68 DanMachi 38
Time was a finicky thing, and as a well-known philosopher once described it: 'Time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.', and I had to agree with him.
As soon as [Time Affinity] got unlocked, the world around me shifted, and without the system granting instinctual knowledge about the skill, I wouldn't understand anything. I felt like I was in a bubble, a bubble matching in size the amount of Intelligence I had. While in my Renard form, it stopped precisely 608 meters away from me in each direction.
I couldn't describe the feeling I was getting from it, it had ripples spreading through it, but at the same time, it was completely still. It was a plane and yet it wasn't, it was a strange new feeling.
While I was distracted with my observations and analyzing my new sense. Olivia threw me a sandwich she made earlier today. Wrapped up nicely in a foil-like wrap, it flew through the air and headed straight my way. That action alone, made the largest ripple appear in the previously almost still ocean of my new sense. [Focus] activates at full power, boosted by [Archive]'s increased cognitive function, and time seems to stand still.
Time manipulation wasn't involved in this; instead, I enhanced my thinking speed to a point where time appeared to decelerate. Although it consumed a lot of mana, this ability relied heavily on my perception and intelligence stats, rendering it previously ineffective in combat. However, as my perception stat strengthened, it gradually became more advantageous.
My undivided attention fixates on the sandwich suspended in the air, examining it meticulously. It moves towards me in slow motion, like an animated sequence broken down into individual frames. However, a closer inspection reveals an intriguing detail - a faint and nearly transparent glow enveloped the ham and cheese sandwich. It was only a few millimeters thick, barely visible, but I detect its presence. As I concentrate on the radiance, an inexplicable sensation emerged, urging me to experiment and manipulate it.
At first, nothing occurred when I infused my mana into the object. However, as I added more, an image of the sandwich emerged, floating mere centimeters away from the original and rotating slightly with each infusion. Once I ceased my mana infusion, the image reverted to its initial position and vanished, only to reappear in its previous location a few milliseconds later when I resumed infusing mana. While experimenting with the object, I sensed a vague feeling that it was more than just future sight - my [Time Affinity] hinted that I could manipulate the object's position along the temporal axis. Regrettably, my system alerted me to a notification, preventing me from exploring further.
[Skill: [Foresight] unlocked.]
[Foresight LVL: 1/100]
- Allows the user to glimpse into the future up to 0.001*(Lvl + Perception) seconds.
With my current perception stat, boosted by 84, from the Renard race, I could see up to 0.219 seconds into the future. That explained why the almost translucent image of the sandwich, could only be moved a few centimeters away from the actual thing. It wasn't traveling at speeds that would put it further away when 0.2 seconds passed.
My head started to feel light, and I could feel a headache approaching. A tell-tell sign that my mana is running dry. I give it a quick glimpse and stand shocked.
Even with the tails of the Renard race, boosting total mana by 2.5% and my regeneration rate by 5% per tail. My total mana capacity was almost in the red, and the 4,558 mana regen per second, wasn't enough to keep up with the demands of the three abilities I was simultaneously using.
I turn off everything that is currently active, and with a shaky breath catch the lunch that was heading my way. I take a few deep breaths and feel the lightheadedness and headache vanish. Olivia's superhuman senses pick up on it, and she worriedly asks.
"Everything okay?" A look of concern marring her face.
"Yeah, everything is fine, better than fine actually," I say with a smile and explain her the new skill.
"Wow, but there is no way I can use that currently." She shakes her head. She was interested, but it quickly diminished when I mentioned that I couldn't keep the skill running for long, because, even for me, it was too mana intense.
"Yeah, but I feel that's not everything this class and the affinity thingy should do. I'll need to test it out later." I say and receive a nod.
"Ignore the skills for now, and don't use it in a fight. We can spar later and you can get used to it, let's eat, cuddle for a bit, and then get back to demon slaying." She says with a smile.
"Nice plan," I say with a wide smile, and unwrap my lunch. Before I take a bite I add. "I don't think we should go lower than this right now, there seem to be quite a few monsters on the previous floor."
She chews on her meal and after swallowing she nods. "Uhum, I agree. We were there, like what? 3-4 hours?" She asks.
"Something like that," I answer with a shrug.
"See, and I'm already at 1/4th of the way to level ten." I rise my eyebrow at that info but remember she had the Adventurer class boosting her gains.
"Lucky you..." I mumble. "My falna stats are in the two-hundreds."
She pats me on my back and with a cheerful smile on her face she says. "Don't worry, you'll get there! I'll wait for you at the finish line."
My eyes twitch. "You know what, the game is on. Whoever reaches level ten first gets one wish fulfilled by the other, deal?"
Her smile widens and she reached out for a handshake. "Sure! The game is on!" She shakes my hand before vanishing from her spot, blinking down the staircase and getting a head start.
"That's cheating." I sigh looking at the spot where she vanished from and shake my head. "Well, whatever I'll just finish my sandwich first."
Five minutes later, my meal was done, everything was packed and I was ready to teach her a lesson not to make fun of me. I plan on going all out for, the first time since I came to this world.
[Celestial Eyes] spot me a large clearing somewhere on the floor, and I [Blink] there, then ping the location of Olivia's ring, a millisecond later it shows up about a hundred thousand kilometers away. "Good, she won't be in the radius." I wicked smile appears on my face as I use [Fly] to get up high into the air.
[Focus], [Archive], [Multitasking], and [Multicasting], combined with [Sage's Wisdom], [Magic Penetration] spring into action. [Mana's Blessing] activates at my current maximum, boosting my stats by 100%. A heavy strain descends not only on my mind but my body as well. My light movements leave ripples in the air and space as well.
The boost in Intelligence and Wisdom allows me to do calculations at an incredible speed, and I wave a new spell, creating it from scrap. [Runic Language] hums as millions of runic inscriptions appear out of thin air, forming a tier-eight magical circle hundreds of meters wide. Something technically impossible by normal human standards, but, at this point, I'm anything but normal.
Each rune boosts and empowers each other, creating a chain reaction consuming mana not just from me, but the atmosphere itself. It started out with hundreds of thousands of mana points per second, then jumped to millions more, the air around the spell circle distorts as the mana rushes into the circle with a tremendous amount of speed. The amount of mana in the air suffers, as the dungeon floor surrounding the spell becomes a manaless zone.
The final rune clicks into the place, forming a Holy affinity rune right next to a Water and Lightning one embedded right into the center of it all. The mana in the air rebalances, from each direction like a wave, and it quickly washes over my location.
The first part of the spell was ready, as the now half-kilometer-wide magical circle floats in the sky fully formed. [Magical Embodiment] transforms my body into elemental form, taking up the Holy affinity, as there was no need to accidentally kill myself.
"Let's see what this bad boy can do," I say as I activate the spell's second stage.
The circles separate, creating a tridimensional sphere, with each spinning and rotating in a different direction. The rotation quickens, pulling in a massive amount of the remaining atmospheric mana, displacing the miasma and the air around it, and condensing it all into the center point of the spell. And not long after the pressure created by the condensed mana, transforms it all into a liquid form, something I theorized was possible, but never confirmed it. The second stage finally finishes charging and my smile widens.
The rapidly spinning circles suddenly halt, and the condensed transmuted mana explodes outward, forming a quickly spreading golden cloud over a large portion of the floor. Silence descends to the area, the only thing that could be heard, was the low rumbling and cracking of the clouds above. Everything that had eyes, focused fully on the sky. That's when the last stage of the spell activates.
"Judgment!" I shout out, but the chant is not needed. My voice echoes throughout the floor and the moment my spell activates; three new classes unlock.
[Class: [Lightning Mage] unlocked]
[Class: [Electromancer] unlocked]
[Class: [Holy Mage] unlocked]
A drop, then another, then millions more, start to rain down from the cloud covering the sky, each impacting the ground and going straight through it, and flattening it in the process. The rumble of the heavens becomes louder as millions of lightning bolts rain down the sky each targeting a separate monster, vaporizing it instantly.
My levels soar, and barely in a moment, my class maxes out, but the level-up notifications don't stop right away. My global level keeps climbing, slower and slower till it reaches level 90, then the notifications suddenly make a complete halt, and so do the lightning strikes. The dungeon de-spawned everything, and it's mad as fuck.
[Magic excelia reached the maximum for the current level, all future Magic excelia will be dispersed.]
The dungeon shakes like never before, opening multiple crevices on the floor, creating multicolored corridors which radiate a level ten aura. I have just broken one of the dungeon's main runes, and that makes my smile widen.
Having a quick break, I switched out my maxed-out class to [Spatiomancer]. The [Space Affinity] skill slots itself into the place, overlapping its effective radius with the Time one.
[Skill: [Space Affinity] unlocked.]
[Space Affinity LVL: Max]
- Increases the effects of Space-related skills, abilities, and spells by 25%.
- Allows partial control of Space in the local area.
I give a quick glance at my status screen with all my buff still active. My smile widens as I realize how high my mana regeneration was, but then [Archive] reminds me that thanks to [Mana's Blessing]'s ability it would increase to three times this while in combat.
Status
[Global LVL: 90 XP: 4,902,552/ 5,312,023]
[Class: Spatiomancer LVL: 0/50 XP: 0/ 991]
[Titles: [Blessed by Death] | Race: [Renard] | Tier: 2]
[WP: 58,676] [UC: 11,988.22] [HS: Healthy]
Stamina: 3,402,000 (5,672/s)
Mana: 1,998,583 (100,550/s)
STR: 1,676
VIT: 1,688
DEX: 2,016
AGI: 1,888
PER: 550
INT: 1,428
WIS: 1,132
CHAR: 298
LUCK: 190
P. Res: 18
M. Res: 18
"Come." As the monsters pull themselves out of the hole, my casually said words reverberate through the floor, shaking the space itself.
The moment they stepped out of their gates, their roars get muted by the lighting that rained down on them. Causing no damage at all, - no scratch that -, it did damage them, but their innate magical resistance, blocked most if not all of the damage dealt. Magic penetration did its job, but not enough to matter.
I wave my hand, dispersing the clouds, and mana again saturates the air of the floor. Then I take a step and appear over my first target. My first clenched, I pull it back and deliver a devastating blow to the monster's head. Cracking its skull instantly, shattering all of its bones and turning him into dust. Not only that but forming a huge crater in the ground.
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x25]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 25]
[Strength excelia reached the maximum for the current level, all future Strength excelia will be dispersed.]
The moment it died, a rush of excelia enters me, straight up maxing out the remainder of my strength stat. The strain on my body and soul slowly increases. I need to end this quickly, keeping up all of these skills, was taking a toll on me.
I brush off the trail of blood that started running out of my nose and unshelt my blade, tilting to the side, with minimal movement, I dodge 9 hits from nine different angles. [Blink] delivers me behind my next victim, and a [Infused] sword, not only bisects it but also the one in front of it, leaving a ten-kilometer-long millimeter-thick crevice in the ground. The shaking of the dungeon increases, but no new gateways open, not yet.
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x7]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 32]
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x4]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 36]
Another rush of Excelia enters my system some bleed into Agility, while some enter into Dexterity.
I tilt my head to the side, narrowly avoiding the sharper-than-normal claws, oddly shinning with pitch black energy, infused to the brim with death affinity mana. I reach up at the offending appendage, pull the owner of it and slam him into the ground, with such force, it creates an explosion right in front of me. The shockwave pushes back the remaining 6, but only lightly damages me in the process. It attempts to stand up, but I place my foot against its skull, and press down, shattering it completely. Motes of light scatter in the surroundings and new notifications appear in my view.
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x3]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 39]
[Dexterity excelia reached the maximum for the current level, all future Dexterity excelia will be dispersed.]
I still need Endurance and Agility, so I bend my knees and launch myself at my next enemy, arriving in front of him, in less than it takes to blink, but not stopping. I body slam the skeletal fucker, going at 1,250 meters per second.
Large gashes open all over my body, with broken bone fragments filling the holes. I spit out the few bone fragments that strangely ended up in my mouth and notice some blood and a tooth in the pile. All in all, not a bad trade, you should see the other guy.
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x2]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 41]
[Global Level has reached Level 91]
[Endurance excelia reached the maximum for the current level, all future Endurance excelia will be dispersed.]
[Troll's Regeneration] activates, but it needs some help, so I forcefully activate [Halo] as well. The combined power of those skills, and my innate regeneration, pushes out the bone fragments lodged into my body, repairs the wounds, and even regrows my missing tooth, bringing me up to 100% in a blink of an eye, not leaving a single scar.
But even all that regeneration cannot compensate for all the mental strain I'm feeling right now, hundreds of thousands of mana, consumed per second, boosting my body to such a level, that it's starting to break apart.
The taste of iron, again, appears in my mouth, and a cough leaves my throat, blood starts pooling from my ears, and slowly my mind is going mushy. The remaining Juggernauts don't wait for a clap, they move in a coordinated way, sending slashes of death-infused waves my way.
Not planning to tank through that, I bend my knees and appear right beside the grouped-up monsters and swipe with such speed and force, space splits open for a moment, consuming everything around it, then closes up as if nothing happened. Spatial fluctuations spread through the floor, moving the terrain and grinding stone all the way to their base particles.
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x2]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 43]
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x1]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 44]
A large pool of blood leaves my mouth, and I need to end this right now. My arms and feet shake, as all my muscles spasm. I'm rooted in a spot from all the pain, and can't move my feet.
[Skill: [Pain Tolerance] has reached Level 42]
I clench my teeth, and my first tightens around my sword, [Infusion] humming with hundreds of thousands of space affinity of mana, and the pitch black sword, even with its light drinking property, shinning with such an intensity, that I could barely look at it.
The three Juggernauts already running towards me, their bodies bent forward sharp skeletal maws open, ready to rip me to shreds. [Focus] reactivate, [Archive] as well, and time ceases to exist. The laws of the world notice something wrong, golden chains appear in the air, but it's all for nothing, they are already late. I bring my sword to my side and with a horizontal slash, shout out.
"Spatial Slash!" The speed of my swipe was so fast, that by the time the slash ended, the tip of my blade was still in its starting position. The tip catches up with the rest of the sword, shattering it in the process. A thin but brightly lit line, spreads at unimaginable speeds, from horizon to horizon, separating the floor into two.
The world law chains pull back, but even they aren't unscathed. Slashed apart, hit by the very edge of my attack, they rain down the ground in pieces. A loud boom followed by multiple others echoes through the floor, as the links one by one hit the ground, shaking its foundation, and sinking deep into the ground. Their bright golden glow could still be seen even now, shining brightly from the depths they ended up.
I fall to the ground, wriggling in pain, my shoulder dislocated, my muscles torn, and all my skills deactivate, allowing me to catch my breath.
[Skill: [Spatial Slash] unlocked.]
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x2]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 46]
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x1]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 47]
[Juggernaut (Level 10) slain 100,000 XP Received]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] level up x1]
[Class: [Spatiomancer] has reached Level 48]
[Global Level has reached Level 92]
[Agility excelia reached the maximum for the current level, all future Agility excelia will be dispersed.]
[Troll's Regeneration], with the help of the still active [Halo], slowly start fixing the mess I made out of my body. I help it out by taking an Elixir out of my inventory and emptying it all into my mouth. As I slowly get better, the shaking slowly disappears, and my breathing calms down, but the headache still persists. I check the description of my new skill and wonder.
"Wasn't void, a higher tier space affinity?"
[Spatial Slash LVL:1/100]
- Allows the user to infuse a tremendous amount of mana into the edge of his blade, releasing it simultaneously upon completing a single slash.
- Space warps, and all that stands in the user's way, are cut apart.
- Weapons used for the attack, requires a very high affinity with space.
- During the slash attack speed doubled.
Sadly, I'm now weaponless. The shattering of my second masterpiece, caused by the extreme tensile stress, made me re-plan my approach to level ten.
I lay on the ground for the next ten minutes, and when I'm completely sure I won't die if I take a step, I sit up. Use [Clean] on myself, removing all the evidence of my blood, then walk up to the grounded chain link.
No mana radiates from it, and my [Blacksmithing] skill doesn't give me any information about the material, I place my hand on it and find myself falling to the ground extremely weak, while at the same time, my mana begins to drain extremely quickly. I react fast, and with a thought place the thirty-ton, halved chain link inside of my inventory, without any other trouble.
"Strange," I say. "Even after I let go, the thing kept pulling on my mana." I spend the next few minutes, collecting all the chain links and materials laying around, maybe I'll be able to create a new weapon using them. After I'm certain there is nothing else worth picking up, I cast [Celestial Eyes] and locate Olivia, struggling to find a single monster on this floor.
I [Blink] right next to her, startling her in the process, almost receiving an attack to the face, but she pulls back after noticing it was me.
"Did you have something to do with the monsters disappearing?" She asks looking at me suspiciously.
"I might have," I say with a cheeky smile on my face. "I can level up to ten."
"Bullshit!" She exclaims.
"Just check my status and you'll know if I'm lying."
She gives it a quick glance and, "... How?" Was all she could say. Her shoulders drop, while a pout forms on her face.
I reach around her shoulder and pull her into a half hug, press my lips against her head, and whisper. "I'll save the wish for later. I already know what I want." A pulse of mana enters my ring, as she attempts to form a mental [Link], to gain some information about it, but I block it. "Oh no, you don't. I'm not telling you anything right now." I say with a smile after seeing her worried look.
After signing she says. "This floor is now empty, let's go deeper." I shake my head and show her the hilt of my sword, the only remaining thing left from it.
"You can go deeper, but I shattered my sword, I'll be on the 86th floor forging a new one. Is that okay with you?"
"You did what?" she looks at me with her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open.
"I tested out something," I point upwards, where the faint but still visible line from my slash was still visible. "and it broke." My wry smile makes her roll her eyes.
"The fuck is that?" She curses looking upwards.
"The remains of my new skill," I say with a shrug.
She shakes her head and then adds. "Alright, go do your crafting, I'll head down alone..."
"Contact me with your ring if you need help, or teleport to me using your [Hearth's Desire] when you're done. Alright?"
"Okay, okay!" she says while heading toward the staircase, and waving me off.
"Let's see what I can create now," I say to myself, but before I start crafting I visit Hestia for my hopefully last status update.
