Danmachi – Card Wizard

Taking off his shirt and lying down on the sofa next to the goddess, Aidan waited for a bit as Loki started to do the update.

Feeling the drop of blood fall on his back, he knew she had started. It didn't take more than five seconds as Aidan felt his body's strength increase significantly, which was changed thanks to the parameters.​​

"Alright, here's your status." Said Loki as she handed him his status paper and signalled Ais to come closer to update her's.

"Hum, let's see." Said Aidan as he felt slightly excited at the idea of becoming stronger.

[Name: Aidan

Level: 1

Strength: G-232 -> D-574

Endurance: G-259 -> D-596

Dexterity: G-212 -> E-499

Agility: G-234 -> D-545

Magic: F-392 -> C-689

Skill: High human, Twin star

Magic: Card magic

Development ability: None]

Looking at his status, he confirmed a few things. 'It seems that my status rapidly improved since we fought against monsters on the tenth floor and people normally need at least 'B' in one of their parameters to fight there.'

'This time, it was thanks to Riveria who took care of us and killed most monsters that we were able to improve so fast. However, now that we are back as a team of two, we will be back to fighting on the first nine floors, which will drastically reduce our speed of advancement.'

'Moreover, once we reach B in our parameters, it will reduce our speed even more than before. It seems that parameters only increase rapidly at the beginning of the levels or when you kill monsters at a higher level. Well, my improvement is already quite fast. Let's leave it at that and work harder in the future.' Thought Aidan as he understood the reason for his rapid increase in strength.

"How is your status?" Asked Ais as she finished updating her status and held a paper in front of his face.

"Not too bad, but it will be harder to improve this fast in the future." Answered Aidan as he handed over his status sheet to his partner.

[Name: Ais Wallenstein

Level: 1

Strength: G-201 -> D-505

Endurance: G-210 -> E-480

Dexterity: G-222 -> D-520

Agility: G-230 -> E-497

Magic: G-213 -> D-527

Skill: Avenger, Twin star

Magic: Wind slash

Development ability: None]

"Hum, it seems that I don't improve as fast as you do." Said Ais with evident bitterness in her voice.

'How can I protect him when he's always stronger than myself. Not to mention that he has more potential than I have, but he even improves faster.' She thought as she held her fist tightly in frustration over her weakness.

"Ais. Ais!" Repeated Aidan a bit louder to break her out of her thoughts.

"Yes?" She asked, still depressed.

"How about we go to a restaurant to eat?" He asked as he was tired of cooking, and they had made quite a lot of money with this dungeon run.

"Alright." Nodded Ais with her head low.

"Then let's go." He said as he took her hand and said goodbye to his teacher and goddess.

—-

"So, what is bothering you, Ais?" Asked Aidan as he was sitting at a table in a restaurant near the family manor.

After hesitating for a moment, she looked up with a bit of tear in her eyes. "Don't I work as hard as you? Why doesn't my status update as fast as yours? Not to mention your 'talent.'" She said with emphasis on the word as she didn't want to mention his parameters limit out loud.

Taken aback, Aidan didn't know what to say, so he only hugged her tightly. After all, he couldn't help with her limit or her speed of advancement since they always fought together and killed about the same amount of enemies.

After a few minutes, Ais got out of his arms while showing an uneasy smile and looking down. "I don't want to be weaker than you. I want to be able to protect you as well." She said out loud, showing her determination.

With surprise, Aidan smiled happily. "I don't doubt you. I'm sure you will become one of the strongest adventurers in the world. However, we just came back from the dungeon, and I think we both need some relaxation before going back." The boy started to eat his food along with Ais, who relaxed a bit after his words.

After eating for a bit over then minutes in relatively comfortable silence. "Can we go to the Monster Feria in two days? I heard it only happens once a year." Asked Ais with hope in her voice.

"Hum? You can go if you want to. There's no need to ask for my permission." He said with a slight teasing expression. "But, if you wanted to ask me to go with you, I'd be glad." Smiled Aidan sincerely.

"That's great." Smiled Ais as she showed a relieved expression.

"Alright, let's go back to relax today. Tomorrow, we could go and visit the city." Proposed Aidan as he paid the waitress and left the restaurant along with his partner.

—-

(Loki POV)

"Humm, so where should I start?" She mused out loud in her bedroom.

"First, the map card should be sold cheap enough so that every adventurer can buy one. The most important is that we will make a profit from the number of adventurers who buy it. Moreover, as long as the number of adventurers dies less in the dungeon with the help of the card, we will gain the favour of other familias.

So, we should only sell them with a 1000 increase on each floor, meaning floor nine would cost 9000 to unlock, floor ten, 10,000. And this is only for unlocking the map. We will increase the price by ten times if they want the already explored map." She continued while writing her ideas on the paper.

"For the storage, the idea was good, but it would be better to have the adventurers or familia pay extra every year as insurance. The insurance should be different depending on the size of the storage. By buying the insurance, the moment they die, their storage card would go to the designated person.

Right, if we do this, people will even be grateful to give us their money. As for their loot, it wasn't ours, to begin with, and instead, we will get money even if they don't die. It's a lot better." Nodded Loki with a grin on her face. She loved to do everything to extort other familias. Especially Freya's.

"Next, if he can link a card to a person, could he create a life card that would show his current floor, turn dim when that person dies and show the final vision of the owner of the card? This way, we could find those who killed others for their loot in the dungeon, certainly lowering the murder rate. Moreover, this would put the familia in the good books of the guild." Muttered Loki as she had this idea.

"Hum, let's ask him later." She concluded with a fond smile on her face.

"Finally, for the attacking, defensive and support cards, we would have to price them higher. Those cards are life-saving items, and the support cards would help in the dungeon. However, Aidan's current strength is relatively weak, and they wouldn't be handy.

So, it would be better only to sell the defensive and support cards. The first ones could slightly stall the monsters, allowing them to escape faster, easy to do with the help of a map card. And the latter can help on each floor, especially the 10-12th floor currently." She continued taking notes as she prepared to take as much advantage as possible.

"Alright. Thankfully, tomorrow is the denatus, and I'll be able to share these new products with them. Moreover, as long as they are all aware, they won't be able to go against Aidan since attacking him could mean the death of countless adventurers in the future. And with the contract, we are free from that crazy bitch." Finishing her self-talk and taking notes on the cards' benefits, she kept everything in a secret folder and got up before moving to her bed.

She had to sleep early since she wouldn't sleep a lot the next day with the Denatus and the Monster Filia.

"Oh, I can't wait to see Freya's face when she finds out she can't go against us due to the cards tomorrow. It'll be great." She finally said before closing her eyes and going to sleep.