danmachi: runes master

Chapter 4: Getting a falna

"Hey, are you John Esonge?" Ben asked.

"Yes, why?" John said.

"I was wondering if I could pay you to heal me with your Healing Hands magic."

"Oh, sure. How bad are the—"

"Johnny~ I need you to make me some brownies again," Demeter said.

"Huh? Your magic is as strong as that girl Syr, but she had a really weird magic around her."

"Wait, who had magic as strong as mine, little one?"

"I'm not that little! Why do people say that? Also, yeah, Syr—the girl I saw at the Hostess of Fertility."

"Oh, interesting. And child, you can see my mana? Do you see anything else~?"

"Yeah, there are some really advanced runes around you."

"Runes?"

"Yeah, they're like the language of magic. Basically, all magic has a code to it. If you can remake the code with the right frequency and inject mana, it will have the same effect."

"Interesting skill. What familia are you part of, hmm~?"

"Oh, I'm not part of any familia, miss."

"Oh, please call me Demeter~ And you said you're not part of a familia? So, is that a magic that allows you to see my mana and these runes?" Demeter asked.

"No, it's my eyes. They allow me to see the runes and know what they do and how to use them. I also have another ability—my eyes have a separate function that brings my mind and eyes to a comprehension speed over 100 times my original level. It also allows me to use my body and all other abilities at their full possible capability."

"Wait, so you have an innate ability without having a falna? Are you sure you're human? And if you are, then is this ability inherited from an earlier ancestor from the Mythological Era, or an ancestor that had a skill from their falna that you inherited a portion of?"

"That's way too detailed for those situations to have not happened before… but no, that would've been cool. Sadly, no."

Demeter then started smiling and thought to herself, Perfect. If he didn't inherit the power, then that must mean he has to have a power similar to those monstrous humans who were able to grow stronger without a falna.

"I'm curious, Ben. Would you like to join my familia?"

"Sure, but first, do you mind if I get a treatment from John here first? My ribs are kinda shattered."

"Oh yeah, sorry, little one. And John, make sure he's ready to get my falna," Demeter said demandingly.

"Sure, Demeter," John said dismissively. "Alright, let's start. You should be warned—it will hurt worse than the injuries themselves because it's your body forcefully healing itself. Do you want some vitanal?" John asked.

"No, I'm fine. But what's vitanal?" Ben asked questioningly.

"It's a plant that helps with pain," John explained.

"So, a painkiller? Nah, I don't need one. I'm good with pain—been in pain all my life," Ben said with a slightly distant expression before going back to his usual expressive, happy self.

"If you say so," John said while shrugging.

John then placed his now-glowing hands on Ben's chest. Ben's chest started glowing along with the entire room as his screams echoed throughout.

After the "treatment," Ben got up, shook his body, and started walking to where Demeter was, before suddenly falling to his knees. He caught himself, but his arms gave out too, and he passed out, landing on his face.

"Ha, ah, always gets a good laugh out of me. They always try to get up, not understanding that it used their stamina along with my mana to heal them, so they just pass out after taking one or two steps," John said, chuckling darkly.

"Ben~ Ben~"

Ben started hearing a sultry voice calling his name and slowly began waking up.

"Oh, Ben, you're awake, little one," Demeter said before grabbing an egg roll and putting it to Ben's mouth. "Ben, you need to eat. Here, eat this."

Ben took a bite of the egg roll before groggily snuggling more into Demeter's lap pillow and going back to sleep.

"What an interesting little one," Demeter mused.

Ben finally woke up fully and remembered three things. First, he still hadn't gotten paid for those three giant goblin teeth. Second, he still needed to buy a place to stay. And third, he had to find Demeter to get his falna. So, he got up and started looking around, finding an open door, and walked inside. There, he saw Demeter lying on the bed reading a book.

"Uh… hi, Miss Demeter. Do you mind if I get my falna now?" Ben said with an embarrassed face.

"Sure, here. Lay down on my bed, face down," Demeter said in a motherly voice.

Demeter placed her hand on Ben's back and started the ceremony, cutting her finger and letting it bleed onto his back. Then she saw his status.

Status

Ben Mördare

Lv 1

• Str: F – 28

• Vit: F – 30

• Dex: F – 16

• Agi: F – 20

• Mag:F – 35

Skills:

• [Ultimate Eyes] – Allows the user to use the full capabilities of anything and grants a calculation and processing ability of a supercomputer.

• [Runic Eyes] – Allows the user to see, understand, and use runes.

• [Weight Shift] – Can shift the full weight of something or someone to one part of the object or being.

Magic:

• [Rune Infusion]

• [Rune Creation]

Status End

"Interesting. Very interesting," Demeter said to herself while copying down the status onto paper before showing it to Ben.

"Oh, cool," Ben said, looking at it. "I got a new ability—Weight Shift. That sounds cool! And both my eye abilities became part of my skills tab. And I got two magics that really fit my eyes! I wonder if I got them due to doing both those things." Ben started talking to himself.

"You can only get magic by learning it, creating it, or through a grimoire," Demeter explained.

"Alright, cool. I gotta run back to the dungeon to ask Abby something," Ben said as he started running out the door toward the tower.

Ben ran straight to the tower, ignoring everything around him. When he finally got to the entrance, he walked in, yelling, "Abby, I got into Demeter's familia!"

Ben finally spotted Abby, ran up to her, and started excitedly talking about how he got healed by John, got a falna, and how he now had three skills and two magics. Abby's face became more and more worried as he spoke, and then she finally said,

"Listen, Ben… you don't understand how weird it is for a human to have three skills and two magics, do you?"

"No? Why, is it uncommon?"

"Very!!"

"Oh, okay. Well then, what's the issue? I'm just a bit more talented now. Anyway, I was wondering—did you ever get any info on my giant goblin teeth and what they sold for?" Ben asked.

"Yes, I did, actually. They found that the toughness and mana sensitivity of the material is equal to a normal Level 5 monster material. So, by size—which we don't have a scale for—but we have found that the current worth of all three teeth is 3 million valis. Or you can hold onto them and get someone to forge them into a weapon," Abby said simply.

"Hm… I think I'll keep them and use them for a weapon. Do you know how much it should cost to forge them into a good hammer?"

"There are very few blacksmiths who can forge a weapon like this. My advice is to go to Tsubaki. She will be able to make a very good war hammer. Though, with the material you brought, the best you can make is the head of the war hammer and a bit of the base. You can replace the rest with mythril, but it is very costly," Abby said.

Ben nodded, taking it all in. "Okay, so what you're saying is… my best bet is to grab my gauntlets, get some bags, and run back into that dungeon?"

Ben then ran over to the store next to the tower and bought five bags, each costing 4,000 valis, leaving him with 282,000 valis. He then put on his gauntlets, which were hanging on his waist, and ran back to the tower.

As he waved at Abby, she told him he looked ridiculous with five bags strapped to his waist by a rope. Ben just laughed and continued running.

While running, he came across three goblins. He smashed through them, picked up their stones, and kept moving.

Ben was then jumped by a pack of six kobolds as he went down the path to the next floor. After defeating them, he picked up their magic stones just like he had with the goblins and continued running. His plan was to fight as many monsters as possible, and secretly, he planned on feeding another monster a massive amount of magic stones to get more monster materials.

Passing through the next floor, Ben kept running until he was ambushed by a large group of six kobolds and seven dungeon lizards. He took out one of his tablets, activated the spell, and a small lightning cloud formed, sending bolts of electricity down onto the monsters while Ben continued smashing them.

After he killed them all, he picked up their magic stones, threw them into his bags, and kept running down to the fourth floor. There, he saw another group of adventurers—four people fighting against eight goblins.

Ben ran over and simply smashed three of the goblins while the party took care of the other five. He grabbed the three magic stones from the goblins he had killed, then turned to the party and asked,

"Who are you guys?"

"My name is Jake. I'm a level one adventurer with the skills Slash and Boar's Taunt. I also have the magic Fireball," said the swordsman-looking guy.

"My name is Nataly. I'm also a level one adventurer with the unique skill Magic Siphon, and I have the magics Ice Rain and Speed Buff," said the girl with a small axe in hand.

"My name's Yarnēd (Yarn-ed). I'm a level one adventurer. I have the skill Slip, which can make an opponent lose their footing, and the magics Lesser Healing and Float," said the man floating in the air with no weapon but a dagger at his waist.

"Name's Charles. I'm a level one adventurer. My innate skill is Strength Doubling, which doubles my strength, and I have the magic Strength Buff, which increases strength by 25%. I'm also the porter," said the short but sturdy dwarf-looking man with a giant bag on his back.

"Great to meet you guys! I'm Ben, also a level one adventurer. I have the innate skills Runic Eye and Ultimate Eye, plus the skill Weight Shift. I also have the magics Rune Creation and Rune Infusion."

"Wow, so you're like a genius, huh?" the axe-wielding girl said.

Chapter 4 end

Sorry if the chapter a bit all over the place I wrote half of it while under Anastisia and the other half right after

Also remember send you power stones and please collect this book aka add to your library

-Gachadevildog

Sorry guys but he is not wrong it was pretty bad before I cleaned up the chapter a bit

Had to make a small edit thanks guys for noticing the mistake. 🙏

-Themasterofsystems