Walking inside, Aki found a great library. While some would describe the image of several serious people discussing arcane projects in a room full of magical, talking books that showed them several contents and automatically took their notes with a sweet voice that calmed the mind, people like our dear protagonist couldn't help but think: 'Wow, it's like I just walked into Google's headquarters and found out they were having a isekai themed party and everyone, including the suspiciously buff guy that always seems to look into the horizon, choose to come as the nerd mage.'
Most discussions were about inane daily things, the creation of formulas that were almost useless from the infinitesimal amount of efficiency they would offer, theoricaly, others were pretending to do work while gossiping and other's still had already mastered the secret technique of 'imediatly pretending to work when someone of importance appears and somehow some way get the bare minimum done and not getting fired'.
Aki wasn't on a tight time table, but he passed the hall of normal employees with large strides and total denial of the existence of the sweets and coffee being smuggled in the corner.
The secret passage to the basement was not actually that secret, just a door with some armor shaped golems guarding that had a aura of 'You better authorization to get in here if you want to enter'.
Aki wasn't very worried about this, though there were several cantrips that would stall other thiefs, he simply had to use the mana signature of one of the golems like a' glove' to open the thing. The guards would obviously have the keys after all. There was no worry in the guild finding out they were robbed quickly enough to catch him either, no way someone was constantly monitoring each door's opening, they'd only get to the strange reaction much latter.
A short stair flight layer, the singing thief found himself in a place much more protected and much more blue and pink, with the glowing stuff and several researchers walking around with notepads.
There were some things that actually saw him walk around, and one seemed to beg to be taken out even through Aki couldn't hear or receive its mental probing, but them it was electrocuted and reverted from being a naked bimbo to a black screeching humanoid with a vertical mouth that split it's head and showed several teeth.
This surprised Aki. He really hadn't been expecting there to be something that seemed to perfectly match one of the creatures he knew.
The doppelganger had been in the middle of transportation and had clearly been sedated already, but the transporters stopped the cart with it's cage and began to look around the direction Aki was, clearly about to call for support in handling so they could investigate. Aki stopped that and made everyone ignore the incident and keep
Approaching the barred, moving cage, he got electrocuted a bit when shoving his arm inside, but he succesfully caught the attention of the black figure.
"Hey, cow tits, I'll take you out later, just keep this metal slip and I will free you on the way out." He told it in common, but the thing didn't seem to understand. Aki shoved the metal sheet in it's skin, getting only a small reaction out of it, and repeated his message with mind magic.
"They will have killed me already." It quickly answered with a pleading female voice.
"First, I know you don't have an actual gender and how you reproduce, second I won't take too long. Fifteen to twenty minutes max, just stall them. Sell out something about yourself or something, if I don't get to you, you are a corpse, and if I do, you won't be a doppelganger for long." He nonchalantly said and shrugged before walking to the guy that looked the most important in the room and reading his mind to find who had the place's map.
A ton of mind browsing later, Aki had robbed a talking sword, a sealed being that pronounced itself a god, some cursed equipment and a very creepy statue that was apparently going to the garbage.
"Fuck, is this the foundation's site-19?!" He exclaimed. His voice wasn't really needed for the effect he wished, it just helped its efficiency, otherwise golems and such would be immune to it. "Where's the hard to kill reptile and the little girl that makes people become berserker? Will that statue kill shit if I'm not... That last one's actually possible. I should probably check it before some shit happens." He noticed and filed it for later. He'd just reached the door where they kept the top secret projects.
The first thing to greet him was a doll that looked almost exactly like a little girl. She was behind a glass panel, sure, but the way she made threats by writing runes on the foggy surface, no, she didn't breathe, was most definitely damaging to the mind.
Aki was in doubt what to do with it, he even considered taking the hazard prone toy away with him, but ultimately decided nodded and extinguished the soul of thing manipulating it.
If it could not be reasoned with in any way, than keeping something so dangerous was not a good idea if later it could get him lots of XP. He was capped right now, so there was no real benefit to killing it.
As pilles of ash fell all around, Aki opened the glass and cradled the string less doll like she was a little girl.
"Everything will be fine now. Just come with me and maybe we can find a way to make you smile again. My daughter would surely like to play with you." He said in the softest of voices while holding the porcelain scalp that held the wig against his shoulder.
The girl started producing a strange clicking sound while jerking her limbs almost as if she was having spasms. Aki flowed healing mana through her and she trembled before standing still. "This is just me making it easier for you to move." He said, transmitting the idea of a hug directly to her mind as he physically reproduced the action.
Then, there was a sobbing sound, followed by oil staining Aki's clothes as the fake tears trailed the doll's face and she wailed like a baby.
He kept the hug and walked on. Many beings were stired in their confinement as the wails of a little girl reached them. Most were just strange animals that had strange characteristics. Some were actual monsters.
A minority were actually humanoids, most not so cooperative or happy about their situation.
No, what he was looking for were the super cursed and protected items that were behind the heavy ass door right in front of him. Setting down Lily, who was still sobbing a bit, he proceeded to solve the door mechanic with magic and one hand as he held the little girl's left with his right hand.
*****
"Report it Lucia. I can see it in your eyes that the situation isn't good, but I have to inform the court myself, so I need to know what the man that literally walked in like he owned the place and did whatever with almost nothing detecting him, did." Grimly said the mage's guild headmaster, a man with one of the greatests achievements on the arcane arts in the whole world. And still not someone Aki was ever going to remenber the name off. Somehow.
"The situation isn't actually that bad sir. None of the world ending entities have escaped, some were actually killed." She begun, trying to sound optimistic.
"But?" He urged, making his secretary sigh in exasperation and signaling the migraine ahead was going to be big.
"Several world ending items, a lot of unidentified items, a ton of cursed items and three creatures were taken." That made the man in front of her flip his table, which impacted the wall with a resounding thum.
"Like the bastard that has crafted one of those doesn't have enough of all that!" The old man screamed at nothing in particular.
"Sir..." She tried to appease him, but the man simply raised a hand, massaged his temples and breathed slowly, before finally signaling for his assistant to continue.
"Who did he free? The Lich? One of the mass murderers? A rogue mage? Some apocalyptic thing he tamed?" The man asked in all seriousness.
"No sir, he actually apparently stumbled upon a containment breach and stored the statue while it was in resting mode, he seems to not have realized it at the moment since he was for some reason searching through our garbage disposal, but he latter started mumbling and seemed pretty serious about investigating it later."
"At least that one isn't so bad on its own, but we can never be sure what he is going to do with it." The headmaster commented.
"He also broke out a doppelganger when he was leaving, but he actually brought along a subject of interest, the doll." She confusedly explained.
"What doll?" The man seemed just as confused, if not more.
"The one that draws divine runes and constantly escapes while causing several casualties." She specified, causing her boss to look even more confused instead.
"How?! That thing is an indestructible, sadistic and manipulating monster that loaths all that lives!" He exclaimed while throwing his arms ups.
"He just did. There was dust all around and a moment later it was as docile as a normal little girl. Her cries didn't even make the creatures around go berserker in pain, just annoyed them."
"Well, fuck me! You know how long I have been trying to move that thing?! Eight years! Eight fucking years! I..." Add all the insults of a DM with a party of PCs that just ruined the campaign at the start and you will have it, because I damn don't have titanium fingers to transcribe what the fucker said. Really, it was twenty minutes latter that he stopped.
"Sir, please don't drink anymore! You have a reunion right after this!" Said the panicking secretary while trying to stop the man from relying on his best friend, the instant spicer, a 'magical' item that could make any drink highly alcoholic.
*****
"And now you have a cute new sister, yay!" Aki exclaimed while showcasing the doll girl. "No, not a doll, automaton carrying a sentient soul with great need of a good family. So I thought of adopting her." He interrupted Elladan before he could make an insensitive question.
"I was actually going to ask if she can actually move with those clothes, but ok." The boy shrugged, probably imitating his foster parent, when pointing to the long dress full of frills.
"You got me there. So, what do you say?" His brown twitched, this tipe of think was somehow worse when it was a kid that did it. What was that four digit intelligence score if he few for it still!?
"That's great. Our family is already growing again." Said the radiating Anna.
One might not be able to tell accurately, but she was actually at her late forties, and was actually the mother of six. Four had died about a week before she met Aki.
What I mean to say, is that she didn't mind the strange texture of Lily's skin, nor her lack of expressions, she was more than happy enough to give a smile even the caged little girl could feel hit her long cold heart.
She couldn't remenber why she felt cold anymore, but she didn't think she'd be like that for long when surrounded by such warm people.
"Sister." Said the diminutive ball of cuteness that was Alma while tugging the goth loli dress.
*****
"Headmaster, one more thing." Said the disheveled secretary to the tired looking old man that seemed to have just drank every bit of the barrels of alcohol he ingested and was currently cradling a enormous hangover.
"What?" He asked, the grumpiness in his voice practicality causing the illusion of dark bags under his eyes.
"One item. There's one item the court will ask about. The core spirit said so at least. A crown. It corrupts and maddens the user while offering great knowledge on any subject one may desire. It was kept in the extra dangerous area since it can always make others want to wear it and seems to only be stopped by certain metals, so it has destroyed innumerable empires and killed tens of millions." She seriously said, not knowing Aki had already dropped the thing inside a box of lead, inside of a box of mercury, inside of a box of compressed sand and then turned on a forcefield that deaccelerated the time inside the room containing all this.
The headmaster nodded seriously and could only fear for the future. Such a hazardous combination would most definitely not end up well. He wondered what the boy would be doing with the arsenal of knowledge and other cursed items.
At the moment, the thing had not even recovered from the mental blown Aki gave it, nevermind that it was in a retardatory field so Aki could deal with it whenever and only a fraction of the time would have passed.
*****
"And so, these two are going to work on our public relations as well." Said Aki, much later, while presenting a blonde bombshell and a gray skinned hunk. Both were smiling sweetly, but had a very dangerous smile
"They're shapeshifter, aren't they?" Bob imediatly guessed.
"Ara, you guessed right away." Exclaimed the doppelganger. It apparently really did consider itself to be a woman too, which was quite eccentric for a race that didn't care for such things, but when compared to most other specimens of said group, Candy was actually a docile and tame person that simply wanted to be a perfect woman, so she could very well live in society without causing mass histery and panic. "Does my skin nor fit too well with the dress according to the current fashion or did I make my figure too inhuman again? I've been out of practice, so I can't really tell."
"It was the pheromones, they stink of excessive perfume." Bob said imediatly.
"Are breasts that big even possible for someone that slim though?" Asked Elize, unable to decide which of the two figure deserved more of her attention.
"And I'm too perfect." Asked the statue as if confirming a matter of utter redundancy.
"Yes." Bob admitted.
"Good to see the team already has it going. I expect a public event or festival in about a week, k, bye!" Aki quickly said and prepared to run away "Don't fuck either of then." He remembered the nymphomaniac and did like a cartoon character running at an unbelievable speed.
He had much to mess with all the cursed shit he got. There were even guns in there! This, was going to be Aki's semi-secluded 'cultivation' and study session.