1 week later
In the Forest west of Orario you can hear loud crashes and sudden clouds of smoke appear every once in a while, within the clouds is to be seen Sanguinius Void stuck in a boulder headfirst with only his feet being visible
"Fuck I almost got it this time" exclaims Sanguinius In annoyance while slowly pulling himself out of the boulder
Recently he has been trying to explore some new applications of his already existing skills after a more experienced adventurer from his Familia told him that the effects of his skills aren't always determined by their descriptions, sometimes you can use them in more unique ways and push out more potential out of the skill than you originally thought
Currently he is practicing a unique application of his Blood enhancement skill, the skill usually enhances his entire body except for his durability by increasing the flow of Blood across his body but by changing the way his Blood flows he can increase only a specific attribute instead of his entire body for a more focused increase in strength or speed
For example he can pump more Blood into his arms by decreasing the Blood that's going to his legs and in turn throw a stronger punch but at the cost of his speed or vice versa, with this he can adapt to his enemy or environment to achieve the best possible results
The skill hasn't fundamentally changed but the way its used has changed, its just a reallocation of pre-existing resources
But its not easy to learn this application of the skill as he needs to find the right balance of Blood distribution across his body to not weaken one attribute so much that he cant fight effectively but also not strengthen an attribute to much because then he cant control his own power
Right now its still an experimental skill that requires more finetuning until its battle ready or is able to be used effectively in the dungeon
After Training his new move that he temporarily calls Blood Redistribution(1) he travels back to Folksvangr in Orario to train his second Applicating of a skill he has had for a long time, his Blood sensing skill
Blood sensing allows him to sense living beings in a large radius and their threat level as well as their intensions to a certain degree
Right now he is focusing on the sensing of intentions part of the skill as he is thinking maybe he can find a way to use it in a fight to maybe predict his enemies next attacks by the movement of their blood and intentions
Finding a sparing partner willing to fight him he askes them to wrestle as it has become on of his favourite forms of fighting since his fight with the Minotaur as it exercises all the muscles in his body and allows him to accumulate a good amount of Excelia over time
By focusing his Blood sensing to a high degree he can slightly sense what his opponent will do but not very clearly along with lots of room for error as he sometimes misinterprets what the skill is showing him
Thinking that this skill will take a lot of time to get proficient at he stops training after a while feeling like he is maybe missing something as the stronger his opponent is the harder it is to predict what they will do next
"I need someway to more deeply sense inside my opponents body or just get more experience so that I can use what I can sense" mutters Sanguinius thinking that this move is not really viable in the short term
"Whatever il leave this for later" thinks Sanguinius before trying to go to the entrance of the Dungeon where he set up a meeting with Welf but on the way he gets stopped by Freya asking for some of his Blood for an unknown purpose
Not paying it any mind he complies obediently and continues to the entrance of the dungeon where he meets Welf after some time
Waving at him, Welf smiles while walking closer with a backpack on his back that's filled with backup gear and backup backup gear along with his own weapons
"Are you ready Sanguinius?" askes Welf with slight nervousness in his voice because he hasn't entered the dungeon in a long while
"I'm always ready, the dungeon is basically my second home at this point" answers Sanguinius confidently "we will be aiming to reach the eighteenth Floor today"
"But aren't we only level 1, the middle Floors are for level 2 adventurers" questions Weld with a frown
"My bad I forgot to tell that I recently levelled up to level 2 so I'm confident we can reach the safe point today
Slightly shocked Welf nods not forgetting that he is supposed to be someone who just recently became an adventurer, they enter the dungeon after that and slowly explore the upper Floors as Sanguinius leaves the weak monsters for Welf so that he can grow stronger
While fighting a Killer Ant Welf suddenly notices some more Ants closing in on his position and looks to Sanguinius for help
Shaking his head Sanguinius says " if you cant even handle this then you should just stay a blacksmith"
Realizing that he wont help Welf braces himself against the monsters while feeling offended by the comment from Sanguinius
He swings his sword upwards clashing against of the Ants hard shell and then kicks it to the ground pushing it off balance before decapitating it
At the same time the other Ants close in him and attack him in his blind spot causing him to get staggered back and lose some Blood from their attacks
Eyeing Sanguinius from the side of his eye he hears him say "don't worry il save you if your dying, probably"
Welf turns his attention back to the Ants and fights fiercely without looking back at Sanguinius
"I need to fight and win, not for me but for my goddess" mutters Welf under his breath while fighting the Ants in an attempt to motivate himself
After a couple of minutes Welf slays the last Ant and falls down to the ground while feeling a sense of exhausting wash over him
Walking up to Welf, Sanguinius offers him a healing potion so that he can heal his wounds after his fight
"I haven't pushed myself like that in forever" says Welf while downing the entire potion hastily, wasting some of it in the process
"Yea sorry about that I just thought to push you so that you can level up as soon as possible because your to weak right now"
Saying that its fine Welf adds that he has his own reasons for wanting to grow stronger and that he doesn't mind his harsh methods
Resting for a while they continue deeper into the dungeon with Sanguinius taking the lead and Welf taking a backseat and only killing some of the monsters
While killing an Orc Sanguinius casually askes Welf why he decided to party up with him instead of people from his own Familia as they are usually more trustworthy causing him to reply that he cant really party up with people from his own Familia as they aren't really fond of him
"My Familia members don't like me because I refuse to make magic swords and they see me as a waste" adds Welf with a slightly down expression but then cheers up saying "but even without them, I will show them that I can become a great adventurer and an even greater Blacksmith"
Sanguinius nods and they continue deeper eventually reaching the middle Floors where Welf has to take a backseat the entire time as he's to weak to fight against the Monsters here along with bearing witness to his companions absurd Strength
Striking down with a Blood enhanced swing he cuts a Ligerfang in half which is in no way inferior to a Minotaur surprising Welf greatly
Sanguinius leans down and absorbs the Ligerfangs Blood feeling that the Blood of the monsters on the middle Floors is a little unsatisfactory as the strength gain is a little slow
"What are you doing" askes Welf with curiosity making Sanguinius reply vaguely that its just a skill of his and not really diving deeper into it
Eventually they reach the seventeenth Floor where the monster Rex Goliath lays in wait, a huge monster that's more than seven meters tall with grey skin and bright red eyes, its a monsters that's considered to be a level 4 monster
Feeling that he has no chance against the Goliath Sanguinius tries to avoid it or go past it to reach the safe point on the eighteenth Floor but realizes quickly that the monster Rex is blocking the entrance to the safe point
Not wanting to give up after reaching this far he decides to try his new move to move past the Monster Rex but first he packs all his gear into Welfs Backpack and puts Welf forcibly on his shoulder before leaning down into a runners position
"Hey! what are you doing" askes Welf while earning no reply from Sanguinius
Activating Blood enhancement across his body he then reduces the Blood moving to his arms and other vital organs and redistributes it to his legs causing the veins on his legs to pop out and become even more red than the rest of his body
Taking a deep breath he sprints forward at maximum speed with his mind barely being able to keep up with his own speed
The Goliath notices him and Welf and tries to attack them by stomping on them using its massive legs and huge frame but narrowly misses them due to the absurd speeds they are moving at
In a red Blur they move past the Goliath entering the eighteenth Floor with Welf barely hanging on for his dear life while screaming frantically
(1) give me Ideas