CHAPTER 40(PREP-TIME)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

---3 Days since Yang has entered the dungeon after his fetch quest...

---Dungeon floor 24...

Within the massive forest of the 24th floor, a young man in full armor can be seen staring down what appears the be a 24ft tall mammoth with sharpened tusks and dark red fur in a complete stalemate.

Yang: "Damn, bet you'd taste great, sorry about your herd, but, you know how it is."

Mammoth Fool(Danmachi LN monster) : "ROOOAAAARR!"

Yang: "Yeah I feel ya, lets go."

As both combatants rush towards each other Yang pushes his Mage Armor and Amp further than he has ever done before, as he put it 'Time to try something stupid'. As he is within 10 ft of the monster he boosts towards the sharp curved tusks and grabs onto the left tusk before quickly boosting himself back to the ground. Planting his feet in the earth he strengthens his body in the hope to test his might against this monster.

Gritting his teeth and hardening his will he compresses the flames to avoid hurting the monster and focusses everything he has into his physical strength. For almost 20ft he is easily pushed back, that is until his flames become almost matted to his skin as they heat up, with magic and adrenaline surging the young adventurer plants his feet once more with a stomp and feels the momentum moving him begin grinding to a halt.

'Hahahahahah I did it, just a bit more' he thought as he could feel the monster struggling more and more to push against him, his feet were now up to his calves in the dungeon floor leaving small trenches in the wake of this tug of war. At the 35ft mark the monster finally couldn't move him back any further and began panting hard.

"Awe is fluffy getting tired, well, my turn." He says with a manic grin on his face before he begins taking labored steps, one by one while just barely moving the monster backward. After barely 5 steps, however, Yang stops in place.

"Ok, you made that looks way easier than it is, bye-bye" Are his last words to his foe before a 'Pyro-Nova' emanates from his body and turns the monster to ash. As he looks down and stores to crystal and small bits of tusks in his storage he can't help but think about the absurdity of what he just did, "Hahaha, tug of war with a Mammoth Fool, guess I can check that off the list ahahah."

Withdrawing his field journal from his storage he quickly notes 'Mammoth Fool' into his list of 'Hunted' monsters before continuing on with his expedition. "One month before the rematch, time to get some water training in."

Walking down the familiar tunnel to 'The Water City' which begins the lower floors he removes a ration from his storage and begins munching away. As he finishes his meal and sets foot into the water floors a broad smile spreads across his face as he takes in the beauty of the dungeon.

"You know, if not for the monsters, I bet Tobin and Norra would love it here, eh maybe when they get older."(Tibor's kids)

As he think-aloud he begins walking across the lake on the highest floor of 'The water city'. Looking down between his feet he can see massive fish and something that looks slightly humanoid lurking below as if unsure of what exactly he is. 'Yeah I guess walking on water isn't something you guys are used to, don't worry, I'm coming in.'

Yang suddenly stops 'Water Walking' and plunges into the water immediately activating his 'Aqua-Jet' (Yeah the pokemon move) and rockets through the water. Making a beeline to the monsters that he glimpsed lurking below he darts at them while spreading his magic throughout the water as the light fades the deeper he goes.

Almost 20m down he encounters his next prey, almost a dozen fishemen wielding spears and tridents floating in the water, clearly surprised by his sudden approach into their domain. Their tall lanky figures in different shades of blue holding their weapons in webbed hands rushed towards the intruder into their domain and their mangled jagged teeth were put on display whilst they snarled at Yang.

Seeing his prey accept his challenge Yang accelerated and began brawling with the monsters, reacting faster than even the fishmen could underwater and having full 360-degree awareness by spreading his magic through the water, they never stood a chance.

A flurry of punches and kicks had the monsters in bits and pieces as Yang pocketed their natural weapons before moving up to the surface to take a well-earned breath. Laying on the surface of the water he expanded his magic even further into the water and felt around for some of the massive fish he had seen earlier.

Upon finding one of these unsuspecting creatures he quickly sat up on the surface of the lake and plunged up to his elbows into the water and reached out with everything he had. With gritted teeth, building veins, and squinted eyes he poured more and more magic into the water and tried to get hold onto the now thrashing fish, 'Come on come on come on I've got this' he chanted mentally as their struggle continued. For almost a full minute Yang stayed in that position with heavy beads of sweat pouring off his face and dripping into the water below him.

Almost a minute into this new type of tug of war, his 'Shape Water' technique vs the natural power of a 15ft fish monster. With all his might he tried to drag the creature to the surface as it slowly but surely swam away even with his magic attempting to restrain it.

As his opponent finally escaped Yang quickly moved onto the safer shore of the lake before laying on his back panting. Sweat poured off his body as his bloodshot eyes squinted to handle the light of the ceiling crystal. A profuse nosebleed can be seen clear as day but he did not care, he was too tired to care at this moment.

'If this is gonna work, I need to get this done. Fucking hate using water!'

After a few minutes to catch his breath Yang retreated into the treeline to a small clearing to use some of his final reserves of magic to create a 10x10 hole to make camp in to avoid monsters at night. After setting up camp he stored his armor away and slumped against a wall with his journal in his hands.

'Control water needs a lot of work, step 2 is gonna have to wait till I have this done, and the kill shot is gonna have to wait till after that since I can't afford to miss, damn, I'm way further than I thought from this, fuck it, time to commit.'

After reviewing his plan Yang raises his ring to his mouth to contact his goddess.

Yang: "Yo Hephaestus, change of plans."

Hephaestus: "Whatever it is hurry up, I'm busy in the forge."

Yang: "I'm gonna be in here for maybe 5 weeks, not coming out till I'm done here."

Hephaestus: "Yeah yeah just don't do anything dumb and call if you need help. Remember no going past floor 27." She hastily replies, completely uncharacteristically for the usually calm goddess.

Yang: "Yea--, she hung up on me. Well, time to get some rest."

Yang digs his fingers into dirt and molds a crude roof over his campsite before laying down to rest for the night, going to bed with one thought on his mind 'This training is gonna suck'.

---Meanwhile, Hephaestus's personal forge...

Welf: "Was that Yang? He has a message ring?"

Tsubaki: "Focus on the ingot in front of you kid, talk after."

Welf: "Right."

Hephaestus: "He's fine just focus on making his armor for now."

That night along with many others to follow the residence of the Tower of Babel wouldn't know how lucky they were that her forge and the attached office are magically soundproofed, for if not the entire floor would be awake with the rhythmic sounds of hammers on metal all night long.

END CHAPTER---