Kuoh Academy
Hours before
I flew down into the heart of devil territory and spotted the perverted trio right away. They were peeping in on the kendo club's changing room. I dropped down gently behind them. My floor bar had barely moved after shoving two people in, and I had a few tasks to complete, some personal, others not so much. Taking out the perverted trio would rip canon a new asshole and nuke the rails.
Besides, I was doing Issei Hyoudou a favor. He would have all the oppai he could handle on the other side of the portal. He might have to deal with some pseudo-penises in exchange, but it was better than dealing with the supernatural. It felt like a good deed to balance out the shit-heel move I pulled earlier. Maybe the father and daughter or hooker and John, I wasn't sure, didn't deserve to be thrown into the dungeon. This was a good deed to counter that bad karma while considering my needs.
The portal formed, and I first grabbed Issei by his collar and tossed them in. Glasses and bald big ears went next then I let the portal close.
While the floor bar didn't change, I made serious progress.
"Ok, I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but I have a crying teen and a yelling old man in my dungeon and no staff to direct them. They aren't leaving the cabin, and it's the only safe room. How are we going to solve this?" Tera asked.
"Just ignore them; they'll figure it out or die. You're a dungeon; you don't have to coddle any of them. A little off topic, how is the time dilation going?" I asked.
"The most I can manage for the first floor is 2x; the first floor isn't designed for time dilation. I've studied your signs, and I like the idea. Unfortunately, you wrote them in Menagerie; the new adventurers won't be able to read them." Tera said.
I slapped my face and scared a student who couldn't stop staring at me. She was short with white hair and smelled like a cat. Perception stat for the win. She smelled like a love hotel mixed with a bakery, so maybe I wasn't as good as I thought.
"Change the signs if you want to; we'll need to idiot-proof the first floor. While a few deaths are the idea, we must give them enough loot to make the survivors believe it's worth the risk. I think I might open a store if I can find a healer. We can keep them in the dungeon longer, give them a false sense of security, and milk them for all their worth." I said.
My feet left the ground, and the girl's eyes widened. I shot off just under the sound barrier to avoid getting too much attention. The church appeared as a cluster of above-average power levels. Most of what I felt was mana or magic energy in this place. I had the beginnings of a plan, and maybe the fallen in the church could help me after I caught Asia.
DXD had tons of magic, and I had all the INT, WIS, and PER I needed to ransack all the forbidden libraries and secret scrolls around. In other words, magic was on the list of things I wanted from the new world. Having magic that wasn't limited to spell/ability slots would be useful.
I swooped down and landed in the middle of the abandoned church. A light bullet bounced off my barrier, doing nothing.
"Die, you devil bastard." An exorcist yelled.
I opened a dimensional tear and calmly went about my work. I closed the tear once the last human outside the church was through.
"Congratulations, rapists are chasing the only girl out of the cabin after they beat up the girl's father. She's heading right into a newly established panther girl village. I can't watch." Tera said.
Dungeons were known for killing machines that didn't flinch from slurping up thousands of souls at a time. Tera clearly went against the mold. She was more a world builder than a bloodthirsty dungeon. No wonder she went for more of a tantric energy model than blood and guts.
A blue light spear slammed into the gap in my armor near my knee. Ki barriers, fortunately, didn't give a damn about photon attacks, even if they came from the divine. I relaxed a little when the spear shattered into motes of light. I turned to a man in a grey trench coat who already tipped his black fedora.
I looked down at my shiny metal boots and then back at the man's expensive wingtip black leather boots. Even the trench coat was a Burberry trench coat. Even the fedora was worth about 1,200 USD. While it was tempting, I wouldn't rob the guy yet. He could easily become an employee of mine. As a man who grew up poor and dropped out of college, robbing a rich and weak fallen was tempting.
"I have a proposition for your leader. Bring her out." I said.
His eyes narrowed, and his black wings burst out behind his back. The man flew up to a ledge like taking the high ground was some great feat.
"Are you choosing to decline diplomacy?" I asked.
"Dead men can't make deals. I don't care how fancy your armor is; it won't save you. My name is Dohnaseek," I blitzed and punched him in the face with the lowest amount of power I could manage. His head cocked back, and he smiled. "Was that your best?" I nodded; his head didn't explode, so I was right to hold back. I threw a second, slightly harder punch and knocked Dohnaseek through the abandoned church's stained glass. An image of Jesus had a hole in his chest that appeared solemn behind me.
The fallen turned his head and spat out a wad of blood. I descended through the already-made hole without damaging the expensive glass further. He launched another spear, which broke on my barrier before touching my chest plate. I couldn't measure the fallen's power; it was greater than 0 but less than a threat. Even if he managed to break my barrier, he had DEF, steel plate, chainmail, and gambeson to pierce before he had to deal with my HP. My armor's DEF had increased after dealing with the powerful winds between the Mesosphere and thermosphere. It was about 50% stronger than it was before. The adaptation and regeneration armor abilities were great for the long game. I would most likely swap them out for some SR, UR, or L armor. Still, until the dungeon could handle giving out those drops, I was fine with some old-fashioned R with two armor abilities equipped to each piece.
Suppose I let Dohnaseek hit my armor with light spears unprotected and shrank my ki barrier to only the surface of my skin. In that case, it might gain some light resistance. While my armor would never have the stats of higher-ranked equipment, it could become useful in all situations.
The fallen stumbled to his feet and threw himself behind some pews to break out of line of sight. From the other side of the pews, he tossed another light spear. I let it shatter on my ki barrier, doing no damage. It wasn't that light couldn't break through my barrier Dohnaseek didn't have the piercing power. My mortal ki had no weakness to light.
Another thought occurred as I watched the light spear break into pieces. I could collect the pieces of Excalibur and have Tera recombine them into a nice unique weapon. Then I could add weapon abilities to it. U weapons should have about 9 weapon ability slots.
"Let's say we listen to your deal; what's in it for us? You've stolen our minions; what can you give us to compensate for that." I rubbed the back of my head. My gantlets shrieked as steel scraped steel. "My ears," Dohnaseek said.
I turned to the goth Lolita sneaking in from the rafters above. She froze as I turned my gaze on Kalawarner, a blue-haired buxom woman in a red trench coat and nothing else. A blue tuft of hair barely hid her slit from my gaze. I counted the hairs and saw her clit twitch. Sometimes high perception was useful.
With a swipe, I shattered the blue spear aimed at my back from Raynare, the leader of this little group of fallen clad in black leather. She looked more like a bondage demon from the 80s than a fallen.
"Aren't you adorable? If this was an anime, you could power up by adding more belts to your outfit." With two, you must be quite powerful." I said.
I crossed the distance and brushed her wing with my hand.
"They are as soft as I imagined." The fallen froze from my touch; her black feathers were nice. I noticed her staring in shock and coughed to get back on track. "Yes, I have a job that only a smart and talented fallen can handle. You see, I plan to snatch Asia Argenta and use her as a healer for a business venture." I said.
"I don't care what faction you're with; we saw her first."
"Are you one of Lord Azazel's pet magicians?" Mitteit asked.
"No, or not yet, but I doubt you're following his orders either. Rumor has it he's tired of war and wants to establish a lasting peace between the three factions of heaven. If that is his agenda, why place four fallen in the territory of the siblings of two Satans to nab an excommunicated nun. If it is covert ops, then why send you four here. You clearly aren't trying to stealth it; otherwise, you wouldn't have established yourselves in this eyesore. It took me exactly 3 minutes and 20 seconds to spot you."
"How would you know Lord Azazel's plans?" Dohnaseek asked.
"I don't, but he isn't an idiot. This goes against his clearly stated agenda, and it's unlikely he would go through all this trouble when he can simply make a trade during the peace talks." High charisma was useful for more than making myself look more appealing. My words went further to convince others. I somewhat understood the political situation.
"We have written orders sealed with Lord Azazel's symbol," Raynare said.
I gave the two winged fallen a look over. Sinfully creamy pale skin looked good combined with her black leather BDSM gear. She felt powerless; any time she could feel in charge was a good time for her. Raynare wanted payback and the power to get her way.
I found out later she liked to keep gimps; some were in the basement.
"When something doesn't make sense, then someone's lying. Are you trying to go against Lord Azazel's overarching strategy, or is someone using his seal to start a war?" I asked.
The argument was a false dichotomy, either making her out to be a traitor or a victim.
"No, but that doesn't mean we are going to help some mage that isn't a part of our faction."
"What if it's to get a foothold on behalf of the fallen in a realm full of magical weapons and the ability to grow in strength rapidly. The paradigm will shift once the peace talks happen, and this dimension will be regulated." I said.
"I want more detail. You speak as if this is a new market or technology. Dimensional rifts to divine realms aren't new." Dohnaseek said.
"This one rewards your efforts to gather loot. But more importantly, it gives out a currency that can be traded for anything the dimension provides by the deity. So tell me, who made it out rich in the gold rush, the miners or the shopkeepers selling shovels and pickaxes?" I asked.
"Your plan is to take Asia Argento to this dimension and exchange her healing for this resource. We each get a cut and can use this currency to buy rare items for ourselves and the faction."
"More importantly, you said we could get stronger," Raynare said.
"Yea, the dimension awards statistical potential while in the realm. Growing stronger there is much easier than here. The resource can also be used to purchase equipment that increases the gains from the dimension. All we need to do is go there, declare ourselves a neutral faction, and heal the wounded. Your job will be to protect Asia and kick out those who can't pay. The exorcists I sent over are still your minions. They are also the majority for now. Send them out and offer a discount to them to build loyalty. Then when more enter, you'll already be set up with a powerful foothold before the angels, devils, or even the rest of the fallen notice." I said.
Raynare's eyes glazed over with clear dreams of power, and I had to snap my fingers to snap her out of it. That's the problem with high charisma words can become hypnotizing without trying. Add some ki to that, and I could have them all follow me like little dark-winged ducklings.
"We didn't like the orders anyway, and actually making a difference on the ground level sounds better than pissing off Satans and restarting the great war," Kalawarner said.
"Great, a few things. You need to earn 100SP, the currency of the dimension, to purchase the ability to move between it and the Earth. It won't take long; an hour here is two in the dimension. Let's go; it'll be great; we'll get so strong." I said.
"First, how long does it take to earn 1SP?" Dohnaseek asked.
"About five minutes at most. Since we're going to sell healing much less." I said.
I opened a dimensional tear, and the four looked at each other. To help them along, I added a little ki to my voice. "Get in." Their eyes glazed over, and they flew into the tear."
My attention shifted to the plane flying east. I debated letting the plane land, but why should I put my plans off. I could just open a big tear and let the whole plane in the wilderness. But that sounded like a real shit-heel thing to do, so I put a pin in it.
Having a plan was great. I browsed the exorcist's books but found nothing really magic related. Mittelt had a few books on fallen angel magic but converting my mana into light energy wasn't that instinctual. Making a weapon out of light seemed a little out of reach until I found a workaround.
I tossed them in my backpack of holding and continued searching for any treasure. "Did you think you could get away, shitty devil?" I saw a man with white hair and red eyes behind me. He swung a blue longsword with almost enough curve to the blade to be a saber. The man's speed increased from human to trash levels.
Unfortunately for him, I had fodder-level speed. I held back just like I had against Dohnaseek for my first punch. I felt bones break against my knuckles, and the man slashed upward. I blocked it with my gantlet, and it cut into my barrier. The blade stopped against my gantlet, spitting golden sparks from the blade's edge, meeting the steel of a rare drop.
I pulled my fist back to see Freed's ruined face. Freed's nose was broken, his eye sockets cracked, and some teeth fell out of his mouth. Dohnaseek must be a little stronger than trash; he must be trash+ to handle my weakest punch.
"That's the difference between trash like you and fodder like me," I said.
I flicked him with barely any strength, and his head snapped back. The sword fell out of his hand and clattered to the floor. One of the Excaliburs fell into my hand. My luck was pretty good.
The weapon felt good in my hand. At first, it tried to zap me, but a little forceful ki therapy stopped that cold. Best of all, I felt my ki move through it easily. While it only increased speed, it was an effective force multiplier.