One day, I want to be so strong that running destroys the ground behind me, sending turf up in explosions of force.
Punching hard, casting large, and ultimate skill are goals, but my dream is so much simpler. I want to be so strong that running across rock is equivalent of running across a beach. Strong enough that the firmness of the world isn't tough enough to keep up with me.
As I run towards a Frog Shooter, taking measure swings at the eyes of War Shadows in my path, dodging frog tongues, I genuinely can't wait to get to that point.
My arms are sore. My legs are sore. Breathing hurts, moving hurts, and it gets hard to think with how hard my blood is pumping, intermittent headaches hitting me. Yet, I don't stop or take long breaks, only long enough to catch my breath and slightly heal up before moving on to the next group of monsters, senses straining to hear the next large group.
I'd been at it for a few weeks now, not only training up my ability to redline, but overcharging Modius Temperance. It ate Mind for an increase, but it was an inefficient rate of growth. Efficiency wasn't the objective though, and so for short fits and bursts I'd burn Mind to improve everything that Modius enhanced, the spell's Mind enhancements slightly aiding the load.
I'd quietly increased my hours from ten to twelve, and Hestia had likewise quietly not said anything in response. I felt guilty about it, but not enough to go back to my normal schedule.
While I hadn't gotten a Skill from my increased work schedule, my stat growth had massively improved. Where a couple weeks before I'd been slowly approaching 600 in my physical stats and 200 in magic, my physical stats had spiked to just over 700, and burning Mind into the furnace that was Modius Temperance had spike growth up to its current rank of 428.
I hadn't been fool enough to go down to floor ten, but I was regularly working down to seven and eight, occasionally testing myself on floor nine.
I lean towards the left a moment before Frog Shooter's tongue whips towards me, and at the moment it reaches its maximum extension, my blade whips out to lop off its extremity. I hate Frog Shooters. The first two times I'd fought them, I'd tried to cut off their tongue while it was still shooting out, and the third time I'd fought one, I'd swung while it's tongue whipped back. There was a sweet spot you had to hit because the tongues were sticky and moved at high speeds, so they would either yank your weapon from your hands between speed and adhesion. You had to hit it in the split second between the Frog Shooter completing its tongue's launch and it returning back.
I fucking hate Frog Shooters, but god, do I love killing them.
A clamor of noise hits me as I finish all but the last few monsters off, and I turn to see a few familiar Adventurers running towards me. These are the bastards that ran a Parade Pass on me weeks ago, and tried to-
They spring past me, with a massive group of monsters behind them.
Well, okay then. So it's like that then.
I breathe deep and sprint towards the group of monsters, and burn myself down. As my body strains under its own force, Modius Temperance brings it to new height, enhancing both strength and durability. I dodge, I swing, I dodge, I swing.
Blood stains the Dungeon floor, and I'm not ashamed to say some of it is mine, but within a few minutes of intense work, all monsters are dead. I immediately pull out a health potion and completely down it, followed by a Mind potion.
Normally I don't drink entire potions because of my natural body and mind regeneration, but I have a hunch that-
"Haha, well I'll be damned, rookie," the lead Adventurer from before laughs as he walks from behind a corner towards me, "You did it again! What say you work for us and you get to keep some of the pay."
"Leave and it won't come to a fight," I respond, "The princess isn't here to save you this time."
The Adventurers stare at me in disbelief, and a few let out ugly laughs while their leader responds in amusement, "The Nine Hells saved us? You can't be serious. She saved you."
"Walk away, and leave me to my crystals, and we won't have to test that," I smile back. I don't want it to come to a fight, but if it does… I'll win.
Where before it would have been a close fight I easily could have lost, my Basic Abilities are much higher now. Not only that, but I've been practicing redlining and augmenting Modius Temperance's output.
"I think," the lead Adventurer slowly responds, amusement fading, "That you should give us your crystals as payment for your insults."
"You chose poorly," I smile back, now fresh as a daisy from the time the small talk had given me. Mind reserves aren't at max, but Modius doesn't cost much, and I don't max it out all the time, but in bursts, "Greatness is accrued in small steps, Glory in strides."
"Shit, he has magic," one of the mooks mutters.
"Get him quick," another shouts, and they run at me.
What follows is… depressing. I don't feel good about the victory, even if they're assholes that have probably led to people's deaths.
Their footwork is sloppy, their swordplay mediocre at best, and they just aren't very good fighters, save for the leader. I predict their swings and depending on the best course of action either dodge and return swings, or parry to get a hit on one of the others.
Before all other failings, poor coordination is what does them in. They tried to run, and that's when I'd really burned Mind to outclass them. I wasn't letting them escape to try and get me again or kill more rookies with Parade Passes. One by one they fall, until finally only the leader is left.
"Do you really think you'll get away with this, you bastard?" he asks me in rage and fear, shaking on the ground, pale from blood loss.
"Why not?" I shrug, more emotionally tired than horrified or guilty, "You kept getting away with it."
"We never actually hurt anyone!" he screamed, "It was the monsters, they were the ones that-"
I strain body and mind in equal measure to their breaking point, and his head falls to the ground to join his comrades in death.
"Disappointing," I sigh, "Just… fuck, man."
I glance over them, and quickly loot crystals and potions. I touch nothing else, feeling a little scummy taking even this much.
I turn to go back to my daily schedule, and wince as the realization that Hestia is going to see this in my Excilia gains hits me like a truck.
"Goddammit, you assholes. I told you to fuck off."
It wouldn't have worked, the only way to get them to leave was to roll over, and that's a way to make myself a target for them. Then I'm just Mister Moneybags they can come bully. Could I have just kicked their asses, and had them not decide to throw a fit for 'attacking them' or something? I don't know. What's done is done though, and I can't turn back the clock.
I groan in misery and muddle along for a bit, before hitting my stride and really getting back into my groove, trying to put them from my mind, but failing.
"Hey, Lenoa," I greet my teacher as I walk into the Witch's Secret House after finishing my gruesome Dungeon excursion. I'd planned on going home after work, but things hadn't gone to plan.
"You don't look well," the witch says after a moment looking me over.
I grimace, "An unfortunate situation popped up in the Dungeon."
A moment of silence falls between us. I'm unwilling to explain, and Lenoa… knows how things can be. Honestly, she knows more than me about just how awful things can be.
"The Dungeon is an unfortunate place," she settles on after some thought, "It's good to see you made it out again."
"Yeah. Yeah, it is, and thanks," I pop my neck, sighing, "It's only been a couple days since I asked, but I don't suppose you've had any luck with finding the Enchantment spell I'm looking for? If I have to shell out for a modern grimoire, then that'd suck, but it is what it is."
"Fortunately, you don't have to," Lenoa smirks, reaching under the counter and placing a book in view, "An acquaintance of mine was willing to go through his collection and sell it to me. They never used it, but you know us old folks, always collecting little knickknacks to gather dust."
"Don't like all that history going to waste? I can get behind that mindset, go ahead and sign me up as a member of the old folks club once I get some grey in my beard," I respond with a smile, looking at the old tome. Well cared for, but clearly aged, stained with time. "How much?"
"Two million," she easily responds with a snort at my joke, "It was sold to me for one million, but I am running a shop. I have to make a profit somehow."
"Somehow?" I easily respond, "Like you aren't running the premier shop for high level mages? You could go to sleep on a pile of valis and monster crystals."
"That's terrible for your back; I gave it up decades ago," she cackles, before glancing down at the book, a complicated look on her face.
"I don't have the money on me, but I'll bring it by tomorrow for the book," I grin down at the book. I can't wait for my second spell.
"Take the book now and bring the money tomorrow. I recognize that look in your eyes, boy, you're itching to run back and get your money right now."
"Damn, I've been caught out," I chuckle, reaching out to turn the spell tome towards me.
'Thiurdos,' reads the title in clean, simple text. The soft yellow book is a repository for a lightning Enchantment spell. A mage summons electric energy to imbue their weapon which enhances damage output. The only known lightning Enchantment spell that's stronger is Cumulothundritch.
Both have the interesting property of slightly increasing the caster's speed, with Cumulothundritch trading in a lot of speed for more power and the ability to 'empty' the Enchantment via a swiped sword beam.
The sword beam was cool, and I would have liked it, but the slightly weaker power and increased speed bonus of Thiurdos had given me an idea. I'm not sure if it was a good idea or would even pan out, but fortunately I wasn't going to be testing it on myself.
I'd be performing my inhumane experiments on the monsters of the Dungeon, which were totally acceptable targets.
"Only two million," I mutter in disbelief, staring at the old book. Where this old book will take me time to reliably learn the spell to a point it actually slots into my Falna, it saves me forty-eight million valis. The economy in this capitalist death trap is as impressive as it is monstrous.
"I could always bump it up to three million," Lenoa smirks, "Squeeze a little extra profit out of you, boy?"
I snort, "No thanks, I'm good with this price. I'll bring the money by tomorrow."
With that I leave the Witch's Secret House with my new spell tome in hand and proceed to do something I'm sure Lenoa almost assuredly guessed I would.
"Greatness is accrued in small steps, Glory in strides," I cast Modius Temperance, before burning extra energy into its Mind awareness and control boosts, before drawing my blade in my right hand to match the Thiurdos tome in my left, popping the book open and speed-reading a few of its pages.
I gently reach out to the spell circle within it and pull on its knowledge.
"Thiurdos," I slowly cast after a moment of feeling the echoes of memory and sensation withing it.
Quickly, a small crackle flashes along my blade, and I smile at it.
"It's good to see you even bothered to cast your Enhancement spell, fool child," Lenoa calls out from the closed shop, and I grin back to her.
"See ya tomorrow, Lenoa!"
As I walk away, I commit the sensation of casting the spell to memory, before canceling the spell. I flip through the next few pages, quickly digesting the knowledge written within to match the knowledge stored within.
"Thiurdos," I cast again, and with a crackle, the spell snaps along my blade again. Even if the effect is weak, the spell cost remains the same until I master the spell. Easily four to five times as expensive as Modius Temperance, but worthwhile since it lasts longer.
I cancel the effect, and flip through the book more as I walk home, carefully canceling and recasting the spell while keeping measure of my Mind reserves.
"Hey, Hestia," I greet my goddess when I return home, "We need to talk about something."
I curiously glance at three young Pallum that are inside the church talking to Hestia, before she beams at me with a wide smile.
"Ken! We have Familia recruits!" she smiles at me, "Apparently they heard about us through flyers you sent to their nation?"
"Oh, cool," I smile at them, "Go ahead and introduce yourselves, and tell me what interested you about our offer as you do."
"I'm Relicadia Elbyrne!" the only female Pallum with blonde hair and green eyes smiles at me, "I wanted to learn magic!"
The second Pallum with dark brown hair and blue eyes quietly introduces himself, "Albritch Fiedre, I wished to study magic as well, although I hope to do it with a blessing."
"You can absolutely do so, it's just that I want people to hopefully stay and study magic even if they don't make the cut for the Familia," I nod at both of them, before turning to the last Pallum.
"I am Gillian Belorm," he replies with a stoic expression and quick bow, "I wish to fight for a Familia. I only came when I saw the open offers due to how difficult it is to get a blessing as a Pallum."
"I don't care about how it's widely considered more difficult for Pallum to fight monsers. As a human, I understand the perception that gets aimed at us as the two weakest races, so don't particularly care. If you want to fight for Hestia, that's enough for me," I politely ignore Hestia's blush as I scratch my beard, glancing over them, "That said, you're the first recruits we've had. While the flyer did say you could drop out if you desired, I would appreciate it if you tried to struggle to make it through the end. I'm going to need your help as the first to make it through to teach your future juniors."
The three firm up at that, and Relicadia sends me a sunny smile and a thumbs up, "Don't worry, Captain Crow, we're ready to learn!"
Captain Crow.
Captain Crow.
My god, that feels so good to hear. I want to hear more of that. I want a whole damn Familia of hyper-lethal Adventurers all calling me Captain Crow. I want the money rolling in, and my killers rolling out.
I blink and smile back at her, "Unlike future recruits, I'm going to personally oversee all of your training. I've written up a few 'Adventurer Manuals' full of tips and tricks, as well as what will be standard Familia operation practices. I've written up nine separate Modius Temperance spell tomes, so you each get one to yourselves until you completely learn how to cast the spell. I've got a permanent copy of the Magic Ritual done up in the corner along with a lot of repairs to the Church, so we'll get you started up on magic ability right now."
The Pallum stare at me, various shades of surprise on their face.
"You're teaching us magic already," Albritch asks in surprise, before blinking, "What's a spell tome?"
"Yeah, Modius Temperance is a graduation requirement. Magic is necessary, so we're going to be having you go through the ritual every day until you develop enough magical awareness to draw on the tomes. Spell tomes are the term I use for the ancient model of grimoires that slowly teach you spells instead of instantly," I shrug and smile at their increased surprise, "I told you, didn't I? You're the first going through. You're the future of this Familia, so I'm going to need to make sure you all know how to teach Hestia's future children."
"I'll help!" Hestia suddenly says, and we all turn to her, "If they go through the training, I'll do it to, to help teach my future children! I can't use magic, but I'll do the training and learn about it to help them through the rituals!"
Well… she's certainly excited, but this is, ah, I'm not sure it's up her alley.
"Are you sure? If you try, you can also stop at any time," I hesitantly offer, which only fires her up even more.
"No! I'm going to help!"
I shrug at that, "Say, out of curiosity, have any of you eaten in the past hours?"
Three Pallum and a goddess slowly shake their head, glancing at each other in confusion.
"Great. That's great," I smile widely, "Means you've got nothing to throw up when we start testing your physical limits."
The four of them stare at me uneasily, and I smile wider in response.
"Ahaaa, you'll go easy on me, right Ken?" Hestia begins sweating.
"Absolutely not, but you can quit at any time," I shake my head, "Now we just need to get a few of those rats I bought a bit ago to sacrifice."
"Mister Squeaker," Hestia asks in worry.
I shrug, "We can keep Mister Squeaker, but we need to kill three of the other ones."
The Pallum send each other unreadable glances, before steeling themselves. Good beans, I hope they make it through. I'm personally invested in their success, after all.
"Where did you put the ritual knife, Hestia?" I ask, glancing around.