Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
---20 Days Ago...
Late at night Yang sits against the backboard of his bed, a hunk of Ice floating between his open palms as he concentrates his magic on it.
"Little bit more Air I think..."
Crack!
The ice shatters and falls onto the bed, with a wave of his hand he raises it back into the air and reforms it into one solid piece, restarting the process for the fifteenth time this night.
"Ok so Air plus Water and I can basically cast Shatter, if I add Earth," he pauses and thinks it over for a moment. "No, my Earth magic still acts too slowly against anything that counts, best not to use that in big fights anyway."
He focuses his magic once more, the Air vibrates and causes a high-pitched ringing noise around the piece of ice before the entire thing shatters into a cloud of mist and dissipates.
"Perfect, definitely not using that against most people, need to spar with Thalie to test effectiveness," he leans over to his bedside table and adds the new move to his Adventuring Journal.
Withdrawing a fine pen he crosses off a few items from the page before he begins a new paragraph, adding yet another move to his arsenal;
'Shatter: Ice+ Air= Tremors? Sky Quakes?... general shaking.
Not to be used against non-monsters unless absolutely necessary much like most other Elemental Combination moves.'
Putting down the book he withdraws his personal Monster Manual, a massive white and gold textbook, enchantments from cover to cover preventing anyone unauthorized from opening it, aside from his team, Hephaestus and Captain Tsubaki, nobody has access to this book.
An identical system seals the 'Book of Wonders', which is what Welf calls Yang's journal of science, technology, and other memories. Currently in the possession of the smith
Opening the Monster Manual he flips through the book to a page simply titled Xixecal.
Each monster they encounter or can potentially encounter receives a new page, detailing Yang's standard protocol for engagement as well as other 'fun facts' as his team calls them, those were personally his favorite parts.
Most people don't care how or why some monsters are the way that they are, but as an aspiring ecologist, Yang lives for those little questions.
Writing a new entry under effective methods for combating a Xixecal, Yang simply adds his new move before closing the book.
"What the guild wouldn't do for this," he says before storing the book away.
Turning back to his journal Yang continues drawing up plans and strategies as well as studying the 'obvious' pattern of the dungeon, looking at his notes he can't help but shake his head.
"The dungeon isn't even trying to be subtle and nobody else figured it out, well, not their fault. I'm the only one with an outside perspective..." he mutters softly.
After a few more minutes of updating his books, a familiar voice calls out from the ring on his right hand.
"Go to sleep," Yang smiles at the sound of Freya's tired voice greeting him.
"I'm working, you go to sleep, you sound tired."
"I am tired, meetings all day with Ganesha, Loki, and that little rat Hermes," she says bitterly.
"Don't like Hermes?"
"He recently overplayed his hand, before that he wasn't even in my sight," Freya admits.
"Mhm," Yang hums absentmindedly.
After a slight pause Freya's irritated voice speaks up, "are you daydreaming about your monsters again?"
Yang snaps out of his little trance, "uh, sorry... did I miss something?"
"Ugh, sometimes I think you're more interested in those things than me," she whines.
Yang shakes his head, "when you can fly and breathe fire I promise I'll stay up all night thinking about ways to kill you, happy now?"
"I'm a goddess, that should be far more interesting than some overgrown lizards."
"Well aside from Falna and that silly charm you can't do much as a goddess, so I'll stick with studying dragons."
"Don't I prove how 'Divine' I can be all the time, you clearly enjoy it," she jokes, her childlike giggles filling his room from the ring.
"And I am thankful for that, every time, but this is also important..."
After a long moment Freya finally speaks on what she really wanted to talk about.
"They're going to die Yang."
His pen stops, closing the book he leans back and gives her his full attention.
"I didn't think you cared."
"I don't, not really. But I like my power and influence where it is, I can't do that if my familia is wiped out. I don't like my things being interfered with," she says.
"Say what you want," Yang says, always one to get directly to the point.
"I want to know since when did you become so...unbothered? After you stormed out of the meeting we agreed to send around two hundred people to deal with that monster, Finn kept pleading for Royman to give in to your demands, Braver doesn't think they can survive, much less win. And somehow mister fair and reasonable bleeding heart Yang Shen doesn't care, honestly, I don't think you've ever been sexier than in that meeting, but it's jarring."
"They won't die. They aren't dumb, if the fight starts going bad they'll retreat then the guild will have to give in to my terms," Yang says.
"So you're betting on them being smart enough to know their limits?"
"Yeah, nothing ever wants to die."
Freya thinks about it for a moment before responding, "you know what I really don't like about you?"
"That I'm flawlessly handsome?" Yang jokes.
"You're nice but not that nice---"
"Ouch."
"I can't stand that you always have an answer, it's annoying."
"I get that a lot, that's what all my friends used to say," Yang says.
"Didn't know you had friends, you never talk about them."
"That was a joke, spent all my time doing other things remember."
"Mhm, you and your precious books," Freya's giggles flow like a melody through the ring.
"I notice you've been reading my book, you went from boring royal romance books to reading about knights when we were at the beach. I inspired you?" he asks.
"Something like that," Freya sighs. "I can't read those romance books anymore. I used to love them, but now after being with you for months, they feel so fake."
"Mhm, well if it makes you feel any better. Punching dragons and flying around basically ruined most of the books I like, it's like reading about someone who's worse than you at your day job."
"So a more competent waitress and better cook in my case," Freya chuckles at the idea.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing, just a joke," Freya quickly says. "Maybe you should try my collection of books since I've usurped yours," she suggests.
"Yeah, my---" Yang stops talking immediately.
Looking over to the glass doors leading to the balcony he feels something strange. "Babe I'll call you back," he says to Freya before cutting the connection.
Storing his books into his inventory Yang slowly gets up from the bed. Wearing only a pair of shorts he steps across the floor with bare feet all the way out to the glass doors. Tilting his head he closes his eyes and sends out a small pulse of magic, nothing unusual, his tremor sense told him one story, but his gut said another.
Opening the door he walks out onto the balcony with both hands in his pockets.
"You can come out now, I know you're here," Yang announced.
"Unexpected," an eerie voice says, before Yang's eyes a figure becomes visible.
Removing a cloak from on his body a dark hooded figure stands before Yang, thin long fingers clad in metal gauntlets, as black as the seemingly tattered cloak he wore to hide all his features. From his legs to his face were hidden, below the hood appearing as a black void no matter how hard Yang looks.
"Didn't expect me to find you? Whoever you are..." Yang says in a casual tone, hands still in his pocket as he eyes the intruder.
"Didn't expect you to take that long, I've been waiting for almost an hour. I suppose the luxury of being carefree in this world is reserved for those so far ahead of everyone they seem invincible," the cloaked figure said.
"I'm the nice one on my team so start explaining before I take you to the mean one," Yang says, narrowing his eyes at the figure.
"Uh, right. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Fels, the loyal hand of Lord Ouranos."
"Never heard of you."
"Precisely my job, I deal with the less, public, affairs. Even Royman is unaware of my presence."
Yang frowns slightly at the reveal, "ok, and if I believe you, why are you here?"
"To barter on behalf of Lord Ouranos," Fels said.
"Tell me what he wants and I'll tell you the price," Yang bites out, not in the mood for all the theatrics.
"Of course," Fels reaches into his cloak and withdraws a mission request which he begins to read from. "Lord Ouranos would like your team to assist in the extermination of the current Elder Dragon threat, after the leading hunting force has had a shot at the monster. In exchange, your adventurer from this point onward will be unbothered by the guild and you shall only be summoned for the highest priority missions."
"That doesn't make sense," Yang points out. "If he knows the monster will kill them then why still bother to send them?"
"Simply sending you won't do. The public must understand the difference between your team and the others, the best way to do that is to have you accept the same challenge and prove yourselves. A show is required..."
"So you want us to wait till the end then swoop in and end the fight? Got it. And what else is in the payout, drop items? Valis? I'd like Hephaestus's money to be returned, I'm nice so I won't ask for any extra," Yang says.
"Impossible," Fels says. "The purpose of this showing is for the public to believe the guild sent you as backup, bolstering the guilds reputation and judgment after the dent Royman put in it. That man is excellent at his job but his strict adherence to the rules was a problem this time. If we return all Hephaestus's funds then our judgment will be questioned, that cannot be allowed to happen."
"Hmm," Yang thinks it over for a moment. "Yeah that makes sense, but what else is in it for us, you left us with empty accounts. Any Valis I had in storage is what we're living on right now."
"Can a device be made to defend the hunting force from the immense heat of the monster? We'd pay a fortune for even one of those. That along with the drop items from this hunt," Fels explains.
"I thought the guild takes the drop items from these big multi-familia missions to prevent in-fighting."
"It does, but after enough time in the vault items are quickly forgotten, who knows where they could end up," Fel says with a light chuckle.
"Enough time?"
"Months, Orario is always buzzing with something exciting, ripples are never present for long before everything is running smoothly again."
"So we deal with this, the guild leaves us alone, we get the drop items and we get paid for anything we can make to shield the heat?" Yang asks one last time.
"Precisely, and as a show of faith," Fels somehow withdraws both Welf's sword and Thalie's spear from his coat. Yang raises a brow at this display.
"Neat trick, so the cloak can hide items, hide your face and make your steps untraceable?" Yang asks as he takes the weapons.
"How did you know about the steps?"
"I have tricks too. I'll get these to my team and have something ready for you in a few days," Yang says as he stores the weapons into his inventory.
"Hmmm, that's it?" Fels asks.
"Expecting something else?"
"A threat of some kind is customary at this point, I'm used to being threatened after an unofficial deal," he says.
"I prefer to just have faith in people," Yang responds with a warm smile.
"Faith? Adventurers aren't usually trusting. Trust is an easy way to die."
"I trust people to do what all living things want to do, survive. And breaking into the home of a level-seven and lying to him is not a very survival-guided move," Yang shrugs. "As you said, it's easy to just relax when there's so much space between me and everybody else."
"This went much better than I thought, here, an Occulus," Fels reaches into his coat and hands Yang a small blue glass sphere, light blue and roughly the size of a grape. "For good luck," the man says before he leaps up to floor fifty-two.
Looking down at the little glass sphere in his hand Yang isn't sure what to make of it, "Occulus?"
---The Following Morning...
"So we just need to make something to trap the heat and we can get paid big?" Welf asks.
Standing in front of a workbench in his forge the smith was chizzling specific runes into a large black cube of precious metals. The entire object was black with a thin slot at the top that would fit a sword blade and a small square hole from the top of the object leading a foot down to the middle of the cube.
"Pretty much, when Thalie gets back to Orario with Mikoto in a few days we can sort out the details but for now I figured you could start with the Heat Shields," Yang says from the other side of the metal workbench.
"Yeah that's fine, I've already got a pretty good idea," Welf says as he finishes the final rune. The entire cube flashes through a few different colours. Red to Blue to Yellow to Green. "Done, now I just need to make the key and main battery and this converter is complete," he says.
"You gonna tell me what this does yet?" Yang asks.
"Nope, it's a surprise. So this Fels guy, you really don't know who he was?"
"Never heard of him, but I haven't even been here a year so I don't know a lot of stuff," Yang admits.
"Fels the Sage, if, and that's a big if, the name means what I think it does. He should be Fels the Sage, the greatest item maker and magic enchanter to ever live. He was rumored to have created a philosopher stone and gained immortality," Welf explains.
"You think it's him?"
"He had a cloak that even you couldn't see past to get a look at his face, Ouranos trusts him this much and he has unique magic items, I'm willing to bet it's him," Welf says.
"How old does that make him?"
Welf thinks it over for a moment, "maybe seven hundred I think, not too sure, history wasn't my thing. And I've only recently started on the Mystery Skill so I've still got a lot of his crafting journals to study."
"Hmm, what about this," Yang holds his hand out and withdraws the Occulus, handing it to Welf.
"Gimme a minute here," the smith raises the glass sphere to his eye, inspecting the little blue marble and looking for any intricate details. For barely a moment Yang sees Welf's eyes widen before a look of disappointment washes over his face. With a sigh he hands it back. "Looks like it's just a good luck charm, keep it on you in case it's important to Ouranos or something."
"Alright," Yang says as he stores it away.
Welf immediately breaks his facade and shows a look of concern. "Don't ever take that out in here," Welf immediately says.
Yang turns to him, completely confused, "the Occulus? Isn't it a good luck charm?"
"No, I lied, they could have been spying on us," Welf says.
"Spying?"
"Yeah," Welf begins to explain. "The Occulus had an enchantment like I've never seen before. I only just figured out Message Rings and that's impressive, but this lets you transfer what you see and hear, like one of those magic things from your world."
"Cell phone, and not magic," Yang says.
"If you say so, but yeah don't take that out unless you want them knowing what we're up to. I'll make a box of one-way mirrors to observe it, until then keep it packed away. I've got a pretty good idea of how that can help with our next set of gear," Welf says with a mischievous smirk.
"What are you planning?"
"It's a surprise, but I promise you'll like it. This one doesn't have coat tails..."
END CHAPTER---
Yang hitting the books preparing for potential, future encounters. This is why they're usually so efficient when fighting new monsters, he thinks ahead.