Archon of Danmachi

'So far, the Spirit's Boon has been a Mind Cycle equivalent in terms of function. Now, using all my experience of using it to further analyze all the information I gathered from observing spirits, I'll make it into a spell equivalent to Mind Veins!' Nox thought as he began meditating.

This was to be his last preparation before attacking the dungeon for two days straight. He had already invested in several potions which he had never bothered to do before and even crafted a set of multiple daggers from the drops of War Shadows.

He had imbued them with shadow magic which resonated with the drop items' own characteristics giving them some abilities. Create a longer and sharper edge made of shadows and fire said edge as a flying blade.

Nox's own Invictus spell that enhanced not only himself but also his weapons, enhanced their not so impressive power until they became the equivalent of third to second class weapons.

But now, it was time for magic. While the Mind Veins that was based on monsters and its predecessor Mind Cycle were mostly based on his body, Spirit's Boon enhanced his spirit instead and despite doing nothing for his physical abilities had a tremendous effect on his magical ones.

Nox thus deduced these two power with different origins could work together enhancing both his body and spirit making him even stronger than he already was. This combined with the the massive numbers on his basic abilities which made Nox as powerful as a relatively good Level 2 would grant him the ability to take on the middle floors alone, at least those before the Rivira safe point.

Even before he had experimented with the power of the spirits, Nox had already experienced the difference between circulating his Mind in his spirit where it originated from to doing so in his body. The latter increased his physical abilities giving rise to Mind Cycle while the latter increased the recovery speed of his Mind reserves.

Now, Nox seeked to do the very same thing he did on his body to his very spirit. To create a circulatory system that constantly guided and enhanced his Mind reserves and quality through the power of the spirit race.

After numerous attempts that came very close to knocking him out as messing with your own spirit isn't really an advisable thing to do still, drawing on all of his studies of magic, all the magical phenomenon he had observed so far, Nox finally succeeded.

Spirit Circuits: Makes the static pool of Mind in the user's spirit circulate on via created circuits. Greatly enhances the power, range, radius, control and efficiency of all magic. Constantly recovers expended Mind at a fast rate and diminishes mental exhaustion as well and recovering mental energy. Very slowly changes the user's spirit to become more like that of the spirits themselves increasing abilities beyond the falna and granting the user a spirit's powers.

'Once again, a spell that I need to only activate once and that's it. Just like Mind Veins constantly reinforces my body making it as strong as a monster's without considering my falna, Spirit Circuits reinforces my spirit to make it as strong as a spirit's.' Nox thought in regards to his new magic.

'They're both slow processes but ones that will definitely pay off big time in the future!'

After thinking this, Nox got up and equipped himself. Making sure he was all ready to go, he left the Twilight Manor and headed straight to the dungeon, no extra stops no visiting anybody. The next few days were his and his alone.

Unlike usual, Nox didn't care for the weak monsters of the upper floors and went straight to the entrance of the middle floors and entered. Psyching himself up for what was to come he started to warm up of the floors he already had experienced to ready himself for advancing further beyond.

But just as he was bullying a group of Hellhounds while testing the powers conferred by his new magic, something unexpected happened. Nox Was currently staring at the last remaining Hellhound of the group he just slaughtered . . . And it was lying down on the dungeon floor in submission making Nox stop in his tracks.

'Did I just tame a monster!?'  He asked himself in his mind, filled with surprise.

Nox then started to think what he should do about this and after deliberating for a while, he decided to bring it with him on his little expedition but first, he had to make it a little stronger so that it would survive. As such Nox began feeding the Hellhound with magic stones.

He had never bothered to exchange any of them before so he had a but ton of them. As he fed the monster, Nox also felt a growing connection between him and the monster and even though he had no proof, he knew he could command the Hellhound with his thoughts and the beast would understand him just like he could now sort of understand it.

Nox took his newly acquired companion on a tour of the thirteenth and fourteenth floors. As he fed it more and more magic stones, it began to grow bigger, enough for Nox to easily use it as a mount, its fur became darker as its eyes gained a more flame like color rather than the usual red. Both its physical and magical abilities had also taken a big step.

Now more sure of his new companion's strength and usefulness, Nox charged onwards to the fifthteenth floor. From now on, two new types of monsters would appear, Minotaurs, cow headed humanoid monsters and Lygerfangs, tiger monsters. Both of them and great physical ability but lacked ranged attacks but Hellhounds were still around in these floors to cover for that.

Fighting a herd of Minotaurs, Nox praised himself for developing Spirit Circuits before coming here. Not only was the enhanced power of his magic absolutely necessary to handle the cow monsters, without the enhanced Mind recovery rate he would have had to retreat long ago.

Even so, he had already be hit by glancing blows from the monsters several times and his mind often reached dangerously low levels. Even with the help of his new companion things were looking quite grim but Nox didn't have the slightest intention of giving up.

Using Invictus to enhance himself as he utilized his superior speed to outmaneuver the Minotaurs as he delivered powerful magic enhanced slashes and pierces. His Hellhound had expanded its magical abilities seeing Nox fight and feeling his power in use through their connection, making it far more useful than before.

As it ran, it covered itself in an aura of burning ash that also enhanced its physical abilities and it now could fire barrages of explosives bolts of fire from its mouth but even with the Hellhound's assistance, Nox was starting to get overwhelmed, mostly due to the lack of long enough pauses in between his battles.

Nox and Ash, the Hellhound who had received its name with pride after repeatedly helping Nox now stood facing their third herd of Minotaurs. The occasional Hellhounds were no problem, in fact, as if insulted by their very existence, Ash ripped them apart with extreme prejudice as soon as he detected any. Lygerfangs which didn't make very large groups were also not that difficult to dealt with despite still posing a good challenge.

No, the problem was the Minotaurs. Not only were they strong individually at least to Nox but they also tended to herd together which made it complicated to take them down. They were quite manageable if they were in groups of five or six at maximum but sometimes herds of dozens appeared. Already quite tired from previous battles, Nox called for a retreat.

He activated Enflame while Ash howled using its own area of effect attack that spread his burning ash aura in an explosion around it. Gaining a small reprieve from the onslaught, the pair retreated while bombarding the pursuers with Arcane Missile Storm and Firebolt Storm.

As he rested for a bit with Ash by his side, Nox pondered on his little expedition.

'This is my first true adventure! I can feel the danger, the uncertainty! I don't know how this is going to go and I'm okay with that. I can't hold the excitement! This is what it's all about!' He thought as he petted his new and utterly loyal companion who enjoyed his care.

"Come on Ash! Time to keep going." Nox said out loud as he got up from his seat on a stone.

It was time for the adventure to continue . . .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.