Demons and Botched Rituals Part 13 (Patreon)

Franklin frowned as he looked at the strange glass contraption in the chest. "Any idea what the glass contraption is?"

"Nothing useful," Harry replied as he picked up the hookah, dropped it in his enchanted box and hit his reverse engineering button. 'Purification and a skill acquisition enchant I can't learn,' he mused as he pulled the hookah out of his enchanting menu, touched his lips to the mouthpiece and acquired the Mistweaver skill. "Or not, it gives a skill to breathe mist and shape it into amusing patterns."

"That might be amusing at parties. Alchemy ingredients?" Franklin asked as he picked up the bag labeled, 'Not Tea'.

Jessica grinned as she grabbed the hookah and acquired the Mistweaver skill.

Harry wrinkled his nose as the familiar scent hit him, thinking about Duddley's stash of pot. "It's probably worth seeing if an alchemist wants it."

Jessica took a breath then breathed out a stream of pink vapor that looked a bit wispy and lumpy. "That might take a bit of practice."

"Probably," Harry agreed as he reached into the chest and grabbed an exquisitely carved wooden box filled with various bags of tea.

"That should keep the dragon happy for a couple of days." Franklin said, happy they didn't have to go through the maze.

Harry shook his head. "Yeah sorry, I don't want to get roasted alive."

"Why would he roast us for giving him tea?" Franklin asked as Jessica handed him the strange glass contraption.

"Considering how much my aunt used to complain about bagged tea, I'm not going to insult the dragon with it, especially since he wants the tea leaves from the garden."

"Fair point, it might not be the right type of tea," Franklin admitted then touched his lips to the mouthpiece and picked up the new skill. "We should be able to make a fair bit of gold off this, even if it's just a party trick."

"I'd rather just sell the skill," Harry said as Jessica leaned over and sniffed the box of tea.

Jessica shook her head. "It isn't fresh."

"Yeah, we're definitely not giving this to a dragon," Harry said as he grabbed the box, dropped it into his enchanting box and hit the runic script button. "Weird…" he muttered as he read the description of the enchant. "It basically conjures tea every morning so you'll never run out."

"Does that mean we can sell tea and get rich?" Jessica asked, knowing that certain types of tea were expensive before modern shipping practices lowered the price.

Harry shook his head. "It would fade away the next morning, so you'd just have a lot of pissed off people after you."

"In that case, do you mind if I take it?" Franklin asked, figuring it would be a decent gift for his sister as she wasn't that picky.

"You're welcome to it," Harry replied as he grabbed the crystal ball out of the chest, dropped it into his box and hit the button. "Why the hell would someone enchant a crystal ball to scry on naked men?"

"Because some of us like looking at naked people?" Jessica asked with amusement as she looked Harry up and down.

Harry shook his head. "I get that, I was just trying to figure out why they'd limit it to just men."

"It might have been cheaper or maybe the dungeon just doesn't like us," Franklin offered.

"I'm going to go with the dungeon hates us," Harry said as he dropped the crystal ball into his inventory, happy that the enchantment he got wasn't as limited. He grabbed the teapot out of the chest and dropped it into his enchanting box. "Nice, a self heating teapot that doesn't get hot on the outside."

"Sounds useful." Franklin handed Harry the hookah and bag of Not Tea. "You might as well stash everything."

"Sure." Harry stuck everything in his inventory, including the mithril chest. He glanced over at the broken chest and the large mess of scrap metal then walked over to the minotaur. "Let me skin the minotaur before he vanishes then we'll teleport back to the maze. We can always grab the scrap later, I want to finish the enchanting quest before the dragon gets grumpy." 

"Same," Franklin agreed.

0o0o0

"What if they don't like me?" Hermione asked anxiously as they walked through the residential section filled with weird towers that reminded her a bit of the wizarding world, except that the mages here actually seemed to know something about architecture and engineering as they all looked like they would stand up without magical aid.

"Relax, they'll love you," Selena assured her as she pulled her attention off her neighbor's tower, she'd always liked the fact that it looked more like a waterfall than a tower thanks to the dozens of holes in the stone that the water flowed out of, dropping into the moat that surrounded tower.

Hermione smiled when she saw an entire circus of ethereal looking animals wandering around the next lot. 'Is this what the wizarding world would have been like if they hadn't had to hide or would they consider it a waste of magic?' she mused, glad that she didn't have to hide her magic or at least not most of it.

"And we're here," Selena said as she turned and started skipping from one large flat rock to the next, making her way towards the three story black stone tower.

Hermione found her gaze drifting to Selena's behind and glanced up at the square tower that looked almost mundane and ordinary compared to most of the towers they'd walked past. "Do I need to step on the same rocks?"

"No, it's just fun," Selena replied as she skipped over to the dark metal door and pulled it open. "Let's go…" she trailed off as she realized her mother was standing in the living room with her less than amused face on. "I'm back-" she cut off as her mother practically teleported across the living room and pulled her into a bear hug, smashing her face into her breasts, something that was only possible because the small entry area around the door was half a foot lower than the rest of the room.

"Good, you're safe, I don't need to murder your father." Wendy smiled at Hermione as she walked into the tower and closed the door behind her. "You must be my lovely daughter's familiar, I'm Wendy Blackstone."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione studied Selena's mother, a bit surprised that she looked young enough to be Selena's older sister and that she was a good half a head taller than Selena. 'At least she's not screaming,' she mused, thinking about Ron's mother and her tendency to make her opinions known at the drop of a hat.

"I need to breathe," Selena complained as she struggled to free herself from her mother's hug or at least turn her head enough that she could inhale.

"Overrated," Wendy replied as she let her daughter go after giving her one last squeeze. "Did you find anything useful in the dungeon?"

"More than I was expecting," Selena replied as she pulled the bottle of wine she'd bought and handed it to her mother. "Here."

"Are you trying to bribe me?" Wendy asked with amusement as she looked at her daughter.

"Is it working?" Selena replied as she slipped past her mother, walked over to the living room table and started unloading her loot.

Wendy laughed as she set the bottle on the desk then walked over and sat down on the couch so that she could look over her daughter's collection. "Barely, you're just lucky that your father admitted that he'd given you permission."

Hermione glanced around the room, it had a lived in look without looking worn or cluttered like the Burrow. She glanced at the small bookshelf under the stairs that went to the second story then focused on the stairs when she saw a pair of black leather boots on the steps. 'I wonder if the shoes are enchanted to be quiet or if it's just a habit, because he should be making noise.'

A tall red haired man in expensive looking black robes that seemed to eat the light walked down the stairs. "I knew she'd be fine."

"Dad," Wendy replied with a grin at her father. "Come see the loot."

"Anything good?" he asked excitedly as he practically bounced over, completely ruining the look of the dangerous magic user he'd presented as he’d silently glided down the stairs.

Hermione glanced between Selena's parents, shocked that running off to a death filled dungeon didn't warrant more of a punishment than a mild scolding.

"Dad, Hermione. Hermione, Dad," Selena said absently as she arranged her loot on the table.

The man laughed. "I'm Winston, nice to meet you. Do you have a magic specialty?" he asked as he studied his daughter's familiar, glad that she wasn't green and didn't look insane.

"No. I'm trying to learn everything I can," Hermione said as she walked over to the table.

Winston nodded. "It's good to have a wide range of skills, you never know what you'll run into while adventuring."

"Nothing like having the right spell for the job," a feminine voice purred as it sauntered down the stairs.

"Merlin…" Hermione stared at the half naked, busty, red skinned demon with long blue hair that made most centerfold models look plain. She pulled her gaze off the other demon's breasts and looked at the white silk and silver loincloth that hid very little before she pulled her attention up to her ice blue eyes wondering if she might be gay, before dismissing it as she was sure even a rock would find this demonness enchanting.

"Nope, I'm Zarena," she teased as she sauntered over and sat down next to Wendy. "Did you find anything I can use?"

Selena shook her head. "Not really, just an enchanted loincloth that isn't better than what you already have and some robes that let the wearer pull off some interesting alchemy tricks."

"Rats," Zarena pouted.

"What type of alchemy tricks?" Wendy asked as she patted her familiar on her leg.

Selena smiled at Hermione. "Conjure a table?"

Hermione gestured towards an empty section of the room and conjured her alchemy lab. "It's not the best quality, but it's easy to set up and it conjures vials for you."

"That would certainly make things easier," Winston said. "Anything else?"

"A few things," Selena grinned then launched into a description of their various magical items.

0o0o0

"Again!" Jessica squealed as Franklin dropped to his knees and dry heaved, the rapid teleportation proving too much for his stomach, much like the unexpected jump they'd made earlier.

"You'll get used to it eventually," Harry assured Franklin as he glanced at the metal archway in the hedge that light was pouring out of. "I think we're here."

"Thank the gods," Franklin grumbled as he shakily got to his feet with Jessica's help. "I'm not looking forward to the return trip."

"At least it's only one jump back," Harry replied as he walked over to the metal arch so that he could see into the garden. He paused as he felt the magic radiating from the arch. "Yeah, because that's not suspicious," he muttered as he reached out and touched the arch with his troll-like hand then quickly shoved it into his inventory.

"If you could have done this in one jump, why did it take thirteen to get here?" Franklin asked.

"Because I can’t jump blind, that's how you wind up appearing in something or lose body parts and I don't have anyone around to fix that," Harry explained as he dropped the arch into his enchanting box and hit the button. "Huh, it's charmed to burn people to ash if they leave with any of the herbs."

"Yeah, because that's not disturbingly lethal," Franklin muttered, glad that he had Harry with him because the quest would have been a death trap otherwise.

"At least you can teleport," Jessica pointed out as she slipped past Harry into the well lit garden filled with stone planters almost overflowing with all sorts of unfamiliar plants and looked around. "Any idea which tea leaves we're supposed to grab?".

"No clue…" Harry trailed off as he spotted a glowing group of what looked like mint in the middle of the garden in a crystal planter. "Nevermind, I found it. On the off chance that stealing the planter summons a bunch of golems, grab my left arm and don't let go," he ordered, thinking about the rest of the traps they'd found while blasting holes in hedges and clearing rooms with his fire guardian.

"I'd say you were just being paranoid, but we've already had to deal with flying books and cursed stuffed animals having tea," Franklin said as he walked over and grabbed Harry's left arm. "Let's just get this done."

Harry waited for Jessica to grab his arm then walked over, touched the crystal planter and shoved it into his inventory. He twitched and looked around when nothing jumped out at him or otherwise appeared to happen other than the planter appearing in his inventory. "Huh, I was expecting something nasty."

"Let's go," Franklin ordered, wanting to grab his enchanting class before something screwed things up.

Harry apparated back to the dragon's chamber with the group. "You wanted the glowing mint, right?" he asked as he pulled one of the plants out of the planter and held it out towards the dragon.

Franklin closed his mouth and breathed through his nose, doing his best not to vomit or offend the dragon by dry heaving in his treasure room.

The dragon looked up in surprise as he felt the plant's unique magic, surprised that they'd actually survived all of the traps. "Perfect." He paid the mana to teach the group his Skinwork class then levitated the glowing mint plant out of Harry's hand. "A deal is a deal."

Franklin read through the description on the popup and sighed when he realized you could only enchant leather items without losing the class. "I don't suppose you have a different Enchanting class?"

"I'm afraid not," the dragon admitted sheepishly. "Don't despair, it's an exceptional class that unlocks Enchanting and Leatherworking while boosting the cap by one per level of the class, so you end up with a cap of 25 in each of the skills."

Jessica hit accept as she had no reason not to. "This is going to be awesome."

"I can certainly make this work," Franklin mused as he hit accept, glad that he managed to acquire some type of enchanting class, even if it wasn't the one he would have chosen given the choice.

"I can't," Harry said as he hit decline, unwilling to drastically cripple his Enchanting for an additional five points to his cap.

"Are you sure?" Franklin asked.

"I already have Enchanting which means this one would vanish the moment I enchanted something else anyway," Harry explained as he glanced towards the exit. "I don't suppose we can talk you into moving your tail so we can leave?"

"I'm afraid not," the dragon admitted, sounding apologetic. "You'd have to answer three complicated riddles first."

Franklin shook his head then started walking towards the other door, figuring they could just use the other exit. "Yeah, my brain is a bit burned out right now and I don't want to teleport again so feel free to loot the maze, I'm going to start sorting the scrap metal."

"Sounds good. Make sure nothing happens to him," he ordered Jessica before he apparated back to the garden to loot the strange and exotic plants, figuring they were probably good for something.

0o0o0

Selena glanced up from her collection of odds and ends as her twin walked down the stairs. "Any luck with your project?"

"Define luck?" Loki asked as he glanced over at where Hermione was sitting in a chair reading a book, starting to feel like his plan to avoid the warlock class was a bad idea.

Hermione turned to look at the red haired youth that looked a lot like Winston and Selena, curious what he was like.

"In other words, you haven't managed to catch a combat effective pet?" Selena asked.

"Horned rabbits are combat…" he trailed off with a sigh as his sister started laughing. "It's not my fault I can't leave the city."

"If you had a proper class, you could leave the city," Wendy spoke up from the kitchen, less than impressed with her son's current project.

"There is nothing wrong with the Archer class," he argued.

Winston shook his head as he walked into the living room from the kitchen. "We've been over this, you're not leaving the city until you have a proper class or you've managed to pick up at least five levels from training and you're with someone we trust to keep you from being eaten."

"Do you know how hard it is to train a physical class without enemies?" Loki complained.

"Not a clue, I have a real class to fall back on if something goes wrong," Winston replied with a shrug.

"There are plenty of Archers in the guard," Loki complained.

"You're right, there are and none of them are my children," Winstone argued. "I'm not going to be overly sad if a monster eats them."

"You could always just hand me some high end gear," Loki argued.

Winston shook his head. "I'd rather not give 'bandits' a reason to kill my unprepared children."

Loki sighed. "You could always take me into a dungeon and help me kill shit."

"I have soap!" Wendy called out from the kitchen.

Loki glanced towards the kitchen and decided he was better off not mentioning that she swore worse than he did.

"Get a proper class and I'll consider it," Winston offered, tired of his son's insistence on leveling up his Archer class before he got a proper class because of a stupid bet with an asshole instructor.

"What counts as a proper class?" Hermione asked, curious if there was an actual reason they disliked the Archer class.

Winston turned to look at Hermione. "Anything that increases his magic or gives him more access to spells or useful skills."

"What's wrong with picking up another class?" Hermione asked, not really seeing a problem with picking up extra classes.

Selena snickered. "He'd lose a bet."

"All this for a bet?" Hermione asked as she glanced between the rest of the people in the room.

Loki shrugged. "If I can get to level eight in Archer without taking another class one of my instructors will teach me a rare class."

"That's going to make picking up the Warlock class next to impossible," Selena pointed out.

Loki shrugged. "If everything works out, I'll be able to use my pet as a meatshield. It's just a matter of getting there. It would be a lot easier if my parents would help."

"If you don't earn it yourself, what's the point?" Winston asked.

Loki sighed as he realized his father was being overly difficult. "He paid you not to help, didn't he?"

"Yeah sorry, I got a nice bow out of it which I'll even give to you after you get a proper class," Winston said with a grin, happy that he could at least admit it without having to 'lose' his part of the bet. "So, yeah, we can't actually help you."

"That's because you're evil," Loki complained. "How nice is the bow?" he asked, hoping his father had held out for something decent.

"It's better than most of the guard uses, so decent enough," Winston said, fairly sure some of the junk bows he'd picked up over the years in various dungeons were better, but it was a good starting weapon.

"Did he pay Vivian not to help?" Loki asked thoughtfully.

Winston shook his head, thinking about his oldest daughter, he couldn't see her agreeing to any deal that would keep her from killing monsters and asking her would probably have resulted in her dragging Loki to a dungeon to grind it to dust so that he'd level. "I doubt he'd bother, besides Vivian went up to check out the new dungeon by Grimsong."

Loki looked at Selena. "Can you help?"

"Sorry," Selena offered. "I'm not planning on going anywhere near another dungeon until I've gotten my skills and the alchemy shop sorted out."

"Alchemy shop?" Wendy asked as she walked out of the kitchen.

"I sort of bought the alchemy shop in the Swamp of Stench," Selena admitted.

"Why would you want to go there?" Winston asked, suddenly wondering if his daughter had hit her head in the dungeon.

"Mostly because it was cheap enough that the alchemy books and ingredients in the shop are probably worth more than we paid for the place," Selena explained her reasoning. "Even if we just catch a boat to the 'town' and loot the shop, we'll probably come out ahead, even if we don't, it's still a good opportunity to increase our skills and help people out while we work on leveling some crafting skills."

"You're going to need an escort," Winston mused. "I haven't hit the dungeon in a while, I'm sure some of the guild trainees would love some combat experience and an easy run."

"Now you're just twisting the knife," Loki grumbled.

"Maybe a little," Winston admitted. "But you have to admit, sticking that golem spider in my underwear drawer was uncalled for."

"What!" Loki sputtered. "That was months ago."

"Revenge is a dish best served cold," Winston said cheerfully.

"Sorry," Selena offered as she looked at Hermione. "You'll have to forgive them, they take pranks seriously."

"As long as they aren't as bad as some friends of mine, I can deal," Hermione said, thinking of the Weasley twins.

Winston grinned. "Do tell."

0o0o0