Date with Ais and End of the 1st Training Rotation

As they arrived, a waiter led them to their seats since Nox had made a reservation before. As they ate, he and Ais discussed their outings to the dungeon which despite not being the most romantic topic in the world, it was enjoyable for the both of them and something they shared.

During the conversation, Nox truly grasped the extent of Ais' near suicidal investment into the dungeon and how little she cared about anything else. Her thirst for power, the power to defeat the One-Eyed Black Dragon was mentioned and even shown across the series but learning the details of what she does in the dungeon and how she doesn't do much of anything outside was quite shocking ot Nox all the same.

So, in a moment of wisdom, Nox decided to share some of his work philosophy in hopes that it brought some kind of positive effect on Ais. He had to phrase it carefully or his advice would be ignored like Riveria's and Finn's who no doubt advised her before, were. He had to put it in a way that makes her realize she would be stronger by doing it as such . . .

"Ais-san! While the effort you put in is commendable, you're not getting the most out of it!"

"?" Ais made a questioning expression before asking. "What do you mean?"

Seeing that he got her interest, Nox continued.

"You see, when you do an exhausting activity over and over again, the stress on both your body and your mind starts piling on and that reduces the effectiveness of further training not to mention its highly unhealthy."

"Reduces the effectiveness?" Ais inquired.

'Ha! I knew she would be interested in that bit! And as expected she totally ignored the part about her own safety but baby steps, baby steps . . .' Nox thought before continuing.

"It's simple really! When you try to do something but you're tired not only physically but also mentally, you'll fail most of the time and that's not just in training but in everything!"

Seeing that Ais was paying attention closely to his words, Nox continued.

"Its specially important to relieve the stress on your mind, otherwise, even if you're, physically, in your best condition, you're still very likely to screw up! Not to mention that when you're mentally perfect or as close to that as possible, not only is it possible to bring out 100% of your abilities but to even surpass that and draw out more!"

"!" Ais made a surprised face.

'Hehehe! If it is about making you stronger than you'll follow the advice to the letter! And once you start feeling better you'll keep doing it because when you feel good about yourself, your successes feel greater and your failures don't hit as hard so long as they're not to bad.'

"So . . . What should I do?" Ais asked.

"Well, for starters take a little time off the dungeon. Not a lot though or it's easy to lose your edge but take a little bit of time and have some fun! Do something you enjoy or that you feel good doing it! That's the best thing you can do to recover from mental fatigue, just relax." Nox said and finished with his own philosophy when it came to this matter.

"Play hard to work harder! That's one of my secrets!"

"One?" Ais inquired wanting to know more. Clearly, the advice had sunken in.

"Hold your horses girl! It's still the first date! Can't have you know everything about me right of the bat now can I~?" Nox said teasingly making the kuudere flush a bit.

They both finished their food in a comfortable silence and, being done for the night, Nox and Ais, quietly and returned to the Twilight Manor, happy about their first outing together.

Back in his own room, before returning to the task of modifying Lefiya's Elf Ring, Nox was figuring out a way to further enhance his prowess beyond his falna. Mind Veins was a huge progress since after he used the spell once he never needed to resort to it again and his body was improving beyond the falna's effects because of it.

This happy coincidence told Nox that permanently changing himself with a spell was indeed a possibility and a method that could be used to improve himself. Now, he had two options, find stronger monsters and try to learn the flow of energy in them to improve his Mana Veins or try and find another type of existence that possessed great powers even without a falna.

Until he got stronger, going too deep into the dungeon was a big no no for Nox so new and powerful monsters would have to wait until either he got stronger or Monsterphilia began since at his current level, the monsters there would generally be stronger than him at least physically.

And with the exception of gods who Nox could distinguish from mortals but could not gleam any insights on their power if they did not use it, there could only be one type of being that possess innate powers unrelated to falna, spirits.

Nox had already grasped a slight bit on how the power that spirits possess work by observing Ais use her magic but it was not enough. Although powerful spirits are indeed quite rare, Nox would be fine with weaker ones since he was merely trying to grasp a concept. After he did so, then he could try and find more powerful spirits to improve upon his already firm enough grasp.

There were some spirits in Orario and Nox had to reserve a day or two to observe them. He was interested in their ability to use magic without a falna and no concept of slots as well as their ability to imbue magic into objects.

It is said that the Crozzo family's ability to make powerful magic swords came from the blood of a spirit bestowed upon one of their ancestors so Nox definitely had to pay a visit to Welf, one in which Welf didn't even know he was being visited worked as well so there were less morally correct options to if Nox didn't mind.

Still, he decided to do those things once he has grasped the basics of weapon fighting. One thing at a time, no need to rush for now. And so, having finished considering some of his future objectives, Nox went to work on the Elf Ring.

Morning came and Nox progress was miserable. For someone who had quite a smooth sailing so far after he came to this world, It was certainly irking him but he knew that if he continued working on it with this kind of attitude he would make even less progress so since he was already quite the pro at meditation, he decided to simply meditate without messing with spells, only to calm down

Today, Nox would be training with Anakitty or Aki as she preferred being called. She was definitely the most gentle of his teachers so far but was quite competent at teaching.

Nox already had some experience with the sword from his past life, these lessons were also easy to follow so the pair ended up chatting during training and building rapport. After all, who wouldn't want to get closer with a cute cat girl? Maybe someone allergic to cats?

After his training, Nox, who had decided to start eating breakfast in the Twilight Manor with the rest of the familia, went to the meal hall with Aki and sat close to Lefiya, Ais and the Hiryute sisters and chatted as he ate.

His routine afterwards hadn't changed a bit though. Pass by the Hostess of Fertility, rampage in the dungeon without exploring new floors, greet Eina after leaving the dungeon, freshen up at familia home, have dinner at the Hostess, update his status with Loki, study magic with Riveria and Lefiya and work on his spells during the night.

Speaking of status, unlike his day full of unarmed and unarmored combat which increased mainly his strength and agility since he had to evade most attacks with his magic increasing since he used it more often to avoid making his situation too dangerous.

His sword day meant that dexterity had gotten a considerable boost and agility as well since he usually preferred dodging attacks rather than tanking them unless he had a shield. But he had relied far les on his magic so it had grown less than before.

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Name: Nox Lyros

Race: High Human

Gender: Male

Level: 1

Abilities:

STR: D-593 -> C-613

END: F-338 -> F-351

DEX: E-446 -> D-569

AGI: C-600 -> C-691

MAG: B-747 -> B-789

. . .

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The following day, was archery training with Alicia Forestlight. She was more strict than Aki but taught in the manner an older sister would teach her little brother. Nox was totally fine with training alongside an onee-san type beautiful elf and did his best to impress her.

After all, what guy doesn't like to show off to a hot girl although they screw themselves doing it too sometimes.

The day didn't stray from Nox's routine but his dungeon run earned him the lowest stat gain so far. This was because unlike some archers in this town that jump around relatively close to the monsters as they perform accurate trick shots. Nox preferred the sniper approach much more and it showed. Next time he decided he would try to mix it up a bit and see how it goes.

The next day, Nox trained with Ais and found himself on the receiving end of an attack too powerful or fast that regardless of his technique, would still knock him down or even out. Even though she was the worst as a teacher, since Nox could pick things up quickly, sparring with such a powerful opponent ended up helping him a lot anyway and Ais seemed happy to help him.

Since this was a day with more combat training than actual weapon practice, Nox decided to use the days he trained with Ais to go crazy with his magic in the dungeon which resulted in an armageddon for the monsters and a further propagation of his dungeon legend among Level 1s.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

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You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.