“Levin Core,” I murmured.
A purple magic circle materialized in the middle of a group of slazzanbals, invoking a giant ball of contained electricity. At first, the ball only floated above those salamanders, doing nothing, but after a small delay, electricity began to arc from it, attacking anything close to the core as lightning chained from one monster unto the other.
The damage wasn’t the highest, but it attacked automatically like a tower defense game, so it had its use. Although this did give the salamanders a chance to shoot their magma spit at my current party and me, I sent them back at the salamanders with a few accurate [Wind Blast]s.
“U-unbelievable, how fast can you cast? That was seven simultaneous casts all at once, accurate and powerful enough to shoot those magma balls back and it didn’t even look like you had any troubles with the casting lag.” One of Saori’s students, Nishio the bespectacled mage, watched me with bafflement. He then attached my ID on his party bracelet, inspecting my whole profile in the process. “Honestly, I can’t help but feel a bit envious. In one year, you’ve made far more progress than we did. Even Sensei is at a far higher level. You said you two were only rank Ds? How are your Quest points?”
“Yeah, uhm, our total was something like four D points, one E, 24 Fs, and three Gs,” I recounted the number of Quests points our party accumulated.
Now that I thought about it, maybe we should have taken a few Quests during our training week. Aurora really was lazy about doing Quests since our main financial sources were the herbs from Tasianna’s garden and the restaurant.
“That should a be a total of—”
“Ten Ds, one E, and three Gs, if we convert the F points into Ds at a rate of four-to-one. To get to C rank, you need 40 D points, so if we look at how to get to that goal in the most efficient way, then gaining 30 Es and 58 F points would be for the best since F and E rank Quests are far more common. Es can be converted into Ds at a two-to-one ratio, so cut down at the total F rank Quests you need to do by supplementing it with Es. With your strength, I think you should be able to ‘farm’ that up quickly enough,” Nishio concluded, in his opinion, the most optimal ranking strategy.
Aside from getting Ellaine up to rank E as fast as possible, we haven’t actually dabbled too much into Questing. We said we would rank up to C as fast as possible, but I guess we kinda slacked on the homework.
“Would that be the best way?” I questioned at first. “Actually, do you have a calculator with you, or how did you come to that conclusion that fast, Nishio-san? On the spot, even.”
Instead of the person on hand, Tamae-chan, the leader of The Magical Biscuits, answered for him as she clapped his back. “Do you remember the second party we mentioned? Well, Nishio-kun and a girl called Haruka-chan control our finances as well as our Quest progression. The two top scorers in our last midterm’s math section made sure we wouldn’t have any issues with our numbers game.”
Instead of smiling, Nishio simply shrugged his shoulders at Tamae’s praises. “That was when I needed to learn complicated equations and formulas to enter the university my parents chose for me. This is just simple math and then assessing the time investment and risk factors, nothing special. Even our two game addicts came to the same conclusions.”
Nishio then pointed at the blue screen projected from his party bracelets, pointing at my stats and skills to Tamae. “If you want to be a merchant in this world, then math is important, but our job is to do whatever the church wants us to do. What we instead need is this Profile Hestia-san was able to accumulate in a single year. Just look at how fast she handled those rank C slazzanbals. We needed the five of us to deal with one, while she handled all of them by herself. The last group, too. And the one before. She has been destroying anything in our path since we broke camp.”
That was the shortest summary of what we’ve been doing for, oh, I didn’t know how many hours. When we woke up this morning, I noticed Saori, Tasianna, and Grimnir losing Health over the party screen. I panicked a bit when Grimnir was at half health, telling everybody we needed to move. It got worse when it reached 10% with [Burned (Moderate)].
In my rush to find them, I was just killing anything that came into our path as quickly as possible while Ellaine led Talon and Saori’s students in the rear with Quatre. That was how I managed to finally level up after two weeks of grinding. I eventually slowed down when Tamae noticed Saori’s, Tasianna’s, and Grimnir’s levels going up, meaning they made it through whatever they were fighting. I couldn’t describe how relieved we all were.
Speaking of levels, Saori’s students hadn't been idle during their time on Peolynca …
______________________________________________________________________
Name: Tamae Tsuji Level: 45 Job: Holy Priestess
Health: 1390/1390 Mana: 3095/3095 Stamina: 970/970
Name: Nishio Kudo Level: 53 Job: Six-Elemental Sorcerer
Health: 1556/1556 Mana: 4512/4512 Stamina: 1140/1140
Name: Misaki Kawano Level: 52 Job: Sniper
Health: 1705/1705 Mana: 1564/1564 Stamina: 2021/2021
Name: Kazumi Hoshino Level: 47 Job: Dagger Rogue
Health: 2091/2091 Mana: 1109/1109 Stamina: 1911/1911
______________________________________________________________________
Name: Kohaku Kobayashi Level: 50 Job: Water-Elemental Runeslayer
Health: 2447/2447 Mana: 1989/1989 Stamina: 2355/2355
______________________________________________________________________
In general, all of them were around Ellaine’s level, but their stats were higher since they “cheated,” like Saori and I did, by buying the stat growth and enforcement skills ever since they were level one. Since they were all otherworldly visitors, they were able to not only get access to the SP system but also an auto-translator from their [Otherworldly Visitor] title. That meant they didn’t need to learn Common outside of writing.
Last night, Ellaine, the students, and I pretty much talked about everything we experienced, blocking Talon from hearing anything with a [Air Shield]. While they were fascinated and horrified by my [Dragon Hatchling] and [Young Dragon] life in the Belzac forest and Ellaine was interested in Earthen culture, I was more curious about what happened to them in the Holy Capital of the Church of Aurena, Aureolis.
“They practically imprisoned us,” Nishio stated bluntly after I asked him to go into more detail about what they told me yesterday. “You said you read manga and light novels, right, Hestia-san? While I’m not a fiction reader, Kohaku-san, who has a mangaka as a father, explained to me everything I needed to know. The tropes, at least. Well, we were supposedly summoned here by the church under the authority of the Goddess of Light, Aurena, and trained specifically to defeat the lord or king of the demonkins.”
“And I told you guys that Aurena told me she had nothing to do with that. That’s why I’m not only curious but also a bit wary of what the church is hiding from you guys.”
Not only did I tell them about my experiences in this world, I also informed them of how I got to Peolynca in the first place and why I became a dragon. We had a few laughs until I mentioned my previous talks about Aurena, and how she was only responsible for my summoning, not theirs. As I expected when I told them this, they were not thrilled.
I continued, “This ‘Yorshka,’ she’s a knight of the church, right? I remember seeing her and … well, I guess she seemed okay on first impressions? Do you trust her?”
Speaking about Yorshka, I did remember a white-haired woman among them when I first saw the students. I even detected some sweet smell coming from their way, and since none of the students nor Talon had that smell on them, I could only conclude it was that woman.
The only times where this smell had appeared before were with Vanialasma, the leviathan, Priscilla, a dragonewt, and Cernust, a drake. No other time. Not even Farron—who I believed was married to a dragonkin of some sort—had that smell on him.
Sure, three examples were a small sample size, but Cernust did mention the whole pheromones thing to me, so I was instinctively committed to this assumption. As such, I had to keep quiet about it from the students, since I remembered Cernust mentioning an unspoken rule for the adulthood pilgrimage. If a dragonkin didn’t wish to be revealed, then I should keep quiet about it. Treat others how you wish to be treated.
Although, there was another reason. According to the student’s description and the couple of seconds of memory I had of her, she did remind me of Priscilla. There was also the case that she was supposedly a rank A adventurer and a dragoon like Farron. If this Yorshka was Farron’s wife and Priscilla’s mom, then I was obligated as a friend to keep my mouth shut.
Tamae sighed. “Well, when Dame Yorshka hired Talon-san, she did describe you in detail and that she was looking for you. She brought us here for potions, but the real reason is clear now.. But … I find it hard to believe that she would be involved in this church’s conspiracy with how she acted around us. She’s been practically training us by herself, pushing us to survive so we can go back home. She’s even been learning our interest, asking about Earth.”
Home, huh …
While I was thinking about this possibility, Specs voiced his suspicions, “If Aurena didn’t summon us, then who did? We five are the only ones from our class who know this critical information. While I understand Yorshka has been good to us—and I’m grateful for her guidance—we need to look out more for our own interests, and that means being wary of our benefactors. We need proper allies, we need to get to Sensei. Hestia-san, are you sure that Aurena said what you told us?”
I nodded uneasily. “Aurena admitted to summoning me to Peolynca so I could fix and rebuild her church. Meaning, she’s dissatisfied with her religion, so something must be happening in Aureolis. There are two possibilities. Either Aurena doesn’t have her followers’ best interests in mind and is having me do something morally wrong, or the church is corrupt to the point that their goddess resorts to summoning a poor dead girl’s soul to do her bidding.”
“Honestly, both options sound terrible …” Tamae looked at me with pity. Not only was she taller but also older, making me feel a bit embarrassed I said that. At this point in time, she was 19, only three years older if we counted my current dragonewt age, which was 16.
It was a bit awkward to talk about Aurena since she could see and hear what we were doing through Ellaine, but I was simply stating my opinion on the matter. If Aurena got butthurt about it, then why should I trust her?
I am a mortal worrying about my life, she is a goddess. She should act like one and ignore me.
“Well, it’s not that bad if you look at it positively. I got the chance for a second life, I got to meet Saori, and I’m also the first and only idol of Peolynca. Always look on the bright side of life, wheuh, wheuh, wheeuh, wheeuh ” I cheered.
“First idol? Hestia-chan, were you a—Oh wait! I think I heard your voice before, wait, where was it, oh! When we first arrived in Cedaraille, I think I heard somebody singing with your voice at a street food vendor. Let the music play, let it enter your soul That song is still stuck in my head, ehehe,” Tamae suddenly mentioned, singing a part of my newest song.
Raising a frown, I couldn’t help but feel baffled at how close she was to meeting us about a week ago. “Are you kidding me? Ahem,
Let the music play, let it enter your soul
Rest your weary body here
To a tune or melody
Listen now, to a soothing remedy
Listen now, let your stress disappear
Let my song reach you, fill your heart with wonder and more
Gaze up to the blue sky
To smile to the light
Listen now, you know what is right
Listen now, don’t need to look so wry ”
“That’s the song I remember! W-wow, we were that close to meeting Sensei, Ellaine, and you, Hestia-chan.”
“Actually, Hestia-san, didn't you say that you were in Firwood and did some odd Quests there? When we visited the temple there, the High Bishop mentioned a priestess dealing with major issues concerning two nearby villages. Could that priestess have been you?” Nishio raised that point.
The only high bishop I knew was Theodore, which meant our party missed each other about twice until now. You know, I knew our party had bad luck, but could it please stop doing something like this, worrying Saori to death. Fighting giant monsters and then making her miss her students twice. Cruel.
Well, after I confirmed his question, the girls responsible for dismantling the slazzanbals were done. Ellaine, Misaki, Kazumi, and Kohaku came back with the materials. From what I could see, each of the students was able to use [Storage Magic] to store small objects, but their total mana kept them from storing the amounts that I could. After we packed everything together, we continued walking the path Talon pointed out for us.
Ellaine is getting along with them quite well.
To my surprise, Ellaine was speaking with those three aforementioned girls pretty well, almost as if they became friends after a single camping night. Although I was here, Ellaine was constantly asking them about Earth and how they got so strong in their one year being in Peolynca.
Honestly, I felt a bit envious with how casually Ellaine was speaking with them. Like, not about skills or SP, not that stuff. She was talking with them about fashion, technology, customs, even drinks. Didn’t they just meet with each other? How could she talk so casually with them?
“Took you long enough.” At the end of the path, Talon was sitting on a boulder, looking at us impatiently. As an illusionist, most of his combat effectiveness came with his illusions and the occasional dark spell he would shoot out, so he preferred to avoid confrontations as best as he could. “The area ahead is a watering hole for a pack of rachycephalarus. Territorial, but they don’t have a good sense of smell. Let’s just get by without fighting.”
Talon was single-minded when it came to finding that Shiterno priest Keith. In fact, he even informed me that he and the students entered the dungeon later than Aurora, but knew a way to get down to the magma floors if you were brave enough to do so. The method to get down as fast as they did was to use the paths the monsters would use for dungeon breaks.
From floors one to nine, there were hidden holes for adventurers and monsters to skip floors with, although they weren't documented on the maps since cartographers like Talon preferred to maintain an information advantage for their main profession, such as Talon and his treasure hunting business. In other words, Talon was the person who made the maps we’ve been using to get down here.
After you get to floor ten, things would become more difficult due to the felgheists and felmights; however, the way to get down to floor 14 without any issues was to simply jump off the cliffs. Crazy as it sounded, the dungeon allowed monsters to move from floor to floor through the “ground-less” ravine Ellaine nearly fell down into. The only concern with this plan was the fall, which was deep.
Talon mentioned he hated fire, so he had only ventured through these floors only once to try and overcome his fear. Didn’t work, but he learned a bit about the local fauna.
Now, how did all of them get down here before my party? Well, as Tamae and Nishio already mentioned to me, Yorshka was a dragoon, and supposedly a damn good one to boot. She used [Air Walk] and wind spells to transport them down, meaning they avoided all the troubles we faced. Talk about “knowledge is power,” right?
“Mirror Image,” Talon murmured after finishing the chant for his illusion spell, casting a large mirror-like foil before us. Pointing his stick towards the cave on the other side, we began walking over there after Ellaine and Nishio cast [Air Shield] on everybody to dampen our footsteps.
As if some wizard cast a mass-invisibility spell on us, none of the large herbivore monsters noticed us at all, not even turning their heads around. With wind magic stopping sounds from going out and illusion magic preventing them from seeing us, we were able to sneak past them without any effort. We weren’t even using our sneak skills like Saori would have to.
Talon mentioned that this was how he guided adventurer groups through the dungeon, preventing dangerous encounters. Now, illusion magic only tricked the eyes and mind, but the other senses like hearing and smelling were still a problem. That was why he liked partnering up with wind mages who could cast [Air Shield].
Although, every time he used his illusion spells, he restricted himself to [Mirror Image] and [Myriad Distractions]—a spell to create certain images like that toad he made to scare me. He hadn’t shown any of his other tricks, except for a few [Dark Magic] spells he had as his disposal. And for this reason, he was mostly acting as a scout and guide instead of a combatant.
“I shall leave this to you,” he said humbly. His behavior could be rough, but he knew his manners, at least.
After passing through two areas without any issue, which I used to take a lunch break, our party landed in a wide area, like a steppe, with various creatures just living their lives in this environment. When we tried to sneak past, we accidentally triggered a dormant magma golem who was sleeping under the ground. I didn’t expect there to be golems in this dungeon, so I was being a bit careless.
Talon’s first instinct was to run, but when the students volunteered to fight it, he constructed a larger [Mirror Image] to further conceal our location. “Hestia-san, let us fight this please,” Nishio pleaded. With Ellaine joining them, six young adventurers rush towards the magma golem.
As I waited, I summoned Quatre, who had decided to abstain from participating in this battle with Ellaine. “Good, boy!”
[“Mistress Hestia, I am far too old to be considered a boy. Both my life as a faefolk and the memories imprinted into my soul by this body’s previous owner tell that I cannot be categorized as a pup.”]
Seeing as how he was over 100 years old, maybe calling him a boy was a bit rude. Apologizing, I began massaging the big garm’s back, cuddling him in soft fur in the process. It seemed he didn’t mind that too much.
Play some music, parallel minds. Let’s give them some support.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines
It’s blinding my sight
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ”
“Huh, what is that music?” the black-haired rogue girl Kazumi turned around to me, voicing her surprise at my sudden [Aerokinesis] activation.
“That’s Hestia-chan’s [Aerokinesis] and [Idol] skills working in tandem. Depending on the song she’s playing, we receive different buffs!” Ellaine explained.
Hestia-chan? H-hold on, when did Ellaine learn honorifics?
“Woooo! Nice!” While I was shocked at hearing Ellaine call me “Hestia-chan,” the energetic swordswoman Kohaku shouted in excitement, pointing a thumbs-up at me. “BGM! Battle music! Ahh, that’s the one thing I’ve been sorely missing to make these fights less tense! You’re an RPG player too, right? Oh man, hey, isn’t this just broken? Infinite Stamina!”
“Hey, we’re about to fight! Get into position already and stop trying to die!” Nishio scolded them.
Looking apologetic, Kohaku took out her rune-covered sword before touching one of the runes on it, all in one swift motion. “Sorry, sorry, Nishio-san. Just take it as me feeling my sword arm twitching in anticipation! Kotodama, time to get to work!”
The blade glowed blue, the same color as a water magic circle, covering the whole sword in a veil of water as the runes on her clothes and skin began to activate in unison. Looking at the amount of buffs she had on the party screen, I remembered why Saori’s students were considered your typical light novel “Heroes.”
Unique skills. Cheats. Call them however you want. When Saori’s students were summoned to this world, each of them were given a unique skill to point at what their innate talents were and what they should focus on. At least, that was what the church used to justify their training regimens.
Nishio and Tamae, the mages of The Magical Biscuits, began slinging buffs on Kohaku, Kazumi, Misaki, and Ellaine as they took their positions in this battle. As expected of SP users, they were casting chantlessly and using multiple magic circles at once, although they seemed to be delaying each spell instead of casting them simultaneously.
As the rank C magma golem made its first attack, I noticed something glowing on Talon’s neck. Having noticed my stare, he explained.
“Runic Tattoo.”
I tilted my head.
“Runic tattoo, that is what’s on my neck—this one helps me regulate my mana usage. The precursor to the dwarven weapon and armor runes; they’ve mostly fallen out of favor today, but what can you do if you can’t learn from a runesmith?” Talon then showed me a glowing tattoo on the scarred side of his face. “Cold things help dull the pain, but it’s inconvenient to learn [Ice Magic] or bring lots of ice with you everywhere you go, so I learned this after begging a dwarf to teach me. Human stubbornness can even best a dwarf’s on good days.”
I looked at how Kohaku was fighting and how many runes she was benefiting from, dashing around the field like some anime swordswoman. It was impressive, just like the runes Farron showed me.
“What do you mean they went out of favor?”
“They are the poor man’s runes, as they require the same amount of effort and ingredients, but give lesser impressive abilities. They are just easier to learn and apply. Sadly, if somebody scratched the tattoo off, for example a cut, it becomes useless immediately. You scratch it off with your claws and I would need to reapply it. Runes on armor and weapons are resilient, only breaking if the weapon does too.”
I wonder if Grimnir could apply some tattoos, too? Huh, another point which would make Papa and Mama freak out.
When I returned to the fight at hand, it looked like it was going well. In general, all six fighters were around the lower bracket of rank C adventurers, and the students especially were showing their experience by turning this rank C into fodder. Ellaine also was fighting better than usual, more confidently and aggressively, using what Saori, Tasianna, and I had taught her to the fullest as she synchronized with the others.
“Yahooo, magma golem, how about you look AT ME!” Kohaku shouted as she performed a sword ability, knocking the golem onto the ground with multiple powerful strikes from her water-cladded runeblade.
When the golem tried to throw a magma ball at her, Ellaine came to her rescue by quickly casting [Terra Wall] to redirect its aim, causing it to miss the swordswoman by a mile. She then cast [Earthen Shackles], pinning the monster to the floor and providing an opening for the rogue of the group.
Since normal magma and fire didn’t do much to me, I volunteered to dig out the shattered core. “Was it necessary to break it like this? I could have easily just pulled it out intact.”
Nishio looked at me with confusion before realizing the meaning of my words. “… Sorry, I forgot about that. A whole golem core would fetch a good price at the mage’s guild, but we’re more used to selling the shards.”
Mages guild? Hmmm, Cedaraille should have a mages guild, right? Hmm, I think I’m forgetting something, something to do with Master Kush … Naaaaah, if it’s something I forgot, then it couldn’t have been important.
After harvesting anything valuable from the golem, Talon suggested we take a break for everybody to rest and eat. I agreed, as did the others. I honestly couldn’t wait to try Tamae’s cooking, which, admittedly, was much better than Saori’s. Understandably, since she learned cooking from Tamae.
However, when we were about to take a break, something nasty came crawling.
“Talon! Old friend, I see you are doing fine, and with a group of young fine ladies, too! Danterno has blessed you through the years, I see.” Walking around the steppe all alone, shouting to us the moment he saw us, he rushed over as if he was seeing a good friend for the first time in years. It was none other than Talon’s enemy: Keith Svonnweidher.
“Keith!” Talon almost growled that name out. His eyes flared as they locked onto the smiling Danterno worshipper.
“Ahh, don’t give me that look, old friend. I apologized so dearly for not being with you when you needed it the most; however, know that I prayed for your parents’ and siblings’ souls when I heard of the news. I am sure they are doing just fine in the God of Fire’s embrace.” Keith’s words almost sounded so genuinely happy for Talon, but the latter became even more agitated as seconds passed. When I saw Talon’s face contort even more, I felt a bit reluctant to stop him, until …
“Ahh, but I guess those prayers won’t reach our God this time, right, Talon? I feel your anger, my friend. I can sympathize! Our reunion must be fate, old friend, for it is time for us to finally take everything in our own hands to rise and grow! To free our God from the devious clutches of the Goddess of Water, Pleisa!”
Free?
“You bastard, shut u—Huh?” As Talon was about to jump on the priest, I grabbed his shoulder, looking at him seriously. “Unhand me. I don’t care at this point. Paint me a murderer, paint me a sociopath. I don’t give a fuck. I will get my revenge on this guy!”
Not wanting Keith to hear this, I spoke with him through [Telepathy], [“I know that, but, just trust me, all right? My instincts are giving me bad vibes from this guy, far more than you think. I will give you a chance to cave this guy’s face in, but give me a chance to speak with him first. He couldn’t be here for something simple, right?”]
Looking more calm after I stared at him, with the help of [Benevolent Aura], he gave me a confused but suspicious look. “What are you planning?”
“You’re the adult here, so try to control your emotions a bit until I’m done, okay?” I winked before letting his arm go, walking towards Keith.
I can’t believe I’ll be using this for the first time.
Shiterno and his followers have been a thorn in my side for a long time now, hating it whenever people thought I was a Shitenro worshipper. It hasn’t happened as often as it could thanks to my white robe, but from my conversations with Peolyncians like Ellaine, Tasianna, and Farron, people could make that assumption if I didn’t have it on. Talon, for example, thought me one.
As painful as it was, this was for the benefit of information.
Taking off my white robe and Aurena necklace to put them inside my storage, I used [Pyrokinesis] to replace them with a fiery robe using my scale-dust, imitating the one Keith is wearing. “The [Divine Inferno]. That is the title God Danterno gave me. Speak, what happened to him?”
“W-what?” Talon shouted.
“Ahhhh, the Crimson Saintess!”
AbyssRaven Time to bring out those dialogue options!
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“Levin Core,” I murmured.
A purple magic circle materialized in the middle of a group of slazzanbals, invoking a giant ball of contained electricity. At first, the ball only floated above those salamanders, doing nothing, but after a small delay, electricity began to arc from it, attacking anything close to the core as lightning chained from one monster unto the other.
The damage wasn’t the highest, but it attacked automatically like a tower defense game, so it had its use. Although this did give the salamanders a chance to shoot their magma spit at my current party and me, I sent them back at the salamanders with a few accurate [Wind Blast]s.
“U-unbelievable, how fast can you cast? That was seven simultaneous casts all at once, accurate and powerful enough to shoot those magma balls back and it didn’t even look like you had any troubles with the casting lag.” One of Saori’s students, Nishio the bespectacled mage, watched me with bafflement. He then attached my ID on his party bracelet, inspecting my whole profile in the process. “Honestly, I can’t help but feel a bit envious. In one year, you’ve made far more progress than we did. Even Sensei is at a far higher level. You said you two were only rank Ds? How are your Quest points?”
“Yeah, uhm, our total was something like four D points, one E, 24 Fs, and three Gs,” I recounted the number of Quests points our party accumulated.
Now that I thought about it, maybe we should have taken a few Quests during our training week. Aurora really was lazy about doing Quests since our main financial sources were the herbs from Tasianna’s garden and the restaurant.
“That should a be a total of—”
“Ten Ds, one E, and three Gs, if we convert the F points into Ds at a rate of four-to-one. To get to C rank, you need 40 D points, so if we look at how to get to that goal in the most efficient way, then gaining 30 Es and 58 F points would be for the best since F and E rank Quests are far more common. Es can be converted into Ds at a two-to-one ratio, so cut down at the total F rank Quests you need to do by supplementing it with Es. With your strength, I think you should be able to ‘farm’ that up quickly enough,” Nishio concluded, in his opinion, the most optimal ranking strategy.
Aside from getting Ellaine up to rank E as fast as possible, we haven’t actually dabbled too much into Questing. We said we would rank up to C as fast as possible, but I guess we kinda slacked on the homework.
“Would that be the best way?” I questioned at first. “Actually, do you have a calculator with you, or how did you come to that conclusion that fast, Nishio-san? On the spot, even.”
Instead of the person on hand, Tamae-chan, the leader of The Magical Biscuits, answered for him as she clapped his back. “Do you remember the second party we mentioned? Well, Nishio-kun and a girl called Haruka-chan control our finances as well as our Quest progression. The two top scorers in our last midterm’s math section made sure we wouldn’t have any issues with our numbers game.”
Instead of smiling, Nishio simply shrugged his shoulders at Tamae’s praises. “That was when I needed to learn complicated equations and formulas to enter the university my parents chose for me. This is just simple math and then assessing the time investment and risk factors, nothing special. Even our two game addicts came to the same conclusions.”
Nishio then pointed at the blue screen projected from his party bracelets, pointing at my stats and skills to Tamae. “If you want to be a merchant in this world, then math is important, but our job is to do whatever the church wants us to do. What we instead need is this Profile Hestia-san was able to accumulate in a single year. Just look at how fast she handled those rank C slazzanbals. We needed the five of us to deal with one, while she handled all of them by herself. The last group, too. And the one before. She has been destroying anything in our path since we broke camp.”
That was the shortest summary of what we’ve been doing for, oh, I didn’t know how many hours. When we woke up this morning, I noticed Saori, Tasianna, and Grimnir losing Health over the party screen. I panicked a bit when Grimnir was at half health, telling everybody we needed to move. It got worse when it reached 10% with [Burned (Moderate)].
In my rush to find them, I was just killing anything that came into our path as quickly as possible while Ellaine led Talon and Saori’s students in the rear with Quatre. That was how I managed to finally level up after two weeks of grinding. I eventually slowed down when Tamae noticed Saori’s, Tasianna’s, and Grimnir’s levels going up, meaning they made it through whatever they were fighting. I couldn’t describe how relieved we all were.
Speaking of levels, Saori’s students hadn't been idle during their time on Peolynca …
______________________________________________________________________
Name: Tamae Tsuji Level: 45 Job: Holy Priestess
Health: 1390/1390 Mana: 3095/3095 Stamina: 970/970
Name: Nishio Kudo Level: 53 Job: Six-Elemental Sorcerer
Health: 1556/1556 Mana: 4512/4512 Stamina: 1140/1140
Name: Misaki Kawano Level: 52 Job: Sniper
Health: 1705/1705 Mana: 1564/1564 Stamina: 2021/2021
Name: Kazumi Hoshino Level: 47 Job: Dagger Rogue
Health: 2091/2091 Mana: 1109/1109 Stamina: 1911/1911
______________________________________________________________________
Name: Kohaku Kobayashi Level: 50 Job: Water-Elemental Runeslayer
Health: 2447/2447 Mana: 1989/1989 Stamina: 2355/2355
______________________________________________________________________
In general, all of them were around Ellaine’s level, but their stats were higher since they “cheated,” like Saori and I did, by buying the stat growth and enforcement skills ever since they were level one. Since they were all otherworldly visitors, they were able to not only get access to the SP system but also an auto-translator from their [Otherworldly Visitor] title. That meant they didn’t need to learn Common outside of writing.
Last night, Ellaine, the students, and I pretty much talked about everything we experienced, blocking Talon from hearing anything with a [Air Shield]. While they were fascinated and horrified by my [Dragon Hatchling] and [Young Dragon] life in the Belzac forest and Ellaine was interested in Earthen culture, I was more curious about what happened to them in the Holy Capital of the Church of Aurena, Aureolis.
“They practically imprisoned us,” Nishio stated bluntly after I asked him to go into more detail about what they told me yesterday. “You said you read manga and light novels, right, Hestia-san? While I’m not a fiction reader, Kohaku-san, who has a mangaka as a father, explained to me everything I needed to know. The tropes, at least. Well, we were supposedly summoned here by the church under the authority of the Goddess of Light, Aurena, and trained specifically to defeat the lord or king of the demonkins.”
“And I told you guys that Aurena told me she had nothing to do with that. That’s why I’m not only curious but also a bit wary of what the church is hiding from you guys.”
Not only did I tell them about my experiences in this world, I also informed them of how I got to Peolynca in the first place and why I became a dragon. We had a few laughs until I mentioned my previous talks about Aurena, and how she was only responsible for my summoning, not theirs. As I expected when I told them this, they were not thrilled.
I continued, “This ‘Yorshka,’ she’s a knight of the church, right? I remember seeing her and … well, I guess she seemed okay on first impressions? Do you trust her?”
Speaking about Yorshka, I did remember a white-haired woman among them when I first saw the students. I even detected some sweet smell coming from their way, and since none of the students nor Talon had that smell on them, I could only conclude it was that woman.
The only times where this smell had appeared before were with Vanialasma, the leviathan, Priscilla, a dragonewt, and Cernust, a drake. No other time. Not even Farron—who I believed was married to a dragonkin of some sort—had that smell on him.
Sure, three examples were a small sample size, but Cernust did mention the whole pheromones thing to me, so I was instinctively committed to this assumption. As such, I had to keep quiet about it from the students, since I remembered Cernust mentioning an unspoken rule for the adulthood pilgrimage. If a dragonkin didn’t wish to be revealed, then I should keep quiet about it. Treat others how you wish to be treated.
Although, there was another reason. According to the student’s description and the couple of seconds of memory I had of her, she did remind me of Priscilla. There was also the case that she was supposedly a rank A adventurer and a dragoon like Farron. If this Yorshka was Farron’s wife and Priscilla’s mom, then I was obligated as a friend to keep my mouth shut.
Tamae sighed. “Well, when Dame Yorshka hired Talon-san, she did describe you in detail and that she was looking for you. She brought us here for potions, but the real reason is clear now.. But … I find it hard to believe that she would be involved in this church’s conspiracy with how she acted around us. She’s been practically training us by herself, pushing us to survive so we can go back home. She’s even been learning our interest, asking about Earth.”
Home, huh …
While I was thinking about this possibility, Specs voiced his suspicions, “If Aurena didn’t summon us, then who did? We five are the only ones from our class who know this critical information. While I understand Yorshka has been good to us—and I’m grateful for her guidance—we need to look out more for our own interests, and that means being wary of our benefactors. We need proper allies, we need to get to Sensei. Hestia-san, are you sure that Aurena said what you told us?”
I nodded uneasily. “Aurena admitted to summoning me to Peolynca so I could fix and rebuild her church. Meaning, she’s dissatisfied with her religion, so something must be happening in Aureolis. There are two possibilities. Either Aurena doesn’t have her followers’ best interests in mind and is having me do something morally wrong, or the church is corrupt to the point that their goddess resorts to summoning a poor dead girl’s soul to do her bidding.”
“Honestly, both options sound terrible …” Tamae looked at me with pity. Not only was she taller but also older, making me feel a bit embarrassed I said that. At this point in time, she was 19, only three years older if we counted my current dragonewt age, which was 16.
It was a bit awkward to talk about Aurena since she could see and hear what we were doing through Ellaine, but I was simply stating my opinion on the matter. If Aurena got butthurt about it, then why should I trust her?
I am a mortal worrying about my life, she is a goddess. She should act like one and ignore me.
“Well, it’s not that bad if you look at it positively. I got the chance for a second life, I got to meet Saori, and I’m also the first and only idol of Peolynca. Always look on the bright side of life, wheuh, wheuh, wheeuh, wheeuh ” I cheered.
“First idol? Hestia-chan, were you a—Oh wait! I think I heard your voice before, wait, where was it, oh! When we first arrived in Cedaraille, I think I heard somebody singing with your voice at a street food vendor. Let the music play, let it enter your soul That song is still stuck in my head, ehehe,” Tamae suddenly mentioned, singing a part of my newest song.
Raising a frown, I couldn’t help but feel baffled at how close she was to meeting us about a week ago. “Are you kidding me? Ahem,
Let the music play, let it enter your soul
Rest your weary body here
To a tune or melody
Listen now, to a soothing remedy
Listen now, let your stress disappear
Let my song reach you, fill your heart with wonder and more
Gaze up to the blue sky
To smile to the light
Listen now, you know what is right
Listen now, don’t need to look so wry ”
“That’s the song I remember! W-wow, we were that close to meeting Sensei, Ellaine, and you, Hestia-chan.”
“Actually, Hestia-san, didn't you say that you were in Firwood and did some odd Quests there? When we visited the temple there, the High Bishop mentioned a priestess dealing with major issues concerning two nearby villages. Could that priestess have been you?” Nishio raised that point.
The only high bishop I knew was Theodore, which meant our party missed each other about twice until now. You know, I knew our party had bad luck, but could it please stop doing something like this, worrying Saori to death. Fighting giant monsters and then making her miss her students twice. Cruel.
Well, after I confirmed his question, the girls responsible for dismantling the slazzanbals were done. Ellaine, Misaki, Kazumi, and Kohaku came back with the materials. From what I could see, each of the students was able to use [Storage Magic] to store small objects, but their total mana kept them from storing the amounts that I could. After we packed everything together, we continued walking the path Talon pointed out for us.
Ellaine is getting along with them quite well.
To my surprise, Ellaine was speaking with those three aforementioned girls pretty well, almost as if they became friends after a single camping night. Although I was here, Ellaine was constantly asking them about Earth and how they got so strong in their one year being in Peolynca.
Honestly, I felt a bit envious with how casually Ellaine was speaking with them. Like, not about skills or SP, not that stuff. She was talking with them about fashion, technology, customs, even drinks. Didn’t they just meet with each other? How could she talk so casually with them?
“Took you long enough.” At the end of the path, Talon was sitting on a boulder, looking at us impatiently. As an illusionist, most of his combat effectiveness came with his illusions and the occasional dark spell he would shoot out, so he preferred to avoid confrontations as best as he could. “The area ahead is a watering hole for a pack of rachycephalarus. Territorial, but they don’t have a good sense of smell. Let’s just get by without fighting.”
Talon was single-minded when it came to finding that Shiterno priest Keith. In fact, he even informed me that he and the students entered the dungeon later than Aurora, but knew a way to get down to the magma floors if you were brave enough to do so. The method to get down as fast as they did was to use the paths the monsters would use for dungeon breaks.
From floors one to nine, there were hidden holes for adventurers and monsters to skip floors with, although they weren't documented on the maps since cartographers like Talon preferred to maintain an information advantage for their main profession, such as Talon and his treasure hunting business. In other words, Talon was the person who made the maps we’ve been using to get down here.
After you get to floor ten, things would become more difficult due to the felgheists and felmights; however, the way to get down to floor 14 without any issues was to simply jump off the cliffs. Crazy as it sounded, the dungeon allowed monsters to move from floor to floor through the “ground-less” ravine Ellaine nearly fell down into. The only concern with this plan was the fall, which was deep.
Talon mentioned he hated fire, so he had only ventured through these floors only once to try and overcome his fear. Didn’t work, but he learned a bit about the local fauna.
Now, how did all of them get down here before my party? Well, as Tamae and Nishio already mentioned to me, Yorshka was a dragoon, and supposedly a damn good one to boot. She used [Air Walk] and wind spells to transport them down, meaning they avoided all the troubles we faced. Talk about “knowledge is power,” right?
“Mirror Image,” Talon murmured after finishing the chant for his illusion spell, casting a large mirror-like foil before us. Pointing his stick towards the cave on the other side, we began walking over there after Ellaine and Nishio cast [Air Shield] on everybody to dampen our footsteps.
As if some wizard cast a mass-invisibility spell on us, none of the large herbivore monsters noticed us at all, not even turning their heads around. With wind magic stopping sounds from going out and illusion magic preventing them from seeing us, we were able to sneak past them without any effort. We weren’t even using our sneak skills like Saori would have to.
Talon mentioned that this was how he guided adventurer groups through the dungeon, preventing dangerous encounters. Now, illusion magic only tricked the eyes and mind, but the other senses like hearing and smelling were still a problem. That was why he liked partnering up with wind mages who could cast [Air Shield].
Although, every time he used his illusion spells, he restricted himself to [Mirror Image] and [Myriad Distractions]—a spell to create certain images like that toad he made to scare me. He hadn’t shown any of his other tricks, except for a few [Dark Magic] spells he had as his disposal. And for this reason, he was mostly acting as a scout and guide instead of a combatant.
“I shall leave this to you,” he said humbly. His behavior could be rough, but he knew his manners, at least.
After passing through two areas without any issue, which I used to take a lunch break, our party landed in a wide area, like a steppe, with various creatures just living their lives in this environment. When we tried to sneak past, we accidentally triggered a dormant magma golem who was sleeping under the ground. I didn’t expect there to be golems in this dungeon, so I was being a bit careless.
Talon’s first instinct was to run, but when the students volunteered to fight it, he constructed a larger [Mirror Image] to further conceal our location. “Hestia-san, let us fight this please,” Nishio pleaded. With Ellaine joining them, six young adventurers rush towards the magma golem.
As I waited, I summoned Quatre, who had decided to abstain from participating in this battle with Ellaine. “Good, boy!”
[“Mistress Hestia, I am far too old to be considered a boy. Both my life as a faefolk and the memories imprinted into my soul by this body’s previous owner tell that I cannot be categorized as a pup.”]
Seeing as how he was over 100 years old, maybe calling him a boy was a bit rude. Apologizing, I began massaging the big garm’s back, cuddling him in soft fur in the process. It seemed he didn’t mind that too much.
Play some music, parallel minds. Let’s give them some support.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines
It’s blinding my sight
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ”
“Huh, what is that music?” the black-haired rogue girl Kazumi turned around to me, voicing her surprise at my sudden [Aerokinesis] activation.
“That’s Hestia-chan’s [Aerokinesis] and [Idol] skills working in tandem. Depending on the song she’s playing, we receive different buffs!” Ellaine explained.
Hestia-chan? H-hold on, when did Ellaine learn honorifics?
“Woooo! Nice!” While I was shocked at hearing Ellaine call me “Hestia-chan,” the energetic swordswoman Kohaku shouted in excitement, pointing a thumbs-up at me. “BGM! Battle music! Ahh, that’s the one thing I’ve been sorely missing to make these fights less tense! You’re an RPG player too, right? Oh man, hey, isn’t this just broken? Infinite Stamina!”
“Hey, we’re about to fight! Get into position already and stop trying to die!” Nishio scolded them.
Looking apologetic, Kohaku took out her rune-covered sword before touching one of the runes on it, all in one swift motion. “Sorry, sorry, Nishio-san. Just take it as me feeling my sword arm twitching in anticipation! Kotodama, time to get to work!”
The blade glowed blue, the same color as a water magic circle, covering the whole sword in a veil of water as the runes on her clothes and skin began to activate in unison. Looking at the amount of buffs she had on the party screen, I remembered why Saori’s students were considered your typical light novel “Heroes.”
Unique skills. Cheats. Call them however you want. When Saori’s students were summoned to this world, each of them were given a unique skill to point at what their innate talents were and what they should focus on. At least, that was what the church used to justify their training regimens.
Nishio and Tamae, the mages of The Magical Biscuits, began slinging buffs on Kohaku, Kazumi, Misaki, and Ellaine as they took their positions in this battle. As expected of SP users, they were casting chantlessly and using multiple magic circles at once, although they seemed to be delaying each spell instead of casting them simultaneously.
As the rank C magma golem made its first attack, I noticed something glowing on Talon’s neck. Having noticed my stare, he explained.
“Runic Tattoo.”
I tilted my head.
“Runic tattoo, that is what’s on my neck—this one helps me regulate my mana usage. The precursor to the dwarven weapon and armor runes; they’ve mostly fallen out of favor today, but what can you do if you can’t learn from a runesmith?” Talon then showed me a glowing tattoo on the scarred side of his face. “Cold things help dull the pain, but it’s inconvenient to learn [Ice Magic] or bring lots of ice with you everywhere you go, so I learned this after begging a dwarf to teach me. Human stubbornness can even best a dwarf’s on good days.”
I looked at how Kohaku was fighting and how many runes she was benefiting from, dashing around the field like some anime swordswoman. It was impressive, just like the runes Farron showed me.
“What do you mean they went out of favor?”
“They are the poor man’s runes, as they require the same amount of effort and ingredients, but give lesser impressive abilities. They are just easier to learn and apply. Sadly, if somebody scratched the tattoo off, for example a cut, it becomes useless immediately. You scratch it off with your claws and I would need to reapply it. Runes on armor and weapons are resilient, only breaking if the weapon does too.”
I wonder if Grimnir could apply some tattoos, too? Huh, another point which would make Papa and Mama freak out.
When I returned to the fight at hand, it looked like it was going well. In general, all six fighters were around the lower bracket of rank C adventurers, and the students especially were showing their experience by turning this rank C into fodder. Ellaine also was fighting better than usual, more confidently and aggressively, using what Saori, Tasianna, and I had taught her to the fullest as she synchronized with the others.
“Yahooo, magma golem, how about you look AT ME!” Kohaku shouted as she performed a sword ability, knocking the golem onto the ground with multiple powerful strikes from her water-cladded runeblade.
When the golem tried to throw a magma ball at her, Ellaine came to her rescue by quickly casting [Terra Wall] to redirect its aim, causing it to miss the swordswoman by a mile. She then cast [Earthen Shackles], pinning the monster to the floor and providing an opening for the rogue of the group.
Since normal magma and fire didn’t do much to me, I volunteered to dig out the shattered core. “Was it necessary to break it like this? I could have easily just pulled it out intact.”
Nishio looked at me with confusion before realizing the meaning of my words. “… Sorry, I forgot about that. A whole golem core would fetch a good price at the mage’s guild, but we’re more used to selling the shards.”
Mages guild? Hmmm, Cedaraille should have a mages guild, right? Hmm, I think I’m forgetting something, something to do with Master Kush … Naaaaah, if it’s something I forgot, then it couldn’t have been important.
After harvesting anything valuable from the golem, Talon suggested we take a break for everybody to rest and eat. I agreed, as did the others. I honestly couldn’t wait to try Tamae’s cooking, which, admittedly, was much better than Saori’s. Understandably, since she learned cooking from Tamae.
However, when we were about to take a break, something nasty came crawling.
“Talon! Old friend, I see you are doing fine, and with a group of young fine ladies, too! Danterno has blessed you through the years, I see.” Walking around the steppe all alone, shouting to us the moment he saw us, he rushed over as if he was seeing a good friend for the first time in years. It was none other than Talon’s enemy: Keith Svonnweidher.
“Keith!” Talon almost growled that name out. His eyes flared as they locked onto the smiling Danterno worshipper.
“Ahh, don’t give me that look, old friend. I apologized so dearly for not being with you when you needed it the most; however, know that I prayed for your parents’ and siblings’ souls when I heard of the news. I am sure they are doing just fine in the God of Fire’s embrace.” Keith’s words almost sounded so genuinely happy for Talon, but the latter became even more agitated as seconds passed. When I saw Talon’s face contort even more, I felt a bit reluctant to stop him, until …
“Ahh, but I guess those prayers won’t reach our God this time, right, Talon? I feel your anger, my friend. I can sympathize! Our reunion must be fate, old friend, for it is time for us to finally take everything in our own hands to rise and grow! To free our God from the devious clutches of the Goddess of Water, Pleisa!”
Free?
“You bastard, shut u—Huh?” As Talon was about to jump on the priest, I grabbed his shoulder, looking at him seriously. “Unhand me. I don’t care at this point. Paint me a murderer, paint me a sociopath. I don’t give a fuck. I will get my revenge on this guy!”
Not wanting Keith to hear this, I spoke with him through [Telepathy], [“I know that, but, just trust me, all right? My instincts are giving me bad vibes from this guy, far more than you think. I will give you a chance to cave this guy’s face in, but give me a chance to speak with him first. He couldn’t be here for something simple, right?”]
Looking more calm after I stared at him, with the help of [Benevolent Aura], he gave me a confused but suspicious look. “What are you planning?”
“You’re the adult here, so try to control your emotions a bit until I’m done, okay?” I winked before letting his arm go, walking towards Keith.
I can’t believe I’ll be using this for the first time.
Shiterno and his followers have been a thorn in my side for a long time now, hating it whenever people thought I was a Shitenro worshipper. It hasn’t happened as often as it could thanks to my white robe, but from my conversations with Peolyncians like Ellaine, Tasianna, and Farron, people could make that assumption if I didn’t have it on. Talon, for example, thought me one.
As painful as it was, this was for the benefit of information.
Taking off my white robe and Aurena necklace to put them inside my storage, I used [Pyrokinesis] to replace them with a fiery robe using my scale-dust, imitating the one Keith is wearing. “The [Divine Inferno]. That is the title God Danterno gave me. Speak, what happened to him?”
“W-what?” Talon shouted.
“Ahhhh, the Crimson Saintess!”
AbyssRaven Time to bring out those dialogue options!
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