Wrong, my props refresh every day

"If all else fails, I'll go find that pig in the guild and ask for information myself!"

Hephaestus concluded, his chest heaving with excitement.

Is this the margin of freedom a large family has... This is too much of a cheat!

No...it's so reliable!!

Hephaestus snorted softly, pulled out a crimson metal token from his pocket and tossed it to Xingjian: "Take this to the 'Eye of the Furnace' tavern on East Street. The information dealer there will give you the latest news when he sees the token."

She turned and walked towards the door, her fiery red hair flying behind her. "Within three days, I guarantee that the little lizard will have nowhere to hide!"

When the door of the ward was closed heavily, Xingjian looked at the token in his hand and smiled bitterly.

There is a line of small words engraved on the back of the token: [Specially made for the Hephaestus family - if you dare to lose it, you will be used as a forging table for life].

"This style is really..."

Xingjian stroked the exquisite forging hammer pattern on the token and suddenly became full of anticipation for the upcoming dragon hunt.

When the ward door closed, the setting sun outside the window completely sank into the horizon, and the shadow of the dungeon was spreading before his eyes.

There, a young dragon is waiting for its next challenger—

Waiting to make or break a true hero.

----

Chapter 48: Useless Elf, don’t be so useless!

Since she already had plans for the future, Hephaestus chatted with Xingjian and then left the ward. Next, she needed to go to the guild to issue a reward for eyewitness information.

As soon as Hephaestus left, the door of the ward was pushed open with a bang.

Amazon sister Tiona was the first to rush in, followed closely by Amazon sister Tione, Miss Ais, Lefiya, and Miss Liu at the end also followed in quietly.

"Hey! Little hero, have you leveled up yet? Let me see if you've become stronger."

Diona almost threw herself on the hospital bed, her brown eyes sparkling, and she was looking forward to Xingjian's growth more than anyone else.

"Stupid Diona, it's very rude of you to ask someone about their rank directly like that."

Sister Tione held her forehead and felt very helpless about her younger sister.

Xingjian, who was lying on the bed, smiled and shook his head: "Unfortunately, no. I haven't reached the requirements for the great feat of upgrading."

"what?!"

Diona exclaimed exaggeratedly, a look of surprise on her face. "Not even qualified to be a Milotaur? How can I level up then?"

Diona was born in the Fighting Country "Tilskura" and had joined the Kali clan before she could remember anything.

She lives with her twin sister and has no idea who her parents are. Due to the tradition of fratricide, Diona killed her roommate in the arena on her fifth birthday and advanced to Level 2 (her sister Tione also advanced on the same day).

She thought that the mutant Milotaur was much stronger than her roommate. She had already completed the upgrade, so why hadn't Xingjian done so yet?

It’s weird.

Hearing that Xingjian had not yet achieved the great feat and upgraded, everyone's expressions became solemn and they frowned.

"Can't even defeat the mutated Milotaur? Then... what should we do next?" asked the Yamabuki-style elf Lefiya cautiously.

Xing Jian took a deep breath and said with a firm look, "Lord Hephaestus said that defeating Militaurus is only half the battle. I still need to defeat a powerful monster to complete the battle."

"Are there monsters on floors 1-16 more powerful than Milotaur?"

The Yamabuki-seed elf was stunned for a moment, but then he understood.

"Could it be that Mr. Xingjian wants to defeat the young dragon?! That so-called upper-level maze king?"

Lefiya expressed her guess, then her eyes fell on the blonde swordswoman, and she murmured softly:

"Isn't this the same as Miss Ais?"

The blonde swordswoman lowered her head slightly, a strand of hair falling in front of her eyes.

Ais Wallenstein joined the Loki clan at the age of seven and became an adventurer. Under the influence of the skill "Revenge Princess", she broke the guild's issued sword in just a few days. Her excessive demand for strength caused concern among the clan elders.

At the age of 8, after entering a bottleneck period, he had a big quarrel with Livilia because of the upgrade conditions (great achievements) and entered the dungeon. He was tempted by the evil god "Thanatos". After rejecting him, the other party released his divine power to lure out the baby dragon.

At the critical moment, Livilia arrived and taught her to summon her mother's "wind." She realized her mother's protection was always by her side, and then defeated the young dragon, achieving a great feat. She then successfully upgraded to Lv. 2 in just one year, breaking the historical record and shocking the entire Orario and even the world.

As a LV1 adventurer, only Aisi has ever defeated a powerful enemy like the young dragon. However, everyone in her clan knows that this is because Aisi has a [Rare Skill].

Avenger: Activate at will to increase the attack power of all monster-type enemies to a high level, and dragon-type enemies to an extreme level. The effect of this skill increases with hatred, with the stronger the hatred, the greater the effect. Loki considers this skill to be the strongest damage-dealing skill in the history of the Netherworld, but most weapons cannot withstand its power and are easily damaged.

The baby dragon is a dragon monster. When encountering the baby dragon, Miss Aisi's [Rare Skill] triggered a significant enhancement of her ability value and she was able to barely defeat this "Lonely King of the Labyrinth".

just now……

Is Xingjian also planning to challenge this lone king of the upper maze?

Does he... also have the skill of [Special Attack] against dragon monsters?

Tione crossed her arms, deep in thought. "Let's not even talk about whether we can win. What are we going to do next? A baby dragon isn't a rare monster you can just encounter."

"The Lord God said that he would issue a bounty and use the power of Hephaestus's family to find the trace of the young dragon." Xingjian explained.

"Rich families are different... They can actually issue a bounty for any sightings of a young dragon."

Tione couldn't help but feel helpless. Although the [Loki Familia] was far more powerful than the Hephaestus Familia, in terms of economy...

I'm sorry, but as the largest arms dealer in Orario, none of the Hephaestus Families have such a background.

"Then I must go and watch. The little hero will fight the young dragon just like Ai Si did back then!" Tiona said excitedly.

"Stupid sister, do you think that's a circus performance?" Tione helplessly held down the jumping Tiona.

Just then, the door of the ward was gently pushed open.

Ahmed came in with a medicine tray and said to everyone:

"Visiting hours are over, the patient needs to change his dressing and rest."

Only then did everyone prepare to leave reluctantly.

Before leaving, the Yamabuki-style elf Lefiya reminded him, "Mr. Hoshimi, please be careful... Dragon-type monsters are even more powerful than enhanced-type monsters. Don't try to hold on."

Miss Aisi, the blonde swordswoman next to her, also nodded slightly, a hint of concern flashing in her golden eyes: "Keep going."

Tiona was dragged out by her sister, and she didn't forget to turn around and shout, "When you get better, we will exercise together again!"

When the crowd dispersed, Miss Liu was still standing in the corner of the ward, her fingers nervously twisting the corners of her clothes, her sky-blue eyes avoiding Xingjian's gaze, her lips trembling slightly as if she wanted to say something.

"Miss Liu?" Xingjian called softly.

"Stupid... idiot! You're not even healed yet... and you're already thinking about attacking the Lone King of the upper dungeon!"

Liu's face suddenly flushed, and his voice became smaller and smaller, until it almost became a mosquito-like buzzing sound at the end, "I will be worried..."

After saying this, the elf girl ran out of the ward like a frightened rabbit, even the tips of her ears were red and bleeding.

Useless...

Ahmed sighed as he prepared the medicine, "Really...each and every one of them is so troublesome."

At this time, the sunlight outside the window dyed the ward into a warm orange-red color.

Xingjian looked at the direction where Liu left, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously rose.

----

Since she was unable to move around during her hospitalization and was only accompanied by Miss Amid, Xingjian had to start thinking about the specific advantages and disadvantages of the item [Dodge Cloak] obtained through temporary luck during the battle with the mutant Milotaur.

First of all, it has almost absolute dodge ability against physical attacks.

As long as the cloak is facing the user and the attack is unfolded at the moment, any physical attack can be deflected in theory.

However, you must accurately predict the direction of attack and maintain a facing posture.

[Dodge] will be ineffective when facing away or sideways. (As mentioned in the encyclopedia, this is a disadvantage of the Dodge Cloak.)

This will be difficult if you encounter a fast-attack monster or an adventurer because you don't have the automatic radar sensing attack of [Famous Sword. Electric Pill].

However, the [Famous Sword. Electric Pill] is easy to run out of power and can only withstand a certain degree of attack.

The second is how to deal with magical attacks.

When facing large-scale magic, the cloak cannot completely dodge it, but it can inject magic power to deflect the direction of the attack.

To achieve a complete rebound, the user needs to inject more magic power than the caster himself.

Final summary:

As a causal weapon, the Dodge Cloak is undoubtedly the strongest item at present, but its only drawback is that it consumes a lot of mental power every time it is activated, and the specific degree depends on the intensity of the attack.

Hoshimi only used it three times against Milotaur before she felt intensely dizzy and exhausted.

On the night of the hospitalization, the god Mihe came to visit Xingjian with a soothing and sleep-inducing potion, and also brought Xingjian a piece of parchment -

The latest bounty issued by the Adventurer's Guild.

【Reward】

Target: Information on dragon sightings on the 11th to 12th floors

Reward: Hephaestus Family Special Lv.3 Magic Sword x2

Additional conditions: Ensure that the target stays until the expedition team arrives

Two Lv.3 magic swords, worth probably several million in fari, were a astronomical price in the eyes of ordinary adventurers, enough to drive any team of mid-level adventurers crazy.

However, to the Hephaestus family, such a magic sword is just an ordinary item in the treasure house.

With two Lv3 weapons, it would be too troublesome to even register them.

Because in the forging workshop in the deepest part of Orario, there are all kinds of magic swords from Lv.1 to Lv.4, and even the equipment needed by the first-level adventurer is available.

Each piece was crafted by the master dwarven artisan, the Cyclops. Some were even said to be prototypes crafted for heroes yet to appear. As Orario's recognized "strongest arms dealer," the Hephaestus family possessed a legacy far deeper than most could imagine.

But even so, Xingjian was still very grateful for what Lord Hephaestus had done for him.

In the future, I must repay the kindness of Lord Hephaestus and Miss Tsubaki.

…………

The next afternoon.

Thanks to the significant increase in durability, Xingjian's injuries recovered much faster than expected.

Miss Amid watched in surprise as Hoshimi removed the bandages ahead of schedule and obtained permission from Lord Dean Kate to be discharged from the hospital.

I haven't been back to the pub for several days.

With a troubled mood, Xingjian pushed open the door of the familiar tavern.

The warm light and the aroma of food immediately enveloped Xingjian.

Xier was standing on tiptoe to wipe the glasses on the bar. When she heard the door open, she immediately turned around and her silver-gray eyes lit up instantly.

"Ah? Mr. Hoshimi!"

Miss Xier trotted over, her apron swinging gently around her waist, and said happily, "You're out of the hospital! Are you feeling well?"

"Meow! You're back!?"

Behind the bar, Anya, who was sorting wine bottles, twitched her cat ears and excitedly stuck her head out, then jumped over in two or three steps, with her golden tail raised high.

"I heard about your condition from Liu. He described you in such a miserable way! He said things like 'covered in blood' and 'your bones were exposed'. It made Anya so worried she couldn't sleep for three days. You seem quite energetic now!"

"I'm sorry for making Miss Xier and Anya worried."

Xingjian scratched the back of his head embarrassedly.

According to Miss Liu, Xier and Anya also went to visit Xingjian during the days when he was in a coma, but because they were too busy with the tavern, they left after a short while.

At the same time, Miss Liu from the kitchen also leaned out from the kitchen door, and a trace of relief flashed in her lake-blue eyes the moment she saw Xingjian.

The elf girl was still peeling potatoes in her hand, but she had already unconsciously taken half a step towards the door.

"Welcome back."

Liu smiled gently, her voice an octave lower than usual, a faint blush on her fair cheeks, but she seemed to realize her loss of composure and hurriedly added, "There's still work to do in the kitchen."

however……

But he had no intention of turning around and leaving.

Anya poked Liu's calf with her tail while grinning. "Liu~ The potatoes you peeled are about to turn into mashed potatoes, meow~"