The Sorcerer Of Origin
Chapter 3
Is It Wrong To Kill A Minotaur In Another World While Level 1?
"You,you aren't going to the dungeon today!?" Asked my young, naive, foolish, senpai of the Hestia familia.
" I never said that you brat." I gave him a full power non-reinforced chop on the head. " I simply said that I would be going late today, since I want to explore this city more. It been about 2 full days since I got to this world and beside a few occasion." Namely the ones where I left homes early in the morning to explore the empty streets. " I had not the chance at all to really get to know the place better." Well at least while it was bustling with people.
" Well I guess that makes sense ,but why don't you simply ask me or Hestia-sama to escort you around? We be glad to escort you!"
" Simple it because I prefer it if I get to know the place on my own. Go to the location that attract my attention whenever. Free roam around and have fun while doing so."
" I see…"
" Hey don't give me that look, like I just kicked a rabbit to the side of the road. Think of this as training. You only been an adventurer for only a few weeks before I came along right? In this kind of career you can't expect to always have someone at your back. So you should at least get in more experience with fighting alone. I'm not always gonna conveniently be there you know."
" Yes, your right Mercurius-san! I'll do my best to meet your expectation!" The smile he gave me was practically shining like the sun.
Truly this kid is naive. I don't know what to feel worse about, the fact that he actually bought my excuse, or the fact that I just took advantage of my own familia member good faith. It a good thing I been taught to steel myself in these kinds of situation or I don't think I be able to live with myself on a day to day basis from now on.
" Ah before I go take this." I handed him a watch except rather than had a small white orb attached to it.
" Mercurius-san what this?"
" It one of the magic device that I been working on these past 2 days now. Basically it act as a form of communication for long distances. Here an example." Getting my own watch out that was covered by my long sleeve jacket. I tapped it twice causing it to start blinking. Before long an image of Hestia appeared in the globe.
" Merc-kun why did you call me? Did you get into some kind of trouble?" By this point Bell was practically gaping at the sight of this. Since phones don't exist around here, this little watch must a revolutionary discovery for him. Hell Hestia had much the same reaction at first also.
" Ah, no trouble here Hestia-sama just showing Bell an example on how to operate his own. You can hang up now."
"Well if that what you're doing then, Bell don't be afraid to call me or Merc-kun if your ever in trouble!"
" Yes kami-sama!" Thus Hestia hung up.
" The use of this device is fairly simple, just firmly tap the device twice and then think of another person with this device you want to talk to, and it will message them to connect. To answer someone call double tap this thing while it blinking and it will connect you to whoever calling. To hang up use your entire hand to cover the globe. By the way this thing is set so that only you can use it. Do you have any question?"
" No I think I get it Mercurius-san."
" Good now despite the fact that you can feel free to contact me with it anytime. I highly advise you not to. I don't want to rush into the dungeon to save anyone after all." I lightly joked, with Bell giving me a nod in understanding.
Well since he understand I got no reason to stay here now. Hmmm I'll think my first destination will be yes the center of this city Babel.
Time Skip
Now that I have the time to properly explore this place in a much more hospitable environment, rather than simply gather what little info I can while on my way in and out of the dungeon. I gotta say Orario is much worse than how I initially imagine it to be. Not in the way of how this world advancement in magic is somehow lower then my own. No any semblance of expectation for that got shattered on my 3rd day here.
When I finally was assigned my advisor, who was a former mage, which is what I put for my preference. I decided to sit down and had a little chat with her and after a very elongated questioning, I learned that this world was in almost every way, when it came to magic was inferior to that of my previous. Apparently one of the biggest ever accomplishment in this world modern time, is by this girl called thousand elf that can apparently cast any elven magic. Which would be impressive, if it wasn't for the fact that this world is only slightly better than my own in certain departments of magic.
Honestly unless one had an extremely strange combination of origins and elements like say [sword], then it be possible for just about any mage to copy each other magecraft, given enough time, information, and research. The problem in my old world was that there no way any sane family would be willing to give you the information part for free. Though then again the ability to just instantly cast any spell by just seeing it once would be a pretty useful one nonetheless. Would have saved me so much time in the past.
Back on the main topic however, the reason why this place is worse than I imagined is because the place reminds me of the clock tower a bit to much. On the surface this place may look like your average place you could find in children story, but if you look deeper than it obvious there more going on. Familia are scheming against one another, whether it be to gain more followers or further their own power. Those with actual potential are crush before they can properly grow, all to secure the safe feeling of those in power. Oh and the guild probably is hiding one or two things from the people.
Basic human instinct always find a way to corrupt everything I guess, even a fantasy world like this one. Now one would think that as someone who was raised there entire life in the clock tower that I be more lenient to this side of society. That way of thinking would be completely wrong, in fact as someone that had to deal with all that stuff since I knew how to talk, I am quiet sick and tired of it all. This is especially true ever since I inherited the family crest many years early, after some less than ideal events occurred.
Well for now let's not focus on that stuff. The Hestia familia is still fairly small and not at all in any way notable so for now I don't have to deal with politics, like I did in my old world.
For now instead I should instead focus on the main reason I am here. Beside exploring Babel, I need to find myself a smith to forge a contract with. Well not just any normal contract, but rather one of mutual cooperation. What that means is I need the person the create a base equipment for me to enchant. Because despite the fact that I can create mystic code, I am not very good at things like making armor, sword, etc, and since I will be busy dungeon exploring. I won't have the time to continuously hone my skills in that department.
This of course means that I am readying myself to start explore the deeper floors of the dungeon. Sorry Cranel, but after 2 days of grinding low level mobs with little result in research to show for since my first day in the dungeon, I am getting tired of simply waiting to get the guild permission. So I think I will just sneak my way into the lower floors of this place.
Of course the problem is that the moment I turn my magic stones in they would be able to figure out that I been in the deeper floors, but that just mean that I just don't have to turn them in. After all I need to start researching these thing anyways. As for making money for my familia, well it a good things low level mobs are weak enough to still be in one shot range of even my familiars.
Anyways it because of that reason, why I am where I am now. The second floor of Babel. In front of a armor shop called the iron hammer. Well it an armor shop that also doubling as a place young smith's can rent out a forge to make and then sell there craft. Get their name out and hopefully obtain a contract from an adventurer that see potential in their work.
Now one may be wondering why I go for a more low key smith rather than a slightly better known one. Well it because the average smith probably have a bit to much pride in their work, to listen to my proposition. No I need someone willing to want to grow as a smith at any cost. That they would be willing able to discard their pride. Their work after all could save or kill me, so the last thing I want is someone with so much pride their not willing to grow when an opportunity is basically being handed to them.
Walking through the door, I see that already inside multiple fellow low class adventurer were also checking out various armors, sword, bows, lances, and anything else you can think of. Most of them are probably like me a level 1 adventurer looking for someone to make them stuff only difference is that they been dungeon exploring for longer than I have. One of the pros for going to places like these is that you can alway meet the smith who work got your attention, by asking for them.
Using my structural grasping, I looked around the store for something to catch attention. Walking up to a box in the corner that had a set of light armor in it… Welf Crozzo huh? Well I admit that it better than most of the stuff around here, the set isn't exactly what I am looking for. Plus something tells me this guys has a bit to much pride in him to be the kind of smith I am looking for.
Walking around the shop a bit more, taking quick glances at the wares around me to check for their quality. After maybe 10 minutes of aimlessly checking things out I had finally found something again that got my attention. In another corner of the shop there was box with an entire set of armor in them. Though it was buried under a bunch of other boxes, with better equipment in them than what was in the one that had gotten my attention.
Shifting through some boxes I finally got to the one I wanted to check out. In it was a set of black medium armor. Something like this would probably be used by warriors that wanted to get up close to their opponent in a relatively short time, while trying to not sacrifice as much defense as possible. By the standard of mages in this world wearing something like this is suicidal. After all most of the time they would just be standing in one place chanting a single spell and the few time they do move their to busy dodging attack, so something like this would probably just slow them down. However as a magus from the modern era I actually do move plenty, in fact it consider normal for maguses to incorporate some form of martial art into their combat style. So something like this is perfect for me.
The one problem I have with this as said earlier was that it was inferior to the stuff surrounding it. Compare to the set made by that Crozzo a while back this doesn't even compare. However what drove me to check this one out beyond simple style was that this thing was made by a rookie which is impressive considering it quality. Despite being a horrible smith it doesn't mean I don't have any experience with being one. More than a few times while making a mystic code in my workshop did I have to dabble in some smithery to make the required material I needed. Though I am no master I can tell that this was made by a fellow amateur. Though they were few in number there were mistakes made while making this thing, mistakes that only a newbie would cause. I could tell this person had potential. After all the average new blood, if they were still making these mistakes would have a lot more of them show on his work, but this guy barely has any.
" Hey do you know if Gran Fogel is still here?" I shouted to the dwarven clerk in the front of the store.
"Oyy do ya really want him? I mean I gotta warn ya he a complete new blood." All around me I could hear the snicker of my fellow adventurer. Muttering things along the lines of the guy and idiot.
" Yeah Im sure, now where is he?"
" Alright it your equipment. Don't go blaming if he less than you expected… Oyy Marco take over for me, I needa fetch a smith!" Thus the dwarf left through the door behind the counter.
Minutes later the dwarve had finally returned. Bringing with him a messy brown hair male human that probably around 18 years old. The guy stood at around 6'2 feet tall. He wore a brown long sleeve shirt and loose baggy black pants. He looked like someone from Europe, in fact if his hair was blond he would look like your stereotypical European knight. Which is weird considering he a smith, but hey don't judge a book by it cover.
The brown hair human turned his head around the store searching for something before locking onto to me.
" Hey you the one that requested me?" He said walking closer to me.
" Depends are you Gran Fogel?"
" The one and only." Hmm this guy got spunk.
" Then I am Mercurius Ark, the one that has taken interest in your work, but before we discuss things further you got a more private place to talk?"
" Yeah follow me."
Time Skip
A few minutes later we were in a relatively small restaurant drinking some coffee or in my hopefully future smith to be case beer. On his side was a bunch of armor sets for me to try out.
" So I'll be straight with ya why you requested me. Frank had gotta already told ya I am new to all this?" Straight and forward to the point huh? Well at least he will easy to deal with.
" Alright since were being straight to each other, it because I need a new blood and your wares just so happened to not only fit my taste, but also be better than all the other wares from a newbie that I checked out."
Raising an eyebrow at my answer Gran took another sip at his beer. " Alright suppose I believe you? Why do you need someone new to all this?"
"I am a mage with the ability to enchant objects, but since I mainly go dungeon diving I dont have the time to improve my skills as a smith, so I need someone to make the stuff I enchant for me."
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" You do realize that your basically asking me to throw my pride as smith away right?" Gran said with a stern voice.
" I'll be straight with you, that why I needed someone new, A more experienced smith probably would have walked through that door right now already-"
" And for good reasons to. The fact that you want to improve on work with enchantments, is basically saying that you don't have enough faith in my equipment to keep you alive."
" I realized that I am basically spitting on your face right now, but I am putting my own pride on the line here to you know." Hook
" Oh in what way."
" Simple I consider myself to be probably the best enchanter in this city, so I am putting my trust your work to be able to handle too might of my enchantment. That you would be able to keep up with me." Line
" Is that so?"
" Yup."
" You do realized as smith is only as big as the pride he put in his weapons right."
" Yes, however I believe a human being is only worth as much as he is willing to grow, to take on new chances and opportunity." Sinker
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.
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" BWAHAHAHAHAHA. You know what it takes some balls I like you already. It takes some balls to ask a smith to improve an his work, but it takes bigger ones to put such faith in the work of a complete newbie, mister best enchanter in the city."
" So you accept?" I kept my calm facade.
" Yeah but not completely on the normal terms. I want you teach me how to enchant also."
" Though I don't have any problem with actually teaching you I must ask, why do you want to learn?"
" Hmmm ain't it obvious it because I want to improve as a smith of course. I may accept it now but eventually I'm going to grow to a point where my enchantment will be better than yours. My pride as a smith wont let improve on all my most important works for me forever."
Giving him a smile in response. " All right then I agree with those terms, however I want you to promise me that you can't teach what I teach you to anyone else. Got it." I held my arm out for a handshake.
" Alright mister best enchanter, I wasn't planning on teaching anyone else anyways, gives more value to my wares if i'm the only one that can do. " He shook my hand.
Hmmm so this guy has some sense of business. Good to know that his pride isn't blinding him in any form or way.
" Well then now that we agreed to that. I'm planning to head to the dungeon after this, You got anything you want as a request?"
" Yeah how about 4 minotaurs horns."
" What! You know how rare those drops items are? It would take eternity to farm them all!"
" Well then you better get to working on it mister best enchanter in the city." Oh I am definitely taking revenge on this bastard during one of our teaching sessions.
" Tch give me a-" Before I could continue however my watch started beeping. Double tapping the things. An image of Cranel who was currently running away from something appeared in the orb.
Off the the side I could see Gran staring in awe, at the little device attached to my risk.
" MERCURIUS-SAN, HELP A MINOTAUR CHASING ME!"
Are you bloody serious the first time I leave the guy alone in the dungeon and he somehow gotten himself in danger. Are you literally kidding!?
" Hold on Cranel Where are you!"
" 5th Floor!"
" What are the sturdiest pair of boots you got on you." I asked Gran.
Having snapped out of his surprise already, the smith had grabbed a hold of his proudest piece of work to date.
Grabbing the pair boots from amongst them. I reinforced the quality of both of them and then to add icing on the top, a primordial rune taught to me by caster was then inscribed on the heels. Greatly increasing the speed of it.
Throughout this process Gran was in complete awe, probably having been able to tell how much his work had been improve with my magic.
Hurrying to put on the boots. " I'll be back later to pick up the rest of the set."
Thus like that I had rushed off to the 5th floor. It was a good we had went to the 1st floor of babel so I didn't have to take an elevator down.
Time skip
" Vidente!" arriving finally, at the start of the dungeon. I had already casted my recon spell for the purpose that maybe while I am on one of the upper floors I would be able to spot where Cranel is.
Rushing through the underground maze that I have long gotten use to. Any trash mob that got in my way were instantly killed by the aura of lighting surrounding me. With my newly enchanted boots I was able to quickly make my way through the first four floors of this place. Arriving in the 5th floor of this place in no time.
Now here comes to actual problem, despite my honest insistent throughout these past 2 day neither me nor Cranel had actually tried to explore fully the 5th floor, and with no map with me I am going in dark. I can sense Cranel on near the bloody other end of where I am now on this floor, but my semi limited 3rd person view via Vidente will only allow me to see so far.
Choosing the run down a random pathway, I was greeted with the monsters that me and Cranel usually dealt with on the 4th floor, the only real difference from then and now was that they came in slightly greater numbers. So naturally they only met the same fate as those monsters only in greater numbers.
Continuing my mad rush through the 5th floors without much struggle I had finally came face to face with a minotaur. The problem this wasn't the minotaur I was looking for, no considering how I could still feel Cranel presence far away from here this must be a completely different minotaur then the one chasing Cranel.
Having noticed my presence the minotaur turn it body toward mine, the thing charged at me with inhuman speed. Now normally it would be impossible for a the average, newly minted, less than a week in, level 1 adventurer to oppose a minotaur. However I was no average newbie, before this I had survived the cruel political environment of the clock tower, was taught by a mage from the age of the gods, and not only survived but won the 4th holy grail war. Compare to the things I have already faced with before, this raging bull in front of me was nothing special.
Jumping out of the way of it charge I got around to the back of the beast and shot a gigantic fireball to it back. Upon coming to contact with it hide the fireball exploded, fully engulfing the frame of the beast. That attack unlike the spells I had used before now was not in anyways held back at all. So perhaps somewhere in the corner of my mind I had hoped it would be a 1 hit ko like all the other times.
Sadly however moments later the minotaur came charging out of the raging flames toward me. My attack had done barely any damage to it. Well barely in my term. In truth there were some pretty bad 2nd degree burn all over it previously unblemished fur. However considering how these things can according to the guild information tank 3rd degrees burn without to much of a problem. 2nd degrees ones won't be to much of a problem to it.
"Tch if that how were playing it, then how about this." Conjuring an even bigger fireball in my hand, I launched it toward the minotaur. While the fireball was still in mid air, I used both my hand to conjured up wind.
"Ventus Mundi!" I sent a blast of wind toward my own fireball, the moment my spells made contact with one another my fireball grew to enormous size. To the point where it was around the size of the averagely size pathways I was in. In fact the fireball got so big that it now look like just an incoming wall of fire, due to the fact that it simply had no more room to expand.
As it traveled toward to the minotaur the flames left only destruction in their wake. As the floors and wall were charred black. Finally when the minotaur and my fireball had collided rather than simply explode. The flames instead transformed themselves into a tornado that dealt continues damage to the beast.
" OOOWWWWOOOOOOOOO!" Within the raging inferno I could hear to painful cry of the minotaur as it tried to put out my flames with no avail. Of course I want done yet. To make sure this thing stayed down for good I am going to need something more showy.
Reinforcing myself to the limit of my own abilities, I charged toward the beast still trapped in my flames, going around the thing. I entered my own blazing inferno through the back. Appearing right behind the minotaur without it even realizing I was here.
This is the end! Tapping into my knowledge of primordial runes I inscribed onto the back of the minotaur the primordial runes that could generate fire, Ansuz. Due to not having the time to fully master this particular art from caster, unlike her I needed to inscribed my runes directly onto something for them to activate rather than write them into the very air.
With the runes fully inscribed onto it back, I retreated multiples meters away from the beast before my runes could detonate. Moments later the inferno surrounding the minotaur was blasted away, in it stead an explosion of infinitely greater proportion took it place, burning the entire minotaur to ashes in mere seconds. Leaving a magic stone and conveniently for me a horn behind.
Quickly picking up the horn and magic stone. While in the middle of this I realized that on the other side of the flames I had generated stood a regal looking, beautiful green haired elf. Dressed mostly in a green robed. For a moment I was in absolute awe at the sight of her appearance being charmed for a moment before snapping out of my stupor.
The elf was approaching me at an average pace for some reason. Now I could try to run but considering the amount of magic power that she was giving off I definitely wouldn't stand much of a chance.
" Sorry for the inconvenience, my familia had just returned from an expedition and due to our recklessness chased a group of minotaurs to the upper floors. Even for a level 3 like you I imagined it must have been surprising to find such a foe on this floor." The green haired elf said as she began to heal me.
" Level 1"
" Wah?"
" Im only level 1 and more importantly one of my familia member is currently in danger from one of these minotaurs do you have a spell that could blast through these wall and kill it?"
I could still feels presence running down these corridors being chased by a minotaurs still if the signature near him was anything to go by. I knew exactly where he was but not how to get to him.
" That impos- No sorry I don't, or rather I don't have one that could pinpoint where the minotaur is and specifically target it. If I use my strongest I could kill the beast if I knew where it was, but not without catching your familia member in the blast range."
So she useless, great. That leaves me with one option. If I used the prana canon I learned from caster, than I could blast a hole through these wall and kill the minotaurs chasing Bell now. It wouldn't take a very long time to form one, since unlike with Tokiomi I only need to make 1 of them and even than I was stronger and more skilled than I was before, further shortening the time.
The problem is that I really don't want to use it in front of someone else, but if I don't Cranel dies. Huh how troublesome.
" Hey miss you mind doing me a favor and not telling anyone about what happens next?" I said as I got up and began charging the spell.
Sensing that I was up to something the green hair elf stepped cautiously back.
" I can not make that promise. If my captain or goddess ask of me then it my duty as the Loki familia vice captain to report every detail I find."
Well it was worth trying I guess. Turning my attention away from one of the biggest familia in the city vice-captain I put full focus onto my spell.
First weave an imaginary circle onto reality using one's mind with the od inside my body. Then gather the mana in the atmosphere into a single point. Thankfully since I am in the age of the gods now, the quantity and quality of the mana in the air made this part faster than before. Finally the hardest part shape the mana into reality and then-.
Forcing a connection between Bell watch and that of my own. " Bell, right now jump out of the way!"
I didn't wait another second to confirm Bell response as I fire my canon. The beam blasting through multiples walls of the dungeon, before bursting through where Cranel was, vaporizing the minotaurs that was chasing him instantly. Thankfully I could still sense that Cranel was still alive and kicking meaning he took my advice.
Using the holes that I had made, I quickly made my way to where Cranel was. Leaving behind me a surprised green haired elf.
Moment Before Cranel Pov
' UWAAAAAAAAA!" I was gonna die. There no way that I wasn't, with a minotaur chasing me from behind. To make matter worse I knew from the map that I was running into a dead end.
Mercurius-san I'm sorry I made you worry, please don't blame yourself for not making in time, also from now on please take good care of Hestia-sama from now on. Goddess I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep our promise please forgive me.
Approaching closer to what I knew was a dead end, I began to fully accept my fate, however just then.
" Bell, right now jump out of the way!" almost instinctively taking Mercurius-san instruction I ducked forward. Barely avoiding the blinding beam of light that burst through the wall. Killing the minotaur chasing me in an instant.
" Hey Brat you still alive alive and kicking?" Like a hero from a fairy tale he arrived in a blinding burst of light to kill the monster and give a hand to those in distress.
While I sat, gazing at Mercurius-san in awe I didn't notice that a girl in blond haired had just arrived moment earlier. The only though coursing through my mind was that one day I want to be like him, I want to reach to same stage of strength as him, I want to get stronger. Grandpa one day I want to have an encounter with a cute girl in the dungeon. One day I want to save someone just like the person in front of me.
... I have no word to describe my feeling right now I dont know how, but someway I managed to write this chapter in only about 5 days... HOW?
Well anyways onto my actual feeling for this chapter. I felt in this chapter I had some up and down. My ups, in my opinion being greater than my downs. One of my proudest moment in this chapter was probably Gran who will be a reoccurring character in this story, being Merc personal blacksmith. For now I want to keep detail as minimum as possible. As for the whole best enchanter in the city well Merc is the best as stated in my 1st chapter no one in Orario could probably rival him in pure skill with magecraft and enchanting require skill. The only one that could probably challenge or perhaps surpass Merc is Fels who created the Philospher stone and gained immortality. Riveria only beat Merc in term of magic power and raw stats. This will be something that I will keep hammering as the story progress.
Onto my last thing Merc saving Bell from Mino-kun. Honestly I did this for 2 reasons. I wanted the Bell to continue his dream of obtaining a harem so that he would be less single minded with the interaction of women around him. Also I wanted to start a bit of a family friendly rivalry not really with Bell and Merc.
The basic guist of how I imagine it is that Merc will be dungeon diving at a faster rate than Bell does. Causing Bell to want to improve, to catch up to Merc who despite being on the same level as him and later on being on a lower level than Bell, is still a lot stronger than Bell. Basically it an infinite feedback loop of Merc growing at a stupid pace due to being an anomaly in the falna system and Liaris Freese responding to Bell desire to catch up to said anomaly.
I think I covered the most important bit but any other inquiries and put it into your review or Pm me.