Raising Lili
The two of us had been walking for six days to the north of Faustus in search of the witch. Days were mostly peaceful, an occasional enemy would venture out of the forest, but there was nothing we encountered that I couldn't easily dispatch. During the daytime while walking me and Lili would talk, though it was mostly just me talking and her just nodding or giving small grunts in acknowledgement. Should had the ability to speak, mostly in broken speech, and I could only assume because she didn't feel comfortable with her communication skills, she chose to avoid talking as much as she could. If she got tired from walking, I would pick her up and carry her on my shoulders allowing her time to read books we took from Faustus. At night I would make a small camp a little ways off the road, close to the shelter of the forest, make us a small meal and would hold her till she was asleep.
Once I knew that she was well into REM cycle I would get up and venture a bit into the forest, not too far that I couldn't see a glimmer from our camp fire, but that was just deep enough to encounter creatures brave, dumb or just curious enough to get too close. I used this time to kill and acquire what strength I could, and if lucky enough, a useable skill.
I had some what figured out the rules for acquiring skills. The simplest way to explain it would be, the skill I acquire had to make some sense for human use. I couldn't acquire a skill that would make it so I could shoot quills from my body, since I didn't have them to begin with. Like with when I killed Guen the Forest King, I wasn't able to acquire it's skill for it's razor claws or the black coat, since both of those abilities are far too animalistic. Though it lead to other questions, like 'If I had let my nails grow really long, instead of biting them all the time, would I be able to use that skill then?', black coat referring to the animal's fur, something I distinctly lacked being a human. I did however acquire its ability to lunge, since it is just a fast jump forward, it killer instinct which allows me to sense bloodlust as well as know exactly where to strike against a target for a quick kill, a boost to dexterity which I can only assume helps both of those abilities. Though the most powerful ability I got from her was Ruler's Authority, it allows me to issue and order to anyone around me, I have yet to figure out its limitations, but I have already used it in the court in Faustus, with even Prince Hordin forced to compel. The fact that I had something like this made me feel slightly intoxicated with power, but I would still need to find out what kind of limitations it had before I could just use it at random. Though my most important ability still being the mastery over matter, which allows me to control anything which has mass, and it had now leveled up to level 2, which provided me to break the laws of physics. I could now create anything from nothing, using only the mana I had in my body. 'I guess it is some sort of broken version of alchemy then. Hehe... if Central knew about this...' With the upgrade came another important ability, Mana Manipulation, which essentially allowed me to channel the mana inside and around me more efficiently.
Name: Andrew Grant Health: 7000 Magic: 875
Level : 35 Age: 21(48) Gender: Male
Race: Human(Summon) Job: Hero
Strength: 64 Stamina: 69 Intelligence: 68
Wisdom: 61 Dexterity: 59
Skills: Matter Mastery Lv 2, Lounge Lv 5, Mana Manipulation Lv 1, Inspect Lv 4, Skill Steal, Party Growth Accelerate Lv MAX, Incredible Dexterity Lv 3, Blade-work Lv 4, Killer Instinct Lv 4, Ruler's Authority, Summon's Duty
After a few hours of this, I would come back to our little camp and crawl back into bed making sure to not wake Lili. It was a slightly exhausting routine, but I had to make sure that I was getting stronger. It wasn't just for mine and Lili's life I was doing it, but there was this burning desire that I couldn't seem to escape that was urging me to grow more powerful. The only reason I could think for this was the Summon's Duty ability, as if I was hard coded to become more powerful in order to accomplish the goal to defeat the Demon Lord. I found it more annoying than anything else, but at the same time, it gave me a constant motivation to get stronger. This would keep me from getting lazy and putting off grinding levels when I can.
In the morning I would be woken up by Lili's snuggling on my chest, and with a bright light in the sky, I would know it is time to start on our journey again. With the ability to create what I want with mana, there was no real need to cook anymore, I could just materialize whatever it was that I wanted to eat in the morning. This opened up Lili's pallet to all kinds of delicacies from Earth. Her favorite was definitely pancakes with strawberry syrup, I on the other hand couldn't escape classics from the South like biscuits and gravy or grits and eggs. Having been in Japan for as long as I had, I never got to taste the food from my childhood. This was probably a good thing, as most of it is very unhealthy, but the craving for an occasional helping never went away, so I took the opportunity to indulge this time around.
With breakfast done, we would head out. I had the ability to create, but not destroy, yet, so we would just leave our camping equipment in place when we left, I couldn't be bothered to break it down and carry it with us. I figured if someone was passing by, they could use it, or take it with them, it was just less that I had to carry. Littering wasn't my thing, but this excuse sounded logical and gave me all I needed to ignore the urge to be responsible. 'Being in this younger body... I feel like maturity levels have plummeted.' I thought to myself as I continued to walk away from what was now someone else's problem. We continued at our casual pace walking to the North. The directions I as giving was to head north to the Brein River, which would take us just over two weeks to get there at our current pace, giving me plenty of time to train and get stronger before arriving where the witch was.
On the tenth day of travel, with Lili sitting in her look out spot, atop my shoulders, I felt a nudging from above, pulling my head in a direction behind me. In the distance there were dust clouds behind us. They were moving at a fast pace, and the cloud was quite large. 'Looks like what I would imagine a cloud kicked up by cavalry would look like. Is the old man trying to summon me back?' I thought before we stepped off the road, and continued at a very safe pace just inside the forest. It wasn't too long before they caught up with us, and as I thought there were eight cavalrymen and a rather flamboyant carriage. They had stopped a little ways back, and I could see the men on horses scratching their heads and looking around. They continued trotting forward, the men in front still looking around searching for what I assumed could only be us. When they had drawn fairly close to us, a pudgy, ugly man shot his head out the carriage window.
"Have you half-wits found them yet!?" Shouted the Margrave. "Find them both! The girl will be mine, and I will make that man suffer for his insolence against my noble self!" I was both impressed and annoyed at the return of this absolute waste of space. He was defying his lords order by coming after us, but more so, I realized I had apparently failed to instill true fear into this man. "I will take her back to my domain, and have her pay extra for the effort of coming after her and for that man's actions against me!" I looked up at Lili still sitting on my shoulders, and she stared back at me with a quizzical look.
'We need to do something about this man, or he will never stop', I thought to myself. 'I should probably... a bit heavy handed, but she needs to learn about this... sooner the better.' I took her down from my shoulders and placed her in front of me, then said. "I want you to take care of the Margrave. He will continue to come after us unless we end this now. Normally I wouldn't wish something like this on you, but this is the world we find ourselves in." She looked at me as if she was trying to understand, but it wasn't quite connecting.
"Papa.. want me... to fight.. fat man?" Her looked turned to one of concern. She didn't realize that she had power in her, power that was kept sealed because of her collar. The only thing special about this case was that, even though she thought I was her master, I had given her control of her own actions.
"Lili, you have magic you can use." Her face was now a startled confused mix, and she began looking around herself, groping around as if she could ignite by pressing some random spot on her body. "Do you want to be able to use your magic?" She looked up at me with wide eyes as if all hope had returned to her. "If you want to use your magic, repeat after me. I allow you to use your magic to vanquish your enemies and protect your loved ones!" It was a bit chuni, but I figured the extra flare would get her hyped and excited, so she could push her self to take care of what needed to be done next.
"I allow.. you to use.. your magics.. to vanq..uish.. your enem..ies.. and.. protect your... loved.. ones!" It was an unconfident command, but it fulfilled its intended purpose.
Name: Lili Health: 300 Magic: 4000
Level : 1 Age: 12 Gender: Female
Race: Kitsune Job: Mage(Slave)
Strength: 6 Stamina: 11 Intelligence: 28
Wisdom: 26 Dexterity: 16
Skills: Fox-Fire, Dominion, Black Magic Lv 2, Mana Regeneration, Miko (Unavailable)
Her eyes flashed blue and her face changed from one of confusion and gentle innocence to one of understanding and determination. 'Now I feel very guilty about this. Damnit, sorry Lili.' I looked at her, shame hit me hard in that moment, but I shook it off, and matched her determination. "Okay little one, you just follow me lead. Time for you to truly win your freedom." I gave her a smile, not one of happiness, but a prideful one. It was a smile that only a parent could give when they knew that their child was about to do something remarkable.
I lifted my knee off the ground and stood positioned myself next to Lili, grabbing her hand and holding it firmly. One last look of our shared determination, we stepped forward out from the forest. "You guys took a bit longer than I thought you would. Ten days to catch up to a man and little girl walking? Did you turn around because you left your senses back at Faustus?" Taunting wasn't necessarily my forte, I was simply trying to buy sometime while inspecting each of the men before us. For a majority of them, it was basic soldier abilities like Swordsmanship or Spearmanship, Horse riding and so on. Though the captain did intrigue me, along with those, he also had Leadership and Improved Stamina. As for the damned noble, he also intrigued me, but in a different way, he had no real abilities to mention, other than Glutton, which first gave me the idea that eating would increase your abilities in some way, but looking at his belly and his stats, I saw no direct correlation. The other ability, if you could call it that, was Discrete Worshipper. The gods of this world were fairly ingrained into the culture, and there appeared no real malice between worshippers of the different gods, so why was there a reason to be discrete?
"Lili, these men are all here to take you away. That man in the carriage wants to take you away and hurt you. I want to always protect you, but there may come a day that I can't. You have to be able to save yourself when that happens." Her hand tightened and I gave her a little squeeze back as a way of giving some encouragement. "I want you to win your freedom here. These men are yours to defeat, I will help if needed, but I want you to try your best." I gave her a heartfelt smile followed by a look of determination. "This is your job right now, but... I will take care of one of them here and now, so they know we are being serious." My look turned back into a sweet smile, then I looked up at the captain, still positioned on his horse with a rather confused look on his face. I lifted my hand at him, and he recoiled if only for a second, then attempted to drive his horse forward.
"Men..." Before the next word could leave his throat, his head hit the floor. A large flat piece of metal rested on the stump that was his neck. I had materialized the blade out of thin air, and used the momentum from his horses sudden charge to severe his head from his body. The sight of their captain's instant defeat sent a shock through the rest of the men. Most didn't know if they should charge or retreat. The worst was the noble, who gave out a pathetic shrill as if he was just some small child who had been told no inside the supermarket. He continued to scream, "Kill them!" at the top of his lungs a few times before retreating into his carriage.
"Lili, it is your turn." My words were this time where that of a command. She couldn't be compelled as a slave, but as a father telling his child, this is something you have to do. It was a life lesson, a brutal one, a lesson to match the kind of world we had found ourselves in.
She stepped forward, the air of confidence, a gracefulness befitting the creature she was. The display that came next was nothing if not simply a majestic spectacle of the brutality of magical might. There were no wasted movements in her actions, he hand glided up, her of her left hand spread and stood fullly erect. Power surged and flashed off of the tips of her small claws. The atmosphere around us changed, on the ground a large blue bagua appeared, walls rose around us in each direction with characters depicting all the elements of nature. With a slight turn of her wrist, a soldier and his mount were sent hurtling towards one of the walls, were they met with a splash and were slowly dragged in, air gushing from their mouths being forced to suffocate. Lili then, with her right arm, pointed her palm towards the wall with the character of mountain, before swinging it back forward directed at another soldier who was then impaled on long spikes jutting from the earth. Turning her palm over, she swept it across her body, starting from the Southeast and ending toward the Southwest. All that I could feel was a gentle breeze, but another one the soldier fell from his mount. With the breeze, the air had been stripped from his lungs and blown away, leaving him suffocating until life eventually left him.
The soldiers at the front of the carriage had now been taken down within mere seconds of my initial strike. The Lili that stood before me sent a shiver down my spine, I hadn't figured out what kind of skill she was using, but it power was absolute. A flick of the wrist, a twitch of her fingers or wave of her hand, all that were before her were at her mercy. In that moment, just for a moment, I questioned if what I did what right. Had I unleashed something terrible on the world? In a split second though, all that went away. As she turned to face the men at the back of carriage, she looked at me and smiled. It wasn't the determined smile that this girl had given me earlier, it was Lili, the little girl I had met weeks ago, the little girl that I had taken with me. It was a warm smile, even through all of this, she was still in there. She wasn't doing any wrong, she simply obeying my instructions. This was my first taste of the power of magic in this world, its raw, destructive capabilities, it terrifying and awe-inspiring power. This was my sin, and my lesson. I took her shackles off and told her fight for herself, and she showed me that she was far from some frail and defenseless little girl.
The men at the rear were just as helpless as the rest. First a rush of water came in from behind them wetting the ground around the horses hooves. Just as quickly the earth below them swallowed them up far enough so that both man and beast were trapped. With her left hand retracted her first, third and fourth digits, and pointed at the men. They then began convulsing until you could actually see tendrils of light shooting from them, like little lightning bolt trying to escape. The men, unconscious but still breathing then combusted, the horses trapped beneath, all burned until nothing remained.
With the entourage now vanquished, only the carriage remained. I took the lead and moved toward the door, ripping it off its hinges. There sat a fat, sweaty lump of flesh, with tears and snot dripping down his face. I removed him from his carriage and threw him to the ground at the small girls feet. "Forgive me, I beg you! I will give you anything you want, but please just spare my life." He was clasping his hand, pleading for his pathetic life. Lili's eyes were glowing blue, and the bagua on the ground was getting smaller.
"If anything is what you wish to give me, then all I ask is that you return my people." Her voice was different, it was deep, shrill, angry and sad, all at the same time. It was as if spirits where using her as a medium to voice there emotions. During this time, the bagua had completely retracted and the final element had appeared a charm with the symbol for sky on it. "This is not something you have within your power to grant, you and yours have seen to our destruction. So, I will take from you what I can." She said in the same haunting voice and she placed the charm on the Margrave's face. A ghost that bared his liking leaked from his body, and the body fell to the floor. There hanging above its lifeless corpse the spirit remained motionless, the charm still in place. With two fingers, Lili slashed through the ghost shattering it. "I have taken from you all of your future lives, so that you may never plague this world with your crimes again."
The carnage lasted at most, three minutes. All I could think about was the difference between this and my first fight in this world, and just how far apart they were. Magic was terrifying, but even more so, was the will to use it to its potential.
Lili turned on her heel and looked at me. Gone was the cool determined look she had worn throughout this ordeal, and instead it was that of a child looking at her father. The look of wanting praise or needing reassurance that she had done well. She was back to her soft and unsure self. "I did good... papa?"
"Yeah... Lili, you did good." I gave a big smile back to her, trying my best to hide my own mental exhaustion from what I had just witnessed. She rushed forward and sprang into my arms, nestling her head into my chest. Within an instant she was out, not doubt her own exhaustion far exceeded my own. Her soft snore brought back the feeling of comfort that I had enjoyed by sharing her company. "I put my hand, which wasn't supporting her weight, on her head and said again, "You did good... little one, you did good." I carried her back to just inside the forest, and made camp again. I laid her on soft bedding, kissed her on the cheek and whispered goodnight to her.
Leaving the campsite and returning to where the remains were, I gave the gruesome scene one last look over. 'This is what it means to be in a world of swords and magic. God how all those anime used to sugar coat everything.' I dropped to me knees and covered my mouth, doing my best to keep everything in as my body wretched. It wasn't so much the scene itself that had gotten to me, I had grown numb to the idea of having to kill in this world, a resolve I set back when I was still with Vathsvala. It was the realization that I had ordered a small child to commit this act, in the name of some grandiose idea of her free herself from the chains of slavery. I had broken those chains for her two weeks ago, 'was this display necessary?' After a short while, but what felt like an eternity, I stood back up. 'Lock these away too. No point worrying about what is done. Flip the switch.' With that, my face relaxed and all emotions subsided. "All that is left to do now is clean up." I said to my self aloud.
With a wave of my hand and the thought of manipulation, I turned all the bodies to ash and let them scatter into the passing breeze. 'I don't know what the repercussions of this will be, frankly I don't really care. The power vacuum will be Hordin's problem to deal with. I just have to worry about those around me, and defeating the Demon Lord, nothing else on this world truly matters.' With the scene clear, I reattached the door to the carriage and inspected it.
Name: Platz Magic carriage Durability: 67/100 Magic: 0/100
Description:
Carriage belong to Margrave Platz. Uses magic to move based upon the will of the magic supplier. Equipped with a special suspension system, allowing for the smooth ride over country roads, and to avoid unnecessary rocking when in use.
"Explains why he didn't need a driver and how he could keep up with the cavalry. This should also make our trip go much faster." I touched the carriage and focused my mana, I could feel the slow drain from my chest, down my arm, into my hand before eventually leaving into the carriage itself. It wasn't pain or even a tingle, just a slight warmth to it, almost relaxing really. Using my thoughts I had the carriage leave the road and positioned it right next to the forest in a way that would block our camp from any prying eyes along the road. The last thing I did before heading back to camp was take a good look at my own growth from this fight. 'Inspi.'
Name: Andrew Grant Health: 7200 Magic: 900
Level : 36 Age: 21(48) Gender: Male
Race: Human(Summon) Job: Hero
Strength: 65 Stamina: 70 Intelligence: 69
Wisdom: 62 Dexterity: 60
Skills: Matter Mastery Lv 2, Lounge Lv 5, Mana Manipulation Lv 1, Inspect Lv 4, Skill Steal, Party Growth Accelerate Lv MAX, Incredible Dexterity Lv 3, Incredible Stamina Lv 1, Animal Handling Lv 1, Mounted Fighting Lv 1, Blade-work Lv 5, Weapon Fighting Lv 1, Killer Instinct Lv 4, Leadership Lv 1, Ruler's Authority, Summon's Duty
It was actually a little more than I expected, but I was glad. The other thing I noticed was that, enemies killed by other near me, didn't have their skills transfer. Though to be honest, I was curious about those two skills from the Margrave, but I was more worried about any possible side effects that would have come with. It was probably for the better. I went back to camp and laid down next to Lili. As if sensing my presence in her sleep, she turned around and nestled herself into my chest, wrapping her tails together and bringing them between us, before tightly grabbing my waist. "It is okay, you aren't alone anymore", I whispered into her ear, before nodding off to sleep myself.