Demons and Botched Rituals part 9 (Patreon)

“Any regrets?” Salaxiz asked as she watched her apprentice dance and slash the air like she was fighting an invisible opponent and loving every second of it.

“Just the lesser resistance to blades,” Harry admitted as he tried and mostly failed to keep his eyes on the daggers that Sin was waving around as she danced, mostly because her breasts were bouncing around and far more entertaining than the daggers trailing sparks. “Do you think I made a mistake?”

“Probably, I don’t think you’re getting your knife back unless you want to make her cry,” Salaxiz replied with amusement as she glanced over at the blood sword leaning against the anvil.

“I might be a demon, but I’m not a monster, she’s welcome to the knife,” Harry replied, knowing he had better options and that he could always make another one, mostly because he hadn’t lost any of his patterns when he’d lost the class, not that he’d admitted to that little detail as he didn’t want to explain his teaching ability. “I meant about the class.”

“I know and no, I don’t think you made a mistake,” Salaxiz offered. “The blade skill is a stone cold bitch to level and involves getting stabbed a lot. Besides, you’re a magic user, eventually you’re going to want to pick up Enchanting, being able to make your own gear to enchant is worth more than the blade resistance skill.”

“Fair point,” Harry agreed as he watched Sin come to a stop after blocking an imaginary strike with one dagger and stabbing with her other dagger. “Do you have any bracelet or ring patterns that you’re willing to share?” he asked as Sin sauntered over.

“They’re basically crap and I don’t have any copper or silver,” Sin replied as she held out Harry’s dagger.

“Keep the dagger,” Harry said with a grin. “I have coins and I’m willing to learn.”

“In that case, let’s get started,” Sin said cheerfully as she set her daggers on the table then walked over and grabbed an apron.

“Don’t forget to make some demonic steel tools before you leave, it’s cheap and should give you a fair amount of skill thanks to the material,” Salaxiz suggested.

“Anything else?” Sin asked.

“You should probably make a blood sword so that Harry doesn’t lose the pattern,” Salaxiz said with a grin as she set a vial of succubus blood on the table.

“In other words, what you’re saying is, you want a sword?” Sin asked with amusement as her master turned and walked out.

“Yes,” Salaxiz called out as she headed back to her cottage.

“I can’t complain, I get to spend more time with my favorite blacksmith,” Harry teased as he looked through his inventory for coins.

Sin grinned as she headed over to the forge with a spring in her step, happy to help.

0o0o0

The annoying blond haired boy scowled at Hermione’s collection of odds and ends on the counter, not sure why she was bothering with most of it. “You obviously have some coin, why are you buying a cheap four slot bag when you could buy the eight slot for just a bit more?”

“Probably because she only needs to move a couple of things and the four slot has a larger opening, in case you wanted to stick a body in there for transport,” the shopkeeper replied with a straight face. “Besides, there’s no point in paying more if you’re just going to toss the bag.”

The boy glared at the shopkeeper.

“That should bring the total up to 4 gold and 3 copper, right?” Hermione asked, not sure if there was sales tax or not.

“Call it four gold,” the shopkeeper offered. “I’ve had the rat flute for a while.”

“Probably because no one in their right mind wants to buy a crappy instrument that summons something they don’t have control of,” the boy said snidely.

“It’s called target practice, you little shit,” the shopkeeper muttered the last part.

“What did you call me?” the boy snapped.

“If you don’t have control of something, it counts as hostile for practicing skills,” he explained, ignoring the child’s question.

“For shit experience-” whatever else the boy was going to say was cut off as he collapsed falling to the ground.

“Sorry about that,” a teenage girl wearing blue robes said as she walked over. “My idiot step-father refuses to beat the stupid out of him and complains when I curse him for bad behavior. One of these days, he’s going to piss off someone that sends him back in a box and then my mother will cry and I’ll have to listen to it.”

“Bags are cheaper,” the shopkeeper muttered as he turned to look at the girl with strawberry blonde hair. “Normally, I’d complain about the spell in my shop but you saved me the trouble of tossing him out of the shop or setting him on fire.”

“It was easier than listening to him parrot my step-father, ivory tower wizards should keep their opinions on combat to themselves,” the girl complained as she looked at Hermione’s collection of gear. “Isn’t losing ten points of strength a bit much for gaining five points of magic?”

Hermione glanced at the copper bracelet that boosted magic at the expense of strength then went back to counting out coins. “It’s cheap and easy to slip on and off. Besides, I don’t need strength to set wards.”

“Good point,” the girl admitted as she set a silver crown on the table along with a bag of gold. “I’d probably do the same if I didn’t need to use it in combat. Ten points of magic and it doesn’t have a flaw.”

“Unless you count the price tag,” the shopkeeper said with amusement as he took the bag of gold and started counting out coins.

“That reminds me,” the girl said as she walked over and grabbed her half brother’s coin purse. “Stupidity should have consequences and his allowance is unreasonable.”

Hermione opened her mouth to object then closed it, mostly because she couldn’t help picturing Draco’s smug face and how much things would have improved if someone had held him accountable for his actions.

“What else can I interest you in?” the shopkeeper asked, seeing no reason to get involved in what was obviously an internal family dispute especially if she was going to spend his coin.

“What do you have for camping gear?” the girl asked as Hermione put her smithing hammer, flute and tongs in her new bag.

“I have a nice selection of self heating cooking pots,” the shopkeeper offered as he gestured towards one of the aisles.

“Do you have any that cook for you?” she asked hopefully.

“None that I’d trust,” he replied honestly.

“Why not?” Hermione asked as she worked on putting the rest of the gear into her pockets. ‘I probably should have grabbed another bag.’

“That particular enchant requires the enchanter to actually have the Cooking skill at a reasonably high level if you want the food to turn out at all decent.”

“In that case, what about a decent compass?” the girl asked, figuring she’d pick up a better pot elsewhere.

“Those I have,” the shopkeeper said as he gestured toward another aisle. “The enchant is only about 50 mana if you use a coin’s worth of silver and it’s a decent way to reach 3 points of Enchanting.”

“Thanks,” the girl replied as she stepped over her half brother and headed to check out the compasses.

Hermione left the bag on the counter, walked over to the cooking aisle and glanced over the collection of low quality copper mixing bowls and pans on the shelves, not terribly impressed with the craftsmanship or the quality of metal as some of them looked patched. “I’d recommend eating paste, it tastes better?” she asked as she read over the tag on the pot that was supposed to conjure gruel.

“Francis is a decent enchanter, but I don’t think she has any working tastebuds,” the shopkeeper complained, thinking about the attractive girl his assistant had bought the bowl from.

Hermione grabbed the pot and grinned when she saw the tag for a copper bowl that had been stuffed behind some iron pots. “Is there anything wrong with the bowl that creates a decent batch of brownies?”

“No, they’re delicious,” the shopkeeper replied with a smile as he thought about the delicious brownies the bowl created.

The girl looked up from the silver compass she was looking at. “If they’re delicious, why are you selling it?”

The shopkeeper sighed. “Because my wife doesn’t like the woman that enchanted the bowl.”

“Ah, let me guess, she’s attractive?” the girl asked as she took the compass over to the counter.

“Worse, she’s a better cook,” the shopkeeper replied dryly as he finished counting the girl’s coins, finding that she’d given him the exact amount on the tag.

Hermione grabbed the brownie bowl and a large rusty self heating iron pot that only got the water up to a bit past uncomfortable rather than boiling like it was supposed to. ‘If I can’t figure out how to duplicate the enchant, I’ll just melt it down for iron.’

The girl paid for her compass then took a step back and watched Hermione haul her collection of junk up to the counter. “Are you going to cook with that?”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Hermione replied as she paid for the pots and bowls.

“Now I’m curious, what are you planning on doing with it?” the shopkeeper asked.

“It takes ten seconds to heat water and it gets a touch past comfortable, it shouldn’t take all that long to fill a bath,” Hermione explained as she put the large pot in her bag, fairly sure that a couple of repair and scouring charms would have it looking like new.

“Wishing you’d cleaned it up and jacked the price?” the girl asked with amusement.

“Just a bit,” the shopkeeper admitted with a shrug. “Do you need anything else?” he asked as she glanced between the girls.

“Probably, but I’m out of coin and I need to check on my summoner,” Hermione replied as she grabbed the bag then carefully stacked her brownie bowl on the gruel pot then grabbed the handle of the pot and headed for the door.

“Nah, I’m good,” the girl said as she grabbed her new crown off the counter, hustled over to the door and held it open for Hermione. “Sorry about my half brother.”

“Don’t worry about it, you can’t pick your family.” Hermione walked out, feeling a bit better about the people in the world.

“Can you hold the door for a second?” the girl asked as she put the crown on. “I need to drag the brat into the courtyard.”

Hermione clipped the bag to her belt then gestured at the boy. “Wingardium Leviosa.”

The girl blinked as her brother floated off the ground. “That’s useful.”

“I try,” Hermione replied as she floated the brat out of the shop and over to the half naked demon that was still on her hands and knees and set him down next to her. “Is there a reason you left your demon outside?”

The girl snorted. “Yeah, she’s a cannibalistic glutton that I use for a trap detector. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against demons in general, but the greens are barely more intelligent than dogs and they’re not nearly as friendly.”

“Have you thought about replacing her?” Hermione asked, wondering if there should be a sense of demonic loyalty but not feeling any.

“Yeah, I was planning on swapping demons after the dungeon chewed her up, no point in torturing someone I can actually have a conversation with.”

“Makes sense,” Hermione lied, fairly sure the demon wasn’t much worse than Crabbe or Goyle in the intelligence department. “On that note, I should get going.”

“Same, maybe I’ll see you around. Minion, grab the idiot without breaking him and toss him over your shoulder…” she trailed off as her demon jumped up, grabbed her brother and tossed him over her shoulder, sending him flying. “Amusing, but not what I meant.”

“Sorry, my bad,” the demon said sarcastically.

“Yeah, I need him in one piece and alive,” she complained.

“Fine,” the demon grumbled as she walked over and picked up her master’s annoying brother and flipped him over her shoulder. “Home?”

“Yeah, I might as well drop him off on the way out of town,” the girl said as she started walking.

Hermione shook her head then headed over to the stone bench where she could work on cleaning up the iron pot and studying everything while she waited for Selena to finish her business with the alchemists.

0o0o0

Xander blinked and nearly fell out of his seat as a glowing purple portal opened in the middle of the library. “Shit, you couldn’t wait thirty minutes for Buffy to get back?”

“Xander, catch!” Giles said as he grabbed an axe from behind the counter and tossed it to Xander.

Xander caught the axe then stared as a half naked mauve skinned demon stepped out of the portal and looked around.

“Do you know what tacos are?” Ruby asked as she glanced between Xander and Giles.

“Yes?” Xander asked, not sure what was going on, but appreciating the view.

“Great, if I give you gold can you get me tacos?” Ruby asked hopefully.

“You’re going to give me gold, for tacos?” Xander asked in belief.

“Fred wants lots of tacos, can you get them?” Ruby asked.

“Sure, I can do that,” Xander agreed, figuring it was better than fighting.

“Great.” Ruby tossed Xander a small bag of gold coins then looked at the shelves filled with books. “Oh, can I borrow a book?”

“Can you get it back in a reasonable amount of time?” Giles asked out of reflex, as he decided that battle was not an immediate possibility and more research was needed on what was going on.

“What counts as reasonable?” Ruby asked.

“Two weeks?” Giles replied, as that was the standard checkout duration.

“Sure, that sounds reasonable, what do you need for collateral?” Ruby asked, fairly sure they’d use some type of magical contract considering the number of books she could see.

Giles wasn’t sure what type of collateral would be appropriate, technically speaking, he wasn’t supposed to give people cards that weren’t students but she was willing to pay in gold for tacos and didn’t seem interested in fighting. “Five gold,” he offered, not wanting to place the price too high or too low but fairly sure he needed to say something before she got upset.

“Great, how long will it take to get the tacos?” Ruby asked as she focused on Xander.

“Giles can I borrow-” Xander reflexively caught Giles’ keys as they flew towards him. “Twenty minutes, maybe twenty five,” he offered as he set the axe on the desk.

“Great, that gives me a chance to look at the books,” Ruby said as she walked over to look at the books.

“Do hurry back,” Giles said, hoping that things would stay friendly and that Buffy wouldn’t get back early. The last thing he needed was his slayer making things difficult considering the demon didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the axe Xander had been holding.

“On it,” Xander said as he left the room, hoping that this could become a regular thing, as being paid by peaceful demons for local items was much better than fighting homicidal demons to the death and not getting paid a dime.

“What type of books are you interested in?” Giles asked, trying to ignore her lack of attire.

“Do you have any books on home repair or chemistry?” Ruby asked hopefully.

“I’ll see what I can find,” Giles said, considering what subtle questions he could ask to ascertain her motives and dimension of residence while Xander retrieved the requested items.

0o0o0

Grimbane raised his eyebrows as Harry appeared in the summoning circle. “How many summoners have you gotten killed?”

Harry turned away from the dark haired lengthy teenager in his underwear and looked at the warlock summoner. “I’m not the one sending idiots into a death trap, it’s like you want them to die...” he trailed off as he noticed the look on the professor’s face. “Wait, you actually want them to die?”

“Officially, no but your previous summoners forgot the first rule. Franklin?” Grimbane asked.

“Don’t summon anything you can’t put down,” Franklin replied promptly.

Grimbane gestured at the glowing dungeon entrance. “I meant the first rule for the dungeon, but that is a good rule to keep in mind.”

“Don’t let your demon go first, especially if he’s more powerful than you are,” Franklin answered without hesitation.

“Any particular reason?” Harry asked, wanting more information.

“The difficulty is mostly set by the magic stat of the first member of the group that walks through the entrance,” Grimbane explained. “No matter how many times I explain that in the lecture, there are people that just don’t pay attention.”

“In other words, you’re going first?” Harry asked as he looked at Franklin.

“Yes,” Franklin replied then walked into the dungeon.

“Do try to keep him alive,” Grimbane suggested as he stepped on the circle so that Harry could leave the summoning circle. “He’s actually a good lad and a promising magic user, I’ll be cross if he dies.”

“I’ll do my best,” Harry said then followed Franklin into the dungeon, cautiously looking forward to working with someone that wasn’t a complete idiot.

“So, you’ve been here before, any suggestions?” Franklin asked as he glanced around the circular stone room.

“Are you sure you have the right class? You seem reasonably sane and you’re the first person that’s asked for suggestions rather than just ignoring common sense and barging in,” Harry said as he studied the three mannequins in the middle of the room wearing grey wizard hats.

“Honestly, I just wanted access to the dungeon, and being a magic user gives me that,” Franklin admitted.

“Why?” Harry asked as he walked over to get a closer look at the wizard hats.

“It has a decent chance to drop rare classes and I want to be an enchanter. The guild is more than a little suspect and I’d rather not sign my soul away.”

“Figuratively or literally?” Harry asked as he turned to look at Franklin.

“I don’t know, that’s the problem,” Franklin grumbled. “I know that most enchanters end up  working for the guild in an attempt to get noticed and slaving away making mana crystals hoping to get promoted to a ‘real’ Enchanting class, but I also know that almost no one gets promoted that doesn’t belong to certain families and I don’t.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound bitter at all,” Harry replied sarcastically.

“Just realistic,” Franklin replied as he walked over to look at the grey hats. “I have no interest in slaving away for those assholes for the better part of a century.”

“I can’t say I blame you, I’m not particularly amused by having a summoner that can order me around,” Harry admitted.

“Hello I’m Franklin Stout, pleased to meet you,” Franklin said as he held out his hand. “I’ll do my best to keep the orders to a minimum.”

“In that case, pleased to meet you, I’m Harry Potter,” Harry said as he shook the man’s hand, glad that he’d found a summoner that wasn’t a complete prick.

“Welcome to the dungeon,” a voice said from everywhere and nowhere.

“Yeah, that gets a 3 out of 10,” Harry said sarcastically.

“Choose your starting element!” the voice announced as the hats started rapidly changing colors. “The door will open when you put a hat on. Taking more than one hat is ill advised, but will result in higher rewards.”

“Hey, creepy voice, does this come with an instruction manual?” Harry asked hopefully as the hats stopped changing colors, leaving each of the hats a different color, red, blue, and green.

“I’m guessing that’s a no,” Franklin said after several seconds of quiet. “If I had to guess, I’d say red is fire and blue is probably water or ice though that’s usually denoted with a snowflake.”

“And green is earth or life?” Harry asked.

“Or poison, it just depends on the coloring system they’re using. Of course, that’s assuming the dungeon is playing fair.”

“I wouldn’t,” Harry muttered as he glanced between the hats. “On the other hand, I doubt you’ll find an enchanting class without a decent amount of risk. So, the question is, how many hats do we grab?”

“First, do you have any combat spells?” Franklin asked.

“Sure, dozens but I’d need a focus to cast them,” Harry complained as he pulled his holy wand out of his inventory. “On the other hand, I have a wand that can at least cast a holy ray. Want me to identify the hats or just grab one and go?”

“We need to grab at least one, you might as well check the red hat,” Franklin suggested, figuring he knew at least a couple of fire resistance spells if needed, the benefit of having a class with several budding pyromancers. 

Harry quickly lifted the red hat off the mannequin’s head, ready to jump back or toss it if something jumped out at him or if it caught fire. He sighed in relief when nothing happened other than the door swinging open. He dropped the hat into his enchanting box and tapped the runic script button to see if it had any use beyond triggering the dungeon.

“Anything?” Franklin asked after a couple of seconds.

Harry shrugged. “Less than I’d like. It allows you to cast a firebolt spell and decreases your resistance to cold and poison damage by 200% while you’re wearing it.”

“In that case, we’re probably dealing with cold and poison hazards.” Franklin glanced at the other two hats. “You might as well check the other hats.”

Harry put the red hat on then grabbed the blue hat and dropped it in his enchanting box. He pushed the button. “It cripplies your fire resistance and your poison resistance while giving you the ability to create a cold aura. We should probably take a chance and wear one each, considering the treasure I’ve seen in the dungeon it’s worth the risk. Do you want the cold hat or the fire hat?”

“If we take our time and avoid any other unnecessary risks, that would pay off,” he said thoughtfully. “How good is your fire resistance?” Franklin asked as he glanced at the open door, wanting to make sure nothing snuck up on them.

“Practically nonexistent,” Harry replied as he swapped hats and tossed the red hat to Franklin. “Do you want me to check the green hat or leave it?”

Franklin shrugged. “You might as well check.”

Harry grabbed the green hat and dropped it in his enchanting box then pushed the button and read the results. “It cripples your fire and cold resistance and allows you to cast Cure Poison while you’re wearing it.”

“In other words, the dungeon is probably going to have a lot of poison using enemies or traps,” Franklin grumbled. “I think the risk is going to be high no matter what we do, so our best bet is to be on our toes and not get hit by anything.”

“In other words, we should probably grab all three and take our chances with the increased difficulty?” Harry asked.

“Probably,” Franklin agreed with a sigh.

Harry swapped hats then opened his Wayfinder ability and looked at his spell list, happy to see the new spells on the list of spells he could teach. “Okay, that might be a problem, the cold aura increases cold resistance by 50% and does damage to everyone within an area equal to half your magic rating in feet and… I have a lot of magic.”

“In other words, we’d have to practically split up or when you used the aura you’d freeze me.” Franklin tossed Harry the red hat. “Trade. We’ll just swap to the green if we need to cure poison and I’ll avoid using the aura unless I have no other choice, since I can summon you again if worst comes to worst.”

“That works.” Harry put the red hat on and tossed him the blue hat. “Ready?”

“As I’m going to be,” Franklin replied as they headed for the open door.

Harry sighed as he walked close enough to see the massive concave stone room on the other side of the door. “This isn’t filling me with confidence.”

“Me either,” Franklin replied as they stepped through the doorway and onto a landing.

“Welcome to Hell mode, bitches! Where the points don’t matter and you’ll dance until you drop!” the voice announced as hundreds of red, blue and green slimes appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room and started bouncing around. “That’s not so…” he trailed off as horrible techno music started in the background and a massive disco ball dropped from the ceiling and hovered in the air.

“This can’t end well.” Franklin sighed as dozens of beams of fire lanced out from the annoyingly reflective ball, causing the blue and green slimes to dance out of the way while the fire slimes jumped for the beams. 

“Yeah, we’re screwed,” Harry agreed as the door slammed shut behind them.