The clan's expedition is not like the previous expeditions Aston and the others have been on. This expedition involves fighting all the way down, slowly advancing. The third and second-class adventurers handle the middle and lower dungeon monsters, gaining experience and training under the protection of first-class adventurers like Finn, who escort them to allow the clan's lower-level members to grow.
Only in the deep levels do the first-class adventurers take over, where third-level adventurers become the support team, incapable of contributing significantly beyond support tasks.
Even though monsters from the middle and lower levels offer little experience to Aston now, the sheer quantity of these monsters still contributes to his experience. Over a week from the first to the 39th floor, Aston leveled up, reaching level 37.
Perhaps as a remedy to Aston's concerns about the growing demands of the Hestia Familia, the system awarded him a new skill upon leveling up: Puppet Doppelganger.
This skill allows Aston to create a doppelganger with all his abilities, which acts on his instructions without fatigue or need, effectively a highly skilled automaton.
Aston immediately thought of applying this skill to his various side jobs.
As the Hestia Familia grows, so do its needs, such as new equipment for new members, which Aston is responsible for crafting. While melee equipment can be outsourced to Hephaestus or Tsubaki, magic corps equipment requires Aston's personal touch. Now, with the Puppet Doppelganger, Aston can delegate these tasks to his doppelganger, setting up programs for it to follow, freeing him from the need to personally handle every task.
(t/n: I'm not usually into clones, but I believe this ability resembles that of a robot more than anything else.)
Moreover, the most important aspect is that when the puppet doppelganger undertakes various side jobs, Aston, upon reabsorbing the doppelganger, will gain the full amount of experience these side jobs would yield. Essentially, Aston gains as much experience from the work done by the puppet doppelganger as he would if he did the work himself.
It's like having a versatile clone.
Early in the morning, after a quick freshening up, Aston checked the items refreshed in the system shop, a daily routine for him. After all, the system shop is the only place to acquire Faction Cards and Magic Legion Cards. Although most of the refreshed items are usually useless junk, Aston can't afford to ignore the shop's offerings.
There's always the chance that something useful, either of the cards or both, might appear on a day he doesn't check.
Recently, the system shop hadn't offered anything useful to Aston, but today was different. It refreshed items of some use to him: the White Dragon Slayer Lacrima and Fire Dragon Slayer Lacrima from the Fairy Tail world.
Using these crystals grants a 100% mastery of the White and Fire Dragon Slayer Magics from the Fairy Tail world, costing 30,000 shop points each. These are twice as expensive as the Dragon Slayer Magic because, upon implantation, they not only grant Dragon Slayer Magic but also subtly enhance the host's physique and boost magic power.
Eina's exceptional strength among those who joined the Hestia Familia in the same period, surpassing even the close-combat elves and becoming the leader of the melee corps without any objections, is due to the Lightning Dragon Slayer Lacrima she got. Over the days, Aston noticed Eina had reached the strength of level 4, and she excels within that level, unlike the other nine elves who, despite their progress, only stand out within level 3.
Seeing this, Aston didn't hesitate to exchange 30,000 points from his savings to purchase it, deciding, "The White Dragon Slayer Lacrima will be used by Lili. As a strategist, Lili's strength is too weak, and being a later addition, it's hard for her to catch up with the others at the same rate of leveling."
"As for the Fire Dragon Slayer Lacrima, it should go to Tione. Tione usually uses a short sword, but she prefers to fight with her fists most of the time, which perfectly suits the Dragon Slayer Magician's characteristic of fighting with fists."
"As for Tiona, her combat style involves using Urga, which doesn't quite fit with Dragon Slayer Magic. I wonder if the system shop could refresh some new powerful combat skills." Aston pondered for a moment as he looked at the two Lacrimas in the system space before making his decision.
One for each family member, and one for his woman, just perfect.
"Aston-san, may I sit here?" Just after Aston had decided on the users for the Dragon Slayer Lacrimas, a soft voice sounded next to him. Lifting his head, Aston saw it was Lefiya holding a book.
This young girl had been completely attracted by Aston's aura since their first meeting and often looked for opportunities to stay by his side.
"Sure, take a seat," Aston said with a smile.
"Thank you, Aston-san." Delighted by Aston's consent, Lefiya quickly thanked him and then sat down beside Aston to read her book. However, from the way she occasionally sneakily glanced over, it was clear her mind wasn't really on her book.
Not long after Lefiya joined, Aston found himself surrounded by a scattering of female elves, each of them chatting and occasionally glancing at Aston.
As for the male elves, some of them thought about joining but were quickly deterred by the death stares from the female elves, leaving them to only enviously watch from a distance.
Clearly, these elves were attracted by the aura surrounding Aston.
As for why Eina and the others weren't by Aston's side, Eina was learning important expedition knowledge from Riveria, which was one of the reasons Aston brought Eina along, while the other elves sought Ryuu's guidance in combat skills.
However, the scene of being surrounded by a group of female elves didn't last long, as breakfast was ready.
After a quick breakfast, everyone set off again.
***
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