Level 2

Deciding to call it a day, Alex teleported in the middle of the road just a couple of distance away from Babel.

People were surprised with the sudden crimson flash and the appearance of a boy with it. The moment they saw him, they felt a suppressive wave pass through them. 

As Alex had just fought against a Juggernaut, his fighting intent was still leaking out from his body. Weaker civilians even had hallucinations that the boy was the grim reaper himself come to collect their souls, which resulted in some of them passing out on the spot.

Unfortunately, as Alex appeared out of nowhere, he was unable to prevent himself from colliding with the body of a person that had just walked by the entrance of the alleyway. At the last moment, he tried to shift his weight to avoid a direct collision and ended up losing his balance after bumping into the unsuspecting passerby and slamming into the ground.

He sat on the ground in a daze, unable to recover from the near head-on-collision. From an area behind him, he could hear the sound of a woman addressing him.

"Hey kid, are you okay?"

After shaking his head a bit, Alex looked towards the source of the voice. He fell into a daze after seeing who had been speaking to him

She stood at 165cm with matching red hair and eye. She was garbed in casual attire, wearing a loose linen blouse and black pants which seemed to hug her figure. On her arms and legs were a pair of brown knee-high boots and black gloves that went past her elbows. Her most striking features were her large breasts that peaked through the open collar of her blouse, and the large black eye-patch covering the right half of her face.

It was Hephaestus, Master Smith and Goddess of the 3rd ranked Hephaestus Familia.

While he was staring at her, Hephaestus was also evaluating the boy that had nearly crashed into her. He seemed rather young but had a handsome face. What caught her eye, and the reason she hadn't simply walked away, was the aura being emitted by the boy and the short sword that was on his side.

His aura was remarkably similar to that of a dragon releasing their overwhelming presence, albeit on a much smaller scale. It seemed to have a suppressive force that even made her soul tremble slightly. However her main interest was the sword at his side.

As a goddess of forging, she had seen and practiced almost every technique between the heavens and earth. This was the first time she saw such a uniquely forged blade, and the most surprising thing was the materials used in its construction. Given her eye's unique ability, she could easily discern between the grade and constituent materials used to forge a blade. Though it seemed similar to a magical composite of iron and heavier elements, she couldn't see through the make-up of the blade.

"Hey kid, if you're not in a hurry I'd like to take a look at that sword. You can treat it as my accepting your apology for nearly tackling me. What do you say?" She really wanted to get a better look at the sword, so tried to come up with an easy compromise that wouldn't harm either party.

Hearing her speak, Alex quickly got to his feet before bowing. "I am very sorry for nearly bumping into you, but I'm in a hurry right now so I can't stick around."

Instead of following his initial plan to walk his way to the guild to relax his tensed nerves because of the recent battle, Alex decided to simply teleport at the guild.

Saying those words, Alex instantly disappeared in front of Hephaestus only leaving a crimson flash. Hephaestus was greatly surprised with his sudden disappearance. She didn't know what to say as the boy with crimson hair and eyes with vertical pupils suddenly disappeared.

The people in the surroundings were also the same. Alex was unaware of the rumors he would cause to circulate in the following days.

Arriving at the guild, Alex immediately appeared at the counter which greatly surprised the people of the guild. The entire guild was silent for a moment but Alex ignored them as he made his way to the counter where his advisor Rose were located.

He saw that Eina was beside Rose and a human girl that has pink hair and pink eyes. Just like the other people, the three of them were filled with silence as they were also surprised by him.

"I can't get used to this."

Rose muttered as she tried to calm down. As this wasn't her first time seeing Alex who appeared and disappeared instantly, she was quick to recover.

Her gaze was then fixed at Alex looking at his appearance. With a stern voice, she glared at Alex and said coldly.

"Why did you look like this?"

Hearing Rose's tone, Eina and the pink haired girl also recovered as they also wondered. Alex's attire was tuttered to the extreme. There was a hole in the chest part as if he was pierced in the heart.

The long sleeve in his right arm was now gone as if his arm was severed or it was cut by something sharp. The clothing of his pants were also the same as the right leg was missing.

There also scratches and teared parts in the entire attire of Alex. As Alex was about to find the appropriate words to explain, a familiar figure stood in front of Eina.

Even though Eina wanted to listen in their conversation, she chose to talk to the adventurer in front of her with a genuine smile.

"Bell-kun, has something good happened to you?"

"You could tell?"

Bell replied with surprise.

"I think anyone could, just from your expression. What happened?"

Eina replied with a smile while crossing her arms below her chest.

Scratching his head, Bell replied

"Well, when my status updated..."

As Bell was explaining, a tall adult male who has short, spiky red hair and dark blue eyes. Talking towards the pink haired girl about wanting a party. As he was quite loud, Alex heard him clearly.

He wears a blue scarf around his neck. His attire consists of a dark blue long-sleeve shirt underneath a black kimono with a brown belt tied around his waist along with tanned white pants and long brown boots.

Unlike Alex who was observing his surroundings, Rose intently stared at him who was being distracted. However before a word could left her mouth, Eina's loud voice filled with surprise caught their attention.

"Ehh! Level 2 in a month and a half?"

Contrary to her surprise, Bell simply smiled as he was also very glad of becoming a level 2. Everyone in the guild was surprised. Even more surprised than the crimson flash earlier.

As the news was very shocking, Alex tried to find a way to distract himself. Knowing that only him could see the system, Alex opened it and tried to fuse some of his skills as the cooldown of his Fusion skill is over.

[Skill 'Intermediate Sword Mastery (E)' and skill 'Intermediate Dagger Mastery (E)' fusion failed.]

"A failure huh."

Alex was then reminded that fusing his skills had only 10% of being successful but thankfully, he didn't lose any skill even it failed.

With a dejected expression unlike Bell who was smiling, Alex exchanged all of his loots that he obtained, taking advantage that Rose had forgotten what she was about to say because of the sudden level up of the white haired adventurer in a short amount of time.

As she a little absentminded hearing it, she couldn't focus on anything as she began to mechanically count the total amount that Alex could have. 30 minutes had already passed but with the sheer amount of Alex's loot, Rose wasn't finished counting yet.

As the cooldown of the Fusion was already over, Alex eagerly tried again as he tried to focus on his business even he was still shaken about Bell's fast growth.

'I have fought and won against a Juggernaut. Maybe I could level up today too?'

With that thought in his mind, notifications appeared.

[Skill 'Intermediate Sword Mastery (E)' and skill 'Intermediate Dagger Mastery (E)' are fused.]

[Fusion successful!]

[You have obtained 'Intermediate Blade Mastery (D)'!]

[Intermediate Blade Mastery Lv.1]

Rating: Uncommon

[Allows the user to freely handle all types of blades. Increases damage dealt by blade type weapons by 30%.

Type: Passive

Skill Proficiency: 0%

Cooldown Time: None.]

Just as Alex saw that he succeeded, Rose had finished. After calculating for a couple of second, she then placed several bag full of coins in the counter.

"Here. That's a total of 5,120,500 valis."

"Thank you very much Miss Rose."

Alex replied with a smile as he then stretched out his hand to grab his hard earned money with shining eyes thinking he was now rich. However before he could grab the bags full of coins, Rose's soft hands gripped his arm.

"The drops came from the 7th to the 10th floor. Kindly explain this, newbie adventurer."

With veins appearing in his forehead, Rose wanted a proper explanation why an adventurer who was only 2 weeks since he had become one, had stepped foot in those floors.

Seeing that she had remembered of scolding him, sweat started to appear and Alex could feel a cold chill in his back. He cursed in his mind why his advisor had to scold him when his happiness was soaring high when seeing his money.

Just like that, disregarding the shocking news earlier, the spartan style of scolding Alex while forcing him to read some books began.

In the corner of the guild, Alex who was now mentally exhausted after being forced by Rose opened the shop function. Even his mind was exhausted, the Fusion skill didn't left his mind.

Now that he had more than 5 million points, Alex thought that what if he combined two skills from the shop. He reached at the portion where the items were at epic rating and was priced at more than 2 million.

After browsing for a while, Alex found two items that interested him.

[Broken Sky Sword Manual]

[Price: 2,000,000 Points.]

[Elemental Sword Technique]

[Price: 2,250,000 Points.]

Despite seeing the expensive prices, Alex decided to buy the skills. As he didn't lack the magical aspect, Alex decided to improve his swordsmanship even he could focus on his current fighting style.

Buying the skills, without delay, Alex immediately fused the two skills.

[Skill "Broken Sky Sword Manual (B)' and skill 'Elemental Sword Technique (B)' are fused.]

[Fusion successful!]

[You have obtained 'Stellar Pilgrim (A)'.]

[Stellar Pilgrim Lv.1]

Rating: Hero

[* A swordsmanship that was created after the creator obtained an enlightenment and aspiration from the movements of the stars in the night sky for a long period.

* You can become one with the sword at any time. Increases physical attack by 20% and critical hit rate by 10%.

* This effect is only applied when a sword type weapon is equipped.]