A clock appears on the wall, '6:32pm'. I'll close at 12 and reopen at 8. It'll give me time to fully focus on the new books I've been given without having an awkward clone rotation. Determined in my mindset, I alert every one of the changes effective immediate. To which, most didn't care as they slept but there was a few disappointed faces.
"Kimiko, how is Frenchie holding up?" After learning how he turned himself in, I've tried supporting Kimiko, definitely keeping her away from alcohol. She sips on her 0% alcohol drink and sighs, signing to me that he still refuses to see her. "I think he misses you as you miss him, but I think he's ashamed. Especially since he didn't talk to you before turning in, don't worry, he will break and let you in once more."
I got a sad but appreciative smile in return, there's only so much impact my words can have. So until Frenchie cracks, I'll keep trying for Kimiko.
At 8, the bar is empty aside some groups and stragglers drinking together. "Hey can I ask you guys some questions about the drinks here?" I say to the largest group.
"Sure happy to help" Steve, I think his name was, responded.
"We've got plenty of mead, is there any other types of drink you want to see? Or flavour profiles?"
"Uh yeah, there's not much liquor, beer, shots or even sodas or pops. We're quite limited for choice unless we want water or mead." Glad I asked, when my clones get back I need to send them out into The Boys to learn some modern distillery and bring back some samples.
"Perfect, I appreciate your time. Have a nice night." I spent the rest of the night asking similar questions about the food or drinks. Quality was never an issue, just quantity.
'11:50'
"Last rounds everyone" I said to a collective series of grunts and groans. It wasn't much later that I was left to my own devices for the first time in a while, I sat down in a booth seat and simply read through and learnt the dark magic in the books.
Not good.
This world seems to have what I would consider upper Gods being active and visible throughout history. Golb, Lich, Hunson Abadeer and Orgalorg are all beings that can blink me away. The Lich may be reasoned with as I exist outside of the universe, Hunson's daughter is hopefully a regular of mine so may spare me for that. Orgalorg is missing and Golb is something I pray I never even glimpse.
[Dark Magic lv2]
[Demonology lv3]
[Ritual sacrifice lv4]
And I am now unfortunately enlightened as to why Peppermint Butler wanted Mohg's body. Through ritual sacrifice, you can offer a corpse's soul to a being of your choice in return for something. I have no idea if Mohg has a soul since he was a duplicate, but I hope not.
I think the only one I can even train there is the Demonology, summoning lesser demons and simply fighting them would be helpful not to mention rather cool.
Drawing a pentagram on the ground, lining it in blessed salt, I summon the demon Al'kathath. Lesser demon that serves as a collector for Hunson Abadeer.
"Speak mortal! What is it you desire?" A grim, blackened, red, scaly imp crawls out from the new hell portal created in the pentagram.
"I have a few options for you, fight me to the death or incapacitation. Teach me some more niche demonology. Teach me how to make drinks or food for demons. Or simply recommend Olivarick's bar to other people that summon you. You can pick more than one."
"How peculiar…" Their snake tongue hissing as they pressed against the salt line barrier. "And what might I gain from this exchange?"
"I have many many corpses available for exchange, armour, weapons, cures. All things you may want or things you can trade for in other summons." Hardly anyone buys armour so I may as well push for a buy whilst I can.
"Write your contract"
I had to go and get a pen and paper, writing down the specification of wording and so forth. I even made a tick box for the ones they agree to, of which the second, third and fourth options were ticked.
"Amend it, I wish to fight you to the death should you fail to meet my standards." Harsh, but this is a demon and I'm more than confident in beating them in a fight.
A moment longer and we shook on it, contract burning in hellfire in my hands. Conveniently adding it to the Rainbow Flame.
I removed the salt line and allowed them to stretch their legs. "So which one first?"
"Food and drink, I shall gather the materials" With an odd chuckle he dove back through the portal, leaving me awkwardly waiting.
5 minutes later they returned with 2 human bodies, "I've already got some, but I appreciate the gesture." They simply shrugged and I guided them to the kitchen.
Al'Kathath guided me on how to create a skin crepe, seasoned with cinnamon 'stix'. I thought it was a joke until they pulled out a screaming brown stick and begun grinding it down. I followed along easily, boosted tremendously by kitchen domain. The drink we made was simple to get, a small hell portal and a glass cup was all that was needed to get some tears of the damned. Myself not being linked to hell, I had to install a small manual hell portal underneath the counter.
[Kitchen Domain lv2 -Merger-]
For this they got 10 neutralising boluses, apparently it's too common for demons to poison each other as a joke.
Next they sat me down at a booth table and adorned some half-moon glasses, pulling out a binder of papers. They taught me a much more nuanced hierarchy and power scaling than the books taught, as some jobs are classed as higher but are simply viewed socially as lower. It was an interesting piece of demon sociology but my attention was grabbed with the next piece.
"Adorning severed demon wings does fuse them into the person, this is widely hidden as it would begin a demon hunt for the ability to fly. The demon wings do function as wings for the person with no demonic curses to follow." Which to me sounds like a massive marketing opportunity, I don't really need to fly, but I know people who do.
I was also taught a little bit more on refining the summoning and the more hidden channels to contacting demons. As apparently, pinhole portals can be used simply for communication. Ultimately it was a very fruitful summoning, I think I may have gained a customer as well.
[Demonology lv8]
This scored them some armoured cleanrot knight corpses as I gained a lot more than I thought I would.
"It was lovely meeting you Al'Kathath. If you want to come by just as a customer, I'd love to have you." I shouldn't discriminate on species after all.
"We shall see, the scene in hell has gotten awfully rowdy as of late…" And they disappeared into the hell portal once more.
As I waved them off, one of my clones came back wearing an odd red robe covered in gold stars. His eyes seemed simply tired, collapsing and dispersing as he hit the floor.