Demons and Botched Rituals Part 6 (Patreon)

“You weren’t joking, five levels off one blade, instant mastery,” Harry said as he looked through the patterns he’d gotten from his Edgelord class while Salaxiz examined the demonic steel skinning knife that he’d just finished crafting.

“More like two hours and change, and your blacksmithing still has twenty levels,” Sin teased as she finished wrapping her last dagger handle. “And done.”

“It’s close enough to instant compared to trying to get to level five using steel,” Salaxiz said as she placed the blade against the anvil and tested the flex of the blade. “It’s better than I was expecting, you got lucky.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being lucky.” He grinned when he saw his new skinning knife pattern. “Speaking of luck, do you normally get better versions of stuff you crafted while leveling?”

“Not that I know of, why?” Salaxiz asked, curious what he’d picked up.

“Because I picked up a new skinning knife pattern that’s better than the one I got helping you, it reduces the time it takes to skin things and gives the user a bonus to skinning, 1 point per five points of Blacksmithing,” Harry explained. 

“I’m going to want that. What else do you have?” Salaxiz asked, curious if he’d picked up anything else she didn’t have.

“The Assassin’s dagger adds bonus damage if you stab someone from behind, the Spark Dancer pattern would be useful against something that’s vulnerable against lightning or if you want a lightshow.”

“Lightshow?” Sin asked as she leaned over the table, causing Harry’s attention to jump to her breasts.

Harry smiled at Sin then pulled half of his attention back to his crafting menu, happy that the window was translucent so he could still enjoy the view. “It trails harmless lightning while you’re holding it and shocks anyone you stab with it,” he explained as he looked at his new blood sword pattern. “The Poison Fang dagger is basically always coated in poison and the Mage Slayer deals extra damage against people with a higher magic stat than the wielder, which is nearly useless to me.”

“That’s new,” Salaxiz admitted. “Do you need anything special for the Spark Dancer and the Mage Slayer?”

“Wood from a tree struck by lightning and blood from a creature with lightning affinity for the Spark Dancer,” Harry explained, fairly sure tracking down a tree struck by lightning in Hell would be more than a little annoying.

Salaxiz stared at Harry. “What type of lightning based creature and what type of metal?”

Harry checked the Spark Dancer pattern. “It’s not specific.”

“Weird, most patterns require much more specific reagents,” Salaxiz said thoughtfully.

“My Poison Fang pattern just lists metal, handle, and a fang from a venomous beast,” Harry said absently swapped back to his Blood Sword pattern. “The Blood Sword just requires blood from a creature that can drain life naturally, along with the metal.”

“That should be easy, you just need to ask a succubus,” Sin said as she shifted her shoulders causing her breasts to sway, drawing Harry’s full attention back to her breasts.

“What percentage do you have on your Blood Sword?” Salaxiz asked.

“It gives half of a percent of healing of the damage dealt per five points of blacksmithing,” Harry replied as he looked at his Mage Slayer pattern, without taking his eyes off Sin. “The Mage Slayer ability just requires blood from something with more than two hundred points of magic and metal.”

“I guess we can skip that pattern,” Sin grumbled.

“You win some, you lose some,” Salaxiz said with amusement, not particularly concerned with missing out on a pattern she couldn’t get the material for.

Harry shrugged, seeing no reason to mention that he could use his own blood to make the knife as he didn’t need knives floating around that dealt extra damage to magic users. “Any idea how to get a lightning struck tree down here?”

“That’s easy enough,” Salaxiz replied as she pointed toward the back of the cavern. 

“If you can teleport,” Sin muttered.

“There’s a narrow tunnel on the other side of the lava in the corner that leads to another hell dimension where you can find a forest, the weather is quite nasty, it shouldn’t be all that hard to find a lightning struck tree.”

“What are the natives like?” Harry asked, wanting to know what he was getting into.

“Most of them are primitive cannibalistic slavers. Thankfully, they don’t have access to The System and they generally don’t have magic, other than the priests, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“I’ll do my best to avoid them,” Harry assured her.

Salaxiz grabbed an ingot of demonic steel out of the bin. “If you run into problems, don’t leave any witnesses and don’t let them track you back to the cave, I’d rather not give them access to The System if we can help it.”

“That sounds like a bad idea,” Harry agreed as he walked over to the forge. “Do you have a fang or should we start with the improved skinning knife?”

“Start with the skinning knife, I’ll see what I have for fangs,” Salaxiz replied as she tossed the ingot to Harry and headed for the cottage. 

“Works for me,” Sin said happily as she headed over towards the bellows with a spring in her steps that drew Harry’s eyes once more, much to her amusement. 

0o0o0

Eric glanced up from his book when Selena stumbled out of the exit portal. He smiled at the gorgeous purple skinned demon that followed his friend out of the portal. “Sweet, Malgrave owes me twenty silver.”

Hermione glanced around the mostly empty small stone room then at the almost modern looking colored glass light fixtures that cut the glare from the magical lights, then focused on the brown haired teenager wearing grey trousers and a red shirt that was sitting on a wooden chair with a thick leather tome in his lap.

“Let me guess, he bet that I wouldn’t make it out?” Selena asked with a touch of annoyance as she thought about her fellow warlock.

Eric laughed. “Just because he’s annoying doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. Well, not that much of one, he bet on blue, I bet on purple.”

“How much do you have to give to the Professor?” Selena asked as she walked over to the table near the door and signed the guild’s ledger of survivors.

“Why would I have to give one of the professors anything?” Eric asked with a grin that missed innocent by a mile.

“Because I know you, you’re not going to make a bet of that size without being sure,” Selena replied with amusement.

“That reminds me,” Eric yawned, not admitting anything, “I need to pick up a bottle of wine from the market.”

Selena laughed. “Speaking of information, do you know a good place to set up an alchemy shop?”

Eric pulled his attention off his friend’s demon and focused on his friend. “That depends, are you looking for profit, ease of access to supplies, or safety?”

“Profit,” Selena said, fairly sure Hermione’s ability to teleport would help with safety and ease of access for transporting supplies.

“Your best bet is probably buying the Alchemist shop in the Swamp of Stench,” Eric suggested, knowing that it had come up for sale again.

“Yeah, hard pass,” Selena said, thinking about the stories she’d heard of the place.

“Is the stench that bad?” Hermione asked.

“From what I’ve heard, it’s horrible. It’s also a disease filled nightmare that spawns rare and dangerous monsters because of the dungeon in the middle of the swamp.”

Eric shrugged. “Which means you’ll make a decent profit selling potions to cure disease and ointments that protect against bugs to the adventurers coming to raid the dungeon. You wanted profit, not safety or comfort.”

“There’s a difference between danger and wishing you didn’t have a sense of smell,” Selena argued.

“We can probably do something to protect the shop from the stench,” Hermione suggested, thinking about bubblehead charms and air freshening charms.

“Until the wind is blowing hard enough to overwhelm the spell or someone walks into the shop smelling like death,” Selena complained, thinking about the stories she’d heard about the place.

“Now you’re just being overly dramatic. How much do they want for the shop?” Hermione asked, fairly sure the stench would give her plenty of motivation to work on her wandless magic.

“100 gold, you’ll make it back in a month after expenses, less if you’re willing to gather your own ingredients,” Eric replied cheerfully.

“Why so cheap?” Selena asked, sensing a story.

“The old alchemist got eaten by a wandering monster and his son doesn’t want to deal with the shop, so he contacted the Guild and put the place up for sale,” Eric explained. “If nothing else, you’ll be getting paid to practice your alchemy skill.”

“Fine,” Selena muttered as she turned to look at Hermione. “What do you think?”

“We should buy it,” Hermione replied, figuring the man’s notes were probably worth more than his son wanted or at least close enough that they weren’t going to lose money over it if they turned around and sold the place after making copies.

“In that case, thanks for the suggestion, let’s head to the guildhall,” Selena said as she headed for the door.

“Before you go, I’m curious. Did you get anything fantastically interesting from the dungeon?” Eric asked curiously.

“That depends, do you know anyone that will give me a decent price on adamantite arrows?” Selena asked with amusement.

“Check the Blacksmith’s Quarter. Windle Thunderstrike can forge it and is fairly honest, he makes most of the guild’s high end gear. You might try the archery trainer in town, he keeps some for special monsters and might be willing to buy a few if they’re any good.”

“Thanks,” Selena said as she headed out of the door into the hallway. 

“Best of luck,” Eric said as he went back to reading, waiting for the next person to make it out of the dungeon so that he could make sure they signed the ledger for the Guild’s records.

“We might as well talk to the archer before we talk to the smith,” Selena said as they walked down the hallway.

“Shouldn’t you tell your family that you’re alive?” Hermione asked as they walked past the wooden counter where a group of young people in robes were waiting in line.

“Nah, I’ll tell them after we sell the arrows, go clothes shopping, and pick up a bottle of wine,” Selena replied as they walked outside the stone keep that served as the Warlock’s guildhall.

“You didn’t tell them about the dungeon, did you?” Hermione asked as she looked down at the walled city that sprawled out below them and the farmlands and forest beyond them.

“I told my father,” Selena replied then sighed. “Mom would have worried and tried to talk me out of it, so I just told her I was working on a project.”

“How much trouble are you going to be in?” Hermione asked, thinking of Ron’s mother and her tendency to shout at the drop of a hat.

“That depends entirely on if Dad admits that he gave me permission,” Selena replied with amusement as they continued down the path. “I’m sort of hoping that Mom is so happy that I’m alive that she’ll skip yelling at me.”

“Best of luck,” Hermione replied with amusement.

“Either way, you’re worth it,” Selena assured Hermione as she pulled her into a one armed hug as they walked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” Hermione assured her, unwilling to lose her new friend. “How much do you think we’ll get for the arrows?”

“No idea. Adamantite is about a thousand gold a pound from what I recall, there’s maybe half an ounce of metal in the sharp arrows, so 10 gold or more depending on crafting?” Selena asked, not sure what they could get for the arrows but fairly sure it would be better to sell the sharp arrows to the archer and a couple of blunt arrows to the smith, provided he had enough gold.

“How far is the swamp from here?” Hermione asked, wishing she had a map.

“About fifteen miles by boat, close enough to visit but far enough that the adventurers usually just buy things on site.”

“If the stench is that bad, why would anyone go there?” Hermione asked softly as they walked past a young man in robes walking up the path.

“Gold. With the right skills, you can make enough gold off one run in the dungeon to pay your bar tab for a year of heavy drinking or to put food on your family’s table for a year. Of course, most adventurers don’t have the right skills for that, but they can still make several months' wage in a day, if they survive.”

“Couldn’t they just grab a trade rather than risk their lives in a dungeon?” Hermione asked.

Selena shook her head. “Most of the trades are tied to guilds, if you want to learn the craft, you’ll have to pay a fee which most commoners can’t afford.”

“Are you a noble?” Hermione asked, not sure how things worked.

“Not really, I think I might have had a great grandfather on my father’s side that was the third son of a minor noble. Of course, my situation is a bit different, my family have been magic users for centuries, so we normally just end up with Mage or Warlock classes and make our money adventuring.”

“So magic runs in families?” Hermione asked.

“It’s also influenced by magic zones and possibly the stars or maybe the phase of the moon but yeah, generally speaking if your parents have decent magic stats, you’ll end up with magic,” Selena explained as they took the path that headed toward the wall where the archers trained.

“In other words, there’s a degree of randomness?” Hermione asked as they walked past a group of five men carrying bows and wearing identical green cloaks.

Selena shrugged. “Between the magic zones and the fact that most commoners don’t keep track of their family lines beyond two or three generations, it’s hard to say where the magic comes from. Either way, it doesn’t much matter.”

“Doesn’t matter?” Hermione asked in surprise, thinking about all of the purebloods back home.

“Nah, your magic stat is the important bit, no one really cares where it came from,” Selena explained as they walked over to the middle aged man in a brown leather clothes that was watching a number of recruits practice shooting.

The instructor turned and looked at Selena. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Eric mentioned you might be willing to buy adamantite arrows,” Selena replied.

“How many do you have?” he asked.

Hermione pulled six of the arrows out of the quiver. “We have a dozen, are you interested?”

“I’m interested but I can’t afford a dozen at anything approaching a reasonable price, how about a trade?” he offered.

“What are you offering?” Selena asked.

“I can teach several archery classes and a rare class that tames monsters, fair?”

Selena weighed her options. “You’re going to want all twelve aren’t you?”

“I’ll toss in twenty gold, which is all I can spare,” he offered.

“Deal,” Selena agreed, fairly sure she could sell a couple of blunt arrows to the smith to make up the difference and that selling the arrows to the archery trainer would help keep the city safe if something nasty came out of the woods.

Hermione handed him the six arrows then worked on finding the rest of her bladed arrows, wishing she’d created more of them. “Here.”

He stared at the exceptionally well crafted arrows, suddenly feeling a touch guilty for offering a fraction of their value in coin. “We might as well start with the Ranger class, it doesn’t have some of the archery tricks but it has a decent collection of useful skills for any adventurer.” 

“Sounds good,” Selena agreed, knowing that a lot of adventurers eventually picked up the class because of the skills.

He spent the 25 mana required and gave the demon the Ranger class then did the same for the girl. “Give me a second and I’ll give you the other class.” He pulled a mana potion out of his belt pouch then drank it so that he’d have enough to give them the other class.

“Archery Mastery, Bower/Fletcher, Herbalism, Stealth and Tracking,” Hermione read off the skills in the window then glanced over the rest of the class details, rather happy that there weren’t any restrictions or downsides. “Thank you.” She hit accept then went back to looking for the rest of the bladed arrows.

Selena hit accept after reading the details. “No skinning skill?”

“I have a Hunter class that offers skinning but it’s nearly worthless, you’d do better picking up Skinning with a leather working class and arrow tricks with an archery class. Even the bonus damage against animals is sub par as it only works against mundane animals which just aren’t that impressive.”

“If it sucks, why take it?” Selena asked.

“Mostly because I’d already maxed out my Ranger class and I was curious.” He glanced between the girls and the recruits. “Do me a favor, don’t mention I have the next class or that I taught you,” he said in a voice just about a whisper.

“No permit?” Selena asked in a whisper.

“Technically, I don’t need a permit as the Monster Tamer guild only has a monopoly on their class because they get everyone who signs up to agree to a geas enforcing their rights and I picked mine up on a island off the coast twenty years ago from a lizardman shaman, but that wouldn’t stop them from causing trouble if they knew I had it or that I was teaching people even though it’s not the same class that they give out,” he explained as he spent the mana to give the demon the Monster Breeder class.

“That makes sense,” Hermione agreed as she looked over the new skills. ‘Breeding, Capture, Cooking, Monster Training and Pen Creation.’ She hit accept after she read through the rest of the information. “Thanks,” she said as she handed him the other other six arrows.

“You’re welcome,” he replied as he spent the mana to give Selena the class then grabbed his coin purse and started counting out gold coins.

“How much have you used it?” Selena asked as she accepted the class and looked over the skills.

“Just enough to be able to teach it, you stop getting experience for capturing mundane monsters at level 5 which makes it hard to level if you’re stuck in a city,” he explained as he handed Selena the twenty gold he owed her.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Selena assured him.

“Same,” the trainer assured her. “You’ll want to take a look at the local pet laws before you capture anything.”

“Don’t worry, it’s on the list,” Selena replied as she turned and headed back down the path.

“Thanks.” Hermione pulled up her skill menu and looked at her new skills as she followed Selena.

0o0o0

Harry grunted and fell over backwards as something crashed into him right as he stepped around a tree. He stared up at the wild haired pale skinned girl with glasses that was raising a stick to hit him. “Um, parley?”

“Parley?” the girl asked, surprised that the demon would know the word considering the rest of the demons she’d run into weren’t exactly peaceful or diplomatic.

“As in please don’t hit me, I’d rather not have a concussion...” Harry trailed off as he noticed the rims of her glasses were plastic which didn’t fit the tech level.

“You’re acting surprisingly reasonable for a demon,” the girl replied as she scrambled off of him, ready to run if he proved hostile.

“Accidents happen,” Harry replied as he got to his feet. “Is there a reason you’re wearing glasses with plastic frames?”

“I’m from Earth, they’re common back home,” she explained as she studied the purple skinned demon with pointed ears that looked nothing like the rest of the demons she’d seen.

“How did you end up here?” Harry asked as he turned his attention back to the tree that had been split down the middle, keeping part of his attention on the strange girl, mostly because she was still holding the stick and he didn’t want to get hit.

“I opened a book, it pulled me through a portal,” the girl complained.

Harry stared for a second when he saw a large crocodile-like bear creature running towards them out of the darkness. He quickly pulled his wand out of his inventory and blasted the creature with a leg thick line of holy light that caused the creature’s flesh to burst into flames. “That’s new…” he trailed off as the creature stumbled to a stop then flopped over dead and steaming.

“Parley, right?” the girl asked nervously, knowing that she wouldn’t get very far if the stranger decided to kill her.

“Sure, I’m Harry,” he offered.

“I’m Winifred but everyone calls me Fred,” Fred replied, still not quite sure about the purple demon.

“Pleased to meet you. Do you know if this creature is edible?” Harry asked, gesturing towards the steaming corpse, the smell of partially cooked meat making his stomach growl as he realized he hadn’t eaten in days.

“I’ve never had it before,” Fred replied, “but I bet it tastes like chicken. A surprising number of things do.”

Harry put his wand back in his inventory and pulled this new and improved skinning knife out as he walked over towards the creature. “In that case, no sense in letting it go to waste. Let’s parlay over lunch.”