"We're back..."
Hearing their voices, Furina happily ran out to greet them, only to witness a scene that made her heart stop—Aiden was drenched in blood, and Robin and Tifa were similarly splattered in crimson.
"Aiden, what happened?! How did this happen?!" Furina was scared pale, her voice trembling.
Tifa carefully laid Aiden down on a soft bed. At this point, thanks to the continuous healing from Hyacine and Little Ica, his condition had mostly stabilized. The massive blood loss, however, left his face incredibly pale and weak.
"I'm fine. Just a flesh wound." Seeing his patron deity's anxious, worried expression, Aiden forced himself to sit up and flashed a reassuring smile. "For an adventurer, as long as you don't die on the spot or lose a limb, it's nothing major."
"Quit trying to act tough and just lie down."
Seeing that he still had the energy to show off, Hyacine shot him an annoyed glare. Stepping forward with a very forceful attitude, she shoved him right back onto the bed.
"Alright, alright." Aiden smiled helplessly and obediently lay flat.
Hyacine's healing prowess was enough to completely mend his physical wounds, but the severe blood loss was something magic couldn't instantly replenish. That required rest and time.
For the next three days, Aiden rested peacefully at the Familia headquarters. Hyacine never left his side, acting like the strictest of nurses.
Meanwhile, Robin, Tifa, and Jeanne took Daphne and Cassandra back into the Dungeon to farm monsters, earning Magic Stones and Valis. Without Aiden around, they didn't dare venture too deep into the Middle Floors, restricting their activities to the relatively safe 16th Floor.
As it turned out, without their walking "Anomaly Magnet" Captain, their expedition went unbelievably smooth. Standard Monster Parties and Monster Presents were more than manageable for their current lineup.
At the same time, Robin discreetly utilized various channels to gather intel regarding the red-haired girl on the 19th Floor, or any similar anomalous events.
However, three days passed without a single whisper. Aside from them, it seemed no one else had encountered the red-haired girl.
"Furina, help me update my status."
Today, the weather was beautiful, and a fully recovered Aiden stretched his limbs lazily.
Feeling in high spirits, he casually opened the system and clicked on 'Intertwined Fate'.
A brilliant golden light flashed, instantly bringing a look of joy to his face.
But the expected summoning circle for a new companion never materialized. Instead, he felt the Falna brand on his back grow burning hot. Thoughtful, he immediately called for Furina.
The last time his status had been updated was when he leveled up to Level 3. Counting the days, it had been almost half a month. It was high time for an update.
Furthermore, he was absolutely certain he had just "pulled a gold," yet no new companion or item had appeared. He surmised that whatever had been summoned was applied directly to his body.
"Coming, coming!"
Furina, who had been lounging on the sofa reading a novel while kicking her legs in the air, instantly jumped up and ran over excitedly.
She was quite eager to see just how much Aiden had grown over the last couple of weeks.
His experiences during this half-month had been exceptionally rich: fighting the Dead End Butcher on the 17th Floor, and engaging in a deathmatch on the 19th Floor with the suspected resurrected "Crimson Flower of Justice." These were Great Feats worthy of the record books, providing him with optimal nourishment for growth.
Though leveling up meant slower stat progression, Aiden had the [Trailblazer] skill on his side; no matter how slow it got, it wouldn't be that slow.
Furina expertly straddled Aiden's back, pricked her finger for a drop of divine blood, and began updating his status.
First up were his basic abilities. In just half a month, his stats had improved tremendously. Every single stat had climbed to Rank C. If they threw caution to the wind, he could theoretically level up to Level 4 right then and there.
Immediately after, Furina noticed a new brand composed of sacred text glowing faintly on his back.
A look of delight washed over her face—it was the sign of a new skill awakening. She immediately channeled the Excelia Aiden had accumulated over the past days into the new skill.
Soon, as the Excelia flowed in, the text revealed itself entirely.
[Skill]: [Alpha Inforce]
[Effect]: Can instantaneously retrieve elapsed battle time and layer attacks infinitely.
Reading the skill's effect, Furina's heterochromatic eyes went wide, and she gasped.
"Aiden! Aiden, look! You're cheating again!!"
Hurriedly stamping his updated status onto a sheet of parchment, she handed it to Aiden, trembling with excitement.
Taking the parchment, Aiden took one look at the new skill and instantly understood.
This wasn't a skill he had awakened naturally; he had pulled it from the system. Given his system's incredibly broad summoning pool, pulling just about anything wasn't surprising.
He knew exactly where this skill came from. Wasn't this the signature ability of Alphamon, the Royal Knight from the Digimon universe?
Of course, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. After merging with his Falna, the skill's effects might have slightly altered, but regardless of the changes, its sheer power was undeniable.
Instantaneously retrieving elapsed battle time and stacking attacks infinitely... In other words, as long as he desired it and possessed enough energy to sustain it, he could theoretically obliterate the lower world in a single strike. Even one-shotting the Black Dragon wouldn't be a pipe dream.
Naturally, that was purely theoretical.
The law of conservation of energy applied everywhere. To unleash an attack of world-destroying magnitude, his own power would have to reach a proportionate level. After all, using skills required an adventurer to expend their own stamina and mind.
Regardless, this was a completely broken, cheat-tier skill. It gave him an ultimate trump card capable of deciding a battle in a single strike.
Sitting on the bed, Aiden closed his eyes, silently feeling the brand-new power surging through his body.
The arrival of this skill perfectly remedied his greatest weakness.
Previously, despite his powerful magic and the top-tier amplification of Everlasting Flames, his battle with the red-haired girl had violently exposed a glaring issue: he lacked an active skill that directly enhanced his own power to act as the core driver of his combat tactics.
Whether it was [Descender], [Trailblazer], [Abyss Gazed Back], or the [Divine Protection of the Water God] bestowed by Focalors—they were essentially utility or passive abilities. They couldn't provide a decisive burst of combat power at critical moments like Ais's Avenger or Bell's Argonaut could.
The acquisition of [Alpha Inforce] changed all of that completely.
It wasn't just a simple stat buff; it was a rule-bending power capable of altering the very concept of his attacks.
"Alpha Inforce..." Aiden muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth curling into a grin. "Looking at how it manifests, this really is a lot like Bell's Argonaut. They're both charge-up attacks."
The difference was that Bell's Argonaut required time to charge. The longer he charged, the greater the power, but it was ultimately limited by Bell's own stats, creating a ceiling.
Aiden's [Alpha Inforce] shared similar constraints; while 'retrieving elapsed battle time' sounded boundless, it was practically capped by the user's hard limits.
"But my skill's edge over Argonaut is the time factor."
Bell needed to charge. Aiden didn't.
In a split second, he could complete the retrieval of battle time, stack his attacks infinitely, and unleash the absolute maximum output possible in his current state.
"A strike that would take Bell ten minutes to charge, I can achieve in an instant."
Therefore, while Argonaut was "charging," [Alpha Inforce] was "stacking." Furthermore, Aiden believed that this skill definitely had applications beyond just layering attacks. That was something he'd have to discover on the battlefield himself.
That was the nature of skills. Oftentimes, their descriptions were vague, requiring adventurers to explore and develop their usage entirely on their own.
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