Against Tione(1)(corrected)

It took all day to finish the treatment. Fortunately for Mark, the pain he felt, greatly diminished compared to the first one, where he felt like he was traveling in a multidimensional reality, but it did not change the fact that he suffered

"Haaaaa, finally." -Exhaling a weary sigh, he lay down on the bed.

He had started this procedure when the sun rose and now it was already dark outside.

[Now the aura is connected to all the magic circuits on your body. Does the host already have an idea of when to use this transformation?]

Taking a seat, Mark pondered how to respond.

The state he was in now was only momentary. Once the transformation was over, the aura would come off the magic circuits, this was mainly because the aura he possessed at the moment was not enough.

Obviously, once he ascended to level 3 he would be able to use it safely, albeit with limitations, but until then he could only transform once, otherwise, if he forced the aura out again, there were risks of damaging the soul.

"Tione or Goliath, who should I use it against?"

Tione was an experienced level 6 adventurer and even if she was limited, it would be difficult to do any damage to her, even with the strategies he had in mind. In contrast, Goliath was a monster that even a level 4 party would struggle to kill, so he needed as much strength as possible.

[I advise the host not to use it against the human Tione. Once transformed it is true that all your physical performance will increase, but it will be difficult for you to handle it, making your movements easier to predict].

"Hmm, that makes sense. Do you think it's possible to defeat her without 'Golem Heart'?"

[Without that skill, your victory is around 0%, simply because the difference in experience between you two is abysmal.]

Those were harsh words, but they were the truths.

Mark did not want to activate that skill but there was no alternative. He could also agree to fight the Goliath with a group, but the stats he would gain, would be much less and with the fact that by leveling up the growth would decrease, those stats could make the difference.

"Haaaaa, in the end, it's the only solution."

He would try not to let the corruption rate rise above 10% so that the two shards could heal him the less than a week.

'grumbling.'

Stopping the various thoughts he had, he put his hand on his stomach as he heard him grumbling.

"Right, I haven't eaten anything since this morning."

Getting up, he walked out of the room and headed downstairs where food could be eaten.

In the room, the other family members were eating calmly, but the moment he came downstairs, all eyes were on him.

'Did I do something?

Looking confused at the others, he noticed how by their aura they were surprised.

"I did what I could, now it's your turn to suffer a little."

"?"

Smiling at him, Loki patted his shoulder before going upstairs, leaving Mark even more confused, but it was Aiz who made him realize what the situation was.

"Mark, you... can level up already?" -Aiz asked complicatedly.

Mark turned wordlessly toward Tione, but the latter looked away as if to say she had nothing to do with this.

"So it seems."

It wasn't that he was purposely hiding it since it would be known in the future anyway, he just wanted to make sure that similar situations didn't arise.

'murmurs'

His words set off murmurs among the various members discussing the feat, and one of them raised his hand.

"Isn't it strange that your growth is so fast?"

"I'd say it's more strange someone who took down a level 3 monster when he was a level 1 and fought a Spartoi despite being newly level 2 is growing slowly. Any other questions?"

At his answer, the others could only raise their hands in surrender. Other than fighting a higher-level monster, even those at their level were difficult to defeat, so Mark's reasoning made sense to them.

Seeing how they were still curious but did not want to infringe his privacy, increased their rating in Mark's eyes, well at least for almost all of them...

"Could I eat in peace? I haven't eaten anything since this morning."

Sighing, he watched as Lefiya, Aiz, Tione, and Tiona were watching him eat. For many, it would have been heaven to be able to eat together with these beautiful women, but for Mark, it was just a source of stress.

"Come to think of it, what did you do all day in the room?" -Lefiya asked curiously.

"...Training." -He was close to saying torture.

Seeing Mark's face that looked like he had faced a war, they became curious about the kind of training he had done, but there was one thing that intrigued Tione the most.

"So when would you like to face me?"

"That's a good question, if possible I'd like it to be tomorrow morning before returning to Orario." -Mark replied after he had finished eating.

"Are you sure Mark? Wouldn't it be better to wait a little longer." -Tiona said worriedly.

"It wouldn't help, besides, Tione will have limitations." -Replied Mark calmly.

He already had some strategies in mind, and with the fact that his stats had increased slightly after the clash with that amazon, he was at his peak.

"Was Tione chosen as your opponent because you trained with her for a while?" -Aiz asked.

"That's right, she is the only one I have seen fight directly. If I had faced someone else of the same level, my chance of winning would be 0."

"Wait, are you saying that you will be able to win against me?" -Tione said with an irritated expression.

"Honestly, the odds are in your favor, but who knows, a miracle might happen. Good night and see you tomorrow."

Bidding them farewell, he returned to his room and went straight to bed. Spending all day in pain and with tomorrow's match, he preferred to go to rest as soon as possible.

(The next day.)

Waking up at dawn fully rested, Mark began to prepare for the match, he put on his armor, his sword, and prepared some potions. Seeing that he had everything, he went downstairs, where he saw Tione eating breakfast.

"I see you already have everything prepared, aren't you having breakfast?"

"I'd be worried if I regurgitated what I ate." -Said Mark with a dry laugh.

"What a pity, I would have aimed for the stomach right away." -She told him, smiling.

'Heartless.'

"Good luck Mark. Know that I bet on you."

Approaching Mark, Paul whispered the last part to him.

"?"

"Are you an idiot? Tione will kick his ass, you should have bet on her." -Stepping past them with disdain, Bete exited the tavern.

"??"

"I bet quite a bit on you Mark." -Tiona told him cheerfully.

"???"

"Sorry, I bet on Tione." -Kruz told him sadly.

"Okay, what's going on?"

By now Mark's confusion had reached its limit; he did not understand what they and the various bets had to do with his match.

" 'cough' Let me be the one to enlighten you. After your news, in which you were going to challenge Tione today, there had been a discussion among the members about who would win." -Loki said, beginning to explain in detail.

"Don't tell me." -Mark immediately understood what she was getting at.

"That's right, I opened a betting shop where everyone could choose who would win! Right now the odds are 10:1 for Tione, but don't be disappointed, if you win you'll make a lot of money."

Watching his goddess as she gave him the thumbs-up and the others who were discussing the bets, Mark could only look at the roof helplessly, wondering if he had done the right thing in joining the Loki Familia.