NOVEL NEXT Chapter 707: Lv.8
"Hehe, you're here, Reiger!"
When Reiger walked into Loki's Divine Room, he saw the unreliable main god slouched on a chair, holding a bottle and drinking from it, already a bit drunk.
"...You're actually drinking now?"
Looking at Loki in this state, Reiger was somewhat speechless.
"Ah! I'm just happy!" Loki chuckled and said, "Finn and the others have all leveled up to Lv.7! Three of them! Three!"
"Orario only has one, and there are only two Lv.7s in the entire world, but now my clan suddenly has three. How can I not have a drink to celebrate?"
"Theona and the others have also leveled up to Lv.6. Even Raul and Angel have leveled up to Lv.5. Our clan has ten first-level adventurers! Ten of them!"
"If we get one more, our clan can match the Ganisa Clan, hahaha!"
Loki was extremely proud, laughing in a strange way that made people want to keep their distance.
"Theona just said the same thing." Reiger could only smile wryly and say, "By the way, although the Ganisa Clan has eleven first-level adventurers, not all of them are Lv.5, and none are Lv.6, right?"
"In terms of quality, our clan is much better than the Ganisa Clan, so there's no need to compete in numbers, right?"
To Reiger's remarks, Loki was quite dismissive.
"You have to know, Reiger, whether it's humans or gods, they're good at using their strengths to attack others' weaknesses."
"When you're good in quality, others want to compare quantities with you."
"When you have more numbers, they want to talk quality with you."
"That guy Kanisa is swaggering around the city with sheer numbers, even being considered not losing out to me or that lovesick person. I've been unhappy with that for a long time."
"Hmph, now let's see who dares to compete with us. Even without counting you, our clan is veritably the strongest in the city!"
Loki continued babbling, making Reiger shrug his shoulders.
"I remember Kanisa seems to be a good guy. Not only does he consider the citizens, but he also makes his clan cooperate with the guild to become the city's security force. Why does he sound so awful coming from you?"
With that said, Reiger sat down in front of Loki.
"What are you doing? Speaking up for Kanisa?" Loki immediately showed dissatisfaction, yelling, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm your main god, okay? If you're casually nice to other men (male gods), even I would get jealous!"
"...Where did you get that from?" Reiger spoke speechlessly, "I just meant to say, you're drunk."
"It's nothing!" Loki pouted and said, "Fine, no more of that talk. It's more important to update your ability values."
"By the way, can't you update your own ability values? Why come here for me to do it?"
Loki put down the bottle with one hand and picked up the needle placed next to her, nodding at Reiger.
"I can update them myself, but isn't this going with the flow?" Reiger turned around and took off his shirt, saying, "I feel like I'm just about ready. Everyone else feels the same way. I guess we can all level up this time. Since that's the case, I'm not in a rush and thought I'd wait for everyone to come together."
"You just don't understand how to appreciate me, your main god." Loki kept mumbling, "I've already updated the ability values for over thirty people since this morning. My fingers are almost worn out."
At this point, Loki laughed again.
"Luckily, my intuition was correct. It's a huge harvest this time; all of you have leveled up. Those who didn't level up either discovered new magic or skills, or their ability parameters increased significantly. I was thrilled watching it all."
"Are you sure you can level up?"
"Of course! Our clan finally has an Lv.8!"
While talking, Loki had already pricked her finger, squeezed out the divine blood, and smeared it on Reiger's back, unlocking the seal and updating the ability values, making the Holy Text that formed the divine blessing float up.
Shortly after, the Holy Text imprinted on Reiger's back began to flicker like a magic lantern, making Loki's eyes widen.
"Awesome! Reiger Lv.8...mmph mmph mmph...!"
Loki jumped up, about to let out a loud strange cry, much like she did when Finn and the others leveled up, to notify everyone, but Reiger quickly covered her mouth.
"What are you doing?" Reiger almost rolled his eyes, saying with extreme annoyance, "My true level can't be seen yet. You're the one who reminded me. Now why do you seem like you want the whole world to know?"
"Pft!" Loki immediately broke free from Reiger's hand, grinning without a hint of remorse, "Sorry, sorry, I was so excited I almost forgot about that."
"But...hahahaha! Kid, you're really something! You leveled up to Lv.8 earlier than that lovesick one's nurtured pigs! I'm absolutely in love with you, Reiger!"
Loki pounced on Reiger, actually puckering her lips, looking like she wanted to shower Reiger with kisses.
"Forget it." Reiger quickly blocked Loki's exaggeratedly puckered lips, holding back the urge to knock this annoying deity to the ground, saying, "So, my feeling was correct, I can indeed level up, right?"
"Yes! Congratulations on becoming the first follower to catch up with male god (Zeus) and female god (Hera)!" Loki danced with joy, "Haha! How can Frey compare with me now?"
"Okay, enough boasting. Let's continue." Reiger smiled wryly again, saying, "It's not finished yet, right?"
"Just the last step left!" Loki returned to Reiger's back, saying, "This time only one development ability appeared, so I picked for you!"
This surprised Reiger a bit.
"Only one development ability?"
This was the first time Reiger encountered such a situation.
In the past, every time Reiger leveled up, he could learn several development abilities, sometimes as many as a dozen, allowing for plenty of choices.
This time there was only one, truly a first.
Loki wasn't surprised at all.
"You know some development abilities don't appear every time, right?" Loki said, "Maybe, at your level, the development abilities you could learn before won't appear anymore."
Reiger suddenly understood.
Just like the "Hunter" development ability, which can only be learned when leveling up to Lv.2. If it's not chosen when reaching Lv.2, it won't appear in future upgrades.
The principle is, Reiger repeatedly refused to learn some more common development abilities, which means that after reaching a certain level, these development abilities will no longer manifest.
Moreover, after reaching Lv.8, the development abilities that can be learned indeed might become fewer.
"No wonder someone like Ota, after reaching Lv.7, only learned five development abilities in the end."
For an adventurer at Lv.7, if they discover development abilities with every level up, they should be able to learn six development abilities.
It's the same for Reiger, who has "Lightweight", "Swordsman", "Magic Guide", "Warfare", "Quick Attack", and "Magic Chanting"—a total of six development abilities.
Ota, on the other hand, only has five, proving that he didn't learn a development ability at some level up.
Counting this way, Reiger discovers new development abilities with every level up, and each one is so rare, it is already very fortunate.
"Here, for you, check it yourself."
After updating the ability values, Loki handed the parchment to Reiger.
Reiger took it and looked at it.
......
Reiger Brillhaut
Lv.8
Strength: I0
Endurance: I0
Dexterity: I0
Agility: I0
Magic Power: I0
Lightweight: A
Swordsman: B
Magic Guide: C
Warfare: C
Quick Attack: D
Magic Chanting: F
Unrestrained: I
......
"'Unrestrained'?"
Seeing this newly acquired development ability, Reiger blinked.
"What kind of effect does this development ability have?"
Although Loki did not directly provide an answer to this question, relying on his divine senses, he conveyed his thoughts to Reiger.
"This could be a development ability that only comes into play under special circumstances?"
Loki took the wine bottle again, gulped down a mouthful, then exhaled a breath of wine vapor and said to Reiger with blushing cheeks.
"Kid, don't you often encounter situations where you can't exert your full strength?"
Being told this by Loki, Reiger first thought of his encounters in the Fairy Country's British Lostbelt and the Akasha Continent.
In the Fairy Country's British Lostbelt, Reiger was once imprisoned by Morgan in the Sole Court, incapacitating his magic abilities, and he was under the strange restrictions of the "Stake" contract.
On the Akasha Continent, whether Reiger broke into the castle of the City Lord of Sin Yeleir or the King's Hall of the palace, he was locked by magic barriers targeting magicians, incapacitating his magic abilities.
This made Reiger rely solely on pure close combat to win, which he regarded as potentially far beyond his close combat ability while his magic ability was almost useless.
"Could it be..."
Reiger thought of a possibility, his eyes lit up.
"Did you guess?" Loki grinned and said, "Perhaps it's because you repeatedly encountered such situations, just like those who have suffered from abnormal status, like poison, may learn the 'Abnormal Resistance' development ability; the development ability you acquired this time belongs to the type that affects such situations."
"I reckon, if you encounter that kind of situation again, not only will you not be restricted anymore, but you will also greatly enhance your ability values, magic, and skill effects at the moment of breaking free from the restrictions."
"In the future, the only thing that can restrict you may be yourself."
This is undoubtedly a rare ability, a development ability type that no one has ever discovered before.
Of course, Loki was no longer surprised by such things.
This kid, he didn't know how many rare abilities and skills he had, and even his magic had two types that she had never heard of before. Now, with one more undiscovered development ability, Loki wouldn't be shocked anymore.
It's just...
"This kid actually awakened that kind of magic. I really don't know why..."
Thinking of the last magic in the three magic slots engraved on Reiger's back, even Loki couldn't help but take a deep look at Reiger.
If this kid wasn't truly her child, she'd probably have lost control by now, right?
Unaware of Loki's thoughts at the moment, Reiger still felt delighted.
He couldn't be more satisfied with this new development ability.