"Hehe, you’re here, Riezel!"
When Riezel walked into Loki’s room and saw the unreliable goddess, she was already slumped in her chair, holding a bottle in one hand and drinking straight from it, looking a little drunk.
"...You’re actually drinking?"
Seeing Loki drunk left Riezel somewhat speechless.
"Oh, c’mon! I’m happy!" Loki said with a grin. "Finn and the others all made it to Level 7! Three of them! Three!"
"Orario only had one Level 7, and the whole world only had two. Now three popped up in my familia all at once. How could I not drink to celebrate?"
"Tiona and the others hit Level 6, too. Even Raul and Aki made it to Level 5. My familia’s got ten First-Class Adventurers now! Ten!"
"If we get just one more, we’ll be tied with the Ganesha Familia. Gahahahaha!"
Loki was extremely pleased with herself, laughing in a strange way that made people want to keep their distance.
"Tiona just said the same thing earlier," Riezel said, smiling bitterly. "That said, even though the Ganesha Familia has eleven First-Class Adventurers, they’re not all Level 5, and they don’t have a single Level 6, right? Quality-wise, our familia is way better than the Ganesha Familia, so there’s really no need to compete over numbers, is there?"
Loki, however, clearly looked down on his opinion.
"You gotta get this through your head, kiddo. Mortals or gods, it doesn’t matter. Everyone’s good at using their strengths to smash other people’s weak spots."
"When your quality’s better, they start comparing numbers."
"When your numbers are higher, they suddenly wanna talk about quality."
"That Ganesha guy’s always relied on sheer numbers to show off around the city. He’s even been evaluated as not inferior to me, and that lovesick fool—ugh, that’s been ticking me off for ages."
"Hmph. Now, let’s see who still dares to compare themselves to me. Even if we don’t count you, my familia’s already Orario’s strongest, in name and in fact!"
Loki kept rambling nonstop, while Riezel just shrugged it off.
"I remember Ganesha being a pretty decent god, though. He actually cares about the citizens, and his familia works with the Guild to handle city security as enforcers. Honestly, that sounds like a good god to me. Why does he sound so awful when you talk about him?"
While talking, Riezel sat down in front of Loki.
"What’s that supposed to mean? You’re actually speaking up for Ganesha?" Loki immediately became dissatisfied and complained loudly. "Hey, hey, hey, I’m your goddess, y’know. If you’re being all nice to other guys (male gods)—even I get jealous, okay?"
"Duh, that’s not what I meant..." Riezel said flatly. "I’m just saying you’re drunk."
"Tch, this barely even counts as drunk." Loki shot back, puffing out her cheeks. "Whatever, forget it. Let’s drop that. Your status update matters more right now. Seriously, though, can’t you update your own status? Why’d you come all the way here to make me do the work?"
As she spoke, she set the bottle aside and picked up the needle next to her, tilting her chin toward Riezel.
"I could update on my own, but isn’t it better to just go with the flow?" Riezel said, turning around and pulling off his shirt. "Anyway, I feel like I’m kinda already there, and everyone else is more or less the same. Odds are we’re all gonna level up this time, so yeah, I’m not in a rush. Might as well wait and come over together with everyone."
"You seriously don’t know how to be considerate to your goddess..." Loki kept muttering. "I’ve already updated over thirty people this morning. My fingers are basically full of holes."
Just then, she started giggling.
"But my intuition was totally right—this time was a massive haul. You all leveled up. Even the ones who didn’t either unlocked new magic or skills, or their basic stats jumped a ton. Just looking at it got me all fired up."
"You’re sure you can level up, right?"
"If that’s the case, my familia finally has a Level 8!"
While she was talking, Loki had already pricked her finger, squeezed out her divine blood, and smeared it across Riezel’s back to unlock his Falna first, then updated his status, causing the sacred text that formed the Falna to begin floating.
Not long after, the sacred text on Riezel’s back began flashing like a slideshow, making Loki’s eyes go wide.
"Yes! Riezel... Level 8—Uommppphhh!"
Loki jumped up, about to let out the same loud, bizarre shout she had used when Finn and the others leveled up to notify everyone, but Riezel quickly covered her mouth with one hand.
"What the hell are you doing?" Riezel said, almost rolling his eyes, clearly annoyed. "My real level can’t be exposed yet. You were the one who reminded me about that. Why do you look like you wanna tell the whole world now?"
"Pwah!" Loki immediately broke free from his hand, grinning like she felt zero guilt. "Ah, sorry, sorry. I got way too excited and totally forgot. But... hahahaha! You really came through, kiddo! You actually hit Level 8 before the pig of that lovesick idiot did! I almost love you to death! Riezel!"
Loki lunged at Riezel’s body, actually puckering her lips as if she planned to kiss him several times in a row.
"Don’t even think about it." Riezel quickly blocked her exaggeratedly puckered lips, suppressing the urge to slam this trashy goddess to the ground. "So I was right then. I really can level up, yeah?"
"Correct! Congrats, you’re the first to catch up to the kids of Zeus and Hera!" Loki danced around in excitement. "Haha! How’s Freya even supposed to compete with me now?"
"Yeah, yeah, that’s enough flexing. If you’re done, keep going, " Riezel said helplessly, smiling bitterly once again. "It’s not finished yet, right?"
"Just the last step left!" Loki sat back down behind Riezel. "But this time, only one development ability showed up, so I just went ahead and picked it for you."
Hearing this, Riezel was a little surprised.
"Only one development ability?"
Needless to say, this was the first time he had ever encountered such a situation.
In the past, every time he leveled up, he had met the conditions to learn several development abilities, sometimes even more than ten, leaving him with an abundance of choices.
Given that, the fact that there was only one development ability was truly unprecedented.
Loki, however, did not find it strange at all.
"Some development abilities don’t show up every time. You already know that, right?" Loki said casually. "Maybe at your current level, the development abilities you used to be able to learn just won’t pop up anymore."
Riezel immediately understood.
Just like the development ability Hunter, which could only be learned upon reaching Level 2—if it was not chosen at Level 2, then in all future level-ups, that development ability would never appear again.
By the same logic, he had repeatedly refused to learn certain more common development abilities. As a result, once he reached a certain level, those abilities would no longer manifest for him.
Moreover, after reaching Level 8, it was indeed possible that the number of development abilities available to learn would decrease.
’No wonder someone like Ottar only ended up with five development abilities even after reaching Level 7.’
A Level 7 adventurer, if they discovered a development ability at every level-up, should have six development abilities.
Riezel was exactly like that, possessing six in total: Lightweight, Swordsman, Mage, Battle Adept, Fast Attack,
Ottar only had five, which proved that, at some level, he had also failed to acquire a development ability.
By this logic, the fact that Riezel had discovered a new development ability at every single level-up, and that each of them had been so rare, was already extraordinarily fortunate.
"Here, take it. Look for yourself."
Right after finishing the status update, Loki handed the parchment with his status to Riezel.
Riezel accepted it and looked down.
...
Riezel Brynhart
Level 8
STR: I0
END: I0
DEX: I0
AGI: I0
MAG: I0
Lightweight: A
Swordsman: B
Mage: C
Battle Adept: C
Fast Attack: D
Magic Chant: F
Unbound: I
...
"Unbound?"
Looking at this newly acquired development ability, Riezel blinked his eyes in bewilderment.
"What kind of effect does this development ability have?"
Loki did not give a direct answer and instead shared her own speculation, relying on a god’s intuition.
"Hmm... this might be the kinda development ability that only kicks in under really specific conditions?"
Loki picked up the bottle of wine again, took a swig, then let out a breath heavy with alcohol—her cheeks were slightly pink as she spoke to Riezel.
"So tell me, have you ever ended up in situations where you just can’t use your full power?"
When Loki put it that way, the first things Riezel thought of were his experiences in Faerie Britain and the Akasha Continent.
In Faerie Britain, Morgan had used one of her Gardens to seal his magic ability, and he had also been bound by the contract of the Stake, subjecting him to strange restrictions.
On the Akasha Continent, whether he had stormed the manor of the City Lord of Sinielle or entered the throne room of Jinas’s royal palace, he had been suppressed by magic barriers specifically designed to restrain magicians.
Because of that, he had been forced to rely purely on close combat to win, since the magic ability he believed had already far surpassed his close combat ability had been rendered almost completely useless.
"Could it be..."
A certain possibility occurred to Riezel, and his eyes shone.
"Figured it out?"
Loki spoke with a wide grin.
"It’s probably because you kept running into those kinds of situations. Kinda like how people who get hit with poison or other weird status effects can end up learning Abnormal Resistance, the development ability you picked up this time is most likely the type that kicks in when you’re under those conditions."
"My guess is, if you run into that same kinda mess again, you won’t just stop being restricted. As soon as you break free, your status, magic, and skill effects are all gonna spike like crazy."
"From now on, the only thing that’s really gonna hold you back is probably just yourself."
Clearly, this was undeniably a rare ability, a type of development ability that had never been discovered before.
Of course, Loki was already used to such things.
Riezel had so many rare development abilities and skills that she had lost count—even his magic included two types she had never heard of before. At this point, another never-before-seen development ability was not enough to shock her.
Still...
’Hmm, this kid actually awakened that kind of magic... I really don’t understand why...’
When she thought about the new magic inscribed in the last of the three magic slots on Riezel’s back, even Loki could not help but give him a long, serious look.
It could only be said that, if he were not her child, she would probably have already lost control.
Riezel, unaware of Loki’s thoughts, was simply feeling delighted.
He could not have been more satisfied with this new development ability.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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