Demons and Botched Rituals Part 5 (Patreon)

Jax snorted as he examined the strip of green hide that Harry had handed him to examine. “I’d say you were getting better, but I’d be lying.”

“Funny, you’re the one that said I should hurry,” Harry grumbled as he continued skinning the demon’s leg that he was working on.

“That’s because you were taking forever and we’re going for quantity over quality,” Jax said as he dropped the piece of demon skin into a bag with the rest then pulled a dagger out of the sheath on his arm and tossed it at a green skinned demon that was attempting to sneak up on them, sinking the dagger to the hilt and instantly killing the child sized demon. “The knife increases your skill rating which means you should be able to increase the speed without producing worthless scraps.”

“Wouldn’t I get more experience if I was careful,” Harry asked as he handed the orange skinned demon a strip of demon skin that was as long as his arm and five inches wide.

“Not even close,” Jax replied as he studied the strip of skin. “At best you’d get double the experience and a small boost to quality, when you can get five marginal strips of hide in the time it takes you to get one decent piece, the math isn’t in your favor. Besides, we don’t care about quality, just quantity right now,” he explained as he rolled up the strip of demon skin and stuck it in the bag with the rest of Harry’s attempts.

“Do you have any other words of wisdom?” Harry asked as he started on the demon’s other leg.

“Tilt your knife a bit more, that should make it easier to avoid cutting the skin if you slip,” Jax suggested as he walked over and pulled the dagger out of the demon he’d killed. “It’s a lot easier to scrape meat off than repair the skin.”

“Thanks,” Harry replied after adjusting the angle of the knife and finding that it gave him more control and didn’t hurt his wrist quite as much. “This would be easier with magic,” he muttered under his breath as he continued skinning the demon’s other leg.

Jax snorted. “Bullshit, you’d still have to understand the basics and the easiest way to understand the basics is to practice and increase your skill.”

“Fair enough,” Harry replied, making a mental note to get a second opinion when he had a chance.

0o0o0

“Are you sure we’re ready?” Selena asked nervously as she double checked her pockets to make sure all of her potions were in the right place.

“No,” Hermione replied honestly as she swept her gaze over the sand one last time to make sure they hadn’t dropped anything.

“You’re supposed to lie,” Selena complained as she looked at her child sized demon.

Hermione smiled up at Selena. “Fine, we’re going to walk in there and obliterate every monster in the arena and get a fantastic magical item of doom that will allow you to rule the world, is that better?”

“Less than I’d like,” Selena admitted as she stared into the arena, her earlier confidence wilting as her mind ran through a rather long list of possible monsters that they’d have to defeat.

“On a serious note, we could spend another couple of days trying to create the perfect new skill and never get anywhere. We have less than five hours before the archer’s gear vanishes and we’re stuck trying to finish the dungeon with the staff. Considering how powerful the bow is, do you really want to risk losing it?”

“Not really, especially since we don’t have a clock,” Selena said, knowing they might have considerably less than five hours considering how tired and worn out she felt.

“In that case, it’s time to be Harry,” Hermione said as she stepped through the door to the arena’s dugout.

‘At least she’s cute,’ Selena thought as she followed Hermione into the dugout. She sighed as she glanced behind her and saw the solid looking metal door. ‘At least there’s no point running.’

“Welcome to the Arena of Death!” the announcer shouted from his spot in the stands. “We have for your viewing pleasure, the current, reigning and defending champion, the Minotaur of Tartarus, the beast they call Dave!”

“Dave?” Hermione asked in disbelief as the crowd cheered. ‘That’s worse than Fluffy.’

“Our challengers are the Witch of Knowledge and the Warlock of Third Street! Three cheers for the little girls that are going to die horribly!” the announcer shouted as the gates of the dugouts slowly started retracting into the ceiling.

“Drink up,” Hermione said as she pulled out her collection of enhancement potions. She wasn’t a fan of the side effects but figured they’d be done with the fight before the twenty minute duration was up and could sleep off the side effects after they got out of the dungeon.

Selena drank her three enhancement potions, boosting her strength, agility and endurance, her knuckles white as she held her bow in her left hand. “Do we have a plan?”

“Don’t die…” Hermione trailed off as the massive minotaur stepped out of the dugout and stood up, having had to bend nearly in half to fit.

“We might need a new plan,” Selena muttered as she stared at the creature’s cock that was on full display and nearly as large around as her leg.

Hermione stared in horror as the minotaur snorted and flames shot out of his nostrils. “Yeah, because that’s fair,” she grumbled as she grabbed Selena’s free hand and apparated to the top of one of the pillars on the edge of the arena.

Selena twitched and shivered as she tried to recover from being pulled through a very small tube without throwing up.

‘Screw it, I’m not Harry.’ She pulled an arcane arrow out of her quiver, drew it back and aimed for the minotaur’s crotch. ‘At least it’s not a small target.’

There was a moment of shocked silence when the screaming arrow of death hit the minotaur in the crotch before he toppled over with a pain filled shriek, clutching his ruined equipment.

“Boo!” The crowd roared with displeasure and horror as Hermione proceeded to quite ruthlessly rain death down on the shrieking creature, only stopping when the minotaur faded away, leaving a silver token and a book. ‘That took a disturbing number of arrows.’

Selena stared as Hermione grew a foot and a half in height before her eyes, going from looking like a kid to looking like an attractive teenager. ‘Best demon, ever.’

“Never have I seen such brutality and unsportsman-like behavior,” the announcer screamed as the crowd roared with displeasure. “Release the hounds of Hell!”

Hermione twitched as massive fire breathing hellhounds started appearing scattered around the arena and her bow lost its luster and the quiver suddenly felt a lot heavier, almost causing her to fall off the pillar with the change in weight. “Let’s go,” she said as she stuffed the probably useless or cursed bow into Selena’s backpack then grabbed her hand and apparated down to the loot.

Selena shrieked as one of the massive hounds jumped at them only to get pulled through another small pipe then shoved through the exit door.

0o0o0

Harry followed Jax down the narrow and dangerously hot tunnel, doing his best not to touch the walls as they were hot enough to leave burns. “How much longer?”

“We’re almost there,” Jax replied as he slipped around a corner and stepped out into a large cavern. “Welcome to the Knifemaker’s humble abode.”

Harry stared at the almost mundane looking stone cottage and open air forge sitting on a tiny island in the middle of a river of lava. He glanced at the bridge that only made it halfway across the lava. “You could have mentioned the river of lava, I’m not immune to fire,” he complained, wishing he still had his wand so he could use a couple cooling charms.

“Relax, we’re not going to go for a swim,” Jax said as he pulled out several strips of thick brown leather out of his bag and started wrapping his boots. “We’re going to run across.”

“What?” Harry asked in disbelief as he stared at the bridge, fairly sure he couldn’t make the jump.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like water, you won’t sink,” Jax said, hiding his amusement as he watched Harry out of the corner of his eye.

“Are you insane!” Harry snapped as he realized Jax was talking about running across the lava, not jumping the broken section of the bridge.

“Nah, it’s simple, you cover your feet in rock hide then you dash across as fast as you can so that you don’t sink,” Jax said as he worked on securing the hide to his boots.

“We’d be cooked alive before we even got halfway across,” Harry argued, damned sure he hadn’t missed fire resistance on his character sheet.

“You shouldn’t take more than half your life in damage, maybe three quarters, you’ll heal eventually,” Jax assured him as he grabbed two more strips of brown hide and handed them to Harry. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, just don’t stop running.”

“I’m fairly sure the island…” Harry trailed off as Jax started running toward the river of lava then stared in shock as Jax managed to run across the lava without bursting into flames or any of the other expected results like dying horribly. “How the hell?”

“Told you!” Jax shouted then walked over to the door and knocked. “Just wrap your feet and run across, it’s fun!”

Harry glanced between the leather strips and the river of lava then apparated across, figuring there had to be some type of protection from heat charm on the area if there was grass on the little island. He coughed as the temperature went from being uncomfortable to standing in front of an oven.

“That’s cheating,” Jax grumbled as the door opened, revealing a green skinned red eyed woman in a blacksmith’s apron. “Hey Salaxiz.”

Salaxiz glanced at Jax then looked at Harry. “Please tell me he told you about the invisible bridge?”

“No, he suggested running across the lava, I teleported,” Harry replied as he studied the demon dressed in brown leather work clothes, surprised that a green skinned demon was being reasonable until he realized that she had a darker shade of green than the rest of the demons he’d seen and more human like features which probably meant she wasn’t local.

Salaxiz reached out and swatted Jax on the head then stepped back. “You might as well come inside before you fall over from heatstroke. Do you have the leather?”

“Of course,” Jax replied with amusement as he handed her the bag of leather and walked inside the cottage out of the heat.

Harry followed Jax into the cottage, sighing in relief as it dropped to a pleasantly cool temperature. He glanced at the athletic looking topless blue skinned girl in green leather pants that was eating a bowl of stew at the stone table. ‘Sorry Ron, I’m not sure going home is worth it.’

The blue skinned girl flashed Harry a smile then went back to eating.

Salaxiz looked Harry over then looked at Jax. “Let me guess, he wanted to learn to make knives?”

“Yes,” Harry replied as he pulled his attention back to Salaxiz.

“Did Jax bother to mention that the class comes with a supernatural ban against making other weapons?” Salaxiz asked as she glanced between Harry and Jax.

“Such lack of faith, I’m hurt,” Jax replied with amusement

“I’ll take that as a no,” Salaxiz replied sarcastically then turned to look at Harry. “Basically, you’ll only be able to make knives with your blacksmithing skill without losing the class and your skill, regardless of where you picked up the skill.”

“That sounds painful but I don’t have any crafting skills so I’m not worried, worst case, I can drop the class, right?” Harry asked, wanting to make sure that was an option.

“You’ll have to start over from scratch and you’ll lose your patterns and skills but you’re a demon, we’ve got nothing but time,” Salaxiz replied as she opened the bag and looked over the collection of leather scraps. “This should keep Sin busy for a couple of days.”

“Good,” the blue skinned girl said after finishing her last bite of stew. “I just need to wrap another seventeen hilts so I can unlock custom hilts in my interface.”

“Custom hilts?” Harry asked.

“It’s a Blacksmith thing, the class gives me some interesting options for customizing patterns but we have to work for them.

Jax laughed. “The world isn’t fair, most things worth doing take work.”

“I want a better hilt on my demonbane dagger, it came with an ivory hilt, do you know how slippery they are when they get bloody?” Sin asked as she walked over and dropped her bowl in the wash bucket.

“I’m guessing a lot?” Harry asked, trying not to stare at Sin.

“I just about stabbed myself in the leg the last time I used one,” Sin grumbled.

“Why not just swap the hilt after the fact?” Harry asked, not sure why they couldn’t just swap the hilt to something else.

“You’d break the enchantment which would make the blade worthless.” Salaxiz spent the mana to give Harry the Edgelord class. “Here, this should get you started.”

Harry glanced over the description of the class, not sure why it gave him a drama and makeup skill and a touch surprised that it also gave him a skill that reduced the damage from slashing weapons by 1% each level as well as Knife Mastery, which boosted his damage with knives. He frowned when he noticed the part about the class leveling with his crafting. “Does this mean it’s easier to level the class if you don’t have any points in Blacksmithing before you grab the class?”

Salaxiz dropped the bag of leather scraps on the table. “It’s easier but it’s also much less rewarding. If you had twenty points of blacksmithing before picking up the class, you’d get high end dagger patterns and a legendary sword pattern when you hit level five. You’re basically going to get shit for patterns,” Salaxiz explained.

“I thought you said you can’t create swords without losing the class?” Harry asked, confused why the class would give him a sword pattern when he couldn’t use it.

“You can’t, but you wouldn’t be an Edgelord if you weren’t willing to bleed for your craft or at least that’s what my old master said when I asked him the same question,” Salaxiz explained as she thought about the slightly unhinged teenager that had taught her the class.

“I guess that makes as much sense as anything else,” Harry said thoughtfully, wondering if the person that designed the class was a sadist.

“Speaking of bleeding for your art, if you’re willing to write down all of the details for the patterns you get from the class, I’ll let you use my skill boosting forge and some high end crafting material, you should be able to max out your class in a couple of hours.”

“Sounds good,” Harry agreed before she could change her mind, seeing no reason not to help her out considering it would help jumpstart his crafting.

“On that note, best of luck Harry,” Jax said as he headed for the door. “How long will it take you to make the dagger?”

“Twenty minutes,” Salaxiz said as she headed for the door. “Let’s get to work.”

Sin grinned as she snagged the bag of leather off the table and headed outside, eager to get to work.

“Sure,” Jax agreed as he followed Sin out, knowing it would take that long just to walk back to the cavern so there was no point heading back when he’d just have to turn around and head back.

Harry winced as he headed back outside and got hit with a blast of hot air, reminding him that it was far too hot in the cavern even if it wasn’t nearly as hot as it probably should be. “Is there a fire resistance skill?”

Salaxiz laughed as she shut the door. “Yeah, it comes with the Blacksmith class, it’s enough to cut the heat to something more reasonable,” she explained as they walked over to the forge.

Harry sighed in relief as the temperature dropped to something approaching reasonable as they walked into the open air forge. “Now what?” he asked as he glanced around at the almost familiar equipment.

Salaxiz pointed toward a rack of leather aprons and a stack of elbow length leather gloves sitting on one of the counters. “Grab an apron and gloves, you’re not immune to fire.”

Sin walked over to the table where her knives were laid out and got to work sorting the scraps while Harry put on his protective gear.

Salaxiz smiled when Harry finished pulling on his gloves. “Walk over to the bellows, open your crafting menu and hit the assist button. Normally, I’d have Sin work the bellows but she’s busy and she’s already unlocked a skinning knife.”

Harry walked over to the bellows then focused on his new crafting skill and grinned when a crafting interface appeared in front of him. He made a mental note to see if he could pull up a menu for his magical skills when he had the time. He tapped the assist button and waited.

“Make sure you’re paying attention, they’ll be a quiz when we’re done,” Salaxiz said as she walked over to the bin and grabbed an ingot of demon steel and started her project.

Harry did his best to relax and pay attention as he worked the bellows and listened to Salaxiz explain the best ways to forge demonic steel, more than a little disturbed that a demon was one of the best instructors he’d ever had.

0o0o0

Azure yawned and stretched as she woke up enough to care about doing something other than lying on the sinfully comfortable bed. She stared as she realized the room had changed, mostly the used wooden door that hadn’t been there the night before and the three bear pelts scattered around the room. “Where did you get the pelts and how did we miss the door?”

“No clue on the door and the pelts were there when we woke up,” Ruby said from her spot by the fire. “They add a nice touch.”

“Is it locked?” Azure asked as she turned to look at the door.

“No, it’s just a room with an anvil,” Jade said, not looking up from carving the set of bone dice she was working on as she didn’t want to cut herself with the knife.

“Now that you’re awake, do you have any good stories to tell us?” Ruby asked hopefully.

“I’m not a Skald or anything, but I know a couple of stories you probably haven’t heard,” Azure offered, knowing that she needed something to pass the time.

“That’s fine,” Ruby said, looking for something to distract her. “I’m bored and Jade is working on a project.”

“Don’t you have any professions to pass the time?” Azure asked as she sat up and put her feet on the comfortable bear skin rug someone had left right next to the bed.

“I don’t have any ingredients for alchemy, there’s nothing to harvest or mine and I don’t have any tools or material for making jewelry,” Ruby complained.

“If you can keep her entertained, I’ll be done with the bone dice in another fifteen to twenty minutes then we can play dice games.”

“Or you could try to explain the basics of magic,” Azure suggested, not sure letting the enchanter create the dice was the best idea if you wanted a fair game.

“What do you want to know?” Ruby asked.

“One of the orange demons I saw cast a spell that caused a group of green skins to turn on each other before someone stabbed her in the back, any ideas?” Azure asked, wanting to have a better idea of what types of spells the various demons could toss around.

“It sounds like charm or confusion,” Jade offered as she continued working on carving the numbers on the bone die, being careful not to cut herself.

“Most demons are good at unholy magic and have a weakness to holy magic, there are some exceptions,” Ruby offered, fairly sure Azure fell into the exception category based on her reaction to the unholy wand.

“Makes sense,” Azure agreed, thinking about her own weakness to unholy magic. “What else can you tell me about the local demons?”

“Most of the magic users I’ve seen have purple skin, outside of that, most of us just have a couple of tricks,” Ruby went on to explain what she could about the local demons.