"Hoo..."
Takatsuki, his entire body wrapped in ink-black Armament Haki, opened his eyes and let out a sigh, looking at the enemy shattered into pieces on the ground before him.
Not long ago, one person and one monster engaged in an unrestricted brawl in this Dungeon. As the fight progressed, Takatsuki chose to go all out with Armament Haki, turning it into a mutual beating between two pitch-black figures. One might have thought it was an internal struggle between kin.
The result, naturally, was Takatsuki's superior performance. The exaggerated strength of the Ox Talisman combined with the armor-piercing and defensive properties of Armament Haki allowed him to completely overwhelm the opponent.
Taking out a high-grade elixir from his backpack and drinking it in one gulp, the glass test tube shattered into fragments upon hitting the ground. Takatsuki looked at the monster, which had left him no spoils of war, without any anger. Instead, he let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration.
"You were a good opponent."
During the desperate struggle just now, Takatsuki finally awakened his own Haki. In the battle, he utilized all the combat techniques he was familiar with, including Hamon and the recently mastered Nen.
The life-and-death confrontation allowed his abilities, which had previously been unable to break through, to finally make a breakthrough.
Indeed, the best teacher is always practical combat.
"Takatsuki, you're amazing!"
Just as Takatsuki was about to leave, applause rang out not far away. The little mermaid Marie emerged from the water nearby, clapping her hands continuously.
"Marie, why are you here?"
Marie stopped clapping and said, "Because I sensed something very terrifying appear, and I was a bit worried. But seeing how powerful Takatsuki is, I feel relieved."
"You should go back quickly too. I need to continue my journey."
After bidding farewell to Marie, Takatsuki quickly passed through several floors and finally arrived at a safe floor late at night to rest.
He checked his status panel and saw that his Nen had reached Lv2, greatly expanding the range of the spatial channels it could open.
It could even connect to the surface.
Takatsuki quietly sensed the beacon he had left on the surface and opened a basketball-sized circular hole in mid-air. The other end was a pitch-black room. Basketball-sized was the largest he could open; he could shrink the channel at will, but there was a limit to how much he could enlarge it. However, Takatsuki knew this was already very impressive, as the maximum size that could be opened was still continuously increasing with the improvement of his Nen level.
Seeing that the ability was successful, Takatsuki was just about to wave his hand to close the channel when a wary voice suddenly rang out.
"Who!"
Takatsuki hadn't expected that merely opening a channel would wake Fu Hua. Helpless, he could only speak up: "Fu Hua, it's me."
A faint light lit up by the bedside. He saw Fu Hua, wearing a white shirt as sleepwear, lighting a candle and looking at the circular channel that appeared next to the famous sword Moon Shadow, which was leaning against the bedside. She softly asked, "Did something happen?"
"Nothing, I just had a high-intensity battle in the Dungeon, so my ability had a breakthrough. I was just trying it out."
Takatsuki said somewhat awkwardly.
Fu Hua nodded: "It's good that nothing happened. You need to be careful when you go to the Dungeon alone. If it's too dangerous, retreat first. As the saying goes, 'As long as the green hills remain, there will always be wood to burn.'"
"I have been injured for a long time, and I am not in a hurry for this one morning and evening..."
Listening to Fu Hua's serious and gentle words, Takatsuki nodded, "Don't worry, there's no problem. Everything has been going smoothly so far."
"Hmm, if that's the case, then let's talk about you peeking into a young lady's room in the middle of the night."
"..."
So she was waiting for me here.
After being lectured by Fu Hua and promising not to abuse this ability late at night, Takatsuki finally closed the channel as ordered. Thankfully, their voices were very low just now and didn't wake Mei, who was already asleep. Otherwise, his wise and heroic image would have been shattered.
In any case, the current [Close at Hand Yet Worlds Apart] could serve as a communication function. However, Takatsuki tested this opened channel: it wouldn't exceed a one-meter range from him, and no matter how he moved, it would follow him. The other end was bound to a beacon, and the rules were the same as his side: as long as the beacon moved, the other end of the channel would also move.
And if the channel closed while something was in the middle, it would be directly teleported to the side with the greater mass ratio.
It wouldn't tear it apart, so this ability couldn't be used as a lethal attack to ambush people.
And if the mass on both sides was the same, it would also be fixedly teleported back to its original space, which was very reasonable.
After figuring out his ability, Takatsuki finally went to sleep.
Then, after waking up the next morning, he made a "call" to everyone to report his safety.
This was something he had agreed upon with Fu Hua yesterday. She also felt that a companion from her Familia venturing alone into the Dungeon for her sake caused many people to worry. Originally, if there were no conditions, it would have been fine, but now that conditions allowed, reporting safety was a very necessary thing.
Look, who said Fu Hua had low emotional intelligence!?
In short, when they reconnected the next day, everyone was pleasantly surprised and kept Takatsuki talking for several hours before letting him go.
Kiana was the most talkative among them, constantly asking Takatsuki about the lower levels, and even tried to climb through the channel several times. However, the current channel wasn't large enough for her to pass through, not even for Bronya.
"Alright, I need to continue exploring downwards. I haven't passed the Thirtieth Floor yet. If I continue downwards, it might exceed the limit of my current ability. If it doesn't, I'll continue to contact you every morning to report my safety. By the way, these are my gains from the Dungeon. You can take them first."
Takatsuki threw the materials he had collected alone during this period one by one through the channel, which greatly surprised Hestia.
"Even Loki and her Familia wouldn't have this many gains when they're not even at the Thirtieth Floor."
Takatsuki hadn't collected many magic stones; the valuable items were mainly the various materials from the Dungeon. He had been sending out the Shadowkhan along the way to casually collect some rare materials that grew in the Dungeon.
However, neither he nor the Ninja Soldiers knew which materials were valuable, so they simply collected everything that looked rare. It was a strategy of complete looting.
"That's because the Loki Familia wouldn't carry these low-value materials on their expedition. Their bags need to hold supplies and high-value materials."
Takatsuki, however, was different. Carrying these materials had no impact on him, so he collected them regardless of whether they were useful or not.
"You all send them to the Guild for identification. I need to continue my journey. I'll send another batch before I reach the limit of my range. Remember to keep the materials needed on the list."
The subsequent identification and selling process didn't require Takatsuki's involvement. Although selling to the Guild would only fetch the lowest market price, the advantage was that they were easy to sell. After all, not everyone had connections like the Loki Familia.
However, Takatsuki underestimated his patron goddess's thick skin. After Takatsuki hung up the call, Hestia announced to everyone:
"Everyone, continue your adventures in the Dungeon! Just leave these materials to me!"
Mei asked worriedly, "Hestia, are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?"
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm a god! Don't worry, no madman in Orario would dare to attack a god."
If Takatsuki had been there, he would have known this was complete nonsense. Attacking a god was a grave sin and would lead to being wanted, that was true, but there were many madmen among adventurers.
However, fortunately, Hestia usually didn't offend anyone, and her conflicts with Loki were more like two mischievous friends competing and showing off. Moreover, these materials weren't valuable enough for someone to attack a god, so there really wasn't much danger.