novelraw Chapter 72: From Meditation to Enterprise
Chapter 72: From Meditation to Enterprise
Joji was not afraid of pain. If a man wanted gold, then dungeons and labyrinths were the straightest road to it.
"Maximize the output," he told the witch.
The Lady of the Swamp’s hand paused for a moment, as if weighing whether he had lost his mind, but in the end, she relented.
Joji summoned his armor. It was far removed from the smooth, bone-like shell it had once been.
Now, at Rank-C, it gleamed under the light with a harder, mineral sheen.
Even the witch looked startled. She stepped closer and inspected it herself, and there, in its layered surface, she could still see the likeness of the Mineral Armadillo stomach she had once given him.
Then the winds turned savage.
Joji felt the blows hammering against his armor, felt each impact shudder through his frame, but his attention was fixed elsewhere.
{Aura: 14} (⇧ 0.20)
{Mana: 17.32} (⇧ 0.18)
{Prana: 0.19} (⇧ 0.19)
{Force: 0.17} (⇧ 0.17)
The values rose without pause, and Joji could have laughed from the relief of it.
The armor kept absorbing every blow, and not once did the stats he gained begin to drop.
Half a day later, bits of broken armor littered the ground at his feet.
Joji gathered the fragments and forced them down, chewing and swallowing until he had reclaimed perhaps a third of the missing shell.
After that, he called up his energy status and studied it closely, eager to see how much the ordeal had truly earned him.
{Aura: 15.08} (⇧ 1.28)
{Mana: 18.37} (⇧ 1.23)
{Prana: 1.21} (⇧ 1.21)
{Force: 1.24} (⇧ 1.24)
That had cost him fifty thousand gold, more than his original savings, all of it gone.
Even so, Joji still found himself cursing the first quarter hour the array had sat idle.
Yet the gains were too great to ignore.
He had saved himself a full year of meditation, and more than that, he had gained new stats besides.
"Lady of the Swamp," Joji asked, looking straight at the witch, "what are Prana and Force?"
"Prana is tied to lifeforce," she said. "The more you have, the longer you live. It is also necessary for professions tied to nature."
"Herbalists, druids, and sometimes even priests, depending on the inheritance they train under."
She paused, then went on.
"Force, however, is the strength of the mind. It governs things like telekinesis, mind reading, and hypnosis."
"It also improves your control over aura, mana, and prana alike. Try your aura now, and you will notice it. Even if you are not using Force consciously, it will still make each strike sharper."
Joji tested the Lightness of the Wind Art at once.
The difference was slight, but real. He could feel it in the flow of his aura, and in the movement of his mana as well.
The change was not dramatic, but it was there, like a flaw in an old machine suddenly corrected.
Back on Earth, he might have compared it to a better connection speed. The same function, the same reach, but less drag, less delay, and far less wasted motion.
"Let us call it a day for now. I need to let Daisy know I will be spending the next few days here," Joji said, then leaned in and gave the witch a kiss.
When he returned to his room, Daisy was already asleep. A book lay face down across her lap.
Joji did not wake her. He lowered the light, slipped in beside her, and gathered her close.
Even in sleep, Daisy turned toward him and wrapped him in a loose embrace.
When she finally stirred, she held him tighter and leaned in to kiss him.
Joji caught her arm and drew her back to bed.
Half an hour later, Daisy lay beside him with her hair in disarray, her breathing still unsteady.
"Daisy, I will be staying in the witch’s room for the next few days," Joji said. "I will be meditating there."
Daisy could only nod. The pink smoke was gone now, but her body still felt too weak to move around much.
Joji let her rest. He brought her breakfast after, while Lena helped her get dressed, all the while teasing the younger woman.
"Look at you now," Lena said with a grin. "All womanly, tending to your own needs and your man’s. Still, aren’t you exhausted from being worked this hard?"
Daisy lowered her eyes, though she did answer.
"It doesn’t feel as full of passion when he goes slow. I can tell he likes it fast."
Lena laughed softly.
"Look at you now, with opinions of your own. Oh, and by the way, I may be quitting my job as a maid here."
Daisy looked up at once.
"What? Where are you going?"
"Joji is going to build a company with that Walter guy, you know, the man who was running around the field all day," Lena said.
Then she leaned closer, her mouth near Daisy’s ear. She wanted Daisy with her there, not buried beneath dull papers and unfinished studies.
"Just thinking about it makes me dizzy. I do not even know if my mana could keep up. I might end up pregnant before I know what hit me."
Daisy’s eyes widened. Then she turned on Lena with sudden fury.
"Lena, you dare," Daisy hissed.
Lena did not flinch.
"Daisy, listen. The duchess is not dying anytime soon, and that is a good thing."
"But you know how she is. She keeps her conduct spotless and never mixes work with family. She would not even give you a finer post because of your lack of education, just as she did with me."
Daisy stayed silent, and Lena pressed on, knowing Daisy had a gift for business.
"But being a merchant is different. You won awards at the academy for those business models of yours, did you not?"
"It is only a shame those nobles wanted your land and wanted you bred. That cannot be undone now."
"So why not help our man and earn some allowance on the side?"
"Wouldn’t you like to enter dungeons and go on adventures with him too? I would. I truly would, Daisy."
This time, Lena spoke without teasing. She had already talked with Walter, and the man was clever.
But if that cleverness could be doubled, why settle for less?
"I was even thinking of returning to the academy. Just not Vicario Academy. Maybe Pinnacler Theocracy," Daisy said quietly. "So Joji and I could both finish our studies."
Yet there was no confidence in her voice.
Lena looked at her hard.
"Daisy, how much is tuition there? Around three hundred thousand gold. Five hundred thousand once you add all the school expenses."
"Where do you think you are going to find that kind of money again?"
Daisy bit her lip. She no longer blamed herself for what had happened back then.
That wound had begun to close. More than that, she had come to believe that Joji loved her deeply.
Still, education mattered. In this world, it could carry a person farther than love alone.
Lena, for all her sharp tongue and sharper instincts, had finished only high school back on Earth.
She had never been a poor student, only an ordinary one. Average in the classroom, dangerous anywhere else.
What made her a millionaire by her thirties had not been books, but the kind of street sense that taught a person where value hid and how to seize it before someone richer did.
"Look, Daisy, you are doubting Joji again," Lena said. "He made three hundred thousand in barely a week outside."
Lena knew Daisy too well. The girl had been raised to believe that education and a brighter future were one and the same, and no amount of quick gold could easily uproot that lesson.
Lena stamped a foot and rose from her seat.
"I will just tell Joji you aren’t interested," she said.
"No. Lena, please. Please stay," Daisy said at once.
Her voice softened after that, but her resolve did not.
"I just do not know the plan. I do not want to end up some trophy wife sitting around."
That, at least, Lena could work with.
So she began to explain.
The ideas were old in one world and new in this one. Things she remembered from Earth, recast in words that fit Primeria cleanly enough for Daisy to follow without stumbling.
Soap. Underwear. Toys. Small comforts. Daily luxuries. Goods people would keep buying.
Daisy listened closely. Slowly, she began to nod.
Then another doubt rose in her eyes, quieter than the last, but deeper.
"Then if that is so, why did Joji not tell me himself?" Daisy asked.
Lena sighed inwardly. That one was trickier. Still, she trusted Joji enough to know he would want Daisy beside him in the end.
"Listen, Daisy. This is what would happen," Lena said. "Joji invites you. Then you tell Duchess Rosalind. After that, she starts worrying herself sick over you."
"Daisy, you are a grown woman. One who can rear children. This should be our problem. Yours, mine, and Joji’s."
"The duchess already works through two thirds of her day. That is what he is trying to spare her from."
Daisy was not stupid. She understood soon enough.
Joji did not want the duchess worrying over their future anymore. He wanted to show her results first.
To build something solid, get the business moving, then place the proof in her hands when it could no longer be dismissed as a dream.
Daisy asked if she had understood him rightly, and Lena told her she had.
After a little more back and forth, the two women went on to their duties, both carrying a quiet excitement for what might lie ahead.
Joji, meanwhile, had already seated himself inside the magic circle and begun again at full capacity.
Three days later, every last one of his materials had been spent.
Two hundred and fifty thousand gold, gone.
Even so, when he looked at the results before him, Joji found that he was satisfied.
{Aura: 20.15} (⇧ 5.07)
{Mana: 23.41} (⇧ 5.04)
{Prana: 6.32} (⇧ 5.11)
{Force: 6.27} (⇧ 5.03)