Fairy Tail Bluemage (Chapter 3) (Patreon)

"So..." I begin quietly. "You're not exactly trying to keep them from fighting." 

My eyes slowly stray to Lucy who is sat on a nearby bench with happy. 

"They're hopeless." She groans. "And I don't see you trying." 

"Well, I just got here." I admit. "But. I'll give it a try now." 

I slowly walk over to the group. 

"Natsu. Grey." I begin. 

"Ah. White haired guy!" Natsu observes. "I remember you... what are you doing here?" 

"I joined fairy tail about two weeks ago." I answer. 

"Oh... huh..." He blinks. "I mean, yeah. I think I saw you around... I just mean 'what are you doing here'. Are you going to help out?" 

"Yes. I am." I nod once. "On that topic. Look. I get you two don't like each other, but Erza asked you for help... do you know what sort of threat she must have seen to ask for help?" 

The corner's of Gray's mouth turn downwards slightly as Natsu cocks his head to the side. 

"I never really thought about it like that." Natsu mutters. 

"Of course you wouldn't." Gray scoffs. "You don't think?" 

"YOU WANNA GO, STRIPPER?!" 

"ANY TIME ANY PLACE FLAME BRAIN!" 

"Stop." I demand. "Stop and listen." 

"Erza asked you two for help. I am not saying you two need to be the best of friends this mission. But... for Erza to ask for help it must be a task that SHE as an S Class wizard is worried about. Thus. It's an S class job, right? She is taking us on an S class job. If you are distracted... or are fighting... it's likely that we will all die. So here's my suggestion. Instead of fighting mid-mission... make a mental note of each time the other person bothers you. Bottle it up. Then wait until we cleared the mission... then once you get out of Erza's sight, you can slug it out and settle your differences. Sound fair?" 

"Hmph. I'll do it if the stripper agrees." 

"Alright! That's one strike! I'll remember this for later firebreather!" 

"Oh yeah?! And I'll remember that!" Natsu shouts back. 

They both turn away from each other with quiet 'hmph's  

"So... you have known Erza longer than me, so... what do you exactly think has her so worried?" 

"Maybe the bakery where she gets her favorite strawberry cake got blown up or robbed?" Natsu tilts his head. 

"No." Gray shakes his head. "She buys so many... would have enough jewel to open dozens of stores across Fiore." 

"Then... a big monster?" Natsu ponders. 

"She kills those all the time." Gray shoots down the idea. 

"Maybe it's a bunch of smaller, but still quite strong monsters?" I toss my hat into the ring. "Like, sure, she's super powerful, but she can't be everywhere at once, right?" 

"Hmmm." 

We all turn as we hear the woman of the hour's grieved footsteps quickly approaching. 

If you couldn't hear her, you could definitely see her considering how much fucking luggage she has. 

She alone has a fucking train car's worth being tugged in a wooden cart. 

"It's time to go good buddy!" Grey exclaims, slinging his arm around Natsu. 

"Aye!" He replies. 

"Oh? I remember you from the guild hall." 

"Mirajane sent me." I announce.  

"I see. If Mirajane believes you'll help, then I welcome you." The woman nods sagely. "And... you. I also remember you from the guild." 

"My name is Lucy and Mirajane asked me to tag along with you so I could learn a thing or two." 

"This... might not be the right mission for 'tagging along'. This is quite a dangerous mission." Erza frowns. 

"Oh..." Lucy blinks. "W-well... I should still be able to help! I'm a celestial spirit wizard, after all. I can help by summoning some extra muscle!" 

"Alright. I will admit. We might need all the hands we can get." Erza sighs as she turns to look at Grey and Natsu. "Let's get on the train." 

~~Linebreak~~

The train shakes slightly as I cross my arms, a purple horned cat- roughly the size of a dog- in my lap. 

"That is... an interesting creature." Erza notes. "What is it?" 

Currently I am sat next to Gray, Lucy is sat across from us with Erza and Natsu is face-down in the middle of our facing chairs. 

"it's a baby Behemoth... which is basically like a giant electrified horned cat." 

"I... see... are you sure you wish to keep a baby monster like this?" Erza questions with a raised eyebrow. 

"Oh, don't worry about it. He'll probably never grow older... I summoned him through a ritual and he is my familiar. He is sort of like Celestial Spirit Magic in a way." 

"Oh! I see!" Lucy exclaims. "That's what I felt was off about him!" 

"Erza... I believe its about time that you started filling us in." Gray begins suddenly. "I mean, what's so important? What kind of mission are we going on here?" 

"Of course." Erza nods as she crosses her arms. "I have reason to believe that the dark guild Eisenwald is planning something big. I'm not sure what, but it has something to do with a magic item called Lullaby." 

"That name..." Lucy whispers. 

"Hm?" I hum. 

"Oh... well, after my mission with Natsu, some wizards who kidnapped happy said that name before they were taken away." 

"Oh? Could these be Eisenwald wizards who wanted nothing to do with whatever the guild had planned?" Erza questions, looking at the floor in intrigue. 

"I should start at the beginning... a few days ago while I was returning from my mission, I stopped at a bar which is known to a hotspot for wizards... while there I overheard a conversation. Four wizards were discussing a sealed magical item by the name of Lullaby." 

"Wait... how do you know it's eisenwald, then?" Gray questions. 

"Because of one name they spoke of... Eragor... I was a fool. If I had only remembered that name sooner I could have pulverized them and forced them to tell me everything they know!" She clenches a fist.  

She lets out a quiet sigh. "That is why I came to you and Natsu... I know I am powerful, but I am not delusional enough to think I can take on an entire guild. That is our goal. To raid the Eisenwald Guild." 

Lucy begins shaking slightly. "W-Well, ah- I-I probably shouldn't have come." 

"Death magic." I begin quietly. 

"H-Huh?!" Lucy gasps. 

"Death magic?" Erza echoes. "Do you know of Lullaby?" 

"Hm. Yes... I believe I do." I nod slowly. "If it was sealed, then surely it was incredibly powerful magic... and with such a name, it certainly has something to do with sleep. But to seal a simple item that causes people to go to sleep? No. It has to be more than that... it either causes people to fall into an endless sleep... or forces them to sleep eternally... and by that, I mean kill them." 

"..." 

"it's the latter." I decide suddenly as I close my eyes. 

"How... How can you be so sure?" Lucy questions. 

"First... why don't we go over our abilities since we shall be very shortly working together. My name is Merlin. I don't exactly practice any one magic, but at the moment I can grant my allies armor that lasts for two hours. Then, after that, I can heal minor injuries." 

"You can heal?!" Erza questions. 

"Minor injuries." I repeat. "Like, maybe a small cut... or bruises. I'm unsure how it would work on a stab wound. My final ability of note is that I can more or less identify someone's magical capabilities with a glance." 

"I am Gray... I use Ice Maker Magic which allows me to create items out of ice." The black haired teen begins as he clutches his hands together. A moment later a fairy tail emblem made of ice appears in his hand. 

"I-I'm Lucy... I can use Celestial Spirit magic." 

"I am Erza Scarlet... and I have requip magic." 

"And Telekinesis, right?" I question. 

"Yes..." She nods slowly, eyes looking to me. "I see you didn't lie about your eyes. Now... tell me how you know so much? Wait-" 

She looks around suddenly. 

"You get it." I nod slowly. "I'm not going to tell you where he is yet... merely because we lack a plan." 

"But he could hurt people!" She hisses. 

"No. He won't." I shake my head. "There is no point in doing so yet. He is going somewhere. Why blow his cover or activate the death magic that kills anyone who hears it until he gets to his destination? He is bringing it to his guild, right?" 

The woman cups her chin, gazing suspiciously at everyone close by. 

"he's not in this train car." I admit. 

Her eyes stray to me. "Then what do you propose we do?" 

"It's quite simple... we want him off the train. But he's likely to be pretty jumpy... plus he can meld into the ground via shadow. Do you have anything that can create a bright light?" 

"I do." She nods slowly. 

"So. Here's what you do. Walk past him like you are going towards the caboose, then in an instant, swap into your fastest armor. Get a blunt weapon to clobber him with and slam him through the wall of the train. That might cause a little property damage, but it's a lot better than allowing him to be close to all these people." 

"I see." 

"Then. Once he is outside, he'll likely try and run." 

Erza nods along. "So I merely dispel his shadow transpiration with my light weapon, bringing him out of the ground. I see. This is a decent plan. So where is he?" 

"I saw him sitting at the back of the train when we got on." I admit. 

"Requip." Erza intones as she rises to her feet. 

I rise to my feet, causing my familiar- whom I need to name. To let out a small growl as he jumps down. 

I scoop him up into my bag. 

"Now, Erza. Before you continue." I call out. 

She pauses and glances back as the others seem to stand. 

"The item is alive and can use itself. It's a demon from the book of Zeref." I whisper causing her eyes to widen slightly. 

"So, when you see it. Shatter it into millions of little itty bitty pieces." I grin as I look back. "Happy. Grab Natsu and drag him off the train. We'll need him to feel better so give him some time to breathe.  

"Aye sir!" The cat salutes as he hops off the chair and grabs onto Natsu's shirt. Wings sprout from his back and he begins to float, flying down the aisle of the train in the opposite direction towards the nearby door. 

I come to the part where the train cars connect, gazing out over a fair landscape of desert sand. 

"Huh... at least it's sand." I hum. That'll suck so much less when I leap off this moving vehicle. 

Luckily it's not going as fast as it could be. So I'll probably only get a little scuffed up. 

Erza disappears into the next train car. 

"S-So... Merlin. What's the plan for us?" 

"Jump off the train when Erza punts that guy through a wall." I admit. 

"H-Huh?!" 

"Grey. Watch the other side." 

"Got it." He nods as he slightly hangs off the other side. 

"This- This is crazy!" 

"Welcome to Fairy Tail~" I hum. "We're ALL a little bit crazy! Also. If it makes you feel any better. Jumping into sand is a LOT better than jumping on solid ground. It probably won't even hurt." 

"Probably?!" She echoes. 

"Oh wait!" I hum before bringing a hand to my chest. "Armor." 

A gentle glow appears around me. 

I reach over and grab Lucy's shoulder. "Armor." 

I lean across the train car, hand brushing against Gray's forearm. "Armor." 

The two fairy tail wizards are cloaked in their own spectral armor. Both looking over it briefly. 

"Now it'll suck even less!" I grin. 

BOOM 

A large black sphere crashes through the wall of the train.  

"My side!" I call out, then jump off, rolling in the sand with my bag tightly clutched to my chest. 

I sit up around five seconds later, spitting out some sand that slipped into my mouth. 

My familiar lets out an annoyed growl as my bag shakes slightly. 

I get up as I look back to see Lucy laying in the sand a short distance away. 

I quickly rush over as a tremendous light seems to shine behind me. 

"Are you okay?" 

"I've got sand in my hair." She whines as I pull her up. 

"Do you have any good combat celestial spirits?" 

"Uhhh. I've got Tauros!" 

"If the shadow wizard isn't unconscious by the time we get there, we may need him." I nod slowly. 

We both turn and begin running towards the sound of conflict. 

But... by the time we are there... 

Erza is standing over the mage, skull-like flute in hand. 

She tosses it upwards, an absolutely massive sword appearing in her hand. 

She swings the blade like a baseball bat as the eyes of the flute seem to glow. 

CRACK 

Regardless of being a demon from the book of Zeref... 

It is still made of wood. 

The two halves of the flute seem to scream and shake in the sand, wisps of light exploding from the cut parts. 

Then... its three glowing purple eyes dim and it stops moving. 

"Erza. Do you have some sort of metal box or something to put it in?" I question. 

With a flash a wooden treasure chest appears. 

It is full of clothes. The woman takes out about half of the clothes, telekinetically lifts the pieces of the flute, placing it atop the clothes, then places the removed half back over it. 

It thuds shut a moment later. 

"..." 

"Mission accomplished!" I grin brightly. 

"Huh..." Erza frowns. 

A quest has been completed! 

Lullaby the cursed Instrument: 
You have decided to tag along with Erza and co to stop the demonic flute Lullaby! How much help could a simple level 2 be? Who knows! But that doesn't mean you can't try! 

Objective: 
Destroy the demonic flute Lullaby: [x] 

Bonus Objectives: 
Singlehandedly defeat Lullaby: [-] 
Defeat the Eisenwald Guild: [ ] (Reward will be dispensed upon the end of your mission) 
Limit Property Damage to an acceptable amount: [ ] (Reward will be dispensed upon the end of your mission) 

Reward: 
5000 Exp, +1 Bonus to saves against Death Magic, One magic item from the Pathfinder or Final Fantasy D20 Store worth up to 5000 Gold Pieces/Gil. 

Annnnnd second level up! Yay! 

Hello second level spells and another spell. 

I had given quite some thought into what sort of spell I should get with my next level, and, well, I currently have two options. 

First, is Haste. 

Normally a third level spell, but Time Wizards learn it as a second level spell. Thus, it'll cost less and I can get it early. 

The next option would be 'Healing Ruby'. 

A spell that heals two-d-eight plus five then grants a target fast healing two for a number of rounds equal to my caster level. 

Thus... it is strictly better than even 'Regenerate'. 

Honestly... 

Fuck it. Let's take Healing Ruby. 

The spell itself is good enough and if I really need to, I can replace Regen. 

The only benefit that lower-level spell has is that it costs half of Healing Ruby. 

We all stand around the knocked out shadow mage. 

"Now what?" I ask. 

"The largest threat is taken care of. Lullaby is destroyed. Thus, the Eisenwald guild is without their weapon. We should turn this shadow mage here over to the Rune Knights." 

I nod slowly. "Alright. Who's dragging him." 

Erza grabs a pair of handcuffs and bends the mage's arms behind his back. 

The cuffs glow brightly as they click shut. Activating their magic sealing properties. 

"I shall carry him." She declares, picking up the mage with just one hand. 

"There was a rune knight outpost in the last town we passed. Let's go." 

~~Linebreak~~

A small smile appears on my lips as I fold my arms behind my head. 

Well. It seems that missions with plot relevance are vastly more profitable. 

That means I should probably go to Galuna, huh? 

Limit Property Damage to an acceptable amount: [x] 

Bonus Reward: 
Items worth up to 6000 GP/Gil 

So... I've got a fucking crazy plan. 

From my quest reward from the giant rage monster I have been given two items... or rather, one item up to five thousand gold and a second item worth up to six thousand. 

An achievement has been unlocked: 

The Impossible: 
A High-profile fairy tail job completed with less than 100,000 jewel in property damage?! Unheard of. Especially when its a mission with the Fairy Queen and the Salamander. Was this a fluke? Who knows. But the magic council is counting their blessings that they only lost part of a train car in exchange for the slaying of a demon from the books of Zeref. 
Reward: 1000 Experience. Add Spells: Mending (cantrip), Repair (Lv 1), Make Whole (Lv 2), and Wind Back the Key (Lv 3) to your spellbook. You may not change out these spells. 

Huh... 

That is... 

Interesting. 

I can gain benefits in addition to my class. 

Little extra bonuses here and there. 

Here, it was four additional spells and one thousand experience. 

Are class features from other classes an option here? 

If so... it's a good thing I didn't go freelancer, then. 

Regardless. Back to my crazy plan. 

In pathfinder... there is this little item called the Necklace of Fireballs. 

Basically it's a piece of jewelry with a bunch of silly orange beads on it. 

The thing is... each of those beads are a stasis'd fireball spell. 

There are many variants of the necklace of fireballs. Type one has one five-d-six and two three-d-six fireballs on it. 

The thing with the necklace of fireballs is that if you take any fire damage while wearing it. 

It must roll a save to dodge the effect or it fucking blows up. Every single bead at once. 

So that type one will result in an eleven D-Six explosion. 

Now. That's only slightly more than a regular fireball cast by a level ten can reach... that's where the higher-tiered necklaces come into the picture. 

My plan is to grab the most expensive one I can- using the requip magic I totally yoinked off Erza to keep it safe- then grab a second item, this time from the final fantasy d20 shop which is similar to a single bead from the necklace of fireballs. However instead of a twenty foot burst, it has a thirty foot burst... in addition it deals fifteen D-eight. 

Thus, far more powerful. 

The plan is basically just to fucking bomb them. 

Slight issue. 

Gajeel is needed to kill Acnologia. 

Gajeel cannot kill Acnologia if he is atoms. 

Counterpoint to this... Gajeel is a prick who honestly didn't deserve one of the most fun and interesting characters in the entire series. 

Considering how little the series explores Celestial Spirit Magic, maybe Levy should have been the main character. 

Lucy sure is shit isn't getting any fucking development. 

Oh? We're missing like dozens of important keys like DRACO THE FUCKING DRAGON?! 

Nah. Let's give Lucy star dress when the only enemies she has left to face are either far too pathetic to even be a challenge to series start Natsu or enemies so powerful she has no hope of beating them. 

Oh. Also no Draco the Dragon despite the fact that Lucy is best friends with a dragon slayer and her pulling out her own celestial dragon slayer magic via star dress with Draco would have been fucking badass. 

But no. 

Lucy hasn't gotten a new key since like Capricorn. 

She didn't even take Caelum from Angel... 

What the fuck. 

I rub my temples. 

'Calm down, Merlin. You can fix that. You've already made people act like they have a brain. You can beat some intellect into the main cast. You've got this' 

I leap up from my bed as I glance around my room.  

There's not really any time to mope around. Phantom Lord is coming! 

Level: 3 
Experience: 80.0% (11200/14000) 
Health: 23/23 
MP: 8/8 
Armor Class: 13 

I've grown stronger... but it isn't enough, frankly. 

Should I bomb Gajeel? 

The issue is bombing Gajeel is really difficult. You can't really lock him down. 

It would be sooo much easier if I was level five and could use my wards. 

At the moment, my only plan would be to get him someplace open, use Aera to fly, then toss a necklace of fireballs down at him alongside the 'Bomb's Wrath'. 

Nothing says that I need to get my rewards immediately... 

Technically, I could just allow them to hang there and pull them out of my ass if things get bad. 

Yeah... 

I'll wait! 

No sense in wasting time I could be doing missions with.  

Spatial Magic: Requip 
Spell Level: 1 
Casting Time: 12 Hours/Standard Action 
Range: Personal 
Target: You 
Duration: Permanent 
Saving throw: None 
Spell Resistance: None 

Craft a personalized extradimensional space which can hold objects for you. This space can hold up to 5 cubic feet of volume per caster level. The maximum Weight Capacity for this space is 10 pounds per caster level. Creating such a space is difficult and takes roughly 12 hours of focus. After that point you can store and retrieve items for free as a standard action. These items appear in your waiting hands or in a free space within 5 feet if your hands are full. 

Overcharge: 
For each additional MP you spend on this spell, the volume and weight limit of the spell is doubled. 

Notice: You must spend MP equal to the Spell Level of your Requip space each morning to keep your connection to it. Should you ever not do so, your Requip Space shall be locked to you and you will be unable to store or retrieve your items until you reconnect to this space. Your items will not be lost. 

This... is a magic I'll probably never swap out. 

It's too useful. 

Portable bag of holding. 

Even spending two mana each morning is worth it as I can store a nice sixty pounds worth of items. 

Hell, I'll even regain that mana in just an hour! 

To be honest, what I REALLY need is one of those items that increases my maximum mana. 

The cheapest is twelve thousand gold, though... and improves it by five total. 

The most powerful item that grants more mana would be a golden hairpin that gives fifty extra mana. but it costs literally six hundred thousand gold. 

Sooo uh. 

It's unlikely I'd ever get that. 

I walk out of my new bedroom, a small smile on my lips, glancing to a newspaper sat nearby. 

On the cover is the words 'Fairy Tail Saves the Day' with a photo of us all on it. 

I'm probably going to keep that. 

It... 

Feels good. 

Being in fairy tail just feels right. I don't know how to explain it. 

It's calm, but chaotic. Fun but also annoying at times. 

It really captured the feeling of a family. I don't know how they managed this, but... I've only been here two weeks, but I'm already prepared to stomp on anything that tries to get in the way of this guild. 

Be it Phantom Lord, the Oracion Seis, Zeref. It doesn't matter who shows up, I'm going to put my best damned effort to knock those bastards flat. 

It's the fairy tail way!