Fairy Tail Bluemage (Chapter 5) (Patreon)

W-what? 

My body... has a history, huh? 

Why the fuck does my body synergize with THIS?! 

I close my eyes, letting out a long breath. 

Alright. 

Let's see what this does. 

I grab an ability. 

One that takes more than half my points 

But it is worth it considering what it gets at level six... or rather, Level seven for me... as I don't have enough 'freelance points' to get the ability yet. 

Or... 

I didn't... 

'Demon Blood' Synergizes with Host body's history. Half the spent Freelancer points are refunded. 

Demon Blood:  
A demon hunter’s blood ignites within their very being, changing their physical makeup for the better. 
Starting at 1st level, the demon hunter gains DR 1/-, this increases by 1 at 5th level and every four warrior levels thereafter to a max of DR 5/- at 17th level. At 6th level, a demon hunter gains fast healing 1. 

Sooo uh. This would have cost me twenty points to get, then ten every time I wanted to 'upgrade' it. Thus ten at fifth, ten at sixth, ten at ninth, etcetera. 

But. 

I can get this for half? 

Am I not human? 

But I got the basic human special qualities... 

Impartial human, then? 

Like Dante? 

I have twenty five points left. 

That's not a lot. 

'system, what does Base Attack Bonus and Hitdie really do here?' 

Base Attack bonus is a modifier to strength and speed as much as the stats themselves. Hit-Die is a representation of how durable you are. 

I could raise my attack from half my level to my full level, which would in-turn raise my hit-die from d-sixes to a d-ten. That costs twenty total. 

Then for a further five, I could increase my health to D-twelves. 

Fuck it. That sounds good. 

It'll take all my points, but I can only do this at THIS level. 

I can unlock some other perks with my 'Demonic Blood' later. 

With a couple of pushes of the buttons on my system I pause. 

A deep ache seems to pierce my core, a low hiss leaving my mouth as I writhe on my bed. 'Ow. Ow. Ow ow ow. FUCK!' 

~~Linebreak~~

A yawn leaves my lips as I tiredly rub an eye. 

Fuck. 

My body still aches a little bit. 

I've spent the last week or so trying to not move as even breathing seemed to cause lances of pain to dance across my ribs. 

Well, whatever I did... it worked. 

Earlier I was fit, sure... maybe a little more skinny than fit. But now? Just from looking in the mirror I can tell... I appear more well defined. A six pack is beginning to form on my stomach. I actually have muscles if I flex my biceps. 

A week of bed rest has let me take stock of things. 

Assess my current situation. 

Firstly. Three level-ups. 

That's given me some things to work with. 

Third level spells, more mana, a feat, even some class features. 

At level four I gained an ability to lower the cost of 'meta-magic' spells by one. 

That's pretty useful as I can now technically deal upwards of eleven d-eight damage with Fire Dragon's Iron Fist. 

More than a fireball. 

I can also extend spells for a considerable time now for practically free. 

The only issue is that I can only use this ability thrice per day. 

Next, at level six, I got an ability called 'Magic Invoke.' Which allows me to force someone to cast a spell. 

Not sure if I get to choose the target or something like that, but it could be useful. 

It has no use-limit much like my magical scanning. 

I've got new spells from the many final fantasy classes. 

Firstly, Cura. 

AOE heal that heals as much as a fireball and has the same area as one. A forty-foot globe from one side to the other. The only difference is that it is centered on myself. 

It also specifies allies only. So no healing enemies amidst battle. 

Next, I got 'lesser bend time and space' 

The name sounds FAR better than it really is. 

It's a teleport move. 

But it only teleports myself- and technically my familiar as he is counted as a part of me for things like this. 

That makes it less useful, sure. 

Then there's fact I need to view wherever I want to go at least once- and there's a chance my teleportation fucks up and I end up god knows where- but still. 

One hundred miles per caster level. 

And, for my final free spell... I've decided to save it. 

Who knows if I might need to cure poison or some other status effect, so I might as well keep it back just in case. 

I should think about getting a magic crafting feat next level. 

That wand really helped out. 

I've only got like fifteen charges left, but still. A worthy use of four thousand five hundred gold. 

Level: 6 
Experience: 56.6% (10200/18000) 
Health: 65/65 
MP: 27/27 
Armor Class: 13 

I've finally got some magic to work with. 

And soon enough, I'll begin laying runes across the town in preparation. 

Oh! Wait! I've got my 'Savant Talents'! 

I sort of forgot about those in the haze of pain... 

There's a pretty useful one in the Black Mage talent list that reinforces my body when I use destructive spells. Giving me 'temporary health' equal to the number of dice a destructive spell deals in damage 

With 'Red Shower' that's... actually pretty impressive. 

Two dice for every two levels up to a maximum of twelve at level eleven. That twelve is increased to fourteen thanks to my black magery. Then I can increase this number by four for each spell level I improve the spell by... 

Or I could empower it. Instead. 

With my current capabilities, I could give myself a grand total of eighteen temporary hit points. Nearly a third of my total health... and this is like... constantly refreshing every time I do a damaging spell. 

Red Shower merely is the most optimal choice for gaining a health shield, but it'll probably be better to use it with Fire Dragon's Iron Fist. 

That's one little perk down. 

For my other one I have a few options. Gain a 'Red Mage's Arcane Pool, but I'd need an extra feat to gain any sort of ability to use it. Or I could give myself an extra feat... which could be used for crafting... 

Hmmm. 

Crafting. 

Craft Wand will be useful. Hell, maybe I could sell wands of healing for BIG bucks. 

I'd imagine Cura would be pretty lucrative. As would Healing Ruby. 

I eventually arrive to the guild hall and step inside a small smile on my lips as I look around. 

I had actually started to miss this place... 

I step inside, walking to the board where I see that one guy who is always stood around it and... Levy? 

"Oh. Hey Levy." I greet as I come to a stop beside her. "What are you up to?" 

"Looking for a mission to do myself." 

"Yourself?" I echo. 

Her shoulders slump as she lets out a small growl. "Jet and Droy are being extra annoying today." 

"How so?" I ask. 

"They- they act like I'm some sort of flower or glass window they need to protect! I'm- I'm a wizard of Fairy Tail too! I can hold my own! And I'm going to prove it!" 

"They just care about you, you know?" I state. 

"I know. It's just... I wish they'd respect me a little more. Respect my decisions more." She sighs. "So... what about you? I noticed that you've been missing most of the week." 

"Oh, I did a little training. Most of this week was spent lying in bed recovering." I admit. 

"Oh! Are you alright?!" She gasps. 

"My body still aches a little bit, but I'm fine now." I nod. "Anyways, I finally gained enough magical power to do a spell I learned a while back. It'll make one mission I saw here fairly easy, so I was planning on taking it." 

"Which one?" 

"That shoplifter job. It is Thursday, right?" I question. 

"It is." She nods. 

"Oh good." I smile eventually finding the job on the board and taking it. "Good luck on your job, Levy." 

"You too!"  

~~Linebreak~~

I sit in the train as it prepares to leave the station a sword in my lap. 

That job was... sort of easy. 

Shoplifting Assailant: {Rank D} 
I am the owner of a magic shop in Shirotsume Town, but recently I have noticed while taking inventory that items have been going missing. I tried my best to figure it out, but with all my customers I find it a little difficult to keep an eye out. I do inventory at the end of every day, and I've noticed that items only seem to go missing on Thursdays. So that must be when the shoplifter strikes! Can you please help me out before the shoplifter takes something valuable? 

Reward: 25000 Jewel, a Magic Sword. 

It was merely a matter of creating a rune trap around the building that activates whenever someone tries to shoplift. Trapping people who try to shoplift inside. 

It was apparently some courier that regularly brings mail to the town. 

He was nonmagical so he pretty much surrendered the second the runes activated. 

I glance down to the sword. 

Magic Longsword 
Hardness: 12 
Health: 15 
Weight: 4 
Damage: 1d8+1+Str 
Crit Range: 19-20 (x2) 
Magical: Has +1 to hit and Damage. 

It is... a fairly basic sword. 

And by that, I mean 'plus one'. 

From what I saw in the shop, it's worth about fifty thousand jewel. 

This is pretty reasonable for the work I did. 

Spent an hour writing some runes on the floor. Then I just sort of sat in the back room. 

I requip the sword away and relax into the seat. 

"Levy?!" I blink as I see the blue haired girl in question walking down the train aisle. 

"Oh! Merlin!" She beams as she slides into the seat across from me. 

"How was your mission?" 

"It was great! " She smiles. "I had to defeat a forest Vulcan. That's nothing a little solid script: bullet and bomb couldn't take care of. What about you?" 

"Oh, I used rune magic to create a barrier around the shop that activates if anyone tries to steal anything, then made it so it traps thieves inside. I didn't even really need to do any watching. I just sat in the back room reading a book the entire time waiting for the barrier to trigger. Then I just needed to look menacing and the courier crumbled almost instantly and surrendered." 

"Rune magic?" Levy echoes. 

"Oh, you know, word enchantment." I answer. "I can show you some when we get back to Magnolia. The issue is that it takes a while to write." 

Notably, what the spell doesn't tell you is that by shrinking the area you can save on time. 

Half the area takes thirty minutes, a quarter takes fifteen, and the smallest I can make it, a five foot square, will take two and a half minutes to create, but that'll go down as I get more space. 

"Oh! That's the magic Freed uses sometimes, right? I always wanted to take a closer look, but the Thunder God Trio is just so... intense." 

"I haven't met them so I wouldn't know." I shake my head quietly.  

"Oh, well they're probably assisting Laxus on an S-Class mission. I haven't seen any of them in a while either." The girl mutters. "I hope they're okay..." 

"They should be. I heard that Laxus is one of the strongest wizards in the guild." 

"That's true." Levy nods. 

"Have you gotten any closer to writing two things at once?" I ask. 

"Sadly not." She sighs. "it's just... difficult to multi-task like that."  

"hm." I hum, my eyes glowing slightly as I look over the girl. 

She tilts her head slightly. "What are you doing?" 

"Oh, I'm using my eye magic to take a look at your spells." I explain. "honestly... your magic is so versatile that it is sort of hurting my eyes- huh?" 

"What is it?" 

"Can... I try something once we get back to Magnolia?" I question. 

"Try what?" 

"I have an ability to force people to use their magic as well... and I'm seeing something that has me... intrigued, frankly... and it's something that you don't seem aware that you can do." 

"Pardon?" 

"You can use two-word magic." 

"What?!" She whispers. "But- How?!" 

"I'm not sure... but my 'Invoke Magic' should be able to draw it out. It might give you a better idea on what to do. It's just... I've never used this ability before. I don't know if it'll hurt you, feel weird, or anything like that." 

"Alright!" She beams. "I trust you! We can do it at the guild hall when we get back. Plus, if you wouldn't mind... could you also show me those runes?" 

"Sure." I nod once. 

~~Linebreak~~

"Let's see here." I mutter cupping my chin as I gaze over the girl. "I'm trying to find a word combination that isn't too destructive... eh. This one sounds fine." 

We are both currently held up in the Fairy Tail library. Sat across from each other at a fairly large wooden table. 

"Lit Candle." 

The girl's eyes glow for a brief moment, her arms seemingly moving on their own. 

She cringes slightly as she swings her hands together, but... 

With a dull flash the word 'Candle' appears. 

At its wick is a little crackling fire that is comprised of the letters L-I-T bent together sort of like an arrow. 

The letters wiggle and crackle slightly as she stares down at the candle in sheer awe "Wh- Huh?!" 

"I-I did it." She whispers, a bright smile appearing on her face. "Yes! Merlin! This is amazing! I can do it! This opens up so many potential fun combinations like explosive bullets and tracking arrows?!" 

She seems to think for a moment, rotating her wrist. "The thing is... the hand writing candle was going a lot faster than the one writing 'lit'..." 

"Maybe you have to complete them at exactly the same time?" I observe. 

"Maybe." The girl muses. 

"In which case, it'll be easier to use words with the same number of letters in it, like Dry Ice." 

"..." 

"Pardon?" The girl blinks. "Dry Ice?" 

"Oh? You've never heard of dry ice?" I question. "It's like... super cold ice. Almost as cold as Liquid Nitrogen." 

"..." 

"Liquid Nitrogen?" She repeats. 

"Alright, you know how some things become solid, liquid, and gas, right? If water gets cold enough, it freezes, at room temperature it's liquid and if you boil it, a lot of the water becomes water vapor. The same can be said for most things. So like, the oxygen in the air around us. It's currently in a gaseous state... however, if you were to make it colder say... drop it down all the way to negative three hundred or so degrees, it would become a liquid." 

"Liquid Oxygen..." She repeats, looking down at her hand.  

"Dry Ice would probably be the easiest to test due to having three letters in each part, but it's not as cold as Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Oxygen. Being only like... negative one hundred or so." 

"Merlin, can you make me create Dry Ice?" The girl questions. 

"Alright but be really careful with it." I begin. "Honestly, it might be better if you made like a plate or something so it isn't placed directly on the table." 

"Oh... right." She mutters. "Sorry, I'm just so excited." 

She quickly writes another word. 

"Table!" 

A fairly unstable looking table appears beside us. 

"This should stop any potential damage, right?" She questions. 

"Probably?" I shrug. 

"I'm ready." The girl declares. 

"Dry Ice." I intone. 

Her hands move on their own, two words being combined in a haze. 

A large block of 'Dry Ice' appears on the table. Fog seems to waft off it, dribbling down through the holes in the table. 

"Huh..." She whispers. 

She hunches over, suddenly breathing heavily. 

"Are you alright?!" I ask, rocketing to my feet. 

She takes a deep breath then exhales. "Sorry. I... just wasn't expecting this to take so much magical power from me... maybe it was the effect? It makes sense that two-word spells cost more, but... Lit Candle didn't take nearly as much energy. It makes sense that stronger effects like this would be more draining." 

"That's a little disheartening." She admits a smile appearing on her face as she gazes over to the large block of ice. "But... It's possible." 

"Even without compound words, there's still a bunch of fun stuff you can do that involves two words. Like, dousing something with oil, then lighting it on fire. Or salting something then hitting it with ice." 

"That's true." The girl nods slowly. 

"Oh, and I've finished the word enchantment runes a while ago." I admit. 

"Oh? Can I see?!" She beams. 

"Stand back for a second?" I gesture back. 

She takes one step back. 

I activate the runic sequence, causing a few walls of purple runes to crawl upwards. 

"Woah..." She breathes, a small grin appearing on her face. 

she reaches out to touch it, blinking slowly as the barrier seems to ripple. 

She blinks slowly giving me an amused but unimpressed gaze. "Really?" 

"What?" I question, a small grin appearing on my face. 

"Blue haired women can't cross this barrier?" She echoes. 

"I thought it'd be best if you were able to experience what It's like to not be able to cross it." 

Her fingers touch the wall of runes surrounding me as she lets out a low hum. "How long does this last?" 

"They're permanent until triggered, then, after that? Currently I can make them last an hour. But I could push it to two if I really needed. But I'd need to decide on that while I was creating the runes." 

"Hm..." She hums. "Do you mind if I..."  

"By all means. Tinker away." I shrug. "I'm probably going to get a bite to eat and head on home." 

"Alright! Bye Merlin!" She waves. 

"Bye Levy." I wave back. "Good luck on training yourself to multitask." 

"I'll find you if I need some more help." She beams. 

~~Linebreak~~

"You need to back up!" The cat in the hat wearing wizard declares. 

"Excuse me?" I blink. 

His friend seems to cross his arms before declaring. "You're getting too close to Levy!"  

He leans on a nearby wall, trying to look cool. 

These two fucking goobers stopped me on my way home. 

My eyes flick between the two of them. "And?" 

"We're supposed to be Levy's only friends-" 

"-Who are boys." The other adds, also leaning against another wall. "We won't let you take advantage of her!" 

"..." 

"Is... Is this some sort of fucking prank?" 

"Absolutely not." Dark haired mage shakes his head. "We'd never joke about our love for Levy." 

"Dude... I talked to her for one fucking day. Are you legitimately fucking insane?! Is Levy some sort of prize to you?!" I question. 

"Wh-Huh?!" They both flinch back. 

"Like, this is fucking pathetic!" I exclaim. "It's obvious you both are romantically interested in her. I know it. The whole guild knows it. Levy knows it. But. Even if she hasn't made her position fully known to you- god forbid she has- she has not acted for either of you... that means she's not. Interested." 

"Then here you go, trying to drive people away who just want to be friends with her! What is wrong with you?! Why can't you just accept that she is an adult who can make her own decisions?! She is not some prize for you to 'win over' because you're 'super cool and absolute boyfriend material'. Nor can you dictate WHO she speaks to! Look. I understand you want to protect her. But this is not the way to do it! Tell me, do you want her to hate you? To loathe you with every fiber of her very being?!" 

"Acting like some sort of shitty bouncer for her fucking friendship is ABSOLUTELY going to get her to hate you! You're acting fucking pathetic. Grow up." I point at the two of them. 

"That-" You!" They seem to sputter. 

"Now. Goodbye. I will continue to be friends with Levy and help her learn her magic, because frankly you cannot make decisions for her. And I will continue to help her as long as she wants it... I will also be nice and not tell Levy about this stupid fucking bullshit you did to irritate me because I don't want to tear her friend group apart." I turn and storm off, eyebrow twitching. 

~~Linebreak~~

A blonde looks utterly dumbfounded at the scene that just played out before her. 

Her eyes flick between the white haired wizard who is storming off and Levy's two friends. 

Lucy was walking home herself when she saw Jet and Droy. 

Seeing as how they were friends with Levy, she was going to say hi and move on, but...  

Wow. 

They are insecure as hell. 

"So..." the black haired one mutters. "We just need to make it so Levy doesn't... want help from him?"  

Oh my god. 

They are so fucking stupid. 

She... didn't know Levy was getting help from Merlin, but... 

Wow. 

This is sad. And sort of creepy. 

Merlin graciously and nicely chose to keep it to himself... and here they are planning on getting Levy to hate him. 

Levy's teams is so... toxic! 

Everything Merlin said was right! It's absolutely pathetic what they are doing! No mean no!  

"So... should we beat each other up and claim that he did it and told us to stay away from her?" The speed mage questions. 

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU PRACTICALLY DID YOU JACKASSES!  

Merlin took out Erigor! She'd have LIKED to see these two dumbasses pick a fight with him! 

Honestly... that's probably why they didn't. They were on the Eisenwald suppression mission as well and heard, saw, and felt that massive explosion he unleashed. 

He has spent his time in fairy tail helping out as much as he can. Lullaby, Eisenwald, He even saved her from getting on that boat with that fake salamander guy!  

He... doesn't deserve this! She's not gonna stand for this! She's going to turn right around and walk back to the guild hall and tell Levy what she has seen here! Sorry Merlin. Jet and Droy are probably going to hate you, thinking that you broke your promise, but hey, they escalated first. So this is probably for the best. 

He doesn't deserve to have one of his first friends in fairy tail hate him. 

~~Linebreak~~

I stretch my arms above my head, letting out a quiet yawn as I step into the guild hall. 

It's been quiet the past couple of days. 

I strut into the guild. 

"WHAT?!" I hear someone shout the second I step into the guild hall. 

I blink slowly seeing Erza stood in front of the bar.  

She turns, eyes widening slightly as she turns to me. 

She marches forwards. "You. Merlin." 

"Yes?" I blink cautiously. 

"Come with me." She declares. 

"O...kay? Why?" 

"Natsu has stolen an S class job. I need your ability to heal so the beating I am going to give him for his sheer foolishness does not do any permanent damage." 

"..." 

"Okay." I shrug. 

Well. 

Stay out of the guild for one day and boom. Suddenly Natsu's got it in his brain to steal a mission. 

Ah well. 

I only have one true goal in going to Galuna Island... 

And that goal... 

Should greatly advance my goal of becoming powerful. 

I'll just need to suffer a little for it.