The Guild of Gamers: The Shopkeeper
Chapter 10: Setting Up Shop and Helping International Relations
A/N: So my pat...reon is live! The site doesn't like that word so I have to space it out. The name for the link is my pen name and the name for my page is Omega's Fanfiction Emporium. Feel free to give me a little love over there. If nothing else free members can view my lemons from my works on that site. Disregarding all of that! Let's get right on with it!
Disclaimer: I only own my dreams. The Guild of Gamers is a concept created by TheDarkWolfShiro and as many of you keep pointing out I did take many parts of the start from Warranty Void if Soul is Broken. Go check out his stuff and that story if you haven't as they make great works and makes stories come to life.
{System speech}
[System screens]
"Active Thoughts/Telepathic communication"
"Speech"
"SCREAMING AND OTHER LOUD SCHIST."
"ROB's and other higher plane beings speaking."
POV: Alex Asími Mammon
It had been about a three days since I beat Riser and while the daily "Family dinner" was more awkward (thanks to Rias and Runeas clinging to me and Zeoticus Gremory glaring at me and Sirzechs giving me the stink eye most of the dinner) things had settled down to a semblance of normal. Ace came home from school every day and every day she seemed to be more relaxed. She still only showed about as much emotion as Koneko did but what little she did told me she was happy. Well that and the reputation gain I got each time she came home from school.
[Reputation with Ace of Clubs 5 for keeping your promise and letting her have a semi normal life. 40/100]
The steady gain of reputation brought a smile to my face and a pep to my step. I had used my new reputation with Sirzechs to get a meeting with both Ajuka and Serafall as my access to the shop inventory meant even if I couldn't go into my actual shop and set it up that way I could still start using the connections I had to set up sense of revenue. I got Ajuka to test whether the Air Hypo's would work on devils and other races or not and while I didn't ask him how he found out he confirmed that they worked on all races as far as he could test. This seemed to make Serafall even more excited than she was as she had a bounce to her step for the rest of the day that was... distracting.
I asked her to act as a go between for me and the other races and factions as I had no real contacts yet among other factions. While the Angel side of the heaven faction and the Fallen angels weren't that interested; The West Youkai faction under the leadership of Yasaka WERE interested. In fact that got me a meeting with Yasaka set in a few months time. For now though all the major factions started the bulk purchase of air hypos from me. This meant that I had a LARGE amount of money going into my accounts. Serafall personally negotiated the contract for bulk purchases to be used in the Serafall Memorial Hospital.
Upon her requesting the air hypos for the hospital I had a thought and ended up making the price for the first bulk purchase to be for her to join me at the hospital and give me a tour. It also prompted me to create (Or recreate) a spell from Baldur's Gate 3.
[Remove Curse (Minor): User is capable of removing curses of nondivine origin. Power costs scale with power of the curse.]
While I had hope that this would work how I planned I needed to test it first. Due to this I set up another meeting with another person. Sairaorg Bael.
As a purple teleportation circle appeared in the Magical Foyer I looked up from my thoughts. Out of the light stepped a rather buff man with black hair and violet eyes. Next to him stood a rather attractive blonde woman with blue eyes. They both seemed to take in the room before focusing in on me.
"Welcome to my home. You must be Sairaorg Bael. My name is Alex Asími Mammon. I know you are likely wondering why I called for this meeting and I would rather just get to the point. You see I stumbled upon some information and have access to some magic that leads me to believe I can cure The Devil Sleeping Sickness. However I am not 100% sure if it will work or not. Due to this I called-" I was interrupted from my speaking by a pair of calloused hands clapping down on my shoulders as Sairaorg has seemingly just appeared in front of me.
"You think you can cure it? I beg you, please help cure my mother!" He said as he bows his head to me.
"Hehe silly Sairaorg that was already my plan. I heard a bit about you from Rias and honestly found myself liking you without ever even meeting you. This devil who trains continuously, who pushes himself to his limits and then beyond so often? How could I not respect that force of will?" I said with a smirk as he seemed to almost tear up a bit then he shakes his head and picks me up. Before I can really process what is happening we were surrounded by another teleportation circle and were whisked away in a flash of light.
I blinked to clear my eyes as we appeared in what seemed to be a worn but maintained manor. The cream colored walls slightly cracked with disrepair in places, despite this there is a warmth and light to the place that almost has a homely feel to it. I looked out the window only to see countryside as far as I could see. I was swiftly carried away though.
"Mother is this way." Sairaorg said as he carried me away at speeds that I honestly struggled to keep up with. We soon arrived at a door that had a maid standing outside it. Other than the slight widening of her eyes and a look of amusement she made no comment on my being carried. At this point I was thankful as I wasn't sure my pride could suffer much more than it already was.
The blonde who arrived with Sairaorg cleared her throat. "My king... I do not believe that Lord Mammon enjoys being carried." She said though her eyes betrayed her amusement and her fondness for her king.
"Oh you're probably right Kuisha." He said with a chuckle as he placed me back on my feet. He then gained a somber air as he knocked upon the door before entering.
"I'm back mother and I brought a friend. They said they might be able to heal you." He said softly as he looked upon the gaunt figure of a woman in the sole bed in the room. She at one point would have likely been a beautiful woman her black hair faded to a brown from time.
It struck far too close to home as a blonde woman overlaid with the woman in the bed in my minds eye. I shook myself from those thoughts as I stepped towards the bed and steadfastly refused to let my tears fall.
"It is nice to meet Sairaorg's mother. I haven't heard much about you yet. Hopefully after I cure you I can rectify that." I said softly as my hands glowed bright blue as I started casting Remove Curse. At first I felt resistance as my spell covered the woman in its light as if something was fighting me but I poured more and more magic into it until with a sound like shattering glass my casting broke through the curse. I stumbled back as my spell came to an end and the woman on the bed groaned.
"Mom!" Sairaorg shouted as he rushed forward to embrace his mother. I smiled a bitter smile before turning and leaving the room. I had no desire to break up the tender moment with my jealousy.
As I looked out the window I could no longer hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm me. Despite my best efforts I couldn't help but compare my and Sairaorg's situation.
I had had to watch my own mother suffer through illness as I was forced to watch helpless just as he was. I was made to watch the strongest person I knew be reduced to a decrepit husk of herself as treatment after treatment took their toll on her. It was the main reason why I shut myself away by diving into fiction and fantasy. Now I would never know if she managed to conquer her illness or if the sickness won in the end. All thanks to that bastard Mammon.
For the first time since I was ripped from my home I allowed myself to grieve for my lost life. For the home I could no longer return to as my vision blurred with unshed tears and my throat constricted with choked back screams of a pain I couldn't explain if I tried. I found myself snapping out of it a time later to the feeling of a pair of arms encircling me. My blurry vision only allowed me to catch a blur of red as someone whispered for me to just relax.
POV: Runeas Gremory
I had honestly not known what to expect when the youngest Bael's queen had rushed into my room and said that there was a situation with Lord Mammon and they needed my help. I had rushed out to help them with not a thought though. The young Mammon had become rather important to me since I had met him. He had no way of knowing just how much he had effected me. Everything had felt so hollow for so long that I had truly forgotten what it was like to care for another to the extent I did him. When we disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic and appeared in a run down manor I could immediately sense something was wrong. There was a pressure that was surprising in it's strength and everything was slightly shaking. It was only due to my having spent so long in his presence that I even managed to realize the pressure was Alex's magic.
As I rushed off towards the pressure I grilled the Bael boy's queen on what happened and she explained that after he healed her king's mother he stepped outside. Soon after the pressure of his magic descended on everything. Her king was busy protecting his newly awakened mother from the pressure so he sent her to get help.
As we skidded around the corner of the room we finally came upon Alex. He was shrouded in a purple twisting mass of magic and occasionally red lightning would lash out or a beam of magic would emerge from inside the magic to strike at his surroundings turning things to gold or platinum at seemingly random. I had known Alex was holding back some trauma after he told me his story. He had stated things so mechanically he might as well have been a golem of some kind for all the emotion he showed. I had no idea it was this bad however.
I rushed forwards heedless of the magic. Even as the power coming off of him tore gouges in the clothes I wore. I found Alex at the center of it all silently screaming as tears streamed down his face. I stepped up and pulled him into a hug as all my words were drowned out in the storm of magic around us.
It started slowly with the strikes lessening and dying down but soon all that magic was unraveling. It left us in the center of a hallway covered in patches of gold and platinum. There was surprisingly little damage other than a few cracks in the paint on the walls widening and the window in front of him having shattered. I gently held him and whispered over and over for him to just relax and to breathe until his eyes fluttered and he seemed to come back to himself.
POV: Alex Asími Mammon
"R-Runeas?" I questioned. My whole body felt sore and drained as I blinked away the blurriness of my vision. The grip on my body tightened a bit.
"Just sit there and rest for a bit Alex. You really did a number on yourself." She said with more seriousness than I can remember her speaking with before.
"Where am I? The last thing I remember was I had just finished healing Sairaorg's mom." I said as I looked around slowly to see the state of the hallway just outside the room I was in.
"You had a bit of a mental breakdown. Just rest for now. We will talk more about this at home." Runeas said before she helped me stand up and started walking me to the exit to teleport out. Sairaorg waved at me from the door to his mothers room and I waved back. Despite this my mind wasn't on that but rather on what Runeas just said. I had a mental breakdown? But I felt fine. Sure there was evidence of SOMETHING happening in that hallway but surely me feeling fine meant everything was okay right? Right?
It bothered me that I couldn't say for certain that this was the case. As I thought back on my journey up until now I genuinely couldn't remember a time I was actually happy. Sure there was the satisfaction of seeing my progress. But actual joy? I couldn't remember having felt that for a long time. I finally looked up only to find Runeas staring at me with a pensive and concerned expression.
"You need to talk to someone. It doesn't have to be me that you talk to but it is clear to anyone that knows the things you have been through they were traumatic. It isn't easy to get over things like that. So talk to someone you trust." Runeas said and stared at me until I nodded my head. I sat there for a time staring into space for a time just processing things before I got up and headed to Ace's room.
I knocked on the door and waited as she opened it and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"I... I need your help." I said.
The Next Day
So now I have an twice weekly appointment with Ace to talk about what happened to me. Today I planned to actually go check out all the stuff I own thanks to now being a Mammon. But first I decided to look at the notifications I missed thanks to yesterday's incident.
[Achievement Completed: Cure The Devil Sleeping Sickness. 1/1
Reward:1 Gacha Token]
[Reputation with Sairaorg Bael 50 for curing his mother. 50/100]
[Reputation with Sairaorg Bael's Peerage 25 for curing their king's mother. 25/100]
[Reputation with Misla Bael 25 for agreeing to help her sister in law and for decent table manners. 35/100]
[Reputation with Runeas Gremory 23 for trusting her and following her advice. 23/100]
[Reputation with Ace of Clubs 10 for trusting her enough to come to her for help. 25/100]
I smiled at the increases in reputation and another Gacha token. That token plus the two others I got for the whole thing with Riser meant I had three of them. So I snapped the first one to see what I would get.
[Rolling Gacha... Gained: Drake Knight Set (Elden Ring)]
The first thing to come out of the Gacha was a neat set of Draconic armor. It seemed fairly powerful and while I might not have a use for it right now it would surely come in handy at some point even as something to sell. I stored it away in my "Treasury" and snapped the next token.
[Rolling Gacha... Gained: Estus Flask (Dark Souls)]
As a flask filled with what seemed to be liquid flame appeared in my hands I frowned a bit. While this was useful to an extent, it wasn't really great. I didn't have a bonfire to refill the flask at which meant this was a finite resource. This also reminded me of my plans for dealing with the Phenex family. After all with how I busted their plans there was no way they would leave things alone. They were too arrogant for that. Thanks to my Air Hypos I was even more of a threat to their business. However thanks to that I had an idea. You see I wanted Ravel. Not only was she cute but she also knew a great deal about managing a business thanks to her parents. I could probably get her if I use my Air Hypos being only sold to other factions as a bit of leverage. From there it would be pretty easy to turn her to my side with trusting her to run things in my shop. I shook myself out of those thoughts and snapped the last token.
[Rolling Gacha... Gained: Skill Gem: Hestia Flame (Divine)]
As a large gemstone glowing with power appeared in my hand I couldn't help but stare at it in shock for a moment. I never expected to get something like THIS from the Gacha and before I could stop to really think about it I crushed it in my hands. A golden flame appeared all over my body as a notification appeared. However that wasn't what mattered most to me at the moment. As in that moment in time with the flame covering me I felt something I hadn't felt since Mammon. I felt Home.
[Skill Gained: Hestia Flame (Divine): These flames can be used to heal injury or illness, to burn those who would destroy your home, and even travel from hearth to hearth across the world. Cost is Variable based on the use.]
A smile appeared on my face as I basked in the warmth of the flames for a bit. Then with a sigh I clenched my fists and snuffed out the flame save for some I left burning in my hair. It seemed to not really take much mana to keep the flames there as the feeling of home was just a side effect of the flames presence and not a "Use". It was with a feeling of happiness I hadn't had in a very long time that I teleported away to inspect the Mammon Manor.
Four Hours Later
I had spent the last four hours touring the property and taking account of everything. I had already found no less than six hidden treasure rooms, seventeen sex dungeons of various depravity some hidden some not, three ballrooms with entirely different designs and levels of opulence, and a crypt where various members of the family were laid to rest in glass coffins with their remains turned to gold.
The last one had made me have a minor conniption since so many of the dead were torn apart. The treasure rooms were emptied into my "Treasury" and I had just found yet another treasure room. As I opened the door I twitched at the holy aura coming from inside the room. As I entered I found myself in a room unlike the others. Where as the other treasure rooms were filled with gold and jewels and other baubles of dubious value this room only had three items.
Each sat on a stand in the middle of the room. In front of them sat a pedestal with a note on it. I stepped towards the pedestal and opened the note only to flinch and growl at what was written within.
"DEAR DECENDANT,
IF YOU ARE READING THIS THEN YOU FINALLY FOUND THE CHAMBER I PLACED IN THIS HOUSE FOR YOU TO FIND.
GOOD LUCK, MAMMON"
I struggled to reign my emotions back under control as the letter tore apart and burst into flames in my hands. A large part of me wanted to turn and leave the room immediately out of pure spite. To leave the so called "gifts" Mammon had left for me to rot. The more practical (and greedy) side of me won over in the end however so I decided to start with the least threatening feeling of the items. On the left most stand sat a shield. It didn't look too terribly special at first. Simply a wooden and leather shield with a band of steel around the outside edge. The middle was painted blue with three golden crowns on the face.
If it wasn't for the subtle holy aura it gave off it wouldn't be too terribly out of place sitting on a wall in a castle. It took me longer than I wanted to admit to remember where I had seen that coat of arms before. It was one of the most popularized coat of arms for King Arthur. Considering this to likely be King Arthurs Shield (And the plaque I just noticed under the shield confirming it.) I stored it away in my "Treasury". With that I could probably get away with turning Le Fay into a devil and the Pendragon family wouldn't complain too much. Now I only had to worry about Arthur.
I moved on to the second most powerful of the three and found a simple dagger that seemed to leak holy power. This time reading the plaque I found it to say "Carnwennan" and after a moment of thinking I remembered that to be the name of King Arthur's dagger. Not very well known or used very often outside of killing a witch in the tales I knew this however only strengthened my chances of getting Le Fay or gave me a bargaining chip with heaven. I stored it away for now and took a deep breath before stepping in front of the last artifact. There on the middle stand sat a lance. It appeared to be made out of woven bands of metal and gave off a soft golden glow through the lines of the bands. I read the plaque just to make sure it was what I thought it was and there it was written right on the plaque. "Rhongomyniad: The Lance That Shines to the End of the World"
A/N: I figured I would get this one out now. I had issues writing any more of this thanks in part to people telling me all the things I got wrong. Keep in mind I only watched up to Season three of DxD and it has been a few years since I watched the show itself. Along with that there has been one person who has persisted in harassing me in the comments about "How pathetic the character is for passing out all the time" To that person I wanna say piss the hell off. I write for others yes but I mostly write for myself. If you disagree with the way I write a character then tell me why RESPECTFULLY and I will try to fix things. If you just rant at me about how bad my character is I will at best ignore you. At worst I will report you. I ask for my readers to comment for constructive criticism not for people to tell me my character is stupid or pathetic. With that thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.