Danmachi – Infinite Mana System

[Chapter Size: 1486 Words.]

Third Person POV

Orario, Abandoned Church.

The next day, Lucius woke up late, knowing that he had finished reading his first book until dawn, which left him mentally unstable and tired.

"It seems like I'm alone here." Looking at the empty place, he got up to make a small coffee and start his day.

While sipping hot coffee, he wondered.

"What do I do... do I just read books all day?" He struggled to find an answer.

'Maybe I should go see Mikoto; it's always good to have some guidance in swordsmanship; then, I'll return to my studies.' He answered himself internally with that.

After putting on simple clothes and getting ready, he left the church under some hidden glances and went to the Eastern Culture District; it wasn't difficult to reach Takemikazuchi's mansion after that.

"Lord Lucius, it's good to see you; you're famous now, from what I've heard." Takemikazuchi met him at the gate as I sounded the campaign.

"It's equally good to see you, God Takemikazuchi. I hope everything is well with you and your family." Lucius said with a smile.

"And what brings you here, training?" He asked with another friendly smile.

"Exactly, I would like to train my swordsmanship a bit more, if possible." Lucius said.

"Come with me; Mikoto is training with my other children in the courtyard; I admit they are quite immersed in their training..." He spoke and looked at Lucius for a while and continued.

"They have been training a lot since they returned from the dungeon weeks ago, especially after they saw your demonstration on the eighteenth floor. Mikoto is the one spending the most time in the courtyard, after realizing that her student surpassed her by a wide margin in just a month." He smiled, and that left Lucius a bit at a loss for words.

"Well, I believe my continuous training efforts in the last month have given me quite good results in the end..." He commented awkwardly.

"So I hope you improve even more, Lord Lucius. There we go." He said as we arrived in the mansion's training courtyard, at the rear of the residence.

"Lucius-Dono?"
"Lucius-Dono."
"Lucius-Dono..."

The three stopped their training when they saw me arriving with their god; everyone was talking, using Dono like equals. This left Lucius feeling strange because Mikoto spoke like that, as their relationship had always been master-student.

"Hello, everyone, Mikoto-Sensei." Lucius said to everyone, but there was extra attention on Mikoto as she was his teacher.

"What brings your presence here, Lucius-Dono?" Kashima Ouka asked with curiosity; as the family's commander, it was a natural question coming from him.

"I came to train my swordsmanship; I may be level two now, but I need to refine my art with the sword." Lucius revealed his intentions.

"I understand, so come here; I will fight with you." Mikoto led the challenge since, besides being her student, she wanted to see how his skill was.

Drawing the sword that Welf made for the first time from the sheath, Lucius noticed the katana made with intermediate-quality materials. The sword had a dark blue metal; it wasn't a legendary sword, but it was quite beautiful in Lucius's opinion, and he liked Welf's work on the blade.

So, the group began to train a lot that morning. When the period ended, Lucius said goodbye, refusing to accompany them into the dungeon as he had to study magic for the rest of the day.

In the early afternoon, as soon as Lucius had a meal, he resumed his studies in the church, focusing on his second book. He had to read at least two books a day, which was impossible at first, since in his past life, he had a limit of 50 pages in a day. Now, he was reading a few hundred of them, which surprised him a lot, but it still wasn't enough after 2 hours of reading this new book.

'At this rate, I won't be able to read all the books Riviera entrusted me with...' He grumbled internally. 'Since I can't read two books a day... even if I stop training with Mikoto, it's still quite difficult for me...'

With that in mind, he thought for a moment and opened the system shop again, looking at some spells. He saw three that could help him in his studies.

[Magic Spell/Shadow Clone/Rank 4: 30,000,000]
'As if I could afford that...' He grumbled while looking at the following spells.

[Alteration Spell/Magic Quill/Rank 2: 50,000] (Materializes a quill with infinite ink while writing any thoughts of the user. The spell lasts 1 minute.)

[Alteration Spell/Mental Focus/Rank 3: 200,000] (A spell that increases your mental focus for any task in 2 minutes.)

These are great spells to overcome the difficulty of the task Riviera gave me.

Seeing this, he could almost acquire the two low-level spells because he had 150,000 points, needing 100,000 more. He quickly searched under his bed for some bags with magic stones and was lucky to find some, giving him another 80,000 points, but he still needed a few more points.

So, with no other choice, Lucius decided to go to the dungeon, even after telling Riekling that he wouldn't, but his movement in it would be quick, believing that he could collect these points easily on the intermediate floors.

These spells were his best bet and solution to improve his learning now, so he decided to take a quick dive into the dungeon to collect these points.

Thus, without getting ready and wasting more time, Lucius went to the dungeon in simple clothes.

"Hey, look at that guy!"

"Simple clothes, this guy reminds me of the rumor of the suicidal beggar..."

"Look at his forehead, that star, he's the Hestia family's wizard!"

"So it's him, I heard he's a talented wizard."

Passing through suspicious glances, how he was dressing for the dungeon dive, Lucius had no time or desire to give explanations as always. He ran to the first floor and started his path of death and destruction to the monsters on the first floor.

It was when he was at the end of the floor that he found something he had never seen walking in the dungeon.

"A chicken? No, this is a rooster with strange colors..." Lucius stopped running to look toward the strange monster that appeared in the corridor, while it stared at him amid the silence that settled between the two.

"..."

"..."

"Isn't that a Jack Bird?!" Lucius shouted when he realized what kind of monster it was, which made the poor Jack Bird scared and start running through the corridors at high speed.

"No, you're not going to escape!" Lucius shouted as he launched a firebolt, which materialized next to him, at the animal, which was faster than the monster. The rooster was fast, but Lucius quickly cast a gravity spell to slow its movement while the fireball hit the target.

*BUFF*
"Haha! The Jack Bird became a roasted chicken," Lucius commented in silence and laughed at his own joke.

Meanwhile, a Jack Bird Golden Egg fell to the ground.

With a smile, he approached the egg and saw the system give a signal.

[Notification: You have 1 Jack Bird Golden Egg. Do you want to Convert the item into Points? 100,000 Points Each.]
[Yes] / [No]

'100 thousand points or 1 million valis, I'll go with the points, of course,' Lucius thought quickly.

'Yes'

[Notification: You Received 100,000 Points for the Item.]

With that, he returned to the surface satisfied since he obtained his points with a stroke of luck at the beginning of the dungeon without taking much time or going into deeper floors.

When he returned to the church, he bought the grimoires and read, thus beginning his total time with studies, which surprised him because the focus spell made his mind much clearer in understanding the initial foundations of magic. It also made him read three times faster than before, which pleased him greatly.

With him quickly reading the books, there was a magical quill on the table in front of him, moving on its own, writing down any thoughts and insights in his mind as he read Riviera's tomes.

When Bell and the others arrived, they found Lucius once again reading his books, but they were surprised to see a quill writing next to him while his eyes remained on the book in front of him.

With this new pace, he read three books that day, leaving him very satisfied with his new speed, and he knew he would amaze Riviera by reading all 15 books within the deadline she had given, even though she had demanded it as a minimum.

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

Raccoon here:

"Stone Stone!"

* I switched to the third person from this chapter onward, no longer using Lucius's direct POV. What do you think?