"you will...let me reach those 12 floors without complain, and call me by my given name." he said to the half-elf, Eina was surprised since she didn't think his request would be so... simple? well that second request was, the first one was...she couldn't stops him if he wants but she will be relieved if he at least his the full information he needs,
and for the second request, she didn't doing that even without the Bet, but she refused to call him previously to maintain professional relationship, but since testing him would make her his personal advisor, she thinks she could give some leeway, she smiled internally since she doesn't need the bet to make her call him like that
but she thought of something, "there is something though.".
"and that is?"
"if I going to test you..then I would be your personal advisor." Eina said
"then what about it..?" he asked
"I thought...Rose would like to be that..." Eina said unsurely
"hmm, then you can be both my personal advisors." he said with a smile
"both?" Eina said in surprise, it's not like it not allowed to have more than one, it's just... adventurer will be not bothering to have one! much less two, "so you want to have both of us? that's quite greedy you know." Eina said without thinking much
"oh? that's quite the assumption..I would rather have some dates with you to know you better in case was go that route..." he said with smile, he knows Eina didn't mean it that way, but he won't miss the chance to tease her for it
"what do you mean dates? that's not what I..." Eina stops in her tracks as she carefully remembers what she said earlier, which is passing second, her face become redder and redder, and smoke is raising out of her head, "T-That's not what I m-meant! I..." she tries to explain herself but fails miserably
"haha!" Hohenheim laughed heartily at her blushing face causing her to be embarrassed moee, he put his hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know what you mean, but couldn't help but to tease you for that pharsing." he said a very small kind of pulse, that's meant to calm her heart and causing her to relax
Eina felt something soothing feeling in her head, and quickly her nervousness calmed down, "thank you." she doesn't know what he did, but helped her , "I agree to your bet." she said with a smile
"then let's go." the two went to private room together ready for her test...
****
"how this is possible?!" Eina looked at his answer sheets and comparing it with the source material
"there isn't a single mistake! not only that, it's word to a word!" she said in shock
Hohenheim shrugs, one of half million souls he absorbed, had a photographic memory, and somehow it stuck to him even after reincarnation, does this considered cheating? he doesn't know nor care, it did the job so that what's important
"you don't believe I zero mistakes without cheating, do you?" Hohenheim asked with a smile
"well..I do want to believe that, since if that's the case, I would be happy to have hard working adventurer, but cheating here will only costs your life." she said
"then how about this?" then he started to recite both the questions and answers of the test in excat details causing the half-elf to gape, "did this convenience you? Eina-san?"
Eina nodded blankly, there is nothing she can do now, "it did, va...I mean Hohenheim-kun." Eina smiled in defeat, "the only thing I can advise you with, is to keep vigilance, and always prioritize your life above everything else."
"I will, Eina." he said without the honorifics causing her to blush a bit, and without waiting her response, he won't directly to dungeon...
*****
the blond teen walked in his own pace, travelling floor after floor, it's was evident that the first 4 floors doesn't gives him enough challenge, especially after having a falna, since after having that he can clearly see what entered his soul, the excelia is much less than before, soon he won't brother killing this small fries and went directly to the 5th floor, which was the same as before, but the numbers of enemies increased
he wasn't stressed since with more monster to gather, the probability to cause chaos among them is much higher, this was clear when he was surrounded by 40 lizard, 20 kobolds, and 10 goblins , and did the same trick as before, resulting in having them killed together at the hand of each other, this trick however won't work on flying enemies or slightly smart foes, but it works here
after the death of them, he kicked the ground causing it shape shifting and bringing corpse together, after removing the crystals out of the monsters cores, he was left with one Kobald Nail, one goblin fang, and 4 lizard scales, he put all of them in special bag Eina recommended to buy, that's fits more somehow, he very curious how it's made,
but sadly he can't analyze it since he does not have fundamental understanding about magic, such concept was vague but intriguing for him, since, it maybe alchemy seems magic to others, but it's rather science more than magic, even his first magic is based on him alchemy, despite having part of it doesn't know how it works, the part when he saying the chant 𝑬𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 will magically do what he wants to do without him doing it himself..so he must find someone really good at magic to study it with them..
after a few hours of walking killing and collecting her reached the 6th floor, where he noticed a different air, he smiled in excitement, "finally! a bit of challenge!" he said immediately as he noticed few presences ahead of him
after a few seconds he saw a half dozen of one eyed huge frogs
𝙍𝙚𝙗𝙗𝙞𝙩
𝙍𝙚𝙗𝙗𝙞𝙩
𝙍𝙚𝙗𝙗𝙞𝙩
"frog shooter, their tongues is fast and sticky, and their skin is tough, let this be your first debut, Ikukei." he pulled his katana who showed her clear brilliance with the Illuminating runes on the blade!
Hohenheim took a fighting stance, and charged towards the green frogs in fast rush, he draw the blade ready to cut, the huge frog was nimb despite it's size as it jumped around dodging the katana, then he striked he tongue towards the teen
Hohenheim dodged the tongue by small margin "really fast!" he commented, he then in the moment of tongues maximum stretching, he lunching with fast movement Ikukei who her runes become more bright as it's cut the tongue in half!
𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑬𝑪𝑪𝑯!!
the frog shooter let a painful cry, Hohenheim smiled, "how put tasting your own medicine huh?"
he run his alchemy spark around Ikukei and in under the shock eye of the frog the katana length became 10 times! while maintaining the same striking power!
the frog couldn't process what happened as the long sword entered it's head and exits the the other end, but before Hohenheim celebrate, 5 more tongues strike at him in the same time!
he kicked the ground, blue lightning came out of his leg, the ground under him raised making the tongue hitting it destroying it instead
"damn! that's really strong tongue!" he commented in the Air, but his hair stood on top, feeling incredible chill, and sensing a something extremely dangerous coming to his heart
a claw is quickly approaching his heart,in the critical moment he put all armor density around his heart, the armor he made of scarps manage to protect his life, but the claw was a few centimeters from his heart, he landed on the ground
𝑪𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯!
he coughed blood from the injury he got,he looked behind him to see a tall black humanoid figure behind him, he smiled while blood coming out of his mouth, "War shadow, the infamous newbie killer, you lost your chance getting me." and Then a Hohenheim did something he never thought he would do in his past life,'well I help creating it, might as well taking the credit for it' he smiled and around him, aura appeared
"Alkahestry!" he muttered as he utilized the chi that represents his life force, and guide it towards his heart, the wound that he had start to slowly heals! but slower than low quality healing potion, "heh, I never used it since I never had too, but it's assuring it's working, as a bonus, it's doesn't use my mind, that's why it wasn't considered magic, only using vitality, with this i can take some risk!"
he smirked as he this way he save some money and time, he has healing potion but decided to try this instead
the war shadow was a bit surprised the human still moving, even if didn't die, he should be soon, yet he is alive and kicking, it didn't has enough brain cells to think about the reason, because it immediately attack the former immortal again!
Hohenheim won't let it, he returned Ikukei to her normal length, and looked it the dead body of huge frog, "have you ever hit by a truck?" he asked the monster, the monster only stared in confusion, he continued, "well I did, saving a girlie, it's quite painful you know... sadly there is no truck here to demonstrate, but I guess that frog is good enough!" he active his second magic
𝑺𝒀𝑵𝑻𝑹𝑰𝑽Í 𝑷𝑺𝒀𝑪𝑯Í𝑺 which the chant is the magic itself
in no time the dead body of nearby frog was carried by invisible force and with humongous body and momentum hit the war shadow sending the both of them into the wall breaking the war shadow head in two!
"ugh... this skill is quite taxing..." he felt his head a bit dizzy, and had a small nosebleed, he opened his bag, and took a mind potion and drank it, "let's not use this magic unless I won't dizzy." he notes to himself, jumped to the air to dodge a 5 incoming tongues towards him, "you are relentless, you know that? can't an old man have a break?" he said in sad tone , "naughty pets need to get punished!" he took his sword on the air to used his alchemy again, but this time the sword not only extended..but also bend!
Ikukei rushed towards in the air, extending and bending, reaching the first frog eys and penetrating it like a balloon!
it didn't stop there as she continued her path killing the rest of one eyed frogs until all of them drop dead
he brought his new partner back to normal, "good job girl." he said with a smile
'hehe, praise me more, master!' Ikukei said
"oh? that's was quick, you already speaking." smiled widely
'hnn! I'm master's partner! I need to be as good as master! so learning to express my thoughts is no biggie!' she said in pride
'that's my girl' Hohenheim laughed, 'oh master! see what I learnt!' Ikukei vibrates a bit and all the blood and gore in her body brushed off returning to her clean state
'good! you slowly grasps of using alchemy, you will be shape shifting on your own soon.'
'hehehe!' Ikukei laughed happily hearing her master praise, Hohenheim returned her to her sheath and took the magic stones that's the monster had, he reached the war shadow and smiled widely when he saw the finger blade that's was left, "quite lucky to have a drop, I'll add to my armor later."
he fixed his armor and clothes, "well enough for today I guess." he said but he noticed a group from a far walking towards him
"hmm? hooh, interesting, I never thought I would encounter superstars!" he said while watching the group coming closer to his way...