Chương 119: Advanced Grinding
Motionless, Isaac sat on his bed and leaned against the wall with closed eyes. Ais had already told him about the events of today, so he was now patiently waiting for her to arrive at their shared room. Although about an hour had passed since the Executives' return to the Twilight Manor, she still had to take a bath and eat dinner with the others - that obviously took some time. Under normal circumstances, he would have mingled amongst them, but due to his current 'incarceration', he had to make himself scarce.
Luckily, he had a lot of things to keep himself occupied with - far too many, in fact. All day long, he had been adding drops to his mana flow. He had easily surpassed the bottleneck at 40,000 drops even before he had met with Bors.
[ Mana Cultivation - Foundation Establishment (D): Enables one to interact with their surroundings by using mana. Reduction in mana expenditure: 9% ]
Since then, he had patiently kept at it and had now reached 54,668 drops, which wasn't too far from the next bottleneck, and also encompassed the majority of the mana drops that could currently be found in his mental layer.
It was at this point that a knock on the door interrupted his focused cultivation and he opened his eyes. Of course, this was just a formality - Ais simply wanted to announce her return, she naturally didn't have to wait for him to invite her into her own room.
But when the door opened, Isaac raised an eyebrow in surprise. Behind Ais, whose hair was still a little bit wet, Tiona and Tione followed into the room, both in casual outfits that looked a bit too skimpy for regular sleepwear. But for Amazonesses, this was to be expected, so he didn't bat an eye. Just… why were they here? While he could make a good guess, it was still better to not jump to any conclusions, lest he suggested something that hadn't even been on their minds. Anyway, because he hadn't kept his Eyes of Hermes active during his cultivation, he now was met with a situation that he hadn't been properly prepared for. Not that it mattered, though.
With an inquisitive smile on his face, he tilted his head slightly.
"Tiona, Tione. What brings the two of you here?"
As if this place was her home, Tiona plopped down on the chair in front of him sloppily and showed a wide grin.
"What other reason could there be? A sleepover!"
Before Isaac could even shoot Ais a confused look, Tione had already bonked her sister on the head a little more forcefully than perhaps necessary. She shook her head and sat down next to the sullen Amazoness, then she smirked at Isaac apologetically.
"It's nothing of the sort. I really don't want to intrude on the two of you. We're here to get our Status updated. Loki usually lets her hands wander all over us… and just the thought of that makes shivers run down my spine. You're hundreds of times more trustworthy. Care to help us out?"
'Just as expected.'
Nodding to himself, Isaac showed an understanding smile.
"Sure thing. Hold still for a minute or so, then we should be done."
Seeing two drops of Ichor gather on his fingertip, Tiona became confused and let a bit of her true motive shine through accidentally. Messily disguised panic had stolen itself on her features.
"Wait! You don't need us to take off our clothes so we can show you our bare backs!?"
Smirking relaxedly, Isaac controlled the two drops and made them fly towards the Amazonesses' backs.
"I hate to disappoint you, but that's unnecessary now. Anyway, just hold still and be a bit patient."
Cutting off any potential retorts, Isaac closed his eyes simply to seem like he had to concentrate for what was about to come. Well, the truth was that updating only two Status at once wasn't difficult for him at all anymore, especially after he had already updated many more than that during his first time that he had used this technique.
Easily, the Ichor arrived on the twins' backs and unlocked their Falnas. It didn't even have to bypass any clothing - their backs were sufficiently exposed, with only the upper third of their blessings hidden underneath their bras. As he didn't have to see their Falnas and could just feel them with his Ichor, there really was no need for them to take off their sorry excuses for clothing at all.
Moments later, while finishing the updates, Isaac glanced at their Status via the system.
[ Name: Tiona Hiryute ]
[ Familia: Loki Familia ]
[ Race: Amazoness ]
[ Level: 6 ]
[ Age: 16 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: I-0 -> H-190 (49,780) ]
[ Endurance: I-0 -> H-186 (49,121) ]
[ Dexterity: I-0 -> I-93 (42,653) ]
[ Agility: I-0 -> H-131 (46,522) ]
[ Magic: I-0 (0) ]
[ Magic ]
[ None ]
[ Skills ]
[ Berserk (Variant) ]
[ Intense Heat ]
[ Development Abilities ]
[ Fist Strike: F ]
[ Diving: G ]
[ Abnormal Resistance: H ]
[ Crush: H ]
[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Fist Fighter, Chain Attack, Swordsman, Healing Power, Strong Body ]
[ Name: Tione Hiryute ]
[ Familia: Loki Familia ]
[ Race: Amazoness ]
[ Level: 6 ]
[ Age: 16 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: I-0 -> G-219 (49,392) ]
[ Endurance: I-0 -> H-167 (45,420) ]
[ Dexterity: I-0 -> H-176 (46,029) ]
[ Agility: I-0 -> H-180 (46,349) ]
[ Magic: I-0 -> I-48 (18,110) ]
[ Magic ]
[ List Iorum ]
[ Skills ]
[ Berserk ]
[ Backdraft ]
[ Development Abilities ]
[ Fist Strike: F ]
[ Diving: G ]
[ Abnormal Resistance: H ]
[ Healing Power: H ]
[ Can be chosen from when ranking up: Fist Fighter, Chain Attack, Spirit Healing, Swordsman, Strong Body ]
What greeted him was not only chock-full of terms that he had never seen in any Status before, but it was also impressive. If the Ais from before she had become a goddess had tried to fight against either of these two while both didn't use a weapon, any Magics and any Skills, then the Amazonesses would have won against her in a one versus one battle every single time. Well, putting herself in such a disadvantageous position would have been stupid, but this was just for comparison's sake.
It was clear to see that during all previous Levels, Tiona had surpassed her sister in stats. While Tione had caught up with her somewhat right now, that was only because she had managed to obtain more Level 6 stats - overall, when both would be approaching their limits and be about to rank up, Tiona would have pulled ahead by a considerable margin again. Still, Tione had something that her younger sister didn't - a Magic, as well as a somewhat decent Magic stat.
[ List Iorum: Forms snakes made out of mana that will attempt to restrain a target. Both the chance of succeeding at this as well as the time that the target will be impeded depend on the user's Magic stat. Will require 50% less focus if activated via the chant.
Chant: "My desire that was sunk in the sea, my longing that was nurtured in the sea - the time has come. Shape yourself, bare your fangs, and become a snake. Escape the sea, cross the land, and cover the world. Capture time, stop time, and trample over time." ]
Most definitely, this was part of what allowed her to stand side by side with Tiona. Although all that this Magic would provide her with would only be occasional small openings due to her relatively low Magic stat, if she succeeded in casting it, that would be more than enough. Even a second was ample time to make a world of a difference at the Level that she was at. Well, like all Magics, this one was a pain to chant as it would need more time than most combat scenarios would allow for, so it was no wonder that her Magic stat hadn't risen much in all these years.
On the other hand, her little sister didn't even have an ounce of controllable mana in her body's mental layer… Just like Aselina, both of them were the farthest from a born mage that anyone could possibly be.
What genuinely took Isaac by surprise was the fact that Tiona had an affix behind her 'Berserk' Skill. He had never seen such a phenomenon before, so he compared the two sisters' Skills to ascertain what exactly this signified.
[ Berserk (Variant): (Passive) Every time that the user takes damage, increases Strength by 10 Level 1 stats. This effect can stack up to (Level of the user x 500) times. From the moment of application, each stack lasts five minutes. ]
[ Berserk: (Passive) Every time that the user takes damage, increases Strength by 10 Level 1 stats. This effect can stack up to (Level of the user x 500) times. From the moment of application, each stack lasts five minutes.
Based on the severity of the user's anger, the total amount of obtained Strength will be increased by at most 50%. ]
A smirk played across his lips when he saw the clear difference. Tiona was basically never consumed by rage, so it wasn't really a wonder that the anger-related parts of the regular Berserk Skill were missing in her variant. Speaking as objectively as possible, this made hers a worse Skill numbers-wise, but it truly did fit her personality. In any case, depending on what exactly was judged as 'taking damage', these Skills could be abused via very slight but constant self-harm, to permanently keep the maximum amount of stacks applied…
The sisters' other two Skills were what allowed them to even the scales again.
[ Intense Heat: (Passive) Increases all stats by 50% for one minute.
Will only activate when at least one of these conditions apply:
1) More than 50% of the user's body has been severely damaged.
2) More than 90% of the user's stamina has been depleted. ]
[ Backdraft: (Passive) Increases Strength by 50% for one minute.
Will only activate when at least one of these conditions apply:
1) More than 50% of the user's body has been severely damaged.
2) More than 90% of the user's stamina has been depleted. ]
While Tiona's 'Intense Heat' gave her an all-round upgrade to her stats in a pinch, Tione's 'Backdraft' only further raised her Strength. The younger sister would be able to more deftly handle any dangerous situation, while the older one would have to bash her strengthened fists straight through whatever obstacle was holding her back - or die trying.
Their respective combat styles were supported by their Development Abilities, whose grades were amusingly enough exactly the same. Tiona's comparatively slightly lacking offensive power got increased by her 'Crush', while Tione's 'Healing Power' would at least lengthen the path to the grave that her suicidal bloodrush would otherwise lead her to. There were also a few other Development Abilities that Isaac hadn't seen before, both amongst those that the twins had already obtained as well as those that they could select the next time that they ranked up, so while he was already at it, he chose to browse through them all. One of these, he had ignored for far too long…
[ Fist Strike (F): The damage dealt by the user's fists is increased by 25%. ]
[ Diving (G): Supports the body's stability while underwater, decreases water resistance and improves the comprehension speed of underwater maneuvers by 14%. Increases all stats by 7% while underwater. ]
[ Abnormal Resistance (H): Negates the effects of various poisons and abnormal conditions. The higher the grade, the more dangerous the poisons and abnormal conditions which the user will be immune to. ]
[ Crush (H): When the user has a higher Strength stat than their opponent, further increases Strength by 6%. ]
[ Healing Power (H): If the user's body has been injured, regenerates 0.2% of the damage every three seconds. ]
[ Fist Fighter (I): Improves comprehension speed of fist related skills and abilities by 10%. Increases all stats by 5% when attacking with one's fists. ]
[ Strong Body (I): Increases Strength, Endurance, Dexterity and Agility by 5%. ]
As he was committing all of these to memory, Isaac wrote down Status sheets for Tiona and Tione, so they could personally inspect their current growth.
"So much!?"
A shocked gasp escaped Tiona's lips. She couldn't believe how many stats she had gained since her rank up a few days ago! Although the monsters that she and her sister had faced last time were still beneath them in terms of pure stats, the methods with which to catch their weaknesses, as well as their overwhelming numbers, had made it quite difficult to hang on at times. Of course, in a pinch, they both could have relied on their trump cards and wiped the floor with all of them, but the situation had never been nearly dire enough.
What snapped her out of her thoughts was a resigned sigh.
"It's not bad, but… you two should really fight far stronger monsters if you want to grow any further. You still gained some excelia this time, but you pretty much won't be getting any more of it from monsters that are as strong as those that you faced today, no matter how many of them you kill in the future."
Isaac's words dampened Tiona's excitement a little, but she ultimately had to admit that he was correct and his advice sound. If the two of them were to get completely serious, then they could rush through the 62nd floor - except for its Monster Rex - in a few minutes. Still, for now, that wasn't an option.
"... too bad we won't be going back for at least three days. Gareth's equipment needs to be repaired, and Riveria and Finn need to recover from their exhaustion."
Although the Amazonesses were downhearted because of this, Isaac wasn't in a bad mood at all. Rather, these developments gave him a slight bit of breathing room - which he desperately needed. Even though there were far too many things to do, his current bottom line was to clear the upcoming floors before the Loki Familia did. Not only would that allow him to scout out potential dangers, he also just didn't want to be overtaken now that he was in the lead.
Some more chit-chat later, the twins thanked him for the help and wandered off to their own bedroom to sleep off the fatigue. Ais also was a bit tired - not physically, but mentally. Once the girls were gone, she laid down in bed and rubbed her forehead, sighing to herself.
"Taking care of the others is… taxing."
Paying attention to multiple places simultaneously was something that she wasn't yet fully used to, so it was no wonder that she felt weary. With an adoring smile, Isaac sat down at her bedside and held her hand, then he leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss.
"Sleep well. I'll be back in the morning."
He had already informed her previously that this time, he planned to head out for most of the night, especially considering how his need for sleep had plummeted thanks to his recent rank ups. Even if he slept for only an hour every week on average, his body would still be in perfect shape. As for mental fatigue? At this point, reaching a point where he would have to mentally recover was extraordinarily hard. So because of all of this, he planned to stay the night whenever Ais experienced an episode of his past, or once they couldn't bear to be apart any longer. In that case, even all of his pressing matters would just have to wait.
A few moments later, he had changed into robust clothes - his adventuring gear was still in the making - and teleported to the 14th floor of the dungeon. Because the Loki Familia wouldn't be delving any deeper for the time being, he now had a chance to step by step take care of a few of the things that had accumulated. He also would be testing a couple of hypotheses that would be significantly supported by his vastly increased mana drop count.
With a deep breath, Isaac went over his calculations again and then activated his Eyes of Hermes. Still, the radius of the fully observed sphere around him was kept at 'only' about 13.75 kilometers, which was a fourth of the current maximum range in which he could perfectly observe every single detail by utilizing all of his available mana drops. Here above the Under Resort, every floor was a little less than one kilometer deep, so the very top of the sphere reached the upper end of the first floor, while the very bottom of it reached… into the 23rd floor. It almost got to the 24th floor, but fell a little short.
Confidently, Isaac focused on every single monster that he could discover like this - even the few Venenthes hidden away in camouflaged holes on the 18th floor. Straining himself a little further, he used a small portion of the mana drops that were still available to him to perform the easiest form of Magic that he could: To accelerate the air and create wind blades. Maybe it was because his very first Magic, Anemoi Steps, had forced him to become ridiculously adept at manipulating air, but ever since then, this had been as easy as breathing to him. And that was even though he made more than ten thousand wind blades at once.
Because he was aware of all of the various monsters' weak points, he only needed one swift slice to kill them - none of the Level 1 and Level 2 monsters that he had targeted could put up any resistance, only the Venenthes required him to attack more than once. In a short moment, he had killed a huge portion of the monsters that his Eyes of Hermes had revealed and countless system notifications had popped up, informing him of having progressed in his Level 2 monster slaying quest. As for the Level 1 achievement? He had already gotten all potential rewards from it.
Then why was he still slaying Level 1 monsters instead of focusing on Level 2 and Level 3 monsters to gain more AP? The answer to that question was extremely simple.
[ Huntsman (E): When battling a monster one has already gained excelia from previously - 7% increase in all stats, 7% increase in excelia gained. ]
[ Hunter (G): When battling a monster one has already gained excelia from previously - 8% increase in all stats, 8% increase in excelia gained. ]
That's right, the Hunter-series Development Abilities were about to be grinded as far as they could possibly go! Now that he had slain more than 75,000 Level 1 monsters, Huntsman had advanced in grade. He didn't even need to keep track of the exact number himself, the system still did it even though it wouldn't give out any more AP rewards. As for Hunter, slaying 25,000 Level 2 monsters had done the trick. This had also netted him a fair sum of AP in the process.
Nonetheless, this was only the beginning. Isaac had planned much further than just this initial slaughter. Utilizing a little more of his still available mana - which was far more than half of it - he sent a single mana drop each directly towards the magic stones of the fallen monsters, even though they were still housed safely within their carcasses. Thankfully, the bodies didn't put up any resistance to his mana. A thought later, all of the magic stones got stored in his inventory. He had to 'touch something and think about adding it', right? Well, his mana was also a part of him.
Admittedly, instead of slaying the monsters first and picking up the loot afterwards, he could have just sent his mana drops directly to their magic stones and pocketed them like that. Without their cores, the monsters would die, helping him progress in his achievements all the same. Still, that felt far too 'cheap' to him - this way, he at least still had to put in considerable effort.
When the corpses had disappeared, he used the same method from before to pick up the Drop Items. Thankfully, all of this didn't consume any of the mana drops, unlike the air manipulation.
By the way, during his first wave of attacks, Isaac had finally noticed a few of the rare variants that he had never encountered before. Very quickly, his intentions of researching them as well as his happiness were cut short, however. As if it was in a hurry, the dungeon absorbed all of the variants within the range of his Eyes of Hermes. Feeling as if he had just swallowed a bug, his expression markedly darkened.
'So it was your fault all along, was it!? Why can't you let me research and kill these, oh mighty dungeon?'
But even if he had asked this question aloud, he wouldn't have gotten an answer. With a resigned sigh, he shook his head to clear it of these distracting thoughts, then he refocused on his current tasks. At the same time, he made sure to keep an eye out for any potential Xenos - during his mass killings tonight, he didn't want to accidentally exterminate any of Averin's and Ray's kin.
While he was busy dealing with the second staggering number of monsters that had the displeasure of being within the range of his Eyes of Hermes, the last piece of the puzzle came into play. With the final remaining bit of expendable focus, he attempted to manually help the available mana drops in his mental layer recover. Initially, he observed exactly how they suddenly appeared 'out of nowhere'. Retracing the drops' metaphorical steps, he quickly arrived at the conclusion that his mental body literally 'breathed' in the mana from the surrounding physical world through its pores and converted it somehow. Not that it actually had any pores… that was just the image in his head.
After attempting to directly support this process for more than an hour - all the while moving through the dungeon, slaying monsters, gathering their loot and being drowned in system notifications - he finally succeeded in his endeavour! What it had taken was to visualize 'breathing through his pores' - his mental body's ones. That was… far more difficult than he had initially anticipated. Although he had only managed to quicken the process a little, at least the constantly dwindling amount of mana drops in his mental layer had now achieved an equilibrium with their expenditure.
It was at this moment that another two system notifications appeared. Thankfully, Isaac had already been expecting them, so he hadn't accidentally missed them.
[ The Development Ability 'Spirit Healing (I)' has been obtained. ]
[ Spirit Healing (I): If the user doesn't utilize any mana for five seconds, regenerates 0.1% of the total mana every three seconds. ]
A relieved smile played across his lips. While he hadn't been entirely certain about this, he had assumed that manually influencing the recovery of his mana would enable him to naturally gain this Development Ability. It turned out that he had been correct! While this one didn't actually help him much at the moment, some downtime mana regeneration support was always welcome. Oh well, for now, as he was spending mana like no tomorrow, he still had to directly support this whole 'machine' himself - there was no way around it yet.
With excitement burning in his eyes, he continued his previous efforts. By now, he had moved far from the place where he had originally entered the dungeon. Even though hundreds of monsters respawned every few seconds, that speed wasn't fast enough to keep up with his massacres in the slightest. Like a farmer tending to his crops, he moved to different 'fields' - areas of the dungeon - while waiting for the previously troubled ones to recover sufficiently. The massive sphere around him repeatedly became a silent zone of death.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Shiro_the_Hero
Shiro_the_Hero I know that there were a lot of system notifications this time, but I thought it necessary to get - mostly - the Development Abilities out of the way. If any of them appear in the future, you'll know what exactly they do :)
Also, this grinding method... even though it's only in its initial stages, it's already ridiculous!
With that said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, everyone! \o/
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-> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYHGRR8M/ <-
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Shameless self-promotion aside, I hope you have a wonderful, fantastic day!! o/
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