A/N: Decided to bring back Darius the blacksmith briefly for this chapter, time to re-arm myself for the journey ahead.
Also I've been seeing an amazing diversity of readers from around the world in my story stats, thank you for reading my stories, and as my professionally published books aren't translated yet, it makes me very happy. If you think your country would like my Dingirverse books and they'd sell well, let me know for future reference. Worse comes to worse I'll use Google translate. If anyone wants to aid with translations after I use that to edit obvious errors, PM me.
(Start of chapter)
DINGIR AVATAR STATS
Character class: Grey Mage
Rank: Pluto Knight X (Private)
Level: 15, 5800xp until next level up.
HP: 800 / 970
MP: 999 / 999 (maxed)
Strength: 43 (55)
Speed: 31 (26)
Spirit: 40 (41)
Magic Defence/Defence: 28 (48)
Magic: 75
Magic Evasion/Evasion: 16 (36)
Weapon: (Broken weapon)
Headwear: Iron helm
Armour: Iron armour (minor damage)
Accessory: Mythril gloves (one crushed and broken, the other part melted)
Skills: Minus Strike
Abilities: Bright Eyes, Level Up, Man Eater, Bug Killer, Grey Magic
Magic: Poison, Regen, Sleep, Panacea, Osmose, Protect, Cure, Bio, Shell
Magic Stacking: Asag's Toxin - level 1 (40MP)
Trance: Balmung strike
Items: 20 potions, 1 phoenix down, 1 Antidote, 13 Goblin Steak, Goblin dagger, Traveller's cloak, Isekai ring, silk shirt, lots of regular clothes.
Gil: 24458
A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously?
CHAPTER 14
Dingir and the Blacksmith
(Mark POV)
Finally I was able to return to active duty, and save for an ugly scar on my palm, and the occasional stabbing pain in my elbow, I was doing well. To fully heal from my residual injuries, I would need a magical item called a True Elixir, it was made using 99 Elixirs, 99 phoenix downs, and 999MP worth of white magic. It was listed as one of the final stacking options when I began experimenting with the healing potential of Grey Magic while I was being treated. The MP and revival items weren't a problem, but Elixir's were.
I'd forgotten that they didn't sell them in item shops…anywhere, they were a monster drop from creatures that would effortlessly kill me, even if I could get to them. Once the events of the game started and I joined the team, I had a chance to collect them, assuming I didn't need them to survive. Using Grey Magic was an interesting sight, it was like following instructions in a cook book, with my menu listing what I could do based upon my spells, skills, and items available.
It was truly very interesting, upon activating grey magic, a magic crest appears before me, hovering in the air, slightly above the height of my waist. Its pattern is complex, almost like circuitry, all the while glowing with a faint grey-blue light. I place items or magic inside it, and they are absorbed. From what I can tell it's like a pocket dimension, similar to my item sack, then using my MP and will, I can produce something new, or impart qualities into something else. Just like the Potion Makers and Synthesists.
I added my Mana to all of my potions in my menu and it produced a slightly enhanced version, which healed twice as much as a normal potion. I decided to name them Double Potions, or D-Potions for short.
Acquired: 20 x D-Potions
I then tried adding the one antidote I had with a D-Potion and it created a green potion that also cured poison and minor illnesses. I named this one Herbal-D, you know like a sports drink or something, where they give it a jazzy name and packaging to trick you into buying their crap.
I then tried re-creating the results using another D-Potion and Panacea. However it produced something far superior as Panacea had a number of uses besides curing Poison in this world, it was generally used as an antibiotic. This one I named simply as the P-Potion…Actually that sounds a urination release aid. Let's go with the full name on this one: Pana-Potion, which cured most illnesses and some diseases, along with Poison and Venom negative status in battle.
'It still shows up in my menu as a P-Potion…great.'
Acquired: 1x P-Potion
For now I left item modification for when I had more to play with, but the possibility of selling them had merit, as I could only keep 99 of each item, however I would need to sell them to merchants that dealt outside of the city, as I risked attracting attention for my unique skills by the Queen, or worse yet Kuja. I saw him at distance, a few times since I first met him, thankfully he didn't seem to notice me again.
A noble of Treno, and secret black market kingpin that was turning the Queen into a warmonger for the sake of his own ridiculous goals of ruling the world. However his individual strength was the real issue, a man who had broken every limiter upon himself, while it was a plot point in the game, how had he achieved it in this world, unless he was an avatar character as well, or 'blessed' by the game creators from this world, who somehow were able to influence things here.
'If he ever messages me again, I'll have to ask about that,' Mark mused.
(Later)
"Morning, Marky," grinned one of the Alexandrian soldiers as they passed in one of the castle's stone corridors. Her name was Alice: level 22. Oh she's levelled up twice in the few months since I'd last saw her. She was one of the ladies who he'd spent time with when he had first started working in the castle, but he had stopped after a few months, as she had an annoying tendency of rating men by a certain something and telling them how they ranked, knowing that Steiner had a bigger dick than him was something that he really didn't need to know. He was slightly offended by her need to even mention it until he saw Steiner in the barrack showers one day, the older man would give a horse esteem issues. If he wasn't so hyper-focused on protecting her majesty and her highness, he'd probably be very popular for casual hook-ups.
"Alice, how are you?" he asked.
"Better than you, heard you got messed up pretty bad, will you still able to keep working here?" Alice asked, she'd heard some rumours that he might be unable to continue being a Knight, someone had heard the General and her sister discussing it.
"I sustained some serious injuries and some new scars, but I'm staying, I'm actually off to the castle armoury now to replace my destroyed equipment, that serial killer really wrecked my gauntlets and sword," Mark replied with an eye roll, as though he hadn't been responsible for many of the kills himself. Thankfully they were being blamed entirely on the dead Black Mage Golem.
"Oh, so that's why you're wearing that shirt and slacks instead of your armour," she noted, eyeing his black shirt and matching trousers. "It suits you better than what you have to wear as a Pluto Knight."
"True," Mark acknowledged with a shrug. "By the way, any information of who the killer was?"
"Unfortunately we still don't know, or if the higher ups know, they're not telling us down here at the bottom."
"A pity," Mark replied. Just as he thought, there was no way the Queen would not recognise the Killer, nor inform the people as to their identity. But he felt compelled to ask. "No matter, well I need to get to Darius, so see ya!" he went to leave.
"Darius! The blacksmith?" Alice enquired, sounding a little worried.
"Yes…Is there something wrong with him?"
"He used to lead the Pluto Knights back when they were a big deal, and before the kingdoms gender reforms, now he's a blacksmith," Alice explained. "But whenever he gets the chance, he likes to test new recruits, and Steiner is happy to let him."
"So I should be ready for a fight?" Mark asked brow quirked.
"Maybe, just remember, he isn't impressed with what the Pluto Knights are anymore," Alice warned before leaving.
"How troublesome…"
(Scene change: the castle smithy)
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
"So, are you Darius?" Mark asked, standing before a massively muscular old man, he knew of course, being able to see a person's name and level above their head.
Darius Bolg: Level 48
"Yeah, what do you need, brat?" he asked as he hammered away.
Clang!
Clang!
"Steiner sent me to replace my gauntlet and buckler if your unable to repair them, and I need a new sword as well. My armour's a bit dented too."
"You must be Mark then?"
Clang!
"Yes sir," Mark replied.
"You didn't bring them here?" the blacksmith queried.
"No, I did." He summoned the damaged equipment via the item sack.
"Those are pretty rare," Darius noted. "How did you get one of those?"
"A gift from the mage who taught me as a child, prior to working as a Pluto Knight, I used to use this to transport and sell wares around the kingdom," Mark replied, referencing his earlier lies to his past.
"Hmm, what kind of mage are you?" Darius asked, dunking a sabre into the water to cool, he had just added Man-Eater and stat buffs to it.
"Grey Mage, same as you," Mark answered.
"Well then, bring your equipment over to the workbench over there," Darius pointed to his workspace.
"Will do," as Mark headed towards it, Darius low-kicked him from behind, using his peg leg. Mark jumped over it, tucking in his knees, letting the metal leg sweep below him harmlessly. Mark landed and continued walking towards the work bench to deposit his equipment, not even bothering to look back. He would dismiss the stronger man's actions as his retort.
'Good awareness…' Darius noted, as he headed over to view the damaged equipment. It was bad. One gauntlet had been melted at the palm, and severe damage around that. The other which was attached to the buckler had been crushed by a large amount of blunt force, the torso armour was dented in a few places, but that at least could easily be fixed. Darius's eyes flickered over to the new knight, and was surprised as not only the build and musculature that none of the other Private's in the Pluto Knights had, and the way he smoothly, unconsciously prowled, like a beast not a man, indicated that despite what Steiner had told him, this lad had a LOT of fighting experience.
"Here we are…"
"Damn, Steiner wasn't kidding," Darius remarked, returning back to observing the equipment with a professional eye. They were completely totalled. "I can fix the chest plate easy enough, but the rest of this is ruined, I'll grab you replacements, since you lost some Mythril equipment, I'll cut you a break and give you a steel replacement rather than an iron one for the gauntlets and buckler that they normally give the privates."
"Thank you," Mark replied. It was a downgrade from before, but maybe the steel ones would teach him something new, he couldn't remember, but then he hadn't played the game in years and neither had a perfect memory.
Later after trying on his repaired and replace armour and equipment, he observed his reflection in one of the shields on the wall. It wasn't the finest uniform in the Kingdom, but he had oddly missed it. The steel gauntlets and Buckler were in a similar design to my older iron ones, but had an impressive shine, they boosted my spirit and defence slightly, but sadly didn't have any skills I didn't already know.
"Enough preening lad," Darius said, before attacking me out of nowhere with an enormous broadsword made of steel, I could tell though he wasn't being serious, there was no killing intent, and he adjusted the speed of his swing so it hit my weapon when he had time to cut me down.
'Cast: Shell, Shell, Shell, Shell, Shell!' I channelled defensive magic, it didn't stack this time, but it absorbed enough of his force that I could guard against his attack, parry the enormous weapon, and send the Blacksmith skidding back.
Darius let loose an impressed whistle.
"You're good enough lad," he said returning the weapon to the large stack of other blades. Darius approached. Mark lowered his weapon but not his guard. "Do the armour proud."
"Yes sir," Mark replied.
Darius grinned and thumped his on the chest lightly. "Good lad!"
Mark was startled as his menus sounded, a new skill had been activated. "Did you?"
"Steiner told me you used a strong poison spell to fuck up your hand, use this to compensate, otherwise you'll end up losing a hand next time."
"Passive skill: Antibody unlocked."
Antibody…A skill that in the game granted immunity to all poison and venom skills.
'With this I can use my Asag magicks without worry!' Mark thought, mind racing with possibilities.
"Well lad, Steiner's waiting, get to work."
"Yes sir, thank you."
"No problem."
(Scene change: Princess's chambers)
As Princess Garnet finally got away from the clutches of the maids, she was escorted to the door, where two knights would be waiting for her to accompany her between lessons and the occasional public appearance. It was ever so boring, and the only knight that made her life interesting was currently under long term medical care, with rumours saying he was too badly hurt to remain a member of the Pluto Knights, and she despaired at the thought of this return to tedium being the rest of her life until her mother passed.
The door opened, and Mark stood there, in full armour and a sardonic smile. "Miss me, Garnet?"
Steiner promptly clipped him from behind.
"I mean, Princess?" he corrected himself, with that familiar wink at the end.
"Indeed, I have," she acknowledged.
And Mark, aka Dingir, returned to his position as a Pluto Knight.
Fourteen months until the game begins…
THE END
Next chapter:Journey to Cid (1)
We will now be entering into the Cid arc, unfortunately there will be a four month time skip between now and the next chapter, but I need to ramp up the story into start of disk 1. Right now if we stick to plan, we'll be looking at another six chapters.
Also I'm writing two light novels with strong game mechanics, one which will be closely based on this but using a game I made up for him to be sent to, all the spells, characters and such will be changed, but if you want to keep your OC in the light novel adaption, let me know and I'll happily arrange it and give you the credit for it, and if you've published anything, I'll include a link in the contributions/acknowledgements section.
See you all next time, and be sure to read my professional novels and comics, see list below.
(End of chapter)
DINGIR AVATAR STATS
Character class: Grey Mage
Rank: Pluto Knight X (Private)
Level: 15, 5800xp until next level up.
HP: 970 / 970
MP: 999 / 999 (maxed)
Strength: 43 (59)
Speed: 31 (26)
Spirit: 40 (43)
Magic Defence/Defence: 28 (49)
Magic: 75
Magic Evasion/Evasion: 16 (28)
Weapon: Iron Sword
Headwear: Iron helm
Armour: Iron Armour
Accessory: Steel Gloves
Skills: Minus Strike
Abilities: Bright Eyes, Level Up, Man Eater, Bug Killer, Grey Magic, Antibody
Magic: Poison, Regen, Sleep, Panacea, Osmose, Protect, Cure, Bio, Shell
Magic Stacking: Asag's Toxin - level 1 (40MP)
Trance: Balmung strike
Items: 1 scrap Mythril, 19 D-Potions, 1 phoenix down, 1 P-Potion, 13 Goblin Steak, Goblin dagger, Traveller's cloak, Isekai ring, silk shirt, lots of regular clothes.
Gil: 24458
MY MAIN BOOKS AND COMICS:
Search the titles on Amazon, Lulu, Barnes&Noble, and most major online retailers…and then preferably buy some, available in Kindle/EBook, and Paperback.
Grey Faction: Arrival of the Grey Queen
Grey Faction: Mistaken Apostles
Grey Faction Comic: Jinhai's Justice
Grey Faction Comic: School Wars
Detective Michael: The Scalpel Murder
Detective Michael: Riverside Mystery
Detective Michael Comic: Volume 1
Vampire Attack: Empire of Shadows
Vampire Attack: Shadow Force (coming soon)
Secret Yuuki & the Guilty Heart Chronicles: Dimension Wars
Secret Yuuki & the Guilty Heart Chronicles: Starlight Alliance
Nexus Comic: Volume 1
'N' Things Anthology: Corpses 'N' Things
'N' Things Anthology: Monsters 'N' Things