23 Chapter 23 - (Level Up!)

I decided to take the initiative and rocketed toward the infant dragon. It seemed stunned for a moment as it saw me suddenly rush at it while it thought it was hidden within the dense mist. I took advantage and blasted the monster with an electric and magic aura-infused right hook. The power behind my blow caused its head to recoil and smash into the ground. I continued to press my advantage by charging up the electricity around me and releasing it as a large bolt of electricity that struck the monster in the left hind leg.

However, after the leg buckled under its weight, the monster seemed more enraged than truly hurt. It swung its neck like a whip, but I managed to duck beneath it and blast a torrent of electricity upward at the creature. It roared as it backed away as much as it could with an injured back leg. Then, it surged forward, jaws wide as it tried to take a bite out of me. Just as its jaws were about to close around my waist, I used Instantmove to appear above the creature. I used my downward momentum to drive my knees into the back of its neck before delivering another massive punch to the side of its head.

However, my attacks left me right in front of the monster as I landed. I was only off-balanced for a moment when I landed, but that was enough for the Infant Dragon. To kick, turn slightly and kick my chest with its good back leg. As the blow connected, I felt my ribs caving in and puncturing both my lungs. I was tossed by the momentum of the kick into the wall, where I formed an indent in the stone. Luckily, I couldn't feel the pain of any of the damage due to Juggernaut. Also, everything healed soon after the blow landed, which allowed me to get up and take a deep breath before the monster came charging at me.

It used its running momentum to swing its neck and head again at full force, but I had a plan. Just before the moment of impact, when the monster's head was traveling the fastest, I used Aura Wall. The aura suddenly burst from my body and formed a wall that the Infant Dragon didn't have enough time to stop its head from smashing into. I thought the impact would shatter the monster's skull and paint its grey matter all over the stones beneath our feet, but it seemed like I underestimated the creature. Its head was clearly slightly caved in on one side, but not enough to bring it down. In fact, it seemed like the damage just caused the creature to lose all sense of reasoning and caused it to blindly charge and attack.

I used Instantmove once more to get above the creature, but it looked up and opened its mouth wide, waiting for me to fall inside. Instead, I pointed down into its gaping jaws and sent a bolt of electricity down its throat. The monster screamed as it thrashed about, collapsing after putting too much weight on its damaged leg. There was a loud cracking of air as its tail snapped up and smashed me in the neck. I instantly felt my neck shatter, knocking my head a full 90 degrees to one side. Now, normally, this would have been fatal, but the skill wasn't called Juggernaut for no reason.

It was my turn to roar as I took damage, not in pain, but in pure rage. It had been my fault to lose track of the tail for even a moment, but that was all lost as I charged the beast and speared my hand forward into its right eye socket, and gripped its eyeball tightly. I then squeezed hard enough for the eye to pop. I used my other hand to generate a ball of writhing electricity and bury it inside the monster's mouth before I was quickly thrown back as the tail slammed into my chest, but by that point, the damage had already been done. The ball of electricity I had placed in its mouth detonated and scorched the monster's throat. The Infant Dragon tried to scream or roar, but no sound came out.

I used this opportunity to charge forward and just keep hitting it with a flurry of blows to the injured part of its head. One powerful blow after another landed on the already fragile section of its skull. It didn't take too long until the skull finally gave way completely, and I was just pounding through the tough skin into the monster's brain directly. To finish the fight, I wrapped my hand in more aura and used Piercing Stab to get through the skin, and touched its brain directly with my hand. It only took one large pulse of electricity for me to completely boil its brain from the inside.

For a moment, the Infant Dragon stood still, then it slowly tipped sideways and slammed into the ground. I grunted as I slammed into the ground with its body. I took a moment to sit and silently reflect on the fight atop its corpse. After taking a couple of minutes and a few deep breaths, I got up and began to dig out the magic stone. Once I removed the stone, the body turned to smoke before dissipating. I was startled out of my thoughts by Regulus's voice in my mind.

"That was a well-fought battle," He said simply.

"It was," I agreed, a smile finally creeping onto my face, "Well, it's time to get out of here and go celebrate,"

Of course, I would have actually confirmed that I had leveled up first before celebrating, but I was confident that I did. With everything done, I used Formhide and began to make my way out of the dungeon once more. 'I really need to get a teleportation ability,' I thought as I made my way up the floors at a decent pace. That led me to a question that I was actually curious about the answer to.

"Great Sage, will Tensura teleportation work to move in and out of the dungeon?" I asked mentally.

[Affimative]

I smiled broadly as I thought about how much easier life will be once I am able to teleport in and out of the dungeon without having to traverse the upper floors every single time I want to enter and exit the dungeon. I quickly thought about what it would take to achieve teleportation with as little effort as possible. That led me to think back to Great Sage's recommendation of Spatial Magic, which I had taken to unlock my Spatial Storage. There was another useful spell in Spatial Magic, Warp Portal. As long as I set up a magic circle, then I can directly teleport between my magic circles.

I could very well see that in the near future, I can set up an entire network of teleportation sites throughout the city or even the world if I ever decide to venture far outside of Orario. I would start by putting one inside my room, under my carpet, and I would put another on the 18th floor of the dungeon in Rivira. Then I can always start my journies from the 18th floor, then just teleport back to my room immediately instead of having to go back through the dungeon to the first floor. I dismissed those thoughts for now and focused on getting back and leveling up.

It didn't take me too long to arrive back at the shop. The first thing that stuck out to me was how crowded it was. I had never seen too many people in the shop before, but now it was crowded. At least a dozen people meandered through the shop, browsing and buying stuff. 'I think our debt will erase itself at this point,' I thought, also remembering the two million Valis I was meaning to give to Fortuna to put toward paying off our debt. I directly strode into the shop, gaining the attention of some of the female customers immediately as I did so.

They subtly stared at me with rosy cheeks as I made my way behind the desk and took a seat next to Fortuna. She grinned and gave me a questioning glance as I sat down next to her. I nodded, which caused her grin to become even wider, she quickly grabbed a paper and walked behind me as I raised my shirt. This gathers the attention of some of the customers, especially those who knew little more than the basics about adventurers and gods. I didn't mind them seeing me get my Falna updated as long as they couldn't see my status, which none of them could.

It didn't take long for Fortuna to update my status, then she whispered in my ear, "All stats were maxed before you leveled, but now you have the choice between these development abilities, Crush, Chain Attack, Fist Fighting, Healing, Hunter, and Mage."

I quickly thought about my choices, Crush most likely just makes powerful physical attacks stronger, which was okay but not what I wanted. Chain Attack was certainly a more interesting prospect since it increased the power of continuous attacks. I had no need for Hunter since I can directly bypass monsters I have fought before with teleportation. Healing was irrelevant to me, and I wasn't interested in Fist Fighting. That just left Mage and Chain Attack left. In the end I decided to take Chain Attack for now and see if I get a more unique magic based development ability in the future.

"I'll take Chain Attack," I told Fortuna.

"Really, not Hunter?" she whispered in shock.

"I'm sure," I confirmed and after a moment she handed me the paper.

-

[Galahad

Lv. 2

STR: I-0

END: I-0

DEX: I-0

AGI: I-0

MAG: I-0

Chain Attack: I

- Magic -

Magicule Manipulation

Curse: Tenfold Pain Enhancement

- Skills -

Tensura

Fatal Atraction]

-

"We'll have to celebrate at the Hostess of Fertility tonight," Fortuna said as I looked at the paper and smiled before crumpling it up and destroying it.

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Two Questions for you guys to answer:

1.) Who should the love interest be? (I already have someone in mind, but tell me your opinion)

2.) Should I show the MC training in Arts and Magic, or just skip training and give him the abilities between chapters or in small time skips?