《Dungeon Master in a New World》 Prologue Xeru :D 『Sunrise』 Shifting around 3rd and 1st person like in the beginning of Overlord. plx forgive if it sux. ---- Takuma was having a good day. Even though it was going to be his last day, it was still going to be the best day. It would be the day that the terrorist organization Krystal would be recorded as the worst terrorist organization ever to have existed. Takuma thought back to when it all began. It was all the idiot lesser gods fault. He couldnt be satisfied with just governing over ten billion lives. He had to kill off my family and laugh, showing off a movie of my broken life to the populace. But today, all that will change. Ill definitely get the last laugh. It is every man and womans dream to die in the sun. Why shouldnt it be theirs? If you think about it, the most dramatic way to die is inside of a nuke! Puts a whole new meaning to land of the rising sun. After all, what was the point in living anymore? Sylvaril, the god of this solar system has found us and there is no escape left. NWO forces have surrounded us. Deem this petty revenge if you will. The chance that New World Order(NWO) forces will defuse the nuke do not exist. You have to find the nuke to defuse it. There was no way the NWO would dig down half a kilometer into the earth before it went off. As a bonus, the fault would slip and cause innumerable earthquakes along the fault line. Takuma smiles as he looks around at his subordinates. They are his arms and legs after all. Suzuki is the head of intelligence. Although she is only a teenager, she hacked into NWO HQ. She intercepted and modified some smart-appliances being sent to the HQ to hack in from the inside, circumventing most of the security systems. Hikari is the head of propaganda. She had hacked into the the television network (with suzukis help) and subtly modified the programs to make the masses more anti-NWO. Jin is the head of security. He arranges security teams and training agents. Kasumi is the head of covert operations. She plans assassinations, bribes officials and related matters. Shin is an architect. He designed our HQ building and built the nuke. The scariest part of all is that he barely graduated from high school. Satomi is my right hand man. She is a manipulative demon that had the NWO running around in circles chasing breadcrumbs that lead to where we are now. She stands out from the rest of us not because of her intelligence, but rather because the rest of us are lazy as fuck. I think she is secretly lazy on the inside, but whatever. Suzuki turned around and smiled smugly. The comm system has been hacked. Do you have a message for the city?(suzuki) I nodded slowly and accepted the microphone. Alright, youre live in 5 4 3 2 1(suzuki) Takuma cleared his throat and spoke clearly into the mic. Pigs of the New World Order! It is I, the Godfather Takuma! I was not lying when I said you filthy dogs would pay for killing my wife and child! Dont bother fleeing. If you can hear my voice, your fate is sealed!(takuma) With some consideration, he decided to throw in: Praise the sun! That is all. Please continue your daily activities for the next fifteen seconds or so.(takuma) Smiling, he put down the mic. Thunderous applause came from his six captains and the security detail. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. The desperate pounding of bullets and grenades from outside the bunker stopped. --- Sylvaril POV --- Sylvaril watched as NWO elites blasted their way through floors of the godfathers headquarters. Losses were tremendous. Already, over a hundred were lying on the ground dead or dying from countless traps and foes. A firefight erupted on the roof as choppers air dropped more units in a desperate attempt to reach the 53rd floor. As the elite units dropped from the roof on ropes, snipers from neighboring buildings picked them off as easily as rubbing your stomach while not patting your head. Angrily, Sylvaril ordered airstrikes on the buildings, the NWO forces broke into the 53rd floor. Kami-sama! They are in a reinforced concrete room! The door is impregnable as well!(commander erwin) Destroy the anti-tamper runes and Ill transfer them away to some rival god along with the nuke. Hehehe(sylvaril) Meanwhile, the speakers around the city started spewing out some kind of monologue Pigs of the New World Order! It is I, Takuma! I was not lying when I said that the world would pay for killing my wife and child! Dont bother fleeing. If you can hear my voice, your fate is sealed!(terrorist) Come on! Takuma?! I only killed your wife and child to make the story more dramatic. You have no right to fuck up my shit! Praise the sun! That is all. Please continue your daily activities for the next fifteen seconds or so.(scary terrorist) Praise the sun? What? 10 seconds remaining. Anti-tamper runes are down!(commander erwin) Instantly, the black haze around the building vanished. Get clear, Im invoking the space transfer.(Sylvaril) A blue halo surrounded the sun itself as a tremendous teleport spell was invoked. NWO forces jumped out of windows and BASE jumping parachutes opened up. Ill send them to that newbie small fry Izumis system. He declined the offer of my protection and refused donate mana to me Thisll teach him. 5 4 3 2 The magic invoked and the floor disappeared with a flash of blue light. The building began crumbling not that it mattered. The HUD went white as the light and sound maxed out. Zooming out in horror, Sylvaril watched as a fireball with a diameter of six kilometers microwaved the capital city. As if in slow motion, a blast wave rippled out of the fireball and ripped buildings apart. A hundred square kilometers were practically instantly flattened, extinguishing just under a billion lives. The nuke was located underground, so the blast was considerably smaller than what it should have been. However, that did not change the fact that the capital he worked so hard to create vanished from his sight. The fact that the bomb was underground wasnt all good either. Radioactive debris was blasted high into the atmosphere to be circulated around the world. As if mocking him, a massive earthquake ripped through the entire coast, dealing negligible damage to the newly formed (desert) plains. And the worst part of all, was the fact that he, himself, saved Takuma. Thus (the JSDF) Sylvaril (Fought) Cried There! Prologue 1 - 『Eclipse』 Version: Mk 4.1 Alright guys, this is getting mildly ridiculous over 8.6k words wasted bc I cant properly plan how a story is supposed to go. :| sorry for the long wait, I have to do everything with thought put into how the story needs to unfold. I REALLY dont want to have to use something like retcon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity) Spoiler : Were you expecting to find something here? Actually, there was something here earlier, but I changed my mind because the great I has a bucket. Authors notice: To avoid potential misunderstandings, this isnt the future world of earth where the protagonist of [the Legendary Moonlight Serial-Killer] lives. Im sorry, I wouldnt have felt complete without writing at least a one-shot like that on royalroadl The world [was] actually a simulation of earth with magic (but like secret society harry potter ish) Like, the secret society part of harry potter. None of those dumb wands and shit. Swish and flicker lol. Also, the thing with the (insert name here) is dumb. Theyre like crutches and its really hard to use them on my iphone. After 6.8k words using those pieces of crap and a piece of software called ditto, Im done. It can burn (electronically) for all I care! Well shit. Headnotes took up half a page. Whatevz just the dumb ramblings of a confused ?????. Without further ado, here you have it boiz and grills, the abomination youve all been waiting for! (but its mk. iv so hopefully less so) ====================================== Warning: This web novel may *potentially* contain offensive content (such as math, likely incorrect at that...) not suitable for more sensitive audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. Im really sorry, I really dont know how this turned into a math lecture. ====================================== Chapter 1 (Mk iv) ------------------------------ Whiteness. Im not trying to be racist here, but everything in my surroundings is white. Im literally standing on a white platform. It extends infinitely in all directions, as if the worlds skybox itself is white. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skybox_(video_games)) Honestly, the bed Im lying on is really out of place. Where should I start? Well, first of all, its a light blue and the words #1 GOD are on the blankets. Am I in some gods realm? Im not a god, thats for sure. Just then, my thoughts are interrupted by a girls voice Hello, my name is Izumi and I was the god of the realm that was here. Welcome to my home. I turn around and find a girl with platinum hair standing casually behind me. She is wearing glasses and a small book bag is hanging loosely from her shoulder. I guess she is one of those stereotypical college bookworm types. But a goddess? What do you mean by goddess? She pauses for a second and thinks. Well, nothing much really. Just I am able to influence certain things on my domain. She then pauses again. Actually, Im a bit fuzzy on the details as well. I kinda accidentally teleported myself into the sun and The Ascension Protocol started. Afterwards I was given a new solar system and everything within twenty-four light hours around the sun as my domain. Ehh? You can become a god? So you threw yourself into the sun and you became a god. Why didnt I think of that?! Basically. She said, adding in, Although you wont be able to do it, because I ate something called Purification Jelly before I died it was before I was sacrificed to Sylvaril. So Izumi came from Earth? Thats interesting. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she asked, Anyways, who are you and how did you get into this system? Shes kinda cute actually (not in *that* way u fool) I destroyed Sylvarils capital and the next thing I know it gets really cold for a moment. We searched for that bastard for ten years and in the end he just shows up like its a bad joke or something. Suddenly, Izumi gets really angry. Sylvaril did that?! The first time he showed up, he turns all my followers into satanists! As if me dying before I was killed for his entertainment was some kind of insult! In her fit of rage, she grabbed me and started shaking, And then, on his second visit, when he realized he was screwed and couldnt teleport away from the crystal HE ENDED MY WORLD BY SUICIDE BOMBING MY SUN! I froze as I realized the implications. Dick move man, real dick move. Supernova ehh? When matter and antimatter is combined, they annihilate each other releasing energy (J) equivalent to its mass (kg) times the speed of light squared. (e=mc^2) However, when a soul is annihilated, energy equivalent to its mass to its fourth times the speed of light to the eighth is released. (eS = (mc^2)^4) (authors derp note: doesnt exist, i made it up (FOURTH WALLLL~)) A gods soul is at least a thousand hypothetical kilograms. How does it fit, you may ask but the answer is simple! It extends *vertically* through a fourth dimension, naturally. The very first gods soul probably formed in a black hole through millennias of quark degeneration until a soul finally formed. Since your soul is packed into your body at birth, it is filled with a new infinitesimally small new soul created from a single joule of mana by a magic circuit hardcoded into your genes. Then, if its lucky, a rare recycled soul adds its memories, personality and soul mass. (Requires Reduce, Reuse, Recycle from the Management Skill tree.) (authors note: i did the maths so like the mass of your soul would be m = (1 Joule / (c^8))^(?)) so like 1.11265006 10^-17 (hypothetical) kg for those of you who were curious what no one? .-. Well, guess what? more math! e = m^4c^8, e = 1000^4*speed_of_light^8, e = 6.52477625 10^79 oh gawd that might have been overkill. average supernovae are like 10^45 J or something, over like 10 seconds too :/ ps. this is such a big number that if an object of 1 kg was had this much kinetic energy, it would travel at 99.999999999999999999999999999998144299453598000867% the speed of light creating a time dilation that causes 5,190,761,255,631,700.819 seconds to elapse at the observer before a single second elapsed on the 1kg object I needed http://www.ttmath.org/online_calculator to calculate this since google calculator kept returning 1 - 3.7114011^(-32) as 1) You mean theyve all been Yeah. All my stuff is gone. How the hell did you get that much energy into an anti-soul crystal?! Oh yeah, the sketchy magic! A fancy magic formation using the energy of our star to draw out energy from all surrounding stars less than twelve parsecs (AN: parsecs are an actual thing not just some crap I made up) from us. Suzuki, our mastermind made it... wasnt it effective? ... So the our sun suddenly cooling and nearly causing an ice age was YOUR fault? Her face lit up into a wide smile, borderlining maliciousness, I know I should be mad, but I just want you as my apostle more now Without bothering to ask any more, she sandwiched my right hand between both of hers, and ambient red light began to flow between us. Red lines connect themselves between us, weaving a beautiful matrix of threads between us. Then, she planted a light kiss onto the back of my hand. The second her lips touched my hand, the red fibers instantly solidified and lerped (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_interpolation linear interpolation, aka lerp, except on the RGB scale n stuffz) into a violent shade of purple before vanishing. So, now you are my apostle forever. You cant leave. Well, thats fine since I didnt plan leaving. Now, as my apostle, you are entitled to a single (1) perk! I can also resurrect you when you die if you still have a soul although it takes a lot of points so dont die or lose your soul. The resurrection part is pretty sweet, but only one perk? Sylvarils apostles that tried to kill us had a few hundred Well, Im sorry for not existing since creation; I became a god like ten years ago and I spent all my influence points on books! The only reason I even have this is because I had high mana affinity during my life, so I was granted Mana Regen I from the Strength to Fanatics Skill tree during my ascension. And yes, I agree, the resurrection part is great I get such a cool skill and I cant even use it on myself since gods cant use mana, she complained. Casually, tapping through some GUIs (god user interface lolz) to the Buff Management Screen, she selected the only person on the list and applied Mana Regen I. This apostle stuff sounds interesting. Turning around, I lay down on the blue bed. Having a friend that cant die is a refreshing change as well. So, what do we do for the rest of eternity? With a completely serious face, she said, Read about parliamentary procedures. Oh no, not even Sylvaril wou- Pfft Izumi turned away. That was one awkward sneeze. Youre kidding, right? Ive been had! Forced to read about parliamentary procedures for the rest of eternity! Its like a marriage, but not even death will do us part The entire criminal underground could murder me (Reference to Shi ga Futari wo Wakatsu made)and shed just resurrect me again! Its impossible to assemble another soul crystal for myself with her over my shoulder orz. She responded, grinning like a fool Of course Im kidding, Ive got an entire library here along with cs go and starcraft. Not that you could beat me in any of those she muttered. Really? I was a professional before Sylvaril ruined my life. Bet ---- an hour later ---- As expected, I 16-0d her in cs:go (perfect victory m8), but lost terribly at starcraft... Zerg rushing isnt fair Being a human aimbot isnt fair Heh, Ive forgotten how fun living carelessly was. However, it doesnt feel right. As my emotional detachment wears off, I begin to think, how is it, that my comrades, my closest friends all paid the ultimate price yet here I am- reaping all the benefits? Izumi suddenly looks at me worriedly, are you okay? Am I really that easy to read? I nod slowly. Im fine. She frowned almost imperceptibly, you dont look fine to me. Back when I was married to Shiro in Akihabara, life was peaceful and happy. Shiro was the most beautiful woman I ever met, and likely that Ill ever meet. Shiro was the popular one in our group. Whenever Shiro was around, we were all happy. But that all ended one day. I was going home after being on a business trip for two years; I was finally going to see my daughter for the first time. I was so excited that I was ready to call Shiro about my daughter! But then, halfway down the space elevator from SubOrbital-Skybase: Evangelion III, we got a rare broadcast authorized by Sylvaril, himself. When I saw the broadcast, my blood chilled. I saw my wife, completely naked, with her wrists tied above her head and legs held apart by shackles. Tears could be clearly seen, streaming down her cheeks. She tried to cover her chest and nether region, but she was tightly anchored. Her feeble attempts to escape only emphasized the fact that she had no control. I could only watch in silent horror as the three apostles of Sylvaril defiled my wife. A frozen memory resurfaced from long ago. ~~ (The following contains explicit content not suitable for more sensitive audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. If you wish to skip this scene, go down to the line of =. The important thing to note is that this deeply fucked up Takuma Konoe.) ~~ The three apostles stood side by side, without averting their eyes to the obscene scene of Shiro struggling. Please, help me! The blonde, green eyed apostle moved forward; an expression of mixed disgust and lewdness on his face. Looking down on Shiro, as if seeing a disgusting roach.. whilst eyeing her like a piece of meat. Comparable only to a noble watching a purchased slave girl. Then, stepping forwards, the dirty bastard took Shiros breasts into his hand and started fondling her. The other two came around and started hitting her, causing her immense pain. Please, NO! Stop! Kyaa! Dont touch me there, please! Suddenly, the blonde slapped her. TELL ME YOU LIKE IT, BITCH! Shaking with pain and fear, she feebly cried, No! Ill only ever love Takuma! Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.As if seized by the fists of the devil himself, the three began a regiment of torture by electrocution, whipping, and pain enhancement drugs that lasted ten minutes. Even as she was subjected to such pain, her mind held firm. She would resist all the demands thrown at her. Then, the second apostle smiled. It was not the pleasant smile seen on the innocent and naive. It was a cold, malicious, smile of a predator. A predator who had just cornered a victim. The chilling smile distorted his face, making his blue hair look not like a serenic beauty, but rather the frozen flames from hell itself. Bending over, he whispered something into Shiros ear. Shiro sobbed. Then, my nightmare of a world turned into a story crafted by Satan himself. It was in that moment that her will was crushed. Tears flowing from eyes devoid of hope, a body covered in horrendous wounds stood a broken woman. The blue haired apostle spoke softly. Say it. Within the period of eleven minutes, my wife utterly transformed from the energetic, lively woman I knew, into a walking corpse. Please fuck me. I like it when you do bad things to me. The three fucked her there. For every time they hurt her, Ill pay them back a millionfold. After they finished up inside of her, they invited more degenerates on. The restrictive bindings were no longer needed, so they were taken off. I watched as thirty-seven guest degenerates fucked her in every way possible. I took pictures of their faces and recorded the severity of their crimes. The ones that did especially cruel things, like fuck her open wounds, would get a special gift. A very, very special gift. Not only for the offender, but for their entire bloodline. In the end, they simply left her onstage. When she flatlined, the scene ended and we were switched back to the regularly scheduled program. Unforgivable. ============================================== #end When we were constructing the anti-soul crystal, we had a lot of downtime after all, the crystal took twenty years to fully charge. I slowly went around the world and found the thirty seven degenerates. Over time, I killed off their entire extended families before finishing the culprits themselves in the most brutal manner possible. Death by shredding. Skinned and dissected by your own children. Crucified and forced to eat rusty nails. But, by far my favorite, was my special gift. Five had committed atrocities that no act of reprisal could ever wipe away. After breaking their psyches, I had skilled surgeons amputate all their limbs, their eyes, their ears- eardrum and all, their digestive tract, and had them hooked up to a machine that would oxygenate their blood and add nutrients to their blood to keep them alive for the rest of eternity. Their pain receptors were artificially forced onto maximum. NMDA receptor inhibitors were given to wipe their memories and resistance to pain. Eternal life Endless torture. (urgot from LOL if u will) After witnessing what I did to those five, my friends stopped talking to me in casual speech. It was as if a rift had opened up between us. (AN: lol cliche much?) Sadly, I never did find the three apostles. ---- After forcing myself out of that nightmare of a flashback, I realized the nightmare isnt over yet. The three are still alive. I need to go to Earth. I have unfinished business to complete. Before you go, said Izumi, I need to tell you one last thing. Sitting up straighter, she asked, Do you know why youre alive? Do you honestly think that its because of luck? I dont know how, but while I was reading, I got an SOS from a girl named Suzuki. In the message, she begged me to save you and give this to you. She reached into her pocket and handed me a recording crystal. Good luck I hope you find what youre looking for, she said while invoking the teleport. Spoiler : Theres a reason that izumi didnt save them all, it just doesnt make sense in the plot to do so atm. soz As the edges of space distort, I prepare myself for the hunt. Izumi has a worried face. How nostalgic. ---- When space unwraps itself, I find that Im standing by myself in the middle of a circle formed by twelve thrones. On each throne, sits a thing that is so disfigured it is difficult to believe them to be alive. Who are you?! What is this place?! Why am I here?! A thing that can only be described as a winged-toad with the beak of a raven answers my question in a hoarse voice. Ahhh, so many questions but nonetheless... Clearing its throat, it begins, in an unchanged, hoarse voice, We are the ancients, the very first gods. You are currently standing in Olympus, realm of the True Gods. You are here because you have Attribute , in other words, you are our experiment and we have volunteered you to play a game with us. A game? Why me?! Because we have found you to be, quite frankly most disappointing. Indeed, laughed a raven with the feet of a human. Continuing, it sang in a dramatic voice, in the fury of your revenge, you have targeted the guilty and the innocent alike! In the process to avenge your fallen waifu, you have completely lost any and all regard to the value of human life! How does human life hold any value to you?! I retort It doesnt, however, we wish to see what happens if you are shown the errors in your ways as part of the experiment! replied a weird eel-slug. I dont care about your experiment. I just want my revenge. Oh, youll get your revenge alright More revenge than youd ever hope to want in your miserable, eternal life heeheehee! Cackled the raven. I dont like the sound of that As the edges of space twist and I hear a voice, Oh, just because they live an eternal life, they think theyre in control They think theyre in charge of their fate! I absolutely love it! Space folds and it gets cold. ---- When space unfolds, I find three people standing in front of me. A blonde with green eyes, a black haired muscular man, and a tall blue haired man. The three apostles. They are held in gruesome contraptions and gagged. A slime appears and morphs into the eel-worm, who says, Welcome to your first trial! Turning towards the three trapped men, he cackles, These are the three wretches that broke and raped your wife! Continuing, as if singing a serenade, You have a horrible obsession, Takuma Konoe! You have a maniacal compulsion to avenge what you have lost! Revenge alone is not a problem, but misjudge your priorities! Then, in a softer hoarse voice, so low that it may have been mistaken as a whisper, he said Will you be able to forgive and forget all that youve lost, for the sake of saving what you have left? For the sake of saving the only thing you have left?! Raising his voice again, he continued his insane speech, Each of these men here, represent something absolutely vital to the survival of your daughter! Suddenly, my blood runs cold. Completely oblivious to my shock, the eel-slug rambles on. Pointing at the blonde with his head in a clamp, he said, The first man here, represents your daughters mind! If he dies, your daughter will go irrevocably insane! Heeeheehee! The next man, he said, pointing at the black haired man, represents your daughters body! Without him, your daughter will be reduced to ash! Finally, signalling towards the blue haired man covered in runes, This last one, represents your daughters soul! Without him, your daughter is but an empty vessel! This is insane. These men hurt Shiro yet they hold the key to the survival of my daughter! Ill kill them later. Suddenly reverting to an emotionless state, he asks, Do you have what it takes, to forgive? To sacrifice what youve already lost in order to save what you have? Or will you succumb to your hatred and truly understand, what it means to lose EVERYTHING! Ill fucking kill them AND get my daughter back. Smiling, I say, Alrighty then. How do I play? Thoroughly amused, eel-slug sings, Nothing comes without a price, teeheehee! The game starts when I say go! Ironically enough, if you truly wish for these men to die, you need not do anything at all! After sixty seconds, the release mechanisms will no longer work dooming these men to a painful death however, if you wish to save them, you must make a sacrifice; nothing comes without a price! Now in erotic glee, the eel-slug begins to chant like a shoutcaster. To save your daughters mind, you must sacrifice your wedding ring! The ring will be crushed in place of his head! To save your daughters body, you must sacrifice a skill to be specific Your soul magic! And for your daughters soul you must pay with your love and hate. You will lose all memories regarding Shiro. All memories I cant do that Just then, the crow with human feet appears. This is too exciting for me to miss! I must see this in pers- Ehhh, Wistcia-san, this was supposed to be my game show, The eel-slug complained. Suddenly, the other mistakes of nature start appearing. Wow Im on a gameshow! Hi Mom! Im right next to you, you idiot! Kyaa! We believe in you, Takuma! You can do it! Then, in a fit of rage, the eel-slug screams, GET OUT, and all but Wistcia disappear, crestfallen. What a joke eel-slug mutters. Whatever you can start now. Make your decision or lack thereof.. kekeke Waving his hand, a sixty second timer starts. I walk up to the man with the hat. The clamping hat of death. I take off my wedding ring. Oh the memories, I distinctly remember my wedding. She was so beautiful everything was still beautiful back then, I mutter, to nobody in particular. Precisely because of her great value, was the loss tremendous! The slug bellowed, dramatically. (AN: Pandoras actor, anyone?) I carefully drop the ring into a cup with an arrow, and watch the sapphire ring tumble in. What a pity the ring matched the color of her eyes so perfectly. As it hits the bottom of the styrofoam cup, the cup instantly contracts and pulverizes the ring into a fine dust. A red led on the side of the hat turns green, and he falls to his knees with tears in his eyes. 45 seconds. Arriving at the second man, I touch the skillwipe86 button. I dont feel any different, but the red light turned green, so I walk towards the last man. 40 seconds. On the last man, there is a magic formation drawn on him. I guess Im supposed to touch his forehead. How am I supposed to choose? I dont want to choose. *Sigh* I let my arms drop to my sides, accidentally hitting my pocket in the process. I suddenly hear Suzukis voice. Takuma, if you are listening to this its highly likely that w-well never see each other again. I instantly reach down and pull out the recording crystal. B-Because of that, I trust that youve now found out that Sylvaril being the enemy is a massive farce. If you dont believe me, simply try to remember back to our final confrontation with Sylvaril. There should be no memories. The supernova(AN: cake) was a lie. I thought back and to my absolute horror, there were no memories. 25 seconds. Slowly, Suzukis voice gains intensity. The person actually behind Shiros horrible demise was the Holy God Kaori. The whole nuke project was designed to kill Kaoris mind control archmage on Earth, while also fooling you into believing Sylvaril to be the enemy. At this point, Im completely speechless. Why didnt I hear about this?! 15 seconds. Takuma, you are the greatest captain I could ever wish for, but I cant allow you to lead this final mission after all, I promised Shiro that Id keep you alive. 10 seconds. Dont waste your life trying to avenge us, Taco find your daughter Izumi and live your own life. 5 seconds. Forget about us Takuma Suzuki, out. As I touch the magic formation, Im covered by a white light. I feel hot tears streaming down my cheeks but I feel strangely happy. ================= prologue 1 #end. if u find dem mistakes plot holes, grammar, spelling, bad math pm me plx sorry for the delay and the fact that its a shorter chapter! Chapter 2 - 『Hammer of Nerf』 ch 2 mk 1 pshhht, some stuffs are supposed to be italicized, but when I copy and paste from google docs, it does dumb stuff so use your imagination. Naming people is hard. Dont judge. ======================= Part 1 - When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that it was bright. Reaaaally bright. I also cant move. I feel like Im wrapped inside of some kind of blanket. Youre probably thinking, like a taco, right? No, not a taco. A burrito. Where am I? Is this punishment for failing the game? Whatever. Ill think about it when I wake up. Part 2 - The irony is rich! To have sacrificed so much yet to have gained nothing. Arguably, you may have even lost something, muttered the crow with human feet. Have I met this abomination before? Who are you? I ask. I am Rin, True god of the Void, it answered. Would you like to play a game? A game? Of course. What exactly can I do right now? I ask Well, you can decline to play, at which Ill give you back the additional memories I stole off you, or you can accept the offer to play, at which youll receive an opportunity to win back all the memories you lost in your last game. It answered. Why did you take additional memories? Because I reincarnated you deep inside holy sector. The counter evil system would have blown you to pieces if we tried to get you in there with that kind of shit all over you. If you want to decline, Ill just kill your physical body, and return you to your parent god (AN: lol. Parent god is god apostle is apostled to). Why didnt you ask me whether or not I wanted to play the game before reincarnating me? I asked, furious. Because I knew you were pro-life (against abortions i guess?) teeheehee, it cackled maniacally. Ill play your goddamn game How do I win? All you have to do is conquer the Kotonashi Great Dungeon! It said, laughing demonically as it slowly faded out. Part 3 - Rin spoke the truth. I really have been reincarnated in another world. When I went through my memories, I found that there were large gaps. Apparently, I was originally a professional gamer, and then some kind of mind magician. Then, theres bits and pieces scattered over twenty years. For instance, I remember playing CS:GO and Starcraft just a before I reincarnated but I dont remember who I played with or where I played. Who even am I? Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Although I wasnt really good at any language in my origin world, Ive seemed to have picked up this worlds language relatively quickly. In fact, my brain seems faster in general albeit only marginally. So this is how it feels to be smart somehow Im impressed yet disappointed at the same time. Apparently this world is in the medieval age so in a sense, Sword Art Online, but with magic. Unsurprisingly, SAO was one of the first games created (by IBM) when full-dive tech was first developed. With the fusion of magic and the gaming industry, the glorious full-dive was invented. With the first few games being Battlefield 5, CS:GO and SAO the entire NEET populace became super soldiers within a year. Due to the 10:1 magically induced time dilations, it would probably be more accurate to say within ten years. Time magazine listed full-dive as the most influential invention of the twenty-first century, primarily due to these massive time dilations and the fact that you can gain combat experience without dying. Although Ive been a professional gamer for more than ten years, sadly, I was never able to break into the top 1% of players for any of the games I played. Uhhhg. This baby body is really weak. My speed rivals that of a potato. Every day since I was born, I built my physical strength as much as I could without straining myself. A normal baby would usually expect to crawl at twelve months but I have managed to do it in six! Muahahahaha you cant stop me, mother nature! Actually, dont try please. Slowly I roll myself to the side and right off the bed. I hit the ground with a thunk. Rubbing my head, I mumble, Owww that hut lick ah betch Hearing that come from my own mouth sounded really weird. I havent spoken enough with this body. I sound like a goddamn drunkard! Suddenly, a dark haired girl runs in and sees me on the floor. Hmm Shes a bit young to be my mom probably. Quickly running over, she picked me off the floor and put me back on the bed. Then, putting her palm on my head, she began chanting, God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal! Chuunibyou? She certainly looks about the age for that. Who the fuck uses a chant when they use magic?! Yeah, Im pretty great, right? She boasted. Umm sure.. Cmon, lets go play She said. She picked me up like I weighed nothing, and took me outside. Hey! You cant do this to me! I want to go back to sleep and contemplate existence! This is a violation of human rights or something! Im only half a year old! Its really bright outside. Well, if were going to play outside, I might as well make it worth my time which is kinda worthless to start with but whatever. She sat me down on a rock next to the house where she showed me magic. Pointing her finger at the ground, she chanted, Flames of the great phoenix, incinerate those who oppose your power! A mini fireball flew off her finger and hit the ground before fizzling out. How flashy but still why the incantation? Rain of the Water Saint, come to me and obey my will! Water blade! A small orb of water formed between her hands. Then, flattening out, it flew forwards and left a gouge in the tree in front of her. Scary. I must investigate these incantations more! And finally, ehh? What are you doing? Thats cold! Eeheehee stop! After crawling up to her, I hugged her and pressed my cheek to her back. When she uses magic again, Ill be able to feel the mana fluctuations. Awww, thats so cute! Do you want to go inside now? No! Goddammit, show me magic! I mentally screamed. She turned around and stood up. No!!! Think, think how? I pointed my finger at the tree and said boom boom. Shocked, she whipped around glared at me. What? Did I do something wrong? Your first words were boom boom huh She muttered. Did you want to see more magic? She asked. I nodded slowly. Suddenly grinning, she said, Youll make a great magician! Once again pointing at the tree, she chanted, Jailors of Holy Swords, smite the infidels with your true power! Rock Bullet! A baseball sized rock flew off the tip of her finger and flew disappointingly slowly before hitting the tree and bouncing off. The incantation appears to invoke some kind of magic procedure in the brain. I should try these incantations some time. I dont really know any magic other than mind magic, so these might save me some trouble. After exhausting her mana, she took me inside. Even though theres such an age difference, they seem to get along really well My mother commented. Yeah, I was worried they would just ignore each other. Rene looks like hes really interested in magic. Said my father. Turning to my sister he said, Maybe Aiko can show him more.. So her name is Aiko Very interesting. Yay! She exclaimed. As much fun as magic is, remember not to hurt yourselves my mother said in a warning tone. And thats how I started learning magic. Part 4 - I only knew Mind Magic before reincarnation. Back on earth, one of my friends taught me the basics. I only seriously pursued magicology (made up word, if u have a better word plx help) after I retired from professional gaming, and after I did, I eventually became one of the leading experts in the field. However, from the mana fluctuations I felt from Aiko, the basic magics of this world are almost nothing like mind magic. Back on earth, I had to use massive mana crystals in order to carry out my experiments, but here Since I have all the knowledge from my past life, I can build up my own mana pool to a monstrous level. There are two different ways to increase your mana pool size. Both methods must be used in childhood before the mana pool stops developing. The first way is just to use mana. By pouring mana through your mana circuits, you can forcibly improve them and make them adapt by growing. The second way is to absorb mana. Shit loads upon shit loads of mana. Both methods improve you at about the same speed, however, they can be used in conjunction. I take a deep breath and begin drawing in mana. Then, I take the mana and begin saturating my body with as much mana as possible, which honestly speaking, isnt very much. Actually, its more reasonable to say that its a pitiful amount. As my body becomes supersaturated with mana, I begin forcing mana through my mana circuits. When the mana particles reach my hands, I use it to bend the paths of some photons (light) straight out of a window and then energize it into a stream of gamma radiation. If I had a mana crystal, Id just dump the mana there, but since I dont, I have to just disperse the mana this way. My teacher taught me how to energize light to rapidly disperse mana in case of an emergency. Im on the top floor of the house, so it should be okay I think Slowly, my arms start to tingle after I increase mana supply. After about ten minutes of mana channeling, my arms feel like there are burning wires inside of them. Lets stop. Even after stopping, the pain remains. My arms start to get so sore I can barely move them. Lets give that healing magic a shot. I stabbed myself while Aiko was teaching me so that I could hear the incantation again. God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal! A quarter of my mana disappears. It doesnt appear to be very effective God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal! Now half my mana is gone. Great. God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal! Im down to almost no mana, and the burning is still there although the pain is gone. Wow, thats incredible. Now step two the application process. I need to be able to chantlessly invoke this wonderful healing magic without this lengthy chant. I focus on how the mana disperses around my magic circuits and try to duplicate the feeling. Wonderful. Nothing happened. Pulling more mana from the atmosphere, I try again. This could be a long night. Part 5 - I didnt learn how to chantlessly use healing magic that night. Or that month. Or that year. But finally, around my second birthday, Ive finally done it. Now I can draw massive amounts of mana from the surrounding air and force it through my magic circuits without any physical harm because I outheal the damage. Unfortunately it still hurts like a branding iron if I try to excessively force mana through my bodys magic circuits. Ive done this so much now that I can do it subconsciously although I dont dare do it while I sleep. Wouldnt want to accidentally blow something up.. Hehehe My sister left a month after I started my mana training. Apparently that was the transitional phase just after she graduated from the community magic class. They say shes really talented, so she went to some hot shot school. Apparently some nobles dad passed through the town and became really good friends with father. Thus, my sister has a spouse and her tuition is paid for. Still not quite sure how they pulled that one off. Im also getting to the point where Im drawing out mana from the air faster than it can replenish itself. You may be thinking, well, cant you just release pure mana from your hands. Well, technically you could, although it would be akin to suicide. Releasing pure mana sends as much as 30% of the mana flying in all directions Any half decent mage within a kilometer would feel it instantly. An investigation would be started, and from there it would only be a matter of time before they found a little child that knows a little too much I casually roll out of bed and fall to the ground. Healing off the minor scratches, I turn and crawl towards the door. Begin mission impossible music! The door is slightly ajar, so I can open it with ease. In front of me is a long, dark hallway. I crawl to the furthest room and begin my exploration. The furthest room had a large canopy bed and a desk. Nothing of interest. Next! In the next room, I found a ton of boxes. Well then Next! In the third room, I found what I was looking for: the study. There are a grand total of two books that I can reach. After taking a picture book off the bottom shelf, I flip it open to the first page. There is a badly drawn picture of a goblin wielding some kind of spear. It looks pretty angry. The words on the page look something akin to kanji so far so good. Unfortunately I cant make heads or tails out of this shit. I need something easier! The door opens behind me, surprising me. Oh there you are, Rene. I was looking all around for you! My mom exclaims. What have you got there? The Silver Teeth? Here, let me read it for you. After putting me in her lap, she began reading. Whitescrew the goblin was a goblin. Well no shit! This author has been mentally inspired! All he ever wanted to do was live peacefully in his sewage home (AN: Kudos to whoever can figure out where this is from) After I had her read it five or six times, she left because there was a casserole in the oven or something. She didnt come back. But it was fine, seeing how I already committed the entire book to memory Moving between pages, I quizzed myself on the words which were surprisingly close to Japanese, though not exact replicas. I need to learn the language so that I can read magic spellbooks from this world. Knowledge on magic in this world has clearly far surpassed knowledge on Earth. Thats understandable since magic was only introduced to Earth just ten years prior to my birth. Making sure no one was around, I stood up and looked on the higher shelves. After pulling out an encyclopedia, I began cracking this language. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Part 6 - It took me three months. Three months of doing nothing but read the title of each encyclopedia page and memorizing it based on the pronunciation and picture. Approximately thirty words a day. It was really hard and painful in the beginning (lol no comment), but eventually, I became a word memorizing machine. All praise the adaptivity of the human brain. I would get really strange looks whenever mother came to feed me. A smile. A tinge of discomfort. She really freaked out when she saw me reading The adventures of a traveller and his sword which was an eroge and actually written quite well, if I do say so myself. By the time she took it from me, I was already done As for the mana training, Ive found a new power source. According to a book called The Basics of Advanced Mana Manipulation, I figured out how to convert heat energy directly into mana. The book detailed the process of converting light into mana, but I just applied laws of modern day physics, and bam! Magic! Literally! Physics are quite advanced in this world, although the proliferation of magic seems to have retarded any research in the field. Mathematics on this world, on the other hand, is just as developed as math on Earth, albeit fewer people use it. Ive researched an array of energy sources, but I have yet to find any fossil fuels on this planet. Its almost as if theyve been purposefully removed Anyways, in order to convert heat into mana, all I have to do is set up a light-absorbing field set to absorb all wavelengths, then compress as much gas as I can into the space of a needle tip and light that shit off with my hottest fireball. I have to heat the fireball slowly or else it creates a large shockwave when conjured much like a tiny nuke. By superheating all the matter into plasma, I can separate those shitty electrons off, then when I apply pressure, the nucleuses are forced together aka nuclear fusion. Its a very efficient process because I dont lose much energy from the fireball. The heat and light from the fireball are reabsorbed, so when I finish cycling mana through my magic circuits, I can just use it to make my fireball hotter. In all the magic combat sims Ive played during my life on Earth, Ive faced a variety of opponents. Quite honestly, I find the non-meta players to be the most terrifying. Ive seen them use possibly the most stupid creations possible on one hand of the spectrum (free-lo), but then Ive also seen downright piss your pants and flee noob-stomp tactics (ff m8). In 2021, a man named Anonymous Gregorovitch invented a practical method to create a magic circuit from information stored on a soul. From there, magical combat shifted to an era of engineers from the era of bursting people down before they can react. For instance, you could simply pull up a riot shield and that would stop any attack from a casual scrub. To be honest, Im not too sure what a soul is either I just know that effectively infinite amounts information can be stored on one and living things have them. The theory is pretty shifty, but the fact that they now make data centers with a tree inside of it tells its own story. Wait now that I think of it if you were to have a magic circuit on an organ that automatically executes scripts stored on your soul, you could effectively set up what Im witnessing right now! That must mean that upon being born, every spell with an incantation has effectively been given to me! I have all the spells! Muahahaha! I invoke the soul edit spell and remember why literally no one uses this spell. Everything is in ones and zeros. orz. Fuck this shit, Im going to sleep. Part 7 - When I open my eyes, Im greeted by a familiar darkness along with Rin, the bird with two feet. Wait what? Why am I here again? I ask. Well, you see you are progressing too quickly, so I have to implement some Growth Correction. She explained. Growth correction? I dont like the sound of that. At this rate, youll complete the challenge too quickly. Therefore, the High Council of Awesomeness, or in other words, ME has decided to bring down the mighty nerf hammer on this game breaking progress. Wait, you mean, you are going to take away ALL my progress?! Bullshit! Do you know how much time and pain it took to make that progress?! Actually, were factoring in your progress to the calculations. Originally, I was going to nerf your bodys magic circuits maximum output power to the populations average amount, in other words, the 50th percentile. However, because Im a caring and merciful god, I decided to make it 55th percentile also because it would be a shame if you lost all your progress. Thats still bullshit! Caring and merciful my ass Dont bother trying to improve your maximum output Youre currently at the hard cap. Of course, naturally your mana capacity wont be touched, so you can still improve that. Are you shitting me? Whats the point of having a water tower of a mana supply if the hose is the size of a fucking squirt bottle? Due to your hard work A slightly above average squirt bottle. She said, in a patronizing voice as I blacked out. Why rito why? Part 8 - Today is my first day of school. It has been about six years since my reincarnation. Ive completely given up on finding a way to increase my magical output. Last week, I found a solution to the problem only to have it patched by Rin about five seconds later. In a sense, I guess Ive resigned myself to Rins bullying. After throwing on some random clothes, I went downstairs to eat. Good morning, Rene, did you have a good night? Asked my mother. Yeah, I said, while munching on potato chunks. How go your experiments with magic? A failure. Dont say that theres always a way to succeed! I proved it to be impossible. It would probably be easier to make one plus one to equal three. Oh. She says, sadly. Both my parents use magic, but neither of them are dedicated mages. They generally just stick to the incantations and dont have an in depth understanding of magic theory. After all, why would a public service worker and a stay home mom need advanced magic? After finishing breakfast, mother saw me off to school. As soon as I felt that I was at an appropriate age to walk, I went exploring through town. Thus, I know the layout of the town very well. My parents probably should have been more worried, but the town of Haven is a relatively safe place, not to mention there are a lot of guards around that subjugate invading monsters. I also spend most of my time in the library anyways, so theres effectively no danger seeing as the librarian is a relatively powerful wizard. As I enter the school building, the first thing I notice is that Im very out of place. Everyone around me is head-and-shoulders taller than me. Im a good five years younger than everyone here. A girl with light brown hair and green eyes walks up to me. Are you lost, kiddo? The nursery is the building on the other side of the street. She said, condescendingly. No, Im here for the magic school. I respond, as courteously as possible. The last thing I need right now is a lecture on manners from some delinquent. Her mood suddenly turned foul as I told her. Hmmpf. Some kid wants to play magician, doesnt he. You need to have your magic tested first, fool. Tell me your name, kid, She demanded. Oh, so you need to be tested first. Rene, I responded. Rene Kaishev. Well then, Rene, She said, mockingly, Why dont I test you first? If you cant deal with a simple fireball, then dont even bother trying to do the magic tests. She started a chant for fire magic and pointed her open palm towards me. People started to gather from around us. I could hear some people from around us, Hey, isnt that Aizawa? Why is she harassing a child? I dont have time for this. I invoked wind magic to propel myself forward. Her eyes widened as I suddenly charged up and drilled my wind assisted punch directly into her solar plexus. She instantly crumpled, gasping for air. Ignoring the people around me, I went around her and began my search for the magic testing room. Five minutes later, I arrived. In front of me lay a large white room. I was about to enter, but a man at the door stopped me. Whoa there, buddy, you need to be registered to go in there. My name is Rene Kaishev, my parents should have registered me about a month ago. Rene, Rene There you are. You are applicant number 12, take a seat in the stands until your turn. Thanking him, I went in and found a seat in the stands. Two men walked into the middle of the room, the first was the librarian (small world, eh?) and the other was a man in a red cloak. The librarian called out in an amplified voice, Hello, welcome to the annual testing ceremony. Do your best you may even qualify to enter Kotonashi Magic Academy at the capital city if you impress the dean of admissions, Horatio Phelms, right here, he said, pointing at the middle-aged man in the red cloak next to him. Apparently Kotonashi is the capital city of the Ascen Empire. Apparently the dungeon I have to conquer is there? The man named Horatio stepped forwards. Greetings, future students. Ill be evaluating you today with two tests. To pass the test, you must make sure the outer barrier I create around you doesnt break! The first test will be a simple fireball! If you survive, you will be admitted into Havens magic academy. The second test is much, much harder. To qualify for the academy in the capital, the outer barrier must survive a barrage of ten high-elementary and low-intermediate spells! Good luck! Applicant number one! Step up! The librarian called. The first applicant stepped up and the dean created a double layered barrier around him. The first applicant then created another barrier layer over it. After ensuring that he was ready, the dean materialized a fireball and launched it. Without delay, a white hot ball of fire smashed itself onto the outermost barrier and exploded, cracking the barrier. After the applicant repaired the barrier, the dean threw out a water blade that pulverized the outer two barriers. Thbbbt! Game Over! The dean said, sticking out his tongue. That water blade was worthless! If I hadnt been nerfed by that dickhead god, I could shit all over this scrublord! The next ten applicants did about the same as the first. They could all survive the first tests fireball, albeit with varying amounts of difficulty, but no one could even get past the first attack for the second test. Then it was my turn. Five minutes havent even passed yet. As I walked up to the testing area, the crowd went quiet. I bet he wont even survive the first round, someone called out. Well, no shit, Sherlock, someone else yelled. Hmm, maybe I should try to barely pass so that they think its a fluke or something. Thatd be pretty funny. Arent you a little young? The dean asked with a smirk. Maybe Well see. I reply. The librarian grinned and gave me a thumbs up. I guess he recognized me. The air around me shimmered slightly as I got the two layered barrier. Well, shit. I dont know any barrier magic. Fuck it. Are you ready? The dean asked, slightly worried. I nodded. Without chanting, the threw a fireball at me. I countered with my own fireball. I stared unflinchingly as the two fireballs collided and exploded, throwing up a small plume of smoke before they dissipated. The crowd went totally silent. So much for the fluke strategy. Chantless casting at your age, impressive if I do say so myself. The dean said, before asking, Are you ready for the next test? I nod yes and ready myself. The dean waved his arm and a water blade flew at me. I threw out a fireball into its path and rapidly erected a thin stone wall betweeen us. The wall held against the weakened water blade barely. I threw myself out of the way as the dean smashed a watermelon sized rock into the wall, sending chunks of rock in all directions. The dean didnt let up; sending something like a bolt of white hot fire flew towards me. Reflexively, I intercepted it with a large rock and set up a light absorption field around the point of impact. The point of impact turned black for a second before I disabled the field. This is bad. I need cover! I sent out fireballs at random spots between the dean and me. I made them with the intention to smolder, so when the fireballs hit the ground, they created large amounts of smoke. Jumping behind a particularly large plume of smoke, I started construction on a block of stone a meter wide and slightly taller than me. The smokescreen bought me enough time to thicken the wall to about a foot thick. Then, a mini-tsunami goes by, extinguishing my fireballs, followed by a gust of wind. There goes my smokescreen. I force out as much mana as I can to reinforce the wall A flurry of spells smash themselves into my rapidly shrinking wall, sending shrapnel in all directions. Suddenly, the spells stop. Well shit, I only counted nine spells! I can feel the mana in the air rushing towards the dean. Shit shit shit shit shit! I turn from the wall and flee as fast as possible. Not a moment too soon either. A massive shockwave from behind me sends me flying into the far wall. I use wind magic to reorient myself so that I hit the wall with my feet. From there, I drop to the ground and look at the wreckage behind me. Where my wall was, now sits a gently smoking crater. As the dean clears the smoke, he says, Congratulations, Applicant 12, youve passed both tests. When I return to the stands, most people are staring at me, dumbstruck. In the end, only three others pass both tests, but unlike me, they used superior barriers to block everything. I need to learn this barrier spell Life is way too hard without it. When I get home, I tell my parents that I passed. I knew you were good, Rene, but I didnt realize you were that good my mother exclaimed. That makes two skilled mages in the family, my father said. You guys make us so proud. ~ The next day, I left along with the dean and the other three for Kotonashi Magic Academy. Ch 3 - 『Stereotypical』 Ch 3 mk 1 Ara, Maybe I didnt elaborate enough on the childhood part ;-; Well, no use crying over spilt milk. ================= Part 1 - I hate road trips. Thankfully, this one is only a few hours long. Once we arrive in the Holy City of Ichikira, we can use the space bender to get to Kotonashi. Meanwhile, the other three who passed both tests are sitting in the opposite corner of the wagon and staring at me like a piece of meat. Thats not the terrifying part yet. There is a boy and two girls, one of which is the one I punched in the gut. Over two hundred people took the tests, but only the four of us passed both. That means that were the top two percent here. I only passed due to my ability to chantlessly invoke spells. On the other hand, these three passed because theyre the monsters of their generation. My total mana output is at the 55th percentile these guys are the cream of the crop with their top 2% mana output. Just dont make eye contact. In fact, dont even look in their direction. Hopefully they wont bothe- I hear someone stand up. Maybe theyre taking a piss? The footsteps are getting closer. Oh shit, what if hes a friend of the girl I bumped? Hell want my ass as a trophy! (http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me184oauVX1qhj8zg.jpg) I dont want to be mounted above a fireplace! I cant win a direct confrontation, so Ill need to fight a battle of attrition. I cant win a battle of attrition if he has limitless mana so Acting completely on impulse, I reach out as far as possible and drain all the mana I can get from the atmosphere into my body. To increase my chances of winning as high as possible, I need to drain their mana as quickly as I can. If I can lower the temperature of this caravan, thatll force them to waste mana keeping themselves warm. I invoke multiple infrared light absorbing fields and air currents around me to drain the heat from the surrounding air. The energy is converted into mana form. Not that I need it Temperature is theoretically the kinetic energy of molecules. Aka Kinetic Temperature. Thats how molecules can be laser cooled to near absolute zero. All I have to do to cool the air is to take the spell that I use to waste mana and modify it a bit. Instead of speeding up photons, it needs to slow down atoms and molecules. Cooling by conduction in conjunction with cooling by EMR (Electromagnetic Radiation) absorption should be more effective. In a matter of seconds, frost begins to form on the seats around me and the air became so cold it hurt to breathe. Uhhg, its so cold. I didnt really think this one through After disabling the fields, I invoke a fire-pit sized fireball in front of me. Ahhh, much better. I mutter, my voice creating a white fog. Suddenly, the person behind me runs up next to me and sits down, shivering. The caravan quickly heats back up as we pass the area I cooled down. Ehh? A bishounen? Was he not attacking me? Uhhg, I feel bad now, overreacting like that. I should probably apologize then... Sorry, I thought you were attacking me I mutter O-oh, i-it''s okay, he said, still shivering. M-my n-name is K-kano Tachibana, lets be friends Friends? I think I used to have friends. Theyre dead now, arent they? A car accident, wasnt it? How sad. Sure I said, turning towards him. In the corner of my eye, I can see the two girls in some sort of bubble. Theyre looking at me without even bothering to hide their contempt. Before, they looked at me with envy but now its just contempt. Perfect. I mutter sarcastically. Just perfect. Two of the most gossip loving creatures on the planet just thought of me as a weakling. Ironically, that might actually be perfect If they spread the word that Im a shitty mage, the biggest, baddest delinquents at the school will come to beat me up and take my stuff. And when they come, Ill enslave them using mind magic. But this plan rests on the girls thinking that Im weak. What magic of mine have they not seen yet? I bet none of these people have seen me use water magic yet. After a invoke a ball of water rather sloppily, I hover it in place, purposely making it bumpy. What are you doing? Kano asks. Practicing I say, just loud enough that the two girls can hear. I suck at water magic, so its only natural I try and make it better, right? I watch as I let the water magic fall apart, letting it hit the ground with a splash. Hilariously enough, this bodys primary affinity is water. Quite a few people will be in for the rudest of awakenings. You know what? Screw this shit! I dont need water magic! In the corner of my eye, the two girls grin maliciously at each other. That was easier than giving laxatives to a baby. Kano looks at me with pity. What? Part 2 - Shortly after taking the space bender, we arrive at Kotonashi academy. The academy is a large complex located on an island with a massive shield dome over it. The bridge connecting the academy to the city is huge. Ten caravans could fit side by side, and the bridge is over a mile long. After getting ID''d, we passed through an opening in the shield dome and enter the academy. When we arrive at the island, we take a left before arriving at a one story stone building labeled, Registration. Inside, there is a table with forms on them and a short line behind a receptionists desk. I fill out a form and get in line. When its my turn, the receptionist uses some kind of magic formation on a tiny mana crystal and my form. After the light died away, she stuck it on a large metal stick and stabbed it into the back of my hand. An implant? Strangely at all, it didnt hurt. This crystal is your form of identification. Simply say Status to see your information. If it breaks, just come back here and well replace it. Status I tried. I window popped up with my data on it.
Name:Rene Kaishev
Class:1_?
Rank:N/A
Room:M-3-27
After the others finished, the girls split off from our group as we went to the dormitories. Kano was assigned to my room as well. As I enter the room, I notice a blocky guy with black hair sitting on a scrawnier kid with green hair and glasses. The blockier kid seems to be slapping the skinny kid with his own hand. Ignoring the idiots, I head to a vacant bed and open my bag. Taking out a sheet of parchment and a pen filled with magic ink, I draw the researchers most valuable method to keep out big government and nosy do-gooders (ref: Ragnar Bensons Action Encyclopedia): The repulsor field. The repulsor field is basically a dome that keeps people without [insert drop of blood here] out. Then, I prick my finger and let it drip into a small circle in the middle of the page. There we go, Im the only one allowed here now. Finally, I take out the mana crystal in my bag, charge it, and place it on the battery indicator on the side of the page. (Help: http://www.cdn.sciencebuddies.org/Files/6299/9/symbol-battery.jpg) Sadly, I only have a single crystal from tearing apart some old magic devices. Usually, I use it as a fuel bank for a taser on steroids, but right now I need it to protect my stuff. Thunk. Turning around at the noise, I see Kano staggering backwards and the blocky guy trying to extinguish a fire on his rear end. Are you okay, Kano? I ask. Aahhblaefucker, what was that? A little something to protect my stuff. Does it really? He mutters sarcastically while rubbing his face. When is the first day of classes? I ask. Not quite sure. Kano replies. Suddenly, a voice comes out of the crystal in my hand. All first years, please report to the stadium for the entrance ceremony in fifteen minutes. The two that were fighting in the corner start healing themselves and finally introduce themselves. Hi, Im Hiroto Tsukuda, said the blocky one. Im Akira, said the green haired one. Akira Koizumi (AN: omg thx random name generators) Nice to meet you. I said before asking, Do you know where the stadium is? Yeah, its a bit far though so we should hurry. Hiroto said. After exiting the building, we started our trek to the stadium. So I assume this is a pretty stereotypical entrance ceremony? I ask. Of course. Theyll start with some stupid speech, and then the ranking tournament begins. Akira replied. Ranking tournament? Why the hell is there a tournament in the entrance ceremony?! I ask. To see who gets the classes they want, naturally. This school is pretty much a meritocracy. Akira said. Thats why we were practicing in the dorm! Hiroto adds in. So I need to score high to get what I want? How bothersome. The stadium is a massive coliseum-like building in the middle of the complex with a matte black coating of bricks. We join the hundreds of students pouring into the central field. The central field looks about 400 meters long and about the same wide. The stadium is massive. A few of the seats surrounding us are occupied. Maybe a hundred people watching? They all look like upperclassmen with their fancy white uniforms. A hush falls over the crowd as two men wearing red robes in the center slowly rise above the crowd. One of the men is the dean himself. Why did the dean himself go to Haven? Air magic. I can sense mana compressing air beneath their feet. Welcome, first years, to the Kotonashi Magic Academy Entrance Ceremony! Said an amplified voice. My name is Kitano Hirofumi (name not important) and I am the headmaster of this school. The Master of Illusions- Horatio Phelms (again, name not important), is the dean. Master of illusions? How scary. Keeping this guy under surveillance will be hard. I know at this point in time, I should give some kind of inspiring speech, but I spent last night blowing crap up, so I dont have any such thing prepared. The crowd applauds and some of the upperclassmen in the stands facepalm. As you should know, In order to get the classes you want, you need to get a good rank! First, there will be the preliminaries. All you have to do is remain standing by the end of three minutes! Good luck! He yelled. The area is suddenly saturated with mana. Nothing happened. Literally. After fifteen seconds, my heartbeat starts to rise slightly. My lungs burn a bit. Bubbles start appearing around some students, the majority of which are wearing fancy clothing. Some kind of nobles most likely. Then it hit me. Bubbles. Burning Lungs. Increased Heartbeat. The oxygen in the air is gone! Desperately reaching as far as I can with my mana, I gather pure oxygen and use it to build a sphere around me. As my senses recover, I mix nitrogen in for a 1:4 oxygen nitrogen ratio. Turning around, I grab Kano, and pull him into my invisible bubble. As he slowly recovers, other people outside of bubbles start collapsing. Some people are desperately standing up even without oxygen, but as the four minute mark approaches, most collapse. Thanks, Kano whispers. A few of the fancier students have gathered into little groups and are whispering amongst themselves, occasionally throwing a glance my way. Times Up! A voice I recognize as the Headmasters shouts. A red light covered every student that wasnt standing and they vanished. If youve made it this far, you either have a good grasp on science, or your willpower is extremely remarkable. Now, prepare for the tournament! A red light covered the rest of us and the next thing I knew, everyone was packed into a single section in the stands. Approximately thirty across and ten wide, that means about a third of us passed. The stadium was then split into sixteen even chunks by shield walls. A referee wearing a black and white striped shirt appeared in each chunk. A wand or staff is permitted for each duel. Each person will be given a three layer barrier. If the second layer breaks, you lose! Also, dont attack the referees! Do you really need to say that? The best of luck to you! He said before vanished in a flash of red light. Two people were teleported into each of the sixteen sections and mayhem erupted. Flashes of light erupted everywhere as an array of magic spells Ive never seen before splashed across the field. From my observations, the outer shield seems to take on average two hits from elementary magic while the secondary layer takes five. Then, I can judge the power of magics I havent seen yet by how quickly they destroy the shields. Kano disappears from besides me and he enters the battlefield. I spot him in the row closest to me and the second column from the right. He is against a female mage who just summoned over a hundred rocks and pelted the shit out of him. Ehh he lost in the first round. After I went through such trouble Now that I mention it, three quarters of the mages here are female. And they appear to be generally speaking, stronger than male mages. I wish I was a girl. A flash of red light covers me and I find myself in one of the shield compartments. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Across from me is a girl. Fuck. She has a steel staff and a pointy triangle hat. Fuck. She smirks. Fuck. She thinks Im easy prey. Wait, most of these attacks Ive been seeing are projectile attacks. In other words, inferior versions of bullets from gun otakus in the sim. Ill just use my distortion spell I built. Its based off Kanades in Angel Beats. After the referee checks that both of us are ready, we begin. A complex magic formation forms at my feet as the distortion spell is created. The space around me is slightly warped, creating a noticeable magnifying effect. A massive barrage of fireballs, water blades, and rock bullets fly towards me. Shit. Chantless magic. I notice that shes drawing in a lot of mana from the environment. Lets stop that. Reaching around me, I begin pulling mana from the air into my mana core, taking note that I cant pull mana from outside the shield wall. Her projectiles fly towards me, barely avoiding me at the last second like a school of fish. Now, time to employ battle of attrition tactics. I fire a massive amount of water straight into the air and pool it, focusing the light into a 10 meter by 10 meter area around her. So much for concealing my affinity. Too many clouds. She isnt even smouldering yet. I dont want to focus it to a point in case she reflects this shit back towards me. She hurriedly creates an earth wall above her which slowly starts to simmer. I let the water drop while raising myself on a earth platform about five feet up. Now that shes soaked, lets have some fun. I use the water all over the ground to pick up dirt and mix it into mud. Then she leaps into the air using wind assistance and carpet bombs the area below her with fireballs. Using more air, I help her out by throwing her higher into the air and spinning her wildly. She screams as she flips around in the air. Shit, she can output mana faster so I cant stop her from coming back down if she really wants to. As I change the potential of the clouds above her, the hairs on my head stand up. An arc of lightning flashes down and channels through her staff like a lightning rod. She clearly goes limp as it hits her, shattering both outer barriers like glass and cracking the inner. The referee catches her limp body as she falls and Im declared the winner. Everyone is watching me in shock. You could call me a lightning bolt out of a partly cloudy sky. As the red light covers my body, I let an explosion rip right above my head. Exit complete! When I get teleported back, there are about a hundred-fiftyish winners there. The people around me eye me curiously. They seem to notice my staff or lack thereof. Staffs and wands are expensive man! The cheapest ones cost like a gold which is a months wages for the average laborer. The cheap ones dont even give very good buffs! And so I didnt bother of course! No thank you, good sir, Ill take my money and get swindled elsewhere. Well, my parents money, but thats besides the point. A red light covers me. What? That was fast. When my eyes focus again, I find myself in another compartment. Awww, I was hoping for the bye. When the match begins, the girl begins chanting. How anticlimactic. I close the fifty meter gap in three seconds with wind magic. Five meters remaining. I pull up a block of stone in front of me and use earth magic to blow off chunks I dont need, creating a rough spear shape. Taking the spear, I run forwards and stab it at her as she falls on her rear. The outer barrier shatters with a single stab. Two strokes removes the second barrier off the terrified girl. I guess I win again? As I walk away, I admire my new spear. I think Ill call you Staffy I mutter as the referee invokes the teleports. Sadly, when I teleported out, my spear-staff didn''t come with me. I sat down on my seat and observed the remaining battles. One in particular catches my eye. A relatively tall blonde elf was sitting inside of a bubble while her opponent threw everything she had at the bubble. Eventually her opponent ran out of mana and conceded. I began to observe this bubble as much as possible. People keep using it but Ive never heard of it before! I must know moarrrr!! I casually lean over to the girl next to me and ask What is that bubble the blonde elf is using? Its an environment sphere. She replied. How do you break it? Really really fast and sharp objects. A really fast and sharp object I could try to hit her with a meteorite Something the size of 40mm BOFORS ammunition should work. AP styled ammo, naturally. The other mages were pitiful. Most of them didnt know how to chantlessly invoke magic, so the bum rush strat worked wonders. The round before the semi-finals, there was a mage with a scary amount of mana that tried to turn me into a brisket the second the round started. I had to flash freeze the shit outta that place because the soles of my shoes melted and fused me to the ground. I won with my second barrier a hair from shattering. Now that we were in the semifinals, the battles progressed one at a time and used the entire field. For the first match of the semifinals, Rene Kaishev versus Soseki Yosai! That sounds like a guy. Hopefully hes less violent, right? As the familiar red light fades, I see a black haired kid with really pale skin. The creepiest part is how his pupils are black. What? How am I supposed to fight a stupid little kid! He roars. Well, the only way to fight arrogance is with more arrogance. You gotta disgust the disgust-er. You gotta hoop the loop what the hell am I saying. I thought I was getting an OPPONENT, not a SICKLY child with a DEFECTIVE head from the ORPHANAGE! I scream back, using wind magic to amplify my voice a few decibels louder than a rock concert and causing half the audience to clutch their ears in pain. However, Soseki was unfazed. Are you all BARK and no BITE? If you think you have JACK, come show me! He fires back, leaving my ears ringing. I could just go over there and kick his ass but I would lose the coolness fight. First to move loses! Pulling up a tremendous amount of rock up, I build a ten meter tall throne that rises beneath me. From my high vantage point, I shout back down, Are you, a FILTHY PLEBIAN, telling the GLORIOUS ME, to touch the RAW SEWAGE that is the battlefield? If a MERE COMMONER wanted to duel, he couldnt expect THE KING to show up at his HOVEL while he kick up his feet and wait! I continue. This battle is no longer about winning, it is about making everyone else think youre superior. Its also an insult war. Oh great internet, show the world the beauty of a flame war! After creating a stone golem, I have it swagger drunkenly up to him. (Hey, controlling this shit is hard) Making it wave its stubby arms around like a professional actor was the easy part, since flailing is easy. The hard part was creating sound waves right on the golem and making it sound like words. EFF YEW DUNT GAWT THE BOLZ TO FEHGT HIZZZ MOJISTEE, ROON BOK TO YO MUMMEE! From the corner of my eye, I can see the half of the eliminated spectators cringe. What? Then, having the golem reach forward I flick his hat off. I dont know if that constitutes a diss in this world but it seems effective. His eyebrow twitches. He slowly thrusts out his arms until theyre fully outstretched. Then, he points both palms out at the golem. Pretty much all the mana in the stadium channels into his hands. Wait, Im in the line of fire! As he discharges a pillar of white hot fire from his hand, I jump at a forty five degree angle towards him, using wind to propel myself into a crazy arc. My massive throne explodes into hundreds of fragments as a massive white hot line is drawn straight through it. Wait, I can end this no sweat. After releasing a barrage of fireballs, I drain the oxygen in the air around him. Unfortunately, he notices and creates an environment sphere. How do I get rid of this?! Oh wait, fast pointy things! I create a shard of rock somewhere a few hundred feet above me and slam it down onto that bubble. A large plume of dust is blast out from around him revealing no visible damage. Thats sturdy. I pull up a large block of stone the size of a car and throw it high into the air using wind magic. On its way down, I accelerate it again. I smile in satisfaction at the large shock wave it creates. Once again Soseki climbs out of the wreckage complete unscathed. Wha- How I dropped a car travelling at twice its terminal velocity on him! Wait. Theres an obvious weakness. I can *see* him. Im going to microwave this bastard. This bastard is just sitting there smiling. Not for long. For this, Ill need a magic circuit drawing. The waves have to be 95 GHz and not just somewhere in this general area. After all, Id get in trouble if he died so lets avoid killing him. I create a circular table with a little depression on the side. Then, I create a knife out of rock. Its a very crude knife. After heating it in a fireball to sterilize it, I cool it with some water. Element mastery is very convenient! I slit my left wrist while holding my arm over the depression in the rock. I wait until I have about five seconds worth of blood. At this point, a hush has fallen over the crowd, and Soseki is just watching, fascinated. Hes going to regret not interrupting this. In about thirty seconds, I draw out a magic diagram that changes all EMR that passes less than three feet over the formation into 95 GHz microwaves as long as there is sufficient mana. In an amplified voice, I ask, Hey, is the destruction of the two outer shields the only victory condition, or is making them regret they were born also acceptable? In about five seconds, I get my response. They CAN surrender Do you surrender I ask. Go suck a dick! He yells back. Suddenly, Im struck by inspiration. I recall reading a light novel once where there was a knife that had the useless effect of healing the enemy. Eventually, it was used as a tool for torture. It would be a pity if you died, so Ill give you a gift. I said. I invoked the auto-healing I used during my body enhancement training. I set the target for Soseki. 30% total mana output should work. With one noodly appendage he giveth. I holler. From one of my arms, a green aura peels off my skin and flows to Soseki in a line. His visible injuries are healed; His cuts close themselves while bruises vanish. He looks at me in surprise. With the other, he taketh away. I continue, slightly louder. I create a small pond above my head, focusing the light from stadium lights into an EMR reflection panel (aka magic mirror (mirror mirror on the wall, who has the biggest hand of them all)). The stadium lights light everything as bright as day so I didnt notice that it was already dark out. How tiring. As soon as I started pouring mana into my microwave, Soseki started screaming. Id scream too if my skin went to 130 degrees fahrenheit in two seconds. After counting to five, I disperse the beam and cut power to the microwave. Soseki is rolling around on the ground, clutching his body. Supposedly, when the Active Denial System was tested on Earth, no one could pass the pain threshold of 3 seconds. The spectators look really pale. Do you concede? I ask. N-no He says, stammering. Well then. Five seconds and much screaming later, I ask again. His response doesnt change. He seems to have forgotten that he can counterattack. Fascinating. I mumble before cooking him like a hot pocket again. This time, I ask, Why are you so desperate to win? What the hell are you after? Come to think of it, I say, What is the smallest class available? Sixteen, he answers. Then why would you still go such lengths to win? Only the winner of the tournament can choose to be the Headmasters pupil. Wait, is that what were fighting for right now? What you didnt know? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? I COULD HAVE JUST FORFEITED MY LAST MATCH AND WENT TO SLEEP, DICK MOVE, GUYS, DICK MOVE! I scream, at no one in particular. Anyways I continue I commend your resolve. If I won, Id have to fight another match, so I conceed. Wait, are you really giving up the opportunity, when youre so close? I just want a decent liberal arts education in magic. I said. No more. No less. Being the strongest? I continue. I have no such ambition. His eyes which burned with defiance, are now filled with an unsated curiosity. Have a good night. I said, eventually getting bored. After dipping my hand in the crevice filled with blood, I smear it all over my magic formation, completely destroying it. It would be bad if someone else got a hold of this. Cutting off all outgoing mana, I turn to leave Completely forgetting that I was keeping a small pond levitated above my head. Seconds later, I found myself lying on the ground, completely soaked. Amidst howls of laughter, I managed to groggily get up and leave. Today wasnt even the first day The first day is the day after tomorrow. Screw entrance ceremonies. Ch 4 - 『Transition』 Chapter 4, mark wun. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StockCharacters Thats a lot of stereotypical tropes I wonder if any of the characters already falls under one of these categories. I know Rin is a Winged Humanoid, but other than that, I havent found anything too obvious the list is too long m8 Damn, research takes time, guys. Anyways, thanks to all the internetz for helping me make this slightly more realistic Also, additional thanks to: http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/food-basis/everything-starts-with-grain For adding realistic-ness to my story. ====================== Part 1 - The deadliest spell in existence will never be the fireball created by the Hydrogen bomb. Nor will it ever be a virus bred to kill. Not even the destructive force from destroying a soul can possibly hold a candle to the deadliest magic. The difference is simple. You can die a million deaths from such lowly spells, but each of these deaths can be prevented a million different ways. But how do you defend against an attack that wipes you out before you were even born? If you were an NPC, how do you defeat a character that simply tries again when killed? The deadliest magic is magic that manipulates time. Especially if the wielder has a perfect memory. A god against someone without knowledge of this magic? To put it simply, they have no chance. A god against someone *with* this knowledge? Well, no problem, the sperm cell that created said person no longer exists! After about half a year in KMA (Kotonashi Magic Academy), I noticed something extremely odd. The planet has no tilt. None. Using my most precise instruments, I determined that the planets tilt was exactly 0.000 degrees. Thats unnatural. Wait, Rins probably just screwing with me right? The next thing I know I realize the moon only comes out at night. I created a mounted telescope with crosshairs and measured the time it took between the time it took for the side of the moon to touch the crosshair exactly twenty-four hours. But that would mean a single revolution would take exactly one year. The main problem I have with the moon taking so long to orbit is I confirmed the distance and size of the moon to be about the same as on earth. But there are no tides. The second biggest problem I have with the moon in general is that the moon should be under a permanent lunar eclipse. The moon should be stuck in the planets umbra if it orbits around the sun with an angular velocity exactly that of the planet. But I can see the moon. Its bright white. WHY? Due to its slow orbiting speed, its as if its orbiting both the planet and the star at the same time. Next, I tried to determine the exact length of a year. I failed because the stars dont move. The planet doesnt have any tilt either. At this point, Im getting a bit freaked out. Immediately, I create a new ring of undying memories. Memories are stored on a time independent dimension and no matter what happens, I cant lose them with this ring on. Whats written cannot be erased and if the version on my brain is removed, a notification is shown next to the memory. I made two of these in my past life. I gave one to somebody in some ceremony, but I cant really remember who or where. At the end of my third year, I completed the ring of undying memories. It is a very complex device, but the fact that I had to build it in secret dragged out the construction to an entire year. I had the blueprint saved several hundreds of times all over my soul, but all the unencrypted copies were removed. This time, I made the ring tiny. After severing my finger, I removed a little circle of bone and fused the ring to my bone before reattaching my finger. So, this solar system is fucked up, my soul has been tampered with what else could possibly be wrong? On the surface, this world is almost perfect. No discrimination, no incurable diseases, perfect governing, etc. However, this world is fools gold. I scratch the surface and find my hand covered in shit. I wonder how much shit comes out when I sqeeze? Part 2 - @&%@#$@? Targets stress levels have reached threshold Alpha. Alright, lets push him to point Bravo. Do it slowly, or he might end up like all the others. The one thousand others. Yeah, yeah, yeah just shut up already. Cant you trust me to do a simple job? Youve said that five hundred thousand times now. Hey! I only failed the first hundred times! I got this man! @&%@#$@?#end Part 3 - Due to the complexity of the *wiggly* things on the third twist of the time circuit, no successful replica has ever been made, droned the professor. Of course, we have mathematically proven that such a circuit MUST exist. We have also scientifically proven this circuit can only have this one optimal shape and that it should look something like this diagram. A working version of this circuit would be disastrous in the wrong hands, which is why we are even researching this these days. How do we know that such a circuit must exist? I ask. Because time-manipulation countermeasures exist. He answered. Thats how faster-than-light communications work. With countermeasures, KE = 1/2MV^2 for all values for velocity. Relativity and time dilation is completely ignored. Is that so What about travelling between planets? Well, you wouldnt want to, since theres no air out there. Theres also a field that prevents objects from leaving the atmosphere. The pope declared it the fifth wonder of the world, he did. A field preventing anyone from leaving the atmosphere? I know what youre thinking, Rene, but someones already tried it. People at the top of their fields have dedicated their entire lives to this. Not one has yet to succeed. So Im not allowed to leave this fucked up world? Part 4 - After the lecture, Kano and I were heading back to the dorms however, Kano felt hungry, so we stopped to get some lunch. After stopping by a shish kebab stand, we bought a few sticks. At the corner of my eye, I see someone throw himself headfirst off the roof of a building. Thats suicide, isnt it? Magic cant heal off a splattered brain. Id feel bad if I didnt save him I slow his descent using wind magic so that his head gently taps the ground. Kano is now saying something about curry geez, all that guy ever talks about is food. Pausing mid-sentence, he asks, Why did you save him? Because it would be such a shame to leave this wonderful world, right? I sarcastically reply. I see. He says, his expression changing to that of wry humor? Hmm, did I just violate a social taboo? Say, I have to go, see you at the dorm later. He says before sprinting off. Meh, he probably left to get curry or something. That reminds me, Im short on formation paper. I need to go buy some. I head towards the supply warehouse at the corner of the academy. Thats strange, everyone seems to be looking at me Have they just been staring at me this entire time? Pit. Pat. Pit. Pat. Looking down, I see a blade protruding out of my stomach. Impossible I didnt feel a thing. I forcibly pull myself off the blade and invoke healing magic. The magic sputters out and the air around me vibrates slightly. Magic suppression? Looking backwards, I see a girl in a black outfit using magic suppression. What the hell?! Magic suppression is a technique used to combat mages with less than half your own. By sacrificing your own mana, you can seal your opponents mana as well. The downside is that it costs two units of mana to suppress one unit of mana, but everyone is using this shit and its annoying as fuck. Ever since we were taught how to use magic suppression, Ive had to win fights without magic. I have developed a few countermeasures- ways to slip past the mana suppression field, but my magic wont even invoke. Looking at my wound, I see the edges are covered with a trademark turquoise powder. How the hell did she get mana dispersal powder? I quickly grab a pencil pencil out of my pocket. I press the eraser down to connect the mana crystal to the healing circuit. Why is everyone else just standing there? Do they want my valedictorian spot that badly? Good thing Ive prepared for this kind of situation. Ive prepared the second I realized that something as stupid as mana dispersal powder existed. The academy gives students free small mana crystals. Apparently they have some way to manufacture them, and giving them out encourages experimentation. Ive been using them to make bullets. You can use a gun as long as you have a single working arm. I havent shown anyone this new device. They would just copy it if they knew about it. I also have no idea who could betray me. Any reason you want me dead? I ask. Ive been paid for your head. She answers. I take out a small rubber eraser and rip it in half. Instantly, the street is covered in a thick, white smokescreen. I take two large steps to the left and run in the direction the assassin had her back to. Hopefully, she thinks I ran in the opposite direction. After running a few seconds, I duck into the alleyway between the potion hovel and a taco casa. Apparently they have tacos in this world too. Maybe Rin had a thing for tacos. I hop behind a box in the alleyway and crouch. I should hid here for a few minutes befor- I know youre there. Shit! How did she find me? Who hired her? Ill think about that later. I have to get rid of her first. I take out my trusty mac-10 and pop in a 30 round magazine. I love this gun. It fires fast as hell and its so easy to conceal. I pop out from behind the box and empty the magazine into her face. No more assassin. I need to get the hell out of this academy. I run back to my room and throw my few belongings into my bag. As Im leaving, a guard stops me. Where are you going? He asks. Just to take a short walk I answer. So Aria failed what a surprise. Is he in cahoots with the assassin? How did they manage to get this guard on their side? Guards are chosen for their loyalty, not their strength Never mind that. I reload my mac-10 and empty the magazine into his face. Im afraid your mac-10 wont work on me. What the fuck?! How the hell does he know the name of the gun? Surely, you didnt think that you were the only one that was sent into this world, did you? What? There are others? Certainly, you didnt think that a god would just say, Oh, Im bored, so Im just going to find some poor, messed up person to just screw with, right? Everything that youve ever done in your life has been carefully planned. An array of over hundred gods have been carefully manipulating your life and every aspect of it. Its so obvious! We apostles are horrible actors, the gods love drama too much there was a goddamn elf for fucks sake and even your name is a dead giveaway. Whats that supposed to mean? Your name, Rene, means reborn in French. Does is really? The space around me warped and I found myself in a torchlit room with walls of cobblestone. In front of me was a black cube that threw off a violent, bright green mist. A girl with platinum hair was standing behind the glowing cube. If you would, Rin She said. Have I met this girl before? Suddenly, my memories became clearer. Shes my daughter Izumi. Why is she here? Is she in cahoots with Rin? Here are your memories back, as promised. Rin said, appearing suddenly. Even if you were teleported to the bottom of the dungeon. Why am I here? I ask. You seem to ask that a lot. She answers. Youre here in order to fulfill this galaxys reason for existence. And what might that reason be? I ask. To create a sentient dungeon core, of course. She said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then what exactly have I been doing this entire life on this fake world? Call it a waiting room. Weve been doing attempts 1225-1232 while youve been here. Weve learned that if you have your mana removed beforehand, the soul merge has a better chance. Soul merging? Are you fucking nuts?! Kind of set off a small nuke when you fail! And 1232 attempts! Well, dungeon cores have larger souls, so its more like a planet-shattering nuke... She said, twiddling her fingers. But since you were rated to have the best chance, weve saved you for last, after collecting all the data from the other trials. Whats stopping you from doing more trials and wiping out more life? Dont tell me youre feeling guilty now I mutter sarcastically. Actually, its because we ran out of dungeon cores. See, the formation of a dungeon core is extremely rare, and we dont really understand how theyre made either And another factor is the fact that the universe-wide rapture event is tomorrow. Universe-wide rapture event? I ask. That doesnt sound too sweet. From what Ive been told, the galaxy Administrators are having a tournament to find out who is number WaUnnn and so, were basically just pawns in their conflicts. Who might our Administrator be? I ask, genuinely curious. He calls himself Admin-72367253856, and quote quote, Ive been forced to participate, but I dont feel like it. If you dont want to stop existing, you should probably win. Im going back to sleep, over. Rin says, extremely dejectedly. So, basically, what Im hearing, is that you basically fucked up my family to accomplish to complete your own agenda. I say, getting a little peeved. Izumi smiled. Moms okay She said. Scratching her head nervously, Rin said, Ehh, sorry about that. In order to fuse souls with the core, you need to have at least a billion kills. Besides, that wasnt your wife, we used Fates shapeshifter for that. I feel a warm hand on my cheek. Youre so adorable, Takuma. Says a sweet voice from behind me. Shiro? I whip myself around and hug her. Shiro! I missed you! She picks me up and hugs me. I missed you too. This is really weird, since youre so short. She says. It really is. Shes twice my height. Ahem. Rin clears her throat loudly. I know this is cute and all, but can we get on with this soul merge? Were kinda out of time here She says slightly annoyed. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Alright, lets go! Shiro exclaimed. Shiro walked up to the core and placed me down right next to it. Alright, just place your hand on top of it and Ill initiate the process. Rin said. When youre done, say System call, merge exit, and thatll trigger the exit procedure. Should I really do it? To fuse your eternal human soul is to abandon your humanity. Sensing my internal strife, Shiro whispered quietly into my ear, Dont let your friends sacrifices be in vain. Friends? Dont tell me Attempts 1225 - 1232 No, what are the chances. Its impossible. Seven other people did it. Or Did they really ? I ask. You really have to give them credit, they supported you until the end, even thought manipulation. That wasnt a betrayal, it was a sleight of hand. The recording crystal? They staged it to distract you until they contributed their data. I was afraid to hope that they would still be alive. So I didnt. I hoped that they would be dead, so that if they were alive, Id be surprised. Even still, I feel crushed. I put my hand on it expecting it to be cold, but it was like a piece of metal under the sun. Really hot at first, but it eventually cooling to the temperature of my hand. Do it. I say, clenching my teeth. Alright, Im starting Rin said. A jolt passed through me and suddenly I was falling. Falling through what appears to be a long gray tunnel with no end in sight. Hi there. Says a voice from behind me. I whirl around to see Kano falling behind me, upside down with his arms crossed. Youre not Kano, are you. What gave it away? He grumbles Ive known Kano for three years and I have never seen Kano cross his arms. Thats ridiculous. Crossing your arms is the most natural thing in the world! Apparently, he thinks its something only delinquents do. Thats very narrow minded. He says, annoyed. I agree. I reply, crossing my arms. I like you. He says, suddenly. Youre the most agreeable humans Ive ever met. I literally agreed to one sentence he said. You dont talk to very many humans, do you. Youre the first. He said. I hold my hand out. Takuma Konoe, pleased to make your acquaintance. Flipping right side up, he takes it. Kotonashi Dungeon Core, same. After shaking hands, he asks, What brings you here, in my mind-demesne, I mean. I came here to create a sentient dungeon core via soul fusion, but looks like youre already sentient, so Im not so sure anymore. Why would the Administrators want us to use such a destructive process to change something into what it already is? Weve tried to do this thousand two hundred and thirty two times now. A thousand two hundred and thirty two failures. Whoever thought of this is a real sadist. Hahahaha! Brilliant! I exclaim. Absolutely brilliant. What? Do tell. He says curiously. Dont mind me, Ive just realized that Ive been told a really bad joke. A trillion lives and a thousand worlds all sacrificed in vain to accomplish a goal that was already accomplished. Its impossible not to laugh. Sounds like you have friends with a really dull sense of humor. He says with a wolfish grin. Well, if youll excuse me, Ill be leaving now. I said, turning around. What exciting revelations. Please dont. What? Its really boring to be trapped inside your own mind for millennia upon millennia. He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed a hold of me. What the hell did he even push off of to lunge? He grabbed my head and pulled it so close that our noses touched. Inside his amber irises, I saw images in full, gorey detail. A girl gutted by a broadsword; a man being beheaded. Hundreds upon hundreds of these images. As I focused in on each one, I felt the raw emotions that I instinctively knew were his. There was joy in every kill, humiliation in every defeat, and anticipation in every plan. As I probed through his memories, I added in my own emotions to each scene of carnage. At first, it was disgust. Disgust at his sadistic nature, however, that disgust eventually turned to awe. Awe at the machine precision at which he worked. This is no ordinary killing spree. He turned mass murder into an art form. With each humiliation, his desire to understand burned brighter. And as time wore on, his understanding of human nature sharpened itself. If only they knew. If only they understood, what the thing they called a dungeon core really was. They would have sealed it in permanently. Sealed it in and taken every brick of the city to the opposite side of the planet. As I felt myself gliding through his memories, I felt him going through mine. Slowly, but surely, I began to feel his emotions in real time. Suppressed killing intent, intent curiosity, pity for me? Envy? Why would a dungeon core pity me? Why would a dungeon core envy me? Because Konoe-sama has taken the lives of over a billion in a fraction of the time it took me to amass a few hundred thousand. Youre a god, Konoe-sama, a god trapped in a human body. Said a voice in my head. Im no god. I replied as our thoughts merged. There are three parts to a successful soul merge. The memories must be rewritten from all merging parties so that the view on the subject is a collective view. Failure to complete this step generally causes fatal confusion after merge completion. The second step is the mashing of the ideals and beliefs. Failure to complete this step causes personality fractures, which are generally fatal. The last step is complete merging of co-processing and primary processing units. This can be done by just merging the brains or discarding a brain. Failure to complete this step results in two bodies with the same soul (aka a soul split), which generally (as always) results in the two bodies dueling it out and a fatality (as always). In conclusion, dont fail, or you die. Generally. After opening my eyes, I realized that I had been sleeping in a freefall. Hundreds of video feeds flood through my head, temporarily overwhelming me before my enhanced mind catches back up to the feed. My brain power seems to have been raised considerably, making multitasking extremely efficient. The human processor was built to run a single line of thought efficiently, but the dungeon core processor is quite the opposite. The dungeon core processor was built in order to run hundreds of thoughts in parallel. Our two minds complement each others so well that its as if I found a missing puzzle piece for my head and reattached it. I really wish I would stop falling. My descent instantly slowed as I gently touched down on a flat, gray surface. The walls vanished and I found myself in a flat surface of a world. Am I just stuck here for eternity? No, theres a way out if I remember correctly, it should be... I call out System call, merge exit in as loud of a voice as I can muster. The skybox shatters itself like glass. Soul merge complete. Soul consonance 99% Who was that? I open my eyes and another feed opens up showing only a stone ceiling. Unlike the other feeds, its a raw feed. I guess I could describe myself as being closer to this feed. The thought process attached to my own senses appear to be many times stronger than any of the other feeds. Im lying on something warm. I look up and see Shiro looking down at me. Shes wearing a white mages robe that matches her hair, and shes holding a large wooden staff across my chest. The tip of the staff is shaped in a crescent moon, in the center of which a white orb is suspended. I told you it would work, said Shiro. WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Rin said, wildly gesturing at herself. DO YOU UNDER STAND? Im Mickey Mouse, who are you? I reply exasperatedly. (Ref: spectre(2015, film)) Nooooo, hes suffered permanent brain damage! Rin cried. And just ten minutes from the rapture event too! God Dammit Rin! Im fine! I yell, while shaking her. What? We succeeded? Im a genius! She cried, doing an emotional 180. And it only cost 1.2 trillion lives, a thousand worlds and a shit load of overtime! I dont think I should tell her that the Kotonashi core was already sentient before she started Alright, quickly, everyone is already waiting for you in the briefing room. She said, smiling. The edges of my perception bent and folded into a large space similar to an empty gods realm. The feeds from all the creatures in Kotonashi Dungeon disappeared as well. Somehow, they find a new way to teleport me every so often. Standing in front of me were hundreds of people. The first row of twenty or so were in black full body armor, riot shield included. Most of these people had submachine guns, with the exception of a few assault shotguns. The second row was consisted of people wearing casual clothes with no visible weaponry. Engineers and technical experts maybe? The third row on out were comprised of an array of people wearing random assortments of armor ranging from light joint protection to full plate. Among these people, I could see a wide assortment of weapons as well. Swords, battleaxes, maces, spears, bows but nothing that youd expect a mage to wear. How come there are no mages? I ask. Because according to contest guidelines, article 12, section 3, Mages are too op as defenders so ur not allowed to have any more than one (1) entity capable of performing magic, defined as the use/control of mana for the objective of modifying the physical world. But, it actually wouldnt be accurate to say we have no mages. Shiro answered, before tapping my head with her staff. Another important thing you need to know about dungeons is the defender types. The first type of defender is the simple entity. Simple entities are just bodies without personality. They follow orders issued by higher ranking entities, are sustained by the essence in the air, and respawn periodically based on the availability of mana supplied in the dungeon walls. In contrast, complex entities are the human defenders. Human defenders are many times stronger than simple entities especially considering we took our complex defenders from the top performing players of combat full dives that everyone *was forced by law* to play. These are the people whose ELO rank them in the top ten-millionths of a percent. The downside to complex entities She continued, is that they take comparatively longer to respawn. Where simple entities can respawn in just under three minutes, complex ones take anywhere from an hour to thirty-six hours based on what build they want to spawn with. If they dont wear equipment, like the assassins in row two, they can respawn in ten minutes. The guys in the front row are dubbed Rooks because theyre the cream of the cream of the crop. Theyre the top 20 on planet Earth. We spent 90% of our starting dungeon points on physical enhancements for these guys, so your safety should be guaranteed. Now that I look closely, There are rook-shaped chess pieces taped to their helmets. Why Earth? Arent there a whole lot more planets? I ask. Because a cross-galaxy conflict killed off 90% of our population and gods apparently. After they pushed the bastards back to their own galaxy center, they left them some terminator-styled self-replicating AIs to deal with. Coming home, they realized that the deadline to the reason they exist was coming soon, so they pulled the biggest warlords from all the planets in the galaxy into a single planet, Earth, encouraged conflict and created what is now a cesspool of a planet. Who is they? Our ancestor gods and humans. Why no other species? High Administrator-12 declared all galaxies must have only Humans, Elves, and Beast-tribe Variants as sentient species. Elf and Beast-tribe scientists turned Rin and the other 11 into what they are today, so she sorta wiped them out. Isnt that a shame. I mutter What lewd imagery are you thinking of right now, dear husband? She asked icily, narrowing her eyes into slits. Sorry I said quickly. Smiling as if nothing happened, she continued. Lastly, the one hundred or so gods that are left, dubbed Skynet will be chilling in your mind-demesne, where you should have fused with the dungeon core. All complex entities that die will go there, where well reroute them to a vacant wall to respawn. Alright, weve finished briefing. Said Rin. After placing her hand/talon on my head, she disappeared. Everyone else followed, all eight hundred or so people and gods flooded me from all directions and vanished. See you in a bit, dear husband. Shiro said, pressing something into my hand. Bye dad! Izumi said, patting my head. Damn, shes taller than me. As everyone vanished, I found myself alone in the large room. I looked down into my open palm. Lying on my hand, I saw a mini cassette player with the initials ST. (Suzuki Takeda) I sat down and hit play. Heeyyyyy there!!! Sorry about the last recording We didnt really die or go anywhere fancy in the galaxy. In fact, we were right there in the bottom floor of the Kotonashi dungeon. ... Using our awesomeness, well try and hijack the core so that itll be easier for you to merge. Unfortunately, itll cost our souls, since were using them as viruses but whatever! Sometimes, you find someone worth sacrificing yourself for, and I found just that! ... They wouldnt let me give you a last recording because something about a tendency to poison minds, but I asked Shiro to help out, since thats obviously a lie. I dont poison minds, I swear. Im sure. I couldnt believe it when I lost to Shiro But now, Ill admit, she had the conviction to take the initiative and become your wife. She had resolve, whereas I only made excuses. Damn, she got me good... I looked at the ground, face burning slightly. Anyways, if you feel like you cant let go of us, I guess you could fulfill what you could call, my last wish. Ill do anything for you. Dont just defend your dungeon. As general patton always said, The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. ... Anyways, my last wish is simple. Make all your competitors pay in blood. Make them pay heavily for each victory; make them wish they were never born for each defeat. Remember, Ill always be watching you. May the fortunes of war be with you as you paint the world red with blood. The player clicked as it reached the end of the cassette. No wonder your favorite color is red, Suzuki. System Alert, Rapture system is teleporting you in five seconds. Said a voice in my head. I wonder if Elves and Beastmen bleed red as well Ch 5 - 『Contact!』 Ch 5 - mk 1 Might rework dem ch 4 cuz its consistency resembles chunky peanut butter right now http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/writing/dungeon-design ^he speaks le truth. Deez problems need to be addressed using political tactics - writing off your strengths as your weaknesses and lots of chanting. Additionally, a subtle jab was added towards ranking systems with too many ranks above A by using the satirical D) Sighing, he blinks to the ground and gives chase. Hiding a smirk, I conceal my magic presence, jump down a nearby alleyway and hide in a tactically placed crate lying behind a two story villa. Invoking illusion magic, I try to hide my body as best as I can. I just need to survive until the Azsertech leave. Without his precious backers, Stacy wont be able to hurt me. For now, I just have to lay low and meet up with the pope. --- A few days later, the commotion settled down and most of the military personnel left. I guess I should visit the pope, Ill be guaranteed protection if he knows Im still alive. People dont mess with the pope especially if they dont like bad luck strong enough to cause lightning strikes on cloudless days. Emphasis on the plural part of strikes. Walking towards the church, the first thing I realize looks wrong is how there is an altar covered in blood outside. I disguise myself as someone I just passed by, using illusion magic and walk into the church. Something is horribly wrong, an-- Someone puts their hand on my shoulder. Spinning around, I see the pope. Looks like he can see right through my illusions as usual. Yeah! Safe! Except for the fact the pope is dressed in the garb of the warmongering Azsertech death priests. I drop the illusion. What the hell, Sigmund! I say in surprise, Were you one of the traitors as well? Not at first he said, but the God of Deaths worship to miracle point ratios are higher, so I switched faith. What?! You cant do that! I cried. Besides, he continued. If youre a supporter of becoming a satellite state to the Azsertech, theyll accept you as an ally at no cost. Found you, miss. Announced a rather familiar voice. Im not falling for that trick again if you decide to escape, he commented. And just in case you do, there are a few people watching the building, he added. Well, there goes that plan... Why did you desert your emperor in the throne room? Wasnt about to die in a battle we were guaranteed to lose. We had no intention of executing anyone. What about Emperor Jayce? I ask. Sent to a correctional facility in the west. He answered dismissively. Why didnt you execute us? As a satellite state of the Azsertech Empire, youre to join us in our war against the United Xokaya Empire. Using A and S ranks in a war primarily between XXX-Z ranks? Laughable. So were basically cannon fodder. I mutter. Being cannon fodder never killed anyone. He says, laughing. ... Im pretty sure being cannon fodder all but guarantees your death. A snowballs chances in hell are better than A and S ranks on a true battlefield. I guess what he actually means, is people designated as cannon fodder have never gotten a single kill. Since you Untermensch seem to be completely worthless in combat, even as cannon fodder high command wants you to be a border alarm. Especially since you dogs are specially bred for fleeing. Of course. Who could ever rival the glorious aryan Azsertechs? I thought, mockingly. ---- After the coup, we were sent to the border to assist with defensive patrolling. However, we were recalled after the appearance of the Pandoras Boxes. After arriving back in the city, which looked like battlefield, we found that Emperor Stacys daughter had been kidnapped by an elite team of guerrilla forces that led ground troops in circles whilst massacring any and all resistance from the few remaining A ranked teams. Furthermore, the exploration team consisting of B ranks and a basic militia force was completely wiped out. Why would anyone in the right mind try to explore a dungeon of unknown difficulty with mere B rankers and militia? Thats literally using personnel a step up from children armed using wooden swords. It most certainly seems weird. If it were me, Id have a small AA or S ranked party of scouts survey the place first. Stacy should not have waited until the B-rankers were wiped out before recalling us. This is even weirder, since AA and S ranks have always been the dungeon surveyors. As our team prepared to leave, we bought some shish kebabs. The randomly sized chunks of food were haphazardly stabbed onto a wooden stake. It was pretty good. On the way out of the city, I swear I saw the kebab seller again. As we got closer to the dungeon, I noticed that there was an obelisk about where the dungeon was. Strangely, there were goblin parties roaming about, but we wiped them out easily. We arrived at the obelisk around early sundown. A lone, humanoid soldier stopped us. What a ridiculous outfit. Whoever designed that puny fabric armor should be flogged. Whats that? A glass shield? This is what happens when people with their heads in the sand go fight. Lifting a large red and white object with a widened end, he shouted, YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A RESTRICTED ZONE, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL REMOVE YOU USING LETHAL FORCE Thinking back, this magic tool should have set alarm bells off in my head. I mean, if he has one magic tool, its almost certain he has more. This single, lone, idiot dressed in cloth armor thinks he can take us on? Just ignore him. I whisper. The others seem to agree with me. The only viable defence he has on is his iron helmet. Even the helmet is stupid, since the front consists of a piece of glass. His face is covered by some sort of black mask and a weird pipe resembling a short nose-trunk that splits to both sides, attaching to some cylinders with holes punched into the sides. We keep walking. He shrugs and fires a small smoking can at us. Scary not. However, as soon as the smoke hits me, my entire respiratory tract begins to feel like its being doused in flaming oil. My lungs burn and instantly my eyes are a hot mess. I try summon the cleaner air from around me, but Its too late. Hes fired these smoking cans all over this area. In sheer desperation, I create a massive gust of wind and blow the smoke away, being sure to use the wind to pick up the little cans and hurl them back at him. The cans land around him doing absolutely nothing. (AN: activated carbon 2 op) At this point, the burning seems to ease just a little, and our front lines rush him. They try to take him out in a bum rush, but the humanoid pulls out yet another tool. It pointed the tool in our direction and pulled a trigger. When I saw the holes around the buildings, I thought they were using enchanted slingshots or something. I thought, oh I can just use the wind to move their rock bullets away from me while theyre in flight. But it just lifted the black weapon and loud bangs rang out in rapid succession. Anything that wasnt behind enchanted armor was quickly perforated by fast moving objects. They were so fast, in fact, that I could only see the damage being dealt. A second weapon opened fire from about fifty meters behind the first humanoid, tearing even through areas protected by armor and cutting through everything. I took a hit to the leg before I could throw up a shield. The wound quickly goes away with a healing spell, but my mana is slowly leaking through where I was hit. They really want to make my life miserable, dont they Mana diffuser, known as Manatite is basically unprocessed mana crystal. Its not particularly dangerous, but it absorbs any mana that touches it. This makes it ideal for things like a prison, or a slave collar, or perhaps even a MAGE KILLING TOOL. I bombarded the leading humanoid with hundreds of fireballs, but they seemed to just fizzle out when they hit its cloth armor. The fireballs that didnt fizzle out didnt set him on fire either. Fire and magic resistant fabric? The cloth armor may be magic resistant, but soft defences are weak against crushing attacks. I invoke Starcall, summoning a boulder the size of a house. The meteor drew a line in the sky as it streaked across the darkening sky. I strengthen our shields and brace for impact. A mage wearing a white robe came out of the cave. Each dungeon has exactly one mage in it which guards the dungeon core. That being said, why is the boss outside of the dungeon? Does this dungeon core not value its own safety? Hundreds of purple lances flew off the mage and raced towards the meteor from all directions. On impact, the light from the ensuing explosions briefly illuminated the battlefield. Now desperate, I invoke a large area bullet swarm and send them crashing at blazing speed into the two. The soldier simply plants his glass shield on the ground and crouches behind it. The air around the mage distorts, causing the background to be magnified around her. Rocks whip through the air and ricochet off the shield, creating spiderwebs of cracks all over it. However, the as the rocks approach the mage, they curve off and miss completely. Shes probably using some kind of space distortion spell. Showoff... Additionally, the glass shield is still in a single piece, although you cant see through it anymore. Ive never heard of glass that could withstand even a single rock bullet, much less a large area swarm. Maybe he enchanted the glass? But the dungeons mage is clearly an attack mage, not a support class. The mage yawns and goes back into the dungeon in the middle of my attack. I want to shout after her, but we have enough problems right now. As soon as my attack ends, the other mages try to follow up with a large barrage of their own spells. However, a large torrent of projectiles finally shattered the shields I set up and punched their way through us. Our point man reached their soldier and stabbed him through his shield with a greatsword. The blade completely pierced the already maimed shield, but stopped just past his armor. Taking a closer look at the soldier, I realize that he has a lot of chunky things where flesh shouldnt exist. I thought it was just some weirdo, but is there actually full plate under that cloth? It has no openings! The soldier in the back switches targets our tanks and bruisers, punching a line of holes across enchanted armors. Panicking, I threw up a large stone wall with the last of my mana. How am I out of mana already? Are all their weapon systems built to specifically destroy mages? High velocity projectile launchers that create large mana leaks, gas that makes it impossible to focus, extremely magic resistant armor, and exploding green rocks that shoot out hundreds of little balls of manatite... Damn, we screwed up. I mutter. A few seconds later, the projectiles tore through the rock wall, sending shards everywhere. Luckily, I wasnt hit. Well, Im dead anyways, so whatever... A large explosion knocked the breath out of my lungs and threw me over. The fireball briefly filled my blurring vision. I guess this is where my lifes supposed to flash across my eyes or something? Then something hot gets shot over my eyes and Im electrocuted. Close enough. --- Some time later --- When I wake up, I find myself shackled to a wall. Why am I alive? My eyes sting slightly and my arms are a bit sore from being held above my head. Why am I shackled to a wall? A woman dressed in a white robe walks in and starts blasting everyone with cold water. Then I remember the fight near the obelisk. We didnt listen to their threat to kill us and they pretty much wiped the floor with us. Why did you save us? I ask. For your mana. She answers nonchalantly while hitting me in the face with a large stream of water. Is that all? Yep. I look around at the others, but theyre just as confused as I am. After barbarically washing us, she warms the air and blow-dries us. The water seemed to be absorbed by the ground. Turning around, she opened the door. One last thing, she said. Those collars represent your living privileges. Dont lose or break them. Then she left and the door closed with a click. Part 2 - Takuma/Rene POV I have an announcement to make. I telepathically announced. All complex defenders, please report to the current boss room where we will discuss several problems. After everyone arrived, I began the announcements. As everyone is aware of, I said. This is a dungeon. Things run on dungeon points. Like a game? Someone asks. Exactly. Therefore, things like ammunition costs points. Theyre expensive. I declared loudly. Seems legit. Everyone else seemed to say. THEN WHY ARE YOU IDIOTS WASTING SO MUCH AMMUNITION? I screamed. YOU THINK I CANT SEE YOU WHEN YOU FIRE OFF EXTRA ROUNDS FOR EFFECT?! YOU CANT KEEP SHOOTING AFTER WE WIN JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE SHOOTING! AND KANO I yell, absolutely pissed. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM BLASTING DOORS OUT WITH BREACHING CHARGES BECAUSE YOU CANT BE BOTHERED TO USE A DOORKNOB! Everyone stared at him accusingly. I swear, the doorknob looked at me funny! Controlling my anger, I say, Anyways, just conserve DP from now on, guys. Says the person who spent the entire reserve fund for enough ammunition to destroy a small army all in order to kidnap a girl Kano mutters. Shes important if we want to overthrow the current government! What are you going to do, marry into the royal family? Kano says sarcastically. No. I said, smiling. You are. Huh? Part 3 - Kano has started to try to talk with Stacys daughter, but she seems to have something against him, which is hilarious. Meanwhile, Ive begun interrogating the sixteen elites and I quickly realized that they dont really have any loyalty towards their city-state. Theyll tell me anything I want to know. I just need to ask. Interestingly enough, they have no idea what Pandoras Box is. After explaining the myth, they seemed to be rather shocked. Apparently all they were told was that if they successfully destroyed me, they would get a large city-state wide buff. After a day of research, I found a list of interesting people. I sent a whisper to Fate with the list of people. Fate. What an interesting name. I heard they call him that because he has thirty-seven apostles. Izumi says he is a really tall man with a chin-curtain beard who is always wearing a top hat. According to Rin, he was a vampire hunter in his past life. It must be nice being a god. From what Ive been told, the gods actual title has been changed after we entered the game. First, it was POWER_USER, but now its just USER. Izumi said that she can see everything that I can see, plus their own apostles on a UI. Apparently, theyre in the place where I first met the Kotonashi Dungeon Core. That being said, I trust that fate will quickly get us much needed intel with his hyperrealistic shapeshifter. The most interesting person of all seemed to be Emperor Stacy. He seems to be the traitor to the Azsertech Empire and is now a puppet. By sending large sums of protection money from treasury, his safety and position is guaranteed. From what Ive heard about him, it would seem that he is a man who only cares about learning more magic. He is a man of science who overwatches human experimentation and the like. An ambitious researcher, if you will. Now would probably be a very good opportunity for him to learn magic, seeing as his nigh-invincible buddies will likely show up soon to do battle with a never before seen enemy. With the new DP savings and increased generation from the four good mages, we can buy 30 first floor rooms a day. When I hit a hundred rooms on the first floor, the price of buying a room doubled, making a room on the second floor 25% cheaper than a room on the first floor. For the second floor, I chose a monster called the Dark Hobbit. They walk around in unlit areas and shank enemies that walk by. In essence, a really low level assassin. There was an obelisk upgrade that increased the aboveground influence radius to 60 meters for super cheap. (radius = 50*(1.2)^upgrade_level) Each upgrade also adds a bit to your height. Im talking about the obelisk, obviously. In an experiment, I sent goblins outside of the dungeon. Surprisingly, the dungeon respawned more goblins. However, if the total number of mob_type exceeds the carrying capacity of that mob_type inside the dungeon, the spawn rate will slow down to 1% of the original spawning rate, for each type. Goblins generally take around 100 seconds or so to respawn, so if we try to push the soft cap, the spawning rate slows down to two hours and forty-five minutes for each extra. It also becomes impossible to spend DP to boost respawning speed. Theres an inherent problem though. Goblins are weak. Theyll die from practically anything. Enhancing a genetic trait, (int up, speed up, str up, etc) costs a hundred times an enhancement for a single complex entity. I modified the spawning so that the goblins either spawn with a spear or a bow. (9:1 ratio) Why spears? You may ask. Spears are so simple that an idiot can use it. Pointy end at bad guy, stab. Form a line of pointy things and charge. Everything in the way gets poked. Enemies have fancy footwork and can craftily swing their swords? Bullshit! Poke them until they die! I sent the goblins to run around and look for materials to build with. Buying stuff is expensive, so the obvious solution is to build it yourself themselves, I mean. After the goblin scouts found a forest, I sent a group of bored people with chainsaws into the forest to cut it down. A 2 kilometer trail was thus turned into a wood transportation route. During one ordinary day of palisade construction, I noticed a man watching the construction from a distance off. Immediately, I scrambled a few of the light infantry into above ground fortified positions and sent out three scout groups consisting of goblins and a few bored battle maniacs. Man these guys get bored easily. Part 4 - Blood princess (rank YY) POV Pandoras box, huh? I mutter. How did I get stuck with a dungeon subjugation job? Just because a few A and S ranks cant do their jobs properly, Im stuck with this shitWell, protection money is protection money... But then when I arrived, I noticed that goblins were building a palisade around the dungeon. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The monsters look weak as hell, although their behavior is certainly odd, the elite team should not have had any problems. Three teams break off from the workers and run towards me. Theyve spotted me? Well, if they want combat that badly, Ill have to entertain them. In minutes, a group of about fifty or sixty surrounds me. State your business or fight! Someone yells out Fight! Someone else yells I slit my right wrist with a small ceremonial knife and let the blood flow out to form a rapier. Using the blood arts, I can infinitely exchange blood for mana, and mana for blood at 100% efficiency. This makes me extremely effective against numbers. My blood arts techniques allow me to increase my mana pool each time I kill something. I only rose to where I am today because of how massive my mana pool is, even by Azsertechian standards. If I keep expanding my mana pool this way, maybe one day, I can become the ++... the one closest to SYSTEM. Itadakimasu [픤ޤ] Everyone around me looks rather surprised at my rapier. Shrugging, I rush up to the closest person and chop his head off. Strangely enough, although his body was unable to follow my movements, his eyes were. Creepy. I turn his blood into mana, and into my blood so that I can control it. The blood turns into hundreds of throwing knives, which I impale into every goblin in sight. Goblins are the weakest, and therefore will donate their blood to me with the least resistance. Yo, thats some freaky shit, man! Yeah, thats unnatural! They all rush me and attack. It doesnt matter how much damage they do. Even if Im left with only a head, I can regenerate everything back. The key technique of the blood arts involves sacrificing the defences of the expendable body to protect the mind. By focusing all the already tough defences of a blood mage into the head, the blood mage becomes invincible until they run out of mana. After making quick work of the scout group, I make my way towards the dungeon. It seems that everyone has fled into the dungeon. Did I scare them off? If I go and clear out the dungeon, Ill be able to claim all the credit and get all the bonus mana. Sorry team, youre out of luck. Sacrifices, here I come! I walk boldly through the entrance and walk into the first room at the bottom of the staircase. The first thing I notice is that this place is smoky as hell. Killing intent? Bangs ring out from my front and my left, easily ripping through my body. Mana seems to leak out of my wounds like water. I have to rinse my wounds out with extra blood before healing off the wound. I throw blood blades at where the two attacks came from, but theyve already stopped. I start walking forwards, but attacks ring out from behind me and to my right, giving me another round of wounds to deal with. I dont bother returning fire, since theyre already gone. I rush through the first doorway before they can start their stupid attacks from behind again. My leg catches on something and an explosion to my left rips my body apart and sends hundreds of small pellets through everything but my head. Cursing, I heal off my body, which has now been ripped into multiple pieces and turned into pincushions. Wait, didnt they teach defensive magic? Did I sleep through that section? Ive never had to use defensive magic, after all. After scavenging through my early days as an apprentice to the Seraph of Blood, I recalled the spell. It involves surrounding my body with a layer of blood, didnt it? I never used it since it just needlessly used up mana, but here, Im already down to 95% after half a minute. Something started firing off rock bullets ahead of me. I lifted up my rapier and charged. When I reached him, however, my head and body were in separate parts. Huh? A piano wire? The time it took to reattach my body gave the man in the black armor time to escape. Whats this? He seems to have dropped this short fat green iron dildo. It blew up as I inspected it, blasting off a chunk of my blood shield. Fucker! This dungeon is seriously pissing me off. Another burst of fire came from the end of the hallway before the dungeon was silent again. How are they even seeing me through this smoke? I create a mist out of blood, but I can only maintain it about five feet around me. With this blood mist, Im able to avoid the tripwires and piano wire booby traps. Eventually, I reach another door. Wait, didnt the last door explode? Standing five feet away, I extend an arm of blood and open the door. It exploded. Of course. I walk into the next room and a massive steel door slides shut behind me. The door is at least six inches thick. What the hell? The air is sickly sweet. Poison? I hold my breath. Around me, I see that there are holes in the walls around me with small metal tubes sticking out. They all light up instantly, creating a maelstrom of shrapnel. Not even caring about mana loss at this point, I send attack after attack at the door. On the tenth hit or so, the door gives and I charge out. Im feeling really drowsy I chop my body off and grow a new one after I flush out all the blood in my head with new blood. My head is still drowsy, but its less severe now. 55% mana and Ive explored five rooms. What the hell. I fire off blood spikes behind me as I flee for the entrance. One of the spikes connects with something. Dodging traps, I flee as quickly as I can. I need people with trap and life detection to fight this shit. This dungeon is total stupidity. How do you even fight this without an entire team of Y ranked specialists? When I get back to the first room, I realize that the gas here is different. It stings my eyes and hurts like hell to breathe. I try to run, but my legs are shot out from underneath me. I focus my blood shields around my legs and keep running. A man approaches from in front and sprays me in the face with some light red liquid. Because Im unable to react in time, it completely covers my face. It feels like my eyes are on fire, but its nothing unbearable. Pacification methods seem to at least somewhat work He mutters before stabbing me in the ribs with a black rod that hosts some kind of electric arc at the end. My mind goes blank for a second as the current courses through. All my muscles freeze up. But I dont need my muscles to use magic. I force a large glob of blood out of my arm and cut him in half. Oops, he remarks as his upper torso slides off the rest of his body. After redoubling the shield around me, I rush up the steps, and out of the dungeon to safety With 25% mana to spare! Apparently not. They kept accurately hitting me with long ranged rock bullets, torching me with lightning, and dropping meteors on my general location the entire way back. When I got into the city, I had barely 15% mana remaining. After getting back to the inn the team was at, I was asked if I found out anything useful while they tried to stifle their laughing. Troops of the Azsertech Empire are highly competitive, so its only natural that they are extra nasty after discovering that I failed. Yeah. Thats one nasty shithole of a dungeon were up against. I spit out. I would highly suggest calling for reinforcements before continuing. However, they just seemed to laugh. Just because a high ranked antipersonnel mage failed doesnt mean we dungeon specialists have no chance.. After all, the Azsertech Empire has already cleared three of these dangerous pandoras boxes. Whats the worst that could happen? I dont know. I have a pretty gruesome imagination I should get some clothes. Part 5 - Sweet. That crazy blood mage was really a gift from the admins. Mana lost by mana dispersion gets converted to DP if theyre in the dungeon. Mana really is really easier to absorb unlike the weird aether crap. The mana we got from bleeding out her mana was worth two weeks passive DP regen. It turns out that the dungeon can also process certain types of blood into DP. The blood cant belong to the dungeons defenders. The defenders are made out of aether secreted by the earth. The deeper you go, the higher quality the aether. The higher quality the aether, the more mana extracted, the better the 0-DP automatically generated stuff. Of course, the air is completely saturated with aether, and since each room core has a hard cap on its conversion rate, its completely pointless to kill your own defenders. It would be like dumping water into a water tower in an effort to increase drinking rate from a straw. Now, aether isnt to be confused with soul material, mana or ectoplasm rather, theyre all flavors of energy, much like heat or electricity. And that crazy unkillable blood mage just gave me a two week boost of DP Its like the birthday of my current conception of a higher deity (which in no way will infringe upon your current conception of a higher deity or lack thereof) come early. (Ref: Triumph the insult dog) The amount of bullets we shot off were worth about a full days DP though. The explosives another days worth. According to my analysis, pain compliance and lethal attacks were completely ineffective. Bullets just opened a hole that healed quickly and pepper spray showed no useful effect. However, other tactics, like the chloroform room and the shock batons seemed to have somewhat more of an effect. Additionally, according to an autopsy on a body left behind, the mage does not appear to be a normal human. The tensile strength of her bones were stronger than that of stainless steel. The surgeons also found several unidentified organ systems. Other than that, everything looks human. The assassins (and some other bored people) are cutting up her body and documenting everything they find. Maybe well get some insights when they finish their tests. Im really bored because I cant fight. Well, technically, I could fight, but if I lose, everyone dies. Soooooo now I spend all my spare time designing traps. I bought all one hundred regular(1x) priced rooms for the second floor and began a few rooms on the third. I also discovered that floors with a safe-room were granted a 50% boost in DP production. I placed the safe-room for each floor at the bottom of the staircase leading into that floor and popped a mini boss room at the top of each staircase. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to retrofit my dungeon with defender teleport pads for cross dungeon transportation but I needed those for a while now. I mean seriously, why bother walking when you can blink. Exercise? Bullshit! My body is stuck like this for the rest of my foreseeable future. I cant get stronger, weaker, taller or shorter. Im not getting any younger standing here? Well Im not getting any older either. Damn deadlines. They should have pushed the rapture back a few years. Now Im permanently stuck at 140 cm. ????????????????????????? Several Days Later ????????????????????????? A group of twelve was sighted approaching the obelisk. Naturally, anything and everything of value was evacuated to the lowest floor. As they walked down the steps, I sent a group of goblins to attack them. The goblins were defeated effortlessly. Death by incineration. How scary. Im not too hyped to send my wallets to fight twelve of the broken bullshit I had to deal with earlier, so Ill just sit back, set traps and occasionally try to roofie them. --- The group approaches the first door. A smokescreen is deployed in the room behind the door. I have a goblin with a spear hiding in the corner as well. The exploding doors are for later. The blood mage cautiously opens the door from five feet away, and leaps back the second it opens. The large amount of smoke floods out of the room. The blood mage walks in boldly and gets impaled in the neck. Well, if I was nigh-invincible, I wouldnt care about petty things like getting stabbed either. I get a message from Fate stating that Stacy is leading an elite unit to backstab the subjugation team. Maybe we can strike up a deal Part 6 - Blood princess, (rank YY) POV After walking through the door I breached, I get stabbed in the neck. Insignificant. I kill the goblin instantly and pull the offending spear from my neck. Strangely, this spear wasnt treated with the mana dispersion bullshit. Are you stupid? Clair asks. Clair is the elementalist in our group and Im told that shes a hell of a researcher. Stand back. She barks. I jog out of the doorway and get away from the line of fire. My hairs stand up as the air sparks with electricity. The smoke quickly vanishes. The room is empty except for a can that is spraying up smoke. Using earth magic, she builds a little tomb around the can. What did you do? I ask, perplexed. Colloidal coagulation. She responds, dismissively. Uhh, whats that? Ions absorb colloids. She explains. I still dont get it. I say, scratching my head. Its magic. She irritably replies. The others seem satisfied with this answer. In the next room, we find the wreckage of a door broken into multiple pieces. The door is riddled with holes and splinters litter the floor. The hinges are still attached to the wall. A piece of door attached to the hinge lazily swings as I tap it. Something smells remotely like fruit. There are a lot of crates in the next room and a very thin layer of smoke fills the room. Its easily visible through. A burly man in our party appears to be in thought. In the corner of the room, there is a small black cylinder with a little flap at the top. Pushing open the flap revealed a trash can inside. A civilized dungeon? I quietly mumble. Did you guys encounter any of these in any other pandoras boxes? I ask. In one other. Clair answers. I got it! The burly man exclaims. What? Clair asks curiously. That smell. He says, Its alcohol. Alcohol? She asks. Smells like Suddenly, her eyes go wide. She immediately started waving her staff around violently, forming a clear bubble of clear air around us. Clair looked around fearfully. The dungeon just tried to intoxicate us The dungeon did what?! I grab my ceremonial dagger and shakily slice away at the vein at my neck. I immediately start replacing my blood with fresh blood. I need to get this out of me ASAP. We need to be more careful from now on. I say angrily. I told you the dungeons dangerous Wait One of our party said. Do you hear that? Instantly, we quieted down. I can hear a very faint crying. We quickly run through the low hanging arch and make a right turn towards the cry. In front of us, a gruesome battle scene unfolds. Goblin parts are plastered everywhere. A team of adventurers are laying on the ground, dead, in the middle of a four way junction. A lot of crates are scattered around. In the middle of the dead adventurers, I spot a girl crying. Shes been impaled by multiple weapons and shes rapidly bleeding out. Is it a trap? I ask. HEeel~ p, the girl feebly screams before falling unconscious. The others instantly rush towards her. No! I yell, grabbing Clair by the arm and pulling her back. She tries to throw me off, but I hold firm and forcefully yank her back. The others ignore me and rush to the dying girls side with bandages. This is the problem with our society. Our civilians are indoctrinated with the fact that we are Ubermensch, and as a result, they feel themselves to be an invincible heroic force. They are mere rank Xs and XXs. Theyre nowhere near invincible. Clair looks at me, clearly annoyed. Using my brute strength, I grab her and push her behind me. Im sorry Clair, if you die, I would be screwed. I say. Shes the only one with the clean air bubble, after all. I can only use blood magic, so it would be bad if she dies. I shield us with a thick blood shield and continue retreating. The crates around the adventurers explode, blasting us into the far wall. When my senses return, multiple series of loud bangs and explosions ring out everywhere. I brush a piece of flesh off my face, and I realize its half a hand. Turning around, I slap Clair awake and throw her over my shoulder. I activate my blood shield and blood mist. It begins to steadily burn through my mana supplies. I only need to hold this up until we get clear of the traps, then Clair can shield us from the rest. I rush towards the exit while projectiles *ping* off my shields. As I enter a hallway, I turn my shield to maximum power and tear through every single trap. Its very mana costly, but Im out of time. If the enemy army catches up, I could be very screwed, very quick. Bangs ring out from behind me and I start taking fire from behind. I create a swarm of blood arrows and send them at full force backwards, ending the onslaught, albeit temporarily. In the next room, I can see a container sitting in the middle of the room. Can it be any more obvious? I impale the suspicious device with a blood lance and it violently explodes, throwing up a thick cloud of dust. Im safe since Im far away from the explosion and the few pellets that fly in my direction are repelled by my shield. I pass through the cloud of dust, marvelling at how a small bubble of clean air surrounds me. Im a blood mage, and unfortunately, blood mages have large, negative, affinity corrections applied to all other affinities. Using spells from other affinities is impossible for me, and so theyre impressive to look at. Hah so thats why youre ranked YY She mutters as I charge through another explosion. Suddenly, the ground vanishes from under me and we fall into a pit filled with white liquid. The liquid is runny and sticky. Judging from how quickly my mana pool is committing suicide, I assume that mana dispersion powder has been mixed in. I jump out with a single hop. Clair, get this off of us or were in deep shit! I bellow. Like we arent already. She commented as she blasted us with a stream of water. Most of the sap-like stuff came off, but there was still a rather thin layer of it over my skin. A large blob of mud hit us and scrubbed for a second before falling off, carrying all the sap-like stuff off before a jet of water washed us off. Clair gasped, signalling mana exhaustion. Shes officially useless now. Sorry Clair, its nothing personal. I cut her neck open and absorb as much blood as I can in ten seconds before dumping her to the ground. Without the extra weight, I leap in between the trap wires with my newfound agility. 10% mana. I can make it. I throw myself up the stairs before anything can prevent me from reaching my freedom. At the top of the stairs, I find Emperor Stacy? What happened to your unit? He asks. Annihilated. I answer. Im going to need to request more reinforcements, preferably Y and YY ranked due to trap deadliness. Negative, Blood Princess. Stacy said, smiling. Sadly, the Blood Princess did not live through the dungeon subjugation. Her team along with her were completely wiped out. The twenty men behind him raised their crossbows and I was hit by every bolt. S-Silver? I cried. W-wwhy? Yyou cant do this! Im a high ranked member of the Ubermensch! No. He retorted. Youre a lab rat. He smiled. What secrets do you hold, little rat? Part 7 - Takuma/Rene POV Rene, weve successfully captured one of the subjugation unit. Kano reported. So, I presume the others were unrecoverable? All but tiny pieces. He remarked. Teeny tiny bits and pieces. A metric ton of C4 generally does that. I still think its overkill. He says. Gotta be sure they die. Kudos to the actors though. Ive thought up a new name for the light infantry because of this He says. What might that name be? I ask. Expendables. =============================== Footnotes: I proofread this a few times now, but proofreading doesnt catch fundamental errors. If you feel like something doesnt seem right or you have a question about the plot, be sure to ask. If the problem is serious, I would like to patch problems earlier than later. Thanks! Ch 7 - 『Proximity』 Ch 7 mk 2, This is the volume 1 finale. A bit shorter than usual. If u find fuzzy logic, post plx. Thx m8 ======================== Part 1 - Takuma/Rene POV After I repelled that home invasion with a metric ton of C4, we had to dismantle all the shock barriers and broken crate fragments. The chunks of burglar were conveniently absorbed by the dungeon. After the DP injection from their mana and blood, I went back through and looked for dungeon upgrades. As it turns out, we dont have to move the final core room each time I buy rooms. A Headquarters Complex can be purchased which automatically moves below the last floor. I use the DP gained to fuel a Five Day Plan for rapid expansion. Every last point went into expanding straight down, buying only ten rooms on each floor. With the DP available, I was able to purchase down to the tenth floor. On most of the rooms, I just used goblins as the primary unit, since repeating a species gives that species a small bonus each time it gets repeated, for that floor and below. It is technically possible to have more than one species spawn on a floor, but the central floor core needs the Species Number II upgrade. I made the fifth floor into a special hell. The first species is the Elder Treant. Theyre basically trees with really sharp limbs. When someone walks past, the sharp limb gets swung through said person with the speed of a Rainbow Shrimp punch. Unfortunately, their attack takes several hours to charge. Additionally, they cant move, so theyre almost like a trap. According to the description, small transparent blue berries are supposed to grow on them. The second species is the Portal Guardian. Its basically a large golem with Shock Nullification IV, Magic Nullification IV, and Rapid Regeneration IV. It attacks using a mild electric shock and mugs your DP balance when first purchased. The Portal Guardians dont actually stay on the fifth floor. Upon spawning, theyre tasked with a teleport pad to guard. Additionally, theyre set not to automatically aggro unless the pad is approached. Dungeon conquerors cant actually use the teleport portals though. The Portal Guardians only exist in case someone needs to make a hasty exit. If a Portal Guardian gets attacked, the other PGs can quickly hop through the Telepad and swarm in. A swarm of rocks armed with stun batons. Now with dedicated Telepad guards, I dont have to worry about teleporting into an ambush. Next on the hit parade, I need to add to the HQ complex. This is a dungeon after all, so I need a prison I should also add a dedicated cafeteria and a sparring room for the bored. The current library also has to be moved in All anybody really does now is sit around and play cards. It was a good idea to issue cards, especially since there really isnt that much to do. I bet I can find something for everyone to do. Shiro wanted a bicycle lock for some reason... Part 2 - After I gathered everyone in the dedicated cafeteria, I made an announcement. Alright expendables, it has been a few weeks now and there have been a total of three raids. I said. But, arent you all bored AS HELL? I ask. In addition to being bored, you guys are practically useless because youre so weak. I said, slamming my fist into the podium. Now lets throw in some corporate buzzwords. At the end of the day, we need you guys to bring something to the table! I said, screaming into the mike. So now, weve decided to take a more holistic approach! Instead of reactively upgrading you lot, youre now given the opportunity to PROACTIVELY (boo, hiss, he said proactive) upgrade everything about you! Everyone seemed to wake up a bit. As you know, its possible for you to get stronger, faster, smarter and more resistant to anything. In addition, you can pretty much buy pretty much any physical object, assuming you have enough Dungeon Points such as better swords or *cough* cruise missiles*cough* Instantly, people started perking up. You may be wondering, how can I get this wonderful sword *cough* cruise missile *cough*? Its simple! I take out a device from my pocket. It is a mana crystal with a black pad and a screen with 0% attached to it. Simply touch the black pad to anything that has mana and it will automatically start draining. The screen is powered by aether, so it wont drain any of the mana. After getting some mana, you can come back to me where I exchange it for DP which is credited to your account, at 40% tax, of course. The tax rate seemed to shock quite a few people. Dont worry, the more mana you bring back, the higher your income bracket, which translates to tax reductions. Each person will be issued one of these mana extractors. I highly suggest you join into teams and set up checkpoints on major roads like bandits! Try not to die. I said, concluding the assembly. I had a few crates brought to the front where everyone lined up and got an extractor. Everyone seemed to be talking about all the stuff that they would buy. This should bump my DP income a bit. Maybe I should start an bank in the HQ complex. Theres no such thing as inflation so I dont even need to pay out interest. Part 3 - Destination, detention center. I say as I step on the telepad. Five seconds later, Im standing in the prison lobby. Which room is prisoner code YY1 in? I ask. Maximum Security Block, Room A1 The rook answers. Why is she in the MS block? Five attempted escapes, two nearly successful. Moved after second attempt. We got a feisty little one, havent we Shes quite the headache. We have to keep at least two people posted on her at all times now. I walk into the MS observation block and look through the one way glass. Its a gruesome sight. A tall, black haired girl has her hands tied above her head and padlocked to the ceiling. Her legs are firmly shackled to the ground. Her stomach is cut open, and her intestines are bicycle locked to a bar nearby. A magic and physical suppression bracelet is attached to each wrist and ankle, along with the collar versions on her neck. An IV is attached to her arm, and drool is running off the side of her mouth. Probably some tranquilizer. She appears to be in some kind of large magic circle it looks to me like a high grade seal. Additionally, two other rooks were in the room. On the side of the room, a monitor showed her vitals. Isnt this a bit overboard? I ask, perplexed. Not at all. Shiro had to draw a magic nullification zone because even with the tranquilizers and magic suppressors, occasionally the air resonates and cracks the glass. I recall Shiro wanting that bike lock please elaborate on that. Believe it or not, those two hit it off as soon as they arrived. Then she asked for a jump rope to exercise with, and tried to strangle Shiro the first chance she got. Howd that work out? I ask. Lets just say we had to scrape parts of her off the wall Looking inside, I noticed that the walls were stainless steel. So these prison rooms are rooms within a room? What about the second escape attempt? She used a magic tool embedded into her hand to blast her way to a telepad, where a mob of Portal Guardians shocked her senseless. He said, chuckling. Im making my investment back already. When did this happen? About the same time as the checkers tournament. That explains it. I mutter. Explains what? He asked. My multitasking is limited to about forty things at once. I was wondering why I wasnt notified. Pretty handy skill. Anyways, what brings you here? Im here to interrogate her. I answer. Why not just let Kano loose on her? I considered calling him over but now, Im fairly certain hed get stabbed while having sex. I answer gravely. I can somehow see that happening. He replied, with a wry smile. Is she tranquilized right now? I asked. Heavily. Alright, lock this place up with rooks and take that IV off her. Also, get me a knife. Roger. Part 4 - Clair POV As I slowly come to, I realize Im still in the prison. They seem to have ripped all the magical devices from my body. Im in some kind of manaless environment and I seem to be extremely weakened, physically speaking. A door opens in front of me and a small kid walks in. I memorize the exact positioning of the door. Hello! Did you have a nice nap? He asks. It was pleasant. I reply. Unfortunately Ive got quite the headache now, so could you get me something to drink? I ask. Of course! He says, smiling amicably. Im liking this kid already. A minute later, he returned with an empty cup and a red hot iron. I suddenly get a really bad feeling. What is tha- I gasp involuntarily as he stabs a knife into my left thigh. Never mind. I dont like this kid. He collected the blood in the cup until it was about two-thirds full before taking the red hot iron and wiping it all over my right leg. Oops, wrong leg! He said, laughing jovially. My bad, it wont happen again! He continued, before pressing the iron to my left cheek. What the hell you bastard! I screamed. Well, actua- He said, cauterizing the wound on my left leg mid-sentence. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. He threw the iron to the side and picked up the cup of blood. Im not feeling so thirsty anymore. I said. Who said its for you? He answered nonchalantly before taking a sip. Whatever youre trying to get from me you arent going to get it. I spit. But Ive already gotten it. He replies. Ive finally found a buddy who isnt crying like a baby after five minutes! Is this not an interrogation? Dont be silly! Why would I do something as boring as that? He asked. This kid For information? I say quizzically. Dont be silly, the professional interrogators have their own prisoners. He said, triumphantly. They dont want to be my friends though. He said, suddenly expressionless. Gee, I wonder why? I ask. No clue. He says I tried to be all understanding and such, but they didnt want to play. He continued, quickly becoming depressed. Hey! Im not getting stabbed! Gotta keep him talking. I need a topic Hey, does that hurt? He asks, pointing at the loop of intestine bound to the metal bar. Not too badly. I said, suddenly getting a chill down my spine. Here, Ill fix it. He said, cutting it in half and stuffing it back into my body. Youre a sadistic little bastard, arent you. I said, grimacing. I get that a lot, but honestly, I prefer Takuma. He said, smiling. Youre quite the interesting little pet human. I get that a lot, but honestly, I prefer Clair. I said, mimicking his voice. Thats great! Do you want to be my friend? Ill be sure to visit and play with you a lot! He said, excitedly. Define a lot, I asked, worriedly. Three or four times a day. He said. But if you really want, I can stay here for the whole day. I have to get the hell out of here This place is insane! Torture training doesnt make torture hurt any less! Say, do you like to bet? He asks. A way out! Ive got a slim chance! Of course! I said, instantly seizing the opportunity. Betting is great fun! I used to be a researcher. I say. Ask any question you know the answer to. If I answer it correctly, will you let me go? Sure! He said, smiling. But if you answer incorrectly, will you be my best friend forever? He asked. Well, Im pretty much stuck here even if I dont do this Ive got nothing to lose. Plus, I can just claim to not remember this if he does happen to win. Lets go! Of course! I said, smiling for the first time in days. Youre lying. He said, in flat objection. What? I would never! I resolutely reply. Then sign this contract saying that youll be my best friend if you lose. He said, running out, and returning a minute later with a contract the size of a reference encyclopedia along with a fat, metallic cylinder. I want to read this, before signing, to make sure you arent lying either. I said. Go ahead. Tell me when to flip the page. The first page had all the necessary details. All the rest just seemed to be endless loophole checks. This kid really has a lot of time on his hands, doesnt he. Seventy-two pages of redundant loophole checks later, I gave up. I told him to flip to a few random pages, which I read, before finally deciding to just sign it. Whatever. Even if I do lose, I can always just renege. He took the fat metal cylinder and signed his name on the first space, in bloody red ink. Ive got a bad feeling about this. A metal quill? He ejected a red cartridge with labelled A and stuck in a red cartridge labelled B. He stuck the pen into my mouth and I signed it, using a bullshit signature. The contract glowed pink and consumed itself in flames. Ive got a REALLY bad feeling about this now. Alright then, whats your great question, oh mighty contract writer? I asked sarcastically. Find me three integers: a, b and c, in which a cubed plus b cubed is equal to c cubed. He stated. W-Wait What? I stutter, astonished. Find me three integers: a, b and c, in which a cubed plus b cubed is equal to c cubed. He repeated. Thats easy, its I quickly began testing numbers. Im sure that Ill find- Times up. He said. Please state your answers in the next ten seconds. What! I didnt read anything about a time limit! I shouted, furiously. On page 2142 in appendix B, it clearly states that the said competition, mentioned on page 1 of contract statement A1 is to have a time limit not exceeding that of ten seconds. The thing you showed me was just the contract statement?! Your time has elapsed completely. He said. According to Appendix C, page 420, youre now a slave subjected to the rules stated on page 69, page 1337a and 1337b. A slave? As if! I said, laughing. Stick out your tongue. He ordered. Instantly, I felt an irresistible urge to obey. I stared in shock as my will was simply bypassed and I was forced to comply. See, I told you. He said, smiling unpleasantly. What was the answer? I asked nervously. According to Fermats conjecture there are no such integers. Are you serious? Why am I under your control? Ive never heard of an object like this contract! The contract you signed was a soul contract, signed with a mixture of the blood of the two participants and therefore, binding. Wha- Yep. I took the blood sample and created the blood mixture which was injected into a pen I had made just for the occasion. He turned and waved at the glass, and suddenly all my restraints released themselves. My muscles were stiff after being locked in that position for multiple days, so I fell over almost immediately. He simply took me by my ankle and dragged me out of the room. Part 5 - Takuma/Rene POV Nice work, Takuma. Howd you ever manage to pull that one off? The rook asked. Well, after interrogating Kanos girlfriend Adina, I found out that people in this world dont know about the existence of soul contracts. It was downhill from there. The BBQer? I thought Kano was supposed to marry the Emperors daughter Didnt you hear? That was cancelled after I became butt buddies with the Emperor. Really? I just read in the library most of the time, so I get left out of the loop. Theres a library? The girl asked, suddenly excited. Can I go? Of course. But only if youre good. I said, patting her head. Ill tell you about it later. Get her to the infirmary. We cant have her die quite yet. I said. The other rook walked over and carried her out. Is that really safe? He asked. Wont she kill people without the mana void? The contract prevents her from using anything that could be even potentially dangerous. I said, dismissively. I see When did you become butt buddies with the Emperor? Right after I gave him a medical reference book, a YY-ranked lab rat, and his daughter back in exchange for his loyalty guaranteed through a contract, naturally. So the city-state of Kilead (Kill-EE-add) is essentially under our control now? Yep. It was extremely easy thanks to the Contractual Magic. We should expect that the other dungeon masters are exploiting this as much as we are since I bought it right out of the shop. I fully expect this worlds residents to develop countermeasures in the near future. This war seems rather one sided. Thats because it is they arent the real enemy. The real enemies are the other dungeons. Part 6 - On my way to the infirmary, I stopped at the library and picked up a random assortment of books and stuffed them in a book bag that I grabbed off the counter. After walking into the infirmary, I dropped the bag by Clairs bed. If the books are the carrots Does that make me the stick? She appears to be asleep still. Right before I left, I leave a note on her forehead saying not to leave the infirmary. That takes care of that problem. I scrolled through the perceptions of my defenders as I left the infirmary. Seems like theres some commotion in the briefing room. With nothing better to do, I headed over the briefing room. I walked through the dim hallways of the complex until I reached the automatic doors of the briefing room. Alright, get me a status report. I asked as I walked in. The expendable mana project is currently being suspended. Kano reported. Why? I asked. Shiro has discovered a dungeon just 4 km away using Clairvoyance. Thats way too close for comfort. Where is it? I asked. On the other side of the forest 2 km away. We have determined that a large majority of their forces are currently exposed in an aboveground town, so we have an excellent chance of winning if we perform a pre-emptive attack. Kano replied. I think we should remove that dungeon as soon as possible, because of the threat it holds. Commit everything into a surprise attack the second that their defences weaken, well zerg rush. So, he who moves first, loses? Thats the name of the game. ====================== Footnotes: Ive had fun writing this series, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as well. After this chapter, Im placing this series on *indefinite* hiatus, but that doesnt mean that I wont come back to it in the future. -ToBeAndNotToBe