Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 4) (Patreon)

"So... you are willing to purchase my potions?" I slowly ask.

The black haired man with purple eyes in front of me slowly nods. "I believe that that they could be a large help to my hospital. An inexpensive alternative to Phoenix tears. I am prepared to give you fifty Lillum per bottle."

"Reasonable." I state with a small shrug.

I looked up the general prices of the materials required to make them on the internet a while back... it is actually surprisingly cheap... I can get enough for one potion for five Lillum. With each potion I'll be making a profit of forty-five Lillum.

I should get a supply chain up and running soon... but I'll need it automated, so I'll need even more poppets.

"Are you able to pick them up?" I ask.

"I will send some servants down to do it, yes." The man nods.

"Will you purchase the ones I have in storage right now? There are currently eight boxes, each filled with thirty-six potions."

"I believe I will." The man agrees.

I stand up "I will go gather those for you. If you wish you can write up a contract of some form. I will be back swiftly."

I make my way up the stairs and into my room, opening the secret room and flinging myself down to the floor below.

I really need to get some form of teleportation ability.

'Would it be possible to purchase something like that for cheap because of how many people rely on teleportation in dxd? I'll search later, right now I need to gather the potions.

A large disk appears, about three feet in diameter, allowing me to easily stack the boxes on top.

I toss a net over the disk and make sure it is secure with a rope.

I walk to the exit of the room and fly up the large elevator shaft, the disk slowly following after me, rapidly spinning around a small ledge that goes around the circular shaft.

It normally can't go more than two feet off the ground, but it isn't.

Its riding the small ledge all the way up.

It eventually comes to a stop behind me as I step through the open book shelf secret door

"Arise." I state to the bookshelf.

Eight precariously stacked boxes of potions sit in the slightly angled disk of force.

With some minor difficulties I bring it to the foyer and sit it down beside the large table in the middle of the room. "Here they are. Two hundred and eighty eight potions. I have heard you have tested them, so I hope you aren't disappointed when they can't cure all wounds in an instant."

"Do not sell yourself short, my boy, even if they cannot heal all wounds, they can still heal minor ones nigh instantaneously, and several can even help set bones, instantaneous healing is extremely rare... and it is something that our hospital lacks, two hundred and eighty is definitely a boon to the hospital."

"You may count them if you like." I say as I gesture to the box.

"No, no, I believe you." The man states as he lifts a piece of paper. "This is the contact I had formed before I arrived, please look through it to see if it's to your liking."

I take the piece of paper and quickly skim through it.

"It looks fine, one per week shipments on Monday, the number of potions though..."

"Is that too many?" The man asks.

"Too little." I state.

He blinks slowly. "Pardon?"

"You have it listed here that you only need roughly fifty potions a week with the note that this number can increase depending on when I am able to produce more... I am currently able to produce seven boxes every week. Two hundred and fifty two potions. Five times the amount listed here."

His eyes widen. "That many?!"

"Indeed." I nod with a small smile.

He frowns for a moment. "Are you sure that contract is fine?"

"There's also the issue of the purchasing in bulk thing... the way it is worded doesn't imply a cap... for every fifty you buy you get a one percent discount, yet realistically with this contact you could tell me to give you five thousand potions for free."

He smiles and nods. "Good. You found it. That was Serafall's idea of a test. Devils most of the time are exploitive and cunning, a majority of the houses would slip something like that into a contract, as you are new to... devil politics... Serafall wanted to test you in this manner."

I let out a quiet sigh and rub a hand up and down the side of my face. "Damn it, Sera-tan."

I look up. "It is still reasonable for a slight discount for buying in bulk, so I'll give you the original rate, however, it'll max out at a ten percent decrease in the total price."

"That is generous." the man nods as he hands me a second contract.

I skim through it.

"Gai-Tan, if you didn't read this, you fell for the classic 'here's a contract that's the same as the first' trick. Read your contracts. Before you sign them! If you are reading this... uh... hello! Please ask my father for the actual seriously super-duper contract"

I look up slowly and echo her words in a deadpan tone. "Can you please give me the actual seriously super-duper contract?"

The man smiles and shakes his head,

"That girl." He sighs, pulling out a third contract. "Her pestering you like this is just proof that she cares, so please don't be mad at her."

"I am aware, and I appreciate it." I slowly nod.

Okay. This is a legitimate contract.

A quest has been completed!

"And we have ourselves a deal." I smile as I reach across the table and shake the man's hand.

"That we do. Do you mind if keep these potions here for a moment? I will return with some people to transport the potions swiftly."

"By all means." I smile. "It's not like I hold any important things in here, but in the future I'm thinking about having a small building outside, perhaps some sort of magical key to allow whoever you send inside of it."

The man nods. "I will tell them to look out for it in the future."

He nods his head. "Good day, Lord Dacarabia."

"Good day to you as well, Lord Sitri."

I watch as he leaves, letting out a long breath of relief as the door closes behind him thanks to my 'semi-intelligent butler unseen servants' that populate my house for the price of a simple two hundred electrum.

I call them 'semi-intelligent' because they can follow orders and make some decisions to achieve that order, but they don't act on their own.

I can tell them to go cook me dinner, and they will with surprising skill, making something palatable and fairly pleasant, but they can't make the connection of 'oh, it's two Pm, perhaps I should start making dinner'.

I silently pull up my underworld bank account.

I have a lot of money.

Enough to buy a Phoenix tear casually.

When Ajuka said he was going to transfer me money... he didn't lie...

He's the richest man in the underworld for a reason, second only to the other satans... and the Phenex family.

I've got one hundred million Lillum just sat in a box. And I'll be gaining an extra eleven thousand every week.

I look to the quest I have just completed.

Seal the Deal:
Lord Sitri has come to your abode to negotiate the selling of your potions to his hospital. It's time for a greedy gamer's favorite pastime, Bartering!

Objectives:
Sell Out: [x]

Bonus Objectives:
Make an initial profit of more than 10,000 Lillum: [x]

Rewards: 50 Electrum, for every 50 Cure Light Wounds Potions sold, you gain 1 Electrum

Bonus Rewards: 200 Electrum, Merchant Achievement.

Merchant:  
You truly know how to sell your garbage.  
Your 'Free Shop Limit' is now 150 Gp

Oh, it appears that I have an additional way to gain electrum.

That's an extra five per week!

Compared to my current six per week, I nearly double my weekly electrum gain.

I smirk down to the ring on my index finger, Ring of protection, a simple plus one to ac.

This world is weird.

It both operates on dungeons and dragons rules... and it doesn't...

Buffing spells like the Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength, and Bear's Endurance family doesn't equate to a plus four... it increases all statistics by eighty percent... nearly a full double.

People in dungeons and dragons have on average anywhere from four to several hundred health, yet in this world, I can instantly kill someone with a simple swing of my blade. No hitpoints. No 'damage dice'.

But at the same time, the system seems to be desperately trying to write descriptions for things when I identify them to make it seem reasonable in the context of d&d.

This comes with advantages and disadvantages... firstly, I have a much more diverse set of spells which I can access with much more ease...

The flaw to this is that I will never have as much control over my attacks as someone who has 'in world' devil power instead of 'system' devil power.

Serafall can encase someone in a block of ice and shatter them, but that's not a result of a 'spell'. It's just her manipulating her demonic power in a way to get those results... I'd personally have to find a 'turn people to ice and shatter them' spell.

A benefit for my spellcasting is that I am able to do things that regular devils aren't. Or rather, they haven't thought of yet.

Ajuka walked in here and figured out my summoning magic with merely a glance, but for someone without bullshit code magic or whatever he has, it'd probably take them months, years, decades to figure out how to even mimic a fraction of my power.

Mental note: look out for any new technology Ajuka develops. It'll probably have something to do with summoning.

I look to my character sheet.

I also have hit points... I have no idea how those work.

I didn't check them when I was being assassinated, that'd probably give me a better idea of how those function.

I also have regeneration...

Which means I literally can't be killed without something holy according to D&D.

I assume that's false, as I'd probably die if Sirzechs hit me in the face with his power of destruction, and Serafall could probably off me- albeit with more difficulty than Sirzechs- whenever she wanted.

I'm not going to fall into the 'I'm unkillable muahahah tremble before me!' hole Riser did.

There's also a few other things I need to determine, like how strong my created swords are compared to regular magical swords on the market... then I also need to compile a summon monster list as there are things on it that sort of don't make sense.

Take deinonychus for instant.

A monster from the fourth level of summon monster, a monster with a challenge rating of three...

Yet at the end of the day, it's a nonmagical animal.

A fairly small nonmagical animal. Barely person sized. Yet if you turn around, you've got wolves the size of horses, Ants the size of MEN, hellish dogs which can breathe fire, a FUCKING mini cerberus- which is arguably one of the strongest so I'm not really counting it as it sort of lives up to its own hype- all of those things sound far more menacing than a dinosaur...

So, yes, I'll need to do a bit of research on the best summons... have a summon fight night where I determine the best thing to call for assistance...

It'll probably be the fleshless Cerberus.

I also need to determine the effects of the haste spell.

There's a lot to figure out.

But for now? I think I may just go for a walk on the town... see the sights... buy some ingredients in bulk for my potions as I am almost out and I don't think I can really sustain the amount of ingredients I need for the potions while I am away.

I built up a little stock, but I need enough materials for three potions every time the machine makes a potion. That's a fair bit of material for myself, seeing as how every hour I can only get enough for three potions. If I make many more potion machines, I'd have to babysit them constantly.

All I need to do now is wait for Lord Sitri to return, then I can go and wander around the city.

While I'm waiting, I guess I can do a little research on my generation of competition.

**Linebreak**

Devil culture is... astounding...

It's a mish-mash of cultures. Japanese, German, American, British, Chinese, Russian.

It's got it all.

It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for an Irish pub made to look like a castle is right next to a maid café.

A pizza hut next to a strip club.

A weapon's shop right next to a school.

Toss in some slightly archaic things, some magical things, and that's practically just the devil society.

I took a look around, briefly, and realized that... wow... I fucking suck...

My father's clan trait, I mean.

The average magic blade that I could find that would be comparable to what I can currently make was a fire sword worth about ten thousand Lillum, it's basically a plus one flaming sword, yet it does two d6 damage instead of one d6... that was actually around the middle ground for weapons... a little on the cheap side, mind you, but this is a random ass weapon shop.

That's basically a plus three weapon... and I mean, I can enchant to that level, but to do so, I'd need to stack both flaming and another element onto a blade.

The most expensive weapon there had an enchantment that I have never even seen before, it eats demonic power and uses it to produce sword beams that deal six d6 damage.

A fairly powerful enchantment...

I boredly look around the roads with a small smile. Typically, this is the part where I'd be forced to save-

A quest has been received:

Forming Connections 1-

"You fucking low-class BITCH!"

I minimize the quest swiftly.

I blink slowly and look over to the noise, a crowd of people are backing away from the scene.

I make my way to the crowd to see a young man with tanned skin, pointed ears, and bluish hair with green eyes, and two jagged lime green tattoos on his cheeks, he seethes as he looks down at his pants.

"Hm?" I blink as he pulls his hand back in preparation to smack a small girl in front of him.

Oh. What are the chances.

Well, there's one connection I can form.

I blur forwards and catch the slap long before the impact, giving the teen an impassive glare.

His eyes snap towards mine as I gently nudge the girl out of the way and release his wrist.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be, trash." The man hisses.

"Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas... stop embarrassing yourself." I scoff.

His eyebrow twitches. "You fucking garbage. So, you know who I am, hm? Then you should know just how poorly you pissing me off will go."

"Hm. Poorly. Right." I snort.

My brief amused smile falls into a frown. "I don't get where you got it into your head that you could just beat whoever you see on the street with no repercussions, but that isn't how things work here."

"That BITCH ruined my pants."

I glance down to an ice cream stain on his pantleg and wave a hand, the stain disappears instantly as I look back into his eyes. "There. The stain is gone. Now get out of here before we have a problem."

"You picking a fight with me?!" The teen snarls.

"Why would I ever lower myself to your level? I don't think I could ever pull off the pathetic 'nothing but talk' look as well as you."

He lunges forwards and goes to punch me in the face but I simply smile and barely tilt my way out of the attack at the last moment.

I fold my hands behind my back and let out a snort as I dodge a second, I barely move out of the way of a lunge, a cocky smirk as I move just too late to avoid a 'clean' dodge, causing the devil to trip over my feet and faceplant.

Let's not forget the fact that he is a good two to three years older than myself.

"Are you alright?" I ask. "That was quite a tumble. You should be more careful."

He gets to his feet, magical circle appearing in his hand, the ring of observing people around us let out shouts of surprise and begin to back off.

"Stop." I command.

The devil freezes in place, eyes wide as a pressure descends upon him.

"I have let you do as you wish... blindly attacking me in an attempt to allow you to cool off. that is fine. You were not hurting anyone. But if you cast that spell, if you endanger these people... I will put you in your place. A battered, bruised, and crumpled heap at my feet."

"Y-" he sharply inhales then exhales, magic circle fading as he lets out a growl.

"Ooooh I see." The man lowly growls. "You must be her filthy trash master."

"No. I'm not."

"No. He is not." A second voice confirms.

A girl walks into view, around her arm is a plastic bag full of thin paperback books.

Ah. Manga.

She has red hair that goes down to her waist, a single strand refusing to lay down, she wears a red school girl's uniform, with some golden accents, she has blue eyes, both of which are narrowed in barely restrained fury.

A small white haired girl, even younger than me, peeks out from behind her. She's the one I prevented from being slapped.

"I turn my back for five minutes. And someone threatens to hit my adorable little servant?!"

A second girl walks into view, about the same height as the first, wearing a simple kimono, black haired tied up in a pony tail. "My my, should I punish them, buchou?"

"But he helped me..." The small white haired girl protests in an emotionless tone as she gestures towards me.

"Hm?" The red-haired girl asks as she looks down at the small hidden nekoshou. "Him?"

The silent girl nods once, eyes sliding over to the Glasya-Labolas gangster.

"My name is Rias Gremory." She exclaims as she tilts her head back slightly. "Heir to the Gremory Clan. You have greatly offended me. I will not forget this."

"Tch- and what will you do? Go crying to that elder brother of your's?!"

"Get lost." I growl.

He flinches as my extremely high intimidation skill makes itself known.

"You are making a mockery of not only yourself, but your entire clan." I state. "Quit picking fights on the street like a rabid animal or someone might just put you down like one."

He lets out a low growl and stalks away, looking back to snarl over his shoulder. "I won't forget this."

"Please don't." I call after him. "Reflect on it. Be better. You are a noble. Act like one instead of a brutish thug."

I see his fists clench, but he just keeps on walking without saying another word.

Rias approaches me and bows her head slightly. "I appreciate your assistance... might I get your name."

"My name is Gaius... I am lord of the Decarabia family."

"L-Lord?!" The girl blinks.

She bows her head again. "I appreciate you stepping in to help, Lord Decarabia, I will make sure to pay you back."

"Don't bother." I smile as I shake my head. "I didn't assist the small one behind you expecting anything, so I will kindly refuse anything you might offer me. Putting someone with such unearned arrogance in their place is more than enough for me."

"That is extremely generous." The girl states.

"Think nothing of it." I smile. "Now, I must get back home... I perhaps I will see you around, Miss Gremory."

"Perhaps you shall." The girl nods. "I bid you good evening, Lord Decarabia."

"You as well, Miss Gremory." I reply as I turn and walk away.