Chapter 26

I awoke early, laying in bed as I felt the last of the injuries in my body close. I was still angry due to the sneak attack, but I dismissed those feelings for the time being and, after feeling that there was nobody other than Naaza and Miach in the shop, rose from my room. They looked over at me, startled by my sudden appearance.

"When did you get back?" Miach asked with a smile, walking forward, already anticipating my request.

"Late last night, I would have stayed longer, but I had already achieved what I set out to do," I said, omitting the involvement of the Loki familia in my return.

"Well, it's good to see you in good health no matter if you achieved your objective or not," Miach said positively as I he went to my back to update my status.

"I shouldn't even be surprised anymore, but you manage to do so every time," Miach said, as he handed me a paper.

I quickly looked down at my stats and whistled in appreciation.

[Augustus Zahard

Lv. 1

STR: SSS-1181

END: SSS-1200

DEX: SSS-1167

AGI: SSS-1123

MAG: SSS-1250

Magic:

Magicule Manipulation

Skills:

Tensura]

I gazed at the paper in satisfaction, but Miach broke me out of my trance, asking me an important question.

"Do you want me to level you up?" he asked, making me waver for a moment until I had my answer.

"Yeah," I said, wondering what development abilities I would get offered.

Miach quickly began the process of leveling me up while I was lost in thought. I could have continued to find out my stats at level one, but there were a few reasons I decided not to. The first was that I'm not sure level 1 stats are as impactful to my growth when compared to level 2 stats. Also, I wanted to get the automatic boost from leveling up to give me a greater pool of both aura and magic to draw from. Finally, I wanted to start leveling up a bit faster since I will have to put in more work at the higher levels.

I was broken from my thoughts once more by Miach as he began to explain my choices of development abilities, "So, you have a few to choose between. First up is Hunter, which I doubt I need to explain its effects to you. Next, up is Mage which is pretty self-explanatory from the name. Then there is Spirit Healing which is pretty rare, it helps recover your magic when not using it. You can also get Chain Attack which improves the power of attacks delivered continuously. Finally, there is one that I have no idea what it does, it's called gacha,"

I widened my eyes upon hearing gacha, but its presence didn't change my mind about the development ability I want, "I'll take Hunter,"

"Alright," Miach replied, pushing a new piece of paper against my back and then handing it to me.

[Augustus Zahard

Lv. 2

STR: I-0

END: I-0

DEX: I-0

AGI: I-0

MAG: I-0

Hunter: I

Magic:

Magicule Manipulation

Skills:

Tensura]

"Congratulations on becoming level 2, we need to celebrate," Miach declared as Naaza walked over and looked at my level 1 paper, her eyes going wide.

"At this rate, we'll have to make you captain," she said with a chuckle, though her eyes dimmed slightly.

Seeing this, I immediately responded in the negative, "Nah, I'd prefer it if you continue to hold the position, Cap,"

She gestured to her injured arm and spoke again, "It'll have to go you eventually, it would be weird if the captain wasn't the strongest member of the familia, and I'm never getting past level 2. I just have to face the fact that I'm practically useless now,"

"HEY, don't ever talk like that again Naaza. Neither Augustus nor I think your useless," Miach said, holding the girl's head up so that she looked up at him, shooting me a glance when he mentioned my name.

"Yeah, so what if you can't go to the dungeon? You are the best potion maker in Orario, not even Armid or Dian Cecht can compare to you. If you're worried about the captain thing I can become the captain when I get to level 3, but until then, I think you are a better captain than I would be," I said seriously.

Naaza began to cry and pulled both Miach and me into a hug, "I'm sorry guys. I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than in this familia with you two,"

"Reverse Harem?" I said jokingly, causing Naaza to give me a sight punch to the shoulder and Miach to chuckle.

I spent a good chunk of the day with Miach and Naaza in the shop, just talking and hanging out with them. Just like Naaza had said earlier, I was glad to be here in this familia instead of a different one. I prefer the genuine nature of a group of three compared to just being another face in a familia of hundreds. Eventually, I got up from my seat and made my way toward to Guild building so that I can sell the stones I collected on the 17th floor.

As I walked I thought about my armor that had been destroyed by Bete. It was annoying that it got destroyed so soon after I bought it, but its destruction brought up a question in my mind, 'should I get a new set of armor?'. I honestly wasn't sure, on the one hand, it would provide more protection, but is that what I want? If my goal is to level up should I not forego armor entirely, after all, I already have [Ultraspeed Regeneration], [All Attributes Resistance], and [Magic Sense] which allow me to be fine without armor.

Without the need to pump money into my armor, I could focus primarily on saving up for a Durandal attribute sword that will cost me in the range of 100s of millions already. I truly wasn't sure what to do right now, so I put it off and walked into the Guild building. I entered the bulk line as per usual and deposited the magic stones. After a bit of a wait, I walked out of the building 4,250,000 Valis richer than before. Of course, only a little more than one million Valis would go to me, but that was enough to make me very happy.

- (POV: Finn) -

Finn trudged through the upper floors of the dungeon, leading the vanguard of the expedition force. Although he knew that there was pretty much no way that anything would happen on the upper floors, he had thought that when they had just entered the Lower floors and he was proven wrong. He decided to be extra vigilant even on the Upper Floors, just in case another freak accident happened.

He looked over to his right and saw Ais standing there, looking lost in thought. She practically hadn't spoken a word since the lake. Even Finn was surprised by her silence, expecting her to be excited to have gained at least a little bit of news about spirits, but no. Finn wasn't too worried about her yet, but he still decided to give her a pep talk once they returned to the mansion.

Thinking about things he needed to do made Finn think about the need to reprimand Bete upon their return. He was still upset by the werewolf's actions, but he could see the reasoning. That didn't make it the right course of action though, what would the other familias and adventurers think if they knew that the Loki familia didn't punish a member for beating a much lower leveled adventurer unprovoked? The situation just gave him a headache due to how avoidable it had been.

He also knew that he would have to go and find Augustus to apologize on behalf of the Loki familia, but also to ensure that Ais's secret wouldn't spread.

- (POV: ?) -

A blonde man stood on a balcony high above the streets of Orario when a person emerged from the shadows behind him. The blonde man didn't turn and acknowledge the newcomer, but he did put his feathered hat on his head.

"Lord Hermes, I think we found somebody that you might be interested in," the figure from the shadows spoke.

"Finally, a potential new Hero," The god spoke, his orange eyes flashing in excitement.

- (POV: ???) -

High above Orario in the tower of Babel, a woman sat on a throne overlooking the vast city expanse beneath her. She sat looking down at the souls that shone like beacons in the vast sea of darkness outside the windows of her tower. A massively built man stood as silent as a statue next to her, unmoving and silent.

Suddenly, a voice cut through the silence of the room, surprising neither goddess nor man, "Lady Freya, I think we have found the adventurer you are looking for,"

"The report is appreciated. You may go now Horn," the Goddess said with a dismissive gesture, but she felt her excitement grow at the news.

"Yes Lady Freya," Horn said as she rose and exited.

- - - (Chapter End) - - -

I might post a third chapter today, so keep a lookout for it.