Chương 384: Heading Home

'System, status,' Damion mentally called out.

[Magic System] [System Level: 3] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 19] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial A, Fire A, Earth A, Shadow A, Holy C] [Mana: 10, 433/8, 274] (10%) - 9, 101 [Magic Power: 14, 780] (10%) - 16, 258 [Mana Recovery: 382 P/S] (10%) - 420 [Strength: 133] [Dexterity: 130] (10%) - 143 [Vitality: 328] [Intelligence: 148] [Experience: 15, 200/20, 000] [Store Credits: 3, 774, 249] Standing up for the first time in a day, Damion stretched his stiff joints.

His growth rate was astonishing, but he had a feeling he knew why it had started to slow down. While he was not in a state of mana exhaustion, he had worked hard to compress his mana and raise his magic power so quickly. His core needed a break. The other reason was his physical strength. Aside from maintaining slowly raising the strength of his body, he was simply not increasing the strength of his body faster than his magic growth.

If his body is unable to contain his magic power, it does not matter how high he raises it.

"Time to head back," Damion said to himself. Phil was still waiting on the twenty-first floor, and he hoped his familiar was able to grow stronger as well and he had carelessly spent a full day raising his power. Even rushing back now, by the time he exited the labyrinth it would be late in the afternoon. Thankfully, there were only two floors of the labyrinth that would slow him down, the Fire Cave floor and the catacombs floor.

Floor by floor Damion flew over from entrance to exit, not even bothering to chase down any of the Demonic Beasts he spotted. There would be plenty of opportunities to come for hunting Demonic Beasts and collecting cores for credits. When he entered the Fire Cave and started moving through them to reach the passageway back to the twenty-third floor, he was forced to fight a few Shadow Rend Bats. Either the labyrinth had begun repopulating its creatures, or another group had moved from somewhere else in the cave.

Once he was out of the Fire Caves he made an effort to fly as fast as he could, making his way all the way to the twenty-first floor fairly quickly. As soon as he entered the floor he felt his connection to Phil jump to full strength and he called out to his companion.

'Time to head home,' Damion sent through their bond.

'Good hunt?' Phil sent back. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

'Yes. Very good hunt. What about your hunt?'

'Good. Many kills.' Damion continued to fly towards the passageway back to the twentieth floor. He could sense that Phil was heading in the same general direction and after a few minutes the pair was heading through the passage to the twentieth floor. As they ascended floors, Damion and Phil raced to each passageway. Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, they did not slow down until they reached the catacombs of the fourteenth floor. In the narrow confines of the bone tunnels the pair had to go slow.

Phil's short legs were not able to walk very fast. There were a few skeletons that had moved into their path through the catacombs, but Damion was able to dispatch them easily. The skeletons added a few more D Rank Demonic Beast remains to his spoils list, bringing his total number of potential cores to 132 E Rank, 63 D Rank, 62 C Rank and 8 B Rank. Once they were on the thirteenth floor and free to fly again, Damion and Phil resumed their race out of the labyrinth.

Flying as fast as they were able, they only spent a few minutes on most of the floors. When they finally returned to the containment chamber, Phil was breathing heavy and Damion was beginning to feel the effects of mana exhaustion.

"Phil, head home. I'll be there in a few minutes," Damion told him. Phil did not respond, it simply took and flew out of the underground containment chamber, leaving Damion behind with the attendant.

"Did you have a good haul, sir?"

"Decent. Have these processed. I'd like to keep the meat from the six Snow Lions. From the rest just the cores."

"Certainly, sir," the attendant said as Damion emptied his personal storage space onto the sorting platform. Now that he was relieved of his spoils, Damion headed home. As he had been gone far longer than he initially planned, he had a feeling he would be in for a surprise when he got home. What he was not expecting was to be tackled the moment he opened the door.

Elicia's diving hug nearly knocked him off his feet and while she was squeezing him, he could feel a bit of wetness from her cheeks brush against his neck. After a few moments she let go of him and then pounded her fists onto his chest before wiping her eyes.

"What's wrong wind wolf?" Damion asked, catching her fists and looking into her eyes.

"Where have you been?" Elicia demanded.

"In the labyrinth. Mage Teft took me to the A Rank floors and while I lost track of time while training."

"Lost track of time? Don't you know how worried I– your parents were?"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you."

"It was your parents who were worried, not me."

"Of course," Damion said with a smile.

"What's for dinner?"

"Food? Is that all you can think about? What about your son? What about your parents?"

"I'm fine. I didn't even leave the safe area on the A Rank floor. When I go back tomorrow…"

"Go back?" Elicia interrupted.

"Yes. I need to continue to train. When I go back in, I plan to work on working on my physical strength and then do another bout of raising my magic power."

"How much were you able to increase your magic power in the day and a half that you were on the A Rank floor?"

"Well, I was only on the A Rank floor for a day, the rest of the time was going in and out of the labyrinth. It takes a while to go that deep."

"How deep did you have to go?"

"The A Rank floors began at the thirty-first, the B Rank at twenty-first."

"Does it take long to get there?"

"Only a couple of hours to traverse the floors since I can fly on my Ice Sword. Only fourteen and twenty-four pose any problem, they are both underground."

"In that case, take me with you tomorrow."

"What?" Came Sharon's voice from the kitchen.

"Why do you want to go into that place?"

"To grow stronger of course," Elicia answered.

"But…" Sharon started but was cut off.

"It is only natural," Damion told her.

"Elicia wants to do her best to keep up with me. I am rising in power quickly and she just wants to… keep up with me."

"Who will take care of the baby?" Sharon asked, referring to the pair's son, Helge.

"I suppose we will have to ask grandma to babysit for us," Damion told her, hoping addressing his mother as grandma would butter her up.

"Fine. It isn't like I have much else to do. There is hardly any shopping in this city. What time will you be leaving in the morning?"

"I think I might take tomorrow off," Damion said. He felt bad about forgetting about his family for a day and he hoped to be able to spend most of the day with them.

"Why?" Elicia asked. To Damion it sounded like she was eager to head into the labyrinth.

"There are a few things I want to check on before I go back in. There are a few positions that need to be filled before we can get our branch of the Adventurer Association up and running."

"And they need you for this?" Caleb asked, joining the conversation.

"I'm not sure. I just want to check where we stand. The sooner we get all the vacant positions in the city filled; the sooner mom can go shopping."