Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Though there were several unexpected developments, Vahn finally returned to the Hearth Manor after calling Terra to his side with Unit Management. They spent a few hours setting up a waypoint that she would be able to teleport back to, as he was still very interested in the Elsos Ruins, before making a few trips to move everyone over. The mana requirement for [Void Movement] heavily depended on the distance and weight that she was carrying, forcing her to move over three people at a time while having to recharge in between trips. Even so, the entire process only took two hours for all twenty members of the Artemis Familia, Artemis, and Vahn himself to make the transfer.

Hestia, as usual, had been there to greet him upon his return but this time she also welcomed Artemis as well. Vahn was then forced to sit down and explain everything that happened while the members of the Artemis Familia were essentially having a picnic in the inner courtyard. When he finally finished the very lengthy explanation, including his thoughts about what exactly had happened to Artemis, Vahn was met with several surprises in sequence.

Instead of being in the inner courtyard, Syr had gathered Diana, Eliza, Melissa, Katsuya, and Momo before fitting all of the members of the Artemis Familia into Maid outfits. It hadn’t exactly been his intention, but Syr had intuited what had happened between him and the Artemis Familia and managed to convince them to become ’Battle Maids’ like Maemi and Emiru. Since none of the girls wanted to part with Artemis, who had now become a permanant residence of the Hearth Manor, this wasn’t exactly the worst development that could have happened. They fell under the same vows as every other resident but also signed service contracts to officially work as Maids in the future. The current Maids would be training them in their duties while Lunoire, at least until Chloe and Ryuu returned to the surface, would be training them in how to investigate, infiltrate, and provide security...

When Vahn had seen a ’flock’ of Maids gathered together, his mind had blanked for a moment, something many of the girls found very interesting. Fortunately, they took their goddess’ words to heart and showed a proper sense of propriety, especially since Diana was present. Their feelings towards Vahn were a little complicated, but their trust and loyalty toward him had already reached a surprising extent. Vahn didn’t know if it was because of the combination of his skills, or how they reinforced the idea in each other, but the lowest Loyalty rating amongst the girls was at 319, belonging to the young Lana. She also wanted to become a Maid and looked especially adorable alongside Diana as they quickly became good friends...

The second surprise Vahn received happened soon after everyone had sat down for a small celebration to welcome all of the new residents and ’staff’. Vahn had sensed several friendly presences moving underground and, less than a minute later, Naho, Mlem, and Arles had burst into the dining room. Without any hesitation at all, even though he had Diana sitting in his lap, Naho jumped toward him, shouting, "Welcome back, Vaaaahn~!" Vahn caught her out of the air with his telekinesis, causing her to laugh as she wriggled around before finally settling down a bit. Even so, she came over to his back and gave him a hug, rubbing her cheek against the side of his face as she giggled happily...

His longer than expected absence had caused Gros and Lyd to investigate if there were any issues and, after a series of small events, the exposure between the Xenos and the Manor’s residents started to increase. Vahn had taken his children over for a few visits but now, with permission from Hestia, some of the Xenos were entering into the Manor’s grounds. Though this was mainly just to play, and was specifically limited to female Xenos, it was still ’some’ form of progress. Since his children seemed to really get along with the Xenos, something Vahn had expected after they had been ’cooped’ up for so long, he didn’t have any problems with this development at all...

What had been the most surprising thing for Vahn, at least on the surface world, was that there were now a series of tunnels and small ponds located around the Manor. There was even a room that had been cleared out near the dining room, next door to where Maemi and Emiru slept, serving as the current domicile of Marie. She and Terra had become surprisingly good friends and, being a very innocent and pure Mermaid, everyone’s impression of Marie was quite high. Though they hadn’t officially scheduled anything, everyone had been on a rotation to spend time with the childish Xenos, telling her stories while soaking their feet in the massive pool that was her room. As for how Vahn came to learn about Marie’s presence in the Manor, as nobody had told him about it just yet, it was when she popped up in the bath, surprising him and many of the others present...

With these developments, Vahn’s return was marked by a very festive atmosphere within the Manor and he greatly enjoyed spending time with his children once again. Though there were a few things going on with the City and School that he needed to deal with, none of that mattered as much as the time he spent with family. Now, their family had grown a little...well, a lot, but that just made it feel like new life had been breathed into the Manor. Though Terra did whisk him away after dinner, as he still needed to keep his ’promise’ with her, that was also quite an enjoyable experience. She had managed to convince Alexa to help Risna with her magic training, so they had a few intimate hours together without any interruptions...

Deep within the Dungeon, things weren’t going particularly as well, unfortunately. Though his time with Rufina and Shakti had been a very fulfilling experience, ignoring the fact that Rufina tried to punch him occasionally, the following day hadn’t been kind to any of them. It could be related to the fact that his Karma had exploded, or the fact that he ’really’ wanted to just relax at home, but the strange caterpillar monsters had started to show up on surroundings Floors. Their scouting parties had encountered them, observing as they devoured other monsters and consumed magic cores en masse. One report even mentioned the Dungeon triggering a Monster Party in response to a horde of the caterpillar monsters, causing a massive feeding frenzy that required the scouting party to beat a hasty retreat.

It was obvious that Enyo was beginning to move and, with her timing, Vahn felt like she had flipped a switch inside of him that was trying his patience. Since he had been planning to have Terra come down and establish the teleportation ward, this news was more than a little annoying. He had also been preparing to return to the Manor with some of the girls as there were things like birthday celebrations and other important events going on. Maemi and Emiru also needed to return relatively soon, as the number of Maids in the Manor had increased explosively. As they were supposed to be in charge of the group, having them gone for a long period of time was detrimental. If the girls already established a hierarchy of their own, it would be difficult for the two to wrangle them...well, ’more’ difficult...Vahn was certain they would manage...

Even so, Enyo’s timing was very ’inconvenient’ for him and Vahn felt like it had to be a result of his Karma that things were developing. Though he also sent a small prayer of gratitude, thanking it for not interfering with his return from the Dark Continent and his reunion, Vahn was still troubled. It was a bit of a lonely thought, as part of him wanted to stay here indefinitely, but Vahn was starting to ’want’ to move on to the next world, just to reset his Karmic Value. As it stood, the next few years would become progressively more difficult since he was now stuck with the rather heavy ’virtue’ he had earned for himself. Fortunately, there was a bit of a surprise when he was thinking about potential solutions and, for a brief moment, Vahn was filled with hope and expectation...

The three [Unique Gacha Coupons] he had obtained weren’t simply for three individual pulls, no, Sis had informed him they could be used ’during’ a pull and still take effect. This meant Vahn had a chance of obtaining 33 Unique grade items, some of which could have ’record-breaking’ effects like the [Fate Severing Knife]. Though he couldn’t use such a thing on himself, as he still had the eternal flame, Eva’s memory fragment, and other things to consider, it wasn’t impossible for a ’similar’ item to exist. Since he genuinely desired a means to enjoy his life in relative peace, at least for a little while, Vahn was intending to go all in...

With that thought in mind, Vahn opened his Gacha function and left the parameters completely blank, as there was no means of knowing what kind of Unique item would benefit him most. Then, without any hesitation, Vahn did a 10+1 pull and watched as the giant wheel that resided in the back of his mind spun around. It slowly spat out a series of orbs and Vahn, surprising Vahn greatly since the ’worst’ pull was actually yellow. Since the system used the color spectrum to grade items, the value increased from Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Rainbow. He knew Unique items were very useful, but for the weakest to be Yellow...this was an important discovery.

Unfortunately, though there were some pretty good items in the mix, Vahn didn’t obtain anything close to what he was looking for. The best item ended up being the only Green pull, a strange item known as [Ginsin Gum Root]. It had the effect of being absolutely irresistible to Dragon-Type monsters under Tier 4, allowing them to quickly be tamed so long as you had the requisite skills. Since he had no need for such an item, Vahn gave it to Rufina so she would be able to tame one of her own subordinates in the future. Those that had been tamed and named through his Innate were intrinsically connected to him so Vahn wanted her to have a unique companion wholly her own. This would give her another parallel with Vana, while even Vulcan would undoubtedly like having a new ’junior’ around to bully...

Vahn’s second 10+1 pull ended up being marginally better than the first batch, as there was two Green pulls this time around. One was a [Warhorn of the Beast King], an item that could double the parameters of all Beast Humans for 10 minutes. Though the duration was short, the range was 5,000km and it could truly turn the tide of battle if you had enough powerful Beast Humans on your side. As for the second item, it was an emerald color pill named [Dryad’s V.i.r.g.i.n Sap], with the effect of completely curing all ailments. It would also make the bodily fluids of the target possess a similar property, so long as they remained a v.i.r.g.i.n...

As useful as some of the Unique items were, Vahn felt somewhat disheartened but refused to give up as he made his final pull. This time, all ten spheres were Yellow, which wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but still caused Vahn to want to crush the Dungeon Floor. When he saw the +1, however, Vahn nearly jumped through the ceiling since it ended up being Violet, the second highest possible color. Before opening up the other spheres, Vahn immediately cracked open the violet one to obtain his prize. Part of him hoped it was related to karma but, even if it wasn’t, just obtaining a violet grade Unique was truly a blessing...

[Brísingamen]

Use: Bestowing this sacred Pendant unto the Goddess [Freya] will grant you her Blessing and Favor. As a Goddess of War, Beauty, Wealth, S.e.x, and Love, you will be forever fruitful in all such endeavors.

Restriction: [Freya]

[Blessing of Freya]

Rank: S

Use:(Passive): Greatly increases the learning speed of all combat arts, including skills, magic, and abilities. Enhances the efficacy of all charm related skills and improves the users appeal to the opposite s.e.x. Slight boost to s.e.x.u.a.l stamina.

Use:(Active): Doubles the success rate of the next charm attempt. Failure still improves the opinion of the target slightly. Cooldown(12H)

[Freya’s Favor]

Rank: Unique

Use: Allows the user to make any single request of [Freya] and guarantees she will accept.

As Vahn stared at the beautiful pendant floating around within his mind, his eyes in the real world glazed over slightly and he entered a truly Sage-like state. An aged smile spread upon his face as he outwardly spoke, "Sis, it seems as though I need to reflect upon my actions and live a better life..." Vahn felt that The Path had been somewhat corrupted by the decisions he had been making, as many of the things happening lately had affected his ’charm’, and other abilities. From the moment he had decided to stop ’restraining’ himself, it was like his life his social sphere had exploded, now with almost twice the number of ’active’ relationsh.i.p.s as before. At the same time, he managed to meld with Freya and get a ’boost’ to his prowess while also developing several abilities that increase his chances of wooing the opposite s.e.x. Now, he even got an item that was specifically suited to that purpose...

Though she knew he didn’t expect a response, Sis still chimed in, saying in a comforting tone, (*Well, it’s because you have a soft spot for girls with a tragedy...though, I’ll admit, you have gotten a little carried away lately.*) Sis had, obviously, been watching over Vahn since the beginning of his changes and had been diligently doc.u.menting them all. She knew he was a little stressed out by everything happening but, at the same time, all of the incidents were his own making. The Path had a way of giving Vahn what he wanted and, though he certainly wanted to be rid of his mountain of Karma, his desire to ’make others happy’, specifically the girls around him, was much stronger...

Vahn, still in his Sagely state, nodded his head in response to Sis and began stroking a non-existent beard. He knew it was ultimately futile to resist the genuine affections of other people and, in truth, he would probably have thousands of partners if he truly showed no restraint. Almost any girl within the City, including some that were already happily married, would want to spend at least one night with him. After all, it wasn’t just his heroic feats and reforms that had become legendary, rumors had long circulated about his [Hands of Nirvana] and his ’s.e.x.u.a.l prowess’. Freya had even openly admitted the fact that he had ’completely conquered’ her in the bedroom, to an extent that she claimed to be unable to live without him...

The number of goddesses desiring his children, not simply his assistance with conceiving a child, had long since broken the one-hundred mark. Luckily, the core goddesses of the Alliance had put a stop to such antics very quickly, though it didn’t stop the occasional goddess from trying to solicit him. Being that they were almost all ’unblemished’ and ’flawless’ beauties, Vahn had to admit he was very tempted each time. The only thing that stopped him was the fact he was generally busy during such times, as they would only cross paths when he was moving through specific areas of the City...

Though he already knew this, Vahn’s popularity had exponentially exploded over the last few months and it wasn’t likely going to slow down in the near future. Knowing this, even though he had made the same promise to himself several times, Vahn was ’adamant’ about not having many relationsh.i.p.s in other worlds. He knew he would ’undoubtedly’ fall for some girls, perhaps to the point of even linking the records together, but he had decided to place a hard limit on permanant relationsh.i.p.s. After all, the more records he had to link in the future, the more difficult it would be to manage...well, everything...fortunately, by the time he truly reached Tier 7, Sis assured him such things wouldn’t actually be issues at all...

(A/N: An example of Tier 7 is someone on the same level as Xeno from DBS, meaning Vahn could theoretically have enough power to not only link records, but create and destroy Universes. Look forward to how the story develops when the power scales ’literally’ through the Heavens xD...)

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’The Battle Meido Squadron Is Formed...’,’Everyone Loves Marie...’,’That Unique Item though xD...Freya is going to be one happy goddess (UwU)~!’)