Danmachi – Infinite Mana System

[Chapter Size: 2065 Words.]
Lucius POV
Dungeon, Eighteenth Floor.

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Third Person POV
"HEY, why is that weakling talking to Riveria!" Bete shouted when he saw Lucius and Riveria walking and talking across the camp.
"HAHAHA, the kid is quick, I have to admit," said Gareth, in good spirits.
"Shut up, Gareth, we can't let this guy get close to any family member!" Bete retorted as he clenched his fists tightly. He didn't hate Lucius, but he was angry at his arrogance. He hadn't tried to hit Lucius because he had always been stopped by someone in his family.
"Maybe this is good; Riveria can learn something from him," Finn concluded, who was with them, his tone indicating that Bete shouldn't get involved.
Bete, still clenching his fists, could only grit his teeth in anger and ignore it.
On the other side.
"I'll go see Lefiya now, thanks for the brief conversation, Mr. Lucius!" Riveria said politely in a mature tone.
"You don't need to call me Mr. Lucius, Miss Riveria, just Lucius is enough..." He said with a confident smile.
"Alright, Lucius. Then just call me Riveria." She said, now with a slightly red face.
"As you wish, Riveria, see you later then."
"Goodbye."
After that, they separated. Lucius continued on his way and met Bell, Welf, and Lili.
"Lucius!" Bell said when he saw him.
"Hi!" Lucius said, raising a hand.
"Tell us what happened to you, man. It scared us!" Welf couldn't help but worry.
"I had magical stability to raise my level..." Lucius said, scratching his head, it was complicated for him, having to lie about it all the time.
"Could that be dangerous?" Lili exclaimed.
"Yeah, but I'm already taking care of it with some help from Miss Riveria, from the Loki family." He said.
"HEY, this is Riekling!" Lili said, looking for the first time at the goblin standing next to Lucius.
"Heeee!" Greeted Riekling with some annoyance for dying last night.
"I thought you died in the explosion!" Bell exclaimed confused.
"I know, but Riekling is not a monster; he is a summoning, as I mentioned once, if he dies, I can bring him back!" Lucius clarified to the group.
"Really?!" Bell exclaimed.
Lucius was about to say something else when someone approached them.
"Guys!" Said a new voice that interrupted us, and we looked at its source.
"Goddess Hestia!" Bell said cheerfully, seeing our goddess, whom no one knew where she came from yet, appeared putting her hands on her hips in her usual pose.
"Let me announce this, now Lucius-kun is level 2!" Hestia spoke proudly.
"That's amazing, Lucius?! You reached level 2!" Bell said excitedly.
"It doesn't surprise me..." Welf lamented.
"I did reach level 2, but nothing too special, as I have been an adventurer for over 2 years," Lucius justified.
But Bell, Welf, and Lili knew that Lucius was not such a simple character, not after defeating Goliath and having an inexhaustible energy supply, as he did not enter mind zero even after using more than a hundred spells in the fight against those bosses.
"Bell, come with me! Take your goddess shopping!" After clarifying some things, Hestia returned to normal, trying to pull Bell out with her.
Lucius had already left the group and encountered another person in the camp as he walked alone.

"Hello, sensei," said Lucius, seeing Mikoto in front of him.
"Lucius..." she said calmly and gestured to have a conversation elsewhere, so we went to a more isolated place to talk.
"I'm sorry for putting your family at risk!" Said a kneeling Mikoto. Lucius just sighed.

"Nothing happened to them, and that's what matters. But you know, Sensei..." Lucius said calmly, and his eyes began to glow purple, an energy exploded from his body after silently reciting the spell, sending everything like small stones and branches near him far away with the power of the aura.

Mikoto was frightened by this demonstration and sudden transformation and put her arm to shield her eyes from the wind emanating from Lucius at that exact moment.

"...I appreciate everything, sensei, and I will always be in your debt. But if anything happened to any of them because of you, I WOULD NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" After these words, the energy increased its strength even more, reaching the magical power of a level three adventurer. There was fury in Lucius's words, which Mikoto was seeing for the first time.

Lucius may seem like a hypocrite saying this because he knew they would be fine in the end, despite almost being killed. But still, he is now alive in this world with real people; he cares about Hestia and the others now. If anyone threatens or harms his family, they will pay the price.

Mikoto was surprised by this; she knew Lucius was a mage and wanted to enhance his physical prowess, but she never imagined he had power of this level in magical terms. The demonstration of magical prowess was quite intimidating, as Lucius predicted. Not every mage can release their energy in this way, after all.

Suddenly, the energy stopped, and Mikoto stood motionless, still looking dazed.

"Sorry about that; I was really upset at the idea of my family getting hurt after everything." He said awkwardly, completely the opposite of what he was a minute ago.

"I can understand, I suppose..." murmured Mikoto.

"Sensei, why don't we practice a friendly spar? I believe I can beat you now!" Lucius suggested, and Mikoto, finally coming out of her surprised state, agreed.

"Let's have a little fight then!" She said, standing up and taking her straight katana, Sasuke-style.

Lucius grabbed a makeshift sword that was what he had at the moment and assumed a fighting position.

We stood 5 meters apart from each other.

Lucius then moved forward to attack his teacher. He didn't have Mikoto's sword technique and experience, but now he had a bit more strength and speed with it.

This surprised her; it had been more than a week since she fought him, but he showed a very abnormal evolution, surpassing even her. Lucius started training with her when he had G-rank physical stats, now he has over 1000 points compared to that time, and that time happened just 3 weeks ago!

Now Mikoto is being pressed, forced to snap out of her dazed state when she saw Lucius's power surpassing hers and began to focus entirely on the fight. Mikoto started parrying all of Lucius's attacks; fortunately for her, his strikes were more predictable, nullifying the strength and speed advantage of her opponent for now.
The fight continued like this for 20 minutes, with no one gaining the upper hand in the spar. Lucius stopped attacking and looked at Mikoto; both had irregular breathing. Lucius could take more advantage if he wanted, but he wanted to beat her in swordsmanship and learn without having too much of the falna advantage.

"Sensei, we're at a standstill here; let's switch to a more open fight than just swords!" Lucius said with a smile, and Mikoto became a bit tense but agreed, seeing that they wouldn't get anywhere this way.

A blue and green glow shimmered around Lucius for a few seconds. Then, without warning, he advanced even faster now. Mikoto went on the defensive from there; Lucius's attacks with even more speed and force were making her retreat with each swing, putting her at a disadvantage.

*slash*
*slash*

Mikoto frowned, realizing she would eventually lose like this. She began casting a spell while Lucius's sword was pressing against her.

*slash*

Moving away a bit with a sudden leap and dodging some firebolts Lucius sent her way, as soon as she got some distance, she made a two-handed motion as she thrust her sword into the ground, placing one hand over the other.

[- WAR GOD'S STRIKE!] She shouted.

What seemed to be a sword falling from the sky went towards Lucius, who was watching this spell with fascination. As soon as it touched the ground, energy pressed over the entire area with a magic circle. Lucius, who let her complete the spell, felt the pressure and knelt to the ground, trying not to fall even further, refusing to go down with all his might.

"This pressure... even with my stats increased by 10%, I can't even raise my arm to cast a spell?" He said to himself while gritting his teeth. He fell into the trap and saw how terrible Mikoto's gravitational spell was at this moment.

"Since I can't cast firebolt with my hand, then take this!" He exclaimed mentally.

"Alteration Spell, Ironflesh!" After casting it, a white aura with a degree of transparency surrounded his entire body a few inches from his skin. There were small magical glyphs around his skin. The pressure eased a bit, but it was still difficult to move.

[Fire Spell, Multi-Firebolt!] Using this spell he recently acquired, he launched it only with his mouth. It wasn't a spell that required pointing his hand; it was conjured. Four fireballs began to form in the air around Lucius. It took 2 seconds for them to take the form of 4 firebolts, each 20 centimeters in diameter. The fireballs, without warning, flew straight towards Mikoto.

This left her quite alarmed since, even pressed with her gravitational spell, I could still attack her. However, she began to dodge with a leap, while keeping her hands in formation to bind me in her ability, pressing Lucius. But that was exactly what he wanted her to do.

While in the air falling to where she dodged, she came within Lucius's range, who could use a spell similar to hers.

'Let's see who has the greater gravitational power, Sensei!' Lucius thought internally and then shouted again.

[Gravitational Spell, Gravitational Field!]
Pointing to where Mikoto would land, she felt the pressure as soon as she stepped on the spot, and gravity increased 5 times in density as soon as she touched the ground.

The girl who was only 1.57 meters tall and weighed 45 kg suddenly felt her body weighing 225 kg. It wasn't enough to stop an adventurer, even at level 1, but she had to ease the pressure on Lucius's spell after feeling her weight, allowing him to raise his hand.

"Give up, Mikoto-Sensei! You can't dodge this!" He said as a fireball appeared in his hand. He could cast multi-firebolts, but he didn't have control over the spell yet, so if he conjured it, the fireballs would fly straight towards Mikoto, unable to just threaten her, which could hurt her.

Seeing that there was no way to dodge that spell while she knelt under my gravitational pressure, she released the magical pressure on Lucius by removing her pressed hands, and he did the same.

Before both canceled the spells, there were two circles with purple pressure putting both opponents on their knees, truly interesting for anyone watching from the outside.

If Lucius couldn't resort to an alternative spell, he would have to win through gravity vs. gravity.

"Wow, Lucius! You can even cast gravitational spells!? I could never imagine something like that; I'm very surprised! I still feel my bones hurting because of your spell!" Mikoto couldn't help but complain.

"It was a great fight, Sensei! You almost got me there!" Lucius said, smiling.

"I know you let yourself get caught by the spell; your gravitational magic needed no more than a few words to be cast, that's so unfair... since I have to recite an entire paragraph of incantation." Mikoto lamented.

My spells are far superior to any mage here, as the casting time is several times faster, and I can cast freely in battle without needing concentration. It's obvious that anyone comparing their magic to mine, a certain degree of depression would settle in their mind.

While we were getting up, since the fight was over, we heard a new voice about someone watching the show without us noticing.

"Look, Asfi, today's young adventurers are so dangerous; the noise from the fight was heard throughout the forest!" Said a voice behind me.

"Yes, Lord Hermes..." Said another female voice.

'So he appeared...' Lucius thought as he turned to face one of the most manipulative Gods of Orario.

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