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(DHF)Chapter 183: Unexpected guest
🕑 Added 2025-04-20 14:50:00 +0000 UTCMost people would roll their eyes at that and say "Well duh! It's a level up!" but I didn't mean it in the standard way. Sure each level up could be considered a critical point for each adventurer but for me I felt it all the more. With each level up so far I had become less and less human and more and more curse-like. If my gut feeling was right level four was going to be the point were my future fully solidified. Would I eventually become a pure curse or would I eventually evolve into an entirely new existence?-
Level four was the point were all the cards stacked up and I finally found out. To say I wasn't a little nervous about that would be a lie as while I had come to accept my curse traits I wasn't willing to give up what made me human either. I considered if I would become something like Sukuna from JJK that was a curse user turned cursed spirit but I somehow felt that wasn't quite right. Sukuna was twisted into that form through the consumption of cursed spirits and humans but I was different.-
I had the falna as my source of change which came from a divine source and thus it was not likely that I would end up the same as the process was entirely different. I shook my head to rid myself of these thoughts while focusing on the task at hand, gathering resources. Like every other "zone" the water palace floors had resources unique to it that had specialized uses on the surface. Some of the drops were used to create items that made exploring and fighting here easier such as the Undine cloth that decreased waters effectiveness on the one using it.-
There was also Carbuncle mystic gems that were prized magical catalysts and even the water attributed metal variants that occasionally showed up and were especially useful for those with the Dive DS or water type magics or skills. In the dungeon there was no such thing as a useless element as at some point in this place each element thrived. On these floors water elemental attacks and skills weren't that useful as everything resisted it but go down to the fiery floors and the exact opposite was true.-
On these floors however the king of elements was air as everything here was weak to it due to an incredibly high adaptation to their narrow and watery environment. Ice came as a close second for much the same reason though speed was a factor that costed it the top spot. Ice magics and skills were notoriously slow and wind had no such problem. Ironically ice actually countered wind slightly as wind struggled against solid objects as they impede it's movement causing them to scatter on impact. It was this same reason that earth countered wind as well. Anyways with my RCT ice technique dealing with the monsters on these floors was a breeze.-
Of course I didn't neglect my weapon either as that was just as important as well in my opinion. By the time night descended topside and I finally called it a day my smoke and drop stores had increased drastically. I of course made sure to call Hestia lest she do something foolish like personally come down here looking for me. As much as it pained her to admit she wasn't the best at making decisions when her close ones were in danger. Breaking that taboo was absolutely something she might do if she thought I or one of the others needed help and had no back up.-
While she wasn't stupid she tended to think more with her emotions than her brain which came with both pros and cons. Still I was more than happy with her as my goddess even if we had our disagreements on some things. The night turned out to be rather eventful as while I was in my base I heard a knock on the door. When I carefully climbed over the treetops of the base to peer down at whoever it was I was surprised at what I saw.-
A red lizardman with a cloth over it's body in a fairly poor disguise attempt though one I recognized as the best the poor guy could pull off. I opened the door without delay once I understood that this was one of the Xenos.
"Did something happen for you to take the risk of coming to this floor to find me? Also how did you find me?" I asked seriously once the Xenos was safe in my base.
"Your scent was on that sky orb thing we got and I tracked it to this place. I am Lyd by the way." the lizardman said casually.
'Scent huh? I'll need to fix that soon or risk one of the beastkin races following me with the same method.' I thought annoyed at the inconvenience of this.
"Did something happen for you to track me down?" I asked again focusing on Lyd after making a mental note to fix the scent issue.
"No, I just caught your scent while hunting and thought I'd come by to thank you in person for the sky orb thing. I also wanted to know if it would be too much to ask for more? Everyone loved it but some of us can't stay together due to our species." Lyd said with an embarrassed scratching of the back of the head.
I nodded in understanding "You could have simply asked Fels rather than risking it to find me yourself. Have you eaten dinner yet? I was about to cook my own and you are welcome to join me." I said as I busted out my frying pan along with some onions, flour, garlic and battle boar meat.
"Can I really join you!?" Lyd asked excitedly and with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.
"Of course, let no one say Alexander Drake lacks hospitality!" I said with a grin.
The meal was a simple thing as I merely cooked down the boar meat to render out the oil while frying up the onions and garlic. I then added the flour as well as some water to create a sort of gravy that I coated the meat with. Finally I added some salt before serving it on some crystal plates with a bit of bread.
