DanMachi 8

"Keep an eye on the one to your left!" I shout to Olive who's currently surrounded by three Silverbacks.

"Icicle!" An ice shard flies out of her left palm embedding itself into one of the monster's chests, while her other hand swings her sword wounding the monster in front of her. The Silverbacks are level-two monsters and she is fighting three of them without any issues. Not a moment later her last opponent dies and she calls out.

"Finally! My magic stat reached max!" she turns towards me and runs in for a hug.

The whole process didn't take us too long, without the [Umbra Gradus]'s mobility it took us about an hour to get down to the 16th floor and I've been sitting on the side, intervening only when too many enemies showed up.

"Great." I say and plant a kiss on her head. "Let's head out and get you leveled up."

This time our ascent wasn't so uneventful, on the twelfth floor we ran into a shady group. I kept my eye on them as we pass each other, and only have a moment to duck under a sword swipe aimed at my head.

"Fuck, Olivia get back." I shout out as I shove her out of why way.

"PURGE, MISTILTEINN!" I shout out and 20 black swords form around me, dragging 5,000 mana down the drain instantly. Gone were the 1-meter-long blades and welcome were the five-meter-long swords, boosted by [Sage's Wisdom] and [Mage] abilities. As previously practiced, the swords rapidly spin around me, splitting one of our unaware attackers in half. The other three were quicker on the uptake and jumped back, but they were not quicker than the five swords fired off in each of their directions. Fifteen shockwaves rattle the floor as the swords instantly break the sound barrier. Emending themselves into the dungeon walls without any resistance. Of the four guys only one survived the Death affinity-infused swords, the lucky one only lost a leg and an arm. 'I'll have to practice my aim.' Ignoring his screaming I turn around and check on Olivia.

[Human (Level 2) x3 slain 600 XP Received]

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yea. Thanks." She says slowly picking herself off the ground.

As I move toward the last living enemy she quietly says. "Umm... Let me do it?"

She sounds a bit unsure, looking into her eyes I ask "Are you sure?" Pursing her lips together, she nods. "Okay." I let her finish off the last guy.

She moves towards the guy with her sword in her hand, the guy starts begging and crying. Olivia's every step forward becomes harder and harder. Now standing right in front of him she says. "Sorry." Before embedding her sword into his head ending all of his pleas.

She breaks down crying and I move behind her quickly and hug her. She turns around in my embrace and pushes her head into my chest. Her tears stained the already worn-out leather. I caress her back and whisper sweet nothings into her ear showering her with kisses in between. She finally calms down.

"Come on let's go home." I say quietly pulling her away from the room and slowly walking towards the next staircase. She was kept away from the gruesome sight of the people we just killed thanks to the dungeon already reclaiming their remains.

The walk back to the surface was a quiet one, and on our way, I checked her status and noticed that her [Mental Wall] skill leveled up to 15. Sighing at that I pat her head and pull her attention towards me.

"I love you, no matter what. If you come back safely into my arms, you could eradicate a city and I wouldn't care about it. You hear me?" I say while holding her chin and pulling her into a passionate kiss. "I don't want you to become an emotionless killing machine, but with people like them, you shouldn't be sad about their fates. Those people meant nothing to me, while you mean everything. In that situation, it was us or them, they targeted me from the start because they probably wanted to have you. That doesn't mean you are responsible for their attack. No, they attacked because they were greedy fucktars and they died because they deserved it. Nothing more, nothing less." I say keeping my voice a bit stern at the end. "You understood me?" I receive an apprehensive nod from her and I pull her into a tight hug. We continue towards the surface holding hands, while I just kept [Mistilteinn] active and minced all the monsters on our way.

We reach the house about an hour later, Hestia wasn't home yet, so I made us lunch and we cuddled up in bed. We spent the next two hours without a word spoken, just lying on the bed while she tightly hugged my side and I stroked her back. Her spirit gradually improved and when Hestia arrived back, I told her what happened. She wasn't mad or even disappointed, she even hugged and praised me for my quick thinking. She warned us that, this will not be the only time we meet bad people, and that it was a good thing I let Olivia take care of the last one. Because an adventurer needs to learn how to cope with taking a life. After her strict words, her demeanor quickly changed and she tightly hugged Olivia and pulled her away for some pampering and to level her up.

A few hours later some giggling and squeals of happiness could be heard from the living room, from both loli goddess and Olivia. The heavy atmosphere vanished pretty quickly. A few minutes later a smiling Olivia and a happy Hestia exited the room. Being the gentleman I was, I didn't peek at her status and waited for her to tell me what she got.

"Look at this." She says while her smile widens. Firstly, I didn't understand why she was so happy, but then I noticed the name of her new skills.

[Falna Status] (Olivia)

Level: 1 >2

Strength: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)

Endurance: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)

Dexterity: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)

Agility: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)

Magic: 1,500 (SSS) > 0 (I)

D.A.:

[Swordsman I]

Magic:

[Icicles I>G]

Skills:

[Heart's Desire]

Checking it out within the Library system I get a full description of her new skill and I can't help to smile.

[Swordsman LVL:1/120]

- Increases the damage and speed of your swing while using a sword by 0.5%/LVL.

[Heart's Desire LVL: Max]

- While near the person your heart desires, all of your stats are increased by 5%.

- Regardless of the distance, sacrifice 50% of your total mana to appear right beside that person.

- Regardless of the distance, heal that person by sacrificing half of your current health pool.

- Regardless of the distance, sense if that person is in jeopardy.

Her love and desire to be of help to me, manifested into a skill to allow her to do just that. It increases her damage while fighting next to me, she can now teleport to my location from anywhere and sense if I'm in danger. She can even heal me, but the wording on that part of the skill seemed a bit odd, so we will have to test it out.

"I love you." I say to Olivia while Hestia just giggles on the side.

"I love you, too." She says with a wide smile and she pulls me in for a deep kiss. 'Yea someone is getting lucky tonight... too bad [Nexum] doesn't work in this world, wonder if I could create a similar spell here.' While my mind wanders, I don't forget to reciprocate the kiss, well until we are forcibly separated by a heavily blushing loli goddess.

"Don't do that, when I'm nearby!" she yells out and then adds "Let's go celebrate the level-ups!" she exclaims and moves towards the door.

Chuckling at her behavior, I grab onto Olivia's hand and we head towards the "Tipsy Fairy". We are, similarly as last time, greeted by Anna, the cat girl waitress, and are escorted to a free table. About an hour into the party Olive comes back from the bathroom only to tell me to open my hand. Opening it, she hands me what seems to be air, but on closer inspection a dark black hair. I quickly focus on it with my Race system and I'm granted a new race.

[Cat Person]

+1 AGI, +1 PER +1 DEX per Global Level

- Gain Night Vision while in a dark.

- Improves reaction time.

- Always fall on your feet.

"How did you get it?" I ask while whispering.

"I asked Anna if I could touch her ears." She says with a smile.

"You cheeky little thing." I say with a smile then plant a light kiss on her cheeks. "Thanks, this will be a huge boost for me."

"I know that's why I got it." She says while smiling.

And oh boy was it a boost, 55 stat points in agility perception and dexterity, the only better option I have right now is the race [Deus] but I've got no idea how to reach Tier 4 to be able to equip it.

The night continues in a joyful atmosphere until Hestia gets shitfaced again. Rolling my eyes, I pay the bill pick up the goddess and pull the really tipsy Olivia behind me. We exit the establishment and on our way home Olivia starts whining.

"But I want to stay and party!" she cries out and pouts.

"We can party at home." I say pulling her along.

"Please!" she begs, giving me puppy eyes.

"The girl wants to party, so let her party! I know a perfect place!" Says a creepy dude walking out of a dark alley.

"Fuck off." I said squinting my eyes at him.

"Now, now there is no need to be-" he says while moving towards us, but is suddenly stopped in his track by two words. "Purge, Mistilteinn" a five-meter-long ethereal sword made out of pure darkness, giving off a terrifying aura, materializes right in front of his throat. He gulps nervously and the sword cuts into his throat drawing a line of blood. Ghastly whips of darkness threaten to turn him to nothingness.

"I said fuck off." He puts up his hands and walks backward quickly turning around and running off to the alley he just exited.

Olivia turns to me with an apologetic face and says. "Okay, let's go home."

Fed up with today's excitement, I move us home with a faster tempo. After placing Hestia into her bed, I transform into my cat-person race and check myself out in the nearest mirror. My ears have moved to the top of my head and now looked like cat ears. They were dark brown, the same color as my hair, and had a bit of white on the ends, the same as my tail. My eyes surprisingly didn't change, but I could clearly see further away, but that could also be because of the massive increase in perception. Walking into a dark room, I'm not impeded by the darkness and I can almost see as well as in a well-lit room. I didn't test if I truly, always fall on my feet, but I did feel my balance being enchanted.

With my quick test done I move toward my room. And find a naked purring kitty, already waiting for me in bed. When she sees my new form for the first time, the heat in her eyes intensifies, and she pounces on me. My smile widens as I hold her up, and lock the door. A wild night of cats fighting for dominance could be heard throughout the neighborhood.

Sitting at the table the next morning, me and Olive were enjoying a light breakfast, when Hestia descended the stairs with dark circles under her eyes. Looking at her I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"You okay?" I ask concerned.

"Yea just didn't sleep so well. Early morning, a catfight woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep." She says making Olivia spit her drink.

"Oh yeah, I've heard that too!" I say nodding while internally chuckling. "One of the cats seemed very eager." And then I receive a kick to the shin, but Hestia agrees with me with a big nod and says. "Yea like she, or he, I don't know, was very into it." Making Olivia start blushing like crazy and that doesn't escape Hestia's eyes.

"Hmm... Olivia are you okay?" asks the concerned goddess, while spreading butter on her toast.

"U-umm... Everything alright..." She tries to think of a reason quickly. "The tea! Ah, yes, the tea was too hot." Making me almost spill my drink. 'Damn, she needs to learn how to lie...' I internally note.

"... Okay, be careful with it." Hestia says looking at her suspiciously and not really believing her, then she looks at me with a questioning look. "What are your plans for today?"

"We will need new gear shortly." I start formulating a plan. "But that could wait for when we finish our next dive. I need to practice with one of my spells and create a new one. Although, I would like to talk to Riveria, the High Elf from the Loki familia, before that. When that's done, I plan on going for a two or three-day dive."

"Hmm, maybe you should-" she states, but suddenly stops when she realizes what I said. She looks at me while squinting her eyes. "Why do you need to talk to that Elf?"

"Well..." I turn to Olivia and ask her. "Have you shown Hestia the index and the notes I've given you?" She shakes her without answering. "Could you go get them?" I ask, knowing all too well that she placed them into her inventory. With a nod, she disappears upstairs and pretends to bring them out of our room.

"What notes and what index?" Asks the confused goddess looking at the direction in which Olivia has disappeared to.

"Just wait a moment," I say.

Olivia comes back downstairs bringing two notebooks and hands them to me.

"Thanks, sweetheart." After thanking her, I place the notebooks in front of the loli and say.

"I cracked the code of magic." The goddess looks at me a bit strangely then her eyes widen and starts franticly looking through the notebooks.

"Do you realize what you just did?" She comments after a few pages. "You don't! How could you!" she starts manically laughing.

"I do, I unlocked the true potential of magic." I say with a satisfied smile. The add. "You've seen the spell [Mistilteinn] on my status, but do you truly know what it does?" My smile widens, as she shakes her head.

"Purge, Mistilteinn." A yelp was heard from the goddess who see eight swords materialize for the first time. They slowly start spinning around me and she drops under the table in fear of getting cut apart. Each sword is colored differently, representing a different base element, each with its own unique aura. The spinning slowly increases in speed, but nothing is cut apart. Everything in the vicinity is considered an ally, so nothing is damaged. Hestia looks up from under the table and notices a sword just casually pass through Olivia, without causing her any harm. She moves her hand towards the ring of swords and looks in amazement as it passes through her.

"It's an illusion?" she asks a bit confused.

"No," I say shaking my head. "It will only hurt people I want it to hurt. This spell is solely my creation, it has another part to it, but I cannot show that in the house, or in the garden. It will cause too much collateral damage."

The loli goddess looks at me in amazement "The elves have been trying to crack how magic works for centuries, yet you go to a random library and do it in what, a week?"

"Actually it took about a day to figure it out, the other six was spent on collecting and understanding the runes, analyzing other spells, and creating Mistilteinn. And to be honest I only realized how it worked when I started explaining stuff to Olivia. So without her, I couldn't have done it." I correct her and praise the cutie sitting next to me.

"You're too large of an anomaly..." she mumbles to herself. "So what the hell do you need the high elf for?" she asks.

"The Runic Index is not completed yet. I know there are a lot of runes missing from it and I was planning on asking her if she has any books or examples that would help me complete it. I had a spell in mind that I cannot create without a few additional runes."

"How do you know they exist in the first place? And just what kind of spell are you planning on creating?" she asks.

"Not telling." I shake my head with a smile. "I know those runes exist because I understand the principle behind the runic language." Not going to tell her I remember a few spells from the anime, and that I can't recreate them with my current knowledge.

She rolls her eyes but nods. "Okay, you can't just show up at Loki Familia's manor and request a meeting with the elf girl."

"Meeting them in the manor is okay, but letting them come here would cause us more trouble than it's worth it. They are well-known adventurers, and people would start wondering why they went to meet a new familia consisting of, to their knowledge, two level ones. While we going there, could be seen as if we were trying to curry favors from them. While technically true, the elves will gain more from this than we will, so we might as well ask for compensation while there. How does 500 mill Valis sound?" I ask only to get a wide-eyed look from Hestia before she faints. I look at Olive and rise my eyebrow. She just shakes her head and continues eating her breakfast. I sigh when I realize that I'll have to make copies of the index and my notes.