Ever since that day—hot pot instantly swept through all of Orario.
Every day, the line at the Hostess of Fertility stretched past one thousand people, to the point that they had no choice but to start limiting customers.
Although Rayleigh had been the one to trigger this storm, he paid no attention to that side of things, because every day, he was undergoing Alfia's training.
For the past several months, Rayleigh had been living a life so dark it practically shut out the sky.
On this day, he was finally able to last more than three minutes under Alfia's hands, and he had even managed a few counterattacks.
Although only one or two of them could really be counted as effective, being able to do even that much against a serious Alfia could already be considered nothing short of a miracle.
He could feel that he had grown stronger, but he still could not feel the vessel being filled.
That day, he went to Hephaestus to have his Status updated.
The result was—
Strength: S999
Endurance: S999
Dexterity: S999
Agility: SS1090
Magic: SSS1409
Aside from Magic, almost all of his abilities had shown virtually no improvement at all!
Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity still had not broken past the boundary, while Agility had only risen by 2!
As a Shinigami, even without training, his Reiatsu would continue to increase, as long as he had not yet reached the limit of his spiritual body, his Magic stat could still rise.
Because a Shinigami's body was essentially a soul, the stronger the Reiatsu, the stronger the spiritual body became.
At first glance, his ability values seemed to be S999, but under the effect of his SSS-rank Magic, the strength of his spiritual body had actually already far surpassed that number.
A dwarf warrior's 999 Endurance and an Elf's 999 Endurance were not the same concept at all.
Ability values were an important standard for measuring an adventurer's strength, but they were not absolute.
Now, even if he did not defend himself, attacks from a Level 3 would not be able to injure him; even a peak dwarf could not do that.
To this world, a Shinigami was basically a pure six-sided warrior.
If this were a game, then for a player, raising numbers could be said to be the most pleasurable moment, which was precisely why it was so addictive.
But in reality, effort did not necessarily bring rewards.
That was also one of the reasons some people thought reality was a trash game.
After updating his Status several times and still seeing no progress, Rayleigh's mentality had also been subtly affected.
"Normally speaking, compared to proficiency, the difficult part is the great feat. A case like yours is actually very rare," Alfia commented on Rayleigh. "Especially since your ability values have actually broken past the boundary of S, yet you don't have the corresponding aptitude. That's why your progress is so slow."
'Got it.'
In other words, he originally did not possess the aptitude to break past the limit, but because of other factors he had happened to achieve it.
However, because his basic growth potential was not high, the increase in his ability values was extremely slow.
If one really had to say it, he should have gotten stuck at the bottleneck a long time ago.
The only reason he could still improve was probably thanks to the Excelia provided by his Zanpakutō.
With more than ten Zanpakutō, the Excelia he gained had increased by over one hundred percent on top of the base amount.
If not for that, then even if he could break the limit, he probably would have stopped at 1001.
"Go on an adventure."
'Hm?'
"In the course of adventure, the things you don't understand will naturally become clear."
After hearing Alfia's words, Rayleigh temporarily paused his training with her, wanting to change his mood a little.
Adventure.
Did she mean that he should go challenge the Dungeon?
With his strength as a peak Level 3, only having reached the 26th Floor really was a bit underwhelming.
For veteran adventurers who had stayed at Level 3 for quite a long time, they would usually push past the 30th Floor.
As for him, his leveling speed had been too fast, so he was a special case.
....
'Hm? Speaking of which—would i gain anything if i talked with someone who had similar troubles?'
Rayleigh first thought of Alfia, but after only one second, he gave up on that idea.
He felt like he would just get beaten down until not even his body was left intact.
"Rayleigh!"
'Hm?'
As Rayleigh was walking through the street, someone suddenly called out his name.
He turned around and saw that it was a member from the Hephaestus Familia, a human smith named Gulliver.
"Gulliver, what's wrong?" Seeing how urgent the other man looked, Rayleigh asked.
"Hah... hah..." Gulliver panted a few times. "Lady Hephaestus is looking for you. Hah... I went to your house, but couldn't find you. Hah..."
"I see. Thanks for your hard work." Rayleigh patted the man on the shoulder and thanked him.
Hephaestus... did something urgent happen?
He thought about it as he walked, but still could not arrive at any conclusion.
Soon, Rayleigh came before the Goddess.
"Hephaestus, you were looking for me?"
"Mm, so you're here."
The Goddess frowned slightly and said to Rayleigh, "Come with me."
Rayleigh did not ask anything else, and only silently followed behind his Goddess.
The two of them arrived at the Guild.
There, Hephaestus said something to a Guild employee, and then the two of them were led to a special place, where a hidden door was opened.
"This is...?" Rayleigh's eyes widened slightly.
At this point, he suddenly understood where they were about to go.
This path—was probably a hidden passage leading to the room of the old God Ouranos.
Although he had already guessed it, he still kept silent and matched his pace to Hephaestus'.
The long corridor was built from stacked stone bricks, while fire sources on the walls provided light.
The Guild employee did not continue leading them, and instead let only Hephaestus and him enter.
There were no forks in the path here.
After walking straight ahead for some time, Rayleigh saw a stronger light source.
After stepping out of the narrow corridor, they entered a vast underground space, as wide as a plaza.
And at the center of the area stood a high seat.
Upon it sat a God.
'So that was the old God Ouranos.'
Rayleigh glanced at him twice, then withdrew his gaze.
"So you have come." The old God's voice echoed through the underground space.
Hephaestus answered with a quiet "Mm."
It was not that she had any particular dissatisfaction with Ouranos, she was simply serious, that was all.
"Then, has the matter already been explained to Yotosai?"
"Not yet."
"Mm. Since you have decided to take responsibility for that child with special talent, then this matter indeed ought to be handled by your side. I will issue a special permit..."
'Hm?'
Rayleigh was completely confused by what he was hearing.
He looked toward his Goddess.
At that moment, Hephaestus also looked at him and said with a solemn expression, "Listen to me, Rayleigh. There is a mission and it may be dangerous. You can choose to go, or refuse."
Before she had even finished, she quickly added another sentence.
"Of course, if you don't want to, that's fine too. This mission carries considerable risk. To be honest, I don't want you to go."
Just as Hephaestus finished saying that, Ouranos suddenly spoke.
"But he is the most suitable candidate, isn't he, Hephaestus?"
'Tch.'
Hephaestus showed that kind of disgusted expression, which made Rayleigh find it rather novel.
It gave him the strange feeling of seeing a beautiful girl wear a disgusted face at you!
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