Chapter 152: Into the Abyss, take the Plunge
We continue where we stopped prior to the side chapter.
I wanted to do another side chapter, but I'll leave that for another time.
For now, we'll be starting a small arc, around 5-10 chapters...
Not quite, there'll be a small event before that, it'll take the next 3-4 chapters.
This will be the last one before the final arc, I'm pretty sure that's going to be the case.
Anyway, goodbye.
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/A few minutes later…/
/Clang…/
"Huff… Huff…"
'Tired, with blood all over his body, his clothes ripped to pieces, the ground broken into many fragments, Silver rested his Halberd on the ground and sat down amidst the fallen Magic Stones and the birds torn bodies.'
'He quickly took a few potion bottles he prepared beforehand, digging them up from the ground, gulping them down, and splashing the rest on his body in order to heal his surface wounds and recover a great deal of his strength.'
"... Should I start to fight... Half naked?" He mumbled to himself as he looked at the water running around
I only took my shirt off this time.
But my clothes always end up torn…
I already bought some cheap clothes to use, but buying clothes every once in a while is a bother.
"That would be quite the sight, one I wouldn't refuse to take a closer look at." Someone said near him
"..."
'Silver slowly got up from the ground, unsurprised to hear the voice.'
'He had detected this person's presence from the moment his fight ended, and this also served as a reminder for him.'
'He was so focused on his training that he neglected his surroundings, allowing someone to get relatively close to him for an unknown amount of time.'
'His hands glowed faintly in green light as he touched his chest, he hastened his body's recovery speed as he opened his mouth to ask:'
"Do you know me?" Silver asked as he looked at the hooded woman
"Intimately, in fact, wasn't our last meeting… Quite hot?" She asked seductively as she removed her hood
'She was standing on a rock on the other side of the river, it was just a few meters away, but they could hear each other perfectly despite all the noise.'
'With a toned skin, it was immediately apparent that it was an Amazon.'
"..."
An Amazon... One that I know.
'Silver raised an eyebrow, he was surprised to see who it was, so he did not move away…'
'But his guard was up.'
"Oh? I thought you would at least show some reaction, but you look quite confident… I like that in you, how your eyes never waver."
There are many types of eyes people would give upon looking at me.
I like this type the most.
'Purple eyes and light makeup, a pretty face not commonly seen…'
'Her long dark hair that went all the way to her slender legs, and past her hourglass curves…'
'A beauty with a cold gaze that many men would droll over…'
'But giving the Ultra Greatsword behind her, it was clear this was no defenseless pretty flower.'
(Image in case you forgot)
"I met you before…" Silver said coldly as he crossed his arms
Aisha Belka… There is no way I wouldn't recognize her, I investigated her and read her Status when I infiltrated Ishtar's Manor.
The third strongest in the Ishtar Familia, and the one that actually acts as the Captain of the Familia, leading all 100 Berbera warriors since Phryne is too stupid and lazy to do so.
Our first meeting was when they tried to ambush me in the Dungeon before I became Level 3, pathetically failing since I prepared for it after stealing information.
She's also Haruhime's closest 'friend'… Or used to be since it has been a while since they met. The one who took care of her the most.
Despite not seeing her for a few months, Haruhime always talks about her and how much she misses her, regardless of how perverted she is.
Nevertheless, their personalities don't match at all.
"Ara? I'm honored you still remember me…" She said as she took a step
He truly is special.
/Crack!/
'The moment she took a single step, an invisible bullet struck the ground.'
"Not a single step, I can hear you from there just fine."
"Ara… Truly domineering… I like that as well." She said as she licked her lips
'Silver's mood, however, did not change.'
"Tell me what you came here for, otherwise I wouldn't mind continuing what happened last time, and this time, you won't have help."
"I can see that you got stronger, but what makes you think I didn't also?" He said with a frown
'Aisha let out a small sigh before smiling sarcastically.'
"Men like you are all the same, acting and speaking tough, barking loudly, but can't even last an hour in bed…"
"#!! Oi! I..." Silver replied in annoyance
/Chuckles/
'But he then realized he got played seeing her playful smile.'
She is exactly as the rumors say, a woman of strong resolve that won't cower no matter what.
Her pride is harder than Adamantite, she'll walk around with her thin clothes, and if someone calls her a slut, she'll probably say: Yes, I like it.
Before punching a hole through the person's guts.
The only thing worse than a Brute Amazon is a Lustful Amazon…
And worse than that is a Smart Amazon… Combine it all and you have this lady over here.
...Lady may be too much.
"In any case, I think you're misunderstanding something, this time, I came here by myself, and not under the name of the Ishtar Familia…"
"..."
I expected that much.
"So what do you want?"
"My! You sure are thorny for someone that owes me." She said faintly
"Hm? How do I owe you?" Silver asked calmly
'She smiled.'
"Last time we met, you may have fooled the others with that trap you set up beforehand, but I know Haruhime the best…"
"I was the one that gifted her the perfume she uses…" She said as she touched her lips with her index finger
"..."
'Silver realized what she was going on about.'
'He didn't show it, but he was already letting out a sigh mentally.'
"After everything was over, it didn't take much for me to find your trail, and to find concrete evidence of her kidnappers…"
"Should I say kidnapper instead?"
"..."
I thought the bombs combined with me erasing my tracks would've been enough to clear everything, but life isn't always optimistic.
Considering everything... Yeah, I do owe her one.
How awful.
"Why did you help me then?" Silver asked, cutting the chase
"Did you get it all from just that? Good, I don't like talking much either."
It seems he's willing to talk at the very least.
I was ready to force it upon him if necessary.
'Her playful expression suddenly dropped, becoming serious as she said:'
"Look, Ishtar has… Done some twisted things recently."
"She'll soon launch a mass investigation… No, it surely has started already, I wanted to talk with you earlier, but you aren't really an easy person to get in contact with in secret."
Ishtar's surveillance is always following me, so annoying…
"What?" Silver said with a frown
Investigation?... For what happened before?
Did she stabilize her situation already? It's a bit faster than I expected.
"I know that you have her, or at least know where she is, I won't ask it, but in exchange for my previous actions… Make sure to keep her safe." She said as she closed her eyes
Technically, you did me a favor by taking her out of there...
But it wouldn't have been fun if I said that, would it?
/Fufufu.../
'As she laughed in a low tone, Silver remained silent, thinking.'
"..."
"As soon as the Denatus ends, she'll start a mass investigation around several selected targets using any means available to her, be it coercion, simple manipulation, blackmail, seduction…"
"Even for a Familia mainly consisting of women like yours, it isn't any harder for her to get what she wants."
It is already bad for people unrelated to this to be involved, but Ishtar would never care about this.
The worst would be a situation where both Haruhime and he are captured, and the Hestia Familia falls.
Heh... I don't want to see the place I work in burn in flames for her.
"... Sigh." Silver said as he shook his head
'Aisha crossed her arms, waiting for his reply.'
I know that she is a trustworthy person simply by how well Haruhime speaks of her and also all of the help she gave her over the years.
In fact, most Amazons under Ishtar are rather trustworthy due to their straightforward personalities.
Always working together, not because they're in a Familia, but because they're friends.
Few are loyal to her, they are mostly with Ishtar because she is the Lord of the entertainment district, and because her philosophy and way of running things fall in line with what they want to do and how they are.
Not like all Amazons are under Ishtar, that is an exaggeration, there are many scattered around Orario, mine even has 2.
But the reason I refused to show any sign of familiarity with her was due to Ishtar's very existence, the more Aisha knows, the higher the danger upon herself.
The moment Ishtar becomes overly cautious and Charms her own subordinates is the day her betrayal would be revealed.
And any information I shared with her during that time would end up being revealed…
But since she's here, she must've realized that things have reached the boiling point and she can't remain still anymore.
The time to cross the line has come, otherwise, she may not have the chance to do so.
Regardless of what happens, if Ishtar uses Charm on her, she'll still end up in trouble, and Ishtar will still attack me, perhaps even more fiercely… No, definitely more.
So… It would be better to work with her, to take that Divine bitch down.
But... This isn't the best scenario.
The best one would be for her to remain far away, and never contact me...
Her doing so simply means...
That she's not confident in me winning on my own.
'Aisha stared at Silver, waiting for him to finish sorting his thoughts...'
'And when he did, he raised his head to stare at her, his expression changing slightly.'
"... You are just like she described." Silver said with a small smile
'He had seen and heard enough, it was time to drop the act.'
"... Ara…"
'She smiled as she closed her eyes once more.'
"How is she doing?" She asked in an oddly light tone
"I have put her to training, and she now has a healthy routine from morning to dawn, and many friends to accompany her throughout the day…"
"My only regret was keeping her encaged." Silver said with some remorse
"... No, don't blame yourself for that."
As I thought, that blond-haired maid I saw in his Manor from far away was indeed Haruhime.
Even if she hid her ears and tail, her golden hair and way of walking are unmistakable.
'Before coming, Aisha made sure to scout and investigate, after all, she was Haruhime's friend, once she disappeared, she was one of the first to volunteer to seek her.'
'Using what she knew, she was quick to find out where she was, but she kept silent and made great efforts in stirring all investigations away from the Hearth Manor.'
'That was the best she could do given her position.'
'She would never say that, however. Not her style.'
"She's better with you than she was with us…" Aisha said as she looked around
'She started to remember what she saw during the few times she went to take a look at Haruhime...'
I never saw her smile that much before...
She's happy, and that's what matters.
'Raising her right hand, she said:'
"... 2 weeks, this is the maximum amount of time you have, hide her while you still can, and prepare yourself for the worst, because regardless of whether she is found or not, Ishtar has made it clear that you're to be captured."
"So soon? Why does she need me anyway?"
Her obsession is so annoying...
'Aisha Shrugged.'
"She wants to figure out something… Your relation with Freya."
"I have nothing to do with her though?..." Silver said as sweat ran down his forehead
"... That isn't up to me to decide, if she says you have, then you have, we only follow her orders."
'She looked into the waterfall on the side, saying heavily:'
"If it was before, I would've said you have a chance but…"
"But?"
"... During the past 3 or so months, a lot changed."
"Ishtar has hired assassins for… Us, the Berbera."
"! What?" Silver said in surprise
I stop my observation of her and she pulls this out of her ass?
Hiring assassins for her own children... Does she have no guilt or feelings for those of her own Familia at all?
Or is this one of those sickly forms of love few of the Gods have?
"... A few died under their assault, but the ones that survived…"
"All Leveled up." She said in a solemn tone
"..."
"Even if she failed once, Ishtar kept pressuring us until we either died or Leveled up."
"..."
"She'll definitely not share this in today's Denatus, but in the blink of an eye, the Ishtar Familia grew to a total of over 50 Level 3 adventurers, 18 Level 4 adventurers, and..."
"One Level 6 adventurer."
"As for our Captain Tammuz... I can't quite say, he was never the talkative type, rarely ever leaving Ishtar's side."
"However, taking that he is still here... The chance of that being the case is pretty high."
"Level… 6?" Silver said as he clenched his fist
Did that Frog… One of the biggest jokes amidst the First Class adventurers finally rose in Rank?
For over a decade she had been stuck at that Level, advancing little to nothing.
To the point she started to neglect her own training, becoming that fat monstrosity you see now.
She is a clear example of what happens when your will is low, she gave up leveling up long ago, and now, merely terrorizes others with her high Stats.
Because that won't decrease anytime soon, she'll have to age a lot more for that to start showing.
Yet...
Such news would be enough to shake Orario for a while, a Level 5 adventurer is a Superstar, and Level 6's are like CEOs…
A Level 7 would be like...
(Jeff Bezos on Crack?)
"Yes, she has kept the details under really tight curtains, most of the Berbera have no idea she managed to do it..."
"And I bet she won't reveal her card unless extremely necessary…"
"The reason I know is that I'm the 3rd strongest, yes I know, you can praise me more."
"Damn…"
I think I have an idea of her plans now.
She'll likely try to repeat her previous plans, capturing Haruhime and performing the ritual on her.
If she succeeds, she'll have dozens of Level 5 adventurers, and one Level 7.
If her current Captain Tammuz does Level up, then she'll also have a Level 6.
Plus all of her other preparations… She may very well… Win.
It seems impossible, but right now, the Freya Familia has 4 effective Level 6 adventurers, and one Super Level 7.
But for someone that isn't afraid of using underhanded means, a single curse is enough to bring a Level 6 adventurer down to Level 5.
She has definitely prepared dozens, somewhere hidden even I don't know.
Because the last time I raided her vault, I found no such items there.
And with an army of Level 5's… Enough to rival Freya's…
Freya obviously wouldn't allow herself to be attacked like this, but a clash would end up happening one way or another.
Right in the middle of an overpopulated City... During a time when some dangerous people lurk in the dark...
Yeah, this isn't good.
"Your expression isn't pretty, what happened to the serious man from before?" She asked with a smirk
"He's tired... Tired of having crazy people go after him." Silver replied with a small smile
"You better get used to it, every First Class adventurer had their fair share of problems before becoming what they currently are." She said as she turned around
"Oh yeah, there is one good news though..."
"Phryne didn't Level up without some trouble... She's currently recovering from her injuries, and it'll take a few days in the least for her to get out of bed."
"And taking how lazy she is, I bet she'll spare no time at all too busy herself around with her 'pass time' instead of adjusting to her Level."
"Don't come crying to me later saying I didn't do my part."
'She left, walking further and further away, shaking her hips as she lifted her hood.'
/Inhale.../
/Exhale.../
"I planned on hunting mainly on this floor for the rest of the day..." Silver mumbled
My training was never easy, but I did it because it was the perfect balance between monetary gain and status gain.
And in a sense, safety.
But it seems...
/Snap!/
'He snapped his fingers once he broke sight of Aisha, collecting the magic stones into his pocket space.'
'He turned to face the Great Falls, staring right at the blue abyss that led to the great lake.'
"I can't stop with just this."
/Step.../
'Silver took a step forward, taking the plunge as the clear blue water splashed around him.'
'His body battered and bloody, he raised his hand, his Halberd soon following suit as it flew to his hand...'
/SPLURGE!/
'Cutting a large fish into two, Silver continued to fall as monsters kept appearing... And like a moth to the fire, he dived straight first into danger.'
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Notes
You may think that I artificially leveled up the Ishtar Familia, but honestly, I was thinking about this for a long while already, before we even started this volume.
I wanted something that would make the final fight more interesting, but not do something too crazy.
Even if Phryne Leveled up, she didn't really gain that many stats, at most, her Status boost due to her Level increased, and right now, until she recovers and gets used to her Level strength, she's actually weaker than she was before.
I do like to make calculations and compare the statuses of others, but I'll leave that for later.
If you still wish to see some calculations, let's consider Tammuz.
First, I have already thought of the exact values for the Status boost, I've postponed it for a while as it wasn't necessary, but I thought for a while and came with the values.
Level 1 - 15% increase.
This would be enough to keep up with what they say that people immediately get stronger after receiving a Status. I even thought of raising it further, but I decided to keep it as such.
Level 2 - 20% increase.
Continuing from there, I decided to keep adding 5% more to each Level, so albeit it doesn't look like much, I do think there is some substance to it.
Level 3 - 25%
Level 4 - 35%
Starting from Level 4, we'll start to see how things changed as adventurers reach the standard of First Class, the 5% increase changes to 10%.
Level 5 - 50%
And the moment they do reach First Class, it changed once again and they gained an instant 15%.
I thought if I should keep things like this, and after a while, I decided to just go back to 10%.
So from Level 5 and above, it's a 10% period.
Level 6 - 60%
Level 7 - 70%
Level 8 - 80%... And so on.
Considering Tammuz Stats were never disclosed, I'll just assume things.
Tammuz never participated in combat, he was just Ishtar's aid, being by her side at all times, and albeit he was the Captain on paper, Tammuz took more care of Ishtar herself than the Familia, and this was mostly due to her servitude nature due to years of being charmed.
Even in the original, Tammuz was just charmed by Freya, and he was never given any sort of free will to act, which is rather unsettling when you think about it.
Due to how he fought Bell, albeit little, I imagine Tammuz is a sort of high Agility and Dexterity fighter, with his secondary Status being Strength and Constitution, with probably 0 for Magic just like Phryne since Magic is rare.
So he would be something like this prior to becoming Level 5:
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Tammuz Belili
Level-4
Strength D-514
Vitality E-493
Dexterity B-710
Agility B-746
Magic I-0
Quick Strike -> H
Abnormal resistance -> H
Magic:
Skills:
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As you can see, this Tammuz I envisioned is in no way a maximized adventurer.
He's what you can say, among the best Level 4's out there, and he is a prospect to become Level 5.
And even if you were to point out the inconsistency of this, asking why didn't level up then, I think I already answered that he was a mere consort, working very little.
I do think he'll become stronger in 2 years, but his growth rate is little compared to someone like Raul and Anakity, the people who would be considered the strongest Level 4's of the future.
Or at least some of the strongest.
So let's make a quick comparison based on everything shown.
If we say Tammuz got about the same at every Level, then his total Agility would be:
(760 + 760 + 760 + 760) x 1.50 and that adds to about 4550.
As for Silver, we don't quite know his Stats as a Level 3 yet, I do have a sheet since it'll be shown in future chapters, but we ended up jumping his development as I'm pretty sure we showed his initial stats, and then never showed them again.
Even so, let's make some conservative estimations.
(1500 + 1500 + 500 + 100/from development abilities/) x 1.25 and that add for about 4500...
(Not counting the other development ability...)
It's pretty much the same, and Silver is far from facing them either way.
And I quite like this math as well, as it falls perfectly in the area I wanted.
Silver is technically a First Class adventurer, or at least, he's falling into the ranks of one.
This is how I do things.
Anyway, see ya!
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