Chapter 29: Chapter 24 – Training Montage

It had been two weeks since they had completed the Queen Ant’s dungeon. During this time, they set out to continue their schedule of training in the morning to early afternoon, to run through the dungeon for a few hours, and then some leisure time for the evening. They had completed four dungeons in the last two weeks, and Jake had hit level 7 on the second dungeon, along with Ophelia on the third.

Both Jake and Ophelia did not receive any new spells or skills for gaining levels, but they had improved all of their skills by a large margin in the last few weeks, and many of them had started evolving or advancing. Some skills almost felt stuck, like Jake felt they would evolve only once they selected their upgraded class, or perhaps just because they had not reached the first tier, but many had already advanced.

Ophelia’s spear and shield proficiency were the first to reach the advanced tier between the two of them, but Jake’s skills were not that far after, their skill now “rolling over” and becoming level 1 again. Ophelia had been extensively training her valkyrie skills, and while they were not yet level five and either at 3 or 4 for each, Jake thought they would reach level 5 in time for once they completed their [Trial] and earned the ability to travel the multiverse.

Jake had done some research in regards to class evolution at level ten, and found that much of the information about individual class options were not allowed to be given via the forums and wiki, or even a book purchased on the [Multiverse Market]. Jake did learn that the premise of class evolution was similar to the game he had played. The more skills in the second tier or ready for the second tier in the case of the skills unable to evolve until then, the better their class would end up being. Not only that, but versions of the class had hidden criteria, whether it be requiring a specific individual skill to be known, or to get a certain class you must be a champion of a certain god, among other things.

Completing four dungeons had made them flush with cash, and the first thing they did was improve Jake and Ophelia’s equipment. They had chosen unenchanted armor, and even Jake’s new spear-staff and shield was plain other than the higher quality materials that they chose. Jake had moved up from the leather armor he wore to now having a layered approach, matched by the valkyrie. Underneath was a spider-silk gambeson that was quite comfortable and provided surprising protection on its own, and the top layer was drake scale mail armor, the color of red with gold trims. The demoness was beaming with pride as they had gotten dressed in her color choices, and Jake did his best not to think that a large reason they went along with the color scheme for their party was due to Hestia, and Jake being her champion.

Jake felt he had finally “cracked the code” in regards to Runic Magic, having reached level 5. He felt that this was one skill that was stuck and couldn’t advance until they reached the first tier, but the number of things that he could do was simply amazing, and only limited by two things: his imagination, and he simply could not exceed twelve rune words in a runic spell. The cost of twelve runes was not overly high, so it was nothing like the cost was just too high for him to afford, it was merely some sort of hard limit for his skill level. Ophelia was just trailing him at level 4 in the skill, but Jake felt like it wouldn’t be too much longer until her skill level matched his.

Jake had applied this knowledge to his [Enchanting] skill to great effect, and he had enchanted both Ophelia’s and his own armor as much as he could handle for the time being. The layered equipment approach allowed him to enchant the inner gambeson with certain enchantments, his choices being to provide a sort of temperature regulation and impact dampening. This was about all that he could accomplish for now on the gambesons, limited to the twelve rune words that he was, as this applied even to his enchanting, he found. On the drake scale mail, he added durability and self-repair.

Jake had leveled his [Enchanting] skill making simple enchantments on all the weapons and armor they had collected in the various incursions, and had earned quite a bit of funds in this practice. Jake felt it a little odd that he could make as much as he could by doing it. He wondered if the skill was just rare, or if perhaps he was only so good at it because of his enhanced attributes. He found he could earn thousands of credits per hour, just etching enchantments on relatively cheap weapons and armor.

His and Ophelia’s shield also had the same enchantment. He found a sort of partial inertia cancellation to apply to anything that hit the shield. It wasn't a full effect, but it would turn what was a car or truck slamming into them to feel like a motorcycle, perhaps, reducing the transfer of energy. Smaller attacks like a large rock slamming into their shield will just bounce off and barely push Jake or Ophelia back at all. This should allow for Ophelia to much more easily block blows from larger creatures without getting flung around or their bones crushed, and Jake should be able to hold his own as well. Jake wanted a full cancellation, but found that this might not even be able to be reached even with twenty-four runes in the future.

In regards to Jake’s weapon, he smiled with pride as he looked at his new spear-staff. Made of strong wood, and steel, it now had two of his “functions,” one for buff application and one for creating magical spears out of his chosen elements. What made him proud is that he had learned that by using his functions, he could cheat: he could surpass the twelve-rune word limit. This empowered his spells greatly when he needed, or allowed him to use much less mana, as it was like he offloaded some of the effort to the item instead; instead of the cost of a twelve-rune spell, it was like casting two six rune spells, which the mana cost was much less. He now also had three small spell-rods in which he enchanted to cast specific spells that he had created as sort of secret weapons, as he had prepared and practiced what was effectively twenty-four rune spells.

They could not be used often, and could also be seen as consumables as they would only get a couple of uses before the runes would need to be recharged with runic ink, and the small spell-rods themselves could only barely contain the runes themselves, so they would deteriorate with each casting. They also took a large percentage of Jake’s mana, over half.

Still, Jake was very happy that he had the option, as he saw them like the [Scroll of Thornwood Field], spells meant to turn the tide of what would otherwise be a losing battle. Of course, it was bad to be in a fight where such a skill or spell would be used, but sometimes you were simply unable to identify a major threat before a fight began. This had not happened during any of the four trips, but on the last one Jake had decided to test his offensive spell-rod against the boss, him having been too worried to test this spell within their [Refuge].

The effect had been better than Jake could have ever hoped, and he was ecstatic that this level of spell-casting would be available to him sometime after level ten. Jake was able to cast a ball of fire that exceeded Fhesiah’s, exploding and leaving the boss in flaming ruins. This left the demoness panting with desire for Jake, proving his strength and potential to her, so he had to deal with a particularly amorous demoness when they returned from the dungeon that day. It also started a long line of rod jokes.

In addition, it started the demoness wanting to join Jake in his learning of runic magic. She was having a hard time making it work, though, as forcing heavenly energy to abide by a set of strict rules did not have good results. She had no problems copying the Nordic runes themselves, especially in runic sentences that Jake laid out for her, but they simply would not activate.

They thought they were getting close to a solution though: demonic runes. These runes echoed the Dao, or heavenly truths, and the demoness had successfully gotten a few of them to activate. It took Jake some effort, but he too was able to get one to activate as well, with his mana. It appeared that demonic runes required some level of understanding in order to utilize them even with mana: it was not as simple as forming a shape with mana and forming a word, Jake had to have a level of understanding of the rune and the word in order to successfully use it.

These limitations would force the demoness primarily to runes related to fire, and creating sort of functions like Jake had would be a real challenge for her, as when she used heavenly energy, she found that her requirements for understanding in order to use a rune was even greater than Jake’s. She likely would never be able to use a rune not related to the dao incorporated into her being, her essence, but that didn’t mean she was giving up. Perhaps this restriction would be lowered as she mastered [Runic Magic], or her mastery of the dao reached a higher level, allowing her to use verbs and other words not directly related to her dragon fire.

For now, Fhesiah found that when she made a ball of fire with her demonic runes, the power was higher and cost in heavenly energy was lower, allowing for greater efficiency than if she had just otherwise created it on her own. For now, it was just a small benefit, but it was well worth the effort. This also got around the problems of Nordic Runes that Hestia alluded to for Jake, and he had plans for creating spell-rods and an alternate set of equipment that included these demonic runes once he had a high enough understanding of them to accomplish similar goals.             

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The other spell-rods were for spells Jake was calling [Einherjar] and [Sanctuary]. The first was an assortment of buffs that greatly enhanced the target for up to thirty seconds, and Jake thought the name of immortal warriors was very fitting. It included several rune words like his original strength buff that stacked together, and increased the user’s speed and durability greatly. Right now, in their testing, any one of Jake’s party that received this buff was able to easily best the other two combined in melee combat, completely overpowering them. The durability was enhanced by the other empowerment buffs, and a direct blow from their tier 0 equipment was easily shrugged off. On top of all of that, his spellforms and other spells got a slight increase while he was affected by the spell.

The other spell Sanctuary Jake had a hard time testing for now. In theory, it should create a near insurmountable barrier of protection in the shape of a dome, in which only allies could enter. He could not currently test the durability due to the fact that his own ally’s attacks passed easily through it. This was unlike his [Sacrificial Flame: Barrier] spell in which spells or attacks of his own could not pass through. This should be very powerful, as Jake’s party should be able to be protected for thirty seconds while they either heal up or launch an offensive of their own. Still, he planned on testing it soon if the opportunity presented itself.

In addition to the weapons and armor, Jake had purchased their first accessories: Storage bracelets. Jake and Ophelia had reached level 5 on dismantling, and the skill shortly after evolved to [Looting]. Now they only needed to touch a deceased creature, and it would collect the valuable components in motes of light and deposit them into their storage bracelets, for only a modest mana cost. Their ability to loot creatures rapidly had propelled their pace in the dungeon, and made things a lot more enjoyable. The bracelets themselves could carry what was about a large pull-cart worth of materials, and there didn’t seem to be a weight limit. Now that they had them, his dungeon rewards were instantly deposited inside, instead of a box dropping outside his [Refuge]’s portal.

Items could enter the storage bracelet with a mere touch, and could exit in a small area of space around him where Jake wanted such as in his hand or in the air in front of him with a mere thought. Jake immediately thought to try to cheat and store a large heavy object and then drop it on creatures in the dungeon, but apparently there was some kind of rule that this would break, and doing so would absolutely be punished with simply increasing the difficulty in future dungeons for abusing this interaction.  

Jake got up from his enchanting table where he had been practicing his [Runic Etching] and [Enchanting]. It was time for his date; Jake having asked the valkyrie out on one the previous evening for today. Jake had asked the demoness if she had wanted to go on a date, and she had declined. Ultimately, he had wanted to take her on one because they hadn’t had a real one yet, for good reasons of course; they couldn’t leave the [Refuge], and they had very little funds. Still, he felt she was first, and that if anyone was going to go on one, then it should be her, he thought. She said to him, “I know that you can probably come up with an excellent date for us here in our [Refuge], but I am patient and can wait until we can truly go somewhere.

Plus, as much as I might enjoy it, Ophelia wants one even more. She has read countless stories with romance and heroes, and she wants to experience those things the most. Then, she will even have one of your firsts with you: your first real date. I had gotten your first time in the bedroom, and she would get your first romantic date, something that she will cherish going forward. Not only that, but I had gotten a lot of time alone with you before she came along, it’s time for her to get you all to herself for a while.”

Jake couldn’t argue with that line of thinking, and while he thought she was being truthful, knew that he should plan a date for her as well, later. This concession of hers was more proof to him that she was working on making this odd relationship work and was matching the actions with her words; he would just try to make sure that if her feelings were hurt that they were not left to fester for very long.

After that conversation, Jake primarily planned the date, but the demoness ironed out a few details related to the execution, as well as making herself scarce for the majority of the date, and would be sleeping in her own room that evening: whether the valkyrie and Jake sealed the deal tonight or not, it just wouldn’t feel right to go on a date with the valkyrie and then sleep with the demoness, after all.

The demoness was still doing her best to catch up in level, and she was not too far behind, the hearth helping her dramatically. What also helped was Jake hitting level 5 in [Mana Transfer], and his own core and [Mana Siphon] reaching higher levels as well, increasing the rate of infusion of heavenly energy into her. Jake was a little disturbed when one night during their usual evening activities, she received a leveling notification. Now, her favorite thing was to use leveling up as a euphemism for having sex.

The demoness aside, the valkyrie and Jake’s relationship had now progressed to one that felt similar to two horny teenagers, and Jake supposed for the valkyrie that was accurate. They would kiss between bouts of training and hold hands from time to time when practicing magic and while watching movies, and sometimes have intense make-out sessions that started involving some heavy petting over their clothes, or grinding, but things would often stop shortly after they started. Jake thought that Ophelia might be ready for the next step, and if she wasn’t ready after this date then it would be soon.

The look on her face almost mirrored Fhesiah’s when he used [Einherjar] on her in training once, her eyes hooded in desire, from the high of having such strength that he provided her. Either way, he would not pressure her, just make his desires known. Jake would do his best to make her first time special, whenever she was ready.

For their first part of their date, Jake was just dressed in a light work-out outfit; they would be doing physical activities. This was one aspect that Jake came up with to enjoy with her, and while a little odd for a date, he thought she would have a good time and should be memorable. Jake went to knock on her door, when he overheard the demoness talking; her thought-link disconnected during their private date. He also was holding a vase full of roses that he thought she would like purchased through the [Multiverse Market]. He didn’t bother with handing over a bouquet for her to put in a vase, as he knew she did not yet have a vase in her room, so he skipped a step.     

“Why, just wait until you feel his rod inside you. You’ll want to level up with him all the time after that, believe me.” Jake could actually feel Ophelia blushing, and feel the demoness completely enjoying that through her emotions carried over their bond. He heard the shy valkyrie start to reply, “I…do you think I can really get stronger, like that?” Jake decided to interrupt whatever the crazy demoness was going to tell her by knocking on the door. It was the demoness that spoke again, “There he is. Don’t worry about things so much; he’ll take care of you. He is patient, and whether you go forward or not he will understand. Just have fun, and see where things go. If it feels right, then let it happen.” Jake didn’t hear if she responded, but the door opened.

The demoness stepped out, gave a smile, wink and a wave, then headed to do whatever it was she was going to do during their date. She would be there to help during a portion of the date later. The valkyrie now stepped out of the door, and she was dressed in what was quite similar to her underclothes she wore the day they met; a sports bra and some short shorts made out of a similar material. She also had her hair braided instead of the loose ponytail that it was usually in.

Her smile was beaming, and Jake’s now matched. He held out the vase of roses for her, and she accepted the flowers and returned them to her room. She spoke, “Thank you, Jake, they’re beautiful. I’m so excited for our date…” she leaned forward and kissed Jake on his cheek. Jake gave his arm to her, to which she wrapped hers around, him escorting her to a new door that was added to their [Refuge].

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