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"Your body has been decaying under the strain of that Negative Skill for years. It's incredibly fragile. Even with the healing magic I just applied, you're going to need an extended period of careful rehabilitation before you reach the baseline of a normal human." Lucian offered a smooth explanation, expertly ignoring Hephaestus's subtle assault.
"Additionally, this is strictly a magical seal. It is not a permanent cure," he warned her seriously. "I don't have enough data to predict exactly how long the seal will hold. If you notice the black lotus on your forehead starting to fade, it ans the suppression is failing. You'll need to find to reapply the seal before it breaks entirely."
"Thank you... truly, from the bottom of my heart," teria said, snapping out of her euphoric daze and looking at Lucian with overwhelming gratitude.
"Don't ntion it." Lucian accepted her thanks without any false modesty.
She had every right to be aggressively thankful; he had literally just saved her life. The Negative Skill hadn't just made her sickly and fragile; it had trapped her in a state of perpetual, low-grade agony. If Hera hadn't explicitly locked her Falna to prevent it from actively draining her life force, she would have died years ago.
He hadn't asked for any compensation, though he definitely had a massive, overarching ulterior motive. Securing the girl's genuine gratitude was more than enough for now.
"Um... I have one incredibly selfish request," teria spoke up, looking at him with desperate, pleading eyes. "I have an older sister. She suffers from the exact sa illness."
"If her level is drastically higher than mine, I can't guarantee the seal will be strong enough to suppress it," Lucian replied thoughtfully. "However, I do have a few alternative, highly experintal treatnts. Bring your sister to the Hephaestus Familia headquarters when you're ready, and I'll see what I can do."
"I will! Thank you so much!" teria bowed deeply once again.
Lucian could easily feel the raw, unadulterated sincerity radiating from her. She was a genuinely wonderful person to converse with. The sheer volu of 'thank yous' and the visible tremor of joy in her voice proved just how deeply this ant to her.
"Words cannot express our gratitude. The Hera Familia will ensure you receive a compensation worthy of this miracle," the adventurer 'Ai' declared, looking at Lucian with absolute, unwavering respect.
Having witnessed his magic instantly eradicate an incurable curse, her internal reaction was far more explosive than her calm exterior suggested. If Lucian and Hephaestus hadn't been sitting right there, she probably would have started screaming and jumping for joy.
"Understood." Lucian nodded calmly.
He didn't particularly care about the Hera Familia's money. If he was going to operate on Alfia, his primary 'demand' would essentially be the raw energy required to actually cast the seal. Without a massive external battery, he mathematically lacked the MP to forcibly suppress a Level 7 Negative Skill.
But just because he didn't demand paynt didn't an the Hera Familia wouldn't pay up. The Hephaestus Familia was actively expanding; an injection of high-tier resources from the ruling faction would be a massive boon, and Lucian had no reason to reject it.
If they were arrogant enough to refuse paynt, Lucian wouldn't throw a fit, but his impression of them would instantly plumt to absolute zero. He would treat the entire ordeal as a purely transactional exchange. It was like seeing soone drowning—if you save them, and they turn out to be your worst enemy, you don't necessarily regret saving a life, but you absolutely wash your hands of them afterward.
He possessed the ultimate cheat; he didn't need to beg for their approval. If the 'strongest Familia in the world' couldn't grasp basic decency, that was their problem, not his. Though, ideally, the apex heroes of the mortal realm weren't complete idiots.
After enduring another barrage of profound gratitude from teria, and securing a free cup of high-end coffee courtesy of the Hera Familia, Lucian and Hephaestus resud their date.
The entire encounter was simply a minor, albeit highly lucrative, detour. It didn't disrupt the flow of their afternoon in the slightest.
Even though Hephaestus found Hera intensely annoying, she didn't harbor any blinding hatred for her, and she was more than capable of separating the deity from the children. She could easily see that teria was a genuinely kind, pitiful girl. Offering a helping hand was entirely justified. Hephaestus was extrely rational about these things.
What she wasn't entirely rational about was Lucian's notoriously low resistance to pretty girls. She fully admitted that teria was stunningly beautiful, but were her hands really that much softer than hers?
"So, how did the sheltered young lady's hand compare to a blacksmith's?" Hephaestus asked, a dangerously sweet smile playing on her lips.
"It was fine. Hers was very soft, but yours has a wonderful, strong resilience to it," Lucian replied with absolute, deadpan seriousness. "You both excel in different areas. If we're talking strictly about beauty, you are both equally flawless."
"Equally flawless? And where exactly does the 'scale' of that beauty tilt in your heart?" Hephaestus shot back.
Are we really playing word gas right now? You normally play things so close to the chest, but now you're interrogating like you didn't hear exactly what I just said!
Seeing Lucian fall utterly silent, a look of profound exasperation on his face, Hephaestus felt a sudden wave of annoyance, quickly followed by intense amusent.
"Cat got your tongue?" Hephaestus pressed, intentionally backing him into a corner.
"The rumors are true... What a buzzkill." Lucian sighed dramatically.
"You really don't hold back, do you?" Hephaestus stared at him for a long mont before letting out a soft sigh. "You truly are a child of my Familia. Honest to a fault."
Having a pure heart was a wonderful trait. However, given the sheer, terrifying volu of knowledge Lucian possessed, it was scientifically impossible for his mind to actually be 'pure'. He existed in a bizarre, contradictory gray zone, ard with a reality-breaking intellect. Even a billion-year-old goddess like her found him impossible to fully predict.
By the ti they returned to the headquarters, Lucian's Ga Board architecture was fundantally complete.
Hephaestus's input had been nothing short of divine. Every single auxiliary rule he had drafted had been rcilessly optimized by her. The new rules were exponentially more streamlined, consud drastically less ntal energy, and covered a vastly wider array of edge cases.
As of tonight, Lucian's finalized operational loadout was locked in.
Combat Deploynt: [Ransotengai], [Three Secrets and Five thods], [Glory Manifestation].
Survival Trump Cards: [True God Awakening], [Death's Glory], [Living Illusion Revival].
Auxiliary Functions: [Mana Reserve], [Ether Circulation], [Hero's Aptitude].
[True God Awakening] activated the exact millisecond his biological life signs flatlined, instantly converting him into an untouchable, un-interactable spiritual entity. This absolute invulnerability prevented his soul from being forcibly dragged into Heaven's reincarnation cycle.
[Death's Glory] was a catastrophic post-mortem counterattack. It utilized his own corpse as a catalyst, weaponizing his lingering resentnt to spawn a berserk, apocalyptic magic beast. The only drawback was that triggering this attack severely extended his mandatory respawn tir.
[Living Illusion Revival] was an instant self-resurrection protocol. It permanently sacrificed one of his pre-spawned magic beasts to instantly reboot his physical body. The strict limitation was that the sacrificed beast had to be of the exact sa power tier as his current level. He had explicitly designed his permanent Mana Battery beasts to serve as perfectly viable, disposable extra lives. Crucially, this spell could also be cast on allies, essentially allowing him to pre-buff them with a temporary 'Guardian Angel' revive.
And finally, the crown jewel of his arsenal: the [Ga Board].
Strategic Frawork 1: [Spirit Status Acquisition] (EXP system), [Material Reserve] (Inventory system), [Teleportation Network] (Fast travel), and the [Hero Panel] (UI interface tracking his Combat, Survival, and Auxiliary skills).
Strategic Frawork 2: Full Map, Minimap, Resource Radar, Faction Status tracking, and Party Mode (which natively supported localized telepathic voice chat and party-wide EXP sharing).
Currently, the [Hero Panel] only housed a single character template: Lucian himself.
But his ultimate ambition was to actively seek out and collect the data of legendary heroes across the mortal realm. Once he compiled enough [Hero Templates], he planned to engineer a fully instanced, 5v5 MOBA-style Dungeon raid. At its core, his ultimate goal was simply to enjoy the ultimate gaming experience.
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