Conquering the Water Palace III
Killing three more Voltimeria in a relatively smooth manner, Nox started to make his way to the surface.
On the way, he passed by the 18th floor safehouse and met up with the girls to enquire on their gains in the last two to three days.
"With darling's weapons, there were few places in the middle floors than could threaten us, specially with the boost from the EX Pots." Aisha commented.
"Yes! Not only that either. With Nox-sama's magic scrolls to help us out on a pinch, we were able to take more risks for greater rewards too!" Lili said excitedly.
"Hmm! The magic that Nox-sama bestowed upon me was the greatest reliance in our Dungeon Dive." Haruhime added.
Aisha wholeheartedly agreed, prasing Haruhime to the moon and embarrassing her while Lili reluctantly gave Haruhime the MVP for her stellar performance and magic attack and support.
Nox updated their status and found that they were already very close to the peak of Level 1, a few more days and they would be eligible for a level up and capable of enacting Nox's plan to obtain multiple Development Abilities by continuously leveling up and down.
In the end, so as to give them a little bit more time, Nox decided to see if he could find any more Treasure Trees on the 24th floor since not only were Green Dragons good target practice, both their drops and the Jewel Fruits of the Treasure Tree were all quite useful to his crafting endeavours.
After another full day passed however, things didn't go exactly according to plan. Nox found two more Treasure Trees and, after he brutally annihilated the Green Dragon guarding the first one with a single powerful blow powered by his Invictus, he got a little too cocky.
He decided to try and fight the other Green dragon with no magic at all. He use Prometheus as his weapon but did not activate any of its abilities and only used it as a high quality sword.
The result . . . A very disleveld Nox, slightly charred by dragon's breath and with an armor damaged beyond repair was frantically dodging around, escaping the furious assault of a Green Dragon.
His pride and stubbornness made him refuse to use his magic even in such dire straits. Nox had already activated the Archon skill's boost at maximum power and his hair had turned completely white as bright multi colored light flowed through it.
Lines similar to those on an electrical circuit conducted that same bright multi colored light across his entire body, greatly boosting his abilities. Even so, he was completely on the defensive.
'This is the first time I have truly appreciate my magic from the bottom of my heart! Only through its use have I been able to easily fight above my weight class and even with all of his boosts, now that I'm not using it, a mere Level 4 Green Dragon can so easily oppress me . . .'
Nox thought with disappointment in himself.
If any other adventurer could hear his thoughts, they would no doubt drown him in their spit. Able to fight at Level 4 without any magic support while merely at Level 2 and he was still fucking dissatisfied!?
Alas, no one was there to smack some sense into him and so, with dissatisfaction in his heart, Nox continued his uphill fight.
'If I keep going like this, I'll only be backing myself into a corner.' Nox thought and stopped running.
He tried to figure out the dragon's timing and dodge its attacks while looking for an opportunity to strike back. Still, with his current speed and without the protection of his magic, injuries started piling up.
Even though Nox had avoided getting hit full on, the number of grazing attacks he had been hit by was not so small but these injuries were the price he had to pay in order to read the dragon's movement patterns in preparation for his counter attack.
Eventually, Nox started to slip by some attacks and deviler small slashes to the dragon. With the quality of Prometheus, even without activating its magical abilities, it could still cut through the dragon scales.
It was precisely a fight like this, one where no magic was involved, that could help boost up his physical stats. Nox suspected it was more than enough to boost him to the peak of Level 2.
And so, the exchanges continued and Nox started getting hit less and less while the Green Dragon started accumulating cuts of various sizes along its large scaled hide.
The dragon then overextended on his assault and Nox slipped under its nozzle and striking its heart. Or at least, that was the plan.
The Green Dragon was much smarter than Nox gave it credit for and, seeing that its attacks were starting to work less and less, it luring its human opponent in and, just as the adventurer was about to strike at its heart, it beat its enormous wings to boost itself up and unleash a devastating dragon's breath onto the ground below it.
'Damn . . . Guess it's my loss then . . .' Nox disappointed thought as his Invictus Salamander flared up and he held Prometheus in a defensive stance in front of him.
Using the storm of fire magical energy to block the dragon's fiery breath attack, Nox prepared to strike it down but, at that very moment, another unexpected event occurred.
The Green Dragon set down in front of Nox and lowered its head in submission, showing that Nox had successfully tamed it.
" . . . "
"That was unexpected! Oh well! If that's your choice, I'll accept." Nox said to the dragon.
What he didn't see coming was the level of understanding the dragon showed to his words.
'It seems this one is pretty close to becoming a Xenos . . .' He theorized.
Calling it Jade, Nox, who didn't really have any space to put it in his hideout, told it to remain on the 24th floor and just do its best to avoid other adventurers.
After this, he once again met up with the girls and updated their status to the peak of Level 1. Their many feats had already made them eligible for a level up and their falna was overloaded with enough exilia to do so even after all their stats reached the peak so Nox did just that.
All the girls picked a development ability before being leveled down to peak Level 1 stats once again. Aisha, already had the Hunter and Fist Strike development abilities and chose to get Abnormal Resistance this time around.
Meanwhile, since it could only be obtained at Level 2 and Nox was not sure if his level up down up plan would make it impossible to get, both haruhime and Lili got the Hunter ability.
Now though, while the girls would work to once again obtain enough exilia to level up once again, it was time for Nox to make a trip to the surface for his own status update.
Right now, he was in Loki's room staring at his new status sheet that had a bunch of very nice numbers lined up.
*
Name: Nox Lyros
Race: High Human
Gender: Male
Level: 2
Abilities:
STR: SSS-5430 -> EX-9999
END: SSS-4768 -> EX-9999
DEX: SSS-6983 -> EX-9999
AGI: SSS-5874 -> EX-9999
MAG: SSS-9048 -> EX-9999
Luck: H
Archmage: D -> C
Craftmaster: F -> D
Martial Lord: I -> G
Perfect Body: F -> D
Unbreakable Bulwark: I -> G
Irresistible Force: I -> G
Genocider: I -> H
Tamer: E -> D
. . .
*
"Well, ain't like I expected anything less from ya." Loki commented, already used to Nox's ridiculous speed of progress.
Nox was greatly satisfied with his progress but there was still more.
"I know yer plannin' on searching' for a strong monster for yer level up but there's really no need. Ya've already fulfilled the requirements," Loki informed.
"Your alias has been decided too, Archon!" Loki paused and said in a low voice. "Suits ya, ya freak."
"Oh! That's great! I'm still going to hunt my selected prey but I'll level up right now then. Ought to make a bit easier." Nox responded.
"But Archon uh? I like it!" He commented.
"If ya say so." Loki said. "Right! Almost forgot! We're plannin' an expedition to the lower floors and ya'll be in charge of the baggage. Yer plenty strong already so there should be no problem right?" Loki announced.
"Sure." Nox accepted as he sat down in front of Loki again for his level up.
*
Name: Nox Lyros
Race: High Human
Gender: Male
Level: 3
Abilities:
STR: I-0
END: I-0
DEX: I-0
AGI: I-0
MAG: I-0
Luck: H
Archmage: C
Craftmaster: D
Martial Lord: G
Perfect Body: D
Unbreakable Bulwark: G
Irresistible Force: G
Genocider: H
Tamer: D
. . .
Skills:
Sanguinare Vampiris - The Bloodcurse of Vampirism: Permanently boosts the user through the consumption of blood no matter the source. More powerful sources of blood show greater effects. Consumed blood is stored in a blood pool and can be used to perform "Blood Arts" a special type of magic that does not require slots or Mind. As a cost, the user must regularly satisfy their thirst for blood and if this is not done, they will slowly fall into a feeding frenzy and attack anything on sight. Changes the users physiology to grant several vampiric traits like charm, glowing blood red eyes, pale skin and fangs. These can be disguised however it limits the power of the curse when done.
. . .
*
"Yet another powerful skill . . . What the hell are ya doin' to get these all the time!?"
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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.
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I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.