[Evan:
Level: LV1
Strength: SSS 1239
Endurance: SSS 1324
Dexterity: SS 1104
Agility: SS 1143
Magic: S 923
…]
Those were Evan's final, frozen ability values before leveling up.
Astraea looked at the status sheet, edited part of it, and lowered every ability value by several hundred points before preparing to submit it to the Guild as official familia records.
After that, the page containing Evan's status would be handed to Lady Demeter—because in the Guild's public records, Evan and Cecil, as well as Lefiya who had recently joined, were all registered under the Demeter Familia.
Only a tiny handful—Uranus and his messenger—knew that they were truly her children.
But still…
Evan's numbers were simply too outrageous. Even after intentionally lowering them, they were still far beyond the limits of ordinary adventurers.
All four physical stats breaking the limit—what was that supposed to be?!
And the so-called "SSS" was a rating the Guild had never recorded before. Astraea had basically invented it on the spot—thinking that "SS" meant 1100 to 1199, so anything above 1200 might as well be called "SSS."
His endurance was absurdly high. It had been trending upward before, but lately its growth had accelerated more and more!
Astraea could guess why. Evan's skill clearly stated that once per day, after dying, he could revive.
So—
Taking attacks strong enough to kill him boosted his endurance, and then on the next expedition he endured even stronger attacks, and so on—again and again, until now.
Growth always came with a price.
No one became the strongest easily. This went beyond sweat and effort—it was…
[That's why I never wanted my children to become heroes.]
It was a brutally difficult road, demanding far more than most people could ever give. And in the end, you might gain nothing—perhaps dying namelessly in the depths of the Dungeon.
Astraea slowly closed her eyes.
After sitting alone in the living room for a long while, she finally stood up and put on the same gentle smile she always wore.
Then she went to the backyard, called to Lefiya—who had just gotten up and was watering the flowers—and asked her to deliver Evan's status sheet to Lady Demeter later, after she and Evan went out…
…
Evan's level-up didn't cause any stir in Orario, even though it should've been an event that shook the entire city.
Years ago—
Ais, the genius girl of the Loki Familia, had reached Lv.2 in a single year, setting the record for the fastest rise to upper-class adventurer. She was hailed as a dazzling prodigy, a tomorrow's star—an urban legend known not only in Orario, but across the world.
Astraea kept it hidden from the Guild.
She told Uranus's messenger that the boy had joined the familia half a year ago, and that his rise to Lv.2 was comparable to Ryuu and Ais—making him one of the most talented adventurers in recent years. But with such jewels already existing, he wouldn't stand out too much.
Only Astraea knew the truth: Evan had reached this point in less than a month after arriving in Orario. The previous half year in the City of Forges hadn't even matched what he'd done in the past week.
It was a miracle.
And it only made Astraea more certain of a "secret" known to only a handful of gods—
The Dungeon's [Pact] with the gods.
"Less than five years left…"
Even a goddess with endless time couldn't help letting out that kind of sigh.
Astraea understood.
Why the gods had come to the Lower World a thousand years ago and cultivated familias for a thousand years… why the [Three Great Quests] had been established so early… and yet it wasn't until just a little more than ten years ago that the Zeus and Hera Familias finally completed the slaying of the [King of the Land] and the [Tyrant of the Sea].
She wondered if Uranus—the first god to descend a thousand years ago, to build Orario and Babel Tower, and to forge the [Pact] with the Dungeon—had already foreseen that, a thousand years later, children like miracles would appear one after another.
But no matter what—
The wheel of the age kept rolling forward. No one could stop the tide. And gods, in the end, were merely spectators seated below the stage…
…
On the second day after becoming a Lv.2 upper-class adventurer, Evan didn't go to the Dungeon—nor did he plan to for the next few days.
It wasn't laziness.
After leveling up, the body experienced a powerful sense of "discomfort," severely reducing combat effectiveness.
In serious cases, the body could even show abnormalities: clumsy coordination, sudden intense pain or numbness in a limb, inexplicable loss of balance while walking or running, stumbling and falling…
This was because the "vessel" had been elevated—creating a rejection reaction between body and self.
The gods compared a child's body to a "container." A blessing "opens" the container, and ability values are the "water" poured into it.
Each person's container was different. The amount of ability values it could hold also differed.
Once it was filled, you had to level up—expanding the container so it could hold more water.
So naturally, changes in the "vessel" caused real discomfort—because it truly became "bigger," "thicker," and not the same as before…
Most adventurers adapted by fighting monsters weaker than themselves, re-learning control of their new power.
But Evan's situation was awkward. His Dungeon had become too unusual. On the first and second floors, since he'd already cleared the gatekeepers, only ordinary goblins and kobolds remained.
But once he went to the third floor—
Special monsters appeared that would not be out of place even in the middle floors.
Too weak wouldn't help him adapt. Too strong carried serious risk.
So—
He chose the second method: sparring practice with other adventurers—
—
"I'm learning to be alone… all day… without feeling lost… so let me get drunk, sing my songs, amuse myself…"
A warm spring noon.
The boy hummed a hometown tune as he ran through the fields with the elf girl.
Evan was a little ahead. Lefiya followed behind. Compared to his ease, she was drenched in sweat—her plain shirt soaked through—yet she still kept moving, stubbornly chasing his back, refusing to be left behind.
They were running.
Evan even had the faintly glowing greatsword on his back—a blade over three meters long. Even though he was nearly 1.8 meters tall, he could only carry it inverted: hilt down, tip up, the edge wrapped in cloth to avoid accidentally cutting anything.
After all, right now it was just a "weight-training tool."
It was exercise.
And it could raise ability values too. It was far less effective than real combat, but at least it helped.
This kind of training had started a long time ago.
After Lefiya had gone into the Dungeon with him two or three times, she realized her physical ability was lacking and wanted to make up for it.
So they agreed: every day at this time, they'd come to Demeter Familia's fields outside the city and run a few laps around the wide farmland. When they finished, they could eat right away, use Demeter Familia's facilities to bathe, then return to the city clean and refreshed.
"I don't know what to love, what to choose, what to change, so let me—ah, Cecil's here. That's enough, Lefiya. Rest."
"Y-yes… okay… ah…"
After their run, Cecil would swing by and deliver lunch boxes made by Lady Demeter.
The elf girl didn't even care that she was sweating—she sat under a large tree by the fields and ate like her life depended on it.
All at once—
The spring noon turned quiet, with only a gentle breeze and the distant calls of birds.
Lady Demeter's food was delicious.
Lefiya even ate three portions. Since she'd started training, the slender elf girl's appetite had grown noticeably—and besides that, there was also…
Her chest.
It wasn't that Evan wanted to notice. Cecil had told him a few nights ago.
She said she'd seen it in the bath and nearly got scared—how could it grow that fast?! It made her wonder lately if she should join their daily runs too!!
Evan thought there was no need. It wasn't like Lefiya was threatening her yet.
But somehow, Evan had casually said one thing—and Cecil punched him, cheeks puffed, demanding how he could tell!
How could he not tell?
Wasn't it obvious at a glance? Or did this world have padding too?
That only made Cecil angrier. She puffed her cheeks and started throwing little "heh-heh-heh!" punches at him. They didn't hurt at all—but then Lady Astraea laughed and told them to stop flirting and hurry to bed.
Tch.
Evan silently ate three huge bowls of rice.
Lady Demeter now knew how much the two of them ate. Every time she made lunch boxes, she made a lot, so whenever Cecil delivered them, she carried two big buckets filled with box after box.
But it wasn't only Evan and Lefiya eating. Cecil ate too.
And also—
"Nya!"
A stupid kitty suddenly appeared!!
Trying to startle someone, Anya was hanging upside down from the tree. Her cat head poked out from the dense leaves—and then, because she wasn't careful, she just dropped straight down.
"Ow!"
Holding her head, Evan seriously suspected this was exactly how she'd made herself stupid.
These days Anya came every noon to mooch lunch too, which only reinforced Evan's belief that the tavern waitresses' meals had "serious problems."
Of course.
The catgirl wasn't only here to eat and drink for free. Starting today, whenever she didn't have to work in the afternoon, she would train with Evan so he could adapt to his newly leveled-up strength.
Not like before—throwing rocks at her as if teasing.
But real combat.
Between adventurers, you could gain ability values through "mock battles." Especially when a higher-level adventurer trained with a lower-level one, it could sometimes improve the lower-level side even more efficiently than Dungeon expeditions.
But only if you were serious.
A battle fought on the premise of "knocking down" and "defeating" the other.
The higher-level side would also suppress their power appropriately, so the gap wouldn't make the training meaningless.
But that suppression had limits.
It was said that the strongest familia in the city, Freya Familia, used this method as its foundation—its members fought day and night on the familia's training grounds known as [Battlefield Plains], reinforcing their status as one of the city's strongest.
Evan was very interested. Fighting adventurers was clearly different from fighting monsters.
And building another set of real combat experience was never a bad thing.
More importantly—
Crossing blades with the strong really did make the blood boil!!
So before long, after lunch—
They went to Demeter Familia's facilities outside the city, took a bath, and changed into clean clothes.
Only then did Evan and Anya arrive at a small patch of woods. Cecil and Lefiya had gone to work; under the deep blue sky, only the two of them remained.
"Let's begin, Anya."
"Hmph! Nya won't hold back, nya!!"
"That's better."
Evan smiled and took out a crude-looking armguard made from rope, bone, and iron plates.
[Shinobi Prosthetic]
This was the new power Evan gained after reaching Lv.2—because the character card he'd previously obtained, [Reed Country], had leveled up as well!
Fortunately, it was an improved armguard that could be slipped on and used directly—
Not the original version's literal prosthetic arm.
Of course, after leveling up he could also gain an entirely new character card. Evan chose [Return to the West], whose ability allowed him to use a "gourd" item to absorb the spirit essence of powerful monsters after they died, gaining new usable skills.
Right now, he didn't have any spirit essence, so it was useless—though it also came with a new "charge" mechanic: by attacking and dodging, he could build up energy points, then use them to empower his next attack.
But for now—
He'd use [Reed Country] first. Once he went back into the Dungeon and killed the boss behind the third floor's fog gate, it would definitely drop spirit essence. He'd deal with it when he got it.
As these thoughts passed—
Evan finished fitting the Shinobi Prosthetic in place, then nodded to Anya.
Training could begin!
-------
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