59 DanMachi 29
With Olive's condition getting better, she repeats her question.
"What just happened?"
I check for the mana tendril, but can't find it, Olive's mind was shielded by the ring's enchantment and it finds disconnected the tendril. I take a deep breath and sigh in relief.
"Do you know who I am?" I ask her, checking if she's still here.
"The love of my life?" Her cheeky answer makes my heart pitter-patter, but I have to make sure she remembers who she is.
"What happened the second time we met?" I ask her squinting my eyes.
"Pff..." She chuckles and looks up at me "You tripped, then used some awful pickup line."
"Hey! It wasn't that bad!" I act all hurt, but join her in a laugh. "Okay, it was... But your back to yourself, something invaded your mind, it enhanced your emotions, or just manipulated your fear." I say and my expression changes into a grimace. "Not sure what kind of information it got from you if it even got anything from you, but we need to be even more careful from now on." I point at her ring finger and she looks at it with stars in her eyes. "Keep that on, at least, till we get home, and when we do get there, I'll teach you [Mind Arts]. We'll take a week off, again, for you to max out the skill." I say and receive a nod from her. "I don't want you anywhere near the dungeon, while your mind is unprotected."
"Okay..." She looks away shyly. "I like the ring." She says quietly. "It's pretty."
"You can keep it, I made it for you after all. I just wanted to give it to you later." I say with a wry smile.
"Thanks." She says with a small smile playing with the ring. "It was an emergency, I'll give it back when we get out of the dungeon and you can it to me when you intended." She says with a genuine smile.
"Nah, it's alright." I reply, waving her off, then pull out the other ring from my inventory. "I made us a matching set." I say showing mine off. The moment it goes on my finger I can feel a my [Mind Arts] shields strengthen and a faint connection form to the other ring.
I can feel the channel vibrate with expectation, and I widen it, allowing my feelings of worry for her safety, my shyness because of the type of present I made, and my overall happiness that she seems okay, to bleed through it.
She perks up, her eyes going wide, quickly she looks at me and asks. "You remade that spell you used in my world?!" Her smile widens when I nod, and she jumps up to her feet and hugs me.
"Oh we will have so much fun with this!" she says with a sexy smile.
I cough, changing the topic quickly. "If you insert mana into the top part of it allows you to pinpoint the location of the other ring." I point to the other side of the ring. "Inserting some here will allow the emotional, thought, sense, and knowledge channels to open. We can share everything we want."
I didn't know that her eyes could get wider, but they did. The next moment, a memory of our first meeting accompanied by the feeling she felt, travels through the connection. I could see our full interaction from her perspective, and her thoughts at that time made me laugh.
"So you thought I was cute and 30-year-old a virgin?" I ask while laughing.
"Yeah..." She rolls her eyes and looks away shyly but then turns back to me and adds. "I fell into your trap. But I would gladly I would repeat that mistake if I could." She says with a smile and gives me a light kiss.
I did not blush, no, the temperature in the room suddenly skyrocketed and my skin became red.
"I love you." I whisper and quickly change the topic. "How are you feeling now?" I ask.
"Not sure, everything about the dream and after I woke up it hazy." She shakes remembering it. "Like I know I was afraid of something, but can't remember the reason why."
"That's probably the better option." I say honestly. "That means the entity only focused on instilling fear into us. Thankfully, we noticed it in time. Do you want to continue the dive, or should we head home?"
"The ring will keep me safe right?" She asks, and when I nod she adds. "Okay, then let's get that level six first."
We had a light breakfast, packed up our stuff, and went back to the location of our earlier fight. The dungeon has already, regenerated everything in the vicinity, well, except for the boss. The staircase was right where we left it and we descended it, arriving into a new world.
[Quest: [Dungeon diving 66] Completed 66 WP(x4) Received]
From the 66th floor and onwards the floor biosphere changed drastically, similarly to the floors between the 19th and 24th. These floors were a forest area, but instead of trees, it had massive, twenty to fifty-meter-tall mushrooms, with their caps covering all of the ceilings. The floor, however, wasn't dark, as soon as we stood on the ground, it lit up with bluish-green bioluminescence. The whole place was covered with mycelium. If [Celestial Eyes] didn't tell me about the dangers around us, I would call this floor breathtaking.
[IMG]
"Heh, breathtaking." I say out aloud, reminded of the meme, but I'm surprised by my croaked voice.
The air around us was filled to the brim with spores, making breathing a challenge. A dry cough escapes my throat, and a scratching feeling assault's it.
"COVER YOUR MOUTH!" I yell out and take out a t-shirt from my inventory t cover mine and Olive follows my example. My coughing fit continues, and I feel like I'm suffocating, a hard slap to my back dislodges the mass that has appeared in my throat, and finally, I cough up a green, almost fist-sized, blob covered in mucus and spit. It falls to the ground and sprouts roots, transforming into a mushroom in quick succession.
"Fuck." I say, but it's muffled, by the cloth covering my mouth. I quickly turn toward Olive but find her completely fine. Her abnormal resistance kept all the spores she inhaled at bay.
"Let's get back to the last floor ill make a quick air filter enchantment." I say and she nods, while still looking at the mushroom that left my airways, with a discussed expression.
We both head back to the 65th floor, and I quickly start the process of creating small crystalline pendants and forming a runic script with the only task of covering our heads in air bubbles that filter out the air. The script used Death affinity to disintegrate the spores, and water and air affinity to cover our heads in bubbles to filter and create breathable air. It's a rudimentary solution, but still better than suffocating.
Twenty minutes later, with the pendants done, we move back to the beautiful, but extreme environment of the 66th floor. The pendants worked without a hitch, with their mana consumption barely noticeable.
However, the 66th floor was an extremely strange place. I didn't have any enemies, only mushrooms that spit Spores, at regular intervals, and those guys didn't provide any experience. The whole gimmick of the 66th floor was the deathly spores in the air. So after wandering around the floor, we arrived at the staircase leading to the 67th, and that's when things changed, the environment was the same as the floor before, but the glow of the mycelium on the floor grew fainter. Here we met our first and only enemy on this floor. Walking, or should I say wobbling, and communicating mushrooms with spears in their hands.
[Quest: [Dungeon diving 67] Completed 67 WP(x4) Received]
It was a really strange sight, those creatures came in all shapes and sizes, and had round arms and feet, no fingers or toes. Their faces were just under their caps, and their bodies were mushy and soft to the touch. These guys were awfully slow, and stupid, but packed a mean punch. What they gave up with their speed and intellect, they made it up with their numbers. Additionally, these guys had some kind of hive-mind connection, and they knew where we were at all times.
[IMG]
As fire and lightning spells were extremely dangerous in this environment, as a single spark could cause a floor-wide explosion, thanks to all the flammable spores in the air. In the end, I had to resolve myself to only use water affinity attacks. The high-pressure [Alter Orb] ray cut apart their soft bodies with ease. The monsters gave out barely any experience, but their numbers in the thousands and increasing made up for it.
It was not long that mountains of mushroom parts littered the grounds around us, and with that came not just levels but a few boons.
2x [Quest: [Slay 6 (R*10)] Completed 60 WP(x4) Received]
[Mushroom Slayer]
- Increases damage dealt to mycelium-based lifeforms by 20%.
We actually killed around two and a half thousand of these guys and didn't even break a sweat. Thanks to all the farming we did today and yesterday, my class levels increased all the way to 47 while my global level reached 73. I was getting close to a new class, and so was Olive. She reached global level 71 and class level 48. On top of all of that, both of our falna finally maxed out. So we ascended to the 64th floor, cast clean on ourselves, not to bring back home some of these nasty spores, and [Blink]ed directly home.
Thankfully, as it was pretty late, Hestia was already home so she updated our status straight away.
"You keep on surprising me." She mumbles, done with an update. "For some reason, you always get a skill on level up, and I can't figure out why."
"So what did I get now?" I ask.
"Something called, Archive. It gives you a perfect memory, speeds up your thinking and learning speed."
"Oh, just what I needed. Great I'll take it." I say with a smile, it was one of the skills I really wanted, and thanks to the intricacies of the falna system, I got it. Surprisingly I don't understand what prompted it to give me my last skill, [Magical Embodiment], as I never really had to use it. Okay... I could have used it against the last floor boss but, I didn't really have the time to shift my body's affinity to the Rot one. Oh yeah, I finally named the affinity the boss used because that's what it truly did, it rotted away matter without restraint.
"Done, what about your development abilities?" She asks.
"If there's nothing new just go with, Abnormal Resistance, as I'll definitively need it on our current floors."
"Sure..." She does her magic on my back and when finished says with a wide smile. "Done." She gives me the paper showing me my stats but I ignore it and look at my status screen.
[Archive LVL: Max]
- Boosts cognitive functions by 50%, improving learning speed and mental agility.
- Grants perfect recall, allowing the user to retrieve any memory with perfect clarity.
- Enables mental simulation and visualization, allowing the user to mentally rehearse and experiment with different scenarios.
- Increases creativity and intuition, enabling the user to come up with novel solutions and ideas.
- Forms a mental archive, allowing the user to store and organize memories and knowledge, including sensory information such as sights, sounds, and smells.
- Provides enhanced pattern recognition and associative thinking, allowing the user to make connections and insights more quickly.
[Abnormal Resistance LVL:1/120]
- Increases the body's resistance to poisons, toxins, and diseases by 0.25%/LVL, making it more difficult for harmful substances and pathogens to affect the user's health.
- Enhances the body's natural defenses, such as the immune system and detoxification processes, allowing it to respond more quickly and effectively to threats.
- Allows the user to build up a tolerance to certain substances and toxins over time, making them less harmful or even beneficial in small doses.
- Does not grant complete invincibility or immunity, as some poisons and diseases may be too potent or unpredictable for the body to handle, and some environmental hazards may require specialized equipment or techniques to counter.
(A/N: Skill description was updated.)
[Falna Status] (Andrew)
Level: 5 > 6
Strength: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Endurance: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Dexterity: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Agility: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Magic: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
D.A.:
[Mage A>SS] [Spirit Healing B>S] [Magic Resistance H>B] [Swordsman I>C] [Abnormal Resistance I]
Magic:
[Blink B>A] [Arsenal C>A] [Celestial Eyes D>B] [Alter Orb F>D] [Gate F] [Celestial Forge F>C] [Clean E>D] [Infuse E>C] [Svalinn I>H] [Gift of Life I>H] [Fly I>G] [Destiny F>D]
Skills:
[Sage's Wisdom] [Mana's Blessing] [Magic Penetration] [Magical Embodiment] [Archive]
Again, as Olivia entered the room, I was unceremoniously kicked out of it.
"Stupid, prude, goddess..." I grumble as I wait next to the door.
Fifteen minutes later Olivia exits and shows off her updated status sheet.
[Falna Status] (Olivia)
Level: 5 > 6
Strength: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Endurance: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Dexterity: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Agility: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
Magic: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)
D.A.:
[Swordsman A>SS] [Chain Attack E>C] [Crush F>E] [Abnormal Resistance I>G] [Magic Resistance I]
Magic:
[Icicles C] [Blink B>A] [Clean E] [Infuse C>A] [Fly I] [Destiny G>E]
Skills:
[Heart's Desire] [Sacred Dance] [True Cut] [Heroic Empowerment] [Mind of the Blade]
[Mind of the Blade LVL: Max]
- Forms a defensive spiritual sword array around the user's mind and soul, providing protection against mental attacks and intrusion.
- Allows the user to reinforce and enhance the sword array with any energy type they possess, such as psychic, elemental, or divine energy, increasing its resilience and effectiveness.
- Provides an offensive option by imbuing the sword array with energy and using it to counterattack or deflect mental assaults, causing a heavy mental backlash to the attacker.
- Allows the user to perceive and analyze the structure and nature of mental and spiritual energies, allowing them to identify and counteract different types of attacks.
- Grants enhanced clarity, focus, and willpower, allowing the user to resist and overcome mental manipulation and illusions.
- Provides some protection against physical attacks that target the mind or soul, such as psychic or spiritual weapons, although the effectiveness may vary depending on the level and nature of the attack.
[Magic Resistance LVL:1/120]
- Reduces the effects of magic on the user by 0.125%/Level, making it harder for spells, curses, and other magical effects to affect them.
- Does not grant complete immunity to magic, as some spells or effects may be too powerful or unpredictable for the user to resist, and some magical creatures or beings may have innate or specialized magical abilities that can overcome the resistance.
(A/N: Skill description was updated.)
Yea I didn't even have to think about why she received this skill, even the choice of her development abilities made it so that she will become harder to affect by magic.
"Still, I'm going to teach you [Mind Arts] for an extra layer of protection." I say after I read through her status sheet.
"Alright." She nods in agreement.
"Let's go outside, and after I thought you, you can try reading my mind." I reply, ushering her to follow me.
So after equipping her [Training Addict] title we went outside to our little garden and spent the day with me, teaching her, sharing my experiences with the help of the ring, and showing her how to shape mana into tendrils to connect to foreign minds. How to use the same mana to form a protective membrane to surround hers, and how to infuse memories with mana to store it for later access. The last ability doesn't make her smarter, only allows her to access the stored memories, and watch them like movies inside of her head. Surprisingly, the skill level didn't just max out straight away, no, my experience helped her level up the skill faster, but didn't straight up increase its level.
It was a tricky and time-consuming task, but by the end of the day, she got the skill and leveled it up a few times. Through the week of mandated training, she maxed out the skill using me as a practice dummy. My strong shields kept her at bay, but the constant knocking on them went on my nerves. Surprisingly, she never actually breached or left a single crack on them. I'm pretty sure some of my skills affect the strength of the shields, at the same time it could explain why the skill was so powerful.
When the roles were reversed and I attempted to breach her mind, her [Mind Arts] shields kept me in the bay for a few seconds but fell apart thanks to the onslaught of my mind tendrils. Causing her [Mind of the Blade] skill to take over the defense.
We stress-tested that skill too, and surprisingly, even without reinforcement, it held stronger than the [Mind Arts] shield, and after reinforcing, it was almost impenetrable. The backlash part of the skill was truly magnificent, whenever someone tried to assault her mind, it sent out a counterforce that impacted the attackers. The strength depended on how much the shields were reinforced, and how strong the initial attack was. A poke resulted in a poke, a charge straight at her shields could knock an attacker out cold.
This week in addition to my training in different skills, I had time to finally pick up a potential familia member. I couldn't keep Haruhime where she was, so I pinpointed her location and waited till she was all alone. A [Blink] deposited me right by her side, and another one brought us my bedroom. The questions I want to ask her weren't something the others should hear, and her circumstances aren't something others should know. I cast [Clean] on her and sat her on my bed.
The void in her eyes, and the fact she didn't even react to me, technically, kidnaping her, made me feel like shit for not saving her earlier. She didn't talk, only placed both of her hands on her thighs and looked straight ahead at the unremarkable wall before her. She had a frail build, and modest chest, fox-like ears protruding from the top of her head, blond in color just like her hair and fluffy tail. Her green eyes lost their luster months ago. Unable to stay in this awkward silence I say.
"Hi Haruhime, my name is Andrew. I want to help you." Her head slowly turns towards me and her dull eyes look into mine, but no words escape her mouth.
"If you could forget everything that happened to you, would you?" I asked the million-dollar question, expecting any reaction from her, but got nothing. She broke eye contact and looked back at the wall ahead, her breathing too calm for someone in her current situation. She looked and behaved like someone who has given up on life, and I wasn't even sure what kept her from ending it.
"I know you don't believe me, and it's a hard topic to talk about, but I can erase all of your memories from what happened here in Orario. Would you like that? A fresh start." A tear appears on the side of her eye, traveling down her cheek and slowly dropping on the bed.
"The people who did this to you will suffer, I can promise that." I say and place my hand on hers, but she jerks hers away in fright.
I sight then repeat my first question with a lot more power in my voice. "Answer. Do you want me to erase your memories? If you keep quiet, I'll take it as a yes and just do it." She doesn't answer but nods and starts sobbing.
"Alright, it will be unpleasant and you might faint, but when you come back all you'll remember is me saving you from bandits, and bringing you to my home for safety. Is that all right?" Another nod, answers my question.
One hundred mind tendrils gently poke at her mind, knocking her out instantly, and start editing and removing memories from her experience here. Some of them were quite nasty, but some were heartwarming, but to keep her mind stable all of it had to go. This part of [Mind Arts] worked similarly to Obliviate, but with my experience with the skill and the boosts I receive from my passive skills, it left no mental scars or allowed any mental degradation of the target.
Actually, I never thought of using Obliviate as an attack spell, imagining a fight with a group of enemies, that forget who they were, or forget how to use their weapons, would be fun.
I shake my head and refocus my efforts on slowly scrubbing the young girl's mind, not leaving a single memory from her time here in Orario. The process didn't take too long, barely a minute has passed since she was knocked out cold, but it was finished without any complications. Before I forget, I extract two strands of her hair, and form a Race card from one of them, then place the other one inside my inventory.
[Race: [Renard] gained.]
[Renard]
+1 AGI, +1 INT, +1 WIS, +1 PER, +CHAR, +1 LUCK per Global Level
- Gain a tail for every 20 points of INT you possess, up to a maximum of 9.
- Each tail grants you 5% spell damage, 5% mana regeneration, and 2.5% total mana capacity.
The Renard race is heavily reliant on magic, and that could be seen even from their race cards. This race just became my new favorite one, I'll be exchanging some vitality and magical resistance from the High Elf race, but instead, I'll gain all 9 tails straight away, almost doubling my maximum mana, thanks to the intelligence boost and the total mana increase, while at the same time boosting my overall spell damage by 45%. These numbers were huge. I can't wait to gain a few more race slots to start using multiple of them at the same time.
A grunt from the bed pulls me out of my thoughts, and the sleeping sixteen-year-old girl awakens from her short nap. I have rewritten her memories making me her savior, without any ulterior motives, and she knows she's in my house, which is safe, but all that knowledge doesn't stop her from freaking out.
"Where am I ?!?" she yelps as she sees me, I didn't place too much information about myself, into her mind, so she doesn't really know me. She shyly pulls away and covers herself. Yeah... The clothes she's currently wearing don't cover too much of her body.
"Not sure you remember me, I'm Andrew. You were in a bit of a pickle yesterday, with some slavers attacking you." She looks at me confused then as if she remembered the things that happened 'Yesterday', she perks up.
"After our carriage was attacked, I was left alone, then bandits capture me." Her breathing hitches and her eyes go wide. "That's when you came and saved me!" She squints her eyes trying to remember the rest of it but without a success. "After that the memory gets hazy." She says tilting her head to the side, trying to remember more details of 'Yesterday' night, not that she would ever be able to. Thankfully, I only had to remove a few months' worths of memories from her, as she didn't arrive so long ago, so he physical body isn't so far off from what she remembers, well, except for a few small details...
She stands up, places her hands in front of her chest, and gives me a deep bow. "Thank you for saving me, milord."
"Don't even mention it, and please don't call me that." I wave her off with a wry smile. "Your memories might be hazy because of the stress of the situation you were in, just ignore them, and try to live a happy life." I say with a smile. "By the way, I never asked you, what's your name?"
"Sanjouno Haruhime, I'm from the Far East. Can I ask where we are?" She asks a bit worried.
"Huh, you're really far from home, we're in Orario, the Labyrinth city." I say and Acting gains a level up. The girl looks down and a frown appears on her face. "Would you like me to get you back there?" I ask.
She drops her head and shakes it. "No, my family doesn't want me there, I've got nowhere to go, I'm all alone."
Before she starts crying again I suggest. "I do have a suggestion for you."
She looks up at me, while tears start forming in her eyes.
"Be a part of my family, and join my familia." I say extending my hand toward her with a wide smile. Hoping she doesn't misunderstand those words.
