Looking at his own hands, Xien knew that he had already begun to become... different.
As one of the costs—or gifts—of the seed sprouting, his body was evolving toward a higher, more perfect state.
Thankfully, the divine blessing had reinforced his "vessel," allowing his body to barely withstand the transformation brought about by this power.
Otherwise, if he had still possessed nothing more than an ordinary human body, then the moment he chose to accept this power, he probably would have instantly turned into a literal "vegetable."
His current situation was this: a violent, immensely powerful life force was rampaging through his body, crudely reshaping every organ it touched into something higher. But the process was unbelievably barbaric. It had the feeling of simply making him bigger and stronger, without the slightest hint of planning or refinement.
Because of that, he was utterly exhausted.
He had to constantly monitor the changes inside his body, guiding this transformative force in the proper direction, and wasting as much of it as he possibly could.
And this was already the result after that first eruption had mostly subsided and things had calmed down.
It might have looked as though he had wielded godlike power against the Floor Boss, but in truth, that had only been the initial momentum of the seed breaking its shell.
The Seed of Abundance, which Xien had been suppressing for so long, had accumulated a certain amount of strength during that time without much being spent. Combined with the power he had long prepared specifically for the moment of "breaking the shell," it had indeed, for one fleeting instant, displayed the might of the Path of Abundance.
But that was all it had been—a one-time experience card of overwhelming power, released in accordance with Xien's will.
Now that the power had been vented and everything had calmed, there was no way he could use that level of strength again anytime soon.
It was possible, technically, now that the seed inside him had sprouted. But there was one prerequisite:
sufficient "nutrition."
And his current situation was that, just to satisfy the seed's daily energy consumption, he already had to regularly feed it nutrients.
And according to his own senses, the amount it needed was absurd.
If he failed to provide enough, then the seed, now already growing, would begin to seize energy from his own body, producing something akin to self-consumption.
And that was without even talking about what it would need to unleash its full strength—or continue evolving.
That was a figure so large it might as well have been astronomical.
But the fortunate part—or rather, was it really fortunate?—
was that the nutrients did not have to come solely from him. They could also be obtained from the outside world.
Once he understood that, Xien finally began to understand why the Xianzhou's mortal enemies, and the Abundance-following peoples, behaved the way they did.
If merely by relying on "plunder," one could both satisfy oneself and grow stronger along this road, then all one had to do was cast off a few moral principles and return to the most basic rule of all:
the law of the jungle.
In other words, he now possessed an incredibly high upper limit of power—but in this world, actually using it was nearly impossible.
Even setting everything else aside, his basic human ethics alone would never allow it.
The price was simply too high.
Yes.
As he was now, he could become stronger through "devouring."
Without any limit.
Which meant that he could...
The essence of Abundance was selflessness and benevolence.
But before reaching the level of the Apothecary, that selflessness could very easily be corrupted into selfishness under the temptation of immense power...
So under these circumstances, his actual combat strength had hardly increased at all. In fact, in some ways it had effectively weakened.
He could never slaughter recklessly just to feed the seed.
That would be the beginning of corruption.
"There are some things you must never try for the first time..."
That was a truth he firmly believed in.
Now that he had suddenly gained a gigantic, ravenous "stomach," the benefits—such as the gradual improvement of his physique and the rise of his abilities—were so small they could practically be ignored.
Only the Floor Boss's energy was enough to sustain it for a while.
But only for a very short while.
Judging from its current rate of consumption, that supply would last about half a year at most—and that was assuming the consumption rate did not increase.
So he had to find a solution as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, he had a premonition that he might lose everything he had.
At the moment, the only apparent solution was to increase the intensity of his time in the Dungeon.
That way, he could keep improving himself, raise his own "supply capacity," and reduce some of the burden.
At the same time, the magic stones dropped by monsters were themselves pure energy. Once refined, they could also be absorbed.
Even if the amount from each individual monster was small, once the quantity piled up, it should produce some effect...
Still, one step at a time.
The first thing he had to do now was become familiar with—and gain control over—the violent Abundance energy still rampaging through his body.
Even the passive bodily transformation that was now happening almost "like breathing" was already hard for him to endure.
To be honest, that feeling of lacking control over it made him deeply irritable. He had always been the sort of person who sought to keep everything under control, and if he could not even precisely control his own body, then what meaning did anything else have?
First, he had to get used to this power and master it as quickly as possible.
One of the very few "benefits" he had gained from this whole ordeal—if he could not even make use of it, wouldn't that be idiotic?
Even if its methods were wildly inappropriate, it was indeed improving this body of his.
The quality of the Abundance power he could use now was much stronger than before. His physical abilities had been further enhanced, and he had unlocked quite a few new capabilities—
"devouring," for example.
But if he wanted to use them skillfully, the familia residence was no longer a suitable place to practice.
At this stage, what he needed to train was no longer punches and kicks, but control over the release of energy. That would inevitably cause massive environmental damage.
He could hardly tear apart his own home just to practice his precision.
And furthermore, control required technique. Without the proper method, fumbling around blindly would only make things far less efficient, and he did not have the luxury of wasting that kind of time.
With that in mind, he did not hesitate. He went straight to the orange cat for a solution.
The cat did not disappoint him. Since it already fully understood his condition, it had naturally prepared a countermeasure in advance.
The method it offered came as a full package.
The location was the Dimensional Training Ground, where he could train under exactly the conditions he needed to grow familiar with his power.
The cost, of course, was a huge amount of interference value.
The advantage was that once he paid the price up front, he would gain permission to use it indefinitely in the future.
As for methods of control, the cat offered him several choices, but the one it most strongly recommended was called Heart-Mind as One.
It was something like a meditation technique.
A method for tempering consciousness, strengthening the mind, and allowing it to influence the body to a certain degree.
When he saw that the system had, in effect, already prepared the perfect solutions for his current problem, Xien paused.
"So it was all ready in advance, huh?"
"That's right, meow. Your body has already been trained, Host, but a true powerhouse cannot rely on physical strength alone. Otherwise, when faced with mental attacks, that weakness becomes fatal. This kind of assault has nothing to do with willpower—it requires the construction of a spiritual barrier for defense."
"And once your consciousness grows stronger, there will be many benefits. Later, when you enter worlds with related training systems, you'll also be able to make easy use of extraordinary powers like telekinesis..."
The orange cat's explanation gave Xien a rough picture, and he found himself nodding inwardly.
In the end, after comparing his current reserves to the price, he chose without hesitation to go in.
This expedition had let him accumulate a fair amount of savings.
Yes, exchanging them now would wipe that reserve clean again—but that was fine.
What else was interference value for, if not to solve problems?
And this was exactly the moment he needed it most.
Once the payment was made, a dimensional gate opened.
Xien stepped through without the slightest hesitation.
On the other side was a white, endless-looking space.
But he did not panic. Instead, following the cat's instructions, he imagined the things he needed in his heart.
Sure enough, in the next instant, the "test dummies" and "training materials" he required appeared in front of him.
Seeing this, Xien nodded in satisfaction.
And then he plunged fully into the training ground.
Meanwhile—
a certain evil god was practically grinding his back teeth to dust.
At the same time, an indescribable terror was quietly rising in that deity's heart.
That brat was strange.
Deeply abnormal.
He was absolutely hiding something.
Otherwise, none of this could possibly have unfolded the way it had.
The original plan had been simple:
before they returned to the Eighteenth Floor utterly exhausted from their conquest, the god would summon a God's Assassin and deal them the cruelest possible blow.
But the plan had failed.
Everything had gone smoothly. Those mortals knew nothing of the divine side's arrangements. By all rights, it should have succeeded.
But the reality was that it had failed.
And all of it came down to one thing:
The Dungeon—the existence even gods feared—had actually felt joy and closeness toward something. It had even ignored the divine power released within it by the god.
And just like that, the ambition of birthing a "God's Assassin" to hunt those people down died before it could even be born.
That should have been impossible.
The Dungeon, which loathed all life on the surface, had actually shown unmistakable affection toward a particular being.
It was absurd.
...
Now the god had to return immediately and discuss a new strategy.
Divine instinct was screaming danger.
If they did not take action soon, their end might not be far off.
That sense of impending doom had never felt stronger.
The next day, refreshed and looking bright and vigorous, Xien arrived in the main hall.
By chance, it was a rest day, and all the familia members had gathered there. Everyone wanted to hear about his experiences on the expedition.
This, too, was considered something of a tradition among familias in Orario.
It just had never really happened in the Astraea Familia before.
Seeing how excited everyone was—and with Lyra even thoughtfully pouring him tea—Xien smiled slightly, sat down, and began recounting the events of the expedition from start to finish.
At times like this, the advantage of Xien's astonishing memory became obvious.
Not only did he tell the story vividly and in an orderly, captivating fashion, he also clearly explained every detail that needed to be noted with care.
In doing so, he also saved Kaguya, who was responsible for organizing and recording information, quite a bit of trouble. Everything Xien was saying would become important intelligence for their future explorations into the deeper layers of the Dungeon.
Even though Xien trimmed away as much nonessential information as he could, the full report still lasted for more than two hours.
And the familia members listened to it all with complete fascination.
Only Ryuu and their goddess showed visible worry when Xien deliberately glossed over the most dangerous parts.
Those two knew him too well.
If he described something as dangerous, then it had almost certainly been a situation that could be called utterly desperate.
"So, the little girl we found has been temporarily settled with the Loki Familia. They'll probably send an invitation later. When that happens, Goddess, I may need to trouble you to make a trip over there."
But Goddess Astraea simply shook her head, then clapped her hands together and smiled sincerely.
"As your goddess, I'd only be happy to be of help."
"That said, it really is quite mysterious. To think that a 'hero's' legacy would turn out to be a little girl... As the one who encountered her directly, do you know anything about her identity?"
As the strategist of the group, Lyra was still full of wonder after hearing what Xien had gone through.
She truly had not expected that the thing Xien had been sent to find would turn out to be something like that.
Before this, they had only known that Xien had received a mandatory commission from the Guild to accompany the Loki Familia into the Dungeon in search of a legacy.
Who could have imagined that the thing they were looking for would be a living person?
"She should be connected to the spirits. If I'm not mistaken, then she's probably the child of an ancient human hero and a spirit—"
Xien's words made everyone's hearts jump. No one had expected such a conclusion.
Only Goddess Astraea seemed thoughtful.
"But that doesn't quite make sense, does it? If she really is what you say, then why is she still just a little girl now? The ancient heroes were last seen a thousand years ago, weren't they? If she's truly their child, how could she still be alive?"
"You idiot wolf, use your brain. Didn't Xien say she was sealed inside crystal? A seal of that level is practically a miracle. Freezing her life at the exact moment of sealing wouldn't be strange at all."
Kaguya looked ready to hold her forehead. She truly had no hopes left for her companion's intelligence.
"Ah, so it can work like that? That's nice... being able to live that long... probably only gods can do that, right?"
"No. How she sees it depends on the girl herself."
"In a sealed state, she would've had almost no awareness at all. It'd be like sleeping. Just imagine it—fall asleep, and when you wake up, a thousand years have passed. Everything is different. Everything you knew is gone. If it were you, would you be happy?"
Xien's words painted a picture in everyone's minds, and they all shivered.
"Ah... like that, huh. If it were like that, it really would be despairing."
The wolf girl's voice fell, ashamed of her thoughtless words.
But no one blamed her.
Everyone knew she hadn't meant any harm.
What mattered most now was the final question:
where that child would ultimately choose to belong.
....
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