I was excited to gain access to tier six spells at first. That was before I had learned just how difficult it was to decipher a tier six spell in comparison to a tier five sell. It had been three days since I unlocked the ability to access this level of magic, I had learned five spells. I had spent all three days doing nothing but studying, and I had learned five spells. That was roughly one spell deciphered for every seven hours of studying.
That being said, it was totally worth it. Disintegrate, a spell with incredible destructive capabilities. Wall of Ice, a great defensive spell. True Sight, which I don't think would be particularly useful, but it was nice to have nonetheless. Ice Rink, a spell that would create an incredibly large area of frozen ground, causing constant damage and making it difficult for anyone other than myself and those I designate as allies to pass. And finally, the crème de la crème. Soul Jar. There was the problem of the components. I still physically needed a durable jar to use as a part of the spell, though I suppose a gem of some sort could work in a pinch. I'm sure I could work out something with either Hephaestus or Goibniu.
Too tired to even look at my spell book anymore, I decided I would be heading out today. I did promise to take Eina out to lunch as an apology, so I might as well do that today. I could also pick up some materials to help Veneficus learn how to read and eventually for him to learn magic... Assuming it was actually possible for him to use any at all. Regardless, I made my way to Hestia to tell her where I was going and left home for the first time in three days. It was nice to go on a walk in the sunlight after so long. No more multi-day long study sessions.
Not much long after I had left, I arrived at the guild. Eina was dealing with a rather large line of adventurers looking rather disheveled. After getting her attention, I used Message to speak with her. 'Hey Eina, want to take a lunch break? It's on me.'
Eina took the mental conversation rather well, all things considered. She didn't scream or collapse from fright, likely because she was already aware of most of my abilities already from when I submitted a list of my known spells to the guild. That said, she clearly wasn't expecting it. After recovering from the initial shock of having me speak to her in her mind, she wrapped up with her current client and spoke to another guild worker to take her place.
"If it isn't my most troublesome adventurer." Eina greeted.
"Hey Eina, let's grab something to eat. Whatever you want." I offered. The poor half-elf sighed deeply before she replied. I felt bad for her. Her job had to have been stressful.
"What trouble are you up to now? You don't bother me unless you did something wrong." She said disapprovingly as the two of us made our way out of the guild.
"It's not like I go looking for trouble, Eina. Trouble just has its way of finding me." I said with a chuckle. Now was not the time to mention my dealings with Fels or the Xenos.
"Oh, I'm sure," She sighed, "Let's get some jagamarukun. I don't want to be away from the guild for too long."
Jagamarukun? That was the thing Hestia was selling as her first job, right? Street vendor food. Not something I would choose if someone was offering me a free meal, but who was I to question Eina's tastes? "Is there anything new going on in the guild?"
"Well, there's news of a monster wearing the armor, but the guild suspects it's one of your undead that went off on its own. Is there any way you could confirm that?" She asked. Well that sounded more like the the Xenos than my undead, but there was always the possibility some familia gave one of the undead a set of armor and then died in the dungeon, leaving an undead without any commands to follow.
"I couldn't be sure unless I ran across it in the dungeon. I'll keep an eye out next time I go." I said as we found our way to a nearby jagamarukun stand.
"Speaking of which, you mentioned you haven't been in the dungeon much lately, have you?" She asked as we reached the front of the line, "Three jagamarukun please."
"I'll have two for myself," I added handing over a few vals to the food vendor, "As for the dungeon, I haven't really had a reason to delve it too deeply recently. Fighting monsters won't teach me new spells after all."
"Oh, and you have even more spells already?" She asked.
"Yeah, I don't suppose I'll have to tell you what they all are, will I?" I asked. Eina just gave me the look. The look a disappointed mother would give their child when they know they've done something wrong. I swear Eina its not like I don't respect you. It's just that I hate bureaucracy, and that's what the guild embodies. If you're going to spy on me, at least don't have it be intrusive on my life. "Alright, alright, I'll write it all down and bring it to you later."
"Thank you Matthew." Eina sighed. "So, what trouble has found you lately?"
"Well there's this... kid, who wanted me to teach him magic." I said. I couldn't tell her Veneficus was a dragon, and since he's the reincarnation of the dragon I killed a while ago that meant he was a kid right? Yeah may as well be. Probably.
"That's unexpectedly kind of you." She said with a smirk.
"Hey!" I shouted causing Eina to giggle.
"Kidding." She said with a smile before she finished off her jagamarukun. I decided to go ahead and eat the rest of mine as well.
"Well, that was nice. I'll let you get back to work unless you want to take a longer break?" I asked.
"No, I should be getting back by now. Thank you for this." She said as she began walking back towards the guild. With Eina leaving, I was left to decide what to do next.
I wondered about the city for a while. I made my way into a bookstore. Inside was dusty, and It looked s if no one had been in the store in ages. After looking around for a while, an old dwarvish man introduced himself to me as the owner and helped me find a few books that were used to teach children how to read and write. Paying the kind man, I took the books and left. With that done, I had completed all that I really set out to do for today, so the only question was what to do next. Sure, I could bring the books down to Veneficus now, but I didn't really want to dungeon delve today. And with all the studying I had done the days prior, there was just about nothing that could get me to pick up my spellbook again today.
"Matthew!" I heard a familiar voice cry. Looking for the source of the voice, I saw Lili running towards me with concern painted on her face. That couldn't be good. Rushing to her side, I kept an eye out for the crowd around her, ready to start casting spells at a moment's notice.
"Are you alright Lili?" I asked, not bothering to mask my concern. As I approached her, though, I saw that Pride was sitting on her shoulder completely non-pulsed as he picked at his feathers.
'Everything is fine, Master'
'Then why does Lili look distressed?'
'Bell brought a pet monster home, one of those talking ones'
'And you didn't tell me sooner why?'
'It's wasn't a big deal. Bell is handling it'
"I'm fine, but Bell-"
"Brought a speaking monster home?" I finished for her. Lili looked over to Pride with a sigh before nodding. Well, the initial plan of not involving the rest of the familia about the Xenos may have fallen through, but the situation wasn't untenable. I guess I will be visiting the Xenos today to return one of their people to them.
"Okay, let's get home, I know what to do." I said as the two of us began making our way back to the manor. I had expected a lot more chaos and pandemonium when I returned home, but nobody looked panicked or afraid.
'Bell had hidden the monster's presence with a cloak'
"Okay, Lili, let's go find Bell." I said as she led me through the mansion. Bell, Hestia, Welf, Mikoto, Haruhime, and a strange looking monster girl were all waiting in a sort of meeting room I haven't used before. When we entered the room, the monster girl hid behind Bell in an almost childish manner. Was she recently incarnated as well?
"Hello, my name is Matthew Mathers. Do you have a name?" I asked. The monster girl didn't seem eager to speak to me, and Bell looked away guiltily. It made me feel kind of bad as I was already aware of the Xenos, and I just hadn't told them about it.
"Wiene." The monster girl introduced softly, almost too quite to hear. Wiene? That was a rather strange name in my opinion, but who was I to judge. I named a silverback Silver.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Wiene. I know it may seem odd to ask, but do you know what you are?" I asked. This situation would be much easier to resolve if she was already aware of the other Xenos. Of course, she would probably prefer to stay on the surface, but that would put her in unnecessary danger while Fels, Ganesha, and I worked to normalize Xenos. Plus, she would probably feel safer around her own kin, if her reaction to me was any indication.
"I am a Vouivre." She responded meekly. Alright, so she doesn't know that she's technically called a Xeno and that there were others like her. It would probably be a hard sell to convince her to go back into the dungeon on my word alone. That said, it couldn't be wrong to present the option.
"No, you are what's known as a Xeno. A sapient monster. There are others like you in the dungeon." I admitted to the shock of everyone in the room.
"What do you mean?"
"How do you know that?"
"When did you learn that?"
A cacophony of questions all came at once, Lili being the only one who didn't question it since I've already told her directly. Instead, I directed a question towards Bell, "Do you remember the favor I did for that creepy guy that came by a few days ago?"
"So he was like Wiene?" He asked.
"Something like that. He led me down to the eighteenth floor to speak with some of these Xenos and to discuss ways to possibly integrate them into society above ground." I explained. To my surprise, everyone in the room seemed to take the news pretty well.
"So you meet with a bunch of these Xenos? Weren't you afraid they'd attack you?" Welf asked seemingly unnerved that there could be more monsters like Wiene.
"Unless you've forgotten Welf, I can instantly kill any monster that doesn't have a natural resistance to magic. While the Xenos outnumbered me, I was never afraid they'd attack me." I said. It was half true. I was more afraid of Veneficus and the other dragon than I was of the other Xenos.
"Do you think that's possible? For monsters to live with people?" Hestia asked.
"Of course it's possible. That said, I'm no expert at social engineering, and even if I was, it will take a considerable amount of time." I answered.
"And where would that leave Wiene?" Haruhime surprisingly spoke up.
"For her safety, I think it would be best to take her to the other Xenos." I said.
"Must I?" Wiene asked timidly.
"Well... I can't guarantee your safety. If other adventurers discovered your existence, they may make an attempt on your life." I said. Even if I knew better spells now, or if Bell was level three, we still needed to sleep. There would be days I wouldn't be around to help look after her safety. She would need to hide away in this building constantly. If she ever went out, she would always need to slink around in shadows. Keeping her above ground was possible, but I don't think it would be good for her in the long run. It would breed a sense of paranoia deep within her.
"Is there nothing else we can do?" Bell asked. Well. Ganesha did have his sympathies with the Xenos. It was possible he might be willing to help with Wiene. I could also just lie and say Wiene was an undead under my control. A litch more specifically. Other than my family, no one on Orario really knew how undeath worked. Adventurers could have their suspicions, but only the gods would be able to determine I was lying. Maybe I could get Ganesha and Loki to vouch for me. No, that wouldn't work if Ganesha was going to bring Ray to the surface under his supervision. Me creating an intelligent monster at the same time as Ganesha brings another to the surface would just be way too suspicious.
"I'm not trying to say Wiene can't be allowed to stay on the surface, but it will be risky." I explained after a short pause.
"What are the other Xenos planning in order to fit in on the surface?" Welf asked.
"Currently, the plan is for the Ganesha familia to bring one of their more charismatic members to the surface under their supervision. Of course, Ray knows that she's taking a big risk by doing this and that the Ganesha familia might not be able to protect her from a rouge actor." I explained. If we kept Wiene with us, it would essentially be the same circumstance. I would try my damnedest to protect her, but Bell is our highest level member, and as useful as my magic was, that only counted for so much.
"So I'm just a hinderance." Wiene said dejectedly. Wiene a hinderance? That was a rather pessimistic way to view it, but not entirely wrong. That did give me an idea, though.
"We could make you stronger so you could protect yourself." I suggested. Everyone looked at me with confusion at my proclamation.
"Is it possible to bless a monster?" Hestia asked unnerved.
"Wiene doesn't need a falna. Monsters grow stronger by eating magic stones, remember?" I asked. This was new information to Welf, Mikoto, and Haruhime, but Hestia, Bell, and Lili immediately knew what I was talking about.
"That's true, but how many would we have to give her for her to be able to protect herself?" Bell asked.
"And how would we gain so many without taking them from the rest of the familia?" Hestia asked. Thank you Hestia, that's where the next part of my genius plan came in.
"Bell, do you remember what happened the first time I used my only chanting spell?" I said with a sly grin.
"Absolutely not!" Lili shouted immediately.
"What's wrong with his magic?" Mikoto asked.
"There are certain things that anger the dungeon, causing it to unleash a pass parade." Bell explained.
"So all we have to do is intentionally cause multiple pass parades on the high floors, and we could easily get hundreds of magic stones for Wiene." I said. It was a brilliant idea. The monsters on the higher floors could hardly pose a threat to us anymore, and though it wasn't really worth it to farm pass parades for valis, we could definitely do it to help power level Wiene.
"Absolutely not. Vetoed. You are not going to intentionally agitate the dungeon under any circumstance." Hestia immediately shot down. Eh... fair.
"It was just an idea." I said dejectedly.
"A bad one." Lili smirked. I wasn't going to say that was wrong. It was kind of a dumb idea. Pissing off the dungeon on purpose was really stupid.
"Thank you." I heard Wiene say. What was she thanking me for? I was just throwing out ideas at this point. "You said you were trying to make my kind accepted on the surface, right? I can go to the dungeon with the rest of my kind. I can always come back later after you've succeeded, right?"
"Wiene." Bell said somberly.
"She's right. One day, Xenos will be accepted on the surface. We can always wait for that day. And nothing would stop us from going to visit Wiene every once in a while." I told Bell. This was honestly just the best way. "We don't have to go tonight, but I will guide you once you're ready, Wiene."
"There's no point to hold off. I'm ready." She said, pulling Bell into a deep hug before moving to give Haruhime a hug as well.
"I'll come as well. I want to meet the Xenos who will be looking after Wiene." Bell spoke up.
"I'm coming too." Welf spoke, "I want to see what these Xenos are like."
"I'll follow as well. It would be bad manners not to see Wiene off." Mikoto piped up.
"I would also like to be there to wish Wiene goodbye." Haruhime said. And I already knew Lili would follow along. I didn't know Wiene for very long, but she certainly made an impression on my familia. We certainly got a farewell party ready for her.
"Very well. Hestia, this shouldn't take long. We'll be back before nightfall." I said to our goddess who was sighing deeply, not looking surprised in the slightest at this outcome.
"Come back safely." She said as we began making our preparations. A few of the new members asked where we were going, but I just told them we were going out for a short errand.
Not long after we made out for the dungeon. With the seven of us, the dungeon posed no threat to us even if it was starting to spawn monsters at a more regular rate again. On our journey down to the eighteenth, there was something I've noticed that unsettled me. Some time after we made it to the twelfth floor, I noticed a faint trace of magic that was following us. It was extremely subtle, so much so that I almost hadn't noticed it at all, but it was definitely there, and it was following us at a steady pace.
Ignoring the magic for the moment, I continued guiding everyone to the eighteenth floor. Unfortunately, the Goliath spawned today, so I had to waste a Counterspell to kill it. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but being followed was really starting to fuck with me. Once we were on the eighteenth floor proper I made certain to lose the sense of magic following us before I lead everyone to where the Xenos were hiding.
"Matthew!" Veneficus exclaimed brightly when I arrived. Several of the Xenos seemed surprised at my arrival, some of them rather agitated. The agitation passed once they saw that I had brought another of their kin to them. Except for Gros. He seemed quite mad that I had brought other humans.
"You damn brat. What makes you think it is okay to bring so many topsiders into our sacred place?" Gros growled, assuming a fighting pose as several of his friends did the same. I wasn't terribly worried. He wasn't going to attack me. Even if he did, he would be as good as dead, and his posse would back off after seeing what I was capable of.
"Lay off Gros. Can't you see that they've brought another of our kin to us. These outsiders are sympathetic to our cause. Don't go scaring them off." Lyd chastised.
"I don't like it. There are far too many." Gros complained but did back down.
Ignoring Gros for the moment, I approached Veneficus with the children's books I had bought for him. "Hey Veneficus. I got these books for you. Study these after I leave. Next time, I'll bring over some scrolls for beginners spells like Mend or Message."
"Thank you very much Matthew. I won't forget this." Veneficus said before snatching the books away, eager to start. Though, before I had left him to his own devices, inspiration struck me. Using my Secret Chest, I pulled out three magic stones. Two regular, one being for me, and one magic stone charged with necrotic magic. As a dragon, it would likely be very difficult for Veneficus to even get a feel for magic. Giving him two different types of magic stones to hold would probably help him get a feel of it.
"Take these as well. See if you can't figure out the difference between them." I told the young dragon as he took the two stones in his claws. The last stone was for me. I had a bad feeling about that magic I sensed earlier, and a magic stone should, theoretically, be capable of being used as the component of Soul Jar. Hopefully.
Seeing everyone mingling with the rest of the Xenos, I told Lili what I was doing and left the hideaway to search out that source of magic. Naturally, I cast Invisibility to try and maintain stealth, but I wasn't relying on that spell too heavily. It had failed me when facing a higher level adventurer before after all.
With Pride searching above and me keeping an eye out for that source of magic, we had found him. Or them rather. A group of four adventurers with one clearly being the leader given he was the one with the magic weapon and how he held himself with an aura of superiority. Keeping low, I listened to the adventurers as they spoke, hoping they were just heading deeper into the dungeon and not following us specifically, but eavesdropping crushed that hope.
"Gran, it doesn't matter where they hid. Those brats are going to show up again sooner or later. We nab them, torture them a bit, and make them show us where those monsters are hiding." The leader guy said incredibly casually while spinning his enchanted spear around like a toy.
"What even makes you think there's something other than that Vouivre anyways Dix?" Gran asked.
"Call it a gut feeling." Dix said.
Okay, well, I guess this is my chance to spook them off. Channeling my magic into the magic stone in my hand, I felt the enchantment begin to take place. "Soul Jar."
"What was that?" One of the adventurers asked. When they asked, though, I noticed the sound was extremely distorted, like I was listening from behind a wall. I then noticed that I no longer had any limbs, and I could see in all directions around me. It was wrong. It was nauseating. It desperately made me want to reenter my own body.
"What do we have here?" An unnamed female adventurer asked venomously.
"Hey Dix, it's one of those brats." Gran said.
I needed to possess one of them. Preferably the leader, but this spell was much more difficult to use than I had initially thought it would be. When I tried projecting my soul in order to possess Dix, I found that it was extraordinarily difficult to move. As if I was wading through a bog, but I had no body.
"Why is he unconscious?" One of them asked as Dix approached my body. Dix then poked my body with his weapon. Hey!
"Huh, didn't move a muscle. He really is out." Dix said idly. One thing I did notice was that the hole he poked in my body wasn't healing. What the hell? I always had a few layers of False Life active. I'm certain I didn't forget that. So why wasn't my body healing. Did Soul Jar prevent that? That's something I'll have to keep in mind next time I use this spell. My body was a lot more vulnerable than I thought.
Nevertheless, with Dix being so much closer to my body now, I didn't have to worry about the difficult movement. Once my formless soul reached his body, I felt a resistance from Dix's soul when I tried to enter. Dix himself didn't seem to notice, so it must have been some natural response. I didn't want to mess up and fail to possess him, so instead of forcing myself in, I slowly coaxed his soul into leaving. Possession wasn't a thing in this world. His soul didn't know what to do, and so after a few precious seconds, I had guided his soul out of his body and within the magic stone, replacing it with my own. As soon as my soul entered Dix's body, I felt a wave of pain course through my eye. Falling to my knees, I gasped out in pain.
"Dix? Are you alright?" One of them asked. I didn't care which. They needed to die. All of them.
With my newfound strength, I had managed to cleave one of them in half at the stomach before casting Blight to rot another adventurer to death.
"DIX!" Gran cried in terrified confusion. He was far too slow, and so he lost his head.
Pain swelled through our body as Deadalus' curse filled my brain with nonsensical information. Knossos. Our Predecessors. Our plans. I saw it all. How I was supposed to continue building Knossos. I need to complete Knossos.
No. That's not right. I'm not Dix. I'm not a descendant of Deadalus. Dix was cursed. That had to be the explanation. He was under a curse, and so was I so long as I remained inside of it. But I couldn't leave yet. There was a massive man made dungeon under the city. I needed to tell someone. I needed to tell Loki. Knossos had to be where those terrorists were hiding. It had to be where my father was hiding.
Picking up my real body, I made my way back to the Xenos. I needed to tell Bell what happened immediately.
Oohhh things are happening!
Phantom-Zero-v2: I did like the idea of using other magic systems so I did look over the spell lists on some Skyrim mods, but I felt those would have been better if I had included them much earlier. It did inspire me to create an entirely new spell though. I'll keep an eye out if there are any other magics I could apply, but I'm going to start bringing this story to it's conclusion.
JoeMcLuvin: You are correct. Adventurers are supposed to get their developmental abilities when they reach level two. I had forgotten about that entirely when I leveled Bell up, and by the time I remembered, I decided that they weren't really that important and I didn't want to bother to add them. Also kind of what I did with Matthew's alias. He was supposed to have one but I never really found a good point to add it. I may add one in the epilogue maybe.