Chapter 24 Month and a Half

Kova Nact

Level One

Strength I-9 -> G-212

Endurance I-11 -> H-199

Dexterity I-10 -> G-220

Agility I- 8 -> H-195

Magic I-13 -> G-241

Magic-

-[Stellar Sheen

-Enchantment

-Light Element

-Chant - Brightest Night

Golems Body

-Enchantment

-Earth Element

-Chant - Never Broken ]

-[ ]

-[ ]

Skills-

-Blessed Blood

-Potency of Elven and Dwarven Bloodlines have been enhanced

-Will gain the full benefits from both heritages

—

(Just so you guys know this isn't his only Update since the first one I'm just showing that last one you all saw.)

—

"There you go," Hephaestus said to me, handing me a sheet with my updated Status.

It had been a month and a half since I first went into the Dungeon. My probationary month with John had let me go all the way to the ninth floor with him and his party. Though at that level I was mainly just a supporter, only helping out with my throwing knives with the occasional stabby with my sword.

I was able to really see the difference between each level. There were more monster types and they were trickier than just a kobold and goblin. Frog Shooters were the first ranged opponents, War Shadows were like assassins, that blended into the darkness of the Dungeon and struck quickly. Killer Ants could swarm a party that wasn't careful enough. Then there were ones like Purple Moths and Blue Papilio that were support monsters that could end up being the death of an adventurer that ignored them.

Now I was able to go to the fifth floor by myself without difficulty. The sixth floor had stopped me dead however. I was only able to be down there for an hour before I had to turn back.

"You've done a good job over the past two weeks going solo, but Tsubaki tells me that you haven't had any breaks. You need to take a day off here and there," The Goddess said with worry. "Rose even complained to her that you would not come back from the Dungeon until late at night.

I had set a rigid schedule for myself where in the mornings I would smith and do alchemy and around mid-day I would head to the Dungeon, while dropping off potions at the elf ladies or gear in the shop at Babel. Sometimes I would grab lunch with my parents or visit the main shop before heading in.

"Sorry Hephaestus, but I just sort of… Got pissed off."

"Why?" She said sitting next to me.

"About a week before I started going solo someone actually wanted to form a direct contract with me. The owner of the shop told me about it and I met with the guy. He was surprised at my age, but was still willing to make the contract, until I said that I wanted to join any party he was in. The asshole said I could only be their supporter."

She just raised her one eyebrow. "And? You're an unknown child smith. Yes your weapons are good for your age, but that's all he knows about you. If he let you join their frontlines and you got someone else, or even yourself killed, it would be his fault. If you are their supporter for a few weeks then you'll eventually gain their trust and be allowed to fight every now and then, and if you do well enough then you can be put in the front lines."

"I know, that's what he told me and I got pissed off at myself. So then I had an idea, what if I make a name for myself by going inside the Dungeon every day solo. While there are kids in there they don't typically go solo in the Dungeon. I reckon if I'm seen fighting monsters while on the sixth or seventh floors alone then people would start to take notice. Then people would let me join them right away as at least a backline fighter."

"Why do you want to grow so quickly?" she asked.

"Hmmmmmm."

She squished my cheeks with her hands. "Kovaaaa?"

I pretended to look away shyly. "Are you finally going to take my first kiss? It's okay, I'm ready."

She shook my head back and forth. "I don't know where you learned to be like that, I've met your parents."

She had? When?

"It's due to my wildly traumatic past that has caused me-"

She shook me harder, "Stop lying."

I hadn't been lying about the kiss though, and the blush with the small smile told me she knew.

"I-I want t-to beat the r-record for f-fastest l-level up," I said while she messed with my head.

"What?" She said, then she began to laugh. "Sorry, that was a bit rude of me. Do you know the fastest time someone leveled up from One to Two?"

"Aflia from the Hera Familia, it took her a year and seven days."

She had been the one that had killed the Leviathan five years ago, but had failed against the One-Eyed Black Dragon. I had read about her from the Guild's public records when looking for any mention of Aiz Wallenstein or the Goddess Hestia, both of whom I had not seen at all.

"She was also nine and a part of the strongest Familia in the world. She fought two Infant Dragons at the same time, killing them both alone."

Noticing that I wasn't surprised or apprehensive she sighed with worry.

"Kova you have friends and family here waiting for you to come back, just don't forget that okay? It doesn't matter how fast you grow if you just end up tripping."

I didn't mention the fact that I didn't really have friends, Rose was still a stone wall, and Tsubaki was close, but she was more like an amazing older sister. I also didn't just want to be friends with them, but being seven I couldn't do much about that other than being cute and some light teasing. One day though… one day…

—

I let my Golems Body grow to cover my shoulder and the War Shadows jab slid off, only slicing superficially into me and sliding away. My gladius cut through its head and destroyed its crystal like eye. Twisting around I kicked the knee of the War Shadow behind me causing its attack to miss and my blade tore through it from shoulder to hip. I gently tossed my gladius up and swiftly pulled a throwing knife out and threw it into the eye of a Frog Shooter that was bounding my way. Snapping my hand back I grabbed the gladius mid air, a move I had practiced a lot over the past weeks.

The Frog Shooter screaming in pain writhing blindly on the ground.

A War Shadow was birthed next to me, its arms already outstretched, so I sliced them off and stabbed it in the chest when it stumbled out.

I pulled my Golems Body back to its resting place. I had been trying something new on the Sixth floor where I would have my Golems Body Enchantment always on, but only covering the nape of my neck so it took up as little Mind as possible. It seemed possible, but my Mind usage was still not efficient enough.

I moved to the Frog Shooter still wiggling on the ground and pulled out a few metal stakes I had made. I pierced the monster through its limbs and into the Dungeon floor. It tried to swing at me with its tongue but I dodged the attack and covered my entire arm in Golems Body grabbing the tongue before the monster could pull it back.

Stretching out the tongue as far as it could go I then staked it to the ground as well.

If anyone saw what I was doing they would probably run away in fear, but I had a reason. I scraped as much of the monster's saliva as possible from its mouth and tongue, putting it in flasks.

Like Rose had told me before, fluids from monsters don't disappear when the monster turns to ash, as long as it's no longer connected to the monster's body.

I had found that Frog Shooter saliva was actually a really heavy liquid, so that when someone got hit with the monster's attack they would be slowed down. It wasn't the monster's typical drop item, which was the tongue itself that could be used to support muscle growth and recovery when put in a potion.

I fished the magic stones from the monsters' bodies and put them in my pack. I didn't get any drop items, but that was fine. My Ascent Paradise was doing great in sales, so much so that I bought a cauldron to make the potion in larger batches.

After reaching the stairs for the fifth level I let my Enchantment fade away and began my trek back to the surface. I needed to make a stop on the third or second level, but it shouldn't take too long.

Then I heard the distant sound of fighting, but it wasn't the roars of monsters, but the yells of people and the sounds of metal clashing against metal. Usually adventurers stayed out of eachothers way in the Dungeon, but I had heard that sometimes Familias would fight out their disputes in the Dungeon.

I debated going to check it out, there was a low chance it included members of the Hephaestus Familia, but not zero. I could just walk away if it wasn't.

The two groups were in a large square room, a few monster corpses left on the side forgotten. I recognized the emblem of one of them, it was the Ganesha Familia, the ones that I had first seen when entering Orario. One of the strongest Familias with the largest member count in the city.

The other, well they were Evilus. They all wore black cloaks that covered their bodies and they laughed creepily. Seriously, did they know nothing about discretion? Were the Guild employees and guards blind? Oh what's this a group of people with sadistic grins and black cloaks covering them went into the Dungeon? Sweet they must be super excited to hunt down monsters!

The Ganesha Familia was led by a large man with large gauntlets, and included a girl no older than twelve with short slate blue hair that was wounded with a spear embedded deep into her leg.

"Get Ardi back! I'll hold them off while you guys retreat, look for any allied Familias and stick with them!" the man yelled.

Well shit… I can't just do nothing, it was a child, I thought to myself, ignoring the fact that I was several years younger.