Chapter 5

I walked slowly through the floors of Babel, inspecting the shops and merchandise as I went. While I had glanced around when walking through with Fortuna, it had never been my main focus to look at the items on display. I chuckled to myself as I saw some weapons and armor on sale for millions of Valis as I walked by one of the Hephaestus familia's many shops selling equipment to adventurers. I wondered how long it would be until I was able to afford weapons like these, but stopped soon after, not wanting to get ahead of myself. 'One step at a time,' I thought as I left Babel and made my way to the guild headquarters.

As I walked through the crowds on the street, I began to think about what to train first. I defiantly wanted to rush a few manipulation skills like wind or fire manipulation. Though I wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing that, what I did know is that I should get some basic arts like Aura Slash and Aura Sword before trying to get the Extra Skill: Magic Aura by melding my aura and magic together. 'I should also try to get some healing magic in case I get badly injured in the dungeon,' I thought to myself.

"Great Sage, how would I go about getting a skill like Lightning Manipulation?" I mentally asked, not bothering to slip into Thought Acceleration since I was just walking down the street by myself.

[With the Unique Skill: Degenerate, the synthesis of five lightning magic spells should suffice to create the Extra Skill: Lightning Manipulation]

"So I need to first get 5 spells of the element of magic I want a manipulation akill in?" I asked to confirm the information I had just been told.

[Yes, it is also recommended to learn spatial magic to store drops from the dungeon as well as spare armor and weapons]

I nodded in understanding as I began to consider where I can do my training without having to go in the dungeon or do it in the apartment. Then I remembered the abandoned church that Hestia and Bell lived in during the start of Danmachi. 'That place shouldn't be too far from the guild building, and nobody should be around,' I thought in excitement as I finally had a place to start training my magic and Arts. Soon, my excited thoughts came to an end as I finally reached the guild building.

I quickly followed the flow of adventurers making their way into the guild building. I spent a few moments admiring the inside of the building before heading straight to one of the many receptionist counters. I didn't recognize the man at the counter from the series, but I did catch sight of a certain redhead demi-human briefly as I looked at the other receptionist stationed at their respective counters. I turned back to face the man as it was my turn to walk up.

"Welcome to the guild. How can I assist you today?" He asked with a smile.

"I would like to register as an adventurer as I just joined a familia the other day," cutting out any unnecessary exchanges by telling him I am already in a familia right off the bat.

He nodded gratefully at me as he reached under his desk and began to grab some papers, "Just a moment," he said distractedly as he was clipping some of the papers together.

"No problem, take your time," I told him as I leaned against the desk casually.

It was only a few more seconds before he handed me a few papers to sign. I quickly filled out information such as my address, name, level, and a few more questions as well. It took me less than a minute in total before I handed the man back the papers. As he accepted the papers, he asked me one last question.

"Well, you're officially a licensed adventurer now," he said as he handed me a card and some papers, "One last question. The guild recommends that all new adventurers get a dungeon advisor when starting out, do you want one?"

Normally I would have said sure, but since I had Great Sage with me, I figured it would be worthless, "I'm gonna pass on that," I said, ignoring the disappointed look he gave me as I did so.

I quickly walked away before he could say anything more. I had done everything I set out to do, and I didn't feel like explaining my reasons for not wanting a dungeon advisor, so I quickly left. Once I was out of the building, I asked Great Sage how to get to the abandoned church and made my way there. Luckily it wasn't too far, and only took me a few minutes to get there. I approached the abandoned church casually, trying to make sure it was really abandoned before actually beginning my training. Once I was confident it really was abandoned, I went out to the front of the building and sat on the ruins of a stone wall.

I decided to begin by accessing my aura, which would allow me to perform Arts. However, after a few minutes of not really knowing what to do, I asked Great Sage for help.

"Great Sage, what should I do?" I asked, getting ready to follow instructions.

[Calm your mind and try to sense the energy inside of you. There will be two main pools of energy, your magicules, and your aura. Your aura will feel like a river flowing throughout your body. It is recommended to use Thought Acceleration to make this process more time efficient]

I nodded as I activated Thought Acceleration, then closed my eyes and calmed my mind. As I began to breathe in and out rhythmically, I tried to sense the inner workings of my body. At first, I kept failing over and over, but after a while, I began to feel the two pools of energy Great Sage had mentioned. My reserve of magicules felt like a tranquil lake, just sitting there waiting to be used. Conversely, my aura indeed felt like a raging river through my body, full of untapped power that was seemingly begging to be used. I was briefly surprised by how easy it had been to get in touch with aura as I opened my eyes.

"Great Sage, why was so easy once I knew what to do?" I asked curiously

[As a High Human, you have an incredible aptitude for both magic and aura. It would have been stranger for you to struggle with the task]

"Does that mean that all Magics and Arts will come fairly naturally to me?" I asked with my excitement building by the moment.

[Yes, most Magics and Arts will come fairly easily]

After Great Sage confirmed that I would have a fairly easy time training, I redoubled my efforts. After having glimpsed both energies inside of me for the first time, I could now feel them all the time. To access them would be as simple as closing my hands into fists. Now that I knew I could access my aura, I drew my sword from my waist and stood up. This is where this body's previous training came into play. Since this body was already a fairly decent swordsman and had the muscle memory already down, I found getting into the correct stance natural.

I gave a few test swings and smiled broadly. I was no sword saint, but with this body, I essentially was able to skip right to being decent with a sword. I began by trying to infuse my aura into my blade. At first, my aura just kept slipping off the blade and fading, but after a few failures, I closed my eyes and pictured my aura piercing to the very center of the blade and then emanating outward like heat from a bonfire. That seemed to do the trick because as soon as I opened my eyes, I looked down and saw my blade wrapped in a gently pulsating aura. I quickly opened my Tensura system status window and confirmed that Aura Sword was now listed in Arts under the Battlewill category.

As soon as the Skill, Magic, or Art was listed in my system, then I would be able to use it extremely easily. I looked up at the sun, which had just passed its highest point in the sky and was now fading toward afternoon. I decided that I would obtain one or two more Arts before heading back to the shop for the day and working on magic there.

Now that I knew how to get my aura on my blade, I tried to launch it from my blade as a projectile. Aura Slash is a basic but very effective Art and one I considered essential to learn. The hardest part of learning it was controlling the aura to maintain its shape when I launched it from my blade when slashing. However, once I started to picture the slash as a crescent moon shape, the attack began smoother and smoother until I finally gained the Art officially in my system screen.

Since Aura Slash took me longer to master than I previously thought, I decided to make my way back to Babel instead of working on the next Art, Aura Sheild.

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MC's Tensura Skills:

Arts:

* Battlewill

- Aura Sword

- Aura Slash

Common Skills:

Extra Skills:

Unique Skills:

* Great Sage

- Thought Acceleration

- Analytical Appraisal

- Parallel Operation

- Chant Annulment

- All of Creation

* Degenerate

- Synthesis

- Separate

Ultimate Skills (Locked)