Hit marched towards the Loki mansion, a slight limp to his gate. The guards knew not to interact with him, and simply let him through. Green streaks fell down his throat as he gulped down a potion.
*Splash*
The remains of a green healing potion were dumped onto Hit's face, successfully closing the three scratches that marred it. 'My fist didn't even breach the tiger's hide. It was the same with the cow...'
Hit scowled as he realised just how much of a miracle it was that he beat the minotaur.
The pain of Hit's first injury, when he was knocked back into a wall by a mere graze, had filled him with adrenaline, and pushed him to new heights. It also allowed him to return to the hostess. If not for Ryuu, his new life would have been over. Mutilation had the opposite effect on the cow, weakening it, and reducing its manoeuvrability. It was already wounded badly, by a level 5 no less, which converted the 'balanced' minotaur, into a glass cannon, that Hit narrowly managed to shatter.
At least his [Time Lag] had improved in the dungeon, demonstrating that study alone was not sufficient to magic growth. However, the Ligerfang was too much for Hit to handle, until it was completely immobile and unfocused.
Hit creaked the mansion door open and walked through the hall, before making his way upstairs. Adventurers gasped and whispered as he passed them, since it was far too early for him to return. Normally, he would try to avoid them; however, this time another mission took precedence: seek out divine power. Facing a familiar door, painted with a beautiful woman, Hit barged into the room.
Loki nearly fell onto the floor as she was shocked out of her paperwork. Although, a half drank bottle of wine suggested that she hadn't made much progress. "Wow! We'll isn't this a surprise! Just so ya know, you should knock before you enter a lady's chambers. You don't know what you might walk in to..." Her eyebrows wiggled up and down like a worm as she giggled at the intruder. Loki ignored the crystal glass beside her and gulped wine straight from the ruby-encrusted bottle.
Hit was especially dour and put an end to her antics. "I didn't come here to watch you drink your life away. Update my falna."
His little goddess got up and crossed her arms, looking quite annoyed. "Hmph! Ordering your goddess around... the nerve!"
Hit employed the usual silent treatment and stood, motionless.
"..."
Loki's twitching scowl broke into desperation as she ran up to him, bouncing. "Ok, ok! Forget it, I'll update yer falna. I can't wait ta see how much you've grown in these last three weeks!"
The boy moved to a nearby seat, deftly avoiding a leaping goddess' hugs and tickles. Loki panted and wiped her forehead, giving up on catching him. "Argh! Yer just like Ais. She never lets me hug her."
Hit looked at her coldly, making the god shiver a little. "I think we both know why that is. Also, are you suffering from brain damage? You have forgotten about our deal."
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm just excited. I would never go that far, really! AND I DO NOT HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE!" Loki assuaged her child, before realising he had insulted her.
Hit nodded as he settled into place, taking off his cloak and shirt. "Correct. You would need to have a brain in the first place, for that to occur."
Loki's face matched her red hair for a moment, before she calmed herself down. "Ugh. You're really snappy today! Although, I've only seen ya a few times, so maybe this is a bad day."
Loki peered at him, ruby pupils peeking out. After a few seconds, she smirked.
"Yer pissed off, aren't ya? Something happened down in the dungeon, didn't it? Ya hit your limit."
Hit huffed and turned his back to the deity. "Just shut up and do what I'm paying you for."
Loki grumbled at her infuriating child and got to work, drawing out a familiar purple glow. The routine was matched with a high-pitched scream.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"
Loki's screech and shock overwhelmed her, causing the god to enter a trance-like state. Her eyes unfocused and teeny body flopped from side to side. Loki matched Eina's state from her last visit. The shellshocked goddess shuffled towards a nearby counter and grabbed a piece of paper, before shoving it on Hit's back, seemingly on autopilot. This seemed to bring the zombie back to reality.
*GASP* "Wh-Huh!? What just happened?"
She rubbed her ringing head and grimaced as she read the sheet. A hangover had somehow already set in. "Never mind, I can't believe this. Ya just waltz in here and dump that kinda status on me... My maidenly heart can't take it."
The doors were kicked in as a green haired elf rushed into the room, staff raised. "LOKI! What's wrong? Are you under attack?"
A glance at the two, very unimpressed, familiar individuals, caused Riveria to blush in embarrassment. *cough* "Forgive me, I thought that you were in danger, Loki."
Riveria turned towards Hit, glaring at him slightly.
"And it has certainly been some time since we last met, Mr Hit. Do you have an explanation for your lack of contact?"
Hit ignored the elf's rage and removed the status sheet from Loki's grasp. After reading through it, he smiled a little in satisfaction, before tearing the bottom half off. "Are you also forgetting about our deal? I work best on my own. Besides, I believe my progress isn't too horrendous".
Hit handed the status sheet out for Riveria to see, who had a similar reaction to her god, eyes bulging at the script. "Wh...WHAT!?"
______________________________________________________________________
Name: Hit
Alias: NA
Level 1
STR – C676
END – G230
DEX – C690
AGL – D501
MAG – G280
Magic-
Time lag: Upon activation, slows the target's time. Can be activated and deactivated at any moment. Chantless.
__..______..___. .__________. ________. ____..________.....______....___________.
The elf trembled slightly, setting her staff to the side. "T-this is impossible! How did you do this!?"
The impossible boy deadpanned. He should have known this would happen. "I fought monsters."
His answer, and comically neutral expression, broke Loki out of her shock. She couldn't help herself and rolled on the floor, laughing. "Pfft...Hihihi! Fufufufu!"
Riveria was not amused at the situation and held her head. This was not going to be a normal day. She took a seat opposite Hit. "You cannot gain this much excelia in merely three weeks, you just can't. And how did you learn magic? Did you already possess it at the start?"
Riveria was correct to be astonished; 2377 status points in a little over 21 days was mind-boggling. In fact, there was only one living person who was superior to him at gaining excelia: Bell Cranel. It took Bell 17 days to gain 2658 total status points, demonstrating how ludicrous the bunny boy's skill was. Love truly did transcend all. Despite Bell accruing more total status points, Hit remained stronger due to his skill and base level being far, far higher. However, the gap was narrowing, and Hit would have to keep growing in order to even come close to Bell, the greatest prodigy this world had ever seen.
Another strange aspect to Hit's growth, was the odd excelia distribution. Endurance would often lag behind as people grew, except for tank class adventurers. However, Hit's was significantly lower than his other stats, except for magic, which he had only unlocked recently. Humans had an extremely uniform maximum stat limit, with dwarves excelling in strength, and elves in magic. For this reason, they also increased these abilities at a more rapid pace. Hit's soul was not human, and therefore was completely alien. Since the falna is a window into the soul, his status was able to evolve quickly to represent his ever-evolving nature. This was one of the last remnants of his former universe that he brought over, along with his memories and sense of self. Additionally, people with previous combat experience often grew and levelled up quickly in Orario. On the other hand, adventurers outside of the city very rarely hit level 3.
Back to the conversation, Hit crossed his arms and got himself comfy, readying himself for a tiresome chat. "All I did was train within the dungeon, and exercise on the surface. In regard to magic, I studied various tomes and developed the spell myself."
Grassy hair swayed as Riveria was having to deal with numerous impossibilities. She glanced over at Loki, still on the floor. At the God's nod, she became more serious. Everything Hit had stated was the truth. "What monsters have you been fighting, exactly? We will discuss your magic subsequently."
Hit could have very well simply told her to stuff her questions somewhere quite rude. However, these people were still a lot stronger than him, and were quite useful sources of information. Therefore, he decided to give a simplified summary of his activities, over the past three weeks, leaving out intricacies of his skill and training with Ais. Riveria sat, unmoving, throughout the entire monologue; her disbelieving expression never left her face. "Unbelievable. I am supremely surprised that you are not dead. A Ligerfang on the fifteenth floor, solo? It is no wonder that you couldn't best it. A party of very high level 1s or low 2s is normally a requirement for beating just one."
The elf felt curiosity bubble under her rage, still remembering what Hit had said about generating energy, while visiting the magic shop. "Also, why did you not mention your magic earlier, considering that you managed to learn it a week ago?"
Her apathetic conversation partner shrugged his shoulders. "I did not think it was worth mentioning, since it still needed fine tuning. In fact, the spell still needs perfecting."
Elven ears shot up in shock at his insane reasoning. Surely, he should have asked for aid, if the spell required adjustment. "Not worth mentioning!? Huff... moving on, did you truly teach yourself? May I see a demonstration?"
Hit leaned back on his seat and looked harshly at the woman, putting greater physical distance between them, to match his emotional detachment. "How would that benefit me? Why should I show you anything?"
Riveria answered him as an academic, recognising his thirst for knowledge. "My teachings could offer you more insight, and I could help you enhance the spell, should I know its mechanism." Her demeanour changed next. The elf looked at him less harshly, ears drooping slightly due to sadness and stress. "In addition, we are members of the same familia, Mr Hit. It may seem that I am angry at you, but I'm just trying to understand the situation and support you. We all want you to succeed here. Please, try to trust us."
The boy raised an eyebrow and leaned forwards, elbows on the table. He had not expected the sudden friendliness, but did expect the offer of magic lessons. "I suppose we could make a deal. I show you my magic and disclose my methods; and you teach me everything you know about advanced magic, focusing on elusive information."
Riveria was a little hesitant to comply. Magical knowledge was incredibly rare in this world, unsurprising due to the cost of magic tomes and scarcity of talented mages. However, the familia took precedence. "Very well. However, I'm sure that I don't need to mention that our discussions will be private."
Hit smirked a little, pleased that the situation had ended in his favour. "That goes without saying".
Suddenly, Loki jumped onto the seat adjacent to the two mages. "You two really are similar. Maybe you should get married!"
Shadows crept up the two frigid individuals as tick marks formed on their foreheads.
"Silence."
"Silence."
This reprimand only served to amuse Loki as she banged her hand against the table. "See! HAHAHAHA!"
Hit decided enough was enough and got up. "Feel free to punish her; I'm not wasting any more time here. Where can I find you?"
Riveria smiled, cruelly. "But of course. I will hold a lesson in my study tomorrow. Please meet us at 2 o' clock."
Hit nodded to his soon-to-be teacher, and left her to deal with the terrified goddess, making sure to take his status sheet with him. "Until then."
*Knock*
*Knock*
Unfortunately, just as Hit took his first step, the two other Loki familia executives, and three level 5 adventurers (Tiona, Tione, and Bete), stepped in. Lefiya and Ais seemed to be absent.
Finn was the first one to notice them. "Oh! Forgive us, have we interrupted something?"
Loki ran to her other children for protection. "Nah, we're finished! We've just been congratulating Hit on his amazing growth."
The newcomers stared at Hit, curiously. Well, Bete was in a sour mood, as usual.
"Is that so." Finn acted as familia captain and walked up to their newest member, smiling. "I'm glad you're settling in well, Hit. How are you finding adventuring so far?"
The purple haired boy looked around for any escape routes. Sadly, there were none. "I cannot complain. I was actually about to leave..."
Hit tried to squeeze by, but the pallum kept up the friendly attitude. "Great! I hear you've made impressive progress. Is there anything you wanted to discuss? Why not join us for dinner and we can discuss your future? We want you to succeed here."
Rustling sounds emanated from Hit as he searched for something is his pocket. A moment later, and he handed Finn his ripped status sheet. "Just read this. It should show you that I am doing just fine on my own." 'This should get him to back off.'
The shorter man nodded and took the page. However, his eyes widened as soon as they passed over its numbers. "R-remarkable! Very impressive. Do you mind if I show the others, behind me?"
The boy shook his head, believing that it wasn't that impressive, at least compared to theirs. These were the prodigies of the Loki familia and likely possessed S ranks in all stats. "Make it quick."
Unbeknownst to Hit, S rank stats were ridiculously rare, even to first class adventurers. Only 4 of the 7 Loki adventurers, who were level 5 or above, had at least one S rank ability. This was usually within the ability they specialised in.
Finn nodded and brought the page to his colleagues to see, who were quite awed as well.
"Hah!?"
"Wooow!"
"Quite the achievement, lad."
"Hm."
Bete snatched the page from Finn and marched up to Hit, scowling. "This has gotta be fake! There's no way in hell a greenhorn like you could do something like this! I just don't believe it. It's impossible."
Hit glared back at him, just as menacingly. "If the world behaved how you believed it to, this would be a miserable place. Now give me back my property."
Bete gaped at the boy's brashness. "WHY YOU...!?"
Just before the werewolf could fly off the handles, a shadowy blur snatched the status sheet away.
"Here ya go! Fufufu." This blur was revealed to be Tiona, who handed Hit his sheet and stuck her tongue out at Bete.
The werewolf gained another target and yelled at them both. "Oi! This is between me and him! Fight me, prove that that's true!"
Hit looked at him, emotionlessly. 'Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea. I don't understand, why are they so shocked?'
"Who are you again?"
Bete stood in place for a heartbeat, before gritting his teeth and stomping down, angrily. "Grrr. Ya know exactly who I am, bastard!"
Tiona bounced between them, trying to disarm the potentially explosive situation. "If you want to spar with someone, then fight me! Please! Pretty please!!"
The lavender haired boy found an escape route and nodded, ignoring the even ruder werewolf. "Fine. Let's battle outside..."
He smirked at Bete as he stated the last word. "...Tiona."
The high-level adventurers followed behind Hit, leaving Bete behind. The growling werewolf soon slumped and stuffed his hands inside his pockets, proceeding after them.
Status explanation:
Strength: Raw strength and ability to influence the physical laws of the world. Training to bypass his body's limits and 100% muscle usage makes this one of Hit's greatest abilities.
Dexterity – Technical prowess, spatial awareness, and control over ones body. Incredibly high for Hit due to rigorous training from his two lives. Perfect movements with no wasted energy. Continuous martial arts and meditative training.
Agility – Raw speed and ability to react to new situations rapidly. As with his previous life, Hit is a speedy attacker. It does not appear to be the case, to most of his enemies (hardly anyone has warranted a serious fight); however, he moves at breakneck speed when time skipping. It is currently lagging behind slightly due to the shortness of his time skip here.
Combined, his dexterity and agility should synergise perfectly.
Magic – Can be increased by studying if the adventurer is a genius, empowered by spirits, or an elf. Elevated status points improves understanding of magic laws and can increase mana reservoir within someone's body. Also increased through practicing spells. At higher levels, adventurers can draw in magic from the atmosphere around them. Other benefits include: improved mental clarity, ability to sense invisible objects, and capacity to speak to spirits. Some can even break down magic constructs.
Endurance – The ability to resist physical blows and shrug off laws of the world. Disperse damage and become shock resistant. This is Hit's lowest and slowest growing ability, as he doesn't get hurt often. Never a very durable fighter.