Hello there, I know that the last chapter took a long while to come out, but to be fair exams take a lot out of people. Hopefully, this chapter comes out sooner than the last one, but one will never know.
POV: Manarath
Arriving in Magnolia happened faster than I expected. These trains move faster than I thought they could. Maybe I should look into how they work and get someone from the tinkerers guild to make them. The tram system from Stormwind to Ironforge is fine, but a smaller and faster system on a smaller scale could do some good for the Alliance.
The city itself is quite beautiful. Walking with Makarov through the city is even more of a spectacle than in the city we took the train from. Everyone who sees him waves and says hello with a smile on their face. They aren't even noticing me.
It's kinda impressive, really. That even if he is walking alongside a figure like me, they still look at him fondly. Says a lot about what either he himself or the guild has done for this city.
But before we get to the Fairy Tail guildhall, I need to test something first. Something that is best done when none can see it.
"Makarov," I say to catch his attention.
I see him stop and turn to look at me with a raised eyebrow, seeing he is waiting for me to continue I do so.
"How many in your guild will sense what I actually am?" I ask him.
I see Makarov raise a questioning eyebrow at me as if my question was stupid
"Everyone can sense something is not right with you, you said this yourself," Makarov says with a joking, but questioning tone.
I roll my eyes at his tone. Looking around, I see that the street we currently find ourselves on is mostly barren.
knowing this, I activate a rune at the bottom of my boots and stomp, putting my foot down, making the rune spread to encompass both me and Makarov.
The rune activating creates a translucent barrier.
Makarov raises a questioning eyebrow at me, most likely wanting to know what I did.
"Just to give us some privacy. No one can see, sense or hear us while in this sphere," I tell him.
"What I said was that people on an instinctual level will know I'm a threat, it's your flight or fight instinct. It is the fact I'm an actual predator"
I say while raising my hand, with shadows coming out of it to mask the transformation into a clawed hand with white fur.
Seeing my hand, Makarov gains a surprised look on his face. I give him a playful but predatory grin, with my teeth showing. My teeth have grown a couple of inches and gained a sharp edge.
I revert to being fully human within the same second of showing off a partial transformation to Makarov.
Looking at Makarov, I get the impression showing off might not have been the best idea.
I can see Makarov narrowing his eyes and feel him gathering magic to defend himself if he needs to. At least he is giving me the benefit of the doubt and not just attacking me right off the bat.
"What was that?" I hear Makarov ask, voice deceptively calm.
"The primary reason people fear me on an instinctual level," I say.
"I'm what my people call a Worgen. Inflicted with the Worgen curse, you have to fight with the bloodthirsty instinct of the wolf spirit or lose your mind and go feral. Most of my people who have been inflicted with the Worgen curse have gotten it under control with the help of a ritual made by our allies, the Night Elves," I explain.
"It was through this ritual I have gained the ability to transform at will. But the aura of a predator is a passive thing and can be sensed by anyone with a survival instinct"
Makarov's face is still passive, but I can see him going over all the information I have just given him.
"Then what are you exactly? Human or Worgen?" I hear him ask, not out of animosity or fear, just curiosity.
"I see myself as a Worgen. I just appear human to not frighten everyone on sight," I explain. Most people share this stance, but not everyone cares about scaring people and always stays in Worgen form. It's also just more comfortable to stay as a Worgen all the time. Staying human feels like I'm squished into armor that's several sizes too small for my frame.
"You don't have to hide what or who you are in the guild. A wolfman isn't the strangest thing we have in our guild," I hear Makarov say.
I shake my head at him. "Even though it would feel better to be my true self in front of other people and just, it's best if I stay human for now," I say with a small smile on my face, trying to come across as appreciative of his concern towards me.
"But to get back on topic, will anyone be able to sense my nature as an undead?" I say, trying to get our conversation back on track after that little tangent.
I can see Makarov thinking it over before he answers. "No one should be able to sense it right off the bat. But if you use necromancy, my children will most likely be able to sense the wrongness that comes with necromancy, but from the spell and you, and put two and two together from there"
Hmm, interesting, I should probably still err on the side of caution and make a rune that can cloak any residual necromantic magic that comes off of me.
"Well, that just means I have my first minor project to make sure people don't find out," I say with a smile.
Makarov smiles back at me. I get the feeling he agrees.
I cancel the rune, and we continue our trek to the guildhall. I wonder what the guild will be like, how Makarov talks about it shows he loves the people in the guild and sees them as not just fellow men and women looking for a way to make money with their talents. But as a found and chosen family that needs to be protected at any cost. I look forward to seeing the people in person.
The guild itself is kind of imposing compared to the buildings surrounding it. It looks to be about three floors. Coming up to the entrance of the guildhall and entering, I am greeted with what most people would call utter chaos.
Tables, benches, and chairs are flying all over the place. People are fighting each other with no focus on a particular opponent. People yell to get one person in particular, and some even bet on who will win different fights. But despite this, the atmosphere in the guildhall is merry and positive. Not a single negative emotion other than from the people fighting, but even those are less than they should be.
Looking down at Makarov, I can see his eye and hand twitching in irritation, and is that a spark of rage I see flash through his eyes?
Not even a second after I see it, Makarov glows and starts growing. During this process, I get a feeling of how powerful Makarov actually is, and to say I'm impressed with how much magical might the little man hold is an understatement.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BRATS DOING TEARING UP THE GUILDHALL," Makarov yells, while stomping on some fighters to get their attention.
"I HAVE NOT BEEN AWAY FOR LONGER THAN A FEW DAYS, AND YOU ARE ALREADY DESTROYING THE BUILDING. WE JUST FIXED IT YOU UNGRATEFUL BRATS"
Looking at the members of Fairy Tail now that Makarov has their attention, all I can see and sense is fear, but more in line with the fear, you feel when you get caught doing something you aren't supposed to by your parent.
My thoughts on the guild grind to a halt when I spot a child who can be no older than 10 years old, in nothing but his boxers.
"Makarov, is it normal for children to not wear any clothes in your guild?" I question loud enough for Makarov to hear me.
Everyone stops what they are doing to look at me and then looks at where I'm pointing. I hear the child go, "Where did my clothes go!"
While the child runs around trying to find his missing clothes, I hear everyone murmur about who I am, who I'm here, and if I'm a new member.
"Yes, thank you, Manarath, for pointing out Grays's lack of clothing. He tends to lose it at random times, so he needs to be reminded," I hear Makarov say.
"Everyone, this is Manarath, he's an enchanter here to set up some enchantments to better protect the guildhall from any damage. He will stay here until he has finished the job and has been granted access to our library for as long as he needs. Treat him as a fellow member since he is doing us a favor"
After Makarov explains who I am, everyone greets me from afar and goes back to what they were doing before the brawl started or comes up to me and introduces themselves.
Walking with Makarov to the back end of the hall to what looks like a bar, Makarov jumps on top of the counter and sits down cross-legged. Raising my eyebrow at him and taking a stool next to him, I try to figure out what to do from here.
"Have to sit on the table to see what happens in the guild?" I ask Makarov while looking out over the guild. Now that the fighting has stopped, I can see why the members enjoy it here, everyone is merry, and the atmosphere is fantastic to just relax.
While looking out over the guild, I can see Makarov twitching in the corner of my eye, most likely at my comment.
"Don't you have something better to do than disrespecting your elders?" Makarov asks, his voice filled with the same rage he showed moments ago when he confronted the brawling guild members
Chuckling, I get up "Unless you have someone who can show me to your library, I will most likely waste my time looking for it"
Makarov opens his mouth to retort at my sarcastic tone, then closes it in realization.
"I have just the person to show you to the library. LEVY! Can you come here please, I have a minor task for you"
Looking in the direction Makarov yelled at, I can see another small child with blue hair and a yellow dress that reaches her knees perk up and looking back at Makarov and then walking over with a spring in her step.
It seems like she missed me when looking over here because when she gets closer she notices me, and her eyes open wide in shock, a touch of fear. And is that excitement?
"What do you need help with, Master?" I hear Levy ask. Not looking at Makarov, but looking at me, which is odd.
"Mister Manarath here needs help to find the library, and I know how fond you are of it. Could you show him to it and make sure he knows where everything is?"
Levy's eyes go alight with joy and excitement "Of course, Master! I will make sure he knows where everything is!"
She turns to me and gives me the brightest smile, so full of innocence and happiness that I can't help but smile back
"This way Mister Manarath! I will show you the way!" Levy says, grabbing my hand and leading me to what can only be the library.
"Looks like you got your wish, Makarov. I will get started," I say, and give him a mock salute. Turning back towards levy.
"Lead the way, little lady," I say with a smile on my face. Maybe my experience here in Fairy Tail will be a good one before I go on my way.
"And this is where we keep our books about the history of Magnolia and the surrounding cities!" Levy says with a chipper tone, turning towards me and smiling at me.
"Thank you for showing me around Levy. I can take it from here. I have a job to do after all," I say, returning the smile while trying to convey that I need some privacy.
Going to the table in the middle of the library, I put down my helmet and unbuckle my shoulder pads to finally get rid of them. They are good for intimidation and actually covering, plus they house some runes for emergencies. All the runes on my armor flash as they have been disengaged, for a lack of a better term.
Noticing that there is still someone here, I turn towards Levy and raise an eyebrow at her.
"Where those runes!? What do they say!? What do they mean!? How do they work!?" Levy asks in quick succession, eyes glimmering with interest.
"Slow down there, little lady. I can only answer one question at a time," I say with a small laugh at Levy's interest. It's been some time since someone has shown such great interest in runes.
"To answer your questions, little lady. Yes, those are runes, they say nothing, they mean a lot of things depending on which rune we are talking about and I tailored them to help me in combat, some boost my attack power, some heal me when I get too hurt, and some offer protections to both physical and magical attack."
"Woah..." Levy sighs, her eyes shining with even more interest.
"Can I watch your work!? Pretty please!" Levy asks enthusiastically, giving me the biggest puppy dog eyes she can muster. And god are they working...
"Not today. I have some rune work that needs to be done before the day ends, and it's dangerous to people around me if I'm distracted for just a second while creating it. But tomorrow I will be planning how to enchant the whole guild with runes and not do any work," I explain, in the most neutral voice I can muster against the adorable wall that is called Levy.
Apparently, that was good enough for her because her face lights up with excitement and smiles with that child-like wonder curious children have.
"Okay, mister Manarath, I will be back tomorrow then!" Levy says, skipping out of the library, leaving me alone.
I have a lot of things I need to get done. The first is to get a message home, so I'm sure that my people will also work towards getting me home. The next is to make myself comfortable while waiting for them and for that, I need supplies.
The good news is that I might be able to complete these two tasks at the same time. My armor is not the only thing I have enchanted to the maximum. I have a chest at home where all the stuff I need during my travels is, and that chest has a rune on it, that makes it so anything that has that same rune etched into it shares the same space, So if I etch it into a bag I should be able to take things from my chest out of the bag I have here. The only problem I can think of is that this connection work across dimensions, even if they work in the Shadowlands.
I keyed Darion into the defenses so he can take out whatever I send the message with. Need to make it loud and visible.
But before that, I need to make the rune so that I can actually be around people without them knowing I'm an undead 'abomination'.
The following weeks went by pretty fast from that point. My theory about my room sharing rune turned out to be true. I sent a message through to Darion. The message is just a piece of paper explaining where I am and what I remember happening before I got here, but it has a rune on it that will make sure Darion knows I dropped it off.
Since I promised little Levy that she could watch me work, I put off doing any planning till the day and did my research into this world at night where I knew no one from the guild would stumble upon me researching things that should be common knowledge.
My research gave me some important knowledge about how everything worked. This land is basically split into 2 when it comes to mages and non-mages. They both follow the same law, but mages also follow laws set out by this magic council. And mages sometimes get a pass when it comes to breaking laws if they are from a legal guild doing these 'quest' that they get. But if they don't get this pass, they only answer to the magic council. Anything that has to do with mages gets controlled by the magic council.
So if I get caught up with the law during my stay here, I will also have to answer to them. Which just means I have to stay under their radar.
With that knowledge, I put all my focus back on the planning of enchanting the Fairy Tail guildhall, which turned out to be much more fun than I expected. Having Levy there during the day quickly turned into lessons on different runes and their effect. Turns out the reason for her interest in runes stems from her magic, which is called Solid Script, an offshoot of letter magic, that makes it so anything she writes becomes real, so in theory, she should be able to write a rune and have it actually appear and work.
My time with Little Levy, teaching her the basics of runes and just having her watch me work, was good. I haven't felt that relaxed in a long time with war all around me. I haven't had time to indulge in any of my hobbies. I even started looking forward to each time Levy would show up, just so I had an excuse to talk about runes.
Teaching Levy about runes gave me a chance to meet some of her friends when she forgot to tell people she would be in the library with me. Meeting Her best friends Jet and Droy was an experience.
Flashback
On my way back to the library from a small talk with Makarov about my progress, I am met with two small boys looking through the library door that is open enough to look through. If I didn't know that they were looking into a library, I would have thought they were a pair of perverts spying on someone.
Knowing that the only person who should be in the library currently is Levy, who is working on some simple rune work I set her up with, these two boys should be Jet and Droy, Levy's childhood friends.
They must be really busy spying on levy because they haven't noticed me yet.
"You know," both boys jump and spin around to me at the sound of my voice. "As long as you don't mess with Levys and her work, you can just open the door and enter. The library isn't closed off".
Apparently, I'm much scarier than I thought because they both blot back towards the main hall.
That was the last I saw of them when I didn't take a break in the main hall or could sense them watching through the door as they did when I caught them the first time.
Another person of interest I met during my time at Fairy Tail was the kid I pointed out, not wearing any clothes. The kids' name is Gray. The thing is that he more or less demanded my attention when he found out I use ice magic, same as him.
Flashback
During one of my breaks, I had the misfortune of sitting at the bar with Makarov when a guild brawl broke out that I wasn't in the mood for. I had just realized I messed up the calculations of my runes and had to start over and just wanted a little peace with a good drink and a conversation about the different magics in this universe with Makarov.
But no! This guild just had to prove to me that Makarov was not exaggerated with how wild this guild is!
"Makarov, if you don't calm the guild down, I will do it myself!" I hiss at him, with no small amount of irritation in my voice.
At my threat, Makarov just laughs out loud. No doubt because of the alcohol in his system. His face is flushed, his eyes dilated, and his speech slightly slurred. The conversation I wanted to have with him didn't happen because he was already deep in his cups when I came into the guildhall.
Letting the anger get the better of me, I channel that anger through me and let the chill of death I normally hold back as to not affect anyone burst out of me.
The effect was instantaneous. The normal warmth that always existed in the guildhall disappeared. An icy wind was sweeping around the guildhall, threatening to become something more dangerous.
Almost all activity stopped in the guild.
"I am trying to relax with a good drink, so if you could cut out this nonsensical fighting, that would be great"
At my last words, I let my words carry the unnatural rasp every powerful undead has.
With the now silent guild, I turn back to my drink to have hopefully a few peaceful minutes before the guild starts again.
It only took half a minute before I felt someone tap my side to get my attention.
"*sigh* yes?" I turn to the person, trying to get my attention.
The person was Gray, the kid who loses his clothes regularly.
"Was that ice magic?" His voice is filled with determination and wonder? I wonder where his determination will lead.
With that single question, Gray started coming to me with questions about Ice Magic and how he could better his own use of magic. Gray is bright with his magic and how to better himself. He listens to my advice and tried to incorporate some things we talked about. Since Gray used ice magic called static Ice-Make, and the only thing he could think of what bigger and stronger attacks, I gave him the advice of compressing the ice he uses to make his constructs, so they become sturdier, and carry more magic. With that simple advice, I have observed Gray already becoming more powerful with his constructs.
The last person I will have to remember is a boy by the name of Laxus, who is also Makarov's grandson. My meeting with Laxus was an interesting one.
Flashback
Working on the last part of the rune scheme in the library by myself, since my lesson with Levy ended early, got interrupted by the door pushed open roughly, and in walked a quite tall teenager with spiky blonde hair, a scar running over his right eye and what could only be one of those headsets for music with a spike on each of them.
"You know it's rude to bust into a library. If I didn't know what kind of guild I'm currently in, I would be offended at this interruption to my work," I say while giving the interruption a mild glare.
The teenager freezes at my words and gives me a weird look, probably wondering what I'm doing in the library since apparently, no one goes in here.
"What the hell are you doing in here? And who even are you?" He asks me. Anger rising in his voice.
"You must either be new, dumb, or you weren't here when it got announced. I'm doing a job for Makarov, and I'm using the library as my workspace since no one apparently comes here," I say, giving the youngster a deep pan look with annoyance in my voice.
He didn't take what I said well since I could feel him charging magic through himself, and I could see lightning enveloping him.
"I don't care what my grandfather has told you, you aren't a part of this guild, so you are not welcome!" He yells at me, flinging his arm forward and throwing a lightning bolt at me.
"*sigh*... and with that, you put yourself in the 'stupid' category," Holding out my hand and letting the Anti-Magic every Death Knight has access to envelop it and blocking the lightning bolt, putting more power into the Anti-Magic I deploy my Anti-Magic Zone and letting it fill the whole library.
Having his connection with his inner magic cut off so suddenly, I feel the teenager looking at me with panic-filled, wide eyes.
"You don't just attack someone if you don't know why they are there, you keep them occupied as long as they don't attack you. That way you can capture them and get your information and a hostage."
At my words, the panic gets replaced with confusion in the teenager's eyes.
"What?" He asks, the same confusion in his voice.
Shaking my head at I say "Nothing, just advice for the future when you find someone in a place you don't believe they should be in"
"But enough about that, go talk to Makarov, who is apparently your grandfather if what I heard you say is correct, and get the story about what I'm doing here, then come back again if you feel the need to remove me."
That was not the last I saw of Laxus. He did actually come back and started asking questions about my rune work since had a teammate who could write runes as well. Or that was his excuse at the start when I got to know him better. He explained he took what I told him of runes back to his teammate so he could confirm that I wasn't just some fluke trying to take advantage of his old man.
I could appreciate his willingness to make sure I actually wasn't some sort of threat to the guild he grew up in.
He was trying his best to make sure no one could hurt the guild. He was trying to become a leader and make sure everyone didn't just see him as Makarov's grandson. When he told me this, I had one thing to say to him:
"The only people you should care about what they think of you are the people you are trying to lead. When you become a leading figure in this guild, they will look to you for guidance, and when they can look at you and know you will stand up for them, and do what is best for everyone without fail, they will do the same for you and fight an enemy till the end to prove they belong with you"
After my small rant, he gave me the question, "But what if they are too weak?"
That question made me smack him at the back of his head. And I had to explain to him that people are never weak. Everyone has different strengths, but it takes a proper leader to bring out that strength.
Levy, Gray, and Laxus were the three people I got to know the best. And each one of them I imparted something on.
On Levy, I imparted my knowledge, not just of runes, but of magic and my theories about it.
On Gray, I imparted my technique and how to use ice and frost magic to its fullest potential.
On Laxus, I imparted leadership and the proper way to inspire the people you lead.
I can't wait to see where they end up in this magic world.
Hello! sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I hope you guys enjoy it.