Chapter 80 (2 of 2) Reconciliation != Cooperation (Patreon)

“Is this the one?” Lucille’s bond asked as he squinted at the crimson writing utensil, peeking over the edge of her desk.

Lucy nodded with her arms crossed. “This is the pen I stole from the Archduke.”

“It practically oozes villainy,” Scytale said as he picked it up. “Nothing screams ‘pen of a demon’ more than the colour of fresh blood.”

“Wouldn’t that be a pen of a vampire?” Lucille pointed out.

Scytale considered it and shrugged. He picked the pen up and tossed it in the air. “Doesn’t matter. You sure you’re not going to get killed for taking this?”

“Please.” She gave him a dismissive wave and sat down in her armchair. “If he was going to kill me, then he would’ve done it before now. At most, he’ll be mildly irritated by me.” Lucy took the pen back from Scytale to stow away in her desk and then raised an eyebrow. “Considering his new ambivalent attitude towards me, should I take you along next time?”

Scytale turned into his beast form with a flash of gold mana and dived underneath Vincent’s armchair. “Nope! No, thank you! I will ceaselessly continue to perform the role of your humble freeloader!”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I have plenty of tasks for you to complete in the coming years once you’ve gained strength.” She pulled out her pocket watch, checking the time. “In approximately five seconds…”

Scytale stuck his head out from beneath the chair as a notification chimed for them both in sync.

[Realm Sub-Quest -  Ancient Dungeon Exploration Tier IV (Dusky Undercroft Dungeon of Synadis): COMPLETE]

·      Synadis Monster Slayer IV:

o   Defeat 2000 monsters in the Dusky Undercroft Dungeon of Synadis: COMPLETE (2000/2000)

o   Slay 30 Zone Bosses: COMPLETE (30/30)

·      Synadis Treasure Hunter IV:

o   Obtain Epic materials x100 in the Dungeon: COMPLETE (100/100)

o   Obtain Legendary material x1 in the Dungeon: COMPLETE ]

[Rewards: +2000 xp (Ancient Dungeon Discovery bonus applied), Blank Common Skill Book]

[Realm Sub-Quest - Ancient Dungeon Exploration Tier V (Dusky Undercroft Dungeon of Synadis) Unlocked]

[Faction Quest – Adventurer’s Guild Ancient Dungeon Exploration (Dusky Undercroft Dungeon of Synadis) Monthly Report]

+ 1000 xp

Crystalline token x2]

[+3750 xp]

[Level Up! x7]

[+7 levels]

[+35 Free stat points]

[User has reached Level 87]

[Xp: 128/549]

Scytale sat on her desk once he had turned back to his human form. “4k-ish experience? Shouldn’t we be receiving more?”

Lucille shook her head as she studied the notifications. “Not necessarily. We haven’t been contributing to the Dungeon exploration, so this is as much as the System will allow us to gain. Many of those monsters wouldn’t even be at our level.” She tapped her fingers thoughtfully against the desk. “At this stage, it would be more profitable for us to begin killing monsters above level 70 purely for the experience gain…”

Scytale clicked his tongue. “Pathetic. It’s eighty or up!”

“Not possible in my case.” Lucy frowned as she glanced at her Status screen. She collapsed the notifications and stood up. “My strength won’t be enough.”

“Uh...” He crossed his arms. “Didn’t you say you had a solution to that ages ago?”

“Well…” Lucille smirked. “Sedric should’ve almost finished it, so yes.” She walked up to her bond and gestured for him to get off the table. “Scytale, come down for a bit.”

“Okay?” He raised an eyebrow and jumped off. He blinked as Lucy used her hands to gauge their height difference. “What are you doing?”

“I think… yes.” Lucy stepped back. “You’ve grown around four centimetres taller. You’re approaching the height of the average 14-year-old.”

His expression brightened and then he scowled. “Why am I happy about this? It just proves I’m still short for my age.”

Lucy smiled and turned around to leave her study. “You’ll get there eventually. But back to what I was saying about our levels, it’s been half a year and we’re still ten levels away from the halfway mark of Rank-1. While we can complete the stages and unlock our third main skills before reaching the level cap for Rank-1, I don’t want to build up too much of a level ‘debt’.”

“You were complaining about your lacking stats,” Scytale said in response, following her out of her room.

“Yes, which means my priority right now is thinking about my ‘stat debt’ instead of level debt.” They ignored the bowing servants they passed as Lucille continued to explain, “The Casket of Boons artifact will be valuable, but I can’t rely on only the item. I don’t have Aspects that can take advantage of its abilities to their highest potential yet either.”

“I bet you could do something crazy with that Titan Aspect of yours, but…” Scytale looked around. “Where are we going?”

“Where else? To pick up my final items from Sedric,” she replied with a smile.

They entered the hallway that the crafter’s workshop was in but came to a stop when they heard loud crashes from behind the reinforced door. They exchanged glances with eyebrows raised and Lucy walked forward, swiftly opening the door to enter the top floor of the workshop.

A spray of ice shards made them cough and splutter, and they realised a massive wall of ice had extended up from the floor in front of their faces. Lucille walked forward and leaned over the railing. “Roa? What’s going on?”

The snow elf mage, who had a faint scowl on her normally cold face, looked up and then pointed at Sedric and a certain navy-haired mage.

 Sedric was hastily grabbing an assortment of glowing gems from the table, pulling them away from Marellen. Magical sparks were flying across the floor and random pieces of furniture burst into blue flames that disappeared barely a millisecond afterwards.

“Hey, mage! Look at the mess you’ve made!” Sedric shouted.

“I don’t know what happened to cause some of the gemstones you hold to explode, but I sincerely apologise. I only want to observe those spellcraft models within the jewels in closer detail, as they appear to be wholly distinct from any magical school I’m familiar with-”

“Quit your jabbering! I don’t care!” Sedric shoved the gems into a chest and slammed it shut before he sat down on it with his arms crossed. He scowled at Marellen. “The mana in this room has gone completely haywire! Some of my instruments might’ve been destroyed! How are you going to compensate me?!”

“Compensation for a room you don’t own, Sedric?” Lucille spoke up in a dry voice.

He flinched and looked up the flight of stairs to see her descending. Scytale was sitting up on the top level, his legs dangling over the railing.

She placed her hands on her hips and scanned the chaotic happenings around her. Then she sighed and waved a hand. Her spiritual energy forcefully reverted all the mana into a calm state, and she used her Transmutational Mana Conduit to change the mana ratios so there was less chance of another explosion. Lucy glanced behind her to look at Roa. “That wall is there… because…?”

Roa was looking somewhat wary, likely because she felt the change in the mana and possibly spiritual energy, but she still replied, “To protect the rest of the room against the conflicting mana. I was worried the structural supports of the staircase would fail against the force of the mana.”

Lucille nodded. “Thank you for that.” She turned back to the two young men. “So, now that we’re all no longer in danger of having another rogue fireball sent our way, do either of you mind explaining what occurred here?”

Marellen, as if he hadn’t heard her, quickly came up to her and peered at her through his round gold spectacles. “Lucille, how did you control all that environmental mana so effortlessly? And you converted the elements so seamlessly too! If you could spare the time, I’d love to have a discussion about-”

“No way, mage guy.” Sedric glared at Marellen and pointed at him. “You don’t get to change the topic and run off. No, I’ll tell you what’s going on here, Lucille.” He stood up and turned around to unlatch the chest. Taking out one of the glowing gemstones, he walked up to the nearest bench and placed it in the centre. “Your ‘precious mage’ was trying to steal one of these,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lucille raised an eyebrow when she recognised the gemstone as one of the gems she had passed to Sedric after fiddling with it using her Gemstone Processor skill. She turned to Marellen. “Marellen, if you wanted to study this, then you could’ve just come to me. I can create one of these any time I want.”

The navy-haired mage looked star-struck. “You made this?! This wasn’t a gemstone containing ancient magic?!”

With a strange smile, she picked the gemstone up and compared it to the shattered shards of one she picked up from the ground. “These contain a customised version of the spells I wanted Sedric to use in one of the items he’s made for me. Although from what I can see, these are only the prototypes for testing.”

“Yeah, well…” Sedric scratched the back of his head. “I’ve already finished that armguard you wanted with the good versions in it. These are just the leftovers.”

The clacking of heeled boots on the workshop floor drew their attention and they looked back to see Trisroa approaching the workbench. She studied the gemstone Lucy had placed back down with a frown. “Is the spell contained within this precious stone… truly a spell?”

Lucy smirked. “It’s been modified by a skill of mine. I could’ve used the original for the same purpose, but… my modified spells are more powerful and unique. It would be hard for any individual to nullify them.” She turned back to Sedric. “If the gemstones are in the item… then shall I take it as being finished?”

Sedric nodded. “Yeah. I’ll bring it out.” He walked up the stairs and left the workshop, making her raise an eyebrow.

“Commission Head… there has been something about you that I am curious about,” Roa said.

Lucille turned to her with interest. “Oh? About me?”

“I have received word that you wield two weapons, but the way you exercised your abilities earlier suggests you are highly familiar with magic,” the snow elf explained. She gestured to the gemstone on the workbench. “Even more so with how you have gained a skill to alter magic in such a fashion. You must be familiar with spellcraft.”

“Correct.” Lucy smiled and leaned against the workbench. Trisroa walked around to face her. “I know how to cast spells, yes. You could call me more of a spell blade.”

“…and your control of environmental mana?” Roa asked unsurely.

“It’s not environmental mana.” Lucille snapped her fingers and thousands of minuscule sparks of light mana showered down to be swallowed by shadows. “My mana passively flows through the air around me, so I can externalise any element I want. To control that haywire magic from earlier, I just needed to brand it with my spiritual signature.”

Roa blinked. “Oh… so it wasn’t a manifestation of your domain?”

Lucy grinned, knowing what the elf had been thinking. “Roa, I’m Rank-1. It’s impossible for me to have a domain already.”

Roa hesitated and opened her mouth to say something else, but Sedric re-entered the workshop with a protective case held in his arms.

“It took a bit of time because this was in my room, but here it is,” he said with a sigh as he placed it on the table in front of Lucy.

“Your room?” Lucille asked.

Sedric shrugged. “This is the most complex item I’ve ever worked on for you, so I kept it in my room to observe and ensure everything was in working order.”

“Oooh, what is it, what is it?” a boisterous voice interrupted. Scytale slid down the staircase railing and changed into his snake form to fly onto the table. “Is it powerful? Wait, never mind. This is Sedric we’re talking about.”

Sedric scowled, but Lucille tapped on the case before he could reply and slid it towards him. “It’s tradition for the crafter to introduce their masterpiece to the one who commissioned it personally.”

He hesitated and then nodded. Sedric unclasped the two locks on either side of the custom-made brass case. Inside were two armguards cast out of interlocking black metal gears, decorated by gold along the edges. Beneath the armguards were a pair of black leather gloves releasing strong dark element mana into the surroundings, intended to be put on beneath the metal. Seven slots were arranged in a spiral around the armguards, a gold mana circuit connecting them all. In each slot of a different shape was a different kind of gemstone, corresponding to the six essential elements. The only difference was the two violet gemstones in the inner wrist section of the armguards. Each gem contained a slowly rotating spell.

Lucille took the leather gloves from Sedric with a smile on her face and put them on after removing her white pair. Then, grabbing one of the armguards, she placed her forearm into it. Sedric helped her by pushing a button and the gears spun and locked to snap the armguard tightly in place. She repeated the step with the other one.

“They fit… right?” Sedric asked carefully.

“They fit perfectly. The shock-absorption effect of the dark element gloves probably contributes to that,” she replied.

“Yeah, I’m glad you got me that leather from a Scion,” he said with a sigh. “Because we can’t have the armguards shattering on you, they’re designed to have the impact pass to your hands. The gloves should help protect you against that, but I can’t be sure until they’re used in combat.”

“Good.” Lucy tapped on the violet gemstones in her inner wrists. “And are these functional?”

“They should be, but…” Sedric gave her a strange look. “Where in the realms did you learn spatial spells? I don’t know a single crafter who’s not a mage who has access to spatial spells… actually, I thought they were only ever used in staffs!”

“Ideally, these should be tested, but…” Lucy let out a sigh while Sedric glared at her for ignoring his question. “Due to how the armguard works, all these precious stones are disposable objects. The emergency teleportation spell and spatial lock spell in these stones have to be used very carefully.”

Scytale flew onto her shoulders and squinted at the glowing gems on the armguards. “How exactly does this thing increase your strength?”

“Hmm…” Lucille looked at her armguards, then at the nearby wall. She glanced at Sedric. “To enhance one stat I’m supposed to activate a pair, correct?”

He nodded. “Yeah, both gems of the same element. And you can only have a maximum of three stats – or six gems – activated.”

“Alright then.” The scarlet gemstones on her armguards gleamed with the force of fire as she prepared to throw a punch at the wall. “Time to see if the custom magic was worth it.”

Lucille approached the wall and pulled back her hand. The wind whistled past her ears as she sent her fist flying – and slammed it into the wall. Stone crushed beneath her hand and when she stepped back, everybody stared at the small crater left in the wall.

“Hey, this is my workshop!” Sedric complained.

“Uh…” Scytale jumped off the table and turned back into a human. He pointed at Lucy’s fist. “You’re bleeding, Lucy.”

The dark element leather glove was slowly repairing itself over torn skin and visible bone. Her fresh blood was dripping onto the ground. Lucy tilted her head and tried to uncurl her fingers, but they wouldn’t respond. Her hand was broken.

“So it would seem,” she replied with nonchalance.

Scytale facepalmed as Marellen, Roa and Sedric stared at her. Lucy just shrugged under their gazes and took a healing potion out of her dimensional bag. After downing it in one gulp, the broken flesh of her fist knitted itself back together and she stretched her hands out for the others. “See? All done. I should’ve activated the earth element set as well as the fire set for CON.”

Scytale put a hand on his hip. “So… did it have the result you wanted?”

She smiled as she began unclasping the armguards and peeling off the gloves. “Yes. My stats have been enhanced massively.”

Scytale, I don’t want to reveal it to them yet, but… this didn’t just give me additional stats. The spells that I modified with my skill have multiplied my stats by two times.

Scytale froze.

‘…you can only have three stats amplified at any one time though, right?’

Yes. And these gemstones will shatter sooner the more frequently I activate the amplification. These Epic-grade gemstones will last me two months. But if I use Ancient or higher… the multiplication bonus will increase, as will their lifespan.

“Lucille, are you going to find someone to fix my wall?” Sedric asked.

“Why? It’s not like you’ve ever cared about your décor,” she replied, packing the armguards back into their case.

Sedric gestured vaguely to the damaged wall. “Even I don’t want to work in a structurally compromised room, okay?”

She waved him off. “Fine, fine. I’ll get someone to fix this place.”

“Good.” He crossed his arms and nodded with satisfaction until a thought hit him. “Did you want to see your other finished item?”

Lucille turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “The sheaths? They’re done?”

“Sure, let me just…” Sedric walked over to a locked cabinet which he unlocked and brought out two dagger sheaths, one black with blue gems and the other silver with red gems. “I made sure they’d fit onto the belt I made you too.”

Lucy picked one up and tapped on it. The metal rang with a sound as clear as a bell. She withdrew Apophis and Ouroboros to let the snake-swords inspect their new ‘homes’. “These are made to passively recharge my weapons’ mana?”

Sedric nodded and walked closer to point to them. “Yes, but because making mana-conductive sheaths for weapons that only rely on atmospheric mana is pretty simple, I took it upon myself to add some modifications. Which, uh, I hope is fine with you.”

Lucy nodded and gestured to him to give him the go-ahead to explain.

“So… I heard a bit from Scytale, but your demonic blade can drain mana, right?” Sedric gestured to the sheaths. “With the mana storage of the sheaths, excess mana can be put in there for the weapons to use at a later time. Also, the storage is shared across both sheaths, so if the demonic blade drains mana, your spirit blade can use it too.”

Lucille stared at him, then at the sheaths.

Sedric… doesn’t know about the stat gain effect of my weapons. So he couldn’t have known that this would mean that Ouroboros could reconstitute stats and skills when I’m not fighting…

“That is… more useful than you’d expect, Sedric,” Lucy replied after a moment. “Well done.”

He scratched his neck. “Uh… thanks.”

A navy-haired mage, who had been suspiciously silent for some time, approached to observe the two weapons with wide eyes. “Don’t tell me that these are… sentient?”

Roa placed a hand on her chin and narrowed her eyes. “So it would seem… but a demon and a spirit with no enmity towards each other…”

“Their origins are… unique.” Lucy picked the sheaths up from the workbench and began to attach them to her belt. “I’ll use these right away, Sedric. It looks like I’ll have to come up with something else for you to do now.”

He crossed his arms. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“Right then. I’ll take my leave.” With Scytale in tow, she walked back up the stairs and said goodbye. It was when she entered her living room that a familiar but unexpected presence was outside her door.

“Count Goldcroft, it is me,” Roa called out.

Lucille tilted her head. “Come in.”

The snow elf walked forward with a slightly complicated expression on her face. She clasped her hands and dipped her head at Lucy. “I would like to have a discussion with you, if you can spare the time.”

Lucy considered it and looked over at her bond, who was stuffing his face with food.

“What?” Scytale asked with a frown.

She sighed and pointed at the door. “Please leave for the moment, Scytale.”

He glared at her and put another scone in his mouth. “Why? I know everything you’re going to talk to her about. I should be fine if I stay to hear-” The flat look on Lucy’s face stalled the rest of his words and he scowled as he stood up with the plate of snacks in his arms. “Fine, I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

Lucille rolled her eyes and then the door shut, leaving her alone with Trisroa, who sat down on the couch opposite Lucy.

“Commission Head Goldcroft, I came because I have a question to ask you,” the snow elf began solemnly. “What do you know of me, outside of my affinities?”

Lucy smirked. “Hmm… you’re a daughter of a distant lineage of the Vel-Winteridge Duchy on Glenheim, there are multiple rumours surrounding your bloodline due to your unusual pairing of affinities and…” She grinned. “You’re the ex-fiancé of Elven Prince Midárn.”

Trisroa gained a very slight bitter smile. “You know my past well, it seems. Even about the prince who so cruelly abandoned me when my Origin Skill awakened and rumours began to abound of my heritage.”

“Those who can’t see past bloodline to perceive only talent are worthless fools,” Lucy claimed with a shrug. “As your new superior, I will do my best to ensure that the life you live outside of Glenheim will be more fulfilling than in that stuffy environment.”

“…thank you for your kind words.” Roa clasped her hands together and leaned forward. “Then I wish to ask another question… why do the elements of mana as well as their spirits avoid you?”

Lucy smirked again. “There is a simple answer, Trisroa. Simply put, I was born unfavoured by elemental mana. I have no elemental affinity and therefore am avoided by them all. Any contract I tried to form in the past has failed too.”

“Then… your weapons?”

Lucy placed a hand on the pommels of Apophis and Ouroboros. “I named these two, and neither one of them have affinities. It’s quite possible they attained that nature because I was the one who named them.”

“My final question is…” The elf’s cold face grew more solemn. “How old are you?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, as I said, I need to take a break. I have exams the following week after next, so...

Also, Patreon will be paused so nobody gets charged.

But hey! I want to brag about something I bought yesterday!

Cool cover, right? It's a collection of all Lovecraft's stories.