[Brian POV]1Just for those that binge this series as the POV did swap between chapters.
“Rain of Mercy.” I activated the card without hesitation as soon as I got down from Big Core, and had it move a bit so it wouldn’t block the rain.
Spoiler
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Alice and Ria had done well in their fight against the hydra, but the hydra had also set the forest on fire, so we had to put it out. And for that, we needed water. And what better than water which will also heal the wounds of the fighters at the same time. None of them took a direct hit, but the fire and the wind might still have hurt them. And as I said, we need the water.
Paulina got to work with her water magic, guiding the water to where it needed to go. And I was going to help her.
“Summon Water Spirit.” I called out. The rain formed a body in front of me.
It wasn’t one of the tiny ones, which the lesser spirits use, but it wasn’t the adult sized one that the greater spirit uses either. This one was about a meter tall.
“Sir Hero, I have responded to your call.” The young boy said.
Yes. This spirit was in fact a male spirit. I actually thought they were all female, as every water spirit I’ve summoned this far has been female. But this time I got a shota.
“Good. I need your help. We need to set out this forest fire. I already made it rain, but I need your help guiding the water to the correct places, so synchro with me.” I told the spirit.
“Sure. But for you to make it rain holy water. Even for a hero, that is strange.” The spirit said, as its body broke apart and the water that had formed its body moved to surround me.
“Holy water? Is that what it is? Well, whatever.” I pondered as the water that surrounded me formed a full set of armor around my body. Holy water armor, I guess.
(Sir Hero, I’m at your service. Please use my power. I will follow your lead.) The spirit said inside my head. Yeah, I almost forgot that they can do that when we synchro. I really should practice this technique more.
I did what I recalled doing with the greater spirit, and just imagined the water moving in the way I wanted. There were no major problems, but I did feel that the water was moving slower than it did with the greater spirit. But at the same time, my mana was draining at about half the speed, so I guess that balances it out. Still, in a life or death fight, I’d much rather have the stronger spirit with higher mana cost.
It took little over ten minutes, but Paulina and I managed to completely put out the forest fire just as the rain caused by Rain of Mercy had subsided.
I undid my synchro with the spirit, and wished it a good day before sending it off.
“Brian, that technique you used, would you tell me about it?” Paulina asked, as we were grouping up.
“The spirit synchro? What about it?”
“So that’s what it is. Can anyone do it, or just you?”
“No clue. Well, I know Lua can do it at least.”
“Lua?”
“The dhampir girl who was with us when we hunted that orc settlement.”
“Her? I see. Do you know if there are any prerequisites?”
“Well, you need a spirit at least. So you might need the Summon Spirit skill. If you recall, I have the Summon Water Spirit skill. But at the same time, you might be able to use a spirit summoned by someone else, but I’m not sure. I also don’t know if the spirits will be willing to synchro with you, unless you have a spirit’s blessing. But we could try.”
“I see… And how would one gain a spirit's blessing?”
“Did I never tell you? Well, either way, I gained it when I defeated some sprites. And as sprites are corrupted spirits, the greater spirit, whose family those sprites used to be, was pleased and gave me her blessing.”
“Yes. I think you might have mentioned it.”
“So yeah. That’s how it happened. Aka. I have no idea how you can reliably gain a spirit’s blessing. Maybe by taking down sprites, but for that, you need to locate some sprites.”
“I can see how that would be difficult.”
I took the hydra corpse into my inven… storage, and we all got back into Big Core.
I also noticed that Alice had activated her Pitch-Black Power Stone, so I asked if I could use one of the remaining two charges to refill my mana. I had spent about half of my mana in the spirit synchro after all.
Alice agreed and passed me the stone. Using it was just about as easy as I thought, and I got filled up to almost full. Then I passed the stone to Paulina so she could do the same.
“Brian? Why didn’t you tell me you have something like this?” She asked, after she consumed the last third of the power from the stone.
“Why would I? It comes from a card, so you couldn’t use it anyway.”
“... fair point. You really need to take me to that dungeon. I’ll go through every challenge room if necessary to gain that skill.”
“Add that to the list of like ten things I have to do.”
“Ten? That isn’t that much. I’ve had lists over a hundred entries long.”
“That tells more about you, than me, you know.”
“... fight me.”
“I can summon something if you want, but I’d rather not fight you directly.”
“Are you scared?”
“Yes. Yes I am. And honestly, I probably could beat you if Alice wouldn’t level you up each day, so maybe I should revoke your level up privileges.”
“Please don’t! I was just joking.”
“As was I. I wouldn’t do it for a petty reason like that. Well, maybe for one day, to see you panic more, but I would allow it again the next day.”
During our return flight, I summoned two Goblin Calligraphers to draw up the map report. One was going to the guild and the other was for the Earl.
Spoiler
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They just copied what was on the B.E.S. monitors down to paper Paulina had brought along, so it didn’t take them too long.
In total, the map had over 100 monster locations, but most of them were D-rank and under. And most were far enough away from the road where we didn’t have to worry about them, just report on them.
We ‘landed’ outside the city and I summoned Overdrive. At some point, I will just have Big Core pick us up and drop us off at the guild’s front door, but that will just cause even more problems. Unless we get permission, and considering what happened in the morning, no chance we will get that kind of special privilege.
We got to the guild and walked up to a receptionist. The same one we met this morning. I wonder, how long is their shift? From sunrise to sundown? Or do they run a morning and evening shift? Or is the guild staffed 24/7? I could see any of those. I just hope it isn’t the sunrise to sunset.
“You are back. Did you complete the check already?” Leila asked.
“Yes, we did. Here is the report.” I answered as I handed her the guild’s copy.
She took a long while looking over the map.
“... I’ve heard, but I really didn’t expect this. How could you make something this detailed in just a few hours?”
“Magic, duh.” I said as a joke.
“What kind of magic does something like this?”
“Summoning magic.”
“... I see. Well, this is clearly extremely detailed, much more than we would usually expect, so of course we will accept this.” Leila said, before adding. “Did you hunt down any of the monsters?”
“No, nothing that is on the map.” I answered. “But we did take down a two-headed hydra. It was right about here.” I said, pointing to the area on the map where we found the hydra. “There are also some burnt trees in the area, as the hydra liked to breathe fire. We did put the fire out, so don’t worry about that.”
My Rain of Mercy might have healed the ground, the grasses and other small plants, but the trees, bushes, etc. did still burn away almost completely.
“... excuse me, but could you repeat that? Did you just say you took down a hydra?”
“Yes. We did. Well, technically it was Alice and Ria, but still.”
“... and where would this hydra be? Did you leave the corpse in the forest? We can arrange a pickup if you did.”
“No, I have it with me.”
“Does it fit in your magic bag? That must be one large bag if a hydra fits in it.”
“No. I have it in my Inventory.”
“... inventory? I see.” The receptionist seemed ready to just give up. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that she never yelled out at all. I was honestly expecting that. She must be a professional, or she just doesn’t believe anything I’m saying. “... would you follow me, please. We will need to confirm the hydra carcass. We will also purchase it, if you are willing to sell it.”
“Sure. Depending on the price.” I answered, as I began to follow her into the bag rooms of the guild.
“So the cheater has returned. Did you cheat to complete your quest again?” The assistant guild master spotted us, and came to bully us again.
“Of course. That is all I can do, right?”
“Another admission.”
“... wow. You really do trust everything you hear. Well anyway, we have some business, so please don’t bother us.”
“Business, you say? What kind of business would a cheater have with the guild?”
“Sir, he is here to show and sell us a hydra they hunted during the quest.”
“A hydra, you say? How would a cheater like him take down a hydra? I’ll be coming as well.” The AGM said. “And if you are lying, I’ll revoke your guild card.”
“Oh? Want to bet on it? If I don’t have a hydra, you can revoke my card, but if I do have one, you will rank me up to rank B.”
“Fine. I’ll take that bet. No way you have a hydra.”
“Here? Sure.” I said and took the hydra out of my storage.
But instead of the complete hydra that I had placed in there, a huge pile of dismantled hydra parts came out. Hide, meat, three monster cores, claws, fangs, all of it. Even some parts that I’m decently sure weren’t there when I put it in were here, like the eyes, which had been smashed by Ria and Element Valkyrie.
“Brian? What happened to the hydra?” Alice asked. “Why is it dismantled?”
“... yeah. I don’t know either.” I answered, but I got my answer as a message on the storage screen.
[I’m sorry, Father. I was testing out some of the things I can do now that I’m a unique skill. One of them is Monster Disassembly, so I did that to the hydra. I also used Material Quality Increase on the parts, to repair some of the damage.]
… so storage can do things like that? … I see. Good to know. It doesn’t seem to be all powerful, as the hole opened by Alice’s final attack was still there with the chunk missing because of Mana’s Dark Burning, but the other holes caused by the spear spells were gone. But the hydra might have healed them when it was still alive. I did regenerate quite quickly.
“... okay. I know now. It's just my skill doing things. I would say blame Laura, but this one is actually Tahlia’s fault.”
“Tahlia? Who is she?”
“... I’ll introduce you later.”
“So, you bought a hydra corpse and are trying to sell it to the guild. I knew it. You were lying, you cheater!” The AGM said, as he saw the corpse.
“No! We really did hunt it!” Alice exclaimed.
“Doesn’t look like it to me. And how would a D-rank and two C-ranks take down a hydra?”2Reminder that Paulina is in fact a C-rank adventurer
“... if you want to see, I’ll show you. But you will take the responsibility for the aftermath.” I said, honestly getting massively annoyed by his attitude.
“Wa-wait a second. Please sell us this hydra first, please.” Leila spoke up.
“That’s fine.” I turned back to her. I like her. She is able to keep her mind on the business at hand, instead of getting caught up on the little things. She should be the assistant guild master. “So, how much will it be?”
“Pl-please give me a moment. We will have to appraise the condition.”
In total, the hydra was worth 121 gold coins. It was, other than a few holes in the hide, in perfect condition, thanks to the quality improvement thing, probably. I need to ask Tahlia more about it. But still, 121 gold. Is that a lot? Or not so much? My armor, which is still in the making, was 400 gold, so three and a half hydras. I guess it is made of mithril, so maybe it has to be that expensive. My sense of value is just nowhere. But I guess that is what happens when you have over 7000 gold coins, I guess.
We split the money equally between Alice and I, because Ria was insisting she is my slave. And as payment for her armor coming. I think I paid 70 or so gold for it, well half up front, so this isn’t quite there, but I’m trying to be a good master here.
After that, we headed to the guilds courtyard with the assistant GM. If he wants proof, I’ll give it to him.
“Let me just confirm, no matter what happens, you will take responsibility?” I asked the AGM.
“Yes. Show me how you took down the hydra.” He answered.
“Oh, you are going to regret that.” I heard Paulina say quietly.
“And Paulina, you are a witness to prove that he is the one currently responsible, right?”
“Of course. Just try not to cause too big of a mess. The guild doesn’t have unlimited funds, so if you do too much damage, Father will have to cover for them.” Paulina said.
“Oh, I won’t cause any damage. Probably.” I said as I pulled open my collection.
“Don’t ‘probably’. Just don’t do any.”
“Don’t worry. At most there will be a slight panic.” I said, probably grinning like a madman.
I know exactly what I’m going to summon. Normally I might not go this far, but if he doesn’t believe me, I’ll make him believe me. And I just want to summon this guy. Or girl. Well, this dragon. I took out the four cards necessary for the summoning.
“I activate Polymerization. I’ll fuse together Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Meteor Dragon. I fusion summon Meteor Black Dragon!”
Spoiler
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My two dragons merged together and became one. And it was … quite large. The largest dragon I’ve summoned thus far, even outdoing my Blue-Eyes. Measuring to the shoulder level, where I usually measured my dragons, Meteor Black Dragon stood at about 22 or maybe 23 meters. So let’s just say 22.5 meters.
And it radiated heat everywhere. Not massive amounts, probably because it was controlling the heat, but the temperature had risen by 40°C. The relatively cool spring day was now scorching hot. Well, at least it shouldn’t be enough to set any buildings on fire or anything.
“Brian! I think he gets it! Unsummon that dragon now!” Paulina yelled.
I did as instructed and said “See you later.” to my new dragon.
We may or may not have gotten a visit from the knights a little later, but between being able to blame the AGM and both me (with my medal) and Paulina being here, we quickly got over that little problem. As I said, I didn’t break anything. There aren’t even footprints left by my dragon. But I’m sure plenty of people felt the heat from it, even if they didn’t see it, so I did apologize for any potential fire calls that caused. Maybe I should have summoned Black Skull Dragon instead. But as both Summoned Skull and the dragon itself are ‘always treated as an "Archfiend"’, I didn’t want to take the chance. I’ll summon it later when I’m far enough away from any prying eyes.
But still, I would call this side quest a success. The AGM no longer had any issues with us taking on a hydra, as he had plenty of other issues. Like the knights grilling him about how he could give permission to summon a dragon in the middle of the city. All he could do is apologize and say he didn’t know, but that didn’t really help the situation.
Eventually even Sir Garner, or is it Lord Garner? Mateo Garner? I think I should call him Lord Garner. He is a viscount. Anyway, the knight commander even came and once he got a chance to hear what happened, he said he would take care of the rest and let us go. Well, we would still have to explain it to the Earl, but that was going to be the dinner talk anyway.
As soon as we got back to the manor, Paulina went to deliver the report, well two reports. Both about my Meteor Black Dragon and the safety check.
Meanwhile, Alice, Ria and I returned to our rooms for bathtime.
Dinner went, well, I’m sure you can imagine it. I got some … feedback about what I did, but I didn’t get into any real trouble. Basically just a slap on the wrist, as the Earl acknowledged that the AGM was the one that pushed me to do it. But hearing that I would be willing to cook a dragon for his birthday party might have also helped.
After that, back to our rooms and level up time. And then to sleep. I was actually sitting out today, because of inventory to storage, but I did use two level ups on Ria. Ria asked for Defense Boost, and I agreed.
Spoiler
| Name: Rhianna |
| Race: Dhampir |
| Level: 58 |
| HP: 1670 |
| Mana: 1880 |
| Strength: 900 |
| Defense: 690 |
| Magic: 890 |
| Skills: |
| True Blood Magic LV.5 (Racial) |
| Vampiric Body Modification LV.2 (Racial) |
| Card Summoner LV.2 (extra) |
| Fire Magic LV.3 |
| Mana Control LV.4 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.4 |
| Internal Magic Technique LV.5 |
| Unarmed Combat Technique LV.4 |
| Flickering Step LV.2 |
| Power Boost LV.4 |
| Defense Boost LV.3 |
| Blood Sucker (Racial) |
| Slave. Master: Brian Wood |
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Ria is getting stronger. Of course. I did get closer to her status because of the skill evolution though. But still, only my HP, MP and defense are actually higher than hers.
Well, not like that really matters. I’ll still have my summons, so I’m stronger. Not that I’m competitive.
“So, Tahlia. What happened with that hydra?”
“I’m sorry, Father. I was just … fooling around.” She answered meekly.
“I’m not mad. Honestly. I just want to know what you can do now that you are a storage.”
“... alright. But I don’t know it all myself yet, so I’ll tell you as I learn how to use it. But as of now, there is Time Control, Material Quality Increase, Monster Disassembly and Item Maintenance.” She said. “Time Control is the simplest one, so I’ll explain that first. I can control the time of items in the storage. Either stopping time for them, or fast forwarding time. I don’t know why you would need to fast forward, but I can do it.”
I just nodded, as she explained. I could think of a few uses for the fast forward, like fermenting foods and drinks. I could start a brewery. But other than that, I’m not sure.
“Material Quality Increase allows me to increase the quality of items stored, to some extent, but it only works with raw materials. Like what I did with the hydra. I can take things that are somewhat broken, and repair them. But there are limits. For example, I tried to improve the vampiric steel ingot, but I was only able to improve it from low- quality to low+.”
“Alright. And you can also apparently appraise the quality of things, right?”
“Yes. But even as just Inventory, I could identify objects. But yes, the quality part is new. Then Monster Disassembly. You saw that already. I can take apart any monsters you store in the storage.”
“Simple enough, but seems super powerful.” I commented.
“Yes. For the last thing, Item Maintenance. It is designed to keep ready weapons in perfect condition. That is all there is to it.”
“So, clothes washing, weapon sharpening, etc. right?”
“Exactly. And don’t forget armor shining, ironing clothes, I can even repair them, as long as they aren’t too badly damaged.”
“... do the scraps of my old clothes?”
“They are too far gone. I can’t fix them. I’m sorry.”
“... it’s fine. It’s not your fault. But still, please don’t play around with items like that in the future. At least ask me first.”
“Yes, Father.”
“But still, I’m proud of you. You are amazing.” I said, and took my daughter into a hug. She might have evolved, but her avatar had stayed the same. And I’m fine with that. She doesn’t have to change her avatar, ever.
nro_8 Well, things got out of hand, again. Brian just summoned a dragon to prove he can take on a hydra. But hey, it wasn’t technically his fault, right?
Now a bit more about Tahlia, or storage, that I didn’t mention in the chapter. She now as lv10 storage has an unlimited capacity. Other than that, I kind of left it open, because if I don’t, I’ll definitely forget something obvious that she should be able to do. Remember that she is now a unique skill. That means that she is quite broken, in terms of balance. So if you have something you think she should be able to do, please point it out for me in the comments.
Also something else, which you will hear about next chapter happened behind the scenes. It regards Level Up! and a character whom we didn’t see in this chapter, but was mentioned in this chapter. Feel free to theorize about it, if you want.
And finally, one more thing because of when this chapter is coming out. Yes, I will release a chapter on the 24th.
[Brian POV]1Just for those that binge this series as the POV did swap between chapters.
“Rain of Mercy.” I activated the card without hesitation as soon as I got down from Big Core, and had it move a bit so it wouldn’t block the rain.
Spoiler
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Alice and Ria had done well in their fight against the hydra, but the hydra had also set the forest on fire, so we had to put it out. And for that, we needed water. And what better than water which will also heal the wounds of the fighters at the same time. None of them took a direct hit, but the fire and the wind might still have hurt them. And as I said, we need the water.
Paulina got to work with her water magic, guiding the water to where it needed to go. And I was going to help her.
“Summon Water Spirit.” I called out. The rain formed a body in front of me.
It wasn’t one of the tiny ones, which the lesser spirits use, but it wasn’t the adult sized one that the greater spirit uses either. This one was about a meter tall.
“Sir Hero, I have responded to your call.” The young boy said.
Yes. This spirit was in fact a male spirit. I actually thought they were all female, as every water spirit I’ve summoned this far has been female. But this time I got a shota.
“Good. I need your help. We need to set out this forest fire. I already made it rain, but I need your help guiding the water to the correct places, so synchro with me.” I told the spirit.
“Sure. But for you to make it rain holy water. Even for a hero, that is strange.” The spirit said, as its body broke apart and the water that had formed its body moved to surround me.
“Holy water? Is that what it is? Well, whatever.” I pondered as the water that surrounded me formed a full set of armor around my body. Holy water armor, I guess.
(Sir Hero, I’m at your service. Please use my power. I will follow your lead.) The spirit said inside my head. Yeah, I almost forgot that they can do that when we synchro. I really should practice this technique more.
I did what I recalled doing with the greater spirit, and just imagined the water moving in the way I wanted. There were no major problems, but I did feel that the water was moving slower than it did with the greater spirit. But at the same time, my mana was draining at about half the speed, so I guess that balances it out. Still, in a life or death fight, I’d much rather have the stronger spirit with higher mana cost.
It took little over ten minutes, but Paulina and I managed to completely put out the forest fire just as the rain caused by Rain of Mercy had subsided.
I undid my synchro with the spirit, and wished it a good day before sending it off.
“Brian, that technique you used, would you tell me about it?” Paulina asked, as we were grouping up.
“The spirit synchro? What about it?”
“So that’s what it is. Can anyone do it, or just you?”
“No clue. Well, I know Lua can do it at least.”
“Lua?”
“The dhampir girl who was with us when we hunted that orc settlement.”
“Her? I see. Do you know if there are any prerequisites?”
“Well, you need a spirit at least. So you might need the Summon Spirit skill. If you recall, I have the Summon Water Spirit skill. But at the same time, you might be able to use a spirit summoned by someone else, but I’m not sure. I also don’t know if the spirits will be willing to synchro with you, unless you have a spirit’s blessing. But we could try.”
“I see… And how would one gain a spirit's blessing?”
“Did I never tell you? Well, either way, I gained it when I defeated some sprites. And as sprites are corrupted spirits, the greater spirit, whose family those sprites used to be, was pleased and gave me her blessing.”
“Yes. I think you might have mentioned it.”
“So yeah. That’s how it happened. Aka. I have no idea how you can reliably gain a spirit’s blessing. Maybe by taking down sprites, but for that, you need to locate some sprites.”
“I can see how that would be difficult.”
I took the hydra corpse into my inven… storage, and we all got back into Big Core.
I also noticed that Alice had activated her Pitch-Black Power Stone, so I asked if I could use one of the remaining two charges to refill my mana. I had spent about half of my mana in the spirit synchro after all.
Alice agreed and passed me the stone. Using it was just about as easy as I thought, and I got filled up to almost full. Then I passed the stone to Paulina so she could do the same.
“Brian? Why didn’t you tell me you have something like this?” She asked, after she consumed the last third of the power from the stone.
“Why would I? It comes from a card, so you couldn’t use it anyway.”
“... fair point. You really need to take me to that dungeon. I’ll go through every challenge room if necessary to gain that skill.”
“Add that to the list of like ten things I have to do.”
“Ten? That isn’t that much. I’ve had lists over a hundred entries long.”
“That tells more about you, than me, you know.”
“... fight me.”
“I can summon something if you want, but I’d rather not fight you directly.”
“Are you scared?”
“Yes. Yes I am. And honestly, I probably could beat you if Alice wouldn’t level you up each day, so maybe I should revoke your level up privileges.”
“Please don’t! I was just joking.”
“As was I. I wouldn’t do it for a petty reason like that. Well, maybe for one day, to see you panic more, but I would allow it again the next day.”
During our return flight, I summoned two Goblin Calligraphers to draw up the map report. One was going to the guild and the other was for the Earl.
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They just copied what was on the B.E.S. monitors down to paper Paulina had brought along, so it didn’t take them too long.
In total, the map had over 100 monster locations, but most of them were D-rank and under. And most were far enough away from the road where we didn’t have to worry about them, just report on them.
We ‘landed’ outside the city and I summoned Overdrive. At some point, I will just have Big Core pick us up and drop us off at the guild’s front door, but that will just cause even more problems. Unless we get permission, and considering what happened in the morning, no chance we will get that kind of special privilege.
We got to the guild and walked up to a receptionist. The same one we met this morning. I wonder, how long is their shift? From sunrise to sundown? Or do they run a morning and evening shift? Or is the guild staffed 24/7? I could see any of those. I just hope it isn’t the sunrise to sunset.
“You are back. Did you complete the check already?” Leila asked.
“Yes, we did. Here is the report.” I answered as I handed her the guild’s copy.
She took a long while looking over the map.
“... I’ve heard, but I really didn’t expect this. How could you make something this detailed in just a few hours?”
“Magic, duh.” I said as a joke.
“What kind of magic does something like this?”
“Summoning magic.”
“... I see. Well, this is clearly extremely detailed, much more than we would usually expect, so of course we will accept this.” Leila said, before adding. “Did you hunt down any of the monsters?”
“No, nothing that is on the map.” I answered. “But we did take down a two-headed hydra. It was right about here.” I said, pointing to the area on the map where we found the hydra. “There are also some burnt trees in the area, as the hydra liked to breathe fire. We did put the fire out, so don’t worry about that.”
My Rain of Mercy might have healed the ground, the grasses and other small plants, but the trees, bushes, etc. did still burn away almost completely.
“... excuse me, but could you repeat that? Did you just say you took down a hydra?”
“Yes. We did. Well, technically it was Alice and Ria, but still.”
“... and where would this hydra be? Did you leave the corpse in the forest? We can arrange a pickup if you did.”
“No, I have it with me.”
“Does it fit in your magic bag? That must be one large bag if a hydra fits in it.”
“No. I have it in my Inventory.”
“... inventory? I see.” The receptionist seemed ready to just give up. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that she never yelled out at all. I was honestly expecting that. She must be a professional, or she just doesn’t believe anything I’m saying. “... would you follow me, please. We will need to confirm the hydra carcass. We will also purchase it, if you are willing to sell it.”
“Sure. Depending on the price.” I answered, as I began to follow her into the bag rooms of the guild.
“So the cheater has returned. Did you cheat to complete your quest again?” The assistant guild master spotted us, and came to bully us again.
“Of course. That is all I can do, right?”
“Another admission.”
“... wow. You really do trust everything you hear. Well anyway, we have some business, so please don’t bother us.”
“Business, you say? What kind of business would a cheater have with the guild?”
“Sir, he is here to show and sell us a hydra they hunted during the quest.”
“A hydra, you say? How would a cheater like him take down a hydra? I’ll be coming as well.” The AGM said. “And if you are lying, I’ll revoke your guild card.”
“Oh? Want to bet on it? If I don’t have a hydra, you can revoke my card, but if I do have one, you will rank me up to rank B.”
“Fine. I’ll take that bet. No way you have a hydra.”
“Here? Sure.” I said and took the hydra out of my storage.
But instead of the complete hydra that I had placed in there, a huge pile of dismantled hydra parts came out. Hide, meat, three monster cores, claws, fangs, all of it. Even some parts that I’m decently sure weren’t there when I put it in were here, like the eyes, which had been smashed by Ria and Element Valkyrie.
“Brian? What happened to the hydra?” Alice asked. “Why is it dismantled?”
“... yeah. I don’t know either.” I answered, but I got my answer as a message on the storage screen.
[I’m sorry, Father. I was testing out some of the things I can do now that I’m a unique skill. One of them is Monster Disassembly, so I did that to the hydra. I also used Material Quality Increase on the parts, to repair some of the damage.]
… so storage can do things like that? … I see. Good to know. It doesn’t seem to be all powerful, as the hole opened by Alice’s final attack was still there with the chunk missing because of Mana’s Dark Burning, but the other holes caused by the spear spells were gone. But the hydra might have healed them when it was still alive. I did regenerate quite quickly.
“... okay. I know now. It's just my skill doing things. I would say blame Laura, but this one is actually Tahlia’s fault.”
“Tahlia? Who is she?”
“... I’ll introduce you later.”
“So, you bought a hydra corpse and are trying to sell it to the guild. I knew it. You were lying, you cheater!” The AGM said, as he saw the corpse.
“No! We really did hunt it!” Alice exclaimed.
“Doesn’t look like it to me. And how would a D-rank and two C-ranks take down a hydra?”2Reminder that Paulina is in fact a C-rank adventurer
“... if you want to see, I’ll show you. But you will take the responsibility for the aftermath.” I said, honestly getting massively annoyed by his attitude.
“Wa-wait a second. Please sell us this hydra first, please.” Leila spoke up.
“That’s fine.” I turned back to her. I like her. She is able to keep her mind on the business at hand, instead of getting caught up on the little things. She should be the assistant guild master. “So, how much will it be?”
“Pl-please give me a moment. We will have to appraise the condition.”
In total, the hydra was worth 121 gold coins. It was, other than a few holes in the hide, in perfect condition, thanks to the quality improvement thing, probably. I need to ask Tahlia more about it. But still, 121 gold. Is that a lot? Or not so much? My armor, which is still in the making, was 400 gold, so three and a half hydras. I guess it is made of mithril, so maybe it has to be that expensive. My sense of value is just nowhere. But I guess that is what happens when you have over 7000 gold coins, I guess.
We split the money equally between Alice and I, because Ria was insisting she is my slave. And as payment for her armor coming. I think I paid 70 or so gold for it, well half up front, so this isn’t quite there, but I’m trying to be a good master here.
After that, we headed to the guilds courtyard with the assistant GM. If he wants proof, I’ll give it to him.
“Let me just confirm, no matter what happens, you will take responsibility?” I asked the AGM.
“Yes. Show me how you took down the hydra.” He answered.
“Oh, you are going to regret that.” I heard Paulina say quietly.
“And Paulina, you are a witness to prove that he is the one currently responsible, right?”
“Of course. Just try not to cause too big of a mess. The guild doesn’t have unlimited funds, so if you do too much damage, Father will have to cover for them.” Paulina said.
“Oh, I won’t cause any damage. Probably.” I said as I pulled open my collection.
“Don’t ‘probably’. Just don’t do any.”
“Don’t worry. At most there will be a slight panic.” I said, probably grinning like a madman.
I know exactly what I’m going to summon. Normally I might not go this far, but if he doesn’t believe me, I’ll make him believe me. And I just want to summon this guy. Or girl. Well, this dragon. I took out the four cards necessary for the summoning.
“I activate Polymerization. I’ll fuse together Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Meteor Dragon. I fusion summon Meteor Black Dragon!”
Spoiler
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My two dragons merged together and became one. And it was … quite large. The largest dragon I’ve summoned thus far, even outdoing my Blue-Eyes. Measuring to the shoulder level, where I usually measured my dragons, Meteor Black Dragon stood at about 22 or maybe 23 meters. So let’s just say 22.5 meters.
And it radiated heat everywhere. Not massive amounts, probably because it was controlling the heat, but the temperature had risen by 40°C. The relatively cool spring day was now scorching hot. Well, at least it shouldn’t be enough to set any buildings on fire or anything.
“Brian! I think he gets it! Unsummon that dragon now!” Paulina yelled.
I did as instructed and said “See you later.” to my new dragon.
We may or may not have gotten a visit from the knights a little later, but between being able to blame the AGM and both me (with my medal) and Paulina being here, we quickly got over that little problem. As I said, I didn’t break anything. There aren’t even footprints left by my dragon. But I’m sure plenty of people felt the heat from it, even if they didn’t see it, so I did apologize for any potential fire calls that caused. Maybe I should have summoned Black Skull Dragon instead. But as both Summoned Skull and the dragon itself are ‘always treated as an "Archfiend"’, I didn’t want to take the chance. I’ll summon it later when I’m far enough away from any prying eyes.
But still, I would call this side quest a success. The AGM no longer had any issues with us taking on a hydra, as he had plenty of other issues. Like the knights grilling him about how he could give permission to summon a dragon in the middle of the city. All he could do is apologize and say he didn’t know, but that didn’t really help the situation.
Eventually even Sir Garner, or is it Lord Garner? Mateo Garner? I think I should call him Lord Garner. He is a viscount. Anyway, the knight commander even came and once he got a chance to hear what happened, he said he would take care of the rest and let us go. Well, we would still have to explain it to the Earl, but that was going to be the dinner talk anyway.
As soon as we got back to the manor, Paulina went to deliver the report, well two reports. Both about my Meteor Black Dragon and the safety check.
Meanwhile, Alice, Ria and I returned to our rooms for bathtime.
Dinner went, well, I’m sure you can imagine it. I got some … feedback about what I did, but I didn’t get into any real trouble. Basically just a slap on the wrist, as the Earl acknowledged that the AGM was the one that pushed me to do it. But hearing that I would be willing to cook a dragon for his birthday party might have also helped.
After that, back to our rooms and level up time. And then to sleep. I was actually sitting out today, because of inventory to storage, but I did use two level ups on Ria. Ria asked for Defense Boost, and I agreed.
Spoiler
| Name: Rhianna |
| Race: Dhampir |
| Level: 58 |
| HP: 1670 |
| Mana: 1880 |
| Strength: 900 |
| Defense: 690 |
| Magic: 890 |
| Skills: |
| True Blood Magic LV.5 (Racial) |
| Vampiric Body Modification LV.2 (Racial) |
| Card Summoner LV.2 (extra) |
| Fire Magic LV.3 |
| Mana Control LV.4 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.4 |
| Internal Magic Technique LV.5 |
| Unarmed Combat Technique LV.4 |
| Flickering Step LV.2 |
| Power Boost LV.4 |
| Defense Boost LV.3 |
| Blood Sucker (Racial) |
| Slave. Master: Brian Wood |
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Ria is getting stronger. Of course. I did get closer to her status because of the skill evolution though. But still, only my HP, MP and defense are actually higher than hers.
Well, not like that really matters. I’ll still have my summons, so I’m stronger. Not that I’m competitive.
“So, Tahlia. What happened with that hydra?”
“I’m sorry, Father. I was just … fooling around.” She answered meekly.
“I’m not mad. Honestly. I just want to know what you can do now that you are a storage.”
“... alright. But I don’t know it all myself yet, so I’ll tell you as I learn how to use it. But as of now, there is Time Control, Material Quality Increase, Monster Disassembly and Item Maintenance.” She said. “Time Control is the simplest one, so I’ll explain that first. I can control the time of items in the storage. Either stopping time for them, or fast forwarding time. I don’t know why you would need to fast forward, but I can do it.”
I just nodded, as she explained. I could think of a few uses for the fast forward, like fermenting foods and drinks. I could start a brewery. But other than that, I’m not sure.
“Material Quality Increase allows me to increase the quality of items stored, to some extent, but it only works with raw materials. Like what I did with the hydra. I can take things that are somewhat broken, and repair them. But there are limits. For example, I tried to improve the vampiric steel ingot, but I was only able to improve it from low- quality to low+.”
“Alright. And you can also apparently appraise the quality of things, right?”
“Yes. But even as just Inventory, I could identify objects. But yes, the quality part is new. Then Monster Disassembly. You saw that already. I can take apart any monsters you store in the storage.”
“Simple enough, but seems super powerful.” I commented.
“Yes. For the last thing, Item Maintenance. It is designed to keep ready weapons in perfect condition. That is all there is to it.”
“So, clothes washing, weapon sharpening, etc. right?”
“Exactly. And don’t forget armor shining, ironing clothes, I can even repair them, as long as they aren’t too badly damaged.”
“... do the scraps of my old clothes?”
“They are too far gone. I can’t fix them. I’m sorry.”
“... it’s fine. It’s not your fault. But still, please don’t play around with items like that in the future. At least ask me first.”
“Yes, Father.”
“But still, I’m proud of you. You are amazing.” I said, and took my daughter into a hug. She might have evolved, but her avatar had stayed the same. And I’m fine with that. She doesn’t have to change her avatar, ever.
nro_8 Well, things got out of hand, again. Brian just summoned a dragon to prove he can take on a hydra. But hey, it wasn’t technically his fault, right?
Now a bit more about Tahlia, or storage, that I didn’t mention in the chapter. She now as lv10 storage has an unlimited capacity. Other than that, I kind of left it open, because if I don’t, I’ll definitely forget something obvious that she should be able to do. Remember that she is now a unique skill. That means that she is quite broken, in terms of balance. So if you have something you think she should be able to do, please point it out for me in the comments.
Also something else, which you will hear about next chapter happened behind the scenes. It regards Level Up! and a character whom we didn’t see in this chapter, but was mentioned in this chapter. Feel free to theorize about it, if you want.
And finally, one more thing because of when this chapter is coming out. Yes, I will release a chapter on the 24th.
