Chapter 7

(A/N: I forgot to mention it, but all of the MC's spells are cast via magic circle. So, whenever he casts a spell, there is always a clearly visible magic circle the color of the magic he is casting)

"You are lucky to have me," I said with a laugh as I placed the needle on a table before heading for the door, "I'm gonna head up to bed, how about you?"

I heard rapid footsteps behind me before Fortuna fell into step with me as we left the store, "I was planning to head up now as well," she said casually.

I nodded, then waited for a few moments before telling Fortuna my plan, "I think I'll head to the dungeon tomorrow to check it out," lacing sidelong at the Goddess to see her reaction.

My words caused her to frown slightly, but she just looked back at me and said, "If that's what you want to do, then I trust you. Just make sure not to overestimate yourself," she said as she placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, causing me to smile.

"Don't worry, I don't have TOO much of an inflated ego," I said jokingly, causing Fortuna to punch my shoulder lightly.

We battered back and forth casually until we returned to the apartment and headed inside. Then, we bid each other goodnight before heading to our respective rooms. I had no intention of sleeping just yet, but I did want a bit of privacy while I focused on unlocking the Art, Aura Sheild, before bed. Normally I would never have trained any Art or Magic in the apartment, but since Aura Sheild is a defensive Art, I figured that it would be fine to practice inside.

I focused on projecting a protective bubble around myself that would be capable of negating a lot of the damage from oncoming attacks. After my experience with manipulating aura earlier today, it didn't take me long to gain the Art and fully master it. I quickly cast it and watched as a half dome was quickly projected in front of me, fully covering my front in a shield of aura but leaving my back unprotected. I frowned as I tried to will the aura into the bubble shape I had been picturing before, but it seemed like I would have to create an entirely new Art to make the defensive bubble. With the Art done, I quickly crawled into bed.

However, before I went to bed, I decided to try creating an entirely new art of my own based on some fantasy novels I had read in my previous life. I quickly sat up and began to imagine my aura leaking out of my body to form a dense shroud around me that would slow oncoming attacks, taking a lot of the momentum and deadly force out of them. This proved to be the easiest Art to obtain so far since it basically was just allowing a cloud of arua to leak out of my body and hang around me before condensing it to become denser. I was curious what this Art would be called in my system, so I quickly called up my status and looked at its name, Aura Shroud.

(A/N: Based on Density Feild from World Tree Online and Shrouds from Sufficiently Advanced Magic if you are curious)

Before I laid back down, I could stop my curiosity and decided to activate my Unique Skill: Degenerate on Aura Shroud and Aura Sheild, synthesizing them together to create a new, stronger Art. I wasn't even entirely sure if this would work, but I could barely contain my excitement when I saw my experiment had been a success. I quickly decided to cast my Art one time before actually going to bed. I held out my hand and called out the name of the Art, Aura Wall. Immediately an extremely dense wall of Aura, shaped in the form of a dome, formed in front of me, with the space between my body and the wall filled with dense aura as well.

I wanted to laugh out loud, but I promptly collapsed back onto my bed out of exhaustion. Apparently, going from zero to one hundred with my training had taken my body by surprise. I didn't even have time to cover myself with the blankets before I was out cold and snoring. I sleep peacefully and dreamlessly until the first rays of sunlight ruthlessly ripped through the window in my room and shone like little lasers on my closed eyes. I groaned as I pulled the covers over my head, which quickly caused me to overheat.

"You win this time, sun," I said grumpily as I slipped out of bed and used Clean Wash to wash myself before I got dressed.

I decided to toss two pairs of clothes in my storage as emergency changes of clothes before opening the door to my room and heading out. Once again, I found Fortuna already out in the living room and looking perfect as usual. She turned as soon as I opened my door, watching me enter the room with a strained smile.

"What's wrong?" I asked in concern, but before she answered, Fortuna ran forward and gave me a bid hug.

"Be safe in the dungeon, don't be afraid or embarrassed to run away since it is still a victory to live to fight another day," She said as she squeezed me tighter.

I quickly reciprocated the hug and said, "Don't worry, I'm not too proud to run. Plus, I'm only dipping my toes into the dungeon's waters," I said, raising her head so she could see my serious look.

"Promise?" she nearly whispered.

I stuck out my pinky and locked it with her own pinky finger, "I pinky promise," I said, evoking the sacred and unbreakable vow that is a Pinky Promise.

I wasn't sure if she entirely understood what a Pinky Promise is, but she seemed to get the gist of it. She quickly wiped her eyes which were full of unshed tears, and spoke once more.

"I just don't want to lose my first child," she said, the tears finally falling down her cheeks.

"I know," I said, wrapping her in a tighter embrace while my excitement to explore the dungeon all but went out completely.

'The dungeon is not a toy, it's basically a death trap where people die every day,' I reminded myself as I held Fortuna, who was sobbing by this point. 'I will come back to you,' I vowed in my heart as I looked down at the Goddess that cared so much for me despite just meeting me. I felt a warmth and a particular emotion spreading throughout my heart and body as I looked at Fortuna, love. Not the lust-tainted love one feels for a lover but the love that one would feel toward a parent or a sibling. Despite knowing her for only a few days, the fact that we were destined to meet and form a bond was clear to both of us and was the catalyst that allowed us to grow so attached to each other already.

Fortuna was more affected by our fated bond than I was since she was a Goddess of fate and fortune and was much more in tune with that sort of esoteric stuff than I was. I simply gave her head a pat while waiting for her to stop crying. Eventually, she pulled away and wiped the last of her tears from her face.

"Sorry for that," She said with an embarrassed false laugh, "I don't know what came over me,"

"It's fine, I said," patting her back as I spoke.

After spending a moment to make sure she was really okay, I turned toward the door and heard Fortuna call, "Good luck," as I exited the door.

This whole interaction with Fortuna made me much more serious about approaching the dungeon, which I was thankful in my heart for. I doubted that I would get hurt even if I had been cocky and or excited when heading into the dungeon to explore the first few floors, but it never hurt to be careful. As I walked through the sparsely populated floors of Babel, my mood lightened somewhat but still remained severely dampened. I had always been good at controlling my emotions, so keeping them in check now wasn't difficult.

It was only as I finally reached the bottom floor of Babel and headed for the circular hole in the ground that was the entrance to the dungeon that I started to feel the beginning embers of anxiety begin to glow inside my chest. I quickly stamped them out, taking a breath to recenter myself as I began to descend the steps leading down to the first floor of the dungeon. As I approached the final step, I grabbed my sword from inside my Spatial storage.

Then, I finally took my first step on the first floor of the dungeon

=== === === === ===

I didn't mean to make this chapter have the interaction between the MC and Fortuna, but character development is always good.