Chapter 277 - Leveling up (Patreon)

The field around her cabin on top of the rooftop most likely wouldn't be able to make me fall asleep, but if I were weaker, it could become a bit dangerous.

As always, natives of the floors are dangerous, and I have known it ever since the start of the second floor. Thalen, Isola, and Obelia also showed their true colors in the end.

Well, maybe it's too much to call it true colors. It's mostly that they did have their own interests in mind and put more importance on them over some random group they met just a few weeks ago.

I also wonder if it's something that becomes more apparent the older you are. Both Obelia and Isola were probably over 50 years old, most likely closer to 100, so that made their experience with us even shorter. So it's not much of a wonder that Obelia, in the end, decided to try to kidnap Lily and Isola fought me with the intention to kill and without hesitation.

I do not hate them for that, but the same as them, I also have my priorities and won't hesitate when it comes to it.

That's the kind of world that has opened to all of us within the tutorial.

My weak disciple moves, and slowly she opens her red eyes. Unlike before, they are clear, and there is no pain behind them she is trying to hide.

At first, she glances at one of my thermal orbs floating in the air, then at me, and in the end, around the room as well. Her little body stiffens, ready to jump up and fight, but she meets my eyes again, and I return her gaze.

I don't say anything, but she calms down.

“You can eat and drink if you want,” I gesture at the supplies next to her, “You can also sleep if you want to, but in a day we will move somewhere else. There are also a few mana stones you can use for practice if you feel better.”

Then, letting her decide what she wants to do, I get back to going through the items I got from the old capital. As I go through them, I can hear movement, and the first thing she does is to slowly, very slowly drink long sips of water; a bit after that, I hear chewing.

I, meanwhile, separated the items into two piles. All the contents of my bags.

There are some left near the lake, but all of them are of lower value. Mostly some hardwoods, some irons, or old weapons and armor. Things I wanted to examine if I got really bored, but they are not that valuable.

Still, I will make sure to check the place later, just to sell them all if they are of no use to me.

As for during my looting of the capital, I found a lot of items, but most of them were in such a terrible state that the system sometimes offered only a single shard for selling them.

My plan of selling the contents of the entire city was ruined like that.

After finding out, I didn't bother trying to find every possible item and focused mainly on the good ones, and those good ones are now in front of me, split into two piles.

The first pile contains items I'm currently thinking of selling. Some rings, some mana stones, a bracelet, a small shield, another amulet, chainmail. All of them are of upper rare rarity at most.

Then there is the second pile with items I will be keeping. Mana conductive paint, pieces of arcanadium, endurium, shards of ethercrystal. A bracelet from the auction that reacted weirdly to my Primordial Energies, high-grade mana stones, pretty good mana batteries, an interesting upper rare dagger, an epic aqua arcana vial, some more metals, crystals, and mana stones with inscribed information.

There is also all the food I have and bottles of water, as well as some gold and jewelry, in case of need.

Checking the pile, I estimate that the food should be enough for a few comfortable weeks, and maybe even months, as most of what I've taken is very calorie-dense. Plus, I don't need to eat that much anymore after my body upgrade.

As for water, there is a bit less of it, but surely enough for at least two weeks. I also have an epic vial that I can use to store water. There is currently a lot of water from the lake, but that is poisonous, seeing what it did to my disciple.

“Master?” a soft voice sounds from behind me.

“Hm?” I just ask without turning.

“Will you eat with me?” There is something a bit weird in her voice. It's hard to describe.

When I turn to her, she is sitting there, small, thin, red eyes glowing even in the room filled with shadows, and small horns poking through her hair. It almost seems like she puts some importance on eating together.

Maybe some custom?

“Sure,” I say and turn away from the pile, sitting on the floor in front of her.

She smiles. It's a weird smile. The same as me, she is also deciding what to think of me.

I'm supposed to be her master, teach her, and protect her. I gave her food and clothes and started teaching her, yet at the same time, she also got poisoned because of my inexperience and then hurt more while we were teleporting.

Yet, she can't just run away from me or hate me for that as without me she would die quickly.

Me disliking these facts won't change anything, so I can only strive to work on the things I can change.

“Is this any of your custom?” I ask while I watch her carefully split the food for both of us, using clean pieces of cloth to set the food and bottle of water on the floor.

She does it somewhat awkwardly, as if she is not used to it, but there is some happiness in her movements. The kind a person has doing something they always wanted to try and that makes them happy.

“Yes,” her answer is short and I do not ask further.

When it's all set up, she waits and looks up to me, and I take the first small bite from the dried fruit.

She watches me eat, her big red eyes once again reminding me how young she is. My disciple is even younger than Isabella, yet she is so different.

Finishing the fruit, I then take a sip of water, and that's when she also starts eating and drinking more water. No matter how hard she tries, her movements are awkward and show her hunger, and when she is nearly out of food, I take a bit more and put it in front of her.

The little half-demon devours it all, and when it's done, she says one simple word, “Thanks.”

***

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 13]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 26]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 31]

[Lvl 214 > Lvl 215]

A bit by bit, I finally level up. Even such monsters count in, and it looks like I was really close to leveling, so they pushed me there.

All the stat points immediately go to support my ever-growing mana.

The entire time, I keep my eyes on the little half-demon that fights with a level 2 Veilshrieker.

This one is smaller and much weaker than the stronger ones that I kill, as they are too much for her right now.

Holding the dagger I gave her, she overpowers the one of a lower level than herself. The way she fights is raw and aggressive. It’s a way someone weak fights against stronger opponents. Not to win but to wound the opponent enough so they might not bother to fight her because of annoying small wounds.

Well, at least she's not a scaredy-cat. She gives her best in everything I try to teach her, absorbing my instructions like a sponge. Her [Concentration] helps with that too, even though it’s not as good a skill as my [Focus].

When she is done, she turns to me, and I point at another monster nearby that I still hold with my [Redistribution]. She turns to it, and I release it, and the fight starts.

The little half-demon is nimble and fairly talented. Someone like her should be capable of reaching a higher level. Unfortunately, unlike us in the tutorial, she didn't have monsters gradually getting stronger. No matter how assholish and dangerous the Hell difficulty is, there is some fairness to it. On the 1st floor, the monsters were strong, but only to the point we could mostly handle.

Unlike us, my disciple lives in a world full of constant wars and without places where she could go and find monsters matching her level. No one would bother helping her.

When she finishes the monster, she turns to me, “Level 9.”

Good, she is close to reaching level 10 where she should get offered her first trait. This is also where I'm curious. Will her system be similar to mine? Logically it shouldn't be, partially, but with huge differences at places. Currently, I'm inclined to think that the system within the tutorial is here to help us grow stronger faster than we would be able to outside of it. Or maybe I'm wrong, and the outside system also has side quests and quests similar to the floor quests we are getting.

Even while babysitting my silly disciple, I constantly keep practicing, especially examining my Thermokinetic mana heart and its ability to compress mana and how much it affects my Primordial energies. Once in a while, I even compress mana into the black one, just an orb small as a grape, and force it under my control.

[Focus - lvl 43 > Focus - lvl 44]

Compressing and controlling my mana is getting easier in combination with my new passives and my new trait. That's when I do it outside of my body to create a black mana dagger or black orbs. It's dangerous to train in absorbing black mana with the Veil Guardian around. The monster seems to have skills that allow it to track mana to quite a scary degree. And it being close to 300th lvl makes it even more annoying. I thought strong monsters shouldn't be in starting zones, but this one doesn't seem to care.

(Nathaniel?)

While keeping my eyes on my disciple fighting, Darren, one of the survivors, calls over the crude communicator and I accept the connection.

(Do you call because you want to pay me for the items I left for you?)

A short silence. He is most likely thinking about how to pay me back. Surely.

A mana projectile shoots from me and throws the monster to the side before it bites into the little half-demon. My disciple doesn't seem to be pleased and attacks with more aggressiveness, the dagger stabbing against the monster. As before, she seems to have some talent in strengthening her body with the help of mana, something similar to what I used to do at the start of the first floor.

(She said it would be safe to cooperate with you, so I wanted to meet up.)

Well, it looks like it could be easy to finish at least one of the side quests, even though this one only offers some food and water as a reward.

(Maybe later, I will contact you.) Not giving him a chance to answer, I turn off the communication.

"Come here," I call to my disciple.

She lifts her eyes and obediently pushes herself back on her feet, even though she just started resting a bit after finishing the monster.

"Stab me," I tell her.

Her expression changes as she activates her [Concentration]. She thinks just for a few seconds and then she nods.

Mana flows through her body and her red eyes seem to shine as she shifts on her feet, twists her body, and stabs towards me with a dagger.

Because of her height, her stab is aimed at my belly, and I only take a small step backward, which makes her lose balance as the hit she is expecting to land misses.

Quickly reclaiming it, my disciple moves again, taking two short steps towards me and stabs again, this time aiming at my leg.

Once again, I take a small step to the side and she loses her balance.

The third time, she aims at the leg again, but when I change my position again, she doesn't lose her balance. Her footwork is slightly different as she adapts her movements.

"Good, now continue," I release one more monster from my hold and it starts screeching, pure hate in its eyes.

"Yes, master," my disciple nods and faces it.

As before, I'm surprised by her cold behavior, but I guess that's her skill, even though it's surprising to see it in someone so young. It reminds me a bit of Isabella, who used to have Sophie's [Geas] that worked similarly.

***

A few more hours pass, and with pauses in between, she finally kills one of the last monsters.

"Level 10!"  a happy smile flashes across her face and she rushes towards me.

"Traits?" I ask her to break the silence that ensued.

"I got offered five of them, there is also Mana Circuit you mentioned, then Elemental Resonance, Sensory Expansion, Arcane Intuition, Natural Resilience."

Then she gives me the descriptions. All of them sound useful. Elemental Resonance to attune her to elements, Sensory Expansion to strengthen her six senses, Arcane Intuition to move her mana more reflexively, and Natural Resilience to strengthen her body and make it more resilient or something.

All of them pale in comparison to the first one.

"Pick Mana Circuit," I tell her.

To my surprise, she doesn't even ask why and just picks it, and that makes me lose my words. The little girl just looks up to me. Big red eyes, small horns near her hair, and an expression of trust.

The little half-demon tilts her head, "Master? Is it fine?" she asks innocently.

I have noticed that she started showing me more trust after I "saved" her and after I fed her a few times, but this… this feels heavy.

"It's fine, how many traits can your race have?" I ask, just in case. Humans can have only 3, so I'm curious about others.

"Only four," the little half-demon says somewhat disappointed.

"O-only four?" I ask.

She nods, "I heard some powerful demons can have five."

I think I don't like demons.

***

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