Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Consolidation
I woke up feeling like I was hit over the head by a hammer. And then promptly remembered why. I got my shit pushed by 4 fallen, barely managing to escape with my life. And fell asleep on my bed without changing.
I got up from my now yucky bed and got into the shower. After sleeping while caked in the blood of over several dozen people a warm shower felt divine.
Looking over the clothes I wore to my date I decided that it would be easier to just burn them rather than to try and wash those. After changing into a loose black shirt and some tan pants as well as my signature sunglasses I threw them in the trash bin.
After I was feeling ever so slightly alive again from inhaling 3 pancakes I reminisced about yesterday.
It was close. Too close. I was an inch away from death yesterday. Why was that?
After all, they were Raynare and her Goons. They are fodder. Bottom of the barrel. Even Issei, without training a day in his life with a figure barely better than a stickman was able to punch out Raynare.
Yet I nearly died.
Why?
Am I weak? Objectively looking at it I shouldn't be. I was higher level than them. But those racial advantages. So frustrating. But I can't also blame it all on Race.
It would be easy to just blame this all on a factor out of my control. But what could I have done to avoid that problem?
As it stands right now. The supernatural races outclass me. Heavily. The only thing I have over them is my ridiculous regeneration rates. How do I close that gap?
Then what I was neglecting hit me.
My skills.
I am like an empty tower. I have been focused on building up as tall as possible as fast as possible that I forgot to put any substance.
Fucking hell I haven't even used half of my skills even once. No wonder I barely made it out of the Raynare fight.
Alright, that's it. I need to consolidate my power. I need to level up my skills and I need to figure out how to use them effectively. If I keep leveling up without putting any effort into my skills I will end up as an empty shell without substance. I will have stats but I won't be able to use them.
But first off I should claim my quest.
sat down on my singular clean couch and looked over the things I had gotten yesterday.
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[Quest: Dangerous x Date](Complete)
You have got quite the dangerous date on your hands. Now that the Fallen Angel Raynare got her eyes on you, it is up to you to survive this dangerous date.
Objective: Defeat Raynere
Optional Objective: Defeat Mittelt, Kalawarner, and Dohnaseek
Rewards:
15 Free Stat Points, Dark lance, 1x Gacha Token
Optional reward:
10 Free Stat Points, Random skill, 2x Gacha Token
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[ Dark Lance Lv. 1/100 ]
Cost: 200CE
Create a lance of darkness in your hands and launch it at your enemy. Dealing (Int x 1.5) piercing and darkness damage to your enemy.
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As for the stat points. They went right to my luck stat. Now, it was time to draw gacha. I had 3 tokens from the quest and dammit I was going to use them.
[Decapodita Sprout]
When used summons Crabulon, the perfect one into your world.
[Vital Crystal]
Increases health regen by 20%
[Pitcher of Endless Water]
This pitcher can produce a constant flow of pure and refreshing water.
...Does that mean I have exhausted all of my luck for the remainder of my life? This is the first time I have ever rolled good on a gacha before. I immediately used the vital crystal. Now I can go from near death to relatively fine in around 8 minutes.
As for Crabulon. I... dont know about that. I know he isn't a hostile fellow. Maybe I can tame him when I feel strong enough and have room for him?
The pitcher was a useful utility item and the water inside it was the tastiest I have ever tasted. It tasted completely pure and refreshing spring water, having an unlimited amount of that will be divine.
Now that those were over. It was time to start grinding like hell on earth until satan comes with my payment.
First off: Alchemy.
Thanks to no immediate plot threat looming over me I can look over what it actually is and what I found gave me profound joy.
It was an Alchemy system that resembles Skyrim. My favorite.
To be precise everything classified as an ingredient had values for what effects they would have in a potion. I could discover these effects by either eating the ingredient raw or making a random potion with them.
For example, I ate some garlic and discovered the effect: Resist Disease which meant I could make potions of resist disease with garlic if I find another ingredient with resist disease.
So I tried making a resist disease potion. Using one head of garlic and an apple I found in my fridge. After all, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right?
And it turns out that I need very little when making potions. I just need a glass bottle filled with water and the ingredients. Then I just hold my hand out.
A portion of my cursed energy enveloped the vial and the ingredients before fusing them all together. Leaving a pale green liquid inside the bottle.
[Potion of Resist Disease(Minor)]
-Increases Disease Resistance by 10% for 1 minute
-Decreases stamina regeneration by 5% for 1 minute
It seems like it was not a complete success but I will take it. I also discovered the weaken stamina effect of garlic with this.
...Now it would be such a shame if someone bought ingredients in bulk and spent hours and hours and hours making potions.
...
[Alchemy Lv. 28/100]
Yes, I am poor. I spent the rest of my money paying for groceries.
I spent my entire day making potions. It was fine as I had a few days off to recover from my injuries when facing the Crow gang.
Now I had a bunch of minor potions such as Health regen, stamina regen, Magic regen, Ice Resistance, Poison Resistance, and such. They weren't that good but mass producing gave me good exp.
Making one potion too many times lessens the exp it provides. Though just because I made whatever potion I could didn't mean I also didn't make actually useful ones.
[Poison of Withering(Intermediate)]
-Applies Withering on a wound for 26 seconds
I can apply that to my blades to make them inflict withering on the wounds I deal. Not overly useful but it should give me an edge when I need it. But of course. Doing alchemy wasn't all I spent my day doing.
While I was making potions I also had chameleon or CE enhancement active. And sometimes even Simple domain.
Chameleon was a good skill. I predict at higher levels it will allow me to even cast spells without being noticed. But for now, it simply lowers my presence which is still very good. I also found a very efficient method to train it.
I summoned a skeleton ranger and played hide and seek with it. Doing so made my skill level shoot up. Now chameleon even slightly masks the sounds I make.
As for Simple Domain, it was a tad trickier. The simple domain requires concentration to maintain and had a slight maintenance cost also. But the effects were worth it in my opinion.
Simple Domain creates a circular field around my feet. When something or someone steps into that field I immediately sense it. I also have a degree of awareness of everything inside the field to a degree. I also devised a training method for this skill.
I used 5 priest corpses to create 5 Skeleton Thieves. They were slightly shorter than warriors and wore only a ragged cloak reaching their waist and wielded iron daggers. They had mediocre strength and health but had good agility and the skill of Presence Concealment that acts similar to my chameleon.
I had them continuously step in and out of my simple domain sometimes activating their skill and sometimes not. I also had them throw stones at me from outside the domain while I dodged them. And unlike most of my skills, the cost of simple domain actually decreased as it leveled up which was nice. Though I didn't spend as much time grinding this as I ground Alchemy. Because as I was resting waiting for my CE to recharge I saw a magic circle being lit up in the middle of my room.
"Yahoo! Magical Girl☆ Levi-tan here! How is your evening Akira-kun! I have come over to deliver your compesation☆!" Said the (mentally ill?) magical girl cosplaying satan as she trespassed into my home using teleportation.
"It was going rather well until Satan herself decided to invite herself in. There is a door you know that right? Besides, do you even have the time to deliver things yourself?" I said as exasperation leaked into my voice.
"Don't fret over the small details. I couldn't help but want to know about the enigmatic man so close to my Sona-chan. So I have come to deliver!" She said while striking a pose while I stood still looking unphased my brain ran like an engine.
Why was she here? She is far too enigmatic for me to predict. She is a several hundred-year-old satan after all.
"Mouuu~ you are so mean Akira-kun you are just like Sona-chan! You should be overjoyed that a cute magical girl like me came to deliver your compensation personally!" She said pouting cutely and emphasizing her chest by crossing her arms under it.
"Yes yes, indeed I am overjoyed that the cutest bestest magical girl of all time forever has graced me with her presence. Now could I please get my compensation already? If not I won't have enough money to feed myself tomorrow." Hearing my words she sported a satisfied smug expression that was frankly dangerously cute.
[+3 Affection with Serafall Leviathan]
"Umu, that is better. Anyway, here it is Akira-kun." She said before snapping her fingers and teleporting a thick was of cash and a box into the room. She showed me that the money which was a whopping 10 million yen and the box included some gems from hell that could hold a lot of magical energy as per my instructions.
Unfortunately, Serafall couldn't stay for longer as no matter how much she tries to avoid it she still has a job to do as satan. Though she did leave me one last gift from herself apparently.
A devilphone. One that is connected to Devilnet and for some reason has Serafall's number inside it with the contact picture of her in her magical girl outfit.
Honestly, I know nothing about her motivations in this maneuver. But I could barely care less. As long as it wasnt hindering or bothering me it was fine.
Now though. That my loot has arrived I have stuff to do.
❕If you liked the chapter then don't forget to drop me some stones :D❕
Authors note: Your comments and interactions helps motivate me so please write what you thought about the chapter in the comments. I am open to suggestions to help improve my fics.
Also, if anyone has interesting ideas for the random gatcha I will be glad to include those ideas if I like them. You can also recommend characters for the occasional companion card mc may pull from the gatcha.
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