Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (Danmachi / Sharingan)

Yep, finally finished looking over chapter 10, here it is.

There's only a few more chapters ready, and I'll be writing a new one this week, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

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There were two main craftsman familia in Orario, the Hephaestus and the Goibniu familia.

From what I understood, Hephaestus familia specialized in mass produced goods. Each one would still be worked on by a master smith, but they'd fill a set of requirements and nothing more, if you wanted 20 swords of the same model, you went to Hephaestus.

Unfortunately, that meant that, if you wanted only one item, it was going to be far more expensive since you wouldn’t get any discount.

The other side of the equation was the Goibniu familia. Instead of competing with Hephaestus, Goibniu focused on single, custom made gear which was also incredibly expensive.

That's not to say that a blacksmith from Hephaestus couldn't take a personal request for unique weapons, or that one from Goibniu couldn't make 100 sets of the same armor, just that it was not their familia specialty.

Unfortunately, that meant that I barely had enough money to buy equipment made as training for their apprentice smiths, and those were always second or even third rate and prone to failure.

Approaching Babel, I started thinking about what kind of weapon I should buy. A sword was cool and provided a balanced way of fighting, but it was not necessarily the best thing to use against large or armored monsters.

If there was one thing I learned when delving into the dungeon and watching other adventurers, it is that swords were made to fight humanoids.

More specifically, unarmored humanoids.

My own sword had done a wonderful job until now, but I was already starting to feel it reaching its limits. Although it wasn’t deteriorating inside the dungeon, it just didn't have the weight or the strength necessary to deal with killer ants.

The ideal would be to have a weapon for every situation, a polearm for the longer range, a mace or spike for armored foes, a ranged option and a sword to carry around in the city without much trouble.

From what I had seen, usually, an adventurer would choose a weapon and then spend the time and effort necessary to train with it until he could overcome such difficulties and have allies to fill in when needed.

They just didn’t have the time to get good with every weapon, so they’d become such good swordsmen or have such sharp swords that they could overcome any problem.

I had a major advantage over them. My eyes made acquiring the skills necessary to use them all a possibility.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a convenient inventory system to carry it all. Or the money to buy them now that I thought about it.

Wait, was Welf already in Orario? I had no idea when he came to the city, but damn if I wasn't gonna try one of his products.

He may still be low level, but his gear should still be of higher quality and trustworthy enough.

Walking inside Babel, I browsed the shops a little, but everything they put on display was far too expensive for me, or looked far too ridiculous.

I mean, a sword made from monster bone filled with spikes and bigger than me was cool in a game, but it was terrible to use, the handle would hurt my hand and would require a dozen times the usual skill just to keep one of the spikes from piercing the user when waving it around.

Damn, I had long since left my mall ninja phase, I refuse to wield such ridiculous gear.

The Hephaestus familia’s shop was on the eighth floor of Babel. Entering the shop, I noticed there were many higher level adventurers browsing it.

Most of the gear on display was far more conservative than in other shops, armor and swords that wouldn’t be out of place in medieval times in my original world, instead of chainmail bikinis and overblown edgy weapons.

Seeing as every clerk was currently busy, I approached a well made but average looking sword, it was a beautiful piece with a damascus-like pattern and I almost couldn’t stop myself from touching it, then I saw the price and sucked in a breath.

12 million valis for a durandal enhanced arming sword. It was also the cheapest sword there.

29 million for gauntlets that caused small explosions on impact, 75 millions for a halberd capable of channeling the user’s magic into a wind edge.

“Can I help you?” A cute pallum clerk asked me.

“Ah, I’m starting to think not.” I grimaced and sighed.

“Ah, I see. Don’t worry, the weapons on display in front of the shop are usually our best work and reserved for first class adventurers.” The little pallum led me further inside the shop. “We have MUCH better prices for level 1 and 2 gear inside.”

“Thanks.” I nodded and then decided to ask. “Say, is Welf Crozzo part of Hephaestus familia?”

“Crozzo, Ah the familia does have a Crozzo, but he’s still just an apprentice blacksmith sir, his crafting still hasn’t hit the level of quality required to be sold in the shop, just a moment.” The girl quickly checked something behind the counter and returned. “Crozzo-san is currently working on the smithy if you wish to speak with him, sir.”

“I see, I think I’m gonna browse some of the lower level gears before, if that’s fine?”

“As you wish.”

Walking inside the giant shop, I quickly found a far less fancy part of the store filled with average gear of all shapes and sizes. Everything still looked great, but it no longer had any enhancement and seemed to have lost some kind of its shine.

“The weapons here are mostly made from normal metals, with just enough dungeon material to withstand the dungeon inside. Don’t worry, they’re all made by a blacksmith of at least level 2, if you like anything, just bring it over to the counter.” With that, the clerk bowed to me and started to return to the front entrance.

“Thanks.”

Most gear here ranged from 10k to 20k valis and still looked absolutely beautiful, I couldn’t help but touch a few of the weapons. While my own sword and armor looked mass produced, each piece of equipment here was clearly worked on by hand and most had patterns on the metal made from creating the alloy necessary to survive the dungeon influence.

Finding the smithy was easy, I just needed to follow the sound of hammers hitting metal. Welf himself was also pretty easy to find, the youngest smith currently working, he was also one of the tallest, despite looking much younger than even me.

I caught him as he was using the forge to create metal ingots, I watched him pour the molten metal into a mold and wipe his sweating forehead with an arm without interrupting.

“Hey, are you Welf Crozzo?” I waved and tried to catch his attention.

The guy just frowned at me and threw his equipment on top of a table. “Tsk, No.”

“What?”

“No, I won’t be making any magic swords, get out.”

Ah damn, I guess he’d think that since I was a total stranger actually looking for him. Still, his ranting at me did piss me off a little.

“Look, I just...”

“Godsdamnit, I keep telling you guys, I don’t make magic swords!” He punched the table, rattling everything on top of it and hitting the still hot blacksmith tongs sending them flying towards me. “I don’t make them, I don’t sell them, I definitely don’t use them, leave me alone.”

Jumping aside as the sizzling metal hit the floor, I felt a vein starting to throb at my forehead. “Shut up! I’m not here for magic swords damn it.”

“…Ah”

A few seconds later, Welf had managed to lock up everything away and let the ingot cool down. Sitting at a corner of the smithy, he scratched at the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Sorry about that, it’s just that some assholes have been bothering me lately and I lost my temper.”

I was still kind of annoyed at the guy, but what the hell, he was one of the few people from danmachi I was fairly sure was trustworthy, plus he was still fairly young, about 16, so I’d give him a break.

Not that I was a grizzly veteran, mind you, but I was a young adult, and I felt like I should be more mature. “No, it's fine.”

“So, what do you want? If it’s not about those damn magic swords, very few people actually come looking for me.”

“Alright kid, I’m new to the city and kind of need help from a good blacksmith, someone told me you’re trustworthy, so I came to take a look. I have no interest in a magic sword right now.” I stopped, that wasn’t exactly right, having a magic sword would be awesome, so I amended. “Mostly, that’s because I’m pretty sure I don’t have that kind of money, I confess.”

“Heh… kinda old to become a new adventurer aren’t you?”

“Shut up brat, I’ll have you know this is a perfectly reasonable age to start risking my life, thank you very much” What was up with people starting to adventure at 14 or younger? Nineteen was a perfectly good time to do it!

“Alright then, I finished my quota of ingots anyway, what do you need?”

“I’m looking to buy a good spear for larger monsters and a hammer to fight against armor. I also want a blacksmith to look at my sword and armor since they have started to accumulate damage and I don’t really know how to maintain them.”

“Hmmm, and you came to me to work this out? I’m just a level 1 apprentice you know, I can’t even put the Hephaestus seal on my products.” He asked me suspiciously.

“Who else, you think a master blacksmith is gonna take time to help me choose some good weapons or teach me how to take care of them? I’m willing to pay you.”

“Right, hmmmm, you know what, how about we make a deal?” He scratched at his chin and took a peek at my sheathed sword. “I’ll look at your armor and sword and also teach you to do their maintenance; in exchange you start buying the weapons from me.”

I thought about it, in less than two years, Welf would probably become a good blacksmith, but there was no way to know how good he was right now.

“Look, I know I’m still an apprentice and Hephaestus doesn’t allow me to sell my gear in her store yet, but I’ll charge almost half what you’d have to pay in the store and my gear is good, I promise you.”

"You need money or something kid?"

"Ah, well, Hephaestus-sama is getting annoyed with the amount of materials I use for smiting without selling anything." He confessed, scratching at his cheek a little embarrassed. "It's not that my gear is low quality, but nobody comes to Hephaestus to buy from a level one, and other shops keep asking for magic swords you know?"

"Look, I'm not asking for an exclusivity contract or something, it's just a simple exchange of favors and money and, if you like my work, you can come back for more later alright?"

It was about what I wanted anyway, so I had no reason to deny it, we shook on it and Welf immediately started looking at my sword and armor.

I had done my best to maintain the edge of my sword but, in the end, I wasn't a blacksmith and all I had sharpened before were kitchen knives. Welf showed me how to properly use a sharpening stone and finish with a leather belt, while keeping an eye on the cutting edge and making sure to polish it later.


He left my sword and all my knives sharp enough to shave with, before getting rid of the dents in my armor.

I paid him 20 thousand and he let me choose a spear and hammer from a pile of weapons he had already made, but had yet to trade with any store because of the whole magic swords thing.

My new spear had a dark brown shaft, it was only a little taller than me with a steel blade half the size of my sword as the tip. There was a red cloth tied around the base of the spear and, just below, two metal wings that curved upwards in order to stop a monster from bulldozing the wielder. Welf had taken the time to carve flame patterns in the metal, making it a beauty despite not having any enhancement.

The hammer was a simple one handed weapon, smaller than my sword, it had far more metal on the head than something from my world, but still didn’t look anywhere near as bulky as a mallet. On the other side of the hammer, there was a large, curved spike. Welf had also put a spiral pattern around the shaft, but the handle was made from a dark wood that felt perfect in my hand.

My plan was to use the sword when I wasn’t going to enter the dungeon, but the spear and hammer would be my main weapons when dealing with monsters and such.

I considered buying a halberd instead but… well, the spear just looked much better.

Buying a leather strap for my spear, I put it at my back while securing the hammer to my waist beside the sword. I'd still have to find a ranged option, but really, by the time it becomes a true necessity, I’d probably have found at least one companion to fill the place.

Leaving Babel, I gave a long gaze towards the dungeon and sighed before finally turning away. It was about time to face that hellish training again, dealing with murderous monsters was far less exhausting.

The next morning, I woke up feeling slightly better. Either Tiona got better at holding back or I was growing at an astonishing pace, because she only knocked me out a single time in our spar and didn’t even break any bones.

Stretching, I took the time to see all my bruises were already gone before I started running, having a Falna and keeping a steady routine of exercises was doing wonders for my body. I had already lost the pouch on my belly and my muscles were beginning to show, another month of this and I’d probably end up as ripped as most other adventurers.

Taking a quick bath, I made my way towards the Dian Cecht clinic for my consultation with Airmid. I was received by a well dressed nurse and quickly led inside the clinic towards a large room in the back.

Airmid herself was a very short woman with silver hair and purple eyes; she was using some liquid to clean her medical instruments when I entered the room.

“Good evening, you must be Roland?” she asked with a polite smile while searching for my name on some documents. “You’re getting a finger prosthetic next week right? Do you need something else?"

"I need you to look at my eyes and body for any adverse effects or curses." I said. Telling a stranger about my skill rubbed me the wrong way, but the danger was worth it to get a consultation with Orario's best healer.

"I see, please sit down." She waited until I was sitting in front of her. Taking a magnifying glass, she sat in front of me. "Let's start with a physical exam, please open your eyes."

I did as instructed and watched as she looked at both my eyes, then used a wand to touch me and finally drew some blood from one vein, using some magic device to analyze it.

Everything took half an hour of work and left me kind of bored as the healer worked.

"Well, mister Roland, it seems you were right. From what I understood, you have a skill constantly active on your eyes, the drain on your magic is negligible, but it's still causing a strain on your body, nothing that a healing potion can't deal with, but I still suggest you deactivate the skill's constant use until you reach at least level two."

"More worrying is the state of your eyes, your right eye should already be showing signs of diminished vision, but even your left one shows some minor damage. Worse, your right eye seems to be suffering from the effects of a curse or something similar. Do you know if you were hit by something or is this a side effect of your skill?"

Ha, so using the mangekyou is already doing damage, I'll have to keep its use at a minimum. "It's a side effect."

"I see, with your permission, I'll try casting my magic at you, it's able to heal a lot and overcome most curses."

"Do I have to pay extra? I don't have a lot of valis."

"Don't worry, It's covered by the price of the consultation this time."

"Go ahead them." I told her, but still got ready to attack in case it was a trick. Unlikely, but you never know.

The short woman started chanting with her hand pointing at me until a white aura covered her body.

"DIA FRATEL." She finished and a light spread from her body, covering the entire room and making me feel far better than before.

My hopes were high with the best mortal healer in the world casting magic at me, but she frowned when looking in my eyes and grumbled in annoyance.

"Hmmm, may I cast my spell on you again Mister Roland?"

"Well, sure, who am I to deny free healing."

This time she picked up a large magic staff and a white, diamond shaped magic circle appeared at her feet as she cast the spell, causing a much brighter light to fill the room. "DIA FRATEL!!"

Looking at my eyes a third time, Airmid seemed really annoyed, which squashed any hope I had of solving the mangekyou problem.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, not really.” She sighed, then released the magic staff. “It just hurts my pride as a healer to leave a patient without complete health."

"It didn't work then?"

"No it worked, just not as well as I had hoped. The damage seems highly resistant to healing, but it still shows minor signs of improvement." She leaned back and started cleaning her equipment again, almost mumbling. "It's just very small."

"But it can be healed?" I asked in eagerness, anything that extended the usefulness of my cheat was good news in my book.

"Slowly, I'd say it would take me 10 castings of my magic to completely heal the damage done to your healthier eye and a couple dozens to heal the other one, and my magic is equal to an elixir." She sat back down and released her staff. "Worse, the damage can be mitigated with the use of potions, even if it would be very expensive, but the effects of the curse barely improved and no potion can disperse it."

"It's there nothing I can do?"

"Again, I recommend leveling up if you can; every level will decrease the strain of the skill and may provide the right development ability to fight it off."

"It would be ideal to use at least a weak potion every twelve hours and avoid using your skill as much as you can. Working with Dian Cecht, it is possible I could create something to dispel the curse completely, but it would cost at least 100 million valis, probably more, and he may not be interested."

Hmmm, seeing as it was only on one eye, the 'curse' was probably what stopped me from using kotoamatsukami again, and the damage was caused by using the mangekyou.

I made up my mind to only activate the improved eye ability in case my life was at risk and stop using it to keep up with Tiona; I probably didn’t need it to stay alive anymore.

I hope.

“Right, thanks for the help anyway.” I said and got up stretching, I actually towered over the small healer, but she wasn’t intimidated in the least.

Grabbing my new spear, I left the building. Instantly, I stumbled as I felt someone’s gaze on me, I looked around to see dozens of high level adventurers coming to the clinic to buy potions or get a consultation.

I quickly walked away from the place and tried my best to get rid of the feeling, but I just couldn’t manage it for at least 10 minutes, I still spent an hour wandering around just in case.

Finally, I decided to find somewhere else to sleep.

It would be a pain to lose the advanced deposit and I had started to trust Loki not to just kill me, but finding her at the foot of my bed again would probably give me a heart attack or something, and I did have some extra valis.

I found a small little inn close to the entertainment district which had a minuscule bedroom, but a fairly comfortable bed and warm showers, so I paid for the day and went up the stairs.

Making sure to put a dagger under the pillow, I put my spear beside the bed together with the sword for easy access, and took off my shirt.

A few days ago, I got myself a good mirror to do this, so I laid it against the wall and dropped some blood on my skin revealing and updating my falna. I wasn’t entirely certain this was the right choice, what with Loki already suspicious, but the Dungeon was extremely dangerous, and it would be idiotic to try and avoid her attention, just to die to a surprise monster because I didn’t have the attributes to fight it off.

Roland Synclair – level 1
Strength – H – 152
Endurance – H – 149
Dexterity – H – 140
Agility – H – 138
Magic – G – 292
Skills:
- Chosen of and Outer God
- Mangekyou Sharingan (Shisui).

Hmm, a good growth, nowhere near what I achieved after risking my life against stronger monsters, but still larger than just working out for two weeks.

Despite me not using many illusions while fighting, my magic still grew faster than every other stats, then again, after talking with Airmid, it became clear that my sharingan was always active and using a small amount of mind, so it wasn’t a surprise.

Concentrating, I tried hard to cut off the flow of magic and deactivate the eyes, but nothing worked, no matter how much I tried to keep my magic in place or stop it from flowing into my eyes, it just didn’t obey me.

“Damn it, work!” I tried to force the issue, grimacing as I did everything I could to stop my magic.

A spike of pain hit me and caused me to wince while grabbing at my head, but the sharingan didn’t deactivate.

Damn, I wasn’t an Uchiha, just like Kakashi, I couldn’t stop my sharingan from working and sucking on my magic. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to draw too much from me, but it was still doing damage to my body.

Throwing myself in bed, I sighed, it seems I’d have to invest in stronger potions to counter this effect lest it build up and cause permanent damage.

At least I could let Tiona hit me on ‘accident’ and get a high grade potion out of it sometimes, just had to make sure the strike only broke one bone, not all of them.


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Heya, chapter 11 here. I hope you guys enjoy it.


As for the damage of Kotoamatsukami. The eyes were changed to work with mana, and a healer analisis of them recognizes the problem with Kotoamatsukami as a curse, even if that isn't exactly right.

Repeatedly castings of healing spells, or even use of potions, can help with that damage, but the 'curse' can't be dispelled with potions.

Roland can become more resistant with a level up, diminishing the recharge of Kotoamatsukami, because leveling up will increase his vitality and act in the same way as Hashirama cells.

The reason Airmid's spell helps with the Kotoamatsukami curse (Not being able to use it for years.) Is because her spell isn't only healing, but also especifically dispells curses. A normal healing spell or potion won't do anything about the cooldown, and be far less effective on healing the eye. To really heal it, you can't just deal with the damage, you have to heal the curse too.

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Waking up, I did my morning exercises and stretches while thinking about my new situation. If I continued to only use low grade potions, it was likely the damage to my body would continue to accumulate until it became permanent.

I could still afford two potions a day with what I got from the dungeon, but it would mean I couldn't take days off and would have to keep spending just on the most basic necessities.

Leveling up would probably help a lot, but I was still far from achieving rank D in any stats and I wouldn't want to level up with only the bare minimum.

Damn it, I want to be powerful, if I leveled up with only a single stat at D rank I'd permanently handicap myself… Well, going to level 2 with subpar stats probably wouldn’t be that crippling, but I’d really like to achieve a strong level up.

What I really needed was a healing spell of my own or, barring that, a healer. Unfortunately, I didn't have the kind of money necessary to buy a spell book and I'd probably need to level up to have even a chance of receiving a healing spell.

Did adventurers even get spells at level up? I wasn’t certain, I only remember Bell learning firebolt from a book and I really doubt I'd be so lucky as to find an unused one just lying around.

So, finding a healer it is.

Ideally, I'd join a familia with a powerful healer or convince one to join mine but, once again, not having a god was going to fuck me over.

And what god would I even join? Of the Greek gods, the only ones I'd trust were Hestia and, maybe, Hephaestus, the others were all terrible people in mythology.

Hell, even in danmachi, the Greeks were assholes as far as I knew.

Norse gods were only a slight improvement and I don't think the other pantheons would be any better.

Speaking of Greek gods, didn't Apollo have a powerful healer he forced into his familia? Maybe I could help her escape him in exchange for healing? The only problem was, how?

I sighed, every solution I found was impossible to implement as I was right now.

In the end, I had only three options if I wanted to continue being an adventurer.

One, rush level two and handicap myself with low stats for the rest of my life.

Two, try and make do with health potions, it would probably keep me from buying good equipment and food, but I could probably do it and, after some time and growth, I’d be able to face stronger monsters for a bigger payout.

Three, kotoamatsukami.

It was kind of counterproductive to waste my only remaining use of the skill, but I was leaning more and more towards this option.

I had a single use of the skill, what was I going to do with it? Save it for an emergency while my body deteriorates or I starve?

No, it was better to use it now and acquire a significant advantage right from the beginning. From what Airmid had said, the cooldown for its use would decrease with every healing spell cast at me anyway and increasing my level would also help.

Could I find myself in a situation where the skill was needed the very next day I used it? Yes, but I could also die from a freak accident I had no way of avoiding. It had happened once already, after all.

The only question was, who should I use it on?

Airmid would be the obvious answer, not only was she only a single level above me, but she also had the spells and influence to benefit me greatly only… I was not an asshole.

I really didn't want to just brainwash people who didn’t deserve that, damn it, I had my limits!

I could just make a small change, nothing that would damage her or change her life too much. Just having her have the urge to cast her healing spell every time she saw me, I could even justify it as the best healer in the world wanting to beat my curse.

However, once again, that felt like I'd be wasting the skill for something so minor, Kotoamatsukami was just too useful to not try and get as big an advantage as I could from it.

Finishing my workout, I put my sword at my waist and considered my other weapons. No, I didn't need to bring everything, I wasn’t going to the dungeon in the morning.

Starting to make my way to the wall for my morning training with Tiona, I continued to think, would the skill work on a god?

I guess that depends on how the gods kept a hold of their powers, were they as powerful here and they were in heaven and just didn't use the power or had they actually sealed themselves and came down here in mortal bodies with mortal limitations?

Really, I was almost certain a god could overcome Kotoamatsukami if they wanted to, but they came down to play, to have new experiences, it was entirely possible that they left themselves vulnerable to such things.

I remember Hestia leaking her divinity to stop Bell from getting hurt and causing the Black Goliath to spawn, so they clearly could use their powers if they wanted to but most gods in the show seemed weak and fragile.

Could I catch a god with his guard down and ensnare him with kotoamatsukami? I had no doubt they could break the brainwash if they used their true power but, what if I made it so they didn't want to?

Once again, I ran into the problem of who I would brainwash and not feel like an absolute asshole for doing so? I thought of the gods as assholes because of their mythology but, if I was being honest, I didn’t know that for sure.

Heh, who knew I'd one day have to give serious thought to the ethics of mind control?

"Hey newbie-kun, over here!" Tiona called me from the top of the wall. One hand waving furiously she used the other to lift a cup with ice coffee and suck on it with a straw.

I really shouldn’t have introduced the beverage to her, she was already filled with energy, there was no need to increase it with caffeine.

"Morning." I looked around, but didn't see a certain goddess anywhere near. "You're alone today?"

"Yeah, Finn managed to catch Loki when she was trying to sneak out." The amazon said with a laugh. "She’s going to be filling forms for a while.”

Good to know Loki was weak to paperwork.

Leaning down, Tiona touched her toes with a hand and started stretching her body before our spare. “Hey, wanna use weapons today?” She asked, eagerly looking at my sword.

“Not with you using that monstrosity.” I eyed urga and said.

“Alright, but I’m bringing a normal weapon next time so you can’t escape it!”

“A wooden weapon.” I countered.

“Fiiine.” She stomped her feet. “How are you going to become a hero if you don’t take any risks?”

“Taking risks is fine, being stupid isn’t.” I laid my gear beside the wall and turned to my partner. She already almost killed me with her bare hands, no way was I going to let her use that thing.

“Alright, let’s go!”

Kicking the floor, Tiona pounced on me. Without activating the mangekyou, her movements were a blur and I barely had enough time to register the shadows predicting her movements before she caught up with them.

Leaning back from her punch, I dodged it by an inch and retreated as she delivered a series of blows towards my head, she was still too strong to block completely, so I had to either dodge her attacks or parry them away, leaving my arms stinging.

I managed to trade blows with her for almost a minute, always retreating at her aggressive attack and barely managing to attack five times while losing count of how many blows she delivered.

The back of my foot hit the wall and I knew I couldn’t retreat anymore. In a hurry, I ducked, letting a kick pass right where my head was supposed to be. Tiona’s miss exposed her back and I attempted to punch her away in order to gain some space, but she just continued the rotation and threw a backhand.

I lifted both arms and blocked the blow, it lifted me off my feet and sent me tumbling sideways. I recovered fast, turning my fall into a roll and springing to my feet as soon as I could.

Tiona was already there, a giant smile on her face as she laughed. Jumping up, she dropped with the heel of her leg aiming right for my head. “Come on, Newbie-kun, faster!”

I moved faster, stepping aside with movements copied from hundreds of adventurers. I saw her strike hit the floor and break a few bricks, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

Despite the danger, I couldn’t help but smile. Fighting with such a strong adventurer was much more fun than slaughtering weak monsters, probably more dangerous too, and I wasn’t completely certain the first wasn’t just a result of the later.

Before she could continue attacking, I threw my own kick, a perfect copy of her earlier one. It caught her as she was recovering and almost hit her in the face, but she managed to block with an arm at the very last second and I wasn’t strong enough to blow through it.

“Tsk!” I cursed, I swear I had her.

Before I could recover, Tiona’s block became a grab as she locked my feet between her arm and body. Out of position, I couldn’t block as she stepped inside my guard and punched me in the chest.

“Off.” I coughed and folded as the blow drove the air out of me, then she grabbed my calf with her punching hand and swung me around, throwing me against the wall, hard. “Ugh.”

I lay there, trying to recover my breath as Tiona slowly made her way towards me. Looking at my fallen form, she crouched over me and patted me in the forehead.

“Good job Newbie-kun, almost had me there.” Turning her head sideways, she wondered. “So, do you know what you did wrong there?”

“Tried to… hit back against, ugh… a first class adventurer?”

“Nope, you stopped, when hitting, you can’t just stay in place like that, either pull back and regroup or follow through with another attack as fast as you can!” Lifting both arms in front of her face, Tiona punched out, her hand snapping forwards in a flash and retreating to its guard in one fluid motion almost faster than I could register. “like a whip, you don’t punch or kick out and stay with your limb extended for longer than necessary.”

“Got… it.” I managed to breathe out.

“Heh, you really learn fast, I swear even Ais-chan didn’t improve so fast, if only you were a few levels higher, you could really stand a chance.” Letting herself fall back, Tiona sat beside me. “Tomorrow, we’re definitely using weapons!”

My training partner let me rest for a whole 5 minutes before we were back to trying to hit each other.

Despite not using the improved vision of the mangekyou, I managed to last a few extra hits every time, and even had enough room to strike back a few times, making sure I didn’t let myself overextend.

Most spars ended the same way, Tiona overcoming my guard and laying me out cold, but every time it was because of another mistake I had made.

She’d help me up and try to correct me before letting me rest a little and we’d start again. Only once did I make the same mistake twice, and she was far more brutal, her speed increasing so much I couldn’t even see what had hit me.

Two hours later, I was panting on the ground, my shirt absolutely soaked with sweat and my muscles trembling like jelly. I hadn’t needed to take any potions, none of my bones were actually broken since Tiona hadn’t really hurt me all that much. It had left me both exhausted and filled with pain from the many smaller wounds.

Circling around my fallen form, Tiona poked me with a toe, sending a wave of pain; my bruises had bruises. “Ugh.”

She poked me again. “Want a healing potion?”

“Yes, please.”

She poured the red liquid right down my throat, only spilling a little and I felt the pain start to fade from my body as my skin healed from being dozens of shades of purple and yellow into a normal human color.

Without the pain, exhaustion settled in and I could barely drag myself into a sitting position while leaning against the wall.

Tiona poked me again, and I saw the overworked muscles on my calf shake. “Will you stop that already!”

“Mou, Loki was right, you really are fun to tease.”

She sat in front of me until I recovered enough to get up, then grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. Despite the pain and how tired I was, I felt… great, the high grade potion had healed any wound and, despite how much trouble I had with starting, I had always liked working out. Plus, the thrill from risking severe injury was exciting.

Damn, was I becoming an adrenaline junkie?

“Say Tiona, do you know anything that can enhance the power of a skill?”

“Sure, there’s lots of things like that, what kind of skill?”

I thought about how to say this, I trusted the girl far more than I trusted Loki, but I wasn’t going to reveal how my cheat worked to anyone unless we were in a permanent party, why handicap myself like that?

“I have this skill that uses my ‘mind’ attribute to disrupt a monster’s vision and I wanted something to increase its potency.” Not technically a lie, illusions can disrupt vision and I had quite a few specifically to mess with that.

“Ah, you’d want something for magic then; I only know where they put enchantments on weapon, I guess I’ll have to ask Riveria where she goes to buy her staffs.”

“Thanks, but make sure to ask for a beginner staff, I don’t think I’ll have enough valis to buy something Riveria could use anytime soon.”

I finally got enough movement back to start stretching and Tiona helped me by pushing my back or pulling my hands. I opened my legs as I stretched my arms forwards and felt the Amazon put both hands on my back and push.

“Ah, hopefully I won’t be too stiff in the evening, I’m still going into the dungeon.”

“Wow, you’re working hard!”

“Well, someone broke into my bedroom and made me abandon my previous house deposit, so I don’t really have a choice.” I glared at her, that room had been expensive.

“Ahem, just remember not to work too much, even Ais-chan takes a break from time to time.”

“What do you even do when you’re on break anyway?”

“Well, everyone usually goes out to celebrate with the rest of the familia, or eat out at the Hostess of Fertility.” She said, getting up and grabbing her huge sword before patting it against the wall to get rid of any dust. “Plus, I really like to read hero tales at the library.”

“Wait, there’s a library in Orario?”

“Yeah, the main library is taken care of by gnomes, so I’m always going there, do you like to read?”

“I love it.” Damn, I didn’t have a computer anymore but, since I mostly used the internet to read free light novels anyway, a library would do. “I mostly read fiction, fantasy stories and such.”

“Really? Do you read hero stories too?”

“Well, yeah.” I said taken aback as the Amazon invaded my personal space, her eyes wide and staring into my own. “I guess you can call them heroes.”

I didn’t know she was a hero nut like Bell. Hmmm, I wonder if mythology and story books from Danmachi will read like light novels?

“Say, what’s your favorite story?” Her overeager face was almost pressed against my own. “Have you ever read about the Argonaut?”

“Sorry Tiona, but I really don’t think you’re gonna recognize most of the stories I read and, while I have read about an Argonaut, I really doubt it is the same one.”

“Hrumph!” She pouted, her cheeks filling with air as she finally pushed herself away from me. “That’s it, we’re taking tomorrow off and going to the library!”

Well, while I needed to make more money, it wasn’t exactly an emergency, and taking a day off from using the sharingan in a fight would probably be good for my body. Plus, I wanted to get back to reading damn it, it’s been about a month since I last read anything interesting and I used to be addicted to it!

“Sure, that sounds good.” I nodded and watched her pout morph back into a smile almost instantly.

“Great, don’t forget to turn up early tomorrow!” Grabbing the bag with the remaining health potions, she swung it at her back and over her sword before waving at me. “See you.”

The petite Amazon moved faster than ever despite the weight she had at her back, jumping up into the roof of a building, she dashed away towards the twilight manor before I could even ask anything else.

Damn, and I wanted to probe her for information about healers too.

I briefly went back to my room and had a meal and a bath there, the healing potion had really done a great job and, after a quick half hour nap, I felt ready to face at least the first levels of the dungeon for some spare change.

I wouldn’t risk pushing deeper, or even hunting for war shadows, but I could stay on floor 4 and test out my new weapons while gathering some monster drops.

Reaching the fourth floor of the dungeon was easy; while the geography of the place changed every day, it did so slowly.

In a year, every stone, room and hallway of the first floor would be completely different but, from one day to another, the changes weren't enough to fool the Sharingan.

Despite the health potion and all the stretching I had done, I still wasn’t feeling at my best so I decided to stay on the fourth floor today and not risk going deeper.

The temptation to try and find a war shadow to fight was great, but I had gotten my share of excitement for the day.

Fighting monsters with my new spear went even easier than the sword. Usually, I managed to eliminate a kobold or goblin with every stab of the weapon, the tip piercing through head, chest or neck with ease and retreating fast enough none of the monsters could even approach me.

If the monsters had any instinct besides charging at me like berserkers and trying to cause damage, things could be much harder but, as it was, I barely started to sweat before finding a good spot between rooms where I could attract monsters from either place as soon as they spawned.

The lot from the monster's started accumulating at my side while I killed them with minimal effort and I sighed once again, I really did need a supporter.

Then an idea hit me and I started experimenting.

The first monster I found was a dungeon lizard trying to sneak towards me on the ceiling, a common tactic for the annoying geckos.

Catching its eyes, I sent it an illusion of the ceiling catching fire and it dropped straight down with a squeak.

Before it recovered, I was on top of the thing. Grabbing its head, I managed to tie the mouth close with a rope from my backpack in case I committed any mistakes and jumped away.

I briefly watched the creature struggle to break the rope or scratch it off with a paw, but its limbs did not turn right and it was unable to reach the rope.

Taking a few steps back, I finished creating the illusion and caught its eyes again.

From my talk with Dorlia from the Ganesha familia, I had learned how to tame monsters but, would my illusions work to achieve the same thing?

The illusion was a fragile thing, I didn't have the time to make anything incredibly long and elaborate, and it would break as soon as the target noticed its body wasn't moving as it wished.

Fortunately, the creature was both too simple and too young to even notice it.

Inside the illusion, the beast would try to attack me with its claws and I would utterly demolish it with my spear, stabbing it over and over again and sending flashes of pain with every hole I made in its body.

The entire thing would take two or three minutes if I were to actually do it in real life but, in an illusion, it only took 20 seconds.

Damn, look at me trying to copy tsukuyomi.

This illusion I created would never be able to achieve the level of Itachi's mangekyou ability; while the illusion could stretch the sensation of time, I already knew it would never be able to make a single second feel like days.

I also didn't have the means to restrain my target or stop him from breaking free once he noticed it wasn't real.

"Stay!" I ordered the lizard once the illusion ended, but it just went berserk trying to kill me. I cast the illusion again.

While the monster was suffering inside its own head, a group of kobolds rushed me, a wave of my spear forced them back and allowed me to stab one of them in the eye.

The other two took the opportunity to try and rush me again, but I still managed to stab another through the chest before the third got inside my guard.

Using the spear at this range was too awkward, but I had been fighting Tiona in hand to hand. Compared to that, the kobold looked like a slow child flailing about.

Grabbing at its wrist as it tried to claw at me, I pulled it off balance and drove my elbow into its temple, cracking its skull.

Turning around, I saw my lizard trying to run away, no, that wouldn't do at all.

It took another nine casts of my illusion before the creature started to listen to me, it wasn't able to understand my words, but I could make it stay or follow with gestures.

Using the same rope I had tied its mouth, I put my backpack and all the loot on its back and fixed it in place nodding.

Yeah, it's much easier this way.

I kind of felt bad about making the creature suffer but, considering it had been trying to kill me not even an hour earlier, not that bad.

I'd have to refine my illusion a lot in order to decrease the time it took to tame something, but it was a great way to carry equipment down here and leave my body free to act as I wished.

Perhaps I'd even try my hand at taming something without the pain? I had been told it was technically possible after all, and a well made illusion could decrease the time needed by a lot.

The lizard tried to attack me twice while fighting monsters and, when that didn't work, tried running away another three times.

Every time, I created a painful illusion as punishment until, during the last two hours, it behaved perfectly.

When I was about to leave the dungeon, I was faced with another choice. I really wanted to bring the lizard up, but the only time I had seen a monster on the surface was on the monsterphilia.

I was certain I’d need at least some kind of permit if I wanted to bring it with me and not get punished, and I was already in trouble with the guild for not registering.

Just releasing the lizard also wasn't an option. Yes it was a very weak monster all things considered and, odds are, it would get easily killed, but it was still the first floor and a newbie adventurer could get killed by it since they would not expect the thing on this floor.

With a sigh and some regret, I put the monster under a calming illusion and killed it as painlessly as I could manage.

Leaving the dungeon, I wondered how the other tamers dealt with this, did they have to spend hours taming something every time they delved or did they have some kind of skill for it?

On the walk back home, I started considering what to do tomorrow. I was eager to relax at the library and read a good book but, far more, I wanted to get my hands on something capable of boosting my magic.

I'd still have to find a god that would both benefit me and I wouldn't feel very guilty about brainwashing to target, but I was sure there were a lot of those around.

They were gods after all.


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Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

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"I'm sorry, how much?" I asked in an incredulous voice. What the gnome just told me couldn't be right, I was sure if it.

"One hundred thousand valis for a day entry, no haggling," the old gnome told me in a bored voice from behind the counter.

"What's wrong, Newbie-kun?" Tiona asked, already inside the library.

I scratched the back of my head in both embarrassment and confusion, what did I ever do to this gnome dude?

I mean, I know things are more expensive in Orario, but that’s just ridiculous.

"Sorry Tiona, but I just don't have this kind of money. One hundred thousand valis is more than I could make in a month."

"What, how much?" She asked in a surprised voice.

Ha, I knew the damn midget had to have been fucking with me. I narrowed my eyes at him and prepared myself to argue,

"I just pay their annual fees, so I never knew how much their day pass was," she said as she came back to talk with us. “I didn’t think it was that cheap.”

Or maybe not, fuck.

The gnome suddenly did a one eighty and became much more respectful. "Greetings my lady, gathering and caring for all our books in Orario is a very expensive endeavor so we must charge according."

"Ah, don't worry about that, I'll just pay his entry today then. Come on inside Newbie-kun!"

Noooooooo! Can't you just give me that money instead, damn it? That's more than I made even with the vouivre!

"But…but," I was speechless, despite watching the anime I had forgotten how ridiculous a first class adventurer could be.

"Oh, don't worry newbie-kun, that's nothing to me, now comes on, let's go."

That's not the fucking point, damn woman!

Unable to argue, I let the Amazon drag me inside the library. From behind me, I heard the gnome waving in a cheerful voice. "Have a nice day, dear customer."

"You know, I'd really have preferred you just give me that money instead."

"Don't be silly; what kind of hero would you be if I just gave you money?" Tiona asked in a confused voice. "No, you've got to gather your own money for adventuring; it's in the hero's journey."

"The mentor also dies in that, if you'll remember."

"That's only if they're an old man Newbie-kun. You've got to read more books."

Well damn, she had me there. But still… so much money.

Grabbing me by the arm, Tiona led me through the building and between the hundreds of book cases until we stopped at the border between the history and fiction sections.

She proceeded to grab books off the shelves one after another and pile them in front of me, acting with as much enthusiasm as when she was fighting.

"You've got to read this one, and here, the story of the hero Yulia, this one too, the legend of Galmuza!"

She kept putting book after book on top of the table, to the point I had to raise an eyebrow; did she think I could read it all today? Hundreds of books in a day were too much even for a bookworm like me.

Well, with the sharingan, I bet I actually could, but I didn’t want to force my eyes like that, and I liked to enjoy my books, not go through them as fast as I could.

Also, if they charged so much just for a day pass, how much would I have to pay to take one of those books home?

"Tiona, I don't think I can read so much in a single day."

The Amazon froze, a devastated look on her face. With an exaggerated sigh and many longing glances at every book, she started taking books back to their places.

After a few moments, the mountain had been reduced to only a dozen books and Tiona reduced to biting at her nails in utter indecision. Every once in a while she’d take a book, look at the cover, and lay it back on the table, unable to eliminate it too.

Her pout as she glared at the books was quite cute. Finally, I decided to help her.

“How about this, show me your favorite first?” I asked with an amused smile.

“Alright!” her frown disappeared as soon as it had come and she picked up a single book from the pile, presenting it to me as if it was some kind of treasure. “The legend of the Argonaut, you’ve got to read it!”

The book had a simple leather cover with golden letters in front, I still wondered how I could read Koine without ever having learned the language, but I wasn’t looking a gifted horse in the mouth.

If my asshole of a ROB wanted to make life a little easier by giving me knowledge of a different language, good for me, even if I did think it was pretty suspicious when he hadn’t taken the effort to even create my own body from scratch.

When I first found out the thing had put new knowledge inside my mind, I had freaked the hell out, but there was just far too much to worry about without wondering if I’m even still myself or just a collection of memories created by a bored eldritch being.

It made life much easier for me if I didn’t even consider it.

“Thanks,” I said and took the book.

Putting both hands behind her back, Tiona bent forward and just… stared at me with huge eyes filled with expectation, her head tilting from one side to the other as I opened the book and looked it over.

“You do know I won’t be able to read this entire thing in one sitting right?”

“Mou, I know that, but you have to tell me about it next time we meet alright?” Tiona sat down on the table with her own book, but she didn’t open it and continued to stare at me.

It was making me uncomfortable.

With a sigh, I pulled the chair right beside me closer and offered. “Do you want to read it with me?”

“YES!” jumping up, the Amazon winced when she received a glare from one of the gnome librarians.

Sitting by my side, the girl pulled her chair closer and leaned over my body to look at the book. Adjusting my position, I made myself comfortable and started reading the book.

Reading with the sharingan was simultaneously incredibly easy and incredibly frustrating. If I looked at the page in its entirety for even a single second I’d be able to remember every word writing in it, it made my reading speed incredibly fast.

It didn’t mean I’d be able to make sense of all the words I read instantly, it still took a few seconds for my mind to process and understand everything I had read, but I wouldn’t even need the book for that.

Still, with Tiona reading by my side, I’d have to wait until she was done too before turning the page.

Eventually, I found a compromise by focusing on one line at a time and taking my time digesting what I’d read before moving on. It was hard at first, but Tiona was a fun companion and it was funny to watch her reactions as she read.

Almost an hour later, we had read the first eleven chapters and I decided to take a break. Marking the page I had stopped at, I stretched my limbs and got up.

“So, so, tell me, what do you think of it?” she asked as she eagerly poked at my shoulder with a finger.

“I like it, can’t say it’s an epic masterpiece, but it’s very enjoyable and funny.”

The Argonaut’s story wasn’t something like ‘Lord of The Rings’ or other epic works; it was more like the comedic light novel you read to relax. Still, that didn’t mean it was bad, quite the contrary.

“Right! Right! The Great Ballad is much better written, but I can’t help but love the Argonaut’s story more,” she nodded with a huge smile on her face.

I looked from her face to the book and smiled, it had been a very relaxing hour and I hadn’t realized how much I needed to take a break like this since arriving in this world.

I did love fighting in the dungeon, but staying so tense all the time was taking its toll on me.

Damn, now that I thought about it, I really had been acting a little off since coming here, too eager to throw myself at danger while also too afraid of the gods.

In hindsight, taking what I knew of mythology as truth for a manga that was only loosely based on it is a very stupid thing to do. Heck, it was quite possible most of what we knew of Norse mythology in the modern age was wrong too.

Most of the old religions were passed through oral tradition, and only later were the stories written, most of the time by people that weren’t worshipers but just researchers or even catholic priests.

I blame the ROB, the first being I ever meet that could be called divine had almost destroyed my very soul by being careless, then thrown to the 18 floor of the dungeon as a level 1, was it any wonder I thought the worst of other gods?

Not that I’d change my approach completely, that would be stupid, but maybe I could tone down my fear and aversion, at least a little bit.

Still don’t want anything to do with Freya and Apollo though; those two were assholes in the anime too from what I remember.

Cracking my neck, I looked around and had an idea.

“Say, how about we continue to read the book together?” Tiona looked at me in confusion and I explained. “I doubt I’d get enough money to rent it anytime soon, but if you do it, we could read it together, I think I’d be more fun this way too.”

“Really? That’d be great!” She grabbed the book, making sure not to mess up with the page marking. “I’ll go rent this right away!”

“Wait, do you mind if we stay in the Library a little bit longer?” I asked feeling a little bit guilty, but she had paid for my entrance because she had wanted to, not because I asked. It would be pretty stupid not to take advantage. “I want to look at some other books while we’re here if that’s okay.”

“Sure, I was planning on staying until lunch anyway,” she happily waved at me and dashed towards the front entrance, receiving a few more glares along the way.

I sighed and consoled myself, I had never asked for it, it wasn’t like I was manipulating her for personal gain, there was nothing to feel guilty about. Personal gains were just a happy side effect, not something I had been going for.

Nodding to myself, I hurried to the nearest Librarian and asked the little Gnome. “Hey, do you guys have books on the Dungeon, its monsters or magic? Ah, and do you have books on Orario’s current familias?”

“We obviously cannot lend or rent any grimoires, but we do have many books on magical theory and the Dungeon.”

“Alright, could you guide me to some of the beginning level explanations, and maybe a bestiary too?”

The Gnome lowered the little clipboard he had been using and gave a frustrated sigh, with a practiced and professional voice he motioned for me to sit down. “Of course dear costumer, if you could wait a moment I’ll bring the book directly to your table.”

“Right, thanks,” I nodded and sat back down.

While waiting, I took a few of Tiona’s chosen books and started reading their first chapters to see what they were all about, marking three as interesting before the Amazon arrived back.

“Did you like anything else?”

“Yeah, I think I already know which one I want to read after finishing Argonaut’s,” I told her and she peeked at the books I had selected, then nodded in approval.

Tiona herself decided to browse the library looking for a new story to devour. Twenty minutes later, the Gnome arrived with almost two dozen books and put them in front of me.

“Those are the most accurate books on magical theory, the Dungeon and its monsters and Orario’s situation,” he finished pilled them up at my side with a tired voice. “Please, leave all books on the table when you’re done and don’t try to put them in the shelves out of order.”

“Right, thanks a lot,” I tried to be polite to the grumpy little man.

“It was my pleasure costumer,” he said between his gritted teeth and fled before I could ask anything else.

I just shrugged and picked up the first book, ‘introduction to acquired magic’, turning to the next books they read ‘introduction to congenital magic’ and ‘A complete guide to dungeon monsters: Upper floors bestiary’. With a wide smile and holding on an evil laugh, I opened it on the first page and started reading.

Damn, I loved the sharingan.

It took only a few seconds to look at a page and forever remember it with the sharingan. I’d still have to take my time comprehending the books contents later, but I wouldn’t need to return to the library to do so, I’d already remember every word.

Almost three hours later, I finished memorizing all twenty two books, my eyes were killing me, I had a headache and my brain felt like it was swelling with too much knowledge inside my skull, but I could remember everything I had read.

I felt like I’d need another health potion as soon as I left the library, but saving the one hundred thousand valis needed for another day entry was probably worth overusing my eyes once.

I stumbled out of the Library, almost carried by Tiona. The Amazon was giving me an odd look but, after I had dismissed her concerns, she didn’t ask me about it again.

Soon, I managed to find a quiet, grassy spot and rested myself against a small tree, a piece of cloth covering my eyes to prevent further use while Tiona decided to get some street food for us. I wasn’t complaining.

I took deep, even breaths as I downed a health potion and hoped it was enough to alleviate my sharingan overuse, maybe I shouldn’t have read all 22 books, half of them wouldn’t even be useful at the moment.

Still, I now knew far more about the things around me and, while reviewing the information still sent spikes of pain through my brain, I had no doubt I’d recover in a day or two and learn even more.

“Here,” Tiona said and I felt something hot and greasy touch my cheek.

Without opening my eyes I lifted my hand until she put the treat in my grasp.

“What is it?” I asked as I bit into the thing, its texture was strange and there was some meat inside, or was it fish? I couldn’t tell, at least it wasn’t bad.

“Nobody knows, we just call it U.F.O’s, unidentifiable fried object,” I almost did a spit take at the name, but managed to swallow. “The auntie who prepares it refuses to explain, saying it’s a secret recipe or something.”

“It’s tasty enough I guess,” I said and relaxed further against the tree.

No longer hungry and with a potion working overtime, I was already starting to feel better... if I didn’t try to think about all the information I gained anyway.

I wonder, would a true Uchiha feel the same way if they did something like this?

“Newbie-kun, you still want to visit the magic shop today?” she asked as she sat down by my side and bit into her own food.

“Yeah…” I said as I finished swallowing. “I’m feeling better already and I don’t want to lose another day shopping. Did you ask Riveria about it?”

“Yup, she says she does her staff maintenance at the Witch’s Secret House,” she said and started messing with something, lifting a corner of the cloth in front of my eyes I saw her pulling out a map from inside a pocket. “Here, it’s like, very close to the Pantheon.”

“The Guild’s headquarters?” I asked, not remembering any shops around the place, then again, it was called ‘Secret House’ so… “Help me up?”

Turns out the Witch’s Secret House was, surprise, surprise, very well hidden.

We had to go down a very narrow stairwell leading to a basement that ended in a single, thick wooden door with nothing to say it was a shop.

Tiona walked ahead of me, making sure I didn’t fall since I still didn’t feel at my best, then she knocked hard on the door and opened it.

The shop itself was more spacious, a wider room with enough space for almost twenty people, its walls completely covered with shelves or small drawers, there were also several complicated grimoires held behind glass walls, strange runes marking the edge of the glasses.

I made the mistake of glancing at one of the grimoires, a small green book with complicated, vine like patterns and a six star drawing on its cover that rested on top of a small red pillow, reading it’s pricing I winced.

155 million valis was far, far too much to even think about.

Making sure I avoided touching anything and risk damaging it, I looked at the rest of the store and saw a beautiful elf, she was looking at a white wooden staff resting on the counter with intricate carvings along its shaft.

Even smaller than Tiona, the elf had straight, raven black hair, pale skin and red eyes, she also wore a white dress with light blue details that covered her body from the neck down, leaving only her face exposed.

When we approached the counter, the woman only gave a brief glance our way before turning away, but I still caught the slight widening of her eyes when she looked at me.

What? I was pretty certain I hadn’t spoken with any elf beside Remilia; most of them were racist assholes anyway.

Soon, the witchiest witch that ever witched came back from inside the shop holding a white wand in her hand.

She was dressed in a black robe, with the traditional pointy hat, had sharp nails, a huge pointy nose filled with warts and her wrinkles had wrinkles.

I half expected the woman to crackle like mad and fly off on top of a broom at any moment. Instead, she handed the wand back to the elf and received a bag filled with money.

“I finished repairing the spell stones; try not to ruin them as soon this time,” the old woman said and received a nod in return.

Receiving her wand, the elf turned around and looked at me one more time before ignoring us as she left the shop.

“Who’s she?” I asked in curiosity, I didn’t recognize her and, with the sharingan, that was saying something.

“Dunno,” Tiona shrugged.

“Filvis Challia, a good costumer, but what brings you here young man?” the shop owner said as she sat behind the counter and in front of a large cauldron.

I raised an eyebrow and looked after the retreating elf, already turning the corner after having climbed the stairs.

I wanted to follow her out of the shop, but I didn’t feel up to running after her, I was too likely to stumble and fall on my face, so I just committed her face to memory.

I’d find her later, when I wasn’t feeling so shitty, and properly thank her for saving my life in the dungeon.

“Right,” I said and glanced again at the bag filled with valis, a lot of valis. “I do hope you don’t just deal with large purchases.”

“Don’t worry, most of my stock is made for at least second class adventurers, but I do have a lot of gear aimed at beginners, what do you need?”

“Do you have anything to help lower an enemy’s magic resistance?” I asked as I looked around the shop in curiosity.

“Hmmm, I do have something like that yes, but I don’t think they’re in your price range,” She mumbled and smirked at me. “Cursed weapons and items are expensive you know?”

“Does it have to be a curse?”

“Perhaps if you explain why you need it I can come up with an alternative,” she said, leaning over the counter, her eyes showing interest. “New spells are always interesting to me.”

I thought about it, I didn’t want to reveal my ability to anyone, that’d be stupid, but I could give the woman a rough description without revealing too much if it would help me improve.

Mord’s team already knew it anyway and, while I didn’t think they’d try to come after me, I had no confidence they wouldn’t tell anyone while drunk.

“I have a spell capable of casting illusions against a monster, it’s extremely useful, but it can’t affect monsters much stronger than me and the illusion breaks easily if the creature realizes something is wrong.”

“Interesting…” the old woman lifted an eyebrow and looked at me with a shine in her eyes. Tapping at her chin with a long, sharp nail, she thought about the situation. “And how much is your budged?”

“Fifteen thousand valis?” I tried to sound the woman out while considering things.

That’d leave me with only 5 thousand in reserve, but I was quickly improving my ability in the dungeon and I expected a large improvement in killing monsters after I went through the information on Dungeon Monsters I had gotten.

The witch snorted, then started snickering at me with amusement, just as I was about to walk out she motioned for me to stop and gathered herself.

“Ah… don’t mind me, sometimes I forget how it is to just start out,” she wiped a tear of amusement from her eye and leaned back. “For the record, expect any magical tool to be at least 100 thousand, there’s a few things cheaper, but they’re trinkets that won’t help you in the dungeon.”

“I see, I guess I’m just wasting your time then.”

“I didn’t say that, I said I’m interested in new magic and illusions magic is very rare,” she said as she pulled a piece of parchment from bellow the counter. “How about we make a deal?”

“What kind?” I asked suspiciously, if she asked to sign in blood I was out of here.

“Usually, something like this would be a waste of my time, but I’m willing to make you a very cheap wand, something around forty thousand and with only a single spell stone, if you agree to come back to tell me what effect it had on your spell.”

I thought about it, then I looked at her. “I still don’t have that kind of money right now.”

“You can pay ten thousand now and the remaining valis when you come back,” she offered, a glint in her eyes as she sensed my interest.

I was feeling highly suspicious, I couldn’t see what advantage she could get from the deal and it left me feeling uneasy. “And what exactly will this wand do?”

“I’m thinking I’ll make something simple, concentrate your mana when you channel the spell from your hand.”

“That… won’t work; I don’t use my hands for the spell.”

“Oh, even more interesting!” the challenge only seemed to make the witch happier, “Hmmmm, how about this then, instead of a wand for targeting, I can just make you a ring. With enough control, you can channel your mana through the ring, concentrating it and then draw it out when you want to use it.”

“Is there any detriment to doing it that way? And how long is that gonna take.”

“Sure, the spell stones will deteriorate twice as fast and it will take longer to use the skills, but its cheap equipment anyway,” she waved her hand dismissing his concerns. “It’ll only take me 4 days.”

I looked towards Tiona and sighed when I saw she wasn’t even paying attention anymore. Making any of my illusions slower to cast seemed like a huge setback, but it could be exactly what I needed when facing a stronger monster.

“Alright, I agree,” I nodded and shook the witch’s hand.

I left the shop together with Tiona, when we were finally back in Orario’s streets the Amazon turned my way. “So, what’s up with this Filvis?”

“She saved my life in the dungeon,” I confessed as I avoided Tiona’s eyes in shame. “I had a mind down and she carried me into safety before a monster could kill me.”

“Eh, and I thought she’d be one of those elves who look down on us,” she said while putting both hands behind her head. “Don’t forget to pay her back; you’re my apprentice now, you can’t go making me look bad!”

“I won’t.”

Tiona walked me towards the center of Orario and the sky started changing as night arrived, she talked about things on Loki familia and I asked questions.

Eventually, the fact that she had spent so much money on me started bothering me and I sighed. “Thanks a lot for today Tiona, I really needed it, how can I pay you back?”

“You know what? How about you tell me one of your stories then?” she asked with eagerness.

“Alright, you have a deal,” I smiled, it wasn’t really enough to pay her back, but I doubt there was anything I could really do for a first class adventurer, at least not right now.

Feeling lighter than I had since coming here, I watched as she went back to Loki’s home and returned to my room, eager to take a shower and close my eyes, maybe then the last of this headache would be gone.


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Again, got busy with some IRL stuff here, then I was distracted with a sudden influx of ideas I just had to put into "paper", sorry for taking so long to update.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

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I let my body drop to the floor, copious amounts of sweat running down my face. Turning my head up, I took huge gasps as I tried to regain my breath. Damn I didn’t even need to use a potion.

“Good job Newbie-kun! Ne, ne, can we start using weapons now?” Tiona asked. The damn Amazon wasn’t tired at all.

I took a glance at her giant double headed sword and gulped… still, I nodded. It was about time I really started to train with my spear. Hey, maybe I could even survive a few blows now!

Grabbing at the water skin I drank a few gulps and poured some on top of my head to help me cool down. With a grunt, I threw the water pouch towards Tiona and couldn’t help but stare when she did the same.

Why? She wasn’t even sweating! Still, I decided to stay quiet. The view was amazing after all.

Opening my pack, I pulled out my new eyepatch, a black piece of cloth that covered one of my eyes and completely blocked its vision. Today I was wearing it on my right eye.

While the Sharingan wasn’t really doing much outside battle, using the eyepatch halved the amount of mind it used just by being active. I was also hoping it would be enough to stop the damage it was doing, or allow the potions to fully heal it.

Plus… well it looked good. Tiona approved!

“Great, I can’t wait to start training you with my Urga. Using weapons is far more fun than just my hands!” She crouched in front of my tired body and poked at my eyepatch. “Hey, do you think I should wear one too? It looks soo cool!”

I tried to think of Tiona wearing an eyepatch. “Somehow, I think it would look cute on you.”

“Really, you think so?” She asked. Her face far too close to my own. “Let me try!”

“Hey, get your own!” I pinched her hand when she tried to steal my eyepatch causing her to pull back.

Tiona briefly pretended to lose interest, but even with only one sharingan I wasn’t fooled and managed to block her second grab, then the third. With a glint on her eyes, the Amazon attacked with both arms and it was all I could do to keep her from grabbing the piece of cloth.

“Mou! Now I really want to take it!” She grumbled as I struggled to keep her fingers away from my head.

“Ha, now I really don’t want you to!” I answered and continued to struggle.

Using my legs, I finally managed to push against the ground and slip aside while jumping to my feet. Panting hard, I adjusted my clothes and smugly lifted my head high. I won.

Glancing back, I caught the glint on Tiona’s eyes and shouted. “I still have to go to the dungeon, see you!” then scrambled away as fast as I could.

“Bye newbie-kun!” She waved with a smile on her face. “Remember, I have a mission outside the city tomorrow so I won’t be able to train you, but don’t you dare slack off!”

“Don’t worry; I’ll probably spend the day in the dungeon then!” I shouted back and waved at the Amazon.

I took a very quick bath and ate something on my way to the dungeon. I had just gotten my magic ring yesterday and had yet to test its effects on any monster. I also had to pay the Witch and, while delving mainly on the fifth floor for half a day had been enough for now, it wasn’t gonna let me gather enough funds.

It was about time I push further into the dungeon.

Taking off the eyepatch again, I put it into my backpack and entered the dungeon at full strength. While blocking one eye didn’t really affect my daily life, I wasn’t about to risk facing monsters without my depth perception.

Kobolds and Goblins weren’t even a threat anymore. I dispatched them with contemptuous ease as I rushed through the first three floors, only having to watch out for dungeon lizards. They could still surprise me if I wasn’t paying attention.

Reaching an empty room on the fourth floor, I found one of the Lizards sneaking through the ceiling for an ambush and decided to use it as a test subject.

Using my spear, I blocked its first attack and used the shaft to slam it into the ground, then pressed it down. The beast struggled to free itself, but my strength had grown enough that, with leverage, I could keep it pinned with no trouble.

Finding out how to channel my mana into the ring took some time. I was far too used to channeling it into my eyes passively, guiding it towards somewhere else wasn’t easy, but I eventually figured it out.

The ring absorbed my power for three seconds before I felt it was full. Pulling the mana back was actually uncomfortable, it felt slower and thicker, but not to the point that it hurt.

Still, when I stared at the Lizard’s eye and sent it an illusion of darkness. I immediately knew it had worked. The skill felt almost as powerful as if I had used the mangekyou to cast and the lizard took nearly three times as long to break free.

A few more tries and I was sure. Using the ring took me four seconds, instead of being an instant cast, but it more than tripled the power of my illusion and I suspected that even a lesser illusion could affect a level 2 target, if for a short amount of time.

That gave me ideas. Unfortunately, the ring could only hold a small amount of mana, and I didn’t have the skill to constantly be using it, so I couldn’t walk around with a charge ready.

Still, it was a great improvement, and made me feel much better about risking delving lower floors.

Opening my small leather bag I checked my potions and noticed it wasn’t full, I had been forced to use four health potions and two stamina potions this week. I sighed.

I quickly decided to break through the fifth floor tomorrow. I’d refill my potions today… and maybe buy another bag to keep in the backpack. Tomorrow, with my supplies full, I’d have the entire day to explore the lower floors.

I could continue to hunt today, but the drops would probably pale in comparison to tomorrow and the monsters were no longer a threat. It was better to continue experimenting.

Well, time to improve my monster taming abilities.

Jumping up from the Lizard’s back I used the butt of my spear as a lever to flick it away. The beast flew through the air and fell in a heap, giving me enough time to charge the ring and catch it into another greater illusion.

I assumed the lizard would continue to blindly attack me for a while, and that it wasn’t smart enough to figure out when something was wrong. So I just put it into a loop where it would charge me, bite my arm and then experience debilitating pain.

The creature stayed immobile as my illusion played out, after only 7 seconds it lost control of its limps, twitching in place like a fish out of water for a full second and stopping again.

The same 8 seconds loop played out in the creature’s mind twelve times before it finally broke out of the illusion… either that or the spell just lost power.

Lying with my back against a wall, I watched curiously as the beast gathered itself; it got up and finally found me. The lizard actually growled at me and hesitated, but still tried to attack.

I put it into another illusory loop. In this one it wouldn’t just suffer pain when it bit me, but I’d actually resist and stab it through the eye. Then it would feel the pain.

The creature learned fast, it stopped trying to attack me after only twelve minutes and tried to desperately run away.

Thankfully, with the ring charged, I managed to catch it in lesser illusion powerful enough to dissuade it from running. The dungeon lizard just lay on the floor and gave a pitiful whine.

Damn, now I felt really bad. I know it was a murderous beast hell-bent on killing any and all humans, but torturing it until it obeyed me felt far too much like animal cruelty. There had to be a better way.

With a sigh, I stepped away from the beast and it didn’t try to escape again. Finding a large boulder I sat on top of it and started creating new illusions, those ones were ways to teach the lizard to obey commands.

I spent nearly half an hour teaching it how to ‘follow’, ‘hold’, ‘attack’, and ‘run’ by showing it an illusion of what I wanted and sending a pleasant feeling whenever it obeyed.

It helped that Dungeon Lizards were ugly as fuck, so I didn’t feel as bad about brainwashing it. I don’t think I could have done it to a whimpering Almiraj.

Wandering around with the lizard following me by walking through the ceiling, I quickly found a group of three goblins. They hadn’t noticed me so I quickly pointed and shouted. “Dungeon lizard, I choose you. Attack!”

My monster dropped on top of a goblin and bit down on the creature’s head, crushing its skull. The other two goblins seemed extremely confused at the lizard’s attack, giving me enough time to dispatch one with a thrown dagger to the back of the neck.

The last one finally caught sight of me and screeched, but my loyal companion wasn’t done. Twisting around, it delivered a tail swipe to the monster, smashing it into the wall before tearing out its throat.

I quickly channeled mana into my ring and sent it a sense of accomplishment, as well as some pleasure. I harvested the goblin’s magic stones and sighed as there was no loot drop.

Looking from my bag of magic stones to my new lizard companion, I considered things. Pulling one of the smaller ones out, I threw it to the beast. The lizard’s tongue darted out and it scented the air, but didn’t seem interested in the stone.

A quick lesser illusion of it eating the thing changed that and the monster consumed the stone, it seemed to shake a little as the stone dissolved into its mouth, but wasn’t really changed.

I was probably gonna regret this, but I so wanted to see what would happen.

Composing an illusion of the creature attacking a different human and getting the same pain. I sent it and hoped it would cause the beast to focus mainly on other monsters instead of adventurers.

Together, we continued to explore the fourth floor; I constantly sent it after other monsters, feeding it one in every four stones we got. After two hours of this, the monster had consumed nearly twenty magic stones and grown capable of killing four goblins by itself.

Still, the other dungeon monsters seemed completely oblivious to my little pet, only turning to attack it after it had initiated an attack and never before. It allowed the lizard to always kill at least one monster before the others turned on it.

The little guy actually seemed to get a taste for Kobold’s magic stones and started guiding me through the dungeon while hunting them. Made for a much more effective delve.

Eventually, I noticed a lone adventurer coming up from the deeper floors and took some distance from my pet.

“Hold.” I told the beast and turned a corner. I wanted to see what it would do when faced with another human… or whatever race it was. Almost forgot Danmachi had more than humans.

I still kept an illusion ready, just in case the lizard got the jump on the adventurer, but it wasn’t needed.

“Ugh. Another one of those.” The man said and laid his backpack on the ground before pulling out a sword. My lizard hissed at him and took a step back, causing the man to pause in confusion. “What the…”

The dwarf advanced towards my lizard, the creature held its place until the last second, hissing and pawing at the ground until the dwarf was nearly upon it. With one last hiss the lizard decided that avoiding a human was worth more than obeying my command and ran back towards me.

Waving between my legs the lizard hid behind me, its tongue nervously darting out in quick jabs. I laughed and rewarded it with another illusion, trying to cement the behavior with positive feedback. I also feed it another two stones.

The dwarf turned the corner at a sprint and nearly didn’t manage to stop when he saw our position. His eyes quickly looked from the hiding monster to my satisfied smile and he grunted. “Huh, guess you tamed it.”

It wasn’t really a question, but I nodded anyway. “Yep, this guy’s turning out to be quite capable.”

“Humph. Bit of a waste if you ask me. Spending time taming such weak monsters, that is.” He said and sheathed his sword. The dwarf still kept his distance and maintained a wary eye on the both of us. “Impressive taming ability though.”

“Thanks, I’m just practicing before trying it on stronger monsters.” I answered and stepped aside, letting the dwarf continue his way up.

“Good delve.” He nodded and passed me by, his hand still gripping the handle of his sword. I nodded back.

Wandering some more, I choose a room that was completely out of the path from one floor to the other and, after eliminating the monsters inside, sat down.

By this point, my lizard had learned to dig into the monster’s chest to fish out their stones by itself, so I watched it consume the three kobolds that had been on the room and settle down by my feet.

I considered eliminating the thing to avoid causing some unlucky adventurer trouble, but the creature had avoided confrontation with other adventurers quite well and… well, I really didn’t want to kill it.

So, I spent another hour or so bombarding the thing with illusions, trying to teach it to run away from any adventurer, be it human, dwarf, pallum or whatever. I also instilled in it a sense that this room was its home, so I’d know where to find it on my next delves.

I knew what I was doing was dangerous, but the dungeon lizard was a fairly weak creature and I was pretty sure it wasn’t developing a resistance to my illusions anytime soon.

I had also observed the rate at which it grew during the day and it wasn’t going to become a problem anytime soon. It could eat the entire floor several times over and it still wouldn’t be a match for a level 2 monster.

Eventually, I left the lizard on the room and made my way back up in record time, my backpack holding only half my usual loot.

Putting my eyepatch back on, I made my way to the market and sold all my loot drops before restocking my potions, leaving me with only a thousand valis or so. Hopefully, I’d be able to get far more loot tomorrow.

Getting home, I counted the magic stones I had gotten today and threw them inside my locker. I had made a little over eighteen thousand valis in stones in the last five days, but fifteen percent of that was gonna go to Mord and the rest was only enough for me to live for another week or so.

Waking up the next day, I dropped some blood on my back and checked my current status:

Roland Synclair – level 1
Strength – G – 202
Endurance – H – 194
Dexterity – H – 199
Agility – H – 187
Magic – E – 401
Skills:
- Chosen of and Outer God
- Mangekyou Sharingan (Shisui).

Hey, I had grown about 50 points in every status! From what I had read, my growth was still far above the normal, but my magic was just ridiculous. To think I haven’t been on Orario for even two months and it was already E rank.

I suspected it would slow down eventually, but I could enjoy the fast improvement while it lasted.

Since I was going directly to the Dungeon today I didn’t bother with the eyepatch. With one last check to see if everything was in order, it was, I made my way towards the dungeon.

I actually smiled when I found my lizard resting under a rock on the same room I left him. “Alright, since you’ve actually survived the day, how about I name you?” I asked the creature as it trailed behind me, carrying my backpack on its back.

The beast just stuck its tongue out at me.

“Alright, I’m gonna call you Yoshi. Now come on.” I smiled as I passed by a girl giving me a strange look while she harvested some Kobold. “Come on, let’s go.”

It seems like a high level team had descended just a few minutes ahead of me, a few of their kills still lying on the floor unharvested. Yoshi quickly darted forward and bit down on a goblin’s chest, pulling out its magic stone and swallowing it in a single bite.

I shook my head and harvested the remaining before the glutton had a chance, then made my way forward.

Killer ant’s proved to be Yoshi’s bane. The lizard’s mouth wasn’t strong enough to bite trough their hard shell and it didn’t really have claws to try and pry them open. It quickly learned to leave the things to me and focus on the other monsters.

I slaughtered my way down to the sixth floor with no problem. My days of sparring with Tiona had made me far more skilled, to the point that I could face groups of goblins or kobolds without even using my illusions and my hammer was making quick work of the ants, smashing through their shells and crushing them.

I stepped into the sixth floor and immediately had to duck down as a tongue flew through the space my head had been, it struck the wall with surprisingly strength, sending pieces of stone flying. Pulling out a dagger almost on instinct, I cut up and severed the frog shooter’s tongue before it could recover, then sent my dagger flying and pierced through its single large eye.

The thing jumped back, blood flying all over the place, but I didn’t have the chance to attack again before two tongues flew towards my body. I managed to dodge one while the second hit me square in the chest and was blocked by the armor.

The tongue stuck to my armor and the frog tried to pull me in, instead of resisting I charged. Wrapping my arm around the slimy appendage I pulled it to the side and caused the creature to stumble, leaving it wide open for me to drive my spear all the way through the creature.

I had aimed right for the frog’s middle and, with the sharingan. It was easy to pierce it through the magic stone, causing the frog to dissolve into dust. Losing a stone was a pity, but it got rid of the sticky tongue and freed my spear at the same time.

Pulling my spear back I was ready to face the other frogs when I saw my lizard tangling with the only remaining one, the first having died from blood loss.

Well damn, seems like I didn’t need to destroy the stone after all.

In close combat, the frog couldn’t use its tongue as a projectile and died under Yoshi’s bites, as a reward, I let him ate the stone and only harvested one. Thankfully, the one I had destroyed actually dropped a frog leg.

After killing twelve ants and another seven frogs, I was feeling quite confident in my strength when something new caught me by surprise. A dark patch darted from behind a large rock and rushed me.

Compared to Tiona, the creature still seemed slow, but it was actually much faster than me and I almost didn’t manage to block its first lunge. Its three large claws left a dent on my armguard.

The war shadow attempted to smash into me, but I lifted the butt of my spear and struck its triangular head, causing it to stumble back, with a downwards slash with the tip of my spear I opened a gash on its chest.

I was just about to finish it off with a stab when a second war shadow forced me to retreat in order to keep it from backstabbing me.

The healthy monster was just about to charge me when I decided to attack. The tip of my spear flew towards its head and the beast proved why it was the strongest monster on the floor by dodging back and attempting to use its long arms to slash at my head.

Stepping back I attacked again, my spear sliding through my hand in a flurry of consecutive stabs. The thing was much faster than me and, despite my superior skill; it managed to dodge every one of them.

The wounded war shadow had recovered when I wasn’t looking and nearly took my head off while I was focusing on the second one, cutting three lines of blood on my cheek when I desperately jumped back. Alright that’s enough, time to use my skills.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, the war shadows had an orb in front of their faces, but it didn’t really seem to be their eye as I couldn’t cast greater illusion, and they were too strong to be snared with a lesser one while in a fight.

I tried to channel mana into my ring, but it required concentration, something I just couldn’t afford with two of them attacking me.

My spear flew through the air as I used the shaft to block or bat aside dozens of strikes. The wounded shadow attempted to attack the spear itself, but it paid for the mistake with a stab through the shoulder that destroyed its arm.

Suddenly, my lizard dropped right on top of the wounded monster and bit down on its orb. It cracked as if made from glass and the shadow dropped on its knees. A second bite ended its life before it could really hurt the lizard.

Even with only one enemy I still struggled, the creature was fast as lightning and, like me, it seemed able to follow my every movement and dodge my attacks perfectly.

Fuck, I’d have to be tricky then.

Taking some distance, I struck. Lowering my position I lunged, feinting a stab towards its right leg and, when it stepped back to dodge, my spear changed course directly towards its chest.

The war shadow reacted with a burst of speed, it twisted it’s body sideways and my stab only pierced though it’s left collarbone, leaving me wide open for a strike from its right arm.

I ducked and felt the rush of air as its claws passed above my head, ruffling my hair. Grabbing its extended limb with my left arm I punched its arm with my right hand as hard as I could.

The arm broke like a tree branch, the war shadow didn’t seem to have bones, but its arm splintered into hundreds of pieces and hung useless from its body. Putting my shoulder on its chest I pushed the beast away from me and pulled out my hammer.

The war shadow tried to attack me with its wounded arm anyway, but the damage made it far slower and clumsier, I just ducked under the blow once again and pulverized its leg with my hammer. The war shadow fell to one knee, leaving its head at just the right height to be crushed by my returning swing.

Breathing hard, I stepped away from the dead monster and laughed. “Damn that was fun!”

Finally, I dropped my hammer on top of the dead beast and looked at my hand. I had put far too much strength on that punch and the war shadow had been far harder than I though. Two of my fingers were bent the wrong way.

Then the pain hit me. Fuck did it hurt!

With my left hand, I pulled a healing potion from my pouch and was just about to drink it when I remembered how Tiona usually aligned my bones back whenever I had needed it. When I protested, Loki had laughed and informed me it could heal wrong.

Fuck. Pulling out a dagger I bit down on its handle and gently touched the fingers. Talking a deep breath I squeezed my eyes and moved.

“God fucking motherfucker!” I spit out the dagger and cursed, then drank the damn potion and felt its effects. My pain immediately lessened, but didn’t go away.

Cradling my hand against my chest I harvested both war shadows with my left hand and sat down, deciding to take a small rest while my hand healed. Quickly, I poured the potion on a wooden cup and soaked my fingers inside it.

Pulling out a piece of jerky, I ate it while waiting. Thankfully, with such small area to work in, and with my endurance having almost reached G rank, the potion should be effective enough.

While waiting, I saw an elf glance into the room I was occupying, but he quickly changed directions when he noticed me and moved on. Then a robed man stepped inside and caught sight of me.

The guy wore a large, white robe that covered his entire body, but that wasn’t all, he also wore a white cowl and a piece of fabric in front of his face that covered his mouth and nose, leaving only his eyes uncovered.

I briefly considered how the guy fought covered with so much cloth, but he carried a large sword and didn’t really seem worried so I just shrugged. He had survived until here.

Really, with how unique his clothes were, I was half considering if he wasn’t some secret badass in hiding. The guy actually entered my resting room, causing me to tense and Yoshi to get up, hissing at him.

Pulling my hand from the cup I tested my fingers and noticed they had already mostly healed so I grabbed my spear, but didn’t lift it.

“Greetings. I see you’re taking a rest. Having trouble with the floor?” The guy asked in a conversational voice.

“Not really, got a little tired fighting three War Shadows at the same time, so I decided to have a bite before exploring some more.” I lied. I didn’t want the guy thinking he had a chance fighting me.

If he was much stronger, he probably wouldn’t be interested in the loot of someone who delved around this floor and, if not, he’d probably avoid fighting someone who could beat three of the things without injury.

Still, I kept my ring charged and was ready to use the mangekyou at the first sign of aggression.

“Hmm, impressive, those things are a real nightmare to fight, and it’s rare to find more than one at the same time too.” He nodded. Glancing at the dungeon lizard at my side he lifted an eyebrow. “A tamer are you?”

“I can tame, yes. Why?”

“Just curious, I have never seen you around here before. It’s still early in the day, are you gonna Delve much deeper?” The Masked man asked and stepped closer, causing my grip on the spear to tighten. “Since you’re able to kill three War Shadows alone, it won’t be much risk going one or two floors deeper. You can clearly hunt on floor eighth or ninth.”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” I growled. It was like this guy was fishing for information and I didn’t like it.

The man’s eyes went to my grip on the spear and he lifted a hand to placate me. “I'm sorry. I wasn’t trying to worry you. Just wanted to meet a new face is all.”

“Well, trying or not you’re bothering me.” I said truthfully, and smiled when Yoshi hissed at the man.

“I see, I apologize.” He stepped away and lowered his hand. “I guess I’ll leave you alone then.”

I shook my head as the strange man left. In truth, the meting made me want to leave the dungeon immediately. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Still, I wandered the sixth floor with Yoshi, killing killer ants and frog shooters. The loot droop seemed unusually high today, with one in every five monsters dropping something, so I decided to stay the entire day anyway.

I faced another two War Shadows, The first time I had the chance to charge my ring and managed to catch it in a lesser illusion. I made the shadow see me rushing straight at it, it caused the beast to attack a point a meter ahead of me with both arms and leaving it wide open for a simple lunge with my spear that ended the fight without much trouble. It left me feeling highly unsatisfied.

The second one caught me just as I was turning a corner and left three deep gashes on my armor. It was already too close for me to use the spear and the hammer was too heavy, it made me too slow to react in close combat with such beast.

It meant that I fought it with only my daggers, and it was almost as bad as fighting Tiona.

I ducked and waved under its claws, using my armguards to parry its knife-like claws more than once. I tried to grapple it several times but, with both arms fully active, the thing was too fast. I couldn’t lock one of its arms without suffering a deadly blow from the other and the cuts I was leaving with my daggers just weren’t doing enough damage.

I tried to retreat, but the thing was following me close, its strikes hitting the ground or the walls with terrifying strength. My heart beat hard on my chest and a smile made its way into my face despite myself.

The beast actually seemed angry when I started smiling, its movements becoming more and more frenetic. Lifting both arms in the air it prepared to deliver a huge blow, but paid for it with a thrown dagger to the leg that sent its strike of course and allowed me to wave aside.

Its blow hit the grown and sent shards of stone flying up. I spun away from the attack and drove my dagger into its exposed neck. One of the war shadow’s claws recovered fast enough to swing at my head and I laughed as I leaned back, then stomped on the dagger embedded into its neck and drove it all the way through, pinning the creature to the wall.

The beast struggled despite its wounds and it gave me enough time to put some distance between us before I picked up my spear. With a mighty effort, it pulled itself free of the wall, aggravating the neck wound and showering the ground with blood.

It turned and stumbled towards me, but it was already too late. My spear caught it on its already mangled neck and actually decapitated the beast, the creature had already lost so much blood it didn’t even spray me.

Putting the butt of my spear on the ground I leaned on it and looked down at the creature. Damn that had been fun.

Before I could react, Yoshi fell on top of the war shadow and stole its magic stone in a single bite. “Hey! What the hell, you damn glutton, see if I give you another!” Watching the war shadow dissolve, I smiled when I saw a war shadow finger blade appearing from the ashes. Those things were expensive!

It was still barely past midday so I decided to pull out a stamina potion. I chugged it and considered my option, it had been two hours since I met the strange dude and nothing had happened.

I hadn’t even noticed anyone watching me and, with the sharingan, that was saying something.

From the books I read, floor seven wasn’t much different from this one, and even floors eight and nine only had stronger versions of goblins, kobolds and dungeon lizards, war shadows were the strongest thing around here and they were nothing I couldn’t deal with.

I could always use charge my ring to cast illusions on the thing and, even if I didn’t have the time, there was still the Mangekyou. It was probably enough to catch one of them in a lesser illusion.

I nodded to myself. “Come on Yoshi, we’re going deeper!”

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