Free Web NovelChapter 199: Chapter 198 - Negotiations
Point-of-View: Zoraiz Rafayet
———————————————————————————
"Uh, I don’t know about this, you two...it’s a pretty risky thing to do," Remarked Inoka with a conflicted look on his face.
"That’s fine by me. As things stand, I’m just a burden against the especially powerful enemies," I responded firmly.
"Same here. And besides, you’ve done it to yourself, so what’s the problem?" Added Alexis with a frown.
"That’s different. Plus, I’ve been doing so slowly, methodically and carefully, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. And yeah, I’ve managed to fix those mistakes pretty easily, but that’s only because I can use my powers on myself anytime. Sometimes, I don’t realize that I’ve made a mistake until days, or even weeks, later," He pointed out, in an effort to dissuade us.
Today’s the 26th of September, a couple of days after the fight against the Aqua Dragon Deity. Since then, the number of casualties incurred had begun to slow down, though some of the Deities were still being as aggressive in their Monster exterminations as they were before.
It should be over soon though...the number of remaining Monsters around the world is just a few thousand now, another day or two is all it should take for them to be dealt with.
And while the large number of Monsters are being hunted down, no new Monsters have appeared at all, with the present Monsters still remaining in the living world even after being killed.
The UN declared that their corpses should be burned, to avoid any epidemics that might result from decaying Monster corpses. So far, everything’s slowly but surely starting to get less hectic.
However, while things should settle down for a while after the Monsters are fully dealt with, it won’t stay that way for long. The Deities won’t go back to sleep for a few decades at the very least, and Chaos is still working with Hell, it may only be a matter of time before a bridge between the living world and Hell is opened.
When that happens, it’s likely that Heaven will also intervene, and it won’t be pretty. Death and destruction will be widespread to an extent we’ve never seen before.
After all, when Demons are summoned to the living world, half their power is suppressed, redirected to the purpose of maintaining their presence in this world that they don’t belong in, everything from their Auras to their physical strength and speed are halved.
But if a bridge is opened, connecting Hell and the living world, they won’t need to bother with that, meaning that they’ll be twice as powerful as we’ve faced.
As things stand, Aurora, the Deities, and maybe Fenris if he learns to control that Crimson Werewolf form of his, will be the only ones who can put up a fight against them. Well, Heaven too, but it’s possible that the Angels will be like the Deities, in that they won’t worry about human casualties while fighting the Demons.
So we all need to get a lot stronger than we are right now. And training alone isn’t going to be enough. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
I’d spoken about it with Alexis, who agreed with me. And so, we paid Inoka a visit, who was currently helping Kiyana with improving her Light Skill.
"I’m confused, hasn’t Inoka already improved your physical conditions?" She remarked curiously.
"Yeah, that was pretty minimal though, basically just fine-tuning. I barely did anything to Aurora and Fenris, they were both more or less in peak condition, plus their physiologies are a bit different to ours, so I figured it’d be detrimental to tinker with their bodies too much.
Theoretically, I could boost a person’s capabilities to superhuman levels, but it’s just too risky. I’ve tinkered with my own body a lot, stuff like joint flexibility, skin durability, bone density, muscle elasticity, basic strength, etcetera, but not to any drastic extent, nothing too far beyond what’d be naturally possible, because my body simply wouldn’t be able to sustain it.
Case in point, I did recently boost my eyesight fat beyond that limit, during Aurora’s fight against Vapora, but the overload of information captured by my vision nearly fried my brain," Explained Inoka in response, before turning to us, "I’ve already boosted both your bodies to the maximum natural extent, anything beyond that would be dangerous. I’m willing to take risks when it comes to my own body, but sorry, I can’t do that to you guys."
"You’re being way to considerate," Grumbled Alexis in exasperation.
"Maybe so. But I’m not changing my mind, I won’t do it," He stated firmly.
"Damn it. Alright, fine, guess we’re doing this the hard way, plan B it is," Sighed Alexis, giving up, before grabbing my wrist and pulling me along, "Come on, let’s go."
We left Inoka’s RV and headed into the forest, Alexis muttering to herself irritably to whole way. Plan B was to get some intensive training from Bastet, though I’m not sure how we’re going to convince him to help us.
"I’m really not sure how effective this’ll be, we’ve trained a lot, and lately, improvements have been really slow," I pointed out.
"If we can at least get used to his speed and strength, and then manage to react to it at least a little bit, that could make a difference. I know, I’m grasping at straws. But our best bet to get stronger turned out to be a dud, and unless you’ve got some bright ideas, this is the best alternative I can come up with," She replied with a sigh.
"Fine, I guess I can’t argue against that. So, how do we find Bastet, anyway?" I inquired in response.
"You are looking for me?" His voice suddenly rang out behind us, the both of us jumping in alarm as he startled us.
"Wha-...how long have you been there!?" Exclaimed Alexis in alarm.
"Who can say? Now, then...why are you looking for me?" He asked us curiously.
"Well, we were hoping to ask you to help train us. We need to get stronger, and this was the best way we could think of," I replied, getting straight to the point.
"Ah, I see. So, then, you are aware that clashing with a Deity repeatedly can cause improvements that would otherwise be impossible, hm? Impressive, I was of the impression that that knowledge had been lost, as very few have experienced it," He nodded in response.
Huh?
"Wait, what!? You mean fighting a Deity a bunch of times will automatically make us stronger!?" Exclaimed Alexis wide-eyed.
"Oh...you were not aware of it. It would appear that I have erred. Now that you know, I suppose I might as well explain...when repeatedly clashing with a Deity, our Auras influence yours. However, it has rarely happened, Deities do not fight humans, what happened two days ago was quite a rarity, the first such instance that I am aware of.
There have been cases of some Deities agreeing to train Meta-Humans, typically as a reward for various reasons. The humans trained by those Deities displayed abilities far superior to what they were previously capable of, and in theory, it is possible that, with enough time, they could have surpassed the Deities that trained them.
I have only heard about this from other Deities during the last time I awakened, but based on what they said, those humans did not quite reach the level that Aurora is at.
Of course, their Aura capacities did not increase, but their physical states improved to levels that were beyond natural human limits," He informed us.
"Huh, I think we might have hit the jackpot here. Hey, how long would a person need to train with a Deity in order to get to that level?" Alexis asked him.
"Hm...as far as I am aware of, none of the Deities who trained humans ever did so for more than a month, approximately speaking. But all of those humans achieved a minimum of double their original physical strength, speed and agility, depending on how they trained, of course."
"Guess we’ll just have to find out, huh? Let’s get started right aw-...," I began eagerly.
"Hm? I do not recall agreeing to train you. I have no intention of doing such a thing. There is a reason why this is such a rare occurrence...we Deities are naturally motivated to kill Monsters, the denizens of Hell and any other beings that ally themselves with those scourges, but we have little motivation for anything else, it would require highly strong emotions for us to stray from that norm.
For instance, I am motivated to kill the woman who brought those Demons to my former place of residence due to my rage at that offense. Just as Vapora was motivated to kill all of you due to her rage at you interfering with her Monster killing. As I understand, the Deities who trained humans in the past did so due to immense gratitude to those humans, for reasons I cannot recall," He surmised objectively.
"Well, uh, what about your gratitude towards us, uh, introducing you to the wonders of cat food?" Responded Alexis.
"Yes, that was quite delightful, but ultimately inadequate."
"Okay, then is there something we can do that’ll change your mind?" I replied hopefully.
"Perhaps. But I have no particular desire for anything," He shrugged in response.
"Hm...alright, then, I think I know something that might work. Since you like cat food, let’s assume that you share other aspects with cats...like this," Remarked Alexis...as she reached out and scratched under his chin.
Uh...seriously? Petting?
"If you truly believe such a simple act can-...oh, my, this is...this is...," He trailed off, as he suddenly began purring, "What...is this?"
"Ah, so you’ve never been petted like a cat before, have you? I bet you’re feeling a whole lot of gratitude to us for opening up a whole new world for you," Smirked Alexis, before adding as she scratched behind his ears, "Now, take this!"
"O-oh...y-yes, this is...incredibly pleasant...," He purred, as she gestured to me to join in.
Do I have to? I mean, I like cats and all, but this is kinda...weird. Oh, well, I guess I might as well give it a try...I reached out and scratched the back of his neck, the hairs on his back standing up as he shuddered, purring more loudly.
"So, what do you say? In exchange for training us, we’ll pet you before and after every training session!" Proposed Alexis smugly.
This is her plan? Come on, there’s no way it’s going to work-...
"Yes, very well, you have yourselves a deal!"
...huh!? It actually worked!?
_____________________________________________
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!
Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.
Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming Chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:
https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP
