Second Week
It was now roughly two weeks after Nox joined with the Loki familia. He had completed the second rotation through his teachers and his status had already become something else.
To the surprise of many, Nox's grasp of the general fighting style with the different approaches taught to him was already quite good to avoid wasting the time of the high level adventurers in the familia Finn decided to change the schedule.
Ais who had enjoyed training with Nox and who the executives wanted to spend less time working herself to death in the dungeon became in charge of training with Nox being able to request guidance or supervision from one or more of his teachers during the weekends.
Meanwhile, Loki was already arranging for him to be taught by other familias when it came to other arts like craftsmanship, taming and such. Since she didn't expect that even with Nox's skill that it would only take to weeks for him to become at least somewhat capable with the various types of combat he was taught, she had yet to define the terms with the gods of the other familias but she had already pitched the idea to them.
She was also far too busy being bamboozled by Nox's status to care about such things.
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Name: Nox Lyros
Race: High Human
Gender: Male
Level: 1
Abilities:
STR: SS-1046
END: A-821
DEX: S-989
AGI: SS-1098
MAG: SSS-1669
. . .
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Nox's growth was utterly outrageous and Bell protagonist status had been utterly destroyed through unrestrained cheating. He had held off on entering the middle floors since both Eina and even Loki and the executives who knew his power much better, had told him to rank up first.
Speaking of rank ups, Nox's many feats in the dungeon including his abuse of the Level 2 Infant Dragon, whenever it appeared, had already cleared him for Level 2 but he had told Loki that since Level 1 was when the stats were the easiest to grind, he wanted to find out if there was an upper limit to how much his basic abilities could grow.
This sort of attitude left Loki speechless but she acquiesced and simply told him to do as he pleases but gave him a time limit of one year. Nox wasn't planning on spending nearly that amount of time so he easily agreed.
After bashing his head into the Elf Ring for an entire week Nox had almost succeeded, almost. While he got rid of the only elven magic problem, for some reason, it now only worked on original spells belonging to himself. This meant he couldn't use magic copied from others through the Ring but at least spells he personally remodelled worked fine. He called it Arcana Ring. Yes, very original.
His quest of spying on spirits and related folk also bore fruit. Even though Nox didn't spare the time to actually put the knowledge into practice due to his obsession with the Elf Ring, he had already grasped enough about the spirits to make an initial attempt.
Still this would most likely result in something along the lines of Mind Cycle rather than Mind Veins since a spell of that caliber still required more time and research. But all Nox wanted was a start, something he could build and improve upon.
He also started considering where he should look to spy on some curses. First he had to acquire some means of stealth and then track adventurers who possess them to see if he can copy them.
Normally curses are more used by the shady and morally ambiguous or even outright evil characters so Nox could try to prowl the more notorious areas of Orario at night since he didn't need any sleep.
His continued use of his Mind Veins had enhanced his base physical abilities to the point that he would be able to easily thrive on the first four floors of the dungeon without a falna or even magic which made him excited in anticipation for what this power might become in the future.
Moving away from Nox's abilities and power, his relationships with the people around him were also improving albeit a bit more slowly than his abilities.
He had one more dinner with Ais, his relationship with his teachers had greatly improved but, in the Loki Familia, the bonds that were strengthened the, most were those with Lefiya and Riveria.
Nox had not spared the praise he had for Lefiya and regularly told him that he admired her skill and magic which for a girl who wants to be praised for her ability was what she wanted the most.
Of course, the fact that Nox is an incredibly talented and handsome to the point of beautiful boy who regularly compliments her on her appearance and finds random reasons to pat her in the head to the point that Lefiya already reached her head towards him when she thinks she has done something worthy of praise helped a lot as well.
As for Riveria, their shared passion for magic and Nox continued trust in her revealing what he felt and saw through his Skill Arcana and what he drew inspiration from for his spell and possible applications of his abilities. All this had created a very close knit bond between them that while not romantic in any way, only needed a proper trigger for something of that nature to unfold.
On the Hostess of Fertility side, things were going well for the most part. The only thing that worried Nox was Syr/Freya's growing obsession with him. He hadn't told her much about himself or his abilities and she didn't yet even know which familia he was in so he had no idea why she was so fixed on him out of everyone else other than his appearance.
Beyond that though, everything was smooth sailing. Nox had been introduced to the other waitresses. Lunoire Faust, a human beauty with brown eyes and medium length brown hair and Anya Fromel, a cat girl with brown hair and eyes with cat ears and a tail of the same color. And steadily built rapport with all of them.
Most notably, he had invited Ryuu out on a date and didn't get shot down although he had to bring out his ultimate move puppy dog eyes to convince her. Ryuu took a night's leave from work and went on a dinner date with him.
At the end he surprised her by saying how much he enjoyed her company making her blush and even managing to hold her hand which considering she is an elf it's kind of a big deal. After this, Syr, burning with jealousy, demanded for a date as well.
Nox didn't like that she demanded since while he appreciated the fairer sex, he also wasn't one to be pushed around but after Ryuu politely asked him to grant Syr's wish, he decided to go along and the girl also seemed to realize that her approach was not the right one when it came to Nox.
They both visited Maria's Orphanage in Daedalus Street where Syr often volunteered, the kids loved Nox quite a bit and he actually enjoyed playing around with them. So much so in fact that he decided to come to the orphanage once in while when he had some time and made some generous donations as well.
Flirting with thee beautiful and mature caretaker, Maria Martel, an older woman with black hair tied at the top of her head commonly a thin but kind expression, was also a must, one that made Nox's date Syr, quite jealous. Nox's care and friendliness with the kids as well as his contributions to the orphanage also helped improve the woman's opinion of him quite a bit.
Having taken Syr on a nice dinner date afterwards, with some failed attempts by Syr to tease him, Chloe suddenly asked for a date too, saying it wasn't good to discriminate. Nox absolutely didn't mind taking the cat girl ones-san out so he easily accepted which made Syr note how a forceful approach is really the wrong way to ask something of Nox.
Seeing everyone having fun going on dates, Anya decided she wanted to go on one too and started pestering Nox. Her forcefulness was more of a child's tantrum so Nox didn't really disliked the attitude despite having other preferences. Still, he took the air headed cat girl on a more casual and lighthearted date which left her very satisfied.
In the end, not wanting to be the only one left out, Lunoire ended up requesting for a date too. More of an outing between friends but both she and Nox enjoyed it all the same.
All these events led to the adventurers that frequented the bar talking about a legendary figure who managed to take all the waitresses of the Hostess of Fertility out on a date successfully. Earning Nox the envy, respect, scorn and admiration from countless male adventures as well as curiosity of the females.
He had also upgraded his gear and decided to get a single outfit and from now on, Nox would only change weapons. Speaking on gear, he had asked Riveria why nearly every single adventurer was intent on not wearing a helmet.
She told him that was for two reasons. First, since adventurers have enhanced abilities when compared to normal people, they don't like to restrict their senses and usually prefer to wear less protection in exchange for better hearing and a wide field of view since it's not that rare to be surrounded, this was especially true for beast races who have better senses.
The second reason was style and culture. Simple as that and while Nox questioned the sanity of idiots who don't wear helmets for that kind of reason he didn't say anything. Still, since he was planning to upgrade, he politely asked Eina to accompany him under the guise of assistance while in truth, he would make it into a date.
As she enjoyed the outing and the truly bought some new gear for Nox, Eina let the slight misdirection of the boy go. She was already a bit suspicious since she was sure any member of his familia could help with that but perhaps she wanted the date as well! Who knows.
His choice ended up being similar to his starting gear but with a bit less protection. He still chose a brigandine cuirass as well as plate gauntlets, greaves and sabatons as well as a neckguard and armet but he forgoed the cuisses and chainmail upper sleeves and just wore a special cut and tear resistant fabric made of fantasy materials.
That's all for the past week of Nox but things would start to get interesting once more. Loki had already settled the terms with the Hermes Familia so that their captain, a skilled magic item maker would teach him. They were the easiest since with money and/or favors it becomes quite easy to hire them when compared to others.
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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
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.