Danmachi – Card Wizard

For the following four months, Aidan and Ais continued to train on the seventeenth floor. They did not dare to walk into the nineteenth floor that had previously almost killed them. Instead, they trained with all their might on the floor allowed by Finn.

In their training, they not only killed hundreds of monsters each day, but they also limited themselves to swordsmanship and wind slash magic in Ais's case. At the same time, Aidan focused on swordsmanship and telekinesis. During this time, Aidan didn't carry his trusted black and orange longsword but instead held a standard steel longsword of the same dimension as the sword given to him by his father. It would allow him to improve his swordsmanship instead of relying on his sword at all times.

Across those four months, there only took eight days of break, the days the Goliath respawned. Once again, they followed Finn's warning aNd commands and didn't see the fight.

So, as they finished collecting their gear and walked up the stairs leading towards the seventeenth floor, Aidan gave one last look at the floor, which housed them for the last four and a half months before turning away and breaking into a run quickly followed by his partner.

---.

"Huff." Exhaled Aidan as he looked at the blue sky outside of the tower of Babel, which served as a lid to the dungeon. "It's been a while." He commented as he looked at the bustling street full of adventurers, regular civilians and gods alike.

"Let's go back." Concurred Ais as a small smile spread on her face at a little girl who pranked her brother by disguising herself.

"Right." He nodded as he ignored the passing adventurers and slowly walked towards the manor while taking in the sights he hadn't had the chance to see for a few months.

"Aidan, Ais." Called out a voice the two knew how to well.

"Hello, Riveria." Said Aidan before turning around with Ais as he gave a quick look at the elven woman holding her staff and wearing her long robes.

Ais on the side didn't bother to greet her, instead simply glaring at her. She still hadn't forgotten how she was taught how to swim, an experience still traumatizing her, not daring to go in the deep parts of the water.

"How was your dungeon trip?" She asked with a gentle smile which greatly contrasted with the one they had received during their previous training experience.

"It was fine. There were some troubles here and there, but our training went well." Smiled Aidan while walking towards the manor with the elf on his right and his partner on his left side.

"Well, the most important is to return alive and in one piece if possible." Agreed on the elven women as she stared ahead, not looking at them while talking. "What do you plan to do after updating your status?" Continued the executive of the familia as the guards of the familia pushed open the gates to allow them to enter.

"Go back in the dungeon." Answered Ais, speaking for the first time to her torturer.

Hearing this, the green-haired woman frowned but didn't say anything as she nodded her head as a show of acknowledgement of her answer.

"Well, we'll go update our status immediately. We've waited for a long time, and I'm pretty sure we're both going to hit the maximum parameters in this update." Grinned Aidan as he could almost see himself levelling up and becoming a high-class adventurer.

"I see. Well, Loki should be in her private living room." Finally, commented the elf after giving one last thoughtful look at Ais before pointing them in the right direction.

With a nod, the two immediately walked up towards the third floor only to see a line of thirteen adventurers waiting in front of the door. 'I guess they are also here to update their status. How unlucky of us.' Thought Aidan as he quickly calculated the number of people in front of him before finally waiting in line.

---

Half an hour later, the last of the thirteen left the room. Amongst those adventurers, some left happy, some in excitement and some disappointed.

"Haaaa, finally done for the day. I should reward myself by going to eat at the Hostess of Fertility." Commented the tomboyish goddess as she left her living room with her eyes half-closed. "Oh! Ais, Aidan! How long has it been! Do you come to update your status? Come in!" Said the goddess in excitement as she looked at the two hard workers and youngest members of her familia.

"Hello." Smiled, Aidan sat on one of the chairs near the sofa as Ais sat down on the couch next to his chair.

"So, are the two of you confident that you can level up this time?" Asked the goddess as a grin grew upon her face.

"We should be good." Nodded Aidan as Ais next to him shook her head in certainty.

"Alright then, come here and take off your shirt."

With a simple movement, Aidan gave his shirt to Ais as he laid down on the couch next to his goddess. "Right, before we start, can you tell me how old I am today? I don't know my birth date." Exclaimed Aidan as the goddess looked at the status with an expert eye.

"You turned eight the 3rd of January." Answered the goddess before turning to look at Aidan's face. "Let's start." She commented before dropping her ichor on his back, starting the process of updating his status. "As you thought, you reached the maximum in all parameters. I'm now going to level you up." Continued the goddess as she received a nod from Aidan.

However, when Loki started to level him up, two specific things happened simultaneously, although Loki only noticed the second one. Aidan, on the other hand, only saw the first one.

The moment Loki levelled him up, it was as if a shackle he didn't know existed disintegrated as a rush of memories of his younger years and two techniques appeared in his mind. Not bothering with the memories for the moment, he immediately turned towards the methods.

Triple-step: A combat technique used by high-human warriors to create a wave-like slash, immediately killing everything in the reach of the sword regardless of defences. When using this technique, the user will make three steps in seemingly different directions, which allows the body to move in a wave-like manner enabling the user to use every muscle to kill everything in the immediate surroundings.

Double-writing: A card magic technique to write two words on a card to create more diversity.

As Aidan quickly got out of his memories, something that took less than five seconds, he noticed that the back of Ais, who was next to him, was glowing as if her status wanted to show itself.

"This, this." Heard Aidan as he saw an incredibly stunned Loki who had stopped moving her hands and was looking at his status. "Ais, lie down next to Aidan and show me your back!" Exclaimed the goddess as both excitement and agitation appeared in her normally neutral-seductive tone of voice.

"Yes." Nodded Ais as she understood something important was happening as she immediately lay down next to her partner and showed her back to Loki.

With a drop of ichor on Ais's back, Loki's consternation turned into extreme surprise, which soon turned into joy. "This shouldn't be possible. Nothing like that ever happened in the past!" Exclaimed Loki as she showed a growing smile on her face. "This is great!" She continued as she sped up the levelling process on Ais's back to reach the same stage as his own.

"Alright, you two, I have great news for you. Your Twin star skill completely changed, some hidden effect. According to the skill, as long as you level up simultaneously, you can gain the same development ability as the other. It means that at each level, you can each gain two different development abilities. Moreover, according to the skill, on the first level up, you both can give a copy of skill of equal value to the other. So choose the skills now." Exclaimed Loki as she showed a maniacal grin, filled with excitement and hope for the future. 'This is why I descended from Heaven. It is the excitement and joy I was looking for!'

"I'll give my Avenger skill. It's the only one that can help Aidan in any way." Answered Ais immediately as her Half-spirit skill couldn't help him out at all.

"Can I give her my High-human skill?" Asked Aidan as it was the only skill he possessed except Twin Star, but he wasn't sure if it was possible since it was his race.

"No, you can't give her High-human." Answered Loki while shaking her head. "Anyway, her Avenger skill wouldn't make an equivalent exchange. According to the value of her skill, the most you can have her copy is your near-perfect abnormal resistance." She continued as Ais immediately nodded her head as it would save a development ability space.

"Alright, this is done. Let's continue. Ais, you have four development abilities to choose from: There are hunter, abnormal resistance, swordsman and spirit healing. Aidan, you have five to choose from, the same four from Ais and another ability I never saw before called 'Luck.'"

"I'll take hunter." Answered Ais immediately as she knew it was the best development ability to get since it was only available on the first level up.

"In that case, I'll take luck. Abnormal resistance is completely useless, and Ais took hunter while swordman and spirit healing can be taken on our next level up if necessary." Concluded Aidan as Loki nodded at their choices and finally pushed her hands on both of their backs to complete the level-up process.

"All right, everything is done. Here's your sheet." Said the goddess as the two got up and took their respective sheet before trading them.

---

Author note:

1) I hope you liked the cliffhanger, although there isn't much there.

2) Small change in the Avenger skill of Ais and now Aidan's. It doesn't function on hate but on the concentration of 'wanting' to kill the monster.

3) After writing this, I noticed that the idea of card magic was pretty bad since there's no way to keep count on them all, haha.