Changes and growth

The next day was a painful one for Mallory as she was locked in combat with Oars who knocked her out every time that she was unable to counter.

Unlike the lap pillow wake up which Bell Cranel got, Mallory could smell something under her nose which woke her up and made her cover her nose.

The smelling salts were used to jolt her back awake and it was not a very pleasant feeling waking up that way but Mallory did not look too bothered. "Let's keep going."

Oars stood opposite her with his own practice wooden staff and thrust forward once again. "Stay alert, learn to anticipate your opponents movements. Do not let your guard down. Keep your spear pointed forward and keep it up to guard your upper body, use your legs to distance yourself and avoid harm to your lower half."

Mallory was forced to retreat after Oars closed the gap between them, the stat difference was too high to escape and use hit and run tactics from her tribe so she had to take more of a defensive approach.

Each time that she fell, she gained a greater understanding of the range of her own attacks and her opponents.

Her wooden staff knocked away the thrust towards her and she stepped back again to escape the reach of the staff of Oars who did not slow down and regained control of his staff to point it at her again.

Mallory kept backing off until she had no more room to move around and she had already parried several thrusts from Oars who was going easy on her. 'What to do.'

Her mind moved quickly and her body followed its instincts as she leapt back towards the wall which blocked her. 'It is this or nothing. I cannot go anywhere else.'

She leapt off the wall with a push from her feet, she barely avoided the thrust and tried to counter with a mid air thrust but the next moment she felt nothing but pain then passed out.

The staff which was thrust forward by Oars had not been pulled back but its course had been changed as it swung towards the back of Mallory who was over his head but still within range of an attack.

He looked down at her and sighed. "Good environmental awareness is important but you are still much too inexperienced."

Mallory was continuously put through hell training so she could get used to her status upgrade and so that she could develop her fighting abilities, she was also put together with many other cat people within the familia who were participating in training so she could pick up on each of their individual fighting styles.

Many gods and heroes have been known to have similarities to her skill and were referred to as averting gods so her skill was not so simple.

In a world like Danmachi where gods and heroes are praised and worshipped, a skill like Apotropaic was like a divine grade skill.

Her rate of improvement was not slow when it came to studying or training in certain areas and she put in a lot of effort which made reduced the time it could take for her to learn certain things.

Her overall schedule had been adjusted to keep her busy and within the familia but other arrangements had been made for her.

Mallory's daily visit to the market had been halted due to the current state of the city and there being more lingering dangers around.

Seshat had explained that she could not go out as much and for as long until she was strong enough.

It had been arranged that she could sell the monster detection and other talismans through the familia at a higher price while she could choose a day or two to take some time to invite people onto the familia grounds to sell her misfortune detection talismans or take extra requests.

If she took a request then she had to be escorted by a competent familia member so she agreed quickly.

Those at the market which had become regular customers and those that had heard about her talismans were redirected to the familia grounds during when the time was available.

Of the twenty talismans which she intended to sell per day, she passed on most of them to her goddess so that she could pay off her debt but kept sixty of the misfortune detection talismans to sell on the two free days.

Most of her other talismans went towards the familia members and towards the efforts of the city defence and investigations which earned her more points.

With her new clothing, she looked like she fit her role as something similar to a priest or shrine maiden and Mallory had less doubtful eyes cast upon her when she came out dressed like that as opposed to when she was out in the market.

Although minor criminals were caught and harm was prevented through detecting nearby monsters, one talisman use could of prevented the deaths or injury of many of they had not been detected through the talisman.

Her Excelia gained was difficult to keep track of within that week and when her status was updated, Mallory had the feeling that not all of it had been distributed into her status.

Seshat handed over the paper and sighed. "This is all I can update for now otherwise you will find it difficult to adjust to the large change right away."

She rolled her eyes and thought. 'I also do not want you to become too arrogant because of your fast growth. If you grow too quickly and have no setbacks then you may grow in a bad way.'

Mallory nodded and took the paper then her eyes widened. 'This really is a hero or godly skill. My magic has surpassed the S rank limit which most have and has been unrestricted as it has been updated at SS rank. If that is the case then SSS rank should be possible just like the protagonist.'

———

Name: Mallory

Familia: Seshat

Level: 1

Strength: I (40) +60 -> H (100)

Endurance: I (40) +60 -> H (100)

Dexterity: I (65) +350 -> E (415)

Agility: I (65) +350 -> E (415)

Magic: E (434) +601 -> SS (1035)

—

Skill: [Apotropaic] [None] [None]

Magic: [None] [None] [None]

Curses: [None] [None] [None]

——

Seshat smiled upon seeing the serious look on Mallory's face. "SS rank magic may be good but it is quite useless unless you learn a magic spell, although you can make and use those talismans, they have their limitations. Your dexterity and agility are now E class which is a big improvement so you will need to adjust to your bodies changes. The strength and endurance are at H rank now but it has only just passed over I rank so do not expect a huge leap in those areas."

Mallory nodded seriously. "Yes goddess, I will take your words to heart. However there is something which I wish to experiment with now that my magic is higher so I may need to see you again later."

Seshat studied her for a while and then shrugged. "Do not leave me guessing what you are up to and hurry back when you are finished."

Mallory excitedly went back to her room and took out her paper, brush and inks then drew her symbol on each of them on the back then when they were dry, she started to draw magic runes carefully onto the paper. "Almost done.."

At the top of the paper, she carefully wrote the words 'misfortune protection' then did another one which had 'activate shield'.

A much larger amount of magic was drained from her body and it was absorbed into the paper talismans which she completed.

One talisman took a little more than a twentieth of her magic which she had calculated but she did not mind the loss considering the effects produced.

Her eyes closed and opened then she saw the lingering magic around the talismans which had reached the absolute limits that it could withstand. "It seems that paper has a certain limit for how much magic it can withstand, to create a stronger version then I would probably need better materials and a stronger magic rune drawn on it.

After she closed them and reopened them again, Mallory headed towards Seshat and showed the fruits of her research. "These are magic talismans just like the ones I made before but instead of detecting something and ripping they have another function."

Seshat looked intrigued. "So what is their function?"

Mallory explained. "The misfortune protection talisman will break and release the magic to create a barrier or shield to protect them for a short time when they are about to be harmed. The activate shield talisman will only be activated once the person using it says the keywords written on the talisman or they can rip it to release the spell. Most talismans need to have contact with the user to be activated but the activation words can be used to activate certain ones from far away so they are more versatile and can be used for many situations."

Mallory took out an activation shield talisman and threw it in front of her as she shouted in her native tongue. "Activate shield!"

The magic came from the talisman as it broke apart and there was barely anything left behind of it, the magic took form of a shield as it floated in between Mallory and Seshat.

It was like a lesser shielding spell and it could take a couple of hits before it broke apart but its time was limited so it needed to be timed well to block an attack.

Mallory explained. "This needs to be said in my native tongue but I can write some notes when selling them so people know how to properly activate it or they could just rip it if they do not wish to learn how to use it that way."

Seshat studied them and looked excited. "Make a couple more then I will consider your debt settled. These should be worth a lot of Valis and could be very helpful to many. How do you plan on expanding this?"

Mallory put her hand on her chin and answered. "For now just shields should be possible but I have been studying different elemental runes so it may be possible to create attacking, support or defensive talismans of different natures. I hope to learn a little about throwing weapons too so I can prepare for such things."

Seshat nodded. "There are some in the familia skilled in that area so you should attend those lessons which they hold during training times."

Mallory quite liked the idea of throwing kunai with talismans attached to them as way way to gain more tactical advantages in combat.

Even if the talismans could not kill level one or two monsters, they could at least wound them or help prepare an opening for her to take advantage of.

Against ordinary people and level one humans, she estimated that they would be wounded by such a release of magic while some weaker would probably die so she did not intend to make her offensive talismans so that she could sell them.

Protective and averting talismans were the main ones she hoped to sell to those which were in need of them and so she could gain the Excelia after their misfortunes were averted but she still had to choose carefully among the people in the city who she would warn.

Not everyone was so innocent and carelessly spreading the talismans would only cause more harm than good when in the hands of evil individuals.