The change was immediate as the cold receded the instant the Jotun perished. Not fully gone as it's corpse still radiated an intense chill but it's magic was without guiding or true life behind it now and sank back into the body. This unfortunately left me with a bit of a dilemma. The whole body was a priceless ice attributed magical treasure so what did I take and what got left behind? Obviously I'd be taking a large portion of it's hide to make cloaks to protect from the cold but the rest was debatable. -
In the end I chose to take a few me sized jars of the purple blood, the skull and horns as well as the stone. When I extracted the stone however a true natural drop appeared as well, a massive tuff of beard hair. I noted that down as all the natural drops were useful and tended to be the most valuable parts of a monster even. The rest of the body turned into a vast purple and black storm of smoke that rushed into my body like a blackhole. I groaned at the end as I felt a bit bloated as I had definitely gotten the amount of smoke needed to max my stats and then a good chunk more.-
Thankfully the liquid smoke within me was slowly being used to grow my soul as well thanks to my skill and the bloating was going to settle once my soul got "full". That was it though, I was officially able to call this expedition to a close. My gut told me it wouldn't be a good idea to try going deeper anyways and if there was one thing I trust it was my gut. -
By the time I finally got back to the surface I had been gone for three weeks total, a bit under my month long prediction. My armor was frankly gone from being destroyed so there was no hiding the change to my tattoos as I left the dungeon. I was referring to the fact that not only did I have more of them but a solid one third of them had turned pure white. And not a soft white that faded into my skin either but a bright white that drew the eye. Those who knew of my tattoos but wasn't aware of their color thought nothing of it. But those who knew what color they were originally spotted this difference immediately.-
I ignored this and headed home since I needed to offload the loot and prepare for my level up. I didn't doubt that this one was going to be big and thus needed extra prep to keep things from going sideways. Hestia was waiting for me when I arrived and was not happy. She alone understood what the change in my tattoos colors actually represented and the reminder in person was not a fun one.-
"I can't believe you dare stand there with a grin on your face with the stress you are causing me!" she said angrily.
"I told you not to worry about it. Not my fault you didn't listen." I said with a shrug.
"This is serious damn you!" she cursed.
"Maybe but unless it gets out it's not our problem." I said dismissively.
"How did i ever end up with a child like you?" she says with a look of sheer helplessness.
I gave her a thumbs up "Used up several lifetimes of luck is how. I mean look at me, i'm just the best." I said proudly.
"I really want to punch you in the face but don't want to break my hand." she huffed.
"We have punching bags for that, a lot softer too." I said unbothered.
"Just go do your stuff, I have to mentally prepare myself for whatever shows up on your falna when I update you." she said before leaving to do exactly that.
I nodded and walked across the thriving wooden floors of the church part of the manor and to the door to my workshop. The many grasping tentacles that curled together to make it parted and let me in without issue.-
I walked over to the spatial chests I made and began to sort the materials I brought back from this haul. Level four materials in one chest, five and six in their own. Stones in the automated chest-conveyer belt to the cursed stone converters based on their levels. I then moved on to filling a chest separated from the others labeled "unknown" for the materials I gathered from the monsters that had no records in the guild. Finally was the "rex" chest that I stored the monster rex materials in as even on the same level they were very different from any other monsters. -
I kept most of the Jotun stuff but kept a crystal container of the blood and roughly half of the beard tuff to go to Miach for experimentation. After that was done I gathered up my barrier spikes and gave them a quick upgrade to be much stronger because I was being extra carefully not to let my level up cause trouble this time. Finally I mentally prepared myself for this next part. This would be no plain update and level up but a monumental one. Ten steps to divinity and I was finally going to step into beyond half way in terms of level.-
I was also more than a little nervous about what I would become after this update as well. One of my cursed techniques had stepped into divine territory after all so there was no way that wouldn't reflect on my status. My race likely wouldn't change since I was technically the first of my kind with the titled skill to prove it. That meant in theory my races theoretical natural limit was whatever I eventually stopped at or rather had offspring at.