Game of Monsters - 70 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

I’ll Follow You, You Follow Me

“Congratulations, Margalo,” Joshua whispered towards the bird. She wasn’t much bigger than before, he noted. She’d fit fine in his palm previously and she still did, if less comfortably. “I’m very happy for you,” he added, because he knew how frustrated the bird had been with her progress. Maybe this wouldn’t help her that much with that, but it was a step forward and it would hopefully relieve some of her worries.

[Margalo

Title: Familiar of Joshua Davis

Race: Magical Bird

Gender: Female

Strength: D-

Speed: C-

Dexterity: D+

Vitality: D-

Perception: D

Magic: E

Perks: 2

Skills: 7]

‘New Perk and Skill, huh?’ Joshua noted to himself, his finger rubbing the feathers on the underside of the bird’s head. ‘Let’s take a look.’

[Gentle Song – Lvl 1

Defines the user’s ability to boost others with their voice.

Consumption - F]

‘That’s the same description as Courageous Song, isn’t it?’ Joshua thought, surprised. A moment later he confirmed that, yes, it was. Which meant that he’d have to do some testing to check what the difference was. Likely on what the skills boosted, he supposed. His familiar’s skills had always been a little less descriptive than his own, but he was still a little annoyed that the system couldn’t even bother differentiating between skills. ‘Anyway, about that Perk?’ he wondered, deciding that he’d just have to check the difference with wards and sensing.

[Sound Affinity

The user has an easier time manipulating energies related to sound.]

‘Sort of like with Cheshire and Thunder, huh?’ Joshua noted, and it made sense, he guessed. He was fairly sure that Margalo had evolved while developing Gentle Song and that the skill wasn’t a byproduct of the evolution, after all. He might not have any proof of that, but he also didn’t have any doubts.

“Huh, Serafall shouldn’t have worried so much about her evolution, it seems,” Jeanne pointed out, reminding everyone that she was indeed present.

“That’s what you take away from this?” Joshua asked her, raising an eyebrow. Next to him, he felt all his familiars turning towards her to direct unimpressed expressions her way. Margalo herself chirped annoyedly at his sister, which almost made him chuckle. He managed to hold back his laughter, fortunately. “For shame, Jeanne.”

“What?” the girl asked, clearly caught off guard by their reactions. “It was a joke!”

Margalo did her equivalent of a huff and turned away.

“Ignore the meanie, girl,” Joshua told his bird familiar, shaking his head. “Let’s go inside and prepare for a little celebration, yeah?” he asked, getting animated chirping in response. “You wanna invite Kunou to come over?” He needn’t have asked, considering the cheerful singing he got as an answer. “Yeah, I thought so. I’ll give her and Yasaka a call. Guess I’ll have to prepare some food too.”

And so they walked towards the house.

Behind them, Joshua heard Nagini hissing and Cheshire meowing something at Jeanne. Judging by the anguished response of his sister, they were chastising her. Good, silly Jeanne should have known better.

[}-o-{]

Joshua closed his eyes and focused on his Magic Sense. Sure enough, one magical signal came up soon afterwards and he nodded. It went out almost immediately. It didn’t take long for the next to come to life and he nodded once more. So the signals kept coming and he started smiling.

“Good job, everyone, it seems you have the hang of it,” he told the people around him as he opened his eyes. He’d asked House of Water for a classroom to teach some of his students the Magical Signal Spell, since they were kind of working on it in his class. The association had easily accommodated him. A little too easy in his opinion but neither Shed nor Cheshire seemed too concerned, so he wouldn’t look at a gift horse in the mouth just yet.

On that note, he was considering asking if they’d allow him to teach another class. After all, he hadn’t forgotten that there had been people that had wanted to join but couldn’t. He was liking teaching well enough so far, so he might just take up more people if he could. Terms of payment had been vague, so maybe he could ask for Hex information too, which was a plus. If his suspicions were right, House of Water might be a good place to ask for that. If not that, then they would probably know where he should start looking for that, at least.

“Thank you for the help, Professor Davis,” one of his students said and Joshua found himself feeling a little awkward. He wondered if it’d ever get easier to be called that, especially by people that looked older than he was.

“Don’t mention it, guys,” he waved off when he received similar words from the rest of the students. “From what I read, one of the spell’s uses is as a last resort emergency call for the most part. It also can’t really be used for anything bad, so it’s no wonder it’s pretty common knowledge.”

“Still, you didn’t have to teach us, and we appreciate it,” a woman that also looked older than him said, making him run his fingers through his hair to push away the uncomfortable feeling that brought. “We’ll repay you for this.”

“Really, don’t worry about it,” he repeated, waving them off. “If you really wanna repay me, teach the spell to other people. It might save someone’s life at some point,” he said, mostly to get them off his back. He already had more money than he knew what to do with and more books than he could read for the moment. Granted, there were a few things that would be nice to get, but the students were unlikely to have them to begin with, and the spell he’d taught them wouldn’t warrant all that much for payment. It was better to just leave things as they were.

“If you say so, Professor Davis,” one of his students nodded, but Joshua couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.

“Professor Davis?” a new voice called, making Joshua turn to the side. There, at the door, stood a woman, leaning against the frame. “Could I have a word with you?” she asked then, making him blink. She looked pretty plain, but she had the House of Water emblem on her clothes, which he had come to learn was only for people that actually held some power within the organization.

“Of course,” he agreed easily, turning to his students for a moment. “Just wait here if you want to. The actual class will start soon, after all,” he told them before walking outside. “What can I help you with?” he asked the woman once he stood outside. As he turned towards her fully though, he frowned slightly.

“I have a message from Director Agnes,” the woman said with a slight smile. “She wanted to know when would be a good time to meet you personally?”

“Before that,” he started, tilting his head. “Is there a reason for the illusion?” he asked, making the woman blink before she chuckled. Then, bringing her hand to one of the rings she wore and turning it, the illusion came down. Under the plain appearance of before, it seemed that there had been quite the beautiful black-haired woman. ‘Then again, most women are pretty in this world. Ecchi logic, I guess,’ he mused.

“It seems I’ve been caught,” she said, apparently not at all bothered by her disguise being called out. “And it seems that there is some reason behind all the fuss you’ve caused around the supernatural world,” she added, tilting her head at him. “I’m Director Agnes, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“Joshua Davis,” he introduced himself unnecessarily, extending his hand. He noted to himself that she hadn’t actually said her full name, unless she didn’t have a surname, which he guessed wouldn’t be that weird, but still… Maybe he was reading too much into it but if his deductions weren’t completely off… “What can I do for you?” he asked. The fact that the Director had decided to pay him a visit, under an illusion to boot, was curious, but not overly so. At least in his opinion. His guess was that she had done so to try and get a read on him, or something of that sort.

“I just wanted to discuss with you the agreement regarding your classes,” Director Agnes told him and he felt a spell being placed around them. A privacy one, from what he could tell with Magic Sense. “That and your payment. We left things vague, for the most part, because we wanted to see how well things would go. Now, with a better idea, I thought it would be a good time to discuss it in further detail.”

“Hex Magic,” he replied, making her blink. “Do you have sources of information for it? I’d appreciate that. I have some books and such myself, but they don’t cover enough for my liking.”

“Oh? I’d heard you were a difficult man to reach an agreement with regarding payment, but it seems they were exaggerations,” she said, apparently pleasantly surprised by how the conversation was going. “I’m sure we can provide you with that. A list of what books you already have on the subject would be much appreciated. If that isn’t possible, then I guess we can gather some texts and you can see if they are new to you or what you want.”

“Sure, I’ll get you a list of what I have,” Joshua said with a shrug. What were they going to do with that? Decide to rob him? He wanted to see them try to get inside his wards. Maybe that was arrogant of him, but if Khaos Brigade hadn’t tried again after their previous altercations, he felt reasonably sure of his defenses. On top of that, he was in the middle of youkai territory too, so there was that. “Anything else you wanted to discuss?”

“I think that’s it for the moment,” the woman said, looking both amused and curious. Why, he couldn’t begin to guess, but that was what he gathered from her expression.

“Out of curiosity, would you happen to have a surname?” he asked, maybe a little bluntly, as he tilted his head. This seemed to draw a chuckle from the woman, who regarded him with a half-smile.

“I think you’ve already guessed.”

“Agnes, Director of the House of Water association,” he said, starting to summarize what he’d gathered and why he made his guess so. “Your organization had less than good dealings some time ago, from what I’ve been told. You’ve skirted the line between good and evil ever since, slowly leaning towards the former as time went by.”

“Yes?” the woman urged him, although she didn’t seem the least bit annoyed by what he was saying. If anything, she looked quite entertained.

“Agnes Waterhouse?” Joshua asked in the end. “Or a descendant without the surname, at least.”

“Correct, and I do have the surname,” she confirmed with a nod, not the least bothered by the guess. “I don’t go around shouting about it though, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t either.”

“I can agree to that,” he replied. Really, if hero descendants could turn into villains, then bad guy’s descendants could be good, as far as he was aware. All the info he’d gotten and his experience so far with House of Water spoke pretty well of them. Granted, things could change, but he could give Agnes the benefit of the doubt, at least.

“I appreciate that,” the Director told him, sounding genuine enough. “I have a feeling we’ll get along just fine, Joshua Davis.”

“I certainly hope so,” he said with a grin. He’d hate to have to deal with trouble from this, if he was honest. Not only because of what that would entail by itself, but also because it would mean he couldn’t trust Shed as much as he thought he could. He didn’t want to deal with that headache if he could help it. “With that said, I have students to teach. Although, I might have some things to talk with you later about.”

“Hopefully about teaching even more here,” she told him with a wry grin.

“It might be,” he admitted with a nod before tilting his head and giving her a considering look. “I do hope you aren’t trying to recruit me. I won’t be joining your association, accommodating as it has been with me.” He liked his freedom too much to even consider tying himself to any organization. At least, unless they offered him things that were unlikely to happen. He wasn’t that much of a big shot in the supernatural, after all.

To that, she chuckled, as if he’d told a particularly good joke.

“Joshua,” she started, giving him a half-smile that seemed a touch too predatory for his liking. “We aren’t trying to recruit you. We wouldn’t dream of it. No, for some reason you seem willing to teach at our institution, and that alone is bringing much good to us. By itself, that is already great, I won’t ruin it by being greedy. Now, I do believe I have to let you go back to class. I’ll likely see you later, however.”

“Later, then,” Joshua agreed, thinking about what she’d said. Surely it wasn’t such a big deal that he was teaching at her association, right? ‘What did you get me into, Shed?’ he asked, only receiving a slightly mischievous feeling in response that didn’t reassure him at all.

As he watched the woman go though, someone appeared right in front of his face.

[New Title: The Professor]

‘What?’ Joshua thought, blinking. Then he curiously called for the screen that would hopefully explain why this had suddenly just… happened. ‘Although, that name is pretty telling, not gonna lie,’ he mused to himself with a slight smile as he turned to walk back into the classroom.

[The Professor

Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 50%.

Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 40%.

Increases the growth speed of Skills and Spells you teach by 100%.]

‘Woah,’ he blinked again, this time out of shock instead of surprise. Those numbers were great, after all. The thing threw Ward Specialist, his previous title, out of the water. And that was just the first two effects, let alone the third. Granted, the last one was pretty restrictive, but it only meant that if he really wanted something to go up, he needed to teach it.

Hell, Joshua already was liking teaching to begin with, so having the activity offer a very direct benefit was great. Now he’d definitely be talking with Agnes about increasing his teaching time. Although, he’d have to balance that with his actual training. Because no matter how fast his growth speed got, he’d still need to actually put work into his Skills if he wanted them to grow.

‘Not a moment to rest, huh?’

[}-o-{]

“So, a Spell Card that makes two Unit Cards on the same side divide the damage they suffer between them,” Joshua summarized thoughtfully. “What would that look like? Some kind of link between the two, but how?”

“It’s supposed to be a Holy Card,” Kunou told him before humming, eyes narrowed as she considered the idea. “Maybe a shield kind of thing? Sort of golden, covering the Unit with one side extending towards the other one, connecting? Like this,” she explained, before taking a piece of paper and drawing what she had in mind. Upon seeing it, Joshua was happy to see that he’d imagined it well enough just with her words.

“Ok, that works for me,” he replied, starting to work on the illusion for that on his own sheet of paper. “How’s your circle going?” he asked, not looking up from his work.

“Uh… It’s… going,” Kunou answered with, and Joshua rolled his eyes at her sheepish tone.

“Not that well, huh? I wonder if that has anything to do with you not going over the material or doing the homework I left for you,” Joshua commented, and he sighed as he only received silence for a response. Looking up, he saw Kunou awkwardly shuffling on her seat, doing her best to not look at him. “You know I don’t just give you those to make you suffer, right?”

“I know,” she mumbled, her voice barely audible.

“I give you those because they’ll teach you what you need to know so that you can do this kind of stuff,” he explained anyway. “You’d have found several clues for that illusion in the material and the homework would have helped you figure it out before tackling the actual thing.”

“I know that, dad,” she repeated, pouting and looking down at the table.

“So…?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at her even if she wasn’t looking at him.

“I’ll read that and do my homework before trying to work on the card,” she said, deflating as she pushed what she’d been working on to the side. Joshua, meanwhile, just rolled his eyes at her.

“Stop being dramatic,” he told her. “It’s not like I gave you all that much to go through,” he added, looking down at his own stuff. He’d finish that card for Project Duel before going back to actual work, probably. This likely meant Detection and Monitoring ward modification for both the Phoenix Ward and Hex Magic. He was trying to work out some spells that would help pick up stuff for both things instead of trying to work both projects separately. Who knew? Maybe he’d stumble onto something that he otherwise wouldn’t.

That was the idea, at least.

The Phoenix project hadn’t seen much progress, even with all the sessions of analysis he’d had so far. Or maybe it had? It was difficult to judge that when he didn’t know how far or close the goal was. There was progress being made, but Joshua had little in the way of clues to know how much.

As for Hexes… Well, that was kind of still a mystery for him. He was still working on them, and he’d figured out that what he used for foci changed how they seemed to “interact”. He didn’t know if that was the right word to use, but that was what he was going with so far. Animal parts seemed to have a more alive feeling, plants were more calm and inanimate objects were more stiff. Joshua wasn’t very sure what this meant in terms of performance, which was why he wanted to research the spells in more detail and maybe get some more reading material on them.

“So, she was slacking off again?” a voice asked and he half-smiled at the new arrival. Next to him, Kunou huffed indignantly, but remained silent. It wasn’t like she could argue the point, really. “Considering that her getting more distracted as of late is your fault, I find it fitting that you deal with it more.”

“I guess I’m a bad influence after all,” Joshua said, leaning back and shrugging as he turned towards Yasaka. “In my defense, you should have realized that from the beginning.”

“I guess I should have,” she admitted with a smile. “Your card game coming along fine?”

“Yeah. It’ll be some time before we can actually play without it feeling pretty evident that it still needs more work, but it’s getting there,” Joshua answered, his eyes moving over the several pages of work. “Eager to play?”

“Well, after hearing so much from Kunou, I find myself rather curious if nothing else,” Yasaka replied, her grin growing wider and more amused. “With that said, Kunou?” she called, drawing an innocent look from their daughter that instantly told Joshua that she’d done something she shouldn’t. “I’m guessing you didn’t tell Joshua that one of your classes was moved to fifteen minutes ago and you managed to convince the servants to get away with staying here?”

As Joshua turned to look at the girl, both him and Yasaka leveled Kunou with an unimpressed expression. To her credit, their daughter simply pouted dejectedly, not even trying to argue against the accusation. She also didn’t protest though, simply grumbling something as she picked up a few things and moved out of the room. Before leaving though, she turned towards him.

“Will you be here when I’m done, dad?” she asked with those kit fox eyes that always got him to say yes. They were entirely too unfair, in his opinion.

“Sure thing, we can work a bit more before I go,” he told her with a grin. “Make sure you work hard though. If I hear you are slacking off too much, I’ll have to cut time from our projects.”

“I will,” she promised, a solemn frown on her face as she nodded and finally went to her class.

“She makes me feel guilty,” Joshua admitted, his smile turning wry. “She wasn’t that unruly when I arrived.”

“She also barely acted like a child, so I take even that as a win,” Yasaka reassured him, taking a seat in front of him. “So, thank you for that.”

“Uh, no problem, I guess,” he replied, running his fingers through his hair.

“I did have something else to talk about though,” she continued, drawing a curious look from him. “My people and the devils have already acted on the information that the Church and Heaven provided.”

That was good to know. From what he’d been able to gather, even though he wasn’t actually involved, there’d been a Khaos Brigade group of Stray Exorcists somewhere between youkai and devil territory. It wasn’t all that close to Kuoh, but certainly enough for Joshua to think they might have been either related to Raynare’s group or Kokabiel’s. With this hit, he might just have dealt with one of those before it happened. Although, it was less likely if it was the latter, admittedly.

“Good to know,” he said, his finger tapping on the table. “Any new information coming from that? Or was it just another dead end?” he asked, hoping for the former, but knowing it was probably the latter. The look on Yasaka’s face answered for itself, making him sigh. “Well, any progress is still progress, I guess.”

“Indeed,” Yasaka agreed before letting silence drag on for a long moment. “I know you’ll work against Khaos Brigade on your own, Joshua, despite the agreement you’ve helped form,” she said, to which he tilted his head. “Be careful, ok? I know you’ve had a somewhat easy time so far, but this is a terrorist group that has caused many problems to people stronger than you.”

“I’m aware,” Joshua told her. After all, he knew that he’d only taken out Georg because he caught the Dimension Lost holder off guard. Going in the offensive as he was, the odds were stacked against him, despite how much work he put on his traps and attacks. His skillset was more suited to defense instead of offense and he knew it. “I’ll be careful.”

“I don’t want my daughter to lose another father, so you better,” Yasaka told him, making him gulp at the look on her face. “There are ways for me to make you pay even if you die, just to let you know.”

“Noted,” he replied wryly, wondering if those methods would actually work. Death had acted… strangely, to put it mildly, the last time he went through it. He didn’t want to test if something like that would happen again, but it was a curious thought to consider. Still… “Don’t worry, the last thing I want is to make Kunou sad.”

“I know,” she said with a nod. “I just felt it necessary to point that out… Besides…” she started then, giving him a smile. “I’d miss our conversations. It’s nice to have someone around that isn’t a subordinate or someone with their own political agenda around,” she told him, making him chuckle.

“I mean, I did set you up in an agreement that seems pretty political to me,” he pointed out.

“Alas, I think you are right,” Yasaka conceded, giggling behind her hand. “I guess I’ll conveniently ignore that.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he replied, chuckling.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

This chapter went through some last minute changes that might make it so that there’s more mistakes than usual. After all, I think editing works better when I can leave the stuff laying there for a bit more before going through it to correct things. Which isn’t saying much, since I always leave typos and shit around, but still.

With that said, I liked how the chapter turned out. I hope you enjoyed it.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I just came back from a vacation that was pretty great, even if it was slightly exhausting in certain ways (ironic, I know). What was your last vacation like?

See you.