C79: Return to Dungeon. Group improvement
Overall Word count = 1340 on 5/9/2024.
I propose a bargain for you all. I am graduating on sunday. In this time you would only get 2 new chapters but ill give you 3 by monday if you let me rest this rest of the week and weekend.
This is non-negotiable. I will be resting and focusing on my last day of school and you will be getting your 3 chapters as a reward for your patience
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Another day passed after his meeting with Gorgon and Passionlips. This was because he was busy setting up his new city id as well as the paperwork involved with reaching level 5 and the mountain breaking down event as he felt no need to hide any of his actions about that. Illya tried to interrogate him a bit about his physical changes but he stayed tight lipped about that as nobody needs to know that mortals can gain divine abilities or physiques and they just have to endure some magical torture.
He still is not sure whether the dungeon will react to his very presence as he doesnt want to prevent all other adventurers from entering the dungeon just because he took a step inside. All the assumptions running through his head are due to the stories Raikou had told him of the glory days when Immortals got to venture into the dungeon and how it reacted to their presence. This is top secret information as all normal humans had already passed away and thus there are no indicators of what truly happens whenever a god or saint travels through the dungeon.
It's only stated that the dungeon reacts violently to gods using their arcanum but how that affects the dungeon is unknown to most adventurers. Axel of course just wants to continue hunting and using his new abilities to keep getting stronger until there are absolutely no threats to him and his people. To meet this need, he has organized the group to reconvene. Everyone has gone to meet up at Rivira as a small handful of the group had gone to adventure by themselves for a bit and get some idle cash…mostly Bell and Lily. The others except Daisy and Welf were wandering around the dungeon at their own pace to get used to their new rings.
Receiving the message from their rings to meet in Rivira. Everyone hightailed it there while Axel himself teleported over after grabbing the two outside (i.e. welf and daisy). Over the course of a few hours, everyone gathered at Rivira to see what was happening.
Axel simply told them that he was organizing their next expedition. His words spurn them into action as they have long wanted to show off their general improvement. One of the things Axel has quickly noticed is that Lily no longer uses a standard crossbow but one she made from nen with her own nen bolts which hold fire or lightning charges. This is to either stun or burn a monster. One is used to kill while the other is to provide an opening with Her dual affinities of conjuration and transmutation has allowed her diversity in abilities.
Aisha has awakened her abilities as an Enhancer, but strangely also a specialist. It seems her partial beast transformation has given her some specialist tendencies as she essentially creates a divine amazonian avatar to inhabit her body to provide her a general boost that already is heightened by the beast form.
Ouka and the others have similar transformations but they do not gain the specialist trait from it. Ouka himself has become a powerful enhancer with his own nen abilities turning his own body into a bulwark of a person. Silver light glows on him as his body toughens up and can deal out explosive silver slashes with that same glow.
Chigusa, who was already a conjurer, has developed her abilities further. Her original samurai guardian has grown more detailed which means that it's stronger in all aspects but she has also developed a second ability which is more utility focus and that is the bandwagon camp. A task force of civilian constructs that are able to quickly and efficiently assemble a camp. Somehow everyone is able to rest and recover faster in this campsite she makes. His has cut down on their camp tools since all tents, beds and campfire tools are made through the bandwagon camp ability.
Mikoto has developed her abilities in the pure enhancer form as she has developed an Iai attack. Although Axel has trouble calling her a pure enhancer when her Iai strike creates an energy blast that is sent down an additional 30ft but he recognizes that this is done through a pure physical feat but others from the original hxh world would argue that she is also an enhancer/emitter mix.
Bell and Haruhime are the weirdest of the bunch through and through. Haruhime has developed her own fox people constructs which are able to use her own magic ability "Uchide no Kozuchi" as well as various other abilities from the magic artifacts she wears even when the constructs themselves don't wear them, they can use these. He has trouble categorizing her because the very same constructs have their own nen which they use for enhancing and sometimes elongating their own tails to use akin to whips or baseball bats.
Bell on the other hand has a strange ethereal glow on his body before a figure that looks very similar to Bell but does not appear. When asked about it. Bell told Axel and only Axel that he has been having strange dreams which he theorized was his past or alternate life or something like that. He tried to envision the scene whilst using his nen and he created this clone of himself . Unfortunately the clone can not speak but has its own magic, "Firebolt", it's own hestia knife and even the bell ringing effect of Argonaut that they can both proc in times of need. The clone only has that one spell and can't use nen at all.
Axel summarizes that he has 1 to 3 teammates who are specialists with the third being the circumstantial Aisha. 1 or 2 pure conjurers depending on how he categorizes Haruhime. 1-2 Pure Enhancers with Mikoto potentially also being an emitter. And then there is Lily who is the emitter manipulator. He considers his team to be quite diverse and fairly unexpected. Haruhime and Aisha truly surprised him with their abilities while it just feels like there are 2 bells now. One virgin and 1 not. It's strange because he worked hard to trick their bell into losing his only to give them another.
During all this analysis, their group had returned to the 29th floor where they fought against the false Evilus. The base they made is well and truly gone and shattered into chunks of wood from all the rampaging monsters. Axel has been minimally fighting as he has observed his group in all their changes. He is happy that the dungeon cant detect his divine essence. That will likely continue to be the case unless he uses his mantra energy which is why is sticking to magic and nen right now but all the fights till now have been too weak to even take a finger flick from him. This means it will still be a while before he can even use his natural full strength. Not to mention using his nen to enhance himself or activating his ring to boost his power that way too.
The group rests a bit at the 35th floor just because they could and that they have been bored with fighting primarily the Bloodsaurous monsters. They encountered a few plant monsters but they were few and far between all the past 5 or 6 floors that it's barely notable. They will be getting a change in scenery soon. The 37th floor would introduce new beasts and environments.for the group and they will take another small break at the end of the 36th floor just to be safe.
After eating a hearty meal and Axel got to exercise a tiny bit from the wandering Bloodsaurous, they packed up and went further in. Easily bypassing the 36th floor, they rested for a few minutes as they walked down the long staircase that leads to their next destination. The White Palace.