IT'S A ROCK
Yue and Tio finished off the remaining knights as Ivan, Ari, and Claire observed from afar. What Ivan had thrown prior was a little device that was controlled remotely using transmutation circles and mana. The circle on the needle was inscribed with both runes for explosions and markers that conducted his mana to make a string-like tether. If he had to describe its weaknesses, one would be that because of its speed it's difficult to make turns, another weakness being that once they blew up that was it for them.
The explosion being a force great enough to shatter the material, its only ways of construction being painstakingly drawing more alchemy circles on new needles. Ivan had contemplated only keeping a few on him made of Azantium but with how hot the metal would become after blowing up they wouldn't be good for consecutive uses anyways. Instead, he opted to make at least twenty a day of cheap metal that conducted mana well.
Unfortunately, using more than one at a time would greatly reduce his flexibility with their control, only being able to do simple movements to not confuse and entangle his own mana's directional paths. As a human mind, he could normally only focus on one thought process. So that got him thinking, what if he had multiple independent thought processes? That way he'd be able to freely control more than one needle without any hindrances. To go even further than that, having multiple thought processes would greatly aid him in increasing his work speed.
As an alchemist whose predecessors chased after alchemy for the purpose of enhancing the human body, this wasn't a far-fetched plan. The only problem was where to begin? Rather than create new independent thought processes it would probably be easier to just divide the one that he has already. However, its own problems came with that plan, that by dividing his sole thought process he'd be impairing what he was already capable of.
Weakening his only thought process would just end up contradicting his plans for his body's enhancements, essentially he'd be trading one leg for one just like it. Effectively making it all a waste of time. So before that, he needed to enhance his current mind so that even if it was divided into let's say two or four processes his brain would function the same, if not better than it was before.
The screams of the remaining templar knights were drowned out of his mind as he came up with a few ideas. One that wouldn't fry his brain would be ideal but as a researcher, there were bound to be risks he had to take, if he stopped at every hurdle because he was afraid of death or failure he wouldn't make it anywhere at all. The only simple thing he could think of was increasing his stats to withstand the mental strain, particularly vitality.
As for the process of enhancing his thought process, it would probably pertain to messing with a few runes until finding a combination that worked. Particularly the 'eye' symbol perhaps mixed with the rune for 'sky.' Touch it up with one that is related to 'haste' or 'speed' and it should hopefully work. Though there was once again the aforementioned problem of he was definitely sure his mind would literally explode if he did that now.
Leveling stats in this world worked differently from video games, instead of leveling increasing your stats you had to increase your stats to level up. Which meant that to up his vitality alone he'd have to hone it with specific training that'd improve that aspect of him. The problem being he had zero ideas what to do to level up vitality.
Was he supposed to stand still and allow himself to get beaten within an inch of his life? That seemed more like a way to strengthen his defense or magic defense rather than anything. At the end what the hell did vitality even mean? Was it how energetic he was, or perhaps his vigor in bed?
The more he thought about it the less sense it made in his head. In the end, he matched up the vitality stat with that of a stamina stat, in other words 'energy'. Seeing as how there already wasn't one on the status plate he assumed that's what vitality meant. From there it started to make at least some sense in his mind, however, another problem sprouted. Was he just supposed to run laps around the estate until he reached a vitality level he was comfortable with?
That just seemed like it'd take way too long.
".....Energy huh…." His muttering reached the ears of the two that stood beside him. However with their inquiries he only responded as it being his mindless muttering, a habit they had gotten used to after their time with him.
For now, the most basic way was rigorous physical training, perhaps with some breathing techniques and changes in his diet his vitality stat would steadily climb. And if he ever got risky enough, there were always more dangerous methods to strengthen his body…
A dangerous method that would break down his body almost instantaneously, at least that's what had been documented from what he could remember in the Holy Church's diary. Breaking down one's body and allowing it to rebuild stronger was a natural process of the human body, repeat those two steps at a significant pace and one's body would be enhanced to a significant degree. Of course, that depends on if the one to go through can even withstand the process without dying, which Ivan was confident in saying there was no such being.
Even with Yue's regeneration, which she is the sole possessor of, Ivan theorized that she could only survive the process for a few minutes before either running out of mana and dying or succumbing to the toxins and dying before her body had an opportunity to rebuild. Unless Ivan had a way of rebuilding his body's muscles faster than Yue could regenerate there was no way for him to withstand a monster's potent toxins that would threaten to tear him down to the cellular level.
Unfortunately, there was no such method.
"...Huuuu~" Ivan's sigh attracted the two's attention again. However, right before they could ask him what was on his mind, Tio and Yue returned from their hunt.
"The task is finished, master~ No one is left to spread the events of today… Fufufu~ This one made sure of it!" Tio's respectful bow and curtsy betrayed the animalistic blush on her face, likely asking for praise.
Which Ivan returned, making the dragon princess squeal in delight before writhing on the floor. That left Ivan to come to his next topic. Now that they had officially combated against the Holy Church there was no room left between the two to never cross each other's paths. Wiping out any potential messengers and survivors was only a measure to buy them a little bit of time. Sooner or later the Holy Church would send more members to check on their former members, the time that group 'disappeared' as the last would surely alert the Church about the matter.
From then on it would truly become a full-on war, as of now it was just a cold war. Ivan warned the others of such a development, each only smiling before responding that they knew the risks the moment they joined the team.
Not expecting another league of templar knights to show up for at least another two weeks, Ivan got to work on other matters. First naming his remote-controlled exploding needles 'Show Stoppers.' A pretty weird name but he couldn't think of anything better at the moment. Though there was the urge to just slam something with the word 'boom' at the end and make that the proper name.
An impulse he stopped from committing as he didn't want to ever be in the situation where he had to say an embarrassing name of his device aloud. That exact situation came to fruition a day later when Ari just couldn't get the way it moved through crowds out of her mind, that was when she asked to know the name of it.
Days passed as the improvements in his stats grew just as slow as he was expecting. He had no idea how high he wanted his vitality stat before messing with the mind-enhancing so to be safe his goal landed in the ten thousand. A far target for someone whose vitality stat sat at five thousand. But at the rate going it'd take about ten years before getting to where he wanted, a realization that made him sigh as by that time he would probably have no use for the enhancement.
It wasn't until over a week later after the templar annihilation event that the situation changed.
BEEP—BEEP—BEEP!
Ivan picked up the phone-like device before holding it up to his ear.
"Hello, Father! You thereeee~? You see, ya see, I found this really cool thing here on the 101st floor. Well… more like Rumebuh-kun found it. You see, I was resti— on guard duty, and then Rumebuh-kun started beepin' like crazy! So I woke u– I stood on high alert as I peered over the edge… Then, BOOM! A crystal far prettier than I've ever seen~! It shone this pretty blue light and then and then, there was this beautiful liquid pooling under it… U-Um so I… Uh, I kinda drank it…"
Ivan had a few questions regarding this daughter of his, for a second he doubted his teachings as a parent.
'Did I not teach her to put random stuff in her mouth…?'
Ivan's disappointment was broken by Felis' energetic voice, who desperately tried to win back his respect by telling him of her recent findings.
"W-Wait a minute, Father! Before you get mad, let me tell you about what I found~ Puhuhuh! You're never going to expect it… Ready? Uhum, that shiny liquid you see was more than just shiny an' pretty. It made me feel super good when I drank it too! It was as if that pool of mana you said I had grown several times larger!"
Ivan listened to her words with great interest, a frown adorning his face as what he heard her speak of sounded more akin to some magical elixir. As for why it was in the dungeon, that's precisely what he wanted to find out. From her description, the liquid flowed from a mystical rock, but as far as he could recall there was no documentation of such an artifact from what he could remember of the Holy Church's archives.
So he asked Felis to stay on the line while he called over Yue who was preparing tonight's dinner.
She stood in front of him adorning the frilly white apron she usually wore while cooking, Yue looked at him with inquisitive eyes while holding a ladle dripping a broth in her right hand. Ivan smiled apologetically before speaking to her about the discovery Felis made.
Sure his knowledge of this world was based on the stuff he found from a single library, so who else other than to rely on than the three hundred plus vampire queen who seemed quite knowledgeable about the history of the world. Well… there was always the five hundred plus dragon princess pervert if Yue didn't have any info.
"..... Ambrosia!" Yue's eyes opened as wide as saucers as she exclaimed in an unusually loud voice. Her yelp startled Claire who was taking advantage of Yue not being in the kitchen to finish the meal before her.
According to Yue, Ambrosia was a product of the Divinity Stone, a stone considered by many in ancient times as the rarest treasure. Its liquid was so divine it was capable of healing most wounds, even saving people on the brink of death. On a side note, prolonged digestion of the liquid effectively extended the lifespan of whoever drank it, giving it the nickname to many as the 'elixir to life.' A name Ivan laughed as what many alchemists sought has now laid before him, found by his daughter who just so happened to be sleeping on the job before stumbling upon it.
"Excellent work, Felis! Stay right there, I'll be on my way to pick you up so we can study the thing and see how we could use it to our benefit. You can have whatever you want as soon as we're done, think of it as a reward for your hard work!."
"Huhuhu~ Maaa, I'll take you up on that offer, Father! So go ahead, praise me more and more about how awesome I am! C'mon, I don't bite, don't be shy~ Huhuhu!"
Ivan resisted the urge to crush the phone in his hand before setting it down and ending the call. Racing to the airship as Yue, Tio, Claire, and Ari accompanied him out of curiosity. For a minute he thought of punishing his recently smug daughter before letting it slide in consideration that she just might have been lonely all by herself down there.
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Felis ran up to the five that had just entered the 101st floor. Her tail swaying behind her as she jumped up for a dropkick, her vigor not dropping a bit as Ivan grabbed her flying leg and tossed her back to where she came from.
It was then that she excitedly gestured for the others to follow her. Her tail pointed like an arrow as she stood ahead of the group. The others smiled wryly at her excitement, Ivan finding it a bit strange as he followed her to where she claimed the Divinity Stone to be. And there it was, just as she said a beautiful crystal glimmering with a pale blue light. Its size resembles that of a basketball.
He adorned the gauntlets he hadn't worn for forever after carefully transmuting the stone it was submerged in. Then with a little bit of strength, the crystal plopped out of the ceiling smoothly. And just as Felis did, he licked the basketball-shaped crystal where the liquid had converged. Ignoring the concerned yelps of his companions as he closed his eyes and focused on the process going on within him.
Ivan's body jolted as if being hit with electricity before he returned to his normal position. His brows furrowed as he couldn't help but notice that the only change that had occurred was that he felt more energetic. Unlike what Felis had gone through he didn't feel as though his mana capacity increased by even a little bit.
Ari copied the activity nervously under Ivan's suggestion, gently patting her tongue on the Divinity Stone's surface as she lapped up the Ambrosia oozing from its surface. Her body shook for a moment before she opened her eyes, reporting that similar to Ivan she didn't feel anything other than a jump in energy.
The group all took a turn licking the stone, finally leading back to Felis who had once again said she experienced an expansion in her mana capacity. Ivan thought that it perhaps had to do with her constitution as a homunculus.
*BLEM BLEM*
However, that seemed less likely to be the case as both she and Yue were quite similar in constitution. The only difference between them is the artificial veins and mana crystal embedded in Felis' body. Or perhaps… it was because of the mana crystal that she received a different effect.
If that was the case then he had some tests to conduct, Ivan pulled a vial from his ring as he scooped up a tiny bit of the liquid to maybe feed to a monster later to observe the development. What he was going to do with the results he had no idea. It was more something to sate his curiosity regarding Felis' changes.
With that matter settled, Ivan stored the Divinity Stone safely into the 'Treasure Trove.' Felis joined the party on their way out as she was about done for the day anyways. Felis' happy mood infected Ivan as he happily swayed side to side just like her, the two humming a melodious tune as they led the group back to the transportation circle.
If the Divinity Stone was as powerful of a treasure as Yue had described earlier then he was sure it'd be a valuable asset to his vitality training regimen, subsequently bringing him closer to his goal of enhancing his thought process.
As long as he used it properly, it may even be possible to…
It'd be difficult to convince the others to allow him to go through with it. The initial premise of the idea was to defy the common sense that had long been established in their world. Every teaching they had as children probably went along the lines of 'don't do this at home.'
Hell, it was even a teaching he made sure Felis' understood before giving her the job down here. And that being, the consumption of monster meat. More specifically, making sure to never consume it. Felis' regeneration was on the same scale as Yue's, which didn't inspire much confidence in him regarding her survivability.
And now he was likely going to do just about the same thing he constantly warned her not to do. It's like when your alcoholic father tells you not to become a drinker in the future, all while downing about four twenty-five-ounce beer cans.
Well, the worst he feared was that she would imitate his actions.
Their return back to the manor was smooth, idle chatter emanating from the cockpit as Ivan and the family discussed dinner. As unfortunately with this distraction their earlier dinner preparations had been disrupted and it was likely that the meal wouldn't taste so good after being left out for so long.
An apology from Claire who joined the group on their excursion while forgetting to store the food in the fridge.
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I really enjoyed writing the dialogue for Felis today, let me know your thoughts on it. I just went a bit wild with it, deciding to add some more energy to the voice to differentiate her from the other characters. Other than that, shout out to the people forty chapters ago shouting about the Divinity Stone, your cries have been heard. I just didn't want a really unnatural development that would lead to its finding. Like Ivan coincidentally falling off the bridge the same as Hajime, coincidentally running in the same direction he did, and coincidentally using transmutation to tunnel right to the same depth the Divinity Stone was.
In any case, thanks for reading today's chapter. The class' battle against the demon on the 90th floor is soon approaching. Which means the plot is about to kick into overdrive. From that point on it will probably solely focusing on clearing dungeons and obtaining the ancient magics for Ivan's future goals.
Which I guess means we're about at the half point of this novel huh...
Make sure to have a great evening folks, and I'll see you all soon~! Peace, stay safe!
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