Chapter 19 Preperations

Rose spent the next few days watching Kova absorb the information like a sponge. She hammered in key points like how goblins were weaker than kobolds, but were more intelligent, or how Dungeon Lizards often waited at places where fighting was likely to happen and waited for a moment to drop on their prey.

She taught him about types of terrain, locations of pantries, and the best spot to hit when you needed to end a fight quickly and break the monster's magic stone. There were also tactics he could use when facing single or multiple enemies.

Each day she taught him he would come in with an herbal and metallic smell. Every time he tried to joke around with her but she would only give cold responses. Rose had set a strict rule for herself not to grow any feelings of attachment to the half-elf boy. But she had underestimated his deviousness.

"Hi Miss Rose," Kova said happily in the pre-dawn morning.

Her nose twitched, Kova's usual scent was overwhelmed by mouth watering deliciousness. She lifted her head and focused her tired eyes on four Jyaga Marukun potato puffs that were in his arms along with his usual notebook.

"I got breakfast for us."

"I'm fine," she said automatically.

But Kova wasn't looking at her face, he was looking at her butt, more specifically her fluffy tail that was smacking the seat. Her hand shot out stilling it. She ignored her slight blush to glare at the boy. Like in their previous meetings her glares had no effect on him.

"Here you can have these two, they have strips of meat in them," He said, ignoring her earlier refusal.

He set them down in front of her and took the opposite seat. Rose decided to move right along with the lesson.

"Last time we went over drop item chances based on floor, did you have any questions regarding that?"

"Ah yes! So I remember that you said you were less likely to get a drop item the more damage you did to such an item. Like if I shatter a goblins teeth I would be less likely to get it in a drop and even if I did it would be in worse quality."

"Mhm," damn that potato puff smelled so good.

"Well let's go with a kobolds claw, let's say I cut off its hands or fingers, immobilize the monster then carefully extract the claw in pristine condition. Would my chances of getting the drop item increase?"

"There has been no evidence to support that, a few have tried something similar in the past. A monster's body is connected to their magic stone, even when a limb is severed. It's only when the Magic Stone is taken out or destroyed that they turn to ash."

"But we also went over poison and monster blood, how it's left over even after the monster is killed despite being a part of the monster's body. That also gave me another thought, what about saliva? Or the mucus from a Dungeon Lizards suction cup? If so th-"

CRUNCH.

Kova stopped his little rant looking at Rose. She had tried to sneakily take a bite of the potato puff, but the fried food was too crunchy to be quiet.

Instead of making fun of her or laughing he just gave her a warm smile. The kid really was too cute, she wanted to poke at the little dimples on his face and ruffle his hair.

"My bad, let's eat first. Don't want them to get cold."

Rose schooled her features, regaining a bit of her dignity.

"Fine, then afterwards we will go over escape tactics that you can use on the first four floors."

…

I left the Guild with a smile on my face. Rose was too cute, even if she was standoffish. When her tail had been wagging I had to stop myself from rubbing it.

She was also a good teacher, even with lack of enthusiasm. I understood that getting trained in a Familias specific way to dive into the dungeon was smart, but I felt that everyone should get at least the basics from the Guild seeing how they had an objective standpoint, other than raking in the money from the Magic Stones of course.

My other preparations were also nearing completion. I had found a store in Babel tower to sell my weapons and armor at. They had initially tried to scam me with high percentage cuts and taxes on things that didn't sell, but the sword I had made with Tsubaki had gotten me a decently fair deal. I was still going to blacklist the bastard from Ascent Paradise when it came out.

-(Shoutout to Lingtian47 for the new name for Liquid Viagra.)-

Speaking of potions Ma had actually caught the attention of a God named Miach who's Familia was pretty well known throughout the city for their potions. She had apparently been helping some injured in a recent attack when the God had noticed her and had invited her to his Familia after speaking to her. Ma accepted to join as a potion maker and Da followed of course. He said he was going to be making and calibrating their alchemical tools.

I had a formula for Ascent Paradise that I thought would work, I only needed to wait on a single ingredient and a willing, if possible, test subject. I didn't want to put that stuff in my prepubescent body.

Lastly was my equipment for the dungeon. After learning about the Status and how each base stat increased I decided to go for the most balanced Status that I could, to play to my dual bloodlines the best. Dwarves leaned towards Strength and Endurance, while Elves did Magic and Dexterity with a slight preference for Agility as well.

So I made a set of medium armor for myself that wouldn't inhibit my Agility for Endurance. It consisted of leather around most of the body and plated metal around my arms and chest.

The tricky part was weapons, I had initially wanted to go for a pair of dual axes, but that would lean me a bit too heavily into Strength and it was hard to block with an axe, not to mention that I completely lost the ability to stab things unlike with a sword or spear.

Then I remembered the old infantry weapons of the Roman Legions, the gladius. It was a straight shortsword with a wide blade. They had been used for close up stabbing and slashing, and their wider blade meant that I could put my full weight behind a swing, but could still have nimble movements and block with it.

And because of their short length I could wield two without having to worry too much about them getting tangled in one another during combat. I finished off my gear with a dozen throwing knives that were easily accessible.