Chapter 13: Oath under the Rising Sun
Part 1: Sheesh, finally I'm updating this fic.
.
.
.
(((Soren Ravencroft)))
"Uarghhhh!!!!"
I jolted awake as if my wandering soul had crossed over the multiverse and crash into my body.
"Brrrrrrrr!!"
I shake my head to remove the vertigo I had felt upon waking up.
"Are you having a nightmare?"
Ryuu has been taking her turn to watch over the night when I had jolted awake from what seems to be a really long dream.
"No, not really, Ryuu. I had a really weird dream."
She raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of dream?"
"Well first, I think I was some kind of a ninja kid who is trolling everyone with his absurd nonsense. Then, I think I shifted into some kind of bigshot adventurer who's in the process of building a zeppelin."
"Zeppelin?"
Right, this world for all the magical nonsense they have had somehow not figure out aircraft, isn't it?
You know what, now that I am this dead awake, I may as well just hang out with Ryuu. Based on the stars position, I think we're about 2 am right now, give or take.
"Zeppelin is this kind of machine that can fly. Well, technically they float in air. Semantics, I know."
"A flying machine? Are you pulling my leg, Soren?", Ryuu questions me as she's completely not convinced of the idea of a flying contraption.
"Well, let me demonstrate the principal."
I went over one of the cart that Herpes (yes, I refuse to refer to his actual name solely for my personal amusement) brought over and took a sheet of mahjong paper.
For an unknown reason, most of the personal memories from my original life is locked away from me. Some measure of my past incarnations did to split our personality from the original influence, I suppose. However, some memories do slipped up, particularly the ones involving my personal childhood.
What I'm trying to make is a simple hot air balloon. Or flying lantern. Some shit like that, I don't know the actual term. I took some wires and bend it to make the shape of a lantern, with a candle holder at the bottom. Perhaps it is due the influence of Blacksmith skill or perhaps it's just some soul memory aiding my dexterity, but I quickly finished the lantern frame. Then, I wrapped the paper around and top and glue it with melted wax. Yep, there you have it, a poorman flying lantern.
"The Zeppelin operates by filling a closed airspace with gas that is less dense than the atmosphere outside. Hot air balloon can help demonstrate this, even if Zeppelin used a different kind of floating method. Hot air is less dense than cold air. So, by lighting fire under a lantern like this and fill the space within it with trapped hot air, it will float up to the sky."
"Hot air? Cold air? Less dense? I don't really understand what did you mean by this, Soren."
"Well, I think it's better to just demonstrate."
At this size, the lantern should be big enough to trap enough volume of hot air to float. I placed a candle under it, held by the wire and wait. Soon enough, the hot air displace the cold air in the lantern, and so it began to slowly float up.
Ryuu eyes widen slightly as she seen the phenomenon by herself.
"I see. I knew that hot air flows upward but I didn't think you can use the updraft of hot air to levitate an object."
Actually that's not how it actually works but I'm no Dr Stone. I have zero idea how to really explain the concept of science and physics. My predecessor just play Vsauce and other science channels as background noise while drawing. That doesn't make him and in turn me a scientist.
"Hold this.", I give the flying lantern to Ryuu to hold. She accepted it without a fuss and I woke up Lily.
"Lord Soren? Why did you wake up Lili?", she rubbed her eyes as she woke up.
"I want to show you this.", I pointed to the lantern Ryuu is holding.
"A lantern, Lord Soren?"
"Not just any lantern, Lily! It's a flying one!"
I snapped my fingers and as if getting my que, Ryuu let it go. The lantern slowly floats up before I catch it back to for Lily to hold over.
"Lord Soren, it can fly!", whatever sleepiness left in her completely fades away.
"Hehe, well not exactly, it's more accurate to say its floating."
Lily let it go to see it floats again, but this time I didn't catch it back.
"Ah, Lord Soren, I lose the flying lantern!"
"Eh, don't mind it. It's just an example anyway. Besides, a flying lantern is meant to fly to the sky, carrying our wishes to the heaven."
"urrghhh, Lily doesn't really want to wish anything to the heavens. Besides gods are already on earth anyway."
I just chuckles. Yea, is it atheistic to not believe in the gods despite they're literally walking among us now? What a theological conundrum.
"That besides the point. Now, back in my hometown, we used to make hundreds of flying lanterns and let it fly by the hundreds at night. It will look like hundreds of tiny suns floating just under the clouds."
Lily imagined the scene, and let out a sound of wonder.
"it must be a beautiful night, Lord Soren! Lily wish she can really see it!"
"Why not? Lets do it when we arrived at Osaka. We'll make a few dozen of lanterns and release it by the night."
"Really?", Lily jumped up in excitement. "Lily can't wait to see it!"
"sure!", I patted Lily on the head "Now go back to sleep. We got a long journey when the sun rise."
Lily nodded and she went back to bed. She must be tired as she quickly fell asleep afterward.
"You're not that much older than her, but sometimes you act more like her father rather than an elder brother figure.", Ryuu presents me with her observation.
I shrugged. "Beats me. Despite my youthful looks, I am an old soul, Ryuu."
Ryuu snorted with a small grin. "Please. I'm older than you, you know."
Oh Ryuu. I am so much older than you thought. I am possibly older than the sapient species as a whole.
"Regardless, you are a good father, Soren. Whoever marries you will be happy."
My mind flashed to the last memory of my previous run.
Ryuu had came to me with the news of her pregnancy of our child on 6th June 0006. The very day Alduin will arrive and End this world once more. A news that should bring me joy had instead become the feather that broke the camel's back. Overcome with grief, madness and despair, I rush over to Alduin in a futile attempt to make him submit.
But what can a fly do against a mountain? Nothing. Nothing at all. Alduin even had the gall to be disappointed at me from coming to him as a cripple.
"Silly Ryuu. I'm poor, remember? I don't think I'm marrying anyone anytime soon."
Ryuu just looked at me with a deadpan face.
"You have 500 million Vali now, remember?"
Oh yea, I forgot about that. I'm rich now.
"Ah yes. Sorry, it still doesn't really register to me."
Realizing we both had been standing like idiots this whole time, I figure I want to actually sit. Without word, She sat too, facing me forward.
"You never told me or anyone about where you came from."
"Heee, are you curious?"
She just tilt her head to the right. Ryuu is a rather blunt person. Its very rare to get her flustered over anything. The only time she act bashful was when we…
Forget it, Soren. This is not the previous run. Whatever relationship I had with Ryuu before has been reset.
I don't think I want to pursue it again. I was pathetic and miserable when we got together and it ashamed me that Ryuu had settled with me when she could have done better. She doesn't deserve a trainwreck like me.
"Frankly, I had no memories about what happen before I woke up in a back alley in Daedalus Street about a year ago. I have bits and pieces, but nothing to show where I came from. Who I am. As far as I am concerned whoever I was before is dead."
….
…..
………
"Do you ever want to find out where did you come from?"
I shook my head. "Not really. I have a feeling that I had never liked the place which I come from."
In older isekai story format, before isekai LN starts flooding the anime market and turn everything into a cesspool of beta male fantasy, it is pretty typical that the Earthling that got summoned into a fantasy world had always wished to return back to Earth.
Innately, I find the idea of returning back into the boring ass Earth to be appalling. Even if a fantasy world has the danger scaling rise up to nonsensical level, it's still a world of wonder. I loved the idea of having magical powers and doing cool stuff with it. I have an appreciation for it that only someone who comes from a magicless world could have. There is no way I will ever trade the wonder of living in fantasy over the dull world of Earthling.
So no, even if I do get the full memories of who I am on Earth, I will never go back. Even if I have to repeat this timeloop for another 1000 cycles, I will never, ever,
Press the logout button.
Even if I had sealed away my memory of it, I have this innate resolve in my heart.
I will never go back to Earth no matter what.
"Whomever I was in the past does not matter, Ryuu.", I toss some more wood into the bonfire to keep it lit. "This is where I belong now."
)))))))))))))))
"Welcome to Osaka!", Herpes spread his arms wide to show off the city ruled by the Sanjouno Family.
I have an odd feeling about hearing the word Sanjouno. Its there at the tip of my tongue but I just can't seem to figure out what it is.
Eh, if I don't remember it, then it's probably not important.
"Cool, it's like Mistral, but on flat ground!", Jaune compared the city with the asian equivalent back in Remnant.
"Mistral?", Herpes tilt his head. "I never heard of such a place."
"Jaune is an alien.", I shortly replies
Herpes looks alarmed, as if he immediately gets what I mean.
"That's impossible! Human can't cross the boundary between worlds!"
Ryuu and Lily look over to me. Oh yeah, I never really told them where Jaune had come from isn't it?
"Hey, is it even safe to reveal where I came from?", Jaune asked me with concern.
"Eh, probably. But hey, Mr Info Broker here would pay good money to know the details, am I right?"
Herpes looks like he's having a mental storm trying to figure out my angle here as our ride approaching the postal office which Herpes had been traveling toward to. A trove of alien information from an alien like Jaune will be priced to the highest order. Aside from the Gods of Tenkai, as far as they concerned no outerworlders have come into Genkai.
"What do you want in exchange of revealing what you are, Jaune Arc?"
Before Jaune can answer the God, I intercepted on his behalf
"ah ah ah, I'm the negotiator here. You will be speaking to me, Herpes."
"It's Hermes!"
"Herpes. Got it."
"I'm a god, you know!"
"And I'm a human. Glad we clarify what's our species here."
Herpes faced away from me, fuming.
"Can you stop provoking a god?", Ryuu cut in, trying to defuse the situation.
I don't know why but Herpes just piss me off by the sheer virtue of existing. Sure, I can do business with him, but I just innately feel like snapping at him for some reason. I remember faintly from the anime that Herpes were arranging events behind the scene to develop Bell as The Last Hero. I supposed in my previous playthroughs, Herpes at some runs had escalated things so much more worse than canon and I had some Evil Playthroughs as well, so by design Herpes is one of my major enemies.
Ryuu looks at me disapprovingly, and I sighed.
"Fine, I'll stop calling you Herpes to your face. Unless you're being stupid or some shit. I'll let Jaune reveal things about his homeworld, but I want something in exchange."
"Hmmm…", Herpes looks back at us. Hey, I said I wouldn't provoke him out of nowhere. It doesn't mean I will stop referring to him as an STD in my mind. "Do tell me what do you want from me."
I grinned.
(((Hermes, God of Messenger)))
"What a terribly designed world."
I arrived in Remnant as per agreement with Soren Ravencroft. Crafty bastard, that one. How did he know that my Authority as a God of Messenger allows me to travel to another world provided if it's a task that falls under my jurisdiction?
Deliver the news of Jaune Arc death to his family and give them his personal belongings. That is the price I have to pay in exchange of learning about where do Jaune Arc comes from.
Remnant, this young planet has traces of divine meddling. It must had been a very young divinity, as the glimpse of images I got from resonating with their divine traces showed me that they have bare basic forms and they don't even have actual names.
Either way, while I can't travel to another world on a whim, I do am capable to deliver a message regardless what boundaries lies before me. That is my Authority as a Messenger God. With Jaune Arc tasking me to deliver a message, I punched through the fabric of the universe and arrived here.
I had reached Ansel after a few weeks of traveling across the continent they call as Sanus. Entering the small town, I asked the residents of the whereabouts of the Arc Manor, and soon enough, I reached it.
I knocked on a door and after waiting for a few minutes, a child opened it. Amber, I believe her name is.
"What do you want?", the child asked me with a mild suspicion.
"Call your parents, child. I have news for your family regarding your brother."
It seems a year and a bit more had passed since the disappearance of Jaune Arc. As instructed, I concocted a story over Jaune's Arc death and my journey to find them to deliver the bad news. I gave them what was left of him, the Pumpkin Pete hoodie that was half torn apart from an adventuring accident, though I adjusted the story to him being mauled by Grimm instead.
Juniper Arc, the mother of Jaune Arc broke down and cry. It seems she had some faint hope of his survival despite his disappearance. Nicholas Arc consoles his grieving wife, in which I take as cue to leave. My role here is done.
I looked back to the grieving family, who finally had closure one final time. And then I leave.
Well, I could return back to Genkai, but that feel like a waste. Soren Ravencroft had mentioned that there is an immortal grimm queen who was cursed with immortality by the juvenile gods eons ago, who is now terrorizing Remnant out of sheer spite for a really bad…. Divorce?
Sounds interesting. Well, I had no intention to interfere with the curse inflicted on that poor, idiotic woman. But I do love myself of a story about heroes fighting impossible odds.
The game is rigged too much in the bad guys favor. I think I should give the good guys some boons before returning back
Now, let's find ourselves some decent heroes, shall we?
.
.
.
((((A/N))))
No. This isn't going to be a RWBYxDanmachi Xover. Herpes is just going to spread his divine STD in Remnant to give humanity some actual chance to deal with Salem and nothing more.
Ruby: YANG! HELP ME!
Yang: What's going on Ruby?
Ruby: A guy named Herpes gave me the clap and said I have to defeat the Grimm Queen now!
Yang: Someone give you the clap?! Who is this Herpes guy! I'm going to kill him!
Herpes, God of STD. May his infections saves us all.
Anyway, phew, been awhile since I wrote this fic. I honestly forgot what the hell was going on in this fic and just read the latest chapter before this one to remind me of the gist of the plot.
Originally, I planned vaguely for several loops for this Danmachi fic. But then I started writing Drifting Legacy and I think keeping up three fanfic titles at once is just too much a pain in the ass.
Hobo in Orario is the fic I am least interested to continue, so I will cut a lot of my vaguely planned content out just to get rid of the loops. Seriously, what was I thinking? A timeloop fic in Danmachi? Who the hell let me cook?!
After I finish this arc, I will jump to the Final Playthrough saga. I always hated dead fics, so I want to finish my work, even if I wasn't really that into it. At the very least, I will write down a summary of the plot to the ending in case I decide to just axe this fic.
To the Guest Review that asked about why the magic stones was not destroyed by the high level Miner parties that speedrun going down the upper floors. Do I plotted that intentionally?
The real answer would be I completely forgot about Irregular Monsters that eat the stones. Hahaha! I honestly figure the Dungeon just reabsorbed it after some time. My bad, lol.
I only watched Danmachi once. The only Irregular I know is the Minotaur Swordsman that fight Bell in season 1 and the Moss Green (I think) that mutated after eating magic stones. Totally forgot about that since I mostly just remember Black Goliath and Juggernaut. I read a few Danmachi fics and I don't remember if they focus much on Irregulars that's mutated from eating leftover magic stones.
Now no worry fam, I can fix this with the power of bullshit.
In Hobo in Orario fanon, the elite adventurers intentionally leaves so many magic stones around in the upper floors to farm Irregular Variants. The monsters in upper floors are so weak and common that they farmed Irregulars just to increase their drops value.
Basically, the Irregular Farming meta is the high level adventures will go down to middle floor whatever then when they go up, they rake in extra profit by taking down Irregular Monsters that mutated from the so many low tier magic stones left behind.
Yep, many newbies died becoz of this. It's why the deathrate is so high in the first 10 floors despite it's considered as tutorial floors. However, Orario has no real law authority to control this so the Irregular Farming meta is not legally banned.
Soren and his crew take advantage of this as they level up through consuming magic stones, calling the strat as Orario Express. The elite adventurers couldn't make a fuss about it becoz they didn't know that Soren had been skimming off the magic stones they left behind, since Soren isn't stupid enough to reveal Orario Express until White Ravens reached Level 2 and can no longer sustain their levelling by just poaching the Irregular Farms (floor 1 to 10). When Orario Express strat was revealed to public through Soren giving the info to the Guild, he had pretty much screw over Irregular Farms strat as Level 1s now raking in profit through picking up the magic stones. The Irregular Farmers couldn't do a thing about it since every guild's does it to fund their own Level 1 at a cheap cost and the Farmers doesn't have time to pick it up or destroy it just to deny the newbs the resource, settling to just agree with the Level 1 Union to have days where they can alternate to take turn between Orario Express and Irregular Farming schedule.
