Breaking through the limit on almost all of my stats at once caused a slight leveling sickness in me for the next couple days but I recovered after that. Besides my stats going up there was only two things that really stood out. The first was that my domain expansion was listed next to my cursed techniques like an extension of them which made perfect sense as it was. The second was that my Cursebody DS had gone up one rank which confused me as I felt no different than normal.-

Like I noticed an increase in my cursed energy efficiency but as far as my energies influence on me I felt nothing at all. It was almost as if there was no change at all. It was odd to say the least. I still noted this down as something to keep an eye on but otherwise chose not to worry myself needlessly over it. While I got my update I was also informed that Bell was ready to level up but needed a source of high tier excelia to qualify. I wasn't surprised at this since if I was getting close to my own level up he was bound to already be close to his own. -

Unlike myself who got excelia from crafting and who dived solo Bell got his from the dungeon alone and had to split it with his team as well. This was not a flaw exactly of the falna but an unavoidable aspect for the average holder. The falna grants excelia for effort and how challenging something is. Naturally this means being in a group for fights lowers the challenge greatly and thus also the reward at the end. It's not nothing, never nothing, but diminishing returns from not experiencing true challenges.-

This added onto the increasing difficulty of each level up was the only reason Bell was just now ready to level up again. Coming up with a plan to get him that high tier excelia was easy though as he was about as strong stat wise as a mid tier level four already. He just needed to solo the goliath to get the high tier excelia from it. The monster rex was level four at right around the mid tier so it was a perfect opponent for Bell. Not too

challenging but also not easy either, just right.-

"Are you sure you aren't trying to get him killed? This IS a monster rex we are talking about here. You know the thing that is supposed to be fought with multiple people at level three or higher?" Ophelia asked incredulously when I explained my plan during a familia meeting.

I shrugged "Unless you can think of a better idea this is the only doable thing available. We don't exactly have people jumping out of the woodwork at higher levels to fight unlike his level two level up." I said bluntly.

"Why can't he just fight you though?" Welf asked with a frown.

"Fight me? If we really fought forget winning he'd be lucky to survive! I killed the goliath to level up to three and just killed Amphisbaena to qualify for my next level up, all solo mind you. In terms of sheer power I am so far above him it's not even funny." I said seriously.

"You sound kinda arrogant right now." Ophelia pointed out.

"It's not arrogance if it's true. These are facts, plain and simple. No offense Bell but there's no comparison between us in this matter, our paths are too different." I said honestly.

"I'll do it. Fight the goliath I mean." Bell said with a determined look.

"Are you sure about this Bell? Theres no rush right?" Lili asked worriedly.

He shook his head "He's right, theres no comparison between us. While I've been fighting alongside everyone he has been all alone fighting things that took all of us to handle. I thought I was starting to catch up but the gap is only growing larger. I need to do this or I may never catch up." he said with a determined tone and clear eyes.

"Aw man, he's got that look now." Welf said with a helpless sigh.

And that settled that with regards to how Bell was going to get his high level excelia. Over the next few days we were busy as we prepared for this event ant i sorted out my loot from killing Amphisbaena. The hide, scales, bones, fangs and crystals were kept as crafting materials by me while I had the flesh, organs, blood, and brains tested by Miach for possible uses in alchemy. The livers uses were already well documented so the medicine god was thrilled to pieces to get it as he'd never gotten this drop before as it was hogged by the Dian Cecht and Panacea familias.-

The other fleshy bits from Amphisbaena though actually made him faint from overstimulation. These were entirely unknown things that had never been seen before and he was getting the opportunity to experiment with them before anyone else. The god literally cried tears of joy and gratefulness once he woke up from his sudden self induced forced nap. The tests on those things would take time though so in the meanwhile I stole Bells weapons and armor to upgrade them. -

Well ok I only took the armor because the materials for it were subpar in my opinion but the craftmanship was immaculate as expected of Welf. Rather than reforge the armor using my technique when it was perfectly fine as is I simply gave Welf a few refined ingots of Amphisbaena scales and bones and told him to go nuts. The old armor was cleaned and placed in the vault for any future familia members we got that it may fit. The same was done for Bells old weapons as he had out grown them and they were still perfectly good as they were. Unlike with the armor however I was going to be making the replacement weapons for Bell.-

Oh did I have some ideas about what I was going to be making too! Obviously I was going to be sticking to the shortsword dagger combo he was used to but the enchantments on them were going to be VERY different than the previous weapons. Not to say my previous work was bad or anything but I had grown considerably more skilled since I first made those blades and could make something way fucking better now.