Chapter 20

I look at my status and celebrate inwardly the new addition of Lightning Magic. I also feel much stronger compared to just a couple of minutes ago. Today might have been the single biggest jump in power I've had.

"I thought you would have reacted more surprised." I said to my koala goddess. She sighs in response.

"This is just normal for you now, you have to do much better for me to be surprised now that you have your standards." Loki says, I chuckle lightly in response. Our atmosphere is broken up when the door to Loki's quarters flies open revealing Raul, I quickly burn my status sheet for my privacy.

"Loki! Ah- Cain you're here too great!" Raul says gathering the attention of Loki and me. He takes a couple of seconds to gather himself before sending us a message.

"Ottar is in front of the Manor waiting for you, Cain." Raul says, I calmly get ready to leave, putting my shirt back on, before heading out.

"I will be back!" I say cheerfully as I leave the room to try and cheer it up.

The situation might seem bad, but it isn't anything I didn't see as a possibility. I'm fairly sure that Freya is out of commission for some reason, they couldn't fix it and now they are asking me as a final hope.

How do I know this? After we made our truce her Familia locked me in the Goliath room and forced me to fight it, meaning inevitable death for any other level 1 adventurer. She probably feels bad for not calling off the plan in time because ever since then, I haven't even heard a peep about Syr.

I finish thinking about everything as I arrive in front of the gate spotting the gates open with Ottar waiting with a stoic face, when he spotted me I saw a crack in his stoic face. I approached without any hurried steps, I stopped in front of him looking up at him.

"What is it you want?" I want to get down to business. Ottar understands and makes his request.

"My lady needs you. We will reward you with anything we can give if you aid us." He requests

It is a good reward for hopefully just a little pep talk, and I decide to accept.

"Lead the way…" I say bored, Ottar quickly turns and starts running. I follow closely behind him. The run there was silent and quick, when we arrived at the top floor of Babel, Ottar stopped in front of a door.

"My lady is on the other side of this door." I nod in response, taking a deep breath as I enter Freya's room.

The first thing I hear as I enter her room is mumbling, I make sure to close the door before approaching. Freya's room is grand with a mini library, a massive window overlooking the whole of Orario, and finally a massive bed that could fit 25 people, but only 1 was occupying it at the moment.

I approach the mumbling mess lying on the bed.

"Itsmyfaultitsmyfaultitsmyfaultitsmyfaulthehatesmenowanditsmyfaultitsmyfaultitsmyfault" Freya mumbled out in between sobs. As I approached I also noticed that she was naked beneath the cover that she was using to dry her eyes. Not a pretty sight for a goddess of beauty.

I get in bed with Freya. I reach out my hand and hold onto her shoulder.

"Freya… I'm here." I attempt to reach out to her. I get closer to her and try again this time she is in my embrace.

"Freya, don't worry, I don't hate you." I try calling out, but I'm met with the same mumbles that she has been repeating. As my thoughts were getting more perverted, it would only take my hands drifting upwards to steal a feel. Before I tried anything like that though I had one more idea.

I pulled her even closer to me, her back was pressed firmly into my back, and her perfect ass was pressed into my crotch, but I kept my urges suppressed.

"Freya, I love you" I spoke seductively directly into her ear. I heard her mumbling slowly stop and she started to breathe rhythmically. I slowly left her to sleep in peace.

As I open the door to Freya's room I'm greeted by Ottar who is still there, but also I see someone who looks exactly like Freya.

"Were you successful?!" She asks hurriedly.

"She's sleeping right now. If it isn't fixed, come back to me." I say. I get a nod from the other two and start walking away.

"I'll come when I want my reward" I finish disappearing.

I come back to the Manor and tell Loki that I'll be in the dungeon just to practice my new magic and I should be back soon. She was disappointed but I assured her I'd be back in time for the celebrations at the Hostess of Fertility.

I quickly made my way down to the 18th floor without any issues, I went to my usual camping spot that I used when I was grinding the Large Tree Labyrinth And started meditating and trying to repeat the process of when I first tried to manifest magic.

My Mind moved in front of me without me even needing to command it but it already turned into fire, I dissipated the fireball and tried again, but I had the same result.

I tried slowing down but the results continued being the same. I tried to think of the reason when I suddenly remembered the answer.

I need to desire to create lightning, when I first used magic I did so because I wanted to create a fireball, and now I've been creating fireballs since I have been trying to recreate that moment and my subconscious was so used to only making fire when using magic.

And my first try after that realization I managed to create a lightning ball, purple lightning cackling all around it I shot it forward, and it destroyed every single tree in the way only stopping when it encountered the dungeon wall. I counted my lucky stars that I didn't shoot it at Rivira.

I continued experimenting this time using the Fire spells I had already made but instead of Fire Magic using Lightning magic and learned some things about my new magic.

First off, the cost of the magic was much, much more than fire, but it was also much stronger as a baseline, with my Fire Magic I have to use Mind to upgrade the flames before shooting them out, but with Lightning Magic, it is powerful from the get-go.

Secondly, Lightning Magic sucks for AOE, something like Lightning Wave stops being effective at about 2ft. It still manages to perform Fire Magic when it comes to pierce and single target spells,

Lastly, I tested something that didn't work before but I had hope. If I infused Fire Magic into my body I would just get a body on fire, not very helpful most of the time. I tried the same idea with Lightning Magic and time seemed to slow around me. My Idea worked, I got a spell, I got an enhancement spell, and I named it Thunderclap Impulse.

When I finished my experimentation I prepared to go to sleep. I decided to sleep in the dungeon, it shouldn't be long anyway, just a quick nap to replenish my Mind and get a little sleep.

I use my arms as my pillow and drift off to sleep in no time.

…

I'm woken up by malicious intent oozing out of somebody near me, I quickly get up and jump away from the intent now fully awake. I see two assailants.

(A/N: As an apology for a longer-than-planned break, here is an extra chapter.)

{???'s POV}

I sat next to me were my Familia's Captain and Co-Captain waiting for some unimportant spy to finish their so-called urgent report.

"Ottar was just in front of the Twilight Manor and requested an individual named Cain" They reported. I was intrigued.

"And who is this Cain?" I asked.

"Yes, he recently joined the Loki Familia and soared through the ranks becoming an executive within a couple of months." They reported additional information they obtained

 "How strong is he?" I asked, forming a plan.

"It's hard to estimate, he seems to be a lower level 5" With that level of power, I plan for the worst and I decide on a way to get Cain under my command.

"Phryne, take Haruhime and go find and capture him," I ordered. Phryne starts moving to my order but the spy adds something to his report. Phryne and I pause.

"I believe that he normally camps out on the southeastern corner of the 18th floor." They finish with a description of him.

"Go find him as soon as possible," I say, Phryne continues forward licking her lips.

{Phryne POV}

I make my way to where Haruhime is stationed and forcefully open the door.

"Ugly Girl, we have a new mission, come with me" I give her some healing potions. Haruhime submissively follows after me until we reach the dungeon. I hear her nervous breaths. I don't want to baby her all the way there, so I just take a firm grasp of her wrist and sprint down to the 18th floor ignoring enemies in the interest of time. Haruhime was being silent so I assumed that she wasn't getting threatened by the speed we were going.

…

We arrived at the southeastern part of the 18th, it didn't take much searching for us to find Cain. There was big damage leading to a clearing where a handsome man laid his rhythmic breathing telling me he was sleeping. The spy undersold his attractiveness. He looked like a god of beauty the only thing missing was a godly aura surrounding him showing he was a god.

A perverted grin crept its way onto my face. Ishtar might mind if I get a taste first but, she'll have plenty more opportunities once he's under her control. I approach him ready to fuck him while he is unconscious, but when I approach him, he suddenly awakens and backs away.

{Cain POV}

I'm woken up by malicious intent oozing out of somebody near me, I quickly get up and jump away from the intent now fully awake. I see two assailants. One frog-looking woman and another main heroine from the anime Haruhime.

I assessed my position. My Mind reserves are just about full, the frog-looking woman takes out a Battle Axe, and I reach for Yin, but realize that I left it at the Manor since I only wanted to practice magic. I take a deep breath.

"Haruhime, prepare it now!" Phryne orders the fox girl, As she waits for my attack.

Not wanting to have to deal with a leveled-up version of my foe, I start preparing a Lightning Lance to hopefully end this in one move, Frog Shooter gets into a defensive stance.

"Until the bell tolls, bring forth glory and illusion. -Grow. Confine divine offerings within this body. This golden light was bestowed from above. Into the ham-" I pay Haruhime's chant launching my Lance before she is finished.

 Frog Shooter wasn't expecting the speed of my chantless magic and only managed to avoid it by sacrificing her axe and getting out of the way, it didn't break but at least we were on an equal playing field. Tch, that was a waste of time and Mind.

I continue my assault though I engage in a fistfight with the frog woman. I was able to leverage my superior speed to land some blows, but they did almost nothing. I was not affected and continued fighting her until I heard Haruhime.

"Uchide no Kozuchi!" I immediately disengaged and put space between of me and the frog woman. A yellow aura surrounds her, I could also feel that she has gotten much more powerful.

With the space I gave her, she rushed to get her axe back. I let her so I could have a different fight with her.

"Come on Frog Shooter, you think you can even land a hit on me now, you weren't even able to do it before. Maybe they were right, an Ugly bastard is a Dumb bastard" I say to get under her skin as I think I see a vein on her forehead pop and when she picks up her axe she immediately rushes me.

I was able to just barely avoid some of her strikes, I realized that now, we were on the same level speed-wise, no, she was faster. I was only able to avoid it because I understand how to fight against someone using a battle axe, through my bouts with Gareth I was able to barely dodge her oncoming blows.

Crap… I might die here. I start to leave insanely tight margins between her axe and myself so I can better prepare for the next blows, but the longer I don't get hit the madder the frog becomes and the easier her attacks are to read, but also the stronger they become.

I need to think of something that she won't be able to dodge or block so I try to think of something while avoiding the frog woman.

I use Thunderclap Impulse so I can get more time to think about avoiding her attacks.

With her deflecting Lightning Lance at a weaker state, it might only leave me with Fire Storm to deal damage to her. I shake my head inwardly.

Dealing damage isn't enough, I need to destroy her, I need to kill her in one go.

Suddenly my instincts flared up and seemed to guide me, I trusted my instincts. They guided me to create two arrows, one with Fire Magic and one with Lightning Magic. I then combined them pouring Mind into it as well. The process also took immense concentration so it didn't result in an Ignus Fatuus.

The frog woman was stunned by what I was doing and engaged me with the intent to kill.

I felt something on my right side, as I completed my spell.

It was a ruby red arrow with crimson flames escaping the ruby silhouette with crimson lightning also crackling around the arrow. I shot it point blank at the frog woman who was right in front of me with her axe on my right side. She tried to get away and block it with her axe similar to last time, but it destroyed her axe pierced through her heart and made her body struck by crimson lightning then exploded into crimson fire.

I immediately fell to one knee utterly exhausted from using that much Mind, I was almost out. I inspected where that frog woman slashed me with her axe, there was a horizontal slash that just stopped just short of my spine, though I believe my intestines threatened to leak out if I wasn't careful.

I start feeling sleep overtaking me, I fight off the feeling.

{Haruhime's POV}

There is no way this adventurer was able to kill Phryne after I level-boosted her, and his magic it might only lose to Nine Hell's. I get out of my thoughts when I hear him weakly call out.

"please. help me.." I hear him weakly call out his voice rough. I panic not knowing what to do, should I help him, he is no doubt going to be an enemy of the familia.

I let go of those thoughts and do what I can to help this man.

Ah! The healing potions Phryne gave me, I reached into my kimono and procured a healing potion. I then run to his side but I stop myself. My whole body starts shaking, my teeth chattering. Am I unable to help someone just because of their gender?

I calmed myself down. I need to help this man. I take a series of deep breaths and approach him anew.

I point his head up, and pour the healing potion down his throat he doesn't reject it. I see his wounded abdomen start healing. His complexion soothes.

{Cain POV}

I feel the potion working its magic. I fight the need to pass out again, I need to Mind Zero at least I'll benefit so much from just using a smaller-scale spell. 

I shoot out a random Lightning Arrow as I speak.

"take care of me…" I immediately Mind Zero.

…