Please read the author's notes.
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
All around Babel plaza dozens of adventurers were working through the night.
Under the bright full moon, they hammered away, constructing vantage platforms on rooftops. Perfect spots to attack from range or coordinate movement.
Along the North Main road was a long line of torches on rooftops reaching all the way to the outer wall, just as those on the few city blocks around Babel.
Bonfires lit on the sixty-meter tall walls, like orange specks on the horizon desperately trying and failing to illuminate the night. More level one and two adventurers were posted atop the walls, a perfect view to coordinate any emergency movement of civilians if needed.
Hephaestus sees all of this through the window of her lounge as she takes a sip of red wine. Enjoying the robust flavor and the tingling it leaves on her tongue.
"My life used to be nothing but peaceful, and now I'm being hunted by some kind of creature," she shakes her head. "This is bullshit."
Turning around she glances around the room. Tsubaki and Thalie were sitting on one couch. Yang and Welf were on another. And the last couch was left for her between them both.
"I'm not blaming any of you obviously," she says while moving to take her seat on the empty couch. "This entire situation is just frustrating," she gives Yang a sympathetic look, "I doubt it compares to what you're going through, I'm sorry things didn't work out for you."
Yang nods, "I, I think I'll be ok, or I am ok. Not quite sure..."
They all just give him a concerned look, already sharing their sympathies beforehand.
"Right," Tsubaki pierces the awkward silence. "So, what's the plan?"
Yang leans forward in his seat, raising a hand he creates a torrent of water. The water snakes forward and forms a meter-tall perfect recreation of The Angel.
"She has The Shard in her chest, that's the Arcanum, right?"
"Right," Hephaestus answers him.
"And assuming she can use it everywhere, we literally can't touch her and magic won't work."
"Wait!" Tsubaki interrupts. "Am I the only one concerned with how much this thing actually does look like what all the old books say Angels look like, wings and everything?"
"Oh grow up," Hephaestus scoffs. "There are more species and variations of what you mortals call Angels than stars in the sky times the grains of sand on a beach. It's like a hobby for gods to try and outdo each other with a better Angel species. Eventually, we made the rule not to create any more demi-gods, a much more powerful version of what this world calls 'Spirits', so they couldn't usurp our power."
"That's what this is?" Tsubaki asks.
Hephaestus shrugs and takes a sip of her wine, "no idea, can't access my divinity so I'm clueless here."
"Ugh," Yang groans. "Whatever this thing is, it has The Shard and is a problem, ideas?"
"What if we had another one of these shards?" Tsubaki asks.
"Impossible," Hephaestus answers. "The Shard as she calls it is unnatural. Arcanum is never meant to exist in such a pure form in any mortal world. She used Yang's Falna like a reactor and just kept stockpiling and refining it."
"That's why he could level up so fast, and his stats went that high," Welf figures.
"Exactly, it's impossible for that to happen naturally. The parameters of Falna aren't built to go past the 'S' rank."
"Wait," Yang says. "Does that mean without the shard I'm stuck as 'S' rank?"
"Oh nooo, you're stuck being a normal person, what ever will you do," Thalie's words were drenched in sarcasm.
"Uh, sorry, but you know what I mean."
"You'll be fine, aside from you Exelia growth being the same rate as a normal person at least," Hephaestus says. "Since it changed the structure of your Falna removing it won't suddenly reset you. Think of it like it changed the foundation plan for a building. After the building is built if you remove the plan and put another one the already completed foundation doesn't change."
Yang breathed a sigh of relief and sank back into the couch, "alright now we just need to figure out how to survive until that's relevant."
"We have one way," Thalie says. All eyes move to her as nobody knew what she was talking about, nobody but Freya even had a hint after all. "The Champion Spear, it's a divine weapon, and I'm the champion."
All eyes turn to Hephaestus, anxiously waiting as she mulls it over.
"Yeah," Hephaestus says. "That would work, but it wouldn't guarantee a win, just that she can't kill you with a simple touch."
"That'll be enough," Thalie said.
"But the protection won't extend to anyone else," Hephaestus says. "Sure you can manage that limitation?"
"We'll figure it out," Yang says. "We always do."
"We have to," Welf says.
Looking at her executives all gathered together, Hephaestus can't help but smile. A proud glint in her eye as she nods and relaxes back into her seat. "This may seem a bit inconsiderate to say, but I'm sure we're all glad you're here with us Yang. I don't think this little group would have ever felt complete again without you."
Yang chuckles, "yeah, you'd all be lost without me."
They all take a moment to let it soak in. This little group was it, almost two years of adventuring together, and so many more ahead of them.
They just had to get past one more obstacle, and they'd be free to live however they want.
Yang can figure out his new life.
Thalie can continue doting on her daughter.
And Welf build his life with Hephaestus.
Peaceful and together, as they always should be.
CLAP!
Hephaestus startles them, snapping them out of their daydreams with a clap after downing her glass of wine. "Alright, if you're doing this then you need to be at your best, update time!"
This earns a smile from everyone as Hephaestus points at Welf, then uses one finger to seductively call him over to her.
As he removes his top and sits beside her, turning so she's at his back. Hephaestus once again takes the time to ogle his new muscled physique, he'd always been on the thinner leaner side. But training with Yang and Thalie for so long has him looking a bit meatier. She caught herself biting her lip and tracing the grooves of his back. Feeling his warm skin beneath her fingers, she could hardly wait for them to retire for the night.
Snapping out of her debaucherous thoughts the goddess pricks her finger with a needle and begins the ritual. Drawing a perfect line down his back to unlock his Falna, the bright white glow reminded her that unlike his teammates Welf was untouched by any other god, he was all hers, and she was all his.
"Wow," Hephaestus says as the light settles for her to read his Falna. "From a fresh level-7 to halfway to level-8 in nine weeks. What in the world did Alatreon do to you to warrant this kind of improvement?"
"He beat every side of us until we couldn't recognize ourselves," Welf says.
"Clearly," Hephaestus says, scanning his Falna and receiving pieces of the fight. Seeing Welf standing toe-to-toe with an Escaton Judgement. As always gods can see their adventurers' most impressive or life-changing feats. Her chest swells with pride as she sees their first night in bed together vividly in his Falna, then the implications of this fully washed over her. "If you ever let another god read your Falna I'll kill you!" she grits out.
"Huh, what? Obviously I won't let that happen," Welf says. "I'm not Yang."
"Hey! Let that go already."
"NO!" They all say at once.
"Do you want to level up?" Hephaestus asks Welf.
"Nah, I've only got half my stats for this level, and I don't think me being level-8 would make much difference in this particular fight," Welf says.
As Hephaestus copies his status onto a sheet of paper for him, Welf turns to get up, only to get a kiss on the cheek from his goddess, from his woman.
"Take notes Yang," Tsubaki says, earning a confused look from him.
"What?"
"Notice how she gave him a polite kiss on the cheek instead of crawling in his lap and trying to taste the back of his throat with her tongue," Tsubaki points out. "It's called being venue appropriate."
"Hey don't tell me that! Tell Freya!" he defends, admittedly by blaming Freya.
At this point Thalie makes her opinion known, "you both lack self-control, almost always," she says. They both turn to see her already sitting beside Hephaestus. The back of her top raised and a bright yellow light shone from her back.
"Wow," Hephaestus says. "Everything is maxed out, looks like you need to level up."
"Alright, let's do it."
A few moments later and the yellow glow stops. Leaving Hephaestus to copy Thalie's new level-8 Falna onto the page for her.
"Holy crap," Tsubaki says. "I think this is the first time there have ever been two level-8 adventurers alive at once. I mean the fact that before her level up we had four level-7s alive at once was something but this is just...wow."
"Wait till she sees the new skill," Hephaestus says.
"New skill?" Thalie takes the stat sheet and quickly scans it, "oh, regeneration. It's at the lowest rank."
"Is it like what Ottar had, with the purple skin and stuff?" Tsubaki asked.
Thalie shakes her head as she gets back to her seat. "Nope, seems like its a passive skill, says rank '1/10'."
"Ugh, that'll be a pain to train," Yang says. "Your endurance and defense are so high that it's best not to intentionally train that and just let it develop."
"You three are really something else," Tsubaki muses.
Yang chuckles, "you know, captain, since I'm not going anywhere if we solve this angel problem I could train you," he suggests.
Tsubaki thinks above it for a moment but shakes her head, "I don't have time to be stomping about the dungeon, I've got things to build and a familia to manage," she laughs off the suggestion.
Taking his top off Yang moves to sit beside Hephaestus and turn away from her. The goddess wastes no time in updating him, the bright red light constant since he awoke after The Angel.
As she begins the ritual it finally subsides before reappearing.
"As expected all your stats are maxed out, ready to level up?"
"Hell yeah!" Yang laughs, excitement filling him.
As the marking on his back twist and change Hephaestus's face becomes more and more confused before dread and concern grip her features.
"What's wrong?" Tsubaki asks.
"You didn't get any new skill, again, but. It's...his third magic..." she mutters.
"What? It's finally here!" Yang can barely contain his excitement.
"No," Hephaestus says, her voice small and unsure. "The final magic slot seems, broken, I think The Angel broke it when it tore The Shard out of you, I'm sorry. But I think you may always be stuck with just two Magics..."
The entire room fell silent as Yang could feel his heart trying to drop out of his chest.
"I'm so sorry..." was all Hephaestus could say, leaning forward and giving him a tight hug.
STAT SHEET START---
NAME: Yang Shen (Dungeon Emperor)
Level 9: Alatreon
Stats(Before Reset): STR=SSS DEX=SSS AGI=SSS MAG=SSS END=SSS
Stats(Now level 9) : STR=I DEX=I AGI=I MAG=I END=I
Magic:
---Storage(Its essential video game inventory)
Allows the user to store a limited amount of inanimate items.
---Elementalist (Obtained at level 2)
Allows the user to channel certain elemental magic through their body and manipulate the elements to their whim, however, the user can take damage from these elements.
---u̸͖̟͑̐͂͑̕͜n̴͍̞̱͕̜̝̦͚̬̲̫̮̠̓̈́̆̇̚͝ą̵̨͖̙̼̜̦̮̰̖͙̈́̿͘͝v̷̦͖̩̉a̸̡͕̭͇̥̱̪̘̞̩̤̺̗̔͂̐̊͐͠i̴̧̨͍͕͕̯̮͎̲̬̓̀̏̓̽̆̈́̔͛͘͜͝͠͠ľ̶̬̦̲̇̈́́̈́̈́ͅá̴̪̥̪̮͚͖̤̇͋̓͜b̶̪̩̟͔̩̫̤͇͖̉̀́̈́̀̏̾̓̕͝͠͠ͅļ̵̡̣̘͠ê̸̛̛̛͈̣̣͙̗͎̜̪̦͈̗̠̂̿͌̈̽͊̄͝͝ͅ
Skills:
---Elemental Resistance(Obtained at level 2)-[Level 10/10]
Taking elements damage develops resistance to these elements over time.
---Elemental Healing(Obtained at level 2)-[Level 10/10]
Pre-requisite skill 'Elemental Resistance'.Allows the uses to transfer some of the resisted elemental energy into health.
---Hunter(Obtained at level 2)
Improves abilities against monsters that the user has fought before and gained experience from.
---War Mage(Unique ability variant)(Obtained at level 2)-[Level 10/10]
Amplifies the user's magic and reduces the cost and strain on the mind and body.
---Unarmed Strikes(Obtained level 2)-[Level 10/10]
All unarmed strike damage is boosted
---Mage Armor(Obtained through stress at level 2)-[Level 10/10]
Envelops the user in magic amplifying defense and unarmed strike damage with elemental damage.
---Kinetic Exchange(Obtained Level 3)-[Level 10/10]
Whilst moving in mage armor acceleration and momentum are amplified when added to melee damage. Recoil and backlash from this are greatly reduced on the user's body. Whilst this skill has no set limit the user's capabilities of achieving velocity and taking damage are the limits.
---Elemental Absorption(Obtained at level 3)-[Level 10/10]
Transfers some of the elemental magic that damages the user into mana for the user. (For the damage that he DOES NOT resist only. So after he resists the damage some of the damage he takes will give him mana but it will still damage him to be clear)
---Greater Spirit Healing(Unique Variant, Obtained level 3)[Level 10/10]
Automatically begins to restore mind/mana.
---Adrenal Overdrive(Obtained at level 5)[Level 10/10]
Adrenaline Increases stats and causes battle mania status effect, no active trigger.
---Tough(Obtained at level 8)[Level 10/10]
Improves physical stats.
---CHAOS BLESSING
Strength
Defiance
STAT SHEET END---
CHAPTER END---
Well, ever since chapter 5 people have been making theories about his 3rd magic, what did you think it was going to be?