"Hah... Hah... Hah... So exhausting!"
Kei, breathing heavily, approached the chair on the terrace, carefully placing Flare-chan beside her before sitting down. She wiped the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand, her cheeks still flushed from physical activity and high concentration.
"Good job, Kei." Charlie praised while handing her a glass of cold water.
"Thank you, Charlie-san."
As she happened to be very thirsty, Kei immediately drank all the water, feeling refreshed again.
"How did you feel using it?" Charlie asked in an attentive tone. "Just say if there's anything uncomfortable or needs adjustment. I'll modify it."
"No, Charlie-san's creation is perfect!" Kei answered firmly, her eyes sparkling with admiration. "If there's any deficiency, it's me as the user who can't fully utilize Flare-chan's performance yet. With my current mental power, I can only shoot about five hundred times before feeling dizzy."
"That's not a problem at all. As you get stronger and your level increases, the ammunition limit will increase. Don't rush, Kei. Everything takes process." Charlie reassured her with a smile.
"Charlie-san doesn't need to remind me, I understand that." Kei replied with a firm nod.
"You're amazing, Kei. In just a short time, your accuracy level has improved rapidly. It seems you have a natural talent in aiming." Astraea praised, having been observing carefully all along.
"Astraea-sama is exaggerating, I'm not that great. Honestly, I've never tried archery or using long-range weapons before." Kei shook her head humbly.
"Goddess Astraea."
"Yes?"
Astraea turned toward Charlie who suddenly stood up, his tone full of attention.
"I know mere words alone aren't convincing enough. Therefore, I'll show the reason behind my confidence."
Without waiting for further answer, Charlie walked toward the messy front yard. There, the earth walls that had been used as shooting practice targets were now destroyed into scattered fragments and dust everywhere.
He slowly waved his hand, activating Earth Spirit Arts. He began manipulating the earth element beneath his feet with extraordinary finesse.
Within seconds, the scattered pieces of earth seemed to melt and sink back into the ground. The previously destroyed earth leveled itself again, and the buried green grass reemerged to the surface, restoring Empyrean Citadel's yard to its original beautiful condition as if the earlier practice had never happened.
Astraea was stunned, her eyes widening witnessing Charlie's ease in using magic without chanting a single spell.
"Although this isn't the first time I've seen you do it, it's still extraordinary." Astraea muttered admiringly, her voice full of undisguised admiration. "Charlie, you use various variations of magic without any chant at all. This has never happened before."
"Even the Elf race who are proud of their high affinity for magic, none can do what you just did. It's not an exaggeration to say your Spirit Arts are already in the realm of gods."
In this world, Mages indeed had to chant to use magic. The stronger the magic effect, the longer and more complex the chant required.
Of course, there was also chantless magic, which could be activated instantly just by saying its name. However, instant magic like that was very rare.
However, Charlie used Spirit Arts—a power system from another world that directly manipulated natural phenomena. This was far more flexible and superior compared to conventional magic in the Danmachi Planar World.
"Too early to be surprised, Goddess Astraea. The main event has just started." Charlie said with a mysterious smile.
Turning around, he looked at the three women in chairs—Astraea, Kei, and Aishia.
Under their attentive gazes, Charlie's body suddenly disappeared. Not just moving fast, but truly disappeared from where he stood without a trace.
"Charlie-san... disappeared?!" Kei exclaimed in amazement.
This was the first time she saw her boyfriend show this kind of ability.
"He really disappeared..."
Astraea looked left and right quickly, trying to find Charlie but found nothing.
"Charlie will return soon."
Aishia seemed to know something and calmed the two women beside her.
Sure enough. Just a few seconds later, Charlie reappeared in the exact same place where he had stood before. However, now in his right hand, he held a large fresh sardine still wriggling, its scales gleaming in the sunlight.
"That's... Teleportation?" Astraea asked in an uncertain tone.
Only the Gods had the ability to move places instantly if they unsealed their Arcanum. Seeing a human do it so easily was something that shook logic.
"As expected from Goddess Astraea. You saw it in one glance." Charlie smiled, acknowledging that guess. "That's right. I just teleported to Olympia, then caught this fish directly from the sea."
With this ability, he indirectly proved that wherever Kei was inside the Dungeon, distance wasn't an obstacle for him to appear and provide protection.
In fact, this teleportation ability was a very new achievement for Charlie. Even with Spirit Arts as flexible as they were, moving places instantly across extraordinary distances remained impossible to do.
His teleportation ability wasn't spatial manipulation or dimension jumping like common teleportation magic, but rather causality manipulation-based teleportation.
Charlie used Hundred Gauntlets—the ability he had just obtained from Void Sanctuary—which worked by directly manipulating the relationship between Cause and Effect.
Normally, to get from Point A (Cause) to Point B (Effect), someone had to go through a physical process: walking, running, or using a vehicle. However, with Hundred Gauntlets, Charlie could reverse or change that relationship. He established that "his presence at the destination" was the Cause, so the physical movement process became irrelevant—or occurred instantly as a logical consequence of the fact that he "should" already be there.
In short, his teleportation was a logical leap. Causally, Charlie "should" still be at the starting point, but in reality, he "already" was at the destination point. He didn't "move" through space; he changed the premise of his existence in the cause-and-effect flow.
"You never stop surprising me, Charlie. As far as I know, there has never been a single adventurer throughout history since the gods descended to the lower world who had teleportation ability like this."
"You are the first."
Astraea looked at Charlie with a gaze that was hard to interpret—a mixture of admiration and concern.
"I'm worried that if other gods and goddesses find out about this ability, their interest in you will turn into obsession. Who knows what they'll try to do to satisfy their curiosity or desires toward you."
Hearing Astraea's words, Kei felt it was somewhat excessive. However, Charlie just smiled slightly, his attitude remaining calm.
"Let it be. I'm not afraid of any consequences. Even if they challenge me to a War Game, the losing side won't be me, but them."
"I now have the power to face all of Orario."
If others heard that statement, they would definitely consider Charlie crazy, arrogant, or overconfident. One adventurer—even Level 6—against the entire strongest city in the world? That was a pipe dream.
However, Astraea didn't think so. In her eyes, Charlie wasn't a braggart.
After seeing various surprises shown by this man, she felt that statement might not be nonsense. There was something behind Charlie's confidence, something that made him believe he could really do it.