Gacha Leveling

Chapter 193: Chapter 54 – The Harp of Dagda 2

"You never learn." Vanessa admonished Matthew over the phone. "You’re barely back and already dealing with him again?!" She shouted at him, talking about Claudio.

"I’m sorry. He didn’t leave us much of a choice." Matthew gave a nervous laugh.

"Send me your hotel. I’m going to you." Vanessa sighed.

"You really don’t need to."

"Apearently I do." She was clearly angry.

"Alright then. What about Eric?" Matthew asked.

"Katia has school, we can’t just leave her here alone. He’s staying. Be sure to buy a nice gift for her." Vanessa said, while moving around.

"I will. I saw some animal plushies I think she’ll like." Matthew said with a smile.

"I’ll write the contract and be on my way first thing tomorrow morning." Vanessa sighed. "Be careful, kid."

"Don’t worry. I’m much stronger than I used to be."

"You can’t rely on strength alone." She warned him.

"I know. But that’s why I have you." Matthew tried to ease her mood with a joke.

"Go fuck yourself." Vanessa told him with a tired voice, but holding a chuckle. "Anyway. Good night, kid. See you tomorrow."

"Good night." Matthew turned off his phone and laid on the hotel bed.

"Told you she’d be pissed." Ffyr laughed while playing a game on her phone.

"I knew she would." Despite being admonished, Matthew had a smile on his face. He had good memories of adventuring with Vanessa and was eager to see her again.

In the next morning, when everyone was having breakfast at the hotel they were in, Claudio arrived with an elven woman close by him. The same attendant of his Matthew saw years ago.

He sat down with them and spread out a map on the table between the sausages and the eggs.

"This is the map of the dungeon." Claudio said and pointed out every piece of information he had.

"I think we searched from here to here." Paula pointed to the map. "We found nothing."

"I asked my men to search for legends of the harp and for sightings of the Paimon Cult." Claudio informed them. "They still haven’t got back to me. But apparently there’s very little information on the old Irish gods."

"And what about the cult?" Tylith asked.

"They’re also hard to find. But nothing my men can’t handle." Claudio said proudly.

"So what’s the plan for today?" Michael asked, eating a toast.

"I wish to see the dungeon with my own eyes." Claudio said. "Perhaps I can see something you all are missing." He rubbed his chin. "Or we can rely on the Fae’s intuition again?" He looked at Ffyr who was stuffing her face with cake.

"We can’t." Matthew shook his head. "Mommy had given her the power to navigate in the Labyrinth, but she took it away." He explained.

Paula and Michael laughed.

"I had forgotten about that!" Ffyr laughed as well.

Even Claudio chuckled at that.

"Who is mommy?" Tylith asked with a sly smile on her face.

"Mommy... Fuck." Matthew cursed, he couldn’t even call her by other names.

"Titania forced him to call him mommy." Paula explained.

"Titania?" Tylith didn’t know the name.

"The queen of the Fae. Ruler of the Chaos realm." Claudio added. "Don’t you have this knowledge in hell?"

"We do not. We only know about hell itself." Tylith answered empty-mindedly and then realized they never told Claudio she was a demon.

"It’s alright." Claudio smiled at her after noticing her look. "You wouldn’t be able to hide it from me anyway." He laughed softly. "I’m also eager to learn a lot about the hells with you."

Michael put himself in between the two and gave a murderous look towards Claudio.

"You won’t have the chance." He defended the demoness.

Tylith almost reacted to Michael’s protectiveness. A part of it reminded her how Vine always tried to control her. But she knew it came out of concern and not possession, therefore she allowed it.

Claudio just smiled creeply at him.

After eating, they went to the dungeon again. Moving about and defeating monsters. Claudio examined every part of it, always fidgeting with his glasses. He was meticulous, writing every thought he had in his notepad.

"You have Identify on those, don’t you?" Matthew asked, about the man’s glasses.

"Among other things." He smiled at him, straightening his back after being bent over for a long time examining a flower. "They’re not even prescription. I have perfect eyesight." He bragged.

Matthew then used Identify on Claudio.

"Claudio Antares– Level 40

Worker (T1) – Level 5

Mage (T1) – Level 5

Wizard (T2) – Level 5

Blacksmith (T2) – Level 2

Carpenter (T2) – Level 2

Mason (T2) – Level 2

Tailor (T2) – Level 2

Gemcutter (T2) – Level 2

Enchanter (T3) – Level 10

Tautomancer (T3) – Level 5"

"Like what you see?" Claudio joked with him. "Quite a good build, isn’t it?"

"It’s perfect for a craftsman." Matthew praised him reluctantly.

"I can’t believe you are almost at my level." Claudio commented. "You had a tough time in hell, haven’t you kid?"

"I did. But most of my levels I got fighting that Bashmu you left for us to fight alone." Matthew accused him.

"Then I made the right choice." Claudio fixed his tie. "You said yourself. I’m a craftsman. Even if I know some spells, I suck at fighting." He created a magic missile on his hand and Matthew could see how he did not have the same skill as Mia or Tina with it.

"Do you think I could’ve helped you?" He smiled.

"If you weren’t a coward." Matthew accused him again.

Claudio laughed and kept walking.

"Everything is the same." Tylith complained shortly after Claudio walked ahead.

"The dungeon? Yes. It all looks the same." Matthew replied.

"No. I mean assholes." She pointed at Claudio.

Matthew laughed.

"I thought humans were different. But it seems you and your friends are the different ones." She added.

Matthew looked at her surprised.

"I think I understand why there is a heaven and hell. People like you don’t deserve to be with people like us." Tylith had a sad smile.

"Are you ok?" Matthew asked, legitimately concerned.

"I am. I’m just overthinking things." She dismissed his concerns and kept walking. freewebnovel.cσ๓

After a while, they entered a burial mound that wasn’t mapped on Claudio’s documents.

"I really should have done this myself before." He thought out loud while angrily making notes on the map. "I’ll fire someone."

"Another empty one." Paula noted. "I’m seeing a pattern here."

"An empty graveyard." Claudio agreed with her.

"It will take forever to search all of them." Michael sighed.

"And odds are that all of them will be empty." Claudio added. "If the harp is in the dungeon, I don’t think it is in one of the burial mounds. We need another approach."

"What do you suggest?" Matthew asked, leaning against a wall.

"We call someone we can ask about this dungeon." Claudio said.

"Who?" Michael pondered.

"Well, if Dagda is the king of the Air realm, I bet his subjects might know more about his story." Claudio dusted his pants after getting up from kneeling near a crack on the wall to investigate.

"You want to summon an air spirit." Matthew concluded.

"Favorably a powerful one." Claudio said. "You can do it, can’t you?"

"I need to remember the circle for the air realm, but yes." Matthew said.

"Then let’s get out and prepare. I’m tired." Claudio said, crawling out of the mound.

It wasn’t even noon when they got out of the dungeon. Claudio got inside a fancy car his elven aide was driving and went to his hotel, while Matthew and the others went to theirs.

Upon arriving, Matthew recognized Vanessa’s bike parked in front of it.

She was inside talking to the receptionist. Her black and light blue helmet was sitting on the desk. She was wearing black leather pants reinforced with metal plates, a black biker jacket with light blue stripes reinforced the same way, and a gray rock band t-shirt.

Tied around her thighs, he had dozens of knives. A pair of long daggers hung from her brown leather belt and, holstered around her shoulders, inside her jacket, she had a pair of silver guns.

When Vanessa saw them coming inside the hotel, she cocked her head confused.

"You’re early." She said surprised.

"Claudio got tired." Michael said as an insult.

"But he had a good idea. I need to study a little, though." Matthew added.

Vanessa patted his head when he got closer.

"Nice to see you, kid." She said with a smile. free𝑤ebnovel.com

"You too." He smiled.

He felt the need to hug her, but she wasn’t the hugging type and then refrained from doing so.

"What do you need to study?" Vanessa asked.

"How to summon an air spirit." Matthew said.

"Why?" She asked, rubbing her chin.

Then they explained Claudio’s plan and she nodded in agreement.

"Beats searching for the cult." Vanessa commented.

After lunch, Matthew went back to his room and sent a message to professor Lydia asking about air spirits and which was best for him to summon for what he wanted to know.

She sent him a pile of documents for him to study.

"When are you coming back to the academy? You’re not done with your training." She asked via text after sending the files.

"I didn’t realize I was still considered a student." Matthew replied.

"You are. Come in whenever you like. Your ID still works." Lydia was succinct. "Be careful with the air spirits, Matthew. Hope to see you soon." She added clearly ending their conversation.

Matthew sighed and opened the files. He had a lot to study.