected individual. Messing with him was a very dangerous game but I wasn''t afraid of danger, if I was I wouldn''t have just fought the Goliath as a level two even if I was working with powerful people like these.-


    "What an odd skill, i''ve never heard about anything like it before." Finn said as he walked up with my bag and more importantly my ring.


    I shrugged "It is what it is, suppose this is where we part ways as you lot are going to be skipping the next floor right?" i said casually.


    Finn nodded "We will hit Rivira on the way back up but we don''t need anything there at the moment." he said honestly.


    "If you get back within two weeks I should still be camping out on the floor, if not you probably just missed me." I said casually.


    "Usually takes about a month for us to get to our target floor and back so you''ll be long gone by the time wee back up." Riveria said and I nodded.


    We parted ways there as I slid down the stone slop leading to the next floor while the expedition group got everyone ready to do the same without crashing into each other. In two weeks roughly the Goliath would respawn and my goal was to get myst update and fight it at that time. -


    The quality and volume of smoke I had from helping kill that Goliath was more than enough to raise my magic stat to the max and maybe bring my other stats to B rank across the board. From this it was clear that the Goliath was worth far more than anything found even a floor before it. Not all that surprising really since it was ssified as a level four monster and only level two monsters were found at most in the floors before it. Not counting variants of course that could scale theoretically infinitely.-


    ''Not surprised it took so long for adventurers to get past that thing when they only had level two monsters to hone themselves on before suddenly finding themselves against a level four monster rex.'' I thought with a serious expression.


    As someone who had to solo the dungeon sudden jumps in difficulty like that were something I particrly had to be cautious of. Thankfully the next jump was one that I was uniquely suited to due to the properties of my mes in regards to water. The next jump was of course referring to Amphisbaena of the water pce floors.-


    In the waterbeled a low level six monster rex but out of water merely a mid to high level five monster rex. The reason for that distinction was that the monster was a huge twin headed water dragon so obviously it was much more dangerous in the water than onnd since it wasn''t well suited for terrestrial movement. My mes however treated water like it was gasoline so I was likely the single worst opponent for the monster rex even with that magic smothering red gas that it was famous for using.-


    Anyways that was a thing to deal with in the future but for now I was on the eighteenth floor. My first impression was that it was a normal forest, the glowing stone and crystal ceiling high above kinda ruined that though. It truly did look like a normal forest too as it was full of grassy soil and lot''s of trees with weeds and flowers that were all normal for a forest. The biggest issue with the forest though besides the ceiling that gave away that it wasn''t a normal forest was that it was too quiet.-


    There were no squirrels, birds, deer , wolves or even insects to be found besides the few that were brought in from outside the dungeon by research ssification familias. The dungeon for whatever reason didn''t actually have a functioning ecology structure despite what the floors designs made one think. At the same time however once a new animal species is introduced to the dungeon from outside it can live in and even thrive within the dungeon so long as it was an herbivore or had a prey species introduced as well. The REALLY fascinating part though was that fish of both freshwater AND salt water varieties can thrive in the dungeons waters and nobody has a fucking clue why.-


    People had certainly used this to their advantage though as at the far "northern" part of floor eighteen was a manmade but dungeon filled fish farm that all of Orario got their fish from. It was made by creating an artificial structure that was the water body before redirecting water that flowed on this floor to the spot that was then stocked with fish of various sorts to be grown out and harvested sustainably. It was a clever way to get around the outrageous prices merchants charged to import fish from the coasts orkes of this continent.-


    Any who I walked to the left of the drop off point for entry to this floor from the seventeenth floor. I wanted to get as close to the entrance of the next floor which was the start of the Grand treebyrinth as I could before I set up my campsite. Running my hand along the wall casually I froze about halfway to the stairs down, this part of the wall was hollow. My innate technique told me whenever something came from a living source but also told me of how hard , roughly anyways, it would be for me to do something with.-


    The wall had suddenly gone from "alive/impossible/ungodly heavy resistance" to "dead/very difficult/ high resistance". Actually fully activating my cursed technique told me that this was a false wall that was hollow behind it and a HEAVILY enchanted one as well. It didn''t belong and I knew it immediately. It was beyond my current ability to crack open at the moment though so I mentally made a note toe back hereter to see what this was.

 Final preparations

    Final preparations


    After I moved on from that spot I quickly made it to the stone stairway heading down the the neenth floor which was the start of the great treebyrinth or a ce that was a huge tree with no known top or bottom that was a sort ofbyrinth with much of those floors being undiscovered. Those floors were where the first level three monsters, the Lizardman, Vouivre, Mammoth fool, Deadly ho and Bloody hive. The rest of the monsters with the exception of two were peak level two and the two outliers were low level four. The level twos were, Bugbear, Battle boar, Firebird, Mad beetle, Dark fungus, Gun Libell, Sword stag, Metal rabbit and Hobgoblin.-


    The two level fours were the Green dragon and the Moss huge with the dragon being ssified as such due to it''s power and tough defenses that were just below the Goliaths and the Moss huge because it was very intelligent and could create fake version of itself without magic stones as decoys. At floor neen you would at most only find the level two monsters and VERY rarely a Vouivre, Lizardman or Deadly ho. -


    The great treebyrinth only consisted of six floors total starting from neen and ending on twenty four with floor twenty five being the first floor of the water pce levels of the lower floors. Anyways this next bit is a bit of an info dump about the description of the monsters in the great treebyrinth. Lizardmen were six foot-ish tall humanoid lizard monsters with red scales and the ability to use weapons to a minor degree. Vouivre''s were sort of likemia''s with serpentine lower halves and the upper halves of women. They also had a red gem on their foreheads and draconic wings on their back as well as long ws on their human fingers.-


    Mammoth fools were thergest of the regr monsters reaching height of six to seven meters and having bulky hairy bodies and long spear like curved tusks. Deadly Hos were basically hos scaled up to about the size of a person and had stingers that could pierce even heavy armor and kill most level twos in a single thrust. Add on their poison and habit of appearing with friends and you can understand why they are ranked as level three monsters.-


    In the same vein we have the Bloody hive which is basically a huge hos nest that spawns bloody hos rapidly to kill any adventurers found nearby. This is technically not a monster so much as a monster summoning object created by the dungeon but is ssified as high level three and needed a powerful adventurer to handle without a team. Bugbears were basically bears that were more or less equal to a Minotaur but were faster. Battle boars were big ass pigs and something I was looking forward to hunting to see if it made good bacon. Firebirds were small red birds that shot fire at you as the moved through the air and were supposedly moremon the closer to the floors ceiling you were.-


    Mad beetles were person sized beetles that stood on two legs and used the other legs like daggers. Dark fungus were strange monsters with no set shape but were entirely made of poisonous mushrooms that spread their spores to poison people from safety. Gun Libell were big ass dragonflies that shot projectiles and were a bitch and a half to hit apparently. Swords stags were legit deer with metallic and sharp antlers and a homicidal streak a mile wide.-


    Metal rabbits were Larger more durable versions of the Horned rabbits from before with steel grey fur. Finally were the Hobgoblins that were honestly just bigger, stronger, smarter and more dangerous goblins. Personally I was rather looking forward to these new monsters not just for the sheer variety but also because their materials were so much better than the stuff I was using right now which means it was time for some motherfucking gear upgrades! Minor ones but still upgrades! Also a fun thing about the great treebyrinth is that it was chock full of delicious fruits and medicinal nts that excite alchemists or something like that.-


    Personally I was more interested in the drops and improved smoke quality and quantity that hopefully will let me get near the max in all my stats two weeks from now. Before all that though I needed to set up my campsite on the eighteenth floors entrance to the neenth floor. It wasn''t really all that hard to find a nice private spot with a lot of trees tightly grown together.


    ''Lets make them even tighter shall we?'' I thought with a chuckle as I touched one of the trees and activated my technique.


    The tree shuddered but pulled up it''s roots and moved over to another tree and fused together with it. I continued this process until I had an entire eight by eight size wall of trees with a roof of branches overhead and a door of bark and still living wood that was flexible at the side to allow it to swing open and close.


    ''Ha! Suck it scrubs!'' I thought with a grin at my personal tree fort, one of a kind.


    It kinda stood out a little since you know I had to fuse a bunch of trees together to make it but unless you came this way into the forest for some strange reason you''d never see it traveling the normal trail from this floor to the next.-


    The best part though was that as far as monsters would be concerned it would just be a normal tree and thus not something worth attacking. With my campsite now good and created I set out the bedroll, tent,mp and portable campfire. Theter two run off of magic stones which aren''t going to be a problem since I was going to be hunting monsters.-


    With my lodgings covered it was now time for me to report to Hestia with my chatterbox coin.


    "Ring ring, Alex to goddess, pick up goddess!" i spoke into the coin with a snicker.


    "Why do you always do that?" Hestia''s voice came from the other side of the coin with a irritated tone.


    "Ah don''t be like that, I was even nice enough to call and let you know that I made it to the eighteenth floor safely and set up camp." I said with a chuckle.


    "Fine fine but you better be careful and make sure to call me everyday!" she said like a chiding mother.


    With that done it was finally time to head to the neenth floor and get my first taste of the monsters there. I saw a few other adventurers heading down with me but we stayed out of each others way. The neenth floor based on first impressions was easily the most beautiful I have seen so far as there was flowers all over the ce and this nice wooden jungle aesthetic that I was a fan of.

 Great tree labyrinth

    Great treebyrinth


    What I wasn''t a fan of however was a fucking firebird immediately throwing a small ball of fire at me the moment I got a certain distance away from the floor entrance and flying away.


    "Get back here you little bastard!" I yelled and chased the thing.


    Turns out that may not have been the best decision, who knew?


    "At least take me to dinner first!" I yelled as I dodged one of the three bloody hos trying to stab my ass with their stingers.


    As the things quickly found out even without abnormal resistance poison was absolutely fucking useless against me as I just had to flex my technique to purge it since it was from a living source. The stuff was a level two material so my technique cost almost nothing for me to purge the stuff from my wounds if I acted fast enough and didn''t let it spread. The poison itself though was good shit as it was a paralytic and also a pain in the ass to harvest since obviously the monsters that make it aren''t likely to just sit still while you collect it.-


    Standard practice is to cut off the thorax that they store and produce it from before crushing the heads and milking the venom from the stinger. As the monsters were literally giant fucking hos(stuff of nightmares) they were not easy to hit so precisely unless trapped first, typically with a. Me though? I was casually bottling the stuff weeping out of the wounds they gave me before closing the wounds themselves. I was literally the single most annoying type of enemy for creatures like this that rely on their poison and strong piercing ability and speed to hunt.-


    I was not only unaffected by their poison that was meant to slow me down but I was also fast enough that they couldn''t use their instant kill stabby ability on me cuz I simply moved out the fucking way. I out stated these things in speed anyways so they were helpless to stop me from taking this alternative poison harvesting method that was so much better, lessplicated. Once I had a nice full vial of poison I was officially done ying with these things and one shot them when they tried to attack me again. I was almost equal to a high level three stat wise in all regards so killing low level threes like this was easy.-


    They also weren''t training against because they were too damn predictable always aiming for my chest or head with those stingers of theirs. They also attacked in straight lines unless there was an obstacle they need to go around. It wasughably easy to cleave their heads from their bodies and then refine their stingers to guarantee they drop before collecting the stones and smoke that was much better than those Minotaurs, easily fifty percent better I recon.-


    Obviously each bloody ho being worth one and a half Minotaurs wasn''t like an extreme amount of value but it was still enough that it was worth it in my opinion. Besides that the stingers were level three materials and thus totally worth more than the horns of a Minotaur. My "fight" also served it''s purpose of attracting more monsters to my position.


    ''Two Bugbears, a battle boar, a lizardman and three firebirds. Gonna kill the fried chickens first then deal with these melee monsters.'' I thought as I took stock of my enemies in a nce.


    "GRAAAAAAAH!" the monsters roared and charged me with the Boar being the fastest and the birds already charging up balls of fire.


    I lifted my right leg and leaned forward to burst out at full tilt immediately towards the boar that had it''s head down to gore me with it''s tusks and was thus a lovelyunchpad to get to the birds overhead. In one fluid motion I ran up the boars head and neck before shooting into the air in a blur at the birds that released their mes only to find them blocked by a burst of my own before I made three rapid shes with the sharp side of my weapon as I flew past them.-


    Three red wings separated from their bodies and they fell out of the sky in a panic as they uselessly tried to stay airborne with only a single wing. I continued my trip through the air until I crashed into a wooden tree that creaked under my impact. Wasting no time at all I gripped the tree with my free left hand and pulled, elerating to the ground as I performed a flip tond harshly on my feet.


    "Who''s next?" I asked with a grin as I stood up from mynding site fully.


    The answer was the Lizardmen that had already been on the approach while I was up in the air. They both had rusted weapons that the dungeon had no doubt gotten from dead adventurers it had eaten. They were decently fast and strong so you know points for that but you know how this turned out, with them dead in case that wasn''t clear. They might as well have been iling those weapons about relying on brute force as they were. There was no skill or precision to be found in their movements but rather they were pointing the sharp bit at me and swinging.-


    It was insulting to consider that weapon usage as far as I was concerned and punished them for it by cracking the blunt end of my weapon over the back of the "hands" holding the weapons. The weapons were dropped and forgotten as I pressed them. I was much happier when they fought back with their ws and tails as it felt more natural to me and less shameful for them when I crushed their skulls shortly afterwards. That of course left the two bugbears and battle boar that were also charging at me after finally turning around and catching up.-


    Unlike Lizardmen both of these two monster species were hefty and once they started charging in a direction it was hard for them to stop and go the opposite direction. Momentum was kinda a bitch like that forrger monsters, made my job easier though since I was whittling them down one species at a time.


    "I hope you are as delicious as you look cuz I''ma eat you after this was over!" I yelled at the battle boar that genuinely looked more pissed off when I said it, might have been a trick of the mind though.


    First up though were the Bugbears that were lumbering at me with tongues out and long rivulets of salivaing from their mouths. I simply leapt up above their heads and swung the blunt end of my weapon right on the top of the first ones noggin braining it in an instant. The body copsed like a puppet with it''s strings cut and the momentum dragged it through the dirt. The other followed suit shortly after as did the boar that I wasted no time at all refining the flesh and fat of to get it to drop.

 Addictively

    Addictively


    I collected my spoils after the fight and headed back to the eighteenth floor eager to cook up the boar meat and find out if it is in fact delicious. If so you better believe that I was going to set up a smoker to make some smoked pork. Monsters didn''t usually drop meat or organs really unless they were very special such as Amphisbaena''s dragon liver or the Valgang dragons fire sacs. This was one of the reasons surviving in the dungeon was considered next to impossible unless you are on or near a floor that grows edible nts.-


    As a result of this however I was going to be the first person to actually eat the flesh of a monster. With that in mind naturally I chose a monster that at the very least resembles a species that is delicious, swine. Once I got back to my campsite I wasted no time popping one of the magic stones into the portable grill and cranking that heat up. I didn''t have any salt or peeper on hand but that was fine since this was a taste test for the meat itself.-


    Once the grill was nice and hot I retrieved the meat and cut it into strips that I could cook two at a time andid them down on that hot surface. Immediately a heavenly scent filled the air as the fat sizzled and popped as the heat rendered it out. I''m no master chef but I had to apud myself as I was practically drooling by the time the meat was done cooking all the way through and I set it aside to rest. The ten minutes after that were hellish for me as I had to stare at the food but couldn''t touch it.-


    I grabbed a boar tusk from my drops while I waited and used my technique to turn it into a knife and fork. Finally the time came and I cut into the tender meat like it was butter as juices streamed out of it.


    "OHMYGODI''MSOHAPPYICOULDDIE!" I said all at once in bliss.


    The vor was unreal, like it was perfectly salted and had a strong rich meaty vor that made your cheeks squeeze. I was in hog heaven, pun very intended. I hadn''t even realized it until I was done that I had eaten all of the meat.


    ''Christ that shits addictive as hell. Probably for the best if I limit the amount I collect from now on.'' I thought genuinely concerned over my ravenous consumption.


    I wasn''t a fucking monk or anything but I was pretty sure I at least had decent impulse control. So losing myself in hunger to devour something like this was not normal at all. Then again the stuff was genuinely that good so I might be overreacting. I vowed to get some more of the meat when before I headed back up for my next update in a bit under two weeks to see how good it would be when cooked by people who actually know what they are doing.-


    Over the next week and six day I fought dozens of monsters as I explored the six floors that made up the great treebyrinth and even managed to discover something new thanks to my technique, a secret monster type. I named them Dread grubs because as the name suggested they were giant fucking grub monsters that lived under the trees bark and were pretty damn hard to notice. They were this weird purple and green color and were the size of a cat.-


    It wasn''t surprising at all that they had been undiscovered until now as even I wouldn''t have found the things without my technique. I had even captured one to give to the guild since there was an outstanding reward for the report on any new species discovered and proof of it. The monsters were pretty harmless though as besides their blood being poisonous and used as a projectile even a level one could kill one. Once I stuffed one of the grub things in a wooden backpack it was totally chill so i had no problem at all taking it out of the dungeon.-


    "Hey Rose how''s it hanging?" I asked with a grin as I walked up to the guild counter.


    "Alex, same as usual I assume?" the red haired werewolf asked with a nk expression.


    "For the stones yeah but I have a new monster species to drop off so how we do?" I asked still grinning.


    "You mean report right?" she corrected but my grin grew wider.


    "Nope it''s in the box." I said setting the wooden box on the counter.


    She stepped back warily "That is highly dangerous not to mention without a tamer license illegal." she hissed at me.


    "Is it? I thought you were supposed to bring proof of the species, here you go, PROOF." I said not worried at all since this was technically a loophole to the rules.


    She clearly also picked up on this and huffed in irritation before leaving to go find someone who could actually make a decision in this regard. I was fine with waiting since I wasn''t in a particrly rushed state since the Goliath should only respawn after tomorrow. About three minutester Rose came back with an old looking elf with long grey robes but sharp green eyes.-


    "You are the one who had the audacity to bring a monster to the guild to report it correct?" the old elf asked and I nodded. "Hmm We need more adventurers like you, do you have any idea how hard it is to categorize and give proper information on the monsters without a living specimen and only eyewitness statements to go off of?" the old fellow grumbled.


    "I know right? Like I totally get not dragging up one of therge and harder to control monsters like a Lambton or Mammoth fool but the smaller monsters like this thing should not be an issue in my opinion." I said honestly and the old elf smiled and nodded in agreement while Rose groaned in frustration.


    I got led to a medium sized room that was entirely empty save a table.


    "Set the specimen on the table and we can begin to examination." the old elf said calmly.


    "Fair warning the blood is poisonous and gets used as a projectile." I said as I set the wooden box on the table.


    The old elf nodded and waved his hand causing the lid to lift off the box causing the grub within to release an angry hissing sound when the light touched it. The elf scoffed at that and waved his hand some more breaking apart the box with whatever power he was using and revealing the grub in it''s entirety which it didn''t like as it began shooting it''s poisonous blood everywhere.


    "I can officially confirm that this is indeed a new species of monster, low tier two roughly since this poison is quite strong but it seems tock physical attacking means. Where did you find it and were there more?" the elf asked and I exined where I found the thing and that there were in fact more.

 Big jump

    Big jump


    As it turns out the reward for reporting a new species of monster was really damn good as even just this weak monsterted me a hundred thousand valis. Something about how it was a small price to pay if it helped even one adventurer in the future. Sounded like A grade bullshit to me but the money was good so whatever. I also may have neglected to tell them that I had collected a lot of the poison blood and further refined it to give to my favorite alchemist establishment.-


    It didn''t seem like it but being the first to unlock the uses of a monster was a huge achievement and boost to an alchemical familia like Miach''s. The Dian Cechtfamilia had this strangle hold over the progress of alchemy because they had a deal with the guild and most of the big exploration familias at first pick of any new potential alchemical ingredients. This meant most achievements and boosts from new potions and medicines came to them while the smaller familias got scraps at best. Don''t get me wrong these smaller alchemical familia weren''t bad off since potions always were in high demand but limited supply but size wise that one familia had almost all the rest dwarfed.-


    The Dian Cecht familia didn''t however have a exclusivity deal with the Hestia familia like the Miach familia did so the guild could publish the new monsters information once it was done but couldn''t give the Dian Cecht familia samples before I gave mine to Miach. It was a political thing that the guild did to try and please everyone and stop monopolies from showing up. So while it hadn''t been said the guild definitely knew that I was going to be giving my affiliated alchemy familia a leg up on the rest.-


    "We will do our best to utilize this oppurtunity to it''s upmost!" Miach promised with an excited smile as I handed over the poison blood I had and the information on the monster I got if from.


    "If youe up with anything interesting using that stuff and I expect to be the first you tell alright?" I said with a grin and he nodded seriously.


    ''Now then to get this update out of the way.'' I thought as I headed back to the Hestia manor, felt weird to think of it that way but it fit so whatever.


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Cursed Human


    Level:2


    Strength:649(C)-> 890(A)


    Endurance:775(B)-> 1271(SS)


    Agility:612(C)-> 862(A)


    Dexterity:598(D)->859(A)


    Magic:1772(X)-> 3000(~)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extensions: Hell fire, cursed tool creation)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    Vessel of Sin: Hells forgemaster carries the burden of all mortal sin and is tasked to purify it from the souls of the dead. Strengthens soul over time. Permanent increase to crafting with cursed energy. Permanent decrease to all stats for each innocent soul killed and increase for each sinful soul killed. Grants skill: Soul gaze.


    Soul gaze: See the souls of all things and their sins.


    Developmental Skills: Curse-smith(H)


    "Damn son looking good! Not as high as I was hoping but it should be enough." I said with a wide smile as I looked at the sharp jump in stats.


    "That puts you close to peak level three right?" Hestia asked and I nodded.


    "Once my body adapts to these stats I should be able to go toe to toe with a peak level three or weak level four." I said proudly.


    "What a monster." Daphne muttered but I ignored her.


    "Him being strong is good for us though isn''t it?" Cassandra asked the red head who couldn''t really argue since that was very much true.


    The stronger I as the captain was the more secure the future of the familia as the number of enemies capable of threatening us and surviving drops the stronger I got.


    Just having the strength of a level four means that no familia without one would likely survive a sh with us. It was the same reason why Frey was considered nigh untouchable as with Ottar at level seven you''d need another adventurer at that same level of power to even qualify to fight "evenly". Obviously it wouldn''t be an even match even if someone managed to level up to seven for the sheer fact that I didn''t get the impression from Ottar after meeting him that he had let his strength stagnate.-


    Quite the opposite in fact as he gave me this sense of sharpness like a weapon waiting to be unleashed at his enemies. Dude was intense as fuck and I was down for it, highly approve. Besides that he was surprisingly easy to get along with and understand, guy was a warrior through and through. The best part in my opinion is he didn''t look at my level with disdain but rather looked at me as a fellow warrior and judged me by his standard, I stacked up well enough clearly that he seemed excited at the future me.-


    Anyways you get the idea, stronger me=less dangerous enemies.


    "Are you going to go back into the dungeon for another two weeks to max out the rest of your stats?" Bell asked and I shook my head.


    "I''ll be crafting for the next few days as my body adjusts before heading back into the dungeon." I said honestly.


    "Speaking of crafting I noticed that both of them have custom made equipment, are we ever going to get stuff like that or are we gonna get left out?" Daphne asked bluntly.


    "Feeling left out are we?" I teased.


    "You know what I mean damnit!" She hissed annoyed.


    "Haha~ You are such a treat to tease. You can rx though as I''ll get around to you two eventually, at the moment though you aren''tcking in decent equipment. Plus I need some time to work out what would be a good fit for your builds." I said with a chuckle.


    "Hmph" she snorted but didn''t argue.


    That was that then and things returned to normal after that. As I had said I was going to spend the next three days crafting though I purposefully neglected saying what I was making or why. See I was fairly confident that by the end of these three days i could fight the Goliath solo and win with just what I had now. The problem however was that I also knew that it would be a long and hard fight which I was admittedly not spec''d for. This meant I needed something to shorten the length of the fight to a length I would be morefortable with.

 Make plan, Execute plan, Profit

    Make n, Execute n, Profit


    See my whole philosophy inbat was that unless you were training you should end a fight as fast and efficiently as possible. It was the reason I always went for the head, neck or chest if I could. I tried to stay away from the area with the magic stones though since while the single fastest method of killing a monster it also means less drops which I would rather not risk. Even still I was spec''d to hit hard enough to one shot anything not really invested in defense or at a higher level than me.-


    The problem was that not only was the goliath both of those things but also had a "slow" regeneration factor which meant unless I did more damage than it could heal from I was going to be in for the long haul even with my mes. To counter that I wanted to make some cursed tools that created debuffs much like a curse from this world. This unfortunately meant I was going to need to really focus on expanding the restriction side of things or run the risk of getting caught up in the items debuffs.-


    To start with I used a goblin cursed stone and a few teeth from a goblin to form a small marble that I refined before working to imbue a temporary AOE weakening effect. For the restrictions I went with [does not effect Alexander Drake,sts only three minutes, disintegrates after three minutes, only works on monsters and disintegrates if ever stolen]. The final result was pretty decent thanks to those restrictions making the weakening effect stronger but as for how effective it would be against the goliath? I wasn''t sure. I named this new creation of mine [Arms down] in reference to the vulnerability one has when rxed.-


    With the Goliaths natural armor hopefully taken care of I repeated this process but this time used a Deadly ho stinger and some of the blood from the Dread grubs to create a diamond shaped lozenge the size of a cherry that I imbued with a technique for detonating once inside a body sending highly toxic solid poison shards into the flesh that melt then start to spread. Nasty stuff even by my standards as I was fairly certain that surviving one of these things was pretty damn difficult for anyone under level four or higher.-


    I named them [Venom shots] and after spending three days perfecting these two items I was confident they would perform well. I also finished more or less adapting to my new stats and was now ready to set off for my fight with the goliath. Like always I breezed through the first few floors and the middle floors before slowing down as I hit floor fifteen as I needed to collect some stuff before my fight, namely crystal. Why you may ask? Well if the fight with the Goliath goes on long enough it''ll draw monsters from the floor next to it.-


    Rather than splitting my attention on the small fry as well as the big guy I wanted to plug up the entrance from floor sixteen to seventeen. I was going to refine and reshape a bunch of crystal to aplish this. Temporarily of course since it would piss off a lot of adventurers if ess to the lower floors was cut off entirely. Stacking the gathered crystals up near the entrance I activated my technique and immediately the stuff began to meld and grow outwards to dig into the surrounding floor and walls and anchor itself there.-


    When I was done there was a opaque wall of smooth crystal hard enough that I was confident nothing bellow level three could break it down.


    ''I''ll recover my energy and stamina before it''s go time.'' I thought and waited until I was in peak condition.


    Good to go I held my weapon gripped tight in my left hand while I had an [Arms down] in my right hand ready to be thrown. Floor seventeen was as usual quiet and the wall of sorrow was fully intact which meant the goliath was back and waiting. I wasted no time at all strolling straight towards the wall which prompted the room to shake as the crystal cracked and the goliath started to free itself.


    "FWIP! POP!" I lobbed the [Arms down] fastball style right at the goliaths body and the moment it hit it created a sound much like a kernel of corn popping but considerably louder.


    A sort of ominous red mist burst forth from the item and the goliaths skin took on a slight red sheen as the debuff took hold. Sprinting forwards I switched my weapon to my right hand in alignment to use the sharp side and cleaved into the rex''s now freed ankle.-


    "CRUNCH!" My axe head sank into the skin and a small way into the shin bone before it got stuck.


    "GRAAAAAAAAA!" The goliath roared in pain and swung it''s fist down at me but I yanked my weapon free and tossed a ball of fire at the rex as I dodged behind it''s leg.


    The goliath screamed as the me ravenously spread and scorched it''s hide unstoppably. The pain and instinct to survive had the beast smacking itself hard to try and put the mes out but my mes didn''t extinguish so easily. I meanwhile took my best two handed grasp of my weapon and jumped up to deliver an overhead chop to the beasts neck.-


    Unlike most creatures that would immediately drop dead from such an injury the goliath just roared and swatted at me like I was an annoying fly. I had to abandon my weapon that was lodged in the things neck bones to avoid getting hit. I took that as my que to bring out a [Venom shot] and sprint around the angrily iling monster as it was now blind since my mes had gotten to it''s eyes.-


    Controlling my me with some effort I got them away from it''s roaring mouth and I waited till the beast went to inhale and flicked the [Venom shot] into it''s wide open inhaling mouth. It paused for a moment as it felt itself swallow something but it was far toote as I heard a muffled "THWUB!" as the item detonated inside it. Must''ve been near it''s core too as the beast immediately started twitching uncontrobly and choking as the toxins spread like a extremely fast cancer. I snuffed out my mes since they weren''t needed anymore and watched the beasts skin regenerate and then it''s eyes slowly as it stumbled around trying to power through the paralytic poison.-


    Not wanting to give it a chance to recover I dashed around behind it and leapt up and grabbed my weapons handle before pulling with my full strength to free the thing. The monster tried to swat at me but was miles off thanks to the poison and hit itself on the shoulder instead. I raised my weapon while nting my feet on either side of it''s neck and began hacking away until the head came off and the body dropped.

 Final stretch and weird hornet

    Final stretch and weird ho


    The goliath wasn''t dead even with it''s head gone though that was fine since it gave me time to refine it''s drops before I kill it. I quickly refined its hide and bones before shing open it''s chest and pulling at therge magic stone there.


    "BOOM!" the monster burst into smoke that immediately got sucked into my body.


    I didn''t even need Hestia to tell me that I qualified to level up, I could feel it in my gut that I was good to go in all but stats.-


    My gut also told me that I needed more smoke to max out my stats so I unblocked the crystal wall I made after storing away my loot from the boss kill and headed to floor neen. I wasn''t here for training, drops or exploration this time but pure smoky goodness and that meant everything burned. Add on my weapon getting used in addition to my mes and no monster I met in the great treebyrinth lived more than about a minute after I found them. Even when I got down to the Twenty fourth floor that was the deepest of the great treebyrinth that had level three monsters much moremonly they didn''t survive my murder happy frolicking.-


    ''Gut says I got enough to max out so it''s time to head back topside.'' I thought satisfied after killing a moss huge.


    Pulling out mymunications coin I reported my return to Hestia before whistling as I casually started walking back up.


    "Keep the circle tight! We don''t want this one getting away like thest one!" I heard a female voice yell from the distance as I walked and decided to check it out.


    As I rounded a tree following the sounds of screeches and yells and saw a confusing sight. There were about six adventurers encircling a battered looking Deadly ho that was unusual looking. Unlike most Deadly hos that were ck with red eyes and band on their thoraxes this one was bright blue with a white band and eyes as well as bigger than normal by a not small amount. It was also clearly not trying to fight so much as escape but that might be exined by the most ridiculous thing of all, it had a soul.-


    It wasn''t very strong, no in fact I believe even a childs soul was brighter andrger than the soul of this wasp but it DID have a soul. My gaze could be really damn annoying sometimes but it never said that something with a soul didn''t have one or that things without a soul like monsters had one. This left me with one conclusion, Special grade spirits. Or at the very least the dungeons version of the things though the soul was innocent and not as sinful like I would think a monsters soul would be. After all cursed spirits and monsters were inherently evil or evil aligned that is so their souls should naturally be covered in sin.-


    "Pl-Please.. h-help!" words came from the ho when it noticed me approaching.


    "Tch! Now you need to die, can''t let word of this get out. Nothing personal." A muscr amazoness said as she stepped out of the circle and towards me with her spear brandished.


    "So much sin, none will mourn your losses." I said calmly after looking at the entire groups souls, not one was innocent.


    "Hmph you think that just because you took down that trash level three from the Apollo familia that a mere level two like you can handle a true elite level three? Ridiculous!" the amazon yelled as she went to stab me but I casually side stepped and back handed her with my weapon.


    "CRUNCH!" her skull was crushed instantly killing her.


    I withdrew my weapon and ck me sparked to life on it''s head happily devouring the mess as I walked calmly towards the group.


    "FUCK! Forget the freak we can catch itter but this guy is a bigger threat!" A human man yelled and the group stopped encircling the ho and focused on me. The monster immediately flew away clearly exhausted.


    "I hope you live better lives if you are ever reborn." I said calmly as I waved my weapon and the mes surged forth like a flood of ck water seeking to drown the world.


    My cursed energy was depleting rapidly but that was fine as there was no defending from this attack and all that awaited them was death. They tried to of course but the moment even a spark of the mes licked them they were doomed unless they could pull an Orochimaru and shed their skin.


    ''Now that I think of it that would be a pretty cool way to fuck with an enemy. Like can you imagine a dude thinking he stabbed your ass only to discover it was a loose skin suit?'' I thought with a chuckle as the adventurers scream theirst.


    I waved my hand and the mes retracted and returned to me obediently before sinking below my skin ever eager to await their next meal. I looked around for the ho but couldn''t find it so simply shrugged and left. Sure I was dying from curiosity to know what the fuck was going on with that particr monster but if it was gone it was gone so I wasn''t going to search all over the ce for it if I had no guarantee it was even still on this floor.-


    I got the feeling I was being watched the entire time I was in the grand treebyrinth but it vanished when I got to floor eighteen and higher. I didn''t go to the guild this time to turn in my magic stones since the Goliath stone was taking up the vast majority of the space in my big bag and I REALLY didn''t want to have to exin how I got it.-


    It also helped that I had a project in mind that would require either a fuckton of small cursed stones or one REALLY big one and maybe some smaller ones as stabilizers. I want to take care of that sea of dormant cursed energy over the city. My gut told me that if I left it there at some point it''s going to be a problem and not just for me. I knew for a fact it reacted when I leveled up before going dormant again but if that happened EVERY time I leveled up it may in fact at some point just not go dormant again and introduce cursed spirits to the world, violently most likely.-


    Rather than risk that I wanted to create a sort of cursed energy siphon that would draw the dormant energy in and store it in a nice safe manner, that I will then use to put a big ass forcefield over the Hestia property. Okay so admittedly not exactly a super noble or grand goal but it pissed me off when Apollo''s people just set fire to my home and there was nothing stopping them from doing so.

 Heavy topic

    Heavy topic


    Not like a wall between my home and the outside world because that would just trap us in while keeping everyone else out but a sort of malicious intent based screen to keep out anyone or anything with ill intent. Ironically this was as far as I understand it one of the most basic of barriers in the world of JJK. Most barriers were just more or less exclusion zones that stopped normal people from seeing into or entering them while preventing anything with cursed energy from leaving it without permission.-


    My idea was pretty much the same but with the first bit about normal people being changed to make the barrier none existent for anyone or thing without malicious intent towards us. As much as I would like to make a badass barrier that could stand as a marvel for all time, I was like ny percent sure I sucked at barriers. This was because of the nature of my innate technique that was an internal to external type deal. I transform things from the inside out by extending my cursed energy from my core to whatever I am working on.-


    Barriers on the other hand were purely external things which meant my technique gave me no experience at all in how I might go about creating them without using an item. Still I needed to figure out how to use barriers anyways since it was a requirement to use domain expansion. The penultimate expression of ones technique where it''s very essence is projected into reality. While it is possible to create a domain without a barrier ites with a serious disadvantage for the sheer area it covered, you have to contend with the world itself.-


    It can be considered an almost divine act as when a domain is expanded outwards that small area temporarily gains an neww of reality, that''s what utilizing a domain means. When contained in a barrier the strain it puts on the user while great is much lesser than without a barrier. Expanding a domain without a barrier is an act akin to a god utilizing their power to alter the very fabric of existence to a small degree, like using a paint brush to draw in the very air. I was not ready for that sort of technique and likely wouldn''t be for quite some time.-


    Honestly speaking I wasn''t even at the level were I could use a normal domain expansion quite yet as I hadn''t felt my technique reach such a level of refinement.


    ''Getting ahead of myself here, there''s no telling if I''ll even be able to siphon the cursed energy above the city before I level up.'' I thought shaking my head to clear the distracting thoughts I was having.


    "You didn''t!?" Hestia eximed when I got back and unloaded my bags.


    "About that, I MAY have neglected to mention that I was going to solo the goliath. To be fair I thought you''d try to stop me." I said not even bothering to try and hide my actions.


    "Of course I''d try to stop you, that''s a level four monster rex and you are a level two!" She yelled very upset at me.


    I winced at her tone "I won though and not a scratch on me, admittedly I also kinda cheated to do it but still." I defended my actions.


    "And what if!?" she started to yell but I stopped her.


    "Nope none of that what if nonsense! You should only worry about what if''s in regards to the future not the past. All that matters in this exact moment is that I fought the goliath and won without injury, that''s it. Yes it was almost definitely kinda mean of me not to mention it but I NEEEDED to do this to level up. It''s not fair to you, you have the best intentions but we are adventurers and that means we need to take risks in order to grow. We can''t grow if you try to keep us from taking those risks every time you learn about them." I said seriously.


    She floundered for a moment as she got mad, reluctant and finally epted that I was right.


    "Can you me me for worrying? You might not be all there up top but even you have to understand how ridiculous a level two, even you, challenging the goliath solo is? And it''s not just this one time either but Bell is a ma for trouble from the way things are going and you are constantly messing with stuff that can and will kill you if you aren''t lucky. All I can do is just sit here all day after selling off some figurines and try to greet you all with a smile when you get back knowing that every time you walk out those doors it might be thest time I ever see you." she said with tears in her eyes.


    "Look theres nothing wrong with worrying about us, hell if anything it just means you are being a great goddess. You just need to ept that being a goddess also means you have to prepare yourself for the inevitable event that we get messed up. It''s going to happen, theres no escaping it if our familia is to grow. At some point one of us is going to get really messed up or even killed. Rather than worrying about that inevitable fate why not try and make the most of every moment you have with us so that we are never truly forgotten?" I said seriously before leaving her to her thoughts.


    Heavy stuff I know and particrly hard to swallow for a cheerful goddess like her but this conversation had been long overdue. Adventurers fight for a better future for themselves or even others and that meant we risked death and sometimes lost that gamble. It was part of being an adventurer.-


    It wasn''t something that was really talked about but every familia over a certain size has experienced the death of an adventurer or even multiple. The deity at the head of any familia has to be prepared to ept that lost and remember their fallen child even as they moved on because the world doesn''t stop for everyone else when someone dies. Perhaps it''s because I''m bing more like a cursed spirit as I grow stronger but I''vee to ept that death is just a part of being an adventurer. I''m not saying lives don''t have value or anything but it''s not the end of the world when one of us dies no matter who it is.

 Level three

    Level three


    Once they were primed I imbued my restrictions in them at the same time while chanting.


    <strong><em>"Emerge from the darkness, cker than darkness. Conceal that which isid bare!"</em></strong>


    Immediately a dark liquidy shadow substance appeared and fell from my hand and then got absorbed into the pylons while sweat poured down my forehead as I was straining to produce this curtain type barrier. This was not unexpected since was my first attempt at creating a barrier and while I knew the chant and how to roughly create a barrier experience was golden here.-


    Any cursed energy user could make a curtain type barrier so long as they knew how but depending on the way the thing functioned you had to change the chant slightly. For REALLY powerful barriers you needed to also include binding vows to the barrier and a bunch of other stuff like keys and positioning. Barriers were a sort ofplicated topic and I had no intention of learning more than the bare minimum needed to use domain expansion. Still five minutester I felt the barrier fully snap into ce in the pylons and released my hold on it letting the pylons suck it all up.-


    ''All that remains is to finish the box once Cassandra returns and I''ll be ready to update and level up after I hear my DS options.'' I thought with a sigh as I rxed and chose to let my natural energy regeneration recharge my cursed energy.


    It took another hour for Cassandra to return andhelp finish the box by using her healing spell on it while I ignited the regeneration properties of the box and stuffed it permanently into a cursed technique that was dormant until someone with an injury got in the box.-


    "Do you really need so many preparations just to level up?" Daphne asked confused when I started setting this stuff up.


    "Last time I leveled up I barely survived and sort of created a giantmotion that people are STILL trying to figure out so yes. Besides this box at least has uses outside just this since it IS a healing item." i said honestly.


    "In case we get a repeat of thest time are there any Developmental skills I should choose?" Hestia asked worriedly.


    "Mystery, Enchant, Hammer or axe man and anything rted to curses or space if any of that shows up." I said seriously.


    "Not abnormal resistance?" Daphne asked confused.


    "The DS doesn''t work on curses and I''m already a hard counter to poison so i don''t need it, might as well get a more useful skill instead. Anyways no reason to dy this anymore than necessary, wish me luck." I said before activating the barrier with me and Hestia inside it.


    "I know theres no stopping you from doing this but I''ll do my best." Hestia said with a determined look.


    "You have my full faith and if it goes sideways know that you are not to me, I''m a stubborn asshole after all." I said with a smirk as Iid down in the box on my stomach.


    Hestia pricked her finger and a single drop of blood fell on my falna and with a swish of her finger over my back heat rapidly began to fill me as I updated. Soon the heat grew to unbearable levels as I started to feel bloated again but I noticed it wasn''t nearly as bad as the first level up. Perhaps it was because of thest level up that my vessel was more capable of holding that much power this time so it was taking longer to copse.-


    The box had also activated so that was also keeping me awake during this process.


    "There''s Enchant, One hander, Loner, Cursebody and Abnormal resistance!" Hestia anxiously said since I was still awake.


    ''Ah fuck! Loner gives more excelia and stats when I hunt alone and Enchant would give me an immediate boost to my cursed tool crafting but isn''t strictly necessary to reach the top, it just helps. Cursebody is new though and if does what I think it might be the best option here but might make me closer to pure curses.'' I thought rather annoyed at all the really good options.


    I discarded One hander immediately because it was just a weapon skill buff like Hammer or Axeman and once again entirely unnecessary to reach the top but helped.


    "Cursebody!" I said through gritted teeth.


    Hestia moved her finger again and the falna began to glow blindingly bright as the level up went through but I passed out. I wasn''t out for nearly as long asst time thanks to the box healing me but I was still out for an entire day and even after that felt like absolute dog shit.-


    Name: Alexander Drake


    Race: Cursed Human


    Level:3


    Strength:0(I)


    Endurance:0(I)


    Agility:0(I)


    Dexterity:0(I)


    Magic:200(G)


    Spells: Hell''s forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell''s forge)(Extensions: cursed tool creation)


    Hell fire(Subsidiary technique): mes created originally from an extension of the Hell''s Forge cursed technique but expanded into a cursed technique all their own that contain the tiniest spark of true hellme.(Incantation: Hell fire)


    Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains ess to cursed energy and cursed techniques.


    Blessing of ck: Permanently increases cursed energy efficiency, amount and control. Magic will always start at G rank after leveling up.


    Vessel of Sin: Hells forgemaster carries the burden of all mortal sin and is tasked to purify it from the souls of the dead. Strengthens soul over time. Permanent increase to crafting with cursed energy. Permanent decrease to all stats for each innocent soul killed and increase for each sinful soul killed. Grants skill: Soul gaze.


    Soul gaze: See the souls of all things and their sins.


    Developmental Skills: Curse-smith(H), Cursebody(I)


    Other than my stats there was two major changes I got from this level up. The first was that my hell fire had actually be it''s own cursed technique and as a result got a hell of an upgrade(pun very intended). Hestia also sorta very much freaked the fuck out about it since true hellme was a divine fire and should be impossible to exist here yet I had the tiniest spark of the stuff. When it said that by the way it meant it as the spark was like a pinprick of light in the otherwise ck mes but very much present.-


    The second was my Developmental skill that was a gamble taking but SO worth it once I figured out what it actually did near instantly. To put it simply the DS made my cursed energy more efficient. It did this by improving the natural affinity for the stuff my body had so in that regard I was sorta right about the downside as well. The DS made me more like a cursed spirit that was naturally very efficient with their cursed energy since they were literally made of the stuff.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A"</em>

 Visitors

    Visitors


    It took me three whole days after leveling up to return to some sense of normal and not feel like my body was holding a grudge against me. That wasn''t to say my body was done with it''s refinement from the level up in that time merely that I no longer felt like shit. It came as little surprise but my tattoos had grown a bit though admittedly not by much. I now had three long triangles on my back at each side just under my shoulder des which I assumed represented wings of a sort.-


    ''If I ever actually turn into a cursed spirit I think I''ll actually look like a demon at the rate this is going.'' I thought with a chuckle.


    "Level three alreadyd? Really making the rest of us look bad with how fast you and that otherd are shooting through the levels." Hroldar said withaugh.


    He like most of the city had gotten the news of my level up almost the same day it was reported to the guild and hade for a visit as a result.


    "Not much sense in slowing down when we can rise quickly now is there?" I asked with a shrug.


    "Aye that''s true. Still you two got some people starting to wonder if you''lle to threaten those hegemons sitting at the top at the rate you''re growing." he said seriously.


    "Not likely, while I can''t speak much for Loki and her familia we are fairly friendly with both Freya and Hephaestus at the moment so neither are likely to turn hostile to our rise." I said honestly.


    "Now that you mention it howe you aren''t charmed by Freya like everyone else? Hell she''s even got a bloody level seven charmed and yet you seem unaffected." he asked curiously.


    I shook my head with a chuckle "Ottar isn''t charmed by her, just devoted to such a degree that it might appear that way. As for myself I am just the exception to the rules so that infamous charm of hers rolls right off me rather than digging in. Ironically that is actually one of the things that pleases her the most and why she is so friendly with me, she''s lonely." I said honestly.


    "Bollocks! She can get nearly any man or woman in the entire world into her bed if she wanted to." Hroldar said in disagreement.


    "Indeed she could but that was the whole damn issue, she can''t have friends like normal folk because her charm affects damn near everyone. For all the pany" she could have she is so alone that besides Ottar she has no realpanions. I present an oppurtunity for her to change that so naturally she was eager to take it. That was how we got where we are now." I said calmly.


    "Hmmm, hadn''t thought of it like that but upon imagining it it doesn''t seem so farfetched at all. How do you know all this anywaysd?" he asked and I smirked.


    "She told me herself of course." I said casually.


    Hroldar wasn''t the only visitor I got after my level up got passed around as Tiona, Ptah, Hermes and Hephaestus also came to give congrattions as well as look to uncover juicy information for themselves*cough Hermes cough*. For Tiona she wanted to test how much stronger I was now but left disappointed that I wasn''t in any shape for sparring. Ptah was under the impression that after my level up my crafting abilities had no doubt soared to new heights and wanted tomission a whole plethora of things from me at my new and improved level of ability.-


    I had to quite bluntly exin that that wasn''t how the fuck that worked at all. While in theory leveling up should make me a better craftsman the reality of the matter was that all it did was increase the room I had to grow as a craftsman instead. I had already reached the pinnacle that I could achieve in the short term for my level two abilities before I leveled up but now I had a new pinnacle to stride towards after leveling up.-


    Cursed tool crafting was simply just like that where there was in fact a limit to what you could achieve depending on your actual level of power. More power meant a higher limit, simple as that. Obviously you could exceed these limits with the right circumstances but the idea still stood just fine. Even in terms of my noncursed tool creations such as the figurines all my leveling up had done was increase my avable cursed energy pool while allowing me to use less energy to do more. -


    Thatst part was entirely because the energy had gotten an upgrade in quality when I leveled up and thus a smaller amount was worth more than before. [Cursebody] was also needing to be taken into ount here as it boosted my efficiency by a not small amount. In any case I had bluntly told Ptah that he needed to chill the fuck out with his rampantmissioning as I still needed time for myself and didn''t want to spend all of my time working like hismissions would have had me. I did ept a couple of smaller projects from him though just to keep him happy.-


    Hermes was less wee when he visited however as I still maybe was holding a small grudge from the previous incident.


    "I have to admit you certainly have a pair on you to actually show up here looking for information." I said with a raised eyebrow at the smug blonde god sitting across from me.


    "It wounds me that you''d think so little of me, do I seem like such a treacherous individual?" he asked feigning sadness.


    I nodded vigorously "Yep, you give me the impression that you''d be more than happy watching terrible shit go down if it meant you achieved your goals." I said seriously.


    His face twitched a bit at that and I chuckled "Seems like I struck a nerve, dead on am I right?" I asked and he sighed.


    "That skill of yours is rather annoying, no hiding ones intentions at all when your very soul isid bare to see. Since this is the case I''ll be straightforward, you are dangerous and I''m here to make sure you don''t be a problem." he said firmly with a sharp look in his eyes.


    I smiled "See, was that so hard? It''s a wonder how much we''d get done if everyone was so clear from the get go. Not that you are being entirely honest here that is. You already know bing evil isn''t possible due to my skill. No you are here to try and fish for information on my full strength, no doubt to try and make ns to "tame" me so I don''t get in your way." I said with an amused look as his expression darkened.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Fiery changes

    Fiery changes


    Hermes of course ended up leaving in a bad mood after I t out ripped off the mask he was wearing to cover his true nature and thoughts. I didn''t care however as the god was little better than a snake that was waiting to sink it''s poisoned fangs into you. Perhaps his intentions were good in general but he was far too willing to cross lines he shouldn''t to achieve his end goals. The less such a person knew about my abilities the better in my opinion.-


    The best part though was that I knew for a fact Freya was breathing down the messager gods neck to keep him in check and from making ys involving my familia in the shadows. How did I know this? Because I had asked her to do so once it became clear Hermes wasn''t going to leave it well enough alone. Despite technically being a mere delivery familia on the surface the Hermes familia was easily one of the most influential familia''s in Orario and the wider world as well with more than a little ckmail on many powerful people.-


    I wasn''t stupid enough to antagonize such an entity without having the backing needed to keep it from crushing me like a bug. Freya was more than happy to take that position which even if it wasn''t explicitly stated also made my familia something to keep a healthy rtionship with for even the Hermes familia out of caution. Anyways Hephaestus''s visit was pleasant enough even if a little awkward as she tried and failed miserably at flirting. I mean like E for effort but clearly romance was NOT her strong suit. I admit I also probably frustrated her to no end as despite having an army of people wanting to hook up with her she had to choose one person who wasn''t really interested.-


    Like I get WHY she was trying to hook up with me since it was sorta public knowledge but basically she had decided that she would only hook up with a craftsman that managed to impress her. My cursed technique DEFINITELY qualified and that was pretty much the whole reason she was trying to snag me for herself. It was a weird fucking way to decide a partner in my opinion but who am I to judge?-


    It also wasn''t like I was TOTALLY averse to the idea either as she was so my type. She was hot, easy to understand for me and smart, the whole package. My reluctance however came in the form of her not wanting to y by catch and release rules but rather for keeps. If she was going to get me she wanted to make sure I knew that that was it, I was spoken for afterwards. I wasn''t really interested in that level ofmitment at this point unfortunately. I might be okay with itter when my leveling slowed to a crawl due to the amount of power I had making it difficult to find a challenge but for now I wasn''t going to give in to her attempts at attraction.-


    Anyways once my body finished it''s refinement I started messing around with my mes that were now a whole ass cursed technique. After the upgrade from extension to full technique the mes had changed in a few interesting ways. The first was of course the spark of true hellme that winked out of existence almost the instant it appeared but was devastating to whatever it touched in that time span. I''m talking now you see it, now you don''t type devastating.-


    The second change was that the mes became more "real" I suppose was a good description. Before there was no force behind my mes, just heat and death. Now however sending out a burst of mes actually caused some pressure to be pushed back onto me like a normal me would. If I concentrated my mes to burn brighter but in a smaller area like a rocket thruster I could even create enough reverse force to push myself back. This gave me the idea that if I used them right it might be possible for me to fly in a simr fashion to ironman.-


    Naturally I attempted exactly that and well it didn''t go so great. I could certainly get off the ground but the issue is that humans aren''t built in a fashion to fly like this. My arms and feet that were the sources I used to try and fly from twitched and moved which in turn messed with the angles anddirection of the thrust put on me. I spun out of control and dragged my face across the grass or into a wall more times than I liked to count.-


    Turns out that whole scene from the first Ironman movie where Tony sted himself into the ceiling and walls was not just for shits and giggles. I was durable as shit thanks to my stats but that didn''t mean facenting at like twenty miles an hour didn''t hurt like a fucking bitch. Everyone else in the familiaughed their asses off at my failures over that whole three day period before I got the hang of it and actually hovered for the first time. They certainly weren''tughing then but were jealous as shit instead.-


    Anyways once I had proof of concept for me propelled flight I set that aside to continue messing with my mes to figure out what else had changed about them. I did eventually discover that the "Alive" factor of the mes had further developed as I could now create fire clones. These weren''t real clones but rather merely my mes formed into a humanoid shape that could move and fight like me somewhat. They were still just mes though and thus didn''t actually have much substance to them but if you didn''t know that they were very good distractions.-


    "Your magics are so unfair." Daphneined after seeing my new clones.


    "All magic is unfair, some are just more so then others." I said sagely.


    "Said the man that spent three days eating dirt just to hover a foot off the ground." she said with rolled eyes.


    "Not my best moment I admit but to be fair I can''t be med. I meane on don''t tell me that you wouldn''t try to fly if you thought you could." I said and she reluctantly nodded.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Styles and potential

    Styles and potential


    "Now that you''ve leveled up I assume you''ll be going deeper into the dungeon now right?" She asked changing the subject.


    "Nope!" I said with a snicker at the incredulous expression she had at that answer.


    "But why not?" she asked confused.


    "I like to squeeze every drop of potential and benefit I can from each part of the dungeon I explore before I move on, I simply haven''t done so yet for the Great treebyrinth." I said honestly.


    "But aren''t those monsters now sorta weak for your current strength?" she asked missing the point.


    "Besides the green dragon and variants that sometimes show up down there that''s true. However the drops and materials from those floors are especially useful for me. I even discovered a whole new species of monster down there thest time I went so who is to say that I might not discover even more wonderous things there before i''m done with the ce?" I said with a widen grin.


    "You used that weird magic of yours to find those monsters right?" she asked curiously.


    "Cursed technique but yes that was how I discovered the species. It wasn''t even all that incredible a find to be honest as even normal grubs are well known to live inside trees so finding out that monster grubs were also found there in the dungeon trees was kinda a matter of course." I said with a shrug.


    "Whatever you say, anyways when are you going to make Cassandra and I some new stuff?" she asked bluntly.


    "Have some patience. I haven''t forgotten or anything but for Cassandra alone I''ll still need more time as I am not quite able to use that refined unicorn horn yet. As for you there''s not a whole hell of a lot I can do for you besides giving your current weapon an upgrade since you rarely use your full power. I can''t even really make any supportive items for you either as you suck at staying in one fighting style. Seriously like it''s either you are on the front lines or are ying distraction with hit and run tactics." I said annoyed.


    She got quiet at that as I wasn''t wrong at all. She had been rather indecisive about how she wanted to fight and it made things annoying for me to try and make any useful items for her. For the rest of the familia''s members it was easy as shit to find a way to improve on their fighting styles because they are consistent in how they did things.-


    Not to say that Daphne wasn''t skilled in fighting because no one gets to level two without SOME degree of skill but she was all over the ce in how she fought. Sometimes she was right up there with Bell, Welf and Lili at the front directly fighting the monsters but then other times she was practically acting as a rogue that skirted the fight to take attacks of oppurtunity before slipping back to a safe distance.-


    Even worse was that she had a whole ass magic that she simply refused to use unless it was absolutely necessary. The REALLY annoying part for me was that it was a boosting type magic to boot which meant she was never at full power without using it which made my job as a craftsman so much harder than necessary. I''m not saying that being able to go from one style to another wasn''t good because it certainly was. But when it starts to get in the way of you improving it''s probably time to decide which was your primary style and which was your back up.-


    I left her to think about that and went into my workshop to tinker with my new limits in the crafting department. Naturally the potency of my [Hell''s forge] technique had gone up considerably after my level up so the upper limit of material levels went up to level five and maybe even six once I got better at working on stronger more potent stuff. This wasn''t to say my skill went up merely that my technique was more potent, better fuel for it now after all.-


    First I tested my technique on level one materials like goblin teeth and war shadow ws. I was amazed to find that it practically cost next to nothing to mold the things even after refinement. A fascinating thing I discovered was that after I pushed a materials refinement to the limit it transformed qualitatively. I affectionately refer to this transformation as "Material Ascension". Goblin teeth that were ascended for example reached level two in quality while also gaining a sort of special property having to do with the weapon wielding DS''s that boosted them further than normal.-


    ''Hmm, so a normal monster material pushed to ascension gains special properties like a variant monsters drops but more specific to that species as a whole rather than the single individual. Is this why variant drops have special properties? Do they themselves ascend to a higher existence and thus their drops do too?'' I pondered this phenomenon curiously.


    I experimented further and came to the nasty conclusion that at the moment I could only ascend level one materials. This wasn''t because the materials were too strong either but rather it was like my technique itself was resisting the attempt, in other words a bottleneck had reared it''s ugly head yet again.-


    Admittedly I had been wondering when I''d find another one after I broke the previous one when I fought that minotaur so long ago. From what I understand they weren''t exactly umon in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen as each user of a cursed technique pushed the limits of their techniques and that meant finding areas that they stalled in until they got some form of enlightenment. The two mostmon bottlenecks were [Domain expansion] and [Reverse cursed technique]. -


    Both were notorious for the difficulty they presented to aplish with even someone considered a prodigy of that world like Satoru Gojo only figuring out [reverse cursed technique] aftering close enough to death to feel it''s chilling breath on his face. Smaller bottlenecks like this one that I had just discovered however should be far moremon and easier to get through so long as you kept banging your head against it till something broke. I wasn''t going to be doing that just yet though as I had so much more room in other directions that I could improve before I really needed to expand my technique to go further.-


    Honestly speaking my cursed technique was one of those bittersweet type deals in that for all it''s vast power it actually had TOO much potential. It wasn''t nearly as straightforward as my newly minted [Hellfire] cursed technique that was basically just a quirky fire. My [Hell''s forge] simply had too many different potential ways that I could expand and improve it because of the sheer vastness of the concept it embodied.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Hiatus

    Hiatus


    I know what your thinking but no I''m not dropping this or my other story either. I''m not sure how exactly it happened but you guys are somehow closing the gap between Pa treon and here which is not great news for me. This hiatus is so that I can widen that gap back up to a respectable twenty five or so chapters ahead on my pa treon, so like a couple weeks max. I know some if not most of you don''t want to pay to read the full library of what I have written but for those of you that don''t mind and have joined my pa treon it''s only fair that you get your moneys worth.


    With that in mindes this hiatus from this story and my Naruto fic. For a bit of good news to damper the bad I will be posting daily two chapters of my pokemon fic since unlike this one that fic is almost sixty chapters ahead on my patreon and can do with a bit of slimming.


    On a rted note I can exin some of the benefits you get from joining my pa treon(though most don''t use them).


    Direct contact: Yes if you send me a message on pa treon I WILL read it and respond as appropriate, spoilers and all.


    Reading ahead: Obviously all my active stories are ahead of what I post here on there.


    Creative addition: You guys get the unique oppurtunity to decide what I write via polls on the pa treon at the end of any particr story. In addition you can make suggestions on my current stories that if they fit can and will be added to them. This can be anything from an item to a whole character, lots of room for imagination.


    All that said heres my link :


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Direction

    Direction


    The forge of hell, an idea of such grand size and significance that mastering every facet of it would take multiple lifetimes easily. So far I had worked on the fire, sin or soul(kinda blurry there), crafting and transformative facets of the concept and even then I was by no means having mastered them. Off the top of my head I could think of three more facets that I hadn''t even begun to mess with, punishment, Hell itself and demons. Not exactly the most socially eptable of things to try and dip your toes in as you can tell.-


    It also helped that I had no fucking clue HOW to even dip my toes into those facets. Like you might think I could try and make a cursed spirit for demons but I tried that shit and let me tell you it felt WRONG. Like striking someone with lightning to bring them back to life, doable but not a part of lightning itself as a concept. In the same vein while I could make a cursed spirit it wasn''t part of my technique conceptually speaking. As for the other two facets of my technique I didn''t even have a clue.-


    Well beyond perhaps dressing up as a bat and beating sinful people within an inch of death for punishment, I wasn''t going to do that by the way. I also could exactly ask any of the gods about Hell either as even Hestia was extremely tight lipped about such topics. Some sort of divinew or other such shit she had said. That was a "divine" topic and not something a mortal should have any business knowing. It was kinda the same reason why no divine object is supposed to be able to show up down here in the mortal realm.-


    The sheer fact my mes had even that tiniest spark of true hellfire was cause for extreme rm as far as Hestia, Miach and Hephaestus were concerned. Speaking of, the forge goddess had practically begged me for some of the sparks of true hellfire. ording to her with her arcaenum sealed and there being no divine materials here she couldn''t make the best stuff possible for her like if she were in heaven. My true hellfire however provided a miniscule loophole that she was ufortably eager to leap through.-


    It was curiosity more than anything for her apparently. She REALLY wanted to know what would happen if she somehow managed to create a divine artifact while in the mortal realm. I was not exactly all that interested in helping her with that project after Hestia mentioned offhandedly that the forge goddess had once evaporated an entires worth of water just to quench a divine de. In case it wasn''t obvious I fucking live on this and would REALLY prefer it''s water not being totally evaporated. That did give me a bit of a internal debate though as I was a little curious if that water amount also applied to the dungeon or not.-


    Not saying that the busty redhead WOULD go that far but in my personal experience we craftsmen aren''t that great at holding back when an idea involving crafting takes us. Needless to say despite her very arousing(the mind is strong but the flesh is weak) attempts at persuading me to hand over some of those sparks I refused. She still won in the end regardless of my refusal because she managed to have my soldier stand at attention which was good progress as far as she was concerned.-


    Anyways back to me messing with my technique. Besides learning about material ascension on ident I also discovered a fascinating thing about my technique after I reached level three, abnormal senses. I don''t mean like the physical senses but rather an unexinable ability to gauge the quality of stuff at a nce. I could do something simr before now but only when I was physically touching the object and even then only when it was made from something that had a living source. Getting an upgrade from wired to wireless in a manner of speaking was awesome but unexpected.-


    I also had been trying to create a domain since I recovered after my level up by trying to visualize HOW exactly that would work. Logically one would assume that my first techniques domain would be simr to Mahito''s [Embodiment of self perfection] from Jujutsu Kaisen due to the simr effects of our techniques at first nce. His technique worked to manipte his own soul and the souls of others which in turn allowed him to effectively transform anyone he used it on as their bodies shifted to match their souls. It was in a way eerily simr to what my technique seemed to do but the differences were staggering.-


    His technique and by extension domain only effected souls and only if he was touching the target. Those were basically the only restrictions it had. He could turn animate to inanimate or back as easy as breathing he could seemingly make a normal person grow way bigger or smaller without messing with their density or even while doing so as a huge fuck you to thews of conservation. My technique while more expansive was also more limited as I needed to touch the target, it had to be from a living source, I couldn''t make more of it or turn it into something entirely different.-


    I also couldn''t fuck with souls directly since yes as a matter of fact I did make an attempt at it. Souls weren''t physical things though so my technique went digging for something physically that had no existence in a physical sense. Ironically this exact thing was also what tipped me off that while physical injuries of most sorts weren''t beyond my ability to mend I was particrly vulnerable to spiritual wounds. Obviously my soul was stronger than a normal persons but I couldn''t fix it like I could my body if it somehow got injured.-


    Anyways as I was saying before I got off track my domain would end up very different than Mahito''s. My problem was that I didn''t consider my technique to be meant forbat, I could use it in that regard of course but it wasn''t great at it unless I was against a drastically weaker opponent. Thing was however that I hadn''t seen hide nor hair of any nobat oriented domains from the source material of Jujutsu Kaisen. This was as a result uncharted territory for me and something I need to ponder seriously.-


    Obviously my domain would boost my innate technique drastically but how exactly that would look and how it was done was the parts that were eluding my search. I had a vague gut feeling that my domain would be infernal looking, likely a depiction of how my mind saw the forge in hell. It was the details however that were missing, the tools, the sure hit technique and all the built in buffs to my technique.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Alicorn glove

    Alicorn glove


    As I had expected it wasn''t so simple to create a domain. Merely thinking about it wasn''t enough, you needed something more. Whether it was a spark of inspiration or perhaps even some sort of external pressure I suppose I''d only figure it out at ater date. I didn''t try and force the issue either as I knew that it wouldn''t work and instead turned my attention to a different direction. Grabbing the refined unicorn horn I began experimenting with my cursed technique to try and extend it''s effect to level five or six materials.-


    While Ogun and Hephaestus both agreed that the weapon I made for the dark skinned god was first ss I considered that not to be the case. I was a perfectionist honestly so knowing that true first grade weapons were made of much better materials usually made me unwilling to ept my own creation being ssified the same. My crafts were as good as they were because I directly purified and refined the materials I used to levels that were thought impossible or next to for others. Hell I was the first person to figure out that materials could be ascended to a higher state if refined enough.-


    Now that sounds pretty mundane but I fucking guarantee that if I were to make this discovery public the whole world would collectively lose their shit. Even worse was that when people finally realize that I ALONE was the only person able to pull it off it would be open season on my ass in every sense imaginable. My whole warning during the war game would cease to be all that effective as the possible gains outweighed the losses dramatically. That doesn''t even begin to cover the sheer amount of threat to my life by those who don''t wish to see what woulde about by me growing into my potential.-


    I could maybe survive a fight against a level four that was decently far along that stage but if even a single level five or gods forbid higher were to show up my chances of survival plummet DRASTICALLY. I shook my head to chase these thoughts from my head and focused on the block of glowing unicorn horn. Normally I just sort of overwhelmed the material with my energy to get my technique to work but clearly that didn''t work for materials after level four.-


    This time I decided to take a different approach and refine my own energy into a sort of cursed energy thread, like surgical needles for precise work. This was a new way to use my energy so it took me a couple of days to get a rough grasp on it and finally get a reaction from the block. The precise use of my energy meant that I wasn''t just brute forcing the material to do as wished while it heavily resisted. Instead it was a though I was only facing a much smaller portion of it''s resistance that while I couldn''t outright ignore also didn''t prove all that challenging to work around.-


    I suppose the best way to describe it was that my cursed energy was sort of a Trojan horse that once inside quickly eliminated any resistance it faced without so much as touching the robust defensive wall of the material. Don''t get me wrong this was not fucking easy at all. It took serious concentration and time to maintain but it was totally worth it when I finally managed to transform the block of glowing horn into an ornate pearly white mesh glove with a ted backside anddetailed depiction of a Alicorn(Winged unicorn) on the back of the palm.-


    Once I was done I left my workshop to find Cassandra who should still be in the area since today was a rest day for Bell and the others. I found her unsurprisingly tending to the flowers in her casual clothes.


    "The flowers are growing well, good job." I said with a smile as I walked up.


    "Thank you." she said embarrassed about the unexpected praise.


    "I''ll let you get back to it in a bit but I was wondering if I might get your help in finishing this piece here." I said presenting the glove.


    "How pretty! I don''t mind helping." she said clearly liking the items appearance.


    "Great! So all I need you to do is put this on and then cast both of your spells, nice and easy right?" I said with a grin.


    "But..." she looked at her dirty hands reluctantly.


    "You need not worry about getting it dirty since it''s made of unicorn horn and will repel any dirt off it." I said reassuringly.


    She reluctantly slipped the glove on and shuddered a little when I grabbed her now gloved hand and went to work changing the gloves size and shape to fit her perfectly. When I gave her a nod she started chanting her first spell and as the energy traveled through her hand for it I used it to start forming a set of restrictions and a cursed technique. I could have ended it there but then the item would be iplete in my opinion so I waited until she had started casting her second spell to add more restrictions and change the technique into a bigger moreprehensive one.-


    Finally however Ipleted the item and it burst into a bright pearlescent glow while humming for a moment which startled the girl but merely made me grin maniacally.


    "It''s even better than I had hoped! A solid fifty percent boost to any spell you cast and even has an additional utility ability as well! This lovely thing will also let you store your excess mana to be used for a one time three hundred percent boost to a single healing spell before you need to recharge it!" I said thrilled to pieces with how it turned out.


    "That sounds useful." she said offhandedly as she admired the gently glowing glove on her hand.


    "I''m d you think so since it was made for you after all." I said with a chuckle when she stiffened in shock.


    "What!? No! I-I can''t...!" she panicked and tried to deny the item.


    I held up my hand to stop her though "Easy there, this was always the n so you aren''t imposing or anything. Besides you are the only true healer in the familia so if you don''t take it it would just sit uselessly on a shelf somewhere. Also I sorta kinda made it so only you could use it anyways so you''re stuck with it, sorry not sorry." I said with a grin.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Pros and cons

    Pros and cons


    Cassandra was such a treat to work with because she was so timid and worried about how others saw her that her reactions to even a little teasing were worth their weight in gold. That said I wasn''t here to torture the girl and left shortly after this. While the glove was a very useful item for her it was not really a purely selfless thing that I made. I''m a perfectionist to a degree and with the falna making changes to ones abilities based on their desires or experiences I wanted to see if I could engineer a superior healer.-


    Cassandra was timid but also so invested in what those around her thought of her that if I could nt the idea that with the glove she was the best healing mage in the city she might ACTUALLY be the best in the city. For anyone else this n would likely fail because that sort of mindset tended toe from within but Cassandra was an exception. Even if this little experiment of mine failed it wasn''t like I had actually done anything bad to her as I had merely given her an item that elevated her healing abilities is all.-


    Honestly speaking I didn''t see a single downside to this entire thing, an absolute win no matter how this ends up. Moving on from that I went back to working on improving my crafting ability with this new method of use for my cursed technique. It had it''s own pros and conspared to my previous way of doing it that I thought worth going over. For the cons well it was slow for a start. Compared to the original method I used it took far longer to achieve the same level of results.-


    The second con was that it took far more focus as well to the point I kinda lost track of my surroundings a bit which left me seriously vulnerable. While I may not think anyone without permission could break into my workshop without either losing a finger or literally breaking their way in that didn''t mean I was right. The falna has always given miraculous abilities to those who had it so it was not impossible that there were people with skills to bypass physical obstacles so long as they weren''t TOO thick.-


    Hell I had seen records of actual honest to gods teleportation and space maniption skills or magics in the records of the public library. In the face of such things my workshops defenses may as well be tissue paper. As much as it pained me to admit I also couldn''t really go nuts with my workshops defensive means either as too many cursed items gathered together that shared malicious purpose was a recipe for a cursed spirit to be born in that concentrated gloom. I also knew that when crafting cursed tools it''s best to keep any outside influences at a minimum lest the final product be corrupted. -


    This meant my workshop would ideally have a neutral affinity even when it was filled with cursed energy which it was rapidly bing. Cursed energy was kinda like air or water in that it moved from ces of high density to ces of low density once it started to flow. Until I showed up the cursed energy above the city and no doubt in other ces in the world as well had been still, stagnant. However I had created a small nearly imperceptible flow of cursed energy when I created an entire building using cursed energy.-


    To put it bluntly the cursed energy of high density above the city was trying to fill the low density area I had created, my workshop. Don''t get me wrong this was by no means a bad thing for me, quite the opposite in fact. More neutral affinity cursed energy density meant that I refilled my personal reserves many folds faster than if I were in an area without it. This also meant i could draw on this energy to use when crafting cursed tools to create stuff for much less personal cost energy wise.-


    Anyways the point was that being left vulnerable when using this new method was not great news for me. The third and final con was that I basically went from easy mode to normal mode when using it as there was no more of that "my technique did most of the work" stuff. When using this new method i had to manually form, stabilize, implement AND fuse every restriction and technique I made for the cursed items. This ironically lead me to the first pro of this method, every creation made with it was on a whole different level than the normal ones.-


    As it turned out manually having to do each detail myself meant that I didn''t make anything half assed like the intention method that the original method did. Don''t get me wrong the original method worked perfectly fine but since I was delegating the details to my technique it tended to choose the first set up that achieved my goal rather than the best one. If I got lucky it used the best because that was the first option it found but that was mostly relying on luck at that point rather than skill. Manually crafting every facet of a cursed tool on the other hand meant my personal best was always what I went with.-


    The second pro was that this new method did wonders for my energy control as I had to be incredibly precise in how and what I did while using it. This meant that even after I stopped using this method any application of cursed energy afterwards was subconsciously much more efficiently done, a discounted ck sh if you would. It was funny really that I learned so much about how to better utilize my cursed energy because of myself subconsciously trying to maintain the precision and efficiency that I had while using this method but for any and all cursed energy usages.-


    This in turn lead to the third and final pro of this method , pseudo formlessness. Thanks to this method subconsciously teaching me a better way to use my energy efficiently I could shift my own body near wlessly at will though to an obviously lesser degree than Mahito did in the manga. It was honestly as though my own body became ydoh that I could shape however I pleased by moving and changing different parts of it.-


    That said it was really fucking weird to do on anyrge scale. Changing my skin color or something mostly superficial like that didn''t bother me but I got the chills when I did stuff like move my organs or shapeshift into a different persons appearance. Thatst one was particrly disturbing as I can''t even begin to describe how it felt.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Back to it

    Back to it


    Shapeshifting came with some serious downsides however in the form of "settling". What i am referring to is the fact that if I remained in a different form for too long that form starts to get set as my default state which for obvious reasons wasn''t good at all. From my tests this process started after about three hours and progressively got worse the longer I remained transformed. I was d that I caught onto this as fast as I did or it would have been a very rude discoveryter.-


    I didn''t tell Hestia or anyone about my ability to shapeshift after I learned about it as it fell in the "the less know about it the better it works" category of tricks. To be honest I didn''t even n to use this trick all that much since I didn''t have much use for it at the moment. Like it''s nice to have and all but I don''t n to be a criminal who needs to remain hidden and my equipment identifies me even with a different face. To be fair i could have technically shapeshifted even at level one but it was only now that I leveled up to three that it was cost effective to do.-


    "Finally done tinkering huh?" Hestia asked in the morning i had decided to head into the dungeon for the first time since I leveled up.


    "Now that i have the other parts of my skills understood it''s time for battle." I said with a shrug.


    "Only the great treebyrinth right?" she asked suspicious.


    "Of course, I haven''t finished juicing the ce yet after all." I said with a grin.


    "I don''t think anything there could threaten your life but please be careful." she said seriously.


    "I have no n on dying so no need to worry your pretty little head over that." I said confidently.


    I genuinely wasn''t concerned about survival on those floors because as she said nothing that was known to be there was a real threat to my life. The highest leveled thing known to be there was a mere mid level four and at my current power I could just barely go toe to toe with that on equal footing. Mind you this was despite not having gained a single point in any of my stats after leveling up.-


    I couldn''t say definitively but I assume that by the time I hit mid level three I''ll be about as strong as a level five and by level four I''ll be about as strong as a level six. Then again I could be very wrong as the power scaling of each level up was not a joking matter and that meant jumping levels wasn''t so easy anymore. Despite that I was already rapidly gaining power to achieve these feats thanks to reaching the true limit of stats every level so far which was something that no one had done to my knowledge.-


    I stopped by the hostess on the way to the dungeon and was greeted by Ryuu cleaning up outside with a broom. She was a green eyed blonde elf with a serious expression most of the time but was actually quite friendly if she knew you.


    "Good morning Alex. Here to see Syr I assume?" she asked calmly and I shrugged.


    "Not much choice when she tends to punish me if I don''t."


    "She doesn''t mean anything by it." she said and I nodded.


    "If she did why in hells name would I keeping back?" I joked with a grin.


    "That''s an unusual phrase, in hells name, most say in heavens name instead." she said confused.


    "And that''s all well and good but why should I choose the lesser of the two goods? Heaven as I understand it is the ce all good souls go to but hell? Hells a ce of punishment for the wicked, a deterrent to keep us on the right path and byparison much more important in my opinion." I said honestly.


    She looked thoughtful "I hadn''t thought of it like that but what you say has logic. Thank you for exining." she said sincerely but i just waved it off.


    "No need to thank me, I simply felt like you might understand it from my point of view is all." i said honestly.


    I meant it too as her soul was colored in loss, revenge and regret. It wasn''t hard to understand that she had likely suffered some tragedy in the past at the hands of another and took vengeance into her hands. Someone like this could understand the way I see hell as a concept and perhaps even appreciate it. Most others merely see it as an evil ce of fire and pain but they all seem to overlook that it was only the wicked who went there and only so they could be punished for their sins.-


    "Good morning Alex, finally heading back to the dungeon?" Syr brought me out of my thoughts as she walked up with a smile.


    "That''s the n, I was going to do some mapping of the great treebyrinth to see if I could find anything interesting." I said with a smile.


    "That''s a rather dangerous ce for a new level three to go, are you sure that is wise?" Ryuu asked concerned.


    "I spent a month down there without issue before I leveled up so I don''t see why that would change after." I said casually but both Ryuu and Syr looked shocked.


    "How did you stay so long? Even the Loki familia needs to have many porters with only food just for their expeditions and you delve alone." Ryuu asked curiously.


    "Ah well I set up camp on the eighteenth floor before spending most of the day on the lower floors where I gathered food from nts and monsters. Fun fact by the way Battle boar meat is addictively good. If you ask nicely i might even bring some back for you." I said with a grin.


    "Doesn''t the meat vanish after you harvest the stones though?" Syr asked confused.


    "Normally but theres a trick to getting it to stay after you harvest the stone, familia secret though so I can''t say what it is." I teased causing her to pout.


    I headed out after that since Mama mia was starting to re at us. The dungeon square was bustling like normal at this time of day when I got there and no one paid me any attention when I put on my mask/helm and walked through the entrance to the dungeon. It was fucking hrious but some people had started wearing stylized helms that made them look monstrous after I leveled up to three. It was mostly just a fashion thing but if the form was right had some actual utility inbat as well.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Assassination

    Assassination


    I stepped into the dungeon''s first floor and smiled when a goblin immediately screeched and attacked me viciously.


    ''Ah how I missed this!'' I thought as I casually bitch pped the goblin hard enough to snap it''s neck.


    I didn''t bother harvesting the stone and directly crushed it underfoot reducing it to sand while the corpse burst into smoke that flowed into my tattoos. I took off in a nice and easy jog after that to drop floors as fast as possible without bing too tired. It wasn''t until the fifteenth floor that I had to stop and not because of a monster either.


    "Your overconfidence has made you careless kid." A female voice said out of nowhere from the mists as a sharp pain went through my chest and I looked down to see a gleaming curved de sticking outside my chest right where my heart should have been.


    What wasn''t obvious was that I had yed the clich¨¦ trick of moving my heart the the right side of my body so I was actually totally fine right now, well besides the knife sticking through me but you get the point.-


    "Who?" I asked while ying off the injury to be as bad as it normally should be.


    "I suppose I can give you the courtesy since you are already dead, names Anne, Eris familia." the assassin said smugly.


    "Evilus then, good to know no one will miss you then." I said casually before activating my technique.


    My head twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees to face her while arms bent backward at unnatural angles to grab her stunned form tightly.


    "What the fuck are you!?" she screamed in horror while trying to escape but it was far toote for that.


    "<strong><em>BURN.</em></strong>" I spoke with a gravely raw voice since my wind pipe was all sorts of fucked up with my head like this and ck mes sprung to life from my hands holding the assassin.


    She struggled and screamed but in a short span of a minute nothing remained of her beyond the dagger still stabbed through my chest. Speaking of that knife I flexed my technique and my flesh around it writhed as it gripped the de and slowly backed it out of my body until it nged to the ground.-


    ''Should have gone for the head, I''m offended by theck of research they did on me to think merely stabbing me with a poisoned de in a vital location would be enough to put me down. To be fair though it would probably work on any other level three.'' I thought as I righted my head and arms back to their normal ces while knitting the damaged part of my chest back together easily.


    I was satisfied however knowing that I made the assassins final moments as nightmarish as possible. A fun fact about my mes was that they became more painful the more sinful ones soul was. For the assassin who was stained quite thoroughly my little show plus the mes was more than enough to give a hellish(pun intended) experience.-


    I reached down and picked up the knife, a dagger really, that had been used to stab me and inspected it. My craftsman sense told me at a nce that while not a first rate weapon it was close as it was easily at the peak of a second ss weapons ability. I wasn''t terribly surprised by this as there were obviously skilled craftsmen working with Evilus or they would never have been a threat to begin with.-


    It was much like how a swordsman without a sword was half crippled as the greatest strength they could exert lied with their weapons and without them those options were totally out. There was no touchmark on the dagger but that made sense as it was an easy way to damn oneself if the weapon made was ever taken by an enemy. The design for the de wasn''t anything special really as it was a straight thin de with a needle-like point. There was no guard and the handle was stylized like a snake coiled around a stick.-


    Thanks to my technique I also discovered that the de was hollow with the pommel of the handle being a cap that could be taken off to fill it with poison, truly a de made for assassinations.


    ''They used Peluda barbs to make this de it seems, a good fit for an envenomed de given the powerful toxins of the monster. Even the lightest cut with this de might be enough to kill even a level five if they didn''t get treatment quickly. A pity that I am the bane of venoms and poisons alike.'' I thought genuinely impressed with the weapon even if it wasn''t the best it could have been had I been the one that made it.-


    I broke off some stone from the dungeons wall before refining it to an emerald green color and shaping it to fit the dagger since the original sheath had been burnt up along with the assassin. While I had no intention of passing off the work as my own that didn''t mean it wasn''t a good weapon that with a little tender loving care from me could be a valuable addition to someone''s repertoire.-


    I don''t like the idea of weapons being made for show so even if I wasn''t nning to sell this de it could still go into the familia vault to await a user worthy of it. An interesting thing I should point out is that no one would immediately think any bad of someone based on them having a de so clearly designed for assassination. Plenty of reputable adventurers hunted in the dungeon with simr weapons since venom and poison also worked well on monsters that tended to be made of flesh and blood. Hell this was one of the reasons rogue archetype adventurers existed and worked even if it took a special set of skills to pull off.-


    The way Bell fought was taking some aspects of a rogue style though only a little as he was far more open in his confrontations with his enemies. A true rogue style involved either trying to take out the target in a single strike or if that wasn''t possible having team mates draw aggression while you whittled away at the monsters using the openings thisck of attention on you created. Bell did something simr to thetter of those but he didn''t do the whole attack of oppurtunity thing so much as he sought to overwhelm with attacks.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Gathering intel

    Gathering intel


    Storing away the de I continued my journey down to the great treebyrinth. The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth floors were quiet or at least nothing odd happened there. The Goliath had of course respawned and been killed already during this time which I could only shrug about missing. I certainly wasn''t going to regret the time I spent familiarizing myself with the changes that came after my level up. Understanding my limits and current standing was arguably way more fucking important than some smoke I could just make up forter.-


    When I got to the forested eighteenth floor I briefly stopped in the town there to see if anyone had seen anything interesting. The town of Rivira wasprised entirely of wood and even had arge sign that told the amount of times it had been sacked over the years by the floor getting a surge of monsters from above or below it.<strong>[Rivira- 36th iteration]</strong> the sign read which sounded like a lot but it should be pointed out that the town had been around for easily several hundred years or at least since shortly after the first clear of the Goliath.-


    This meant that the fact the number wasn''t drastically higher was very impressive.


    "First time on the eighteenth floor huh? All the newbies gawk at the town when they first get here." A dark skinned stout man with a scar running through his left eye that was covered with an eyepatch said with a smirk.


    "You must be Bors, that or that intel broker owes me an exnation." I said with a chuckle.


    "Oh? Seems you aren''t all brass and got a brain to you after all. Most newbies are so eager to get down here that they neglect to gather information first, seen many a party killed as a result. Hos mostly from what I''ve seen." Bors said with a nod of approval.


    "Sounds about right. To answer your original statement though, no this is not my first time on this floor but rather until now I''ve never had a reason toe into town." I said honestly.


    "Just as odd as the rumors say then since most stop here first before moving further down. Got me curious kid, what changed for you toe here now then?" the guy asked curiously.


    "I''m looking for information on the recent happenings of the dungeon past this point, variants, treasures, the usual stuff worth knowing. This towns a hub for information of this nature so here I am." I said honestly.


    Bors smiled widely "You came to the right ce then, old Bors here has all thetest news for discerning customers who are willing to pay for it." he said with a greedy look.


    I had already expected this and reached into my bag and took out a small cloth sack of coins that I tossed to him. "Thirty thousand valis, I hope your information is good because I''ll be quite miffed if it''s less than ster at that price." I said with flickers of hellfire rolling off my body to make my point crystal clear.


    "A-ah yeah of course it''s worth it!" the man said stuttering slightly in nervousness at the thinly veiled threat.


    Luckily for the man his information was quiteprehensive and thus worth the price I paid. Honestly speaking it wasn''t even a lot of money for me anymore since I could earn a vastlyrger sum by takingmissions from Ptah or even just making a single customized weapon.-


    He told me of the rush to collect the dropped poison blood of the dread grubs after the guild finally announced their basic research on the drops uses. Alchemists across the city were scrambling to get some of the dropped liquid in hopes of being the first to create a new type of potion with it. This ironically also meant that the great treebyrinth was getting more explored as people carved out grub hunting spots for themselves forcing other adventurers to go look elsewhere. ording to Bors this wasn''t anything new as something simr happened whenever something new was discovered in the dungeon.-


    That aside this rampant greed fueled exploration lead to even more discoveries which in turn fueled this vicious cycle even further. One issue though was that the amount of variants in the great treebyrinth was starting to grow as a result of a few foolish people killing monsters but not collecting the stones since they weren''t what they were after. ording to Bors the current biggest threat in terms of the known variants was a Lizard man who had evolved to have wings and draconic features while doubling in size. The creature was estimated to be around high level three or fresh leveled four.-


    I was quite interested in this variant in particr for one reason that Bors told me, it was able to use a crude form of mana enhancement. Mana was obviously not just used for casting spells but in a warriors hands could be used to enhance their bodies in a pinch. It wasn''t efficient at all and was hardly worth using regrly but in a life and death type situation it was sometimes just enough to give the slightest edge that allowed the warrior to survive a normally fatal event.-


    For a monster to utilize even a crude form of this meant the thing had insane energy control talent and that meant it''s body was the perfect ingredients for me to finally upgrade my magic stone conversion cursed tools. The ones I was currently using at the Hestia property took hours to convert even the stones of a level one monster to the cursed stone counterpart which wasn''t great for my current level of crafting needs. Don''t get me wrong it''s drastically better than nothing at all but certainly needed an upgrade. Right now I was using wyvern parts to make the things but this variant sounds like it would serve as a far better material for me to utilize for this purpose.-


    Other than that Bors told me about the general state of the great treebyrinth, monster density, weather, the works. It took a few hours for the man to spill all the information he knew on the topic so i ended up having to camp out for the night on the floor which Hestia wasn''t thrilled about but didn''tin TOO much. Still with all this information nice and securely squared away in my noggin I was ready for tomorrow.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Exploring

    Exploring


    In the morning I headed down to the neenth floor to get my exploration and hunt on. I walked out the stone stairway and raised an eyebrow at what I saw. There was several dozen adventurers right at the entrance talking about how they were going to tackle the floor. Clearly I had underestimated just how ravenous the adventurers were for the recognition that came from discovering a new thing in the dungeon. Still once it was clear that I was alone the groups chose to ignore me as they thought that a single person wouldn''t make any difference with how many people were already here.-


    ''Oh how wrong they are.'' i thought with a chuckle as I chose a direction and started heading that way.


    With the amount of adventurers on the floor I didn''t find any monsters for a good fifteen or twenty minutes of travel which was a little annoying. When I did find a monster it was a Bugbear apanied by two Mad beetles. I wasn''t even remotely concerned about this set up though as I vastly surpassed these these in terms of stats. The Mad beetles rushed me utilizing their great speed while the bugbear lumbered behind them much slower due to it being specialized in brute force rather than speed.-


    I casually pulled my weapon out of it''s holster and waited for the beetles to get near me before moving. I stepped dashed to the side of the closer of the two beetles and swiped out with the blunt end of my weapon at the middle of it''s body using full strength. "CRACK!" The carapace of the monster exploded under the force while the creature itself wasunched to the side with half a foot in the grave.-


    I immediately leaned back as the sharp w of the second beetle passed through the space my torso was just upying. Moving my weapon to my left hip I twisted my body in a full body motion to backhand strike the beetle which unlike thest beetle instakilled it as I clearly damaged the magic stone in it as the creatures burst into smoke that I absorbed. That just left the much slower Bugbear that was shaking the ground slightly with it''s heavy footsteps. I crouched before jumping up as the beast plowed through under my feet missing me with it''s charge.-


    When Inded the beast was slowing down to turn around so the moment my feet touched the ground I twisted my stance to shift my momentum and dashed towards the still adjusting creature while switching my weapon to it''s axe headed side. By the time the Bugbear fully turned around my weapon was already falling like a meteor towards it''s forehead. It''s red eyes barely had time to recognize how fucked it was before my weapon made contact with it''s thick skull before promptly going through it and nailing the whole head to the hard dungeon floor.-


    "Good work team, really nailed it that time I think." I said with a chuckle as I ripped my now bloody weapon out of the skull of the definitely dead creature.


    I casually tossed my weapon into the air before catching it as I walked towards the first beetles that was hissing and throwing a fit as it tried and failed to get up. Not that it could be med for it''s failure when half it''s body was broken and not working.


    "Tough luck bug, better luck next time." I said before cleaving it''s head off.


    I refined the carapaces of the beetle and fangs, hide and ws of the Bugbear before harvesting the magic stones from the remaining bodies. I then packed away my drops and moved on following the wall of the floor. It amazed me how few adventurers did something simr despite knowing that monsters were spawned from the dungeons walls. I mean sure they could be spawned from the ground and ceiling as well but the dungeon for some reason or other didn''t like doing so. This wasn''t some special observation either but a well documented and acknowledged thing that most adventurers totally ignore.-


    The only real exception is the exploration familia that focus on mapping out each floor of the dungeon and as a result follow the walls to get the currentyout since the dungeon was a sneaky cunt and shifted resources and secret rooms in it on a very regr basis. Speaking of secret rooms I myself discovered one as I walked with my left hand against the stone of the dungeon wall. This time it wasn''t as unnatural as the odd wall on the eighteenth floor that I had found previously but rather I felt the solid wall go hollow behind a certain area.-


    I used my weapon to break through the wall and carefully check inside for any monsters but found none. Satisfied with that I busted open the opening until I could walk in and what I found made me grin widely. It was arge shiny crystalline metal structure in a small chamber that I could barely fit in that I identified immediately as adamantite. I wasn''t all that surprised to find it as there were many reports over time about secret treasure rooms like this being found after a scuffle broke the wall concealing them.-


    WHY they were there to begin with was anyone''s guess as it seemed odd that the same dungeon that was absolutely trying to kill us adventurers would reward us so heavily for damaging it. You might think it was a trap but no more often than not nothing actually happened if you took the treasure besides you getting a little richer. Anyways I walked up to the me size crystal of dark silver metal and rested my hand on it''s surface.-


    "Hell''s forge!" I spoke the incantation of my innate technique to give it that extra oomph as I began purifying and condensing this metal down.


    While I would love nothing more than to take the whole ass crystal as it was my bag was not that big. That was also a VERY good way to make people with more greed than sense decide that they wanted to see what the afterlife was like. Thanks to my skill I may not be able to kill "innocent" souls without feeling like shit but there was nothing stopping me from breaking both legs and arms and leaving these people to the monsters. Dark I know but I don''t like leaving potential future enemies alive toe bite me in the asster.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Errors have been made

    Errors have been made


    That whole trope where the hero spares an enemies life and theye backter as an ally or even friend was bullshit. People held grudges for less here and you expect that someone will just let it go? Not a chance in hell. Like it''s one thing if the whole fight was a misunderstanding but if someone just straight up wanted you dead sparing their life very rarely changes that afterwards. Rather than dealing with a reurring viin I''d rather just nip the issue in the bud and go on with my life.-


    Ironically for many that would make me seem like a viinous person but honestly speaking those people could go eat shit for all I care. Anyways Adamantite was a very impure metal ore this high in the dungeon so after I got rid of these impurities the me sized crystal shrank to being barelyrger than a basketball. This was less than ideal still since that would still be toorge to stuff in my bag without taking up a bunch of room.


    ''I suppose I can just go a bit unorthodox with it and turn it into ayer of armor until I can get back to the surface.'' I thought with a shrug.


    My technique gave me the unusual option of just forming the metal into a different shape without truly utilizing it, a sort of disguised ingot if you would. In this case I was just going to turn it into a solid metal te covering my torso like a cuirass. It was much heavier than any normal piece of armor would be but nobody was likely to bat an eye at it even if I walked right in front of their faces with it on.-


    With that small matter settled I left the hidden space in the dungeons wall and continued tracing my way around the entire wall of the neenth floor. Most people would quickly tire of the rough sensation of the dungeons stone wall under their fingertips as they walked but for me it was entirely different. Through my contact with the dungeons wall I had a sort of connection to the dungeon itself that gave me a flood of information to try and make sense of. For example I could feel it when a monster was being formed behind a wall if I was close enough and could even interfere with the process with some serious effort.-


    The dungeon REALLY didn''t like when I did that as if I had to give it a goodparison it was like how you breathed instinctually but then someone punched you in the sr plexus and now you had to manually breath. It was like that but scaled down massively due to the dungeons size. Even despite being scaled down I highly doubted it was a pleasant sensation for the dungeon and it retaliated viciously. By that I mean it flooded the spot I was fucking with with powerful monsters spawning.-


    That was how I got in my current predicament in which I was surrounded by six green dragons and no less than ten gunbe. That was to say sixrge powerful level four fire breathing monsters and ten giant level three sniper dragonflies, a bad situation for even me to be in. At first I had managed to distance myself from the wall when these things were sent at me by the dungeon for my vition but the gunbe were proving hard to escape from which led to the six green dragons finally surrounding me.-


    "BOOM!"


    A powerful explosion went off in the center of this grouping as the dragons all unleashed a fire breath at me simultaneously. I had barely managed to fling myself outside the pir of fire using a dense st of my own mes this time and I was sweating. "Small" wounds like a de through the chest or a w scratch I could mend with my technique but an inferno of mes? That was death if it hit me as the damage was too much all at once. It was the reason that I got as close as possible to my enemies when I fought, to limit them to close range attacks as well.-


    ''Gotta deal with those gunbe before I can handle the dragons.'' I thought seriously as my mind went to a cold calcting state as I felt the very real threat to my life.


    <em><strong>"Hell fire!"</strong></em> I spoke the incantation for my mes to improve my power and control over them as they danced over my skin and armor.


    In mid air I punched out and arrows of ck mes zig zagged through the air targeting those annoying bugs that hadn''t stopped shooting those projectiles at me. Four of them dodged the mes and left my control range while thest six either failed to do so entirely or barely got grazes by the mes with only one not catching fire as a result. With that single attack I had halved the number of the bugs while the green dragons had immediately shifted to target me with their own mes.


    ''No time for a second attack , MOVE!'' I thought as I sent another st of mes from my feet to redirect my fall out of the stream of bright red mes that went through that spot mere momentster.


    I hit the ground hard and rolled before leaping to all fours and kicking off the ground as hard as possible to propel myself away from the mes chasing me. By no means was I moving in a graceful manner but rather anyone with eyes could see that I was desperately escaping the continuous streams of fire that the dragons were sending my way.


    ''This can''t go on or i''ll just tire myself out!'' I thought as my mind raced to find a way to break out of this situation


    Like a second wind I locked onto a strategy that may work and employed it immediately.


    "BOOM!" I unleashed a vast amount of mes straight out of my chestunching me at extreme speed straight up while simultaneously knocking the breath out of me. As I had exined before while I couldn''t be burned by my mes I still felt their impact and in this case it I basically set off a brick of C4 under me which meant naturally all that impact had to go somewhere. As a level three with stupid high endurance stats on my previous two level ups this wasn''t enough to blow me apart or anything but I definitely felt it.-


    I was sort of d for the thick adamantite chest te I had on as that was probably the only thing that kept my organs and ribs from taking serious damage from this move. Still it paid off as I had exceeded the distance the dragons could hit me with their mes giving me a little breathing room.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 RCT

    RCT


    Ignoring my pain I created jets of me from my hands and feet to propel me even further away while simultaneously flooding the space below me with my fire. The gunbe that had chased me up into the air were washed over with the fire and effectively erased. The green dragons also didn''t get away scot free either as my mes spread and consumed the area like an insatiable locust swarm. Grass, weeds, flowers and even the trees unlucky enough to be in it''s path were devoured while the dragons being unable to fly also got covered by the mes.-


    While they were distracted with that I allowed myself to freefall to the ground and dug through my bag for a potion to replenish my energy that was getting kinda low. I drank it and winced when I hit the ground but didn''t sit there admiring the dirt for long before I needed to get up as the dragons decided that killing me was more important than the ck mes slowly chewing through them. The battle had switched from long range to close range and I had a bit of a disadvantage here because there was only one of me and six of them.-


    One level four monster I could probably handle but six all working together? My shit got rocked. I was like Mahito when he got jumped by Yuji and Nanami. I got hit by one dragon and before I had time to react to that the next dragon hit me. Unlike Mahito though I lost my right arm and left leg before my inspiration hit and I felt the barrier stopping me from using reverse cursed technique shatter.-


    "<em><strong>Reversion technique: Heavens judgement!"</strong></em>I spoke hoarsely and in little more than a whisper but the very space shuddered with every syble.


    A white sphere of void manifested around me and the dragons still in mid swing simply burst into smoke. Inded hard in the perfectly smooth round hole that was the dungeons ground andughed in euphoria. This first experience of reversed cursed technique was like the best drug ever as I couldn''t even bring myself to care about my missing limbs or pain. I felt good, no GREAT! I felt as though I could take on the whole world and win. With a rush of positive energy my flesh bubbled and grew out two new limbs near instantly. -


    Even in my high as fuck state I recognized that the appearance of these new limbs however were... off. Unlike my normal skin tone and nails these two new limbs were red and had thick ck nails on the toe and fingertips like the ws of a beast. Shape wise they were just the same as they had been before but clearly they weren''t. I suppose I should mention that my clothes, weapon and bag were all gone as my technique erased anything not biologically a part of me.-


    This discordant appearance from my limbs was enough to snap me back to reality and damper the high enough for the logical part of my brain to register how big of a problem this was. I let the positive energy fade and with it the high it brought. Using my normal cursed energy I changed my skin color back to normal on these new limbs but left the nails alone since nobody would see them anyways with gloves and boots on. My gains from the dragons weren''t great as far as drops went but smoke wise I gained roughly as much as the goliath had given me which was fair considering that each dragon was also level four like the goliath, just not monster rexes.-


    Drop wise there was nothing from the gunbe and I merely got a few scales and a single fang from the dragons.


    ''As much as I like now having ess to reverse cursed techniques that was WAY too fucking close forfort.'' I thought seriously.


    I faced death once again and barely got by with a stroke of enlightenment. Thankfully I doubted I would require such a thing for domain expansion as I wasn''t nning on having abat oriented domain but one that boosts my crafting.-


    ''Still it''s interesting to think about the reversion techniques no avable to me that I can now add to my domain.'' I thought as white frost formed on my fingertips as I reversed my hell mes.


    Reverse curse technique did exactly as the name suggested and created the opposite of whatever technique it was used on. The regeneration it granted was more of a side effect of the positive energy than it''s intended purpose. My [hell fire] was an excitable dark force that consumed everything it touched so it''s reverse was naturally a frost that was stable and froze everything it touched , preserving it. -


    My [hell''s forge] on the other hand was a close range(I have to touch the thing to use it) force of creation generally speaking. This meant it''s opposite was pure destruction, the erasure of everything it affected and could even be used at a distance. Honestly thatst bit was the most valuable part of the ability as until recently I had relied on my mes for rangedbat but as a "to whom it may concern" type deal that was dangerous for my surroundings. This new reversion technique however let me attack at range in a precise manner.-


    If my mes were a bomb my new thing was a sniper round, that exploded if I wanted it to.


    "Now, where''s the nearest monster? I need some pants." I mutter finally paying attention to the fact I was totally naked.


    Hestia concealed my falna so it wasn''t visible on my back and thus didn''t need to be covered but walking around with my dick out was both not legal and also not a good idea in general if I liked my reputation.


    "Why not use the drops?" you may be asking and the answer was because I turned those into a crude set of cestus(brass knuckles bigger meaner brother). As much as I''d be able to kill monsters with my mes and bare hands I''d rather not if I could help it. Thankfully the dungeon didn''t decide to spawn some more monsters on top of me after I killed it''s retaliation party and I had time to find some grass and turn it into a green speedo. Comfortable? Nope! Functional? Does it''s job.

 Nights approach

    Nights approach


    Now that I didn''t have my dick flopping around as I moved I went searching for a monster to turn into an actual pair of pants. I will also admit that I was more than a little miffed that my armor, drops and weapon had all been erased due to my reversion technique and wanted to vent my frustration out on a monster that probably didn''t deserve it. I changed my mind about that undeserving part when the first monsters I came across was a group of three Hobgoblins mutting an adventurers corpse, these ones DEFINITELY had iting.-


    They barely had time to react before my cestus covered fist smashed into the back of the middle ones head with a satisfying "CRUNCH!". That Hobgoblin died without even knowing how and the other two immediately turned their dull des towards me and away from the corpse. I casually leaned back as the first de whistled through the air where I was just at and pivoted my hips to avoid the second de as well. I raised my right hand up to my left shoulder before dropping my stance low and swung my fist backwards into the sternum of the Hobgoblin to my right.-


    The creature immediately burst into smoke as it''s magic stone shattered under my strength and the shards fell to the ground. Thest remaining Hobgoblin didn''t waste the oppurtunity and hacked into my left shoulder with it''s de only to be unable to retrieve it as I used my flesh to grab it and hold it in ce. I casually reached over with my left hand and gripped the monsters wrist.


    <strong><em>"Reversion technique: Helheim!"</em></strong>Isaid calmly as white frost burst from under my palm and rapidly encased the monster that died in terror and suffering as it''s body was fully frozen.


    "CRACK!" I flexed my grip and the brittle frozen corpses wrist shattered.


    ''A bit slow but I suppose I''m just being picky.'' I thought judging the reversion of my mesbat effectiveness.


    I didn''t need more than a single corpse to clothe myself and thus tore out the magic stone from the frozen body and absorbed the smoke it turned into. That was how I discovered something very interesting. The mana within the stone had also frozen, in other words my reversion had caused even pure energy like mana to freeze and stabilize.-


    ''Perhaps I could use this ability to "quench" my cursed items for a better end result?'' I pondered the possible uses of this discovery.


    Cursed energy was normally unstable and wild so discovering the stabilizing trait my reversion held I had to consider if it could be used to stabilize the cursed tools energy after I created the things thus making them more efficient. I also didn''t miss the implication that this meant forbat either. Being able to freeze mana meant that in theory I could also freeze spells leveled against me though I suspected that was a tall order to learn in any short period of time.-


    I chose to put that aside for now though and approached the other hobgoblin corpse and refined the hide and bones a little before tearing the magic stone from it''s chest and absorbing the smoke while getting to work on the hide and bones that dropped to make some pants. The design I went with was a simple dark ck leather pant with hardened spiked bone tes on the thighs and shin. I even made a zipper and button out of bone for the thing that was a nice touch if I do say so myself.-


    Naturally when I put them on while getting rid of the grass speedo and they didn''t fit quite right I just adjusted them on me until they fit perfectly without getting in the way of my mobility. That settled I cremated the dead adventurer and their stuff before making my way back towards the stairs leading up from this floor. I passed a few parties of adventurers on the way but besides getting some stares for my appearance no one tried anything. I honestly couldn''t even me the people for staring either as when I wasn''t dressed in my gear I stood out like a sore fucking thumb.-


    I was pale skinned and covered by strange ck tattoos on my chest, face, arms and back. My new pants were also unusual though pretty practical. I was also very fit and not too bad on the eyes either with wild short brown hair and sharp brown eyes that seemed to see right through you(which they sorta did). I wasn''t super handsome or anything but I was a little above average which was good enough so long as I was strong and not aplete asshole.-


    I''m not talking prideful since it was widely epted that pride was just something that went hand in hand with power. No I was referring to how I treated others during interactions, bullying, violence and putting others down were things that made someone unlikable and so long as I didn''t act like that all the time I was golden. Every now and again or if it was for a good reason was fine though since no one was perfect but all the time just made one an unlikeable asshole.-


    I wasn''t an asshole though so a few amazons were giving me looks that made me ufortable as I passed their parties. The amazon race as a whole was very baby hungry when they found a male they thought strong. I walked away especially quickly when I came across those looks as I wanted none of that. While granted most amazonians wouldn''t force me to parent the result of a one night stand I was a bit worried that any kid of mine would also have cursed energy. I had a great deal of time before I was likely to reach a strength that would keep people from trying to forcefully breed me for that trait and thus wanted to avoid impregnating anyone at the moment.-


    While I finally reached the surface from the dungeon I was confronted with a very ufortable situation.


    "Ara~? I must say I love the new look.~" a female voice said seductively and I felt a chill at it.


    I looked at the source and felt goosebumps rise at who it was, Nyx.


    "Hihi~ My when you look at me like that I get all bothered , you''ll take responsibility for making me like this right?" the beautiful but ominous goddess teased with a seductive blush.

 Explanation

    Exnation


    "Why do I feel like you being here at this exact moment isn''t a coincidence?" I asked after I calmed myself down.


    "Mo~ Ruin my fun why don''t you?" she pouted. "If you must know it''s not a coincidence. I felt my arcaenum twitch in response to something approaching in the dungeon and I''ve been waiting here to see what it was. Seeing that it is you is just the most pleasant of surprises." she said with a lustful nce at my body.


    ''Her arcaenum twitched in response to me unlocking reverse cursed technique? Why?'' I pondered this information seriously while ignoring her gaze.


    "If I am not mistaken isn''t your divine domain that of night?" I asked to get some rification.


    "Oh? Did Hestia tell you that or was it perhaps Freya? Whatever the case that is indeed my divine domain. I''ll have you know I am also the first and most high authority in this domain as well." she said proudly.


    "If that''s the case I''m not sure why your arcaenum would react to anything I did. None of my own abilities are even slightly rted to night." I said seriously confused.


    "Is that so? Perhaps you are connected to me on a deeper, more spiritual level then?" She said with a look that screamed "I know something you don''t!".


    "Hmm. Regardless I should be going, Hestia is no doubt on the verge of a mental breakdown by now." i said to excuse myself.


    "We certainly wouldn''t want that now would we? Run along now little mortal, we''ll meet again soon enough." she said ominously before walking away with a seductive shake of her hips with each step she took.


    ''This woman is going to cause me some trouble in the future isn''t she?'' I thought with a sigh as I watched her leave.


    Once she was gone I hurried through the dungeon square and across the rooftops as moonlight cascaded down on me from the sky above. No one really noticed me as I sprinted across the rooftops as I was careful not to put too much pressure on the buildings with each step. My mes were quite useful for this as I created small jets of the stuff on my chest and hands that gave me an upward and forward lift. While not quite enough to make me fly it did lessen the amount of force I needed to move quickly across the rooftops.-


    It only took me about thirty minutes to arrive at the familia manor thanks to this and made a bit of amotion when I did to announce my arrival. Bell and Lili were the first to investigate as the standard vanguard of their group and were in fullbat readiness mode. They both rxed visibly when they saw it was just me but quickly got confused expressions when they noticed I was wearing an unusual pair of pants andcked any other equipment that I normally would have.-


    "What happened!? Where is your stuff!?" Hestia eximed in shock when she came out of the house after getting the all clear from Bell and seeing my current state.


    I smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of my head "So I maybe sorta pissed off the dungeon." I said honestly.


    "What did you do!?" Hestia eximed in horror.


    "I kinda got ahead of myself and fucked around with the monster spawning process of the dungeon, it didn''t like that." I said honestly.


    "What does that have to do with... this?" Daphne asked gesturing to my odd state of dress andck of equipment.


    "Okay so when I fucked around the dungeon made sure I found out why that was a bad idea and sent six green dragons and like ten gunbe after me all at once. To be honest I probably would have been killed if I didn''t get a breakthrough just in time. Unfortunately said breakthrough sorta erased all my stuff so I had to improvise, hence the outfit." I exined awkwardly as my entire familia stared at me dumbfounded.


    "So you mean to tell me that not only did you make the dungeon angry with you but you lost all of your stuff and almost died as well?" Hestia asked with a barely contained anger.


    I nodded and she straight up decked me in the nose, I didn''t even try to resist either because I did deserve this to a degree. It didn''t hurt me much anyways since my endurance stat was monstrously high from my past two levels and thus I was quite hard to injure for a normal person. While some gods could take on a level three despite their physical abilities being sealed to that of normal members of whatever race they chose to be down in the mortal realm, Hestia was not one of those gods.-


    I should mention that those gods capable of that kind of feat could only do so because of skill rather than power. As literal gods ofbat they were naturally more skilled at fighting than any mortal and thus using pure skill could ovee the strength gap but only up to level three as after that no unleveled physical attack had any chance of harming an adventurer. Thanks to my stats I was pretty much in this category at the moment so I just stood there and let Hestia beat up on me to relieve her anger.-


    When she was good and tuckered out I spoke again "Got it out of your system or should I wait tillter to give the actually good news?" I asked calmly.


    "What good news?" She asked still a little miffed but at least cooled down enough to be curious.


    "Oh you know nothing TOO big just you know that I have some new abilities and might be pretty much immortal now. Standard stuff really." I said with a grin.


    ""WHAT!?" she and most of the rest of my familia eximed at the same time.


    "Okay before anyone gets any funny ideas I CAN still be killed , it''s just really really REALLY hard to do now. Pretty much anything short of destroying my brain in an instant I can recover from now so long as my energy reserves aren''t empty. I can also erase stuff, make ice and heal other people too so theres that too I suppose." I said acting like it wasn''t as big a deal as it was.


    FAMILIA.EXE WAS STOPPED WORKING

 Grounded

    Grounded


    Once they all recovered from the bomb I dropped on them they were all eager to understand what the fuck actually happened for me to suddenly get such a massive jump in abilities. I revealed my enlightenment of reversed curse technique and how that worked with my current abilities and gave me healing as well. My ability to regrow limbs wasn''t exactly a secret in the familia at this point but it was not truly healing so much as manipting the body to rece the lost limb or fuse the wounded flesh back together.-


    Reverse cursed healing though was true and proper regeneration that didn''t starve the receiver to do but used the positive energy as a fuel source instead. Unlike normal cursed energy however positive energy was extremely difficult to send outside my own body to manifest. It was also really damn hard to control as well but neither of these were surprising for me. Qualitatively speaking positive energy was a super advanced form of cursed energy and thus WAY more difficult and different to handle than the basic cursed energy. I may as well have been learning a brand new energy type in fact as a result.-


    Unfortunately this good news wasn''t enough to get me off the hook with Hestia and she grounded me for a month. That meant no dungeon, limited crafting and training. She initially wanted to entirely remove crafting and training but I managed to negotiate it down since I did still need to rece my equipment and master my new abilities. I still only got four hours of "free" time to train or craft a day though which left me bored out of my skull for most of the day.-


    The first thing I focused on was mastering my new abilities for the first two weeks. To start out with I practiced with my new positive energy to bring my control up to snuff. This meant spending all four hours at a time meditating as I focused on manipting the creation and control of this energy. This alone showed fast progress as I had experience from when I first got cursed energy and thus had some reference as to how to go about bringing this new energy up to snuff. Annoyingly I sorta glowed when I was working on manifesting the stuff outside my body which made me look like a glowstick.-


    For the remaining part of those two weeks I practiced my reversion techniques that came from reversing my two techniques. Hestia was NOT amused at how I called my [Hell''s forge] reversion [Heavens judgement]. Like she totally understood why I named it that way but that didn''t mean she approved it. She like most gods considered the heavenly realm a sacred and holy ce even if like the mortal realm it was actually neutral in nature much like mortals and gods themselves. My [Hell''s forge] represented the creation aspect of hell so naturally the reversion represented the destruction aspect of Heaven.-


    It was all symbolic and stuff, cursed energy was fun like that. Interestingly though the reversion of my [Hell fire] technique was still afterlife rted but was an opposing typepared to the hot consuming mes of hell. It was a soul deep cold that in a way preserved rather than destroyed which was why I named it after the Norse mythologies realm of the dead [Helheim] that was a ce of bitter cold. I wondered why it wasn''t a heavenly aspected ability but one still rted to the afterlife until I recalled that my [Hell fire] was actually an extension of my [Hell''s forge] that became it''s own technique after my level up.-


    By simr logic it made a degree of sense that it''s reversion was it''s opposite while still falling as a subcategory under my [Hell''s forge]. Gonna be totally honest here but I had totally ignored the possibility of the different representations of Hell all being a part of the actual Hell and had been stuck on the fiery aspected one preached about on earth. While it was undoubtable that my technique was based on that aspect of Hell it MIGHT just be a doorway to the full realm rather than the be all end all.-


    Once I had this thought it took root in my mind and I couldn''t help but ask Hestia if my idea was right. She mmed up at the question though and made it clear that no god would answer that question, it was taboo. Syr/Freya was more able to enlighten me as to why it was so thankfully. See while we mortals were allowed to know that the afterlife existed we WEREN''T allowed to know what the details of it were exactly unless we discovered it by ident or personally went there somehow.-


    Oh yes we mortals could indeed go to the divine realms however it was way fucking harder for us to do so than it was for the gods toe to the mortal realm. The reason for this was perfectly natural really. Gods could "fall" by suppressing their existence to a level eptable in the mortal realm. Like a skilled fighter holding back to spar with a newbie. Naturally it was a much more difficulty process for that same newbie to match the skilled fighter without themselves growing to a skilled fighter themselves.-


    In this case for a mortal to go to the heavenly realms they needed outside aid and lots of preparation. It was also something few mortals had ever actually survived doing as once in the heavenly realms they were subject to the full unbridled power of the beings that lived there. To put that into perspective that was like every ant being as strong as the level seven monster rex, Balor. And that was just the starting level of power for the things over there so obviously you''d need to be level eight or nine just to possibly survive in that ce.-


    Learning that insane shit killed any idea of me trying to make a trip to the literal Hell in the fucking cradle. Sure I might make vast leaps of progress in my cursed technique but I sorta need to be alive to enjoy those benefits no? Though there was also a possibility that I''d show up as a soul in Hell after death with what would basically be a sparkling job history in the field. Could you even fathom how happy the deities in that ce would be to have someone show up that already knows how to do the job?

 Tiona’s visit

    Tiona¡¯s visit


    Once I removed the idea of traveling to Hell from my mind I focused on integrating my new reverse cursed techniques in my crafting for the remaining two weeks of my sentence. For my [Hell''s forge] reversion I simply removed any thought of using it for this purpose as it simply erased whatever I used it on which left me with less to work with at all. My [Hell fire] reversion though was ridiculously useful while crafting due to it''s innate ability to halt all activity. If the energy showed signs of erupting I could freeze it in ce before slowly chipping away at it thus not only saving the material but also keeping the damage to a minimum.-


    This proved especially useful when I sought to work on spatially expanded bags again and a catastrophic failure meant dismemberment or possible death. My ice froze the chaotic spatial energy and by carefully "thawing" it with my mes I was able to safely resolve the issue without it causing any damage at all. My reverse cursed techniques ability to heal had also proven a massive boon not just for me but surprisingly enough Miach and Naaza.-


    See I had wondered what would happen if I imbued the positive energy from the reverse cursed technique to a potion and as a result discovered that it increased the effectiveness by a factor of almost two hundred percent. I failed to understand why exactly this was beyond that it increased the ingredients reactivity with each other. Obviously it was a whole hell of a fucking lot moreplicated than that but that was all I understood. Miach and Naaza were informed of this experiment of mine after the potion I tried it on almost killed me by overloading my energy reserves.-


    If I didn''t have the Draconite that took all of my energy and then so much more without even a slight twitch in deformation I may have had a serious problem. The material definitely exceeded my previous guess of it being a level six material and I had my suspicions that it may even be a level seven or eight material with how much nothing that much energy did to it. I suppose I should also mention that I purposefully removed my right leg and left arm to grow them back.-


    Honestly I wouldn''t have done something like that intentionally had it not been for something I noticed, the previously regrown limbs were superior at utilizing cursed energy. See I hadn''t utilized just pure energy without a technique behind it since my time in the dungeon and thus failed to notice this detail until I did. My limbs that I had regrown using reverse curse technique in the dungeon were about ten percent more efficient than my other limbs at controlling and moving pure cursed energy. Once I discovered this I purposefully removed my limbs and regrew them so that my body was bnced again.-


    They of course had that red coloration to them as well as ck w like nails that the other limbs did before I altered the color of them. I only took such drastic action because I was quite well aware of what the consequences of being unbnced could be. In small matters the effect would be miniscule and not worth mentioning but in things requiring precision it would cause serious issues. Regardless the small boost to my ability to utilize cursed energy in my four limbs was nice if nothing else. -


    "Hey whatcha up to?" Tiona asked when she came to visit and found me practicing with switching between my regr technique and the reversion.


    "Working on adding a new spell I got to mybat abilities. You just passing through or did you want something specific?" I exined before trying to learn why she was here.


    She grinned "Captain sent me to talk about that water ring you showed off. Wants to know how much they''d run us. He sent me since we''re friends." she said happily.


    I chuckled "He does realize I can see through such a tant attempt at maniption right?" I asked amused and she shrugged.


    "Dunno, nobody tells me any of this stuff since it just goes over my head. Tooplicated." she said casually.


    "I can see the appeal of thinking like that, sounds less stressful than worrying about everything." I said honestly.


    "Umu, anyways about those rings?" she said happily.


    "Ah, I''d say they''d run you half a million valis each though I can knock it down to four hundred thousand apiece if you buy ten or more, bulk discount if you''d like." I said casually.


    Tiona''s face took on aical shocked expression at the price though it wasn''t like I could me her.


    The price I just listed was nearly a quarter of the price of a top tier first grade weapon if you went to nearly any smith in the city. I set the price like this for a reason beyond greed too as while both easy and inexpensive for me to make water rings were easily ssified as a strategic resource. There was nothing like it avable in the market right now despite there being a VERY big need for it. Scarcity means value and I understood this well and thus gave a high price right off the rip to show my understanding of this idea.-


    Honestly I''d be more than happy to haggle down the price by as much as half this asking amount as I''d still be making a monstrous amount of profit from the sale but it''s always best to ask high first.


    "I''ll tell the Captain but I don''t think he''ll like it." she said once she recovered from her shock.


    I shook my head with a grin "Nah, if my read on the guy isn''t off he''ll get why I said that and send someone to negotiate further. Business aside how''s things been?" I asked changing the subject.


    "Bout the same as usual. I dive a bit while waiting for the next expedition and we get some newbies that have to get trained. Lefiya''s been learning concurrent chanting though so that''s been fun to watch." she said honestly.


    "A good trick for her to learn given what I understand about her skill. It gives her monstrous potential but actually grasping that potential will no doubt prove an equallyrge challenge. Still can''t help but be a little jealous. The entirety of the Elf races magic at her fingertips so long as she can remember it all." I said honestly.

 Remaking

    Remaking


    Tiona stayed for a bit after that and chatted with me about my new magic(the ice in case you forgot somehow). She wasn''t fishing for information or anything but genuinely wanted to know about it just because it was interesting. She even gave a few suggestions on how I might use it inbat though one of them was not something I could do at the moment. Specifically using the ice to cover my close range while my mes went for long range. To do that I''d have to be able to use both regr cursed energy and it''s positive form at the same time.-


    I knew it was possible since Gojo from JJK was able to pull it off to create the imaginary technique: Hollow purple. That said I was no Gojo, who I would like to point out was considered a genius with almost no equal. He also had a built in cheat in the form of the [Six eyes] that meant he could sense and control cursed energy to ridiculously potent degrees with very little training. [Six eyes] wasn''t a technique but rather a mutation in the eyes of a Gojo n member that gave abnormal abilities, sounds familiar doesn''t it?-


    While absolutely not on the same level my own [Soul gaze] could be considered a simr mutation to my eyes. This of course begged the question "can I replicate the [six eye] with my own eyes?" The answer to which wasplicated. The simple answer was probably. The long answer was that while it should in theory be possible due to my cursed technique it would either take a stroke of luck the size of which is unlikely or a long long long ass amount of time reverse engineering a theoretical oue.-


    Don''t even get me started on the risks involved since the eyes I would be experimenting on were my own since literally no one else had eyes based on cursed energy mutation in this world as far as I knew. Reverse cursed technique could regrow a missing eye or repair a damaged one but if I fundamentally changed my eyes without it being counted as damage? What then? I go fucking blind that''s what! The risk is simply not worth the payout in my opinion so obviously I am NOT going to fuck around with my eyes in the attempt.-


    Also I couldn''t exactly just rip my eyes out and experiment on them since then how the fuck would I know if I seeded or not. Anyways Tiona''s idea was unfeasible for me at the moment as I simply couldn''t use the two energies at the same time yet. One suggestion she made though was interesting and totally doable for me. She suggested that I try to create a cage of ice to trap whatever I was fighting in a small area under my control. Eerily simr to a domain in fact, though more physical and less weird metaphysical.-


    Still the idea was interesting if nothing else and something I took note of. She eventually left and I spent the rest of the day arranging the materials to create a new weapon for myself. We were quite wealthy thanks to themission work I took and the "start up" funds from the war game with Apollo that we hadn''t gone through but instead added to. Because of this I was able to buy a few choice materials to recreate my weapon that had unfortunately been lost when I unleashed my reversion technique for the first time.-


    To make my weapon anew I chose Goliath tooth, Green dragon fangs, Bloodsaurus ws and Spartoi bones. Bloodsaurus were big red T-rex looking motherfuckers that reached about five meters tall and were highly violent, it was a level four monster. Spartoi were basically charcoal grey skeletons with small horns that while level four were dangerous mostly because they only ever appeared in groups. The Goliath tooth was going to be the core of the weapon as it was the strongest being from a monster rex. The rest I nned to refine as far as I could before blending them together into an alloy that would serve as the body of the weapon.-


    Unlike my previous weapon however this one was going to be a cursed tool and not a simple one either. I managed to convince Hestia to allow me the whole next day to craft this weapon by trading a whole day of inactivity for it but it was worth it. When I entered my workshop the next morning and piled the materials at my feet as I sat on my chair my mind focused. I grabbed therge yellowed tooth that belonged to a Goliath and closed my eyes as I sank my cursed energy into it.-


    <strong>"Hell''s forge!"</strong>I spoke the incantation and cursed energy like ck and blue mes erupted from my palm and seemed to consume the tooth.


    I didn''t let my technique run wild however but bridled it to my will and forced it to obey me as I sent it into the tooth to find the impurities and cast them out. The tooth whitened at visible speed as this happened and shrank in size from nearly that of a basket ball to about the size of a grapefruit.-


    Once pure I condensed the remaining material into a sphere the size of a tangerine before setting it aside and grabbing the Green dragon fangs of which I had four. Each fang was easily six or seven inches long and two inches thick with smooth white colorations. I hadn''t canceled my technique when I swapped the Goliath tooth for these fangs so I was able the immediately get to work on them. First I fused them together like water flowing across my palms and then I got to work refining the impurities out while strengthening the material just as I had the Goliath tooth.-


    I paused my work to down a lesser mana potion, the same sort that had once almost killed me from energy overload. Thanks to this once I restarted my technique I had plenty of energy to get the rest of the materials refined and ready for the next step. First I fused all the materials other than the Goliath tooth into a dull dark grey colored alloy. I then shaped grabbed the Goliath material and shaped it into a narrow handle andically small head of my previous weapon with many odd holes in it.-


    The purpose of these holes became clear when I grabbed therge alloy sphere and began toyer it onto the Goliath material. It flowed into the holes improving the structural integrity of the weapon before I began to shape it into it''s final shape. The familiar half hammer half axe shaped head appeared and the handle thickened and lengthened with a small orb at the pummel that I would hollow out for the cursed stones in a bit.

 Remaking(2)

    Remaking(2)


    Once the general shape of the weapon was made I stood up and walked over to the chest at the side of my workshop that held my magic stones, both empty and not. I hummed as I perused my collection before settling on a minotaur stone filled with cursed energy and a minotaur stone that was empty. The two stones were roughly the size of my thumb and about half an inch wider. I took them over to my chair and sat down before activating my cursed technique again. The stones deformed as I carefully molded them into a odd set of springs that spiraled together into a sphere the size of a plum.-


    Neither stone was actually fused to the other however which was important because of what came next. I held the spring-orb firmly and switched my energy from negative to positive before carefully filling the previously empty stone with the stuff. This created an oddly eye pleasing design in the orb as the two stones, one with negative cursed energy and one with positive, coiled around the other in a harmonious contrast of colors.-


    With this done I went back to negative energy and activated my technique again to open up the round pommel of the unfinished weapon to ept this dual natured "core". Once it was secured firmly within the hard alloy material I paused to clear my mind for a moment and n out EXACTLY how I wanted to do this..


    ''The hammer head for positive energy or negative? Hmm, on one hand it would give more surface area for the ice and erasure but on the other I''d prefer to have that for the creation and fire side of things. How annoying.'' I thought with a frown.


    Indeed I wanted to ambitiously split my two different energy aspects to opposing sides of my weapon for better utility while I was in a fight. I wasn''t stupid enough to not understand that at some point using my hands as the medium by which I utilize my techniques was bound to be discovered. At that point it would be odd if my enemies let my hands get anywhere near them to the point some may prefer getting hit by my weapon instead. Also losing my weapon because I used RCT was sort of annoying and I wanted to fix that.-


    In a manner of speaking I wanted to turn my weapon into a sort of extension of myself in my techniques eyes so that I wouldn''t have to make a new weapon each time I needed to use RCT. The trick was making it so that both my RCT and normal cursed technique could be used on the weapon without fucking it up hence the need to split the two energy types to one side or the other. If I could use both at the same time like Gojo I wouldn''t need to do this but as I couldn''t this was the next best option.-


    The trick was that I couldn''t "attune" both sides to be able to alternate between the two types of energy so I had to shunt each one to the opposite head of my new weapon. The ideal arrangement would be the ice and creation aspects of my power being on the hammer head side of the weapon and the fire and erasure being on the other but again that wasn''t viable so it was pro and con time. In the end I chose to put my RCT abilities on the axe head side and my normal ones on the hammer.-


    My main reason for this choice was that if I coated the edge of my axe head with the erasure power it might as well be considered the sharpest thing EVER. Seriously an atom thin line of erasure would likely mean I cut through literally anything like it was hot air or at the very least guarantee a wound if I so much as graze my target. I could also use my ice to keep my target from bleeding to death as I freeze the wound shut in the off chance I need to amputate a limb off someone.-


    With this in mind I started weaving a dense tapestry of restrictions together to create the tool I was after. Once that was done I connected the cursed technique matrix to the positive energy and negative energy stones as needed and hoped to hell that the damn thing didn''t explode. The technique struggled at first but once the flow of energies was stabilized throughout the entire thing it settled down to a dull hum that also eventually quieted. I wasted no time at all testing my new weapon by sending in cursed energy first that flowed to the correct side without any extra work from me and then positive energy that did the same for the opposite side.-


    I then moved on to practical testing and used RCT to see if the weapon could withstand it now, it could.


    ''Wonderful! Now I just need to rece the rest of my equipment that had been destroyed, with upgrades!'' I thought with a grin.


    As promised I spent a whole day after that doing absolutely nothing which was my deal with my goddess in exchange for the day I spent crafting my new weapon. Speaking of I should mention that it weighed easily as much as a person which was hell on my wrist but not unreasonable considering my superhuman abilities.-


    Momentum was kinda a bitch to deal with when I swung it though and I had to repair the damage that strain caused more than a few times in the next weeks worth of time that I practiced with it. During this time I also managed to rece my helm/mask though this time using better materials and with a new white and ck swirl pattern on the nk part that covered my eyes.-


    It otherwise looked the same as the one I lost as far as appearance was concerned. As an added bonus that ck and white swirl was apparently unnerving as shit to look at which was great. Anything that made things hesitate to try and attack me was a plus in my book. Not having visible eyes was already unnerving but having a contrasting spiral in their ce? Downright paranoia inducing ording to Daphne. Still I can''t say as I wasn''t happy with this oue despite theints it earned me.

 Back to work

    Back to work


    "Mmm, it''s nice to not be grounded anymore!" I said with a grin the morning my punishment ended.


    "Hmph! Maybe next time you''ll think before you do something foolish!" Hestia said with a huff.


    "To be fair I usually do, I just tend to forget that there are consequences for my actions." I say with a shrug.


    She sighed but didn''t argue since she was aware that I wasn''t lying. Honestly my situation couldn''t even be considered umon amongst adventurers as more than a few act without considering the consequences of their actions.


    Hell for most Amazon''s this was the status quo in terms of actions as they were impulsive by nature. Sure they could control themselves to a degree with the right training and mindset but they rarely do. Perhaps I was needlessly reckless with my experiments but I didn''t have much other choice if I wanted to fully understand my abilities and the world I was in. Mine was a situation in which I had to personally verify what was true or not through trial and error. In this case I tested my cursed techniques effect on the spawning of monsters and paid for it when it pissed off the dungeon.-


    I also totally deserved the punishment Hestia gave me as well since my reckless testing almost killed me. As my goddess she worries about me and the possibility of my actions ending in my death or worse. Oh yes there were things worse than death things like being crippled and thus watching your ambitions slip through your fingers helpless to stop it. Or perhaps the case of every single instance being one of pain, agony or despair. So yes there are fates worse than death and they are never a zero percent chance of happening.-


    For adventurers that chance was ufortably high and she knew it. Admittedly I was not helping with my actions and couldn''t me her for basically putting me in time out.


    "I was nning to head to the dungeon to grab some materials in a bit, nothing crazy just some minotaur hide and bones." I said changing the subject.


    She looked surprised "why not the level three materials from the Great treebyrinth?" She asked confused.


    "Ah well I was going to do a bit of experimenting to see if I can get that expanded space bag idea of mine to work now that my original bags were destroyed." I exined honestly.


    "I think I remember you saying something about that at some point but it was mostly technical babble and went over my head ." She said with a shrug.


    "Yeah that was my bad to think you''d understand something like that but at the very least you know what I''m after. I count that as a win." I say with a grin.


    "Still think it''s confusing, like how do you make more space fit in a smaller area?" Sheined.


    I just chuckled at that but didn''t bother trying to exin how exactly expanded space items worked in theory again. Thest time I did she looked like a deer caught in the headlights, dazed and confused. After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and potatoes I grabbed my new weapon and helm/mask before heading to the dungeon. I of course stopped by the hostess first since otherwise Syr would be mad at me.


    "Oh? Finally stopped being grounded huh? Boredom must have been eating you alive right?" Syr asked teasingly when she saw me all geared up.


    "Yeah yeahugh it up about my misery but don''t act like you have it much better on your "off" days. What do you do again? Oh right sit in your room looking down at the city with a ss of wine that has no effect on you." I shot back with a chuckle at her grimace at the mention of it.


    She had long since exined how she pulled off her trick of bing Syr and it really hammered home the craziness of the falna. See the way it works was that she had a member of her familia named Horn that had a unique skill that let her take on Freya''s appearance and the opposite as well letting Freya take on her appearance. -


    They shared a psychic link while this was going on thus sharing emotion''s and to a degree thoughts. The catch was that this transformation had a cool down in simple terms that meant Freya had to stay home some days while Horn took her ce at the hostess. On these days Freya was naturally bored to tears as she basically just lounged about all day. I had of course been invited to visit her during these days as well to alleviate her boredom but decided not to since the rest of her familia minus Ottar would be fucking LIVID if I did.-


    I don''t mean protectively either but straight up jealousy due to their obsession with her. Much as I considered them a bunch of simping fools I had to admit that the majority of them had enough power to be problematic if I made them any madder than I already had by simply befriending Freya. Anyways we chatted for a few minutes after that before Mama Mia started to re and it was time to go for me.-


    The dungeon square was as usual bustling with adventurers at this time of day as well as merchants advertising their wares in hopes of earning some Valis from newbies or the forgetful. Naturally they''d prefer powerful members of the second category since they''d have more to spend but they don''tin since money was money no matter how small. You could tell which of these merchants were new to the city or not by how they advertised as well. The vets made their offers loud enough to be heard but weren''t really going out of their way to try and draw attention to themselves since they knew their target audience well.-


    The new folks though were more nervous and desperate to impress and thus acted in a more eye-catching but also annoying manner as they made it far more personal than needed acting like they were trying to make friends rather than sell stuff. Sometimes this worked and others they got avoided like they were gued. I personally hadn''t bought anything from these merchants but knew that others made use of them simply out of convenience. Ignoring these merchants I headed into the dungeon and immediately felt it''s perception lock on to me for but a moment as if to warn me against making trouble before it vanished.


    ''Yeah I know you are running out of patience for dealing with my shit, keep your panties from getting twisted I''m only here for materials this time.'' I thought with a roll of my eyes at this.

 Back to work(2)

    Back to work(2)


    Amused at the special attention the dungeon showed me I walked down the rough stone steps into it''s depths. The first few floors I ignored the monsters in entirely as they weren''t even worth killing for my current self. In a way it was funny how desensitized to money I had be in the short span of just over half a year. Don''t get me wrong I get WHY this was butpared to the start when five thousand valis was a lot of money to me it was not even worth the effort now.-


    I could take a singlemission now and make half a million or more with only a day or two of effort in total. Even the materials of these monsters were not worth my time at this point beyond experimenting with the ascensions for them. Shaking my head to removed these thought i focused on moving deeper and deeper into the dungeon cautiously. I knew better than to get lost in my thoughts in this ce as monsters, robbers and assassins loved striking during those times. I reached the fifteenth floor in about an hour without incident thankfully and went to search for minotaurs.-


    I found a small group of five about ten minutester and five minutes after that stood over their corpses refining their hides and bones for my uses. Once done I systematically cut open the chests and ripped out the magic stones causing the bodies to burst into smoke that was absorbed into my tattoos. On the ground in their cey my materials ready to be collected. I fused the bones together and put the resulting orb in the middle of a hide with the other hides and grabbing the corner tossed the "sack" over my shoulder and headed towards the stairs leading back to the surface.-


    I didn''t need much to be honest so five minotaurs worth of hide and bone was plenty and thus I had no reason to stay any longer. I passed a group of five amazons on the way back up and ignored the lustful looks they gave me as I did. There were few in the Orario who would fail to recognize my mask/helm or weapon at this point and as a race who valued power and talent in their mates above all else I was an ideal pick for pretty much any amazon. -


    As a result I was not surprised by the tant lust they showed towards me nor was I even ttered as I considered it a matter of course. I AM powerful and talented so it was only natural that the amazons would be interested. Besides that group though I only came across more adventurers towards the upper floors since they were smaller and had more people in them. Nobody really batted an eye as I passed through and soon I walked out of the dungeon and into sun again.-


    "Collecting bones again? Should we expect to see some new of those little statues of yours then?" one of the guards at the dungeon entrance asked curiously.


    I shook my head "No, this stuff is for a different project of mine. Can''t say more than that though." I answered casually.


    "Pity, wife and daughter gossip all the time about the things. Honestly don''t see the appeal myself." the guard said with a shrug.


    "Arts not for everyone, nothing wrong with that. It''s just the way things are." I say with a grin and the guy justughs and sends me on my way.


    I don''t get stopped after that and make it back to the manor in a short period of time. I let my return be known to Hestia but otherwise head straight to my workshop to get to work. Now you may be wondering why the fuck I need bones for making bags? The answer to that question is simple, structure. As I discovered in my previous experiments at trying to make a spatially extended bag just straight hide and cursed stones simply didn''t work very well for holding cursed techniques. Don''t get me wrong I COULD do it but it was just stupidly inefficient.-


    No the best way I found to make bags into cursed tools was to add something to the creation of the bag that gave it a rigid structure. In this case I was going to use the bones to create an inbuiltttice structure inside the bag thus making it stiff but perfect for a cursed technique. To aplish this I sectioned off an amount of hide that I then shaped into a simple hollow sack of leather after refinement from me. Next I carefully wove thettice of bone on the inside turning the final product into something that looked like a brown softball with a hole at the top. -


    I had to be careful not to make the bone unsymmetrical or the technique would be more difficult to stabilizeter. Once that was done I added the cursed stone to the bottom of the bag with ayer of bone to protect it from whatever was ced within the bagter.


    ''Now for the hard part.'' I thought as I began to craft my restrictions and cursed technique.


    Calling this merely "hard" was much like saying godzi was a lizard, a massive fucking understatement even if not untrue.


    I had to chose the restrictions for this VERY carefully and then order them just as carefully. creating the technique aspect was easy as I simply went with a simple [pocket dimension] technique or a space separate yet connected to the real world. In this case the inside of the bag was a separate dimension from the real world that was MUCHrger than the actual size of the bag. It wasn''t exactly shrinking but to normal perception it appeared that way. I was ecstatic when the bag actually worked and doubly so when I could even retrieve the stuff I put into it.-


    There was a slight downside in that I had to add limit the space in the bag as well as restrict the addition of still living things to it but that was pretty much it. My favorite part though had to be the anti thief protection I added to it that effectively caused the whole bag to self destruct if it was ever stolen. Adding the intent aspect to the restrictions had been a pain in the ass but I did it so the only way the thing got passed around was if the holder of it wanted to give it to someone else.

 Loot sack

    Loot sack


    I have to admit that without those previous experiments on spatial expansions and the improvements I''d had since then making this bag would have been much more difficult. Not to say this was easy at all as in truth I needed four whole mana potions just toplete the thing in addition to nearly a full twenty hours of uninterrupted concentration. By far this was one of the mostplex and difficult projects I had worked on to date and I knew I had only just started as the size of the "pocket" in the bag was only one and a half meters in all directions from the center.-


    While certainly quite impressive given the small size of the bag in question not nearly asrge as theoretically possible. That was fine though as I doubted I could make any improvements at the moment to the "blueprint" for the cursed tool without certain unsavory practices. Sacrifices, I am talking about sacrifices. I mean the shitty kill something to get something type which were for good reason something that made me ufortable. I don''t mind shedding my blood or even flesh but that wasn''t very effective in cursed tool crafting due to the heavy symbolism of it all.-


    The idea is mostly that you are sacrificing something and the more precious that thing is to you as a person the more you get from the sacrifice. Cursed energy is big on the whole equivalent exchange thing which was why the theme showed up so much. Anyways as I don''t value my flesh and blood very much since I could rece them it wasn''t a great thing to sacrifice. Not worthless exactly but not very effective either. Byparison I valued life much more and so it was much more effective.-


    Obviously that lead to a dark ce and I was notfortable with it as a result. Still despite the mediocre results I got with the bag it was still a valuable thing for me not only from an experience standpoint but also practically too as it was still almost a six foot space. For me that was plenty of space as most drops or stones take up only two feet after a dive. Now that I was done with the bag all my exhaustion hit me like a dragon and I barely managed to stumble to bed before I passed out.-


    "Are you okay?" Hestia asked concerned when I woke up at noon the next day.


    "Yeah I''m fine, was just real tired after making the bag is all." I said honestly with a yawn.


    "Couldn''t you have taken a break or something? Not like it was going to go anywhere right?" she asked confused.


    "I fucking wish. No the part that I was on was the one where once I start I can''t stop until it''s over or I fail. This time it merely took me much more effort than anything I''ve made before." I said honestly.


    "Would it get easier if you were a higher level?" she asked curiously


    "Eh sorta but not really. Unlike most craftsmen leveling up doesn''t really have any effect on my creation process besides the increase in my energy capacity and quality. Sure a new DS would make it easier or more dynamic but otherwise everything I make is reliant on my own experience and imagination." I exined with a shrug.


    "Sounds exhausting." she said making a face.


    "Oh it is but I wouldn''t trade it for the world, theres something about creating stuff that makes me happy." I say with a smile.


    "Are you sure you aren''t interested in Hephaestus?" she teased and I chuckled.


    "I never said I wasn''t, just that I had no intention of getting tied down at the moment. If she was merely interested in hooking up I probably would have long since gotten under her sheets but she wants amitment and I have no time for such a thing." I exined for the umpteenth time.


    "I still don''t understand why you are in such a rush." she said with a sigh.


    "It''s about momentum and potential really. The faster I grow the safer I am in the not so off chance things go to pot. If I can grow quickly then all the more reason why I should rather than resting on myurels." I said casually.


    "Enough about that though check out my new loot sack!" I said excitedly as I changed the subject.


    She looked at the leather bag confused about what she was supposed to be excited about. Seeing this I decided that a demonstration was in order. Under her astonished gaze I packed up more and more items into the bag until it was full. Then I began to empty the bag leaving everything in a pile that she stared at dumbfounded.-


    She didn''t even ask before snatching up the bag and begin testing it herself with snacks and clothes. I ended up losing that bag as she imed it for herself leaving me speechless.


    ''What a terrible evil I have released onto the world, a bag that can hold all a woman''s fanciful purchases!'' I thought inmentation.


    Helplessly I could only head back into my workshop and get to work crafting another bag for my own personal use. Thankfully it didn''t take as long since I already knew the exact "blueprint" I needed for the cursed technique and restrictions.-


    That said it still took me a good seven hours to craft the bag and two mana potions wiping out my stock of crafting potions. I finished my bag up and checked the time before heading to the hostess for dinner.


    "When are you going to bring that monster meat you promised?" Anya, a brown haired cat beast woman who worked here asked with an upset expression..


    "Sorry about that. I would have that day but I ended up almost dying then getting grounded for it so it''s been on hiatus but I assure you I haven''t forgotten. Next time I''m down in thebyrinth and I see a battle boar I''ll bring some of it''s meat back." I said catingly.


    "Hmph! You''d better after talking it up like that!" she said firmly before taking my order and hurrying off lest Mama Mia got on to her.


    My meal was a simple beef stir fry with carrots, beans and onions that had a nice salty sauce cooked into it. The servings were nothing to sneeze at either as it was a small mound of food piled onto a te meant for an adventurer. We ate a lot due to our superhuman bodies and as a ce that catered to that clientele the servings reflected that need for food. Hell it wasn''t even all that strange for a high level adventurer to eat enough to feed a small family in one sitting all while drinking enough booze to fill a bathtub.

 Second expedition

    Second expedition


    Once I was done with my meal I paid and headed back to the manor to turn in for the night. I knew the next few days in particr were going to be a slog for me as I needed to prepare for another several days long expedition to the Great treebyrinth. I needed to stock up on materials to remake my armor set that I had lost previously. I had already reced my helm/mask and my weapon so it was time to move on to the other pieces of equipment.-


    For example I nned to make a full set of armor from materials I gathered and that meant a bit of an expedition. One particr material I was wanting to use was Goliath bones and hide. Finding out the status of the monster rex of the seventeenth floor was easy given the amount of people passing through that area. Thanks to this I knew the beast should respawn within the next three days. I nned to hunt it once again though this time strictly for materials and not a challenge for leveling up. This of course meant I had no intention of ying fair with the beast.-


    Now that I could straight up erase stuff with my RCT I nned to do so to it''s fucking head. I had already proven that not even a level four could withstand the technique when I killed those green dragons with it and the Goliath was not likely to be much different. Even if taking off the head wasn''t lethal for the beast it would still give me plenty of time to refine it''s skin and bones enough to get them to drop. Ripping the magic stone from it''s chest after that would end the monster without a doubt though and with no head I don''t see it stopping me.-


    Anyways I nned to use all of tomorrow to craft another two loot bags that while muchrger in size would be mostly for deception more than actual storage. That was the nifty thing about cursed tools, I could put the exact same "enchantment" on two different sized things but still get the same result. This means while the biggest bag was a mere decoy the medium sized bag was truly for loot just like the small one. I needed this deception because spatially expanded bags are the sort of thing even the Loki and Hephaestus familias would dly go to war to obtain.-


    If I went into the dungeon with only the small bag it would only take a single slip up with my bags to draw suspicion. Perhaps that alone wouldn''t be enough to get them to act against me but it was more than enough for them to start digging for proof even through less than legal means. Not murder since killing the creator of such a thing would be the height of stupidity but theft or spying were all on the table.-


    Make no mistake you don''t get where those ultra familias are without getting a bit dirty at some point. Even if they don''t personally act the ck market has the services for those with the coin. Rather than dealing with the constant war games and all around fuckery thates with exposing my bag I will just carry two others that arerger even if it''s more inconvenient to do so. With that n in mind I stopped by the blue pharmacy in the morning and stocked up on mana potions that were getting ever so closer to normal potions and not the diluted ones I use now.-


    "Ah Alex how good to see you!" Miach said with a wide smile as I walked up.


    "The same to you Miach, still taking the time to clean the ss even after expanding your familia I see. Business has been good I take it?" I said with a smile of my own.


    He nodded happily "Oh most definitely, why I can''t remember thest time we had so many customers everyday. The newest children of my family are likely the only reason we can keep up with demand to be honest." The god said like he wasining but the smile on his face told me he was perfectly content with the situation.


    "It should slow down again once the rush dies down for the new discovery." I said reassuringly.


    He nodded "Yes I am sure you are right. Enough about me though, you are clearly here for some other reason no?" He asked and I nodded.


    "I need to get some potions to prepare for an expedition I have nned. Nothing too extreme, just a longer than normal stay in the dungeon. Two or three weeks in fact." I exined honestly.


    He frowned at this "After your previous incident you want to go back?" he asked concerned.


    "I''m an adventurer, riskes with the territory. If anything it''s an extremely important part of it as well. It''s how we level up as you know. We have to ovee great challenges and that means life or death more often than not. I knew this when I chose this life and my will isn''t so weak as to falter at the first sign of trouble. So yes I want to go back." I said seriously.


    "I see, I''m sorry if my words offended as I didn''t mean to. I just worry you see. I see you as a friend and it would pain me greatly to hear that your life was cut short." He said sincerely.


    I shook my head "No need to apologize, I can understand that your question came from a ce of genuine concern. In a way I suppose I''m at fault for not rifying this sooner and giving you such thoughts." I said with a sigh.


    I meant it too until now I had left things fairly ambiguous and confusing. A habit I developed on Earth that''s followed me here unfortunately. -


    It was a defense mechanism really. A way to say "well technically I never said that" and slip out of anything at any time as a result. In this case it was not something directly stated most of the time but understood all the same that adventuring was not for the cowardly. That to really reach for the top you had to ept that death was a very real possibility. When faced with it however most suffer doubts about if it''s really what they wanted, if they should stop. This is the dividing line between the okay and the great and I refused to merely ept okay as my standard.

 Second expedition(2)

    Second expedition(2)


    Tossing these existential crisis provoking thoughts aside I focused my mind on the task ahead of me, preparing for my second expedition. Miach tried to persuade me to postpone my expedition or even outright cancel it but I was firm in my refusal. Still even though he couldn''t get me to do so didn''t mean he wasn''t going to try his best to make sure I returned from it. As a result I ended up with more mana and health potions than expected. I put away the vials carefully and said my goodbye before heading to the market square to collect produce for food.-


    My ability was great for keeping food fresh for a long time or at the very least preserving it''s nutrients through dehydration into powder. Honestly I was kinda embarrassed that I hadn''t thought about doing this before attempting to make a food cursed tool. With the water removed most fruits and vegetables took up vastly less space than normal and thus could be stocked up on easily. The rations that the Loki and other exploration type familias used were based on a simr idea but with lots of jerkies and vegetables bars. -


    It was all very nd though due to how it was made but filling all the same. I preferred my meals to have vor though and was only one person so I could afford to carry dried vegetables and meat with me without trading vor. My loot bags were also quite unfair in this regard as I didn''t need bags bigger than me to carry all this stuff. I still felt the weight though as it wasn''t like all that mass vanished, just got put in a smaller size. Honestly speaking I was tempted to give Lili one of these bags just so she could get an extra buff from her [Artel assist] skill because of the extra weight.-


    Anyway once I collected a couple weeks worth of vegetables I headed back to the manor with them hanging over my back in a cloth sack that the seller gave me for buying in bulk. Along the way I ran into Ais and Rivera who were out shopping as well.


    "Good afternoon Mr. Drake." Rivera said politely in greeting.


    "It''s just Alex, calling me mister makes me sound like an old man." I said and she nodded in understanding.


    "Very well then Alex. Running errands for your familia I take it?" she asked motioning to the sack over my shoulder.


    I shook my head "Nah, I''m prepping for my next expedition into the dungeon. This is just produce I bought to powder back home so I can have decently vorful meals while I''m down there." I exined honestly.


    "Oh? nning to push for the water pce floors or is it a resource expedition?" She asked intrigued.


    "Resources this time, running low back at home on crafting materials and need to stock up. Unlike normal craftsmen I prefer to get most of my materials myself since it saves time and money and I can guarantee quality while I am at it." I said honestly.


    "Efficient." Aismented her opinion with a nod of approval.


    "Quite, though as you said this is a rather unorthodox approach. Are you not worried about spreading yourself too thin?" Rivera asked curiously.


    "While I admit theres some challenge to bncing everything I can assure you that I take great care to not overload myself with tasks toplete. I sort of do things as needed without rushing myself. If I need materials I focus on that and if I have amission I focus on that. The rest of my time is dedicated to refining mybat style, crafting abilities or raising my stats. A nice tightly packed schedule with all thingsing only when they should." I say seriously.


    "I can''t help but notice ack of entertainment being mentioned." the elf pointed out.


    "Ah but that''s the beauty of it all, I enjoy seeing my own growth! Every drop of sweat and monster broken means I inch ever slightly forward. What more could I ask for to content myself?" I asked with a bright smile.


    "Contentment through action then? No wonder Tiona gets along with you so well." the elf says with a sigh.


    "She says you are strong, are you?" Ais asked with a clear battle intent radiating off her.


    "I''m unrivaled in my level butpared to you or even Tiona I''m not anywhere close to your strengths." I said honestly.


    "Unrivaled you say? A rather arrogant im no?" Rivera asked skeptical.


    "I can at this exact moment match even a peak level four inbat and survive against a new level five. If you can find anyone else at level three capable of that I''ll admit my wrong but otherwise I am indeed unrivaled at my level." I say confidently.


    Between my RCT and regr cursed techniques as well as my stats I hadn''t overstated my prowess at all this time. I could indeed fight a peak level four to a standstill and survive a new level five with some serious difficulty. This was only natural given the path I walked and was only going to grow more pronounced the further I went. The falna isn''t as simple as one plus one equals two but rather was like a snowball rolling down a hill.-


    The difference between me and everyone else was that my snowball simply started out much bigger than everyone elses and that meant it''s growth at the same rate was also greater. That was assuming I didn''t allow myself to stagnate that is. Anyways I bid farewell to the two women after that and finally reached the manor. Hestia was sunbathing like a cat near the pool when I arrived and besides giving me an odd look barely reacted to my return. It was rather funny how she had gotten so used to me doing odd things that at this point she shrugs off anything strange to do with me as "Alex being Alex".-


    Unless I gave her a reason to worry she trusted me not to cause too many problems with whatever I was doing. Bell didn''t get the same treatment after all but risking the familia no less than twice now by provoking stronger familias. Byparison I was practically a golden goose as I created more and more connections just by being me and the only person I affect with my actions tends to be me alone. Her only real gripe ironically was exactly that as I put myself in seriously risky scenarios all the bloody time.

 Second expedition(3)

    Second expedition(3)


    Putting aside my questionable life choices I headed into my workshop to powderize this stuff and store it in hard crystal cubes till I needed it, nice and neat like. This took me little time at all with my powers and had that nice and set for my trip. Next I grabbed my metal detectorpass and looked over the cursed technique and restrictions on it and felt annoyed at how amateur it was. I hade so far since I made this piece that just looking at it''s inner workings made me embarrassed.-


    ''Yeah might as well upgrade this while I''m at it.'' I thought with a shrug.


    I activated my technique and thepass melted immediately since it was only made of level one materials. I pushed the bones refinement to it''s limit and past it to ascension. I discovered to my great surprise that the bone besides reaching level two in quality gained a property rted to the cursed technique it had as apass. Specifically it had an innate sensitivity to metal ore now.-


    ''Is this a coincidence or did the material gain properties of the technique on it after having them for so long?'' I pondered seriously.


    This was a big fucking deal as if it was thetter of those then it meant that I could purposefully create materials that had the properties of whatever cursed technique I wanted which would massively increase the potency of the tool made from it. Unfortunately I didn''t have any cursed tools old enough or made of materials I could ascend to test this on. Still I at least could create some for cheap and let them sit for a while to "settle". Anyways I turned the newly ascended material into yet anotherpass just like it was previously but with my new level of technique this time.-


    I was quite satisfied with the final product as it had a range of five miles in every direction and even ignored any ore that had already been harvested from the dungeon thanks to the insight into the super structure I got at the cost of it almost killing me. I admit that I was tempted to try and turn the material into a cursed spirit that sought out and harvested the ore by itself but that left a serious possibility of adventurers capturing it or killing it thinking it was a monster.-


    I could get away with calling it a golem as while rare the magical constructs did exist but they were in high demand and I wasn''t willing to share the fact I could make the things. That reminded me that I forgot to see if I could make positive cursed spirits now that I had RCT. Putting that on my "to do" list I moved on to my preparations for the dungeon expedition again. I mostly just made an updated water ring and a in hide armor without any bells or whistles since I didn''t have the materials for such a thing at the moment.-


    Still the dark gray leather armor along with my mask/helm made me cut a fearsome image. My final preparation however was to create a new set ofmunication coins for myself and put one of them in the chatterbox. It was only when I did that that Hestia seemed to realize something was off, well more so than normal.-


    "Spill it! You are clearly nning something!" she said pointing at me usingly.


    "Just getting ready to delve the dungeon again." I said with a grin.


    "How long?" she asked with narrowed eyes.


    "Tch! I''m bing predictable. Fine then, I am preparing for another expedition in the dungeon. Not past the Great treebyrinth though." I said slightly annoyed at her getting wise to my trickery so soon.


    "Promise me you won''t antagonize the dungeon while you are there and I''ll allow it." she made her demand clear.


    "I don''t like you very much right now. Fine I promise that I won''t intentionally antagonize the dungeon during this expedition. Happy?" I shot back in a poor mood.


    She had used my rule about not breaking promises against me which was a low blow even if she had good intentions.


    Like I get it, I don''t exactly have the best track record with not messing with the dungeon but to t out force me to avoid it with a forced promise was hurtful. I didn''t think less of her for it since she had the best intentions and just wanted me to be safer but that didn''t mean I wasn''t angry at her for it. Clearly she was prepared for my anger as she only flinched a little at my cold tone before nodding determined.-


    Like that my day was officially ruined and I went back to my workshop and mmed the door behind me causing the entire building to shake from the force. I reigned in my anger when the cursed energy in my workshop began to warp in resonance with my pissed off self. Being mad when it didn''t do anything was all well and good but when it threatened the entire city and/or world it needed to be pushed down. Having the dormant cursed energy be active and thus turn into cursed spirits would be VERY bad news for the city what with the veritable ocean of the shit floating above the ce.-


    If we were lucky only an army of weaker spirits would spawn but if we were being realistic there''d be at least three special grade entities popping up. If my understanding wasn''t wrong that was to say three level six or even higher entities with murder boners and sadistic streaks the size of the dungeon showing up in the middle of the city, not a great scenario. One needs to consider that special grade entities had levels of power to them and weren''t all the same kind of threat. The weakest of them was probably new level six in terms of danger but as far as I know there was no upper limit to how dangerous they could be.-


    Poor mood or not I refused to be the reason such cmities came into existence and suppressed my anger the moment that resonance started. So it was that I just sat in my workshop dumbly stuck between being outraged at Hestia''s actions and swallowing said anger down to save the city. At some point I t out started creating cursed tools out of goblin teeth to keep my mind off my anger and directed at something else.

 Second expedition(final)

    Second expedition(final)


    Thanks to this I was able to slowly steam off my discontent until I was fine again. Don''t get me wrong I was still a little grumbly but not nearly to the point of being genuinely angry anymore. The cursed tools I made out of the goblin teeth were also useful as experimental pieces due to me imbuing them with different techniques that I could checkter to see if they maintained after ascension. It was gettingte and the sun was starting to go down by then so I skipped dinner entirely and went straight to bed.-


    I sighed after waking up with a weight on my chest as despite sleeping on the floor of my workshop Hestia had still showed up to use me as a body pillow. Judging from how hard she was gripping me I could also tell that her previous actions were bothering her quite a bit as well. She was likely worried about something fucking retarded like I would leave because of what she did. She was wrong though since while she was certainly not perfect and what she did really ground on me she was just trying to do her best.-


    I wasn''t going to do something as retarded as leave the familia over this. The thought hadn''t even crossed my mind in fact. The simple matter was that I felt a little betrayed by what she did. Logic told me she had the high ground but emotions rarely listened to logic so I felt how I did. I wasn''t going to form an irreparable grudge over it though as now that I was calmed down and could listen to logic. Gently prying the goddess off my chest I got up and stretched.-


    She grumbled in her sleep at this but I ignored that as she wasn''t a morning person to begin with. I didn''t bother grabbing a nket for her as I knew she''d awaken on her own no less than five minutes from now. Early riser or not she for some reason I couldn''t understand couldn''t stay asleep for long without using someone as a body pillow. Most days that was me but asionally she used Daphne and Cassandra instead but oddly enough avoided Bell for some reason. It wasn''t that she didn''t see him the same as the rest of the familia but just when she was tired she never gravitated towards him but the rest of us.-


    It was rather amusing when she first snuck into Daphne and Cassandra''s beds as they also failed to notice her until they woke up in the morning. The screams woke up the whole familia and made meugh after they calmed down and were embarrassed instead. Hestia wasn''t lecherous in her sleep but due to sheer clinginess she ended up in positions that would count as lewd if she were awake. The mostmon of such positions was herrge boobs pressed firmly against your chest while her hands fondle your own breast due to cement.-


    As a dude my pecs were pure muscle and didn''t really protrude so it wasn''t a big deal but for Daphne and Cassandra that was a very different matter. Amusing sleeping habits aside I changed into my armor and put on my bags before heading out. The sky was a bit overcast which was not fucking ominous at all but it was weather so I shrugged it off and headed for the hostess. I found Syr sweeping the outside area of the ce when I arrived.-


    "Finally starting you expedition?" she asked with a smile.


    "Yeah, should be back in a week or two, with monster meat too!" I said with a grin.


    "Can''t say you don''t have us all a little curious about the stuff after how much you hyped it up. Still you take care while you are down there or I''ll send Ottar to retrieve you." she said seriously.


    "Please don''t, it would raise questions I don''t want to answer!" I said pleadingly.


    It was already bad enough that everyone knew that our familias were on decent if not good terms but if motherfucking Ottar were to show up in the dungeon to "rescue" me people were going toe looking for answers about exactly how close our two familias are.-


    While I enjoyed the vague understanding that everyone had about the situation having the real situation be understood would close a LOT of doors. For starters Ishtar would start gunning for us simply due to the other goddess of beauty''s hatred of Freya. Considering the queen of the red light district had a vast amount of members in her familia and no less than three level fives and even a single one nearing the peak of that level ording to reports that was not a great thing for us.-


    I could BARELY survive against a new level five at the moment so the less said about a near peak level five the better. Right now the vagueness of my familias rtionship with Freya left us with only benefits and no downsides as Ishtar knew she''d look like a fool if she came after us at the moment but if it was fully rified she''d have no such qualms. Not that she''d survive very long after making a move as Freya was rather fierce about what she considered hers.-


    "Well since you asked nicely I won''t. But are you nning to fight the Goliath again?" she asked curiously.


    "Less fight and more bully really. It''s hardly a challenging foe for the current me so I''m just going to kill it and move on." I said with a shrug.


    "If it were anyone else I''d say they were being arrogant but you are anything but. Insane without a doubt but not arrogant. Keep it up and Orario might yet wee a new "king". she said with a giggle.


    After that I headed to the dungeon eager to get this expedition to a start officially.


    The streets of Orario were bustling as the day started and adventurers and civilians both started their daily activities. The dungeon square was also ultra busy as people made their way into the dungeon. No one except the newbies to the city batted an eye as I myself passed the entrance and began my delve officially.


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 Casual stroll

    Casual stroll


    I failed to find any monsters on the first few floors as most of them had been killed already by other adventurers that took the same path down. That said I was sure that there were monsters on the rest of the floors beyond my path. It was only on the fourth floor that I came across a pair of Goblins that were likely fresh spawns. They charged me without hesitation but they may as well have been moving in slow motion as I easily predicted their movements and with a single smooth motion cut off their heads with my bare hand covered in my RCT.-


    I then proceeded to stomp on both of their chests to crush the magic stones to dust under my heel while the smoke flew into my tattoos. At my current level of strength even level two monsters were little more than ants with how easily I could handle them much less level one monsters like these goblins. And wasn''t that something to think about? Level one monsters were roughly as strong as adult humans at various levels of athleticism and I could kill them like they were little more durable than an ant.-


    Really just brought home the fact that adventurers were vastly different from those who were not. Obviously I wasn''t just acknowledging this now but more reminiscing on the months ago when I was nothing more than an out of shape human. You couldn''t even make aparison between the me of today and the me of then as I had changed so much in this rtively short period of time that I may as well be an entirely different individual. I wondered if other adventurers ever stopped to ponder these things as well as I continued my stroll through the hostile environment of the dungeon.-


    On the thirteenth floor I once again got ambushed by assassins though this time it was a group of three with masks and ck robes that made them look nearly identical other than their different sizes. The ambush was fairly well thought out too with the limited information about myself avable. First stone rose from the ground to trap my feet in ce as a spike of stone impaled me through where my heart was supposed to be. After that one of them threw three poison needles into my throat and thest sent a bolt of lightning into my body.-


    I decided to y along and slumped against the spike after gurgling and grasping at it.


    "Collect the proof so we can get out of here before someone finds us." one of the would be assassinsmanded with a modted voice through their mask.


    I had to admit that unlike thest assassin these guys were WAY more professional as thest one t out told me who sent her before I merc''d her ass. These guys gave nothing away even after they thought me dead and even the one who wasing to im the proof of my death remained cautious as they approached. -


    Not that that saved them mind you as the moment they dropped their guard after taking out the long needles in my neck and I didn''t react they reached for my mask/helm. Once their fingers touched my skin I activated my RCT and erased their ass instantly with a bright white sh of light. I didn''t drop the "dead" act though and still remained limp to make them think I had left a trap on me that activated after the dude touched me.-


    "Vicious fucker must have left a failsafe after Anne failed to kill himst time. It only activated once Will made contact with his flesh so avoid that when you grab the proof." the clear leader of this group said with an obvious amount of annoyance at the fatality.


    The second dude approached me very cautiously and I noted they had a staff which I assumed meant they were the mage of the group that likely threw the lightning at me and/or the stone. When this person got within staff reach of me they carefully used the staff to try and lift my mask/helm off but failed since it went under my jaw.-


    After several failed attempts they noticed this and clicked their tongues in annoyance as they moved closer to grab the back of my mask/helm with their hand to lift it up. It was at this point I decided I was officially done messing with these guys and fully activated my technique. The stone in my chest morphed and shot out into the dudes head straight through their mask and out of my body as I pushed off the ground in a full on leap towards the leader all in one fluid motion.-


    "The fuck!?" he yelled in confused shock and turned to bolt but was a split second toote for that to work.


    I drew my weapon and swung at him which forced him to draw his own sword to counter. Or at least that was his idea but my stats were nothing like what a level three should have and he found himself gettingunched backwards with cracked ribs due to this misunderstanding. I didn''t relent though and with a burst of hell me to propel me faster than he was flying I caught up and grabbed his arm and stomped my feet into the stone ground to kill our momentum violently.-


    Both our arms were ripped from their sockets but I just rolled my shoulder with my technique to fix that issue on my end. He went to kick me but I just pulled his now limp right arm to throw his aim off while dragging him into a bear hug.


    "<em><strong>Hells forge!"</strong></em><em></em>I said calmly as he violently tried to struggle.


    Blue and ck cursed energy rose from my body and wrapped around him as I fused his muscles and skin together turning him into little more than a human worm as his limbs fused to his torso and together in the case of his legs.-


    He stopped struggling at this point as it became clear his fate was sealed.


    "How are you still alive?" he asked surprisingly calm.


    "Oh I''m sure you''re<em>dying</em>to know. But where would the fun be in telling you?" I asked with a chuckle.


    "Worth a shot. Don''t go thinking that you are safe because you''ve killed us, more wille and eventually one will seed!" the dude said before I heard a "crunch!".


    I waited and waited and the guy quickly started to realize that something was wrong when the poison capsule in his cheek failed to kill him. If he could see my face he''d realize how fucked he was as I was grinning viciously since I had obviously noticed that suicide pill imbedded in his face when I used my technique and neutralized the poison within it.

 Going down

    Going down


    "What did you do!?" the dude demanded furiously as he started to squirm and resist again.


    "Naturally I just made sure you couldn''t bitch out before I had my fun is all. It''s so very rare that I get people I wouldn''t have any moral issue with experimenting on. Did you know that the anatomy of monsters and people are vastly different? I don''t mean the obvious shit like organs and the mana stone either but the very fundamental stuff that makes up the bodies of monsters is entirely different than people. Oh sure it LOOKS the same but it isn''t I assure you. Due to this I haven''t gotten a chance to test my theories on body modification, until now. I thank you in advance for your cooperation." I said with a mad cackle as I sealed his vocal cords still to remove his ability to scream.-


    I may have intentionally yed up what I was going to do to this guy out of pettiness. To be fair though I didn''t ACTUALLY lie about using him to test some theories of mine. But I wasn''t some evil fucker with no moral bottom line. The experiments I had in mind were in truth probably more beneficial to him more than anything else.-


    See I had this theory that I could sorta alter the material properties within the body to improve it. Things like increasing the density of the skin to improve durability or altering the lungs to allow for more efficiency in each breath taken. Naturally I needed a guinea pig for this since I was a poor choice due to my semi-formless state thanks to my technique. I also wasn''t going to conduct experiments on my familia or random innocent people.-


    This probably was solved thanks to this brave "volunteer" after he so passionately risked hisfort and health for this good cause. Jokes aside the fuckers soul was so drenched in sin that I felt nauseous just looking at it. Murder, rape, thievery, you name it and this dude had a little bit of that vor of sin on his soul. If that wasn''t a good enough reason to use him as a test subject with or without his consent then I don''t know what is. Throwing the squirming dude over my shoulder I quickly started to descend into dungeon even further while making sure I didn''t run into anyone.-


    Shit would get real awkward real fast if someone saw me looking like I was kidnapping the dude, which to be fair I kinda was. The funny part was that it wasn''t even hard to avoid other people thanks to the dungeon being as maze like andrge as it was. I just needed to listen out for the sounds of people and carefully check the corners before I crossed them to remain unseen. Once I got to the sixteenth floor though I had to fold the guy up with my technique so he fit in my big decoy bag since I needed to dash through floor seventeen to get to the safe floor after that.-


    I certainly wasn''t going to fight the Goliath while literally backpacking a dude. No my n was simply to drop into the eighteenth floor and drop off this dude at my tree safe house base ce before heading back up to take out tall dark and angry. That said the entrance from floor seventeen to eighteen was frequently visited by adventurers and that meant I needed to hide this guy better, at least temporarily.-


    Said dude was NOT happy with getting unnaturally folded into apact shape before being stuffed in a bag. At the same time however that was too damn bad cuz he didn''t have a choice in the matter. Like usual the Goliath didn''t spawn in immediately after setting foot on the seventeenth floor but rather waited till you were a good quarter the way in. I ignored the rex though as I full speed dashed across the floor and slid down the ramp leading to floor eighteen.


    "Ah the lovely aroma of nts thriving." I mutter with a grin as I inhale deeply upon reaching the floor.


    There was something refreshing about reaching a dense forest after trudging through a monster infested cave system. After taking a moment to relish the experience I headed towards my tree base. I thought it rather funny that despite how close it was to the entrance of the Great treebyrinth floors no one had found it yet or if they did reported it''s discovery. The ce was certainly not a thing anyone was likely to misunderstand the importance of. I as said previously despite the floor being a "safe" floor monsters dide into it from other floors and destroyed anything manmade they could.-


    That was where my base''s importance came in as it was made of dungeon grown trees fused together and thus totally ignored by the monsters who may have otherwise noticed it and attacked. A great deal of people would go to great lengths to figure out how to replicate this on arger scale so that an actual settlement could be permanently set up down here. It should be kept in mind that Riviera has been destroyed and rebuilt down here no less than thirty eight times since people first started trying to settle this ce.-


    If it was no longer necessary to keep the ce made of cheap easy to fix stuff due to monsters ignoring it a genuinesting town could be made and that meant a LOT of profit being involved. That sort of thing brought REALLY dangerous kinda of attention to those behind it. If Evilus wanted me dead due to my potential now they''d pull out all the stops to murder me if they found out I was capable of making something like that a reality. Not exactly good news for me at all.-


    I was pretty strong and hard to kill normally sure but the endless malicious creativity of the Evilus meant I would have death breathing down my neck constantly. I didn''t want that to happen so the moment I get even a whisper of my base being discovered I was going to pretend it didn''t exist and I had no rtion to it. Honestly it wasn''t even like it would cost me much to do so either as I could easily just make another.

 Future progress

    Future progress


    Luckily when I arrived at my base I found no sign of anyone having been there which was a relief. With that covered I took out the dude from my bag and put him in the corner to wait until I got back. I closed the "door" to the base and sprinted through the forest back towards the entrance to this floor so I could head back up to the Goliaths room. I couldn''t be bothered about the odd looks I received when I ran past the adventurers at the entrance and up the slope to the monster rex floor.-


    The monster itself was wandering about the huge chamber that was the floor since monsters didn''t just vanish if you left their area. After I triggered the monster rex into appearing it pretty much locked everyone too weak to kill it froming through that floor until someone who could came along. Lucky them then that I had very much nned to kill the beast rather than leaving it to be someone elses problem. "RAAAAAAAAA!" the monster rex roared when itid eyes upon me as I stepped on it''s floor.-


    I drew my weapon and held it so the sharp edge was at the ready before dashing forwards at the rex. It threw a wide punch at me as I got near that i used to run up it''s arm as I created a thin edge of erasure using RCT on my weapon. The beast got no chance to try and stop me as my weapon erased all matter in front of it''s edge as I swung it through the neck in one fluid motion. The body iled about as the head rolled off since even decapitation wasn''t enough to kill this monster rex due to it''s innate regenerative and intense vitality.-


    Without a head though the body couldn''t coordinate where to strike and thus iled recklessly. I ignored that as I refined the bones and hide slightly before slicing open the torso with an erasure edge and sheathing my weapon so I could get my hands around the mana crystal. With a jerky pull the beast burst into smoke that got absorbed into my tattoos as the stone was ripped out whole. It was roughly the size of a basketball just like the previous one I obtained that even now was sitting in one of my cursed stone converters slowly being drained of all mana.-


    In order to use the fucking thing to hold the cursed energy above the city it needed to be empty and that took a while with the outdated converters I currently used. This new stone would also be used for that purpose once I got it emptied of mana. I wouldn''t really have much choice in the matter to be honest as there was just too much cursed energy above the city for a single goliath stone to handle even if it was merely a focal point for the formation.-


    I doubted even the addition of this new stone would be enough to handle all that energy. With that in mind I nned to collect at least two more such stones so the burden was spread between all four of the stones and if the energy rate wasn''t too much that should prove good enough. Still I collected my spoils even as people started to show up and look at me in a mix of emotions. Greed, lust, respect, amazement and shock were all amongst their faces but I ignored them as I packed away my loot.-


    No one got in my way as I walked towards the path heading back down to floor eighteen and respectfully parted to allow me to pass. I had little doubt that rumors about me soloing the goliath would rapidly start to get around but I didn''t mind as if anything this would only serve to make me more important in the cities eyes. It would also work to tell everyone that none below level four had any chance of beating me. Even though I myself was not a level four I would probably start being treated as one as in the end all anyone cared about was power and if I matched a level four I was one in their eyes.-


    The funny part in my opinion was that I hadn''t even gotten a single update to my falna since I leveled up to three and my power hadn''t grown since then so much as my variety of power due to my acquisition of RCT. Oh I knew without a doubt that when I did get my update though my stats were going to take a massive leap forward as I had the smoke from no less than seven level four monsters with one being this goliath.-


    That didn''t even begin to cover the insanity of RCT no doubt showing up on my status along with the experiences I''ve had since leveling up. I had a gut feeling that [Cursebody] and [Curse-smith] were already ready to reach the next letter grade as well so the update to my falna was bound to be a doozy. The trick was going to be convincing Hestia to update me at all as she will get a taste of what I myself experienced during this time and the longer she waits the worse it''ll be.-


    Thankfully she won''t have to deal with any of the bacsh from my [Vessel of sin] skill as I have not killed anyone considered innocent by it. Admittedly I was a little traumatized by the war games bacsh as well since she only got a small nce of it while I got ALL of it. Anyways I made sure to lose the few people trying to follow me in the sea of trees before I headed back to my base. The Evilus assassin red at me hatefully when I walked in but I ignored that as I set my bags to the side.-


    "You want to know why I killed the other two and left you alive as my test subject?" I asked the dude with a smirk as I took off my helm/mask. "It''s because of one of my skills you see. [Vessel of sin] it''s a skill that lets me get some benefits in exchange for some equal downsides but one such benefit is the ability to see souls and how sinful they are." I exined not expecting an answer. He shuddered and my smirk grew wider as it became clear to him what the information I told him implied for the Evilus.


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 Experimentation

    Experimentation


    The implication was one that was particrly dreadful for a group operating in the shadows, I could pick them out at a nce. In truth this wasn''t entirely urate as the Evilus no doubt had people who didn''t participate in sinful activities directly and thus didn''t get the taint from it but I wasn''t going to point that out. No it was far better for me if I left this guy thinking I could easily spot any member of his faction, it would keep his mind focused so the pain doesn''t drive him crazy.-


    "Of course my version of the soul gaze is not nearly as powerful as Freya''s since she''s a god but that is only fair. Don''t ask me why she wasn''t eradicated you lot yet as I have no fucking clue. Still I suppose that''s enough about that, time to see what you are made of." I said with a mad grin as I walked over to the guy.


    My first experiment was to simply free a single one of his arms and see how strong he was at his base strength before increasing his muscle density to see if his strength increased.


    I got him to cooperate with me for this experiment by simply flicking on all of his pain receptors simultaneously for the briefest moment with my cursed technique. This meant for that tiny window of time he experienced the absolute maximum amount of pain possible for his body. The best part was that I didn''t so much as have to harm a single cell in his body to achieve this making it perfect since it didn''t interfere with my experiment. I judged his raw strength to be about twelve hundred pounds which was about B rank in level three falna stats for a normal adventurer.-


    This came as no surprise to me as he was obviously more of a stealth fighter than a front liner so strength wasn''t his main priority to improve. I had to temporarily paralyze him from the neck down as he started thrashing when I started increasing the density of the muscles in his right arm. When I was done I noted that it made his arm much harder than normal as well but I suppose that made sense. It was kinda like I had turned his muscles from sand to ss so obviously it was harder to deform it.-


    When I had him attempt to lift his previous record weight with that arm I frowned as his bones were crushed by his muscles and I had to repair and then further refine them to withstand the forces now on them. This time I got to see that indeed his strength showed a marked increase as he no longer struggled to lift his previous limit of weight and even adding another two hundred pounds to it only returned him to same level of struggle as before with his limit.-


    "So increasing the density of the muscle fibers provided an increase in strength of about fifteen percent. Not bad at all, though I don''t think the body will be able to build muscle as per normal after this operation unless it was performed shortly before one levels up. The falna makes it hard to predict." I mutter with a frown.


    It was a possibility I had considered before I started this experiment but I couldn''t know if the falna could bnce out the modification I performed on the body so that it was all benefits or if performing this modification effectively cripples all future growth as far as muscle was concerned.-


    The best test subject for this would be someone who hadn''t received a falna yet but for moral reasons this was not something I could do. I could be a ruthless bastard sure but it was always a cost benefit type deal. Is the moral cost greater than the possible benefit? Yes? Avoid! No? Go for it! This experimental modification on someone who had no falna and might be permanently stunted because of it wasn''t worth a fifteen percent increase in base strength for them if the falna didn''t bnce it out like I hoped.-


    I had no issue performing the experiment on a willing participant though and might even specifically find someone down on their luck but of decent moral character to make the offer. The fact of the matter was that if the falna DID bnce things out so the body now increased it''s muscles in regards to the current density then this modification would give our familia a definite edge over other familias as our members would simply be built better from the start. An added bonus was that thanks to the extra weight that the extra density added as well as the reinforcement of the bones the modified person was considerably more durable than normal.-


    I moved on to my next experiment after that which was to modify organs to see if it improved anything. To start out with I carefully altered the guy''s lungs to have additional fleshy fments modeled after gills on a fish to be able to take oxygen from water. I then put the dude in a hole in the ground before filling it with water and observing. He tried holding his breath but soon enough he was forced to gasp for air and suck in water that made him cough and take in more and more until his lungs were filled with water.-


    The look on his face when he finally realized that he hadn''t drowned was hrious. I had of course removed his mask and could see his face clearly which was how I saw this.


    "I altered your lungs to work both in and out of water. That was the n anyways but in truth if it didn''t work I''d have saved you before you drowned, can''t waste precious test subjects after all." I said with a chuckle.


    Pulling the guy out of the water I lifted him upside down so when he breathed out the water would drain out of his lungs and I could see if this could be a permanent modification or if it was destined to be temporary. At first the guy seemed fine but soon I started to see him bing more and more ufortable looking as he inhaled deeper and deeper as panic set in. I checked his body with my technique and found that nothing was actually wrong with him, the opposite really as his blood was slightly richer than normal.-


    "Ah I see! Your body adapted to having more oxygen than usual so being back in regr air has made it think it was suffocating. That''s kinda annoying, can''t have my people freaking out because their bodies were going back to normal after all." I said slightly irritated by the discovery.

 Experimentation(2)

    Experimentation(2)


    "Not to worry though you aren''t actually suffocating so you''ll be fine in a few minutes. It''s rather unfortunate that in order to make this viable I''d need to rewrite your entire vascr system but that''s what these experiments are for after all." I said as the dude just red at me while hyperventting.


    I returned his lungs to normal once he was done being dramatic and moved onto my next experiment, Additional limbs. I hadn''t attempted to create extra limbs on myself despite it being theoretically possible simply because I wasn''t sure what the consequences of doing so would be.-


    Keep in mind that any transformation I take on has a deadline that after reaching it starts to cause the change to be permanent or at least as permanent as it could be since I could just transform it back to normal afterwards. There were other issues with adding more limbs than what you had originally in that the limb has to be made from something and has to be built in exacting detail or it won''t work. I''m talking nerves, muscle fibers, ligaments, joints, bones the whole shebang.-


    Theres detailed work and then theres legitimately making a whole new limb or gods forbid(literally) a whole body. Oh yes did I forget to mention that creating Homunculi or manmade sentient life was forbidden as fuck. Something about it encroaching on the realm of the divine and being a mockery of divine power and the natural order. It also didn''t help that these false souls apparently gunked up the afterlife in the divine realm as they simply had no ce set aside for them. This was actually one of Hestia''s concerns when I first started trying to make cursed tools and ended up making cursed spirits instead as she was worried I''d identally create something able to think.-


    If I had believe me I would have been WAY more concerned than she was as that meant it was special grade which was not good at all. Anyways I started trying to create a new arm on the dude using his current ones as a blueprint of sorts. It didn''t go so great. cement was a bit of an issue as for obvious reasons his body wasn''t designed to have another arm anywhere on it which I had to fix.-


    This meant readjusting his skeletal structure on the side I was adding the arm as well as the muscles there. Then I had to basically force feed the dude so I could grow out the arm as I couldn''t make something from nothing. I discovered yet another fucking problem in the form of neuro pathways and control as his brain ALSO wasn''t wired for an extra limb and stalled at the new feedback from it after I was done. He didn''t fry his brain or anything like that but his reactions were muted and his reflexes were slow as his brain focused it''s full force on understanding this new limb.-


    ''So the strain on the mind is too much with an additional limb and not viable, a pity.'' I thought before resetting the dudes body.


    I then reused the extra limb to create a third eye on his forehead which was a pain in the ass as the sheer density andplexity of nerves involved was mindboggling. I ignored the fact that the new eye was unusual colored since it did work if nothing else. The results of this experiment were fascinating as while he struggled with the extra view provided by the eye he quickly adapted to it.-


    I then started moving the location of the eye and got some good feedback as a result. Naturally the closer to the original eyes the new one was ced the faster the adaptation to it. Second I discovered that cing the eye on the back of the head got dangerously close to frying the brain. The almost full three sixty vision was too much for the brain to process and caused it to be very strained very fast because of the conflicting information. I sealed shut one of the original eyes and that lowered the strain to an eptable level but still more than was viable.-


    "Welp that''s all I had nned for now so you can go." I said as I reduced the dude to ash with my mes.


    ''I suppose I should let Hestia know that I arrived here, assuming she isn''t already aware that is.'' I thought as I took out my chat coin.


    It buzzed for a moment before the other end of the connection picked up "Took you long enough, what happened?" she asked annoyed and with clear concern.


    "Nothing you need to worry about, just had to deal with some brigands that chose the wrong mark. Well that and kill the Goliath but really that only took me like a minute tops." I said casually.


    "How dumb were those brigands to think you were a good target? Don''t answer that I don''t want to actually know. So how long do you think you''ll be gone this time?" she asked with her voice loosing it''s tension.


    I chuckled "Oh I don''t know precisely but at least a week and a half so ten or eleven days I suppose. Really it depends on how good my harvests are on materials." I said honestly.


    "Alright but remember to be careful and call me everyday!" she said firmly.


    "Yes yes, now you can go back to sunbathing or napping or whatever it is that you do since you''ve already sold your figurines for the day." I said with a grin as I cut the call before she could retort.


    With that done I pressed my hand against the wooden side of my base and with a quick use of my technique grew out some strong branches with thick green leaf material stretched out between them to form a soft hammock.-


    I was aware that it waste in the evening after I finished my experiments due to the crystals on the ceiling of the floor dimming. Iid out on my makeshift bed and drifted off to sleep peacefully. In the morning when the crystals high above began to brighten up I woke up and grabbed my bags while slipping my helm/mask on. It was time to get to work and I had oh so much to do.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Pest control

    Pest control


    I left my base and made my way to the stairs heading down to the neenth floor. There was a steady stream of adventurersing and going through the opening, some with smiles some without. The oddest of the bunch I saw consisted of an elf, a dwarf and a human which was weird as elves typically disdain both the other races while dwarves butt heads with elves. To be fair though it was more a cultural thing then a racial thing so it also wasn''t unheard of for elves to befriend members of these other races.-


    No one really spared me any attention beyond nces as I descended the stairs and entered the neenth floor properly. When I got there I saw something that I could only shake my head at as it was a foolish thing to do. Arge gpole with a banner style g was stabbed into the ground and there was a impossible to miss sign next to it that read.


    <strong>"The northwestern area of this floor is officially being hunted by the Mammon familia! All trespassers will be attacked on</strong> <strong>sight!"</strong>


    iming an area in the dungeon while not illegal or anything is HIGHLY frowned upon as it cuts into the possible profits of the other adventurers on the floor. There were some resources that spawned only in certain areas after all and if that area was imed there was a very good chance of familias shing. There was however a sort of unspoken rule in regards to iming an area that everyone followed, you can''t block the stairs between floors. Doing so is little different from cutting off the people heading deeper and no one will tolerate that.-


    ''Mammon? God of greed if I recall correctly, figures he''d jump on the wagon to grab as much profit as possible.'' I thought before leaving to find some monsters.


    With the amount of people on this floor that proved harder than I liked as I spent a good hour walking around before finally stumbling onto a bloody hive. For anyone else this would be a bad thing but for me it was just what I needed as deadly ho stingers just so happened to be on my shopping list. I casually picked up a rock from the ground and with a nice "Swish! Thwack!" threw it straight into the side of the hive.-


    Immediately a droning buzz filled the air as the hive began spitting out one person sized ho after the other. At first they just buzzed around the hive but once one of them saw me they all shot through the air at me at speeds most level threes would struggle the follow if they had stats bellow C rank. For me though it was easy to keep track of them as I matched a new level four in all regards. I casually unsheathed my weapon and held it''s axe side at the ready with a hair thin edge of erasure on it''s de as the hos approached.-


    "Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!" I swung my weaponzily through the air moments before the hos would have ran me through with their stingers and each of them split in half cleanly avoiding me. This didn''t kill them but removed all danger to me from them as they were quite harmless without their stingers. Sure they buzzed about angrily but it was little more than an annoyance that I simply ignored as more and more of the hos being spawned by the hive were bisected.-


    Once it was clear the hive wasn''t going to give me anymore hos after the thirtieth one I tossed a ball of hell fire at it and started refining the stingers on the cut off half of the angry swarm around me. With that done I raised my palm and a serpent made of mes sprung forth and began to feast on the swarm. Admittedly this was more me showing off but it was awesome so I won''t apologize. As all of the swarming monsters burst into smoke that poured into my tattoos and their stingers dropped to the ground I began to casually im my prize.-


    I of course made sure to im the magic stones of the hos as they were level three in nature and highly useful for my crafting once converted to cursed stones. Once that was done I drew back the mes still burning around me and snuffed them out between my palms. I then walked up to the charred hive and sank my hand into it''s exterior that crumbled into dust and scooped away the hard casing until i got to it''s center that held the only thing of value it had, the core.-


    Bloody hives were in fact almost entirely empty but held a core at the center that spawned the hos and was an excellent magical catalyst with an innate poison affinity. The were also extremely rare as most adventurers refused to mess with a hive or t out destroyed it as quick as possible which also destroyed the core. I honestly had no real use for the core at the moment but if we ever got an archer or rogue in the familia I could use it to create a piece of gear with poisonous effects for them.-


    The stingers from the hos could also be used for this purpose but were also good for normal des if you discarded the poisonous aspect of them. I checked my metal finderpass and after getting a few weak directions chose to follow these leads since I needed to stock up some metals since I doubted I''d have much luck focusing on finding monsters. Sure it would be nice if I found some but with the amount of people running about this floor I didn''t have much hope. The hive was honestly left alone simply because it was too troublesome to deal with to be worth the effort for everyone else.-


    Not that I could me them all as most adventurers on this level of the dungeon were level two or three and a hive sent out dozens of level three hos to murder anyone nearby if it detects somebody. Considering the stingers on those hos can punch through a level fours gear AND had poison on them and the danger to payout rate was far too skewed for most to consider taking it on.

 Greed before need

    Greed before need


    As I walked through the forested floor towards the nearest metal ore deposit I finally came across some monster that were obviously newly spawned. It was a a group of four monsters, two lizardmen, a bugbear and a Gunbe. The lizardmen and bugbear were on my shopping list but the gunbe was pretty much useless to me. The giant sniper dragon fly things wings were the only part of it worth anything as they were used in alchemy but that was it. With that in mind I pointed a finger at it and a beam of erasure extended out of the tip of my finger before piercing the monster from head to tail causing it to burst into smoke as the stone was erased.-


    I couldn''t separate my erasure from physically touching me but I could absolutely extend it outwards so long as at least some part of the construct was touching me. It reminded a bit of that scene in terminator two where the liquid metal terminator stabbed a dude to death by extending it''s metal finger. In my case though it was a beam of energy rather than a part of me that extended so far.-


    With the annoying bug taken care of I was left with the two lizardmen and bugbear that roared and charged me. The lizardmen were fastest to reach me and the first to perish as I cleaved my weapons erasure edged de through both their necks in a single smooth stroke. I ignored their bodies that fell t mid stride and waited calmly for the lumbering form of the massive bear to get near me jaws wide in an attempt to devour me whole. I simply spartan kicked it''s snout with a sickening "CRUNCH!" as it''s snout broke due to it''s own momentum being forcefully stopped suddenly.-


    I didn''t leave it alive to suffer and with a smooth swipe of my weapon decapitated it. It was admittedly rather boring how easy it was to handle these monsters and I needed minimal effort to do so. It wasn''t even just a matter of skill either as after I gained RCT my sheer power was on a whole different level than before even though my stats themselves sat at the same ce they had when I first leveled up to three.-


    I had little doubt that if I caught one off guard I could probably even y a level five in head onbat much less these weak level two and three monsters. All I needed was a single moment to unleash erasure and if the level five didn''t escape fast enough that was it, game over for them. It wasn''t all good however as RCT had a rather bad drawback to it, arrogance. Using the technique caused a sense of overinted pride and confidence that was dangerous to have. It was almost like having a godplex forcefullyyered over your existing thoughts that made you think you were invincible since you could just RCT your injuries away.-


    For me it was SO much fucking worse as I didn''t even need RCT to remove injuries so having it on top made my sense of invincibility way worse than it would be for any other person with RCT. I had to constantly remind myself that in front of level five and six entities I was an ant, albeit a much bigger than normal one. Shaking my head to rid myself of these thoughts I refined the hides of the monsters as well as their ws and in the bugbears case, fangs.-


    I then removed the magic stones and absorbed the smoke before collecting my loot in my bag. Pulling out my metalpass I sighed when I noticed that the metal deposit I was previously headed towards wasn''t being picked up anymore which meant the dungeon either moved it or an adventurer harvested it. Whatever the case it was lost to me so I could only head to the next closest deposit. This time I didn''t run into any monsters and arrived at the deposit. It wasn''t some grand amount of metal but a small impure mithril ore crystal hidden in the roots of a tree.-


    "Hand over the metal and we''ll let you walk away unharmed!" A irritating scratchy male voice yelled and I looked at the source.


    It came from a greasy haired twig of a man with a greedy look on his face that was apanied by two other men with no real distinguishing features. All of them had the crest of the Mammon familia on their chest pieces.


    "You are on the wrong side of the floor to be making threats, this is the southeastern side rather than the northwestern side your familia imed." I said coldly.


    The twig dude''s face screwed up into a scowl of anger "I tried to be nice but since you don''t want to cooperate then don''t me me for what happens next. Get him!" he said and all three of them drew their weapons and came at me.


    My gaze told me that they were thoroughly stained with sins of greed and even murder making it clear this wasn''t a first for them. I judged how fast they moved and easily determined that they were all at most mid level three''s and immediately lost interest in ying with them to hone my skills.-


    I will admit that their teamwork was admirable as they were perfectly in sync but numbers and coordination meant nothing to me. The air moved violently as hellfire roared to life from all over my body and transformed into a massive serpent that coiled around me with it''s head locked onto the three people.-


    "Fuck! It''s the real [ck mark]! Run!" the greasy fellow yelled recognizing my signature "magic" but it was far toote to escape for them.


    With a simple mental push the me serpent shot out at them and caught them near instantly as trying to outrun normal magic was a fools errand much less my mes. They didn''t even get a chance to beg for mercy before their bodies were reduced to ash while I barely managed to stop the mes from destroying their gear as well. While I doubted that anything good on these guys was obtained in a legal manner beyond maybe their chestpieces, free was free and I''ll take what I can either way as payment for ridding the world of them.

 Small Hiatus

    Small Hiatus


    Need a bit to stock up on chapters for this story since the holiday madness has my schedule all messed up. I''ll be back on the first though unless something happens to me between now and then.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!