Chapter 12: 2 Years Training/The Grind

It's been a few months now since the twins returned to the Ullr familia. At this time I was expecting to have long hours of grinding since the twins were gone, but instead the twins visited me nearly every week.

In fact they had visited the day after I had dropped them off at their familia.

…

Waking up one morning Izumi found himself slightly empty as the house was much quieter without the two Amazonians. Getting out of bed and walking to the kitchen, Izumi absentmindedly cooked breakfast. Sitting down he looked at the food and realized he had made too much food. Sitting down he decided to slowly eat when suddenly he heard a knock on his door.

Slightly surprised at the sudden knock, Izumi got up and walked to the door, not without hiding a blade in his belt.

Opening the door Izumi was met with the sight of Tione and Tiona. Clearing her throat, Tione explained why they were at his front door, as Tiona smiled and nodded along.

''You said we could visit anytime, we thought we should come and say hi'' Tione said as she looked away, knowing she made no sense. Tiona on her side just continued to nod shamelessly.

''I guess I did. Come in I accidently made too much to eat, want to join me?'' Izumi said, accepting her nonsensical logic with a warm smile and light chuckle. Hearing this the Amazonians instantly brightened up and walked in, as Izumi made way for them.

...

It was something that surprised Izumi, but a welcomed one. On another note Izumi had finished hunting the serpent wolves and already reaped the rewards a few weeks ago. However while doing so he met his first variant monster, an evolved serpent wolf much stronger than the normal ones.

...

Sitting atop a large tree, a young white haired boy could be seen stalking a pack of wolves. His movements were quiet and swift, somehow always staying in the wolves blind spot, like an experienced hunter.

Underneath him, where a group of 5 serpent wolves, surrounding a dead deer they had just killed and were about to fight over.

Izumi watching this casually took something out from his inventory. The experience in his movements were evident as he casually threw a thin sharp wooden spike coated in poison straight into the wolves' game.

The small wooden pike sank into the deer's exposed wounds, splintering and spreading poison through the inside.

As the wolves continued to fight the largest one had the largest portion while two slightly smaller ones each had a leg and the two remaining went hungry. Eating the game the biggest and one of the slightly smaller wolves began to feel weakened. Unaware to them the poison had seeped from the open wound into the main body and leg two of the wolves had just eaten. Feeling dizzy, the largest wolf took a step back and shook its head.

Seeing this, one of the smaller wolves saw this and decided to take his chance. Lunging forward it grabbed a bit of meat, but while trying to retreat with his stolen game, the larger wolf bit into its neck, breaking its scaled neck and killing it instantly. Then regaining its posture and began eating once again.

Izumi, seeing how easily it had destroyed the other's scaled neck, widened his eyes. Realizing it wasn't normal he asked Uriel for the reason.

'Uriel, this one definitely isn't normal, it's stronger and the poison isn't even affecting it anymore. Any idea why?' Izumi thought.

[The reason is because it's a variant of serpent wolves. While most serpent wolves have black fur and scales, this one has gray fur and scales, this means it's eaten quite a lot of monster cores. It's most likely cannibalized some of its own kind.] Uriel explained.

'Wait it 'cannibalized' its own kind!? Do the others do that?.' Izumi exclaimed, taken aback since he had yet to see others do that.

[Not usually, since serpent wolves are pack monsters and even if they did they would usually instinctively use the extra power in their magic cores to multiply. It is odd that this one has yet to multiply, perhaps it's instinctively trying to become stronger due to your fear effect when saving the twins. A survival instinct driving it to become stronger.] Uriel said, explaining the oddity of the serpent wolf.

'So, because I scared it too much, it resorted to cannibalism just to become stronger?' Izumi explained even further, shocked.

[Yes, basically.] Uriel responded.

'Shit' Izumi cussed

[Shit, indeed.] Uriel repeated, emphasizing the dangers of this monster.

'Ok…So it's strong, no big deal. Uriel, will poison not work on it?' Izumi asked, trying to form a plan of attack.

[Not at that level, however you are in possession of some that can weaken its senses or disorient it temporarily.] Uriel informed.

'That…could work.' Izumi smirked, already formulating a plan, as he took out a cloth and created a mixture using a mixture of the most dangerous berries and plants he knew about through [Shioniya Hokage]'s [Survival (C-)].

After creating a mixture he would not even touch he thoroughly doused the cloth with it as he heard a notification in his ear.

[Congratulations, new skill [Alchemy (H+)] has been obtained.]

Smiling to myself I knew I had created a strong enough toxin to at least paralyze the largest wolf for a few seconds. Looking back down I'd noticed one of the wolves eating the leg had already dropped dead. Seeing this the larger wolf was about to eat the dead wolf.

Watching this Izumi panicked not wanting the wolf to become any stronger by eating another magic core he dropped to the overhead, with a sword in tow. During his fall he took out a knife in his hand and pierced the eyes of the wolf that was eating the non-poisoned leg.

Letting out a whimper the wolf dropped dead with a knife protruding through its face, leaving only two wolves left alive. Taking his position Izumi held his sword out while activating his skill [Apex Predator (E)]

[skill [Apex Predator (E)] is activating.]

The gray serpent wolf, feeling a familiar sluggish weight on its back, backed up, seeming to recognize Izumi, but for some reason it wasn't as afraid as before. The same could not be said about the other smaller wolf who had frozen in fear, giving just enough time for Izumi to deal with it.

The gray serpent wolf tried to attack while Izumi was off balance and lunged at him, Izumi luckily was barely able to react. Slashing his sword forward to the gray wolf, only to dismay as the blade cracked on impact, however it was just enough to redirect the wolf. Alive, Izumi was not without injury as the wolf's claw had gashed Izumi's skin creating a slash across his hip.

Izumi, clenching his sword, came up with an idea. Taking out the poison cloth he wrapped it around his hand quickly and slid his blade's edge and side along it. The gray serpent wolf had already recovered and lunged forward to bite once more.

Izumi seeing this matched the wolf's trajectory and wrapped his arms around its head while sticking his head into the wolf' neck away from its mouth. As the wolf thrashed around Izumi locked his legs around it and placed one hand over its snout from around the wolf's neck. With the poison cloth covered hand above the wolf's snout, Izumi smothered the wolf as its claws dug into his sides and back.

Feeling the wolf weakened, Izumi threw the wolf off himself and positioned his sword in front of himself to puncture the wolf's exposed stomach. However instead of getting its stomach the wolf repositioned itself and once again lunged at Izumi, biting Izumi's sword it shattered.

Crashing backwards Izumi grimaced as the wolf bit into his shoulder. The wolf thrashed around as it bit into Izumi harder, but suddenly its grip weakened, Izumi grabbed the remainder of his sword and plunged it at the wolf's head atop of him. Sliding his broken sword in though the bottom of the wolf's mouth, the wolf slowly became limp as it died. Leaving a tired and sweaty Izumi.

''Huh…huh. Next time don't bite into a poisoned coated blade, idiot.'' Izumi said as he gasped for air, pushing the wolf off of him. He smiled as multiple notifications sounded off in his ears.

[Skill, [Apex Predator (E)] is deactivating]

*ding*

[Skill, [Apex Predator (E)] has ranked up to [Apex Predator (D)].]

[World Mission: [Knight in Shining Armor II], completed.]

[rewards…

[Knight in Shining Armor III] (unlocked)]

Favor from Tione and Tiona.

[Gacha Ticket x5]

[Subspace] (unlocked)

[Subspace (type: smithy)] has been added to [SubSpace] list.

Infinite 100% purity [Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand] and [Scarlet Ore] has been added to inventory.

Title [Noble Knight] has been upgraded to [Lesser Hero] ]

[Full Restore]

[Error…Favor from Tione and Tiona is invalid.]

[Searching for equivalent reward…Found.]

[Tione and Tiona love +5]

While a flurry of notifications rang in his ear, Izumi ignored all of them as he clenched his arms and grit his teeth. As he looked at the bite mark on his shoulder he noticed the purple coloring of his veins and around the wound.

''Shit, some of the poison got into the wound.'' Izumi gritted out, breathlessly while in severe pain. Feeling his consciousness slipping he quickly asked Uriel for help.

'Uriel, I don't care what you have to do, find some way to heal me!' He quickly said before falling unconscious leaving his fate to Uriel.

[You actually just got something perfect for that.] Uriel informed him, but Izumi had already passed out.

[Using [Full Restore]...]

[Item successful, healing all wounds, scars, injuries, and status conditions…]

Waking up two hours later Izumi took in heavy breaths as he jolted awake. He jolted up while quickly checking his surroundings.

'Thanks, Uriel,' he said breathlessly.

[No problem, in fact all I did was use the [Full Restore] (from Pokémon) you had just received. As you stated you didn't care about the method, I chose the safest and most effective.] Uriel explained.

'Thanks anyways' he said.

'Oh ya I heard a lot of notifications, show me my rewards and what they do.' Izumi said after regaining his bearings.

[Understood, displaying unlocked [World Mission] first…]

_____________________________________________

[World Mission: [Knight in Shining Armor III]

Info: the last of the [Knight in Shining Armor] mission series.

Requirements:

??? (0/1)

Rewards:

[???]

_____________________________________________

'There's no information?' Izumi wondered.

[No information is provided.] Uriel confirmed.

'Than how am I supposed to complete it!?' Izumi asked in an annoyed tone.

[You will eventually, these missions are not designed to be impossible.] Uriel started trying to reassure Izumi.

'Whatever, show me the rest.'

[Understood…displaying mission rewards…]

_____________________________________________

[Tione and Tiona love +5]

[Gacha Ticket x5]

[Subspace] (unlocked)

New system feature, a catalog of subspaces that are conjoined in the host's personal dimension. Only the host and items related to the host can enter it and time inside is a hundred times faster inside.

Note* requires two minutes to enter subspace.

Note* not evolvable, [Subspace]s must be earned either through the [Gacha] or [Missions]

[Subspace (type: smithy)]

A smithy has been added into your [Subspace].

Infinite 100% purity [Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand] and [Scarlet Ore].

[Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand] (infinite) and [Scarlet Ore] (infinite) have been added to inventory.

Title [Noble Knight] has been upgraded to [Lesser Hero]

[Lesser Hero]

A precursor to the Hero title.

Perks:

[Aura of Nobility (D+)] (togglable)

[Aura of Hero (D-)] (togglable)

Creates an aura around you that makes you seem more trustworthy and honorable. Makes actions you take seem less suspicious.

[Nameless Hero]

A hero without a legend. Gives slight boost when creating a new passage in your epic as well as giving a boost when protecting someone. People with good alignment will have a slightly better opinion of you during their first impression.

[Full Restore] (Used)

A healing item from Pokémon, that restores a person to their maximum health and curse all status effects including confusion, charm, and poisons under C grade.

_____________________________________________

Looking through the notifications and smiled slightly, today was a good harvest. Beginning his walk back home he noticed something in place of where the gray serpent wolf was. Picking up a sharp gray fang and a large magic stone with a pulsating crimson color, Izumi realizing it was the monster's drop, asked Uriel to appraise it by putting it in his inventory.

[Silver Serpent Wolf Fang (E-)] x1

[Mutated Magic Stone (E-)] x1

Seeing their rank Izumi bagged them and walked home.

'God, I'm never using poison again.' he inwardly swore, still feeling the phantom pains caused by being infected by his own poison.

…

As days went by Izumi continued to do his [Daily Missions] slowly becoming more and more powerful. Now he stood at the level of a high level two but he felt restricted as his growth slowed down. Asking Uriel about it he found out why.

[Since you are in Danmachi world your growth is being stunted due to this world requiring a falna to grow. Once you receive one you will be able to grow faster, however if you don't train your base you won't be nearly as strong as you could be.] Uriel explained.

'But will it even matter after leveling up?' Izumi asked.

[Yes, the power up from leveling up is entirely dependent on your base and status. That's why someone like Bell was stronger due to his high stats and someone like Otter was stronger due to his base body and stats.] Uriel explained.

'So it's kinda like getting a falna is also a level up of your base body?' Izumi questioned.

[Yes, in a way your body before receiving a falna is at level 0 and has its own stats, but the fruit of those stats skip the first level and increase your strength at level 2.] Uriel clarified.

With that Izumi went back to training as he anticipated the fast approaching end of his 2 years training plan.

On another note Izumi had also trained with his [Templates] thanks to the [Subspace ] smithy, [Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand] and [Scarlet Ore] he had made great headway with [Hotaru Haganezaka]'s template, even unlocking [Total Concentration Breathing].

Making many swords he had developed a knack for blacksmithing, he had forged many Nichirin swords and discovered a new found urge of breaking the heads of people who break his swords. This was also the reason Izumi never sold any of the swords he made, however giving them as gifts to close ones was a different story. An example of this was when Tione and Tione saw his blades and wanted one for themselves. Izumi, having the template of a black smith known for his innovation, was not limited to katanas and made many different blades. Making a custom sword for him was an easy matter and he put great effort in making them.

For Tione a pair of Kukri knives to replace her old ones, which took on a pale brown color when she touched it which matched her skin.

Tiona received a custom trench knife, it had a hexagonal pattern at the ends of the brass knuckle like handle with a slightly curved eastern short sword at the end of it. When she put it on with a reverse grip it turned an indigo-gray color which she rather liked, Izumi who saw it however smirked as he understood what that color implied.

The last weapon Izumi had gifted was to the god Ullr was a simple western hunting knife, surprisingly when Ullr touched the knife it turned into a nearly pure white color with a hint of pale blue. However when Ullr saw it he was flabbergasted at the transformation and pestered Izumi for how it changed colors, though he stopped when he saw Izumi was uncomfortable answering. Instead he thanked Izumi and said the blade reminded him of the snow, promising to use it in his next hunt.

Of course Izumi made himself a sword, a katana to be specific, with a black handle and a silver handle modeled after the handle of Ghislaine's [Hiramune], all in all the sword was pretty beautiful but Izumi was most excited about seeing the color his Nichirin would take. Grabbing a hold of the handle he was flabbergasted as the sword's blade side took on an illuminance cosmic pattern. If one looked closer they would see some nebula and a wide assortment of stars jotted around, even more surprising, the katana's Ha (edge) illuminated with an ethereal bright blue glow.

As Izumi moved the blade the cosmic pattern seemed to move as well. Its color shifts from a deep purple to an ethereal blue as it approaches the Kissaki (point). Troubled at the attention the blade would bring, due to its sheer beauty, Izumi quickly made a pure black Saya (scabbard or sheath) with a small white star emblem.

Not without naming it first, etched onto the base of the blade was [星の海] (Hoshi no Umi).

Izumi also prepared another katana, this time a normal one instead of a Nichirin sword, it had a pure silver color and black handle and guard. Izumi named this blade [叩き棒] (Tataki bō.), It wasn't nearly as good as [Hoshi no Umi] but it was still a good blade.

Izumi had already unlocked 85% of [Hotaru Haganezaka] but was having trouble with [Ghislaine Dedoldia] template. No matter how much he practiced or how much he hunted the template wouldn't increase past 3% over the months he'd dedicated to practicing.

Izumi had made quite a bit of progress in this year, one of his endeavors in particular was planting a world tree. It was already approximately 2~3 meters tall and was kept in a potted plant, Izumi had discovered that he could keep it in a pot and than store it in his [Inventory], the only downside to this however is that inside his [Inventory] the tree does not grow, because of this the one [World Tree Fruit] growing on it was growing a lot slower. To remedy this Izumi would keep it out during the day and while he slept but would put it away when he went to train or hunt. Troubled with this he asked Uriel for advice.

[If you complete more [World Missions] you may receive a room in your [SubSpace] that may house it. However, the [World Tree] grown will use the Danmachi world time cycle rather than the [Subspace] time cycle for its development period. Meaning, even if it's inside the [Subspace] it will grow 1 fruit after a year in Danmachi and even if you stay inside the [Subspace] for 100 years only 1 fruit will grow.] Uriel diligently explained.

Izumi, hearing Uriel's explanation, thought it would still be a better idea to leave it inside a [Subspace] room.

And so Izumi continued his days, diligently training and waiting for the end of his 2 year training period.