MP stands for Milk Points 2 (Danmachi / Seikon no Qwaser)
Pulling out my blade from the Frog Shooter's head, I wiped the blood off with a scrap piece of cloth before taking out my carving knife, retrieving the magic stone that I would place into my pouch.
This is at, I'm back on the sixth floor.
Now then… if I remember correctly, the monster pantry should be far away from the main path towards the way down.
I closed my eyes and "felt" the air, using the requisite secondary ability of my element control would cost me nearly no energy at all, although it took getting my first Soma "recharge" in order to unlock such an ability.
It was as if I was using the Free Trial this entire time. I suppose one cannot be counted as a true Qwaser without taking some Soma.
The superhuman enhancements of simply being a Qwaser was more pronounced than before. Back then, I could already determine that fighting Goblins was closer to a chore rather than a moderately difficult task, which is what other newbie adventurers described it as. With that as a benchmark, further research indicated that as depleted of power as I had been, I was still stronger than my status had indicated.
And right now? I was at a greater level of strength and speed even without truly tapping into my renewed wellspring of power.
Of course, that would change if I began fighting at full power. A newbie Qwaser like myself would only manage a couple of minutes of full power non-stop element usage coupled with maximum physical exertion.
It would be more efficient to only tap into a trickle of that power for some moderate yet sustainable enhancements.
Ah, here's the pantry. I found myself overlooking a huge mob of monsters from one of the many entrances leading to it.
"Good morning monsters! I'm back~" I greeted the War Shadows scuttering about the lake made out of the dungeon's "sap", somehow, they were eating it without a mouth.
All the War Shadows turned to me.
"I see that you're feeding yourselves like common animals. Wonderful. Now I can slaughter you all like animals without any remorse."
I didn't need the element of surprise to take them.
A normal newbie adventurer would be turned into sashimi if they attempted to take on a mob of War Shadows. Thankfully, I'm anything but normal.
I leaped from the alcove into the sea of monsters below.
Power suffused my being, the world slowed around me, my senses heightened to the point where I could simply "feel" every being in this room by sensing the absence of my element in any given point in space. All of this with only a small amount of my power brought to bear.
The air twisted around me, moving me ever so slightly in order to avoid getting impaled by the War Shadow's many bladed fingers, I spun once, my long blade took off three heads in one swipe.
After a minute of fighting, I realized I had no need for my eyes, and closed them, relying on my ability to keep track of the density of the "air" around me to act as my "sight". My focus increased, and two minutes later, I had finished off the last of the monsters here.
I breathed and focused on my power within, I had used nearly 12% of my total reserves for a short fight like that. That meant I could only fight at that level for about another 20 minutes.
If I took into account the fatigue and diminishing abilities from my previous experiences when my power has been used up, I would need at least 20% of my reserves to make it back to the surface safely.
Even then there was a whole slew of potential dangers, not limited to fighting criminals like the Soma Familia or getting a monster party pushed onto me, that I had to consider as well.
"So what do you think I should do Mr. Corpse?"
I lifted up the semi-crushed head of a War Shadow, it's silver "eye" no longer shining bright with magical energy, "I think it's dangerous to keep fighting here until you grind more stats unless you intend to end the day early."
My mouth move along the head I was shaking up and down, man, I could have a career in Ventriloquism!
"That's a great idea Mr. Corpse!"
With one hand I tore it's "eye", it's magic stone, out of its head.
The monster's body crumbled into dust, leaving behind nothing but… oh, a finger.
"Ah, my lucky day! A drop item!"
I went ahead and looted the rest of the corpses, netting me lots of magic stones and a handful of War Shadow drops.
It would be better if I used it in Alchemy rather than sell it for cash.
I studied economics and business, after all, I knew damn well that if I had the means and the scale to handle parts of the value chain myself, then I should do so. It made no sense for me to sell a piece of loot like this off to say… a blacksmith, who would then charge me a fee in order to make a new weapon out of it.
In my case, I could just use my Alchemy to make something new out of it, or at the very least upgrade my pre-existing equipment with the loot. So far, my Alchemy seemed to follow my general intent, as random as it was.
"It's settled then. I'll spend the rest of my day up at the surface."
With that settled, I drank all of my stored water and filled it up with the dungeon "sap" instead. I didn't need any more survival supplies, what I needed was more loot.
Of course, my trek back up wasn't as peaceful as I hoped for, but it was nothing I couldn't deal with.
I started having doubts when I began to sense a handful of bodies trailing me from behind.
I turned a corner of the dungeon when I reached the third level, having sensed that this portion of the dungeon wall had a spot with enough space for me to stand on, I used my power to silently leap up to that point and awaiting my stalkers to pass by.
As I was on the 3rd floor, their first instinct would not be to check the ceilings, as there were no flying monsters here unlike the 5th to 7th floor.
"What the- where the hell did he go?!" "Don't look at me, you're the damn tracker." "Shit! How are we going to make the quota today?!"
With my enhanced vision, I could tell that the emblem that they wore signified their membership to the Soma Familia. Ah, typical.
Bandits. How cliche.
Well, if they only intended to rob me, I will allow them to run along with their lives. There's still the chance that they may change once Soma gets a good kick to the head courtesy of Lily's and Bell's actions.
Life is precious, one day, they will be freed from the curse of Soma in order to find a new path where they can find a new purpose and-
"I told you that we should have just rushed in and killed him first! He was on to us!" "Fuck you! He didn't even look back once the whole time. There's no way he would have-"
Did they just profess their desire to murder me?
They die now.
The pressurized ball of air gathered in my hand the moment I desired to defend not just myself, but their would-be victims and to avenge their past victims as well.
Hmm, no, this wouldn't do. I peered into the ball of air, then willed it to spin at a high speed, I varied the density of the oxygen at different levels, bound it all together, then tossed the ball of death right down upon them.
The first bandit was cut in half. His head, spine, and crotch had all been crushed into a fine paste of gore. The two halves of his body fell apart with nothing left in the middle to hold it together.
"Wh-"
With my full power, I pushed myself off the wall, descending upon the survivors with the intent of executing them for their crimes.
It wasn't even a fight. This was a slaughter, plain and simple.
It is only natural. They wanted to kill me, and I wanted justice.
They were like monsters so I carved them up like monsters.
I hadn't realized what I had done until I had their hearts kept inside a sack made of one of their cloaks.
"What have I done?" Apparently, I just killed three men.
The main issue was that I felt nothing about killing them. I felt bad about not feeling bad.
Was it because some part of me hasn't acclimatized myself to this world's inhabitants? I've read a couple of stories where characters that end up in a once thought to be "fictional" world had trouble empathizing with others and to consider the inhabitants as "real people".
That can't be it. I cared about Miach and Naaza. I even cared about the scum of Orario, at least, until they intended to kill me.
"It can't be helped. Waste not, want not." I already carved them up in order to loot them for what I thought would be alchemically potent materials, may as well follow through.
I would honor their lives by giving them meaning in death, as my finished products, that is.
"You know, if I was Eina, I would totally be lecturing you for going down to the 6th floor." My pink-haired advisory, who thankfully had no visible yandere tendencies, chewed on the potato snack I got her on the way to the Guild as we chatted about the day.
"Then what do you call this?" I asked, wondering about what she was going on about.
"More like a warning. Ah, you did nothing wrong, of course. I'm just saying that you're lucky no one dropped by this early and noticed all the magic stones you gathered. I get that you're one of those particularly skilled ones but if anyone knew how quickly you progressed, it's the same as putting a "kill me" sign for all Level One adventurers to see."
Misha's pink hair swung lightly, matching the pace of her swirling finger that she was gesturing with, most likely a habit that she didn't keep track of.
"Well, that makes sense. Thank you for your concern and advice. I'll treat you to dinner some time to pay you back for it."
"Eh, no need! There's no need for that! I'm just doing my job!"
She waved her hands in front of me in a rather animated fashion.
"Besides, we Guild Workers can't be showing favoritism you know? At least, not overly."
"Huh? I still don't see who would give a damn if it's outside working hours."
"Well, when you put it that way then… ah, I know, let's try that pub, you know, the one popular with adventurers."
"It wouldn't happen to have the words "Fertility" in it, would it?"
"That's the one."
I wanted to avoid it for a little while longer but I guess it wouldn't really change anything.
"Sure. Let me know when you'll be free."
"Okay. Well, I'll just give you a head's up. We have like, a lot of paperwork thanks to some Familia dispute so… in two weeks time?"
"I'll block out my schedule."
"You know, you sound like you would do well at the guild. That's what my supervisor's boss says all the time."
"I'm not that old damn it! I'm in my early twenties!"
"That's pretty old for a new adventurer. I'll say you're about, maybe 5 years older than me and ten years over the average age for a newbie.
"This city's whacked up… oh right, I was wondering if the guild could help me out on this matter."
This should help out Miach and Naaza's emotional states in the long run…
"I am going through the door like a normal person!"
"... Keep quiet. You'll hurt my ears."
Naaza was only mildly surprised at my quick return.
"Sorry about that. Anyways, good news, I come bearing lots of Valis! Here's some operating expenses that Lord Miach will no doubt end up giving away in the form of free potions."
"Please don't remind me about that. My heart almost cracked after I checked the numbers you wrote down."
Miach was currently out of the store because he had to handle the rent for this place.
That suited me just fine.
I quickly made my way to the "mixing" room and got to work. Thankfully, I was done with processing all the "human resources" by the time Miach got back.
"Nick, you're home early! When did you get an earring?"
"Oh, I made it. It's a magic item that stores excess Soma or… well, just power in general. If I don't drink any Soma then I think it'll just fill it up with a liquid that imitates it, only, it's created by my excess life force instead."
It looked similar to Sasha's (the MC of Seikon no Qwaser) earring with a red jewel in the middle. I would never tell anyone that I literally made it by sacrificing human hearts.
"Well, every little bit counts I guess. I take it your day has been productive."
"Yep. By the way, I managed to make myself some more durable magic glasses. I shouldn't have any issues with dirty glasses anymore as it has an auto-cleaning effect."
"Wow! How did you do that?"
"No clue! But I had to use the sap from the dungeon pantry to-"
"You fought in a pantry?!"
"Lord Miach, calm down, being a Qwaser gives me access to greater strength than-"
I had to explain a few "feats" of ordinary Qwasers were capable of achieving.
Once that was done, Miach left me to my random Tinkering activities.
A week later…
I was rather pleased with my latest creation.
I had known that creating "artificial difficulty" wouldn't help in increasing my EXP / Excellia as the Falna was a discerning little bugger, so I found a loophole by making an armor whose primary purpose was defense with its strong weight and resistance being a side effect instead.
Gotta love magic chainmail. I also managed to make a copy of it for Naaza, citing an unfortunate "run-in" with some criminal scum in the dungeon, and that I was worried that these bastards would be the type to rob a current weak Familia like ours in broad daylight.
She was visibly pleased with the gift. While her facial expression hadn't changed at all, her tail wagging behind her gave me the answer I wanted.
At any rate, the necessary adaptation needed in order to fight like a tank and as a speedster at times worked wonders in increasing my status to greater heights.
"FUHAHAHAHAHA! I'm coming in!"
A certain fucker kicked our home's door right open as Miach, Naaza and I were cleaning up the place. The middle-aged man was wearing an overly extravagant robe, his sickening grin pissed me off. Yet my disgust hadn't came close to the hatred that shone in Naaza's eyes.
"Dian…!" Miach had a sour look on his face.
"Well done, I never would have guessed that you could have owned such a dusty store! I'll be quick since staying here will make me sick. Oh! Is that guy a member of your Familia? Such a shame that he got conned into joining a bunch of beggars."
Miach bit back whatever words he wanted to say and gave me an apologetic look. Well, I was prepared for this, and so I smiled back in response.
With my lips, I whispered the words softly, "I got this."
I noticed Naaza's ears perking up a little, well, that confirmed her enhanced hearing.
"Well Miach? Where's my money?"
"It's…"
"Here it is, Lord Dian Cecht."
"Huh?"
He was confused by the slip of parchment I handed him.
"These are the details to the account I have opened with the guild for the purpose of repaying the loan my Lord Miach had taken with you. You may find the payment due for this month within the account, accessible by speaking with the Guild. All future payments will also be in that account, on time, without fail."
"What?!"
"I only wish to be of service. After all, did you not say that being in this poor, dilapidated dusty store was bad for your health? With this system, you will no longer require to dirty your luxurious clothing by stepping foot in this place, I see this as an absolute win."
I have learned how to be passive aggressive while providing solutions to difficult individuals from my time as a consultant.
"You… you would do well in my Familia. I could use a professional like you." The god's grin became more friendly as it was directed to me instead. "Haa, come to think of it, you're sounding like that Amid girl… feh."
He left soon after that without much fuss, at the very least, he took this loss in a graceful manner. He shouldn't bother Miach for awhile so long as we keep our payments up.
"Well, thank goodness that's settled."
Miach took a look at Naaza's now calm expression, and smiled, turning to me with a grateful look. "Nick, thank you, for handling this. I wasn't so sure if I could handle Dian at this time, we never did get along well…"
"I'm just glad that I don't have to see that abomination's face again."
"Naaza! That's a bit too much!"
"To be fair, these repayment terms are pretty monstrous."
We shared a laugh together before closing up the store in order to grab some lunch. I discussed the possibility of finding a different creditor and negotiate a refinancing scheme with fairer terms. Of course, I would need to shore up our financial situation even further before anyone would consider us as anything but the "lowest of the low" among Familias.
Miach soon left to meet with Demeter in order to arrange some specialized agricultural products delivery to our store, both for our own consumption and for the potion business. That left me and Naaza along in our Familia home.
I was about to further reinforce my War Shadow enhanced Alchemic Blade when Naaza asked me to follow her to her room.
If she was going to offer me another recharge, it would be my fourth one thus far. After I told her about the potential side effects of overdoing things she had suggested that she would let me drink some every other day. If I did get a sip today then it would be one day ahead of our "normal" schedule.
True enough she did offer me a drink, in a relatively happy manner, if I might add.
"Why do you keep playing with it like this? I said you should do it quickly."
"I don't want it to hurt, besides, there's nothing wrong with making sure it feels good."
"It doesn't matt - hhnah!"
Her "guilt" had largely subsided over the course of the days, which I didn't complain about considering that I ultimately preferred her emotionally healthy rather than being in emotional pain all the time. It's hard enough being traumatized by monsters and I sure as hell didn't want her to suffer further.
Enjoying her pain is... feels like a "pleasant surprise" type of joy, a joy that I would feel guilty in experiencing if I partook and prolonged it.
"Thank you, for thinking about Lord Miach and I." Naaza thanked me once again for planning ahead.
"It's no biggie. I won't just stand by you know? We're all part of this Familia so we'll have to face whatever comes our way together."
"Hmm, I'm starting to believe that now."
"Come on, those bitches don't count."
"One of them is a Chienthrope like me, so that might constitute as racism."
"I swear, this city's laws on "rights" are weird as hell."
"You're the weird one."
I was pretty sure we were getting rather fond of each other in spite of everything else.
"You know, it would be better if you just told him how you feel."
"No way. Lord Miach is… he would say that I'm confused, that I'm young, that I'm just saying that because I feel indebted to him. I would be rejected immediately. He likely still thinks of me as a child, and I… don't think I can handle that, not right now."
"Hmm… well, if you think you can take it, you could show a brave front and say something like "I knew you would say that, but even so, I'll show you that my love for you is genuine" while pointing a finger at him with a confident smile, then you can run in a different direction and cry in secret later. Either way, he'll be a lot more conscious in regarding you as a woman."
"Nooooo! There's no way I can do that!" She threw her pillow in my face, oof, oh, it smells nice, "And how can you say something so embarrassing!"
"I used to do sales and dealt with all sorts of clients before. Swallowing my pride and beliefs with a smile is something that I have been praised for!"
"Your previous career is terrifying."
"Hahaha! Well, I beg to differ. I dare say being an over glorified miner for magic stones is a more terrifying job."
"I'm pretty sure many people would take offense if you compared being an adventurer to being a miner.
"Well, who the hell cares about their opinion!"
"I don't."
After chatting for a while, she decided that she wasn't in the mood for resting even after the breastfeeding session, and so followed me to the mixing room to watch me work. At some point she left the room in order to handle our dinner for the day.
She had begun to show signs of sleepiness rather early after eating, however, so I laid her down on her bed before getting ready to go to bed myself.
Miach got back and caught me before I went to bed, wanting to update my status first.
Once that was done, I turned in for the night, getting the rest I needed to tackle 12th floor.
Status
Strength: F380
Endurance: E420
Dexterity: E440
Agility: E490
Magic: F311
Skills:
Stigma est Ventus: Marked as the Qwaser of Oxygen.
Alchymia Mysterium: Allows the user to transmute an element under the user's control to a new form, create magical items and perform miracles.