82 – Hell Train Plans

[Kaleidus]

Unlike my other contractors, the agreement with Rachel was hammered out only after extensive negotiations and discussions over various technical points on each of our rights, obligations, expectations, and so forth.

It wasn't that the spell contract itself would be any more comprehensive or restrictive for either party, but having better defined expectations and terms of cooperation.

Rachel was much more of a thinker than the other two, who had complex plans of her own that went beyond an immediate concern like dealing with one enemy or one personal problem.

In summary, the main terms were that our formal alliance would last indefinitely until voluntarily broken, would explicitly take priority over any other summoners' objectives until the end of the Hell Train, which is where we would be headed to.

My role on her team would be to perform all the regular duties of a teammate, help with all their objectives, excluding any that would require me to personally harm my other summoners, and a few specific things she needed help with.

In exchange, she'd give relevant supporting commands for me to do whatever I wanted while traveling with them, so long as it didn't interfere with her own objectives and I informed her ahead of time of anything major.

Of course, we also agreed to reveal our main objectives to each other.

"There's a powerful person that's sealed inside the Hell Train that FUG wants to release, a former Slayer Candidate. That's the main reason I could get this team from them—to take on this mission. But that person won't be at full power immediately, so I'll convince him to become my subordinate in exchange for helping him restore his powers. After that, I'll use him to help me get the other pieces of the Thorn," said Rachel.

"You want to use the Thorn yourself? Can your body even handle that?" I asked.

"Let me worry about that. Even if it turns out I can't use it myself, just having it at all is useful, because I can trade it for other things," said Rachel.

I nodded approvingly. "That's true."

"There are also some optional goals. On the Hell Train, I heard there's a 'Hidden Floor', which might have powerful secrets inside. Since we're taking the Hell Train anyways, we might as well check it out if we get the chance. Aside from that, if we encounter anything worth exploring or taking, then I'll decide as we go along. Now it's your turn."

"There's another secret on the Hell Train, that I think will be worth both our time. I'm sure Baam will find it as well, so it wouldn't be good for us if we skip it."

"What?! What do you mean?"

"We are Irregulars, after all, and the Hell Train was created originally for Zahard and the Great Warriors to train, right? So there's something in particular on there we can learn, and it may be our only chance to learn it. It's called 'Revolution', also known as 'Shinwonryu', an extremely powerful Shinsoo technique," I said. "Every one of the Ten Family Heads, and Zahard himself, knows this technique. It's practically the signature move of Irregulars, and if you ask me, this skill might be more valuable than a piece of the Thorn, because it also supposedly unlocks our potential, and has a lot of other uses."

"Hmm…where did you hear this from?" Rachel asked with a gleam in her eyes.

"Heh, this is something I learned about 'Outside'. It's hard to explain, but I'm sure it's real. We just need to find something called the 'God of Guardians'."

"Alright. If there's something that can unlock my potential…"

"Personal power is the best, right? Relying on other people and items can only take us so far. We need to take every chance to level the playing field with those who were blessed with talent!"

"I'm already convinced. If it's as you say, we definitely can't pass this up this chance," said Rachel, smiling. "Honestly, it was worrying me, even after I release that person, there's no guarantee he'll listen to me. And the Thorn too, if I can't use it then somebody could steal it away. But if there was also this method…then that changes everything!"

I laughed and nodded. "Exactly! But keep in mind, it might take quite a while to learn it, even after we find the 'God of Guardians'. So we should find it as fast as possible and try to train while completing other objectives simultaneously."

This was, in fact, one of the main goals of Sasha's mission on the Train. Ideally, I'd finish learning it in one ride through the Hell Train, but if not, then I'd just go again next year.

Rachel nodded as well. "Agreed. Emily should be able to help us find it faster, and I might be able to coordinate the team remotely if we need to stay there to train. Anything else?"

"Yes. I have two other reasons for joining you. First is, the person you're looking to unseal, it's the slayer 'White', right?"

"Oh, you knew already?"

"I've done a bit of research while working with FUG myself. What interests me is that he apparently made a contract with a demon, which granted him the ability to manipulate souls. I have some questions for him about that ability. It may not amount to anything but just the opportunity to observe him over an extended period may prove useful," I said.

"Okay, that shouldn't be a problem. I can't guarantee he'll answer any of your questions though," said Rachel. "You could also ask Daniel, another member who will join us later. He uses the same power. But that power is kind of…"

"Evil? I'm not planning to use it myself, and it would be dangerous. After all, the power came from the demon—the actually demonic and evil kind, with who knows what side effects. I'm more interested in the mechanism of soul manipulation with spells."

"I was going to say inconvenient, but yeah, it's also evil. They have to kill too many people, and they also have to kill more just to recharge. If I had a better choice, if it weren't for the deal with FUG, I wouldn't even want to revive this guy," Rachel said with a grimace. "They really want him back though and he's the only one powerful enough that I can get access to. But never mind that, what's the last goal?"

"The Floor of Death. I would like to examine the properties of a Floor with no Administrator. Also, there's an item I want on that Floor. Don't worry, it's not the Thorn," I added quickly when Rachel scrunched her eyebrows.

"Hmm. You can't tell me what it is? Are you afraid that I might want it too if you tell me?" Rachel asked.

"…I don't think it's useful to you, but there are others that want it. I can tell you what it is, but you have to agree let me take ownership of it if we find it, and keep this a secret. In exchange, if you also find a use for it, then I'll promise that I will use it for you when you need it, or let you borrow it, but only temporarily."

I already knew where the item was, but actually taking it might prove challenging. And even then, it was something I might not keep for myself, nor was I certain if I could make use of it, so it wouldn't hurt for Rachel to know.

After thinking about it for a moment, Rachel nodded. "Fine. I can't think of anything else I'd need specifically from that Floor, so it shouldn't be a problem for my plans. I'll agree to this. So what is it?"

"The Soul-Stirring Ladle," I said.

She looked surprised for a moment. "What do you need it for? Why are you so interested in things that have to do with souls?"

"Oh look, is that a talking sword? Does it have a soul of its own? Wow! How do I get me one of those? What kind of magic created it?" Derflinger flew into the air and waved himself around.

"…I almost forgot that you weren't actually an Ignition Weapon, but a magic sword, Lord Derflinger. Well, actually, I don't even know if Ignition Weapons can be manipulated with soul magic either. I guess that's why you wanted the Workshop data too?"

I nodded. "That's right. I didn't create Derflinger myself, so I'm far from an expert on soul magic. Studying something like the Ladle could benefit me in many ways."

Now this was a bit of a diversion by me and Derf. I already knew that spirits and souls were different things, and so the chance of the Ladle's brand of soul magic being applicable to Derflinger was fairly low.

However, I intended to study soul magic both as a long-term interest, and because to a resourceful magus like me, the potential uses of having such a powerful magic tool were far from being limited to its original functions.

"Alright. If there's nothing else, let's do the ritual," said Rachel.

O O O

I ended up contracting with Rachel without a Symbiotic Crest Spirit, partly because I didn't have another one prepared for her given how costly it was to make, and partly because I thought her body might not be able to handle the extra strain of hosting one.

Just for the aesthetics and some minor utilities though, I still gave her the crest without the actual spirit. These utilities included improving the bond efficiency due to having a specific physical anchor, pinging each other with a magical pulse, and some basic spells that could be triggered.

Since I've started handing out so many mystic crests to other people with embedded spells, one might think that Fate magecraft was surprisingly easy to transfer compared to how difficult it was shown to be in the stories, but that would be inaccurate.

Whether it was the Symbiotic Spirit Crest, the ones on my familiars, or the spell crests I put on Team Darul, none of them were genuine Magic Crests of the Fate variety and contained no magic circuits.

They allowed the bearer to trigger spells, but only because they served as a medium for me to cast spells.

Just like the trick I showed Yihwa years ago, this was simply an application of preparing a medium to store a consumable spell which had already been cast, which was not that different from consumable Mystic Codes or the drugs I created.

That means that in addition to mana reserves, they had to be periodically recharged with casts by me, to maintain the Mystery, even if they had an alternate energy source supplied by the person or creature on whom it was engraved. For the ones Sasha handed out, they all had to be recharged personally by me or an avatar containing a Spirit Cluster Core.

For my summoners' crests, or any of my familiars, due to our strong magical bonds, I could recharge them remotely.

For Yihwa, it could also probably be recharged by her Crest Spirit eventually after it grew enough—and that was the only one that was functionally similar to a real Magic Crest. But it was only possible due to the immensely powerful water stone and its spirits.

The reason that I could confidently claim without being exposed as a fraud to Team Darul that the power ups I handed out were permanent, was because the basic Reinforcement spell was so cheap to cast that it was possible to store enough charges to last many battles.

And it was an easy matter to inconspicuously recharge their crests while inspecting them for injuries or healing them if needed.

O O O

One Month Later

36F Hell Train

"By boarding the Hell Train on the 35th Floor, everyone became qualified to ascend to the 36th Floor automatically. Now, after making to the final stage of this section, we just need to pass the test ahead to qualify for the 37th Floor. Those who fail will be forced off. The Train will stop for a bit at the 36F station, and new Regulars will also board there," said Boro.

"What happens after the new boarders arrive? Do they not need to pass a test like we do to qualify for the next Floor?" asked Darul.

"Generally, for most stations, those who successfully board are consider qualified for the next Floor, so they don't have to pass the stage test. Simply getting on the Train is their test," said Boro.

"Doesn't that mean the ones who get kicked off can just board again to keep going? They don't lose their tickets for failing the test right?" asked one of Boro's apprentices.

Boro laughed and shook his head. "Yes and no. In theory, that's possible. However, they also have to survive the people that would be ambushing them at the station when they get forced off," said Boro. "The time for exiting and boarding are separated, and the exit for those who get off willingly vs those who get forced off are also separate. So the ones who get forced off are typically easy prey…keeping their ticket until they can board again is probably harder than the actual tests on the Train."

"What should we expect from the test?" asked Darul.

"It varies, and depends on the size of the group taking the test. It's usually not that hard, because the hard part was making enough progress through this section to take this test. For this Floor, there's a Train guardian that will administer the test. Sometimes there's no guardian, it's just a test administrating automaton. But if there's a guardian, you can also defeat the guardian to pass," said Boro.

Once everyone was ready, we moved into the test arena, after agreeing to take it all together as one group.

At the center stood a humanoid being, about twice the height and size of a normal person, in full armor carrying a spear.

"Regulars. I am the guardian of this section. Your test will begin in one minute. You must destroy all of the targets within half an hour and reach the exit on the other side of this arena," said the Train guardian. "You can also attempt to defeat me. If you win, your whole team passes immediately."

Then, the formerly empty compartment suddenly lit up with numerous floating orbs in different locations, each surrounded by guards. The ground moved and platforms were raised, creating an uneven terrain.

"Darul, coordinate with Boro's team to take on the test. I will face the guardian," I said as Sasha.

"I really don't recommend that…those guardians are no joke," said Boro, but he sighed when I ignored him and moved forward alone. "Nevermind."

From my chest, Derflinger flew up and Decompressed. This was now the real Derflinger, after I had switched him out secretly.

"Time to jolt your memories, Flin," I said, calling him by a new nickname derived from an alternate pronunciation of the second part of Derflinger's name.

His outer appearance was again modified into a Sasha-specific form, still in the general template of an elven single-edge saber that was similar to his preferred Endbringer blade, but with more cosmetic patterns on the blade and a more ornate guard and pommel.

"Finally, let's kick some ass, master!" Derflinger replied, in a more youthful and higher pitched voice.

I winced. "Is that how you used to sound in your younger days?"

"Eh? No idea. Just trying different things and see what sticks," he said.

"So…anything in particular or a style you want me to do?" I asked.

"Switch to your left hand," said Derflinger.

"Oh…that'll make this a bit harder, but alright," I said, doing as he asked. I was ambidextrously capable as were my avatars, but nevertheless, right hand was my default and how I practiced swordsmanship before.

Then we stepped in front of the guardian shortly after the test timer started and the rest of the team was already on the move.

"I challenge you to a duel, guardian," I said.

"So be it," it said, before attacking without any further ceremony.

He dashed to me in an instant, spear extended.

"Flin, Ignite!"

With his much greater size and equally large weapon, he compounded the natural reach advantage of spears over swords and sabers.

I barely parried in time, the force of the blow severely straining my full Reinforcement already, wielding with both hands, even with a glancing impact and Derflinger's Shinsoo aura deflecting.

The guardian followed with several more strikes that put the pressure on me, giving me no chance to counterattack until I Burstshifted out to make some distance.

Fortunately, it did not follow, only keeping its helmeted face in my direction.

"That guy is way too strong for your body to handle like this," said Derf. "We need Boost at least."

With all my own buffs, the Avatar Body's pure physical strength and speed was still much lower than my monster Beastionts. The difference in combat facing Beastionts could be made up with skill and maneuverability, but here was an enemy that was equally as skilled, so it was simply an overwhelming disadvantage.

"The higher-level Boosts could be risky, we're by ourselves right now," I said, reminding Derf of our lack of a summoner. "At max level, we might have only half a minute before the mana use hits a dangerous threshold."

"Ahh, and we probably can't win in 30 seconds even with the max Boost," said Derflinger.

"I can still fly faster with my spell, so we just need a way to deal enough damage," I said, then sent him a mana pulse to signal for a L5 sword aura.

I flew back into melee range.

Saber and spear clashed, and then after a few hits, I used the advantage of my flight and having the high position to move into close quarters where his longer weapon became a disadvantage.

Just before I landed a blow on his chest, his helmet opened its mouth piece to release a Shinsoo blast at point blank range.

I twisted with Burstshift unnaturally in the air to avoid it and completed my slash toward his arm instead, releasing the full L5 Aura into a Slash Beam.

The guardian's mouth blast tore across the air, bisecting a nearby platform and causing its orb target and guards to fall.

Derflinger's beam crashed into his upper arm and partially exploded into the guardian's face, the rest cutting forward as an arc of light, noticeably breaking through the arm's armor.

The guardian's arm sagged, and I didn't miss the chance to command my snake Beastiont to attack.

It tore out of my cloak, Decompressing and wrapping itself around both the guardian's spear and arm.

"Now, Flin, let's end it!" I shouted while signaling to Derflinger to use Boost.

"You got it!"

Immediately, the yellow aura of Boost covered me, reaching L10, which cost 100MP/sec, and increasing my strength an additional 10x that of a world class athlete. Combined with my own buffs on this avatar body, that finally brought my strength to parity with my bear monster Beastiont with all its much larger mass.

While the guardian was constricted by the snake, I swing again at the guardian's head, simultaneously moving forward with Burstshift to maximize the momentum.

This time Derflinger didn't use the magic beam, just a Shinsoo blast, but with the extra force behind the swing, the collision blew the guardian's head clean off its shoulders.

"Woah!" "What happened?!" There were cries of surprise from the team as the rest of the props in the arena, all the orbs and other enemies, simply disappeared.

"You have passed the test by defeating the guardian and have qualified to continue riding the Train to the 37th Floor. The path to the next section will now open," a robotic voice informed us from an indiscernible source overhead. "If you do not wish to continue, you may stop at the boarding zone and get off at the 36th Floor station upon our arrival."

I examined the defeated guardian to see if it left anything behind, but its body began to disappear as well.

Was there ever going to be any loot for this badly designed dungeon crawl?

"That was very impressive, Lady Sasha," said Boro, after walking over. "I caught a little bit of your fight. Your swordsmanship is remarkable, unique even."

"I'm aware, thank you," I said.

"Haha…so you are…" He held his head and shook it lightly while laughing. "I suppose my words don't mean much to you, but I'm actually something of a specialist in reading weapon techniques. I've been on the Hell Train many times, and I have met many other swordsmen, including those with powerful Ignition weapons like yours, but it's the first time I've seen such fluid movements and use of supporting Shinheuh in close quarters."

"Is that so? If you keep climbing, I'm sure you'll meet many more interesting techniques on higher Floors," I said. "My technique might be unique, but those who can fight in the air and with Shinheuh will become more common the higher you go. If you only stick around the Hell Train, it's no different from being a toad in a well who can only see a small part of the sky."

He looked taken aback for a moment, and had no immediate response, so I turned and regrouped with Team Darul. Then I heard him sighing melancholically behind me. "You're right…maybe I have stayed still for too long. 600 hundred years I've been living in this morbid, dark well…somehow, I've gotten used it. Aka, Sachi, what are we really doing here still? What are we hoping for?"

…

"So, any luck yet?" I asked quietly while our group continued moving forward and I floated with some Cubes away from the rest with a Shinsoo soundproofing barrier around me.

"Not really. That fight really got my blood pumping, but we'll probably need to do a lot more for me to remember anything useful," said Derflinger. "All I've remembered so far is that you fight very differently from her."

"How did she fight?"

"She used me in a more defensive way, most of the time. We didn't have such convenient ways to store up huge amounts of power, so she would deliberately let me absorb as many spells as possible, and rarely used my special moves. And she'd use spirit magic at the same time, to control the terrain and the enemy's movements, and then go for simple takedowns after finding the enemy's weakness, or just letting them get exhausted from casting."

"That would make sense, considering who her enemies would've been and their preferred style of combat," I said.

"Oh, and I wasn't her primary weapon," said Derf.

"What? You weren't?"

"Yeah, I was her offhand. She was actually right-handed too. But even if I wasn't her primary, I was still the more important one. I was the only one she talked to, and became legendary, after all. Nobody remembers her other weapon, aside from me."

"Right. What was her primary then?"

"A sharpstaff."

"And what is a sharpstaff supposed to be?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. A staff, but with a pointy end you can use to stab things. Combines good reach with being a durable magical focus," said Derf. "This way she was covered for both offense and defense, magically and physically."

"Oh so it's like the swordwands the Halk mages use. I thought spirit magic didn't need foci though? The elves don't normally use wands or anything, right?"

"They don't, but Sasha was unique. Because Brimir's people used foci, Sasha learned the principles, copied, and improved on them. As a result, using the sharpstaff Sasha was able to greatly enhance the power of her spirit magic."

"How is that possible? I know the wands act like artificial circuits with channeling and amplification effects, but why would that allow her to enhance her spirit magic? None of the water spirits' magic need any sort of casting input from me, there's no way for me to channel it through a focus even if I wanted to," I said.

"By increasing elemental affinity. As for how she got the magic to be channeled through the sharpstaff, aren't you missing the obvious here?" asked Derf.

"And that is…?"

"Just think about the Ring of Andvari. How was that different from the elves' regular spirit magic?"

"Oh! The elemental stones. The elves' normal spirit magic doesn't use elemental stones, they just have low level spirits following them around. But if they had an elemental catalyst of some sort, they'd be stronger? Did she put elemental stones into the staff?"

"You guessed it. But it's not just the stones, they were just the most powerful components. The elves don't use wands because they enchant all their stuff and any of them can be used in a way that's similar to foci, and they don't need elemental stones to do it. Accessories are a common choice. Like that other healing ring the half-elf had."

"You're saying that the elves actually had a more advanced concept of magical tools, closer to Mystic Codes, rather than just being an aid to focus directly cast magic like the Brimiric nobles."

"Exactly. The Brimiric mages could barely enchant anything at all without using elemental stones, like the common earth stones and wind stones. But for the elves, enchanting items was just something they did all the time through spirit magic. It's somewhat similar to what you did with the spirit core. They just bind contracted spirits to a properly prepared item, and the item gains an effect or can be used to store spells. The main difference with Sasha was that she designed the sharpstaff to increase her elemental affinity and amplify the magic of all her spirits, unlike the Andvari ring which directly used the power accumulated in the water stone."

"Wait a minute. So she wasn't simply relying on the more powerful spirits within the stones, or using the elemental mana inside? She used the stones themselves as magical amplifiers for other spirits? Does that mean the power of the stones wasn't used up over time?"

"Of course. It's barbaric to make spirits exhaust themselves of mana. We're basically made of mana."

"…"

"The elves always supplied the mana and life force, and in exchange the spirits did the casting and gave back spiritual blessings, and then they would grow together over time."

"Did you just remember all this?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"And you were saying earlier you hadn't gotten anything useful?"

"Eh. Is it that important? We already covered the basics of spirit magic ages ago after you got the water stone. Thought you figured out the rest on your own after making those cores and stuff."

"Not even close. First, I still don't have any good way to give the spirits a net gain of elemental energy, to use spirit magic the 'civilized' way. The cores are only viable because Shinsoo is so abundant and powerful here that the spirits don't mind using up mana that they can replenish quickly on their own. Second, this is the first I've heard of affinity amplification. I don't suppose you know that works?"

"Nope."

"What about spiritual blessings? Never heard of that before either," I said.

"Beats me. It's supposed to raise their affinity to spirits, but don't get your hopes up, I don't hand out anything like that, that's for sure. Probably just the mental equivalent of muscle development colorfully mixed with religious mumbo jumbo, you know how the elves are," said Derf.

"Hmmm. Either way, I have some new things to research. Seems like making this avatar was a good idea after all," I said. "Maybe I should to craft a sharpstaff to play the role better."

"A useless prop isn't going to help much. How are you going to copy the fighting style and use it as the main offense?"

"Don't know yet, but can't hurt to try."

O O O