LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 18: Hostess
Shoutout to my new patrons:
Just Some Guy With A Mustage
Bradyn Maloney
You are legends!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(General POV)
Lyze was about to get up and put a shirt back on when Loki saw that his back was still slightly glowing. More so, she could sense something unseen within the Falna moving, indicating that she was missing something. She pulled Lyze's shoulders back, forcing him onto the stool again.
"Loki! I thought we were done."
"Sorry Lyzie, I didn't close the Falna properly, and it seems I also missed something. Just sit still and let me see what it is would ya?"
Lyze complied and waited as Loki opened the Falna again. Finn and Gareth who were also about to leave paused to see what else would transpire. They'd already been given a handful of surprises today by this boy, so they assumed another would be no harm.
Ais just sat by his side, seemingly glued to him. For some reason she wasn't leaving him alone. She'd been stuck to his side ever since he'd woken up, and had taken it upon herself to carry his things and help him around the manor. She was ready to leave whenever he was.
Loki sifted through the system, trying to see whatever she'd not seen before. She checked through his stats to see if there were any changes but they were all zeroes as they should have been after a fresh level up.
The only thing she'd hadn't checked was the odd subsidiary skill list. It acted like a drop down list whenever she hovered her finger over the {Xenia Khaos} skill. It was here that she found the oddity, right at the bottom of the list.
"Well Lyze. It seems I found what the problem was." She said in an odd time.
"Well, what is it?"
"Remember when I told you that you had a list of subsidiary skills right under your main skill?"
The other people perked up at the mention of this. It was after all something that a Falna should not have done, meaning that the Falna was affected by Lyze himself in a way which was unique to him. And as far as they knew, they still had not seen all of those small skills.
"Yes, I do."
"Well, it seems another slot for a subsidiary skill has appeared. Except this time, there's a few skill floating around and I can only place one in them."
Lyze was momentarily stunned before remembering his conversation with Nekros sometime ago. Lyze had believed that he would be able to learn all the innate powers of characters from the Seven Deadly Sins.
But Nekros had intervened with his powers and restricted certain skills from him. Those skills were something only Loki would be able to give him through the Falna. And it seemed at the moment, theoretically only one skill could be granted per level up seeing as only one slot appeared.
"Which skills are available Loki?"
"Let's see here. They are Wall, Crisis, Disaster and Combo Star. Do you know what they do?"
Lyze hissed at the skills. He certainly did know what they did and he was stuck on which one he'd have to pick.
[Wall] was the ability of Griamore, and it created a shield around the bearer that could not be broken by ordinary magic or physical attacks. Only overwhelming power could shatter the shield. If Lyze wanted a defensive ability, then it was sure to come in handy.
[Crisis] was as dangerous as it was overpowered. It afforded a person great strength proportionate to the amount of life force they lost. The closer a person was to dying, the more power they could summon but it would inevitably kill them. It was the power of the Original Demon but a monstrosity such as him most likely was able to afford the risks of such a dangerous power. Lyze very much doubted he was the same.
Then came probably the most interesting out of the lot. [Disaster], the power exclusive to the Fairy King. The ability to make the smallest of damage a life threatening wound, while also being able to do the reverse. The Fairy Kings used this to clear out dead plants in the sacred forest, clearing way for new ones to grow. This ability could also be used on a living person.
And last of all, Combo Star which was the power of Derieri. As long as she was able to land consecutive blows with her fists on her opponent, the weight behind each strike increased exponentially with no apparent drawback to the user itself.
Lyze at the moment desired something more offensive, so [Wall] was ticked off. And he was not suicidal so [Crisis] was out the window as well. Now he was tied between the other two. [Disaster] was an ability he could use to instantaneously finish a fight for sure. The thing was though, it defeated the purpose of battle and took the excitement out of it as well as the benefits of honing one's skills.
And Lyze was not that kind of person. This early on, he wanted to test the limits of his power to the fullest extent, and he wanted to improve his battle skills. He'd been slacking quite a bit in his martial arts having been training continuously with his sword. An added perk to training with his fists would not go unappreciated.
He also doubted there would be much improvement in his stats if all he needed was to scratch a more powerful opponent and then turn it into a body-deep wound. However, it was a skill he would definitely keep his eyes on. For now, there was only one skill for him.
"Please insert [Combo Star] into the slot Loki."
"Why?"
"Please just do it, Goddess. I know what I'm doing."
Loki stared at him before shrugging and dragging the skill with her finger into the slot. It locked into place like a key and the Falna glowed brighter as Lyze felt the skill assimilate into him.
"So Lyze, what does the skill do?" Finn asked.
Lyze sighed and slumped his shoulders.
"Do I really have to share that?"
"Ideally, yes. We are in a Familia after all, and sooner or later we will find out what the skill does. I mean you don't have to tell us now if you don't want to. We just want you to show a little faith in us. Every person's skill here is a Familia secret after all which is not told to anybody else, even other gods."
Lyze pondered for a bit before sighing. There really was no point of hiding it if everybody was going to figure it out later. And he was surrounded by veteran adventurers with decades of experience behind them, so it would probably be sooner.
"[Combo Star] is an ability that makes any physical attacks of mine stronger the more I hit my opponent with them."
Once again the Loki Familia were awe struck by how powerful this boy was turning out to be. Ais pouted a little as she realized all of a sudden that Lyze had leapt past her in a single day. But she steeled herself, determined to become stronger as well.
Loki clapped her hands loudly making the younger two jump at the sudden noise.
"Alright you lot. Get out of my room and get ready to go out. I want to be at Mama Mia's as soon as possible!"
They all complied. Ais helped Lyze get up as he was still feeling a bit sore from the events of the day. He slipped his shirt on and walked slowly after the older men out of Loki's room with Ais following closely behind.
Once alone, Loki's smile dropped as she frowned in worry and frustration. As amazing as Lyze's level up was (even if it was by her own doing because she couldn't control herself), he was advancing too fast. If he kept on improving at this sort of rate, it could become dangerous for him in more ways than one.
He would most likely attract the attention of the other gods anyway when the news of this level up came out. Loki was confident in her ability to safeguard him as she possessed one of the two most powerful Familias in the entire world now that Zeus and Hera were gone.
But if he raced ahead like this, it was possible the Falna would not be able to keep up at some point. This could end up in his powers becoming imbalanced, and it would be even harder for him to adjust to his newfound strength.
More than that would be if he became too overconfident. Already facing down the Goliath was a reckless thing to do. Even if Lyze had not pursued the fight in the first place (speaking of, she needed to have a word with Riveria), it was clear that he would not try and run from a fight. He was prepared to fight to the end. While an admirable thing, that trait killed more adventurers than was healthy for Orario.
Loki crossed her arms in anxiousness. Beneath her idiotic persona was a cunning trickster and a petty woman who cared for every member of her Familia deeply no matter how new or old they were. Even if she did show that affection in perverse ways, that attachment was still there.
A genius did not have to point out that Lyze was the most promising adventurer yet, and would take her Familia far if left to grow. But while seen as a boon for her own, he was also a threat to many others and there were some that would seek to eliminate him before he became too strong to handle.
More than that though, she was well aware that there were some gods who would seek him for themselves rather than kill him. One goddess in particular stood above the rest in the regard.
But more than anything else was Lyze himself. How he knew about those skills when she didn't know what they were. And then there was how he grew so quickly in one day alone. His Falna was chalk full of high quality Excelia, and she could barely find any normal Excelia at all within him. It was as if he'd been killing monster rexes all day long instead of killing just the one.
It didn't take a genius to realize that despite the short amount of time he'd been here, it was clear that Lyze was hiding something, particularly pertaining to his past whatever that something was. Her vision of his memories before coming to Orario being blocked didn't do anything to ease her worry either.
She sighed as she looked out the window as the streets filled with the glow of lanterns and the moon climbed higher in the sky. Her Familia had attained a new talent beyond a doubt, but with it also came many eyes on them and many risks. And the talent himself was already turning out to be an unpredictable element which would make it harder to safe guard him.
Loki shrugged and summed it up as something extra difficult that destiny had given her to keep her occupied. A little something more to keep the boredom at bay. She'd play the game alright, but she just had to keep a tighter hold on her pieces. In time, the truth would come out.
It always did.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Lyze POV)
Currently I was walking with the executives and Loki to the most infamous tavern in all Orario. Although I realized that there was something a little different to what had been seen in the anime.
Finn instructed us to form a circle around Loki, acting as if we were shielding her from something. That was when I finally remembered the era we were living in. It was still the 'Dark Days', and Evilus was running around like some sort of varmint infestation.
Their key goals and favourite pastime being killing any god they came across and sending them back to heaven. And at night, those cloak wearing bastards were extra active, so it made sense that we had to be Loki's meat shields.
I still hadn't recovered all of my Mind yet, though I was positive that I had enough to fight. And even if I didn't use magic, I was walking with Libur in hand as if it were just a normal walking-stick. To others, the façade would work. Only my Familia members knew what it really was.
That being said, part of me was hoping that some would show up. Sending some of those bastards to hell myself meant more stress relief for me and less of that vermin running around and creating bigger problems when the Great Feud inevitably happened. The war in which everybody pretty much levelled up because of how intense it was.
I was all for the fight when it eventually did come. The thought of participating in that battle, as well as potentially gaining a level up of my own left me excited as well as apprehensive and wary. I was not intimately familiar with Memoria Freese but I knew the outline of events.
I could say for certain that I was not going to be worth fighting for Alfia or Zald. Those two would probably just swat me away with a finger, because that's how stupidly overpowered they were even for their levels. Even with my demon form, I doubted I could scratch no matter if I was able to hit a couple levels above my own.
Perhaps if I could level up to a satisfactory number and then add the demon form on top, perhaps then I could at least last somewhile. I was confident in my ability to control it as well provided I was not under too much emotional stress. Going berserk would be more detrimental to me than it would be to anyone else.
On the subject of levelling up, I still wasn't able to wrap my head around the level up. Realistically, I could have stayed at one and found a way to max out all my stats. Dexterity was an important attribute to strengthen regardless of the fact that it was the hardest thing to raise. Loki's impatience had in fact robbed me of that chance to draw out the most strength I could from this bogus gamer system. I mean at this level, it wasn't so bad since I was a heck of a lot stronger than normal adventurers my level. What's more, I was not restricted by Danmachi's parameters.
In the dungeon, I was bumping up my Danmachi stats, but outside of adventurer's life I could strengthen myself with the parameters of Britannia. It was just a same that I didn't have a power level reading tool from that verse, such as the ones built into Gowther or hanging from Hawk's ear. Would have been really useful to keep track of my real powers.
There was no use on dwelling on it now though. Instead I focused on why my stats were raised so quickly. Even a BS skill like Liaris Freese couldn't afford that much stat growth no matter how powerful the holder's feelings were. It was simply beyond a mortal limit, and considering the life I led before joining Loki, my limit would have been even higher.
I went through all possible reasons why the stats grew this much. It could not possibly be exclusively because of the Excelia I gained from killing the monster rex. Even if it was a level 4 monster, for some reason I doubted that the high quality Excelia gained from the kill boosted my most powerful stats to SSS rank.
I was left with only an idea of what the reason could be.
'The Trait Nekros would not tell me about. I bet all my powers that all this has something to do with that.' No one knew my powers better than I did and I knew for a fact that none I currently had could afford me so much improvement.
Logically, it had to be due to the one power I had no clue about. Whatever the nature of the Trait was, it boosted my stats growth. Make no mistake, I was not complaining as it meant there was a way to exploit it if I could figure out the secret behind it. Not only that, but I would grow stronger a lot quicker too.
I was well aware of the attention which would be placed on me when the announcement of my level-up became public. Regardless, I was happy with the information becoming public. If anybody had a problem with it and confronted me, they be swallowing demon fire so there was nothing to worry about.
We finally arrived at the Hostess of Fertility. I was not as impressed like any other isekai protagonist would be simply because I was already used to seeing buildings like this. I'd lived in this city all my 'life' after all. Riveria was waiting by the door dressed up in a more casual outfit instead of her gear.
The same could be said for everybody else including me. I was just wearing a standard tunic, leather waistcoat, pants and boots. The only two things I had from my usual get up was Libur and the black blindfolds I always wore. I really looked just like a peasant from the middle-ages. I mean this was a fantasy world after all so...
We sat down around the table to find drinks already waiting for us. There was no law in this world against minors drinking alcohol, but Riveria was still more firm over me and Ais consuming it. Just one tankard each for us was what she allowed. Though if my almighty protagonist fore-knowledge served me well, no amount of alcohol did well with Ais. I'd need to have my guard up.
Besides, it wasn't like I could get drunk anyway. Being the host of Chaos came with some passive perks, like having absolute poison resistance which negated the effects of alcohol. So it didn't matter how much I drank now or in the future, I simply would never get drunk. I could imagine all the money I'd be able to make with this ability when I grew older.
Simply leaving Riveria to pick something out for me to eat, I leant my head on my palm and let my thoughts drift. I hadn't really been truthful with Riveria when I said I could only use elemental magic. It was just the magic I performed best at, but anything else like mind reading took me time to formulate, practise and put into action.
When it came to the wizard approach of magic, it was clear that I was no prodigy like Merlin. But I was still better than usual humans anyway, so all I needed to do was dedicate a little time and effort and sooner or later I'd be able to perform the spell I wanted. It's what I did with my flight and inventory spell after all...speaking of, I still had to tidy it out.
Glad tidings came with my level up. Lower level adventurers had to share bedrooms with each other, and only higher level adventurers got their own rooms. Ais was an exception because Loki favoured her due to the goddess's own interests and Ais's amazing promise. And that was a girl who levelled up in a year.
As someone who levelled up in a day alone, you could bet I got Loki's favour instantaneously and I'd already been drawn a room of my own, which just so happened to be right next to Ais's. Fitting as I overheard Finn talking about having me and her put together as partners for an expedition.
Two talented children taking on the dungeon together seemed to be a good way for us to learn teamwork as well as actually getting used to true dungeon environment. At least that was their reasoning. I personally had no problems. The girl was a porcelain doll most of the time but she was not a bother to be around.
Had it been someone like Aki though? Shit would have hit the fan.
Lost in my daydreams, I almost missed 'Thread' picking out movement behind me. Not anything hostile but clearly movement of a kind that desired my attention. So I turned around to be met with the waitress uniform of the tavern. It was smaller than I expected though, so I focused on the one wearing it.
My guards were already up, but every mental defence art I'd learned with Nekros was thrown up as well in recognition of who I was staring at. She may have been younger than portrayed in canon, and a whole lot smaller but I instantly recognized the silver hair and eyes, as well as the bubbly smile.
To everybody else, this appeared to be just a cute little waiter girl who was at most only a couple of years older than me despite me being taller, but I knew exactly who was lurking behind that mask.
And that was the very first time I met 'Syr Flova'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read 8+ chapters ahead on my Patreon:
Patreon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi