Chapter 272 - Bribes (Patreon)

I came up with the best way to ask questions of my untrusting disciple. The answer is simple.

It's money and items.

Yup.

It's totally not suspicious, like some random adult offering candy to a little kid. Not at all.

I'm too curious to spend weeks gaining her trust, so I have decided to use some things I bought from the 4th floor. I try with rare items, mana stones, more food, and the little girl loves it, even though she tries to hide it.

After hours of observing her, I come to notice imperfections in her facade. It's easier than usual, probably because she feels somewhat similar to me.

“What is your race?” I ask her after sliding a rare amulet to her. The item is capable of creating a barrier that shields against mana-based attacks. Something useless to me, but her hands nearly shake as she takes it.

While she quickly hides it under her new clothes, I notice a tiny cheeky smirk on her face. As if she is thinking she is scamming me.

“I will need more to answer that,” she says, already becoming braver in my presence.

She seems to think I'm someone rich or powerful, and I have no idea how much the items I'm giving her are worth, so she decided to scam me a bit more.

How cute.

“Sure,” I say and put a few lower-grade mana stones in front of her and a small bag too.

After grabbing it all, she puts her newly gained things there.

“I'm half-demon, half-human,” her voice quietly sounds, and she examines me carefully, “I don’t know who my parents are and which one of them was a demon.”

“Are demons feared where you come from?”

“People... don't like them very much.” she doesn’t say more.

The half-demon girl becomes more rigid, and it's easy to see how they treat her wherever she is from. A young kid without any parents or family, from a race that is feared and hated. They most likely treat her extremely harshly while thinking how nice they are for not immediately killing her.

I don't like it that much. It's only been a few hours, but she is my disciple, and my disciple being treated like this means disrespect shown to me as her master.

Okay, it's decided, before she returns, I will teach her some nice explosive skills and where to kick to make it hurt as much as possible. The little half-demon is someone with self-control, but she is timid and weak. It’s something I can help with.

I take more food and even add some sweets and put it in front of her. As if trained, she waits for my question before taking it.

“Tell me your level, your skills, your class, and your passives.”

When she hesitates, I put a bit more to the pile.

“Level 6, skills are [Concentration] and [Mana Manipulation], I have no class and one passive, it's common Mana Channeling.”

I nod, and she quickly takes all the food while keeping some out of the bag and slowly nomming on it.

It looks like the system didn't lie and even our skills are somewhat similar. So, what is the exact purpose of this Floor? To train someone similar to me to become as strong as possible and then get as high as possible reward?

Well, whatever, I will find out sooner or later.

“Okay, my silly disciple,” I change my bearing to her surprise.

I quite like her personality and the skills she has. She also feels like an underdog to me. Bullied, at the bottom of the ladder, and who doesn’t want underdogs to win? Especially when this one became a disciple of mine.

Oh no, we can’t have that. I will turn this half-demon into a terrifying being.

“My name is Nathaniel; use it if you want or do not; it's up to you. You can call me master or ‘hey you’; I don’t mind. I will train you and I will protect you while you are here. I will make sure you are not hungry and that you have nice clothes.”

Her expression isn't exactly trusting, but that’s fine. I will say what I want to say and prove the rest with my words.

“In exchange, I will want information on your skills, your classes, and your growth so we can make you as strong as possible. I might also ask a few things about the place where you came from. As always, you can decide not to answer some questions you are uncomfortable asking. Everything is understandable so far?”

She nods.

“Good, now there are a few rules I would like to set up. First, never betray me. I’m trusting you and I promise that I will never betray you if you don’t betray me first.”

The little half-demon nods once more, her big red eyes observing me, “Master…” she asks carefully.

“Yes?”

“Do you not hate me? Do you not find my eyes ugly and horns disgusting?”

Damn, I’m quite good with kids, am I not? The change is staggering. Oh, maybe it's because of the food? Or maybe she also felt we two are somewhat similar.

Instead of answering, I lean closer and let her look at my eyes, “Do you find my eyes ugly?”

“No! Master’s eyes are beautiful!” she shouts, maybe really thinking so or out of fear of antagonizing me.

“Thank you. I also find your eyes pretty and your horns cute,” led by curiosity, I also reach out and touch one of her horns, pulling on it.

The texture is nice and it doesn’t feel cold but weirdly warm. When I move it from side to side while holding it, her head moves too and the shock on her face almost makes me laugh.

I let go and she puts her hands over her horn protectively. She looks angry, but to me, it's more like an angry little kitten rather than to be taken seriously. Even though her face tries to remain mostly expressionless.

I also notice that she got scared the moment I reached to touch her so I decide not to do it for now.

“Try filling this mana stone with your mana,” I say and hand her one of the smaller mana stones I used for practice some time ago.

Inside that mana stone, there are simple inscriptions that I add in a moment, making it easier for mana to get infused into it.

Then I stand up and fly high into the air. Even this time, I keep myself afloat in a position that looks like I'm lying on a bed and position myself so I can see her just in case. The little half-demon doesn't seem to notice the anchor I left near her just in case.

Further away, I have some space to think about how I should deal with her. There are multiple options.

One of them is keeping the distance while training her and making her as strong as possible for the best possible reward.

Another one is to be fair, a bit harsh, and use training methods that are more demanding, but with better results. That would include some pain from her side and the risk of her hating me.

Of course, there is also an option to become unhinged and treat her harshly and train her by fear. She is just a fake so that wouldn’t be so bad, right?

I don’t like that last option at all and there is no need to do it.

My disciple seems to have a personality I like. She seems to be the type that likes to keep her distance but is mostly honest when there is no reason to lie. And I won’t lie, I pity her a bit. As many times before, it's hard for me to treat kids harshly. But this is dangerous as well.

I just ended the 4th floor and Myrra, someone I've come to appreciate and befriend, stayed there with a tiny speck of hope of Lissandra reaching her. Heck, for all I know, the floor disappeared immediately. Or maybe even nothing changed. Maybe Lissandra already counts as a tutorial attendee and even though she is not showing in the community. Maybe the system still has some errors to be fixed.

The main point is that - should I open up a bit? Should I allow myself to befriend my disciple, only to end up saddened when the floor ends?

As I like, I leave it up to future Nathaniel to deal with and open the Community.

I click on the Normal difficulty and a chat opens.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - hello.

One (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - oh, there is really someone from Hell difficulty!

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - I thought they were making fun of us.

One (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - Noname, how is Hell difficulty? Is it true that you have a corgi and snake that are probably stronger than us, lol?

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - I think that girl was just making fun of us, One.

Patriot (Normal, OnlyDads) - she sounded honest.

Patriot (Normal, OnlyDads) - hello, Noname!

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I don’t know about the snake, but the corgi would surely take on some people from hard difficulty.

One (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - heh, they are all the same.

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - I told you, all people from Hell difficulty have a screw loose

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - please, Noname, don’t add fuel to the flame. These two are annoying enough as it is.

One (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - that’s not what you said on our date.

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - screw off, you made me pay!

One (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - equality.

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - how is that equality!?

Patriot (Normal, OnlyDads) - what level are you, Noname?

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I would rather keep it to myself. How come you guys didn’t join our Community?

Patriot (Normal, OnlyDads) - heh, that’s fine. You don’t have to tell.

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - you can’t join a Community that is in a higher difficulty than yours. This means Hell can join every Community while Hard can join every other than Hell etc.

Oh? That’s interesting and explains why our Community stayed without these people.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - In the first floor, we had to survive for 30 days in a forest full of monsters that became harder over time. Cinderbear, Battle trolls, Phantom goblins. The second was to watch the end of the world caused by a skill powered by an unknown rarity sword, the third was to kill the body of a dead Saint that used to be Absolute and caused the end of the world, and the 4th was to kill one of the 4 calamities, all of them over level 250. What were your quests?

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - holy fuck, is he lying?

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - I think that girl said something similar.

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - they could be both lying.

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - there is no real reason to.

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - Our first floor was similar but with probably much weaker monsters. The second floor was to survive a war between two smaller nations. The third we had to find the cause of Decay. The fourth one did have this race of cat girls! They were so tall but so cute, I wish I could take a picture! There we had to help free an old capital from the Living Tree.

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - I want my lynthari mommy back

What the fuck?

Eve (Normal, Doomclouds) - creep.

Two (Normal, Ominous Latin Name) - I saw you trying to pull their tails!

I leave the Community before they continue.

It's interesting to see the differences between each Community and seeing Easy and Normal it looks like a lot of them take it much easier than any of us here in Hell. It’s something that will be proven when we finally meet face to face and I'm already curious at what level of skill they will be. A bit over a month remains until the tournament and more questions come. What will happen to the floor and floor quest during the tournament? Will they pause?

I float a bit lower to get a better view of the half-demon below me.

The entire time I'm up here, she keeps working on the mana stone. Her brow is furrowed, and as she does so, she even ignores the items she's been holding so covetously ever since I gave them to her.

She doesn't nibble on the food; the bag is forgotten on the side, and she only stares at the mana stone. Her mask cracks even more, and the corner of her lips lifts up in a smile as she manipulates her mana and works on the task I gave her.

What she is showing right now is something I know very well, and the moment I see her like that, I know I won't be able to treat her harshly or keep my distance.

No, she and I both share the same love towards the thing that is called mana.

And just like this, it's decided.

System, you bastard, the end of this floor is going to hurt, isn't it?

***

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