Chapter 96: New Magic!
"My head is spinning."
Early in the morning, Torajirou Shiro woke from unconsciousness.
But he did not feel as if he had rested at all.
Instead, it felt like he had fought fiercely for several days and nights.
His entire body was unusually exhausted, and his head kept aching as if needles were stabbing into it.
Shiro had heard about this condition from Riveria before.
It was a symptom caused by mental fatigue.
He shook his head and let out a bitter smile.
He never expected that he would actually get the chance to experience mental fatigue in this life.
It seemed awakening magic through a grimoire was not something that simply appeared out of thin air.
The reason he had fainted yesterday was probably because the grimoire had mobilized all the mental energy inside his body to awaken his magic.
Thinking of this, Shiro could not help feeling a trace of anticipation toward his new magic.
He walked through the corridors of Twilight Manor and pushed open Loki's door.
Unlike usual, Loki was already sitting on a chair early in the morning, flipping through a book.
However, judging from her constantly shaking leg, she was clearly unable to calm down either.
"Yo! You're finally here, brat."
Hearing movement at the door, Loki looked excited.
She immediately gave up the chair and knocked on its back, signaling for him to sit there.
As Shiro sat down, she continued.
"Your bet with Freya is this afternoon, right?"
"Mm. I'll be troubling you then."
Shiro currently did not possess any energy similar to divine power, so naturally, he could not sign a divine power contract with Freya.
To ensure neither side could go back on their word, he had to bring a god with him to sign the contract in his place.
But that led to a problem.
The contract would not be signed by Shiro himself.
If he won, that would be fine, since according to the contract's rules, Freya would be unable to resist.
But if he lost and then shamelessly refused to obey the contract, the one punished would not be Shiro.
It would be the god who signed the contract in his place.
In other words, without an extremely high level of trust, no god would ever sign this kind of contract that was practically selling themselves for a mere adventurer.
"Ha, I can't wait to see Freya's face twist."
Loki did not care at all about the contract.
In any case, she had already signed two of them.
Compared to that, she was more looking forward to what kind of expression would appear beneath Freya's mask once her pride was completely crushed.
Why had Loki caused a major incident like Ragnarok back in heaven?
Wasn't it because she wanted to see things like that?
Just thinking about a god who was always brimming with confidence being beaten down until they showed an ugly, miserable expression made her so excited she could hardly stand it.
"First, let me see your new magic."
After Shiro removed his clothes, Loki updated his status on his back.
"Whoa, that's seriously exaggerated."
After seeing Shiro's newest magic, she imitated the exaggerated tone of those bards and handed him the parchment imprinted with his status.
[Torajirou Shiro]
[Lv.4]
[Strength: I0 → S999]
[Endurance: I0 → S990]
[Dexterity: I0 → SS1060]
[Agility: I0 → SS1080]
[Magic: I0 → SSS1120]
[Hunter: F]
[Abnormal Resistance: H]
[Magic Resistance: I]
Magic: [Device] [Unbound] [ ]
Skills: [Desperado] [Celestial Star Spirit's Protection] [Intuition] [Companion's Bond]
As expected, a new spell had appeared in his magic column.
[Unbound]
・No-chant magic.
・Enchantment magic.
・Continuously consumes Mind to enter the Unbound state. While the skill is active, temporarily gains the Development Ability Diving and the ability to fly. Flight speed increases according to Agility.
・While in the Unbound state, Mind consumption is doubled, and divine-level Abnormal Resistance is gained.
"Your great feat value is enough too. Although your status can still increase, how about leveling up directly to give Freya a little surprise?"
While Shiro was thinking about the effect of the skill, Loki's voice reached his ears.
When Shiro made the bet with Freya, he had been Level 3.
If he chose to level up now, Shiro would attend the appointment as a Level 5.
The Norse god of lies and trickery was preparing to use herself as bait and perform an unprecedented prank on the Goddess of Beauty.
Shiro nodded.
"Then level me up."
"This time, your Development Ability options are Mage and Spirit Healing. Which one do you want?"
"Mage."
"Got it."
Mage's effect was to increase his magic's power, while Spirit Healing increased the recovery speed of his Mind.
Neither of them actually meant much to Shiro.
But considering that he might learn other magic in the future, he chose Mage.
A flash of light passed.
After nearly three months, Torajirou Shiro finally became a First-Class Adventurer.
...
Folkvangr.
This was the headquarters of the Freya Familia.
It had a beautiful field where white and yellow flowers bloomed.
On the hill in the center stood a palace.
Although it was clearly located in the middle of the city, the scenery here made one feel as if they had stepped into a paradise beyond the world.
Normally, countless members would be slaughtering each other on the field in order to win Goddess Freya's love.
But at this moment, all of those members were gathered inside a spacious hall.
"Hey! Ottar, do we really need this many people to take on that bastard?"
The speaker was Allen Fromel.
He was a Level 6 adventurer of the Freya Familia, known as [Vana Freya].
At this moment, he was expressing his dissatisfaction toward Ottar for stopping the Familia members from killing each other.
"I cannot defeat him."
The dull martial artist expressed the enemy's strength in the simplest, clearest way.
In Orario, Ottar was praised as the [Strongest].
Even if every member of the Freya Familia fought him together, they still could not defeat him alone.
Yet at this moment, he said that an enemy even he could not defeat was coming to take away their goddess.
If it had been any other time, Ottar would surely have grown excited after encountering such an opponent.
He would have risked everything to chase after that person's back.
But this time alone, that was not allowed.
Ottar's earliest memory was the smell of rust.
In a lonely alley, the hunger in his empty stomach had surpassed his body's limits.
The young him could not even understand that the reason his body was growing colder was [loneliness].
He had neither name nor surname.
He was merely an abandoned infant.
A wandering ghost.
At the moment his consciousness became hazy, a beautiful woman picked him up.
In that instant, he was given a name and a reason to live.
"Your name will be Ottar."
The goddess's words echoed beside his ears.
That was why, in order to repay the goddess, he became a warrior.
He desperately climbed to Level 7 and became known as Orario's strongest.
But this time, he could not defeat the enemy.
So for the sake of his goddess, Orario's strongest lowered his head for the first time.
"Please defeat him together with me."
His words were naturally met with ridicule from his companions.
"So you really have become useless, Boaz. After we defeat that bastard, we'll eat this delicious Excelia of yours too."
At that moment, a woman's voice sounded inside the hall.
"You've grown up too, Boaz boy."
"How are you..."
Ottar looked at the newcomer in shock.
"That goddess came to my tavern and made a huge fuss asking me to help. Honestly, I don't even know what my tavern looks like right now."
The woman sighed.
"But this is the last time I'll help her."
The woman's appearance drew the attention of the Familia members.
She walked on her own to the very center of the hall.
Her gaze swept across everyone present.
Every person she looked at felt pressure as heavy as a mountain.
If Shiro were present, he would definitely recognize her.
This person was Mia Grand, who had disappeared for a long time.
Mia's gaze finally stopped on Ottar.
She looked at him with satisfaction.
"The person you need to chase has appeared."
"But before that, in order to protect your goddess, defeat him together."
With the return of their former captain as the trigger, the Freya Familia united.
They prepared to welcome the enemy who would soon come knocking.
…
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