Cecil's Blacksmith Shop – The Divine Chamber
After the great battle, everyone had grown stronger, with significant improvements to their abilities. This was especially true for Sora and Shiro, who had planned strategic commands for nearly every stage of the fight and thus earned most of the experience points.
Sora/Shiro – Level 1
- Strength: I35
- Endurance: I56
- Dexterity: I26
- Agility: I29
- Magic: I50
Next were the Frontline group
Yuuki – Level 1
- Strength: I20
- Endurance: I19
- Dexterity: G210
- Agility: H190
- Magic: I20
Tachibana Kanade – Level 1
- Strength: I13
- Endurance: I18
- Dexterity: I43
- Agility: I20
- Magic: I98
Yui did not participate in the battle, so her endurance only increased by 9 points.
Yuuki was particularly precocious – her Dexterity and Agility had already reached Grade G. Shaka was pleased; he believed she could level up within a month or two.
The Black Cat did not join the fight either, so her abilities had not been updated yet.
As for Dekomori, she had indeed exploited a bug in the system:
Dekomori – Level 1
- Strength: H105
- Endurance: I77
- Dexterity: I51
- Agility: I5
- Magic: I0
Thanks to the high initial favorability with Yuuki and the others, Shaka's skill [Wings of Justice] had gained massive attribute boosts. Out of the total 1,500+ ability points earned by the group, over 400 were absorbed by his skill.
Next was Shaka's turn to update his stats. He quickly undressed and lay on the bed as the goddess skillfully ran her fingertips along his spine before placing a parchment over him.
Shaka – Level 1
- Strength: H150 → H177
- Endurance: H130 → H181
- Dexterity: I77 → H173
- Agility: I89 → G211
- Magic: G207 → G237
Skill: Heroes of the Stars
- When targeted by multiple enemies, restores stamina and mana.
- The faster you move, the stronger the skill effect.
"Because we didn't update last time, the attribute points lost from summoning players weren't deducted. So even though this increase looks small, my total attributes have actually exceeded 700 points," Shaka explained as he stroked his chin.
"The surplus from our great achievements unlocked this new skill. The endurance boost is pretty good – not bad at all."
"As long as I run fast enough, those players won't be able to drain all my magic. Hehe."
"Now all I need to do is gradually increase the number of monsters I kill, work hard to improve my stats, and leveling up to Level 2 will come naturally."
After leaving the Divine Chamber, only Shadow remained unupdated he had self-destructed halfway through the fight and hadn't logged back in since.
"Is he still following the 'Saitama Training Method'?" Shaka wondered, recalling a conversation he'd had with Shadow about it.
The mental image of a bald Shadow made him burst out laughing.
Once all updates were complete, Shaka stood before a conference table where seven young players were seated.
"Alright let's distribute the contribution points now."
The allocation principle was simple: points were based on changes in each person's ability values. Except for a few precocious players, most attribute improvements were directly linked to combat experience, which served as a reference for their contributions in the battle.
"First place: Sora and Shiro – 30,000 contribution points each."
"Second place: Kanade – assisted in eliminating most of the monsters, 10,000 contribution points."
"Third place: Yuuki – helped defend the city and killed 30 monsters, 5,000 contribution points."
"Black Cat and Dekomori – your contributions in requesting aid and healing will be calculated separately."
After announcing the awards, Shaka received several requests from the players:
"Firearms, tomahawk guitar, permanent antidote, Japanese yen... what even is a 'weapon slot'?"
The young players had all kinds of unusual requests. Kanade tugged at Shaka's sleeve and pleaded, "I want a new character slot."
Shaka assumed she wanted to invite friends to join and agreed to her request.
Once everything was settled, night fell, and almost everyone logged off – except Yuuki, who needed to remain fully immersed for 24 hours. In the living room, several figures dissolved into golden light particles and vanished.
Sora hugged Shiro as they stayed seated in their chairs.
"Is there something else?" Shaka asked curiously.
"We don't need to limit playtime to 8 hours – this shouldn't be a technical issue," Sora said. As dedicated shut-ins, they wanted to stay online longer; there was still so much of the game they wanted to explore.
Like... is there an entertainment district or something before the censorship mode is added? Hehe.
Shaka explained seriously, "Constant summoning requires me to spend ability points. You can do what Kanade did and use 10,000 contribution points to buy permanent trial access."
"Got it – for RPG players, level is life. I understand," Sora replied.
The pair was more than willing to pay – it was like buying the full game outright. Though the price seemed high, it only used in-game currency, so it felt practically free.
For Shaka, granting recruitment rights to players let them invite friends and family to join, making the familia more diverse. Each 10,000 contribution points spent on permanent access was equivalent to completing 100 training missions – after which players would contribute a portion of their attribute gains back to [Wings of Justice].
It was like moving points from one hand to the other – a true win-win.
"The only problem is that my base stats will never increase on their own," Shaka mused.
But he had already considered this: the more players there were, the stronger the attribute boost from [Wings of Justice] would become. Fighting monsters above his level would grow much easier, allowing him to earn great achievements. Even without precocious skills like Bell Cranel's, his growth wouldn't be slow.
However...
"In the original story, Haruhime's 'level-up' state halves the attribute points she gains," Shaka recalled. His understanding of this was:
"Battles were too easy, so her body didn't get enough training. She only received a portion of the points from the great achievement reward."
In reality, "Great Achievements" and "Experience Points" were separate systems in the DanMachi world. Attribute growth wasn't directly tied to achievements – instead, achievements acted as experience amplifiers, similar to the bonus you get from fighting higher-level monsters.
"I remember the original novels mentioned that even repeatedly killing weak monsters increases ability points. Whether it's fighting other humans, daily training, forging weapons, or making potions – as long as adventurers put in effort and show growth, the gods can convert that into ability points."
Great Achievements were stepping stones to higher levels like a qualification pass. They also had another function: unlocking skills. The reason completing a great achievement granted so many points was simply because the task itself was extremely difficult and required immense effort, so attribute growth came naturally.
"Ais Wallenstein like the protagonist was born with the ability to fight two levels above her own, which slowed her attribute growth. Otherwise, she would have leveled up much faster."
"My situation is similar, but I have other solutions."
Shaka remembered that a senior from his familia had fought countless fierce battles while stuck at Level 4 for five years after leaving the group. In the end, she skipped Level 5 entirely and advanced straight to Level 6 – her combat power even matching veteran Level 6 adventurers. She had also overturned the rule that attributes needed to reach Grade D to level up.
The key principle was simple:
When in doubt, venture into the unknown depths below.
"This makes Ais, who spends her days grinding monsters in the dungeon, seem almost like a clown by comparison."
"Is washing dishes really less effective than fighting monsters nonstop?"
Not at all. Ryū Lion had achieved such a miracle of "continuous sublimation" because she had accomplished grand feats and overcome countless karmic obstacles. Ais, on the other hand, had been too well protected by the Loki Familia even deep expeditions only pitted her against Level 5 enemies, and those trips happened only a few times a year.
Compared to later battles where Ryū faced Level 7 opponents (and survived despite being three levels lower), her achievements were far more impressive.
Shaka made a secret plan:
"Following this logic, if I use [Wings of Justice] to stack my attributes beyond Level 3 standards, then as a Level 1 adventurer, I can hunt Level 3 monsters relentlessly. Even if my ability points don't rise quickly, I'll still earn plenty of great achievements."
Could he achieve the same miracle of continuous sublimation?
At this point in time, only Shaka knew the secret to continuous sublimation and only he had the conditions to make it happen.