The Facets of Invictus and Ais’ Cuteness

"Uhm? Ais-san?" Nox turned to her. But she only showed a puzzled expression as if she didn't know what he wanted from her.

'Although it's very enjoyable . . . How do I get an explanation on why?'

'You know what? Never mind! Let us not question such great fortune.'

'Besides . . . It probably has something to do with my spirit like aura that Ais can sense.'

Coming to this conclusion, Nox no longer questioned the girl's behaviour and simply decided to get on with his tasks for today. His first objective was to scout out the rest of the middle floors which meant all the way down to the 24th floor while his second was to test his elemental forms of the Invictus spell.

For this purpose, yesterday, in his freetime, Nox had made some improvements to his Mind Pulse. It was far easier than he expected too! With his increased perception towards Mind and magic he could get away with using much thinner waves of Mind which could travel further as well. Due to being far less substantial, they could go through physical barriers much more easily too.

The best part was that he could now convert the information from the pulse into clear images, something which he could not do before and could only tell a vague shape and color. Still, the nitidness of the images would reduce the further he scanned so at the Mind Pulse's maximum range it was pretty much the same as it was before in terms of imagery.

The 19th to 24th floors were known as the Large Tree Labyrinth. The walls, ground, and ceiling were all made out of wood making it seem like the inside of a giant tree. Instead of phosphorescent light, radiating moss grows across the floor and give off blue light.

These floors contained a large amount of unexplored areas and a large variety of insect-type monsters. Which made it much more likely for Nox to find nice surprises using his Mind pulse due to much of these floors never having been tread by adventurers.

Having the Abnormal Resistance development ability is key to safely passing through these floors due to the large number of poisonous monsters on these floors but Nox with his Perfect Body development ability was all covered.

The plant diversity on these floors often provided ingredients used to make healing items which resulted in many resource gathering quests being issued for this area and marked these floors as a prime spot for harvesting things for his practice of mixing potions.

Asfi had taught him enough to gain the development ability but in the end potions were not her specialty so he had to find somebody to teach him more later.

This floor also produced Treasure Trees whose fruits were actually extremely valuable jewels but were guarded by Green Dragons with potential similar to that of a Level 4 adventurer. Not only that, but this floor also gave birth to Vouivres whose drop items were all quite valuable and useful for crafting, particularly the red stone in their forehead known as the Vouivre's Tear.

To match the plentiful rewards however, the monsters in this floor were also far more plentiful and strong, the environment was also not very nice to stay in which was why even higher leveled adventurers didn't stick around despite the very possible profits. There wa also the fact that no one seemed to have as good of a scouting ability as Nox which no doubt would help him in this place.

The new monster species included: Bugbears, Battle Boars, Lizardmen, Firebirds, Mad Beetles, Mammoth Fools, Dark Fungi, Gun Libellulas, Sword Stags, Trolls, Deadly Hornets, Bloody Hives, Hobgoblins, Moss Huges, and finally Metal Rabbits.

Nox's Invictus ensured that the only monster that might pose any sort of challenge in these floor would be the Green Dragons that guarded the Treasure Trees so he let himself go and tested his magic freely as he scouted the various floors.

The different modes all gave him different and great abilities but were all more costly than the basic Invictus this could however be mitigated if Nox was within a favorable environment for the various elements which reduced the cost by consuming the energy in the surroundings. The last benifit common to all versions was the enhancement of magic of each mode's particular element.

The Invictus Salamander proved to be the most effective in this floor. A spell that grants its user powerful magic fire would of course be extremely deadly in a floor populated by wood plant and insect monsters but it also destroyed the plants Nox might want to harvest so he decided it was not a very good idea to use it. It was also quite costly in terms of Mind.

It also gave a far more drastic boost to his strength stat at the cost of not giving as great of a boost to the others and making the explosive strength of his movements greater in the sense that the boost on his agility would increase but only if Nox was attacking, it also made him immune to high and low temperatures as well as fire element attacks but his Invictus would become weaker when facing water based attacks as a caveat.

The Invictus Undine allowed him to make spirit water that could either have some healing properties of be quite poisonous. It also gave a moderate boost to dexterity, higher than the other modes while giving a slightly lesser boost to other categories.

The greatest boon however was that it allowed Nox to live and fight underwater with huge advantages. Finally it made him immune to water based attacks. Its cost was also relatively more tame than the Salamander mode.

The Invictus Gnome gave a massive, colossal boost to Nox's endurance at the cost of actually lowering his agility and providing a nearly negligible boost to dexterity it provided a considerable one to strength however even if slightly less the the Salamander mode. It also allowed for the manipulation of earth causing earthquakes, erecting earth wall, etc.

Finally it made Nox incredibly resistant to physical attacks and immuned to earth based ones as well as giving him the ability to move seamlessly through the earth.

The Invictus Tonitrus gave a massive boost to strength and an even bigger one to agility but only in incredible short bursts while the boost to other stats was a bit poor when compared to other modes. It also gave Nox the ability to produce and manipulate powerful spirit lightning as well as making him totally immune to lightning from other sources.

The Invictus Lux as quite simple, potent healing, buffs and destructive power, its boosts were not slanted like the previous modes and and basically the same as the basic Invictus'. It also made Nox immune to light based attacks as well as giving him the ability to produce and manipulate spirit light for various purposes like attacking healing, blinding, he could even bend light to create illusions. However, despite being one the most powerful modes it was also more costly.

The Invictus Shade was was the most unique. It gave relatively similar boosts to stats to the basic Invictus but it came with a plethora of different abilities which greatly surprised Nox. The ability to apply various debuffs to opponents, drain their stamina and Mind, hide perfectly in shadows and conjure physical shadows to attack and restrain enemies.

The spirit darkness created by the spell also possessed great corrosive properties While making Nox immune to all curses. It was just as costly as the Lux Invictus however and even with his impressive Mind reserves, Nox couldn't use the two modes for long.

Finally, the Invictus Sylph, due to possibly bringing the greatest effect on Ais who was getting progressively more chummy with him the more he used his spirit magic, Nox left it for last. It gave him a considerable and continuous boost to agility and allowed him to easily maneuver through hails of attacks and the environment with the assistance of spirit wind.

It also made him immune to wind based attacks but its defining feature were the whirling gusts of spirit wind on Nox's back that gave him the ability to actually fly quite easily and with great speed. As a bonus, when the wings of wind were used it further increased the bonus to his agility.

What surprised Nox the most however, was Ais reaction to this mode. As soon as he activated it for the first time in her presence to test it out in the field despite previous tests in a safe environment, she broke down in tears and hugged him while sobbing making the boy quite troubled.

Eventually she stopped sobbing and was now blushing tremendously all the way up to her ears. Even though she could be a bit airheaded, Ais knew fully well the implications of the intimate way she hugged Nox and although she couldn't say she regretted it, the girl wasn't quite sure on how to face him so she settled for burying her head in his chest until she gained some courage.

While at first she hugged him due to how similar he felt to her mother who was a wind spirit, now she found herself with a completely different type of feeling than nostalgia and familiar love . . .

Not knowing how to respond to the unbelievably cute being snuggling on his chest, Nox simply started petting her which due to his spirit aura felt very familiar and comforting to Ais which only increased her embarrassment as she thought to herself.

"Father . . . I may have found . . . My hero . . .' This thought only made her more embarrassed but she eventually separated from Nox and asked him.

"One day . . . When I'm ready . . . Will you hear my story?" With a hopeful tone, almost as if begging, Ais asked Nox this question.

"I'll always be here to listen Ais. Whenever you want!" Nox answered with a charming and gentle smile prompting a cut "Hmm" from Ais who looked down blushing again.

"Who knew the noble sword princess had such a childish side to her huh~?" Nox asked with a teasing tone making Ais cutely pout and turn away, prompting him to start chuckling involuntarily which in turn caused Ais to pout even more and start hitting him repeatedly but without any strength. With these events, Nox decided to call it an early day and return home.

'Well, this was certainly a very productive day! In more ways than one~' Nox thought to himself as reviewed today.

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