23 Chapter 23
It was only at that moment that I realized that I hadn't really shown anyone the extent of my abilities with Smite, not even Tsubaki or Hephaestus. However, I realized that the adventurers around me weren't necessarily impressed by the power of the 'spell' but that it was that powerful when it needed no chant. They probably would have fallen over if they knew this was just one of seven different forms Biomancy alone could take. That was why the Goddess didn't want me going around showing more than one ability.
Moving up to Tsubaki, I simply said, "I'm sure I'll be just fine here."
She nodded but couldn't stop herself from asking, "No chant?"
"Why would I need a chant?" I asked, tapping on my head, "Everything is already in here."
I had to admit that I was smirking on the inside when every single person who had access to magic around me turned and looked at me incredulously. I found that the person with the most intense gaze was Riveria. She looked at me like I was a puzzle, one that she was keenly interested in solving. I pretended not to see her look and gestured for Tsubaki and the rest to shoo.
"I have my super secret training regime to go through here, so I can't begin until you guys are gone," I said pointedly, getting some chuckles from the surrounding group.
Now that the show was over, people moved off and took up their supplies once more, getting ready to move off. After a few moments, Finn called everyone to begin moving out. Tsubaki stayed by my side for a few moments before she sighed and nodded to me before moving off with the others. As she was disappearing from sight, I gave her an exaggerated wave that seemed to lift her spirits slightly. I stayed in that spot until the last person disappeared from my sight, and I was sure they were gone.
The mists seemed a lot more ominous now that I was alone, but this was for the best. With a brief surge of power, Warp Speed was activated, and power thrummed through my entire body. Wading through the mists until a group of Imps attacked me didn't take too long. They leaped out at me with screams of whooping cries. I took a deep breath and settled in for a few hours of evasion and deflection training.
Time crawled by, but focusing on my training and improvement helped the process feel faster than it actually was. People would come and go, forcing me to stop my intense training whenever they came too close. Eventually, I fell into a groove where conscious thought was no longer needed in order to dodge and parry attacks. I took Tsubaki's warning to heart and blasted Bad Bats out of existence whenever they would come close.
I wasn't sure how their confusion beam would work on me, but I honestly thought that it would have a much greater effect on me than a normal mage. After all, psychic power comes from the brain and is heavily reliant on the mind. If you are confused or disoriented, it can have adverse effects on how well you are able to channel your abilities. Overall, I just didn't want to risk anything with the Bad Bats, so I just stuck to working with Imps and Orcs.
Long hours passed, and eventually, my fatigue caught up to me. I trudged back up through the dungeon and Babel while yawning profusely. It seemed that I had been in the dungeon much much longer than I had thought. The mix of my training was pretty boring and taking a long time resulted in me being more tired than usual. However, as I was heading the call from my bed and fantasizing about snuggling close to my pillow, I took a detour. There was a glow of soft light underneath the door to Hephaestus's office.
The guard at the door rapped twice on it as I approached, then stepped back into position. After a few moments, a tired-looking goddess opened the door wide. She had her mouth open as if to yell, a severely annoyed expression on her face, but it died when she locked eyes with me.
"I only wish for a minute of your time Hephaestus," I said, unable to contain a yawn that spread to the goddess, then eventually the guard too.
"You want an update?" she asked, rubbing her good eye.
"Yep, then I'm off to bed," I confirmed, mustering up the remains of my energy so that I wouldn't fall asleep on my feet.
"We'll make it quick then," she said, gesturing me inside.
I walked in and directly stored my shirt in my Inventory since I was feeling too lazy to life it up manually. The goddess just gestured that I lay down across the top of her desk as she grabbed a piece of paper in preparation for recording my stats. Once I was on the table, there was the cool feeling of the goddess's fingers tracing against my back, then the activation of the falna. It wasn't long before there was a groaning sound emanating from behind me.
I found Hephaestus with a hand running through her curled hair as she looked down at my sheet, "What am I going to do with you, Augustus?" she said as she handed me the sheet.
- - - Status - - -
Name: Augustus Ahriman
Level: 1
Strength: I70 >>> B704
Endurance: H112 >>> S900
Dexterity: I63 >>> B711
Agility: I76 >>> B723
Magic: E409 >>> S999
- Magic -
Psychic Might
- Skills -
Inventory
- - - Status - - -
*
[A/N: There was a big boost due to him killing the bandits since they had a lot of magic stones, and humans, especially adventurers, have a lot of vitality to plunder.]
*
The first thing that caught my eye was my Magic stat at S999, which was the limit for most adventurers. I wondered if I had just gotten my status updated at the exact moment my stat reached 999, or was I bound by the hard cap like most other people. Even if it was capped, it wasn't something I was too worried about. All of the abilities available with my psychic might more than made up for having my stats hard-capped, in my opinion.
However, that was something for the future. Seeing my stats so close to the max made my determination rise even higher. I decided to spend the next week or so grinding hard to ensure that my stats made it to the max level or broke past the hard cap. I would be interested to see if they could go higher, but I didn't mind either way. I turned my attention back to Hephaestus as she spoke again.
"This is a double-edged sword," the goddess said as she looked at me, "It certainly is a boon for you, but it will draw a lot of unwanted attention to yourself."
"When is the next Denatus?" I asked, "Gods are forced to reveal any level ups during the meeting,"
"The next one is in a week," Hepheasatus said knowingly, "You're going to wait to try and level up until afterward,"
"Yeah," I said, running a hand through my hair before highlighting my plan, "I still need to max out my stats first, but I think that will only take a few days at the rate I am going. Once I am at the stat limit, I can go out and complete a feat, then conveniently wait for Denatus to end before officially leveling up."
"That's fine with me," Hephaestus said with a smile. Clearly, this decision was taking a bit of pressure off her back when it came to me in particular.
"Now that everything is settled," I said, standing up, "I bid you goodnight,"
"Same to you," she said with another yawn before grabbing a paper from the large stack and looking at it.
"Don't work yourself too hard," I called to her as I was leaving.
"I never do," she said with a chuckle, but she was already absorbed in her work.
With our business done, I walked out the doors and up to my comfortable bed that was lonely without me.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'll just confirm that MC is bound to the S999 cap for stats, and this isn't going to change. I think it's more interesting this way.
