- Same evening in Underworld –
Sairaorg arranged a workshop for me. I can finally get started on some basic stuff. The first thing I invented was a Magic Gun which can shoot elemental bullets after being powered by mana. Basic stuff but insanely useful for the current me who needs to reflect magic to level up my Mirror Alice. It didn't take too long to make it either. As I said, basic stuff.
The second was more important, a magic cloaking device. It looks like a simple bracelet which uses my own magic to make a barrier around me and prevents the stray magic which leaks out of me from spreading around. It even gives a barrier which stops 10k points of damage to me.
The third was something I worked on in my ID while my Shadow Servants kept low level zombies at bay. It is not something I can afford to let someone know about. A scared gear extractor. It was actually difficult as it was an epic grade artifact. I even had to use up some of the raw materials in the workshop that were present before I arrived there. Mental note, have them replaced soon. To avoid letting them know exactly which materials I used, I took some from many of the raw materials present, so they might not be able to guess what I needed all of the metals and materials for.
It looks like a mechanical octopus which would latch onto someone and suck the sacred gear out from their bodies, changing it to an orb. The target could offer resistance to the extraction process but that can be prevented if they are unconscious. So I have to knock them out before using it. Of course, it would lead to the death of the target if a gear is not returned within a certain period of time but I don't care about that.
I had a good sleep though. Sleeping is important after all. At this rate I might gain the sin of sloth soon.
- Next day –
I am going out with Kuisha today to get some materials for my workshop. I was advised by Zekram to check out the markets of the Bael territory when he heard about my hobby of artificing. Kuisha decided to follow me to show me around. She was quite interested in the magic cloaking bracelets and the mana powered guns so she decided to join me for the shopping trip.
"What are we looking for today, Shin?" she asks while looking around the market.
"Magic conducting materials, magical ingredients. You know, claws and fangs of Dragons and stuff to be used as catalysts for artifacts. I would like some bloodstones from Romania if possible." I read out the list that I made mentally to her. Even if we don't get all the things we could always keep a lookout for them.
"So what inventions are you trying to make this time?" So yeah, as it turns out Kuisha Abaddon is a geek. To be more precise a magic nerd.
"I was thinking about some protective or power increasing type artifacts. It could help out in dangerous situations." It's true. I am looking for something to boost my elemental resistance or increase the damage of my magic attacks. But the real target that I have in my mind is a Magic Disruption Device.
Suddenly we were interrupted by an arrogant voice which broke my line of thought. Something I hate when I am seriously planning about my future moves.
"Well what do we have here, the queen of the magic-less dropout of the Bael House. I don't understand why you are wasting your time with such mistakes of nature. You could always have a position by Riser's side. Riser would always appreciate someone of your skills" I look back to see the Devil equivalent of Draco Malfoy leering at Kuisha as if she were nothing more than an object to satiate the lust of others. I suddenly understand why Rias would detest the very thought of getting married to this chicken.
I sense Kuisha tensing up a bit before her Magic flares and she speaks in a tone I haven't heard from her yet. "Lord Riser, you are in Bael territory and insulting my king in front of everyone present. Should I take it as an insult to House Bael and report your presumed challenge to the House of the Great King? I am pretty sure you will get the answer to your questions after that." And that's strike three. Batter out. With one sentence she turned his previous taunt to a situation of a lesser pillar challenging the Great King. As foolish as Riser is he wouldn't dare 'rise' up to this challenge. And as expected he lets out a click of his tongue and shuts up before he notices me.
I am wearing a normal white full sleeved shirt with black trousers. Nothing like any high class Devil would wear normally. To be honest, all those fancy clothes are a pain in the neck to wear and pretty uncomfortable too. I wonder if high class Devils are masochists who enjoy wearing such heavy clothes. I ignore him as Kuisha already took care of the situation. I think I might have to fight him as it is but I'd rather avoid unnecessary fights if possible. But as fate would have it the life of a game protagonist is not that simple, so while I am happily ignoring him I hear his Malfoyish voice irritating my ears once again.
"Your tastes are declining Kuisha, first the talentless failure and now a low class scum. Are you that blind that you cannot even see the difference between a diamond like Riser and society's dregs like him who doesn't even know how to address his betters properly?"
Observe.
Riser Phenex
3rd son of House Phenex, High Class Devil
Level – 49
Rank – Veteran
Race – Devil
HP – 10,240
SP – 10,240
MP – 19,480
STR – 102
END – 85
DEX – 95
INT – 157
WIS – 153
CHA – 113
LCK – 62
Thoughts about you – Disdain, Disgust.
"So, who is this Chicken guy?"
And everyone froze.
-20 Reputation with Riser Phenex (-30/100) Do you even need to ask why?
Then after a few seconds his chicken brain finally registered that I had insulted him. He flared his magic and roared with rage like a wild boar pierced in the butt with a spear.
"You low class insolent plebeian dares insult me?! I will burn you to ashes and end your life right now!" as he was shouting, I asked Kuisha the most obvious question.
"What low class thing is he talking about?"
"He thinks you are a low class Devil, Shin." Kuisha answers a little worried.
"Ah, so he is an idiot who can't tell right from left if it stares him in his face." Taking out my pawn piece from my inventory, I wave it in his face. "Hey, I'm a high class Devil too!" Yup, I am having fun doing this.
"As if a nameless plebeian like you could ever match a majestic Phenex who carries the blood of the immortal Phoenix themselves. You will pay the price for your insolence and no one will stop me from delivering judgment." I see a hint of surprise on his face at the mention of me being a High Class Devil before he dismisses it and flares his magic even higher as flames start to manifest around him, heating up the surroundings.
"So you say that you carry the blood of the Phoenix?" I ask him, all the while faking a look of confusion.
"Yes, so even if you are a High Class Devil, you can never compare to the likes of me. You are forever destined to live in the lowest dregs of the underworld." wow, this guy is hardcore. He makes Malfoy look better... actually nah, they're about the same. At least he hasn't gone around saying 'my Father will hear about this!'.
"Wait, I don't get it. How is that possible? Did your ancestors fuck a Phoenix or something?" Yup, that did it. I finally made him blow up.
-20 Reputation with Riser Phenex (-50/100) for obvious reasons.
His magic blasts out but before it could hit me, a yellow magic circle appears in front of me and blocks the attack completely, and from behind us comes out an elderly figure in black. His majestic presence makes Riser freeze in shock before he backs down, fear evident on his face. Yes, it was none other than Zekram Bael.
I sensed his presence right before Riser appeared. So when the idiot started his stupid rant I secretly looked at Zekram, who gave me a nod. I am not a fool who would pick fights without any reason and seeing the coincidence that Riser appeared here right when we were taking a trip for shopping so far away from Phenex territory, I got a gist of Zekram's plans.
The results are, if I say so myself, fabulous.
"Has the House of Phenex become so bold that they can come to the territory of Bael and attack one of my wards under my nose? It seems that my days of retirement have made me unaware of the current status of the 72 pillars. When did the House of the Great King fall behind the Marquis Phenex's house?" Zekram speaks in an even tone, without any fluctuations in his voice which makes it all the more intimidating. "If you had any disagreement you could have challenged him, maybe had a rating game, but who gave you the power to 'judge' my ward?"
"I didn't know he was under your protection, Great King. It is just that he said something which caused me to lose control over myself. I apologize for my mistake regarding the way I reacted." Oh, putting the blame on me now. Go on, I'll play along with it.
"So you mean that you got enraged with the reply he gave when you insulted his standing and lineage? Am I getting this wrong or is there something I missed there?"
Checkmate bitch.
"I… I didn't mean to sir. I did not know of his standing." stutters Riser.
"Since insults have been used from both sides, I will not blame anyone regarding this. However if I let you go without any action then it will be a black mark on my House's image, which I absolutely cannot allow. I know you have grievances with him so you two will fight in a rating game 10 days from now. Use that to decide the end of this feud. Let no one say that The Great King is unfair to others."
Damn, he acts really well. Then again, thousands of years of experience must teach you at least that much.
"How goes your progress with collecting your pieces Shin?"
"I have been looking around for potential candidates. I have one or two in mind. Maybe I will get my first member in a day or two." feeding information to the opponent is good if you are the one who controls the information being fed.
"You are challenging Riser with no members in your Peerage? Riser has a full peerage, he will crush you like an ant." Oh my god…..ouch, did this guy just forget that he was just stuttering like an idiot moments ago?
"We'll see about that." I reply casually, as if not even considering him a threat.
"Very well then, it has been decided. I will arrange the matches to be held 10 days from now. It would be prudent for you to inform your house about it. You challenged the House of The Great King, if you lose there will be consequences. Now leave my territory." commanded Zekram and Riser leaves in a flash of an orange fire covered magic circle.
"So I need to collect my peerage now?" I ask turning back to him.
"That's what you said. You picked a fight. You decide how to finish it. If you require help, I could allow you to take some servants from the Bael household as your peerage." and the fucker threw everything on me.
"In that case allow me to travel for a week and search for my peerage Lord Bael. I will be back within a week with whatever members I can find." I won't fill my peerage with his servants. I have many plans for it.
"Very well, 7 days. Be sure to be back within that time." He left the rest unsaid. Maybe he would declare me as a stray Devil. I wonder what he would do if he finds out that the game allows me to change back to human at will. Probably have a stroke or something. Food for thought.
Poor Kuisha looks like a deer caught in headlights. After Zekram leaves, she starts to apologize to me. She thinks it is her fault that I got dragged into this mess in the first place. Naïve little girl. Good for me though. Way to gain easy Affection points when she is feeling guilty about it.
"Shin, I didn't mean to do that. It's my fault. I should have stopped you when it started. I am really sorry that I didn't stop you soon enough." she keeps on blubbering nonsense that wouldn't have mattered either way.
"The idiot was here to pick a fight. He would have gotten it either way. If you had retaliated, you as a Middle Class Devil would have faced punishment, but I get away with a slap on my wrist at best. Don't worry your pretty little head about it." I play things off as casually as I can.
+10 Affection with Kuisha Abaddon (45/100) for saving her.(I really like this part)
Aren't you having too much fun with this game?
Why? Did you think that only Gamers can have fun?
Not really. Glad that you are enjoying it.
Thank you.
We casually exchange words while making our way back to Bael castle. I did get some good materials for my next experiment.
- Later that night –
The day was quite eventful as Sairaorg came running after he found out what had happened during our shopping trip, and as much fun as it would have been to see him stomp into the Phenex territory and punch the arrogant chicken to oblivion, I couldn't have that. All this was planned and I have to play a part in that plan. The people here wanted to see Riser get beaten up and I was going to give them just that.
Later I got calls from Venelana and surprisingly even Rias wishing me luck for my match. Rias was more worried though. She finally had a hope of escaping from that engagement and I went on ahead and picked a fight with Riser. Foolish girl still thought that the Phenex's would back down from the engagement just because Zekram and her family decided that she would marry me.
Good for me. If she is that stupid, then I can make better use of her. Smart girls are harder to manage.
Now for the plans for the Rating Game. I am not planning to show all of my abilities for the game. It's better to keep most of it hidden for a surprise against future foes. A fight against his entire peerage on my own could be slightly problematic. Even if individually they might not be that strong, the saying 'power in numbers' does hold some merit.
I have to accelerate my plans far faster now.
Thus right now I am in the workshop working on an entirely different invention. This one was a challenge to design in general. Especially the range of the device. A 10m or 100m range won't help me at all. I needed something like a 100 Km radius range at the very least for it to have some effect. And for that reason I had to create an independent power source for it. A battery which requires me to fill up my entire mana 5 times over every time I need to use it. It was like 1 million MP per use and this is where the bloodstones came in handy.
Bloodstones can hold a lot of magic inside them. Vampires feed on the magic in the blood and they use Bloodstones to substitute the magic in blood they steal for a higher grade meal. Other factions use the bloodstones for different purposes too, as catalysts, raw materials for artifacts, etc.
Two such batteries later my main device was ready. It is definitely something I can get behind and give an approval.
Sacred Gear Locator (Epic)
Detects the presence of any Sacred Gears within Range of the user.
Different colors indicate different status of the gears.
Grey : Unactivated
White : Activated.
The power level of the Sacred Gears is indicated by a spectrum of colors. Violet being the least and Red being the most dangerous.
Range: 100 km around the device.
This device is going to be the key to my victory in the Rating Game. Now let the Sacred Gear Hunt begin.
- Ravel Phenex –
This was all wrong.
Her idiot brother had come back home bragging how he would show everyone that the power of the Phenexs was the supreme in the underworld. She couldn't help but scoff at it. Even as young as she was, she knew that the Phenex Clan trait was not infallible. The very proof that none of the Satans were a Phenex was proof of that. Even her eldest brother, one she was actually not ashamed to be related with, was only ranked ninth in the Rating Games overall ranking lists. There were many people in the underworld who could easily kill him.
However her heart completely stopped when she found out, just what he did to prove his moronic delusions.
He challenged the ward of the fucking GREAT KING ZEKRAM BAEL! Although she had not heard of this so-called ward of the great king, she did know of a simple fact. 'If Zekram Bael has taken someone under his wings, you don't fuck with them'. But apparently her brother didn't know of this. That is why he was bragging how he would crush the…..bug and take Kuisha Abaddon as his own.
She doesn't know where he got this idea from but Kuisha is Sairaorg's queen. His win or loss won't matter to her, proof that Riser never thought of anything before acting on it.
The part that made her furious was her father actually encouraging Riser to carry on with his foolishness.
Her father has been using the power of House Phenex for his own personal agendas for too long to actually care about the consequences of such actions. It is due to his deals and threats to stop the trade of Phenex tears to other houses to gain advantage in the said deals, that the House Phenex is one of the most hated of the 72 pillars. She could only thank the Satans that there was no substitute for the tears or they would be razed by the other Pillars both financially and politically in a matter of months if not weeks.
But this farce has been giving her a sinking feeling in her stomach. There was no way Zekram Bael would just go around taking a walk in a market to stop Riser and if what she thinks is true, the great king has had enough of her father's attempts of usurping power and now House Phenex was going to be judged. The only question was could she save her mother, other two brothers and herself from all this mess.
- Multiversal Schemes –
"I thought that we decided not to interfere with the lives of newbies while they grew up, so what was that about?" A voice questions in the endless darkness of the void, waiting for a response to the question.
"Oh come on, I just gave him a push in the right direction. It's not everyday that we get an interesting one like him. First day as a gamer and he already, kills his watcher, robs a bank, throws others out from their inheritance and leaves the fuck out while showing them a middle finger. I just 'suggested' him to open the box and summon the Devil. Not much." A second voice replies in a cheerful tone.
"You could have always created quests to make him involved, no need for mental manipulations. That's the one thing we decided to avoid." The first voice remains unfazed by the cheerful tone of the second.
"And now you are being a spoilsport, don't worry. I have prepared a …..gift for him because of my prank. It will even everything out."
"Really, you are going to give him that?"
"Can you imagine all the chaos it can cause if he tries to use it? He could always let it sit aside. Wasted opportunity I suppose. All his choice this time."
"True Enough."
"Let's see how our junior gamer lives through this mess."
_x_x_
Well that explains why Shin was being reckless back then. The Seniors wanted some excitement in their game, so Shin got nudged into doing so.
They will reveal themselves in time and no there will not be any other mental suggestions. It was a one-time thing.
Shin is going to go out for a hunt now. What this hunt entails and what chaos it will cause all over the world is completely unknown. However, it is bound to be fun if nothing else.
I got the idea of the Sacred Gear Locator from the Dragon Radar in the Dragonball series. If Azazel can track sacred gear wielders, then why can't Shin.
The Gundam was a joke actually. I will think about it. Don't worry he won't be using it in fighting small battles or something like that. any ultimate class being can easily match a Gundam.
His peerage still needs to be taken care of. I have been thinking about some members from other worlds. But it might make things too easy for him if I just dump them on his head. I like OP characters but too much of it can ruin the fun and drastically reduce the length of the story.
I was thinking about what would be a good time to go to future worlds. The DxD world is quite big and has a lot of room to explore. I would like to go to a different world which he could establish as his base. Highschool of the Dead, One Piece, something else. My own vote is on One Piece. Not many gamer fics on one piece are done yet so I am looking forward to writing about it if possible
The Naruto world has something special planned for it. I am going to do it in a different way. Following the canon becomes boring all the time. A new take on Naruto with Shin messing around with everything. I have all these plans in my mind, I just need to arrange them properly and write it down. Wish me luck guys.
None of this will be happening anytime soon though.
Peace out.