I was annoyed. Very annoyed. I spent the entire day yesterday studying that damn spellbook. Six spells and not one useful one... well no they aren't useless, its just that I was hoping for some more crowd control. Bestow Curse would be incredibly useful for dealing with powerful opponents, but the best I was able to learn for dealing with multiple enemies was Wither and Bloom. It was alright, but it only worked within a relatively small area and my opponents would need to be close for me to hit multiple.
My annoyance didn't just stop at the magic though. I really should have brought up Hestia's crush last night, but I didn't and now Bell was going on a date with that server. I mean she was cute and I do wish him luck, but it almost feels like I've betrayed Hestia by not at least mentioning it.
It also irked me that Bell pushed me to ask Lili out. It's not that I dislike Lili. She's really cute, but I don't actually know that much about her and she has a lot of baggage. Metaphorically of course, not the literal bag she carries around. I'm no psychologist, but I know that dating Lili will create a dependency or a trauma bond or whatever the fancy term is. I don't want to get in a relationship with her while she associates me with freedom or safety.
"Is something the matter master?" Lili asked innocently. Yes Lili, a lot of things are the matter. Not that I was going to tell her that. Even if I didn't like the idea, I was still going to try and make this date great. She did deserve a day of relaxation after all.
"It's nothing to worry about." I said with a smile, "And you can just call me Matthew if you'd like today."
"Alright, Matthew." She said with a small smile. Honestly it was quite a nice sight.
"Alright Lili, I'm new in town so you'll have to lead the way." I said as we weaved our way through the streets. Orario was always busy, but today was another level entirely. You couldn't walk three steps without bumping into someone and there was a food stand every twenty feet. Lili had them stop at one of the stands to get some jagamaru-kuns, a fried potato snack with filling. Ahhh, delicious unhealthy fried food. Reminded me of home. Speaking of home.
"Lili, did you grow up here in Orario or are you from somewhere else?" I asked.
"Lili was born here. Her parents had her in the Soma familia, she's been there ever since." She said with a sour tone. Well that took a turn for the worse, I was just trying to learn more about her. Yeah, I was really annoyed at Bell now. I'm sure he was just trying to help, but you can't just rush things with a girl like her.
"What about you, what was your home like?" She asked surprising me. Well at least this opens up a dialog.
"My home was amazing. It would put this city to shame and it wasn't even that big when compared to others from my country. There wasn't much adventure to be had though. There were no monsters we needed to fear, no dungeon to explore. But that also meant that people could live however they wanted without fear." I explained feeling slightly homesick.
"No offense to your home Matthew, but there's no city in the world as grand as Orario." Lili cringed probably thinking that what she said was some huge offense and would make me mad. It was probably a bit rude of me but I couldn't help but laugh.
"Maybe not in this world." I said with a chuckle. Lili just looked at me as if I said something insane... Oh wait! I did. "With strong enough magic you can travel between worlds. Once I'm strong enough I'll show you my home."
Lili was stunned at my proclamation. It made sense. Feats of magic like that were likely unheard of in this world. In fact if someone had told me the same thing in my old world before I learned magic I probably would have called them very unsavory things.
"That sounds nice." She said still bemused. Yeah, I'm totally going to take Lili, Bell and Hestia home one day. The looks on their faces from going to another world alone would be worth it, that's not even mentioning all we could do. Water/amusement parks, movies, video games, national parks, great monuments, the beaches. I wanted to show them all of it now.
"So what next Lili? Is there anything particular you had in mind?" I asked as we finished our jagamara-kuns.
"We could go to the colosseum and watch the adventurers tame monsters." She said not sounding particularly enthused. I guess I'll have to think of something else.
"Do you want to go shopping for some new clothes instead?" I asked watching for her reaction. Lili's eyes opened a bit and she smiled slightly before frowning.
"Lili doesn't think wearing new clothes will be safe. Other adventurers won't like Lili wearing nice clothes." She said dejectedly.
"What if we get you something just to wear while were at home?" I suggested whilst mentally promising to skin whoever did this to Lili. She didn't respond to my question immediately, but after a moment of thinking it over she finally nodded before grabbing my hand and leading me to a nearby shop. Once we entered I saw a small blonde pallum girl with a poofy pink dress. The shopkeeper I presumed. When she saw us she gave a bright smile and skipped her way over to us.
"Hello, welcome sir and ma'am to Madam Medior's Masquerade, I'm Madam Medior! I see you brought your beautiful partner her for a dress that will accentuate her." She said in a voice that was totally not trying way to hard to sound regal. I could appreciate her little act. It was attention grabbing and make people think of the shop whenever they wanted clothes. Behind her little act I could just feel this woman's greed. Lili and I were about to get absolutely fleeced. I didn't mind it though as long as I could spoil her a little. "Come come, as a pallum myself I know exactly what you need!"
It was kind of humorous to watch the doll like pallum drag Lili around. The two of them must have looked at over thirty dresses with how quickly Medior drug Lili around and how quickly Lili refused everything she showed. I wasn't sure if she was refusing everything because it was to expensive or if it was just her earlier reservations again.
"Lili we aren't leaving until you pick out something nice." I said assertively. It probably wasn't the best idea to say things like that, but the girl needed to be more confident. I saw Medior lean close to Lili and whispered something into her ear causing the poor girl to turn beet red. I didn't hear what she said exactly, but judging off what little I knew of the saleswoman I had a good idea. She probably said something risqué in order to push one of the more provocative dresses. Probably.. definitely more expensive as well. However to my surprise a few minutes after taking a dress to the dressing room Lili came out in a beautiful sleeveless maroon dress that really complemented her hair and eyes. It wasn't promiscuous like I had expected Medior to suggest either. The most showy part of the dress was the shoulders. Definitely not something I would be embarrassed for her to wear in front of my family.
"See, I told you he would like it." Medior said without even trying to hide it. "Men are easy as long as you know what to wear."
"Are you sure you should be saying things like that in front of your customers?" I asked trying to hide the annoyance in my voice. Does she really think she can just get away with saying things like that?
"You're still going to buy your partner the dress no?" She asked in a haughty tone. What annoyed me most about that question is that I was going to be paying for the dress and she knew it.
"How much?"
"Thirty-seven thousand vals." She said with a greedy glint in her eyes. That number nearly made me choke. That was only three thousand less that what Bell had given us for the entire day and we've only been out for about an hour. Not to mention that it was nearly as expensive as the armor he bought yesterday.
"Thirty thousand vals." I tried to haggle, but was immediately shot down.
"Nuh-uh mister, there is absolutely no haggling in Madam Medior's Masquerade." She said with finality. Damn it, I really was outplayed. She knew that I not only liked the dress, but also couldn't just back out after telling Lili we were going to be getting something. Sighing, I counted out the vals and handed them to Medior as my heart died slightly.
"Thank you for your business kind sir." Medior said with a shining smile before turning to whisper something to Lili. I wanted to make some witty remark, but I had nothing. Damn it! Matthew Mathers was supposed to be a silver tonged merchant, but that woman completely outclassed me.
"Have a good day ma'am." I said lamely as I left with Lili in tow. Before I could leave the building I mistakenly bumped into another woman coming to shop. I quickly apologized before leaving. I didn't want to be around Medior any longer... At least for today. I would be lying if I said the woman's dresses were unflattering. We would probably need to stop by here again to get something for Hestia. Get her a proper dress for when she goes to her god parties.
"So uh Lili, want to go to that monster tamer thing now." I chuckled nervously. We were practically out of money now. The best I'd be willing to do at this point is some snacks at the colosseum and whatever the entrance fee is. I really needed some money to get myself some armor tomorrow as well. Not like I couldn't farm for money in the dungeon but I'd rather start learning to cast in armor as quickly as possible.
"Thank you." Lili said softly drawing me from my thoughts. She then started walking towards the colosseum and I couldn't help but notice how well the dress showed of her... um.. backside. Not wanting to stare I quickened my pace to match her stride. Which wasn't hard given that my legs were much longer than hers. It didn't take us long to reach the colosseum and to my surprise there was no entrance fee, just some girl with an elephant mask telling us to have fun. Inside there were a bunch more of the elephant mask people who looked like they were standing guard or running back into the restricted areas where I guessed the monsters were at. The two of us quickly found a place to sit and right as something began happening below. They elephant guards brought out a strange monster I've yet to see before.
"Behold the mighty silverback of the twelfth floor. It's monstrous strength and agility make it a challenge for many of unprepared adventurers!" A voice said from seemingly nowhere and everywhere. Given how uncommon magic seemed to be and how there was absolutely no way the acoustics carried that far, I figured it had to be due to their weird magic stone electronics. "Watch Orario as the Ganesha Familia's very own Ifrit Milluri tames this viscous beast!"
As the voice said that an Amazoness with long black hair wearing skimpy clothes entered the arena waving to everyone as the crowed cheered. A few of the men around us in the arena were whistling and catcalling the fighter who surly couldn't hear them from here. She had caught my attention for an entirely different reason. The very idea of taming a monster intimidated me with how poorly Dungeon-chan had reacted when I had done so. I hadn't even considered the possibility that she was angry about me mind controlling a monster instead of using her spell. Something I would have to test later.
As the Amazoness got close to the caged monster she bowed before the crowd as they cheered her on. Three of the elephant guards, who I now presume are the Ganesha familia, pulled on some chains connected to the cage and began running. The silverback didn't even let the cage open before it barged its way out, flinging the door at Ifrit with incredible speeds. The girl dodged it as if it wasn't even a threat before pulling out a whip and striking the monster in its face causing it to recoil.
"Back you beast!" She shouted with glee as she cracked her whip once more. Okay I take it back, maybe the acoustics are that good if I can hear her from all the way back here. I wanted to say that the resulting 'fight' was interesting, but it was just the girl shouting at the monster and occasionally whipping at it until it stopped attacking her about fifteen minutes later. Maybe I've just been spoiled by video games, but that entire event was extremely boring. Ifrit didn't look challenged in the slightest. It made sense, not like they're going to put people in there over their heads and get them killed in front of thousands, it would be an embarrassment for her familia. The rest of the crowd was eating it up though. People all around us were screaming Ifrit's name in excitement. I even think I heard one guy proclaim his love for her.
"Do you not find this entertaining?" Lili asked from my side. Silver lining is that she didn't seem to be enjoying it either so I didn't have to feel bad about telling her the truth.
"I was interested in the fact that you can tame monsters, but honestly the process was pretty boring to watch." I said truthfully.
Lili nodded "Monsterphillia is the same every year, the only difference is what monsters they bring. Nothing strong this year."
"You wanna get out of here and find something else to do?" I asked casually and no surprise, Lili agreed. Not long after our daring escape from the colosseum Lili grabbed my hand.
"Did you bring your spellbook today?" She asked. I checked the holster... and... FUCK!
"Hey Lili I'm sorry to cut our date short, but I need to find my book." I told her. I tried to sound sympathetic, but my voice was too laced with anger and worry for a softer tone to come through.
"Lili understands. She will change and speak to someone she knows." She said simply. I wasn't going to hold her back. Mentally calling Pride to myself I began retracing my steps. After spending about half an hour in the arena I determined that it wasn't there and Pride finally arrived.
'Took you long enough'
'You fucked up. That's so funny.'
'Find my spellbook or I turn you into a rat'
'You wouldn't'
'You wanna test that theory'
With my little threat made Pride flew off waayyy faster than he arrived. He really did not like the idea of living as a rat. Meanwhile I worked my way back to Madam Medior's Masquerade or at least what was left of it. When I got back to the clothing shop, It and the entire street was in ruins. Rushing into the building I desperately dug around the rubble looking for Medior. After digging up some rocks I found a slip of pink. Moving the rocks I saw the small woman raggedly breathing, bleeding heavily from her shoulder. Well this is a good time as any to test out my new magic.
"Life Transference!" I shouted and soon felt necrotic energy begin to eat away at my life force before moving it unto the small woman. Once the spell had run it's course Medior's breathing steadied and the bleeding stopped completely, but I felt so weak. It took a lot of effort, but I picked Medior up and moved her to a place less likely to have rubble drop on her. After I was sure she was safe I began casting False Life and made my way to the sound of fighting. False Life helped significantly, but I was still exhausted from that spell. As I followed the trail of destruction I couldn't help but thank every imaginable god that Lili wasn't here. Bodies littered the streets and dozens of buildings were completely destroyed. The sight was truly macabre. If I wasn't a necromancer the sights I saw would have left me with nightmares for years. Hell, I may still get nightmares.
When I finally reached the source of the destruction I saw three familiar figures engaging a giant plant monster. The two Amazoness' Tiona and whatserface were keeping the tentacles of the monster at bay as the blonde Elf was chanting her magic. They were doing a good job keeping the attacks at bay, but not perfect.
"Shield!" I frantically cast as I pushed the elf out of the way. Seconds later I kissed the ground fucking hard. It took me a moment to orient myself as I tried to tune out the ringing in my ears. Pushing myself back up I felt blood dripping down my face and I saw an almost cartoonish imprint of myself on the ground. Standing up once more I could really feel my sides ache in pain. Do I have a broken rib? Fuck that means I'm already out of temp health!
"Wither and Bloom!" I cried desperately hoping to heal myself. The spell did work, unfortunately despite this being a plant monster and Wither being especially effective against plants, it didn't seem to do much. Worse yet I was too far from the spells range to heal from it, and instead the spell healed one of the Amazoness'. They were moving much to fast for me to tell which was which, and honestly that was for the best because they seemed to be working overtime to keep the monster's attacks at bay.
"Bestow Curse!" I shouted hoping that the monster was particularly stupid as I bestowed the curse of confusion on it. Of course game mechanics don't transfer over to the real world perfectly, but as long as its not particularly intelligent or really lucky it shouldn't be able to move for as long as I keep the spell up. The monster still periodically made attacks after I cast my spell, but the rate of attacks was drastically slashed allowing one of the Amazoness' to play defense and opened the other to focus exclusively on offense. The elf was also able to do her chants without interruption. With that the monster went down without much more trouble. After the plant finally fell I had to sit down, my side was burning intensely. Hopefully potions could fix a broken rib.
"Thank you for your assistance sir." The busty Amazoness said to me as I was wiping blood from my face. Behind her Tiona was grinning wildly and the elf girl was glaring at me as if I kicked her dog or something. Was she that mad I interrupted her cast? She was about to be hit by an attack that nearly killed me despite my temp health and Shield. "Is there any way we can repay you?"
I was about to ask for a health potion, but I couldn't help but wonder what the hell those monsters were about. I may not have known her for long, but it seems out of character for Dungeon-chan to send powerful monsters above ground like that. Of course someone could have broken her rules, but I had a feeling she wouldn't have just sent the one and that some random nobody in a commercial district would have earned her spite specifically.
"Yeah, would you let me see the magic stone from that monster for a moment." I wheezed out. She seemed confused by my request, likely because I didn't ask to keep it. She did give me the magic stone shortly after and I immediately cast Identify on it...
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I groaned after the information flooded into my head. I desperately hoped my immediate assumption was wrong. Too much has gone wrong already. I can't handle a third catastrophe. I haven't even been in this city for a month yet!
"Is something wrong?" Tiona asked curiously taking a seat by me.
"The dungeon didn't make that monster." I said tiredly while laying down. This revelation caused all three of the women to jump in shock. Even the pissed off elf. Speaking of.
"How could you possibly say that? What does that even mean?" She shouted angrily.
"Monsters created by the dungeon have a specific magic in their stones. That monster didn't have it. As far as I'm aware this could only mean one of three things. Either that monster was born all natural, it was created using very powerful magic similar to the dungeon's, or it was very old and the magic wore off. Problem is though, my spell wouldn't have work as well against it if that last one was true." I explained in between ragged breaths. Seriously though, I would prefer to be wrong here. Just let me have a week where I could relax and learn more spells.
"You think someone is breeding monsters above ground?" The busty Amazoness asked with clear worry.
"Either that or there's an archmage running around somewhere. Honestly dealing with monster breeders would be so much more preferable though." I said. Honestly if there was a mage powerful enough to create creatures like that he would need to be capable of casting at least sixth tier magic... no at least seventh. I don't even know Counterspell yet damn it!
"Thank you for this information, we will look into it. If you find any more information about this please stop by Twilight Manner. I'm Tione Hiryute, executive of the Loki familia. If the guards stop you, tell them I sent you." She said with much more confidence. The Loki familia is supposed to be top tier right? Yeah I'll let them handle this one. Unless there's an archmage, then I may need to intervene.
"Matthew-san!" I heard a familiar voice cry. Looking up I saw Bell in the distance walking alongside Aiz and a small redhead who I presumed to be Loki given the powerful aura radiating off of her. Bell quickly ran to me leaving the two girls to catch up.
"Are you okay Matthew-san? Where's Lili-chan?" He asked in a panic. And now that he was close enough I could see he was pretty roughed up himself. He had a big welt on the side of his head and his arm was bleeding. No, it was bleeding, he must have downed a potion to heal it after.
"I think I broke a rib, but fine otherwise." I told him with a chuckle.
"Lets get you home." He said trying to lift me up, but I had to push him off.
"Not now Bell, there's still work to do." I said patting my empty book holder. When Bell saw that his eyes shot wide open in a panic. Before he could see anything I put a hand up to stop him. "Pride is out looking for it right now. If you want to help, there's a pallum girl in a pink dress I healed down the road there. Go make sure she's alright and help anyone else you see along the way."
Bell, the hero hopeful, gave me a determined nod before rushing down the road. Hearing a caw I looked up to see Pride arrive at that very moment. Holding my arm out Pride landed on it before hoping around and cawing wildly in a panic.
'Soma Soma! Soma has the spellbook!'
"Oh you've got to be kidding. Why today?" I groaned through gritted teeth.
"Ah so you must be the Hestia child that wanted my Soma wine!" The short redhead laughed. What? How the hell did she know I wanted Soma wine. "You look confused, didn't shrimp tell ya?"
"Hestia has yet to return from the party. And how did you even know?" I asked befuddled.
"Oh? Is that so?" She said contemplatively. "Also I knew because your little bird was just screaming about Soma!"
Wait she can understand Pride?!
'She can understand me?!'
Pride quickly smoothed his feathers before flying over to the small redhead.
'Hey sexy, how you doing?'
"Pride!" I screamed at the little bastard. "Now is not the time!"
The woman on the other hand seemed to find the exchange to be the funniest thing ever apparently if her gut wrenching laugh was anything to go by.
"Oh my, yah really are one intrestin child. Kinda regret promising I wouldn't steal yah now." She said still laughing. Steal me away? Yeah okay this is definitely Loki.
"So Soma stole something important from ya? Yah need help gettin it back?" She said with a dangerous glint in her eyes. I almost said yes, but something told me that would be dangerous. Besides, could my familia ever really rise to prominence if we need to rely on someone like Loki to back us up?
"I should be able to handle it on my own." I said with a smile in as polite of a tone as I could muster what with my broken rib and all. "Thank you for your offer though."
Loki didn't seem satisfied with my response. She dug around in her pocket before pulling out two vials and tossed them to me. A blue heath potion and a yellow mind potion. They weren't transparent either so they must have been a much higher quality than what Bell and I could afford.
"What do I owe you for this?" I asked. I would gladly take the health potion, but I wasn't about to tell Loki that the mind potion was completely useless to me. Loki just smirked.
"Think of it as a favor." She said smugly before waving her hands as if to shoo me off. I quickly thanked Tione, Tiona and the elf for their help before I took off. I don't know what it is about Loki, something about her unsettled me. It was like she knew some deep terrible secret. She definitely knew about my spellbook though. I need to keep a closer eye on it from now on.
Drinking the health potion I followed Pride down the streets of Orario. It didn't seem to fully fix my rib, but the pain practically disappeared. It didn't take long before pride guided me to a warehouse looking facility with two guards stationed outside.
'Side entrance, only one guard. The book is inside.'
'Thanks Pride'
I crept around the building before finding a man sitting in a chair next to a door. Looking at the man it almost seemed like he was asleep. I wasn't going to get close enough to find out though. Mentally commanding Pride, I had him hop over to the guard to make certain he was asleep. After receiving the affirmative from my trusty sidekick I chose to cast Soundless on the guard. Just because he was asleep didn't mean I was going to take unnecessary risks. That did mean I was out of second tier spells for the day though. Not that it mattered. My plan from this point out was to cast Invisibility at the third tier and sneak in and out with my spellbook. Nice and easy. Entering through the side door I enacted my plan. Operation Magic Snake a go!
Honestly it wasn't hard at all to find my book. Pride guided me there and it was just on a desk in a random room. Grabbing the book I was about to make my daring escape before I heard a noise that made my heart jump. The door slammed shut and a latch turned. Fuck!
"Ah the man of the hour. Take a seat." A tall blue haired man with glasses said before walking past me and took a seat behind the desk.
'Pride?'
'Zanis. Level Two. You can't outrun him.'
If I can't run, and this guy can apparently see through my invisibility... Damn it. Dropping my invisibility I sat down. If this guy wanted to attack me, he could have done it already.
"You know I've heard quite a few things about you Mr. Mathers." He said with a devilish grin beginning to pour what I assume to be Soma into two glasses. "Being an adventurer for less than a week and you were able to best Canoe in combat."
I didn't justify the man with a response. I won't confirm what he already knew. This didn't seem to throw him off any though as he just continued talking.
"Canoe was the strongest level one in our familia you know? For you to beat him, your magic must be pretty strong." He said greedily eying my spellbook. "You know ever since we lost poor Canoe and our precious Lili, we haven't been able to recoup the costs."
I see what he's getting at. "You can't have it. I won't show you how to use it."
Zanis seemed disappointed at my proclamation, but not detoured. He pushed one of the glasses of wine to me before drinking from his own. "You know I'm not mad at what you've done right? You're not the first adventurer that wanted to play hero."
That did shock me. He wasn't mad? No! He's lying. He wants me to lower my guard. "If you aren't mad then what's this all about?" I asked cautiously.
"Take a drink first. It's rude to talk business without a sip of wine first." He said in a reassuring voice. I didn't trust him one bit. Problem is that I'm in his lair, I have to play by his rules. That didn't stop me from casting Protection from Good and Evil before drinking though. I thought when I learned that spell yesterday it would be totally useless forever. I mean it will be if it doesn't help against this god's wine, but here's hoping. It was strange. It didn't taste as good as I thought it would. It was absolute laced with magic though.
"There, I took a drink. Now what do you want?" I said assertively causing Zanis to open his eyes slightly in shock. Unfortunately he just widened his smile as if my little trick didn't bother him a bit.
"Well you see, we're running a business first and foremost. I would like to recover the loss you've caused us by killing Canoe and taking Lili." He said bluntly.
"You say that as if Lili didn't already want to leave. You were abusing her!" I snarled before quickly composing myself. In a negotiation like this you need to keep a leash on your emotions.
"What of it? She belongs to us, we can treat her as we like." He said smugly taking a sip of his wine. I know what he's doing. He's trying to get a rise out of me. I'm not going to take the bait Zanis.
"And she's mine now. You know I can kill powerful level ones. Do you really think picking a fight with me is wise?" I bluffed out of my ass. The only thing I really had going for me here is that Zanis knows I'm stronger than I should be as a new adventurer, but not exactly how strong I am.
Zanis just chuckled while taking another sip of his wine. "And you're right about that, but I can see it in your eyes. You're a business man at heart. Why risk both of our familias with a meaningless fight when we can work this out with vals?"
"Lili gets to leave your familia and once you're payed off you never so much as look at my familia again. Those are my conditions. We can work out the rest." I said steeling my voice. Zanis' eyes sparked after my proclamation. Did I come on too strong?
"You and your familia will cover the loss we have endured from Canoes death and Lili's disappearance. Canoe brought in a little over a million vals a month and Lili brought in half that number. You will cover that on a monthly basis starting this month. Fifteen million vals for Lili to leave the familia and the monthly fee doesn't count towards that number. Or you could just show me how to use your grimoire and we can consider your debt null and void" Zanis said with a smirk. Okay he's definitely super high balling those numbers so I have to lowball them until we reach an actual agreement.
"Absolutely not. And you expect me to believe Canoe and Lili brought in those numbers? Be serious. And fifteen million for Lili? You and I both know you don't value her that much." I said
"I may not, but you do. Besides, even if she's a useless supporter, she's still a woman. I'm sure we could find a way to make money from her." He said with a disgusting grin.
Okay Zanis, I was willing to hear you out. Even work with you until this was resolved. But for that? For that I'm going to kill you. Not now. I'm going to learn an entire assortment of nasty spells to throw your way. You will be driven to insanity before I kill you... No I'm not even going to kill you. I'm going to make you too terrified to ever sleep in this city again.
'Master, he can sense your bloodlust'
"I'm going to ignore that comment... for the sake of not causing 'senseless bloodshed when we can work things out with vals'." I said through gritted teeth, "But for that implication the deal is going to change. Two-hundred thousand a month for no longer than a year. One million to free Lili. That or I burn this building down and everyone in it."
He didn't know that I couldn't do that just yet. It seemed like he didn't like my statement though as he frowned for just a second before hiding it behind that fake smile of his.
"I'm afraid two-hundred thousand is simply too low. Five-hundred fifty for three years. Eight million for Lili"
"Four-hundred for a year and a half. Three million for Lili" I demanded. Zanis scowled before downing the rest of his wine and standing up.
"Fine, we have a deal." He said sticking his hand out for a handshake. I really didn't want to, but I stuck my hand out as well. "Good talk Mr. Mathers."
After he escorted me outside of the building I ran out of sight before hurling on the ground. Damn it that was way more intense than it should have been. I was just supposed to sneak in and out. How did he know I was there? No, how did he get my book in the first place? Thank God this guy was massively overestimating my abilities though. That's the only thing that saved me from being beaten into a pool of blood and gore just then.
'Let's go home.'
"Yeah"
When I got back to the church I felt a small busty woman crash into me.
"You're okay!" Hestia cried... Like actually cried with tears in her eyes. Lili and Bell were also sitting on the couch looking rather stressed. "You idiot! What did you face the Soma familia alone?!"
"I uh... they stole my spellbook." I responded lamely. Hestia just sighed deeply before pointing to the couch. I saw Bell putting on his shirt so I got the message and took off my own.
"Before I start I wanted to show you this." She said before pulling out a wine bottle. "You should have at least come home for an update before you did that. Then you could use this to bargain like you said."
I didn't have the heart to tell her that the bottle was completely unnecessary now. Well, actually no. Fuck the deal I made with Zanis. I'll see if I can't bribe Chandra to kick his ass out and take his place as captain... after we're strong enough. I may play into the deal for just a month or two.
"Thank you Hestia, I'll make good use of it." I said laying down on the couch. Not long after I felt the drop of blood and the movement of my goddess' fingers on my back. All of the sudden though I felt her nails dig into my skin drawing blood.
"Matthew." She said in a scary voice.
"Yes?" I asked unsure of what I did to anger her.
"You know that I can see what you've been up to through your falna right?" She asked digging her nails in deeper.
"No? I didn't know that." I said unsure of what the problem is.
"You promised you would stay safe while I was gone." She growled... Oh I.. fu-
'You fucked up' Pride cut me off.
"Hehe, to be fair we promised not to go deeper than we could handl- Oof."
Hestia was not amused by the comment given that she absolutely slammed the back of my head. It took me by surprise, but didn't hurt any oddly enough.
"You're grounded." She said.
"What?"
"You're not allowed to go into the dungeon until your rib is fully healed. And no potions!" She said pouting.
That was annoying given the deal I just made with Zanis, but I could use that time to study my spellbook. "Yes Hestia. I'll stay home until I'm healed."
With that she handed me my update.
Matthew M. Mathers Lv 1
Strength I 9 - I 29
Defense I 35 - H 197
Dexterity I 18 - I 43
Agility I 12 - I 36
Magic H 177 - E 463
Skills
Arcane Spellcaster V - Rather than drawing from a pool of mind to cast spells, user expends spell slots. Ritual spells do not expend spell slots. Chants do not expend spell slots, functions as if Arcane Spellcaster is not in use
Available spell slots - I (4) II (3) III (2)
Spell slots recovered via long rest or study of spellbook.
Arcane Student V - Ability to learn new spells up to tier III through study of spellbook
Arcane Tradition Necromancy I - Necromancy comes naturally. Study of spellbook reveals necromancy spells quicker, ability to cast necromancy spells as if they were one tier lower.
Magic Sense - Ability to detect nearby sources of magic passively
Spells
Mending (cantrip), Message (cantrip), Minor Illusion (cantrip), Toll the Dead (cantrip), Cause Fear (I), Crumbling Dead (I, ritual), Expeditious Retreat (I), False Life (I), Find Familiar (I, ritual), Ice Knife (I), Identify (I, ritual), Protection from Good and Evil (I), Shield (I), Tasha's Hideous Laughter (I), Alter Self (II), Binding Ice (II), Invisibility (II), Life Transference (II), Sightless/Soundless (II), Wither and Bloom (II), Bestow Curse (III)
Command Hatred (V, chant, incomplete) "Old rivalries, bad blood, hated enemy, destined foe. Let rage flow through your veins, an endless sea of fire. You are mine, my wrath yours"
Hmm, Pretty impressive. I was really hoping I would reach level two though. Maybe I need to max out one of my stats before I can level up?
"Hey Bell, Let me see what you got." I said absently only to notice Bell become fidgety and he hid his update behind his back. "Bell?"
"I think it would be best to show you later, I mean you're not allowed into the dungeon anyways." He said nervously. What the hell is his problem?
'Get me his paper' I commanded to Pride as the raven flew behind Bell snatching the paper before the boy could even react. After Pride gave me the paper I had to do a double, and then a triple take. There was only one thing I could say in response...
"What the fuck!?"
Bell Cranel Lv 1
Strength I 97 - F 332
Defense I 24 - H 110
Dexterity H 114 - E 478
Agility G 203 - D 573
Magic I 47 - G 247
Skills
#*
Spells
Booming Blade - "Let lightning strike my foe, true as blade"
Necrogod: Thank you very much, good to hear.
Greek Nerd: Thanks, I've always thought Bell should have been more confident. I mean his primary goal for becoming an adventurer was to have a harem before he met Aiz
son of wind: Good to hear that you're loving the story. As to your comment about the magic? It is random... sorta. The way the spellbook works is that the spells already known are written clearly and easy to read, however spells that Matthew has yet to learn, or spells of higher levels that he can't learn appear as if they were written in gibberish. Matthew needs to study the book in order to decrypt the spell in question. It is true that he could stop after he learned the name of the spell, but if you'd like to think of it you can imagine Matthew falling for the sunk cost fallacy. "I've already spent an hour studying this. May as well finish". And for Thunderclap? There's someone else in the familia that I wanted to give more of a lightning/thunder motif