Orion woke up to a soft, familiar feeling that he had grown very used to in the last two and a half months he had been traveling the world and had become a Transmigrator. It was the familiar lap of his Goddess.
"So I died again, huh!" he opened his eyes, and before he even observed his surroundings, this was the first thing he asked. The situation was so similar that it was his instinctive reaction.
However, even before the answer could come, he felt something was missing.
[NO! Strangely enough, you survived.]
Marika spat, clearly angry at him. She had repeatedly told him to stop seeking death willingly. Revival wasn't something he should take for granted.
"Really!" Orion blinked, his eyes finally adjusting to the area, and sure enough, the familiar warmth of the golden grace was missing. All the warmth he was feeling was from Marika herself.
He tried to move, but that was when he felt pain—immense pain, like his entire body was burning. Only then did he notice that he was breathing heavily; every breath came hard and shallow.
With much difficulty, he looked at his own body and finally found out why. He was burned. Badly. So badly, in fact, that if he were any normal person, he would long have been dead. But he was a Level 2 adventurer now. His enhanced body was the only thing that kept him alive.
"Healing flask." That was where his mind went first, but he had none. All of his flasks were allocated to Mana Flasks, and all of them were used in the last boss fight.
That was also when he recalled what had happened. He had fired a point-blank attack at the Erdtree Avatar—a sheer suicidal move, something he would never have done if he hadn't been assured that he would be revived sooner or later.
'Maybe it would have been better if I died…' He winced as he tried to move, and pain rocked his body once more.
Sighing, he gave up on moving for now. He looked around and noticed the Light of Grace a little further away from him.
'Ah… don't tell me I need to sign up to that before actually being able to use it.' He grimaced. It wasn't that far, but in this body, he couldn't move an inch, let alone a few meters.
Another option was to teleport himself out of there, but then to sign in here again, he would have to fight those Orcs again and clear Floor 10 once more.
'Such a drag.'
"Hmm, Goddess, would you mind?"
[I very much would. Consider it a learning experience.] Marika huffed, not planning on helping him even an inch toward that grace.
Orion's head fell back onto her lap, defeated.
'Fuck it…'
What followed was the most harrowing experience of his life. He had to drag himself toward the golden grace bit by bit while suffering spine-breaking agony with each movement. All of his charred skin and deep wounds burned like someone was boiling him alive in a hot tub of oil.
[Stubborn fool.]
Marika, for once, really felt like there was no hope for mankind. Just because he didn't wish to go through the entire floor again, he would go through all this pain.
Halfway in, when even Marika couldn't take it anymore, she grabbed him by the back of his vest and dragged him toward the grace.
It did more harm than good since all that dragging made his pain even worse.
"Thank… wouldn't have asked for better assistance." Orion tried to sound sarcastic, but what came out was a weak retort in a grunting tone, full of pain.
Before anything else, he grabbed the grace, and the next instant his body was melted by the golden warmth.
His wounds mended, his skin grew anew, and before he knew it, all the pain was gone.
[You're either a bigger fool than I first thought you were or a masochist.]
"Or a Tarnish. It's the same thing, just a bit different." Orion shrugged.
Marika just sighed.
Orion ignored the defeated look on his goddess's face and looked at the rewards he had gotten after beating the Erdtree Avatar.
—-<>—-
Mixed Physick
Opaline Bubble Tear
—-<>—-
Orion blinked at this. 'So, about the same rewards players get in the game, huh… cool.'
It was honestly a good reward.
'Fine, let's test out the stats then.' He thought and asked Marika to update his status. This was a luxury that only he and a few in Orario had. The bigger the familia, the harder it was for the god to update everyone in it. And even if the gods could, how many adventurers could actually update every day anyway?
Both Orion and Bell were outliers in this case.
Marika huffed at this, almost like she knew he would ask. This was the first status update after leveling up; it would explain just how much Orion's growth had slowed down, if at all.
Dissatisfied with his earlier recklessness but still a bit eager herself to see his improvement, she updated his status.
—-<>—-
Name – Orion Star Storm
Familia – Marika Familia
Level – 2
[Stats]
Strength – I 0 > I 71
Endurance – I 0 > I 92
Dexterity – I 0 > I 84
Agility – I 0 > I 76
Magic – I 0 > H 112
[Magic]
[Incantation]
Light Of Dicus
Heal
Order's Blade
[Spells]
Steal
Explosion
Glintstone Pebble
Carian Slicer
[Skills]
Soulslike…
Elden Lord…
Animus Ignus…
Anivoice…
Revival…
—-<>—-
As both saw his status, they realized that the growth rate was as complex as ever. Technically, he had fought much stronger enemies this time around, but the growth he was seeing wasn't that different from what he had seen earlier.
Now that he thought about it, the majority of the excelia he had gotten was definitely from the fight against the Erdtree Avatar. The Orcs were too easy to gain anything significant from.
So, if he went by normal dungeon diving only, then yes, his growth had really slowed down. Or rather, the difficulty had decreased after leveling up, and thus he wasn't getting enough excelia from normal adventures.
But then there was the system itself. The very first enemy he fought happened to be at the level of the Erdtree Avatar—something that gave him a proper challenge. That difficulty pretty much brought his growth rate back to where it had been.
So, the right approach here was that it was his system pushing him. It was giving him stronger enemies to fight to make him stronger faster.
"Very interesting…"
[What is?]
Orion almost forgot that Marika was there. Well, she was always there. Even after two months, he sometimes forgot about her presence.
"Nothing. It's just that I have a feeling that from now on we'll be facing much stronger enemies down the line."
[Hmph…]
'Whatever that means…' Orion nodded in confusion.
Then his eyes darted toward the next floor. Should he advance to Floor 11? He surely could, but he decided not to.
He had a feeling that Marika wouldn't be happy if he pushed himself that far again. He clearly remembered promising her the one-death-per-day rule—and that too after he had fought tooth and nail with her.
This meant that if he died, he could no longer try again until the next day. No dying more than once in a day to keep his sanity—and more importantly, to keep his soul itself healthy and strong.
Technically, he hadn't died yet. However, let's not push it. The enemies were also getting stronger; better to prepare well before coming here next time.
xXx
A/N: Another chapter done. Hope you guys like it. I'll meet you in the next one.
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