"Be not afraid, human." A voice said in a sarcastic tone, just as he entered the dining room of the Heroic Lodge, ready to make himself some breakfast.
He'd made it out like a bandit, all things considered, despite the stressful situation the likes of which would see him grow grey hairs before he was thirty. He'd gotten the book, managed to... not disarm, but blow up the grenade in a safe environment- the canals of the city, and after being brought in for questioning and spinning a tale of a vision from Ilias and saving the library from the bomb, he'd made it out with the king's congratulations, the respect of the royal guard, and a little more leeway in what he could ask of the King as a Hero.
Not bad for a situation he'd kind of engineered himself.
And now, he had a red-haired scientific angel sitting at his dining room table, with one of his mugs, reading his notes on the crossbow like the place belonged to her.
...well, strictly speaking, it didn't belong to Noah. But still.
As her presence had the exactly inverse effect of making him, for a moment, very afraid, his mind surged with all the fear, anger, tiredness, and frustration of the last few hours combined as he remembered why exactly he'd decided to go bother the librarian. "Was this your idea of a practical joke?" He muttered darkly.
Promestein looked up at him, before raising an eyebrow. "Careful, Romero. One might come to the conclusion that you don't respect me enough to think my judgment sound."
Noah grits his teeth for a moment, before shaking his head. "I can respect you and still be upset. Sending me on a deadly fetch quest to recover an item from a sociopathic monster isn't my idea of a good time."
Her eyebrow remained raised, but after a moment, she rolled her eyes. "That was, in Layman's terms, a test. One you didn't pass, I assume, if it took you a week and confronting her instead of just retrieving the book and exorcising it was your chosen modus operandi." her voice dripped with sarcasm.
Noah paused at that. Rolled the information around his mind as though he was tasting it. "You wanted me to get Four Animists And Their Sources." The way she rolled her eyes again seemed to say "of course, idiot". "Right. Lucky me, then." He murmured in exhausted annoyance.
"Are you implying- well then, my congratulations on managing to enter and leave a place that for the most part is open to the public alive."
Noah looked at her for a moment... before sighing, and setting about making himself some coffee, the exhaustion of the day crashing into him at once, together with cold numbness. He wasn't any less wary of Promestein, but what could he do about it? Unlike the librarian, Promestein had no weaknesses. Quite literally- if he remembered correctly, being an angel meant she was immune to any and all forms of harm save for Angel Halo, as of right now. There probably was some way to harm angels that didn't require the melted abomination of 666 souls... but if there was, he sure as hell didn't know it. And after being on the unfun kind of edge for so long, his brain just gave up.
"So, the four spirits?" He asked conversationally, his tone as dead as he was currently feeling.
If Promestein thought anything of the sudden change of attitude, she didn't show it. "Indeed. You wanted something to teach you magic. I gave you the choice of four teachers."
"And all without lifting a finger too. Truly the epitome of 'work smart, not hard'."
"I'm sure you'll get there eventually."
That caused him to physically stutter to a stop, almost dropping the coffee powder in the process. Honestly, he was half-probing to see how much disrespect he could get away with since she seemed content to invade his life, but the last thing he imagined was to be sassed back at, of all things.
"I assume this has absolutely nothing to do with the creation of spirit substitutes," Noah said, as though he was discussing the weather as he brought the water to a boil.
"Are you volunteering for their usage?"
Noah thought about it for a moment. Did he want them? Maybe eventually. Assuming that he was still on the "evil path" that the universe seemed to want to force him into, where "Evil" was slightly less depraved than "Good". But- "That'd be hard to explain when I meet the actual spirits themselves."
"True enough." And with that, she returned to reading... he's not sure what, to be honest.
Noah continued making himself coffee in silence, noting the fact that somehow, the contents of his sugar jar were halved. He turned back to glance at Promestein's mug of coffee.
...he didn't need to know.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" he finally asked, as a way to distract himself from the sugar.
"I do happen to come upon San Ilia every now and then. Visiting you was merely an addition to a list of bullet points I made. And then, I happened upon the blueprints for your weapon. While interesting in application and the blend of primitive and modern technology, they could use improvement."
"...I see." he murmured, sitting down suitably far from her at the massive table of the dining room. There was so much that neither of them was telling each other, he could tell and so could she, but for some reason, Promestein seemed content to play the exact same game he was playing rather than ripping out all the answers by force.
With that thought, he pulled out the book he'd fought tooth and nail to obtain. It was probably nothing, but still...
'Enchiridion of Magical Scientific Theory.' He thought to himself. The book was ancient-looking, yet somehow still maintained cohesion in a way that many books in the modern era didn't. Given the fact that it was held in the collection of a book monster, Noah suspected that there was magic involved.
"Well? Have you considered which spirit you will be asking to teach you?" Promestein interrupted his thoughts, prompting Noah to put the book back. He'd check it out later.
"I have not, but..." he paused, trailing off. "Well, going after Sylph is a bit of a no brainer, I suppose."
"Oh? Pray tell." Promestein replied, leaning in and finally taking her eyes off of the piece of text she'd been reading. Noah shrugged.
"The spirits favor trial by combat. Salamander is more likely to turn my ass into a brisket than anything else given my non-impressive fighting ability, I can't harm Gnome with my weapon of choice, and Undine... well, same as with Gnome, except that Erubetie is also on the prowl in the spring. Besides, Sylph's the nearest and her underlings the least scary." He elected not to comment on the spirits' personalities themselves, which also pointed towards Sylph being the best choice.
"You speak so casually about beings that are supposedly equal in power to the Heavenly Knights themselves... the spirits' combat abilities should be roughly even amongst each other. What makes you so confident in taking Sylph on, then?"
"Still my best bet... combat ability isn't the same as power."
"Your thought process, while interesting, is inherently flawed. By my estimations of your strength, you could beat none of them, and that's assuming you even reach them. Furthermore, high-level Wind Magic usage has been known to provide divinatory capabilities that would not be helpful to your cause." She rattled off the information.
"Which one would you say, then?" Alarm bells were going off in his mind, but he thought better than to justify the fact that he wanted to aim for the Wind Spirit because she was a fucking idiot.
"The one who would actually be more agreeable to teach you would be Salamander since she's known to take on students, even if rarely. Furthermore, your personality and affinity for fire should make you a good match for her, and you definitely lack the whimsy required to wield wind." At Noah's confusion, she smirked again. "It's hard to fake the level of hate and passion in your voice as you threatened to firebomb the San Ilia library."
"I thought you said you weren't watching?"
"Did I?" As Noah groaned, her smirk widened. "Right. Let us be off then." With that, she stood up from the table.
"...I'd need to get ready if we want to leave right now." Noah deadpanned at her. "And why are you coming with?"
"Are you asking me not to?" Promestein smirked teasingly. "If you are indeed meeting a spirit, it will only be beneficial to my plans to meet them in person and get the measure of their power."
"...hmmm." Briefly, he pondered whether he could just opt out of it. Say 'Nah, I'm good'. Not bring the mad scientist woman who would go on to put the spirits under a seal to the place she wanted to go. But Luka was still off who knew where, and Noah... Noah just wanted to go home. Every single day that passed filled him with more and more disgust for this world and more yearning for his old one. "Well, I'll be getting ready."
"I suppose I will be submitting this design to the royal blacksmith, while I wait. You'll be able to wield it, and I've gotten some decent mental exercise out of it I suppose." she finally lifted what she'd been reading, revealing it to be Noah's designs... with a lot of what looked like red marker used on them. Despite the fact that he himself could admit that a lot of what went into them was a basic, limited understanding of college-level physics, he couldn't help but feel mildly insulted.
"...right. Thank you. I'll be packing for the trip." He commented, but that only earned a scoff out of her.
"We won't waste my time by walking there. Pack lightly." He tilted his head but went to do as told, despite the fact that alarm bells were going off inside his head again.
"After getting over the fact that we are just flying freely, I have to admit that this is a bit embarrassing," Noah commented, prompting an eye roll out of Promestein.
Currently, they were soaring over the Marle Mountains that cut through Sentora, by far the easiest way to reach Gold short of teleporting. Not that Promestein had not tried; but somehow, the Stable Chaotic Barrier around Noah (stable and chaotic at the same time. What an oxymoron) defied direct dimensional teleportation. He didn't seem to take notice of that, however. So she was stuck carrying him with one arm tucked under his knees and one propping up his back. He wasn't heavy, but admittedly, him being larger than herself did throw off her balance a little.
"Isn't it… conspicuous, by the way, what we're doing?" the world hopper asked, the edge of uncertainty to his voice as he glanced skyward denoting what it was that he was actually asking.
"On the contrary, this has now apparently become my Ilias-given duty. I did petition for the position of your Guardian Angel, so I won't complain, but you'll understand if I take a hands-off approach in all but the most literal sense, as soon as I am able to." Promestein informed him. She glossed over the part where she had to beg Ilias for it- her pride would always be the first thing to go in the face of potential scientific advancement, but she was not to be made a laughing stock.
A momentary lull in the flight before Noah interrupted it again. "Something I'm curious about." The human she was haphazardly carrying voiced. She made an inquisitive sound in reply. "You mentioned me being weak, earlier, and I get that, being human and all. But hypothetically speaking, on a scale from... uh, let's say one to one-hundred-forty-five, with one being a young boy with virtually no training and the other end being the Monster Lord-"
"A scale I'm sure is purely hypothetical and you came up with on the spot." She huffed in amusement. Speaking with Noah was like performing one of those word puzzles the Sabasa researchers were so fond of doing instead of actual work. She was well aware that she could look at the solutions, or in this case, force the answers out of him, but why would she? The mental exercise was far more delightful, and the man was hardly slick with the way he talked.
"-yes, precisely." he continued without an ounce of shame. "Where would I sit on that?"
She hummed in consideration. Well, she'd seen him publically gun down a man and stare down a queen, but that was hardly an indication of his power. Still, considering his superior-than-average physiology, magical inclination and the fact that his skill with a crossbow wasn't terrible... "You'd be at Lv. 20, I suppose- yes, we do have levels here too." she huffed in amusement. "Which would put you about on par with most human soldiers with a modicum of skill. The showing you've had was extremely poor in terms of magical capabilities, but being a human, I suppose that can't be helped. While watching you fight and cross-referencing that with your texts, however, I could not help but notice that you did not perform any Siphoning."
"Siphoning?" He asked, and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. So her theory that his previous world was so mana-rich that even humans would not have issues casting spells without tapping into outside power was correct. How interesting.
"I suppose you wouldn't know about that, since you're not from around here. Siphoning is the ability to draw mana from an opponent's lifeforce after striking at them. While most monsters and angels have an innate reserve of mana, it's still useful for them once they run out of it in extended fights, and it's practically mandatory for humans. That's also why a lot of human mages and clerics tend to align themselves with more experienced, physically oriented heroes to protect them. Drawing monster and angelic blood is a barbaric, if somewhat effective method for humans to cast." She drawled in return. She avoided mentioning the theory behind SP to him. They were a mental crutch anyways- Promestein had long since rid herself of the notion in favor of more precise methods of quantifying energy requirements.
"Huh." Noah hummed, and that was that, since he stopped speaking, seemingly deep in thought.
What she wouldn't give to crack that head open and shove his brain into her cerebral scanner... but for now, he was more useful to her alive.
As they were still moving through the air, Noah tried to entertain himself with thoughts about the game this world was based on, and of which he knew more than was entirely healthy.
Siphoning, or what neatly slotted into his mind as "Attack enemy, gain SP" was a surprise, if only because he hadn't expected something quite so... game-ified. But if Promestein was speaking the truth, it would mean... well, not much for him actually, if not the fact that he could not really expect to be able to cast "real" spells outside of combat unless he found a way to siphon power and store it for later, or someone directly fed it to him. Maybe into a focus? Wizards carried staves and things like that...
As for himself, apparently somewhere in the neighborhood of "Lv.20", which was... probably a fair assessment, if one he didn't wish he'd agreed with.
It also made him feel slightly better to be a bit better than Luka as he stepped foot on the continent, even though the fake Hero's true strength came from increasingly inaccessible force multipliers. But still...
How many binds would Luka be placed in that he could not get out without the Earth's power? How many deadly blows had he avoided through Wind's speed? How many instant kill moves had he avoided with Water's serene mind, or faced enemies that he just couldn't punch through without Fire?
And failing that, his own angelic powers to fall back on, and Angel Halo to punch through immunities.
Did it even matter that Noah was taller, stronger, and a good deal smarter when he just didn't have all that? No. And so, his options came down to cavorting with the villains. An enemy cannot punch your daylights out if you don't have that enemy in the first place.
"Noah." Promestein suddenly called, and he blinked himself to awareness as he realized, with a great deal of embarrassment, that he'd drifted off into sleep. "Get off."
"Yes ma'am." he gulped, removing himself from close physical contact with the angel, who rolled her eyes. As he scanned the area, he could see that they were at the base of a mountain.
Gold Volcano. Salamander. This was it.
He wondered whether he should feel worried… but following in Promestein's footsteps, he felt oddly secure.
Surely, things wouldn't go bad this way, right?
A transition chapter to help us lead into the next one, finally meeting Salamander, the other deuteragonist of this fic (besides Promestein)!
Concerning all the comments that want Noah to become a true monster-killer... eh, kinda. He'll definitely be killing monsters. However, not all are irredeemable, and while he's definitely going to be more inclined to work with Ilias' angels than with monsterkind, he takes the same issues with their human-genocidal tendencies that he does monsters. But at least so far, Ilias hasn't made it *personal* to him, and is even showing him her favor.
Then again, perhaps the goddess too can be redeemed?
...probably not.
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Drink water, stay awesome. Nick of Name, out. :)