Fortune Favors (QQ) Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Tsukasa lets out a quiet sigh as she lays just in front of me. No words pass between us, my arms wrapped around her body as we just silently rest in the safety of our little tunnel network.

This is about all I have done for the past three hours... hold her... comfort her... snuggle.

I can still feel her torrent of emotions swelling and churning beneath the surface. Seeing that... really shook her up.

Hell, I'm seeking her comfort as well.

What that man did was absolutely monstrous.

If Tsukasa hadn't... I would have killed him... just perhaps in a slower manner. See if illusionary fire burns or not.

Surely not as hot as real fire, but that's exactly what I want. Burning to death would have been far too quick for him.

Burning to death from a fire the size of a candleflame, on the other hand? That sounds more reasonable.

I glare at the wall across from us. 'I should have replaced that world sooner. Ugh.'

I gently kiss the back of Tsukasa's head as I slightly tighten my hug, her tense shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.

The torrent of confusion, distraught sadness, and burning wrath stills for a brief moment.

I still feel nauseous, furious and lightheaded, even after vomiting for roughly the entire hour Tsukasa was showering when first got back, but... it helps just a fair amount merely to know that I've soothed her even a little bit.

I flinch as I feel her gently grasp my hand which had begun to shake.

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves as I close my eyes.

"Argo... I'm not a good person." The girl admits suddenly. "I would gladly send dozens of people to their deaths if it meant I would make even a little progress on my goals. But... children? That is where I draw the line. To see such senseless slaughter... how could he do such a thing... just because he wasn't paid?!"

"I don't know." I whisper.

"That was more monstrous than every youkai in gensokyo! Even those that hunt humans! Some... I will admit... do try to eat children... but even that has a purpose. They gain the slightest bit stronger from eating humans... but that? Drowning one hundred children to... what, send a message? It makes me wish we had gone back to the original village and killed them all for allowing such an unnecessary massacre to happen. Shouldn't they have noticed? Shouldn't they have seen their children following him into the forest?! Did they just not care?!"

"That world... is gone now. We can't go back... nor do I really wish to. That world was full of so much heartbreak. The only time I ever had an encounter that didn't end in death... would be when I scammed a child out of about two hundred thousand yen. That... is the only time someone hadn't died in my presence. If I was just a few minutes early... could we have saved them?" I quietly question.

Tsukasa turns around, her yellow eyes gazing into my own red ones sadly, she gently cups my cheek with a single hand, then leans forwards and gently pecks me on the lips with her own. "Should we get some sleep?"

I offer her a single silent nod, causing a small smile- that doesn't reach her eyes- to appear on her lips.

With that, my eyes drift shut.

--Linebreak--

I peer through the small door. 'That's Riften, right? Fuck that. City of thieves my ass. I don't care if I keep my money in pipes. Goods will be shoddy, it'll smell like shit, and I might get stabbed. A horrid place for a date.'

I close the door and look over my shoulder to the blonde woman, my second half, standing just behind me. "Well, change of plans, I think I'll see about making that meadow metal today, it'll probably be pretty boring, so do you still want to come with me?"

"But of course." Tsukasa smiles. "Merely being in your presence improves my mood!"

Awww... doesn't that just tug at my heart strings. I wonder if she's using her ability to figure out just the right things to say.

I crawl through the portal into something that looks like a storage room. Large sacks line one wall, steel jugs line another, large baskets of fruit and flower sit on the floor next to a large cauldron which is set in a stone base.

Tsukasa comes through the portal behind me, her arms wrapping around me from behind as she pulls me into a tight hug.

Her cheek rubs against the back of my head for a moment before she lets me go, then walks over to a nearby chair and takes a seat.

A smile rests on my face as I turn and approach the cauldron, I cup my chin and look down. "Let's see here..."

I pull the little booklet from the pipe at my back. "What is it I need to do again?"

Ah that's right. I remember now.

I walk over to the basket of fruits and flowers, grabbing one of the fruits and two of the fairly beautiful flowers.

I could bring this to Yuuka... but I have a feeling that she'd just get offended by my offer more than appreciate it... I mean, really. The things these flowers and fruits came from have a face that not even a mother could love... and in this case I mean that literally. These fucking plants have lips. And not the kissable kind.

I place the fruit in a large stone bowl and grab my pestle.

I begin to mash up the fruit, and it is a good thing we are in the city for this, because if I made this anywhere in the forest, the act of damaging this fruit would attract dozens upon dozens of the creatures this fruit originated from.

After around five minutes of effort, the fruit is mashed into an extremely smooth paste, a paste which I add to the empty cauldron.

It is followed shortly by the two flowers, both of which were crushed like the fruit.

"Yui?" I call out.

"I am here." The black haired girl announces as she shimmers to life to my left.

"Oh, good. I didn't want to guess how long thirty minutes was."

I pick up one of the metal jugs and crack my neck, gesturing to the numerous large burlap sacks filled with metal. "So. How many of those copper rods equal ten bars?"

"One hundred and twenty!" She answers instantly.

"Alright, that's good. I'll count it out as I'm waiting for this to heat up." I mutter under my breath.

I grab a wooden basket and place it beside the cauldron, then pour the digestive fluid onto the mashed flower and fruit.

It begins bubbling and hissing slightly as I reach down and shoot a little fire below the pot.

The mixture stabilizes as heat is added, slowly shifting in color, from a mish mash of red and yellow to a green color.

Which is weird, because it should have been orange if you really think about it, but oh well. It's probably a chemical reaction of some sort.

"Well, it's time to drastically raise the strength of every player in our server." I smirk.

I thought more on the topic of the Meadowmetal weapons.

There's... no real need to improve them up to their maximum enhancement rating.

Already they outperform fully upgraded bronze weapons.

If I am remembering correctly, a bronze sword has stats like... this.

Bronze Sword (+3)
A bronze sword created by Lisbeth. It's fairly decent for what its worth.
Durability 46/46
Attributes:
Base Damage 45* (48)
Requirements: STR: 2 AGI: 5​

While a Meadow Blade has stats like this.

Meadow Blade:
A weapon made from alchemically altered copper. Its far more durable than bronze and comparable to iron.
Durability 64/64
Attributes:
Base Damage 64
Requirements: STR: 5 AGI: 14​

It takes three bars of metal to make a sword like this. Then one bar- and some money that the system eats- for every time it is upgraded, with the enhancement bonus resetting back to zero if the smith fails in upgrading it.

The thing is, according to Yui. Weapons aren't really worth enhancing quite yet. Enhancements grow in power the higher up they go. But enhancements of level one through ten only increase the damage of a weapon by one percent... or, one, whichever is higher.

A meadow blade can reach an enhancement bonus of plus eight. Superior to that of Iron's plus six. But, due to Iron's higher base damage, a fully upgraded Meadow Metal blade is merely equal to an unenhanced iron blade.

Eight points of damage.

Eight points for eight bars- bare minimum.

Why spend that much when you can simply make two more swords?

two swords that'll increase the damage of those two people by around fifteen each.

There's really only one option here.

"I should see about getting some more cauldrons. This is going to be tedious." I note as a grin splits my face.

The door creaks open as a brown haired girl slowly walks in with a large sack, she pauses upon seeing me, a small smile crossing her lips. "Oh! Argo you're here- wait..."

She looks to Tsukasa. "Who... is this?"

"Oh, Lisbeth, meet Tsukasa Kudamaki. Tsukasa, meet Lisbeth." I introduce. "Tsukasa here is my second half."

"Pardon?" The girl blinks.

"Kuda gitsune come in pairs. She is the second half of my pair." I explain.

"I'm his wife." Tsukasa announces.

"WHAT?!" The blacksmith shrieks.

--Linebreak--

Its good to be king.

I let out a low hum as I turn, stretching my arms above my head as I glance to the side. 'the two new world connections should be finishing up sometime soon, right? I should probably finish up here and go see if I have to re-roll again.'

I hold out a hand and clench my fist, numerous little rods of copper lift from the large cauldron as they are collected in an illusionary wire mesh.

The room has changed a lot from a month ago.

A lot has changed since a month ago.

First and foremost, I've been raking in a lot of money.

Not as much as I could, mind you, due to something else I've been doing, but a lot.

Yeesh. Where do I start?

Firstly. My production of Meadow Metal has skyrocketed. I bought several more cauldrons and for most of this past month I have been doing nothing but making the metal itself... well, that and messing around with my powers, plus I've learned a few new spells here and there.

Sparks, Frost, and I've also learned the Candle Light and Oak Flesh spell. The first two being relatively easy as they are basically exact copies of the Flames spell, just with other elements.

Tsukasa has been a godsend in helping me have enough free time to learn... it appears she finally decided to join me in scamming people and has more or less taken over the front of the shop.

Damn she is good at manipulation. Normally I myself would have genuinely worried about asking people to do what she asks them to.

Over the past month she has allowed us to gather a truly large surplus of goods... by offering Meadow Blades and other weapons as a quest reward... for gathering said weapon's supplies.

For every blade she gave away for free as a quest reward... we were given enough supplies for ten more of the same kind.

The devious fox that she is had Lisbeth make some armor as well. Sure, some pieces of armor cost more than the simple longsword, with a breastplate costing five ingots, but we don't sell the armor in the shop as of this current moment, thus people sometimes did quests repeatedly all in an attempt to get a certain piece of armor.

And every single time, eighty copper ore, four fruits, eight flowers, and four items worth of plant stomach acid.

I love her so much! Her and that tricky personality of hers.

Fucking hell, she's scammed so much she's been forced to show me an 'advanced kuda gitsune technique' which is simply pipe in a pipe in a pipe.

There's a bamboo tube under my house that is full of so much copper ore... ohohoho we could outfit a small army!

If the little minx keeps on getting copper, it's likely we'll completely run out of space. We've already got like... several tons worth of copper ore.

The main issue is smithing it all down into bars.

Plus Tsukasa had to set up a few pipes in Sword Art just to keep store of all the flowers and fruit of the Nepents.

Luckily things don't seem to spoil in SAO. That's useful as I've got so much I genuinely have no idea what to do with them all.

I mean, the clear answer is Alchemy, but I just don't have the time to research its uses as of right now.

Maybe i could run an auction soon enough for the crafting recipe? Much like I did for a few copies of the Bestiary?

That's a pretty good idea. Profit on it now, while the gear is still relevant.

The death game known as Sword Art has been progressing smoothly.

Much like in the anime... it took one month total to rise up to floor two. However.

This was not a result of inability or unpreparedness like the original Sword Art. No. In this world, they saw an incredible quest presented by my dear Tsukasa... and leapt at it. Spending the next two weeks grinding desperately for gear. Then, they cleared out the floor one dungeon.
Zero casualties.

They ascended to floor two... then blitzed the dungeon the next day.

Zero casualties.

They rose to floor three, took a brief moment to look around and get accustomed to the surroundings, then, a week and a half later, they cleared the dungeon and went to floor four, once more, zero casualties.

According to Yui, we were the eighth server to reach floor two, our group was the second group to rise to floor three and the second to rise to floor four.

Apparently, there's one other server still ahead of us, Yui said that TWO fucking people are clearing the dungeons. Like, what the fuck?! That's bullshit!

As for combinations... apparently, we are set to be partnered with the team that places twelfth in the overall rankings. Apparently they are combining the rankings so one server doesn't clear the game SUPER fast in comparison to the others. So first place will be paired with last place, second place, with ninteeth. Third with eighteenth and so on.

That being said, two people current hold first place. Being a good ten to twenty levels ahead of everyone else in their server.

That's bullshit.

Anyways I think that only recently we have combined with the twelfth place, but I haven't really seen anyone for a while, being in the back room and all.

The only time I really went outside would be to go and get Kirito and his little friend group of Argo- the girl- Asuna, Asuna's Scythe Friend, and knife girl to do a quest for me on each floor.

From said quests, I've gained a sword that allows me to use a very fast and highly specific sword attack comprised of four slashes.

Then I got a special elven bow on floor three... and on floor four I managed to get my hands on some boots that improve movement speed.

All very good.

Ping
Congratulations! You have made a total profit of 100,000 dollars! This is a truly wondrous achievement, thus you have granted a new power! You may now create a gate between worlds wherever you want, however, this gate functions as the original. It may only go to locations you yourself own, or to a random location within that surrounding area.​

'huh?'

Oh right. My milestone rewards.

They have been pretty good.

For twenty five thousand, I got an 'Apprentice' understanding of something that I was allowed to choose. I chose alchemy, increasing my knowledge by a considerable portion.

At thirty thousand, I got a random powerup for one of my current skills. It picked my 'Faux Conception' ability. Basically, it seems to have taken a page out of my 'domain' thing. The smaller an object I make, the more durable it becomes. That has lead to it being fairly reasonable in combat as I can basically shoot people without a gun or bow.

Thirty five thousand gave me a sawed off shotgun... however I was given no ammunition, thus it's sort of useless.

Forty granted me a random skill of Adept understanding... I figured that I'd need some sort of melee skill, so I selected Sword Art... and I got Sword Art alchemy...

And considering that it was changed to be similar to skyrim alchemy? It sort of combined with my current knowledge of Skyrim alchemy.

After that, forty five granted me two novice understandings that I could pick out from the worlds I have been given access to. Both of which I have used to further alchemy.

Fifty unlocked a new world slot. Sixty gave me a cool magic pocket watch that I haven't been able to use yet simply called the 'memento mortem'.

Seventy gave me a random power for my current skills, that got slapped onto my healing magic and allows me to now effortlessly pass 'self only' effects to others. So I won't be needing 'Heal Other'. I can just simply manage with basic 'heal' now.

Eighty gave me two 'initiate' understandings to spend, and ninety was another random roll, this time for a level beyond Adept... 'Proficient'… which is worth roughly four thousand hours of experience!

That's roughly an entire year of intense training. Eight hours a day.

I thought to myself 'hey, this might be a chance to get something REALLY powerful!'

I picked touhou as the world this skill came from...

Brewing.

I got fucking brewing.

I mean, it's technically an advanced form of brewing, its touhou for god's sake. But still brewing.

"…"

AHAHAH I'm just fucking joking! I'm very pleased with what I got.

It might be a skill for brewing alcohol, sure, but its true nature is extracting the natures of added items to effect the future product.

Basically, magical brewing if you want to be straightforward about it. Plus the added benefit of some nonsense touhou 'the longer this ages, the more potent it becomes' power that has no limit.

Things don't spoil, plus they'll constantly grow in both alcohol content... and flavor!

The only issue is a moderately aged vintage of my own making would kill any human who consumes it. Hell, it might even kill a normal Youkai... but... it's an in with the oni! Now I just need to start making Alcohol, then I might be able to hire a few extremely powerful goons to beat the shit out of people for me!

Heh.

Heheheheh.

I hold out a hand, a large door appearing before me.

"…"

I reach out and grab the handle, then open the door.

I step through and look around.

This... leads back to my living room... the one that is housed in my pipes...

Wait...

With this power I no longer have to crawl through my dresser to enter new worlds! That's badass!

However. One downside appears to be I'll still need to go to the little safe door to check what worlds I have access to.

And speaking of worlds I have access to...

The connector has been a total piece of shit.

The first re-roll of slot one took four days.

I got Saw.

You know, the world where people get their face cut off by a bear trap connected to a laser gun.

I thought to myself. 'eh. I could save some people from these dastardly traps.'

I poked my head through the portal...

COVERED in blood.

Like. In mere seconds. Take one look. Bam. Some dude gets his head vaporized by a fucking shotgun collar and suddenly I have brain matter in my ear and skull chunks in my hair.

I re-rolled the FUCK out of that world in the next second after doing some screaming and a lot of throwing up.

'ugh. I can still feel the blood on me.' An involuntary shiver travels down my spine, causing my tail to poof up slightly.

Anyways, the next re-roll took eight days- most of that time spent showering- then I re-rolled into fucking The Walking Dead.

I didn't even bother.

God forbid I catch the virus and die a slow painful death. I don't even know if youkai would be susceptible to that... but I certainly don't want to test that. Knowing my luck, I'd open the door and get a face full of zombie brains.

After that, sixteen days.

By this point I had unlocked my next world slot annnnd... Alien.

The Ridley Scott one.

Fuck no.

I can't fight off a fucking xenomorph.

I mean... I could possibly?

But I'm sure as fuck not testing that. I don't want to have a small worm thing rip itself out of my chest, becoming some sort of SUPREME xenomorph that can manipulate luck.

Fuck. That. Fighting a xenomorph- because, let's be real, the world is labeled 'Alien' not 'a ship that is merely in the same universe as the xenomorph species'- is NOT worth it. Even if I'd be getting sci-fi tech!

I walk over to the little dresser that has been moved into our pipe system and open the doors. 'let's see!'

Slot 1: Demon Slayer
Slot 2: Skyrim
Slot 3: Sword Art Online
Slot 4: Land Before Time​

'hnnn... isn't Demon Slayer that one anime with an absolutely stunning animation style? The one where 'almost vampires' haunt Japan and are killed by people with swords who know how to breathe good? There could be worse places to go. The enemies aren't necessarily that strong- compared to touhou- in general, there's profit to be made there. there's a lot of 'building busters' or 'block destroyers' but nobody within the 'utterly vaporizes this entire city and everything in it' level like a basic shounen.'

'Noooow. What the hell is land before time- wait... I remember. It's that... dinosaur movie series? One theatrical release and thirteen direct to dvd sequels? Wasn't there also a Tv Show?'

My eyebrow twitches slightly. 'WHY THE HELL WOULD I EVEN WANT THIS?! Dinosaurs don't fucking use CURRENCY! They don't understand the concept of barter or trade! Why would I want to make a connection to a bunch of dumb animals?!'

I reach out to re-roll only to stop abruptly. 'wait... wait a second...'

I cup my chin, pulling my hand back. 'let's not get hasty now. it's a world without any magic, thus I'd be a top dog. There's bound to be a use for a world with millions of dumb animals. Food? Leather? Pets?'

Hn... those are all fair options, but what else can I get out of this?

Target practice.

"…"

Necromancy

Holy shit, I could have an undead dinosaur army.

Wait- wait wait wait. Soul Trap... it is... an infinite expanse of souls to use for enchanting...

Hehe... HAH! That's awesome! If a mammoth counts as a 'grand soul' for a soul gem, a tyrannosaurus will certainly be worth that much as well!

I should get into enchanting. Honestly sword art online might allow an enchantment system due to the fact that it apparently allowed another server to slap gemstones onto weapons to give this effects... plus there's the whole blacksmith enhancement thing.

I have quite a lot of money on me at the moment as I haven't necessarily really purchased anything as of recently, so if I make a trade I could likely very easily afford the enchanting table.

The sooner I get it the better... then I'll need to learn the Soul Trap spell... get some soul gems... then I can really try my hand at enchanting!

"Oh, Argo... you're back." Tsukasa hums as she step out of our bedroom, she stretches her arms above her head and walks over with a slight sway to her hips.

Her arms wrap around me from behind as she whispers into my ears. "There is something in the bedroom that I need your help to take care of~"

"Ah. I see." I mutter. "Alright, let's go."

--Linebreak--

And thus, with one satisfied fox girl behind me, I venture out into the world of Skyrim... mainly due to the fact that I could see the imperial city of Solitude from where my door opened up and it would be a quick little tube-warp over.

My feet touch down in the alleyway of the city, I let out a low hum as I glance around, fixing my hat over my ears and keeping my tail tightly wrapped in my kimono.

I walk outside and quietly begin making my way through the city, my destination set.

If this guy doesn't give me over ten ebony coins for this shit, I swear I'll just jet over to the college of Winterhold. I could probably fly there in like an hour if I tried hard enough.

I eventually come to the large stone building which I had arrived at two months prior.

I reach over and open the doors then step inside.

A cacophony of noise reaches my ears, and in this moment, I am glad that my animalistic ears are flattened under my hat.

The dining room-slash- entrance hall is far livelier than before. Instead of just a single elf sadly eating alone, this time dozens of bards sit around, all of differing ages. Old, young. Men, women. Even a few children.

I step past them all and begin making my way through the halls, having memorized the location of the guild leader's office from the last time I was here.

I pause in front of the door and gently knock my knuckles upon it.

There is a brief silence, then the door opens, the high elf man on the other side of the door looks briefly confused before a grin splits his face. "Ah! The traveling merchant from afar! I take it that if you are here, you have found something intriguing?"

A small smile works its way onto my face. "I have indeed. You wanted magical instruments? I've got two."

"Wonderful! Simply wonderful, please come in." He steps aside allowing me inside.

I take a step forwards as the man walks back around the desk and takes a seat. "I was hoping that you would return sometime soon! That violin you sold me made me the talk of Solitude! Truly a magnificent instrument. Now, these magical instruments... may I see them?"

"As long as you don't play them while I am here, sure, why not?" I pull out my two instruments and lay them on the desk.

He looks mildly perturbed about the tarnished silvery horn, and seems to be much more interested in the flute.

"These two instruments should honestly be considered weapons more than musical instruments."

"Weapons?" The man echoes.

"When blown, the horn creates a truly tremendous blast of force which can easily kill someone in close proximity. The thing is, its true ability is that it is ten times as effective against structures, thus, it can probably level a castle in mere minutes."

I gesture to the flute. "As for this, it is a flute which can control those with weak wills. Primarily animals, insects, and other beasts."

His eyebrows raise as he looks to the flute. "Seriously?"

"Yes." I nod once.

He looks over the instruments, cupping his bearded chin.

"I can certainly feel that they are magical... I may not be an arch mage, but I do know a little bit about magic... the question remains... how many septims are you looking to get for these?"

"Well, the first thing you should know is that most magic items require soul gems to power them... each and every one will reach a point where they just stop working and run out of charge... however. These two do not have that issue, making them quite unique as far as magic items go. As long as you keep them undamaged, they will remain magical."

"Taking that into account, I could very likely get... perhaps fifteen ebony septims for the horn here, and anywhere from twenty to thirty for the flute if I were to go to the College of Winterhold."

"I will give you forty five ebony septims right here, right now for both." The man states, causing me to blink slowly.

"Oh. Alright. Deal. I could have likely haggled for more at the college, but if I did I would have likely done so for materials... not cold hard septims~ also, I wasn't aware that being a bard was that profitable." I agree instantly.

"Enrollment fees, and profits from events and festivals... there's also the fact that I do not spend many septims if I can help it. Then, we get a small fraction of all profits that our graduées make for a couple of years. Bards of high caliber are quite the commodity. After my performance at old life and new life festivals I have already received four separate offers to perform for those of noble blood... the one offering the least being five malachite septims."

"I see." I note as the man turns around and quickly opens his safe and retrieves my money. He swiftly counts it out and sits a small coin pouch on the table.

"Thank you." He nods once, causing me to return the nod.

"I'll be back if I find anything else interesting." I declare as I turn and walk towards the door-

"FUS RO DAH!"

I let out a small shout as I reach up and cover the top of my head, my ears ringing, the entire building shakes, sending dust raining down on both me and the headmaster of this college.

I look around, the bard looks ghastly pale. "What the hell was that?!"

"Dragon tongue... either a dragon has attacked solitude... or a greybeard decided to make an appearance... either way. I'm out. Good luck with whatever that is... I will admit, didn't sound like a dragon shouted as they tend to prefer an elemental breath. Buuuuut yeah. I'm not touching that. Goodbye."

I step outside, close the door behind me, turn to my left and step through a conjured door I open back to my home.

As I hear the door behind me slowly open, I close the door into Gensokyo.

As the door fades from existence I stare at the location it was in previously for a moment, then let out a sigh as I take off my hat, running a hand through my hair.

"Fucking loud noises." I grumble under my breath as I gently stroke one of my vulpine ears.

Ping
Ping
Ping
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Ping
Ping-​

That noise also isn't the most calming thing... buuuuut that noise means progress! So let's see what I've got!