Augmented Aspect: Chapter 221 Things I Do Unsupervised (Patreon)

Chapter 221

Things I Do Unsupervised

“This is your fate that you have brought upon yourself.” I tell my former oppressor and quite possibly someone who had things gone differently, I would have been bound to and worked for willingly.

Looking at the cowering girl before me, I realize that had I gone with her instead of Mallory as my boss, I likely would have turned out way differently. I know for a fact that I would not have gone down the path of finding out about Qi and its movements as that was all something Mallory was into. Particularly as it meant that in her words, “I would be teaching classrooms of sweaty musclebound men and women.”

Yeah, she is still the same perv as always, but I can deal with a restrained perv over a megalomaniacal dictator like Lady Legrand here.

These thoughts and more flash through my mind, as I wonder just how different my life would have been had I gone elsewhere. Then I remember my land, and the fact that I came here on the sole purpose of trying to reunite two random parents to their child.

I am almost ready to stay my hand.

Then I see the moment energy begins to build up within Lady Legrand’s body. She is clearly tired by now from attempting to cast the few spells that she has tried against me. Each spell was a world ender, at least they would be if they managed to go off in this small bunker that we are in. Yet, she is ready to cast them in the attempts to take me down no matter the costs. Fortunately, her casting is weak, her spell work is sloppy and most importantly she is slow on her casting abilities, making it so this is less of a wizarding duel and more of a competition one would do with a particularly stubborn toddler.

I watch as the energy cycles in her body, and gets channeled to her right arm, down her wrist, where it then pools and spirals in her palm.

Even when being cast by an amateur magic is still beautiful. Like looking at a wilted flower, it is still a flower and pretty to look at, there will be better examples in nature, but still if you have a chance pause and look while you can. For the one thing about flowers is their time of life is fleeting.

Of course, in this little analogy, the reason why this flower is wilted is that it is a poisonous flower. One that is meant to kill rather than make the world a better place.

This is why without even thinking I react.

Core Shattering Death Ray.

At this distance I am point blank with a spell that moves at the speed of light and manages to fire off and pierce Lady Legrand’s core before the last of her mana can be focused into her palm.

Instead, what happens is the beam fires out, breaking the core, releasing all of the hydraulic tension within her meridians. This causes an instantaneous stoppage of her energy, as the poisonous mana that she had been willing to cast a moment ago. The mana that had been going into some form of caustic fire attack suddenly paused. Leaving behind a trail of burning magma lava that had been okay a moment ago due to its state of movement a moment ago within her body.

Then I watch as that same magma mana erupts to life in an agitated state and begins to burn away at her meridians from the inside.

“AHHHHHHHH!” Lady Legrand cries out, tears instantly filling her face as she keeps her internally burning right arm out and away from the rest of her body.

“That looks…” I begin to say, but I am quickly cut off.

“AHHAHHAHHAAAA!” Now Lady Legrand is crying out and rolling around on the ground as if stop dropping and rolling will keep your blood from burning away your body. This isn’t blood, but it serves the same function at this point for a metaphor.

I just watch her for a moment.

In my mind I have this big huge monologue going on about how she should learn from this and stop taking life so casually. That eventually everything will come back to her.

These are the thoughts that I have, but ultimately compassion triumphs within me as I pause and nod, then go about healing her.

Not completely, I don’t heal her shattered core. I don’t make it so her air tight system of mana can be reformed to cycle mana throughout her body.

Instead, I just remove the burning segments as if they were a cancer within her body. At least, that was my initial idea, before I remember the code of ethics as a doctor. Not that I am bound by any morality other than my own out here, but if I go down this path, I instantly see what will happen.

If I go down this path of violence to solve a problem, I realize that I will likely create a spell that would be the equivalent of magical eugenics, one where I would remove the meridians from mages. Worse, I know that regardless of how terrible the spell may see or sound it can be boiled down to a Tier level where a lot of mages would be able to cast this. Meaning that I would set into existence a spell that could be used to torture and effectively magically castrate enemies.

Currently I have avoided this with Core Shattering Death Ray, which is listed as a Tier XIII spell. This means that so far I am the only one who can cast this spell. At least, I am the only person that I am currently aware of who can cast this spell. Yet, the magical castration spell, one that would remove the burnt and corroded meridians of Lady Legrand that I had just been thinking of in my mind would be a way that more people could take away magic from this world, and that was something that I was not okay with.

Look at me, growing and stuff.

All it took was that one warning that I was going down the path of necromancy by forcefully shoving the spirit of a dragon spirit protector into the body of a Pomeranian to actually cause me to stop and think about possible consequences of my actions.

I pause for a second as these thoughts flash through my mind.

Then ultimately I reach over, grab Lady Legrand’s hand. Of course, she tries to squirm and flail away, but compared to my strength as a Martial Master, she cannot even move.

With her hand in mine, I do the next best thing. Rather than letting the toxins continue to erode and burn away her meridians, I reach out and grab the ambient mana within her body and forcefully suction it all into my hand.

I feel the foreign mana enter my body, and then just like normal, my body begins taking the foreign mana, breaking it down into its core components and then converting it into Qi. At this point, my body does the mana to Qi conversion on its own, letting me focus on the necessary part of drawing out all the mana within her body.

As I continue to pull the mana, the frantic flailing about that Lady Legrand had been doing slowly stops as she finally manages to gain control over herself. This is particularly true after I get the last traces of the already converted magma mana from her body.

With my initial goal done, I continue pulling out all of her mana, effectively drying out her pump and all but collapsing the meridians in on themselves. This will make it tougher for her to reopen these same meridians in the future. Not an impossible feat, but one that she would need to work at as she would need to forcefully separate the collapsed meridian tubes. Then quickly fill those opened tubes with mana, before ultimately being able to cast magic again.

Mentally I think I could do this process if I was desperate in an afternoon. Though I think I could teach myself the act of Coreless Casting within that same afternoon if I went down that path. For a moment I think about this process, but then ultimately stop myself, realizing self-mutilation for a science experiment while in enemy territory is likely a very bad idea.

Instead, I decided to focus on my patient.

I am still in the form of Tobias Spiritlight.

“You, you’re a monster.” Lady Legrand states staring at my eyes now that she is no longer being corroded away by wild mana from the inside.

For a moment I thought about denying this claim, but then find that even I cannot believe this lie.

Nodding my head in agreement I reply, “I am as monstrous as I need to be to survive, nothing more nothing less.”

Silence.

All her meridians are collapsed, and her core continues to remain shattered into bits, only then do I stop and realize how odd the entire scenario that I now find myself is. Here I am in a form that was all but blacklisted, for being wanted by this very same power-hungry dictator for slights caused when I escaped her clutches. Then I come back only to reappear due to a random happenstance of justice caused by my want to do a good thing, reunite a child with her parents. Only to find that I have grown so much that my former main enemy was now nothing more than a minor boss at a rundown end of the world.

Looking at Lady Legrand, truly looking at her now, I can see the complete look of terror in her eyes.

Seeing that look, I decide to revert back to my normal form. The normal form with bright green glowing eyes. I even make sure to open up the third one as I begin to speak.

“Know that I am not without compassion. Know that you and your fellow Grand Mages, Mage Foremen, and Mage Leaders can all be redeemed to me. Go out, do good things, actually make the world better. If you do, and word gets back to me that you have helped to end the Legrand Empire’s constant advancement and violence upon the neighboring territories, I will forgive you. I will make you whole again. And most importantly, I will give you back the very magic that you used to enslave others. But I will only do this once. Should I find out that you fooled me or others, then I will come back. You will gain a hundred percent of my focus, and trust me, you do not want to see what will happen if I focus completely on a singular task.” I state.

Trembling.

Lady Legrand is trembling. Here she is a fully grown adult who is easily able to tower over me if she but stood up to her full height. But instead all she is doing is cowering in the corner, while I still do my floating number right in front of her.

“Do you understand?” I ask.

Nodding.

Then like that, I get the notification that I have somehow given a denizen of the world, a native non-regressor, a quest.

Magic Quest Assigned: Path of Redemption: Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight has bestowed a quest upon the defeated mages of Legrand Mining Complex IX, where you offer to repair the shattered magic cores of those who redeem themselves to the world for their previous actions. Current redemption rate (0 / 100%). Quest Conditions, in this case you have offered the reward to heal the shattered cores of mages who redeem themselves to the world.

Seeing the quest, I pause as I didn’t think that such a thing was possible. Regressors shouldn’t be able to give quests to the native inhabitants of the world.

That or if we did, it shouldn’t be something that is blatantly displayed like this.

The only thing that stands out to me is that there is the term Magic at the beginning of that quest. Then thinking back, I think of my racial flaw that I got for awakening my Legendary Bloodline.

Racial Flaw: Children of a Magical Destiny: You and those of your lineage will be able to awaken, or enhance, the magical potential in those you meet (Maximum of Tier XIII).

That and my two other racial flaws all hint at the world sort of pigeonholing me into being a magical expert of sorts.

Racial Flaw: Magical Soul Aura: Your body, mind, and soul exist in a state of heightened magical synchronization, a fact that is represented in the aura you emit to others. Note: This aura, and its perceived effects are directly linked to the Magical Eyes flaw observed with the Royal Bloodline awakening.

Racial Flaw: Destructive Magical Presence: Your mere existence is enough to slowly degrade basic tier mechanical devices and has a half-life rating against intermediate tier level devices. Note: This is exactly the same expected wear and tear that a mechanical device would receive while inside an elemental realm of power.

Again, on their own these should not make it so I can give out magic quests to native inhabitants of the world. Though I have felt a slightly stronger sense of power related to my words and actions. Even seemingly innocuous phrases have suddenly had a binding effect. Heck, my giving my word as a promise to a little girl sparked this whole quest for me in the first place, a quest that I am still working on.

I also think that a lot of this has to deal with the fact that I am now on the cusp of breaking into the realm of a mythic bloodline. Honestly, I have no clue what that will entail, other than I will likely be a walking talking quest giving and quest receiving factory for the world, as I am just now beginning to feel the pressures of.

Actually with that thought, I pull up my quest notification and then try to see my progress.

 New Quest Identified: Purging the Desecrators (Ongoing): You have come across a scene of absolute destruction. Magical Parasites have set up a dig site stripping the land of magical resources, which have in turned begun to poison the ecosystem. Eliminate the threat to the local area, and become a protector of the world. Current status Grand Mages purged (9 / 9), Mage foreman (12 / 12), Mage Leaders (27 / 27), excavators (0 / 508). Rewards: Experience, Bloodline Evolution Markers, Badges, variables.

Seeing the quest, I realize the hard part is over. Well the initial hard part, of getting rid of all the mages. Fortunately, my hit and run tactics are over.

There is also the added benefit that I offered the mages that I took down for this quest, a chance to regain their magic cores. I’m not sure how the world will judge this, but the fact that I won’t have to keep track of these people, and that I can trust Lady Legrand to spread the word…

Nope, wait, just hearing that I realize one flaw in this plan.

“Lady Legrand, since you have additional damages to your meridians due to the sudden explosion of mana within your body, know that the rate of healing I offered the others will not be sufficient to cover the damages you incurred. As such, I will make it so your task is slightly tougher to meet the extra level of effort that will go into healing you back to your former state of prowess. Namely, I need you to tell all of the other mages of this chance and make sure they know the full details of what I expect from them, if I am to fully heal them. Do you understand?”

“Ye, yes.” Lady Legrand timidly answers after a moment’s hesitation.

With that I nod, and am met with a specific quest for Lady Legrand.

Magic Quest Assigned: Longer Path of Redemption: Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight has bestowed a quest upon Lady Legrand two main tasks to repair her shattered magic core and fix the broken meridians within her body. Her task is twofold, first she must inform her former mage subordinates about the Path of Redemption quest that you have offered. Current rating (0 / 47) former mage subordinates informed. Once this is complete, Lady Legrand will be able to begin walking her own Path of Redemption. Current redemption rate (0 / 100%). Quest Conditions, in this case you have offered the reward to heal the shattered core and meridians of Lady Legrand when she informs other mages of this chance and redeems herself to the world.

Seeing this, I feel both bound to this promise and relieved at the fact that I know that this will take time. Better still, the system will apparently keep track of the progress made by Lady Legrand and the others, making it so I don’t have to keep track of them and see if and when they are worthy of being healed. Honestly, this feels like the easy button answer, but I’ll take it. Especially as it means I am a verified quest giver, at least to native inhabitants of the world. I also make a note that I will try to keep this a secret for as long as possible.

I almost feel like this is three steps forward and two steps back at the same time. Three steps forward in that I can give quests, but two steps back in that I can almost feel the tangible bindings of me and my words to this promise of making these people whole once more. Though, I then feel better as I kind of came here out of nowhere and destroyed their whole livelihoods by taking away their ability to cast and perform magic. That said, they were using it for the enslavement and devastation of others.

“Tha, thank you, Lady Spiritlight.” Lady Legrand says, fear evident in her voice as she prostrates herself and bows before me.

As she speaks, I can feel golden threads reaching out from her and binding to me, while I also feel a tangible presence to our connection now. With this, we are twice linked by fate, if a third connection comes, I cannot help but feel that it will be something important.

Realizing that this is my time to leave, with her head still bowed, I take the moment for what it is, a chance to leave.

Poof.

With the crazy Lady Legrand and her minions out of the way, I see it is now my time to finally take care of the real reason why I came here. Namely, my opening my big mouth and promising a cute little girl something that should have been impossible.

Yet here I am, doing the impossible with ease.

Focusing on the residual effects of my genetic tracking spell, I go out and see everyone staring at me in shock and awe. I am about to wonder why, when I suddenly realize that I had done all of that. My villainous monologue and everything to Lady Legrand, with a hot mic.

Yes, my spell Forced Selective Hearing had been active the whole time.

There is a brief momentary pause as I take in the laser focused gaze that everyone seems to have on me. Seeing as everything is completely silent, I realize that no one is speaking, at least no one thinks they can speak to anyone other than me. This is when I ask the immortal question that will likely go down in history as the victory cry that marked the first true loss of the Legrand Empires quest for dominance.

“So I take it you all heard that?”