Chapter 45: A New Way to Cheat the System

(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 6/January/2024 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

[Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names]

(PoV)

(Flashback)

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

(Line Break)

(Day 13, after morning training, before Ais's arrival) (Norman's PoV) 

"This wasn't... as hard as yesterday..." Meteria was out of breath after today's morning run. 

Today, we saw Meteria's true potential. She couldn't even finish the 3rd lap before running out of fumes. 

A mother's truly a broken existence. I only told her that we'd win against Bell, barring him his wish. And then told her that by winning, she'd be helping him. That was enough to trigger the skill, allowing her to complete 10 laps without breaking a sweat. I know I said it already, but a mother's truly a broken existence. 

I'm suspecting that she may as well have a skill just for that. 

"I don't... regret this..." Welf was also wheezing for air. He completed the 7th lap. He wasn't running efficiently, but his stats compensated for it. 

Henryk and I went to his workshop to pick him up. On our way here, Welf pointed out that we were forceful yesterday. We were given the chance to remain friends with him after apologizing and promising not to repeat it. 

(Before sunrise) (3rd person PoV) 

Henryk and Welf were walking to the walls, where the rest were waiting. Henryk invited Welf to their training, with the intention of raising his muscle mass to a more acceptable level. Welf accepted the training as long as it didn't obstruct his job as a blacksmith. 

"Henryk, can we talk about what you and Norman did yesterday?" Welf asked him. 

Welf was thinking about what Henryk and Norman did yesterday. Although it helped, it was too forceful. He was made to say things not when he was intending on saying them. At the time, he was riding the flow, the elation he felt about telling Hephaestus what he felt, removing a heavy load off of his chest. It veiled the forcefulness of their actions. 

"Which one?" They did many things the day before. Henryk wondered which one. Although, his mind drifted to two things specifically. Taking Welf to Hephaestus in that embarrassing way and forcing him to say that he has feelings for her. 

"Although I want to talk about both carrying me like a log and forcing me to confess my feelings, I will focus on the latter for now. 

What you did made me think like you trivialized the process of confessing one's feelings. And also think of the fact you forced me to do it. 

Now, don't take it the wrong way. I appreciate your good intentions, but you could have gone at it without robbing me of the ability to choose for myself, if I'm okay with saying it at that moment or not" Welf wanted to give them another chance. They meant good but did wrong. Maybe if they corrected that, he would have a better friendship with them. 

"The longer you take to confess and ask her out, the harder it gets to do so. That gets even harder once you already tried to gather your courage then backed down. The first time you back down, it creates a situation where you could decide to back down again. The more you back down, you'll eventually, after many, many years, reach a stage where you may feel like you aren't worthy of being with her. 

Knowing you, the likelihood of that happening was low. But that in itself could be a problem. I didn't want you to even have the possibility to reach that stage. 

But, since you already said to her that you have feelings for her, it'll feel a little easier once you have the confidence and are ready to ask her out. 

Lastly, let me apologize. I'm sorry to have forced you. I won't force things upon you again" Henryk apologized. In truth, he was not here to ask Welf to join them in their training, not entirely. That was his way of having an excuse to meet Welf and apologize for what he and Norman had done the day prior. 

"I forgive you! Just don't be forceful again, bro!" Welf smiled as he playfully slapped Henryk's shoulder. He appreciated that Henryk apologized and promised not to be forceful again. He gave them another chance. 

"Thanks, Welfie. I really don't want to lose our current friendship" Henryk got a serious slap this time. Welf did not like that nickname. 

"Thanks, bro. Truly" Henryk thanked Welf again. 

"Forget it" Welf brushed the nickname thing aside. 

'Have I been forgotten?' Norman remained silent for the whole conversation between Welf and Henryk. And when neither of them asked him if he was sorry or not, he felt like he was treated no different from air. 

"What a good friend, forgetting your other friend when he's in front of you" Norman sarcastically commented. 

"We're basically the same person. If I apologized, it means you apologized too" Henryk blankly said. 

"Well, that works for me, since I'm also apologizing for it" Norman apologized regardless. He did not want what Henryk just said to be true. 

"Like Henryk said. I had forgiven the both of you by him apologizing. You don't have to apologize, Norman" Welf said. 

(End of flashback) 

Lili refused to attend the training itself. She preferred to train the use of her magic. And so, she agreed to the suggestion of training her magic while Fey rested on her shoulder to help her recover mind faster. 

It seems like Fey's skills're taking effect on Lili. She's totally fine getting a monster on her shoulder. 

"Is this how your training goes?" Hestia was sweat-dropping while looking at us with a wry smile. 

Now that I take a closer look, her twintails don't have that flower-like accessory she had in the show. Henryk, you ruined more than one thing. You just had to interfere and ruin one of the marks of Hestia's cuteness. Not that she could be seen as cute anymore, with that height. She's a beauty out of the bounds of cuteness now. 

By the way, Bell was sprawled on the ground. He laid there silently. He finished the fourth lap today, just barely. I'm sure he's happy with the result, as I can see his smile. 

A thing Blanc took notice of was that Fey's skill didn't heal the damage done to the muscles directly. It sapped the body's reserve of nutrients to do that. He noticed it after we got hungry yesterday, after training. He confirmed it today and recorded it in his 'Experiments & Observations' files. 

Moving from that, I want to go to minecraft's world and make sure of things. Maybe we could use it to cheat our stats? Maxing them out as soon as possible's an absolute must. Time-flow difference could work in our favor, too. We gain proper experience, not just pure stats with no substance behind them. And at the same time, we achieve it faster if we spend time in minecraft, where a day there equals a mere 20 minutes here. 

"Norman-" 

"Henryk-" 

It's happening again. 

"We're thinking of the same thing again, right?" 

"We're thinking of the same thing again, right?" 

We're on the same wavelength. 

"Using [Antithesis] on [Revival of the Dead], we can possibly one-shot the ender dragon! That'll give us access to everything that world's gotta offer! It'd be the perfect grindset!" We had one voice saying that. We high-fived with what the others'd see as the most sinister of our smiles. 

"What made the two of you so excited? And what is that grindset thing?" Hestia looked troubled. She had no idea what any of that meant, and it made her wary of the 'consequences' that'll follow. And I still don't get why she wanted to observe our training. 

"Let me explain something. So, we want to use Norman's reversed skill to kill something, if possible, and gain access to the best training grounds. Although, we'd need to check Norman's reversed skill and the differences between our knowledge of that training ground and the reality of it" Henryk didn't explain anything about minecraft's dimensions to them. 

"Little bro, what do you say about that? Can I and Norman possibly disappear for what may take from a few minutes to a few days?" Good choice of words there, Henryk. You never know how bad the time-flow difference is. 

"What benefits does that have to the familia?" Bell asked us. He asked the two of us, not just Henryk. 

"Well, that depends on the result of our check-up. We need to know if there are any differences that we need to be wary of first. Once we're back, we'll tell you what we know" Henryk gave him a vague answer. 

"Then make sure to return as soon as possible. And don't forget to give instructions to your children" Bell reminded Henryk of something he forgot. 

"So, gather magic stones from water city today too. Some of you still reside in level 2 or 3. Once you get enough for them, split up into smaller groups and hunt on the same floor. Just keep in mind that you can't be sure to always be in a large group. The act of splitting into smaller groups will help you get ready for such situations" Henryk advised his children on what to do and we were ready to start our preparations. 

"[Your existence is already in shambles. You are rejecting yourself. You want to become something that defies your values. Change to your opposite] [Antithesis]" We ignored Hestia as I chanted my spell. I cringed at the edgy lines and felt the drain on my mind reserves. I may only be able to perform this spell once with what I've now. It took around 3/5 of my reserves to do this once. 

Hestia updated my status and gave me the paper while we were away from the others for secrecy. They'd not see the paper's contents from this far. 

(Line Break) 

Name: Norman Arden 

Familia: Hestia Familia 

Level: 1 

STR: I0 --> I46 

END: I0 --> I74 (Henryk's knuckles hurt. Don't try receiving them head-on. You have been warned) 

DEX: I0 --> I45 

AGI: I0 --> I29 

MAG: I0 --> I13 

Magic: 

Antithetic: 

This magic will influence a magic/skill and make it do its opposite or something completely different to what it originally was. Using this spell on an already affected skill/spell will return it to its original state. The consent of the magic/skill's owner is required. This spell could not be applied to itself. 

Skills: 

Bane of the Living (Reversed): 

A single target could be killed with no consequences. 

Each rank up adds the next level's number to the number of times this skill can be used. ('1) 

As this skill is a reverse skill, its use counter is stored within the original skill in a separate counter to the revives. 

Reversing the skill repeatedly does not refresh the uses. ('2) 

(Line Break) 

"Why am I not even surprised?" Hestia wasn't capable of receiving shocks from us anymore. I like that. 

"Henryk, it's exactly what we wanted" I wave the paper for him to see. 

After taking a look at it, he had an expression saying he had treasures awaiting him. 

"We'll be gone for a while. See ya!" Henryk waved his hand for them as we were whisked away by the Horrors. 

(In the end dimension) 

"Things really look blocky here, don't they?" I commented on how the experience looks much like VR. Although disappointing, I'm thankful that we still have our non-blocky bodies. 

"RRROOOAAAAARRR!!!" Jean hated the sight of us, like it usually does with anyone that isn't an enderman. 

I target it with the skill, and it just goes into light show mode. 

"That was... too easy..." I'm even more disappointed now. 

"What did you expect? A legendary battle? You were the panda here, buddy" Henryk made a reference no one from Danmachi would understand. 

"I wanted some resistance at least. This feels beyond bullying, man" I said. I really wanted a legendary battle. 

At least, Jean dropped a ton of experience. I want to see if this experience could be converted to excellia later. This could be revolutionary. 

"Jennifer, teleport back and tell the others to come. Contacting them through the dimensions using my skill didn't work" Henryk told Jennifer. 

So, you're telling me that the skill only works within the same world? Well, at least it works. 

Jennifer flashed out of existence, and then flashed into existence with 19 others. With Jennifer and Jeffery, they make 21 Horrors. Aude came with them, it seems. I knew which one he was because he still wore that bluish-purple scarf. 

"Let's jump in the end portal. We need to go to the overworld and take a look" Henryk jumped in the portal as it opened. 

"After you" Jennifer offered me to go first. 

"Ladies first" She gave a small giggle and went ahead, accompanied by who I assumed to be the other girls. 

You can't really blame me. They all went together. 

"Endless grind! Here I come!" I shout, irritating an enderman. It pushed me into the portal. 

I swear! I'll find you! And I'll kill you! 

(In the overworld, (X = 0, Y = 64, Z = 0)) 

"What took you so long?" Henryk was standing there with his arms folded. 

"I know you're joking" I said as I dusted myself after my not-so-graceful faceplant. 

We were standing in what's probably the middle of a plain plains biome. It was in the middle of the morning, and the sun wasn't running a marathon right now. I may get addicted to the feeling of looking at the sun without my eyes melting in pure agony. 

"MAAH~" I was headbutted by a sheep. It had the audacity to do that just to eat that specific grass block I was standing on. 

"You'll be my lunch today" That sheep never saw the sun again. 

"It disappeared the same way they do within the game, huh?" I look at the floating lamb chops. They're also stacked the same way as the game does it, rotating together while hovering in place. 

"Let's test how we may access the inventory system" Henryk said as he saw the items get sucked into me. 

"Simple. You just know that you've an item and can summon it to your hands" I say as something in my head kept reminding me of what I have. 

"So, the inventory's a mental ability now. What about crafting?" Henryk said as he went up to a tree and punched it. The log he punched did fall over, but the price was him getting hurt. 

"Norman, I think I have more than 10 hearts. That info just came to me when I thought of how much health I have remaining. My hunger's still a 10, though. We'll see if hunger mechanics were still the same as well later" That was another thing solved. 

We went on to confirm many things next. What we came to was that nothing much changed from the game, except that we probably have the health and damage of boss monsters like Jean and the wither. 

Sadly, it was daytime. We didn't encounter any rotten zombies or sniper skeletons. 

Crafting, smelting, cooking, breaking and placing blocks, among many things, all were the same. 

We made a speed-runner's nether portal and lit it. It was surprising how the lava buckets didn't feel hot, or cold for that matter. Now that I think about it, I don't feel the effects of the elements on my body. Whether doesn't feel like either of the two extremities. 

When we went through the portal, we saw a nether wastes biome on the other side. The nether was also more or less the same as the game, from what Jennifer told us after a quick trip of rapid teleportation with the others. 

We made a portal a bit of a distance away, nearly 800 blocks away. 

Anyway, the portals were tested, and the overworld-nether distance conversion was the same. It was 8 blocks in the nether for 1 block in the overworld. 

We saw Steve in the distance, but we kept our distance for now. He was too focused to notice us. Surprisingly, Steve looked like a normal human, not a collection of cubes and cuboids like many other creatures. 

I saw the shadow of a woman following him from a distance. Once I focused, I saw Alex. Now, I'm sure Alex's a woman because she has a respectable pair. 

Both Steve and Alex were muscular and sported many slash and puncture scars. Their muscles and scars were the natural outcome of a minecraftean life. ('3) 

Sadly, Steve didn't have his trademark beard. He wrapped some bandages around his forearms. He held a diamond sword in his right hand and a shield in his left. He was wearing a diamond chest piece and iron armor for the rest of them. 

Alex had some light freckles on her face. She was holding an enchanted bow in her left hand. The armor she was wearing was solely made of reinforced leather. It was a light option for an archer to remain light on their feet. It seems she has some experience. 

That reinforced leather also meant that this world has items that didn't exist in vanilla minecraft. What else was different? 

Both of their armors were enchanted. But how good of an enchantment theirs had, I didn't know. 

"Henryk, do you think making contact's a good idea?" If it were me alone, I'd have gone there and started talking. 

"Maybe not. Let's observe them for now" Henryk most likely wanted to see if things are the way they were in the game without making contact. 

We followed them for a few hours. We saw them enter a cave. We waited at the entrance. 

After an hour, we found Alex rushing out of the cave with a horde of running zombies. Yes, running zombies. They weren't the slow zombies I thought we'd be dealing with. They were fast as well, with Alex being barely faster than them. She was carrying Steve's diamond armor and running away. 

"I think we should go in now. All of you, hide in the shadows" Henryk didn't want to stay still when he could help someone right in front of him. 

Alex saw us jumping at the zombies, killing them with relative ease. She stopped and gritted her teeth. 

"I'll snipe them from here!" She used her bow to headshot any zombie that showed an opening. 

With them being as weak as goblins, it was easy to deal with the 34 of them. When they died, they left us the occasional rotten flesh. 

For the few of them who walked under the sun, they burned. They didn't writhe in pain nor stagger as they burned. If anything, that made them even more desperate for human flesh. I assume skeletons also burn under the sun. 

"Thank you for helping me. I'm Alex" Alex came closer and gave her hand for a handshake. 

"I'm Henryk Williams" Henryk shook her hand as if it was a business matter. He treated it like that. 

"And I'm Norman Arden" It was my turn next. 

"What about the guy who entered with you? That's his armor, right?" Henryk asked her with his hand gripping the handle of his mace tighter. His expression gave her enough warning to hurry and say what happened to Steve. 

"He'll be back home by now, on his bed" Alex hurriedly said that, revealing that beds work as intended. 

We eased into a more casual conversation after that. A creeper snuck up behind Alex, but Henryk kicked it in the face, knocking it unconscious. He had a very disturbing expression on his face. 

What? No, it wasn't his face that disturbed me. It was because he wanted to tame the damned creeper, a mutated creeper to be more accurate. I had to kill it before he took out a magic stone from thin air to feed it to the thing. 

Another thing we discovered with that is that being knocked unconscious is a thing in this world. Unlike minecraft, monsters could be sleeping at times. Well, anything beside the undead mobs. They don't need rest or sleep. 

"ALEX!" Steve came back to the scene, worried about Alex. He dived at her for a hug, frantically checking her for any possible injuries. 

"Stop that!" Alex bashfully pushed him away. 

Steve looked like a hurt puppy, but he accepted, giving her some space for now. 

"Don't mind him. He worries about me greatly, as we previously thought that we were the only humans alive in this world. He became clingier after we discovered how to cure a zombified villager and it didn't work on normal zombies" Alex told us a very unsettling thing there. 

"But you're here. That proves that, maybe, there're other people we can move to live with" Steve regained the serious face we saw before they entered the cave. 

"I can assure you. If you couldn't find people before us, then it might be impossible for a long time. Maybe you'll be able to after scouring the vast infinity of this world's horizons" Henryk said, shattering their dream of living among a community. 

Steve and Alex looked at each other, dejected at their hopes being disproven in a moment's notice. 

"Haah. We knew that it might be hard, but for the world to be infinitely expanding... That truly lowers the chances we had of meeting anyone else. We were truly lucky to have met each other early on" Steve thanked their good luck. 

"It might be insensitive of me, but can we ask a few questions before we leave this world?" Henryk asked them, hiding the pity he felt for the two of them. The sight of these two together, being the only ones in each other's company, reminded him of how he felt when I was the only one in his life for years. 

"What do you mean? Can't you stay here? Or what do you say about us moving in with the two of you? We don't want to be alone anymore" Alex asked us desperately. They were starving for human contact. 

"You can show yourself, all 21 of you" Oh, no. Henryk did the unthinkable. Calling Jennifer in may as well stop their hearts. 

When the Horrors appeared in front of them, they closed their eyes and stayed silent. 

"We don't mind you looking into our eyes" 20 of them talked at once, shocking them further. 

The only one who didn't talk was Aude. Guess years of staying silent made him 

"How?" Steve asked with his shaking voice. 

"Not a single one of your kind said a word" Alex said in disbelief. 

"Well, we come from a different world. And this child here's from that world we come from. She isn't an enderman" Henryk gave them some context. 

"You mean a thing like the world beyond glass? That burning hell?" Oh! They reached the nether? 

"Not quite. The world beyond glass as you call it, the nether dimension, is still within the bounds of this world. We come from a place far beyond simple portals. The only way to cross between our world and yours is their ability to teleport" Henryk was amused about them calling the nether a burning hell. It was a good representation of it, even though it wasn't the place's real name. 

We talked over things calmly after that. They expressed their desire to leave this world if possible. They wanted to meet other people. 

Henryk said that he'd allow that on the condition that they answer our question about the world, what they know about it at least. From that, we knew that the world was mostly the same. 

One of the differences was that mobs didn't move around like slobs. They ran you down and munched on your flesh before you could assert the situation. 

Creepers can sneak around, perfectly stealthily. 

Endermen can randomly try to play pranks on you, deadly ones at times. Steve was pushed off of a cliff once. Many other times, they were kicked into a body of water. 

Iron golems could do more things than just slamming their massive arms at you. It can hold you and crush you in its grip. It did that to zombies before. They say they saw it when they were on a visit to a village. 

Spiders climb walls sideways, instead of how the game portrayed it. 

Zombies focus on biting. 

Skeletons're accurate MFs. 

Since they always slept on time, they didn't know phantoms even existed. 

Illagers were too strong for them. They escaped with their items, lest the illagers loot them off the ground. 

They avoided ocean monuments, witch houses, dungeons, the deep dark and any place that looked like trouble, really. They looked like real humans there, maybe because they are. They were still scared of death, even while knowing it's not permanent. 

We really are a weird pair, me and Henryk. We don't have any instinctive fear of death, and I know that's not how natural human instinct works. 

Steve and Alex didn't venture to the nether after seeing its exaggerated hellscape. 

Their fear of the unknown also explains why they didn't reach the end for so long. 

How long? According to them, they've existed since a few years ago. It scares me for some reason. 

As for the impossibility of curing the zombie villagers without venturing to the nether or capturing a witch, it was solved when they said something very interesting. Villagers sell potions in this world. 

From the way they described them, villagers dealt in everything their workstation suggested. 

Clerics sold nether wart and soul sand. They also sold blaze powder and ender pearls. Even ready-made potions were an option. 

Librarians didn't magically have enchanted books. There's a way for them to have the books enchanted. 

The ones enchanting everything in the villages were enchanters, using their enchanting tables. They could understand the cryptic enchanting glyphs and form the enchantments they want on a piece of equipment or a book. 

Blacksmiths sell many new things like shields and the like. They also sell ingots of several minerals to those willing to buy. 

Lava could be sold by a villager manning the lava farm. FUCKIN' VILLAGERS KNOW HOW TO DUPLICATE LAVA! 

There were also those villagers who raise cattle, raising herding dogs with them. 

There were miners, those who sold raw materials and, alongside blacksmiths, dealt in mining gear like pickaxes and shovels. 

There were lumberjacks, providing wood for the community's houses. They man the farms for many different types of wood, depending on which biome the village is in. 

There were architects, planning and building walls around the village while also doing their job of designing the village's houses. 

The iron golems they built, being many more than normal, were also being reinforced with enchants and other metals where appropriate. Some were even shrunk to allow them to accompany miners down in the caves. 

Hell! There were golem smiths in some villages, even! 

There were all sorts of crazy changes from the stingy villagers in normal minecraft. And the craziest among the changes: Villagers are willing to bargain their trade prices. 

We were left with our mouths agape from how self-sufficient villagers were. 

The only thing that didn't change about villagers was that they hated to fight themselves. They left the fighting to the golems. 

The thing about the reinforced leather was that it wasn't crafted using the conventional method of a crafting table. You can craft things however you want them to be, but only if you're experienced enough with the materials and manufacturing methods. 

You can also opt for the inferior versions of the items, using the vanilla minecraft recipe, if you can't afford to trade the superior versions with the villagers. 

"That was a bountiful conversation. But we must go back now. We'll return to this world often. Can you show us a place you frequent? We can have the others teleport us there whenever" Take that, Henryk. It's not always you talking to others. I've my moments too. 

"When are we going to your world?" Alex impatiently asked. 

"We'll take you there after a day or two pass on the other side. If what we theorize is true, then that'd possibly be approximately between 2 months and a half and up to 5 months. We need to talk to our goddess, if she'll allow you to be in our family-like faction. If not, we'll teleport you outside the city we live in so you can enter more normally, since you wouldn't have and form of identification if you didn't belong to a group or were a citizen already" Henryk kept it to a level that could be understood without context. 

"Is that really how short we need to wait? If that's the only thing, then we're willing to wait" Steve and Alex leaned on each other in relief as we were whisked away to the lower world of Danmachi. 

(End of Chapter)

'1:

Every time he levels up the number of times he could instakill something or someone increase by a certain number. That number is decided by which level he grows to.

e.g. He is now at level 1 with 1 use. He levels up to level 2, the uses increase by 2, becoming 3 uses. Once he becomes level 3, the uses increase by 3, becoming 6 uses. It goes like that. By level 10, he would have had 55 total instakills. He doesn't get any more of them after.

'2:

Norman's magic makes the other side of the skill manifest. Since it is still the same skill but reversed, the uses are not affected by which side of the skill is active at the time. When it is time to refresh, they will refresh. When he switch between them, nothing happens aside form showing the other side. If used, the other side shows as such.

'3:

For their models, I found the best thing to represent my image of them. Sadly, it was by a person who does not want their stuff reposted. Go see Steve and Alex by San, on twitter.

(Line Break)

Have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen.