Watching the animated pub scene, Mark had only one thought.
'After the nights I paid for, I'll find another place.'
With this promise, he went inside. Once inside he could see several adventurers enjoying a meal or just drinking. Ignoring all the noise, Mark walked over to the counter where Mia was serving her meals.
"You are finally back boy, tell what can I bring you?" -Said the woman smiling.
"I'll take something with meat, I'll eat in my room."
"Come on boy how can you eat alone in the room, don't you like the environment?"
"If by the environment you mean big noisy and drunk men screaming then no." -Mark replied without hesitation.
"Don't do that. Look, a lot of women are watching you."
Turning around Mark could see that indeed many girls were looking at him and you could see that some were interested in him. Turning back to look at Mia, he said without any interest.
"Not interested."
"Well if you say so, but I have to say it's a shame some of them are cute." -Mia said as she shook her head.
Mark actually noticed that the girls at Orario were very beautiful, such as Eina and Chloe could rival some of the models on Earth, but besides the thought 'that girl looks good', he didn't feel anything else, especially when he thought of the last moments of Selene's life.
"Here you go boy this is today's meat dish worth 200 valis. -" Mia told him as she handed him a covered plate.
'These prices are bad for the heart' -After leaving the money on the counter, he took the plate and was about to leave, when he felt someone touch his shoulder. Turning to see who it was, he immediately regretted it.
"Hi mister adventurer, I'm Syr, we met this afternoon but it seems you didn't see me."
The girl who spoke was none other than Syr, the most popular waitress in the pub who made everyone fall in love with her cute little face, but in Mark's eyes, she was nothing more than a mass of lust and madness.
"Nice... nice to meet you Syr, I'm Mark." -Using all his willpower, he tried to greet Syr without throwing up.
"I will not interrupt your work anymore, see you." -With those words, Mark tried to leave as quickly as possible.
"Did I do something that bothered you?" -She said aloud as if about to cry, attracting the attention of the adventurers.
Watching how the adventurers were ready to jump off him at any moment, Mark showed his acting skills that he didn't know he had. Approaching Syr he stroked her head and looked at her with the kindest (fake) smile he had ever given, and then he said.
"You know very well that I'm not angry with you, I'm just afraid that the person you like might misunderstand."
After dropping that bomb Mark immediately sprinted upstairs.
"Who is the devil who deceived our angel!"
"Gentlemen, it is time to start a crusade."
"I don't think I can go on living ..."
While the adventurers were having seizures after hearing Mark's words, Syr had just come out of her fantasy bubble.
'Ahh, I have to have him for me.'
With that thought, she tried to get away as far as possible only to be stopped by Mia who forced her to stay and fix this whole mess.
Meanwhile, Mark who was upstairs, completely ignored the chaos he had caused. He was lying on the floor with his belly up while he was breathing rhythmically. Mark had no knowledge of meditation, but he knew that lying down allowed the body to relax completely.
With his eyes closed as he breathed gently, he was trying to feel the mana as the Guide had told him, but with no success. After an hour of meditation he 'saw' a blue particle, but it disappeared immediately.
"What was that feeling?" -He asked as he opened his eyes and got to his feet.
[Congratulations host you just felt the mana.]
"It was only for a moment though."
[You must understand that humans, unlike elves, don't have much compatibility with mana. So perceiving it after an hour is already a milestone for the human race.]
Feeling motivated, Mark went back to meditating for hours and hours, until he was able to maintain his sight on ten particles of light, but the moment he opened his eyes everything disappeared as if it were a mirage. Getting to his feet Mark stretched, but when he looked at the window he froze.
"It's dawn" -He felt strange since he had spent the whole night meditating and in any case, he didn't feel tired.
[Meditation helps to relax your body and mind, so you don't feel tired. Of course, this doesn't mean you don't need to sleep.]
Feeling more rested than usual he prepared to go to the dungeon, exiting the door of the room he went down the stairs hoping not to meet Syr. Perhaps listening to his prayers, at the counter he found an elven girl he had never seen. The Elf had blue eyes and light green hair with snow-white skin that would easily fascinate a person.
"You must be Mr. Mark, nice to meet you I'm Ryuu, Mia hired me to give you breakfast" -Said the girl named Ryuu as she handed him a basket.
If anyone saw her for the first time their first thought would be about her beauty, but not Mark.
'Why this place is full of monsters' -In fact, the aura that this girl emanated was slightly bigger than Chloe, and in addition to the feeling of serenity, hidden deep inside he could see the colors of anger and coldness.
"Thank you very much Miss Ryuu, thank Mrs. Mia too." -He was about to take the basket but he heard Ryuu's question.
"Do I have something on my face? It seemed to me that you were looking at something "- She asked calmly.
"... it's only the first time I've seen such a charming girl." -After thinking for a second he said the first thing that didn't make him look suspicious.
"I see." -With those words, she resumed work. Putting the basket inside his backpack, Mark walked out of the shop not realizing that Ryuu was still looking at him.
After a short run, Mark arrived in Babel and after the usual check he went down to the first level.
'Limit break' 'clank'
By activating the ability immediately, Mark had thought of a way to strengthen himself.
"From today I will be in the dungeon from sunrise to sunset, so Guide let me know when to return."
[affirmative.]
He went straight down to the second level as the first one had mostly goblins. On the second floor he faced various kobolds that were alone, but he could easily handle them, the only small challenge he had on the floor was to face two of them together but he didn't find too many problems. After eating his meal he decided to go down to the third floor for more challenges.
As he walked through the third-floor corridors he heard a small hiss and without hesitation jumped to one side, dodging a dog-sized lizard. Focusing on the new enemy he did not notice that a kobold had come out of the dungeon walls, that as soon as it saw Mark, the monster scratched his back
"Gh! These bastards always hit the back! "
Gritting his teeth in pain, he raised his guard again to intercept the kobold's second attack, once the blow was parried, he kicked the monster to the knee causing it to fall and then stab it with the sword. Instead, for the lizard, he jumped up and planted the sword in the middle of his head.
"Haaa ... haaa ... shit I still feel the pain in my back." -Because he could not turn off the ability, he continued to feel double the pain in his back.
"I can not continue like this, Guide how long does it take at sunset?"
[one hour.]
'At least I trained enough.'
With those thoughts in mind, he picked up the stones and tried to get out of the dungeon. As soon as he was outside, he felt the ability deactivate, and consequently, the pain diminish. Feeling a little better he went to the guild where he exchanged the stones for 3,500 valis and with the money he earned, he bought clothes identical to the ones he had and underwear.
After shopping, he returned to the tavern with a desire that came from the bottom of his heart.
'Make sure she isn't there, make sure she isn't there'
"Ah! Mr. Mark good evening. Have you just returned from shopping? " - She told him with a smile.
'Fuck.' - The moment he entered, he was greeted by Syr and her aura that made him feel sick every time.
"Good evening Syr, I'm back from shopping. I was going to have a meal and eat in the room since I'm tired. " -He said with a polite smile trying to hide his true feelings.
"Hmmm, okay then, good evening." -With those words, Syr left.
Mark thought he was finally lucky as that girl/goddess wasn't going to bother him, so without hesitation, he got some food and immediately went to the room to meditate, not knowing that when Syr left she had a smile on her face.
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[NAME]: Mark Tormeto
[AGE]: 18
[LV]: 1
[BASIC ABILITIES]:
Strength: H 120 -> H 130
Endurance: H 100 -> 105
Dexterity: h 110 -> H 115
Agility: H 135 -> H 145
Magic: I 10
[DEVELOPMENT ABILITIES]:
(none)
[MAGIC]:
-electricity control: allows control over electric mana.
SKILLS:
-Golem heart: Your experiences have taught you true human nature, this makes it harder to get others into your heart and only people who truly care about you can receive your feelings.
(active) Turns off your human side and increases your statistics by 50 (blocks the use of limit break) (corruption risk).
(passive) Makes it easier to distinguish the nature of people.
-Limit break (lv1): the possibility of exceeding your limits in order not to be weaker.
(active) doubles the gains but you will suffer double the pain (it can only be activated before fighting if deactivated it will negate any kind of gain).
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valis: 3400