Two Month Routine
'Evilus . . . The organization of evil gods. Might not be a bad idea to infiltrate them using my phantom thief reputation.' Nox considered.
'I'll only attempt to do so once my power has grown significantly though.' He decided.
Nox had already recorded Valletta's aura and developing a spell to track it ought not to be too difficult.
'Speaking of which, I should also develop some spells for surface use. So far, only my Arcana Craft that mold. Hmm . . . food for thought.' Nox pondered before reaching the safehouse and getting back to work.
'First things first, let's see if I can finally solve my Konoe, Arcana Ring hybrid problem . . . After I make more Black Monster Bait.'
And, Nox fully sunk into a routine. Dungeon diving from early morning until dinner time while the rest was spent of research with one day per week being used to keep up with his friends like Airmid, Hephy, Tsubaki and Hermes' lot.
A whole two months went by, thus marking the end of Nox first semester in this world. It seemed longer to him than just half a here it he truly felt like home now, not another world he was a visitor in and he loved the feeling.
Owing to his workaholic tendencies, Nox's relationship status was yet unchanged, then again, he was still 13 years old so considering most of his so called love interest were actually more in the adult range than he was, the fact that his romantic relationships hadn't progressed was not that unusual.
But, adult age in this world was 14 so he was almost there, perhaps then he would get a little more lucky when it came to the more physical kind of love.
Most girls he hanged with, especially the older ones felt complicated about being attracted to such a young boy so they held back significantly.
Even Chloe that shotacon fiercely declared young boys were to be protected and not eaten, Aisha on the other hand, had no such qualms and was constantly on the hunt.
Seeing no particular reason to decline her advances, Nox had spent some sexy times with her even if they didn't get to far.
It seemed even she had a very limited but still existing sense of decency, telling Nox that on his next birthday,, big sister Aisha would teach him all the "fun stuff", as she licked her sensual lips.
On the matter of magic, Status, and even crafting however, Nox was on quite the growth spurt in the last two months.
Starting with his forays into magic, the achievement he was most proud of was, beyond a shadow of doubt, the Arcana Matrix.
This was the final version of one of his permanently slotted spells and the one that would give Nox access to the spell database of his Arcana Skill without having to slot the spells in.
What it did, was to create a matrix of magical circles that could be filled with spells from Arcana's database.
Creating this matrix took a substantial amount of Mind and since Nox would be surrounded by glowing magical circles, it eliminated any possibility of stealth but the benefits in open combat made up for it, big time.
The matrix could hold any number of spell formulae and each formula put into it would block a small portion of Nox's Mind Pool, preventing him from accessing it. From then on however, the spell in the matrix could be activated just as if it was slotted.
More powerful and complex spells reserved larger portions of Nox's Mind Pool so he could not just put all of his spells into it and be done with the matter.
On the bright side, changing the spells in the matrix was a lot faster that changing the slotted spells and could easily be done in the heat of battle.
However, when a spell was removed from the matrix, the reserved Mind won't return so changing the spells in the matrix too many times in battle will burn out Nox's Mind reserves, even if not as much as the continuous casting of spells.
And so, Nox's longest running project yet was finally completed.
Arcana Matrix: Store spells on a matrix in the form of magic circles in exchange for a portion of one's Mind pool. Stored spells can be replaced quickly during battle and be cast as if normally slotted. More complex spells will take up more of one's Mind pool in order to be stored.
It took Nox the full first month too finally make this though but after that, it was all smooth sailing for the magical genius . . . If one didn't count the ever elusive space time magic of course but even that had some progress.
On that front, Nox succeed in somewhat stabilizing the spaces created by his artifacts so they fizzled out much less, or even worse exploded.
Even if didn't seem that significant of a progress, it was actually quite important as by the time Nox could create fully stable spaces, countless possibilities with spacetime magic would instantly become available to him.
Nox's final pursuit in the matter of magic during the last two months, was the creation of at least one, if not more, powerful spell for each of the elements that took advantage of its element's unique properties.
On this front, success proved far more simple to attain and Nox had numerous new spells to show for it. He could to wait until the next expedition so that he could unleash them on the deep floors.
He had to admit, relaxedly casting one's magic from behind a defensive line without having to worry about leaving oneself open to attack was quite a nice thing, very addictive too.
Still, as Nox's Status and level rose, he would soon be able to dive into the deep floors by himself, not to mention the loyal to death party that was swiftly improving and would one day be able to accompany him on his dangerous expeditions.
Riding on his success with the more large scale spells, and no longer as significantly hindered by the lack of spell slots, Nox also created several new spells to use in more confined spaces of for more specialized situations.
All of these spells however, merited field tests . . . And with Nox's ability to intentionally spawn powerful black monsters, he had plenty of test subjects to try out his new moves on.
Other than that, Nox also made sure not to let his pets lag behind his subordinates as he fed them with the magic stones of powerful monsters he had acquired in the expedition to the deep floors.
Marie did not undergo any physical change but she was developing the ability to use water magic. Not like adventurers or spirits though, more like an ability to instinctively control the power of her element. It was still quite weak though.
Luna and Ash though, changed quite a bit. They started growing larger and their physical abilities surged like never before, Luna also gained some illusion based skill that could confuse the enemy and specialized strengthening for her hind legs.
Ash was big enough to ridden now and her dark ashy fur now had lava like markings running through it when her magical abilities were in use and they also drastically improved with the hound being able of much more violent and powerful magic but suffering a bit on the side of control.
Mysteriously though, due to her strong bond with Nox perhaps, Ash's magic tended to avoid him even when indiscriminately released and never harmed him in the slightest.
This was limited to Nox himself though since even Luna, Ash's permanent companion got her fur singed on more than a couple of locations, much to the Al Miraj's frustration.
Speaking of Luna, other than her increase in size, her body shape seemed to be shifting to the humanoid form, although it was still hard to notice.
Their intelligence grew quite a bit as well, with Luna and Ash becoming about as smart as Marie and thus, equivalent to most humans, they still had very animal like urges and behaviours though, always snuggling up to Nox whenever he was around and making cute noises until he petted them.
Then again, the supposedly more human like Marie, also acted pretty much in the same way when Nox was around, although she loved singing for him the most.
The last front of Nox's endeavours the past two months, was crafting and it was a fruitful one indeed.
With his side benefits from his various robberies and the massive wealth he accumulated through both legal and illegal means, Nox was certainly well supplied when it came to materials for his various crafting projects.
Even when he could not find a certain material, he had enough money to hire someone to get it for him. It allowed him to realize that, even in such a fantasy world, money still ran things.
As for his creations, they were all the kind of things one would expect from a madman like Nox.
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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.